THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 u
 
 NEW NOVELS 
 
 BY 
 
 JULIE P. SMITH. 
 
 1. wTDO'w GOLDSMITH'S 
 
 2. CHRIS AND OTHO. 
 
 3. THE WIDOWEK. 
 
 4. THE MARRIED BELLE. 
 
 5. TEN OLD MAIDS. 
 
 6. COURTING AND FARMING. [In press.] 
 
 "The novels by this author are of unusual merit, un 
 commonly well written, clever, and character 
 ized by great wit and vivacity. They 
 are growing popular and more 
 popular every day." 
 
 All issued uniform with this volume. Price $1.75 each, 
 and sent by mail, postage free, on receipt of price, 
 
 BY 
 
 G. W. CARLETON & CO., Publishers, 
 New York.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 AN" UNDILUTED LOVE STORY. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHRISTABEL GOLDSMITH. 
 
 'My mother chides me when she asks me 
 
 Why those tears in silence move. 
 I could tell her, but I dare not, 
 All those tears are for my love." 
 
 GARDENER'S Music IN NATURE. 
 
 NEW YOKK: 
 
 G. W. Carleton & Co., Publishers. 
 
 LONDON: S. LOW, SON & CO., 
 MDCCCLXXV.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 
 
 G. W. CARLETON & CO., 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 JOHN F. TROW & SON, PRINTERS, 
 205-213 EAST I2TH ST., NEW YORK. 
 
 Maclauchlan. Stereotyper, 
 145 & 147 Mulberry St., near Grand, N. Y.
 
 TO 
 
 fjtr Jlcar SSIoman 
 
 JENNIE OWEN KEIM, 
 
 IN MEMORY OH 
 SEVEN LONG YEARS OF COMPANIONSHIP IN LOVE AND LABOR, 
 
 THE AUTHOR OFFERS THIS COD-CHILD. 
 
 1293878
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 1 7 
 
 CHAPTER II 12 
 
 CHAPTER HI 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV 45 
 
 CHAPTER V 71 
 
 CHAPTER VI 78 
 
 CHAPTER VII 101 
 
 CHAPTER VIH 114 
 
 CHAPTER IX 131 
 
 CHAPTER X 144 
 
 CHAPTER XI 155 
 
 CHAPTER XII 1G5 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 1 75 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 182 
 
 CHAPTER XV 189 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 205 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 220 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 243 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 25 1 
 
 CHAPTER XX 264 
 
 CHAPTER XXI ] ' 289 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 897 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 806 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 317 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 325 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI .." ' 349 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 365 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII ....." ! 394 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. ...." " 493 
 
 CHAPTER XXX .'. 418 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI .428 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII ..........].. 439 
 
 CHAPTER XXXTTI ..] " 443
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS: 
 
 AN UNDILUTED LOVE STORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Eub-a-dub, dub ; three maids in a tub." 
 
 JHIS narration is the tub : and I purpose to have 
 three heroines, and three heroes. Their names 
 are: 
 
 MARY McCnoss, Spinster. 
 
 PEACE PELICAN, " 
 
 DOROTHEA MULLIGAN, " 
 CYMBALINUS ADOLPHUS BROWN, Bachelor. 
 FRANCIS HAYTHORNE, " 
 
 Louis ALLWOOD, " 
 
 AMOS DALEY, " 
 
 Besides these there are Mr. and Mrs. McCross, and 
 Mr. and Mrs. Pelican : moreover, as Shakespeare would 
 have it, other knights and attendant spirits, who, being 
 for the most part married and settled, cannot be supposed 
 capable of engrossing the attention of the novel-reading 
 world. If Mr. Hale should look over my list, he would 
 probably think I didn't know "how to do it," as well 
 as himself, for I have set down more than my pair of 
 trigemini. But I did it on purpose. Do you suppose
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 1 am going to tell which is which on the first page, and 
 then roar gently as a suckling dove forever after ? Hea 
 ven forbid ! I have a higher ideal of a novel. 
 
 In this day of exact knowledge, when Agassiz clamors 
 of bones and Huxley of protoplasm, who that studies the 
 millions in the stars, and the millionths in the globule, 
 will be unfair enough to drop from the catalogue of 
 sciences the most profoundly important of all human- 
 soul life? 
 
 How awful is the task of the heart of the historian, 
 poet or novelist ! and the two gifts are so twin to each 
 other, that few profess the one without dabbling in its 
 complement. 
 
 To understand their fellows, is the pursuit of all men. 
 To know life, feel its experiences, see its sights, is the 
 dominant longing of the young. What reverence did not 
 our ten years of humanity give us for Pa's silly cousin, 
 who had been disappointed in love ! 
 
 The novelist endeavors to make life's mysteries plain. 
 He it is who delineates the passion, the sorrow, the 
 strength ; who photographs the pangs of mankind ; who 
 teaches people to know and love each other through the 
 sympathy of a kindred, now revealed, humanity. It is 
 to the novel that we go for our life pictures. In our 
 favorite characters we are unconsciously fashioned. Na 
 tional taste, politics, religion, are more moulded in the 
 masses by the novel, than any other one means of educa 
 tion. 
 
 There is no sorrow so deep, no terror so ominous, 
 that the novelist dare not depict it. 
 
 To lodge a true principle in the hard heads of man 
 kind through the unsuspicious sympathy of their hearts, 
 to help us avoid or bear misery, is the noblest sphere 
 of novelist or poet ; and the trifler who mangles or dis-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 9 
 
 torts truth must e'en see his work in human souls burnt 
 out in fire of repentance and agony when he might have 
 given the world a torch to light it on to good. 
 
 There is no calling which does not in its complete 
 development touch infinity and therefore God ; or his 
 opposite. 
 
 Nor need the artist, who cares rather for art than 
 humanity, beauty than moral beauty, be outraged hereby. 
 For to present a just type of beauty is to show forth 
 God ; who, however, knew no better way to reveal Him 
 self to us than to become man. 
 
 So from these poles of dissent we travel around the 
 same circle. Who best shows man reveals God ; to re 
 veal God is to instruct man. It is all one. All good 
 things tend to one end. But the poet and novelist are 
 nothing more than professors of the science to whose 
 province belong three eras passion or motive ; action ; 
 and condition or result, as you please to call it. Which 
 after all are but three stages of one thing the fretting of 
 the divinity in man against his carnal limitations. 
 
 People can never judge of the worth of a novel to any 
 one but themselves, because its value to a man is always 
 exactly measured by the points where instinct, or instinct 
 worked into experience, touches the thing in hand. 
 
 " O dear," said Peace Pelican, settling herself to 
 "Barbara's History;" "one can never properly appre 
 ciate a novel till one's been in love and travelled in Eu 
 rope, and I haven't done either ! " 
 
 I am, as you know, Christabel Goldsmith. I tell the 
 story. I'm not in it, because Serena, as the saying is, 
 nabbed me in my innocont youth, and put me in hers ; 
 so, when long reflection on the above thoughts set me to 
 writing, my best resource was gone, and I had to fall 
 back on my friends. 
 1*
 
 10 
 
 SUFITLESS FOLKS. 
 
 The people in this book are " Eeal Folks," and to my 
 mind shiftless withal. But I like them on that account. 
 There was a time when I was shiftless myself. That is 
 one reason why I refused the offers of sittings from my 
 present dear half dozen, and chose my characters from 
 the companions of my early youth, who, thank God, 
 have not failed me in my maturer age. 
 
 I have no objection to telling you how I became ac 
 quainted with them. 
 
 Mary McCross is my own cousin. Her mother and 
 mine were Miranda and Hannah Price respectively. I 
 was very young when they quarrelled, but I remember 
 dining at Fir Covert, and seeing Mollie, a little girl about 
 my own age, with childish flaxen curls and blue eyes. 
 She stood up in a state of open mutiny on the step of her 
 high chair, and called for chicken pie, and rejoined, " Keep 
 'em up, Pop," with immovable resolution, when her father 
 commanded her to be seated. Her will was like iron, and 
 is to this day. People with soft brown hair and blue 
 eyes frequently have such especially when they possess 
 a pleasant smile, a tolerably even cut forehead, not over, 
 nor under, common breadth and height, and what we call 
 English complexion. Mollie's infant features gradually 
 took on these peculiarities, or perhaps lacks of peculiarity, 
 witlx womanhood. And when I met her again in after 
 life, I knew her just as well as you do, now I have intro 
 duced her to your notice. 
 
 There was a little boy, a ward of Uncle McCross, in 
 the house the day we dined there. He lay flat on the 
 ground reading, with his fingers stuffed in his ears most 
 of the time. After dinner he brought me some bumble 
 bees he caught fearlessly in his hands, and entertained 
 me with the Pedler's Quickstep," performed on the black 
 keys of the piuuo, by means of both forefingers. Mollie,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. H 
 
 who had not mastered this scientific performance, stood 
 meanwhile at his elbow, in hearty admiration. 
 
 I met Peace Pelican at Herr Groen veldt's school, which 
 we both attended. She was a general favorite, and fore 
 most in all matters of fun took a prize in mathematics. 
 
 I don't know anything first hand about Francis Hay- 
 thorne's youth. It has been whispered that his mother, 
 a devoted house-keeper, brought him up on " Helen Mor 
 ris," "Mamma's Bible Stories," and "Tender Truths for 
 Tender Minds." He wore blue and white calico aprons 
 till he was nine years old, roundabouts and slippers till 
 he was turned fifteen, had a tutor, and a pony, whose legs 
 were so short that he used to take his feet from the stir 
 rups and walk up the steep places. His mother, too, en 
 tertained a horror of subjecting him to contamination 
 from plebeians and boys, and was a shining light in the 
 mothers' meeting. 
 
 It was some years after the Fir Covert visit that I first 
 saw Little Doppy more correctly, Miss Dorothea Mulli 
 gan. The rain had fallen heavily all day, but, clearing 
 at night, papa and I ventured a walk down through Sylla 
 bub. Before a puddle of lovely mud, black as jet and 
 thick as pudding, stood this heroine eying it with long 
 ing. Her cheeks were very red, her short hair stood in 
 ringlets all over her pretty head, her pink gingham dress 
 wasn't buttoned up behind, and disclosed white plump 
 shoulders. She swung her fat little arms, said " one ! 
 two ! three ! " and plumped straight into the beautiful 
 gutter. Then she waded out, and, pointing to the adher 
 ing soil with exulting glee, cried, " See my new shoes ! " 
 Thereupon a rough, black-bearded man, with a pipe in 
 his mouth, took her into the " Solomon Rodgers," kick 
 ing and screaming, and Shut the door. 
 
 Miss Ahuira Petingil has always been the village tail-
 
 j2 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 oress. The other folks came into my knowledge pre 
 cisely as they will into yours. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "And will you have her, Robin, to be your wedded wife ? " 
 " Yes, I will," says Robin, " and love her all iny life." 
 " And will you have him, Jennie, your husband now to be ? " 
 " Yes, I will," says Jennie, " and love him heartily." 
 
 | T had all come about as herein stated, and now 
 the pair were beginning to weave plans and 
 promises, and hopes and reminiscences, in that 
 happy, inextricable tangle that lovers always will weave, 
 and I for one rejoice to have them. 
 
 Throughout my tolerably eventful career, I have been 
 the chosen repository of my friends' love affairs, whether 
 because I have happily settled my own, or because my 
 vivid interest in such matters paves the way. 
 
 Of all the young folks who have rested their joys and 
 sorrows in my intact (of course!) confidence, these two 
 come nearest to my heart. But they never gave me 
 more than the shell of their affairs the kernel seemed 
 too sacred in their eyes, even for speech. I have seen 
 trembling lovers and exultant lovers, proud lovers and 
 humble lovers, lovers- who said their future spouses' 
 goodness was a constant reproach to them, lovers whose 
 conduct was sure to be a reproach to their spouses. The 
 two people before us do not come iuto this list. Indeed, 
 while I am on the subject, let me -say that I am critical in 
 lovo. I have no faith iu the " woful sonnet to his mis-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 13 
 
 tress' .eyebrow" class. I abominate lovers' pains, and 
 darts and follies. True love, to ine, means perfect 
 strength, and is therefore perfect peace. Whether Louis 
 and Mollie realized it, is a different matter. Further, 
 perhaps, I doubted their wisdom in loving at all. What 
 right had two gentle, modest, retiring people, who neither 
 of them knew more of the world than could be gathered 
 from the simplest of village lives, thus to set out to bat 
 tle the storms of life together ? One is reminded of the 
 " children in the wood : " 
 
 " These pretty babes, with hand in hand, 
 Went wandering up and down." 
 
 And so on to a finale of starvation on huckleberries, and 
 covering of oak leaves, which last about Roaring River 
 are apt to be a little worm-eaten. 
 
 Yet, after all, why should I trouble for them ? In 
 love's sweet old story, which every one lives (or dreams of 
 living) just once in a lifetime, there is a mighty quality 
 of hope and God-so-orders-it-ness. 
 
 Touching the place where all this moralizing has gone 
 on, it is as homely as tradition paints the cradle of true 
 love being nowhere else than Mrs. McCross' kitchen. 
 And the actors, who are too much absorbed in each other 
 to heed our scrutiny, are your old childish friends, Louis 
 Allwood and Mary McCross both at your service. The 
 concomitants are fit enough a tabby cat purring content 
 edly in the window, a tall clock ticking behind the door, 
 a great pan of flour set near the moulding-board and 
 rolling-pins on the snowy table, a maple-wood fire crack 
 ling in the open stove. 
 
 I confess, however, that my interest is chiefly in the oc 
 cupants of the unpoetic, feather-pillowed, chintz-covered 
 settle one head laid so close to the other that the short
 
 14 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 rin^s of his nut-brown hair swept her smooth braids 
 scarcely a shade lighter. 
 
 " So you take me for better and for worse ? " in a half- 
 proud, half-anxious whisper. 
 
 " Yes, Louis," laying the face she raised to look into 
 her lover's eyes back on his shoulder composedly. 
 
 " Through good report and evil report ? " with a smile at 
 the possibility that he would ever bear any repute but good. 
 
 Mary straightened herself, took both his hands in hers, 
 and looking right into his soul answered solemnly : 
 " Through good report and evil report, and sickness and 
 sorrow, and death." She was putting her whole purpose 
 into the compact he was too much a boy to fully compre 
 hend. You could see it in every gesture, every expression 
 of her earnest face. Even when she broke the pause that 
 followed her declaration, by archly humming the old song, 
 
 "But my heart will be with you wherever you may go ; 
 Can you look me in the face and say the same, Jeannot ? " 
 
 it was a mere surface ripple in the steadfast current 
 of a resolve that carried with it all the forces of her life. 
 
 But he was earnest too as far as life had knit him 
 into capacity for it. He was truthful, and sweet in his 
 boyish affection, and enthusiastic with the easy spring 
 ing into being of purposes that he had not followed into 
 action enough even to tell their nature. 
 
 Boy or man, the young girl was satisfied ; and, when 
 he drew her pretty head before him, and gazed a long 
 time into her pleasant eyes so intent now in their out 
 look at vowed and faithful love, he saw a depth of some 
 thing behind their blue, that made him strong for good, 
 though he only knew of it that it was there for him. 
 
 Fidus Achates told me, the other day, that civil con 
 tracts and weddings had little to do with true marriage.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 15 
 
 " That," said he, " is the simple yielding of two souls to 
 each other, so that they are henceforth one ; the rest is 
 only a blessing upon this deed." 
 
 Perhaps our pair felt it. They were silent a long while, 
 each thinking his own thoughts. By and by the door 
 opened and admitted Deacon McCross. 
 
 " What are you doing ? " asked he, in rather short tones 
 for so long a man. 
 
 The girl looked up with a strong glad light in her face. 
 " Making love, father," said she quietly. 
 
 Louis rose with timid respect. " I have been asking 
 your daughter to be my wife ; " and the delicate color 
 which had faded from his cheeks flushed and paled more 
 than once before he finished his explanation. " We have 
 been like brother and sister all our lives. We want to 
 be something more. You will not refuse us ? " 
 
 The Deacon twisted uneasily under his daughter's 
 glance. " Not as I know of," said he, looking very un 
 comfortable. " Her mother '11 make an awful time." 
 
 The trio gazed at each other in silence. His words 
 were too true for prophecy. Louis was hurt. Mollie 
 resolved, her father weak and hesitating. 
 
 The girl spoke first. " Perhaps she won't mind so 
 much if you don't, dear," said she, hopefully. 
 
 " Perhaps she won't," answered the Deacon in a blank 
 tone. 
 
 " Mrs. McCross may be more reconciled when she 
 knows how my prospects have improved," began the strip 
 ling, in eager longing that an impossible joy should occur. 
 As the Deacon's meek, wrinkled face, and pale blue eyes 
 persisted in their expression of stolid disbelief, he stopped 
 nervously. Mollie thereupon slipped her hand into his to 
 reassure him, and he proceeded with more confidence : t{ I 
 have accepted a position in the Pelicans' store in Top
 
 IQ SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Town, and Charley's father offers me a partnership at the 
 end of three years if I like the position and seem fitted 
 for it." 
 
 " Liquor trade is money-makin' business," said Mr. 
 McOross, relaxing. " Them Pelicans knows what's 
 what. But my wife ain't agoin' to be satisfied with no 
 expectations ! " 
 
 " I shall do my best," answered Louis. " I will suc 
 ceed only give me time." 
 
 Did you ever see a young rooster try to crow when 
 the old one was present ? What a disagreement arose 
 directly, and how, sans tail feathers and comb, did the poor 
 little fowl limp away, followed by the exultant clarion of 
 his conqueror. I have noticed something of the same 
 instinct in the dealings of older toward young men. 
 They snub them, criticise them, put them down in the 
 presence of the people they admire most, and rejoice in 
 it. In my day I have seen a great many boys started in 
 stores. I like boys. They are energetic, honest, and 
 free-spoken. A great deal of unpleasant work can be, 
 and always is, got out of them. Yet I never asked after 
 one of these earnest beginners in life, but his employer 
 answered not, " He does his best ; he'll learn ; " but, 
 "Oh, he does tolerably; he makes mistakes ; it takes a 
 great deal of time to teach him ; he'll know more when he's 
 older ; " or, meanest of all, " I may make a man of him 
 some day ; one never gets to the end of a business edu 
 cation." 
 
 You contemptible old humbug. Don't he run your 
 errands, handle your goods, stand your ill-temper, fill 
 all the gaps in everything, keep good-humored, and wor 
 ship " our store " ? What more could he do if you asked 
 him ? 
 
 Even Deacon McCross, whose long discipline in life
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 17 
 
 ought to have taught him better, turned combative, 
 when Louis tried to talk business with the air of a man 
 who knew about it. 
 
 " Young man," said he, putting on a pair of large, sil 
 ver-bowed spectacles, and bestowing a look of superior 
 wisdom on his wretched victim, " ef there's one thing I 
 hate and despise, its shiftlessness, an' Mirandy sez you 
 ain't nowise free from it." 
 
 Meanwhile Mollie sets the table the McCrosses are 
 as usual without servants and turns her attention to 
 the neglected biscuits, which go into the oven in no time 
 and come out the perfection of that indigestible dainty. 
 
 Mollie was not small nor large, neither slender nor 
 stout, neither beautiful nor homely. She was refined, 
 perfectly free from self-consciousness, and had never had 
 a week's illness in her life. She was therefore graceful. 
 Perhaps the one adjective that describes her is " pleas 
 ant." She was pleasant to look upon, pleasant to hear, 
 pleasant as a companion, and like any other pleasant 
 thing, had nothing intrusive about her. She might have 
 been an indigo bird, or a Java sparrow bating the 
 melancholy creak, or a forget-me-not. Ah ! now we 
 have it ! a personified, modest, honest, stout-hearted, 
 blue-eyed forget-me-not, describes her exactly. 
 
 She glided about the place in a deft, easy way from 
 dining-room to kitchen, from closet to cupboard setting 
 down the dishes one by 'one, just where they belonged, 
 and where they stayed with a contented appearance, as if 
 it was a real pleasure to be where she put them. Her 
 father watched her a fond, proud look glorifying his 
 wrinkled old face. She was the one love of his heart. 
 
 Mrs. McCross had gone to tea and a social prayer-meet 
 ing at Squire Hitchcock's, so Mollie's table was only laid 
 for three, and, in spite of the business ordeal poor Louis
 
 18 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 was passing, they had a cosy supper. Mrs. McCross 
 said her husband drank his tea strong enough to bear up 
 an egg. To-night his daughter had brewed it green as an 
 emerald, and fragrant as a clover-field in full bloom. If 
 Mollie had a weakness, it was for genuine gunpowder 
 without sugar. Her father and she found immense com 
 fort in their kindred dissipation the maternal head tak 
 ing frequent occasion to stigmatize their decoction as 
 " Devil's broth," and generally assuming her seat at 
 breakfast with the remark : 
 
 " Well, Teapot, I suppose you've got to fill up your 
 stomach and addle your brains as usual." 
 
 Under the exhilarating influence of his draught, the 
 old gentleman waxed eloquent upon his favorite theme. 
 " There is two kinds of shiftlessness," quoth he, dangling 
 his tea-cup upon his thumb and forefinger in the charac 
 teristic attitude taken by a lover of the drug just at 
 such a slant that the contents remained inside by sheer 
 defiance to the laws of gravitation ; " leastwise there's 
 more, but two especially. It's my belief that the raft of 
 folks is shiftless in something. Ef they ain't in one they 
 be in another. There's shiftlessness in business cm' shift 
 lessness in piety. It's darned shiftless of a man to waste 
 the opportunities of the gospel." Here Louis looked un 
 comfortable, but the Deacon didn't intend to be personal, 
 and ambled on thoughtfully, " Yes, throw them by year 
 in an' year out, an' not get religion ; an' its wuss'n that 
 not to meet a sixty-day note. Ef you bear this well in 
 mind, children, your firm '11 always have a good name on 
 'Change Street an' Church Street ; an' them two is all any 
 body needs," 
 
 Here the tea-cup, which Mollie had been sometime 
 eying with painful fascination, turned clear over, and in 
 flicted a beauty spot on Mrs. McCross' beloved table-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 19 
 
 cloth, but the originator only sighed sorrowfully, and, ob 
 taining a fresh supply of the treacherous mixture, rein 
 stated it in its former position, where it wiggled and 
 wavered as before. 
 
 During his discourse the lovers held a kind of mute 
 conversation, in which every simple action was made elo 
 quent of their happiness. In a true wooing all things 
 become conductors to the electric fluid of love. 
 
 " Louis," said Mr. McCross, dismounting from his 
 hobby, " where are you going to board ? " 
 
 "With Charley, at the Pelicans'. They offered to 
 take me." 
 
 The Deacon, who had a belief common to the old that 
 a dish of bread and water and the soft side of a stone is 
 proper fare for the rising generation of his own sex, 
 looked as forbidding as his lank and meek benevolence 
 could compass. 
 
 " Is that economy ? " he began ; " when I was a farmer's 
 boy, and went to New York to make my living, I owned 
 just one suit of clothes and slept under the counter. 
 For three months all I had to eat was beans ; and I put 
 my first wages at interest and began my fortune." 
 
 Louis had been very proud of his arrangements, and, 
 boy like, looked forward to relating them to Mollie with 
 eager enthusiasm. But now his face fell and he began 
 to think it was all a mistake, and himself not fit to make 
 plans. In short, the golden clouds about his sun of suc 
 cess had faded into dismal gray. He hadn't even cour 
 age to defend the course he had taken, and sat nibbling 
 a biscuit he had forgotten to butter, with downcast 
 glances, and bright, evanescent color. 
 
 Mollie had appeared far from happy when the Pelican 
 partnership obtruded itself into the conversation ; but 
 she would not have him put down. If she disagreed in
 
 20 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 private, it was all the more reason why he should show 
 a bold front in face of the adversary. She therefore 
 offered him peach preserves with her brightest smile, 
 and proceeded to ask every imaginable question about 
 the Pelican household, and the business, and Top Town, 
 and his ideas of a proper financial basis of operation ; 
 under which deferential treatment he once more recovered 
 his equanimity, and answered with cheerful resolution. 
 
 Even Deacon McCross relaxed his disparaging expres 
 sion, and joined in the talk with an air of interest and 
 approval. 
 
 " I remember Charley Pelican," said he, setting down 
 his tea-cup for freedom of gesture ; " he was a great boy, 
 up to anything ! " 
 
 It is a curious fact that the very traits which bring a 
 lad into an old man's detestation, reflect a kind of sav 
 age credit on him when he becomes of age. 
 
 " They used to call him Seed Pelican," went on the 
 Deacon, rubbing his wrinkled forehead thoughtfully ; "he 
 put apple-seeds on the stove at protracted meeting. I 
 recollect it well. Miss Goldsmith was there, and her 
 husband, young Fred. Deacon Williams had took a 
 notion to repeat the genealogy of Christ, to show off his 
 memory, and the seeds kept poppin' like a chorus at the 
 end of every line. Then Deacon Proddy rose to pray, an' 
 all the while the seeds kep' on explodin', till, after he'd 
 ben laborin' full fifteen minutes by the clock, he said 
 he'd be brief, as some evil-minded person was disturbin' 
 the meetin'. You see he'd been licensed to preach once, 
 an' was always itchin' to knock his elbows agin the 
 pulpit." 
 
 The narrator picked his teeth reflectively, a few min 
 utes, while Mollie entered upon a disagreeable train of 
 thought relative to Louis' probable treatment at the
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 21 
 
 hands of this incorrigible, and the object of her solici 
 tude recollected how Charley was the best hand to skitter 
 stones in his whole knowledge, and how no one could be 
 gin to match him at marbles, or base ball, or wrestling ; 
 the old man finally relaxing into a chuckle as he be 
 thought him of a certain day, when the thin, lean fish 
 monger of the village, John Smith by name, found his 
 too generalistic door-plate reduced to more particularity 
 by addition of " Lamprey -eel " in red letters, the reflective 
 Charley being the author of the amendment. Supper 
 having been now concluded, Deacon McCross stretched 
 out his now not over stout legs, shaped indeed a good 
 deal like riding whips, with the tassel for the foot, and 
 throwing a red-and-yellow handkerchief over his head, 
 prepared for a nap. Suddenly an idea struck him. 
 " Daughter," said he, sitting up straight, still covered 
 with his brilliant head-gear, " let's sing a hymn." 
 
 " Do," answered she gayly, and came near to give him 
 a loving little pat. " Shall it be China, or Windham ? " 
 Mollie always aided and abetted her father in his bursts 
 of gayety, never failing to look at him fondly when he 
 thus took courage, of a tremulous order at best, to as 
 sert his right to be jovial, and she frequently assured 
 him that she thought him very cunning, which she truly 
 did. 
 
 He reflected gazing with comfortable benevolence 
 from beneath the pendant ends of his head-gear at the 
 two young people, who in putting away the tea things 
 had just bidden themselves, quite unnecessarily, behind 
 the closet door. " Neither," he observed at length, 
 brightening still more under the influence of a happy 
 thought ; " it's a trifle different, and quite appropriate ; 
 your mother and I used to sing it when we were courtin' 
 Saturday nights."
 
 22 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 So saying, lie brought from the book -case, with fond 
 pride, a certain venerable and battered singing-book, 
 bearing " White and King" conspicuously printed on the 
 cover, and still enveloped in the mists of those youthful 
 memories, peered over his glasses a long time at the dia 
 bolical patent notes. Then he adjusted his children 011 
 either side his rocking chair, and named the tune 
 Greenland solemnly beating time with his thumb. 
 
 As you may not have the pleasure of familiarity with 
 *' White and King," I will subjoin this ancient ditty : 
 
 " "When Adam was created, he dwelt in Eden's shade, 
 As Moses has related, before a bride was made ; 
 He had no consolation, but seemed as one alone, 
 Till to his admiration he found he'd lost a bone. 
 
 " This woman was not taken from Adam's head, we know, 
 And she must not rule o'er him, it's evidently so. 
 Great was his exultation to have her by his side; 
 Great was his elevation to have a loving bride. 
 
 " This woman was not taken from Adam's feet, we see ; 
 And she must not be abused, the meaning seems to be. 
 This woman she was taken from near to Adam' s heart, 
 By which we are directed that they should never part." 
 
 There had been some small by -play during the singing. 
 First the good Deacon smiled a curiously compassionate 
 smile at the young man, and poked him jocularly with 
 his left forefinger, his right hand being occupied in 
 marking the accents. Then Louis sniffed significantly at 
 Mollie when submission was discussed in the second 
 verse, and their leader also turned to her with some 
 emphasis. 
 
 Then Mollie reached round behind her father's chair, 
 and revenged herself on her lover by a little vicious 
 pinch, as his duties came under observation, and all
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 23 
 
 three burst into a delighted giggle when the happy con 
 summation was reached. 
 
 " Tli ere ! " said the Deacon, authoritatively tapping 
 the cover with his spectacles. " That's the talk for me ; 
 an' all I've got to say is, that in this undertaking which 
 you've entered upon, I hope you'll be successful." 
 
 The next day was warm and hazy, and Sunday besides. 
 That is how the pair came to be spending it together in 
 the orchard. 
 
 " Louis," said Mollie, knitting up a memorial of Pastor 
 Harms, Wichern, and Kaiserworth. " I long for work 
 real work. I envy you your path among opposing cir 
 cumstances. When your life is over, you will have 
 borne mankind's burdens and accomplished something, 
 and reared a better pillar than Absalom's a structure 
 tangible, created, done ! " 
 
 " Done brown ? " asked the other, looking lazily up at 
 her earnest face from the support of his crossed hands, as 
 he lay stretched out on the grass. 
 
 " Not exactly," said Mollie, too much interested in her 
 thought to care for his quirks. " I think there is so 
 much difference between real work, and such as tires us 
 out, and never betters ourselves or any one else. It 
 seems to me that women don't get the right notion of 
 life as men do. I would be willing to suffer a great deal 
 if I could only give the world a very small good. I can't 
 seem to make a little study, a little music, a little 
 German, a little sewing, and all the rest idling, come into 
 my ideal of life." 
 
 " You ought to live for your friends," suggested Louis ; 
 much as to say, " me for instance." 
 
 " You can't," answered Mollie, with the air of one 
 who has travelled wearily through an unsatisfactory 
 train of thought. " They can't live for you, nor you for
 
 24 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 them as an end. The minute you try it, you prey on 
 your friend's life, and lie on yours. Friendship is the 
 richness of two busy lives flowing into each other; 
 thereby both are strengthened for their own duties and 
 battles. What I want is work ; I must have it, or I can't 
 be your helpmeet." 
 
 " O dear," said Louis, looking at her with a mixture 
 of admiration and compassion. " Why aren't you 
 satisfied to sit here passive, and sway with the shadows, 
 and be quiet, listening to the beautiful voices the earth 
 has for you, and not fret, out of harmony with it all. It 
 makes me perfectly happy to lie so beside you. I never 
 want the day to end." 
 
 This was very sweet. Mollie smiled at the dreamer ; 
 but she would not be put off. " Because," she said 
 eagerly, " you are taking a man's earned rest after toil ; 
 and the charms of the day are half by contrast with the 
 labor that makes you a firm-muscled man. But you 
 would despise a life of lounging under the apple-trees, 
 with no better end or purpose, and so do I." 
 
 " So I should," said the young man, with kindling eye, 
 half rising as he spoke. " I too wish to be something, a 
 man among men. I want to earn wealth and a home, and 
 put you in it. And then we will go onward together. 
 But I think you are wrong about the German and music 
 and culture, they are worthy aims for a life's devotion. 
 Think of Orlandus Lassus' epitaph : ' Here lies the 
 weaiy who refreshed the weary.' " 
 
 " Well, perhaps," said Mollie doubtfully, and then 
 brightening. " Yes, to excel, to help others on, to 
 identify one's self with, as a master ; but not to dabble in, 
 Louis ; not to dabble in. What I would choose would be 
 to minister to my fellows as an end, and then bend every 
 department of culture to its aid. I have been thinking
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 25 
 
 a great deal about Enoch. You remember Enoch ? He 
 walked with God, and was not, for God took him. The 
 idea haunted me, till I bad to write it out." 
 
 "I don't like Enoch," said Louis, perversely. "I 
 want to have a good time and that dreadful suggestion 
 of being hurried from danger to desert and desert to 
 danger by a power outside of one's self, is too repugnant 
 to be entertained for a moment. I'd rather lie amid 
 some sylvan scene and be comfortable. Or, no," seeing 
 a shadow play over his friend's face, " not that ; I am 
 glad to work ; I am never idle. Now you know I'm not, 
 Mollie " she nodded " but I want to choose congenial 
 work. Please read the verses. I see them sticking out 
 of your pocket ; that's something I like. I'd suffer, as 
 you say, if it would make me a poet." 
 
 Moliie produced her labor without any comment, and 
 read the whole to Louis, who listened critically, and 
 smiled occasional approval : 
 
 ' ' And Enoch walked with God known through the land 
 As one all feared, few loved Jehovah's friend. 
 Mayhap thou'st slowly climbed the granite hills 
 Pushed through the dim fir woods that make their heads 
 So wild and fearsome, and come out upon 
 Some huge gray rock the mountain's naked rib : 
 Sheer below thee lay the matted tree-tops, 
 Wove so close, it seemed a feather trembling 
 Down the thin blue air could never pass their leafage. 
 Towering in circle stand the hills, 
 Joined, as if hand in hand, quiet as silence, 
 And half veiled with cedar. Above, the summer sky ; 
 Poised in its blue so high, a very mote 
 Would hide its flight an eagle. All the 
 Faces of the hills full of a mastered sorrow ; 
 A grand peace, a stilly power, vast as a thought of God. 
 Akin in nature this to Enoch ; and the Presence with him, 
 Even so lonely 'mid the crowd of life, 
 2
 
 26 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Kept him forever. Yet the children loved him ; 
 
 Those happy beings, still too young in life 
 
 To have a dread of God, walking with Enoch. 
 
 Sad it is that at one gate of earth 
 
 We should strike hands with God, our friend ; 
 
 And, walking through earth's space, 
 
 Find at the other gate but a stern Judge, 
 
 Who says, ' I never knew you.' Can He change ? 
 
 Or is it we who have forgot His face ? 
 
 But Enoch walked with God, did not forget. 
 
 When from the grass, in the still summer morn, 
 
 Lifting himself, he turned to meet the sun, 
 
 Or when the romping children in the town, 
 
 Loving to hang upon his strong, firm hands, 
 
 Would frame their steps to match his bold, free stride, 
 
 And watch with questioning eyes his mouth so sweet ; 
 
 Or when he bargained in the noisy arch, 
 
 Where surged the traffic from first morn till even, 
 
 There was a Presence with him all men felt 
 
 And feared, and, fearing, hated Enoch, who 
 
 Alone feared not. 
 
 Not in wrenched nature, or rude risings up 
 Of power, this presence came. 
 He never trembled forth in purple mists 
 At the gray dawn, or, standing lone, 
 Forced to the desert by imperious power. 
 Enoch heard no inarticulate murmur of a loving voice 
 Call in his ear. 
 
 Or in marches long 
 
 Resting an hour in balsamy cedar groves, 
 Stooping to drink from the clear running brook, 
 No loved grave face mirrored beside his own, 
 Thrown back in broken dimples from the spring. 
 It was a Presence deeper, grander yet, 
 Than these fantastic utterances would show 
 A calm, full rest within his inmost heart 
 A mighty stirring of his deepest self, 
 That moved the man to proclaim awful words
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 27 
 
 Pity and wrath, vengeance and love and pain, 
 Felt by the Highest, touching Enoch's soul. 
 For 'twas with soul matched to the Almighty pulse 
 Of the Great Heart, that Enoch walked with God." 
 
 " Now, Mollie," said Louis, getting off his grassy couch 
 and shaking himself, "that's theology, and you promised 
 to stop flinging it at me. It's no fair." 
 
 He stretched out his hand for the paper as he spoke, 
 and scanned the lines, with a provoking little smile that 
 only made him more delicately handsome. 
 
 " I won't be pelted with religion," he continued, pet 
 tishly. " Baxter quarrelled so, the only rest the neigh 
 boring saints had was in his absence, and I don't be 
 lieve in it, anyway. I love you, but oh ! Mollie sweet, 
 not your hobby. Let us have peace. Besides, how can 
 I believe without a change of heart? and really I can't 
 change it, because you've had it these dozen years. Now 
 truly, honest Injin, is it fair ? " 
 
 He was so playful, and so coaxing, and so really in 
 love with her, that she gave a little sigh to the despised 
 theology, and only looked at him with happy eyes. Brown- 
 haired, brown-eyed, slender, with a cheek that paled and 
 flushed with every varying emotion, she could find no 
 fault in him, religionist or sceptic. It was all the 
 same to her, in her craving, over-mastering love. " Come 
 back ! come back ! " said she ; " I'll be quiet while you 
 read ' Phantasties.' " 
 
 " Ah ! that's better ; " and the stripling returned to 
 accept the proffered book, and walk an afternoon's march 
 further into Mollie's life. . 
 
 " I'll sing a hymn, if that will comfort you," said he, 
 throwing down the volume, and studying her face, for 
 fear a shadow might have come upon it from his resolved 
 following of his own humor. I'm not a statue or be-
 
 28 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 witched, but I feel sore from the crown of my head to 
 the sole of my foot, I've been so belabored with the 
 Bible. From Aaron's rod to Elijah's staff, all the cud 
 gels have come upon my back. He took up a guitar 
 lying on the grass beside them, and set the strings vibra 
 ting among themselves as if they spoke by their own im 
 pulse, not his. Shall it be, " When marshalled on the 
 nightly plain," or " Brightest and best," sweet heart ? 
 
 " Louis," said Mollie obstinately, " I believe I was 
 right in the matter of Enoch. I stick to it. If you 
 liked you could see it too. I know the metre is wrong, 
 but the spirit is correct, anyway." 
 
 " The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Eh ? " re 
 torted he, airily. " Well, if I can't sing your Calvinistic 
 theories asleep, I'll take to slumber myself. After all, 
 Mollie, you are my best religion. 
 
 ' Plus blanche que la blanche hermine, 
 Plus pure qu'un jour de printemps, 
 Tin ange, une vierge divine.' " 
 
 His silver tenor half sung, half whispered the words, 
 and before the Huguenotish strain was concluded, he had 
 really slipped into dreamland lying with his arm thrown 
 under his head, in the careless, boyish grace of youth. 
 
 Mollie dropped her book to watch the shadows play to 
 and fro on his upturned face, and indulge in the luxury 
 of loving him her own never to be shared with an 
 other all hers and forever.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ' ' Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall ; 
 Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." 
 
 I HE scene shifts from the McCross' pleasant 
 orchard, in the heart of Millville, to the streets 
 of its humble dependant Syllabub. Time an 
 other warm autumn afternoon. Dramatis persona? two 
 ragged boys disputing over a pile of worm-eaten boards. 
 In the foreground a small story-and-a-half unpainted 
 cottage, with a hieroglyphical sign swinging over the 
 door 
 
 " Old Solomon Eodgers, with 
 Affords entertainment to 
 
 That sign had been put there in Revolutionary days, 
 when the tavern was the resort of all the country-side, 
 from the red-coated gentleman who called for his ale at the 
 door without dismounting from his handsome steed, to the 
 louting plough-boy leaning against the fence to stare at 
 his betters. Old Solomon himself, a portly red-faced 
 Englishman, who had watched the gentry build their 
 quaint houses and plant their rambling gardens about 
 his humble mansion, and had drunk to King George till 
 the last of his patrons found a refuge from patriotic 
 treason in the village church-yard, was fain to follow 
 them loyally to the end. If any one cares to push aside 
 the tangled grass that hides his weather-worn tomb-
 
 30 
 
 fUITFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 stone, he can read in mossy letters, deep cut in the glitter 
 ing mica-schist (Latin to match the times) : 
 
 HIC JACET SOLOMON RODGERS 
 
 OF THE 
 KING'S ARMS, WHO DIED A 
 
 LOYAL SUBJECT OP ENGLAND, 
 
 A.D. 1812." 
 
 And now that he and those he reverenced are alike 
 gathered to their fathers, the brawling occupants of a 
 factory suburb spank their children and anathematize each 
 other amid the carved stairways and decayed grandeur 
 of the gentle ; and to-day, when our story begins, one 
 Patrick Michael Mulligan dispenses goat's milk manufac 
 tured, and cherry brandy of suspicious parentage, at the 
 stand of their simple neophyte. 
 
 The gardens where blue-eyed Faith and sparkling 
 Prudence wandered and dreamed are crowded with un 
 couth brick tenements ; and white-headed, dirty children 
 play in gutters, which net the very thyme-bordered 
 plots once sacred to the old-fashioned fellowship of the 
 hollyhock and rose. Squalor and filth have reign ; and 
 decency, compelled by fear in daylight, leaves free course 
 to folly and crime when once the shadows have fallen. 
 
 Nay the less, the old sign, as I have said, creaked 
 through all these changes, and on the day when the 
 events I chronicle befell, two weeks' rain had rusted its 
 fastenings to a more mournful tune than ever. I have al 
 ways thought these hoarse mutters had vast meaning, but 
 time, alas! has made them as unintelligible as the black 
 ened inscription which I can read only because my grand 
 mother remembers it. 
 
 The conversation going on beneath its antiquated dig-
 
 8H1FTLEKK FOLKS. 31 
 
 nity had nothing of these reminiscences to mar its real 
 ism. Shade of gentle Lady Arabella, draw not near ! 
 
 " If you don't tote them ere boards to the Cross-Roads, 
 I'll lick you," exclaimed Amos Daley, who was tall, with 
 black hair and gray blue eyes. He stood full half a head 
 higher than Hugh, and looked able. 
 
 " I won't," said Hugh, setting his arms akimbo, much 
 as to say, " Come on, if you dare." 
 
 The miserable, worm-eaten, snail-tracked, mud-crusted 
 heap of contention didn't seem worth the challenge, but 
 neither boy was insensible to the charming prospect of 
 " punching his adversary's head," and, when he was sub 
 dued, crowing over him. 
 
 They were evenly matched. Hugh had the advantage 
 of a better fitting dress and firmer flesh than Amos ; he 
 was, indeed, rather cat-like in motion and muscle; 
 whereas Mr. Daley had just reached that stage of growth 
 where his joints were loose, his motions sluggish and un 
 couth, and his bones gave the impression of being far too 
 big for his body. 
 
 There can be no aggravation to a Syllabub boy equal 
 to a clog-dance of defiance, performed by a little chap on 
 the other side of an insignificant defence, such as the pres 
 ent heap of kindlings. Mr. Daley made a lunge forward 
 over the same, caught his foot therein, and sprawled ; 
 while Hugh^ who had darted clear round it and hit his 
 foe a blow in the back, performed another dance, enlivened 
 with whistling and snapping of fingers. A big dog also 
 rushed from behind a pig-pen and took the nether integu 
 ments of our hero in his teeth, with vicious growls. 
 
 " Sheure for onctht yer gittin yer due, Amos Daley. 
 An' is it to steal yer here ? Hold 'im, Skip ! " cried a 
 ragged girl, appearing in the door- way. Little Doppy 
 had not fulfilled the promise of her babyhood lean,
 
 32 SHIFTLESS POLES. 
 
 skinny, freckled, with a pair of brown eyes large enough 
 for the Nova Scotia Giantess, she quite warranted Amos' 
 sulky retort : 
 
 " Yis, 'n more'n my due whin I have to look at yer 
 ugly mug darn your pup, he's enough like you to be yer 
 own brother, he is." This was also true, if bony form 
 and ragged hair be likeness. 
 
 Doppy, however, felt the insolence of the rejoinder, the 
 more that Hugh added a rasping laugh at her expense. 
 She therefore sent the contents of a water dipper with 
 a vigorous aim full in the grinning face of the prostrate 
 foe, and shying the utensil itself at his accomplice, 
 banged the door ; then instantly reappearing at a window 
 up-stairs, shrieked, " Larn manners next time," in flush 
 of victory. 
 
 " Oh, I'll be as iley as a barrl of kerrycine if you'll 
 call off the dog," said Amos, fain to retrieve by art the 
 losses of war. We may well say loss, for if Skip's atten 
 tions continued much longer, he felt that there would be 
 a separation from the garment of the particular blue 
 patch now tackled so vivaciously, and had a reasonable 
 dread of the next canine procedure. 
 
 " Do," said Doppy, with withering scorn ; " but you 
 wouldn't be nothin' better 'n fish ile." After which she 
 complied with his request. 
 
 Enter Aleck Heffron, with boards. 
 
 "Where were yees after gittin' 'em?" cried Amos, 
 feeling inquisitively at the point of doggish attack, arid 
 sighing with relief to find the aforesaid patch still there. 
 
 " You hain't missed 'em from the great River Hotel, 
 where you board?" inquired the new-comer with biting 
 irony. 
 
 " No, I'd turn up my landlord if he didn't keep better 
 at our house,"
 
 SHTFTLE8S FOLKS. 33 
 
 " Town-house," corrected Hugh ; " jest comin' from 
 there, you'd orter know." 
 
 As Doppy was still within sight at the window, the 
 trio shouted a stave in shrill chorus just out of range 
 from chance missiles, while they picked up their dusty 
 burden, and they jumped and yelped long after the 
 house was left behind : 
 
 " If I had an old wife to bother rny life, 
 I'll tell you what I'd do, woo-woo-wooow 
 I'd set her afloat in a leaky boat, 
 To paddle her own canoe, woo-woo-wooow." 
 
 " Bow-wow-wow," chorused Skip, who, urged on by 
 Doppy, had followed up the amiable serenaders. " You'd 
 better git, or I'll go for you," shrieked she, shaking her 
 dirty little fist. Hereupon the cavalcade took to their 
 heels in good earnest, and arrived at the spot destined 
 by their aspiring ambition for the store, much panting, 
 and looking back fearfully ; and we may as well follow 
 Doppy's scornful example, and leave them to their work. 
 
 Just at this moment a riding party were moving away 
 from Fir Covert. Mary McCross, in a sage-green habit, 
 we know ; and you may have met Mr. Cymbaline Adol- 
 phus Brown, nephew of Captain Slocum. He has ac 
 companied friend Serena to the Catskills, and traw veiled 
 in Euwope with a party, since the date of our present 
 equestrian excursion. 
 
 The magnificent brunette, in maroon velvet, v/ith a 
 long white ostrich plume in her coquettish cap, is Peace 
 Pelican, who has come down to Millville to visit Susy 
 Jenkens. Francis Haythorne rides beside her, tall, spare, 
 with clear, sharply cut features, and hair, eyes, and 
 beard, all shades of the same splendid fiery hue. You 
 know the old couplet :
 
 34 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " With a red man, read thy read ; 
 With a brown man, break thy bread. 
 With a white man, draw thy knife ; 
 From a black man, keep thy wife. " 
 
 There is something profoundly repulsive in a white- 
 eyed, red-lidded, white-faced, white-lipped, white-haired 
 man, deny it if you can. But all honor to the red peo 
 ple. I never met one whose temper was not as true and 
 good as hasty, and the tale of whose virtues and freckles 
 was not exactly equal. A red head may outlast its ruddy 
 color, the bright cheek it emulates may pale, but the hot 
 pulsations of the heart that lights them, can never cool 
 to generosity or faithfulness ; or energetic kindness to its 
 loved, and quick forgiveness of its hated. Yet, for all 
 this, do not pray for a red-haired millennium, unless you 
 are equal to a counter-irritative diet of Cayenne. For 
 this people, the sun always rolls itself in thunder or in 
 smiles ; the path of life leads either straight up hill, or 
 down. Still, as only ruddy David could have assembled 
 about him a Jonathan, a Joab, a Bathsheba, and a Solo 
 mon, my opinion is firm. There are two kinds of red- 
 haired : those, my favorites, who flame like lighted char 
 coal in open air ; and those, better students, but less lov 
 able, who smoulder like charcoal in the pit, ready to burn 
 bright on occasion. 
 
 Mr. Haythorne belonged to class number two. His 
 hair had grown with years into a rich chestnut, and curled 
 slightly ; his eyes were reddish hazel, like a fox's tail. 
 He rode indolently ; as if, being fairly on horseback, he 
 never meant to go to the trouble of dismounting, and 
 had grown there. Here he made a sharp contrast to 
 Mr. Brown, who gave snobbish attention to toes and 
 elbows, and airily cleared his saddle at every step. Peace 
 Pelican, too, displayed all the elegant graces of a Top
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 35 
 
 Town riding-school, while Mollie went on in her usu 
 ally unobtrusive style, so that no one knew whether 
 she performed her part well or ill. 
 
 It is delightful to whip Pegasus to a gallop when the 
 day is cool and the roads are fine. So our troop thought, 
 at least. The clear, white sunlight of New England lay 
 over hill and wood. I have always believed New Eng 
 land's religion and Sabbaths were as much fed on her 
 sunshine as the Bible. It's holy purity has something 
 of heaven in it. On this autumn afternoon it penetrated 
 the gray-green, granite-dotted pastures, the clumps of 
 dark-leaved chestnuts, the pale willows by the water- 
 coxirses, the lichen-decked fences, the gurgling, hurrying 
 river, the black, fir-crowned mountains that framed the 
 scene. Autumn butterflies floated over the haycocked 
 fields, aged crickets wooed loudly in the meadows, dragon- 
 flies shimmered above the ponds, bobolinks and blue 
 birds and starlings aired gayly the mysteries of wings. 
 All was as peaceful and strong and delicate as is the 
 home of the Puritans in its very essence. It needs not 
 Bret Hurte's exquisite words to recall 
 
 ' ' Some boyish vision of an Eastern village, 
 
 Of uneventful toil, 
 
 Where golden harvests followed quiet tillage 
 Above a scanty soil." 
 
 The white-spired church, with its row of drooping elms, 
 the busy red mill nestled in a hollow half up the steep, 
 the spotted lilies and dodder, and cardinal flowers of 
 meadow and wood how do they stand to us Godward, 
 emblems of purity and peace, in all the weariness and 
 wants of after life ! 
 
 Still, as I have said, the secret is mostly in the sun 
 shine, and under its spell our young folks raced and
 
 36 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 frisked and caracoled, till steer lack of breath brought 
 them, in a staid quartette amble, down the steep hill 
 side. 
 
 Said Mr. Haythorne, pulling off his hat and letting 
 the sun gild his auburn mane, " This afternoon is enough 
 to make even poor Yorick replace his night-cap 011 his 
 battered crown, and see beauty in life. On such a day 
 as this, I am a saint." 
 
 Mollie surveyed him playfully. " I echo Sancho 
 Pauza," quoth she. " Thou art the first saint on horse 
 back that ever I saw." 
 
 "Where else do you see them nowadays," said Peace, 
 secretly tickling her indolent escort's steed, in the hope 
 that it would give him a little shake-up, and venting some 
 inwrought bitterness in her speech. The mettlesome ani 
 mal shied out a couple of yards, and stood on his hind 
 feet once or twice ; but his rider was glued to his saddle, 
 and only smiled a complacent " Thank you " at the atten 
 tive friend. " One hardly expects to find them among 
 the Great Unwashed," resumed he, reining his horse into 
 line again. 
 
 The relation these two held was peculiar. Something 
 in his egotistic he was egotistic unruifleable, lazy tran 
 quillity aggravated Peace to fever heat ; and he, on his 
 side, could never make up his mind to let her alone, in 
 spite of her flouts and jeers, which she aimed so inces 
 santly that some must needs rankle. 
 
 Now she eyed him with vivacious disfavor a moment, 
 and then retorted, " For my part, I never see a broad- 
 clothed, self-satisfied biped, bestriding his sleek steed like 
 a clothes-pin on a pumpkin, without remembering Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes on the subject." 
 
 The color mounted to the roots of his auburn hair, but 
 he gave a placid smile, and snatched from an overhanging
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 37 
 
 tree a handsome cluster of wild cherries, which he tossed 
 gallantly into her lap. 
 
 Mr. Brown, who had overheard the colloquy, pushed 
 the other side of Miss Pelican, and cried artlessly, " Do 
 repeat them ; I haven't seen anything spicy since I read 
 Plurabustah in bed last week." 
 
 " I thought you meant to say, ' Boots at Holly Tree 
 Inn,' " retorted she, facing round, and alluding to Mr. 
 Brown's favorite topic of conversation. " No ! if you 
 want to hear them, ask Mr. Haythorne." 
 
 " Certainly, if smiling Peace wishes it," said he in a 
 low distinct voice. " These are the lines to which I be 
 lieve she alludes : 
 
 " ' Come, gather your reins, and crack your thong, 
 
 And make your steed go faster ; 
 He doesn't know, as he ambles along, 
 That he has a fool for his master.' " 
 
 He looked square in her face as he repeated them, 
 so that she reddened with consciousness of her unlady 
 like implication, and giving her horse a sharp blow, sent 
 him prancing and rearing up the road till he reached a lit 
 tle bridge over a certain pretty shady brook, where he 
 turned round and round a full do/en times, and then shot 
 forward like mad. 
 
 It was quite impossible to be long angry with Peace. 
 She was so royally, piquantly handsome, and her malice 
 was so childish, her storms so thoroughly the offspring of 
 her own soul fret, which only broke upon their victim by 
 accident she was so generous and impulsive and true, one 
 must needs forgive her from mere admiration of her 
 beauty and amusement at her freaks. And Francis Hay- 
 thorue forgot her biting tongue before he had spent five 
 minutes watching her white plume dancing on before
 
 38 
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 him, and her tall, graceful figure swaying liraberly to the 
 motion of her shying yellow horse. He was the most 
 thin-skinned of men, though he had never gauged his 
 strength with opposition enough to learn the first lesson 
 of self-distrust. But instead of wounding, she interested 
 his lazy complacency ; so, without any apparent hurry or 
 intention, he was again beside her, calm- and deliberate as 
 before. 
 
 She did not seem to have at all composed her ruffled 
 feathers, however ; and rode along the stony margin of the 
 foot-path, leaping an occasional log, and holding her face 
 averted till they reached a second brook this time shal 
 low and sunny as brook could be. She might take her 
 road over the bridge beside her escort, who was politely 
 waiting her, or wade through the rivulet, which would 
 scarcely wet her horse's hoofs. She cast a quick glance 
 on his pleasantly smiling face, and resolved shame in 
 ducing a certain angry meeting of her handsome black 
 brows to give him the whole road though the stream 
 reached the saddle girth. Which it really did, for her 
 charming steed, after a vicious kicking at the clear bright 
 water which sent his rider in a hasty leap to the ground, 
 deliberately knelt down, and rolled, saddle, bridle, stirrup, 
 all over and over and over in the refreshing liquid. 
 
 He was beginning a fourth revolution when she caught 
 the reins as they came uppermost, and, jerking his head out, 
 let the brute through the brook, which she crossed herself 
 with a prodigious jump, that nothing but the bitterest 
 wrath could have accomplished in safety. The smile was 
 so broad on Francis Haythorne's well-bred features, that 
 he beamed like the full moon turned sarcastic ; and, ruling 
 his delight into solemnity perfectly maddening, he dis 
 mounted and held the dripping stirrup up with the gent 
 lest care.
 
 FMTFTLERR FOLKS. 39 
 
 " Do take my horse," said he ; " this saddle is wet 
 through. I can easily change my dress, and I know you 
 can ride without the horns." 
 
 But Peace waved him off, mortified and stormy. '' If 
 you want me to mount, do so yourself," said she, flourish 
 ing her whip with suggestive vigor ; and she led her own 
 aquatic Pegasus to a stone wall and was on his back in a 
 twinkling of the little viper's laughing eyes, which offered 
 curious contrast to his muddy but innocent yellow nose. 
 Her sympathizing friend had wisely galloped before ; but 
 the young lady followed him at a dead run, and reining 
 Sandy almost upon his haunches, exclaimed in a voice 
 quivering with passion, " You've made me lose my self- 
 respect twice to-day ! Now let me alone ! I shall hate 
 you just as long as I live there ! " 
 
 " I hope so," said he cheerfully ; " I can bear anything 
 but insignificance. Shall I lead your horse ? " 
 
 l( Don't you dare so much as to look at me," cried she, 
 actually quivering with temper, and twice as handsome 
 as ever ; " and don't press too close, either, or you will get 
 muddy, and that would break your heart, you know." 
 
 Francis Haythorne might perhaps be a wee trifle dandi 
 fied in his dress or would have been, if his taste was riot 
 so exquisite and quiet. He had therefore received a 
 shot in his vulnerable point, and sulked in concert with 
 the angry beauty. 
 
 " Here are the Cross-Roads," said Mollie, who seemed 
 as little pleased with her ride as the pouting couple she 
 joined. " Let's sweep past at full speed, and go home." 
 
 The proposal was received with favor, and the company 
 prepared to ride rough-shod over the last resting-place of 
 the unhappy suicide buried there, when a horrible noise 
 smote their ears, and produced an unlooked-for catas 
 trophe.
 
 40 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Hugh, Amos, and Aleck, having put up their modest 
 booth, roofed the same with a probable remnant of one 
 of Mrs. Noah's window-curtains, and sat in state over the 
 stock-in-trade (two apples, six peanuts, and a mug of lem 
 onade) till all was consumed. Tiring of this, they uncon 
 sciously forestalled Gilmore, and resolved to have a band. 
 They therefore took to themselves other spirits, and, being 
 fully equipped with whistles, bones, a conch-shell, and an 
 old tin pan, inaugurated their minstrelsy for the benefit of 
 our equestrians. Judging from the discomposure of the 
 horses, they could not have been familiar with village 
 instrumentation. In spite of Peace's endeavors (she 
 was too proud to make a sound), Sandy betrayed his 
 breeding by walking up to the booth, and, putting his fore 
 feet on the third fence-rail, endeavored to fire off an 
 imaginary pistol ; failing in which, he composedly knelt 
 down, and dropped her over his head as he had learned 
 to do little boys at the circus, and, entangled in her long 
 dress, she was obliged to allow the complaisant Haythonie 
 to lift her to her feet. 
 
 " There ! " said she, " I hope you're happy now ; that 
 whole grocery store full of idlers and loafers is grinning 
 at us like Cheshire cats. Go away! I'll never get on 
 him again as long as I live never ! " But Sandy now 
 stood with his nose at her pocket, searching for sugar, 
 as meek and innocent as if he had never kicked a fly 
 in his life, and she couldn't help forgiving him on the 
 spot, and fed him all the sweets she had directly. 
 
 Old Mulligan's dog Skip, however, had a deeper rooted 
 abhorrence of Amos. He came along just then, and 
 rushed at his bare toes as he stood balancing himself on 
 the sharp fence-rail, whither he had climbed to make the 
 conch-shell more effective. The unfortunate boy hopped 
 with surprising agility, brandishing his instrument in one
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 41 
 
 hand, and iu the other the pole of the shanty, pulled up 
 in his fright. He made a fine figure, his tattered gar 
 ments streaming in the wind ; but it could not save him. 
 A miscalculated leap, and boy and building mingled 
 in a confused kicking heap. At this Mollie's horse lost 
 his composure, and began bucking, which of course 
 brought her to the ground without ado. Mr. Hay- 
 thorne, who, after his last Peace-ful repulse, had with 
 drawn a little distance, and stood watching the scene 
 with indolent amusement, heard a faint cry. Seeing 
 Miss McCross's saddle empty, he hurried to her aid. 
 But she was on her feet before he reached her, and shook 
 herself gayly. " I am not hurt ; hurry, and help the poor 
 boy." 
 
 " He probably knows enough to get up," said Francis 
 Haythorne, casting a disdainful glance at the dusty ruin 
 from whence issued piteous howls. " Idle dog, he de 
 serves a whipping for heading such a performance." 
 
 Mollie looked disappointed a moment; this didn't 
 realize her ideal man at all. After a short hesitation, 
 she gathered up her skirt, and dodging through the fence 
 helped the snivelling child to his feet. He might well 
 give way to tears ; besides wounds and tatters personal, 
 the shanty of his pride was demolished, and worst of all, 
 there sat little Doppy astride the fence-rail, cold-piece 
 basket oil arm, making faces at him. 
 
 The other lads gathered near, and glanced with unim- 
 pressible face, but active curiosity, from the elegantly 
 dressed young lady to their forlorn companion. 
 
 " Are you much hurt ?" asked Mollie kindly, Aviping 
 las bleeding face with her soft handkerchief. 
 
 " Not as I knows on," with a sullen shake of the 
 shoulder where her light hand rested. 
 
 But the sunny-hearted girl smiled down into his eyes
 
 42 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 so openly and brightly, that every one was infected by 
 her pleasantness, and grinned in concert. " Don't you 
 think a big paper of peanuts would be some comfort ? " 
 
 She never thought what a lovely tableau she made in 
 her graceful, girlish, dignified compassion. It was almost 
 a pity that the red-haired aristocrat should have had the 
 benefit of it. Peanuts? What music dwells in the 
 word ! She slipped the money into Amos' hand, pointed 
 to the store opposite, and sprang quickly to her saddle. 
 Riding away, they found Mr. Brown judiciously halting 
 half a mile from the scene of tumult. And here Peace 
 had her revenge, for Francis Haythorne, who had in 
 sisted upon mounting her horse, was brushed neatly off 
 against a tree, by the incorrigible Sandy, who then turned 
 round and laughed, as the crestfallen horseman picked 
 his sprawling length from the dusty road. Two beauti 
 ful tortoise-shell kittens had been sleeping in the sun, on 
 the wide piazza of the grocery opposite the booth, and 
 in double fright of Skip and the racket, darted into 
 the great branches of the overshadowing chestnut-tree. 
 Now, entering the secret precincts, a scampering and 
 scratching ensued that all the cats in the Salem witch 
 craft couldn't have beaten. Then came stillness, and, 
 with the pussies' reappearance, an odor that erected all 
 noses in anguish. 
 
 " Drat them animiles ! " said the fat grocer, taking 
 his Irishman's meerschaum from his mouth ; " they've 
 ben an' tipped over the whale-oil on to theirselves. 
 They beat all I ever see for worretin' an' cantankerin'. 
 I promised them to little Doppy, but I don't calkelate to 
 stand this. Yesterday I finds 'em asleep in the meal tub, 
 and to-day they gnawed up half a chicken. Here, Amos, 
 just you go an' kill 'em, and when you come back I'll give 
 you an orange."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 43 
 
 The rosy merchant returned to his town politics with 
 relieved mind, and Amos, nothing loth to do his errand, 
 shuffled off with the doomed felines, holding them by the 
 tips of their tails, as one would a dirty pocket-handker 
 chief. 
 
 " Amos Amos Daley," called Doppy's voice, " give 
 me them cats." 
 
 "Wouldn't you like 'em?" returned he, with the 
 ugliest grin his bruised features could assume, and 
 jiggled them up and down to " get the music out on 'em." 
 " Now you'll leaim to throw water on me." 
 
 " O Amos ! do give 'em here." 
 
 " Shan't ; I'll cut their tails off and roast 'em for break 
 fast. Father's short of fresh meat." He went on with 
 his occupation as he spoke, with the greatest enjoyment. 
 
 " You mean, dirty Irish boy ! " cried Doppy, white 
 with rage, and stamping hysterically. " Give me them 
 cats ; you hurt 'em." 
 
 " Good to make 'em grow long," returned Amos, vary 
 ing his exercise by sometimes grasping a leg or an ear, 
 careful to keep them always in full view. 
 
 Doppy made a rush at him, stopped half way, and, 
 with a look of perfect despair, threw her apron over her 
 head, dropped in a heap in the road, and began to sob in 
 concert with the cattish howls. 
 
 Amos gazed at her, transfixed by amazement. He 
 shifted the kittens to one hand, and scratched his head to 
 wako himself, while mouth and eyes flew wide open. 
 Was it possible that his ruthless foe was reduced to this ? 
 Was that curious complication of pink calico and brown 
 pinafore, rocking back and forth in such bitter grief, 
 really she ? He advanced a little nearer ; the kittens 
 wailed; she sobbed afresh. He put his free hand in his 
 por-ket and felt of his jack-knife to bolster up his courage,
 
 44 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 fast ebbing before this painful sight, and strove to pre 
 serve his stolid face. This being a dismal failure, he 
 shook the kittens with a virulence exceeding all pre 
 vious malignity, but his heart still sank. 
 
 The little girl shuddered. " Amos," cried she, lifting 
 a face where the tears had washed two white channels, 
 " I hain't nothin' of my own but one bead ring, an' sob- 
 sob a-a china mug, but I'll give 'em to you if you won't 
 kill the cats." 
 
 Poor little Doppy! she was so nice crying. His 
 friends had no such fondness for their animals. Master 
 Daley's resolution vanished utterly. Perhaps* he'd better, 
 he took half aim, and threw one kitten at her, just to 
 try the effect. 
 
 She gathered it in her skirts and kissed its head pas 
 sionately, and wiped and cuddled it, crying all the while. 
 And then, somehow, the other kitten was laid with its 
 fellow, and some one was saying soft words in a harsh, 
 boyish voice: "Don't cry now, sis. I hain't hurted 'em 
 of no account, and you've got 'em safe. Don't, there's a 
 dear. Say, I'll give you all my peanuts if you won't squall 
 no more." Amos adored peanuts. 
 
 It took some time to convince Doppy of his kind in 
 tentions. But at last she dried her eyes on her oily apron, 
 and began to smile. It made a strange alteration in her 
 pinched, weary face. In its bright glory her best self 
 shone forth, womanly, sweet, and lovable. " I don't want 
 your nuts," said she, gratefully. " I didn't know you 
 were so good. I'm sorry I sprinkled you ; " and a gleam 
 of roguish amusement tucked the corners of her mouth 
 into what should have been dimples, and still hinted at 
 beauty. 
 
 Amos laughed too, and answered with some remorse : 
 " I ain't good ; it was mean to jigger your pussies ; but I
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 45 
 
 won't plague you no more, never." His keen gray eyes 
 were bent in very friendly sort upon the other party to 
 this compact, for compact it was, and, when he asked to 
 carry her rescued prizes, she gave them into his keeping 
 with implicit confidence, and they were gently snuggled 
 against his jacket all the way to the " Solomon Rodgers." 
 
 " Mr. Hoskins, I killed them darn brutes as you teiled 
 me ; will you give me the orange ? " 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Can she make a cherry pie, Billy boy, Billy boy? 
 Can she make a cherry pie. charming Billy ? 
 She can make a cherry pie 
 While a cat can wink her eye. 
 She's a young thing she can't leave her mammy ! " 
 
 Miss McCross descended the stairs next 
 morning, she was stopped by Bridget, whose 
 cheeks were streaky red with grief. 
 " Me cousin be dead, mum, and we want to give him a 
 three nights' wake, and an illegant funeral. Would ye 
 rnind gittin' the breakfast, and lettin' me go now ? " 
 The young Celt's face was like a house with two tene 
 ments the up-stairs half all smiling at the prospect of 
 three evenings' fun, but the down-stairs part solemnly 
 mourning the corpse. 
 
 Retiring visions of garden-work, sewing, letters, friendly 
 visits, flitted forlornly through Mollie's mind. When 
 did the prospect of a week in woman's normal sphere fail 
 to strike the victim with disgust. Greasy dishes, crocky 
 pots and spiders, aching bones, blistered fingers! Ugh !
 
 46 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Mollie resolved to put a pleasant face on the matter, 
 since there was no help for it. Assuring the mourner 
 that she would do the work in her absence, she made a 
 few consoling inquiries about the bereaved family, especi 
 ally a certain long-legged widower supposed to be sweet 
 on Bridget. The bright-eyed serving-maid appeared 
 extremely gratified at the friendly interest, although she 
 tossed her head and said, " she hoped she was intirely 
 too principled to think of a man as old as him forty if a 
 day!" 
 
 So she gave a little frisk up-stairs, and put on her best 
 purple Sunday-go-to-meeting dress and a blue bonnet, 
 and took a yellow sun-shade, and green plaid shawl with 
 a red and black stripe in it, and hurried away to the 
 funeral, leaving Mollie to wash up a great pile of tea- 
 things which her grief the preceding night had induced 
 her to set away dirty. 
 
 The doorstep to the back kitchen entrance is a great 
 foot-worn rock. There we will sit comfortably, and play 
 with the green and yellow parrot, while the new cook 
 gets breakfast. We have known of her being high-priest 
 at these altars before, and so are not worried at oxir pros 
 pects. Besides, the kitchen is a kind of architectural 
 poem, good for lay contemplation, and we own to being 
 not only lay, but lazy, and sniffing the fragrant 
 coffee, and watching preparation of the tear-provoking 
 onions with luxurious content of inaction. We feel a 
 kind of awe of these hallowed precincts. We are gazing 
 at a monument to the housekeeping genius of whole gen 
 erations of Prices, called and chosen to their pursuit as 
 fanatically as Lord George Gordon, or any other assassin 
 ating enthusiast. It is wainscoted with so many doors 
 leading into pantry, store-room, sink-room, china cup 
 board, tin cupboard, and the like, that there is scarcely
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 47 
 
 an inch of room for the yellow pine ceiling. It looks 
 out on beds of herb garden, where Mollie's grand 
 mother had collected every possible leafy medicine, from 
 tansy and sage, to catnip and boneset, and sweet thyme, 
 and African marigolds, these last charming garnishes for 
 soup. 
 
 Mollie was worthy of her ancestors. It is a pleasure 
 to this day to eat at a table of her setting. We must 
 dine ; but let refinement, not pheasants' tongues, grace 
 the board. Our heroine was a true artist. She didn't 
 admire tongue cut into Chinese mandarins, and chicken 
 pressed into lizards and elephants. But on a ground of 
 spotless damask she liked to mingle pale-green cucumbers 
 in cut glass, and red and yellow tomatoes glittering under 
 ice, cress fresh and crisp from the garden, toast delicately 
 streaked with brown, in its silver rack. When her work 
 was complete, all was simple, inviting, wholesome. It 
 would have been so without the handsome tableware 
 that was the pride of Mrs. McCross' heart. She always 
 insisted on using the solid silver tea-service, and accom- 
 pani tents, on the ground that they saved crockery ; her 
 da 1 ,,'hter washed them daily in a bright tin basin, with a 
 lit^ie white dish-cloth, that had a long handle. Louis 
 thought she never looked more sweet and lovable than 
 when fulfilling this trifling duty ; though he was firmly 
 resolved that Mrs. Alwood should do nothing of the sort, 
 except, perhaps, weed the garden of an evening, with him 
 self to oversee and carry her watering pot, and after work 
 trundle her home to the door in a spruce wheelbarrow 
 painted blue. But Louis was boarding in the village, 
 above the harness shop had been for three months and 
 the cheerful song that Mollie sang over her cookery 
 grew fainter as she neared the awful time of serving up, 
 and finally gave place to a look of worried expectation,
 
 48 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 as she sounded the two-toned breakfast bell in the hall, 
 and cast a glance of anxious scrutiny over her completed 
 handiwork. A pair of daintily etched vases still wait 
 their flowery burden, and Mollie hurries to the garden to 
 remedy the omission. There is plenty of time ; Mrs. 
 McCross is always late. 
 
 It is a trite observation, that flowers and children, 
 more than anything else, appeal to the good there is in 
 us. This is partly because we soften when we remember 
 the holinesses of childhood, which carries in its hand two 
 symbols a butterfly and a flower. Tn baby days a Mar 
 guerite, an acorn, a Jacob's Ladder, which we, happier 
 than the Patriarch, could find on any summer hillside 
 toys of God's own making satisfied our purer instinct. 
 True, maturity and age prefer to give a high price for 
 labored imitation, but our souls always see the cast-off 
 treasures in a halo, rainbowed through the prism of a 
 tear. 
 
 And poets who claim a kind of modern prophetic in 
 sight are faithful to the outgrown blossoms. Burns could 
 dwell on the days when 
 
 " We twa hae paidlit in the burn, 
 An' pu'd the gowans fine ; " 
 
 and Hood lament, in more studied phrase, 
 
 " The roses red and white, 
 The violets and lily-cups," 
 
 of innocent boyhood. What dabbler, even, does not fancy 
 that mere mention of these divine flowerets that gem a 
 familiar hillock is the password to the heights of God 
 like Olympus, and maunder about roses and tulips and 
 violets in an a-b-c andrian stylo, that we forgive for love 
 of his subject?
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 49 
 
 The least-cultured instinct reaches out toward flowers. 
 It is no association of cultivated thought and {esthetics 
 that brings a pot of scarlet geranium to grace the hum 
 blest artisan dwelling sets the felon's picciola against the 
 barred windows that piteously contrast. It was no ele 
 gant refinement of taste that gave a matron in an English 
 jail the saddest sight she ever beheld a bold, bad 
 woman gloating over a common field daisy stolen from 
 the prison yard. There is some subtile relation between 
 the good and true in the human soul, and the spirit of 
 beauty whose vital force moulds the poorest blossom into 
 harmonious shape and color, which gives these growing 
 thoughts of God a language that needs no coarse inter 
 vention of sound, but conveys emotion independently to 
 the soul. 
 
 Our truest friend can only imitate the fidelity of the 
 flowers who follow us into every season of life. First, 
 religion's Christmas holly, and the snowdrops and lilies of 
 Easter confirmation ; then love's rose-buds, and orange- 
 blossoms for the wedding ; later, separation brings the 
 forget-me-not and pansy ; and ere the sexton strikes his 
 spade iu the earth, our best-loved casts a bit of green into 
 our grave. 
 
 Most things end with the tomb, and having reached 
 this point, I don't see how Miss McCross' meditation 
 could have gone any further, even if she had not seen 
 little Doppy. 
 
 It was really a great mistake on this infant's part that 
 her five-o'clock visit should have been so prolonged. 
 She had pulled her onions, and stowed away her beets, 
 and gathered her apples they lay near in a dilapidated 
 basket but still she lingered. 
 
 Mollie came upon her crouching on the damp ground, 
 ready to spring away at the very rustle of -a twig, and 
 3
 
 50 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 yet forgetting all in the scarlet gladiolus she held broken 
 in her hand. The little sharp face bent over the fiery- 
 throated prize with an intensity of soul hunger as bitter 
 more bitter than death. The young lady had her 
 hand on the thief s shoulder before she knew it, and, with 
 out any conscious thought labor, felt in her own soul a 
 sympathetic sentiment of pity. 
 
 But the culprit sprang to her feet with hardening face, 
 every trace of longing and reflected flower spirit giving 
 place to depraved anger, fear, and unchildlike survey and 
 mastery of her perilous situation. 
 
 " Le-me-lone ; I hain't took nothin' o' yourn," she cried 
 with an oath, wriggling like an eel under Mollie's firm 
 grasp. 
 
 " I don't want to hurt you ! " said her captor in her 
 clear pleasant accents ; "let me see your face." 
 
 Little Doppy obeyed, with such a mixture of cunning 
 and class hate deforming her lineaments, as made the pure 
 woman who held her, recoil and relax her grasp. 
 
 The child felt it, and escaped with a cat-like spring. 
 " He ! he ! he ! No, I guess you won't, bad cess to you," 
 was her retort in her rude harsh voice, perching on the 
 fence post as she spoke with both blistered dirty drum 
 sticks of legs hung outside ready to leap. 
 
 Mollie resolved to conquer. "No," said she tran 
 quilly, " but here's your basket, and if you'll stay and 
 talk to me a second or two, I'll give you some huckle 
 berry pie to fill it." 
 
 " You won't put a hand on me ? " 
 
 " No." Mollie folded hers behind her. 
 
 These waifs are excellent physiognomists, and Doppy 
 felt in the inmost depths of her vicious little heart that 
 she had a " soft thing." She came with circumspection 
 however, prepared to fly at the firat alarm. " What d'ye
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 51 
 
 want ? " said she ungraciously, but with keen-eyed obser 
 vation of everything, from the hyssop, so to speak, of the 
 wall, to the cedar of Lebanon, or rather the Fir Covert 
 that shielded the house on three sides the flower-decked 
 domain, like a black fringe on a gay tunic. 
 
 " I want several things," said Mollie, smiling in her 
 friendliest guise. " Your name, for instance." 
 
 Suspicion at once rose rampant ; visions of jail and 
 police-courts, to which her nine years of life were no 
 strangers, thronged Doppy's brain. She drew back, 
 dogged and defiant : 
 
 " Father '11 lick any one that meddles with us," cried 
 she. 
 
 " Oh, he will ? Then I shan't think of attempting it," 
 said Mollie, smiling again with an amused vision of 
 old Mulligan's defensive operations. " Do you know 
 Amos ? " 
 
 " I might." Doppy bit her finger-nails stolidly, but 
 never gave over her watch on the young lady. 
 
 " He's a friend of mine. I want to send a message to 
 him." 
 
 " Amos ! " cried Miss Mulligan, with a little burst of 
 impulsive disdain " he's a great 'un." 
 
 " Then you won't oblige me." Mollie looked dis 
 appointed. 
 
 <e I might," answered Doppy again, looking apparently 
 straight at the fence, and surveying Mollie through the 
 corner of her eye, while she wiped her gnawed digits on 
 her scorched pinafore. 
 
 " Will you tell him that I have got some shirts and a 
 pair of shoes that will fit his feet, and want him to come 
 and get them ? " 
 
 " I might, if I should see him," said Doppy, carelessly, 
 and took a second secret survey of this curious person,
 
 52 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 from her smooth brown hair to her morning slippers. 
 And she smirked as she found that there was a button 
 off her calico dress, and gazed at the vacancy so steadily, 
 that Mollie felt the place, and looking down discovered 
 the loss for the first time. Conscience-stricken, our 
 heroine ventured to offer some flowers, by way of round 
 ing the interview. Hereupon the child's old, restless face 
 became greedy with longing; and snatching the bou 
 quet from its 'collector's hand, she seized her basket with 
 out a word of thanks, and scrambling over the fence, 
 started up the street on a greyhound's run. 
 
 This wholesome mortification of philanthropy sobered 
 its disciple; but she was only the firmer resolved to 
 see more of the limber-legged infant, and so picked up 
 Tabby, who had been permeowing around the little in 
 truder the whole time, and ran back to the house. 
 
 I have always held it a breach of hospitality to talk 
 about people who entertain me. In consideration, there 
 fore, of the many good dinners I have eaten at Fir Cov 
 ert, I will only say of Mrs. McCross, that she was limp 
 and faded like a last year's print over-boiled and ill- 
 starched. 
 
 She had laid herself upon the sofa, and sighed perti 
 naciously, while her daughter was absent, and Mollie, 
 when she brought the breakfast in, and sat anxiously 
 waiting her verdict, felt to the marrow of her bones that 
 something was wrong. She ran over all her possible fail 
 ures and sins, including her engagement, of which she 
 had said nothing. Upright as she was by nature and 
 principle, she had discovered long before that the easiest 
 way for all parties at Fir Covert was to let things reveal 
 themselves. 
 
 Mrs. McCross sat down languidly, and fanned herself 
 with the table-cloth, as if the effort to breathe was too
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLK*. 53 
 
 great ; but rallying after some minutes, began to pour 
 tea. She gave the creamer a vicious shake at the first 
 cup, and smelt at it. 
 
 Mollie, don't you know any better than to put sour 
 milk on the table. Might as well call us pigs at once, 
 and feed us on swill." 
 
 " It's morning's milking, mother." 
 
 " Xo such thing ! Don't tell me I don't know night's 
 
 O O 
 
 milk from morning's." 
 
 " Mirandy, it is morning's," said the Deacon, deprecat- 
 ingly ; "I gave away every drop in the house last 
 evening." 
 
 "Then the pail's sour ; you're just slut enough to never 
 look into it from one year's end to another, and the thriv 
 ing Catholics, that'll burn us all in our beds some day, and 
 you're so devoted to, wouldn't wash it if it was green. 
 Why didn't you drain the fat out of this egg-plant? It's 
 swimming in hog's grease. That's always the way ; weak 
 and sick as I am, I've got to be up the first thing in the 
 morning and the last at night, or there's nothing done. 
 Where's that milk pail ? " 
 
 " It's on the closet shelf." 
 
 " You put it up dirty, of course. You never thought 
 to ^euld it, but just tucked it away. Always shiftless and 
 slack. It's a sin in the sight of God." 
 
 Mollie swallowed something lumpy, and looked stead 
 fastly at the untouched meal, which was perfectly dainty 
 and nice, but made no answer. Her mother pushed 
 her tea-cup one way and her plate another, and tearing a 
 piece of bread began to eat it a crumb at a time, tucking 
 it in as if the effort to live were beyond bearing. " Go 
 and get me that pail." 
 
 Mollie rose and brought it. It proved as sweet as 
 a head of young clover.
 
 54 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Mrs. McCross glanced into its bright depths, and set 
 it down as one would a hundred-pound weight. Hope 
 and dignity were annihilated in its descent. 
 
 A long silence ensued, broken only by a faint permeow 
 from Tabby, who was weakly petitioning bits from the 
 Deacon. 
 
 "Mary, put that old cat out! I'll wring her neck! 
 meowing and permeowing around me ! " 
 
 Her husband gently shoved his pet toward the girl, 
 and a green and yellow parrot in the kitchen greeted 
 the dismissed favorite with hoots and shrieks of laughter. 
 Poll having gnawed the fastenings of her cage door, 
 ambled out, and made a rush at poor puss, chuckling and 
 kissing, and fairly drove her to claw up the what-not* 
 where she stood at bay on top, with tail enough for three, 
 while polly climbed maliciously after her. Being cuffed 
 on the head, she bit at Tab with her iron bill, till felina 
 was fain to run down again, leaving the feathered victor 
 singing and whistling, her tail spread and her wings shak 
 ing in commemoration of her glorious victory. 
 
 This hubbub was specially distasteful to Mrs. Mc 
 Cross. She angrily demanded why her daughter didn't 
 answer her. 
 
 " I beg pardon ; I didn't hear you." 
 
 " You did ! What do you say that for ? You heard 
 me ask you if you'd washed that pail, and you never 
 spoke. I'm not enough account in my own house to be 
 listened to ! You're a thankless, ungrateful, ill-tempered 
 girl ! Deacon McCross, I wouldn't pretend to have any 
 affection for my wife when I treated her as you do ! " 
 The gentleman addressed looked mildly up from his 
 dish of cress, and said, (l Law ! Mirandy, how ken 
 you ? " 
 
 " How can I ? " Mrs. McCross burst into tears. " You
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 55 
 
 bring screeching poll parrots and everything into the 
 house to annoy rne, and then ask ' How can I ? ' There 
 it goes now, with its ' dear Louis, dear Mary,' in a 
 voice like a car whistle, and every nerve I have in the 
 world on edge. Why don't it say dear tea-pot, dear mop 
 handle ? Might just as well. I know you'd as lief have 
 me dead as not, and I will be some time ; then, perhaps, 
 you'll regret doing all you can to make me miserable." 
 Her voice had a feeble wail in it that wrung Mollie's 
 heart, though she had been brought up on such scenes. 
 
 She sprang hastily to her feet : " Mother, I didn't know 
 Louis meant to give me the parrot. I'll keep her in the 
 barn, anywhere, so she won't annoy you." Then she 
 threw her arms around the sufferer's neck, and kissed 
 away her tears. 
 
 " No ; I won't have the poor bird abused," permitting 
 the caress with disgust ; " I couldn't be cruel, even to a 
 dumb beast. I can bear it just as I do everything else. 
 There isn't much of my life that isn't spent bearing 
 something for somebody." She darted a look at her 
 husband, who wriggled painfully. " Nobody ever had 
 such a cold, heartless set of human beings around them as 
 I. Every one seems to try how much he can pile on. 
 Never mind ; there's some one to bring up the rear. It's 
 no matter how much she suffers ; wear her out and get 
 another ; you'll find out the difference ! " 
 
 The Deacon pushed back his chair and glanced wist 
 fully at the " Millville Universe," but didn't dare touch 
 its inviting page. Mollie left her mother and sat down, 
 hopeless of stemming the tide, in a chair, the other side 
 the room. " Don't talk so," said she gently ; " we all 
 love yoxi dearly, and want you to be happy." 
 
 " There it is again ! ' Don't talk so.' Shut up your 
 head, old woman. Yoii've served your turn ; now you
 
 56 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 can stand aside. There's no more work to be got out of 
 you! I've borne a great deal from you, Mary; I've 
 loved you too much ! You're paying me for it." 
 
 She sobbed, and covered her face. 
 
 Her husband snatched the newspaper in a convulsive 
 dab. "You ungrateful girl," he began, "you orter 
 know better'n hurt your mother's feelin's so. It's 
 jest as she sez. You don't care for any one but your 
 self." 
 
 Mollie gave him a glance of silent reproach. His eyes 
 sank. " It's no use," cried he testily. " You shan't 
 have him, an' you might's well come to it first as last. 
 I'll give you all the money anything you want ; but we 
 must get done with this." 
 
 " I can't," said she, shrinking back with piteous, 
 frightened appealing in her poor blanched face ; " don't 
 ask it, father ; I love him." She turned from one to the 
 other ; but the Deacon drummed with one hand under 
 the table, and looked at his paper ; and Mrs. McCross' 
 handkerchief came down quite energetically for a lan 
 guid invalid. 
 
 " You can't ! " cried she, in her thin, nasal voice. 
 " This to me, that have brought you into the world ! I 
 suppose you'll be disgracing the family, and running away 
 next. He's just mean enough to ask it. You needn't 
 look at the door; you've got to hear what I say. How 
 can you sit there, Elizur, and listen to her ! Running 
 away do you understand? I tell you, Mary, I'd as 
 soon see you dead as married to that fellow. Don't 1 
 know him ? Haven't I had him here under my nose in 
 this very house for years ? You break my heart." And 
 she began to cry again. 
 
 Mollie's lip held a curve that could be touching when 
 it curled up, and trembled like a hurt child's ; but there
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 57 
 
 was a certain belying squareness about the contour of her 
 chin and cheek, and her pleasant, steady eyes had no 
 yielding in them. She rose sadly, as her mother's har 
 angue was thus merged into another line of offence, and 
 answered, " I'm sorry you feel so, but I cannot break 
 my word to Louis." 
 
 " Well, run away then, and bring down your father's 
 gray hairs to the grave ! ungrateful daughter ! If you 
 hate me, I'd care something for somebody, if it was 
 only an old cat, just to see how it felt." 
 
 " I shall not run away, mother ; you're forbidding to 
 grease the horse's teeth to no purpose," said Mollie, with 
 some heat, and then was silent to master herself, and re 
 pent her hasty speech. " I expect to wait a long time 
 years," looking imploringly at the small, blonde features, 
 now crumpled into a peevish frown. But there was no 
 impulsive motherhood lurking about Mrs. McCross' 
 pinched nose and thin lips, the latter borrowing from 
 some unknown source a bright cai-niine hue, not conso 
 nant with her thinned Batchelor's hair-dyed, gimlet-like 
 ringlets. Alas! how could motherhood go hand-in-hand 
 with such adornments? The wife-love that beautifies 
 every stage of woman's journey among the silvery abeals 
 and birch woods of shady afternoon, and makes her regret 
 for the fresh young brightness of her morning descent 
 from the hills, only a pleasant memory could not have 
 union with that combination. 
 
 Without exactly saying this to herself, the daughter 
 felt instinctively that her mother could not comprehend 
 her soul cry the % in their mental equations stood for 
 an unknown, not only, but a totally dissimilar element, 
 which neither could hope to balance. Mollie's momentary 
 beseeching gave place to a different emotion it wasn't 
 defiance but a simple comprehension of their essential 
 3*
 
 58 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 soul variance, that induced her to add calmly, " I shall 
 marry him, because we have loved each other ever since 
 I can remember, and we are married in God's sight now." 
 
 Mrs. McCross walked stifHy to the door without a 
 backward glance at the culprit, and banged it in righteous 
 anathema. Her husband lingered behind. There was 
 something in him that vibrated in better harmony with 
 his daughter's soul-strings, though their gamuts were no 
 more identical after all. " You're strong, Mollie," said 
 he, wistfully, " but she'll tire you out ; I can't stand by 
 you I'm an old man, daughter. I must have some com 
 fort. I'm willing more, I'm glad you like each other ; 
 I hope God means to right the poor boy's wrongs, but 
 your mother won't have it so." 
 
 The girl was silent a moment, perhaps counting her 
 strength ; her frame even-balanced physical to mental, 
 had given her no experience of lack here. She felt able 
 to her finger-tips, even while her vivid imagination por 
 trayed an almost endless vista of struggles and weariness. 
 She drew the fatherly gray head close to her fresh young 
 face. " My own papa," she answered, her eyes deepening 
 with love and earnestness, " don't mind me ; I am strong 
 strong enough to bear anything for Louis." 
 
 Here the mother's querulous voice, " Elizur ! Elizur 
 McCross, haven't you any consideration for me, that I 
 am left all alone from morning till night ? " 
 
 His wrinkled face grew wearier. He dropped Mollie's 
 fingers, which he had been caressing between his own, and 
 with slouched shoulders and hands crossed behind him, 
 went slowly into the parlor, where sat the wife of his 
 bosom. Mollie, left behind, gave a tired sigh, that was 
 repressed as soon as vented audibly to consciousness, and 
 after a few moments' pensive sitting with folded hands, 
 looking out into the battle of her life, poor girl ! she
 
 SIITFTLES8 FOLKS. 59 
 
 little realized what a battle, rose, and quietly began her 
 work. All the people near Mrs. McCross wore a heavy, 
 repressed expression, that came over mouth and eye at 
 her approach. Now, though Mollie went about humming 
 a little song picked up among her Irish pensioners, a 
 plaint of a poor exiled soldier boy who was homesick, 
 and had no money to get back to fatherland, it was 
 because she always checked a sigh by turning it into 
 singing, on principle, and the stave of the queer jerky 
 melody ran tip and down, like a lattice raised to hide her 
 busy thoughts. 
 
 Poppy meanwhile had descended from her post on the 
 what-not, climbed to the second-best kitchen table by the 
 corners of the cloth, and discussed a plate of putty with, 
 lively enjoyment. She was sharpening her bill on the 
 edge of the dish, keeping her bright eye fixed with 
 portentous brilliance on the cat, when Mollie entered, 
 bringing a salver of dirty dishes, and poll invited her to 
 view her work of destruction in every variety of pretty 
 Poppyisms. The tray went on the table, and Mollie had 
 the suicide in her hand in a twinkling ; tears, that would 
 not gather for hurt pride and feeling, filled her eyes. " I'm 
 so afraid you're killed," cried she, cradling meddlesome 
 poll, back down, in her hand, and kissing her soft green 
 breast tenderly. " Poor ! poor polly ! How could you 
 touch that horrid stuff? " But the bird, though she lay 
 with her legs drawn up and her head ducked in, was 
 embodying the passiveness of content, not pain. In 
 short, she found the situation delightful, and said, " Dear 
 Louis, dear Mollie," with unabated relish and vigor, the 
 second she regained her feet. Her mistress could only ca 
 ress her anew, and scratch the yellow cheek feathers raised 
 so insinuatingly, and say, " Oh ! what pretty wings ! " 
 when they were spread in all their red-and-yellow glory
 
 6 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 to her admiration. And though work must be done, her 
 climbing by beak and claws up the calico wrapper, clear 
 to Miss McCross' dainty head, couldn't well be helped, 
 nor her services as hair-dresser, rendered with utmost 
 care, refused. She pulled each filament gently at the 
 point of disappearance in the heavy braids behind. 
 Hairs rooted at both ends were puzzling. Feathers were 
 not made so, nor Louis' fur, nor the cat's. Without 
 doubt, the custom was vicious, and warranted lusty tug 
 ging, such as required a firmly planted claw, and Mollie, 
 after twisting and turning in vain, was fain to take her 
 down, still giggling, and chewing industriously at one long 
 brown hair. If it had been the chief tail feather of her 
 bitterest enemy, it could not have afforded more complete 
 satisfaction. She played with it thoughtfully, when from 
 her throne on the gas fixture she watched her mistress 
 begin preparations for dinner, occasionally joining in con 
 versation with any noisy kitchen \itensil, or refreshing 
 herself with a nibble of pine from the casement. 
 
 Mollie always cooked from a certain old, long, thin 
 volume handed down from remote antiquity. It was once 
 a library catalogue. You could still read, heading its 
 pages, " Histories, Cyclopedias," etc., written in a stiff, 
 tradesman's hand, and pale ink. 
 
 If the proof of the pudding be in the eating, this book 
 must have been of the finest, for many generations of 
 mice had nibbled its greasy corners. As Mollie took it 
 from the pantry shelf, the air was filled with the aroma 
 of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and mace. It opened of 
 itself to " Natural Histories ; " and passing by sundry 
 recipes for brandy cocktail, pop robin, and Welsh rarebit, 
 she was soon deep in marble cake, whence she passed to 
 biography, in the person of Sally Luun, and thence to 
 tipsy cake and deviled kidneys, reposing peacefully
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 61 
 
 under the heading of " Religious Works." Thus labor 
 ing, and clinging fast by her faith to Louis, albeit not- 
 without many secret tears, a fortnight passed. But one 
 day, as she bends over her cookery, all of a sudden 
 Mollie hears a faint squeak at the front gate, followed 
 by a well-known boyish tread on the gravelled walk, and, 
 dropping the iron cooking-spoon, throws herself into the 
 new-comer's arms. Polly, looking on wisely, takes up 
 the well-known strain, "Dear Louis! dear Mary! " aud 
 Tabby knows that there are no more tit-bits for her, and 
 virtuously slaps the floor with her tail, and eyes robins 
 on the mountain ash with fell purpose. 
 
 " O Louis, how I have wanted you ! " cried Mollie, 
 first breathing a long relieved sigh ; then brightening 
 into a dewy humble smile, humble with the kind of hu 
 mility that love makes it passing sweet to a woman to 
 yield to her husband, and him only Jmmility born of 
 our loftiest needs, and made possible by our rarest ten 
 derness. 
 
