CHOY SUSAN 
 
 OTHER STORIES 
 
 WILLIAA HENRY BISHOP 
 

DETMOLD: A ROMANCE. " Little Classic" style. iSmo $1.25 
 THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE. A Novel 
 
 of New York. i2mo i-5 
 
 CHOY SUSAN, AND OTHER STORIES. i6mo . . . 1.25 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
CHOY SUSAN 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER STORIES 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP 
 
 AUTHOR OF "DETMOLD," "THE HOUSE OF A MERCHANT PRINCE, 
 "OLD MEXICO AND HER LOST PROVINCES," ETC. 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 
 
 Camfcribge 
 
 1885 
 
Copyright, 1884, 
 BY WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co. 
 
96 / 
 
 Bl 2. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHOY SUSAN 1 
 
 THE BATTLE OF BUNKEBLOO 59 
 
 DEODAND 94 
 
 BRAXTON S NEW ART 150 
 
 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES 193 
 
 MclNTYRE s FALSE FACE 241 
 
 Miss CALDERON S GERMAN 296 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE ADVENT OF TEN MOON. 
 
 LESTER BALDWIN, storekeeper, in a tent, 
 down at Sloan s Camp, arrived one morning at 
 a Chinese fishing-village on the shore of the 
 wide Pacific Ocean, in search of a few more 
 railroad hands. 
 
 Instead of inquiring for the " bossee man " of 
 the village in the usual way, it was, strangely 
 enough, a woman, Choy Susan, to whom he 
 directed himself. Choy Susan enjoyed in the 
 Celestial community partly through innate 
 force of character, and partly because she had 
 mastered the English tongue, and thus made 
 herself invaluable in business dealings with the 
 outside world a position quite unusual with 
 her sex. 
 
 Choy Susan was not at home. Nor, for the 
 moment, was her partner, Yuen Wa, a super 
 annuated little old man, employed to tend shop 
 
2 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 for her during her frequent absences, which 
 often included even bold adventures to the 
 fishing-grounds. 
 
 The storekeeper, as he stood knocking at 
 the door, was a long, lank figure, " sandy-com 
 plected," as he himself would have said, with a 
 sandy " goatee," a cast in one eye, and a chronic 
 huskiness of voice. To his friends he was not 
 Lester, but "Yank," or Yankee, Baldwin. 
 
 A large Chinese parrot, the morose " Tong," 
 hung in a wooden cage without, alone acknowl 
 edged his presence and delivered in response 
 to his knock a torrent of jargon, undoubtedly 
 abuse, in the vernacular. 
 
 " Quack-a-lee ! cack-a-lee-lee-ee ! whoo-oosh ! 
 You re another," returned Yank Baldwin, face 
 tiously, by way of reply in kind, and went on to 
 continue his search. 
 
 The village had a deserted look. Even some 
 doors which had stood ajar on the storekeeper s 
 first approach now churlishly closed. There was 
 no one at the tawdry little out-of-doors theatre, 
 no one at the fane of Hop Wo, where an inscrip 
 tion for the benefit of strangers directed : " By 
 This Way Go up Stairs ; " there were no smooth 
 polls being scraped smoother yet at the barber 
 shop. A person, in the smoky little cabaret, 
 with its heavy wooden tables, who was engaged 
 in preparing a dessert of hog s fat and sweet- 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 3 
 
 meats for the noonday meal, answered shortly, 
 "Twel* o clock!" and could not be induced to 
 add another word. 
 
 " I d like to wring your neck," began Yank 
 Baldwin; but, again, resignedly, "Oh, well, 
 what s the use ! " 
 
 He saw some men at a distance, on the beach, 
 busied at a smoking tar-kettle, apparently mend 
 ing a boat. He was betaking himself thither, 
 and had reached a point where a grotesque idol, 
 deity of fishermen, squatted on a rock among 
 the dwellings, when he heard himself hailed : 
 
 " Eh, one man ! " cried a voice, " where you 
 go?" 
 
 It was Choy Susan herself. She had perhaps 
 observed his quest, from some occupation in 
 which she had been engaged in a shed used 
 for general storage. She waddled towards him, 
 her ample form costumed in a wide jacket and 
 pantaloons of shiny black cotton, men s gaiters 
 on her large feet, and a bunch of keys dangling 
 at her girdle. Her round full face was plenti 
 fully marked with traces of small-pox. 
 
 " Oh, is that you, Choy Susan ? How do ? " 
 
 "How do?" replied Choy Susan, in a non 
 committal way. 
 
 " It s a month o Sundays sence I ve seen 
 you, Susan. It s good for weak eyes to set em 
 on a fine, strappin , handsome figger of a woman 
 like you, agin." 
 
4 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 " Too much dam talkee ! What want ? " she 
 responded, treating this ingratiatory palaver 
 with contempt. 
 
 " Well, then, we 11 get down to business 
 right away. Say ! I want catchee about a 
 dozen good China boys, go down workee on 
 railroad, Miller s division." 
 
 " No, can t catchee nothin . Man all gone 
 flish. Bimeby, some time, other day." 
 
 " Good pay ! muchee eat ! plenty much rice ! " 
 said the other, imperturbably, making panto 
 mime of raising food to the mouth with both 
 hands. " Say ! I knew you was the one to git 
 em. Sez I, 4 If Choy Susan can t git em for 
 us, nobody kin. : 
 
 " Too much talkee ! No, can t catchee noth- 
 
 And she made as if about to brusquely con 
 clude the interview and go back to her affairs. 
 
 " It s probably Easterby that would want 
 em," appealed the applicant. " You know 
 Easterby. He s a white man." 
 
 "Mist Easte by he a daisy," returned the 
 Chinawoman. She seemed rather mollified at 
 this name, and now gazed up the street as if 
 more inclined to consider the matter. This 
 Easterby had, in fact, ingratiated himself with 
 her of old by some small politeness or service, 
 a pleasant way he had of doing. 
 
CIIOY SUSAN. 5 
 
 The village consisted of a main thoroughfare 
 of wooden cabins, silvered gray by the weather, 
 with a motley cluster, nearer the shore, of fish- 
 houses, strangely-fashioned boats, and tackles, 
 and tall frames of poles, along which were 
 strung rows of fish drying in the sun. All was 
 set down amid rugged bowlders, as silvery-gray 
 as the houses. Bright little patches of color, 
 red and yellow papers inscribed with hiero 
 glyphics, a gay pennant, a tasseled glass lan 
 tern, a carved and gilded sign, scattered here 
 and there through the whole, might serve, from 
 a distance, as a reminiscence of the once vivid 
 spring wild-flowers of the section, now vanished 
 from the brown, dry pastures of midsummer. 
 
 Just in the edge of the expanse of blue bay 
 lay at anchor the Chinese junk, Good Success 
 and Golden Profits, to transcribe into prac 
 ticable form the mystic blazonry of her title 
 come round on her periodic trip from San Fran 
 cisco, to gather up the product of the fishing 
 industry and bring a freight of salt and empty 
 barrels. She had discharged her cargo, and all 
 at present was as quiet on board her as else 
 where. 
 
 " That s right now," pursued Yank Baldwin, 
 following up his advantage. " Easterby s allers 
 said your bark was worse than your bite." 
 
 Choy Susan s bark was, in fact, worse than 
 
CIIOY SUSAN. 
 
 her bite. She was plainly a person much in the 
 habit of being deferred to ; and this, together 
 with her need of defending herself against scof 
 fers, of whom she had met with not a few among 
 the " Melican " men, in a long experience, had 
 given her a manner bluff, masculine, and even 
 surly. But she was amenable to kindness, and 
 there were even moments when, under her un 
 smiling exterior, she almost seemed to appre 
 ciate the humor of herself. 
 
 She prided herself on giving back to scoffers 
 as good as they sent. She had begun her Eng 
 lish at the Stockton Street Mission in San Fran 
 cisco, and perfected it at the mines of Bodie. 
 Now Bodie is a place where it is said that they 
 would steal a red-hot stove with a fire in it, and 
 " a bad man from Bodie " has passed into a 
 proverb for all that is lawless and terrorizing. 
 At this university she had picked up the choice 
 stock of slang so useful to her in her way of 
 life, together with her hybrid, half-English 
 name, and the independent methods of action 
 which made her the somewhat awe-inspiring 
 figure that she was. 
 
 The negotiations for laborers had progressed 
 to the point indicated when a prodigious clat 
 tering of horse s hoofs was heard. On they 
 came, drawing, every instant nearer, till the 
 sound increased to a phenomenal racket. 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 1 
 
 " Ger-eat guns ! " cried Yank Baldwin, clap 
 ping bis hat hard down upon his head and run 
 ning around a corner for the better view, fol 
 lowed in a more leisurely way by Choy Susan. 
 
 A cavalier came tearing into the settlement, 
 like a comet, as it were, run ashore. It was a 
 Chinaman, mounted on a small roan steed, which 
 snorted, wheezed, kicked, and bolted in the most 
 extraordinary manner. The rider s loose gar 
 ments ballooned in the wind, his eyes started 
 from his head in terror, and at every plunge of 
 the animal he bounded from the saddle high 
 into the air. 
 
 A stride or two more, and they were here ; 
 another, and they were gone far up the street. 
 
 A sudden population, now appearing, wher 
 ever they had been, rushed forth and threw 
 themselves in the track, crying in tones of ag 
 onized expostulation, 
 
 " Ten Moon ! Ten Moon ! " 
 " Ten Moon ! " shrieked the parrot, Tong, at 
 Choy Susan s door, in a fierce, goblin-like mim 
 icry of these. 
 
 Never, perhaps, since the days of the " fiery 
 untamed steed" of Mazeppa, or since Roland 
 brought the good news from Ghent, had eques 
 trian arrived anywhere in more redoubtable 
 haste than this. 
 
 " Well, if it ain t Ten Moon, the cook o the 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 Palace Boardin House, on my pony, Rattle- 
 weed ! Oho ! ho ! ho-o ! The boys has put up 
 a job on him ! " cried Yank Baldwin, slapping 
 himself on the thigh with a big coarse hand. 
 " A Chinaman on horseback ! that beats a Jack 
 Tar, and they beat the Dutch," and he doubled 
 himself up in convulsions of laughter. 
 
 Turning inadvertently about, in his delight, 
 he discovered a new figure, that of a pleasing 
 young woman, standing behind him. He re 
 ported at camp afterwards that he was " dead 
 gone on " her from the first instant he saw her. 
 She had come quietly out of the storage shed, 
 where, it seemed, she had been in company 
 with Choy Susan. 
 
 She was attired in a brown merino dress 
 with a few furbelows on the skirt. At the neck 
 she wore a wide linen collar of a very fresh 
 aspect ; her brown hair was neatly smoothed. 
 Her girlish face, of a clear pale complexion, had 
 the general features rather small, though a long 
 upper lip contributed to give a certain thought 
 ful cast. She wore a large flamboyant hat, of 
 a kind which might have been in fashion on 
 the Eastern seaboard some three years before. 
 The knowing in such matters would have de 
 tected in her many traces of rusticity, but to 
 Yank Baldwin she seemed the epitome of ele 
 gant distinction. She was a person far beyond 
 
C1IOY SUSAN. 9 
 
 most of those he was in the habit of seeing in 
 his way of life, and he considered her " high- 
 toned," or "tony," in the extreme. A thought 
 of unfaithfulness to the memory of a certain 
 Spanish Luisa, of Monterey, at once occurred 
 to him. 
 
 He drew a long face, as not deeming his 
 merriment wholly decorous before the stranger, 
 and threw out, by way of overture at conversa 
 tion, 
 
 " A pleasant day ! " 
 
 " Yes, it is a pleasant day," she returned. 
 
 But she gave him very little heed ; her glance 
 was following with painful intensity instead the 
 flying form of Ten Moon. 
 
 " Oh, he will be hurt ; he will be killed, will 
 he not ? " she cried, clasping her hands appeal- 
 ingly as the rider disappeared around a turn. 
 
 " Yes, I s pose so ; that is, I hope so," replied 
 the storekeeper nonchalantly, taking it quite as 
 a matter of course. 
 
 The trio were now walking onward to witness 
 the adventure, which must certainly be near its 
 close, among the narrow lanes and by-ways of 
 the place ; Choy Susan behind the other two. 
 
 " You talk so about a fellow-being ? " said 
 the young girl, turning indignantly upon Bald 
 win. 
 
 " Well, may be they is feller-bein s. I dunno 
 
10 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 but they is," he returned, weakening under her 
 glance, and with an apologetic tone. " I dimno 
 s I Ve got anything particular agin em, if you 
 hain t." 
 
 He apparently admired in her an unusual 
 spirit and originality of ideas, as well as good 
 looks. 
 
 " The Chinese has got to go, though, I 
 s pose?" he suggested inquiringly. 
 
 " Well, that s no reason for wanting them all 
 to be fatally injured while they re here." 
 
 But a much closer interest (soon to appear) 
 than benevolence towards the race prompted 
 her solicitude for this representative of it. 
 
 " What is the matter with the pony, and why 
 do they call him Rattleweed?" she now con 
 descended to inquire. 
 
 "They ve got to call him something, " he 
 replied, as if this were a complete and full 
 explanation. 
 
 " Oh ! " she merely commented, taking him 
 in his own way, as if it were in fact an explana 
 tion. Before he could add anything further, he 
 was called away to take part in a curious melee 
 which now met their eyes in front. 
 
 The eccentric little animal, after fuming im 
 patiently through various by-ways, had been 
 checked by a pile of rocks and fishing para 
 phernalia, forming a cul-de-sac. This hud given 
 
cno Y SUSAN. 11 
 
 time for assistance to come up. Some of the 
 rescuers had thrown their arms wildly about its 
 neck ; others had seized Ten Moon by the legs ; 
 still others endeavored, with ropes, sticks, and 
 poles, to snare the pony and throw him down. 
 
 Taken thus at a disadvantage, Rattleweed at 
 last succumbed. With a certain expression as 
 of duty accomplished, he went down amid great 
 clamor, Ten Moon still in the saddle, and the 
 others falling upon them in a confused heap. 
 
 All emerged from this, miraculous to say, 
 with but few bruises and practically unhurt. 
 When Ten Moon had felt his bones and found 
 none of them broken, he began a voluble recital 
 of his story to the crowd. The young sur 
 veyors down at Sloan s Camp, he said, had 
 mounted him on this never-to-be-sufficiently- 
 accursed beast, under pretense of kindness, that 
 he might the sooner get back from his errand. 
 The audience expressed, in looks and shrill tones 
 of disgust, their opinion of the baseness of the 
 surveyors aforesaid. 
 
 Choy Susan, with her air of authority, strode 
 forward and interrupted the narration. She 
 touched the speaker on the shoulder, drew him 
 aside, and seemed to listen to some kind of re 
 port from him. Then she returned to her com 
 panion and reported in turn : 
 
 16 Ten Moon no got answer. No could find 
 
12 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 Mist Easte by. Easte by gone way down Mil 
 ler s Camp. They send letter if he no come 
 back light away, bimeby, plitty click." 
 
 The young girl made an effort at first to re 
 press a strong feeling ; then broke down with 
 a despairing cry. 
 
 "Oh, what shall I do," she said, "if he does 
 not get my letter at all ? " 
 
 The interpreter and autocrat of the Chinese 
 village looked at her in open surprise, followed 
 at once by an expression of shrewd insight. 
 
 " You want to mally Mist Easte by ? He 
 you beau ? " she asked in a bluff, friendly way. 
 
 " Oh, Choy Susan, my father wants to make 
 me marry another man ! He has gone to Sole- 
 dad now, to bring him. When they get back, 
 it will have to be done. My father is a a 
 minister, in our faith, and can do it himself." 
 
 " How you come stay here ? " 
 
 " I got my father to leave me on pretext of 
 sickness. I told him I could not travel any 
 farther in the jolting stage, and now I don t 
 know what to do." 
 
 " Easte by goin stop it ? " 
 
 " It was only by the merest accident I knew 
 he was here," she returned, embarrassed. " I 
 saw his name in a paper as among the survey 
 ors at this place." 
 
 " How you come know he ? " 
 
cnoY SUSAN. 13 
 
 Choy Susan propounded her questions in a 
 dry, almost inquisitorial way. 
 
 " I used to know him when he was survey 
 ing down at Lehi, on the Utah Central road, 
 and afterwards at Salt Lake City. It is a very 
 long time ago. He used to talk to me about - 
 about running away, and joining his mother 
 and sisters." 
 
 44 So you goin lun away, now ? " 
 
 " Oh, Choy Susan, how can I ? He has n t 
 asked me. He does n t know I am here I 
 don t want to marry anybody ever. I only 
 want somebody to sympathize with me to 
 Jcnoiv." 
 
 She burst into hysterical sobs, and put her 
 handkerchief to her face. 
 
 44 Finding you here, I I thought I would 
 get you to take a note to him," she added : 
 44 but he will never get it." 
 
 44 Urn ! " commented Choy Susan. u This 
 new husbin, he goin be Mormin, too ? Takee 
 plenty more wife, alle same likee Chinaman?" 
 
 44 Yes, he is Mormon, too. They would not 
 let me marry any other. They would think it 
 my everlasting perdition. He is a relation of 
 mine. I ve never seen him but once and he 
 is old, and and ugly and I hate him." 
 
 44 No good for woman to mally man with 
 plenty otha wife," said Choy Susan, with a 
 
14 ClIOY SUSAN. 
 
 philosophic air, after a pause. " My makee big 
 mistake myself." 
 
 " Ah ? " 
 
 The listener turned an attentive ear to sym 
 pathetic wisdom even from so rude a source as 
 this. 
 
 " Yes. You heap good lookee, but heap good 
 lookee can catchee alle same plenty bad time." 
 
 Choy Susan meant, no doubt, that even great 
 beauty may be coupled with a hapless fate, 
 which we all know is true enough. " My 
 know how it was myself," she continued. " My 
 tellee you. My husbin name Hop Lee. My 
 mally Hop Lee when my Jesus girl, down 
 Stocktin Stleet Mission. He Jesus boy, too." 
 
 " Oh, you were Christians, then ? " 
 
 " One time ; not now. Hop Lee he say, 
 You mally me ; I got heap big store, heap 
 money. You no work sewin -m chine ; you 
 catchee plenty good time, plenty loafee. I no 
 takee no more wife. " 
 
 " He promised you not to marry again, 
 then ? " 
 
 " He plomise." The speaker closed one eye 
 shrewdly ; then reopened it. " Birneby plitty 
 click I get sick, small-pock. He say, 4 You no 
 good. Shut up ! I goin bling otha wife. He 
 bling two more wife. They beatee me ; makee 
 work sewin -m chine alle time, alle time, alle 
 samee likee slave." 
 
CEOY SUSAN. 15 
 
 " Poor Choy Susan ! " 
 
 " Yes. So one day I Inn way. Catchee 
 money and man clothes, catchee railroad, and 
 goee Salt Lake City." 
 
 " And that was the time when you had 
 broken your arm, and I met you there ? " 
 
 "Yes, and you helpa me. Biraeby I go 
 Bodie; then come here, get pardner, go fish, 
 and kleep store." 
 
 44 And what has become of Hop Lee ? " 
 
 " He dead," said Choy Susan, contemptu 
 ously. " I pray Jesus ligion first time makee 
 Hop Lee die, but it no makee him die. Then 
 I pray China ligion makee die, and China 
 ligion makee die, and both wife too, light 
 away, plitty click. China joss much more 
 good. Jesus ligion no good." 
 
 " Oh, no, you must not say that ! " expostu 
 lated the girl ; but she was easily led back to 
 her own affair, to which the Chinese inter 
 preter returned. 
 
 " When you father and otha man comin 
 back ? " inquired the latter. 
 
 " Inside of four or five days ; and then it 
 will have to be done," the fair speaker whim 
 pered tearfully. 
 
 " Oh, plenty muchee time ! plenty time ! 
 reassuringly. " Easte by he get letter, he come. 
 You see ! " 
 
16 CffOY SUSAN. 
 
 Yank Baldwin now came up and interrupted, 
 having taken his eccentric pony away from the 
 chaotic scramble, and secured him in a place of 
 safety. 
 
 " Crazy as a bedbug ! " he condescended to 
 explain. " He s eat some o this here rattle- 
 weed, loco-weed, what grows in the pastures. 
 It gives em a kind o jim-jams. He goes like 
 that every time he starts out. Never knows 
 when to stop. He d run himself to death if 
 you d let him. Run away once t with a pay 
 master s wagon, and seven thousand dollars un 
 der the seat, and was out all night, and found 
 asleep on his feet next mornin , in the woods." 
 
 His new acquaintance made a polite pretense 
 of listening, but furtively edged off, at the same 
 time, to take her departure. 
 
 " He 11 go down, some day, all of a heap, like 
 the sun in the tropicts," said the man, follow 
 ing her up. " There s folks like that, too, 
 always on the jump, always burnin the candle 
 at both ends. I ve been a good deal that way 
 myself. I ve been thinkin it s bout time for 
 me to get me a good, spry, harnsome wife, and 
 settle down." 
 
 He accompanied this speech with a glance 
 of bold admiration which had a meaning plainly 
 evident. 
 
 Yank Baldwin s theory was " love at first 
 
CUOY SUSAN. 17 
 
 sight," and by no means confined to a single 
 occasion either. His stock of devotion lay very 
 near the surface, and subject to many and 
 prompt demands. It was said of him that he 
 had once proposed to a waiter-girl at Frisco on 
 her bringing the second cup of coffee, and had 
 lost her only through being distanced by a 
 comrade who had already secured her after the 
 first. 
 
 The fair stranger did not remain long to lis 
 ten to these gallantries, but tripped demurely 
 away from the hamlet, going in the direction 
 of the Palace Boarding House, at no great dis 
 tance off. 
 
 " Who is she ? " inquired Baldwin, looking 
 after her. 
 
 " She one o them Mormins, friend o mine 
 over to Salt Lake." 
 
 "She ain t no Mormon," in strong incredu 
 lity. 
 
 " She Mormin, you hear me ? " retorted 
 Choy Susan, severely. " Goiri mally man with 
 heap otha wife alle same likee Chinaman, too." 
 
 " Go way ! " 
 
 He whistled softly. 
 
 " You go way ! " returned Choy Susan, in 
 her most rowdy manner. 
 
 " Where s she stoppin ? " the storekeeper 
 inquired, reflectively. 
 
18 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 " Palace Boardin House." 
 
 " That s where I take my meals myself, 
 when I m up here from camp. I 11 be goiii 
 over there pretty soon." 
 
 He whistled several times more, low medita 
 tive whistles of peculiar meaning. 
 
 " What was Ten Moon up to, down there to 
 camp ? " he asked. 
 
 " Guess he want see China cook," the woman 
 replied, carelessly. " Goin back to China day 
 after to-morra. Takee boat down there," point 
 ing to the junk in the bay; " then big boat on 
 big water from Frisco." 
 
 Upon this they returned to the matter of 
 securing hands for the railroad. Yank Bald 
 win interrupted once more, however, as if dis 
 missing, in a final way, some absurd idea that 
 might have flashed through his brain. 
 
 " No Mormon in mine ! Not any ! That 
 ain t what I m after. Spanish Luisa s bet 
 ter n that, a mighty sight." 
 
 It was necessary to see Yuen Wa, Choy Su 
 san s " pardner," about the negotiation. He 
 had been a contractor for labor in his time, 
 and still kept, more or less, the run of such 
 matters. He was found now in the stuffy little 
 shop, a place full of curious truck, specimens of 
 the fine large avallonia shells from the beach, 
 dried avallonia meat raid goose livers, opium 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 19 
 
 pipes, sticks of India ink, silver jewelry, and 
 packets of face powder for the women. A 
 wizened-up little old man, with a thin, piping 
 voice, and reticent of speech, he was more like 
 one of his own idols than anything else. It 
 was easy to see that he was a person of minor 
 importance as compared with his more vigorous 
 feminine associate. 
 
 "All our available labor," explained Yuen 
 Wa, in substance, " is needed to-morrow and 
 next day to get the junk Good Success and 
 Golden Profits off to sea. After that, comes a 
 series of good days, a festival, when we do 
 no work at all. But after that" 
 
 " Never you mind," said Yank Baldwin. 
 " I 11 go and see them Eyetalians over to Mon 
 terey. May be I kin get enough o them. If 
 I can t, I 11 come back. And may be none 
 won t be needed any way. It s kinder onsar- 
 
 As he was going, he observed Choy Susan 
 pick up, as with some surprise, a couple of 
 small English volumes, from one end of her 
 counter. 
 
