o o -;v o 
 
 " 
 
 o o o 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
Making him look like a man of thirty. Vide p. 92. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS 
 
 B5f 
 
 SALLY PRATT McLEAN 
 
 A* 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 A WILLIAMS & COMPANY 
 OLD CORNER BOOKSTORE 
 
 iSSi 
 
Copyright, 1881, 
 BY A. WILLIAMS Co. 
 
 EIGHTH EDITION. 
 
TO 
 
 I <fi 
 
 36764 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CMArTKR 
 
 I. ON A MISSION, .... 
 
 II. I BLOW THE HORN, 
 
 III. THE BEAUS OF WALLENCAMP PERFORM 
 
 A GRAVE DUTY, 
 
 IV. THE TURKEY MOGUL ARRIVES, 
 
 V. GRANDMA SPICER GETS GRANDPA READY 
 
 FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL, 
 
 VI. ETHEL AND CRADLEBOW, 
 
 VII. BENNEY KISSES THE TEACHER, 
 
 VIII. FESTIVITIES AT THE ARK, 
 
 IX. NOEL " POPS THE QUESTION," . 
 
 X. A LETTER FROM THE FISHERMAN, . 
 
 XI. A WALLENCAMP FUNERAL, 
 
 XII. ETHEL S CONFESSION, 
 
 XIII. A MILD WINTER ON THE CAPE, 
 
 XIV. RESCUED BY THE CRADLEROW, 
 
 XV. ELIOT TURNER IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM 
 
 XVI. GEORGE OLVER S LOVE FOR ETHEL, 
 
 XVII. TEACHER HAS THE FEVER. DEATH OF 
 
 LITTLE BESSIE, 
 
 XVIII. BENNEY GIVES THE TEACHER A NEW 
 
 CHAIR, 
 
 XIX. . DEATH OF THE CRADLEBOW, . 
 
 XX. GEORGE OLVER S ORATION, 
 
 XXI. FAREWELL TO WALLENCAMP, . 
 
 63 
 
 86 
 109 
 130 
 154 
 
 175 
 190 
 
 201 
 214 
 227 
 
 237 
 249 
 
 25$ 
 268 
 
 280 
 
 288 
 
 307 
 
 3*4 
 
Frontispiece : 
 GRANDMA GETS GRANDPA READY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON A MISSION. 
 
 " Lo, on a narrer neck o land, 
 Twixt two unbounded seas. I stand 1 " 
 
 [UNT Susan, was not sporting, now, in the airy 
 realms of metaphor. Aunt Susan stood upon 
 Cape Cod, and her voice rang out with that 
 peculiar sweep and power which the presence of a dread 
 reality alone can give. Something of the precariousness 
 of her situation, too, was expressed in the wild, alarming, 
 though graceful, gesture of her arms. 
 
 It was before the long projected canal separating Cape 
 Cod from the main land had been put under active pro 
 cess of preparation. 
 
 It was at an evening meeting in the Wallencamp 
 schoolhouse. A row of dingy, smoking lanterns had been 
 et against the wall and afforded the only light cast upon 
 the scene. Aunt Susannah Cradlebow the speaker, 
 was tall and dark-eyed, with an almost super-human 
 litheness of body, and a weird, beautiful face. 
 
 " And, oh, my dear brothers and sisters and oncon- 
 varted friends !" she continued, "how little do we realize 
 
2 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 the reskiness of our situwation here on the Cape ! Here 
 we stand with them ar identical unbounded seas a rollin 
 up on ary s, de of us I the world a pintin at us as them 
 that should be always ready, with our lamps trimmed and 
 burnin \. ;an$, yit, oh my dear brothers and sisters and 
 onconvarted friends ! as fur as I have been inland, and I 
 have been a consid able ways inland, as you all know, 
 whar it would seem no more than nateral that folks should 
 settle down kind o* safe and easy on a dry land univarse 
 I say as fur as I have been inland, I never see sech 
 keeryins on and carnal works, sech keerlessness for the 
 present and onconsarn for the futur as I have amongst 
 the benighted critturs who stand before me this evenin , a 
 straddlin this poor, old, Hopeforsaken Pot Hook !" 
 
 Clearer and louder grew Aunt Susan s tones ; her eyes 
 lightened with terrible meaning ; her words flowed with 
 an unction that was unmistakable, and, at length, " Oh, 
 run for the Ark, ye poor, lost sinners," she exclaimed. 
 " Oh, run for the Ark, my onconvarted friends ! Don t 
 ye hear the waves a com in in? They re a rollin swift 
 and sure ! They re a roll in in sure as death ! Run for 
 the Ark ! Run for the Ark !" 
 
 Now, there was in Wallcncamp a literal Ark, otherwise 
 this exhortation would have lacked its most convincing 
 force and significance. But Aunt Susan paused. 
 Among the usually restless audience, there was a moment 
 of almost breathless suspense. Not half a mile away, 
 behind a strip of Cedar woods, we could plainly 
 hear the surf rolling in from the bay, breaking hard 
 against the shore with its awful monotonous moan, moan, 
 moan. 
 My heart was already faint with homesickness. The 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 8 
 
 effect of that waiting moment was as sombre as anything 
 I had ever experienced. Much to my distaste, I found 
 myself sympathizing with the vague terror and unrest around 
 me. I can hear it still, the voice that then rose, singing, 
 through the sullen gloom of the school room, a strangely 
 sweet and rapturous voice Abagail s. I learned to 
 know it well afterwards. I listened with rapt surprise to 
 the pathos with which it thrilled the simple words of the 
 song. 
 
 u Shall we meet beyond the River 
 When the surges cease to roll, 
 AVhere, in nil the bright forever, 
 Sorrow ne er shall press the soul?" 
 
 A keenly responsive chord had been touched in the 
 simple, agitated breasts of the Wallencampers and they 
 joined in the chorus these rough people not with their 
 usual reckless exuberance of tone, but plaintively, trem 
 blingly even, as though whatever the words, they would 
 make of them a prayer in which to hide some secret doubt 
 or longing of their souls. 
 
 44 Shall we moot, shall we meet, 
 Shall we meet beyond the Itivcr?" 
 
 The strain was repeated with a most pathetic quaver in 
 the rendering, and then big Captain Sartcll broke 
 down, with a helpless gulp in his voice, and I, who 
 believed myself of too superior and refined a nature 
 to be moved by sucli tawdry sentiment, was further 
 dismayed to feel the tears gathering fast in my own "eyes. 
 
 After the meeting, on the schoolhouse steps, the big 
 Captain, as if to atone for any unmanly exhibition of 
 feeling into which he might have been betrayed inside, 
 took little Bachelor Rae up by the shoulders, and gently 
 
A CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 and playfully held him suspended in mid air, while he put 
 to him the following riddle : 
 
 " I ll wager a quarter,in a good, squar guess, Bacheldor. 
 Why is why air Aunt Susan s remarks like this ere 
 peninshaler, eh, Bacheldor?" 
 
 " Because ahem ! because they re always a run- 
 nin to a p int, eh ? " inquired the keen little bachelor. 
 
 " No, by thunder ! " exclaimed the discomfited Captain, 
 setting the magician down promptly. " As near as I 
 calk late," he continued, endeavoring to resume his former 
 air of cool and reckless raillery ; " as near as I calk late, 
 Bacheldor, yes, sir, as near as I calk late, it s it s 
 by thunder ! it s because they re both liable to squalls 
 in fu r weather ! " 
 
 Amazed, and almost frightened at the unexpected 
 brilliancy of his evil success, the Captain yet kept a rueful 
 and furtive eye on the little bachelor. 
 
 Bachelor Rae coughed slightly and smiled. "Very 
 true," he drawled, cheerfully, in his small, thin voice, 
 " I m ahem ! I m not a married man myself, you 
 know, Captain. However," he added, "you should have 
 given me another try. I had the correct answer on my 
 tongue s end." 
 
 During this brief exchange between the stars of the 
 Wallencamp debate ground, murmurs of appreciative 
 applause arose from the group of bystanders, and " Pretty 
 tight pinch for you, Captain ! " and " Three cheers for 
 Bacheldor ! ye can t git ahead of Bacheldor ! " sprang 
 delightedly from lip to lip. 
 
 Aunt Susan had scented from within this buoyant 
 resumption of the Wallencamp mirth, and now appeared 
 on the scene, bearing a burning lantern in her hand. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 5 
 
 She first turned the glare of its full orb on the late sin- 
 convicted Captain, who stood revealed with a guilty grin 
 frozen helplessly on his alarmed features, and next 
 directed the beams of disclosing justice towards the form 
 of the little bachelor, who, in pronounced meekness, was 
 engaged in re-adjusting the collar of his coat. 
 
 "At it ag in ! " Aunt Susan exclaimed, with slow and 
 cutting emphasis. " At it ag in ! I do believe you re all 
 possessed of the devil ! " 
 
 Then, with one sweep of the lantern, she took a com 
 prehensive survey of the shivering group, and passed on 
 without another word, while in the breast of every guilty 
 Wallencamper then present, there rested a deep sense of 
 merited condemnation. 
 
 Aunt Susan was soon followed by the other lantern 
 bearers, who dispersed homeward, along the four roads 
 diverging from the schoolhouse, and, the night being 
 starless, the children of the darkness followed meekly in 
 their wake. 
 
 The longest coute lay before those who took the River 
 Road leading to the Indian Encampment. Bachelor Rae 
 was the hindmost in this receding column. Bachelor 
 Rae, though too withered and brown of visage to afford 
 enlightenment as to his species, was held to be of un 
 questionable white descent. Vet he kept house, alone, at 
 the Indian Encampment. 
 
 Then there was the Stony Hill Road, up which a few 
 pilgrims toiled ; and the Cross Lot Road to the beach 
 thiilvr went the Morrises. Last of all, there was the 
 Lane, and it was somewhat in the rear of the lane proces 
 sion that I musingly wended my way, led by the beams 
 of Grandma Spicer s slowly swaying lantern. 
 
6 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 I was the Wallencamp school teacher. I had come to 
 this " rock-bourn! coast " imagining myself impelled by 
 much the same necessity as that which fired the bosoms of 
 the earlier pilgrims. Not that I hail been restricted in 
 respect to religious privileges, but I sought for a true 
 independence of life and aim ; and, furthermore, it 
 should be said. I had come to Wallencamp on a mission. 
 " On a mission ! " how the thought had tickled my fancy 
 and roused my warmest enthusiasm but a few short days 
 before ! Indeed, I hail not been yet a week in Walleiv 
 cnmp ,and now, as I walked up the lane in a mood quite 
 the reverse of enthusiastic, I was painfully trying to gather 
 from my small and scattered sources of information what 
 the exact meaning of the phrase might be. 
 
 1 had entered on the performance of my errand to 
 Wallencamp under circumstances not usual, perhaps, 
 among propagandists ; nevertheless, I had been singularly 
 free from misgivings. 
 
 A girl of nineteen years, I had a home endowed with 
 every luxury ; a circle of family acquaintance, which, I 
 admitted, did me great credit ; congenial companions ; 
 besides, I was particularly well pleased with Nature for 
 the uncommon beauty which she seemed to me to have 
 poured out in my behalf. As for my education, I was 
 pleased to call it completed. My career at boarding 
 schools had been of a delightfully varied and elective 
 nature, for I would never have deigned to peg along 
 with squalid studiousness, or even to sail with politic 
 and inglorious ease through the prescribed course of 
 study at any institution. Any misadventures necessarily 
 following from this course, my friends had gilded over 
 tvith the flattering insinuation that 1 was " too vivacious " 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 7 
 
 for this sort of discipline, or "too fragile" for that, 
 though I am bound to say that, in such cases, my 
 "vivacity" had generally sealed my fate before the 
 delicacy of my constitution became too alarmingly 
 apparent. 
 
 1 had, to be sure, a few commendable aspirations, but 
 I had started out fresh so many times with them, only to 
 see them meet the same end ! 
 
 Though not by nature of a self- depreciatory turn of 
 mind, I had occasional flashes of inspiration, to the effect 
 that, in spite of the soft flattery of friends, I really was 
 amounting to very little after all. It was in a mood 
 induced by one of these supernatural gleams that I stood 
 on one occasion, leaning a pair of very plump arms 
 on the graveyard wall, looking wistfully over into the 
 place of tombs, and thinking how nice it would be to 
 have done forever with the fret and turmoil of a life ! 
 And it was at such a time, too, that I received from a 
 school friend, Mary Taite, the letter which was the moving 
 cause of my mission to Wallencamp. 
 
 Mary Taite, by the way, was one of those "prosy, 
 ridiculous girls " so I had been compelled to classify 
 her, although I was secretly troubled by a sincere admira 
 tion of her virtues, who had made it an absorbing 
 pursuit of her school days to probe her text books for 
 useful information, and was also accustomed to defer to 
 her teachers as high authority on matters of daily dis 
 cipline. She was not in "our set." She was poor, and 
 studious, and obedient, yet a friendship had sprung up 
 between her and me, and I was moved to forgive her, in 
 many respects, the grovelling tendencies of her nature. 
 t even ascended occasionally to her room on the fourth 
 
8 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 floor to shock her with my sentiments, when there was 
 nothing livelier going on. 
 She wrote : 
 
 " MY DEAR S : Are you still perfectly happy, as you 
 
 used to try to have me think you were always the old 
 restlessness, the better longings unsatisfied, do they never 
 come up again ? [That was Mary s insidious way of stating 
 a difficulty.] Do n t you believe you would be happier 
 to do something in real earnest? Something for people 
 outside, I mean. [I flushed a little at that. An insinu 
 ation of that sort can t be put too delicately.] I have 
 tried to imagine how the proposal I am going to make 
 will strike you but never mind. I am teaching, 
 you know, in Kedarville. I leave here, at the close 
 of the term, for another field of labor, and now I want 
 you to apply for the Kedarville school. Yes, it is a 
 remote, poverty-stricken place. It contains no society, 
 no church, no library, not even a little country store ! It 
 would seem to you, I dare say, like going back to the 
 half barbarous conditions of life. The people are simple 
 and kind-hearted ; but they need training oh, how 
 much ! physically, mentally and morally. I can assure 
 you, here is scope for the most daring missionary enter 
 prise, and you, I believe that you could do it if you 
 would. * * * * * Consider the matter seriously ; 
 consult with your friends about it, and if you do decide 
 to try the experiment, write as legibly as you possibly can 
 to the Superintendent of Schools, Farmouth, Mass., stating 
 your qualifications, etc., etc." 
 
 The idea struck me with such strange and immediate 
 favor, that I quite forbore to consult with my friends 
 in regard to it. I resolved to go on the instant, and 
 wrote my friend Mary to that effect, congratulating her, 
 with an undercurrent of mischievous intention, on having 
 been the happy means of setting my powers drifting in 
 the right direction at last ; and reproached her gently with 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 9 
 
 having seemed to imply, once, in her letter, some occult 
 reason why I had not been regarded, heretofore, as 
 specially designed to work in the cause of missions, 
 whereas I had always felt myself drifting inevitably 
 towards that end. 
 
 I wrote to the Superintendent of the Farmouth schools. 
 But here I had an earnest purpose to serve, and a real 
 desire to succeed, and here met with a difficulty. 
 
 I had not the art of presenting my earnest purposes in 
 the most assuring and credible manner. They would 
 wear, in spite of me, an uneasy air of novelty; yet I 
 aimed nobly. 
 
 I dilated largely on some of the evils existing in 
 the present system of education, and hinted at reforms 
 not yet meditated by the world at large, but skilfully 
 forgot to mention my own qualifications. 
 
 On reading the letter over, I was astonished at the 
 flattering nature of the result, and, with the buoyant 
 pride of one who believes he has suddenly discovered a 
 new resource in himself, I sent a copy of my application 
 to Mary Taite. 
 
 She answered in the language of sorrowful reproach : 
 
 " Oh, S., how could you ! " I was forced to conclude 
 that, as usual, I had somehow made a mis-step, and sought 
 to conceal my mortification as best I might, by persuading 
 myself and my friend that I had only regarded the matter 
 as a joke all through. Nevertheless, I was bitterly dis 
 appointed. 
 
 What was my surprise, then, a few days afterwards, to 
 receive this communication from the Superintendent of 
 Schools : 
 
10 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " You are accepted to fill the position of teacher in the 
 
 Kedarville school." Then followed terse directions as to 
 
 the best way of reaching Kedarville, and, finally : " Mrs. 
 
 Ithamer Spicer will board you for two dollars and fifty 
 
 cents per week." 
 
 As I read this last clause everything that had made a 
 sudden tumult in my mind before was lulled into a 
 mysterious calm. 
 
 It was not the low valu set upon the means of sub 
 sistence in Kedarville. Mercenary motives were, with me, 
 as yet, out of the question. It was not the oppressive 
 charm of Mrs. Ithamer Spicer s name that effected me so 
 strangely. 
 
 It was the expressive combination of the whole, at 
 once so clear cut and unique. 
 
 I murmured it softy to myself on my way home from 
 the Post-Office. 
 
 " Han," said I, quite gravely, to my elder sister, on 
 entering the house, " Mrs. Ithamer Spicer will board me 
 for two dollars and fifty cents per week," and handed her 
 the letter in pensive, though triumphant, confirmation of 
 my words. 
 
 "When did you do this?" she gasped, and, before I 
 could answer "how are you going to get out of it? 
 she faintly demanded. 
 
 " Simply by getting into it, my dear," I answered, with 
 that unyielding sweetness of demeanor for which I fancied 
 I had ever been distinguished in the family circle. 
 
 1 began to make my preparations for departure without 
 delay. 
 
 Tender remonstrances, studied expostulations, were 
 alike of no avail, and they helped me to pack, finally 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 11 
 
 those dear good people at home putting as brave a 
 face as they could upon it, and hoping for the best. 
 
 My father assured my mother, though with trembling 
 lip and tearful eye, that " God would temper the wind to 
 the shorn lamb." 
 
 I smiled at the part I was meant to play in this 
 cheerful allegory, though it seemed to me rather in 
 appropriate, as I had a new sealskin cloak that very winter. 
 
 At the last, I gathered from the new and sprightlier form 
 which the family submissiveness assumed, as well as from 
 certain inadvertent disclosures of Bridget s, that I was 
 confidently expected home again "in the course of a 
 week or two." And I thereupon doubly confirmed 
 myself in the resolve to see this thing through or die in 
 the attempt. 
 
 I can not define the motives which actuated me at this 
 time. They do not appear to have flowed in a clear and 
 pellucid stream. I discover a thirst for the surprising and 
 experimental, for situations, dilemmas, and emergencies, 
 sustained by the most sublime recklessness as to con 
 sequences. Then I see a dread of sinking into humdrum 
 the impulse never to be at rest ; deeper than all this, I 
 find a secret dissatisfaction with myself, a vague longing 
 to use the best that is in me to some true purpose, a desire 
 to leave the tangled skein, and " begin all over again." 
 
 It was early in January when I set out on my mission 
 to the distant shores of Cape Cod. It was also, I 
 remember, very early in the morning, and John Cable 
 occupied a seat in the car. I had reason to know that 
 John shared in the family disapproval of my sublime 
 conduct. He sat, looking very glum, behind his 
 paper, and appeared not to notice me when I came in . 
 
12 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Having finished reading his paper, he gnawed his 
 moustache and gazed, still with glaring unconsciousness of 
 my presence, out of the window. But as we neared Hart 
 ford, where I was to take the train for Boston, he came 
 over to where I sat. 
 
 " I hope you 11 enjoy yourself at Sandy Creek, this 
 winter," he said. 
 
 Now, I knew that John had designed this as sarcasm 
 the most scathing, but he was himself conscious of failure, 
 and the thought filled him with deeper gloom. He sought 
 to reveal his baffled intentions in a scowl, which lent to his 
 manly and intelligent features the darkness of spiritual 
 night. And I replied, that " the recollection of his face, 
 <ts it then appeared to me, would be, in itself, an in 
 spiration through all the days to come." 
 
 There was silence for a space, and then John continued. 
 
 " Have you found it on the map, yet? " 
 
 "What, please?" 
 
 " Kedarville ! " with bitter e tphasis. 
 
 " Oh ! certainly not." 
 
 "It may be a little island out there somewhere, you 
 Know," delivered with the effect of a masterpiece. 
 
 " Yes ; or a lighthouse, possibly." 
 
 I saw that John wished he had thought of that himself. 
 He became dejected again. Then, presently, he threw 
 off the cloak of bitterness which sat so ill on him, and, 
 resuming his usual kindliness and benignity of manner, 
 succeeded in making himself unconsciously tantalizing. 
 
 " If you do find it," he said, " and if you if you 
 conclude to stay for any length of time, I think I will go 
 down sometime this winter and hunt you up." 
 
 " If you do, John Cable," I answered, with unaccount- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 13 
 
 able warmth, " I 11 never forgive you as long as I live 
 never ! " 
 
 At Hartford, John took the train for Boston, too. We 
 were very old friends. Latterly, we had read Shakespeare 
 together at the Newton Literary Club. We concluded 
 not to quarrel for the rest of the way. I had an influx 
 of gay spirits, and John was almost without exception 
 "nice." 
 
 There were several hours to wait in Boston before the 
 train on the Old Colony Road would go out. We had 
 dinner (I little realized how long it would be before I 
 should eat again), and John tamely suggested driving 
 about to look at some of the places of interest. I 
 assured him that there was nothing so dispiriting as look 
 ing at places of interest, and he answered, cheerfully, 
 after some moments of thought, that we could " shut our 
 eyes when we went by them, then." 
 
 I had reason to dread a decline of spirits. Mine were 
 rapidly on the wane. By the time we stopped at the Old 
 Colony depot they were low, indeed. And the hardest of 
 all was, that I would not, for my life, let my companion 
 know. It was four o clock in the afternoon, and already 
 quite dark. The atmosphere was heavy and chill ; the 
 sky ominous with clouds. I had an unknown journey 
 yet to take in search of an unknown destination. The car 
 into which I got on the Cape-bound train was dismal and 
 weird-seeming enough. 
 
 " I wish, if you must go, you would let me see you to 
 the end of this," said John. 
 
 I answered, laughing, with an unnecessary tinge of 
 defiance in my tone. It would have been so much easier 
 to have cried. I thought, " If John would only try to 
 
14 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 look cross again ! " as he did in the morning anything 
 but that expression of grieved and compassionate dis 
 approval with which he sat, talking so earnestly to me, for 
 the last few moments, in that dark car. I thought he was 
 cruel. He was trying to make me think, and I was trying 
 so hard not to think ! I felt a childish desire to scream 
 out. Then, when the signal for starting rang, and John 
 took my hand an instant, in parting, looking down at me 
 with his kind, familiar eyes, the impulse swept up strong 
 within me to beg him to take me out of that dreadful car 
 and take me back home, and I would be good, oh, so good, 
 and "prosy," yes, and " humdrum," and never ask to 
 go on any more missions to forlorn pieces of land sticking 
 out into the water. 
 
 So there must have been a wild extravagance in the 
 airy recklessness of tone with which I bade John "good 
 bye." A sense of utter helplessness came over me as 
 as he turned and went out. 
 
 I observed, particularly, but two passengers in the car. 
 One was a man, very much bandaged as to his head, who 
 sat gazing into the coal stove, which occupied the centre 
 of the car, with weakly meditative, burnt-out eyes. The 
 oilier was a girl, occupying the scat directly in front of 
 me. She might have been nine years old, but she had a 
 singularly faded and mature countenance. As the train 
 started, she turned to me with some excitement. 
 
 " There ! " said she, pointing towards the window, 
 "your beau s walking ofTl He *s walking fast ! He 
 ain t looking back ! " 
 
 "Thank you," said I, in a low, expressionless tone, iv>t 
 intended as an inducement to further conversation. 
 
 This girl had a parcel of confectionery, the con 
 
GATE COD FOLKS. 15 
 
 tents of which she occasionally took out, and ranged 
 in a row on the window ledge, selecting therefrom the 
 smallest and least inviting fragment, and having eaten 
 it with the hasty air of one who treats herself under 
 protest to the luscious prerogatives of childhood, put the 
 rest back in the paper bag, carefully replacing the string 
 every time. She selected and handed to me the very 
 largest specimen in her collection, which I had the grace- 
 lessness to refuse, though without show of disgust. 
 Afterwards, she asked if she might come and sit in the 
 seat with me. I thought she was very disagreeable. Be 
 sides, I was so miserable I wanted to commune apart with 
 my own loneliness. However, I made room for her. 
 
 She proceeded to confide to me all of her past history. 
 She was returning home from a visit to her aunt. Her 
 mother hail died a good many years ago, "when Johnnie 
 was a mere baby." She " kept house for father and took 
 care of Johnnie." She "tried hard not to have father 
 feel his loss. It was very hard," she added, giavcly, " for 
 a man to be left alone so." She had bought a little book 
 for Johnnie, but she never had much time to read ; 
 besides, she was n t quick to learn. She could pick the 
 words out, to be sure, but, somehow, it did n t make good 
 sense, and would 1 read the book to her? 
 
 O!i to take counsel of my own despair ! How dark 
 and wild it was growing outside! Where was I going? 
 whom should I meet there? 
 
 And so I read, at the foot of gorgeously- illuminated 
 pages, how 
 
 " HennyJ cnny am! ThieVy T.ncVy e^t started for the fair. 
 \V hen GOOMC I UOMC and Turkey Lurkey went out to view the air," 
 
 etc., the range of characters swiftly widening as the 
 
16 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 narrative increased in power. To my surprise, the mature 
 child listened to this nonsense with the utmost gravity and 
 interest. No shadow of derision played on her attentive 
 features. When I had finished it was soon finished 
 she said : 
 
 "Oh, that sounded so good; it made such good 
 sense," and sighed, very wistfully. 
 
 Do you want me to read it again? " I exclaimed, in 
 despair. 
 
 Would I read it again ? she asked. 
 
 I read it again. 
 
 After that she was silent and thoughtful for some time. 
 Then she said, looking gravely into my face : 
 
 " Do you love Jesus? " 
 
 " No, my dear," said I, surprised into much gentleness. 
 
 The faded blue eyes filled with tears. She had no 
 notion of harrassing me on the subject, but spoke quietly 
 and at length of her own religious convictions. 
 
 The East wind crept in through the window, and once 
 my little companion shivered. I noticed that she was 
 rather thinly clad. I unstrapped my shawl and wrapped 
 it around her. She let her head fall at my side, and went 
 to sleep. 
 
 Slowly, I was constrained to draw her up closer and 
 put my arm around her as support. In so doing, I 
 received from some source an unaccountable strength and 
 calm of spirit. 
 
 At Braintree, which the child had told me was her 
 home, I woke her up, and she got off. 
 
 I was to stop at West Wallen, the railway station least 
 remote from Kedarville, and expected there to meet Mrs 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 17 
 
 Abagail Spicer, or some member of that mysterious 
 family, to convey me to Wallencamp. 
 
 It seemed as though the train had had time to travel 
 the whole interminable length of the Cape and plunge off 
 into the ocean beyond, when, in fact, we were just enter 
 ing upon that peculiar body of land at West Wallen. 
 
 There was no one there to meet me. The little de*pot 
 was held by a strange night brigade of boys and girls, 
 playing " blind-man s buff. " They shouted like cannibals, 
 and bore down on all opposing objects with resistless 
 force. I did not attempt an entrance. A rough, good- 
 natured looking man stood on the platform outside. 
 
 I put on my glasses (I was sadly and unaffectedly near 
 sighted), and having further assured myself of his seeming 
 honesty, enquired if there was svch a place as Kedarville 
 in the vicinity. 
 
 " Waal, no, miss, thar ain *t," said he, with a noon 
 day smile, which informed me that there was yet some 
 thing to hope for. " Thar s no Kedar?///* that I know 
 on. Thar s a Wallencamp some miles up yender. We 
 do n t often tackle no Sunday go-to-meeting names on to 
 it, but I reckon, maybe, it s the same your alookin for." 
 
 He had spoken with such startling indefiniteness of the 
 distance that I asked him how far it was to Wallencamp. 
 
 " Waal, thar you Ye got me," said he, beaming on me 
 in a broadly complimentary way, as though I had actually 
 circumvented him in some skilful play at words. "Fact 
 is, thar ain t never been no survey run down in that 
 direction that I know on. We call it four miles, more 
 or less. That s Cape Cod measure means most any- 
 thin lineal measure. Talkin bout Cape Cod miles," 
 he continued, with an irresistible air of raillery. " Little 
 
18 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Bachclder Rae lives up thar to Wallcncamp, and they 
 do n t have no church nor nothin thar ; so Bachelder 
 and some on em, they come up here, once in a while, tu 
 Sunday-school. Deacon Lancy, he d rather see the Old 
 Coy comin into Sunday-school class any time than 
 Bachelder, for he s quiet, the little bachelder is, but dry 
 as a herrin . So the Deacon thought he d stick him on 
 distances. The Deacon is a great stickle -on distances 
 " How fur, Bachelder/ says he, did Adam and Eve 
 go when they was turned out of the garden of Eden ? 
 says he. 
 
 " Wall, says Bachelder, coughing a little, so that *s 
 Buchelder s way o talking we have sufficient reason 
 to cenfcr, Deacon, that, in all probabeelity, they went a 
 Ccctpe Cod milt . " 
 
 My informant s delight at this reminiscence was huge. 
 It yielded to a more subdued sense of the ludicrous 
 when I asked him if there was any public conveyance to 
 Wallencnmp He made a polite effort to restrain his 
 mirth, but the muscles of his face twitched violently. 
 
 " Wall, no, miss," said he, " we do n t run no reg lar 
 express up to Wallencamp ; might be a vary healthy 
 oc pation, but not as lukcrtivc as some, I reckon not 
 as lukertive as pickin later bugs : that s what they do, 
 mostly, down thar . Fact is, miss," he concluded, with 
 considerable gravity, " we do n t vary often go down to 
 Wallencamp unless we re obliged to." 
 
 On my proposing to make it lucrative, he immediately 
 called, in a loud voice, to one of the playful occupants of 
 the de"pot : 
 
 " Hi, thar J Rasmus 1 Rasmus 1 Here s a lady wants 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 19 
 
 to be conveyed down to Wallcncamp ; you run home 
 and tackle, now ! You be lively, now ! " 
 
 Rasmus was lively. In a very few moments something 
 of an unusual and ghostly appearance so much only I 
 could discover of what afterwards became a very familiar 
 sort of vehicle was waiting for me alongside the plat 
 form. The only means of getting into it was through an 
 opening directly in front. Towards this I was encouraged 
 to climb over the thills, but met with an obstacle, in the 
 form of my trunk, which seemed effectually to block up 
 the entrance. 
 
 " Thar , now ! I told ye so,* exclaimed one of the 
 bystanders, a large number of whom mysteriously gathered 
 about the scene. " You d orter got licr in first." 
 
 A disconsolate silence prevailed. The trunk had been 
 elevated to its present position through the most painful 
 exertions. 
 
 " Perhaps I can climb over it," I said, and bravely 
 made the attempt. 
 
 No one knew in the voiceless darkness, of the 
 suddenly helpless and collapsed condition in which I 
 landed on the other side. 1 groped about for a seat and 
 finally succeeded in finding one at the extreme rear of 
 the vehicle. 
 
 Rasmus drove. He was situated somewhere, some 
 how I could not tell where nor how in the realm of 
 vacancy on the other side of the trunk; I only know that 
 he seemed a long way oil. 
 
 Under these circumstances, conversation was rendered 
 extremely difficult. 1 learned that Mr. Ithamer Spicer 
 was away at sea ; that Mrs. Ithamer Spicer lived at the 
 
20 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Ark, with Cap n and Grandma Spicer, and the two little 
 Spicers. 
 
 Rasmus was the unmistakable son of his father. 
 
 " And it ain t no got-up ark, neither ! " he yelled at me, 
 in a tone which pierced through the distance and the 
 darkness, and every intervening obstacle. " It s the 
 reg lar old Ark ! It s what Noer, and the elephant, and 
 them fellows come over in ! " 
 
 I did not wonder, as we journeyed on, that my inform 
 ant of the dc"pot platform had used his "ups" and 
 " downs " indiscriminately in indicating the direction of 
 Wallencamp 
 
 In the inky blackness by which I was surrounded I was 
 conscious, clearly, of but one sensation that of going 
 up and down. The rumbling of the wheels reached me 
 as something far off and indefinably dreadful. 
 
 Then we stopped, and I crawled out like one in a 
 dream. There was no light at the Ark to make it a dis 
 tinguishable feature of the gloom. Rasmus found the 
 door and knocked loudly. I became dimly conscious of 
 the knocking, and followed Rasmus. 
 
 " I reckon they re to bed," said he, and knocked 
 louder. 
 
 Pretty soon a clear, feminine voice, startled into 
 musical sharpness, issued from a room quite near, with, 
 " Who s there? " and was followed by two small, squeal 
 ing voices, in unison, " Who s there?" 
 
 Then other sounds arose sounds from some quarter 
 nysterious and remote a low, mumbling, comfortable 
 refrain, anil ominous snatches of an uneasy grumble ; 
 then a roar that shook the Ark to its foundations : 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 21 
 
 " Who the devil s making such a rumpus out there at 
 this time in the mornin ? (It was nine o clock P. M.) 
 
 Rasmus sent back an intrepid yell : 
 
 " It s the tea-cher ! It s pretty late," he said, aside, 
 to me. " I guess I won t go in. I reckon they won t 
 have much style on. I seen ye pay father ; that s all 
 right. I 11 tip yer trunk up under the shed, and the old 
 Cap n 11 see to gettin it in in the mornin . Here s a 
 letter the postmaster sent down to the Cap n s folks. 
 Good night." 
 
 Rasmus, my only hope ! I made a convulsive grasp 
 for him in the darkness, but he was gone. 
 
 It was she of the soothing, comfortable voice who took 
 me in ; and Grandma Spicer s taking in I understand 
 always in the divinest and fullest sense of the term. 
 
 Further than that, I was conscious that there were 
 white-robed and night-capped figures moving about the 
 room. 
 
 So unearthly was their appearance, that I had, at last, a 
 confused notion of having become disengaged from the 
 entanglements of the flesh, and fallen in with a small 
 planetary system in the course of my wanderings through 
 space. The centre of attraction seemed to be a table, to 
 vhich the figures were constantly bringing more f>ies. 
 
 The letter which Rasmus had directed me to hand to 
 the " folks " was read with interest, being the one I had 
 dispatched from Newton, a week or two before, informing 
 them as to the time of my arrival. 
 
 Abagail rendered the brief and business-like epistle 
 with the full effect of her peculiarly thrilling intonation, 
 and Grandma listened with rapt attention ; but, mean 
 while. Grandpa Spicer and the two little Spicers found 
 
23 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 lime surreptitiously to dispose of nearly a whole pie, with 
 the serious aspect of those who will not allow a mere 
 fleeting diversion to hinder them in the improvement of a 
 rare opportunity. 
 
 Having declined to partake of pie, through Grandma 
 Spicer s kind interposition, I was not further urged. 
 
 "Thar , poor darlin ," said she, "fix her up a good 
 cup o* your golden seal, pa, and she shall go to bed right 
 in the parlor to-night, scein as we did n t get the letter 
 and hain t got her room fixed upstairs. It s all nice and 
 warm, and thar , darlin , thar , we re r al good for nussin 
 folks up." 
 
 In the parlor, I saw only one great, delicious object 
 a bed. My weary brain hardly exaggerated its dimen 
 sions, which could not have failed to strike with aston 
 ishment even the most indifferent observer. It was long ; 
 it was broad; it was deep; and, alas! it was high. I 
 disrobed as best I might, anil stood before it, gazing 
 despairingly up at its snowy summit. 
 
 Then, remembering my experience with the trunk, I 
 approached at one extreme, scaled the headboard, fell 
 over into an absorbing sea of feathers, and, at thai very 
 instant it seemed, the perplexing nature o mortal affairs 
 ceased to burden my mind. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 1 BLOW THE HORN. 
 
 dawned on my mission to Wallencamp. 
 
 My wakening was not an enthusiastic one. 
 
 Slowly, my bewildered vision became fixed on 
 an object on the wall opposite, as the least fantastic amid 
 a group of objects. It was a sketch, in water colors, of 
 a wotnan in an expansive hoop and a skirt of brilliant hue 
 flounced to the waist. She stood, with a singularly erect 
 and dauntless front, over a grave on which was written 
 "Consort." I observed, with a child-like wonder, which 
 concealed no latent vein of criticism, the glowing 
 carmine of her cheeks, the unmixed blue of her pupil- 
 \ess eyes, from a point exactly in the centre of which a 
 geometric row of tears curved to the earth. A weeping- 
 willow somewhat too green, alas! drooped with 
 evident reluctance over the scene, but cast no shade on 
 its contrasting richness. The title of the piece was 
 "Bereavement" Ly some strange means, it served as 
 the pole-star to my wandering thoughts. 
 
 As I gazed and wondered, my life took on again a 
 definite form and purpose. The events of the preceding 
 
24 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 day rose in gradual succession before me, and I proceeded 
 to descend from the heights I had scaled the night be 
 fore. 
 
 I looked at my watch. It was eight o clock, and school 
 Should begin at nine. Yet the occasion witnessed no 
 feverish display of haste on my part. I saw that the 
 difficulties which I was destined to endure in the per 
 formance of my toilet that morning called either for 
 philosophy or madness. I chose philosophy. 
 
 The portion of the Ark surrounding my bed was cut 
 up into little recesses, crannits, nooks, used, presumably, 
 for storing the different pairs of animals in the trying 
 events which preceded the Flood. In one of these, I 
 had a dim recollection of having secreted my clothes, in 
 the disordered condition of my brain the night before. 
 So I cast desultory glances about me for these articles on 
 the way, having first set out on a search for a looking- 
 glass. In one dark recess I came into forcible con 
 tact with a hanging shelf of pies. I thought what a 
 moment that would have been for Grandpa Spicer and 
 the little Spicers ! but I had been brought up on hygienic, 
 as well as moral, principles, and moved away without a 
 sigh. In another sequestered nook, I paused with a sinful 
 mixture of curiosity and delight before a Chinese idol 
 standing alone on a pedestal. 
 
 There was a strangeness and a newness about things at 
 the Ark that began to be exhilarating. I was reminded, 
 in a negative sort of way, that I had intended to begin 
 my work on this new day with a prayer to the true God 
 for strength and assistance. I had found it necessary to 
 make this resolve because, although I had a " fixed habit 
 of prayer," it was reserved rather for occasions of special 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 26 
 
 humiliation than resorted to as an everyday indulgence , 
 practically, I had wellnigh dispensed with it altogether. 
 
 However, I started back in an intently serious frame 
 of mind to find my couch. I lost my way, and 
 stumbling against a swinging door which opened into a 
 comparatively spacious apartment, what was my joy to 
 discover my trunk, with the portmanteau containing my 
 keys on top of it. 
 
 1 then proceeded to array myself with an absorbing 
 ardor and devotion, doing my hair before a hand-glass 
 with rare resignation of spirit. I began to feel more and 
 more like an incorporated existence, and admitted a 
 sudden eagerness to join the Spicer family at breakfast. 
 
 I had no hesitation which direction to take, being 
 guided by the sound of voices and wafts of penetrating 
 odors. 
 
 It was a fortunate direction, for I discovered on the 
 way my lost apparel artfully concealed under a small 
 melodeon, and, strangely enough, I was again brought face 
 to face with my deserted couch and the weeping lady 
 on the wall. She held me a moment with the old fascina 
 tion. As I put up my glasses, I thought I detected in 
 her face a hitherto unnoticed buoyancy of expression : 
 and not having wholly escaped in my life from ideas of a 
 worldly nature, I reflected that, probably, her regretted 
 consort had left her with a sufficient number of thousands. 
 
 In this same connection, I was reminded that I, myself, 
 had started out on an independent career, and wondered 
 if it would be unkind or undutiful in me to start a private 
 bank account of my own. I concluded that it would not. 
 
 When I entered the little room where the Spicer family 
 was assembled : 
 
te CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 " Why, here s our teacher 1 " exclaimed Grandma 
 Spicer in accents of delight, and came to meet me with 
 outstretched arms. " We could n t abear to wake ye up, 
 dearie," she went on, "knowin ye was so tired this 
 mornin ; and there s plenty o time plenty o time. 
 My Casindana come home ! " she murmured, with a smile 
 and a tremble of the lips, and a far-away look, for the 
 instant, in her gentle eyes. 
 
 In fact, the whole Spicer family received me with 
 outstretched arms. If I had been a long-lost child, or a 
 friend known and loved in days gone by, I could not 
 have been more cordially and enthusiastically welcomed. 
 
 The best chair was set for me ; glances of eager and 
 enquiring interest were bent upon me. 
 
 I accepted it all coolly, though not without a certain 
 air of affability, too, for I had a natural desire to make 
 myself agreeable to people, when it was n t too much 
 trouble ; but I was quite firm, at this time, in the con 
 viction that there was little or no faith to be put in human 
 nature. On the whole, I was much entertained and in 
 terested. 
 
 The two children came to climb into my lap ; but this 
 part of the acquaintance did not progress very fast. I 
 thought they must have been struck by something in my 
 eye (I was merely wondering abstractedly if their heads 
 were not out of proportion to the rest of their bodies) , for 
 they paused, and Mrs. Ithamer called them away sharply. 
 
 Mrs. Ithamer was a frail little woman she could not 
 have been over thirty or thirty-two years old, not pretty, 
 though she had a very airy and graceful way of comport 
 ing herself. Her eyes were large and dark, with a strange, 
 melancholy gleam in them. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 27 
 
 I never knew the secrets of Mrs. Ithamer s heart. 
 She had often a tired, tense look about the mouth, and 
 seemed often sorely discontent ; but she had the sweetest 
 voice I ever heard. She was familiarly called Abagail . 
 
 Grandpa or Cap n Spicer was over eighty years old. 
 He hul a tall, powerful frame at least, it spoke of 
 great power in the past and I thought his eye must 
 have been uncommonly dark and keen once. 
 
 From his manly irascibility of temperament and his 
 frequent would-be authoritativeness of tone, one might 
 have inferred, from a passing glimpse, that Grandpa Spicer 
 was something of a tyrant in the family; but I soon 
 learned that his sway was of an extremely vague and 
 illusory nature. 
 
 Grandma Spicer was twenty years his junior. She had 
 not married him until she was herself quite advanced in 
 life, and had had one husband. 
 
 " To be sure," I heard her say once, " I ain t quite so 
 far advanced as husband, but, then, it do n t make no 
 difference how young the girl is, you know." 
 
 She used to sit down and laugh one of Grandma s 
 " r al good laughs " was incompatible with a standing 
 posture until the tears rolled down her cheeks, and she 
 had to wipe them off with the corner of her apron. 
 
 She had been thrown from a wagon once how often 
 and thrillingly have I heard dear Grandma -Spicer relate 
 the particulars of that accident ! She had broken at that 
 time, 1 believe, nearly every bone in her body. Long 
 was the story of her fall, but longer still the tale of her 
 recuperation. 
 
 In due course of time, she had grown together again ; 
 could now use all her limbs, and was in superabundant 
 
28 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 flesh. There was an unnatural sort of stiffness about her 
 movements, however, her way of walking particularly. 
 She advanced but slowly, and allowed her weight to fall 
 from one foot to another without any perceptible bend 
 of any joint whatever. 
 
 I have stood at one end of a room and seen Grandma 
 Spicer approaching from the other, when it seemed as 
 though she was not making any progress at all, but merely 
 going through with an odd sort of balancing process in 
 order to maintain her equilibrium. 
 
 As for Grandma Spicer s face, there was enough in it 
 to make several ordinary scrimped faces. Besides large 
 physical proportions, there was enough in it of generosity, 
 enough of whole-heartedness, a world of sympathy. 
 The great catastrophe of her life had affected the 
 muscles of her face so that although she enunciated 
 her words very distinctly, she had a slow, automatic 
 way of moving her lips. 
 
 The room where the breakfast table was set was the 
 same that I had entered first, on my arrival at Wallen 
 -camp. It was low and small, but capable, as I learned 
 afterward, of holding any amount of things and people 
 without ever seeming crowded. There was a cooking 
 stove in it, and many other articles of modest worth, so 
 artlessly scattered about as to present a scene of the 
 wildest and richest profusion. 
 
 Art was not entirely wanting, however. There was a 
 ray of it on the wall behind the stove pipe, the com 
 panion-piece to * Bereavement," entitled " Joy," and 
 represented my heroine of the bed-chamber, reclining on 
 a rustic bench in rather an unflounced and melancholy 
 condition. In one place there hung a yellow family 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 29 
 
 register, which was kept faithfully supplied from week to 
 week with a wreath of fresh evergreens. It was headed 
 by a wood cut representing a funeral, Grandma Spicer 
 said, but Grandpa Spicer afterwards informed me, aside, 
 with much solemnity, that it was a " marriage ceremony." 
 Near the foot of the list of births, marriages and deaths, 
 I saw " Casindana Spicer ; died, aged twenty." 
 
 We sat down at the table. There was a brief alterca 
 tion between Dinslow and Grace, the little Spicers, 
 in which impromptu missiles, such as spoons and knives 
 and small tin cups were hurled across the table with 
 unguided wrath, and both infants yelled furiously. 
 
 Grandma had nearly succeeded in quieting them, when 
 Abagail remarked to Grandpa Spicer in her lively and 
 flippant style, 
 
 " Come, pa, say your piece." 
 
 " How am I going to say anything? " enquired Grand 
 pa, wrathfully, " in such a bedlam ? " 
 
 " Thar, now, thar ! " said Grandma Spicer, in her 
 soothing tone, " It s all quiet now and time we was eatin 
 breakfast, so ask the blessin pa, and do n t let s have 
 no more words about it." 
 
 Whereupon the old sea-captain bowed his head, and, 
 with a decided touch of asperity still lingering in his 
 voice, sped through the lines : 
 
 " God bless the food which now we take, 
 May it do us good, for Jesus sake." 
 
 "Now, Dinnie," said Grandma Spicer, beguilingly, 
 but it was not until after much coaxing and threatening 
 and the promise of a spoonful of sugar when it was over, 
 that Dinslow was induced to solicit the same blessing, in 
 
30 GATE COD FOLKS. 
 
 the same poetical terms, and with an expedition still 
 more alarming. 
 
 Then Gracie, with tears not yet dried from the late 
 conflict, lifted up her voice in a rapture of miniature 
 delight, u Dinnie says, gobble the food ! Dinnie says, 
 gobble the food! " 
 
 " Did n t say gobble the food ! " exclaimed Dinslow, 
 blacker than a little thunder cloud. 
 
 Abagail anticipated the rising storm, and stamped 
 her foot and cried, 
 
 " IVill you be still?" 
 
 It was Grandma Spicer, who quietly and adroitly re 
 stored peace to the troubled waters. 
 
 The Wallencampers including the Spicer family, were 
 not accustomed to speak of bread as a compact and 
 staple article of food, but rather as one of the hard means 
 of sustaining existence represented by the term "hunks." 
 At the table, it was not " will you pass me the bread?" 
 but and I shall never forget the sweet tunefulness of 
 Abagail s tone, in this connection, " Will you hand me 
 a hunk?" 
 
 The hunks were an unleavened mixture of flour and 
 water, of about the size and consistency of an ordinary 
 
 laborer s fist. 
 
 
 
 I was impressed, in first sitting down at the Spicers 
 table, with a sense of my own ignorance as to the most 
 familiar details of life, but soon learned to speak confi 
 dently of " hunks," and " fortune stew," and " slit herrin ," 
 and " golden seal." 
 
 Fortune stew was a dish of small, round, blue potatoes, 
 served perfectly whole in a milk gravy. 
 
 I cherish the memory of this dish as sacred, as well as 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 31 
 
 that of all the other dishes that ever appeared on the 
 Wallencamp table. They were the products of faithful 
 and loving hands to which nature had given a peculiar 
 direction, perhaps, but which strove always to the best of 
 their ability. 
 
 Slit herrin was a long, dried, deep -salted edition of 
 the native alewife, a fish in which Wallencamp abounded. 
 They hung in massive tiers from the roofs of the Wallen 
 camp bams. The herrin was cut open, and without 
 having been submitted to any mollifying process whatever, 
 not one assuaging touch of its native element, was laid 
 flat in the spider, and fried. 
 
 I saw the Spicer family, from the greatest to the 
 least, partake of this arid and rasping substance unblink- 
 ingly, and I partook also. The brine rose to my eyes 
 and coursed its way down my cheeks, and Grandma 
 Spicer said I was " homesick, poor thing ! " 
 
 The golden seal, a "remedy for toothache, head 
 ache, sore-throat, sprains, etc., etc.," was served in 
 a diluted state with milk and sugar, and taken as a bever 
 age. The herrin had destroyed my sense of taste ; any 
 thing in a liquid state was alike delectable to me, and 
 while I drank, I had a sense of having become somehow 
 mysteriously connected with the book of Revelations. 
 "We used to think," Grandma proceeded mildly to 
 elucidate, " that it had ought to be took externally, but 
 husband, he was painin around one time, and nothin 
 did n t seem to do him no good, and so we ventured 
 some of it inside of him, and he did n t complain no 
 more for a great while afterwards." I appreciated the 
 hidden meaning of these words when I saw how sparingly 
 Grandpa Spicer partook of the golden seal. " So then 
 
39 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 we tried some of it ourselves, and ra ly begun to like it, so 
 we Ve got into the habit of drinkin it along through the 
 winter, it s so quietin and may not be no special need of 
 it, so far as we can see, but then, it s allus well enough to 
 be on the safe side, for there s no knowin ," concluded 
 Grandma, solemnly, "what disease may be a growin 
 up inside of you. 
 
 " My brother invented on t," said Grandpa Spicer, 
 looking up at me from under his shaggy eyebrows with 
 questionable pride. He went on more glowingly, however, 
 " There s a picter of my brother on every bottle, teacher." 
 ( Abagail immediately ran from her chair, went into an 
 adjoining room and brought out a bottle to show me.) 
 " Ye see, he used to wear them air long ringlets, though 
 he was a powerful man, John was ; but his hair curled as 
 pretty as a girl s. Oh, he was a great dandy, John was ; 
 a great dandy." Grandpa Spicer straightened himself up 
 and his eyes brightened preceptibly. 
 
 " Never wore nothin but the finest broad-cloth ; why, 
 there s a pair of black broad-cloth pants o his n that 
 you 11 see, come Sunday, teacher ! " 
 
 "Wall thar now, pa," said Grandma Spicer, reprov 
 ingly, " I would n t tell everything." 
 
 " Le me see," continued Grandpa, " I had eight 
 brothers, teacher, yis, yis, there was nine boys in all," 
 nodding his head emphatically, and proceeding to count 
 on his fingers. 
 
 Grandma Spicer laid her knife and fork aside, as though 
 she felt that the occasion was an important one, and 
 that she had a grave duty to perform in regard to it. 
 
 " Thar was Philemon, he comes first, that makes one, 
 do n t it? and there was Doddridge " 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 33 
 
 " Sure he comes next, pa?" interposed Grandma, "for 
 now you air namin 1 of em, you might as well git em 
 right." 
 
 " Yis, yis, ma," replied the old man, hastily. " Then 
 there was Winfield and John, they re all dead now, 
 and Bartholomew, he was first mate in a sailin vessel, fine 
 man, Bartholomew was, fine man ; he " 
 
 " Wall, thar now," said Grandma," you 11 never git 
 through namin on em, pa, if you stop to talk about 
 em." 
 
 "Yis, yis," continued Grandpa, hopelessly confused, 
 and showing dark symptoms of smouldering wrath, " there 
 was Bartholomew. That makes a, le me see, 
 Bartholomew, " 
 
 "How many Bartholomews was there?" enquired 
 Grandma, with pitiless coolness of demeanor. 
 
 " Thar, now, ma, ye ve put me all out ! " cried Grand 
 pa, taking refuge in loud and desperate reproach, " I was 
 gittin along first-rate, why could n t ye a kept still and 
 let me reckoned em through ? " 
 
 " Yer mus n t blame me, pa, cause yer ca n t carry yer 
 own brothers in yer head." There was a touch of 
 gentle reproach in Grandma s calm voice. "Why, 
 there was my mother s cousin Statia, that was only second 
 cousin to me, and no relation at all, on my father s side, 
 and she had thirteen children, three of em was twins and 
 one of em wasthrins, and I could name em all through, 
 and tell you what year they was born, and what day, and 
 who vaccinated em. There was Amelia Day, she was 
 born April ninth, eighteen hundred and seventeen, Doctor 
 Sweet vaccinated her, and it took in five days." And so 
 on Grandma went through the entire Hst, gradually going 
 a 
 
84 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 more and more into particulars, but always coming out 
 strong on the main facts. 
 
 The effect could not have failed to deepen in Grandpa s 
 bosom a mortifying sense of his own incompetency. 
 
 When I got up from the Spicers* breakfast table there 
 was something choking me besides the hcrrin and golden 
 seal, and it was not homesickness, either ; but as I stepped 
 out of Mrs. Ithamer s low door into the light and air, all 
 lesser impulses were forgotten in a sudden glow and thrill 
 of exultation. I wondered if that far, intense blue was 
 the natural color of the Cape Cod sky in winter, and if its 
 January sun always showered down such rich and golden 
 beams. There was no snow on the ground ; the fields 
 presented an almost spring-like aspect, in contrast with 
 the swarthy green of the cedars. The river ran sparkling 
 in summer-fashion at the foot of " Eagle Hill." From 
 the bay, the sea air came up fresh and strong. I drank 
 it with deep inspirations. At that moment it seemed to 
 me that I had indeed been born to perform a mission. It 
 was so hopeful to turn over an entire fresh leaf in the book 
 of life, and I was resolved to do it heroically, at any cost. 
 I reflected, not without a shade of annoyance, that I 
 had forgotten to say my prayers, after all. At the same 
 time I had a sort of conviction that it was n t so unfortunate 
 a remissness on my part as it would have been for some 
 less qualified by nature to take care of themselves. 
 
 I discovered the school-house at the end of the lane. 
 The general air of the Wallencamp houses was stranded 
 and unsettled, as though, detained in their present posi 
 tion for some brief and restless season, they dreamed ever 
 of unknown voyages yet to be made on the sea of life. 
 They were very poor, very old. Some of them were 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 35 
 
 painted red in front, some of them had only a red door, 
 being otherwise quite brown and unadorned. There was 
 one exception, Emily Gaskell s that stood on the 
 hill, and was painted all over and had green blinds. 
 
 I heard a mighty rushing sound mingled with whoops 
 and yells and the terrible clamp of running feet, and was 
 made aware that a detachment from my (lock was coming 
 up the lane to meet me. 
 
 A girl, taller than I, with stooping shoulders and a 
 piquant and good natured cast of features, seized my 
 hand and swung it in childish and confiding fashion. She 
 had warts. I wondered, uneasily, if they would be conta 
 gious through my gloves. 
 
 I was struck with the uncommon beauty of one sturdy 
 little fellow. He was barefooted (on Cape Cod, in Janu 
 ary), and ragged enough to have satisfied the most crazy 
 devotee of the picturesque. His shapely head was set on 
 his shoulders in an exceedingly high-bred way, while its 
 bad archangel effect was intensified by rings of curling 
 black hair and great, seductive black eyes. 
 
 The children walked back, in comparative quiet, toward 
 the school house, except the boy. To him care was 
 evidently a thing unknown. He managed, while keep 
 ing the distance undiminished between himself and me, to 
 perform a great variety of antics, in which, by way of an 
 occasional relief, his head was seen to rise above his 
 heels. 
 
 Emily s wash had been left out to dry during the night. 
 The wind had torn various articles from the line and 
 carried them down in the direction of the lane fence. 
 
 My gymnastic performing imp vanished through the 
 bars. In ar incredibly short space of time he reappeared 
 
3 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 clothed but, alas ! I cannot tell how the imp was clothed, 
 except to say that Emily being a tall woman and the imp 
 but a well grown boy of ten, the effect was voluminous, 
 and oriental. 
 
 This part of the lane was marked by some insignificant 
 though very abrupt depressions and elevations of the 
 surface. Occasionally he of the floating apparel was 
 lost to sight ; then he would appear all glorious on some 
 small height, while the mind was compelled to revert 
 Irreverently to the picture of Moses on Mt. Pisgah. He 
 was the personification of impudence, withal, looking back 
 and showing his teeth in superlative appreciation of his 
 own sinfulness. He descended, and I looked to see him 
 arise again, but I saw him no more. 
 
 I had a faint and fleeting vision, afterwards, of an apos 
 tolic figure flying back across the fields. It was so indis 
 tinct as to remain only among the ephemera of my fancy. 
 
 In a fork of the roads, opposite the school-house, stood 
 a house with a red door. It was loaded, in summer 
 with honeysuckle vines. Aunt Pucinda sat always at the 
 window. Sometimes she had the asthma and sometimes 
 she sang. This morning, her favorite refrain from the 
 Moody & Sankey Hymnal was wafted in loud accents up 
 the lane: 
 
 "Dar tobeaDanyelll 
 Dar" to be a Danyell ! 
 Dai* to make it known t " 
 
 As I entered the school-house, the inspiring strains still 
 followed me. 
 
 There was a large Franklin stove within, which ex 
 hibited the most enormous draught power, emitting sparks 
 and roaring in a manner frightful to contemplate. 
 
 Aunt Patty, who acted the part of janitoress of the 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 37 
 
 school-house at night and morning, had written on the 
 blackboad in a large admonitory hand, " No spitting on 
 this floor, you ninnies ! " 
 
 The bench, containing the water pail, occupied the 
 most central position in the room. At one side of the 
 bench hung a long handled tin dipper ; on the other, 
 another tin instrument, resembling an ear trumpet, pro 
 foundly exaggerated in size. 
 
 " That s what you Ve got to blow to call us in," ex 
 claimed a small child, with anticipative enlivenment. 
 
 I went to the door with the instrument. 
 
 " Dar to be a Danyell ! 
 Dar to make it known." 
 
 The stirring measures came across from Aunt Pucinda s 
 window. Then the singer paused. 
 
 There were other faces at other windows. The coun 
 tenances of the boys and girls gathered about the door 
 were ominously expressive. I lifted the horn to my lips. 
 I blew upon it what was intended for a cheerful and 
 exuberant call to duty, but to my chagrin it emitted no 
 sound, whatever. I attempted a gentle, soul-stirring 
 strain ; it was as silent as the grave. I seized it with both 
 hands and, oblivious to the hopeful derision gathering 
 on the faces of those about me, I breathed into it all the 
 despair and anguish of my expiring breath. It gave forth 
 a hollow, soulless and lugubrious squeak, utterly out of 
 proportion to the vital force expended, yet I felt that I 
 had triumphed, and detected a new expression of awe 
 and admiration on the faces of my flock. 
 
 " I do n t see how she done it," I heard one freckled- 
 faced boy exclaim, confidingly to another, " with a hull 
 button in thar." 
 
 " Who put the button in the horn?" I enquired of the 
 
38 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 youngster, afterwards, quite in a pleasant tone, and with a 
 smile on which I had learned to depend for a particularly 
 delusive effect; at the same time I put up my glasses to 
 impress him with a sense of awe. 
 
 " Simmy B.," he answered. 
 
 " And which is Simmy B. ? " I questioned, glancing 
 about the school room. 
 
 " Oh, he ain t comin in," gasped my informer, " he 
 run over cross-lots with Emily s clo s on." 
 
 I had planned not to confine my pupils to the ordinary 
 method of imbibing knowledge through the medium of 
 text books, but by means of lectures, which should be 
 interspersed with lively anecdotes and rich with the 
 fruitful products of my own experience, to teach them. 
 
 My first lecture was, quite appropriately, on the duty of 
 close application and faithful persistence in the acquisition 
 of knowledge, depicting the results that would inevi 
 tably accrue from the observance of such a course, and, 
 here glowing and dazzled by my theme, I even secretly 
 regretted that modesty forbade me to recommend to my 
 pupils, as a forcible illustration, one who occupied so con 
 spicuous a position before them. 
 
 My new method of instruction, though not appreciated 
 perhaps, in its intrinsic design, was received,! could not 
 but observe, with the most unbounded favor. 
 
 After the first open-mouthed surprise had passed away 
 from the countenances of my audience, I was loudly 
 importuned on all sides for water. I was myself ex 
 travagantly thirsty. I requested all those who had "sin 
 herrin " for breakfast to raise their hands. 
 
 Every hand was raised. 
 
 I gravely enquired if slit herrin formed an ordinary or 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 39 
 
 accustomed repast in Wallcncamp, and was unanimously 
 assured in the affirmative. 
 
 After dwelling briefly on the gratitude that should fill 
 our hearts in view of the unnumbered blessings of Provi 
 dence, I inaugurated a system by which a pail of fresh 
 water was to be drawn from one of the neighboring wells, 
 and impartially distributed among the occupants of the 
 school-room, once during each successive hour of the day. 
 The water was to be passed about in the tin dipper,in an 
 orderly manner, by some member of the flock, properly 
 appointed to that office, cither on account of general 
 excellence or some particular mark of good behavior, 
 though I afterwards found it advisable not to insist on any 
 qualifications of this sort, but to elect the water-bearers 
 merely according to their respective rank in age. This 
 really proved to be one of the most lively and interesting 
 exercises of the school, was always cheerfully undertaken, 
 executed in the most complete and faithful manner, and 
 never on any account forgotten or omitted. 
 
