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 3ERTRAND SMITH 
 
 140 Pacific Av. 
 
 LONG BEACH, 
 
 CALI FOR NlA
 
 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 & Nobri. 
 
 BY SALLY PRATT McLEAN. 
 
 Volume. i2>no. 327 Pages. Cloth, gilt. Price, $1.50. 
 
 A. WILLIAMS & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 BOSTON. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE WRITINGS OF THE 
 NEW AMERICAN HUMORIST. 
 
 " So natural and true to life are some of the characters, localities, and 
 incidents depicted in the book, that the observing reader finds it difficult to 
 persuade himself that he is not reading the autobiography of a vivacious 
 school-teacher in real life. The scenes and incidents of the novel are by 
 no means commonplace, however, and there is just enough of the improb 
 able and impossible in the story to give it piquancy and thorough zest." 
 Boston Post. 
 
 " We rather doubt the justice or policy of ranking the work as a novel, 
 for it is really a triumph of character sketching, with novelistic develop 
 ments." Boston Sunday Times. 
 
 " Every chapter is fresh and sparkling with life and humor, and we can 
 not help but eulogize the author for her masterly hand and genius of story 
 telling." N. Y. Star. 
 
 "Those who take up this volume expecting a commonplace story with 
 which to while away a few hours, will find themselves most agreeably sur 
 prised. It is full, from beginning to end, of the most delicious humor, 
 while through the whole runs a vein of pathos that touches and thrills to 
 tears in the midst of laughter. One feels that the quaint characters described 
 here have their counterparts, that it is real life upon the bleak Cape Cod of 
 which we are reading. The warmest love flows out to Grandpa and 
 Grandma Spicer, whose horizon is bounded by the ocean upon which
 
 Press Notices. 
 
 Grandpa has spent so many years of his life, and who are both so kindly 
 naturcd and full to the brim of goodness. Benny Cradlebow, the unlettered 
 young Apollo, challenges our sympathy from the first to the last, when he 
 loses his life in trying- to save that of his would-be rival. 
 
 " The plot is nothing, and yet the reader is not aware of its absence. The 
 book is simply a picture of the events in a few months of the life of a young 
 girl who was seized with the idea of doing missionary work, and goes to 
 Cape Cod as a teacher. It is as crisp as the air in that sea-bound place, and 
 as sparkling as its starry skies. That it is true to nature is evident from the 
 fact that its publishers have had a libel suit upon their hands on its account. 
 Buy and read it. You cannot fail to be entertained." Toledo Blade. 
 
 " There is real power in her characterization. Real eloquence in her ac 
 count of the uncultivated singing. . . Real pathos in the vague religious 
 opinions and intense religious sentiment of these simple, brave people." 
 Boston Advertiser. 
 
 " Her description of the provincial traits of this most provincial of all the 
 outlying New Hngland settlements, are admirable bits of genre workman 
 ship." Harper s Magazine. 
 
 "It is a rarely powerful and realistic picture of simple life." Buffalo 
 Express. 
 
 " The author has given us a charmingly fresh and thoroughly recognis 
 able portraiture." IV. Y. Traveller. 
 
 " It is a phenomenal work." Portland Transcript. 
 
 " It is an insult to literature for well-read lawyers to treat this capital 
 novel as if it were a mere vulgar libel." iioston Transcript. 
 
 "That book has been the means of shaking literary Boston almost to 
 its very centre." Quebec Chronicle. 
 
 " It is intensely amusing, and portrays vividly and faithfully the daily life 
 of a peculiar people." Golden Rule. 
 
 " It contains more and better character-writing than any book of its 
 kind we have seen for many a day." Chicago Inter-Ocean. 
 
 " There are some delicious bits in Cape Cod Folks." The literary style 
 is excellent, and the book is of a kind to please almost everybody." N. Y. 
 Herald. 
 
 " Xo man reads Cape Cod Folks with more delight than a genuine Cape 
 Codder. As I am one of that ilk, I am, of course, one of her admirers. 
 The bottom fact about her book is that it is true, and paints truth down to 
 its hidden roots, as the wont of genius is. This is the general verdict of 
 those who ought to know. It is an American book, racy of the soil." 
 Correspondence to Literary World. 
 
 "The touch of a new hand, at once original, intense, and dramatic, with 
 a vein of humor and a power of sarcasm warranting the belief that in this 
 work we have the beginning of a career and of a name." Boston Herald.
 
 TOWHEAD 
 
 THE STORY OF A GIRL 
 
 BY 
 
 SALLY PRATT McLEAN 
 
 AUTHOR OF "CAPE COD FOLKS" 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 A. WILLIAMS AND COMPANY 
 
 Iti Corner Bookstore 
 
 1883
 
 Copyright, 1882, 
 BY A. WILLIAMS AND C< 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 \VI;KJHT & POTI KK Printing Co., 18 Tost Ofiire Sq. 
 
 ELECTROTYPE!). 
 
 BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 
 NO. 4 PEARL STREET.
 
 2047011
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I. MRS. BODURTHA S PLAN 7 
 
 II. THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK .... 17 
 
 III. EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC 45 
 
 IV. VlXANNA DAW 62 
 
 V. JOB TRENCH THE CHORE-BOY, AND BEAU 
 TIFUL AUGUSTUS BROWN 76 
 
 VI. AT SCHOOL IN THE SADDLE 92 
 
 VII. IT HAS COME 103 
 
 VIII. A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIMROOD FEMALE 
 
 SEMINARY 119 
 
 IX. PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS 140 
 
 X. DICK S LAST HOPE. IN AFRICA .... 160 
 
 XI. EXPELLED 176 
 
 XII. PERSONAL SUPERVISION 193 
 
 XIII. WESTWARD Ho! 204 
 
 XIV. A PAIR OF HUNGRY EYES 225 
 
 XV. DICK MAKES A CONFESSION 239 
 
 XVI. A TROUBLED LAKE 253 
 
 XVII. THE STARRING TOUR 269 
 
 XVIII. EXCELLUNA S LAST REVELATION .... 283
 
 TOWHEAD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MRS. BODURTHA S PLAN. 
 
 TV/PR. BODURTHA, prominent and successful 
 financier on Wall street, prominent pew- 
 holder and alms-giver in a Christian church on 
 Broadway, had a younger brother, Richard by 
 name, who baffled all the virtuous designs of his 
 family in his behalf by seeking a career of his own 
 on the stage. 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha, who, as a discreet and virtuous 
 woman, possessed all the qualities which distin 
 guished her husband as a man, had a younger 
 sister, Lucy, brilliant, impulsive, beautiful every 
 thing, in short, that Mrs. Bodurtha was not. 
 
 The young delinquents in these two worthy and 
 aristocratic families further completed their own 
 ruin, and estranged themselves from their families 
 and friends by falling in love with each other, and, 
 finally, a distinct opposition being applied at all 
 
 7
 
 8 TOW HE AD. 
 
 times to the match, by eloping one night from the 
 country-house of the Bodurthas, in Dymsbury, 
 Connecticut. In spite of all, they lived most hap 
 pily together, and still beloved of the gods, they 
 died young. 
 
 They left one child, Lucy, or " Dick " as she 
 came to be called, during the first six happy years 
 of her life, by the talented and gay who frequented 
 her father s house. This little one, Mrs. Bodurtha, 
 herself left widowed, moved by what she felt to be 
 a popular sentiment on the subject, as well as 
 by the expressed opinion of her eminent pastor, 
 consented at length to receive to her personal 
 guardianship and care. But she had no children 
 of her own ; she had always had a horror of young 
 children, and the thought of assuming what she 
 regarded, in this case especially, as so doubtful 
 and terrible a responsibility, was almost more than 
 she could bear. Though a woman of rare self- 
 confidence ordinarily, and of a keen worldly sense, 
 in this respect she felt only self-distrust and fore 
 boding ; and as day after day happy little Dick 
 developed more and more of her mother s fatal 
 charms of beauty, and of her father s fatal genius, 
 Mrs. Bodurtha s dread increased. She was herself
 
 MRS. BODURTHA S PLAN. 9 
 
 religiously careful to call the child Lucy, but the 
 wicked pet name widely prevailed, and even fell 
 from the lips of Mrs. Bodurtha s pastor during his 
 informal calls, and of her confidential friend and 
 business adviser, Mr. Higgins. 
 
 Little Dick displayed no disagreeably precocious 
 traits. She was a perfectly healthy, naughty, 
 natural child, with an innate disposition to charm 
 in her wilful little spirit, with wonderful eyes and 
 hair, and a laugh that showed off certain dazzling 
 hereditary charms of teeth and feature in a man 
 ner thoroughly fascinating to the beholder. Not 
 accustomed to being thwarted, she had seldom 
 indulged in an angry or resentful mood ; so that 
 now, when Mrs. Bodurtha found it necessary to 
 apply stern words of admonition and rebuke, little 
 Miss Dick, instead of flying into a passion, gazed 
 at her aunt with such simple incredulous wonder 
 in her lovely eyes, proceeding forthwith to carry 
 out the undaunted designs of her own sweet fancy, 
 that Mrs. Bodurtha, half appalled, half fascinated, 
 and wholly despairing, was moved to bewail the 
 day that ever her sister had brought this fate upon 
 her. That the child would go morally wrong, 
 she was sure ; she would follow in the footsteps of
 
 10 TOW HE AD. 
 
 her father and mother, and she, wise, strong-willed 
 woman though she was, had only a strange haunt 
 ing consciousness that she should be all powerless 
 to prevent her. 
 
 " I cannot describe my feelings on this subject," 
 Mrs. Bodurtha said to her worthy counsellor, Mr. 
 Higgins. " They take the form of a foreboding, 
 but they are none the less terribly real to me." 
 
 She concluded, at last, that she must resort to 
 desperate expedients ; for anxiety about little Dick, 
 with her recent trials in the loss of husband and 
 sister, had indeed worn upon her so that she began 
 to languish physically, and her physician impera 
 tively prescribed new scenes, a foreign clime, and 
 freedom from care. 
 
 "Since I am not able myself to assume this 
 sweet though terrible responsibility," said Mrs. 
 Bodurtha, "I must, both for the child s sake and 
 my own, steel myself to a separation. Lucy must 
 be given into firmer hands, where there is no 
 danger of yielding to emotions caused by the 
 associations of the past or to too great weariness 
 of the flesh. Unendurable as the trial may be to 
 my own feelings, severe as the discipline may be 
 for my poor dear sister s child, it seems to me that
 
 MRS. BODURTHA S PLAN. II 
 
 her salvation depends upon it. She must be 
 given to the care of those who will exercise 
 firm, persistent and unyielding methods of disci 
 pline." 
 
 Since the time when Mrs. Bodurtha s sister had 
 taken flight, with young Richard, from the house 
 at Dymsbury, Mrs. Bodurtha had never revisited 
 the place. She had not at any time entertained 
 much fondness for the Dymsbury country-house, 
 and that event had deepened the feeling to one of 
 positive dread and dislike. But she had a great 
 respect for her tenant, Deacon Cadmus Pinchon, a 
 man of dignified countenance and sublime stature, 
 who occasionally came to New York to consult 
 with her on business matters connected with the 
 estate. She knew that he had a devout wife, 
 a large family of children, and a creditable num 
 ber of house servants. Her thoughts, conversant 
 through the Sunday-school literature of her child 
 hood, with certain phases of New England rural 
 and religious life, dwelt long in this emergency 
 upon the good Deacon Cadmus Pinchon family, as, 
 in imagination, she saw it, for the better per 
 formance of its duties, divided into orderly ranks 
 and battalions, rising at the sound of a bell, and
 
 12 TOW HE AD. 
 
 retiring punctually, after its useful day, with mur 
 mured words of blessing and "good-night." 
 
 Ah, if only her mad-spirited little niece could 
 be immured for a few years with Deacon Cadmus 
 Pinchon and his wife in this quiet home at 
 Dymsbury ; subdued day by day and led to infant 
 meditation through the passionless companionship 
 of hills and flocks ! Mrs. Bodurtha consulted with 
 Mr. Higgins. 
 
 Before her unfortunate rencounter with young 
 Richard, Mrs. Bodurtha s erring sister had been 
 tacitly promised in marriage to this same Mr. 
 Higgins, as a partner greatly to be desired for her 
 on account of his superior years, worldly wisdom, 
 and irreproachable financial standing. Mr. Hig 
 gins had not married, neither had he the appear 
 ance of one who bears a life-long disappointment 
 or who has at any time suffered from an o er- 
 mastering blow. His countenance was complacent, 
 beaming, and affably immoral. And now, when 
 Mrs. Bodurtha appealed to him in regard to the 
 training of the child of his former unfaithful love, 
 he placed his hands together and threw his head 
 back in a smilingly sentimental mood. 
 
 "Ah!" said he, "the little one is puffectly
 
 MRS. BODURTHA S PLAN. 13 
 
 bewitching! She smiled on me when I came in 
 to-day, Mrs. Bodurtha ; that means that she will 
 cut me cruelly to-morrow. She is a puffect little 
 beauty. She will have it all her own way." 
 
 "That," said Mrs. Bodurtha, in a tone of only 
 so much grave disapproval as it was proper to 
 assume towards a person of such large financial 
 interests as Mr. Higgins "that, dear Mr. Hig- 
 gins, is exactly what it is my ponderous duty to 
 try to prevent." She then went on to relate to 
 him her plan for the incarceration of little Miss 
 Bodurtha with the good Deacon Cadmus Pinchon 
 family. 
 
 Mr. Higgins listened suavely, tapping his fingers 
 together and smiling. " Excellent ! " he mur 
 mured at length, in his peculiarly unctuous tone. 
 "Excellent! The ah the country is so de 
 lightfully healthful, you know." 
 
 "Oh, it isn t that," Mrs. Bodurtha sighed. 
 " The child is extravagantly healthy. Besides," 
 she added, with almost a touch of asperity in her 
 voice ; " the country is the last place to which I 
 should think of sending an ailing child, Mr. Hig 
 gins. I am sure the cackling of the hens, in 
 itself, is enough to reduce one to an early grave!"
 
 14 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Mr. Higgins, vastly amused, yet nodded his head 
 in polite acquiescence. ".Excellent ! " he again 
 murmured, " excellent ! " 
 
 "No," Mrs. Bodurtha proceeded; "it is rather 
 that she may have in this worthy Pinchon family 
 the strict and necessary discipline which I, alas ! 
 am unable to give. I have seldom seen a person 
 of such grave and dignified demeanor as Deacon 
 Cadmus Pinchon ; and his wife, I am informed, is 
 a most devout and exemplary woman. My little 
 niece will be attended by her governess and by an 
 old servant, Excelluna, to whom my sister, in her 
 lifetime, became strangely attached a poor, faith 
 ful drudge, who in her turn is passionately de 
 voted to the child ; but, in the station in life which 
 my little niece will probably fill it is as well, per 
 haps," said Mrs. Bodurtha, "that she should not 
 lose sight of the fact that there are drudges." 
 
 Mr. Higgins countenance shone with sympathy 
 and approval, yet had he been pursuing an amus 
 ing train of thought quite his own. 
 
 " Speaking of our charming little Dick," he now 
 said, savoring his speech with soft effusions of 
 honeyed laughter ; " in ten or a dozen years from 
 now I will myself undertake the burden of her
 
 MRS. BODURTHA 1 S PLAN. 1$ 
 
 education with the greatest pleasure I do assure 
 you, my dear Mrs. Bodurtha, with the greatest 
 possible pleasure. Since the mother proved un 
 faithful, the child may be destined to restore my 
 wounded life. Ah, who knows ? Who knows ? 
 I should be but sixty then, and no grayer, I pre 
 sume, than I am now. Stranger things have hap 
 pened, indeed, stranger things have happened." 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha met the pleasantries of the smil 
 ing Croesus before her with that graciousness 
 which was their due. But, together with the 
 perplexities already tormenting her in regard to 
 the child s training, his words had suggested to 
 her the more awful responsibilities of the future. 
 She resumed, in a tone of intense and troubled 
 seriousness : 
 
 " But, in order that the direction of my niece s 
 future life may be wise and rational, we must seek 
 to lay the proper foundation now. Therefore I 
 have made this plan for her early training ; and, 
 torn from her, as I must be, to seek my own health 
 abroad, I have confidence that, in intrusting her 
 to the care of good Deacon Cadmus Pinchon and 
 his wife, she will be placed under the guidance of 
 stronger and firmer hands than mine.
 
 1 6 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " By them the poor child s inherited traits of 
 wildness and improvidence will be subdued and 
 rooted out. By them she will be strictly and reli 
 giously nurtured. They have, too, a large family 
 of children, and my little niece will have the 
 benefit of that domestic drill which it is always so 
 imperatively necessary in large families to main 
 tain. 
 
 " Oh, yes," Mrs. Bodurtha concluded, now with 
 a long-drawn sigh of relief ; " in the peaceful and 
 studious retirement of that country home will 
 be laid, I trust, the foundation upon which we 
 may build by and by the graces of a prudent and 
 distinguished womanhood."
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. \j 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 
 
 nr^HE spring was waking after a gorgeous fashion 
 peculiar to the place, when little Miss Bodur- 
 tha came to that particular section of Dymsbury, 
 which, from its extensiveness and general air of 
 inutility, had long been known to the country 
 people thereabouts as Dymsbury Park. 
 
 Little Miss Bodurtha had never known anything 
 so delightful as the drive from the railway station 
 to Dymsbury Park in Deacon Cadmus Pinchon s 
 family wagon. Change beatific ! from the gloomy 
 upholstery of curtained coaches, and the profound 
 rumble of aristocratic wheels, to a world grown 
 suddenly so illimitable, with its woods, and fields, 
 and mountains ; and a perch on one of the craziest, 
 most enchanting old vehicles that ever rent the 
 pensive country air with its rattlings and groanings 
 and periodic shrieks. 
 
 " She needs ilein , observed Job Trench, gravely. 
 Job Trench was known as the "chore-boy" at 
 Deacon Cadmus Pinchon s, and had been sent to
 
 1 8 TOW HE AD. 
 
 fetch the company from the dtpot. " She needs 
 ilein . The Dekin s fust rate on a hoss trade," he 
 continued, "but I never bet on his wagins." 
 
 At this the supercilious look on the face of the 
 German governess, Miss Schomanhaufer, changed 
 to one more resembling dismay ; and Mr. Higgins, 
 who, as little Miss Bodurtha s guardian, was 
 escorting her to her destination, inquired some 
 what anxiously : 
 
 " But the wagon is puffectly safe, I presume, 
 my good boy? " 
 
 " I tell ye, I don t bet on em," the chore-boy 
 replied, a touch of asperity in his tone. "The 
 Dekin might ride from Dam to Bissheby in this 
 ere wagin and not bust a screw, and then ag in, 
 I ve known em to fall all ter pieces jest a goin to 
 mill. I tell ye, I don t bet on em. But the Dekin 
 never keeps a hoss but what is a hoss," he added, 
 reassuringly, after a moment s pause. 
 
 Mr. Higgins would have derived a ghastly satis 
 faction from pursuing the subject with the boy, 
 but Job Trench, having, as he believed, said all 
 that to any fairly sensible mind could be said in 
 regard to a horse and wagon, relapsed into that 
 taciturn silence which was habitual with him.
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 19 
 
 Mr. Higgins and Miss Schomanhaufer poised 
 themselves in attitudes, studiedly unconscious, and 
 at the same time suggestive of a readiness to leap. 
 But poor old Excelluna, the serving-woman, the 
 "drudge," at little Miss Bodurtha s side, sat per 
 fectly motionless, like one in a happy dream. 
 
 Excelluna was gazing through her " fur-offs." 
 This ancient serving-woman, by the way, possessed 
 three pairs of spectacles endowed with such pecu 
 liar qualities of vision that she was accustomed 
 to term them, respectively, her " nigh-tos," her 
 "mejums," and her " fur-offs." The first named, 
 it may be said here, she employed for such occa 
 sional diversion as she found in reading ; the 
 second, for housework and general duty ; the 
 third, dearest and last, for such purely aesthetic 
 delights as she derived from the contemplation of 
 the scenery ; and now her quaint eyes gazed afar, 
 with such a rapt expression in them, that little Miss 
 Bodurtha was moved to ask, with wondering awe, 
 " Is that where God lives, Limy ? " 
 
 The child had unconsciously solved a growing 
 mystery to Excelluna s mind. The simple creature 
 gazed upon her as though verily she believed 
 the little one inspired. " It are," she answered,
 
 20 TOWHEAD. 
 
 almost inaudibly, nodding her head in solemn 
 confirmation of her words. " Yis, ever and a 
 darlin orphing lamb for sech I call you it 
 are, and I thank you for them words." 
 
 To the imagination of these two, the woman 
 and the child, a shining presence, with feet like 
 lightning, and wings like the wind, parted the 
 glowing sky and stood forth on the mountains. 
 Such a revelation could hardly have brought sur 
 prise, indeed, to the child, with her wonderful clear 
 eyes ; still less to the careworn, grief-dimmed orbs 
 of the ancient serving-woman. 
 
 Excelluna, who had known Dymsbury Park in 
 its statelier days, did not even note those things 
 upon which the gaze of Mr. Higgins and Miss 
 Schomanhaufer fell with such ironical scrutiny 
 the tufted, stony, mossgrown condition of the 
 drives, the dazzling profusion of underbrush, the 
 languid attitude of the fences. To her, it was 
 only the smile growing distinct again on a face 
 that she had loved long since. 
 
 "Ah, my good boy," said Mr. Higgins to Job 
 Trench, "what does Mr. ah Deacon Cadmus 
 Pinchon raise on this ah very ornate and 
 elaborate farm ? "
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 21 
 
 "Sheeps and cows and bosses and live 
 stock," replied Job Trench, deliberately. 
 
 " And what may the live-stock be now ? " inquired 
 Mr. Higgins. 
 
 "Colts," replied Job Trench succinctly, with a 
 touch of malicious triumph in his tone. 
 
 "Ah, very good! excellent! excellent!" said 
 Mr. Higgins, laughing slightly. " But I meant 
 particularly what sort of grain does he raise, you 
 know, and ah vegetables ? 
 
 " I d like to see ye raise much grain and vege 
 tables with a few sech colts as ourn on the prem- 
 erses," continued Job Trench, still derisively. 
 "How ver," he subjoined, returning to his chronic 
 state of profound seriousness, "the Dekin gen - 
 rally fences in enough for fam ly use." 
 
 To the eyes of the travellers, the trees began to 
 grow scarcer and gigantic in size, and at length, 
 behind a colony of elms, a house loomed up, vast, 
 dim, and mysterious, in the dusk. The senti 
 ments of awe produced by this scene were quickly 
 alleviated by a most grotesque appearance in the 
 doorway. There, framed in the lamp-light which 
 poured through the open space, stood a woman, 
 black-featured as the night, balancing herself
 
 22 TOWHEAD. 
 
 airily, first on one foot and then on the other, and 
 grinning with the startling brilliancy of her race ; 
 not so much in welcome to the approaching 
 guests, it seemed, as with private relish for some 
 noisy demonstrations which were going on within. 
 Once, there was a lively and complete revolution 
 of this dusky figure on its axis, the sound of a 
 playful fisticuff or two rang out upon the air, and 
 the grin, amplified and beaming beyond measure, 
 returned to meet the gaze of the alighting guests. 
 Excelluna made a desperate search in her pocket 
 for her mejums, but, adjusting her nigh-tos by 
 mistake, the full effect of the vision was overpow 
 ering. " Somehow, somewheres," she exclaimed, 
 " I ve seen that perdicious emblem of cur osity 
 before ! Vixanna Daw ! " 
 
 At this, a significant gleam passed over the coun 
 tenance of the negress in the doorway. In what 
 world, and amid what scenes these two had for 
 merly beheld each other, was not then divulged, 
 but their wanderings had been unspeakable, their 
 experiences vast, and, in the present crisis, their 
 mutual gaze, which betrayed no warmer emotion ; 
 was expressive neither of tolerance nor of animos 
 ity. "It s a co-ordinance," said Excelluna, sol-
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 23 
 
 emnly. "That s what it is. It s a co-ordi 
 nance." 
 
 The night was chill, and Vixanna Daw ushered 
 the travellers into a spacious apartment, where a 
 table was spread, and a fire burned on the hearth, 
 and a company of comely and extremely dirty 
 children, reduced to a momentary condition of 
 awe by the advent of the strangers, stared at them 
 open-mouthed. By this time the countenances of 
 Mr. Higgins and Miss Schomanhaufer had as 
 sumed an aspect of considerable bewilderment. 
 
 "Ah" said Mr. Higgins, who was short 
 sighted, and had not detected the Saxon fairness 
 of the children underneath their accidental coating 
 of earth and molasses "ah" said he, turning 
 helplessly to Vixanna Daw " you have a very 
 a very ah elaborate family, Mrs. Pinchon. 
 Where ah is Deacon Cadmus Pinchon?" 
 
 " Massy sakes alive ! " screamed Vixanna, drop 
 ping into a chair, and holding her sides in an 
 uncontrollable fit of laughter "/ ain t Miss 
 Deacon Cammus Pinchon, I ain t. O Lawd ! 
 O Lawd ! " she gasped " disll kill me, sho . 
 Hold onto me, somebody, fo I busts myself 
 O Lawd ! O Lawd ! But I Jiab alias been
 
 24 TOWHEAD. 
 
 brought up in berry pious fam lies, dat s a fac ," 
 she added, assuming with marvellous quickness a 
 composed and reassuring dignity of demeanor. 
 " I nebber libed wid nuffin lessn a deacon, fo de 
 Lawd. Gen ly, it s been ministers ; casionally a 
 Mefodist or Piscopal , do fo myse f, I se 
 mo inclined to de Presbyteriums." 
 
 As Vixanna uttered these words in a truly 
 mellifluous tone of voice, her face was expressive 
 of sentiments the most exclusively orthodox, and 
 having set all the young Pinchons giggling by 
 means of a covert wink, she next eyed them with 
 a long gaze of heart-smitten reproach. " Chil 
 ians," said she, "yo do grieve me so ly. Can t yo 
 member to follow yo ma s structions, alias to have 
 yo selves fo company ? But I was gwine to tell 
 yo ," she continued to her spell-bound audience, 
 " how de folks all come to be gone. 
 
 " Yo see, dese younguns, dey s alias some of em 
 up to sumfiri , and what should Cammus Junyah 
 take it into his head, dis berry arternoon, but he 
 mus run away to de Watkinses to play wid dem 
 Watkins chilluns, dat s nuffin but a po low fani ly 
 anyway ; and he took his little sister Ruf wid im, 
 dat s jes the mos gentle and missive little gi \
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 2$ 
 
 dat ebber was, but she alias min s wat de las 
 pusson tells her las . But, Miss Deacon Cammus, 
 agin and agin she s posi vely fo bid de chilluns 
 gwine to dem Watkinses to play; and only las 
 ebenin I heard her say, Whatebber you does, 
 chilluns, don let me hear o dat. So when she 
 skivered as dey was gone, she had mejit spicions 
 o wha dey was, and she sent Vinny Noble 
 dat s Miss Pinchonses secon girl," said Vixanna, 
 parenthetically, with an accent of undisguised con 
 tempt, "fo to look em up. Fo dat Vinny Noble 
 she nebber foun anyfin yet from mawnin to sun 
 set but jest as soon as dey s anyfin los she s 
 spatched fo it mejit. 
 
 " Wall, co se she went and co se she stayed ; 
 and bimeby I tol Miss Deacon Cammus dat sum- 
 fin had orter be done, and ef it wan t fo all de 
 sponsibility o spectin company/ says I, I d go 
 hunt dem chilluns up myse f. 
 
 " So den Miss Cammus say she was a gwine 
 and Miss Cammus ain t a berry fas walker. She 
 makes a great fuss and stew bout gittin along, 
 Miss Cammus does, but somehow she s one o dat 
 kin dat ain t nebber succeeded in gittin ober 
 much groun .
 
 26 TOW HE AD. 
 
 " So bimcby, arter she d been gone a vv ile, 
 Deacon Cammus he come along, an I tol him 
 how twas, an says I, It s ra ly gittin time de case 
 was tended to. So den Jie started off and Dea 
 con Cammus alias has de bes o tentions, but I 
 know dat jes as like as not, fo he git half a dozen 
 rods, he fo git wat he started fo ; or ef he should 
 meet somebody ter talk wid on de road, he d neb- 
 ber knew how fas de time flew. 
 
 " So bimeby, Gusto Brown, he come along 
 and him I can gen ly pend on ; an says I, De 
 mergency s ra ly gittin rjressin . So den he say 
 he start right off, and he asks Miss Deacon Cam- 
 muses niece dat s Miss Mollie Ebbelyn, dat s 
 here visitin ef she would n like ter walk along 
 wid im, and she says yis, so den I gibs cm all 
 np fo" slio." 
 
 Now the return of the various members of the 
 erratic Deacon Cadmus Pinchon family was in this 
 wise. First of all, appeared Cadmus Pinchon, Jun 
 ior, and the demure little Ruth, and straightway 
 proceeded to shine among their brothers and sis 
 ters, in such superior distinction of rags and grime 
 as had accrued to them from their more extensive 
 wanderings. Shortly afterward, good Deacon Cad-
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 27 
 
 mus and Mrs. Pinchon came back from a fruitless 
 quest, and on discovering their prodigal offspring 
 arrived before them, by no means evinced such 
 choler or indignation as they might naturally have 
 shown on the occasion. Deacon Cadmus Pinchon, 
 majestic of stature and of mien, exhibited an un 
 disturbed benignity of countenance, and Mrs. Pin 
 chon, though flustered with walking, was spiritually 
 calm. It was not until after the worthy couple 
 had been engaged for some moments in amiable, 
 though unhurried conversation with their guests, 
 that Mrs. Cadmus Pinchon s soft brown eye wan 
 dered by chance in the direction of the recreant 
 Cadmus Pinchon, Junior. A sudden thought lit 
 up her imagination and she exclaimed, in a round, 
 clear, expostulatory tone that yet lacked any severe 
 element of dispraise : 
 
 " Cadmus Pinchon, how could you run away, and 
 grieve your poor dear mother so ? " 
 
 For answer, Cadmus, Junior, who stood by the 
 grate, kicked an outlying coal with his heel, and 
 slightly lowered his head to hide a grin of volup 
 tuous recollection. 
 
 From this hardened culprit, Mrs. Pinchon s gaze 
 instinctively turned to the gentle Ruth.
 
 28 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " Ruthie Pinchon," she exclaimed, " how could 
 you run away, and grieve your poor dear mother 
 sot" 
 
 Ruth s little under lip began to quiver. " There, 
 don t cry, Ruthie dear, mother s own darling," 
 continued Mrs. Pinchon, in the same clear, dispas 
 sionate strain ; whereat the obedient little Ruth 
 graciously forbore to weep. At the same time 
 Mrs. Pinchon s gaze was withdrawn and became 
 vaguely retrospective, and the deflections of those 
 youthful Pinchons were not again alluded to. 
 
 When, at length, Augustus Brown and Mrs. 
 Pinchon s niece, Miss Mollie Evelyn, stepped, 
 glowing and blushing, over the threshold, small 
 cause for wonder was there felt to be in their 
 mutual delay ; for Miss Mollie was fair and brown- 
 eyed, like Mrs. Cadmus Pinchon, but the younger 
 woman s eyes were provokingly bright, her cheeks 
 were ravishing with dimples ; and Augustus Brown 
 had an air of true distinction, and was withal a 
 model of manly beauty. 
 
 In the momentary confusion preceding the dis 
 posal of the company at the table, little Miss 
 Bodurtha, who had been drinking in with no end 
 of delight and edification the lively habits of the
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 29 
 
 Deacon Cadmus Pinchon family, fouud herself 
 accosted in a loud whisper by Cadmus Pinchon, 
 Junior. 
 
 " Hullo, Towhead ! " said he, with a good- 
 natured and fraternal air, and yet slightly em 
 barrassed, as having, in this preliminary salutation, 
 yielded somewhat exhaustively to the demands of 
 polite society. " If ye want some fun, ye d better 
 come out and eat along o us and Vixy. Vixy s 
 gonter have mush, and lasses." 
 
 Mr. Higgins was beaming gallantly upon Miss 
 Mollie Evelyn, and, in view of the finished manner 
 of the beautiful Augustus Brown, even Miss 
 Schomanhaufer s stern features were relaxing into 
 a smile. Little Miss Bodurtha slipped deftly down 
 from her perch at the side of Deacon Cadmus 
 Pinchon, and followed her youthful benefactor to 
 a board in the rear of the house, less ornate indeed 
 in its furnishing, , but suggestive of far superior 
 revelry. There were gathered the little Pinchons 
 all, there was her good Excelluna, there was the 
 delightful Vixanna Daw, and there, in an obscure 
 corner, sat Job Trench, the chore-boy. 
 
 Excelluna turned rather sharply on Cadmus 
 Pinchon, Junior. "What do you mean," she ex-
 
 30 TOW HE AD. 
 
 claimed, "by bringin that child into the kitch- 
 ing?" 
 
 " Oh Laws, now," interposed Vixanna Daw, 
 " nebber min wha we eats, ef we s only libely and 
 genteel. We s all ware o de fac dat dis chile s 
 berry han some and high-bo n." 
 
 " She s a towhead," persisted Cadmus, Junior, 
 in pathetic vindication of his own crown, which 
 glimmered with locks of a hue unmitigably red. 
 
 " Yo s a putty one to scoff at folks ha r, yd is, 
 Cammus Junyah ! " retorted Vixanna. "And yo 
 own head jist a bustin out wid je g ment flame ! 
 Dat s w at it is, cl ar je g ment flame." 
 
 But the melancholy Job Trench spoke, from his 
 corner, and an attentive silence prevailed. " She s 
 harnsome," said he, his dull eyes fixed in a sort of 
 joyless fascinated gaze on the golden-haired child : 
 
 " She s like the actresses I used to see, when I 
 was an orphan, down to New York." 
 
 This old young boy had the look of one who has 
 been early starved and who has seen too much. 
 He, with Lavinia Noble, the "second girl," had 
 been left with good Mr. and Mrs. Pinchon, not 
 long since, by the itinerating vender of an orphan 
 asylum. Job Trench was regarded with that
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 3* 
 
 peculiar awe which attaches itself to those who 
 speak seldom and smile never, save it be satiri 
 cally ; and at his sombre recognition of little 
 Miss Bodurtha s superior charms, Excelluna, who 
 had been disposed at first to regard him with 
 disfavor, beamed auspiciously upon him through 
 her mejums. 
 
 " I se sorry not to hab any doxothology said 
 ober dis yer meal," Vixanna remarked incidentally. 
 " Gusto Brown asks de mos beautiful doxothol 
 ogy yo ebber heered, but sence Miss Mollie 
 Ebbelyn come, he took a notion to eat in de odder 
 room, do , fo she come, he was gen ly customed 
 to eat wid me and de children Fo Mista and 
 Misses Pinchon, says he, dey s berry good folks, 
 says he, but dey aint de libliest company dat 
 ebber was. Dey aint fo mal zac ly, says he, nor 
 yit dey ain t joc lar. " 
 
 " Who is Agusto Brown ? " inquired Excelluna. 
 
 " Wall," replied Vixanna, suddenly assuming a 
 mysterious air; he s a nigma, dat s what he is. 
 In odder wo cls, Luny, dey s a myst ry bout 
 Gusto Brown. An I don min tellin yo\ Luny, 
 w at Gusto Brown s fided to me and de chilluns in 
 de mos strick es privacy, dat he s no mo nor less
 
 32^ 7OWHEAD. 
 
 dan de eldes son of a forrum juke. But I 
 quarrel d wid de ol juke, Vixy, says he, wi ch 
 counts fo my bein in dis kentry, in sech duced 
 succumstances. And he vealed to us his forrum 
 name, dat the name o dat Jumman gub ness ain t 
 nuffin to it. " 
 
 "And what is Agusto Brown now?" inquired 
 Excelluna, with implicit confidence. 
 
 "Wall," said Vixanna Daw, "jes at pres n , he s 
 Deacon Cammus Pinchonses hi d man. But he 
 w ars de mos beautiful clo s, and he nebber wu ks 
 widout glubs on, and he s spectin an apologum 
 from de ol juke, callin ob im back, ebbery day of 
 his life, Gusto Brown is."" 
 
 Now the good Excelluna revelled in mysteries. 
 Her eyes rolled upon Vixanna Daw with a look of 
 solemn exultation. " I knew there was something 
 extraorjaner about that Agusto Brown, the minute 
 I set eyes on him," said she. 
 
 " I don min tellin yo t Limy," continued Vix 
 anna; "dat de reason w y Gusto Brown lef de ol 
 juke was dis : de ol juke wan ed Gusto Brown to 
 marry one o dem forrum prinsusses wid a name 
 dat Gusto Brown s hisse f wasn t miffin to it. 
 But I couldn t, says he. Why ? says I. Cos,
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 33 
 
 says Gusto Brown, my buzzums wasn t fi d wid 
 de holy spa k ob lub. But, tween yo and me, 
 Luny, it s my pinion dat Gusto Brown s putty 
 much in lub now wid Miss Mollie Ebbelyn, and 
 she wid him, do she s a mos drefful case to flirt, 
 Miss Mollie is ; and Gusto Brown carries hisse f so 
 high and ca m, dey s no tellin alias w at his 
 motions is. And Miss Mollie s nuffin but de 
 daughter ob a Presbyterium minister: dat ain t no 
 great ketch, to be sho , fo sech a figga as Gusto 
 Brown, and de eldes son ob a forrum juke ! " 
 
 " It appeared to me," said Excelluna, investing 
 this splendid romance with a sudden dark sugges 
 tion of tragedy : " it appeared to me jest afore sup 
 per, that Mr. Higgins was a makin up to Mrs. 
 Deking Cadmuses niece, and Miss Shoe-mine-off- 
 ear was a makin up to Agusto Brown." 
 
 " Oh, laws, Luny," exclaimed Vixanna Daw, highly 
 amused. "Yo ain t had much of de spe rences ob 
 lub, ef you tinks dey s anyfin to dat. Dey s only jes 
 a playin off. Lub, Luny," said Vixanna, suddenly 
 wearing an air of supreme significance ; " s like dis 
 yer lasses dat I m a flowin onto my mush. It s 
 sweet, Luny, but it s stremely pricious ; it s 
 stremely pricious."
 
 34 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Vixanna Daw sat at the head of the table and 
 dispensed the steaming oatmeal mush with a long 
 iron spoon, like one who wields a royal though 
 blithe prerogative. The little Pinchons had indi 
 vidual molasses cups. They laughed, they shouted, 
 they dabbled with their fingers in that sweet 
 refection. Little Miss Bodurtha had never been 
 so happy. She suddenly evinced qualities calcu 
 lated to cope in every instance with those youthful 
 Pinchons. She consumed her food from the palm 
 of her dainty hand. Ripples and peals of laughter 
 fell from her rosy lips. At her delight, tears of 
 sympathetic joy rolled down Excelluna s cheeks. 
 "How you be a enjoyin of yourself, ever and a 
 darlin one ! " she cried. When, at the height of 
 the frolic, Vixanna Daw laid the robust Cadmus 
 Junior, across her knees and administered a playful 
 dose of discipline, and all the little Pinchons cried, 
 " Spank me too, Vixy ! " shrillest and sweetest of 
 all rose the voice of little Miss Bodurtha, " Spank 
 me too, Vixy ! " 
 
 After the banquet, little Miss Bodurtha was ab 
 ducted from these charming companions and led 
 into the parlor, from which she was again speedily 
 rescued by the dauntless Cadmus Junior, and intro-
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 35 
 
 duced to the most marvellous, the most unspeak 
 able wanderings with the little Pinchons, in the 
 cellar, in the garret, through the mysteries of a 
 great gloomy old barn, preceded by Vixanna Daw, 
 with her lantern, and followed by the wondering 
 and helpless Excelluna. 
 
 Then there was the enchanting period during 
 which Vixanna peered through an aperture in the 
 floor over the parlor, known as the "dummy hole," 
 and regaled her hearers with a choice, if not 
 veracious, account of what was going on in the 
 room below. Vixanna had besought the privilege 
 of using Excelluna s fur-offs for this purpose, and 
 such an admission of advanced years on her part, 
 as well as the recognition of the subtle qualities 
 of Excelluna s spectacles, had made the latter a 
 more willing votary of her crime. But Vixanna 
 Daw had no need of spectacles. They became 
 entangled in the meshes of her curly hair, while 
 she stretched herself flat on the floor, save for a 
 slight elevation of the heels at one extreme and an 
 immersion of the head in the dummy hole at the 
 other, which order was occasionally reversed, as 
 she recounted to her audience, in a muffled 
 whisper, the result of her observations ;
 
 36 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " It s jes as I spected, chilluns, we s jes in de 
 nick o time. Gusto Brown an dat Jumman 
 gub ness am a settin on de sofy by de winder, 
 lookin at de phogertraph a bums, and Miss Mollie 
 and Mista Higgins, dey s a settin on de sofy by 
 de grate, flirtin fit to make yo ha r stan on 
 end. 
 
 " And Gusto Brown, he s a havin r al p lite, 
 but he looks kinda wore out, and once in a w ile 
 his eyes shoots over drefful to ds Miss Mollie. But 
 Miss Mollie and Mista Higgins, dey keeps on a 
 flirting fit to make yo ha r stan on end." 
 
 " Where is D eking Cadmus Pinchon ? " inquired 
 Excelluna, very gravely. 
 
 " He s jes gone out to hunt de chilluns up, to 
 bring em in to pra rs," responded Vixanna. 
 
 " And where is Miss Deking Cadmus Pinchon ? " 
 inquired Excelluna. 
 
 " She s a settin by de centa-table, readin the 
 New Yawk R igious Bserver," answered Vixanna. 
 
 Gradually Vixanna s head sank lower and lower 
 and lower into the dummy hole. The resurrec 
 tions became less frequent, and endured for briefer 
 periods of time. " Mista Higgins, he s talkin in 
 dat voice o his dat soun s jes like de po k a
 
 THE CLOISTER, D VMS BURY PARK. 37 
 
 cripsin in the bottom o de pot, only mo sof. 
 Miss Mollie s a flirtin drefful. 
 
 " Mista Higgins say he s nuffin but a po f l on 
 bachelum, gwine back to his lonely home in de 
 great city. Don she tink Miss Mollie gib im one 
 kiss to take back wid im, when he hab to go back 
 all alone on de midnight owl-train ? 
 
 " Den would she be mo tally fended ef he steal 
 one ? " 
 
 Vixanna s head made one brief reappearance 
 and then sank hopelessly from view. 
 
 " He p me up, chilluns ! " she exclaimed weakly 
 at length. " He p me up, chilluns ! " And, as 
 she rose, she wore an aspect impressively silent 
 and awful. 
 
 "Vixanna Daw," slowly ejaculated Excelluna, 
 "did that Mr. Higgins did he kiss Miss Deking 
 Cadmus Pinchonses niece ?" 
 