 "B long to she. Leave m here, I guess, 
 when she comee see me, yest d y," she said, re 
 flectively. 
 
 "Whose? hern ? " said Yank Baldwin, stand 
 ing beside her as she opened them. " I m goin 
 
20 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 back her way. I 11 give em to her," and he 
 took them from her eagerly, almost by force. 
 
 One proved to be a book of doctrines of the 
 church of Mormon, or Latter-Day Saints. The 
 other was a novel somewhat noted for its pe 
 culiarly tender and affecting love passages. 
 In the former was inscribed, in a prim, small, 
 girlish hand, the name probably of the owner 
 Marcella Eudora Grilham, Deseret University, 
 Salt Lake City. Underneath was a date of 
 about two years earlier. 
 
 Some passages of the doctrines were heavily 
 underscored in pencil, as if they might have 
 been subject of peculiar wrestling and study, 
 or perhaps, again, in triumphant recognition of 
 their force against error. 
 
 Yank Baldwin turned the volumes musingly, 
 as he went along, and more than once nearly 
 came to grief over obstructions on the road on 
 account of them. And he whistled softly to 
 himself a great many times more. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE PALACE BOARDING HOUSE. 
 
 The Palace Boarding House had once been 
 an inn. It was enjoying a slight revival of 
 prosperity at present through the burning down 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 21 
 
 of the hotel at the American - Spanish town 
 near by, which it adjoins on the one hand, 
 as it did the Chinese village on the other. It 
 lay at the intersection of two roads, leading 
 respectively up and down the coast and back 
 into the interior. Behind it were great dusky 
 woods of a moss-hung pine and cypress peculiar 
 to the coast, and before it was the sea, pali 
 saded by bold gray cliffs. It was but a ram 
 bling shingle edifice, in shabby repair, and its 
 title was hardly borne out by the facts, but 
 was, rather, a tribute from the florid imagina 
 tion of the place. 
 
 At one corner of the shabby veranda creaked 
 a large signboard, reading thus : 
 
 PALACE BOARDING HOUSE, 
 
 SQUARE MEALS, $1.00. 
 BY MRS. JANE McCURDY. 
 
 Some hens were scratching . about the sterile 
 door-yard, and a colt, with his head triced up 
 in a breaking-bridle, was wandering there, with 
 a portentous sense of the indignity of his situa 
 tion. 
 
 Yank Baldwin was late at dinner, and his 
 new acquaintance, Miss Marcella Eudora Gil- 
 ham, was late also and the only guest at table 
 
22 cnor SUSAN. 
 
 with him. He was so impressed with her anew 
 that he forgot for some time to give back the 
 books he had brought. He paused in admi 
 ration with his fork half raised to his mouth. 
 She had made some slight new adjustments to 
 her toilette. She was without the flamboyant 
 hat, had added a fresh new bow at the neck, 
 and her smooth hair was smoother than ever. 
 He contrasted hers with the somewhat frowzy 
 style of Spanish Luisa, of Monterey; and 
 though the raven tresses, heavy eye-brows, and 
 soft and melting mouth of this latter were of a 
 genuine fascination, he felt the contrast as one 
 most unfavorable to her. 
 
 Finally he bethought him of the books, re 
 turned them, and made various other ingrati 
 ating advances, but for the moment without 
 notable success. 
 
 "If she wa n t Mormon, I don t s pose I 
 could expect her to look the same side o the 
 road I was on," he said to himself. 
 
 Mrs. Jane McCurdy, the landlady, now came 
 in from her arduous labors in the kitchen, to 
 permit herself the solace of her own dinner. 
 
 " Mr. Bald in, he s connected with the new 
 railroad," she said to Marcella, by way of aid 
 ing to bring about a sociable feeling between 
 the two guests. 
 
 " My eldest son, he s allers follered firm , too, 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 23 
 
 on the railroad, or else teamin , one. I dnnno 
 just what is become of him now," she con 
 tinued, foraging, and making judicious selec 
 tions from the lukewarm viands remaining on 
 the various tables. 
 
 It seemed as if Marcella regarded the store 
 keeper upon this with an increase of interest. 
 She had a certain meditative way of looking at 
 him, and began to talk more amiably, though 
 on general topics. 
 
 " Somebody was sayin how she was a Mor 
 mon," suggested Yank Baldwin to the landlady, 
 when the girl had finally left the room. 
 
 " I expect she is," sighed that hardworked 
 woman, sitting down in a weary way. 
 
 " Josephite, most likely ? I ve seen Joseph- 
 ites down to San Barnardino. They ain t much 
 different from other folks." 
 
 " No, I expect she s one o the reglar uns." 
 
 " Not solid Mormon ? " 
 
 " Solid" said Mrs. McCurdy, shutting out 
 the last ray of hope, as she peeled a cold boiled 
 potato. 
 
 Yank Baldwin groaned in spirit. 
 
 " Her father, he s a kind o bishop, or pos- 
 tle, among em, I guess," went on the landlady, 
 gossiping. " Round this way to visit among 
 the brethren and do a stroke o business at the 
 same time, introducin goods. I see his cards, 
 
24 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 with Zion s Cob ppyrative Bazaar onto em, and 
 a pile o tracts on religion, lyin in his room. 
 They went over to try and sell some things to 
 the China stores the fust day they come, and 
 the daughter she run acrost Choy Susan there. 
 Pears she knew her of old." 
 
 " So I understand." 
 
 " There s a kind o scatterin of the brethren 
 round through here, on account o some bein 
 left over after the Mexikirt> war, and there s 
 others a-formin new settlements. They say 
 they re a-goin to settle all over everything 
 after a while, but I dun no." 
 
 " Sho ! " commented Yank Baldwin. 
 
 " I ve had consid rable many of em stop with 
 me, off and on. Fact is, I had a sister among 
 em once t. They roped her in, some way, down 
 in Illinois, in early times. She used to see 
 hull quires of angils ; I dunno but what t was 
 
 " Well, how s business ? " inquired the store 
 keeper, affecting a brisk air as he put on his 
 wide slouch hat, after finishing his meal. 
 
 "You know of any good China cook?" re 
 turned the landlady, answering his question 
 absently with another. "Ten Moon s goin 
 back to his own country, and I ve got to git 
 somebody. Them camp-meetin folks, too, 11 
 be down this way pretty quick, to open up at 
 
CHOT SUSAN. 25 
 
 Pacific Grove, and that allers makes consid rable 
 extra eatin . Rev. Samyil Snow has writ. He 
 gin rally writes to let me know when they re 
 comin ." 
 
 " You better hustle round pretty lively, then," 
 said Baldwin. "The head o construction s 
 goin to be moved up this way, too, from Sloan s 
 Camp. I should n t wonder if we started, now, 
 inside o three or four days. That 11 make 
 more extra eatin for you." 
 
 Marcella Gilham was waiting for him on the 
 veranda, when he came out. She talked a while 
 on indifferent matters ; then, as if by the way, 
 
 " Oh, are you acquainted with a young man, 
 on the railroad, by the name of Rufus D. Eas- 
 terby ? " she asked. 
 
 " What, Rufe ? Ruf us D. ? I should say so." 
 
 " He is a chain-man, with the surveyors." 
 
 " He ain t no chain-man now. He s got to 
 be transit-man, at seventy-five dollars a month 
 and found. Picked it all up himself. Picks up 
 everything himself. You know him ? " 
 
 " I have met him," she replied, evasively. 
 
 "Well, you ve met a bang-up good feller, 
 and a smart un. He s bound to be division 
 engineer fore a great while, is Rufus." 
 
 " If you should happen to see him when you 
 go back, you might mention that you had seen 
 me here." 
 
26 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 " O course I will ; o course I 11 mention it. 
 He often comes into my tent of an evening and 
 chins. He s give me advice more n once that 
 I Ve follered up and made money out of." 
 
 Marcella was very gracious now, at con 
 siderable length, to the storekeeper. As he 
 mounted and rode away, she called out to 
 him, 
 
 " I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing 
 you again." 
 
 But the next moment she turned away, and 
 said to herself mournfully, " If I have made a 
 good impression upon him, and the letter has 
 miscarried, this man may yet bring me news." 
 
 " Well, be good to yourself ! " concluded 
 Yank Baldwin, galloping away on his queer 
 pony, who had no terrors for him, immensely 
 flattered at her favor. 
 
 " Hopes she 11 have the pleasure o seein me 
 agin, does she ? " he soliloquized. " Pity bout 
 her bein a Mormon, ain t it. Should n t won 
 der, now, if I could convert that there girl over 
 as easy as rollin off a log." 
 
 He repeated many times more in the course 
 of the evening, "Pity bout her bein Mormon, 
 ain t it ? " together with the suggestion of con 
 verting her. Converting her to what ? It would 
 have been very hard to say. Yank Baldwin s 
 own theological opinions were of an extremely 
 indefinite sort. 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 27 
 
 He wandered in an aimless way about his 
 store, with its stock of overalls, cowhide boots, 
 blankets, tin cups, powder and shot, kerosene, 
 and bags of meal and potatoes, distributed over 
 the ground, and a rude counter and row of 
 shelves behind it. The usual visitors came in, 
 and sat around a barrel, now forming a con 
 venient nucleus, instead of the winter stove. 
 
 An inspiration suddenly took him to move his 
 store on the morrow, without waiting further. 
 He should be near her, and would have the 
 ampler leisure, before the rest of the camp 
 should follow, to cultivate her acquaintance. 
 Some mongrel Indians of the neighborhood 
 came in for a transaction in an article of stove- 
 blacking which they were using as a choice 
 quality of face-paint, and this completed his 
 disgust and his readiness to go. 
 
 " No use o stayin here ; there ain t no busi 
 ness doin ," he said. Then he addressed him 
 self to a couple of stout young fellows who had 
 hauled some supplies into camp that day, and 
 had a team standing idle. 
 
 " Sa 7> you young roosters ! what 11 you take, 
 to move my fixtures complete up to the new 
 location to-morrer ? " 
 
 The teamsters named a price. 
 
 " You don t want the job," he said, curtly. 
 
 " The feed of the horses will cost so much," 
 they argued. 
 
28 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 " No livin horses can eat so much." 
 " The tent alone will make one load." 
 " No, it won t make not half a load." 
 " It will take a couple of days to do the job." 
 " Ah-a ! you 11 have it all done by to-morrer 
 noon," contemptuously. 
 
 The "young roosters " uttered a cry of indig 
 nation. 
 
 " Oh, I mean if you work. And when I say 
 work, I don t mean dawdlin and goin to sleep 
 over it, the way you work for the railroad, 
 either." 
 
 The spectators took sides for and against in 
 this argument. The teamsters now went out 
 side the tent, laid their heads together myste 
 riously, and returned with a new price. 
 
 This was in turn rejected, and the negotia 
 tion seemed wholly at an end. 
 
 " Well, I 11 raise you the five dollars any 
 way," spoke out Yank Baldwin, in fine, from 
 a gloomy silence. He infused as much super 
 ciliousness as possible into his consent. " But 
 see you get started at daylight, and don t you 
 forget it ! " 
 
 He felt that feminine influence and it was 
 not for the first time had crippled him. If 
 left unbiased, he would have brought the mat 
 ter to a much more advantageous conclusion. 
 Marcella hovered near, on his arrival at the 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 29 
 
 new site next day with his second load of effects. 
 As he volunteered nothing about Easterby of 
 his own accord, she came to the point. 
 
 "No, I hain t seen nothin of him," said Bald 
 win in response. " Fact is, he s off sornewheres, 
 though I guess he 11 be back fore a great while. 
 A letter came for him yest d y, too, and is waitin 
 for him, unless they Ve sent it on." 
 
 The girl turned quickly away to hide her dis 
 appointment at this cheerless intelligence. 
 
 Whether roused by the early start of its 
 storekeeper, or for other reasons, the whole of 
 Sloan s Camp got in motion the same day much 
 in advance of its original intention. By night 
 fall a considerable number of the tents were 
 pitched, and the head of construction wa*s defin 
 itely established at the new location. 
 
 This was a deep little valley, made charming 
 by a babbling brook, amid embowering woods. 
 The rattle of the powder blasts in the adjoin 
 ing canyon already began to resound there, 
 from the new railroad coming rapidly on. 
 
 Yank Baldwin was not more than half in^ 
 stalled when he began to pay his court to Mar- 
 cella. He invited her to camp after supper, 
 to see the planet Jupiter, its moons now of a 
 peculiar distinctness, through the surveyors 
 transit. She accepted, taking Mrs. McCurdy 
 with her, however, for further companionship. 
 
30 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 Perhaps she might happen upon some news at 
 the camp. Perhaps, even, but that was too 
 good to be true, Easterby himself might by 
 this time have arrived. 
 
 The tents, with their lights within, glowed 
 translucent in the dusk, like some strange great 
 kind of lanterns. The noise of the clear run 
 ning brook smote musically upon the ear ; the 
 stars twinkled down over the edge of the nar 
 row valley, and Jupiter was found in fact ex 
 ceptionally brilliant. The engineer, the rod- 
 man, the two chain-men, and the axe-man had 
 come, with a very polite man temporarily in 
 charge of the transit instrument. But East 
 erby had not arrived, nor did the few timid 
 inquiries the gentle visitor dared to propound 
 bring any definite information about him, if in 
 deed there were any to give. 
 
 She tried to bear up, however, and on the 
 return artfully drew out Yank Baldwin on the 
 habits of railroad constructors and surveyors. 
 
 " Are the surveyors usually married ? " she 
 inquired. " Is Mr. Easterby, for example ? " 
 
 " If not, have they often sweethearts ? " 
 
 "Has Mr. Easterby?" 
 
 " I should n t wonder if he had had, or may 
 be has yet," returned her informant. " I Ve 
 kinder thought so. He don t take no great 
 shine to the girls." 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 31 
 
 " Why ? Was you particular interested in 
 him ? " he broke off sharply, perhaps inspired 
 with a sudden suspicion. 
 
 "Oh, not at all. Only it is easier to talk 
 about a common acquaintance, don t you know." 
 
 The storekeeper ventured into the "settin - 
 room " at the Palace Boarding House, though 
 not greatly at home in such places, and the 
 interview was much prolonged. Ten Moon, 
 the departing cook, was to "set a table to the 
 devil " that night to invoke favorable auspices 
 for his journey, and there was a desire on the 
 part of some to witness it. Such a table was 
 in fact set out, with the due allowance of rice, 
 rice-brandy, roast fowl, and sweetmeats, and 
 the house was up till a much later hour than 
 usual. 
 
 Marcella after a time brought forth, as a 
 part of her resources of entertainment, a photo 
 graph album. 
 
 " My brother, my sister," she said, point 
 ing out one youn|r face after another, among 
 whom was much dissimilarity of looks. 
 
 " Large fambly ! " commented Yank Bald 
 win, dryly. 
 
 He was burning to attack her strange creed, 
 and begin the conversion to which he believed 
 his influence would render her so easy a prey. 
 
 She let fall, inadvertently no doubt, some ex- 
 
32 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 i 
 
 pression about the " Saints " and the " Celestial 
 Marriage." This was his opportunity. 
 
 " Celestyil gammon ! " he broke out. " Now 
 see here, you ain t one o them kind that be 
 lieves in a husband with forty - leven other 
 wives, are you ? " 
 
 The girl sighed heavily. 
 
 " You ought to tie up to some good, strong, 
 likely feller that ud look out for you only, and 
 nobody else," he continued. 
 
 Marcella Eudora Gilham sighed again, more 
 heavily than before. The strange thing about 
 it was that she showed no resentment. 
 
 " What does it do in these here novils ? " 
 bringing his hand down on the one returned to 
 her. " I ve read more n one of em before 
 now. Why, they shows just two folks, and no 
 more, a-lovin for keeps; a-stickin to each 
 other through thickness and thinness, through 
 betterness and worseness, a-havin no end o 
 rackets, but comin out all right in the wind- 
 up, and don t you forgit it."* 
 
 Marcella took up the book herself, affection 
 ately, as if she may have been mindful of cer 
 tain passages that had had an influence on her 
 life. But : 
 
 " I suppose I ought not to read novels," she 
 sighed. " Our Book of Nephi calls them the 
 vain imaginations and pride of the children of 
 men. " 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 33 
 
 " Book of well ! " began her companion in 
 disgust. " Well, I can t say I ve seen much 
 o your folks myself, but I know all about em 
 from Rufe Easterby. He s seen the whole 
 thing. He says the women is the wust." 
 
 " Did he say that ? " 
 
 The Mormon girl started now with resent 
 ment indeed, and the warm blood rushed to 
 her cheek. 
 
 " He says they re the biggest fools that ever 
 was heard of," pursued Yank Baldwin imper- 
 turbably. His strongest point was not refine 
 ment, either in argument or speech. " The 
 head men preaches to em that it s their duty 
 to git their own livin ; and they believe it all, 
 and go on and grub their fingers to the bone. 
 The thing can be run ad liberty that way, with 
 out its costin the men a cent." 
 
 Perhaps there reechoed through his fair au 
 ditor s brain at this point sonorous words from 
 sermons she had heard at the Tabernacle : 
 
 " In that day seven women will plead with 
 one man to take them as wives, promising to 
 eat their own bread and wear their own ap 
 parel, if he will only consent for them to be 
 called by his name." 
 
 " They even make the men take more wives 
 than they want to," continued Yank Baldwin. 
 " The poor benighted creeturs thinks all hands 
 
34 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 11 git a higher place in heaven. Oh, they re 
 too cute for anything, them sly old Mormon 
 foxes ! " 
 
 With this onslaught Yank Baldwin was about 
 to depart in triumph. He felt that the success 
 ful end- of his labors could not now be far dis 
 tant. But Marcella let fall an inoffensive-seem 
 ing remark, which put a new aspect on the 
 case. 
 
 " The greatest men of ancient times," she 
 said, " those of the Bible, had many wives at 
 once." 
 
 " Go way ! They did n t though ? " he cried 
 astonished. 
 
 But she brought the Scriptures, and showed 
 the indisputable cases of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, and other famous polygamists. 
 
 This was news to Yank Baldwin, as, we may 
 say, very much more in the sacred books would 
 also have been. He felt himself checked in 
 mid career, and went away in a half dazed con 
 dition. 
 
 He recalled well, nevertheless, how charm 
 ingly the color had come and gone in her com 
 plexion as they argued. Dusky Spanish Luisa, 
 she of the raven hair and melting mouth, van 
 ished completely out of mind. 
 
 " May be Mormon ain t no such great differ 
 ence from Spanish, any way," he mused, appar- 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 35 
 
 ently making provision for the case that his 
 
 plan of conversion might not succeed. " I 
 
 s pose it couldn t do any great hurt, her be- 
 longin to em." 
 
 III. 
 
 THE SAILING OF THE GOOD SUCCESS AND 
 GOLDEN PROFITS. 
 
 As there was no news for Marcella from any 
 source on the following morning either, and 
 the time for action was growing so perilously 
 short, she could not forbear once more accost 
 ing the storekeeper on the subject of Easterby. 
 
 " The fact is," now said he, " I 11 let it out 
 to you. Easterby s ben sent down the line to 
 stave off a strike among some Mexican labor 
 ers, and I ben seem if I could help git some 
 extry hands here in case they was needed. 
 They may strike, and may not. We didn t 
 want nothin said about it till we see how it 
 was comin out." 
 
 " And why was he sent ? He is a surveyor." 
 
 " Well, he s picked up their lingo some 
 where, and has got a takin way with him. If 
 he could n t do it, nobody could." 
 
 She hurried with this statement to Choy Su 
 san, in the Chinese village. She was in utter 
 
36 CHOT SUSAN. 
 
 despair, believing that Easterby now would not 
 be found, would not come at all. Oh, surely, 
 now nothing could be done ! 
 
 She wrung her hands. The Chinawoman 
 tried again to comfort her. 
 
 " You got more money," she suggested, " my 
 send one more time messagy, bling light away 
 back good news ? " 
 
 " Oh, Choy Susan, I have no more money," 
 and she let fall her hand helplessly upon her 
 pocket. 
 
 " Alle lite ! " promptly concluded Choy Su 
 san, laying aside the brief mercenary impulse. 
 She summoned Qum Tock, an intelligent youth, 
 swift of foot, and sent him off on her own ac 
 count, with instructions to find Rufus Easterby 
 at every hazard, and bring him back. 
 
 His employer, Mow, the emblem-maker, came 
 presently to complain of the boy s being taken 
 away from his work ; but Choy Susan opened 
 a battery of invective upon him with excellent 
 effect, using her English for the greater impres- 
 siveness. 
 
 " Shut up ! Git out ! Hire some hall I 
 Don t you forget how ! " she said, and Mow, 
 the emblem-maker, retired, totally discomfited. 
 
 Yank Baldwin came to Choy. Susan the same 
 morning, on the curious business of asking her 
 "to speak a good word" for him, in the matri- 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 37 
 
 monial way, with Marcella. Such a pass had 
 he finally reached in going away after the 
 woman of Moab. He offered Susan a consid 
 erable reward if she should enable him to suc 
 ceed. She showed no great surprise at the 
 proposition, but responded in her brusque way, 
 " Alle lite ! But you plomise you no say 
 nothin to she till I fix. See ? " 
 
 To this he assented. He presently met once 
 more Marcella herself, wandering disconsolately 
 on the cliffs, and joined her. They sat for a 
 while at a charming point where the gnarled 
 roots of stout old trees gripped the rocks with 
 a firm hold, and white spray dashed high up 
 into the air as if in greetings to them from 
 curious caverns below. They went next to the 
 beach and found there curious large shells, sea 
 weeds as red as coral, and another of a single 
 long smooth stem, coiled like a huge whip or 
 serpent. 
 
 Noisy gulls and pelicans hovered above the 
 neighboring reefs, holding chattering conven 
 tions. In front the blue waters of the bay 
 stretched out to meet the illimitable ocean. 
 Across them was seen tacking a white sail 
 boat, from the direction of Santa Cruz. Look 
 ing down towards the Chinese village, the 
 couple noted that the junk, lately arrived, lay 
 no longer off shore, but had hauled up along- 
 
38 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 sido a small pier, and was the scene of an ac 
 tive bustle of departure. 
 
 Yank Baldwin adhered in the main to his 
 agreement with XUhoy Susan, but could not for 
 bear throwing in some favorable words about 
 himself and his prospects, by way of advancing 
 the affair to a certain extent. 
 
 " There s other bisnisses I could go into, of 
 course," he said, " more settled like. There s 
 fruit dryin and cannery, now. Big money in 
 it. Or I could pick up surveyin , if I wanted 
 to, same as Easterby. There s your thermomy- 
 ter, you know, for takin levils, and your bar- 
 omyter for seein how hot and cold it is." 
 
 Marcella showed little interest, but was fever 
 ishly excited, in need of movement, distraction, 
 forgetfulness. She wished now to go back to 
 the Chinese village, and witness the sailing of 
 the junk. Her cavalier wondered at her taste, 
 but accompanied her and gave such explana 
 tions of things as he could find, few of them, 
 it is to be feared, accurate, and none free from 
 race prejudice. 
 
 " It s no place for a feller to saloon his girl," 
 said he, in contempt. " I don t see what s the 
 use o comin ." 
 
 Many of the population had stayed at home 
 from the fishing-grounds, and begun with the 
 day the festal season of the morrow. As it 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 39 
 
 was a time favorable for trade, the shop-keep 
 ers had burned, in their interiors, old clothes 
 and mock money, which brings luck and keeps 
 away that useless class of customers who come 
 only to price things, and not to buy. 
 
 A fantastic drama, as long as the moral law, 
 would begin at the theatre in the evening. 
 The fane of Hop Wo was freshly decked and 
 adorned. The goddess Tien How, propitious 
 to sailors, had been brought down, however, 
 and placed upon the bowlder in place of the 
 usual joss. A pig, roasted whole, adorned with 
 ribbons and gilt papers, was laid reverently be 
 fore her. The cabaret was dusky with smoke, 
 and loud with games of dominoes, fan-tan, and 
 blowing the fist. 
 