 I drank, and continued my lecture, but the first look of 
 attractive surprise never came back to the faces of my 
 audience. They sought diversion in a variety of ways, 
 acquitting themselves throughout with a commendable 
 degree of patience until they found it necessary gently to 
 admonish me that it was time for recess. 
 
 After recess,as the result of deep meditation, in which 
 I had concluded that the mind of the Wallencamp youth 
 was not yet prepared for the introduction of new and ad 
 vanced methods, I examined my pupils preparatory to 
 giving them lessons and arranging them in classes, in the 
 ordinary way. I found that they could not read, but they 
 could write in a truly fluent and unconventional style; 
 
40 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 They could not commit prosaical facts to memory, but 
 they could sing songs containing any number of irrelevant 
 stanzas. They could not cipher, but they had witty and 
 salient answers ready for any emergency. There seemed 
 to be no particular distinction among them in regard to the 
 degree of literary attainment, so I arranged them in 
 classes, with an eye mainly to the novel and picturesque 
 in appearance. 
 
 They were a little disappointed at the turn in affairs, 
 having evidently anticipated much from the continuation 
 of the lecture system, yet they were disposed to look 
 forward to school-life, in any case, as not without its 
 ameliorating conditions. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BEAUS OF WALLENCAMP PERFORM A GRAVE DUTY. 
 
 ]E have our r al, good, comfortin meal, at 
 night," Grandma Spicer had said, and the 
 thought was uppermost in my mind at the 
 close of my first day s labor in Wallencamp. I had taken 
 a walk to the beach, a strong east wind had come up, and 
 the surf was rolling in magnificently ; a wild scene, from 
 a wild shore, more awful then, in the gathering gloom. 
 The long rays of light streaming out of the windows of 
 the Ark, guided me back across the fields. Within, all 
 was warmth and cheer and festive expectation. Grandma 
 Spicer was in such spirits ; a wave of mirthful inspiration 
 would strike her, she would sink into a chair, the tears 
 would roll down her cheeks, and she would shake with 
 irrepressible laughter. It was in one of her serious 
 moments that she said to me : 
 
 "Thar, teacher, I actually believe that I ain t made 
 you acquainted .with my two tea-kettles." They stood 
 side by side on the stove, one very tall and lean, the other 
 very short and plump. "This ere," said Grandma, 
 pointing to the short one, "is Rachel, and this ere," 
 pointing to the tall one, "is Abigail, and Abigail s a grace 
 ful creetur* to be sure," Grandma reflected admiringly, 
 " but then, Rachel has the most powerful delivery 1 " 
 
43 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 I was thus enabled to understand the allusions I had 
 already heard to Rachel s being " dry," or Abigail s being 
 as " full as a tick," or vice versa. 
 
 The table was neatly spread with a white cloth ; there 
 was an empty bowl and a spoon at each individual s place. 
 In the centre of the table stood a pitcher of milk and a 
 bowl of sugar. Grandpa Spicer having asked the bless 
 ing after the approved manner of the morning, there was a 
 general uprising and moving, bowl in hand, towards the 
 cauldron of hulled corn on the stove. This was lively, 
 and there was a pleasurable excitement about skimming 
 the swollen kernels of corn out of the boiling, seething 
 liquid in which they were immersed. Eaten afterwards with 
 milk and sugar and a little salt, the compound became 
 possessed of a truly " comforting " nature. 
 
 I stood, for the second time, over the kettle with my 
 eye-glasses securely adjusted, very earnestly and thought 
 fully occupied in wielding the skimmer, when the door of 
 the ark suddenly opened and a mischievously smiling 
 young man appeared on the threshold. He was not a 
 Wallencamper, I saw at a glance. There was about him an 
 unmistakable air of the great world. He was fashionably 
 dressed and rather good looking, with a short upper lip, 
 and a decided tinge of red in his hair. He stood staring 
 at rre with such manifest appreciation of the situation in 
 his laughing eyes, that I felt a barbarous^mpulse to throw 
 the skimmer of hot corn at him. It was as though some 
 flimsy product of an advanced civilization had come in to 
 SJjeer at the sacred customs of antiquity. 
 
 "I beg your pardon," the intruder began, addressin. 
 the Spicer family with exceeding urbanity of voice ami 
 manner, " I fear that I have happened in rather inoppor 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 43 
 
 timely, but I dared not of course transgress our happy 
 Arcadian laws by knocking at the door." 
 
 " Oh, Lordy, yis, yis, and the fewer words the better. 
 You know our ways by this time, fisherman," exclaimed 
 Grandpa Spicer. " Come in ! come in ! Nobody that 
 calls me friend need knock at my door." 
 
 " Come in ! come in, fisherman ! Won t you set, fish 
 erman? " hospitably chimed in Grandma Spicer. 
 
 " Ah, thank you ! may I consider your kind invitation 
 deferred, merely," said the fisherman, suavely, "and 
 excuse me if I introduce a little matter of business with 
 the Captain. We carelessly left our oars on the banks, 
 yesterday, Captain Spicer, they were washed off, I have 
 ordered some more, but can t get them by to-morrow. I 
 hear you have a pair laid by, 1 should like to purchase." 
 
 " What, is it the old oars ye .vant ?" interrupted Grand 
 pa, "why, Lord a massy ! you know whar they be, fisher 
 man, alongside that old pile o rubbish on hither side o 
 the barn, and do n t talk about purchasin take em and 
 keep em as long as ye want, they ain t no account to me, 
 now." 
 
 " I am very much obliged to you, Captain," the fisher 
 man said, "I am very sorry to have interrupted this 
 a " 
 
 " Why, no interruption, I m sure," said Grandma Spicer, 
 good naturedly, " we Ve kep right along eatin ." 
 
 "Want a lantern to look for em, eh?" enquired 
 Grandpa Spicer, for the fisherman lingered, hesitating, 
 on the threshold. 
 
 " This is our teacher, fisherman," said Grandma, in her 
 gentle, tranquilizing tones, "and this ere is one of 
 
44 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Emily s fishermen, teacher, and may the Lord bless ye in 
 yer acquaintance," she added with simple fervor. 
 
 The fisherman saluted me with a bow which reflected 
 great credit on his former dancing-master. He mur 
 mured the polite formula in a low tone, at the same time 
 shooting another covertly laughing glance at me out of 
 his eyes. As the door closed behind him, " Ah, that s 
 a sleek devil ! " said Grandpa Spicer, giving me a meaning 
 glance from under his shaggy eyebrows. 
 
 " Wall thar now, pa, I would n t blaspheme, not if 
 I d made the professions you have," said Grandma, with 
 grave reproval. 
 
 " A sleek dog," continued Grandpa Spicer, " tongue 
 as smooth as butter, all how d yer do ! and how 
 d yer do ! but I do n t trust them fishermen much, 
 myself, teacher." 
 
 " Who are the fishermen ? " I enquired. 
 
 "They board up to Emily s," said Grandma. "They 
 come from Providence and around, and they stay here off 
 and on, a week or two to time, along through the winter, 
 some of em. They fish pickerel on the river, and some 
 times they re blue fishin out in the bay, and quite 
 generally they re just kitin round as young men will, I 
 suppose. Sometimes they have vittles sent to em, and 
 Emily she cooks for em." 
 
 " Why, they re off on a spree, that s all," said Grandpa 
 Spicer, comprehensively, giving me another significant 
 glance, " they re off on a spree, and ye see, they think 
 this ere is jest a right fur enough out the way place for 
 em. This ere red haired one that was in here this 
 evenin , Turner, his name is, he s a dreadful rich one, I 
 suppose, dreadful rich 1 I Ve heered all about him. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 46 
 
 He s an old bachelder, I reckon, that is, he keeps mighty 
 spruce, but I reckon he s hard on to thirty. Emily s 
 got a cousin that works for some o them big folks down 
 to Providence, and she s heered all about him, this red- 
 haired one, and how he keeps a big house down thar, 
 and sarvants enough, massy ! and half the time he s hither 
 and yon and a throwin out money like water. His father 
 and mother they re dead, so I Ve heered, and he used 
 to have gardeens over him, but he haint kep no gardeens 
 lately, I reckon," said Grandpa, with grim facetiousness. 
 
 "Why, he s been a waitin on Bede s daughter, 
 down here Ethel. She goes to school to you, teacher," 
 the old man added, presently, brightening with a senile 
 .predilection for gossip. 
 
 4< Ethel s a very sensible girl," said Grandma Spicer, 
 " and don t cast no sheep s eyes, but goes right along 
 and minds her own business. Ethel plays very 
 purty on the music, too." 
 
 "Yes. But you know Eliot Turner wouldn t any 
 more think of marrying Ethel Kent than he would of 
 marrying me," cried Mrs. Ithamer. "Of all the fisher 
 men that have come down here, not one of them 
 ever married in Wallencamp. He s just trifling, and 
 she thinks he s in real earnest ; anybody can see that. 
 You ve only to mention his name to see her flush up 
 as red as a rose. I tell you this is a strange world," 
 Abagail snapped out, sharply, "and Eliot Turner, I 
 suppose, is one of the gentlemen." 
 
 " We ain t no right to say but what he s honest," said 
 Grandma Spicer, " Ethel she s honest herself, and she 
 takes it in other folks. She s more quiet than some 
 of our girls be, and higher notions, and she s young 
 
48 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 ind haint never been away nowhere, and no wonder if he 
 \vaits on her she should take a kind o fancy to him." 
 
 "You know, ma," continued Abagail, "that Eliot 
 Turner would never take her home among his folks, 
 never; and if I was Ethel s mother, I d shut the door 
 in his face before I d ever have him fooling around 
 my house, and she should never stir out of the house with 
 him, never ! " 
 
 "I don t suppose there s much use in talking to 
 the girl," said Grandma, "Emily. was in here the other 
 day, and Ethel, she happened to come in the same time, 
 and I didn t see no use in Emily s speaking up in the way 
 she did for says she, * What do you have that El Turner 
 flirtin around you for, Ethel? What do you suppose 
 he wants o you cept to amuse himself a little while when 
 he ain t nothin better to do and then go off and 
 forgit he s seen ye ! And Ethel didn t say nothin , but 
 she give Emily a dreadful long, quiet kind of a look out of 
 her eyes." 
 
 She hasn t lost quite all of Bede s temper since she s 
 been seeking religion," said Abagail, in a strangely light 
 and vivacious tone. Grandma and Grandpa Spicer, 
 by the way, were good Methodists, but Abagail was not 
 a " professor." 
 
 "Seekin religion, eh?" inquired Grandpa Spicer. 
 She d better let Eliot Turner alone, then," he 
 added. 
 
 "Let us hope that we shall all on us be brought 
 to a better state of mind," concluded Grandma Spicer, 
 with solemn pertinency. 
 
 Before the meal was finished and the table cleared 
 away, the latch of the ark had been often lifted. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 47 
 
 On all occasions, afterwards, there was a marked 
 and cheerful variety in the nature of the droppers-fri 
 at the ark the children and all the young men and 
 maidens making their appearance with a promiscuousncss 
 which precluded the possibility of design but to-night 
 the Wallencamp mind had evidently aimed at some great 
 system of conventionality, and had been eminently 
 successful in evolving a plan. 
 
 The callers were young men exclusively the native 
 youth of Wallencamp. Their blowzy, well favored faces 
 which ever afterward appeared to beam with good nature, 
 to-night expressed a sense of some grave affliction 
 heroically to be endured. 
 
 Their best clothes, it was obvious, had been purchased 
 by them, "ready made," and had been designed, 
 originally, for the sons of a less stalwart community. 
 
 The young men were especially pinched as to their 
 expansive chests, the broad-cloth coming much too short 
 at this point, and shrugging up oddly enough at the 
 shoulders, while the phenomenally slick arrangement 
 of their hair was calculated to produce a depressing effect 
 on the mind of the observer. 
 
 As they came in one by one, in a matter of fact way, 
 ?tnd Grandma Spicer announced hopefully to each in 
 turn " and this is our teacher ! " they accepted the fact 
 with no more flattering sign than that of a dumb and 
 helpless resignation to the inevitable. They seated 
 themselves about the room in punctilious order, assuming 
 positions painfully suggestive of a conscientious disregard 
 for ease, and seemed to draw some silent support and 
 sympathy out of their hats, which they caressed with 
 lingering affection, touching to behold. 
 
48 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Grandma beckoned me aside into the pantry which 
 immediately adjoined the kitchen, and informed me 
 in one of her reverberating whispers, that I " must n t 
 mind the boys being slicked up, for they d sorter dropped in 
 to make my acquaintance, and, if we wanted the pop corn, 
 it was in a bag down under where the almanac hung, 
 to the furthest corner of the wood-box." 
 
 I pondered these mysterious injunctions in silence and 
 realizing the fact that the Wallencamp beaux had appeared 
 in a body for the express purpose of making my 
 acquaintance, I essayed to show my appreciation of this 
 amiable design by an attempt to engage them in 
 conversation. 
 
 My various efforts in this line proved alike futile, 
 and they seemed but to grow impressed with a deeper 
 sense of misery. 
 
 I had a vague intention of going in search of the 
 pop-corn, when, to my sudden dismay, Grandma Spicer 
 and Abagail, who had been noiselessly clearing off the 
 table, emerged from a brief consultation in the pantry, 
 bearing with them a lighted candle, and having given 
 Grandpa Spicer a nod of unmistakable force and signifi 
 cance, disappeared through the door which led into that 
 indefinite extension of the ark, beyond. 
 
 But Grandpa Spicer remained wilfully indifferent to 
 these broadly insinuating tactics. He fancied, poor, 
 deluded old man, that here was a choice opportunity to 
 tell a tale of the seas after a fashion dear to his own 
 heart, unshackled by the restraints of family surveillance. 
 A singularly child-like and unapprehensive smile 
 played across his features. He drew his chair up closer 
 to the stove and began : "J est after I was a roundin* 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 49 
 
 Cape Horn the fourth time, I believe, yis, yis, Le me 
 see twenty times I ve rounded the Horn, wall, this ere 
 I recken, was somewhere nigh about the fourth time." 
 
 Scarcely had Grandpa arranged the merest pre 
 liminaries of his tale when ominous footsteps were heard 
 returning along the way whither Grandma and Abagnil 
 had so recently departed, and he was interrupted by 
 a strangely calm though authoritative voice from behind 
 the door, "Pa ! " 
 
 "Wall, wall, ma! what ye want, ma?" exclaimed 
 Grandpa, turning his head aside, with a slight shade 
 of annoyance on his face. 
 
 No answer immediately forthcoming, that wofully 
 illusory smile returned again to his features. He moved 
 still nearer to the stove, and was just at the point 
 of resuming the thread of his narrative when 
 
 " Hoggarty Spicer ! " came from behind the door 
 in accents still calm, indeed, but freighted with a sig 
 nificance which words have faint power to express. 
 
 " Yis, yis, ma ! I m a coming, ma ! " replied Grandpa, 
 rising hastily and shuffling toward the door, "I m a 
 coming, ma ! I m a coming ! " 
 
 The door opened wide enough to receive him and then 
 closed upon him in all his ignominy. 
 
 The sound of his voice in irate expostulation mingled 
 with the steady flow of those serener tones grew gradually 
 faint in the distance, and I was left alone with the sepul 
 chral group of young men. 
 
 They arose, still maintaining the weighty aspect of 
 those elected to honor, and abruptly opened their lips ic 
 song. 
 
50 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 There was no repression now ; the Ark fairly rang with 
 the sonorous strains of that wild Jubilate. 
 They sang : 
 
 " Light in the darkness, sailor. 
 
 Day is at hand. 
 See o er the foaming billows, 
 
 Fair Haven stands." 
 
 Their voices rolling in at the chorus with the resistless 
 sweep of the ocean-waves : 
 
 Pull for the shore, sailor, 
 
 Pull for the shore. 
 Heed not the rolling waves 
 
 But bend to the oar." 
 
 and with a final " Pull for the shore," that sent that 
 imaginary life-boat bounding high and dry on to the strand 
 at the hands of its impulsive crew. 
 
 Then, they sat down and wiped the perspiration from 
 their faces which had become transfigured with a sudden 
 zest and radiance. 
 
 I recovered myself sufficiently to express a bewildered 
 sense of pleasure and gratitude. 
 
 "Do you sing, teacher ?" asked Noah Alden, a round 
 faced youth with an irrepressible fund of mirth in his 
 eyes, who had broken in on the former silence with an un 
 guarded little snicker. 
 
 Noel N orris, he of the dignified countenance and spade 
 shaped beard, had faintly and helplessly echoed that 
 snicker, and now repeated Noah s words : 
 
 " Ahem, certainly Do you sing, teacher ? Do 
 you, now ? Do you sing, you know ? " 
 
 I had some new and seriously awakened doubts on the 
 subject. However, the degree of attainment not being 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 51 
 
 brought into question, I felt that I could answer in 
 
 the affirmative. 
 
 The countenances of the group brightened still more 
 perceptibly. 
 
 "And do you sing No. 2 ? " enquired Noah, eagerly. 
 
 I tried to assume, in reply, a tone of equal animation. 
 
 "Is it something new? I don t think I ve heard of it, 
 before." 
 
 "Why, it s the Moody and Sankey hymn book 1" 
 exclaimed Noah, looking suddenly blank. 
 
 I strove to soften the effect of this blow by a lively 
 show of recognition. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I know perfectly now. It s " Hold the 
 Fort," " Ring the Bells of Heaven, " and all those songs, 
 is n t it?" 
 
 " Hold the Fort s in No. i," said George Olver, a 
 new speaker, with beautiful, brave, brown eyes and a 
 soldierly bearing. 
 
 He spoke, correcting me, but with the tender con 
 sideration which a father might display toward an 
 unenlightened child. 
 
 "There s three numbers," said Noah Alden>"and you 
 ought to learn to sing em, teacher. We sing em all the 
 time, down here." 
 
 "You are fond of singing?" I questioned. 
 Dick Peterson, of lithe figure and straight black hair, 
 9. denizen of the Indian encampment, started up, flushing 
 through his dark skin. 
 
 " I lul-love it ! " he said. 
 
 Dick Peterson sang with the most exquisite smooth 
 ness, but stumbled a little in prosaical conversation. 
 
 A silent Norwegian, Lars Thorjon, who had sat 
 
63 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 gazing at me and smiling, flushed also at the words, and 
 murmured something rapturous with a foreign accent. 
 
 " Yes, we re rather fond of singing." I heard George 
 Giver s resolute tones. 
 Noah Alden gave a low, expressive whistle. 
 
 " I like it, certainly, ahem ! /do. / like it, you 
 know," said Noel Norris. 
 
 \Ve have a singin* time generally every night," said 
 Noah. " Sometimes Abagail plays for us on her music, 
 and sometimes we go down to Ethers. Abagail s 
 melodeon is very soft and purty, but George, he e, he 
 likes the tone of Ethel s organ best, I reckon. Eh, 
 George ? " 
 
 Noah winked facetiously at George Olver, who 
 reddened deeply but did not cast down his eyes. 
 
 " If I was you, George," continued the merciless 
 Noah, "I d lay for that Turner. Gad, I d set a 
 match to his hair. I d nettle him ! " 
 
 "I d show him his p-p-place!" stammered Dick 
 Peterson, with considerable warmth. 
 
 "/ would, certainly," reiterated the automatic Noel. 
 " I d show him his place, you know ; / would, certainly." 
 
 The big veins swollen out in George Giver s forehead 
 knitted themselves there for an instant, sternly. 
 
 " I don t interfere with no man s business," said 
 he. " So long as he means honorable and car ies 
 out his actions fa r and squar I don t begrudge 
 him his chance nor meddle in his afla rs." 
 
 Our attention was suddenly diverted from this subject, 
 which was evidently growing to be a painful one to 
 one of the company, by the sound of a violin played with 
 singular skill and correctness just outside the window. 
 
CATE COD FOLKS. 63 
 
 "Glory, there s Ben!" exclaimed Noah, bounding 
 ecstatically from his chair. 
 
 " Come in, Ben, come in ? " he shouted, " and 
 show us what can be got out of a fiddle ! " 
 
 " Let him alone," said George Giver, but the group 
 had already vanished through the door, Noel following 
 mechanically. 
 
 "That s Ben. Cradlebow fiddlin out thar," George 
 Olvcr explained to me. " I don t want em to skccr him 
 o(T. for it ain t every night Ben takes kindly to his fiddle. 
 There s times he won t touch it for days and days. 
 Talkin al>out Ben s fiddlin I suppose it s true 
 there was some fellers out from Boston happened to hear 
 him playin* one night, up to Sandwich te-own. and they 
 offered him a hundred and fifty a month I reckon that s 
 true to go along with some fiddlin company thar 
 to Boston, and he d a got more if he d stuck to it, 
 but Ben, he come driftin back in the course of a week 
 or two. I don t blame him. He said he was sick on t. 
 
 I tell you how tis, teacher. Folks that lives along this 
 shore are allus talkin more n any other sort of folks about 
 going off, and complainin about the hard livin , and 
 cussin the stingy sile, but thar s suthin about it sorter 
 holt s to em. They allus come a driftin back in some 
 shape or other, in the course of a year or two at 
 the farderest." 
 
 The door was thrown wide open and my recreant 
 guests reappeared half dragging, half pushing before them 
 a matchless Adonis in glazed tarpaulin trousers and a 
 coarse sailor s blouse. 
 
 I recognized at once in the perfect physical beauty 
 of the eccentric fiddler only a reproduction in a 
 
64 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 larger form, of that sadly depraved young cherub who 
 had danced before me in ghostly habiliments on the way 
 to school. It was the imp s older brother. 
 
 " Here s Ben, teacher ! " cried Noah, he would n t 
 come in cause he was n t slicked up ; but I tell him clo s 
 don t make much difference with a humly dog, anyway. 
 Come along, Ben, and put them blushes in your pocket 
 to keep yer hands warm in cold weather. Teacher, this 
 is our champion fiddler, inventor, whale-fisher, cran 
 berry picker, and potato bugger, Benney Leonard 
 Cradlebow ! " 
 
 The youth of the bird-like name dealt his tormentor a 
 hearty though affectionate cuff on the ears, and being 
 thus suddenly thrust forward, he doffed his broad 
 souwester, took the hand I held out to him, and, stooping 
 down, kissed me, quite in a simple and audible 
 manner, on the cheek. 
 
 It was done with such gentle, serious embarassment, 
 and Benney Leonard Cradlebow was so boyish and 
 quaint looking, withal, that I felt not the slightest in 
 clination to blush, but I heard Noah s saucy giggle. 
 
 4< Gad! " said he, "hear the old women talk about 
 Ben s being bashful and not knowin how to act with the 
 girls ! Now I call them purty easy manners, eh, Noel ? 
 what do you think, Noel ? " 
 
 " Ahem, certainly, " responded Noel, smiling in vague 
 sympathy with the laughing group. "/ call them so, 
 certainly, /do." 
 
 Only George Olver turned a sober, reassuring face to 
 the blushing Cradlebow. 
 
 " Give us a tune, Bennie," said he. " Lord, / d laugfc 
 if I could get the music out o them strings that you can." 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 56 
 
 The Cradlebow sat down, drew his bow across the 
 strings with a full, quivering, premonitory touch, and, 
 straightway, the fiddle began to talk to him as though they 
 two were friends alone together in the room. How it 
 played for him, the fiddle as though it were morning. 
 How it shouted, laughed, ran with him in a world of sun 
 shine and tossing blossoms ! 
 
 How it hoped for him, swelling out in grander strains, 
 wild with exultation, tremulous with passion ! 
 
 How it mourned for him, with dying, sweet despair, un 
 til one almost saw the night fall on the water and the lone 
 sea-birds flying, and heard the desolate shrieking of the 
 wind along the shore. 
 
 I heard a real sob near me, and looking up saw the tears 
 rolling down Noah s rosy cheeks. 
 
 It was in the midst of a simple melody, I think it was 
 the " Sweet Bye and Bye " that the player stopped and 
 turned suddenly pale. 
 
 "That was a new string, too!" he said, "and only 
 half tight." Then he blushed violently, seeking to hide 
 the irritation of his tone under a careless laugh. 
 
 " Oh, I do n t mind the string," he went on ; "that s 
 easy mended, but I happened to think it s a bad sign, 
 that s all to break down so in the middle of a tune." 
 
 " Dam the sign !" exclaimed Noah, " I wanted to hear 
 that played through." 
 
 " You remember Willie Reene ? " Benney turned his 
 eyes, still unnaturally bright with excitement, towards 
 George Olver. 
 
 " Aye, I remember," said George Olver. " I was goin 
 mackerelin with ye myself that time, only I wrinched my 
 wrist so." 
 
id CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " We was out on deck together," Benney continued. 
 "I was lying down, it was a strange, warmish sort of a 
 night and Willie played. He played a long time. It 
 was just in the middle of a tune he was playin* that snap ! 
 the string went in just that way. 1 never thought anything 
 about it. I tried to laugh him out of it and he laughed, 
 but says he It s a bad sign, Ben. Likely it had nothin 
 to do with it, but I think of it sometimes, and then it 
 seems as though I must go to that same place and look 
 for him again. I never done anything harder than when 
 I left him there." 
 
 41 You done the best you could," George Olver ans 
 wered stoutly. " They said you dove for him long and 
 long after it was n t no use." 
 
 " No use," Benney repeated, shaking his head sadly 
 and abstractly, " no use." 
 
 " There s naught in a sign, anyway," George Olver af 
 firmed. 
 
 " They don t worry me much, you can depend " 
 the player looked up at length with a singularly bright 
 and gentle smile. "But Grannie, she believes in 
 em, truly. She s got a sign in a dream for everything, 
 Grannie has, so I hear lots of it." 
 
 Noah Alden had quite recovered by this time, from his 
 tearfully sentimental mood. 
 
 " Now it s strange," he began with an air of mysterious 
 solemnity, "there was three nights runnin that I dreamed 
 I found a thousand dollar bill to the right hand corner of 
 my bury drawer, and every morn in when I woke up and 
 went to git it it wa n t there, so I know the rats must a 
 carrried it off in the night, and a pretty shabby 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 57 
 
 trick to play on a feller, too but then you can t 
 blame the poor devils for wantin a little pin money. 
 
 " Did I ever tell ye how Uncle Randal tried to clear 
 em out o i is barn? Wall, he traded with Sim Peck up 
 to West Wallen, a peck o clams for an old cat 
 o 1 hisn, that was about the size, Uncle Randal said, 
 of a ycarlin calf, and he turned her into the barn along o 
 the rats, and shut the door, and the next mornin , he 
 went out and there was a few little pieces of fur flyin 
 around and devil a devil acat ! Uncle Randal said ! " 
 
 " You re the D d d you re it, yourself, Noah ! " 
 stammered Dick Peterson. 
 
 "You d better look out, Dick, "Noah giggled, " we re 
 all a little nearer n second cousins down here to 
 Wallencamp. Dick s mother didn t use to let him go to 
 school much, teacher," Noah added, turning to me ; 
 "it used to wear him out luggin home his * Reward 
 o merit cards. " 
 
 " I n-n-ncver got any," Dick retorted, blushing des 
 perately through his dark skin, " n-n-nor you either ! " 
 
 "I guess that s so, Noah," said Noel Norvis, quite 
 gravely, " 1 rather think that s so, Noah ahem, 1 guess 
 it is." 
 
 When my visitors rose to depart they formed in 
 line, with George Giver and Benney at the head. 
 
 George Olver was the spokesman of the group. He 
 offered me his strong brown hand in hearty corrobora- 
 tion of his words, " We re a roughish sort of a set down 
 here, teacher, but whenever you want friends you 11 
 know right whar to rind us; we mean that straight 
 through and fair and kindly. 
 
58 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 I thanked him, and then Benney gave me his hand, but 
 did not kiss me, in departing. 
 
 Each member of the phalanx gave me his hand in 
 turn, with a hearty " Good night," and so they passed 
 out. The door closed behind them. I meditated a space 
 and when I looked up there was Noel Norris s pale face 
 peering into the room. 
 
 " Ahem Miss Hungerford 1 " he murmured, in awful 
 accents : " Miss Hungerford ! " 
 
 Could it be some telegram from my home thus 
 mysteriously arrived ? The thought flashed through my 
 mind before reason could act. 
 
 "What is it?" I gasped, hastening to meet the in 
 former. 
 
 Noel N orris handed me a picture; it was a small 
 daguerrotype in which the mild and beneficent features of 
 that worthy being himself shone above his own unmistak 
 able spade-shaped whiskers. 
 
 "Would you like it, Miss Hungerford?" said he, still 
 with the same deeply impressive air, " would you, now, 
 really, Miss Hungerford ? would you like it now ? " 
 
 " Why, certainly," I exclaimed, with intense relief, and 
 before I could fully appreciate the situation. Noel N orris 
 cast a cautious glance about him, leaned his head forward, 
 and whispered hoarsely, " I ve got some more, at home 
 ahem I I ve got six, Miss Hungerford. Mother wants to 
 keep two and she s promised Aunt Marcia one ; but you 
 can have one any time, Miss Hungerford. Ahem ! ahem ! 
 ^ou can, you know." 
 
 " Thank you," I murmured, while it seemed as though 
 my faculties were desperately searching for light on 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 59 
 
 a hitherto unsounded sea. "I think this will do for 
 the present." 
 
 Noel nodded his head with a grave good night and 
 disappeared. 
 
 Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandpa Spicer and 
 Abagail were absorbing this last impressive scene as they 
 slowly emerged from that unknown quarter of the ark 
 whither they had retreated. 
 
 Grandpa looked at me with a peculiar twinkle in his 
 eye. 
 
 " So Noel came back to give ye his picter, eh, teacher? " 
 said he. 
 
 I returned Grandpa s look with cheerful and unoffended 
 alacrity ; but Grandma interrupted, " Thar, now, pa I 
 Thar, now ! We must n t enquire into everything we 
 happen to get a little wind on. Ye see, teacher," she 
 continued, in tones of the broadest gentleness, " we knew 
 they d be sorter bashful gettin acquainted, the first night, 
 and so we thought it ud be easier for em if we should 
 leave em to themselves, and we knew you was so we 
 knew you would n t care." 
 
 As Grandpa resumed his accustomed seat by the fire, 
 an expansive grin still lingered on his features. 
 
 " Ah, he s a queer fellow, that Noel," said he, " but he s 
 quick to larn, they say, larns like a book. I ll tell ye 
 what s the trouble with him, teacher. He s been tied too 
 long to his mother s apron strings. He don t know 
 no more about the world than a chicken. He s thirty 
 odd, now, I guess, and I reckon he ain t never been 
 further away from the beach than Sandwich te-own ! " 
 
 " I don t know as we d ought to blame him," said 
 Grandma Spicer, "though to be sure, Noel s more quiet 
 
60 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 natured than some that likes to be wanderin* off as young 
 folks will, generally; but he was the only one they 
 had, and Noel s allus been a good boy. Pa and me, when 
 we go to meetin we most allus come acrost him a carryin 
 his Sunday School book under his arm, and may be," 
 concluded Grandma Spicer, " there ll be a time when 
 we shall more on us wish that thar wan t nothin wuss 
 could be brought against us than being innocent." 
 
 We pondered these suggestive words a few moments in 
 silence ; then Grandpa Spicer boldly interposed : 
 
 "That Ben Cradlebow he s a handsome boy, 
 teacher. Ah, he s a handsome one. They re a hand 
 some family, them Cradlebows. 
 
 "There s the old grannie, Aunt Susan they call 
 her. Lord, she s got a head on her like a picter ! They re 
 high bred, too, I reckon. To begin with, why, Godfrey 
 Godfrey Cradlebow that s B en s father, teacher ; he s 
 college bred, I suppose ! He had a rich uncle thar, that 
 took a shine to him and kind o dopted him and 
 eddicated him, but Godfrey, he took a shine to a poor 
 girl thar, dreadfully handsome, she was, but yet they 
 was both on em young, and it did not suit the old uncle, 
 so he left him to shift for himself. And Godfrey, he tried 
 one thing and another, and never held long to nothin , I 
 guess, and finally he drifted down this way and here he 
 stuck. 
 
 " He s got a good head, Godfrey has, but he was n t 
 never extry fond o work, I reckon, and he s growed 
 dreadful rheumatiky lame, and he has his sprees, 
 occasionally. 
 
 " Liddy, that s his wife, teacher, she was full good 
 enough for him when ye come to the pint. Oh, she s a 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 1 
 
 smart wife and she s had a hard row, so many children 
 and nothin to do with, as ye might say. Why, they ve 
 had thirteen children, ain t they, ma? 
 
 " Le me see four on em dead, and three on em 
 no ! four on em married, and three on em Howis t, 
 ma?" 
 
 Grandma then took up the tangled thread of the 
 old captain s discourse, with calm disdain, and proceeded 
 to disclose an appalling array of statistics not only in 
 regard to the Cradlebow family, but including generations 
 of men hitherto unknown and remote. 
 
 When I signified a desire to retire for the night, 
 Abagail informed me with a brisk and hopeful air, that 
 my room was " all ready now." 
 
 She led the way up a short and narrow little staircase 
 into a low garret where, amid a dark confusion of objects, 
 I was forcibly reminded of the rows of hard substances 
 suspended from the rafters. 
 
 Turning to the left, the rays of the candle revealed 
 a small red door framed in among the unpainted boards of 
 the wall. 
 
 There, Abagail bade me a flippant and musical good 
 night, and I entered my room, alone. 
 
 Within, the contrast between the door and the brown 
 walls was still more effectively drawn. 
 
 The bed, neatly made, stood in a niche where the roof 
 slanted perceptibly downward, so that the sweetly uncon 
 scious sleeper (as I found afterwards) perchance tossing 
 his head upward, in a dream, was doomed to bring 
 that member into resounding contact with the ceiling. 
 
 I judged something of the restless proclivities of 
 the last occupants of the room by the amount of plastering 
 
63 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 of which this particular section had been deprived. 
 In this, and in other places where it had fallen, it had 
 been collected and tacked up again to the ceiling in cloth 
 bags which presented a graceful and drooping, though at 
 first sight, rather enigmatical appearance. 
 
 The chimney ran through the room forming a sort 
 of unique centrepiece. 
 
 This and more I accepted, wearily, and then sank 
 down by the bed and cried. Outside, before the one 
 small window, stood a peach tree. Afterward, when 
 this had grown to be a very dear little room to me, 
 I looked out cheerfully through its branches, warm with 
 sunshine, and fragrant with bloom; but now it was 
 bare and ghostly, and, as the wind blew, one forlorn twig 
 trailed back and forth across the window. 
 
 For an hour or more after my head touched the 
 pillow, I lay awake listening to the unaccustomed sound 
 of the surf and those skeleton fingers tapping at the pane. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE TURKEY MOGUL ARRIVES. 
 
 STUDIED Ethel in school, the next day, with 
 special interest. She was a girl of seventeen or 
 eighteen, with the stately, substantial presence 
 of one of nature s own goddesses. She had a fresh, con 
 stant color in her cheeks, a pure, low forehead, and eyes 
 that were clear, gray, and large, but with a strangely ap 
 pealing, helplessly animal expression hi them, I fancied, 
 as she lifted them, oft times, to mine. She was distin 
 guished among my young disciples by the faithful, though 
 evidently labored and wearisome attention, she gave to 
 her books. 
 
 Her glance, bent on some small wretch who was misbe 
 having, had a peculiarly significant force. The little ones 
 all seemed to love her and to stand rather in awe of her too. 
 
 Entering the school-room in the morning, she dis 
 covered a network of strings, which one Lemuel Biddy had 
 artfully laid between the desks, intending thereby to way 
 lay and prostrate his human victim, and stooping down, 
 she boxed the miscreant, not cruelly, but effectively, on 
 the ears. I was surprised to see that the boy seemed to 
 regard this infliction as the simple and natural award of 
 justice, bowed his head and wept penitently, and was 
 subdued for sometime afterward. 
 
 To me, whose earliest years had been guided and 
 
64 GATE COD FOLKS. 
 
 illuminated on the principle that reason and persuasion 
 alone are to be used in the training of the tender twig, 
 this little occurrence afforded food for serious wonder and 
 reflection. 
 
 ] doubted if the logic of the sages or the wooing of the 
 celestial seraphim would have wrought with such con 
 vincing power on the min 1 and ears of Lemuel Middy. 
 
 If F.thel perchance, after painfully protracted exertions, 
 succeeded in working out some simple problem in arith 
 metic, her slate containing the solution was freely handed 
 about amo 1 g her unaspiring comrades, so that I judged 
 her to be " weakly generous " as well as " plodding," 
 qualities not of a high order, I esteemed, yet by no 
 means insuperable barriers to friendship when found to 
 enter more or less largely into the composition of one s 
 friends. 
 
 There was something in my novel relation to the girl as 
 her teacher peculiarly fascinating to me. At recess, she 
 remained in her seat and kept quietly at her work. 
 
 I went down and stood over her. " Can 1 help you, 
 my dear? " I said. 
 
 Whatever might have been the pedantic or obtrusively 
 condescending quality of those words, Ethel seemed to 
 find nothing distasteful in them. She looked up with 
 a "Thank you," and a pleased, trustful face like a child s. 
 " I can t do this one," said she. " I ve finished the rest, 
 but this would n t come right, somehow." 
 
 It was a sum in simple addition. I could not help 
 a feeling of deep surprise and commiseration that one of 
 Kthel s age should have stumbled at it at all, but I essayed 
 to examine it very closely and worked it out for her as 
 slowly as possible. " Do you see your mistake ? " i said. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 65 
 
 She blushed painfully. The tears almost stood in her 
 eyes. 
 
 " Yes, and T knew yonM have to find out how dull 
 I was." she said, "but 1 dreaded it. When Miss Taite 
 was here, mother was sick and I did n l go lo school 
 at all, and Miss Taite took me for a friend ; and 1 told 
 mother I d most rather not go to school to you, for Miss 
 Taite said you d be a real friend and I knew you 
 would n t want me when you found how dull I was." 
 
 I looked at the girl and a bright, hesitating smile woke 
 in her face. 
 
 " Do you know, Ethel," I said, " I don t choose my 
 friends for their mental qualifications for what they 
 know; I select them just as people do horses by their 
 teeth. Let me see yours." 
 
 Ethel laughed most musically, thus disclosing two bril 
 liant rows of ivories. I had noticed them before. 
 
 II You ll do ! " I exclaimed, lightly. " I take you into my 
 heart of hearts. Now what is your standard of choice? 
 What charming characteristic do you first require in 
 a friend, Ethel?" 
 
 " Oh ! " said she, gasping a little and speaking very 
 slowly, "I don t know. I don t think I ve 
 got any." 
 
 " Don t be afraid lest you shall guess something that I 
 have not, my clear," I said, "you can hardly go astray. 
 Begin with modesty, if you please, truly the chief of 
 virtues." 
 
 Ethel caught quickly the meaning in my tone and 
 answered with a low ripple of laughter. When I urged 
 her, she grew gravely embarassed. 
 
 * Well," said she, " I don t think I should want any- 
 
 5 
 
66 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 body that I thought I could n t ever help them any, you 
 know. That would n t ever need me, I mean, and I 
 know, " she went on more hastily, " it seems funny to 
 say that to you because it seems as though there was n t 
 anything that I could ever do for you because you 
 you seem not to need anybody but I didn t know 
 but sometime there might be something I thought 
 maybe sometime." 
 
 Ethel paused and looked up at me with that pitifully 
 beseeching expression in her eyes. 
 
 " Oh yes," I answered, still carelessly, " no doubt 
 I shall be a great burden to you in time. But you do 
 help me, now, dear, by your conduct in school. You 
 helped me this morning when you boxed Lemuel Biddy s 
 ears. I shall have to take boxing lessons of you." 
 
 " You be the scholar," Ethel answered quickly, her lips 
 parting again with a merry outburst of laughter. 
 
 " Wretch ! " said I, well pleased but affecting a tone of 
 deep severity, " You must not be saucy to your teacher 1 
 I shall keep you in the rest of your recebs for that. 
 
 " Do you like to study, Ethel? " I added, presently. 
 
 " No-o," said she, much abashed at the admission, and 
 yet evidently incapable of speaking otherwise than accord 
 ing to the simple dictates of her conscience. " I don t 
 think I should care anything about it if it did n t 
 make you so dull not to. I mean," she continued, " perhaps 
 I might a liked it if I d been to school right along, but we 
 never did. And I was to the mills up to Taunton. I 
 didn t stay long there. Then mother was sick. They 
 don t any of the scholars be let to go very regular. Some 
 times they re wanted to work out. So they forget. So 
 they don t care much, I think. They get to dreading it 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 67 
 
 I wanted to tell you so you would n t think it so much 
 blame our bein so backward." 
 
 " It is the faithful improvement of what opportunities 
 we have,Ethel," I began, and then paused, somewhat con 
 fused by the throng of lively reminiscences which suddenly 
 crowded my mental horoscope. You are young yet, 
 my dear," I concluded gravely, with a resigned sigh for my 
 own departed youth, " you can make up for lost time. It 
 is pleasant to give, but there may be circumstances 
 in which it is our duty imperatively, to receive. You must 
 let me do all I can for you this winter. I do want you for 
 a friend, but I would rather it should be on these plainly 
 implied conditions." 
 
 Ethel had been studying my face, thoughtfully, with 
 a still expression of wonder. 
 
 " I ll try to learn," said she, slowly. " I ll do anything 
 you want me to." 
 
 " Do you like to read? " I enquired, in a brighter tone. 
 
 " Stories? " said Ethel, a sparkle waking in her eyes. 
 
 " Stories mixed with other things," I insisted, gently, 
 and was then compelled to wonder how many of those 
 " other things " had found their way into the literary 
 appointment of my trunk. 
 
 "I ll try," said Ethel. 
 
 " Come to the Ark, after school, and look over the books 
 I have. We will talk some more about it and you shall 
 select as you please, or I will select for you, if you desire," 
 I said, looking at Ethel with kindly though severe 
 penetration. 
 
 " I d rather you would," said Ethel, obediently. 
 
 To inflict this particular sort of patronage was a delight 
 fully new experience for me. The glaring inconsistencies 
 
68 CATS COD FOLKS. 
 
 which confronted me at every turn only gave a heightened 
 zest to the pursuit. 
 
 When I \vcnt to the door to Mow the horn I felt that 
 Ethel already regarded me ns her patron, guide and spiritual 
 mentor, and I was seriously resolved to fill these positions 
 hopefully for her and with credit to myself. With respect 
 to the rest of my flock, I felt a different sort of interest 
 the wide awake concern of one who finds himself suddenly 
 perched on the back of a mettlesome, untried steed. 
 
 Any one member of that benighted corps, taken as the 
 subject of pruning and cultivating effort, would have 
 occupied, I believed, the faithful labors of a life time. 
 Considered as a gloriously rampant mass, the aspect of the 
 field was appalling. 
 
 I was especially impressed with this view of the case 
 when I went to toot them in from those free and reckless 
 diversions in which their souls expanded and their bodies 
 became as the winged creatures of the earth. 
 
 The horn was still an object of terror to me, though ex 
 perience had made me wise enough to institute, on all 
 occasions, a careful preliminary search for buttons. 
 
 Its blast, freighted with baleful meaning to the ears 
 of sportive innocence, found a melancholy echo among 
 the deeper woes of my own heart, and, if it chanced to be 
 one of Aunt Pucinda s singing days, the " Dar to be a Dan- 
 yell ! Dar to be a Dan -yell ! " which floated across 
 the lane, had but a doubtfully inspiriting effect. 
 
 I felt, indeed, like a Daniel doomed to convocate 
 my own lions, and lacking that faith in a preserving 
 Providence which is believed to have cheered and elevated 
 the spirit of the ancient prophet, I confidently expected, 
 on the whole, to be devoured. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 69 
 
 Gathered into their den, my lively herd gasped some 
 moments as though suffering the last loud agony of expir 
 ing breath, and then, bethinking them of that only one of 
 their free and native elements now obtainable, they sent 
 up a universal cry for " water ! " 
 
 Ah ! what to do with them through the long hours of 
 the day beautiful creatures ! by no means unlovable, 
 with their bright, clear eyes, their restless, restless feet, 
 their overflowing spirits ; their bodies all alive, but with 
 minds unfitted by birth, unskilled by domestic discip 
 line to any sort of earnest and prolonged effort. Long, 
 weary hours, therefore, not of furnishing instruction 
 to the hungry and enquiring mind ah, no ! but of a 
 desperately sustained struggle in which, with every faculty 
 on the alert to discover the truest expedients, with every 
 nerve strained to the utmost, I strove lor the mastery over 
 this antic, untamed animal, until I could throw the reins 
 loose at night, and drop my head down on my desk 
 in the deserted school-room, tired, tired, tired ! 
 
 The parents of the children " dropped in " often at the 
 Ark, and savored the lively and varied flow of their dis 
 course with choice dissertations on methods of discipline. 
 
 " I want my children whipped," said Mr. Randal Alden. 
 " That s what they need. They git enough of it at home. 
 It won t skeer em any and I tell the folks if they d all 
 talk like that, they would n t be no trouble in the school." 
 
 " Ye can t drive Milton P. ," said that hopeful s mother. 
 " He s been drove so much that he don t take no notice 
 of it. If coaxing won t fetch him, nothin won t ; and 
 I tell *m if they was all like that, they wouldn t be 
 no trouble in the school." 
 
 " Well," said Emily Gaskell, the matron of the painted 
 
70 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 house, a tall, angular woman, with the hectic ot the 
 orthodox Yankee consumption on her cheeks, and the 
 orthodox Yankee twinkle in her eye, "ye can manage 
 my boys whatever way ye please, teacher. I ain t per- 
 tickeler. They ve been coaxed and they ve been whipped, 
 but they ve always made out to mind by doin pretty 
 much as they was a mind to. They re smart boys, too," 
 she added, with sincere pride, " but they don t take 
 to larnin . I never see sich boys. Ye can t git no larnin 
 into em, no way. They d rather be whipped than go to 
 school. Sim had a man to work on our cranberry bog, 
 and he found out that he was first rate in rithmetic, this 
 man was, and so Sim, says he, I ll give ye the same 
 ye git on the bog/ says he, to stay up to the house and 
 larn my boys rithmetic, says he, and the man, he tried 
 it, and in the course of a day or two, he come around to 
 Sim, and wanted to know if he could n t go back to clarin 
 bog again." 
 
 Emily took in the broadly contemplative expression on 
 GrandmaSpicer s benign features, and then winked at me 
 facetiously : " I tell em if they was all like that," said 
 she, "and I guess they be, pretty much, they might 
 as well be out o doors as in, and less worryin to the 
 teacher." 
 
 It might have been the third day of my labors in 
 Wallencamp that a man, having the appearance of a 
 lame giant, entered the school-room, and advanced to 
 .meet me with an imposing dignity of mien. He held 
 captive, with one powerful hand, a stubbornly speech 
 less, violently struggling boy. I recognized the man as 
 Godfrey Cradlebow, the handsome fiddler s father, and 
 the boy was none other than the imp whose eyes, scorch- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 71 
 
 ing and defiant now, had first sent mocking glances back 
 at me while their light-limbed owner kicked out a jaunty 
 rigadoon from under the encircling folds of his sacerdotal 
 vestments. 
 
 " Miss Hungerford, I beg your pardon," said the elder 
 Cradlebow, with a distinct, refined enunciation foreign 
 to the native element of Wallencamp whose ordinary 
 locution had something of a Hoosier accent. " After a 
 good deal of trouble in catching him, I have finally 
 succeeded in bringing you in this a this little dev" 
 he made an impressive pause, patted his fiery offspring 
 on the head with fatherly dignity, and eyed him, at once 
 doubtfully and reflectively. 
 
 I was interested in observing the aspect of the two 
 faces. 
 
 " The little boy resembles you, I think," I said. 
 
 The lame man struck his cane down hard upon the 
 floor arid laughed immoderately. 
 
 " If you knew what I had in my mind to say ! " he 
 exclaimed " Ah ! that was well put, well put ! though 
 but dubiously complimentary, but dubiously so, I assure 
 you, either to father or son ! " 
 
 The idea still continuing to tickle him, he laughed 
 more gently, beating a sympathetic tattoo with his cane on 
 the floor. 
 
 " To pursue directly the cause of my intrusion here," 
 
 he went on, at length, "this little well, for present 
 
 purposes, we will call him the Phenomenon. I confess it 
 is a name to which he is not totally unused. This little 
 phenomenon, whom you see before you, is the young 
 est but one in a flock of thirteen. Some of that 
 beautiful band " here Mr. Cradlebow raised a very 
 
73 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 shalcy hand for an instant to his eyes, and although 
 a fitting occasion for sentiment, i was compelled 
 to think of what Grandpa Spicer had said about Godfrey 
 Cradlebow s " sprees " " Some of that beautiful 
 band rest in the grave-yard, yonder. Some of them 
 already know what it is themselves to be parents. 
 Some of them still linger in the poor, old home 
 nest. I see you have here, my Alvin, and my 
 Wallace, and my youngest, the infant Sophronia. 
 Well, you find them good children, I dare say. Ah ! 
 they have an estimable mother." Again, he lifted his 
 hand to his eyes. " Mischievous enough, you find them, 
 probably, but amenable there it is, amenable, but 
 this lad," Mr. Cradlebow paused again, shaking his 
 head with a meaning to which he gravely declined further 
 expression. 
 
 " What is your name ? " I enquired of the little boy, 
 hopefully. 
 
 " Simmy B.," he answered revengefully in a tone of 
 alarming hoarseness. 
 
 " Such colds as that boy has ! " exclaimed the paternal 
 Cradlebow. " They re like all the rest of him they re 
 phenomenal. There are times when that boy appears to 
 be nothing but one frightful, perambulating cold ! Well," 
 he sighed, "and yet it s a strange fact, that the more 
 depraved and miserable a little devil is, the more his 
 mother 11 coddle him. 
 
 " Now there s this one and my Ben Benney Leon 
 ard a good boy, but lacking all capacity for rest 
 Always lacking the capacity for rest uneasy, both of 
 them always uneasy! but how the mother would give 
 her own rest for them and seem to love them the better 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 73 
 
 for it 1 strange ! They have always been her idols, too. 
 Well, I have captured Simeon and brought him in. 1 
 hope you may keep him. The rest you must learn 
 for yourself. The Lord help me ! " he groaned, as 
 he picked up his cane, with evident physical pain, and 
 hobbled out of the room. 
 
 Within the school-room, things resumed their custom 
 ary, Niagara-like roar, until a lamentable voice rose 
 above the others, and was straightway followed by another 
 voice in indignant explanation. 
 
 " Teacher, can t Simmy B. stop ? He s puttin beans 
 down Amber G. s neck ! " 
 
 " Simeon ! " I exclaimed, in accents calculated to melt 
 that youthful heart of stone, and then added, " I will speak 
 with you a few moments alone, at recess." 
 
 Simeon looked no longer helplessly angry as when his 
 father brought him in. He appeared, on the whole, well 
 pleased, but I scanned his angelic features in vain for any 
 trace of repentance. 
 
 There followed a few moments of comparative quiet. 
 Then came a startling, sickening sound as of some 
 one undergoing the tortures of strangulation. Then, 
 a long, convulsive gasp. I looked down upon a sea 
 of round eyes and uplifted hands. 
 
 " Teacher, Simmy s swallered a slate-pencil 1 Simmy s 
 swallered a slate-pencil !" 
 
 " He s swallered most a hull one ! " cried the owner of 
 one pair of protruding orbs. 
 
 " It wa n t ! " retorted Simeon, flaming with righteous 
 indignation " It wa n t but harf a one ! " 
 
 " He t-t-told me," cried a young scion of the stammer 
 ing Peterson race, all breathless with excitement, " that 
 
74 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 he was a going to p-p-put it into his m-m-mouth and 
 t-t-take it out of his n-n-nose, and he did and it t-t-t 
 and it slip-p-ped ! " 
 
 " Wall, jest you keep your eyes peeled and your 
 ears cocked," replied the sturdy Simeon, in hoarse and 
 jarring accents, " and see if I don t take it out of my 
 nose, yet." 
 
 The signs of that painful struggle slowly faded out of 
 Simeon s face and there was an unusual calm in the 
 school-room. 
 
 Perhaps a quarter of an hour elapsed. I was thought 
 fully engaged in hearing one of my classes when startled 
 by the sound of a window closed with a sharp bang. At 
 the same time arose the universal voice : 
 
 " Simmy B. s got out o the winder ! Simmy B. s got 
 out o the winder ! " 
 
 I looked out across the snowless fields, and there, having 
 already scaled two fences and put many a good rod 
 between himself and the scene of his brief imprisonment, I 
 beheld, borne as on the wings of the wind, the form 
 of the retreating Simeon. 
 
 An incident at the close of my first week in Wallen- 
 camp was the visit of the " Turkey Mogul." Such 
 was the name given by the Wallencampers to Mr. Baxter, 
 the Superintendent of Schools. 
 
 Mr. Baxter lived miles a\vay in Farmouth, and was, 
 properly, the visitor of the schools in Farmouth County. 
 Wallencamp was not in Farmouth County. Nevertheless, 
 Mr. Baxter had charge of the Wallencamp school. I 
 had been informed that he drove over at the beginning 
 and close of each term, put the scholars through the 
 most "dreadful examins," and gave an indiscriminate 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 75 
 
 " blowin up " to persons and things in the place. So I 
 looked forward to his coming with a curiosity not un- 
 mingled with more doubtful emotions. 
 
 It was Friday, and so near the close of the afternoon 
 session, that I had quite dismissed from my mind the 
 contemplation of any dread advent for that day. It was 
 just at that trying hour of Friday afternoon when only 
 the spelling classes remained to be heard, and teacher 
 and scholars both were conscious, the one with a 
 deep inward sense of relief, the others with many restless 
 demonstrations of impatience, that the week was near its 
 close, and that " tomorrow " would be Saturday and a 
 holiday. 
 
 Estella the raven-haired, familiarly known as the 
 "Modoc," a long and ungainly creature, with arms and legs 
 so seemingly profuse and unmanageable, that they re 
 minded one of the tentacles of a cuttle-fish Estella was 
 " passing around the water." 
 
 She was performing this accustomed office with a 
 grin of such supreme Delight and satisfaction as seemed 
 actually to illuminate the back of her head, when the door 
 of the school-room opened, and there, without any 
 previous warning, appeared a grim, fierce looking little 
 man, whom I knew at once to be the " Turkey Mogul. " 
 
 The extreme exigency of the case inspired me with 
 a certain calmness of despair. Having advanced to meet 
 this august personage, conducted him to the desk and 
 placed for him the official chair, which he shortly refused, 
 I lifted my eyes, " prepared for any fate," to observe 
 what might be the condition of my turbulent flock, 
 and lo all the tops, and Jews-harps, and apples, and 
 whirligigs, and miniature buzz saws had disappeared, and 
 
76 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 there was an array of pallid faces bent over another array 
 of books many of the latter were upside down, b.ut the 
 effect was unbroken. Even Estella, moved by some 
 sudden divine sense of the fitness of things, had ceased 
 her desultory wanderings about the room with the tin 
 dipper, and, not having had time to procure a book, 
 was working out imaginary problems on her fingers with 
 the air of a Herschel, and I became slowly conscious 
 that there was such a stillness in that room as had not 
 been no, nor anything like unto it, since the first 
 time I entered there. 
 
 I think Mr. Baxter must have observed something 
 of the look of helpless astonishment which transfixed my 
 features. I certainly saw the shadow of a smile lurking 
 in his steel grey eyes. 
 
 "Yes," he snarled, addressing the school, "yes, if 
 I did n t know you, now, and if your books were not 
 most of em, bottom side up, and if I should n t be com 
 pelled in two minutes to prove the contrary, I might 
 possibly imagine that you were studying yes 
 Humph ! " 
 
 I said to Mr. Baxter, as cheerfully as possible, that " we 
 were nearly through with our usual routine of classes for 
 the day, but I should be happy, of course, to repeat any of 
 the recitations which he might care to hear." 
 
 " Would you ? " said he, looking at me not unpleasantly. 
 "Do you really ask me to believe that? um-m-m," 
 he murmured, resuming his stern aspect. " Let me see 
 Geography yes, Miss Hungerford, you may call the 
 first class in Geography." 
 
 I did not accuse the Superintendent of Schools of 
 malevolent intentions, but I could honestly have affirmed 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 77 
 
 that of all the divisions and subdivisions of my empire the 
 first class in Geography was the one least calculated to 
 shine on an occasion like the present. 
 
 I groaned, inwardly, and called them forth. Their 
 forlorn and wilted appearance as they formed in line went 
 to my heart. I was resolved to defend them at whatever 
 cost. 
 
 " Now," said Mr. Baxter, planting himself firmly, 
 with his legs rather far apart, thrusting his hands in 
 his pockets and staring steadily at the shivering group 
 from under his awful brows, " what is Geography? to begin 
 with. That s the first thing. What is Geography? " 
 
 For a moment there was no reply. I almost began to 
 hope that there would be none. I felt that here " Silence 
 was golden," and if maintained, all might be comparatively 
 well, when, to my dismay, there was a sort of flank move 
 ment in the ranks and the ill-starred Estella raised her 
 hand. 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Baxter, pointing his finger steadfastly 
 at her as if to impart a vein of concentration to her pal 
 pably loose and floating appearance, " You ! you ought to 
 know. What is Geography, eh? " 
 
 Some fair wreck of an idea, formerly appropriated in 
 this connection, floated through the brain of the " Modoc." 
 She opened her mouth and in those loud and startling 
 accents, for which she was ever distinguished, gave 
 utterance to these memorable words : 
 
 "A round! like a ball !" 
 
 Mr. Baxter glared fiercely at her, for a moment, and 
 then permitted his scorn to escape in a long, sarcastic 
 hiss. 
 
 " Yes-s-s," said he, "yes-s-s 1 around like a ball I Do 
 
78 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 you find it much in your way, eh ? Do you often give it 
 such a kick as that, eh ? Well, take your seats ! take 
 your seats ! " 
 
 The Superintendent of Schools seemed disinclined 
 to evoke any further catastrophes of this sort, but pro 
 ceeded to discourse to me, aside, in a confidential 
 growl, on the peculiar and erratic natures of the benighted 
 Wallencampers . 
 
 " Their minds," he said, with a grim smile, " have 
 no receptivity. They must originate, or they are naught* 
 Parents and children they are all the same. I am 
 convinced that there is no scholarship to be established 
 here. It has been tried and the attempt has failed 
 a hundred times. It s not in the nature of things. Get 
 on the good side of them, that s all. That has failed 
 sometimes, but it is not among the impossible things. 
 Get on the good side of them." 
 
 Finally, he turned to address the children. The 
 " examins " had certainly not been severe, but the 
 " blovvin up " was faithfully and liberally performed. 
 
 Never before had I felt so drawn to my poor, wonder 
 ing, wolf besieged flock, and in proportion to my tender 
 ness for them waxed my indignation toward the " Turkey 
 Mogul." 
 
 " You can t learn," said he. "That s a sufficiently es 
 tablished fact, but if you don t behave, your teacher is 
 going to write to me, mind ! and I shall come down here 
 in my buggy and take you right up and off to Farmouth, 
 where we have a place to keep all such naughty boys and 
 girls." 
 
 This last was evoked as a benediction. Mr. Baxter 
 looked at his watch and remarked that it was a long drive 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 79 
 
 to Farmouth, and he must be going. " Dismiss your 
 
 school, Miss Hungerford," he said. 
 
 Now the children were accustomed it was a special 
 privilege they had requested to sing, before the school 
 closed at night, one of the hymns with which they were 
 all so familiar in Wallencamp. 
 
 I would have dismissed them, on this occasion, without 
 further ceremony, but before I had time to tap my ruler 
 on the desk as a signal for dismissal, they all struck up as 
 with one voice : 
 
 " What a friend we have In Jesus, 
 All our griefs and woes to share! 
 What a privilege to carry 
 Everything to God in prayer." 
 
 At first I was a little amused at the incongruity of the 
 thing. Then it began to seem to me inexpressibly 
 touching. 
 
 The Superintendent of Schools stood with a cold, 
 supercilious grin on his face, a stern, self-sufficient man, 
 not one likely to echo the spirit of these simple words. 
 
 I stood beside him, weary and perplexed enough, but 
 ever taking council of the pride of my own heart. And 
 those poor children, with their hard, toilsome, barren lives 
 before them, how they sang ! their clear, young voices 
 ringing out fearlessly, carelessly they knew the words. 
 
 I wondered if any one in the room appreciated the 
 song as having inner truth and meaning. 
 
 As I was locking my desk, before leaving the room, I 
 discovered this little note, which Ethel had dropped in it. 
 