 " I wish you had," said he airily. It was very charm 
 ing to be a necessity to Mollie, who was the " one 
 woman " in his mental amphitheatre. Something in 
 Mollie's intensity was exquisitely fascinating to him. It 
 stirred unplumbed depths of capacity in himself, and 
 the first revelations of our power to ourselves are emotions 
 of delight the gods might well envy. The poor gods, who 
 can only know and do, it is not for them to imagine, strive, 
 grow through striving, accomplish, and find in accom 
 plishment the least element of the perfect joy of success. 
 Mollie always seemed so rich a being to Louis. She 
 wasn't round ; she was all projections, and feelers, and 
 filmy longings, reaching endlessly into the impossible. 
 Louis didn't think round women nice on the whole ; but 
 the difficulty might have been, that most women are
 
 62 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 round like circles, and very flat ; whereas the right round 
 ness (which who possesses ?) is that of the sphere. But 
 Louis himself was very like a young barnacle, swimming 
 lightly about the blue oceans of feeling, and being, and 
 enjoying. It was a very uncertain matter what rock 
 would be the basis of his future solidification into a house 
 keeping and sedate shell-fish ; or if he wasn't swallowed 
 up by some big-bellied monster beforehand, and so alto 
 gether robbed of the patriarchal barnacular possibility. 
 
 As yet, Mollie recognized this fact not one whit. Some 
 people first love analytically, some by unconscious syn 
 thesis / and though time may induce the opposite method 
 before we write " finale," or time writes it for us, its 
 choice belongs to our own proper nature at the start. 
 Mollie, like most women, was synthetic in such matters. 
 She loved Louis for his harmonious whole, not because 
 his face was delicate and refined, or his scholarship 
 finished and elegant, or his heart warm and lovely, but 
 because it was Louis. Here was her beginning ; here she 
 was content to end. She had analyzed flowers, and their 
 structure could not be replaced ; she had analyzed books, 
 to destroy their flavor ; she had analyzed her friends, to 
 lose them ; she was not afraid to subject her love to this 
 disastrous process, she never thought of doing it. If 
 you had asked Louis why he cared for Mollie, he could 
 have given you a complete catalogue of the things delight 
 some to his soul that had induced his fondness, and for 
 all their love, they seldom agreed, even in vital points, 
 just as on the present occasion. 
 
 " Make the most of me, sweetheart," said he, seating 
 himself on the table and drawing her to the same eleva 
 tion ; " the rose that blooms beneath the hill must shortly 
 fade away. I'm off to Top Town this afternoon." 
 
 " Well, I'm glad you're going," slowly ; then, girl-like
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. G3 
 
 (she was only a girl after all), confirmed her words with 
 two large tears that fell warm and round on Louis' hand. 
 
 " O Mollie ! " said he, hastily, with a warning hus- 
 kiness in his own voice, that brought back her self- 
 command at once. She couldn't have Louis cry ; that 
 would never do. 
 
 " Don't feel so bad, dear ; I thought you liked Top 
 Town." 
 
 She didn't like it though it was her need of him that 
 would be so bitter, so craving, that had induced her tears. 
 Her tell-tale face would have betrayed her, even if her 
 lover's delicate soul-feelers had not made him aware of 
 her sentiments. Some people, like this pair, have a sixth 
 mesmeric sense, as true and delicate a mood test as a 
 magnet to the pole. 
 
 " You don't agree with me," said he, blankly. " I see 
 it in your silence, and everything. Why, it's a splendid 
 opportunity. Think of it ! A partnership in only three 
 short years, and then yourself in peace and plenty forever ! 
 Why, it is almost like a miracle. We can travel, collect 
 pictures, indulge our poor starved art tastes to the full 
 live ! But I see how it is: you would rather tie your 
 self to slave labor, and anxiety for daily bread. It is 
 just your high-toned notion, but not business like, my 
 dear." 
 
 Mollie thought that taunt very hard. When any 
 one was going to take a departure from rectitude or 
 nice feeling, were it little or great, it was always done 
 on " business principles," which, being a woman, she 
 could not be expected to understand. She grew very 
 white about her lips, but persisted, " I hope it is all for 
 the best, I'm sure." The glance she lifted to his was 
 an odd mixture of deprecation, pain, and unconvinced 
 opinion. " I work so hard to make people temperate
 
 64- SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 and good, and it seems as if this put you on the oppo 
 site side." 
 
 " Too bad," said Louis, playfully, yet with a certain 
 strong dissent underlying his airy way of treating the 
 subject. " I knew it was religion ; your only fault is 
 piety. Sometime you'll learn to let people set fire to 
 one sin to light them on to the next in peace." 
 
 " I never shall," said Mollie, with obstinate decision, 
 "and your rhetoric is as heathen as your philosophy. 
 People can't be set fire to in a figure when sin is the 
 property under consideration. Sin is opaque in its 
 nature, and the result of darkness, and can neither burn 
 nor be a torch in any form, except br&ler en enfer, which 
 we weren't speaking of." There was no windmill too in 
 significant for this Quixote, but here her lover oppor 
 tunely sealed her mouth with his own. 
 
 " If it's all one to you, I'd rather sip honey from your 
 lips, ab osculo rubescente puellce, to-day," quoth he ; " the 
 process is sweeter." 
 
 It was provoking to have cold water thrown on one's 
 plans and prospects. Mollie felt it, and did not blame 
 him. " Louis, was that oscndum caritatis, or not ? " said 
 she, smiling. " I try to think well of Top Town, but I 
 suppose it's my duty to speak my mind." 
 
 "Very right; duty performed is a rainbow to the 
 soul. No, it wasn't caritatis at all; it was the very 
 passion of vehement adoration. Is that satisfactory ? " 
 The words seem light, but the look that went with them 
 was tender. 
 
 " At any rate you are not in the sample room," re 
 marked Mollie, with the air and feeling of one resolved 
 to look on the bright side of a thunder-cloud at his 
 zenith. 
 
 " That is just where I am," said he, coloring. " Peli-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 65 
 
 can said to-day it was the only place open to me. I 
 wish it was another. But then, the prospective partner 
 of a concern holds a different relation to society in any 
 situation than a mere clerk. Your father discharged me 
 from my place in his office last week, so it's Top Town or 
 starve. Dorit feel so about it, darling. What could tempt 
 me to leave you except the hope of speedy return ? 
 Don't you trust me, that your face is the epitome of 
 wretchedness ? Think it not unkind " (coaxingly) " that 
 from the nunnery of thy chaste glance I flee to war's 
 alarms." 
 
 " I do trust you ! " said Mollie, all intensity. She 
 was trembling against his shoulder, in the violence of 
 her feeling. " Haven't I given you myself ? But I can't 
 explain how I feel so beset, and as if a hand were 
 stretched out to come between us so untranquil sun 
 dered from my moorings." 
 
 The boyish figure, with, his flitting color and dreamy 
 eyes, formed in graceful, unknit lines so dear, so beau 
 tiful, so uncomprehending ! Yet it was passing sweet to 
 have him draw her poor, perplexed head to his arm, and 
 kiss her eyelids smarting with bitter tears, and call her 
 his own dear Mollie. The gesture, the prompting emotion, 
 the tenderness were all she craved. Yes, she was his 
 nobody else's forever. Top Town might bring untold 
 disaster, but they were one. Rising and standing be 
 fore him, face to face, " Tell me," said she, " are you 
 quite resolved to accept that position ? " 
 
 Quite." 
 
 " I feel, I know trouble will come to try us both. I 
 want to say," she spoke with effort, for she saw by the 
 perplexed look in his gazelle brown eyes that her words 
 seemed to his view to be a criticism of him, and not 
 what she meant ? " that whatever happens I am always
 
 66 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 yours. You mustn't I mustn't over put myself in 
 one thought and yourself in another, nor in God's 
 thought. We are one, not two, and mercy, blessing 
 whatever comes, is ours." 
 
 He accepted the position, of course, Didn't he desire 
 that very thing above all goods ? The proposition was 
 sound. His face flushed and paled, and flushed again, all 
 with pride and love, and delicate, sensitive appreciation 
 of her worth to himself, and his exceeding riches in her. 
 But for all that, it meant something different to him than 
 to her. She was looking at it as a safety-boat in perils, 
 and doubts, and storms ; he regarded it as a pleasure 
 skiff, wherein they two would sail always in dreamy, 
 sunny seas. 
 
 " Say it again," she said, hungrily; "say we are one 
 from this time forth, forever." 
 
 He said it solemnly. It is a wonderful thing to say, 
 such as should demand bending knees and a beating 
 heart before all its heavenly sweetness and obligation, and 
 he knew and felt it. " It is true," affirmed Mollie, draw 
 ing a long breath and wearing a quietly satisfied peace in 
 her face. 
 
 Enter Mrs. McCross. 
 
 This good lady having been taken with neuralgia direct 
 ly after breakfast, had kept Molly waiting on her the 
 whole morning. 
 
 First, she must leave her work to hunt the camphor 
 bottle, which always stood under the mirror ; then she 
 must get assafoetida, and mould the pills, a mustard paste, 
 and three different kinds of tea, for benefits unknown. 
 While her daughter was within earshot the mother 
 groaned aloud, and when at last everything a malade 
 imaginaire can invent had been applied, and Molly gently 
 inquired if she felt better, she answered that she presumed
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 67 
 
 she should when she was dead, for then there would be no 
 one to make her ill by selfishness and ill-temper. 
 
 Lastly, Mollie was summoned from her half-cooked 
 dinner to read a comforting chapter, beginning, " Fret not 
 thyself because of evil-doers," and to listen to a tearful 
 prayer over her ingratitude. 
 
 The girl left the room, calm as always. Her mother 
 sobbed loudly till she remembered another medicine. 
 But Mollie for once was deaf to her call. Hence ensued 
 a look through the kitchen key-hole and hasty entry. 
 
 The pair gave a dismayed start at her appearance, though 
 they kept their position on the table, hand in hand. But 
 Louis' heart beat fast and hard. He dreaded his pros 
 pective mother-in-law. She on her side regarded him 
 with indignant disdain. " I should like to ask how you 
 came here ? " cried she, in cutting sarcasm. Now Mrs. 
 McCross had been all the mother Louis had ever known 
 if such care as that lady would be likely to give can be 
 called motherhood. He withered like the mown grass 
 under the hot sun when she addressed him thus. With 
 him loyalty and obedience went hand in hand, and he 
 had been accustomed to submit to her from infancy. His 
 childish tenderness was not broken with the rending of 
 their familiar ties. " I came to see Mollie," said he, 
 deeply hurt ; " I am going away." 
 
 " I shan't believe it till you're gone ; you're full of de 
 ceit as an egg is of meat. You needn't sneak in to try your 
 fascinations on my daughter ; she won't have you." 
 
 Louis might be sensitive and gentle, but he was very 
 apt to be found, after repeated disloclgment, in his original 
 position. " She has agreed to take me, however," re 
 marked he quietly. But he was not quiet in his soul. 
 She seemed to be jabbing him. with a rusty knife. 
 
 " Promised fiddlestick ! " said Mrs. McCross iri her
 
 68 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 most insulting tone. " Mollie, you can never want that 
 puppy ; I despise him ! His very legs look mean." 
 
 Mollie had been standing silently, watching her lover's 
 downcast face, but now she darted to his side and threw 
 herself upon his breast. " This is my place," cried she ; 
 < no power on earth can part us." 
 
 Mrs. McCross saw that she had gone too far, and so 
 uttered three shrieks, and fell fainting in a clean place 
 behind the stove. She did not recover till the object of 
 her abuse had pressed his good-by kiss upon the lips of 
 the girl bewildered in the intensity of her sudden wrath, 
 and left the house. Mollie followed him to the door and 
 watched him go up the road, and was surprised to find 
 herself clinging to the handle for support. She could 
 hardly stand. She began to be afraid of herself. She 
 hadn't known that she could be so angry. 
 
 The remainder of the day was spent on her mother's 
 part in audible tears. By long practice she had acquired 
 a groan as resonant as a bell, and there was a particular 
 place in Mollie's back where every one caught and 
 quivered. 
 
 How it rained that dreary afternoon ; as Francis Hay- 
 thorne told Peace Pelican, " the angels must have been 
 doing up a three-months' wash of dirty surplices in their 
 leaky tub." Maiy was in her room begging mercy 
 for herself and Louis, praying comfortless prayers that 
 seemed all wrong, and only settled heavily back upon the 
 heart that had no power to wing them upward. Her 
 tempest of longing, fighting, willing, had given way to a 
 reaction. She couldn't feel sure of anything since that 
 terrible soul-uprising against her mother all the more 
 terrible because it found vent in no kindred act, but spent 
 itself silently while she rested upon Louis' heart. That 
 very fact might have given her the wished-for clue to her
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 69 
 
 labyrinth of miserable, helpless reasoning. But religion 
 and love have to be rediscovered by every votaiy. They 
 are not sciences, but unknown worlds, where neither 
 atmosphere, nor light, nor one's friends' voices are like 
 those of the previous existence. Mollie didn't know that 
 she had a right to this perfectly radiant happiness of love. 
 She believed that in a case of two diverging paths the 
 thorny road was unquestionably the God-elected. But 
 any road with Louis was like heaven, and we must not 
 wish for selfish ease on earth ; how could she say God's 
 will be done, when He might not be willing to give her 
 Louis ? How could she have so little love for her be 
 trothed, as of her own consent to leave a shadow of 
 possibility of his loss, by saying God's will be done ? 
 
 Beside her religious indecision, was a second, equally 
 bitter, bhe would have followed her lover without a 
 doubt but for her parents. She would have given xip 
 her plighted troth, if she had not felt from the depths of 
 her soul that it would be treachery to the man that 
 trusted in her. All her life she had taught herself to 
 feel that every act that brought a shadow to her 
 mother's face was sin ; and now each sob that came up 
 from the room below made her feel like a murderer. 
 Could her happiness bought at this price be anything 
 but damning guilt? Would God bless such a union ? 
 She couldn't be married without God's blessing. Mollie's 
 first lesson in life had been self-abnegation. She was 
 not the woman to weigh happiness against duty ; it was 
 the rival claims that would not be measured. If for a mo 
 ment the lover's scale seemed to descend, she spied herself 
 thrown in to turn the balance, and so had to begin afresh. 
 She could never get beyond her heart-rending premises. 
 Hour after hour passed. She had been over the ground 
 stop by step a hundred times, and gained no result for
 
 70 SEIFTLE88 FOLKS. 
 
 or against. She could not be false to Louis. She would 
 not be false to her mother. Six o'clock struck, and she 
 rose from her knees, where she had thrown herself when 
 she entered her room. Her head seemed on fire, or as 
 if a great wheel, with every argument a spoke, were 
 revolving there endlessly. She was hardly conscious of 
 anything but this frightful, measured revolution, while 
 she got the supper, and sitting torpidly, with her own 
 untasted, waited for opportunity to clear the table. 
 Her father's remarks, put always in the mildest form of 
 humble suggestion, her mother's peevish fault-finding, 
 were like the idle wind in her ears. She scarcely heard 
 their voices. Oh, if she could find a new argument ! 
 If she could decide from the old ! She hurried back to 
 her room and cast herself again upon her knees. " My 
 God, be merciful ! what shall I do ? " 
 
 But God's answers are vocal in future circumstance. 
 We cannot always assure ourselves, in such moments of 
 mental upheaval, that we truly hear the still small voice. 
 She would have to fight this battle again and again, to 
 morrow, and many to-morrows, before the answer came. 
 But in the midst of her agony she remembered the 
 phrase, " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all 
 His benefits." Reason was worn out. Mollie clutched 
 at the bare adjuration as a drowning man catches at 
 straws. " Forget not all His benefits." Would the 
 Giver of good withhold the one good she craved ? She 
 judged Him by herself, and nestled in to the conviction 
 of his pity, resting in the everlasting arms, and loving 
 Louis. And between such moments of extreme mental 
 tension and corresponding nervous collapse, Mollie's 
 inner life vibrated for months and months. Her balances 
 were too equally weighted to descend on either side. 
 Some new item must be cast into the scale.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 7J 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 " ' Good mistress mouse, are you within ? 
 ' Yes, kind sir, I'm settin' to spin.' " 
 
 ITTLE DOPPY was at home ; no doubt of it. 
 In the first place all her earthly possessions lay 
 scattered about the room. Not the bar-room, 
 but the one behind, where the family living was done. 
 Up-stairs in the attic dwelt Johanna Haverty, with her 
 father ; and the back door opened on a little weedy 
 garden that once fell in terraces to the river, and still 
 boasted two or three knotty apple-trees, and a few frag 
 ments of stone wall supporting the ragged turf. 
 
 Our heroine's apartment held two beds, one in each 
 corner ; a rusty cooking stove; a chest of drawers; one 
 wooden chair ; a greasy table ; a picture of the Virgin 
 with a spiky glory about the head ; a market basket 
 with a ragged edition of the " Police Gazette" in the bot 
 tom; a few musty cobwebs dangling from the ceiling; 
 an old hat stuffed into a broken pane of glass; and 
 Little Doppy. Stay : I have omitted two kittens fast 
 asleep on a dirty shawl. The little girl had been eating 
 her forlorn breakfast three or four cold potatoes, a bit 
 of codfish, a piece of bread all that ten cents would 
 buy at the back door of the Millville House. 
 
 Presently she arose, gave the scraps to the kittens, and 
 going to the hall stairs called, " Joe ! Joe ! " 
 
 In answer appeared a figure very unlike Doppy, for 
 whereas the one was softly colored and weary in look, 
 this new-comer's bold black eyes and scornful mouth, 
 albeit a trifle stained with tobacco, were the personifica-
 
 72 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 tion of energy. " How's your father ? " said Dorothea 
 in a low tone. 
 
 " Sleepin', as you might say," she answered carelessly ; 
 " you needn't look down about it. I went through his 
 pockets and he's got to come to himself. I bought a bit 
 to eat last night, so I ain't hungry. Goin' pickin' ? " 
 
 " I spose so. Must do somethin'," said the child in 
 an old, spiritless way. " I be sick of livin'. I wish I 
 was dead." 
 
 " Whisht ! " said Joe, tossing her handsome head. 
 " I ain't ; I tikes to live. It's jolly. So you've kept 
 the cats ? " 
 
 Doppy nursed one of them on her arm with a motherly 
 motion. " Yes," said she doggedly, " -when the old man 
 comes, I puts 'em in the closet till he goes again ; " 
 and she glanced scowling at sundry blue-black lumps 
 that decorated her neck and arms. " I'll have 'em now 
 if I die for it. I do wish I was dead. [This in a busi 
 ness-like tone.] I see lots of children as has cats, and 
 dogs, and oranges, an' I hain't got nothin'." 
 
 " Yon do look pretty rough," quoth Johanna, survey 
 ing her with a patronizing stare. She wore one brass 
 ring, a string of beads, and hoops in her ears, and so had 
 whereof to boast. " Be them all yer cloes ? " 
 
 " Yis, an' that ain't the hull neither. I had a dacent 
 bit of a dress, and when the old man come home he took 
 it off wid him quicker'n that." Doppy snapped her dirty 
 fingers in illustration. 
 
 "No wuss'n my old man," quoth Joe, her head in 
 the air. " Divil a bit of work has he put his hand to 
 for better'n a week, an' he drinkin' an' drinkin' the 
 hull time. Pah! I hates the sight of thezu liquor 
 shops."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 73 
 
 "You go yoursel' often enough," said Doppy. 
 " Wasn't ye after lyin' dead drunk in the road last night, 
 an' me callin' yc to return ? " 
 
 "Have a chaw? " interrupted Johanna. 
 
 " No, I hain't none," giving up search in a pocket of 
 complicated contents. " Here's a cigar end ; will that 
 
 " What's the picture ? " asked Doppy, rejecting the 
 proffered courtesy. 
 
 " Nothin' but some o' them things they gives away a a 
 Nickson's," said Miss Haverty with contempt. " They 
 gives cloes an' a dinner onct in a while. Take it ; only 
 don't say where it come from, or I'll get licked." 
 
 Doppy nodded, and bending eagerly over the card 
 formed herself a far more touching picture than the one 
 surveyed. 
 
 " What does it mean? " said she after a pause. 
 
 " Dun know," Joe was ogling herself in a bit of look 
 ing glass ; "all they say is lies, anyway. It might be a 
 pilgring a man as walks and walks," she exclaimed with 
 superiority. 
 
 " Oh ! a tramper ; see his stick an' pack. Girl alive ! 
 it's a travellin' pedler he is," cried Doppy, a light break 
 ing over her face. 
 
 " No," remarked Joe, sententiously ; " them's his sins 
 in the bag beyant. Them women ain't buyin' ; they's 
 angels, after givin' him clean cloes for his pack. I can't 
 say what they does wid them rags. I've seen wuss at 
 Goodheart's. Belike they sells 'em." Johanna carefulty 
 picked a pimple from her dirty face as she spoke. 
 " Teacher said they was willin' to give 'em to us ef we 
 was willin' to take 'em, but that's stuff." 
 
 " Gosh ! I'll try," said Doppy with resolution. 
 
 " They'll no more'n put their noses inter the door ef 
 4
 
 74 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 they come," remarked Joe, rising from her knees with a 
 laugh, and setting her arms akimbo. " When they see 
 the dirt of ye, and how nasty the floor be, ' I knows they 
 ain't good,' they'll say ; ' folks as poor as this is always 
 bad.' That's true fur ye ; I heard that Miss Pelican 
 criticism' on us so, myself." 
 
 " Then I'll fix up ; I took a broom the other day that'll 
 just do." So saying, she dragged it from its hiding-place 
 a new one, with E. McCross cut in the handle. 
 
 " You'll have to quit that ef you expects folks to give 
 ye so much as a pair of stockings," quoth Joe, swinging 
 her basket on her arm preparatory to starting forth. As 
 she drew her shawl over her head she paused. " Ef the 
 old man wakes, tell him I'll bring him his pint soon. 
 It's better to give it him at home than let him go out, the 
 job to get him in bein' so hard." 
 
 Little Doppy presently completed her task with satis 
 faction, and had just put the broom up in the corner 
 when Hugh and Amos entered. 
 
 " How's the kittens? " said the latter, hanging himself 
 awkwardly against the side of the house and blushing his 
 freckles out of sight entirely. " I wants to know of 'em 
 sometimes." 
 
 " There they be," returned Doppy with dignity, " lay in' 
 on that shawl. Hain't I fixed the room nice ? " 
 
 Poor Doppy, her labors were unappreciated. 
 
 " Nice ! " exclaimed Amos ; <{ well ! that's a good un ! 
 "Why the dirt's under the stove, and the quilts is crooked 
 on the beds, and it's as nasty as pizen." 
 
 Dr. Johnson says the truth is the meanest thing peo 
 ple can speak. 
 
 The child's face fell like lead. The pink glow which 
 her happy thoughts had raised faded from her wan cheeks. 
 Her brown eyes sought the floor and filled with tears.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 75 
 
 But when Amos concluded with a mocking laugh, echoed 
 boisterously by Hugh, she suddenly regained her self- 
 possession, and grabbed the broomstick, on inhospitable 
 thoughts intent. " Git out, you mean, dirty Paddies," 
 cried she, banging the door after them, and jumping up and 
 down on the floor with rage. Her blazing glances fell oil 
 the offending couches ; so she tore off quilts, sheets, and 
 feather beds, and stamped on each separately, unheeding 
 the howls of her beloved kittens, thus suddenly hurled 
 from their resting-place. Then, finding no further food 
 for her fury, she tlirew herself atop the heap, and 
 screamed in concert. 
 
 " My eye," quoth Amos from without. " Ain't she a 
 snapper ! " and he did a double clog-dance with Hugh 
 on the door-stone, where all the flings hit the frail boards 
 scarcely held together by their rusty hinges. 
 
 After a while silence reigned without ; but Doppy's 
 sense of her wrongs grew with memory and vent. 
 Suddenly she met with a stoppage to the auricular index 
 of her woes, in the shape of a great lump of molasses 
 candy, which Amos, who had entered unperceived, 
 stuffed into her mouth as she opened it for a bigger howl 
 than usual. Unclosing her eyes, hitherto tight shut in 
 the extremity of her grief, she beheld a good-natured 
 grin on our hero's freckled face, and the remnants of his 
 soothing application in his hand. 
 
 " When be you goin' to stop them yowls ? " asked he 
 in an agonized tone. " Hurry up, do ; there's a dear." 
 
 Little Doppy, taken by surprise, melted at the kind 
 act, and proceeded to unburden her heart. 
 
 " So you want to be respectable, do you ? " quoth he, 
 when she came to an end. " That's my mind. I've 
 wanted to iver since day before yesterday, when Miss 
 McCross told me an' Hugh we bein' up to her house at
 
 76 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 the time that she hoped we'd have as nice gardings as 
 her'n, when we come to be growed. Punch my head ! 
 jingo Pelters ! if I don't mean to ! " 
 
 " Poh ! " said Hugh, " All you'll ever see flowerin' is 
 a whiskey blossom on the end of yer nose." 
 
 Amos shook his fist. " Git out, darned son of a gun ! 
 I'm in arnest ; " whereat the intruder vanished, to return 
 with a sick, featherless chicken, picked out of the gutter. 
 " There ! " said he, hurling it at his friend ; " there's the 
 first beginning of the poultry-yard. The best you'll see, 
 be jabbers! " 
 
 This cruel taunt led Doppy to resort to the broom 
 stick, which was an effectual weapon in her hands. 
 
 " Now let's be respectable," said Amos, as she came 
 back triumphant, unmindful of the familiar strain loudly 
 chanted at the corner 
 
 " If I had an old wife to bother my life," 
 
 whereby Hugh revenged himself in exile. 
 
 " I'm in wid ye," returned Doppy. " How shall we 
 begin?" 
 
 (( Spose I've got to go to work," answered Amos, reluct 
 antly, after an ominous paitse. " Father's been blowin' 
 this six months cause I don't do nothin'." 
 
 " I can't," said Doppy. " I'm too little for the mills." 
 
 " You can keep the room clean," suggested Amos, 
 grinning in spite of himself at the demolished beds. 
 
 "I don't see how I can iver be gitten them things 
 back," with an oddly humble face for Miss Mulligan. 
 
 " I wouldn't mind helping of yer," said Amos bash 
 fully. " 'Tain't nothin' to lift." 
 
 " You're a broth of a lad," smiled the little damsel ; 
 and so awkward Amos tried his hand' at making beds,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 77 
 
 arid other household lore, with wonderful gentleness, and 
 great comfort to both parties. 
 
 " Oh, how dirty the flure bees ; sure it's a log flure, an' 
 niver smoothed at all," said the maiden, surveying it 
 with a disgusted face. 
 
 " Why not wash it? I see mother doin' her'n last 
 month." 
 
 "Who's to lift the heavy pail from the well ?" said 
 Doppy despairingly. 
 
 " I will," answered Amos, with heroic resolution 
 thinking inly how he would sprinkle her. 
 
 But Doppy was no bird to be caught with chaff. 
 Meeting him at the step, she took the great wooden 
 bucket in both hands, and shut and locked the door in 
 his face. " Ye'll be tracking the place all over if I lave 
 ye in. So go 'long wid ye." 
 
 In vain Amos called and grumbled. She was deaf to 
 his entreaties. He had to content himself with making 
 faces at her through the window. But, as it was nec 
 essary to stand on tip-toe to do it, the amusement soon 
 lost its zest, even though Doppy returned each contortion 
 with a worse. 
 
 Joe came back in due time, and, compassionately offer 
 ing her services, the two dined together on the contents 
 of her basket, in the only corner not deluged through 
 Doppy's energy. 
 
 Under her treatment, though streaky, the floor became 
 tolerably clean. The stove, too, on being brushed, 
 showed faint signs of blacking. The kittens frisked glee 
 fully in the yellow sunshine, and by this time old 
 Mulligan came in, and was pleased to say that he didn't 
 mind about them. Doppy cooked his supper and he 
 went out directly. Afterward the two girls sat long in 
 the renovated apartment, talking, till Joe said she must
 
 f3 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 see to her old man ; whereupon Doppy fed her kittens, 
 and laid them and her tired self into bed, and presently 
 began dreaming that an angel made her wing-feathers into 
 brooms for her especial benefit, and then cleaned the 
 room, and festooned the walls with white dresses and 
 aprons. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " Jack and Jill went up the hill." 
 
 " The filmy gossamer now flits no more, 
 Nor halcyons bask upon the sunny shore, " 
 
 STATE of things frequent to busy people 
 when they indulge in circumspection, the sad 
 outlook of every heroic life, as a matter of 
 course. But hopeless indeed must be the existence to 
 which all places for pleasant soul loitering are forever 
 closed. The limitations of humanity forbid the bare 
 possibility of such a case ; least of all was Mollie, whose 
 feet barely touched the entrance of earth's sorrow-filled 
 labyrinth, to grieve utterly. One may sing, 
 
 " And like the mountain's golden ore, 
 Changeth my sorrow nevermore ; " 
 
 and even in the complaint unwittingly own to a possi 
 bility of brightness, a capacity for glittt ,* and shine in 
 the sunlight ; so now. 
 
 It is true that the evening after her lover's summary ex 
 pulsion she cried herself asleep ; but the very next morning 
 she came back from slumber on the swell of a Baltimore 
 oriole's matin hymn, sung under her window. Moreover,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 79 
 
 it was no common bird that parted her dreams. The 
 mellow notes had a certain dear familiarity, the result 
 of frequent and admired repetition. In short, Louis had 
 not been able to leave her thus in sorrow ; he had climbed 
 the maple that veiled her window from the road, and 
 was administering comfort peculiar to himself. 
 
 " He's neglecting his business to console me ; I mustn't 
 let him," was the instant self-reproof that came to his 
 promised, as she opened her eyes and smiled with pleas 
 ure. She therefore rose hastily, and donning a daintily 
 embroidered dressiug-sacque at hand, threw open the 
 shutters, and greeted him with a blush, and glance from 
 her bright eyes meant for reproach, but in fact only 
 happiness at their reprieve. 
 
 " What ! not gone ? " cried she, forgetting dignity to 
 carry the kiss he tossed to her lips. 
 
 " I was left," responded Louis, penitently. "I saw the 
 time-table in the morning, but at noon I forgot when 
 the train started. Then I said to myself, ' I ought to 
 go ; it's my duty ; but if it turns out that the hour is 
 three, not four, I shall have made a dreadful mistake.' 
 I shall have to take the owl. Meanwhile, I know you 
 are panting after the water-brooks, Heart. The one on 
 Turk's Head I mean. With your parents' permission, 
 we will start at three o'clock." 
 
 " Come in," said Mollie, beaming approval. 
 
 " You forget I am forbidden. I had to climb here in 
 the tree because I wouldn't enter the gates of call it 
 Eden." 
 
 Mollie looked at him a moment as he leaned forward, 
 half hanging, half resting upon the great maple, his 
 lithe youthful frame bending to the position with easy 
 grace ; his soft, gazelle eyes meeting hers with mixed 
 sorrow and laughter.
 
 80 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " That's a pity ; I was just comparing you to un oiseau 
 de Pavadis. But you confess yourself nothing but a 
 hangbird after all," she said, playfully. " I don't see 
 how I can talk to you out of the window, either, if you 
 consider yourself tabooed. It would spoil our love if 
 we did anything by stealth. I shall tell mother, and 
 you can ring the door-bell when you arrive." 
 
 This prim little speech, delivered with naive resolu 
 tion, seemed quite satisfactory to the stigmatized oriole, 
 for he swung himself lightly to the ground, and made 
 obeisance. 
 
 " With equal souls and sentiments the same," laughed 
 he. " Farewell, sweet-heart." Then he hastened gayly 
 up the street, humming Schubert's song, " To thy 
 chamber window roving, love hath led my feet." He 
 always appeared and disappeared thus on Mollie's hori 
 zon; ever delicately gleeful, or, in the inevitable dark 
 days, suffering in the healthy ingenuous way that belongs 
 to unsullied natures, a kind of pain that too many of us 
 look back upon as a lost luxury. Perhaps she etherealized 
 her conception of him overmuch. But, even if she did, 
 she had all her life been doing the same office to his ideal 
 of nobility and rightmindedness. He only lived the 
 grace of her love. 
 
 That afternoon, accepting her mother's sullen silence 
 for consent, and sealing her father's irate lips till they 
 yielded a furtive blessing, she sallied out. Louis made 
 haste to hold up a great brass key, when he saw her 
 open the door. 
 
 " Plight off St. Peter's bunch, the Congregational 
 string," cried he. "I borrowed it as I came along for a 
 parting melody." 
 
 Half a mile away, across the river, on the road to the 
 Turk's Head, stood the queer old wooden church, with
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 81 
 
 its huge, carved mahogany pulpit, its open belfry, whose 
 floor was thatched with sailcloth, since the conical tower 
 yielded scant protection from the elements, and its singer's 
 gallery fenced with faded red moreen curtains, behind 
 which Roaring River youth chanted " There is a fiery, 
 dreadful hell," long meter, and coquetted in all forms of 
 measure from time immemorial. In these sacred precincts 
 stood the common darling of saint and sinner, the min 
 ister's pet, and Louis' idol a new Odel organ, with three 
 banks of keys, and innumerable stops. 
 
 Dulcet Petibone, the schoolma'am, presided on Sun 
 days, but young Allwood, who borrowed Fred Growing's 
 key and played there many an hour every week clerk's 
 hours before seven o'clock summer mornings, felt no envy. 
 
 Mollie's office was to blow ; she often shared these mu 
 sical matins. This was a good leave-taking. Louis would 
 tell her all his soul on the keys, in a tongue she had 
 learned to understand from childhood. She was almost 
 his only confidant in these tone revelations, but she used 
 to think that no words could explain her lover's moods 
 half as well. Commonly, when he was troubled, and ob 
 stinate about confessing the cause, she led him to the 
 nearest instrument, and unravelled his secret with facility. 
 "He feels thus," she would think; "only this or that 
 cause could have induced precisely such emotion." 
 
 To-day, the prelude was a fuge of Sebastian Bach's, for 
 practice. Next came a morsel or so from Handel. Then 
 Louis drew a roll of manuscript from his pocket, and 
 called his faithful ally from her post. 
 
 " See," cried he with boyish exultation, " here is a 
 pot-pourri from Der Freischiitz : 
 
 " ' Would you question, would you ask me, 
 Whence these tones so wild and wayward, 
 I should answer, I should tell you Me.' 
 4*
 
 32 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Me, who sat up till two o'clock last night to copy ; " and 
 ho laid his hand on his heart and bowed theatrically. 
 " When 1 gave back the piano arrangement to the Gone- 
 cusset scythe-maker (he brought it all the way from 
 Fatherland), he little thought that I had the best of it 
 safe on paper. This is for Sweetheart a remembrance of 
 her poor music-scribbling lover. First the waltz, now 
 the soldier's solo, here your favorite prayer. This is the 
 place where they cast the bullets. I have put in every 
 air soldier's, tenor adagio, orchestral nourishes and de 
 moniac machinery to boot. Finally, the Hunter's Chorus, 
 Rosy Wreath, and so on. It was tout bien ou rien. 
 Now listen." 
 
 He had indeed done his work well. The whole emo 
 tional and descriptive intention of the author had been 
 preserved, and he put it on the organ with an artist's in 
 stinctive coloring. 
 
 Mollie mentally followed the story, and shutting her 
 eyes, fairly saw every picture. The entire scene in the 
 Wolf's Glen, so faithful a copy of midnight in the 
 forest, seemed to have had a fascination for Louis. His 
 listener shuddered as he called up the black sky, the wind 
 sighing among the trees, the water dashing down the 
 steep, the devilish counting and laughter of the soldier, 
 the frightful apparitions, and in the midst, the lover's 
 tender little mother vision. 
 
 " Do you know," said the musician, suddenly breaking 
 off, and speaking with an eager flush on his cheek, as if 
 he wanted to be reassured, " putting myself into that 
 huntsman's place smooth bore hunting match loss of 
 skill Agatha, Casper, and all I think I should not 
 have refused the bullets ? I couldn't rest last night the 
 
 O 7 
 
 music echoed my thoughts so. I felt as if Top Town, and 
 money, and the liquor trade meant just the same to me
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 83 
 
 that the Wolf's Glen and compact with Zamael did to 
 Max. And you, dear trembling conscience, are a real 
 Agatha." 
 
 Then it came to Mollie that she ought to make a final 
 protest. Not that Louis would stay at home, but for 
 principle's sake. But she had spoken her mind, and ac 
 quiesced in the decision, and she dreaded to renew the 
 conflict. Moreover, she by no means classed her lover 
 with that weak-minded hunter. Though she had resolved 
 to be strong for the future, she had already yielded the 
 present, and even now had begun to look at the Cereus 
 with eyes of hope, and to defend it to her own sense of 
 right. She therefore kept a miserable silence. 
 
 Louis' delicate intuition caught the phase of affairs at 
 once. " O dear ! " cried he in a pretty, harmless petu 
 lance that was quite his own, " never mind ! We are 
 going to the Turk's Head ; you will hear the woods tell 
 another story, and I'll just improvise a wee bit, to take 
 the incantation out of our minds. America is not the 
 land of superstition, and mission-struck Mr. Pelican can 
 not possibly be metamorphosed into an ill-natured fox 
 hunting spirit. You are to be Mrs. Allwood Top Town 
 must furnish the wherewithal." 
 
 Thereupon he gave his lovely head a wilful toss, and 
 began to play. I have never heard such another master 
 of the art as Louis. His long, nervous fingers wandered 
 among the keys, waking from them a coherent language 
 a tale all fresh and simple. Not a " random business pat 
 tering and groping up and down from one stop or key to 
 another," like Hitter's lament over the prelude, but a con 
 sistent following out of the subject of thought uppermost 
 in his mind, enriched by brilliant cadences and ornaments 
 indeed, but never yielding to them the central idea. 
 This afternoon, the adagio, and the soldier's ferocious
 
 54 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " Wie, Was, ensetzen," were persisting themes. Ninths, 
 sevenths, elevenths nothing would lead away from the 
 dismal glen with its mantle of black firs choking and 
 shutting out the sky, and the incessant plunge and gurgle 
 of water. Euns, trills, cadenzas, began and ended just 
 here. He pulled the Vox Humana and struck into the 
 prayer, but no less followed the vision to represent itself 
 in the accompaniment of the recitative with weird per 
 sistence. 
 
 " Tell me, Forget-me-not," said he, abruptly, " do you 
 believe your thoughts would follow me into danger in this 
 fashion, as Agatha's did Max? Would you hear the 
 forest murmur in your ears every hour, if I was in a 
 Wolf's Glen ? O, I know you too well to doubt." And, 
 as if the answer had exorcised the demon, he took up the 
 duet in Spohr's Psalm : " Children, pray this love to 
 cherish," and in returned faith in his untested strength, 
 hurried into exulting harmonies. 
 
 His confidence and his foreboding alike brought a pang 
 to Mollie, this sad afternoon of leave-taking, as she sat 
 filling the organ lungs with the breath that he made ex 
 hale in melody. This had always been her part. Their 
 world seemed to her like a Pygmalion's statue, which she 
 fashioned and lie made live. Now he was going away ; 
 elsewhere he must find nutriment and stimulant. Hith 
 erto, their emotions, their labors, had been one. His 
 very attainments in his art were only her longing for him, 
 which he realized. He was her boy lover. In the tears 
 she wiped, gathered as much motherhood as selfish pain. 
 Soon Louis throws by his revery : he has guessed that she 
 is heavy-hearted ; he will comfort her. Then he plays a 
 volkslied, strong, earnest, free. Isn't that noble, darling ? 
 That's Mendelssohn's last Lieder ohne Worte. It 
 means that earnestness, however withstood by fate, will
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 85 
 
 make way and conquer at last. You shall learn it ; it is 
 not difficult. It will be a prayer, we will say on the 
 piano. Now sing " He shall give thee thy soul's desire," 
 while I blow. 
 
 These were Louis' devotions. Mollie obeyed, and the 
 pair silently closed the instrument as the last note faded 
 away, and together they went back into the sunshine. 
 Louis' gayety returned the instant he regained the open 
 air. *' Mollie sweet," coaxed he, " let us be merry to 
 day. We were miserable all night; but this is time I 
 saved to cheer you. You must smile ! " He caressed 
 her hand, half imperious, half imploring, and then ran a 
 bit up the road, and frolicked back again airily, to present 
 a captured Camberwell beauty, the fruit of the chase. 
 
 " Let us make a scapegoat of him," suggested the 
 young girl, watching his struggles with a pity partly born 
 of her own soul pain. " See, some one has already 
 brushed the blue and gold from his pretty maroon wings, 
 and we have several specimens already." 
 
 " Agreed ; wait a minute and I'll oifer the invocation," 
 said Louis, stopping, and moving the fingers of one hand 
 up and down on the back of the other, as if working up 
 a difficult piano passage a trick he had learned by doing 
 German lessons while he practised exercises. " Ah ! 1 
 have it : 
 
 " ' Go, harbinger of Autumn, thou mimic of his robe, 
 Fly hence, and bear upon thy wings 
 The care my Mollie on thee flings 
 A burden very light to carry, 
 Since care's no care that doth not tarry.' 
 
 That's not so bad for an impromptu epigram you smile ! 
 Then it was worth inventing. You are lovely, so. Now 
 I can be truly gay. We are going toward the brook ;
 
 86 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 there is dear old Atlas I can see the name we carved 
 on him, plain as ever." 
 
 He pointed to a huge square rock, full fifteen feet high, 
 which towered from the centre of a bit of granite-strewn 
 pasture, like a gigantic monument among a host of little 
 tombstones, perchance as a memorial of a wrecked life 
 among its poor dead joys. But neither of the lovers felt 
 any longer in the mood for such sombre fancies. The 
 stern patriarch seemed indeed transfigured by the after 
 noon sunlight reflected from his gray sides ; a flock of 
 birds assembled for southward flight were twittering on 
 his summit, and bits of green fern nodded from all his 
 crevices, and scarlet creepers trailed from his wider 
 fissures iike favors worn at a ball. 
 
 So said Mollie ; and then laughingly followed up the 
 simile : " An Irish ball, I declare ! You wouldn't be a 
 quarter so sweet, Louis, if it wasn't for the emerald in 
 you. See ! the two peach-trees we sowed beside the old 
 darling are all grown and handsome. He takes good 
 care of them, because his playmates planted them. Do 
 you remember how we tried to worship the sun on top. 
 It's black and streaky yet, where we had the altar." 
 
 " Yes, but we roasted corn and potatoes there a good 
 many times afterward. I stole, and you cooked." 
 
 " Magnum est Vectigal par simonia," laughed Mollie ; 
 " but see ! to-day is all omens ; here is this lovely brake 
 with two perfect heads one for you, and one for me 
 on the same stem." 
 
 Shrill, childish voices followed the stillness that ensued, 
 while Louis eagerly examined the rarity, and a boy and 
 girl, tattered and dirty, emerged from the wood. Marks 
 of a tussle with the blackberry bushes did not improve 
 their sunburnt faces and arms, and, though the inevitable 
 basket carried by the damsel was filled with masses of
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 87 
 
 fern, golden rod, and purple-fringed daisies, these coarser 
 spoils were evidently taken for lack of better, and failed 
 to satisfy. 
 
 " They bees all gone," was the boy's melancholy reply 
 to some forlorn complaint. "Bad luck to them cows 
 that browses on 'em. They bloomed white all over when 
 I came this way froggin' in the spring. Seein' yer so set 
 back about it, I wish I was a field of roots so you could 
 dig me up and be satisfied"." 
 
 " I don't want to grub thistles," was the tart rejoinder, 
 in suggestive thickness of tone ; then repentantly, " but if 
 you was, sure I'd still be the bumble-bee to buzz about you." 
 
 " Why, that's Amos and Doppy ! " cried Mollie, from 
 her perch aloft. " They stopped after Sunday-school last 
 week, to ask Peace if she thought roots lived this time of 
 year. She told me of it. Of course there are no flowers. 
 She's ready to cry with disappointment. They think of 
 nothing but the garden of the ' Solomon Rodgers.' " 
 
 " And if I've a grain of fellow-feeling, I'll go to show 
 that shambling donkey where they grow," added Louis, 
 ruefully. " Mollie, I believe you'd coax me to hunt 
 truffles for the Dennis pig, if you thought the McCross 
 refuse didn't fatten him well enough ! Well, I shan't 
 get another opportunity to do your pleasure to be use 
 ful is my wish." 
 
 " You certainly are one that loveth all things best," 
 answei-ed Mollie, fondly meeting the smile into which his 
 assumed expression of injury melted, with a bright one 
 out of her heart. " I had only got as far as compassion, 
 but you spring to relief! Here, Doppy, climb upon the 
 rock with me ; Mr. Allwood knows where the roots are. 
 He is going to show Amos. Amos won't mind your 
 leaving him ; gentlemen always like to wait on their 
 lady friends." ,
 
 88 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Thar ! look at that now ! " cried Doppy, in full ap 
 proval. " Yer to go and dig, Amos, while I play leddy 
 long wid Miss McCross. Be keerful of me basket," be 
 stowing the horrid wickerware with a lofty imitation of 
 Mollie's method of granting like favors. An agile shin 
 ning up the huge boulder followed, but, flushed and tri 
 umphant at last, she took her place beside her new friend 
 with a grand spread of her tattered skirts. 
 
 " You like Amos better than you did yesterday ? " sug 
 gested Mollie, when her eyes came back from, watching 
 the pride of her soul disappear on his friendly errand. 
 
 " I've seen worse bys," admitted Miss Mulligan, as she 
 played a kind of solitaire peep-a-boo with her bare toe 
 and the hem of her dress. " I'm not in a peck o' nettles 
 'bout him same as some 'ud be. And if I said I tought 
 him bully, you'd go and tell, and he'd make light o' me. 
 It ain't best to own carein' for the best o' min." Her 
 ten years' skin and bones made absurd contrast to this 
 astute remark ; but Doppy was far too earnest to notice 
 the twinkle in Mollie's eyes. " Who put this rock 
 here ? " inquired she, diplomatically changing the conver 
 sation. " It's a whoppin' big un ! Amos and me made 
 out, comein' up, that them little lookin'-glasses all over 
 the stone walls must be for the Good People, (hough we 
 don't believe in 'em noway, if Mrs. Dennis do have a sil 
 ver pin they left in her clane milk pans in Ireland." 
 
 " God put it here," said Mollie, " when He made the 
 mountains." 
 
 Doppy sniffed. 
 
 " It's one part of them," reasserted Miss McCross, 
 gently, " but not so pretty as some of the other kinds. 
 They are full of little red stones that shine garnets. 
 Often these are bedded in white sand, and are very bright. 
 I shouldn't wonder if there are a few hidden here," and
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 89 
 
 with the thought she jumped up and uncovered a shelf- 
 like fissure ingeniously thatched with sticks, moss, and 
 pebbles. " Ah, yes ; so they are ! " fishing up a nonde 
 script mass of chrysalids, beetles, geological specimens, 
 odd mosses, birds' feathers and wings, and squirrel skins. 
 " Mr. Allwood and I used to hunt for such things a great 
 deal when we were children. We made our hiding-place 
 here. This green stone is tourmaline ; this thin, glassy bit 
 is leaf mica, the same as the fairies' mirrors. See these 
 large garnets ! This red stuff is iron ore. We found 
 some greenish, once, that we thought was hornblende." 
 
 " In the rocks ? " cried Doppy, her eyes as large as 
 saucers. 
 
 " Yes. I'll tell you all about them, if you like." 
 
 And the botanists, returning with their baskets full of 
 muddy spoils half an hour after, found the little figure 
 still sprawled contentedly on the summit of Atlas, kicking 
 its heels, and watching Mollie with unabated interest as 
 she knelt expounding her treasures. 
 
 " May I present you with some sassafras? " said Louis, 
 from the base of their citadel. " Avourneen delish, come 
 down, if we are to go to the brook. I have helped 
 Master Daley to hepaticas, lupines, cardinal-flowers, gen 
 tians, triliums, mocassin-flowers, clematis, white violets, 
 adders' tongues, enough to restore the ' Solomon Eodgers ' 
 to its old splendor." 
 
 " If you please, ma'am," said Doppy, rising and mak 
 ing a quick knee-bend, like that she did before the altar 
 at church, " I am very much obliged to you." Mollie 
 was astonished at the soothed, courteous manner of the 
 child and the modest blush with which she made her 
 thanks. 
 
 " Would yo\i like the stones ? " asked she, instantly 
 putting herself in her eager listener's place, and anxious
 
 90 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 to rivet her wedge till another opportunity offered for 
 
 driving in. 
 
 " If you would be so kind," answered Doppy, coining 
 the polite little phrase anew in literal reply," the ones 
 you've explained, till I tell Amos the story." 
 
 " Come down," cried Amos, all bound up in pride of 
 his well-stocked basket. " Sure iverything 'ull wilt, if 
 yer so schnaly." 
 
 " Why don't you stand at the foot to help me, same as 
 Mr. Allwood has Miss McCross ? " asked his young lady, 
 her soul expanded with desire to live experimentally her 
 new ideal, and woman's longing to teach the recreant 
 swain his duty. 
 
 " Cause he's a gentleman an' I ain't ; " and Master Daley 
 set down his burden, and leaned against the wall, hands 
 in his pockets, with invincible obstinacy. 
 
 " Thin ye can go 'long alone. I'm going to be respect 
 able, and respectable people don't shin down." 
 
 "But I have been waiting for the honor," interfered 
 Louis, much amused. "Would it be too great a loss of 
 dignity for you to be lifted ? " 
 
 " You should take better care of your little friend, if 
 she's kind enough to ask your help," admonished he, as 
 Miss Mulligan was deposited beside her basket. 
 
 Doppy'ci large brown eyes sparkled with pleasure. 
 " Do ye mind that, Amos," she enforced proudly. " Jest 
 give me holt of that handle ; it's too heavy fur the likes 
 of you." 
 
 " I cackellate, I'd best take care of my little friend, and 
 do my own liftin'," parodied Amos, accepting the reproof 
 good-naturedly. Then he slyly turned the tables. " I'm 
 waiting to hear you say, ' I bees obligated to the likes of 
 ye, Masther Daley, fur yer perliteness,' same as Miss 
 McCross 'ud do in yer place."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 91 
 
 How could poor Doppy but answer, meek in woman's 
 humility, " That's thrue fur ye ye have me gra-ti-tude." 
 and feel in the depth of her soul that even the long word, 
 well drawn out, could not compare with the profound 
 wit of her shambling admirer. 
 
 Meantime, Louis and Mollie had already pushed toward 
 their destination. Black Turk's Head rose loftily on one 
 side the road, to be confronted by the Christian's Look 
 out, over across. And beside the path, in the little 
 valley between, flowed the brook, bending downward, 
 sylph-like, as if to lay her bright hands on the laughing 
 face of Roaring River, busy about his work far below. 
 
 " She trips on rarely/' cried Louis. He loved the 
 dainty stream so wild, and yet coy and gentle, beneath 
 its arch of maples and alders, ever straying blithely among 
 its huge, green-mossed boulders, with the unfretted 
 strength of persistence that nature had given to seem 
 fairest of all to him. " Why should we walk stupidly 
 where humans plod along, when we can just as well frisk 
 on the granite floor of that Nixie's palace, yonder? " 
 
 " Why, indeed," cried Mollie, yielding easily to his 
 fancy. How many, many times had they already trav 
 ersed together the stepping-stones, worn round by the 
 incessant pressure of the nymph's feet ! 
 
 No lovelier palace ever had elf. There was the brown 
 water itself, with here and there a sunbeam resting like 
 a topaz upon the Lurline's vesture. The autumn golden 
 rods and daisies bloomed in the open, beyond the faintly 
 turning arch of willows, maples, and alders. But over 
 their heads tangled clematis hung in sprays, and great 
 bushes of poke berries vied in richness with the graceful 
 masses of bitter-sweet, and even more brilliant clusters of 
 red and yellow nightshade for it was a patrician Lur- 
 liiie, that must not be without its wicked ways. Here,
 
 92 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 too, trailed scarlet woodbine, in its fervid flame, another 
 Dido, mourning after her lost birds of passage. Daws 
 were cawing in the woods; nuts untouched by frost, bxit 
 shaken by overmuch wind o' nights, dropped through 
 the hazy autumn air. Now and then a partridge roused 
 from its cover whirred past, or the sharp crack of a rifle 
 on the other side the hill warned of farmers' boys on 
 holiday. 
 
 Louis looked about him with an air of perfect relief. 
 " It hasn't any resemblance to the Wolf Scbict," cried 
 he, drawing a long breath. " It is our own dear little 
 stream, in our familiar New England solitude no 
 vinous Neckar, or cascade in grim fir-mantled, bear- 
 haunted Hartz. Do you know, I was worked up to that 
 extent when I finished Der Freischiitz last night, that the 
 sight of an honest American rattlesnake would have been 
 delightful, as reassuring my miserable bewitched self? 
 But see how the Nixie is offering you a seat upon this 
 great rock in tbe midst of her possessions, and this little 
 one covered with moss is for a footstool ! Hear the water 
 dive under its arch with a gurgle of welcome, to slide 
 shyly forth in that clear pool below 
 
 " ' O solitude, if I must with thee dwell, 
 Climb with me the steep 
 Nature's observatory, whence the dell, 
 Its flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell, 
 May seem a span. Let me thy vigils keep 
 'Mongst boughs pavilioned where the deer's swift leap 
 Startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell.' 
 
 Ah! thanks, Mr. Bullfrog; I was just wanting your 
 place." 
 
 Mollie sat silent and happy. She loved to watch her 
 lover in this mood. She revelled in his delicate sim-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 93 
 
 plicity, his bright-hued fancies, his culture, faultless in a 
 school whose standard and strictness were equivalent to 
 worship of beauty as the revelation of law ; or law as 
 that sole arrangement of things which could produce 
 beauty, and hence had the undying joy of knowing them, 
 to be the same thing. She was formed for activity, for 
 resisting adverse tides of thought, habit, mayhap fate. 
 SJie was his repose, because she did not waver or falter ; 
 but she sought in him an every hour outlook into regions 
 of upper air, where he seemed in these days to dwell. 
 Words from her would only mar his delightsome humor, 
 since diverting it from its own path. She had no need 
 to speak. 
 
 " I am going to relate a little ditty, if you'll forgive 
 the expression," said he playfully, prisoning her with a 
 long wreath of brilliant woodbine he had been braiding 
 deftly during their walk; "all about a Lurline here in 
 this very brook. She had brown hair like the withered fall 
 leaves, and the bits of blue sky mirrored in the water were 
 exactly the color of her eyes. She had lovely red lips, 
 too, like the cardinal-flowers; and the trailing arbutus 
 that grew near her banks was the very perfume of her 
 breath ; and her tunic was emerald green, spangled with a 
 border of golden rod and yellow buttercups. A poor 
 bullfrog lived in a hole of the bank. After he'd spent a 
 long time admiring this beautiful sprite, he presumed to 
 offer himself; and she looked with favor on his bright 
 eyes set in a ring of brilliant topaz, the only beauty he 
 had, and let him spring to her arms in a transport of 
 bliss. 
 
 " But it began to be winter time before long, and he 
 had to bid good-by to the lovely Nixie, and seek protec 
 tion elsewhere ; and she promised to be true " 
 
 " Well, she was," interrupted Mollie.
 
 94: SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 "I'm afraid not. I shouldn't wonder if when the 
 poor fellow returned he found another fatter frog than he 
 squatted here on this very stone," persisted Louis, half 
 teasing, half foreboding. 
 
 " Never ! " cried Mollie, ardently. " Lurline's true name 
 is Forget-me-not ; and she always binds their turquoise 
 in her hair and on her breast ; there are some now just 
 where we planted them." 
 
 " That was what I wanted to hear you say, laughed 
 he roguishly. 
 
 " Oh," said Mollie, piqued, " how Til allegorize ! " 
 
 " If it's a water nymph, wouldn't alligator be a better 
 word ? " suggested Louis. " It would be a hint of war 
 mer weather." 
 
 " Just as you like ; the only part of the story I look at 
 is the moral. Nixie was a man with teeth as white as 
 blackberry-blossoms and sharp as thorns, and he got tired 
 of his poor froggie-wife like Johnnie Sands, and one 
 day he caught her nose under a stone and held it there 
 till she choked." 
 
 " Do you know," said Louis reflectively, suspending 
 his occupation of knitting a blade of grass around two 
 straws, while he deliberated, "I am not settled about 
 Mr. Sands. Don't you think that in spite of the joy he 
 undoubtedly felt at his release, the horror of that des 
 perate act must have pursued him through life ? " 
 
 " I should suppose it might," acquiesced Mollie, much 
 amused. 
 
 " Yes ; think of his remorse, and the shudders of his 
 friends, and the disgrace accruing to the Sands family. 
 What a weight to bear ! " 
 
 " Perhaps they were Quicksands, and didn't try," sug 
 gested Mollie.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 95 
 
 " That's a fact," said Louis, receiving back his coin 
 composedly ; " that will hold water." 
 
 " That kind of soil usually does," agreed Mollie again. 
 
 " At all events, I should say J. Sands ruined his pros 
 pects of happiness by that fell deed," concluded Louis, 
 rising as he spoke, and tossing the knitting into the stream, 
 to watch it whirl hither and thither, till it finally caught 
 in a knot of orchis, and rested quietly, thus moored. 
 " That's a good omen, dear Lurline," resuming his gayety, 
 and springing lightly ashore. " See ! true love knits our 
 separate lives as the grass ties the straw, and our fate has 
 come to good harbor." 
 
 Mollie gave him her hand, and submitted to be helped 
 over the rivulet, though she could have crossed it alone 
 with perfect ease. It was her choice luxury to be tended 
 by Louis, equally as she abominated such casual gal 
 lantry from others. 
 
 " If I was a bird," said he, smiling to her thanks, " I'd 
 rise and survey that chipmuck I've heard rattling behind 
 us this last half Oh ! " 
 
 The exclamation came down to his listener from the 
 designated height, and she was naturally too much startled 
 to divine the meaning of it, till a strange voice cried out, 
 
 " Well done, my Fejeee Bruiser ! I never landed so big 
 a fish more successfully. Chipmuck, indeed ! what do 
 you take me for ? Hope I didn't damage your coat 
 collar." 
 
 " A bear, or a condor ! Charley Pelican ! " answered 
 Louis with a gasp, " I'll never think out loud again." 
 
 " Or court, either," suggested the intruder. " But I 
 intend returning to terra firma. Are yon similar ? " 
 
 Louis therefore swung himself to the ground, followed 
 by the handsomest Hercules Mollie had ever the hap to 
 meet. That he was Peace's brother, she did not need his
 
 96 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 prey's exclamation to discover. There was the same 
 imposing stature Charley was at least six feet four the 
 blue-black Spanish hair curling a little in ringlets, not 
 kinks; the bright dark eyes of a perfect almond shape; 
 the brilliant complexion, even the Castilian mouth, with 
 its haughty curves, equally handsome as Peace's, since it 
 gained in mobility what it lost in delicate strength. 
 Peace repeated line by line, in short, with this difference : 
 Mr. Pelican exchanged sister's stately refinement for 
 infinite dash, levity, audacity, that seemed not quite so 
 reprehensible in the brightness of his magnificent beauty, 
 as they do in uglier men. He bore himself so grandly, 
 and tossed his head so wilfully, like a war-horse impa 
 tient of rein, and expanded his broad chest with such an 
 air of power, that a mere look at him quickened one to 
 the same enthusiasm one feels in survey of Niagara, 
 Bierstadt's Rocky Mountains, the Strasbourg Cathedral, 
 or any other masterpiece. 
 
 Now the two characters of life Mollie hated most in 
 those days were Absalom and Lothario. Louis there 
 fore watched in some trepidation to see how the heir of 
 the Pelicans would find place in her good graces. She 
 was full of pleasure at the friendly relations augured by 
 her lover's sudden elevation, and, with her face bright 
 with laughter, turned to meet the young giant of whom 
 she had heard so much. Poor Mollie ! He favored her 
 blushes with a stare as full of curiosity about his sister's 
 I pet friend, scrutiny as to her points as a specimen of her 
 sex, and merriment broad to insult over the gathering of 
 his eavesdropping, as utter carelessness of his own 
 behavior allowed to concentrate. Mollie's cheeks ex 
 changed the flame of enthusiasm for the more painful 
 brilliance of anger. She drew herself up with dignity, 
 and said as reply to the condescending cap-lift vouch-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 97 
 
 safed, that she would walk toward home ; Louis might 
 follow at his convenience. 
 
 Mr. Pelican seemed not ill-pleased at her wrath in 
 deed he chuckled axidibly and told Louis he envied 
 him his sweetheart, and would like to present to her the 
 results of his shooting, the more as she could undoubt 
 edly freeze the birds without other ice than herself, and 
 still stared. 
 
 " No, thank you," cried Mollie indignantly. " I am 
 quite as well aware as yourself that you consider us as 
 much objects of sport as the woodcock and partridges. 
 It is a mistake. I accept nothing from strangers whose 
 manners are equally lacking in delicacy and self-respect." 
 
 " Mollie ! " gasped Louis, perfectly aghast at a phase of 
 character new even to his experience of her. The rebuff 
 didn't embarrass Charley at all. But having raised the 
 tempest, it occurred to him that the task of allaying it 
 would be exciting. " I beg your pardon," said he, revo 
 lutionizing his tactics. " I stand corrected, and now 
 implore your acceptance. I dare not make game of you 
 and All wood, or the birds either, any more. A worse hunt 
 ing ground I never saw. One no sooner spies a fowl 
 than Jerusalem he's mired in a quag, or choked with 
 alders, or tripped on a nigger-head, or has the gristle of 
 his nose torn out in a blackberry patch ; and by the time 
 he gets straight, he's been despoiled of every bit of boots, 
 shirt, skin, temper, bird gone, all lost, and then he can't 
 even comfort himself with the sight of a pretty girl. 
 Now will you have 'em ? " He gave his magnificent 
 shoulders a contumacious shake as he spoke, and defi 
 antly drew his three plump partridges from his game-bag. 
 
 " I am not pretty," said Mollie, in a matter-of-fact 
 tone, " and I am offended because you had the impolite 
 ness to eye me over, just as if I was not entitled to re- 
 5
 
 98 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 specfc. I do not wish any of your killing ; there isn't salt 
 in Millville to make the dish palatable." The words 
 were spoken in a low, even tone, not expressive of anger, 
 only conveying an ordinary piece of information. When 
 ended, she turned to Louis as if intending to depart 
 immediately. 
 
 " Snooks and sneezers ! " said Charley, watching her 
 with enjoyment by no means malicious, with very much 
 the pleasure a big dog has in chasing a ball, and rubber 
 failing, takes up with chicken as substitute. He snatched 
 up Louis thereupon, and holding him fast as one would 
 a kitten, jumped upon the stone wall, thence to an over 
 hanging chestnut, and wich his free hand steadied him 
 self in a squirrel's climb toward the top. 
 
 <( Now say you'll eat my birds, if you don't want him 
 dropped," he called, triumphantly. 
 
 " Not if you carried him into the clouds," retorted 
 Mollie, beginning to descend the hill. 
 
 "Jam cliu, jam dudum ! " said Charley, laughing eas 
 ily. " She's as perverse as a thermometer ! Which is 
 the most humiliating to her delicacy to bandy words 
 with her slave, or forgive him ? " and he returned to 
 earth, and keeping fast hold of his burden, pursued her. 
 
 Either Mollie must run, or allow herself to be over 
 taken. She preserved dignity, held her first pace. 
 Charley only made a dozen steps before he reached her, 
 set Louis gently on his feet in her path, and said entreat- 
 ingly, " See ! I've brought him back. Now, please take 
 my game," and smiled as he looked down at her. No 
 one ever defied the fascination of that coaxing mouth ; 
 not even Mollie, who held out her hand for the spoil in 
 silence, half sharing for the moment in Louis' manifest 
 admiration for the trickish giant. 
 
 " I'm going on the owl with you to-night," resumed
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 99 
 
 Mr. Pelican, addressing the young man, as he drew a 
 long breath of exultation over his success with the lady. 
 " We'll hunt the buffalo together. By your leave, 
 ma'am, I'll pair the odd partridge before I give him up. 
 Just tell Peace you don't like me, if you dare ! " and he 
 threw her a kiss, with unmatched impudence, and ran 
 away into the fields. 
 
 The path toward Millville was directly opposite, and 
 Mollie went along wrapped in thought. She had paid 
 humanity's tribute of submission to embodied perfection 
 of beauty and power. But the reflection that this potent 
 spell-master was to take her place beside Louis was at 
 least disagreeable. And Louis himself followed her 
 reverie far too closely to care to ask its subject. 
 
 " The sun is set. See the mist settle over river and 
 valley. It is so still and bright hei*e ! if we need never 
 plunge into those shadows below ! " said Mollie, breaking 
 the rest-full stillness, and pausing on the brow of the 
 steep. 
 
 The spire of the church below pointed directly to their 
 feet. It seemed as if one of the yellow walnut leaves, 
 fluttering down from its tree overhead, would cover half 
 the town fold the mills, the shops, the white village 
 homes, the century-old elms, in its tiny mantle. 
 
 " Then let us loiter a little on the wall the other side the 
 road, so we won't disturb that red squirrel. Millville 
 looks exactly like the enchanted city going under its lake 
 for seven years' sleep. To-morrow morning not a tree be 
 neath crest will be visible; silver fog will make a sug 
 gestive water study of it. One might remember Bancis 
 and Philemon, and shake in his shoes." 
 
 " I dread to go back. How calm and happy we have 
 been this afternoon ! The very noise that ascends from 
 the streets is refined to music. That bird sinus twice as
 
 100 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 clear. But the mist will hide our way, perhaps make 
 each other's faces dim. O Louis, how can I let you go ! " 
 
 He took her hands in his, and bent over them, his eyes 
 full of tears, sorrowful, earnest, albeit he was boyish and 
 simple beyond his years. Theirs was the simplicity of 
 unity, and alas ! the half-comprehended misery of their 
 parting was, that it made twain of what God's Provi 
 dence through a whole childhood had joined in one life. 
 
 ''This is like the Mount of Transfiguration," said 
 Mollie, accepting the clear western sky with its one fail- 
 star shining serenely in lucent sether, way beyond the 
 river, the solemn hush about them, the peaceful memory 
 of their hours together, as a Heaven-given whole." 
 
 " That is true, but one cannot build tabernacles 
 there," answered Louis reverently. 
 
 Nothing more was said till they reached Gonecusset 
 Street, when Louis threw off the burden with a jest. 
 " Ai-en't you sorry your capitalist has been so generous ? " 
 inquired he. " I was thinking that since I own the whole 
 avenue, pity we can't occupy any of it. Here is Deacon 
 William's ; he begged it of me till he should be so blessed 
 as to become a widower ; and look at his wife now ! 
 Then there's Mr. Bizby's next, my especial friend. I 
 had a singing-school attachment for his grandmother." 
 
 " But see 'Squire Hitchcock's ! that would suit me," 
 cried Mollie, demurely. 
 
 " I really couldn't ; " and Louis stopped to lay his 
 hand tenderly on his ribs, as it happened. " He was my 
 messmate in the war of 1812. I couldn't be severe to 
 ward a comrade. You needn't look across the way either ; 
 that is the saddest case of all. I deeded it to the village 
 for a common, but the Spiritualists were the only people 
 willing to enjoy it, on account of the name. So I offered 
 it to the Presbyterians, on condition of their calling their
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 edifice the ' Short Cut.' But they said such an idea 
 would undermine the great doctrines that lie at the foun 
 dations of their system. So it had to go to Snip the 
 tailor to get anything cut out of it but myself." 
 
 " In short," said Mollie, smiling bravely as she opened 
 the Fir Covert gate, "it is like your pet psalm, 'Ye 
 gentle spirits, the world is all your own.' " 
 
 And so it was as much as any part of it. God be 
 with 'em. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " 'Old woman, old woman, old woman,' quoth I, 
 ' Whither, oh whither ! oh whither so high ? ' 
 ' To sweep the cobwebs from the sky.' " 
 
 |N a wild-beast show, my dear readers, it is need 
 ful to have an arena Patience of Hope is our 
 arena. In a, wild-beast show they bring the 
 animals from far and wide. Similarly the participants in 
 this chapter come from the four quarters. To a geograph 
 ical mind, how commonplace would seem attendance at 
 a cock-fight, were the preparatory circumstance of 
 smuggling the fowls to the pit in carpet-bags unnecessary. 
 But how delightful, 011 the other hand, to watch a polar 
 bear chew up a tiger.. Here is variety! The poetry of 
 antagonism! Precisely like is the habitual enmity of 
 the sleek tiger of warm prosperity, to the shaggy bear 
 bred in the frigid experience of want. Why do the tiger 
 and the bear fight ? " For 'tis their nature to," Mr. 
 Chadband ; and the opposite factors of a mission school 
 take no new departure from the old rule of class hate.
 
 102 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Christ love affords a tournament ground for more pas 
 sions than amity comprehends, all the world over; and 
 the bears growl and show hug to the tigers; and the 
 tigers lick their gilded coats and wash their complacent 
 faces after banquet on the ruder foe, six days in the 
 week ; and the seventh do like unto it. The real Christ 
 in a mission school is a lamb, equally the antipodes of the 
 sleek or shaggy a lamb cradling in his master's bosom, 
 and bent on errands of simplicity and peace. 
 
 I am indebted to Peace Pelican for the above disagree 
 able statement of the situation, and while I proceed to 
 marshal my forces into line this Sunday morning, I will 
 remark, en passant, that the originator thereof prided 
 herself on being a tiger, but admired Mary McCross as a 
 lamb, and considered it a root of offence in Francis Hay- 
 thorne that he manifested no agnus of nature or habit. 
 She had, moreover, been heard to mention wolves and 
 sheep-skins, and similar objects, unconnected (?) with Mr. 
 Nixon, the superintendent; and his habit of knocking 
 down his scholars with a heavy fist invariably induced 
 her to add bete to the list of his descriptive nouns. 
 
 The Sabbath of our chapter dawned clear and breath 
 less, laden with the heavy spice odors of great beds of 
 tuberoses and chrysanthemums at Fir Covert, stifling 
 amid the squalor and pigs of Syllabub. 
 
 But it was Lord's Day down there after all. The 
 white sunshine streamed over the uncouth comfortless 
 buildings, into greasy windows, and reeking cellars, as 
 brightly as ever it did upon the broad bend of Roaring 
 River, fringed with willows and nestling among softly 
 sloping pastures. Here and there a yellow butterfly 
 fluttered across the road. The very gutters sparkled; 
 and the great heap of dock that flourished by Doppy's front 
 door was brilliant with dew-drops. Devout old women in
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 103 
 
 a double head-gear of cap frill and sun-bonnet ; spruce 
 young girls in their stiffly ironed muslins, and gay young 
 fellows in Sunday broadcloth, wended their way toward 
 the church, whose far-off bells you could hear. As 
 Bridget told Mary McCross, " that same whose spire 
 reached nearer to heaven than ary another in the place." 
 There is something about the Sabbath atmosphere 
 that marks it from common times. We may philoso 
 phize it away, but our souls acknowledge it. Sunday is 
 the Rachel's Child in the week, and now, as of yore, goes 
 clad in the festal garment ; its sweetly discordant bells 
 sound in our hearts, calling to rejoicing. Under our 
 windows comes the joyful tramp of the multitude that 
 keep holiday. Through the open gates of heaven streams 
 the sun, whose beams are equally strength and peace. 
 Looking thereon we feel the Son of Righteousness arise 
 in our hearts, with healing in his wings. Our voices are 
 soft, for it is the Sabbath ; and our faces calm, for this 
 day God dwells recognizably among us. The heat and 
 cold, the breeze and calm, are in no wise changed. The 
 grasshoppers shriek in the fields, and the swallows stir 
 under our eaves, as alway ; but once more peace and 
 good- will toward men enact their miracle ; and Ambrosia 
 foams Bancis' earthen pitcher, and Philemon's poor 
 cottage stretches away into marble halls. 
 
 The above was the ipse dixit of Mary McCross, as she 
 looked out picture-books in the library, whereon to hang a 
 thread of moral story at Patience of Hope. 
 
 I am sorry to add that no similar train of thought 
 occurred to Amos Daley, as he swaggered toward the 
 meadows so much affected by his penny-pitching asso 
 ciates. 
 
 It had been too hot for Amos to sleep that sultry Sun 
 day. When, therefore, he had drawn on his trousers
 
 104 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 and scratched his head with his mourning finger-nails, 
 he was ready for action. He lived in the third story, 
 left hand, back tenement, of the Chain Locker on Eiver 
 Street. He had six younger relations, including an or 
 phan cousin and but one shirt. 
 
 Nor was our rhapsody followed by any single idea in the 
 indolent brain of Francis Haythorne : outstretched on his 
 chintz-covered sofa, and combating a dreamy intention 
 to practise Lohengrin ; making the rose-water in his 
 nargileh bubble and boil the while, and occasionally glanc 
 ing at a copy of " Origin of Species " in his hand. Just 
 then the door-bell rang, and a serving man entered the 
 room. 
 
 " If you please, sah," said he, wiping his dripping 
 face, and smiling, perhaps in delight at breaking in on so 
 much cool comfort, " Missus say Mary Ann be's sick, 
 and she wants you to come and proscribe." 
 
 " What is the matter with Mary Ann? " said the dis 
 turbed physician, keeping his finger on a pigeon experi 
 ment page, and surveying the intruder languidly. 
 
 " Missus 'clare she have a high fever, and she be in 
 great flurry. She thinks her eyes is rolled up in her 
 head. She said for me to wait and bring you." The 
 darkey grinned again. 
 
 Francis Haythorne looked at the thermometer, and 
 wished it was cool enough to kick his black insolence 
 out of doors. It proved only a passing feeling, however, 
 forgotten while he cai-essed his curling beard with his 
 soft white hand, and reviewed the conflicting claims of 
 Wagner, temptingly open on the flower-decked piano, 
 and Esculapius hot, dusty, and beset with worry. "Rolled 
 up in her head ! " What if the detested infant had con 
 gestion of the brain, and should die on his hands, to make 
 him turn cold on hot days, and hot on cold days, forever.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 105 
 
 " I'll tell you, John," said he, calmly, turning just 
 enough to look the man in the face, and not a hair's- 
 breadth more ; " you've made a mistake. The person 
 you were sent to lives just across the street. Don't you 
 remember it was Jenkens ? Here's a quarter for your 
 trouble ; " whereupon he returned to consideration of 
 rock pigeons and pouters, and the bubbling nargileh seemed 
 to murmur approbation of this settlement of the case. 
 
 Peace Pelican, screened behind the Jenkens' half-closed 
 parlor blinds, looked straight into the shady window 
 opposite, saw the colloquy, watched the man approach 
 and ring the home door-bell, and listened attentively to 
 a redescription of the wretched infant's situation, which 
 by the way was obviated by a dose of eau sucre. The 
 young beauty's lip curled with contempt. She felt glad 
 to find a chance to despise the self-sufficient red-haired. 
 True, she held it unladylike to walk down town in a hot 
 day. She liked to array herself elegantly, and practise 
 the fan exercise to admiration, and smile at the moths 
 caught in the current ; she revelled in perfumes, and 
 exulted in her ivory nail files and powders. But some 
 how the two sorts of goose did not seem exactly benefited 
 by the same sauce. Peace could not help thinking tough 
 ness a virtue in ganders, whatever might be the case with 
 the pretty white feminine fowl she compared to herself. 
 She resolved to set this delicately before the eyes of the 
 lazy medicine man ; and arranged herself with extraor 
 dinary care for " Patience of Hope," as she thus decided. 
 When Peace wished to strengthen a good purpose, or 
 unravel a knotty problem, she always began by adorning 
 herself to a perfection of toilette. It facilitated her 
 reasoning. 
 
 Everything about the McCross mansion seemed to 
 
 5*
 
 -|06 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 have fallen asleep long ago, and to be still drowsy with 
 its long nap taken while the outside world had gone on 
 changing its face and fashions in its own scrambling, 
 pushing, bustling way. 
 
 It was a quaint wood cottage, set some distance from 
 the street behind its hedge of fir-trees ; a cottage full 
 of angles and additions that rambled back, growing less 
 and less, till it ended, like most human handiwork, in 
 smoke. And the hams and shoulders, done in this hum 
 ble termination of greater things, were not without fame 
 in the country thereabout. 
 
 A wide piazza ran across the face of the house dis 
 orderly beyond parallel in the presence of a forgotten 
 broom corn. Its front was overhung by wisteria and 
 woodbine, clematis, and a rare Miller's Burgundy grape, 
 now spreading its small compact clusters athwart the en 
 trance half shyly, and yet withal in the modest boldness 
 of merit. About the piazza lay a narrow, box-edged bed, 
 full of tender crimson-tipped daisies, violets, and heart's- 
 ease. A patch of camomile green and aromatic re 
 posed near by. Away one side stretched an old-fashioned 
 garden full of roses, and portulaca, fritillarias, escholt- 
 zia, painted ladies, and Turk's caps. There grew flaunt 
 ing crimson cock's-combs, and great African marigolds in 
 autumn, and early crocuses, and hoop petticoats, and 
 snow-flakes, at the first vanishing of winter. 
 
 At this moment Mary McCross was descending the 
 steps on her way to mission school. Her arms were full 
 of books and her hands of flowers. Patience of Hope 
 was to shine right brilliant with its Lord's Day Blossoms. 
 All Millville and Roaring River taught there, and a dear, 
 delightfully wicked school it was. Deep in a brown 
 study, touching the story of Goliath as an illustration of 
 faith, Mollie approached the scene of her labors.
 
 fWTFTLEKS FOLKS. 
 
 107 
 
 " Darned if she don't study all them books," cried a 
 voice in her ear, and waking up, she found half a dozen 
 boys staring at her. The trumpet unquestionably gave 
 no uncertain sound. Prepared thereby for battle, Mollie 
 instantly smiled, and invited them all in. 
 
 " Might as well go to hell, and I'd as lief," shrieked a 
 ten-year-old theologian. But Amos, who had loafed up 
 to the school, overheard, and knocked him down on the 
 spot. 
 
 " I'm goin' in, boys ; who's afeard ? " said he, scoffingly ; 
 and in a minute they were all seated about the young 
 lady, as ragged and dirty a group as ever happy teacher 
 possessed. 
 
 The chivalry that led Master Daley to insure the class, 
 prompted him to keep it in order. He had a charge on 
 his mind also. Little Doppy, whose imagination was 
 still fired with visions of " clean does," had resolved to 
 attend and win. Indeed, a scuffle, and blows, and shrill 
 childish curses, at the foot of the stairs, already betrayed 
 her vicinity. 
 
 Amos, in fact, might have been seen at the " Solomon 
 Kodgers " that morning, detailing the delights of Patience 
 of Hope, with a tortoise-shell kitten nestling in his neck, 
 and its mate curled up in the crown of his hat. The 
 picture of the caressing furry pet rubbing her sides 
 against the apple-cheeks of the awkward lad, was sweet 
 to Doppy, though Joe Haverty, who was present, did turn 
 up her nose. It was the pleasantness of the memory, 
 more than anything else, that brought Dorothea to the 
 salle defendu of the mission-school. 
 
 " She shall come up ! let her 'lone, or I'll punch your 
 head," cried Amos, leaping the balustrade and darting to 
 the door. Then, suiting the action to the word, he drew 
 Doppy, sobbing defiance, from the smutty clutches of
 
 108 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Aleck and Christie Malone, and half dragged her in his 
 hurry to the class of Mary Ann Williams. " You be a 
 good lady, and she'll rest content wid ye," said he 
 decidedly, and vanished without further preamble. 
 
 The people teaching in the room that day were our old 
 friends. The Irish beauty with a whole seat of boys 
 bigger than she, was Sonsie Eagan, and Sabrina Bradshaw 
 sat next, with another just like it. Opposite her was 
 Miss Williams, and beyond her Zoe Walsingham. Jan 
 Vedder kept the door, for quiet was not the order of the 
 day at Patience of Hope, Chris Goldsmith's name, and 
 decidedly appropriate. 
 
 School opened with a song White Robes. Amos 
 intoned all on one note, and looked complacently at his 
 agonized teacher. Then Mr. Nickson offered a prayer 
 a long one. Directly a stream of whispers came over to 
 Miss McCross. " Go away, musketer. We has enough 
 of ye at home. Say, Miss, I had a musketer in my hand 
 once and I squashed him." Alas for Mollie! insect 
 jewelry was all the rage in Millville. Just then Zoe gave 
 a convulsive giggle. Chancing to steal a look at the 
 unbowed heads before her, instantly each black little hand 
 sought its owner's face, and one bright, mischievous eye 
 blinked through in merry mimicry. Mr. Nickson closed 
 with Our Father. We give the version Hugh re 
 peated : 
 
 " Our Father who art hi New Haven, 
 I paid all my debts square and even. 
 Thy kingdom come with a big jug of rum, 
 If I didn't pay all, at least I paid some." 
 
 " Say ! " said a tall boy in Miss Eagan's class, when 
 the devotions were over, " Nickson, an' Vedder, an' 
 Bradshaw, beats all the fellers I ever hear pray." 
 
 "Pooh ! " returned his coinrade. " Never mind him,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 109 
 
 Miss Eagan ; he's jest greased his head with his mother's 
 lamp ile, an' don't know what he's sayin'." 
 
 Meantime, Mary McCross was surveying her wriggling, 
 uneasy, mischief-loving, sham-hating urchins. Most 
 people would have been intimidated by their ring-leader 
 alone. You must have seen Amos to appreciate him. 
 Preparatory for school he had assumed full dress, and 
 his long, wide-skirted coat, of ministerial cut, was built 
 for a Falstaff. It was ornamented profusely with horn 
 and white porcelain buttons, he had turned its sleeves 
 back half up his arms, and its collar was ripped off, and 
 hung down his back. His trousers were fastened to his 
 waist by an old rope, and their tatters but half concealed 
 his sturdy limbs. His keen, blue-gray eyes sparkled 
 under their heavy black brows, and his lips closed over 
 a row of tobacco-stained teeth as regular as beads. In 
 any but his present attitude of protector, he would 
 indeed have been formidable, for he possessed the reso 
 lute will and quick impulsive daring that makes a lad a 
 leader anywhere. But Miss McCross was impressed with 
 the idea that he wojuld give her a quiet class, and had 
 her own theory of insuring this result. 
 
 (l Boys," began she, '' I'll tell you about David to-day." 
 
 " We've heard that once," said Hugh, with strong dis 
 approbation. 
 
 " "Well, of heaven then. What do you suppose they 
 live on ? " A dread pause, till Aleck suggested " pea 
 nuts," with a giggle, whereat Hugh brought out some in 
 a paper and passed them ronnd. But Amos nabbed and 
 suppressed the dainty in calm resolution. " You shan't 
 plague the lady," cried he, a warning flash in his eye. 
 " They don't have iiothin' to eat there." 
 
 Mollie smiled encouragement, but Hugh rejoined, with 
 great composure, " Then they must be thin as shadders."
 
 HO SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " Tell us the boat story," said Barney O'Hara, who had 
 been there often. But Noah's adventures were brought 
 to a sudden stand-still. 
 
 " You say the whole world was one big pond, as 
 deep as Roaring River pond ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed, deeper," said unsuspecting Mollie. 
 
 " O ! what a bully place to swim," cried Aleck, draw 
 ing a long breath. 
 
 " They chew tobacco in heaven, don't they ? " said 
 Hugh, offering Miss McCross some. 
 
 " Why, I'm surprised ; I thought they did." 
 
 " I chew to keep the hunger off," put in white-faced 
 Barney. Seeing the drift of the matter, Mollie began a 
 long story about Anderson's " Match Girl," and Kingsley's 
 " Three Fishers," and soon pointed her morals to a thor 
 oughly interested audience. 
 
 " This picture is about Ananias and Sapphira," said 
 Cymbalinus Adolphus to his boys. " Ananias is the man, 
 and Sapphira is the woman. They told a lie and fell 
 down dead ! Suppose you should tell a lie and fall down 
 dead ! Now ! " said Mr. Brown, solemnly, " what do 
 you believe became of them ? " 
 
 " Went to hell, and be d d to 'em," said a rough-look 
 ing fellow. " Bet they're hot enough now." 
 
 " If you please, sir, I burned myself all over once 
 with kerrycene," put in a lad with merry eyes. " I was 
 awful sick." 
 
 " Oh, I'm so sorry," said Mr. Brown, doing the sympa 
 thetic. " What did you put on it ? " 
 
 "It's the biggest lie I ever told in my life, and I 
 ain't dead either." 
 
 Old Miss Petingil came grimly in one day and took a 
 class. "Do you lie? " quoth she. 
 
 " Yes'm."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. HI 
 
 " I stole your tom-cat's kittens," confessed one rascal. 
 
 "Peculiar! how folks ken," said the maiden, drawing 
 back from the faces that were eying her with malicious 
 grins. 
 
 (t Mebbe you swear too ? " 
 
 " Look-a-here, old woman," said one, "I'll lay ten cents 
 agin your best bonnet, that I can beat you any day." 
 
 " Drefful strange, I allow ! " quoth the spinster. 
 " You wicked boy, don't you know liars and swearers 
 are an abomination to the Lord ? " 
 
 " No, I don't, but I'll tell you one thing ; ef you don't 
 speak civil, you'd better git, fur we ain't goin' to stand it." 
 
 Thereat the poor lady rose in a fright and ambled away. 
 
 Rosy-cheeked Peter Brudshaw was energetically ex 
 plaining machines to a large class, who listened, chin in 
 hand, in motionless attention. His prosperity was short : 
 one boy had conceived a spite against another, and to-day 
 the train was laid. Suddenly a large piece of pumpkin 
 pie struck the offending party full in the face, and hung 
 a ludicrous attachment to his upturned nose. In the 
 derisive shout that greeted the missile the blow was re 
 turned, and the fray became instantly general. So sud 
 den, was the rise of the scrimmage, that it must have been 
 planned beforehand. " Don't be afeared, Miss Brad- 
 shaw," said her boys, gathering about the Silver Lake 
 Goddess, who was very pale. " We'll take care of you." 
 
 Hymn-books and picture-cards were flying aboxit, and 
 some one threw a stool with no bad aim at the gallant 
 Superintendent, who had taken refuge behind a black 
 board, and trembled visibly. 
 
 " Sit down ! " cried Peter Bradshaw to the pumpkin- 
 pie victim. " Sit down, I say ! " 
 
 " That red-haired cuss shan't stay here ; he's the devil 
 himself."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " It's because your sister's head is so red that you'd 
 excuge him." 
 
 The laugh that rose at this sally was by no means ill- 
 humored, but the participants hurried to obey the cry, 
 " Out ! out ! " that proved the signal for a general stam 
 pede toward the door. Then Jan Vedder, coolly hold 
 ing his post, exclaimed loudly : " The first fellow that 
 comes near, I'll pitch down-stairs ! " and suiting the 
 action to the word, he seized a six-foot Irishman who led 
 the malcontents, and deliberately flung him to the bottom. 
 
 " Well done ! " " Couldn't have beaten that my 
 self! " were commendatory exclamations from the crowd 
 thus boldly faced, and a little undecided pause ensued. 
 Hoots below warned the teachers of a party of roughs 
 assembled at the gate ; but still the scholars within, bent 
 more on fun than mischief, hesitated to force their way 
 out. The result seemed an even chance, and there was 
 a moment's silence before the decision came. 
 
 " The devil ! they're cowed ! the fools ! " cried a 
 stranger in Mary McCross' class, who had been urging 
 on the tumult with missile, voice and stamp. lt Let's go, 
 Christie Malone." 
 
 Mollie recognized the danger. A word would rally 
 the party and break up the school. " No, you'll stay 
 here," said she, quietly. 
 
 " Who's to stop us ? " retorted he, all braggadocio. 
 " I don't see the man." 
 
 But Mollie was not quiet within, for Francis Hay- 
 thome, who had been sitting on the visitor's bench, the 
 picture of indolent, high-bred amusement, now approached 
 her, and offered his assistance. 
 
 The angry blood surged to her cheeks, as she exclaimed, 
 in a haughty tone, very natural, and yet uncommon, to 
 Mollie, No, sir. If I can't take care of myself, I've 
 no business here."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 113 
 
 (< Bully for you," shrieked Amos, approvingly. And 
 when she turned toward the angry agitator, with an en 
 tirely different air from that used to her sybarite protec 
 tor, and said, in an even, sunny tone, " Will you please 
 take your seat ; " bending on him a glance that implied, 
 " Don't you see what impertinence you expose me to ? " 
 he dropped meekly to his place without a word. 
 
 It was nature, not generalship, that won her the day, 
 and her victory was the settlement of the whole disturb 
 ance. Even the victim of Jan Vedder's prowess picked 
 himself up, and, holding out a hand fit for a blacksmith, 
 exclaiming, " I admire to know you ! that was a hunki 
 shove ! I'll be quiet if you leave me in," showed no 
 trace of malice. 
 
 Francis Haythorne, in fact, was the only one wounded. 
 He had not only proved of no use, but he'd been told so. 
 Nothing less than Mollie's perfect unconsciousness of hav 
 ing given ground for offence could have saved a rupture of 
 their friendship. As it was, he had to pocket the affront, 
 and, thoroughly piqued, resolved to put his hand to the 
 plough, and looked to her for approval. None, however, 
 came. Mollie was too deeply immersed in her own work 
 to bestow any interest on the matter. 
 
 Peace, on the contrary, wanted the amusement of walk 
 ing home with him, and was liberal in her praise, and let 
 him carry her sun-shade as a reward. But even Peace 
 had her root of bitterness. " Mollie," said she, stopping 
 suddenly, and speaking with an intensity of emotion 
 nearly amounting to fierceness, " I hate that school ! 
 I've five little girls in my class, and every one of their 
 fathers gets drunk ! " 
 
 " Well ? " said Mollie, who was very fond of Peace 
 Pelican, and interested in all her thoughts. 
 
 " My father sells whiskey."
 
 114 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " ' How many strawberries grow in the sea? ' 
 I answered him as I thought good 
 ' As many red herrings as grow in the wood.' " 
 
 WEEK or two after this, Peace Pelican, who was 
 visiting in Millville for the autumn, found her 
 way up to Mollie's room. I don't say " found 
 her way," because she was a stranger there. On the con 
 trary, her calls were so frequent, that Mrs. McCross was 
 accustomed to tell Mollie they might as well board her 
 at once. Mrs. McCross had all the dislike of a careful 
 parent to those of her daughter's friends that she did not 
 select Euphemia Hitchcock being a fair sample of her 
 choice. She said she wanted every bit of Mollie's heart 
 herself. Accordingly, Peace was scarcely seated when 
 she called from the foot of the stairs : 
 
 " Mary ! Mary ! it's time for our morning season of 
 prayer. Perhaps your friend will come down, too ; any 
 way, she can't expect you to give up your religious duties." 
 
 Mollie cast an ashamed and anxious glance at Peace, 
 whose black brows bore an ominous contraction. 
 
 " Go down, don't wait," quoth that lady, maliciously. 
 " Tell your mother I've done my stint this morning." 
 
 Mollie went patiently to the door, and then stood still 
 with her hand on the knob. 
 
 " What are you stopping there for ? Don't you know 
 
 " ' Satan trembles when he sees 
 
 The weakest saint upon his knees ? ' 
 
 He'll have an ague fit this morning. I won't join you 
 out of sheer pity. I dislike making my friends uncom 
 fortable, and two is enough to set at him ! Go ! I want to
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. H5 
 
 read Gil Bias." She settled herself deep into the easy- 
 chair, and elevated her magnificently arched foot to the 
 dignity of a worked ottoman. It was a lovely stool, a 
 slender, womanly hand, holding by their stems three 
 golden apples and a leaf or two adhering. But, though 
 Miss Pelican's eyes were bent on the booted member that 
 tapped an angry accompaniment to her thoughts, she saw 
 neither it nor its dainty rest. Presently her face cleai-ed 
 and she smiled. Peace had a wonderful smile : not sweet, 
 nor gentle, nor tender ; but affluent, and brilliant as ver 
 milion. I suppose it was an index of repentance, for when 
 Mollie came softly in a few minutes later, she exclaimed : 
 
 " If you don't forgive me I'll pay you the half peanut 
 I owe you, and we'll dissolve partnership." 
 
 " Then I'm afraid I must," said Mollie dryly, and she 
 too smiled, a womanly, gentle gleam, that gave an honest 
 radiance to her face. Mollie's laugh was the most re 
 liable thing about her. It only answered to pleasant or ten 
 der emotion. She could not summon it at her will at all. 
 
 " Goody girl ! Grin' for a huckleberry ? " dancing 
 something white before her. 
 
 " A letter ? " Mollie was not matter of fact now. She 
 fairly trembled with delight. Peace eyed her cynically, 
 and thought up cutting remarks. Peace was altogether 
 fancy-free, and prided herself on a brain fever and two 
 marriages of desperation, which her heartless charms had 
 brought about. " I should think you were reading num 
 ber one, instead of number twenty," said she, when the 
 eager, happy face above the paper had worn her patience 
 threadbare. " I believe Louis sonneted to you every 
 other night while I was in Top Town. I made a point of 
 looking over his shoulder on purpose to see him blush." 
 
 " You are mistaken," said Mollie, uneasily ; " this is 
 the first time he has written ; in fact, my only love let-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 ter." She folded the note as she spoke, and carefully 
 laid it away among her ribbons. 
 
 "Well, if ' my precious Mollie ' applies to any one else, 
 perhaps they were destined otherwise. I didn't read far 
 
 enough to see 
 
 Love-sick 
 Pickwick,' 
 
 at the bottom. They were probably penned for effect, 
 as mamma's morning's scribble declares that he is punctu 
 ality, helpfulness, good temper, and all the virtues done 
 up in a bundle." 
 
 Mrs. McCross, habited in a large straw flat, cut in on 
 this pleasant theme with the announcement that Cyrn- 
 balinus Brown and Francis Haythorne were both com 
 ing to tea, and she wished to persuade Miss Pelican to 
 remain also. She was not sorry for her late rudeness ; 
 but convenience was more important than consistency. 
 She therefore cooed the invitation to her " dear child," 
 and then, embracing Mollie in a gush of motherly ten 
 derness, exclaimed : " I feel that the Lord has given me 
 the leading of His Spirit in pointing out Adolphy Brown 
 to be the husband for you. He is a man that will be no 
 hindrance to your Christian course, and I desire you to 
 spai'kle up to him and get the most out of your oppor 
 tunity." 
 