 " Yet ! " one cried the players, counting, 
 and throwing out fingers to correspond, as in 
 the Italian game of mora. 
 
 " Two ! " " Three ! " " Four ! " " Eng ! " 
 "Look!" "Tak!" "What!!" "Sue!!!" 
 " Skip ! ! ! ! " they cried, and rose to climaxes 
 of uproar that drowned for the moment the 
 monotonous whine of Ah Wai s fiddle and the 
 clack of Chin Moy s ebony sticks upon an 
 ebony block. 
 
 Our couple came where a schoolmaster was 
 teaching some children to kow-tow decorously 
 before Tien How. He made the quaint, doll- 
 
40 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 like figures, in their swaddling-robes of green, 
 red, and yellow, put their small hands together 
 and bow till their small foreheads well-nigh 
 touched the ground. He himself, a new arrival 
 and a man not without courtliness, smiled be 
 nevolently, and expended upon our friends his 
 only English phrase, to wit : " Good-by ! " 
 
 Choy Susan explained to them, stopping 
 for the purpose as she bustled down to the 
 junk, where she was one of the most active 
 with bills of lading and the like in preparing it 
 for sea, that he was a man rather above his 
 station here. He was one who said philosoph 
 ically, 
 
 " It is better to be honored among the small 
 than despised among the great." 
 
 He had in his cabin the Ju-pieu, or diction^ 
 ary of twenty-six thousand characters. He had 
 read in the Chi Kang, the national book of 
 poetry, in which are heroines like the willow 
 seen through the mists, and with brows as arch 
 ing and delicate as the tender willow leaf. He 
 taught the three thousand proprieties, and how 
 it is polite to offer things, but more polite to 
 refuse ; and how the first person must never 
 be used in address, but only terms of deference 
 and compliment to the auditor instead. 
 
 But now the final moment had arrived for 
 the gallant junk s departure. The Good Sue- 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 41 
 
 cess and Golden Profits cast off her lines ; the 
 peak of her mainsail was hauled up, and a pen 
 nant loosed from her upper gear bearing the 
 lucky Yin and Yang, male and female princi 
 ple, and another with the legend : 
 
 " May this bark brave the storms of a thou 
 sand years ! " 
 
 Marcella and Baldwin found a favorable look 
 out point on the brow of a rising ground. Two 
 small merchants embarked. It was said that 
 neither would trust the other with the control 
 of a venture they had in common ; hence both 
 of them were going together. 
 
 Last came Ten Moon, hurrying from a final 
 trip for his effects to the Palace Boarding 
 House, and, embracing friends in a confused 
 way along the road, tumbled precipitately on 
 board. 
 
 The Good Success and Golden Profits was a 
 vessel of perhaps fifty feet in length by fifteen 
 in beam. She had a great rudder, with a 
 carven tiller, which served her partly as keel, 
 her actual keel being of small dimensions. Her 
 propulsion was by means of a mainsail, lateen- 
 shaped, and a jib or foresail, both so braced 
 with bamboo reefing poles that they lay flat to 
 the breeze instead of bellying with it. Such a 
 craft might be fairly good before the wind, but 
 would not tack easily. 
 
42 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 A fusillade of crackers and revolver shots 
 rattled briskly from the shrine of Tien How. 
 The last fervent wishes were breathed. The 
 junk drifted off shore. Her hardy skipper was 
 seen to raise aloft three cups of wine of rice, 
 and pour a reverent libation on the deck. Then 
 he took in his hands a live fowl, kow-towed 
 thrice, cut off its head, and scattered its blood 
 upon silvered papers of inscriptions before him. 
 His sailors, assisting in this important nautical 
 manoeuvre, seized these papers with avidity, 
 and ran in haste to affix them to different parts 
 of the ship. 
 
 There was already painted on the vessel, on 
 each side of the prow, an open eye, to spy out 
 dangers ahead. At the stern was the Chinese 
 phoenix, Foong, sitting upon a rock, defying 
 tempests. 
 
 With all this, if there were now no Jonah- 
 like persons on board to bring evil fortune, even 
 yet, it might be felt that the winds and waves, 
 and especially the wild Sui Tow Foong, or 
 devil s head-winds, were appeased in advance, 
 and a prosperous voyage was insured. 
 
 But all at once a loud cry went up. Un 
 happy Ten Moon once more. He was not yet, 
 as it seemed, at the end of his misadventures. 
 Clumsily in the way of one of the sailors, who 
 was running to affix an inscription to his quar- 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 43 
 
 ters, he was upset, lost his balance, and toppled 
 headlong over the gunwale into the sea. 
 
 But a more singular thing still happened. 
 The outcry abated, and not a hand was raised 
 in assistance from sea or shore. The ex-cook s 
 countrymen looked on in entire apathy at his 
 fate. 
 
 The sail-boat from Santa Cruz, which carried 
 a load of tent apparatus, had reached the vicin 
 ity. She changed her course, there seemed 
 a kind of vicious snap in the suddenness of the 
 change, and ran down to the spot, but was 
 not in time to be of any avail. 
 
 The man was choking, struggling, sinking; 
 he would surely drown. 
 
 Yank Baldwin bolted, without a word, from 
 the side of Marcella, ran down to the pier, 
 and leaped off. He swam with a few vigorous 
 strokes to the drowning man, soon had him by 
 the collar, and dragged him unceremoniously 
 to shore. 
 
 During this performance a clamor of differ 
 ent order went up. It seemed to have rage, 
 expostulation, and lugubrious wailing mingled 
 with it. When the rescuer reached shore it 
 looked almost as if he were going to be a vic 
 tim of personal violence. 
 
 " Hang em ! " said he, returning to Mar 
 cella. " I thought they was going to mob me, 
 
44 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 instead of offerin thanks. A sick way they ve 
 got of showin gratitude ! " 
 
 " They don t believe in saving persons from 
 drowning," she replied. 
 
 " Oh, they don t?" 
 
 No ; Choy Susan says they think there are 
 wandering spirits about, waiting to drag drown 
 ing persons under water, and that they revenge 
 themselves on those who balk them in their 
 purpose." 
 
 Choy Susan had been with her in the mean 
 time, and told her something besides, that gave 
 her a confused demeanor in presence of Yank 
 Baldwin. He, on his side, knew that Choy 
 Susan had spoken the promised word, but did 
 not know its definite result. 
 
 The Santa Cruz sail-boat, laden with tent 
 equipage, touched shore. A ministerial-look 
 ing man leaped out of it, and raised his hands 
 in prayer over the abhorrent instance of super 
 stitious indifference to human life he had wit 
 nessed. He seized upon Choy Susan and took 
 her aside for a brief, earnest discourse. She 
 explained, when he had reembarked, and some 
 time later, that this was the Reverend Samuel 
 Snow, of the Stockton Street Mission. He had 
 come to put the Pacific Grove camp-meeting 
 ground in readiness. 
 
 " He talkee my be Jesus woman again and 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 45 
 
 go back Stockton Stleet Mission," she said to 
 Marcella. 
 
 " Mytly sell him lottely ticket," she added, 
 in a hardened way. 
 
 The rescued Ten Moon was rowed forth in a 
 small boat, and again deposited, and grudgingly 
 received, on the deck from which he had just 
 fallen. The Good Success and Golden Profits 
 sailed away, and was slow in disappearing over 
 the horizon. She would cruise homeward, along 
 the hundred miles or so of intervening coast, to 
 the Golden Gate, unload her freight at Yslas 
 Creek, and make her next trip probably to the 
 shrimpers at San Bruno Point, twenty miles 
 down San Franc IFCO Bay. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE WRESTLING OF YANK BALDWIN. 
 
 "Oh, they don t, don t they?" said Yank 
 Baldwin, continuing his interview with the in 
 teresting Marcella Eudora Gilham. " How- 
 sumever, it don t make no difference to me 
 what they think. I d see the hull bang of em 
 at the bottom of the Red Sea, so fur as I m 
 concerned. I done this just for one thing. Do 
 you want to know what it is ? " 
 
46 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 Marcella did not request the information, but 
 her reticence did not avail her. 
 
 " I want you to marry me," he said. " Choy 
 Susan s broke it to you. Bein as you took a 
 notion to look at em as feller bein s, and so 
 on, and his own folks was so skulkin mean, 
 I thought I d haul him out just to please 
 you. Now, what do you say ? Will you have 
 me?" 
 
 He stood before her in his wet apparel, 
 streams of water running down in pools about 
 his feet, just as if this were the most propitious 
 of aspects for a wooer. 
 
 " Oh, I I can t," she replied. 
 
 " You can t ? Why not ? I don t say nothin 
 agin your folks any more. I ve give that up. 
 You was brought up so, I suppose, and can t 
 help it." 
 
 " My father would not let me marry anybody 
 but a a Mormon one of the Saints," re 
 plied the girl, taking, it will be seen, quite a 
 different ground from that so complacently 
 adopted by the storekeeper. 
 
 " Saints be blowed ! There ain t no saints 
 about it. Joe Smith, what founded em, was 
 a lazy money-digger, that s all. Oh, Easterby 
 he s told me all about em, and I know. He 
 could n t make a honest livin , Smith could n t, 
 so he pretended he d found some gold plates 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 47 
 
 with hydroglyphics onto em. How could he 
 ever ha read any hydroglyphics even if he had 
 found em ? " 
 
 " The Urim and Thummim, set in silver 
 bows, were deposited with the plates, in the hill 
 of Cumorah, and by the aid of these he was 
 able to translate them." 
 
 The tone of the young woman expressed 
 a most fervent devotion to her creed, yet a 
 shrewd observer might have fancied he dis 
 cerned in her countenance a trace of something 
 that was not wholly rapt fanaticism. 
 
 " Oh, yes, he was a sweet one, Joe was ! " 
 continued Yank Baldwin, suffering himself to 
 be led away with heated sarcasm into a side 
 issue. " I s pose he got all them there other 
 revelashins straight from heaven, too. He used 
 to come down to breakfast every mornin with 
 things fixed just as he wanted em. Got one 
 revelashin tellin his regular wife, Emma Smith, 
 to shut up and not say nothin when he took a 
 lot more, or else she d be cut off into everlastin 
 fire and brimstun." 
 
 "Verily a commandment I give unto mine 
 handmaid, Emma Smith. . . . But if she will 
 not abide this commandment she shall be de 
 stroyed, saith the Lord," said Marcella, quot 
 ing piously a part of the exact words of the 
 revelation. 
 
48 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 " He got a one-horse schoolmaster, old Oliver 
 Cowdery, and a one-horse lawyer, old Sidney 
 Rigdon, to help him out. He did n t know 
 enough himself to last him over night." 
 
 " Oh, you ought to go right home and get 
 some dry clothes. You will catch your death ! " 
 cried the girl, as if for the first time remarking 
 his state, and thus endeavoring to create a di 
 version. 
 
 " Never mind about that ! That s all right," 
 he responded morosely, putting up a hand to 
 wring out further moisture from his lank locks. 
 " As I was a-sayin , they re all a set o first- 
 class frauds." 
 
 " Joseph and Hyrum were martyred in Car 
 thage jail, and there were many more who suf 
 fered for the faith." 
 
 Still the keen observer might have detected 
 in the fair devotee a certain evasion. Was she 
 perhaps only fending off by means of her doc 
 trines a suitor with whom it was not policy for 
 her to quarrel outright ? 
 
 " Oh, what s the use o argying ? " now broke 
 out this latter in a final way. " You kin b long 
 to em, if you want to. I s pose your belongin 
 to em can t do no great hurt. But you don t 
 mean to say that you won t have me unless I 
 jine, too ? " 
 
 The object of his pursuit bowed her head, in 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 49 
 
 a sorrowful way, as if this were indeed her ul 
 timate conclusion. 
 
 " Oh, that s just a little too much ! " cried 
 the storekeeper, starting off indignantly. " That 
 settles it. You don t look like it, but I s pose 
 it s been grimed into you so long you can t help 
 it. So long!" 
 
 And he tramped away in high dudgeon, and 
 put himself in dry clothing. 
 
 He hovered about the Palace Boarding House 
 again towards evening, preserving a far-off, re 
 sentful demeanor towards Marcella. He hap 
 pened to be in her presence when a communi 
 cation was brought her by a Chinese messenger. 
 She clapped her hands in rapture over it, and 
 cried, 
 
 " Oh, he is coming ! he is coming ! " 
 
 " Who s coming ? " inquired the storekeeper, 
 involuntarily startled into the question. 
 
 " Oh a that is my father," she an 
 swered, recalled to her self-possession. 
 
 But it was curious that the message, if from 
 her father, should have come by the hand of 
 Qum Tock, the courier of Choy Susan. 
 
 Upon this circumstance, Marcella almost 
 wholly changed her manner towards Yank 
 Baldwin. She begun to be gay, loquacious, and 
 treat him with a delightful coquetry. 
 
50 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 The storekeeper, quite beside himself with 
 rapture at her fascination, took honest Mrs. 
 McCurdy aside with the request, 
 
 "Say! borrer some o them there doctrine 
 books o hern for me, will you ? " 
 
 Mrs. McCurdy obligingly borrowed them, 
 without the formality of asking the owner s per 
 mission, and he trudged away with them under 
 his arm to his tent. 
 
 When the shades of twilight had fully set in 
 that evening, a bronzed young man, alert of 
 movement, short, stout, with a well-shaped, 
 round head, and a bright eye, hurried into 
 camp, threw off a canvas working-suit he wore, 
 spruced up, and emerged again almost imme 
 diately. As he was departing from his tent, thus 
 improved in appearance, Yank Baldwin caught 
 sight of him, and hailed him with, 
 
 " Hay, Easterby, old man ! Back again ? 
 What s the news ? " 
 
 " The Mexicans are quieted down, and are 
 not going to strike. And I ve got a leave of 
 absence and raise of pay." 
 
 " Good enough ! I m glad of it. Say ! " 
 approaching nearer, and in a confidential way, 
 " you re the very one I ben a-waitin for. I 
 want a little advice. Say I there s a Mormon 
 gal here " 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 51 
 
 " Not now ! old man ! not now ! Can t stop, 
 a minute, Yank. I ve got business on hand. 
 See you later." 
 
 The young surveyor threw these words back 
 over his shoulder in a cheery way that robbed 
 the repulse of its sting, and was off without 
 further parley. 
 
 Had the storekeeper followed him, instead of 
 returning to his tent to pore over the strange 
 books of doctrine, he would have seen Easterby 
 met by Marcella, who stole forth from the Pal 
 ace Boarding House, and the two repair dis 
 creetly towards the cliffs. He would have seen 
 them find a sheltered seat at the brow of the 
 cliffs where they were well screened by cedar 
 boughs. He might have heard them set to talk 
 of earlier times, a correspondence interrupted, 
 letters that had miscarried, misunderstandings 
 that had arisen. He might have heard argu 
 ment, too, of the theological sort, and inferred 
 from a plaintive tone in the voice of the young 
 girl that she was struggling anew with old 
 doubts and fears, perhaps once happily resolved. 
 
 " Oh, I have read, I have thought," she said. 
 " Can you be so sure ? Can the sufferings of 
 so many of our people, the blood of our martyrs, 
 have been in vain ? " 
 
 " Blood of martyrs," replied the young man, 
 gravely, " has been shed for every absurdity 
 
52 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 under the sun. We are left to grope in dark 
 ness, for the most part, Heaven help us ; but 
 we have our little spark of reason, and it must 
 save us at least from gross impostures." 
 
 The night was comparatively dark in the ab 
 sence of a moon, but the stars cast a pale glim 
 mering radiance upon the water. The milky 
 way, scattered in the heavens like breadths of 
 daisies in a pasture, stretched from horizon up 
 to zenith, over, and down again. The young 
 girl, turning a thoughtful face up to it from 
 under the cedar boughs, said to her lover, 
 
 " Ah, when worlds are so plentiful as that, of 
 what importance are we? How can it make 
 any conceivable difference what we do, or think, 
 
 O " 
 
 or are f 
 
 Her companion answered, holding a hand of 
 hers in both his own : 
 
 " Those worlds are so far off and cold and 
 uncertain, and we are here, and warm and liv 
 ing, and we want our happiness." 
 
 None of this, however, did Yank Baldwin 
 either see or hear, for he was wrestling in his 
 tent till nigh morning over his uncouth doc 
 trinal problems. 
 
 The pair on the cliffs heard the stage come 
 in with its boom and rattle, while they sat. 
 When they parted, presently, in the friendly 
 obscurity of a thicket by the Palace Boarding 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 53 
 
 House, Marcella turned to go within, and 
 Easterby to go back to his tent. 
 
 A door opened, letting out a bright light ; 
 and a rusty-looking man, with beard and shaven 
 upper lip, stepped forth upon the veranda, 
 clearly revealed in its illumination. 
 
 " Father ! " exclaimed the girl, with a fright 
 ened intonation. " You are back again ? " 
 
 " Yes, where have you been ? Erastus and I 
 were looking for you. Rastus did n t want to 
 wait no longer. The ceremony d better be 
 performed to-morrow noon. I feel to rejoice 
 that you re going to have such a good husband. 
 Wa n t that somebody with you, just now? " 
 
 The Mormon father took his daughter by the 
 arm ; and they disappeared into the house to 
 gether, the door closing behind them. 
 
 liufus Easterby had overheard ! With the 
 alert, energetic manner characteristic of him, he 
 now changed his course and turned towards 
 the abode of Choy Susan. It was not yet so 
 late but that she could be aroused ; he found 
 her, and these two held significant conference 
 together at some length. 
 
 A damp, raw morning of fog, not uncommon 
 on the far Pacific coast, succeeded the winsome 
 star-lit night. The fog caught in the short dry 
 grass, and dripped from the tree branches, shut 
 
54 CEO T SUSAN. 
 
 out the water, veiled the cliffs, and gave the 
 looming outlines of the hamlets mysterious 
 shapes. 
 
 Day was long in coming. When it had come 
 so far along as breakfast time a new message 
 was brought Marcella, with whose own mood 
 the heaviness of the morning was well in keep 
 ing. The missive was from Choy Susan, in a 
 peculiar handwriting she had learned at the 
 Stockton Street Mission. 
 
 " Choy Susan wants me to come over a little 
 while," she said. "She thinks she will buy 
 some goods of us, if I will explain them more. 
 It will not be necessary for you to go ; she wants 
 me to to come alone." 
 
 The Mormon father looked inquiringly at the 
 Mormon lover, another rusty-looking man of 
 the same general pattern as himself. The lat 
 ter returned a glance inclining to suspicion. 
 But there really was no good reason for sus 
 picion, and the desire for profit was naturally 
 strong in both. 
 
 " You can go, my daughter," said the father ; 
 " but be brief ! You know what is to take place 
 at noon." 
 
 Ah, yes, Marcella Eudora Gilham woefully 
 remembered her pressing engagement at noon. 
 
 Yank Baldwin, the storekeeper, had over- 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 55 
 
 slept himself that morning, after his long vigil. 
 He hurried to find Mr. Easterby as soon as 
 awake, but the latter was not in his tent. 
 
 " Never mind, then ! " said the storekeeper to 
 himself. " I don t want no advisin now." 
 
 He had the air of a man with a mind inflex 
 ibly made up. 
 
 He inquired at the Palace Boarding House 
 for Marcella. Mrs. McCurdy told him that she 
 had gone to the Chinese village, and her object. 
 He directed himself thither with all possible 
 expedition. 
 
 The Mormon father, as it happened, heard 
 this inquiry, and observed its manner. He 
 chose to identify Yank Baldwin with the man 
 he had seen with his daughter the night be 
 fore. She had been gone well-nigh an hour, 
 and should have returned. He counseled with 
 Erastus. The two put their heads together, 
 and in growing apprehension set out in pursuit. 
 
 As Yank Baldwin went along, with firm front 
 and beating heart, he fanned his purpose with 
 muttered words. 
 
 " Oh, I 11 jine em," he said. " It comes high, 
 but I 11 do it. I 11 jine em and git her, if I 
 bust." 
 
 The enamored storekeeper had gone over to 
 the Moabitish woman, horse, foot, artillery, and 
 camp equipage, and was ready to embrace her 
 
56 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 faith. From time to time, languid airs drove 
 back the smoke-like mist from the edge of the 
 water, and showed a single milk-white breaker 
 coming lazily in, and the gulls and pelicans 
 standing motionless on the wet beach, in which 
 their shapes were reflected. Then it swept 
 down again, and swallowed up alike the pros 
 pect, Yank Baldwin, and Mormon parent, and 
 suitor. 
 
 In the Chinese village, that morning, there 
 was rumor of something unusual. Choy Susan 
 had been seen to go at an early hour to the 
 camp-meeting ground of Pacific Grove, dressed 
 in her gala costume. She wore a wide-sleeved 
 tunic of dark blue silk, and her large earrings, 
 double hoops of gold and malachite, while her 
 black hair was very smoothly oiled, and held 
 in loops by pins of gold filigree. 
 
 She returned presently, and soon after her 
 came the Reverend Samuel Snow, who entered 
 her cabin also. It was bruited among her fel 
 low countrymen that she was to go back to the 
 Christian faith, as the result of yesterday s con 
 ference with the minister. The girl, Marcella, 
 who now arrived and entered in her turn, was 
 no doubt to be a witness to the ceremony. The 
 young man, Easterby, who came next, was prob 
 ably another. 
 
CHOY SUSAN. 57 
 
 Excitement grew apace. Heads were laid to 
 gether; then a crowd assembled around Choy 
 Susan s closed door. When Yank Baldwin ar 
 rived, the morose parrot, Tong, was pouring out 
 upon them his choicest vocabulary of abuse. 
 
 Yank Baldwin pushed his way hastily through 
 the crowd and knocked at the door. It was 
 not opened immediately, and he knocked again. 
 Marcella herself set it ajar, wearing a peculiarly 
 shy and blushing air. The moment he saw her, 
 he began impetuously, 
 
 "I ll jine. I llVlong to em. You kin 
 have me. You kin have it all your own way. 
 I 11 " 
 
 But further speech seemed to stick in his 
 throat. The door was now thrown widely open. 
 Beside Marcella Eudora Gilharn appeared, with 
 smiling face, Rufus D. Easterby. Behind him 
 appeared the Rev. Samuel Snow, and behind 
 the Rev. Samuel Snow, Choy Susan. All had 
 a significant air. Something unusual had cer 
 tainly happened. 
 
 " My wife, old man ! " exclaimed Easterby, 
 pulling him sociably forward. 
 
 " Holy smoke ! " cried the astounded store 
 keeper. " You hain t turned Mormon ? " 
 
 " Not in the least. She s as good a Gentile 
 as any of us. She had to keep quiet a bit, 
 that s all." 
 
58 CHOY SUSAN. 
 
 "Well, carry me out, and put me away in 
 some orphin asylum!" said Yank Baldwin, in 
 a state of utter collapse. He directed upon the 
 illusive fair one, all of whose duplicity was at 
 last exposed, a glance of meaning too deep for 
 words. 
 
 " It s all Choy Susan s doing," said Easterby, 
 extending a friendly hand to the interpreter. 
 
 "And we hope Choy Susan will come and 
 live with us, when we settle down," added Mar- 
 cella sweetly, not unwilling, perhaps, to with 
 draw attention from the more exciting issue. 
 
 Panting through the fog, at the same mo 
 ment, came a Mormon father and Mormon 
 lover, with foreboding of ill written upon their 
 faces. 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 THE battle of Bunkerloo was fought one 
 beautiful Saturday afternoon in April, now 
 some years ago. 
 
 It was fought on Saturday because there was 
 no school that day. It was fought in the after 
 noon rather than the morning, because the sis 
 ter of one of the commanders-in-chief wa^ tak 
 ing her music lesson in the morning, and the 
 hostilities, then begun, had had to be postponed 
 in deference to the indignation of her professor, 
 who had jumped from his chair six inches at 
 every shot, and insisted upon the conclusion of 
 an armistice. 
 
 Besides, the naval preparations were not al 
 together completed, so that delay was just as 
 well or better. These preparations consisted 
 mainly in sinking a large shallow tin bath-tub 
 to the level of the surface of the garden-plot ; 
 and upon this the fleets of the two high con 
 tending powers were set afloat and cleared for 
 action. 
 