 " Luny," returned Vixanna Daw, with equal so 
 lemnity ; "I swa to de immo tal Moses, an ef I was 
 on my dyin bed I couldn t say no different, dat, 
 jes at that p int I sJiet my eyes. Come, chilluns, 
 le s all go down to pra rs." 
 
 When little Miss Bodurtha, denuded of her 
 soiled garments, and washed and arrayed in a.
 
 38 TOWHEAD. 
 
 beautiful white night-gown at the hands of her 
 faithful Excelluna, sank to sleep that night, her 
 eyelids closed upon a blissful dream of perfect 
 freedom and abounding sweets ; of underground 
 passages and dizzy heights surpassing the pride 
 of fairy tales ; of giant trees, waving in the moon 
 light ; of beautiful coquettish maidens and dis 
 guised foreign potentates ; of playfellows innumer 
 able, children fertile in invention, and grown people 
 like children. 
 
 But a trouble weighed upon Excelluna s mind, 
 and she could not sleep. From that humble recess 
 in little Miss Bodurtha s apartment, where she was 
 domiciled, the old serving-woman wandered out 
 into the larger room. She cast a loving glance 
 towards the bed where her precious charge lay 
 sleeping, then directed her steps to the window, 
 adjusted her fur-offs, and gazed long and earnestly 
 at the moon. The moon was at its full, and 
 beamed down upon Excelluna with something of 
 the benignity of a human countenance. Excelluna 
 discovered this. As she gazed she grew more 
 and more confident, and at length the pent-up 
 burden of heart began to find expression. 
 
 " A deking ! " said Excelluna to the moon. " Yis,
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 39 
 
 a deking ! and that ain t nothin aginst nobody, 
 to be sure, neither furthermore nor hereafter it 
 don t not always prove nothing !" 
 
 At this the moon seemed to wink down solemnly 
 at Excelluna, as much as to say : " Between you 
 and me and the big elm trees, Excelluna, you ve 
 discovered an important truth in nature." 
 
 Flattered by this profound and unusual sym 
 pathy, Excelluna went on : " Not but what De- 
 king Cadmus Pinchon may be, without doubt, 
 very good-natered and very religioust, and Miss 
 Deking Cadmus Pinchon also without doubt the 
 same, but wall, we all on us have our peculiar 
 rarities " Excelluna sighed, regarding the moon 
 as though even that splendid creature could not 
 be totally exempt from this world-embracing law 
 " but it doos seem as though some on us was 
 more peculiar raritous than others, and it doos 
 seem as though this ere Deking Cadmus Pinchon 
 family was the peculiar raritousest family that ever 
 I come in contact with. For there s no denyin 
 that I ve lived with a great many, but my experi 
 ences has been heretofore that, in families where 
 the woman went biast the man ginerally went 
 straight ; or ef the man went biast, the woman went
 
 40 TOWHEAD. 
 
 straight ; but here it s all biast to biast, as smooth 
 and easy goin as the sea o glass ! But I don t 
 know as it s any more of a peculiar rarity than 
 that folks that calls themselves a Christian should 
 go a lookin of their health in forring parts and 
 leave their sister s only child poor ever and a 
 darlin orphing lamb ! to be strict and religioust 
 brung up in a family that runs biast to biast, and 
 full of nothin but rampagious young-ones, and for 
 ring jukes, and black emblems of cur osity, the 
 owls of the desert and the pelticoons of the wil 
 derness." 
 
 At this the moon seemed fairly to glow with 
 sympathetic indignation from afar. 
 
 " How anybody that calls themselves a Christian, 
 and a church-belongin Christian," continued Ex- 
 celluna ; "could do sech a thing as that wall, 
 I m nothin but a poor cur ous creetur, I know. I 
 never was much brung up, nor I never had no 
 advantages to speak on. I wasn t born rich, no, 
 nor I never married rich" here the moon 
 seemed to be trying, politely, very politely, to hide 
 a faint inclination to smile. Excelluna paused a 
 moment, balanced her spectacles with the nicest 
 degree of precision on the extreme verge of her
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 4! 
 
 nose, and gazed scrutinizingly, even severely, at 
 the moon. " I am aweer of the fact," said Excel- 
 luna; "that I hain t never married at all. Mar 
 riage," said Excelluna; "is like religion; it had 
 ought to be entered into early. Elst," she gravely 
 and innocently added ; " as we grow older, we re 
 more liable to see the folly of it." The moon had 
 resumed its serious aspect and was listening atten 
 tively "But there air peculiar-rarities, sech as 
 leaving my own kith and kin , ef I had any 
 which the Lord knows I haven t that I hope I 
 never should be liable to." 
 
 Excelluna s tone grew pathetic. The moon, 
 though pitiful, was so far off. " Who will guide 
 that purty wanderin lamb ? " she cried, pointing 
 towards the bed. " Who will lead them little 
 wanderin steps to stand up high and pure where 
 her angeling mother stands ? As fur as the East 
 is from the West, so fur was that angeling mother 
 from her as has gone a lookin of her health in 
 forring parts. When she found me, that had 
 served her father s family years ago, she knowed 
 me. Why, it s Luny ! said she, lookin at me 
 with them eyes o hern, that never see nothin on 
 the outside, nor rags, nor humbliness. She
 
 42 TOWHEAD. 
 
 knowed me. You must come home, Luny, she 
 says. That was her way ; she must always have 
 things brung home. But who will care for hern, 
 now that she has been took away? Who will 
 lead them little orphing steps up to that angeling 
 mother s home ? " 
 
 The tears were streaming from Excelluna s 
 eyes. But suddenly, to those poor uplifted eyes, 
 suddenly to those marvelous fur-offs, the moon 
 revealed a mystery. And a look crept over 
 Excelluna s face, not so much startled as it was 
 first solemn and then full of an exceeding glad 
 ness, and the tears continued flowing for very joy, 
 as she, open-mouthed, stood peering upward. 
 
 "It s God!" said Excelluna at length, very 
 slowly ; for she saw palaces and gardens and green 
 hills and peaceful valleys and a shining road withal, 
 leading clear down through the branches of the 
 great elm trees. " It s God, that s what it is ! 
 When we was a comin here, this very night, that 
 darlin child says to me, Is this where God lives, 
 Luny ? says she ; Is this where God lives ? And, 
 yis, says I, it is not knowin but greatly 
 suspectin and now I m sure oiit. Mebby," said 
 Excelluna thoughtfully, and as though the idea had
 
 THE CLOISTER, DYMSBURY PARK. 43 
 
 taken hold of her with wonderfully inspiring force 
 "mebby God 11 do somethin towards bringin 
 up that poor darlin lamb. I never heered of jest 
 sech an insternce before of its bein left to 
 Him quite so much entirely to sech an extent 
 but somehow I ain t afeered for nothin now. I 
 r a ly ain t a mite afeered." And the homely 
 simple face grew happier and happier; and the 
 moon stooped down and kissed the last tear away, 
 and Excelluna went comforted to bed. 
 
 Thrice during the night was Excelluna dis 
 turbed in her innocent slumbers. She heard 
 noises, noises too of a nature frantic and infernal. 
 The first time that she crept to the window and 
 looked out, " It s the midnight owl-train " she 
 exclaimed, "that Mr. Higgins was a gwine back 
 on." The second time, there was an ominous look 
 on her face and she listened thoughtfully. " It s 
 the wailin s of the It s wailin s," concluded 
 Excelluna, discreetly " That s what it is ; it s 
 wailin s." The third time, as she stood with 
 attentive ear, peering desperately out into the 
 shadows, a sudden illumination transformed her 
 features and gave place at last to a smile of 
 perfect peace. "It s cats," said Excelluna, trao-
 
 44 TOWHEAD. 
 
 quilly retracing her steps to her couch. " I hope 
 I hain t lived as long as / have in this ere fightin , 
 squabblin , squallin world to be kep awake by 
 cats I" 
 
 " I might a remembered," said Excelluna, turn 
 ing drowsily on her pillow "the very first time 
 I set eyes on that Miss Deking Cadmus Pinchon, 
 this very night, says I to myself ef I m any 
 thing of a jedge of human natur , says I, and I 
 think I be a something of a sech says I, that 
 ar woman keeps cats "
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. 45 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. 
 
 TV /PR. HIGGINS, with a slight bewilderment in 
 his bland smile, went back to his lonely 
 home in the great city. Mrs. Bodurtha, with inno 
 cent assurance of mind, and with conscience at 
 rest, sailed away to sunny France. And little 
 Miss Bodurtha was left to the studious aspirations 
 and orderly exercises of Dymsbury Park. 
 
 I speak not satirically. Life is deep. The Dea 
 con Cadmus Pinchon family, though it might not 
 indeed have borne exclusive witness to that grave 
 official domination implied in the peculiar title of 
 its head, was yet amiable and distinguished in the 
 whole scope of its genius. Though singularly free 
 from the grinding exactions of mere superficial law 
 and order, its down-sittings and its up-risings, its 
 in-comings and its out-goings, were the result of 
 higher inspirations, that drew their sources from 
 the stars.
 
 46 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Deacon Cadmus Pinchon, tall, broad-shouldered, 
 beneficent of eye, with his noble, bald forehead 
 and long, flowing beard, had a truly imposing 
 and patriarchal aspect. As he sat on the 
 fence, placidly engaged in whittling, that charm 
 which lay ever in the old prophetic grandeur of 
 his presence seemed to invest the humble rails 
 with a peculiar dignity, while his artless occupa 
 tion became possessed of some deeply mysterious 
 philosophical import. His tones were deep, mel 
 low and impressive. In speaking, he ever began 
 with a slow, wave-like inflection of the voice, a 
 " Wa^al, I do-~-n t kno ow," which was believed 
 to be merely the amiable concession of omnipo 
 tence ; and when nothing further was added as 
 not infrequently happened the listener was still 
 constrained to believe that, if the dry formula of 
 this utterance could be pierced by mortal ken, 
 gems of rare and intrinsic wisdom would be dis 
 covered underneath. 
 
 In the ordinary nature of events, it would seem 
 that Mrs. Cadmus Pinchon should have been a scold, 
 a vixen, and a shrew, spreading terror and desolation 
 in her path. But herein we behold the unexampled 
 bliss of this singularly gifted family. Mrs. Cad-
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. 47 
 
 mus had not indeed retired to that soundless phil 
 osophic calm which characterized the mental habit 
 of Deacon Cadmus. She was still sometimes to be 
 seen in an attitude of troubled thought, and, though 
 true at heart to her simple religious tenets had now 
 and then been known to advance into the meta 
 physical realm with all the bold inquisitiveness 
 of irresponsible childhood. Yet her mental travails 
 were not of the sort calculated to leave their trace in 
 furrows on her placid brow, or to dim the lustre of 
 her soft brown eye. She too said, " I don t know," 
 in tones indefinitely prolonged ; while in respect to 
 material things she maintained ever an attitude as 
 calm, as hopeful and untroubled as the good dea 
 con s own. There were six little Pinchons ; who, not 
 yet being old enough to discover for themselves 
 those intrinsic qualities most worthy to be imitated 
 in father and mother, had borrowed meanwhile some 
 what extensively from more doubtful and alluring 
 sources. It had been the importunate prayer of 
 Mrs. Pinchon s heart that she might have at least 
 one child who should be prematurely devout, a 
 Samuel, original in his devotions, and to be saved 
 but with difficulty from the jaws of early immor 
 talization.
 
 48 TOWHEAD. 
 
 This prayer had not as yet been answered. Never 
 were there six children more vigorously healthy than 
 hers, or who, on being much entreated, offered up 
 their daily orisons with greater reluctance, in tones 
 so revengefully loud and expressive of such a hope 
 less spiritual sloth. Perhaps some exception 
 should be made in the case of Ruth Pinchon, 
 who, though unideally devoted to her meals, 
 was a little model of obedience, and wavered 
 with equal fondness between the bad and the 
 good. 
 
 In the wide latitude of the old house at Dyms- 
 bury Park, Augustus Brown shed the lustre of his 
 presence over the stately waste of a former guest- 
 chamber ; and it was with no unjustifiable pride 
 that that mysterious youth surveyed in its tall 
 mirrors the reflection of his own chaste fea 
 tures. 
 
 Vixanna Daw chose for her domain apartments 
 in an obscure wing of the building, where also, at 
 her dictation, Job Trench and Lavinia Noble re 
 mained. This quarter was but dimly illuminated 
 by means of its low, square windows. It had an 
 appearance of surfeit too vague to be designated 
 as disorder, and contained, besides, horrible sem-
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. 49 
 
 blances of ghosts, manufactured by its inmates for 
 the edification of the little Pinchons, who were too 
 prone to penetrate into its mysteries. 
 
 There were with Vixanna Daw seasons of spiritual 
 renewal and sublime aspiration ; when, with many 
 expressions of disgust for the squalor and con 
 fusion of her former apartments, and dark innuen- 
 dos as to the fitness of Job Trench and Lavinia 
 Noble as moral companions, she would remove 
 with her personal effects to a part of the house 
 where wider spaces obtained, and a sunnier out 
 look ; but night, alas, always found her back, fully 
 re-established in her old haunts, and wearing some 
 indefinable air of elation, as of strange perils 
 escaped. 
 
 The table customs of the Deacon Cadmus Pin- 
 chon family were of a delightfully varied and in 
 constant nature. At times, Augustus Brown would 
 wield his knife and fork and flourish his napkin 
 with inimitable grace at the table with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Cadmus Pinchon ; at others he would conde 
 scend to shine with undiminished brilliance of ex 
 ample in the kitchen, where Vixanna Daw chose 
 to preside at a board of her own, and where the 
 meat and bread were supplemented by lively
 
 50 TOW HE AD. 
 
 regalements of wit and laughter. Here sat Job 
 Trench, the silent child of wisdom. Hither re 
 sorted the little Pinchons whenever they could 
 compass it. 
 
 However wild the distractions of the day, family 
 worship was made to form, somehow, at some time, 
 a part of its revolving orrery. Owing to the va 
 grant character of Deacon Cadmus Pinchon s spec 
 tacles, Augustus Brown usually read the chapter. 
 Those who had once heard could never forget the 
 noble and sincere pathos of the young man s tone ; 
 nor, most conspicuous in the singing of the hymn 
 which followed, Vixanna s weird, sad wail, and the 
 loud, untuned abandonment of Lavinia Noble s 
 measures. 
 
 Chapter, hymn and prayer were impartially dis 
 cussed afterwards by the members of the select 
 coterie in the kitchen, who never allowed them 
 selves to be deterred in the work of honest inves 
 tigation, either by abstruseness or solemnity of 
 theme : yet these researches, on the whole, were 
 undertaken in no light or carping spirit ; and severe 
 indeed were the rebukes applied by Vixanna Daw, 
 at the occasional glimpses of infidelity afforded in 
 the character of Job Trench.
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. 51 
 
 On the morning after the arrival of little Miss 
 Dick Bodurtha with her retinue at Dymsbury Park, 
 Excelluna noticed that Miss Schomanhaufer looked 
 pale, even ill. Excelluna thought how her own 
 early slumbers had been disturbed by the wailing 
 of the cats. 
 
 " Did you sleep well last night, Miss Shoe-mine- 
 off-ear ? " she inquired, with a delicate sense of 
 sympathy, as that learned female swept by her on 
 her way through the hall. 
 
 " I slept," responded Miss Schomanhaufer, 
 "miserably. I WSLSS ssickent with frightful and 
 disgusstmk. noises. I slept miserably." 
 
 Excelluna smiled. She had it on her tongue s 
 end to reveal to Miss Schomanhaufer the harmless 
 and insignificant source of all her sufferings, when 
 the governess turned on her abruptly, with an im 
 perative air of inquiry. "Who iss this gentle 
 man ? " said she. " This Meester Augustus Brown ? 
 Why doQss he stay here ? Who iss he ? " 
 
 Now Excelluna truly admired the beautiful 
 Augustus Brown, and, at the same time, she was 
 perfectly well aware of Miss Schomanhaufer s 
 aristocratic proclivities. She longed to tell the 
 governess that that matchless young man was even
 
 $2 TOW HE AD. 
 
 the illustrious son of a foreign duke but had she 
 not been bound to secrecy on that point ? So she 
 could only roll her eyes upon her with a deeply 
 cabalistic meaning, as she placed a finger signifi 
 cantly on her lips. 
 
 " Wall, jest at present, Miss Shoe-mine-off-ear," 
 said she, "jest at present, you know jest at pre 
 sent," said Excelluna with a deprecatory smile, and 
 weakly delaying to inflict the blow ; " he s Deking 
 Cadmus Pinchonses hired man." 
 
 Miss Schomanhaufer did not smile. It was 
 probably not two hours afterwards that her trunk 
 was again seen mounted on the rickety farm- 
 wagon ; the gloomy chore-boy held the reins, and 
 Miss Schomanhaufer sat, pale but determined, 
 with her face set in the direction of the Dymsburv 
 railway station. 
 
 The surprise of the Deacon Cadmus Pinchon 
 family at the sudden departure was considerable, 
 but affected no strange emotions of choler or 
 dismay. It was believed that Excelluna possessed 
 the secret. She said nothing, but her look was 
 unmistakably pregnant. She was determined, for 
 her part, that nothing should be said to wound the 
 feelings of poor, beautiful, mysterious Augustus
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. 53 
 
 Brown. So she framed a little conceit of her own, 
 unparalleled at once for delicacy of sentiment and 
 ingenuity of design. 
 
 "There s only one thing, Miss Deking Cadmus 
 Pinchon," said she, in answer to her easy 
 interrogator "that I can reveal to you, in re 
 gard to Miss Shoe-mine-off-ear s suddint goin off ; 
 and that is, that it was cats, Miss Deking Cadmus 
 Pinchon, and then ag in, it wdiit cats. It wan t, 
 and then ag in it was" And Excelluna s lips 
 closed mysteriously. 
 
 " It couldn t have been cats," drawled the soft 
 hearted Mrs. Pinchon, with almost a touch of in 
 dignant remonstrance in her tone. 
 
 " No," Excelluna answered briefly " it 
 wa n t. It wa n t, Miss Deking Cadmus Pinchon, 
 and then ag in, it was. It was, and then ag in it 
 wa n t ; and that is all that I can reveal to you, in 
 regard to that suddint goin off." 
 
 Little Miss Dick s guardian wrote a request that 
 Miss Mollie Evelyn would accept the position so 
 unceremoniously resigned by Miss Schomanhau- 
 fer. Miss Mollie s girlish ardor was not in the 
 least daunted in view of so novel an undertaking ; 
 besides, she had special reasons for liking to
 
 54 TOW HE AD. 
 
 remain at Dymsbury Park. Miss Mollie s in 
 structions began, and were imparted chiefly by 
 means of oral conversations, carried on by the 
 streams and in the woods about Dymsbury Park. 
 
 The little Pinchons invariably formed a part of 
 this peripatetic school ; and if its exercises were 
 not of the sort usually prescribed in text-books, 
 but admitted of endless gay diversions, such as 
 climbing among the tree-branches, and wading 
 over the pebbly bottoms of purling brooks, still, my 
 Dick Bodurtha looks back to this beginning of her 
 career in the pursuit of letters with no shadow of 
 regret. To her mind, Augustus Brown is some 
 how inseparably connected with the picture 
 Augustus Brown, straying idly over from the corn 
 field, and doffing his hat, to sit on the bank at 
 Miss Mollie s side. And then the sound of the 
 voices of those two, as it is borne down to the 
 children at their sport below, smacks of no foreign 
 tongue, indeed, albeit it is exceedingly low and 
 sweet. 
 
 The children loved Miss Mollie. Her laughing 
 eyes and coquettish airs could play no pranks with 
 them. They found her heart and exulted over 
 her, knowing how weak she was, after all ; how
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. 55 
 
 tender and womanly, how sweet and unselfish. 
 And although, poor child ! she might not have 
 been greatly skilled in imparting to them even 
 such small store of erudition as she herself 
 possessed, she gave to their wild, neglected lives 
 almost the only glimpse they ever had of the 
 yearning mother love. There was no balm for 
 their childish woes like Miss Mollie s gentle voice, 
 no rest for little aching heads like Miss Mollie s 
 breast. 
 
 And the children loved Augustus Brown. With 
 quick intuition, they detected in that manly 
 bosom the instincts of the true gentleman, singu 
 larly free from admixture with any baser metal ; 
 while, as a discourser of rare and unpremeditated 
 romance, there was no denying that he was even 
 more gifted than Miss Mollie herself; and, what 
 was remarkable, considering his position as Dea 
 con Pinchon s hired man, or even as the " son of a 
 foreign duke," he never tripped in the matter of 
 good English, as Miss Mollie frequently did. 
 
 The amours of these two cast a glamour of 
 romance over the days, and the secret was sweet 
 to all the children and dependents of the Deacon 
 Cadmus Pinchon family, in that they knew
 
 5 6 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Augustus Brown to be the happy and full pos 
 sessor of Miss Mollie s heart. But why did he not 
 speak ? Miss Mollie would not mind his present 
 forlorn circumstances, she was so kind. Why did 
 he not speak? that dear Miss Mollie might be 
 ready, at any hour, to go back with him to the 
 silken splendors of a royal position and the ducal 
 coronet, which could adorn, but not outshine, her 
 lovely brows. Augustus Brown did not tell his 
 love. His face took on at times an expres 
 sion of sadness which would have called for pity, 
 had it not seemed in his case, so supremely in 
 teresting. 
 
 Excelluna looked troubled in these times ; but 
 Excelluna had the air of a victim borne down by 
 more than one weighty consideration. Her friend, 
 the moon, had gone out in a dark eclipse. She 
 communed much with herself, often with the dear 
 object of her charge, little Miss Bodurtha not, 
 generally, little Miss Bodurtha as a substantial 
 presence, visible to the senses. So varied and 
 wide were Dick s wanderings that Excelluna be 
 came accustomed at length to address herself to 
 the intangible essence of that bright creature. 
 And so it was that :
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. $? 
 
 "Ever and a darlin orphing lamb," she said, 
 while little Dick was at that very moment far away, 
 wading among the flags, down in the meadow lot 
 " ever and a darlin orphing lamb," said Excel- 
 luna ; " many and much has been the thoughts of 
 late a troublin of my mind concerning you. 
 
 " It has appeared to me of late, ever darlin , that 
 for a child fell nateral heir to as much 1 arnin and 
 governessin as you was, you air not a gittin 
 nothin nowise extry of an eddication. In short, 
 ever darlin , ef it could ever be said of sech a 
 mother s child, you air a gittin to be the ignorunt- 
 est of the ignorunt, and the rampagiousest of the 
 rampagious. Not, ever darlin , but what your 
 natur is bright to exceedin and your dispersition 
 most lovingable, but you air not a bein brung up 
 after that ar strict and pioust manner as was 
 thought on by her as has gone a lookin of her 
 health in forring parts. You most certingly air 
 not. All sech wildness as is and a ridin of colts 
 bareback you air a learnin of that black emblem 
 of cur osity and them little Pinchonses. But, as 
 for sech 1 arnin as was thought on, you air simply, 
 so fur as I can see, not a makin no pergression 
 whatever.
 
 58 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " I know that I be not myself," continued Ex- 
 celluna, with pathetic gravity ; " much of a perfi- 
 cient in forring langurges. I have always found 
 a considerable to contend with in my own, and 
 though I can ginerally ketch the senst, I am 
 aweer that I am not always perfect on the pernun- 
 ceration. But all sech of readin and writin as I 
 know I have taught and shall continue for to teach 
 you. And no denyin as it s enough for a poor old 
 servin creetur like me, but for one fell nateral 
 heir to as much expectations as you was, ever 
 darlin , it r a ly seems to me that it is not a goin 
 to prove nothin very remarkable of an eddica- 
 tion. 
 
 " F"olks have got sech an idea of 1 arnin now-a- 
 days," sighed Excelluna, hopelessly ; " though, to 
 be sure, there was a good deal made out of mathter- 
 matics when / was young. Now there was : 
 
 Jest sixteen yards of German surge 
 
 For ninety cents had /. 
 How many yards of that same surge 
 Will fourteen eagles buy. 
 
 " Wall, to be sure, there was some that done it. 
 There was Elizabeth Chauncey, that sat next to 
 me in school, that married Holwell Tuller, slic 
 done it. I for my part, I confess, ever darlin , that
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. $9 
 
 no I never done that ar example. Why, I can t 
 tell. Most certingly did I try, and long was I a 
 committin of that poultry to my memory. But as 
 for gittin of that ar example, ever darlin , lie I 
 cannot, never could I make no head nor tail on t. 
 I wish that I had a been able to, for then I could 
 a teached it to you. But I don t suppose," said 
 Excelluna, sorrowfully, " that even that for now-a- 
 days would be considered much of a perficiency in 
 mathtermatics. 
 
 " And as for that ere strict and religioust 
 bringin up as you was to have, ever darlin , I have 
 already said that it do not at present appear to be 
 sech as was thought on. Not but what Miss Deking 
 Cadmus Pinchon is one of the best meanin crit 
 ters that ever lived, and often has said to me that 
 ef only she could git the children all together in 
 the house and make em set still long enough, 
 she d instruct the Bible to em every day. But this 
 ere I have observed in respec to women that 
 keep more than one cat around the house, in 
 respec to sech women, there is always a sometJdii 
 wantin . Sech little religion as I have, ever dar 
 lin , which it is mostly, Our Father which art in 
 Heving, I have taught and shall continue for to
 
 60 TOW HE AD. 
 
 teach you, but it r a ly do not appear to be so 
 much as might be thought liable in a deking s 
 family. Sech, and many more, ever darlin , has 
 been the thoughts a troublin of my mind con 
 cerning you." 
 
 Excelluna paused, her eyes rolling peculiarly 
 in their sockets, her forefinger pressed meditatively 
 against her lips. 
 
 " I r a ly don t see," said this simple troubled 
 soul, at last ; " but what it s got to be mostly left 
 to the Lord. Yis, ever darlin , your eddication 
 and your bringin up has got to be mostly left to 
 the Lord. It s a very remarkable insternce, and 
 I m kind of oncerting as to ihe conserkences 
 but, take it for all in all, this ere s a vary puz- 
 zlin , mistractful, muxed up sort of a world. Long 
 have I been a tryin to get it somewhat straight 
 ened out, but I don t see as I m no nearer the end 
 than what I was to the beginning. To be sure, I 
 may I may, sometime but I must say that, at 
 present, the prospects is very jub ous." 
 
 Excelluna shook her head sacl^y, and took a small 
 vial from her pocket. It contained an innocent 
 cordial, known as paregoric. Excelluna merely 
 applied the tip of her forefinger delicately to the
 
 EXCELLUNA TAKES PAREGORIC. 6l 
 
 mouth of the bottle, and then touched her finger 
 lightly to her tongue. 
 
 "It ain t a cure" said she. "There ain t no 
 cure for sech a mistractful, muxed up state of 
 things, but I have sometimes thought that it was 
 a kind of a perventative." And she replaced the 
 bottle, and walked slowly and thoughtfully away.
 
 62 TOWHEAD. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 VIXANNA DAW. 
 
 "\ 7"ERY tenderly my Dick Bodurtha remembers 
 the guides and instructors of her days at 
 Dymsbury Park. Not the least tenderly she calls 
 up from the pathetic background of the past that 
 dusky figure which made so vivid an impression on 
 her youthful eyes, and which vanished, too, with 
 such meteor-like abruptness, Vixanna Daw. 
 
 This Vixanna wore the mental air of significant 
 centuries, while, physically, she appeared all un 
 scathed by the hand of the destroyer, Time. So 
 that a vague opinion prevailed in the Deacon Cad 
 mus Pinchon family that she even possessed a 
 doubtful sort of immortality ; this idea was 
 strongest with Excelluna, and amounted, in her 
 case, almost to a conviction. Through her nigh- 
 tos, through her mejums, through her fur-offs, 
 Excelluna was frequently discovered gazing at 
 Vixanna Daw, the look of intent inquiry on her
 
 VJXANNA DAW. 63 
 
 features gradually yielding to a darkly dawning 
 sentiment of awe. 
 
 Vixanna s laugh was musical and gay, her 
 motions expressive of an unstudied airiness. 
 Having, as was her proud boast, lived almost 
 exclusively among families of marked piety, and 
 especially with ministers, her thoughts had nat 
 urally been much turned to the contemplation 
 of abstract and religious themes ; and, in the con 
 troversies on such subjects, which prevailed in the 
 kitchen, Vixanna s tone was not so much that of a 
 crude inquirer after spiritual truth as of one quali 
 fied to take a broad and smiling view of the whole 
 theological platform. 
 
 "I know," she said ; "dat I ain t nebber j ined 
 myse f to no p tickler d nomination, do I se berry 
 kindly fectioned to em all but de truf is, I se 
 jes as kindly fectioned to one as I is to anudder, 
 so I gibs em all my mos hearties doxothology, 
 an , fo myse f, I accep s de great gin ral doctrine 
 ob scretion de great gin ral doctrine ob scre- 
 tion," said Vixanna Daw, "as we fin s it, my 
 bredderin, in de riginal Greek." 
 
 In respect to the conjugal relations, too, Vixanna 
 had reduced her views to a few axioms of almost
 
 64 TOW HE AD. 
 
 mathematical clearness and precision. Here, her 
 experience had been, as usual, exhaustive ; and, if 
 her words were to be believed, of an especially 
 infelicitous nature. She spoke of her "husban s," 
 always collectively, always with a shade of sad 
 ness ; not so much, it seemed, lamenting the fate of 
 those called untimely to the tomb as an expression 
 of doubtful sentiments towards the still existing, 
 and she was frequently heard to assure Excelluna 
 that there was " one p int on which she d fairly 
 stinguished herself for scretion ; she d alias libcd 
 an ol maid." 
 
 Vixanna had her peculiar delights. She found a 
 secret and lively satisfaction in battling with her 
 dear foe, the horn-bugs, which invaded her apart 
 ments in battalions, during the warm nights of 
 June. But her chief enjoyment, perhaps, consisted 
 in walking upon the barn-roof, ascent to which was 
 made easy by a gradated scale of lower buildings 
 adjoining. From this height, her countenance 
 beamed with <^ri indescribable expression of glory 
 attained, and yet with something of a satanic 
 light, as though the act of walking on the roof, 
 though it would seem not in itself immoral, derived 
 its intrinsic zest to Vixanna s mind from the fact
 
 VIXANNA DAW. 65 
 
 that it was committed while defying the lurid 
 flames of an avenging conscience. 
 
 Vixanna had her specific trials. Perhaps the 
 gravest of these was the semi-weekly disentangle 
 ment of her locks, which she effected by means of 
 a fine-tooth-comb. My Dick well remembers that 
 the place chosen by Vixanna Daw for the display 
 of this interesting feature of her toilette was on the 
 sunny south piazza of the house at Dymsbury 
 Park, and that, during its performance, she made 
 no attempt to conceal her sufferings, but gave vent 
 to many crisp expressions of objurgation as well as 
 of woe, while a retinue of children, awed but 
 ever faithful, stood by and regarded the contortions 
 of their star in silent commiseration. 
 
 Those who had seen Vixanna only when, by 
 reason of some exigency in the affairs of the Dea 
 con Cadmus Pinchon family, she felt called upon 
 to assume the character of hostess, or on any other 
 occasion demanding great pomp and dignity of 
 demeanor, could have little conception of the 
 buoyancy of which, under certain circumstances, 
 her nature was capable ; and few were the days, in 
 the happy calendar of Vixanna s reign, that did 
 not reveal to my Dick and the little Pinchons,
 
 66 TOWHEAD. 
 
 the delights of some new and marvellous ad 
 venture. 
 
 But there came a day at last and Dick may be 
 pardoned, if now, in maturer years, her mind still 
 lingers affectionately, even tearfully, over its gro 
 tesque features there came a day, when good 
 Deacon Cadmus Pinchon and his wife drove off 
 towards the west, in their phaeton, to attend a 
 convention of the potentates of the church, in a 
 town some twenty miles distant ; and Augustus 
 Brown and sweet Miss Mollie went off, all happy 
 and unconscious, in the rambling farm-wagon for a 
 drive towards the golden east ; and the world of 
 Dymsbury Park was left to Vixanna Daw and her 
 adoring satellites. 
 
 As Vixanna then ascended to walk upon the 
 roof of the barn, never had the light which trans 
 figured her countenance appeared at once so bale 
 ful, yet so triumphant. Something of the complete 
 ascendency of evil over good in her nature for 
 the time being, at least was inferred, when, on 
 descending, she observed confidently, " Chilluns, 
 de Debbie s got me, fo dis day, sho ; " and she 
 had the air thereafter of abandoning herself to the 
 behests of that dread though puissant personage
 
 VIXANNA DAW. 6j 
 
 with a cheerfulness which had, nevertheless, been 
 drained of its last element of religious hope. 
 
 And then, and throughout the scenes which 
 animated the clay, the good Excelluna stood by 
 helplessly, and saw visions inscrutable, and pene 
 trated deep into the realm of mysteries ; but found 
 no comfort, neither through her mejums, nor 
 through her nigh-tos, nor through her fur-offs. 
 
 My Dick Bodurtha says that later years have 
 held for her few moments of such intense and 
 absorbing interest as when, having covered Vix- 
 anna Daw at her own suggestion with the fallen 
 maple leaves which lay by the roadside, she 
 and the little Pinchons concealed themselves be 
 hind the fence near by and waited for the victim, 
 pedestrian or charioteer, who should first come 
 down that way. And still fresh in her mind, as 
 though it had been yesterday, is the expression she 
 saw depicted on the faces of those hapless way 
 farers, when suddenly, to their amazed and shrink 
 ing vision, with dusky arms outspread and glitter 
 ing teeth agrin, Vixanna Daw shot upward in a 
 giddy vortex of dead leaves. 
 
 My Dick will speak in the same fond foolish 
 fashion of the manner in which, on this same
 
 68 TOWHEAD. 
 
 eventful day, Vixanna Daw rolled down a long 
 though gentle slope in a barrel. She will be ear 
 nestly careful to relate to me all the particulars of 
 that performance ; that the barrel was of vast pro 
 portions and formerly employed as a reservatory 
 of molasess which toothsome substance Deacon 
 Cadmus Pinchon was accustomed to purchase for 
 his family in eccentric quantities ; that the pre 
 liminary act of pushing the barrel up the hill, in 
 which she and the little Pinchons cheerfully parti 
 cipated, was an inspiring though a laborious one ; 
 that once, as they paused for breath, the leviathan 
 rolled back over them and sought the base of the 
 hill again ; but that she can still hear Vixanna s 
 voice as when, successfully embarked at length on 
 the summit, it pealed forth from the sepulchral 
 depths of the barrel : 
 
 " Now let the wil herricane roa 
 Ag inst de green ebber-green sho ," 
 
 and grew quickly fainter in the distance as that 
 immortal one sped forth on her mad emprise ; 
 and that, finally, when they sought her at the bot 
 tom of the hill, and she emerged with a counten 
 ance dazed but beatific, she observed, looking off 
 into space, and smiling a little absently ; " Chilluns,
 
 VIXANNA DAW. 69 
 
 do yon wan to know what Hebben is ? It s rollin 
 down hill in a barrel." 
 
 Nor was the part which my Dick and the little 
 Pinchons played in this day s glory wholly a pas 
 sive and admiring one. By the time Vixanna had 
 supplied the front-yard with the facilities of a 
 circus, by means of Mrs. Deacon Cadmus Pin- 
 chon s clothes-line suspended among the tree 
 branches, they had aspired to the true spirit of 
 the occasion, and fairly vied with their illustrious 
 teacher in life-imperilling manoeuvres on the tight 
 rope and trapeze. 
 
 But the event which gave the day its fatal sig 
 nificance occurred towards the close, although the 
 sun had not yet disappeared over the western bor 
 der ; and Vixanna Daw never thoroughly recovered 
 from this blow. 
 
 There was yet one vehicle left on the Deacon 
 Cadmus Pinchon premises, an old, paralyzed, huge- 
 jointed chaise, that had long been cast off from 
 the active ways of life. Down in the Broad-brook 
 meadow grazed a horse that had once been spir 
 ited, but, by reason of his extreme old age, curb 
 and bridle had been for years to him unknown. 
 This horse and chaise, in a manner known only to
 
 70 TOW HE AD 
 
 the brain of Vixanna Daw, were combined in one 
 marvellous instrument of flight, and she and her 
 followers, even to the pale and impotent Excel- 
 luna, perched themselves thereon. 
 
 They were all recovered in due time, my Dick, 
 the little Pinchons, all, and restored to the bosom 
 of the Deacon Cadmus Pinchon family. It was 
 believed that the ancient horse disappeared in the 
 red flame of the setting sun, towards which with 
 one last supreme swift effort he had winged his 
 flight. At all events, he and the vehicle to which 
 he had been harnessed were seen no more. 
 
 On realizing the situation after his return from 
 the convention, good Deacon Cadmus Pinchon 
 said "Wa al," with almost an accent of surprise 
 in the various mild inflections of his voice ; and 
 Mrs. Pinchon exclaimed, " The Old Cat n all ! " 
 "the Old Cat" being the severest expression to 
 which she had ever been known to give ex 
 pression hitherto. 
 
 Vixanna escaped unscathed of body, but as she 
 took up again the homely routine of her daily 
 duties her aspect was characterized by a deep 
 mental gloom. " Chilluns, * said she at length to 
 that vaguely sympathetic group ; "ef you wan s to
 
 VI X ANN A DAW. 7 1 
 
 know wat s de cause o my spondency lately, I 
 spec s I se got r igion. Yes," she repeated hope 
 lessly, " I se alias been a dreadin of it, and now I 
 spec s I se got it sho ." 
 
 After this the clouds never exactly lifted from 
 Vixanna s spiritual horizon, though after a time 
 there came a rift in them. " I spec s, chilluns," 
 said she then ; "dat do I se got r igion sho , and no 
 help fo t, may be w at I se got is only jes de ordi 
 nary sabin quality, an not dat pow ful I had along 
 de fus spell. It s one thing, chilluns," said Vix- 
 anna, significantly; "it s one thing, chilluns, to 
 boas o alias habbin libed in pious fam lies, and 
 know dat yo s mighty cute at scussin t ology, and 
 all dem, and it s anudder thing to git dis yer r al 
 pussonal c nvincin r igion onto yer. And dar s 
 two qualities o dis yer r igion, chilluns. Dar s de 
 pow ful quality dat I had along de fus spell, and 
 den dar s jes de ordinary sabin quality. And 
 I ve had my spicions lately," said Vixanna, a ray 
 of hope breaking over her long-darkened features ; 
 "dat may be w at I se got is only jes de ordinary 
 sabin quality. 
 
 " Still, chilluns," she continued, after a pause ; 
 "dar s a great deal to conten for, eben jes in de
 
 72 TOWHEAD. 
 
 sabin quality. Now de Debbie, he come into my 
 room de odder night a tem pin ob me. He 
 comes in and sets down, and says, he spec s I was 
 turn mighty pious, but dar was some things he 
 reckon I could n pray fo yit, ho n-bugs, and one 
 thing and anudder, he mentions em ober ; and I 
 answers him right up peart dat I could, ebery time. 
 An finally he says dey was one thing dat he bet 
 his meet n-hat I could n pray fo em, an says he, 
 Dat s ol bosses dat ain t got any scretion, says 
 he, an wunked at me out ob de co na ob his eye. 
 But I d gone so fa den, chilluns, dat I wasn gwine 
 ter back out, not ef I cl ar busted myse f a lyin , so 
 I speaks up and says dat I could pray fo em, 
 mighty peart, too, says I. 
 
 " Den de Debbie, he shook, an he look cl ar 
 h a t-broken, chilluns, he did, an says he, Vixy, 
 yo was de brightes jewel in my glory crown. I 
 done set all my ca ck lations on yo , Vixy, says he, 
 1 but I done low I shall hab to gib yo up. " Vix- 
 anna drew a long sigh, in which there might have 
 been detected a slight, a very slight, tinge of 
 regret. 
 
 As the suns rose and fell, a sinful longing began 
 to grow within Vixanna s breast, to walk once
 
 VTXANNA DAW. 73 
 
 more upon the roof. Sufficient to say, that she 
 struggled against it, but in vain. It haunted her 
 with allurements ever fond and fresh. An Octo 
 ber eve beheld her performing that gymnastic feat 
 with a recklessness of gesture and an elasticity of 
 tread never before exhibited on similar occasions. 
 After this, she resigned herself to her fate, with 
 the gloomy consciousness of utter unregeneracy. 
 She said, and there was the unfamiliar gleam of a 
 tear in her wild, dark eye, that " Ri gion was well 
 enough in its way, but, take it fo all in all, dey s 
 nuffin like scretion." Gradually she seemed to 
 feel the need of an entire change of scene, and 
 formed vague plans of travel, in which her " hus- 
 ban s " figured somewhat spasmodically as objects 
 of search. 
 
 One night, when all the house was still, a dark 
 figure stole noiselessly into the room where the 
 children lay asleep. The slowly waning light of 
 the summer evening revealed its sorrowful attitude, 
 the despondent droop of the thin, black hands. It 
 was Vixy. She sat down and proceeded to sing, in 
 a voice that crept into the children s slumbers like 
 a lullaby from Dreamland, so airy though so 
 mournful was the strain :
 
 74 TOW HE AD. 
 
 " De massa ob de sheepfol . 
 Dat guards de sheepfol bin, 
 Look out in de gloomerin meadows, 
 Wha r de long night rain begin 
 So he call to dehirelin shepa d. 
 Is my sheep, is dey all come in ? 
 
 " Oh den, says de hirelin shepa d; 
 Dey s some, dey s black and thin, 
 And some, dey s po ol wedda s ; 
 But de res , dey s all brung in. 
 But de res , dey s all brung in. 
 
 "Den de massa ob de sheepfol , 
 Dat guards de sheepfol bin, 
 Goes down in de gloomerin meadows. 
 Wha r de long night rain begin . 
 So he le down de ba s ob de sheepfol . 
 Callin sof , Come in. Come in. 
 Callin sof, Come in. Come in. 
 
 " Den up t ro de gloomerin meadows. 
 T ro de col night rain and win , 
 And up t ro de gloomerin rain-paf , 
 Wha r de sleet fa pie cin thin, 
 De po los sheep ob de sheepfol , 
 Dey all comes gadderin in. 
 De po los sheep ob de sheepfol , 
 Dey all comes gadderin in." 
 
 At the close, Vixanna shook her head, and said, 
 in a broken, pitiful tone of voice, " Dey s nuffin to 
 de wo ds ; oh, dey s nuffin to de wo ds. De 
 music s hebbenly, but dey s nuffin to de wo ds." 
 However, she sang them over again, and once
 
 VI X ANN A DAW. 75 
 
 again, and then, rising and groping out blindly 
 before her with her hands, for the room had grown 
 quite dark, she repeated them softly to herself, and 
 muttered, with a sobbing laugh, in undertone, 
 " Dey s nuffin to de wo ds. De music s hebbenly, 
 but dey s nuffin to de wo ds." She stumbled a 
 little at the door, and turned with a quick deprecat 
 ing gesture, but the even breathing of the children 
 fell undisturbed upon her ear. Very slowly she 
 turned her face and groped her way down the 
 stairs. 
 