 Peace, who really wished to make amends to Mollie, 
 and, moreover, had not forgotten her resolve to expound 
 the gander theory to the delinquent physician, assented 
 blandly to Mrs. McCross's plan, and instituted a mental 
 comparison of her hostess, in her present accoutrement, 
 to a pale toadstool, which was quite apt enough to con 
 sole her for the enforced amiability. 
 
 " Come and kiss me, sweet creature," said Mollie, 
 turning round from the mirror and a dish of magnesia
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. H7 
 
 and water. (She had been applying it to her face to 
 remove freckles, in obedience to her mother's parting 
 command.) 
 
 " No, thank you ; I don't touch whited sepulchres," 
 retorted her friend. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Mollie, laughing and plunging her dainty 
 head in the wash-bowl, emerging thence fresh as a flower. 
 She had abundant strength and will in those days, and 
 small maternal shafts couldn't find a flaw in her armor. 
 Besides, there was her talisman, her first and only love- 
 letter. Ah ! none but God, the divine love, can tell the 
 passing sweetness of that shyly worded, half-hinted, half- 
 implied, testimony of honest affection, to the woman 
 that cherishes its source as her best good. 
 
 " Let's go to sewing society, as a pi-eparatory work of 
 grace," said Peace, finishing aloud an internal reverie 
 about the impending tea-party. " I feel dreadfully snippy. 
 If I expend the impulse on pants and shirts, the nearest 
 circle of my friends may be the gainers." Whereupon 
 she shook her skirts vivaciously, and glanced in the 
 mirror* Peace couldn't help testing the propriety of an 
 emotion by its effect on her face, any more than she 
 could help breathing. But she never remembered to 
 assume the right expression away from her Urirn and 
 Thummim, so it was little consequence. 
 
 It had grown well into November, and the day was 
 chilly and sombre. Under foot lay damp heaps of 
 leafage, brown and shrivelled, and the overhanging clouds 
 closed near and gray upon the look-out. The shivering 
 passers-by showed cold pinched, and were mottled blue 
 and yellow. But Peace loved the faces of her kind as 
 yielding a delightful excitement, and viewed humanity 
 generally as affording arena for practice preparatory to 
 dazzling a more limited selection of bipeds. She, there-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 fore grew gradually into geniality and brilliance as the 
 walk proceeded, and entered the sewing society gathered 
 for victory. She beamed with majesty on her friends, 
 struck envy to the hearts of her enemies, and, demand 
 ing shears and cloth, began blocking out work in graceful 
 dignity of attitude, and accurate performance of her 
 task; for she was "capable," as well as elegant, and 
 prided herself thereon. 
 
 Mary McCross was provided instantly with work 
 something ill-made and thrown aside by the unskilful 
 seamstress, and settled unnoticed into a corner. Her 
 mother's training had not permitted her many friends; 
 the little handful of mission people, who had, like Peace, 
 unearthed her at Patience of Hope, being the extent. 
 Outwardly calm, she was much given to inward trem 
 bling in " society," and nobody remembered to look 
 her up. 
 
 Miss Petingil generalized conversation on their en 
 trance, by asking if they knew of the tableau Mrs. 
 Deacon Williams proposed adding to the Christmas 
 entertainment ; Mrs. Williams Mary Ann's mother ; 
 you remember her ? Mrs. Ramble's half-sister. Shortly 
 subsequent to this her husband died, and left property 
 to Sonsie Eagan. 
 
 " Yes, indeed," spoke up Susie Jenkens, " Mary Ann 
 is to stand for Flora, crowning Payson as little Samuel. 
 Her mother called on Mrs. Bradshaw, the other day, 
 when I was there, to ask for the flowers. Mr. Mckson 
 proposes to appear as Mercury or Delilah, I forget 
 which, in the background." 
 
 " Pooh ! " said Miss Petingil ; " I've got a wreath of 
 orange-blossoms I might ha' let her had real French ; 
 I wore 'em at Semanthy's wedding. They'd ha' done 
 just as well."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 119 
 
 The girls giggled, for Seinanthy had married the mis 
 sionary so long before, that her sister uniformly refused 
 to tell the date. 
 
 Then Zoe Walsinghaiu asked if they had given up 
 having the Proddy twins stand for Raphael's cherubs. 
 
 "I don't like cherubs," said Peace; " I wouldn't be ' a 
 little cherub here below,' for anything." 
 
 Miss Petingil craned up and sniffed, disgusted at the 
 speaker's youth and beauty. Peace had an eminently 
 antagonistic atmosphere about her, for all her charms 
 and bewitching little ways. " Wings on babies must be 
 dreadful ! " put in Mary McCross, coming to Peace's 
 rescue. "You couldn't hug them, or squeeze them, or 
 spank them, because their feathers would always be in 
 the way. Why, one wouldn't be able to enjoy them a 
 bit 1 " 
 
 " But they're not children; they're cherubs," objected 
 Susie, who was inclined to keep to the letter. 
 
 " They must be somebody's children," insisted Peace, 
 perverse as usual. " Don't tell me God is hard-hearted 
 enough to make them, and stunt their growth too, if He 
 didn't provide some compensation ; nothing short of 
 having a mother could induce me to be a baby ! I be 
 lieve all the infants that die and go to heaven are 
 cherubs." 
 
 " I hope so," said a pale woman, softly. " I don't ex 
 actly want God to let my children know so much they'll 
 despise me." 
 
 The girls looked down in silence. She had that 
 winter buried her last babe a bright-haired, bright-eyed 
 boy. That was why she worked so patiently in the 
 mission school. 
 
 "Niver fash yoursel' about that," spoke up Sonsie 
 Eagan. "I've heard my mother say that sometimes her
 
 120 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 dead little ones came back and slept in her arms, warm 
 and loving. And often o' summer nights she felt their 
 sweet breath on her cheek, as she sat lookin' toward the 
 stars and thinkin' of 'em. Perhaps they're seein' ye 
 now." 
 
 It was pitiful to watch the lady instinctively smooth 
 her collar, and dress her wan lips with the " mother 
 smile." 
 
 " Peace," said Mollie, withdrawing from the mourner 
 her eyes violet, and with a hungry craving in their 
 depths, " I'm not sure but heaven is a sorry exchange 
 for that woman's arms." Then, after a stab from con 
 science, she added, " But after all, God is the great type 
 of motherhood ; we can always find it in Him, in the 
 flesh or not." 
 
 Meanwhile old Mr. Pelican, who was in town for the 
 night, having first perused the modest columns of the 
 " Millville Universe," became so much interested in the 
 election, that he resolved to purchase the New York 
 " "World " for further information. He put on his coat, 
 buttoned it tight to his chin, fastened his gloves, elevated 
 his stove-pipe to its proper position, and then went down 
 stairs in his stockings, forgetful of the glaring deficiency 
 of his toilet. A decided numbness of toe made him 
 aware of the lack, and, still in oblivion temporibus 
 mundi, he hastened to draw on his boots over his pants, 
 and sail)'' forth again. As Charley had spent some time 
 that morning in ornamenting the fronts with two large 
 white paper death's heads, he presented a startling ap 
 pearance. Peace and Mollie met him strutting along in 
 all imaginable dignity, his portly person held carefully 
 erect, and his bedizened legs advancing with majestic 
 stride. His daughter struggled between vexation and 
 mirth, but felt the former predominate, as she caught
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 121 
 
 sight of Charley skulking the other side the street to 
 enjoy the scene. Miss Pelican held herself specially in 
 charge of her brother's ideal of propriety, and flew at 
 him, and set him down with judicious severity. " How 
 perfectly disgusting ! " exclaimed she, with superb scorn, 
 as she met him on the crosswalk ; " the trick is boorish." 
 
 Thereupon Mr. Pelican forgot his six feet of dignity, 
 to the extent of thrusting his tongue into his cheek, and 
 winking at her with his left eye, a proceeding far from 
 soothing to his sister's feelings, to judge from the extreme 
 hauteur with which she elevated her handsome nose, 
 and sailed away. 
 
 But Mrs. McCross' tea drew on apace. 
 
 Francis Haythorne, first arrived, was immediately ab 
 sorbed by Peace's inevitable love of coquetry, and 
 carried off to the garden to pick bouquets, and be twitted 
 with laziness, and spitted on eyebeams, till he was too 
 dizzy with her spells to know black from white. This 
 was all the greater fun, because Miss Pelican was perfect 
 ly well aware that Mollie was his feminine ideal, and 
 believed his worship at her shrine too constant to be 
 broken up by radiant smiles and dazzling looks. Her 
 line of tactics left the field free to Cabby, who arrived in 
 lavender tie, and tea-rose button-hole bouquet, the pink of 
 sartorial art. Mollie, chafing at the necessity of enduring 
 his pi-esence, received him coldly. But he was intent on 
 business. A gentle squeeze of her passive hand, accom 
 panied by a killing glance from his small, shallow eyes, 
 acquainted her with the fact instantly. But this young 
 lady had a way of congealing or to all appearance addling 
 her brains till she looked like a mantis playing 'possum. 
 She immediately took refuge in this state of mental syn 
 cope, stared vaguely, and murmured something unintelli 
 gible about the weather. 
 6
 
 122 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Mr. Brown was not surprised at her evident flurry, 
 hung his hat on the rack with a neat and appropriate 
 flourish, and on entering the parlor took up the guitar, 
 and struck chords with a sentimental air. 
 
 " Do sing," said Mollie, stolidly, from an uncomfortable 
 chair in the corner. 
 
 " Oh ! I can't," responded he, using his lovely infantile 
 drawl. " My name it is Josephus Orange Blossom I 
 can't sing." 
 
 " So sorry," remarked Mollie, without changing a 
 feature. 
 
 Mr. Brown was not embarrassed, but, as she began 
 making edging with no further attempt at conversation, 
 he lay down at full length on the sofa, and piped in 
 affected falsetto, with marked emphasis: 
 
 " 'Oh, no, dear George ! not just yet awhile 
 Mother says I mustn't mother says I mustn't mother says I 
 mustn't , 
 
 ' But father says you can.' " 
 
 Here he smiled enchantingly, and played chords to give 
 Mollie time to take in the beauty of the idea. 
 
 "Oh!" said Mollie, assuming an expression vacant 
 enough to be imbecile in any one else. " What a relief to 
 find that one woman possessed of a little common sense ! " 
 
 Her suitor vouchsafed her a gentle and patronizingly in 
 quiring stare, and continued to extract a buzzing effect 
 from his instrument. 
 
 Now as Mollie was inwardly enraged at his sacrilegious 
 handling of Louis' dear music pet, she revenged herself 
 by despising his slender little legs, so sweetly laid out, 
 crossed, to contemplation, and became more stiffly erect, 
 and emotionless in face, every moment. The entrance of 
 Peace, beautifully decorated with vines and china asters
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 123 
 
 by the attendant doctor, suggested a diversion, and the four 
 sat down to euchre. The glowing faces of the new-comers, 
 fresh from the keen autumn wind, enlivened our discom 
 fited wooer, and he secreted a full set of face cards in 
 his vest pocket, with view to aiding good-fortune. Mollie, 
 who cared nothing for games of chance, but abhorred 
 cheating, and always played her best as matter of con 
 science, detected her partner's little plan, and writhed 
 inwardly. 
 
 The game was stupid, in conseqi7ence of much coquet 
 ting on Peace's side, and bad play on Mr. Brown's. Mr. 
 Haythorne who was a scientific and devoted euchre 
 man frowned ; and Mary, who could get no leads an- 
 swered, and was assisted repeatedly on left bowers 
 unguarded, felt insupportably ennuied. 
 
 " What a spirited game you venture ! " said Peace, with 
 a mendaciously approving smile, and a view to ameliorat 
 ing the situation. Then, as no one remembered whose 
 turn it was, she put down a heart on Mr. Haythorne's 
 left bower of next suit, and was not detected in the 
 mistake. 
 
 " I ought to," responded he, much flattered. " I was 
 taught my system by a blackleg." 
 
 Mr. Haythorne felt too much disgusted not to be obtuse 
 to the malicious twinkle in Miss Pelican's beautiful eyes ; 
 and Mary, who had a habit of punching a hair-pin in and 
 out her coiled shining braids, when in a brown study, 
 forgot what she was doing, yielded to the custom, and 
 finally dropped the implement on the carpet. Cabby 
 immediately picked it up, and sticking it in his mus 
 tache, observed the effect in the opposite glass, holding 
 his head on one side, and assuming several varieties of 
 smile. 
 
 " Ah ! " said he, ogling himself all the while, " Diamonds
 
 124 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 trump? Allow me, joker. This picture looks exactly 
 like tlie pulpit last Sunday, with the two ministers on 
 each side supporting the colored brother." 
 
 " I don't see how you can do that," cried his partner, 
 suddenly vitalized. " You've played once before, and I 
 hold the card you've put down, in my own hand. The 
 trick is Mr. Haythorne's. That euchres us, arid gives 
 them the rub." Mollie was indignant for two reasons. 
 In the first place, she was beaten by his slovenly playing ; 
 and in the second, considered the company insulted by the 
 attempted fraud. She rose directly, but Mr. Brown lifted 
 his artificially prolonged eyebrows, and remained wrapped 
 in affectionate study of the effect of the black hair-pin 
 on his lily-white complexion. " Oh, you play a strict 
 game ? " said he. " Quite correct." He increased his 
 angle of neck-crook as he spoke, and slightly varied the 
 position of the ornament, with another smile of self-ap 
 proval. 
 
 Mrs. McCross now entered, followed by her husband. 
 
 " Why don't he get a kernel of corn, and call the hairs 
 together ? " said Peace, aside, after a survey of the suit 
 or's scraggy blond ornament. 
 
 " That one on his little toe he e acquired from wearing 
 expensive patent-leathers,' perhaps," suggested Mollie. 
 
 The " entre-nous " style of conversation obtained 
 through the room. Mr. Haythorne was monopolized by 
 Deacon McCross, who was bent on obtaining useful infor 
 mation. 
 
 " You say you've been in Africy ? " said the old gen 
 tleman, eagerly. 
 
 His guest assented. 
 
 " When Dr. Bang, the missionary, travelled in those 
 parts, he said he discovered some people without much 
 of any clothes on, an' they came at him, an' ' were going
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 125 
 
 to eat him up.' 'Spose you didn't see nothiu' of that 
 sort ? " 
 
 Mollie, who loved her father too dearly to mind his 
 peculiarities, listened in some amusement for Mr. Hay- 
 thorne's answer ; but Mrs. McCross exclaimed immedi 
 ately, " Elizur, will you have the goodness to hold your 
 tongue ? " which broke up the colloquy. The old man 
 said he guessed he'd go out in the garden, and scald a 
 few ants and uncles, and wandered mildly off, leaving 
 his wife to conduct the conversation. 
 
 " Did you attend the ' Read and Sew ' at Mr. Grow 
 ing's ? " said the young man, snatching the first topic 
 likely to interest. 
 
 " No," replied the Deacon's wife, in a disparaging tone ; 
 " in my opinion, Mr. Growing and his idol of a play- 
 writer are alike. I consider it out of character to read 
 such things at a church society. When the youth of the 
 congregation are dead in trespasses and sins, Baxter's 
 * Call,' or Doddridge's ' Wives and Progress,' would be so 
 much more profitable." 
 
 (Her auditor smiled with complaisance, mistakenly 
 supposing it to be a joke.) 
 
 " The author and reader are nothing but a couple of 
 whining sentimentalists, to my mind." This was winged 
 for her daughter's ear. Mollie loved her earnest young 
 pastor for the help he gave his people, and was often at 
 his house. 
 
 " I always supposed Shakespeare a great writer," said 
 Peace abruptly, forsaking her friend to egg on the critic. 
 
 " Nonsense ! " answered the lady, in a decided tone. 
 " Why haven't people discovered it, then ? He might 
 have found material well worth study in Chesterfield, 
 who was a truly great thinker." 
 
 " Come over here, Mr. Haythorne," said Peace, from
 
 126 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 the tete-a-tete sofa, where she sat with Mollie. " Mr. 
 Brown is dying to have Mrs. McCross show him the Pere 
 Hyacinth geranium in the library ; he wants a slip." 
 
 " ' There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip,' " said Mol 
 lie ; "she won't cut it. But Peace has a conundrum for 
 you." 
 
 " I give it up, & priori," said the doctor, sitting down 
 with the air of a man who expects to be amused without 
 any trouble or energy on his own part. 
 
 " Pooh ! " retorted Peace. " Guess who Mr. Brown 
 has been warning us against as dangerous ? " 
 
 " Himself, perhaps," Mr. Haythorne suggested, with 
 the contempt a tall man feels for a little one. 
 
 " No ! in spite of the blackleg companion, he assures 
 us he is wild no longer, by which he proposes to increase 
 our respect on considering the possibility. It's you, dear 
 cherub ! He says you are a tough knot ; you belonged 
 to a Kneipe in Germany, and sent your friends to knip- 
 tions in consequence." 
 
 It is impossible to convey the intensity of Miss Peli 
 can's delight at this bit of gossip, and Mr. Haythorne 
 was as tickled as a correct young bachelor conscious of 
 power and irreproachable bringing-up would ordinarily 
 be. Mollie, who thought it unfair to join in the laugh 
 against her own guest, interrupted : " I have a conun 
 drum too ; it's my turn. We've been talking about L'Af- 
 ricaine. "Was she weak or strong ? " 
 
 " Do you think I am going to take sides? " replied he, 
 smiling, and caressing his curling beard. " By no means. 
 You can argue the case and I'll decide." 
 
 "'I'll be judge and I'll be jury, said cunning old 
 Fury,' " quoted Peace. " Never mind ! I say she was 
 weak,-and a fool to love him." The dash of defiance with
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 127 
 
 which she delivered her opinion was equally pretty and 
 piquante. 
 
 " Strong," asseverated Mollie. " But she was wrong 
 to die." 
 
 " Weak," persisted Peace ; " weak as water. ' Malgr6 
 moi, je regrette & peine aupres de toi mon doux pays; et 
 mon palais au souveraigne ; et rnes dieux dans mon cceur 
 trahis.' Isn't that fairly contemptible folly? And all 
 for the most callous-hearted, egotistical wretch ever put 
 into an opera." 
 
 The self-constituted umpire writhed under her some 
 what personal glance. " I pity him," he remarked 
 sweetly. " Between two women he must have been be 
 side his wits." 
 
 " No doubt of that," cried Peace, twisting the meaning. 
 
 " She was strong," said Mollie. " She knew how to 
 suffer. Love is capacity for bearing sorrow for our 
 friend. Her pain was nearly infinite ; therefore she 
 could not have been weak." 
 
 " I think so," agreed Francis Haythorne. " It is 
 true I can't understand such love, but I believe every 
 true wife feels it." 
 
 " And husband too," put in Peace. 
 
 He was silent. 
 
 " You disagree ? " Mollie lifted her eyes thoughtfully 
 to his face. 
 
 He laughed behind his beard, with the quiet self-reser 
 vation men cultivate in conversing with women and their 
 other inferiors. " You remember Hood's dictum," was 
 his suggestion, after tantalizing them with silence. 
 
 " Go on," quoth Peace. " Let him say his little verse, 
 Mollie." 
 
 He bestowed a glance of oddly mixed annoyance and 
 admiration on the unquenchable, and repeated :
 
 128 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " ' Our love it ne'er was reckoned, 
 
 Yet good it is, and true ; 
 It's half the world to me, sweet, 
 It's all the world to you." 
 
 Peace grew angry under the cool gaze he fixed on her. 
 " Is that your idea of a wife ? " said she, hotly. 
 
 " Yes ! I want a woman whose heart will be mine all 
 day long at home, while I'm away, and certainly mine 
 when I come back to rest in her constant tenderness, 
 tired of the outside world." 
 
 " In fact," retorted she, " Mr. Haythorne's model 
 Griselda is a t she ministered unto him.' I'll never be 
 that for any man." 
 
 Whereat he smiled again, exasperatingly. 
 
 " Peace," said Mollie, her gravity unmoved from the 
 earnest hold she had of the question, "you've never 
 been in love." 
 
 " Yes, I have, scores of times, with ideals. Do you 
 know," remarked she, with engaging candor, " I always 
 hate a man I've been half in love with ? I took quite a 
 fancy to you the first time I ever saw you." 
 
 Poor Mr. Brown's wooing sped very ill that afternoon. 
 Mrs. McCross brought him back, a sprig of the gallant 
 reformer's namesake in his be-ringed fingers, and gave him 
 a seat beside Mollie, with too ominous an expression of 
 face to be ignored by her daughter. His twaddle, always 
 annoying to a girl whose intensity was carried into every 
 detail of life, became absolutely painful under the cir 
 cumstances. Cabby, however, interpreted her silence as 
 bashful modesty, and was fired with ardor in pursuit of 
 the gilded prize. But what Mollie's refusal to be com 
 plaisant could not do for her, accident effectually accom 
 plished. 
 
 Deacon McCross had stolen in, and now sat beside
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 129 
 
 Mollie's corner of the tete-a-tete, with his hand content 
 edly clasping his daughter's. He was fond of resting 
 thus, and sunning himself in the pleasure she was able to 
 give her friends. He was at his proudest then. 
 
 Mr. Brown, who was not equal to the discussion of 
 L'Africaine, felt it necessary to lend a hand. His forte 
 was something he denominated a " widdle," and inven 
 tion came to his aid. 
 
 He winked at Mollie, and next winked at her father 
 to point the joke, then propounded it : " Why is an old 
 man's head like the sky ? Because there is a little bear 
 there." 
 
 Deacon McCross, who was sensitive about his age, 
 grew red. He satisfied himself that Miranda was absent, 
 and remarked severely : " Young sir, remember Elijah, 
 and say no more about bears. I am no longer youthful, 
 but I respected years when I was." 
 
 " I think it is a blessing to grow old," cried Mollie ; 
 " that is, I think wrinkles are a blessing." 
 
 Peace elevated her eyebrows, and Mr. Haythorne ex 
 claimed, " How so ? " from the opposite side of the room. 
 
 "Because," said she, slowly, as if spelling out the 
 thought, (t they are remembrances of the covenant, ' I 
 will be with thee even to gray hairs.' They seem to me a 
 sort of hieroglyphics that contain the story of a man's life." 
 
 " That's no blessing," said Mr. McCross, imeasily. 
 
 " I think it is," answered Mollie. " Isn't such a 
 record Heaven's memorandum of what the new man shall 
 be ? Every touch by which the sculptor corrugates the 
 marble is a preparation for the statue, every peg driven 
 in the cast, the measure of chiselled perfection. Old age 
 is the witness God gives of oxir future. Bless God for 
 wrinkles, say I, and let us rise up, every one, before the 
 hoary head." 
 
 6*
 
 130 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Her auditors gazed at her in astonishment, and drew a 
 sigh of relief when she paused ; as one sighs after the 
 fourth scene of the fifth act of a tragedy- something in 
 joy at what is passed something in fear of what is yet 
 to come. 
 
 Molly hadn't meant to crush Cabby with this burst of 
 eloquence. She was still awake with the pleasure of the 
 late discussion, and brought her graceful thought to defend 
 her father's position from mere impulse. But she had 
 proved herself original and earnest ; and the little dandy 
 was afraid of both qualities. He shuddered to see her 
 bright eager eye, and lips parted with her quickened 
 breathing. " No, she should never be Mrs. Brown ; 
 never ! " He snatched the hair-pin from the blond fringe, 
 and tossed it and Mollie's opportunity in the fire. And 
 she never was. 
 
 It is as odd as true, that for wife or love, men are 
 more afraid of a woman of talent and culture than of a 
 shrew, a fool, or a flirt. 
 
 Both my heroines were childish enough to keep extract 
 books. 1 subjoin the selections they made that night. 
 Peace wrote : 
 
 " No drede hem not, do hem no reverence ; 
 For though thin husband armed be in mail, 
 The arowes of thy crabbed eloquence 
 Shall perce his brest and eke his aventaille. 
 
 Be ay of chere as light as lef e on linde, 
 
 And let him care and wepe and wringe and waille. " 
 
 Mollie wrote : 
 
 Though weary, love is not tired ; though pressed, it is 
 not straitened. 
 
 Love is active, sincere, affectionate, pleasant and arnia-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 131 
 
 ble, courageous, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, 
 manly, and never seeketh itself. 
 
 For in whatever instance a person seeketh himself, 
 there he falleth from love. 
 
 Without sorrow, none liveth in love. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 High diddle diddle, the cat got the fiddle, 
 The cow jumped over the moon ; 
 The little dog laughed to see the sport, 
 And the plate ran away with the spoon." 
 
 i]OW we deem that a true history should above all 
 things give the " Every-day days," for these are 
 both prophecy and comment on the future acts. 
 This then is an " Every-day day." 
 
 It was several months aftef the events last recorded, 
 that Mr. Haythorne walked into Fir Covert just in time 
 for dinner. Since Cabby's rebuff, Mrs. McCross had fixed 
 upon him as the desirable suitor, and spared no pains to 
 domesticate him. Mollie was not charged with great 
 burden of his entertainment when Peace was at hand, 
 and neither helped nor hindered her mother's manoeuvres, 
 finding her great excitement in Patience of Hope, to which 
 she regarded him as a useful adjunct. She knew now 
 that her unmarried life was to be the scene of such mines 
 and countermines, and said to herself, that, as his im 
 penetrable egotism would doubtless keep him heart-whole, 
 he was a nice lay figure, in room of a more vitalized 
 element of the studio ; in short, harmless. No man, 
 ascetic or ease-loving, is averse to having a well-appointed
 
 132 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 house open to him at all times, and, when a fresh, sweet 
 maiden shelters there, the charm is complete. In this 
 case there were two maidens, for Peace continued her stay 
 at the Jenkens', and, to Mrs. McCross' manifest disgust, 
 spent half- her time with Mollie. 
 
 Francis Haythorne was a citoyen du monde. He had 
 travelled much and at leisure, been at Heidelburg Uni 
 versity, studied music in Leipsic and composition at 
 Vienna, drank beer in Bavaria, and tried opium at 
 Constantinople this last unsuccessfully. 
 
 He had done a little sledging in Russia, but, finding it 
 uncomfortable, spent the allotted time at Rome. He 
 never cared to climb the Alps, but vastly enjoyed the Amer 
 ican-like society at Interlachen. With little exertion, and 
 in the most gentlemanly way possible, he had contrived 
 to become acquainted with all kinds of men without 
 attaching himself to any, and at twenty-eight stood alone 
 in the world, with, as he flattered himself, neither duties 
 nor obligations. 
 
 To such a man it was a rare pleasure to discover in the 
 friends two people at once cultured and earnest. He 
 had drifted into Millville, and met them both at a sew 
 ing society, where his art was called in aid at a fainting 
 fit Belle Brandon got up to show the perfection of her 
 features in repose. The acquaintance had ripened fast. 
 Molly, absorbed as to love in Louis, saw all mankind in 
 a halo in those days ; and, debarred by her parents' pe 
 culiarities from association with friends of her own age, 
 except under protest, found his refinement, delicate breed 
 ing, and high scholarship a source of constant enjoyment ; 
 while his mind, no better than hers, but trained in argu 
 ment and stored with German thought, proved a form of 
 high mental stimulus. She learned how to arrange the 
 factors of a conclusion, and analyze a formula of reasoning,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 133 
 
 with precision new and delightful. He drew her out for 
 the pleasure of watching her rapidly evolved and unhack 
 neyed thought ; and she relished his visits because he 
 helped her to understand herself. 
 
 Thus agi'eeably situated, with Peace to point the argu 
 ments and be snippy in the pauses, he carelessly permitted 
 Mrs. McCross' transparent management ; taught in the 
 Sunday-school (pure morality, nothing more, as he care 
 fully explained) ; read history with perseverance ; cut his 
 bell-rope so patients shouldn't call him up at night ; in 
 short, wasted his time to the entire satisfaction of all 
 parties. 
 
 This morning the dilettante found Fir Covert parlor 
 empty. Voices up-stairs, in the thirds and semi-tones of 
 animated but pleasant discussion, informed him of the 
 whereabouts of the mates, and a talkative parrot, hung 
 above the plants in the window, called out " Good-morn 
 ing." " Pretty cold," said she, conversationally. Then, 
 holding up a claw, " Poppy want to come." Concluding 
 Mr. Haythorue resolved to negative the proposition, 
 she asked why the men didn't propose, with extreme 
 interest ; said something about dear, dear somebody 
 several times, and kissed vociferously. The visitor still 
 continuing self-absorbed, she emptied her seed cup on his 
 head out of revenge, and remarked that her father was a 
 drunkard and her mother dead, in hilarious accents. 
 
 Mr. Haytliorne was not the man to forgive in a parrot 
 things objectionable in humanity ; he annihilated her with 
 a glare, which led her to make a dab at him so energetic 
 that she got her head out of the cage, and had hard work 
 to pull it in again, and so lost her temper as to make pie 
 of her furniture the minute she succeeded. 
 
 But the object of her ire had taken refuge by the piano. 
 There lay " Songs without Words," a few bits of Schu-
 
 134 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 maim, a fair sprinkling of Beethoven, and on top a copy of 
 Overture to the Midsummer Night's Dream, and the Der 
 Freyschiitz. He whistled the latter smilingly to himself, 
 till the young ladies entered. 
 
 " Who plays this ? " asked he, keeping fast hold of his 
 treasure while he made his greetings, and losing no time 
 in spreading it carefully on the rack, his face expanded 
 in anticipation of a treat. 
 
 " Unless you can render it, no one," said Mollie. 
 " That is Mr. Allwood's music. A very simple air, with 
 out runs or trills, is the utmost extent of my ability." 
 
 " And yours also, Miss Pelican ? " looking disap 
 pointed. 
 
 " 1 have a reasonably good ear for melody ; let us have 
 the tongs and the bones. I can bring in Bully Bottom's 
 bray," retorted that damsel. " But as Sybarites like you 
 detest such minstrelsy, you'd better put the piece away, 
 unless you choose to read the verses you've hidden in the 
 leaves." She picked up a folded bit of paper as she spoke. 
 
 Vexed at the imputation of scribbling, he caught it 
 from the little hand mischievously dancing it before him, 
 and crimsoned with annoyance to find its contents really 
 in rhyme. 
 
 " Go on, Mr. Sybby dear," said his tormentor. " You 
 ought to have written it on a doubled rose-leaf. Re 
 member next time." 
 
 "The verses are not mine, as you can see by the Greek 
 initials in monogram at the bottom. I could neither 
 draw the one nor write the other. You must ask Miss 
 Mottle's permission to have them read." 
 
 " You are welcome to the perusal," said Mollie quietly. 
 " Mr. Allwood scribbled them one Sunday, to console me 
 because my boys all went off to play, and I had no 
 class."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 135 
 
 Now if a man hates anything, it is to render another 
 man's poetry ; but Peace would insist, her maliciously 
 beautiful smile daring the poor victim to his task. Being 
 both a fine elocutionist and a gentleman, he accordingly 
 gave the simple lines with grace and taste, which momen 
 tarily disarmed the gad-fly, and made Mollie's heart swell 
 with memories of her absent lover. 
 
 " On the shelf in an oaken cupboard high, 
 
 Lie six little balls of brown, 
 And every day a maid trips by, 
 And watches very anxiously 
 
 Those dainty nests of silken down 
 
 " Six pairs of wings flit to and fro 
 
 In the depths of that cupboard old 
 Six pairs of wings that quickly grow; 
 And their giddy owners long to go 
 Out into the wide, wide world. 
 
 " The door is open. Why should they stay ? 
 
 No eyes their doings view. 
 Off they dart in merry play 
 Off to the fields and the flowerets gay. 
 And wouldn't you do so too ? 
 
 " As for the maid they left alone, 
 
 She mourned them long, and she wept them sore. 
 But the faithless butterflies didn't return ; 
 They flew too gay o'er the grass and fern ; 
 
 And she ought to have shut the door." 
 
 "There!" said Peace teasingly. "Don't you wish 
 yoti could write poetry like that ? " 
 
 " No," said Francis Haythorne, " I don't think, and I 
 know Miss Mollie agrees with me, that this is poetry." 
 
 Mrs. McCross hud once heard him say lie loved to see
 
 136 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 woman about her feminine occupations, and henceforth 
 made Mollie darn the whole family hosiery in his pres 
 ence. The seamstress looked up now from an immense 
 web she was stretching across a heel to answer : " You 
 are right ; but I think also that the language scarcely 
 counts ten true poets. The rest are only poetasters." 
 
 " What becomes of the long row of worthies on your 
 shelf? " asked Peace ; " Holland, Owen Meredith, Long 
 fellow, Campbell, and the rest ? " 
 
 " I don't mean that there are not many charming 
 writers, and that the world isn't better for possessing 
 them. Their work is sweet, tender, and often inspiring. 
 But I only call that poetry, which would have found ex 
 pression from its own imperious nature, if nothing poeti 
 cal had ever been written ; which moulds its own form, 
 and is instinct with thought, power, passion, and even 
 revelation ; which carries its hearer out of himself, and 
 for a moment makes him live unconscious I had almost 
 said independent of his own existence." 
 
 " Such as this," cut in Peace, in aggravating sing-song : 
 
 'I'll slip an' slide dein golden streets, 
 Silver slippers on my f eets. ' 
 
 Or this: 
 
 " ' Lord called Daniel ; Daniel forgot to hear him. 
 Lord called Daniel ; Daniel said, ' Here I be, Lord.' 
 
 They're not spurious imitations. I heard them at negro 
 camp-meeting myself." 
 
 " Miss Mollie," said Francis Haythorne, frowning at 
 the impertinent interference, "you should read one of 
 my German authors. He claims that all poetry first seeks 
 to find expression in muscular action, and metre is the 
 softened form into which it resolves itself."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 137 
 
 " Mrs. McCross, isn't dinner ready ? Out of the 
 depths have I cried unto thee." 
 
 " That's wicked," said the madarne, shortly. " I came 
 to call you." 
 
 " If you'd waited any longer, then you might have 
 quoted Punch's epitaph on a candle : ' A wicked one lies 
 buried here.' Such avalanches of learning! " 
 
 Francis Haythorno caressed his curling auburn beard 
 with lazy grace. The act, which showed well his soft, 
 beautiful hand, always exasperated Peace. 
 
 She walked across the room. Peace was especially 
 handsome in motion, arid began a conversation with Dea 
 con McCross, who was aimlessly turning over sonatas at 
 the piano, in his usual attitude of spectator at his own 
 house. 
 
 " Are you musical ? " said she. 
 
 " Not enough to lie under the fence to hear the slivers 
 rattle," he returned, pleased with her notice ; " but you, 
 my dear, look as if you might make music." 
 
 " So she does ; like Euphemia Hitchcock, by the 
 pound," interrupted his wife, overhearing. Mrs. Mc 
 Cross stood in awe of her tall and energetic guest, but 
 hate sometimes got the upper hand. 
 
 " Nineteen, twenty, my stomach's empty. Please, 
 mammy, give me some dinner ? " quoted Miss Pelican, 
 saucily. 
 
 " Where did you buy your dress," asked her hostess 
 in confidence, on the way to the dining-room. 
 
 " Mamma and I picked it out at Star bird & Pedlow's. 
 Isn't it pretty ? " 
 
 " Yes rather," hesitated Mrs. McCross. " I thought, 
 on account of the size of the figures, I'd get some for a 
 bed-quilt." 
 
 Deacon McCross sat down at table, and handed Peace
 
 138 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 to her chair as he did so, which gave his wife opportunity 
 to exclaim : " It would, perhaps, be as well to stand 
 while Mr. Haythorne says grace." 
 
 " You didn't pray long," remarked Peace, with a 
 wicked sparkle in her eye, after he had yielded a doubt 
 ful and hesitating compliance. 
 
 " No ; brevity is the soul of wit." 
 
 Now Mrs. McCross fancied her guest unregenerate, 
 and desired his conversion. " I noticed you read from 
 Chronicles, the other day at prayers," began she, seeking 
 opportunity to scatter good seed in his sceptical mind ; 
 " do you like them especially ? " 
 
 " I chose what promised to be least offensive," he re 
 turned, following his constant habit of playing upon the 
 peculiarities of all, and silently enjoying the develop 
 ments that chanced to ensue. 
 
 " Then you don't believe in the Bible," seizing her 
 chance, with alacrity. 
 
 " The Old Testament is as reliable as any collection of 
 fables. Reason teaches the absurdity of most of its 
 miraculous machinery." He sipped his coffee with the 
 provoking ease of the incredulous amid a circle of be 
 lievers. 
 
 " He that is in the way of life, keepeth instruction," 
 replied his would-be opponent, as she poured herself a 
 cup of tea, and smiled, conscious of hitting him hard. 
 "When men throw away the Bible, it's because they 
 want liberty to do wrong. Shall a man know more than 
 God?" 
 
 " Instruction is the application to the mind of metrial 
 stinmlus, thereby inciting it to labors whose end is wis 
 dom. I have not always found this in the Bible, though 
 some do. Goethe, you know, says, ' Every man must 
 think after his own fashion ; for in that fashion he al-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 139 
 
 ways finds a truth, or sort of a truth, to help him in liv- 
 ing."' 
 
 " No matter if his boasted reasoning makes him an 
 infidel atheist," said Mrs. McCross sarcastically. 
 
 " Atheists have the same right to their own methods 
 of thought as Christians. But I am as much a deist as 
 yourself." 
 
 " Deist ! I'm nothing of the kind ; I have no taste for 
 heathendom," cried the defender of the faith in genuine 
 horror. 
 
 "Better think wrong honestly, than not think at all," 
 put in Mollie. 
 
 ;< Nonsense," repudiated Mrs. McCross, and annihilated 
 her with a glance. " You don't know what you're talk 
 ing about." 
 
 " Do you eat olives, Mr. Haythorne ? " said the 
 Deacon, feebly attempting to arrest the tide. " Does he, 
 Miss Peace ? " 
 
 " Yes, he was weaned on them," responded she, 
 promptly. 
 
 "I think Miss Mollie quite right," the young man 
 continued, unconscious of the addition to his fore. " To 
 quote Goethe again : ' Piety is but a means of reaching 
 the highest culture through the purest repose of mind. 
 The inactive, ignorant superstition, which often passes for 
 piety, is worse than striving, earnest scepticism." 
 
 " Solomon," quoth the madam, waiving the ipse dijtit 
 with just contempt, " says the wise man dies like the fool." 
 
 " That was when he had dyspepsia," remarked Peace. 
 
 " He says a fool is wise in his own eyes," their hostess 
 retorted, wheeling round. " He advises us, instead of 
 leaning to our own understanding, to take fast hold of 
 instruction, and what is the beginning and end of wisdom 
 but the Bible ? "
 
 140 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 11 What Solomon got his from," said Peace. " The 
 cedar of Lebanon, and the hyssop that springeth out of 
 the wall." 
 
 " He who is satisfied with pure experience," went on 
 Mr. Haythorne, seeing Mollie interested, and disregard 
 ing this side issue, has truth enough. And Goethe 
 adds to the thought: " ' In this sense the growing child 
 is wise ; ' misunderstood dogmas are the scourges of hon 
 est piety." 
 
 " If children are wiser than grown people, I'll give 
 up," said Mrs. McCross, disgusted. " Let's put away the 
 rod, and kick out our schools." 
 
 " Schools are useful to furnish the mind with correct 
 data, and also to train the constructive faculty ; but their 
 learning is not always wisdom : a one-ideaed child is often 
 more clear in thought than a fact-burdened savant. It 
 was Solomon's reasoning power, not his collection of in 
 formation, that made him great." 
 
 " If you don't believe in schools nor religion, you 
 might as well be a a Manichee," said Mrs. McCross, 
 snatching at the first big word. " You'd better set up a 
 fetich house at once." 
 
 Peace suddenly beheld a mongrel vision of elegant Mr. 
 Haythorne equipped in a Congo garment of gnus' tails, 
 doing a bit of fetich worship, and gave a convulsive 
 giggle, which was scarcely quenched by Mrs. McCross, 
 who exclaimed : 
 
 " As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the 
 laughter of fools." 
 
 Mr. Haythorne's fastidious face wore, hereupon, an 
 expression of polite astonishment, and Mollie was 
 ashamed of the turn the argument had taken. He 
 noticed it, and endeavored to right matters by saying 
 quietly :
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 141 
 
 " You mistake me, madam ; I uphold both schools and 
 religion ; but they should be animated by thought not 
 cramming and superstition." 
 
 " Popular thought," said Mrs. McCross in triumph, 
 " is unnecessary. It requires no reason to do one's work, 
 to wash dishes for instance. The less time people idle 
 away in dreams, the better for them. The whole duty of 
 man is to fear God, and keep His commandments." 
 
 A long pause ensued, broken by Mollie, who observed 
 modestly : " I have been thinking of late, that education 
 was best gained from experiences. I have met a few 
 men whose stock of facts is limited, but who can reason 
 on abstract questions with much clearness. For this 
 reason, having acquired learning enough to observe intel 
 ligently, the English gentlemen go from home to put 
 themselves in new conditions of life ; to discover, by the 
 working of their own minds in unaccustomed situations, 
 the feelings and wisdom of those who habitually dwell 
 therein, and by wise reduction of these thoughts, to 
 learn the meaning of existence. It is inability to put 
 themselves in other people's places, that makes men 
 narrow-minded, though by simple following of God they 
 may have become very good. Hence books, even novels, 
 are a great blessing. They enable us, who are chained to 
 one spot, to know the experiences of all classes, and learn, 
 though less vividly, what others get from travel, and 
 varied habits of life." 
 
 Mollie stopped, her eyes bright with excitement, and 
 her whole soul shining out of them upon Mr. Haythorne, 
 who looked at her admiringly, and was about to answer 
 in kind, when Mrs. McCross exclaimed with energetic 
 displeasure : " Novels ! I was piously brought up, and 
 taught to read my Bible, instead of wasting the precious 
 moments upon paltry romances, and hy fall uten trash. It
 
 142 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 is my belief that novels breed atheists. What saith 
 Solomon : ' Of making many books there is no end.' " 
 
 " I do not wish to throw down the authority of the 
 Bible," remarked Mr. Haythorne to the Deacon, who was 
 listening rather blankly. "What I look at, is the 
 enormous mass of folly people feel obliged to take in with 
 its gold." 
 
 " Ye-es," the old gentleman made answer ; " young man, 
 ain't you rather bio win' yourself up with the wind of them 
 big idees ? " 
 
 " Not a bit," interposed Peace. " The cold goose has 
 gone to his head ! " 
 
 " Your own Goethe says, wisdom consists only in 
 truth," said Mollie. " The Bible appears to me a faith 
 ful account of the wants and errors of mankind, with 
 the means of cure. In this light it is always infallible, 
 whether the traditions be correct or not. ' For this rea 
 son,' writes he, ' the Bible is an eternally effective book, 
 and for all time no one can come up and say, " I compre 
 hend it as a whole. I understand it in details ; " ' but we 
 say modestly, ' We reverence it as a whole ; we apply it 
 in particular.' " 
 
 " Do you understand German, Miss Mollie ? " 
 
 " No, sir," she replied, blushing. " I speak no lan 
 guage except my own ; but Louis, I mean Mr. Allwood, 
 used to be fond of Goethe, and would often translate 
 him to me." 
 
 " May I ask who this Mr. Allwood is ? " said Francis 
 Haythorne ; " after reading his poetry, and seeing his 
 music, my interest is excited." 
 
 " A young chap that used to clerk it for me," answered 
 the Deacon, stiffly. 
 
 " And do chores on the place," chimed in his wife. 
 
 Peace flamed up. " He is my friend, and one of the
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 143 
 
 nicest people I know. You should hear him play. His 
 tones are all pearls." 
 
 "No such thing. He's shiftless, and an atheist" 
 (" deist," corrected Mollie, with flickering color, but voice 
 steadied by intensity of anger), " and poor as Job's turkey 
 besides," went on her mother ; " I have no respect for 
 him, nor confidence in him. I would speak good of him 
 if I could, since he grew up in Christian influences ; yes, 
 under my very eye." 
 
 " That last is what the donkey said of the cabbages he 
 could just see over the wall of the next garden," said 
 Peace, in a loud aside. 
 
 " I call it ill-bred to gabble before my elders," retorted 
 Mrs. McCross, aware of the sting. 
 
 " You'll have to sharpen your chopping knife, if yoti're 
 coming at me," returned Peace, nothing daunted. " I'll 
 always speak up for Louis as long as I live, for he is as 
 good as gold." 
 
 The Deacon, after sitting absently awhile, with his fork 
 in the air, now put on his hat, and ambled from the 
 house. 
 
 Peace, glancing at Mollie to adjust her tactics to pro 
 priety, was startled to see the tired, worn, gray look that 
 had possession of her young face a look that the old, 
 brave, friendly smile did not banish, only ennobled. And 
 Peace had no reserve of strength to meet her friend's 
 need. " Poor Mollie ! " was the best, the sole word she 
 could give. 
 
 Mr. Haythorne proved a man of penetration. That 
 he had drifted upon a family snag, was too clear; and that 
 both his friends had lodged there, seemed equally certain. 
 He therefore paddled his own canoe into calmer waters 
 with all speed, and, though Poppy said, " Dear Louis, 
 dear Mollie, ptchoo," every time he appeared, never, even
 
 14.4: SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 in thought, permitted himself to make a voyage of dis 
 covery in that dangerous neighborhood. Notwithstand 
 ing this laisser oiler behavior, however, he failed to get 
 the Midsummer Overture as he had intended, and hence 
 forth regarded minor poets with even more disparage 
 ment than before, and what is still odder, never analyzed 
 the feeling. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " This is the malt that lay in the honse 
 That Jack built." 
 
 RANCIS HAYTHORNE continued to find Fir 
 Covert to his mind. The girls soon discovered, 
 or thought they did, that his egotism was the 
 outgrowth of a sense of propriety too fine for American 
 rudeness, and so compelling him into isolation, and that 
 he was, therefore, the rarest of all rare men ; one that 
 a woman can safely meet, without that vigilant outlook 
 upon the movements of Sir Felinus with which our 
 maiden Mousalina is compelled to arm herself in his 
 company. 
 
 True, Mollie missed the graceful, na'ive characteristics 
 that she so loved in Louis. He had the air of a man 
 who had seen the world, which means nowadays that 
 simplicity is an abandoned charm. He was, however, 
 haughtily delicate, and not only scholarly and industri 
 ous, but cultured. He worshipped the words " good 
 taste," and never for a moment lost his self-poise in ram 
 pant enthusiasm. 
 
 His inspectresses were always longing to see him come 
 out of his reserve, trying to find some key to unlock his
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 145 
 
 innermost ; and they tacitly agreed that, if the shell of 
 their fascinating oyster sampled the pearls therein con 
 cealed, theirs was a Ben Trovato, indeed. 
 
 Peace's mode of conducting her observations was 
 strict] j aggressive, and such as laid herself open to study 
 quite as thoroughly as her subject. She was in a con 
 stant state of irritation at his dogmatic criticisms and 
 assertions, and persistent refusal to endorse any favor 
 able opinion she happened to offer, be the subject what 
 it might. 
 
 Their meeting was always the signal of a wordy 
 battle ; their tete-a-tetes being usually conducted in this 
 style : 
 
 " Have you read Charles Anchester ? " begins Peace, 
 laying down the volume in question, with all the delight 
 it excites in young people vivifying her face. 
 
 " When I was a boy," very condescendingly. It is 
 chilling, at least, to be made to feel that we have only 
 arrived at a point left far behind in the dim past by our 
 companion ; but Peace is not discoviraged. 
 
 " I am fascinated with it. I wish I was Seraphael. I 
 wish I was at St. Cecilia's. I'd like to use up my old gloves 
 on stupid Sebastian Bach, and know Florimond, and see 
 Jennie Lind, and hear the unprincipled violinist, and " 
 
 " Have Jewish finger nails, and a face like a fiddle, and 
 write a horrid hand. Most young musicians go through 
 a Mendelssohn period, just as one has lettuce and asparagus 
 in spring." 
 
 Though begun teasingly, the dictum came to an end 
 with extreme loftiness. 
 
 " At least own you liked the book," persevering, but 
 beginning to show annoyance. 
 
 " Ah ! ye-es, up to the average of that style of literature, 
 I believe." 
 
 7
 
 146 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 By this time the livre condamne is clasped protectively 
 against Peace's magnificent bosom, and she exclaims in 
 dignantly, " I'm thankful enough that I haven't grown 
 so mature that I prefer baled hay and carrots to honest 
 pasture. I'd rather munch my proper nutriment of 
 thistles." With sniffs of disdain Miss Pelican retires, to 
 establish a system of coquetry between her dainty feet and 
 the andirons supporting their blazing burden, and thereby 
 to offer an extremely artistic coil of blue-black hair to 
 Francis Haythorne's observation. A considerable pause 
 ensues, broken by the critic : 
 
 " Miss Peace ; " in a conciliatory tone. 
 
 Silence. 
 
 " Won't you please answer ? what made you go off so ? '' 
 
 " Because you spoilt my pleasure in the book. No 
 matter what I like, you always snip it down, and ask if 
 it's deep. I don't care anything about it's size. I want 
 to enjoy pretty things, and receive sympathy. You don't 
 know what sympathy is ! all your culture is cavilling ! " 
 The shining coiffure gives emphasis in tosses, but, except 
 one crimson ear, she shows him nothing of her face. 
 
 " I didn't mean to take the zest of your enjoyment 
 away," cries Francis Haythorne, really remorseful ; " the 
 truth is, I have forgotten about the book. I remember 
 liking it as a boy. Let me have it to look over to-night ; 
 perhaps I found fault for nothing. I don't read English 
 enough to keep up, truly." 
 
 Peace is thereupon mollified, and lends him the volume, 
 which he lays down somewhere about three o'clock next 
 morning, and owns, as becomes a man of honor, that no 
 better musical novel has ever been written. 
 
 After a few months of this sort of warfare, it began 
 to dawn on the critic's brain, that, though carping and 
 appreciation are poles, just estimation does not lie in the
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 147 
 
 middle. Moreover, Peace, whose aggrieved soul was not 
 prone to inactivity, made him an offer of a sugar-plum 
 for every sincere praise he might allow himself to utter. 
 As the result of six weeks' faithful observation, she one 
 day brought him a mint-stick, and a caraway seed picked 
 from the candy ornaments of Mrs. McCross' Scotch cakes. 
 " This whole piece is because you said you thought Mol- 
 lie's pot-pie perfect, and this teenty taunty one is what 
 you remarked about Thomas' Orchestra." 
 
 The implication of the rewards was even more dis 
 gusting to the refined gentleman than their paucity. His 
 conscience, however, forbade vanity's rankling wound to 
 deter a wholesome introspection, as result of which he 
 said in his heart that the young lady's malicious strictures 
 were merited. But his self-elected censor busied herself 
 with fresh plans for his discomfiture. 
 
 One day she entered Mollie's room bearing a letter 
 directed, in her large, artistically looping hand, to F. 
 Haythorne, Esq., M.D. 
 
 "There," she exclaimed, raising the gilded, mono- 
 grammed lid, and drawing forth the enclosed note with a 
 face expressing perfect satisfaction, " if this don't prove a 
 soothing application, I'm disappointed. He'll have to call 
 and have it explained, and there'll be a scene. I know 
 I've fixed a delightful recreation. I'm nearly seventeen, 
 and have never had a spark of a flame, not a snip on a pro 
 posal. One can't be expected to live thus : read ! read ! " 
 
 She glanced in the mirror, and readjusted the fall of 
 her cashmere skirts. Peace was partial to woollens (when 
 she didn't wear silk). The graceful curves delighted her 
 sense of beauty. 
 
 " What ! you want to pin it to the wall 'tother side the 
 room to decipher? Then I'll give you the contents 
 myself!
 
 148 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " DEAR, SIE : I found a black-and-brown striped cater 
 pillar out to-day. He is very anxious to be put on the 
 list of your patients. I offered to telegraph him, but he 
 is afraid it will injure his constitution. He says he has 
 only two objects in life : to see Gen. Grant hung, and me 
 settled in the world. He wishes me to state that, if you 
 will tender me your heart and hand, he will die happy. 
 I don't in the least wish to marry you, but I am really 
 pining to refuse somebody; and, considering how often 
 you have evinced solicitude for my welfare, I know you 
 will hasten to give me the opportunity. 
 
 " Furry-striped Caterpillar, Esq., wishes me to add that 
 he only waits the pleasure of giving us his dying bless 
 ings, after which he hopes to take his place beside Mrs. 
 Furry-striped Caterpillar, long since deceased. 
 " Yours, obedient to his commmands, 
 
 " PEACE. 
 
 " P. S. He's afraid this evening will be his last." 
 
 " Realize it ! " concluded she, walking up and down 
 in extremity of her elation. " Picture what a fret he'll 
 be in ! He'll have to come out of his shell, now ! He's 
 in a case without German precedent. What a stab in his 
 precious dignity ! I think I see him writhe, impaled on 
 that missive like a fly on a pin." 
 
 "But if he should stay away, offended," suggested 
 Mollie, who longed to have the note sent, but felt bound 
 to lay open the difficulties. 
 
 " He won't," answered Peace, positively. " He thinks 
 it's a sin to pause long enough in the street to examine 
 the contents of a shop window ; and he wouldn't pry into 
 the affairs of his dearest friend, or bitterest enemy. But 
 he is full of curiosity, for all that ; and he couldn't forego 
 the pleasure of studying us scientifically for the world.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 149 
 
 He'll be here at the earliest possible moment, never fear." 
 Whereupon she turned a pirouette, and hxirried down 
 stairs to play " Three Jolly Brothers " in triumphant 
 measure. How light-hearted was Peace in those days of 
 early girlhood! Life's sombre shadows showed them 
 selves but shadows ; her one reality was her own gay 
 humor. 
 
 It is needless to add, that the tormented swain appeared 
 punctually, to be welcomed at the door in effusive rap 
 ture by Miss Pelican. 
 
 Entering with an air of speculation, laughably mixed 
 with dignified offence, he exchanged his position for in 
 tense disgust, when she gave him a languishing glance 
 from her great black eyes, and exclaimed : "So affection 
 ate of you to come ! My kind protector has even now 
 breathed his last ; but let me assure you, my sentiments 
 are unchanged." 
 
 He leisurely doffed his dove-colored overcoat, and a 
 certain cashmere scarf of palest, heavenly blue, which he 
 had bought because he couldn't resist its temptations, 
 and wore tucked in, in an amusingly shame-faced man 
 ner ; also his cap of richest sealskin ; also his gloves, of 
 Quaker dye. In short, he was a quiet-tempered man 
 with a grievance, if he understood himself; the gypsy 
 of extreme fascination, and boundless audacity, awaiting 
 him at the door, should feel the cost of assaulting a Ger 
 man scholar, musician, M.D., and man of taste. 
 
 " You've come at last!" pursued the would-be object 
 of his regards. " I was just practising 
 
 4 How slow the hours are gliding 1 , while here I wait in vain ; 
 Love seems my sad heart chiding, and gives my bosom pain ! ' 
 
 But that is ended now " (tender sigh, and then rallying).
 
 150 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 You must see the sad remains of our mutual patron. He 
 makes a sweet corpse." 
 
 The aggrieved would fain have hung back, but she 
 was inexorable, and led him to a bell-glass, beneath which 
 she had laid out a not only deceased, but suspiciously 
 dry, caterpillar, impaled on the stem of an ivy leaf. Being 
 the heaviest of the two, the funeral decoration tilted the 
 stiffened form in mid-air, displaying its double row of 
 black legs and its ebony face to great advantage. 
 
 "His features are quite composed such a beautifully 
 paternal expression ! " said his mourner, sadly. 
 
 " Are you a candidate for a lunatic asylum ? " gasped 
 the Sybarite, retreating, shocked to her full wish. 
 
 " Don't be agitated, I beg," entreated she, with tender 
 solicitude. " Believe me, I. share your suffering. I, 
 too, comprehend the excessive delicacy of the situation. 
 You tremble! Rouse your strength of mind in this try 
 ing moment : he ! he ! he ! " 
 
 " Excessive indelicacy of the situation," retorted 
 Francis Haythorne, his drab garb actually seeming to 
 darken in his gravity. " I can't imagine how a young 
 lady could " 
 
 " Oh, you do not rise to the largeness of the necessity ! " 
 interrupted Peace, gently. " You need time to rally 
 your thoughts," sympathetically. " I understand the 
 magnitude of the generous act." Here she broke down 
 in a weak giggle, more irritating than any preceding part 
 of the performance. " He ! he ! " 
 
 " I came to demand an explanation of that absurd mis 
 sive ! " cried he, getting angry. " I must have it." 
 
 " There ! there ! " said Peace, in a maternally soothing 
 tone. " I see I must be strong for both true enough : 
 
 ' When the little heart is full, 
 A little sets it off.' "
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 151 
 
 " I'll not submit to this ! " cried he, striding wrathfully 
 to the hall. " I will not be victimized in this way; I'll 
 go at once." 
 
 " If you're a victim, what am I ? Break, heart of stone, 
 my Thisbe's gone. Alack ! alack ! alack ! " Executing a 
 magnificent shriek, Peace fainted d, la Miggs, against the 
 parlor door, so he couldn't get out. 
 
 As there were two such means of egress, he fled 
 through the farther one, but she was too quick for this. 
 
 " Stop him, Mollie ! stop him. He's going to propose 
 when he brings his mind to it ; reassure him ; pat him on 
 the back ; anything. I must have the comfort of refusing 
 him. I will! I will!" 
 
 Thus cut off (for Miss McCross darted from her place 
 in the sitting-room, where she had been enjoying the 
 scene, by Peace's advice), the young man strode back to 
 his tormentor, glowing with vindictive ire through his 
 self-drilled quietude, like a coal red to its heart, through 
 its feathery film of ash. "Miss," quoth he sternly, 
 " since you will take no denial, I can't. My principles 
 forbid me to entangle any simple and unsophisticated 
 girl in my fate, till I've worked up a medical practice, 
 and [here he reached a superb tone of triumph] thafll be 
 a long time hence, let me tell you." 
 
 Instead of sinking beneath the blow, the object of 
 this crushing rejoinder leaned against the door frame to 
 laugh ; and Francis Haythorne unconsciously accepted 
 the support of the opposite casing, speechless from 
 bewilderment. 
 
 Here was he, the student, the man who believed that 
 a well-bred person always lived in isolation, conscious to 
 himself, though unfelt by his associates, who even 
 reverenced the atom that moves freely among its mass, 
 and is touched of no other atom, here stood this faithful
 
 152 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 adherent to the truest traditions of fastidious self- reser 
 vation invited to furnish sport to a school-girl, and 
 totally without the proper method of showing his resent 
 ment. 
 
 By good luck, Mollie came in to find them thus, 
 hors de combat, and help them upon neutral ground. 
 
 " If Peace will promise not to piirsue her attentions, 
 will you make full confession about the kneipen ? " asked 
 she, bringing up a side issue. " Since you evaded the 
 question so shamefully the other night, Cabby has gone to 
 the length of looking up an account of them in an 
 encyclopaedia, to convince us of your degenerate morals. 
 He made out that American students, with hazes, 
 rushes, secret societies, blowing up of pumps, and all 
 incidental follies, could not equal the practice of 
 frequenting those frightful kneipen. Come, of how many 
 were you a member, honor bright ? Cabby was myste 
 rious, and gave tis to understand that he is up in ways 
 that are dark and tricks that are vain, himself." 
 
 " One ! " said Francis Haythorne, glaring at Peace, 
 whose mirth was by no means allayed. (( We did nothing 
 ungentlemanly ; we never drank too much, for that 
 reason ; we despise such things. No ! their attraction to 
 me was the absence of the abominable sex. I wish I was 
 there now ! " and he glared again. 
 
 " Do remember one of the songs," begged Mollie, 
 whose curiosity was stimulated by Louis' adoration of 
 everything German, as much as her pacific duties. 
 
 " Yes," cried Peace, wiping her eyes. " I'll try to 
 forgive you if it's good, not verdant and loud, mind." 
 
 Now it was one of the amateur's peculiarities, that he 
 never used his musical talents, when he imagined his 
 circle of listeners not enough up in culture to appreciate 
 his skill. He openly said that few people cared for any-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 153 
 
 thing better than omnibus pictures, and if a good painter 
 wouldn't degrade his pencil to execute such daubs, why 
 should he, Francis Haythorne, lower his fingers in the 
 same fashion? Indeed, he had once given this very 
 reason to the friends for refusing to play to them. 
 Whereupon they had made common cause of the plain 
 reflection upon their taste, and fought the battle to 
 victory. 
 
 Since that date, he went to the piano with perfect 
 docility, when asked ; but this evening he flew thither 
 on the wings of wrath, and sang Heidelburg's song with 
 gusto : 
 
 " Old Heidelburg, thou fine one, 
 All wealth of honor's thine, 
 On the Neckar or on the Rhine 
 None other comes thine equal. 
 
 City of merry comrades, 
 
 With wisdom heavy, and wine, 
 
 From the clear flowing stream, blue eyne 
 
 Sparkle to woo thee. 
 
 And comes from the mild south 
 The spring, over mountain and lea. 
 Out of his blossoms he weaves for thee 
 A glittering bridal garment. 
 
 And with me, close in my heart, 
 Like a bride, dost thou ever stay. 
 Like the spell of young love is the sway 
 Of thy name so fondly dear. 
 
 When pierced sore by life's thorns, 
 Or the world all to bleakness fail, 
 I'll spur my horse back to thy vale, 
 To thy gentle valley, O Neckar." 
 
 Ho hurled every couplet at mischievous Peace. She
 
 154 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 had indeed played her joke, but he was not without 
 weapons. 
 
 She was listening with due gravity to the pretty air 
 (so much better in harmony and melody than our rat 
 tling college songs), to which Mollie was hastily supply 
 ing the alto. Even the invidious vision of the wife- 
 like valley couldn't move her. 
 
 " Mollie," said she, thoughtfully, " you know when 
 he said he was tender-hearted ? and that while he was a 
 little boy he stole away and wrote ' Francis Haythorne's 
 Lamentations,' because his Pa had hurt his little felinks 
 scolding him, and he'd seen those poor Jerry put in the 
 Bible ? Don't you believe these are the very ones ? 
 
 " Oh, you were tender-hearted to pen those, as you say; 
 But now you're mean, and won't propose, to while my griefs 
 away. " 
 
 The doctor's hasty exit from the house precluded the 
 resumption of hostilities. He was vanquished. 
 
 But it was more than one half hour later when the 
 girls finished talking over their experiment. That is, 
 Mollie ceased listening to Miss Pelican's comments. 
 
 And the burden of all was, that she repented teasing 
 him, and had liked him better every moment, because 
 his courtesy had fully stood the strain upon it, proving 
 its rare metal ; and because she had laid herself open to 
 rudeness, and he had not for a moment thought of such 
 self-degradation, and because because because, he was 
 too good to be trifled with." 
 
 Whereby the doctor will be seen to have won the day.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS, 155 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 " The cat's in the cream pot. 
 Eun, boys, run! " 
 
 WEEK after Peace's pleasant divertisement, 
 Mollie met her on Gonecusset Street. 
 
 " My day is done," said she, solemnly. " Up 
 on the stroke of twelve I must depart." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " asked her friend, who never 
 knew quite how to expect Miss Pelican. 
 
 " Why, you are aware I am attending school at 
 Rosenbloom ; have been all the autumn, only I dreaded 
 to launch away in propria persona. But yesterday came 
 a letter from madame, stating that as it is already De 
 cember she will not suffer me to eat the bread of idleness 
 any longer, and I must either give up my room or my 
 Millville visit. So you see 
 
 '.Time the churl had beckoned, 
 And I must away must away. ' 
 
 In future I shall spend my time digging German roots 
 to pelt you with not to speak of French per aspera 
 ad astra. 
 
 " Oh dear, do be more merciful to me than you were 
 to the cat. I know you were swearing at her in feline 
 tongues, the day you meowed and frightened her so." 
 
 " Pooh ! " said Peace, " pet names always have a con 
 trary effect on animals. I told Charley that, when he 
 called me a donkey the last time I saw him. I shall weep 
 in all languages," she added, soberly, " if I don't find 
 you well and bright when I come up for monthly holi-
 
 156 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 days. I have taken a scunner at Top Town," avoiding 
 Mollie's honest eyes, " and shall not go back this winter." 
 By the way, Peace was evidently hurrying to change the 
 subject. " Father writes that he was put out by the 
 condition of business when he got home, to that extent 
 that he went to bed in his bosom shirt by mistake, and 
 mother woke him up in the middle of the night to tell 
 him of it. He eschews board at the Millville House 
 henceforth, and tarries by the stuff." 
 
 So Peace went to school, not as light-hearted as she 
 wished to appear, and leaving a vague uneasiness in 
 Mollie's mind. With her went Susie Jeukens. Sousie 
 Eagan joined her friends at Rosenbloom soon after, and, 
 bereft of these efficient laborers, Patience of Hope would 
 have suffered sadly if Mollie had not thrown herself into 
 the gap. Most people teach Sunday-school as a pious 
 interlude in the real business of life ; but to Mollie the 
 place was holy ground. She went softly, and with un 
 shod feet. It was awesome, and yet passing sweet. She 
 spoke to her people by day, and stood facing God by 
 night, and carried His calm tenderness as Moses brought 
 away His glory. 
 
 The school gradually worked out of the Nicksonian spirit 
 into her own. Gentleness and tenderness . replaced shak 
 ing and cuffs. The craving poverty that Louis' absence 
 made in Mollie's heart comfort became the riches of the 
 poor. Their lacks and longings were like an open book 
 to her clairvoyance, and she loved them out of the over 
 mastering, all-pervading love she bore one slender boyish 
 absentee. There were other loves and hungers at work 
 in the school, moreover. Jan Vedder, a robust type of 
 muscular Christianity, remained faithful to Sonsie Eagan's 
 parting trust six rollicking boys ; and Peter Bradshaw 
 did his devoir to Zoe, and so far converted his scholars,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 157 
 
 that they waged deadly war over the superior use of 
 cams in machinery to any other modes of modifying 
 action ; and he worked till one o'clock Saturday nights 
 upon knotty problems in hydrostatics, to which science 
 he and the class devoted themselves every Sabbath. 
 Mary Ann Nickson had kept the hold on Doppy's heart 
 gained from Amos' introduction, and every Sunday tried 
 her best to tell the young band how to find the one thing 
 valuable in the dusty and stony walk of life she must 
 tread as well as they. And it was Christ, Sonsie Eagari's 
 Christ, who was her comfort, and made her know how 
 to overcome her poor plain face, and numbed intellect 
 and harsh training, and, in spite of all, win the confi 
 dence of these waifs, whose life was like a shadow of her 
 own. 
 
 But, though the individual classes grew quiet and 
 orderly, the noisy element was continually refreshed by 
 new-coiners, and the singing still croaked like a frog- 
 pond, and the lessons hummed as a swarin of bees. 
 
 After Christmas, Francis Haythorue went on a three- 
 months' trip to Alaska, inspired thereto, perhaps, by 
 Peace's contemptuous statement, that a man who never 
 took a chance to freeze his fingers wasn't worth looking 
 at, accompanied by a gift of jaunty white mittens with 
 red tassels, the lovely work of her own hands. 
 
 The winter and summer, and the next winter, wore 
 away without notable event. Only two letters reached 
 Mollie from Louis. Captain Slocum saw them at the 
 office accidentally, and brought them to her. He had 
 written regxilarly, and wondered that she didn't answer 
 his questions. It was no use to tell him that her nearest 
 and dearest were these that played her false. At least 
 she could not. So she was brave in keeping it to herself, 
 though it gnawed at her heart ; and she beat it down,
 
 158 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 and went quietly about her soup-kitchens, and temper 
 ance society. 
 
 The second Easter vacation brought Peace, and, since 
 swallows never come singly, Miss Petingil one day made 
 them a call, which has its importance in this history. 
 
 Peace, who was bending over a fragment of the grace 
 ful, womanly work she loved I forget whether it was 
 embroidery, canvas, crochet, or tatting ; she did them all, 
 and to perfection Peace saw her coming, and exclaimed, 
 " Don't tell that horrid old thing I'm here. She has a 
 natural hatred of guileless innocence like mine. I'll hide." 
 
 The wilful lassie, work-basket and all, was ensconced 
 behind the heavy dun curtains in a trice, leaving Mollie to 
 her fate. Miss McCross, in fact, watched, with equal 
 vexation, the approach of the prim black alpaca, stalking 
 solemnly up the walk. Every fold in that thrice-turned 
 dress was primed with gossip. Gossip and snuff fought 
 hard in its spinster pocket to come out first with the 
 starched kerchief, and the blue yarn stocking everlast 
 ingly in the knitting. Gossip perched on every thin curl 
 that decorated the maiden's hard-favored noddle, and 
 peeped with equal zest and malice from her shrewd, 
 greenish -gray eyes. 
 
 I have had a somewhat extended acquaintance with 
 the criminal classes. I have dealt with reformatories, 
 and reflected much upon the phases of regeneration. 
 There is but one crime incapable of cure for only one 
 brings no remorse. The scandalmonger is a hopeless 
 subject. 
 
 Miss Petingil felt no compunction as she rang the 
 door-bell. She was intent on the occupation of a life 
 time. Funeral, wedding, christening, she attended them 
 all ; and if any thereat lacked information, it was her 
 misfortune, and not her fault. Was she her own fash-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 159 
 
 ioning, or society's ? On whom lay the blame ? Who 
 bore the greatest curse ? 
 
 To-day her dignity was tremendous, and her mission 
 therefore, proportionably important. 
 
 " Mebbe your ma's at home," said she, when Mollie 
 opened the door. " Never mind, I'll jest come in and 
 set a while." And she dropped into the new mosaic 
 chair, to which Mrs. McCross' sickly fingers had given 
 the finishing touch a week before. 
 
 " I don't b'lieve the gel cared a mite," she told Mrs. 
 Williams next day. " She didn't look put out, though 
 I sot on't the fust thing." But the patchwork cushion 
 was a small consideration compared to that into which 
 the tailoress plunged without preface. 
 
 " I want to know if you've heerd the way that All- 
 wood, that used to work fur your Pa's, been agoin' it ? 
 No ? Dew tell ! You needn't perk up your head so 
 pert about it. I s'pose you ain't in love with him, nor 
 anything. You won't have any snuff? I guess I'll take 
 a pinch ; it's real comfortin'." Miss Petingil always 
 snuffed when she gossiped. It gave her opportunity to 
 note any little symptom in the subject. 
 
 Mollie warily drew her arm-chair in front of Peace's 
 hiding-place, and played nervously with the tassels of her 
 loose dress. She had no shade of distrust of Louis, but 
 the woman sickened her. What right had she to mention 
 him? 
 
 " I s'pose you know," continued Miss Petingil, spread 
 ing the gathers of her dress straight with her left hand, 
 while she still plied her nose with the "yarb," in all the 
 pauses, " the feller went into them Pelicans' licker 
 saloon up in Top Town. I das to say that ere Peace gel 
 was settin' her cap for him. But she's seen the folly of 
 it. Peculiar ! 1 must say."
 
 160 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 The young lady had been sitting with a mixture of 
 amusement and disgust 011 her clear features, over which 
 every feeling glided as the light wind plays on the surface 
 of a lake, but troubles not its calm depths. Now a new 
 emotion, strange to Mary McCross, ruffled her face, and 
 taught her for the first time to drop the lids over her eyes, 
 made violet with fear. But she held her ground. 
 
 " Miss Pelican is my dear friend," said she, with gentle 
 gravity. " I don't like to hear her lightly spoken of." 
 
 " I cackellate I know them Pelicans as well as the 
 next one," pursued the old lady, in no wise abashed ; 
 " and I ain't at all averse to speak my mind about 'em. 
 Codfish aristocracy, I call 'em. Made all their money 
 out o' delirum tremens, an' sich." 
 
 Peace muttered something wrathfully behind her cur 
 tain, and Mollie trembled in anticipation of a sudden de 
 scent upon the tale-bearer ; but for some good reason the 
 angry girl kept her place. This very self-restraint alarmed 
 her friend. Her visitor's next words told the story. 
 
 " It's no more'n charity to let you know how your folks 
 hev ben imposed upon by that All wood." Miss Petingil 
 put on a pair of round spectacles as she spoke, that she 
 might watch her victim's face more closely. " Young 
 Brown, Cap'n Slocum's nephew, came from town yester 
 day, and I heerd him tellin' Squire Hitchcock about it. 
 You see the chap's habits ain't nun too good, an' Brown 
 met him an' Pelican hoi din' on each other, up about mid 
 night. Adolphy said he had to laff to see A 11 wood 
 hoppin' over the shadders the lamp posts made on the 
 pavin' stuns. Ef you'll b'lieve me, he cleared every 
 one, thinkin' 'em logs, or suthin'. Wan't it peculiar ? " 
 She wiped her snuffy fingers on her stiff handkerchief, 
 but never once moved her gaze from Mollie.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 161 
 
 The latter had learned self-command in too hard a 
 school to wince. She answered calmly, " I should thiiik 
 so ; but, as I hinted before, 1 do not wish to hear about 
 it ; " and rose to end the interview. 
 
 The spinster didn't stir. " Oh, you needn't go off, Moll. 
 I ain't agoin' till I finish my visit. I thought you'd be 
 shocked " (she gave a relieved sigh). " As I told Ade- 
 lizy Euphemy. ' Adelizy,' sez I, 'ef Mollie McCross is 
 sett-in' store by that feller, she'd orter be warned, an' I'll 
 put on my bunnit an' go over this very afternoon, an' 
 she'd do wrong not to thank me for't.' " 
 
 The old thing brimmed with malice as she proceeded ; 
 but her listener didn't yield a jot. She sat, her graceful 
 hands motionless in her lap, her position easy and uncon 
 strained. Her muscles had not contracted a hair's- 
 breadth in that whole fifteen minutes' agony. Only fif 
 teen minutes it seemed a lifetime. Her face was gray 
 and weary, but simple will set her firm, womanly 
 mouth close, lifted her clear, unflinching eye to her tor 
 mentor's, and made her say in her cool, liquid voice, 
 " Do you think so, Miss Petingil ? I'm sure Louis and 
 I feel the obligation equally. We will always bear it in 
 mind." 
 
 " Well, I dew hope," advised the tailoress, patroniz 
 ingly, moving as she spoke toward the door, " you hain't 
 no hankering after that feller. He's a gone coon. Brown 
 said it was wuth five dollars to ha' seen him reelin' an' 
 skippiu' along the street. Take a friend's counsel, an' 
 drop him like a hot potato." Miss Petingil let fall the 
 big jointed forefinger, with which she had been gesticu 
 lating, in illustration. 
 
 " I never drop a hot potato. I should hold it till I 
 was ready to lay it down, if it burned me to the bone," 
 said Mollie, hors de combat on the weighty matter, and
 
 1G2 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 glad of opportunity to let out her antagonism in a side 
 issue ; and sue shut her lips, so firm and handsome, and 
 stood, her muscles tense now, her nostril dilating like a 
 stag's a very type of power. 
 
 Miss Petingil felt the pleasure dear to the hunter when 
 his game turns at bay. She admired bravery, with a 
 scientific taste. " Now I think on' t, your ma' promised 
 me some Egyptian poppy seeds, an' ef you'll fetch 'em I'd 
 as lief wait as not," she parleyed at the door. 
 
 Scarcely was Mollie out of the room when the gossip 
 re-entered it, and hurried toward the curtain where sat 
 Peace. 
 
 Her design was anticipated, for that young lady stepped 
 out with blazing eyes. " You miserable mischief-maker, 
 1 look at you in astonishment. Have you any woman in 
 you ? " 
 
 " Massy sakes ! " screamed the old lady, " ef you don't 
 want to know what you are, don't set listening. As for 
 that McCross gel, I come up here to see ef it was true 
 she was goin' to marry him. Folks say she is, an' I bet 
 it's so. She's wuth two of you any day, for all your 
 paneers behind, and your disgraceful, low-necked, dress 
 waists in front. I thought likely you was listening, or I'd 
 ha' said more ; an' now you've come out, I will free my 
 mind. Ef I'd ha' been Mary McCross, I'd ha' sent my 
 lover anywhere, ruther than to Charley Pelican, that all 
 the world knows never could do nothin' but sing political 
 songs, an' git drunk. There ! Ef you don't like it, you 
 may lump it! " 
 
 Peace shook from head to foot. " I despise you," said 
 she. " God do so to you, and more also." 
 
 Mollie, coming in, heard, and ran to her. "Dear 
 Peace, dear, dear Peace, don't ! " cried she. " We 
 mustn't curse her. Go away, Miss Petirgil ! " and she
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 1(53 
 
 pressed the seeds into her hand, and pointed to the door. 
 " Don't you see the harm you've done ? Don't stay to 
 tempt us any further." 
 
 "Harm!" screamed the old woman, pocketing her 
 prize, and then shaking the liberal hand at the maddened 
 sister ; " she's the harm ! blackguardin' me, an' listenin' 
 in such ways as no lady 'd demean herself to come to ! 
 You'd better read your Bible, miss ! ' The child that de- 
 spiseth its mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick out 
 its eyes, an' the young eagles shall eat them." 
 
 "Are you the vulture to finish the bones?" said the 
 poor girl, bitterly. 
 
 But the tailoress was now intrenched in dignity, and 
 went her way, condescending no reply. I trow Nero 
 himself might well have envied her afternoon's work. 
 
 When she was gone, the two young sufferers stood 
 looking in each other's face, speechless. But at last 
 Mollie's rigid self-command gave way. " O Peace ! " 
 she exclaimed, passionately, " can't you say it isn't 
 true ? " 
 
 But Peace leaned her haughty head against the win 
 dow-frame, and sobbed aloud. " It is true," said she, 
 fiercely, " every word, and more ! I hate them, I hate 
 my very being, everybody ; I wish I was dead, I wish 
 everybody was ! " She gasped once or twice, and then 
 rushed from the room. 
 
 As her footsteps died away, Mollie, my dear Mollie, 
 sank on her knees, to begin a new, bitter battle with 
 pain. 
 
 First came the fierce, intolerable sense of misplaced 
 love, and shame, amounting to physical agony. They 
 swept away the very framework of her existence her 
 faith, her world, her God. She clutched at each for sup 
 port, and grasped emptiness. There are moments in
 
 164 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 some lives when every experience of the past, every 
 hope of the future, every nerve, every vital power-gene 
 rating organ, seems to concentrate its force in one intense 
 pang ; at that point the mind must either snap or relax. 
 Mollie's relaxed ; numbness, vacancy, ensued. Then she 
 rallied a little, and fell to thinking how she and Louis 
 used to make poppy shows, and shake her grandmother's 
 forbidden tulips for their brilliant spoil Bangutter's 
 leaves they called them, in memory of Mrs. Price's in 
 dignation at the mistaken title bestowed in Mollie's ear 
 liest speech. 
 
 The foolish memory brought tears. Her dear, gentle 
 Louis, whom she had thought so noble ! Alas ! alas ! 
 Mollie never struggled with herself after those bitter 
 drops baptized her love. He was hers now ; hers 
 through all, her very own ! to love, suffer with and, 
 highest, holiest privilege, to save. Louis and ideal bliss 
 she dared not claim, but Louis in need of her, sinning 
 and wounding himself, could not call vainly. He had a 
 right to look to her to bind up his hurts, and, with a 
 free, exulting sense of strength, she realized how she 
 could joyfully shed her heart's blood, drop by drop, for 
 him all for him. She knelt, full of this new joy, and 
 pledged her life for his before God ; and the old, almost 
 forgotten " peace " filled her soul, supplanting alike the 
 long war of duty, and the delirium of first regained 
 liberty. 
 
 Then she remembered their common reproach : it was 
 she that should bear his sins and carry his sorrows hence 
 forth ; afid, sighing and blushing with shame, and crying 
 hot tears of misery, she went up-stairs to pray for him, 
 and write him a letter, without a word of reproof, full of 
 love, and hope, and blessing. 
 
 At length Charlie's sister came back. She had tried
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 165 
 
 to walk her passion out, and returned faint and weary, 
 but with stormy face. 
 
 " I cannot bear it," said she. " They have no right to 
 do so. I hate them ! I could curse them for their folly 
 and myself for caring about them. O Mollie ! what 
 shall we do ? " 
 
 Just then Mrs. McCross' scolding voice came sharply 
 from below, and the Deacon's " now, Mirandy, do be 
 easy," in feeble expostulation. Mollie shut the door ; the 
 old suffering grated on the new. Peace was frightened 
 by the gray, pain-drawn face she turned toward her. 
 But Mollie's firm, pleasant voice reassured, as she drew 
 her friend to a seat, and, with a few caresses, brought 
 the so much needed tears. " Dear, dear Peace," said 
 she, " God can teach us how to suffer." Then, after a 
 silence, as the poor girl's sobs grew fainter (her head 
 rested against Mollie's shoulder, and Mollie's magnetic 
 touch was on her hand), the lover added, " Without 
 sorrow none liveth in love." 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 " Here we go, up-up-up, 
 Here we go, round-round-roundy, 
 Here we go this way and that, 
 And here we go down-down-downy." 
 
 fjISERY," said Mary McCross, " is the result of 
 too great self-concentration. I am going to 
 spend the morning in Syllabub." Peace made 
 a horrible face. She expected to return to Rosen- 
 bloom next day ; and, besides, was filling in a canvas
 
 166 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 copy of Powers' Greek Slave, and disliked interrup 
 tion. Privately, I think such caricatures of art mon 
 strous and disgusting; but they were all the rage, and, 
 in spite of her strong, good sense, Miss Pelican as often 
 did the things a la mode, as the things a son ccewr. She 
 didn't object to personal charity, in a small way, and she 
 was lavish in money-giving ; she had even experienced 
 a degree of pleasure in the Patience of Hope class, 
 especially the part where Francis Haythorne walked home 
 with her. Bat the smells that particularly belong to 
 poverty, the drunken women, and the pigs, were her 
 abomination. 
 
 However, Mollie was set on the walk. She had a pie 
 for little Doppy, a shirt for Mr. Heffron the piper, 
 and a shawl for Mrs. Dennis, all of which were needed 
 at that precise time, so there was no way of escape. 
 
 On the road they called to see the Rev. Mr. Growing, 
 whom they found at the Bizbys' solacing himself with 
 his third pipe and Shakespeare. He was revisiting his 
 former pastorate, and welcomed Mollie warmly. His 
 sunny, open face was a great uplift to her. She felt bet 
 ter before he said a word. 
 
 Few appreciate the comfort and rest a real pastor 
 gives his flock. Out of office he may meet them but 
 seldom, but as he lays holy things before them Sabbath 
 after Sabbath, he gets to occupy a vast importance in 
 their souls' economy. The weak quote him. The strong 
 renew their strength in him. Through him, God supports 
 the mourner, and confirms godliness. He embodies, 
 moulds, and wields the moral sentiment of the commu 
 nity. He bears in him the power of God, which is the 
 more often forgotten because of its silent strength. 
 Though perhaps a timid thinker, he harnesses the runners 
 in the race ; though no genius, his warm Christ home is
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 1(57 
 
 often the nursery of genius. In a word, lie says of his 
 people, with a depth of truth only he himself can know, 
 " My little children, for whom I travail in birth." 
 
 But, to Molly, Mr. Growing had been more than even 
 the minister. He was her tried friend, fellow- worker, 
 and confidant. With a suggestion he had often helped 
 her out of her unspoken troubles. It was to him that 
 she, with great difficulty, told her heart, touching her 
 new-born Christ ; and though she never asked sympathy 
 or aid again, she unconsciously held him as a physician, 
 only to be applied to in extremity, but certain to cure. 
 
 He, on his side, rejoiced in her energetic love of truth 
 and helpfulness, and, though it was sweet to carry his 
 lambs over the rough places, felt a comradeship with this 
 sturdy pilgrim, who feared to breast no storm. He 
 quietly watched her in what Goethe would call her appren 
 ticeship ; incited her aspirations for culture and expe 
 rience without her knowing it, helping to direct them 
 wisely and happily ; and, if he sometimes shook his head 
 over the battles she was certain to fight, he forebore to 
 dishearten by criticism or prophecy. 
 
 Mollie had missed him since he went to Cannadasset. 
 She would feel his loss more in this crisis of her life. It 
 was her need time. She told him so, only half realizing 
 it as she spoke. " No ! no ! " answered he earnestly ; 
 " remember Don Quixote. Pray devoutly, hammer on 
 stoutly." 
 
 " I shall," she said with her customary quiet intensity, 
 and he didn't doubt her. 
 
 On her side she asked about Cannadasset, in a grave, 
 ministerial fashion, as if knowing the weak spots in parish 
 work by instinct. 
 
 He told her all the pinches : the hitch in the prayer- 
 meeting, the difficulty in collections, the impracticable
 
 168 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 plans for reaching the proud poor, the crying want of 
 culture among Phil Penhurst's operatives, which last he 
 and the young manufacturer were trying to meet by night 
 schools and woman's societies. lc If I can only get the 
 widows to pray for me, I'm all right," said Fred, wind 
 ing up a Harlequin of ministerial puzzles, which Mollie 
 evidently understood, and had hung up for private tilts 
 in future leisure. In fact she was not waiting for time 
 coming, but, absorbed in consideration, rose, shook hands 
 abstractedly, and wandered away still deep in thought, 
 leaving Peace, whose share in these weighty discussions 
 had been amused listening, to carry off the shirt and pie 
 and shawl, all, including herself, being totally forgotten. 
 
 The slush of a parting snow-storm was under foot. 
 The spring, as Miss Petingil said, " was drefful late an' 
 tejus;" adding, "for her part she found if she lived 
 through March, she noticed she was pretty apt to last the 
 hull year." 
 
 On wading down to Syllabub, Peace judiciously woke 
 her friend just before they reached the " Solomon Rodgers," 
 and they entered, to find Doppy in a state of tear-streaked 
 despair. Since Mrs. Nickson's death, the waif had trans 
 ferred her allegiance to Mollie, though Francis Haythorne 
 nominally taught the class ; and Amos highly approved 
 the feminine selection, for the elegant and fastidious 
 physician was rather despised by the muscular young 
 Hibernians. Mollie with a woman's instinct, which teaches 
 her to still her heart pang by some helpless care, drew the 
 hot-tempered little emerald inta-her soul, and gave her lib 
 erally both affection and aid. She would have done the 
 same by Joe, had not Miss Heffron disdained such effem 
 inate guardianship. Johanna, poor thing, regulated her 
 ideas by the standard of her boy associates. 
 
 This day appeared to have been a sad one for Doppy.
 
 Sff/FTLESS POLES. 169 
 
 Her visitors discovered her plodding hopelessly through 
 jagged seams of a half-made chemise, " whose conthrariness 
 was," she affirmed, " beyond belavin' ; " and its bulgy gores, 
 raw-edged hems, fulled fells, and stitches all dotted from 
 needle-stabs, were enough to provoke pity even in Mrs. 
 "Williams, who was notably the hardest woman in Millville. 
 
 Mollie was on the alert now. She seated herself on a 
 promiscuous chair without ado, and gently twitched the gar 
 ment away to look at its workmanship. It smelled as if 
 it had been used as dish-cloth and duster, and its damp 
 condition rendered it probable that it had dried its seam 
 stress' eyes. 
 
 " How much better you sew ! " said the examiner, as 
 suming the battered brass thimble, and beginning to 
 rip, baste, and hem, with every appearance of content. 
 Doppy, who was kneeling beside her to observe the pro 
 cess, gave a comforted smile, and watched the amend 
 ment of a zig-zag place in intense interest. 
 
 But Peace considered the ravelled, silken seams of her 
 life too badly frayed to admit of reformation, and 
 attempts at bettering the poor, time-garment of a street- 
 child, appeared weary adding to misery. 
 
 Having therefore pelted the cats, secretly turned up 
 her nose at a horrible, all-pervading odor of burnt pota 
 toes, and studied the fly-specked Madonna till she began 
 to feel as if the end of her nose was equally sharp and 
 crocky, she vented her ennui in patting her little foot 
 on the bare floor with vehement protest, and inchilged in 
 indignant coughs as Mollie entered upon a third long 
 fell with unruffled placidity. 
 
 But though Miss McCross paid no attention to Miss 
 
 Pelican's fidgets, Doppy was much exercised thereby ; 
 
 and, after brief consideration of the ameliorating means 
 
 at hand, resolved to sweep. She had kicked up a mighty 
 
 8
 
 170 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 dust, when she remembered the " E. McCross " on the 
 broom-handle, and dashed the tell-tale implement into 
 the cupboard, with an impulse of burning shame and 
 regret. 
 
 Mollie sewed on quietly ; and, looking at the little 
 girl, who stood rooted in the middle of the floor twisting 
 a lock of hair, ready to cry, asked in her pleasant sunny 
 voice, 
 
 " When did it happen ? " 
 
 There was neither anger nor reproof in the tones. 
 Accordingly Doppy did not feel called upon to turn 
 dogged or defend herself. She crept humbly toward her 
 friend, and hid her face in her dress without a word. 
 
 The teacher whose heart was very sore with her own 
 pain, experienced a strange throbbing sympathy for the 
 repentant reprobate trembling against her knee. She 
 laid her hand gently upon the bent head ; when Doppy 
 ventured to look up in her face, she saw her eyes full of 
 tears. Something in that frightened, appealing glance 
 stole all Mary's power of repression, and, helpless in the 
 grasp of emotion, she rested her head against the battered 
 chair-back, and wept in spite of herself. It was all one 
 bitterness, and all gates opened the prisoned fountain. 
 
 Doppy had never seen a lady cry before. It was differ 
 ent from any confession of pain she had witnessed ; so noise 
 less, so imperious, so resolutely combated, so plainly only 
 hurt; so patient and uncomplaining. She was frightened, 
 and, forgetful of her remorse, laid her friend's hand 
 against her hot little cheek, and begged her to be happy 
 once more, and kissed the passive fingers again and again 
 with all the fervor of her impetuous Irish nature. And, 
 when Mollie regained her self-control, and sat up pale 
 and weak, she could not rest till her caresses were re 
 turned, and her peace made ; and, still in the bitterness
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 171 
 
 cf inner suffering, Mollie took the little comforter on 
 her knee, and laying her head against her shoulder, gave 
 her the taste of mother-love and mother-fondling the 
 poor child so craved and needed, and found again her 
 own strength thereby. 
 
 Miss Pelican, quite forgotten by the actors in this drama 
 of penitence, had felt her own composure much shaken, 
 and retired to a corner to give them a free " outing." 
 Finding calmness now to reign, she gathered up her 
 scattered bundles, and remarked sarcastically, " Let thy 
 moderation be known unto all men ingoing home," when 
 the door opened to admit Joe's old man, drunk. 
 
 With never-tiring charity, Mollie had provided him 
 coal and food and work. The more she gave, the less 
 he did. He labored two days out of six, and raved in 
 drunken delirium the odd four. At length he threw 
 down his brush, declaring that, as he had labored for the 
 benefit of humanity, humanity was bound to support 
 him. A trifling habit of painting all around the spiders 
 he met (on the crazy supposition that touching them 
 would make trouble with Joe) had somewhat decreased 
 the value of the little toil he brought himself to endure ; 
 and his daughter, who begged, stole, or starved, as it hap 
 pened, felt no loss as the result of his lapse from duty. 
 He now went straight to Peace, and tried to stand up 
 right and look at her. 
 
 " Don't mind him," observed Doppy, as the lady 
 shrank away. " There's a window broke where he works, 
 an' he's a cold in his eyes, so he can't see straight." 
 
 " Hev you observed my girl anywheres ? " demanded 
 he, fiercely. 
 
 " There, lay down a bit," interfered their hostess again, 
 in a soothing voice, pointing to an old lounge as she 
 spoke ; " she's comin' directly."
 
 172 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " I'll smash her," remarked he, as he pitched toward 
 it. " She hain't taken care of me. Here I've ben 
 drunk all day, an' she hain't come near. You see she's 
 drunk all the time, and I'm (hie) never sober (hie). 
 She'd orter have more oversight on me 'n she does. I'll 
 wallop her. I'll " he had reached his couch by this 
 time, and whiskey got too much the upper hand for 
 speech. 
 
 " Mary McCross," said Peace, in angry dignity, " I 
 think it's positively unladylike to stay here a second 
 longer." 
 
 " Just wait a little," pleaded her friend, who was ac 
 customed to such doings, and had again become busy at 
 the sewing. " If I baste in this sleeve, she can finish it 
 for Sunday ; he isn't going to wake up." 
 
 While Peace was gasping in astonishment at her cool 
 ness, Joe, Christie Malone, and Amos returned from a 
 " pickin' " expedition to divide the spoil. 
 
 " By Jingo Pelters," said Master Daley, holding up a 
 broken champagne bottle, " that Miss Williams is the gol 
 darnedest mean woman I iver see; jest think of askin' 
 pay for a spilt bottle like that, an' three chicken-bones ! 
 Doppy, how's your burrd ? " 
 
 She smilingly produced a miserable canary in a cracked 
 tea-pot. " He don't sing 'ary a note. I believe it's the 
 sades you giv' him." 
 
 " Nonsense," said Peace, examining the poor thing, 
 which had almost lost every feather, and peeped feebly. 
 " How could he in the dark ? I should think he'd have 
 sore eyes." 
 
 Doppy looked miserable. " It's a bootiful burrd," said 
 she, " an I vally it as the gift o' frens, but I hain't no- 
 wheres else to put it." 
 
 " Thrue fur ye ! " said Amos proudly. " I sawed
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 173 
 
 wood the hull day at Square Hitchcock's fur him. The 
 crookedest sticks them wos ! But 1 didn't make no ac 
 count of it, fur the pleasure ov givin' him to Doppy. 
 ' Au' here's the singer that'll take the top off Syllabub,' 
 sez Miss Euphemy, an' me carryiu' him off." 
 
 The girls exchanged glances. They had heard Adeliza 
 regretting only the day before, that she hadn't raised a 
 song-bird in the whole nest. Something about defraud 
 ing the laborer of his hire crossed Peace's mind, as she 
 caught a happy thought. 
 
 " You bring him, tea-pot and all, up to Miss McCross 
 this afternoon, and I'll put him in a cage. I'll engage 
 he'll whistle when he comes home." 
 