 The site was eminently adapted already for 
 
60 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 the military manoeuvres. It was a level plain 
 some six feet by twelve in extent. One of the 
 sides was closed in by a heavy wood, a border 
 of box which separated it from the walk. To 
 the right a flight of stairs led to a piazza opened 
 upon by the parlor windows ; to the left were 
 stone steps leading down to a low kitchen area. 
 The fourth side was closed by the kitchen area 
 itself, from which the movements could be con 
 ducted with great facility and without stoop 
 ing ; while the kitchen range was close at hand, 
 in which to heat the pokers with which it was 
 the practice of the artillerymen to touch off 
 their guns. The earth was warm and dry, and 
 about to be spaded up for a plantation of hya 
 cinths, roses, and geraniums, which had been 
 kept in pots in the house in a hectic way all 
 winter. 
 
 This battle was not an isolated event, but 
 was the culmination of a series of large move 
 ments which had been in progress ever since 
 Christmas. At that time, by a coincidence, 
 both Generalissimo Bell and Commander-in- 
 Chief Jones had been reenforced, each by a 
 box of lead soldiers, provided with cannon 
 which went with a spring and shot peas. The 
 two commanders lived in the same city block, 
 and the war was carried on sometimes at the 
 house of one, sometimes at the other. Finally 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 61 
 
 this sport was thought monotonous, the soldiers 
 being only knocked down without injury, and 
 remaining ready to be set up again as good as 
 ever. 
 
 The idea then occurred to Master Bell to 
 inaugurate a grand out-of-door battle with real 
 powder and shot. To make it the more excit 
 ing, their boats of various kinds were to be con 
 tributed to the havoc. The fleet of the Jones 
 boy was superior in numbers, tonnage, and 
 weight of metal. He had a full-rigged ship 
 which had been drawn by his father at a 
 church fair, and a frigate, several gunboats, 
 and miscellaneous cruisers, whittled out by 
 himself. 
 
 Master Bell had but a single schooner ; but 
 she was commanded, in his fancy, by Captain 
 Kidd and Lord Nelson in turn. He delighted 
 to imagine her now the Victory or the Fight 
 ing Teme*raire, now one of those deft, long, low, 
 black, rakish-looking craft, such as used to go 
 a buccaneering on the Spanish main. Lord 
 Nelson, or Captain Kidd, as the case might be, 
 was a wooden figure carven out with a jack- 
 knife, and represented with tarpaulin hat, tele 
 scope, and a huge cutlass. 
 
 On the other hand, Bell s army was much 
 the more formidable. He could throw into the 
 field a box and a half of lead infantry, half a 
 
62 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 box of cavalry, a heavy squad of wooden gren 
 adiers, a tolerably complete Noah s ark of ani 
 mals, and a host of empty thread and silk 
 spools which did duty, in his fancy, for an up 
 rising of volunteers in a grand national move 
 ment. 
 
 The Jones boy s regulars, aside from a single 
 newer division, were a dilapidated lot of vet 
 erans, English, French, Turks, and Russians, 
 from an old series belonging to the Crimean 
 war. 
 
 To more fairly equalize this condition of 
 things, a portion of Bell s volunteers were 
 transferred to Jones under the fiction of a de 
 sertion. They were commanded by a thick* 
 set, disreputable - looking leader, whom Bell 
 gibbeted upon a scaffold of undying infamy as 
 Benedict Arnold. 
 
 It was stipulated also that but two of Jones 
 ships were to be brought into action, while 
 Bell s small flag-ship was to be allowed to 
 steady herself by an anchor on each side, that 
 she might not be capsized by the recoil of her 
 own guns, of which there seemed imminent 
 danger. 
 
 Two rude square forts of dirt were thrown 
 up some five feet apart, the guns were mounted 
 upon these, the men posted behind them, and 
 the action commenced in an irregular manner. 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 63 
 
 General Bell s artillery consisted of one brass 
 and one iron gun of number eight buckshot 
 calibre, another iron one throwing tacks and 
 small pebbles, and a home-made leaden piece, 
 which kicked farther than it carried and was 
 in danger of exploding at every fire. He had 
 also, in reserve, an old musket-barrel, sawn off 
 half way to the muzzle, which could shoot a 
 marble through an inch board. But this was 
 ruled out for the present as against the laws of 
 war. And indeed had Bell s father known he 
 possessed so formidable an engine of destruc 
 tion, he must have been relieved of it entirely. 
 The musket - barrel apart, Commander Jones 
 outfit was of much the same sort. He had, 
 however, an old pistol - barrel mounted on a 
 block, which he had lately purchased, at a great 
 bargain, " from a boy." The following account 
 of the battle may be relied upon as correct in 
 every particular. It is prepared from state 
 ments of eye-witnesses and of the commanders 
 themselves, together with an inspection of the 
 field of conflict at no long interval of time after 
 the action had ceased. 
 
 Up-stairs in a front parlor, at the same hour, 
 were a couple of neutral powers, as they may 
 be called, who, before the battle was over, found 
 themselves actively engaged also. 
 
64 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 One of these was Miss Sophia Bell, aged 
 twenty, elder sister of General Bell. The other 
 was Captain Bradford of the regular army, a 
 friend of hers. It was even thought that the 
 captain was more than a friend of hers, a lover, 
 in fact, and a suitor for her hand. To tell the 
 truth, that is exactly what he was ; though the 
 object of his regards was positive that she never 
 had given and also that she never meant to 
 give him the slightest trace of encouragement. 
 He had a way of looking at you with a sort of 
 odious caressing devotion, and no doubt other 
 people noticed it too. Then, he had a way of 
 always doing exactly what you wanted, and 
 everybody knows that nothing could be more 
 tiresome and stupid than this. 
 
 Miss Bell was a wayward young person who 
 did not always formulate just what she wanted ; 
 but she chose to imagine, in the case of the 
 captain, that she would rather have him con 
 tradict her occasionally, and be in several re 
 spects quite different from what he was. He 
 was not at all like the other men she knew. 
 He had been in the war, and come out a brevet- 
 colonel of volunteers ; and now passed most of 
 his time on the Plains, wherever that was. She 
 did not know what he did or had done in the 
 army, no doubt something very commonplace. 
 He never said anything about it. It could not 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 65 
 
 be at all like the soldierly feats you read of. 
 He was straight and stalwart, and good-looking 
 enough, for that matter, and well connected, and 
 knew a good deal, probably, but his waltzing 
 well, you never saw such waltzing! She 
 had made him understand at the very begin 
 ning that it was ridiculous, and he had humbly 
 given it up, 
 
 No ; decidedly, there were reasons, and, be 
 sides, none of the other girls in her set were 
 married yet and then he was over thirty, and 
 besides and then Secretly, perhaps Miss 
 Sophia Bell did not exactly know whether, in 
 case he had asked her, she should have refused 
 him or not. This is what occasioned her alarm 
 upon the captain s present afternoon visit. She 
 had heard some report of his going away soon. 
 He was often at the house in the evening, but 
 an afternoon call from him was very unusual ; 
 and everybody was provokingly out, taking ad 
 vantage of a day of exceptionally fine weather. 
 
 She herself had just returned from a walk, 
 and was glancing at the general effect of a new 
 toilette, in the parlor mirror, preparatory to 
 going up-stairs to take off her things, when the 
 captain was announced. 
 
 She gave him her hand, resignedly, then 
 poised in a temporary way upon the piano stool, 
 turning a little with its movement. 
 5 
 
66 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 " You were just going out," said he. " I must 
 not think of detaining you." 
 
 " No, I am not the least in a hurry, that is, 
 I have just come in. Please sit down." 
 
 The captain had passed a pleasant furlough 
 of three months at his home, near hers. He had 
 hoped that it would be much longer ; but it was 
 curtailed, and he was going away. He was sud 
 denly ordered to join his command for active 
 operations against a dangerous predatory In 
 dian band. His purpose this afternoon was to 
 say good-by to her in turn, and if, oh ! if there 
 were but a favorable opportunity, to declare his 
 passionate love, to tell her how her sweet image 
 filled his whole heart, his whole existence. It 
 mattered not what was to become of him in the 
 approaching campaign, unless he could have 
 some assurance from her that she would think 
 of him, that she might, at some time, at least, 
 if not now, come to return his regard. 
 
 It was vague suspicion of something of this 
 kind that made his companion nervous, and 
 sent her for refuge to an additional brusqueness 
 of manner. 
 
 He received her small feminine rebuffs with 
 the greatest patience. He cherished a secret 
 misgiving that there was something preposter 
 ous in a weather-beaten, steady-going old fellow 
 like him paying his court to such a dainty, vola- 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 67 
 
 tile, distracting young person, in every way his 
 opposite, and ten years his junior. But, while 
 saying that he was no match for her of course, 
 he persevered doggedly, perhaps in spite of 
 himself. Her tantalizing waywardness and in 
 difference had no more effect upon him than if 
 they had been but so many manifestations of 
 regard. 
 
 She swung this way and that upon the piano- 
 stool, and poked the carpet with her parasol. 
 He sat stiffly near by, hat and stick in hand. 
 
 " Will you excuse me," she said, " if I keep 
 my bonnet on. We have to fix our hair in a 
 certain way. This weather makes one so lan 
 guid. I believe I have spring fever. I took 
 only a short walk, and yet am almost dead." 
 
 " It is very becoming to you to be almost 
 dead." 
 
 " How often have I told you that I do not 
 desire compliments ? " 
 
 " Yes, it is true ; but for the moment the 
 temptation was too great to resist." 
 
 Presently, by way of leading up to his own 
 errand, the captain began : 
 
 " You have read some account of this late 
 bad business on the Plains, I suppose, the 
 Canby massacre, in the lava beds ? " 
 
 " No, I never pay any attention to such 
 things. I hardly ever read the newspapers. 
 
68 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 As to your Plains, I know nothing about them. 
 Why should I ? " 
 
 " It is a great country," he returned, depre- 
 catingly. Don t you ever like to think what it 
 will be when it is all settled up out there? " 
 
 " Oh, I do not like to think at all." 
 
 " What do you like, then ? " 
 
 "Oh, a great many things. I had rather 
 talk." 
 
 " A preference which suits me exactly, as I 
 had rather not. You cannot gratify it too 
 much for me." 
 
 " Oh, I am not sure I feel like it now. But 
 do you not like to talk? and why? That 
 sounds strange ! " 
 
 " Does it ? Well, what I know, I know, and 
 can add nothing to it by repeating ; while others 
 talk is novel, at least, and may be improving. 
 Is that a good reason ? But I am glad every 
 body does not share my view, for, if so, we 
 should make but a melancholy world of it." 
 
 " Who was the second usher at the Battle 
 dores wedding yesterday, that dark, fine- 
 looking one?" Miss Bell asked, changing the 
 topic lightly. " He was too sweet for any 
 thing." 
 
 " He has lately come here to live ; a cousin 
 of the Battledores, and in a business as sweet as 
 himself, he is a sugar broker." 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 69 
 
 She made no comment. 
 
 " I said it was a sweet business," he sub 
 mitted, deferentially. 
 
 " Well, I suppose you hardly expect me to 
 be amused with witticisms like that," she an 
 swered dryly. 
 
 " Oh," said the captain, in a reflective way, 
 "perhaps you could think of something better." 
 
 A conversation by no means brilliant, it will 
 be seen. An uneasy pause now ensued. 
 
 " Well, I am going away," began the captain 
 again, with a depressed air. " That is what I 
 came to tell you about." 
 
 " Going away, where ? " she asked. 
 
 " Out to the Plains. Our company is ordered 
 there at once against the Modocs. But pardon ! 
 you do not wish to talk about the Plains." 
 
 " I do not mind talking about them, if you 
 are really going there. Do you expect to be 
 scalped ? " 
 
 " Should you care ? " 
 
 " I do not see what that has to do with it." 
 
 " It has everything that is, it has a good 
 deal " 
 
 " Why of course I should," she interrupted. 
 " How you would look ! Has the war actually 
 begun ? " 
 
 There were at this moment two sharp re 
 ports from the yard below, followed directly by 
 a third. 
 
70. THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 Sophy started. 
 
 " Yes," said the captain, " I should judge that 
 the war had begun." 
 
 " Those dreadful boys ! " said Sophy. " It 
 has been so nice and quiet in the house. Now 
 we shall not have a moment s peace." 
 
 " Dodge back in the doorway, Jonesey, when 
 I fire, or you 11 get hit ! " resounded from be 
 low, in the martial soprano tones of General 
 Bell. 
 
 " That is what you must do when you get 
 out among the Modocs," said she, " get be 
 hind something so they can t hit you." 
 
 " What would you suggest ? " 
 
 " Oh, a haystack or anything." 
 
 " I shall bear it in mind. It is my own idea 
 exactly. But seriously, Miss Sophy, I have 
 sometimes felt that it makes that is little 
 difference what happens to me out there unless 
 you care about it." 
 
 The girl s cheek flushed softly. To hide this, 
 she swung half way about on the piano-stool 
 and threw a hand upon the keys with a sudden 
 jangle. 
 
 " What a silly speech ! " she said, over her 
 shoulder. " What difference should it make 
 whether I cared or not ? " 
 
 " Oh, it makes every difference, all the differ 
 ence in the world." 
 
TEE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 71 
 
 He took very tenderly the other hand, dan 
 gling the parasol by her side. 
 
 " I came to-day to say good-by," he went on, 
 " but there was something more I wished to say, 
 also, dear Miss Sophy " 
 
 "Now it is coming," she thought; "what 
 shall I do ? " 
 
 There was another loud explosion. She 
 started up, pulling away her hand, as if she 
 had not heard what he said, and exclaimed : 
 
 " Those dreadful boys ! I really must go and 
 see what mischief they are at." 
 
 The captain followed with a discomfited air 
 her light springing walk to the French sash 
 opening on the piazza, from the steps of which 
 the field of operations could be surveyed. 
 
 " Repulsed ! " one commander was crying, 
 "you must fall back. No, no ! you cannot 
 pick up men when they are once knocked 
 down." 
 
 " Everything is fair in love and war ! " replied 
 the other. " Besides, some of these were kicked 
 over by my own cannon." 
 
 " A good motto, and worth noting," reflected 
 the captain. 
 
 No ingenious stratagem occurred to him just 
 now, but he took courage to await events and 
 make, if possible, another trial. 
 
 " Come and see our fight, captain," called 
 
72 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 Master Bell, as the couple emerged. " Come 
 and show us how ! " 
 
 " I cannot let you ruin your toys so, Jack," 
 called out Sophy sharply. 
 
 " This don t hurt em," said Jack, relying 
 upon her ignorance of the practical operation 
 of powder and shot. " Come on, captain ! 
 Don t let her stop you ! She s always spoil 
 ing fun." 
 
 " I have a certain weakness for it, even on a 
 scale like that," said the captain. " Shall we 
 take a look at their forts a moment ? " 
 
 Not to give color to the assertion that she 
 was a spoiler of sport, she graciously assented. 
 Holding her pretty skirts in her hand, she 
 tripped down the stairs part way, but after 
 pausing there a little, said : 
 
 " If you will allow me, this gives me an op 
 portunity to go and take off my hat." 
 
 " Why certainly," said the captain. 
 
 He looked after her lithe and charming figure 
 as it disappeared through one of the veranda 
 windows, with a sigh. 
 
 " What nations are these ? " inquired the cap 
 tain good-humoredly, now joining the boys. 
 
 " Rebel and Union," replied the bright-faced 
 commander on one side, hastening up, with his 
 pockets crammed with fuses, like a miniature 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 73 
 
 Guy Fawkes. " Mine are Union and his 
 Rebels." 
 
 "No they ain t," said Master Bell. "At 
 least, it don t make any difference what yours 
 are. Mine are a lot of different kinds." 
 
 The Jones boy was of a practical turn and 
 little invention. His fancy could no farther go 
 than our own late civil war, of which he was, as 
 it were, a part. 
 
 But with the Bell boy it was a different mat 
 ter. He was a famous reader, his head full of 
 notable personages and events. His troops 
 were conscripted from all the exciting fields 
 of history and romance, and heroes of the most 
 miscellaneous complexion marshaled them on. 
 Thus the strange spectacle was seen of the Old 
 Guard, the last of the Abencerrages, the light 
 brigade of Balaklava and Marion s men march 
 ing shoulder to shoulder, with Napoleon, Ivan- 
 hoe, Kossuth, Roderick Dim, Marlborough, Judas 
 Maccabeus, Ethan Allen, General Sheridan, and 
 the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan at their head, 
 against a simple post of Boys in Blue of the 
 period. The confidence of the Jones boy in the 
 face of such fearful odds was something almost 
 sublime. He announced his steadfast intention 
 of giving all comers, be they who they might, 
 the liveliest old tussle that ever was heard of. 
 
 The Old Guard was a tall, stately body of 
 
74 TEE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 veterans, showing profuse marks of their long 
 service. Their uniform was a red coat, yellow 
 buttons, well pipe-clayed belts and cross-bands, 
 and white trousers. Each man stood upon a 
 round pedestal. They had been knocking about 
 the house from time immemorial. Contrary to 
 tradition, the Napoleon who put himself at their 
 head was a tall, splendid grenadier, chosen for 
 the exceptional freshness of his paint. He was 
 such a Napoleon as ought to have been, rather 
 than the one that actually was. 
 
 The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan was a dark 
 and mysterious figure, apparently capable of any 
 villainy and the most desperate deeds. He had 
 originally been a lead Robinson Crusoe, and 
 served in the early part of the action as Ethan 
 Allen, until his head was shot off, when the 
 present happy inspiration was thought of. 
 
 " And what do you call this battle ? " asked 
 the captain. 
 
 " Battle of Bunker Hill," said Jones. 
 
 " No, Waterloo," said Jack. 
 
 "Suppose you make it Bunkerloo," said the 
 captain, " and split the difference." 
 
 " All right ; but we want to have it like a 
 real battle," said Jack, "so one side can tell 
 when it is beaten. The shots don t knock 
 things over enough. They only kick up the 
 dirt." 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 75 
 
 "Make the earthworks lighter," said the cap 
 tain. " Then, after you have bombarded awhile, 
 let one side sally forth and charge the position 
 of the other." 
 
 "But how can it? the men can t move." 
 
 " Put them forward so far at a time ! Say 
 the distance between you is a mile, as it was 
 between our men on Cemetery Ridge and the 
 Confederates on Seminary Ridge, at Gettys 
 burg. Suppose it takes about twenty minutes 
 to get over that ground. It takes you about a 
 minute each to load and fire one of your guns. 
 Divide the space into twenty parts, and let the 
 charging column be advanced one space after 
 each broadside. You can imagine they have 
 run that far. They must drag their artillery 
 with them, and fire at the enemy s position as 
 they go. Then, if they are all knocked down, 
 the enemy must rush out in turn and attack 
 their works, where a reserve will be left. But 
 if a considerable number reach the enemy s fort, 
 you can call it captured, if you like." 
 
 The captain took a case-knife and began to 
 show them with his own hands how to construct 
 their redoubts. 
 
 " This is the way it was at Gettysburg," said 
 he, gossiping as he worked. " Here was Round 
 Top, at the extreme left of our line, and here 
 was Little Round Top. The Confederates nearly 
 
76 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 got us here. The ground was low between 
 you see. Sickles was thrown forward to the 
 line of the Chambersburg road, where it is high 
 again, but that was a mistake. Longstreet 
 flanked us so we will say. The fighting 
 took place mostly in a peach-orchard and corn 
 field. How many lives do you suppose were 
 lost in that particular peach-orchard ? " 
 
 "A hundred thousand," said Master Jack, 
 boldly. 
 
 " Not quite so bad as that," said the captain, 
 smiling, " but at least five thousand, off and on, 
 in the various encounters." 
 
 " I should not want to eat any peaches out of 
 that orchard, would you ? " said Master Jones. 
 
 Meanwhile, Miss Sophy was up-stairs before 
 her dressing-glass, holding high both arms in 
 arranging the coils of her dry brown hair, which 
 had subtle sparkles in it like gold. 
 
 " Shall I or shall I not ? " she was reflecting. 
 " Would you, or would n t you ? " 
 
 She looked more than once at the hand the 
 captain had taken in his, with a whimsical 
 glance. The Plains now? Most likely one 
 would have to go there with him and live 
 under the belle etoile, like a gypsy or a tramp. 
 No, decidedly he would not do. 
 
 "But the worst," continued the captain, ac- 
 
TEE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 77 
 
 tively shaping away at the earthworks, " was 
 the grand attack on our centre on the last day 
 of the fight. I know something about that, as 
 I happened to be in the middle of it." 
 
 " What general were you with ? " 
 
 " I was with Webb. It was Pickett s divis 
 ion, of Virginia and North Carolina troops, that 
 came up the hill to charge us. I remember, 
 through all the other feelings of the time, a 
 thrill of admiration for them, though they were 
 our enemies. It made one proud of American 
 courage to see it. The cannonading had been 
 such a roar as if the world were coming to an 
 end. Eighty gnns of ours and a hundred and 
 forty-five of theirs were playing together for 
 two hours. All at once their side stopped. 
 Then we knew what was coming. Fifteen 
 thousand men advanced in column against a 
 place where we could station only about six 
 thousand to resist them." 
 
 " Yes, but why did n t the rest of you rush 
 out on both sides and get around them." 
 
 " You are a strategist, my boy ; but, you see, 
 there was an onset at the same time all along 
 our line, to distract attention and prevent re- 
 enforcements being sent to any particular point. 
 Nobody knew at what minute his own position 
 might be assailed. That is where an attacking 
 party has a certain advantage." 
 
78 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 " Could you see their faces ? " inquired young 
 Bell, his eyes as large as saucers. 
 
 " Yes, some of them, in spite of the smoke ; 
 they came close enough for that. They had a 
 set, terrible expression which moulded all, even 
 the most unlike, into a certain resemblance. 
 They seemed to belong all to the same family. 
 They came up, under our hottest fire, to within 
 two or three hundred yards of us. Then the 
 North Carolina troops could not stand it any 
 longer, but broke and fled. We captured two 
 thousand of them and fifteen flags. But Pick- 
 ett s Virginians were older soldiers and better 
 stuff. They rushed straight up to the top in 
 our very teeth. It was their faces that we 
 saw." 
 
 " Where were you, captain ? " 
 
 " Behind a stone wall, say about breast high, 
 on the ridge. Up they came, and some of 
 them over it. But our boys were plucky as 
 well as they, and we had, besides, our reserves. 
 The fire we poured into them was insufferably 
 cruel ; mortal men could not endure it. All at 
 once the foremost ones dropped or threw up 
 their hands in token of surrender. That was 
 the end of it, and the high-water mark of the 
 rebellion. That night Lee was in full retreat." 
 
 " Oh, it was splendid," cried the boy, with 
 glistening eyes. " That s what I want to be, 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 79 
 
 a soldier. Oh, I hope there will be another 
 war when I grow up. Don t you think there 
 will be, captain ? " 
 
 " I certainly hope not, my boy. It is poor 
 business to set honest men to cutting one an 
 other s throats. There will be much better 
 work for that bright little head of yours to 
 do." 
 
 Above, on the veranda, at the same instant, 
 was Sophy. She listened to this story with 
 bated breath, and, in the end, with eyes shin 
 ing not less than those of the boys. She had 
 paused in surprise, on coming down, at noting 
 the unusual animation in Captain Bradford s 
 voice, and had even caught a glimpse of a cer 
 tain martial straightening in his form and un 
 wonted flush in his cheek, as he stood, case- 
 knife in hand, above the miniature earthworks. 
 And this was the man she had thought so tame 
 and commonplace, this brave and modest sol 
 dier, simply because he had not spoken of his 
 prowess, never vaunted the momentous deeds of 
 which he had been a witness and a heroic part. 
 Who of all the other, perfumed, waltzing 
 acquaintances would have encountered such 
 deadly perils ? One might lean with confi 
 dence upon so strong an arm, with the kindly 
 heart there was behind it, and be measurably 
 secure of defense from every rude blow of mis- 
 
80 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 fortune. She would go with him now to the 
 Plains, to mountains, to the ends of the earth, 
 wherever he would. 
 