 The next morning, the bed in Vixy s room 
 appeared neat and undisturbed. The room had 
 been carefully swept and garnished. The high- 
 backed wooden chair had been set with punctilious 
 neatness against the wall. By its side, with an 
 almost human appeal in its reclining attitude, stood 
 the feather-duster with which Vixy had been wont 
 to battle with the horn-bugs but Vixy had gone 
 away.
 
 76 TOW HE AD. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 JOB TRENCH, THE CHORE-BOY, AND BEAUTIFUL 
 AUGUSTUS BROWN. 
 
 mourned for Vixanna Daw ; and when 
 the leaves had all fallen from the trees, and 
 the wind wailed about the house, and the great 
 front gate, touched by no human hand, swung 
 open on its hinges, she listened eagerly for the 
 tread of the lithe feet that never came back to 
 Dymsbury Park. 
 
 But the winter days came and they were full of 
 pleasures. Then had the good Excelluna less fre 
 quent recourse to her fur-offs, while she made still 
 vaster researches in the metaphysical realm open 
 to her mejums and her nigh-tos. Much she pon 
 dered her Bible, but was even more frequently 
 discovered perusing those pages which, to her 
 mind, constituted the flower of all human produc 
 tions, the gem of all literature, "Fox s Book of 
 Martyrs."
 
 JOB TRENCH, THE CHORE-BOY. 77 
 
 "Whoever," Excelluna had been heard to say, 
 with solemn enthusiasm ; " whoever writ that book, 
 or through whom or by whom that most wondrous 
 book was wrat, is to me unbeknownst, but I hev my 
 suspicions " and here her forefinger sought her 
 lips and her eyes rolled upon her listener with that 
 look of deeply hidden meaning : but she never 
 revealed who, to her mind, had committed the un 
 paralleled deed, and had once been known to treat 
 a suggestion of Vixanna Daw s, that, "Perhaps de 
 ol fox hisse f writ it," with justly contemptuous 
 disdain. 
 
 Excelluna s Book of Martyrs was an illustrated 
 edition, and it was a never-failing source of won 
 der to those who knew her, how that exquisitely 
 tender and compassionate soul could devour its 
 ghastly contents with such evident relish, even 
 with an expression of positive delectation. There 
 was one picture especially, representing the writh- 
 ings of a victim impaled, over which Excelluna 
 was accustomed to gloat with an unaccountable 
 fondness, and sometimes fell asleep with a look of 
 awful entertainment on her features, and a finger 
 glued affectionately to the blood-curdling spectacle. 
 Or, amid scenes of mirth and merry-making, while
 
 78 TOW HE AD. 
 
 Dick and the little Pinchons revelled in the odor 
 of parching corn and cooling taffy, from that dim 
 corner where Excelluna sat a voice would be heard 
 to arise, as she, in her utter abstraction, jubilantly 
 announced aloud the headings of the awful chron 
 icle : " Four mart-yi-ers plunged in a bag of vent- 
 yu-mous snakes ! " " Seven mart-yi-ers simon-tail- 
 i-ously kill-ed in co-old blood ! " And yet Excelluna 
 was constitutionally incapable of killing a fly. She 
 had a pathetic yearning towards all the weak and 
 suffering in nature, and saw a face of human sor 
 row in every stricken flower. 
 
 It was with another spring, that, to the hearty, 
 rollicking life at Dymsbury Park, there came for 
 my Dick a wonderful shadow and the echo of a 
 deeper meaning. Among the places expressly for 
 bidden to Dick and the little Pinchons, and 
 though not directly in consequence of the threat, 
 perhaps, at all events, most resorted to by 
 them, was a ledge, a half mile or more distant 
 from the house, known as "Craggy Head." On 
 the occasions when they surreptitiously fled to this 
 fascinating spot, Job Trench, guided by some mys 
 terious instinct, as they believed, invariably discov 
 ered and followed them not for sport, poor Job
 
 JOB TRENCH. THE CHORE-BOY. 79 
 
 was not subject to such childish weaknesses. He 
 was the one weary, plodding member of the house 
 at Dymsbury Park, a character entirely self-im 
 posed, and sustained in the face of all discourage 
 ments ; and he followed the children in the same 
 joyless, faithful, mechanical fashion that he was 
 accustomed to perform his ordinary duties about 
 the house and farm. 
 
 " There s no u se in tellin on em to the folks," 
 Job observed to Excelluna, who approached near 
 est to him in point of sympathy ; " they talk to 
 em, but it don t hender their goin thar jest the 
 same. And you tag around after em patient 
 enough, but the little imps makes out to dodge ye, 
 whenever they has a mind to ; and by and by," 
 said Job Trench, referring to young Dick Bodurtha 
 with a dull matter-of-fact recognition of worldly 
 estimates " by and by, there ll be one of these 
 rich-family high-toned ones gone plump headlong 
 over that precerpice." So Job Trench kept a sharp 
 eye on all the paths that led to "Craggy Head." 
 
 One day, as the children amused themselves by 
 throwing stones over the ledge, and Job Trench 
 sat gloomily by, Dick suddenly parted from the 
 rest of the group, and ere a hand could be
 
 80 TOWHEAD. 
 
 stretched out to detain her, with a wild shout of 
 glee the fearless, thoughtless child had clambered 
 out upon the branches of a dwarf tree that grew 
 sheer out from the face of the precipice. But re 
 turn looked difficult, and the shrub bent danger 
 ously under the child s light weight. 
 
 " I ve been expectin it," said Job Trench then, 
 in a dull, slow tone of resignation ; but, so quick 
 was he in action that not the first look of startled 
 wonder had crept into the eyes of the child, hang 
 ing there below, ere he had climbed out to her 
 relief. Then, as Cadmus Pinchon s sturdy arms 
 received her from above, the light tree broke be 
 neath Job Trench s straining feet and he fell. 
 
 It was good Deacon Cadmus Pinchon himself 
 who carried the poor chore-boy home in his arms ; 
 and they laid him on a white bed in a great chamber, 
 and were very tender and pitiful over him, but Job 
 Trench s wounds had gone too deep for cure, and 
 life with him, said the Dymsbury doctor, was a 
 matter of hours rather than days. His face, 
 always an uncanny one, looked positively ugly as 
 it lay against the pillows, stupid and frozen in its 
 helpless expression of agony. Opening his eyes 
 occasionally, in brief moments of consciousness,
 
 JOB TRENCH, THE CHORE-BOY. 8 1 
 
 it was with a startled, anxious look and incoherent 
 mutterings of alarm, until he caught sight of Dick 
 Bodurtha s sunny head in the room. Then, as if 
 realizing his duty done, his eyes would rest upon 
 her rest, but without a smile, and fade out, 
 wearily satisfied, in the light of her golden hair. 
 
 Excelluna s eyes were dim and red with weep 
 ing. "I don t worry none about his tarnal wel 
 fare," she sobbed, in answer to some remark of 
 Mrs. Cadmus Pinchon s. " He never talked much 
 only, when the time come, he went and did it. 
 But, to think, Miss Deking Cadmus, how I have 
 been a worryin because it seemed as though there 
 wa n t a bein no eddication and no lessons teached ! 
 And least of all I didn t look for no lesson from 
 that poor low-borned looked-shy-of thing ! But he 
 has teached a lesson, Miss Deking Cadmus, as all 
 the schoolin and governessin in the world 11 never 
 come up to ! No, Miss Deking, I don t worry none 
 about his tarnal welfare. More than that, the 
 very first night I come here, I had it in a revela 
 tion as God lived in these parts and I shan t 
 never disbelieve on t now never, as long as I 
 live ! " 
 
 But late in the second day, Job Trench s pain-
 
 82 JOWHEAD. 
 
 benumbed features relaxed into an expression, in 
 telligent, and almost fine. He spoke distinctly and 
 with his usual gravity. " The sun s a-comin up 
 over them poplars," he said, looking very intently 
 before him ; "I must drive the cows to pasture." 
 He made a patient effort to rise, but fell back 
 weakly. 
 
 "No, poor boy," exclaimed Mrs. Pinchon, with 
 an unusual degree of unction in her clear, monoto 
 nous voice ; " it s night, poor boy ! It s growing 
 night." 
 
 Excelluna lifted her finger in warning. " Hush ! 
 Miss Deking Pinchon," she whispered, solemnly. 
 " There be lands, Miss Pinchon, where it s day 
 when it s night here ; and there be lands, Miss 
 Pinchon, where there ain t no night ! " 
 
 But Job Trench had not heard. His grave, un 
 seeing eyes wandered over the figures in that 
 shadowy room to the window that looked off to 
 ward the east, and rested there, forever seeing. 
 
 So there crept into the life at Dymsbury Park 
 the wonderful mysterious shadow of the grave a 
 shadow more wonderful than sad, since the poor 
 chore-boy s dreary face reflected such strange pre 
 science of an unearthly dawn. And often now,
 
 BEAUTIFUL AUGUSTUS BROWN. 83 
 
 from the familiar melody of birds and brooks about 
 Dymsbury Park, my Dick Bodurtha turns and 
 listens : for, down among the meadow grasses, as 
 they darken, swept by the light breath of a sum 
 mer cloud, she hears a sound like a flute note, 
 plaintive and sweet and low, that rises ever fainter 
 and more clear; and she tells Excelluna and 
 Excelluna listens, with a rapt face and her ear bent 
 to the earth, and a look of unutterable enlighten 
 ment creeps over her features ; for, yes, she hears 
 it, too. 
 
 It was not long after Job Trench s death that : 
 " I will tell you a story," said Augustus Brown. 
 " It is a story which Deacon Pinchon and Mrs. 
 Pinchon should hear, too" for it chanced that 
 the family was all gathered then in the long sit 
 ting-room. " I beg that you will all give me a 
 few moments of your earnest attention." 
 
 The children, silenced by this announcement, 
 hung breathless and expectant on the lips of their 
 oracle. But what meant that hard and unusual 
 resolution in the speaker s tone, and the extreme 
 pallor which overspread his countenance ? Beau^ 
 tiful Augustus Brown hesitated ; his hand, thrown 
 lightly on the back of a chair, trembled ; his eyes
 
 84 TOW HE AD. 
 
 gleamed with an unsteady light ; and for once, he 
 whose speech had ever been fluent and golden, 
 seemed to find no words wherewith to express his 
 meaning. 
 
 A terrible premonition, like a chill wave, crept 
 over Excelluna s soul. Since Job Trench s death, 
 she had stood in a sort of awe of herself and all the 
 inhabitants of Dymsbury Park, regarding it as the 
 peculiar seat of Divinity, and knowing not in what 
 form He might next be manifested. And now, as 
 she looked upon Augustus Brown s suffering face, 
 she would fain have made something lighter of it, 
 and could not bear that it should be, as she divined, 
 beyond the reach of remedy. Seizing her Book of 
 Martyrs, she rushed forward and whispered eagerly 
 in his ear : " Take it, A gusto Brown. Present it 
 to her ! I know not what has been the difference 
 betwixt you and Miss Mollie, but sech a gift as 
 this, A gusto Brown, I am certing she will not re 
 fuse. Whatever has been the difference," said 
 Excelluna, holding out her precious volume with 
 one last fond clinging grasp ; " present this to her, 
 A gusto Brown, and all may yit be well." 
 
 Very kindly and sadly poor Augustus Brown 
 smiled upon Excelluna and shook his head.
 
 BEAUTIFUL AUGUSTUS BROWN. 85 
 
 Excelluna gasped for breath. The tears came. 
 She made a desperate plunge into her pocket and 
 brought forth her beloved bottle of paregoric. 
 "Take it ! " she murmured quickly, in an almost 
 inaudible tone ; " take it ! A gusto Brown. I have 
 generally found it serficient to tetch the tongue, 
 but there might be cases, A gusto Brown 
 there might be cases in which I would advise a 
 teaspoonful. It ain t a cure oh, I know there 
 ain t no cure, A gusto Brown, but I have some 
 times thought that it was a kind of a perventative." 
 
 But when Augustus Brown shook his head again, 
 looking so kindly and sadly upon Excelluna, the 
 good soul replaced her treasures with the look of 
 one stricken to the heart, and turned hopelessly 
 away. 
 
 " It is a true story," Augustus Brown then went 
 on. " It is not long. There was a lad his true 
 name is Wilfred Knight born in England of re 
 spectable parents. They acquired wealth ; they lived 
 splendidly and lavished favors upon him, their only 
 child. He had tutors and travelled whithersoever 
 he would. It was, as they believed, through the 
 treachery of another firm, his father s fortune fell 
 with a crash. The wretched man became insane ;
 
 86 TOWHEAD. 
 
 the mother died. The lad was maddened with 
 grief and terror. He had been educated, but not 
 as one who should ever need to employ any craft 
 or profession of his own. His moral sense, God 
 knows, was crude. He was adrift on the world 
 he found companions enough. He had not cared 
 for grovelling vices hitherto ; now he drank wildly ; 
 he lay one night, drunk, on the street. 
 
 " One night they planned a robbery, he and his 
 companions. It was on the bank through whose 
 means he believed his father had been defrauded. 
 He was drunk the most reckless and adven 
 turesome of them all. They accomplished the feat 
 with mad daring, and escaped. Afterwards, one 
 night, he heard them talking as though he might 
 prove troublesome to them. He fled secretly ; he 
 had none of the booty. He escaped to America. 
 Later, he learned through the newspapers that 
 the three had been captured. They had given evi 
 dence against him ; search was being made for 
 him. He wandered down into Connecticut. He 
 was penniless ; he let himself to a good man as a 
 farm-laborer. They never discovered him. 
 
 " In that quiet, sheltered spot," continued Au 
 gustus Brown, with greater composure of voice as
 
 BEAUTIFUL AUGUSTUS BROWA T . 8/ 
 
 his face grew gradually more and more like the 
 face of one dead ; " the anger, the madness, the 
 wretched passion faded out of his soul. He even 
 had something of the poet in his nature. Fields, 
 streams, and woods grew conscious and dear to 
 him. He developed a faculty for dreaming. But 
 conscience was not yet awakened in him ; that was 
 not till she came, the pure, sweet girl whose inno 
 cent trust subdued the lingering trait of vice in 
 his nature, whose generous love conquered the 
 selfishness of his passion and transformed it into a 
 devotion, noble, and pure, and worthy " Augus 
 tus Brown s eyes flashed light and his voice rang 
 out clearly " of any man who should dare to 
 say he loves her ! 
 
 "And though the love which woke his better 
 nature into life could not then spare her who had 
 inspired it, he would not, though he desired her 
 above all things, cause her, unsuspecting, to as 
 sume the disgrace of his name. Yet he shrank 
 from revealing the dark past. He hesitated, heart 
 broken for her and for himself. He has resolved 
 to hesitate no longer, neither to conceal nor fly 
 from his disgrace. He will return to England, 
 submit himself to the authorities, suffer the pen-
 
 88 TOWHEAD. 
 
 alty for his crime. So that, if he ever start again 
 in the world if he ever shall, God knows it 
 shall be fairly in the sight of man, and well in the 
 sight of Him whom, above man, he has learned to 
 honor. 
 
 " My friends," said beautiful Augustus Brown, 
 rising, white but calm, and with a perfect com 
 mand of voice and gesture, as his eyes rested 
 steadfastly on good Mr. and Mrs. Pinchon, " I 
 thank you for your unworldly goodness. Believe 
 me, if I had been made a subject of prayer 
 amongst all the churches in Christendom, if I had 
 been made in these two years to surfer the tortures 
 of the rack, it could not have awakened in me the 
 infinite sorrow and remorse which I have expe 
 rienced in this gentle, unsuspecting household. 
 Believe me, too, when I tell you that I have played 
 no double part here. The life into which you have 
 permitted me to enter, has been with me only the 
 deepest expression of the heart. I thank you for 
 all. I pray your forgiveness for all. I bid you 
 farewell. 
 
 " Mary," said Augustus Brown, turning to sweet 
 Miss Mollie, whom they all loved, as she sat with 
 her face bowed in her hands ; " here, in the pres-
 
 BEAUTIFUL AUGUSTUS BROWN. 89 
 
 ence of those before whom you have been so 
 grieved and wronged" but here a look of un 
 bearable agony crossed his face, and he forgot that 
 there were any save they two in the room as he 
 fell on his knees before her. A pathos deeper 
 than that of tears crept into his voice. 
 
 " Dearest, the heart that was won to you, in the 
 sunny unawakened days when first I knew you, 
 was not a fickle one. But the heart that you woke 
 to a better life, the sweet, terrible struggle of faith 
 and repentance, and to the anguish of love that, for 
 love s sake, must forego the dear possession of its 
 object, holds you, loves you, cherishes you for all 
 time. Yet your life should be a happy one, free 
 from taint or shadow. Let the past, blameless to 
 you as to an angel, fade from your mind. But oh, 
 my lost love, before I go away from you forever, 
 though you never look at me again, reach out your 
 hand and touch me, touch me once more in 
 token of forgiveness ! " 
 
 When, at those words, dear Miss Mollie, who 
 had ceased weeping, lifted up her face, they saw 
 that it had grown in so few moments to be a wo 
 man s face, tender, and true, and strong. And 
 they saw her stoop down with infinite love and
 
 90 TOWHEAD. 
 
 compassion towards him who knelt there at her 
 feet, and lift his sorrowful, stricken head and fold it 
 to her bosom. 
 
 Ah, well I who write this know that Augustus 
 Brown will come back again with honor and 
 wealth, when, for his hard-earned reputation, the 
 gray has crept early into his hair ; and sweet 
 Miss Mollie will wait for him, while a beauty 
 deeper than that of the dimples chastens her 
 lovely face. But the song of the thrush in the 
 lone Dymsbury woods, at evening, was not sadder 
 than that parting. 
 
 Deacon Cadmus Pinchon felt sensibly the loss 
 of the handsomest, most intelligent and helpful, 
 hired man that he had ever known. For, though 
 Augustus Brown had devoted some hours to 
 aesthetic pursuits and to love-making, the sagacity 
 and wit displayed in his moments of toil had 
 caused his services to assume a peculiar value. 
 As for Mrs. Pinchon, she had found the story a 
 strangely disconnected and incomprehensible one. 
 She never really understood why Augustus Brown 
 went away, and, at any subsequent mention of his 
 name, her eyes were seen to assume their vaguely 
 thoughtful, introverted expression.
 
 BEAUTIFUL AUGUSTUS BROWN. 91 
 
 But Excelluna, poor Excelluna, knew and under 
 stood with that truest, deepest intuition of the 
 heart. Long were her eyelids swollen with weep 
 ing, yet wore she, withal, the calm of a transcen 
 dent triumph." 
 
 " Ever and a darlin / said she to the invisible 
 spirit of her wandering charge ; " it s all well 
 enough, this bein of a forring juke, but there is 
 things as is more exceedingly betterer by fur, 
 even than bein of a forring juke, and that beauti 
 ful A gusto Brown discovered what it was. And, 
 ever darlin , don t let me never say no more im- 
 pitous words about your bein not brung up and 
 about you not gettin nothin nowise extry of an 
 eddication ; for, in revelation after revelation, have 
 I been teached that it ain t no small thing to be 
 brung up in the same place along o God." 
 
 And now there comes another voice to the wild 
 beauty of Dymsbury Park ; for when the west wind 
 calls shrilly from over the mountains, Dick lis 
 tens, and she hears a sound like a bugle note, 
 jubilant and sweet, and that rises ever fainter and 
 more clear ; and she has no need to tell Excelluna, 
 for Excelluna, listening with hushed breath, nods 
 her head in solemn confirmation,
 
 g2 TOWHEAD. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AT SCHOOL IN THE SADDLE. 
 
 A FTER Miss Mollie Evelyn went to her home, 
 the air of Dymsbury Park proved unfavorable 
 to governesses. There came those skilled in all 
 knowledge, and conversant with all forms of eti 
 quette, but none who possessed the happy secret 
 of sweet Miss Mollie s method. These erudite 
 females remained at Dymsbury Park for periods 
 of time uniformly brief, and Mr. Higgins was on 
 this account reduced to a condition of much per 
 plexity, almost of despair. 
 
 He felt obliged at length, though regretfully, on 
 account of the lady s low physical condition, to 
 write to Dick s aunt, Mrs. Bodurtha, that there 
 seemed to be a sad inability on the part of modern 
 governesses to adapt themselves to the evidently 
 happy state of things at Dymsbury Park ; that 
 good Deacon Cadmus Pinchon and his wife were, 
 as she had divined, the most amiable and estimable
 
 AT SCHOOL IN THE SADDLE. 93 
 
 people ; that little Miss Dick seemed supremely 
 content with the life at Dymsbury, and to derive 
 unbounded delight from the companionship of the 
 little Pinchons ; that, in short, the only difficulty 
 in carrying out the plan of her youthful education 
 seemed to be a fatal incompatibility in the nature 
 of governesses. 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha replied that she had sometimes 
 feared the worst ; that nothing but the warning of 
 her physicians could have prevented her from 
 taking personal charge of her poor dear sister s 
 poor dear wilful child ; that she was not recovering 
 her wasted energies with the rapidity she had 
 hoped for from her stay abroad, but that as soon 
 as it was possible for her to do so she should 
 return to assume the care of little Miss Bodurtha. 
 
 At this last clause, Excelluna was again trans 
 formed into a bitter fountain of tears, and Dick 
 clenched her fists in hopeful defiance. A few 
 weeks later, news came that Mrs. Bodurtha was 
 prostrated with a fever, from which it was likely 
 to be long ere she would recover, and still longer 
 ere she would be permitted to return to take up 
 any new burdens and responsibilities ; at which 
 painful intelligence, it must be said, the tumult
 
 94 TOWHEAD. 
 
 awakened in the bosom of my Dick and that 
 ancient serving-woman was lulled into a remorse 
 less calm. 
 
 Meanwhile, Cadmus Pinchon Junior, who had 
 become a sturdy, though bookless, attendant at 
 the district school, lured Dick Bodurtha thither 
 by means of a glowing and graphic description of 
 the diversions to be found at that humble seat of 
 learning. Dick found the entertainments of the 
 place, indeed, rich and varied, but hardly sufficient 
 to compensate for a certain pungent lack of venti 
 lation in the school-room ; so that, after a brief 
 trial, although she was frequently on hand to par 
 ticipate in the out-of-door sports of the children at 
 recess, she concluded to forego entirely the de 
 lights of the interior. 
 
 Swiftly the happy months flew by ; and, as one 
 after another the little Pinchons became matricu 
 lated at the district school, and her companions, 
 Ruth and Cadmus, passed from that to the acad 
 emy, wilful Dick took up her solitary enjoyments. 
 There was a horse in the " star window " stable of 
 the old barn that had gradually come to be re 
 garded as her peculiar property, an animal, not 
 of the arch-necked and flowing-maned species, but
 
 AT SCHOOL IN THE SADDLE. 95 
 
 possessing qualities suggestive of an adaptability 
 to great practical speed. Dick had first conceived 
 an affection for this gaunt, long-limbed brute when 
 it had been a sickly, unpromising colt in the 
 meadows, and she had there surreptitiously minis 
 tered to its woes ; and she now disdained all good 
 Deacon Cadmus Pinchon s offers of sleeker quad 
 rupeds in exchange, as promising but a tame sub 
 stitute for the racking trot and furious gallop of her 
 favorite, ugly steed. In the garret, among the 
 relics of her family, she found saddle and bridle, 
 and she purchased a velvet jockey-cap that shaded 
 her handsome eyes and crested with extreme jaun- 
 tiness her shock of loose, light hair. Then she 
 had her row-boat on the river, and she could swim, 
 and when winter changed the form of one dear 
 element, she vied gloriously with the Dymsbury 
 lads on skates. The gaunt, fleet horse she rode 
 through all seasons. In sun or wind or rain her 
 face never lost its exquisite clearness of complex 
 ion, but the small hands that tugged, for the most 
 part ungloved, at the bridle or the oar, became 
 brown, and marked with numerous historic and 
 descriptive scars. 
 
 Sometimes Dick sighed for feats of companion-
 
 g6 TOWHEAD. 
 
 ship, and went drowning " woodchucks " out of their 
 holes, or launching shaky rafts on the river with 
 some bright lads, habitual truants from the Dyms- 
 bury academy, towards whom her manner was 
 frank, unembarrassed, and fraternal. These lads 
 admired her. She was the actual heroine of the 
 romances over which they pored most eagerly 
 an orphan, dashing, handsome, fearless ; there was 
 no feminine glory in the thrilling tales of the Vir 
 ginian backwoods or western frontier life to sur 
 pass her, and they tendered her the first valiant 
 homage and devotion of boyhood. 
 
 In her wild life, Dick was careful to fortify her 
 self mentally against the shafts of learned ridicule. 
 There was a perch in the cherry-trees, and for 
 rainy days a loft in the old barn, which could tes 
 tify to fleeting wafts of the musty atmosphere of 
 those moth-eaten volumes which Dick brought 
 thither from her grandfather s library, and to 
 which she-gave, indeed, desultory moments of appli 
 cation, catching here and there stupendous notions 
 of the genesis of worlds and of the great economy 
 of the heavens, detached statements from vast sys 
 tems of ethics and philosophy ; and when Cadmus 
 Junior, in whose case the familiarity born of long
 
 AT SCHOOL IN THE SADDLE. 97 
 
 acquaintance precluded the exercise of gallantry, 
 taunted her with her ignorance, she hurled back 
 at him fragments of theories so abstruse and 
 words of such ponderous sound, that he was forced 
 to contemplate in abashed silence the insignifi 
 cance of his own attainments. 
 
 Possibly it was owing to the theological works 
 in which she dabbled among others, but Dick con 
 ceived at this time the idea of being a woman- 
 preacher. She indited at odd moments some very 
 inky sermons, and delivered them with great 
 ornateness of tone and gesture, the good Excel- 
 luna constituting her sole but ever faithful and 
 attentive audience. Sometimes Excelluna aug 
 mented the importance of the occasion by wresting 
 a " voluntary " from the cracked organs of her 
 concertina, an instrument the full enjoyment of 
 which had ever been denied her among civilized 
 circles, but to which, especially when accompanied 
 by Excelluna s voice, Dick Bodurt fea listened with 
 undeniable pleasure. But if Cadmus Pinchon 
 Junior, had been awed by the display of Dick s un 
 usual attainments, what, as she listened, were the 
 emotions of the solitary, the humble, the adoring 
 Excelluna ? She wept and she smiled ; she won 
 dered and she gasped for breath.
 
 98 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " And I have been a worry in about your bring- 
 in up, ever and a darlin ! " she exclaimed, in satiri 
 cal accents. " Yis, /, / have been a worryin about 
 your eddication and in all the ministers that 
 ever I have heard preach, never have I heard 
 words more long-soundin or more beautiful than 
 has fell from your lips to-day. In how many and 
 a many more revelations," she continued, with in 
 tense self-scorn ; " will it have to be impressed onto 
 me that you are a bein brung up in the same 
 place with God ! " 
 
 In her occasional calm and philosophical mo 
 ments Dick found a singular fascination in the 
 society of the ancient serving-woman. "Limy," 
 said the girl solemnly, on one occasion, proceeding 
 to draw forthwith from her copious vocabulary, 
 "You seem to me to be absolutely simple and yet 
 infinitely profound." 
 
 " Ever and a darlin ," said Excelluna, by no 
 means understanding the significance of those 
 words, but impressed beyond measure by their 
 ponderous sound ; " though I fear that I have not 
 yet attained unto sech, it has been and shall ever 
 be my most earnest prayer that I may become 
 so." And the lingering music of the phrase re-
 
 AT SCHOOL IN THE SADDLE. 99 
 
 peated itself to her ear in cadences ever more 
 solemn and sedate. 
 
 It chanced, one spring time, that Deacon Cad 
 mus Pinchon gave to these two their choice of 
 any two of the young lambs in his flock. Excel- 
 luna s affections yearned instinctively over one of 
 a triple birth, the puniest of all, bleating and mis 
 erable and forsaken of its mother ; while Dick 
 Bodurtha, in proud defiance of the world and its 
 conventionalities, took under her protection the 
 one black lamb of the flock, a sorry specimen also, 
 weak and disowned of its kind. The wretched 
 little creatures stood but uncertainly on their long 
 legs, which seemed in such grotesque dispropor 
 tion to the rest of their bodies. They were a 
 pitiful spectacle, which, contemplating on one occa 
 sion : 
 
 "Do you think God made em, Limy?" said 
 Dick Bodurtha, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. 
 
 Excelluna s faith was not shaken, but her look, 
 as she stood with her finger pressed against her 
 lips and her eyes downcast, was deeply, thought 
 fully sad. 
 
 " Ever and a darlin ," said she at length ; " it is 
 true that them lambs of ourn air not what is gen-
 
 100 TOW HE AD. 
 
 erally spoke on as healthy appearin lambs. They 
 haven t as yit got none of them lively and friskiful 
 ways which is generally thought on as so inter- 
 estiri m a lamb. No, ever darlin ," said she, as 
 the sorrowful objects of her contemplation faltered 
 and fell weakly over, one against the other ; " it is 
 true that they air not sech as one a lookin for 
 mere liveliness in a lamb would be likely to pitch 
 onto. But, ever darlin , amongst all them lambs 
 that is caperin around their mothers thar in the 
 pen, amongst all them happy friskiful lambs, there 
 is not one that has got sech a beautiful religioust 
 look into their eyes as these ere lambs of 
 ourn." 
 
 And it was true that under their hard discipline of 
 pain and bereavement the pining little lambs had 
 acquired something of a human piteousness of ex 
 pression, and looked something of a human re 
 sponse to the soft caresses and faithful care of their 
 preservers. Excellima loved Dick for that most 
 of all. Laughing, heedless girl though she was, 
 she never forgot to feed her lamb. It was she who 
 woke first at midnight ; for then the two left their 
 warm beds, and guided by the dim light of their 
 lantern, braved the night and the ghastly clatter
 
 AT SCHOOL IN THE SADDLE. IOI 
 
 of startled hens and horses in the barn to feed the 
 motherless lambs. 
 
 It was all in vain. The strangely human eyes 
 grew daily more pleading and pathetic. Excel- 
 luna s lamb died first, and that simple, compas 
 sionate heart was wrung with grief. 
 
 " You shall have mine, Limy," said Dick Bodur- 
 tha, watching her tears. " Take mine." 
 
 " Ever and a darlin ," sobbed Excelluna then ; 
 " you was good to your lamb. You was as good 
 to your lamb as I was to mine, but you didn t feel 
 the love like I did, elst you d know that there 
 couldn t never be any other lamb than ud be to 
 me like that lamb, no, never ! " 
 
 When Dick s lamb died, she did not cry, though 
 she tended it faithfully to the last ; and they 
 buried them both under a tree in the orchard, 
 where the flock grazed in the summer time. Dea 
 con Pinchon offered them their choice again 
 among the promising young of his flock, but they 
 never cared for any others. If, when the sun 
 made a golden color on the grass in the sheep 
 orchard at evening, Excelluna, through her fur- 
 offs, saw visions not patent to less gifted eyes, she 
 never spoke of them ; and if Dick, who loved to
 
 102 TOWHEAD. 
 
 watch the lambs at play, thought of those quiet 
 ones under the turf, it was only with content 
 because their wailing, pitiful little lives were 
 ended. 
 
 But one evening as my Dick, dabbling latest in 
 astronomy, stood beneath the stars and discoursed 
 to the wondering Excelluna of suns and systems 
 numberless, over Excelluna s face, as she stood 
 gazing upward, there suddenly came a calm and 
 perfect illumination. 
 
 "And if that be so, ever and a darlin , said she ; 
 "and if them be worlds sech as you speak on, 
 with rivers and mountings and light for to lighten 
 em, then, ever darlin , never doubt but sonicivJicrc 
 amongst so many as could never be numbered, 
 along them green pastur s and beside the still 
 waters there ll be room for them poor little sor- 
 rerful lambs of otirn." 
 
 Then it was that, in an instant, there came over 
 my Dick Bodurtha s sunny eyes a wonderful soul- 
 shadow like an inspiration, deep, grave, beautiful ; 
 and at those words she stooped down and kissed 
 the ancient serving-woman, at which unusual de 
 monstration Excelluna stood motionless, beatified, 
 beneath the stars.
 
 IT HAS COME. 103 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "IT HAS COME." 
 
 TT has come, ever and a darlin ! It has come !" 
 Dick Bodurtha was untying her boat down by 
 the river bank, when Excelluna, running breath 
 less, confronted her with those mournfully tragic 
 words. That pale face, those heartbroken ac 
 cents, Dick knew could mean but one thing ; her 
 aunt had returned at length from abroad. Her 
 first impulse was to jump into the boat and push 
 swiftly down stream. Excelluna, through her 
 tears, did not detect the impulse " It has come, 
 yis, come," she moaned ; " her as has been a lookin 
 of her health in forring parts." 
 
 Dick s hand was on the oar. Excelluna saw at 
 last. 
 
 "Ever and a darlin ," said she, growing sud 
 denly calm, and with a numb despairing dignity in 
 her tone which arrested the girl s wild motion 
 " many a time have I seen you rowin of adown 
 that stream, with the water like glass and the sun
 
 104 TOWHEAD. 
 
 a shinin ; and many a time have I seen you, not 
 fearful but more glad, with the wind a blowin 
 and the waves a beatin hard. But, ever clarlin , 
 there is things as must be outgrowed. Say good 
 bye to the little boat now, for you must go a deeper 
 and a further down the stream than ever the little 
 boat will carry you." 
 
 Dick held the boat motionless. Her eyes 
 glanced down the beckoning river, with a fine 
 madness in them. 
 
 " Ever darlin , Excelluna went on, with a calm 
 ness born of a heart-agony too deep " the 
 stream that lies before you is a long one and 
 a sparklin , and I hear your laugh afur down 
 and I ketch the gleamin of your hair, and it 
 seems ever a further and a further down, and 
 it passes out of sight. So was you the light of 
 poor old Luny s eyes, you was the light as her 
 heart lived on, but now it is a passin out of sight, 
 and I hear the music of it afur down for, ever 
 darlin , the stream as I am sailin on is a goin , not 
 fur but swift, adark and lone to the great oshing." 
 
 The shadow, the wonderful soul-shadow, 
 quenched the fire in Dick s eyes, and made touch- 
 ingly sweet the expression of her face. She
 
 IT HAS COME. 105 
 
 launched the boat resolutely and climbed the bank 
 to Excelkma s side. 
 
 "I won t leave you, Limy," she said. "You 
 shall go with me, wherever I go." 
 
 " I thank you, ever and a darlin ," said Excel- 
 luna, still in the same pathetic way ; " but, no, it 
 cannot be, never no more. For in a revelation 
 have I seen that the streams must be divided, one 
 a goin a long way and a windin and a sparklin , 
 and the other, not fur but swift, ever darlin , alone 
 to the great oshing." 
 
 As the two walked sadly homeward together 
 through the familiar fields, Excelluna s speech 
 grew more commonplace, though it was after a 
 manner sublimely disconnected : 
 
 " They writ as they was a comin ," said she 
 " so we wa n t no more expectin on em than the 
 man in the moon and there was yer aunt and 
 a nephy of Mr. Higgins as she brought to get 
 ye ready for school, hearin as ye hadn t got on 
 well with governesses, and it ud call for modesty 
 and differdence and after they come, Miss 
 Deking went and looked in Deking s pocket and 
 thar was the letter, as he hadn t never thought to 
 take it out from that time to this, why, the Old
 
 106 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Cat! says she, jest as slow and easy as words was 
 ever pernounced. 
 
 " But the upshot on it is, as you air a goin to be 
 sent to a vary strict and religioust school, as yer 
 aunt knows on, for to be got kinder softened ter 
 begin with, and ter be got kinder toned down ; and 
 then you air a goin to be sent to high-toneder 
 schools for to be toned up. And she s brought 
 Mr. Higginses nephy, hearin as governesses wa n t 
 no use and him bein so bright and forring 
 eddicated a sayin as twould call for modesty 
 and diff erdence for to get you ready to pass the 
 examernations into that most strict and religioust 
 school, as you must be sent to, ever clarlin , for to 
 be got toned down." 
 
 When Mrs. Bodurtha beheld her niece, she was 
 secretly enraptured with her beauty. " This fine 
 creature," she commented, silently; " must be duly 
 redeemed and cultivated, and what position may 
 she not occupy in society ! Yes, she has sur 
 passed my expectations, both in grace and beauty 
 of person, and alas!" the lady added; "in the 
 need which I see for corrective and softening influ 
 ences." For Dick s cheek, as Mrs. Bodurtha 
 folded the girl in her embrace, was turned to her
 
 IT HAS COME. 107 
 
 aunt in a manner ungraciously irresponsive. The 
 aunt forgot everything, however, in a sudden glow, 
 not so much of affection as of enthusiasm for the 
 future glory of her family, to be attained in the 
 lovely person of Dick Bodurtha. " You must 
 learn to love me, my child," she said, and relin 
 quished the small sunburned hand, as she gazed 
 down at it with a sigh. 
 
 With surprise Mrs. Bodurtha watched Dick s 
 perfectly frank and cordial manner towards the 
 bright youth, Scanlan Higgins. " My niece s con 
 duct," she continued, in sarcastic musing; "is 
 evidently not to be hampered by any blushing in 
 stincts of timidity. She essays to express her 
 likes and dislikes absolutely without hesitation or 
 embarrassment ; a privilege which, I fear, she will 
 be obliged to forego one of these days, when she 
 shall have learned to assume some things, and, 
 above all, not hold to people in that horribly long, 
 crude way with her eyes." 
 
 The young ladies seminary at Mount Grimrood, 
 for which Dick was destined, would open in two 
 weeks. Two weeks had Scanlan Higgins in which 
 to test Dick s qualifications, anxl prepare her in 
 whatever might be found wanting, necessary to her
 
 108 TO V/ HE AD. 
 
 success in passing the preliminary examinations of 
 the school. 
 
 " I shall win her confidence first," said the tal 
 ented boy to Mrs. Bodurtha ; "by joining her in 
 her out-of-door sports, and conversing with her 
 quite freely and naturally on indifferent subjects." 
 And he devoted himself so enthusiastically to this 
 pursuit that, led on by Dick s genius and daring, it 
 appeared that he had well nigh forgotten at last 
 the ostensible object of his mission to Dymsbury 
 Park. Their voices rang merrily on the river, and 
 the roads about Dymsbury Park resounded with 
 the clatter of their horses hoofs. 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha mused grimly and in blank dis 
 may. " I knew," said she ; " from the first, that 
 I was fated to fail wherever I touched this child s 
 career. In placing her with these tenants of mine, 
 I subjected her, as I supposed, to the most rigor 
 ous and uncompromising discipline. I have not 
 yet fully realized the magnitude of my mistake, 
 but I have seen enough to know that it has been 
 absolute and complete. I brought Scanlan with 
 me to prepare the girl in her studies, thinking it 
 would, if anything, call for the exercise of maidenly 
 modesty and reserve on her part : and it seems that
 
 IT HAS COME. 109 
 
 I have simply furnished the whirlwind with a play 
 fellow." 
 
 " Have you won my niece s confidence yet, 
 Scanlan?" she observed with cool irony, on the 
 sixth day, as Scanlan came in from a spirited race 
 with Dick on horseback. 
 
 Scanlan Higgins, who was a good lad, blushed 
 frankly : " We needn t feel any concern about her 
 education, Mrs. Bodurtha," he said. " It surprises 
 me. She uses magnificent language, and quotes 
 no end of heathen poets and philosophers." 
 
 But that very same evening, as he stood 
 in the library with Dick, he was moved care 
 lessly to pick up a volume from a pile of old text 
 books on the floor, and, waving his hand in the 
 direction of the library shelves, " Of course you 
 know more about all this sort of thing than I do," 
 he said: "but," he continued, laughing; "I m afraid 
 you have not been informed that I came here for 
 the express purpose of finding out the vast extent 
 of your learning, and I shall now proceed with the 
 examination. Will you oblige me by performing 
 this example ? " And he opened an arithmetic at 
 the last few crucial problems in fractions. 
 
 Dick glanced slightly at the problem, and then
 
 1 10 TOW HE AD. 
 
 lifted her eyes to Scanlan s face with a mocking 
 glance, and one as bright and dauntless as it was 
 incredulous. Somehow Scanlan understood she 
 had not got so far as that. He was shocked and 
 surprised, but he cast down his eyes with a gentle 
 and apologetic intention. Dick took the book, and, 
 turning to the familiar pages of simple addition, a 
 mathematical height to which having attained 
 under the tuition of the faithful Excelluna, both 
 teacher and pupil had been compelled to pause, 
 there revealed the traces of a painful and arduous 
 struggle. From the labored pencil-marks on the 
 margin of the page, Scanlan Higgins saw that, 
 
 added together, 
 
 "9083 
 
 8627 
 
 equal . . . 1761010," 
 and for a moment he was speechless. 
 
 Dick never lifted her wide, intent eyes from his 
 face. " Is it right, Scanlan ? " she said at length, 
 in a tone so gentle and composed that the youth 
 started violently. 
 
 " Right ! " he exclaimed, forgetting the annoying 
 problem in view of the bewitching beauty of the 
 girl s face ; " it is inimitable ! It is perfect,
 
 IT HAS COME. Ill 
 
 matchless ! We will consider the examination at 
 once and forever closed." 
 
 Dick, though ignorant of arithmetic, was quick 
 at detecting the essences of things, and brave in 
 parrying any thrusts which might tend to her self- 
 mortification. She continued to hold the heated 
 youth for a moment in what Mrs. Bodurtha had 
 termed "that long crude way with her eyes," and 
 then coolly turned and left the room. 
 
 Dick went down to where Cadmus Pinchon 
 Junior, sat on the fence, in the starlight, seeking 
 solace from a watermelon. Cadmus Junior felt 
 that the air about Dymsbury Park had been grow 
 ing desolate of late. He had been graduated at 
 the Dymsbury Academy, and was going away in a 
 few weeks to be apprenticed to his uncle, a wool 
 merchant, in Boston. Dick was going away. Dick 
 was occupied with her tutor. All the old associa 
 tions were being broken up. There was a vague 
 feeling of sadness in Cadmus Junior s bosom, but 
 after all, his supreme sense was one of enjoyment 
 in the watermelon. 
 
 " I m very sorry to think of leaving Dymsbury 
 Park, Caddie," said Dick, coming up in the old 
 homelike, confidential way.
 
 112 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " I m some sorry I m goin away," said Cadmus. 
 " But I m goin inter business, and I shall make 
 lots of money. Perhaps some of these fellows that 
 feel so big and know everything 11 be glad to be in 
 my shoes, by and by." 
 