 Mollie smiled gratefully, fathoming the generous in 
 tent ; but the expression of dissatisfaction with which she 
 had been watching Joe and Christie increased tenfold, as 
 their relations to each other grew more obvious. They 
 seemed on terms of greatest intimacy. She snatched a 
 coil of rope from his pile : he took her about the waist, 
 and twisted it from her hand. She kicked him. He 
 stood back, and struck her a violent blow. 
 
 " For shame ! " cried Mollie, indignantly, " to touch a 
 woman ! " 
 
 " She's my wife, or go in' to be, an' I've a right to lick 
 her if I like," said he, in his sullen accent ; then under 
 Mollie's compelling power, "You are my girl, Joe? " in 
 half apology. 
 
 " Yes," she answered, apparently impassible. 
 
 Doppy, however, did not share in her apathy. " Ef so 
 be's yees can't be dacent, in a respectable " (Doppy 
 dwelt on the long word with deliberation) " respectable 
 house, ye may lave straight, Christie Malone. I keep 
 a quite place thank the saints." She snatched the 
 poker, and, big boy as he was, Master Malone departed
 
 174 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 without ceremony. Mollie followed him out. She had 
 been waiting, partly in hope of seeing him. He was a 
 tall, white-faced fellow, with watery red eyes, a shock of 
 fiery hair, and a mouth like a potato-hole. The only 
 thing that marked him among the degenerate types of 
 humanity bred by destitution, was his foot so hand 
 somely arched, small, and slender ; sole heritage of gentle 
 blood for generations back. He was not strong appar 
 ently, and turned sixteen. 
 
 " Have you any work, Christie ? " 
 
 He stood with his head down, kicking the door-step, 
 and shook his shoulders. 
 
 " What made you leave the Gonecussets ? " 
 
 " I ain't agoin' to kill myself workin' for any man." 
 
 The teacher sighed. It was up-hill toil. She had 
 looked after him patiently, begged him places, clothed, 
 not him alone, but his family ; not for a few months, but 
 two long years. She had tried to teach him to read, 
 prayed about him in private, exhorted him in public, 
 and this was the result ! He had been constantly in her 
 class since the memorable disturbance, when she en 
 forced order ; but his tricks, lies, rudeness, sly whispers 
 to a blushing neighbor, tried her very soul. 
 
 " Why do you come here ? " she cried once, desperately. 
 
 " To set where its warm," retorted he. 
 
 To day the incubus weighed more heavily than usual. 
 She let him slip sullenly away, and Peace lost no time in 
 joining her, really thankful to have got out in safety. 
 Miss Pelican was not properly constituted for a Bible 
 reader. 
 
 " That boy is a load of lead to my soul," said Mollie, 
 as if announcing a recent conclusion. 
 
 " His head is curiously shaped," rejoined Peace ; " it 
 slopes right to a point on top, and has no back at all."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLES. 175 
 
 The home missionary looked worried. She remem 
 bered hearing a former instructor assert that a man all 
 face, and nothing behind it, couldn't make a decent 
 member of society. Thenceforth her eyes rested on the 
 lad with an uneasy, fascinated glance. Was it possible to 
 save a boy with no back to his head ? She didn't de 
 spair. Said Peace in the most serious voice possible, " I 
 often call to mind the baby's epitaph : 
 
 " ' When Gabriel's trump shall wake the dead, 
 And souls to bodies jine, 
 Too many there will wish their lives 
 Had been as short as thine.' " 
 
 " My dear," said Mollie, having as usual shelved both 
 remark and quotation for future thought, " I find great 
 comfort in that verse touching Christ's triumphant 
 entry." 
 
 Peace looked up now in honest sobriety, to hear the 
 Scripture : " And thy King came into Jerusalem, riding 
 on a wild ass's colt ! " 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 " To one she gave porridge, 
 To another gave bread." 
 
 | HE sitting-room at Fir Covert was large and 
 circled with oak, and the carpet was brown all 
 the way from yellowish to chestnut. When I 
 looked in, the heavy, dun curtains were uulooped, for the 
 sun had long since gone to bed, and with him retired
 
 176 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 the top-knotted fowls, scolding wrens, and melancholy 
 robins, who roamed daily about the place. The late frost, 
 which had surprised them, brought out the old andirons, 
 and set them holding a stick or two of hard maple. The 
 wood hissed and snapped in the red-throated chimney, 
 and the bright flame danced fitfully, making gay the 
 dark frames of the water-colors Mollie had done when a 
 little maid, and falling with weird brilliance upon a great 
 copy of the Court of Death that hung opposite the fire 
 place. 
 
 Beside the hearth lay a pair of slippers, whose seven 
 ugly monkeys stood out distinct against a scarlet ground 
 work. On the dun-rep arm-chair, wheeled close to the 
 fire, hung the cashmere dressing- gown, with its long tas 
 sels. Poppy swung from her silver perch, and Mollie 
 sat on the floor, watching alternately the red shadows 
 playing over the wall, and listening for the well-known 
 step on the flagged walk, thinking the while such maid 
 enly thoughts as properly lodge in comely brown heads 
 that stand erect, like brave annunciation lilies on the 
 stem. 
 
 At last he came for whom all waited. The gate swung 
 with its customary squeak. " Papa ! " cried Mollie, lift 
 ing her cheek from the chair-cushion as the door un 
 closed, and running to meet him. Now the old gentle 
 man was hurried forward to the blaze, bereft of his 
 coat and hat and boots, and invested in the gorgeous 
 dressing-gown and slippers. Next, Mollie spirited away 
 the cast-otf garments, then came back and took his gray 
 head in her hands, looking into his eyes, and kissed his 
 withei-ed cheek. After this she sat down contentedly on 
 the cushion by his knee. The old man smiled a com 
 forted smile, and seemed to grow a little plumper, a little 
 younger, a little less careworn, just as he always did
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 177 
 
 when the familiar dialogue was performed, for it was a 
 very old scene, though it never seemed old to these 
 two. 
 
 " Where's your mother ? " said the Deacon, patting 
 Mollie's soft hair, and stretching his black-stockinged 
 feet to the fire. 
 
 " Gone to mother's meeting, and we'll have tea alone," 
 answered she, gayly. " She is to sup with Mrs. Hitch 
 cock. Won't we have a nice time ordering our meal ! 
 What shall we cook for you ? " 
 
 " I'll take a pair of parrot's tongues," said this easily 
 suited individual, after considering awhile. 
 
 " No tongue to spare," retorted Mollie, with due 
 gravity. 
 
 " Then let it be bear's feet, fried," he went on, in the 
 same tone. 
 
 " No," said she, pinching the loose skin at the back of 
 his small, wrinkled hand (the Deacon was still proud of 
 it, though it began to earn its living fifty sixty years 
 ago). "I haven't killed the animal I've got; he's too 
 lean. Hadn't we better have Welsh rarebit ? " 
 
 " I guess so, little girl," smiling into her loving eyes. 
 He always called her this when they were very happy to 
 gether. She was his pride, his sole delight. He watched 
 her as she rose to give the order in her dignified, maidenly 
 way, and his heart grew lighter when a positive foot-tap 
 heralded her return. 
 
 So they had the Welsh rarebit, and Mollie poured tea 
 from a quaint Japanese teapot, and fed her father with 
 muffins served on the choicest illuminated plates. 
 
 The cakes despatched, they told each other's fortunes 
 in the bottom of the teacups. 
 
 Mollie twisted hers four times on the saucer to give 
 the tears chance to run out ; and her father found therein
 
 178 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 beaux and diamonds, not to mention a horse and buggy. 
 As a reward, she discovered him addressing a vast con 
 course of people, which she knew must be the eleven 
 o'clock prayer-meeting, but he felt sure was an audience 
 to his Fourth of July speech. 
 
 After this was decided, they went back to the parlor, 
 and she dropped into her old place at his feet. They 
 talked a long time about business and gossip. If Mr. 
 ISTickson had been heard from ; if Dr. Perfect's last ser 
 mon was really to be printed for circulation ; if Mrs. 
 Perfect had prayed the crippled darkey to full use of her 
 limbs, as had been hinted. 
 
 These questions being settled, she became absently 
 thoughtful, and fell to playing with his fingers. " Little 
 Pete, Peter Paie, Eue Whistle, Whistle Dossel, Gobble- 
 gobble-gobble." She told them all one by one, shaking 
 each absently, and then began again. " Father," said 
 she, with an effort, after he had snatched her wandering 
 hand and prisoned it in his own, " do you know any 
 thing of Louis ? " 
 
 A change came over Deacon McCross. He ceased to 
 be the loving parent, sunning himself in his daughter's 
 affection. The dun arm-chair held a spare, old man, 
 with a mixture of fear and remorse in his weazened fea 
 tures. It was only a moment; the expression passed 
 away as he answered, " Nothing, daughter." Mollie 
 heaved a stifled sigh, and stared hard into the burning 
 coals. 
 
 He was miserable, seeing her suffer, and cast about for 
 some means to comfort her. He only knew one way 
 to give her something. " Mollie," said he, hesitatingly, 
 " suppose I deed you the ' Solomon Kodgers ' Tavern ? 
 Would it please you ? You've often asked for it." She 
 knew the motive that prompted the gift. Her poor,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 179 
 
 weak, loving father ! She was very sorry for him, and 
 so made much of the matter, and set herself to chase away 
 his trouble. 
 
 She perched on his knee very lightly, because the 
 time was near when the grasshopper would be a burden 
 to those once stalwart limbs and hugged and kissed him, 
 and tickled his cheeks to make dimples. As he still 
 looked sober, she snatched a newspaper, and proposed to 
 burn it to see who would marry first. He smiled and 
 agreed ; so she got down before the fire, and lighting its 
 severed leaves (the " Millville Universe" was not a large 
 sheet), laughingly blew her own fragment to make it 
 blaze. " See, cruel papa," quoth she as the last spark 
 died from off his blackened fortune, " you will be out of 
 the market first. But settle your mind to one thing 
 I shall claw my step-mother." 
 
 Doubtless the Deacon knew too much about claws and 
 clauses, to be charmed at the prospect ; so she felt it plain 
 duty to play " Pease Porridge Hot " with him. Before 
 the game was done her brown hair rippled away over her 
 shoulders, a mass of wondrous beauty, her cheeks red 
 dened into a soft blush, and her firm, supple fingers 
 burned with their fairly earned punishment. 
 
 In the midst of this, the door opened, and Mr. Hay- 
 thorne walked in. Then Mollie arose from her ottoman, 
 brought him another arm-chair, poked the embers, and, 
 having added a stick or two of maple, took her seat 
 opposite, just where the flicker would play xipon her 
 serene face. 
 
 " I have been reading the ' Spectator,' " said he, set 
 tling himself for a chat, and warming his white hands at 
 the blaze. " The weather is unseasonable a frost last 
 night, and now heavy rain." 
 
 "We are always glad to give the hearth-cricket chance
 
 180 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 to chirp," answered she, punching a stick to make the 
 sparks go up chimney. " What did you find in the 
 ' wicked novel-book,' as mother would call it : ' man is 
 born to trouble as the sparks fly upward ' ? " 
 
 " Not precisely. ' The division of troubles was the 
 theme of my meditation. I read from three to five, his 
 tory or classic literature ; one can never know enough of 
 either." 
 
 The young girl was looking toward him, but she saw 
 not his handsome, cui-ly auburn head and flowing beard, 
 nor yet his hazel eyes, that glanced so full of fire to hers. 
 She was watching in thought a dearer face, with eyes of 
 purer, softer light, and a lip whose remembered curve 
 was scarce darkened by the down of manhood. If the 
 recollection could not now come free of anxious pain, it 
 was a dear pang, loved for whose sake she bore it. 
 
 " Things in this life are equal," said she, as if she 
 wished to believe it. " There's a balm for every wound, 
 and," after a pause, tf every honey-bee carries a sting." 
 
 " Heine says, there are sweet peas for all. That is a 
 better song than one more orthodox the little German 
 maid sang with false voice but true feeling, as he re 
 lates." 
 
 " In that case, ' full many a flower is born to blush un 
 seen,' " said Mollie sadly. The troubles of this world 
 compassed the poor child to-night. " He would have said 
 more truly, thus : ' thistles and night-shade grow n every 
 man's garden. If he pull the night-shade first, he is 
 happy.' " 
 
 Her tone, very hard for Mollie, so startled the gentle 
 man that he dropped the tongs wherewith he was build 
 ing up a castle of red coals behind the forestick. 
 
 The clang awoke the Deacon, who always dozed com 
 fortably off when Mollie talked literature, and Poppy
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 181 
 
 withdrew her head from her downy wing, blinked sleepily 
 at the trio, and failed not to murmur ere she closed her 
 brilliant eyes, " Dear Louis, dear Mollie, pchoo ; " a sen 
 tence which continued to make a disagreeable impression 
 on the guest's mind. 
 
 He fell to talking of Europe ; how the German maid 
 ens waltz and drink Rhine wine, and Mollie seemed to 
 him fairer than any German maid. Then he told of his 
 beloved Goethe, of his long bachelorhood, how he 
 thought to wed a lovely young girl, but was so frightened 
 by the cradles his mother rummaged from the garret, that 
 he broke the engagement. 
 
 Mollie lifted her clear, fathomless blue eyes to his face. 
 " It would be my dearest wish to have a merry, noble boy 
 to love, caress, and bring up into honorable manhood." 
 She thought the while, with a sigh, how far off seemed the 
 blossoming of her fullest wife-love. 
 
 But Mr. Haythorne rambled on, talking of Coriolanus 
 and Virgilia, Faust and Marguerite, and patient, lovely 
 Undine, and every noble type of woman seemed to find its 
 breathing-life in the young girl sitting so womanly mod 
 est beyond the blazing maple-sticks. But Mollie's heart 
 flew with every picture of devotion to her absent lover, 
 and panted to be all this and more to him.
 
 182 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 " Ride a Jack horse 
 To Banbury Cross." 
 
 lilDSUMMER eve fell warm and breathless. The 
 lazy stars blinked through the thick ether, and 
 the moon put on her parti-colored garment, and 
 sailed quietly through the cloud-banded heavens. The 
 trees swayed sleepily to and fro, as middle-aged chaperons 
 nod at the eleventh hour of a grand ball. At sunset the 
 very cat-birds sang heartlessly. In fact, the only creat 
 ures which managed to brave the leaden heat were a 
 chorus of frogs and cicadse that kept up their Handel and 
 Haydn Society till long after humanity was making spu 
 rious imitations in bed. 
 
 If fairies were abroad, they had chosen a bad time 
 for their revels. I wish I could have found them and 
 begged a sleep-philter. Every evening Mollie's light 
 stole through the dusky evergreens, till the last strag 
 gling footstep died into stillness ; then she breathed 
 a weary sigh ; she hoped her lover's truant feet had 
 brought him home. 
 
 When the labors of life were appointed, man stepped 
 up first, and on him was laid to plan, to work, to take 
 the headship of the family ; and he went away, sup 
 posing he bore the whole burden. After him came 
 woman, willing to share the misfortunes of her race ; to 
 whom the angel said pityingly, " The man, thy hus 
 band, fancies he carries all the curse : he has only left for 
 thee, powerless to cope with the rough toils of life, to 
 weep his failures unavailingly and in silence." 
 
 Careless of the sanctities of the night, you might have
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 183 
 
 noticed a quartette stealing through the Millville streets 
 about eleven o'clock, Mrs. Williams's well-filled garden 
 being the goal. Amos, like a famous scion of his pro 
 fession, carried the bag, a large one, that went with a 
 string, and they all walked softly as if afraid of waking 
 such echoes as still lingered amid the flat respectability 
 of this Gonecusset's Eden. 
 
 Silently the boys dropped over the sharp-nailed fence 
 wherewith the woman sought to shut out Syllabub. 
 
 Cucumbers mildly growing by the pale moonlight, warty 
 squashes, and odoriferous onions, returned to earth to 
 ripen, all passed their examination, to be pronounced 
 too young. 
 
 But there were lettuces and seed-onions and early 
 raspberries in plenty, that found community of expe 
 rience in the wide-mouthed sack. 
 
 " Ain't they whoppers ! " said Hugh from the pea- 
 vines, when the pressure of business was somewhat 
 abated. 
 
 " Hush ! " returned Amos, revelling in a bed of late 
 strawberries. " I tought I seed a light some'rs." 
 
 " Boy alive ! " returned Aleck with a contemptuous 
 sniff, " she never 'luminated when Grant was 'lected, an' 
 she ain't likely to use up kerrycene for such 'umble per- 
 fessionals as we, mean old granny ! " 
 
 " We've got enough for here," said Hugh, anxious to 
 be on the safe side. " Let's go some'rs else." 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Aleck in anguish. " I be caught, sure's 
 grief ! " Even so. Paysou's steel trap, baited for Gracie 
 Jenkins' rabbits, had snared bigger game. With much 
 subdued groaning, the member was released, and Amos 
 threw the bag over his shoulders preparatory to depart 
 ure, when Hugh cried " Hist ! " in a frightened tone, 
 and immediately a dull thud was heard in the distance.
 
 184 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " Run, fellers, she's comin' ! " said Christie hurriedly. 
 
 " Pooh! " returned Aleck, " she's jest ben lickin' the 
 young ones. Golly ! how she did lay it on ! They 
 squalled too loud fur her to be hearin' ov us." 
 
 " But I noticed a noise like the poundin' I see Miss 
 Petingil givin' her does in a barr'l," whispered Hugh. 
 
 "Most likely it's the ghost of all them lickin's you've 
 missed," returned Christie, whose notion of Payson's 
 late sufferings was for some reason quite vivid. 
 
 " Give us a rest now," put in Aleck. " Didn't I 
 hear Miss McCross explainin' how nothin' was iver lost : 
 so all them are laid up for ye yet. By the same token, 
 ye'll get 'em soon, for you're growin' so tall they can't 
 wait much longer." 
 
 " I'll pass that," whispered Hugh ruefully ; but he 
 had scarcely said it when the same ominous sound smote 
 their ears. 
 
 " What shall we do ? " said Amos, promptly circum 
 venting an attempt, of Hugh's to run away. 
 
 " Let's go ! Where does it come from ? This way 
 no, that! Dear, by goll, it's all over ! " quoth the latter, 
 sitting down in a miserable heap on the ground. 
 
 Thud ! thud ! came the remorseless monitor. They 
 looked into each other's faces in horror. 
 
 " It's a Banshee to warn us of death ! " cried Aleck in 
 a choked voice. " We've one in my family. See, there 
 he stands ! He allus appears afore any on us is took." 
 
 They all looked where he pointed. There, amid the 
 long shadows cast by the fruit-trees and the chequered 
 moonlight sifting through the trellised grape-vines, 
 geained a white figure erect, motionless, with averted 
 face. 
 
 " Deuce take your Banshee ! " said Hugh, half dead 
 with fright, "it's a Bugaboo goin' to carry us off for
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 185 
 
 stealin'. He stamps three times, an' thin switches his 
 tail an' moves his horns an' " 
 
 " An' if so he's you ain't good, you git a darned 
 lickin'," interrupted Amos. " I heerd mother doin' that 
 this mornin' to my little sister. I don't believe a word 
 on't. It's a Banshee, an' you're goin' to die, Aleck. 
 Golly, I'm glad it ain't me ! " 
 
 " That's so ! Do run, or I'll have to lose a mornin's 
 work by your funeral," said Christie, trying to laugh. 
 
 " You must be smart. I'll bet it's the old woman," 
 cried the doomed individual uneasily. " Any way, I'll 
 have my share in the truck to-night." But, in spite of 
 the brave ending, his teeth chattered, and the awful 
 figure with upraised hand pointed to the miserable lads, 
 inexorable as fate. 
 
 " Amos, do go an' see if it's anybody," gasped Aleck. 
 " 'Tain't nowise likely he wants anything o' you." 
 
 " Go yourself," retorted the person addressed, indignant 
 at the suggestion. " I'd be ashamed to be afeard of my 
 own relations." 
 
 But Aleck shook his head. The moon went behind a 
 cloud ; the wind stirred the trees ; the terrible premoni- 
 tor of the ghost sounded at uncertain intervals, and still 
 the pale figure moved not. 
 
 " I'll be darned if I stand this any longer ! " cried 
 Christie. et Move up to your Banshee, or I'll thrash 
 you well." 
 
 " An' I'll help," said Hugh, advancing with the jig- 
 step of habit, curiously at war with the feelings of cow 
 ardly fright. 
 
 " An' so'll I," chimed in Amos, doubling up his fists, 
 preparatory. 
 
 Thus urged, the unhappy lad stole slowly toward the 
 gleaming horror, till he suddenly uttered a shriek, and
 
 186 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 dropped to the earth. " O boys ! I'm kilt. I'll never 
 steal agin, long as I live ! " 
 
 Christie picked him up. " What are ye hollerin' about, 
 ye fool ? Were ye gassin' us the hull time, that the 
 fallin' ov a few apples an' a couple ov towels on the 
 bushes should set ye to takin' on so ? Git up, or I'll 
 lick ye." 
 
 " Ain't I killed ? " asked Aleck, opening his eyes. 
 " Something hit me on the snout worse'n I was ever hit 
 afore." 
 
 " Don't ye know an apple when ye feel it, ye jackass ? " 
 said Hugh, sending a half-grown early over the fence 
 with a vicious kick. "Now you've raised the old 
 woman." 
 
 Sure enough, the stoufc figure of Mrs. Williams ap 
 peared from the kitchen doorway, still habited in her 
 night-cap, and in her late husband's old boots, which she 
 was wearing out to save shoe-leather. Long before her 
 tallow dip had explored the intervening space, the boys 
 had safely climbed the fence. " I swan dumb," quoth 
 she, stumbling over the spriing trap, " here's the track 
 of the nasty Irish. Got hurt ! I'm glad on't ; " and she 
 forthwith retired to her matronly repose. 
 
 The boys had run full half a mile, when their fears 
 abated enough to permit a halt. 
 
 " It'll niver do to go into Millville at once," said 
 Christie, with his customary sly caution. This was the 
 kind of a boy who will talk to you about religion, with 
 his eyes earnestly directed to yours, hungry longing 
 filling them, and be holding a second conversation in 
 deaf and dumb language about a gambling row that very 
 moment. " You give me an' Aleck the bag," continued he, 
 " and we'll hurry home, while you go round t'other way." 
 
 "Not for Joe," retorted Hugh instantly. "I'm
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 187 
 
 intendiii' to see the dividin' of them fruits. Aleck can 
 walk along wid Amos." 
 
 " Suit yerself," rejoined Christie, " only make haste. 
 It's goin' on twelve now." 
 
 Five minutes afterward Amos and Aleck reached the 
 stone wall that surrounds Bradshaw's meadows. 
 
 " Hurry, an' git over," whispered Mr. Heffron, who 
 had his own reasons for distrusting young Malone. 
 " We'll cut through the lots while they're partin' the stuff, 
 or we shan't git nun." 
 
 Amos mounted the stones slowly, for the wall was of 
 good height, and protected, moreover, by a superstructure 
 of rails. 
 
 '* Jump ! jump ! " cried Aleck, with a poke ; whereupon 
 our hero gave a spring. 
 
 " Ugh ! what's this ! O Aleck ! what am I on ? 
 The divil's got me this time, sure." 
 
 " I'll bet he has," replied that still ruffled ghost-seer, 
 glad the incredulous Amos was likewise in grief. " You'd 
 better say your prayers. He's jest spreadin' his wings to 
 take you to the bad place. Such horns as he's got ! " 
 
 Amos, looking before him, sure enough saw two im 
 mense things erecting themselves as his dreadful bearer 
 rose from the ground. 
 
 " Hail Mary, full of grace ! Do let me come down, Mr. 
 Devil, please ! " he cried imploringly, not daring to move 
 a muscle. " Speak ! speak ! only speak." 
 
 The satanic emissary, true to his instinct, laid back his 
 pseudo horns, raised his tail, and, planting his forefeet 
 forward, gave vent to a series of he-haws that echoed 
 strangely through the still night. 
 
 " Oh ! do speak English, Mr. Devil ! " shrieked the 
 unhappy rider, too thoroughly frightened to recognize 
 his unsought steed ; while Aleck, remembering Pauline
 
 188 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Bradshaw's donkeys, burst into a peal of discordant 
 laughter. 
 
 The noise awoke Daisy, who responded to her mate's 
 call from the other side of the field, and Dandy took to 
 his heels, Amos still clinging to his seat, in bolt upright, 
 rigid terror, and muttering alternate petitions to the 
 saints and Diabolus. Behind him streamed his immense 
 coat-tails ; before him lay unnumbered horrors, and the 
 night air bore the sound of Aleck's retreating footsteps, 
 fainter and fainter in the distance. 
 
 " If ever I'm caught in that ere line agin, I hope, yis, 
 I hope I'll jump onter them nasty beasts, same as last 
 night," said Amos, with awful solemnity, when he had 
 finished confiding his woes to little Doppy. 
 
 " Airnest ? " inquired she, with the brevity of doubt. 
 
 " Airnest," responded he, laying his stubby fingers 
 together in heartfelt devotion, and rolling up his spark 
 ling eyes till only the whites were perceptible. 
 
 " Now, that's rale good," said the confessoress heartily. 
 " I hope I may get licked ef I don't do the same. Miss 
 McCross has fcmnd me work in the mill, an' I'm to go 
 every week to her house to learn to sew n' read, n' be 
 a lady same's her." 
 
 " How hunki ! " commended the devoted Mr. Daily, 
 without a shadow of misgiving as to the result. Then 
 imagination retraced its steps through the interval. 
 "Ain't you goin' to be at home, or pickin' no more?" 
 queried he, doleful at the prospect. 
 
 " Jess so," returned she, in a dignified tone, " an' 
 you'd best do the same, n' quit wastin' yer time, n' 
 makin' a lazy lummox of yersel' same as ye be." 
 
 " You're awful hard on a feller. I don't like to work 
 no how," said Amos meekly.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 189 
 
 " Wimmin takes to it, I s'pose ! " retorted Doppy, in 
 sarcasm. " Learn a lesson from me as has kept her 
 house clean, an' washed her cloes all summer." 
 
 " If you say so, I will," he assented, in rueful awe of 
 her energy. " What a tiger you are ! Vedder'll find me 
 a job, 'cause he said he would." 
 
 " Then don't be settin' lookin' at yer fingers," ex 
 claimed the active damsel, beginning to put chairs and 
 tables in forbidding groups, and glancing at a scrub- 
 brush with portentous meaning. 
 
 Amos accordingly saw no alternative, and sallied 
 forth to clinch resolution. 
 
 " That's the woman it takes to bring me to terms," 
 was his admiring soliloquy as he strode manfully toward 
 Millville. 
 
 " There," said Doppy, closing the door on him, and 
 feeling the bristles of the scouring implement in a bustle 
 of pleasure. " I knew I could make him ! He's the 
 best-meaning chap in Syllabub, and the darlin'est ! " 
 
 CHAPTEE XY. 
 
 '' Three wise men of Gotham 
 Went to sea in a bowl ; 
 If the bowl had been stronger " 
 
 PUT this down because of its extreme perti 
 nence. Only the wisest take as substantial a 
 JiSil ship as that named. Even Diogenes had no 
 thing better than a wash-tub. In the sea of life one 
 meets but leaky craft : broken beer-barrels, dismantled
 
 190 'SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 paint-boxes, cornstalk fiddles, muck-rakes, pea-shooters, 
 represent the rafts that float most of mankind. Our own 
 canoe is only paper. On the whole, the Pelicans thought 
 it a much more refined method of sailing toward the 
 better land to take a bowl, which they accordingly 
 did a first-class affair, called the " Night-blooming 
 Cereus." 
 
 I regard it as a paltry trick in an author, to tell the 
 perusing stranger the whole family history of the book- 
 people, and so prejudice his mind with scandal a thing 
 altogether unlike the healthful and inductive method of 
 acquaintance in real life. Fortunately I am here spared 
 the temptation, for I know nothing about the Pelicans, 
 except that they one day settled in Top Town, opened a 
 distillery and sample-room, which flourished abundantly, 
 and in due time Peace and Charley grew into years of 
 discretion. I always suspected that the old gentleman 
 had a touch of Spanish blood ; for the children were 
 Castilian brunettes of the most pronounced type. As 
 for their mother, she was small and fair-haired, very 
 gentle, very conscientious, very winning, very much 
 afraid of Mrs. Grundy. She was either a Perkins or a 
 Pitkin or a Norton, or a Hooker, of Connecticut, I don't 
 know exactly which, and any one learned in New Eng 
 land genealogies can tell why. 
 
 Of late years Mr. Pelican had interested himself in 
 benevolence and religion ; had donated to orphan asy 
 lums, and given cottages at the sea-shore to struggling 
 ministers, and sent poor students through college; had 
 become instant in prayer, attendant on the preached 
 Word, and widely known through the columns of the 
 local newspaper, the " Cereus," meantime, piling up the 
 wherewithal to indulge himself in these pious bonbons. 
 If he had begun with a saloon and ended with a still,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 191 
 
 he would only have been the successful rum seller ; but, 
 starting with the manufactory, and gracefully adding the 
 sample-room, Peace and Charley held their heads among 
 the nobles of the land. Indeed, there was a legend about 
 a Spanish buccaneering ancestor, with bars of gold and 
 silver tankards (represented by a certain golden-lined 
 silver sugar-bowl that stood on three solid bear's claws, 
 still in the family), and an oratory and a big crucifix, in 
 laid with diamonds, and a black mustache on the 
 father's side, and divers more reliable tales of Indian 
 encounters and revolutionary episodes, such as found 
 vent from Mrs. Pelican's patrician lips. So, after all, 
 they had whereof to boast as much as any, and there the 
 young folks intrenched themselves, and sniffed at come- 
 up-over-night Top Towners, particularly those who 
 " pushed by Miss Cray dock," which sort of thing pride 
 helped them to despise. 
 
 Mr. Pelican had long held dealings in real estate with 
 Deacon McCross. He happened to see Louis in his 
 office one day, and was struck by his modest bearing and 
 truthful, refined face. He was on the look-out for a clerk 
 at the " Cereus," who would make up for Charley's irregu 
 larities, and, hearing young Allwood's history with emen 
 dations from Squire Hitchcock, at once set matters in 
 train to engage him. 
 
 Our hero accordingly went to Top Town, to be re 
 ceived by Peace's mother with delight. She must needs 
 show him kindness, for her heart was very tender ; but 
 from the moment the gentle, impulsive, spirituel enthusi 
 ast entered her household, they found a sympathy between 
 them that her own haughtily imperious children were not 
 attuned to share. Louis was the sort of man delightful 
 in a house. He was modest, pure, unselfish, scholarly;
 
 192 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 full of delicate ways and artistic tastes ; always busy, al 
 ways cheerful, and instinctive in generosity and tact. 
 
 Mrs. Pelican was the sort of plant easily compressed 
 into a corner by the vigorous growth about her ; it really 
 proved a godsend when this kindred shoot enticed her 
 over the wall into a more congenial garden. Louis' def 
 erence to her, as the representative of that dear, myste 
 rious motherhood his lonely boy-life had never known, 
 was complete. She answered it by taking him into her 
 heart as her own son. The inside witness of this was 
 strong solicitude in the matter of his church-going, and 
 opinions on episcopacy as the one inspired form of 
 Christianity, and soundness on the creed commonly called 
 Athanasian. The outside evidence was her mending his 
 clothes, and, there being little but books and rags in the 
 tiny brass-nailed trunk, the omnium gatherum of his 
 treasures, the shy replenishing of the same. But this 
 was only ventured upon after a piteous tussle with the 
 rents, which were faithfully and curiously patched by 
 Louis' own manly fingers. " My boy may sometimes be 
 motherless and a stranger," said she, in a note written 
 in her old-lady's round-hand, and pinned to the addi 
 tions as a timid precaution against hurt and rebellious 
 pride. 
 
 Thereto Louis straightway yielded, and brought his 
 beloved volumes into the sitting-room, and spread his 
 music over the piano, and played her the " Battle of 
 Prague," because she said it reminded her of her youth, 
 and expanded and basked in the genial atmosphere. If 
 he ever felt doubts as to the benefit of the " Cereus " to 
 society at large, ever at soul loathed the ruin he saw at 
 work in heart or body of its frequenters, or the spirit 
 that pervaded its precincts and caused that ruin, he 
 kept it all to himself. Indeed, after the first day or two
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 193 
 
 he didn't think much about it. He was released from 
 the wearisome pickings and fault-findings of Millviile, 
 set in a life of luxury and friendliness, with the dazzling 
 hope of easy success in business, and the enervating 
 sense of having every man's good word in a situation 
 where he was secretly conscious he deserved it less than 
 when he supposed he had their bad one. For it was a 
 peculiarity of Mrs. McCross' discipline, that its subjects 
 not only detested themselves, but believed everybody else 
 held them in dislike. Even Mollie was not without a 
 trace of this feeling, and it had gnawed Louis' heart for 
 years. The men who frequented the sample room were 
 both well-dressed and respected ; Charley, though wild, 
 was a hearty sort of fellow ; his father, the soul of benev 
 olence ; and he himself did all and more than was re 
 quired of him. 
 
 Old Mr. Pelican, passing through the sitting-room 
 one day, saw " Elective Affinities " in the original on the 
 table, and examined its mysterious characters critically. 
 His nose elevated " Slotch ! " he said in accents of deep 
 disgust, and then ran away. Bnt he held up the student 
 as a pattern to Chai'ley not the less, and regarded him.as 
 a rare and delicate curiosity which he had been lucky 
 in finding. 
 
 And Charley, handsome as Absalom, petted, spoiled, 
 took a most pernicious fancy to Louis, and they came 
 and went together as David and Jonathan. A general 
 favorite is seldom the best of the flock. Charley had 
 been the family idol. He had run away from school and 
 driven a canal-boat six months in boyhood ; won silver 
 cups in memorable boat-races ; was up in trapeze ex 
 ercises; could perform the giant's swing, and hold a 
 chair with a man in it, at arm's length, by the bottom 
 round. He was a connoisseur in ballet-dancing, and held 
 9
 
 194 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 pronounced opinions on the proper size of the feminine 
 ankle. He was, I reiterate, absolutely beautiful ; and 
 had two fetiches in the persons of a billiard-cue and a 
 pair of huge iron dumb-bells. 
 
 Possibly it would have been better if the business 
 hours had not gradually stretched, and the quiet even 
 ings, when, the father being away at charitable meetings 
 and the son in society, Louis translated the " Wands- 
 becker Bote," played his beloved Mendelssohn, and dis 
 coursed of Wagner to the well-pleased old lady knitting 
 fancy socks by the table, been exchanged for long stays 
 at the sample-room, and longer visits to a gaming-saloon 
 opposite ; not that Louis was learning to love gambling ; 
 he had no bump where such temptation was tempta 
 tion ; he went because, as Charley said, it was necessary 
 to know the patrons. But his notion of the " relation 
 of values " was in a way to get dreadfully mixed. 
 
 As time passed, Mollie's letters came less and less fre 
 quently ; she, poor child, often saw them thrust into the 
 fire, and, though she writhed under her mother's espion 
 age, yet strove to endure without a murmur. " Love," 
 she said very often at this time, " is the Spirit of God. 
 We should therefore be careful not to wound any human 
 love, lest we grieve the Holy Spirit." Wherefore she 
 suffered in silence. 
 
 While, then, Louis' affection for his fiancee was as 
 fervent as ever, he grew gradually unable to locate her 
 memory in his new, full life ; and her influence was daily 
 buried deeper beneath its confused impressions, hurried 
 acts, half-formed estimates of the all-important worth 
 while. And Charley, energetic, variable, full of exube 
 rant vitality in the every-day contact, usurped her out 
 side place. 
 
 Matters had been sliding and slipping down-hill in this
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 195 
 
 way about a year and a half, when something occurred, 
 as is usual in such cases, which gave them accelerated 
 speed. 
 
 Mr. Pelican had the greatest propensity for asking 
 people home from his religious and charitable conven 
 tions to spend the night. On this occasion he had picked 
 up the Rev. Dr. Perfect, late of Nansook Junction, now 
 of Millville, who was nothing loth to save a hotel-bill, 
 and become acquainted with the rich and eccentric 
 Abimelech Pelican, Esq. He even talked late that even 
 ing with him over a pitcher of sweet cider. The doctor 
 refused all more intoxicating beverages, but ate up a very 
 full saucer of brandy excused by a wonderfully minute 
 peach, mischievously dished out by Charley as a tester. 
 It is only justice to say that he sanctified the viands by a 
 grace long and all-embracing enough to equal a spiritual 
 bear-hug, closing with the hope that the Lord would 
 strengthen them by and help them to grow through the 
 same ; which Charley misconstrued into " Strengthen us 
 to bite, and help us to go through it." 
 
 The doctor was a large, pompous man, with a bass 
 voice and shaggy gray eyebrows. He might be a fer 
 vent Christian and a burning light, but Charley told Louis 
 in a loud aside, "It was whale-oil, smoky." "Is it. 
 Brother Allwood ? " cried the worthy man, dashing at 
 his victim in a glow of religious feeling. 
 
 " I don't know that you'd think me worthy that appel 
 lation," said Louis, shrinking away like a sensitive plant, 
 in double disgust at Charley's snickers and Dr. Perfect's 
 " word in season." 
 
 During the meal, the reverend gentleman talked much 
 of the higher Christian life, which he and his wife 
 illustrated so well that they had neither of them sinned 
 for a twelvemonth, and further argued the possibility of
 
 196 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 performing miracles, hinting at a more than speculative 
 knowledge of these gifts of the Spirit. He also made a 
 toxiching personal appeal on the subject of religion to 
 every one present, beginning with poor Mrs. Pelican, 
 whose timid faith was fruitful of more goodness than 
 comfort, and who felt a rude home-thrust to the bottom 
 of her soul, and ending with Charley, whom he besought 
 to be warned in time. 
 
 " Yes, sir," retorted the young man gravely, " in the 
 touching words of the poet, I feel 
 
 " ' Youth forward slips, 
 Death soonest nips.' 
 
 I've often thought what a pity it was we couldn't shorten 
 up the lives of our Christian friends to lengthen out our 
 own. It would be clear gain to both parties, you know." 
 
 The clock cuckoo cried twelve warning notes before 
 Dr. Perfect offered to retire, so interested was he in 
 expounding the spiritual view of the unilluminated 
 Christian's shortcomings to his sleepy host and hostess, 
 the boys having pleaded business and run off. He had 
 been sitting some time before his bedroom fire, toasting 
 his feet, in very airy costume, previous to a departure for 
 the land of Nod, when the bell below began to ring 
 furiously. In nowise averse to learn the family secrets, 
 he hastened to the hall to listen, and, hearing men's voices 
 on the steps, resolved to save the household trouble, and 
 open the door himself. 
 
 In company with a stream of cold air, the gentlemen 
 dashed in, shaking the snow from their feet and coats ; 
 and Charley, who had stood treat quite too often that 
 evening, made a dive at the visitor, and caught him in 
 his Arctic embrace. Indeed, the poor man's white dra 
 pery rendered him a conspicuous object in the faint light.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 197 
 
 " O Romeo ! Romeo ! 
 
 " ' When marshalled on the mighty plain, 
 When shall we three meet again? ' " 
 
 cried lie, hugging him fondly. " What's in a name, old 
 cub ? We'll sleep together at the foot. Bully boy with 
 a glass eye ! " 
 
 " Anathema maranatha ! " exclaimed the doctor, try 
 ing in vain to release himself. t( Let me go put me 
 down, you young repi*obate. Touch not the Lord's 
 anointed ! " 
 
 " ' Maid of Athens, ere we part, 
 
 Give, oh ! give me back my heart ! ' " 
 
 murmured Charley, clasping him still more fondly. 
 " Alas ! how vainly I sigh ; as soon make a whistle out of 
 a pig's tail, as get anything back from a priest's clutches. 
 At least we'll have a farewell break-down before I say 
 adieu, pretty waltzer, adieu." 
 
 " Dance ! " gasped the divine, who looked like a 
 well-thumped pillow in the clutches of a housemaid. 
 " Dance ! Avaunt, Satan ! " 
 
 ' " -Once there lived a man in Balninaerazy 
 Who wanted a minister to make him onazy. 
 And thus the gentle youth he bespoke him, 
 " Will you dance with him, dear Ally Croaker? " 'Hem ! ' " 
 
 Charley was suiting the action to the word, and they 
 were flying about among chairs and tables with fury. 
 
 " Do you know what you've got, young man ? " thun 
 dered Dr. Perfect. " Yerbi divini minister! Servns 
 servorum Dei. Omnia ad Dei gloriain. Monstrum hor- 
 rendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum." 
 
 " ' I've got an old Tom-cat, although one eye is staring, 
 I've got a Sunday hat a little worse for wearing ! '
 
 198 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Come, Louis, beat time with the shovel and tongs; 
 this deuced darling is so heavy I'm out of breath. You 
 know the tune ' Barney Brallaghan,' te dit de, de de, 
 diddle de." They had whirled into the library by this. 
 " Never mind," as the poor man gave a series of agile 
 skips, remarkable for one of his ponderous proportions, 
 " you'll soon catch the steps. One, two, three, hop ! " 
 
 " Let me be ! It's wicked ! " gasped the doctor. 
 
 " Oh ! do not be discouraged, never too old to learn," 
 urged Charley between his rapid gyrations. " I can take 
 the tuck out of any dancer living. Oh ! your toes ? " 
 
 Round and round they spun, dashing among tables, 
 knocking over chairs ; Louis performing the music with 
 tongs and fender; Charle} r , carolling snatches of songs 
 at the top of his voice, till the family, roused by the ter 
 rific din, rushed down en masse to part the dancers. 
 
 Dr. Perfect left directly after breakfast next morning, 
 shaking the dust from his feet, and predicting " wrath " 
 laid up for Charley, whom he denominated a worthy type 
 of "Jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to 
 sin." 
 
 Though Louis' share in the above proceedings had been 
 small, he wandered about the " Cereus " next day in an 
 agony of repentance and disgust. His friend attempted 
 comfort. 
 
 " Have some whiskey ? This on hand is most as good 
 as water. That's what the old fellow said about his root- 
 beer, after he'd drunk half the keg." 
 
 His repentant partner shook his head. " I detest 
 myself the business everything. How could I ever 
 be such a fool ! I am ashamed to look any one in the 
 face." 
 
 Charley lifted him up by the strap of his pants and 
 shook him, but, when he set him down after this trifling
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 199 
 
 admonition, his face was as solemn as before. Thereupon 
 Mr. Pelican treated him to a glance half- remorseful, half 
 bitter. 
 
 (l ' Champagne Charley is his name.' Why don't you 
 say it and tell the truth ? " said he. 
 
 " I'm not going to blame any one but myself," was 
 Louis' friendly answer ; " one's enough to be disgusted with 
 at a time." 
 
 He had hardly got the words out of his mouth, when 
 Hercules picked him from his chair, and, regardless of his 
 kicks and struggles, consigned him to a long drawer that 
 happened to be open near by, whence he only emerged on 
 solemn promise to pull no more sad faces. But stopping 
 the foolish boy's mouth didn't rest his conscience. After 
 this, feeling disgraced in his own eyes, he plunged eagerly 
 into Charley's pleasures. Mollie was too closely watched 
 at home to find opportunity to write many letters, and 
 the closer application to business, which is the usual re 
 sult of a good woman's epistles to her engaged, was their 
 very worst outgrowth possible, in this case. 
 
 Mrs. Pelican sighed, but couldn't make up her mind to 
 undertake remonstrances with a stranger that she had 
 already proved ineffectual with her son. Mr. Pelican 
 was laying plans for a soldiers' home, and poohed at her 
 fears. 
 
 " Nonsense, woman," cried he, pushing up his glasses. 
 " I don't believe it. Boys will be boys. Must sow wild 
 oats some time. Don't fret yourself. I was a great deal 
 worse than they." 
 
 His wife knew this perfectly ; she had had the task of 
 rooting up his early planted weed-crop all her life, but 
 she was too true a woman to own even to her secret 
 soul that Bimmy could be altered for the better. Her 
 only doubt was whether a second edition of herself would
 
 200 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 be found to undertake the like work for this youthful 
 chip of the old block. 
 
 Peace came home but seldom. She had here the 
 skeletons of her life, which she knew neither how to com 
 mand out of sight, nor destroy, and so stayed from Top 
 Town more and more, and tried to find comfort at Mill- 
 ville at school travelling anywhere among strangers. 
 This was just as well. She acted like yeast on Charley's 
 latent possibilities of evil ; everything Avrong in him 
 began to ferment the instant she sailed into the house. 
 " She sniffs so at a feller," the aggrieved youth com 
 plained to Louis. " I say to myself, ' Jam din, jam dudum ! 
 I'll bust for two and a half, if I don't cut up something,' 
 and then I vamose and free my mind." 
 
 In her flying visits, she scrutinized Louis closely, her 
 dark, brilliant eyes seizing every alteration, and her 
 handsome lip carelessly indexing the scorn and angry 
 contempt she felt. 
 
 " He's a dissipated fool," she exclaimed to her mother, 
 as she watched the pair sauntering down the street, cigar 
 in hand. " His gentle brown orbs, that poor Mollie 
 dotes on, wander to the ends of the earth rather than 
 meet mine ; the very clothes he wears have replaced their 
 former modest poverty and boyish grace with the fashion 
 able, exquisite airs of ' our set.' I could spit a chicken 
 on the waxed ends of that dyed mustache, and he parts 
 his hair in the middle. If a hung Punch in effigy would 
 look like a warning to him, I'd rob the poor-box to buy 
 the puppet." 
 
 *' Oh ! how dreadful, my daughter ! " exclaimed Mrs. 
 Pelican, thoroughly shocked. She never could give her 
 feelings the relief of a mutual outpouring with Peace. 
 The vehemence with which the excitable girl vented her 
 emotions, made her literal, conscientious mother shrink
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 201 
 
 timidly within herself, afraid. " It's all Charley's fault," 
 said she, with a sigh. " Don't hurt his feelings, daughter ; 
 he seems like my own boy." 
 
 " But some one ought to do something ! " fumed Peace. 
 " Don't you see how that everlasting bottle is just soaking 
 all the man out of him ? Think of Mollie ! I wish 
 Charlie was dead ! I wish I was dead ! Everybody ! " 
 
 She was accenting this declaration in her usual way, 
 when she saw two tears course down her mother's face 
 below the gold-bowed glasses, and fall, round and glisten 
 ing, among her forgotten, tangling worsted balls. The 
 raw recruit in the camp of pain stopped, remorseful and 
 terrified ; she knew her mother cared as much, but she had 
 not seen her in her veteran's uniform before. A young 
 girl may well tremble before an old woman's tears. 
 " Women can do nothing better than suffer in silence," 
 said the little lady, hastily composing herself. "It is 
 their only defence, my child." 
 
 So Peace thought better of her half-formed resolve to 
 remonstrate with Mr. Allwood, and worse of the liquor 
 trade, and kept away from Top Town altogether, leaving 
 Louis to go on unwarned. Toward summer Euphemia 
 Hitchcock came up to spend a week or two with some 
 friends, and Louis sought her out at a sociable, and asked 
 after Mollie. But Miss Adeliza had not seen her, though 
 she opined such constancy to mission-work was " likely 
 to make one peaked." 
 
 Even this doubtful news was the source of misfortune ; 
 for, being obliged to return to the " Cereus," he confided 
 her to Charley, who undertook to see her home. Notwith 
 standing her confidences with Miss Petingil, the fair 
 Hitchcock started forth triumphant in the exchange. 
 But her escort, tiring of her inanities, halted in mid-road. 
 " If you aren't afraid to go alone the rest of the way, I'm
 
 202 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 not," said he, and left her : a circumstance which she 
 neither forgave nor forgot. 
 
 A lowered view of life ; a distrust of one's fellows ; a 
 thirst for excitement ; a settling back from the race, are 
 not surer signs of folly than precursors of fall. Into this 
 state Louis was now come, and the result was inevitable. 
 Neither Mollie's letters nor her love could now stem the 
 current. Indeed, Mollie seemed a long way behind in 
 his life-journey ; it was hardly more real than a dream to 
 him that he had ever known her. But his one possibil 
 ity lay in the fact that the memory was a blissful dream. 
 
 One Sunday night, about this time, the family were all 
 collected in the library around a green bass-wood fire. 
 This same fuel was a speculation of Mr. Pelican's. He 
 had bought a large quantity because of its white and 
 beautiful appearance, in expectation of a fine blaze. 
 
 " I declare ! " cried Charley, after poking and punching 
 the sizzling stuff in vain, "if father'd give up benevo 
 lence and buy two or more cords of this, he could put 
 hell out." 
 
 "O my son!" exclaimed his mother, disquieted by 
 the profane allusion. 
 
 " I solemnly believe it," reiterated he. " That reminds 
 me. Father, have you told the Sunday-school lately about 
 the pious old lady, who was so poor she was obliged to 
 read her Bible all night by the moonshine coming down 
 chimney? He did, mother ; I heard him myself." 
 
 Mrs. Pelican's delicate soul-machinery was very sensi 
 tive to the endless jars of her robust household. She 
 felt that her husband's corns were trod on, and looked at 
 him with helpless concern. The wicked twinkle in Char 
 ley's eyes was ominous of a worse onslaught, and, anxious 
 to change the subject, she insinuated mildly, "Bimmy, 
 dear, let's sing a hymn."
 
 8&IPTLES8 FOLKS. 203 
 
 Now as her good man had superintended a Sunday- 
 school, led in a prayer-meeting, presided over a mission 
 ary society, and heard three sermons that day, he had no 
 further appetite for honeycomb. " Peace, woman, peace ! " 
 he exclaimed, pushing back the suggestion with both 
 hands ; " I loathe everything good." 
 
 c< Mother'll have to hang her harp on a willow-tree," 
 said Charley in a bantering tone. "Father's had too 
 much whang-doodle." 
 
 If Mrs. Pelican's vocabulary of proper names had in 
 cluded that legendary bird's, she might not have felt hurt. 
 As it was, she supposed the allusion was a term of oppro 
 brium especially referring to her proposal, and sat, meek 
 and forlorn, in the corner. 
 
 Loxiis, who was seldom included in the family misun 
 derstandings, presently opened the piano and began to 
 play quietly, and, after a few minutes' hopeless survey of 
 the prospects for pious union, the old lady drew her 
 rocker toward the instrument and composed herself to 
 listen. 
 
 This would have been good policy in Louis, under 
 ordinary circumstances. Mr. Pelican immediately leaned 
 back in his lounging-chair, and stretched out his feet for 
 a nap, and Charley, who had a tremendous bass voice, 
 proceeded to improvise a vocal accompaniment. But 
 malignant fate has swift revenges for people who under 
 take to baulk her plans for being disagreeable. She sug 
 gested artfully to Absalom, watching his mother as she 
 swayed back and forth to the rhythm of the music, that 
 Louis was supplanting him in her affections. The more 
 he glowered at the picture and compared his brusquerie 
 to his chum's thoughtful tact, the more obvious became 
 the sequence. Delighted at the thought of giving his old 
 friend a nice evening, the musician was laying himself out
 
 204 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 to please. Variations of the " Swiss Boy," " Buena Vista 
 Polka," ''Postilion of Lonjumeau," " L'Enfer Quadrilles," 
 Gluck's " Gavotte," all the old-fashioned favorites he could 
 remember, followed each other in animated succession, and 
 Charley's new-born jealousy augmented every moment. 
 
 "Small herbs have grace; but great weeds grow apace." 
 
 It was actually eleven o'clock when the minstrelsy 
 ended, and long before that, C. Pelican, Esq., after throw 
 ing the whole contents of his pocket at the performer, bit 
 by bit, gave up the hope of stilling his energy, and re 
 tired to put snuff on his pillows, in small attempt at re 
 venge ; and he actually arose at three next morning, and 
 stole to Louis' bedside to hide a hair-brush in his boot 
 and add alum to his tooth-powder, before his mischief- 
 teeming brain would rest. 
 
 The day following, as these little ebullitions had not 
 eased his mind, Charley planned a double visit to the 
 opera and the youth's prayer-meeting, in company with a 
 young lady better known to his male acquaintances than 
 their sisters. Unfortunately old Mr. Pelican happened 
 to preside at the latter, and, spying his ill-doing heir, he 
 took early occasion to administer a tremendous raking 
 over, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have 
 been received as a matter of course. But the main burden 
 of it was to hold up Louis as a pattern, and this gave a 
 second turn to the snow-ball. Henceforth it grew 
 mightily. Louis could not issue a direction in the store, 
 whose management was largely in his hands, nor open the 
 door for Mrs. Pelican, nor pick up her handkerchief, nor 
 talk confidentially five minutes with his father, without 
 spurring it with fresh impetus down that steep hill on 
 whose tops sits distrust frowning upon confidence asleep 
 below,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 205 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 " Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold ; 
 Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old." 
 
 FEW weeks after Amos' donkey-ride, Mollie 
 and Mr. Haythorne planned an unprecedented 
 entertainment, the same being nothing less than 
 a tea-party at little Doppy's. Since Mr. Haythorne's 
 assumption of Doppy's class it had multiplied in numbers, 
 and shone in erratic verses above all others. There is a 
 tradition of one of the latter still handed down, supposed 
 to have been produced by a very juvenile member of the 
 sisterhood : 
 
 ' ' Plenty of fishes in the brook, 
 Daddy ketch 'em wid a hook ; 
 Mammy fry 'em in de pan, 
 Daddy eat 'em like a man." 
 
 But whether, as Peace insisted, this novel Bible recita 
 tion was the result of Mr. Haythorne's industry, this de 
 ponent saith not. Peace, who was again in Millville for 
 the summer, seemed delighted with the tea-party idea, 
 and invited herself. It would have been wise in you to 
 have done the same. 
 
 The fact is curious that we owe to the agents of our 
 worst ills their occasional alleviation. Par exemple, if old 
 Mulligan, whose drunkenness was the source of his 
 daughter's troubles, had not got very drunk that morning, 
 and so absented himself for a week's spree, her tea-party 
 might have lacked the successful termination insured by 
 his absence. As it was, a town election the day previous 
 being the indirect cause, and corruption of the ballot,
 
 206 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 and the consequent folly of certain wretched husbands, 
 fathers, brothers, and sons, the direct, his pocket was 
 full, and he started for Top Town instanter, to spend the 
 contents. 
 
 Then began scrubbings and sweepings on the part of 
 Doppy, and comments and good advice from Master 
 Daley, who had begged holiday and immediately trans 
 ferred himself to his friend's hospitable door-posts. 
 
 " Now, Amos," said the maiden, as she tucked up her 
 beds resplendent with two green-and-yellow patchwork 
 quilts, " ain't them splendid ! The colors is so cheerin'. 
 Do ye mind me tellin' ye yesterday that father give me 
 the money to git' em from the pawnshop ? Mother she 
 made 'em jest afore she died." 
 
 Yes, Ainos minded ; and how came the glass out of 
 the window? 
 
 " Them's the fruits of timperance," said Doppy in angry 
 irony, bestowing a kick on the coals that old Mulligan had 
 scattered over the floor in a drunken tumble. " Yis, timper 
 ance ! ATI' why don't ye ask where the fine new curtings 
 has gone that me and Miss McCross made no longer 
 ago'n Saturday week ! Whin I meditates cousarnin' the 
 meanness of min, I could hate 'em all, even you, Amos ! " 
 
 " Thin I wouldn't think on't," said he, not much 
 alarmed, to all appearance. Doppy, however, did think 
 on't, and a still more emphatic kick preluded a flood of 
 tears rather stormy than beautifying. Her freckled swain 
 eyed her awhile with an extremely puzzled air, then took 
 one hand from his trousers' pockets and scratched his head 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 " An' was it Goodheart's ? " 
 
 " Yis, it were Good Hearts," with a stamp. " If you 
 don't quit gawpin' there at me that's so miserable, I'll 
 shy coals at you." Whereat he found it best to disap-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. _ ~ 
 
 pear, first, however, enticing die pet hen into the room to 
 act as comforter. 
 
 It win be hereby perceived thai Doppy's straggles after 
 respectability had produced their invariable meed of 
 heart-ache, which, by the way, her friend Mollie shared 
 tothefnlL 
 
 :!. . . . :_ ..-..*: .'__ :-. ..-:-..-._:_ -'.:."",--,, . ^ -/;.- ; -.*. 
 with rooe-colored silk and daintily famished, in process 
 of manufccfcure for Miss Mulligan "In the first place, 
 it's wicked to waste such lovely things." 
 
 "Waste?" Moffie was going to lift her eyebrows in 
 superior wisdom, and let it go, but womanly love. of 
 self-defence got the better. u This only cost four dollars ; 
 
 I _ ..-; "_- : :_-'.." .-..I. 'Li.-'.'..--. I- -1- - -: --.--_-: -.1. ^ 
 
 cotton wagon. I saw yon pay jfcee for the turkey yon 
 presented Barney CTHara last Christmas. That only 
 lasted a day, and this will be useful a long time." 
 
 " Who cares for a commonplace turkey I " said Peace, 
 "firt* long-legged thing! Bat this is so delicate and 
 adyfike. It is out of taste for tsrii people to have tnfh 
 
 How provoking in Mollie to laogh. 
 "I know what yon will say," continued Peace, color 
 ing with vexed sense of defeat. *Yon wish to excite as- 
 
 better than wealth.' If yon don't fret them with sense 
 of Iaek,they11 never know the difference. Whatifthey 
 live like pigs? That's all that^ asked of them. I think 
 yon do them a positive injury when yon put inch ideas 
 in their heads. They're a great deal mace unhappy 
 :-.:. :- ,- v-.-.- : - : ;./,-.-_ -,-; . : -,-.-:. :_,:_" 
 
 ^Perhaps they are," said Mollie gravely, though I 
 don't bdneve it But that does not prove me wrong.
 
 208 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 In this life, or the next, we have ultimately just what we 
 earn. Success fairly pays for our efforts, and I think any 
 amount of misery worth enduring, if we may thereby 
 struggle up into a higher state of existence. The fact is " 
 (she spoke with the conviction that comes from expe 
 rience), " every step we gain is through pain, either ours 
 or another's sharper in direct proportion to our ad 
 vance. It has come to me lately, that Christ's best gift 
 was the power to find in pain, formerly the curse of life, 
 a ministry of blessing." 
 
 Peace, like most people who prefer this world's joys to 
 the other's, and instead of taking tremble for its worth, re 
 fuse to take it at all, and so have it forced on them, 
 Peace looked uncomfortable, and edged off. 
 
 We return to Doppy at the same moment with Amos, 
 and find her still gathered into a disconsolate heap on the 
 floor, absently smoothing the pet hen with one hand, and 
 arranging the scattered cinders in gray squares and tri 
 angles with the other. She jumped up ashamed of her 
 emotion, and hurried to the sink for the water-pail, intent 
 to escape to the well. But he, no whit abashed, dis 
 played the missing hangings, and called her to come and 
 look, in proud triumph. 
 
 "No, I won't!" resolutely. "I'll not be in no one's 
 debt ; I hain't no money. Father takes every cint I airn 
 at the mill. Them as borrers, sorrers mind that." Dop 
 py bowed her head on the handle of the bucket and wept 
 aloud. 
 
 Amos dropped his bundle, and eyed her in blank mis 
 ery. " I say, Doppy, I hain't asked ye to borrer," said 
 he, after revolving the case doubtfully awhile. " I 
 thought ye wanted to be respectable, so I got the cur- 
 tings. If ye hadn't had the pawn-ticket on the floor 
 stamping on't, I couldn't ha' done it; so it's all your
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 209 
 
 fault, an' I shan't take 'em back." The good-natured 
 fellow looked ready to follow his friend's example and in 
 dulge in damp emotions. 
 
 " Amos, how can I ever be respectable ? " said the poor 
 girl, appealing to him as a refuge of strength. " What 
 with father, an' livin' here in this nasty hole, an' havin' 
 Joe upstairs, an' bein' so ignorant myself, it's too much 
 to ask. I'm wretched ! " 
 
 " Now, Doppy, you'll come out ahead," said Amos, 
 drawing closer, and evidently believing his own words. 
 " I'll tell you what I'd do," speaking with great effort ; 
 "I'd I'd " He hesitated. 
 
 " Go on," said Doppy expectantly. 
 
 " I'd do the best I could." 
 
 This advice may seem trite, but not to Doppy. The 
 want in her heart was as well filled thus as ever were 
 Barbara Farquhar or the " Wide, Wide World " heroine 
 or Aurora Leigh or Guenevere or Ursula Halifax or any 
 other written-up ladies sustained and comforted by their 
 devoted adorers. It is the manifested desire to lift the 
 burden, not the way in which it is handled, that helps 
 women to bear. As for the weight itself, that can seldom 
 be more than readjusted at best. 
 
 " I guess I will," said Doppy, with a light-hearted re 
 sumption of her armor, and a cei'tain tender, sweet curve 
 of her red lips, not yet quite steady. 
 
 " Doppy," pursued Mentor earnestly, " you'd best take 
 them curtings ; seems like we wos relations, 'n't don't 
 count." 
 
 She crossed her arms over the water-pail, and reflected, 
 Amos watching in some anxiety. " Them's true 
 words," said she at last. " We is relations, fur we're 
 tryin' to be somebody, 'n I'll do it for you, Amos Daley, 
 which I wouldn't fur no one else."
 
 210 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 So they had a grand cleaning frolic, that even a few 
 sighs over the sadly deteriorated appearance of the win 
 dow-hangings couldn't sadden, their owner consoling her 
 self, after the manner of house-keepers, by remembering 
 that every one had seen them clean once, which proved 
 that they might be again. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that, in squabble or making up, 
 Master Daley never laid so much as a finger on his little 
 friend. Mollie had given vent to too many strictxires 
 regarding such trifling indecorums, to have them seem 
 pleasant or honorable to Doppy. Once only, months 
 before, Amos had put his arm around her in a fit of 
 enthusiasm ; but the result was disagreeable, 
 
 " An' is it to take advantage of a poor gii'l's tears 
 you're here, Amos Daley ? " cried she, springing to her 
 feet, and dashing aside his hand vehemently. " An' 
 haven't I enough sorrer on my heart, not to be makin' 
 it run over wid sufferin' along o' losin' me likin' for 
 meself? n' that's what yer caresses is leadin' to. Go 
 long wid ye for a sneakin' Paddy, n' not the brave b'y I 
 thought at all, at all." And he never got so much as a 
 glance for a week. 
 
 Mollie and Peace had prepared for their festivity in 
 methods peculiar to themselves ; the former by an hour's 
 Bible reading and prayer, the latter by a new set of ex 
 tremely becoming ribbons. 
 
 These friends, so completely antagonistic, yet united, 
 made a curious couple. Peace, with her dark, imperious 
 beauty, snapped her fingers at circumstances, and fasci 
 nated everyone as a matter of enjoyed opposition there 
 to ; while Mollie quietly compelled her surroundings into 
 harmony with herself and each other. 
 
 Their arrival, however, put a quietus to the house 
 keeping of their young hosts; and a hasty exit, via
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 211 
 
 the window, on the part of Amos, awoke momentary 
 misgivings in the souls of the detecting guests. But his 
 speedy entrance, in a clean collar, through the door, 
 calmed their fears ; and they concentrated their energies 
 upon unpacking the baskets, setting the table, and re 
 viewing the household crockery, viz. : one gravy-boat, 
 landscape pattern ; an egg-glass with half a standard ; 
 three teacups inscribed to " my wife " ; four tin plates, 
 with the alphabet on them ; and a tin soup-dish, that 
 Mollie recognized as having once been Mrs. Bradshaw's, 
 the relic of a happy anniversary. And she smiled, 
 even in the arduous duty of setting forth the salad, 
 when she remembered the ride on the ox-cart with 
 Peace and Louis tete-a-tete, and the fun that brimmed 
 its now battered concave. 
 
 Diligent counting of noses, however, revealed a defi 
 ciency in even these bountiful stores. Doppy came to 
 the rescue. With her hands on her hips, she told of 
 Joe, " a broth of a girl intirely," that would like to come 
 and bring her crockery ; and that young lady, bashfully 
 belligerent, made her entree. 
 
 Peace and Mollie both shrank back thoroughly uncom 
 fortable under the bold black eyes unwaveringly fixed on 
 them. But the critic manifested no embarrassment. 
 She seated herself at once, stared contemptuously, ex 
 tracted some soothing compound from her pocket, which 
 she chewed, and kicked her bare, dirty heels, and squared 
 her elbows, in haughty silence. Perhaps this love-for 
 gotten waif had depths of heroism and constancy in her 
 nature; but, if so, these clean, high-bred girls held no 
 key thereto. She hated them, as matter of course, while 
 she calculated shrewdly whether anything could be got 
 from their strange dinner-party freak. 
 
 Meanwhile the feast was made ready, and if not set out
 
 212 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 v " Wi' sauce ragouts and sic like trashtrie, 
 
 That's little short o' downright wastrie," 
 
 yet, what with the parsley-garnished ham, a trifle hacked 
 from a jackknife in Amos' pocket, the great heap of 
 parti-colored candies, the crisp salad, the snowy biscuit, 
 and, last but not least, the fragrant tea, it made no poor 
 display. When once the party were fairly seated, 
 
 " Dire was the clang of plates, of knife and fork, 
 That merc'less fell like tomahawks at work." 
 
 A few minutes before dinner Doppy's protegee loquitur : 
 " Please, ma'am, won't you' gi' me some shoes ? my 
 feets is all bare." Amos interposing, "You sha'n't 
 plague 'em askin' fur things." But Mollie beckoned 
 the child toward her : " Are you too old to be cuddled?" 
 said she pleasantly. 
 
 " Dun know," quoth Joe, action and tone alike new 
 to her, and suffered herself to be drawn close to Mollie, 
 as she sat on the old settle. 
 
 Full of her craving instinct of mother-yearning, my 
 darling was smiling, in her own guileless, winning charm, 
 straight into Joe's poverty-scratched soul, and the stub 
 born girl had no defence to keep her out. She didn't 
 say much; these old want-twisted children never do. 
 They are always observing, calculating, learning, suffer 
 ing; but to their gently reared friends they have few 
 words. Yet after that day, Mollie never met this poor 
 little one when a smile did not overspread her face and 
 soften her great black eyes. 
 
 But Peace, who wasn't much given to petting, least of 
 all such repulsive specimens, observed a cloud on 
 Doppy's face. A kick levelled at Chaw-em-up suggested 
 jealousy. Of the clutches of the green-eyed fiend, 
 friends, dogs, and kittens are alike made sensible !
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 213 
 
 " Won't you sit by me ? " said Miss Pelican, on 
 pacific thoughts intent. 
 
 " I ain't a baby ; I got done such child's-play a long 
 while ago." Doppy drew herself up, and accented the 
 Yankee compound word with dignity. 
 
 Joe was on her feec in a moment. " So did I ! she 
 held onter me." 
 
 Amos whistled, whereat Doppy poked him viciously 
 in the ribs, eliciting a grunt, while an expression of 
 stupid astonishment crossed his good-natured face. 
 
 Luckily Mr. Haythorne's entrance concentrated all at 
 tention on the feast, and for the time green eyes was for 
 gotten. 
 
 The new arrival was mainly attentive to Mollie ; but 
 Peace touched his hand airily. " Be not familiar with 
 any woman, but commend all good women in general to 
 God," quoth she. 
 
 After this hint, he bestowed his cares on Doppy, who 
 was not deceived thereby, and told Amos, who had 
 several times during the meal bestowed unmistakably dis 
 paraging glances at the red-haired Sybarite, that Miss 
 Peace wanted Haythorne herself, but she reckoned he 
 liked Miss Mollie best. Meanwhile the supper as a to 
 tality was joyous and brave, and Doppy's loquacity grew 
 greater every moment. Having once learned to trust 
 her friends, she had perfect repose in them, and not a 
 shadow of thought seemed to her worth reservation. En 
 couraged by her fearless freedom, Joe ventured a little, 
 and the talk ran on the wonderful garden at Fir Covert, 
 and the treasures thereof, not excepting Poppy in her green 
 and gold coat. Doppy was accustomed to read fairy 
 tales aloud to her friend in her Saturday visits, and the 
 limits of the McCross domain contained the whole stock 
 of stage machinery with which she was able to drama-
 
 214 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 tize in her thought the wonders and beauties she found 
 described. For stories, tell them aptly as you may, go 
 on the theatre of every hearer's imagination, to be fur 
 nished with such scenery as memory may have picked 
 up, and fitted with such passions for actors as Heaven 
 and the experience of your critic may have provided. 
 What wonder, then, if our tragedy is stale, or our farce 
 drags ! Figure the Pacha putting John Halifax in rehear 
 sal ! Alas ! poor Yorick ! 
 
 But it was Poppy who filled Doppy's conception full. 
 What had she not stood for" The Singing Bird," " The 
 Enchanted Princess," " The Malignant Fairy," " Pooh- 
 Pooh's Brother Phoenix," "The Ugly Duckling." To 
 her dying day Dorothea loved her. What wonder she 
 waxed eloquent ! " Only to see her ways, perliter than 
 anybody's, and her rid eyes." 
 
 " Yis, she allus kisses when you gives her anything, 
 and eats it right away," said Amos, applying his remark 
 by a kick at Joe's toes. 
 
 " I can do that myself," said the disconcerted damsel, 
 putting an enormous piece of sponge-cake into her mouth, 
 in effort to appear at home. " He says, ' Dear Louis, dear 
 Mary, ptchoo ! ' that's a kiss, you know. I've often heerd 
 him in your garden afore any one was up." Then becom 
 ing conscious of what her confession involved, Joe turned 
 very red and took refuge behind a biscuit. " Mr. All- 
 wood's name is Louis," added she, reappearing. " Mr. 
 Allwood is the nicest man ever I see. He has the littlest 
 foot entirely, and the voice of him so sweet like a melo- 
 deon. He allus give me a penny. He ain't here no 
 more, is he, Miss McCross ? " 
 
 Peace, who enjoyed such complications, stole a look at 
 Mr. Haythorne, and smiled benevolently at the uncon 
 scious Malaprop ; and Mollie answered, " He's in Top
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 215 
 
 Town with Miss Pelican's brother. I haven't seen him 
 for a long time. I wish he was home." The remark, 
 more to herself than her questioner, need not have been 
 so disagreeable to the gentleman opposite. Mollie had 
 forgotten that he existed. 
 
 " Likely he's sick," said Doppy, with a view to conso 
 lation, while Joe, being admonished to hush by a poke 
 from Amos under the table, flushed with wrath, and ex 
 claimed : 
 
 " I won't keep still ! I'll talk if I please, darn you ! 
 He's her feller. Haven't I seen 'em walking together 
 lots o' times, when I went by begging rags of old woman 
 McCross, as never gave me a thing at all for me pains, 
 bad cess to her ! " Having done her worst, she escaped 
 from the room. 
 
 Then succeeded an awful pause, broken by Doppy, who 
 exclaimed apologetically, " Don't mind her ; she hain't no 
 manners nohow, an' I'm most sure she was drunk." 
 
 " I wouldn't feel bad about losing my little secret," 
 suggested Peace with profound malice ; " such trumpery 
 is like the ointment of a man's right hand which betray - 
 eth itself." 
 
 tc It has never been a secret," said Mollie, a trifle 
 haughtily, the rude exposure of her inmost springs of 
 act and feeling seeming almost like a public shame put 
 on her. " I supposed all the world knew that I intend 
 to be Mr. Allwood's wife." 
 
 Peace could not resist a second glance at Francis Hay- 
 thorne, whose cheek showed a slight flush, as well as the 
 tips of his small, shell-like ears ; but his eyes met hers 
 with their usual serenity. 
 
 " Did you say you were going to wash the dishes, Miss 
 Pelican ? " in an insinuating query. 
 
 " Your noblest natures are most credulous," she re-
 
 216 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 torted, curving her handsome lip, disgusted. Then 
 her eyes began to dance : " Prithee, peace ! " in a 
 taunting tone. " I dare do all that may become a man ; 
 who dare do more is none ; " and handed him the dish- 
 towel, which he held as if he expected it to explode. 
 
 This is the way some small sprinkle of fate reduces to 
 smoke our delicate catherine-wheels, rockets, and fiery 
 crowns and daggers : all rough imitations of the star of 
 true love revolving close and constant about the great 
 beneficent source of flame. Or if, as the liberal reader may 
 insist, they be imitations rather of Mars than Venus, still, 
 inasmuch as any real ambition, be it warlike or peace 
 ful, is still a matter of true love, I beg leave to retain the 
 figure. But the discolored flame of fancy, evanescent 
 of no more substantial source than a quarter teaspoonful 
 of strontium burned in a few grains of gunpowder bears 
 little resemblance to the torch of affection. Mr. Hay- 
 thorne found so excellent consolation in this reductio ad 
 veram, that in a week he wondered how he could ever 
 have wasted so much good time about such unprofitable 
 pyrotechnics, and, before a fortnight passed, observed 
 many things in his former admiration that could be 
 altered for the better. 
 
 Dishes being at last put away under Miss Pelican's 
 directions, they played, " Button, button ; who's got the 
 button ? " and Doppy never went empty-handed when it 
 was Amos' turn to say " Hold fast." 
 
 Peace moved about the homely room stately as a fir-tree, 
 and Mr. Haythorne noticed her fascinating ways and be 
 wildering eyes with new interest the interest of appro 
 priation. She was in the mood for " sharpening her toma 
 hawk," she told Mollie, and his Sybarite inertia was 
 very provoking. So they played a beautiful scene of 
 exquisitely refined flirtation in high life all the evening,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 217 
 
 which Doppy and Amos admii-ecl very much, and Miss 
 Mulligan more and more regretted Joe's flight from the 
 whole premises, and consequent loss of the improving 
 spectacle. For Joe's ideal already diverged almost to 
 polarity from her mate's, and this was a grief to Doppy. 
 
 Mollie didn't care at all about her admirer's desertion, 
 but sat smiling and happy, reading motto-papers to the 
 delighted Amos, who looked and felt all arms and legs, 
 saying pleasant things to Doppy nestling fondly to her 
 side, and bestowing an occasional approving glance upon 
 Peace and her recreant knight, absolutely unconscious 
 that she ought to feel hurt. She felt able, and liked to 
 please, in her simple, earnest fashion ; but coquetry in its 
 lightest form was a riddle to her. The extenuation is at 
 hand Louis was hers ; Louis was all she asked. 
 
 Toward the end of the evening, Peace whispered con 
 fidentially to Mollie, who thereupon proposed to play a 
 new game, and blindfolded Doppy. Miss Pelican handed 
 out a trifle of a kerchief, and pointed to Amos. But 
 Mr. Haythorne protested that he could easily look it into 
 shreds, and producing a cambric monstrosity, the size of 
 a small table-cloth, tied it about the boy's head with 
 impressive solemnity. 
 
 "All's dark and comfortless. Where's my son 
 Edmond?" he cried, in a menacing tone. 
 
 If you want to give people a sense of perfect helpless 
 ness, take away their eyes. Doesn't Aldritch say so ? 
 Accordingly our ruffling Amos was meek as a lamb. " I 
 don't know, sir," he made humble answer. 
 
 This tickled Peace into continuing the farce. " Dost 
 thou squiny at me ? " she exclaimed in a hollow voice. 
 l( I remember thine eyes well enough. No ! do thy worst, 
 blind Cupid, I'll not love." 
 
 " I'm not doin' nothin'," said Amos, turning pale. 
 10
 
 218 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " What be yces about there ? If ye say much more, I'll 
 snip this darned blinder off, n' leave." 
 
 After a brief season of twitching and turning, pinning 
 and laughing mysteriously, and pulling off and putting 
 on, the knotted muslin was unfastened from the subjects' 
 heads, and their metamorphosis became apparent to them 
 selves. To be sure, Mr. Haythorne, hampered by the 
 difficulties of the case, had only pinned Amos' new shirts 
 on behind, and sus'pended the trousers in front, but that 
 was no consequence. As for Doppy, one would not wish 
 to see a fairer sight than she presented in her dainty 
 dress and jaunty straw, from beneath which her curls 
 strayed in so charming confusion. 
 
 " My ! " said Amos. tf By hooky, ain't you sweet- 
 lookin' ! " 
 
 " Give us a rest ! " retorted Doppy. " Your own 
 mother'd mistake you fur an up-town chap, just you wance 
 git inside them things." 
 
 Then she threw her arms about Mollie's neck, minded 
 equally to kiss or cry ; seeing which, Mr. Haythorne hid 
 himself behind a door lest Amos should do likewise. He 
 needn't have taken the pains, however, for those hand 
 some garments seemed to have transformed rough, blunt 
 Master Daley. He eyed them wistfully, hands in pockets, 
 as they lay in a pile on a chair, where they had been put 
 in the general excitement of pleasant bustle ; then, with a 
 final furtive grab, slid from the room, to reappear in full 
 bloom of elegance. 
 
 " How is your health, Miss Dorothea ? " said he, in the 
 diffidence of modest propriety, advancing with unwonted 
 grace ; " n' may I have the honor of seein' ye to the 
 minstrels' Monday night? We'll have a parquette seat." 
 
 " Yis, certainly," replied she, with equal dignity. " It 
 would give me great pleasure ; ain't them the words,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 219 
 
 Miss Mollie ? Amos ! it pays to be respectable, don't 
 it ? And yon mind I was right about the white cloes." 
 Theu she laid her little red hand in her friend's lap. 
 " You mustn't ever mind Amos, Miss McCross ; he's 
 rough, but he means well, and we've made it up together 
 always to do just as you say ; " which is the Celtic idea of 
 gratitude. 
 
 Much to his astonishment, Francis Haythorne had 
 enjoyed the affair hugely. He was a trifle ashamed of it, 
 too; and told Peace by way of apology, as they went 
 home that night, that ennui as well as wit sometimes 
 tempts a man to play the fool with great courage. 
 
 " That remark makes me add vanity to the list," she 
 retorted pointedly. 
 
 " You are unkind," said he, blushing to the roots of his 
 auburn hair. " I really think with Goethe, one is only 
 properly alive when he seeks the good wishes of others." 
 
 " And I, with myself, that no man is to be so much 
 despised as he who is ashamed of his own virtues." 
 
 " My idea was, that out of so many I could afford to 
 cut off a few," he averred, with outward effrontery, and 
 inward wrath. 
 
 " On the contrary, I'd smoke those I had left in hope 
 of their preservation," pui-sued Peace malignantly, re 
 solved that the contemplated cigar should be no calm to 
 his ruffled soul. 
 
 " Goethe says nothing to the point," he replied, strik 
 ing a lucifer on his knee, and preparing to light the odor 
 ous Habana between his handsome lips. 
 
 " Yes, he does ! " blowing out the match, as he shel 
 tered it in his hollowed hand. " He says every one has 
 something in his nature which, if openly expressed, 
 would insure dislike, and that's you when you fume. 
 Now, how are your little feelings ? "
 
 220 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 "I can only fling away my comforter, and protest 
 with John Knox against the awful regiment of women." 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 " Pussy said to the owl, 
 'You elegant fowl'" 
 
 | HE season in Top Town promised to open very 
 brilliantly. Charley, indeed, had made up his 
 mind to have nothing less than a masqueiude. 
 
 " Snooks and Sneezers ! " said he, in confidence to 
 Louis, who was for the time being restored to favor, 
 " why should one wait till one's all fagged out with 
 gayety and ready to bust for two and a half, before one 
 ventures on the best thing of all ? We won't, my gentle 
 swain." 
 
 Accordingly Peace was written to, and she, in her 
 turn, summoned Francis Haythorne, and Mollie, and 
 Susie Jenkens and her father. Mrs. McCross wouldn't 
 hear of her daughter's complying, but the others were 
 glad to accept the invitation. 
 
 Peace, whose mission it was to improve Charley, lost 
 no time in taking him aside and bestowing a little sis 
 terly criticism. " Please to be as quiet as possible, and, 
 above all, don't neglect your table manners," said she. " I 
 don't want the idea carried back to Millville that we live 
 in a wigwam. The other day, I know, I saw you put 
 something into your mouth with your knife, and I've 
 often spoken to you about your right elbow, which you 
 frequently lean on the table. For mercy's sake, don't ! "
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 221 
 
 As a matter of course, Mr. Pelican shut his left eye flat, 
 and executed an ominous wink with the other. " Teach 
 your grandmother ! " cried he. " That snip of a Herr is 
 the root of all this anxiety. I'll lay myself out to show 
 the family breeding, dear, don't be afraid ; " and there 
 upon ran off without more ado. 
 
 The Top Town Dancing Academy Hall was hired on 
 account of its tiny gallery, so nice for viewing the 
 dresses ; and all the elite were borrowing costume-books 
 at the Institute, and Hazeltine's picture-gallery was be 
 sieged for foreign prints. Wigs, trussing points, padding 
 legs, and choosing knee-breeches were objects of para 
 mount importance to the male youth, while gauze wings, 
 trains, wire masks, and rosettes upon infinitesimal slip 
 pers were of similar weight upon the hearts of the 
 fairer sex. 
 
 The Millville people arrived in season for tea, and 
 Francis Haythorne met Louis for the first time. It took 
 only two minutes to bring them together at the piano. 
 Once there, Louis' perfectly delicate and tender legato 
 touch wrung praise for his adagios from the critic, in 
 spite of himself, and Francis Haythorne, who had the 
 pearl-like execution of Hummel's students, and yet de 
 spised Hummel, played Liszt's fantasias till Louis was 
 radiant with enthusiasm. They had begun improvising 
 together in true brotherly fashion, although the doctor's 
 style herein was labored, when Charley beckoned Louis 
 away. 
 
 " It's tea-time now ! " was Absalom's vexed exclama 
 tion. " My cake is all dough ! There's my costume 
 that magnificent devil," pointing to a sable heap of horns, 
 bats' pinions, and hoofs lying in a chair. " If you don't 
 help me, I'm ruined. Gizzard has found out about it, 
 and told every one it's my rig. Just change with me.
 
 222 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 I know your robes and mantle will go. There's a 
 friend." 
 
 " No, they will not," said Louis, ptilling over Satan's 
 skin ; " they wouldn't cover your shoulders. The idea 
 of your prinking yourself as Jeremiah ! This is a very 
 complete devil. I'll tell you what : if you choose to loan 
 him to me, I'll fix you up a nobby thing. You must go 
 down-town and get a complete set of flesh- colored tights, 
 five or six woolly sheepskins, a quantity of doll-babies 
 to hang by the hair at your belt, sandals, a huge club, 
 and that one-eyed mask we were looking at this morning, 
 with a long beard attached coming down below your 
 waist. The cloak and breeches will be of the rough 
 hides. Won't that be a divine Polyphemus ? ' Mon- 
 strum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum ? ' 
 Remember ? " 
 
 " Exactly," said Charley, with brightening face. " I'll 
 make a meal of any one that denies it. Just what that 
 old Gospel-grinder dubbed me that night. What a lark 
 it was ! This is the tucker." 
 
 So it was settled ; and Louis had the oddest sensation 
 of casting off his identity when he donned his satanic 
 garb, with its great, round red and yellow eyes, a forked 
 tail that trailed on the ground and could be made to 
 switch by pulling two tapes, immense branching horns, 
 a goat's beard, cloven hoof, claw gloves, and a pair of 
 bats' wings big enough for Icarus' aerial flight, not to 
 mention the equally unfortunate excursion of Darius 
 Green. 
 
 He was even sorry to defer the pleasure of assuming 
 the new personality till after supper, and, descending to 
 the table, he found Peace equally excited. She was care 
 lessly arrayed in a loose crimson neglige, which enhanced 
 the brilliancy of her face ; her jetty hair, twisted into a
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 223 
 
 knot, had half slipped from its fastenings and uncoiled in 
 all its richness upon her shoulders as she conversed 
 eagerly with the immaculately clad physician, who was 
 toying with his dish of Louisiana figs. 
 
 Dr. Jenkens was talking about specie payment with 
 Mr. Pelican, senior, at the lower end of the table, and 
 Susie sat watching the handsome Absalom opposite her, 
 whom she met for the first time since childhood, as he 
 was always Jan Vedder's guest in Millville, and never 
 called at her home. 
 
 " So you do not think me like a rose or a hyacinth or a 
 violet or a tulip," Peace was saying a little anxiously ; 
 the fire in her intoxicating eyes and the flush on her 
 damask cheek brighter than usual, as always when she 
 was coquetting. 
 
 "No," he answered, watching her, fascinated ; "lean- 
 not say so with truth. That gorgeous spike of flowers 
 in the vase yonder, so upright majestically haughty is 
 more akin to you." 
 
 "Oh! gladiolus," cried Peace, smiling at some inner 
 agreement of wish. " I am quite satisfied with the simile. 
 
 " Not gladiolus, but gladius," laughed he. " You are 
 no little sword. I was sure the scarlet beauty was one 
 with you in that keen, trenchant quality of which I have 
 so often been the victim. Pray, tie such a knot over 
 your domino that I may be on my guard to-night." 
 
 " As derivations are in order, I do not arrogate to my 
 self the pretensions of a domino," said Peace. " But I 
 detect the aspiration in you do you wear the favor ? for 
 I own no lord, nor ever will." 
 
 " You are keeping Mr. Haythorne from his supper," 
 said Mrs. Pelican. " He eats nothing at all. Louis, is 
 there anything German doctors fancy ? " 
 
 "They are fond of snails and cockchafers," answered
 
 224: SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 the one appealed to, laughing. " Is it not almonds that 
 they taste like ? " 
 
 " We paid the children for picking the beetles from the 
 fruit-trees so many groschen a dozen I forget the price 
 and they ate them themselves. I never touched one." 
 
 " Peace might produce her caterpillar," said Charley, 
 on purpose to be tormenting. Then haviug gained the 
 attention of the company, he began to air the forbidden 
 table manners. "Did you ever try catches?" addressing 
 the dainty Haythorne affably. " This, for example," 
 drumming with his knife-handle. " He can do little who 
 can't do this." As he had been showing Susie how to 
 drop a napkin-ring from his closed fingers, and divers 
 similar tricks, every one was interested to attempt the 
 puzzle, and a prodigious clatter ensued. " The silver 
 moon goes round and round" was next brought for 
 ward, in spite of Peace's frowns ; and then Absalom pro 
 duced his best card, and asked Susie Jenkens if she had 
 ever heard the " Chorus of Fiends." 
 
 " Oh, no ! How is it ? Do give it," was the inevita 
 ble answer. 
 
 " It's nothing without Peace : she invented it. I've 
 taught Louis, but it needs three. It won't go off without 
 her help. She leads, you know." 
 
 " No indeed ! " cried his sister tartly, vexed as much as 
 he wished. "I hoped you'd outgrown such nonsense." 
 
 " Hopes are deceitful," responded Charley, with a 
 wink of aggravation. 
 
 " Do, I want to hear it," begged Susie, curious ; and 
 Francis Haythorne endeavored to be polite by emphasiz 
 ing the request. Even Dr. Jenkens looked interested. 
 There was no escape without rudeness to her guests. 
 Peace covered her wrath with a smile, and the perform 
 ers counted " one, two, three," on their fingers. When
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 225 
 
 the time had been well marked thus silently, they burst 
 into a triad of sepulchral ha ! ha ! ha's ! 
 
 Mr. Pelican, who, absorbed in the money question, 
 hadn't noticed anything that had been going on, now 
 started up at the horrid racket, exclaiming, " What's 
 that?" 
 
 "Your daughter's serenade," said Francis Haythorne, 
 and unawares avenged Charley, which he wouldn't for the 
 world have done willingly. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Pelican were going to keep Dr. Jen- 
 kens company as the Boffins. The good physician had 
 made up his mind to indulge the wish of his lifetime, and 
 personate William Tell, his boyhood's hero. The various 
 members of the family being quite as anxious to remain 
 unknown to each other, as the world at large, made 
 quite a procession of carriages. First came the married 
 people, then Peace and Susie, last Charley and Louis. 
 Francis Haythorne had started previously in search of 
 a friend, a certain German, Dr. Max, who he heard was 
 in town. The lights at the ceiling of the pretty hall 
 were reflected upon as brilliant and grotesque a scene as 
 culture, taste, money, and love of pleasure could devise. 
 Louis, attired in his fiendish costume, found himself con 
 fronted by at least a dozen of his race. There was a 
 devil in shining golden scales with amethystine horns ; 
 there were two fine bronze devils, and one veritable poet's 
 Satan, with red coat and blue breeches. Moreover, a blue 
 bottle fly was at hand, with a velocipede certainly young 
 Gizzard. 
 
 A white, muslin-robed immortality with gauze wings, 
 and a butterfly, fluttered about with St. Agnes in blanche 
 merino, bearing a lamb. Jan Vedder, as Sycorax, bore 
 a small Roman matron on his arm, who proved to be 
 bis mother. A colony of frogs and mice strutted here 
 10*
 
 226 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 and there as perfect as real denizens of pond and field ; 
 while old Mr. Gizzard, gotten up as a Bologna sausage, 
 and Hazeltine the picture-dealer, as the ace of spades, 
 lent character to the company. 
 
 Charley himself made a magnificent Polyphemus. He 
 expanded his chest, swung his dolls, flourished his club, 
 and stalked about, glaring through his huge eye as to 
 the manner born. 
 
 Every one was flitting about guessing the identity of 
 the disguised, and examining the costumes. Laughter 
 and jokes were everywhere heard, and the oft-remarked 
 peculiarity of masquerades that no one ever wears the 
 character that might have been expected was evident 
 here in Top Town as elsewhere. The band played 
 Verdi's bal-masque music. The atmosphere was per 
 fumed, the hum of merry human voices thrilled through 
 the ail', and Louis took in the ensemble with an eager 
 delight. It satisfied his imagination ; he felt as if he 
 must be dreaming. There was no difficulty in recogniz 
 ing his own household. William Toll's blue blouse did 
 not ill assort with the professional manner of good Dr. 
 Jenkens, to be sure, nor did benevolent Mr. Pelican 
 make a poor golden dustman. But his wife, a very, very 
 timid Mrs. Boffin, had already sunk into a corner beside 
 Jan Vedder's Roman mother, where the two found pleas 
 ure enough in watching their children. Never was there 
 a plumper, sweeter Fieur de The" than Susie Jenkens, 
 who was walking about on the arm of a magnificent 
 Teuton with yellow eyes like smoky topazes. Keeping 
 out of the range of these worthies, and totally occupied 
 with each other, were a pair of revellers, whose superb 
 costumes made them the cynosure of all eyes. 
 
 The lady, a gladiolus, over a green petticoat of 
 quilted satin, embroidered down the front with tiny golden
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 227 
 
 tassels, wore a crimson silk train, cut in five pointed gores, 
 each finished as perfectly as a gladiolus petal. Her belt 
 of pale yellow satin supported a golden network hang 
 ing in five tasselled points over the scarlet, as the yel 
 low heart of the gladiolus melts into its ruddier tints. The 
 waist was likewise made of gladiolus petals, so disposed 
 that the shortest came in front, showing her smooth neck 
 in a sort of heart-shaped cutting. The sleeves, barely to 
 the elbow, were gladiolus flowers, and their flaunting cur 
 tain displayed her well-turned arms, albeit the vicious 
 little scolding-bone was there, though rather as a sugges 
 tion than a fault. On her head perched a satin hat the 
 same flower inverted over the blue-black tresses, that, 
 braided with green ribbons and gladiolus blooms, strayed 
 below her girdle. There were more of these flowers fas 
 tened by massive gold bracelets upon her wrists, and she 
 wore them at her bosom, in her belt against her slender 
 waist. At her side hung a sword-scabbard, formed of the 
 martial leaf; a superb curving spray of the knightly 
 blossom even finished her hat as a plume. She was in 
 deed a flower personified. 
 
 Her attendant was Goethe, exactly as he stood in the 
 famous suit of pike gray with gold lace in which he bade 
 farewell to Frederika. He wore stockings, shoes, and a 
 brown powdered bag-wig, to which was affixed a queue ; 
 carried his three-cornei'ed hat under his arm, and, 
 hanging by his side, he, too, bore a short sword. Art 
 had aided nature in producing the noble swelling chest, 
 and pencilled delicately the lines necessary to add Goethe's 
 immense brown eyes for he wore no mask. His own 
 complexion was quite as brilliant as the bard's, and con 
 stant dwelling on his master's thoughts had uncon 
 sciously added to the student's every-day manner some 
 what of his dignity. In short, it did not need the exquis-
 
 228 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 ite bracelet of cameo heads of Lili, Lotta, Frederika, 
 Ottalie, Mignon, Frau von Stein, and Christiane Vul- 
 pius, which he wore, where the Herr Geheimrath once 
 bore his order of nobility, to i-eveal his character. 
 
 Louis hastened toward them at once, but his poet 
 shrank away. " Avaunt ! " said he, " thou common 
 place devil ! Mephistopheles is the only imp I acknowl 
 edge as correct." 
 
 ' ' Du versuchst, O Sonne, vergebens 
 Durch die duestern Wolken zuscheinen," * 
 
 retorted Louis, in the soft but pure accent of Middle 
 Germany, which he had contrived to pick up Heaven 
 knows where. " I must remain the fiend I was born. I 
 thought Goethe too wise to attempt reforming the devil." 
 
 " I certainly stand corrected," rejoined the poet. " I 
 do indeed believe in the metamorphosis of plants but 
 not devils." 
 
 " Kennst du das Land ? " interrupted the gladiolus un 
 easily. " That is the only German I have at hand. If 
 you must talk in foreign gibberish, do address me." 
 
 ' ' Ich denke dein, wenn mir der Sonne sohimmer im Meere 
 
 strahlt ; 
 Ich denke dein, wenn sich des Mondes Schimmer in Quellen 
 
 mahlt. 
 
 Ich bin bei dir ; du sei'st auch noch so fern, du bist mir nah. 
 De Sonne sinkt, es leuchten mir die Sterne, ! waist du 
 
 da!" 
 
 obeyed Goethe with characteristic gallantry, and smiling. 
 
 The flower shrugged her shoulders, dissatisfied. " Is 
 he talking the poet, or himself, and what's he saying ? " 
 
 " You shouldn't appeal to the foul fiend," retoi'ted the 
 
 * In vain, sun ! thou strugglest through dark clouds.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 229 
 
 versifier. " Ask me. I spoke the sentiments of my 
 heart in the language of Wolfgang Von Goethe. But I 
 decline to translate, and should this devil meddle, let him 
 beware. I'll vibrate toward Christianity, and adopt St. 
 Anthony and the good St. Dunstan for exemplars." 
 
 tl Just tell me," persisted Louis, " now you've come 
 back to earth, whose theory of optics is correct." 
 