 Thus the very cannonading of Gettysburg, 
 at this late day, had weakened another and 
 most unexpected fortress, to the point of capit 
 ulation. The gallant captain, far more fortu 
 nate in his way, if he but knew it, than the 
 gallant Pickett, had stormed straight into the 
 citadel of this tender and charming heart. Like 
 that of Desdemona, it loved him for the dan 
 gers he had passed, and was ready to surrender 
 at discretion. 
 
 Still, a woman must not appear too easily 
 won ; that is well understood. So when, look 
 ing up presently, the captain found her regard 
 ing him with what was really fervent admira 
 tion, she pretended that it was but a casual 
 interest instead. He seemed abashed at hav 
 ing been taken in the act of enthusiasm over 
 so small matters, and, abandoning the conduct 
 of the war henceforth to the regularly-consti 
 tuted commanders, he came up and rejoined 
 her. 
 
 The field of Bunkerloo now presented a mar 
 tial and spirited appearance indeed. The small 
 plain bristled with the men and guns arrayed 
 for the conflict, while on the impromptu ocean 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 81 
 
 floated gallantly the navy of either power, cov 
 ering with their guns their respective armies. 
 Commander-in-Chief Jones troops were drawn 
 up within his fortifications, a large force being 
 prudently posted in reserve near a bivouac of 
 tin tents, at a considerable distance in the rear 
 of the rest. 
 
 Generalissimo Bell s force, on the other hand, 
 was marshaled for the attack. His order of 
 battle was as follows : A line of silk spools, 
 two deep, extended entirely across the plain. 
 Behind these, to the right, came a division of 
 lead infantry in two brigades ; in the centre, 
 the wooden grenadiers ; to the left, lead and 
 wooden levies of many a varied height and as 
 pect. The cavalry was stationed in support 
 of either wing. A numerous body of thread- 
 spools was, furthermore, massed as a reserve, 
 on this side also, along the wooden curb of the 
 area, nearer to the fort. The artillery, after 
 having delivered several rousing volleys from 
 the ramparts, was taken down and set in the 
 intervals between the divisions of troops. Gen 
 eral Bell first mentally rode along the whole 
 line and in a few stirring words fired the hearts 
 of his men, then gave the signal to advance. 
 He did not at once disclose the objective point 
 of his attack, but strategically made a demon 
 stration against the enemy s entire front. 
 
82 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 While troops were numerous on both sides 
 the fun was fast and furious. The first few 
 discharges of the artillery, in particular, were 
 harrowingly fatal. Bell s elegant dress parade 
 was mowed down in swaths. A marble from 
 the old pistol-barrel cleaned out half his stock 
 of reserves at a crack. On his side, in return, 
 he found means to elevate his pieces and fire 
 them with light charges, so that the contents 
 dropped down upon the thick ranks massed in 
 side of Jones fort and destroyed them by heca 
 tombs. 
 
 But after the hosts were thinned it became 
 more a matter of scientific gunnery. It had 
 been stipulated that a piece should not be fired 
 when the men behind it were knocked down 
 and so, as was agreed, hors du combat, and that 
 they could not be replaced with fresh ones till 
 the other side had all the regular shots that 
 were at the time its due. Also, if a gun itself 
 were once dismounted it was not to be further 
 used. 
 
 Each step of the way was hotly contested. 
 The advancing army only reached the middle 
 of the plain frightfully decimated. Ivanhoe 
 had fallen ; the great Marlborough was down ; 
 Judas Maccabeus, one leg gone, and his sword 
 twisted inanely about into his own face, pre 
 sented a pitiable sight. 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 83 
 
 At the middle of the plain the lines were 
 rallied, as it were, and reformed in more open 
 order. But the very next instant the deadly 
 old pistol-barrel, by a raking shot, unceremoni 
 ously laid low full half a brigade. The fire of 
 all the invader s field- pieces was vindictively 
 concentrated upon it in return, with the happy 
 result of crumbling the parapet about it and dis 
 mounting it, thus putting an end to the rain of 
 miscellaneous material it had been so ruinously 
 pouring out ever since the beginning of the 
 fray. The breach thus formed offered a favor 
 able point for the assault, and the quick eye of 
 General Bell was not slow to seize upon it. 
 He formed a storming party, placing the Light 
 Brigade characteristically in the lead as forlorn 
 hope. There was a slight historical anomaly 
 in the fact that his light brigade did not consist 
 of cavalry, but of infantry, and the most miscel 
 laneous of infantry at that ; but they were gal 
 lant warriors, all the same. They were the 
 survivors of corps which had otherwise been 
 wholly wrecked. Each figure, in the battle of 
 Bunkerloo, counted as a hundred, to make the 
 totals more imposing ; and they were six figures 
 all told, to wit : one wooden sharp-shooter, a 
 trumpeter, a vivandiere, and a zouave, in lead, 
 and two silk spools. 
 
 Following the Light Brigade came a choice 
 
84 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 body of leaden Highlanders of most steady and 
 courageous bearing. 
 
 The matter of forming such a column in the 
 very face of the enemy is a proceeding attended 
 with no little peril. Before it was well over, 
 Kossuth had his horse shot under him ; the Cid, 
 Ruy Diaz del Bivar, was doubled up as with an 
 aggravated case of colic ; Zenobia of Palmyra 
 was blown away bodily, and only discovered 
 afterwards in an ash-barrel. The cavalry force, 
 in particular, were made to look, as one of the 
 commanders phrased it, like the breaking up of 
 a hard winter or the last end of a misspent 
 life. General Bell may, perhaps, be criticised 
 for bringing them into action at all. This is 
 an arm of the service to be used only in accord 
 ance with its peculiar conditions, which seem to 
 have been here disregarded. Still, on the other 
 hand, circumstances are often known to a com 
 mander which justify an unusual course of ac 
 tion, which may not be known to the military 
 censor and annalist. 
 
 The gallant Light Brigade buckled to the 
 onset in the manner rightly to have been ex 
 pected from their traditions. On they went to 
 the breach ; once there, the opposing guns could 
 no longer play upon them, and the game seemed 
 in their own hands. Into and through the yawn 
 ing breach they went, hauling field-pieces with 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 85 
 
 tliem. They reached the heart of the enemy s 
 works, and his camp and reserves were at their 
 mercy. A wild cry of victory, in the mind s 
 ear of Generalissimo Bell, rent the air. 
 
 All seemed indeed lost on the side of the 
 heroic Jonesey, but that commander did not 
 yet despair. He conceived a last desperate re 
 source, one of those that, when told in history, 
 send an unceasing shiver down through gen 
 erations of blanched and horrified listeners. He 
 fired a train. The train communicated with a 
 mine which he had secretly prepared during a 
 brief absence of his opponent in the kitchen, 
 and the exploding mine blew the entire fort, 
 and with it the invading force, to smithereens. 
 The plain was one vast scene of carnage. ,. 
 
 And now the contest for the supremacy of 
 the seas began. Lord High Admiral Bell, hot 
 for vengeance, poured a deadly broadside into 
 his opponent s flag-ship, peppering her sails full 
 of holes and sending a force of lead marines to 
 the bottom, to rise no more. A return broad 
 side from Commodore Jones split Admiral 
 Bell s bowsprit, and cut a number of stays, 
 allowing his foremast to assume a tendency it 
 had always had to wabble sideways. 
 
 Both high contending powers mounted their 
 land artillery as well, and brought it to bear 
 upon the shipping. Everything presently hung 
 
86 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 in rags and tatters, and every movable object 
 was shot away. Lord Nelson, however, glued 
 to his deck, still kept an undaunted front, like 
 Farragut in his shrouds at Mobile. Commo 
 dore Jones laid him alongside, threw boarders 
 into his nettings, and seemed about to lure the 
 victory to his own ensign. 
 
 Now again ensued a contretemps fully as 
 startling and dramatic as the blowing up of 
 the fort, for which catastrophe Bell had pre 
 pared a terrible retaliation. He put all his 
 surplus powder into the hold of his schooner, 
 battened down the hatches, and touched off the 
 whole with a fuse consisting of a fire-cracker 
 string. The invaders, oh where were they ? 
 
 " Ask of the winds that far and wide 
 With fragments strewed the sea." 
 
 The explosion that ensued blew the deck out 
 of the craft thus devoted to destruction, maim 
 ing and drowning the boarding party and Nel 
 son with them, every one. It created in addi 
 tion a tidal wave, which first stood the enemy s 
 fleet on their beam-ends and then wrecked them 
 all along shore. 
 
 When the captain returned to Sophia Bell, 
 she was idly pulling to pieces some of the newly- 
 swelling buds of the grapevine, just opening out 
 in the genial spring sunshine. 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 87 
 
 " Why have you never told me anything about 
 all those doings?" she asked him in a nonchalant 
 way without looking at him. 
 
 " You have never asked me," he returned, re 
 garding her with surprise. 
 
 His hand chanced to be near hers as he came 
 up, resting it on the railing, and accidentally 
 touched it. The soft little contact gave him as 
 it were an electric thrill, and he broke forth 
 again with sudden rapture : 
 
 " Dear Sophy, I love you so. Will you not 
 be mine? I will devote every instant, every 
 breath of my life to make you happy. I am 
 going away. I " 
 
 " You must not talk to me in such a way," 
 she interrupted, withdrawing her fair hand with 
 a show of indignation. " Where everybody can 
 hear, too ; the idea ! " 
 
 "But you would not listen to me, when I 
 tried to have you, where they could not hear." 
 The girl moved up the two or three remain 
 ing steps to the top, and threw herself wearily 
 into a willow arm-chair with an air as if she 
 said, 
 
 " I suppose it is quite useless to hope to es 
 cape this man s persistency. Well, then, let us 
 hear what he has to say." 
 
 It puzzled the honest captain not a little why 
 it was that, if she were so disdainful and of- 
 
88 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 fended, she did not go and leave him alto 
 gether. It was she who first broke the silence 
 that followed, asking indifferently, 
 
 " Are you not afraid in those horrid wars and 
 battles ? " 
 
 " Of course I am." 
 
 "Then why do you so rashly expose I 
 mean why don t you let them alone." 
 
 " Well it s a kind of occupation, you know. 
 One must do something for a living." 
 
 " Yes, but supposing you were killed? " 
 
 " Well, one does n t exactly expect to live 
 forever, you know." 
 
 " Enemies running up at you with such faces 
 as that, arid horrid yells," she said, reflectively. 
 " Ugh ! " and she shrugged her slender shoulders 
 in a little shiver of repulsion at the idea. 
 
 This was certainly more conciliatory, but the 
 captain was only kept upon the subject on com 
 pulsion, wondering at her interest in it, and 
 turned off from it with, 
 
 " Do not let us talk of that now ! Let me 
 tell you how beautiful I think you, how dear 
 you are to me ! We can discuss it at least, can 
 we not? that can do no harm ? " 
 
 " Yes it can," she maintained obstinately. 
 
 " Both your father and mother are on my 
 side," he ventured, exploding a bombshell. 
 
 " Oh dreadful ! " she exclaimed, starting up 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 89 
 
 with an expression as if surrounded, desperately 
 hemmed in front, flank, and rear, with small 
 hope of retreat possible, " have you spoken to 
 them? But they know nothing about such 
 things nothing." 
 
 The lover was in despair. He feared that he 
 had committed a hopeless imprudence, and be 
 gan to apologize, 
 
 " I mean to say that is " 
 
 " No ! I say, you must not talk to me so." 
 
 This now, as it happened, was the exact mo 
 ment of the marine explosion below, which had 
 consequences above, far beyond anything its 
 authors could have dreamed of. Fully a square 
 yard of good plastering was shaken from the 
 ceiling of the veranda by it, and fell to the floor 
 with a crash. It must have been already, for 
 some time, in a defective condition, to be thus 
 easily displaced. However this may be, it fell 
 precisely upon our lovers with a thump and a 
 dull roar, staggering them and enveloping them 
 in a dense cloud of white dust. 
 
 Captain Bradford was first to recover, and 
 saw Sophy leaning against the wall deadly pale, 
 and heard her murmur weakly, " My head ! my 
 head ! " Her beautiful hair was disheveled, her 
 entire costume in disarray, and one hand raised 
 to her brow in a dazed way. He flew to her, 
 frantically brushed away a part of the debris, 
 
90 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 and, taking her boldly in his arms, supported 
 her within. 
 
 " Oh, what has happened to you, my darling, 
 my pet, my pretty one ? Oh, I hope you are 
 not hurt," he cried, as he labored over her, most 
 tenderly bathing her face and hands with cool 
 water. 
 
 "I feared we were both killed," she said, 
 soon smiling at him faintly. " A weight of tons 
 seemed to fall upon my head, but my braids 
 saved me. I am not hurt, only a little 
 stunned." 
 
 He was holding both her hands in his, now, 
 without resistance. Perhaps she was not con 
 scious of it. 
 
 " Oh, if I should lose you," he went on, 
 " what would become of me ? " 
 
 She was dazed, as has been said, and this was 
 very pleasant to listen to. 
 
 " I fear I do not understand women. It is 
 said it is a kind of proverb that they say 
 4 no when they mean yes. The military 
 man let fall this abstruse intelligence with a 
 simple engaging frankness. " They do not wish 
 to appear too easily won. But you are not like 
 that, I know. You would not wring my heart 
 for an absurd scruple, a petty conventional 
 whim." 
 
 She opened a shrewd corner of an eye at him 
 
THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 91 
 
 upon this, but closed it again before he discov 
 ered it. Where had he learned such a pro 
 fundity of wisdom, indeed? 
 
 " I can never think of you as easily won. I 
 can never half tell you how I adore you, how 
 unworthy I feel myself of you, were I to take a 
 whole life-time," he persisted, borne on in the 
 fervid torrent of his wooing. 
 
 " Who has given you such ridiculous ideas 
 about women ? " she asked him, raising slowly 
 at length the lids, fringed with their charming 
 long lashes which had veiled so long both lus 
 trous eyes, now arch with laughter. 
 
 She closed them again softly the next moment 
 and added, before he could speak, 
 
 "I am so glad this has happened. I have 
 liked you all the time." 
 
 A heavy shock of earthquake is said to have 
 passed unnoticed during the ancient battle of 
 Thrasymene. So, too, our combatants of Bun- 
 kerloo remained all unaware, in the fury of the 
 strife, of the momentous consequences transact 
 ing above them. It was not till the last man 
 was exterminated from the face of the ground 
 in a kind of supplementary guerilla warfare 
 and the last stick of timber from the face of the 
 waters, that Master Bell, running up to inform 
 the captain what a beautiful success it had 
 
92 THE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 
 
 been, learned of the fall of the ceiling and its 
 immediate cause. 
 
 " I wish you would stay here all the time. I 
 wish you were my big brother," he said, seizing 
 one of his mature friend s large brown hands in 
 both his own. 
 
 " He wishes I were his big brother," said the 
 captain, turning the aspiration laconically over 
 to Sophy, who perceptibly blushed. 
 
 " Run away, do, Jack ! " she exclaimed, to 
 hide her embarrassment. "You are a perfect 
 sight. And I hope you see the damage you 
 have done here?" 
 
 Somewhat dismayed at this unlooked-for de 
 velopment, and perhaps oppressed with graver 
 misgivings as to the future, Master Jack ran 
 away as bidden. He endeavored, nevertheless, 
 to see if a few finishing touches still could not 
 be put to the battle. 
 
 But formidable neutral powers were now con 
 centrating about the field, and active interven 
 tion was imminent. A younger sister of ten, 
 Hallie, came in from her lesson at dancing-school, 
 took a brief survey of the operations, holding 
 her fingers in her ears, and hastened away 
 promising to convey a full account to Mamma 
 at the earliest possible moment. The cook, too, 
 having taking advantage of a general exodus 
 on the unusually pleasant spring afternoon to 
 pay a brief visit to another cook down the 
 
TEE BATTLE OF BUNKERLOO. 93 
 
 block, now returned to her kitchen. She was 
 raising her hands to heaven in holy horror at 
 the condition to which the range had been 
 brought, when Jonesy skirmished in. She cap 
 tured him, and would perhaps have consigned 
 him to the Bastile of the furnace-room for in 
 definite imprisonment, but that General Bell 
 charged to his aid, cut him out after a des 
 perate hand to hand conflict, and set him at 
 liberty. 
 
 Jones now desired, as a final privilege, to be 
 allowed to fire off once the old musket-barrel, 
 heretofore reserved as against the laws of war. 
 Its ramrod had somehow become entangled in 
 the bore in loading it, and could not be extri 
 cated. It was necessary, therefore, to fire off 
 ramrod and all. The piece was aimed towards 
 a dahlia box across the yard. The box was 
 split by the discharge, and the valuable plant 
 it contained thrown into the air. The gun, in 
 its recoil, by the merest accident escaped trans 
 fixing Master Jones, striking a corner of the 
 door-jamb so hard as to knock out half a brick. 
 
 Master Bell, in his interest in this shot, inad 
 vertently laid down his hand upon the heated 
 end of the hot poker with which it was touched 
 off. It was with the lamentations and lively 
 changes of posture arising from this untoward 
 circumstance that the battle of Bunkerloo 
 finally saw its close. 
 
DEODAND. 
 
 I. 
 
 ONE day there sailed into the harbor of 
 Washington Island, near the junction of Lake 
 Michigan with Lake Superior, the schooner 
 Only Son. 
 
 She was of about two hundred and thirty 
 tons burden. She was painted green, with a 
 white stripe around her, the paint all much 
 battered and rust -stained ; and a battered old 
 yawl in the same colors towed in her wake. 
 The occasion of her putting into port was found 
 to be the hard usage she had met with in a 
 gale off the Manitous, the day before. A heavy 
 sea had come aboard her, stove in a part of her 
 bulwarks, carried away her flying-jib-boom, and 
 burst out her mainsail. 
 
 Washington Island lies to the left of the 
 beaten track of vessels eastward bound, and 
 not far from the strait of Death s Door. A pro 
 peller of the Union Transportation Company s 
 line was formerly in the habit of touching there 
 
DEODAND. 95 
 
 once a week, and no doubt does so still. Other 
 arrivals were rare. The advent of the schooner, 
 in consequence, drew to the water s edge what 
 few spectators the port could furnish in the 
 absence of the greater part of the populace in 
 their regular occupation at the fishing ground. 
 These shaded their eyes from the sun and gazed 
 at her, much as the occupants of a farm-house 
 might have come to their door to watch an un 
 wonted traveler on their lonesome road. 
 
 The settlement at the port consisted of a 
 cluster of cabins on a hill-side ; a principal 
 dock or wharf upon which stood a warehouse 
 and general store ; and a smaller dock support 
 ing a row of small fish-houses. The structures 
 were chiefly of logs and bark, with rude stone 
 chimneys. Piles of cord-wood, railroad ties, 
 and telegraph poles, the cutting of which was 
 the industry of the inhabitants in winter, were 
 a prominent feature on the hill-side. Along the 
 edges of the main wharf were ranged in. rows 
 barrels of fish ready for shipment, and others 
 full of salt, together with empty casks lately 
 set ashore from the propeller. Dock, ware 
 house, cabins, cord-wood, and the bowlders crop 
 ping here and there out of the dry grass in 
 which grew columbines and bluebells, were all 
 alike of a silvery grayness imparted by long 
 bleaching in the elements. Above, but con- 
 
96 DEODAND. 
 
 nected with the rest by irregular foot-paths, 
 stood a large white house with a veranda, the 
 residence of Pardee, owner of store, warehouse, 
 and fisheries, and principal proprietor in the 
 island. 
 
 Pardee was an affable person of thirty or 
 thereabouts. He had been a particularly jolly 
 bachelor up to a recent date, when he had 
 married a pretty young woman eight or ten 
 years younger than himself, now with him on 
 the island, and had settled down and become as 
 sedate as could be desired. He lived at the 
 island only during the height of the summer 
 fishing season, being occupied the rest of the 
 year with large business elsewhere. The house, 
 during Pardee s absences, was occupied by his 
 faithful manager, the elderly Mr. Copp. 
 
 The Only Son made at first as if she would 
 have come up to Pardee s dock, but changed 
 her intention, and anchored instead at a little 
 distance. The battered yawl was drawn up 
 alongside her, and a thickset man with coarse, 
 faded beard, his upper lip clean-shaven, a com 
 plexion like leather, and wearing a waistcoat of 
 black velvet with yellow spots, came ashore. 
 
 On landing, he gave an account of the mis 
 adventures of his vessel, bought a roll of sail 
 cloth and some other materials, and went back. 
 He and his crew were seen to be occupied, the 
 
DEODAND. 97 
 
 rest of the day, in repairing damages. It ap 
 peared from his own statement that he was a 
 Mr. Mosely, the mate, temporarily in command, 
 owing to an illness of the captain. The cargo 
 was coal from Buffalo to Bluff burg for the 
 Benedicts of that place. The schooner, he said, 
 was as good a sea-boat as ever was, and, apart 
 from the mishaps visible to the eye, she had 
 weathered the storm as dry as an old shoe. 
 
 Towards the cool of the afternoon an oldish 
 man with a limp, a portion of the rim of his 
 straw hat missing, and carrying a large basket 
 and jug, came up from the interior of the island 
 for a new stock of supplies. Something famil 
 iar in the appearance of the schooner seemed 
 to engage his attention, but other aspects of 
 her caused him to hesitate. 
 
 He went into the store on the main wharf 
 and secured there, together with his provision 
 of cheese, molasses, and rye flour for the com 
 ing week, what information was to be had about 
 her. When he came out he seated himself on 
 a salt barrel and looked again. A light of sat 
 isfied recognition this time seemed to spread 
 over his weather-beaten countenance. 
 
 "I belief me I did know pooty well dot 
 
 shooner. She was de same old son of a guns," 
 
 said he, looking about for somebody to whom* 
 
 to impart his confidences. The schoolmaster 
 
 7 
 
98 DEODAND. 
 
 of the island happened to be standing near by, 
 holding in his hand a spy-glass. He was a 
 brown, stalwart young man, scarcely less rug 
 ged in appearance than the ordinary fishermen, 
 perhaps a little more neatly dressed, but wear 
 ing the conventional costume of flannel shirt, 
 and coarse pantaloons tucked into his boots. 
 
 " You think you know her then, Abend- 
 schein ? " said the schoolmaster. 
 
 " Of I dondt know her, I gif it up, so help 
 my gracious ! " returned Abendschein, with 
 strong energy. " She bin no Only Son. She 
 bin dot same old Lizzie and Lowesa. She can t 
 fools Moritz Abendschein, I bet you." 
 
 He got up and joined the schoolmaster and 
 entered into other particulars. 
 
 Two other spectators came down the path 
 from the large white house above, entered the 
 store and emerged through it upon the dock. 
 They were two young women in fresh, pretty 
 toilettes, one white, one pale pink, of summer 
 wash-goods. It was Mrs. Pardee and her vis 
 itor. For the island was further favored just 
 at present by a visitor who had been gallantly 
 escorted down the plank of the Pride of the 
 West, three days before, by the purser, carry 
 ing her shawls in a canvas cover ornamented 
 with designs of her own embroidering, and had 
 been welcomed with effusion by Pardee s young 
 
DEODAND. 99 
 
 wife. The two had been schoolmates at an 
 Eastern institution of repute. They had ac 
 quired there all the usual accomplishments and 
 advantages, mental, moral, and physical, which 
 such establishments supply, together with a cer 
 tain stylish air for which it was rather espe 
 cially noted. 
 
 The visitor Bertha, for so she was called, had 
 come from Bluffburg, a long way to the south 
 ward, in response to an invitation. The island 
 was an unheard-of place to visit, the writer 
 had said, yet most eligibly situated for some of 
 their old-fashioned talks, and when they had 
 tired of it they could go back to the mainland 
 and finish the visit there. The old-fashioned 
 talks indicated were begun with great vivacity 
 immediately upon the visitor s arrival. The 
 couple had not met since the Wedding, and it 
 may well be imagined that things of momenjb 
 had transpired since then. 
 
 They twined their arms affectionately about 
 each other s waists as they stood upon the dock. 
 The visitor called Mrs. Pardee Emma, and 
 pulled and pushed her at times with a freedom 
 that quite astonished the schoolmaster, who 
 had been accustomed to look upon the wife of 
 the proprietor as a very stately and dignified 
 person. He himself thought of her almost 
 with awe. He had not seen the visitor before 
 
100 DEODAND. 
 
 at close quarters. The proximity caused him 
 some trepidation, and he had an unusual con 
 sciousness of the inelegance of his own appear 
 ance. As Abendschein talked loudly and made 
 gestures, the ladies glanced towards them. The 
 schoolmaster s diffidence was not sufficient to 
 keep him from furnishing them a piece of news 
 which he thought might interest them. He 
 stepped forward, in answer to their glance of 
 inquiry, touched his hat rather awkwardly, and 
 said, 
 
 " Abendschein says it is the Lizzie and 
 Louisa, the boat that ran down the Allanadale 
 years ago." 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " said Bertha. 
 