 " dere teecher, 
 
 " I wanted to do sumthyng to help yu wen 
 I seen him combing in To Day fur I new jus howe 
 yu felt but thay wasent no wours than thay always was, 
 
80 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 and he nose it ! and thay studdid more fur yu I think 
 than thay did for any but I think it mus be harrd for yu 
 not bein use to us. I think yu was tired. Wen 
 we was singin* I thot howe tired yu was, but thar 
 was always won to help. Excus writin pleas but I wanted 
 to let yu no for yu was good to me and I lov yu. 
 
 Ethel." 
 
 Some how, the little note rested and comforted me, 
 more than I would have imagined, a week before, 
 any expression of this humble disciple of mine could 
 have done. 
 
 I held the letter crumpled in my hand going up the 
 lane. Going up the lane, too, I met Emily s fisherman 
 coming gayly home from the river. 
 
 Mr. Turner stopped and gallantly requested the 
 pleasure of carrying a small book which I held in 
 my hand. He walked back to the ark with me, talking 
 very fluently the while. 
 
 " Do you know," he began, " I think I m awfully 
 fortunate meeting you here in the lane. I ve been wish 
 ing for an opportunity to speak with you for two or 
 three days past, but the Ark is such a popular resort for 
 the youth of Wallencamp, and the children seem to be 
 always following you. Well, they regard the school teacher 
 as their special property, and would consider me worse 
 than an intruder if I should go in to take even the lowest 
 seat in tne synagogue. I ve been wanting to speak with 
 you, ever since that first night when I stared at you 
 so stupidly at Captain Spicer s when I went up to 
 borrow the oars, and you were engaged, you remem 
 ber," said Mr. Turner, laughing gently, " in wresting 
 particles of hulled com from the ocean depths of that 
 kettle." 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 81 
 
 "I remember," I said, trying to smother what an 
 noyance I still felt at the recollection. " I admit that 
 it was a very striking scene. It was very good," I added, 
 religiously, referring to the corn. Mr. Turner ought 
 to know, I thought, that I had come to Wallencamp on a 
 mission, and that if he wished to scoff at the ways 
 of its defenceless inhabitants, he should n t look to find a 
 confidante in me. 
 
 "The hulled corn? Oh! yes, indeed!" he answered 
 with a sprightly air. "We have it served in the 
 same way at Emily s, and we think it s just a rich, 
 you know. But I wanted to tell you. If you could have 
 known how confoundedly . struck up I was when I 
 went into the Ark that night, you would n t think it 
 so strange my standing staring there like a fool. You 
 see, we fellows picking up everything of interest 
 down here to amuse ourselves with, heard that there 
 was a new school teacher coming, so we gave our 
 imaginations free rein. We were laughing it over among 
 ourselves, and Smith said, she d probably have hair like 
 Turner s, and Jake said she d wear spectacles, and have 
 a nose like the Clipper in the Three Fates? and all 
 that sort of thing. So I went up that night to see, 
 just for the deuce of it, and not to get the oars a* ^ T ! 5 and 
 I was deucedly well paid for it, toe. *u tact, Miss 
 Hungerford," said the fisherman, darting a keen glance at 
 me from his laughing eyes, " I did go up to scoff, but I 
 remained to pray." 
 
 My ears had never been conscientiously closed to the 
 voice of idle praise, but with this, for some reason, I was 
 not well pleased. 
 
 " Your attitude was certainly devotional," I answered, 
 I 
 
82 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 without haste. "Your friend," I added, "must be 
 something of a seer. Here are the literal glasses ! " 
 
 " Nonsense !" said Mr. Turner, coloring slightly, "you 
 know I didn t mean that just being a little near 
 sighted. I said spectacles. Besides," and the fisherman 
 looked me full and unblushingly in the face "if I 
 had such eyes as yours, by Jove, I would n t mind whether 
 I could see anything out of em or not ! " 
 
 " You will hardly expect me to thank you for that," I 
 murmured, with a sincere flash of indignation, not that I 
 was unmindful of certain reckless moods of old, when 
 I had found it not impossible to listen even with calmness, 
 to vain demonstrations of this sort, but I felt that I 
 was a different person now, in a different sphere of action. 
 
 Mr. Turner knew nothing of me except that I was the 
 Teacher of the Wallencamp school a doubtful position 
 to his mind. 
 
 He fancied that he might " pick me up," to " amuse" 
 himself with, I thought, and at the reflection, I felt 
 an angry glow rising from heart to cheek. 
 
 Meanwhile the fisherman gnawed his moustache rue 
 fully. This idle worldling could assume, occasionally, 
 a whimsical helplessness of expression, with an air of 
 aggrieved and child-like candor, somewhat baffling to the 
 stern desi^.^ ~* iustice. 
 
 "Now I ve offended you," he began, exchanging 
 his tone of easy nonchalance for one of slow and awkward 
 dejection. " And you think I ve had the impudence 
 well, if either one of us two is going to be taken in, Miss 
 Hungerford, I can tell you it s a blamed sight more likely 
 to be me ; but you re prejudiced against me, I can see. 
 You were prejudiced against me that first night. I know 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 83 
 
 how those old women talk. They ve got an idea, some 
 how, that I m a scapegrace, and a desperate character. 
 And, on my word, Miss Hungerford, I m considered 
 a real model chap there at home, and make speeches 
 to the little boys and girls in Sunday School, and all that 
 sort of thing. On my word, I do." 
 
 Mr. Turner spoke quite warmly. I could not help 
 laughing at his droll self-vindication. 
 
 "I should like to ask you to speak to my little 
 boys and girls ! " I said, " but it s too harrowing to 
 the feelings. I listened to one address this after 
 noon." 
 
 "The < Turkey Mogul? Oh, that isn t my style!" 
 said Mr. Turner. " I don t sear their young vision 
 with the prospect of eternal flames. I entice them 
 with the blandishments of future reward." Let me go 
 in some day, and I promise you in one brief half hour 
 to destroy the cankering effect of all that the Turkey 
 Mogul has ever said. At least, I shall serve as an 
 antidote a cheerful and allaying antidote to the 
 wormwood of censorious criticism." 
 
 Thus the voluble fisherman ran on with an air of 
 simple and charming ingenuousness, while I reflected 
 that here possibly was a light and aimless creature 
 whom I had mentally convicted of ungracious designs, 
 that, although his presence in Wallencamp, as a 
 representative of the great world I believed I had left 
 behind me, was rather mal a propos, it might be that 
 I ought to consider him providentially included in my 
 field of labor, and as one of the objects of my re 
 generating care. 
 
 Whether Mr. Turner detected anything of this philan- 
 
84 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 thropic intention, I do not know. When we got to 
 
 the gate he said : 
 
 " Will you go with me for a drive to-morrow, Miss 
 Hungerf ord ? You know what the Wallencamp equipages 
 are. They furnish entertainment, at all events. The 
 drive to West Wallen is really beautiful even at this 
 season of the year, with such uncommonly fine weather, 
 and you have a holiday, and the mail has n t been brought 
 from West Wallen for nearly a week." 
 
 I thanked the fisherman almost eagerly, thinking, 
 at that instant, of the longed-for letters that I knew were 
 waiting for me in the West Wallen Post Office. 
 
 Then, suddenly, I felt Ethel s little note grow heavy 
 in my hand. 
 
 To act voluntarily for others to consider as serious 
 any obstacles in the way of following out my personal 
 inclinations these were experiences too new to me, 
 and my resolve was not a natural one, but forced and 
 impatient. 
 
 "You are very kind," I said,"but I can t go to-morrow." 
 
 The two little Spicers came running out of the Ark 
 to meet me. I was secretly relieved. Mr. Turner had 
 been watching me narrowly, his lips curled, and his eyes 
 flashed with a half angry, half scornful light. He cast an 
 unloving glance at the little Spicers. 
 
 4< I can t, of course, question the justice of your 
 decision," he said shortly, and touched his hat and walked 
 away without another word. 
 
 I considered this as one of the least among my many 
 
 trials and perplexities. Oftentimes I sighed for 
 the light hearted irresponsible " days of yore when 
 " missions " were, as yet, to me unknown. 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 86 
 
 School was the greatest perplexity. Grandma Spicer s 
 tenderness grew more impressive each day. 
 
 " It seems to me you re a growin bleak and holler- 
 eyed, teacher," she would say to me when I came home 
 at night. 
 
 So I indulged more and more in a deeply sentimental 
 self-pity and felt a growing satisfaction in the conscious 
 ness that I was enduring martyrdom. It was more 
 by reason of a stubborn and desperate pride, I think, than 
 from higher motives, that, hi my letters home, I said 
 nothing of the discomforts and discouragements which 
 attended my course. I chose to dilate on the beautiful 
 scenery of Wallencamp, and the quaint originality of its 
 inhabitants. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 GRANDMA SPICER GETS GRANDPA READY TOR SUNDAY 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 morning, nothing arose in Wallencamp 
 save the sun. 
 
 At least, that celestial orb had long forgotten 
 all the roseate flaming of his youth, in an honest straight 
 forward march through the heavens, ere the first signs 
 of smoke came curling lazily up from the Wallencamp 
 chimneys. 
 
 I had retired at night, very weary, with the delicious 
 consciousness that it would n t make any difference when 
 I woke up the next morning, or whether, indeed, I woke 
 at all. 
 
 So I opened my eyes leisurely and lay half dreaming, 
 half meditating on a variety of things. 
 
 I deciphered a few of the texts on the scriptural patch 
 work quilt which covered my couch. 
 
 There were " Let not your heart be troubled," " Re 
 member Lot s wife," and " Abagail Spicer," traced in 
 inky hieroglyphics, all in close conjunction. 
 
 Finally, I reached out for my watch, and, having 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 ascertained the time of day, I got up and proceeded 
 to dress hastily enough, wondering to hear no signs 
 of life in the house. 
 
 I went noiselessly down the stairs. All was silent, 
 below, except for the peaceful snoring of Mrs. Abagail 
 and the little Spicers, which was responded to from some 
 remote western corner of the Ark by the triumphant 
 snores of Grandma and Grandpa Spicer. 
 
 I attempted to kindle a fire in the stove, but it sizzled a 
 little while, spitefully, as much as to say, " What, Sunday 
 morning ? Not I ! " and went out. So I concluded 
 to put on some wraps and go out and warm myself in the 
 sun. 
 
 I climbed the long hill, back of the ark, descended, 
 and walked along the bank of the river. It was a beauti 
 ful morning. The air was everything that could be 
 desired in the way of air, but I felt a desperate need 
 of something more substantial. 
 
 Standing alone with nature, on the bank of the lovely 
 river, I thought, with tears in my eyes, of the delicious 
 breakfast already recuperating the wasted energies of my 
 far away home friends. 
 
 When I got back to the house, Mrs. Abagail, in simple 
 and unaffected attire, was bustling busily about the 
 stove. 
 
 The snores from Grandma and Grandpa s quarter had 
 ceased, signifying that they, also, had advanced a stage 
 in the grand processes of Sunday morning. 
 
 The children came teasing me to dress them, so 
 I fastened for them a variety of small articles which 
 I flattered myself on having combined in a very ingenious 
 and artistic manner, though I believe those infant Spicers 
 
88 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 went weeping to Grandma, afterwards, and were re 
 modelled by her all-comforting hand with much skill and 
 patience. 
 
 In the midst of her preparations for breakfast, Abagail 
 abruptly assumed her hat and shawl, and was seen from 
 the window, walking leisurely across the fields in the 
 direction of the woods. She returned in due time, bear 
 ing an armful of fresh evergreens which she twisted around 
 the family register. 
 
 When the ancient couple made their appearance, I 
 remarked silently, in regard to Grandma Spicer s hair, 
 what proved afterward to be its usual holiday morning 
 arrangement. 
 
 It was confined in six infinitesimal braids which ap 
 peared to be sprouting out, perpendicularly, in all directions 
 from her head. 
 
 The effect of redundancy and expansiveness thus 
 heightened and increased on Grandma s features was 
 striking in the extreme. 
 
 While we were eating breakfast, that good soul observed 
 to Grandpa Spicer : " Wall, pa, I suppose you ll be all 
 ready when the time comes to take teacher and me 
 over to West Wallen to Sunday school, wont ye ? " 
 
 Grandpa coughed, and coughed again, and raised 
 his eyes helplessly to the window. 
 
 "Looks some like showers," said he. "A-hem ! a-hem ! 
 Looks mightily to me like showers, over yonder." 
 
 " Thar, r aly, husband ! I must say I feel mortified for 
 ye," said Grandma. "Seein as you re a perfessor, too, 
 and thar ain t been a single Sunday mornin* since 
 I ve lived with ye, pa, summer or winter, but what you ve 
 seen showers, and it r aly seems to me it s dreadful incon- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 89 
 
 sistent when thar ain t no cloud in the sky, and don t look 
 no more like rain than I do." And Grandma s face, in 
 spite of her reproachful tones, was, above all, blandly 
 simlike and expressive of anything rather than deluge and 
 watery disaster. 
 
 Grandpa was silent a little while, then coughed again. 
 I had never seen Grandpa in worse straits. 
 
 " A-hem ! a-hem ! * Fanny seems to be a little lame, 
 this morning," said he. " I should nt wonder. She s been 
 goin pretty stiddy this week." 
 
 "It does beat all, pa," continued Grandma Spicer, 
 " how t all the horses you ve ever had since I ve known 
 ye have always been took lame Sunday mornin . Thar 
 was * Happy Jack, he could go anywhers through the 
 week, and never limp a step, as nobody could see, and 
 Sunday mornin , he was always took lame ! And thar 
 was * Tantrum " 
 
 " Tantrum " was the horse that had run away with 
 Grandma when she was thrown from the wagon, and 
 generally smashed to pieces. And now, Grandma 
 branched off into the thrilling reminiscenses connected 
 with this incident of her life, which was the third time 
 during the week that the horrible tale had been repeated 
 for my delectation. 
 
 When she had finished, Grandpa shook his head with pain 
 ful earnestness, reverting to the former subject of discussion. 
 
 " It s a long jaunt !" said he, " a long jaunt !" 
 
 "Thar s a long hill to climb, before we reach Zion s 
 mount," said Grandma Spicer, impressively. 
 
 "Wall, there s a darned sight harder one on the road 
 to West Wallen !" burst out the old sea captain desper 
 ately, " say nothin about the devilish stones 1 " 
 
90 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 "Thar now," said Grandma with calm though awful 
 reproof " I think we ve gone fur enough for one day ; 
 we ve broke the Sabbath, and took the name of the Lord 
 in vain, and that ought to be enough for perfessors." 
 
 Grandpa replied at length in a greatly subdued tone. 
 
 " Wall, if you and the teacher want to go over to Sun 
 day school to-day, I suppose we can go if we get ready," 
 a long submissive sigh " I suppose we can." 
 
 " They have preachin service in the mornin , I sup 
 pose," said Grandma. " But we don t generally git along 
 to that. It makes such an early start. We generally try 
 to get around, when we go, in time for Sunday school. 
 They have singin and all. It s just about as interestin I 
 think, as preachin ." "The old man ra ly likes it," she 
 observed aside to me, " when he once gets started, but 
 he kind o dreads the gittin started." 
 
 When I beheld the ordeal through which Grandpa 
 Spicer was called to pass, at the hands of his faithful con 
 sort, before he was considered in a fit condition of mind 
 and body to embark for the sanctuary, I marvelled not 
 at the old man s reluctance, nor that he had indeed seen 
 clouds and tempest fringing the horizon. 
 
 Immediately after breakfast, he set out for the barn, 
 ostensibly to " see to the chores," really, I believe, to 
 obtain a few moments respite, before worse evil should 
 come upon him. 
 
 Pretty soon Grandma was at the back door calling in 
 firm though persuasive tones. 
 
 " Husband ! Husband ! Come in, now, and get ready." 
 
 No answer. Then it was in another key, weighty, yet 
 expressive of no weak irritation that Grandma called 
 " Come, pa ! pa a ! pa-a-a I" Still no answer. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Then that voice of Grandma s sung out like a trumpet, 
 terrible with meaning "Hoggarty Spicer ! " 
 
 But Grandpa appeared not. Next, I saw Grandma 
 slowly but surely gravitating in the direction of the barn, 
 and soon she returned bringing with her that ancient de 
 linquent who looked like a lost sheep indeed and a truly 
 unreconciled one. 
 
 " Now the first thing," said Grandma, looking her 
 forlorn captive over, "is boots. Go and get on yer 
 meetin gaiters, pa." 
 
 The old gentleman having invested himself with those 
 sacred relics, came pathetically limping into the room. 
 
 " I declare, ma," said he, " somehow these things 
 phew! Somehow they pinch my feet dreadfully. I 
 don t know what it is, phew! They re dreadful on- 
 comf table things somehow." 
 
 "Since I ve known ye, pa," solemnly ejaculated 
 Grandma Spicer, "you ve never had a pair o meetin 
 boots that set easy on yer feet. You d ought to get boots 
 big enough for ye pa," she continued looking down dis 
 approvingly on the old gentleman s pedal extremities, 
 which resembled two small scows at anchor in black 
 cloth encasements, "and not be so proud as tp go 
 to pinchin yer feet into gaiters a number o siztfc too 
 small for ye." 
 
 " They re number tens, I tell ye ! " roared Grandpa, 
 nettled outrageously by this cutting taunt. 
 
 " Wall, thar, now, pa," said Grandma, soothingly, " if 
 I had sech feet as that, I wouldn t go to spreadin 
 it all over town, if I was you but it s time we stopped 
 bickerin , now, husband, and got ready for meetin ; 
 so set down and let me wash yer head." 
 
92 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " I ve washed once this mornin . It s clean enough," 
 Grandpa protested, but in vain. He was planted in 
 a chair, and Grandma Spicer, with rag and soap and a 
 basin of water, attacked the old gentleman vigorously, 
 much as I have seen cruel mothers wash the faces of 
 their earth-begrimed infants. He only gave expression 
 to such groans as : 
 
 " Thar, ma ! don t tear my ears to pieces ! Come, ma ! 
 you ve got my eyes so full o soap now, ma, that I can t 
 see nothin . Phew ! Lordy ! ain t ye most through with 
 this, ma?" 
 
 Then came the dyeing process, which Grandma Spicer 
 assured me, aside, made Grandpa " look like a man o 
 thirty," but, to me, after it he looked neither old nor 
 young, human nor inhuman, nor like anything that I had 
 ever seen before under the sun. 
 
 "There s the lotion, the potion, the dye-er, and the 
 setter," said Grandma, pointing to four bottles on the 
 table. " Now whar s the directions, Abagail ? " 
 
 These having been produced from between the leaves 
 of the family bible, Abagail read, while Grandma made a 
 vigorous practical application of the various mixtures, 
 
 "This admirable lotion" in soft ecstatic tones Aba- 
 gial rehearsed the flowery language of the recipe 
 " though not so instantaneously startling in its effect as our 
 inestimable dyer and setter, yet forms a most essential 
 part of the whole process, opening, as it does, the 
 dry and lifeless pores of the scalp, imparting to them 
 new life and beauty, and rendering them more easily 
 susceptible to the applications which follow. But we 
 must go deeper than this; a tone must be given to 
 the whole system by means of the cleansing and rejuvenat- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 93 
 
 ing of the very centre of our beings, and, for this purpose, 
 we have prepared our wonderful potion." Here, Grandpa, 
 with a wry face, was made to swallow a spoonful oi 
 the mixture. " Our unparallelled dyer," Abagail con 
 tinued, " restores black hair to more than original gloss 
 and brilliancy, and gives to the faded golden tress the 
 sunny flashes of youth." Grandpa was dyed. " Our world 
 renowned setter completes and perfects the whole process, 
 by adding tone and permanency to the efficacious qualities 
 of the lotion, potion, and dyer, &c.," while on Grandpa s 
 head the dye was set. 
 
 " Now, read teacher some of the testimonials, daughter," 
 said Grandma Spicer, whose face was one broad, generous 
 illustration of that rare and peculiar virtue called faith. 
 
 So Abagail continued : " Mrs. Hiram Briggs, of North 
 Dedham writes : I was terribly afflicted with baldness, 
 so that, for months, I was little more than an outcast 
 from society, and an object of pity to my most familiar 
 friends. I tried every remedy in vain. At length, I 
 heard of your wonderful restorative. After a week s 
 application, my hair had already begun to grow in 
 what seemed the most miraculous manner. At the 
 end of ten months, it had assumed such length and 
 proportions as to be a most luxurious burden, and where 
 I had before been regarded with pity and aversion, 
 I became the envied and admired of all beholders." 
 
 "Just think!" said Grandma Spicer, with rapturous 
 sympathy and gratitude, "how that poor creetur must 
 a felt ! " 
 
 " Orion Spaulding of Weedsville, Vermont, " Abagail 
 went on but, here, I had to beg to be excused, and 
 went to my room to get ready for the Sunday school. 
 
94 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 When I came down again, Grandpa Spicer was seated, 
 completely arrayed in his best clothes, opposite Grandma, 
 who held the big family bible in her lap, and a 
 Sunday school question book in one hand. 
 
 " Now, pa," said she, " what tribe was it in sacred writ, 
 that wore bunnits? " 
 
 I was compelled to infer from the tone of Grandpa 
 Spicer s answer that his temper had not undergone a 
 mollifying process during my absence. 
 
 " Come, ma," said he, "how much longer ye goin to 
 pester me in this way ? " 
 
 " Why, pa," Grandma rejoined calmly, "until you git a 
 proper understandin of it. What tribe was it, in sacred 
 writ, that wore bunnits? " 
 
 " Lordy ! " exclaimed the old man. " How d ye 
 suppose I know ! They must a been a tarnal old woman 
 ish lookin set, any way." 
 
 " The tribe o Judah, pa," said Grandma, gravely. 
 " Now, how good it is, husband, to have your under 
 standin all freshened up on the scripters ! " 
 
 " Come, come, ma ! " said Grandpa, rising nervously, 
 " It s time we was startin . When I make up my mind 
 to go any where I always want to git there in time. If I 
 was goin to the Old Harry, I should want to git there in 
 time." 
 
 " It s my consarn that we shall git thar before time, some 
 on us," said Grandma, with sad meaning, "unless we 
 larn to use more respec ful language." 
 
 I shall never forget how we set off for church that 
 Sabbath morning, way out at one of the sunny back doors 
 of the Ark, for there was Abagail s little cottage that 
 fronted the highway, or lane, and then there was a 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. ^ 
 
 long backward extension of the Ark, only one story 
 in height. This belonged peculiarly to Grandma and 
 Grandpa Spicer. It contained the parlor" and three 
 " keepin " rooms opening one into the other, all of 
 the same size and general bare and gloomy appearance, 
 all possessing the same sacredly preserved atmosphere, 
 through which we passed with becoming silence and 
 solemnity into the " end " room, the sunny kitchen where 
 Grandma and Grandpa kept house by themselves in the 
 summer time, and there at the door, her very yellow coat 
 reflecting the rays of the sun, stood Fanny, presenting 
 about as much appearance of life and animation as a 
 pensive summer squash. 
 
 The carriage, I thought, was a fac-simile of the one in 
 which I had been brought from West VVallen on the night 
 of my arrival. One of the most striking peculiarities 
 of this sort of vehicle was the width at which the wheels 
 were set apart. The body seemed comparatively narrow. 
 It was very long, and covered with white canvas. 
 It had neither windows nor doors, but just the one guarded 
 opening in front. There were no steps leading to this, 
 and, indeed, a variety of obstacles before it. And the 
 way Grandma effected an entrance was to put a 
 chair on a mound of earth, and a cricket on top of 
 the chair, and thus having climbed up to Fanny s re 
 poseful back, she slipped passively down, feet foremost, 
 to the whi file-tree ; from thence she easily gained the 
 plane of the carriage floor. 
 
 Grandpa and I took a less circuitous, though, perhaps, 
 not less difficult route. 
 
 I sat with Grandpa on the " front " seat it may be re 
 marked that the " front " seat was very much front, and the 
 
96 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 "back" seat very much back there was a kind of 
 wooden shelf built outside as a resting place for the feet, 
 so that while our heads were under cover, our feet were 
 out, utterly exposed to the weather, and we must either 
 lay them on the shelf, or let them hang off into space. 
 
 Abagail and the children stood at the door to see us off. 
 
 " All aboard ! ship ballasted ! wind fa r ! go ahead, 
 thar, Fanny ! " shouted Grandpa, who seemed quite 
 restored in spirits, and held the reins and wielded the 
 whip with a masterful air. 
 
 He spun sea yarns, too, all the way marvelous ones, 
 and Grandma s reproving voice was mellowed by the 
 distance, and so confusedly mingled with the rumbling of 
 the wheels, that it seemed hardly to reach him at all. 
 Not that Grandma looked discomfited on this account, or 
 in bad humor. On the contrary, as she sat back there 
 in the ghostly shadows, with her hands folded, and her 
 hair combed out in resplendent waves on either side 
 of her head, she appeared conscious that every word 
 she uttered was taking root in some obdurate heart. 
 She was, in every respect, the picture of good will and 
 contentment. 
 
 But the face under Grandpa s antiquated beaver began 
 to give me a fresh shock every time I looked up at him, 
 for the light and air were rapidly turning his rejuvenated 
 locks and his poor, thin fringe of whiskers to an unnatural 
 greenish tint, while his bushy eyebrows, untouched by the 
 hand of art, shone as white as ever. 
 
 In spite of the old sea-captain s entertaining stories, 
 it seemed, indeed, " a long jaunt " to West Wallen 
 
 To say that Fanny was a slow horse would be but 
 a feeble expression of the truth. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 97 
 
 A persevering " click ! click ! click ! " began to arise 
 from Grandma s quarter. This annoyed Grandpa 
 exceedingly. 
 
 " Shet up, ma ! " he was moved to exclaim at last. 
 " I m steerin this craft." 
 
 "Click! click! click!" came perseveringly from 
 behind. 
 
 " Dum it, ma ! thar, ma ! " cried Grandpa, exasperated 
 beyond measure. "How is this hoss goin to hear 
 anything that I say, ef you keep up such a tarnal 
 cackliu ? " 
 
 Just as we were coming out of the thickest part of the 
 woods about a mile beyond Wallencamp, we discovered 
 a man walking, in the distance. It was the only human 
 being we had seen since we started. 
 
 "Hullo, there s N T oel ! " exclaimed Grandpa. "I was 
 wonderin why we had n t overtook him, before. We 
 gin ally take him in, on the road. Yis, yis ; that s Noel, 
 ain t it teacher?" 
 
 I put up my glasses, helplessly. 
 
 " I m sure," I said, " I can t tell, positively. I have n t 
 seen Noel but once, and at that distance I shouldn t 
 know my own father." 
 
 " Must be Noel," said Grandpa. tl Yis, I know him ! 
 Hullo, thar ! Ship ahoy ! ship ahoy ! " 
 
 Grandpa s voice suggested something of the fire and 
 vigor it must have had when it rang out across the foam of 
 waves and pierced the tempest s roar. 
 
 The man turned and looked at us and then went on 
 again. 
 
 " He don t seem to rer^nize us," said Grandma. 
 
 Ship a-hoy ! Ship a-hoy ! " shouted Grandpa. 
 
9^ CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 The man turned and looked at us again, and this time 
 he stopped and kept on looking. 
 
 When we got up to him, we saw that it was n t Noel at 
 all, but a stranger of trampish appearance, drunk and fiery, 
 and fixed in an aggressive attitude. 
 
 I was naturally terrified. What if he should attack us 
 in that lonely spot ! Grandpa was so old ! And more 
 over, Grandpa was so taken back to find that it wasn t 
 Noel that he began some blunt and stammering expres 
 sion of surprise, which only served to increase the 
 stranger s ire. Grandma, imperturbable soul ! who never 
 failed to come to the rescue even in the most desperate 
 emergencies Grandma climbed over to the front, thrust 
 out her benign head, and said in that deep, calm voice of 
 hers: 
 
 " We re a goin to the house of God, brother, wont you 
 git in and go too?" 
 
 " No ! " our brother replied, doubling up his fists and 
 shaking them menacingly in our faces : " I won t go to 
 no house o God. What d y e mean by overhauling me 
 
 on the road, and askin me to git into yer d d old 
 
 traveling lunatic asylum ! " 
 
 " Drive on, pa," said Grandma, coldly: "He ain t in 
 no condition to be labored with now. Drive on kind o 
 quick!" 
 
 Kind o 1 quick* we could not go, but Fanny was 
 made to do her best, and we did not pause to look 
 behind. 
 
 When we got to the church, Sunday school had already 
 begun. There was Noel looking preternaturally stiff in 
 his best clothes, sitting with a class of young men. He 
 saw us when we came in, and gave me a look of deep 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 99 
 
 meaning. It was the same expression as though there 
 was some solemn, mutual understanding between us 
 which he had worn on that night when he gave me his 
 picture. 
 
 " There s plenty of young folks classes," said Grandma, 
 "but seein as we re late maybe you d jest as soon go 
 right along in with us." 
 
 1 said that I should like that best, so I went into the 
 "old folks " class with Grandma and Grandpa Spicer. 
 
 There were three pews of old people in front of us, and 
 the teacher, who certainly seemed to me the oldest person 
 I had ever seen, sat in an otherwise vacant pew in front 
 of all, so that, his voice being very thin and querulous, 
 we could hear very little that he said, although we 
 were edified in some faint sense by his pious manner 
 of shaking his head and rolling his eyes toward the 
 ceiling. 
 
 The church was a square wooden edifice, of medium 
 size, and contained three stoves all burning brightly. 
 Against this and the drowsy effect of their long drive in 
 the sun and wind, my two companions proved powerless 
 to struggle. 
 
 Grandpa looked furtively up at Grandma, then en 
 deavoured to put on as a sort of apology for what he felt 
 was inevitably coming, a sanctimonious expression which 
 was most unnatural to him, and which soon faded away as 
 the sweet unconsciousness of slumber overspread his 
 features. His head fell back helplessly, his mouth 
 opened wide. He snored, but not very loudly. I looked 
 at Grandma, wondering why her vigilance had failed on 
 this occasion, and lo ! her head was falling peacefully 
 from side to side. She was fast asleep too. She woke up 
 
100 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 first, however, and then Grandpa was speedily and adroitly 
 aroused by some means , I think it was a pin ; and 
 Grandma fed him with bits of unsweetened flagroot, which 
 he munched penitently, though evidently without relish, 
 until he dropped off to sleep again, and she dropped off 
 to sleep again, and so they continued. 
 
 But it always happened that Grandma woke up first. 
 And whereas Grandpa, when the avenging pin pierced 
 his shins, recovered himself with a start and an air of 
 guilty confusion, Grandma opened her eyes at regular in 
 tervals, with the utmost calm and placidity, as though she 
 had merely been closing them to engage in a few 
 moments of silent prayer. 
 
 Our class occupied a humble place in the sanctuary, 
 near the door. Behind the pew in which Grandma, 
 Grandpa and I were sitting, there was one more, vacant. 
 Presently the door opened, admitting a delightful waft of 
 fresh air, and some one entered that pew, and bowed his 
 head forward on the desk in a devotional attitude. 
 
 After the brief excitement caused by the advent 
 of this new and very late comer had subsided, 
 the Sunday school resumed its former lethargic 
 condition, and then I heard my own name whispered 
 very softly in my ear. 
 
 I had to turn my head but a little to meet the depre 
 cating, though evidently irreverent eyes of Emily s 
 fisherman. 
 
 ** How do you do, Miss Hungerford ? " he murmured 
 brightly. " Please don t consider me in the light of 
 an intruder. I know I m rather young for the class, 
 to which you are admitted by reason of some extraor 
 dinary acquaintance with biblical lore." 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 "But it s an excellent opportunity lot you ttf a<Mres 
 the little boys and girls," I said. 
 
 " Nonsense ! " said Mr. Turner, reddening. " I only 
 meant that for a joke, you know." 
 
 Without pausing to reflect at all on the moral 
 consequences of the act, I welcomed the appear 
 ance of this voluble, fashionably dressed young man 
 among the " ancient and fish-like " odors of the 
 West Wallen meeting house with a positive sense of 
 relief. 
 
 " If I might venture to suppose," Mr. Turner con 
 tinued, whispering, " that I came here, to-day, clothed, in 
 any sense, as an angel of light and, indeed, I feel 
 a good deal like that sort of thing to-day so sweet are 
 the solaces of an approving conscience, and the conscious 
 ness of having resisted temptation. You see I was 
 yes, I was going fishing this morning, but I saw Captain 
 Spicer go by to church observe too, the beauty of 
 setting a good example and I persuaded myself that 
 it was wrong to go fishing on Sunday, and so I concluded 
 to come to church, too." 
 
 At the light mockery of the fisherman s tone, the 
 bolder flattery of his eyes, I felt the same quick flash 
 of resentment that his words had occasioned when 
 he walked with me up the lane. I turned my head away 
 with the noble resolve to keep it there persistently. 
 
 Then I heard the whisper, " Miss Hungerford, you are 
 driving me to the last extreme of idol worship. I 
 shall keep on addressing my petitions to that ostrich 
 tip in your hat until you give me at least, the benefit 
 of your profile." 
 
 " I don t see why you should say such irreverent things 
 
102 
 
 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 to me, Mtv Turner," I said, quite seriously, turning, 
 and looking him full in the face, for an instant. 
 
 " Heaven forbid ! " he replied in an almost inaudible 
 tone. "And if I could have conceived of such a thing, I 
 would beg your pardon. You have brothers, Miss 
 Hungerford?" 
 
 " Yes," I answered, nodding my head slightly with my 
 eyes fixed steadfastly on the ancient instructor of our 
 class. 
 
 " How would you feel if your brother was off, alone, in 
 some wild country, in need of good and gentle influences, 
 and some young lady should treat him as you are treating 
 me? Please turn your head a little this way. But, 
 on the whole, I m very glad I m not your brother. Shall 
 I tell you why? Miss Hungerford," the fisherman con 
 tinued, after a pause, " do you know I ve always heard 
 that auburn haired people come, by right, into possession 
 of the worst tempers. Your hair is brown dark brown, 
 and mine is red, almost don t you think so ? And 
 yet my mind is all peace within, and hope and joy, and 
 
 1 What is the blooming tincture of the skin, 
 To peace of mind and purity, within? * 
 
 Miss Hungerford, it has been full two minutes, by my 
 watch, since I caught the last beam from your eye. Let 
 us forget the idle wranglings of the hour, and compose 
 our minds to the great subjects which agitate eternity. 
 One of those insects which infest ancient church edifices 
 has been hovering about Captain Spicer s mouth. It has 
 been drawn in. It has disappeared. Such are we, 
 hovering on the vortex of eternity. How calm and 
 andisturbedthe old captain s face! how utterly unconscious 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 103 
 
 of the tragedy just enacted ! So eternity swallows us 
 and leaves no trace behind, and no ripple marks its 
 
 surface. How infer how more than odd the old 
 
 captain looks, any way ! I say, she ought to have touched 
 up his eye-brows a little, you know, while she was 
 at the nefarious business, Miss Hungerford? " 
 
 " Yes," I answered, listening deliberately. 
 
 " Do you suppose that the time will ever come when 
 she to whom I once gave the love of my young heart, and 
 all that sort of thing, you know, will take me in hand, and 
 dye my hair, and rig me up, and make such an infernal 
 looking old guy of me?" 
 
 " 1 don t see how you can escape," I said. " But you 
 won t care so much, then." 
 
 "No, that s true." Mr. Turner sighed deeply; "I 
 shall be old, then ; 
 
 When I am old, I shall not care 
 To deck with flowers my faded hair." 
 
 The idea of Mr. Turner s decking his hair with flowers 
 was a specially entertaining one to me. 
 
 Presently, he continued : 
 
 " To descend for a moment to secular subjects I ve 
 got my own horses here, now, Miss Hungerford. I 
 had my man Bob bring them down from Providence. 
 They got here last night, and they re a pair of spankers, 
 too, if I do say it that should n t, as the phrase is. That 
 was one of the inducements which led me to follow your 
 to follow Captain Spicer s example in coming to 
 church this morning. And, now, I have a calm, serious, 
 and reasonable proposal to make. No doubt, we are 
 both familiar with the small conventionalities of life, 
 
104 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 but on such a day as this, and with such a glorious air 
 outside, and such a unique framework of society 
 everything delightfully pagan scruples worthy only of 
 small consideration at any time, should be thrown aside. 
 I don t know what perils you encountered on your way 
 to church this morning, in the canvas-covered vehicle. 
 But, if you will drive back to Wallencamp with me, I 
 promise to take you there fleetly and safely, and you may 
 have the consciousness, besides, if you care for it, that 
 you have made the day one of spiritual reclamation to 
 an erring fellow creature." 
 
 The Sunday school had risen to its feet and was 
 slowly droning "yield not to temptation, etc." The 
 situation was odd enough. Mr. Turner s repressed 
 laughing voice was in my ear "will you yield?" and I 
 yielded. 
 
 At the close of the Sunday school, as we were going 
 out of the church, I told Grandma that I should drive 
 home with Emily s fisherman. 
 
 She drew me gravely to one side. " We shall be very 
 sorry to lose your company, teacher," she said, "only 
 we had n t ought to lose no precious opportunity, and I 
 do hope as you 11 labor for that young man s soul." I 
 felt hopelessly conscience stricken. 
 
 We drove home through "Lost Cedars" a good many 
 miles out of the ordinary course and I was cheerfully 
 consenting to the divergence. 
 
 Wild and tenantless, in the midst of a wild and tenant- 
 less landscape, Lost Cedars wore that air of lovely, 
 though utter, desolation, which might easily have 
 suggested its name. 
 There was a still unfrozen lake, which the setting sun 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 5 
 
 more like the sun of an Italian winter than of rugged New 
 England, was painting in gorgeous colors, when we 
 reached the place. 
 
 " We come fishing here, sometimes," said Mr. Turner ; 
 " I keep a little boat down there under the bush, and I 
 happen to have the key of the boat here in my pocket, 
 li looks awfully tempting, doesn t it?" 
 
 1 had always been passionately fond of out door life, and 
 prided myself in having acquired no little skill at the oar. 
 We were out on the painted lake, and I was rowing the 
 light boat, and taking much selfish enjoyment out of the 
 scenes around me, when I became conscious that the 
 fisherman was leaning far forward from his seat in the 
 boat, addressing me in a low tone. 
 
 "To discuss a topic appropriate to the day, Miss 
 Hungerford : I suppose you Ve read about that fellow 
 who was looking for the pearl of great price, haven t you? 
 that is, as I take it, you know, it was something that was 
 going to be of more value to him than anything else in 
 the world, well, now, I believe that every man thinks 
 he s going to be lucky enough to fall in with something of 
 that sort some day don t you?" 
 
 Mr. Turner s tone was unusually serious and even 
 slightly embarrassed. I looked up with curious surprise 
 from my dreamy observation of the water. Then I 
 thought of what Grandma Spicer had said to me about 
 laboring for this young man s spiritual good. 
 
 " I think we all ought to seek it," I observed tritely, 
 giving a long studied artistic stroke to the oars. " I don t 
 see why you shouldn t find it, I m sure if you ask. I 
 wish that I were good enough to talk to you real helpfully 
 on tliis subject." 
 
106 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 I was startled at the inspiriting effect my brief exhor 
 tation seemed already to have produced on the soul of 
 Emily s fisherman. 
 
 " To ask ! is that all ! " he exclaimed in the same low 
 breath. And looking at the glowing, though rather un- 
 sanctiried light on his features, my interest suddenly 
 expanded to take in the possible drift of his words. I 
 concluded that it was time for me to show myself 
 eminently discreet; having departed so far from the 
 immediate object of my mission as to spend a consider 
 able part of the Sabbath driving and rowing with a strange 
 young man, miles from every place of refuge. 
 
 " I m tired," I said. " Please row back now, I should 
 like to go home." 
 
 I rose to give Mr. Turner my place at the oar. He 
 held out his hand to assist me, and whether by any 
 malicious design of his or not, at that moment the boat 
 gave a sudden lurch, and I was precipitated helplessly 
 forward into his arms. I felt his kiss burning on my lips. 
 
 With anger at the fisherman s unfairness, and bitterness 
 at what I felt to be the mortifying result of my own folly 
 and indiscretion " Oh," I exclaimed, "I hate you! I 
 wish you would never speak to me, again ! I wish I had 
 fallen into the water." 
 
 The fisherman sent the boat leaping on with long 
 
 strokes. "D n it!" he muttered softly: "I wish 
 
 you had, and I after you ! " 
 
 We drove for several miles on the way homeward in 
 silence. Then Mr. Turner spoke. I had been meditat 
 ing upon Ethel upon my determination to make my life in 
 Wallencamp one of supreme self-sacrifice and devotion 
 to duty, and had concluded, in a deeply repentant mind, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 107 
 
 that this unpleasant incident at the close of the day was 
 only the natural consequence of my error in departing 
 from the prescribed limits of my self-appointed task. 
 
 I felt that after this experience it would be unwise for 
 me further to extend my mission work in Mr. Turner s 
 behalf. 
 
 So I answered him but briefly, and in a tone of martyr- 
 like composure, which I could not help observing per 
 plexed and irritated him more than anger or the most 
 frigid silence would have done. 
 
 1 was strengthened in this frame of mind when we 
 Darted at the little gate in front of the Ark, and Mr. 
 Turner proposed another drive for the ensuing week. 
 
 Then I revealed to the fisherman the grave burden of 
 my soul. 
 
 " Mr. Turner ," I said, " if I had come to Wallencamp 
 merely in search of my own pleasure and diversion I 
 should doubtless find it very easy to do some things 
 which I do not consider harmful in themselves, but which 
 it is wrong for me to do, under the circumstances. I may 
 tell you that I have been very reckless, very thought 
 less in my life, but I came here resolving to devote my 
 self to an earnest, serious work. I hoped to do these 
 people good. They do seem to believe in me. They 
 trust me. I can not bear that they should think me in 
 any way unworthy of their trust. When you asked me to 
 drive, this evening, it was just as it used to be 1 did 
 not think. You were very kind. It was pleasant and I 
 thank you, but I ought not to have gone don t you 
 see ? I believe, now, that it would have been so much 
 better if 1 had not." 
 
 " 1 don t see." said Mr. Turner, "why should you leave 
 
108 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 me altogether? Don t I believe in you? Don t 
 I need to be done some good to ? " 
 
 At this last childishly whimsical appeal, I was in sore 
 danger of being diverted from the serious channel of 
 my thoughts. Then the door of the Ark softly opened a 
 little way, and there, night-capped in white, like a 
 full, benignant moon, appeared the head of Grandma 
 Spicer, as she peered blindly out into the night. 
 
 " Poor old soul ! " I said. " She has probably been 
 waiting and watching. Don t you see already one 
 of the results of my sinning? Good night," I said, ex 
 tending my hand to the fisherman, who had fixed on that 
 innocent and unconscious night-cap a darkly withering 
 gaze. 
 
 " Oh, never mind me," he muttered, turning abruptly. 
 " Only take care of this infernal old nest of Hoosiers, and 
 respectable people may go to the devil I" 
 

 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ETHEL AND THE CRADLEBOW. 
 
 |EACHER S got Eth s beau ! " 
 
 "Teacher s got Eth s beau!" I heard it 
 whispered among the school children Ethel 
 heard, too, and paled a little, but looked up at me and 
 smiled as frankly as ever. 
 
 Seeing her alone afterwards, I took occasion to 
 remark, incidentally, " how kind it was of her friend, 
 Mr. Turner, to bring me home from church. Fanny 
 was so slow ! And I thought he was a very pleasant 
 young man, but even the most estimable people, you 
 know," I added, laughing, with an undertone of studied 
 significance, "are not just fitted to enjoy each other s 
 society always." 
 
 Then I blushed under the girl s clear, trustful gaze. 
 
 " You don t think I mind what the children talk 1 " 
 she said. 
 
110 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 * 
 
 Every day Ethel appealed more and more, uncon 
 sciously, to what was most generous and grave and heed 
 ful in my nature. She seemed to be demanding of me, 
 with mute, gentle importunity to make real my ideal 
 of life, to be what I knew she believed me to be. Her 
 faith in my superior wisdom and goodness, her slow, 
 timid way of confiding in me, with tears and blushes, 
 even ; it was all very flattering, very captivating to 
 one who had but so lately risen to occupy the pedestal of 
 a moral instructress, and "my child," "my dear child," 
 I said to her in many private discourses, with more 
 than the tranquil grace and dignity with which such terms 
 had been applied to me, only a year before, by the august 
 principal of Mt. B Seminary. 
 
 Ethel read my books, and I drew her out to talk 
 with me about them. She prepared her lessons, with me, 
 out of school. She knew that she might come whenever 
 she chose to my little room, at the Ark, whicn the 
 chimney kept comfortably warm, and often I heard 
 her footsteps on the stairs, and her gentle knock at the 
 door. 
 
 If I was troubled or perplexed on any account, 
 Ethel always seemed to understand in that quiet, 
 unobtrusive way of hers, and followed my movements 
 with a grave, restful sympathy in her eyes. On several 
 occasions I had asked her, playfully, to walk up the lane 
 with me, after school. So it became a matter of course, 
 that she should wait for me. Often we took longer walks, 
 for it was an " open winter," with only one or two 
 light falls of snow. 
 
 Then I believed the " Tempter " came to me, in the 
 form of another invitation to drive, from Mr. Turner. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. Ill 
 
 Occupied with my duties in the school-room, one 
 afternoon, I was startled to observe these charatlcrs 
 as suddenly and mysteriously raised as if by the unseen 
 hand of a modern sibyl on the black-board : 
 
 "teecher s Bo is a setting On the Fens." 
 
 Involuntarily raising my eyes to the window, I was 
 unable to disco\ er on the fence opposite, anything of the 
 nature indicated in those words. I concluded that the 
 whole was to be taken as one of those deeply allegorical 
 expressions in which the Wallencamp tongue abounded. 
 
 Shortly afterward, a boy who had been playing truant 
 and the Jews harp at the same time, in a subdued and 
 melancholy way under the window, and who had, doubt 
 less, been bribed to undertake his present commission 
 through some extraordinary means, entered the school 
 room, and laid on my desk a note from the auburn-haired 
 fisherman. It was hastily scrawled in lead pencil, on 
 a leaf torn from a memorandum. 
 
 The fisherman confessed to all the meekness and long 
 suffering, without the cheerful intrepidity of Mary s little 
 lamb ! He would do all his waiting outside. Mr. Levi 
 was down from West Wallen to-day, and said that he 
 had heard somebody say that there were four letters came 
 for the teacher in last night s mail. Would I like to 
 drive over to W r est Wallen and get them ? The fisherman 
 did not believe that I had been in earnest in the prudish 
 and unreasonable notions I had propounded when he 
 left me the other evening. 
 
 " Prudish ! " In my newly acquired elevation of mind, 
 I hugged the term with a deep, intense, and mysterious 
 delight. Oh, if my mother could only know if my elder 
 sister could only know that I had actually been accused 
 
112 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 of pmdishness ! It was in the glow and inspiration of this 
 idea that I indited the answer to Mr. Turner s missive : 
 " why would he make it unpleasant and disagreeable for 
 me to do what seemed to me so plainly my duty?" and 
 despatched the same by the pensive and unpunished 
 truant, who was soon heard again revelling in the 
 stolen sweets of his Jews harp beneath the window. 
 
 After this I had no further intercourse with the fisher 
 man for some days. If I chanced to meet him in the 
 lane, Ethel was always with me. He came one evening 
 to the Ark. The young people were there, singing. 
 
 Then I heard, from time to time, of his taking Etheito 
 drive, and congratulated myself that through my com 
 posed wisdom and forethought, the little world of Wallen- 
 camp was destined to move very smoothly, on the 
 whole. 
 
 " I wonder why Mr. Turner don t go home," observed 
 Grandma Spicer complacently, on one of those rare 
 occasions when the Spicer family circle held quiet 
 possession of the Ark before the songful company had 
 arrived. " He did n t use to stay but a week or two at a 
 time, and all the rest o the fishermen have been gone 
 some time, now ; and he keeps them horses down here, 
 and goes loungin around with no more object than 
 a butterfly in December." 
 
 " I tell ye he s a makin up to Eth." said Grandpa 
 Spicer, with the knowing air of an old man accustomed 
 to fathom mysteries of this peculiar nature. 
 
 A spark shot out of Abagail s great, black eyes. Then 
 she laughed unpleasantly. "There s something in 
 the wind besides Eth." said she. 
 
 " Why, I don t know," said Grandma, "He don t hang 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 113 
 
 around there very much, may be, but they say he takes 
 her to ride, and, I m sure, he don t wait on nobody else. 
 But I should think, if he was a goin to speak out, he d 
 ought to do it, and not waste his time a keepin a 
 puttin it off. Why, my fust husband was n t but a week 
 makin up his mind, and pa," she continued, referring 
 openly to Grandpa Spicer, " he wan t quite so out-spoken, 
 to be sure ; but he came around to it in the course of a 
 month or two, and kind o beat around the bush then, 
 and wanted to know what I thought on t, and wall, 
 I told him yes, I did n t see no use in bein squeamish 
 so long as I d once made up my mind to it." 
 
 " I asked ye as soon as I could ! " exclaimed Grandpa, 
 bristling on the defensive. " I wanted to be sure o 
 gittin a house, fust." 
 
 " There ! " said Abagail briskly, putting down her foot, 
 and tossing her head as she addressed the old couple. 
 " Be good, children ! Be good ! and, now, do you 
 mark my words, it isn t Ethel Kent that Eliot Turner is 
 hanging around here for. There s some folks to be 
 made up to, and there s some folks, jest as good, to 
 be stepped on. And Eliot Turner what does he 
 think of Wallencamp folks, any way? He wouldn t 
 take the trouble to kick em out of his road ; he d 
 jest step on em, and he s steppin on Eth. Kent. He 
 don t care enough about her to let her. alone." 
 
 " Wall, I don t know ! " said Grandma. " What s 
 he stayin for, then?" 
 
 " Staying ! Lord, ma ! " said Abagail sharply, with 
 a strange cold glitter in her eye. " How do I know what 
 he s stayin for? Oh," she added, in a tone of lighter 
 bitterness, "It s a mild winter and open roads. He s 
 
Ill CAPE *COD FOLKS. 
 
 I 
 
 sketching they say, and exploring the Cape. Let him 
 explore from one end to the other, he won t find such 
 another fool as himself." 
 
 "We can t help nothin by talkin that way," said 
 Grandma Spicer, a little pale, though calmly cognizant of 
 Abagail s emotion. 
 
 " You know I had an experience of my own, once, ma*," 
 said Abagail , terribly white about the lips. 
 
 "I wouldn t rake up old wounds, daughter." There 
 was nothing unfeeling in Grandma Spicer s tone. 
 
 The daughter shut her lips together tightly, as though 
 more than she had intended to reveal had already 
 escaped them, and applied herself desperately to her 
 sewing. 
 
 I fancied that I had detected a personally aggressive 
 quality in Abagail s indignant tone. 
 
 " I don t see why we should feel that way about Ethel," 
 I said. . " The more one gets acquainted with her, 
 the more lovable and worthy of respect she seems. I 
 knew a great many girls, at school girls with every 
 advantage of wealth and culture, too, who had not half of 
 Ethel s grace and refinement, nor a tenth part of her 
 beauty ! " 
 
 Abagail said nothing, bending to her work with 
 the same bitter compression of the lips. 
 
 " It s right you should stand up for her, teacher," said 
 Grandma Spicer, pleasantly. " Miss Taite, she begun by 
 makin a kind o pet o her, but I don t think Ethel 
 ever set her heart on her as she lias on you, an<! 
 it s easy to see you ve took lots o* pains with her. She s 
 a gittin them same kind o sorter interestin high flowed 
 ways why, she used to be jest like the rest of em 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 jest sich a rompin , roarin thing as Drussilly Kent 
 is now." 
 
 " Goodness gracious, ma ! " Abagail put in again, 
 sharply. " What good is it going to do Eth. Kent to put 
 Dn airs? Better stick to her own ways, and her own 
 folks, she ll find they ll stand by her best in the end, I 
 guess, than to be fillin her head with notions to hurt her 
 feelin s over by and by. She s a fool, I think, for treatin 
 George Olver as she does. He s worth a dozen Eliot 
 Turners, if his coat don t set quite so fine, and would work 
 his fingers off to suit her if she d only settle down to him, 
 and be sensible." 
 
 "Wall," said Grandma Spicer, in a tone that was 
 a curious contrast to Abagail s, " our feelin s won t always 
 go as we d ought to have em. daughter." 
 
 " No, they won t ! " Abagail snapped out excitedly, 
 "but, ma, you know I m in the right of it just as 
 well as I do, and there s Benney Leonard s got to 
 dreamin and moonin around in the same way. Took 
 it into his head he wanted to get an education well, 
 what has n t he took into his head ! So he must begin 
 recitin to teacher. Well, he had in his mind to study I 
 don t doubt, to begin with, and used to come two 
 or three times a week, and rattle off a string, and, 
 now he s here every day of his life, and, if there s 
 any reciting going on, I don t hear it not that I 
 want to meddle with other folk s business, but I ve known 
 those boys a good many years, and I hate to see anybody 
 hurt and run over, even if they be young and ignorant, and 
 making fools of themselves. Some folks are none too 
 good, I think, for all their airs, and had better look out 
 to see where they re going ! " 
 
116 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 "Why, thar, Abagail !" said Grandma with a decided 
 touch of disapproval in her voice. " R a ly, seems to 
 me you re kind o out. I m sure Benney Leonard seems 
 to be a gittin along finely with his Latin and Algibbery 
 I m sure, I ve heard a lot of it, when I ve been goin 
 through the room, if you ain t ; and if he s took it 
 into his head to git book larnin , and maybe scratch 
 enough together to go away somewheres to school, 
 why I m sure, there s older boys than him, and not 
 so bright, have ketched up if they set their minds 
 to it, and as for our teacher Abagail ! " 
 
 " Oh, I ve no doubt but what Miss Hungerford meant 
 kindly," said Abagail with the lightness she could 
 so suddenly assume. " It s a mighty queer world, that s 
 all ! " she added presently, rising and putting on her 
 bonnet, "and managed very queerly, for I suppose it 
 is managed. I m going out, ma. Those children have 
 split my head with their noise to-day, and I promised 
 Patty I d come in and sit awhile. Now, if I ve been 
 cross and crazy, don t you and teacher talk me over," she 
 said, looking back and trying hard to smile and she did 
 look very tired and white, as though she had been 
 suffering "and if those children wake up and begin 
 to squall " with a glance towards the little bed-room 
 " Let em squall. If I ve wished it once to-day, I have a 
 hundred times that they was the other side of sunset ! " 
 
 " I wish you d step into Lihu s such a poor, sufferin 
 creetur as he is with these," said Grandma, appearing 
 from the pantry with some eggs in her apron. " I wish 
 you could take the consolations of religion with you, 
 Abagail ," she continued gravely, as Mrs. Ithamer wau 
 closing the door. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 117 
 
 " Lord, ma ! my pocket s full now ! " exclaimed 
 Abagail . " Besides, they might break the eggs ! " And 
 the latch fell down with a click. 
 
 " I wish Abagail was a believer," Grandma sighed, 
 purposely rattling about the cover of the stove to wake up 
 Grandpa, who had fallen asleep in his chair. 
 
 Grandpa looked at me, and smiled feebly, then roused 
 himself to meet this supposed challenge like a man. 
 
 "Believer, ma?" said he, "why ain t I a believer? 
 As old Cap n Gates said to me on his last voyage " 
 Grandpa yawned alarmingly (poor old man ! he was 
 but half awake), as this unlucky reminiscence of his sea 
 faring life flitted through his brain " says he, I read my 
 almanick and my bible, both, Hoggarty " says he " 1 read 
 em both, and I believe there s a great deal o truth in 
 both on em." 
 
 " Thar, pa ! " said Grandma, solemnly, " you d letter 
 go to sleep ! you d better close your eyes, Hoggarty 
 Spicer ! What if you should never open em again on 
 earthly scenes, and them words on your lips, and you a 
 perfessor ! " 
 
 Grandpa scratched his head in drowsy bewilderment, 
 passed his hand once or twice over the coarse stubble on 
 his face, and again committed himself helplessly to the 
 sweet obliviousness of slumber. 
 
 I drew my chair up confidentially close to Grandma 
 Spicer s and rested my arms on the table as I looked into 
 her face. 
 
 "Grandma!" I said, for I knew that she was better 
 pleased to have me call her that, " I begin to think that I 
 ought never to have come to Wallencamp on a mission, 
 that perhaps it would be just as well, if i had never come 
 
118 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 to Wallencamp at all, I mean. I did n t think. At first, 
 it seemed more than anything else, like something very 
 new to entertain myself with. I did n t think enough of 
 the responsibility. Then, perhaps I thought too much of 
 it. 1 don t know. I wish I were out of it all. Grand 
 ma, I never tried to do the right thing so hard before in 
 my life. I never worked so hard before and I don t 
 mind that ; but I meant it all for the best, and its no use, 
 its just like all the rest. I m tired. I wish I were out of 
 it." 
 
 " Wall, thar now, darlin ," said Grandma, employing to 
 the full her tone of infinite consolation. " You ain t 
 the first one as mistook a stump for a livin creetur in the 
 night, and don t you talk about givin up nor nothin like 
 it, darlin , for we could n t do without you noways nor 
 you without us, for yet a while I m thinkin , though it does 
 seem strange and never you mind one straw for what 
 Abagail said, for she was kind o out to-night, anyway, 
 not having got no letter from Ithamer I suppose. But 
 then, she ought not to feel so. Why there was time and 
 time agin that I did n t git no letter from Hoggarty Spicer 
 when he was voyaging and to be sure, they was n t much 
 better than nothin when they did come, for pa" Grand 
 ma cast a calmly comprehensive glance at her unconscious 
 mate " pa was a man that had a great many idees in 
 general, but, when he set down to write a letter, somehow 
 he seemed to consider that it was n t no place for idees, a 
 letter was n t seemed as though he managed a most a 
 purpose not to get none in." 
 
 " Grandma," I said, leaning forward, laughing, and 
 folding my hands in her lap, "you re the best comforter I 
 know of." 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 119 
 
 " Wall, thar," said she, " it s a good deal in feelin s, and 
 Abagail ain t r al well, so she kind o allows em to over 
 come her sometimes." 
 
 "And what did she mean by saying that about Ethel? " 
 I asked. 
 
 " Oh, she just meant girls will be girls, that s all ! " re 
 plied Grandma, " why mercy ! I know all about that. I 
 don t feel like nothin much more than a girl myself, half 
 the time ; and we all have to have our experiences, to be 
 sure. They ain t nobody else can wear em for us, but, 
 dear me ! the Lord ain t goin to let our experiences hurt 
 us, they re for our betterin ." 
 
 "And Benney, Grandma?" I said, "what did she 
 mean about him ? " 
 
 "Oh, she just meant boys will be boys, that s all 
 especially big ones but, thar ! I ve known em to get 
 over it a hundred times and not hurt em none. If you r 
 always lookin at human natur on the dark side, it seems 
 kind o desp rit. My first husband, he was n t a fretful 
 man, but, he was always viewin the dark side o things. 
 I suppose one reason was he did n t have no father nor 
 mother, and so he kind o begun life as a took-in boy, but 
 Polios Slocum, he done very well by him, for he had n t 
 no children of his own, but his brother that was Daniel 
 Slocum he had six. There was two boys and four girls. 
 Mary she came fust. She was born February nineteenth." 
 
 I was sorry that Grandma s thoughts had drifted into 
 this hopeless and interminable channel. 
 
 I had considered carefully what Abagail nad said, and 
 determined on a little new advice for my friend, Ethel. 
 So the next time we were alone in my room together, I 
 directed the conversation with a view to this end : 
 
120 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " And I would n t trust any one, my dear," I said with 
 cheerful earnestness, " then if people prove true, why, 
 it s all the more delightful; and if not, one isn t dis 
 appointed, so you can hold the scales quite indifferently 
 in your own hand, and are always master of the 
 situation. Oh, I would n t trust people ! It would 
 be very nice if this were the sort of world that 
 you could do it in, but it isn t. It s a very deceitful 
 world." 
 
 " But I can trust you, can t I?" Ethel held me with 
 her gravely questioning eyes. 
 
 " Well, I don t know." I began with the determination 
 to be severely true to my text, but the look in Ethel s 
 eyes hurt me. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! little girl," I continued, falling into the half 
 tender, half playful tone that it was always easiest to 
 assume with her, " of course, you must trust me ! 
 Have n t I been a good teacher to you, so far?" And I 
 sought by smiling in the girl s face, to chase the grieved 
 expression away from it. " What I meant was that I 
 wouldn t trust people generally, because it s a selfish 
 world, and such is the depravity of the human mind that 
 if it appears at all convenient, we are apt, you know, 
 to sacrifice other people to our own interests ; so, with 
 all the little kindnesses and politenesses which are 
 current in society, it is still the common practise and 
 it is best that it should be so to keep, in the main, 
 a sharp look out for Number One ! " 
 
 Having proceeded so far, it occurred to me that the 
 occasion was favorable for the discharge of another duty 
 which I had been meditating in regard to Ethel 
 
 " You are what Grandma Spicer calls a believer, are you 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 121 
 
 not, dear?" I- said, with the same composedly dictatorial 
 manner, " in distinction from a professor, I mean." 
 