 " Avaunt ! " retorted his opponent indignantly. 
 " The only discovery I take pride in is the identity of this 
 enchanting gladiolus. Get thee hence ! You have suffi 
 ciently proved that you are clad according to the proper 
 blazonry of nature." 
 
 " True enough," acknowledged Louis, falling into 
 speculation. " I no sooner donned it, than I felt myself 
 suddenly free of the restrictions binding upon plain 
 Louis Allwood. I knew myself able to do, be, expe 
 rience anything and all I liked. Within this satanic 
 mask a thousand impulses, all my life sedulously repressed, 
 have reasserted themselves. More than this, this whole 
 evening suggestions of action completely out of my 
 habit as I have heretofore supposed, my nature have 
 been pursuing me. I am half afraid of myself." 
 
 " All that frees otir spirit and does not yield us self- 
 control, is injurious," said Goethe, interested. 
 
 " If I was unknown, responsible to none but myself 
 in this odd mental chaos, which would then be a con 
 viction that I had no reputation to sustain," went on 
 Louis, " I wonder what I would do ! That must be the 
 exact state of mind held by blacklegs." 
 
 " I have often reflected that any system which lessens 
 the sense of responsibility bearing upon any class of 
 individuals, no matter in what direction, or which class, 
 is absolutely injurious," answered Francis Haythorne. 
 " Why, what worse word does language contain than
 
 230 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 irresponsible ? No ; only the pressure of individual need 
 matures conscience, and since conscience is simple recog 
 nition of law, and, to return to my character, ' only 
 within the circle of law is the fullest development of 
 liberty possible,' hence it follows that the more labor 
 and anxiety is put upon an acting people, the higher 
 types of excellence they will manifest." 
 
 " This is certainly the diet of snails and cockchafers 
 you longed for," cried the disgusted gladiolus, a second 
 time forgotten. " Methinks I'd like a bottle of hay 
 for company." She was abetted by the velocipede, 
 which dashed toward the group, scattering it to right and 
 left. Flying before its dangerous parabolas, Louis stum 
 bled against an umbrella. 
 
 " It never rains but it pours," said the mask, with a 
 lisp certainly Cabby's. " But for pity's sake keep your 
 pinions out of my stretchers. I always heard that the 
 devil longed for a drop of water. Will you be kind 
 enough to turn a little, or you'll hook Abraham Lincoln. 
 You have samples of all the costumes on your prongs. " 
 
 " Ship ahoy ! shiver my toplights ! lend me thine 
 implement!" said the Cyclop, coming up, and hoisting 
 poor Umbrella on his shoulder as easily as one would a 
 kitten. " Snooks and sneezers ! how did you leave the 
 Son of Heaven? It is time to rescue Fleur de The 
 from that leonine German. He has what I call phy 
 sique ! Come, umbrellas are certainly as near relations as 
 Chinamen have ; go and do the paternal. Fee, fi, fo, fum ! 
 I smell roast meat'! I say, Satan," abruptly dropping 
 Cabby, who hurried to make good his escape, "I vote this 
 mighty slow. I've waltzed with two fellows by mistake, 
 and Martha Washington asked me plainly if the Latin 
 liquors hadn't gone to my head. Gizzard's so ; when we 
 asked him to say * There was a piper,' he got as far as
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 231 
 
 ' consider cow,' and then went on ' tehider tow, tehider 
 tow, tehider tow, tehider tow,' and for the life of him 
 couldn't hit the way to stop. Let's have a quadrille 
 together. I'm a little too happy to ask a lady, myself." 
 
 " What do Germans do when they are merry ? " asked 
 Susie of her yellow-eyed companion, filing into the quad 
 rille places opposite Polyphemus and the devil. 
 
 " They sing sad songs," he answered, " like this : The 
 morning is red ; yesterday I was on a brave horse, to-day 
 I am shot, to-morrow I am in the grave." 
 
 " How hilarious ! " said gladiolus, taking the head side- 
 couple with Goethe. " How did you come to know Mr. 
 Haythorne ? " 
 
 " We belonged to the same Kneipe at Heidelburg 
 we went over the river every Saturday night, and 
 smoked late as we liked." The new-comer had a very 
 pleasant, simple manner, and spoke with polish and ease. 
 
 " Tell me truly, did you ever drink too much ? Honor 
 bright, I am not curious. I have a reason." Poor 
 gladiolus was very eager ; her voice showed it. Goethe 
 leaned back upon the piano carelessly, and seemed lazy 
 and amused. 
 
 " Honor bright, then, T sometimes might," owned Dr. 
 Max in his pretty foreign accent ; " but your partner, so 
 insouciant yonder, never did. His head is as hard as a 
 stone, and, besides, he was a good mother's boy. Weren't 
 you, Franz ? " 
 
 Peace didn't quite know whether to be pleased or not 
 at this revelation; especially as the poet gave a little 
 sniff in answer that might mean assent or anger or 
 triumph or contempt. She therefore kept silence, and 
 observed Susie's idea of sustaining a conversation, which 
 seemed to be the asking of questions. 
 
 " Oh, yea ! we had gay times at Heidelburg. We went
 
 232 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 to our museum ball every year, and danced in fancy 
 dress. The year Franz was there there was a very fine 
 mask. We had the court dancing-master from Hesse 
 Cassel to teach us this old potpourri that we gave. It 
 was a cotillon performed once a year at this court, and 
 combined minuets, sarabands, and what not. There were 
 five sets. In the centre of the room was Shakespeare : 
 your friend was Slender, with Annie Page ; at each 
 corner of the set was another, making a star. The first 
 was shepherds and swains; the second, Scotch; the third, 
 cavaliers and their ladies. I was in the fourth, which 
 was in the costume of Henri Quatre. I went to Vienna 
 myself after the print containing the dresses." 
 
 " What did you wear ? " cried both ladies at once. 
 
 " Let me recollect. Ah ! I have it ; the couples wore 
 red, yellow, green, and blue, respectively. I am a Sua- 
 bian, and asked my partner to wear my national color 
 orange. She was a very obliging young American, and 
 consented. We exchanged our things when the ball was 
 over, I remember. The ladies wore black velvet basques, 
 with fulness at the back in a little frill, and the front all 
 reversed and trimmed from throat to feet with slashes of 
 gold-colored or other satin. Their petticoats were col 
 ored, too, with a band of embroidery. Their sleeves were 
 slashed, and at the wrists were two huge muslin-like puffs; 
 and they wore muslin at the neck, and tiny hats and 
 feathers, and gauntlets, and we gentlemen had loose- 
 topped boots, white stockings, breeches slashed and 
 trimmed with lace, doublets slashed, and steeple hats with 
 broad brims, and plumes, and lace collars. We all came 
 in dancing from the ante-room, formed in sets like magic 
 at a signal we knew in the music. But Franz kept us 
 very late ; he was waiting for his hair to be curled. Then 
 afterward we were asked to a party to dance it all again,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 233 
 
 at tlie house where our set practised, and there the ser 
 vants, dressed as clowns, came in and gave us bonbons, 
 billet-doux, and the like from we knew not whom." 
 
 This was so nice that Peace cast a discontented glance 
 over the gathering there present ; but she had ample cause 
 for wrath in her own neighborhood. William Tell danced 
 with Sycorax, and made the fourth couple finishing the 
 family group, and all went wrong in the quadrille. Louia 
 had found his garb extremely inconvenient throughout 
 the evening. But now his discomfort amounted to posi 
 tive misery. He bowed to Fleur de The, and impaled 
 her on his antlers ; he squared about to avoid this, and 
 prodded Francis Haythorne with his whalebone wings. 
 Sycorax lost no opportunity of tripping over his tail, and 
 every one was saying, " Avaunt thee, wizard ! " " Satan, 
 avaunt ! " " Fly, fiend ! " Get thee hence, devil ! " till 
 he wished himself safely underground. Annoyed quite 
 out of his presence of mind, so awkward were his endeav 
 ours to be harmless that Jan Yedder, unconscious of his 
 identity, inquired if they found malt liquors keep well in. 
 his hot cellar ; and William Tell wanted to know if he 
 could say " truly rural." The evils of his position were 
 heightened by the antics of Polyphemus. Though, as he 
 owned, not over-steady on his legs, he had the audacity 
 to indulge in cuts two at a time, and in pigeon's wings, 
 and varieties of heel-and-toe step unheard of. And, worse 
 than all, young Gizzard, quite too drunk to know what he 
 was about, persisted in mounting his velocipede, which 
 he had carried at first only as an ornament, and heading 
 into every one. Peace's face was a study of hauteur, 
 pain, and contempt during this ridiculous scene. Francis 
 Haythorne watched her with less of pity than curiosity, 
 expecting an outbreak, but none came. Not a glance at 
 the buffoon acknowledged mortification or interest in him ;
 
 234 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 and in the pauses of the dancing she looked away into the 
 centre of the ball, ignoring her surroundings altogether, a 
 vivid crimson spot on each cheek and a slight dilation of 
 her delicate nostrils alone confessing emotion. But Pa 
 risian varieties is not performed in a moment, and when 
 the velocipede dashed among them, and, but for a grasp 
 at the friendly piano, would have fallen at their feet, 
 Goethe felt her light touch on his arm tighten to an un 
 conscious clutch like a vice. 
 
 " Take me away," said she, her voice sharp with ner 
 vous tension ; " I am ill. Where is there a chair ? 
 Help me there." 
 
 Louis was thankful to give tip the set, but it seemed 
 like his blame to watch the poor bruised gladiolus sink on 
 the bench, and strive in vain to stifle her hot rebellious 
 tears. Her escort quietly placed himself in conversational 
 attitude, and, spreading the huge scarlet fan she wore in 
 her scabbard, shielded their faces from observation while 
 lie waited for her to recover her composure in silence. 
 He was a man who, once opening the gate to an emotion, 
 can never again recall it to command. Sincei-e pity was 
 fast making way for affection, when Peace looked up 
 gratefully, that soft brilliance tears give a woman's eyes 
 illuminating hers. The strength that lies in silence and 
 reticence seemed invaluable to her now. It helped her to 
 her own self-poise. But when, obeying a man's first im 
 pulse, to snatch suffering woman from pain, not help her 
 subdue it he offered to call her carriage, Peace shook 
 her head. " No," she said, all her defiant hauteur 
 returning as she roused herself to speak. " I'll die first! 
 No one shall ever tell that I couldn't stay out a pleasur 
 ing prepared by my own brother. I won't have it go that 
 I'm ashamed of my blood and bone. Find him, and say I am 
 recovered, and the next waltz is blank on my card. I've
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 235 
 
 muscle enough to hold him up, luckily," and she laughed 
 in bitterness and scorn. Three minutes after, she was 
 on the arm of foolish, tipsy Charley, and the tour of 
 every set was made with unerring skill before she suf 
 fered herself to return to Goethe, who had meanwhile 
 been watching them with admiration of her spirit, and a 
 kind of shiver of its metal, such as one has in examining 
 a sharp dagger and feeling its keen edge. 
 
 Louis, heart-sick and ashamed, crept away from his 
 friends, but only into fresh cause of misery. It appeared 
 that all had taken the velocipede for himself, and com 
 ments were in the making on every side. 
 
 " Did you ever see anything so disgraceful as the 
 capers of that Polyphemus, let alone young Allwood? " 
 said the Ace of Spades to the Bologna Sausage. " People 
 say they are regular sots." 
 
 Now old Gizzard was just that himself, and he had 
 been heard to remark, that his hopeful son was nothing 
 but a demijohn; nevertheless he agreed cheei-fully to the 
 proposition. 
 
 " True," said he, " the piety in that family has all 
 gone in Pelican's missionary cause to China. Sad case, 
 but it shows the necessity of implanting religious princi 
 ples in early youth. I am very strong on this point, very. 
 Let's have something." 
 
 Fighting his way through the crowd, the unwilling lis 
 tener passed gentle Fleur de The, only to overhear her 
 telling Mrs. Vedder that rumors of the disgraceful state 
 of things at Top Town had long since reached Millville, 
 and were killing Mr. Allwood's fiancee, whereupon Judge 
 Sistaire, who completed the trio, nodded gravely, as peo 
 ple do over sorrows that they regret on general principles. 
 
 But even this was not the end, for Mrs. Gizzard came 
 hurrying up in her usual happy-go-lucky style, exclaim-
 
 236 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 ing: "Every one knows you, Charley Pelican; where's 
 your friend ? If he's sober enough we want him to play. 
 The whole room is agape at the ungentlernanly doings in 
 your set. I can't find out my son's costume, but I con 
 clude he headed it." Mrs. Gizzard's troubles had become 
 too patent to seek concealment, poor woman ! 
 
 " He is perfectly sober, and at your service," answered 
 Louis. He followed her, trembling with confusion, to 
 find Dr. Max and Susie, Goethe and Peace, conspicuous 
 among the expectant listeners. " What flower shall I 
 celebrate," he asked, drawing off his mask and claws, 
 and trying to recover from his agitation. 
 
 " The one you have forgotten," said Peace coldly, 
 but aiming her stab with deadly accuracy. 
 
 " I can recall the song, at all events, and will perform 
 it ; " lie felt as if betraying his Mollie as he made the 
 retort. She seemed to him to have no place in this scene 
 as well hang her picture in the " Cereus." But he had 
 been dared to it. The music was a little minor barcarolle, 
 whose plaintive melody and simple rhythm varied with 
 the feeling in the verses, and were mixed and compan 
 ioned by a gurgle of piano, like the noise of a river 
 fretted at its banks by stones. The singer's perfectly 
 flexible and musical tenor voice took a sadder tone of 
 reality from his own unrest. 
 
 " I seek my love in sheltered grot, 
 She is so modest and so fair. 
 Down in yon little meadow-plot, 
 
 The brook it winds and babbles there ; 
 This is the song that fills the air : 
 Forget-me-not ; forget-me-not. 
 
 " My barque it floats over river and sea ; 
 But, oh ! our little moss-thatched cot
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 237 
 
 And my blue-eyed love are more to me. 
 
 This is her parting, ne'er forgot, 
 Made sweet with velvet lips and warm, 
 As fond she hangs upon my arm : 
 
 Forget-ine not ; forget-me-not. 
 
 " Together o'er the verdant lea 
 We stray at sunset, plucking flowers ; 
 There where the river floweth brown, 
 And blossom pranked his banks adown, 
 In this lone mountain-sheltered spot, 
 We seek the blue forget-me-not. 
 O traitor blooms ! that sued our gaze I 
 Ye on the border grew so fine 
 All in her rainbow wreath to twine, 
 My love's bright glfcnce upon ye stays. 
 O greedy stream ! to snatch my flower 
 That had such riches in his own ; 
 As some fair leaflet downward blown, 
 So fell my darling on the wave, 
 My darling that I couldn't save. 
 Tear-blinded at her piteous lot, 
 Her wreath on the false rill was strewn, 
 And, sinking, thus she made her moan : 
 Forget-me-not ; forget-me-not. " 
 
 " Now it's your turn to make music," said gladiolus, 
 turning on Goethe with acerbity. 
 
 He had been too much browbeaten in such matters to 
 venture upon refusal : " If Satan will play Mendelssohn's 
 Rondo Capriccioso I have heard so many praises of his 
 rendering." 
 
 This was another stab from memory, for it could only 
 have been Mollie who admired. But accustomed delight in 
 the lovely music soothed Louis ; he played it enchantingly. 
 
 The andante a dreamy lover's complaint, mirroring 
 the motifs to come was full of caprices. Then the 
 Roudo began.
 
 238 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 The presto opens with the most delicate possible 
 staccato movement, the two parts imitate each other with 
 fairy -like rhythm, and give in their tiny emphasis a frolic 
 some, fantastic utterance to the theme, climaxing in the 
 double trill. Then comes that plain, entreating air, 
 sustained by its monotonous pianissimo accompaniment, 
 until, abandoning its style, it rises in something nearly 
 anger, and perseveres in its argument in the left hand, 
 while the right belongs to the wilful elf, frolicking up and 
 down in arpeggios that are equally feminine and defiant. 
 Then, as if wearied by the outburst, the theme creeps 
 back, settling down exhausted between every half-spoken 
 phrase, and scarcely gathering persistence to assert itself 
 entirely, when it falls into a lower key, and, murmuring 
 unintelligible words, fairly sinks into slumber, waking at 
 intervals, as if to say, " I am so tired, I am so tired ! " as a 
 child might nestle in its mother's arms. 
 
 But elfin children never sleep. Suddenly it springs 
 forth in the wildest merriment. It is neither naively 
 playful among the flowers, nor coyly seeking rest. It is 
 a mad chase round and round upon the sward, into which 
 the elf drags her graver friend. Wilder and wilder 
 grows the pursuit. Then a half pause, a little regretful 
 memory of sweeter quietude, a faint leaning toward his 
 human strength, a yearning even in midst of her play for 
 something more earnest. But she tosses it all off, and 
 sways him into the most heartless, breathless of fairy 
 dances. 
 
 That was what Louis got out of the Rondo, and his 
 sympathy reproduced the thought, for Francis Haythorne 
 turned to the gladiolus and said something about the 
 maiden Undine sporting on her flowery peninsula with 
 the Knight of Ringstetten, and looked volumes. But 
 she drew herself up with gladiolus dignity, and professed
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 239 
 
 a failure in detecting Undine's fondness. She had been 
 thinking of Tennyson's poetry beginning, 
 
 " Airy, fairy Lillian, flitting, fairy Lillian." 
 
 " I quite identified the emotion in that little half 
 adagio phrase, where he seeks pleasance in love-sighs, 
 and ' where, through crimson-threaded lips, silver treble 
 laughter trilleth,' is certainly next." This was quite true, 
 but the vision of the heartless flirt was not intended to 
 soothe Francis Haythorne's feelings. Peace had no mind 
 to be mastered through her momentary weakness. 
 
 Francis Haythorne took the place Louis offered him, 
 and, gathering his ruffled feathers into order, began to 
 play Liszt's Spinnerlied on Wagner's theme. The 
 highly colored work of the authors suited him well, 
 giving of necessity the warmth his style needed, and loud 
 were the admiring praises of his hearers. Peace, in 
 especial, was angry because Louis' playing forced her soul 
 to respond in kindred emotion, and consoled herself by 
 warm encomiums on his rival. 
 
 Charley had provided a dozen black domiiios in each 
 dressing-room, and, after the excitement of discovering 
 the costumes subsided, general recourse was had to them, 
 and, secure in their sable folds, every one launched his 
 shaft at Achilles' heel. 
 
 "I heard that your Millville practice had got well. 
 You shouldn't have let him, it was a mistake," said a lisping 
 bat, attacking the Sybarite. 
 
 " Oh ! you mean my friend Haythorne's patient," said 
 Goethe lazily. " The woxind was in his pocket, too close 
 to his vital organs ; I didn't dare keep it open." 
 
 " You should have given that snip the retort courteous," 
 cried Dr. Jenkens, " and related that the whole family 
 felt so badly to lose your visits that they got up a chronic
 
 240 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 whooping-cough, and have been obliged to receive regular 
 attention ever since." 
 
 " That suggestion from you pays me for withholding 
 it," replied Francis. " I think it ill-taste to defend one's 
 self from rude slurs." 
 
 Peace, however, had taken him under her wing, and 
 was much incensed. She therefore sallied forth as domino 
 noir, intent on retribution. 
 
 " I wanted to ask about that young lawyer, Mr. Brown," 
 cried she, stopping the jester. " Is it true his business 
 success is so great that he's hired the Millville House 
 billiard table to keep the run of his points ? " 
 
 As soon as he had complimented Francis Haythorne, 
 and himself been told by the smoke-topaz-eyed doctoi-, 
 with German musical enthusiasm, that he was a " true 
 musician with genius," Louis had shrunk away from the 
 party, longing to hide himself from human view. He 
 had come upon the inevitable result of his last year's 
 doings, but it was with such a frightful suddenness as 
 the traveller experiences while descending a dangerous 
 mountain pass, and all at once slipping down the precipice 
 whose terrors he had been braving. An air the band 
 were playing seemed to follow Louis with reproaches. 
 We have seen that he was so sensitive to music that it 
 was to him the language of emotion, but often his own 
 mood gave it shape. This was only a strain from the 
 Eroica, but he remembered it too well. He stole uncon 
 sciously into Peace's corner of refuge, and fell into a 
 reverie, led by the poor, belittled theme. How plainly 
 came back the time when, with shut eyes and soul con 
 centrated upon the revelation, he had first understood 
 this wonderful vision of a heroic life and death, and 
 been uplifted into mighty longing for the same nobility ! 
 He saw again the white-robed, ethereal concourse grouped
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 241 
 
 in bright clouds about the choir, like space before a 
 vacant throne. There on all sides stood rows of shining 
 winged cherubim, waving slowly to and fro their mighty 
 pinions as do butterflies new-born to aerial life, and 
 seraphim whose intensity of adoration for their King 
 made their hearts to pulsate, even to sound; and, since all 
 in celestial space is harmonious, their love thus became 
 music, and in the reverent hush of heaven rose the ineff 
 able sweetness of melodies tending toward their own true 
 centre God. And in the midst of their place before the 
 throne, were conquerors gathering about the hero, whose 
 faces bore upon their gravity, gentleness, as flowers 
 were girded by warriors over their struggle-tested armor, 
 and they carried laurel crowns on their thoughtful brows, 
 and they had woven one such for the new-come brother. 
 Then the beholder trembled in awe, as the Perfect Heroism, 
 higher than thrones or crowns, entered to acknowledge 
 kinship with the soldier who had braved death, but bent 
 all timid before the source of his bravery, the principle 
 so far greatest in his being that it had absorbed his life 
 into itself. Then swept the seraphic music through the 
 courts of the hereafter, and all the solemn assembly cried 
 Amen, and the illustrious brotherhood lifted in their arms 
 the weary, toil-spent Hero till he should come to refresh 
 ing. And from their touch and the touch of the Highest 
 sprang Heroism into the full health and might of eter 
 nity. 
 
 Louis recalled how he had turned to Mollie in enthu 
 siasm of delight and cried, <( If this was the Christian 
 heaven, how gladly I'd die ! " His eyes fell on his hideous 
 dress, his cloven hoof, his fiend's wings ; to his excited im 
 agination it seemed a fit symbolizing of his fall. He 
 groaned aloud. 
 
 Then came Francis Haythorne to beg help in getting 
 11
 
 24:2 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Charley home, and poor Mrs. Gizzard on similar errand 
 for her graceless son. 
 
 And this was the end of Absalom's merry-making. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 1 Old King Cole was a jolly old soul, 
 A jolly old soul was he : 
 
 He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl, 
 And he called for his fiddlers three. 
 And every fiddler had a very fine fiddle, 
 And a very fine fiddle had he." 
 
 HE next morning Peace took the early car for 
 Millville, accepting the Jenkens' invitation to 
 their house, and she was careful to slip out be 
 fore Charley was half awake. Francis Haythorne was 
 glad to escape the unpleasantness of meeting the family 
 scapegrace, and accompanied them. But he bade Louis 
 a friendly farewell, and offered him the loan of Hitter's 
 seventeen volumes on the Philosophy of Geography, which 
 was accepted by the young man in a transport of gratitude 
 ere he bestowed the party safely in their seats on the 
 train, and withdrew to the " Cereus." 
 
 " Misery " (which Shakespeare was probably in the 
 habit of looking upon as a synonym of fate) " brings us 
 acquainted with strange bed-fellows." That is why old 
 Mulligan bought his fall stock of rotgut at Pelican & Co.'s. 
 Facts have a terrible inclination to mix themselves with 
 our personal history. If you go over a block of buildings 
 in '69, you do it at your peril, for in '73 your wife's 
 brother-in-law, buys it, fails, and leaves you with his
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 243 
 
 debts to pay and nine small children to support. If you 
 cross a river in a ferry-boat with a pretty girl, and cany 
 her bag, she turns vindictive twenty years afterward, and 
 shoots at you, verdict, sudden insanity. If the printer's 
 daughter stands at her father's door watching the dusty 
 j ourneyman with his two loaves of bread under his arm, 
 that fact has had its noose around their poor necks in a 
 twinkling. What thrones have not yearned for the tears 
 and blood of Josephines, Carlottas, Antoinettes, or Lady 
 Jane Greys ! Who is there who has fought ill-fortune and 
 perished at its hand, but has likened his fate to that of 
 the unhappy wretch slowly drawn into the vortex of the 
 whirlpool by the current once not discernible beneath the 
 water's glassy surface ? 
 
 How does a man's grave through his whole life silently 
 compel him toward its maw by pressure of its intangible, 
 all-pervading, ever-groping filaments ! Facts are furnaces 
 that must be fed with histories. They are soulless Un 
 dines in the ocean of existence, striving to perpetuate 
 themselves by union with humanity. Woe to a man if a 
 political office, or a big speculation, or a pious chap that 
 runs a Sunday-school or a modest country place, gets an 
 eye on him ! 
 
 In the light of all this, it is plain that malignant fate 
 had deliberately been narrowing the orbits of the Mulligan 
 family and the McCross family and the Pelican family, 
 until the failures and shiftless points of each came to 
 react in misery on the others, and here the worst off had 
 the best of it, for misery and comfort stand generally in 
 the relations of heat and cold. The latter, being a nega 
 tive thing, sucks up its positive, as negatives will. 
 
 After Mollie's gift of peanuts to Amos Daley in years 
 past, it had been determined for all time that old Mulligan 
 should buy liquor of the Pelicans, refuse to pay, and
 
 244 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 thereby necessitate Louis' presence in Millville. Charley's 
 reason for accompanying him, though simple in appearance, 
 was only part of the same infernal machinations of facts. 
 
 The past summer had brought its inevitable experiences. 
 Experiences are like sheep : if you start one, you may know 
 beforehand that the whole flock will follow. Hence day by 
 day the brow of Pelican pere grew dark, and the face of 
 Pelican mere sorrowful, and the behavior of Absalom 
 worse, till now the storm broke where storms have a 
 propensity for breaking at the breakfast-table. 
 
 " Ypu are a weariness to me," cried his mother. " You 
 kill me ; " and her gray curls trembled with her earnest 
 ness as she affirmed it. 
 
 " You disgrace the family," said his father. 
 
 Now for the " governor " to blow was quite correct, in 
 Charley's opinion, but no such liberty was permissible to 
 the maternal head. He resolved to punish her. 
 
 Mrs. Pelican was a nervous woman. She lived in the 
 most aristocratic house in the most aristocratic street in 
 Top Town. The very market-wagons went through 
 alleys behind the residences, to spare their plebeian rattle 
 to the ears of the inhabitants. " Gramercy Place " ! 
 The name alone was a tradition of refinement and ele 
 gance. 
 
 Early that morning appeared a hand-organ, playing 
 " Kathleen Mavourneen," under Mrs. Pelican's window. 
 Being of a charitable turn, she gave the man a quarter, and 
 bade him move on. His place was instantly supplied by 
 a " furriner," who sang about Cara Italia to a tuneless 
 fiddle, and had a monkey. Mrs. P. thereupon bestowed 
 a handful of nuts and ten cents, for which he invoked 
 that amount of blessing and withdrew. She had not 
 closed the door, when a man and two dancing bears claimed 
 her sympathy ; and, upon refusal of same, intimated with
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 245 
 
 tears that the others had been remunerated. Now Mrs. 
 Pelican was a person of spirit, at least in reference to 
 beggars ; and she remarked pointedly that she had no 
 idea of satisfying all the tramps in Top Town. She felt 
 at once that she had done a foolish thing. The fellow 
 had a bad eye ! What if he should burn the house ! 
 
 He smiled a smile full of malevolence. " Too late," 
 said he. " We have all hear, and we come dis mornin' 
 to play, every one of us." 
 
 " Alas for maiden, alas for judge, 
 For rich repiner and household drudge ! " 
 
 The threat was well kept. The first two hours the 
 children in the square held high carnival ; the next the 
 older inhabitants advanced to doors and windows, and 
 watched with anguish the constant stream of musicians 
 before the ill-fated house. One family proposed to put 
 out a small-pox flag ; but after a short search, it was dis 
 covered that not an inch of so vulgar a color as yellow 
 was to be found among the patrician Nile greens and 
 lavenders in the piece-trunk. In vain Mrs. Pelican en 
 treated, threatened, scolded ; the swarthy Italians couldn't 
 wouldn't understand. The gentlemen, all on the street, 
 were down town at their stores. She dared not leave the 
 place. At the thirty-first hand-organ, the cook, whose 
 temper was violent, gave warning and quitted the house. 
 This was entirely owing to the pleasantries of the danc 
 ing-bear man, who had amused himself all the morning 
 by setting his Bruins to climb the alley-fence and carry 
 off the eatables. The hapless mistress stuffed her ears 
 with cotton, and retired to bed and tears of vexation. 
 But rest was not in her day's programme. 
 
 At half-past eleven, a polite note from her right-hand 
 neighbor, requesting to know if she would as lief have
 
 246 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 her orchestra play all at once and get through. At half- 
 past twelve, the family opposite total strangers offered 
 her two bull-dogs, and a pistol if she could load it. At 
 two o'clock, five gentlemen called, one after another, to 
 rehearse the various kinds of nervous illness imminent to 
 their households, and to hint that their love of music had 
 been satisfied. And when she assured them of her help 
 lessness, they went so far as to say that it was d d 
 provoking ; which, in a lady's house, indexed a frightful 
 state of mind. 
 
 It was no xise to drive away the players ; one no sooner 
 disappeared round the corner than another took his 
 place. By noon a crowd had begun to gather, and before 
 long the street was jammed with loafers, musicians, half- 
 clad women, drunken men, and a starving, hallooing, stone- 
 throwing legion of children. It was impossible to force 
 a horse through the tightly wedged multitude, and every 
 one trembled in fear of a riot. 
 
 Mrs. Pelican's condition can be imagined, however, 
 when her left-hand neighbor arrived to insist that she 
 should address the crowd and send them away. The 
 lady was clearly demented, but the thrall of scandalized 
 Mrs. Grundy ! think of her ! " Indeed ! indeed ! I can 
 not," gasped she ; " anything but that ! " 
 
 " Madam," said a choleric inhabitant, who had just 
 entered, " you acknowledge paying them ; you refused 
 the bull-dogs and the pistol. It has a bad look." 
 
 Thus adjured, she took the cotton from her other ear, 
 having been too much agitated to remember it previous 
 to this, and, pushed to the fore, extended her head from 
 the window, and coughed several times to attract atten 
 tion. Failing, she would fain have withdrawn, but 
 this the choleric gentleman, whose presence of mind 
 was lost, and who strode fiercely up and down the parlor
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 247 
 
 with his hands supporting his coat-tails like black fins, 
 would by no means permit. 
 
 " Go on, madam ! " said he, not ceasing to tear up 
 and down his beat. " Go on ! it's your duty." 
 
 " Man," gasped Mrs. Pelican, looking round for coun 
 tenance, and happening to catch the eye of a platter-faced 
 German, " man, won't you please go home ? " 
 
 He lifted his great blue eyes stupidly to her face. 
 
 " Please go home," urged the lady. " I think, indeed 
 I'm sure, your wife wants you," she added, becoming sud 
 denly conscious that she must give a reason. 
 
 Here something that looked like a drowned kitten was 
 thrown at the window, and the object of her eloquence 
 put his fingers to his nose satirically. 
 
 " Come in, dear Mrs. Pelican ; come in and tell me the 
 meaning of this," said a voice behind the shutters, and 
 Louis pulled her gently back into the room. 
 
 "Meaning!" said the choleric gentleman. "Why, 
 this good lady has been paying all the tramps in town for 
 their abominable discords, and our lives are in danger in 
 consequence. Hear them howl ! " 
 
 It was true. Tired of music, the crowd were looking 
 
 * O 
 
 for more exciting amusement, and stones and menaces 
 were beginning to fly about. 
 
 " Why not sound the fire-alarm, and distract their at 
 tention ; " suggested Charley, who had arrived, in great as 
 tonishment at the whole thing. " A crowd always runs 
 to a fire." 
 
 The choleric gentleman actually started off to act on 
 the advice. 
 
 " Let me out. Let me pass ! " he cried, finding the 
 front door blocked up by the press. t( You miserable 
 scoundrels, what do you mean by stopping a gentleman's 
 progress ? "
 
 248 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " Lor' ! " said the man it proved to be the dancing- 
 bear man -" \ve love yer too much to let yer go. Come, 
 Jock, show the gen'l'man how yer loves him." 
 
 The biggest bear rose to his hind feet at the word of 
 command, and advanced to give the fatal hug, when the 
 front door opened, and Charley hauled the burgess inside 
 by the seat of his pants. 
 
 " From what a fate have you escaped, dear sir," cried 
 he, wildly shaking his hands. 
 
 Louis, who observed that Absalom was a little ele 
 vated, and who had, moreover, grave suspicions as to the 
 origin of the affair, called the rescued man aside, and 
 begged him to take care of Mrs. Pelican while he went 
 for the police. Top Town, let me state here, was too 
 large to make it possible to patrol the whole city with 
 out greater expense than the denizens cared to iecur. 
 Moreover, a habit of reappointing delinquent and dis 
 missed officers to each other's places increased the usual 
 proclivity for peace, manifested by these white-gloved 
 dignitaries ; and it is universally allowed that a man ab 
 sent from a quarrel can't possibly be killed therein. 
 
 Louis walked calmly out of the door, up through the 
 street, almost unnoticed in his exit. The crowd had 
 been dancing the bears nearly to death in the interim, 
 and were now busy with the monkey. In a few minutes 
 fifty blue-coats marched quietly the length of the square, 
 and aiistocratic silence descended, dove-like, and sat with 
 folded wings in this, its favorite and natural habitat. 
 
 In consequence of the trifling pleasantry, Charley, 
 though his guilt was merely conjectural, deemed it wise 
 to pass the next succeeding days in Millville, a decision 
 which was hardly welcome to Louis. Jealousy does not 
 linger amid practical jokes, and young Pelican had long 
 before, almost unconsciously, passed the boundary of
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 249 
 
 good-fellowship, and with slights, pettish insults, or hard 
 words, made the clerk sensible of his inferior position, 
 whenever drink or remorse set the pair at odds. Mollie, 
 watching, fearing, praying at home, was less to be pitied 
 than Louis, delivered up to the alternate torments of 
 Charley Pelican and his own conscience. 
 
 Charley had reached that point where his friends be 
 gan to look askance at him. The experience was a sour 
 one to a man who was in the habit of considering his 
 admirers thick as blackberries. Hitherto his handsome 
 person and lavish expenditure had invariably attracted, 
 and his effervescing love of pranks been the every-day 
 basis for approving mirth. But now he could not help 
 seeing that his cronies at the Cereus were getting sifted 
 down to such men as the Guises and Gizzards, who gave 
 themselves to bitters before breakfast, and their families 
 to bitterness all the year round ; and who looked at the 
 company of young Peliean as the personified good-fellow 
 ship of their faithful bottle. It irked him, stung him 
 into recklessness, this quiet unconsciousness of him be 
 ginning to obtain among the discreet, this appropriation 
 on their own platform, already recognized among the no 
 toriously indiscreet. Absalom was getting ready to go 
 down to his own house and abide there alone, under a 
 ban, and this our Absalom as well, with his loud, hearty 
 laugh, brilliant skill in games, elegant dress, and fond 
 ness for jocular, easy-going companionship, so well fitted 
 to shine at the ultimatum of his ambition a prime good 
 fellow. Now, on the road to Millville, the young men 
 had not been on the cars half an hour before Charley 
 had gone the length of the train, made friends with all 
 the gentlemen, and informed himself of the business 
 and estimated the standing of every individual on board. 
 It is worthy of remark that no woman ever spent half au 
 11*
 
 250 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 hour in his company without experiencing an intense de 
 sire to reform him, and an inward conviction that she 
 herself was especially fitted for the task. 
 
 Deserted by his companion, Louis approached Mill- 
 ville with oddly mingled feelings. Here was his love, 
 here the scene of his vows and resolves broken vows and 
 resolves, which, he could not help acknowledging, were lam 
 entable failures. According to Goethe, no one has con 
 science but the reflecting man. The ride to Millville was 
 absolutely the first two hours' continuous reflection Louis 
 had allowed himself since his departure to Top Town, 
 four years before. In all those months he had scarcely 
 seen Mollie half a dozen times, and then in stolen 
 visits of a few minutes each, at Dr. Jenkens', or, as hap 
 pened once, on the cars ; brief unsatisfactory interviews, 
 that kept alive his longing, though they failed to quicken 
 his principle. But this time he meant to claim her for a 
 long tete-a-tete. It was a twelvemonth since their last. 
 He had looked forward to this little greeting space with 
 pleasure, but the nearer he approached Fir Covert, the 
 greater became his dismay. He was ashamed to face the 
 woman that had gradually grown into his incarnate ideal 
 of virtue and true womanhood. He seemed to see her 
 pleasant, steady eyes diving down into the memories his 
 own would fain conceal. He erased the fashionable part 
 in the middle of his graceful head, and tugged recklessly at 
 the ends of the cravat, whose bow was a model of Top 
 Town art. But it wouldn't do. He had gone away a 
 simple-hearted country boy, without either vices or a con 
 ception of them; he was returning with the polish and ex 
 perience of fine Top Town world in spite of himself one 
 with it. And Mollie, to whom he was hastening, could 
 not be altered ; his faith in her was firm as the founda 
 tions ; she had only been developing consistently with the
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 251 
 
 theories by which ho so well knew her to live. What 
 would she think ? What would she say ? She had a 
 way of speaking her mind freely, and worst of all, acting 
 on what she thought. What would she do ? Between 
 love, and remorse, and foreboding, he was rather glad 
 than otherwise when Charley joined him. Mr. Pelican, 
 in fact, had been taking a review of the situation, and 
 was inclined to regard this projected visit of Louis' to 
 his girl as a going of a lamb to the slaughter. Perhaps 
 his being himself a trifle remorseful at the bottom of his 
 heart, led him to propose adding Ms company in the ne 
 cessary business tour. " And don't you think," said the 
 poor fellow (I always pity a repentant scapegrace), " that 
 two tumblers of something cool in our rooms, and a good 
 smoke, would be a comfort to the inner man ? " 
 
 So they had something cool, and then something coot 
 again. On the whole, it was a measure of precaution as 
 well as pleasure for them to start out together. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 " Granther, granther long-legs, 
 Wouldn't say his prayers." 
 
 jjF all weary days, it seemed to Mollie that this 
 had been the weariest. For unknown reasons, 
 her mother had taken it into her head that the 
 poor lassie was not sound on the doctrines, and the erring 
 girl had been catechised on all the dogmas of Calvinism : 
 Predestination, Justification, Regeneration, Total Depra 
 vity, and the Perseverance of Saints. Now Peace defined
 
 252 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 the difference between her ego and Mollie's thus: 
 " Mollie," she said, " is timid, conservative, in regard to 
 methods of darning stockings; and agitator, radical 
 leveller, in every question of time-honored orthodoxy ; 
 whereas I am a reformer, touching darns and darn 
 reformers generally." This, like most sparkling generali 
 ties, admitted question, but had a kernel of truth. Ac 
 cordingly, intense fondness for religious speculation and 
 unlimited indulgence thereof, with a sceptical friend at 
 one's elbow to make the points, were not conducive to 
 Miss McCross' tenure of Calvinistic ideas. Mollie was 
 a devout Christian, but a liberal one, as her mother here 
 upon discovered. 
 
 In consequence, Mrs. McCross had argued in her pecu 
 liar manner, menacing her offspring with wrath, fire and 
 brimstone, and appealing to her alike by maternal 
 anguish, tears and Bible texts. Also Mollie had come 
 upon her in an attitude of prayer behind various doors. 
 
 When the Deacon, whom an argumentative state in his 
 wife invariably rendered meeker than usual, stole with 
 noiseless and guilty step to his dinner, he was posted up 
 in the subject, and set on his daughter, who, wretched as 
 she was, wouldn't give up. 
 
 " Just think," said his wife, " she says a man need not 
 be clear about the Trinity to go to heaven ! " 
 
 Thus urged, the poor gentleman began rather blindly : 
 " You'd orter be ashamed of yourself to do so ! " while 
 his wife chimed in, " I'm ashamed for her ! denying the 
 faith to which she was born ! a serpent's egg ! a cocka 
 trice's nest! she actually had the impudence to tell rne 
 she must think for herself. I'd like to know what 
 mothers were given for, nowadays. She'd better be 
 circumspect. She might be excommunicated for less. 
 Mary McCross, how dare you look at me so ? I won't
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 953 
 
 have it " (this with tears). " I don't know what I've 
 done to deserve such a burden, but it seems to be the 
 Lord's will, so I'll try to be reconciled to it. You 
 needn't talk to her." (Her husband had relapsed into 
 absolute taciturnity, and was meekly eating his mashed 
 potato.) " She don't care the least thing for what you 
 say." 
 
 " Now, look a here, Mollie," quoth he, a sparkle of 
 anger lighting his faded eyes, he was tenacious of his 
 personal authority " you'd better right about face, 
 pretty quick, do you understand ? " 
 
 "Don't, papa, dear," she had said, hastily putting her 
 arms around his wrinkled neck, and sealing his irate lips 
 with a kiss; " you know obedience is my strong point." 
 
 " So it is, so it is," gasped the old gentleman, conscience- 
 stricken ; " but you'd orter be careful. 
 
 " ' For 'tis but care saves timid hare, 
 When dogs are bent upon the scent.' " 
 
 Looking over to his wife, he saw a darker storm menac 
 ing after the delivery of this soothing distich. She was 
 still lachrymose. On similar principle to little Alice's, 
 this good lady wept while she was thinking it saved time. 
 So great, however, was her husband's agility, that he had 
 dodged into his white stove-pipe, and out of the door, 
 followed by Mollie, whom he secretly beckoned on, before 
 the first flash appeared. 
 
 Mrs. McCross, thus left to herself, put on her sun-bon 
 net, and hastened to the mansion of Mrs. Dr. Perfect, 
 intent on entreating her Christian sympathy. 
 
 She interrupted the worthy couple in the fabrication of 
 a " Higher Life " tract, where they detailed the mar 
 vellous effect of believing one's self to be sinless, when one 
 isn't at all ; but either the .subject hud run dry, or Mrs.
 
 254 SHIFTLESS FOLKS 
 
 McCross was a favorite, for they welcomed her cordially, 
 and read her the article. 
 
 " Yes, indeed," said the Deacon's wife, piously, when 
 Mrs. Perfect laid down the manuscript, " it is all in be 
 lieving. Since I believed, I have the inward witness that 
 I have not sinned. As you say, it is a blessed thing to 
 live without sin." 
 
 Thereupon her hostess rolled up her eyes religiously, 
 and coughed interrogatively, which indicated that she 
 considered one topic finished, and was ready for the 
 next. 
 
 Thus encouraged, Mrs. McCross told her story. " You 
 see what a dreadful condition she is in," she said, in con 
 clusion ; adding naively, " 1 can't think what to do next." 
 
 " Suppose we reason with her," suggested Dr. Perfect, 
 who, in gesture and theory, scooped up indignation and 
 burning enough every Sunday to effect the cremation of 
 a universe. His favorite sermon was from the text, 
 "And the wrath of God abideth on him." "There are, 
 my brethren, three kinds of wrath," he would say, dig 
 ging it up from the pulpit cushions. In his presence one 
 felt how true was the old adage about Millville, that 
 there hell was only six inches under ground. 
 
 " It is useless," replied Mrs. McCross. " She refuses 
 to have any argument upon the subject." 
 
 " What contumacious ! obdurate ! " said the doctor, 
 sternly. " I fear it should be brought before the session." 
 
 " That would never do," cried the lady, who was willing 
 to torment, but had a family pride in the matter of church 
 discipline. " Think of the scandal ! Mr. McCross would 
 not forgive it." 
 
 "Ah! well," said the worthy man for reasons of his 
 own, not wishing to disoblige his Deacon. "Patience 
 sometimes avails in the room of harsher weapons, but
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 255 
 
 the camp of Israel must be kept free from spot at any 
 cost ; yes, madam, I repeat it, at any cost." 
 
 " Suppose we go together and labor with her? " pro 
 posed Mrs. Perfect, briskly. " You can give me the jar 
 of strawberry marmalade and the recipe at the same 
 time." 
 
 Accordingly Mollie, who had been trying to forget the 
 disagreeables of her lot in some work for her loving old 
 father, beheld the yellow, anxious faces of the two saints 
 intruding upon her privacy, without even a knock of 
 warning. Mrs. McCross didn't believe in civility when 
 religious interests were at stake. In former years, she 
 used to drive Mollie to the verge of distraction, by open 
 ing her letters, or compelling her to leave them unan 
 swered for weeks, alleging that if she wrote too often her 
 friends would get tired of her : by mutilating her favor 
 ite books, slandering her schoolmates, and proscribing 
 visits with them, on such Biblical grounds as " withdraw 
 thy foot from thy neighbor's house, lest by thy continual 
 coming he weary of thee, and at last hate thee ; " a text 
 particularly applicable to callers at Fir Covert. 
 
 Mrs. McCross' theories of parental rectitude had not 
 altered with her daughter's growth. She still searched 
 her drawers, pumped her friends, and listened at the key 
 hole. 
 
 Mary rose politely to receive her unexpected guests; 
 but Mrs. Perfect did not wait her request to be seated. 
 Planting her stiff figure in the most comfortable arm 
 chair in the room, she loosened her black cambric 
 bonnet-strings with one bony hand, and then demanded a 
 Bible. 
 
 " It would be proper to begin with a reading from the 
 Word," quoth she. " Is that your mind, Sister Mc 
 Cross?"
 
 256 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Her young hostess brought her the reqtiired volume. 
 It chanced to be a Douay Version ; but Mrs. Perfect 
 read notes and all in blessed unconsciousness, and smacked 
 her lips over the wholesale denunciation of unbelievers 
 the latter contained. 
 
 " Shall we have a season of prayer ? " she inquired in a 
 tone nicely impregnated with business and piety. 
 
 " Do, Sister Perfect," quoth Mrs. McCross plaintively, 
 from her place near the door. " What doth Saint John 
 say : ' If any man sin a sin which is not unto death, he 
 shall ask, and he shall give him. life for them that sin not 
 unto death.' " 
 
 " Will you join us, daughter Mary ? " said Mrs. Perfect, 
 this time in her oily, entreating voice, dropping on her knees 
 as she spoke. Mollie, who had suspended her work while 
 the reading was going on, now arose outraged : " You must 
 excuse me : I have all these bulbs to sort ; " pointing to her 
 basket full of monstrous hyacinths. " I cannot spare the 
 time." 
 
 " I told you she was in a very unchristian frame of 
 mind. I am fairly sick with grief at her obstinacy. Oh ! 
 resist not the Spirit, my child," cried Mrs. McCross, still 
 kneeling, and applying her handkerchief with one hand 
 and her smelling bottle with the other. 
 
 " Come, lift your troubled heart to the throne of grace," 
 said the minister's wife, seizing Mary by the arm, as she 
 bent to collect her scattered labels, and attempting to pull 
 her to her knees. 
 
 " Indeed, you must excuse me," said Mollie, freeing 
 herself from the Christian clutches with some difficulty. 
 " It will be only a minute's work to pick up these papers, 
 and then I will leave you to your devotions." 
 
 " If your poor bruised heart is fixed in its wayward 
 ness, I suppose wo shall have to be the more earnest in
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLK8. 257 
 
 intercession for your imperilled soul. Here is a tract." 
 Plunging her hand into the pocket of her black-and-white 
 calico, she brought out, " The Giddy Heart Reproved," by 
 the Rev. Jonas Perfect, D.D., LL.D. " I hope you will 
 read it carefully, and then send it to that bold-eyed young 
 girl I see with you so much. She cotnes of a godless 
 house, and pays little heed to the preached word. My 
 husband considers her in a dangerous state." 
 
 " I have no desire to read your tract," replied Mollie, 
 annoyance rapidly getting the better of her self-control. 
 " I will not deceive you by taking what would only go 
 into the fire ; and, Mrs. Perfect, allow me to say that I 
 do not wish a recurrence of the scene. I cannot feel ib 
 my duty to bear a series of similar insults from an al 
 most total stranger." 
 
 " Dislike of saving grace is a common feeling of the 
 erring heart," said the home missionary with a snuffle, 
 growing exasperatingly meek. " I will go, since you seem 
 to wish it. No, my poor friend, I will not stay," as Mrs. 
 McCross made an effort to detain her ; " I had best not 
 intrude. But rest assured, dear child, my husband and I 
 will make you a special subject of prayer in the closet." 
 Still meeker, she stole down-stairs, having tied her bon 
 net, destitute of ruche or flower, with a mildly sorrowful, 
 drooping bow, and imprinted a clammy Christian kiss on 
 the cheek of her unwilling hostess ; and she left a strong 
 savor of Christian meekness and sour hair all the way out. 
 
 Mrs. McCross followed her, weeping audibly. Once 
 such tears would have brought Mollie to her feet in an 
 agony of self-accusation. To-day the daughter sat down 
 and reasoned the case out faithfully. However wretched 
 she might be at these passages of arms, and she was very 
 wretched, she was conscious of her own rectitude. She 
 felt her position to-day to be one of propriety. Whatever
 
 258 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 her mother might consider due to her relation it was no 
 part of her duty to bear the insults of that odious woman ; 
 and she did not propose to. 
 
 " It is a hard case, as you say, sister," said Mrs. Per 
 fect in leave-taking ; " we must have faith. Did you 
 forget the marmalade ? " 
 
 Mrs. McCross presented it, and then withdrew to her 
 apartment, showing symptoms of convulsions. She had 
 strength enough, however, to call Mollie down-stairs to 
 make her hot toddy, and hunt the camphor. She divided 
 her attention latterly between sling and valerian. Rein 
 forced by their spiritual consolations, the poor lady de 
 clined supper, groaning loudly throughout the meal ; but 
 habiting herself in a green-and-red double-gown, she ap 
 peared soon after to Mollie and her father, as they sat 
 taking a little comfort in the twilight. 
 
 They were singing Puritan fugue tunes, and had just 
 reached the linCj " Did he rise ? He rose, he rose," 
 which they were reiterating in triumphant excitement, 
 when Miranda took it upon herself to illustrate in person, 
 and her husband stopped dead short on " He burst," a 
 second and forlorn parody. 
 
 " I always knew you cared nothing about your wife, 
 Elizur McCross," she cried hysterically. " You encourage 
 that reckless girl in all her unkindness, her cruelty to me." 
 
 The Deacon dropped the hand he had been fondling as 
 if detected in a crime, and scratched his gray head to 
 cover his guilt. " Although you defy my authority, 
 miss, and have ceased to regard me in the light of a 
 mother, it is my opinion, if I am to be permitted to have 
 any opinions hereafter, that you ought to retire and see 
 if you can't wake up in a better frame of mind." 
 
 Mollie bent over and kissed her father good -night 
 without a word, and after a little struggle with herself,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 259 
 
 offered her suffering parent the customary salute a 
 courtesy refused in grim auger. Then she ascended the 
 stairs obediently, her heart heavy, her eyes full of tears. 
 
 A moment after she reached her room, her father called 
 her softly to open the door, and entering, discovered him 
 self laden with a battered stove-pipe hat, and a bunch of 
 keys. He set the former on the table, and jingled the 
 latter with emphasis. " I have come for the one that 
 locks the hen-house," said he, with perfect sobriety. " I 
 want your mother to understand it," and shook them 
 again. " Here is a lemon and six lumps of sugar ; six is 
 right for lemonade, isn't it ? " 
 
 Mollie's smile, though difficult to call, was very sweet, 
 as she said he was correct. 
 
 The Deacon laid his offering with the keys, and sat 
 down on the bed beside his daughter. " Don't spoil your 
 dear eyes crying, darling. Your mother " (Deacon Ale- 
 Cross always spoke of his wife as a negro mentions his 
 fetich, with mingled uneasiness and reverence) " is 
 peculiar." He drew the girl's throbbing head to his 
 bosom, and wiped her eyes with gentle, albeit trembling 
 hand, on a small corner of his pocket-handkerchief. 
 " That's right," with childish satisfaction, as she sat up 
 and began to laugh. " I like to see you so I'll tell you 
 something nice, too," smoothing back her soft hair. 
 " Louis All wood is coming here to-night to serenade you. 
 I asked him to, because you hanker after him, you know, 
 and your mother stops his letters." 
 
 " O papa ! how kind ! " said the girl, fairly beaming 
 with delight. " I can't thank you enough. I know you 
 want to be squeezed." This was the most sacred and 
 delightful caress in which the pair could indulge. Mollie 
 gave it on the spot, and Mrs. McCross, hearing the noise, 
 pounded a vicious signal to be expeditious.
 
 260 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 The Deacon put away his merry air instantly, and 
 caught up his garden hat and keys with nervous haste. 
 Half way out he stopped, set down his burden, came 
 back, and took his daughter's soft throat in his hand. 
 " You love him better'n ever," said he, half in interroga 
 tion, half regret. 
 
 " Better than ever, father." 
 
 "Wall" (slowly), "I hain't no objections, fur my 
 part." 
 
 He paused again at the door, and fumbled nervously 
 for the knob. " 'Twouldn't be no use to let your mother 
 know I asked the feller up," said he, and relapsed from 
 the loving champion into the gaunt, bald, meek, every 
 day Job. 
 
 Mollie gave him the parting kiss he wanted, and stood 
 watching his stooping form out of sight. Her poor, 
 weak, tender-hearted father ! How her heart went forth 
 to him ! True love, all agree, has in it an element of pity 
 and an element of protection. Conceive' love divested 
 largely of complacence, infinitely pitying, infinitely active 
 in relief, and it becomes the divine attitude toward us. 
 Which, it seems to me, makes the Atonement very simple, 
 for the syllogism stands thus : to love is to pity ; pity 
 is suffering ; God loves ; i.e. God suffers, and Christ 
 lived his thirty years to let us know it. 
 
 " I want you to be happy, daughter," the Deacon said, 
 as he slowly descended the stairs and so he did. When 
 he returned to his faithful Xantippe, he felt his old heart 
 warm with that heroism that makes men God-like. Oh ! 
 if it had only held out ! That is the point with us 
 humans. We all of us have a few divine impulses, but 
 the self-sacrifice that seals the flasks in which they are 
 kept is such inferior stuff, that the precious elixir all 
 breaks out, and at the important moment there is nothing
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 261 
 
 there. Between this time and ten o'clock Mrs. McCross' 
 tongue had decanted every drop of her lord's prowess. 
 
 Meanwhile, the vexations of the day forgotten, Mollie 
 abandoned herself to delightful thoughts. She was to 
 see her lover. No matter how fear would teach her to 
 think of him, his image always stood fair and noble in 
 her mind. How she had longed to see him, to listen to 
 his voice, and look into his frank, gentle eyes, to nestle 
 passive beside him, in the fathomless rest of his presence ! 
 Now in a few hours he would be near. She would feel 
 again the subtile, witching fascination of his dear self. All 
 the weary vigils of the past slipped into oblivion ; all the 
 distress and anxiety that preyed upon her fled at his 
 approach. Her mind, suddenly relieved of its strain, 
 relaxed. She fell into a calm, happy sleep, so deep that 
 she failed to hear the soft cadence of harmony flowing in 
 through her vine-latticed window. Even Louis' well- 
 known tones only mingled with the phantasies of slumber. 
 
 " ' Forget-me-not dreams in the moonlight, 
 Her eyes are fair to see. 
 All ! gentle eyes, open to me, 
 That I may know if love there be nestling.' " 
 
 Her lover had written the lines when the blue blossoms 
 were unfolding from their crumpled pink buds, and 
 Mollie had worn them in her chestnut braids. That was 
 long years before. The two had set them to music, and 
 sung them together a thousand times since, and now she 
 was become his forget-me-not. Awake, Mollie dea;. 
 Go down into the shadowy garden, among the asters and 
 balsams, dark in the pale moonlight. Go, and forget, if 
 only for one brief instant, that time exists, save to bring 
 happiness. 
 
 " You moonstruck whipper-snapper, if you don't quit 
 these grounds, I'll make you wish you had," screamed
 
 262 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Mrs. McCross from the parlor window, in a voice some 
 what husky through anger, but more from the absence of 
 false teeth. 
 
 At the sound her daughter started to her feet, broad 
 awake, and held her breath in terrified anticipation. 
 
 " Mirandy, Mirandy, where are rny stockings ? " cried 
 the Deacon feebly, from the bed-room. " Do come and 
 help me find 'em." 
 
 " You keep away from here, meddlesome ninny," quoth 
 his wife to her lawful head ; then to Louis, " Do you 
 mean to budge or not ? Elizur McCross," bringing herself 
 into the house with a snap, " do you hear me ? Go and 
 get into bed this minute." 
 
 " When all the clouds about the sun lie up in golden 
 creases, I'll think of departing," answered Louis from 
 the walk close by the window. His voice sounded 
 strangely to Mollie's sensitive ears. It wasn't a boy's 
 direct utterance. She couldn't instantly analyze the 
 jarring peculiarity, but he ended the sentence with some 
 thing like a hiccough. 
 
 " You have no business on my premises," shrieked 
 Mrs. McCross. "Why do you skulk about the house 
 at this time of night ? to steal ? " 
 
 " Don't alarm yourself iinnecessarily, old lady," said 
 the young man ; " I haven't come for the property my 
 father left in your care." 
 
 " Drunken puppy 1 I'll teach you to talk so ; " and her 
 daughter heard the splash of water, and the sound of a 
 blow, followed instantly by a sharp crash of glass. 
 
 By this time Mollie had reached the garden, and run 
 to her lover, whom she found dripping with the contents 
 of the well-water-dipper, which lay shining in the moon 
 light at Ids feet. He was gazing remorsefully at the shat 
 tered window, and evidently took no heed to the torrent
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 263 
 
 of wrath the lady in the parlor was pouring upon him, 
 or to her menacing gestures. He didn't even notice 
 Mollie's quick step, or see the frantic Deacon aimlessly 
 flourish a long knit stocking, as he hurried to his better- 
 half, and drew her from the casement by main force. 
 But soon he turned, and beheld the woman he loved stand 
 ing near. When quiet, or deep, or earnest natures, are 
 once irritated, it takes a long time for the disturbed sub 
 strata to return to repose. Accordingly, though his 
 wrath had passed, he was still in the gall of bitterness. 
 As for Mollie, her whole soul was possessed with a blind 
 instinct to be near him in the trouble. 
 
 " I've broken your window glass, insulted your mother, 
 and made a fool of myself; now I guess I'll go home," 
 said he, sulkily. 
 
 The girl's nerves were unstrung from long continued 
 anxiety and vigil. She was trembling like an aspen, with 
 excitement. In such a state the merest touch destroys 
 our mental balance. The whole scene, from the strug 
 gling couple in the parlor, sympathized with by Poppj 7 , 
 who thought it a free fight, and danced on her perch, and 
 shouted "go in, lemons," at the top of her voice, to 
 Louis' angry face, contrasting oddly with his boyish an 
 nouncement, was very funny. She must cry or faint, or 
 somehow vent her emotion. She laughed. 
 
 He turned on her almost savagely. " If you enjoy it, 
 go on," said he. 
 
 It came to Mollie in a flash that this meeting would 
 determine their two lives. If she let him go thus, he 
 was gone forever, and she loved him. 
 
 " Louis, dear Louis." Only a woman can put her 
 whole heart into two words, as Mollie did into these. 
 
 The man felt it, but he wouldn't yield. The woman 
 close at his side lived his thought twin with her own.
 
 264 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " Louis," said she gently, " I love you at your best. 
 Is to-night your best ? " 
 
 He stood perfectly silent, looking away into the shadows 
 so long so long, it seemed to Mollie as if he would 
 never come back to her again. 
 
 She concentrated her whole being into an intense, pas 
 sionate throb of love ; he must be hers, he must. 
 
 By and by the man faced his opponent. She trembled 
 now with fear. Had she won? She raised her eyes 
 timidly to his, to meet them full of affection and honest 
 purpose. 
 
 Then she held out her hand with a happy smile. He 
 took it in both his own. The old dear touch, so missed, 
 so well remembered. His pulse throbbed fiercely against 
 hers the only trace of the struggle. " You have won," 
 said she, softly. 
 
 " Won," he replied, his eyes answering, with true man 
 hood shining in them. 
 
 That was all they said ; but they stood together a long 
 time comforting each other, without need of words. 
 By and by he drew her fondly into his arms, held her 
 close a minute, and then hurried away. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 " The pig was eat, and Tom was beat." 
 
 HAT night's sowing made bitter reaping for my 
 poor children, just as the handful of tares good 
 people scatter always does, though their wicked 
 neighbors may harrow them in over a whole-wheat field, 
 and yet never seem to get a ripe head for their pains.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 265 
 
 Mrs. McCross rose early next morning, her aches and 
 ailments gone ; the white curtains poets wot of, albeit in 
 this case something red at the edges, rolled up from her 
 pale eyes to their farthest extent. She chalked her face, 
 donned a silk morning-gown, brought out her gossipy 
 patchwork, and enthroned herself and aromatic salts in 
 the cosey green sitting-room, in state, for she had a thing 
 in hand. 
 
 Before twelve o'clock she had blown a tale of midnight 
 attack and intended villany all over Millville ; for Susy 
 Jeukens came to get batter the McCross dairy being 
 celebrated ; and Mrs. Captain Slocum called on Mary ; 
 and Zoe Bradshaw dropped in on mission business ; and, 
 best of all, Miss Petingil arrived in pursuit of bread and 
 butter, and Mrs. McCross failed not to send her up to 
 the village fully primed and early in the day. Miss Pet 
 ingil, like a wise diplomatist, had two strings to her bow. 
 Her immediate object was getting a pair of pants to make 
 for the Deacon ; her secondary, interesting Mrs. McCross 
 in a moral periodical of which she was agent, called " The 
 Flag of Humanity." 
 
 " Hev you ever seen it ? " she asked, fishing it out of 
 the bag she wore tied about her waist with a piece of thin 
 black ribbon. " If I dew say it, there ain't a better maga 
 zine took in Millville. There's poetry an? there's prose, 
 an? lectures on health, am? everything that's good to read." 
 
 " We subscribe for several religious papers, to send to 
 the home missionaries," remarked her hostess ; " I don't 
 believe I could afford any more." 
 
 " Bnt this is such a nice one," said Miss Petingil, with 
 a sigh. " When I go home all wore out tailoring I rest 
 myself perusing it. There's one piece of poetry that 
 can't be beat no way, on tobacker. It's reely beautiful ! 
 It tells how dirty it is, how much a man spends in his
 
 266 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 lifetime, an' how high his heap of quids would be if he 
 lived fifty years. It's splendid poetry," she reiterated, 
 resting her forefinger on the page, and carefully wiping 
 her glasses on her knitting. " I used to make poetry 
 myself, but I couldn't come up to that, no way." 
 
 Peace, who was visiting Mollie in the next room, over 
 heard, and resolved to become possessor of this effusion 
 of genius. But Mrs. McCross staved off the contem 
 plated reading by a characteristic remark : 
 
 " We had quite an adventure here last night. My 
 husband's former ward came round and smashed our 
 windows ! " 
 
 The news-carrier's face, which had fallen a little, as she 
 slipped " The Flag of Humanity " back into the faded bag, 
 now grew bright with anticipation, and she rejoined briskly, 
 tl You hadn't no plate, nor nothink around, had you ? " 
 
 <c A mere trifle of the Lord's blessings, some of which 
 he has seen fit to reclaim," said Mrs. McCross, humbly. 
 " He feedeth the ravens, and the young lions do lack and 
 siiffer hunger." 
 
 " Jess so ! " responded the spinster, whose eyes antici 
 pation had greened like leeks. She chewed a black 
 thread gradually into her thin straight mouth, and waited 
 developments, meanwhile folding the broadcloth pieces 
 with care, for she was particular about her work. 
 
 Mrs. McCross' gentle brow clouded with sorrow. " I 
 have nothing to tell about our losses. Don't ask me. It 
 may be a mistake. How can we worms know the secret 
 acts of our brother-worms ? Mollie, poor child, thinks 
 he came to serenade her. It is as well to let it go so. 
 It won't bring back the money to ruin him." 
 
 The look in her pale eyes was almost too fiendish to 
 come within the united capacity of her Christian and 
 motherly benevolence.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 267 
 
 " But the example ! your duty to society ! " gasped 
 Miss Petingil, not too much horrified to forget her snuff 
 box. " I know just how bad your feelin's must be " sniff 
 sniff. " But it's a devolution upon you " sniff " to sac 
 rifice even your right eyes for the safe " sneeze " ty of 
 your neighbors." 
 
 As Miranda's only answer was a plaintive smile, the 
 advocate of justice pocketed the tobacco, to exclaim 
 with sympathetic emphasis : 
 
 " He's ben takin' on awfully in Top Town, an' that 
 ere Peace gel sticks up for him. Wa-11, you needn't tell 
 me men break into folks' winders fur nothin', an' yourn 
 too, that have ben a mother to him. It's reely peculiar. 
 Don't you think so ? " 
 
 Mrs. McCross agreed that it was peculiar ; and added, 
 with a sad shake of her head : " Divine grace, as I've 
 always maintained, is the only thing that will ever make 
 a man of Louis Allwood." 
 
 So she started the story, and Cymbalinus Adolphus 
 Brown heard it. He had gone the rounds of his ac 
 quaintance matrimonially intent, but none of them, even 
 Euphemia Hitchcock, had buckled to ; and, being himself 
 impecunious, he had lately gone into the law for a living. 
 He therefore hurried to Fir Covert in search of a job. 
 Since the tea-party, he had been very shy of Mollie, 
 though Mrs. McCross, who was a great admirer of " the 
 young gentlemen," in secret, lay in wait for him, and 
 brought him in whenever she could. The household 
 were therefore neither astonished nor otherwise to see 
 him pay the mistress of the house a long call at an un 
 fashionable hour, though the two bolted their doors, and 
 Mrs. McCross let him out of the gate, with her own 
 hands, at close of session. 
 
 Louis meanwhile had accomplished nothing less than a
 
 268 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 bitter quarrel with Charley Pelican, who* was too little 
 at ease with himself to be able to hold any one course of 
 behavior toward those depending upon him. Louis, alter 
 nately snubbed, and made boon companion, or father con 
 fessor to pranks he was ashamed to hear of, was already 
 at odds with his condition ; and a few hours' sober reflec 
 tion, well lighted by the candle of self-reproach, sufficed 
 to disgust him with the very thought of the Night- 
 blooming Cereus, and its genteelly drunken frequenters. 
 Those nice ideas of honor, which he had felt too 
 thoroughly natural to need cherishing, and unconsciously 
 laid aside, reasserted their supremacy over a remorseful 
 and humbled man. Such vigorous mental action 
 produced a state of nervous exasperation, little fit to 
 ensure a cordial meeting with the companion of his 
 last night's spree, the less after a little recreation in which 
 that young gentleman was indulging himself. 
 
 Peace breakfasted with Charley, and then donned her 
 new charity uniform ; the same being the remarkably 
 elegant garb upon which the fair sisters of the Order of 
 Sackcloth and Ashes prided their gentle hearts. Thus 
 clad, the budding saint set forth, intent on teasing Mollie, 
 who disapproved of charitable flummery ; and her 
 brother, left to himself, strolled through the village in 
 search of mischief. 
 
 He had not gone far, when he met Francis Haythorne, 
 so perfectly arrayed in soft brown, that he seemed to 
 have just stepped from a bandbox. Charley, who had a 
 style of his own, embracing a bright blue cap, scarlet 
 necktie, " coatie all too short," and huge cigar, eyed him 
 over and sniffed with scorn. He despised his sister's 
 male friends on principle. 
 
 " Lend us your flipper, Haythorne," quoth he.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 269 
 
 The person addressed sniffed in his turn, and gingerly 
 extended his well-gloved fingers. 
 
 " Darn snippy weather for quadrupeds ! " remarked 
 Charley in a loud voice. 
 
 " Very," said Mr. Haythorne, looking about for means 
 of escape. 
 
 " Do you fume ? " asked Charley, tendering a fat 
 Habana whose aroma was enough to floor an abstemious 
 man, and standing exactly in front of his victim so he 
 couldn't pass. " By thunder ! you look weak this 
 morning." 
 
 '' Thanks. I never smoke in the street in daylight ! " 
 answered Francis with an annoyed wave of the hand. 
 
 " Plenty of pretty girls in Millville," suggested his tor 
 mentor, expanding his great chest and towering a head 
 above the passers-by, a giant provoking, and like a giant, 
 weak. " Deuce take it ! " warming, and nettled too, as 
 the fastidious Francis betrayed his disgust more and more 
 plainly. " I'd like to kiss 'em." 
 
 " Why not ask permission ? " said the Sybarite dryly, 
 drawing away from this coarseness at the same time, as 
 if he had been petitioned for the salute. 
 
 " By Jove, I will ! " cried Charley, incensed at the 
 gentleman's tone. " If you say so, I'll hoof it down 
 Main Street, offer my jug-handle to every woman I meet, 
 and see if she won't let me brush a trifle of lily-white 
 off her damaged cheek. Hang it ! I will anyway. Just 
 go long 'tother side the road and watch." 
 
 Mr. Haythorne declined, and mentally searched his 
 Sybarite vocabulary for a delicate phrase expressive of 
 " confounded donkey, despicable jackass," and permitted 
 his handsome features to curl with a sneer. But Squire 
 Hitchcock, who was one of the little group Charley had 
 contrived to collect about them, felt his old blood stirred
 
 270 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 with youthful heat, and volunteered his services, adding : 
 " You'll have to be spryer than July hopper grass to ketch 
 some on 'em." 
 
 Francis Haythorne watched the precious pair with 
 contempt ; but when they encountered Mrs. Dennis, with 
 a covered basket on her arm, and three full-blown yellow 
 roses and one pink one on her hat, his wrath got far 
 beyond even the memory of a consoling maxim. 
 
 " Suffer me," said Charley, trying to embrace the good 
 woman's stout figure, and imprint a salute upon her 
 mature cheek. 
 
 She shifted her basket just in time to send him stagger 
 ing back, in the precise attitude of the starved apothe 
 cary in Romeo and Juliette. <{ Do you think I'll have ye 
 to kiss me, ye slobberin' dirty jackanapes ? " she cried 
 shrilly, her plump face crimson with wrath as she surveyed 
 the young harlequin. " Hugh, Hughey Dennis, come 
 quick, and smash his iley, moppy head for insultin' yer 
 mother ! Bedad thin, I'll do it meself," as no Hugh 
 appeared; and she set down her basket, and unpinned 
 her plaid blanket shawl accordingly. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! my good woman ! I wouldn't," said Squire 
 Hitchcock in a deprecatory tone, rubbing his well- 
 developed abdominal region inquiringly as he spoke, for 
 Charley's elbow had come in violent contact therewith in 
 his precipitate retreat ; " I wouldn't ! I don't believe 
 he meant anything." 
 
 Mrs. Dennis turned on him, blazing with indignation. 
 " I've jest wan piece of advice fur the likes of you : 
 Have naught to do wid yon graceless scamp ; belike he'll 
 lead even your gray hairs asthray, wid his impedunt 
 thricks. An' wouldn't that be a sad day, think ye, for 
 the pair things housin' amidst 'em ? " The vindictive-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 271 
 
 ness of her tone brought the peace-maker's fingers to his 
 maligned locks involuntarily. 
 
 " By thunder ! she had you then, Squire," shouted 
 Charley, delighted. " I was in earnest, mudatn. It 
 wouldn't hurt you any, you know." 
 
 He approached her, though she waved him back majes 
 tically ; and something cried " wee ! wee ! wee ! " in her 
 basket, but she heeded not the voice of the charmer. 
 
 " It's not me, the mother of seven sons, all in glory 
 but one, heaven rest their souls, as 'ud be doin' such a 
 thing," she went on, in a tone of impressive dignity, and 
 took a half-step back so as to give a grander sweep to her 
 voluminous skirts, whereby she trod on the tail of a cat 
 investigating the contents of her twig-woven casket. 
 " Saints be praised ! " she continued, sublimely uncon 
 scious of the howling animal ; " I've buried Dinnis this 
 five year; but" (" wee! wee ! " vehemently from the 
 wicker-ware) '' I'm as thrue to his memory as the day I 
 laid him wid tears and heart-break beneath the church 
 yard sod." At this point, the squeaks becoming very 
 audible, Mrs. Dennis imposed silence by a back kick. 
 " An' sence he died," she went on, without a pause, 
 " sence he died I'm niver in the street, save to buy bread 
 for the childer, such as bees now in me basket, or," an 
 other kick, which tipped over the object of her solicitude, 
 followed by a jubilant squeal, " mayhap a small bit of 
 calico for meself, a dress, or shirts for Hugh, as is too in- 
 tyerly principled a boy to come before uptown folks in his 
 ragged cloes ; or, bedad, an' the pig's out ! Run for 
 him, if ye'd have the name of gintlemin." Exit Mrs. 
 I)enuis in hasty chase, followed by a crowd urging on 
 the knotty-tailed quadruped with shrieks and hoots. 
 
 The objects of her eloquence remained behind, stamping 
 and screaming with mirth, Charley being finally obliged
 
 272 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 to lean against the fence to keep his balance, and the 
 Squire slapped his big legs so hard in extremity of de 
 light, that they must have been sore for a week after. 
 " This is bully ! " said the representative of the Pelicans, 
 at last, and settled his attire by help of a reflecting shop- 
 window. 
 
 " Yes," returned his companion, just then remember 
 ing his grievances ; " yes ; quite so. You haven't ground 
 the pints to them elbows o' your'n lately, hev you ? I 
 didn't know but you was feelin' for my crop a short .spurt 
 ago." 
 
 At this point, Susie Jenkens' little sister Gracie came 
 tripping down the street, in all the light-hearted gayety 
 that belongs to girl-life. Poor maiden! Red Riding 
 Hood was not more innocently amazed when the wicked 
 wolf petitioned a salute, than she when this lupine ma 
 rauder snatched a kiss. She stood quite still, her golden 
 curls tossed all about her dainty head, the very image of 
 bewildered fright, and put out her small hands to push 
 him off, with a pretty, touching gesture, and gazed a long 
 minute into the cruel fellow's face, which he contrived to 
 make really earnest and beseeching. Then she gave a 
 little cry, and darted up a side street, her feet keeping 
 time to the hurried beating of her heart. Pity that 
 the very tears of alarm she shed should be mingled with 
 feelings of admiration and gentle sorrow for the handsome 
 scapegrace ! I fear she thought of him very often during 
 the next few days, especially when she discovered he was 
 Peace's brother, and I know she debated long if she had 
 done as she ought, and experienced in murmuring her 
 sweet prayers that night, how good it is to forgive our 
 enemies, and them that do despitefully use us. 
 
 Even Squire Hitchcock felt mean at this adventure. 
 " Bones of Aunt Tommy ! this ain't nowise fair," he be-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 273 
 
 gan, and then stopped, for old Miss Petingil appeared 
 on the scene. She was jogging her way up the street, 
 very complacently, inasmuch as she held under her arm 
 a paper of sage and half a pumpkin, gifts of the Mc- 
 Crosses. It was a good hour since she started from Fir 
 Covert, so frequent had been her delays to relate her 
 story. Spying our amorous couple, she began at once. 
 
 " Now, Square, hev you heerd what a drefful prank " 
 
 Here Charley nudged Mr. Hitchcock in the ribs, and 
 begged an introduction in a stage whisper. 
 
 Miss Petingil bridled and smiled. " Ain't you Peace 
 Pelican's brother ? " she asked, with a simper forty years 
 out of date. Charley took the blue cap clear off, and 
 fairly tucked it under his arm in graceful acknowledgment 
 of the fact, and telegraphed " success " to his accomplice. 
 tl Like to speak with me," said the spinster, cheerfully. 
 " I das' say you want some tailorin' done. I ain't bad at 
 it ; " drawing towards the fence for privacy. " Here's 
 a pair of pants I'm doin' now for Deacon McCross, new 
 pattern ;" and she proceeded then and there to exhibit it. 
 Charley vouchsafed a half glance, expressing too much 
 modesty to look at such articles in company. " No, no," 
 said the ingenuous youth, blushing ; " I'm ashamed to ask 
 you for what I want. But mother's away at Top Town 
 so long, and I'm homesick. She always comes and kisses 
 me before I go to sleep, and you look so much like her." 
 
 " Dew tell ! " said Miss Petingil, in sympathy, her love- 
 scrimped heart warming with motherly instinct. Oar 
 Absalom was such a handsome boy, with his rich color 
 ing, and lips now drawn into a sorrowful curve. She 
 couldn't help it. " Tain't likely you'll go home for a 
 week, mebbc ? " 
 
 Charley shook his curly head as if heart-broken, and 
 drew out a white handkerchief, ready for application to
 
 274: SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 his eyes ; but this was unnecessary. The old lady depos 
 ited her half pumpkin on the fence-rail, and wiped her 
 withered mouth preparatory. 
 
 " There ! " said she, " take it. I hain't no boys nor 
 nuthin' ; but 'tain't no harm, no way." 
 
 The Squire, whose watery organs of sight had been 
 some time glittering with rare enjoyment, could no longer 
 contain himself, and now burst into a hoarse laugh. 
 Mrs. Dennis, too, rushed by, still in pursuit of the pig. 
 " Fools ain't all dead yit, be jabbers ! " quoth she, knock 
 ing the spinster's yellow treasure off the fence in her 
 haste, and was gone like a dream. So was the pumpkin, 
 for piggy doubled again, and spying, buried his nose in 
 it. The sharp-cut wrinkles on the maiden's face all deep 
 ened, and the mother-look faded hopelessly. She craned 
 up on the instant. " Almira Petingil is fit game for town 
 loafers, p'raps ! " she cried, " but she's too much a woman 
 to look at you twice." She picked up and wiped the 
 remnant of pumpkin, abandoned with reluctance by piggy, 
 and ambled forlornly away. 
 
 Next a tall, graceful figure, clad in sombre black, with 
 a thick veil sweeping from her bonnet and hiding her 
 face. The young man's heart sank as she approached. 
 The modest unconsciousness of purity is a very wall of 
 safety to its possessor. Charley's reflections resembled 
 those of Le Docteur Faust in a similar situation : 
 
 " No form like hers I can recall ; 
 Virtue she hath, and modest heed ; 
 Is piquant, too, and sharp withal." 
 
 He really hadn't courage to molest her, and, fairly 
 vanquished, was about turning away, when, goaded on by 
 a " haw ! haw ! " from the gentle Hitchcock, who had 
 discreetly retired from the glances of wrath at betrayed 
 confidence shot at him by Miss Petingil, he stopped the
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 275 
 
 lady with an apology, explained the case a boyish frolic, 
 would she excuse? and permit ? 
 
 She trembled a little, but heard with grave politeness. 
 He listened eagerly for the liquid melody of her voice in 
 answer. In vain, for she didn't speak. Her soft gar 
 ments exhaled a rich, dreamy perfume. He was wild to 
 snatch aside the sweeping crepe that hid her features. 
 He bashfully stretched out his hand to unveil her, but 
 she shrank back and shook her exquisite little glove defi 
 antly, herself pulled away the wrinkled mask, and per 
 mitted him to press a kiss upon a cheek whose rich color 
 was beyond praise. Then she motioned him to go, with 
 dignity, though he thought he heard a faint gurgle of 
 laughter as she left him. 
 
 She stopped at the corner of the street to talk with 
 Louis Allwood. How merry they were ! A horrible sus 
 picion took hold of Charley's mind. Could it be, yes, it 
 was Peace ! wicked, mirthful Peace ; and she stood de 
 tailing the joke with nods and becks and wreathed smiles, 
 to a man whose quiet superiority he could never forgive. 
 O dii immortales ! what should he do ? How could he 
 ever have been so fooled ! One thing was certain they 
 should smart for it. This saucy clerk should know the 
 weight of his anger. Charley was fond of letting a horse 
 feel the curb, as he expressed it. Ah ! here the fellow 
 came smiling! villanously smiling! 
 
 " By George, man! you seem uncommon jolly to-day ; 
 you have heard a joke, I see. Suppose you tell us about 
 it. I'll bet my head against your noddle the listener was 
 a darn sight worse than the story." Charley pushed his 
 victim toward the fence as he spoke, so as to make sure 
 of him. 
 
 " Je ne suis pas demoiselle, ni belle, 
 Et je n'ai pas besoiu qu'on m'amune,"
 
 276 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 repeated Louis, with a quiet laugh at the other's discour 
 teous touch. " As you say, the joke is excellent." 
 
 Though no French scholar, Mr. Pelican easily guessed 
 that the quotation had some reference to his late misfor 
 tune. It added fuel to the flame. To be laughed at in 
 an unknown language was beyond endurance. He 
 tapped his boot with his cane angrily. " If you've got 
 anything to say, don't mumble it in that gibberish ; any 
 fool can do that ! Do ye hear ? " 
 
 Now it was rumored about that Pelican was giving his 
 clerk " a going-over," and people were collecting near, 
 full of that vulgar curiosity which loves to see the 
 humiliation of the superior and unfortunate. Louis 
 writhed under it; there was an expression about his 
 almost womanly delicate mouth, that promised ill to his 
 antagonist. But his only reply was a graceful bow. He 
 was one of those slender, evenly proportioned men, who 
 bend as handsomely as a stalk of grain before the wind. 
 It is their natural gesture. The act exasperated Charley 
 from a sudden consciousness of this very fact. Anger 
 irradiates its object as a torch while it consumes our 
 selves ; and light in its nature must catch upon the 
 salient points, be they beauties, or the reverse. 
 
 " You may think you're smart," pursued young Peli 
 can, " but I'll have you to know I'm boss ; and I won't 
 submit to sass, either. It's bad policy to quarrel with 
 one's bread and butter." 
 
 Louis bowed again. He was too angry to risk a word, 
 and prepared to depart. I cannot picture the cool, polite 
 scorn concentrated into that bow ; but Charley felt it to 
 the marrow of his bones. He shouted after the obeisant 
 an oath, and an insinuation touching his manhood. 
 Then Louis came back. The more my boy grew angry, 
 the calmer he seemed. Even now, his voice was low,
 
 8UIFTLESS FOLKS. 277 
 
 and every syllable distinct. He picked up and restored 
 the cane Charley dropped, with the same courtesy he 
 would have used toward Mollie. " Mr. Pelican, I do 
 not desire to remain in your employment. A man who 
 cannot conduct himself with propriety, cannot command 
 others. Also you insult defenceless women." He walked 
 away without another word, or even look at the object of 
 his displeasure. A god sat in his eyes. He was master, 
 and he knew it. 
 
 Unfortunately he strode into the arms of the village 
 constable, and Mr. Cymbalinus Adolphus Brown, who 
 came up at that instant. 
 
 "I have been looking everywhere for you, Mr. All- 
 wood," said the official. " I want to bring you before 
 Squire Hitchcock to answer fur last night's spree. It 
 was drefful curless of you to do such a trick, but I hope 
 you'll go agreeable, and not make no fuss." He was a 
 short, red-haired, round-faced man, who looked rotund in 
 his clothes, like a bran-stuffed pin-cushion ; but Louis 
 wasn't thinking of his circular dignity ; his shame had 
 come personified upon him. Pity Charley could not 
 have seen his humiliation. 
 
 " On whose charge ? " asked the arrested meekly. It 
 was so opposite to his morning's repentance, he took it 
 as a matter of course, and never thought of resistance. 
 
 " Deacon McCross's, Deacon Elizur McCross's," ut 
 tered the representative of law through a little round, 
 purple mouth, like a half-open petunia, and speaking 
 with emphatic deliberation, so that the prisoner might 
 feel that justice was mighty, even enwrapped in fat. 
 " Deacon E. McCross, and Mrs. Miranda McCross. 
 'Taint nowise likely you hain't heerd ov what they wanter 
 see to, so please to come along." 
 
 " Did he, Mr. McCross, send you himself ? " questioned
 
 278 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Louis, who could hardly believe it of the kind-hearted 
 old man. 
 
 " He just did," said the constable, expanding his chest 
 as he supposed, but really only bringing into relief a more 
 prominent development, " an' he said he was goin' to 
 have the law out of you too." 
 
 The young fellow shivered. To be brought up like a 
 common drunkard ! It was a shame he could never 
 forget. 
 
 " Of course you'll plead guilty," said Cabby, button 
 holing him. 
 
 " I don't propose to deny facts," quoth Louis, annoyed 
 at being spoken to. " I suppose a fine will satisfy the 
 authorities." 
 
 " I should think so, certainly," said Mr. Brown. 
 " When I travelled in Europe with a pahty, I recollecb 
 being awested as a Fenian spy. Had to have wecourse 
 to the American consul. I assure you, it was vewy un 
 pleasant vewy ! " 
 
 This was putting it in a less disgraceful light, or ap 
 peared to be. Louis' downcast face brightened like a 
 tell-tale, as it was. 
 
 " Of cowose the less fuss you make about the matter, 
 the less noise thaah will be in town," pursued the law 
 yer, who had a dog-like skill at countenance-reading. 
 " I would like to be of sehvice to you, on account of my 
 friendship with that pahticulah stah, Miss Mollie. The 
 chahge, you know, is burglary, but it is all a fahce, 
 gotten up through the madam's temper. Miss Petingil 
 met me a few moments ago, and told me the circumstances 
 of the case." 
 
 His guilelessness once laid the sharpest-sighted spirit 
 in all heaven open to imposture, if Milton be correct; 
 Louis had the same quality, and was consequently duped.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 279 
 
 Besides, Mrs. McCross' tool played his part very well. 
 They had not had their morning's consultation in vain. 
 
 " I am much obliged to you," cried the pure-hearted 
 boy, warmly, wondering how he could ever have had 
 such a thorough contempt for the insignificant dandy. 
 " You are very kind." 
 
 t{ Not at all ! not at all 1 " said Cabby, airily, with 
 more truth than appeared. 
 
 They reached Squire Hitchcock's office, and that gen 
 tleman heard the evidence with as much decorum as if 
 he had not been engaged in Charley's little game two 
 hours before. Louis sat down and thought the matter 
 over. Should he plead guilty and suffer, or bide his 
 time and fight it out ? For it presently appeared that it 
 was no matter of fines and reproofs. In the one case, 
 his name would be a hissing and reproach ; in the other, 
 Mollie's home rendered wretched, and her parents ridicu 
 lous. The brave reticence she had maintained in regard 
 to her family discomforts could be no veil to Louis, and 
 he knew that determined opposition would be then 
 merged into active persecution ; for it must be that the 
 right would have way if he waited his trial. He reflected 
 that his name would one day be his love's also a fact 
 now remembered afresh after years of forgetting. But 
 profound emotion is a flood that tears away surface for 
 mations, regardless of the substrata revealed. Louis re 
 solved to assert his innocence, and said, " Not guilty," 
 firmly. 
 
 It appeared that on the date of the burglary Deacon 
 McCross had lost some eighty dollars in bills, the same 
 having been drawn the day before from the bank, in order 
 to pay certain household expenses. Mrs. McCross accused 
 Louis of breaking in and stealing the same, which charge 
 she supported by several witnesses : the gardener, who
 
 280 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 had observed him about the place ; the cook, who had 
 overheard the angry interview ; a tailor, to whom he had 
 that morning paid the same amount ; the clerk of the 
 Millville House, who had seen him come in, pale and 
 agitated, shortly after the supposed time of the robbery; 
 and more to the same effect. 
 
 This sufficed for commitment. " Have you any friends, 
 willing to give bail ? " asked Squire Hitchcock, when the 
 examination was concluded. 
 
 Louis walked over to the window, a dirty window, 
 full he always remembered of large, buzzing flies. 
 He looked down on the bright little street, crowded with 
 busy people hurrying about, on the tradesmen, and Gone- 
 cussets, and gentlemen farmers, and rough workmen, and 
 factory hands, all pushing, and jostling, and bargaining 
 every man with his heart full of his own cares. 
 
 Mrs. McCross had brought my boy up well ; in all the 
 noisy, happy town, he had few acquaintances not one 
 friend. So he came back to the ash-littered, fire-empty, 
 tobacco-stained stove, where the men sat waiting. " I 
 will not trouble any one," said he. 
 
 " Jest as well," responded the Squire. " Your case'll 
 be up next week before Superior Court. It's about 
 through the docket, so you don't have to wait long ; an' 
 your board won't cost you nuthin' meanwhile, you know. 
 He, he ! " 
 
 The magistrate, who hadn't given up hopes of getting 
 rid of Euphemia, glared at Mr. Brown ; and Mr. Brown, 
 who wanted to borrow money of the magistrate, snick 
 ered, with his chin on his cane, and Louis drew himself 
 up haughtily, and said he was ready to go. 
 
 So they took him to the jail ; and, except that the cells 
 were dirty, and the ventilation poor, he suffered in body 
 less than might be expected.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 281 
 
 He knew nothing of law ; his dear piano, and dearer 
 books, had absorbed far too much time to admit of great 
 worldly experience. Even the Top Town life had been a 
 surface gliding among treacherous marshes and bogs ; but, 
 marsh-like, all had looked green and fair a-top. There 
 were miasma and boles, and vermin in plenty ; but he had 
 walked around on the made ground of wealth and position, 
 hadn't slipped in. He felt certain his innocence would 
 be established. He knew the evidence against him was 
 very slight, and had, besides, an instinctive idea that 
 right would triumph because it was right. True, he 
 couldn't tell upon what he founded his hopes, unless it 
 was a general faith in human nature. But human na 
 ture, as Mr. and Mrs. Adam, No. 1 Paradise Row, dis 
 covered a long time since, is poor stuff. Louis' impres 
 sions were further strengthened by a visit from Mr. 
 Brown, who assured him that he would certainly clear 
 himself without difficulty, and, moreover, advised him to 
 save his money and plead his own cause, assuring him 
 that the case was too plain to make legal aid necessary. 
 
 Now Louis had nothing wherewith to pay a lawyer ; 
 one ten-dollar bill at that moment comprising his whole 
 finances. He therefore accepted the advice thankfully, 
 and made up his mind to tell his honest story and await 
 the issue. 
 
 Peace Pelican called the next day with Mollie McCross. 
 She wore the charity uniform, whereby she had so vexed 
 her unsuspecting brother, and looked as regal as ever. I 
 have never seen a more strikingly handsome brunette 
 than Peace. The superb coloring of her face, her large, 
 lustrous eyes, but especially her finely moulded features, 
 which could express the utmost merriment, hauteur, dig. 
 nity, or compassion, almost at the same moment, made 
 the pleasure of watching her amount to fascination. In
 
 282 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 her presence, one thought of odorous hot spices, of great 
 tropical flowers whose breath is heavy with fragrance, of 
 flamingoes, and stately palm-trees, and jer-falcons, and all 
 manner of things that express beauty, courage, and in 
 tense life. 
 
 The friends found Louis studying criminal character, 
 with a view to future practice at the bar ; and upon his 
 telling them so, sat down in front of his cell on two 
 stools, which Mr. Marsh, the jailer, brought them, and 
 straightway plunged contentedly into castle-building 
 which culminated in Louis' being Chief Justice of United 
 States, and Mollie's appearance in black velvet and dia 
 monds; simultaneously with Peace's buying three coun 
 try houses for caravansaries, to be adorned with rows of 
 orphan children in ruffled aprons, overlooked by herself, 
 in cap and spectacles. It was so sweet to forget the 
 horrible years of want now past, and once more go forth 
 into dream-life, haud-in-hand with Louis ; so passing 
 sweet to realize that they could still build rainbow-cas 
 tles together, that the actual speaking, doing, wearying, 
 going up and down in the years, had not been a gradual 
 drifting apart ; that the, to them, better defined, more 
 tangible thought-life, was not a severed, maimed existence 
 to both. Mollie basked in the recovered joy, and grew 
 gay, and playful, and girlish in her lover's presence. 
 
 By and by Peace became troubled. Charley, she said, 
 had vowed vengeance against his former companion, and 
 called on Mrs. McCross, in spite of all she could do and 
 say to the contrary ; had been seen drinking with the 
 abstemious Mr. Brown ; and was under the influence of 
 liquor most of the time. 
 
 Whereupon Mollie changed into her every-day, care- 
 burdened self, and begged Louis to be wary, for her father 
 and mother seemed very sure of his conviction.
 
 BUIFTLKBS FOLKS. 283 
 
 But he laughed at their fears, and kissed her hands 
 through the bars, and added his entreaties to her parent's 
 commands, that she should not appear as witness. There 
 was no need to have their affairs made common property, 
 he said. How could they prove a thing that wasn't so ? 
 And he playfully quoted poetry for her consolement, be 
 ginning with 
 
 " Desponding fear, of feeble fancies full, 
 Weak and unmanly, loosens every power ; " 
 
 and gently sliding into Wordsworth : 
 
 " What are fears but voices airy, whispering harm where harm 
 is not?" 
 
 Mollie smiled because she loved him, and, to her, all 
 his ways were pleasantness ; but the worry didn't get out 
 of her truthful eyes, and when, as Peace put it, he had 
 shot his last arrow, she still looked anxiously into his 
 face. 
 
 " What ! dearest of trouble-borrowers, are you still un 
 convinced ? Don't you know 
 
 " Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt, 
 And every grin so merry draws one out ? " 
 
 She stood submitting to the light touch with which he 
 drew mirthful lines about her fresh, sweet mouth, as if 
 she loved it. " You will be cautious, Louis, won't you ? " 
 she ui'ged, when he stepped backhand regarded his work 
 with a serio-comic shake of the head. But he wouldn't 
 promise, or do anything except enact the maniac by help 
 of the bars of his cell ; so the two women could only go 
 home heavy-hearted, and talk about hope. 
 
 Leaving the prison they met Deacon McCross ; but he 
 slunk toward tlie wall, and wouldn't look at them. He 
 had a milder, balder, more cowed-down air than ever, to
 
 284 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Peace's mind ; but being one of those people who never 
 bestow confidences with rough edges, she made no com 
 ment thereon to her friend. 
 