 " The Allanadale ? " said Emma, reflectively. 
 " It seems as if I had heard." 
 
 "Why of course you have heard, Emma. 
 That terrible case ! The Hallecks father was 
 lost on her. How does the man know ? " she 
 asked the schoolmaster. 
 
 "He used to be a bridge-tender down at 
 Bluffburg, and has passed her through his 
 bridge a great many times. He says if he had 
 not opened his bridge in a hurry for her, after 
 the inquest, when a mob wanted to burn and 
 scuttle her, she would not have been floating 
 out here so quietly now," replied the school 
 master with an air of great respect. 
 
DEODAND. 101 
 
 He looked at his interlocutor s face as he 
 talked. He thought he had never seen any 
 thing so pleasing. Her eyes were blue. She 
 had a round chin and a piquant nose. When 
 she talked, her short upper lip showed very 
 pretty white teeth, which had a slight opening 
 in front. Her brown hair hung behind in a 
 sort of twisted loop, tied up with a ribbon ; be 
 fore it strayed over her forehead in a becom 
 ing style for which the female mind has in 
 vented no better name than " bangs." 
 
 Women were very much out of the school 
 master s line ; he thought that he had always 
 had more engrossing matters to attend to. He 
 had hardly seen any others than the feminine 
 cooks of vessels and the unkempt islanders 
 wives, and scarcely knew whether all were not 
 as hard-favored as those. In the presence of 
 this one he was inclined to rub his eyes, as if 
 at a new revelation. 
 
 Bertha, on her side, had not before seen the 
 schoolmaster except at a distance. She had 
 observed him passing in and out among the 
 gray cabins, now with a gun or an oar on his 
 shoulder, now with books, covered with calico, 
 returning from his school. Her friends had 
 told her banteringly that he was the beau, the 
 only subject on the island for a flirtation. " But 
 I am in despair," she had returned in the same 
 
102 DEODAND. 
 
 spirit ; " for he never comes near me." She 
 thought now that he talked very well. He 
 was self-possessed too. His diffidence did not 
 seem to be bashfulness so much as an over- 
 punctilious respect for them. 
 
 " Why, of course, the Allanadale," said 
 Emma, " what was I thinking of ! It was a 
 perfectly awful shipwreck ! " 
 
 " Owful, miss, dot was it so," said Abend- 
 schein, taking part. " More als drei hundert 
 peeples was gone dead by dot shooner. Never 
 did I seen myself such a times in dot Bluff- 
 burg aus. Of Moritz Abendschein he don t 
 open dose schwing-bridge so quick like never 
 was, you don t see dot Lizzie and Lowesa by 
 Washington Island to-day not no more I can 
 tole you." 
 
 " But they did not destroy her, it seems," 
 said Bertha. " Where has she been, all this 
 time? That was nearly fifteen years ago. And 
 oh, are you sure there is not some mistake ? 
 This is the Only Son, you see, not the Lizzie 
 and Louisa." 
 
 As if in answer to this desire for more ac 
 curate knowledge, Mr. Mosely was seen again 
 coming ashore for supplies. 
 
 " I am going to ask him," said the fair vis 
 itor. 
 
 " Bertha, don t ! I would n t," said Emma, 
 deprecatingly. 
 
DEODAND. 103 
 
 But the sprightly young lady went on to 
 accost the man with a little air of bravado, of 
 which she was inclined to repent the next mo 
 ment until she was reassured by his good-hu 
 mored reception of it. 
 
 " We were admiring your schooner," said she, 
 insinuatingly. 
 
 " She ain t much of a beauty," said the mate, 
 " still she s a good un. Her lines is good. 
 She needs overhaulin and paintin . I don t 
 believe she s had it done for a matter of ten 
 year." 
 
 " Have you been connected with her all that 
 time ? " 
 
 " Oh, no. I only come on a couple of sea 
 sons ago, since she bin owned by the Trow- 
 bridges of Buffalo." 
 
 " We were thinking that this might be the 
 Lizzie and Louisa," said Bertha, bravely, 
 " the one that sank the Allanadale, you know." 
 
 "Who told you that?" asked Mr. Mosely, 
 in sharp surprise, glancing keenly around him. 
 
 Mr. Abendschein stated with a chuckle that 
 he had found her out ; he should have known 
 her among a thousand. 
 
 " Oh, it was you as knowed her, was it, old 
 party ? Veil, I guess it was better you look 
 a little out mit yourself," returned the mate, 
 mimicking the broken English of the other 
 rudely. 
 
104 DEODAND. 
 
 His manner showed that the facile memory 
 of the other gave him anything but unalloyed 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " Now I 11 show you," he continued, " that 
 you would n t know her out of a thousand, no, 
 not out of anything at all. She s been made 
 over. She got them there masts in Cork. 
 There ain t scarcely anything you see there 
 that ever belonged to the Lizzie and Louisa 
 but the hull." 
 
 Inasmuch as the vessel had been recognized, 
 it seemed strange that the mariner should have 
 been inclined to go into argument about the 
 matter. His irascibility, however, extended 
 only to the meddlesome Abendschein. To the 
 ladies he comported himself with all traditional 
 maritime gallantry. 
 
 " You were not on board of the schooner, 
 then, at the time of the a the accident ? " 
 said Emma, gathering courage. 
 
 " No, miss, but I learned all about it, pretty 
 much the same. I helped take charge of some 
 of the bodies as was washed ashore. The Lizzie 
 and Louisa, she was n t to blame, the way I 
 look at it. They cussed her up hill and down 
 dale, of course ; but people always does that 
 when they re mad, the same as children kick a 
 bit of pavement, or anything that way, that 
 has tripped em up. The schooner was on her 
 
DEODAND. 105 
 
 course, and where she had a right to be, ac- 
 cordin to law. A steamer can shift when a 
 sailin vessel can t. 1 
 
 " Where were her lights ? " inquired the 
 schoolmaster with an expert air. 
 
 " On the pawl bit, so I ve heerd say. She 
 had a lantern there with a green slide for the 
 starboard tack and a red un for port." 
 
 "Do you carry your lights the same way 
 now?" " 
 
 " Well, no, we don t ; we has em in the rig- 
 gin now. But it was n t no question of lights 
 the night the Allanadale was struck. It was 
 bull -headed carelessness. Everybody on the 
 steamer was dancin and carryin on down in 
 the cabin it was a excursion boat, you re 
 member, miss and not pay in no attention to 
 anything. When the schooner found the Al 
 lanadale was n t goin to give way, it was too 
 late for her to ; she had to strike. She knocked 
 a hole in the Allanadale as big as a house. The 
 bowsprit went clean through, and raked the 
 cabin, as it heaved about. Some was crushed 
 agin the floor and ceilin and never even had 
 a chance to tumble overboard. The water 
 come in and put out the fires, and the steamer 
 sunk inside of ten minutes. It was pitch dark 
 and a heavy sea runnin . A thunder-storm 
 come on with all the rest, and when the light- 
 
106 DEODAND. 
 
 nin flashed it showed the water covered with 
 hundreds of drownin people and corpses." 
 
 " And the Lizzie and Louisa went right on 
 and never stopped to save one of them ? " said 
 Bertha. 
 
 " That s what she did, miss. That s what 
 made the folks so mad. But she could n t V 
 done no different, I say. The bowsprit and 
 bobstays and whole head-gear was gone out of 
 her, and her masts was a-topplin . She could n t 
 stay there in the trough of the sea to help no 
 body." 
 
 " How do you come to have now the name 
 of Only Son, instead of Lizzie and Louisa ? " 
 
 " There was a schooner of that name that 
 was lost in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I mind 
 the time very well. We got her name. It was 
 done by act of Congress or act of Parliament, 
 or some such way. You see, the schooner lit 
 out for foreign parts after the trouble. This is 
 only her second season back, and this here is 
 the first trip she s made to Bluffburg since." 
 
 The aged Abendschein said that he had sup 
 posed so, that he had certainly not seen her 
 during the ten years succeeding the accident, 
 while he was still tending his bridge at Bluff- 
 burg. 
 
 " You ve got a excellent memory, old skee- 
 six," said the mariner, with severe sarcasm. 
 
DEODAND. 107 
 
 " You want to be particular careful of your 
 health. You ought to be a-countin currency 
 in some high-toned savin s bank, with plate 
 glass winders, you had." 
 
 " Do you ever have any ghosts aboard ? " in 
 quired the schoolmaster, by way of diversion. 
 
 "Nary ghost," replied Mr. Mosely, and upon 
 this the conference ended. 
 
 " Oh a what is a pawl bit ? " asked Ber 
 tha, turning to the schoolmaster as he was about 
 to go away. 
 
 She employed with him, as with the mate of 
 the schooner, a manner deferential, yet slightly 
 free, as a person of such a relation to herself 
 that there was no fear of misconstruction and 
 freedoms from him in return. 
 
 " That square projection on the forecastle," 
 said he, pointing it out. " It is used in work 
 ing the windlass. It is no place to put lights. 
 They are always hung in the rigging, as far as 
 I know. Besides the lights, in foggy weather, 
 a horn is blown, one blast when the vessel is 
 on the starboard tack, two on the port tack, 
 and three when she is running free, to show 
 where she is." 
 
 " Then you think the Lizzie and Louisa was 
 to blame ? " 
 
 " I do not say so. I do not pretend to know 
 enough of the details. There was an investiga- 
 
108 DEODAND. 
 
 tion, but of course in such cases the only wit 
 nesses are the crews, and they are equally preju 
 diced in opposite directions. At any rate, no 
 proceedings were taken against her." 
 
 " But of course there ought not to have been, 
 unless it were certain that she was to blame. 
 That would have been highly unjust." 
 
 " Yes, by our laws, and now ; but there used 
 to be a different conception of justice. Do you 
 recollect about the old custom of deodand, in 
 Blackstone? This rather makes me think of 
 it." 
 
 "Deodand?" she repeated, puzzled; "no, in 
 deed ; what was it ? " 
 
 " It used to be the custom to confiscate any 
 thing that had been the occasion of death, 
 whether it were to blame or not. It was called 
 a deodand, supposed to be forfeited to God, and 
 the king devoted it to charitable uses. The 
 destruction of human life was considered such 
 an absolute and inexcusable wrong that ven 
 geance had to be wreaked even upon the inani 
 mate matter that was the agent of it. If the 
 thing were in motion the whole of it was taken ; 
 if not in motion only the part that was imme 
 diately to blame. Thus, if a man should fall 
 from the wheel of a wagon at rest and be killed, 
 the wheel alone was a deodand, and not the 
 wagon." 
 
DEODAND. 109 
 
 "It is like what the mate just said of the 
 children kicking the pavement for tripping 
 them up. So by this old custom," the girl 
 continued meditatively, " that dreadful ship 
 would be confiscated, would be a What do 
 you call it ? a deo " 
 
 " Deodand." 
 
 " It makes me shiver only to look at it. Just 
 see how stolid and unfeeling she lies there after 
 all the suffering she has occasioned. I would 
 not wish to sail in her for anything; would 
 you ? " 
 
 " Oh, I should not much care. I am not very 
 superstitious. She has gone along now fifteen 
 years all right, and most likely will continue to 
 do so. There is no legal way now of collecting 
 deodands." 
 
 " Yes, but perhaps for that very reason they 
 may be collected in more at headquarters, as it 
 
 were." 
 
 " Is n t that just a little sacrilegious ? " 
 
 " Well, yes," admitted Bertha. " I am afraid 
 that it is."" 
 
 " Oh, please do not think I take the liberty 
 to correct you," the schoolmaster hastened to 
 say. 
 
 He looked into her eyes again. He thought 
 a kind and honest heart beamed forth from 
 them, gay and bright as they were. Bertha too 
 
110 DEODAND. 
 
 began to be sensible that he was a person to 
 be put upon a very different footing from Mr. 
 Mosely. 
 
 " We should be very glad to see you at the 
 house, at any time," said Mrs. Pardee to him 
 graciously, as they moved away. 
 
 It was his first invitation from this source. 
 
 " If it amuses you to talk to odd persons, 
 you shall have what slight diversions the island 
 affords," she said to Bertha when they were out 
 of hearing. 
 
 " How much he knows" said Bertha. " Tell 
 me about him ! What is his name ? " 
 
 " Halvorsen. He is as much sailor as school 
 master, or more. My husband, I believe, thinks 
 him quite a remarkable character." 
 
 "Yes? in what way?" 
 
 " Well, it seems he has educated himself some 
 how in sailing around the world. He never 
 had anybody to look after him, and never went 
 to school. He studies law, of nights, and has 
 an idea of making a lawyer of himself. He 
 sails the lakes, usually, to get the money. I 
 don t know exactly how it happens that he is 
 teaching school here. I think he was di-sap- 
 pointed about some vessel he expected to get 
 the command of, and is only waiting for that." 
 
 " His manners are very good for one with so 
 little bringing up. But he cannot be called 
 
DEODAND. Ill 
 
 very good looking," she added, reflectively. 
 " Where is he from ? " 
 
 "He was born in some English port. His 
 father was Norwegian, and his mother English; 
 but he scarcely even saw either of them." 
 
 " I think he deserves a great deal of credit ; 
 don t you ? " said Bertha. 
 
 Before morning the schooner had weighed 
 anchor and continued her course to Bluffburg. 
 Her skipper was apprehensive, from the facile 
 recognition of his vessel at the island, that un 
 pleasant consequences might await her at the 
 port of her destination from which she had 
 been so long absent, and where she had been 
 the object of such a bitter animosity. But this 
 fear proved unfounded. Whether she were 
 identified on her entrance into Bluffburg by 
 other eyes or not, the only active interest mani 
 fested in the ex-Lizzie and Louisa was from a 
 very obscure source indeed. A squalid vagrant 
 known along the docks and in the police court, 
 at which he made frequent appearances, as 
 Hungry Hagan, followed her stealthily as she 
 moved to her moorings at Benedict s wharf, 
 hung over a bridge in the immediate vicinity ^ 
 shook his fist and continued to regard her, mut 
 tering with imbecile malignity. The abode of 
 this man was with others of his class upon a 
 
112 DEODAND. 
 
 strip of sand beach once the site of fishing in 
 dustries. The sand had been carted away by 
 graders of streets to such an extent that the 
 quarter had at one time stood in danger of 
 being engulfed in the lake, and a law had been 
 passed against the practice. The constructions 
 of a great city pressed close behind and around 
 it, and a railroad company was ready to take 
 the ground for its repair shops as soon as it 
 could get a franchise. Tramps and disreputable 
 characters had crept into the abandoned huts of 
 the fishermen. In rags of the yellowish hue 
 which is the last stage of old clothing, they 
 sunned themselves on the beach, caught drift 
 wood for their fires, and begged or stole a sub 
 sistence as best they could. 
 
 There was a tradition, hard indeed to credit, 
 that Hagan, previous to the loss of the Allana- 
 dale, had been a decent, honest mechanic. His 
 wife and children had gone down in her, and 
 then he took to drink and general abandoned 
 courses. His besotted faculties all but gone ap 
 peared to retain their cunning for but a single 
 object, the craft that had been the author of 
 his calamities. 
 
 As the Only Son lay now in the river, the 
 chips floating past her, as often up stream as 
 down, in the sluggish yellow current, and ur 
 chins playing about her in the neighboring 
 
DEODAND. 113 
 
 wood-yard, it was hard to connect her with 
 the wild sweep of angry waters and the despair 
 ing struggle of perishing human lives. Hungry 
 Hagan looked long and malevolently at her 
 from the bridge, but if he meditated her a mis 
 chief, it was not carried into effect on the pres 
 ent occasion. Before night he was run in to 
 the station-house as a " drunk and disorderly," 
 and was sentenced to the House of Correction 
 for thirty days. 
 
 " This loafing around the docks and picking 
 and stealing from vessels has got to be stopped, 
 Hagan," said the judge. 
 
 " Yes, judge, your honor," said Hungry Ha 
 gan. 
 
 II. 
 
 There was little in the way of regular en 
 tertainment at Washington Island. The two 
 ladies held interminable friendly conversations, 
 and Bertha made great progress with an afghan 
 she was knitting, which she said was alone 
 worth the price of admission. In the mornings 
 it pleased her to follow Emma about the house 
 in a large gingham apron, the sleeves rolled up 
 over her round white arms, and engage in some 
 of the lighter domestic duties. In the after 
 noon they dressed in costumes which seemed, 
 to the benighted intelligence of the island, of 
 
114 DEODAND. 
 
 an incomparable elegance and fashion. They 
 laughed in secret at this simplicity, like the 
 classic augurs on their towers, knowing well 
 that there was not a costume of them all that 
 was not a couple of seasons old at the least. 
 
 They took short walks. There was a rustic 
 seat with a sun-dial near it on the hillside, to 
 which they much resorted. One day Mr. Par- 
 dee took them to a small, green, almost per 
 fectly circular lake, in the interior. Again, they 
 went down in company and honored the host 
 by a visit to him in person at his store. He 
 received them with a humorously exaggerated 
 courtesy, and placed a well-whittled arm-chair 
 and office stool af their disposal. The taci 
 turn steady-going agent, Copp, looked over his 
 spectacles at them. The country store was 
 cool and semi-obscure. The door at its farther 
 end showed a bright strip of sunlight dancing 
 zigzag upon the water off the dock. There 
 were scythes and hoe-handles, pails, hams, and 
 boots depending from the rafters. There were 
 garden seeds, nails, coarse dry-goods and cloth 
 ing, perfumery, stationery, hard -tack, powder 
 and shot, jars of citron, and candy in sticks. 
 Up-stairs was a sail-loft with a stock of cordage 
 and tackle. All that the miscellaneous needs 
 of the island demanded were ministered to 
 from this single source of supply. The trade 
 
DEODAND. 115 
 
 was conducted largely by means of barter, the 
 merchant taking produce for shipment and 
 making payment for it in goods. 
 
 Bertha wished to be weighed. She proved 
 to turn the scale at one hundred and twenty- 
 five pounds. She was displeased ; she did not 
 wish to be more than a hundred and twenty. 
 She went behind the counter and pretended to 
 be salesman. While there, a customer came 
 in and inquired for brown sugar. She got it 
 in person, and expended with her pretty hands 
 an elaborate preparation upon the tying of the 
 package in its coarse paper with a profusion of 
 strings, that must, at current rates of labor, 
 have added largely to the price of the com 
 modity. 
 
 " That makes it as good as white, miss," said 
 the man gallantly, receiving it from her hand. 
 
 " There ! you see there are people who appre 
 ciate me," said Bertha, returning complacently 
 to her friends. 
 
 The schoolmaster, in a remote corner of the 
 store at the time overhauling some fishing gear, 
 saw this, and it filled him with a vague, pleas 
 ant sentiment. He had not as yet taken ad 
 vantage of Mrs. Pardee s invitation to him to 
 appear at the house. 
 
 " We were altogether too supercilious, / 
 think," said Bertha, commenting upon it. 
 
116 DEODAND. 
 
 " You did not even take the pains to introduce 
 him to me. He is very intelligent, as you see, 
 and no doubt equally independent." 
 
 " We might go and see him at his school ? " 
 suggested the hostess. 
 
 " Oh, yes, we must" said Bertha. 
 
 " It will have to be very soon, then, for it 
 closes with June, and here we are within a day 
 or two of it." 
 
 " Very well, let us go this afternoon ! " 
 
 The school-house was a log structure in the 
 edge of the woods. There were morning-glories 
 and lilacs clustered about it, and squirrels, blue 
 birds, and gophers not far away. Within were 
 a dilapidated blackboard, a chair and desk for 
 the teacher, and two long benches filled by a 
 score of tow-headed, barefooted pupils. At one 
 side, in contrast to the general sterility, was a 
 row of shelves containing a considerable collec 
 tion of books, and upon the top a plaster bust 
 and a German student lamp. 
 
 The sailor schoolmaster was considerably 
 flustered at the appearance of his unexpected 
 guests. Secretly, he would much rather have 
 been discovered in his bolder, more imposing 
 profession on the sea. He would have dis 
 missed the school at once on this account, 
 pleading that, since the next day was Satur 
 day, the beginning of the vacation, it was 
 
DEODAND. 117 
 
 harder than usual to keep his scholars atten 
 tion. The ladies insisted first, however, upon 
 hearing something of their acquirements in the 
 least common multiple, pronominal adjectives, 
 and the like. They exchanged complimen 
 tary remarks upon such of the young faces as 
 pleased them. Among the names of girls they 
 found Dagmars, Amalias, and Brunhildas ; the 
 boys were Lars, Olaf, Gudrun, and Nefiolf. 
 
 " They are for the most part Northmen, like 
 myself," explained the master, "Danes, Nor 
 wegians, and even Icelanders, though the latter 
 are few now, most of those once on the island 
 having moved away." 
 
 A very tow-headed boy in baggy clothes of 
 blue cotton, with an entirely serious expression 
 of countenance, held up his hand. His name 
 was given as Lars Byosling. 
 
 " Please say something to make us laugh ! " 
 he said, preferring his request to Bertha. 
 
 " Why, how dreadfully embarrassing," said 
 that young person, turning away in a whimsical 
 consternation. 
 
 " There I Byosling, that will do," said the 
 schoolmaster to the applicant, severely. 
 
 " We have but few visitors," he explained 
 to the ladies. " Most of them are elderly, and 
 are in the habit of talking to the school. You 
 are probably expected to do something of the 
 
118 DEODAND. 
 
 sort also. The boy meant to indicate the line 
 they would like to have you follow." 
 
 Mrs. Emma, however, as a person of grave 
 and settled position in the world, thought best 
 not to infringe upon the established custom, 
 and made an effort at some remarks of her 
 own, befitting the occasion. 
 
 " You must all be very good," she said, " and 
 
 mind your mothers during the vacation, and 
 
 try not to forget what you have learned. 
 And if you will come up to my house to 
 Mr. Pardee s house, you know to-morrow, at 
 three o clock, there will be something for you." 
 
 With this the session was concluded. The 
 pupils darted out at the open door, through 
 which the blue sky and green leaves and squir 
 rels and jay-birds had been looking invitingly 
 in upon them. The boys whooped amain, and 
 tossed one another s hats over the school-house ; 
 the girls pursued their ways demurely, engaged 
 in the consideration of things which they had 
 promised upon their sacred words and honors 
 not to tell each other, and which had been told ; 
 thereby occasioning bickerings, and refusals to 
 speak as long as they lived. 
 
 " Are you going to the fishing-grounds to 
 morrow ? I believe you usually go Saturdays," 
 asked Emma by way of conversation. 
 
 " No, I think not. I have been helping Olaf- 
 
DEODAND. 119 
 
 son lately, but his pound net is broken and we 
 cannot do much of anything until it is fixed." 
 
 " How is Olafson getting on now ? " she in 
 quired next, with a sort of proprietary interest. 
 
 Meanwhile Bertha strolled about, with a 
 dainty prospecting air. Approaching the books, 
 " Oh ! perhaps you have something nice to 
 read," she said, " The Seaman s Friend, 
 um, Peters, Kent, urn, Benedict s Admi 
 ralty Practice, Lowndes on Collision, Black- 
 stone oh, here is Blackstone ; I have heard 
 so much of Blackstone. Is it interesting ? 
 What hard work men have to go through ! " 
 
 Halvorsen now joined her. 
 
 " I hear you mean to practice law," she con 
 tinued. " Where shall you settle when you are 
 ready?" 
 
 " 1 must go where there is plenty of ship 
 ping. Marine law is what I have especially in 
 view. I have an idea that my practical experi 
 ence in navigation and acquaintance on the 
 lakes ought to give me a certain advantage in 
 that." 
 
 " There is a good deal of shipping at Bluff- 
 burg, where I live. I think it a pretty nice 
 place, too. But of course there is more at 
 Chicago." 
 