 Ethel gave a little gasp, and turned her head away, for 
 an instant. When she looked back, there were tears 
 of distress in her eyes. 
 
 I felt a vague wonder and regret. 
 
 "No," she said, "I thought, once I wanted I 
 hoped " 
 
 " Why, child ! " I hastened to exclaim. " I did n t ask 
 you because I had any reason to doubt that you were 
 one quite the contrary but simply for this. It seems 
 to me it would be such a desirable thing for you, situated 
 as you are, here, with so few surroundings of a refining 
 and elevating nature, if you could attach yourself, if 
 it were merely for a feeling of fellowship and sympathy 
 for of course, you could not attend, often to some 
 simple Orthodox body of believers like the Methodist 
 church at West VVallen for instance. It seems to me, 
 that, in your case, believing simply and unquestionably, 
 as I have no doubt you do, it would be a sort of assurance, 
 a sort of continual rest and support to you. It would be 
 a great relief to me if I felt that you were so guarded. 
 Not that I consider it essential at all ; to some people, in 
 deed, of a deeply thoughtful and inquisitive mind, such a 
 course would appear impossible You have never troubled 
 yourself, Ethel," I continued, in a tone of reassuring light 
 ness, "you have never troubled yourself with doubts 
 and speculations on religious subjects ? " 
 
 " I don t know," Ethel replied, the look ol perplexity 
 and distress deepening in her eyes. 
 
 " Why should you ? " I murmured, softly stroking her 
 hair, "He carries the lambs in His bosom." I had 
 
122 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 been little in the habit of quoting scripture the words 
 coming to mind, struck me as particularly beautiful 
 and applicable on this occasion, " and so what I have 
 suggested, would be the easiest, and most natural thing 
 in the world for you to do. I suppose it might be neces 
 sary for you to have come to some conclusion in regard to 
 the first principles of Theology, but probably you have 
 already satisfied yourself as to these in your own mind." 
 
 Ethel looked little like one who had arrived at the 
 calm plane of philosophical conclusion of any sort. 
 
 " I don t knew," she gasped. 
 
 " Well, take the Trinity, for instance," I continued, in a 
 tone highly suggestive of calm and supreme forbearance 
 with helpless ignorance. " Probably you believe in the 
 Trinity?" 
 
 " Oh, I don t know," said Ethel. " I don t know what 
 it means. Nobody ever told me ; nobody ever talked 
 to me about those things before." 
 
 " It s simply," I said, " a term implying the existence 
 of three persons in the God-head. So, the Trinitarians 
 are distinguished from the Unitarians who believe that it 
 consists of one. I m not particularly informed as to the 
 Methodist credentials of faith. You will always hear 
 that they believe that salvation is free to all who will 
 accept of it. Some people believe that man is a free 
 agent, and may accept or refuse the means of grace, 
 and if he refuses, is eternally lost. And then, again, 
 there are the Universalists, who believe that all will be 
 eventually saved. There is the Calvinistic element 
 those who believe in predestination that is " 
 
 Ethel had laid her bead down on the bed, and was 
 quietly sobbing. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 123 
 
 " My poor child," I exclaimed, with swift compassion, 
 "don t think anything more about what I have said 
 to you. Let it go. It is n t vital." 
 
 "You don t hate me for not knowing anything?" 
 sobbed Ethel. " Nobody ever tried to have me under 
 stand, before." 
 
 11 You know enough ; quite enough, dear ! " I remarked 
 hastily, producing from my trunk a quantity of illustrated 
 magazines. These we looked over together, and when 
 Ethel went away, the tears were dried in her eyes, and 
 she was laughing as merrily as ever. 
 
 With the severely implied reproach of Abagail s words 
 still in my mind, I took pains to assume toward Benney 
 Leonard a more elder-sisterly air even than before. 
 
 It was true, I felt that I had been unjustly stung, having, 
 amid the press of other duties, undertaken the advance 
 ment of that bright youth, from motives, I believed, of 
 an ideal and disinterested nature. It was also true, that, 
 after the first enthusiasm with respect to his lessons had 
 passed away, as well as the natural diffidence he had at 
 first felt in my presence, Benney Leonard, though 
 punctual to the hour of recitation, had gradually 
 fallen into a habit of more lively and discursive inquiry 
 than that furnished within the dull range of his text books. 
 He had a singularly fearless manner of challenging the 
 inexplicable in thought and life, with a light conversa 
 tional flow of much brilliancy. Moreover, he was a 
 delightful dreamer. 
 
 We had our recitation, for quiet, in one of Grandma s 
 gloomy and mysterious keepin -rooms. The only object 
 inviting to sedentary posture in this room, was Grandpa s 
 huge " chist," which occupied a position " alongside " 
 
124 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 the East window. Those sacred window curtains, of 
 green paper, flowered with crimson roses, were never 
 rolled up ; but as the light strayed in at one side, and fell 
 on the Cradlebow s fine head, often I reflected that 
 under certain other conditions of life, meaning con 
 ditions more favorable to Benney Leonard, I might have 
 regarded him very tenderly, and invested the strength and 
 beauty of his young manhood with heroic meaning. 
 
 As it \vas, I assumed that I was years beyond him 
 in the gravest respects. And if there was any truth in 
 what Abagail had intimated, possibly I had been at fault 
 for not impressing this fact more deeply on his mind. 
 
 " So you are getting sadly behindhand with your lessons, 
 Benney," I said. " I wish you would make a brave 
 effort to catch up. There is no true attainment to be 
 reached without a corresponding degree of effort of 
 perseverance." 
 
 I sp^ke with a serious and gracious air, as though this 
 sentiment, gleaned from a profound experience, had 
 occurred to me as an idea peculiarly my own. 
 
 " Never mind the lessons ! " replied my audacious 
 pupil, brightly. "Teacher," he added presently, having 
 fallen into a gently musing attitude, "how shiny those 
 crimples in your hair look, with that streak of sun lighting 
 on em ! " 
 
 " Benney/ said I, very gravely, "you ought not to 
 talk to me about my hair. Suppose we give our attention 
 to these books. Now you were getting along so fast, I m 
 very sorry ," 
 
 " Do you think I m to blame, teacher ! " exclaimed 
 Benney earnestly. " There was n t a stick of wood to be 
 had in our house this morning ! And I ve had to be off, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 125 
 
 all day, chopping, with Scudder you ought to have seen 
 the black snake we killed tkis morning. It was six feet 
 long. If you don t believe it, Scudder s got the carcass. 
 It was lying all curled up in the bushes, with its head up 
 so < y OU watch him, Ben, says Scudder, and I 11 run 
 and get the axe ! I could n t help laughing. The axe 
 was over the other side of the bog, and the snake began 
 to stretch himself out .and slide along. I brought my 
 boot-heel down once or twice on his head, about as quick 
 and strong as I could make it. I killed him. It s a good 
 sign to kill a snake, teacher. It s a good sign to dream 
 of killing one ; but you come across one so, accidentally, 
 and kill it, and it s sure to bring good luck, Granny says." 
 
 " That s more significant than a great many of your 
 signs and symbols," I said. " That means that you will 
 slay the tempter in your path, and be successful in over 
 coming difficulties. In short, it means that whatever 
 there has been to divert you, you are coming back to the 
 resolve to study and improve yourself, to be al! the 
 stronger for having a few chance obstacles to dispose of." 
 
 Benney s head began to drop a little. I thought it 
 was time that the melancholy atmosphere of the room 
 should have begun to exercise its usual depressive 
 effect on his spirits. 
 
 " You think I don t like the books, teacher," he said. 
 "I do, but there s most always something else to be 
 doing. Father s lame. He can t do any work, and 
 there s the rest to take care of. First, I sat up nights to 
 study, then I got so sleepy I couldn t. But, I d got so 
 in the habit of coming in to talk a little while after you 
 got home from school, teacher, that I I forgot to forget 
 it. Have I been a great bother to you ? You ve been 
 
126 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 real good. I don t want you to think I forget that. And 
 if I d had a chance at the books early, or to push right 
 along with em now, I might make out something in that 
 line." 
 
 Benney did not speak complainingly, nor even with 
 hopeless regret. He rose and stretched himself, with 
 solemn satisfaction, to the extent of his goodly propor 
 tions. 
 
 " But, I m a man now, teacher," he said. " I shall be 
 twenty in June, and life is short. A man has n t got time 
 for everything. He d be a fool to waste it crying for 
 what he did n t happen to have. He d better push along 
 and work for the best. I meant to tell you. I m going 
 to sea, teacher ! I m going trading. I was down to New 
 Bedford, to see Captain Sparhauk yesterday, for I was 
 out with him once before, and got a good deal of the 
 hang of the business then, and he offered me a place on 
 his ship next time he sails." 
 
 Benney stood with flushed face, regarding me with a 
 bright restless look of inquiry in his eyes. 
 
 " Are you going away, really, Benney ? I m very 
 sorry !" I said. 
 
 " You don t care ! what do you care?" he exclaimed 
 almost rudely, with an unnatural touch of hardness in his 
 laugh. " It s the way you talk to all the rest. A fellow 
 might get to thinking too much about it. A fellow might 
 get to caring if he believed it I don t." 
 
 " What makes you think I should n t care if you were 
 going away?" I continued, with the dispassionately gentle 
 and reproving tone I considered it wisest to assume on 
 the occasion. " I should care, I should be very sorry. 
 Come and sit down here, please, and tell me all about it, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 127 
 
 when you are going, and where, and what you are going 
 for?" 
 
 Benney came slowly back to the light. He seemed 
 verily to have grown older and handsomer in a moment. 
 I experienced a deeper feeling of regret than ever before, 
 that the circumstances of his life could not have been 
 conducive to heroism. 
 
 " The Captain could n t tell me just when he should 
 sail," said he, " and I m going to get money. I know a 
 good deal of the Spanish and Portugal, I learned to talk 
 them before and I shall go to a great many places, I 
 may not come back when the ship does, Say, what 
 strange eyes you ve got, teacher, now they re brown 
 and now, they re black, and now, they re a sort of a 
 purplish grey." 
 
 " Oh, my dear boy," I exclaimed, with a sudden acces 
 sion of wisdom, sighing deeply, " you ought not to talk to 
 me about the color of my eyes." At the same time to 
 deepen the eflect of this condescending tenderness, I 
 pushed back lightly from his forehead a stray lock of hair 
 that was hanging there. 
 
 "Don t do that!" the boy cried with startling im 
 petuosity. " Don t call me that again ! I mean, teacher," 
 he went on in a gentler tone, though none the less ex 
 citedly, " If you should know somebody, that had set 
 his heart on something, very much, and did n t want any 
 thing else if he could n t have that, and if he should know 
 that he had n t any right to ask for it now, but go off and 
 work for it real tight, and, maybe come back lucky in a 
 few years, with a right to ask for it then, do you think, 
 teacher, that there d be any chance of his finding of 
 his getting wnat he wanted most ? If you were in any- 
 
128 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 body s place, now, teacher, would you give him a word of 
 encouragement to try?" 
 
 " I tli ink that the person you speak of would be 
 much more likely to succeed in a practical undertaking, 
 without any hallucination of that sort before his eyes 
 and if, as you say, it isn t right that he should ask 
 for it now, can we predict that it would be any more 
 reasonable and expedient in the future? These idle 
 fancies of ours soon pass away, Benney, and will look 
 laughable and grotesque enough to us, by and by. 
 Life is so full of changes, and people change, oh, so 
 much ! " 
 
 In spite of the vanity of my soul, I comforted 
 myself with the reflection that Benney would not care 
 long. I did not really believe that he would go to sea. 
 I stood with him a moment in the door of Grandma s 
 kitchen, lie looked over to the woods, behind which 
 the water lay, and the fire and impatience had all gone 
 out of his manner. His gentleness touched me deeply, 
 yet I was determined not to feel his hurt, nor " if 
 only the circumstances of his life had been different " 
 what might have been mine also ! 
 
 " Hark ! It s high tide. It s making quite a fuss, 
 over there," he said. "I think a man feels more quiet, 
 somehow, when he s out there, teacher. Father says I m 
 a wild chap and uneasy. I guess that s so. I can take 
 care of them just as well too if I go, and better. Only if 
 I should die " there was nothing affected or forlorn 
 in the Cradlebow s tone "I should like to be buried 
 on the hill, with father s folks. You ve been across 
 there. You look one way, and there s the river, oftenest 
 still and the other way, you hear the old Bay scouring 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 129 
 
 along the sand. I like it, being used to hearing it go 
 always. Granny says it makes a difference then, 
 where you lie, about the resting easy. I don t know. 
 Sometimes it seems as though I should rest easier 
 there." 
 
 " A dissertation on the graveyard," I began in atone of 
 affected lightness, and then paused, convicted of untruth 
 by the solemn light in the Cradlebow s strange, grand 
 eyes. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BENNEY KISSES THE TEACHER. 
 
 ALLENCAMP had its peculiar seasons. After 
 the season of hulled corn, came the reign of 
 baked beans. It was during this latter dispen 
 sation that my courage failed considerably. 
 
 Abagail used to remark, throwing a rare musical halo 
 about her words, " These beans are better than they look. 
 Ain t they, teacher?" 
 
 And I was wont to reply conscientiously enough, though 
 with a sweetly wearied glance at the familiar dish, 
 " Certainly, they do taste better than they look." 
 
 Occasionally, we had what Randal Alden called, 
 "Squash on the shell," an ingenious term for the last 
 of the winter pumpkins boiled in halves, and served 
 au naturcl. 
 
 Grandpa, too, pined and put away his food. He used 
 to look across the table at me, with a feeble appeal for 
 sympathy in his expression. Oftentimes he sighed 
 deeply, and related anecdotes redolent of " red salmon " 
 and "deer flesh," "strawberries as big as tea cups" 
 and " peaches as big as pint bowls," in places where he 
 had sailed. 
 
 Once, he ventured to remark, apologetically, referring 
 to the beans and pumpkins, that "bein* sich a mild 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 131 
 
 winter, somehow he did n t hanker arter sech bracin 
 food, and he guessed he d go over to Ware am, and 
 git some pork." 
 
 " Wall, thar now, pa ! " said Grandma ; "seems to me 
 we d ought ter consider all the fruits o God s bounty as 
 good and relishin in their season." 
 
 " I call that punkin out of season," said Grandpa, reck 
 lessly. " Strikes me so." 
 
 " I was talkin about fruits. I was n t talkin about 
 punkins," said Grandma, with derisive conclusiveness. 
 
 " Wall," said Grandpa, very much aroused, " if you 
 call them tarnal white beans the fruits of God, I don t ! " 
 
 " Don t you consider that God made beans, pa?" 
 
 " No, I don t ! " ; 
 
 "Who, then " continued Grandma, in an awful 
 tone " do you consider made beans, pa? " 
 
 Grandpa s eyes, as he glared at the dish, were large 
 and round, and significant of unspeakable things. 
 
 "HoggartySpicer !" Grandma hastened to say, "my 
 ears have heard enough ! " 
 
 As for Grandma, neither her appetite, nor her spirits, 
 flagged. In spite of her confirmed habit of tantalizing 
 Grandpa and this was from no malevolence of motive, 
 but simply as the conscientious fulfilment of a sacred 
 religious and domestic duty she was the most delightful 
 soul I ever knew. 
 
 At supper, it was a habit for her to sit at the table long 
 after we had finished our meal, and to continue eating 
 and talking in her slow, automatic, sublimely philosophical 
 manner, until not a vestige of anything eatable remained, 
 and then as she rose, she would remark, simply, with 
 a glance at the denuded board : 
 
133 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " It beats all, how near you guessed the vittles to-night, 
 
 daughter ! " 
 
 Then Grandma resorted to an occasional pastime, 
 harmless and playful enough in itself, yet intended as a 
 special means of discipline for Grandpa, and certainly, a 
 source of great torment and anxiety to that poor old man. 
 
 Between the hours of eight and nine P.M., Grandma 
 would deftly glide out of the family circle, and be seen 
 no more that night. At bed time, Grandpa would begin 
 the search, while Abagail and I ungenerously retired. 
 
 In the privacy of my own chamber, I could hear the 
 old captain tramping desolately about the Ark, calling, 
 " Ma ! ma ! " Could hear the outside door swung open, 
 and 4 imagine Grandpa s wild face peering into the dark 
 ness, while still he called, "Ma! mal where be ye? 
 It s half after ten ! " 
 
 Then, from the foot of the stairs would arise his dis 
 tressed, appealing cry, " Come, ma, where be ye ? It s half 
 after ten ! " Silence everywhere. With a mighty groan, 
 Grandpa would come shuffling up the steep stairs, and what 
 was most remarkable, Grandma was invariably found se 
 cluded amid the rubbish in the old garret. Then the 
 whisperings that arose between those two would have 
 pierced through denser substances by far than the little 
 red door which separated me from the scene. 
 
 * How d 1 know, ma, but what you d gone out and 
 broke yer leg, or somethin ? Come, ma " with exas 
 perated persuasiveness "What do ye want to pester me 
 this way for? " 
 
 " Why, pa," arose the calm, mellifluous accents of 
 Grandma Spicer, * so t you might know how you d ieel 
 if I should be took away 1 " 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 133 
 
 Next, the little stair-case would resound with loud 
 creaks and groans, as this reunited couple cautiously 
 and I have no doubt that they believed the whole affair 
 had been conducted with the utmost secrecy made 
 their way down in their stocking feet. 
 
 Grandma Heaven bless her, always devoted, though 
 original never saw a human ill that she did not long to 
 alleviate. So, as Grandpa and I daily refused our food, 
 she affirmed, as her opinion, that the one need of 
 our deranged systems was a clarifier ! And she forthwith 
 prepared a mixture of onions and molasses, with various 
 bitter roots, which latter, she, upon her knees, had wrested 
 from the frosty bosom of the earth in an arena im 
 mediately adjoining the Ark. Thus I beheld her one 
 wintry day, and wondered greatly what she was at. 
 When I came home from school at night, through 
 a strangely permeated atmosphere, I beheld the clarifier 
 simmering on the stove. 
 
 Grandpa already stood shivering over the fire. He 
 smiled when I came in, but it was a faint and deathly 
 smile the smile of one who has returned, per force, 
 to weak, defenceless infancy. 
 
 Grandma pressed me kindly to partake. I preferred 
 to keep what ills I had, rather than fly to others that 
 I knew not of. So I gently and firmly declined. But 
 for several days in succession, Grandpa was made the 
 victim of this ghastly remedy. 
 
 His sufferings went beyond the power of mad expostu 
 lation to express, and came nigh to produce upon his 
 features the aspect of a saintly resignation. 
 
 Never shall I forget his appearance during this clarify 
 ing period his occasional faint and fleeting attempts at 
 
134 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 wit his usually hopeless and world-weary air. The 
 wonder to me was that he did not then enter upon a 
 celestial state of existence, being eminently fitted to 
 go, as far as the attenuation of his mortal frame was 
 concerned. It was at this time that I wrote home 
 that I had never had such an appetite before in my life as 
 now in Wallencamp (which, in one sense, I felt to 
 be perfectly true), that the food was of a most 
 remarkable variety (which I also felt to be true), 
 but that it was rather difficult to procure oranges 
 and the like. Whereupon, I received from home a 
 large box, containing all manner of pleasant fruits, 
 and thus poor old Grandpa Spicer and I were enabled 
 to take a new lease of life. 
 
 I found that it was considered indispensable to 
 the proper discharge of my duties in Wallencamp that I 
 should make frequent calls on the parents of my flock, 
 throughout the entire community. If I failed in any 
 measure in this respect, they reproached me with being 
 " unsociable," and said, " Seems to me you ain t very 
 neighborly, teacher." 
 
 1 had called myself a student of human nature. It 
 seemed to me, now, that in those dingy Wallencamp 
 houses, I stood for the first time, awed and delighted 
 before the real article. Sometimes the men sent out great 
 volumes of smoke from their pipes, in the low rooms, that 
 were not delightful, but as far as they knew, they exerted 
 themselves to the utmost, men and women both, to make 
 their homes pleasant and attractive to me. 
 
 Godfrey Cradlebow s place was as small and poor 
 as any. There was one room that served as kitchen, 
 dining-room, and parlor, with a corresponding medley of 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 135 
 
 furniture. A very finely chased gold watch hung against 
 the loose brown boards of the wall a reminder of 
 Godfrey Cradlebow s youth. But what distinguished 
 this house from all the others, was the profusion of books 
 it contained. There were books on the tables, books 
 under the tables, books piled up in the corners of the 
 room. 
 
 Godfrey Cradlebow himself was confined in-doors 
 much of the time with the rheumatism. He made nets for 
 the fishermen. I used to like to watch his fingers moving 
 deftly while he talked. 
 
 Things having gone wrong with him, and he having 
 suffered much acute physical pain, besides (that was 
 evident from the manner in which his stalwart frame had 
 been bent with his disease) he had " taken to drink," 
 not excessively, but he seemed to be, most of the time, 
 in a lightly inebriated condition. He was a strange 
 and fluent talker, often ecstatic. 
 
 " It is commonly believed, Miss Hungerford," he said 
 to me, once, " that we start on the summit of life, that we 
 descend into the valley, that the sun is westering ; but 
 as for me, I seem to look far below there on the mists 
 and dew of earlier years. I walk among the hills. 
 The horizon widens. The air grows thin. I see the 
 solemn streaks of dawn appearing through the gloom. 
 Ah," he murmured, again, "weak and erring though 
 I undoubtedly am, I have a kinship with the living 
 Christ. Yes, even such kinship as human worthlessness 
 may have with infinite perfection. People will say to you 
 about here, Miss Hungerford, * Oh, never mind Godfrey 
 Cradlebow . He s always being converted, why, he has 
 been converted twenty times already 1 very true, aye, and 
 
136 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 a hundred times, and I trust I shall taste the sweets of 
 conversion many times more before I die. I do not 
 believe the soul to be a barren tract, so far removed from 
 the ocean of God s love, that it may be washed by the 
 waves only once in a life-time, and that, in case of some 
 terrible Hood. But I rejoice daily in the sweet and natural 
 return of the tide. How the shore waits for it ! Strewn 
 with weeds and wreck, scorched by the sun, chilled by the 
 night, how it listens for the sound of it s coming ! until 
 it rushes in ah! roar after roar all covering, all 
 hiding, all embracing ! " 
 
 Godfrey Cradlebow shook his head rapturously, tears 
 rolled down his cheeks, and all the while he went on 
 rapidly with his netting. 
 
 He had the natural tact and grace of a gentleman, and 
 was especially courteous to his wife. This brought down 
 upon him the derision of the Wallencampers, whose con 
 jugal relations were seldom more delicately implied than 
 by a reference " my woman, thar ! " or " my man over 
 thar ! " with an accompanying jerk of the thumb. 
 
 Lydia, Godfrey Cradlebow s wife, was tall and 
 slight, with dark hair and eyes a perfect face, though 
 worn and sad. She invariably wore over her cotton gown 
 on occasions when she went out, a very line, very thin 
 old fashioned mantilla, bordered with a deep black fringe. 
 This pathetic remnant of gentility, borne rudely about by 
 the Cradlebow winds, with Lydia : s refined face and 
 melancholy dark eyes, gave her a very interesting and 
 picturesque appearance, though I never thought that she 
 wore the mantilla during the winter for effect. She was 
 shy, though exceedingly gentle in her manners. At first, 
 I had thought that she avoided me. But one time, when, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 137 
 
 making the round of my parochial calls, I stopped at the 
 Cradle-bow s, and Mr. Cradlebow discoursing fluently 
 on the Phenomenon, recommended a severe method of 
 discipline as best adapted to his case, I replied, laugh 
 ingly, that he had hetter be cautious about making any sug 
 gestions of that sort, for Simeon and I were getting to be 
 great friends ; the mother, on whose heart I had had no 
 design, took my harjd at the door, when I went away, in a 
 clinging, almost an affectionate way. 
 
 * You are good to my boys, teacher," she said, " and I 
 thank you for it. They make you a great deal of 
 trouble." 
 
 " Oh, no," I answered lightly, returning with a sense 
 of pleasure the pressure of her hand, and it was not 
 until afterwards, walking slowly down the lane that I 
 sighed gently, thinking of that troublesome boy who had 
 told me he was going to sea. 
 
 Removed from the world of newspapers, the ordinary 
 active interest in the affairs of church and state, there 
 was a great deal of the lively gadding about, neighborly 
 dropping-in element in Wnllencamp. This applied to the 
 men equally as well as to the women. I remember that 
 Abbie Ann once put out her washing and this fact 
 kept the whole social element of Wallencamp on the 
 qui vivc for a number of days. 
 
 The caller would appear at the door at any time during 
 the day with a good natured matter-of-fact " I was a 
 passin by, and thought I d drop in a minit, jest to see 
 how ye was gittin along." 
 
 "Won t you set?" would be the cordial response. 
 " Do set." 
 
 " Wall, I don t know how to spend the time, anyway," 
 
138 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 the visitor would reply, "thar s so many things a drivin on 
 me." 
 
 But this care belabored victim of fate usually con 
 cluded by sitting quite complacently for any length of 
 time. 
 
 When such visitations occurred out of school hours, and 
 I remained up in my room, as I frequently did at first, the 
 droppers in felt very much aggrieved, as though I had 
 wittingly offended the instincts of good society. 
 
 Besides all which, seldom an evening passed that the 
 young people did not come to the Ark en masse to sing. 
 
 Then Abagail or Ethel, or (very rarely) I, propelled a 
 strain of doubtful melody from Abagail s little melodeon, 
 while the singers boys and girls together chimed in, 
 joyfully rendering with a perfect fearlessness of utterance 
 and deep intensity of expression such songs as " Go, bury 
 thy sorrow, the world hath its share," and " Jesus keep 
 me near the cross," and " Whiter than snow, yes, whiter 
 than snow ; now wash me, and I shall be whiter than 
 snow." 
 
 They knew no other songs. They would sing through 
 a large proportion of the Moody and Sankey Hymnal in a 
 single evening. 
 
 At first I listened half amused or thoroughly wearied. 
 But, as the strains grew more familiar and I sang occa 
 sionally with the others, I felt each day more tired and 
 more conscious of my own incompetency. And still the 
 words rang in my ears : " I hear the Saviour say, thy 
 strength indeed is small," with much about trusting in 
 Him, and his willingness to bear it all. As the wind beat 
 against the Ark on wild nights, so that we could hardly 
 tell which was the wind and which was the roar of the 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 139 
 
 maddened sea, and still those voices chanted hopefully of 
 the "stormless home beyond the river," etc., the words 
 began to strike on something deeper than my physical or 
 intellectual sense, and that not rudely. 
 
 I smiled to catch myself humming them over often, and 
 in the school-room when I felt that my patience was fast 
 oozing, and I experienced a wild desire to loose the reins 
 and let all go, unconsciously I took refuge in repeating 
 those same simple words, going over with them, again 
 and again, beneath my breath, holding on to them as 
 though they possessed some unknown charm to keep me 
 still and strong. 
 
 I went to the evening meetings. They were held in 
 the school-house, and were very popular in Wallencamp. 
 
 By some provision of the Government on behalf of the 
 Indians, a small meeting-house had been built for those in 
 the vicinity of Wallencamp, and they were also provided 
 with a minister for several months during the year. On 
 this account the Indians rather set themselves up above 
 the benighted Wallencampers whom Government had 
 not endowed with the privileges of the sanctuary, while 
 they in turn, made derisive allusions to the k< Nigger- 
 camp " minister, and regarded with contempt its pre 
 scribed means of grace. 
 
 The Indians enjoyed, for part of the time that I was in 
 Wallencamp the ministrations of a Baptist clergyman, a 
 truly earnest and intelligent man, gifted with a most force 
 ful manner of utterance, but so lean as to present a 
 phenomenal appearance. 
 
 This good man feared nothing but that he should fail 
 in some part of the performance of his duty. He be 
 lieved that it was his duty to come over and preach to 
 
140 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 the Wallencampers also, in their school- house, and ne 
 did so. 
 
 I think that the Wallencampers regarded this, on the 
 whole, as a doubtful though entertaining move. 
 
 I do not think that they took any particular pains to 
 harass or annoy the Rev. Mr. Rivers. But they certainly 
 did not restrict themselves in that natural freedom which 
 they always enjoyed on the occasions of their spiritual 
 feasts. 
 
 They attended, as usual the old and the young, the 
 good, the bad, the indifferent, with a lively sprinkling of 
 babies. 
 
 Though not a cold night, they kept the stove gorged 
 with fuel. It roared furiously. They were restless. 
 They made signs audibly expressive of the fact that 
 the air of the room was insufferably close, and very 
 audibly slammed up the windows. They whispered and 
 giggled ; they went out and came in, as they pleased. 
 They drank a great deal of water. I remember particu 
 larly, how at the most earnest and affecting part of the 
 Rev. Mr. Rivers discourse, the immortal Estella, alias 
 the " Modoc," arose in gawky innocence and all good 
 faith from her seat immediately in front of the speaker, 
 and walked to the back part of the room to regale herself 
 with a draught. 
 
 The Baptist minister discharged a withering and con 
 scientious reproof at them through his nose. 
 
 Now, for the Wallencampers to be reproved, however 
 scathingly, by some zealous and inspired individual of their 
 own number, was considered, on the whole, as an apt and 
 appropriate thing, but to be reproved by the " Nigger- 
 camp " minister ! When, after the meeting he walked 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 141 
 
 with the Spicer family back to the Ark, where he had 
 been hospitably entertained, the Wallencamp boys saw us 
 depart in silent wrath, and I feared that treachery lay 
 in wait for the Rev. Mr. Rivers. 
 
 He sat and talked with us at the Ark for an hour 
 or more, perhaps, before bidding us good night, and 
 during that time, I caught frequent glimpses of faces 
 that appeared at the window, and then vanished again 
 instantly familiar faces, expressive of much scornful 
 merriment. Now and then I heard a smothered giggle 
 outside, and a scrambling among the bushes. It was 
 a dark night. When the Rev. Mr. Rivers finally rose to 
 depart, and had got as far as the gate, he became help 
 lessly entangled in a perfect net-work of small ropes. 
 He could neither advance nor recede. In a pitiable and 
 ignominious condition, he called to us for help. 
 
 " Those devilish boys ! " said Grandpa, with religious 
 fervor of tone, at the same time glancing at me with 
 a delighted twinkle in his eye. * I knew they was up to 
 someihing. I heered em out there," and he patiently 
 lit his lantern, and went out to cut the minister free, but 
 the Rev. Mr. Rivers did not come to the Waliencamp 
 school house to preach again. 
 
 Among those who looked on with quiet approval 
 at this childish and barbarous performance of the Wallen- 
 camp youth, I learned afterwards, were staid Noel N orris 
 and little Bachelor Rae. 
 
 Left to their own spiritual devices, the Wallencampers 
 carried on their evening meetings after methods formerly 
 approved. They rose and talked or prayed or 
 diverted themselves socially or sang. Everything they 
 were moved to do, they did. 
 
142 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 The lame giant, Godfrey Cradlebow, at seasons when 
 the tide came in, would pour forth the utterances of his 
 soul with the most earnest eloquence. At other times, he 
 was morbid and silent, or made sceptical and sneering 
 remarks, aside. 
 
 Noel Norris, though generally regarded as a believer, 
 had never so far overcome his natural modesty and 
 reserve, as to address the Wallencamp meeting. But 
 one night, spurred to make the attempt by some of 
 his malicious and fun-loving compatriots, he surprised us 
 all by rising with a violent motion from his seat, and 
 making a sudden plunge forward as though his audience 
 were a cold bath, and he had determined to wade in. 
 
 " Boys ! " he began, with a most unnatural ferocious 
 ness. Then I feltNoel seyes fixed on my face. " And 
 girls, too," he added, more gently, " and girls, too, 
 certainly, / think so," he continued, "/ think so." His 
 tone became very feeble. He glanced about with a wild 
 eye for his hat, grasped it, and went out, and I saw him 
 afterwards, through the window, standing like a statue, in 
 the moonlight, with his arms folded, and with a perfectly 
 cold and emotionless cast of countenance. 
 
 Among the professors, Godfrey Cradlebow s mother, 
 Aunt Susan, with quite as much fire and less delicacy 
 of expression than characterized the speech of the strange 
 lame man, was always ready to warn, threaten, and exhort. 
 
 Grandpa Spicer, too, though not subjected to the reno 
 vating and rejuvenating processes of the Sabbath, but just 
 touched up a little here and there, enough to give him a 
 slight " odor of sanctity," and a saving sense of personal 
 discomfort, was always led to the meeting, and kept close 
 by Grandma Spicer s side on the most prominent bench. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 143 
 
 When there was one of those frightful pauses which 
 sometimes occurred even in the cheerful concourse of the 
 Wallencampers, casting a depressing influence over all 
 hearts, Grandma Spicer by a series of covert pokes 
 and nudges, would signify to Grandpa that now was 
 the appointed moment for him to arise and let his light 
 shine. 
 
 And Grandpa Spicer was not a timid man, but -since 
 the event of his clarification, he had shown a stronger 
 dislike than ever to being pestered, and was abnormally 
 quick to detect and resist any advances of that kind. So 
 his movements on these occasions were marked by 
 an angry deliberation, though the old sea-captain never 
 failed in the end, to arise and " hand in his testimony." 
 
 His remarks were (originally) clear cut and terse. 
 
 " There s no need o my gittin up. You all know how 
 I stand" (an admonitory nudge from Grandma), " What s 
 the matter now, ma?" I could hear the old man swear, 
 mentally, but he went on with the amend nent, "or try to. 
 I m afeered that even the best on us, at some time 
 or nuther, have been up to some devil " (sly, but 
 awfully emphatic nudge from Grandma) "ahem! we re 
 all born under a cuss ! " persisted Grandpa, with irate 
 satisfaction. " I ve steered through a good many oceans," 
 he continued, more softly, " but thar ain t none so 
 misty as this a "(portentious nudge from Grandma,) 
 " as this pesky ocean of Life ! We ve got to keep 
 % sharp look out" (another nudge from Grandma), 
 " ahem, steer clear of the rocks," (persistent nudges from 
 Grandma), "ahem! ahem! trust in God Almighty!" 
 admitted Grandpa with telling force, and sat down. 
 
 As for Grandma, she was herself always prompt and 
 
144 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 faithful in the discharge of duty, however trying the 
 circumstances. She was no hypocrite, this clear old 
 soul ! She could not have feigned sentiments which she 
 did not feel, yet it was invariably the case that, as she 
 rose in meeting, her usually cheerful face became in the 
 highest degree tearful and lugubrious. The thought 
 of so many precious souls drifting toward destruction 
 filled her tender heart with woe. She besought them 
 in the gentlest and most persuasive terms to " turn 
 to Jesus." She dwelt long upon His love, standing 
 always with hands reverently clasped before her, and eyes 
 downcast with awe. 
 
 I used to long to hear her speak. The sound of that 
 low, tender monotone was in itself, inexpressibly soothing. 
 But Grandma s tongue had its mild edge, as well. 
 
 Once, when she was speaking, a number of the 
 young people it was a common occurrence rose 
 to go out. 
 
 Grandma went on talking without raising either her 
 voice or her eyes ; but, when they had reached the door, 
 " What " said she, in that tone which, though so mild, 
 somehow unaccountably arrested their progress, " what 
 poor, wanderin creeturs if your understanding should 
 give out ! " meaning, what if you should suddenly be 
 deprived of the use of your legs ! " Have you never 
 heered," she continued, "the story of Antynias and 
 Sapfiry?" 
 
 But she did not recount the tale. If possible, she 
 would rather use words of love than of malediction. 
 
 I shall never forget the faithful manner in which 
 she narrated Abraham s intercession with the Lord 
 for Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 145 
 
 " And Abraham said to the Lord, Periodventure 
 there be fifty righteous found, he said, wiliest thou 
 destroy the city, and them in it? Oh, no! that ain t 
 like the Lord, he says 4 for to slay the righteous and the 
 wicked together fur be it. And the Lord says, No. 
 If 1 find fifty righteous I ll spare all the rest, he says, on 
 account o 1 them fifty, he says, and Abraham says, Oh 
 Lord, now I ve begun, he says, and you don t seem 
 so very much put out with me as I expected, I ve 
 a good mind to keep on askin ye a little more, jest 
 to see what ye 11 say, he says, * Oh Lord, periodventure 
 what if there should n t be but forty-five? he says." 
 
 Grandma went through the list of " periodventures," 
 depicting Abraham s growing fear and obsequiousness in 
 the most tragic manner until she got to the hypothetical 
 ten. 
 
 "And Abraham said, Oh Lord, I know you won t 
 like it this time, but I ve gone so fur now, that I m 
 going to out with t, and don t don t git put out, oh 
 Lord I and I won t put it one mite lower. Period- 
 venture, oh Lord, what if there should n t be but ten ? 
 and the Lord said, If there was n t but ten, he would n t 
 destroy them wicked cities. Now," continued Grandma, 
 with tearful impressiveness, "if Abraham had even a 
 ventured to put it down one five more, what more chance 
 do you think there d be for us here in Wallencamp ? " 
 
 After the meeting, Captain Sartell and Bachelor 
 Rae held their usual theological levee, outside the 
 school-house. 
 
 " Wall, Bachelder," said the Captain, who always took 
 the initiative with extreme recklessness, " if it was a goin 
 to take ten to clear Sodom and Germorrer, how many 
 
H6 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 righteous men do you calkilate it ud take ter lift 
 the mortgage offn this ere peninsheler, eh?" 
 
 Bachelor Rae was unusually thoughtful. 
 
 " Heh ! " said he, in his thin drawl. " The Lord knew 
 he was seafe enough knew he d a been seafe enough if 
 he d a said tew ; knew he d a been seafe enough if 
 he d a said eone, for there s his own statement to the 
 effect heh ! that there was n t a. righteous man eany- 
 where, no, not eone." 
 
 " Not much leeway, that s a fact, Bachelder," said 
 Captain Sartell , who had an embarrassed way, particularly 
 when discussing subjects of a religious nature, of twisting 
 his powerful blonde head about, and swallowing very hard. 
 
 "D d little leeway, I must confess, wall all the 
 
 same for you and me, Bachelder." 
 
 Bachelor Rae smiled a little. 
 
 " Heh ! What was it about that couple, Almiry 
 (Grandma Spicer) was tellin about Antynias and 
 Sapf/ry heh, Captain? What streuck em eany way? 
 It wasn t because they went out o meetin was it? I 
 think it would be a satisfaction to the company, Captain, 
 if you would relate the circumstance." 
 
 The brave and honest captain craned his neck about 
 with several hard gulps. 
 
 "Wall, to tell the truth, Bachelder, I ain t quite 
 so well posted with the Old Testament as I be with 
 the New, but," he continued, resolutely, " if it would 
 be any favor to the company as near as I calkalate, 
 this ere Antynias heered that the Lord was a goin* 
 by, and, as near as I calkalate, he clim up in 
 a tree to see him pass." The captain writhed fearfully, 
 but did not flinch. "And, as near as I calkalate, he 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 147 
 
 got on to a rotten limb, and it let him down. That is," he 
 remarked, with concluding agony, "as near as I 
 calkalate." 
 
 " Heh ! yees, much obleeged, I m sure," said Bachelor 
 Rae. " I, heh ! I recall the anecdote now, perfectly, but 
 wheere wheere was Sapf /ry ? " 
 
 " Wall," the captain gave a gulp that actually brought 
 the tears to his eyes, " as near as I calkalate, Sapf/ry was 
 under the limb." 
 
 " Certainly," said Bachelor Rae , " certainly ! and a veery 
 unfortunate poseetion for Sapf/ry it was, too. I weesh 
 you would be so kind as to eenfonn the company in what 
 part of the Sacred Writ this little anecdote is recorded, 
 Captain, as I for one, should very much leike to look it up." 
 
 Captain Sartell took a determined step forward. 
 " Look y here, Bachelder," said he," I don t want no hard 
 words betwixt you and me, for there never has been. 
 But a man s word is a man s word, and a man s friends had 
 ought to stick by it, and I want you to understand that, 
 on this ere point, I ain t agoin to have no lookin up." 
 
 "Heh!" Bachelor Rae smiled and nodded his head, 
 cheerfully. I d be willin to waeger my life, Captain, 
 that if anybody s made a mistake on this point heh it 
 ain t you." And with this amicable conclusion, the two 
 stars withdrew. 
 
 George Olw, sometimes rose in meeting and made a 
 few remarks indicative of a manly spirit and much sound 
 common sense. He was very fond of Ethel, that was plain. 
 Her continued indifference to him made him sore at 
 heart, and the people in Wnllencamp suggested that on 
 this account he was more serious than he would other 
 wise have been. 
 
148 GATE COD FOLKS. 
 
 As for Ethel, they said that she had given up "seekin 
 religion," and had returned to the world. She did not 
 rise for prayers any more and she did not " lead the 
 singin " any more. And it was true that she seemed to 
 me to have changed, somehow. I knew that she was as 
 girlishly devoted to me as ever, as thoughtful as ever to 
 please me. One Saturday morning, knowing that I 
 had letters in the West Wallen Post Office, which I was 
 anxious to get before Sunday, she walked the whole dis 
 tance alone to get them, and sent them up to me by one 
 of the school children, so that I should not know who 
 went after them. She was careful lest I should notice any 
 change in her. But I caught a reckless, mocking gleam 
 in her eyes, at times, that had never shone there when 
 I knew her first. She associated more with the " other 
 girls," now. I heard her talking and laughing with them 
 in as loud and careless a tone as their own. She even 
 whispered and laughed in the evening meetings. And 
 this after all the earnest, serious discourse I had had 
 with her, the refining," "elevating" influences I had 
 tried to throw around her, having first taken her so 
 graciously under my wing ! She knew what belonged to 
 agreeable manners, and the advantage of paying a graceful 
 obedience to the dictates of one s moral sense ! Some 
 thing must be very innately wrong in Ethel, I thought 
 something I had not hitherto suspected, else why should 
 she fail in any degree under so admirable a method ! 
 
 " My dear," 1 said to her. " I am often tempted to do 
 wrong especially because my life has been hitherto 
 so vain and thoughtless but, having resolved to 
 struggle with temptation, and to repel my own selfish in 
 clinations, 1 will not be content until i come off con- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 149 
 
 querer ; I will not fall out or loiter by the way ; I have 
 trials and perplexities, but I will not submit to them, nor 
 be driven from my purpose. Now, are you struggling to 
 resist the little temptations that come to you day by day? 
 Are you striving to make the very best of yourself, Ethel ? " 
 
 I knew how easily i could move Ethel, either to laughter 
 or tears, so I was not surprised to see her lip tremble, and 
 her eyes fill ; but I was surprised at the look of intense 
 anguish, almost of horror, that came into her face. 1 had 
 not supposed that she was capable of such strong emotion 
 and 1 marveled greatly, what could be the cause. 
 
 " Oh," she said, "you don t know, teacher, you don t 
 know ! It never seemed so bad before I knew you. I 
 was different brought up from you, and i loved you, and 
 when i knew, oh, then I could die, but I could n t tell 
 you 1 Oh, you would n t kiss me again, ever, if you knew, 
 and I wish you would n t, for it hurts, it hurts worse than 
 if you did n t !" 
 
 Ethel ha 1 turned very pale, and drew her breath in long 
 gasping sobs. 
 
 "Baby!" I said reassuringly, stroking her hair, "I 
 don t believe you have done anything very wrong." But 
 Ethel drew away from me. 
 
 " You don t know," she said. " I was brought up 
 different and it was before you came, and I never knew 
 that, what you told me about not trusting people. I 
 thought it was all true, and oh ! there ain t anybody to 
 help ! Oh, I wish I was dead ! I wish I was dead ! " 
 
 "Ethel," I said, a little frightened and convinced that 
 the girl had some serious trouble at heart. "Tell me 
 what the trouble is ? Has anyone deceived you ? And 
 why should any one wish to deceive you, child?" 
 
160 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Ethel only moaned and shook her head. 
 
 But you must tell me," I said, "I can t help you 
 unless you do." 
 
 She drew herself farther away from me, with only these 
 convulsive sobs for a reply. I did not attempt to get 
 nearer to her, to comfort her as it had been my first im 
 pulse to do. She had repulsed me once. "You are 
 nervous and excited, my dear," I decided to say, " and 
 something of little consequence, probably, looks like a 
 mountain of difficulty to you. At any rate, when you get 
 ready to confide in me, you must come to me. I shall 
 not question you again." 
 
 So I left her, less with a feeling of commiseration for 
 her, than with a deep sense of my own pressing burdens 
 and responsibilities. 
 
 I had another ex-pupil (Ethel had been out of school 
 for several weeks), who was a source of considerable 
 anxiety to me Benney Leonard. He had ceased 
 coming to the Ark to sing with the others. He had not 
 played on his violin since that first night when his string 
 broke. 
 
 I heard that he had gone to New Bedford, and it was a 
 day or two afterwards that, coming out of the school- 
 house after the meeting, I saw him standing on the steps 
 alone. 1 knew that an escort from among the Wallen- 
 camp youths was close behind me. I hastened to put 
 my hand on Benney s arm. 
 
 " Will you walk home with me?" I said, looking up in 
 his face and smiling. I knew that the face lifted to his 
 then, was a beautiful one, that the hand resting on his 
 arm was small and daintily gloved, unlike the bare coarse 
 hands of the Wallencampers. I knew that my dress had 
 
CAPE GOD FOLKS. 151 
 
 an air and a grace also foreign to Wallencamp, that a 
 delicate perfume went up from my garments, that my 
 voice was more than usually winning. I expenenced a 
 dangerous sense of satisfaction in the conquest of this 
 unsophisticated youth a conquest not wholly without 
 its retributive pain and intoxication. 
 
 I felt the Cradlebow s arm tremble as we walked up 
 
 the lane. 
 
 " I have a little private lecture to give you, Benney," 
 said. " Of course you have been very much absorbed in 
 your own affairs lately, but, is that an excuse for forsaking 
 your old friends entirely? Especially if you are going 
 away. Are you going away ?" 
 
 " Yes," said Benney. 
 
 "When?" I asked. 
 
 " In April," he answered briefly. 
 
 " And weren t you ever coming to see me, again?" I 
 murmured with designing soft reproach. 
 
 " I was coming up by and by, to say Good-bye," 
 said Benney, brokenly. 
 
 i4 Only for that? " I questioned, and sighed with a per 
 fect abandonment of rectitude and good faith to the 
 selfish gratification of that moment. 
 
 "What else should I come up for?" he exclaimed 
 breaking out into sudden passion. " Except to tell you 
 what you don t want to hear, that I love you, teacher, I 
 love you." 
 
 "Oh, hush ! " I cried with a little accent of unaffected 
 pain. " It is n t right for me to let you talk to me in that 
 way, Benney. Oh, don t you see ? you re nothing but a 
 boy to me ! " 
 
 " That s a lie I " the boy replied, with face and eyes 
 
152 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 aflame. "And because I am poor and because I ana 
 more ignorant than you, you make it an excuse to trifle 
 with me and you look only to the outside, but you know 
 I have lived as long as you a boy s head, you mean," 
 he went on with choking, fiery bitterness. " And it may 
 be, and you are very kind, God knows ! But I can tell 
 you one thing, teacher, it is n t a boy s heart for you to 
 put your foot on 1 " 
 
 It was not a boy s strength in the quivering frame and 
 tense, drawn muscles. In his rare passions I admired 
 Benney. 
 
 The greater meekness and patience which always fol 
 lowed, I attributed to a lack of perseverance or a too easy 
 abandonment of purpose. 
 
 " I hope you will be very happy all your life through, 
 teacher," he said, as we stood at the door of the Ark ; and 
 he spoke very gently, and as though he was going away 
 then forever. Abagail had the key; she and her 
 companions had lingered at the school house, as usual, 
 after the meeting. I murmured something about being 
 very happy to have such a kind, true friend ; that 
 I should probably leave Wallencamp before he went 
 to sea, but I hoped he would write me about his wander 
 ings over the world, and I should always be happy 
 to answer and give him my sisterly advice. 
 
 Benney continued, thoughtfully, almost smiling : 
 
 " You remember that night, teacher, ever so long ago 
 it seems, before I knew you, when the boys dragged 
 me into the Ark and I kissed you ? I ve always kissed 
 the girls when they come home from anywhere, and 
 I never thought, you know. I didn t mean anything 
 by it." 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 153 
 
 "Yes," I said. I think I must have looked amused. 
 Benney answered the laugh in my eyes with quiet 
 appreciation. 
 
 " Well, teacher," he said, " I should like to kiss you 
 just once to-night, and mean it." 
 
 "That s a remarkable request," I said, "to come from 
 my oldest pupil ; but it is my privilege to bestow, 
 just once. If you will bend down from your commanding 
 height, and put yourself in a humble and submissive 
 attitude before me." 
 
 The Cradlebow knelt on the doorstep. I would have 
 stooped to his forehead, but he put up his arm with an 
 extremely boyish, inoffensive gesture, almost with a sob, I 
 thought, to draw me closer. 
 
 I would have had that kiss as passionless as though it 
 had been given to a child. The Cradlebow s breath 
 was pure upon my cheek but I was compelled to feel 
 the answering flame creep slowly in my own blood. 
 
 " Never ask me to do that again ! " I exclaimed, in 
 righteous exculpation of the act. " Never 1 " 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FESTIVITIES AT THE ARK. 
 
 |P from the beach, lightly tripping, capacious 
 reticule in hand, came Mrs. N orris to spend 
 the day at the Ark, unexpectedly ! The in 
 spired and felicitous customs of the Wallencampers 
 admitted of no rude surprises ; rational joy, alone, 
 pervaded the Ark at this matutinal advent. 
 
 Mrs. Norris, Noel s mother, presented a charmingly 
 antique appearance antique not in the sense of ad 
 vanced years, but the young antique the gay, the lively, 
 the never fading antique. She had even a girlish way of 
 simpering and uttering absurdly rapturous exclamations. 
 Her face might have struck one at first as being of a 
 strangely elongated cast, but for its extreme prettiness and 
 simplicity of expression. Her nose was marked by a be 
 coming scallop or two. Her eyes were of the ocean blue. 
 Her dark hair was arranged, behind, in the simplest and 
 most compact manner possible; but, in front, art held 
 delightful play. There, it was parted, slightly to the left, 
 over a broad, high forehead, and disposed in braids of 
 eight strands each, gracefully and lovingly looped over 
 Mrs. Norris s eais 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 155 
 
 The tide of cheerful converse was at its full when 
 I came home from school to lunch. Amid this prepon 
 derance of female society, my friend, Grandpa, shone 
 with an ardent though faintly tolerated light, giving 
 to the lively flow of the discourse, an occasional salty and 
 comprehensive flavor, which dear Grandma Spicer held 
 herself ever in calm and religious readiness to restrain. 
 
 1 listened, intensely interested, to the conversation, 
 quite content for my own part, to keep silence, but 
 I caught Mrs. Norris s eye fixed on me as if in abstracted, 
 beatific thought. Soon was made known the result of 
 her meditation. She had concluded that I was incapable 
 of descending to subjects of an ordinary nature. Leaning 
 far forward on the table, with a smile more ecstatic than 
 any that had gone before, she directed these words at me 
 in a clear, swift-flowing treble : 
 
 "Oh, ain t it dreadful about them poor delewded 
 Mormons? " 
 
 "Why?" I exclaimed, involuntarily, blinded by 
 the absolute unexpectedness of the question, and not 
 knowing, in a dearth of daily papen, but that the in 
 fatuated people alluded to had been swallowed up of 
 an earthquake, or fallen in a body into the Great Salt 
 Lake. 
 
 " Oh, nothing ! " said Mrs. Norris, " only I think it s 
 dreadful, don t yew, settin such an example to Christian 
 nations?" 
 
 " Dreadful ! certainly ! " I murmured, with intense 
 relief, and allowed my glasses to drop into my lap again. 
 
 Thus the conversation turned to subjects of a religious 
 nature. 
 
 " Oh, I think it s so nice to have direct dcalin s with 
 
156 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 the Almighty; don t yew? " said Mrs. Norris. " Oh, I 
 think it is ! Brother Mark Norris says he can hear 
 the Lord speakin to him jest as plain as they could in 
 Old Testament times; oh, yes, jest as plain exactly; 
 Abraham and all them, yew know ! And brother Mark 
 Norris generally means to go to Sunday school. He 
 says he thinks it s so interestin ; but it s sich an *wful 
 ways. Don t yew think it is? Oh, yes, it s a dreadful 
 ways ! He don t always. But yew remember that Satur 
 day we had sich a dreadful storm ? oh, was n t it dreadful ! 
 Oh, yes ! Well, the next day, that was Sunday, brother 
 Mark Norris said he heard the Lord sayin to him, jest as 
 plain as day, * Mark Norris, don t you go to Sunday 
 school to-day ! You stay home and pick up laths ! and 
 he did, and oh, he got a dreadful pile ! most ten dollars 
 worth ; but I think it s so nice, don t yew, to have direc* 
 dealin s with the Almighty ! " 
 
 The Norrises, by the way, were regarded with a sort of 
 contemptuous toleration by the Wallencampers in general, 
 on account of their thrift and penuriousness, the branded 
 qualities of sordid and unpoetic natures. 
 
 I was sorry when the brief hour of the noon intermission 
 was over, and I had to go back to school. 
 
 But at night the Ark became alive. Soon after supper, 
 Mr. Norris arrived and "brother Mark Norris" andNoel. 
 Then the little room began to fill rapidly. We adjourned 
 to the "parlor " and the melodeon. 
 
 " Oh, I do think them plaster Paris picters are so 
 beautiful, don t yew?" said Mrs. Norris, enraptured 
 over a statuette or two of that truly vague description, 
 which adorned the mantel-piece. But she became per 
 fectly lost in delight when Noel began to sing. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 157 
 
 Noel s was the one execrable voice among the Wallen- 
 campers if anything so weak could be designated by 
 so strong a term and his manner of keeping time with 
 his head was clock-like in its regularity and painfully 
 arduous, yet, out of that pristine naughtiness which found 
 a hiding place in the hearts of the Wallencamp youth, 
 Noel was frequently encouraged to come to the front during 
 their musicals, and if not actually beguiled into executing 
 a solo, was generously applauded in the performance of 
 minor parts. There was comfort, however, in the reflec 
 tion that if Noel had indeed possessed the tuneful gift of a 
 Heaven-elected artist, he could not have been so su 
 premely confident of the merit of his own performances, 
 nor could his mother have been more delighted at their 
 brilliancy. She sat with hands clasped in her lap and 
 gazed at her manly offspring. 
 
 " Oh, I do think it s so beautiful 1 " she murmured 
 occasionally to me, aside. " Oh, yes, ain t it beautiful ? " 
 
 Once, she remarked in greater confidence, " Oh, he s 
 dreadful wild ! " 
 
 "Noel ? " I enquired, with impulsive incredulity. 
 
 " Oh, dreadful ! " she continued. " I don t know what 
 he d a ben if we had n t always restrained him. But 
 somehow, I think there s something dreadful bewitchin* 
 about such folks. Don t yew? " 
 
 " Very," I answered with vague, though ardent sym 
 pathy. 
 
 " Oh, dreadful ! " she responded. 
 
 Meanwhile the perspiration stood out on Noel s grave 
 countenance, and his head like a laborious sledge hammer 
 was swaying mechanically backward and forward. 
 
 "Sing bass, now, Noel," said Mrs. Norris; and the ex- 
 
158 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 pression of awed delight and expectancy on her face, as 
 she uttered these words, was a rebuke to all cynics and un 
 believers of any sort whatever. 
 
 " Yes m so I will, certainly," saidNoel, "so I will, and 
 if I had n t got such a cold, I d come down heavy on it 
 too." 
 
 " What do you think," Mrs. Morris went on in the 
 same confidential aside to me. "He s took it into his 
 head that he wants to get married ! Oh, yes, he has 
 really ! and I think it s a wonder he never got set on it 
 before. But he never has so but what we could restrain 
 him. But William and I, we re beginning to think he 
 might as well if he wants to. Oh, yes, I think it will be so 
 nice. Don t yew ? I think it will be just splendid ! And 
 I tell William, Noel s wife shan t do nothing but set in the 
 parlor and fold her hands, if she don t want to, and she 
 shall have a music, and everything. When we built our 
 new house, you know we used to live in that little house 
 that brother Mark Norris lives in now, oh, yes, and 1 
 think it s so nice to have a new house, don t yew ? I had 
 em make the window seats low on purpose, so that Noel s 
 children could sit on them ! Oh, I think it will be so 
 pleasant, don t yew?" 
 
 Mrs. Norris turned her enraptured gaze on me. 
 
 "Noel s wife," I hastened to reply, toying with my 
 glasses, " whoever she may be, is certainly to be envied 
 and Noel s children too " I added, induced by that 
 transcendently beaming smile, " who will have such a 
 broad window seat to sit on." 
 
 Never an evening began in heartier fashion at the Ark. 
 
 George Olver, standing next to Ethel, rolled out a 
 grand and powerful bass. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 159 
 
 Lars Thorjon, the Norwegian, maintained a smiling 
 silence, except when he was giving utterance in song to 
 his inspiring tenor. 
 
 Abagail played the " music." 
 
 I saw her wince sometimes, when the fine though un 
 tutored voices around her took on a too wild and exuberant 
 strain. The little woman s own voice was exceedingly 
 gentle and refined, more than that, it had a passionately 
 sweet sad tone, a rare pathos. I used to wonder 
 what there was in Abagail s heart what there had been 
 in her life to make her sing so. Then I remembered 
 how easy it was for her to get out of temper, and how 
 often she slapped the children, and I concluded that it 
 was only a voice after all, and not necessarily indicative of 
 any inward sentiment or emotion. 
 
 And the mischievous Noah could it be the same 
 youth who stood there now with tearful eyes, chanting his 
 longings to be pure and sanctified and heavenly. This 
 merry youth had a predilection for those religious songs 
 which contained the deepest and saddest sentiment. 
 
 " Now, what s the matter with you, Noah ? " said Emily 
 Gaskell, who had but just dropped in. 
 
 "You know you ll go along hum to-night stunin* my 
 cats ! You know what a precious nice time you re calcu- 
 latin to have about two months from now, up in my trees 
 stealin my peaches, you young devil. Wash you from 
 your sins ! Humph ! Yes, you need it bad enough, 
 Lord knows ! A good poundin , and boilin , and sudzin , 
 you need and a good soakin in the bluein water 
 over night, too." 
 
 Emily s eyes sparkled with keen though good natured 
 satire. There was a flood of crimson color in her cheeks, 
 
160 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 not entirely the effect of her brisk walk in the open air. 
 She had a spasm of coughing which she endured as 
 though such discomforts had become quite a matter of 
 course, merely remarking when she had recovered herself 
 sufficiently to speak : 
 
 " Thar, that 11 last me for one spell I guess." 
 
 " Won t you set, Emily? " said Grandma. 
 
 " No," said Emily. " I can t. I jest come up to tell 
 my man, there, to go home ! Levi is over from West 
 VVallen, and want s to see him. Lord, I didn t know 
 you d got a party, Miss Spicer ! " she continued, glancing 
 with an irresistibly comical expression about the room. 
 
 " Oh, no ! we ain t got no party," said Grandma Spicer, 
 pleasantly. " They jest happened to drop in along." 
 
 " Wall now, I should think there d ben a shower and 
 rained em all down at once," again surveying the 
 occupants of the room with a comprehensively critical air 
 that was hardly flattering. 
 
 " I don t see what on arth ! " she went on. " Half the 
 time you might ransack Wail encamp from top to bottom 
 and you d find everybody a most somewhere, and nobody 
 to hum ! It ain t much like the cake Silvy made last 
 week she s crazier than ever Where s the raisins 
 Silvy? says I 1 always make it chock full of em, and 
 there was n t one, Oh, says Silvy, I mixed em up so 
 thorough you can t a hardly find em. I guess that s 
 jest about the way the Lord put the idees into your head, 
 Silvy, says I. Bless the Lord ! says that poor fool, as 
 slow and solemn as a minister." 
 
 " We ve been a singin ," interposed Grandma Spicer in 
 a voice that contrasted with Emily s, like the flow of a 
 great calm river with the impatient fall of a cataract. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 161 
 
 " It seems a most as though I d been in Heaven. They 
 was jest a singm The Light of the World is Jesus. 1 I 
 shall never forgit, when I was down to camp meetin to 
 Marthy s Vin yard a good while ago there was a little 
 blind boy stud up on a bench and sung it all alone, and 
 it made me cry to see him standin there with his pool 
 little white face,and eyes that could n t see a one of all the 
 faces lookin up to him, a singin that out as bold and free, 
 and he did pronounce the words so beautiful so as every 
 body could hear I can hear him a singin of it out, 
 now < The Light of the World is Jesus. And 1 suppose 
 we git to thin kin that the light s in our eyes, maybe, 
 or the light s in the sun, or the light s in the lamp, maybe. 
 But you might put out rny eyes," said Grandma Spicer, 
 closing her eyes as she spoke, and looking very peaceful 
 and happy "and you might put out the sun, and you 
 might put out the lamp, and say Thar, Almiry s all in 
 the dark room, she can t see nothin now but the Light 
 of the World ud be thar jest the same, you could n t put 
 out the light The Light of the World is Jesus. " 
 
 " Oh, I did n t know ye was havin a meetin ," said 
 Emily Gaskell, mockingly. 
 