 Finally the day of the trial came. The jurymen were 
 personally unknown to Louis ; but the State's attorney, 
 under Cabby's manipulations, had called on him, and 
 advised him to plead guilty. The Judge, too, had been 
 interviewed by the McCrosses in a friendly way ; and 
 before the prisoner came into court, every one's mind was 
 made up against him. 
 
 It is odd that the very alleviations to real guilt, when 
 that guilt is merely conjectural, are made to certify to it. 
 
 " Poor fellow ! I suppose he needed the money." 
 
 " Yes, some folks think that, an' a good deal more of 
 the McCross property, would change hands if justice had 
 way. Likely he thought he had a right to it." 
 
 " How kinder peaked he looks. Don't seem stout 
 enough to work. They dew say, Mrs. McCross wa'n't 
 nun too good to him when he lived there ; always shuttin' 
 him up, an' snubbin' him ; he wa'n't never let to set on 
 the best chairs, nor nuthin'. When I got away I'd ha' 
 had one good time ef I'd 'a ben be." 
 
 From these remarks it may be correctly concluded 
 that the Millville ladies were out in force ; less, however, 
 from interest in Louis, than dislike of Mrs. McCross. 
 
 It struck the accused as strange, that Cabby, his open- 
 hearted champion, should appear for the prosecution ; but 
 he felt so hurt at Charley Pelican's conduct, that the out 
 side treachery seemed nothing. His estranged companion, 
 called as plaintiff's witness, testified hurriedly and noisily 
 that defendant's past life had been open to suspicion ; his 
 habits expensive, his temper of late uncertain; that he 
 was drunk the night of the burglary they had been 
 drinking together.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 285 
 
 Deacon McCross said he had lost the money, and was 
 sorry for the whole matter, and wished he hadn't got 
 nothin' to do with it. The night of the trouble he had 
 invited his ward to his house, but he didn't think he was 
 layin' plans to rob him, the very time. He looked so 
 bald and mild and miserable, that every one's heart steeled 
 against Louis directly. All the moral half of the audi 
 ence bethought them of serpents' eggs, dogs that bite the 
 hand, and so on; while the immoral half said it was a 
 darn mean trick for any one to play such a kind-hearted 
 old chap. 
 
 Mrs. McCross' account was worthy of her genius. 
 She had heard a noise in the night, and got up to examine 
 the premises, and found a window open, and became 
 aware at the same moment that some one was lurking 
 close to the house. On perceiving himself observed, he 
 had the impudence to begin a song, and when she ordered 
 him off, insulted her and broke her windows. No one 
 else had been about the house, and she found the prints 
 of muddy boots on her floor next morning, clear up to 
 the drawer where the money had been placed. She 
 further spoke of missing tea-spoons during her ward's 
 sojourn under her roof, and said, in conclusion, that she 
 had prayed much that he might be plucked as a brand 
 from the burning, yea, saved as by fire ; but she feared 
 her faith was vain. 
 
 At this juncture Miss Petingil, who had spared a day 
 for the trial, remarked to her neighbors that it was pe 
 culiar of them Price gels to pray for folks they was a 
 plaguin' on ; and added, " How folks ken ! " and took 
 snuff on it in her snippiest way. 
 
 Then Bridget deposed that, returning home with her 
 cousin, she stopped to do a bit of sparkin' by the gate, 
 and so overheard the latter part of the quarrel. Yesj
 
 286 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 she had swept up the foot-prints, and remarked at the 
 time how small and slender they were. 
 
 Then they made Louis step out, and show his arched, 
 haughty little foot, that part and parcel of his make-up 
 was so perfectly formed ; and the stamping cowhide-boot 
 ed farmer -jury laughed sneeringly, and were glad in their 
 secret hearts that they could count it down against him. 
 
 What between this testimony, and Pat's, which con 
 firmed his mistress's, and the evidence of hangers-on at 
 
 
 
 the Cereus, who corroborated Charley's deposition, the 
 prosecution had things quite their own way. 
 
 All day long, Louis had held a half-formed resolution 
 to send for Mollie, who most unwillingly yielded to his 
 wish, and her parents' command, in staying away. He 
 didn't know that she could help him, but he felt that he 
 needed her presence. He hadn't given up hope ; but his 
 heart was growing very faint, and he could gain strength 
 from her calm, earnest faith in him. When at length the 
 Judge called for the defendant's witnesses, he rose to ex 
 plain, and send for her, but at this moment the bent form 
 of Deacon McCross presented itself beside him. 
 
 " Be you goiii' to have Mollie on ? " asked the old 
 man in an anxious tone. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Louis, " that is my intention." 
 
 " Don't," said the Deacon, earnestly. " I've always 
 ben kind to you. I wouldn't ha' sworn what I did, ef 
 Mirandy hadn't made me. Don't send for Mollie ; think 
 how Miraiidy'll fly at her. She can't prove you didn't 
 steal it, you know." 
 
 True, she couldn't prove that ; Mrs. McCross knew 
 better than any one else, better than Louis, what she 
 could prove of intercepted letters, betrayed trusts, sys 
 tematic plottings and deceptions ; and the good lady 
 watched the success of her little stratagem with no small
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 287 
 
 anxiety. She had not to wait long. Her victim rose 
 full of the generous impulse of youth, and answered firmly, 
 " Except God, I have no witness of my innocence." 
 
 " Have you no defence," said the Judge, with pity in 
 his professional voice. 
 
 And he answered, " I have nothing in these people's 
 testimony to deny, except that I am a thief." 
 
 The evidence was slight, too slight it seems to me, 
 though a lawyer of forty years' standing lately assured 
 me that it was a very strong case. Any wise the jury had 
 been industriously worked by Cabby, who was urged on 
 by mean jealousy of an old rival, cupidity, and the hope 
 of gaining a little practice by success, and made a willing 
 tool in Mrs. McCross' hands. The defendant, poor a 
 mere stripling estranged from the only friends on whom 
 he could rely by right, had, we have seen, nothing to urge 
 in denial. They brought in a hasty verdict of " guilty," 
 and Judge Sistaire rose to pronounce the sentence, " Im 
 prisonment for three years." 
 
 He was a man who " had been tender-hearted in this 
 matter of punishment, but was used to it now." He felt 
 many doubts about the matter; but there was no more 
 light to be had, and the case had no contradictions ; law 
 was law, and this, after all, only business. Why ! if he 
 had every verdict to his satisfaction he wouldn't render a 
 dozen decisions in a twelvemonth ; he made fewer mis 
 takes than any confrere in the State. But he said, after 
 ward, that the mute agony in that young face was so ter 
 rible, that he would have given well, the costs of the 
 suit to reverse his decision. But it was too late. 
 
 When the words were spoken the court-room was very 
 still. The whole mass of humanity turned toward the 
 stripling justice condemned to suffer. 
 
 He put his hands before his face to shut out that ter-
 
 288 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 rible concentrated gaze. The air grew black and thick 
 about him. He felt that he must shriek. In the effort 
 to keep silence, the world receded from his grasp. 
 
 " Oh ! Mollie ! Mollie ! " he cried, hoarsely, and then 
 and then they picked him up and brought him back to 
 life with extremest care, to have opportunity to make 
 good their sentence. 
 
 " 'Tain't no use to send that feller to prison," remarked 
 a rough-looking man to his companion. " Bless you, 
 they hain't nothing for him to do ; he can't never make 
 shoes." 
 
 " MILLVILLE JAIL. September 30^. 
 
 " DEAB MOLLIE, Our troubles are upon us, but we 
 will not lose hope. I am sustained by your love. Don't 
 visit me at Top Town. You would never forget me in 
 thief's uniform, and my wife mustn't have such memories. 
 Write as often as you can. My Mollie, I love you always, 
 my faith, my hope, my wife. 
 
 "Louis ALLWOOD." 
 
 She couldn't let him go so, and in spite of father and 
 mother, came to the jail to see him before he was taken 
 away. Poor children ! They tried to console each other, 
 but comfort died on their lips. There is no comfort, no 
 mercy, for such as they.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 289 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 " Swim, swam, swum." 
 
 ILLVILLE was all excitement. There had been 
 an overseer killed in the Penitentiary, and they 
 BU^HeSi had brought down the murderer to the county 
 jail, and were going to hang him. Mrs. McCross and 
 Mrs. and Mr. and Miss Hitchcock begged tickets for tho 
 show and got them ; but Mrs. Williams bestirred herself 
 too late, and had to buy her entrance like the rest of the 
 jail-yard audience, while Pay son took in the lesson from 
 the crowded parapet of the neighboring bridge. 
 
 On the morning of the eventful day, Susy Jenkens 
 since Mrs. Hauxhurst, met Captain Slocum, and pro 
 ceeded to unburden her heart touching the matter. He 
 didn't seem to respond very freely, for a man of his 
 known good-hearted, liberal views, and Squire Hitchcock 
 joined the group. 
 
 " They abused the man ; flogged him, kept him in soli 
 tary confinement till he was desperate. They maltreat 
 the prisoners. The very brutes are kinder to each other 
 than men," cried she, excitedly. "TJiey never shut 
 a fellow-animal up for the pleasure of deliberately tor 
 turing." 
 
 " I don't know about that," said the Captain, plunging 
 his hands deep in his trouser pockets, and chewing a straw. 
 " Our old cat had kittens the other day, and do you know, 
 she ate one of 'em up." 
 
 " The fact is," seeing Susy look hurt at this application 
 of natural history, " we mean to have prison-birds suffer. 
 We put them there on purpose." 
 
 " But they don't try to make them better," said the 
 13
 
 290. SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 dear, simple girl ; " they don't even teach them to read. 
 The men always grow worse. It is a certainty." 
 
 She was actually shocked when Mr. Hitchcock rejoined, 
 " They ain't sent there to grow better. You don't suppose 
 we honest folks mean to feed such truck on oyster soup 
 and mock-turtle ? We set out to have 'em wretched if we 
 can." 
 
 " And the system will never be altered, because it will 
 take time and money, and after-trouble ; and honest 
 men won't be plagued when their enemies are so cheaply 
 and conveniently disposed of already," added Captain 
 Slocum, testily. " Jerusalem crickets I Why should 
 we?" 
 
 At this point both gentlemen looked uneasy and walked 
 away, and Mary McCross went by, meek and humble, 
 with her head down and her face averted. The voices 
 had been loud ; she must have heard every word. 
 
 A day or so afterward, Amos told his teacher that he 
 knew of two men that had died under the abuse at Top 
 Town, and two more made idiotic. " Now, Miss Mollie," 
 said he, " why don't they bring the warden down, and 
 hang him ? " 
 
 The winter had been unexampled in severity. The 
 frosts of November were followed by sleighing at Christ 
 mas ; and the February snows piled themselves far above 
 fences and cow-sheds, from Maine to Massachusetts. 
 Now, in March, came a terrible storm, and then a sudden 
 thaw. Down rushed the winter's accumulated drifts, 
 swelling brooks and rivers into flood, carrying away 
 bridges, and sweeping off cattle, and dams, and mills, in 
 one horrible destruction. Of course no one had thought 
 it worth while to dyke Syllabub, though a scant rise of
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 291 
 
 Roaring River always laid it under water ; and now pig 
 pens floated airily down stream, and people sailed out of 
 their second-story windows if they could afford it, or 
 starved quietly in garrets if they couldn't. The town 
 hall was thrown open to those whose houses were quite 
 untenable ; and the Millville ladies gave blankets and 
 clothing which were dutifully wasted ; and the Gonecus- 
 sets donated five hundred dollars' worth of soup to the 
 sufferers a fact publicly blazoned in the newspapers, and 
 then assessed the sum privately on their workmen, which 
 nobody knew anything about. 
 
 The whole town came out to admire the new Venice, 
 and perhaps try a row through its submerged streets. 
 The windows and stairways were crowded with women 
 and children. Through the canals flashed the boat loads 
 of excited inhabitants; carts piled with furniture and 
 people ploughed their way laboriously about the shallower 
 water ; jests were thrown from skiff to skiff; and people, 
 much fortified as to the inner man in consideration of the 
 diluents without, abandoned themselves to hilarity. The 
 saloons were crowded with drinkers, and every now and 
 then rang forth a shout at the expense of some involun 
 tary Baptist, or courageous swimmer and wader. Tired 
 of waiting for help, young folk trusted themselves in ex 
 traordinary craft, and tubs, half barrels, and rafts floated 
 wildly about. Half the young men emptied their pockets 
 for flags, and the children continually stumbled into cel 
 lar-ways, and had to be fished out by their fond parents. 
 
 Amos, who wouldn't have been Amos if he hadn't 
 owned a rickety boat, plied his oars all day for the penni 
 less inhabitants, and took his pay out of Doppy's smiles, 
 when after much urging she consented to be rowed over, 
 "jest onct," for a bread-and-butter trip up-town, and a 
 visit to Fir Covert.
 
 292 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Corning back with a singing, shouting load of work 
 men, his pleasant meditations were rudely interrupted, 
 when, from a window above, Aleck Heffron turned a 
 pan of cold water upon them. Aleck had grown into a 
 slender, handsome fellow, rivalling Hugh in clog-dancing, 
 and everywhere laughed at as the warm admirer of pretty 
 faces, practical jokes, and Aleck Heffron. He had 
 rather worked away from the old place in the trio : pos 
 sessing neither Amos' steadiness, nor Hugh's unfailing 
 good-humor ; nor, perhaps, going on hand in hand in the 
 upward -tending self-denials, that the boy puts on one by 
 one as he matures into true manhood. Still he was one 
 of " the fellows," and got well cursed for his prank accord 
 ingly. 
 
 " I was afeared ye might be forgettiu' yer friends," 
 was his tranquil reply. 
 
 " Ef I don't pay ye fur that, my name ain't Dennis," 
 said Hugh, seizing a dipper floating by, and hastily de 
 taching a dead hen tied by a long string to the handle. 
 " Leave me out, boys ; I'm after him." 
 
 " It would even us wid 'em both, to row away," sug 
 gested the red-headed insurrectionist of Patience of Hope 
 memory, who had now got half way through a black 
 smith's apprenticeship. Amos was not the man to refuse 
 good advice. 
 
 As it happened, Mrs. Dennis had been visiting her 
 friends, " a bit," and her son stood aghast to encounter 
 her on the stairs. She instantly determined to save her 
 quarter-passage money, and be carried home on Hugh's 
 back. Accordingly she stayed only to tuck up her ample 
 petticoats, and without waiting permission, precipitated 
 herself on his shoulders. They were in the middle of 
 the street before she remembered her bundle.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 293 
 
 " The pertatees ! Hughey Dinnis ! left on the stairs, 
 and not a sup of dinner can ye have without 'em." 
 
 But our good lady proved no light weight, and just 
 then a mocking shout from the boat, with shrill whistles, 
 and cries of " Crocodile," " Shoo-fly," " Hurrah for 
 Woman's Rights," proved too much for equanimity. 
 
 " Stand still now, while I go back an' git 'em," said 
 he, promptly dropping her to wade as she could, and re 
 joining his companions to receive a dozen offers of lodging 
 on the spot. 
 
 With such jests, the light-hearted Hibernians beguiled 
 the miseries of the situation ; and Amos had for his 
 next load the city missionary, who dispensed bread from 
 Roaring River friends, and a new tract on Noah, written 
 for the occasion by Mrs. Dr. Perfect, and published 
 through the private subscription of her associates. 
 
 At night the scene became even more animated : lights 
 flashed from the open windows of houses, in which every 
 known instrument, from a Jew's-harp to a bag-pipe, was 
 put in requisition ; and, without, tin horns and penny 
 trumpets hooted in unison. The rum shops invested 
 largely in cheap fire-works, and the street corners were 
 hung with lanterns, to expose the otherwise unseen lamp 
 posts. The boats, no longer needed for business, 
 carried parties of pleasure -seekers, who sang, or beat 
 drums, or howled, as taste might incline; and their 
 torches flared red upon the faces of the crew, and lit up 
 the ripples of the black oily water, only to make succeed 
 ing darkness wilder, and every now and then, a party of 
 gentlemen out to see the sport, or a policeman's barge, 
 glided quietly onward. 
 
 The " Solomon Rodgers " stood a little apart from its 
 neighboring houses, and though surrounded by water, was 
 still habitable. Doppy, however, had accepted an invita-
 
 294 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 tion to spend the night at Fir Covert ; and Joe, after a 
 cruel beating with a rope's-end three days before, had 
 disappeared, no one knew where. 
 
 It was well on to twelve o'clock, but the two old men 
 still sat drinking in the dirty bar-room ; less apparently 
 from enjoyment than lack of other occupation. The 
 dampness had soaked into the walls and air ; the fire 
 smouldered in the stove ; the smoky lamp on the counter 
 faintly discovered the sticky bottles and glasses, left from 
 the evening trade. Conversation flagged. Previously 
 drunk on whiskey, the pair had been sobering themselves 
 with lager, when Doppy's parent broke out : 
 
 " I'm an old man, Haverty, an' near the end. What 
 do you suppose will become of us when we die ? " 
 
 " Whisth mon," said Joe's progenitor, taking a long 
 swig, and smacking his gray bushed lips thereafter. 
 " It's bad luck to 'mintion the thing." 
 
 " But I'm in airnest," persisted Mulligan, solemnly 
 he was a little farther gone than his companion. " It's a 
 grraave question." 
 
 Thus pressed, Haverty said the " universal doctrine " 
 was good enough for him. 
 
 " No, no ! " rejoined his friend with fervor. "Be you 
 willin' to go to heaven with Knox an' Brady, two d n 
 scoundrels ? I ain't." 
 
 " I'm willin' to take another pot o' beer," said Haverty, 
 waiving the subject. 
 
 " It's down on the stairs," responded Mulligan, rising. 
 " Come an' hold the light ; we may's well make a night 
 on't." 
 
 The cellar was full of water, that ran in through its 
 open door, and all sorts of rotting debris had collected 
 there. The steps leading down were wet and slippery, 
 and the rays of Haverty's lamp feebly lit up the slimy
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 295 
 
 Avail, and the horrible, noisome water beneath ; and you 
 could hear the melancholy swish-swish of the waves 
 against the building. " Come, hurry," said the man, 
 yielding, in spite of his brutish obtuseness to impressions, 
 to a compelling terror. " This hole is just right for 
 murders. Look at those wandering glimmers a-top the 
 current, and the black shapes floating like devils beyant. 
 Hurry out o' here." 
 
 " Then take a holt," said Mulligan, below, selecting a 
 cask from the half-dozen propped upon the stairs. " It's 
 heavy enough to drag you to hell." 
 
 There be people who find prophecy and meaning in the 
 utterances of the dying. Let such take note of these, 
 for they were the last old Mulligan ever made. At that 
 moment a gust of wind closed the door above, extin 
 guishing the light, and his startled companion missed his 
 footing, fell helplessly, striking first the wall, and then 
 the man cumbered with his biirden ; and both were pre 
 cipitated into the flood. 
 
 A. fortnight after, their blackened corpses were fished up 
 from the cellar, as the flood subsided, and there being 
 nothing left to bury them, Doppy's friends made up a 
 subscription from their 'prentice earnings, and saw them 
 decently interred with the unshriven in the corner 
 Father O'Gorruan allowed such at the cemetery, and 
 they had as fine a coverlid of thistles, in time, as the pious 
 occupants of the Protestant establishment near by. 
 
 Amos comforted Doppy, saw to the funeral, and then 
 hurried off to take counsel with Mollie. " It ain't no 
 place to leave her in at the ' Rodgers ' alone," said he, after 
 detailing the situation ; " and she won't go back on Joe, 
 bad cess to her, and Joe's doin' dreadful, and that makes 
 it worse agin ; an', Miss McCross, I thought " said he,
 
 296 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 in some embarrassment, " that is, I knew you wouldn't 
 mind " The anxiety he felt for success in his suit knotted 
 up every muscle in his body. 
 
 " "Well," said Mollie, encouragingly, as he clenched his 
 large hands and turned his elbows inside out, and opened 
 his mouth in gasps, " what would you advise me to do ? 
 I would be thankful to know your opinion. I want to 
 provide for Doppy." 
 
 All Amos' contracted muscles relaxed, and his fine 
 Irish gray eyes grew blue and alight with grateful feeling, 
 as-he straightened his tall form and answered, every whit 
 manly : 
 
 " What I wish to say is, that I know of a respectable 
 young couple as would move in and make it a dacent 
 place, where Doppy could keep her old room, as she's set 
 on ; and would you speak to Mr. McCross to make the 
 rint aisy for 'em, so they can afford it ? " 
 
 The young lady's pale, weary face (it had grown sadly 
 weary in the last few months) now brightened with 
 pleasure. Amos' thoughtful care of his friend was a 
 strength to her, who was forced everywhere to review the 
 crooked, desolate, loathsome phases of life. " The 4 Solo 
 mon Rodgers ' is mine ! " she cried, joyfully, " and the peo 
 ple can move in as soon as they like, and Joe shall have 
 her garret as long as she needs it." 
 
 So Amos' new tenants, just six weeks married, took 
 possession, and painted, and papered, and dressed the old- 
 fashioned terraces with flowers, and hung the wains 
 coted, time-blackened bar-room with knick-knacks, making 
 a sweet, pure home there. And Dorothea's " chances " 
 widened and multiplied.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 297 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 " The north wind doth blow, 
 And we shall have snow ; 
 What'll the robin do then ? 
 
 Poor thing ! 
 He'll sit in the barn, 
 And keep himself warm, 
 And hide his head under his wing, 
 Poor thing." 
 
 jFTER all, winter could not forbear a final kick 
 at Millville, and took advantage of the genei'al 
 wetness left by the freshet to bring on a parting 
 storm. But this early May day the sun glanced mildly 
 through the snow-laden firs that protected the Covert, 
 and melted their white counterpane off the edge of the 
 flower-beds in a quiet, determined way, that failed for 
 once to rouse the pugnacious east wind. 
 
 Peace Pelican, equipped in high button-boots and er 
 mines, hastily swung open the gate, and, without knock 
 ing, ran up to Mollie's room. She didn't find any one 
 there, and so, leisurely pulled off her gloves and scarlet- 
 plumed hat, laid them on the bed, unfastened her woolly 
 jacket, drew an arm-chair near the cosey grate, took up the 
 " Romance of a Mummy " lying open on the table, and 
 settled herself to await her friend's coming. 
 
 This bed- room always seemed to me the ideal of a young 
 lady's sanctum. Every detail partook of the individuality 
 of its mistress. The parlors of a house must, perhaps, 
 be sacrificed to family usage and French fashion. The 
 once wide, hospitable hall, lined with settees and open- 
 throated chimneys, hung with antlers, furs, and fowliug- 
 13*
 
 298 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 pieces, has assumed snaky proportions, and crawls dis 
 mally through the house, deserted to hat-racks and foot 
 men's chairs. The dining-room has fallen into the 
 clutches of servants and cut-glass decanters. But the 
 bed-room is the young lady's own. No alien hand should 
 dust its hundred knick-knacks, the invaluable accumula 
 tion of years of friendship ; no flippant Abigail pry into 
 its old-fashioned albums and rose-scented boxes. The 
 dozen favorite volumes on the shelf, Thomas a Kempis 
 or Colenso in the midst, books gathered with great self- 
 denial and little pocket-money, how exactly they repre 
 sent your intellectual life ! 
 
 On the bureau stands the cut-glass vase, filled with the 
 one nicety of perfume your maidenly fancy prompts you 
 to set breathing from the folds of your garments, and 
 saluting the reader of your tinted billet-doux. 
 
 On the table is your orderly work-basket, furnished 
 with the pretty things mamma used when a girl. A few 
 pictures hang on the walls : some choice, some old-fash 
 ioned and faded, grandmother's handiwork, perhaps ; 
 hunting-scenes, where plethoric squires in pinks pursue 
 long foxes, and bestride Suffolk Punches, neatly finished 
 with arched eyebrows and eyelashes. 
 
 The portfolio papa brought from Europe, the brackets 
 Cousin Dick carved when laid up with a sprain, the curi 
 ous pebbles somebody picked up for you on the moun 
 tain the day you set the lunch-table, and he made so 
 many jokes you left the spoons behind, and had to go 
 back for them, and got wet in the shower ; the walking- 
 stick some one else carved with your name ; the pin-cush 
 ions, mats, tidies, watch pockets, and bits of water-color, 
 coming in Christmas after Christmas, have each a place in 
 this dear little sanctuary ; and so, in time, it comes to 
 pass that every familiar article has its own story written
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 299 
 
 all over it, and speaking lovingly to your memory, when 
 ever your eyes fall thereon. 
 
 I never feel really acquainted with a woman till I have 
 peeped into her bed-room. Says a certain man, who in 
 his day, possessed a great reputation for wisdom : " Tell 
 me with whom thou keepest company, and I will tell thee 
 what thou art." But I have as good a dictum, " Let me 
 glance into your sanctum, and I will tell you what you 
 have been about all your life." 
 
 Mr. Haythorne, who dealt much in mystic lore, used 
 to say that every room possessed an atmosphere, a spiritual 
 influence, of its own. " For example," here he stroked 
 his curling beard and glanced wickedly at Peace, " though 
 I have never been in Miss Pelican's boudoir, I feel sure 
 it is pervaded by a genius of uneasiness, a sense of things 
 turned upside-down and inside-out ; in short, a keen s\ig- 
 gestiveness of the instability of human affairs." 
 
 " Hum," retorted Peace, pretending to finger thought 
 fully her fluted apron, " I have been in your apartment ; 
 I found no manifest presence there except smoke." 
 
 Mollie's room was full of quiet restfulness, gentle re 
 pose. It was a place where one instinctively practised 
 the amenities of social life, thought pleasant thoughts, 
 felt kindly toward one's enemies, and arose strengthened 
 for the battles of life It had a certain dignity, too, like 
 Mollie's self, and rebellious spirits experienced a strong 
 element of discord when they entered charged with a con 
 trary animus. 
 
 Its furniture possessed so many histories that Peace once 
 told its mistress she believed she had gotten everything 
 in it out of her friends. 
 
 On the wall, in a dainty frame of Louis' workmanship, 
 hung the butterflies the two had snared and studied to 
 gether. There had been a pair of cases, but the other was
 
 300 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 gone, and its place filled by a little crayon sketch of the 
 first Christmas Eve, with the initials " L. A." faintly 
 traced in the corner. 
 
 The half dozen volumes satisfying most young girls ex 
 panded into a well-chosen library, with a whole shelf of 
 controversial and meditative religious works, and sundry 
 leather-bound scrap-books, labelled " Egmont," " Hints 
 about the Aryan Race," "Genera and Local Species of 
 the Bombycidse," " Herbarium of Local Ferns," and a 
 complete translation of " Count Monte Christo," some 
 times in Louis' b and wri ting, sometimes Mollie's. All 
 the books were full of Louis. There were the German 
 Fairy Tales he delighted in ; the Merivale, and Froude, 
 and Lamartine they had conscientiously " done " together, 
 the old poetry they had enjoyed he always went for 
 a glass of water just before they reached the unpleasant 
 part, and so passed them by. Beside these, there stood 
 " John Halifax," that sweetest of life stories ; and another 
 tale or two of kindred worth : " Hypatia," " Barbara's 
 History," " Mary Barton," " Adam Bede," and certain 
 romances by a pleasant-tongued baroness of difficult name, 
 who makes Munich, Tyrol, and Innspruck history the 
 delightful property of such few Americans as nowadays 
 stay at home. 
 
 Mollie was no " amateur " musician, but she could sing 
 a simple ballad in a clear voice, and her dainty inlaid 
 guitar (Louis had taught her to play it) stood in one corner 
 of the room ; an aquarium and fernery rivalled each other 
 in the deep window-seat ; while on either side the casement 
 hung the cages of Poppy and a little Java sparrow Louis 
 had brought Mollie one day, because, he said, it made 
 him think of her; its coat was so modest, and its bill as 
 red as her lips. 
 
 Peace sat some time refreshing her stately self before
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 301 
 
 she became conscious that her hostess had entered the 
 room. In fact she did not find it out at all, until she 
 heard a little cry, more a gasp than an articulate sound, 
 from the sewing chair over by the garden window. She 
 turned around enough to see her friend, white as the 
 snow, with an open letter in her hand, and then wisely 
 looked back to the fire, and said nothing. Half an hour 
 passed an hour two hours Mollie so intently think 
 ing, that she did not hear the rustle of the leaves regu 
 larly turned by the reader in the arm-chair. 
 
 By and by she rose from her seat, put the epistle away 
 among her papers quietly, and with care Mollie never 
 did untidy things ; then seeing Peace for the first time, 
 greeted her lovingly, and proceeded to make her welcome. 
 If her cheeks were pale, and her eyes weary with secret 
 tears, it was nothing new ; whatever fresh trouble had 
 befallen her, found no expression in word or manner. 
 She drew towards her the basket wherein she kept the 
 Patience of Hope sewing work, lit one of the wax can 
 dles held by the bronze griffins on the mantel-piece, 
 selected Maggie O'Hara's dress, and began to rip out and 
 hern down and baste together as if it was the only impor 
 tant thing to be done. She was right ; for every ac 
 customed anxiety has a certain thick atmosphere of its 
 own, wherein all flame grows dim, no matter if the torch 
 be fed with suffering or joy. 
 
 Conversation proceeded as usual between these friends. 
 Peace usually talked, and Mollie listened ; or else they 
 argued like athletes, for pleasure of trying their strength : 
 they were too good lovers to desire to convert each other. 
 Peace, though often unhappy in these days, was always 
 witty ; but this afternoon her glee was genuine. Mrs. 
 Pelican, whose comfort with Louis had been too great to 
 forego willingly, had not long since given his place to
 
 302 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Francis Haythorne, and her daughter made it her chief 
 good to torment him. That very morning he had been 
 confronted with a curl of his own auburn hair, and his 
 modest daintiness was annoyed beyond expression, the 
 more that he couldn't tell how she came by it. 
 
 " Here it is," quoth the young lady, drawing a fiery 
 ringlet, neatly tied with a bhie ribbon, from her port- 
 monnaie, lt I have saved every hair I found on his coat 
 for six months, and he thinks I must have cut it from his 
 head behind, Avhere he can't see it. I nearly died to 
 watch him feel secretly for the place. I told him, if he 
 hadn't left the ' Rape of the Lock ' in the parlor, I should 
 never have thought of it. 
 
 " He said I had taken an ungenerous ad vantage of him, 
 and wished, with Burns, people had gift to see themselves 
 as others saw them. Then, to calm him, I repeated a 
 little story I heard of him the other day. I said, ' Frankie, 
 sweet, do you remember the prayer-meeting you led when 
 an infant ? ' and seeing by his disgusted look he did, I 
 went on in a soothing voice, ' And how, when all the 
 good little boys were on their knees praying that the last- 
 comer might have a new heart, and he laughed, you got 
 mad and jumped up, and said, " Pitch him out of the 
 window ? You were a darling innocent, but you should 
 keep your little tempers better, Frankie ; ' " and this made 
 him so indignant that he ran out of the room and banged 
 the door." 
 
 Mollie could not forbear a smile at the maliciously 
 beautiful face gleaming at her from the arm-chair, even 
 if Francis Haythorne's flaunted metaphysics, and ex 
 treme fastidiousness in personals, had not rendered story 
 and prank alike ridiculous. 
 
 " I make it my business to spread a Procustes' couch 
 for him, I assure you," continued Miss Pelican. " I am
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 303 
 
 going to present the curl to you ; I want to tell him that 
 you have it in your Bible, the place where you keep your 
 chief treasures. That will tease him more than, anything 
 else. 1 shall say I saw it put there myself." 
 
 Mollie did not answer ; she was gazing sadly off at some 
 far-away thought or memory, and Peace, unforbidden, got 
 down the large brown volume, much tattered from con 
 stant use, and carefully hid the stiff but perfumed ringlet 
 among its leaves. She turned the pages a little to see 
 the book-marks and pressed daisies that crowded the 
 ancient mansoleum, and then laid it away with a satisfied 
 sigh. " Come," said she, " the supper bell rang a long 
 time ago." 
 
 Deacon McCross went softly and prayed long as usual, 
 and his lady was not less tediously aggravating. She asked 
 Peace if she had missed anything during Mr. All wood's 
 sojourn at her father's ; said she had lost two forks and a 
 teaspoon, and for her part preferred silver that she had 
 bought and paid for with her own money, to the same 
 come back in poll parrots and what not : from whence 
 we may rightly conclude that Poppy still flourished. Noth 
 ing but the look of acute torture on Mollie's face could 
 have restrained Peace, who could despise a man in pros 
 perous folly, for whom she would venture her life in im 
 pulsive championship five minutes after fate bowled him 
 down. She instantly announced her intention of calling 
 011 the convict, as it was, and snippily asked if she could 
 not bear him some message. Whereupon Mrs. McCross 
 solemnly warned her to beware of evil companionship, 
 and added that she had always regretted taking her hus 
 band's ward into the house, though she supposed it was 
 charity she thought he had tried to poison Mollie's 
 mind. But even to this, her daughter said not one 
 word.
 
 304 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Peace wondered how she could sit so marble-like and 
 bear it was almost ready to blame her as cold-hearted, 
 when she herself thrilled in every nerve to her very fin 
 ger tips with sympathetic pain. But she failed to con 
 sider that a life's training in such a school will teach 
 calmness to the most ungoverned. Only once Mollie's 
 heart got the better. 
 
 " Did I ever tell you about the raspberries ? " said 
 Mrs. McCross, looking over at Peace, who said (( no," 
 rather unwillingly. 
 
 " It was when he first came here," began she, rising, 
 partly to cut the bread on the trencher, partly for greater 
 freedom of gesticulation ; " and I don't suppose the child 
 knew much better. I spent all my time while he was 
 under my care, trying to teach him manners. Mollie 
 was so fond of raspberries, and one day she came running 
 up to me, and said she was going to pick herself some for 
 supper. She wa'n't bigger than a pint of cider, and she 
 scratched her tender little arms, and burnt her face, but 
 sure enough at tea-time she had her saucer heaping. 
 What do you suppose the critter does but lick the whole 
 of 'em up ; never so much as said by your leave, ma'am ; 
 and Mollie, poor child, sat looking on with her red lips 
 puckered ready to cry, and didn't dare say a word." 
 
 There can scarcely be anything more painful to a gen 
 erous mind, than to hear one's self unjustly described as 
 the victim of our loved. 
 
 Mrs. McCross had miscalculated her daughter's en 
 durance. Mollie lifted her eyes from the tea-cup, in which 
 she had been watching the floating cream, with every 
 muscle conti-acted. " It is equally to your credit to re 
 member and to tell of it," darted she, in those clear 
 white tones that belong to the intensest anger. 
 
 Thereat Mrs. McCross lost not a moment in bursting
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 305 
 
 into tears, and refused to be comforted. She wasn't 
 loved wasn't even allowed to tell a harmless anecdote 
 at her own table. She had better not live any longer. 
 Her health was poor; she would soon be gone, and then 
 she hoped they'd forgive a poor old woman, in that she 
 liked a good story, and perhaps told it too often. 
 
 The Deacon, who had been eating potatoes with his 
 knife, in an absently uncomfortable silence, the whole 
 meal-time, now pushed back his chair, and hastily buried 
 himself in the " Millville Universe." 
 
 Peace followed Mollie to the library, where she had 
 hidden herself behind the dun curtains, and stood with 
 heaving breast for the moment beside herself; but she 
 came out as her friend entered, her calmness regained by 
 mighty effort. 
 
 Acceding to Peace's pacific request for cribbage, she 
 brought candles, table, and the board delicately painted 
 by Louis and sat down to play. 
 
 " Mother," said she, presently, <( I was rude to you ; I 
 beg your pardon." 
 
 The weeping figure in the corner heaved a deep sigh. 
 " You needn't say anything, my daughter," said she, in a 
 plaintive little voice. " It's rather hard, I know ; but 
 only the treatment an old, sick woman must expect. 
 Don't trouble yourself about it. I'll forget it by and 
 
 by." 
 
 What was there to do, but beg her forgiveness over 
 and over again, and kiss away her tears ? In time 
 patient quietude was restored, and the game begun. The 
 Deacon laid down his paper, and eyed the players long 
 ingly, but dared not offer to join. 
 
 " Tantsene animis ccelestibus irse ? " Mrs. McCross was 
 now a champion of morality. She sat back in her rock 
 ing-chair, and, consumed with pious horror, fired off pas-
 
 306 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 sages of Holy Writ at the players, both pertinent and 
 pointed. 
 
 "It is sport for a fool to do mischief; " "As a jewel of 
 gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman without 
 discretion." 
 
 " Pooh ! I know the original Greek," said Peace, re 
 solved to keep sunny : " Inmudeelsis ; inpinepitchis ; 
 inclaynoneis." 
 
 " You would do well to bear in mind the translation," 
 retorted Mrs. McCross, in a solemn voice. " And whoever 
 adds anything to this book, unto him shall be added all 
 the plagues that are wi'itten in this book." 
 
 " Exactly ! " Peace rose as she spoke, and brushed 
 the cards together on the table. " I'm going up-stairs. 
 Good-night, Deacon McCross ; I wish you a deep sleep." 
 
 The young girls had reached the upper hall, when 
 Mollie paused to adjust the candle in its socket. " I 
 knew your penchant for ' room enough to swing a cat in,' " 
 said she smiling ; " so I have had the green chamber 
 warmed. I am sorry Tabby reposes under her bed of 
 catnip ; but a few friends still keen for her at the favorite 
 spot ; you can lie in wait for one,, if you're particular." 
 She was still merry, and laughing with resolved cheerful 
 ness, firm as fate, when she bade her friend a soft happy 
 dreams, and entered her own room. 
 
 Miss Pelican lay awake a long time, chafing over her 
 doubles' hardships, and, looking through her open door 
 (fear of being burned in her bed was her hobby), knew 
 by the shining crack of light opposite that Mollie had 
 not gone to rest. She thought her ear caught a noise at 
 intervals, as if some one was talking rapidly in a low 
 voice, and dozing off, heard the clock strike two, and 
 came to herself enough to notice again the same rapid 
 speech, a little louder, sharper, and more eager, now,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 307 
 
 than before. Too nervous to lie still, she threw a shawl 
 over her shoulders, and entered the familiar room. It's 
 mistress sat quietly by her bed her hat and cloak on, 
 reading the afternoon's letter. " I'm married," said she 
 with a meaningless laugh. " Here are the certificates; 
 you'd better take them, to keep father from feeling bad." 
 
 " Mollie ! What have you done ? what do you mean ? " 
 cried Peace. 
 
 " My name isn't Mollie," said the girl ; " corpses don't 
 have names. They say the body of Mr. So-and-so. I'm 
 a corpse ; just stand me up in the corner of the room, and 
 see what a nice-looking one I'll make. When they corne 
 to the funeral to-morrow, have me stood up ; I don't 
 think I should look so well laid out. And be sure you 
 hide all mother's handkerchiefs but one. If you don't, 
 she'll cry too much, and have no time for instructive sen 
 timent. I think a great deal of correct sentiment, ap 
 plied on a plaster. Mother always makes moral reflections 
 at funerals, and eats too much at weddings. She always 
 goes munch ! munch ! munch ! She's eaten up Louis' 
 dinner; but I don't care, for by and by he'll be a corpse 
 and stand up in the corner like me, and then it won't 
 make any difference. O, mother's crying! tears, idle 
 tears, crocodile tears. 
 
 " ' How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail, 
 
 And pour the waters of the Nile o'er every golden scale ! ' " 
 
 Now give me two nuts for infant piety, or you're scaley." 
 Mrs. McCross, attracted by Peace's call of alarm, was 
 now fainting correctly on a chair, and her husband dis 
 tractedly applied an asafcetida pill to her nose, but with 
 out result. 
 
 " Pooh ! " said the girl with a scornful laugh ; " she 
 isn't going to revive, not she ! She's up here to eat me,
 
 308 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 because I'm a corpse. She gnaws father and me every 
 day ; it makes his hair fall out." 
 
 And, then came Peace with Dr. Jenkens, who nodded 
 grimly, and talked of " long confinement, overtaxed 
 nerves, brain-fever, insanity." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 " Ding-dong bell, 
 Pussy's in the well." 
 
 DHEN" Louis first went into that stony benevolent 
 institution, provided by Christian charity to 
 the cure of diseased souls, he felt only two 
 things, the injustice of his sentence, and the loss of 
 his good name. He was so swallowed up in these, that 
 it was only by slow degrees he awoke to the present 
 miseries of his situation. He kept saying over and over 
 to himself, " I have a claim to my liberty. I am no 
 thief; I am an honest man. They have no right to im 
 prison me." But, as the warden observed when he 
 entered, " Look a here : you say you're innocent ; mebbe 
 you be. They're all innocent in there." Then this phil 
 anthropist went on thus : " See that door ? you're goin' 
 in there now, and I tell you what, you'd better mind 
 yourself. If you do as you're told, you'll get along. If 
 you don't, we'll kill you. God Himself can't help that." 
 After this he spat on the floor, flourished his cane, and 
 the audience was ended. Being a sensitive, high-strung 
 gentleman, Louis never forgot his salutatory, but added it 
 to a fast increasing tale of realities that separated him 
 from Mary.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 309 
 
 " Mary," was the first and last thought haunting him. 
 What would become of her ? Would she pine for him ? 
 He hoped she would, but soon felt that this could not be. 
 Mollie grieving over a thief? Impossible ! His name 
 was forever branded with the stain. Didn't Mrs. 
 McCross insist him to be one ? Wasn't she a pious 
 woman ? Didn't she have a voice in choosing the minis 
 ter ? Wasn't she strong on the doctrines, and the higher 
 life ? What was his Louis All wood's rush- light, 
 beside the brilliance of this wax-candle of the Lord ? 
 What if Mollie was faithful; he knew her true as truth. 
 Wouldn't it be her duty to forget him ? Mollie always 
 tried to do her duty. That was something else to put 
 down to the credit of religion. Having robbed him of 
 his good name, it took his love also. He felt thankful 
 he had always kept out of it. 
 
 After this came a reaction. Mollie was right. Wouldn't 
 he do the same in her place ? He pictured to himself a 
 woman, false, vicious, drunken, and strove to invest her 
 with his love's image, and loathed the hideous thing he 
 fancied. " That's her feeling toward me," he said. 
 
 Now for her sake whom he loved, he analyzed his 
 emotions toward the wretched creatures about him. His 
 whole nature shrank from them. He abhorred their sly, 
 sensual faces ; observed with fear their animal, malformed 
 jaws, bleared eyes, slouched forms, and told himself, 
 " I'm one of them." 
 
 In due time he would have lost all shame, and learned 
 to look with brazen face at the world ; but one thing 
 saved him, and that kept alive his misery his love never 
 died, though his self-respect fell away like shrivelled 
 leaves from trees at autumn. For Mollie's sake, all the 
 world stung him looking through her eyes. He hated 
 mankind ; but every stranger who came to view what,
 
 310 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 \ 
 
 in the bitterness of his heart, he called the human men 
 agerie, caused him fresh torture. He never glanced up ; 
 no need. He felt their cruel eyes blasting his soul. 
 "Some day Mary will look on me with just such 
 thoughts," was the ever present feeling. 
 
 Such brooding soon suggested an idea which he hesi 
 tated long ere putting in execution. His mind was made 
 up that his life was ruined, and he was not hasty in this 
 judgment. His friends had all deserted him. Not one 
 message had cheered his loneliness. The Pelicans he had 
 served so faithfully, the frequenters of the sample-room 
 his gentlemanly ways had rendered so popular, the Mill- 
 ville acquaintances none came near him. " Mollie," he 
 continually said to himself, " must be either wishing and 
 afraid to ask a release, or else had begun to share misfor 
 tunes to which he saw no end. He knew the Deacon 
 and his wife well didn't need to speculate about the poor 
 girl's sufferings. If the one belief caused pain, the other 
 awakened all the tender unselfishness that is the very 
 essential of love. He resolved to set her free. Then for 
 many noontimes and bits of evenings he sat down to the 
 sad task of cutting away the only interests misfortune 
 had not stripped from him, to arise again with the labor 
 unperformed. Sometimes misery ate up the cords of his 
 will, and he fell back into intense craving for her affec 
 tion. Then, stung by thought of the sorrows in store for 
 whoever shared his fate, and shame for his own coward 
 ice that would sacrifice her for his comfort, he tried to 
 write what would end all, and make him homeless and 
 alone foi'ever. 
 
 Nerved to do this, new difficulties appeared. How 
 could he induce Mollie to grant his request ? Would not 
 her love hold her to him ? or if not her love, at least 
 her sympathy ? His very troubles would only make her
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 311 
 
 the more his. His heart told him so. For a whole 
 month he took refuge in, gloated over, the idea. She 
 would not let him go ; he had no right to ask it ; it did 
 not lie with him. He need not tear out his one life 
 hope. 
 
 But conscience soon arose and shattered the delusion. 
 Was he not charged with the care of the gentle girl who 
 had confided herself to him ? Was he not to cherish and 
 protect? Should he permit her to sacrifice herself? 
 Small love in that. No, he must accomplish the separa 
 tion, force her to it. If she suffered it would only be to 
 save from greater suifering. 
 
 So one day, his heart full of love and agony, he penned 
 the letter, weighing every sentence that the pain might 
 be the least possible, and yet the words of due effect. 
 Since this one did not please, the next noon he wrote 
 another, and then another, till he presently saw that he 
 took comfort in thus putting off the dreadful day, and 
 so finished the last in bitterness and haste, much more 
 cold than the former ones, and, not trusting himself to 
 read it over, lest he should draw back, he sent it. 
 
 No sooner was the missive gone, than he would have 
 given worlds could it have been recalled. 
 
 Miss MOLLIE McCuoss : 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND : I have been thinking for a long 
 time that our promises ought never to be fulfilled. My 
 circumstances have altered, and much more my plans and 
 views of life. Your family would never consent to our 
 marriage, even if I asked it ; but for many reasons I do 
 not. Let me make you free, and for God's sake forgive 
 the pain you have suffered at my hands. 
 
 Louis ALLWOOD, convicted thief. 
 TOP TOWN PENITENTIARY, May 1st, 18
 
 312 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Louis waited his answer with a wish that may seem 
 strange to us, people out of prison. Not only did he 
 long to set his gnawing anxiety at rest, but he felt a 
 childish longing to touch something that carne from the 
 world. He debated if the paper it would be written 
 upon would turn out square or old-fashioned, pink or 
 lavender ; and hoped it would be thick and white. He 
 would like the last missive from his vanishing love to be 
 untinged with foreign color. 
 
 But no word reached him. Alternately he argued 
 good and ill from this, and failed not to torture himself 
 with the idea that she despised him, had cast him off 
 out of her thoughts, was only insulted by that heartless 
 letter. He felt that her respect was justly forfeit, but 
 somehow failed to find comfort in the complete success of 
 his note. 
 
 Then he got a new idea ; he had wounded her too much, 
 should have permitted her to wean herself gradually, and 
 when strong enough demand her own dismissal ; or if 
 not, perhaps she was sick. At this all his love took a 
 new channel. He forgot that she was nothing to him 
 only knew that he could not see, help, watch over her. 
 Here, caged, immured alive, he could afford no aid, could 
 not even beg forgiveness for what he had made her suffer. 
 It seemed little enough once ; most people would not have 
 counted it anything ; but now it piled mountains high. 
 He wearied himself with frantic longings, desires, peti 
 tions, to a God he understood not. 
 
 To this was soon, added a new pang. We hear of those 
 old torture-chambers that contracted daily. Every morn 
 ing the prisoner awoke to find the roof a little nearer his 
 breast, every night lay down in a more straitened place, 
 until at last the relentless pressure acted on a mass of 
 broken flesh.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 313 
 
 When Louis entered his cell, he' possessed a mind limit 
 ed only by the universe ; and that mind was bound to a 
 body exquisitely sensitive. What became irksome to 
 some, was absolute misery to him. He used to long for 
 a breath of free-meadow sunlight with such intensity, 
 that the wish became a physical pang. He would stand 
 by his grating at night and press upon it with a blind 
 force that reacted against himself, and made him frantic. 
 He was a prisoner. Oh, the untold misery of the thought ! 
 Without the sky smiled in one great happiness, the very 
 reflex of God's face. One by one the well-remembered 
 flowers came into bloom. Little by little the leaves took 
 their fiery coloring, and the woods lived their familiar 
 round of pleasant nature-story. Oh, for a single half-hour 
 to feel the throb of nature's great heart in the wood 
 lands, in the fields, anywhere, where he could forget his 
 humanity, and be at rest. But no : day by day his soul 
 horizon contracted ; he felt the narrow walls of his cell 
 shutting off his mind's outlook. His thoughts no longer 
 fled over the world. They all centred within the limits 
 of the prison, the overseer's frown, the denied meal, the 
 weary day's work, and worst of all himself. 
 
 In this God-ordained detenus there was chapel every 
 Sunday morning. Once from among the representatives 
 of Christ's law and mercy on the platform, a gentleman, 
 high in the honors of the State, stood forth to address the 
 convicts. 
 
 " Men," said he, playing with the massive chain that 
 adorned his breast, and gazing from stainless broadcloth 
 upon the purposely hideous garb of his audience " Men, 
 you're here, and I'm glad of it. You've done wrong, 
 you are suffering for it. You ought to suffer." His 
 voice, the living breath of the stony chapel, rang out 
 harshly, his shaggy, gray-knotted eyebrows wore a frown. 
 U
 
 314 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Looking on the penniless, he fingered his golden orna 
 ments. Respectability was come to reform humanity. 
 " Every man who suffers," said he, " earns his own suf 
 fering. If I have sent some of you here I count it a good 
 deed. If you don't want to suffer, don't do wrong." 
 The modern Christ sat down, and his listeners, under the 
 warden's eye, clapped applause. Among their sullen 
 faces were some flushed with powerless anger, but in such 
 the wound soon healed. Louis was not one of these. 
 " Every man earns his own suffering." He never forgot 
 that. He began to search his life for the causes of his 
 misfortunes, and finding sin in plenty, his heart to note 
 the origin of that sin. The more we know of a man's 
 soul, the more cordially we can despise, abhor him, upon 
 occasion. All Louis' abhorrence of his fellows never 
 began to equal his I6athing for himself. Once commenced, 
 this self-laceration grew into a mania. His thoughts, 
 memories, sensations, were ransacked to add fuel to his 
 torment. His life seemed to him to have been only a 
 tissue of wasted opportunity, abused privilege, and petty 
 crime. He studied faithfully the prison Bible, to observe 
 that every leaf teemed with maledictions. He wished 
 to escape from his own existence, but be was shut in with 
 himself. Formerly, too, he had desired to die, but now 
 he feared the very thought. Prison life was doing its 
 work. Poor fellow, he seldom dreamed of Mollie any 
 more ; her memory was the contrasted light to make his 
 darkness blacker. He hated, in the intervals of his self- 
 torture, his cell, his workshop. He knew every nook 
 and cranny in their bare walls. His artist-soul detested 
 their ugliness. He envied his neighbor's red and yellow 
 tissue paper, and began to calculate ho,w it could be stolen. 
 Reflecting on the sin of this, he became convinced he \ras 
 losing all his principle. The unvarying routine of life,
 
 SHIFTLESS- FOLKS. 315 
 
 made purposely of the utmost possible blankness, mad 
 dened liirn. He craved excitement. Once he found him 
 self examining his tools to see if one of them could not 
 be made to plunge into the overseer's heart. He even 
 filed a little on the knife. Presently he saw two white 
 doves flitting about the prison-yard, and remembered 
 Mollie with her birds flying about her. As her face came 
 sorrowfully before him, the horrid thought passed out of 
 his heart. He went to the overseer and told him he 
 feared he was going mad, showed him the knife, and 
 begged for a few minutes' relief only a little walk about 
 the garden anything to take the leaden pressure from 
 his soul. The man laughed in his face. " You aren't 
 going mad, but I'll tell you where you are going into 
 the dark cells, for injuring the prison property. I'd like 
 to know what you mean, filin' shoe-knives ! I've got a 
 man a dozen for less 'n that." 
 
 Somehow this didn't mend matters. The prisoner's 
 mind grew heavy, his motions sluggish. He feared his 
 intellect was broken, and begged for books, but they 
 were useless. In the depth of his misfortunes, the fan 
 cied sorrows of fancied heroes, or the half-told woes of 
 real ones, seemed alike shallow. 
 
 Then began a race against time, a fight against idiocy. 
 He forced himself to perform difficult operations in math 
 ematics, to invent stories, to remember history. But 
 how could added labor bring health to the weary brain ? 
 
 He was a shadow in thinness. His pulse ran high and 
 unevenly ; he couldn't sleep ; every nerve was a separate 
 source of pain. The rough ways of the prison employes 
 jarred him, their profanity disgusted, their frequent ex 
 hibitions of brute power made him sick at soul. Louis 
 was, we say it again, in a model prison. You could 
 march a regiment through any of its workshops, and not
 
 316 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 a man would look up. They made more money for the 
 State, and enriched more contractors, than any similar 
 number of convicts in the Union. And it was all accom 
 plished neatly, too ; with green peas, and strawberries, 
 and the Dorsey (God bless it) dinner, every whit noticed 
 in the Top Town papers. They neither poured gallons 
 of ice-water over strangling men, as in Auburn, nor made 
 their subjects idiotic by compression of the brain, as at 
 Sing-Sing. They hung morality 011 the three tails of a 
 cat, and reformed carnal vices by a diet of nothing. 
 
 Louis was too obedient to suffer unusually, but next to 
 him worked a red-headed, red-eyed Irishman, whose face 
 alone must have condemned him before an intelligent jury. 
 On this young villain fell the weight of prison discipline. 
 Sometimes, about once a year, a man killed himself in 
 these retreats for soul elevation. Louis wished this fellow 
 would ; but no it seemed he preferred to be killed. 
 
 But what is the use of thus chronicling his misery ? 
 Wasn't Louis sentenced for crime, and sent to the Top 
 Town Penitentiai'y on purpose to suffer ? and doesn't every 
 other prisoner carry such a load? and isn't it according to 
 one of God's own Bible precepts, that we should button up 
 our pockets, and build the prisons in chills-and-fever 
 marshes, where property is low ? and sensible humbly 
 sensible, as we all announce ourselves at prayer-meeting 
 of our personal helplessness in the matter of any good 
 work, hasten to get these souls back into the hands of 
 their Maker with all speed ? 
 
 Matters were just here, when Louis felt himself 
 pointed out by a visitor. " That fellow is dying," said 
 the gentleman. " He won't live two months." 
 
 His listener was glad. " Hell," said he, " is the life I 
 lead, with this difference ten-cent visitors are not ad 
 mitted in hell."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 317 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 " I'll give to you the .key of my heart, 
 That we may love and never part." 
 
 IIITH the first gleam of returning reason, came 
 the thought of Louis ; and as Mollie lay upon 
 her bed, her mind laboring in the wearing 
 treadmill of thought, she reasoned it all o\\t again and 
 again. Intense, sensitive, tenacious, she was essentially 
 an out-going, not an in-gathering woman, and everywhere 
 met by hurts, she had unconsciously learned to conceal 
 herself from the world, in an outwardly calm, almost 
 passionless, exterior. To no one, not even Louis, was 
 she her real self; and Peace, who loved her best of all 
 women, said she felt as if Mollie was in strata every one 
 different, and the temperature gradually increasing. 
 
 Accordingly, though she read Louis' letter backward to 
 its cause, with unerring precision, she suffered the more 
 for this very thing. To her, the bungling note spoke 
 love, constancy, and misery unfathomable. There is a 
 certain comfort in one's own pain. One can then always 
 say, " Come, and behold how wretched I am." But 
 Mollie never remembered herself at all. After she parted 
 from Louis at the jail, that dreary day, her outward ex 
 istence became a dream. Her actual life was all within, 
 an imagined, and yet terribly real one, with him its 
 centre. Nor had this very subtilty of pain a slight 
 cause for being. Mollie had not taught in mission- 
 school, and failed to learn the ways and abuses of our 
 penal institutions, and a woman's imagination needs not 
 the spur of affection to set it at work. She knew of 
 shower-baths, iron-crowns, starving, balls and chains,
 
 318 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 beating with paddles, deprivation of light, practised in the 
 soft retirement of American reformatories. She had heard 
 sickening tales of cruelty on one side, and passive endur 
 ance on the other, from an old guard who had served in 
 them. He boasted of prison brutality and his tender 
 heart in the same breath. Let us do him justice he 
 was oftener an observer than an actor in such scenes. 
 Mollie's ignorant and untaught boys had passed into the 
 horrible arena, and she shuddered and suffered. Now 
 her lover was the victim. By night she dreamed of tor 
 tures unendurable, and woke to set uncertainty at battle 
 with fear. By day she panted in his stifling cell. She 
 could not eat, because he might be starved. Her time 
 divided itself into the prison hours. She shrank from 
 human touch or speech, because he could not touch his 
 fellow or speak. She loathed the world for his sake, who 
 was cut off from it ; obeyed the wishes of her friends 
 without comment, and became more self-devouring within, 
 but inert and deathlike without, every day. He had 
 been growing into her life, ever since he came to her 
 father's house, a gentie, silent child, given to lonely 
 pleasures, absorbed in the books and music Mrs. McCross 
 dared not deny her husband's ward. Mollie had shyly 
 proffered companionship in his pursuits, and worshipped 
 his idols afar off. He, in turn, found his butterflies 
 gayer, his Mendelssohn more tender, with her to share. 
 Louis interpreted other authors, but Seraphael was too 
 twiu-natured to him, to be anything but his voice. 
 Later, he translated Homer into Scotch ballad meter, be 
 cause she loved to listen, and read Plato into English a 
 little too delicate to be earnest, to an absorbed critic. 
 She pushed him into Euclid and higher mathematics, be 
 cause he was ashamed to be beaten with a man's 
 weapons, and yet admired her for his defeat.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 319 
 
 So they had triumphed and suffered together, and 
 grown into harmony of life, if not oneness of aim Mol- 
 lie, rich in her father's love, bestowing pity, admiration, 
 and affection, all at once ; Louis, finding his needs of 
 companionship, satisfied to the uttermost in her. 
 
 As a child, he played with her. It is chronicled that 
 the Deacon once saved her from an untimely end, having 
 found her buried up to her neck in a pit, her yellow hair 
 streaming over the ground, her calm eyes fixed on Louis 
 with implicit confidence. Louis, who was in the act of 
 putting the final shovelfuls of earth over her, d la some 
 savage funeral rite which filled his imagination. As a 
 boy, he worshipped her ; as a man, he trusted her. 
 
 When the Deacon declared his ward's property lost by 
 failure of investments, no one cared to question ; and 
 by and by Louis went to work to earn his bread, and a 
 little over, if he could, for Mollie. For, as we know, it 
 had become the great joy of this simple pair, alike unfel- 
 lowed by the world, that they possessed each other. 
 
 Now, when one of these interwoven lives was full of 
 agony, what marvel that the other recipi-ocated every pang ? 
 
 About a month after this refinement of suffering had 
 commenced, Mr. Growing brought religion to give Mol 
 lie strength to bear longer. He was going to call on 
 Louis. Would she send a little token that he could turn 
 over and over every day ? 
 
 She thanked him. She would try to think of some 
 thing. Would he want it to-morrow? 
 
 No ! not so soon ; but she could send it any time. 
 He rose to go. She followed him to the door, mechanic 
 ally, and stood leaning against the frame. Instead of 
 going out, he turned and examined her wasted face. Its 
 weary, pained expression wrung his heart. She looked 
 unearthly in the twilight.
 
 320 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Fred Growing was a real pastor, who took rip and car 
 ried every one's burden by instinct. He could not leave 
 this sufferer withoxit attempting aid. 
 
 " Mollie," he said in his pleading tones, " you were 
 the fh-st lamb God gave to my flock. Do you remember 
 how you entered my study timidly, and told me you 
 thought you could trust yourself in His hands ? " 
 
 " Yes," she answered, wishing he would cease to speak 
 of things whose meaning had become far off in her great 
 sorrow. 
 
 " And you have forgotten how you came afterward, 
 and said yon began to understand the way God suffers 
 daily for us? " 
 
 " No! Louis v.-alked up with me that night, and stood 
 outside playing with the lilac blossoms, while I talked to 
 you. My Louis," she continued, with a passion in vivid 
 contrast to her former lifeless expression " my Louis, 
 whom they have wickedly taken away from all the beau 
 tiful things he loved." 
 
 " This is Christian," said Mr. Growing, gently. " You 
 trust your lover among the lilac blossoms, and are afraid 
 to deliver him to Christ's keeping." 
 
 The quiet thrust went home, for Mollie was conscien 
 tious as earnest. She tried after this to believe more and 
 grieve less, and so kept up till the letter arrived. But 
 when she read that misery -begotten note, she felt that the 
 worst had come to pass : he had given p hope. " They 
 have murdered him," thought she j "God, let us die." 
 
 B\it she didn't die, and now as she lay feebly reflecting 
 upon her lover's case, the thought entered her half-crazed 
 brain, that they two had been marked out to suffer. 
 Some people were. After they had borne enough, they 
 would endure one more pang, and through it be rid of life, 
 and all it was a name for.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 321 
 
 She remembered a dreary saying, that in happier times 
 she had laughed at with Louis : " Let this be my com 
 fort, to be willing to lack all human comfort." 
 
 Sometimes she tried vaguely to make it her own, and 
 sometimes strove to drive it from her. In either case it 
 was ever-present all-powerful. At last she gave up the 
 struggle, and settled down to it as a fact. And religion, 
 came to proclaim patience under it a duty as God's will ; 
 and so, even in this bitter way, his right hand upheld her 
 in the darkness. 
 
 She had scarcely become able to sit up a few minutes 
 at a time, when she received a visit of importance from 
 her father. Not that he seldom came ; on the contrary, 
 when she was delirious he would steal to her bedside, 
 and pretend to scan the localisms of the " Universe," while 
 his poor old eyes were filled with tears as he listened to 
 her wandering talk. After her reason returned, he used 
 to bring little bouquets, and lay them wistfully on her 
 pillow ; and when she grew stronger, he ransacked the 
 town for poetry he fancied she liked, and read it in a 
 high, cracked voice, whose gentle quaver spoke a world 
 of love and sorrow not set down in the pages rendered. 
 
 Mollie, even when her heart was sorest, never blamed 
 him for her troubles. She shut such a thought resolutely 
 out of her mind. " He couldn't help it, poor father," 
 was her excuse ; and she forgave and loved, and was gent 
 ler, sweeter, and more tender to him than ever. 
 
 But this time he entered with no cheerful alacrity, 
 rather as if impelled by some unseen, malevolent force. 
 He sat down by her guiltily, and gave an uneasy glance 
 around, especially at the tight-shut door. Then he 
 spread his red-silk handkerchief on the knees of his black 
 pants, and, smoothing the thin gray hair OTer his bala 
 crown, began deprecatingly : 
 14*
 
 322 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " I'm an old man, Mollie, and your mother is a trifle 
 set, you know " 
 
 The girl felt some new trouble coming. She was so 
 learned in the ins and outs of his abused, weak heart, 
 she had forgiven and pitied and grieved for him so long, 
 she suffered with instinctive fear of his next words. 
 Yet she strengthened herself to view the case from his 
 standpoint, and to forget her own in his interest. So 
 she laid her hand feebly on his tremulous fingers, because 
 he loved the little caress. " Go on, father," said she, as 
 brightly as she could. 
 
 " I know it's a hard thing to ask," he averred, pro- 
 testingly ; " but your mother's feelings are strong. She, 
 did you know she was quite sick ? " said Le, coining 
 to a full stop, and giving an uneasy twist beneath his 
 daughter's solemn gaze. 
 
 " Go on, papa, dear," said Mollie, blanching about the 
 lips, but even then rallying a little more firmness. " Go 
 on, please." 
 
 " I don't like to ask you, but I want to end my days 
 in peace and quietness," reiterated he, beseechingly. He 
 took up the red 'kr rchief and wiped the beaded drops 
 from his bald forehead. " I'm a peaceable man, daugh 
 ter." 
 
 " I know it," said she, faintly as a whisper now her 
 heart sinking lower at every halt. 
 
 " You are a good girl, Mollie," he began again, gain 
 ing courage as hers fled. " You never said anything to 
 me about the burglary, though I know it has fretted you 
 sorely. It wasn't right, no way ; but your mother and 
 young Brown patched it up between them. I only swore 
 truth, and paid the law bill. I only swore truth, Mollie." 
 
 She assented after a long pause, in which he watched 
 her face wistfully. He was waiting, eager and agitated,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 323 
 
 but she could not bring herself to speak. She had for 
 given, but her heart was still sore. Her father felt her 
 thought, and got up, and wandered nervously about the 
 room, threw open the shutters and arranged the curtains, 
 looked at the garden, with his tremulous fingers crossed 
 behind him. A well-known step was audible below, a 
 step whose vigor ill-health had never subdued, though it 
 sometimes dragged it a little. When the Deacon heard the 
 ominous sound, he came back to the bed, and took up the 
 hand Mollie had not moved since he laid it on the quilt. 
 But the caress was only the mute rendering of a petition, 
 not a motion of sympathy or love. 
 
 " I don't want you to give him up, my child ; he is a 
 good lad enough. But could you promise not to meet 
 him, or have anything to do with him, while I am alive ? 
 Your mother takes it to heart dreadfully ; she talks by 
 day and night of it. You have a duty to your mother, 
 child." 
 
 Mollie was still silent ; she had no words to reply. A 
 sense of unbearable wrong rose within her. Was all, 
 even to the very affection sjie felt for her father, to be 
 made her curse ? for at the moment it seemed that every 
 thing that separated her from her lover was a curse. 
 She drew her fingers away from the hand that would 
 have held them, and pushed them aimlessly over the cover 
 lid. 
 
 11 I can't, father ; don't ask me ! " she cried, hoarsely. 
 The little gesture brought a look of pain to his wrinkled 
 face. 
 
 " I hadn't orter ask you ; but I'm breakin' down purty 
 fast. I shouldn't keep you waitin' long. I've ben think- 
 in' I'd wish to get breath like this side the grave." 
 
 The woman watched him patiently. Ife was so. It 
 wouldn't be long. Lying there with every pulse-beat a
 
 324: SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 throb of pain, days, even years, or existence itself, 
 seemed of little worth. Once she had dreaded suffering, 
 as he did. But now, when her life was planned upon a 
 cha*rt chequered only by pain, should she let him suffer 
 too ? Once she had longed for rest. She and Louis were 
 not to have any in this world, perhaps. What would be 
 a little more trouble to bear ? It was her duty. Her 
 father should not be tormented for her ; now he had no 
 peace. The first sounds that greeted returning reason were 
 those torturing pathetic tones rising higher and higher in 
 endless argument and fault-finding. Poor father, she was 
 stronger than he to suffer. She and Louis must have 
 faith in each other a little longer, that was all. She 
 opened her weary eyes, and turned them lovingly upon 
 the face held toward her with almost childish trust. Was 
 it weakness or strength that made her whisper, 
 
 " Would it help you very much if I should do as you 
 ask ? " 
 
 Misery is selfishness made tangible. Deacon McCross 
 was very miserable. He never knew the cost of her yield 
 ing, and he drew a long breath of satisfaction. 
 
 " It will quiet your mother. You can write or see 
 him, Mollie, and tell him all about it ; you know he is a 
 kind boy and say I always meant him well, though it 
 wasn't fair about the burglary. But your mother did 
 that." 
 
 I believe the old man's reason had begun to fail. For 
 charity's sake let us hope so. Mollie answered, " I will 
 do what you ask ; " tried to look happy until he closed the 
 door behind him, as he went half gladly, half guiltily 
 from the room. Then she turned herself to the wall with 
 an exceeding bitter cry.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 325 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 " I had a little hobby horse, 
 
 His name was Dapple Grey, 
 I lent him to a lady to ride a mile away : 
 
 She beat him, she lashed him, she rode him through the mire ; 
 I'll never lend my beast again for any lady's hire." 
 
 JRANCIS HAYTHORNE was hugely enjoying 
 himself. The soft sunshine of Indian summer 
 poured over all the land ; the parti-colored trees 
 sighed and whispered under the wind, and all the charm 
 ing, sad, and yet hopeful instincts of the day touched his 
 sensitive soul. He had a large volume in his hand, and 
 his face was composed to the decent gravity of unruffled 
 content. 
 
 "Two hundred pages of 'Innocents Abroad,' and only 
 been obliged to laugh once," he cried triumphantly to 
 Peace, who entered broom in hand. " O, dear 1 you aren't 
 going to sweep, when I'm having such a nice time ? " 
 
 The young lady gave energetic assent, and proceeded 
 to effect a commotion among the chairs and tables, which 
 the ousted reader watched with lazy dissatisfaction. 
 " Can't you put it off till next week ? " he asked in a 
 pathetic voice; "it's Friday already." 
 
 " Just a man's shiftless notion ! " retorted Peace loftily, 
 as she paused to adjust a scarlet and yellow bandanna 
 over her jetty locks, so as to give the precise effect of a 
 magnificent Egyptian-girl study exhibited at Goupil's last 
 winter. " I should like to see your house." 
 
 " I hope you may," he responded. " I'll take care it's 
 as well kept as yours ! " 
 
 " I don't doubt that, if there's any duty for you to per 
 form abroad."
 
 326 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " I bad reference to the labors of a charming young 
 person with a bewitching kerchief tied on askew." 
 
 " And he began to compliment, and I began to grin," 
 rejoined Miss Pelican, with heightened color; " but it's 
 no use ; I shall sweep this minute : you must move your 
 procrastinating bones elsewhere." 
 
 " On the contrary, I'll stay to assist," composedly set 
 tling himself in the open window. " There ! that corner 
 isn't half done ; two no, two and a quarter specks on the 
 carpet. What makes you stir up so much dust? My 
 mother never did. Why wouldn't something like a water 
 ing pot be good to quiet it, scented with rose-water or 
 patchouli ? You'll have to hurry, or one half the carpet 
 will be worn out before you get to the other. I guess 
 I'll open the door." 
 
 " You've blown every bit of the dirt back ! " cried 
 Peace, rapidly getting angry. " If you don't leave the 
 room I shan't go on." 
 
 " Quite right ; do stop," said he, sinking into an arm 
 chair and fanning himself with the cover of the " Inno 
 cents." " It makes me tired only to look at you. Come, 
 sit down and tell me the origin of this sudden fit of 
 industry." 
 
 " Because," said Peace with a tempting pout of ripe 
 red lips, "you and Charley are so shiftless; I'm out of 
 patience -with you both. People who don't work, get to 
 be worth just nothing at all. I lose all my respect for 
 folks like you, who don't raise a finger for any one's help 
 for the twelvemonth together. I shan't countenance you 
 in it a day longer." 
 
 " If a man ought to accomplish all that is required of 
 him, he must hold himself for more than he is," quoted 
 Mr. Haythorne complacently ; " I'm satisfied with myself; 
 isn't that enough ? "
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 327 
 
 " No," said Peace, " and it isn't true, either. You are 
 ashamed of your inefficient, dawdling, dilly-dally, shilly 
 shally, small loss, fiddle-faddle existence: I know you 
 are." 
 
 She was so animated that he couldn't resist saying: 
 " Any more adjectives ? " in his laziest drawl ; but he 
 wondered in his secret heart how she happened upon the 
 discovery. 
 
 She paused while she drew in her full, free breath 
 Peace looked instinct with power when she breathed and 
 studied his face. Only a second, however : Miss Pelican 
 never stopped long for anything. 
 
 " Why don't you energize ? " cried she ; " rush out 
 and cure somebody. Dear me, if I was a man, there 
 isn't much I wouldn't do." 
 
 Francis Haythorne said he had no doubt of it ; to 
 judge by women's habits in their own sphere, they'd 
 sweep the world with the besom of destruction if they 
 had a chance. By the way, if so emulous of notoriety, 
 why didn't they distinguish themselves in dusting or 
 washing matches ? It would give them something to do 
 at any rate. 
 
 " Women's lives don't lack work, but unity of purpose. 
 With a central aim, and their tireless industry, what 
 might they not accomplish ? " returned Peace earnestly ; 
 and she was going to enlarge on her theme, when a mis 
 chievous curl at the corners of her hearer's auburn mous 
 tache quenched her eloquence. 
 
 " Now what is it ? " said she, stopping short, with rising 
 wrath. 
 
 " I was only thinking of Goethe's frogs," he replied 
 in a mock apology of manner that only made his malice 
 more exasperating. 
 
 " Go on," said Peace, tapping her foot impatiently ;
 
 328 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " you may as well out with your meanness as keep it 
 bottled up in your heart." 
 
 The tease caressed his flowing beard gently, and re 
 peated the well-known lines with slow and emphatic dic 
 tion: 
 
 " ' A certain pond was frozen over ; 
 The frogs beneath its shady cover 
 Could no more croak and leap ; 
 They dreamed, however, half asleep, 
 That by the next return of spring 
 They all like nightingales would sing. 
 The south wind came, the ice it thawed, 
 And soon the frogs were all abroad ; 
 And seated now around the shore, 
 They croaked away as heretofore.' 
 
 That's the woman question in a nut-shell ! " said he die- 
 tatorily. 
 
 " Did you ever see a cherub on a tombstone ? " asked 
 Peace, punching her nose in with her forefinger and 
 pu fling out her cheeks, to no inaccurate representation. 
 
 " I'll never attempt to argue with you again ! " he re 
 joined, nettled at her naughty settlement of his quota 
 tion, though she was only paying him back in his own 
 coin ; " I like people to use common-sense." 
 
 " Jacky wouldn't, cause he couldn't," sang she mock 
 ingly and bitter, as she rose and flourished her broom. 
 " I am going to work. But since you would like an an 
 swer in kind, I'm willing. 
 
 "Froggy would a wooing go, 
 
 Whether his offer was wanted or no ; 
 
 And thus this lovesick youth he bespoke her : 
 
 4 Will you marry me, dear Ally Croaker ? ' To which she answered, 
 
 ' Oh, what is life that we should fret, why make we such ado ? 
 
 I'm ower young to marry yet : I canna winna, buckle to."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 329 
 
 " That lies quite within my capacity ; I'm sorry I 
 couldn't go any deeper, but then I don't live in froggy's 
 well, you know. I've been happier since I had an am 
 bition ; probably you wouldn't. Ambition and self-com 
 placency don't go nicely together. 1 never said I didn't 
 belong in the bog, you know ; it was reserved for the 
 nobler patrician to deny his extraction and imitate the 
 nightingale." 
 
 " Now, Miss Peace, don't ! " he cried, rather startled 
 at the genius he had evoked. " I didn't really mean it. 
 I do think you've been more comfortable of late that is 
 for you. Won't you put down your arms, and tell a fel 
 low ? I'm interested honor bright." 
 
 Peace, whose roses had deepened with roused pride, 
 gave him a quick, sharp look to convince herself of his 
 truth. He really was ashamed, and drawing a chintz- 
 covered easy-chair toward the window seat, pointed to 
 it entreatingly. He didn't quite like the idea of array 
 ing the inferior feminine animus against himself, con 
 scious perhaps of certain missing defences, such as one 
 would expect to find in the ideal perfection at war with 
 a deteriorated type. He hadn't his usual fluency of rep 
 artee in face of the situation, and Miss Pelican, finding 
 him vanquished, pitied, and, woman-like, began patching 
 up his tattered self-conceit with all possible expedition, 
 and talked with a confiding air, becoming as infrequent. 
 
 Francis Haythorne refrained from smiling by a 
 mighty effort, as she unfolded her heart ; she was so sim 
 ple, though it only added to her charms. 
 
 " Undo the harm of your father's trade ! why, Miss 
 Peace, how can you ? You don't propose exhorting the 
 well-dressed frequenters of the Cereus, or drying the tears 
 you suspect their families to shed. To clothe ragged 
 drunkards is giving them exactly so much more whiskey.
 
 330 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 No ! no ! what do you want of a wider sphere ? You 
 are too nice to waste your thoughts on such wretches. 
 To brush away the cobwebs from our misty brains is the 
 sum total we gentlemen ask of you." 
 
 Peace looked hurt. " That is all any one has to say to 
 me," said she hastily. " There is no place in the world 
 for women, except as a kind of intellectual parlor maids to 
 their male acquaintance. I am planned for something 
 better. Francis Haythorne, if you were any use in the 
 world yourself, I should have more respect for your 
 opinions." 
 
 " No," said he, with a bright look. " You think so, be 
 cause you have never tried to be the mistress of the 
 house." 
 
 But the same inspiration doesn't invariably shine 
 upon two people at once, and she went on vehemently : 
 " I've thought and suffered too much in these last three 
 years, not to speak by experience. You can't tell how 
 this God-cursed trade stands between me and the barest 
 comfort. It is not too much to give my whole life to 
 clearing myself of the stain. It is my torment in church, 
 in society, among my friends. If I enter my carriage, 
 the very stones seem to cry out against me. It wasn't 
 enough that my brother should be ruined, but every one 
 who loves me must suffer ; and now for weeks I've 
 watched my best friend hovering between life and death, 
 all because her foolish lover must pander his courage, 
 ambition, earnestness, to the same detestable trade, and 
 suffers the consequences. If she had died, we would have 
 been murderers. I wish I was dead, everybody was 
 dead ! at least I did, till I thought I saw a way to stem 
 the tide just a little. Don't say you think it folly," 
 continued she, lifting her eyes pleadingly to his face, as if 
 the decision rested entirely on him.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 331 
 
 The self-elected arbiter of her destiny was convinced 
 that it was, but his reply savored of the \isual masculine 
 dissimulation toward women. " Poor thing," thought he ; 
 " she seems quite worked up. She may as well amuse 
 herself this way as any other, if it's a comfort. She 
 hasn't the slightest idea of connected work, and so can't 
 make any mischief ; and it's quite pretty and feminine of 
 her to want to try to do something. Decidedly she 
 should be encouraged." 
 
 So he said, " No, indeed ! I don't say it's useless, but I 
 wouldn't let any one know I thought of it. It might 
 well, people might talk." 
 
 Poor Peace! Charley could be notorious for folly, 
 Louis for crime, Mollie's troubles town gossip, her own 
 home turned inside out by tattlers ; it was all right. But 
 she mustn't stir hand or foot to mend matters, because 
 women weren't accustomed to do anything, and Mrs. 
 Grundy would be astonished. Peace felt, as every ear 
 nest women has felt before her, that womanhood is hemmed 
 in so as to be a curse ; or, to put it another way, that 
 womanhood striving to rise from its praying and ador 
 ing knees, and stand upon its own God-given feet, is 
 cursed of all mankind, and she said so then and there 
 with a force that horrified her admirer. " I will not give 
 uj> my life to no account trifles," cried she indignantly. 
 "If I've anything in me that will give me a career, I'll 
 develop it, and make my mark in the world." 
 
 Francis Haythorne hoped she wouldn't. It wasn't 
 feminine business to be making marks ; he couldn't see 
 why she should want to, when she could appear so ad 
 vantageously at home, devoting herself to the everyday, 
 planless prettinesses of a woman's life. He resolved to act 
 a friendly part and keep her as quiet as possible. 
 
 Peace's energies were not exerted without due cause that
 
 S32 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 autumn morning. She had no less visitors than the Mc- 
 Crosses in expectation, and she gave them the royal care 
 of her own hands, busying herself with all those dainty 
 love-suggested arrangements and rearrangements that 
 sing welcome and joyful recognition at every turn. 
 
 Peace never received a guest without such care, but to 
 day Abigail was banished altogether, and under the mis 
 tress' skill the house presently bloomed with the last of 
 the year's blossoms, and glowed with autumn leaves, and 
 breathed with the subtile perfumes she loved. She was 
 too nervous to sit still, blew imaginary dust out of bureau- 
 drawers, rehung pictures, tipped over vases, and twitched 
 the window curtains ; then descending to the library, 
 practised the Anvil Chorus on the grand piano, in a style 
 peculiarly adapted to wrench Francis Haythorne's feelings. 
 
 " I guess they're all dead," said he, pathetically. 
 
 " Who ? " asked Peace, getting up, and coming over to 
 the low grate-fire, where the gentleman sat reading and 
 smoking. 
 
 " I thought you were doing it purposely, the devils, of 
 course, scrunching their bones." 
 
 Peace was going to be horrified, when she glanced into 
 the book in his hand, and mustering German enough to 
 read M. M. Grimm on the cover, settled herself to hear 
 the story. Francis Haythorne loved to take time, and 
 work up a charming narration, and Peace was in no wise 
 averse to listen. But in the excitement the kissings 
 and caressings of Mollie's arrival, tale and teller were 
 destined to be alike foi'gotten. 
 
 The Top Town people were hardly prepared for the new 
 comer's wasted appearance. 
 
 " Thin as a last year's mosquito," Miss Petingil averred, 
 when she fitted her dresses, and so weak Mrs. McCross 
 was very glad to send her out of her sight for a month
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 333 
 
 or two. Not that she doubted the righteousness of her 
 actions, but her daughter's pale face was a disagreeable 
 object to her everyday vision. 
 
 Mollie sank into her friend's arms restfully. Poor 
 child ! she was glad enough to escape the wear and worry 
 of Millville, and breathed more freely the instant she left 
 it behind. She was come to that place when everything 
 seemed fading out of her grasp ; when all was gray in the 
 fog of uncertainty and physical languor, and far-off fears 
 loomed high, and near objects were indistinct. 
 
 Peace, who had been on. a breezy, mirthful journey 
 through the Catskills that summer, and come home fresh 
 and strong for a long winter's work, with hearty resolves 
 and rebellions, and hopeful outlooks, addressed herself to 
 petting and spoiling with her usual energy. Her atten 
 tions seemed to Mollie equally delicious and unfitting. 
 To busy people, who have been all their lives comforting 
 others, these loving offices have a curious sense of novelty, 
 just as if one were wearing one's friend's familiar overcoat 
 for the first time. 
 
 Never were a more oddly assoi'ted company brought 
 together than now comprised the Pelican household. 
 Charley Pelican, full of his gymnastic feats, and always 
 keeping his mother in terror lest he should take a fancy 
 to balance the parlor- tables on the end of his nose ; 
 Francis Haythorne, musician, connoisseur in painting, 
 German student, always busy, never producing a practical 
 result at anything ; Peace, struggling with her old unrest, 
 and maturing thoughts by and by to take shape in definite 
 resolve ; Mollie, weary and spent in her life battle ; Mr. 
 Pelican, deep as ever in orphan asylums ; his wife, always 
 wavering between her terror of the omnipotent Grundy, 
 and her benevolence; and Deacon McCross, active in 
 pursuit of knowledge during his short fortnight's vacation.
 
 334 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Mr. Abimelecli Pelican seized on the inquiring old 
 gentleman at once, and showed him every charitable 
 institution in the place, inducing him to make speeches 
 to the inmates, the first of which, according to Charley, 
 ran thus : 
 
 " Dear children, I'm extremely glad to have you here. 
 It always makes me happy to see so many little folks 
 gathered at a festival [it was a festival]. I hope you I 
 hope," here the worthy orator scratched his head for a 
 thought, which didn't come, and then exclaimed, wildly, 
 " I hope none of these dear little boys throw stones, and 
 above all be sure and not make yourselves sick eating ice 
 cream and candy." 
 
 Charley, too, had taken a violent fancy to the good 
 Deacon, and showed him where the railroad-princes 
 raced, and where the speculating saints talked up " cor 
 ners," and coaxed him up to house-tops in elevators, and 
 into basements to see low life, with the greatest zest ; 
 though the squeamish fear of mud, the rubbers and red 
 muffler his charge invariably wore, and the tones of 
 cheerful inquiry in which he was wont to suggest the 
 price of everything he saw, rendered the reason of his 
 young guide's enjoyment a little doubtful. 
 
 The Deacon, free from Miranda's restraining eye, was 
 bent on taking all possibilities of liberty ; and one night 
 Mollie found him listening eagerly to a vivid description 
 of monte as played at Coney Island, which Charley ex 
 plained and illustrated, not without dexterity on his own 
 part. 
 
 *' Dew tell ! " said the old man in his mild, high-keyed 
 accents ; " how dreadful smart, and they change the 
 marked card quick as a wink ! I never ! I wish I could 
 go once jest to look on." 
 
 " Do you," cried" Charley, starting up delighted.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 335 
 
 " There's a place in Top Town where they play. I'll show 
 you ; but don't you take your pocket-book : you'll lose it if 
 you do." 
 
 Deacon McCross gave an inquiring glance at Mollie : 
 she was beaming approval. He therefore surreptitiously 
 abstracted one small bill from his purse before handing it 
 over, and wiping his bald head, elevated his white hat, 
 took his cane, and shuffled off benignantly, -to return in 
 high glee with two greenbacks. 
 
 " I tipped Knox, who was there, a wink to let him 
 win," confessed Charley afterward, " and made it all right 
 next day. Why, it was snab to see him teetering up and 
 down on his toes, hat in hand, beaming innocently at 
 those infernal scoundrels, and pocketing the plunder as 
 pleased as if they'd given him a kitten. I wouldn't have 
 missed it for a handful of Erie stock, you bet." 
 
 But Master Pelican's adventures with poor Mr. Mc- 
 Cross were far surpassed by a scene with Miss Petingil, 
 enjoyed that same week. The old lady, dressed in her 
 best, came to town, partly to bring a parcel to Mollie, 
 partly to shop ; and of course invited herself to the Peli 
 cans' to tea. There she made excuses to climb to the 
 garret of the house, offered to descend on errands to the 
 kitchen, felt stealthily of the pillow-cases, and detected a 
 darn in the dining-room carpet. She also inquired of the 
 family management in a familiar way of the cook, kicked 
 up the hall mat to see if there was dirt under it, and rend 
 ered an unfavorable verdict of poor, gentle Mrs. Pelican. 
 " I allow to say, if Almiry Petingil hadn't more snap in 
 her, she'd never have grabbed her living out of the lap of a 
 stingy world for forty years," thought she. 
 
 Her recognition of Charley was a trifle grim, the 
 wrongs received in that quarter being ineffaceable ; but 
 he bore himself with sorrowful humility, and Absalom
 
 336 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 could not long be out of favor. Willing to make good 
 his peace, he invited her to Lingard, and she accepted 
 at once. Notwithstanding Mollie's shawl, and Peace's 
 necktie, borrowed for the occasion, and the combined ef 
 forts of the young girls offered with hearty good-will, 
 from the scraggy cock's feathers on her bonnet, to the 
 toe of her congress gaiter, she never looked more lanky, 
 stiff, and angular, than when she hooked her lean arm into 
 Charley's, and tripped away in a flutter of expectation. 
 
 All went well the first half-hour, though she loudly told 
 her escort that it was contrary to Scripture for a man to 
 put on women-folks' things, when the " Widow" appeared. 
 She admired the songs, and the Lady-killer and after- 
 dinner speech were very favorably received. Notwith 
 standing that she took snuff in the pauses, she said the 
 morals inculcated by the sho-w were not to be sneezed at 
 nor condemned. 
 
 Suddenly, half a dozen dancers pirouetted on to the 
 stage, their gauze skirts floating, their lank ai-ms tossed 
 high above their painted faces. Miss Petingil glanced 
 at them sharply, to assure herself that she beheld the 
 often-heard-of abomination ; and then, mindful of the un 
 sophisticated youth in her train, hurried to place her 
 withered form before his wandeiing eyes, and screeched, 
 " Don't you look, Charley ! don't you look ! " in tones 
 too piercing not to be heard all over the house. Nor 
 would she remain a second to countenance the iniquity, 
 but stalked grimly from the hall, followed by her de 
 lighted host, to whom she called, " Come away this min 
 ute, Charley Pelican," over her shoulder. 
 
 The family were all gathered in the library one even 
 ing, for their usual desultory following each of his own 
 bent on a common ground. They had been indulging in 
 ice-cream and sponge-cake. Mr. Pelican highly disap-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 337 
 
 proved of Mollie's partaking thereof, and had offered to 
 buy her a pound of ten-penny nails, as more susceptible 
 of digestion. But the repast was now some time ended, 
 and she sat playing with pencil and paper, and listening 
 dreamily to Francis Haythorne, who was amusing him 
 self at the piano, rendering dementi's sixty-first sonata. 
 She compared him inly with Louis, and supplied the well- 
 remembered boyish figure in the place of the handsome 
 Sybarite. How different they were ! and most different 
 at the instrument they both loved ! And her miud flew 
 back to the happy hours she had lived beside her lover, 
 watching his long, slender fingers, in a trance contoured 
 by the glorious melody of hope, sorrow, courage, he set 
 trembling about them. Ah ! Francis Haythorne was 
 playing the andante. How perfect every note fell ! a 
 cold, solid crystal. He could make his keys attune to 
 emotion, fascinating, stern, angry, coquettish, always 
 sprite-like, elfin ; but he had no ability to render tender 
 ness : while Louis' touch gave the very breath of modest 
 passion ; sorrow, warm, living ; love, chaste and divine. 
 Mollie might have gone on comparing the two with an 
 unsatisfactory pleasure in the broken, disjointed pictures 
 she called up r but Mr. Pelican rose from his easy-chair, 
 and produced a couple of decanters. " Deacon McCross," 
 said he, seductively, " here is a chance to display your 
 Biblical knowledge. This," shaking up the smoky liquid, 
 " is Esau, and this, Jacob," exhibiting the paler fluid. 
 " Esau is too strong for me ; but you can choose for your 
 self." 
 
 The Deacon, who was strictly temperate, declined ; but 
 Charley accepted, and Francis Haythorne disappeared in 
 the dining-room with, him, leaving Peace lowering as a 
 thunder-cloud. She now affected a maternal surveillance of 
 the red-haired, and regarded such doings as ravages of the 
 15
 
 338 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 wolf in the fold. " How unkind of father ! " she cried, 
 angrily, " when he knows how I abhor this eternal tip 
 pling. If he must drink, why can't he go by himself, 
 and not rush for every young man that comes within a 
 mile of the house." 
 
 Her observation was quite loud enough to be heard, 
 and Charley, himself freed from petticoat government 
 long before, forgot to take his own decoction while he 
 watched his companion, who didn't care to drink, and in 
 his nonchalant desire to please all, was thus placed be 
 tween two disagreeable alternatives. 
 
 " Why don't those lazy servants bring the ice-water ? " 
 cried his father, jerking the bell violently. " They never 
 are on hand when they're wanted." 
 
 " Pooh, father ! you know that tintinnabulator makes 
 about as much noise as a lamb's tail in a felt hat," ob 
 served young Pelican. " You'll have to take it plain ; 
 you've incurred Peace's everlasting displeasure already. 
 She's a regular hippopotamus vine bless me ! I mean 
 parasite when a fellow begins giving up to her," he sug 
 gested, in his usual genial disregard of precise verbal 
 meanings. 
 
 " In that case I shan't tempt her wrath," answered 
 Mr. Haythorne, putting down the decanter, not because 
 he cared for the young lady's feeling, but from innate op 
 position to Charley. 
 
 Then the two Pelicans drained their goblets, and all 
 three went back guiltily and sat down, fully conscious of 
 the combined feminine disapprobation. 
 
 <l You look as if you'd buried your last friend," re 
 marked Mollie, mischievously. " What's the saying ? 
 ' the dead to bier, the living to good-cheer.' " 
 
 " That is the root of bitterness ; none of these dead
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 339 
 
 beats could get any beer," suggested Charley, relieved to 
 have the silence broken. 
 
 " You ought to know by this time that beer is the 
 only synonym of good-cheer in their vocabulary," flashed 
 Peace. 
 
 " There ! children ! " interfered Mrs. Pelican, from 
 over her knitting, bent on ameliorating the situation. 
 " How ill-bred to wrangle befox-e an invalid ! Here is 
 Mollie, who has inused all the evening, and no one tried 
 to be agreeable." 
 
 " Why is Peace's opinion like a spirit ? " persisted her 
 brother, resolved to have the last word. " It's a conun 
 drum ; the answer is, ' Because it's immaterial.' " 
 
 " Miss Mollie does seem quite deeply engaged," said 
 Mr. Haythorne, politely taking up Mrs. Pelican's cue. 
 " Just watch her pencil hasten over the page ! It's a 
 shame for this Oberon and Titania to interrupt her with 
 their broils. Mr. McCross and I are making arrange 
 ments to prance into the lily-cups and hide ourselves for 
 fear." 
 
 " I am not so easily disturbed," replied she, laying 
 down her paper with the true author-sigh at such emer 
 gencies. " You remember Goethe's old soldier pronoun 
 ces writing ' only busy idleness.' I can comprehend 
 the feeling." 
 
 " Could you ever understand poetry ? " said Mr. Peli 
 can to Deacon McCross, who was looking over a package 
 of Prang's chromos. " Since I've been comparatively 
 out of business, I am trying to learn. I used to have 
 my wife select the hymns for my lay-sermons, and often 
 gave out the wrong set for the service. My ear is poor, 
 and the meaning is frequently enveloped, not to say 
 smothered. Now I always take a dictionary and look out 
 the words, but even then I find it eludes me."
 
 340 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Deacon McCross said he never had any difficulty. He 
 was very fond of rhymes, for his part. 
 
 Mr. Pelican's aldermanic proportions expanded with 
 satisfaction. He hastened to select a picture from the 
 pile. " I was reading Rose Terry's ' To an Arbutus,' 
 this morning," said he. " Here's the print, perhaps you 
 can explain it. I find it misty, very." 
 
 Thereupon, while the two old gentlemen retired to a 
 corner of the table and began a critical study of the text, 
 Charley embraced his chance to collapse his mother's air- 
 pillow. Of course the good lady's head went down 
 with a plump ; and her daughter was horrified to hear 
 her snore audibly. " It's improper in public," said she, 
 and woke her up without delay. Peace was Grundy- 
 ridden also, in streaks. 
 
 To all appearance the students were successful. " I 
 comprehend it so far," said Mr. Pelican stretching out 
 his black-silk-stockinged legs, and looking fatter than 
 ever, with the poetry in his hands, and a business-like 
 glance bent through his glasses at the lean Deacon. 
 " Do you ? " 
 
 Mr. McCross nodded. 
 