 Dick knew that Cadmus referred, though with 
 out the poetry of any jealous or sentimental emo 
 tion, to Scanlan Higgins. The wound caused by 
 the noxious problem rankled in her breast. She 
 was full of sympathy for Cadmus. " It don t make 
 any difference what your acquirements are if you 
 only have a manly soul, Caddie," she said. 
 
 Cadmus Junior who, had not dabbled in phi 
 losophy, could not appreciate the artistic beauty of 
 this remark, but he felt that the sentiment was 
 republican, and he warmed at it. Cadmus had 
 never thought of being spoony on Dick. He was 
 frequently puzzled at her, and he found her 
 " queer," a characteristic which he regarded on 
 the whole as exceedingly unfortunate. " I want a 
 girl to be a girl," he confided once to a boy com 
 panion ; " and wear white aperns, and squeal at 
 toads and things, and not be too smarty. But 
 then," he admitted ; " if you re in for a real good 
 time, there ain t a boy in Dymsbury that s got so
 
 IT HAS COME. 113 
 
 much gumption as Towhead." Now, as he sat 
 contemplating her for a moment quite indiffer 
 ently beneath the stars, it occurred to him 
 that her hair had a wonderful gleam in it, and her 
 eyes, submitted to this close and unusual scrutiny, 
 he found rather bewildering, but a glance at the 
 heavens over the disc of his watermelon enlighted 
 and reassured him. 
 
 " Say, Towhead," said he, in a profoundly prosaic 
 tone, touched with a slight accent of surprise ; 
 "your eyes have got something just like stars in 
 em, they have, honest ! " 
 
 Dick smiled. " I shall always remember you, 
 Caddie," said she ; " and the pleasant times we have 
 had together." 
 
 " And me you," said Cadmus, definitively, as not 
 wishing to approach any nearer the verge of con 
 ventional sentiment. 
 
 The next day, and for several days, Dick, with 
 sincere tenderness at the thought of parting, 
 courted the society of Cadmus Junior and the 
 little Pinchons. 
 
 " I should infer that my niece and her felici 
 tously chosen tutor are what is termed in childish 
 parlance mad, " Mrs. Bodurtha reflected; "and it
 
 114 TOVVHEAD. 
 
 is an intense relief to me. I only hope they may 
 remain so until I get the girl safely off to school." 
 
 But on the morning of the last whole day at 
 Dymsbury Park, Dick and Scanlan made up ; and 
 Dick s relentings were always of a dangerous and 
 irresistible nature to the party received back again 
 into favor. After that it came about quite natu 
 rally, as they rocked idly in the boat together, 
 that the gentle boy expressed a hope that Dick 
 at some future day might be the guiding star 
 and companion of his life. The untamed lass re 
 plied, with a majestic seriousness and composure 
 of manner \vhich would still more have surprised 
 the distracted Mrs. Bodurtha, that she had formed 
 plans for the future amelioration of the race which 
 must forever debar her from participating in 
 domestic joys. At the same time, Dick, having 
 admitted to the eccentric range of her acquire 
 ments a flavor of very ancient, very daring and 
 inconsequent romance, suggested that they should 
 " elope" together that night, just for the rare fun 
 of the thing ; to return, of course, in a day or two, 
 but it would be very delightful and exciting. 
 
 Scanlan was grieved and disheartened at Dick s 
 childishness, but he dreamed too long in her un-
 
 IT HAS COME. 11$ 
 
 fathomable eyes, and he did not refuse to elope 
 with her. Dick arranged all the preliminaries of 
 the escapade by the light of a true poetic imagina 
 tion. 
 
 At the hour before midnight the stamping of 
 horses hoofs was heard underneath her window, 
 and Scanlan gave a low whistle. Dick, already 
 arrayed, hastened to the window. 
 
 " Art ready, beloved lady?" Scanlan repeated, in 
 a tone of much seriousness and sweetness. 
 
 "Ready, dear knight," Dick answered, with a 
 smothered giggle ; for the horses under the win 
 dow, though well adapted to purposes of elope 
 ment, or to any other requiring speed and 
 endurance, did have a comical and unromantic 
 look. 
 
 Dick descended on the rope-ladder previously 
 prepared, and the two mounted and were off. 
 After a hard gallop of some miles, even Dick s 
 imagination could find no stimulus in listening for 
 the swift rush of pursuing feet. The mist came up 
 chill from the river ; and it was not one o clock 
 when the wanderers returned. But the Deacon 
 Cadmus Pinchon family had been aroused, and 
 Mrs. Bodurtha s handsome face was pale and her
 
 Il6 TOWHEAD. 
 
 lips compressed. Yet so relieved was she at the 
 unexpected return of the miscreants, which she 
 considered as an act of repentance on their part, 
 that she merely sent them, with severe dignity, to 
 their beds. " I shall sleep no more to-night," said 
 she ; " and, thank Heaven ! to-morrow this will be 
 ended." 
 
 Dick lay in the dark, with her lips curled and a 
 wide, defiant smile in her eyes, when she was 
 aware that a gentle presence had come in and 
 seated itself at the foot of her bed : 
 
 " Ever and a darlin ," said the voice and it 
 was the voice of one who had struggled and who 
 stood solemnly on a clear height " I ve been 
 a thinkin and a thinkin . Weary has been my 
 thoughts and sorrerful my heart, but now there s 
 a more of a stillness there s a more of a still 
 ness, ever darlin , along the sorrerful road. I ve 
 been a thinkin as maybe it s best for you, fur, fur 
 best for you, for to go and be toned down. Not 
 but what I know as it s a breakin up a good many 
 of your plans, and how you was a study in natur , 
 and, when you get through a havin fun, you was 
 goin to be a great preacher for to draw em all ; 
 and, ever darlin , there was no plan as ever you
 
 IT HAS COME. 117 
 
 formed but poor old Luny s heart was with you, a 
 waitin for to see that day. 
 
 " But, ever darlin ," continued the old serving- 
 woman, with sad and grand simplicity ; " in this 
 ere world of ourn, so weary and so pitiful, and all 
 a strugglin for to know their own and hold it fast, 
 and oft beat out and disapp inted, there ain t but 
 one plan a runnin through it all, not but jest one 
 plan 
 
 " And so I ve been a thinkin , and I ve thunk it 
 all out ; it s like as ef you should feel somebody 
 drawin of you along a dark, onsarting road, and you 
 a thinkin as there might be easier roads, and heart- 
 broke, fearin as you ve lost the way ; but fear not, 
 ever darlin , for in a revelation have I seen as that 
 ar road that looked so dark and wanderin , that ar 
 only sorrerful road, is a plain road and a straight, 
 and is a leadin of us home. 
 
 " And, ever darlin, there s an angeling mother s 
 hand a leadin you along that road " 
 
 " Don t ! " cried Dick, with a little restless 
 scream of pain. 
 
 "There s an angeling mother s hand, and she 
 whispers to you to be gentle and obejent and to put 
 off wildness : " and the old serving-woman con-
 
 Il8 TOW HE AD. 
 
 tinued talking with supreme fervor, sitting meekly 
 at the foot of the bed. But when she rose to go, 
 she touched the cheek of the girl, who had fallen 
 asleep then, and found that it was cold and wet 
 with tears. 
 
 " Poor beautiful lamb ! " Excelluna sobbed. 
 " She s nothin but a child, and she only loves a 
 little. But she was the light of poor old Luny s 
 eyes, she was the light as her heart lived on. It 
 has come ! It has come ! " Excelluna ceased 
 suddenly to weep, lifting an awestruck face 
 " There s a more of a stillness," she said ; "along 
 the sorrerful road."
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIM ROOD. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIMROOD FEMALE 
 SEMINARY. 
 
 THHE elder Mr. Higgins came to escort my 
 young lady to Mount Grimrood, and .Mrs. 
 Bodurtha went back in cold triumph with Scanlan 
 to New York. 
 
 It was unfortunate that Dick should have had a 
 natural antipathy for both her aunt and her 
 guardian. She did not like the tone in which Mr. 
 Higgins now occasionally addressed her as "Miss 
 Bodurtha," any better than that in which he had 
 formerly been wont to call her " my cha-ah-ming 
 child." But he took her purse Dick affected in 
 thos-e days a very manly and capacious pocket- 
 book, it had ten alcoves, she tells me, and a 
 leathern strap and filled it with crisp new bank 
 notes. 
 
 " You must never allow yourself to get out of 
 money, my dear," he said. " Write directly to me. 
 And, by the way, you musn t let them make you
 
 120 TOW HE AD. 
 
 too meek at this place you are going to. We can t 
 have the spirits crushed out of our cha-ha-ming 
 little girl. To tell you the truth," continued 
 this wise guardian to his ward ; " I didn t exactly 
 like the idea of sending you to Mount Grimrood. 
 But your aunt seemed to think it was a desperate 
 case and called for desperate expedients. And 
 I dare say you ll be vastly edified ; but you must 
 hold your own, you musn t let them run over you, 
 you know." 
 
 Gratified at the plethoric state of her pocket- 
 book, Dick nodded graciously at the words her 
 guardian whispered in her ear ; but after all there 
 was little danger that Dick s conduct would be 
 guided by any extraneous advice. 
 
 At Cramingham, where they waited for the 
 train to Johnston s Ferry, Mr. Higgins received a 
 telegram of great business importance, recalling 
 him immediately to New York ; and Dick, with 
 infinite satisfaction, contemplated pursuing the 
 brief remainder of her journey alone. 
 
 Dick, introduced to the travelling community, 
 observed a general tendency on the part of people 
 to stare. This struck her as perfectly natural. 
 She did not know that she made a quaint, attract-
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIM ROOD. 12 1 
 
 ive picture in the workaday world, but she 
 thought people very interesting and frequently 
 comical, and returned the glances cast in her 
 direction with a frank and cordial scrutiny which 
 concealed neither its own delectation nor oc 
 casional surprise. That gaze, too childlike and 
 sincere to be insolent, yet had a cool, bright 
 courage in it which defied criticism, and threw 
 off lightly any insinuating glances of evil. 
 
 Arrived at Johnston s Ferry, Dick found her 
 way to the big boat and the river; the river it 
 was wider, deeper than the stream at Dymsbury, 
 and it was sullen gray with the approach of even 
 ing. It seemed as though Dick must feel every 
 thing through external nature. It was the river 
 that brought that aching sense to her heart ; the 
 river, reminding her of that brighter stream far 
 away, winding, willow-fringed ; that desolate stream, 
 now, with its empty boat, rocking, waiting forever- 
 more, idle under the willows. 
 
 The ferry-boat was full of passengers. Dick had 
 not noticed. She stood looking out on the water 
 with one hand thrust lightly in the breast of her 
 jacket. She wore a velvet jacket of hunter s- 
 green and a short skirt, with wide collar and cuffs,
 
 122 TOIVHEAD. 
 
 already considerably soiled from her journey, and a 
 plumed hat set jauntily on her head. Her eyes 
 looked dreamy and sad ; her lips were parted 
 slightly, in this abstracted mood ; and the wind 
 blew her light hair about her face. 
 
 In spite of its careless, unworn beauty, there 
 was a look on the young face that haunted one. It 
 was sadder than home-sickness, for it had not that 
 tenderness. It seemed vainly trying to compre 
 hend its own want ; it was such a vague, tearless 
 wonder and yearning. 
 
 Turning at last to contemplate her fellow-pas 
 sengers, Dick was astonished to find that the boat 
 was filled, save for the old ferryman, with females 
 exclusively. Some of them were young and pretty, 
 but they were all primly dressed, and most of 
 them struck Dick, at that gloomy hour, as being 
 of an uncommonly severe type. There was one 
 woman especially, with a marble face and great 
 relentless black eyes, who looked at Dick. Dick 
 shivered. For the first time in her life an ex 
 pression almost of fear crossed her face. If she 
 had been in the least of a practical turn of mind, 
 she would have divined that these were the pupils 
 and teachers of Mount Grimrood Seminary on their
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIM ROOD. 123 
 
 way thither but, poor Dick, she had never been 
 put to the trouble of connecting causes and effects 
 in her mind. She took in the scene solely in its 
 immediately apparent and poetic sense ; and, to 
 her, this galaxy of black-stoled and unmated 
 women, crossing a shadowy stream at the twilight 
 hour, appeared incomprehensible and terribly 
 picturesque. 
 
 She crossed over to where the old ferryman, 
 silently, but with a red and jovial face, was tugging 
 the boat along by the wire cables stretched across 
 the river. There was something pathetic in the 
 manner in which Dick drew this man into a con 
 versation on the technology of boats, and he 
 appreciated it. 
 
 "Here s a mighty han som and a wild one," 
 he said to himself ; " sent to be tamed down a 
 bit, I bet ye ! wall, they get a hold of em once in 
 a while. But she don t know how she s a makin 
 their eyes stick out o their heads by comin over 
 here and sociatin with me so nateral, now does 
 she?" So he chuckled, and entertained Dick with 
 stories, and Dick recounted some thrilling adven 
 tures of her own. She was rapidly recovering her 
 spirits. She sat, in a precarious position, on the
 
 124 TOWHEAD. 
 
 edge of the boat, and traced invisible hieroglyphics 
 with a lead-pencil on the toe of her slightly eleva 
 ted boot. She spoke in a tone that, without con 
 taining any loudly aggressive quality, was yet 
 distinctly audible throughout the length and 
 breadth of the boat : 
 
 " Why don t there any men or boys go over on 
 this boat ? " she said. 
 
 Poor Dick ! she little knew what she had done. 
 And even if she had been informed that the person 
 who stood at her very elbow, the woman with the 
 marble face and relentless eyes, was Miss Calvin, 
 the assistant principal of Mount Grimrood Sem 
 inary, how could she have calculated the appalling 
 effect of her words upon the virgin souls of the 
 teachers and pupils of that august institution ? 
 Even the old ferryman stood for a moment 
 aghast : 
 
 " Here is a fresh one and a gay one," he re 
 flected, and he kindly tried to catch Dick s eye, 
 in intimation of danger, and coughed suggest 
 ively. But Dick did not notice. 
 
 " Why don t there any men or boys go over in 
 this boat ? " she repeated, in the same clear tone. 
 
 "Why, miss," stammered the old ferryman;
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIMROOD. 125 
 
 " what would the men and boys be going to Mount 
 Grimrood for, miss ? " 
 
 "Why," said Dick, her eyes wandering dreamily 
 towards the mountains on the opposite shore ; " it 
 isn t the end of the world over there, is it ? " 
 
 "No," responded the old ferryman, desperately ; 
 " it ain t, but it s the end of the men-folks." 
 
 Dick sighed, and her sigh was distinctly regret 
 ful and as unembarrassed as her speech. 
 
 Presently, "It s a pretty prim place over there, I 
 expect," she remarked, with singular fatuity. Her 
 eyes, fixed full on the ferryman s face, had a cheer 
 ful smile of inquiry in them, which, under more 
 favorable circumstances, would doubtless have 
 elicited from him a thoroughly facetious and ex 
 haustive response. As it was, he could only mut 
 ter to himself, as he bent to his work : 
 
 " She s in for it now. She may as well die for a 
 a whole sheep as a lamb." 
 
 Dick thought her humble companion was grow 
 ing inattentive. She proceeded to crush him with 
 a few well-chosen words from her vocabulary : 
 " I hope there won t be too much stiffness in 
 the atmosphere, over there," she said, giving 
 her undivided attention to the scenery ; " I m
 
 126 TOWHEAD. 
 
 very susceptible to any stiffness in the atmo 
 sphere." 
 
 At that moment, on Dick s little, warm, brown 
 hand, there fell an icy touch : " Young woman," 
 said the voice of Miss Calvin, in her ear; "your 
 position is most indecorous, and you are in immi 
 nent danger of falling into the water." 
 
 " Oh," said Dick, pleasantly enough, but with a 
 startled, curious look in her eyes as she lifted them 
 to that impassive face; "I can swim like any 
 thing ! Can you swim ? " 
 
 Slowly and unsmilingly Miss Calvin shook her 
 awful head. 
 
 " Everybody ought to know how," said Dick. 
 She had a little struggle with herself, for the 
 woman who stood over her was very rcpellant to 
 her, and then continued magnanimously ; " I m 
 going to be at Mount Grimrood, and if you live 
 anywhere about here, I ll show you, if you like." 
 
 "Child," responded Miss Calvin, "/am going 
 to be at Mount Grimrood. The persons stand 
 ing about us in the boat, who have witnessed 
 your singular and unseemly conduct, are going to 
 be at Mount Grimrood. Lest your thoughtless 
 ness should lead you into further indiscretions, it is
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIM ROOD. I2/ 
 
 well that I should inform you that we are all 
 teachers and pupils of Mount Grimrood Sem 
 inary." 
 
 Dick grew more and more puzzled : " Now 
 she s mad," she mused sagely ; " because I said 
 I thought they might be a prim set over there." 
 But Dick attempted no apology. She armed her 
 self straightway for a conflict, after the artless 
 fashion peculiar to Dymsbury Park. With a sweet 
 flame in her cheeks, she set her white teeth in 
 Miss Calvin s very face, and her brown eyes 
 flashed a cheerful defiance. 
 
 " Child," said Miss Calvin ; " I shall not reason 
 with you further here:" and she withdrew her icy 
 hand. 
 
 The old ferryman looked as though he would 
 have jumped into the river. His cheeks had 
 a dangerously red and explosive aspect. " Sure 
 enough," he muttered under his breath ; "here 
 is a high one and a mad lark, and when the 
 old She fretted her, gad, if she didn t turn and 
 show fight ! But she dies for a whole sheep, mind 
 ye. She don t die for no lambs ! " And it was 
 almost with awe and admiration that he watched 
 Dick, when, the boat being landed, she smiled
 
 128 TOWHEAD. 
 
 condescendingly down on him from her perch by 
 the side of the stage-driver. " She dies for a 
 whole sheep, mind ye," he repeated; "she don t 
 die for no lambs." 
 
 The stage stopped at the side entrance of a large 
 brick pile, and Dick passed into Mount Grimrood 
 Seminary. The inexorable Miss Calvin was at her 
 elbow. She guided my lass by her chill touch 
 into a room styled the " South Wing Receptory," 
 where there sat a dignified conclave of teachers, 
 and, in their midst, Miss Milton, the principal of 
 Mount Grimrood. Miss Milton was tall, of a gaunt, 
 loose frame ; but Dick thought her face was very 
 strong and fine. Her spare cheeks were flushed 
 as if with weariness or excitement. Her throat 
 filled often, so that her speech, though of a tender 
 and impressive tone, was painfully labored. Still 
 guided by Miss Calvin s hand, Dick felt herself 
 impelled into the immediate presence of this 
 august individual. Miss Calvin then stooped down 
 and whispered in Miss Milton s ear. Miss Milton 
 looked at Dick and smiled kindly, and, taking the 
 girl s hand, drew her gently to one side, retaining 
 her while the ordinary business of the hour went on. 
 One by one those who had crossed the ferry with
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIM ROOD. 129 
 
 Dick and arrived at Mount Grimrood in the same 
 line of stages, were welcomed and dismissed by 
 Miss Milton, who never let go her firm hold of the 
 girl s hand. Dick began to feel the position as 
 a tiresome and disagreeably conspicuous one. The 
 touch that had at first seemed to her so kind, she 
 now began to resent as hateful and cruel. In 
 clined by nature to stand up valiantly for her own 
 rights, her acquaintance with the young Pinchons 
 and the lads at Dymsbury had not fostered in her 
 any shrinking timidity of disposition. Careless 
 dreamer as she was, she had entertained no hostile 
 emotions on entering Mount Grimrood. She chose 
 to be conciliatory, but, if they put her to it, she 
 would not hesitate to bay them all. " I ll be even 
 with you some time," she whispered through her 
 gleaming teeth to a shrinking junior, who, in pass 
 ing, had stared at her too inquisitively. " Hallo, 
 old Flyaway ! " she murmured to a female in an 
 escalloped white basque and with floating ringlets, 
 who had not concealed a shade of disapproval on 
 her face as she looked at Dick. Dick supposed 
 that this was a senior pupil, but it was, in fact, one 
 of the younger teachers at Mount Grimrood, and 
 her name was Miss Bean.
 
 130 TOWHEAD. 
 
 The last pupil had been dismissed. The teach 
 ers also rose and left the room, and then Miss 
 Milton drew Dick to a large ottoman at her feet, 
 and gently released her hand. 
 
 " I kept you waiting my child " she said, in 
 her kind, labored speech ; " because as we have 
 received you to the Seminary under rather pe 
 culiar circumstances having in fact been defi 
 nitely informed by your aunt as to your 
 requirements and past life I thought it better 
 that I should see you alone. Will you tell me 
 your name ? " 
 
 " Dick," replied my lass, in a tone which it was 
 possible to deplore as marked by too clear an 
 emphasis. 
 
 " Your name," said the principal of Mount 
 Grimrood ; "I have been informed on no less 
 authority than your own aunt is Lucy 
 Lucy Bodurtha and thus you will be known 
 during your stay at this institution." 
 
 Dick, at white heat, smiled hopefully to herself, 
 and said nothing. 
 
 "And how old are you, my child ? " Miss Milton 
 continued. 
 
 "Sixteen," Dick replied.
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIM ROOD. 131 
 
 " Sixteen ! " exclaimed Miss Milton, with pru 
 dently affected surprise. " Sixteen ! and so tall ! 
 and still with a childish nickname ! and all this 
 beautiful hair hanging unconfmed down your back ! 
 and your dress scarcely reaching to the tops of 
 your boots ! " 
 
 Still Dick smiled hopefully to herself and said 
 nothing. Miss Milton allowed her hand to wander 
 caressingly through the light tresses of Dick s 
 unconfmed hair ; and, as she did so, the dignity 
 of her office and the cares of her devoted life 
 slipped for a moment from her mind, and her 
 flushed face grew restful and dreamy. 
 
 " And do you know " she continued, recover 
 ing herself "what was your object in coming 
 or your friend s object in sending you to 
 Mount Grimrood ? " 
 
 Dick felt that it was too bad, her aunt having 
 evidently disclosed all, and more than the truth, 
 that she should be compelled to repeat the obnox 
 ious phrase. However 
 
 " I came," she answered, resolutely; "to be toned 
 down! 
 
 An incredulous, almost an appreciative smile 
 passed over Miss Milton s face, Dick s manner was
 
 132 TOW HE AD. 
 
 calculated to awaken such lively hopes in the 
 breast of those who should be called to perform 
 that office for her, and there was only such a mad 
 seriousness in the girl s face. 
 
 " You came," Miss Milton answered, gently ; 
 "to perform a faithful course of study and to 
 find your highest pleasure in conforming to 
 those regulations which it is necessary for us to 
 make and to enforce. The examinations for 
 admission begin to-morrow. You have yet some 
 time before the retiring bell to spend in 
 study. I have considered it best that you should 
 room for the present with two seniors they are 
 estimable young ladies and I hope you will 
 grow warmly attached to them. Their names 
 are Miss F. Armenia Stetson and Miss B. Ara 
 bella Bell." 
 
 " I don t think I should like rooming with two 
 of those seniors," said Dick, firmly, though with 
 great simplicity of manner. " I don t think it 
 would be very comfortable. Somehow, I don t 
 believe I should sleep well." 
 
 Miss Milton could only look her questioning 
 surprise. 
 
 " Because," continued Dick ; " they re too bony 
 and studious."
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIMROOD. 133 
 
 " My child," Miss Milton interrupted quickly, 
 "let us pray." 
 
 As Miss Milton knelt on the floor at Dick s side 
 the passion in the girl s heart changed slowly to 
 wonder, but at the sound of that tired, earnest 
 voice in supplication she was touched. 
 
 "I enjoyed your prayer very much," she said, 
 as they passed out of the room together for 
 Miss Milton herself had undertaken to show Dick 
 to her room. Miss Milton turned and looked 
 sharply at Dick, but found no cause for suspicion in 
 that lovely, ingenuous face. Miss Calvin had been 
 wiser. She had taken firm ground at the begin 
 ning that Dick s nature was hopelessly depraved, 
 and had arranged her forces for a distinct conflict. 
 But Miss Milton, unconsciously to herself, had 
 already begun to make a study of the lass ; and 
 when one would make a study of my Dick 
 well, I know that that proved sometimes dan 
 gerous. 
 
 Miss Milton introduced Dick to her room-mates, 
 Miss F. Armenia Stetson and Miss B. Arabella 
 Bell, and withdrew. Those young ladies were 
 studying when Dick entered the room. They rose 
 gravely and saluted her, and then seated them-
 
 134 TOIVHEAD. 
 
 selves immediately at their books again. Dick 
 contemplated them for some moments in silence ; 
 they had dark ringlets, a freak of nature with 
 which she had already become familiar at Mount 
 Grimrood, and pale and composed faces. Besides 
 the shade on the lamp, they wore shades that cov 
 ered the lower part of their foreheads and jutted 
 out over their eyes and were tied behind their 
 ears. Dick had seen the same sort of arrange 
 ment in connection with unruly animals, and she 
 was well acquainted with the use of the "blinders" 
 for horses ; but of overtaxed nerves and the 
 habits of those who study by lamplight she knew 
 nothing. 
 
 " I wonder," she meditated, " whether those two 
 jump fences or shy." 
 
 The silence grew very tedious. Dick finally 
 concluded to address one of them, but she was a 
 little perplexed how she should call her name. 
 
 " B. ? " said she, good-naturedly, and received no 
 answer. " B. Arabella ? " said Dick. 
 
 B. Arabella looked up and placed a finger ad- 
 monishingly on her lips. A moment afterwards 
 the sound of a bell was heard in the hall. " I did 
 not speak to you before," she then said, " because
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIM ROOD. 135 
 
 we are not permitted to speak in study hours. We 
 have now a recess of a few moments." She smiled 
 at Dick feebly and inquiringly. 
 
 Dick returned the smile. " I ve just come," 
 she said ; " and it doesn t seem to be a very lively 
 place, and I thought you might entertain me a 
 little." 
 
 Miss F. Armenia Stetson and Miss B. Arabella 
 Bell looked at each other. They were not likely 
 to be deluded into making a study of Dick ; and, as 
 they still sat looking at each other, the bell rang 
 again. 
 
 Dick wandered out into the halls. Occasionally 
 some one passed through, and that afforded a little 
 diversion. But a teacher found her thus employed 
 and, "Do you not know," she said; "that it is 
 against our rules to delay unnecessarily in the 
 halls?" 
 
 So Dick found some stairs and sat disconsolately 
 down on them. She had not been there long, when 
 she heard a cheerful rushing sound over her head ; 
 and, ere she had time to turn, a girl of about her 
 own age, with brown hair cut short like a boy s, 
 and dancing blue eyes, swept by her at a wild rate 
 down the banisters. An angel from heaven
 
 136 TOW HE AD. 
 
 could not have brought such a sudden thrill of joy 
 to Dick s heart. As the blue-eyed girl dismounted 
 and turned to ascend the stairs again, it was tacitly 
 understood by both that Dick should join her, and 
 by the time they had taken several bouts on the 
 banisters together they were as well acquainted 
 as though they had known each other from child 
 hood. 
 
 The merry blue-eyed girl confided to Dick that 
 her father and mother were missionaries, that she 
 had been born on a heathen island ; and that her 
 name was Hawaii ; that her parents had given her 
 in trust to Mount Grimrood Seminary, and that, 
 when she got old enough, she was " dedicated 
 to go and be a missionary, too." This last she 
 shouted at Dick in a shrill tone, while they were 
 going so rapidly down the banisters that Hawaii s 
 short hair stood out perpendicularly from her head, 
 and Dick s golden mane floated behind her like a 
 cloud. 
 
 Dick s life and prospects seemed very tame to 
 her in comparison with Hawaii s. She told her 
 friend briefly that her name was Dick Bodurtha, 
 that she was an orphan and "very wicked," a 
 fact which she had discovered since coming: to
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIM ROOD. 137 
 
 Mount Grimrood and upon which she now dwelt 
 with peculiar pride and had been sent to Mount 
 Grimrood to be toned down. 
 
 " Have they put you in with two seniors ? " asked 
 Hawaii. 
 
 " Yes," said Dick. 
 
 " They have me, too," said Hawaii, with cheer 
 ful pride ; " they always put the bad ones in with 
 two seniors." 
 
 They were making a particularly illustrious 
 descent when seized upon at the foot of the stairs 
 by no less a personage than Miss Calvin herself ; 
 who rebuked them icily and sent them to their 
 rooms. But Dick had not been confined many 
 moments in her prison-house with F. Armenia 
 Stetson and B. Arabella Bell, before she heard 
 a slight enticing cough in the hall. She crept out. 
 Oh, joy! It was Hawaii. "Get your night-gown, 
 Dick," she whispered ; " I ve found a nice airy 
 sleeping-room that we can have all to ourselves." 
 
 Dick went cautiously back for her night-gown, 
 and followed Hawaii through the halls and up the 
 stairs, up, up, ever higher up ; still there was 
 another flight, winding and steep and dark ; and 
 then, in the cupola of Mount Grimrood Seminary
 
 138 TOWHEAD. 
 
 at last, the air blew fresh and strong on their 
 cheeks, and the stars shone down on them. There 
 Hawaii had arranged a couch with blankets and 
 pillows which she had confiscated from the regions 
 below. Hawaii took off her cotton-gown and Dick 
 disrobed herself of her velvet, and the two friends 
 lay down in their white dresses. And Hawaii 
 slept. And Dick wandered lightly back to 
 Dymsbury Park, where the starlight shone on 
 the familiar places, and the great elms out 
 side sighed and waved, and Excelluna, through 
 her fur-off s, talked with God ; and then Dick 
 slept. 
 
 Below rang the hour-bell before retiring, the 
 half-hour bell, the quarter-of-an-hour bell, the five- 
 minutes bell, the solemn retiring-bell and still 
 Dick and Hawaii slept. 
 
 Then F. Armenia Stetson and B. Arabella Bell, 
 with Hawaii s room-mates, alarmed the teachers, 
 and Mount Grimrood Seminary was aroused, and 
 search for Dick and Hawaii was made in every 
 quarter of that great building and throughout the 
 adjacent grounds. 
 
 It was Miss Milton herself who first ascended 
 the steep stairs that led to that utmost height ;
 
 A SUBJECT FOR MOUNT GRIM ROOD. 139 
 
 but before the others came up, and before she 
 should find it necessary sternly to arouse those 
 piacid sleepers, she stooped down with an al 
 most impulsive gesture and stroked Dick s quiet 
 face.
 
 140 TOW HE AD. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 "PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS." 
 
 THICK S descent from the cupola had been a 
 hazy one, and she was considerably surprised 
 the next morning, when awakened by B. Arabella 
 Bell. B. Arabella had arisen and dressed by lamp 
 light, and her book lay open on the table. 
 "Would you not like," she said to Dick; "to get 
 into the habit, which Miss Stetson and I have 
 formed, of taking our devotional half-hour before 
 breakfast ? " 
 
 "Taking a what?" said Dick, only half awak 
 ened, her eyes opening vague with wonder. 
 
 " It is one of the excellent rules of the institu 
 tion," said B. Arabella ; " that those who enjoy its 
 advantages shall take a devotional half-hour in 
 perfect solitude twice every day. If you make 
 haste to dress, you will have just time to complete 
 your morning half-hour ere breakfast. Miss Stet 
 son has gone out to find a solitary place in which 
 to take hers; I will take mine here, and the
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 141 
 
 closet," said B. Arabella, pointing to a gloomy 
 aperture at one end of the room ; " is at your 
 disposal." 
 
 The prospect of fleeing from the presence of B. 
 Arabella Bell, even into the darkness, was an 
 agreeable one. Dick hastily dressed herself as 
 well as she might without Excelluna s aid, and 
 repaired to the closet. A chink at the bottom of 
 the door let in a faint ray of light ; Dick discovered 
 a wooden stool and sat down upon it sleepy, 
 homeless, motherless girl, her head drooped on her 
 shoulder, she said over the little prayer with which 
 Excelluna had taught her to begin the day at 
 Dymsbury Park, and tried to realize the general 
 doleful horrors of her situation at Mount Grimrood 
 Seminary ; but sleep soon came to her relief. 
 Meantime, rang all the little bells again ; and at 
 the sound of the breakfast bell, B. Arabella rose 
 from her devotions, and joined F. Armenia Stetson 
 and the throng in the halls, but Dick slept on, 
 in glad unconsciousness of closet or darkness, 
 or the fact that to be tardy at breakfast at Mount 
 Grimrood Seminary was a strange and well-nigh 
 inexcusable offence. 
 
 It was Hawaii, concealed under a table near the
 
 142 TOW HE AD. 
 
 wide entrance of the dining-hall Hawaii, peering 
 out, bright-eyed and alert as some ground-burrow 
 ing animal, her short hair all erect with a morning 
 crispness who noted Dick s absence and rushed 
 forth to find her. But when Hawaii, laughing, 
 dragged Dick out of the closet, Dick woke to the 
 situation with solemn wrath and defiance. " We 
 lived with God all the time at Dymsbury Park," 
 she said, as they walked through the hall together ; 
 and Hawaii ceased laughing, and wondered, look 
 ing into Dick s eyes, for they were not like any 
 ordinary eyes that she had seen, but they reminded 
 her directly of sun, and deep, and sudden storm. 
 " We lived with God all the time at Dymsbury 
 Park. I sha n t take any more of their half-hours," 
 said Dick, gravely and savagely. 
 
 When they reached the dining-hall their spirits 
 rose. There were sixteen tables spread, twenty 
 girls or more at each table, with teachers presiding ; 
 in their midst, Dick discovered Miss Milton s tall 
 form. It was just at the solemn moment, when, 
 standing after silent grace, the company waited for 
 Miss Milton to take the initiative by drawing forth 
 her chair and seating herself, that my Dick and 
 Hawaii appeared, smiling, on the scene. It oc-
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 143 
 
 curred to those two immortal spirits that, at so 
 many tables, very likely there might be a choice of 
 viands ; and they proceeded, by an agreement 
 affecting their mutual advantage, to make an im 
 partial detour of the dining-room and to give 
 immediate oral testimony as to their discoveries. 
 
 " Hash, here ! " cried Hawaii, beginning her 
 cheerful tour of inspection. 
 
 " Hash, here ! " Dick responded clearly from 
 another direction. 
 
 " Hash, here ! " re-echoed Hawaii, proceeding 
 still farther down the line, but with an undeniable 
 shade of disappointment growing in her tone. 
 
 " Hash ," Dick began again, but the obnoxious 
 phrase died incomplete on her lips. Miss Calvin s 
 icy touch chilled and drew her to the table where 
 she herself presided, and where also sat Miss Bean. 
 Miss Bean, whom Dick had casually addressed the 
 night before as " Old Fly-away," gravely poised 
 her ringleted head and gazed at my lass with deep 
 pity and distrust. 
 
 Hawaii s career had also been arrested at another 
 point. Dick s heart yearned for her lively com 
 panion, yet she allowed neither obloquy nor sen 
 timent to interfere with the dictates of her fresh
 
 144 TOWHEAD. 
 
 young appetite. She ignored the hash with an 
 expression of innocent disfavor, but partook plen 
 tifully of bread and prunes, and passed her small 
 tumbler many times for water. That she was 
 regarded, in some sort, as a criminal waiting for 
 execution, she could not but perceive ; yet were her 
 clear and challenging eyes strangely devoid of fear. 
 It was the sublime sentiment imbibed at Dyms- 
 bury Park, in every emergency to "die game." 
 
 After breakfast, Dick was led away by Miss 
 Bean and subjected to an inquisition of half an 
 hour, which she bore coolly and with an aptness 
 and fortitude of rejoinder already augmented by 
 her brief sojourn at Mount Grimrood. Released 
 by Miss Bean, she learned that Miss Milton wished 
 to see her immediately in her private apartment. 
 But Dick had discovered the human chord hidden 
 away in Miss Milton s awful bosom, and the child 
 struck at it with artless confidence and abandon. 
 Strangely fascinating grew the study of this 
 neglected nature to Miss Milton, but she conscien 
 tiously repressed the yearning impulse as a foe to 
 her august duty. Long and severely she lectured 
 Dick, until the bell rang for united devotions in 
 the seminary hall.
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 145 
 
 Then was it indeed a solemn sight, when the 
 three hundred and sixty pupils of the Mount 
 Grimrood female seminary were seated silently in 
 the seminary hall, and on the platform above, the 
 forty teachers Miss Milton in their midst ; at 
 her right, Miss Calvin ; at her left, another senior 
 potentate ; and so on, down the scale of impor 
 tance, to Miss Bean at one extreme, and a certain 
 Miss Ratting at the other. It was a solemn spec 
 tacle. 
 
 Then rose Miss Milton, and slightly bowed her 
 awe-inspiring frame, and murmured, with a ghastly 
 attempt at cheer, which checked for an instant the 
 free blood in Dick s veins; " Good morning, young 
 ladies." 
 
 And all the young ladies rose and bowed them 
 selves and sat down again, and again was silence. 
 
 Miss Milton then read, as was the custom at the 
 beginning of each school year, the peculiar rules to 
 be observed at Mount Grimrood Seminary. 
 
 And all the pupils listened and wrote. And 
 having covered several sheets of foolscap with her 
 black and daring chirography, it occurred to wicked 
 Dick that matters might have been greatly facil 
 itated by mentioning the one or two things that it
 
 146 TOWHEAD. 
 
 was proper to do at Mount Grimrood, such as 
 eating principally with one s fork, and drawing, in a 
 repressed and decorous fashion, the necessary 
 breath of life. 
 
 After this exercise, came the ordinary morning 
 devotions, touching and appropriate ; and the sing 
 ing, very sweet, except for a certain narrow-chested, 
 high-pitched quality of tone. Then it was evident 
 that something of unusual importance was about to 
 occur. Miss Milton, from her throne, cleared her 
 throat several times, ere she spoke in grave and 
 measured accents : 
 
 "It is our custom young ladies for many 
 eminent reasons and especially that we may 
 the more intelligently exert that religious influ 
 ence which it is the peculiar design of our 
 beloved institution to exert it is our custom 
 to ascertain the exact religious status of each 
 of our pupils. Will those who are members 
 of our Christian churches now rise? " 
 
 At this Dick observed that a large portion of 
 the assembly rose. Their names were called and 
 duly taken down by a scribe upon the throne. 
 
 Miss Milton again cleared her throat, and again 
 spoke, now with a singularly affecting earnestness :
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 147 
 
 " Will those who though they have been hin 
 dered by some untoward circumstance from 
 uniting with our beloved churches who yet 
 mayhap love God who " Miss Milton paused 
 a moment as her throat filled, and then added 
 " now rise ? " 
 
 Among the number who rose at this summons, 
 quite happily and unconsciously rose my Dick 
 my Dick, for whom it was so easy to fall a dream 
 ing. And the dream was in her eyes God, who 
 filled all things at Dymsbury Park, from mighty 
 day-beam to plaintive bird-note ; ay, and with 
 whom dear old Excelluna talked, and from whom 
 she had had so many, many revelations. Dream 
 ing, it escaped Dick that she was now so wicked. 
 Quite happily and unconciously she rose, for 
 surely she loved God ! 
 
 The names of these also were reported, and duly 
 taken down, with modified approval by the scribe 
 upon the throne. 
 
 Still were there some who had not risen at all. 
 And as the names of those were written, be it 
 said, with all reverence for the undoubted sincerity 
 of the act, that some of those upon the throne 
 wept.
 
 148 TOWHEAD. 
 
 A deeper solemnity settled upon the scene. The 
 pupils seated themselves once more ; and in a tone 
 still more measured and portentous, Miss Milton 
 read, from the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, the 
 awful allegory of the final tragic separation of the 
 sheep from the goats. Slowly and impressively 
 she read ; and at the close, " This hour also," she 
 said ; "is typical of that final sad event. Even 
 now young ladies," and a heavy atmosphere 
 as of death settled over the assembly " though 
 in this world there is hope of reclamation 
 even now ycung ladies in some sense as 
 the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats 
 But suddenly, as she listened, my Dick awoke 
 from her dreaming. This was not the God of 
 Dymsbury Park, whose sun shone on waste and 
 pool, whose free wind blew over all ; the vile was 
 ever being purified ; the base climbed ever towards 
 the light. Excelluna had not told her of this ; of 
 difference, and election, and separation ; of endless 
 pain and loss ; it was not in all her simple grand 
 theology but ever to redeem the lost, and ever 
 hotly to defend the weak. It was the black lamb 
 Dick had chosen. And now, as Miss Milton 
 paused, suddenly there rose up, in the midst of the
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 149 
 
 three hundred and sixty pupils, and before the 
 forty teachers, a form of desperate insulted fire. 
 Dick s great eyes blazed ; her lips half curled with 
 contempt, half quivered with anger. In the midst 
 of the three hundred and sixty pupils, and before 
 the forty teachers, a voice rang out, terribly 
 distinct and clear in its young indignation, as Dick 
 beckoned to the scribe upon the throne. "You 
 may take my name off of that other sheet ! " she 
 said. " You may put me in with the goats ! " 
 
 "You may put me in with the goats!" the 
 words resounded through the seminary hall, and 
 the heavy atmosphere closed in upon them, heavier 
 than before. There followed a moment, two 
 moments, of perfect silence. Miss Milton then 
 made a breathless sign of dismissal, and the assem 
 bly dispersed. 
 
 As, with Miss Bean and Miss Calvin following 
 in the distance, Dick wended her way with the 
 throng out of the seminary hall, still upborne on 
 that towering wave of indignation, she met every 
 cold or inquisitive or highly compassionate glance 
 with equal defiance and scorn. Yet was the girl s 
 heart breaking within. The memory of that dark 
 scene, of that new and horrible revelation, lay like
 
 ISO TOWHEAD. 
 
 a pall upon her, blotting out for the instant all her 
 fair world, changing her beautiful God to a gro 
 tesque designer of blind, insatiable wrath. Ah, 
 where was the light that shone at Dymsbury Park ; 
 the boundless heaven and hope ! Excelluna ! Ex- 
 celluna ! Dick could have thrown herself down 
 and wept passionately. But these who stared at 
 her so, they should not see her bleed. She set 
 her teeth against the rising sob. The sweet lips 
 whitened. 
 
 So, as she passed into the outer hall, wild, 
 reckless, inwardly sobbing, a tender, magnificent 
 presence suddenly confronted her a form as tall, 
 as stately, as ample of bosom as were the other 
 occupants of Mount Grimroocl pinched and spare. 
 Dick heard the soft rustle of silk, caught the 
 strange gleam of precious stones, then a pair of 
 strong, white arms enfolded her ; a breath, sweet 
 as Araby, blew on her face ; a womanly, loving 
 heart throbbed against hers, and warm kisses fell 
 on her lips. " Run up to my room," whispered 
 the enchanting voice ; " forty-six, that is. Bean 
 and Calvin and Ratting are all on the scent. 
 Run, child ! I shall be there in a moment." 
 