 "No more we ain t, Emily" said Grandma Spicer. 
 " We was jest cheerin ourselves up a little, singin about 
 home. Come you, now, and sing with us :" 
 
 " We re goin home 
 No more to roam." 
 
 With eyes still closed, with head thrown back, and a 
 heavenly serene expression on her face, Grandma began 
 the refrain, while Abagail struck the cords on the 
 melodeon and the singers took up the words with a 
 hearty cheer : 
 
163 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " We re goin home 
 
 No more to roam, 
 No more to sin and sorrow, 
 
 No more to wear, 
 
 The brow of care, 
 We re going home to-morrow,** 
 
 Then the chorus, "We re going home," joyfully 
 repeated, died away at last, more plaintively, " We re 
 going home to-morrow." 
 
 " Wall, I m goin home to-night," said Emily, and, 
 as I looked up at her, I caught the same mischievous 
 gleam in her unsoftened eyes. " So strike up something 
 lively, now, and I 11 waltz down the lane to it. * Are Your 
 windows open towards Jerusalem? Lord, can t you think 
 o something warmer than that for this weather ? " 
 
 But the singers were going on gloriously : 
 
 M Are your windows open towards Jerusalem? 
 Though His captives hcie a little while stay, 
 For the coming of the King in His glory, 
 Are you watching, day by day ? " 
 
 Emily tightened the shawl around her neck with a 
 quick motion. In going out, she took an indirect 
 course through the room, purposely to pass by where 
 I was sitting. 
 
 "Are your windows open towards Jerusalem?" said 
 
 she, stooping and whispering in my ear, " El Turner s 
 
 out there hangin onto the fence one side the bushes, and 
 
 Ben Cradlebow the other, and they don t see each 
 
 other no more than two bats." 
 
 " Are your windows open towards Jerusalem," was 
 a favorite with the Wallencampers. On this occasion, 
 they repeated it several times. Captain Sartell and 
 Bachelor Rae, who had been engaging in a game of 
 checkers, in the little kitchen, left the board as the well- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 163 
 
 loved strains greeted their ears, and came in to join the 
 group. 
 
 Grandpa had been consigned to the kitchen stove, with 
 a corn-popper. I do not think that he regretted being 
 removed, somewhat, from the more inspiring scenes which 
 animated the Ark, I was amused to follow, with my ear, 
 the old gentleman s progress in the successive stages of 
 his corn-shelling and corn-popping operations, with 
 certain contingent misfortunes, as when he went into 
 the pantry to look for a pan, and brought down a 
 large quantity of tin ware clanging about his ears, 
 and rolling in all directions over the floor, while I 
 immediately inferred from the tones of his voice that he 
 was enjoying a little unembarrassed colloquy with the 
 powers of darkness. Once, in his shuffling peregrinations, 
 he tipped over the little bench which sustained the water 
 pail. A deep sigh of horror and despair escaped his lips, 
 and was followed by a " What the Devil!" borne in 
 upon the song-laden air with unmistakable force and 
 distinctness. 
 
 " For Heaven s sake, ma," said Abagail, looking 
 up, sharply, " what can pa be a doin ? " 
 
 "Oh," calmly said Grandma Spicer, "I guess he s 
 only settlin down." 
 
 And with Grandma, indeed, the turmoils of this sub 
 lunary sphere implied only a vast ultimate settling 
 down. 
 
 But if such deep rest came to Grandpa, it was only as a 
 dream from which he was soon to be rudely awakened. 
 
 The sound of his footsteps had ceased. I knew that 
 he was seated in his chair by the fire, and I heard 
 the long-handled popper shaken back and forth upon the 
 
164 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 stove, at first as if moved by the power of a steadfast 
 purpose. But the sound grew fainter, the motions less 
 regular. They were several tiroes desperately renewed, 
 and then ceased altogether, so quickly had Grandpa 
 soared beyond the low vicissitudes of a corn-popping 
 world. Soon a burning smell arose. Then the door 
 of the kitchen opened. Grandpa was startled. I knew 
 the catastrophe. The corn-popper with its contents 
 had been precipitated to the floor. Then I heard a 
 courteous male voice, with just a touch of suppressed 
 merriment in it : 
 
 " Never mind, Captain ! small business for you, steering 
 such a slim craft as that, eh ? On a red hot stove, too ! " 
 " Humph ! Top mast heavier than the hull," replied 
 Grandpa, accepting with gratitude, in this extremity, the 
 sympathy of the new comer. 
 The other gave a low laugh. 
 
 "Never mind, Captain ! " he repeated, "we ll have it 
 slick here in a minute. Let me take the broom. You ve 
 got it wrong side up. By Harry, we ve got the deluge 
 inside the Ark, this time, Captain ! " 
 
 "Tarnal water pail slipped moorin s," confessed 
 Grandpa. 
 
 Then followed a vigorous sound of corn rattling, 
 and water swashing against the sides of the room, and 
 I knew that Mr. Turner, the elegant, was sweeping 
 out the kitchen of the Ark. 
 
 "I guess they s somebody else come," exclaimed 
 Grandma, with hospitable glee. "Wall, I declare for t. 
 I guess I ll go out into my kitchen, and git that little 
 no-back cheer. Seems to me as though we d got all the 
 rest on em in use, pretty much." 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 165 
 
 " I 11 go, ma," said A bagail . " Teacher 11 be wanted to 
 play now, and may be she will, though she can t be got to 
 do it for common folks." 
 
 I did not enjoy playing on Abagail s melodeon. Any 
 performances of that kind which I had undertaken had 
 been confined exclusively to an audience of the VVallen- 
 campers. I had certainly never made an exception 
 for tne amusement of the fisherman. But I flattered 
 myself that there was no trace of resentment in my tone, 
 when I said, " Sit still, Abbie, please, I know where the 
 chair is. Don t I, Grandma ? " and was groping my way 
 out through the green curtained " keepm " rooms, 
 towards Grandma s culinary apartment, thankful for a 
 momentary escape from the heated atmosphere of the 
 "parlor," when I heard just behind me, a voice of the 
 most exquisite smoothness : 
 
 " Miss Hungerford, allow me." 
 
 " Mr. Turner ! " I exclaimed, with an overwhelming 
 sense of the ludicrousness of the situation, " How dare 
 you come through the room where they were all sitting, 
 and follow me out here ! Did Grandma tell you that 
 I had gone after a little no -back chair for you to sit 
 on?" 
 
 " She did," replied Mr. Tamer, with impressive gravity, 
 "and I took it as most divinely kind of you, too ; though, 
 if 1 might be allowed any choice in the matter, I think 
 I should be likely to assume a much more graceful 
 and more easeful and natural position in a chair con 
 structed after the ordinary pattern, Miss Hungerford, 
 especially as after my exertions in the kitchen, 1 feel the 
 need of entire repose." 
 
 "But this is the only one lft," I answered, with 
 
168 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 suppressed laughter. "Do you think you can find 
 it, Mr. Turner?" 
 
 " If you should leave me, now," replied the fisherman 
 "I should have positively no idea whither to direct 
 my steps." 
 
 "Then I shall be very happy to get it for you," I 
 said. 
 
 "But I could not think," he continued, "of allowing 
 you to pursue your \vay through this utter darkness to 
 the extreme rear of the Ark alone. I beg you to show 
 me the way." 
 
 I was not disposed to commit so gross an impropriety 
 as to linger with Mr. -Turner in "Grandma s kitchen," 
 which we had reached, and through whose broad, un 
 curtained windows the moonlight was pouring in with a 
 clear, fantastic radiance. 
 
 "Isn t this glorious!" exclaimed the fisherman in a 
 tone nearly as rapturous as Mrs. N orris s own. " Oh, you 
 don t think of going back, now, Miss Hungerford ! After 
 I ve mopped the kitchen floor, and braved all Wallencamp 
 in its lair, and groped my way out through these infernally 
 black rooms, for the chance of having a few quiet words 
 with you." 
 
 Mr. Turner s eyes were not snaky, nor his manner 
 suggestive of dark duplicity, yet I always felt a certain 
 unaccountable discomfort while in his presence, as though 
 there was need of keeping my own conscience particularly 
 on the alert. 
 
 1 knew that the group in the parlor would be counting 
 the moments of our absence. 
 
 "How can you ask me " I began, in a tone of 
 Cheerful remonstrance,* at the same time re-adjusting 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 167 
 
 my glasses to glance about for the little "no back" 
 chair 
 
 " How can you ask me to stay out here talking with 
 you, when you know " 
 
 "Oh, I know," Mr Turner interrupted quickly. "I 
 know how very thoughtful and considerate you are for 
 those people, Miss Hungerford. I know what lofty 
 ideas you have just now of consecrating yourself to 
 the work of refining and elevating the Wallencampers. 
 I know how coolly you can fix your eyes on a certain 
 goal and stumble indiscriminately over everything 
 that comes in your way. I know what a deucedly 
 superior state of mind you ve gotten into. I know too 
 about Miss B s school, and Miss L s school, and the 
 Seminary at Mount Blank, and the winters in New York." 
 
 There was triumph at the last, in Mr. Turner s tone. 
 
 " You have taken pains to collect a great deal of 
 information about me," I replied, virtuously conclud 
 ing that I should disappoint the fisherman more by not 
 appearing vexed. 
 
 "Is it strange?" he continued earnestly, with an 
 unconscious parody on his usually suave and insinuat 
 ing manner. "You will allow, Miss Hungerford, that 
 you might strike one, at first, as not being exactly 
 in the ordinary line of home missionaries, that is, as not 
 having been trained for the work, exactly, a sort of 
 novitiate, I mean Confound it! You will allow that 
 you might strike one at first, as being deucedly new in 
 that role." 
 
 After this, I smiled with a faintly malicious sense of 
 satisfaction at Mr. Turner s confusion, though I felt 
 that I had been cut to the heart. 
 
168 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 "And when I spoke about having found out about 
 your past life," he went on, struggling desperately with 
 his lost cause, * I did n t mean that there was anything 
 bad, you know, only that you sought pleasant diversions 
 in common with the rest of humanity and enjoyed the 
 Heaven-born instinct of knowing how to have a good 
 time, and weren t always the ambitious recluse and 
 religious devotee that you choose to be just at present, 
 though I ve sometimes wished that I could turn saint 
 so all of a sudden, but I could n t," added the fisher 
 man despondently; "if I should go to the ends of 
 the earth in that capacity, nobody d take any stock 
 in me, whatever ; and, after all, what does it amount 
 to?" 
 
 "This isn t what I meant to say, any of it;" he 
 sighed angrily. "It s just what I meant not to say 
 Confound it ! You ve done gloriously ; you ve played 
 the thing through to perfection ; you ve made an 
 inimitable success of it; but Wallencamp doesn t 
 offer scope wide enough for your powers. 1 offer you 
 a field hitherto untilled, left to the wandering winds 
 and the birds of the air, extensive enough in its for 
 lorn iniquity, I assure you, to engage your patient and 
 continued efforts. It may prove productive of good 
 results yet, who knows? Is it my fault that I didn t 
 know you sooner? " 
 
 I did not mistake the change in Mr. Turner s tone, 
 nor the meaning in his eyes, but as we stood there by 
 the window, in the full moonlight, I caught a glimpse 
 of another face outside, vanishing up the lane, almost 
 like a ghostly apparition it seemed to me the hand 
 some, pale young face. I guessed instinctively whose 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 169 
 
 it was, and suffered a pang of sharp, unconfessed pain, 
 while the fisherman was murmuring in my ear. 
 
 " Don t speak to me again of missions ! " I crier! 
 with the strong and tragic air of consciously blighted 
 aspirations. " I shall go on no more missions, great 
 or small. It is very true what you have tried so deli 
 cately to intimate. I was not fit for the work I under 
 took to do. I have only made mistakes all the way 
 along. Possibly I have been only 4 playing a part. 
 What does it amount to, indeed! What does it 
 amount to ! " 
 
 " Heavens ! " said Mr. Turner, " play a part, by all 
 means ; never be sincere in anything you do. I never 
 tried it but once, and I ve made a desperate mess of it. 
 Can t you understand that what I said was only in the 
 purest sort of self-defence? You weigh my words so 
 nicely. Well, you are considerate enough, God knows, 
 of those dirty brats and ignorant louts coddling 
 that girl, Ethel, who is a good-hearted creature enough, 
 but not fit for respectable people to touch their hands 
 to, and associating with such conceited boors as that 
 George Olver, and that grinning clown, Noah, and 
 that poor fool, Noel Norris, and that what-d ye-call- 
 him that fiddling young devil with the bird -like 
 name " 
 
 Mr. Turner stopped suddenly. 
 
 ^ "You might make allowances for a man in a pas 
 sion," he said, " instead of dissecting his words in that 
 cold blooded way." 
 
 " i have no notion of dissecting your words," I said, 
 provoked into a desperate honesty ; " I believe them, 
 as a whole, to be utterly false." 
 
170 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " From the very beginning," said Mr. Turner, 
 " thank you ; so I can begin all over again ; mean 
 while, you will forgive me? Imagine that I m one 
 of those dirty little beggars that go to school to you. 
 If one of them should come to you and say that he 
 was sorry ? " 
 
 " I should only be intensely surprised," I said ; " they 
 never do such things." 
 
 " Then I have a superior claim on your clemency," 
 said the fisherman, "for I am sorry and humiliate my 
 soul to the lowest depths of the confessional." 
 
 It was the voice of the plausible, easy-going fisher 
 man again. 
 
 My hand was on the latch. "I am not angry; I 
 would rather be friends," I said with averted face, as 
 we were returning through the dark "kccpm -rooms." 
 
 "When you get out of this realm of myths and mis 
 sions, and general dread and discomfort," said Mr. 
 Turner, " on to comprehensible soil again where ordi 
 nary sinners are sure of some sort of a footing, and 
 bad as a fellow is, he knows there are plenty more like 
 him, then I shan t appear to you in such a dcuccclly 
 poor light as I do now, a doubtful sort of pearl in 
 a setting of isolated cedars, with my beauty and my 
 genius and my heavenly aspirations all unappreciated, 
 or made to descend as a greater measure of condem 
 nation on my devoted auburn head. Truly, I believe 
 that an evil star attends my course in Wallencamp. 
 My own ideas seem strange to me. I cannot grasp 
 them. My language is wild and disconnected, I fancy, 
 like that of the early Norse poets. When I meet you 
 in the world, I shall hope to recover some of the old- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 171 
 
 time coherence and felicity of speech which I remem 
 ber to have heard practiced among the world s people, 
 and it is n t long now, thank Heaven ! before you ll leave 
 Wallencamp behind you. When you go home " 
 
 When I should go home, indeed ! I had hardly 
 dared to cherish the thought. I stifled the rising flood 
 of exultation in my breast but how pale and inter 
 esting I should look ! And, then, I would describe 
 Wallencamp to my own loving friends as it really 
 was, and what a lion they would make of me ! Had 
 they not always lionized my virtuous eflorts to the 
 fullest extent ! 
 
 My face must have been very happy in the dark. 
 I felt even almost kindly towards Mr. Turner. We 
 were at the last door. As we entered the lighted 
 room, Grandma s broad face began to beam with slow 
 surprise. " Why," said she, 4< where s the little no- 
 back chair ? " 
 
 Mr. Turner s resources in such extremities usually 
 bespoke a life-time of patient and adroit application, 
 but, now. he hesitated. The accumulated glory of 
 years seemed likely to be wrecked on the phantom of 
 a little no-back chair. 
 
 "Moonstruck? Eh, Mr. Turner ?" inquired Noah. 
 
 The fisherman regarded Noah with a smile of quiet 
 and amused sufferance. 
 
 " Ah ! Mrs. Spicer," said he, with a graceful bow in 
 Grandma s direction, " Mrs. Ithamer did me the 
 honor when I came in, to ask me to stand up with the 
 singers at the mclodeon, a position which I shall be 
 most happy to take, although I fear that my voca) 
 powers are of an exceptionally poor order." 
 
172 CAPE COD FOLKS, 
 
 The fisherman turned over the leaves of the despised 
 Moody and Sankey hymnal for Abagail, was pro 
 foundly attentive while the singing was going on, and 
 made suave and affable remarks here and there during 
 the intervals, then glanced at his watch with an ex 
 pression of highly affected concern, bade an elaborate 
 adieu to the company, and retired from the scene. 
 
 u Oh, I think that Mr. Turner is so elegant, don t 
 yew ?" said Mrs. Norris. " Oh, yes ; I think he s so 
 genteel ! " 
 
 "/ don t think so at all," said Noel. "/ don t, 
 certainly, /don t think so." 
 
 " He ain t got much voice," said Mrs. Norris, clasp 
 ing her hands in raptured appreciation of her match 
 less Noel. 
 
 Finally, Grandpa, with a haggard smile on his 
 features, stumbled across the little landing of the stair 
 way, between the parlor and the kitchen, bearing with 
 him a pan of much scorched and battered pop-corn. 
 
 "Oh, aint them beautiful!" arose Mrs. N orris s re 
 assuring cry. 
 
 Grandma had already set an example to her guests 
 by making a convenient receptacle of her capacious 
 lap, and pouring some of the corn into it, an example 
 which the fortunate scions of the skirted tribe, now ar 
 ranged in rows on one side of the room, followed, each 
 in turn. Of the male species on the other side of the 
 room, Noel happened to be first in line. As the corn 
 oame nearer and nearer to him, he began to look about 
 wildly, and to cough. His legs trembled violently 
 with the effort he was making to keep them close to 
 gether. He accepted the pan of pop-corn with a ges- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 173 
 
 ture of feverish haste, and proceeded to pour the con 
 tents into his lap, but, as he poured, they disappeared, 
 and the faster he poured the faster they disappeared, 
 and the more strenuous exertions he made to keep his 
 legs close together, the wider seemed to grow the 
 chasm through which the corn went rattling down on 
 to the floor, until Noel s eyes began to whirl in their 
 orbits and drops of sweat stood out upon his forehead. 
 
 Noah, who appreciated the situation and was burst 
 ing with a desire to roar out his mirthful emotions, 
 showed a kind heart above all, and turned the tables 
 nicely in poor Noel s behalf. 
 
 "Look here, Noel!" he cried, "that s a pretty trick 
 to play on us fellows, you rascal 1 you d better let up 
 on that, now ! " 
 
 Noel grasped at the idea as a drowning man might 
 grasp at a good substantial raft that should come 
 floating down his way. 
 
 " T-that s so," he stammered. " It is too bad, No 
 ah. It-t-t is, certainly, but anything for a j-joke, you 
 know. Here, take it yourself, Noah, t-take it; take 
 it, quick ! " 
 
 And Noel got down on his knees as though he 
 would have rendered dumb thanks to Heaven for 
 his unexpected deliverance, and proceeded to gather up 
 the corn with glad alacrity. 
 
 After this, the water was passed, and, at such times, 
 it was always comforting to consider how bountiful 
 nature had been in this respect to Wallencamp, and 
 that the demand could never be quite equal to the 
 supply. 
 
 Then the company began to disperse with many 
 
174 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 hand-shakings and "why don t ye all drop into my 
 house," etc., etc. 
 
 Noel N orris came back twice to shake hands with me 
 and returning the third time, got lost, somehow, in the 
 general confusion, and shook hands very fervently with 
 his mother, who was standing in the door. 
 
 I heard one of the departing visitors exclaim : " Why 
 where s Ben ? I should a thought he d a dropped in, sure !" 
 
 And another answered : " Oh, he s got some new 
 notion into his head, I reckon ! goin on a cruise, maybe !" 
 
 Ethel was going out with a girl companion, talking 
 rather loudly. I was moved to take her hand a moment, 
 gently detaining her. She looked exceedingly bright and 
 pretty. Her physical beauty was perfect, yet I believed 
 that the soul was only half awakened in the girl. 
 
 So as I held her hand a moment, with the others taking 
 noisy leave about us, I looked into her face with what 
 she might have read as : " Were n t you laughing rather 
 loudly, my dear? I can see now, that you are not as 
 happy as you would have people believe. Why not con 
 fide in me, and let me straighten your difficulty out for 
 you?" 
 
 But Ethel s eyes were downcast, and her checks crim 
 son. She let her hand slip passively out of mine, and 
 passed on, without a word. 
 
 , 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NOEL "POPS THE QUESTION." 
 
 [NE morning, ere we had breakfasted at the Ark, 
 Noel Norris, like some new-fangled orb of day, 
 was seen to surmount the ruddy verge of the 
 horizon. He bore a gun upon his shoulders, and ad 
 vanced with a singularly martial and self-confident tread. 
 As he entered the Ark, he placed the gun against the 
 wall, and sat down and folded his arms, and looked as 
 though he could be brave without it. 
 
 " Well, Abagail," said he, with a determined gaze 
 fixed straight before him on vacuity, and with a desperate 
 affectation of spontaneity in his tone. "Well, Abagail, 
 mother arid father have gone to Aunt Larcia s, /suppose 
 to spend a week, / suppose ahem ! ahem ! / suppose 
 so." 
 
 " You don t say so, Noel ! " exclaimed Abagail . " And 
 what 11 poor Robin do now, Noel? Oh, what 11 poor 
 Robin do now?" 
 
 "Yes," said he gravely, "that s what they thought, 
 ahem ! Tliey thought they should stay a week, they 
 thought so, certainly." 
 
176 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " Wall, I declar for t,Noel," said Grandma. " Now s 
 the time you d ought to have a wife. Jest to think how 
 comf table twould be fu ye, now, instead of stayin there 
 all alone, if ye only had a nice little wife to home, to cook 
 for ye, and watch for ye, and keep ye company, and " 
 
 "/ think so," exclaimed Noel, giving a quick glance 
 backward in the direction of his gun. " Certainly, ahem ! 
 I think so. /do." 
 
 " Lookin for game ? Eh,Noel ? " enquired Grandpa. 
 
 " Pa," said Grandma, solemnly, " I wish you d put 
 another stick of wood in the stove." 
 
 Grandpa was awake, now, and a youthful and satanic 
 gleam shone from under his shaggy eyebrows ; he glanced 
 at me, too, as was his habit on such occasions, as though 
 I had a sort of sympathy for and fellowship with him in 
 his bold iniquities of speech. 
 
 But the guileless Noel interpreted not the deeper mean 
 ing of Grandpa s words. 
 
 " I think some of it, Cap n," he answered unsmilingly, 
 and then continued. " It s been ahem ! it s been a 
 very mild winter on the ahem ! I should say on the 
 Cape. It s been a very mild winter on the Cape, Miss 
 Hungerford." 
 
 Noel s nervous glance falling again on his gun, took me 
 in wildly on the way. 
 
 I had been directing some letters that I expected to 
 have an opportunity to send that morning. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," I said looking up. "Yes, you 
 don t often have such mild winters on the Cape, Mr. 
 1\ orris!" 
 
 " No m we don t," said Noel, " not very often, ahem ! " 
 He moved his chair a peg nearer the gun. Quite a 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 177 
 
 ahem ! quite a little fall of snow we had last night, Miss 
 Hungerford." 
 
 " Any deer tracks? Eh,Noel? " enquired Grandpa. 
 
 " Pa," said Grandma. " I wish you d fill Abigail - 
 seems to me she smells sorter dry." 
 
 " She ain t, for sartin , ma," replied Grandpa, giving the 
 tea-kettle a shake to verify his assertions, " and Rachel s 
 chock full ! " 
 
 Grandma then gave Grandpa a meaning look, and put 
 her fingers on her lips. 
 
 "Well, Cap n, I saw more rabbit tracks," replied Noel, 
 innocently amused at the ludicrousness of the old Cap 
 tain s speech. " I did, rather ahem ! yes, I saw more 
 rabbit tracks ahem ! ahem ! " He gave his chair a 
 desperate hitch gunward. " I don t suppose they ever 
 do such a thing, where you live, Miss Hungerford, as to go 
 ahem! to go sleigh riding, now, do they, Miss 
 Hungerford?" 
 
 " Why yes," I said. " They always do in the winter, 
 and I have n t been home through the winter for a year or 
 two past, but I remember what splendid times we used to 
 have." 
 
 I was thinking particularly of a certain snow-fall, that 
 came when I was seventeen years old, and John Cable 
 had just returned from College, with a moustache and 
 patriarchal airs. 
 
 Some grinning recollections of the past were also float 
 ing through Grandpa s mind. The look of reprehensible 
 mirth was still in his eyes, and he showed his teeth which 
 gleamed oddly white and strong in contrast with his 
 grizzled countenance. 
 
 " I remember " he began. 
 
178 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " Pa," said Grandma, with an expressive wink of one 
 eye, and only part of her face visible around the corner 
 of the door-way, through which Abagail had already 
 disappeared. 
 
 " Pa I wish you d come out here a minute, now I 
 want to see ye." 
 
 "Wall, wall, can t ye see me here, ma? What makes 
 ye so dreadful anxious to see me all of a sudden* ? " en 
 quired Grandpa. But his face did not lose its thoughtful 
 illumination. " Wall, as I was a tellin ye, teacher," he 
 went on. " I was only a little shaver then a little 
 shaver and my father had one of those ere pungs, as 
 we used to call em, that he used to ride around in and 
 he was a dreadful man to swear, my father was, teacher 
 Lordy, how he would swear ! " 
 
 " Pa ! " said the great calm voice at the door. " I m 
 a awaitin for you to come out, so t I can shet the 
 door." 
 
 " Wall, wall, ma, shet the door if ye want to, I ve no 
 
 objections to havin the door shet and we had an old 
 
 hoss, teacher. Lordy, how lean he was, lean as a skate, 
 and " 
 
 "HoggartySpicer!" 
 
 "Yis, yis, I m a comin , ma, I m a cominV And 
 wonderful indeed, I thought must have been the tale, 
 which, even under these exasperating circumstances, kept 
 Grandpa s face a-grin as he ran and shuffled towards the 
 door. 
 
 The door was quickly closed behind him by other 
 hands than his own, and then I observed that Noel s chair 
 had been drawn into (rightfully close proximity to his 
 gun. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 179 
 
 "I I think it s pleasanter, that is I I sometimes 
 think it s warmer for t-t-t\vo in a sleigh, than a tis for 
 one, don t you, Miss Hungerford?" saidNoel,and gasped 
 for breath and continued. " Now I think of it, you 
 you wouldn t think of such a thing as going to ride with 
 me to-night, would you, Miss Hungerford? You you 
 would n t think of such a thing, would you, now? " 
 
 " Why if you are kind enough to invite me to go 
 sleigh riding with you, Mr. Norris?" 
 
 " I think so," said Noel, grasping his gun, and becom 
 ing immediately pale, though composed. "Yes m, 7 
 think so, certainly, / do." 
 
 " Thank you, I will go with pleasure," I said. 
 
 "Thank you, Miss Hungerford," said Noel, rising 
 hurriedly. "I wish you a pleasant day / do, with 
 pleasure, and I hope that nothing will happen to 
 prevent ! " 
 
 And Noel marched back across the fields as valiantly 
 as a man may, who, on occasions of doubt and peril, 
 takes the precaution to go suitably armed. 
 
 During the day the Wallencampers indulged in a mode 
 of recreation, suggestive of that unique sort of inspira 
 tion to which they not unfrequently fell victims. 
 
 They attached a horse to a boat, a demoralized old 
 boat, which had hitherto occupied a modest place amid 
 the ddbris surrounding the Ark, and thus equipped, 
 they rode or sailed up and down the lane. 
 
 It proved a stormy sea, and often as the boat capsized, 
 the air was rent with screams of mock terror and yells of 
 unaffected delight. 
 
 Thus the youth of Wallencamp, yes, and those who 
 heeded not the swift decline of years, by reason of the 
 
180 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 immortal freshness of their spirits, disported themselves. 
 And I was not amazed, catching a glimpse through the 
 school-house windows of this joyous boat on one of her 
 return voyages up the lane, to see Grandma Spicer sway 
 ing wildly in the stern. 
 
 Mean \yhile, I managed to keep my flock indoors. But 
 when, at four o clock, I took my ruler in hand to give the 
 usual signal of dismissal, the Phenomenon s heels had 
 already vanished through the window, and the repressed 
 animal spirits of a whole barbaric epoch sounded in the 
 whoop with which the Modoc shot through the door. 
 
 Finally, I, myself, rode up the lane in the boat. The 
 path was well worn by this time, and there was no danger 
 of a catastrophe. It seemed to me a novel performance 
 enough, but I had not yet been to ride in Noel s sleigh. 
 
 Noel came very early, and preferred to wait outside 
 until I had finished eating my supper. Then, with that 
 deep self-satisfaction which predominated in my soul, 
 even over its appreciation of the novel and amusing, I 
 donned my seal brown cloak, and stepping out of the door, 
 gathered up my skirts, and smiled at Mr. Noel with a 
 pair of seal brown eyes, and was not surprised to hear 
 him ejaculate, coughing slightly, "Ahem! /think so, 
 certainly, yes J m, / think so ; /do." 
 
 Noel s was the only sleigh in Wallencamp, and, as he 
 informed me, it was one "that he had himself constructed. 
 It ha .1, indeed, already suggested to my mind the work 
 ings of no ordinary intellect. Perhaps its most impres 
 sive features were its lowness and its height the 
 general lowness and length of its body, into which 
 one could step easily, the floor being covered with 
 * carpet of straw suggesting field mice, and the unusual 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 181 
 
 height to which it rose in the back, being surmounted 
 by two glittering knobs, like those on the head-board 
 of an old-fashioned bedstead. Half-way down the 
 back of this imposing structure the arms or wings 
 sprouted out, giving to the whole the appearance 
 of an immense Pterodactyl, or some other fossil 
 bird of fabulous proportions, and effectually shutting in 
 the occupants of the sleigh from any contemplation of 
 the possible charms of the scenery. The seat was 
 made very low, and it was, perhaps, on this account that 
 the horse seemed so abnormally high. It was a white 
 horse, and from our lowly position, there seemed to be 
 something awful and shadowy in the motions of its legs. 
 The red of sunset had not gone out of the sky when 
 we started, and a pale young moon was already getting 
 up in the heavens, but we could see neither fading sky 
 nor rising moon, nor rock, nor tree, nor snowy expanse, 
 nought but the gigantic hoof-falls of our phantom 
 steed. 
 
 Being thus hopelessly debarred from any communica 
 tion with external nature, and fearing to give myself up 
 to my own thoughts, which were of a somewhat danger 
 ous character, I endeavored to engage my companion 
 in lively and cheerful converse by the way ; but he was 
 in a position of actual physical suffering, for the reins 
 were short too short, that is, to form a happy connect 
 ing link between him and the horse, and poor Noel was 
 obliged to lean forward at an acute angle in order to 
 grasp them at all. Whenever the ghostly quadruped 
 made a plunge forward, as he not unfrequently did, Noel 
 was thrust violently down into the straw, and throughout 
 *11 this he comported himself with such firm and hope- 
 
183 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 less dignity that, with the respect due to suffering, I 
 was moved to witness the struggle, at length, with silent 
 commiseration. Once, having kept his seat for a longer 
 time than usual, Noel said: 
 
 "I ll give you a riddle, Miss Hungerford, /will. 
 Ahem ! why why does a hen go around the road/ Miss 
 Hungerford ? " 
 
 I posed my head in an attitude of deep thought. 
 
 " Because," Noel hastened to say, " because she can t 
 go across no, that wasn t right why ahem ! why 
 does a hen go across the road, Miss Hungerford ? " and 
 the next instant he was wallowing in the straw at my feet. 
 
 My soul was filled with unutterable compassion for 
 him. 
 
 "Because" I ventured, when Noel reappeared again, 
 affecting a tone of lively inspiration, "because she 
 can t go around it?" 
 
 " You you ve heard it before 1 " gravely protested 
 Noel. 
 
 " I confess," said I, " that I have. It used to be my 
 favorite riddle." 
 
 " It it used to be mine, too," said Noel. "It used 
 to be, Miss Hungerford ahem 1 It tisfd to be . 
 You you couldn t tell what I was thinking of when 
 I ahem when I started from home to-night, now, 
 could you, Miss Hungerford ?" said Noel, at length. 
 
 "I m sure I couldn t, Mr. Norris," said I, "but I 
 hope it was something very agreeable." 
 
 "But it wasn t," said Noel, "that is, not very, Miss 
 Hungerford ; ahem ! not very. I was I was ahem ! 
 I was thinking of it, you know, of of such a thing as 
 getting married, you know." 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 183 
 
 " I hope," said I, cheerfully, after a pause, " that as 
 you consider the subject longer, it will be a less painful 
 one to you." 
 
 " / hope so, Miss Hungerford," said Noel, " Ahem ! 7 
 hope so, certainly ; " but there was little of that sanguine 
 quality expressed in his tones. 
 
 The great white horse made another plunge forward, 
 and Noel recovered himself with a desperate effort. 
 
 "What should you think now, Miss Hungerford," he 
 continued, moistening his parched lips, "if I should do 
 such a thing as to ahem! as to speak of such a 
 thing as ahem! as something of that sort to you, 
 now, Miss Hungerford ? Now, what should you think of 
 such a thing? now, really?" 
 
 " I should think you were very inconsiderate," I said, 
 " and would probably regret your rashness afterwards." 
 
 "/think so," said Noel; ahem ! / think so, Miss Hun 
 gerford ; /do, certainly." 
 
 After this it seemed as though a weight had been 
 lifted from Noel s mind. He kept his seat better. His 
 was not a buoyant spirit, but there was, on this 
 occasion, an air of repressed cheerfulness about him 
 such as I had never before seen him exhibit. I tried to 
 think that it was a joyous mental rebound from the con 
 templation of those dark riddles which trouble humanity, 
 " why does the hen go across the road," etc. 
 
 After a brief pause, Noel said, "You you wouldn t 
 mind if I should sing a little now, now would you, Miss 
 Hungerford?" 
 
 I assured him that I should be very glad to have him 
 do so, and he sang, I remember, all the rest of the way 
 home. At the gate, I thanked him for the ride and its 
 
184 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 cheerful vocal accompaniment, and Noel said, " Do you 
 like to hear me sing, now? Do you do you, really, 
 now, Miss Hungerford?" and turned away with a smile 
 on his face to seek his home by the sea. 
 
 But Noel was not long lonely for, in less than a week, 
 his father and mother returned from their visit at Aunt 
 Larcia s and brought to Noel a wife. 
 
 Mrs. Norris herself informed me that "it was an 
 awful shock to him, at first, oh, dreadful ! but he d made 
 up his mind to get married, and he d never a done 
 it in the world, if we had n t took it into our own hands. 
 She was a good girl, and we knew it, and Noel was n t 
 no more fit to pick out a wife, anyway, than a chicken, 
 not a bit more fit than a chicken ! " 
 
 This girl lived in the same town with Aunt Larcia, and 
 was confidently recommended by her to Noel s parents as 
 one who would be likely to make him a wise and 
 suitable help-meet, and was, indeed, an uncommonly fair 
 and wholesome looking individual. She had a mind, 
 too, whose clear, practical common sense had never been 
 obscured by the idle theories of romance. She was pure 
 and hearty, and substantial. She was neither diffident, 
 nor slow of speech, nor vacillating. She came, at the 
 invitation of Noel s parents, to marry Noel, and if he had 
 refused, she would have boxed his ears as a wholesome 
 means of correction, and married him on the spot. 
 
 So Noel s destined wife was brought home to him in 
 the morning, and in the afternoon of that same day, the 
 connubial knot was tied. 
 
 Half an hour after the arrival of the bride, it was 
 
 known throughout the length and breadth of Wallen* 
 
 camp, to every one, I believe, save Noel himself, who 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 185 
 
 was gathering drift-wood a mile or two down the beach, 
 thatNoel was going to be married ! 
 
 At three o-clock p. M., brother Mark Norris was des 
 patched to West Wallen for a minister. 
 
 Small scouts had been sent out to watch, where the 
 road from the beach winds into the main road, and 
 when word was brought back that " Mark had gone by," 
 the Wallencampers proceeded to make all due prepara 
 tions ; and soon might have been seen winding in a body 
 towards the scene of interest. 
 
 The small paraphernalia of invitations and wedding 
 cards were unknown in Wallencamp, The Wallen 
 campers would have considered that there was little 
 virtue in a ceremony of any sort, performed without 
 the sanction and approval of their united presence. 
 
 In regard to the particular nature of this entertainment, 
 there was some snickering in the corners of the room, 
 but the general aspect was funereal. 
 
 The season during which, with Noel at one end of the 
 room, and the bride at the other, we sat waiting the arrival 
 of the minister, was as solemn as anything I have ever 
 known. 
 
 I made a congratulatory remark, in a low tone, to Mrs. 
 Norris, who sat at my side with her hands clasped, gazing 
 first at Noel and then at the bride, but I was forced to ex 
 perience the uncomfortable sensation of one who has 
 inadvertently spoken out loud in meeting. No one said 
 anything. 
 
 The helpless snicker which started occasionally from 
 Noah s corner, and was echoed faintly from other quarters 
 of the room, only heightened, by contrast, the effect of the 
 succeeding gloom. 
 
186 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 The bride was perfectly composed, with a high natural 
 color in her cheeks, and an air of being duly impressed 
 with the importance of the occasion. 
 
 She had assumed a large white bonnet, though I do not 
 think that she and Noel took so much as a stroll to the 
 beach after the ceremony and her plump and shapely 
 hands were encased in a pair of gree.n kid gloves. She 
 gazed, thoughtfully, at each occupant of the room in turn, 
 not omitting Noel, -who never once stirred or lifted his eyes. 
 
 Mr. William Norris was silently passing the water, when 
 brother Mark arrived with the minister. 
 
 That grave dignitary advanced with measured tread to a 
 small stand, draped with a long white sheet, that had been 
 prepared for him in the centre of the room. 
 
 He took off his gloves, and folded them ; he took off 
 his overcoat, and laid it on the back of a chair ; and if he 
 had then reached down into his pockets and taken out a 
 rope, and proceeded to adjust a slipper-noose, his audience 
 could not have shown a more ghastly and breathless inter 
 est in his performance. 
 
 " Will the parties " his sonorous voice resounded 
 through the awful stillness, "Will the parties about 
 to be joined in holy wedlock now come forward?" 
 
 As Noel then arose and walked, with an automatic hitch 
 in his legs, across the room to his bride, tHere was about 
 him all the stiffness and pallor of the grave without its 
 smile of peace. 
 
 "Noel and Nancy " arose the deep intonation " will 
 you now join hands?" 
 
 It was a warm strong hand in the green kid glove. Its 
 grasp might have sent a thrill of life through Noel s rigid 
 frame, for when the minister enquired : 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 187 
 
 "And do you, Noel, take this woman?" etc., etc. 
 Noel bent his body, moved his lips, and replied in a 
 strange, far away tone, "yes m, / think so. / do, cer 
 tainly." 
 
 But when the question was put to the bride, she, 
 Nancy, promised to take Noel to be her wedded husband, 
 to love and cherish, yes, and to cleave to, with a round 
 full " I do," that left no possible room for doubt in the 
 mind of anyone present, and seemed to send back the 
 flood of frozen terror to Noel s veins. 
 
 Noel and Nancy were pronounced man and wife, and 
 Nancy then divested herself of her bonnet and gloves, and 
 joined in the festivities which followed with a hearty good 
 will, that proved her to be quite at home among the VVa- 
 llencampers, and won at once their affection and esteem. 
 The manner, particularly, in which she carried beans from 
 her plate to her mouth, gracefully balanced on the ex 
 treme verge of her knife, as an adroit and finished work of 
 art, provoked the wonder and admiration of all those 
 whose beans sometimes wandered and fell off by the way. 
 
 And all the while, Mrs. Norris s adjectives flowed in a 
 full and copious stream. 
 
 " Oh, Noel had been so wild," she said to me. " Oh, 
 dreadful ! But did n t I think he looked like a husband 
 now? So quick, too! Oh, yes, wasn t it beautiful 1 
 Abbie Ann said he looked as though he d been a husband 
 fifteen years ! " 
 
 After the ceremony, Noel had taken his pipe and retired 
 a little from the active scenes which were being enacted 
 around him. 
 
 1 saw him, as I was going away, standing in the door 
 and looking out upon the bay. I held out my hand to 
 
188 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 him, in passing. "I congratulate you, Mr. Nom s," 1 
 said. Noel put his hand to his mouth and coughed 
 slightly several times, as though he were striving to think of 
 the polite thing to say. Then he replied, " I I ahem ! 
 I wish you the same, Miss Hungerford. /do, certainly." 
 Noel was not so pale as he had been, but looked very 
 serious and pensive with his eyes fixed on the mysterious 
 depths of the ocean. Noel had propounded riddles to me, 
 but never before had I caught such a glimpse of the 
 deeply philosophical workings of his mind. 
 
 " When you come to think of it, life ahem life is 
 very uncertain, Miss Hungerford." 
 
 I replied that it was very uncertain. 
 
 " And short, too, when you come to think of it. It *s 
 very short, too, Miss Hungerford." 
 
 " Oh, yes," I answered, " very." 
 
 " Ahem ! It was it was dreadful sudden, somehow," 
 said Noel. 
 
 " I suppose so, Mr. Norris," I replied gravely, "great 
 and unexpected joys are sometimes said to be as benumb 
 ing in their first effects as griefs coming in the same 
 way." 
 
 " 7 think so," said Noel. "Ahem ! / think so, Miss 
 Hungerford, /do, certainly." 
 
 Adelaide joined me at the door, and I bade Noel good 
 night. 
 
 We clambered down the cliffs, walking a little while 
 along on the beach on our way homeward. 
 
 It was growing dark and the voice of the ocean was in 
 finitely mournful and sublime. No wonder, I thought, 
 that life had seemed very short and uncertain to Noel as 
 he stood in the door listening to the waves. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 189 
 
 What a little thing it seemed indeed, comparatively 
 this life with its fears and hopes, its poor idle jests and 
 fleeting shows. 
 
 "And there shall be no more sea" but this poor 
 human soul that looks out so blindly, and utters itself so 
 feebly through the senses shall live for ever and ever. 
 
 "Noel s folks have picke.cl out a good wife for him, any 
 how," said Abagail , briskly. " She s got a sight more 
 sense than anybody he d ever a picked out." 
 
 I crept back into my shell again. " I think so, certainly, 
 Acidic," said I, smiling at having unconsciously repeated 
 Noel sown favorite phrase. 
 
 "She Ml make Noel all over, and get some new ideas 
 into him, I can tell you," said Abagail. 
 
 And though I did not stay in Wallencamp long enough 
 to witness with my own eyes the fulfilment of this pro 
 phecy, I know that it was abundantly fulfilled that Noel 
 soon recovered from the shock incident to his wedding, 
 that under ihe influence of his wholesome active wife and 
 with the weight of greater responsibilities, he grew more 
 manly and admirable in character, as well as happier, with 
 each succeeding year ; and that Noel s children a joyful 
 &nd robust group, adored of Mrs. Norris, senior play 
 on the "broad window seat" that looks off towards the 
 sea. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A LETTER FROM THE FISHERMAN. 
 
 |HE fisherman had gone back to Providence. 
 Ethel, herself, returning from the Post Office 
 at West Wallen, brought me a letter distin 
 guished by its peculiar dashing chirograph/. As she 
 handed it to me, the girl, whose glance had been down 
 cast of late, gave me a clear, straight-forward, unem 
 barrassed look. 
 
 " Do you like him, teacher? " she said. 
 
 " Oh, I tolerate him, my dear," I answered. "We re 
 not expected to entertain a particular like or dislike for 
 everybody we know. There are a great many people we 
 must just simply tolerate." 
 
 Ethel s eyes fell again. " He won t harm you, teacher," 
 she said, " for you was used to folks. Sometime you 
 might remember I was n t used to folks." 
 
 Occupied with my own thoughts, I passed lightly over 
 the girl s slow, trembling speech. She turned away, and 
 I bent to the complacent perusal of my letter. In my 
 then composed and exalted frame of mind, its contents 
 were not calculated to create in me cither great emotion 
 or surprise. And not because the mere fact of the fisher 
 man s absence had suddenly rendered him more desirable 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 191 
 
 in my eyes, but as the result of a recent determination on 
 my part to take an utterly worldly and practical view of 
 life, I resolved to give this letter the most careful and 
 serious consideration. 
 
 The fisherman was of good family, and he was rich ; 
 these statements, artistically interwoven by him with the 
 lighter fabric of his letter, were confirmed by an acquaint 
 ance of mine in Providence, of whom, in writing, I had 
 incidentally enquired concerning the gentleman. 
 
 Respectability and wealth items not supposed to 
 weigh too heavily with the romantic mind of youth 
 but I believed that I was no longer either young or ro 
 mantic. Moreover, I was slowly realizing the fact that 
 school-teaching in Wallencamp was not likely to furnish 
 me the means for making an excessively brilliant personal 
 display, nor for carrying out to any extent my subordinate 
 plans for a world- wide philanthropy. 
 
 " Perhaps, after all then," I argued, " it is only left for 
 me to give up my ideas about being unique and inde 
 pendent and sublime, take up with a good offer, and 
 step resolutely, without any sentimental awe, into the 
 great orderly ranks of the married sister-hood." 
 
 My life had been but a varied list of surprises to my 
 family and acquaintances, why not effect the crowning 
 surprise of all, by doing something they might have 
 expected of me? 
 
 Well, I had dreamed of higher things but this was 
 a strange, restless, disappointing world. If one saw a 
 plain path open before one s feet, one might as well walk 
 quietly along that way. There were thorns in every path, 
 and it would be nice to be rich, very rich. 
 
 My thoughts wandered through a wide field of imagin- 
 
192 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 ary delight, encountering only one serious obstacle in the 
 way of their elysium, and that was the fisherman himself, 
 considered as a life-long escort and companion. 
 
 In my youthful dreams, I had cherished, to be sure, 
 a score of mild Arthur Greys and stern Stephen Mont- 
 gomerys. My Arthurs had all died of inherited con 
 sumption. I had taken leave of their departing spirits 
 under the most thrilling circumstances, having frequently 
 been married to them at their death-beds, and had lived 
 but to plant flowers on their graves, and wear crape for 
 them ever afterwards; and my dark browed Stephen 
 Montgomerys had all gone to swell the avenging tide 
 of righteous war, and had been fatally shot, while 
 I remained to shed tears of unavailing grief over the 
 locks of raven hair they left with me on the morn 
 ing of their departure. But to marry a real, live, 
 omnipresent man a man, with red hair, sound lungs, 
 and no wars to go to ! My aspiring soul shrank from 
 the realistic vision. 
 
 And all the while a tenderer vision would rise before my 
 eyes, clothed with its pitiful romance the Cradlebow, 
 like some sadly out-of-fashion guest, arising unsolicited 
 out of a half- forgotten dream-land, passing indeed both 
 the ideal strength of the war-like Stephen and the gen 
 tleness of the saintly Arthur, but, alas ! so crude, so 
 unworldly, so ridiculously poor ! And the vision extended 
 and then narrowed helplessly to a home in one of the 
 forlorn houses in Wallencamp by the sea, with its dingy 
 walls and bare floors, its general confusion of objects and 
 misery, and my lord s grand eyes obscured, perchance, 
 behind clouds of tobacco smoke, while I set the scanty 
 table and fried the briny herrings. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS _ 193 
 
 With a shudder for romance, I returned to the con 
 templation of wealth and respectability ; and took up 
 graciously, once more, the briefly abandoned idea of duty. 
 
 I had often been told that it was my duty to accommo 
 date myself to other people s views. Perhaps I should 
 accomplish my designs for self-immolation, and thus, in 
 one sense, effect my highest spiritual good by marrying 
 the fisherman and accommodating myself to his views 
 ah ! but how could that be, I reflected, unsmilingly, when 
 my views were so infinitely superior to his ! 
 
 I wondered, for one thing, why he should have enter 
 tained, of late, such an excessive dislike for Wallencamp 
 and "its inhabitants. The natural beauty of Wallencamp 
 had impressed me daily more and more, and the people 
 were harmless, to say the least. I thought he should 
 h;i f e enjoyed them ; he had a humorous vein j he was 
 not too snobbish ; and he seemed of a nature to wish to 
 make himself generally agreeable to people, but for 
 these special objects of my care, he had expressed only 
 derision and contempt, with often a touch of positive 
 malice ; and had not been able to abstain from giving 
 me a hard cut or two on my mission, barely avoiding it in 
 his letter, and rejoicing with what seemed to me an un 
 warrantable warmth in the hope that 1 should soon quit 
 forever the abominable place. 
 
 Then, in my miserable short-sightedness, my thoughts 
 wandered indirectly to Ethel. 1 wondered if she had 
 taken to heart anything in the acquaintance she was said to 
 have had with Mr. Turner, before I came to Wallencamp, 
 which had caused the change in her. I did not believe 
 she had. The girl was too artless and simple to have con 
 cealed so completely the resentment she would naturally 
 
194 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 have cherished too childish to have borne it so silently. 
 As far as the fisherman was implicated in the affair, even 
 if he had trifled a little for his own amusement with the 
 vague impulses, possibly the affections, of this unso 
 phisticated girl, the act was by no means unprecedented 
 among people of wealth and respectability. It was a 
 diversion in which Arthur Grey and Stephen Montgom 
 ery would not have indulged, perhaps, "but this," I 
 mused, "is a sadly common-place sort of world, viewed in 
 the broad daylight of wisdom and experience (and with 
 such penetrating rays I felt my own optics to be only too 
 wearily oppressed) ; we must give up our high ideals, 
 take people as we find them, and submit gracefully to the 
 inevitable." 
 
 Still I was in as much of a quandary as ever as to what 
 I should choose to consider the inevitable in my own 
 path. It never occurred to me in this dilemma to seek 
 advice from the elder members of my own family. They 
 knew nothing really of my situation in Wallencamp, and 
 even if they had been informed more truthfully in regard 
 to it, I thought they could hardly be expected to appre 
 ciate the peculiarly trying circumstances in which I was 
 placed just at present. 
 
 Mothers were excellent for mending gloves, taking 
 ink stains out of white d/csscs with lemon juice, etc., 
 etc., but there were certain exigencies in the remote and 
 exalted life of those who go on " missions" which their 
 humble though loving skill must ever ,fail to reach. 
 
 I did write home, by the way, for more spencling- 
 money. I had been obliged to send to Boston for a few 
 of the latest novels, fresh ribbons, cologne water, and 
 various other articles indispensable to the career of a truly 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 195 
 
 devoted propagandist. I preferred my request no longer 
 as the dependent offspring seeking gifts from a fond and 
 indulgent parent, but as the solicitor of a mere temporary 
 loan, until I should be able to draw on my salary at the 
 close of the term. 
 
 One morning, having inured myself to extreme world- 
 liness of soul and begun a deliberately reckless response 
 to the fisherman s letter, I looked out through my window 
 to see the Cradlebow trudging manfully down the lane, 
 with a grotesquely antiquated portemanteau in his hand, 
 and the general air of one who has started a-foot on a 
 journey. 
 
 With a singular readiness to be diverted, I found 
 that the picture was, somehow, not conducive to further 
 worldliness of meditation ; and when, in the evening, 
 Mrs. Cradlebow came in to call, in her mantilla, the 
 impression thus made on my mind was inexpressibly 
 deepened. 
 
 Mrs Cradlebow was not a frequent caller. She had 
 almost earned among the Wallcncampers the direful 
 anathema .of " not being neighborly." 
 
 She informed me, while the singers were gathered, as 
 usual, at the Ark, that Benney had gone to make fare 
 well visits on his friends. He had three married sisters 
 living in different parts of the State. They had children. 
 The children were very fond of him, and he was going on 
 such a long voyage. Mrs. Cradlebow was looking be 
 yond the singers, her eyes shining clear and sad above 
 the pathetic smile on her lips. 
 
 " And he says he shan t come back again until he 
 comes to give me such pleasure as I never dreamed of." 
 
 Those words come to me now, either as part of the 
 
106 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 enrlless mockery of life, or as strains of hidden music, 
 deep and true, running ever beneath the world s dull mis 
 interpretation. 
 
 Afterwards, the choir of voices in the room formed an 
 effectual shield for confidential conversation. 
 
 " You don t know what a good boy he s always been to 
 me, teacher," Mrs. Cradlebow continued, with a manner 
 unusual to her, 1 thought, as of one seeking for sympathy, 
 "so that I ve learned to depend so much on him, more, 
 I think, than on anybody else. Some boys, when they re 
 growing up so, they feel independent and they answer 
 you back short, but the older he grew, the gentler he 
 was to me, always, and if he had any trouble, it 
 never made him cross to me, and I think it s harder to 
 see anybody so than if they was cross, for he s quick in 
 ways, 1 know, but when things go real hard against him, 
 he s patient." 
 
 "He ought not to know much about trouble yet," I 
 answered hopefully, with the consciousness of one who 
 has fathomed all the mysteries of grief and can yet speak 
 gaily of the forlorn background. 
 
 "He doesn t know enough about the world, I m 
 afraid," said Mrs. Cradlcbow, and her eyes, fixed on my 
 face, seemed to me to be looking gently into my inmost 
 heart. "He expects so much, and he never looks out 
 for himself. J wish he d be content to go fishing with the 
 other boys they always come back in the autumn 
 and not want to sail so far." 
 
 1 was almost angry because of the embarrassment I felt 
 under that clear glance. 
 
 " Don t you think, Mrs. Cradlebow," I said nervously, 
 " that young people arc never content until they find out 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 197 
 
 the world for themselves ? " It was an interrogation, but 
 it was sagely uttered. 
 
 " 1 know, 1 know," she said. " Perhaps it s best he 
 should go." She spoke very quietly and with uncommon 
 composure of demeanor. She withdrew her eyes from 
 my lace but the smile trembled on her lips, and 1 knew 
 that her heart was breaking over the words, for Lcnney 
 was her darling. 
 
 I wished, almost impatiently, for my own part, that it 
 might all have happened differently, that I might leave 
 everything in Wallencamp just as I had found it, so 
 delightfully happy and peaceful it had seemed to me. I 
 could not bear, in looking back, to think of one face as 
 wearing upon it any unaccustomed grief. At all events, 
 I felt that my thoughts had been hopelessly turned irom 
 their prescribed channel, and the fisherman s letter re 
 mained from day to day, still unanswered. 
 
 Meanwhile, winter was vanishing at the Cape. As 
 salient points in its quaint and cherished memory, I recall 
 the frequent clamming excursions, when we rattled down 
 to the beach, at low-t.de, in a cart whose groaning mem 
 bers lacked every element of elasticity. Often there were 
 as many as sixteen persons in one cart, and the same 
 number of hoes and baskets the baskets being filled 
 with small children as a means of keeping both them and 
 the children stationary. 
 
 Grandma was always present on these occasions, and 
 the hilarity of the Wallencampers, as they were jounced 
 and joggled over the stones, in a manner which to some 
 might have been productive of great bodily agony, con 
 cealed, with them, no undercurrent of nervous dread or 
 pain. They were kind enough to regard the presence of 
 
198 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 .ne "Teacher" as indispensable to their complete enjoy 
 ment, while I was ready to congratulate myself that my 
 society alone was the object desired, for though I brought 
 my neur-sighted vision to bear faithfully upon the sands, I 
 never succeeded in capturing a clam. 
 
 1 heard that Bachelor Rae had confided aside to Cap 
 tain Benney that " Teacher d ought to bring a hook and 
 line. The clams ud go for it in a minute if she d only 
 bring a hook and line ; " and, stung by the unsheathed 
 sarcasm of this remark, I was accustomed afterwards 
 to wander off towards " Steeple Rock." The rock was 
 accessible at low-tide, and from thence I could watch 
 the ocean on one side, and the clam -diggers on the 
 other ; could see Grandma on her hands and knees, a 
 dot of broad good nature in the distance, always 
 remaining apparently in the one place, and always^ 
 somehow, getting her basket full of clams as she gradually 
 sank deeper and deeper into the briny soil, but no 
 true Wallcncampers ever caught cold by soaking in the 
 brine. 
 
 1 could distinguish Abagail wandering lightly about 
 among the rocks, scraping off mussels with her hoe, and 
 the Modoc, the champion clam-digger of all, spreading 
 her tentacles, here and there, and never failing to come 
 up with a bivalve. It was a picturesque scene, viewed 
 from the great rock ; and when the tide began to sweep 
 in again, George Olver sent a piercing whistle along 
 shore, to call the stragglers together; clams, children, and 
 all were loaded into the cart, and jostled gaily homeward 
 chased by the fresh sea breezes. 
 
 For the chowder, which in due course of events arose 
 to take its place among the viands on the Ark board, 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 199 
 
 I would leave it to that sacred and tenfold mystery 
 with which, to my mind, it was ever enshrouded. 
 
 I recall the exhibitions held at the school-house, con 
 fined exclusively to the native talent of Wallencamp, 
 at which the old and young were assembled to speak 
 pieces. 
 
 It was then that Aunt Rhoda and Aunt Cinthia, 
 matrons of portly frame and perilous foothold, engaged 
 in a metrical dialogue concerning the robbing of a bird s 
 nest, in which lively diversion they assumed to have par 
 ticipated. And Bachelor Rae rendered "my beautiful 
 Annabel Lee" with unique effect, and Grandma Spicer 
 spoke mysteriously though hopefully of 
 
 " Hope and Harnah 
 
 Double decked schooner 
 Cap n John Homer 
 Marster and owner 
 Bound for Bcrmudy." 
 
 The strange effect produced upon me by the first of 
 these rhetorical entertainments, is still as fresh in my 
 mind as though it had been yesterday, so luminous was 
 the night with stars ; so loud and prolonged the prelim 
 inary blowing of the horn ; so festive the appearance of 
 the school-house, loaded as it was with evergreens; so 
 abnormal the proportions of the stage, which had been 
 extended to comprise nearly two- thirds of the school 
 room. 
 
 It comes to me again, the first shock of surprise at 
 finding all Wallencamp on the stage, Grandpa and I, 
 alone, being left like ostracized owls among the shrub 
 bery of the auditorium. Our sense of isolation was only 
 
200 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 intensified by hearing the sounds of mirth which pro 
 ceeded from the other side of the curtain, and seeing 
 a foot or an elbow occasionally thrust out into our own 
 green though silent realm. 
 
 Thrice Aunt Rhoda appeared before the curtain to 
 proclaim in pregnant tones, "we axe now awaiting for 
 Josiah and Annie." 
 
 Josiah, by the way, had married a Wallencamp girl 
 and taken her to West Wallen to live, yet the two were 
 ever faithful attendants at the Wallencamp festivities. 
 
 " Declaration" after "declaration " was announced by 
 Aunt Rhoda, and as the declaimers finished their parts, 
 they descended to sit with us, until at last the curtain 
 was drawn aside, revealing Abagail, alone upon the 
 stage, seated at her " music." 
 
 She opened the Hymnal, and struck the leading 
 chord, and straightway, from the YVallencampers, all 
 gathered now below, there arose a burst ol melody as it 
 had been one mighty voice. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A WALLENCAMP FUNERAL. 
 
 JR. Lihti Alden- Noah s father lay dying, and 
 all the Wallencampers were assembled in and 
 about the house. 
 
 li was night, and one was going out from among them 
 to launch his lonely bark on a deeper, more mysterious 
 ocean than that whose moan came up to them from 
 behind the cedars. There was awe on their faces, and a 
 touch of terror, too, but above all there was a strange, 
 child-like wonder. 
 
 They had seen death before. It might come to them 
 at any time, they knew. Its spirit sounded in the dirges 
 of the waves along the shore, yet, none the less, for 
 time or fate, or moan of solemn wave, grew this ex 
 ceeding mystery. 
 
 Was it like a cold black flood, to die at night, and no 
 stars shining a cold flood creeping more and more 
 above the heart? Oh, the wonder on those poor 
 faces, if there might be, indeed, some fairer harbor 
 lights beyond death s tide, and gentler music lulling 
 
202 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 the dread surge, so that the voyager, with untold joy at 
 last, felt the worn boat- keel loosen on the strand and 
 drift off from this shore ! 
 
 Emily and Aunt Cinthia were alone in the room with 
 the dying man. They were his sisters. His wife had 
 been dead for years. 
 
 In the adjoining room sat a group of females, a single 
 candle burning dimly on a table in their midst. Grand 
 ma Bartlett was there, and Grandma Spicer, and Aunt 
 Susannah Cradlebow, 
 
 Occasionally, a whisper from one of these three 
 pierced the gloom, a whisper appropriately sepulchral 
 in tone, but more penetrating than any voice of buoyant 
 life and hope. 
 