 " But the next line is difficult," continued Mr. Peli 
 can, ponderously. " ' Tinged with color faintly like a 
 morning cloud,' what can that mean ? " 
 
 " Why, what it says," remarked the Deacon ; " didn't 
 you ever see a cloud ? " 
 
 " That's too easy ! " said Mr. Pelican, " and clouds are 
 dissimilar. We'll have to take the dictionary. Tinged 
 that means stained in a diluted dye ; clouds water ; 
 diluted. Ah! With color; that's right so far ; faintly 
 that corresponds ; morning why morning cloud ? There's 
 the trouble ! If it was mourning now, being black, 
 one could get at it j or if she'd said " purple " mourn-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 341 
 
 ing is purple too ; but morning ! Mr. Pelican took 
 refuge in his chromo. After a little careful study a light 
 broke on him, and he exclaimed in a voice of perfect con 
 tent : " I have it, McCross : it's a kind of a pink." 
 
 Peace chuckled audibly. " I began a poem awhile 
 ago, father," said she. " Don't you want to hear the first 
 verse ? 
 
 * ' The day it blows, 
 And blows and snows, 
 And the frost it grows, 
 Under the window pane." 
 
 " This is the second stanza," cut in Charley : 
 
 " The day it blowed, 
 And blowed and snowed, 
 And the frost it growed, 
 Under the window-pane." 
 
 " And here's the third," said Mollie, laughing : 
 
 " The day it blew, 
 And blew and snew, 
 And the frost it grew, 
 Under the window-pane." 
 
 " It has all the dignity of an epic." 
 
 " I can understand you so far, daughter," remarked 
 Mr. Pelican thoughtfully ; " what comes next ? " 
 
 "That's all," said Peace; "I'm going to call it <Le 
 Jour, a Crystalline Incrustation of the Sybiline Leaves.' " 
 
 " I don't think modern poetry at all equals that of my 
 youth," averred Mr. McCross, who had been plunged in 
 meditation. " I remember a favorite hymn I learned 
 once on my mother's birth-day, worth all I meet nowa 
 days lumped." 
 
 " Do repeat it," urged Peace, brimming with mischief.
 
 342 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " It'll be good for Mr. Haythorne ; and besides, I'm so 
 much interested in old-fashioned psalmody ! I've had 
 one rendering much on my mind of late, and every day 
 say: 
 
 " Come, my beloved, up and get; 
 
 Don your blue breeches and sailor hat ; 
 
 Pluck up your heart, and take a row 
 
 Over the lake for your little go. " 
 
 Francis Haythorue looked solemn disapproval at this 
 nautico-collegiate travesty ; but Deacon McCross wore 
 a bewildered air, as memory felt feebly for the lost linea 
 ments of its life-time friend, beneath the horrid mask. 
 He presently concluded it was all right, and rejoined 
 with an old man's pleasure in her sparkling face : " Cer 
 tainly, my dear ; I'll do so with pleasure. We sing it to 
 ' Mear.' The precentor always repeated it two lines at 
 once : 
 
 *' Give ear to me what time I call, * 
 To answer me make haste, 
 Like very dust my heart is dried, 
 My bones like smoke do waste. 
 
 My flesh within me smitten is, 
 And it is withered 
 Like very grass, so that I do 
 Forget to eat my bread. 
 
 By reason of my groaning voice 
 My bones cleave to my skin ; 
 Like pelican in wilderness, 
 Forsaken I have been. 
 
 I like an owl in desert am, 
 That nightly there doth moan ; 
 I watch, and like a sparrow am 
 On the house-top alone." 
 
 * Old translation of Psalms.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 343 
 
 The company had all been very quiet while the old 
 gentleman, who had pushed his spectacles up on his fore 
 head, and shut his eyes, recited these verses in a slightly 
 quavering voice. When he pulled down his visual aids 
 and beamed mildly around, the applause was loud : and 
 Peace culminated five minutes' manoeuvres by snatching 
 the coveted writing from Mollie's lap. " Here is differ 
 ent theology, I know," she cried, waving it above her 
 head in triumph. (Peace could do such difficult bits of 
 play with perfect grace and piquancy.) " You needn't 
 blush, Mollie ; it's worth appropriating as common pro 
 perty, and I have possession, and make it over to the 
 company. Listen : 
 
 " Of all emotions of the human heart 
 Pride, hate, remorse or gratified desire 
 Nature responds in harmony to none, 
 Except the pure simplicity of love. 
 Go lay thy heart to hers, thou peevish child ; 
 And if the world, true to its falsity, 
 Has played thee false, ask of her salves 
 For disappointed hopes. 
 
 She'll flout 
 
 Thee to thy face : but come with love, 
 And not a rock, or brook, or blade of grass, 
 But seems a type framed justly for thy souL 
 Peace ! calm thy weak complainings ! she does well. 
 There comes a time when all shall pass away 
 But love. 
 
 God made her like Himself, and in the fret 
 Of narrow human life we lose the key 
 She only keeps in tune. 
 Herein is presage of the things to come. 
 If nature answers to the voice of love, 
 And will not hear to any other call 
 (God setting thus His face in every flower) ; 
 And we alone are out of heart with both 
 (For all the instincts of God's being meet
 
 344 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 In one great throbbing heart, whose name is love) ; 
 When love doth make us one in soul with God 
 Then stars, and winds, and flames, and pain itself, 
 Shall be but as harmonious strings to one great harp, 
 And we its players." 
 
 ""Do you believe it ? " said Francis Haythorne, ey 
 ing its author with an odd mixture of dissent and tickled 
 intellect. 
 
 " Yes," said Mollie, simply. She was not anxious to 
 elaborate her statement. Theological ideals seemed to 
 her like shattered bell-glass nowadays brilliant, pris 
 matic, transparent, but broken bits after all, of what was 
 once a boasted protection. She dared not affirm the 
 truth that helped her in living, to be the great bell-glass 
 whose protection should foster to complete growth the 
 universal human cucumber. 
 
 " But where did you find it out ? " persisted the stu 
 dent. 
 
 " Where you didn't," interfered Peace. " In the 
 sweat of her brow." 
 
 " Daughter," remarked Mr. Pelican, laying down the 
 pencilled word she had taken from her hand for thought 
 ful survey, " I know Mollie won't care for my saying 
 it it's my opinion that your poetiy was the best ; one 
 could understand it in half the time." 
 
 " Here are some lines less difficult of comprehension," 
 answered the thief, starting up, and laying a red-lettered 
 bill before him. 
 
 " Why, what's this, Peace ? Forty dollars for eight 
 no, sixteen quires of trash ! You're enough to ruin 
 Croasus. I won't endure it." 
 
 " Black and gilt is the most elegant style I've tried for 
 an age. I bought it more to support the credit of the 
 family than anything else ! " quoth Peace, superbly.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 3-15 
 
 " It's really ill-bred to write on plain paper nowadays. 
 I thought of getting up the family arms. You know the 
 shield bears a wivern gules rampant, quartered with 
 three swans argent on sable ; and the crest is a wivern 
 gules rampant upon a wreath, with a dog in its claws 
 Motto, ' Mare et marte faventibus.' " 
 
 " Nothing but a race of thieves and pirates after all," 
 suggested Mollie, smiling. Now, my family are going to 
 have a turkey, rampant, with an angle-worm in its beak, 
 when we quarter Motto, ' Who grubs, eats.' " 
 
 " Father, I am as economical as possible," coaxed 
 Peace, " I curtail my expenditures to a bare pittance ; " 
 while Mr. McCross asked Francis Haythorne why he 
 didn't spread upon his pedigree. 
 
 " My ancestry and connections are just such as lead 
 me to hear with pleasure of my friend's," replied the red- 
 haired, smiling slightly. 
 
 " Humph ! " said the good Deacon, feeling that he 
 ought to be satisfied. 
 
 " Well, well ! " exclaimed Mr. Pelican, overpowered by 
 his daughter's eloquence. " I feel your economy to the 
 bottom of my pocket. Things have changed since my day. 
 Your mother and I wrote on blue fool's-cap with blue ink, 
 folded our letters without envelopes, and sealed them with 
 red wafers. We were glad enough to get them at that." 
 
 Peace gave an irate sniff at the Sybarite, who was re 
 peating, in a tone specially directed to her ear, a certain 
 poem, beginning, (( Little I ask ; my wants are few." 
 
 "Speak louder!" exclaimed Mr. Pelican, his poetic 
 instincts instantly alive, as he caught the young man's 
 musical, but slightly German intonation. " Good ! good ! 
 I like that. Heavy silks are never dear. Mrs. Pelican, 
 here's reason and sentiment combined ; no figured spring 
 cheats for him ! " 
 15*
 
 346 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 His wife looked up pleasantly beneath her shining gray 
 curls. She was, we know, that kind of sweet which cul 
 tivates placidity as the great virtue. Peace did not share 
 in the matter-of-course smile that went around the party ; 
 she was gloomily chewing up the original root of bitter 
 ness. Her father, whose paternal admonition had been a 
 matter of general application, as he intended it, and who 
 never refused her anything in his life, began to rally her. 
 " My little Quakeress here never had a monogram, I'll 
 wager," cried he, pinching Mollie's pale cheek. " On 
 my word, it's right down skinflint, for you, Miss Spend 
 thrift, to revel in these vanities. You ought to have one, 
 too, my dear, and you shall. Peace, be sure she goes 
 to order it to-morrow. Take advice, and have it fine. 
 Haythorne, here, is one of those lily-fingered chaps, with 
 nothing to do ; get him to go." 
 
 Mr. Haythorne had been assaulted so frequently in 
 this spot, that he began to be galled, and bit his lip a 
 habit he had when annoyed. But his customary gallan 
 try conquered. " Anything for Peace," said he, easily. 
 That young lady did not reciprocate, being in the mood 
 when every touch came amiss, was vexed that he was 
 open to her father's broad hit, and said to herself that 
 his company would be detestable ; so she replied, rudely, 
 "Then take Thomas a Kempis' advice on the subject: 
 * But of the words or deeds of others judge nothing 
 rashly, neither do thou entangle thyself with things not 
 entrusted to thee ; thus it may come to pass that thou 
 niayest be little or seldom disturbed,' exactly your no 
 tion of happiness." 
 
 Peace had frequent recourse to the old-fashioned 
 moralist, for pui-poses of self-mortification ; but she had 
 no right to seize the weapon to jab at him, and she knew 
 it.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 347 
 
 " You do me but j ustice, most puissant mentor," re 
 turned he, bowing calmly : 
 
 " Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife 
 
 My sober wishes ever learned to stray ; 
 Along the cool, sequestered vale of life, 
 I keep the noiseless tenor of my way." 
 
 "That's plain," said Mr. Pelican, taking the browned 
 meerschaum from his mouth to smile at his daughter's 
 discomfiture. " I can understand that, if it does rhyme. 
 You mean that Peace may look elsewhere for a beau, 
 down-town, to-morrow; and I think you're right, my 
 boy." Whereupon he attempted to insert the bowl of 
 his almost dead pipe in his mouth, by mistake ; and 
 Charley merited the Sybarite's disgust, by flying Mm in 
 the air with one hand by a grasp on the bottom round 
 of his chair, and then deftly emptying him out upon the 
 sofa, while Peace sailed off scornful and lofty. 
 
 Next day, true to his word, the generous Top Towner 
 sent the two girls off in his dashing sleigh, gay with white- 
 bear and seal-skin robes, and drawn by coal-black mus 
 tangs, to try the first snow of the season, and select the 
 dainty toy. 
 
 Mollie looked very shyly at the well got-up individual, 
 who descanted on styles of coloring, script, old English, 
 and fancy capitals, in a way that dignified the matter into 
 first-rate importance. 
 
 " Why not illuminate it ? " cried he, his face glowing 
 with enthusiasm. " We frequently do such work. See 
 these samples." 
 
 Peace, who had heretofore waved down all suggestions 
 in her stateliest style, now assented with benignant grav 
 ity. She abhorred familiarity with clerks. 
 
 The radiant enthusiast forthwith produced a sheet of
 
 348 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 French designs, and skilfully sketched the monogram, 
 with an air. " This," said he, in persuasive accents, 
 " shall be gold ; _this lake, or deep green ; this " 
 
 " There is no proper flower here," interrupted Miss 
 Pelican, with infinite decision. Those pansies might do 
 for Chris. In fact, I think I saw something of the kind 
 on her writing table. If Louis or Francis Haythorne 
 were only near to consult. There he is now ! " she cried, 
 suddenly. 
 
 Mollie started up with a gasp, and caught at the table 
 to steady herself. " Francis Haythorne, I mean," con 
 tinued Peace, hastening toward the door to wave her 
 glove at the coveted swain, with as much speed as was 
 compatible with dignity, and a slight sweep of silk petti 
 coat. She returned in a moment with her captive, who 
 held three red-backed volumes, labelled, " Proceedings of 
 Boston Medical Society," " Lancet," and " Medical Ap 
 plication of Anaesthetics," with a conscious blush. She 
 hadn't time to review his tell-tale burden, but explained 
 the case with impetuous rapidity. " We are at our wits' 
 end," said she, earnestly. 
 
 " Happy thought ! " he returned, laying down his books 
 with their backs away from her, and folding his delicate 
 hands with thankful devotion : " I hope I appreciate the 
 goods the gods vouchsafe. Indeed, Miss Mollie, I can 
 not well choose a flower for you. I only know it should 
 be sweet and modest ; some such blossom as Bernard im 
 agined near the celestial river : 
 
 " Vpon whose bankes the sugar growes, 
 Enclosed in reedes of sinamon." 
 
 " And martyrdom hath roses, and fair and virgin 
 lilies for virgin souls are found," said Peace in her heart, 
 as she scanned the trembling frame of her friend, still un-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 349 
 
 hinged by her sudden shock. Peace felt a sort of com 
 passionate admiring pity for this love-absorbed life. 
 " Poor thing ! " was her invariable comment. " I 
 couldn't be so noble." 
 
 But outwardly she began a rapid consultation with 
 the clerk, which ended in his taking down an elaborate 
 colored book of flowers ; and pointing to a plate of ex 
 quisite pale blue clustering blossoms. 
 
 " Forget-me-nots, the darlings," cried Peace with 
 ardor j " why didn't I think of it before ? " 
 
 And while more sketching in and attitudinizing ensued, 
 on the part of the sanguine clerk, and much comment 
 and consultation between Peace and Mr. Haythorne, 
 my dear Mollie sat dreaming with the volume in her 
 lap, heedless of the others, gathering again the tangled 
 threads of thought that held in their knotted meshes the 
 well-remembered patient flower. 
 
 And by and by, when Peace came to take the book 
 gently away, and bring her back to life and misery again, 
 it was all settled about the monogram. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 " When the pie was opened 
 The birds began to sing." 
 
 RED GROWING'S call on Mollie had been 
 made in January, and he proposed to let few 
 days pass over his head before the promised 
 visit to Louis. 
 
 15ut Camiadasset was a busy parish, and four little 
 Growings educated under his own eye were great con-
 
 350 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 surners of time. In the spring, too, his wife sickened 
 and died ; and Ernest Laprise, his old college friend, 
 joined households with him. All this involved toil and 
 thought, the more lengthened because done in heaviness 
 and sorrow. So it grew to be August before he found 
 himself walking up the gravelled path that led to the 
 Top Town Penitentiary. He went slowly and thought 
 fully, his open, impulsive, friendly countenance de 
 cidedly clouded, in view of impending difficulties. He 
 was not too solid a man to be up and down between 
 heaven and hell with sympathy ; he was too true and 
 earnest to forget the crime in the criminal a priori ; 
 he was a natural lover of men, and disinterested withal, 
 and a fine-grained student, if we would complete his 
 synthesis. He found himself in a specially hard case. 
 He had comforted widows and orphans in affliction ; 
 heard dreary tales of woe and wickedness from bearded 
 lips, and sent the tellers away with better heart and pur 
 pose. He had led little dimpled feet along the path of 
 Christian experience, and held out blessed hands to those 
 fainting in the toils of life. But to-day he was to meet 
 one of his own acquaintance one of his first flock, in 
 this saddest of all sad places. Being a man, he reflected 
 that if this youth had paid regular attendance to the 
 preached word, instead of roaming all Sunday among fra 
 grant meadows, and dim liymn-in toning woods, he might 
 have kept out of the merited suffering. Being a priest 
 of the most lovely Jesus, he could not forget that he also 
 cared to- wander in Nature's spicy thickets, and look 
 through her eyes to his Master's face. l( God can certainly 
 teach himself through His own handiwork as well as I 
 show Him forth in mine," said he to injured pride; and 
 sweet charity having the better, entered the guard-room, 
 heart and face full of the Saviour's errand.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 351 
 
 The officials were polite, with a sort of grim, tobaccoy 
 politeness. They were willing to show him Mr. Allwood's 
 cell ; but he could see him where he was. Was he, Mr. 
 Growing, a dominie? Nobody but sweethearts and wives 
 and such ever came to visit the men. Then they laughed 
 as if it was a joke, and one of them went out of doors, 
 and up to the work-rooms, administering a kick and a 
 curse to a big white prowling bull-dog on the way. 
 
 Meantime the reverend gentleman looked about him. 
 There stood a case of guns at one end the long room ; 
 and two horrible pictures of darkeys, framed in old-fash 
 ioned, flat moulding, hung on the other side ; in the mid 
 dle of the floor stood a disgustingly filthy stove, with a 
 bench behind it. 
 
 It seemed that other visitors were there on kindly 
 errands ; a pair of contrasting groups occupied the farther 
 windows. A tone, a lady richly dressed, with a refined, 
 suffering face, stood beside a stalwart man in prison uni 
 form. Hanging frightened among his mother's skirts, 
 their chubby two years' boy resisted his father's clumsy 
 efforts at conciliation. " Jessie," the listener heard the 
 man say, his deep voice quivering with emotion, " can 
 this be our child ? " 
 
 " An' Christie," screamed a voice, remarkable alike for 
 good feeling and brogue, from the second window ; " do 
 ye iver see a priest ? " 
 
 "No, Mrs. Dennis," quoth the stripling, whose boy 
 ish cheeks were equally wrinkled by pain and vice ; " no, 
 indade ; sure the likes of a priest niver comes here." 
 
 The good woman spread the folds of her gorgeous red 
 calico dress, and bestowed a glance of mingled suspicion 
 and cunning on the complacently listening officials. 
 " Here, Christie, take the chicken an' apples," she cried, 
 shrilly ; " I'll be bound they don't give you no thin' fit
 
 352 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 to eat ; " then in a stage whisper, " An' lad, I'd see a priest 
 if the devil himself stood in the doorway." 
 
 Presently the man brought in Louis, who sat down, 
 sullen and haggard, near the stove, scarcely recognizing 
 his visitor. 
 
 Mr. Growing might well be shocked at his appearance. 
 He had come to administer comfort, but what comfort 
 was there for this man who, crouching before him, seemed 
 less a human being than a wild animal, wounded and 
 surly, crept away to die. 
 
 Even the good-natured Irishwoman was struck by it. 
 " Poor craythur, is he in for life? " whispered she. Her 
 companion nodded abstractedly. " Belike, thin, he'll 
 never live his sentence out," was her compassionate re 
 joinder. 
 
 The minister watching his friend's face, saw by the sly 
 satisfaction playing over it that the comment had been 
 heard. 
 
 " Poor boy ! poor boy ! " said he to himself; " has it 
 come to this ? " 
 
 Yes, it had come to that. Mollie would hardly have 
 known her lover. He was too miserable to try to recog 
 nize himself. 
 
 Mr. Growing gathered his resources hastily, as he took 
 a seat on the narrow bench. His task was more difficult, 
 more momentous than he had anticipated. He hazarded 
 a commonplace. 
 
 " You didn't expect me." 
 
 Louis on his side wished he would leave. What was 
 the use of prolonging the agony. 
 
 " I don't see why any one should come here who can 
 keep away," said he, without troubling himself to look 
 up. 
 
 "Nor I either," retorted the visitor. "I couldn't
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 353 
 
 keep away, that was the matter. Why, every time I put 
 the four little Growings to bed at night, and taught them 
 to remember the fatherless, and those desolate and op 
 pressed, I thought what a hypocrite I was, when you 
 were shut up here and I hadn't fulfilled my promise to 
 go and see you. I promised Miss Mollie, you know ; " 
 watching the man, he saw him tremble at the familiar 
 name. 
 
 But the morose answer was unyielding : " I have no 
 claim on anybody. Thieves don't have. The woman 
 spoke the truth I'll soon be dead and out of everybody's 
 way. The sooner the better." 
 
 "Why, dear boy," said Fred, impulsively, his tones 
 thrilling and pleading out of his earnest longing to help, 
 " you talk as if God wasn't with a fellow everywhere, 
 especially when he's in trouble." 
 
 " I mean, it ; " savagely. u God never came here ; he 
 don't know anything about Top Town States Prison 
 (lingering over the words to suck the last dregs of bitter 
 ness from them) ; " he lives down at Millville Congrega 
 tional Church, with them that fare daintily, and go in soft 
 raiment." 
 
 The vulgar officials, listening, grinned at each other 
 and spat enjoyingly on the floor, and leaned about the 
 room on doors and wall, with their hands stuffed into 
 their breeches' pockets, and their hats cocked on one side. 
 
 " Miss McCross has been sick nearly dying all sum 
 mer," said Mr. Growing, softly. " I saw her before she 
 was taken ill, and she sent you this," bringing a stout 
 brown paper parcel from under his arm. t( She said per 
 haps you wouldn't mind my coming. I was only a man, 
 and a friend," stammered the kind-hearted gentleman, 
 ready to cry with sympathy. 
 
 The convict turned toward him with studied delibera-
 
 354 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 tion. He said afterward it seemed as if the old soul 
 muscles, once so elastic, were too stiff to move ; his only 
 motions, physical or mental, had so long been only such 
 as shoe-making demanded, he feared to try any others. 
 
 " She is better ; is coming to visit the Pelicans, when 
 she is strong enough to travel. Haven't you heard ? 
 She's been delirious till within a week." 
 
 Louis didn't make any answer ; he sat quite still. 
 Mr. Growing's pity couldn't comprehend this persistent 
 sullenness. He surveyed the young man closely, noticed 
 the drawn bluish look at the corners of his mouth, and 
 his glassy unseeing eyes sprang forward to raise him from 
 the floor, senseless. 
 
 " He went pretty easy," said the guard, jumping off 
 his high stool, and looking at him critically. " I heard 
 the overseer in his room say he was falling off in his 
 work, and I see he didn't take nothing to eat to his cell. 
 Likely he's putting him through." 
 
 " Do you mean to say he's had no food to live on since 
 early this morning ? " exclaimed Mr. Growing, thoroughly 
 shocked. 
 
 " Oh, that's nothing ; there's always four or five docked 
 every day. It's no account." 
 
 " My friend looks very ill," the sympathetic minister 
 suggested to the warden, as he took his leave. " I'm 
 afraid he won't live long." 
 
 " He'll get through his work a while yet," quoth that 
 functionary. " He may need a little pushing. He don't 
 stand very well, we'll have to -give him something to sit 
 on before long." 
 
 Mollie's gift was like herself and her love a dozen 
 gorgeous butterflies in a glass-case. If she had sought 
 the world over, she could not have offered a more con 
 vincing message of her faith. Passion or instinct indeed
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 355 
 
 give the warp of love, but its woof is altogether made of 
 tender memories, and every frail insect brought Louis its 
 own recollection of happy days. There was the deceiving 
 May-fly he had incited Mollie to catch, with cunning 
 fables about its golden eyes. She worked a necktie 
 covered with silken May-flys for him, by way of a coal 
 of fire. Here was the great Cecropia they had fed 
 together ; and here the tailed Luna and pink winged lo, 
 snared in the net with the contracting mouth, his own 
 invention. Way down in a corner, too, was the shadowy 
 Ajax he brought her one happy April morning when she 
 kept birth-day in the house, with a sprained wrist, and so 
 couldn't possibly help his putting his arm around her. 
 Only one Ajax, though, and he gave her a pair. 
 
 With the butterflies full of old-time memories, Mollie 
 sent him back the rights and claims of his free life, and 
 he dared to take them to himself, because they came from 
 her. A woman points her rejected lover to God, but she 
 prefers to have the man she loves think of herself. If 
 Mollie had stopped to remember this, she would have 
 altered the gift for conscience' sake. But God, being Him 
 self the author of love, didn't let her. Having thus 
 regained self-acknowledgment of his title to manhood, 
 Louis found another help in the insects. They led him 
 forth into the outside world. Every night at close of 
 work, he used to seat himself with his treasure in his lap, 
 and begin his travels in a minute examination of the 
 beauties, when, lo ! the plumy wings were buckled on his 
 own shoulders, each bright eyeball of the Sphinx once 
 more glowed luminous, to light him onward ; and the 
 Ajax paraded his scarlet beauty spots, and yellow Troilus 
 wandered after a falser Cressid ; Prometheus, in sable man 
 tle arid golden fringes, consoled his woes with blue-eyed 
 lo ; and chaste Luna smiled and gigantic Polyphemus
 
 356 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 strutted in the foreground of the fetterless world of 
 fancy, memory and longing, of which they were the 
 guardian spirits. 
 
 He hadn't held his new possession a week before the 
 bitterness unconsciously melted out of his soul, Mollie's 
 image nestling there unchallenged, and playing the sweet 
 exorcist to his ghoulish broodings. His mind, no longer 
 shut into the poisonous prison atmosphere, sought means 
 of healthful action. He picked up the only book in his 
 cell a Bible, and began to look for verses about butter 
 flies. 
 
 What is religion ? Who is God ? have been the 
 world's questions since the day it was first peopled. 
 
 There is a difference between the Christian revelation 
 of religion, and Christianity. Our churches are full of 
 religious men but possess few Christians. Strip off half 
 a dozen empty dogmas, and most disciples of Jesus of 
 Nazareth do not differ materially in theory or practice 
 from those of Confucius, Epicurus, Zoroaster, Moses or 
 Mahomet. All say their prayers, all go to worship, all 
 talk morality and violate it, all profess to love their wives 
 and children. Creusa follows her dear Eneas through 
 smoking Troy. Isis is a model spouse to Osiris. 
 Madame Bazaine steals her husband away from prison. 
 Berengaria, from her husband's wound, 
 
 " draws forth the poison with her balmy breath 
 Sweet as new buds in spring." 
 
 And the wife of murdered Maximilian pays her tribute to 
 her lord in a broken heart. 
 
 They all see visions, too ; and the good priest sacrific 
 ing his hecatombs of cattle and provender was nearly as 
 touching a spectacle of faith as Ezekiel wedding his
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 357 
 
 good-natured, but not spotless wife as he relates, at the 
 command of Jehovah. What is the difference ? 
 
 Christianity demands love, real human love, to the 
 human chosen the type of God. It is sufficient for 
 religion to fear God and keep His commandments. 
 
 But those called by His name, recognizing the love- 
 bond between the earthly disciple and the glorified Leader, 
 cannot, it seems, agree in " points." 
 
 There is a sect with a litany so perfectly satisfying all 
 wants, that other prayer seems needless ; and so worship, 
 religion, companionship with Jehovah or His chosen, have 
 resolved themselves, among a majority of its adherents, 
 into the morning and evening service ; and they cannot 
 understand how the schismatic sects say " Elder Brother," 
 " Sweet Saviour," " Truest Friend," because the Prayer 
 Book has it Almighty and Everlasting Father. They 
 talk of humanity's resolution into the parent essence of 
 God, as a drop of water falls into the sea. While, on the 
 other hand, quite as respectable a body fail to compre 
 hend how churches can exist without the tea meeting, 
 the jocular pew auction, or the tear-moving excitements 
 of missionary Sunday, and believe implicitly that the 
 original devil taught dancing school. 
 
 In order to find the true essence of Christianity, we 
 must cut away from every sect the peculiarity which is 
 its greatest pride. Lop from the Catholic the pope, the 
 real presence, confession, the saints ; lop from the Pres 
 byterian the saving grace of belief in dogma, and the 
 delightful anticipation of seeing four-fifths of his imme 
 diate neighbors and the entire remainder of the world 
 damned ; lop from the Baptist his cistern, the Episcopa 
 lian his genealogies and prayer-book, the Universalist his 
 speculations in Psychology, the Methodist his pride of 
 Plebeianism, class-meeting, and the power, and keep the
 
 358 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 one common division of them all for that is Christianity, 
 and that only, be the residue healthy and good, or its 
 reverse. 
 
 I have always observed two classes of sceptics reform 
 ers and doubters. The reformers are animated by im 
 patience of moral restrictions, and go forth of their own 
 free-will ; but the doubters are pushed out. Compelled, 
 in their desire to explore their King's Palace, to pry 
 away certain cracked and mossy stones at what they sup 
 pose the basis of the structure, so startled are they by 
 the downfall of mouldy rubbish, that they fly terrified, 
 never dreaming that it is one of time's old hostelries they 
 meddled with, and not the God's temple at all. 
 
 Louis belonged to this latter class. Except the diffu 
 sive benevolence of the liquor-seller and the " Perfect" 
 theology, he had scant ideals of Christianity in any shape. 
 Dr. Perfect said it was blaspheming God to throw a 
 die ; and even good Mr. Growing, in a religious fog com 
 mon to certain stages of the ministerial career, had been 
 heard to declare from the pulpit, that Christ's abstruse 
 and mysterious utterances were not equal to the reforma 
 tion of mankind ; only through the lucid explanations 
 of Paul could they be properly understood and system 
 atized into the Gospel of Salvation. 
 
 I have in mind three or four reasons why duty-loving 
 people find it hard to embrace Christianity : the narrow- 
 mindedness, religious egotism, and personal inconsistencies 
 of its professed votaries ; the vast number of cant expres 
 sions which make the language of one sect perfectly 
 unintelligible to members of another, and more obscure 
 than heathen Greek to the unconverted ; the constant 
 preaching of dogma instead of religion, and religion again 
 and under the name of Christianity ; the constant cry to 
 give up a vague all which nobody seems to have done,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 359 
 
 and catch if you can an equally vague something else in 
 its place ; the ecclesiastical command to be separate in 
 peculiarity from a world to which the noisiest " Breth 
 ren " are evidently quite united in spirit. 
 
 It was a miserable truth which led Hawthorne to com 
 pare popular Christianity to the stained windows of 
 European churches from the outside, sombre, cold, for 
 bidding ; but within, warm with color and gorgeous in 
 design. The true church is lighted from its centre, day 
 and night, for the Lamb is the light of it ; and having 
 been commanded to shine, her patterned windows must 
 needs be full of meaning to lookers-on. 
 
 At the end of the world, when the Book of Life is 
 opened, it will be seen to be the roll of the membei's of 
 the True Church ; the united voice of that whole multi 
 tude will be found to have bound and loosed matters 
 ecclesiastical and spiritual ; Christ animating its members 
 will have forgiven the trespasses of its people against 
 each other ; and the Christ who animates the whole will 
 Himself have so forgiven sin, that they are beyond its 
 power forever. There can be no schism in love ; and if a 
 rent appear in a theological robe, then it is plain that it 
 is not the robe of the redeemed. Love is the dress of 
 Christ's lovers. When Mary McCross was asked how to 
 become a Christian, she always replied, " Fall in love 
 with God," which sounds oddly, but is the root of the 
 matter. 
 
 Dear Mrs. Pelican, who was an ardent Episcopalian, a 
 devout believer in such adjectives as ineffable, transcend 
 ent, incomprehensible, illimitable, uncontainable, infinite, 
 was painfully shocked by this way of putting things ; 
 told Mollie it wasn't refined, besides being irreverent; 
 told Peace it must have arisen from association with those 
 low people in Syllabub.
 
 360 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " You speak of Christ as if He was a man in the next 
 street," she cried, summoning her religious sternness to 
 the occasion. Mrs. Pelican, the most tirnid of gentle 
 women, was as stiff as a last year's mullen-stalk in mat 
 ters of faith. 
 
 " He is a man, not so far off," replied the young girl 
 composedly. " I regard him as I might my shadow. 
 When the sun is nearest overhead, I and my shadow are 
 one. But as we turn away from that light, the shade 
 stretches off farther and thinner every instant. So with 
 Christ. Under the full warmth of the Sun of Righteous 
 ness, He is unit with me ; but in the twilight of unbelief 
 He grows less and less tangible. Like my shadow, too, 
 He never quits my feet, and the minute I approach the 
 light He appears." 
 
 " That's flowery and pretty," said Mrs. Pelican, dis 
 paragingly. " I'll have to tell mother about Mrs. Den 
 nis," cut in Peace, illustrating her name, which, except in 
 theology, she seldom did. " She followed us to the door 
 the day we read the Douay Bible to her, and she found 
 we weren't such dreadful heretics after all. ' Well, 
 well,' said she, ' sure we're all servin' the same good 
 gentleman I mean God.' " 
 
 Louis was a most pious sceptic. It was because his 
 ideas of Christianity were so elevated, that he couldn't 
 accept as divine the ponderous machinery called by its 
 name. He had read a few earnest books, every one set 
 hard on the heels of religious folly, and concluded 
 churches to be equally humbug and hypocrisy. He ac 
 companied Mrs. McCross to the Millville prayer-meeting, 
 to find its members feeding off husky formalities, with 
 what he thought swinish delight and selfishness. He 
 had dipped into a little Colenso, a little Swedenborg, a 
 little Calvin ; read half a page of Baxter's Call ; had
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 361 
 
 never seen the point to Pilgrim's Progress ; and since the 
 structure of doctrines seemed to him like a card-house 
 that a breath of doubt dissipates, concluded he was au 
 infidel. Mrs. McCross fully agreed. Millville substi 
 tuted the opprobrious title of atheist, and washed her 
 hands of him. Thus left to himself, he perused Heine 
 in the original, admired Goethe, tried to like Roussean, 
 flaunted his unbeliefs in every one's face, because they 
 were like fire in his bones ; and he had an idea that he 
 was somehow disgraced by them, and was too proud to 
 sail under false pretences. 
 
 When I started on this digression, he was reading the 
 prison Bible, and falling in love, as lovers will, quite una 
 wares. Like most young men he had left it out of his 
 Library of Useful Information in days of freedom, and 
 for all his dreary studies of late, knew very little about 
 it. Now, in this flood of joy, he was astonished to find 
 what a delicious mingling it is of the human and divine. 
 Its kinship with mother-earth was delightful to him 
 " like two roes that are twins," he said, being pure enough 
 in heart and experience to see the chaste beauty of that 
 song of marriage. He likewise read ecclesiastes with a 
 shudder at its horrible pictures ; sighed with David, and 
 revelled in Isaiah ; forgave the fairy stories for the facts ; 
 and travelling on day by day, met a friend who had been 
 long time awaiting him very patiently. 
 
 We do not give our hearts to the Christus Regnant, 
 but Jesus, sad, rejected. We shrink from the martial 
 prince whose right hand has taught him terrible things, 
 who enters the city with his triumph of slaves, and cap 
 tives, and spoil. Honors, which it is confessed only 
 bruise the weary heart of their bearer, are no medicine 
 whose beholding cures. Our chosen is he who steals slyly 
 and delicately through the door we are too miserable to 
 10
 
 362 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 try to bar, and in his pure brotherhood of grief teaches 
 us to bear our own. It was Christ's tenderness and sim 
 plicity and reposeful strength, his intense naturalness of 
 perfection, that won Louis. He could not let His history 
 alone, dreamed of Him while at his work-bench, lay con 
 tented on his prisoner's pallet while he mused about Him ; 
 pictured His journeys, threading the olive-groves, vine 
 yards and hamlets of far-away Palestine ; exulted in His 
 simple fondness for flowers and birds ; loved Him because 
 He healed and comforted, and suffered willingly, and was 
 satisfied with the rough adoration of a few coarse fisher 
 men, rejecting the world's praises because He loved it, not 
 them. 
 
 To Louis, unjustly condemned, the judgment-seat of 
 Pilate was a frightfully vivid reality. Stripes, hunger, 
 abuse, are tangible things to the prisoner. Himself the 
 unwilling partaker, he knew the pain borne by Jesus, 
 the voluntary sufferer. Not yet convinced of His di 
 vinity, the Nazarene became his hero. Little by little 
 dawned on him the great purpose for which this man 
 lived ; the strange scheme by which, out of his own agony, 
 he would distill healing, save every man by taking abode 
 with him in the midst of his well-deserved wretchedness, 
 conquer his visible Lordship by giving it up, prove his 
 ownership of all men's hearts by breaking his own to 
 mend them, deny to his comfort exercise of the very gifts 
 he never refused to the most revolting suppliant, out of 
 the niggardly gratitude of men build a kingdom whose 
 only end would be to obtain their happiness. 
 
 In such a hero, who can point the difference from a 
 god? 
 
 It was impossible for Louis to love any one without 
 longing to share his burdens, enter into his life. The 
 more he tried the homely rules of action set down by the
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 363 
 
 carpenter's Son, the more he knew of their results upon 
 the disciple, and through him upon his fellows ; tho 
 more deeply he felt that to pattern after his Master 
 would as surely entail his Master's fate. The degenerate 
 maxims of trade, politics, or popular religion have noth 
 ing in common with Christ's ideas. 
 
 " No," he said to himself, " to go after him would be 
 to leave all." " Many," says old a Kempis, " are willing 
 to follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, few to the drink 
 ing of the cup of his passion." 
 
 The battle waxed strong with Louis. He was aston 
 ished at his own cowardice, and yet he could not shake 
 himself free from himself. "I have a right to my own 
 life," said one nature. 
 
 " So had he," said the other. 
 
 " He was the son of a kind God," objected the first 
 Adam. 
 
 " He called himself the son of ungrateful man," re 
 torted the second. 
 
 " He wanted to suffer, and I don't," cried the first. 
 
 " Are you going to accept from any man what you 
 won't do for him? " cried the second. 
 
 " No, no, no ! " said Louis in a great hurry. " I 
 hope I'm not mean enough to sneak. Besides, I want to 
 help." 
 
 Then the sad-eyed man smiled right into his heart, such 
 a thankful, satisfied smile, that his champion saw every 
 thing a thousand-fold given back in its wondrous peace 
 and brightness. And this smile floating down to the 
 bottom of the heart Louis had emptied of all, lay warm 
 and sure beneath the burdens, hopes, and loves he piled 
 above it in after life, and permeated them and the man 
 himself so thoroughly, that its own beauty and sweetness 
 became, their beauty and sweetness, and its strength was
 
 364 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 the man's strength, and its trust his trust ; and as time 
 went on, it wrote itself all over his face and life, so that 
 God saw in it himself, and his friends saw God. 
 
 Now, being thus far along his journey, a misfortune 
 befell him. The peg whereon hung his precious butter 
 flies had long been something unsteady ; one evil morn 
 ing it completed its treachery and gave way ; the pretty 
 insects lay upon the floor, a confused heap of broken 
 wings. 
 
 The overseer's humor was villanous. A few years af 
 ter, his men rose, felled him with a bench, and then sat 
 quietly down to await their fate. To-day he was prepar 
 ing. 
 
 " What are them things layin' there for, you ? " he 
 demanded, seeing Louis' start of dismay at the cruel 
 havoc. " Heave that ere trash out, breedin' vermin 
 an' lice. What are you waitin' for ? I'll give you some 
 thing to hurry about, if you ain't sharp." 
 
 A look of irrepressible misery came over the prisoner's 
 face, as he exclaimed beseechingly : " Can't I have those 
 that are whole ? Indeed they aren't all spoiled. Don't 
 make me throw them away." 
 
 "You'd better not give me any of your jaw," said the 
 superior, stirring up the mass with his heavy boot. " Be 
 lively ! I'm in a hurry." 
 
 Louis swept them out with trembling hand, and ven 
 tured to pick up two green dandies from the wreck of his 
 only treasure. " What have you got there ? " demanded 
 his jailer, enraged. " Didn't I tell you to heave all them 
 things out ? Sassy rascal ! put them on the floor." 
 
 The convict drew the coveted beauties from his pocket 
 and laid them lovingly on the staging ; then threw back 
 his head, a great lump in his throat only kept down by a 
 mighty effort.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 3G5 
 
 " Now you put your foot on them damn beetles, and 
 think yourself lucky to get off without bein' reported for 
 disobeyin' me this way. Impudent dog ! " 
 
 And with that the " prisoner's friend " went to eat a 
 vast dinner, with unruffled conscience, and the befriended 
 threw himself down in a boyish heap, to mourn his irrep 
 arable loss. But the poor flutterers had done their work. 
 Their master was not left empty. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 " Thy life to mend 
 God's law attend." 
 
 HAT old fellow at the house opposite looks ex 
 actly like a grasshopper," said Peace, glancing 
 malevolently from the window at the rainy 
 prospect. 
 
 The only other person in the room made no reply, and 
 the steady rattle of the leaves in her hand seemed to ag 
 gravate the unoccupied fault-finder. " There goes old 
 Gizzard next door," pursued she ; " always makes me 
 think of a mud turtle on his hind legs. Mary McCross, 
 I can't remember any habit more disagreeable than con 
 tinually read read reading, when one's friends are 
 cross. I invited you here to console me." 
 
 " ' How can your griefs expect comfort 
 From him who knows not how 
 He can redress his own ? "' 
 
 said Mollie, smiling, but not giving up her occupation.
 
 SCO SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 "If you had your choice, what would you take to in 
 sure your life-long happiness?" asked Peace, abandoning 
 her -pet and her window together, and drawing a low 
 ottoman to Mollie's chair. "I've been trying to make 
 up my mind all the afternoon, and it spoilb my temper 
 because I can't." 
 
 Her friend's eyes sought the bundle of yellow notes in 
 her lap, superscribed in a childish hand. They were very 
 few, remnants of Louis' attentions in their school-days, 
 when he hid one each morning in her dinner-basket, be 
 cause she confided to him, in the innocence of her heart, 
 that she wanted what the other scholars had, girls, whose 
 beaux wrote billet-doux and smuggled them over the 
 attic defend u regularly. 
 
 She read them every week now. It was cold consola 
 tion, but the best she found. Absently smoothing their 
 confining bit of ribbon, she paused awhile to deliberate, 
 and then said quietly, "I think, next to having the 
 one I love best close by me, I could be happiest if there 
 were some boys who liked to come and see me and tell 
 me their troubles." 
 
 " Pooh ! " said Peace, giving a decided head-toss ; " I 
 don't agree a bit. It's either ambition or a husband I 
 want ; but I won't be bothered with either." 
 
 " I believe in ambition for everybody," said Mollie, in 
 a solid emphasis grown habitual to her, in her argument 
 ative battles ; " but," she added brightly, " the way to 
 manage about a husband is to walk through life as one 
 would through a field of burdocks. Before you reach to 
 the other side, the stick tight is sure to get caught in your 
 train." 
 
 " But suppose it isn't the right one," said Peace, intent, 
 and pouting ; " Men are such poor animals. There's 
 Charley. How miserable the woman will be that gets
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 367 
 
 him ! I'm sick of living this way in transitu for 
 years at a time! Nothing before, no end in life, no 
 place in the world. Always headed off when I want to 
 work." 
 
 Miss McCross didn't answer. She hadn't solved her 
 own problems enough to be able to cope with other 
 people's. 
 
 Peace was in her most winning mood this afternoon ; 
 not in the sense of yielding ; but betraying an inimitable 
 simplicity that underlay her whole character, and peeped 
 out rarely, even with her trusted friends. " Do you 
 know," said she, bestowing her honest confidence, " I'm 
 miserable ; I had to make some verses about it. If you 
 won't laugh, I'll read them." Whereupon she drew the 
 same from her pocket, and spread them on Mollie's knee 
 for mutual consideration. 
 
 "What the temptation to this weary world 
 That led us of our will to take it up, 
 Is matter for reflection. But once here 
 Our only end in living's plain enough : 
 Just to fill life with cares, and so force down 
 Into the lowest deep of consciousness 
 Ourselves. 
 
 And here we stay, because the world is quit 
 In emptiness and silence ; and, self at back, 
 We hate to try the trackless waste beyond, 
 For fear of murder." 
 
 Peace was all intensity, vehemence, storm, as she 
 finished indicating the words to Mollie, with voice and 
 finger, while the reader followed them with her own ear 
 nest eyes. " I feel it more and more ! " cried the author, 
 springing up impetuously, when she observed an uncon 
 trollable smile cross the face of her sympathetic friend, 
 and following her glance, observed Charley, who had
 
 SG8 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 squirmed his way thither unobserved, under cover of 
 chairs and tables, and was now reposing at full length 
 beneath the nearest sofa, with a wicked grin on his face. 
 
 " That sounds cheerful : I condole with you," cried he, 
 emerging from his shelter, in a kind of elephantine walk 
 on all fcmrs, done with unbent knees, and equally difficult 
 and ridiculous. 
 
 The girls experienced a disagreeable shock, such as one 
 always has in discovering a long conversation overheard ; 
 and, after a rapid mental reduction, blushed with annoy 
 ance and vexation. 
 
 " Burrs ! wives ! happiness ! and poetry ! " proceeded 
 the young man, counting on his fingers ; " yes, absolutely, 
 poetry ! 
 
 " ' When dearth of sense and rhyme you see, 
 Come make a poem out of me.' " 
 
 " Te he ! te he ! te he ! " chimed Mollie. 
 
 " O give to me a cup of tea," tagged Charley. 
 
 " I'll think of it at night, D. V.," said Mollie. 
 
 " O Charley, what a" 
 
 " Tease you be," interrupted the torment, as his sister, 
 who was getting very angry, began an adjuration by no 
 means flattering, to judge by the stamp accenting its be 
 ginning ; and Mollie snatched the unfortunate verses just 
 jn time to save them from utter destruction. After a 
 few interfering plunges and dives from Peace, well 
 warded off by Charley, she found it needful to rvin away 
 to her own room, and lock herself in, trophy and all. In 
 a minute more, the voice of the abused author followed 
 her through the keyhole : " Well ! Mary McCross, it 
 isn't often you can resist the devil when it '11 flee from 
 you." 
 
 The Deacon stayed only a few days, but, as he told
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 3GO 
 
 Mollie at parting, they were the most comfortable of his 
 life. The two were very happy together went to 
 prayer-meetings, orphan asylums, hospitals, poor-houses, 
 public schools, insane retreats, newspaper offices, and in 
 surance buildings, with amiable impartiality. She, 
 modest, timid, and clinging to his arm ; he, tall, gaimt, 
 benevolent, and in. search of wisdom, with a white stove 
 pipe on his head, red yarn muffler about his neck, rubbers 
 on his feet, an umbrella, and a memorandum book to set 
 down the items, which should develop in course of their 
 wanderings. 
 
 " We might just as well see the police court too," said 
 he briskly, after every other spot of interest had been 
 visited; " it's cheap knowledge, and we must improve each 
 shining hour. I feel exactly like ' How doth the little 
 busy bee.' I find it grows on me, too." 
 
 Peace, who ruled the house despotically, had a hand in 
 his simple satisfaction. It was she who drew forth his 
 rambling, old-fashioned stories, and she who invented 
 missionary statistics to charm his eager thirst for mental 
 acquisition, and to her complaisant ear he confided his 
 horror of the present style of American dress, denounc 
 ing it as similar to the enormities of rings, ouches, crisp- 
 ing-pins, and round tires like the moon, and recited with 
 sympathy sundry ballads from Cowper, relative to starved 
 goldfinches, likewise fables with morals attached ; and ' 
 the reward seemed to her great, when he told Mollie in 
 confidence that he felt his feet to have been set in a large 
 place, which, poor man, was quite necessary if they were 
 in any. 
 
 The father and daughter stole about and made little 
 
 donations to inconceivably absurd charities, and were 
 
 patronized by rascally minister agents ; and Charley 
 
 beguiled them into Argentie's, where they presented each 
 
 16*
 
 370 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 other with studs and cuff-buttons, and the Deacon paid 
 the bill with childish glee. Finally they took an ancient 
 history of Top Town, and hunted up all the places notable 
 for Indian warfare, or the home of the oldest inhabitant ; 
 and he donated an immense package of French fruit to 
 Peace, and, after much thought, filled Charley's bed with 
 a pile of dumb-bells, clubs, and articles of gymnastic 
 art, requiring very sly management to adjust, and at the 
 same time preserve the important secrecy, on which 
 account Peace commanded vacation of the premises by 
 the household, and herself made aggravating little sallies 
 at the conspirator, so that he had hard work to keep his 
 plot Tindiscovered. 
 
 That night he sat in the dim twilight with his arm 
 lovingly about Mollie's waist. He was to return to Mill- 
 ville next morning. 
 
 " You've never been so heavenly dear, daughter. 
 When I'm away from you, I always think you were 
 sweetest the time I saw you last," said he fondly. " Poor 
 Mollie ! you have such hard lines." 
 
 " No not too hard to bear," said she, with a stout 
 hearted smile. Mollie never gave up before any one, 
 least of all her father. 
 
 The old man patted her hand in a soft denial. " I 
 know about it, dear. Don't think I don't. It will all be 
 over some day. You mustn't come home this winter " 
 this with a smothered sigh. " You must stay here and 
 grow strong. You've ben a good girl to me, daughter. 
 I feel sometimes I hadn't orter ha' made you promise as 
 you did ; but I don't believe it'll be for long I hope not, 
 dear." 
 
 " Don't say so, papa, my own papa. Louis and I 
 would rather have you stay," cried the girl, her heart 
 swelling with the two loves and longings.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 371 
 
 " Mebbe, niebbe, dear," said he, sadly. " Pelican got 
 left on the train yesterday. My train won't leave me. 
 You must gather up my papers and look them over when 
 I go, with Louis with Louis, mind. Have you written 
 to him ? " 
 
 " No ; I must see him before I leave for home." A little 
 sigh escaped her as she thought how long it might be be 
 fore they met again. She hoped he didn't hear it, and 
 hastened to cover it up by saying, " I can tell him so 
 much better. That was my promise." 
 
 " He is a good lad," said the Deacon, regretfully. 
 " Let him know I think so. Do you remember how I 
 used to hop like a kangaroo for you when you were a 
 little girl ? " after a short silence. 
 
 Mollie nodded. 
 
 " And how we used to sharpen noses? " 
 
 She nodded again. 
 
 " We might do it once more ? " suggested he, doubt 
 fully. 
 
 " Those were good days," he went on, after the child 
 ish action had been performed with the accuracy of a re 
 ligious rite. " We have never been so happy since. 
 Somehow, I've given up lolting much upon comfort here, 
 any more. Life has long seemed to me only a journey 
 from the cradle to the grave. But when we are dead it 
 will be better. I don't believe we shall have to stand 
 playing all the while. Probably God'll let us kneel down 
 to pray between spells. We are all to be around the 
 throne. Perhaps, as there must be a vast crowd there 
 by this time, I won't be able to get near. But I can't 
 help thinking that if I should even be three miles off, I 
 shall be in the very midst of heaven; and if the Lord 
 will only let me get a few years the start of your mother, 
 I hope I can improve and do so well as to satisfy Him."
 
 372 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Mollie drew his gray head down to her shoulder with 
 quick impulsive gesture. "Father," said she desper 
 ately, ft I will not let you die. I don't mind about my 
 troubles. You shall be happy with Louis and me some 
 day. We can all wait." 
 
 " No," said the old man, in sorrowful gentleness. " I 
 have no time to wait. It was my blame that you have 
 to ; but you're good children, and won't lay it up, or any 
 thing, even when you find out as you partly know 
 how bad it is. But it'll all come right by and by I 
 pray God very soon. I want to have it so, daughter, an' 
 I don't like to have yovi pray the other way, for fear the 
 Lord might rather listen to you." 
 
 So Deacon McCross went home. He looked a little 
 pale and weary when he set off next morning, but that 
 might be owing to Charley's having penetrated his room 
 about two o'clock at night, for the pleasure of blowing a 
 penny trumpet in his ear. " Well, well," said he, coming 
 to at the first hoot, and bestowing a dazed but benevolent 
 smile on the young fellow, " you an' Peace do play desput 
 cunnin'." A commendation which the musician received 
 with extreme gratification. 
 
 After her father's departure, Mollie settled into a quiet 
 home-life. She studied, she visited, she darned stock 
 ings five German styles, to win Mrs. Pelican's heart. 
 Old Mr. Pelican, who had of late taken a strong fancy 
 for music, but possessed no ear, was charmed to find a 
 soprano willing to help out his minstrelsy, though it was 
 a disappointment to have her object to rising at half-past 
 four in the morning, that being his time for practising in 
 course the bass to each tune in the singing-book. When 
 Deacon McCross had been there, they had held a few 
 rehearsals together. But Mollie's father confided to her 
 that friend Pelican's only successful tune proved to be,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 373 
 
 " I was a wandering sheep," which exactly suited his 
 style. 
 
 They played rubbers of whist in the long evenings, at 
 which Charley concealed little less than the reflation 
 twenty-four packs in his coat-sleeves, besides ornament 
 ing the backs of the cards with mysterious scratches, and 
 his father absently claimed every trick through the game 
 without slightest reference to fourth-hand trumps, and 
 partner's slaughtered aces. Peace revelled in afternoon 
 toilettes and dainty fancy-work to match ; and took 
 Mollie on elegant shopping expeditions, where she met 
 other beautiful ladies likewise attired with magnificence. 
 She noticed on such occasions that they all bought in the 
 ratio of four cents' worth of worsted to forty in bonbons, 
 that they treated each other to ice-cream, talked of the 
 musical glasses, and were every one reading the same 
 novel ; that the things each knew were identical, and they 
 looked so precisely alike that she could not tell them 
 apart. 
 
 Mollie's friendship for the son of the house was the 
 oddest product of her visit. On her first arrival he used 
 to sit in a corner of the room, with his chin propped on 
 his palm, watching her, a look on his handsome face, 
 half observing, half dogged ; and she on her side* avoided 
 him with morbid care. He was the family sorrow, and 
 the author of Louis' misfortunes. Why should she not ? 
 
 But she began presently to pity him. From the pet, 
 he was fast becoming the scapegoat of the household. 
 Never in her whole history had she found a fellow life 
 in such case, without espousing its cause, and deliberating 
 with careful tact upon unnumbered methods of reconciling 
 it with itself. She could not help going through that 
 course of thought, any more than she could help breath 
 ing. A deliciously sorrowful attraction drew her to the
 
 374 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 sufferer. Ordinarily shy, and reticent with strangers, 
 she here became animated, witty, charming, in unplanned 
 efforts to please. Utterly averse to formal society, she 
 would instinctively exert her powers to the utmost to put 
 herself en rapport with one of its outcasts. It had got to 
 be a by-word with her friends, that Mary McCross was 
 an icicle to a nice person, a nabob ; and a Recamier, a De 
 Stae'l, a Little Dot, to a man with a ticket-of-leave, a 
 woman who had run away from home, or an " Irisher," 
 of any rank, sex, or calling. 
 
 Originally drawn to Charley by this inevitable impulse 
 she soon became attached to him for himself. With her, 
 he developed an entirely new phase of character treated 
 her materially as one would a fragile toy or butterfly ; and 
 spiritually with a humble, touching deference, as if she held 
 the key to something he valued in himself, and only got 
 at through her. Mollie possessed a stable, unobtrusive, 
 sweet dignity, all her own, that was harmonious with her 
 character ; though it sometimes repelled, it defended her 
 from the faults of act or assaults of associates to which 
 her complete forgetfulness of herself in the lives nearest 
 would otherwise have constantly exposed her. It was this 
 which made possible her numerous and warm friendships 
 with what Mrs. Pelican called " out-of-the-way people " 
 in a disparaging tone ; even enabled her to add the pa 
 trician Absalom to the list. 
 
 The relation began on this wise : He was sitting in the 
 parlor, in the usual helpless forlornity of the masculine 
 brotherhood, on a rainy day nothing to plan, nothing 
 to dream over, nothing to do but struggle in the grip- 
 ings of Apollyon blues. Mollie found him reduced to 
 that last refuge of vacuity making cat's cradles by him 
 self. She had some time grieved for him, watched with 
 friendly pain his alternate lapses from excitement and
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 375 
 
 folly to bitter, hopeless remorse, arid back to reckless ill- 
 doing again. His acquaintances were not ashamed or 
 averse to show their contempt for him now; the more 
 correct did not recognize him on the street. She could 
 not bear to have things thus with Peace's brother. This 
 afternoon, very timid, but resolved to comfort, she 
 slipped into a seat in the corner of the sofa, and when he 
 got the thread all arranged, leaned over and took it 
 deftly on her own hands. 
 
 He gave a guilty side-look at this self-elected play 
 mate. She was sitting graceful and dignified, with re 
 laxed muscles perfectly at ease the pink and white 
 thread on her extended fingers her face bright with 
 honest and kind intention. 
 
 He felt it a very simple thing to take back the string 
 in the third position, and found the mountains of misery 
 oppressing his boy's heart diminish as he did so. 
 
 " Hadn't we better be friends ? " said Mollie, resuming 
 the first and original cradle shape, with satisfaction. 
 
 " I thought you hated me," said the man, meekly hid 
 ing his shame face, in side-wise study of the angles of the 
 carpet. 
 
 " I expected to, but you're so miserable I can't," she 
 answered, frank as usual. Charley looked up at her, 
 intending to deny this imputation and assert his perfect 
 nay, brilliant happiness ; but her glance was so pleas 
 ant and steady, and withal so clear, that he gave in di 
 rectly. 
 
 " I may as well own it first as last," confessed he, 
 with a free acting, impetuous impxilse, like Peace. 
 " I know I've done the scurvy thing by Alwood all 
 along, and I wish from the bottom of my soul I hadn't. 
 The fact is, my life has been a horrid mistake from the 
 beginning. His ways made me feel it, though I helped
 
 376 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 to set him as wrong as myself, and went back on him 
 afterward. He never was as bad as I am," said Charley, 
 looking down with wholesome embarrassment. " There 
 was something in him below the upper crust that wouldn't 
 let him be. You and he are just alike, but somehow I feel 
 differently toward you. Perhaps it's because you're ai 
 woman." ' 
 
 Mollie writhed from the sudden wrench at her heart 
 strings, and answered with manifest effort : "I don't 
 blame you ; I understand it all since I've been here. I've 
 seen the Cereus, and the club-house, and all the spots he 
 used to frequent. I have been putting myself in his 
 place. One thing followed another. Louis would say, 
 ' Be friends,' if he was with us ; " whereupon she held 
 out her hand, steady and true as of old, for all its wasted 
 flesh and big, throbbing, blue veins, and they ratified the 
 compact. 
 
 Deserted to each other's mercies that evening, they 
 spent it talking Mollie asking an occasional question, 
 Charley relieving his mind by the first chat he had found 
 a decent companion for in months. Next day they went 
 out shopping together, and looked at pictures in Hazel- 
 tine's gallery. There was a large room filled with conta- 
 diuas and marines, and daisies pied and ragged children, 
 with all kinds of straw baskets, holding a great many 
 varieties of very peculiar fruit ; startling, pale-faced lo's 
 bestowing tangible kisses on intangible Jupiters ; and 
 mild sheep with blue fleece, overshadowed by sky full of 
 woolly clouds, well-curried oxen, and reflective fish-ponds. 
 
 Beyond, in the holy of holies, were pages ; Venus j ust 
 arisen from the Cytherean foam, in her shell drawn by 
 turtle-doves; a couple of crucified Christs ; some creamy- 
 necked Madonnas, backed by gilt glories, and framed un-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 377 
 
 der glass. But in one corner hung a head of Jesus that 
 made Mollie forget everything else. 
 
 The face was oval and narrow ; the shading had long 
 since faded into greenish, the thin nose gave an impres 
 sion of utter flatness from its lack of profile ; the hazel 
 eyes were almost crossed in their intense, pleading, sor 
 rowful gaze ; and yet the picture contained an indefin 
 able something that moved the observer even to tears. 
 Charley stood watching Mollie, a thoroughly bewildered 
 expression on his impulsive Absalom's visage, as she 
 wiped the water from her lashes. The trouble so hope 
 less, and yet so patiently mastered, the hurt look of this 
 friend of sinners, made her own woes yield an answering 
 throb. Such a look Christ must have worn when He 
 searched the multitude, in the judgment hall, for one 
 familiar, loving face, in vain. 
 
 " Do you like it so much ? " asked the young man, 
 astonished. " It is ugly and meek. I don't see anything 
 else in it." 
 
 " No, perfect," said Mollie, earnestly. " I wish it waa 
 mine. It is my exact conception of Jesus." 
 
 Its memory dwelt in her mind all that day, like the 
 light of a star, so steady, gentle, quietly penetrating the 
 darkness. Not even the afternoon's next adventure dis 
 turbed the peace it brought. The evening lamps were 
 lighted before she quitted the gallery, her hand on Char 
 ley's arm. Ten paces from the door, a tall, roughly-clad 
 fellow, with a scarlet silk handkerchief about his neck^ 
 came up, and putting his face almost under Mollie's bon 
 net, wished her good-evening. 
 
 Frightened and annoyed, she clung closer to her com 
 panion, who, however, only led her onward a few steps. 
 " Now you're safe, and I'll go back and settle that," said
 
 378 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 he, and coolly returned, knocked the offender down, and, 
 his mind free, escorted her home without more ado. 
 
 Mollie was shocked at this high-handed chastisement 
 of her enemy; but she told Peace about it, and Peace 
 highly approved, and deliberated upon his reward with 
 sisterly pride a resolve an hundredfold strengthened by 
 the discovery of her friend in adoring contemplation of 
 the Jesus-head which had found its way to the chimney- 
 piece in her room. But the stately caresses tendered 
 Charley by his sister were met with a marvellously ill 
 grace. It was the peculiarity of this pair that they never 
 could meet one another on common ground. Both had 
 moods of intense desire for each other's sympathy, but 
 neither had patience to wait for his mate to fall into his 
 own mood, or to address himself to comprehension of his 
 present mental state. Mollie used inly to compare them 
 to the pith-ball illustrations of an electrical machine, 
 which approach each other but to fly asunder with equal 
 repulsion. 
 
 Francis Haythorne watched the friendship in progress 
 with anything but satisfaction. He respected Mollie, and 
 could not understand how she did right to find any pleas- 
 tire in talking, riding, and walking with a man whom he 
 despised for his irregularities. At the very best, she 
 was belittling his idea of her. She ought to pick up her 
 dainty garments and pass by on the other side. 
 
 A man's notion of a woman is always a clinging vine, 
 his favorite type of the marriage relation a blasted pine- 
 tree, rejuvenated and greened in the mantling embraces 
 of an ivy. He rejects the notion that Baucis and Phile 
 mon became an oak and a linden whose interlaced branches 
 formed one perfect shade. 
 
 "Ostendit ad hue Tyaneius illic 
 In cola de gemino vicinos corpore truncos."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 379 
 
 It is a man's instinct to materialize every knowledge ; 
 but a woman's to idealize every sensation. He learns 
 the world by knocks and bruises against sins and sinners, 
 and she, by setting the tiny gauge of her own guilt-pangs 
 against his faults, and having got the measure, immedi 
 ately enlarging her own. sufferings to fit. A man goes 
 back to his childhood as his ideal of innocence ; but a 
 woman is purified by incessant vicarious pain every day 
 of her life, and regards her first years with a sigh of re 
 gret, perhaps, but seldom fond regret. 
 
 In this way she knows all about him, and he exactly 
 nothing about her. 
 
 He never understands the difference between paradise 
 and heaven for any one but himself. When he hears of 
 mental anguish, he thinks of remorse, not the infinite 
 agony of pity. And because, poor blundering fellow, he 
 loves the woman, he would deliberately take the matter 
 out of God's hands, and lock her up in the garden, quite 
 forgetful that she was the first to taste of the knowledge 
 of good and evil, and so must always find his paradise 
 only a fool's paradise, which to dwell in would be death. 
 
 How false this idea ! that no better thing could be said 
 of a maid than that she had never left her mother's side. 
 It means that life's smallest and greatest temptations are 
 all before her, and every one of her weapons and defences 
 still untried. What worse thing can be said of a girl 
 than that her mother has never dared to trust her beyond 
 sight ? In short, the most subtle delicacy is that which 
 is its own protection ; the truest woman, she whoso first 
 training in life is to centre herself in herself, and then 
 radiate what kindness and familiarity she please from the 
 circumference of the perfect circle drawn about her by 
 self-control, self-knowledge, and a purity resulting, not 
 from ignorance of evil, but patient cultivation of good.
 
 380 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 The world may be dangerous to the happiness of such an 
 one ; but never to her character. Her friendship is as 
 safe to herself, as invaluable to its object ; she makes it 
 a part of her religion. 
 
 But Francis Haythorne being a man of larger theory 
 than experience, could not know this ; and a fresh in 
 stance of Charley's levity still more contributed to his 
 disgust. 
 
 No woman ever yet took the slightest interest in an 
 unmarried man, that she didn't urge him to go to church ; 
 and Peace and Mollie oddly enough fell into this folly at 
 the same time. For you can sometimes improve bin-nt 
 cake by frosting and paring ; but an icing of religion is 
 not leavening the lump ; patience, kindness, day after 
 day's quiet influence, and unconscious stimulating by ex 
 ample, are the human means to that end. And neither 
 the Sybarite nor Absalom were in any condition to go to 
 worship. Peace, however, rejected our theory, and held 
 that in spiritual things boiling goes down, not up ; and 
 set her kettle under the stove, expecting ebullition. 
 
 The family were assembled in the library one Saturday 
 night, when Miss Pelican produced a tiny prayer-book, 
 with covers quarter of an inch thick, clasps, gold-crossed 
 book-mark, and rubric, all nicely printed in its pristine 
 color. " It's a philopcena present from Mr. Haythorne," 
 said she, " and we are going to church to-naorrow to 
 christen it. I think it's so nice to have a church that 
 dates back to the Twelve Apostles, where one can rest on 
 authority, and one, too, so eminently aristocratic." 
 
 Now this was tantamount to throwing a fire-brand 
 among the standing corn, in a family of Presbyterians, 
 Episcopals, and Free-thinkers. Every one set himself 
 firmly on his seat, prepared to maintain his cause or per 
 ish.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 381 
 
 " I can't approve," said her father, drawing up his 
 short, fat legs, and bracing for the struggle, " of any re 
 ligious body that refuses to unite with any other, for 
 Christian work or worship." 
 
 " But you and Mollie are schismatics," retorted 
 Charley, devoutly crossing himself to aggravate Peace. 
 " All schism is sin. Why don't you come over and have 
 a bishop ? " 
 
 " Why don't I have a monkey and a hand-organ ? " re 
 marked his sire, with disgust. 
 
 " Because you've got a poll parrot with a penny whis 
 tle," put in Peace, darting a wrathful look at the incor 
 rigible. 
 
 Mr. Haythorne hereupon found himself in another 
 scene, and began what he supposed, too fondly, to be an 
 imperceptible glide from one chair to another toward the 
 door. Of course Mrs. Pelican arrested his progress, by 
 innocently inquiring if he didn't think written prayer far 
 superior to extemporaneous. 
 
 " As near as I can make out," laughed Mollie, ee Peace 
 believes in a basket let down from heaven on a string of 
 apostles, and scoops up whom she may ; whereas her 
 father erects an edifice over the pit, and hopes to ascend 
 its winding steps of doctrine to bliss." 
 
 " I don't want any chuckle-headed fellow to prejudice the 
 Deity against me, by his canting whines," was his instant 
 reply. " My father was cheated by a Presbyterian dea 
 con once, and I despise the whole brood." 
 
 " But you forget the force of the expression, * Lead us 
 in Prayer,' " said Mollie, reddening a little, for she still 
 loved the forms of a church whose received extreme 
 tenets she had long since left behind. " The speaker is 
 the audible voice of the congregation. If you do not 
 choose to join what the Methodist brothers call the
 
 382 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Amen Corner, you can offer your own petitions mental- 
 ly." 
 
 " I prefer the regular service," answered Mr. Hay- 
 thorne, shaking his head. " It is refined, and in abso 
 lutely perfect English, and taste." 
 
 " At least you like the system of Church letters," skir 
 mished Mr. Pelican, the normal state of aggression on the 
 part of the dissenters, and stately scorn among the gene 
 alogy elevated sect, being nicely preserved in these never- 
 ending squabbles. " A young man goes away from home 
 is a member of the church takes his certificate and 
 is thereby provided with companions and perhaps work." 
 
 " I don't think much of letters of introduction," quoth 
 Mr. Haythorne, loftily. The Sybarite was a sceptic in 
 pleasure excursions into metaphysics, but could not contra 
 dict his inborn love of refined, elegant, and a^sthetical ob 
 servances, if one was to observe religiously at all. " How 
 do you know but designing persons might forge them ? 
 I had plenty of recommendations to officials in Europe, 
 but I wouldn't use one." 
 
 A burst of laughter greeted this word of wisdom ; and 
 Peace turned to Mollie, saying, " I suppose you will 
 hardly care to attend the same ministration that I do, 
 to-morrow. The forms are scrupulously carried out, and 
 I know how you dislike ritualism." 
 
 " Very true," acknowledged Mollie, composedly. " I do 
 abhor any one that sets himself up in piety on an ances 
 try, but I bought a prayer-book myself, yesterday, and 
 Charley and I are going to stay to communion." 
 
 His sister made a wry face. " He'll be just Presby 
 terian enough to sit through the Glorias, and stand in 
 the prayers," cried she ; " but never mind, try it if you 
 like." 
 
 Charley made a slight facial contortion in reply to this.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 383 
 
 " Did you say you had a cold and your nose was all 
 stopped," said he, feelingly. 
 
 " Yes," said Peace, a little remorseful. 
 
 " Your tongue I suppose nothing could stop that," 
 in a still more concerned tone. 
 
 The young lady found the laugh against her, and be 
 ing " touchy," in view of the family contempt for her 
 victory in Francis Haythorne's religious training, retired 
 soon after in gloom. 
 
 " There ! I've snubbed Charley," said she, repentantly. 
 
 " Well," answered Mollie, who was darning stockings 
 in her friend's room, absent-minded as usual. 
 
 " But that's not the worst : I've snubbed father too, 
 and I must go and make it right." 
 
 " Is it all fixed ? " asked her friend, seeing her return 
 radiant after a short absence. 
 
 Peace nodded, and replaced her scarlet morocco purse 
 in her pocket. 
 
 " What did you say," inquired Mollie, curious to know 
 how Lady Lofty would effect an apology. 
 
 " I asked him for fifty cents." 
 
 " .Quern deus vult perdere prius dementat," might 
 have been set down after the indignity Peace had offered 
 her brother. 
 
 Next morning, Charley presented himself at Mollie's 
 door, elegantly gotten up, with a view to accompanying 
 her to worship. 
 
 The ringing bells and smiling day invited forth, and 
 his companion was too deeply mindful of her recent study 
 upon the preparation for confession, and the psalms, to 
 mark the wicked look on his face, or the big horse-shoe 
 magnet carried in a pious attitude under his arm. 
 
 The seat in church proved a matter for no small 
 manoeuvring ; the young gentleman utterly refusing to
 
 384: SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 let Mollie pass in decorously with Peace, but thrusting 
 her with himself into the pew behind, after an ominous 
 glare at the occupying strangers. 
 
 Peace who was very devout, rose from her knees, and 
 disposed herself in a posture to give fixed attention to 
 the epistles and gospels. Then Mollie, sitting too far off 
 to help, was horrified to perceive her escort produce his 
 instrument, and applying it gently to the back of his sis 
 ter's head, draw forth, in triumph, an adhesive hair 
 pin. 
 
 Off came the curl that imparted such a graceful air to 
 the neck, and the appendage was joyfully jammed into 
 Charley's pocket, while the sufferer looked behind her 
 uneasily. 
 
 " The glory of a woman is her long hair," read the 
 minister, just as Charley tackled an enormous bit of 
 iron that secured the whole coiffure. Up to this time 
 all came easily from the loose twists of Peace's handsome 
 tresses, but the one in hand resisted. The lady gave her 
 head an impatient toss, but the magnet wouldn't let go. 
 Charley determined to make or break gave a fearful 
 pull that brought the tears to her eyes, and the whole 
 rippling abundance over her shoulders, while her jaunty 
 hat, deprived of its natural support, tilted over her nose, 
 and, after a futile clinging of perhaps a second, dropped 
 into her lap. Mrs. Grundy saw the catastrophe, and 
 Peace found her misery complete. She would fain have 
 concealed her tears of vexation in a handkerchief so fine 
 they leaked through ; but Charley's vengeance was not yet 
 satisfied. The last tune was given out " Portugal ; " 
 the congregation were to join. Now it was Mr. Hay- 
 thorne's turn to shudder. His tormentor was a basso 
 profundo, and he dreaded, not without cause, for Mr. 
 Pelican was by no means backward in such preparations
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 385 
 
 as unbuttoning his vest, coughing preparatory, and ex 
 panding to the full his well-developed chest. 
 
 The organist gave the signal, the quartette piped up, 
 the congregation joined like the guests at the Irishman's 
 wedding, who came one in a gang, two in a gang, and 
 three by themselves, when suddenly Charley led in with 
 a harmonic burst that shook the quavering soprano 
 into fragments. And from that moment, organ, choir, 
 people, priests all faded away into that one central 
 figure head thrown back, foot keeping time, hands 
 clenched, eyes devoutly rolled, Charley Pelican singing 
 " Portugal." 
 
 If Francis Haythorne's horror needed a finishing touch, 
 this gave it ; and he lost no time in taking Mollie aside, 
 and warning her not to associate with a young man whose 
 reputation was so confirmed for recklessness and folly. 
 
 He came in an unfortunate hour. Miss McCross rose 
 from the piano, at which she had been accompanying the 
 scapegrace in an extravaganza upon the " Oysterman " 
 where the pathetic acting was perfectly laughable ; 
 coupled with a lesson in " Johnnie Smoker " equally amus 
 ing, and still red-cheeked and smiling, followed the re 
 monstrating friend into the parlor, seated herself 
 obediently, and prepared to give close attention to any 
 thing he might have to impart. 
 
 His conscience told him the task was ungracious, but 
 what man can resist the opportunity to enact the harm 
 less parental toward a charming woman. Without exactly 
 analyzing the thought, the young physician had an idea 
 of pleasant, steady eyes raised to his, dewy with grati 
 tude, and a murmured " Thanks ! how foolish I have 
 been ! What have you saved me from ? Be my brother 
 always," which should swell the aforesaid paternal interest 
 17
 
 386 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 into delightful self-approval, and sense of difficult duty 
 performed. He accordingly waded in with boldness. 
 
 He referred to his respect for her, his long acquaintance ; 
 in short, her unprotected position and guileless nature 
 animated him to his friendly task. Forgive him, but if 
 she allowed herself such unrestricted intercourse with 
 young Pelican, people would talk. 
 
 Mollie's face during this little adjuration formed a 
 study of discomfort, but it cleared as he proceeded, and 
 when he finished, she asked with inimitable naivete : 
 
 What will they say ? " 
 
 Mr. Haythorne was cornered. In lieu of meek sub 
 mission to the masculine judgment, she demanded ex 
 planations. He wished he'd held his tongue, and re 
 marked with freezing dignity, that no other young lady 
 of his acquaintance would have entangled herself in so 
 disadvantageous a connection, and he permitted his soul 
 to hope she would dissolve it at once. 
 
 " You think, then, that I am not fit to be a friend to a 
 man in involved circumstances ? " asked Mollie, her inno 
 cent face precluding the belief that she comprehended 
 his position. " Thanks for your good opinion." 
 
 " I mean that a young lady has no right to any acquaint 
 ance except under her mother's immediate supervision," 
 he exclaimed, thoroughly irritated, " and you prove it." 
 
 Miss McCross laughed softly. His sense of politeness 
 rose against him, he retracted, and became more enraged 
 every instant. The young lady was not a whit out of 
 countenance. 
 
 " Admitting, then, that being a woman grown I have 
 some shadow of guiding principle," said she in her calm, 
 matter-of-fact way, "how am I to account to God for the 
 friendship and respect with which he has inspired Mr. 
 Pelican for me ? "
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 337 
 
 Perplexed by this view, the gentleman suggested that 
 he should think she ought to be smart enough to manage 
 that herself. 
 
 " When I see Louis, how am I to explain my forget- 
 fulness to do good to the one man who repented wronging 
 him." 
 
 Mr. Haythorne said he didn't know ; he was thinking 
 about her reputation. 
 
 " Do you mean to say any one will attack my truth, 
 my purity, or my faith to my lover, if I simply persist in 
 rendering common kindness to a suffering man ? " 
 
 " No, he didn't want to say he meant exactly that." 
 
 " But you think so," responded Mollie, quietly. " You 
 have lived more years than I. Francis Haythorne, you 
 have drifted easily down the current of a man's pleasantest 
 experiences, but I have come face to face with life's 
 realities. Forgive me if I, too, tell my opinion. Repu 
 tation in the slanderous tongue of gossip is not to be 
 made the light-house by which an honest-purposed man 
 can shape his course. It is not the light that will 
 illuminate his success. If one will be true to principle, 
 true to Christianity, he must not think of himself, must 
 be satisfied to be, and let ' they say ' prove what it will.'' 
 She was in earnest, spoke out of her heart, full of the 
 lesson her lover's pain had taught her, and the suffering 
 whereby she learned it was still sharp. But the Sybarite 
 could not understand ; she saw that she was not compre 
 hended, and condensed her answer. " In short, as long as 
 Peace's brother honors me by his liking I shall do my 
 best to be worthy of it, by promoting his happiness to the 
 extent of my ability." 
 
 Mollie only meant to explain her position thoroughly, 
 but her would-be protector rose stiffly, and said that he'd 
 tried to do the kind thing, and should wash his hands of
 
 388 SHIFTLESS FOLKS, 
 
 the whole business. Something about his self-satisfied 
 disapproval suddenly fired the young lady's wrath, and 
 she rejoined in a good deal of heat, "Quite a needless 
 operation, Francis Haythorne. Those soft fingers have 
 never been soiled in helping a single human being from 
 the slough, be he never so wretched ; and let me tell you 
 that to pass by continually on the other side, as is your 
 way, will do for Levites and priests, perhaps, but is dis 
 grace to a gentleman." 
 
 As Mr. Haythorne qiiitted the room thoroughly dis 
 comfited, and Charley, ensconced behind a window-curtain, 
 had heard this whole interview, what more natural than 
 for him to emerge thence all impulse, and, urged by 
 shame and anger, pour out his woes to his declared friend. 
 
 " I haven't been drunk but twice since you've been 
 here," said he, " and I shouldn't ever have turned out so, 
 if father hadn't kept a horse-whip for me down cellar, 
 and mother a hiding-place up garret, when she thought I'd 
 get it. It isn't good for a fellow to be see-sawed that 
 way," with a sudden laugh in the midst of his misery ; " I 
 know my reputation isn't good ; it ought not to be." 
 
 " It might be bettered," suggested Mollie. 
 
 l< But I don't love to behave," cried Charley energeti 
 cally. " Be good and you will be happy, but you'll have 
 an awful stupid time." 
 
 Mollie didn't answer, only looked down. 
 
 Her silence made Charley uneasy. " Did Haythorne 
 surprise you to-night ? " asked he. 
 
 " No," very unwillingly. 
 
 " Did you suppose it would cost you so much to make 
 friends with me ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Then it does cost ? " said Charley, half in interroga 
 tion, half regret.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 389 
 
 "Yes," said Mollie, frankly, "it costs, but I'm 
 willing." 
 
 He sprang to his feet and walked impetuously up and 
 down the room. 
 
 Mollie sat quite still, and prayed for him in her heart. 
 
 " Why are you satisfied ? " said he, throwing himself on 
 the carpet beside her. 
 
 " Because I'm a Christian, and love Louis." This time 
 the answer came with a struggle. It is hard to unveil 
 our precious things to eyes that are alien. Mollie under 
 went a conflict with herself nowadays, whenever she 
 named her affianced, and hating cant above all things 
 except to her Sunday-school scholars, she seldom men 
 tioned her religious emotions at all. 
 
 Charley caught up the reply, and began a second race 
 through the parlor. Pretty soon he came back, panting. 
 
 " No woman shall ever get a chance to bear this for me 
 twice," cried he. " If I don't turn over a new leaf this 
 minute, you needn't ever go down Main Street with me 
 again. I promise swear anything you like. But you 
 mustn't let Peace, or that doubled rose-leaf Haythorne, 
 know, or I shan't have courage to keep resolution." De 
 lighted with himself, he hereupon walked the elephant all 
 round by the wall, and stood on his head, and looked at 
 the acquiescent holder of his good resolves from between 
 his knees. 
 
 Mollie went to bed happy that night, as who would not. 
 But her feelings were destined to receive a slight check 
 the very next day, when Peace took her favoi-ite walk, 
 past the bronze statue of Liberty. A pointing, snicker 
 ing crowd had gathered thereabout, and no wonder ! 
 As soon as the girls came near enough to see, they 
 found it adorned with a vast and magnificent bustle of 
 newspapers ; and Charley sitting complacently in the office
 
 390 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 opposite, watching the effect of his handiwork, and Fran 
 cis Haythorne, pale with fury, in the act of being dis 
 persed by a policeman, who thought he did it. 
 
 But for all this, the promise was kept, and Charley had 
 a hard time, and so did Mollie. 
 
 Nursing that mercurial spirit back to hope, was no easy 
 task of itself ; but it entailed a host of outside troubles. 
 
 Mollie was separately warned by all her acquaintance, 
 beginning with Miss Petingil, and, in the midst of the 
 gossip and censure that every one felt it right to bring to 
 her ears, she scarcely knew whether the tie that bound 
 her to the reprobate was indelicate self-will, or solemn 
 duty. Her griefs, forced upon her from without, had not 
 a tithe of the stinging, maddening, soul exasperation 
 brought by her pride and self-satisfaction, continually 
 wounded through uncomprehending comment and rebuke. 
 A thousand times she turned the key upon self and her 
 troubles, half resolved to fly the struggle ; but as surely, 
 the fact that, respectable or the reverse, Charley was try 
 ing his best, and depended on her, made her duty plain. 
 Then she would pray, remember Louis and his greater 
 siiffering, and peaceful and strong in sense of integrity, 
 go down stairs to endure and conquer. 
 
 She used to walk and ride with her care, when it 
 seemed that every curious, doubtful glance bestowed on 
 them was a brand laid on her soul ; and she was thankful 
 when her acquaintance crossed the street to avoid meet 
 ing her, the righteous disapproval in their faces made her 
 so wretched. 
 
 And all this happened, not because Charley was vicious 
 or criminal other men did far worse than he every day 
 of their lives but simply because his follies were, little 
 and big, all done in the face and eyes of society, in 
 regardless opposition to its usages. And society frowned,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 391 
 
 not because its morals were shocked, but because its hypo 
 crisies were forgotten. 
 
 How much the origin of all this saw of his friend's dis 
 comfort, he never told ; but the fact was he knew the 
 whole, and the sense that she was willing to suffer for 
 him was the gate that shut the old life out behind him, 
 and as truly the one source of courage to go on with the 
 new. 
 
 As long as a man stands face down-hill, he finds com 
 panionship in plenty, at every stage of descent. But let 
 him turn to climb back, and neither blood nor religion 
 give anything but kicks. Charley used to come home 
 frantic with the slights and insults he received, and rush 
 away to escape the annoyances that awaited him there. 
 The anxious, silent review his mother gave him at 
 every entrance ; the matter-of-course counting out in 
 case of responsibility, by his father; Peace's invar 
 iable expectation of his wrong-doing where wrong-do 
 ing was possible ; her lover's gentlemanly toleration of 
 him were all merited, but none the less blows to the timid 
 and sensitive self-respect just beginning to spring out of 
 a new purpose of right living. The very guests at the 
 house would compliment Peace, be suave to Mollie, fawn 
 on the rich proprietor, admire Mr. Haythorne, and, with 
 bland purpose, forget Absalom's very existence. 
 
 It seemed to Mollie that the whole structure of society 
 was arranged to prevent a bad man's ever returning to good 
 behavior. Charley didn't talk much of his troubles, but 
 he'd sit brooding over them hour after hour, his handsome 
 face gray with misery ; and she was forever on the rack, 
 lest in a moment of despair he'd give way to some piece of 
 folly, and roll down to the bottom of the Hill of Difficulty 
 without ado. At such times she used to bring her guitar, 
 and sing softly. It did no good to talk. Her old-fash-
 
 392 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 ioned ballads, rendered with the perfect simplicity of feel 
 ing ; her few quaint hymns, sung as if to please herself, 
 not her hearer, were a better, because more matter-of- 
 course, mode of consolation. 
 
 She used to begin with " Robin Grey," and then give 
 the " Rainy Day," and then " Kathleen O'Moore," or 
 " Captain O'Kane." By that time he'd be ready to have 
 her say, " Never mind, Charley; just keep on, and it'll all 
 come right," which was at once prophecy, advice, and 
 prayer. Sunday evenings she held to her custom of go 
 ing off by herself to sing, " When marshalled 011 the 
 Nightly Plain," and " In the Cross of Christ I glory," 
 and dream of Louis, who had loved to render them to 
 her in gone-by days. It often happened that Charley 
 stole thither, lonely and forlorn, to sit in a corner in the 
 dark, unnoticed, and listen ; and Mrs. Pelican came with 
 equal silence to strengthen her soul by the Christian melody. 
 Peace, too, assumed the sofa, and Francis Haythorne 
 drifted without definite purpose to the other end of the 
 same piece of furniture ; and by and by the brisk and 
 portly master of the house would appear, grumbling at the 
 neglectful servants, strike a light, dissolve the spell, and 
 reveal the astonished household to each other, soft-hearted, 
 off their guai'd, and ready to blend into the wholesome 
 family unity, so rudely shattered by misdoing and hurt 
 pride. But in spite of these swelling buds of promise, 
 the waiting time was dreary. Peace, who held far less 
 hope than Mollie, because she had more at stake, and 
 who blamed herself for bringing her guest into so hard a 
 place, was unnaturally mirthful, and belligerent, cross, and 
 exacting by turns. Old Mr. Pelican scolded Charley all 
 the time, because he neglected the business and took no 
 interest. His mother, with her usual quiet pertinacity, 
 resolved to have him make sure of his salvation, and go
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 393 
 
 into Holy Orders which the poor fellow, whose new- 
 sprung principles weren't any longer than cabbage sprouts, 
 couldn't wish to do. Peace also presented him with 
 an armful of nau scons sermons never read by herself 
 and Francis Ilaythorne told her to advise him to culti 
 vate his sense of the aesthetic as a safeguard againt lapses 
 from the ideal beautiful, and lent him Ruskin, and some 
 ti'eatises on art. Half wild among these well-meaning 
 but diverse leadings, their subject had nearly gone under. 
 Mollie fell into a panic lest the strain should be too great, 
 and watched developments with increasing dismay. Just 
 as he was on the point of loathing the honeycomb, she 
 had an enlightening, and insisted that he should take her 
 to Barnum's, Sam Sharpley's Minstrels, and the Man of 
 Airlie. The family, who never hesitated on amusements 
 for themselves, were in high dudgeon at this summary 
 dragging to the slaughter of their recovered lamb. But 
 it acted like soda on a disturbed stomach; and when 
 she found her patient dyeing the poodle purple and yel 
 low, and subsequently hitching a tin dipper to his tail, in 
 a renewed sense of the value of life in the paths of 
 righteousness, she felt that it paid. 
 
 In the midst of all these disturbed waters, Francis 
 Haythorne sailed serene. He was the only let-up in the 
 house. Having freed his mind and swallowed his wrath 
 at the result, he proceeded to oil the family points of fric 
 tion, fended off vexed questions, and made himself com 
 fortable in spite of all. He once or twice hinted to 
 Mollie as obscurely possible some way of helping Charley, 
 taking care at the same time to show that he disapproved 
 utterly of her course. Otherwise, he left her altogether 
 alone, devoting himself to Peace, who sadly needed aid ; 
 and he contrived withal to be imperturbably good-humored 
 and at ease, so that a mere look at him as he strolled 
 17*
 
 394: SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 about the house, elegant and dainty and lazy, in the 
 loveliest of purple velvet lounging caps, the furriest of 
 dressing-gowns, the most beflowered of slippers, a brown 
 nieerschau'm at mouth, and the literary sweets of the day 
 in hand, the piano in dreamy contemplation was re 
 freshing. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 " Chickeny, chickeny, craney-crow, 
 I went to the well to wash my toe, 
 When I came buck my chickens were dead." 
 
 OLLIE didn't lose the affection of Syllabub when 
 she departed for Top Town. Few weeks passed 
 without a letter or visit from some of the little 
 group of friends her gentle kindness had gathered about 
 her. 
 
 One day Peace entered the brown-and-gold bed-room, 
 where her companion was wont to recreate herself with 
 choice volumes of entomological lore, and all manner of 
 curious needle-work. The damsel's eyes were flashing 
 with mirth, and she sank upon a stuffed ottoman in a 
 paroxysm of laughter. 
 
 " Amos Daley is down-stairs, and he's brought you 
 something " here she went off again, " ' something to 
 keep ye from bein' lonely,' and he evidently expects you 
 to bring it right up into your room for a pet." 
 
 " What do you mean, Peace ? " cried Mollie, springing 
 to her feet, pleasure quickening her pulse and breath ; 
 and she nervously smoothed her hair always shining and 
 dainty in arrangement preparatory to descent.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 305 
 
 " Oh, never mind ! you'll find out," answered the 
 cachinnating Juno, becoming apoplectic in her endeavors 
 to obtain composure. " He has mounted guard over it as 
 a soldier would over the stars and stripes. 
 
 " ' Win her with gifts, if she respect not words ; 
 Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind, 
 More quick than words, do move a woman's mind. ' " 
 
 Seeing her friend's emotions grown too strong for further 
 utterance, Mollie sought Amos without delay. 
 
 Seated upon the extreme edge of a scarlet damask chair, 
 his long limbs gathered under him, his hat tightly grasped 
 as if prepared to run at the slightest alarm, our hero's 
 sharp eyes had already photographed on his mind every 
 item of the massive and completely appointed drawing- 
 room. Somewhat embarrassed by the complication of 
 pier-glasses, landscapes by Turner, velvet carpets, carved 
 chairs and contadinas, sported by the Pelicans, the young 
 man advanced, blushing but friendly, and deposited at 
 Mollie's feet a covered basket, from which issued an omin 
 ous " cut-cut " that would not be stifled. " It's a smahl bit 
 of a pet for ye from meself," he explained, with modest 
 confidence. 
 
 " Sit down, please," cried Mary, and drew the enigma 
 toward her. 
 
 " I must be goin'," said Amos, gazing wistfully at the 
 door, but seated himself, notwithstanding, in a bolt-up 
 right attitude, whose intense but persevered in discomfort 
 did credit to his stoicism. 
 
 As Mollie peeped into the wickerware, an immense 
 shanghai rooster suddenly straightened himself, and eyed 
 his astonished recipient with a malevolent glance ; then, 
 coolly stepping to her lap, executed a clarion note that 
 suggested to old Mr. Pelican, dozing off in his afternoon
 
 396 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 nap, a vision of war-painted Blackfeet uttering the fatal 
 whoop, as he had seen them in. his youth, and sent Peace 
 away from the door crack in an audible giggle. 
 
 " How handsome he is! " exclaimed delighted Mollie, 
 to whom any testimony of affection was sacredly precious, 
 and whose valuing of a gift sometimes bore an inverse 
 ratio to its fitness. The pleasure in her face was reflected 
 on Amos' freckled countenance, as he exclaimed proudly : 
 
 " Jest hear him ! I teached him to do that," and en 
 ticed the tall biped to his own knee with a low " Zack- 
 Zack." 
 
 "This is a most majestic vision, and harmonious 
 charmingly. May I be bold to think these spirits ? " said 
 Peace looking in. 
 
 " No, ma'am, it's a chicken," answered Amos, rising 
 to make an angular bow ; " and excuge me say in.' his 
 name's Zack." 
 
 " Can't you have him sing again ? " inquired the young 
 lady, bent on aggravating the shy, proud visitor. " I can 
 suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs." 
 
 " Sure it's small politeness the cock owes the weasel," 
 retorted Amos, " except the weight of his too futs just, 
 which he'll show you ef you meddle with him, I'll be 
 bound. Doppy an' ine got him for you last fall, Miss 
 Mollie ; but he didn't take to no thricks easy, an' you fell 
 sick before we had him larnt. I sez to Mr. Vedder, ' Mr. 
 Jan,' sez I, ' there's a lady in Millville as I tought lots on, 
 cause she'd ben kind to me, an' I wanted to give some 
 thing to, an' them long-legged fellows was a fine sort of 
 fowl ; ' an' ' Amos,' sez he, ' the perty white leghorns is 
 better fur a lady but you're welcome to anything ye see 
 ruunin' around the place,' meanin' the poultry yard, ( the 
 place,' sez he ' at all, at all.' ' But sure it's the biggest 
 I'd give, if any,' thinks I, an' Doppy an' me have brought
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 397 
 
 up the chick from a little feller, and we thought " here 
 Amos glanced sidewise at Peace, who was brimming with 
 mischievous fun, and came to a dead halt. 
 
 " Go on," said she, bestowing a look of studied tender 
 ness on the strutting fowl, " there is much music in his 
 fitful hymn heard in the drowsy watches of the night, I 
 suppose ? " 
 
 The angry blood rushed into the young Irishman's face, 
 and, with one vicious swoop, he pounced on his rooster 
 and started for the door. 
 
 Mollie, whose annoyance at Peace's jokes had been 
 the chief incentive to their progress, was beforehand. 
 Seizing the would-be tormentor by the arms, she forcibly 
 turned her, laughing and resisting, from the room. 
 
 Intent on studying the ways of the big folks, Amos 
 loosed his clutch on the pet, which made the first use of 
 its liberty to fly at Mrs. Pelican, who had come timidly 
 in to view the wonder. Away skipped the old lady, gray 
 curls bobbing, and the red slippers, that caught Zack's 
 fancy, in full display ; Zack himself following with deep 
 shaking wattles and outspread wings, round the parlor 
 and out to the hall, through the parlor again, now fairly 
 cornered, now skipping forth triumphant, the eyes of the 
 fowl red with fury, the lips of his prey white with fear. 
 "O Mollie, Mollie," she gasped, as, fairly penned behind 
 the stairs, she strove to elude her enemy by a series of tre 
 mendous leaps, " would you mind asking the young man to 
 call his chicken away ? I mean no disrespect to the bird 
 but indeed I am a little " here she executed a spring 
 prodigious, " out of practice with poultry." 
 