 That breath of sweet perfume, that loving
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 151 
 
 heart-throb, gave swift impulse to Dick s feet. 
 Alone in " forty-six," whose four walls had caught 
 something of the rich and sumptuous atmosphere 
 of their owner, Dick waited for the beautiful, 
 strange unknown. When the unknown entered 
 she was fanning herself. She sat down on a sofa 
 it was the only sofa Dick had seen at Mount 
 Grimrood and drew Dick to her side. "There s 
 no air here," she gasped, good-naturedly, as she 
 swung her fan. " There s none to be had, though 
 I keep my windows open day and night. They ve 
 frightened it all off within the radius of a mile at 
 least, and they subsist on some less general and 
 vulgar essence." But through the unknown s 
 laughing voice, and through her resplendent 
 attire, shone such a wholesome, bounteous, sympa 
 thetic nature, and her smiling eyes met Dick s so 
 tenderly, that, in the one brief moment, it seemed 
 to my lass as though the story of her sorrow had 
 been already told and she been healed with a 
 boundless radiance. 
 
 "Talk to me," she said, nursing one knee with 
 all the happiness in the world. " I love you ! " said 
 she, fixing her eyes on the unknown s face with 
 boyish, though unblushing ardor.
 
 I$2 TOW HE AD. 
 
 The smile in the unknown s eyes deepened. 
 "In the first place, then, my beautiful child," said 
 she ; " as I am twenty-two years old and you are 
 some years younger, I will take the liberty to sug 
 gest that there is a tolerably large rent in the skirt 
 of your dress " Dick thought with guilty joy of 
 last night s ride on the banisters " and as your 
 weather-stained though graceful fingers proclaim 
 great unfamiliarity with the needle, I shall be de 
 lighted to mend it for you. Meantime you may 
 fan me. 
 
 " My name is Dakotah West. Papa s name is 
 West. He made his fortune and lives in the 
 West. I was born in Dakotah, and they named 
 me Dakotah West. Quite a vasty and salubrious 
 name, isn t it ? But I was a very vigorous infant, 
 and I have always been able to carry it off well, 
 until now, since I came East to be cultured, and 
 have found such a thin supply of air. Papa has 
 no end of money, and he wanted me to be cul 
 tured, but it would break his heart if he knew how 
 I had been scrimped for air. 
 
 " I have sojourned at various wise institutions, 
 my dear, picking up a crumb herj and there, like 
 a belated bird in a snow-storm, and many means
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 153 
 
 have been faithfully exerted in my behalf. But it 
 is all the same. When anything strikes me as 
 funny, I am still seized with an irresistible inclina 
 tion to laugh ; when anything strikes me as tear 
 ful, I weep ; what I think, if I say anything, I am 
 moved on every occasion to say ; and in moments 
 of sudden surprise or calamity, I shall probably 
 never quite recover from a habit of giving vent to 
 the vulgar exclamation of Jemimy. No, my 
 dear, I have a simple, kind, well-meaning nature, 
 but I am quite convinced that I shall never be 
 cultured." 
 
 At the delicious laughter of Dakotah s tone, 
 Dick s head gave a delighted little bounce against 
 that yielding shoulder. 
 
 "Always study Botany, my dear," continued 
 Dakotah West. " Under the pretence of dissecting 
 nature, you will get excuse for many a long ram 
 ble. I assure you, I do not know the calyx from 
 the petal. I never yet picked an innocent flower 
 to pieces for the mere purpose of classifying it, 
 and, please God, I never shall. But I am a wild, 
 ardent, and devoted student of Botany, and always 
 take it up as a specialty when it happens not to be 
 included in the year or in the course.
 
 154 TOW HE AD. 
 
 " In spite of all, I cannot but see that I am re 
 garded, in the beginning, even by these harpies, 
 with a sort of favor. There is a solidity in my 
 presence which recommends me, though my flesh 
 and good-nature must ultimately relegate me to 
 the society of the uncultured, and even of the unre- 
 newed ; but you, my child, you are a sylph. You 
 mount, you fly, you disappear, you descend again. 
 Your hair is an angel s dream. Your eyes, when 
 a certain peculiar gleam overtakes them, I can only 
 describe as deeply, darkly, beautifully mischiev 
 ous. They do not in the least understand you. 
 They will try to compose your limbs with Algebra 
 and tame you with dialectics and frighten you with 
 hell-fire. But there is a simple something," said 
 Dakotah, with gentle seriousness ; " that alone 
 moves the world to wit, namely, love. Be as 
 quiet as you can, my child. When a heaven-born 
 idea strikes you, occasionally reserve it. Yet I 
 greatly fear me that the walls of Mount Grimrood 
 will not contain you long." 
 
 Dick s head gave another bounce against Da- 
 kotah s shoulder, and rested there. Dakotah put 
 down her needle ?.nd drew Dick up in her arms, 
 and stroked her golden mane. " You don t mind
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 155 
 
 my calling you Towhead ? " she said, smiling down 
 with that tender, soothing gesture. " I call Harry 
 that, sometimes Harry Fortune. He s wfortu- 
 nate enough in some things, poor fellow ! But he 
 is handsome and good, and he has the loveliest light 
 hair, like yours. I haven t found any one before 
 that I wanted to speak to about him since I came 
 East and I love him so ! I hunger to see him so ! 
 You make me think of him. He is so brave and 
 bright, and always running into some danger and 
 getting hurt, and then his eyes look as happy and 
 dreamy over it as though they d never waked np. 
 He s poor, and he works in papa s mills ; and he 
 hasn t any relatives ; and he saved some people once, 
 when the dam broke down, and got awfully hurt, 
 and walks a little lame ever since ; and he made an 
 invention and somebody stole it ; and so on, and 
 so on ; but still his eyes keep dreaming and smil 
 ing on as though they d never waked up. 
 
 " I m engaged to him, and papa knows it. And 
 papa thinks everything of him in the mills ; but a 
 man is different, and I suppose when papa sent me 
 East to be cultured he thought I might forget 
 Harry Fortune. But not all the teachers and 
 schools between the two oceans could ever culture 
 my heart away from Harry Fortune."
 
 156 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Dick had been inclined to feel a little jealous 
 when Harry Fortune s name was introduced, but 
 as she looked up into Dakotah s brave, shining 
 eyes, where the tears shone, too, at the same time, 
 a generous sympathy glowed in her heart. 
 
 " I want you to make my room your home, little 
 girl," said Dakotah, brightly, brushing away the 
 tears. " I have a room quite to myself. I brought 
 a note from a physician saying that I must have 
 more air. But air and sunlight and breeze, you 
 bring them all in with you, Dick. Come to me 
 whenever you can." 
 
 As Dick stepped out into the hall, the vision of 
 that plenteous grace and beauty and love still fol 
 lowed her. To be womanly ! To know how to 
 sew how deftly the white fingers had mended 
 her dress ! To be so gracious ! To sit so tranquil 
 and still ! To love unselfishly ! A sudden, vague, 
 half-frightened yearning that had never been there 
 before, crept into my Dick s wild heart. 
 
 On her way down the stairs Dick met the laugh 
 ing Hawaii. Hawaii s face was full of a bright 
 mystery. She led the way to a room where there 
 was a musty odor, and various strange physiolog 
 ical specimens lying about, and, in the centre, a 
 mounted human skeleton.
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 157 
 
 Dick had always had an idea, in a general sort 
 of way, that her own fair flesh covered bones, but 
 she had never before gazed upon this unmitigated 
 aspect of the human frame. A singular fascina 
 tion drew her nearer to it ; she touched it cau 
 tiously with the tip of her finger, and then 
 withdrew a little. 
 
 " Who was it ? " she whispered to Hawaii. 
 
 Hawaii enjoyed the situation. " She was a 
 teacher," she answered, mysteriously ; " and she all 
 dried up." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Dick. 
 
 " Do they keep it to try dresses on ? " Dick 
 asked, presently. 
 
 " No," said Hawaii ; " she s a model." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Dick, again. 
 
 Both of the young things now stood gazing at 
 the skeleton, until, mingled with the awe on their 
 faces, there came at last a strange hankering to 
 possess. 
 
 " Do you suppose they want it for anything ? " 
 said Dick to Hawaii. 
 
 "No," said Hawaii; "it was just shut up in here 
 all alone." 
 
 Dick thought another space. " I should like to
 
 158 TOW HE AD. 
 
 put it in the closet to take my half -hours, " she 
 said. "It s awfully cold and dark in there, but she 
 wouldn t mind now, you know." 
 
 " No," said Hawaii ; "she wouldn t mind." 
 Silently Dick and Hawaii carried the skeleton 
 through the now empty halls. F. Armenia Stet 
 son and B. Arabella Bell were both absent at their 
 recitations ; so the skeleton-bearers passed bravely 
 on their unimpeded progress through the room, 
 and deposited their precious burden in the closet. 
 They then returned to their quest for entertain 
 ment in the halls, with the air of those whom one 
 bright discovery has inspired with boundless 
 hope. They did not know that the solemn bell 
 for study-hours had pealed through Mount Grim- 
 rood Seminary ; that most of the pupils were 
 in the various class-rooms at their recitations ; 
 that the juniors (among whom they were prop 
 erly classed) were undergoing their examina 
 tions in the seminary hall. But they were dis 
 covered at last, and led in to the ordeal, Dick sta 
 tioned at one extreme of the hall and Hawaii at 
 the other, and their examination papers given to 
 them. The first was Arithmetic, the answers to be 
 written. Dick gazed at the enigmatical sheet with
 
 PUT ME IN WITH THE GOATS. 1 59 
 
 much wonder and some curiosity. Hawaii, who 
 had solved her problems in a trice, watched from 
 afar. The guardian teachers on the throne did not 
 notice, among the many bowed heads, the sudden, 
 swift, silent, and entire disappearance of Hawaii s 
 bright head. Down on the floor of the seminary 
 hall, down under the feet of the wondering juniors, 
 noiselessly, steadily, hand over hand, Hawaii crept 
 with her copy of written answers to Dick s relief.
 
 160 TOWHEAD. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 DICK S LAST HOPE IN AFRICA. 
 
 ~T^\ICK began to find life at Mount Grimrood 
 Seminary not without its spice and entertain 
 ment. There was not, to be sure, the noble and 
 healthful exhilaration about it that there had been 
 in riding her horse and rowing her boat at 
 Dymsbury Park, but it gave room for infinite 
 speculation and a wide variety of tactics. There 
 was the secret enticing consciousness that, at every 
 step, she was overpassing the barrier of some 
 mysterious rule. Then she discovered within her 
 self a supernatural aptness for detecting the still 
 approach of Miss Calvin, Miss Ratting, and Miss 
 Bean, and secured an equal development in the 
 faculty of flight. She met the laughing Hawaii at 
 every turn, and boldly and without any soft affec 
 tation of regret, eluded the society of F. Armenia 
 Stetson and B. Arabella Bell. When, at night, 
 slumber held its brief sway over the senses of the 
 studious B. Arabella, Dick stole softly from her
 
 DICK S LAST HOPE IN AFRICA. 161 
 
 couch, and fled to the reposeful arms of Dakotah 
 West, in "forty-six." 
 
 All these things had given to my Dick, as she 
 went in to devotions on her third morning at 
 Mount Grimrood Seminary, an easy and conscious 
 air of victory. The proceedings which followed 
 fell on her like a thunderbolt. After the usual 
 exercises there was a silence, and then an ominous 
 clearing of Miss Milton s throat. 
 
 " Young ladies," the principal of Mount Grim- 
 rood began, with pall-like gravity ; " yesterday 
 during study hours while we were all supposed 
 to be engaged at our various quiet and appro 
 priate tasks our valuable skeleton was wilfully 
 and secretly abducted from the physiological 
 department and carried, young ladies, for 
 some time we could discern not whither. 
 
 "This morning, young ladies, as our dear 
 Miss Stetson approached her closet for the 
 purpose of taking her devotional half-hour and 
 abstractedly opened the door she was shocked 
 and appalled on being encountered by the 
 unexpected apparition of an unclothed human 
 skeleton. By an almost superhuman control of 
 her nerves she was prevented from falling
 
 1 62 TOWHEAD. 
 
 prostrate on the floor. What might have been 
 the effect of this sudden shocking spectacle 
 upon the more delicate organization of our 
 dear Miss Bell we tremble, young ladies, 
 to contemplate. 
 
 " But how shall we designate this affair ? 
 And what term shall we properly apply- to 
 the miscreant ? The wilful purloining of our skel 
 eton, what was it, young ladies, but abduc 
 tion ? And what a turbulent spirit must dwell 
 within that one of our number who could 
 recklessly inflict such a shock upon the nerves 
 of a precious schoolmate ! 
 
 "I must desire that the perpetrator or per 
 petrators of this act appear at my private 
 apartment immediately after this exercise." 
 
 Again Dick passed out of the Seminary Hall 
 beneath the suspicious and condemnatory gaze of 
 many eyes. " Abductor ! Perpetrator ! " the many 
 eyes seemed to say, with dark and criminal signifi 
 cance. " Abductor ! Perpetrator ! " 
 
 Dakotah West was making desperate wafts of air 
 with her fan, as she drew Dick into a little passage 
 way in the outer hall. "It was you, of course 
 oh, my Towhead ! " said she.
 
 DICK S LAST HOPE IN AFRICA. 163 
 
 " Oh, Dakotah," said Dick, impulsively ; " I 
 didn t think of stealing their old skeleton and I 
 didn t do it to frighten that Bean girl or that Stet 
 son girl, either." 
 
 " What did you do it for, oh, my Towhead ? " 
 said Dakotah. 
 
 "Because," said Dick; "I d never seen one be 
 fore, and I wanted to look at it some more ; and 
 besides oh, Dakotah ! it was so chilly and dark in 
 that closet, and I put it in there to take my half- 
 hours. 
 
 Dakotah dropped her fan, and sank breathless on 
 the floor. " Go, immortal one ! " she gasped ; " go, 
 and confess your crime ! Oh, when will those 
 unfathomable eyes of yours awaken to the ways of 
 this little world ? But come to my room after 
 wards, forgiven or imforgiven, for I had a beautiful 
 box of goodies arrive this morning, and you shall 
 find consolation." 
 
 Dick proceeded on her way to the tribunal, 
 expecting every moment to overtake Hawaii ; but, 
 for once, the bright form of Hawaii was not visible, 
 neither was she in Miss Milton s room when 
 Dick arrived there. Dick was disappointed, not so 
 much because she wanted a companion in disgrace,
 
 1 64 TOW HE AD. 
 
 as that one whom she held so dear and brave as 
 Hawaii should offend against the simple code of 
 honor which had ever prevailed at Dymsbury Park. 
 
 " Did you carry the skeleton to your room 
 alone?" said Miss Milton, in the course of her 
 earnest remonstrance with Dick. 
 
 Dick was true to the code. Under the circum 
 stances she would have considered it more honor 
 able to tell a hundred lies than to implicate the 
 recreant Hawaii. 
 
 Miss Milton then proposed a day of solitary con 
 finement for Dick. She was to be locked in her 
 room and remain there, contemplative, fasting, 
 until supper time. " And furthermore," said Miss 
 Milton; "you must never appear again among 
 your schoolmates with your hair in that loose 
 and wanton condition. You must confine it 
 to your head in some decorous and appro 
 priate manner." 
 
 As Dick passed out of Miss Milton s room, she 
 instantly encountered the merry eyes of Hawaii, 
 peering out at her from behind a safe post of 
 observation. " I thought I wouldn t go in," said 
 Hawaii. " I knew you wouldn t tell. And I 
 knew it wouldn t make so much difference with
 
 DICE S LAST HOPE IN AFRICA. 165 
 
 you. You ain t going to be a missionary, you 
 know." 
 
 Dick s clear eyes met Hawaii s without reproach, 
 as she passed on to her doom. A messenger was 
 soon sent by Miss Milton, and Dick s door was 
 locked on the outside. In vain Hawaii lingered 
 about outside but when Dick heard the retreat 
 of the beloved Dakotah s footsteps, her heart sank. 
 The dinner-hour approached. Hungry and sad, 
 Dick was leaning out of the window, when she 
 felt a touch on her shoulder. It was a basket let 
 down by Dakotah from an empty recitation-room 
 some stories above. Dick looked up. Dakotah was 
 beaming down upon her, from that height, like an 
 angel ; but she put her fingers to her lips. If Dick 
 had known, this sort of communication was a ter 
 rible infraction on the laws of Mount Grimrood ; 
 but in the happiness of the moment she never 
 thought of referring to her long list of faithfully 
 copied rules. The basket contained oranges, 
 sweet crackers, sponge-cake, and a nearly upright 
 pitcher of . lemonade. Dick unloaded it with a 
 grateful heart, and Dakotah drew it up empty, 
 save for a little inky message of love and thanks 
 giving, which she, however, put away, smiling, as
 
 1 66 TOW HE AD. 
 
 though she considered it something quite precious. 
 The basket descended again with words of conso 
 lation, and repeated its upward journey with buoy 
 ancy, containing large expressions of hope ; and in 
 this sweet communication an hour passed quickly. 
 Refreshed, Dick was enabled to deliberate cheer 
 fully whether she should now compose herself to 
 write a sermon, or a letter to Excelluna. She 
 finally decided on the latter course, and indited 
 such a long and picturesque account of the situa 
 tion at Mount Grimrood Seminary as, on reperusal, 
 made a really glowing appeal to her own sympa 
 thies. But when she considered how it would 
 cause fond Excelluna to weep and wonder, and 
 wrestle, all tearful and alone, with the powers of 
 darkness, she tore it up and wrote a few short 
 lines instead, telling her how she thought, all the 
 time, of her and dear Dymsbury Park, and how 
 she thought she was getting toned down very fast 
 at Mount Grimrood. This done, she was surprised 
 to find how near it was to the time of her release. 
 She bethought her of what Miss Milton had said 
 about her hair ; that she must never appear with it 
 again in a wanton condition, but must confine it 
 somehow to her head.
 
 DICK S LAST HOPE IN AFRICA. 167 
 
 Dick wandered to the glass and ruminated 
 vaguely. Then her eyes fell upon Miss Bell s 
 curling-irons, and she remembered how a certain 
 Miss Ratting, among the teachers at Mount Grim- 
 rood, whose hair also was light, wore a tight coil at 
 the nape of the neck and three curls at each ear. 
 Dick remembered how, as Miss Ratting walked, 
 the wiry blonde curls bobbed methodically up and 
 down ; and now, with a definite object and ideal in 
 view, she set herself to work to imprison her own 
 silken mane. So absorbed she grew in this novel 
 and almost exciting pursuit she could hardly 
 realize that another hour had passed when she 
 heard the supper-bell peal through the hall, and, 
 a moment afterwards, the withdrawing of the bolt 
 in her door. Taking a last sidelong glance in the 
 glass, as she passed out, Dick saw with satisfaction 
 that the golden coil in her neck, though ragged 
 and turbulent-looking, was firmly secured ; and that 
 the six cruelly heated and unnatural curls stuck out 
 stiffly from her head, and that, as she walked, un 
 consciously assuming something of Miss Ratting s 
 sedate and measured tread they bobbed method 
 ically up and down. 
 
 Dick had grown so used by this time to having
 
 1 68 TOW HE AD. 
 
 her advent, on any occasion, heralded by a 
 mysterious silence, that the impressive stillness 
 which instantly prevailed as she entered the dining- 
 hall caused her little surprise. With an increased 
 stateliness of tread, which caused a still loftier dance 
 of the dreadful curls, she passed on to her seat ; 
 when suddenly, from the other end of the room, 
 there arose, in a voice which she recognized as 
 Hawaii s, an irrepressible shrill scream of glee, 
 followed, from the quarter where Dakotah sat 
 fanning herself, by ripple after ripple of perfectly 
 spontaneous laughter. That wild scream of de 
 light, those helpless ripples of laughter, spread 
 like a contagion through the dining-hall of 
 Mount Grimrood Seminary, and echoed from lip 
 to lip. At this auspicious moment Dick s heart 
 bounded with hope. She was about to propose 
 an insurrection on the spot when the mirth 
 subsided, and she was led quietly away by Miss 
 Milton herself. The effect of the day s solitary 
 confinement upon Dick had not been such as Miss 
 Milton had hoped for. 
 
 After a certain number of infringements on the 
 rules of Mount Grimrood, it was written, the pu 
 pil s relation with that institution must cease. It
 
 DICK S LAST HOPE IN AFRICA. 169 
 
 appeared that Dick had already far passed the 
 goal, but she bore the news that her probation 
 was virtually at an end with such unaffected, even 
 cheerful resignation, that Miss Milton concluded, 
 in view of so peculiar and urgent a case, and the 
 unfortunate circumstances attending Dick s early 
 training, to give her one more trial. 
 
 There came at about this time, as Dick remem 
 bers, to Mount Grimrood Seminary a week in which 
 the lessons, all secular duties, were given up, and 
 the long hours devoted to exclusively religious 
 meetings in the large hall and in the parlors. 
 Under the protracted solemnity of the time, Dick s 
 unawakened soul was filled with a horrible wonder. 
 But the laughing Hawaii, of a different nature, 
 succumbed at last to the strange influence. 
 
 That Hawaii was going to be good struck Dick 
 as a mournful, even a tragic circumstance. Her 
 friend s blue eyes, when she met her now, though 
 smiling, were strange and subdued, often suffused 
 with tears. She waited for Dick no more in all 
 forbidden places between the cupola and the base 
 ment, nor ever called to her gayly again from her 
 perch on the banisters ; and at last Dick missed 
 her face in the public places of the school, at de-
 
 1 70 TOWHEAD. 
 
 votions, and at the table. Then she heard that 
 Hawaii had been taken ill and had been removed 
 to the " sick ward." Poor Dick honestly believed 
 that it was all in consequence of her friend s con 
 version, and a nameless dread and bitterness crept 
 into her heart. She thought, too, that Hawaii 
 would die ; and that had meant something beauti 
 ful at Dymsbury Park, Excelluna had discovered, 
 through her far-offs, but to die, at Mount Grim- 
 rood ! Dick shuddered. She wandered much up 
 and down the halls, disappearing deftly at the ap 
 proach of the teachers, a pitifully desolate and 
 hunted look on her face, nor in her despair would 
 even go to the loving Dakotah for comfort. 
 
 A missionary from Africa came to preach at 
 Mount Grimrood Seminary. He preached two 
 long sermons with weary statistics, which the 
 pupils were requested to copy. In the evening he 
 preached again, but this time it was a personal 
 appeal to the young women of Mount Grimrood 
 to leave their native land, homes, friends, expecta 
 tions, to carry the torch of salvation into benighted 
 Africa. A box was to be left on a window-shelf 
 in the Seminary Hall, and, ere the retiring bell 
 rang that night, those who would leave all to go
 
 DICK S LAST HOPE IN AFRICA. I /I 
 
 on the mission were to drop their names on a slip 
 of paper in the box. 
 
 Dick had listened intently. The description of 
 the unfettering costumes, the free and easy man 
 ners, the wild, out-of-door life of the original heathen 
 caused, Dick confessed to herself, with a guilty sort 
 of ecstasy, a kindred chord to vibrate in her own 
 bosom. It appeared to her that by joining herself 
 ostensibly to the missionaries she might, on her 
 arrival at the shores of Africa, escape into the 
 happy and enticing borders of the heathen. At all 
 events it seemed to be preferable to remaining at 
 Mount Grimrood Seminary. She wrote her name 
 on a slip of paper, and, as the poor moth hovers, fas 
 cinated though half unwilling, about the destroying 
 flame, so Dick drew ever nearer and nearer to that 
 mysterious box. Then, through the little chink at 
 the top, she dropped in her name. There was no 
 withdrawing it. Miss Milton alone held the key 
 that unlocked that dark treasury. Dick dropped 
 in her name, turned, stood one moment with wild 
 eyes, then put her hands to her ears and fled from 
 the room. 
 
 As the retiring bell rang, the missionary box 
 was brought to Miss Milton. She opened it and
 
 172 TOW HE AD. 
 
 read the names. At one name she gave a quick 
 start of surprise. Then a flush as of some good 
 triumph or delight overspread her features. " Poor 
 child ! " she murmured ; " she has been touched at 
 last, and in her blind, childlike, impetuous way, 
 she, too, longs to devote herself to the great 
 work." With that one little slip of paper in her 
 hand, the principal of Mount Grimrood rose to 
 find Dick. Passing through the dim Seminary 
 Hall, she paused suddenly before a shock of light 
 hair and a prostrate form stretched on one of the 
 wooden benches. It was even the object of her 
 search, desolate, wandering Dick herself. But 
 Miss Milton did not stop then to remonstrate. 
 
 " I was on my way to your room my child," 
 she said, sitting down at Dick s head 
 
 Dick raised herself, looking like an animal at 
 bay. 
 
 " I wanted to tell you," Miss Milton went on, 
 "what a happy surprise it gave me -to find 
 your name in the box. You are so young 
 we cannot yet accept the sacrifice. But did it 
 really seem to you that you would like to join 
 us in our missionary work ? " 
 
 Dick lausrhed. It was half a laueh and half a
 
 DICK^S LAST HOPE IN AFRICA. 1/3 
 
 dry, defiant sob. Dick, though she had sometimes 
 suffered, had not yet learned how to cry. 
 
 " Let the tears come poor child. It is good 
 for us sometimes. It is a relief," said Miss 
 Milton s weary voice. 
 
 " I never cry ! " retorted Dick, quite savagely. 
 
 "And did it really seem to you that you 
 would like -- to join us in our missionary 
 work ? " Miss Milton patiently repeated. 
 
 " No ! " said Dick, with perfect recklessness ; 
 " it was because I thought, if I went out there, I 
 might get a chance to join the heathen ! " 
 
 " Is it so ! " Miss Milton answered gently, with 
 out a shadow of rebuke in her tone. " Is it so 
 is it so;" she slowly repeated to herself. The 
 strange quietness of her tone touched Dick. " I 
 have been thinking," Miss Milton continued ; " I 
 may not always have understood my dear. 
 You were left motherless I have been a home 
 less, childless woman I have dealt generally 
 with trained minds. My heart yearns over you 
 but my position was one of care and respon 
 sibility for so many. You will forgive me I am 
 so tired it is hard for me to speak. It will all 
 be well in the end."
 
 1/4 TOWHEAD. 
 
 As Miss Milton uttered these disconnected sen 
 tences in her broken, impressive tone of voice, 
 Dick crept nearer to her and even put out a hand 
 to touch her dress. 
 
 " I could not bear the excitement it would 
 have caused had I announced my intention to 
 the school," Miss Milton went on. " I am going 
 away to-morrow. I am going with the expe 
 dition to help in the founding of a school in 
 Africa. Miss Calvin will take my place here. 
 It will all be well." 
 
 Miss Milton s broken voice again failed her, and 
 Dick s hand crept up softly to the principal of 
 Mount Grimrood s knees. " If I ever return," 
 said Miss Milton ; "it will not be for long years 
 to come. I am tired but I am calm to-night. 
 I believe it will all be well. Promise me 
 that you will go to your room now. I shall not 
 see you again dear child. Good night good 
 bye." 
 
 But Dick had drawn very close to Miss Milton. 
 With wondering pity she lifted up both cool hands 
 and stroked the hollow, feverish cheeks. Then, 
 because it seemed to her that it would comfort the
 
 DICK S LA ST HOPE IN AFRICA. 1 7 5 
 
 principal of Mount Grimrood, she put her lips to 
 them with kisses. 
 
 Amazed at this final, strange capture of the 
 prodigal, the principal of Mount Grimrood, with an 
 almost passionate yearning and regret strained 
 Dick to her heart.
 
 TOW HE AD. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 EXPELLED. 
 
 A S the inflexible Miss Calvin ascended the 
 throne vacated by Miss Milton, Dick had 
 a quiet and perfectly secure consciousness that her 
 days at Mount Grimrood were numbered. 
 
 Every morning, with her fan in one hand and 
 her botanical box in the other, Dakotah West 
 swept splendidly out of the halls of Mount Grim- 
 rood. Something in Dakotah s presence im 
 pressed the teacher who granted her this unusual 
 permission with the feasibility of the plan, imply 
 ing, as it seemed to, large researches and possible 
 new discoveries in the botanical realm. Dick, 
 professing a similar penchant, had frequently 
 obtained, under Miss Milton s rule, a similar 
 permission ; but her saunterings were now legally 
 restricted to a walk to the " Half-mile post," a 
 simple slab which marked the ordinary close of the 
 digressions of the pupils of Mount Grimrood. 
 Dick s egress, therefore, was made through a nar-
 
 EXPELLED. 177 
 
 row window in the basement, where she crept out 
 unobserved and sped like a deer across the fields. 
 
 Dick and Dakotah met at a clump of pine-trees 
 just out of sight of the seminary walls. There, in 
 waiting, with his quaint country horse and wagon, 
 stood a simple, good-natured lad of the village, by 
 name Neddie Farmer. Him had my Dick and 
 Dakotah approached one day in the fields as a rare 
 and deserving specimen, and had invited him to 
 employ his fascinating equipage in carrying them 
 about country at a commission far greater than he 
 was accustomed to earn at the plough. Neddie 
 Farmer at last consented. Though himself of a 
 highly mirthful temperament, he seemed to regard 
 the conduct of these two young ladies as mys 
 teriously wild and doubtful, and deemed it neces 
 sary to assume in their presence some shining 
 intention of being sedate. But neither the tall hat 
 of antique shape nor the lugubrious black coat 
 which he wore while driving them could put an 
 entire check on his native propensities. He 
 replied to any remark of theirs with the utmost 
 reserve and circumspection, but could not help 
 exclaiming delightedly, on occasion, " There s a 
 chip-munk ! " After which they saw his ears
 
 178 TOW HE AD. 
 
 beneath his tall hat pitifully suffused with 
 blushes. 
 
 But it was in view of a wayside-well that all right 
 eousness forsook Neddie Farmer. He was accus 
 tomed to leap from the wagon, unloose the bucket, 
 and, as it went madly clattering on its way down 
 the well, spring back to his seat and apply the lash 
 to his horse. Nor could the sombre aspect of his 
 hugely enveloping hat conceal the deep smile which 
 played on his features as he looked back to see the 
 startled housewives shaking their brooms and 
 mops at him in the distance. It was partly, 
 no doubt, on account of this playful habit of Neddie 
 Farmer s that the party found it more agreeable to 
 drive in a new direction each day. Among the 
 fresh breezes on the hills, Dakotah temporarily 
 laid aside her fan and expanded to the full her 
 starving chest, and Dick was supremely happy. 
 
 One evening, alighting, as was their wont, at the 
 clump of pine-trees, they started suddenly to see 
 an irate and fantastic figure rising out of the 
 brush. It was the ringleted Miss Bean, who had 
 been lying in wait for them, and whose worst sus 
 picions were now verified. 
 
 That he considered it, in somebody s case at
 
 EXPELLED. 179 
 
 least, as a remarkable instance of letting the 
 bucket down the well, was evident by the speed 
 with which Neddie Farmer turned his horse about 
 and put out for the main road. 
 
 " I suppose you know the result of this con 
 duct, young ladies," said Miss Bean, in tones as 
 clear and cold as fate. " It is, I can confidently 
 assure you, nothing less than expulsion. You have 
 been discovered driving outside the seminary 
 grounds. You have been discovered, young 
 ladies, driving with a man /" 
 
 Having thus pronounced the crack of doom over 
 those two young heads, Miss Bean turned and 
 walked rapidly towards the house. 
 
 Dick and Dakotah followed thoughtfully. 
 
 " So Neddie Farmer s hat and coat have pro 
 duced an effect at last," murmured Dakotah. 
 " With a man ! Truly these cloistered souls are 
 indiscriminate ! But you see, there s the rub. 
 With a man ! Expelled we shall be, sure enough. 
 And I should hate to decline the honor. Already, 
 my sweetest Towhead, I begin to breathe. But 
 first the teachers will have to spend a day in 
 solemn conclave, and then there will be a series of 
 meetings appointed, in a last effort for our mis 
 guided souls, and meantime, oh my Dick "
 
 180 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " I know," said Dick, with sudden eager anima 
 tion. " It isn t for nothing I used to play I was a 
 boy sometimes at Dymsbury Park. And I ve got 
 my regimentals with me." 
 
 Dick whispered in Dakotah s ear. Dakotah 
 sank weakly a moment by the wayside ; then rose 
 with tears in her eyes. 
 
 " You re so tall, and your nose is such a perfectly 
 elegant shape, you might do it ! " she said. 
 " Which are you going to take ? Which are you 
 going to make love to ? " 
 
 " I shall take Miss Bean," answered Dick. 
 
 Later in the evening, the door-bell of Mount 
 Grimrood Seminary rang with a sharp, elastic peal. 
 The door-girl, with mingled wonder and admiration, 
 ushered into the solitary reception-room a slight 
 but distinguished-looking and strangely fascinating 
 youth. The loose locks from his brown wig fell 
 over a clear, white forehead. His large, golden- 
 brown eyes gazed with singular directness through 
 a pair of eye-glasses, which bestrode with charm 
 ing effect his spirited and purely aristocratic nose, 
 while a mustache, also of a golden hue, dropped 
 over his exquisitely moulded lips. But when 
 he opened those sweet lips and showed his white
 
 EXPELLED. l8l 
 
 teeth and sighed ; " Will you present this to Miss 
 Bean ? " the door-girl took his card, upon which 
 was inscribed the name of Reginald De Monterey, 
 and courtesied with an involuntary accent of 
 approval. 
 
 Miss Bean entered the room with an agitated 
 air and a smile of coy and unnatural sweetness : 
 " Mr. De Monterey," she began, as the exquisite 
 youth arose and cordially grasped her hand ; " I do 
 not exactly recall I am happy, I m sure I do 
 not remember " 
 
 "What!" impetuously exclaimed Reginald De 
 Monterey. " Do not remember the friend of your 
 childish school-days ! The little Reggie who drew 
 you on his sled, who helped you over the stile, 
 who " 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! " simpered Miss Bean, "the name 
 yes, certainly the name, yes, I think it begins 
 to grow familiar. But how how you have 
 changed, Mr. a Mr. De Monterey ! " 
 
 " You have not changed," sighed Reginald De 
 Monterey, putting his hand to his chin with an air 
 of dejected, almost desperate musing. 
 
 "Pray be seated,. Mr. De Monterey," said Miss 
 Bean.
 
 1 82 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " Ah, it was natural that you should forget ! " 
 said De Monterey, recklessly throwing himself into 
 a chair. " How could I suppose, having carried 
 your sweet image with me from childhood, that a 
 similar regard had been awakened and cherished in 
 your own bosom ! It was madness. I have 
 sought you out and found you at last in vain. 
 Wealth, fame, the cold approval of the world 
 I have gained them all, and they are all as nothing 
 to me, for it seems M. Edna Bean has forgotten 
 me ! " De Monterey again rose and rapidly paced 
 the floor. 
 
 Miss Bean s numerous ringlets seemed fairly to 
 quiver with excitement. " But certainly I begin 
 to remember/ said she "and the eyes I 
 begin certainly, I begin to recall them " 
 
 " Has forgotten me ! " repeated De Monterey, as 
 though he had not heard, still pacing the floor. 
 "I confess, Miss Bean since I may not call you 
 by the old fond name that I came to this quiet 
 village purposely to find you out. I have observed 
 you here at church ; yes, and in your solitary 
 walks among the pines, nay, do not start, angelic 
 creature ! you could not deny me that brief privi 
 lege. And I have seen the beauty and purity
 
 EXPELLED. 183 
 
 which I adored in the child only blooming into a 
 richer and more perfectly bewildering develop 
 ment in the maiden. The fond hope crept into my 
 heart, seeing so much beauty ungathered, that you 
 too cherished an image ! Otherwise it seemed to 
 me it could not be." 
 
 Miss Bean put her hand to her mouth and 
 coughed, for some moments, with extreme ner 
 vousness. 
 
 " It cannot be," plaintively cried De Monterey, 
 "that the fell destroyer of our northern clime has 
 found you ! that Death has chosen you for his 
 bride ! You are not consumptive ! " 
 
 " Oh, no ! no ! no, indeed, Mr. De Monterey," 
 gasped Miss Bean. 
 
 " It is well," said De Monterey ; " may the life 
 that is not to bless mine long shed its fragrance 
 for others. Better had it been for me had I stayed 
 away. Has forgotten me ! Farewell, M. Edna 
 Bean ; but, remember, there is one who will never 
 forget you. Farewell. 
 
 " Pray, pray do not be so disconsolate, Mr. De 
 Monterey," cried Miss Bean, rising. " Do not, 
 do not despair." 
 
 "What ! " exclaimed De Monterey, turning with
 
 1 84 TOWHEAD. 
 
 passionate abruptness; "you bid me not to de 
 spair. You, M. Edna Bean do you, do you bid 
 me hope ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, no, indeed ! That is, yes, yes, Mr. 
 De Monterey. Hush ! the retiring bell ! I must 
 go ! I must, indeed ! " 
 
 " But say that you will meet me to-morrow 
 at the pines." 
 
 "I oh that is yes /, I will," whispered 
 Miss Bean, and vanished like an uneasy ghost. 
 
 Reginald De Monterey passed out of the door 
 and then crept along under the shadow of the 
 house to the basement window, through which Da- 
 kotah West received him to her arms. " You are 
 a perfect little Adonis ! " said she. " But, oh, 
 what would Harry Fortune think to see me taking 
 you in through this window ? And did the Bean 
 prove impressionable ? " 
 
 " She will meet me clandestinely at the pines 
 to-morrow," flashed Dick through her white teeth, 
 her eyes gleaming dark with merriment at Da- 
 kotah. 
 
 Dakotah struggled desperately with her emo 
 tions as she put the brown wig and moustache in 
 her pocket, and assisted Dick in putting on her
 
 EXPELLED. 185 
 
 gown. " Are we sinful, my darling ? " said she. 
 " But she was so sly and cruel." 
 
 " I love it ! " cried Dick, absently, in her en 
 thusiasm ; " I love to act anything ! It comes 
 to me just what to say, and it comes to me just 
 what to do, but I wish, oh, Dakotah, I wish " 
 
 "Wish what, dearest Towhead ?" 
 
 " I just wish I d gone for Miss Calvin, instead." 
 
 " Hush ! " screamed Dakotah West. 
 
 Dakotah West watched from a nook among the 
 shadowy pines the meeting of Miss Bean with 
 Reginald De Monterey on the morrow. Dakotah 
 marvelled solemnly at the strange self-abandon 
 ment of Dick s manner, at the inspired harmony of 
 all her actions, the fire and freedom and grace. " She 
 is a natural-born artist," whispered Dakotah to her 
 self, and dropped her fan, wondering more and 
 more, and drank in the proceedings, open-mouthed. 
 
 But when, invited by him to a sylvan seat, Miss 
 Bean s head at last fell gently over and rested 
 against Reginald De Monterey s bosom, the situa 
 tion was too much for Dakotah West. Her in 
 ward appreciation of the scene escaped her in a 
 confused but rapturous giggle, which crept through 
 the gloomy solitude of the pines and smote upon 
 the ears of the amorous couple.
 
 1 86 TOW HE AD. 
 
 " We are discovered ! " cried Miss Bean, as she 
 sprang to her feet ; and, casting one wild, appre 
 hensive glance about her, she fled from the place 
 like a frightened doe. 
 
 " It was / who discovered you in the woods," 
 said Dakotah West, overtaking the agonized Miss 
 Bean in the halls of Mt. Grimrood. " Do not be 
 frightened ; your secret is known only to me and 
 my friend Dick Bodurtha, and is perfectly safe." 
 
 A wretched compunction filled Miss Bean s 
 breast. " There might have been," she said, " in 
 your own case, when I discovered you, the other 
 day, palliating circumstances which, " 
 
 " You gave us up to headquarters immediately, 
 of course ? " said Dakotah. 
 
 " I considered it my duty at the time. Possibly 
 not understanding, I " 
 
 " It is all right," said Dakotah West. " We ve 
 got the screw on you, you little fool, but we don t 
 care to use it. Your secret is perfectly safe." 
 
 Miss Bean winced. Whether from that miserable 
 compunction or because she doubted so much 
 magnanimity on the part of the two girls, she took 
 pains to give out, that possibly nay, that she was 
 convinced that she had made a mistake in sup-
 
 EXPELLED. 187 
 
 posing the two young ladies whom she had 
 recently discovered driving with a man, to be 
 pupils of Mt. Grimrood Seminary. It could not 
 be, however, but that Dick and Dakotah s fate was 
 sealed. It was written on the face of the inexor 
 able Miss Calvin ; and Miss Bean was secretly 
 glad. 
 
 It was the last time that Dick and Dakotah 
 were ever to sit at devotions in the seminary hall, 
 though the grand denouement came, indeed, from 
 an unexpected source. Dick gazed up dreamily at 
 Miss Calvin, as she sat reading the chapter, on the 
 throne ; and, to her young imagination, that lifted 
 face was as the stone upon which Moses had writ 
 ten the commandments long ago ; the great black 
 eyes seemed pitiless. Suddenly, Dick became 
 aware that this solemn exercise was closed, and 
 she waited indifferently through the long moment 
 of breathless suspense which she had learned to 
 know so well. 
 
 Young ladies," then said the grave and awful 
 voice of Miss Calvin, on the throne. " Young 
 ladies ; that we may with the greater ease and 
 quietness walk about these halls, in mutual consid 
 eration for you and for each other, the teachers of
 
 1 88 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Mount Grimrood Seminary are accustomed to wear 
 soft and unsqueaking shoes. 
 
 "But it appears, young ladies, that there are 
 some of your number whose deeds are such that 
 they wish to be informed of our approach ! They 
 take no pleasure in being surprised by a visit from 
 their faithful teachers, but would even wish to 
 reinforce themselves against the possibility of such 
 an accident ! 
 
 " This morning, young ladies, there were found, 
 forcibly implanted in the soles of our dear Miss 
 Ratting s shoes, a quantity of nails, young 
 ladies, of heavy and resounding nails ! 
 
 " I will not stop, young ladies, to remark upon 
 the character of this deed or its inevitable con 
 sequences. It is sufficient to ask the perpetrators, 
 here in the presence of their school-mates and 
 teachers, to rise." 
 
 Dick alone knew the secret of the nails. Twice 
 had she discovered Miss Ratting, after a noiseless 
 approach, listening surreptitiously at her door, and, 
 in putting the nails in the soles of her shoes, she had 
 taken such precautions as would have been deemed 
 only just and expedient by all the spirits of Dyms- 
 bury Park. And now, for the last time, in the
 
 EXPELLED. 1 89 
 
 midst of the three hundred and sixty pupils, and 
 before the forty teachers on the throne, Dick arose. 
 But as she did so, another form was seen stately to 
 rise in a distant part of the hall a presence that 
 stood sweetly, though arduously fanning itself 
 the magnificent Dakotah West. Across the three 
 hundred and sixty heads Dick shot a glance of 
 glowing love and admiration and rebuke, and 
 opened her lips to speak, but Dakotah made an 
 unmistakable, earnest sign of entreaty. 
 
 "Young ladies," said Miss Calvin to those two 
 marked figures; "your relations as pupils of Mount 
 Grimrood Seminary are at an end. Your friends 
 have been written to, and will duly inform us 
 whither to send you next. Meantime, you may 
 remain with us as our dishonored, though com 
 passionated guests." 
 