 I sat in the door with Abagail, Ethel on the step 
 below, very still and thoughtful. 
 
 The men and the young people, for the most part, 
 were waiting about outside. 
 
 I caught the low murmur of a discussion between 
 Captain Sartcll and Bachelor Rae, who were sitting on 
 the fence, and knew by the attitude of the listeners 
 gathered around them, that the subject was one of no 
 ordinary interest. I could not help wondering what 
 these two argued concerning death and the immortality 
 of the soul. 
 
 The tick ! tick ! tick ! of the clock sounded with per 
 sistent distinctness in the room where the women sat, 
 and Grandma Bartlett sighed, and then came the awful 
 whisper. 
 
 "Ah, death s vary sahd vary sahd." 
 
 Grandma Bartlett, superannuated as she was, was the 
 most trite of the Wallencampers. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 203 
 
 Annt Susannah Cradlebow accepted the lifeless 
 phrase with something almost like a smile of disdain in 
 her magnificent eyes. 
 
 " Oli, it s like everything else," she whispered. " It s 
 amixter! It s a mixter 1" 
 
 Once, the door of the little bedroom opened softly and 
 Emily appeared on the scene. 
 
 " He s got most to the end of ///Vrope," she said drily, 
 in answer to the enquiring faces lifted to her own. 
 There was an unnatural brightness in Emily s tearless 
 eyes, and her tone was as sprightly as ever. 
 
 " He don t see nothin , and he don t feel nothin , and 
 he don t hear nothin ," she continued, " and it s sech 
 poor work a breathing he s most give that up, too. It 
 might stop any minute and he not know it. Cinthy s 
 cryin , I don t see nothin to cry about. It ll storm 
 before to-morrow, likely it s dark enough, Lord knows 
 and them east winds ahvays hurt him so. * I don t 
 know whether he s worse oft, or better ofT, Cinthy, says 
 I, or whether he s off entirely. But I don t believe a 
 righteous God 11 make poor Lihu sufler any worse than 
 he has in the last ten weeks. But it s strange, all the 
 time I was a sittin there by him, when he was worst, it 
 kept comin up before me, jest as he was when he was a 
 little boy. I had n t thought on him so for years, but 
 seemed jest as though t was back in New Hampshire, 
 where we was born, a playin around the old mill again. 
 Him and me was the youngest, we was always together, 
 and I couldn t a called him up so before me, to save 
 me, but there he was, as plain as life, with his little blue 
 checked apron on, a skippin along towards me over the 
 logs, and his eyes a dancin , and the wind a blowin* his 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 
 
 hair out ; and all the while I could n t help a* knowin 
 that Lihu was a man grown a dyin there before me on 
 the bed. 
 
 " Seems as though a man that s been a* wearin out as 
 long as he has had ought to die easier, Cinthy, says I. 
 It s pretty hard to have forty years consumption, and 
 then go off with a fever. We can t question the Lord s 
 doin s, says Cinthy. But for all that, she wouldn t 
 stay in the room to see him. He could n t ketch his 
 breath and he was as crazy as a loon. Lord, how he 
 worried ! All day, yesterday, he was a loadin ship down 
 to the shore. It would a made your bones ache to hear him 
 workin so ; and all night long he was a loadin , and a 
 loadin. Thinks I, won t there never be no end to this, 
 for I felt hard, and him a loadin and a loadin all 
 through them long hours, jest as faithful as life, with his 
 eyes like blood, and the sweat a rollin off n him. He 
 could n t stand that forever. This mornin* the pain 
 sorter left him, but there was that one idee on his mind. 
 The ship was all loaded, and he d got to wait for high 
 tide to git it off, and he wanted to go to sleep, but he 
 could n t, because he d got to watch the tide. 
 
 " Oh, if I could only rest, now, he kep a 1 sayin , 
 weak and slow. . If I could only go to sleep now, and 
 so he moaned and moaned. 
 
 " So I got close to his ear and I says, You go to sleep, 
 now, Lihu, and I ll watch, I says, I ll wake you up 
 when it s high tide, I says, but he only shook his head. 
 So then, I says, Aint there none o the folks you can 
 trust to watch? And he shook his head, and so he 
 moaned and moaned. 
 
 " By and by, all of a sudden, Lihu looked up at me 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 305 
 
 different, with his eyes wide open, so that for a minute, 
 I was most fool enough to think Lihu was gittin well, 
 and he smiled as though he wanted to say something. So 
 I leant over, I know somebody, he says, as slow 
 as that, for he was all worn out. Who, then, Lihu? 
 says I. Jesus, says he, with that queer, smilin look, 
 as though it was the naturalist thing on earth. * He ll 
 wake me up when , and he couldn t wait no 
 longer, his head fell over as heavy as a log, and that s 
 the way he s been ever since, sleepin like death. 
 
 " Wall, Cinthy thinks somebody d ought to come in and 
 make a prayer. He wasn t a perfessor, says she. 
 Lord knows, if he had a been, says I, there d be 
 more need on t ! Anyway, says I, he can t hear 
 nothin , it won t do him no harm. So I thought I d 
 come out and see. It 11 make Cinthy feel easier." 
 
 There was a whispered consultation among the women, 
 but Emily came over to where I sat. 
 
 " Come, teacher," said she. "Your voice ain t as 
 raspin as some, and you Ve got a knack o stringin words 
 together, that sound likely, and don t hit nobody you 
 come in." 
 
 " Hush ! " I cried, grasping the woman s hand, think 
 ing only, then, that it would seem like sacrilege for any 
 one to speak aloud in the room where one was waiting for 
 Christ to wake him. I had forgotten at that moment, 
 that I was out of the habit of praying, even for myself. 
 Emily s tale had moved me so, it seemed only its sweet 
 and fitting consummation, and nothing incredible to my 
 mind then, that Christ should come down out of the 
 starless sky to touch that heavy sleeper s brow. 
 
 It was finally decided that there should be a quiet little 
 
206 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 prayer meeting in the room where the women sat, in 
 behalf of Mr. Lihu s soul ; but before all the preliminary 
 steps had been taken, and the men and youth noiselessly 
 ingathered, Mr. Lihu s breathing had ceased, without a 
 parting pang or gasp, and the tide was at its full. 
 
 Noah had been standing with a group near the door. 
 Once at some irrelevancy in the proceedings, while the 
 women were organizing the prayer meeting, I heard his 
 irrepressible little giggle creeping in, but when the words 
 so mysteriously uttered were passed out to him" Lihu s 
 gone ! " the poor boy, realizing only at that instant their 
 terrible meaning, that his father had indeed gone, gone 
 away from him forever, ran forward a pace or two, and 
 then fell, with his face to the ground. 
 
 So he lay, shaking and sobbing helplessly. 
 Grandma Bartlett, standing in the door, studied him for 
 some moments with her fossilized eyes : 
 
 " Fatherless and motherless, now," said she. " Poor 
 crcetur, humph ! vary sahd." 
 
 Then she blinked, and, simultaneously, the subject 
 seemed to have slipped from her mind, and she to have 
 become vaguely contemplative concerning worlds and 
 ages remote. 
 
 The boy was still lying prone on the ground, when I left 
 the place of mourning with Grandma and Abagail. I 
 spoke to him, and shrank instinctively from his face as he 
 turned it towards me. It was swollen and disfigured with 
 weeping. He had bruised it, too, in falling. He rose, 
 trembling, and walked with me. For my own part, the 
 emotional had given place to feelings of a more sustained 
 and ordinary nature. 
 I strove to impress upon Noah s mind the beautiful 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 207 
 
 and poetic manner in which his father had been released 
 from his sufferings. 
 
 I reminded him of the shortness of life, "even from 
 your point of view, Noah," and the necessity there was 
 always, for not allowing ourselves to be overcome by our 
 griefs or passions, or diverted from the supreme satis 
 faction of performing our appointed tasks, etc. 
 
 And Noah listened patiently throughout, and said, 
 " good -night," with a brave attempt at a smile, and a sob 
 still choking in his throat. 
 
 I turned an instant, to look at him as he walked away. 
 He wore, generally, a coat of ministerial form and com 
 plexion ; this, taken. in connection with his round, laughing 
 face, his boyish figure, and propensity for playing tricks, 
 had often made me smile, hitherto. 
 
 But, now, there was something in the attitude of those 
 long, black tails that brought the tears to my eyes. 
 
 It occurred to me, indirectly, what Emily had said 
 about my stringing words together, and I marveled if 
 possibly my exhortation had soared over poor Noah s 
 head and left his heart aching for an ordinary word of 
 sympathy, or a simple reference to One who as a man 
 01 sorrows, was best fitted to understand and console his 
 grief. To any sentiments of the latter nature, Noah was 
 particularly susceptible. 
 
 " Children, all of them ! " Thus gently apostrophizing 
 the Wallencampers, I dismissed the cause of my brief 
 mental discomfiture, with a half-pitying smile. 
 
 The day after Mr. Lima s death, I looked down from 
 my desk in school to see the infant Sophronia weeping 
 bitterly. 
 
 " What is Ihe matter, Sophronia?" I said. 
 
208 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " Carietta s been to see the cops twice," she sobbed; 
 "and 1 ain t been any." 
 
 1 only gathered from this that Carietta was somehow 
 implicated as being the cause of the infant Sophroma s 
 sufferings. 
 
 " Now," said I gravely, " tell me what you mean? " 
 
 "She means the cops !" cried Carietta, her small face 
 distorted with a leer of the most horrid satisfaction. 
 Lihu s cops. Throny means the " 
 
 "That will do," 1 said. "1 understand you perfectly. 
 I understand you only too well. This is about as bud," 
 1 reflected, "as anything in my experience." 
 
 After admonishing my pupils with that sincere emotion 
 to which the occasion had given rise, that they should 
 speak always respectfully of their elders, but especially in 
 the most tender and solemn tones of the dead ; after 
 pointing out to them the perniciousness of a low and 
 vulgar curiosity, and expatiating on the vastness and 
 superiority of the spiritual life, compared with the earthly 
 and carnal, I paused, only to give, further on, a fuller 
 illustration to my words, and said : 
 
 " Now, Sophronia, you have an immortal soul?" 
 
 There was evidence of some faint hankering in So 
 ph ronia s face as she mentally ran over the list of her 
 possessions. 
 
 "No m," said she, "I hain t but I ve got a corny- 
 copia !" 
 
 I think it was then and there that my hopes for the 
 elevation of juvenile Wallencnmp received their death 
 blow, and my labors, which had before been cheered by 
 a dream of partially satisfying success, at least, took on au 
 utterly goal- less aud prosaical form. 
 
CAPE COD FOLK3. 309 
 
 These children, I was forced to admit, regarded the 
 day of Mr. Lihu s funeral as a holiday of rare and special 
 interest, mysteriously bestowed by Heaven. 
 
 Aunt Rhoda had previously informed me that it was 
 expected I would have no school that afternoon. 
 
 The \Vest \Vallen minister officiated on the occasion 
 with an aspect neither more nor less funereal than he 
 had worn at Noel s wedding. He spoke in such a labored, 
 trumpet-like tone of voice that the VVallencampers 
 seemed, at first, inspired with a lively hope, expecting 
 momentarily that his breath would give out, but in this 
 they were doomed to ever increasing disappointment. 
 
 At length, Captain Sartell drew a bucketful of fresh 
 water from the well, and passed it around the room, wink 
 ing expansively at each individual in turn, by way of 
 silent encouragement and support. 
 
 Grandma Bartlett, observing the generally tearless as 
 pect of the community, conscientiously attempted to weep, 
 but being entirely out of tears, at her time of life, she only 
 succeeded in screwing her face up into what, in earlier 
 years, might have appeared as a lachrymose expression, 
 but now took the shape of a fixed and ogreish grin. 
 
 The infant Sophronia was seated on a bench of an ex 
 ceedingly temporary nature, between Grandma Spicer and 
 Aunt Pucinda, both persons of weight, and it so chanced, 
 or, rather, it followed as a matter of course, an equal 
 pressure being applied to both sides, that the board sus 
 taining the three, broke directly under that diminutive 
 victim of fate, awaking her thereby from feverish slumber; 
 and whether the infant Sophronia had an immortal soul 
 or not, no one there present could doubt that she pos 
 sessed an uncommon paii of lungs. 
 
210 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 The little room where we sat was hot and overcrowded, 
 and the thought was running in my mind continually, 
 "Poor, restless Wallencampers ! and how happy Mr. 
 Lihu is not to have any connection with his funeral." 
 
 When the procession was about to start for the bury- 
 ing-ground, the request was made to me that I would 
 blow the horn, even as the bell is usually tolled on such 
 occasions, for it would seem inappropriate for one of the 
 Wallcncampers to do so, they all having been related to 
 the deceased. 
 
 At such a time, I could not refuse, though the emotions 
 with which I crossed over to the school-house to perform 
 this grim duty, were of a nature best known to, and 
 appreciated by, myself. My terror of the Wallencamp 
 horn had waxed daily. I believed that there was nothing 
 in the whole world of inanimate things on which I would 
 not sooner have attempted to sound a funeral dirge. 
 Though capable of some variety of expression, it had 
 never yet been seduced into emitting any sound in the 
 least indicative of the designs struggling in the mind of 
 the blo A er. The human was paralyzed before it a 
 mere machine to blow into it and let come what would. 
 And, now, for the first time in my experience, it took on 
 a jubilant strain. I blew slowly ; I blew solemnly. Still, 
 it sounded like nothing less than a glad, exultant, rally 
 ing call. 
 
 I paused, horrified. From the rear of the moving 
 procession, Aunt Patty, with a yell and a frantic gesture 
 of the hands, entreated me to "keep a blowin !" 
 
 And, as I stood thus on the steps of the deserted 
 school-house and blew, only to hear the wild lamentations 
 of my soul translated into strains of fiendish mirth through 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 311 
 
 the medium of the horn, the Turkey Mogul, arrived on 
 his second visit of examination to the \Yallencamp 
 school, seemed to be descending before my eyes, in a 
 vortex of the giddy atmosphere. In fact, he was alight 
 ing from his buggy, and a grim, though reassuring smile 
 sat on his features. 
 
 " I see ! I see ! " he nodded his head. " You Ve 
 given them a good start," he added, succinctly, indicating 
 the direction of the Wallencampers, " Humph ! yes ! 
 they are always up to something ! " 
 
 He thrust his hands in his pockets, and, maintaining the 
 same sardonic grin, he, too, stood and watched that re 
 ceding column. 
 
 It was an odd combination of circumstances. I had 
 ceased my mad though involuntary jubilate, on the horn, 
 and was slowly aspiring to that equanimity of mind which 
 the exigencies of the case seemed to require, when the 
 Turkey Mogul turned abruptly and, without speaking a 
 word, handed me a soiled and wrinkled little sheet of 
 paper, the contents of which caused my heart, for an in 
 stant, to cease beating, and then set it throbbing with a 
 wild joy and exultation. 
 
 It was simply a petition wrought out of whose brain 
 I know not, but most curiously inscribed in Aunt Patty s 
 own hand, and signed by all the \Yallencampers with 
 "CAPTAIN SARTELL," at the head, and "b. ny" 
 at the foot to the effect that it was their desire that my 
 labors might be longer continued among them. 
 
 Only one, who, having made a play-day of life, turns, at 
 last, to attempt some earnest work, and fails, as he be 
 lieves, utterly, and then catches a glimpse of unexpected 
 light in the darkness, can understand the impulse given 
 
212 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 me by that dirty little scroll. It was such happiness as I 
 had never felt before. It made me strangely weak. 
 
 44 You ll stay," said the Turkey Mogul, at length, 
 "another term, or we ll consider this term extended, if 
 you please." 
 
 " I ll stay a few more weeks, anyway," I said, and the 
 Turkey Mogul must have marveled at the childish faith 
 and joy with which 1 clung to this new found rock 
 of my salvation, but I had n t thought of it before," 
 I added, a little faintly, thinking of home. 
 
 * You re tired ! " said the Turkey Mogul, almost sym 
 pathetically, " and hungry ! " he subjoined, quickly, in a 
 different tone. 
 
 1 knew by this time that the Turkey Mogul s eyes were 
 dangerously prone to have twinkles in the corners of 
 them, yet 1 believe 1 met their derisive questioning with a 
 simple seriousness in my own. 
 
 44 Well, that s right ! " he exclaimed. " Stick to em ! Stick 
 to em ! I libcdown to conduct another humph ! another 
 examination in a week or two. Good bye ! " and he 
 gave me his hand, and was off almost before the little 
 line of mourners had disappeared over the crest of the 
 hill. Yet 1 remember that Grandma Bartlett, who had 
 been deterred by the infirmity of age from joining 
 the procession, and had remained at the window, alone, 
 regaled the Wallencampers, on their return, with a 
 choice fancy, in which the Turkey Mogul and 1 had 
 stood ** talkin and chatterin on the school- house steps, 
 for an hour or more." Grandma Bartlett, though not 
 actively disposed to work mischief, nor possessed, indeed, 
 of any animate quality, still cherished a few of the dry 
 formulas of scandal, which she applied to any seemingly 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 213 
 
 favorable combination of circumstances. The Wallen- 
 campcrs, at any time, paid but little attention to her 
 words. 
 
 And, at the close of this strange clay, I sat alone, in my 
 little room in the Ark, and indited a letter to the follow 
 ing elTect : 
 
 11 Having received gratifying overtures from the people 
 of my change, I had decided, for reasons which I could 
 not then explain, to remain at Wallencamp until May, to 
 which time 1 looked forward with the delightful hope of 
 seeing my dear ones once more. 
 
 " Meanwhile, I hoped they would not consider it 
 strange, or ungracious of me to say that I should very 
 much prefer not to have brother Will, or any one else 
 come to Wallencamp to look after me, as brother Will 
 and some others had kindly suggested doing. It would 
 seem to imply that I was not capable of taking care of 
 myself, a mania which I trusted no longer held possession 
 of the family brain. Moreover, Wallencamp, though so 
 charming a place, had but few facilities for the accommo 
 dation of guests. I should draw on my salary, now, very 
 shortly, and would then remit the sums 1 had borrowed 
 in mere temporary embarrassment," etc. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 ETHEL S CONFESSION. 
 
 HE Wallcncamp bonfire, like Christmas or a 
 Fourth of July celebration in less ingenious and 
 erratic communities, came only once a year. 
 It was kindled on Eagle Hill, that runs out Irom 
 the main land of Wallencamp into Herrin River, the 
 \Vallencampers called the Hill an island, and from 
 most points of view it answered to the geographical 
 description of " Land entirely surrounded by water," 
 seeming, indeed, to stand solitary in the river, with an 
 air of infinite repose on its broad, sloping sides ; green and 
 gold, so 1 remember it ever, with the sun setting over it 
 in the spring time, green ami gold, in a crimson river ! 
 
 It had an air of sublimity, too, looking over and 
 beyond the cedars to the bay, and down the length of the 
 winding stream that fretted at its feet or lapped them 
 quietly. 
 
 There I planned to build a house, in some bright 
 future day, that should be in effective keeping with 
 the natural grandeur of the place, quaint, lordly, sub 
 stantial, with the appearance of having fallen somewhat 
 
GATE COD FOLKS. 215 
 
 into disuse, ivy growing over the dark stone walls, and 
 moss in the winding drives, and carved lions at the 
 gate. 
 
 The hill was a favorite resort of mine, and F.thel had 
 generally accompanied me on my excursions thither. 
 
 Once she said it was in the days when she had been 
 happier "I guess this place is just as God made it 
 to begin with." 
 
 Ethel had been struck with and had retained an idea 
 which she had probably heard promulgated sometime 
 at the West Wallen Sunday School, that, at the time 
 of man s spiritual fall, the earth also, with all terrestrial 
 things, had undergone a general mixing up. Her own 
 idea in regard to Eagle Hill she expressed very modestly, 
 looking off with a childish content and assurance in her 
 eyes. And I was delighted with her. 
 
 " You are always thinking such things as that," I ex 
 claimed, enthusiastically. " I know you are ! " 
 
 Ethel blushed, smiling, and shook her head. 
 
 " I ain t often sure," she said. 
 
 I think I told her then that when I had my house 
 on the hill, she should be the house-keeper to guard my 
 keys and conduct my affairs, * that is, my dear, attend 
 to all the little practical details connected with living," 
 and Ethel, to whom ry castles on the Hill were never 
 .astles in the air, but who believed most implicitly that I 
 would, sooner or later, perform all things that ever I 
 dreamed of doing, accepted her prospective matronship 
 with a becoming sense of its advantage and dignity. 
 
 Eagle Hill was haunted by a horse, a pure whit* 
 horse not Noel s with a flowing mane and tail, and 
 a beautiful arched neck. His motions, the Wallen- 
 
216 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 campers said, were roost fiery and graceful. Occa. 
 sionally he paused and fell back, quivering on his 
 haunches, looked this way and that, and then, with 
 a wild plunge, swept on again, swifter than before, 
 Every true Wallencamper could both see and hear the 
 " white horse " when at night, clearly outlined against the 
 sky, he galloped back and forth along the very summit of 
 the hill. 
 
 It was on one of the blackest nights of the season that 
 the fuel, which less grand and poetic souls would doubt 
 less have reserved for another winter s use, was borne 
 in jubilant triumph by the Wallencampers up the sides of 
 this sacred and illustrious steep, and there consumed 
 in a most glorious conflagration. The spectacle was 
 appalling. At intervals in the roaring and crackling of 
 the flames, was heard the roar of the near ocean, while 
 the familiar features of the landscape, the faces of the 
 encircling spectators, stood out with unreal and terrible 
 distinctness in the hellish light. 
 
 Emily, who had coughed all the way climbing up the 
 hill, stood stirring the fire with a long pole, and mak 
 ing reckless and facetious remarks the while, which, 
 uttered in the midst of that unearthly scene, struck 
 me cold with horror. 
 
 " Come, Bachelder," said she, " git onto the end 
 of my pole, and I ll hold ye over there a while. Ye 
 might as well be gittin used to it 1 " 
 
 "Heh! yes," said Bachelor Rae. "But what I m 
 a thinkin , is you d ought to have a subordinate. I never 
 heered heh ! of putting a person of such importance 
 in the Kingdom heh! however efficient into the 
 position of Fire Tender 1 " 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 217 
 
 " Crazy Silvy " was at the bonfire. I had never seen 
 her before. Silvy did not go out on ordinary occasions. 
 I watched her as she stood with a scant, thin shawl 
 thrown over her head, looking intently into the flames, 
 shivering often, and smiling as she moved her lips in 
 apparently delightful conversation with herself. 
 
 Some of the children essayed to tease her; she seemed 
 quite unconscious of their efforts, but I turned and spoke 
 to them rather sharply. The next time I looked up, her 
 strange, smiling eyes were fixed full on my face. I 
 glanced away quickly, with a nervous shiver, and moved 
 a little farther off. As I did so, Silvy, regarding me in 
 that same dreamily contemplative manner, walked toward 
 me a step or two, and as I continued to move away, she 
 walked slowly after me. 
 
 My acquaintance with the unconfincd insane had not 
 been extensive enough to allow me to regard her motions 
 with that mingled amusement and curiosity, which was 
 the only sentiment expressed on the countenances of the 
 Wallencampers who stood watching us ; but I concluded 
 that it was better to face about, and meet my pursuer 
 with an air of fearlessness. I did so, and held out my 
 hand to her as she came up. 
 
 " How do you do, Silvy? " I said. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " said Silvy, thrusting her hands behind 
 her, laughing softly, and shaking her head. " Not with 
 the queen of Heaven ! Not with the queen of Heaven ! " 
 
 I thought I detected Emily s derisive influence in 
 this, poor, simple creature s words. Silvy was so per 
 fectly mild and harmless in appearance, however, that I 
 began to feel reassured. 
 
 " I ve heard about YOU, Silw," I continued, cheerfully. 
 
218 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " I m the teacher, you know. You Ve heard them speak 
 of the teacher?" 
 
 " So glad/ continued Silvy, in that same low, cooing 
 tone, " so glad to meet the queen of Heaven." 
 
 " Hush ! " said I then. " You mustn t say that again. 
 Draw your shawl up tighter." For in spite of the bon 
 fire, the wind was blowing cold on the hill. 
 
 While I spoke Silvy had become absorbed in watching 
 the fire again. I would have walked quietly away, but as 
 I turned to go, she thrust her head towards me quickly 
 and whispered : 
 
 " Wait ! don t you ever tell ? " 
 
 Silvy put her hand to her lips. 
 
 " No," said I, smiling. 
 
 "Silvy never told," she went on, "except to you. 
 You Ve got a key. Silvy s got a key. She keeps things 
 all locked up, Silvy does. Emily don t have any key. 
 She talks she talks all over don t you tell but Silvy 
 lives with Emily so bad," said Silvy, heaving a gentle 
 sigh and speaking in a tone of the deepest confidence, 
 " so bad not to have any key." 
 
 " That s true, I think," said I, beginning to find my 
 btrange companion rather interesting. 
 
 " Yes." Silvy nodded her head several times as 
 though we understood, we two, and she was delighted to 
 have discovered the fact. 
 
 Then her eyes wandered again to the fire, and she re 
 sumed her happy, smiling conversation with herself. 
 
 I thought she had forgotten me, or concluded not to 
 unlock anything with her key, when she turned slowly 
 and looked at me, and seemed to gather up the lost train 
 of her ideas in my face. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. aw 
 
 "Silvy watched the fishermen at Emily s," she went 
 on. " They said, * Poor Silvy ! See you again next 
 time, Silvy! They are very p lite, thank you, and they 
 laugh once. Ha! ha! But Eliot Turner, he laughs 
 twice. Ha! ha! and behind his sleeve, too. Such 
 things are damnable 1" 
 
 Silvy s dulcet tones ran over that hard word with the 
 mildest and softest of accents. 
 
 " And they bring wine," she continued. " Silvy 
 cl ared off the table one night. She heard em sing, and 
 they says to him, what about pretty Eth? and he says 
 we must have a little fun, you know, ha ! ha ! and then, 
 ha ! ha ! behind his sleeve. Now if Silvy could keep it 
 all together, you d straighten it out maybe. Silvy can t 
 straighten it out. Where did she hear so much, I 
 wonder ! She hears too much, Silvy does." 
 
 She knitted her brows in pitiful perplexity. 
 
 " You were talking about the fisherman," said I. 
 
 "No," said Silvy, shaking her head, "about Eth. 
 She never says, Crazy Silvy ! There she goes ! Look at 
 Silvy ! She says, Come and see me, Silvy, so. So 
 soft spoken. Silvy loves her." 
 
 " I love her, too," I said, gently, for Silvy had paused 
 again, and was knitting her brows in that painful manner, 
 as though the effort to think gave her actual physical 
 suffering. 
 
 " Silvy knows ! Silvy knows ! " She exclaimed sud 
 denly, her face all sirooth and softly smiling now. 
 "Never you trust a neat man," impressively. 
 "Never you trust em for why? They wasn t made 
 so. God made em. God made em to clutter. And 
 there was that Eliot Turner . He was always a hangin* 
 
230 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 things up. He was always foldin of em. He was 
 always a hangin em up in his room. Silvy knows. 
 But there was a piece of writin got over behind the bury. 
 And it didn t fall. But it stuck. Silvy knows. She 
 reads writin . She reads it over and over. He did n t 
 love Eth any more. But he s afraid. And he 11 give 
 money. Oh, go anywhere ! Only keep still, Eth. For 
 Heaven s sake, keep still. Why, she would n t hurt 
 him ! Eth would n t hurt him," said Silvy in a slow tone 
 full of wonder. 
 
 " He need n t be afraid. But Silvy won t tell him so. 
 Why not ? Oh, she likes to be amused. Silvy likes to 
 be amused ! " 
 
 " Silvy knows ! Silvy knows ! " She continued, after 
 another terrible pause. " She set eyes on you, standin* 
 there. That s the one, she says, and she says it a long 
 time. That s the queen of Heaven. She would n t hurt 
 Silvy, poor Silvy ! She s got a key. So she 11 straighten 
 it out, maybe. Silvy can t, she s so tired. When Silvy 
 got up in the morning, it was early. Oh, so still ! And 
 a bird was flyin up up. Silvy could n t see so far to 
 Heaven. It made Silvy cry. So strange not to be any 
 tired in the mornin ." 
 
 Silvy made a last painful effort to collect her thoughts, 
 before her face resumed its habitual, far away, half smil 
 ing expression. 
 
 Then she said, " Silvy comes up the hill all alone. 
 Not the way them others, and she see the fire burn in*. 
 But it was dark in the bush. Silvy heard em talkin* 
 terribly. It was Eth and George Olver. I 11 make an 
 honest home for you Eth. 1 And she says, terribly, she 
 no deserve. And he says, she better than him, and 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 221 
 
 won t she come ? And she cries so, My heart is broke ! 
 And how good to live with him she knows, now so 
 honest and true but she no fit, and, oh, * My heart is 
 broke ! my heart is broke ! " 
 
 The scene, the vividness of these words had not yet 
 faded in the least from Silvy s memory. 
 
 "Then," said she, "they keep on talkin , terribly. 
 But Silvy she hears so much poor Silvy ! She goes 
 round very still, nother way. Silvy s tired." 
 
 And, as unceremoniously as she had approached me, 
 she turned and walked slowly back to her old position 
 before the fire. She did not look at me. She seemed to 
 have become utterly unconscious of my presence. The 
 scant, thin shawl had fallen back from her head. She 
 shivered as she stood gazing into the flames, but the 
 dreamy expression was ever in her eyes and the soft 
 laugh on her lips, as she continued murmuring to herself. 
 
 The Wallencampers were not content to let the fire 
 go out after the first grand illumination. They were 
 bringing up more brush from the landward side of the hill, 
 amid a confusion of wild shouts and excited laughter. 
 
 I found Ethel among a group of girls. 
 
 " When you go home to-night," I said, " I want you 
 to step in and see me. Come up to my room." 
 
 " Yes " said Ethel, and I noticed how pale she turned 
 in the fire light. I did not say any more to her, then. 
 
 After hearing Silvy s story, I believed that Mr. Turner 
 had acted a heartless and unmanly part towards Ethel, 
 made love to her which he could not doubt the poor girl 
 took in earnest, and even promises which he knew he 
 should lightly break sometime, and then, for his own 
 purposes, he begged her to keep silence. I thought 
 
222 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 I understood, and resolved to instruct Ethel to forget the 
 red haired fisherman, to be " sensible," and " marry 
 good, honest George Olver," who loved her so devotedly. 
 
 Benney had come home, and was one among the many 
 figures at this brilliant fete. Indeed, the bonfire had been 
 deferred until later than usual in the season, by reason of 
 his absence, and now he was noticeably the lion of the 
 evening, in a brave dark blue cravat, that was borne out 
 ward by the wind, or fluttered becomingly under his chin, 
 to the envy and despair of all the Wallencamp youth. 
 He exchanged a pleasant greeting with every one, and 
 brought the largest young tree of all up the hill on 
 his broad shoulders. 
 
 When, at length, the Wallencampers had permitted the 
 fire to burn low, they joined hands in a ring around 
 the embers, and sang the saddest and sweetest songs 
 in the Hymnal. I sat on a rock near by, engaged 
 as I had been much of the time since my arrival 
 in Wallencamp, in trying to realize the situation the 
 awful gloom of the night, the river now invisible, below, 
 the sound of the surf farther off, that made my heart 
 sick, and with it the strange mingling of those religious 
 songs, the lonely hill, the smouldering fire, the fantastic 
 group gathered around. 
 
 When I got back to the Ark, I found Ethel waiting for 
 me. She followed me up to my room, and I closed the 
 door. 
 
 " You see I waited long enough for you to come of 
 your own accoid," I said laughing. Then I drew a 
 chair in front of her. She sat at the foot of the bed, and 
 I addressed her gravely. 
 
 " Now, Ethel, something is the matter. You are not 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 223 
 
 the merry, light hearted girl you were, when I first knew 
 you. And I can help you perhaps. I will help you. 
 Tell me what the trouble is ! " 
 
 I thought I should see the tears gathering in Ethel s 
 eyes, but she looked, instead, so stonily disconsolate, that 
 I was rather dismayed. 
 
 " I m going to tell you," said she, " but you can t help 
 me. They ll all know before long, I guess. I don t care. 
 You talk good, but you don t say much about God. I 
 guess you don t believe there s none. I don t. I can t 
 understand. I m like I d got lost, somehow, and when 
 they found me, they d stone me I don t care. I Vc 
 felt enough. I don t feel no more. I Ve cried so much, 
 I guess I can t cry no more. If I could it ud be now, 
 tellin you. 
 
 "When Miss Taite came here to teach, I hadn t 
 ever had no friend except the girls here, and they 
 was n t bad, but we was always runnin wild around in the 
 lots, and down to shore, and always laughin and plaguin 
 the teacher in school. And when Miss Taite came, she 
 wasn t like you, nor she didn t have such clothes, 
 nor such ways as yours. I did n t love her very much, 
 but she used to talk to me, and wanted me to be a 
 Christian. And she didn t tell me all it was to be 
 a Christian like you have, or I wouldn t a been such 
 a fool to think I could be ; but she talked like it was n t 
 anything to understand, only to want Christ in your 
 heart, and try to be good, and, first, I did n t pretend to 
 mind much what she said, and used to tell the girls, and 
 they d tell me, too, and we d laugh. Only one time, she 
 was talkin to me, and it seemed as though I could n t 
 hold out no longer, and I cried and cried, and when 
 
224 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 I got up, I felt happy. Just as though He was there. 
 Seemed as though He was all around everywhere, and 
 goin down the lane, there was a whip-poor-will singin , 
 and it sounded like it never had before so strange and 
 happy and I always loved em after that but I never 
 shall again. 
 
 " And I tried to be good, and quieter, and have 
 the other girls and the children at home; and when 
 Father was drunk and noisy, and some of the folks 
 laughed, I would n t give up quite. Oh, I did n t feel 
 like 1 was bad then! I didn t! You might remember 
 that. I had n t much manners, but I never thought any 
 thing bad. Sometime you might remember that. 
 
 " Then Mr. Turner came, and he might a killed me, 
 and it ud been a kindness ; but he had n t no such kind 
 heart as that. He used to make excuses for meetin me. 
 He would n t look at any of the other girls. He said he 
 could n t see no beauty in anybody else. He said I was 
 the only one on eanh he loved. He said he would n t 
 care what became of him if I was n t good to him. 
 
 " I thought George never talked to me so much 
 as that, and I trusted him every word. It was all 
 so different. I thought I loved him, too. He talked 
 about how he should take me to Providence, and I said I 
 had n t much manners or education, and they d laugh at 
 me. He said there was n t another such a face there, and 
 if he was suited, they might laugh. And he used to talk 
 about how I d look all dressed up in his house, down 
 there and I don t see ! I don t see ! I trusted every 
 word. 
 
 " It would n t have been no different, anyway. I loved 
 you when you came. When he went with you, I tried to 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 225 
 
 hate you. I hated him, but I never hated you ! In my 
 heart, teacher, I never hated you. You might think 
 of that, sometime " 
 
 " Well, my dear little girl," I interrupted her, "it seems 
 we have both been somewhat deceived in the fisherman, 
 but doubtless, we shall recover in time. You don t like 
 him, neither do I. We 11 dismiss the subject from our 
 minds, forever. There s a good, honest boy here in 
 Wallencamp, that a girl I know, ought to busy her head 
 about. Why trouble ourselves with disagreeable things ?" 
 
 "You might think, sometime," Ethel went on, with 
 the same hopeless expression, and in the same tense 
 voice, " I never knew that about not trustin anybody 
 till you told me. I had n t never be n away from here. 
 I wasn t brought up like you, and I wasn t so strong 
 as you you might think, sometime but not now. I 
 don t ask to have you now you don t see. I knew you 
 wouldn t you can forget you re so happy think 
 of that, sometime, how happy you was, sittin there but 
 I never can forget any more. I say it ud be n better if 
 I d a died. It s the sin and the shame. I ve nothin 
 but to bear em, now, as long as I live. Oh, you might 
 think what it was not to have no hope anywheres ! " 
 
 "What do you mean?" I cried, as it rushed over me 
 in that instant. I had been too heedless and slow 
 to comprehend the possible wretched meaning of her 
 words. 
 
 "What do you mean?" rising and standing over her, 
 with a terrible sense of power to convict. 
 
 " Oh, Ethel, you didn t mean that worst? " 
 
 "Yes," said she, with no visible change on her poor, 
 set face "yes I do." 
 
$26 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " I wish you would go out of my room, and leave me ! s 
 I exclaimed, then, "I am not used to such people 
 as you ! Do you suppose I would have been with you 
 all these weeks if I had known? Don t you see 
 how you have wronged me? I never want to 
 see you again, never ! Go ! go ! and leave me alone ! " 
 
 I shall never forget the look with which Ethel rose 
 wearily, and went to the door not an angry look, not 
 a look of terror nor even of pleading reproach, but it 
 was as if her soul, sinful, crushed and bleeding though 
 it was, in that one moment, rose above my soul and con 
 demned it with sorrowful, clear eyes. 
 
 I listened to her step going clown the stairs. I did 
 not call her back. I heard her latch the outer door of 
 the Ark. No thought of pity for her wrong, or com 
 miseration for her desolation moved me. I thought 
 only in my proud selfish passion, how miserably, how 
 bitterly I had been deceived. 
 
 I sought out the fisherman s letter, before retiring, 
 and the one I had begun in answer, and tore them both 
 into shreds, believing that I should as easily rid my 
 mind of the whole miserable affair with which I 
 had been unwittingly complicated 
 
CHAPTER Xin. 
 
 A MUD WINTER ON THE CAPE. 
 
 IT S be n a mild winter on the Cape," the 
 Wallencampers congratulated one another, 
 blinking, with a delicious sense of warmtk 
 and comfort, in the rays of a strong March sun. 
 
 The Wallencampers were not, perhaps, generally in 
 cited by that love of stern, unceasing and vigorous exer 
 tion which is, geographically considered, one of the 
 chief characteristics of our hardy northern races. True 
 poets and idealists they were lazy, and they had but 
 few clothes, both excellent reasons for inclining kindly 
 to the warm weather. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding this, they had grown used to 
 a wild ruggedness of nature and condition, a terrible, 
 sublime uncertainty about life and things in general when 
 the wind blew, missing which, in this earthly state, they 
 would have pined most sadly. And I do not believe 
 that they would have exchanged their rugged, storm 
 swept, wind-beleaguered little section of Cape Cod, for a 
 
228 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 realm in sunny Italy itself; no, not even if the waves 
 of that bright clime had rippled over sands of literal 
 gold, and their winter had been nine months in the year 
 instead of the customary six. and a half. 
 
 " A mild winter on the Cape." Grandpa Spicer often 
 repeated the words, and, sitting by the fire at night, his 
 eyes grew big and wild, and his tones took on a terrible 
 impressiveness as he told of rough winters on the Cape, 
 when the snow lay drifted high across the fences in the 
 lane, and " every time she came in yender " pointing in 
 the direction of the Bay " she licked off a slice or two 
 o bank, and the old Ark whirled and shuk o Lordy, 
 teacher ! as ef she d slipped her moorin s and gone off 
 on a high sea, and ef you d a heerd the wind a 
 screechin inter them winders, you d a thought the " 
 
 "Hoggarty Spicer 1" Grandma Spicer spoke. She 
 said no more. It was enough. 
 
 "You d a thought something had got loose, sure," 
 concluded Grandpa, with a keen glance aside at me that 
 revealed, as with tenfold significance, the obstructed 
 force of his narrative. 
 
 In the daytime, Grandpa was now much out of doors. 
 He had most frequent and loving recourse to an inter 
 esting looking pile of rubbish at the south end of the 
 barn. There he sat, and napped, and nodded, and em 
 ployed the brief interims of wakeful ness in whittling 
 bean poles, preparatory for another year s supply of that 
 dreaded and inexorable crop. Earth s disturbing voices, 
 Grandma Spicer, herself, seldom reached him there. 
 
 Early, too, I saw him in the garden, leaning pensively 
 on his hoe a becalmed and striking figure in a ragged 
 snuff-colored coat, and a hat marked by numerous smaU 
 
CAPJS COD FOLKS. 339 
 
 orifices, through which, here and there, strands from his 
 silvery fringe of hair strayed and waved in the breezes. 
 
 It was Grandma and Grandpa Spicer s custom at the 
 first approach of spring to detach themselves from Aba- 
 gail s household, and to form a separate and complete 
 establishment of their own in the sunny kitchen, away out 
 at the end of the Ark. I was still, nominally, Abagail s 
 boarder and sat at the table with her and the little Spicers ; 
 but the impulses of my heart were ever guiding my 
 feet to that other dear resort, where doors and hearts 
 seemed always open to receive me, and an inexpressible 
 warmth and light and comfort pervaded the atmosphere. 
 
 It was early in March, when, returning from school one 
 day at the noon-tide intermission, I found Grandma stand 
 ing without the Ark, singularly occupied. The sun was 
 shining on her uncovered head, and the tranquil glow on 
 her face was clearly the exponent of no fictitious happiness. 
 In her apron she had a quantity of empty egg shells, so 
 carefully drained of their contents as to present an almost 
 perfect external appearance, and these she was arranging 
 on the twigs of a large bush that grew just outside the 
 window. 
 
 I was glad, afterwards, that I intruded then no skepti 
 cal questions as to her purpose, for, as I stood and looked 
 at her, her action gradually lost for me the tinge of 
 eccentricity, with which it had at first seemed imbued. 
 I realized that there was something grander than reason, 
 more exalted than philosophy. 
 
 "I suppose you ve heerd about egg plants, teacher," 
 said she, at length, turning to me, while the sun in her 
 face broke up into scintillant beams that penetrated my 
 being, and quickened my very soul. " This ere old bush 
 
230 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 ain t bore nothln for years, and it looked so bare and 
 sorrerful, somehow, standin out here all alone, and 
 everything else a kinder wakin up in the spring, I thought 
 I d try to sorter liven it up a little;" and she resumed 
 her placid occupation. 
 
 " Blessed Grandma," I could only murmur, as I turned 
 to enter the Ark, " inspired, delightful soul ! " 
 
 It was in March that the Wallencamp sun-bonnets 
 came forth, all in a single day, a curious and startling 
 pageant. The Modoc, who had gone bare-headed 
 through the winter, assumed hers as a turban of im 
 pressive altitude, while the diminutive Carietta and the 
 infant Sophronia appeared but as vagrant telescopes on 
 insufficient pegs. 
 
 In March, the " pipers " lifted up their homesick notes 
 at night-fall, in the meadows. On the last day of that 
 month, I found arbutus in bloom under the leaves in the 
 cedar woods. 
 
 Scarcely had the first faint signs of herbage appeared 
 on the earth ere the Wallencamp cows and horses were 
 given over exclusively to the guardianship of nature, and 
 to wander whithersoever they would, for the Wallencamp 
 fences had ceased to present themselves as obstacles in 
 the way. Indeed, some portions of them had been 
 utterly obliterated ; and this was easily traced to a habit 
 prevalent among the Wallencampers of resorting to them 
 for fuel when, on some winter night, other resources 
 were found to be low. 
 
 Other portions of them were decayed, or blown over 
 in the wind, so that there was just enough left to sit on 
 for private soliloquy, or social debate, and to give a pic 
 turesque charm to the landscape; yet, it was a fact 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 231 
 
 which I found worthy of notice, that, in going from one 
 place to another, no true Wallencamper ever walked 
 over a broken-down part of the fence, or went through 
 a gap in the fence ; he always selected an upright part of 
 the fence to climb over, even going a little out of the 
 way, if necessary, to effect this purpose. 
 
 The Wallencampers were staunch on the matter of in 
 dividual rights ; they turned each his own horse and cow 
 into his own door yard. Animated, doubtless, by some 
 thing of the same principle, those attenuated animals 
 having made an impartial detour of the premises, congre 
 gated, as of one accord, along the highway, especially in 
 that part of the lane between the Ark and the school- 
 house. 
 
 I made my way through these new perils from day to 
 day, in safety, until the deepening green of the hills and 
 fields called the herd away to wider pastures. 
 
 Dr. Abernethy, however, remained behind. Dr. Aber- 
 nethy as he was termed by the Wallencampers was a 
 horse of peculiar and distinguished parts. Among his 
 other eccentric gifts, he had a harmless habit of chasing 
 beings of a superior race. In what manner this propen 
 sity had first manifested itself, I do not know, but it had 
 been eagerly seized upon as ground for further develop 
 ment by the juvenile element of Wallen camp, and espe 
 cially by the Modoc, under whose lively tuition the animal 
 had reached an almost strategic ability in the art. 
 
 Dr. Abernethy was truly of the mildest disposition im 
 aginable. He had never been known to kick. He had 
 never even been known to open his mouth and snap at a 
 fly, but the expression of his countenance, if it might be 
 so called, when he was on the chase, was vicious and de- 
 
332 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 termined in the extreme, and by no means betrayed the 
 purely facetious nature of his intentions. During school 
 hours he seldom wandered from the immediate vicinity of 
 the school- house, where he appeared to be waiting for the 
 children to come out to play. Often have I looked up 
 to see him gazing in at the windows with a gleam of evil 
 expectancy in his melancholy dun brown eye. 
 
 With the joyful advent of the Spring came, also, 
 Tommy s tame owl and " Happy Moses." Tommy s owl 
 emerged from his winter quarters, and took up his daily 
 post of observation on the fence on the shady side of the 
 school-house. He was blind in one eye, which eye was 
 always open, the other was always closed. Yet with that 
 one glassy, unblinking orb, Tommy s owl seemed to me, 
 as I lifted my eyes to the window, to be reviewing the 
 past with an indifference, as calm and all embracing as 
 that with which he sent his inexorable gaze into the future, 
 and to take in me and the passing events of the school 
 room as a mere speck in his kaleidoscopic vision of the 
 ages. 
 
 What was the winter s thraldom from which Happy 
 Moses had escaped, I never learned. He was a broad 
 shouldered fellow, six feet in height, with a beard like flax, 
 and a sunny, ingenuous countenance. What term should 
 have been applied to his eccentricities in politer circles I 
 cannot say, but in Wallencamp, he was artlessly desig 
 nated as " the fool." Whether it was on this account, that 
 with a certain rashness of perception peculiar to theWa- 
 Jlencampers, they always prefixed the adjective " happy " 
 to his name, or merely on account of the transparent 
 sunniness of his disposition, I cannot say, either. 
 
 Happy Moses played with the children. He re- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 333 
 
 g; rded me, as one of the class of those who presume to 
 t( ach, with mingled scorn and aversion. When I went to 
 tl e door to blow the children in from their play, he in- 
 v tfiablv turned his back upon me, cocked his hat on the 
 side of his head, and walked away with an air that was 
 p ilpably reckless, defiant and jaunty. 
 
 When he reappeared, it was usually with his knitting- 
 work, to which lie devoted himself in a desultory way, 
 lecliningon the school-house steps. But sometimes he 
 jat on the fence with the owl, and then it was noticeable 
 ihat while the gaze of the one was transient and silly, the 
 gaze of the other seemed to grow the more unutterably 
 searching and profound. So, at last, the new term was 
 fairly established with these three Dr. Abernethy, 
 Happy Moses and the owl. 
 
 Hulled corn and beans had now become but as a 
 dream of the past in Wallencamp, and for a brief season 
 before the accession of lobsters, life was mainly supported 
 on winter-green-berries, or box-berries, as they were 
 called. These grew in large quantities at "Black 
 Ground " a section of the woods which had been burned 
 over. Daily I met happy groups of Wallencampers, 
 with baskets and pails in their hands, going "boxberry 
 plummin. " 
 
 We had boxberry bread, boxberry stews and pies, and 
 one day, I caught a glimpse of Grandma, in her part of 
 the Ark, frying boxberry griddle-cakes. 
 
 Grandpa, when I met him, at this time, wore an air of 
 deep dejection ; yet he bore his woes in silence, doubtless 
 avoiding any concession that should suggest the need of 
 another clarification of his system. Once, when nobody 
 was looking, he cautiously withdrew a handful of scraped 
 
234 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 birch bark, from his pocket and gave it to me, remarking 
 that he thought it was " a little more bracin than them 
 tarnal woodsy plums." 
 
 Next in the order of events, as the Modoc stood in her 
 place in the reading class and slowly enunciated each 
 separate syllable of the lesson in a tone as remarkable 
 for its distinctness as it was for a total lack of meaning 
 and modulation, from that side of her dress which 
 had been sagging most heavily, something fell with a 
 crash to the floor. It was a boiled lobster of anomalous 
 proportions. The pocket had given way at last under its 
 overpowering burden, and now appeared ignominously 
 upborne on the claws of its former prisoner. The Modoc 
 seized the crustacean with glittering defiance in her eyes, 
 and at recess, I saw that turbaned Amazon devouring 
 it, with a group of wishful and admiring faces gathered 
 round. The boys were out in the bay "setting pots" 
 and "trolling for bait." Soon, not a child atWallen- 
 camp was lobsterless. I discovered two under the 
 infant Sophronia s desk one morning, and afterwards 
 kept a sharp eye in that direction. Sophronia s conduct 
 throughout the session was in an unusual degree ex 
 emplary. I detected no guilty blush on her counte 
 nance, I heard not the crackling of a claw, but when 
 she went out, I observed that she took no lobsters with 
 her. 
 
 Investigating the place where she had been sitting, 
 I found a wild confusion of claws and shells, as carefully 
 denuded of meat as though they had been turned inside 
 out for that purpose. 
 
 What was my surprise and mortification to find a like 
 collection at nearly every seat in the school-room, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 235 
 
 and all the while my flock had seemed unusually silent 
 and attentive, such proficiency had those children ac 
 quired in the art of dissecting lobsters. 
 
 I saw how many they devoured day by day, and how 
 much water they drank, and I fancied that they them 
 selves grew to partake more and more of the form and 
 character of marine animals. I believed that they could 
 have existed equally well crawling at the bottom of the 
 deep, or swimming on its surface. 
 
 We had lobsters, too, at the Ark. For the first day or 
 two of this dispensation, Grandpa s face perceptibly 
 brightened. At the end of two weeks it was longer than 
 ever before. 
 
 He came over from his potato patch, I remember, and 
 leaned on the fence, as I was going by to school. 
 
 " It s be n a mild winter on the Cape, teacher," he 
 observed, studying the heavens with an air of utter ab 
 straction. Then his glance fell as it were inadvertently in 
 the direction of the house, and he immediately continued 
 with a peculiar spark of animation kindling in his eye, 
 " I ve et so many o them tarnal critturs, teacher, 
 that I swon if I don t feel like a tarnal, long fingered, 
 sprawl in shell-fish, myself! But it s comin nigh time 
 for ale-whops. They re very good, teacher, ale-whops 
 are very good, though they re bony as the they re 
 tarnal bony, teacher. They re what we call herrins in 
 the winter." 
 
 Grandpa then laughed a little, and showed his teeth. 
 
 " I was goin* to tell ye, Bachelder Rae, here," he went 
 on, " he was a askin* Captain Sartell what kind o fish 
 them was that it s recorded in the Scriptures to a fed the 
 multitude, and then took up so many baskets full o 
 
236 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 leavin s, and the Captain told him that as to exactly 
 what manner of fish them was, he hadn t sufficient ac 
 quaintance with the book of Jonah to say, but, as near 
 as he could calk late, he reckoned they was ale-whops. 
 
 "And the Bachelder told him that it seemed to .him, he 
 was right, and had solved a mystery, for it stood to reason 
 that there wa n t no other fish but an ale-whop, that they 
 could feed five thousand folks out of seven little ones and 
 then take up twelve bushel baskets full of bones ! 
 
 "And the Captain was pleased, and kind o half owned 
 up that he had n t felt no ways sure as to his surmise to 
 begin with, but he said when the question was put to 
 him, he did n t think no man ought to hesitate to come 
 down strong on a doctrinal p int. 
 
 Wall, as I was a sayin , teacher," concluded Grandpa 
 his teeth still skinned and gleaming, "it s be n a mild 
 winter on the Cape." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 RESCUED BY THE CRADLEBOW 
 
 ]HE ship in which the Cradlebow expected to 
 take flight was to sail from New Bedford on 
 the twentieth of June. Meantime, having ab 
 jured my friendly relations with Ethel, and missing the 
 quiet sustenance hitherto supplied my vanity in the girl s 
 thoughtful devotion, 1 found a measure of relief for my 
 wounded spirit in the companionship of this other 
 my boyish and ardent ex-pupil. 
 
 Many times, after my last interview with Ethel, had I 
 regretted that I did not leave Wallencamp at the close of 
 the first term. The school grew continually more irk 
 some to me. I was not so strong as when I had first un 
 dertaken it, and no longer overlooked the discomforts of 
 my situation in the delight I had then experienced in 
 its novelty. Often I longed to get away from it all, to rid 
 myself abruptly of the perplexities and distasteful duties 
 which bound me, and yet, all the while, there was a truer 
 impulse, a deeper longing within me, to stay. Had I not 
 been, all my life so far, forsaking my unfinished tasks, 
 
4 
 238 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 quitting an object as soon as it seemed any the less at 
 tractive. I willed to stay, and labored, still blindly, under 
 the conviction that my regenerating work among the Wa- 
 llencampers (not theirs in me ; ah, no !) was not yet 
 accomplished. 
 
 Toward Ethel, I had not softened. I was bitterly dis 
 appointed in her. She had been the formless, pliable 
 clay, on which I had purposed to prove my pet theories 
 for development and culture. I had taken her as a per 
 fectly fresh and untainted being, naively unconscious, 
 even of the elements, either good or bad, of which her 
 own nature was composed, waiting only for the hand of a 
 wise and skillful modeller, like myself, to bring her up to 
 the highest condition of manners and morals. 
 
 This elegant superstructure, a purely mental product 
 of my own, had fallen away, revealing the erring, pas 
 sionate nature beneath. But, deeply as I mourned the 
 fall of my idol, I felt still more keenly a sense of personal 
 injury, because the inner structure on which I had been 
 building, had not spoken out and said, " I shall contami 
 nate you. I am not fit for the touch of your fine hands." 
 
 Clearly there could no ^longer be any sympathy between 
 Ethel and me. I avoided any occasion for private inter 
 view with the girl. Meeting her casually in the lane, or 
 at the neighbors houses, I acknowledged her presence 
 with a nod or a smile, colder, I knew, than as if I had 
 ignored her utterly. 
 
 She understood ; she was quiet and unobtrusive. She 
 made no attempt to break down the wall thus established 
 between us. And I was determined, on the whole, to be 
 more than just with Ethel. I would be kind to her in 
 her disgrace. I would palliate her weakness as far 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 239 
 
 as I could consistently with a pure and high standard of 
 action. I even congratulated myself on the magnanimity 
 of my intentions, except when I met the clear, sad gaze 
 of those dispassionate eyes. Then I experienced an un 
 accountable sensation, as though I had received a blow 
 inwardly, that staggered me, for an instant, in my fine con 
 ceptions of honor, and set my conclusions out of order. 
 
 The Wallencampers were quick to note the estrange 
 ment between us, and affirmed that " Eth was mad, and 
 wouldn t speak to Teacher, along o Teacher s goin with 
 Eth s beau." 
 
 This gratuitous solution of the mystery was not evolved 
 in my presence. Still I knew, that all through those 
 lonely, suffering days, it was often repeated to Ethel ; that 
 those who had borne the girl any grudge, or deemed that 
 she was taking airs above them, took pains, now, that 
 the taunt should reach her ears ; and even the children, 
 who had always loved her, uttered it before her with 
 childish thoughtlessness. 
 
 But, for the Cradlebow ; his bright dream of seeking 
 his fortune over wide seas and in distant lands, his dread- 
 less enthusiasm in the belief that he should find so much 
 waiting for him in that unsounded world, his determina 
 tion, above all, to acquit himself truthfully and bravely 
 all these made him, to my mind, ever an object of more 
 inspiring and romantic interest. 
 
 He seemed, somehow, to have divested himself entirely 
 of the old, heedless irresolution. His speech expressed 
 little of doubt or hesitancy. It was full of a bold, bright 
 affirmation ; and his step, in these days, had none of the 
 ordinary slow, smiling, philosophical Wallencamp shuffle. 
 He brought to my weariness and dejection, such an at- 
 
240 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 mosphere of vigorous, tireless life ; he was so cor fident, 
 helpful, unselfish ; I was so faithless and dishe irtened 
 a burden-bearer, that I grew almost unconsciously to 
 find for myself a certain rest in his strength, which, what 
 ever high and heroic qualities it may have lacked, devel 
 oped, at least, rare resources of patience, constancy, and 
 forbearance. 
 
 He did not say. "You have changed your mind; 
 you will wait for me, teacher, till I come back from over 
 the seas?" but his eyes were eloquent. What if 1 was 
 moved, I had grown so weak, to answer their ques 
 tion, at last, with a half-involuntary admission in my 
 own 
 
 Ah, no ! I assured myself that my attitude towards 
 the Cradlebow was sisterly sisterly, merely although 
 I might have reflected that the yearnings of that amiable 
 affection had never, hitherto, in the ordinary walks of life, 
 constrained me to hem so many as a dozen pocket-hand 
 kerchiefs for my brothers, which irksome task I cheerfully 
 performed as a surprise for the sailor boy, not to speak of 
 a pair of scarlet hose which I had already begun to knit, 
 under Grandma s tuition. 
 
 And now the life in Wallencamp seemed never like 
 real life to me, even in the broadest daylight. It was 
 like a dream the sweet, warm, brightening of the land 
 scape ; the vines growing over the low, brown houses ; 
 the lazy, summer voices in the air ; the skies, too, were a 
 dream and Benney, with his ideally beautiful face and 
 his quaintness and ardor and umvorldliness, was a part 
 of the dream. I knew that when he went away, I should 
 follow him long in my thoughts, and wonder much con 
 cerning him ; that at home again with my own people, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 241 
 
 in gayer, different scenes, I should never hear the wind 
 blowing up strong at night, or see the winter settling 
 dpwn gloomily, or watch the opening of another spring 
 time, without following him afar and wondering, with a 
 vague, sorrowful, tender regret, what chance was befalling 
 him in the world. 
 
 Then an incident occurred which changed, not me, 
 perhaps, but the complexion of my dream. 
 
 One afternoon, at low tide, I wandered down to the 
 beach and ensconced myself comfortably, with book and 
 shawl, on the roof of Steeple Rock. The rock was an 
 old acquaintance of mine, by this time. 
 
 There was a group of children playing, a little farther 
 down the beach. My eyes turned ever to them from the 
 written page, following them with a languid pleasure, as 
 they revelled in the sand at the water s edge with their 
 bare, brown feet and legs. I had a sense of safety, too, 
 in their proximity. I knew that they generally returned 
 home passing by the place where I was. 
 
 It was warm on the rock. I was very tired. As I 
 lay there, I became only conscious, at length, that my 
 book was slipping out of my hand, and down the shelving 
 side of the rock, and I was too listless to attempt to re 
 claim it. I heard a little, dull thud on the ground below, 
 and a faint flutter of leaves and the long, white beach, 
 the ragged cliffs, the laughing children, had faded from 
 my sight. 
 
 Then I dreamed, indeed, in the ordinary sense of the 
 word ; I was back again in Newtown, in my own home, 
 in my own white bed, and I was very glad, looking at the 
 pictures on the wall, and out on the familiar hills. I 
 was glad to hear my sister playing for me down stairs, 
 
242 CAPE COD POLKS. 
 
 only it was the same tune always, and I wished that sha 
 would play more softly. 
 
 And the pillow was hard, but I did not mind that so 
 much, for my mother stood over me, looking very sweet 
 and grave, and she said : " Why did n t you tell us that 
 the pillow was hard ? " 
 
 My father was there, too, and repeated the same ques 
 tion, and my brothers, they all kept saying: "Why 
 did n t you tell us that the pillow was hard ? " and seemed 
 to be pitying me and admiring me at the same time 
 until John Cable came in, friend of the old Ncwtown 
 days, and his face was hard and stern. 
 
 "Why did n t you tell me the pillow was hard?" he 
 said : " Now, I can t wake you ! Don t you see, I can t 
 wake you, now?" and he shook his head and would 
 not look at me. So they took him out of the room, and 
 went on pitying and admiring me, but my sister kept 
 playing louder and louder, and it troubled me so that I 
 could not rest. Then I heard a voice, that was not 
 in my dream, calling to me in a sharp, clear, cheering 
 tone, " Teacher ! Teacher ! " and I looked up to see 
 Benney coming towards me in a boat, his face aglow 
 with excitement. 
 
 This first before I realized that I had fallen asleep 
 on the rock, and that what I had dreamed was my sister, 
 playing, was the sound of the tide coming in, and that I 
 was already sprinkled from head to foot with the spray. 
 The Cradlebow continued calling to me cheerily, and 
 would not give me time to consider the terrors of the sit 
 uation then, nor afterwards, when I strove, in my half- 
 stunned condition of mind, to weigh and appreciate the 
 peril from which I had been rescued. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 143 
 
 The children had wandered a mile or more along the 
 beach and had gone home by another road. It was not 
 yet dark. No alarm had been occasioned in Wallen- 
 camp as to my absence, but the Cradlebow, knowing 
 that I had gone in the direction of the beach, had been 
 moved to search for me, and had discovered me on the 
 rock, where, in a few moments more, I should have 
 waked to find myself at the mercy of the waves. 
 