 " Well, I have not got as far as that yet," he 
 said, putting off his decision of the matter. 
 
120 DEODAND. 
 
 " There must be such hardship in sailing the 
 lakes ! You will be very glad to get through 
 with it, of course ? " 
 
 " Well yes," he assented, rather indiffer 
 ently. 
 
 " Mrs. Pardee says you have been to China 
 and everywhere. Perhaps, then, you do not 
 mind the lakes. They must be ever so much 
 easier than the ocean." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " Oh, if a storm comes up you are so much 
 nearer land, you know." 
 
 The sailor had an amused smile. 
 
 " There is nothing a sailor likes so much as 
 sea-room," he said ; " nothing he dreads so 
 much in a storm as a lee shore. Here, it is 
 nothing but a lee shore all the time." 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Bertha, as if enlightened. 
 
 " The lakes are much worse than the ocean 
 to navigate. There are more catastrophes on 
 them in proportion. Take up a paper any 
 morning after a little blow, and you will find 
 a list of wrecks all along the coast, and any 
 quantity of canvas gone. Bark Speedwell 
 ashore off Forty Mile Point; Northern Light 
 in the Grass Island Cut ; schooner Tidal Wave 
 wrecked against the Grand Haven pier ; schoon 
 er Forest Belle, main-sail and mizzen gaff top 
 sail blown out of her ; scow Pottawotamie, fly- 
 
DEO BAND. 121 
 
 ing-jib gone, and so on. And then the collisions, 
 the ice in the winter, the smaller size of the 
 vessels and the greater difficulty with the 
 crews." 
 
 "But you have never been wrecked ? " 
 
 " Yes, once, in a steam-barge off Point Bet 
 sey. We had a couple of other barges in tow. 
 Their cables parted and one of them foundered 
 with our own, the second drifted ashore. We 
 took to a fifteen foot boat, were out forty-eight 
 hours drifting about nearly frozen and with 
 nothing to eat, and finally made this island 
 quite by chance. That is what first brought 
 me here." 
 
 " And you have never gone away since ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, indeed. But it is a quiet place 
 in which to study and economize, and I came 
 back afterwards. I should not be here this sum 
 mer, except that a new bark I expected to com 
 mand is not finished. I never sailed a bark as 
 commander, and since I have been promised it 
 I do not care to take up with anything less." 
 
 He smiled as if he thought this must strike 
 her as very arrogant. She smiled pleasantly 
 back at him, admiring his strength and hardi 
 hood. 
 
 " I should think you would be afraid," she 
 said. 
 
 " When you have to do with salt-water you 
 
122 DEODAND. 
 
 must expect to swallow a little, as our North 
 ern proverb says," he returned. 
 
 That evening he accepted a new invitation 
 from the ladies, much less condescendingly 
 made. 
 
 They all sat upon the veranda after an early 
 tea. A somewhat notable change was to be 
 remarked in the schoolmaster s appearance. In 
 stead of his flannel shirt he wore a white one 
 with a collar which seemed of excessive white 
 ness in contrast with his bronzed complexion. 
 Regarding him closer in this more civilized 
 costume, they decided critically that you would 
 not call him so bad -looking, by any means. 
 He had a well -shaped head and a good ath 
 letic figure. One feature you would notice at 
 once in his fine teeth. They did not recall 
 pearls and the other conventional similes so 
 much as the tooth-brush and a habit of scru 
 pulous personal neatness. He sat upon an up 
 per step with his straw hat in his hands, while 
 the ladies were engaged with fancy work. Mr. 
 Pardee remained for a time smoking and talked 
 to Halvorsen, with an appearance of much con 
 fidence in his judgment, about some matters of 
 business, then went away. 
 
 Bertha was inclined to question the caller 
 further about his adventurous career. He said 
 after a while, with not a bad grace, that he was 
 
DEODAND. 123 
 
 occupying a very disproportionate share in the 
 talk. It would be fair now to hear some of the 
 existing episodes of her life in return. 
 
 " Mine ! " exclaimed she, with a strong rising 
 inflection. " I never had any. I have led the 
 most humdrum of existences. But then I am 
 not sorry. I do not like serious and tragic 
 things, only to hear about them, of course. I 
 want things to happen to me just as to every 
 body else. It shows you do not amount to 
 much to feel that way, but I can t help it." 
 
 Still Halvorsen smilingly refused to be drawn 
 out any further about himself. 
 
 "Well, then, let us talk about the island," 
 said Bertha. " I dote upon islands ; you are 
 so contented in them. You can tell what you 
 are bounded by on the north, the south, the 
 east and the west. It does not rack your brains 
 like being in a corner of a great continent. 
 And, besides, it makes you think of Robinson 
 Crusoe, and the mango apple and cocoa-nuts 
 and pine-apples for nothing, don t you know?" 
 
 As she wished it, he talked to her about the 
 island; he catalogued all that was of note in it. 
 There were pictured rocks, fossils, a mound of 
 bones marked with a cross, supposed to be the 
 remains of an Indian war-party that perished 
 in the strait. Sometimes she stopped her nee 
 dles in a tangled X at interesting passages and 
 
124 DEODAND. 
 
 bent towards him, holding them against her 
 pretty corsage. Emma also took part, and later 
 her husband joined them again. 
 
 They saw a man come out from one of the 
 cabins below, wash his face in a pail of water, 
 and begin to strum upon a guitar. The refrain 
 came sweetly up to them : 
 
 " Tant quo j entendrai chanter les oiseaux, 
 Tant que j entendrai couler les ruisseaux, 
 Moi, je chanterai." 
 
 Only he pronounced j entendree and chant- 
 eree instead of in the proper way using a 
 poor Canadian patois. 
 
 " Why, he is French," cried Bertha. 
 
 " Yes," said Halvorsen, " we have the most 
 polyglot of populations ; he is a Canadian." 
 
 " I meant to ask you the other day when 
 you spoke of it, were they the real Icelanders 
 who used to be here ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ; the original article." 
 
 Why have they left ? " 
 
 " It was too cold for them, and they com 
 plained of the hard work of having to fell the 
 timber and clear the land. They were not used 
 to it. At home they have little vegetation, and 
 live chiefly by fishing. It happened, too, at 
 the time they were here that the fishing partly 
 failed. Most of them became discouraged and 
 gradually straggled away to the mainland. Con- 
 
DEODAND. 125 
 
 trary to what one might think, they were polite, 
 peaceable, rather small of stature, and effemi 
 nate." 
 
 " Real Icelanders, and too cold for them ! 
 Well, what erroneous impressions one forms ! 
 I have only the idea of the romances, that they 
 were great, sturdy men capable of enduring 
 anything. Have you read * Thiodolf, and 
 4 Aslauga s Knight ? They are such charm 
 ing stories, and the language is so sweet and 
 simple. There is always a gigantic hero who 
 sails from the high North to seek his fortune. 
 Sometimes he marries a fair chatelaine in a 
 .castle on the coast of France ; sometimes he 
 takes service under the Greek Emperor at Con 
 stantinople and falls in love with a Byzantine 
 princess, like his own Hecla, a mingling of ice 
 and fire." 
 
 " Ah, yes, I have read our Northern stories," 
 returned Halvorsen with enthusiasm ; " they 
 are indeed beautiful." 
 
 " The fighting and killing does not seem to 
 shock you, as in other books. I wonder why 
 they have so much of it ? The writers make 
 fine characters and seem capable of appreci 
 ating other things." 
 
 " Perhaps it is symbolical. Perhaps it means 
 to glorify men who are unsparing of themselves 
 and unswerving in their purpose to overcome 
 
126 DEO D AND. 
 
 difficulties. That may be one reason why we 
 like it." 
 
 While thus they talked, every detail of the 
 scene below was clearly impressed upon the 
 eye. The wharves, the gray cabins, the pine 
 trees around the lonely shores of the inlet, were 
 mirrored in the deep, placid water. As twi 
 light lengthened into night, the sail of some 
 belated fishing-boat now and then glided into 
 haven like a wandering ghost. 
 
 When the company had dispersed, a light 
 twinkled from the school -house, and burned 
 till a small hour of the morning. The ambi 
 tious young man kept there his late vigils over 
 his books, not to disturb the humble people 
 with whom he lodged. 
 
 A face came between him and his page. He 
 was feeling for the first time the charm there 
 is in that product of a high civilization, a well 
 brought up, beautiful girl, with all her seduc 
 tive, if conventional, graces upon her head. Its 
 potency was increased by the lack of a basis for 
 comparison, not only on the island itself but in 
 his whole life. It took hold upon him like a 
 spell of witchcraft. He had had no social ex 
 perience, but discerned true refinement by a 
 kind of instinct. He recognized that it was 
 nobility and kindly sympathy in her that made 
 this friendly treatment of himself by the daugh- 
 
DEODAND. 127 
 
 ter of wealth and elegant surroundings possible. 
 In bis earlier youtb he had been led by clap 
 trap writings of a cheap order to believe that 
 merit resides alone in the honest poor, and had 
 inclined to hold himself hostile to their self- 
 styled superiors. The present was one of his 
 few opportunities to set himself right. He 
 liked the tone of these conversations. Nothing 
 very new was developed in them, but the sub 
 jects, the refinement of manner, the light gen 
 eralization that often pervaded them, interested 
 him. He felt with Mill, though possibly he 
 had not read him, that mental calibre is to 
 be gauged by the proportion of generalities to 
 personalities in the talk. Rather than endure 
 much that passed for conversation in his lim 
 ited experience, he would have preferred to 
 range the woods with his gun or sail his boat 
 indefinitely in silence. 
 
 In some such way as this he accounted to 
 himself for liking the discourse and companion 
 ship, but it is not certain that he was not ready 
 even now to discover a superior wisdom in any 
 thing that might fall from Bertha s lips. He 
 repeated his visits and presently saw her al 
 most every day. He was welcome enough on 
 his own account if he but knew it ; but, uncer 
 tain of this, he made pretexts of bringing some 
 trifling article for inspection, a fossil, an 
 
128 DEODAND. 
 
 arrow-head, or unusual plant. One day he 
 brought the same serio-comic young Byosling 
 who had preferred the request at the school, to 
 dance a hornpipe for them. He explained to 
 Bertha, in answer to her questions, which is 
 the port side and which the starboard side of a 
 ship ; how it is that she can sail within a few 
 points of the wind which seems blowing di 
 rectly against her ; how sailing on a wind is 
 more advantageous than off ; why the bulge of 
 a ship, like that of a fish, should be largest for 
 ward of the centre ; and many other matters of 
 equal concern. 
 
 On mornings when Emma was too busy, 
 Bertha had the habit of going alone to a shady 
 seat she favored on the hillside by the sun 
 dial. From here some small blue islands, the 
 Strawberries, were seen dotted on the water at 
 a great distance away. In the vicinity was an 
 apple-orchard, too hardly used by the climate 
 to bear any but a gnarled, useless fruit. Par- 
 dee, by Halvorsen s advice, contemplated im 
 proving it with some hardy Siberian grafts. 
 The young girl delighted to tantalize or re 
 ward the shy calves and colts which pastured 
 there, luring them towards her at the fence 
 with handfuls of tender grass. Such quiet 
 hours alone, the wind blowing softly on her 
 cheek, listening to slight tinklings, whispers, 
 
DEODAND. 129 
 
 the notes of katydid and grasshopper, the rat 
 tle of the locust, while the heated atmosphere 
 wavers with a visible tremor in the sunshine, 
 filled her with a languorous sentiment. In the 
 vague pensiveness and longing of such a time, 
 face to face with the infinite growth and kind 
 ness of nature, a tender young heart may be 
 susceptible to dangerous, unwonted influences. 
 
 She looked up from her book, disturbed by a 
 strange snuffling sound near by, and there was 
 a drove of very clean little pigs close to her. 
 She uttered a little shoo! with a shake of a 
 corner of her skirt, and, lowering their heads, 
 they plunged wildly down the slope, not unlike 
 the scriptural swine which cast themselves 
 headlong into the sea. 
 
 She perceived at the same moment Halvor- 
 sen coming towards her over the hill. He had 
 in his hands, to display, a stone hatchet un 
 earthed that morning by a farmer in ploughing. 
 They talked of the pictured rocks of the south 
 coast. 
 
 "You might make a reputation," said Ber 
 tha, " by copying the inscriptions or figures 
 upon them, and sending them to some learned 
 society. Nobody has yet done it, you say." 
 
 " I have thought of that," he replied, " but 
 they are rather difficult to get at. It is only 
 to be done, by boat, in pleasant weather. I 
 
130 DEODAND. 
 
 fear, too, that I hardly have sufficient interest 
 in such matters, when I see how much they 
 occupy other people. To devote so much ardor 
 to the past seems a way of dodging the pres 
 ent." 
 
 An expedition was planned to see these rocks 
 and at the same time the interior of the island, 
 by crossing to Larson s place, on the southern 
 shore, and thence taking boat. 
 
 This intimacy may now have begun to bear 
 quite the aspect of a flirtation ; but nobody 
 took concern about it. Mrs. Pardee believed 
 that the schoolmaster amused her visitor just a 
 little more than the barefoot boy who danced 
 the hornpipe for them, or the Canadian down 
 among the cabins with his guitar. He was 
 only one of the eccentricities of the island. 
 Had Emma understood her bosom friend to the 
 same extent she supposed, possibly the course 
 of affairs at Washington Island, and their con 
 sequences, would have been widely different. 
 Bertha would have considered preposterous the 
 idea that she might fall in love with the school 
 master ; but being of a generous disposition 
 and especially susceptible to masculine ambi 
 tion and force as she was, the intimacy was for 
 her of a hazardous kind which might end even 
 in that. Her own father had conquered his 
 way to a notable success from small begin- 
 
DEODAND. 131 
 
 nings, and she was but the prouder of him for 
 it. She had been reared in the midst of every 
 comfort and luxury, and a general opinion that 
 one man is better than another for the posses 
 sion of these ; but in her inmost heart she had 
 no reverence for conventional caste, and knew 
 that there are things far higher yet. 
 
 Had Halvorsen, too, known that he was to 
 fall in love with her, he would have held back 
 and gone sturdily about his business. He knew 
 so little about it that he hardly knew what it 
 implied ; he did not know what it would do to 
 him. All the softer agitation of the heart had 
 been kept in abeyance by his active life, his 
 ambitious aspirations, and his lack of social 
 opportunities. 
 
 Before the expedition to the pictured rocks 
 took place, a large accession was made to the 
 party which would share in it. The Pride of 
 the West landed one afternoon a certain Mrs. 
 Jackson Miller, her daughter Miss Florence 
 Miller, and Mr. Bryant, a college under-gradu- 
 ate and an admirer of the latter, all fashion 
 able people on their way to Mackinaw. They 
 were relatives of the Pardees, and they meant to 
 stay over till the next boat. 
 
 Mr. Halvorsen was not pleased with this new 
 irruption. It would naturally put an end to 
 
132 DEO BAND. 
 
 the intimacy that had been so pleasant to him. 
 Still, he was not a man to make much of his 
 discontents. He reflected that there was a 
 great deal of time of late which he might no 
 doubt have put to better advantage ; arose dog 
 gedly at daylight the next morning after their 
 coming, and went off in his fishing-boat. 
 
 The result was not what he had anticipated. 
 He found himself, on the contrary, in demand 
 as a guide, philosopher, and friend. Mr. Bry 
 ant, the under-graduate, was ready to treat so 
 good a shot and apt a sailor with a distin 
 guished consideration. 
 
 Halvorsen put on his best coat, therefore, 
 and was up at the house more than ever. 
 Things there were much livelier than they had 
 been. There were whist, dancing, and some 
 times of calm evenings, rowing on the harbor. 
 The under-graduate, by no means bent upon 
 keeping to himself the peculiar advantages of 
 his seat of learning, inculcated shrill uncouth 
 methods of cheering, and trolled strange cho 
 ruses of 
 
 " The bull-dog on the bank, 
 The bull-frog in the pool ; 
 The bull-dog to the bull-frog said, 
 You blanked old water-fool ! " 
 
 The ladies, too, sometimes joined in, and 
 sang the preposterous words in their delicate 
 soprano voices. 
 
DEODAND. 133 
 
 As to dancing, Halvorsen considered it a light 
 accomplishment, as no doubt it is, but he had 
 not spent so many years among the jolly Jack- 
 tars for nothing, and he, too, had some quaint 
 nautical steps to show them. 
 
 It was a great augury of his success that he 
 was so quick to observe, so quick to adopt all 
 that was good. In respect to manners, the de 
 meanor of these well-bred people, which he had 
 not before had so fair an opportunity of study 
 ing, pleased him greatly. The graceful bowing 
 of the young man, the forms of address and re 
 quest, the apologies for passing in front of a 
 person, all these methods of courteous consider 
 ation, crystallized into habit, which one hardly 
 acquires, even with the best heart in the world, 
 in the rude career he had led, seemed to enno 
 ble life and fill it with new possibilities. 
 
 The only conveyance to Larson s place was 
 over a grass-grown road through the woods, by 
 a wagon and an old horse even less used than 
 the road. Had the horse been younger, to har 
 ness him might have been a work of danger as 
 well as of difficulty, since each repetition of the 
 process impressed him as an entire novelty. 
 The under-graduate thought good to style him 
 Bucephalus, and so, by easy gradation, Hydroce- 
 phalus. Standing in the front of the wagon as 
 its driver, he pretended to have difficulty in re- 
 
134 DEODAND. 
 
 straining the wild career of his impetuous steed ; 
 then he would pretend to fall backward into 
 the ladies laps, and was repulsed by them with 
 laughing shrieks. 
 
 A light scattering of birch, hazel, poplar, and 
 oak skirted the immediate roadside, but behind 
 these was seen the dark forest full of mysterious 
 vistas of tangled debris untouched by the hand 
 of man. Great trunks, rotted to dust and fallen 
 in the fullness of their time, stretched back in 
 long grave-like mounds into the obscurity. The 
 hollow clink of cow-bells was heard, now near, 
 now far, as though sedate spirits might be walk 
 ing in the wood and signaling to one another. 
 
 The travelers were pleased with a small 
 white church embowered in foliage and far 
 indeed from any house. They canvassed one 
 another s knowledge of the difference between 
 rye and oats growing in the sparse fields of the 
 settlers. They came to the cabin upon its 
 knoll, under an oak-tree of old Abendschein, 
 to which he had retired after his years of bridge- 
 tending at Bluffburg. To support the scanty 
 wants of his declining years he was now a maker 
 of wooden shoes. When Bertha asked him if 
 he would sell her a small pair of these, as a 
 curiosity, he replied that he would do so, and 
 that they were equally good either as a curiosity 
 or for working in a slaughter-house. They met 
 
DEODAND. 135 
 
 a woman of the true peasant type, with a white 
 cloth on her head, and wearing the wooden 
 shoes with a clumsy, bumping gait ; and then 
 they came to the south shore at Larson s. 
 
 It happened, however, by an unusual chance, 
 that Larson was absent, and with him, both his 
 boats. The main purpose of the expedition 
 was thus of necessity abandoned, but a pleasant 
 afternoon could still be spent upon the shore. 
 The yellow sand-beach was strewn here and 
 there with fragments of timber bleached as 
 white as bones from long exposure to sun and 
 waves. The student and Halvorsen swam out 
 into the lake while the others watched them. 
 The schoolmaster was very expert. 
 
 " You will never come to be drpwned, that 
 is certain," said Mrs. Jackson Miller, admir 
 ing him. 
 
 " Perhaps not," he returned with a smile. 
 "Those destined for a certain other ending 
 rarely are." 
 
 The following week the Millers pursued their 
 journey to Mackinaw, and in a few days there 
 after Bertha went back to Bluffburg, leaving 
 the schoolmaster to strange sensations of re 
 gret and tenderness about her to an agitation 
 of heart and mind he had never known nor 
 dreamed of before. 
 
136 DEODAND. 
 
 III. 
 
 The summer went by irksomely for him at 
 the island after that. The bark, building for 
 him by the- Trowbridges of Buffalo, was still 
 delayed. It became evident that she would not 
 be in readiness for more than a single trip be 
 fore the close of the season. He devoted him 
 self with redoubled energy to his studies in or 
 der to quell the fiery impatience by which he 
 was consumed, and made ready to pass the bar 
 examination in the fall. He frequented Ber 
 tha s favorite resorts, where she had left for him 
 a subtle aroma of her presence. A sweet am 
 bitious hope sprang up in his breast. " Well, 
 why not ? " he said to himself. Body and 
 mind had answered heretofore to every demand 
 he had made upon them ; why should he not 
 aspire to this also ? He sat in her rustic seat 
 on the hillside, and the pencil of shadow mov 
 ing slowly over the sun-dial reminded him of all 
 that he had yet to do. 
 
 He secured at last a copy of the hieroglyphics 
 on the pictured rocks, and made this a pretext 
 for writing to Bertha. They were got indeed 
 for no other purpose. A little correspondence 
 sprang up between them. Bertha s family, to 
 whom she showed one or two of his letters, 
 agreed with her that there must be a future 
 
DEODAND. 137 
 
 before this young man. She had already told 
 them his story. Her own letters to him took an 
 almost sisterly tone. She was glad to have any 
 thing to do with aiding in the least the prog 
 ress of a man whom she believed destined for 
 eminence. He was an example of the force of 
 innate character. Everything had been against 
 him ; but he had put aside obstacles and chosen 
 the better part with unerring instinct, just as 
 there are those who fall from the most careful 
 of nurturing and favorable of circumstances. 
 
 The gray island became gray with hoar frosts, 
 and grayer yet when the first snows of winter 
 began to sift down upon it. Halvorsen s bark 
 was not forthcoming, even for the single trip. 
 He had counted upon it chiefly for the sake of 
 seeing Bertha at Bluffburg. He was not to be 
 balked in it, however, and so took the Pride of 
 the West on her last passage, and paid his call, 
 as a private individual and not as captain. 
 
 Bertha presented him to her parents, who 
 liked and were impressed by him. If prophecy 
 were anything, he was secure of success. Al 
 most everybody with whom he came in contact 
 predicted it. He passed his examination for 
 the bar with flying colors, and then visited 
 Buffalo to see the Trowbridges about the de 
 lay. It had been unavoidable. Everything 
 was to be as be desired it in the spring, and 
 
138 DEODAND. 
 
 the rate of remuneration spoken of was gratify- 
 ingly beyond his anticipations. It would give 
 him surplus enough in a single season to en 
 able him, if he wished, to begin the practice 
 of his new profession on shore. He meditated 
 anxiously as to the most advantageous point in 
 which to establish himself. If only one happy 
 condition could be fulfilled, how transcendently 
 superior would Bluffburg be to all other possi 
 ble localities ! 
 
 The condition was for his purpose most un 
 expectedly and blissfully fulfilled. No longer 
 able to contain his mental suffering, he made it 
 known to Bertha, and she was ready to accept 
 him as her affianced husband. The better judg 
 ment of her father approved the connection, 
 though involuntary prejudice opposed it. He 
 had heard the best accounts of the suitor, and 
 knew from his record as already made, and his 
 evident traits of character, that he must indu 
 bitably go farther. He said to Halvorsen, how 
 ever : 
 
 " I have no objection to make to my daugh 
 ter s choice, but let us wait a little I I do not 
 urge that this is only a temporary enthusiasm, 
 but I am sure you will agree with me that it 
 will be wiser to take time to see. We will not 
 call it an engagement just yet. Let us wait a 
 short time ! 
 
DEODAND. 139 
 
 But they knew that they should never change, 
 and that with this the affair was settled. Ber 
 tha had been taken very greatly by surprise. 
 She had fancied herself far indeed from this. 
 She had thought it was no more than a feeling 
 of sympathetic companionship, of friendship, she 
 entertained for him. But his manliness, ardor, 
 and force, manifest here as in all other situa 
 tions, together with a tenderness she had never 
 seen in him before, irresistibly prevailed. 
 
 " Only to think," she said, " that to this day 
 you have never even been introduced to me." 
 
 " If my other short-comings could but be as 
 easily remedied ? " he replied. 
 
 Mrs. Emma pronounced this sequel to the 
 pleasant summer on the island the most as 
 tounding thing, for a girl of Bertha s position, 
 she had ever heard of. 
 