 " Of coorse," said Amos, concisely. " Bless ye ! he 
 was only playin' wid ye. Me an' Doppy larnt him that 
 Sakes, you hain't see half his thricks. Here, Zack, do 
 the spread-eagle ; bow to your missus." But Zack was
 
 398 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 too much intei-ested in the red slippers, whereupon Amos 
 quietly picked him up and stuffed him into the basket. 
 " There," said he, deeply disgusted. " Doppy told me 
 not to try to show him off in a strange place, cause it's 
 the nature of us chaps to be bashful." 
 
 The awkward, self-conscious Irishman, vainly attempt 
 ing to quench the eager, scarlet-eyed cock in the basket, 
 on one side ; Mrs. Pelican, exhausted and disarranged be 
 yond parallel, in costume on the other ; Peace executing 
 cuts behind the dining-room door, in feeble imitation of 
 her mother's and her own mental perplexity at extricat 
 ing them from the curious complication in good-humor, 
 were too much for Mollie's gravity ; she sat down on the 
 floor to have her laugh out, whereupon dear, gentle Mrs. 
 Pelican, finding her terror temporarily suppressed, came 
 from her hiding-place in the closet, among the brooms and 
 dusters, with a few green and purple feathers rampant 
 among her curls, perhaps as trophies ; but she joined so 
 heartily in the mirth, that Mr. Daley got over his morti 
 fication, and in lieu of instant departure, fowl and all, 
 gave up the biped to the footman's care, with beaming 
 face. 
 
 " Tell me about little Doppy," said Mary, when, their 
 friends disposed of, they were cosily seated in two green 
 easy-chairs in the library. 
 
 A cloud passed over Amos' open countenance. " I don't 
 know," responded he, uneasily. " I hain't see her fur a 
 week." 
 
 " Why not ? " persisted Mollie, suspecting something 
 wrong from his manner. 
 
 " Me an' Doppy ain't friends no longer," responded 
 Amos, tracing out the pattern of fern leaves on the carpet 
 with the toe of his boot. " I hain't nothing to say agin 
 little Doppy. We've stood by each other for years and
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 399 
 
 years ; but she's contrairy beyond anything ever I see, 
 and won't listen to nuthin,' howsomever you put it." 
 
 "What's she done?" cried Mollie, aghast. 
 
 " Me an' Doppy made it up together, an' Doppy left it 
 fur me, she knowin' I like to do anything fur her ; an' 
 when I'd done it, she flies right up an' sez, 'Amos 
 Daley,' sez she, ' it's a mean trick you've ben puttin' on 
 the likes of me,' sez she, ' an' ye needn't be hangin' agin 
 my door-posts, seein' you've served me so,' sez she, ' fur I 
 hate the sight of ye ; an' of coorse I wint." 
 
 "But what did you do that was wrong?" pursued 
 Mollie, rather mystified by this recital. 
 
 " I hain't done nuthin'," insisted Amos, stoutly. " I 
 minded jest what she said, as how Aleck Heffron's sister 
 was lonesome, an' had no partners at the social dances ; 
 and ' Amos,' sez she, ' it's no more'n right ov you to dance 
 wid her an' be polite.' An' I done as she said. When the 
 evenin' was past, seein' Aleck went off with the other 
 young lady he had brought, an' the poor thing had none 
 to see her home, I asked if I mightn't, though I didn't care 
 too much, an' I thought Doppy'd come along widg us. 
 But she wouldn't do no such thing ; an' ran off as fast as 
 she could. She hain't spoke civil sence, though it's most 
 two weeks now." 
 
 His face of sleepless misery, when he concluded this 
 dismal tale, was fairly heart-rending. Now too that the 
 color raised by the excitement of Zack's performances had 
 abated, Mollie noticed how tired and worn he looked. 
 
 "Are you very unhappy ? " she asked by way of a 
 feeler. 
 
 " Yes, I am," he answered earnestly ; " I hain't had 
 the spirit to work or nothin', sence ; I lay awake the hull 
 of last night thinkiu' about it ; you see it ain't the same 
 between me an' Doppy, as it is between other folks.
 
 400 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Doppy an' me has ben friends from the time we was 
 dirty an' swearin' an' miserable. An' I've helped Doppy, 
 an' she's ben good to me, an' I've took care of her in 
 ways her mother might ha done, if so be as she'd had a 
 mother, lookin' after her in the matter of Joe. Though 
 we're respectable, we can't forget how it was when we 
 could call no man's good word ourn, that is, I can't." 
 
 " But you have plenty of other friends now," suggested 
 Mollie, her soul giving ready homage to his faithfulness, 
 but womanlike, wanting to try him further. 
 
 " Not like Doppy," with his whole soul in the denial ; 
 " takiu' 'em all together, they ain't worth her little finger. 
 From the day I shied the kitten at- her, straight out, 
 she's ben moi-e to me, than any other feller in Millville. 
 When she sez, ' Amos, you had orter go to work,' I went 
 to work. She knows all my secrets, an' I know all hers. 
 There isn't a day in the year but what I've see her ; I 
 split wood for her, an' set the glass in her windows, and 
 liked to, and to do lots of things I wouldn't for any one 
 liviu'. An' an' now it's all up ! " Poor Amos choked 
 down a sob. 
 
 " ' If love were what the rose is, 
 And I were like the leaf,' " 
 
 quoted Peace, who rather enjoyed such complications. 
 " The trouble is, that Amos don't know the difference 
 between Daphne and Amyrillis. Is Miss Heffron as 
 handsome as Aleck ? " 
 
 " No, she ain't," positively, and exchanging the expres 
 sion of half-intelligent perplexity, with which he usually 
 followed the ladies' side conversations, for one of certain 
 disgust. " She sets her eyes on a feller as if she wanted 
 to eat him for table sass, an' when you're dancin' with 
 her, she mighty nigh puts her head on your shoulder.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 4Q1 
 
 I've heard Doppy say many a time it warn't no right 
 thing for a girl to do. Doppy, she always carries her 
 self like a queen ; an' though she's a real beauty, no fel 
 ler ever laid a finger on her arm, even. As for the Heffron, 
 I never want to set eyes on her agin, an' I wouldn't then, 
 if it hadn't ben for Doppy." 
 
 " Oh, well, there are better fish in the sea than ever 
 were caught ; get another friend if she's so disagreeable," 
 advised Peace with an eye to possible aggravation. Such 
 feeling in men looked like a myth to the coquette. 
 
 " I don't want no other," cried he passionately ; " I 
 won't have nobody but her. She's the only one I care 
 anything about in Syllabub. I dare trust my life with 
 Doppy, but now she's so mean I hate her." 
 
 " You must have had an encounter when you went for 
 Zack this morning," suggested Mollie, who was pretty 
 well decided to seek an early interview with Miss Mulli 
 gan. 
 
 The remembrance apparently added fresh fuel to the 
 fire. " Yis, I did," cried Amos, clutching his basket vin 
 dictively, " an' small loss if I hadn't. ' Here,' sez she, 
 puttin' her head through the window, ' hadn't ye better 
 carry yer old rid, cluckin', paddy hin, to Miss Mollie? ' 
 an' I tuck it. Now I understand that for an out and 
 out insult," cried Amos, getting on his dignity. " I'll 
 not let her nor nobody else, be it who they may, say to me, 
 as has had the care of Mr. Vedder's fancy poultry for 
 up'ards of two years, that I don't know a fine shanghai 
 with a dash of fighting blood in him, from one of those 
 miserable animiles runnin' around Syllabub ; I'll never 
 forgive her ; I'll never speak to her again not if she 
 stands weepin' afore my eyes for a hundred years." 
 Moved by the pathetic thought of Doppy in tears, Amos 
 looked as if he would gladly have forgiven her then and
 
 402 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 there ; a shudder of terror ran through Mollie's sincere 
 sympathy. She could take a fowl of low degree into her 
 affections. But a game cock ! 
 
 " Will he fight, Amos ? " she asked, bestowing a terrified 
 glance at Peace. 
 
 " Without doubt," interrupted that young lady joy 
 fully ; " Amos would never have brought him at all this 
 trouble, if he couldn't. Howl shall enjoy setting him at 
 Francis Hay thorne ! I haven't been able to think up any 
 thing to plague him, since I let off the alarm clock to flirt 
 with medical students in the next block, and he turned 
 out to have been there and heard it." 
 
 " Dade, an' ye tell the truth," cried Amos, flattered. 
 " With his size, 'n the fightin' blood in him, I'll lay him 
 agin any rooster not trained in all Millville. Why, 
 Doppy an' me had to keep him shut up, on account of 
 him pickin' the eyes out of all the chickens that corned 
 into the yard. If I was you, I wouldn't let him loose 
 when strangers bes around. It's a trick of hisii' to run 
 at old gentlemen, specially if they wear low shoes." 
 
 His listener shuddered, remembering that such was 
 Mr. Pelican's invariable custom. 
 
 " He don't eat more corn than most roosters, an' he is 
 good for one thing to wake you up. Doppy sez he'll 
 never let her sleep after five o'clock in the morning, even 
 in winter, he makes so much noise. I've heard him my 
 self where I live ; that's two blocks off. He's better'n a 
 whistle for that. But what's the use ? Doppy's mad, an' 
 takes on so, I don't care for him, nor nothing else, any 
 longer." 
 
 " Can't you prevail on her to listen to reason, Amos?" 
 
 " No," returned he, sorrowfully, " I don't expect to 
 be friends with her no more. I didn't think it would 
 ever come to this ; but it has so Well," said he, get-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 4Q3 
 
 ting up and grabbing his cap, " I may's well be goin'. 
 You wouldn't do nutbin' about it, would you ? I allus 
 thought lots of Doppy, but the style she's ben goin' on 
 these two weeks is awful, lookin' the other way when 
 you meet her, an' callin' you a hypocrite, an' then sayin' 
 that about Zack : it's too much to stand ! " 
 
 " She only did it to plague." 
 
 " More shame to her," he answered. " She had a 
 right to know different by now. When she'll want to 
 hurt a feller as has never gone back on her, she's got a 
 bad heart. Now she's respectable, she thinks she can't 
 do better than rid her of a great awkward lout, as was 
 friends with her afore, an' it's a new boy, with a beaver hat 
 an' cane, that sings a rowdy song out of tune, she's takin' 
 up with. Good-by, Zack ; I don't want to stay in Mill- 
 ville, nor nowhere near. Good-by, miss." 
 
 Poor Amos ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 " Had a little Hobby-Horse, 
 His name was Dapple Grey, 
 His head was made of pea-straw, 
 His tail was made of hay. " 
 
 OME," said Mr. Pelican, senior ; " come, Mollie 
 and Peace. Let's all go and hear Wendell 
 Phillips to-night. He is to talk on ' Temper 
 ance, Labor, and Women.' The Temperance Society- 
 Good Samaritans bring him here, and I've bought 
 course tickets to help them along." So the rich liquor- 
 dealer's family, with Mr. Haythorne in close attendance,
 
 404 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 in due time settled themselves into the most prominent 
 seats in the hall, and addressed their minds to a charac 
 teristic talk from the veteran agitator. 
 
 Quiet a fine-cut gentleman absorbed so much in the 
 grandeur of his subject as to identify himself with it, the 
 very simplicity of his silver tongue carried conviction to 
 his audience. Old Mr. Pelican writhed under the stabs 
 of a huge pin Peace brought with her as a punctuation 
 point ; and Francis Haythorne sniffed in all the critical 
 parts, but his sniffs were those of a man convinced 
 against his will. The orator spoke of the home, not as 
 a spot to be brutalized by coarse influx of masculine 
 error, but as a heavenly centre, whence light should 
 issue to all the world ; the temple of the Lord, from 
 beneath whose threshold shall flow the waters of healing 
 and purification. The family, he said, was God's type of 
 government, and should be carried out. It was not 
 because women were good that they should vote; but 
 because God made man and woman one flesh, and in 
 their every separation we possess but half a thing ; and 
 so a maimed politics, maimed religion, maimed civiliza 
 tion. 
 
 Mollie sat perfectly quiet, weighing, and feeding off 
 eveiy word. We often go on living for long months, 
 witli every day, as it seems to us, just like every other 
 day ; and then suddenly some half hour's talk, some 
 book, some well-sung opera, some sermon, some chance 
 word, sets fire to the trains thus unconsciously laid, and 
 we experience a mental explosion, and are never the 
 same to ourselves again. Thus it happened with her. 
 Years of work in Patience of Hope, unwittingly doing 
 just what men say women cannot do; years of agony 
 for one and another friend snared in the pitfalls of life, 
 about which, women, they say, can possibly know nothing;
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 4Q5 
 
 years of patient reading on all the questions that perplex 
 political economists ; years of self-dissatisfaction, because, 
 in all these things that she cared for, she could have no 
 part, for she was " only a girl " ; and now the door was 
 all at once opened, and she stood outside of tradition, 
 and knew that what God put in her to love, God set her 
 to do. In the joyful new consciousness of her birth 
 right, she felt her eyes again and again fill with tears. 
 Her heart throbbed with7- longing to find her clew, and 
 begin at once the work for which she had thirsted so 
 long. Just then she was startled at seeing Charley drag 
 his immense silk-handkerchief ostentatiously from his 
 pocket, and duck his head as if to sneeze. 
 
 Now if they had walked through the snow instead of 
 riding in state; or if the audience had been rough, and 
 smelled of beer and dish-water, rather than ylang-ylang 
 and bouquet ; or if the atmosphere had been chilly, not 
 tempered to the utmost nicety of steam horizontal pipe- 
 heating it might have been necessary to sneeze ; but 
 under the circumstances it struck her as singularly out 
 of taste. 
 
 " I'm some on sternutation," whispered he confiden 
 tially. 
 
 " O Charley, don't ! " she implored, catching hold of 
 him, " for pity's sake don't." 
 
 This attracted Peace's attention. " Have the kindness 
 to behave yourself if you know how," said she, sharply. 
 
 " I wish I hadn't come," complained Francis Hay- 
 thorne, miserably sure that something wicked had called 
 up the innocent expression adorning the face of the 
 handsome scapegrace. 
 
 Charley overheard, and catching the gentleman's anx 
 ious eye, laid his finger under his nose in marked attempt 
 at suppressing the intruder alas ! without avail. Out
 
 406 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 it came; not one, but two, three, four, each like a 
 thunder clap the sufferer bowing himself to the work, 
 and apparently feeling intense mortification. 
 
 If there was anything Mrs. Pelican feared, it was 
 taking cold. She said it always located in the back of her 
 neck, and inj ured her comfort for weeks ; and she whis 
 pered to Peace that she knew she felt a draft on her 
 left cheek, and immediately began coughing and sneezing 
 herself, each effort being extremely violent, and the 
 accompanying noise ludicrously small. 
 
 Aroused by these demonstrations, a woman in the seat 
 behind observed that if she had supposed the night so 
 damp she should not have brought Freddy a delicate- 
 looking child with black circles around its eyes and 
 soon after, becoming alarmed, she rose and left with him, 
 he holding back and wailing feebly the whole way out. 
 
 This was the signal for the audience to commence 
 shivering and coughing, led off by a little black-and-tan 
 terrier dog, who emerged from concealment under the 
 petticoats of two extremely pretty girls. The young 
 ladies looked daggers at our party, and the orator, who 
 could not avoid noticing the disturbance, finally became 
 a victim to the epidemic, and sniffed in concert. 
 
 Meanwhile, the originator of the trouble sat serenely 
 chuckling, till a forbidding person in black the exact 
 illustration of the popular notion of woman's rights 
 turned round, and offered him three nicked pepper loz 
 enges, with the sour remark that they were good for 
 gripes in the throat ; whereupon, after a parting effort, 
 Charley enveloped his face in his handkerchief, and went 
 humbly down to the billiard-room below. . . . 
 
 In spite of this little episode, Mollie and the house 
 hold kept the run of the argument in the charming talk,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 407 
 
 and even Mrs. Pelican resumed her furs, and sat melted 
 as in a furnace for the pleasure of hearing the whole. 
 
 After the lecture the party went behind the scenes, and 
 were introduced to Silver Tongue, whom they found sur 
 rounded by a bevy of admirers. 
 
 " I never wanted to vote before, but now I do," said 
 Mrs. Pelican, the omnipotent Grundy forgotten in enthu 
 siasm. 
 
 " Haw! haw! haw! " snorted an individual fresh from 
 the Cereus' hospitable doors, with added sense of the 
 weight of the masculine dignity as manifested by diffi 
 culty in keeping its lodging house off from the floor. 
 " I s'pose you'll ave-to angels oughth do er (hie) do 
 as they pleash." Charley's eyes were fixed on Mr. Giz 
 zard, with an expression too ominous for even his befud 
 dled brains to ignore, and Francis Haythorne carried 
 Peace off directly. 
 
 " I don't know as I'm right," said Mr. Phillips, care 
 ful and gentle in assisting Mrs. Pelican down the slippery 
 stairs ; then pausing a moment in the street to finish his 
 sentence " I may not be, but it will set you thinking." 
 
 Is there any better mission in this world than to set 
 people's minds at work ? No doubt but what he'd ac 
 complished it here. That night the dispute waxed hot in 
 the family mansion the gentlemen making common 
 cause against their indefatigable adversaries, old Mr. 
 Pelican intrenching himself in the high ground of conju 
 gal obedience, and his wife pursuing a kind of feminine 
 buccaneerism, wherein she demolished whichever side she 
 found open to attack. 
 
 They began very grandly, Francis Haythorne remark 
 ing that it was folly to talk about things so exactly con 
 trary to the process of nature. Men came to maturity 
 five years later than women, and lived that much longer.
 
 408 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 Supposing, then, that they kept up with each other till 
 the feminine possibilities of growth were exhausted in 
 that added golden five years, the male mind would incon- 
 testably prove its superiority. 
 
 Mollie asked, dryly, when that invahiable period began. 
 
 "When the young lady leaves school, she stops grow 
 ing," said her antagonist. 
 
 " That's the very time when she makes first acquaint 
 ance with young men," said Peace, pointedly. 
 
 " Then boys are sowing their wild oats ; they begin to 
 improve again by and by," retorted Charley, drawing on 
 experience. " Who ever heard of a woman's improving? " 
 
 " You mean that as long as they are under the same 
 circumstances they do the same thing, and that altering 
 the conditions, the results differ," put in Mollie. 
 
 " Why should women want to don breeks and leave 
 the humble sphere where God placed them ? Now, when 
 ladies run the country post-offices, the men can do 
 nothing but lounge in liquor dens and be ruined," said 
 Mr. Haythorne. " It impoverishes the country." 
 
 " Poor things," retorted Peace, sneeringly, " why don't 
 they leave their natural sphere and go to work, driving 
 engines and doing the hard labor they were made for. 
 The fact is, they accuse women of being quite inefficient 
 in order that they may take their places, and be as nearly 
 so themselves as bread and butter getting will admit." 
 
 " How absurd for a male political economist to talk 
 about reducing the number of unproductive consumers, 
 and making all producers, rendering a people poor ! " 
 remarked Mollie. 
 
 " You wouldn't vote, would you ? " said Mr. Pelican, 
 surveying her with parental anxiety. 
 
 " Yes, indeed she will," interfered Peace, forced out 
 of her inborn conservatism by inward fret. " If women
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 409 
 
 would only listen to the stump speeches, their perpetra 
 tors wouldn't have to be held upon the balcony by their 
 coat tails, too drunk to stand alone ; nor would courts of 
 justice be such ill-spoken holes, if women were there." 
 
 " Hush," said Charley, " let Mollie speak." 
 
 " Do you want to know ? " said she, quietly. " If the 
 time ever comes when I can go as a woman with papa, 
 and vote for them that have rule over me, I shall be very 
 glad ; and I am even disposed to push the matter a little, 
 and clamor for room to exercise that duty." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said the young man, disappointed ; and then, 
 noticing the rising color in Mollie's face, " I mean I 
 hoped" 
 
 " You needn't say," interrupted his mother ; " you 
 know very well how angry you were when I heard how 
 you kept open shop last election, and I haven't forgotten 
 that Peace cried all night because three of Mollie's Sun 
 day-school scholars went to that horrible jail, every one 
 drunk on your liquor, served out at the corner grocery. 
 Now if you'd known Mollie'd be on hand you wouldn't 
 have done it." 
 
 " What do you want to accomplish, Mollie ? Haven't 
 you rights enough? " asked Mr. Pelican. 
 
 " I want to have the world's permission to follow out 
 the instincts toward labor I feel in myself. I want to 
 work for my race." 
 
 " You'll never get that to do anything," said Peace, bit 
 terly ; " nobody has a right to do an act not stereotyped, 
 till after it has been successfully accomplished, and after 
 that one is not allowed to stop. I have no element of suc 
 cess," she added, restless and self-depreciating as always. 
 
 " It is absurd to think we study, investigate, or create 
 for the world," said Francis Haythorne. "At best we 
 labor for the trifling coterie whose proximity is immedi- 
 18
 
 410 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 ate, and whose tastes run with our own. To every one 
 else our work, if known at all, is foolishness ; and our 
 beacon-light a bubble of marsh gas." 
 
 " It's a stumbling-blodk to the Jews, too, isn't it ? " sug 
 gested Mollie. 
 
 " That's why you refrain from embarking in any, I 
 suppose," said Charley, pseudo thoughtfully ; " heretofore 
 my principle has been the same." 
 
 " Well," exclaimed Mr. Haythorne, out of temper, 
 " I hope there'll be some place left to men, where 
 women won't come tagging after them, a perfect nuisance 
 everywhere a restraint." 
 
 " Go on," cried Peace, scintillating with delight at his 
 discomfiture, " go on ; you want one spot at least where 
 you can be as indecorous as you like." 
 
 " I do," retorted he. " I think it's a shame women 
 will be in every dish. Men don't want to be compelled 
 into eternal effeminacy by their presence ; made so 
 pure and sweet, they are good enough to sit in the parlor 
 all the time." 
 
 " That's true," agreed Mr. Pelican. " Men must be 
 men ; they've a right to be." 
 
 " Do you propose to carry your smoking-car and elec 
 tioneering habits into heaven, as the essence of the mas 
 culine prerogative?" asked Peace, looking provokingly 
 beautiful. " I supposed a gentleman to be a gentleman 
 everywhere. A new light breaks on me when I find the 
 germs of your superior strength, intellect and manhood 
 in the dirty talk, gambling, and drinking in which you 
 admit you indulge, as a class, in your chosen retreats." 
 
 " I don't admit it ! I never do an ungentlemanly 
 thing anywhere ; but I don't want it fixed so I can't if I 
 like ; " this in increasing heat. 
 
 " I wonder," put in Mollie, " if Christ, whose superior-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 41 1 
 
 ity I am content to acknowledge, would have been the 
 prime favorite of political suppers, clubs and bar-rooms. 
 I supposed the truest man was the most like Him. If the 
 sexes are of so different a nature I am perplexed that He 
 didn't live twice, once for our pattern, once for yours." 
 
 " Pretty opinions for a church member, Mr. Pelican," 
 said his wife, taking off her glasses and wiping them, the 
 better to look him out of countenance. 
 
 " No such thing," he returned ; " what women think in 
 delicate isn't. Women's standards and men's differ." 
 
 " Mine is John the Baptist," remarked Peace. " I 
 don't call to mind any of his acquaintance who objected to 
 his ideas, except Herod." 
 
 Mollie interrupted a retort to this piece of insolence by 
 saying, haughtily, " You are much mistaken, Mr. Pelican, 
 if you think I or any true woman would wish to thrust 
 herself unbidden into your company. We have a right 
 to follow to perfection any gift God has endowed us with, 
 and if He don't give us any talents for your favorite pro 
 fessions, then we have no right there. As for hard work, 
 no one has ever denied woman that. If anything more 
 fatiguing than washing, and house cleaning, and cooking 
 can be invented, mention it. It is not harder to tend engine 
 than kitchen range, or to run a telegraph machine than 
 to polish windows, or to keep books than to carry on a 
 laundry. I never heard that women desired to be con 
 ductors of cars, or sailors, or soldiers, or even artisans in 
 metals and heavy manufactures. That they are already 
 represented in every possible employment, has been the 
 unnoticed result of agitation ; and let the men produce 
 something else and give us two sources of wealth in 
 stead of one. No ! you are angry that genteel employ 
 ment is now pronounced feminine, and your soft woman 
 ish muscles must ache in your necessitated use of your
 
 412 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 vaunted strength. For the rest woman should be sought, 
 not seeking (" Long Branch and Saratoga," interpolated 
 Charley,) " in matters of society ; and if there is a differ 
 ence of necessity in the moral elevation of the sexes, clergy 
 men's seminaries, medical schools, courts of justice, and 
 the elections of our rulers, are not places to give play to 
 those passions which all condemn, however they may yield 
 to them. These are sacred spots, and to confess your 
 selves sinners against right, is only acknowledging in 
 capacity." She rose and swept away, earnest, and bat 
 tling inwardly with her theme. The party broke up at 
 her exit, to unite next day at precisely the point of sep 
 aration. 
 
 The breakfast-table is the axle about which every well- 
 regulated family revolves. There it is that the doings of 
 yesterday and the labors of to-day are brought under dis 
 cussion. The family life is concentrated about its tea-pots 
 and coffee-urns. Mines as sprung from behind its toast 
 racks. Calamities are first made tangible and blessings 
 appreciated in the household reveille it sounds. 
 
 This must be our apology for making mention of so 
 common an episode as eating, with such frequency. It 
 seems to me that if the story-teller should attempt to give 
 his adventures unconnected with this natural rallying 
 point, his hero would inevitably be a Monte Christo or 
 Jack Shepherd, and his heroine a Mathilde or Becky 
 Sharp. 
 
 It was at the breakfast-table, then, that Charley pro 
 pounded a question which he stated as the " Elevation 
 of women and niggers," a possibility which his father 
 denied so vehemently, that he forgot himself, and emptied 
 his cup into the sugar-bowl, under the idea that he was 
 sweetening his tea. Adjourned to the library for prayers, 
 they began to say their verses.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 413 
 
 " God made man pure, but he sought out many strange 
 inventions," began the old gentleman, with a severe look 
 at Peace, who had been very unmanageable. 
 
 " Green bass wood," suggested Charley, recalling a 
 speculation of his father's. 
 
 " The man is the head of the woman," continued 
 Francis Haythome, likewise glancing at the young lady. 
 
 " The fool is wiser in his own eyes than seven men 
 that can render a reason," said Mrs. Pelican, by way of 
 general application. 
 
 " Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he shall despise 
 the wisdom of thy words," retorted Peace. 
 
 " What have you got to say, Mollie ? " asked Charley, 
 seeing her hesitate. 
 
 " A blessing," responded she, wearily : " and last of all, 
 the woman died also." 
 
 After that Mrs. Pelican began, (t Here I'll raise my 
 Ebenezer," as a last effort toward restoring sobriety to her 
 household. And Mr. Pelican, worsted in the conflict, 
 took his revenge by praying that God would open the 
 blind eyes, and give to all wholesome submission to them 
 that He had appointed to have rule over them. 
 
 But Peace squared this by quoting, in airy but audible 
 aside to Mollie, as they rose from their knees, " If a 
 wise man contend with a fool, whether he rage or laugh, 
 there is no rest," which being delivered in an impersonal 
 way, stung without possibility of answer. 
 
 The household were no sooner scattered to the day's oc 
 cupations, than Charley and his sister, left alone together, 
 had another passage of arms. The excitement of the 
 evening before had somewhat unsettled the family tem 
 per, and Peace was doing worsted work of a very jerky 
 pattern in an appropriate style. 
 
 "It's not true that women have the hardest time,"
 
 414: SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 cried Charley, sourly. "They always live the longest. 
 Top Town's half full of widows this minute." 
 
 " You've done your shave in killing their husbands," 
 was his sister's tart reply ; " you'd best say as little as 
 possible about that." 
 
 1 hen ensued a pause, during which one whistled, and 
 the other angrily pulled her worsted from the ball on the 
 tloor. " I thought father was talking about giving up 
 .Dices' Water Casks," recommenced Peace. 
 
 ' I don't see why you should be so mean to a feller," 
 sai* : Charley, lifting the mahogany rocking-chair to the 
 eei -ug by the extreme end of its left rocker, and balanc 
 ing it there a minute or two to soothe his feelings. " Yon 
 spe d the money ; what's the dif so long as you get it ? 
 If vather hadn't gone into distilling, we should have 
 sh/j, aed it all our lives, instead of riding in state." The 
 brother and sister had not been growing in concord during 
 tho last few weeks. Peace, who having once taken hope 
 of Absalom, directly administered reproof, advice, and 
 moral sentiments in bushels, met with irritated denial 
 and jeers at every trial. Charley seemed to have become 
 a sort of unbelieving porcupine, with quills out. He 
 flaunted every sort of law-subverting doctrine in the faces 
 of his family ; and, while pursuing strictly his newly 
 entered path of rectitude, tried to make himself out a sort 
 of budding Don Juan, Bonnet Rouge, Aaron Burr, Ket- 
 chem. As a sample of his doings, he bought a picture 
 of Ben Butler, whom he announced to be his ideal states 
 man, which he carried in his vest pocket, and frequently 
 ogled with an amorous air when Peace was in seeing dis 
 tance. 
 
 " I wish we did go afoot," cried Peace passionately ; 
 ' we should at least be honest." 
 
 " Honesty is the best of policies," said Charley non-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 415 
 
 chalantly. " That's what I told the fire insurance, when 
 I applied father's premium to my own private necessities. 
 You aren't sensible to quarrel with your bread and but 
 ter. It's all very well to talk cold-water nonsense, but 
 liquor buys every one of the rags you flaunt in ; even the 
 money you waste on your unwashed savages at Patience 
 of Hope, comes from the till of the Night Blooming 
 Cereus." 
 
 " Seems as if every cent of it was a curse to them," 
 flashed Peace. 
 
 " Very likely," said Charley, bearing on as men will ; 
 " that only proves the fact. Why, the money father 
 gave you this morning is what young Gizzard's mother 
 paid with tears in her eyes the week before he hung him 
 self, and his father's going the same way. We were fools 
 to let them run on so. They'll never be good for another 
 dollar." He gave the information with gusto, and smiled 
 as the spider might smile on the fly. At least Peace 
 thought so. 
 
 " Then I won't touch a cent of it," she cried indig 
 nantly. " The girls were getting up a subscription for 
 the Gizzards last week. They asked Mollie to contribute, 
 but never said a word to rne. If the rum-seller's daughter 
 can't be charitable, she can at least be just. I'll pay 
 every penny back to Mrs. Gizzard to-morrow." 
 
 " Do," said Charley, sardonically, " you couldn't offer 
 a better advertisement for the Cereus. The generous 
 gambler that befriends his dupe, always gets double the 
 money out of his reputation." 
 
 It was so. She was hedged in, cursed in her basket, 
 cursed in her store; cursed in outgoing, cursed in incom 
 ing ; and cursed most of all, as she felt to her heart's core, 
 in this her brother. She sprang to her feet, hot and de 
 fiant. " I hate you," she exclaimed. " I wish I was
 
 416 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 dead I wish you everybody was dead ! I'll leave the 
 house, teach school, set type, be a dress-maker! I've 
 borne this long enough. If I can't live honestly, I'll 
 starve." 
 
 Instead of replying in kind, Charley straightened him 
 self, and looked down at her with sympathetic admiration. 
 " You're a good girl," said he approvingly, and continued 
 to feast his eyes on her indignant face. Then, as she in 
 turn stood surveying him in something like terror at this 
 sudden reversal of tactics, he came over and took her 
 in his arms, and kissed her. " My poor sister ! " said he, 
 tender, and suddenly manifesting a gentle, strong phase of 
 soil!, new in ii.e insstable pleasure lover. "How cruel to 
 torture you cury to torment myself! No ! Peace, you 
 are not to go away at least not yet. I have taken my 
 resolution. It is I who am to leave Top Town very 
 soon." 
 
 A woman adores manhood, strength. She humbles her 
 self before it instinctively. She will render up every 
 prerogative joyfully, if only to teach her dear ones to 
 manifest, prize, their power. Charley was never so noble 
 in his sister's eyes, as when he asserted claim to his man's 
 right to a self-denial as costly as needful. She laid her 
 hand on his broad shoulder with pride, and waited 
 silently to hear him out. 
 
 " All you've said is true, dear. If you can think it, 
 I ought at least to act on it. I am going out West to 
 start again, to make a new life for myself, to be clear of 
 the liquor trade, and work for my bread. I didn't think 
 I could make up my mind, but I'm quite settled now. 
 And when I'm successful, just a little successful, I'll 
 bring you to live with me, and we'll have a happy time. 
 I don't know exactly what I shall do for a living, you 
 remember ' non palrna sine pulvere,' which being inter-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 417 
 
 preted is, no hand not dirty," he added with a rueful 
 smile. 
 
 " I've been dreadfully mean to you, Charley," sobbed 
 Peace, taking refuge in the window-curtains. " I wish I 
 hadn't. You wouldn't have acted so if I had done my 
 duty, and pitied your little failings ; and now you're good, 
 and I wasn't in it." 
 
 Her brother was full of emotion too, but he couldn't 
 help walking the elephant toward her, and then she made 
 a little airy kick at him, as she wiped away her tears ; 
 and he caught the liliputian weapon, and gallantly 
 kissed the toe of its embroidered slipper ; and now at last 
 they were very happy together in this first union of heart 
 and purpose. 
 
 And so, just as Peace gained her brother, she parted 
 from him, not that moment exactly, but a few weeks after, 
 when, almost against his father's direct prohibition, he 
 started for the frontier. 
 
 Old Mr. Pelican couldn't see why, as long as Charley 
 had reformed, he wouldn't stay home, and take charge 
 of the Cereus ; and his mother cried most of the time at 
 the thought of the temptations to which he would be ex 
 posed away from the paternal roof, forgetful of the follies 
 against which it had been no protection. 
 
 But Peace and Mollie made common cause, and fought 
 it through, and the sister came out in her new role 
 gloriously, and was so delightful, so sweet, so tender, that 
 the poor fellow wondered why they had never found each 
 other out before, and, in his desolate foreshadowing 
 of friendlessness and hardship, most of all regretted that 
 he must leave her affection behind. 
 18*
 
 418 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 " This is the man all tattered and torn, 
 That loved the maiden all forlorn." 
 
 :OLLIE was sitting alone, thinking. 
 
 In this story of her inner life, dealing with 
 her almost always in times of misfortune and 
 misery, it may have seemed as if she was one of those 
 melancholy people who have a subdued and piteous ap 
 pearance, like half-dried tear-blots. But this is not so. 
 Whatever might be her burdens, they were so little ob 
 truded on her friends that the latter had the habit of 
 considering her a singularly happy person, and bringing 
 all their trials to her sympathy. It is true, except when 
 roused to combat for some oppressed class or darling 
 theory, she talked little, and even tliat little was too 
 thoughtful to be reckoned brilliant. But she had her 
 delicate soul-feelers, always alert to cognize the moods, 
 passions, principles, of her acquaintance ; and a kind heart 
 moulded the knowledge into that subtle, inestimable tact 
 that is better than wit, wisdom, or beauty to its pos 
 sessor. Moreover she loved and sought goodness stead 
 fastly through all, and so had whereupon to be always 
 cheery, and a wholesome companion. In her suffering 
 days she locked herself up, and waged battle alone and 
 unflinching. 
 
 On this occasion she had plenty to muse over. 
 Charley had just gone. He had held his own bravely to 
 the end. The evening before his departure he spent with 
 his family at a church festival, where he beguiled the 
 time by presenting the girls with gum shellac as candy, 
 lifting his male acquaintance with one hand, and placard-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 419 
 
 ing his father "Beware of Pickpockets," in which guise 
 the unconscious old gentleman strutted rJbont with extra 
 ordinary dignity. Then, finding that it rained, he slipped 
 into the dressing-i-oom, and opened every single umbrella, 
 placing them extended in battalions, and thus producing 
 a singular effect on the owners at goirig-hoine time, when 
 the chosen young ladies stood indignantly waiting the ar 
 rival of their perplexed escorts. 
 
 Lastly, he hung his Ben Butler photograph, neatly 
 framed, and lettered, " St. Benjamin," in the Sunday- 
 school room, side by side with the remainder of the holy 
 pictures calculated to instruct the youthful mind. 
 
 And next morning the household saw him off on the 
 cars, and retiring thereafter to their respective bedrooms, 
 appeared no more during the day. With all their faults 
 the Pelicans were a family, and joyed and loved and 
 suffered with generous heartiness. Mollie was glad to 
 have it so. It comforted her to be able to be sorry with 
 them. She had received her first letter from her mother 
 a few minutes before. She skimmed it through once, re 
 read, and then crumpled and threw it down with a sigh, 
 as if she would willingly have crushed the thoughts it 
 called up, with their cause. Ye lovers of precious home 
 epistles, who have known " mother's words " God's best 
 help in your trials, see what Mollie was feeding on 
 
 " MY DEAR CHILD : I have at last found courage to 
 clean up after you, and am now sick in consequence. 
 Your father, however, don't seem to care for that any 
 more than other folks. I don't see why you should have 
 bamboozled him into buying those sleeve-buttons. He 
 works day and night to earn money for you to fool away. 
 Mr. Brown hasn't been here since you left, but once, when 
 he leaned against the garden gate, and admired my Vesu-
 
 420 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 vius colored jacket, and hat with the Paree brulay and 
 Paree on sond roses. You ought to be ashamed to have 
 lost such a man. You'll go all through the wood, and take 
 up with a crooked stick at last. But you were born to be 
 a bill of expense, and your own perversity will prevent 
 any one's bearing it but your parents. I hope I shan't 
 die in the poor-house through your selfishness. 
 
 " Be very careful of your complexion, and always wear a 
 veil when you go out. Don't put on your black silk if 
 you can help it, it is too good, Be sure and attend 
 prayer-meeting regularly ; there are some fine young men 
 in the Top Town Congregational Church. Three cents is 
 quite enough to offer in the contribution box at a time. 
 * And seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these 
 things shall be added unto you.' 
 
 " Your suffering mother, 
 
 " MIRANDA McCnoss." 
 
 But besides these excellent subjects for cogitation, 
 Mollie had another nearer, and deeper still. She was 
 going to the prison to see Louis. "Would she find him 
 sick, or dying, or crazed ? Could she comfort him ? or 
 had she waited too long, and was he beyond all comfort ? 
 Had she wronged him by that promise to her father ? 
 She could not tell. It was a long time since they had 
 parted in the bitterness of their affliction. It would be 
 longer yet before they could claim each other for the 
 forever. Mollie did not look ahead. One day, and then 
 another, not all at once, or she would lie down and die. 
 She didn't want to lose her life, and so her chance of 
 helping him. 
 
 She took some dresses from the closet, and spreading 
 them on the bed, sat down, chin in hand, to contemplate 
 them. She had lost the plump beauty of early woman-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 42! 
 
 hood, and seemed almost too fragile for humanity. But 
 her face, glorified in its sweetness and strength, colorless 
 and pure, looked akin to the cherished Christ over the 
 mantel. She might not have been beautiful to a stranger, 
 but she \vas beautiful to me, who held her dear. 
 
 She was thinking that in all their years of coming sepa 
 ration she would fain be lovely in Louis' eyes. 
 
 These dresses were like Mollie : a blue merino, with 
 dainty black velvet vest; the silk over which her mother 
 mourned ; a white muslin evening costume, with satin 
 bodice ; arid last of all a cashmere of rosy dove color, 
 that shaded dark and rich in its graceful folds not very 
 many or striking, but every one characteristic of its 
 wearer, and perfect in conception. 
 
 She looked them over thoughtfully. Of course they 
 weren't all appropriate, but she would bring the best out 
 for choice ; she only liked them becaxise he would have 
 admired her in them. Her thoughts were all for him. 
 
 The little Java sparrow chirped with melancholy in 
 terest from his Chinese pagoda, carved long before with 
 his donor's jack-knife. Some flitting memory made the 
 young girl smile, and she selected the gray robe without 
 more reflection, and arrayed therein, with the scarlet vel 
 vet ribbons hanging from her neck, stood the very coun 
 terpart of her little pet. 
 
 She knelt a moment before the quaint cage as a sort of 
 shrine. Her Bible opened to its old place : " They that 
 wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." The page 
 was worn and faded with continual touch. Mollie bent 
 over it silently a few moments, and then closed it upon 
 her doubts and fears, and putting on her dove-colored 
 hat, and cloak, and gray furs, took up a well-filled basket, 
 and knocked at Peace's door. 
 
 Peace regarded this expedition in the light of a peni-
 
 422 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 tential pilgrimage. As she told Mr. Haytliorne confi 
 dentially, she had rather be liung than go, though go she 
 would ; and she had been banging doors, and anathema 
 tizing pins, and stamping at her cuffs and hat which 
 little indications of a mind at variance with itself worried 
 Mollie to desperation. The truth was, Miss Pelican 
 ought to have seen Louis before. During the whole twelve 
 months and more of his incarceration, she had been about 
 to perform that duty next week. In fact, this was the in 
 tention of all his friends to the end of the first year 
 when they concluded that if he'd stood it without them 
 so long, he certainly could the rest of the time, and set 
 conscience at rest without longer delay. 
 
 During their whole acquaintance Francis Haythorne 
 had never addressed a remark to Mollie about Louis. 
 But Peace had learned, in her brother's dreary struggle 
 for hope, to seek a confidant, who, out of his unruffled 
 placidity, was always ready to supplement her needs by 
 quiet, easily rendered helps, or willing burden-bearing. 
 In that short three months she had almost forgotten to 
 ask sympathy of Mollie, and went by instinct (and in 
 stinct is always the impulse toward pleasure) to repose 
 cares, griefs, joys, and experiences, with a child's sim 
 plicity, in his consciousness. 
 
 He was, therefore, well advised of the impending trip ; 
 and quite as much to please Peace as Mollie (whose 
 character for common-sense had declined daily in his es 
 teem), waited for the prisoner's fiancee as she passed 
 through the hall. 
 
 Her complete possession by this ill-starred love seemed 
 poorly judged, in the light of certain late possibilities re 
 lating to the wealthy and still juvenile choleric neighbor 
 whom Mollie refused even to see in his frequent visits. 
 Having lost her chance of winning himself, the probability
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 423 
 
 of eternal singleness or wretched degradation seemed 
 plain ; and with a sincere interest in her welfare, it 
 irked him that she should throw by an opportunity to 
 marry a fortune, a good home, and the incumbrance not 
 unpleasant either, for a woman who has missed her one 
 goldon opening, and of whom erit cestas non semper was 
 dismal certainty. 
 
 But as she descended the stairs in her sadness, forget 
 ting of all in the soon approaching meeting with her out 
 cast beloved, her eyelids swelled and faintly rosy, as 
 the Beatrice Cenci's whom she looked not unlike, perhaps, 
 her graceful form steadied through nervous concentration, 
 her beauty wrought upon this Sybarite as her sorrow 
 could not ; and it was with sincere sympathy that he 
 pressed into her hands the bouquet of hot-house flowers, 
 and the note he waited to deliver. 
 
 The emotion illuminated his clear-cut features as Peace 
 joined them, and her smile reflected the radiance in a 
 fervor of gratitmle. She never approved of him so thor 
 oughly as when he placed her beside her friend in the 
 sleigh ; she even turned to watch him, as he stood lean 
 ing against the door a moment, and watching their de 
 parting vehicle. 
 
 They drove silently over the crisp snow, and arriving, 
 went timidly through the bare hall into the guard-room, 
 where the ugly darkeys leered at them from the wall, and 
 certain photographs of wardens killed in the prison hung 
 between the windows, and where the coarse-voiced super 
 intendents were making tough jokes for the five minutes 
 between dinner and duty. 
 
 Francis Haythorne's letter was addressed to the war 
 den of Top Town Penitentiary, and announced that, as 
 friends of the shoe contractors wished to visit the prison, 
 any politeness shown them would be to the undersigned
 
 424 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 firm. The reigning chief was not in, but Mollie delivered 
 the precious sesame to his deputy, a fat man with a red 
 head, and cruel, passionate face. He said lie would will 
 ingly show them about, but he had a tremendous big job 
 on hand ; and, as he went into the yard directly and 
 kicked the white bull-dogs, the waiting women concluded 
 that must be it. 
 
 Then they looked through the grating and saw the 
 long lines of pallid men marching to their shops, with 
 faces averted, and stamped with misery and pain ; and 
 after following with the joking, laughing visitors, peeped 
 into the comfortless cells, into the spotless workshops, 
 where are made rulers and silver-plated wares, into the 
 weaving department, into the grimy machine-rooms, 
 where rogues learn exactly the best knowledge to apply 
 to lock-picking ; and then they came to the shoemaking, 
 and, going in, Mollie stood still and looked straight be 
 fore her at a man pegging boots. Through the window 
 you could see the dry sticks of the garden plants rising 
 desolately above the December snow ; within, were the 
 hopeless, wicked men, plodding heartlessly through their 
 tasks, and four stone walls shut him and them together 
 in a world which had neither outlet nor refreshing, and 
 he all she had. She trembled lest he should hear her 
 panting breath and look up ; no fear of that. Every 
 glance cost a blow, and work must be done. He hurried 
 on with it in feverish energy, but once, as he laid down a 
 finished boot, he sighed a long, tired sigh. When the 
 guard called them to move on, it seemed to Mollie as if 
 she had been standing there a lifetime, her perceptions of 
 her lover's pain were so strangely wonted and old. 
 Back in the guard-room, one of the officers said he would 
 go and bring the prisoner ; and Peace, haughty and defi 
 ant, some of the people having pointed out thieves and
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 405 
 
 murderers to her, and then inquired if she was any rela 
 tion, betook herself to absorbed study of certain anti 
 quated firearms, in a case near the prison keys. 
 
 Mollie, too much agitated to be seated, stood by the 
 window, trying to master herself. She had forgotten 
 that they must pass by ; could that be he? ill clad, with 
 eyes on the ground, bent to the regulation slouch hers ! 
 
 Their steps sounded on the flagstones of the dormitory. 
 The door opened. He came forward hesitating, tincer- 
 tain of his reception. They sat down on the bench to 
 gether he, shivering from his sudden plunge into the 
 freezing court; she, warm and lovely, and throbbing from 
 head to foot with emotion. She forgot the lookers-on, 
 and snatching both his thin hands in hers, held them fast 
 in her electric clasp, whispering, 
 
 " My own Louis." 
 
 " My Mollie ! " answered the convict, looking hungrily 
 into her eyes ; and then they sat silent, all the multitude 
 of things that must be said crowded quite out of their 
 minds in the joy of meeting. It was only after concen 
 trated study of the floor and each other, that Louis ven 
 tured to remark, with his old flickering blush, " that he'd 
 got a pair of new shoes." But this was so inapposite to 
 the weighty matters that pressed on their hearts, that 
 they both smiled ; and the ice being broken, all the 
 hoarded necessities of their confidence rushed out pell- 
 mell. But when Mollie told of her illness after his letter 
 came, and her promise, and her father's message, Louis' 
 glance sought the floor. 
 
 " That may be a long time, Mollie. It is very hard." 
 
 She had known it always, but never so bitterly as now. 
 
 " Is he very feeble ? " Louis made his questions after 
 miserable pauses. 
 
 " Yes," Mollie said, and thought at the bottom of her
 
 426 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 heart that even feebleness was no excuse for such cruel 
 demands \ipon her love ; and waited passively to hear if 
 her betrayed would pardon not him but her. 
 
 Her suspense was short. " Tell Deacon McCross," 
 said ho, throwing back his head, masterful and earnest, 
 "that I forgive him all, even this worst thing, all: 
 from the first day till this moment. Tell him 1 shall 
 prove a man yet." 
 
 But the woman's head drooped lower, as his was raised, 
 her dilating eyes fixed with piteous intensity on his face, 
 that worked with emotion. 
 
 "O Louis, how can we, how can I, live so?" she 
 broke down all at once. " Plow could I promise? How 
 could I help promising ? What virtue is there in life to 
 make us live ? " 
 
 He drew her hot fa.ce to his shoulder, covered by the 
 coarse harlequin prisoner's jacket. Its touch recalled 
 her to their surroundings, but she would not move : she 
 was so tired so tired ; and she wiped from her eyes the 
 scalding tears, welling with long gasps from her deepest 
 soul, but kept her place her own dear place. 
 
 How strong Louis felt himself grow beneath that help 
 less weight. It is so passing sweet to be sought for 
 shelter of our dear! No caress given in their free glad 
 wooing had half the. delicious, heart-swelling power of 
 this tearful pleading cry, and sinking upon his help, here 
 in the prison. 
 
 "Darling," said he, bringing his new precious experi 
 ence to comfort her, too eager to remember how he was 
 half afraid to realize it to his own soul in his lonely cell : 
 " God that we both love will help us. There is no sorrow 
 like unto his sorrow." 
 
 Then Mollie, nestling in her place, knew exultant what 
 she had been finding out through all this hour of sore
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 427 
 
 agony. Hers was a nobler prop than the old boyish af 
 fection ; her Damascene sword had been tempered in tlio 
 fire ; her woman's soul, given so freely to suffering, should 
 no longer bear the whole burden. It was supplemented 
 by a manhood, noble, deep, entire as her love. 
 
 " One thinks a great many thoughts in penitentiary," 
 said Louis, gently, as she sat up still circled by his arm, 
 and tried to control her sobs. " I have learned the mean 
 ing of life, here. It has been a painful year, but it was 
 necessary: God knew best. Was I harsh about your 
 father? " making abrupt stop. " I often remember how 
 he tried to be kind. Once he stood on an empty ash 
 hogshead behind the barn, to steal his own grapes for me, 
 and, as he reached up to pick them, we heard your mother 
 coming, and the head fell in, and he with it. He doubled 
 his length once or twice, and curled down, thinking he 
 was hidden ; but just as she was going to pour in her 
 pail of coal, he rose and confronted her like an amiable 
 ghost. 1 shall never forget how mild and bald and funny 
 he looked, neatly powdered with cinders, the tell-tale 
 fruit in his hand, and half a dozen bunches hid in my 
 apron." 
 
 Little enough of happy memory can be strung on the 
 thread of home-worry ; but Mollie smiled gratefully, and 
 was comforted as what woman will not be, if it please 
 the man she loves to attempt her consolation V 
 
 And now Peace, who had been trying on handcuffs at 
 the other end of the room, attended by the jailer, whose 
 heart would soften in spite of himself, came over to end 
 the interview, and lighten their feeling by a pound of 
 candy, presented with a set speech. 
 
 But she had hardly begun, " On this occasion, unaccus 
 tomed as I am," when she fell to crying for sympathy 
 with these poor children, who were so patient in their
 
 428 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 misery. A second time, it was Louis whose strength 
 sufficed to soothe. 
 
 " Miss Peace," said he, in voice tremulous, but manner 
 calm, " your sorrow is like a divine light, but you mustn't 
 feel bad for Mollie and me : God is taking care of us. 
 ' Whom He has joined together, no man can sunder.' 
 Mollie is my wife, and I am her husband forever." Then 
 he went bravely away, though the kiss he threw them as 
 he passed the window was almost a sob, and the answer 
 ing smile from Mollie near broke her heart. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 "What are little girls made of ? 
 Sugar and spice 
 And all that's nice, 
 That's what little girls are made of." 
 
 HE family were sitting in the library when Mollie 
 came back. Francis Haythorne, in particular, 
 lay stretched out in a great green easy-chair, 
 with the leaves of a half-cut " Eclectic " between his fin 
 gers, the picture of mannish comfort. 
 
 Miss Pelican sailed up to him at once, her eyes blazing, 
 her movements lithe with excitement, her short upper lip 
 curled to its last extent. " You needn't tell me they 
 don't abuse the prisoners," cried she ; " I know better ! 
 they could every one of them stand for models in the 
 court of death." 
 
 The gentleman opened his red hazel eyes into a glance 
 of unmoved inquiry, and replaced on the ottoman the 
 slippered foot her abrupt attack had startled to the floor.
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 409 
 
 " It will be a wonder if Louis Allwood lives till spring. 
 I don't see how Mollie endures it," she went on vehem 
 ently. " I know that human bull-dog of a warden is 
 cruel. If I was a prisoner I'd cut my throat." 
 
 " Indeed ? " said Mr. Haythorne, instantly shutting 
 his oyster-shell dislike of useless agitation over his sympa 
 thies, and languidly fluttering his magazine leaves;"! 
 suppose the knaves deserve all they get. To tell the 
 truth, they're too coarsely unpleasant to be interesting. 
 Will you have the heavenly kindness to excuse my lazi 
 ness, and close the window, as you're standing near it. I 
 feel that the single white hair in my head is catching cold. 
 This is a capital article on Punch and Judy." 
 
 In Mollie's wretchedness she came to one icevitable 
 experience, bitterer than all. It wasn't that she and 
 Louis suffered. They were set to suffer. She never re 
 belled against necessities. But nobody cared. If Louis 
 had died, or been crippled, or robbed of property, if any 
 misfortune had overtaken him that entailed no responsi 
 bility on the community, every one would have overflowed 
 with sympathy. As it was, when anything brought their 
 misery to people's minds, they felt uneasy and made haste 
 to forget. N~o one wanted to alter the pressure that crushed 
 them. The replies in Peace's dialogue, prefaced by a win 
 dow bang, sampled every one's mind. 
 
 " But Louis is a gentleman, and suffers unjustly." 
 
 " Oh, you think so." 
 
 " I know it ; so would you, if you weren't too snippy." 
 
 " Ah ! well ! he must have done something to get into 
 the fix. Justice must be satisfied. You don't look into 
 the social necessity of punishment." 
 
 Though not at all interested in the point at issue, the 
 Sybarite was by no means blind to the magnificent soul- 
 impulses and facial expressions the beautiful woman
 
 430 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 before him unconsciously developed. He, in his turn, 
 approved of her with all his heart. He loved to watch 
 her, and continued with a little more animation : " As for 
 working them, you can't expect us to pay for their living; 
 and if we can get anything extra, we've a right to it to 
 make up for the trouble they've caused." 
 
 (N.B. Our justice to people under our thumb is usually 
 rapacity ; but we call it political economy, and its exi 
 gencies afford favorite opportunities for Christians to get 
 very rich.) 
 
 " But brutality and want assault every prisoner," urged 
 Peace. 
 
 " I don't know anything about that." 
 
 " You could, if you pleased." 
 
 " I don't want to ; why should I ? " 
 
 Why should they, indeed? Outside the pricks of 
 self-interest or the gad-fly of necessity, what excites any 
 body to do anything ? Why should they even open their 
 eyes, when if they did a duty would lie straight under 
 them ? This whole world is a huge press whereto selfish 
 ness is the screw, turned by avarice and revenge to 
 squeeze out the life-blood of the unfortunate. If misery 
 be a gridiron, respectability oils the blistering limbs with 
 pious regret, and cupidity furnishes coals. 
 
 If it takes form in the guillotine, Christianity looks 
 the other way while Christian expediency lets falls the 
 axe. If it be a subtilly twisted cord of disgrace, acquaint 
 anceship kicks away the scaffold, while revenge on high 
 moral grounds rifles our pockets and adjusts the rope 
 around our necks. 
 
 There is no evil in which individual or people can be 
 placed, where all the spiritual virtues do not furnish men 
 good reasons for refusing aid ; and yet, among the endless 
 frauds and peculations that rot all business honor, to 
 wrong one's fellows seems no great crime, unless the fraud
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 431 
 
 be badly planned : then indeed nineteenth-century recti 
 tude achieves a parabola, and ends at hell gate. 
 
 " A man's a man for a' that," said Peace, who had 
 been saying in many words what I have set down in few. 
 
 " I'd like to know what you're going to do about it ? " 
 quoth her auditor, stroking his curling beard with a hand 
 snow-white and dimpled. He was thinking inly how 
 noble a help, a champion, she was showing herself, and 
 delicately enjoying every unconscious revelation of her 
 turns of thought and emotion. Peace had a habit of 
 talking to people at large on the rim of herself, which 
 proved aggravating to similarly customed masculines. 
 Even the red-haired had never explored the centre of this 
 delightful volcano. She held his answer as insult, boiled 
 down, double-distilled. "A Daniel come to judgment," 
 said she, seating herself in desperation, as if effort was 
 no use. A woman is worth nothing when there is any 
 good to be done. If I was only a man ! If you were 
 half a man ! " 
 
 The unpleasant person sitting in the great arm-chair 
 began to laugh, conscious that the kitten had claws. 
 
 " Be calm, good Mrs. Fry," said lie. 
 
 " Keep thy heart at seventy throbs a minute ; from all 
 sick people, maimed wretches, afflicted people, turn away 
 thine eyes, and depart elsewhere," she hurled at him 
 scornfully. 
 
 This time she touched him. He straightened up flushed 
 and angry, exclaiming, " If you mean to call me a selfish 
 puppy, do it in plain English ! " when Mollie stole in and 
 sat down meekly, in a corner. 
 
 " You are very unfair, daughter," said Mr. Pelican, 
 breaking the pause following the dialogue. " It's the 
 contractors' business to see that their men are cared for, 
 not ours. The system does, has always done, well ; change
 
 432 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 would be expensive. If there are abuses let the Legisla 
 ture remedy them. It's not our affair." 
 
 If you want to know the aggregate resisting weight of 
 all the people in the world, propose a reform, and take 
 only one step in it. 
 
 " By ' doing well ' you probably mean that once im 
 mured you hear no more of a convict," said Peace. 
 
 " About that," confessed her father, " the point is to 
 save honest men from annoyance. Any way you fix it, 
 imprisonment is better than the old plan of hanging a 
 man for stealing a loaf of bread." 
 
 "That wasn't theft under the Jewish law," said Mollie 
 abruptly. " It ought never to be under any. But nine 
 times out of ten it would be more Christian to kill a man 
 than to send him to State's prison." 
 
 " No ! no ! " cried Mrs. Pelican, shocked. " We have 
 no right to take life." 
 
 " When yoxi shut up a life away from activity in the 
 world m a prison, don't you take it and put it there ? 
 When you cut five years out of a man's existence, and 
 make them empty years, only marked by pulse-beats of suf 
 fering, don't you take so much life ! When you gradually 
 transform a man from a sinning, suffering human being, 
 into a brute or a devil, by subjecting him to circumstan 
 ces known to rob him of morality and affection, don't 
 you take his life ? When, being innocent, you slowly 
 break his heart, and so kill him, don't you take his life '? 
 When, having warped his soul out of all possibility of 
 rectitude, he dies in the ditch, or by suicide, or \yy the 
 hangman, and goes to hell, haven't you taken his life, and 
 put it there ? Which is the worst to give him at once 
 to the mercy of his Maker, or serve him so ? And for 
 every soul thus damned, aren't you, who have power to 
 help it and don't, murderers? "
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 433 
 
 The whole family were horrified at this way of putting 
 it, and when Mollie, frightened by her own outburst, 
 hastened from the room, with face deadly pale, and form 
 shaking like an aspen under sway of passionate sense of 
 wrong, they stared blankly in each other's faces. 
 
 " She speaks tne truth," said old Mr. Pelican at last, 
 thoughtfully. " It is <nurder. But I'm sure," rallying, 
 " I haven't time to attend to it. What with the Congre 
 gational Sunday-school, and the missionary fund for 
 China, I have neither interest nor money to give." 
 
 " Yes," said Francis Haythorue, looking very uneasy. 
 t( I might, I suppose, get up a petition, investigate, com 
 pare, write a pamphlet, do something of the sort. But 
 then it would make one so conspicuous so take so 
 much time, have to talk to so many people. It's non- 
 Cerise to speak of it." 
 
 " Besides," added Mr. Pelican comfortably, " if I med 
 dled in the business to get that young Allwood out, 
 Mollie'd be certain to have him. And he's spoilt for 
 life, and she's a fine girl with money. I don't think it 
 would be right to stir in it." 
 
 " And I," cried Peace, bitterly, lt am a rich man's 
 daughter, of high breeding and all the feminine virtues. 
 It would be bad taste to put myself forward. I can't do 
 anything." With that she banged the door defiantly, and 
 went to comfort Mollie. 
 
 But Mollie's self-mastery was regained outwardly. She 
 had summoned her terrible will to her help. She would 
 not show emotion now, not if Louis and she both died at 
 their rack. And her steady eyes looked out with their 
 every-day quietude from their black, suffering, chiselled 
 caverns. Poor Peace was miserable, too ; and it was 
 partly her fault. She w^s wrong to speak out. Silence 
 was her only safety. She was folding the pretty gray 
 19
 
 43-i SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 robe, and humming " Robin Adair," when Miss Pelican, 
 absolutely frightened by the even ripple of that sweet 
 voice at such a time, paused at her door. 
 
 Mollie heard her, and called her in, still busy with the 
 creases of the cashmere. 
 
 " From little matters let us pass to less, and lightly 
 scan the mysteries of dress," said she, easily. " What 
 are you going to wear to-night ? " 
 
 " Mollie ! povera mia ! have they broken your heart ? " 
 cried Peace, brushing past her remark. 
 
 ' No," returned Mollie in a clear, decisive tone, " nor 
 can't. I never felt such capacity for endurance as I do at 
 this moment. I can and will bear to the end. Now, let 
 us talk of more agreeable things. Your father, this 
 morning, bade us all to see the Ticket-of-Leave Man. 
 With what shall we adorn ourselves ? " 
 
 " You are not going to that play ! " exclaimed Peace, 
 more and more terrified. " What was father thinking of 
 to propose such a thing ? The miserable sequence to 
 kindred misfortune will half kill you after this morning's 
 experience." 
 
 " You are mistaken. I know the story, and, rather 
 than hurt your father's feelings, would sit out twenty such 
 performances. As we are to have a box, it will be neces 
 sary to go without bonnets. I have about settled on blue 
 merino, with white in my hair. Have I hurt you by my 
 heartless talk ? " said she, stopping at the aghast look on 
 Peace's face. " Do you know I frequently doubt if I 
 have any real affection for any one, even Louis 
 
 " ' Love, like a waxen image 'gainst the fire, 
 Bears no impression of the thing it was.' " 
 
 " No, it isn't that exactly ; it's a stolid incapacity for 
 emotion of any kind."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 435 
 
 " I'm sorry," said Peace, with a great sigh. " Comfort 
 Mollie ? Where should she find it to give ? " She was 
 going sadly out of the room, when her friend called her 
 back. 
 
 " Dear girl," said Mary, putting her love-thrilling 
 hands on Peace's shoulders, and giving her one of those 
 rare glances of tenderness, and willing self-unveiling, that 
 were equal charm and reward. " It is true that Louis 
 and I have a hard time. I don't know but it is as wrong 
 to be false and deny it, as it would be to deny our bless 
 ings. But God is with us, and we shall not fail utterly. 
 Don't fear. We will be happy yet. And your sympathy 
 is my greatest comfort on earth." That was the longest 
 confidence Mollie ever made about her troubles. . . . 
 
 " I would give a good deal to know what those round 
 white things are that you have circling your throat," said 
 Francis Haythorne, lazily inspecting Peace, as she put 
 finishing touches to her toilet that night, in the up-stairs 
 sitting-room. 
 
 " What, my wax beads ? " returned the beauty, making 
 a half pirouette before the long mirror, and pausing in an 
 attitude. She had mourned over her friend all the after 
 noon, but even misery itself cannot prevent some women 
 from being coquettes before a looking glass. 
 
 " They aren't wax ; they break like mica," said he, in a 
 scientific manner. 
 
 Peace sat down in mock despair. " You haven't been 
 destroying those beads ? Francis Haythorne, how old are 
 you ? " 
 
 " A sage in understanding, and a babe in iniquity. 
 Years are no account. I only crushed a broken bubble," 
 said the young man, innocent as the cat after banquet on 
 canary. " I wanted to know what made them so white 
 and shiny. You don't care, I suppose."
 
 436 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " No," answered she, in that plaintive tone which, used 
 by a pretty woman, is very fascinating. " Did you melt 
 it?" 
 
 " I didn't think to," replied the investigator, intent in 
 pursuit of knowledge, and forthwith held the rounded 
 bauble in the gas-jet, his face demure and grave. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Peace, suddenly. " You burned me. 
 That horrid wax melted on my hand." 
 
 " Give it to me, and I'll cure it." 
 
 " Well," she replied, stretching it out to his grasp, 
 carelessly. " There ! you promised me a great deal ; 
 what is it ? " 
 
 " I'll give you myself ; " his cultured musical voice 
 earnest and tender. The afternoon's study had been 
 working in his mind, and the possibility his fancy had 
 often suggested had now taken form as resolve. 
 
 " Poh ! " exclaimed Peace, jerking her hand away, and 
 putting it behind her. " J want something worth having 
 candy for instance." 
 
 " Is that all the value I have to you ? " said he, hurt ; 
 ''any fool can give you that." 
 
 " True," retorted she, reddening ; " but I only ask it 
 of the biggest." 
 
 " Then I will complete my folly, and entreat you to be 
 my wife. O Peace, you surely must have known my 
 love for you you cannot have called me to be your 
 ,very shadow for months, have glittered and coquetted 
 before my eyes, and all for me, and not felt that you held 
 my soul in your fingers. You cannot mean to turn me 
 away empty." When this man once let go of his Syba 
 rite inertia, he was as impetuous and precipitate as 
 Niagara. It was not lack of power, but motive, that 
 made him what he appeared. 
 
 This Peace felt ; she recognized him as an equal, but
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 4.37 
 
 she had by no means forgotten how she had returned with. 
 Mollie from the prison ; and, for the bitter sorrow they 
 brought back, no one cared. She had hated them all ever 
 since, and, with the inky record of his selfishness not dry 
 in heaven, he presumed to think she would love him. 
 
 " Oh, but I do ! " she exclaimed, angrily. " How was I 
 to know I was ensnaring your heart?" 
 
 " You took pains enough ; " resentful and astonished. 
 
 " You are mistaken. I was only exercising what you 
 have often called woman's sole vocation the artistic. I 
 never did anything worthy of love any more than you. 
 I made fancy-work in the library, and you played the 
 piano, and talked German moonshine. Was there any 
 thing of value enough to call forth affection, self-abnega 
 tion in that? I mourned over poverty and crime, and 
 did nothing to help the sufferers, as is appropriate and 
 becoming to women ; and you, you didn't even mourn. 
 You were too selfish ; you would still rather play the 
 piano, and diddle around art, and dangle about me. I 
 detest myself I despise you. Marry you ! I would, if 
 only to show you what a worthless thing I am, if you 
 were not so much more contemptible. You are a trifler, 
 and nothing more. Any other handsome face will capti 
 vate you as thoroughly as mine. You pretend to love 
 your profession, and are alarmed at the exertion of giv 
 ing eau sucre to an infant with hiccoughs ; that is the 
 worth of your devotion. Plenty of women will give 
 frittery hearts for paltry attentions. What did you ask 
 me for ? I wish I was dead you everybody ! Get out 
 of my sight ! " 
 
 Francis Haythorne, as I have intimated, possessed a 
 head of extremely auburn hair, and if Peace had a gift, 
 it was capacity for stirring people up from the bottom of 
 their souls.
 
 438 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 The young man was too indignant at the first part of 
 her speech to notice the pain she betrayed at its close. 
 He rose incensed and insulted. " I won't," said he, 
 stamping his handsome foot. " I won't ! I won't ! you 
 must go out with me this very evening. You're a heart 
 less flirt. I will see you every day, here under your 
 father's roof; you can't prevent the dear delight of wit 
 nessing your beauty, and suffering from your tempei-." 
 
 " I can, and will ! " retorted Peace. " I'll accept my 
 invitation to Cragenfels, and start to-morrow! How 
 sheepish you look, stamping like a pet lamb ! Do you 
 know ? " she added deliberately, gazing straight at him 
 from her immense malicious black eyes, " if I had ever 
 thought you had any heart, I might have been careful ; 
 but I didn't suppose you could love any one but yourself." 
 
 " You'll find out that I do," exclaimed he, his voice 
 husky with rage. " I'll make you care for me, and 
 marry me too, in spite of your airs." 
 
 " That you never can ! " Peace had lost the last ves 
 tige of her self-command by this. " If you want to hear, 
 I would have adored you long ago, if you had been good 
 for anything. But you weren't, and I'm glad to have a 
 chance of telling you my opinion." 
 
 Instead of naming up still more under this, her worst 
 stab, the dismissed suitor took a seat and began to laugh. 
 
 " Of a truth," said he, " thou hast spoken many words ; 
 but there is no harm done, for the speaker is one, and the 
 listener is another." 
 
 And before the incensed object of his passion had time 
 to retort, the door opened to admit Mary McCross, who 
 come forward quicker than was usual; and they noticed, 
 as she stood in the reflected blaze of light from the pier 
 glass, that the muscles about her mouth were set in deep, 
 pain-marked lines, from the effort she made to hold them
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 439 
 
 composed. She hurriedly laid a telegram before the com 
 batants. 
 
 " My father has had a stroke of paralysis," she said. 
 " Mr. Haythorne, 1 must trouble you to get me an ex 
 press wagon. I shall leave on the midnight train." 
 
 " And I too," said Peace, defiant and sympathetic at 
 once. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 " Old Trot's Dead." 
 
 was glad to find matters at home no 
 worse. True the Deacon's left side was en 
 tirely paralyzed, but he wasn't to go yet not for 
 many months ; and his daughter dismissed both the spin 
 ster and Peace to their merry-making, and set herself to 
 patient care of her dying. 
 
 It was a piteous thing to see the old man completely 
 crippled, and the girl clinging to him, holding him back 
 from death by sheer force of will. She wheeled him 
 about in his arm-chair, into the sun, into the shade, into 
 the sitting-room, back to the parlor ; for the poor invalid 
 was never at ease. She fed him, read to him, watched 
 his slightest want from morning till night ; and, except 
 to care for her Syllabub friends, never left him an hour. 
 
 The news of his illness thronged the house with appli 
 cants for missionary charity and widow's relief funds. 
 Men came clear from Top Town in search of bequ< 
 lank ministers, in seedy black, were forever ringing the 
 door-bell ; and a legion of needy Prices and McCrosses, 
 forgotten, years before, started up suddenly, and came in
 
 440 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 at the kitchen door, Brussels carpet-bags in hand, and 
 asked anxiously after dear cousin llizur, of the cook. 
 Mrs. McCross' immense energy was fully occupied in 
 heading off these pertinacious condolers. But Dr. Per 
 fect, mindful of duty, one day called while she was off 
 guard, to find Mollie and her father together, as usual. 
 
 His ponderous black form filled up the sea-green sit 
 ting-room, and the pair put away the hymn-book they 
 had been perusing, with a sense of crime. 
 
 "Good-morning, Deacon McCross," said lie, in grating 
 bass, folding his black cashmere scarf and laying it for 
 mally across his knees " I hope to find you resigned to 
 your affliction. We should say in sickness, Devs nobis hcec 
 ostia fecit. I have this moment returned from a visit 
 to Mrs. Starbird. Very rebellious at the loss of her babe. 
 Terribly rebellious." 
 
 " Of course you comforted her ? " said Mary. She was 
 ordinarily dumb in the presence of affliction, and sorely 
 felt her deficiency. 
 
 " JSonis nocit, quisquis pepercerit mcdis." said the Doc 
 tor, smoothing the scarf over his lap, and looking at her 
 severely. " I. told her, ma'am, that we must hope for the 
 best ; but we cannot tell about these unregenerate infants. 
 In rny opinion there are children in hell not a span long." 
 
 The sick man's face grew pained and weary under this 
 enunciation of a creed he could never shake off; but he 
 made no remark. It was a foolhardy thing to oppose 
 Dr. Perfect. 
 
 "'I have come! ut prosim, this morning, to lay before 
 you a much more interesting subject," said the worthy pas 
 tor, majestically waiving the question. " It is a frequent 
 practice of people excepting speedy dissolution to make a 
 bequest of their earthly possessions to the Lord ; in brief, 
 to the erection of churches or the endowment of colle-
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 441 
 
 giate institutions. It is rny mission here, as a man to 
 whom you have delegated the care of your spiritual part, 
 and therefore the one most fitted to advise in such case, 
 to state that there is no ecclesiastical building in Mill- 
 ville of our denomination, the one across the river being, 
 I regret to say, almost wholly in the possession of the 
 Moabites. Knowing you to be instant in every good 
 work, I would recommend you to endow a church, the 
 McCross Memorial Church of Millville, which I will my 
 self undertake to see sedificated ; and I will make it the 
 recipient of my pastoral care. In fact, with due regard, 
 jurem humanum, it would be well to have this a stated 
 condition of the gift." 
 
 Mollie looked curiously at her father, wondering if he 
 would rise to the tempting bait, or follow his new rule, 
 and class the great Dr. Perfect in the long line of disap 
 pointed legacy-hunters. She didn't care what became of 
 the family wealth. It had brought her nothing but sor 
 row. She half wished it was to be transformed into bricks 
 and mortar, and so got out of her way ; but she felt very 
 sure the heavy walls of such a structure could never be 
 hospice to any on the road to Jerusalem. 
 
 The Deacon did not seem surprised at tlie coolness of 
 the proposal, or flattered at the prospect. He closed his 
 eyes, and lay back with weary face among his pillows, 
 thinking painfully, and (shall it be chronicled ?) Dr. Per 
 fect, D.D., LL.D., was obliged to wait. It seemed to Mol 
 lie, as she sat on her low stool, fondling her father's hand, 
 and watching, that the good gentleman had more at stake 
 than appeared. Drops of sweat stood thick upon his 
 knotted forehead, and the ponderous ministerial hand 
 trembled visibly. 
 
 " The fact is," said he, breaking in on his parishioner's 
 reverie, " I speak it in confidence, Mrs. Perfect and my- 
 19*
 
 442 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 self would be loath to leave Millville ; but the spiritual 
 atmosphere of Roaring River, graviora moment, is lamen 
 tably iincongenial to the doctrines of holiness. Sic itur 
 ad astro," 
 
 11 Tell me," said Mr. McCross, opening his eyes to be 
 stow a keenly business-like glance on his would-be adviser, 
 " will God thank me to leave a sin \inrepented of, pro 
 vided I will Him property enough to build a church ? " 
 
 " Hem acu tetiyisti" quoth the Doctor, making a rapid 
 calculation under cover of the Latin, of the advantages in 
 Honesty the best Policy. " Almsdeeds are taught to be 
 an expression of penitence. What better thing can a sin 
 ning man do than trust unlawful riches to the retributive 
 hands of his Maker. Spes tutissima codis." 
 
 " He can give them back, Dr. Perfect, and do his duty. 
 I suppose you came here by my wife's advice ? " 
 
 " Well no," said the applicant unwillingly. " Mrs. 
 McCross is so notoriously nunquam non paratus in 
 deeds of charity, that I doubt not she would readily ac 
 quiesce in any disposition to the Lord you choose to make 
 of your goods." 
 
 " Then I'll answer for her," said Deacon McCross. 
 " She wouldn't let you have a penny, and you know it. 
 I'll give you a hundred dollars, because I'm as wicked as 
 you are ; but my property is all disposed of. Daughter, 
 hand me my cheque-book." 
 
 The ponderous dignity of the pastor brooked accept 
 ance of the money. It went into his purse like a fly 
 into a frog's mouth, and he departed with stately stride. 
 
 " Now Mollie," said her father gleefully, as she re 
 turned from seeing their visitor to the door, " I calculate 
 that unless Pelican tackles me for his orphan asylum, 
 I've said ' no ' to the last one. Go and bring me my
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 4.43 
 
 tin box and keys. Is your mother come home ? Look 
 and see." 
 
 She got them without a word, and watched him open 
 and fumble among the tape-tied contents. He was 
 thinking again, over some effort that ought to be made; 
 hesitating, always hesitating. 
 
 Mollie wondered if he would have the strength to go 
 on with it. She would not push him; it might make 
 some little difference in human affairs. She didn't be 
 lieve it would in divine pity. 
 
 No, the cost is too great. Big tears gather in the old 
 man's eyes, and fall among the deeds and mortgages. 
 " I meant to tell you, Mollie, but I can't," he said, bro 
 kenly. " Lock 'em up, and keep them yourself; and 
 read them over and understand them with Louis, when 
 I'm gone. He is a good boy. And daughter," bringing 
 out the enforced cunning of a life's training, " fasten the 
 drawer where you got them, so your mother can't get 
 in and stay ! take them to-day to Squire Hitchcock. 
 That is safest." 
 
 After the first shock of her husband's illness, his wife 
 came and went irrespective of him, as before. She 
 headed a colored prayer- meeting, and occupied herself 
 collecting funds in aid of freedrnen in Arkansas. She 
 was too busy, far too busy, to bestow much thought or 
 any care on the broken-hearted man slowly drifting into 
 eternity. 
 
 This was, indeed, as Dr. Perfect said, a season of re 
 freshing to the dying man and his devoted nurse. They 
 created a little ideal world for themselves, and lived 
 therein. He liked to wear an old-fashioned flowered 
 dressing-gown and black velvet skull-cap, that his daugh 
 ter made him after a description of some owned by an 
 antiquated artist, seen in his youth. Thus arrayed he
 
 444 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 received Peace in her occasional calls from Cragenfels, 
 where she was trying by systematic merrymaking to 
 drive away or grind out the unrest at her heart. Poor 
 Peace ! the packet of Johnnie Hauxhurst's friendly let 
 ters, results of the Kauterskill expedition, Chandy's 
 jokes, and Sabrina's pleasant high bred companionship, 
 had no power to make life seem worth while, or anything 
 but a desolate, useless traversing of earth space. She 
 herself did not know why she suifered ; why the family 
 disgraces were so bitter and life so profitless. But all 
 the more she laid pitfalls for the " Widower," exasper 
 ated Charley, and turned them all to frolic. " Go to, 
 now, I will prove thee with mirth ; but this also is 
 vanity." 
 
 Something of her unconfessed restlessness seemed to 
 affect the paralytic, who, fond as he was of her bright 
 face and flippant tongue, always breathed a sigh of relief 
 at her departure. He thought over all the possible 
 feminine wants that had come within his observation, 
 and asked Mollie if she supposed money would be any 
 comfort to her friend. Upon an affirmative he gave her 
 enough to set up ten poor families in housekeeping, and 
 more (Peace was at such work now) ; but the result 
 did not justify his hopes. 
 
 It would have been a comfort to Mollie and her father 
 if Francis Haythorne, who had returned to Millville, 
 could have stayed at Fir Covert ; but Mrs. McCross, con 
 ceiving that this might make her extra trouble, peremp 
 torily refused her husband's meek request, and went on 
 with her holiness meetings and spiritual work, with as 
 much eagerness as ever. 
 
 As the spring deepened into summer, it became more 
 and more plain that the sufferer's hours \vm-e nauiln r d. 
 He grew gradually too weak to bear removal from his bod,
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 445 
 
 and spent his time singing hymns in a cracked voice, and 
 looking at the blossoms he and Mollie had nursed so ten 
 derly for years. There were certain plants old as his nurse 
 herself he had them stand in a row on the window-ledge, 
 where he could see them every day. Two geraniums he 
 selected from among them, which he said must be planted 
 above his grave ; and on the sticks that marked them, 
 she found in faded writing the names " Louis and 
 Mollie." 
 
 He used to make her read " A charge to keep I have,'* 
 as a sort of penance, always pronouncing the last lines 
 himself in his old-fashioned articulation : 
 
 " Assoored if I my trust betray 
 I shall forever die ; " 
 
 and then the Psalm, " Blessed is the man whose trans 
 gression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered ; " and, 
 " Say unto Jerusalem that she hath received at the 
 Lord's hand double for all her sins." 
 
 Sometimes they perused long stories together, Mollie 
 selecting from her favorite shelf. She found her calcula 
 tion of fitness oddly astray. Villette grated, and Haw 
 thorne's reveries became trite on the ear of the fast fad 
 ing spirit ; not so John Halifax, always noble, sweet, 
 and strong ; he could not bear to wait for its end, and 
 as his daughter read on, the wholesome trusting spirit of 
 the book seemed to exorcise all the tangles in the skein 
 of memory and anticipation. Mrs. McCross made no 
 objections to the occupation beyond a disparaging glance, 
 being otherwise intent. But her husband was more 
 heedful of her occupations ; and used regularly to inquire 
 where she was, with every indication of anxiety, though 
 he never wanted her near him. One day she brought 
 Cabby home in attendance, and proceeded with viva-
 
 446 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 cious enjoyment to feed him with cake and -wine in the 
 adjoining sitting-room. 
 
 The Deacon heard his thin affected vocables through 
 the open door, and the old man's emaciated features 
 flushed. "Tell him, Mollie tell him that I Elizur 
 McCross, am a dying man, and don't want my last hours 
 disturbed by him. Tell him when I'm dead he can come 
 often as he likes, but not while I'm alive." 
 
 The old man's high-keyed, fretful wail sounded dis 
 tinct in one room as the other, and Cabby, muttering 
 something about going to be measured for boots, rose to 
 depart ; but this Mrs. McCross would not permit. 
 
 " Stay where you are and never mind him ; I won't 
 have him hen-huzzying around," she muttered, angrily ; 
 and Cabby required little urging to resume his seat. 
 
 The Deacon didn't reiterate his request. " They that 
 dwell in mine house count me as a stranger ; I am as an 
 alien in their sight," said he, sadly. " You are all the 
 comfort 1 have, daughter." 
 
 As the struggle between matter and spirit waxed 
 fiercer, he grew querulous at times ; and the fit past, 
 counted his little personal possessions again and again to 
 bestow them on the object of his harmless outbreaks ; 
 but the hymns and Bible readings proved unfailing source 
 of rest. 
 
 It was not very long after the completion of Mrs. 
 Craik's wonderful history, that the Deacon called his 
 wife to his side, and stretched out his poor shaking hand 
 for hers. " Mirandy," said he, feebly, " you and I did a 
 great wrong once ; since then our barns and storehouses 
 have run over with fatness, but leanness has entered our 
 souls. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of 
 the fatherless ; the Lord shall plead their cause."
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 447 
 
 Mrs. McCross returned no answer, but her small, thin 
 features looked more tallowy than ever in the twilight. 
 
 " Mirandy," said her husband again, pleadingly, 
 " there is still time to make it partly right. The 
 money matter must all come out when I'm dead. I've 
 put a memorandum of his property in the will, but the 
 other wife, I don't want to leave the world so, the bur 
 den is too heavy to bear it was a cruel thing to send 
 that boy to prison when we knew the real thief. It's not 
 too late, if you'll consent to help that think of Mollie." 
 
 Still no reply. 
 
 " My dear," his voice was almost a whisper now 
 " won't you give up to ease a dying man ? " 
 
 " Deacon McCross, I've always considered that money 
 as fairly earned. Gold wouldn't pay for the trouble I 
 took with him, and what little we've got I mean to keep. 
 As for confessing any other nonsense if you choose to, 
 go to the jail and condone the faults of them two burglars 
 and get 'em to leave your own ward to go where they 
 belonged ; you did it yourself; you've no right to mix up 
 my good name with your double-dealing, in any way, 
 shape or manner." 
 
 She stood glaring at him out of her faded eyes, that 
 could only light up with one expression malice. 
 
 The Deacon didn't entreat any longer. He turned his 
 head away from this woman, the evil genius of his life, 
 and a few minutes after said, still more feebly, " Will you 
 call Mollie ? " 
 
 Something, perhaps, in the lingering tenderness with 
 which he dwelt on the name aroused the mother's ire. 
 
 "No, I won't," said she, peevish and self-asserting; 
 " it's nothing but ' my daughter, my daughter,' from 
 morning till night, I wonder if I'm no account in my 
 own house ! If you want medicines I'll give them."
 
 448 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 A minute after alight footstep sounded in the doorway. 
 " Mollie, Mollie," he called, " come quick, darling; " and 
 then in a glad, free tone, " Oh, boys, school's out." 
 
 But hasten as she might, one was there before her, who 
 brought him forth to his long holiday. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 " Mary, Mary, quite contrairy, 
 How does your garden grow ? " 
 
 JT may chance that some people, who have hearts 
 to take interest in the lower classes, are wonder 
 ing about little Doppy. But it happened very 
 naturally. Mollie had not been back from Top Town a 
 week when the aggrieved damsel made her appearance. 
 She had cried herself sick, looked thin and yellow ; enter 
 ing, her lip quivered at Mollie's greeting. She jerked 
 off her bonnet, dropped sidewise into the first chair, and 
 began without preface or explanation : 
 
 " An' have you seen Amos ? " 
 
 " Not since I left Top Town when he brought Zack." 
 
 " Oh, to bring Zack ! with a toss of her head, an' 
 much good it may do him. I'll be bound all his talk 
 didn't run on the rooster." 
 
 " No, it ran on his tongue. The rooster had enough 
 to do to carry himself," said Mollie, with a smile. 
 
 " Whitcht ! " cried Doppy, aggrieved at the triviality. 
 " I know what he talked about. Amos ! Amos Daley, if 
 I do say it, is too mean to live. He's selfish and he's 
 cowardly and he's underhanded. Pooh ! I know him. 
 Haven't we tramped together these years ? "
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 449 
 
 This being unanswerable, Mollie assumed the offensive. 
 
 Indeed, to tell the truth, at the bottom of her feminine 
 soul, Miss McCross was a trifle out of patience with her 
 charge. To her whose whole life was a sacrifice to love, 
 it seemed so strange that Doppy, a woman with a heart 
 as leal and warm as her own, should torture herself 
 and the man she cared for in this way. How could she 
 know what love was! argued Mollie, and not in all these 
 years have learned that its very essence ia self-abiiega- 
 tion. 
 
 " I must hear the story," said she, taking die firm little 
 Irish hands in hers, and diving down into the depths of 
 the open Irish soul with a friendly glance ; " Amos al 
 ways seemed a good boy." 
 
 " Yes, seemed! " Dorothea's voice took its highest 
 key. " When you know him, same as I do, you'll tell 
 another story ; you're too easy imposed upon by half." 
 But all the time the girl was yielding to Mollie's gentle 
 tranquillity, and the last word died away in a sob. " It 
 aint anything worth talking on only only sob 
 sob I'm so miserable." She hid her face in her friend's 
 lap, and cried convulsively, every tear washed cleaner her 
 mental picture of the situation. It ain't much to tell," 
 said she, sitting up at last and drying her eyes with her 
 Jittle cotton handkerchief, " but it's awful hard to bear. 
 To have Amos, as I've tramped with sence we were no 
 size, jilt me and take up with Mary Ellen Heffron, that 
 don't care any more for hiiu'n Jack no, nor half so 
 much." At this dreadful disclosure Doppy again betook 
 herself to tears. " No, I ain't mistaken," seeing denial 
 in Mollie's eyes ; " it was this way : I sez to Amos, that 
 Mary Ellen Heffron was without even wan partner, bad 
 luck to her for a black flirt as she is, and I thought it 
 would be nought but kind to show her some small atten-
 
 450 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 tion, ineanin' perhaps wan dance, and him to go on that 
 and invite her for foor quadrilles yesfoor leavin' me 
 settin' by the wall the hull time, only I didn't ; and then 
 to ask to see her home ! Suppose he tought me the lass 
 to take up wid some of the lazy-bones he left ; but that's 
 not my way. I toold 'em to take care of themselves and 
 let me lone ; I didn't need them if Amos had got a sim- 
 perin' miss to think of, and cut me." 
 
 " You did! " said Mollie severely, conscious of a cer 
 tain picnic when Louis carried Peace rowing, and left 
 her to set table. 
 
 Doppy's angry blushes paled to reappear shame-bidden ; 
 but she wouldn't give up. 
 
 "You must have treated Amos very ill. Tell me if 
 you haven't been just as mean as you could be ever since 
 that night ? " 
 
 " Of course," said Doppy stoutly, " and I had a right. 
 I always set out to treat every one just as they treat me." 
 
 " It's a poor rule that don't work both ways. What 
 do you suppose Amos thinks of you ? " 
 
 No woman wants to lose her lover's good opinion ; its 
 desire in such matters is her greatest power over herself. 
 Doppy grew uneasy. " He's no business to act so. I 
 meant to teach him better. Sure " (with a rueful smile) 
 "you've often said I've the care of his edication." 
 
 " If you haven't taught him several things this time, 
 it's not your fault." Mollie had the art of dealing in 
 generalities. On occasions like the present, she made a 
 few observations, not inapplicable, and left conscience to 
 do the rest. This saved trouble to all parties. People 
 who really are fit for advice, must have already taken 
 considerable moral emetic. A trifle more will usually 
 set matters right. There is another thing that born ad 
 visers some are do. With a hand touch their electric
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 451 
 
 force puts them en rapport with the sufferer, and their 
 mere will-power compels resolve. It isn't the best way. 
 Its too frequent use exhausts the one, and destroys the 
 soul poise of the other. Mollie was so afraid of disturb 
 ing Doppy's identity, that she loosened her warm hand 
 clasp, and sat waiting. She wanted her protegee's decision 
 to be one of principle, not result of her own overpower 
 ing influence. 
 
 " Mary Ellen Heffron looked mighty handsome lean 
 ing on his arm," was the audible conclusion of that 
 damsel's mental struggle. 
 
 Nothing from Mollie. 
 
 " But I'm sorry I was so mean about dancing with 
 Hugh Croslow, just to plague Amos. P'raps he couldn't 
 help payin' her attention, bad luck to that same for 
 makin' him." 
 
 " Mary Ellen Heffron sometimes takes in sewing I 
 bought Amos a dozen handkerchiefs in Top Town, but 
 father's illness " 
 
 " Miss Mollie," cried Doppy, starting to her feet, and 
 setting her arms akimbo, energetic as hurt ; " if you give 
 them things to her, I'll just hate you, so there! " 
 
 The sequel is easily told. Amos, in a tumbled and 
 seedy condition, but quite unable to keep away, must 
 needs shamble by the " Solomon Rodgers," whistling very 
 loud and looking into dim distance. 
 
 Doppy ironing the last of the set in the " dacent young 
 couple's kitchen," glanced out of the window, and saw 
 him. She had stitched all her anger into the hems, and 
 made up her mind that to do his sewing was quite as 
 much happiness as she deserved. At least it would make 
 life a barely endurable burden. It wasn't Amos's fault 
 that, being so perfectly desirable, the " black coquette " 
 would entrap him. She must learn to live without own-
 
 452 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 ing him, it seemed ; but he should own her, anyway. 
 That was better than nothing. She would mend his 
 clothes, and learn to exult in his conquests. 
 
 Her face reflected her changed feeling. Meanwhile 
 Master Daley was past the middle of the opposite house. 
 Would he be always angry ? Would he refuse the hand 
 kerchiefs ? Would he say " I liked to take your work 
 because I cared for you, but I hate jealous people and 
 won't give up Mary Ellen." But she was willing to have 
 him like Mary Ellen. He'd see it if he looked that way. 
 But he didn't mean to he should. 
 
 "Amos!" 
 
 Amos just in the midst of his careless tune, thought, 
 " I hate her just as much as I did, but I'll go over to the 
 other side, and hear what she has to say." It couldn't 
 make any difference. He would stare the other direction 
 to show his unconcern, and tie up his shoe by accident. 
 
 Doppy's courage all came back as he turned toward the 
 house. It fell a little when he seemed so sullen. There 
 was something dangerous about this quiet, determined, 
 albeit miserable, mien. He had let her pull him about as 
 she pleased so far. She had never seen him in this guise 
 before, so white and grim at once. 
 
 " Amos," faintly, " come in, I've got something for 
 you from Miss McCross." 
 
 " I'll take it through the window," with studied stolid 
 ity, inside thought, " I won't have it patched up. I ain't 
 a man to be jiggled all the time seein' she don't care for 
 me." 
 
 " No, you won't," said Doppy, flashing out at the 
 idea that it was another woman's influence that thus 
 metamorphosed " her boy." " If you have taken up with 
 that contemptuous Heffron girl, an' so thrown me over 
 board that you can't pay attention enough to enter my
 
 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 453 
 
 doors, you shan't have 'em." Whereupon she did them 
 small in a grab, threw the bundle at his head, and slammed 
 the window. 
 
 Before Amos knew it, he had reached the kitchen, 
 handkerchiefs in hand, and, setting his back against the 
 inside of the door, exclaimed : " Dorothea Mulligan, I 
 can't take them things wid your work on 'em, an' you 
 feelin' as you do." 
 
 It wasn't the anger, though he was angry, it was the 
 sorrowful dignity of his words that awed her. His voice, 
 deep, and earnest, thrilled her. He didn't act well, as 
 she had fancied and feared. She wished he would show 
 passion, and so put them on even terms. But there he 
 stood quiet, unyielding, resolved. 
 
 " Amos, I don't feel no way," said she, nervously. 
 
 " I didn't at first, but I do now," firm as a rock in 
 sense of wrong. 
 
 Doppy couldn't let it go on so. " I ain't mad, Amos," 
 imploring him with tone and gesture. " If you like Mary 
 Ellen best, I ain't goin' to stand between." 
 
 " I don't care nothin' for her," he answered in his slow 
 way, " but I think of my manhood. I can't be drawed off 
 an' on like a glove, Doppy, or mayhap an old shoe. 
 Though there's no weariness I've not been proud to save 
 your feet. I must have my place all the time. I'm 
 awkward and ugly, but if I've any value to you, I must 
 hold it for always, lettin' none push between." 
 
 " If Amos was a fool, Doppy wasn't. Plainly there 
 was a mistake somewhere. " I hain't let nobody between. 
 You danced wid Mary Ellen, an' oh, Amos, you looked 
 as if you liked it." 
 
 Master Duley seeing the wicked deceiver growing rosy, 
 and gazing modestly at the floor, was conscience-stricken, 
 but he wouldn't give up ; ho had suffered too much.
 
 454 SHIFTLESS FOLKS. 
 
 " Do you like me best ? " said he, coldly. 
 
 " That depends altogether on the depth of your affec 
 tion for the Heffron," said provoking beauty. 
 
 But Amos wasn't versed in the vca^ys of women or 
 flirts. He was refused an answer to a plain question. 
 He would go forever ; the sooner the better. He 
 dropped the handkerchiefs unconsciously, and opened 
 the door. " I despise her, and I hate " 
 
 " Not me," cried Doppy, rushing at him, dragging 
 him back, and jamming the latch fast, all in a breath. 
 " Now sit down, Amos. Was there ever such a man ! 
 Of course you're first. I thought you knew it." 
 
 THE END.
 
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