 My deliverer laughed reassuringly, sending the boat 
 leaping upon the shore, holding out his hand to me, as 
 though this were merely an every-day occurrence, the 
 close of some ordinary excursion, but, to me, life had 
 suddenly grown significant. 
 
 The strong warm hand which clasped mine, weak and 
 trembling, as I stepped from the boat, I must recognize 
 henceforth, I knew, as the link between me and the 
 living world. 
 
 For several days afterwards, I considered the matter of 
 my relation to the Cradlebow in a new and serious light, 
 especially in the light of present gratitude, with a sense of 
 life-long obligation, but the Cradlebow was too generous 
 and noble to recognize the obligation, or take advantage 
 of the gratitude. He loved me, I knew. He had 
 watched for me. He had saved my life. He should 
 know, I resolved, that if he wished it still, I would wait 
 for him. 
 
 And the idea was not foreign to my heart, but it 
 grew, at last, too light of wing, and disposed to take up 
 permanent abode in the realm of fancy. A poor, hand 
 some young lover, seeking his fortune at the ends of the 
 earth, and the future ah, it did send a little stab to my 
 conscience, to think that the uncertainty of that lover s 
 
S44 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 future should so have heightened, to my mind, the 
 romance of the picture. However, meeting him in the 
 lane one evening, as I was returning from one of my 
 parochial calls it was just at dusk, I remember, and we 
 stood under the balm-of-Gilead tree, in front of Emily s 
 gate I said very gravely and with none of that em 
 barrassment which the occasion might seem to have 
 warranted : 
 
 " Benney, although I seem to myself much older than 
 you, we are really, I suppose, of about the same age. I 
 have known very happy attachments where inconsistencies 
 of birth, habit, education were far greater, perhaps, than 
 with us. I have made up my mind that, if you still 
 desire it, I will wait for you." 
 
 "Wait for me, teacher!" exclaimed the Cradlebow, 
 opening his eyes with a solemn, wide surprise, " Why, of 
 course ! " 
 
 " Why, of course ? " I questioned faintly, not knowing 
 whether to smile at being thus abruptly disarmed, or to 
 feel the least little bit piqued at the youth s unconscious 
 audacity. 
 
 "What else should two people do who love each 
 other?" There was nothing either of doubt or arraign 
 ment in the Cradlebow s serious eyes. "Besides," 
 he continued, "I ve known it all along. See here, 
 teacher ! " and he took from his pocket, and carefully un 
 folded, a sheet of paper, against the background of which 
 there lay revealed a dainty star fish, most curiously twisted 
 about with some rare and beautiful sea vine. 
 
 " You wont find that vine washed up on this beach 
 every day," he said, eagerly. " When I showed it to 
 Granny If Heaven itself had spoken, boy/ says she, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 245 
 
 I should be no surer it was a fair voyage waiting you than 
 I be now, though I was thinking of something besides 
 the voyage, teacher, but it s all the same, it means good 
 luck ; and would n t you like to keep it for us ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ! " I answered, laughingly refusing the delicate 
 talisman. " I should blast its good intentions. I should 
 stifle it with my cold unbelief." 
 
 The Cradlebow tenderly replaced his treasure, and 
 laughed with me good naturedly. 
 
 "It isn t your fault, teacher," said he, "that you 
 were n t better brought up. If you d always lived with 
 our people, down here, you d be more believing." 
 
 At all events, my severe and protracted mental exer 
 tions had proved quite unnecessary, I thought, although 
 after this there was, in some respects, a tacitly admitted 
 change in our converse with each other. A sort of vague 
 venturesome house building for the future, in which the 
 Cradlebow seemed to wish that I would oftener show an 
 interest in the feminine details within doors, while I 
 had a grand and absorbing predilection for constructing 
 imaginary grades and turrets and mediaeval door-posts, 
 receiving any thoughtful suggestions as to tin kettles and 
 pantry shelves with gracious and smiling forbearance. 
 
 The Cradlebow seemed particularly pleased, when 
 he came into the Ark of an evening, if I chanced to be 
 knitting on the scarlet stockings. I did have a new and 
 not unpleasant sense of housewifely dignity while engaged 
 at this task, and undoubtedly assumed an air calculated to 
 serve as an impressive exponent to my emotion. The 
 poor scarlet stockings lengthened, meanwhile, but it was a 
 disheartening and almost imperceptible growth. Where 
 the article should have been most voluminous, at the calf 
 
246 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 of the leg, it grew, in spite of me, more alarmingly narrow 
 at every round. This was after I had graduated from 
 under Grandma Spicer s tuition, and assumed my own 
 responsibility in the matter, so that I disdained to appeal 
 to her for assistance hi the dilemma, but thoughtfully 
 devised means of my own for widening the stocking. 
 
 " I 11 tell ye what it is, teacher," said Grandpa, who 
 had been regarding me with that wild look which some 
 times visited the old man s face when a problem seemed 
 well nigh insoluble, " I m afeerd, teacher, I m afeerd 
 that that ere stockin ain t a goin to fit nobody 1 I U 
 tell ye what it makes me think on. It make me think 
 o one o these ere accordians that ye open and shet 
 I m afeerd, teacher, that it ain t a go n to fit ! " 
 
 "Thar! sh 1 sh ! pa," said Grandma, with all the 
 unction of holy disapproval j but, for once, my ever dear 
 friend and champion was compelled to turn her back 
 upon the scene. 
 
 In this position, she exclaimed in a low, broken tone of 
 voice, " There may be legs, pa, as we don t know on I " 
 
 Grandpa was curiously aroused. 
 
 " I tell ye, I Ve traveled to the four quarters of the 
 arth, ma," said he, " and set eyes on the tarnalest critters 
 under God s canopy, but I never see anybody yit that 
 ud fit into that ere. Besides," he added, knowingly, 
 in a milder tone, "I reckin that ere stockin s meant 
 for somebody nearer hum, and a pretty straight-legged 
 fellow, too." 
 
 I was enabled to judge something still farther of the 
 speculations waking in the Cradlebow brain, when, 
 having to keep Henry G. after school, one night, as 
 a means of discipline, he bawled out : 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. J47 
 
 "Ye don t keep Simmy B. after school no more I and 
 why not?" continued the aggrieved infant, at the same 
 time framing for himself an answer of malicious 
 significance: "Oh, cause he s Ben Cradlebow s 
 brother 1" 
 
 Social converse was at its high tide, now, inWallen- 
 camp among the birds in the trees and the fowls in the 
 door-yards, and quite as naturally and harmlessly so, for 
 the most part, I think, among the beings of a superior 
 order. They had little other recreation. 
 
 The bonfire had marked the close of the gay epoch in 
 Wallcncamp. It was too warm now, for the livelier 
 recreations of the winter. Religious interest, especially, 
 was at a low ebb. At the evening prayer meetings, the 
 number of worshippers appeared but as a handful 
 compared with the number of the unconcerned who lin 
 gered outside in the pleasant moonlight. t Conspicuous 
 among these latter, replacing the fervid debates of the 
 winter with a calm philosophy befitting a warmer season, 
 were Captain Sartell and Bachelor Rae. 
 
 The old songs held the same charm for them all, how 
 ever. They sang them ever with pathos in their voices 
 and tears in their eyes. 
 
 The little unpremeditated chats by gate and road-side, 
 the neighborly " droppings-in," grew more and more 
 frequent. 
 
 But when poor Ethel was taken up on the tide of 
 social wonder and debate, and I heard whisperings con 
 cerning her and knew that an evil suspicion had taken 
 hold of the mind of the little community and when finally, 
 Emily said to me, " I guess you done about right shirking 
 off Eth, teacher. I guess she ain t no better than she 
 
248 
 
 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 ought to be," in spite of what I felt to be my own 
 unblemished conscience in the matter and the justice 
 of the retribution which was overtaking Ethel, I went 
 often to my little room and cried bitterly for her, as well 
 as for myself 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ELIOT TURNER IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 [RS. Ithamer Spicer grew kind. At first, es 
 pecially while the fisherman was in Wallencamp, 
 her demeanor towards me had been marked 
 by a decided touch of coldness and mistrust. She sus 
 pected me, I thought, of trifling with the Cradlebow ; 
 now, she invariably deferred to me as a person worthy of 
 all honor and consideration of congratulation even, in 
 an eminent degree. 
 
 She assumed to be on the most frank and confiding 
 terms with me. She found a thousand little ways for 
 promoting my physical comfort that had never occurred to 
 her before. 
 
 So I was the more surprised, when after school, one 
 Friday afternoon, as I was sitting in my room, this same 
 Abagail suddenly appeared before me with her eyes 
 glittering, her lips compressed, and her complexion of 
 that positive green hue which it always wore when she was 
 in a high passion. 
 
 " There s a gentleman down stairs, waiting to see you, 
 teacher," she said, with a peculiarly dark inflection on the 
 
250 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 word gentleman. " Oh, he s got on an awful interesting 
 look ! " snapped out Abagail, with a spiteful little laugh, 
 " and a suit of light clothes, and a new spring overcoat, 
 and he looked at me as though I was a pane of window 
 glass, and he says, Oh ah yes Is Miss Hunger- 
 ford in ? I wonder if he s come back to make his fare 
 well calls " with another unpleasant laugh. " One thing 
 I can tell him, he d better steer clear of George Olver ! " 
 
 Was ever a zealous young devotee, I pondered, more 
 perplexed ! 
 
 " Come this way, please," I said; holding out my hand 
 to Abagail , and leaning back in my chair with unaffected 
 weariness, at least, " Is Mr. Turner down stairs ? " 
 
 They call him that, I believe," said Abagail, sen- 
 tentiously, " things don t always get their right names 
 hi this world." 
 
 "Well, you may tell him," I said, "that I can t see 
 him," 
 
 Abagail s countenance changed wonderfully in an 
 instant. She gave me a bright look, and without waiting 
 for another word, ran down the stairs. 
 
 When she came back, her tongue ran on glibly : 
 
 " I told him," said she, " that you could n t see him, 
 and he kept on in that window-glass way of looking, and 
 his head as high as ever, and he took his hat and * I m 
 very sorry, he says, that Miss Hungerford is indisposed, 
 and I hope I shall have an opportunity of seeing her 
 this evening. 
 
 "He said he came to-day, and was going away to 
 morrow morning, and he had something of importance 
 to communicate, and I knew he expected I d go up and 
 see you again about it, but I didn t So he said he d 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 251 
 
 call again this evening or to-morrow morning, just which 
 d be most agreeable, and expected I d budge then, sure, 
 but I didn t show any signs of it ; and I told him rightly, 
 I guessed one time would be about as agreeable as an 
 other; and I suppose he thought he wouldn t show mad 
 before such common bred folks. He smiled that window- 
 glass looking smile of his, and says, Ah, thank you ; 
 now I won t detain you any longer, Mrs. Spicer ; and 
 out he went. 
 
 "I suppose he s come down to smooth everything 
 over, and have it hushed up with Eth and her folks. 
 Well, money 11 do a good deal for a man, but it would n t 
 stand him much if he got into George Giver s hands. 
 However, teacher," concluded Abagail, in a sprightly 
 tone, "give the Devil his due. It s better n as if he d 
 run off and never showed his head again ; and I don t 
 suppose he 11 get much satisfaction out of you, if you do 
 see him, teacher. It s better to trust honest folks than 
 rogues, and nobody knows that better than the rogues 
 themselves." 
 
 I knew that this last clause was not designed as a per 
 sonal thrust by Abagail, yet I could not help musing a 
 little over it, smilingly, after she had gone. The fiction, 
 of which I was living a part, in .Wallencamp, was taking 
 on, it seemed to me, a tinge even of the tragic perplex 
 ities were deepening. I was becoming, more than ever, 
 the suffering though exalted heroine of a romance. 
 
 I rose, and dressed myself before the glass, I remem 
 ber, with particular care. I did not know why I should 
 dread or avoid seeing the fisherman in the evening, since 
 the part I had to sustain in the interview was so distinctly 
 calm, dispassionate and spiritually remote. At the same 
 
253 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 time, I wished that my cheeks had not grown so pale and 
 my eyes so dark-rimmed and hollow. They bespoke 
 the interesting part I had to play in the world s tragedy, 
 but were not, otherwise, so becoming as I could have 
 wished. 
 
 Earlier, the fisherman had sent me books from Provi 
 dence. I would rather, I thought, that he should take 
 them back again. I remembered that I had left one of 
 them in my desk at the school-house, and put on my hat 
 to go after it. 
 
 " Going out to spend the evening, teacher? " said Ab- 
 agail, as I opened the door of the Ark, giving me at the 
 same time a gay and knowing look. 
 
 No," I said, gravely tolerant of the little woman s 
 surveillance, " I m only going to the school-house for a 
 book that I want. I shall be back in a few moments." 
 
 It was hardly dusk then. 
 
 Aunt Patty, as usual after school on Friday, had swept 
 the room and put down the dark and dingy paper cur 
 tains. 
 
 I opened the door and stood an instant looking into 
 the gloom before entering. Then I saw that there was 
 some one sitting in my chair a man with his head bent 
 forward and buried in his arms, which were folded on the 
 desk. 
 
 It was Mr. Turner, and before I had time to retreat, 
 he lifted his head and saw me standing in the door. 
 
 I had expected that the first revelation of that glance 
 would contain something of grief, wretchedness, remorse. 
 The fisherman s countenance wore a shadow of annoy 
 ance, but it was expressive, above all, of a childish petul 
 ance and irritation. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 253 
 
 u Oh ! " he exclaimed, speaking with the utmost ab 
 ruptness, and rising from the chair, " if you had only left 
 this place at the end of the first term, it would have 
 saved the whole of this abominable misadventure ! " 
 
 " I don t think I understand you," I said, freezing now, 
 in sober earnest. 
 
 " Because in your eyes only, it is a misadventure, " he 
 continued rapidly, with growing excitement. " You 
 came to this miserable hole this Wallencamp re 
 solved to view everything in a new light the light of 
 unselfish devotion to great ends, and exalted aspiration, 
 and ideal perfection, and all that. Well, how has the 
 wretched, giggling, conniving little community shown out 
 in that light ? I suppose there s one that larking 
 Cradlebow who has stood the test and come out 
 creditably, by reason of an uncommonly artistic shock of 
 hair and a Raphaelite countenance. As for me, taken 
 in the ordinary sense, I m no worse than a thousand 
 others, but I say that it was a decidedly unfortunate light 
 to put me in It was a decidedly unfair light ! " 
 
 "I have no wish to judge you in any light," I said, and 
 explaining briefly my errand to the school-house, I ex 
 pressed regret at having interrupted the fisherman s 
 meditations, and turned to go. 
 
 " Miss Hungerford ! " he exclaimed, with a gesture 
 of whimsical force and impatience, " it s my last chance 
 for an explanation. Don t, for God s sake, cut it short 
 at this point. You might know you might know, that 
 I m not a bad fellow at heart. But you will never see 
 the best side of me there s fate in it. I never wanted 
 to seem specially contrite but I must set myself jumping 
 like a Jack-in-the-box for your infernally cold amusement 1 
 
254 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 I had an explanation at my tongue s end. D n it 1 I 
 don t remember a word of it." 
 
 " I don t think it is necessary," I said. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " he continued in a deeply aggrieved, almost 
 a whining tone ; " nothing s necessary that would set me 
 out in a little better shape ! Anything 11 do for these 
 grovelling Wallencamp, but just as soon as it comes to 
 me, all the extenuating circumstances of my life that I 
 was left so early orphaned, sisterless, brotherless, my 
 nearest of kin a wicked, carousing old uncle ; taken to 
 see the world here, and to see the world there ; home 
 less, if ever one was homeless ; never trained to any cor 
 rect way of thinking, or settled manner of life, but just 
 to spend my money and aim at enjoying myself they 
 all amount to nothing in my case. 
 
 " Well, I used to come to Wallencamp just for that 
 same purpose to have a good time ; it was such a jolly, 
 wild place to let the Old Nick loose in ; and now it seems 
 that s to be taken for a man s natural level, and the best 
 that he s capable of! Then I met you. You would 
 voluntarily give up ease and luxury, for a time, for the 
 sake of an abstract idea whether misguided or not, I 
 will not say, the fact remains the same and I swear it 
 was a new revelation to me. It was strange and perverse 
 and it was deuced taking ! Then I tried to get you to 
 include me among the objects of your mission, to accept 
 me as a candidate for temporal leniency and final salva 
 tion, and you wouldn t. It s only the happy, ragged, 
 unconscious heathen that are looked out for in this 
 world ; the real ones don t get any sympathy." 
 
 The fisherman paused. 
 
 " I should be glad to give you the first lesson in the 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 255 
 
 code of salvation," I said "that the fate of souls is 
 not left to human hands." 
 
 " Oh, I Ve heard that formula somewhere before ! " ex 
 claimed the fisherman impatiently, with a little sneer in 
 his laugh. " Why don t you tell me that God will help 
 me? Perhaps you will even remember me in your 
 prayers, sometime." 
 
 At those last words an unbearable pang of self-con 
 viction and remorse shot through my heart. I, who had 
 not felt greatly the need of any supernatural aid, 
 but rather that I was able to manage my own affairs with 
 becoming discretion of what saving power and grace 
 could I speak to one who was weak enough to fall, and for 
 whom there was no help in himself? In the dark school 
 room I involuntarily lifted my hands to my face. When 
 I heard the fisherman s voice again, he had come a step 
 or two nearer to me down the aisle. 
 
 " Let me tell you what I was thinking about when you 
 came in," he said, in an altered tone. "Rather, how 
 I was allowing my imagination to run away with itself, for 
 my own particular delectation. I was imagining, when 
 you opened the door and stood revealed there in the 
 light, how you might come to me, indeed, as the angel of 
 some better life and hope, offering me a forgiveness 
 as full as it was unmerited." 
 
 " It is not I who have to forgive you," I repeated. 
 
 " It is you, if any one," replied the fisherman, quickly. 
 "I tell you, you feel that girl Ethel s fault ten times 
 more deeply than she feels it for herself. You should 
 never have come to this place. It was deucedly odd 
 and entertaining, but it was a step in the wrong di 
 rection. You put yourself in the place of these people 
 
236 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 and translate all their possible moods and tenses accord 
 ing to your own. It s a mistake. That girl, Ethel, 
 would stare in perfect bewilderment if she could know of 
 some of the thoughts and emotions you doubtless attribute 
 to her. She might even laugh at you for your pains." 
 
 " I do not believe you," I said, not angrily nor re 
 sentfully, as might have been earlier in our acquaint 
 ance, but with a painful, slow positiveness. " Perhaps 
 I was wrong in assuming the place I did in Wallencamp, 
 but it was not in the way you think. I don t know I 
 can t see the way myself, clearly always, but I believe 
 that what you have said is utterly false ! " 
 
 "At least," continued the fisherman, in the old 
 gay frivolous tone, which I heard now for the first time 
 during this conversation, " I can make her tenfold and 
 abundant reparation ah, you don t know I say you 
 don t understand these people. It s a disagreeable sub 
 ject ; let it go ! But I m very rich, you know," with an 
 easy laugh, and the air of a man only conscious at last, of 
 his good worldly fortune, and the exquisite fit of his 
 clothes. " Oh, I ve got no end of money. After all, 
 that s the chief thing in this world. If a fellow s or 
 dinarily clever and good natured, with a good rep 
 utation in town, what s a little row in the suburban 
 districts ! It s an awfully insignificant affair, anyway, it 
 seems to me. We may as well talk sense, and the plainer 
 the better. People don t employ lens for short sighted- 
 ness in that particular common sense, I mean. You 
 walk without seeing, Miss Hungerford, and you re bound 
 to get infernally cheated, in some shape. Why not me, 
 I say, as well as another ? " 
 Still, the fisherman s words roused no bitterness in me. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 257 
 
 
 
 His hardened recklessness of speech served rather to 
 strengthen me in the part I had to play of the un 
 approachably sublime. 
 
 " I can not consider that question," I said, with 
 my hand on the door. 
 
 He swept my face with a keen glance that had lost 
 none of its derisive quality. 
 
 " So it s true, then ! " he said. " The ultimatum has 
 been reached, at last, in the possessor of a pretty face 
 and a broken riddle ! and dreams for the restoration of 
 the race, are to end in a broken-down hovel by the 
 sea, in darning the Cradlebow s socks, and dressing the 
 clams for dinner, while the bucolic George Olver and 
 the versatile Noah, and all the rest of the awkward, 
 moon-gazing crew, take turns in sitting on the door step, 
 and dilating on the weather ! ravishing idyl ! but it lacks 
 substantiality. It lacks seriousness." 
 
 I heard that mocking laugh again without emotion, 
 except it might be for a faint, far off echo in my breast of 
 the fisherman s own scorn. Above all, I was weary, and 
 willing to make my escape. 
 
 " We can not help each other by standing here talk 
 ing," I said, and added a "good bye." 
 
 It was the last time, probably, that I should see the 
 fisherman s face ; but he refused the valediction with 
 a toss of the head. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " he said, " it is n t time for my obsequies. I 
 shall return to town for a few days or weeks only; 
 this detestable place has always thrown a spell over me. 
 I can t rid myself of it. Like the natives of Wallencamp, 
 I always drift back to it again." 
 
 It was growing dark. I found Abagail waiting for me 
 
258 
 
 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 in the lane. Somewhat piqued at the persistency of the 
 little woman s ministrations, I hiformed her briefly, that I 
 had found the fisherman in the school-house, and had 
 been conversing with him there ; but she put her hand in 
 my arm with an air of unshaken confidence. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 GEORGE OLVER S LOVE FOR ETHEL. 
 
 D like to see you alone a few minutes 
 teacher, if you please." 
 
 It was George Olver who spoke, in his 
 sturdy, resolute bass. The words hardly took on the 
 form of a suave request; they were uttered in too 
 earnest, grave, and intent a tone. 
 
 I had dismissed my school for the day. The roar of 
 the young lions just released from bondage had not died 
 away when George Olver entered the school-room, closed 
 the door behind him, and stood in a manly and self- 
 reliant attitude, his hat in his hand. 
 
 " No ma am," he said, in answer to some gesture of 
 mine, "I ll be much obleeged if you // set down in the 
 chair." 
 
 "There s times, teacher," he then went on, gravely 
 and steadily, " when ordinary friends, like you and me, 
 meetin each other in the road, or in a neighbor s house, 
 maybe, we say How d ye do? or It s a pleasant day/ 
 or the like o that, and all well and good. It s a fair un 
 derstanding and enough said twixt you and me; and 
 
260 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 then agin, there s times when the wind blows up rough, 
 as ye might say, and oncommon dark, and some harm a 
 befallin of us, when we git closter together and more a 
 dependin on each other, and then them old words ain t 
 o much account to us, but to speak out different what 
 need be without fear or shame." 
 
 " Yes," I said, much impressed by George Giver s 
 manner. He was held somewhat in awe among the 
 Wallencampers, and regarded generally as a "close- 
 mouthed" fellow. 
 
 "I hear," he resumed, "that El Turner has been 
 down this way agin. They say it was lucky for him I 
 wasn t to home that day ; maybe so. Ef he d a turned 
 up suddenly in my path I can t say I might a 
 trod on him. I never done anythin like that for the 
 fun on t. I d rather go round one any time than step 
 on t, but if I d a come on him so onexpected, I can t 
 say for what might a been the consequences. Wall, he 
 comes down here, and he goes to her with money ! Her, 
 that ain t used to all the devilish ways o the world, nor 
 as fine clo s as some, but that s got a lady s heart in her, 
 for all that, and she told him I know just how she said 
 it, in that quiet way she s had along lately that it was 
 the last thing he could do to hurt her but he d made a 
 mistake if he thought she could take that. 
 
 " So, then, as I Ve heered, he went to her father, a 
 fryin to make it appear, as nigh as I can make out, that 
 he d got suthin in the shape of a conscience that he 
 wanted to whiten over a little more to his own satisfac 
 tion afore he went away. 
 
 " Wall, Bede and his daughter used to be called about 
 one piece for temper, though I don t reckon that tern- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 261 
 
 per s lackin allays cause it don t show. There s them as 
 jest keeps the steam down a workin the whole machinery 
 patient and stiddy ; but Bede, he s allays a histin the 
 cover, and lettin on t out in one general bust, ana I 
 reckon that was what he did when he was a talkin with 
 the fisherman ; he histed up the cover and let off a good 
 deal of onnecessary steam, but he come to the right 
 point in the end ; that the fisherman had made a mistake 
 thar, too, and as near as I can make out this El 
 Turner was kind o took back and disappointed. He 
 had n t calkilated that the folks down here had any sech 
 feelin s as his sort o folks. 
 
 "Thar ain t any use in talkin about him. I feel hard 
 thar, I confess, but that can t help her none, now. What 
 I want is to help her. I tell ye, teacher," the strong 
 voice trembled slightly "there s been times when I ve 
 felt as though I Ve been a sinkin , as ye might say, and a 
 wantin to call out for help ! help ! like any weak, drown 
 ing fool, instead o swimmin above it strong, and helpin 
 them as was weaker than me. 
 
 " No shame for me to say, teacher, I Ve allays had it 
 in my mind that Ethel d marry me. It grew up with me. 
 I never thought o no other girl but she. Ye see she d 
 always knowed me, and it was more like a brother, she 
 said. She had n t thought o that. So, I says, I 11 bide 
 my time patient, but I believed she d turn to me. 
 
 "When El Turner began to hang around there, I 
 didn t feel exactly kindly towards him, I don t pretend. 
 The folks, they tried to set me on. It ud a been mighty 
 easy to a gone on ! I guess there ain t nobody as knows 
 us two ud deny I could handle four o such as him, but 
 a man has got to say, fa r play 1 fa r play ! and not put 
 
262 CAPS COD TOLXS. 
 
 himself in other folks light. Thinks I, if his intentions 
 are all squar and honorable and I had n t no reason, 
 then, to say they wa n t and them two take a fancy to 
 each other, why, it ain t no more than nateral 1 
 
 " She was handsome enough for a queen, and he had 
 different manners from us fellows down here, and purtier 
 ways o talkin and lookin at a girl, as though if she 
 didn t have him, it was goin to knock im straight, and 
 she d lived with such different folks, it made it vary inter- 
 estin* ; that was nateral. Thinks I, a man in my place 
 had ought to have sense enough to back out quiet. 
 
 " You know what he done, teacher. He took the best, 
 and when he got tired on t, he threw it away," the 
 brawny hand at George Giver s side was clinched so as 
 to appear almost colorless, yet there was little discom 
 posure in his voice " but cursin him ain t a goin to 
 help us now. When a thing that s allays been precious 
 to us has once fell, we can t never make it quite like it 
 was afore, but we can keep care on t patient, a waitin 
 God Almighty s time to make it whole. I know what 
 folks say. I know, but I don t keer. She ain t no less 
 precious to me, now, than she was afore, only it s more 
 for her, now, maybe, and less for myself. And she sees, 
 now. She does keer for me, now. Ay, I know what 
 they 11 say, but they don t know that girl as well as I do, 
 teacher. They ain t nothin would a wrung them words 
 from her ef they hadn t a be n true; no, not ef it had 
 been savin her life to say em. She does keer, now, but 
 she won t never take me now, she says, because it ud be 
 wrongin me, and I might a knowed what she d a said, 
 what it was nateral and noble for her to say. 
 
 "But," continued George Olver, with a flash of magnifi- 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. S63 
 
 cent fire in his eyes, and thrusting his arm out straight, 
 " what s right atween me and my God need n t be afeard 
 o no man s face ! I want to take that girl and keer for 
 her, and keep her from meddlin tongues. Let em say 
 what they choose to me ; they must be keerful what they 
 say afore her, that s all. 
 
 " I ve waited a good while. I could bide my time, 
 but not now, when she s heart broke and sufferin , and 
 nobody ter put out a hand to help her. There s be n a 
 look on her face, lately, that I don t like to see. It s 
 afore my eyes all the time, and it werries me night and 
 day as though she didn t hold herself o* no account 
 and might make away wi herself. 
 
 " Teacher, you Ve got a woman s heart, and you can 
 save that other woman ! It s a task that they needn t 
 nobody be ashamed on, for the Lord Jesus himself set 
 the example. I guess she thinks you Ve turned agin her, 
 too, but I knew that could n t be, for no friend ud leave 
 another when they was perishin , not even if they was 
 more to fault than she was ; and she was apt to mind ye 
 more than any one. I thought if you d go in and speak 
 to her as a woman could, and tell her she d got a right to 
 hope, and tell her her friends would not forsake her, 
 least of all would it be likely God would forsake her, and 
 tell her" 
 
 George Olver seemed both to be looking at me 
 and beyond me with his beautiful, brave eyes, " Tell her 
 thar s somebody that don t find any cause to be sorry for 
 havin loved her, but knows how she s been werrited, 
 and suffers along with her, and ud be more glad and 
 content than of anythin else in his heart this minute, to 
 protect her and keer for her as it s right yis. tell her 
 
264 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 as it s right that she should let him do, and if she asks 
 from whom that comes " George Olver smiled brightly, 
 with that far-seeing look still in his eyes "why, it s 
 no secret from whom it comes. Will you go, teacher ? " 
 
 "Yes," said I, with a vague sense of having caught a 
 glimpse of a hitherto unknown world, " I will go." 
 
 George Olver came forward, gave my hand a firm 
 grasp, and then turned resolutely and walked out. 
 
 Left to myself and my own thoughts, I dreaded more 
 and more the concession there would seem to be in my 
 seeking Ethel now, for the poor girl could hardly be ex 
 pected, I thought, to appreciate the magnanimity of such 
 an act. 
 
 I deferred going to see her until evening, and even 
 thought of writing a letter instead of going at all, signi 
 fying my willingness to take her back into my favor, in a 
 limited sort of way, and reinforcing her with a share of 
 that counsel and advice which she must have missed so 
 sadly of late, but I was conscious of the fact that I 
 should not thus be keeping my promise to George Olver. 
 
 After supper, the singers came in and wailed some 
 peculiarly touching songs about rescuing the fallen and 
 the erring. As Grandma Spicer was preparing to go on 
 an errand of mercy down the lane, I joined her, and 
 stopped at Bede Alden s door. 
 
 Aunt Patty, Ethel s mother, appeared in answer to my 
 knock. Her glances had fallen rather reproachfully on 
 me, of late. Seeing me now, she cast down her eyes, a 
 Steely expression gathering about her mouth. 
 
 " You ve come too late, teacher," said she, her voice 
 breaking suddenly into a sob, as she lifted her apron to 
 her eyes. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 2C5 
 
 In that instant it flashed through my mind, the fear 
 George Giver had expressed lest Ethel should make 
 away with herself. I fancied that I turned terribly pale. 
 
 "Come in, teacher!" Aunt Patty exclaimed, with a 
 quick motion of her hand, and she continued rapidly : 
 
 " Ethel went away this afternoon. She s gone to 
 Taunton. She did n t tell nobody but me. If you d a 
 come sooner, you might a kep her, teacher. She s 
 gone to Reeky Merideth s that works thar in the shops, 
 and Eth used to know her. She hires a room, and Eth 
 she s saved a little money cranberryin . She says she s 
 a goin to stay thar as long as it holds out, and maybe, 
 she says, * I can git work ; she says thar ain t nobody 
 here cares for her but me. And it s only a trouble to 
 you mother, she says, and, maybe, I shan t never come 
 back again. If you could a seen how she looked. 
 Oh, my God ! " As the poor woman held her hands to 
 her face, I saw the tears springing out between her fin 
 gers. " There s nobody knows how I feel this night ! 
 She wa n t a bad girl, my Ethel wa n t. She was de 
 ceived, but it ll make her bad, everybody turnin agin her 
 so and that Becky, she was sech a wild girl ! Oh, I m 
 afeard! I m afeard ! " 
 
 " But we 11 have Ethel back again, Mrs.Alden," I said, 
 intensely relieved, even at this state of things, "and, 
 more than that, we shall see her very happy yet. I will 
 write to her, myself, to-night." 
 
 " I don t know,"- Aunt Patty shook her head sadly 
 "she might think I d got you to do it. I seen she took 
 it to heart, you re turnin agin her so, and I did n t be 
 lieve you d a done it if you d known all. I wanted to 
 go up and see yer, for I knew you d soften, but no, she 
 
206 CAPE COD FOLKS, 
 
 would n t let me. She said she d never forgive me ef I 
 did. No ; she d think I d been a puttin ye up to it." 
 Aunt Patty dried her tears, helplessly. 
 
 " You ought to have come to me ! " I exclaimed witr 
 grave emphasis, "whether she wanted you to or not 1 " 
 
 "Perhaps I had, teacher/ said Aunt Patty meekly, 
 " but you could n t a gone agin her ef you d been in my 
 place. She wasn t vexed, teacher, but she was awful 
 set, and she looked so wore out ! I couldn t go agin 
 her." 
 
 " All the more reason," I continued, fortifying myself 
 with new confidence, " why you should have been firm 
 with her. She is not fit to go off by herself in that way. 
 She s a child ! a child ! She needs some one to tell her 
 what to do." 
 
 " I know that ; that s what worries me ! " cried Aunt 
 Patty, bursting into tears, "but what could I do, teacher? 
 what could I do ? " 
 
 " Well, never mind," I said, assuming with readiness 
 the attitude of the consoler, " we will have Ethel home 
 again in a very short time. I will write this evening, and 
 if she does not come, why, we shall have to go after her, 
 that sail!" 
 
 This last I was able to utter almost gaily, looking into 
 Aunt Patty s face. 
 
 The woman s poor, worn hand placed in mine, the look 
 of confidence upturned to me in her tearful eyes, her 
 readiness to forgive, to forget any resentment which she 
 might have cherished towards me, all touched me deeply 
 and strengthened me in a sincere determination to win 
 Ethel back. 
 
 " She made me promise I would n t let George Olver 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 367 
 
 know where she was, teacher," said Aunt Patty, breath 
 lessly, as I was going out of the door. " She had her 
 reasons ; we d ought to respec em some. I wouldn t be 
 deceiving her entirely." 
 
 On my way homeward, I reflected how altogether bur 
 densome it was to one half of humanity that the other 
 half was not better calculated to take care of itself, and 
 resolved that my letter to Ethel should be at once digni 
 fied, imperative, and kind. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 TEACHER HAS THE FEVER. DEATH OF LITTLE BESSIE. 
 
 |HERE were oppressive days in Wallencamp, 
 when no fresh winds were borne to us from the 
 ocean. The sun shone hot on the stunted 
 cedars. The tides crept in lazily. All one weary after 
 noon, in the hum and stir of the dusty school-room, little 
 Bessie Alden Captain Sartell s youngest, and his dar 
 ling sat stringing lilac blossoms together in a chain. 
 She was such a cunning edition of the big Captain. She 
 had the same strong Saxon physique in miniature, the 
 same clear pink and white complexion, eyes hardly more 
 limpidly blue than his, and hair that was sunniest flax, like 
 the ends of the Captain s beard. And how patient the 
 chubby little fingers were at their task. What small, 
 charmingly despairing sighs escaped the child when 
 some link fell out in the chain of purple flowers ! I 
 was struck with her air of weary, patient endeavor so 
 important it seemed so important tnat the chain should 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 269 
 
 be finished before school was out. And, at last, little 
 Bessie lifted it to wear upon her neck, and it broke and 
 fell in pieces on the floor. 
 
 Then there was a look of gentle dismay in the blue 
 eyes, a tear or two, and Bessie folded her arms on the 
 desk, her head sank slowly down on them, and she fell 
 asleep. 
 
 She was still sleeping when I dismissed the school. 
 The sound of the others going out did not wake her ; the 
 Phenomenon, disappearing through the door, pointed a 
 finger at her, his face full of scornful merriment so in 
 credible was it to him that any one should sleep when 
 school was out. 
 
 I went down to Bessie and woke her gently. She 
 looked at me, at first, with startled, feverish eyes, as though 
 she did not know me, and screamed in pain or terror. 
 I noticed then that the color on her cheeks was unnatur 
 ally bright. I put my hand on her pulse. It was throb 
 bing violently. I was thoroughly frightened. 
 
 " Come, Bess," I said, as winningly and soothingly as 
 I could, " come home with teacher, now. Teacher will 
 lead you, all the way." 
 
 For answer, the child s head fell heavily to one side. I 
 tried to take her in my arms, but she was very heavy. I 
 found one of the small boys lingering outside the school- 
 house and sent him for Bessie s father. 
 
 I shall never forget the look with which Captain Sar- 
 tell ifted his baby in his arms. He had seven other chil 
 dren ; he was a poor man, a Wallencamper, but one 
 would have thought him a king, and that the only hope of 
 his line lay treasured in the mass of flaxen curls pressed 
 against his shoulder,. as he carried her home. 
 
270 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 The next morning, early, Captain Sartell appeared 
 at the Ark with a blanched face. Bess had been growing 
 worse, he said. They feared it was a fever. He was 
 going to West Wallen for a doctor. "She thinks," he 
 continued, with absolute white bewilderment on his fea 
 tures, " that she s in school all the while, and it s a gittin 
 late, and the teacher ain t there, and so she keeps a 
 callin for the teacher ; and I would n t ask ye to go up, 
 teacher, if you was anyways afeard, but it *ud break your 
 heart to hear her." 
 
 For one of my years, I knew singularly little, either of 
 sickness or death, so I was the more readily susceptible 
 to the slight disrespect the Captain seemed to have cast 
 on my wisdom and fortitude. 
 
 " Certainly I will go and see her," I said " why should 
 I be afraid?" 
 
 " I was only thinkin* it was fair to say," said the Cap 
 tain " she was took so sudden and so violent like, it 
 might be might be suthin suthin kitchin perhaps. 
 They was a case or two o scarlet fever up to Wallen, but 
 she was n t exposed no way that we know on. She was n t 
 exposed." 
 
 The Captain, regarding me intently, repeated the 
 words, thrusting his neck out with a pitiful gulp, his hand 
 on the latch. Observing him, the expression of my face 
 changed ; he groaned as he went out, closing the door 
 silently. 
 
 My first impulse then was to pack my trunk and start 
 for home, but the wailing of Mrs. Abagail and of the 
 other women who had followed the Captain in, lamenting 
 one with another in an agony of helpless fear, appealed 
 to my courage and presence of mind, and had a strangely 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 371 
 
 sustaining and quieting effect upon me. I suggested after 
 a few moments reflection, that very likely the case was 
 not so bad as Captain Sartell supposed. I determined 
 to have no school that day, and advised the women what 
 they should do, in case their children had been already 
 exposed to a contagious disease. Then a happy thought 
 struck me. I went out in the other part of the Ark to 
 seek Grandma Spicer. I wondered why we had not 
 thought of her, before. 
 
 She entered the room where the women sat. Calm 
 and sunshine was Grandma Spicer calm and sunshine 
 breaking through a storm. 
 
 If it was scarlet fever, she knew just what to do. She and 
 pa had had it years ago, and they d lived through it ; but 
 she did n t believe that it was nothin half so bad, and 
 "What if it is, you poor critturs, you," said Grandma in 
 such a tone as she would have used to soothe a frightened 
 child, " every time there s a squall must we go to takin* 
 on as though it was our doin s ? The Lord, He makes the 
 squalls, and He don t put it on "us to manage em; but 
 up thar in His fa r weather, He looks down on the storms 
 that we know not whither, but are only drivin of us land 
 ward safe, and keep ye still, He says, jest keep ye 
 still ! No need o strainin eyes, but fix em thar, on 
 Him. I Ve seen a many times when no words but them 
 would do." 
 
 The tears stood in Grandma s eyes. Beautiful soul ! 
 Whatever storms she might have known in her life s voy 
 age, she only seemed to lie at anchor now, in a sure 
 haven ; and all the while, her heart was going out in the 
 tenderest sympathy to those still tossing on the seas and 
 striving to make perilous passages, even to those watching 
 
272 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 false harbor lights in the distance. She had had an ex 
 perience wide enough for all. She had found where it 
 was still. She longed to draw all others into that stillness. 
 
 Soon Grandma was on her way to give help and conso 
 lation where it was most needed in Captain Sartell s 
 household. She did not come back until near mid-clay. 
 Mrs. Ithamer s children were kept carefully out of the 
 room when she entered. 
 
 " The Lord is a goin to take that little one to Himself, 
 teacher," she said to me, very impressively. 
 
 Captain Sartell had not yet returned with the doctor. 
 Possibly he had been obliged to drive to the next town. 
 Poor Mrs. Sartell was nearly distracted. Bessie s fever 
 had gone to her brain. 
 
 " We couldn t quiet her, no way/* Grandma continued, 
 " and she s a growin weak, but when them spells come 
 on, she s ravin , first about one thing and then another, 
 but mostly it s school, school. It s a gittin so late in 
 school and the teacher not there and then she screams 
 and moans so ! Poor, sufferin darlin ! ye can t ease her 
 no way." 
 
 With a desperate determination not to yield myself to 
 my own thoughts, I informed Mrs. Ithamer that I was 
 going to live with Grandma a while, that I should not 
 go through that part of the Ark where she and the chil 
 dren were, and she must keep the little door at the foot 
 of the stairway locked, and not let the children follow 
 me ; and I sprinkled myself with camphor and went 
 back with Grandma to Captain Sartell s house. 
 
 Mrs. Sartell was alone in the room with Bess. I 
 expected that she would meet me with an almost re 
 proachful look, but there was only sorrow in her face, a 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 273 
 
 sorrow that seemed intensified by the smile she lifted to 
 us as we entered. The air in the room was very pure and 
 sweet. The bed on which Bess lay was as white as snow. 
 But what a change a day had wrought in the little face 
 pressed against the pillow. 
 
 " Teacher s come," said Grandma Spicer, with soft, 
 pathetic cheer, bending over the child. 
 
 "Would she care, now?" I thought. "Would she 
 know me ? " 
 
 Just once she opened her eyes wide, smiled, and threw 
 her arms towards me feebly. I would have taken her 
 then, I thought, if it had been my death. 
 
 They wrapped a shawl around her, and I took her in 
 my arms, rocked her gently and sung to her, very softly, 
 the songs she loved best. She moved a little restlessly, 
 and then lay very still with her head on my breast. 
 
 So I rocked and sang to Bess, and the two women 
 moved noiselessly about the room until Grandma Spicer 
 came and looked down very intently into the little one s 
 face. 
 
 " She s asleep," I murmured, placing a finger on my lips. 
 
 "Yes, she s asleep," said Grandma, in a trembling 
 voice, solemnly. "Sweet, purty little one," she went on, 
 with tears running down her cheeks, and she turned 
 to the mother "Thank God, you ! " she exclaimed, with 
 sudden strength and firmness in her voice, that was yet 
 thrilled with emotion, " From sorrowin and from pain for- 
 evermore, the Lord has took His lamb ! " 
 
 Aye, life s chain of dewy morning flowers was broken ! 
 The baby fingers had dropped those purple fragments 
 without grief or dismay, now only the peace of some 
 sweet unfolding mystery over the veiled blue eyes I 
 
 xl 
 
274 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Still, she seemed to me asleep only asleep. I felt 
 no shrinking from the dead child in my arms. When 
 they took her away from me and laid her on the bed, I 
 looked at her tranquil face, and the mother s passionate 
 grief seemed out of place. Why should one wish to 
 wake another from such repose ? I could not compre 
 hend the mother s aching sense of loss. But later, 
 when we heard the sound of wheels and saw Captain 
 Sartell and the doctor driving very fast up the lane, I 
 vient down the stairs and passed out before them. I 
 could not bear to watch the strong man s face when he 
 should find his baby dead. 
 
 Little Bess was buried under the lilac blossoms. The 
 fever which had so soon smitten her down was not pro 
 perly a contagious one. I went on with my school again, 
 missing the sweet face of the dead child more and more 
 each succeeding day. 
 
 Not one of the children with whom she had played 
 was taken sick, but it was scarcely two weeks after her 
 death that I was taken sick as she had been. In the in 
 terval George Olver had come to me and I had written to 
 Ethel, but Ethel had not come back to Wallencamp nor 
 answered my letter. I was more anxious and troubled 
 about her than I dared confess to any one. Then sud 
 denly, I ceased to care for any of those things Of my 
 last afternoon in school I could recall very little after 
 wards, except that the clock on the shelf back of me 
 seemed to be ticking in my brain, and the voices in the 
 room sounded indistinct. My own voice sounded to me 
 like that of some one else speaking from a long way off. 
 
 And at evening, in the Ark, I put my little room in 
 perfect order, my head growing heavy with pain. I felt 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 275 
 
 that I must finish this task before I lay down, and there 
 was another intention to which I clung with a painful per 
 tinacity of mind. 
 
 I sat down at my table and wrote half a dozen or more 
 brief letters home. These were filled with irrelevant 
 anecdotes pertaining to my experience among the 
 Wallencampers, a few desultory descriptions of character 
 and scenery, with a philosophical digression or two. 
 
 To one not intimately acquainted with the epistolary 
 products of my pen, these letters would have undoubt 
 edly suggested the workings of a crazed and feverish 
 brain, but they were not calculated to arouse any partic 
 ular alarm in the minds of my friends at home, unless, 
 indeed, it was by reason of the unusual care and pains 
 taking evinced in their chirography and the punctilious 
 manner in which they were dated. The first one I dated 
 for the evening on which I was writing. The next for a 
 time several days in advance of that, and so on, performing 
 this strange act with utter indifference to the presumption 
 of it. 
 
 When it was finished, I seemed to have forgotten what 
 next to do. Grandma Spicer told me afterwards, that I 
 went to the head of the stairs and called to her, that she 
 came up, and I told her very gravely that I was going to 
 be sick, but I knew I was not going to die, and adjured 
 her with a look in my eyes which she said, " I could n t 
 go ag inst, teacher, for it was more convincin than 
 health," not to write to my friends of my sickness, and 
 instructed her how to send the letters which I had sealed, 
 stamped, directed, and methodically arranged on the 
 table, in their proper order to the Post. 
 
 For the rest, all through the pain and impotence and 
 
276 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 vague mental wanderings of the days that followed, I had 
 a restful, comforting consciousness that a kind, loving 
 face, like the lamp of my salvation, was hanging ever over 
 me always it was Grandma Spicer s face, though it 
 seemed to have grown strangely young and fair, and the 
 eyes that followed me with such a lovingly tireless, wistful 
 expression in them were like other eyes that I had known, 
 and the watcher s voice was clear and musical, with a 
 youthful repression in it. Still, somehow, it was Grand 
 ma s face, her eyes, her voice and when at last, I woke 
 one morning very weak, but able to recognize clearly all 
 the familiar objects in the room, it was Grandma Spicer 
 indeed, who sat by my bed, beaming gloriously upon me. 
 
 "Is it most school time, Grandma?" I inquired, 
 feebly, slowly concentrating my gaze on her face. 
 
 " Oh, laws, no ! " said Grandma, with cheerful emphasis, 
 and then continued talking in her quiet monotone. I 
 hardly heard what she said. I was painfully endeavoring 
 to pick up the lost thread of my consciousness where 
 I had left it on that night when I put my room in 
 order and went so wearily to bed. At last I inquired, 
 Still vaguely, " How long? " 
 
 Grandma understood. She smiled reassuringly. 
 
 "Only a little while, teacher," she said. "You ve 
 only been sick a little while a few days, may be," and 
 she immediately proffered me some broth which was 
 a triumph of the good soul s art, and seemed to partake of 
 her own comfortable and sustaining nature. I lay back 
 on the pillows, contented to be very still for a little while. 
 
 When I next looked up and recognized that familiar 
 figure sitting by the bed, I said, " Has Ethel come back ? " 
 
 " Yis, Ethel s come back 1 " said Grandma, in a tone 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 277 
 
 which seemed to imply, in the very best faith, that during 
 my illness, the world had been running on excellently 
 well. "You take some more broth now, teacher, and 
 keep r al slow minded and easy, and hev a good night s 
 rest, and to-morrer I 11 tell ye all about it ! " 
 But I persisted ; so Grandma continued gently : 
 " Wall, it wa n t much to tell, only the doctor said ye 
 was n t to be talked to much, nor worked up ; but I 
 reckon a little pleasant news ain t a gonter hurt nobody. 
 Ye see, when you was took sick, George Olver, he got a 
 hold of where Ethel was ; he had a mistrustin of it, some 
 how and he went and told her, and it brought her, hearin 
 you was dangerous, and she calculated she might be 
 o use to ye now, for some, they be sich friends ! " said 
 Grandma, making this observation with the most guileless 
 enthusiasm. " And Ethel, she wa n t much brought up, 
 and used to be as wild and harum-scarum as any of em ; 
 but I allus said that there was a good deal to Ethel, after 
 all. Wall, George Olver, he rer^^ized where she was 
 and he went down thar and found her, and they was n t 
 anybody ventured to say a word, and what need? for 
 everybody respec s George Olver, knowin he s uncom 
 mon ser ous and high minded, and the very same hour they 
 came home, Ethel, she come up here, and she turned me 
 right out of the room, as ye might say. * It s my place, 
 Grandma, says she, and I m better able than you. I 
 understand. It s my place. And she was n t vary strong, 
 but she would n t give up to nobody, and only run home 
 a little while between spells to rest, and watched and 
 and tended ye as faithful as though she was keepin count 
 of every breath ; and when the fever turned a Monday 
 night, and you fell off into a kind of a nateral sleep, the 
 
278 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 doctor, he says to her, what it ain t a very common thing 
 for a doctor to say. It s you saved her life ! he says. 
 She was vary sick. And he shook his head the way they 
 do. * You ve tended vary faithful, he says, and Ethel, 
 she hardly spoke, but I seen when she looked up that 
 her eyes was a shinin , and that happy look that she s had 
 somehow, sence she came back I can t tell ye exactly, 
 teacher, but it s most like as ef somebody should have a 
 bad dream, and be wakin up kinder surprised and thank 
 ful but when the doctor said them words, I ll never 
 forget how her eyes went a shinin , and she says to 
 me, I m goin home now, and never you tell her, when 
 she wakes up, for she thought it was you watchin with 
 her all the time, and kep a callin Grandma ! Grandma ! 
 says she, and don t you tell her ! don t you ! for it would 
 seem as though I was obligin her, and if she forgives 
 me and is friendly I don t want it to be for that. And I 
 did n t say as I should or should n t tell," said Grandma, 
 smilingly unconscious of the two large tears that were 
 stealing down her cheeks, " but I knowed pretty well what 
 I had on my mind ! " 
 
 Grandma ceased speaking, and began to busy herself 
 about the room, humming softly her favorite refrain : 
 
 " The Light of the World is Jesus." 
 
 I lay very still, thinking 
 
 "Once I was blind, but now I can see! " 
 
 That low, glad, tremulous murmur brought no peace to my 
 troubled heart. 
 
 When Grandma Spicer looked at me again, I fancied 
 she met a helpless, appealing, almost an aggrieved 
 expression in my eyes. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 279 
 
 "I want to see her," I said. "I want to see Ethel, 
 of course." 
 
 " Yis, yis," said Grandma, " to-morrer. You d want to 
 talk, and you ve had enough for one day I 11 tell her, 
 and she 11 understand." 
 
 " But I want to see her now," I persisted. 
 
 "They s some folks just come in to inquire," con 
 tinued Grandma, giving an easeful touch to the pillows. 
 " They s been a good many in to inquire. May be, she s 
 amongst em. I 11 go down and see." 
 
 Soon I heard the old, girlish, familiar step on the 
 stairs. Ethel hesitated, standing an instant on the 
 threshold. In spite of the new and loftier soul looking 
 out of her eyes, in spite of the new and womanly dignity 
 which she bore so reposefully, she read my face with that 
 quick, intuitive glance I had learned to know so well. 
 
 Then coming towards me, she put her arm gently 
 around my neck, kissed me, understanding all, hushing all, 
 forgiving all, and smiling a tender prohibition in her eyes, 
 put her finger on my lips. 
 
 Sobbing inwardly, I accepted this divine retaliation 
 in silence, and rested a while in that loving, warm 
 embrace. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 BENNEY GIVES THE TEACHER A NEW CHAIR. 
 
 FE morning, early in my convalescence, I was 
 startled by a mighty rumbling and scraping 
 sound on the narrow stairway, as of some 
 unwieldly object pushed steadily upward. The summit 
 reached, I heard the retreat of manly feet, and this 
 leviathan presented itself with Grandma Spicer as an 
 animating force, breathless and smiling, in the rear. 
 
 " He did n t have time to paint it, teacher," she began 
 joyfully, " but it 11 be jest as comftable to set in. He s 
 been explainin of it to me Ben has ye see, 
 it s a cheer. He made it for ye, himself. And all you ve 
 got to do is to turn this ere crank, here " Grandma s 
 countenance was radiant with, wonder and approval 
 "and up it ll go so as high as ye want it ! and this 
 ere can be shoved in and out for ye to put yer feet 
 on, and this ere back can be let anyways ye want it. He 
 seen a picture o one in a paper, once, and he went 
 and made this by his own eye, and all the hinges 
 and cranks, and everythm as slick as a pin 1 He did n t 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 281 
 
 say anythin 1 ," Grandma continued, in a slightly lowered, 
 insinuating tone of voice, " about likin to come up and 
 see ye, when ye was able to set up, and you know, teacher, 
 as I don t believe in meddlin in young folks affairs, but 
 it appeared to me, havin had so much exper ence 
 with the men folks as I have, that may be he was kind o 
 hangin around waitin for an invitation, for ye see, 
 they re goin to sail now, in a vary few days." 
 
 So, a little later, I sat up in my new chair and received 
 the Cradlebow, in a loose, trailing gown of rich material, 
 heavily embroidered. In the midst of my narrow and 
 humble surrounding I had an exiled princess sort of 
 consciousness, and recognized with a new pleasure the 
 Cradlebow s lordly face and bearing, as he stooped 
 on entering the little red door. 
 
 Living in a reverie, still, a fancy, a day dream, 
 strangely vivid and life-like, but not real, not real, I was 
 so far softened by my illness that, with the delicious sense 
 of returning health and strength, I was content, for 
 a time, to live simply in the present, to dismiss the stern 
 warden, Duty, from my thoughts, and that ever grave 
 necessity for maintaining a mental and moral superiority 
 which had so oppressed me. 
 
 It had been weary work living on the heights, and what 
 had it all amounted to ? I asked myself, with a reckless 
 ness too tranquil, now, to be converted into bitterness. 
 " It was so much easier and safer, lower down." But 
 while I doubted and almost gave up the struggle, the 
 Cradlebow aspired ever to greater faith, and hope 
 in life, and enthusiasm for life s work. 
 
 And with all this, it was evident that there had been with 
 him an inward struggle and preparation, a silent con- 
 
283 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 quering of self. With a vain discontent for my own failure, 
 I marvelled at the glory which had crowned his humble 
 efforts. " This, too," I thought, " is a sort of heroism," 
 and my spirit of condescension towards the youth took on 
 something new, like reverence. 
 
 It was even with pride that I reflected, "Here is a 
 strength I may rely upon by and by," and I was proud 
 that my lover s kiss was so pure upon my lips, his breath 
 on my cheek ah, foolish, sleeping heart ! It was well 
 that the dream should grow passionate, even intense, for 
 the awakening was near. 
 
 In the bewildered and feverish condition of mind in 
 which I had last left the Kedarville school-house, I had 
 been consciously impressed, at least, with the idea that 
 I should probably never enter those familiar walls again, 
 never again as the teacher. And now, I had no inten 
 tion of resuming my labors there. 
 
 But I did not wish to flaunt my boasted independence 
 before the family circle at Newtown, until my eyes should 
 have assumed a little more nearly their usual proportions, 
 and my manner of going up and down stairs should have 
 become less strikingly feeble. 
 
 I decided to remain in Wallencamp a few days to 
 recuperate. I was not impatient nor especially chagrined 
 on account of this necessity. Secretly willing to await 
 the departure of the Cradlebow s ship, to have a brief 
 season of rest from all care and responsibility among the 
 scenes of my past labors a little breathing space in 
 which to study those people quietly, to exchange unhur 
 ried kindly words with them before I should go away from 
 them forever I was glad to have it so. 
 
 Such welcomings and congratulations as I received 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 283 
 
 from the Wallencampers when I was able to get down 
 the stairs once more 1 I felt very happy, almost humble, 
 sitting where the sunlight poured in at the open door of 
 Grandma s living-room. 
 
 That picture is still before my mind : The bare, shining 
 floor, the unpainted table, the chimney-shelf and a clock, 
 the successful working of whose machinery demanded a 
 crazily tilted attitude ; a Bible on the shelf, too, and 
 Grandma s spectacles lying askew. Then, a commodious 
 lounge of exceedingly simple construction set up straight 
 against the wall and extending the whole length of the 
 room. The original framework of this lounge, by the way, 
 disclosed itself in many bold and striking instances, under 
 a unique method of upholstery. It was stuffed sectionally. 
 There was the "old paper corner," within whose rustling 
 precincts Noel was reputed once to have endured agonies, 
 during a religious meeting held at the Ark. There was the 
 " sawdust " section, substantial, but by no means billowy to 
 the touch, and the "dried yarb " section, of a nature 
 similar to the sawdust ; and, omitting the " old clothes 
 section " with its insidious buttons, and the " corn-cob " 
 section, and the " cotton- wood bark " section, there was 
 the "feather corner," at the other end, generally conceded 
 to be luxurious, but silently avoided, as having given, on 
 more than one occasion, a sharp suggestion of quills. 
 Over the whole, depressions and excrescences, was 
 stretched a faded chintz cover. But woe to the luckless 
 wight who thought to find repose by throwing himself 
 carelessly down on this hitherto untried structure ! 
 It was reserved only to the knowing few to find a com 
 fortable seat on the lounge. 
 
 The cat, without having subjected herself to those trials 
 
284 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 which some of us endured, had discovered, with true 
 feline instinct, wherein the deepest rest lay, and had 
 established herself on a suspended bridge of chintz be 
 tween two overhanging systems. 
 
 There were a few chairs in the room besides, but the 
 doorsteps were wide. Grandpa sat always in the south 
 door, Grandma on the steps looking towards the lane, 
 and it was at this latter inviting spot, that the neighbors, 
 the " passers by," paused most frequently and disposed 
 themselves, with a grateful air. 
 
 I listened to their talk, while the birds struggled to 
 make noisy interruptions and cast their fleeting shadows 
 in the sunlight on the floor, and the peach blossoms out 
 side were falling noiselessly. 
 
 Grandma Spicer had been telling me in a happy, 
 droning voice, though gravely enough, of the " awakenin " 
 that was going on in Wallencamp how " a good many 
 o the young folks was impressed," and "Cap n Sartell 
 had been seekin , ever since little Bessie died, and some 
 that had seemed to be forgitful and backslidin had come 
 forward and told where they stood, until it seemed as 
 though the Lord was a sendin a blessin down, jest as 
 soft and beautiful as them blossoms," and Grandma s 
 eyes wandered towards the peach tree with a tearful fer 
 vor in them. 
 
 Aunt Patty was a temporary occupant of the steps. 
 Her anxious, care-lined face was turned indoors, away 
 from the light and the falling blossoms. There was an 
 anxious, restless ring in her voice, too. 
 
 " I m glad to hev such a time, I m sure," said she. 
 " We need it bad enough, any time, Lord knows ! but 
 it seems a queer season o the year for t. When we ve 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 285 
 
 had em before it s generally been along in the winter. I 
 never heered of an awakenin before right in the midst o 
 tater-buggin ." 
 
 Aunt Fatty was not intentionally irreverent. Life, with 
 her, had been so narrow and hard pressed, always a 
 painful reckoning of times and seasons. 
 
 The allusion to " tater-buggin " gave Grandpa an 
 opportunity of a sort of which he had not been slow to 
 avail himself lately to engage in a little old-time, secu 
 lar conversation. His voice, however, as it sounded 
 from the south doorway, was impressive enough for any 
 subject. 
 
 " Grists on em, this year ! " he said. 
 