 But Dick and Dakotah availed themselves of 
 this last privilege for a period of time singularly 
 brief. Through Neddie Farmer, procured to their 
 assistance with wagon and ropes, the night wit 
 nessed the descent of their baggage and their own 
 safe escape, and morning saw Dakotah West jour 
 neying happily westward, through freer currents 
 of air, and my Dick, all daring and alone, en route 
 for Dymsbury Park.
 
 190 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Kxcelluna sat in the porch of the old house at 
 Dymsbury Park ; the sun and wind were playing 
 freely with her grizzled locks, but Excelluna s face 
 was placid, she was making flowers. At one 
 hand she had a box of tinted paper, some shears 
 and glue. Through her " fur-offs " she caught the 
 inspiration, and through her " nigh-tos " she con 
 structed the flowers. " Some have said to me," 
 Excelluna murmured pensively to herself, "that 
 there be not no sech flowers as these that I am 
 makin . Where be they ? says they ; and they 
 have sometimes laughed " -Excelluna s tone was 
 even compassionate " where be they? says 
 they. We have never seen no sech flowers ! 
 But" and here Excelluna adjusted her fur- 
 offs and took a long, rapturous gaze into the 
 Elysian fields "there air, maybe, more flowers 
 than is ginerally thought on. 7," said Excelluna 
 " have seen sech flowers" and she replaced her 
 nigh-tos, and worked studiously on a crimson-lined 
 lily with a golden-green chalice. 
 
 But a dear, familiar step came down the walk. 
 Quickly Excelluna put on her spectacles of spirit 
 ual vision, and gazed, and gazed, while no surprise 
 came to her face ; only the same quiet, beatified
 
 EXPELLED. 191 
 
 expression. " It is ever and a clarlin one," said 
 Excelluna ; but so had she seen her many times 
 every day since that morning she had gone away. 
 When Dick threw her arms emphatically about the 
 old woman s neck, and called her " Limy! Dear old 
 Luny ! " " It is, it is, indeed ! Heving be praised ! " 
 said Excelluna ; but soon she touched the darling 
 of her heart softly and curiously again as though 
 it had been a blessed ghost. 
 
 Dick ran wildly about the house and farm. Her 
 horse, her boat, the young Pinchons, all belong 
 ing to Dymsbury Park, she embraced with an 
 indiscriminate gladness. But there was just the 
 slightest change in her darling s manner which set 
 the old serving-woman at last to a weary, earthly 
 speculation. Dick told the story of her career at 
 Mount Grimrood with thrilling dash and effect, 
 and an indescribable arch mimicry. There was a 
 little inclination to jeer, an occasional flavor of bit 
 terness now in the sweet laugh ; and when she 
 went to bed that night she did not kneel down to 
 say the prayer Excelluna had taught her. Excel 
 luna recounted the lively narrative. Very tranquil 
 and beautiful Dick looked as she lay asleep ; but 
 Excelluna stood in the shadows, a deeper care
 
 1 92 TOWHEAD. 
 
 shadowed on her brow, her finger pressed in a sad 
 thoughtfulness against her lips : " The toning 
 down, 1 slowly said Excelluna, " do not appear to be 
 seek as was tJwngJit on." 
 
 Excelluna retired to her bedroom, and by the 
 faint light of a candle endeavored to peruse her 
 Fox s Book of Martyrs ; but for once that dear 
 chronicle yielded her no comfort. After another 
 hour of distracting restlessness she sought her 
 bottle of paregoric, and applied the extreme tip of 
 her finger to that guileless mixture. " I know it 
 ain t a cure," said Excelluna ; " I have sometimes 
 thought it was a help." It was hardly a help that 
 night. 
 
 But sleep came at last to that poor troubled 
 heart ; and then indeed Excelluna saw a garden to 
 which all the visions of her day-dreams were but 
 as a hint and a beginning. And as she looked, 
 through blooms purple and red, into a white, white 
 field, smiling walked the darling of her heart. 
 
 A childlike peace had smoothed all the wrinkles 
 from Excelluna s brow. She smiled ; a happy 
 tear stole down her cheek. "/," she murmured 
 softly in her sleep, "have seen seek flowers."
 
 PERSONAL SUPERVISION. 1 93 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PERSONAL SUPERVISION. 
 
 receiving the news from Mount Grimrood 
 Seminary Mrs. Bodurtha showed a face al 
 most pathetic in its cold dismay. But when she 
 spoke at last there was a keen determination in 
 her utterance. "I shall now," she said, "take my 
 niece, for a time at least, under my personal care 
 and supervision. I am sure, even with my shrink 
 ing from, and incapacity for the task, nothing 
 worse can happen than has happened. Instead of 
 coming to me my sister s child fled immediately 
 to Dymsbury Park. There is a horrible fatality 
 about that place. Oh, why did I ever send her 
 there ! " 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha submitted herself gloriously to 
 the waye of determination and self-sacrifice which 
 swept over her. She returned from her summer 
 saunterings a week earlier than was her wont 
 though the weather had grown prematurely chill
 
 194 TQWHEAD. 
 
 and established herself in the house in town ready 
 for her niece s reception. 
 
 Mr. Higgins, Dick s guardian, the venerable 
 Croesus, who, though always affable and indul 
 gent, Dick with a constant instinct defied, came 
 to lure my young lady from her wild retreat to her 
 aunt s polished abode. Dick at first flatly refused 
 to go, and her guardian laughingly encouraged her 
 in this fine audacity, just as he had been used to 
 play with the temper of the wilful and engaging 
 child. He smilingly suggested that, though she 
 might prefer to take up her permanent abode at 
 Dymsbury Park, she would find it vastly entertain 
 ing to spend a week or two in the city. In the 
 same smooth, caressing tone, he further suggested 
 that she should take her favorite horse with her, 
 as she "would find it delightful riding in the park, 
 attended, of course, by a groom." This found at 
 once the mysterious key of Dick s affections and 
 pleased her imagination. She consented to try 
 the adventure. 
 
 But very soon after her arrival at New York the 
 girl was stricken down with a long and feverish 
 illness. Often then she moaned for Excelluna ; 
 but Mrs. Bodurtha shuddered at the name, and the
 
 PERSONAL SUPERVISION. 195 
 
 ancient serving-woman never knew how near her 
 darling came at that time to death s door. 
 
 In the real danger and suffering of her illness, 
 Dick was so brave, so sweet, that Mrs. Bodurtha, 
 to whom this was a strange revelation of the 
 girl s character, was genuinely alarmed. She had 
 always had hitherto a certain unexpressed security 
 in the feeling that Dick was too sinful to die. She 
 suddenly realized how precious was the life of this 
 last branch of a worthy family, the young life 
 hanging now by so slender a thread. She waited, 
 pale, faithful, anxious in and about the sick-room, 
 and when Dick began to mend, the little world 
 about her, Mrs. Bodurtha included, was at her feet. 
 
 The days of my young lady s recovery were filled 
 with every conceivable attention and indulgence. 
 The sharp-eyed female who had been employed to 
 correct her manners and education, was not re 
 called, even when all the former elasticity had 
 come back to Dick s tread, and the healthiest 
 color to her cheeks. As for her manners, Dick 
 could not help seeing that they were now gen 
 erally conceded to be, though sometimes erratic, 
 of the most charming and interesting character ; 
 and as for her education, "The child shall not be
 
 196 TOWHEAD. 
 
 confined to her books again," said Mrs. Bodurtha, 
 gravely, "for a long time to come." 
 
 Dick sojourned alternately with her aunt, and 
 at the still more sumptuous residence of her guar 
 dian, on the avenue. The latter resort was often 
 filled with fashionable guests, who also made a 
 pet of Dick, especially certain women of le beau 
 monde, who spared no pains to instruct her as to 
 the full worth of charms hitherto but half known 
 or appreciated, as well as how to apply them in 
 the most striking and fascinating manner. 
 
 The servants, the equipages, the grand dinners, 
 the private box at the theatre, the novelty and 
 splendor of this life appealed to Dick s young 
 senses and rich imagination. She threw herself 
 into it with head and heart as into a bewitching 
 play. Her eyes shone and her cheeks flushed 
 with pleasure as she watched the effect of new and 
 exquisite toilets in the glass. The little brown 
 hands that had found such simple delight in the 
 pleasures of Dymsbury Park grew white and 
 fastidious enough. The shock of " wanton " hair 
 was dressed with charming effect. 
 
 And at the play, amid fair scenery and brilliant 
 lights and strains of enchanting music, there was
 
 PERSONAL SUPERVISION. 197 
 
 the panorama of passion and romance, often the 
 laughing triumph of the worldly sentiment, the 
 covert sneer, the insidious word. The fire of 
 the gay scene crept into Dick s brain. She 
 carried it into the restless round of her pleasure- 
 seeking life. Very far off now grew all the voices 
 of Dymsbury Park. Very far away indeed, was 
 Excelluna, making her celestial flowers in the 
 sunlight. 
 
 In a vain and unscrupulous treatment of the 
 youth who paid homage to her charms, in a sweet- 
 tempered indocility, a perfectly self-possessed reck 
 lessness and hauteur, the unconscious girl, as nat 
 urally as though it had been a part of some former 
 life to which she had come back for a season, 
 transcended the teachings of her gay and worldly 
 companions. 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha realized a new danger. She 
 spoke anxiously to Mr. Higgins : " It is unwise," 
 said she, "it is even scandalous, the license we 
 have allowed this child of seventeen. Of course her 
 dangerous illness incapacitated her for immediate 
 severe application to her studies, and we wished to 
 have her amused ; but she has taken her own head, 
 until, though very sweet-tempered, she seems
 
 198 TOWHEAD. 
 
 really to be amenable neither to God, nor reason, 
 nor humanity ! Physically, she is splendidly de 
 veloped ; but oh, Mr. Higgins, " the lady gasped 
 "she is growing very headstrong, and I fear, I 
 fear that she may still be profoundly ignorant ! " 
 
 Mr. Higgins, too, was of the opinion that a quiet 
 change was necessary for Dick. " Her love for 
 the theatre and her young flirtations are amusing, 
 but we must prevent her from taking any impetu 
 ous step," he said, blandly; "and especially in that 
 matter of the theatre, the the mother s pre 
 dilections, you know, my dear Mrs. Bodurtha, 
 might, in time " 
 
 Mr. Higgins tried to intimate a danger and to 
 speak soothingly at the same time. Mrs. Bodur 
 tha lifted her hand cntreatingly ; "I know, I 
 know," she sighed. 
 
 " She is still too young, as you say," continued 
 Mr. Higgins, " to be devoted wholly to society ; 
 still too young to consider seriously a question 
 which I shall some time propose to her." 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha started, but recovered herself 
 immediately. 
 
 "It is my intention, my desire, my dear Mrs. 
 Bodurtha," the guardian went on with unbroken
 
 PERSONAL SUPERVISION. 199 
 
 smoothness and composure of tone; "to assume 
 towards your niece the duties not only of the guar 
 dian and quasi father, but the authority and privi 
 leges of the Jiusband as well. What say you ? " 
 he added, laughing softly. " My house is not an 
 humble one, but I have a fancy that our spirited 
 young lady will become it immensely." 
 
 And could it be, could it be Mrs. Bodurtha 
 could not help musing with triumph that such a 
 prospect as this was already opening before her 
 niece ! that, at seventeen, her hand should be de 
 sired by this polished possessor of millions, the 
 long-coveted prize of a thousand drawing-rooms ! 
 
 " While I have no doubt, dear Mr. Higgins," 
 she answered gravely, "that your kind proposal 
 would indeed insure the safest and happiest future 
 that could be for my niece, still, we are both aware 
 of the fact that that young lady sometimes ex 
 hibits, on the most inopportune occasions, an 
 exceedingly perverse and determined will of her 
 own." 
 
 " Fortunately, fortunately," responded Mr. Hig 
 gins, in a smiling manner, quite undismayed ; 
 "otherwise she would be extremely uninteresting. 
 I think I shall succeed. And meantime, my dear
 
 200 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha, there certainly must be in her 
 case an entire change of scene and companions. 
 There must, indeed, be imposed a few months of 
 devotion to quiet and studious pursuits. In our 
 desire to advance her physical recovery we wholly 
 let go the reins of government, and under present 
 circumstances it is not easy to resume them. We 
 could hardly ^establish now, under our personal 
 direction, an entire change of life and conduct, or 
 a system of studious application for your niece, 
 without producing a misunderstanding and a 
 a possible dislike and rebellion on her part, which 
 would be a a particularly undesirable. The 
 good of our precious charge seems to make it im 
 perative that we should again be separated from 
 her for a season, and give her entirely to the care 
 of other hands." 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha lifted her eyes with veneration 
 to the Croesus. " It is the very thing," said she, 
 "which I have been so anxiously contemplating." 
 
 " My next proposal," continued the suave voice, 
 "will surprise you. I propose that we send our 
 charge now, not to any of our fashionable board 
 ing-schools, where she will be subjected to a false 
 system of espionage, but to put her, just for a trial,
 
 PERSONAL SUPERVISION. 2OI 
 
 mainly on her own conscience and mettle ; to give 
 her, in short, my dear Mrs. Bodurtha, a term 
 amidst the struggle and ambition of a Western 
 university ! " 
 
 "A Western university?" palely echoed Mrs. 
 Bodurtha. 
 
 " A Western university ! " firmly but encour 
 agingly reiterated Mr. Higgins. "In the univer 
 sity of The Three Lakes, which I have largely 
 endowed, in a lovely and healthful Western village 
 our Miss Bodurtha will be far, far separated from 
 the exciting scenes of the past few months ; posi 
 tively, my dear Mrs. Bodurtha," exulted the wise 
 guardian, "positively out of dreaming distance of 
 the theatre. Amongst a struggling and ambitious 
 body of young people she will recognize her own 
 deficiencies and do her utmost to remedy the mis 
 take. I would propose a few months of it, only 
 enough to set the mind quietly in a new direction, 
 and to a a apply a few fundamental facts 
 in a a various branches. And then, when 
 she comes back, she shall renew her life here under 
 the safe guardianship and protecting care of a 
 mature, but, I trust, devoted husband." 
 
 The soft laugh which followed this remark awoke
 
 202 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha from a profound reverie. She lifted 
 her head, speaking in a tone of solemn conviction. 
 " I am perfectly assured," said she, " that this is, 
 indeed, the best thing that can now be done." 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha was taken aback by the calm, 
 even hopeful manner in which Dick received the 
 news of this new plan for her education. Mrs. 
 Bodurtha did not know that just as Dick now 
 sometimes found the play dull and lifeless, and 
 looked through it to the stale end and wearied 
 of it, so this new life was in truth seeming naught 
 but a play also ; a brief fever and insanity, through 
 which the clear eyes were already beginning to 
 gaze, wearied, restless for something, they knew 
 not what, something deeper and beyond. 
 
 The Western land was golden and fair to Dick s 
 imagination. Mrs. Bodurtha was chagrined by 
 the cheerful and uncomplaining way in which her 
 niece bade her good-bye. " The child is heart 
 less ! " she said, bitterly, as she turned away. 
 " She has nothing but a beautiful body and a rest 
 less, untamable spirit. Her guardian thinks she 
 may be subdued ; I hope to heaven she may be 
 subdued ! " 
 
 The guardian accompanied Dick to her destina-
 
 PERSONAL SUPERVISION. 203 
 
 tion, saw her safely established in a commodious 
 room in the " ladies hall " at the University of 
 the Three Lakes, and committed to the care of the 
 excellent matron, and then, with some flowery 
 words of parting advice and a generous bestowal 
 in the way of pocket-money, he went away. Dick, 
 it is true, felt no pangs at his departure either. This 
 very unfortunate fortunate girl had never known 
 the real sorrow of parting, the true, beautiful, 
 childish anguish of homesickness. But when the 
 tea-bell rang, and the merry girls poured out into the 
 halls, laughing, shouting, and twining their arms 
 about each other in strange contrast to the customs 
 of Mt. Grimrood Seminary, as Dick followed alone 
 in this strange land, a sudden, undefined sense of 
 want, of possible injustice, filled her heart and eyes. 
 Almost at the same instant there fell on her ears, 
 in a fond, familiar voice, a scream of perfect de 
 light, and she was caught up in a rapturous embrace. 
 " Oh, my dearest, sweetest Towhead," rippled the 
 sweet voice of Dakotah West in her ear, " can it 
 be you ? "
 
 204 TOWHEAD. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WESTWARD, HO! 
 
 L^ROM an eminence the university buildings 
 looked south, east, and west upon three lovely 
 lakes. 
 
 On this broad and commanding height Dakotah 
 West found the air sufficient to her needs. From 
 the list of her various splendid appointments her 
 fan had now entirely disappeared, while she drank 
 in the divine nectar with such deep and joyous 
 inspirations as only those who have suffered from 
 aerial privation can truly know and appreciate. 
 
 "When papa heard about the air East, 
 that there wasn t any, you know " she cheerfully 
 explained to Dick ; " he gave up the cnltnring 
 business and said he would send me now where I 
 would learn something. All the same, I know 
 papa s design is to have me forget Harry Fortune ; 
 but I told him it wouldn t be of any use. Even if I 
 should try," said Dakotah West, lifting her brave
 
 WESTWARD, HO! 205 
 
 and tender eyes to Dick ; " how could I ever forget 
 my poor, clear, struggling boy ? " 
 
 Dick still admired Dakotah, and was fond of her, 
 and had the fullest faith in her sincerity, but she 
 was not affected as she had once been by this sim 
 ple exhibition of sentiment. The young girl gave 
 a very breezy, incredulous laugh. " I think it is 
 easier to forget people than to love them," she 
 said. 
 
 " You have got some very vile ideas from some 
 where, then," exclaimed Dakotah West, sadly, 
 though with considerable warmth. 
 
 " I d rather have those than silly ones," answered 
 Dick. 
 
 Dakotah, thoroughly hurt, rose and went out. 
 In less than an hour she returned, and, with tears 
 in her handsome eyes, begged Dick s pardon. 
 Dick was used to such a result in the various un 
 important controversies in which she indulged, 
 and readily pardoned Dakotah. 
 
 " Only I dont like silly talk," said she, with a 
 slight shrug of the shoulders. 
 
 Dakotah quietly bit her lips. The honest girl s 
 thoughts turned to something else. She sighed. 
 "How about your lessons, Dick?" said she. "I m
 
 206 TOWHEAD. 
 
 taking an elective course, only just such branches 
 as you please, you know." 
 
 " I will do that way, too," said Dick, with pleas 
 ing animation. 
 
 "/like it," said Dakotah West, with whom the 
 easy application of written lore had never been, 
 indeed, a conspicuous trait. 
 
 It seemed to be an occasion of unusual serious 
 ness to the mind of the good-natured Dakotah. 
 She spoke with a grave, engaging frankness. " I 
 cant learn, Dick," she said. " It has been a 
 source of great mortification to me, and I ve tried 
 again and again. I love to read. I love to observe. 
 Thousands of things that I don t try to remember 
 will stay by me constantly and forever. But the 
 moment I sit down for the ostensible purpose of 
 committing anything to my memory, my mind be 
 comes a perfect blank, a perfect dim, boundless, 
 soundless blank. Can you learn easily, Dick? " 
 
 " I don t know," said Dick, vaguely. 
 
 "You might try it, some time," gravely sug 
 gested Dakotah, "and see." 
 
 Dick s expression still continuing vague, Da 
 kotah resumed : 
 
 " I ve taken up Botany this term, because be-
 
 WESTWARD, HO! 2O/ 
 
 cause I m so used to it, for one thing, though there 
 isn t really any need of it here. But it s in a beau 
 tiful recitation-room up on the fourth floor of the 
 college building, where the view of the lakes is per 
 fectly sublime. The class is a perfect hubbub of 
 fun. I can t describe it to you ; but the teacher is 
 a boyish-looking, conceited little sprig, and the fel 
 lows cut up awfully. There are about seventy girls 
 and boys in the class. I sit in the back row, and 
 the teacher doesn t often have time in the recita 
 tion-hour to get so far with a question. I don t 
 think I ve been asked a question in the Botany 
 class for two weeks," said Dakotah, with calm and 
 serious satisfaction. 
 
 " I shall take up Botany again," said Dick, em 
 phatically. 
 
 " And then," continued Dakotah West, " I ve 
 taken up Anglo-Saxon besides," Dakotah 
 waited a moment, blushingly to observe what 
 effect this pretentious and pedantic-sounding state 
 ment had upon Dick. She was encouraged by 
 Dick s manner to proceed, " It s the language, you 
 know, dearest Towhead, that the old Anglo-Saxons 
 used to converse to each other in and it s simply 
 horrible ; but the text-book is small, and easy to
 
 208 TOW HE AD. 
 
 carry about ; and the recitation comes righjt after 
 Botany, at the second hour in the morning, which 
 gives you all the rest of the clay for recreation 
 unbroken ; and there are some of the nicest fellows 
 in the university in the class ; though I don t 
 accept serious attentions from any one but Harry," 
 Dakotah paused again, with bright cheeks, 
 gazing very directly and bravely at Dick, " but I 
 have some good friends among the boys." 
 
 " But what do you do about learning that horrid 
 lesson, you know ? " inquired Dick. 
 
 " Oh," said Dakotah, " Professor Dane is per 
 fectly splendid. He s indifferent to everything 
 but his work. He has worked his way up from 
 poverty, they say, and some terrible family misfor 
 tune, I don t know what, and he s only thirty, and 
 he s very distinguished already, and he s tall and 
 stoops a little, and his hair is black and beginning 
 to turn, and his eyes are perfectly killing." 
 
 " But how do you manage about the lesson, 
 Dakotah ? " 
 
 " Certainly, dear. Professor Dane is so high- 
 minded and dignified, you know, he isn t forever 
 on the lookout to catch somebody in a foolish little 
 trick," said Dakotah, with singularly honest enthu-
 
 WESTWARD, HO! 209 
 
 siasm. " In class, he invariably begins with Dan 
 Gaylord, and takes us right up, in regular rotation. 
 I can guess to a bee-line just what questions are 
 coming to me next day ; and, if you sit next 
 to me, on the right hand side, in the Anglo-Saxon 
 class by glancing in my book, I can tell you, 
 to a die, just what question will come to you to 
 morrow." 
 
 In this one unfortunate respect, the noble and 
 sincere Dakotah West was without a conscience. 
 But, if she had had any doubt of Dick s continued 
 affection, it was now dismissed by the manner in 
 which that young lady arose and embraced her. 
 
 "/ shall take up Anglo-Saxon," said Dick. 
 "And I ll sit next to you, Dakotah, on the right 
 hand side." 
 
 So Dick s elective course at the University of 
 the Three Lakes was made to consist of Botany 
 and Anglo-Saxon. On the following day she went 
 up with Dakotah to the charming recitation-room, 
 on the fourth floor of the rotunda. There, these 
 two beautiful and lamentably ignorant creatures 
 seated themselves modestly by the rear windows, 
 through which they gazed out contented upon the 
 enchanting view, frequently conversing with each
 
 210 TOW HE AD. 
 
 other in subdued tones ; or they sought cut dili 
 gently, amidst a maze of matter, the questions which 
 should come to them later in the Anglo-Saxon 
 class ; or made plans for that large part of the 
 day which should be unbroken by recitations ; or 
 watched with cheerful interest the progress of 
 immediate events, as when a low murmur of 
 amusement ran through the room, while the 
 teacher of Botany stood demonstrating a floral 
 design on the blackboard with an ace or a knave 
 of some color pinned fantastically to his coat-tails. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon class was composed of a 
 rather more select and enlightened company, but 
 through the midst of this mental respectability, 
 Dick and Dakotah, exercising a caution worthy of 
 a far better cause, steered their dark craft with 
 phenomenal success. 
 
 Professor Dane was indeed surprised that Dick, 
 a new pupil, unacquainted with Anglo-Saxon, 
 should show such sudden aptness in appropriating 
 that dead language. At her fluent recitation his 
 kind, dark eyes rested upon her with pleasure and 
 approval. That noble, unsuspecting look set Dick s 
 wild and sinful, but not utterly depraved nature, in 
 a tumult. A longing, something of the old Dyms-
 
 WESTWARD, HO! 211 
 
 bury Park impulse, came over her then and there 
 to declare fearlessly that the recitation was an 
 unscrupulous fraud ; but the sudden shame died out, 
 and the easy, reckless good nature came in. 
 
 A pair of large green eyes, in a head that 
 reclined comfortably against the wall at one end of 
 the class semi-circle, which eyes had been con 
 stantly observing Dick, noted the signs of this 
 brief spiritual struggle with a smile. 
 
 A little note found its way down the line : 
 
 " DEAR Miss WEST : 
 
 " Please introduce me to jour friend, and oblige, 
 
 "Yours, etc., D. GAYLORD." 
 
 " He comes from our place, and it s a splendid 
 family, and he s the richest boy in school, and his 
 father allows him to keep two horses here, and he 
 has a sail-boat all his own," Dakotah rapidly 
 whispered. 
 
 It was the enumeration of his last two excellent 
 qualities that gave Dick s heart a sense of kindly 
 emotion towards Daniel Gaylord. " Are they nice 
 horses ? " she whispered to Dakotah. 
 
 "Awfully fast ! " breathed Dakotah, in return. 
 
 While Professor Dane earnestly explained to his 
 class the derivation of a single Anglo-Saxon word,
 
 212 TOW HE AD. 
 
 Mr. Daniel Gaylord had obtained a polite introduc 
 tion, by all the paraphernalia of letter, to Miss Dick 
 Boclurtha, and the two had exchanged, across the 
 room, a smiling and conventional nod of recog 
 nition. 
 
 The professor having explained another word, 
 during which the acquaintance had full time to 
 ripen and mature, another note found its way 
 down the line : 
 
 "DEAR MlSS BODVRTIIA : 
 
 " May I have the pleasure of your company, drive and sail, 
 this P.M.? South gate, university grounds, 2.30. Shall be 
 highly delighted and flattered. An immediate reply will 
 greatly oblige, 
 
 "Yours, etc., D. GAYLORD." 
 
 Dick waited until the recitation-hour was nearly 
 through, without looking at Gaylord, though quite 
 conscious of the fact that those unblinking green 
 orbs had not turned meantime from their contem 
 plation of her face. Then she turned her own beau 
 tiful, laughing eyes to his for an instant, with a 
 dainty nod of acceptance. The green eyes swal 
 lowed that pleasing glance with a gleam of gratifi 
 cation, and then returned to their glaring unmiti 
 gated stare. 
 
 " He s odd," Dakotah whispered, " but he s
 
 WESTWARD, HO! 213 
 
 solid. He s literally struck with you. He hasn t 
 lifted his eyes from your face ! " 
 
 Dakotah was much impressed by the philosoph 
 ical manner in which Dick recognized so important 
 a conquest. 
 
 At the close of the hour, and the dismissal of 
 the class, a few serious-minded pupils gathered 
 about the professor s chair with their text-books 
 and various unanswered questions. Chancing to 
 glance up from conversation with these, as Dick 
 passed out with the rest, Professor Dane s eyes fell 
 upon the new pupil, and the same look of kindly 
 encouragement and approval he had given her 
 before rested on her for an instant. Instantly the 
 glow of angry shame sprang up again in Dick s heart, 
 and in the childish unreasoning of the moment 
 she met the good professor s accidental glance 
 with a flash of live defiance and resentment. The 
 professor turned to his questioners with a bewil 
 dered air. The incident slipped temporarily from 
 his mind. Afterwards, when it occurred to him, 
 amidst a host of graver thoughts as he sat alone, he 
 was constrained to murmur absently, that "that 
 was a very singular, incomprehensible girl." But 
 Dick recovered from her warmth to endure the
 
 214 TOW HE AD. 
 
 still deeper sting of feeling that she had made her 
 self ridiculous, and with charming consistency she 
 was still inclined to lay the fault at the door of the 
 unconscious Professor Dane ; inasmuch, at least, 
 as he had suddenly become the object of her 
 righteous aversion and dislike. Dick ran down 
 the stairs, into the " cloak-room," without waiting 
 for Dakotah West, and now indeed occasion was 
 quick to minister to her wounded vanity. 
 
 " Let me carry your books, Miss Bodurtha." 
 It was the voice of a youth who stood waiting 
 at the door, the one youth whom Dick had secretly 
 admired in the Anglo-Saxon class, whose hair had 
 a wilful part, whose eyes seemed at once clear 
 with the clew of childhood and melting with ex 
 pression, and whose red lips were petulantly 
 curved. 
 
 "/ am not rich, Miss Bodurtha," he said, as 
 Dick hesitated ; "/have no horses, / have no sail 
 boat," the pleading eyes seemed to melt in 
 Dick s face, the red lips seemed actually to 
 quiver Dick held out her books without a word, 
 save for a low, compassionate "Thank you." 
 
 The conversation of the two as they walked on 
 together was as naive as possibly could be. In-
 
 WESTWARD, HO! 21$ 
 
 deed the brave youth seemed to Dick as a com 
 panion-cherub, whom she had known and left 
 somewhere on childhood s shores and now come 
 back to find in a fuller guileless growth. The full- 
 grown cherub s garments sustained him in his 
 declaration of poverty ; notwithstanding which, he 
 had an air of superior worth and could not restrain 
 even a slight swagger in his gait. " I heard your 
 name, in class," said he, "and I shall never forget 
 it. It is Bodurtha." 
 
 " Well, I remembered yours," Dick confessed. 
 " It is Furnival." 
 
 "Michael Furnival," replied the youth, "and 
 I am of Irish descent. They call me Furnival, 
 simply." 
 
 Dick was moved to ask a simple question, very 
 strange to her lips. " Are you an orphan ? " she 
 said. 
 
 " I am," replied Furnival, with a deeply pathetic 
 look in his expressive eyes; "and so are you," he 
 added, earnestly regarding Dick. 
 
 " Yes," said Dick, " I am." And if Furnival 
 had then given her his hand to swing in silent 
 sympathy, as they went down the walk together, it 
 would have seemed the most natural thing in the 
 world.
 
 2l6 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " Do you learn all of your lesson ? " Dick pres 
 ently asked. 
 
 " Certainly," said Furnival ; "it is nothing for me 
 to learn. Take this book, please. It is a new 
 study I m going to take up. I ve never looked 
 into it. Now turn to any page and read a para 
 graph. Close the book and hear me repeat it after 
 you." 
 
 Dick read a tolerably long paragraph and closed 
 the book. Quick as thought the unattractive and 
 prosaical utterances of the text-book fell, word for 
 word, from the ruby lips of Michael Furnival. 
 Dick read a longer paragraph. It was repeated 
 with an equally astonishing glibness. Dick 
 thought of Dakotah s despair under the circum 
 stances. A gleam of superior amusement shone 
 in Furnival s eyes. 
 
 " I presume I could do it if I should try," said 
 Dick. 
 
 "Wouldn t you like to try ?" said Furnival. 
 
 " No," said Dick, with dignity. " I don t care 
 to." 
 
 " I took all the prizes in the Kirkville high school," 
 Furnival continued, ingenuously. " Some of the la 
 dies of the Baptist society came in to examinations,
 
 WESTWARD, HO! 217 
 
 and they thought it was a pity I should not have 
 an academical education. I hadn t a cent of my 
 own, but they insisted on sending me to college 
 themselves. I ve only been here two years, and I 
 have to take up some of the senior studies already 
 to kill time. Then they expect to send me to a the 
 ological school. They want me to be a minister." 
 
 " What sort of a minister ? " said Dick, uncon 
 sciously admitting a little awe into her conversa 
 tion. 
 
 " Oh, a Baptist, of course ! " said Furnival, with 
 a slight blush. 
 
 They had reached the ladies hall, and Furnival 
 handed Dick her books, and lifted his hat. " Yes, 
 7 am a pensioner of charity," said the soft, be 
 seeching eyes. " / have no horses. / have no sail 
 boat. Farewell, beautiful girl, whom I admire. Am 
 I not indeed unfortunate ? Farewell ! " Through 
 this deliberate and eloquent speech the lips uttered 
 not a word. 
 
 But as the shabbily-dressed, incipient Baptist 
 minister disappeared down the walk, still comport 
 ing himself, in the midst of dark misfortune, with 
 his airy, irrepressible swagger, Dick watched him 
 admiringly, and a glow of romantic earnestness
 
 218 TOWHEAD. 
 
 triumphed in her breast. " Perhaps you are poor 
 and being educated on charity ! and perhaps you 
 haven t any boats or horses ! " said Dick to her 
 self ; "and perhaps I couldn t ever care for any 
 body ! and perhaps, some time you need not be 
 a horrid Baptist minister, after all ! " 
 
 Dick ate her dinner, dressed, resumed her gay 
 and worldly habit of soul as well, and went to the 
 "south gate " to meet Daniel Gaylord. 
 
 The custom of making appointments at the 
 south gate was an established one at the Uni 
 versity of the Three Lakes, and was really done 
 in consideration for the feelings of the excellent 
 matron of the Ladies Hall, whom, amiable and 
 beloved by all as she was, it seemed a pity to 
 harass with so many little questions of an unim 
 portant social nature. A front gate permission, 
 when asked for, was readily obtained, but in view 
 of a considerable number of engagements and 
 acquaintances, matters were greatly facilitated by 
 taking an innocent walk to this retired part of the 
 university grounds, and there assuming the cheer 
 ful accompaniment of a beau. 
 
 A dulcet-speaking couple were already walking 
 off, arm-in-arm, as Dick approached, and Gaylord
 
 WESTWARD, HO! 219 
 
 was waiting with a light buggy and a handsome 
 pair of bays. 
 
 Dick found Gaylord quite as unconventional and 
 more abrupt than Michael Furnival, and wondered 
 if it was the usual interesting habit of the Western 
 youths. 
 
 Gaylord s genius seemed to lie in doing one 
 thing at a time with the greatest possible intensity 
 and dispatch. His intention now evidently was to 
 spurn the four quarters of the earth with his 
 chariot-wheels. Even Dick s wild love of motion 
 was gratified. She knew that she had never 
 driven so fast in her life before. Gaylord sat with 
 his feet braced against the dash, holding the lines 
 tightly in both hands, his attention fixed, earnest 
 and alert, upon his flying steeds. Woods, fences, 
 houses, hills swept by as in a confused dream. 
 
 " Stop ! for Heaven s sake ! " cried Dick, at last, 
 in clear wonder and indignation, " I can t catch my 
 breath." 
 
 Gaylord pulled in his horses with a satisfied 
 smile. "They re a pair ! " said he, and he tenderly 
 wiped a fleck of foam from the neck of one of 
 them with his whip. 
 
 Dick caught her breath and then thought she
 
 220 TOWHEAD. 
 
 would like to go fast again. She spoke eloquently 
 of the horses. " Do you like college, Mr. Gay- 
 lord ?" she said, after a while, to the silent Jehu. 
 
 "No," said Gaylord, "I like business." But he 
 did not for an instant pause nor look up from his 
 fond and admiring contemplation of his horses. 
 
 Piqued, Dick leaned back in a retaliative silence. 
 Gaylord was as unconscious of the retribution 
 intended as he was of Dick s displeasure. But at 
 length he spoke : 
 
 " Miss West is a nice girl." 
 
 "What ? I beg pardon," said Dick, quite coolly 
 and lazily, "my thoughts have been wandering." 
 
 " Miss West is a nice girl," Gaylord pleasantly 
 responded. 
 
 Dick glanced curiously at her strange and preoc 
 cupied companion, and her face broke up into smiles 
 in spite of her. "Why, yes ! She s the nicest girl I 
 ever knew," said Dick. 
 
 "Well, she s good and substantial, you know," 
 continued Gaylord, rapidly. "There s nothing of 
 the flirt about her. When she first came to the 
 university I paid her some attentions. I took her 
 to drive. She let me know, first thing, in an easy, 
 incidental sort of way, that she was engaged.
 
 WESTWARD, HO. 221 
 
 She s a special friend of mine, and frequently drives 
 with me now. Are yon engaged?" said Gaylord, 
 all in the same direct and candid utterance, and 
 getting up speed again with his horses. 
 
 " Dick gasped audibly. "Pardon me," said she; 
 " my emotions overcame me. No, Mr. Gaylord. 
 my unplighted affections are still wandering 
 about, all ready to light on some hapless object." 
 
 Gaylord hardly divined the spirit of this wickedly 
 audacious speech. " I guess that isn t anybody s 
 fault but yours," the honest youth said, gallantly, 
 
 "Thank you," murmured Dick. "Your kind 
 ness is not wasted upon an unfeeling heart." 
 
 " Oh, well," said Gaylord, tightening his grip on 
 the reins and bracing himself still more firmly 
 against the dash, " You re young ! But we ve all 
 got to come to it or, that is, pretty much all of 
 us and it s a good thing, too ! " 
 
 The wind took the words from between his 
 teeth. Again, trees, fences, houses, all wayside 
 objects appeared to swim before the flying pair 
 in giddy confusion. Conversation ceased. 
 
 When Gaylord stopped at " Lake Squall," where 
 his boat was, the university buildings were visible 
 on a distant eminence. Gaylord secured his horses
 
 TOWHEAD. 
 
 and hoisted his sails. All his motions were silent, 
 amiable, swift. He was pleased to find a stirring 
 breeze on the lake. As rapidly as they had before 
 sped over the ground they now galloped over the 
 crested waves. The sailing was a new experience 
 for Dick. It exalted her to an earthly paradise. 
 How broad the troubled lake! how green and 
 soundless its depths ! how wild its hurrying waves ! 
 She learned how to steer the light craft. She 
 learned where the dangers were. Her eyes grew 
 solemn and large, her lips parted, the color deep 
 ened in her cheeks, and the wind blew her sweet 
 hair in her face. It was a pure, childlike, natural 
 expression. It was as fair a face as one could con 
 ceive of for an angel; Gaylord was now steadily 
 regarding it. But Dick, looking out, had become 
 careless and unconscious of his gaze. 
 
 "Will you go again to-morrow?" said he, as 
 they neared the end of the course. 
 
 Dick turned to him suddenly with enthusiasm, 
 "Oh, I will go whenever you will let me!" said 
 she. 
 
 It was perfectly evident that it was not the pros 
 pect of again enjoying Gaylord s society which so 
 transported Dick. But Gaylord smiled confidently
 
 WESTWARD, II O! 223 
 
 to himself. " This is a sort of business it won t do 
 to drive too fast," he mused. " Girls are so infer 
 nal skittish, you ve got to exercise a reasonable 
 amount of moderation." 
 
 Dick did not mind the swift and silent drive 
 home. It was dusk as she hastened up the walk 
 to the Ladies Hall. Suddenly, Michael Furnival 
 stood in her path. As the youth, so ardently 
 admired a few hours ago, stood before her, Dick 
 realized with inward horror and dismay how 
 thoroughly, how completely she had forgotten him. 
 He moved her almost to contrition by the silent 
 language of his eyes. With those pleading and 
 pathetic orbs he informed her that he knew she 
 had been sailing with the happier possessor of 
 horses and boats ; ay, and that he knew she would 
 go again. He then, in audible speech, spoke 
 sadly though fluently of the many restraints and 
 misfortunes which embittered his life. He spoke 
 touchingly and with eloquence of the deep ex 
 periences of his soul. It seemed a topic of absorb 
 ing interest to him, and he besought Dick to linger 
 yet a few moments at this dim, affecting hour. So 
 sublime a flow of sentiment formed an interesting 
 contrast to the caustic speech of Daniel Gaylord.
 
 224 TOWHEAD. 
 
 But, at an unfortunate moment, Dick realized that 
 she was hungry, and she gave Furnival her hand 
 with a melancholy, though abrupt, good-night. 
 
 As she entered the hall, the good matron, who 
 chanced to be passing, looked at her with some 
 surprise. Dick approached the matron with a 
 smile and pressed into her hand a parcel of bon 
 bons which Gaylord had precipitately bestowed 
 upon her at some moment during the swift exploits 
 of the afternoon. The matron playfully pinched 
 Dick s cheek, and bade her be a good girl and 
 passed on. Being late for supper, Dick ran down 
 into the servants hall and appealed to the sym 
 pathies of the cook by the gift of a generous piece 
 of coin, and had a table spread for her with great 
 glory and eclat. In her room a box of birthday 
 gifts from aunt and guardian awaited her. There 
 too, in faithful waiting, sat the calm and beloved 
 Dakotah. Dick surveyed her costly gifts criti 
 cally and without enthusiasm. 
 
 " Eighteen years old ! " she exclaimed, triumph 
 antly, sitting down on a corner of the bed. " And 
 now" she added, with serious warmth, " I hope 
 I shall occasionally be permitted to do as I 
 please ! "
 
 A PAIR OF HUNGRY EYES. 22$ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A PAIR OF HUNGRY EYES. 
 
 B^ROM the south gate to the lakes, three 
 paths, more or less circuitous, but all familiar 
 to the feet of my Dick Bodurtha, and traversed, 
 during her brief university course, with many a 
 gay companion. Sometimes it was with Dakotah 
 that Dick went, for there were boats to hire along 
 shore, and Dick was used to the oar ; and the two 
 made long watery voyages of exploration, or rocked 
 idly on the wave. 
 
 Occasionally Dick stole down to the shore and 
 enjoyed the sinful, thrilling, secret bliss of going 
 out alone with sails ! Professor Dane s house was 
 among the substantial mansions on the cliff, though 
 Dick knew it not. Late one afternoon he saw the 
 little, white-winged boat reeling in recklessly among 
 the waves, and, with indignation in his keen eyes, 
 recognized the girlish form of the solitary and 
 adventurous pilot. He went to the matron of the 
 Ladies Hall and solemnly warned her.
 
 226 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " It cannot be, " said the good matron. " What I 
 that sweet, fastidious creature! and she has not 
 asked me for permission to go sailing, even with a 
 companion, for a week ! It must have been one 
 of the village girls. I am sure you are mistaken, 
 Professor Dane." 
 
 But on the following day Professor Dane re 
 quested Miss Boclurtha to remain after the class. 
 " Did you go out by yourself in a sail-boat yester 
 day ? " he asked, when they were alone. There 
 was no commendation in his eyes now, but the 
 stern, direct question, 
 
 In all her life, Dick had never had youth or man 
 look at her before in such severe, uncompromising 
 fashion, she, the lovely, the adored, the wor 
 shipful one ! and she stood speechless with won 
 der. 
 
 Professor Dane repeated his question. 
 
 Dick s spirit rose to the occasion. An old and 
 energetic asseveration of Dymsbury Park, to the 
 effect that he was troubling himself with affairs 
 not concerning him, flashed through her mind ; 
 but she was too full of scorn to wish to appear 
 inelegant. 
 
 " I am not in the habit," she replied, loftily, " of
 
 A PAIR OF HUNGRY EYES. 22/ 
 
 attempting things that I don t know how to 
 accomplish." 
 
 The professor did not retreat. Dick knew that 
 his tone, though so firm, was even and kind. "Will 
 you answer my question ? " he said. 
 
 At the strange mastery of his voice, his man 
 ner, his eyes, the girl s proud spirit made a hasty 
 and desperate avowal of its irresponsibility. " I 
 did go out sailing alone," said she; "and, more 
 than that," she added, " I shall go again whenever 
 I choose to do so." 
 
 " It was a mad performance," said Professor 
 Dane, " and must not be repeated. I give you 
 seriously to understand, as I would any incautious 
 person whom I should discover in a like perilous 
 situation, that it must not be repeated. If you 
 ever attempt to go out on the lake in that way 
 again, and if you ever do attempt it I shall 
 know it, I will send immediately to your friends 
 and have you removed from within reach of the 
 danger. We are supposed to be dealing with ra 
 tional young men and women, and not with reck 
 less children ; but, remember, I shall know if you 
 attempt the thing again, and I shall do at once 
 and to the letter what I have said I will do. I will 
 not detain you longer."
 
 228 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Dick, superciliously, defiance 
 and scorn flashing black in her eyes, " your con 
 versation is so interesting I am sorry that I must 
 so soon be deprived of the pleasure of hearing it ! " 
 
 The professor did not look black nor reply. A 
 look of pain and perplexity crossed his face, a 
 face that had a quiet air of being set steadfastly 
 and simply in the direction of duty. 
 
 As Dick went out she knew that she had not 
 conquered neither by beauty, nor scorn, nor im 
 pudence ; but the victor sat within there, in just 
 and manly purpose, unmoved. This unaccustomed 
 consciousness of defeat affected Dick with a pain 
 ful wonder. She tried in vain to realize and weigh 
 the situation. But she secretly resolved, for one 
 thing, that she would not again go sailing alone on 
 the lake. She had a perfectly sound, though un 
 intelligible conviction that Professor Dane would 
 discover any such attempt : and, furthermore, she 
 did not doubt that, if occasion arose, he would un 
 hesitatingly carry out his threat. Dick was much 
 pleased with the University of the Three Lakes. 
 She enjoyed life there, on the whole, very much, 
 and she had on hand at present many affairs of an 
 important nature which she did not wish summa 
 rily disposed of.
 
 A PAIR OF HUNGRY EYES. 229 
 
 Daniel Gaylord and Michael Furnival had now 
 become as old friends, sweetly acknowledged sub 
 jects, available to while away the hours on any 
 occasion ; while around the candle of Dick s 
 charms other moths had not been slow to gather. 
 In circles outside the unhappy and disturbing 
 influence of Professor Dane, she was acknowledged 
 to be the most sweet-tempered, the most lovely 
 and engaging of girls. She found a piquancy and 
 interest in each new acquaintance. She bestowed 
 her gifts freely on the matron, her money on the 
 cook, and in walking, rowing, sailing, and driving, 
 the sunny days passed by. 
 
 Even the Anglo-Saxon class was felt, on the 
 whole, to be an aid rather than a hinderance to her 
 pleasures, for it gave a few comparatively calm 
 moments in which to arrange the swelling tide of 
 other affairs. It became a very popular class, and 
 notable additions, especially from among the num 
 ber of Dick s male acquaintances, were made to it 
 from time to time. Underneath its decorous 
 exterior there went on indeed a busy traffic in 
 notes, choice communications pursuing their adroit 
 and silent way through devious paths. Professor 
 Dane, earnestly preoccupied, was conscious of
 
 230 TOWHEAD. 
 
 some annoying, intangible quality at work in his 
 class. Signs of perplexity appeared now and then 
 on his brow, which passed away before the weight 
 of his more serious and positive efforts. 
 
 One day the professor having, without warning, 
 assumed what Dakotah West designated as a "vile 
 habit of skipping around," Dick and Dakotah were 
 intellectually overwhelmed by the sudden dark 
 catastrophe. Dakotah s expression was helpless 
 and affecting in the extreme. Dick, too, acknowl 
 edged the annoyance, but was engaged in too wide 
 a variety of pursuits to be seriously disturbed by 
 one fatal incident. Receiving, at this moment, a 
 communication from one Charlie Wilson, containing 
 precious words of condolence, coupled with an invi 
 tation to drive, she set herself quietly to work to 
 indite a suitable answer. Professor Dane, when once 
 awakened, exercised an uncommonly keen and 
 comprehensive order of vision. He saw the little 
 note, though so cautiously written and minutely 
 folded, and he courteously, though emphatically, 
 requested that there might be no more of this 
 foreign employ in the class. 
 
 Five minutes afterwards, supposing, from his 
 preoccupied air, that he had forgotten, and grown
 
 A PAIR OF HUNGRY EYES. 231 
 
 bold through too long license, Dick essayed again 
 to send the little note forth on its journey. The 
 mighty Dane beheld and paused. Dick, who had 
 ridden the wild colts of Dymsbury Park and 
 defied all the teachers of Mount Grimrood, turned 
 strangely and instantly pale. Professor Dane, 
 without any exhibition of temper, yet gave a 
 moment of very serious and decisive consideration 
 to the circumstance which had irritated him. 
 Disobeyed by this heedless girl in the presence of 
 all his class, in the same presence he gravely 
 criticized her conduct as captious and inconsid 
 erate, as that, in fact, of a "mere, spoiled, wayward 
 child." 
 
 Poor Dick did not throw off the trouble as 
 lightly as was her wont, she, the brilliant, the 
 fair, the adorable one, unused to savage, or even 
 logical treatment. She sat, with burning eyes, 
 perfectly still and pale. But fiery indignation was 
 visible on the countenances of those her youthful 
 admirers. Gaylord fixed upon the professor green 
 orbs, charged with an unblinking wrath, and 
 Michael Furnival, in the hall, loudly proclaimed his 
 readiness to denounce, to threaten, and to fight. 
 Dick laughed a little insanely.
 
 232 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " You will do nothing of the sort. He did quite 
 right," she said "But I hate him!" she added, 
 with a convulsive effort that choked her like a sob. 
 
 Through the door Dick saw the professor s 
 form bowed at his desk. She knew that he had 
 heard. She caught, as in a flash, something of the 
 meaning of his patient, troubled face, of the signs 
 of bitter struggle surviving in his strength, the 
 marks left by early hardness in his knotted 
 hands. An arrow of shame and remorse went to 
 her heart. She felt stifled with an indescribable 
 pain. She longed to get away from Gaylorcl, from 
 Furnival, even from Dakotah, from all. In her 
 room, she threw herself impulsively, face down 
 ward, on the bed. 
 
 Was it true, then, that for all her attractive grace, 
 her praised and winsome ways, she, Dick Bodurtha, 
 at heart was to be only condemned, pitied, and 
 despised ? " Selfish ! inconsiderate ! a wayward, 
 trifling child ! " She, who had dreamed of so 
 much, that was long ago, at Dymsbury Park, 
 so much attainment and goodness for her long 
 long life ! And she had not utterly forgotten, it 
 occurred to her now, sometimes, how, when the 
 new play was over some time she meant to be
 
 A PAIR OF HUNGRY EYES, 233 
 
 wiser and better than any one else. And the years 
 were passing, and she was losing the way. So 
 many things blinded her. It was all a play, 
 all empty, restless, vain. Dick grasped the bed 
 clothes in a tearless spasm. 
 
 " But I won t like him" she concluded, rele 
 vantly, rising. " He tries to make me remember 
 with his hateful, compelling eyes. He wants to 
 have me unhappy all the time, I presume. But I 
 shall not be. It hurts me to like him ! " cried 
 Dick, fiercely, " and I never, never will ! I said 
 that I hated him, and I do ! " 
 
 So Dick was as happy and light-hearted as ever 
 for several days, and, when her mind was com 
 pelled to revert to the subject, she ardently hated 
 Professor Dane. 
 
 Following the time of almost unbroken clear 
 weather, there came at length a week of drenching 
 rain. The paths of pleasure became floods of 
 water. The south gate stood dripping and deso 
 late. In the tediousness within doors, and general 
 dearth of entertainment, Dakotah West suggested 
 to Dick that they should put on their water-proofs 
 and go up to the usual Thursday evening service 
 in the chapel. In taking advantage of this idea
 
 234 TOWHEAD. 
 
 both had a mournful, though unspoken, conscious 
 ness that they were reduced to a condition of 
 almost pathetic straits. 
 
 The president of the university, who usually 
 presided on such occasions, was absent. In his 
 chair Dick saw r , with singular emotions, the form of 
 the odious and dreaded Dane. 
 
 Impelled, doubtless, by motives similar to their 
 own, Dick and Dakotah observed in the assembled 
 company a number of familiar and despondent 
 friends with whom attendance at Thursday evening 
 chapel was not habitual. A casual observer would 
 have noticed that the brow of gloom lifted, in some 
 cases, as these two favorite young ladies entered 
 and religiously seated themselves in an inconspic 
 uous part of the room. Ample opportunity for 
 flirtation arose. Dakotah enjoyed the social at 
 mosphere, though she sat nobly attentive to the 
 discourse. Dick desired not to listen, nor even to 
 have the appearance of listening. She intended 
 to comport herself with quiet decency, but she 
 had not come to the chapel to hear words from the 
 lips of one who had despised and wounded her. 
 With sublime indifference she turned her face and 
 her thoughts to the contemplation of other things.
 
 A PAIR OF HUNGRY EYES. 235 
 
 The good Dakotah listened and heard not. Dick 
 persistently closed her ears, and wherever she 
 looked, or into whatever widely-wandering channel 
 directed her mind, even through a long dialogue of 
 the eyes, exchanged with Daniel Gaylord, in which 
 the weather was mutually execrated and the 
 dear, idle sail-boat regretted and better hope 
 expressed for the future, she heard distinctly, and 
 distinctly understood, every utterance of Professor 
 Dane s. 
 
 It was not a sanctimonious voice that spoke ; it 
 had no conventional pulpit tones but it was like 
 the story of a soldier bearing real scars from the 
 battle-field ; or of a pilgrim worn and tried. 
 It touched the hidden springs of life, and the 
 unknown depth and sorrow of Dick s heart re 
 sponded. From listening and determining not to 
 listen, she consented at last to listen ; and still 
 putting up invisible hands to ward off the disquiet 
 which harassed and distracted her, she seemed to 
 hear again, in the tones of that gentle and persist 
 ent voice, the flute-note that stole up from the 
 meadow where poor Job Trench had laid his mar 
 tyred head. Was the grass long on his grave ? Dick 
 wondered. Were the flowers still growing there ?
 
 236 TOWHEAD. 
 
 The old, sweet meadows, she would like to 
 throw herself clown in them, with her heart to the 
 earth. What other mother had she known ! She 
 heard again the plaintive flute-note. She heard 
 the solgmn and jubilant trumpet-peal that swept 
 over the hills, after the hard self-denial of another 
 brave heart ; all the voices of Dymsbury Park 
 rising, like the wind, pure and free, calling to 
 simple life and greatness of soul and some true 
 and noble work. 
 
 Dick listened to them with the old childish 
 eagerness. She guessed something of their mean 
 ing now. Who could tell her the rest and 
 deepest ? Who could tell her what they said to 
 her? The good man talking there. He, though 
 following in a widely different path, had heard 
 them and learned all their mystery. 
 
 Dick forgot her rancor and dislike, forgot every 
 thing personal, except that she was troubled and 
 that there seemed to be the key ; she vaguely 
 longed for help, and there breathed a strong and 
 benign helper. Upborne, for the time, by this 
 new and purely spiritual excitement, she purposely 
 stole away, while Dakotah lingered to speak with a 
 friend after the service, and hid herself in the
 
 A PAIR OF HUNGRY EYES. 237 
 
 crowd, avoiding Gaylord, too, who thought she had 
 passed out. 
 
 Professor Dane had turned to the organ and was 
 touching the keys thoughtfully. He supposed the 
 chapel quite deserted, when this erring and incom 
 prehensible member of his class stood suddenly 
 before him, her face pale, her eyes unnaturally 
 large and bright. Dick met the professor s 
 surprised gaze without shrinking or embarrass 
 ment, speaking in an unconsciously eager tone : 
 
 " You told me what you thought of me the 
 other day, Professor Dane," said Dick. " In class, 
 you remember, you told me what I am. I know it 
 very often as well as you. But you ought 
 not to have told me that unless you can tell me 
 the other, what should any one do f What should 
 any one do in my case? " 
 
 In those bright, tearless eyes there was a look 
 that startled the good Dane, beautiful eyes, he 
 had seen them only full of mischievous and laughing 
 glances. They touched him now with their strangely 
 spiritual expression, a deep, honest, almost pitiful 
 soul-craving. He saw and bowed his head with 
 unspeakable kindness and compassion ; and, desir 
 ing to answer truly, he moved the organ-keys to a
 
 238 TOWHEAD. 
 
 strain that so rose from struggle to glorious rest 
 and strength, that, in the exalted moment, Dick s 
 passionate soul understood and was satisfied. 
 
 When the professor looked up, his strange 
 guest had disappeared, but not the hungry eyes. 
 They haunted him for hours afterwards pathetic 
 ghosts ! with their wonderfully deep expression.
 
 DICK MAKES A CONCESSION. 239 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 DICK MAKES A CONCESSION. 
 
 T~\ICK lay awake for full a quarter of an hour 
 after she had got home from chapel, and, in 
 the course of such severe and unseasonable medita 
 tions, she concluded that if she was going to set 
 about her own reform in earnest, she should begin 
 by apologizing to Professor Dane on the morrow. 
 
 " Let me see," said Dick, drowsily counting on 
 her fingers in the dark, " there are three things ; 
 a a saucing him about the sail-boat and 
 a a snubbing him in class - and a a 
 
 ," but sleep came to the relief of that already 
 
 overtaxed spiritual organization, and soft fingers 
 and pathetic eyes and murmuring lips all yielded 
 to sweet repose. 
 
 But that Dick should have entertained the idea 
 of apologizing to the Dane, signified more of an 
 awakened conscience than one would at first 
 suppose ; for my lass, though she may have had 
 deep moments of contrition, had ever refrained
 
 240 TOWHEAD. 
 
 from any soft acknowledgment of them, the 
 lingering stoicism of Dymsbury Park, where, if one 
 did another an injury, he should in due time make 
 practical amends, but the admission in sentimental 
 speech that one could be in the wrong was con 
 sidered imbecile and weak. 
 
 It was the more strange then, that, as the 
 morning rose bright and fair, and Dick calmly 
 thought over the triumphs and escapades which 
 should adorn the new clay, her soul was full, 
 at the same time, of a most sweet and grateful 
 consciousness of repentance, and her apology 
 seemed the crowning art of the hour. 
 
 When Dick looked "good," she somehow looked 
 more than that. Dakotah called it " entrancingly 
 divine." Yet it was not guile ; it was not artifice. 
 It seemed, with my Dick, a sort of rare and ex 
 quisite inspiration ; it seized her mightily ; it 
 breathed from every pore of her sweet and freshly 
 dressed body ; and it would have convinced the 
 most hardened sceptic. 
 
 Gaylord watched her in class, and marvelled and 
 admired, and afar back now in his consciousness 
 slumbered the thought that " girls are infernal 
 skittish."
 
 DICK MAKES A CONCESSION. 241 
 
 Furnival watched her, and longed to draw forth 
 from her, in some dim and melancholy light, the 
 history of her soul s new experience. 
 
 And still Dick breathed forth sweetness and 
 repentance. 
 
 She made another complete failure in her recita 
 tion, but one would as soon have thought of 
 remarking the fact in the case of some heavenly 
 alighted guest, whose mind, unfamiliar with Anglo- 
 Saxon, was yet redolent of angelic lore. 
 
 And when her school-mates had passed out, 
 Dick leaned both white arms lightly on the pro 
 fessor s desk, and the look in those deep, clear 
 eyes of hers was intoxicating to mortal sight. 
 
 "I am sorry, Professor Dane," said Dick, "that 
 I spoke so rudely about about sailing, you re 
 member. And I am sorry that I was so rude in 
 class and I hope you will excuse me." 
 
 " Why, as for your going out in the sail-boat 
 alone," said Professor Dane, quickly and pleas 
 antly ; " you know how to manage it a little, but you 
 don t know how to manage it very well ; and the 
 lake is an unquiet body at best, and storms come 
 over it very suddenly, and therefore, as far as 
 that is concerned, I am glad that you are sorry.
 
 242 TOWHEAD. 
 
 And, for the other, it is of no consequence. It is 
 quite forgotten. You are fond of sailing, Miss 
 Bodurtha?" 
 
 Dick gave a little sigh and cast down her eyes. 
 It signified, that although her heart had once found 
 pleasure in such vain conceits and, in truth, 
 Gaylord s boat was to be ready, by agreement, at 
 three o clock of that very afternoon she now 
 seemed to herself to be absorbed in all heavenly 
 meditations and desires. 
 
 Down by the cliff on which his dwelling stood, 
 Professor Dane had a strong boat of his own. 
 Whether he would have cared to give this rare 
 penitent a sail in it or not, his honest heart 
 certainly warmed over her with great kindness. 
 
 " I suppose I ve been too fond of pleasure of all 
 kinds," said my inspired Dick, tracing a fine path 
 way through the dust on the professor s desk with 
 one delicate finger. 
 
 " Perhaps the Anglo-Saxon bothers you. Is 
 there any fresh trouble with it ? " said Professor 
 Dane, awakened by the girl s pensive manner to an 
 almost tender sympathy. 
 
 At this, blush after blush chased each other over 
 the velvet of the penitent s fair cheek ; for had not
 
 DICK MAKES A CONCESSION. 243 
 
 her discomfiture in class been occasioned by the 
 professor s new habit of "skipping around!" 
 
 Dick did not, however, weakly confess to this 
 crime. In such case it would have been necessary 
 to implicate Dakotah ; besides she reflected, that, 
 with a conscience now so dangerously on the alert, 
 it was necessary to pause somewhere, and she 
 wisely concluded to draw the line here. 
 
 " Why," said she, with delicious evasion, and 
 lifting her eyes gently to the professor s face ; " do 
 I have such very poor lessons ? " 
 
 The professor longed to say " No." He longed 
 to comfort that sorrowing young heart ; but more 
 than all else, he was honest. 
 
 " I am afraid," he said, in a thoughtfully com 
 passionate tone, "that they have not been very 
 good lately. But I think that that can be im 
 proved. Perhaps I can help you 
 
 Here the sedate army of the professor s senior 
 Latin class came filing into the room, and Dick 
 murmured softly, " Thank you, Professor Dane ;" 
 and her eyes fell again for an instant, and the 
 sweet blush mantled her cheek, and she picked up 
 her unworn Anglo-Saxon text-book and departed. 
 
 But in her very next solitary moment, Dick
 
 244 TOW HE AD. 
 
 beat her hands upon her breast, after a light 
 affectation of the manner of those who display 
 their towering emotions on the stage. " He isn t 
 like any of the rest ; he s more fun," said Dick, 
 " than Furnival and Gaylord and all the rest put 
 together ! But, somehow," she added, carefully 
 arranging an eyelash in the glass, " I know I never 
 could like him in the world." 
 
 Dick s periods of inspired goodness were variable 
 in their duration. In the present instance the 
 palm of purity and peace seemed to have taken up 
 permanent abode upon her serene and lovely feat 
 ures. And now she and Dakotah tried to devise 
 some way in which, under Professor Dane s new 
 method of class procedure, they might make a 
 tolerable shift at Anglo-Saxon without yet com 
 mitting the whole lesson to memory. 
 
 During the pains of these deliberations, and 
 while as yet no master-stroke of policy had 
 yielded to their struggling genius, they had them 
 selves excused from class for three consecutive 
 days by professed reason of severe and disabling 
 headaches. 
 
 On the afternoon of the third day, as Dick, sur 
 rounded by a laughing group of the university
 
 DICK MAKES A CONCESSION. 24$ 
 
 youths, was cooling her aching brow in a retired 
 and pleasant part of the university grounds, she 
 was startled to see the brave Dane himself, swing 
 ing his arms in a rapid advance down this se 
 cluded path, which afforded him, indeed, a shorter 
 cut home to his high tower on the cliff. 
 
 Dick s forehead, though supposed to be racked 
 with internal pains, had, it must be confessed, 
 externally, a singularly tranquil and untroubled 
 appearance. The first cloud which had visited it 
 for some hours now appeared, as she became 
 aware of the professor s approach, in a becoming 
 little knot of perplexity, which knitted itself be 
 tween her eyes. 
 
 " Disperse ! " she murmured in a low tone to her 
 companions. " Depart ! abscond ! quietly scatter 
 yourselves, until these calamities be overpast ! " 
 
 It chanced that Dick had this day been carrying 
 her Anglo-Saxon grammar about with her with 
 a politic view to effect, and as she now opened 
 its unfamiliar pages and bent her eyes upon the 
 obscure text, the little knot of perplexity on her 
 brow deepened to an expression of almost acute 
 distress. 
 
 She wondered whether the professor would
 
 246 TOWHEAD. 
 
 merely lift his hat and pass by, or stop to speak 
 with her a moment. He stopped, surprised at meet 
 ing her there, and with such real faith in her 
 indisposition, and such real pity for her suffering 
 softening the gaze of his keen dark eyes, that the 
 conscience, which really did repose somewhere in 
 Dick s fair being, rose up in hot rebellion, as it 
 had frequently done before in this presence. " I 
 never thought of it as anything wrong before," 
 Dick thought; "why should he always make me 
 feel so, and always makes me feel guilty? But, 
 guilty or no guilty," Dick continued firmly to 
 herself, " don t you dare to blush the way you did 
 the other day in class, Dick Bodurtha, or you ll get 
 pins stuck into you when you get Jwme ! " 
 
 Buoyed up by the prospect of so desperate an 
 alternative, Dick nerved herself to meet the pro 
 fessor s gaze bravely. 
 
 " You should not bother yourself with the book 
 if you are ill," said Professor Dane. " Put it by 
 and enjoy the pleasant weather." 
 
 "Oh, I do," said Dick, in answer to the last sug 
 gestion ; and, "I I haven t a great deal," she 
 stammered, helplessly, in answer to the first. 
 
 "Professor Dane, I really don t know how to
 
 DICK MAKES A CONCESSION. 
 
 learn that book," said Dick, after a moment s pause, 
 lifting her beautiful, piteous eyes to his face. 
 
 "Don t know how!" said the professor. He 
 took the book. It was tiresome standing. He 
 looked about him. 
 
 Would he sit down with her with her, poor, 
 ignorant, conscience-smitten Dick Bodurtha, in 
 this delightful place ! He laid a fallen bough across 
 two heaps of shrubbery. " Let us sit down," he 
 said, "you must be tired." 
 
 " You are too kind, Professor Dane," said Dick, 
 and she knew that that was all too true. She sat 
 down on the bough and the professor seated 
 himself beside her. 
 
 Dick knew that her scattered companions were 
 watching her in astonishment from various points 
 well removed. She fancied that she caught the 
 gleam of Gaylord s emerald eyes from behind a 
 distant pine, and she distinctly saw Furnival gaz 
 ing upon the wondrous scene from afar. She did 
 not call the professor s attention to these objects. 
 
 Dick knew, but she cared not, for her soul 
 was happy. Why she was so happy she did not 
 inquire. Extreme bliss, indeed, seemed this sweet 
 creature s natural and rightful atmosphere ; and as
 
 248 TOWHEAD. 
 
 she sat on the same bough with the professor, 
 looking over the same book, with the same sun 
 beam glancing through the branches from her eyes 
 to his, Dick coddled herself up in her wonderful, 
 unquestioning content, and was inspired with a 
 tenfold goodness. 
 
 Why it was that the ever ill-treated Anglo-Saxon 
 grammar so soon found its way out of sight and out 
 of mind, slipping quietly down, down on to the very 
 ground, I cannot tell ; but there it reposed in flut 
 tering ignominy, yes, at the good professor s feet. 
 
 And why it was that Dick was moved to reveal 
 so much truthfully, without thinking whether it 
 was truth, confidingly, with only a wondering sense 
 of something sweet in the confidence of her past 
 life to Professor Dane ; even of Dymsbury Park, 
 and of Excelluna, too, in whom the professor took a 
 particular interest, asking Dick if she wrote to her 
 frequently and Dick felt sorry and confessed that 
 she had not for a long, long time, and the professor 
 said he should think, if she would, it would please 
 the poor lonely woman, and Dick blushed, in spite 
 of the prospective pins, and said she had just been 
 thinking that she would write her a letter that 
 very night
 
 DICK MAKES A CONCESSION. 249 
 
 And why the professor found so much, from his 
 own sturdier experience, to mate with and console 
 this pretty confidence, laughing sometimes with a 
 hearty gleam in his eyes, sometimes listening or 
 speaking with a grave and helpful strength 
 
 Why the Anglo-Saxon grammar should have 
 fallen to the earth and all this come about I can 
 not say. But when the sun at last had gone down 
 completely over the lake in the west, and a chill 
 breath of evening came up in the air, my Dick 
 and the professor looked up with a mutual impulse 
 of surprise at such swift and erratic performances 
 on the part of Dame Nature. 
 
 " I have kept you too long," said the professor ; 
 and he rose and picked up the despised little book 
 which my poor Dick, alas ! was never to learn how 
 to study, and he walked back with her along the 
 frequented path past the feminine eyes at the win 
 dows, to the door of the Ladies Hall. There he 
 took the girl s hand for an instant in a firm, kind 
 grasp as he bade her good-night, and entered after 
 her, and courteously apologized to the matron for 
 her absence. Professor Dane was evidently un 
 acquainted with the less pretentious formula of the 
 south gate.
 
 250 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Dick went to her room with the air of one 
 walking in a blissful, half-incredulous dream. But 
 among the feminine gazers at the window, one pair 
 of eyes had kindled with a little foretaste of mis 
 chief. Dick had walked, as if still happily dream 
 ing, to the glass, and stood there unconsciously 
 arranging a few scattered locks of hair. 
 
 " So you ve got another victim," said a giggling 
 voice at the door. " What a mighty, mighty fish 
 this time, Bodurtha ! " 
 
 In plain truth Dick was not partial to her femi 
 nine acquaintances, always with the one exception 
 of the beloved Dakotah. In the case of the 
 present base intruder, she took no pains to con 
 ceal her indifference. 
 
 "Well, Kidds," said she, without turning her 
 face from the glass, "if you have any errand 
 state it." 
 
 What " Kidds " had started with the intention 
 of stating for something like what it was, a mere 
 vague hypothesis, she was now piqued into affirm 
 ing as an incontestable fact. 
 
 " Prepare to pick up your heart," said the sharply 
 giggling voice. " But of course you ought to know,
 
 DICK MAKES A CONCESSION. 2$ I 
 
 what everybody thinks, the learned and mighty 
 Dane might go around with you a little just for 
 pity, to try and convert you, but he s engaged to a 
 Miss Lawrence that lives in this place ; and she 
 graduated at the university, and she s awfully 
 smart, too, and didn t use to stay out of class, I 
 guess, because she couldn t learn her lessons ! " 
 
 Kidds could not see Dick s face in the glass. 
 Dick watched it herself with a sickening dread 
 and wonder, paling, paling quite to the lips. Dick 
 was used to taking her own time for answering 
 unpleasant girls. When she did speak it was the 
 clear, cool voice of the Dick Bodurtha whom 
 Kidds knew. 
 
 "My circle of acquaintances is not so small," said 
 Dick, " nor my knowledge of society so infinitesi 
 mal, nor my desire to immolate myself at the altar 
 so great, that I am in the habit of regarding every 
 man who speaks to me as a possible husband. Will 
 you kindly enter and close the door, or depart, my 
 dear, as you see fit." 
 
 " I know a good many who say it would look 
 better if you went more with the girls, anyway," 
 said Kidds, forcibly closing the door from the 
 outside.
 
 252 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Dick remained standing still for a moment or two, 
 then she went to the door and quietly locked it. 
 
 "After all," said Dick, looking up at last with 
 those tearless, pathetic eyes from where she had 
 thrown herself in an attitude of abandonment by 
 the bedside; "it s a great deal better as it is. I ve 
 said I always wanted to be perfectly free, and I 
 do. It s a great deal easier and happier not to 
 care, and I m afraid, if I d kept on, I might I 
 might have liked him." 
 
 At a small reception which the young ladies held 
 in the parlors that evening none was gayer, there 
 was none whose eyes shone so fearlessly bright as 
 my Dick s. But those bright eyes, if one had 
 known the truth, saw through a dreary maze, and 
 the lights in the room, and the faces of her com 
 panions, and the stars when she caught glimpses of 
 them through the windows, seemed to be paling, 
 paling.
 
 A TROUBLED LAKE. 253 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A TROUBLED LAKE. 
 
 "T^HE angel of goodness departed. The restless 
 demons came back with increased power to 
 take possession of Dick s heart. At the Univer 
 sity of the Three Lakes this was the girl who 
 cared for nobody and who dared everything ; 
 whose eyes mocked you, whose sweet laugh had 
 caught an unpleasant ring. 
 
 The matron of the Ladies Hall having been made 
 aware of several bold indiscretions on Dick s part, 
 took an opportunity at last gently to remonstrate 
 with her. Dick lifted her eyes to the matron s 
 face for an instant with such a weary, almost hag 
 gard look in them, that the good woman was dis 
 concerted, and if Dick was not mad for pleasure, 
 then she knew not what ailed the girl. 
 
 "What should you advise me to do then ? " said 
 Dick, speaking lightly. " It is no more trouble to 
 you than it is to me. One must fill the time some 
 how."
 
 254 TOWHEAD. 
 
 To this considerate and respectful speech the 
 matron replied, with a face full of wonder; " I don t 
 know what ails you, my child," she said. 
 
 The good Dane was troubled, distressed. He 
 looked in vain to see once more the hungry ex 
 pression, or the heavenly aspiring expression 
 which had seemed to him to open like wells, giving 
 glimpses of an unknown depth. If he chanced to 
 meet Dick s eye, it was only a surface glance that 
 she vouchsafed him brief, indifferent, heedless. 
 Yet Professor Dane judged far more truly and 
 deeply than the matron. He knew that it was not 
 purely increased happiness which gave the wilder 
 gayety to Dick s manner. So delicately he divined 
 her condition he knew that any stern or reproach 
 ful word would fall like added fuel on some already 
 desperate and mysterious despair in that young 
 heart. She had forgotten the hour of her sweet, 
 strange confidence in him ; otherwise it seemed 
 to him that he might in a metaphorical sort of 
 sense have taken the sorrowful young creature in 
 his arms and asked her to tell him the trouble. 
 
 The professor having dismissed his last class, 
 rose and gathered up for later perusal the written 
 exercises which some of his senior pupils had left
 
 A TROUBLED LAKE. 255 
 
 on his desk. In doing so he detected one scrap 
 which appeared to have fallen from among the 
 others to the floor, and he picked it up and hastily 
 thrust it into his pocket with the rest. At ten 
 o clock that night, looking up from his books, and 
 the pleasant fire burning in his grate, which latter 
 seemed doubly cheerful in contrast with the storm 
 which had risen and was blowing outside, he be 
 thought him that he would now examine those 
 class exercises. He spread them out on his table, 
 
 neatly written and correct they were, disqui 
 sitions in Latin on learned and abstruse themes. 
 The professor smiled a little proudly at the prog 
 ress through which he had watched those ambi 
 tious pupils. When lo ! in the midst of the digni 
 fied array, there suddenly arose before his eyes, and 
 seemed to grow, as he gazed, into gigantic letters, 
 a ragged, pitiable little scrawl indited in the most 
 reckless English. Even before he had formed any 
 idea of the contents, or glanced at the signature, 
 his heart thrilled with a subtle sense of the writer. 
 " Dear Furnival," said the note ; " I go to please 
 myself. I ve always wanted to explore Little Squall 
 
 Island by moonlight. Do you, reverend sir, have 
 the boat ready by eight o clock sharp. Won t we
 
 256 TOWHEAD. 
 
 sail home fast by the pale, pale moonlight ! And 
 the cook she is my dearest friend she will for 
 me unlocketh the window. 
 
 "Thusly ever of theely, 
 
 "DlCK BODURTHA." 
 
 And the girl who had planned and written this 
 was the one who had told him a few short days 
 ago, with such a divine grace of expression, that 
 she was "sorry!" Furnival had accidentally 
 dropped the communication while passing out of 
 the class-room, and it was this that he had picked 
 up, supposing it to be one of the Latin exercises. 
 
 These things flashed through the professor s 
 mind without his heed as he looked out through 
 the night and storm to bee the white caps breaking 
 on Lake Squall. 
 
 Of one thing he was terribly, instinctively sure 
 for it had been pleasant at the time the two had 
 planned to start somewhere out on that dolorous 
 lake, or under its senseless waters " O my 
 God!" said the professor, shuddering or, per 
 chance, chilled and drenched with the wind and 
 rain on that shelterless little island, was Dick 
 Bodurtha, her only companion a slight and bookish
 
 A TROUBLED LAKE. 257 
 
 Adonis, whose knowledge of sea-craft was hardly 
 equal to the girl s own. 
 
 The professor, usually inclined to meet every 
 emergency with the best of courage and hope, now 
 made ready for his battle with the elements with a 
 set face, hopelessly. If they had reached the 
 island before the storm arose, as was possible, 
 "the lad " would advise staying there, he thought ; 
 " but the girl ! who could tell ? Great heavens ! 
 she feared nothing." 
 
 He passed out through the room where his sis 
 ter, a woman dressed in widow s black, with a face 
 as strongly refined as the professor s own, was 
 folding away her sewing. In answer to her look 
 of surprise, he told her the story briefly. 
 
 " There s no hope," he said ; "the girl is insane, 
 and the lad is a puppy with soft sinews." 
 
 An intense nervous energy escaped him with 
 these last syllables. The sharp, unusual bitter 
 ness of the Dane s tone surprised his sister most. 
 He, hastening down the narrow cliff-path, so fami 
 liar that his feet bounded over it, even in the dark, 
 with the utmost firmness, was conscious neither of 
 wind nor rain. He dragged out his boat alone ; the 
 boat that was the jest of sunny days, with its cum-
 
 258 TOWHEAD. 
 
 bersome, unwieldy strength. The toughness of 
 the oars well matched the rower s strength. He 
 held it against wind and wave, firmly, desperately ; 
 the look in his face which sets doom and tempest 
 at defiance. He was toiling towards the island. 
 There was one hope. " One hope, " the professor 
 muttered over to himself. Had he too gone in 
 sane, because that one hope seemed suddenly to 
 absorb all his life, past, present, and future ? She 
 had tacitly appealed to him. Perhaps he could 
 have saved her ! Or did he dream that, if per 
 chance one golden head had gone down beneath 
 the wave, whatever triumph or joy might come to 
 him in later years there could never be any bliss 
 for him like the bliss that might have been ! 
 
 As the toiler neared the island it was midnight. 
 There was no cessation of the wind, which blew 
 colder, but the moon shone out through a rift in 
 the clouds, and there in that pale light, on that 
 desolate, melancholy shore, to the angry swash of 
 the waves and the shrill moan of the wind, were 
 revealed my Dick and Furnival dancing ! Verily, 
 it was done to keep the breath of life in their 
 drenched and shivering bodies. And "Verily, I 
 thank God ! " said the professor, heeding not while
 
 A TROUBLED LAKE. 259 
 
 he beheld them : and not until long afterwards the 
 scene came up to him as possessing something 
 solemnly, ludicrously weird. 
 
 Furnival hailed him with a shout. But my poor 
 Dick ! she would rather have shivered and danced 
 through the night than that this man who loved 
 not her should come to save her for his great pity. 
 Ay, she believed that she would rather have died, 
 and gone to sleep down under those sombre waves. 
 Her hair hung loose and wet about her, her gar 
 ments, too, were soaked and dripping with rain ; 
 and it seemed to the professor, if this fair girl had 
 lived many sorrowful years, she could hardly have 
 turned to him eyes of a deeper misery. But those 
 lovely, miserable eyes did not fill nor shrink. 
 
 " Furnival did not fasten the boat securely ; the 
 storm came on us unawares and we lost it," said 
 she, calmly : " otherwise I should have ventured to 
 go home with it." 
 
 " I do not doubt it," said the professor, gently, 
 as to some sick or irresponsible person. The 
 tone springing from the deep kindness of his 
 heart, Dick could not understand, save as dictated 
 by sublime contempt and pity. 
 
 "I shall not trouble you," she said; and then
 
 260 TOWHEAD. 
 
 the light and the misery both seemed to fade out 
 of her eyes, and she sank down all in her golden 
 hair and her drenched garments in a dead, weary 
 faint. 
 
 Furnival thought it was death indeed, and his 
 expression was intensely, unaffectedly tragic. 
 
 " Good-bye, Professor," said he, waving his 
 hand. " God knows we meant no harm. I am 
 going to drown myself." 
 
 Between the two the professor had a hard time 
 of it. He succeeded in capturing Furnival and 
 bringing him to reason ; and he lifted the uncon 
 scious girl and bore her to the boat. There he 
 wrapped his coat about her and made as comfort 
 able a place for her head as he could ; she gasped 
 several times and opened her eyes to misery again, 
 but lay perfectly still as he had placed her, only 
 putting up an arm before her quiet face. 
 
 The wind and wave being on his side now, the 
 professor made for the shore rapidly. He heroic 
 ally accepted Furnival s Lilliputian efforts at help 
 ing him haul in the boat, and spoke to him with a 
 manly consideration which touched and won Fur- 
 nival s heart for all time. 
 
 "Don t imagine it s all your fault, my lad," said
 
 A TROUBLED LAKE. 261 
 
 he. " Cheer up. Run home and get in between 
 some dry sheets and learn wisdom for the 
 future. My sister will care for this young lady." 
 
 " I can walk home," said Dick, vainly endeavor 
 ing to brace her chilled and weary members 
 against the wind. " The the cook will let me 
 in." 
 
 " Oh, I don t see how you can ! " exclaimed Fur- 
 nival, ruefully. " It s a mile to the hall, and you 
 look so, and you fainted dead away over on the 
 island." 
 
 But the professor had already deliberately taken 
 Dick up in his arms and was carrying her up the 
 cliff towards the high tower. Furnival turned to 
 look a moment, before he struck out for home. 
 
 " Never mind," said he, a little bitterly. " He 
 deserves her. Let him have her. I ve got my 
 precious skin and bones." 
 
 Borne up the hill in the professor s arms, saved 
 by one who despised her, carried to his house a 
 shivering burden for pity s sake, Dick s proud 
 heart bled and broke. " My sister will care for 
 her," he had said. Dick thought of the girl who 
 had giggled out those heartless word-arrows at her 
 door ; and this unknown sister of the professor s,
 
 262 TOWHEAD. 
 
 might she not be more unkind ? She had good 
 reason to be unkind. She would be vexed because 
 her brother had been called out to toil through the 
 storm at night to save a heedless girl. She would 
 show a silent contempt for and suspicion of her. 
 She would attend to her wants with something of 
 the kindness one might show a suffering dog. 
 
 At the door Dick caught her struggling breath. 
 
 "You must put me down, here," she said; " I 
 will not go in there. I am so miserable, it doesn t 
 much matter, I know, but I cannot and I will not 
 bear that." 
 
 "Will not bear what?" said the professor, with 
 grave wonder. " I should think you might trust 
 me, child, at least. My own dear sister is not 
 more honored and sacred in my thoughts than you 
 shall be in my house to-night." 
 
 " Oh, it isn t that ! " moaned Dick. " I do 
 trust you, and I know you ll be good and kind. 
 And I wouldn t mind a whole army of wild Hot 
 tentots," said poor, tired Dick, desperately. " No, 
 I wouldn t ! For I believe they might pity me 
 and be good to me ; but I d rather die, yes, I d 
 rather lie right down here on the doorsteps and die 
 than go in there as I am now, and meet 2. girl ! "
 
 A TROUBLED LAKE. 263 
 
 In spite of the solemnity of the occasion a smile 
 played under the professor s moustache. 
 
 " My sister once had a daughter," said he, "who, 
 if she had lived, would be older than you are now. 
 She is not a girl, she is a true, sympathetic woman. 
 And our only maid-servant is over forty years old, 
 and is at present, I have no doubt, peacefully 
 slumbering away in the attic. Such terrors were 
 all in your imagination. Dismiss them. Come." 
 
 But Dick could not smile. " I don t much care," 
 said she "but I don t mind going in now." 
 And like some strange, bewildered bird, with spent 
 breath and bedraggled wings, Dick entered into 
 this warmed and lighted home. 
 
 Never a question the angel in black asked her, 
 Dick remembered ; never a smile at her misery, 
 nor a scowl, nor a mean suspicion, crossed that 
 strong, fine face. But she tinderstood as the 
 immortals do and fed and warmed and clothed 
 the belated bird and put her in her own sweet 
 room, and, by the very grace of her presence, 
 charmed her into a seventh heaven of rest. 
 
 In the morning, before any alarm could have 
 been occasioned by reason of Dick s absence, the 
 good sister accompanied her to the hall. The
 
 264 TOWHEAD. 
 
 matron was a gentle friend of the professor s sister, 
 and the latter so tenderly related to her the story 
 of Dick s midnight adventures that the matron 
 only rose and clasped Dick enthusiastically to her 
 breast. " You must rest. You shall not go to 
 your recitations for two days," she said. 
 
 " Isn t it strange how I get out of scrapes, now that 
 I don t care anything about it ! " mused Dick, with a 
 sad, impersonal interest in the case, as she wended 
 her way to her room. She found Dakotah there, 
 gazing blankly at the untumbled bed. But, if the 
 matron had been moved to clasp Dick to her breast, 
 what were Dakotah s emotions on hearing the tale of 
 her darling s exploits. She too remained away from 
 recitations, and ever and anon gazed at her friend, 
 as though she saw her restored to her from the 
 dead. As for Dick, she smiled and talked bravely ; 
 but it seemed as though her life had slipped away 
 somehow. 
 
 The matron having proscribed intellectual toils 
 for Dick for the present, my lass engaged with 
 Dakotah in a game of chess. Here, having ar 
 ranged their hostile forces, they carried on battle 
 with such a vagueness of manoeuvre and with such 
 an artless generosity of conduct, the one towards
 
 A TROUBLED LAKE. 26$ 
 
 the other, that victory forgot its laurels and defeat 
 was robbed of its sharpest pang. 
 
 Still later Dick wandered down to the matron s 
 room. The matron made her lie down on the 
 lounge in her pleasant sitting-room, showed her 
 her scrap-books and photograph-albums, and 
 chatted to her entertainingly. While there, there 
 came a ring at the hall door. The maid brought 
 in a card, "For Miss Bodurtha, " and the 
 name on the card was Erwin Dane. 
 
 " He might at least leave me in peace," thought 
 Dick ; but her heart did not beat violently, nor her 
 eyes shrink in the straight gaze she had fixed on 
 the matron s face. 
 
 " I will go into the reception-room and see him," 
 she said. 
 
 " No, no," said the matron. " It is too chill for 
 you there. You shall have this room in which to 
 receive him. I am going out." 
 