 "Heaps ! " Aunt Patty responded readily. "I don t 
 see how ever the children could be speered to go to 
 school now, anyway. Randal had all eight o hisn out 
 yesterday, with a four-quart pail apiece, and him and 
 Lucindy pickin into the half-bushel besides ; and Rod 
 ney told Bede, for the livin truth, he d seen a lantern 
 movin around last night right in the dead o night, and 
 he looked out and it was the Dean and Abbie Ann out 
 tater-buggin , and everybody knows they wasn t out in 
 the daytime it was so dreadful hot. I m sure we never 
 had such queer weather afore. But them bugs are the 
 hardest critturs to kill. It s almost impossible to dis 
 pose on em; and it does seem enough, what with 
 ploughin and plantin* and harrowin and hoein to git a 
 few potatoes, and like enough, wet weather to rot em, 
 without havin to fight over em, for the last chance, with 
 a whole army of varmint. I m sure this ere way o 
 gittin a livin , as old Grandther Skewer used to say, * It 
 costs more than it s wuth. " 
 
286 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Led by the screams of the little Spicers in AbagaiPs 
 apartment, Grandma had left the room for a moment, 
 and Grandpa cleared his throat and began, hopefully : 
 
 "Talkin about tater bugs," he said, and he glanced at 
 me with a preliminary gleam in his eye, " Bachelder Rae 
 was tellin me the other mornin, he said he was 
 eddicatin a couple on em. He said thar wa n t no 
 Other way to get rid on em, but to appeal to their moral 
 natur , and he said when he d got em eddicated up 
 to the highest pint o morality, he was a goin to send 
 em out as missionaries ter convart the rest. Bachelder 
 said he d got em fur enough along, now, so t they d 
 pass examination along o average folks that wa n t 
 admitted church members " 
 
 "HoggartySpicer !" 
 
 Grandma, unexpectedly returning, had caught the 
 last word only of Grandpa s discourse, but taking this in 
 connection with the bright and mirthful expression 
 of his countenance, she judged that his sentiments 
 had been of an unusually reprehensible nature. 
 
 "Wall, wall, ma," said Grandpa, with an evident 
 notion of continuing his narration, " what now, ma ? " 
 
 " I hope, pa, " said Grandma, giving one the im 
 pression that she felt she could n t put the case too 
 Strongly, " that you are as innocent o what you ve be n 
 a sayin as the babe unborn, and to your credit, pa, 
 I believe you be ! " 
 
 " Wall, wall, ma," said Grandpa, now mentally lost and 
 bewildered, " I guess I know what I m talk in about 1 " 
 
 "And if you do, pa," said Grandma, with a solemnity 
 that was unutterably conclusive, " you know more than I 
 do I" 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 287 
 
 Then, while the women talked, Grandpa, sitting alone 
 in the south door, sighed and whittled, and abstractedly 
 scanned the horizon. Once, he made a singularly bold 
 attempt to entice Aunt Patty again into the channels 
 of profane conversation, by an introductory speculation 
 as to the prospect of the bean crop; but Grandma 
 Spicer nipped this reckless and irreverent adventure 
 in the bud, by replying in a calm, vast tone : 
 
 " Pa, it r aly seems to me that for a vain creetur in 
 a fleetin world, and a perfesser besides, there d ought 
 to be more things to talk about than beans ! " 
 
 Grandpa Spicer sighed still more deeply, gazed 
 wistfully towards the barn, as though he would fain have 
 shuffled out in that direction ; but the weather being so 
 warm, he refrained. He glanced at me with a feeble, 
 helpless smile, his head fell backward, his eyes gradually 
 closed, and, in spite of the iniquities which covered 
 his ancient head, he fell into a slumber that had all the 
 semblance of child-like and unblemished innocence. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 DEATH OF THE CRADLEBOW, 
 
 HILE Grandpa Spicer dozed peacefully, Emily 
 Gaskell, also " passin by," joined the group 
 of women on the door-steps of the Ark. 
 
 Emily, by the way, was regarded as a hopeful subject of 
 the "awakenin ." She had been to see a doctor in 
 Farmouth, who told her she could not live through another 
 winter "with that cough on her." She sat very still 
 in the meetings, it was said, and seemed " tetched and 
 wonderful," whereas she had been wont formerly, on 
 occasions of this solemn nature, to evince many signs 
 of restlessness, and even to engage in droll and sly 
 diversions for the greater delectation of the " unconsarned." 
 
 Emily herself was particularly unreserved on the 
 subject of her spiritual condition. Her tone had lost 
 none of its former bright vivacity, though I thought I saw 
 frequently now, while she was talking, a softer shadow 
 steal over the restless, consuming fire in her blue eyes. 
 
 " I know what some on em say," said she ; " I know 
 what 1 might a said, jest as like as not, if it had been 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 28S 
 
 somebody else in ray place. Oh, she s afraid she ain t a 
 goin to git well, and so she s a seekin religion. She s 
 scart into it I 
 
 u Wall, if folks that know me are a mind to say that, 
 they may ; though if it comes to bein scart into religion 
 by what the doctors said, I should a jined the church 
 twenty times over ! 
 
 "It ain t because I m afraid o what 11 happen to me 
 after I m all dead and .peaceable. It s because 1 want 
 a little more comfort while I m a livin . Seems to me 
 there s more comfort needed for the iivin . 
 
 "And ever since my brother Lihu died, seems as 
 though them last words o* hisn have been a ringin in my 
 ears. I know somebody that ll watch. Who ? Jesus 
 will ! Jesus will ! over and over again. Anil when 1 get 
 to worryin about things, and can t see no way through, or 
 whoever s a goin to straighten em out, it keeps a goin , 
 Who, then? Jesus will! Jesus will! over and over. 
 And Lihu wasn t a professor, neither; and maybe he 
 had n t no right to take the comfort out o them words 
 that he did ; and maybe I hain t no right, and it s only 
 like a string o music that 11 keep a runnin in a body s 
 head sometimes and they not thinkin nor meanin any- 
 thm . 
 
 " 1 don t see any further into it than I did afore. I 
 don t know as 1 m what you d call any more believin , 
 but when I ve laid till after midnight with my eyes as 
 wide open as daylight, and no shut to em, thinkin and 
 worryin and coughin , I ve seen it agin, jest the way he 
 rolled and tossed that night, and then them words come 
 to him, and he smiled and went to sleep peacefuller nor 
 any child; and so I ve said em, and faith or no faith, 
 
290 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 believin* or no believin , they Ve set me a cryin , time 
 and agin, and they Ve put me to sleep 1 thai, they ve put 
 me to sleep ! " 
 
 "And who else could they a be n meant for but him 
 and you?" cried Grandma, in a gush of sympathy, " him 
 and you, and anybody else as you seen needed them 
 words and could give em to em to quiet em ; for, dear 
 woman 1 there ain t none on us that see into it, but jest 
 to say it over. Dear woman ! we don t know no more. 
 It s what s a restin all on us. It s what s a restin all 
 onusl" 
 
 I looked up and saw tears in Abagail s eyes. I had 
 not heard Abagail spoken of as among the number of 
 the impressed. There were tears in my own eyes, I 
 knew ; there had grown to be such a pathos in those 
 women s voices. 
 
 A little later, Emily lapsed into a strain of sprightly 
 gossip. 
 
 "And who do you think s kitin around in this region 
 agin?" she began. "Somebody you d expect least of 
 all, I reckon ; wall, it s Eliot Turner," and she nodded 
 her head quickly and expressively at the others. 
 
 "I don t mean," she continued, "that he s been in 
 Wall encamp, but Levi was down from Wallen this 
 mornin, and he said they stopped last night in Wallen 
 Harbor him and some other fellers, mighty stylish 
 lookin , but he said it was Eliot Turner s yacht, as fine 
 and fancy-rigged as ever he see, and there was some that 
 looked like common sailors, and they all come ashore, 
 and the common ones was the quietest. But he reck 
 oned the fisherman was off on a time, and stopped there 
 jest for fun, and to show off, maybe. 
 
CAPS COD FOLK8 291 
 
 " Wall, Levi told me that, and to-day, long about the 
 middle o the forenoon, my man come up to the house 
 he s down to shore, you know, along o Cap n Sartell 
 and George Olver and Ben Cradlebow and all the rest, 
 down there a mendin up the old schooner, cause Cap n 
 wanted Ben to see to it afore he went away. My man 
 come up for a wrench and who do you think s a scootin 1 
 around down on the Bay ? says he. * Wall, it s Eliot 
 Turner, says he, in the purtiest little craft, that runs 
 jest like a picter, and he said they could n t see but two 
 men aboard of her then ; he guessed they wa n t many. 
 It was jest like Eliot Turner to take a run from \V alien 
 down this way to show what he could do alone, for he 
 was always braggin about bein so stiddy on his sea-legs 
 and how t he understood this shore better n any o the 
 old uns. 
 
 " My man said they did n t know who t was out there, 
 at first, for it ain t the kind o vessel often seen, and it 
 skimmed along on the edge o the water, Jim said, like a 
 bird, in and out amongst the rocks, so t anybody d a 
 thought, not knowin who they was and them, may be, 
 not knowin the shore that they was drunk or gone 
 crazy, and Jim said they hollered to em to look out foi 
 the rocks, and they heered a kind of a laugh on the 
 water, and somebody shouted back : 
 
 " Stow your gab, land lubbers ! " and they knew from 
 the voice, it was Eliot Turner. 
 
 " He was probably meanin to put in there, and might 
 a come ashore may be, he was wild enough but he 
 seen our men and that kind o hendered him ; he did n t 
 want to turn around and put right back neither, lookin 
 as though he was scared, so he kep on, and Jim said 
 
293 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 they watched em clean out o> sight; but/ says he, I 
 never seen a man turn whiter n George Olver did for a 
 minute, and then he onclinched his fist and went to 
 work agin, harder than ever, for you can allays depend 
 on Mm, somehow George Olver but he s a dreadful 
 close-mouthed fellow ! " 
 
 During the recital of this narrative, recalling so much 
 to my mind, I experienced more than anything else a 
 feeling of annoyance, almost of resentment, that the fish 
 erman should appear, however remotely, to disturb the 
 serenity of these last few days in which I had to live out 
 my Wallencamp idyl. 
 
 For the others the story seemed to have created a 
 momentary excitement, but they regarded it, on the 
 whole, as of little consequence. 
 
 Aunt Patty had passed on to the doorway of another 
 neighbor, and George Olver s relations with Ethel soon 
 constituted the theme of a more general and lively dis 
 course, in which the remarks concerning Ethel were 
 mostly kind and considerate, and the praise of George 
 Olver s conduct enthusiastic ; and, at the close of 
 which, I remember, Grandma said that " the higher 
 minded folks gits to be, the pitifuller they be a most 
 always ! " 
 
 The fact of the fisherman s transient appearance on 
 the Bay was not again alluded to, nor do I think the 
 mind of any one present reverted to it, when, Grandpa 
 Spicer, looking up with that utterly dazed and bewildered 
 air, which betokened a decisive awakening on his part, 
 cast his eye along the horizon, and observed gravely : 
 
 " Storm a brewin , ma." 
 
 " You ve been asleep, pa," said Grandma in sweetly 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 893 
 
 mollifying tones; and Emily Gaskell, almost involun 
 tarily, glanced up at me with a mischievous, anticipative 
 wink. 
 
 "Asleep, ma," said Grandpa Spicer, "no, I hain t 
 be n asleep, neither! And what if I had, ma? That 
 don t hender a storm s brewin , does it?" 
 
 "We ve be n seein them little wind clouds passin* 
 afore the sun for half an hour past," explained Grandma 
 Spicer composedly. 
 
 But Grandpa scanned the sky with a dark, keen 
 glance the air of an old voyager on stormy and literal 
 seas, and he shook his head, sagely. 
 
 " Wall, wall, ma," he said, " It don t make no differ 
 ence whether it s a wind storm or a rain storm that I 
 know on, but a tempest it s brewin , sartin sure. I 
 remember once we d had a spell o* weather jest like this, 
 and it begun to gether up in the same way. It was in 
 ihe same latitude, teacher, same latitude. I was off 
 cruisin* with Bob Henchy whew 1 that ar was a singin* 
 gale ! I remember it as well as yesterday. I was off 
 with Bob" 
 
 " Are you sure it was Bob ye was off with, pa," inter 
 rupted Grandma. "I could a most write a book, pa, 
 while you was tellin a story." 
 
 Wall, wall, ma ! Write a book, if ye want to ! " ex 
 claimed Grandpa with sweeping force. " I m sure 
 nobody wants to hender yer writing a book if ye want to, 
 ma ! " 
 
 Grandma Spicer heeded not those derisive words 
 Her mind was bent on pursuits of a far loftier and more 
 engrossing nature. In respect to the weather except 
 on Sabbath mornings when it was impossible to credit 
 
194 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Grandpa with perfect fairness and impartiality of judg 
 ment Grandma, it must be said, had real faith in thr 
 old sea-captain s prognostications. 
 
 " It does look like a shower, and a mighty suddefc 
 one," said Emily. She thrust her knitting work in her 
 pocket, donned her sun bonnet, and departed with other 
 chance occupants of the doorsteps. And Grandma too, 
 admitted the prospect of foul weather by throwing a 
 handkerchief over her head and going out to fetch the 
 milk- pans. 
 
 Since early spring Grandma Spicer had put her milk- 
 pans to dry in the sun on a bench half way up the " Pas- 
 tur-Hill." Why she should choose to place them at such 
 a seemingly capricious and unnecessary distance from 
 the house, for it was really no inconsiderable journey 
 for Grandma, taking into account her peculiar style of 
 locomotion, whether she considered that the rays of the 
 morning sun visited them more directly on that plane, or 
 that the elevation exposed them to peculiar atmospheric 
 advantages, these were questions which the curious mind 
 was left to solve for itself, for the grave office of carrying 
 out and bringing in the milk-pans was performed by 
 Grandma with an air of mysterious calm, which admitted 
 of no profane comment or speculation. 
 
 Abagail laughed, watching her, the musical notes 
 ringing out with a touch of insane gaiety. 
 
 " If ma knew it was Judgment Day," said she, " she d 
 carry those milk-pans up the hill to dry, and if she knew 
 it was Judgment Hour she d go to fetch em." 
 
 The scene grew rapidly weird as the sky darkened. 
 A low sigh, like a premonition, crept through the heavy 
 atmosphere and shivered among the peach blossoms. 
 
CAPS C(XZ> FOLKS. 2% 
 
 The first gust of wind seized Grandma, returning with 
 the milk pans. It was a zephyr compared with the 
 blasts that followed, but it had the effect of giving 
 to that good soul s usually composed and reassuring 
 presence, something of the appearance of a crazy and 
 dismantled ship, rolling in a high sea. 
 
 Grandpa was quick at detecting the resemblance, and 
 hailed her approach in thrilling nautical terms, such 
 as : " why did n t ye reef yer top-gallant, ma 1" when the 
 handkerchief was torn off her head ; and " hang to tht 
 main royal, ma," as Grandma s apron was caught 
 up and borne, wildly fluttering, about her ears; and 
 "keep your ballast, ma;" with frequent ejaculations 
 of " lor, how she pitches ! how she pitches 1 " 
 
 These were not thrown out as light shafts of ridicule. 
 It was no occasion for such. There was an awful 
 earnestness in Grandpa Spicer s eye and in the tone 
 that invested his words with due solemnity. Grandma, 
 struggling with the wind, had not heard them. She en 
 tered the Ark, however, cheerful though panting. 
 
 "Hoggarty Spicer," said she, in accents of real 
 affection, " I would n t have you out in that wind for no 
 money not for no money, nor our teacher, neither. 
 Why, no stronger than she is now, it ud take the breath 
 right out of our teacher s body ! Why, ef it had n t been 
 for the cargo I had on board, pa," continued Grandma, 
 naturally falling into the same train of ideas we had 
 followed, while watching her battle with the elements, " I 
 should a slipped moorin s, sure ! " 
 
 A casual listener might have smiled at this, in view of 
 Grandma s substantial physique. 
 
 Presently she said, as though the thought had just 
 
296 OIPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 struck her, " I hope fisherman s got back to Wallen 
 Harbor, pa." 
 
 "And if he ain t, ma," replied Grandpa Spicer, 
 sententiously, " he 11 know what it is to be out in a 
 squall ! but I reckon he s looked out for himself." 
 
 The old captain s face grew graver ; his eyes, in that 
 closed room, which had grown so suddenly dark, took on 
 an intensely solemn look. He did not attempt the 
 narration of any stormy adventures of old. Perhaps the 
 scenes of the past rose too vividly before his eyes. But, 
 as the fiercest gusts came, he kept muttering : 
 
 "I knew what it meant mild winter on the Cape! 
 There s the Devil hi the old Cape weather, teacher, 
 and he never skipped four seasons yit ! If it ain t one 
 time, it must be another. Yis, yis ! mild winter on the 
 Cape, and no March to speak on, and a hurricane in 
 summer 1 Wall, we re both on us right ma, and we re 
 both on us wrong. It ain t neither wind nor rain, but 
 the heavens let loose, and God a mighty s own power 
 a blowin of it. Yis, yis ! I had my misgivin s all 
 along ; thinks I, better a little more weather now, than 
 to blast every livin thing by and by; but I hadn t 
 no idee o this 1 The Lord ha mercy. The Lo"rd ha 1 
 mercy ! " 
 
 For all that one could see through the windows was a 
 great black sheet of driving rain, and the roar of the 
 storm was terrible. The Ark shook. It seemed, at each 
 successive blast, as though the walls would fall in over our 
 heads. One could easily imagine the whole crazy struc 
 ture borne onward before the resistless tempest, to take a 
 final wild leap from the cliffs. 
 
 " \Vallencamp s a gittin all mixed up," said Grandpa, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 397 
 
 without the faintest tinge of humor, now. "We sha n t 
 know where to find ourselves when we git out o this ere, 
 ef we ever do git out on t. Lord a mercy ! " 
 
 Abagail sat very white and still, resting her chin 
 on her hands, her great eyes staring out. 
 
 Grandma held the two frightened children in her lap. 
 She was rocking and singing to them in a low, crooning 
 tone. Though she was pale and her lips trembled, there 
 was still about her a soothing atmosphere of peace. 
 
 I was frightened, like the children. I longed to cry out 
 as they had done ; to bury my head away from the terrors 
 somewhere, as they did in Grandma s lap. 
 
 " That was the blackest squall," said Grandpa Spicer, 
 afterwards, " that ever swep across the Cape 1 " 
 
 Terrible as it had been, it died quickly. The transition 
 seemed miraculous from the sullen roar of the wind and 
 torrent-fall of rain, to the renewed chirping of the birds, 
 the quiet dripping of the eaves, and sunshine over all. 
 
 But the young peach tree that had stood by the 
 window of the Ark and sent its fragrance into my 
 little room above, lay prone upon the ground. When 
 she saw that, Grandma Spicer moaned heart-brokenly, 
 as though it had been some fair human life stripped sud 
 denly of its promise and left to wither fruitlessly. 
 
 There were traces of the storm everywhere. Trees 
 that had stood isolated in the fields lay, some of them, 
 with roots exposed ; others were broken off at the 
 trunk, left with only a branch or two, helpless figures 
 with outstretched arms, to give a weird desolation to the 
 landscape by and by, I thought with a shudder, when 
 winter should come again to Wallencamp. 
 
 The fences what remained of them from former de- 
 
298 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 predations had either fallen utterly to the ground, or 
 assumed a strikingly precarious position. 
 
 Part of the roof of Mr. Randal s house had been 
 blown off, and the chimneys of several of the Wallencamp 
 houses demolished, and Grandpa s barn twisted and 
 distorted almost beyond recognition. 
 
 That poor old gentleman put on his hat and stepped 
 out of the door cautiously, looking about him like one 
 in a dream. 
 
 The Ark had stood firm, apparently, in its old resting 
 place. Grandma and Abagail proceeded to sweep out 
 the rain which had been driven in through the cracks, 
 and then it was that little Henry G. came running, with a 
 white face, to the door. He had an air of childish 
 importance, too, as being the first to bear tidings of 
 some strange and dreadful event, and eager to hasten to 
 other doors. 
 
 "Where s the rest?" he gasped, seeing only me 
 in the room. "You tell em, teacher, Benney s drown- 
 ded ! " and the boy disappeared, without another word. 
 
 I was already faint from the reaction of the excitement 
 incident to the storm, weak with the effort I had made to 
 " hold myself still." I heard Grandma calling quickly, 
 "Child! child!" I saw her coming towards me, and 
 then I lost consciousness. 
 
 At evening, while the sun went down over the hill by 
 which the transfigured river flowed, Captain Sartell sat 
 in the door of the Ark, and told the story. 
 
 The marvellous light was on his face, too. It fell, in 
 shafts of glory, on the bright foliage of the fallen tree. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 299 
 
 Grandma was at Godfrey Cradlebow s, but Grandpa 
 Spicer was within the Ark, and Abagail caressing her 
 children with a new fondness. There were a few of the 
 neighbors present; they looked neither frightened nor 
 curious, but ineffably exalted. 
 
 " We d got our work about done," said Captain Sar- 
 tell, speaking mechanically and with little of his customary 
 hesitation of manner. "As near as I calk late, there 
 wa n t a half hour s more work to do on the old craft, 
 and it had got to be sometime arter noon, but says the 
 boys, Let s finish her off, now we Ve got so near through, 
 and not have to come back agin. They was always a 
 cheery set especially him when they took hold of a 
 job, to put it through. 
 
 " We d seen them sailin fellows go by a while before ; 
 and we knew Turner was one of em. They was n t but 
 two, as we could see, managin the craft ; and they was 
 full sail, clippin it lively. I calk late there ain t many 
 knows this shore better n me, but I would n t a durst 
 skirted along the adge down thar at sech a rate, not in 
 the finest day bio win . First we thought it was some 
 body did n t know what they was about. When we made 
 out it was Turner, we knew, if he was drunk, he was 
 tol able well acquainted with the rocks along shore, and 
 ud probably put further out when he got through showin 1 
 off. We didn t worry about em, nor think no more 
 afcout em, in special. The boys didn t want to talk to 
 rile George Olver. 
 
 " So we kep to work, and in a minute, cheery agin 
 with the hammers click, clickin and every now and 
 then the boys ud strike up a singin something * Beyond 
 the River, and Home ward Bound. 1 
 
300 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 "It sounded dredful purty down thar by the water, 
 with the water and the wideness all around sorter soft- 
 enin of it. It made a man feel curious and wishful, 
 somehow. 
 
 " Well, by and by, him and George Olver struck up a 
 song. I Ve heern em sing it before, them two. As nigh 
 as I calk late, it s about findin rest in Jesus, and one a 
 askin questions, all fa r and squar , to know the way and 
 whether it s a goin to lead thar straight or not, and the 
 other answerin . And he he was a tinkerin , way up 
 on the foremast, George Olver and the rest on us was 
 astern, and I ll hear to my dyin day how his voice 
 came a floatin down to us thar chantin like it was 
 cl ar and fearless and slow. So he asks, for findin 
 Jesus, ef thar s any marks to foller by ; and George Olver, 
 he answers about them bleedin nail prints, and the great 
 one in His side. So then that voice comes down agin, 
 askin if thar s any crown, like other kings, to tell Him by ; 
 and George Olver, he answers straight about that crown 
 o thorns. Then says that other voice, floatin so strong 
 and cl ar, and if he gin up all and follered, what should he 
 have ? what now ? 
 
 " So George Olver , he sings deep o the trial and the 
 sorrowin But that other voice never shook, a askin 1 
 and what if he helt to Him to the end, what then should 
 it be, what then ? George Olver answers : Forever- 
 more, the sorrowin ended Death gone over. 1 
 
 " Then he sings out, like his mind was all made 
 up, And if he undertook it, would he likely be turned 
 away ? 
 
 " And it s likelier, George Olver answers him, That 
 heaven and earth shall pass. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 301 
 
 " So 1 11 hear it to my dyin day his voice a floatin* 
 down to me from up above thar, somewhar, askin them 
 questions that nobody could ever answer like, so soon, he 
 answered em for himself and when I looked up, thar 
 was Noah, with his hammer dropped, and his mouth 
 wide open, a starin up thar, and the tears rollin down 
 his cheeks like he was a baby. 
 
 "They didn t sing no more, after that. They was 
 still for about five minutes, I calk late. Noah, he 
 was still, too; but pretty soon, he wakes up and says, 
 Gad, boys ! Did ye ever see sech a queer look in the 
 sky? I believe thar s a September gale brewin." 
 
 " It s a little wind storm, I reckon, says Bachelder. 
 Bachelder was settin , with his legs curled up under him, 
 mendin sail, and he begun to spin one o them yarns o 
 his n, with his voice pitched up middlin high, and 
 the boys, they begun to laugh and cheer. 
 
 "Then Noah says, I 11 run up to head quarters, and 
 find out about the weather/ and clim up the main mast 
 as limber as a squirrel, and when he came back, thar 
 was Tommy s hat stickin way up top o the mast; 
 so Tommy, he promised to pay him them two was 
 always foolin together, but good natered enough." The 
 captain introduced this little incident, in the midst of his 
 narration, with a dull, pathetic gravity. " It was the last 
 thing we thought on, o bein fearful, or calk latin any 
 danger. We reckoned it was a brisk little shower comin 
 up, may be, and the boys was runnin one another about 
 gittin* into the cabin, and runnin on about the old craft. 
 
 "Then thar come, all of a sudden, sech a strange 
 feelin, as ef the arth and the water was a tremblin , and 
 a dreadful moanin* sound runnin through em. Seemed 
 
303 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 as though it came swirlin across the bay. Then it bust on 
 us in a fury. 
 
 " He was out, sorter lookin* around him, Bachelder 
 was, and the wind took Bachelder up, and keeled im 
 over two or three times runnin . 
 
 " Black it grew as the Jedgment day. Then come 
 no sich rain as ever I see, even the pourin est, but the 
 clouds fallin all to once, and the wind ascatterin* of em, 
 and up on the cliffs, we could jest hear a creakin and 
 a bendin whar the trees was turned as white as ghosts in 
 that ere blackness, and the old Bay, in sech a minute, 
 was spinnin into foam. 
 
 "We was shelterin around the old craft now, sure 
 enough, and nobody speakin a word, but jest a holdin 
 our breaths a waitin , when, in among them other noises, 
 thar come, out on the water, sech a low, dull sound as 
 sent the awful truth on us in a minute, and, for a minute, 
 that ar right hand of mine was numb. 
 
 "Then Noah, he had hold o me, a pintin out, and 
 whether he spoke a word or not, I seen it through wind 
 and rain and foam, all in my eyes to once, I seen 
 reelin and tossin and pitchin , out thar on the Bay, lost, 
 lost for sure I seen that fancy ship ! 
 
 "Thar wa n t no hand on arth could guide it, now. 
 Every second was like to see it keeled squar over, 
 or slipped and driv in straight on to the rocks. 
 
 " We re used to other n fa r weather along this shore. 
 I calk late we ain t used to frighten at a little danger, but 
 knowin the sea so well, we know the helplessness 
 a most o puttin out in sech a gale as that. 
 
 "I heerd the sound. It only came but once; and 
 Seth hissed through his teeth, a cryin too, a most; 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 303 
 
 Ain t thar no other way to werry us, but they must come 
 in here to drown afore our very eyes ! A fool s ventur* 1 
 what could ye expect but a fool s end ! Ef he must 
 drown, let the red haired devil drown ! 
 
 " But when they heered it, them two, him and George 
 Olver. I knowed how it would be. I hardly durst 
 to look. I seen them flash at one another with their 
 great eyes, as ef it wa n t enough to do man s work, but 
 when thar come a chance, they must go act like God ! I 
 seen in jest that flash, them two agreein solemnly. 
 
 "Then it was all done in a minute s space, like you ll 
 live yer life through sometimes, in a dream. They had 
 Bill Norris s eight oar ready. They pushed us back. 
 They d a gone alone, them two. I kep the third place. 
 Olver and Tommy scuffled, in a breath, and Noah, he 
 thrust Tommy back, and we was off. 
 
 " God knows I never expected we d come back again. 
 You htern the wind. You can calk late what it was out 
 thar with the rain a drivin , and the salt foam blowed into 
 our eyes. I calk late we never fetched a harder pull, no, 
 nor a blinder one. 
 
 "And she, the cursed thing, mad with twitchin at her 
 cable, lay over to one side. But she was dyin mad. 
 I tell ye she was dyin mad. Thar was them two a 
 hangin to her thar hadn t be n but them. So we 
 hauled Turner in, but that other one, when he seen us, 
 the chance o bein saved, it crazed him, and he sent 
 up a quick, glad sort of a yell and throwed his arms 
 out straight, and back he fell, like lead, into the water. 
 And Turner, crouchin thar and shiverin He could n t 
 swim ! He s sunk ! he s sunk 1 he says. Then he, he 
 ris up in a flash, and out he dove into that hell 
 
304 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 "Then come another gust, a blindin , blindin*, blindln*. 
 He 11 weather it ! He ll weather it ! George Olver kep 
 a mutterin , but his teeth was set ; his eyes shot through 
 me like a tiger s them two was brothers, and more n 
 brothers, always. But when thar come a half lull so t we 
 could see, and we looked out and seen him risin on the 
 wave, grippin that other one, in spite o hope I scurse 
 believed my eyes, and what a shout they sent up from 
 that boat ! 
 
 "Aye, thar they was, for sure but God, how fur 
 away ! Not much for common weather, but then they 
 looked as fur to me as arth from heaven. Ef we could 
 reach em afore the next sweel come ; and every man, it 
 seemed as though he put his livin soul into his arms. 
 Pull ! pull ! says George, and seemed to git the strength 
 of seven, but still we went too slow. We missed him at 
 the oar. And he, he was the strongest swimmer that I 
 ever knowed, but who could live in the like o* that? We 
 pulled for life or death, and that brave head kep risin on 
 the wave. 
 
 " Ef we could a had another minute afore the next 
 sweel come 1 George Olver felt it. He sent the rope 
 out with a giant s throw. Then all and more than we 
 could do to hold the boat agin the wind. It come so 
 fast ye scurse could see them next ye in the boat. 
 He s grappled it! he s thar! he s thar! says they, 
 and when they pulled it in, thar was that other one helt 
 fast, and only him. 
 
 " God knows ! I calk late he made sure o 1 the other 
 first, and thar wa n t jest the breath s time left for him, 
 blinded so sudden may be, and fell death faint. I ve 
 knowed it be so with the strongest ; no wonder thar ; the 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 305 
 
 wonder was in what he done. He was the strongest 
 swimmer that I ever knowed, the strongest and the fear- 
 lessest i 
 
 "George Olver never 11 be content. He would a 
 gone in after him. We d be n dnv a furlong back, I 
 reckon, and every mark >vas lost. It ud be n naught 
 but to swaller him, too. He lost his sense. We had to 
 holt him back. He raved thar, like a madman. It 
 blew a bitter spell, longest of all, and when it helt a bit 
 so we could take our bearin s some at, what hope I what 
 hope ! 
 
 " But poor George, of a suddint he grew quiet as a 
 lamb, and set a lookin out, with his hand light on the oar, 
 as ef twas pleasant weather, and he could see htm ridin 
 in thar easy on the wave ; and his eyes was fur off and 
 smilin , but they looked as though they died. Mebbe 
 I know no more. 
 
 " We found him arterwards. Thar wa n t no mark nor 
 stain on him. You think I talk dry-eyed. Go you and 
 look at him. Somehow it don t leave ary breath for 
 cryin . It s like as ef he knowed. It s more than 
 quietness, seemin* to say, for all he loved his life and 
 fou t so hard out thar, ter lose his own at last givin 
 or losin , he never missed o naught I he never missed 
 o naught ! 
 
 "I can t tell what s the thought come nighest to ye 
 when ye look at him. I hain t got high enough for that, 
 but I can tell ye what s the furderest weepin and 
 sorrowin . Since I seen him and my little Bessie fell 
 asleep, please God I die a half so trustful or so brave, 
 I make no fear o death !" 
 
 The Captain sighed a long, ecstatic sigh and rose, the 
 
306 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 after-glow still shining on his face. In passing through 
 the room, he pressed something softly into my hand. 
 
 "We found it in the breast-pocket of his coat, 
 teacher," he said. "The coat lay in the bottom o the 
 boat, and was soaked with brine. It had your name 
 on t." 
 
 When I unfolded it, it was the little star-fish the 
 Cradlebow had showed me, days before, still foiled 
 close in its delicate vine wreath. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 GEORGE OLVER S ORAHON. 
 
 I HE Wallencampers gathered at the Ark, singing 
 a calm and high farewell to earth that alone 
 was meet for the untroubled lips of that silent 
 singer in their midst. 
 
 They gathered at the Ark. No other place seemed to 
 them sacred enough for such a meeting, now ; no other 
 place dear enough for the celebration of such a solemn, 
 long farewell. 
 
 Over the threshold, where he had come so often 
 bounding in his life, they brought the dead ; there was 
 the same strange look of exaltation on their faces that I 
 had noticed while Captain Sartell told the story of the 
 storm ; stricken and white, the poor faces, yet touched 
 with some daring, unutterable hope so clear a message 
 they read on that wondrously still and reconciled face, so 
 without fear the dead lips spoke to them. 
 
 To me, the message was one of infinite pathos and 
 rebuke, speaking of a heroism beyond my poor conception, 
 of a height of glory of which I had not dreamed. 
 
808 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 "Farewell, forevermore," the fathomless far voice 
 murmured to my despair, and slowly and repeatedly, 
 " Farewell, forevermore. 1 am beyond the need of your 
 poor love." 
 
 And my heart turned to stone, with all the passionate, 
 pure sorrow that might have been, the tears in which 
 I might have found relief. 
 
 Granuma Spicer s sacred "keepin rooms" were 
 open d wide for the reception of this guest, yet the 
 sunshine stole in with a hallowed light, the entering 
 breeze sighed low and softly. The children, always 
 present, were, on this occasion, attentively still. 
 
 There were no external signs of woe for the poor Wallen 
 campers to assume ; they made no mad demonstrations 
 of their grief; the suffering and the wonder were too 
 deep. 
 
 Lydia they all knew how she had loved this son. 
 When they returned from their perilous quest in the 
 storm, the first words Captain Sartell said were, " Who 
 must go up now, and break Lyddy s heart ? " 
 
 She stood among the others, very still, the old faded 
 mantilla folded decently over her shoulders, the great 
 dark eyes, his eyes, shining out even kindly from the 
 worn face on those who came to speak to her. 
 
 Godfrey Cradlebow stood at the outer door, and 
 addressed the people as they entered. Some said, after 
 wards, that he had been drinking ; others declared he had 
 not touched a drop for days. 
 
 In the room where I stood, I heard his musical, 
 deep tones now swelling with the fervor of his harangue, 
 now broken and trembling with emotion. 
 
 " Enter, my friends 1 " said this strange man. " Go in, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 309 
 
 and look on quietness. What do we seek for most, 
 my friends ? LOOK out on the world. It s a whole world 
 of seekers. How they jostle against one another ! how 
 they sweat ! how they strive ! how they toil ! and why all 
 this? What seek they for? For quietness, my friends, 
 even so the quietness of wealth to gain, may be, or 
 competence ; may be, the quietness of some renown. 
 And some go seeking over land and sea for their lost 
 health, and quietness from pain. 
 
 " My friends, within there was as restless a seeker as I 
 ever knew. Pity the old, my friends, but pity more the 
 young ! Never such dream? of rest ! Never such rest 
 lessness ! Hush ! when he heard, he answered well. He 
 
 * 
 
 put all by. Somehow, we think he has obtained 
 wealth, honor, perfect health. My friends, pass in 1 be 
 hold this wonder ! 
 
 "My friends, you look up at the sky. Ah, what a 
 sky ! purple and deep ! Yet I see something in your 
 eyes that is not quietness ; for storms will come, too well 
 you know, and the cold blasts of winter ; but if you knew 
 that never any sorrowful, hard wind could sweep across 
 yon blue then, my friends, you would look as he looks 
 who lies within there. Pass in ! pass in ! behold this 
 wonder." 
 
 Within, Grandma Spicer stood with closed eyes and 
 folded hands. Her cheeks were wet. She wore a 
 heavenly, trustful expression of countenance. Her lips 
 moved as if in prayer. 
 
 Aunt Susannah Cradlebow rose in her place 
 majestic and weird she looked, like some old Eastern 
 prophetess, a grand forecasting in her shadowy eyes. 
 
 "Gather in the sheaves," she began, "the bright 
 
810 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 sheaves, early ripe and ready for the harvestin ; and be 
 grudge not the Master of His harvestin . Why, oh 
 Lord, Lord, this sheaf, while there be them that stand, 
 late harvest day, bowed and witherin in the cornfield? 
 Because He reckons not o time. Glory, glory to the 
 Lord o the harvestin ! But gether in for me, He says, 
 my bright sheaves, early ripe ! my sheaves o the golden 
 wine ! 
 
 " It was the night but two before my grandson died, I 
 seen a death sign in a dream, and so I speaks to my 
 son s wife, but Fear you not, I says ; it was the blessed 
 sign o blessed death; and thought o some one old 
 and helpless, sick maybe, gettin release thereby. Why 
 this sheaf, oh Lord? Glory, glory to the Lord o the 
 harvestin ! For I dreamt there was a bird ketched in 
 my room, and flutterin here and there, and beatin 
 ginst the window with its wings. And dreamin I ris up, 
 and there was such a light along the floor as never any 
 moonlight that I see was half so solemn or so beautiful. 
 But when I stretched my hand to free the poor, blind, 
 flutterin bird, it ris away from me, and spread its wings, 
 snow-white, and out it flew, and sharp and clear along 
 that shinin track. Then when I woke, I knew it was the 
 sign o blessed death, nor ever feared. And God will 
 bear me true, it was the very night they brought my 
 grandson home that, lyhr down to rest a while from 
 watchin with the rest, nor ever wonderin nor layin it to 
 mind what I had dreamed afore, but tired and heart-broke 
 only, I seen the long, bright shinin track agin , a pourin 
 through the window ; and My son s son ! I cries, dear 
 boy ! dear boy ! for it was like him playin on his 
 violin * What tunes must be, I cries, that you play so, 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 311 
 
 and scarce a day in heaven ! But when I ris up, callin , 
 it grew dim along the track, and thar was mornin in the 
 room, and then I heered them cryin where they watched 
 
 " Why this sheaf, oh Lord ? gether in the sheaves, ob 
 Lord, the bright sheaves, early ripe and ready for the 
 harvestin . Glory, glory to the Lord o the harvestin 1 ! " 
 
 Then the Wallencampers sang tremblingly of the 
 "Harvest Home." They were glad when they saw 
 George Olver stand up in their midst George Olver, 
 least subject of them all to dreams or ecstasies, but with 
 his slow, labored speech, and his sorrowful, bowed head. 
 He took his place beside the coffin of his friend, looked 
 gently at that face, and squared his shoulders for a 
 moment then, and held his head with the old manly air : 
 
 "When Uncle Lihu died," said he, "my friend and 
 me walked home together from the funeral, and Benney 
 says to me : I want you to promise me, George, that if I 
 shed die, you would n t have that man to preach over me, 
 meanin the minister, though he was kindly to him, and 
 he means well, says he, but he don t understand us ; he 
 knows naught about us ceptin that now we re dead, and 
 not bein used to them long texts o hisn, it frets our 
 folks, says he. * They weary on t, so long a string they 
 har ly understand ; but I would rather, Benney says, have 
 home one amongst my folks that knowed me well, git up 
 and speak, ef it was only : This was my friend lies here ; 
 I loved him. And promise me, George, ef I shed die, 
 you d hev no stranger preachin over me, but speak some 
 such easy words yourself for love o me. And I felt with 
 him thar, and promised him, and he me ; but I remember 
 thinkin , as I looked at him, it s little likely I 11 ever 
 stand above your grave. 
 
311 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 " Enough said. This was our friend lies here. We 
 loved him. We thank him for them words. Better nor 
 more, they cl ar it all up on this side twixt him and us. 
 No need ter tell o what he was, or what he done. Tain t 
 likely we ll forgit. He didn t say ter praise him. He 
 wanted none o that, but jest we knowed and loved him 
 
 " And so it might a been enough, but now, my God ! 
 my God ! as I stand here aside o him, he bids me, plain 
 as day, to speak a word beyent ; ef I could only name it, 
 ef I could only name it, what looks so cl ar and beautiful 
 thar on his face. 
 
 " Hold strong he says, below thar. Keep heart and 
 make cl ar reckonin , for it s losin all may be, in this 
 ere mystery, makes cl arest gain o all. There s fairer 
 day to rest ye arter storm. All s well ! all s well ! he 
 says, all s well beyent. . 11 s well along this shore ! " 
 
 Here George Giver s husky voice failed him; sobs 
 rose in the room. 
 
 Then the " farewell " was sung, and bravely ; but 
 at the last, I heard only Abagail s voice, it grew 
 so surpassingly clear and sweet; it seemed to float 
 solitary in the room, and to play triumphantly about 
 the silent sleeper s lips the voice, indeed, of a free 
 spirit in its bliss, thrilled only with some plaintive 
 memory of human woe and loss. 
 
 " Farewell, ye dreams of night ; 
 
 Jesus is mine 1 
 Lost in this dawning bright; 
 
 Jesus is mine 1 
 All that my soul has tried, 
 Left but a dismal void ; 
 Jesus has satisfied. 
 
 Jewi 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. tlS 
 
 Farewell, mortality ; 
 
 Jesus Is mine 1 
 Welcome, eternity. 
 
 Jesus is mine! 
 
 Welcome, the lored and blertl 
 Welcome, bright scenes of rest 
 Welcome, my Sariour s breast 
 Jesus is mine I" 
 
 Scarcely had the leaves of the fallen peach tree by the 
 window begun to wither, when the strong bearers passed 
 out with their beautiful, stainless burden, while slowly, 
 reverently, the little community of mourners followed 
 *o the grave. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 FAREWELL TO WALLENCAMP. 
 
 |ET another week passed in Wallencamp before I 
 was aWe to complete the preparations for my 
 departure. 
 
 One day, I set myself with a sort of listless fidelity 
 to the summing up of my accounts. I found, on de 
 ducting the amount of my actual expenses from the 
 sum total of my earnings in Wallencamp, that I had 
 sixty-two cents left ! 
 
 The revelation caused me some surprise; strangely 
 Jttle perturbation of spirit. I thought what tragic tales 
 might sometimes lie hidden beneath a seemingly dry and 
 senseless combination of figures, while, in my own case, I 
 was merely struck with the justice of those figures. 
 
 For such eccentric and distracted services as I had 
 rendered in Wallencamp, the superintendent of schools 
 had paid me in full at the price stipulated, eight dollars 
 per week. 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 315 
 
 On the other hand, the column of insolvency, I 
 Considered that the West Wallen Doctor s bill was an 
 expression of modesty itself. The sum due my dear 
 Abagail for " board " at two dollars and a half per week, 
 though I trusted it was some compensation for the merely 
 temporal advantages to be enjoyed in Ketfarville, did not 
 appear as an astounding aggregate. The list of " minor 
 details " was well portrayed, and presented an aspect of 
 clear use and value. 
 
 My once fond dream of a " private bank account " 
 had gradually faded from my memory. I saw the last 
 spar in that fair wreck go down, now, without a sigh. 
 And the " loans solicited," in labored phrase, as " mere 
 temporary conveniences " from the friends at home 
 these, I was satisfied, must remain only as the sweet 
 continuation of a life-long debt. But how was I to get 
 home? 
 
 The combined fares on that route, I remembered, had 
 amounted to something over nine dollars 1 So the 
 question haunted me, not restlessly, but with a vague, 
 tranquil, melancholy interest, as pertaining to the history 
 of some one who had lived and died a few years before ; 
 so long indeed, it seemed to me, since I had performed 
 the journey to Wallencamp. 
 
 I had not written home as to the day of my probable 
 arrival, in this yielding passively to the force of habit, 
 which had ever constrained me to plan my returns as 
 " surprises " to my family and friends. 
 
 But for myself, I had fixed the day of my departure 
 from Wallencamp and, in spite of the discovery made in 
 regard to the insufficient state of my finances, looked 
 forward to that event without any trepidation, so that, 
 
31 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 I remember it was actually the day before the one 
 fixed on, and still no hope had dawned on the 
 financial horizon when Grandma Spicer embraced 
 me with some tender words premonitory of our parting, 
 I kissed her gratefully, musing at the same time in 
 dreamy, untroubled fashion: "yes, I must be going 
 home to-morrow." 
 
 It was on this same day that we drove to "Wallen 
 Town," Grandma and Abagail and Ethel and I. The 
 excursion was one Grandma had planned several weeks 
 before, and I had no intention of making it the oppor 
 tunity which I finally did. 
 
 As we were passing a dingy looking establishment, 
 where some doubtful articles of virtu appeared in the 
 window, an idea seized me, as new as it was compre 
 hensive of my difficulties. 
 
 I went in, ostensibly to purchase a watch key, really to 
 engage in negotiations of a more serious and complicated 
 nature. 
 
 The proprieter of the shop became the temporary 
 guardian of my watch, while I was invested with the funds 
 necessary for my homeward journey. 
 
 I learned, afterwards, that this man had made an 
 exception in the usually limited range of his operations in 
 my favor, his establishment not being, by any means, that 
 of a pawn-broker, but, in every sense, of the most highly 
 moral and respectable nature. 
 
 He gave me such " ready cash " as his coffers would 
 yield, with an improvised pawn-broker s check, at the 
 composition of which we had both seriously and in 
 geniously labored. I can testify both to his honesty and 
 obligingness. He insisted on my taking with me, 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 317 
 
 "jest to tell the time o day," a very large watch, in a 
 tarnished silver case. 
 
 Not wishing to seem to cast any disparagement on his 
 wares, I became the helpless recipient of this favor. The 
 article in question was far too large for my watch-pocket, 
 And had a persistent habit of holding its mouth wide 
 open like a too weary shell-fish. On the interior of the 
 case, one on either side, were pasted photographs of 
 individuals to me unknown, male and female, their coun 
 tenances such as the blinded eye of affection alone, I 
 thought, could have rendered mutually entertaining, and 
 the watch maintained, on all occasions, a system of 
 chronology peculiarly its own. 
 
 As we drove back to Wallencamp, Grandma Spicer, 
 her great heart close to Nature that sunny afternoon, be 
 guiled the way with a gentle hilarity which never shocked 
 or offended, but Ethel put her hand often in mine, look 
 ing up with the old helpless, pleading expression in her 
 eyes Ethel, I knew, would remember longest. 
 
 Sometimes, as my hand wandered almost unconsciously 
 to caress the precious coin in my pocket, instead of the 
 wild tract of stunted cedars through which our road lay, 
 I fancied I saw the great elms of Newton, the wide 
 straight street, the familiar house, an open door, and 
 ah ! it wasn t the first time that I had been taken in at 
 that door, the survivor of wrecked ambition and mis 
 guided hope, only to hear my shortcomings made ten 
 derly light of, my most desperate follies lovingly ignored 
 and forgiven. 
 
 But I had meant that it should be so different this time ! 
 I had gone out as a missionary ; and deeper than ever in 
 my consciousness, I must feel the want and woe of the 
 
818 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 returning prodigal ; the same old story, the ever recurring 
 failure. It seemed as though all the wonder and impa 
 tience might well go out of my despair. 
 
 Then as I lent myself more and more* to the contem 
 plation of that home picture, how restful, and happy it 
 grew! but poor old Wallencamp for we were nearing 
 the little settlement now, and the sun was fast westering 
 poor, squalid, solitary, beautiful, Wallencamp, as I 
 looked down upon it from the brow of Stony Hill, thrilled 
 me with a troubled sense of some diviner, some half- 
 comprehended glory. 
 
 The crimson glow had not quite faded in the sky when 
 I took my last walk across the fields to where the new 
 grave had been made on the hillside. This is the new 
 burying ground of the Wallencampers ; the old one lies 
 a mile farther up the river, near the Indian encampment. 
 Here I saw more than one simple slab, bearing the name 
 of Cradlebow. Here little Bess lies, too. The hill, 
 meet for such sublime repose, looks ever calmly on the 
 humble, straggling homes of the Wallencampers below, 
 and sees the lonely river winding near, and hears, by 
 night and day, the monody of deeper waters. 
 
 I thought the voice of that great ocean of restlessness 
 sounding along the shore might quiet my unrest, but the 
 beat of the waves, the growing gloom of that still evening 
 hour, oppressed me with a feeling unutterably sad. 
 I could not bear it, at last. It seemed as though 
 another deep was rising and breaking in my heart, 
 the flood of proud, half-stifled passion waking in one 
 awful moment to overwhelm me. No light upon that 
 sea but hope wronged, the mockery of death for yearn 
 ing love, the unguided clash of drifting human lives 1 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 319 
 
 An agony of blindness swam before my eyes. I felt 
 my weak hands clutching at the grass, and gasped, as 
 though it had been indeed in the blindness and pain 
 of physical death, the prayer wrung from my selfish 
 Deed. But the answer was of infinite love and compas 
 sion. It came to me then not as some grave revelation 
 of ,nith to the " enlightened seeker," but like the kiss of 
 peace to a tired child, a door mysteriously opened to the 
 self-bound captive, to one ignorant the light shining 
 along a plain, straight way. And the doubt and terror 
 and anguish went out of the world ; even the sorrowless 
 farewell of frozen lips changed to tender benediction. 
 
 When I looked up at last, wondering, peaceful, my 
 face wet with happy tears, the stars had come out in 
 the sky and, down below, the windows of the Ark 
 were shining. The faint murmur of a song was borne up 
 to me. The Wallencampers had gathered at the Ark to 
 celebrate our last " meeting " together, and 1 went down 
 
 to join them. 
 
 ****** 
 
 At what ghostly hour of the next morning Grandma 
 Spicer awoke Grandpa to the unusual exigencies of 
 the occasion, I cannot say. It was necessary for me to 
 start very early from the Ark to take the train at West 
 Wallen, but when I descended the stairs, by candle 
 light, Grandpa Spicer had been already washed and 
 dyed and arrayed, as for the Sabbath, in his best. 
 Yes, and I was constrained to believe that he had even 
 been instructed in the mysteries of Sunday school lore, 
 for there was about him an air of haggard and feverish 
 excitement, and he glared at my familiar presence with 
 wild, unseeing eyes. 
 
520 CAPE JOD FOLKS. 
 
 Memorable were the colloquies held that morning 
 between Grandma and Grandpa Spicer; Grandpa s 
 tragic assumption of manly consequence, and solemn 
 fears lest we should miss the train, directed in astute 
 syllables of warning towards Grandma Spicer ; Grand 
 ma s increased deliberation, and imperturbable quietude 
 of soul. 
 
 I recall the strange, unearthly aspect of the scenes 
 enacted in the Ark at that early hour, the fleeting vision of 
 a morning repast which formed some accidental part in 
 the chaos of vaster proceedings. 
 
 Then when the first faint signs of dawn were beginning 
 to break through the grey in the eastern sky, I bade fare 
 well to the Ark forever, lingering a moment on the 
 old familiar door-step for a last word with those of 
 the neighbors who had gathered there to see us off, for the 
 whole Spicer family accompanied me to the station. 
 
 There were others waiting at the gate to say good-bye 
 and at various posts all the way down the lane. At 
 the big white house Emily came running out, breathless. 
 She whispered hurriedly in my ear, " There was a 
 message left. Ye was n t well. I reckon twas a message. 
 When fisherman and that other one came up from 
 the shore, day o the storm, he came to our house for Jim 
 to take him to Wallen. He said it was better to be 
 the dead one than him. He was awful white, and Jim 
 got harnessed, and just as fisherman was goin out, 
 he left a message along o me, though there wa n t 
 no names mentioned, and he talked queer; but he 
 wanted as somebody should know that he realized it all 
 now, and he could n t make up for it, never ; but it 
 was go n to be new or nothin for him, and they shouldn t 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 321 
 
 want for nothin , never, and kep a sayin more, and 
 no message, exactly, as ye could call a message, but I 
 reckoned I thought may be " 
 
 Emily s glowing eyes, fixed on my face, grew very wide 
 aiid grave. I could only press her hand in parting, for 
 Grandpa, growing impatient, had succeeded in clucking 
 Fanny on again. 
 
 We drove along the river road, and, passing through the 
 Indian encampment, there were more good-byes ex 
 changed by the roadside. 
 
 Then climbing up " Sandy Slope," beyond the settle 
 ment, we heard the shrill " Hullo ! " of a familiar voice, 
 and looking back, saw Bachelor Rae running after us 
 very swiftly, his head destitute of covering, and his little 
 wizened face glowing red as the celestial Mars in the dis 
 tance. He looked like some odd, fantastic toy that had 
 been wound up and set going. 
 
 So he came up with us, and trying to conceal his 
 breathlessness in polite little " hms and haws," delivered 
 aside, he offered me a huge bouquet composed, 1 should 
 think, of every sort of wild flower available on the Cape 
 at that season, and showing, in its arrangement, marks of 
 the most arduous striving after artistic effect. In the 
 other hand, he held out to me a basket of large, selected 
 boxbemes. 
 
 1 accepted the gifts with unaffected "delight, and 
 thanked Bachelor Rae warmly. J looked back at him, 
 trudging cheerfully homeward through the sand, so with 
 ered and small, with the grey in his hair, and his coat so 
 much too long for him back to the poor brown house, 
 which no tender love had ever hallowed, or merry wait 
 ing laugh made bright for him ; and I wondered, along 
 
322 CAPS COD FOLKS. 
 
 his life s way which looked so sad and desolate, what hid 
 den wild flowers God had strewed for him, that he seemed 
 always so humbly cheerful and content, and brought his 
 best of offerings with a smile to bless the happier lot of 
 Others. 
 
 For the rest of the way, the wild untenanted stretch 
 was unbroken by any incident; yet I remember no 
 tedium by the way ; and I believe that a trip taken with 
 Grandma and Grandpa Spicer through the most trackless 
 desert would inevitably have been made to teem with 
 diversion. Those blessed souls ! I smile, looking back, 
 but through tears, and with a reverence and tenderness 
 far deeper than the smile. 
 
 By the time we reached the West Wallen dep6t, the 
 sky had clouded over. 
 
 "A little shower comin up," Grandma said, but 
 Grandpa shook his head and prophesied " a long, stiddy 
 spell o weather." 
 
 I persuaded my friends not to wait with me for the 
 arrival of the train which, owing to some discrepancy in 
 the matter of time between Wallencamp and West Wai - 
 len, would not be due for an hour or more. 
 
 I watched them out of sight, the last of myWallen- 
 camp ! How deeply, how utterly it had grown into my 
 life, so that now, in spite of the secret, glad exultation I 
 felt at the thought of going home, my heart went running 
 out after that quaint, receding vehicle, and aching 
 sensibly. 
 
 On board the train at last, I began to experience some 
 thing of the sensation of one who awakens from long 
 sleep to the half-forgotten ways of men and life with a 
 vague, untroubled wonder as to the latest styles in dress ; 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 323 
 
 or, like a traveller from a strange country, weary, and way 
 worn, and out of date, who yet can smile hugging in his 
 breast the happy secret of boundless wealth in the gold 
 mine he has discovered far away. 
 
 I had neither umbrella, portmanteau, nor shawl-strap ; 
 such ordinary paraphernalia of travel I remembered 
 once to have possessed, and tried in vain to recall the 
 particular occasions on which they had been wrecked in 
 Wailencamp. I bore with me my bouquet, my basket of 
 boxberries, some small cedar trees for transplanting, and 
 half of the largest clam shell the shores of Cape Cod had 
 ever produced ; this last a parting gift from N nel Norris. 
 
 I was far from being troubled with the consciousness of 
 anything quaint or bizarre in my appearance. I felt no 
 mortification on account of these treasures so intrinsically 
 dear to my heart ; but Grandma Spicer had insisted on 
 binding a mustard paste on my chest. It was a parting 
 request I could not have refused but in the close air 
 of the car, the physical torture began to be extreme. 
 Tears fell on the cedar spray at my side, yet was I 
 withal strangely, peacefully happy. 
 
 It was raining when I passed through Boston. Once 
 more in the dm of a city, jolting noisily over the rough 
 uneven pavements, I found myself wondering continually 
 if the Spicers had reached home, and imagining how the 
 rain was falling gently, quietly, on the roof of the Ark. 
 
 At the next stage, at Hartford, 1 was half afraid that I 
 should meet brother or sister or some member of the 
 family, and so have the complete effect of my " surprise" 
 destroyed; but I saw none of them. There were few 
 passengers on board the Newton-bound train. It was 
 raining still. I was growing more and more glad at heart 
 
324 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 and looking out with my arm pressed against the window, 
 when I heard a voice right over me a soft, pitiful, thrill 
 ing exclamation : 
 
 " Great Heavens ! " 
 
 I looked up and saw John Cable. 
 
 He sank slowly down into the seat in front of me and, 
 for a moment, neither of us spoke. I did not mind 
 meeting John. I had not thought of including him in 
 the surprise. The sight of his familiar, friendly face gave 
 me a positive thrill of pleasure, but there was something 
 in his manner that kept me silent. 
 
 I said : " I m going to surprise them, John." 
 
 There was nothing offensive in the grave, swift glance 
 with which John Cable then took me in, me and my bou 
 quet of wilted wild flowers and my small cedar trees, only 
 a slow, solemn distinctness in his tone. 
 
 " You will succeed," he said. " Undoubtedly you will 
 succeed." 
 
 Still I felt no resentment. A gentle, sorrowful perplex 
 ity filled my breast. 
 
 "Why, do I look very very unusual, John?" 
 I questioned, and looking hi his face I wondered why, hi 
 the old days of careless jest and repartee, he had never 
 seemed so moved. 
 
 More words he said, but I could not bear them then, 
 and tears from an inward pain fell on the cedar spray, yet 
 I was glad that I had not grown so unusual that people 
 would never like me any more. 
 
 Next, the surprise was a success, as John Cable had 
 predicted, but that was the one point in my career in 
 which my genius had never failed me. My surprises, 
 though inclined to take something of the nature of an 
 
CAPS COD FOLKS. 826 
 
 accumulation of calamities, had never lacked the great 
 element of awe-producing wonder. 
 
 For the rest, I had known that I should be forgiven, and 
 received with the usual eclat of the returned prodigal into 
 the family bosom but to be held up on successive days 
 as an object of ever increasing marvel and interest, as one 
 whose words and acts were endowed with a peculiar 
 significance, as the light of the social fireside, the 
 enchanter of small spell-bound audiences ! Well, I 
 had been spoiled so early in life that little was needed to 
 complete the wreck. I felt a deeper satisfaction when, 
 as I was meekly beseeching our Bridget s instruction hi 
 some particular branch of the culinary art, that majestic 
 female observed, as she folded her arms and looked down 
 on me complacently : 
 
 " There s one thing I like better about you, than I used 
 to, miss you do have to wade through a great deal o 1 
 flour to larn a little plain cookin , but Job himself, 
 could n t a be n no patienter." And it was indeed true 
 that my " graham gems " never quite reached perfection, 
 though they bore with them marks of earnest and faithful 
 endeavor. 
 
 I found new sources of interest everywhere, and in ways 
 which I had formerly regarded with aversion and disdain. 
 
 At the " Newton Ladies Charitable Sewing Society " I 
 was elevated from among the common stitchers and 
 sewers, for faithfulness in service, I believe, though 
 malicious fingers would point to the distortion of the legs 
 of little heathens trousers, to a place on the "cutting 
 circle." From the cutting* circle, it is needless to say, 
 I was speedily exalted to a presidential chair of easeful 
 observation and general vague superintendency. 
 
820 CAPE COD FOLKS. 
 
 Later, there was a revival of the "Literary Club." 
 There John Cable and I shone once more amid a group 
 of familiar and undimmed luminaries. John Cable never 
 took up the exact thread of the discourse broken off 
 so abruptly on the day of my return in the cars, but it was 
 when coming home from the club one evening that 
 he expressed himself to the effect that I had always 
 been a great burden on his mind, even since the first day 
 he led me to school, and, to be sure, I had shown signs of 
 improvement lately, but there was always a pardonable 
 doubt as to what I might do next, and it was wearing on 
 him, and would I set his mind at rest by allowing him, in 
 some sense, to take the direction of my life into his 
 own hands? 
 
 John, though of adverse views, had been heatedly dis 
 cussing the merits of the Capital Punishment question at 
 the club, so I was not surprised at the unusual grace and 
 flow of his address. 
 
 Years have passed since that evening. I have been 
 very happy as John s wife. If I wander in my story, be it 
 said that little John is running a model express train 
 on the floor over my head. Little John, when not dream 
 ing, exercises a vast amount of destructive physical force. 
 
 A little more than a year after I left Wallencamp, 1 
 heard of Grandma and Grandpa Spicer s death. Very 
 quiet and peaceful," they said concerning Grandma, but 
 I had known what sort of a death-bed hers would be. 
 Scarcely a week after she had passed away, Grandpa 
 Spicer followed her. I had it from good authority that 
 he kept about the house till the last. There was a " rainy 
 
CAPE COD FOLKS. 327 
 
 spell," and he stood often gazing out of the window 
 "with a lost look on his face," and once he said with a 
 wistful, broken utterance and a pathetic longing in his 
 eyes that did away forever with any opprobrium there 
 might have been in connection with the term, that "it 
 was gittin to be very lonely about the house without ma 
 pesterin on him." 
 
 Since then, I have not heard from Wallencamp. It is 
 doubtful whether I ever get another letter from that 
 source. Though singularly gifted in the epistolary art, it 
 is but a dull and faint means of expression to the souls of 
 the Wallencampers and they will not forget. From the 
 storms that shake their earthly habitations, they pass to 
 their sweet, wild rest beside the sea; and>y and by, when 
 I meet them, I shall hear them sing. 
 
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