 Before Dick realized that the matron had passed 
 out, or recovered herself to lift her head from the 
 pillows the matron had placed for her on the lounge, 
 the professor had entered the room. So she took 
 advantage of the needed support the pillows gave 
 her, and lay still on them. The professor had 
 never seen her look so pale and lovely.
 
 266 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " It s very kind of you to come to inquire for 
 me," said Dick ; and further than that, though 
 she was not embarrassed, she seemed scarcely to 
 care to meet the professor s eyes. 
 
 The professor spoke pleasantly on a variety of 
 ordinary topics ; and then, as it was so still and 
 they were alone together in the room, he ap 
 proached a subject nearer his heart. 
 
 " When I was rowing out there in the storm to 
 find you, last night," said he, " I thought over 
 many things. I made up my mind that I would 
 never again allow any conventionality, or any any 
 feeling whatever of my own, to prevent me from 
 offering my whole heart s assistance to one who 
 might seem to need my aid who might seem to 
 need the aid of any honest and friendly heart." 
 
 Dick, growing paler and paler, looked away and 
 said nothing. 
 
 "I am so much older than you my experience 
 of life has been so much different I have a right 
 to speak to you thus. And I thought once," 
 continued the professor, his deep voice trembling, 
 " that you regarded me as one whom you might 
 trust. Once I fancied and I shall never forget 
 it that you looked at me as though you believed
 
 A TROUBLED LAKE. 267 
 
 I might indeed have some power to help you. If 
 you knew what I would give to help you if you 
 knew " 
 
 Alas, poor Dick ! She saw this not as love but 
 magnanimity, a magnanimity that stung and slew 
 her. 
 
 "Stop! " she cried, impetuously, putting up her 
 hands before her eyes, while a deep red spot of 
 agony and shame glowed on either cheek " Stop ! 
 I do not want to hear you ! I cannot bear it ! " 
 
 " We will let that pass then," said the professor, 
 gently, his own face very pale. " But for God s 
 sake, my poor child,"- he said, with a quiet disre 
 gard for his own suffering " tell me what troubles 
 you ? " 
 
 Dick kept her hands over her eyes. She could 
 not hide the flaming cheeks. " I d rather die," 
 said she, through her white teeth ; " I d rather be 
 flayed and quartered and and quartered 
 alive ! " cried poor Dick, with a desperate recollec 
 tion of Excelluna s book of martyrs "than tell 
 you ! " 
 
 " Am I indeed so poor a comforter ? " said the 
 Dane, sadly, smiling a little in spite of all at Dick s 
 ghastly hyperbole of speech.
 
 268 TOW HE AD. 
 
 " If you wanted to be kind to me," Dick went 
 on, excitedly, "you would leave me, you would 
 never speak to me in that way again. I am tired, 
 I can not bear to hear it." 
 
 " Well," said the professor, still gently, rising, 
 " I can be kind to you in that way. When you 
 are calmer you will appreciate what I have said at 
 least enough to know that I am always ready to 
 serve you. I beg of you that you will never let 
 any any thing false prevent you from giving me 
 that consolation, if I can help you." And he was 
 gone. 
 
 Dick lay motionless, covering her eyes, until all 
 the color had faded slowly out of her face again. 
 Were those bright eyes never to know tears? 
 She lifted them with a burning despair. The 
 tears were unutterable in the child s heart ah, if 
 Dick could have known, it was not Miss Lawrence, 
 however learned and admirable she might be, 
 whom Professor Dane loved, but this wretched, 
 wretched little girl with the suffering, tearless 
 eyes.
 
 THE STARRING TOUR. 269 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE "STARRING" TOUR. 
 
 r I "HE term was near its close at the University 
 of the Three Lakes, and my Dick and Dako- 
 tah were glad ; for they both felt that the star of 
 their intellectual course was waning, and needed 
 rekindling amid other scenes. 
 
 Dick being too far removed from her friends in 
 one direction, and Dakotah in another, to make it 
 practicable that they should return home for the 
 short vacation, they both accepted the invitation of 
 Dakotah s aunt, who lived in the suburbs of a 
 lively western town about fifty miles distant, to 
 spend the time with her. 
 
 There, amid ample grounds, and with saddle- 
 horses at their disposal, it may truly be said that 
 they enjoyed a season of complete mental rest. 
 
 Early in the course of the vacation, Gaylord, 
 having paid his dutiful respects to his parents 
 at home, came to sojourn in the town where
 
 2/0 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Dick and Dakotah were, and rode with them 
 daily. 
 
 The trio became interested in the affairs of the 
 liberal church with which Dakotah s aunt was con 
 nected, in so much that they planned a theatrical 
 entertainment for its emolument. They found 
 a play admirably adapted to their force of execu 
 tion ; Dick was the intractable and capricious ; 
 Dakotah, the calm and matronly ; Gaylord, the 
 practical man of fortune ; but for the gay and 
 dashing adventurer who could suit save our 
 gifted Furnival ? So a letter, with money for the 
 journey, was sent to the poor but beauteous youth 
 at " Kirkville," whither he had gone to rejoin his 
 supporters amongst the ladies of the Baptist church, 
 with his pockets full of prize-medals and cer 
 tificates of high college advancement and commend 
 atory letters. Furnival quickly responded to the 
 call, and the cast of characters was complete. 
 
 And many miles away, Mrs. Bodurtha and Mr. 
 Higgins, who had conscientiously removed their 
 charge "from within hearing distance" of the 
 allurements and devices of the theatre, slept the 
 unawakened sleep of the just. 
 
 "Victims of Fashion " was brought out on
 
 THE STARRING TOUR. 2/1 
 
 temporary boards in the vestry of the liberal 
 
 church at B , and was received with unbounded 
 
 favor, and, in truth, the amateur performance 
 had something extraordinary about it ; for while 
 Dakotah and Gaylord did their part creditably, 
 Furnival developed a sudden astonishing genius for 
 the art, and my Dick, who had a rightfully in 
 herited penchant in that line, threw into it the 
 concentrated force of a restless and feverish will. 
 
 The repetition of the play was thrice demanded 
 
 in B . The last time it was given in the 
 
 town concert-hall, on a spacious stage, with a 
 flattering number of supernumeraries, and under 
 the fairest auspices in every way. The success was 
 brilliant and unprecedented. The local news 
 papers appeared with such headings as " The 
 Coming Dramatists," "High Art in High Circles," 
 "The Sensation of the Day," etc., etc. 
 
 None took these laurels more to heart than 
 Gaylord and Dakotah. Astounded by the sudden 
 revelation of dramatic brilliancy in themselves, the 
 noble-minded pair became a prey to glorious 
 ambition; while Dick and Furnival cleared all 
 obstructions from the stream with characteristic 
 impetuosity.
 
 272 TOWHEAD. 
 
 A " starring " tour through some of the Western 
 towns was planned for the remaining two weeks of 
 the vacation. The proceeds were to be devoted to 
 completing Furnival s education, his relations to the 
 ladies of the Baptist society in Kirkville being re 
 garded somewhat in the light of an ignominy. It was 
 the aim of the unstudious three of the company to 
 relieve their gifted companion from sectarian and im 
 pecunious restraints, and give his illustrious genius 
 room to follow some more congenial bent. If the 
 starring tour should prove a failure, pecuniarily, it 
 was only a more exciting way of travelling ; the 
 rich three had money enough with them, and 
 Furnival should still be the object of their tender 
 consideration. But, as sometimes happens in 
 cases where there is a gay spirit of unconcern 
 and no hampering need, the adventurers sailed 
 on in a wonderfully smooth and remunerative 
 course. Gaylord advertised their coming through 
 successive towns, in posters of exaggerated size, 
 blazing with letters of red and gold. They oc 
 cupied the most elegant rooms in the hotels, and 
 had the natural air of haughty and distinguished 
 worldlings. They were even feted; on one occa 
 sion invited to dine with the Mayor of Peak City.
 
 THE STARRING TOUR. 273 
 
 Hence it was that the last week of the vacation 
 passed by, and the University of the Three Lakes 
 opened its doors again and gathered in its scattered 
 flock from the North and the East, and the South 
 and the West, but witnessed not the return of our 
 gayly starring adventurers. The latter left letters 
 and telegrams behind them. They did not regard 
 themselves as runaways, but they knew that the 
 time must now be short ere they should be over 
 taken and arrested in their triumphant career. 
 This gave all that was needed to complete the 
 piquancy and charm of each mad day. 
 
 And during these days Dakotah was perplexed 
 by something in Dick s manner. While that young 
 lady entered into the play with an apparently 
 absorbing enthusiasm, trilling out her stage laughs 
 with an undeniable clearness and flavor, Dakotah 
 noticed in her conduct at other times a singular 
 gentleness and an unaccustomed consideration for 
 the wishes and moods of others. Now the majes 
 tic Dakotah, as we know, attributed the ever even- 
 running of the great world s wheels to love and 
 I fear that her conception of love was largely 
 bounded by the emotions of her honest heart 
 toward Harry Fortune. Be that as it may, she
 
 2/4 TOWHEAD. 
 
 immediately concluded, and rightly, for aught I 
 know in this case, that Dick s milder nature had 
 been awakened by the magical touch of an earthly 
 affection. She was strengthened in this belief by 
 the astonishing patience with which Dick now 
 listened to her glowing and heartfelt confidences. 
 She believed that Dick had accepted Gaylord. 
 
 So, lingering a little in Dick s room one night 
 " I am glad, dearest Towhead," said Dakotah, with 
 startling irrelevancy to the theme they had just 
 been discussing " and I know you will be happy. 
 You shan t say a word to me about it until you 
 please. I m just as glad as I can be for both of 
 you but, oh, Dick," she went on, in a tenderly 
 bantering tone " think of the mighty slain ! And 
 if you d only been content with boys, but you 
 brought down such a man, such a great big man, 
 Dick darling ! Oh, I m positively sure of it. I 
 allude to Professor Dane. The mark of the fatal 
 arrow was unmistakable. I saw ; and then I 
 watched him, you know. I shall never forget how 
 he used to look at you in class sometimes. I 
 could forgive him anything until he began to skip 
 around. But that poor man loved you desperately, 
 why, Dick ! Dick BodurtJia ! " exclaimed Dakotah,
 
 THE STARRING TOUR. 2/5 
 
 rising, with an accent of wonder and dismay, 
 " What makes you look so deathly pale ? " 
 
 " I m tired," said Dick, shivering nervously. 
 Dick was in bed. Dakotah went to her and put 
 both warm arms around her. It made Dick think 
 of the first time Dakotah had taken her into those 
 comforting arms. Dakotah had a way of meeting 
 and encompassing unknown troubles with an all- 
 pervading sympathy. 
 
 " Now, of whom were you speaking ? " said 
 Dick, presently, when recovered, with a careless 
 air of trying to remember which did vast credit to 
 her powers as an actress. 
 
 " I was speaking of Professor Dane," said 
 Dakotah, looking at Dick with great directness. 
 
 Dick fearlessly returned the gaze. "And you 
 said you thought he was in love with me," said 
 she. 
 
 "I know it," said Dakotah. "I could see it, 
 and so did everybody else that had eyes." 
 
 " But you see you were mistaken for once, my 
 dear," said Dick, rather slowly for so much light 
 ness as she meant to convey in the tone. " He was 
 engaged to Miss Lawrence. Kidds told me so." 
 
 " Kidds lied, then," said Dakotah, with unhesi
 
 2/6 TOWHEAD. 
 
 tating simplicity of expression. " Miss Lawrence 
 was always trying to catch him, but she couldn t, 
 and Kidds^was positively demented over him, and she 
 saw that he liked you, and so she told you that ! " 
 
 " Oh, well," said Dick, wearily, in the gentlest 
 tone one could conceive of, while never a tear came 
 for help to her eyes ; " it isn t of much conse 
 quence to us either way, my Dakotah. I am a 
 great bother to you, Dakotah. Kiss me good 
 night." 
 
 Dakotah silently kissed Dick, though in a man 
 ner that conveyed a world of meaning, and left her. 
 Outside she paused, and her tragic and unwit 
 nessed action was inimitable. " I see ! I see it 
 all ! " said Dakotah, in pantomimic gestures. " It s 
 perfectly overwhelming ! Oh, that devilish little 
 Kidds ! How I would love to shake her. But 
 who would ever have dreamed of it ! And there s 
 something excruciatingly divine about it, too." 
 Dakotah closed her lips with an emotion and re 
 solve too great for further expression, and pro 
 ceeded on her way. 
 
 Dakotah was as considerate of Dick s proud 
 nature as a mother might be of a child. Yet she 
 could not heln shedding silent tears at times
 
 THE STARRING TOUR. 277 
 
 when she watched the girl next day ; all the more 
 for the unfaltering lightness and gayety of Dick s 
 manner. 
 
 But somehow the exhilaration had all gone out 
 of the play for the majestic and matronly member 
 of the company, Dakotah. Her part, to which, 
 though faithfully studied, she had ever been obliged 
 to lend large powers of improvisation, now escaped 
 her utterly. In a helpless manner her mind wan 
 dered. She cared not how soon the end came now. 
 
 The end was not far off. That very day came 
 a letter to Dakotah and how came any blow to 
 the beloved Dakotah but delightfully! a letter 
 from her father, advising her that if she would 
 leave her strange wanderings and come home to 
 him immediately, immediately, she should have the 
 desire of her heart ; she should have Harry For 
 tune for a husband and he would accept him as a 
 son. 
 
 Now Dakotah, who walked by faith, though so 
 majestically, rather than by any habit of acute pen 
 etration, and who, though she had not feared the 
 end, had by no means anticipated this, immedi 
 ately conceived of herself as having carried on an 
 exceedingly shrewd and brilliant line of policy.
 
 2/8 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " Did you ever see anything like it how beau 
 tifully I ve brought pa round?" said she, in a 
 tone of elated confidence, to Dick. Then, in the 
 midst of her own happiness, another thought came 
 across her, and she looked toward her friend with 
 an impulsive longing and with tears shining in 
 her eyes. " Oh, my poor, sweet darling ! " she 
 exclaimed, softly, 
 
 Dick deftly avoided the tender apology, and 
 Dakotah wisely returned to the happy recital of 
 her own affairs, delighted at finding Dick, in spite 
 of all, such a cheerful and sympathetic listener. 
 
 But there could be no doubt that in Dakotah s 
 case the call of love had proved superior to the 
 more exalted claim of art. The starring tour was 
 at an end. It was at an end, indeed. Later in 
 the day a card was brought to Miss Bodurtha 
 the " Hon. B. J. Higgins." 
 
 Dick met her guardian in the hotel parlors. He 
 was smiling, affable congratulated her on her 
 charming appearance, and, in soft, laughing tones, 
 on her brilliant theatrical success. He regretted 
 that he could not see the performance, but his 
 affairs made it imperatively necessary for him to 
 start for home on the morrow. Of course she
 
 THE STARRING TOUR. 279 
 
 would be ready to accompany him. "At nine 
 o clock in the morning, my dear. Good-night." 
 
 Gaylord met Dick as she came out. " Smash- 
 up?" said he, interrogatively, thrusting his hands 
 in his pockets. 
 
 "A smash-up," Dick assented. 
 
 "Complete, eh ?" said Gaylord. 
 
 "A very complete smash-up," said Dick, who 
 liked this odd, honest friend of hers immensely. 
 
 "When arejw/ flying?" said Gaylord. 
 
 " To-morrow morning," said Dick. 
 
 Gaylord puckered his mouth in a long, noiseless 
 whistle. "I ve enjoyed this thing," said he; "but 
 I took it up just for a recreation, a gallop, you 
 know. I ve had my gallop and now I am all ready 
 to jump off." 
 
 "I think that s the way we all feel about it," 
 said Dick "only we shall be separated so far. 
 Dakotah and I are not going back to school. We 
 are going to our homes, ever and ever so far away 
 from each other, and from the Three Lakes." 
 
 Gaylord fixed his mouth in another noiseless 
 whistle. " One thing I thought of when we set 
 out on this expedition," he said, "was that I 
 should like to get acquainted with you particularly.
 
 280 TOWHEAD. 
 
 I thought if we liked each other we might get 
 engaged on this trip. I like you confoundedly, but 
 I ve watched girls enough to know that whoever 
 you re likely to think of, in a marrying sense, you 
 know it ain t me." 
 
 " I do like you, my good friend," said Dick 
 earnestly, "with all my heart. But no," she added 
 quietly, "I never shall marry. I never shall marry 
 anybody." 
 
 " Nonsense !" said Gaylord, laughing. "That ll 
 make a capital joke on you sometime," he con 
 tinued, reflectively, as if laying it up in his 
 memory. " But we ve all got to come to it, that is, 
 pretty nearly all, and it s the best thing. I mean 
 to get through with this college nonsense, and 
 marry sometime before a great while, and when I 
 get a home of my own, I bet a box of gloves you ll 
 come with another fellow to see me some time." 
 
 The "company" satiate in their private parlor 
 that night, over their farewell talk. Gaylord put 
 his mind to it and made a business of talking. He 
 was practical and hopeful for all. 
 
 Since he had heard of the new course events 
 were taking Furnival had said little. He sat on 
 an ottoman at Dick s feet. While the others
 
 THE STARRING TOUR. 28 1 
 
 planned and talked, his head fell back gradually 
 and rested against Dick s knees. She stroked his 
 hair with as purely thoughtful a caress as a sister 
 might give a brother. 
 
 Gaylord watched the action. Amidst the haste 
 and excitement of getting off in the morning he 
 drew Dick aside for a moment. " Don t you ever 
 worry about Furnival," said he. " I shall keep an 
 eye on him. They ll take me back at the Univer 
 sity, and if they take me, they shall him. He 
 shall go through college and have a good chance 
 afterwards." 
 
 Dick gave Gaylord her hand for gratitude. She 
 looked him frankly in the eyes. Gaylord knew 
 then that, whoever Dick was likely to think of " in 
 a marrying sense," it was not Furnival. 
 
 At the leave-taking with Dakotah, Dick was 
 impressed by something mysterious and deter 
 mined in that noble creature s conduct, and which 
 bore her up under circumstances, where, otherwise, 
 her ardent and affectionate nature would have 
 been dissolved in a torrent of tears. The last 
 glimpse Dick had of her she was still standing, 
 pale and composed, with an unspeakable resolve 
 imprinted on her firmly closed lips.
 
 282 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Dick listened to her garrulous guardian without 
 any attempt to conceal her weariness or her 
 dejection. Only once, when he intimated that his 
 influence would prove sufficient to shield her 
 wholly from her aunt s natural displeasure, Dick 
 gave vent to an expression of such sublime scorn 
 for such championship and such displeasure, as 
 amused him mightily. 
 
 Poor Dick ! the clattering car-wheels did not 
 make noise enough, nor drive fast enough, to 
 drown the tumult in her heart and brain. Away! 
 away! from the last bitter entanglement in life s 
 distracting play. What next awaited her? So 
 young, and yet to believe it all an old, aimless story. 
 Away ! away ! ever farther away from the sunny 
 lakes which had opened like mysterious heaven and 
 love to her, only now forever to repeat their 
 restless storm surges in her heart. Ever farther 
 away as if, after so many miles, she might 
 forget.
 
 EXCELLUNA^S LAST REVELATION. 283 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 EXCELLUNA S LAST REVELATION. 
 
 f 
 
 "\TEVER had Mrs. Bodurtha been so kind to her 
 wandering niece. The starring tour, one 
 would naturally suppose, must have dealt her a 
 consummate blow ; yet there was no reproach, 
 aversion, nor despair in her manner. 
 
 This caused Dick to reason busily and not with 
 out some ground for suspicion. She wondered 
 what new plan had been settled upon for the 
 disposal of so desperate a character as herself ; 
 whether she was, indeed, to be returned to the 
 native heathen, or immured in a convent, or sent 
 to a lunatic asylum, labelled as dangerous and a 
 candidate for the strait-jacket, so tenderly and 
 almost enthusiastically affectionate had her aunt s 
 manner become toward her of late, and so adula 
 tory and fond the conduct of her guardian. When 
 the calm secret of these two was disclosed, Dick 
 regarded them as smiling fiends, and the convent 
 or the strait-jacket as tolerable in comparison.
 
 284 TOWHEAD. 
 
 As for her occupation in these days, Dick 
 danced. Mrs. Bodurtha and Mr. Higgins had no 
 notion of making a temporary penitent or recluse 
 of their prodigal ; their attempts in that direction 
 had ever met with such a fatal result. The story 
 of her last digression was known in the distin 
 guished circles in which they moved, but it was 
 not incompatible even with Mrs. Bodurtha s sense 
 of truth and justice, which smacked considerably 
 of religion, that Dick s grace and beauty should 
 well carry off her misdemeanors in the eyes of 
 a discerning world ; while the guardian insisted 
 that a quality of sweet iniquity in so charming a 
 subject was positively indispensable. 
 
 So the end being devised and assured in the 
 minds of the two, they gave the butterfly, mean 
 while, a sumptuous field in which to flutter and 
 dazzle. It was the beginning of the gay season. 
 The society in which Dick so freely dallied through 
 the prestige afforded by her guardian was notably 
 of the opulent, banqueting, ball-giving sort. Dick 
 dazzled, feasted, sipped her wine, danced danced 
 as though a light and careless heart were in every 
 radiant motion ; rose late, and dressed, and ban 
 queted, and danced again. The aunt and guar-
 
 EXCELLUNA^S LAST REVELATION. 285 
 
 dian smiled at this tireless dancer for pleasure s 
 sake. My poor Dick danced more tirelessly than one 
 who dances for pleasure. She danced to forget. 
 
 One festive night the doors of the guardian s 
 great house on the avenue were thrown open to 
 the world s elect. It was an affair of memorable 
 lustre and magnificence, a dream of splendor the 
 lofty luxurious rooms, the brilliant lights, strains 
 of gay, sensuous music, the glitter of gold and 
 silver plate, the noiseless waiting of many servants, 
 the breath of tropical fruit and flowers. 
 
 In the midst of the worldly elect, a shining 
 mark for envious or admiring eyes ; in the midst of 
 the gay waltzers, most courted ; in motion most 
 inspiring of all, with a flush on her cheeks and a 
 brightness too fitful in her eyes, Dick danced. 
 Her laugh, peculiar, heedless, but sweetly modu 
 lated, when it crept out in the room made a 
 sensation for circles round. Her aunt watched 
 her with secret, unalloyed delight and approval. 
 It was even a satisfaction to her to think, that, 
 whatever hinderances they had met with hitherto in 
 the training of their charge, she had now no 
 objections to offer to her wise guardian s plans in 
 the shape of a heart.
 
 286 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " It used to trouble me," Mrs. Bodurtha mused 
 "the girl s heartlessness but we cannot expect 
 deep emotion in the young, and it has, at least, 
 prevented her from running into any ludicrous 
 love fancies. It is excellent, on the whole. When 
 her guardian proposes to her, she may be a little 
 startled at first ; but, as he states the case to 
 her, she will at once see its wisdom and appropri 
 ateness. She will accept her good fortune and 
 settle down in life." 
 
 Mrs. Bodurtha gazed at the unbounded splendor 
 shortly to be laid at the feet of the careless vvaltzer 
 there in its midst, and a sigh escaped her, express 
 ive of relief and of gratitude to Providence, who, 
 from so hopeless a beginning, had brought about 
 such satisfactory and distinguished results. 
 
 In a pause of the music, the smiling and gracious 
 lord of these stately halls drew near to his young 
 ward. 
 
 " Ah, you must rest a moment," he said. " Come 
 and see my mountain of roses yonder. Ah," 
 he murmured, as Dick put her hand in his arm, 
 " it is my desire to make your life always, ahvays 
 summer, my dear." 
 
 " Don t," said Dick, laughing, shortly, flushed
 
 EXCELLUNA^S LAST REVELATION. 287 
 
 and breathless, "I should die, I should suffo 
 cate." 
 
 " Not if you would learn to rest," said the bland 
 guardian. " Not if you would throw off all your 
 young doubt and impatience and disquietude upon 
 an older heart, and be content well," said the 
 guardian, smiling, "be content with all that the 
 world can give you." 
 
 Dick forgot her fear for an instant, and gazed 
 directly at her guardian. The guardian, amusedly 
 conscious of the piquancy of the stare, kept his 
 composed face half-turned away from her. 
 
 " Do you not admire my fragrant little Hima 
 laya?" he said, as they stood amid the bower of 
 roses. " It happens to be quiet here. I shall not 
 detain you but a moment. I have concluded, my 
 dear, that I am not competent to be your guardian. 
 I endeavored to wield the reins of authority with 
 great discretion and firmness, and how lamentable 
 my failure is known to none better than to yourself. 
 I propose, therefore, to submit the reins wholly, 
 uncomplainingly, and unreservedly to the guidance 
 of your own sweet hands, claiming only the right 
 to be your humble and devoted servant henceforth, 
 I propose, in short, to be your husband"
 
 288 TOWHEAD. 
 
 Dick, replying to the soft sophistry of this ad 
 dress with an ever-increasing wonder and intent- 
 ness of expression, the guardian continued : 
 
 "I will say briefly at this moment it is a 
 matter to which I wish you never to give a second 
 thought ; the property left you by your parents, 
 owing to some business indiscretions on the part of 
 your father just preceding his death, is hardly 
 sufficient, as an independent fortune, for a young 
 lady of your habits and tastes. In short, it is 
 small quite small. But why do I speak of this ? 
 I share no wealth apart from you. My house, 
 my horses, my servants, they are all yours. My 
 undivided fortune lies at your feet. You have 
 simply to accept of it. Your aunt approves of my 
 purpose. I may say indeed," said the guardian, 
 lowering his smooth tone to a whisper of blandish 
 ment, "that she waits at this very moment to 
 congratulate me. Shall I wend my steps towards 
 her? You have carried a high hand, my dear," he 
 continued, with a slight accent of hardness. " It 
 is probably the decisive moment in which it is well 
 for you to obey for once. All the rest of your life 
 shall be happy. I am old and profess no senti 
 ment. You, though young, are quite as devoid of
 
 EXCELLUNA S LAST REVELATION. 289 
 
 it, I fancy. Accept quietly the wise course. It is 
 indeed no trouble. Your life shall have never 
 a care." 
 
 The hot color which had faded out of Dick s 
 cheeks as she listened came back to them again. 
 She laughed through her white teeth with a 
 sweet, defiant madness. " So this is what you and 
 my aunt have been planning!" she said. "You 
 do well to try to frighten me. I am so suscepti 
 ble to that method." 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! " said the guardian, reassuringly. 
 " Not to frighten you ; only to secure, if you would 
 calmly think of it a moment, your welfare and 
 happiness." 
 
 " But if I don t like you ! If I never, never could 
 care for you so much, do you want me to marry 
 you ? " said Dick. 
 
 " I said I professed no sentiment," replied the 
 guardian, smiling. 
 
 "And why why do you think me so so 
 inhuman?" cried Dick, in a low tone, passion 
 ately. 
 
 " Merely a necessity, my dear," calmly replied 
 the voice of soft blandishment; "a necessity in 
 the case of one so beautiful. Do not trouble your-
 
 290 TOW HE AD. 
 
 self about it. It is a law of nature and cannot be 
 avoided." 
 
 Dick did not hear. Her insulted soul rose with 
 uncontrollable torrent force to quivering lip and 
 flashing eye. "Hush, then! I w/// tell you," 
 she saifl. " I did care for some one ! I care for 
 him now ! I love him. I love him with all my 
 wretched, worthless heart. He did not think so 
 much of happiness ; he would have helped me 
 to be strong and true. But I sJwuld have been 
 happy with him oh, whether poor or rich, in 
 comfort or misery, I do not care ! If he made 
 me sorry, I should know he was kind. If he put a 
 knife to my throat, I would trust him ! Can you 
 realize it ? Did he love me ? I cannot believe it ! 
 He was too good. - If he did once he never could 
 after what happened. But that doesn t help me. 
 I can t forget, and it is killing me ! It is killing 
 me ! Do you want me to marry yon, now ? " 
 
 " So you have had the illusion, too ! " said 
 the guardian, soothingly. " And that is a positive 
 relief to me, do you know ; for they say, however 
 we are constituted, it possesses us at some time in 
 our lives, and I am glad to know that the worst of 
 yours is over. Attacking you perchance after
 
 EXCELLUNA^S LAST REVELATION. 291 
 
 marriage, and taking some violent and unfortunate 
 direction, it might prove especially troublesome. 
 I assure you, my dear child, the worst stage is 
 over ; it will not bore you long. I propose a 
 foreign tour. You shall see some magical islands. 
 You shall buy a castle in Spain, if you choose ! 
 I have not answered your question. Certainly ; 
 you interpret my meaning with great acuteness. 
 I desire to have you marry me." 
 
 " It would be to me," said Dick, still with tower 
 ing emotion, " like giving up the last spark of 
 truth and honesty in my heart, the last pure 
 aspiration, the last faith in God, the last the last 
 hope in my life. It would be to me like stretching 
 myself out on that heap of faint, sickening roses 
 to die, body and soul ! That is what your happi 
 ness means to me ! I have seen enough to know. 
 It would be horrible stagnation and death ! Do 
 you want me to marry you now ? " 
 
 " Naturally, my dear," said the guardian, smil 
 ing, with unruffled temper, "since I have never 
 seen you so beautiful in my life. Your stage air is 
 wonderfully becoming. As I said, the malady 
 is short-lived. It may pass away entirely with 
 this charming confession. I repeat ; my untiring
 
 292 TOWHEAD. 
 
 devotion and my fortune are yours. Reflect a 
 moment calmly. Shall I go to your aunt, now ? " 
 
 Dick laughed as she had laughed at first, sweet 
 ly, madly. The music of the waltz struck up 
 again. Her partner came towards her. " Wait ! " 
 she said, airily, to her guardian " one more waltz ! 
 Oh, indeed I will reflect calmly as calmly as one 
 can who is so Jiappy, you know." The low ripple of 
 her voice smote mockingly on his ears. " Wait ! " 
 she smiled back at him, as she swept away. 
 
 " A perverse little devil, indeed ! " he muttered. 
 But he believed the butterfly had been caught in 
 his web, nevertheless. He was suavely content. 
 
 Dick s brain swam. She adapted impromptu 
 lines to the swift music as she waltzed. " It is the 
 most wretched and desperate thing I could do. I 
 am wretched and desperate. It is my fate ; I will 
 do it ! I may not live long. One could kill her 
 self in the course of a year or two. He can sac 
 rifice me so easily ! I will torment him something 
 as he deserves. I will assume that I have affec 
 tions ; I will bestow them where I choose. A short 
 life and a merry one. I can forget, maybe, when 
 I am bad enough. I will go down in billows of 
 luxury."
 
 EXCELLUNA S LAST REVELATION. 293 
 
 The guests were departing. Dick had not 
 returned to her guardian. She had seen him 
 conversing smilingly with her aunt. One or two 
 of the older and most intimate acquaintances in 
 the company even hinted their congratulations ere 
 they went away. " Thank you," said Dick, to one 
 worldly and jewelled matron, who was gushingly 
 going through with this ceremony; "I am very 
 happy, I assure you." The mocking bitterness 
 contained in her politely modulated tones, the 
 strange glitter of her eyes, puzzled the matron 
 beyond measure. 
 
 " Pardon, miss," said a servant, handing Dick a 
 letter. It was a strange letter to be taken, in the 
 midst of all that glitter and luxury, into so white 
 and soft a hand, a soiled, unfashionable sheet, 
 bearing an air of long preservation ; a grotesque, 
 faltering, ignorant hand-writing. 
 
 " Ever and a darlin orphing lamb, I cannot 
 write much, for they say as I am a dyin , and the 
 days is short, they say. I care not, ever darlin , I 
 am a dyin along o God. 
 
 "But I hear you comin down the walk, and I 
 raise myself up to meet you, and I look, and it s 
 only the dead leaves a drivin and a whisperin 
 down the walk.
 
 294 TOWHEAD. 
 
 " But if I should look up, mebbe next day, and 
 should see you, ever clarlin , comin down the walk 
 I ask not for myself, though lovin unto death, but 
 because my thoughts was troubled concerning 
 you it seems as though it would make sech a 
 stillness, ever darlin , along the sorrerful road." 
 
 The butterfly was fairly caught : " Let her go 
 and see the old servant die, if she wishes," said the 
 guardian. "After all, it is a charming ruse." 
 Dick s manner of stating her intention had 
 had a strange and desperately quiet determination 
 about it. 
 
 Excelluna looked down the walk at last and saw 
 the darling of her heart. Then she lay back smil 
 ing, content, upon her bed for many hours. Dick, 
 in her plain, black travelling dress, her hair 
 arranged with religious simplicity, moved noise 
 lessly, thoughtfully, about the room. Excelluna 
 watched her and a look of solemn significance 
 crept over her face. 
 
 " It has come," she said. 
 
 Dick lifted her bright eyes with a tender, half- 
 smiling inquiry. 
 
 "The tonin up and the tonin down, as was 
 both thought on, and was both despaired on," said
 
 EXCELLUNA 1 S LAST REVELATION. 295 
 
 Excelluna ; " they have been accomplished. Some 
 how, though liow, unbeknownst, mebbe, to all, they 
 have been accomplished." 
 
 Dick laughed softly, though her lips quivered : 
 " I am always good with you, Luny, you know." 
 
 " It do not appear as though it had been eddi- 
 cation, in a gineral sense, as have done it," said 
 Excelluna ; " since all sech as was tried in a gineral 
 way was despaired on. But through wildness and 
 danger, through failin s and wanderin s, somehow 
 it have been accomplished. It have been wonder 
 ful accomplished. 
 
 " It do appear somehow," Excelluna went on, 
 " to have left a sadness and as of a bein tired and 
 of a bein lost (which well I know, havin suffered 
 them, most darlin one). But fear not, for, as I have 
 been a lyin here, in a revelation I have seen 
 
 " In a revelation I have seen," said Excelluna, 
 solemnly. "You will hear the dead leaves rustlin , 
 for the wind a moanin through em and you will 
 stand watch in the golding light, afur down in the 
 meadows, where the grass is green and tender as 
 the spring time, darlin one. You will watch the 
 shinin road a lyin there, and a leadin up beyend the 
 mountings, and beyend. Peace and love and joy
 
 296 TOWHEAD. 
 
 shall come to you, most darlin one. We are chil- 
 dern wanderin , but the way shall not be lost. 
 Fear not. To sech as is given revelations, it is 
 knowa,; and in a revelation I have seen." Poor 
 Luny ! But she had always wandered in her mind. 
 
 Dick was so patient, so womanly-tender, and 
 thoughtful in that humble sick-room, anticipating 
 every want of the ancient serving-woman, stroking 
 so soothingly the poor gray head, her old com 
 panions of the dance would scarcely have known 
 the girl. 
 
 It seemed to my poor lass as though a little 
 surcease had come in the storm, a breathing-space, 
 mysterious, grateful, sad. 
 
 " Nay," she said, in answer to some anxious 
 remonstrance of Excelluna s, with whom she was 
 watching through the night, " let me, dear Luny. 
 You are happy. I have not been so glad, I have 
 not had such rest for months and months." 
 
 As the young girl spoke thus with strange 
 eagerness, Excelluna lifted her eyes to look at her. 
 " Do not fear," she said quietly. " In a revelation, 
 I have seen." She lay back, satisfied, for that 
 golden hair, the touch of that soft hand, were 
 heaven to her.
 
 EXCELLUNA S LAST REVELATION. 297 
 
 And so the sorrowful mystery of life faded from 
 before Excelluna s eyes. 
 
 " It is like as when I have been into some great, 
 grand church in the city," said she, "and have heerd 
 the organ playin , clear and solemn, but mistractful, 
 not bein understood. And I have listened to 
 them strains, that seemed a wanderin here and 
 there, and have been troubled. And then at the 
 end, I have heerd it creepin out, so beautiful, the 
 old tune that I knew. And I have knowed that it 
 was the same tune a runnin through it all, but my 
 ears was not trained high enough to understand. 
 
 " Ever darlin , weak and wanderin has seemed 
 my life, sad and mistractful, not bein understood. 
 But now the music creeps down soft and slow. I 
 listen and I cannot cry, most darlin one, for I have 
 ketched the tune." 
 
 As Dick watched, strangely unwearied, through 
 the hours of the night and day, Excelluna s flesh 
 sank swiftly down into the dark valley ; but the 
 brave heart never realized that, nor could have 
 given to it a thought nor a tear. 
 
 And, on the third day, awaking from a sleep in 
 which her face had worn a sublime, untroubled 
 expression, and her lips had moved : " Bring to me,"
 
 298 TOWHEAD. 
 
 she said, " my flowers that I have made all ; let 
 not one be left." 
 
 When she beheld them, she laughed with soft, 
 pitiful disdain. " They must be put by," she said. 
 " I cannot look upon them, darlin one, by the side 
 of sech flowers as has been revealed. Take them 
 away. They have answered their turn. These 
 things must be put by." 
 
 Thus Excelluna had brought to her, one after 
 another, the treasures once pricelessly dear to her 
 heart, and smiled, and put them by. 
 
 On the "Book of Martyrs" she laid her hand 
 lightly. " Yis, put it by," she said. " It s only a 
 poor, sorrerful, half-told story ! It is not worth 
 recordin by the side of sech things as .is re 
 vealed." 
 
 " Ever and a darlin one," said Excelluna, then, 
 with a look of clear solemnity ; " have I been a 
 poor, forlorn creetur, without no home nor kin, 
 lonely and wanderin , weepin and sorrerful, and 
 oft mistracted ? " 
 
 Dick bowed her head, laying both her hands 
 with unspeakable tenderness on the gaunt palms 
 of the ancient serving-woman. 
 
 " Have I been sech ? " repeated Excelluna, in
 
 EXCELLUNA 1 S LAST REVELATION. 299 
 
 that tone of clear solemnity. " It is put by. It is 
 forgot, forevermore. Help me up, most darlin 
 one." 
 
 Dick raised the wasted form up on the pillows. 
 Through her far-offs Excelluna looked towards 
 the hills. But for once those spectacles, those 
 dear mediums of vision, seemed to obstruct her 
 yearning sight. It was the last poor tie, yielded 
 exultantly. 
 
 "Put them by!" she softly cried, "/ can see 
 afur off without tJicm ! " 
 
 They who look so glad and far as Excelluna 
 looked then come never to the earth again. But 
 then, she did not die. My Dick, who sat beside 
 her, says that she never died. Turning for her 
 great-heartedness, in that last supreme moment, to 
 bless the sorrowing head beside her, it was not the 
 lustre of my Dick s golden hair that she saw, but 
 the dawning ripple of waves on an eternal shore. 
 
 Dick stood under the elm-trees watching the 
 golden light far down in the meadows. The wind 
 rustled in the dead leaves ; but there the grass 
 was green and tender as the spring-time. She 
 saw, too, the shining road leading towards the
 
 300 TOWHEAD. 
 
 mountains and beyond. But Dick did not think of 
 the "revelation." 
 
 In the last few days she had lived of life a year 
 or more. It seemed to her, in that quiet hour, 
 that, like Excelluna, she could leave the pitiful past 
 behind her. 
 
 " I will be brave and true," Dick prayed. "I 
 will not think of happiness any more. I will be 
 obedient to my aunt and guardian, except in that 
 wicked thing. I will do anything for them. I will 
 live for them ; but I will be true to the faith and 
 goodness in my heart. If they do not want me 
 except I do that) then," said Dick, " I will try to 
 take care of myself. I will work with all my might. 
 But I will be true 
 
 " If I could only have known," said Dick, 
 " whether he cared ! If he could only know that I 
 am trying trying for his sake and though I 
 have been so bad, I might, in time " 
 
 Dick trembled, and lifted her eyes to the hills 
 again. "Oh, I will try," she said. "I thought, 
 when she died, I should stop thinking so much 
 about my own happiness. I can ! I can give it all 
 up, as she did, and be brave and patient and true." 
 Dick watched the marvellous roadway fading slowly
 
 EXCELLUNA S LAST REVELATION. 301 
 
 in the west. " It is only a little time for any of 
 us," she moaned. But Dick had forgotten the 
 revelation. 
 
 Down the path among the elm-trees, one was 
 coming to meet her. It was what meant peace 
 and love and joy in all the world to Dick. It was 
 the Dane coming down that old familiar path at 
 Dymsbury Park. 
 
 So intently, in her deep young despair, Dick 
 stood looking away to the west she did not heed 
 the rustling that his feet made in the leaves. 
 But when she turned at last and saw him, the 
 world that she had given up wrapped itself about 
 her in such sudden tumultuous surges of trembling 
 hope and joy; she stood so pale and startled, the 
 vanquished pride in her eyes pleading through 
 a look of such reproach pleading desperately 
 for compassion, I think she would have fallen. 
 The Dane was compassionate. He caught her. 
 His whispered words of tenderness and love 
 allayed her fears. On his breast, for the pitiless 
 joy that had almost broken her heart my Dick 
 learned how to cry at last. 
 
 " He came clear from the setting sun to find 
 me." Thus Dick tells the story, and blushes still,
 
 302 TOWHEAD. 
 
 and will laugh for you sweetly as ever, as she says 
 it ; but with a little half-tearful, defiant flash in her 
 eyes that bids you not to ask for more. ^.Q found 
 her and he kept her forevermore. As boldly 
 as the viking of old, he carried her to his tower by 
 the Three Lakes. 
 
 It was long before Mrs. Bodurtha was recon 
 ciled. Mr. Higgins smiled as suavely as ever, and 
 ultimately bestowed his fortune upon a more 
 deserving subject. Mrs. Bodurtha s own wealth 
 was great, but the loss of the smiling Croesus to her 
 family seemed irreparable. But when Dick s hus 
 band made a great name in the land and, 
 among women, there was none more womanly, 
 more gentle, radiant, and beloved than Dick her 
 self, and her young children were bright and 
 beautiful about her Mrs. Bodurtha gradually in 
 clined to be conciliatory. Finally, she was accus 
 tomed to say with great complacency, folding her 
 cold and jewelled hands one over the other, as 
 people spoke admiringly of her niece : 
 
 "Ah, yes! / was intrusted with her early 
 training, you know. It was a great responsibility, 
 but I have never been sorry that I undertook it." 
 And the good lady gives a long sigh as she sur 
 veys the rich gems on her fingers.
 
 EXCELLUNAS LAST REVELATION. 303 
 
 Ah, well ! Much goes to make up an education. 
 Mrs. Bodurtha, too, had her share. But it is not 
 of that that Dick thinks in the supreme moments of 
 her womanhood s pain or joy not of the govern 
 esses who came to Dymsbury Park, nor of the 
 teachers at -Mount Grimrood, nor even of her 
 aunt s discreet instructions. But she hears many 
 voices. They seem to play ever mysteriously 
 around her life, but clearest then and not least 
 among them, the lonely flute-note sweeping the 
 long grasses in the old meadows at Dymsbury 
 Park, where a poor little heart went bravely to 
 its rest ; not least among them, the solemn chant 
 that seemed to fill earth and sky, when Excelluna 
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