 " There was once a girl, by the name of Sally 
 Gary, who went back on George Washington, 
 and she made a great mistake," was the good- 
 humored reply of her husband. " I should not 
 wonder if we were all prouder to know the 
 schoolmaster some day than he to know us. 
 What is there now to keep him under ? " 
 
 Probably the ex -schoolmaster was at this 
 time nearly at his very best. He was cheer 
 ful and self-possessed, knowing that force wins. 
 The world is so importunate to have its labori- 
 
140 DEODAND. 
 
 ous work done by proxy that if one but assert 
 his ability with sufficient confidence it is con 
 fided to him. If in addition he be really com 
 petent, he need never want for remunerative 
 employment. His taste and assiduity had given 
 him culture, his observation manners, his hard 
 ships insight, and his successes a confidence 
 which had not yet degenerated, as the danger 
 is in this sort of character, into a petty narrow 
 ness and vain self-glorification. 
 
 On departing after this visit, it was with the 
 expectation of returning in the spring, now not 
 far away, in his new vessel. Bertha was to go 
 down to see her. This was to be quite a dif 
 ferent thing from knocking about the lakes in 
 the ordinary style of craft. A fine large bark, 
 and he the sole commander of her, this was 
 respectable enough to be made known to any 
 body without the least objection. 
 
 The coasts of the great lakes are " a step 
 mother to ships," a vast inhospitable stretch of 
 shore in which there is little escape for ves 
 sels from the fury of the elements. Nature has 
 made no original provision for commerce upon 
 them. The deficiency has had to be remedied 
 by man. The mouths of the small deep rivers 
 upon which, as a rule, the settlements are 
 founded, have been utilized for harbors, long, 
 stout breakwater piers being extended from 
 
DEODAND. 141 
 
 them to deep water. The entrance to the 
 breakwaters offers but a narrow mark to the 
 steersman, and is not effected without many 
 a mishap, and, in rough weather, even many a 
 wreck. 
 
 But once within, the harassed vessel glides 
 up to her moorings in the heart of the town 
 as if upon a canal of oil. Bridge after bridge 
 opens, and shuts behind her, mocking with a 
 superfluity- of safety the wild storms snarling 
 without. Thus it was at Bluffburg, with the 
 rest. 
 
 Navigation opened early in the succeeding 
 spring. Captain Halvorsen was announced as 
 the first skipper of the season through the 
 Straits of Mackinaw. 
 
 An early opening to the season is, on the 
 whole, unfavorable. Uncertain and danger 
 ous weather counteracts the advantage of the 
 lengthened freighting period. The winter s ice, 
 broken up but not dissipated, drifts in vast 
 arctic fields, in which vessels are often involved, 
 delayed, and seriously imperiled. It returns 
 again to blockade harbors from which it had 
 long since vanished. 
 
 Our young captain, gazetted first through the 
 Straits, thought little of the accustomed obsta 
 cles of the season. The movement and action 
 brought him ever nearer to the dear goal upon 
 
142 DEODAND. 
 
 which his fancy was fixed. With a far-off 
 reminiscence of the spirit of his Berserker an 
 cestors, he relished even the storm and the con 
 flict. Perhaps he heard in its rage and the 
 crackling of the ice about him something as of 
 the joyous whistling of the spears which Swa- 
 tulf and the son of Asmundur hurled at each 
 other across the northern waters. Sometimes 
 again, of still nights, he found himself amid a 
 field of ice-cakes, all grating together with a 
 noise like that of the boughs of a forest, and sinn 
 ing in the moonlight like scales of silver armor. 
 
 He had written to Bertha of the progress of 
 his bark, about her spars, her beautiful lines, 
 and the bottle of Burgundy which had been 
 broken over her head at the launching, when 
 she was christened the Trowbridge Brothers. 
 He said he was proud of her, and perhaps it 
 would be harder for him to leave the water at 
 last than he had thought. 
 
 But it was not the Trowbridge Brothers that 
 was first through the Straits, though Halvorsen 
 was the captain named. On the contrary, it 
 was the schooner Only Son. 
 
 " Oh, I am afraid, I am afraid," said Bertha, 
 when she knew of this. 
 
 " It is nothing, little land-lubber," the cap 
 tain assured her on his arrival. " I do not like 
 it myself, of course; but the bark is not yet 
 
DEODAND. 143 
 
 fully rigged, and the Trowbridges were anxious 
 to get the schooner around for the first cargoes. 
 They asked me to do it while I was waiting, 
 and I could not very well refuse. It is only for 
 this one trip." 
 
 " But how could you, after what we heard 
 last summer at the island ? Oh, if anything 
 should happen to you ! " 
 
 " Nonsense ! You will think it arrogant, no 
 doubt, but I have a certain belief in my star. 
 I cannot realize, for instance, that anything 
 could happen to me, that I could die, before 
 well, until I have accomplished something im 
 portant. Do you ever feel that way ? I can 
 see perfectly how other people, you know, can 
 be run over, blown up, thrown down embank 
 ments, and the like, before they have had a 
 chance ; but in my own case I simply do not 
 believe it. Most absurd, is it not ? " 
 
 " No, I like it." 
 
 But still she thought ruefully of the Only 
 Son. Her heart yearned over her lover when 
 he went away. His eye, too, was moist at the 
 proofs she gave him of her affection. What 
 had he done in so brief a time to draw upon 
 him the delicious tenderness of this good and 
 charming creature ? 
 
 The Only Son was chartered, and loaded with 
 wheat for Buffalo, at once. She had already 
 
144 DEODAND. 
 
 been repainted and put in better order, but the 
 same Hungry Hagan did not fail to recognize 
 her in her improved guise, and dimly conceived 
 it as a new injury, invented for the purpose of 
 throwing him off the scent. He found means 
 of approaching her, and even, it was afterwards 
 said, of going below. In subsequent investiga 
 tions, too, which became necessary, it was found 
 that large auger holes had been bored in her, 
 and only partially stopped with plugs. 
 
 The captain came briskly aboard, a tug 
 made fast, the bridges opened, and the people 
 upon them, though delayed in their passage, 
 looked down amiably at the stir in the river, 
 hailing it as tangible evidence of the ending of 
 the long, inclement winter. The breeze with 
 out was light, but favorable. The tug cast off 
 her towlines beyond the piers, and the Only 
 Son was soon hull down over the horizon. 
 
 Bertha watched her from the high bluff, 
 the pride and favored promenade of the city. 
 The water near the shore had the turbid ap 
 pearance it takes when stirred to the depths 
 by the storms of early spring and fall. Be 
 yond, it rose in a single broad blue plane, like 
 the breadth of painted canvas with which the 
 sea is shown in the scenery of theatres. In 
 the evening Bertha walked the bluff again. 
 The wind had shifted to the northwest, and 
 
DEODAND. 145 
 
 brought back some ice ; and a large ring was 
 forming about the moon. When she went to 
 bed a few snow-flakes had fallen. She awoke 
 later in the night. The moonlight no longer 
 lay, as it had done, in a misty bar on the floor 
 of her chamber. It was pitch dark ; the wind 
 blew a gale ; the dashing of the waves was borne 
 distinctly to her ears, far as was her comfort 
 able home from the shore. Sitting up in bed, 
 in the white robes of her innocent maidenly 
 slumbers, she clasped her hands together and 
 raised an affrighted prayer to Heaven. 
 
 At that hour the serious, the tragic things of 
 life, of which she had had so little experience, 
 were very near to her. 
 
 At that hour the Only Son, after a vain en 
 deavor to beat off, was driving ashore under 
 bare poles. Her anchor, put out at half a mile 
 from land, dragged bottom and was of no avail. 
 It perhaps but served to render the shock of the 
 breaking waves against her the more violent. 
 The decks were slippery with ice and snow, 
 and every rope and miscellaneous projection was 
 coated with a savage mail. Masses of floating 
 ice smote and ground against her heavily. Her 
 lights were properly displayed, red to port and 
 green to starboard, and her fog-horn blown 
 continually. There was no remissness now; 
 all the puny precautions of the code were taken, 
 10 
 
146 DEODAND. 
 
 but the elements laughed them to scorn. There 
 was no help ; nothing mortal could give help in 
 such a night. 
 
 The light-keeper saw the schooner driving 
 straight upon his pier, and close at hand. He 
 thought she was mad enough to be attempting 
 to make port. 
 
 " Hard down ! hard down ! " he shouted with 
 his hoarse trumpet, again and again through the 
 darkness. 
 
 But there was no helmsman to attend his di 
 rections. She was coming on stern first; he 
 might as well have talked to his light station, 
 shivering and rocking above him on its iron 
 supports. 
 
 She struck. The deck load rattled out upon 
 the breakwater like hail. Her mainmast broke 
 off like a pipe-stem, and toppled over, with 
 all its rigging, smashing panes of glass in the 
 keeper s house. She partially righted after 
 this, drove along the side of the pier, cleared it, 
 went to the southward, and settled at last upon 
 a bar. Some of the crew had escaped to the 
 pier ; the rest sought safety in the rigging, 
 through which the sea swept full at every 
 wave. At the first gray of daylight they were 
 discovered, but it was nine o clock before a scow 
 could be drifted out to them and the half dead 
 survivors taken off. 
 
DEODAND. 147 
 
 Two, the captain and cook, had swum for the 
 shore earlier, but only the cook ever reached it. 
 It was in evidence before a coroner s jury that 
 Captain Halvorsen had said to this man on the 
 vessel, 
 
 " I can t hold on any longer, Charley ; I am 
 going to swirn for the shore." 
 
 " Them was his very words, so they was," 
 said the cook. 
 
 He was an evil-looking fellow, and for a long 
 time afterward appeared to be in ample funds, 
 unearned in any regular occupation. 
 
 This report was probable enough. But when 
 the stiff, stark body of the captain came to be 
 found, sorely wounded, stripped of all its valu 
 ables, and clad in a heavy overcoat, mittens and 
 mufflers, of which he would certainly have di 
 vested himself if it had been his intention to 
 swim, there were those who had grave misgiv 
 ings. Still, what could a coroner s jury of hon 
 est men, anxious, too, to get back to their busi 
 ness, do in the way of prying into the mysteries 
 of that wild night ? The wounds might have 
 been produced by the floating ice ; and as to 
 valuables, it was not certain just what the cap 
 tain had had, and then again they might have 
 been taken from the body by those who first 
 discovered it. 
 
 Bertha came with her father, in the heaviest 
 
148 DEODAND. 
 
 of sable garments, to the funeral. The cere 
 mony was conducted from an inn much fre 
 quented by mariners, to which the remains had 
 been brought for the greater convenience. It 
 was by the river side, with a balcony hanging 
 above the not over clean flood, from which it 
 shrunk back as if in a certain repulsion. The 
 girl laid flowers upon the poor stiff dead face. 
 She gave way to no demonstrative grief before 
 the public ; but the respectable man who kept 
 the place said, looking at her with awe, 
 
 " The heart breaks me to see such a case like 
 dose." 
 
 The playful young girl, enamored only of 
 what was bright and sunny in life, developed 
 now qualities for which she had never been 
 given credit. They were noble and .womanly 
 and lovable; but alas! it was the ending of 
 youth, the beginning of a new and heavier ex 
 istence. There is a time for all things. The 
 fruit is savory and wholesome, the timber has 
 many precious uses, the sere and yellow leaves 
 of autumn fertilize the ground, the dry sticks 
 are useful to cast into the fire ; but ah ! why 
 must the perfumed blossom fade ? 
 
 The sea went down ; winter vanished, the 
 spring returned with a new access of brightness. 
 The commerce of the port came and went peace 
 fully upon the wide blue flood. Curious specta- 
 
DEODAND. 149 
 
 tors rowed out to the wreck and passed among 
 its tangled spars and rigging. The wheat com 
 prising its cargo covered the water in an ex 
 pansive golden area, and floated in, forming 
 long wind-rows upon the beach. 
 
 Hungry Ilagan, in dog-like competition with 
 his neighbors, on his sand beach gathered it up 
 with a trembling alacrity. It was entirely in 
 accordance with his views that this gift of Prov 
 idence for the benefit of the deserving poor 
 should have been cast up at his very door. 
 Could the ancient Lizzie and Louisa have been 
 put to a more fitting use, at last, than to con 
 tribute to the comfort of this honest man who 
 had suffered so much by her fault ? 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE lively "Bob" and Gus" were sky 
 larking in the wide, comfortable hall. It was 
 the hour following the Washington afternoon 
 dinner, a repast which has something of a place 
 of its own, unlike the general run of dinners 
 elsewhere. Its time is fixed by the exigencies 
 of the public business of the United States of 
 America. 
 
 The scene of the sports was a Washington 
 boarding-house, somewhat different from ordi 
 nary boarding-houses. It had once been a pri 
 vate mansion of dignity and state. Its hall was 
 provided with old-fashioned hair-cloth sofa and 
 chairs, and a square platform staircase mounted 
 at the back. Without, its front, in a bulged or 
 curved pattern, was of old red brick, upon which 
 the sun shone genially. A clustering wistaria 
 vine climbed nearly to its cornice, and above the 
 cornice peeped the tops of some slated dormer 
 windows. The whole was of a certain warm 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 151 
 
 and friendly air, well borne out by the condition 
 of things within. 
 
 There were few transient comers among the 
 inmates. The tone was fixed by a pleasant set 
 of people of Southern affinities and sufficient 
 means who had been there time out of mind, 
 and talked in a drowsy way about the superior 
 ity of the past and the degeneracy of the present 
 day. Retired Mr. Bolt wood, that gentleman 
 and lawyer of the old school, once of Alexan 
 dria, boasted of having been the intimate of 
 Henry Clay. The Dunsmore family, of the 
 Eastern Shore, Maryland, had had daughters 
 married, and Mr. Greenway, of Prince George s 
 County, buried his wife from there. 
 
 The habits of the house were set by the part 
 of its occupants engaged in official business, 
 and its routine of life ticked with the clocks in 
 government offices. This part comprised Con 
 gressmen who came down from the Capitol to 
 rehearse at table sometimes imprudently, per 
 haps the run of the doings of national mo 
 ment at the day s session. There were upper 
 private secretaries and clerks of committees, and 
 there were important functionaries from the 
 War, State, and Interior departments. 
 
 And tucked into a modest nook among these 
 more worshipful personages was one gentle and 
 pleasing young woman, a pretty Treasury girl, 
 
152 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 
 
 who counted fractional currency in the Bureau 
 of Redemption. 
 
 Then there were " the boys," a group of ir 
 repressible fellows, sons of the house, all as yet 
 under twenty-one, but a part already in the 
 government employ, and the rest prepared to 
 enter it, after the usual destiny of Washington 
 youth. 
 
 Bob and Gus, skylarking as aforesaid, were 
 now joined by one Aleck, displaying an open 
 note of invitation. 
 
 " Oh, hush ! " said Aleck, in accent and phrase 
 certainly never acquired above Mason and Dix- 
 on s line. " Are you all going to the Postmas 
 ter-General s blow-out on the tenth ? " 
 
 "You shouldn t say blow-out ; it s bad 
 French," returned Bob severely, producing a 
 similar note of invitation. 
 
 Gus produced a third in turn, and began to 
 execute a double-shuffle of pleased anticipation. 
 " Terrapin ! " he exclaimed ; " oh, no. Cham 
 pagne ! oh, no ; not any." 
 
 " I 11 dance you for the cup," said Aleck, 
 joining him in this athletic exercise. 
 
 But Bob, by pushing smartly against them, 
 managed to overthrow them both from their 
 balance and send them sprawling upon the hair 
 cloth sofa. They were rising to wreak a proper 
 vengeance for this, when there entered brusquely 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 153 
 
 a fourth member of the clique, in the person of 
 Morris Howe, son of the quiet Mr. Howe of the 
 Light-house Board. 
 
 " Stop raising Cain ! I shall have to disin 
 herit all you boys," he began. " Why were n t 
 you on the Avenue this afternoon ? Every 
 pretty girl in town was out." 
 
 The others now paused to listen with interest 
 to what he might have to report. 
 
 " By the way," he went on, " I saw old man 
 Braxton ambling along in the crowd and look 
 ing at the people. First time I ve ever seen 
 him outside the house since he s been here." 
 
 " Oh, you d see him if you traveled around 
 the outskirts of town, as I used to do when I had 
 my horse," said Aleck. " I used to ride across 
 the Long Bridge over Georgetown way, and out 
 to old Rock Creek Church and the Soldiers 
 Home. I ve met him mooning about at all 
 those places. Seemed to be examining the rocks 
 and brooks, sampling the leaves, and so on. I 
 passed him once leaning on the fence at the 
 cross-road out there by Mount Pleasant, and 
 looking across at the city as fixed as if he never 
 meant to stir again." 
 
 " What does he do ? " asked Morris. " He 
 certainly is not in any of the departments, since 
 he is never at breakfast before nine, and I al 
 ways hear him in his room when I get back at 
 
154 BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 three. I hear him nights too. I believe eating 
 and sleeping are no great objects with him any 
 
 way." 
 
 " He s prospecting for a gold-mine," sug 
 gested one. 
 
 " Or inventing a patent medicine," said an 
 other. 
 
 " I would n t wonder if it was a patent med 
 icine," said Gus. " He used to bring in all 
 sorts of curious-looking traps, thingumbob bot 
 tles with crooked spouts and handles to them 
 sticking out of his pockets. Don t you all re 
 member ? " 
 
 " I thought it was a drug store he must be 
 keeping somewhere, one while," said Morris. 
 " I ve smelled drug-store odors from his room 
 sometimes, when the door was ajar a crack, 
 strong enough to knock you into the middle of 
 next week." 
 
 " But then he has drawing and painting traps 
 in there too. I caught sight of those one day," 
 added Gus. 
 
 " Say we ask Miss Mary Dale," suggested 
 Aleck. " She can get it out of him if anybody 
 can. She s probably the only soul in the house 
 he has ever spoken to. I saw him give her some 
 sort of a curious plant he brought in one day. 
 Oh, she s a sly one, with that sweet, winning 
 way of hers." 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 155 
 
 " If he s getting up a patent medicine/ said 
 Bob, " Miss Mary Dale had better go for him. 
 There s big money in it. It s about time she 
 stopped wasting herself on that Treasury De 
 partment ; it s hard lines for a girl." 
 
 " Who is taking my name in vain? " asked a 
 pleasant feminine voice. 
 
 Kindly Mrs. Commander Glen ham for 
 whose relief a bill was now pending in Con 
 gress, the commander having imprudently laid 
 out his private funds for government account, 
 before his death, of a sudden fever, in the China 
 seas appeared at the head of the dining-room 
 stairs. She had under her wing a younger com 
 panion, Miss Mary Dale. It was this latter 
 who spoke. 
 
 She was quite a charming person, of perhaps 
 three and twenty, with brown eyes, of the kind 
 a certain Oriental poet has described as like 
 the sparkle of fountains in autumn. She was 
 dressed in modest black ; seemed to pant a little 
 
 from the exertion of mounting the stairs, 
 
 though she was a slender figure enough, and 
 carried in her hand a plate on which were an 
 orange and some cakes. 
 
 The two ladies came forward together on their 
 way toward the drawing-rooms, and Miss Mary 
 Dale, taking courage apparently from her com 
 panionship, demanded further of the boys, with 
 
156 . BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 a sweet assumption of authority added to a 
 natural manner of prepossessing refinement, to 
 know what had been said of her. They were 
 all evidently on excellent terms. 
 
 " Deed it was not I. Deed I said nothing," 
 responded the disingenuous Bob. 
 
 Gus, by way of a diversion, upon this, seized 
 the orange from her plate, balanced it on one 
 finger, and tossed it to Aleck, saying : 
 
 " Presto ! change ! All done by sleight of 
 hand, ladies and gentlemen, and perfectly sim 
 ple when you understand the process." 
 
 Miss Dale appealed against her despoilers, to 
 her protecting matron. " It is of a peculiar 
 kind," she said, " and Mrs. Glenham has just 
 given it to me." 
 
 " My time, my purse, my honor, my life it 
 self, are at your disposal, Miss Mary," said 
 Bob, into whose possession the fruit had now 
 come, " but not this luscious product of the 
 tropic climes. I want it for myself." 
 
 " Ah, I know the boys of old," sighed Mrs. 
 Commander Glenham, in a smiling despair. 
 
 They were passing on, to leave the romping 
 coterie hopelessly to its own devices, when the 
 front door once more opened, and he who had 
 been a recent subject of conversation entered. 
 
 " Ah ! here is Mr. Braxton," said Miss Dale, 
 addressing herself under the inspiration of the 
 
BRAXTON 1 8 NEW ART. 157 
 
 moment, with a kind of shy or demure bravado, 
 to this recluse individual. " Perhaps he will 
 help us. Please make the boys give me back 
 my orange, Mr. Braxton? They are so bad." 
 
 The latter were tantalizingly playing at ball 
 with it just out of range above her head. " Old 
 man " Braxton extraordinary thing that it 
 was for him, who had scarcely seemed to re 
 mark even the existence of most of his fellow- 
 occupants suddenly entered into the spirit of 
 the occasion. He caught the coveted object 
 with a kind of awkward dexterity, as it passed 
 near him, and with a bow returned it to its 
 owner. 
 
 " Thank you so much ! " said the young 
 woman. " You are an admirable champion. I 
 shall appeal to you again when I have wrongs 
 to be redressed." 
 
 " I shall always be at your service," replied 
 the austere Mr. Braxton, with another bow, 
 most courteous and urbane in intention, but 
 still very stiff and constrained. 
 
 The ladies proceeded on their way, and after 
 a moment Mrs. Glenham went to her room 
 above stairs. In the parlor Miss Mary Dale 
 encountered the severe glances of Mrs. Chis- 
 holm of Montgomery, a somewhat snappish, 
 eccentric matron, who did not approve of her. 
 She bore these as meekly as possible, and, go- 
 
158 BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 ing to the piano in a corner, sat down at it 
 and began to finger softly the Bluebeard Lan 
 cers. 
 
 Mrs. Chisholm did not approve of her, partly 
 because she seemed to have no cousins of supe 
 rior note, even in the third or fourth degree, 
 and partly because of her peculiar situation in 
 the house. The young Treasury girl clerk was 
 there under the general a?gis rather than that 
 of any one in particular. A patroness who had 
 brought her and been her chaperon, in the first 
 instance, had been obliged to depart long be 
 fore, and had left her to her own resources. 
 Even the influential senator through whom 
 she had procured her place (at sixty dollars a 
 month) in the Redemption Bureau was dead. 
 Should superior interest now be made, the situ 
 ation might, no doubt, at any time be taken 
 from her and conferred upon another applicant. 
 This last was a reflection, in fact, by which Miss 
 Mary Dale herself was not a little troubled. 
 
 Mrs. Chisholm sometimes chose to speak of 
 her, confidentially, as even a dangerous person. 
 Mrs. Chisholm s theory of her was that neither 
 her father (who was united to an exceeding- 
 ingly amiable second wife) nor relatives, who 
 would otherwise have offered her a home, could 
 endure her bad temper, but had, on the con 
 trary, been obliged to send her away. 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 159 
 
 But Mrs. Chisholm s opinions, after all, car 
 ried no great weight in the house. The pretty 
 Treasury girl was, in fact, the daughter of a 
 refined family of Pennsylvania, thrown upon 
 her own exertions for support by some of those 
 calamities into which it is not necessary to go, 
 but which happen even in the most excellent 
 of families. She had chosen the present form 
 of livelihood the opportunity offering in 
 preference to the alternative of school-teaching. 
 She was elastic and hopeful of nature, turning 
 instinctively to the brighter side ; blithe and 
 gently gay of disposition ; frank, conscientious, 
 and industrious in a score of little feminine 
 ways. She was a ray of genuine sunshine in 
 the house. She had conciliated to herself 
 friends there, after the loss of her own back 
 ing. Mrs. Commander Glenham stood by her. 
 Mrs. Stone, the landlady, cherished her, and 
 they two had not a few confidences together. 
 Stylish Miss Wheelright, daughter of the Con 
 gressman of that name, when she was there, 
 hung about her admiringly on the most equal 
 of terms. Even Mrs. Chisholm s own niece 
 sought the company of the disapproved-of one, 
 and had many a frown of discontent at the in 
 junctions which would have debarred her from 
 it. Miss Mary Dale, by prescriptive right, had 
 come to enjoy a position somewhat like that 
 
160 BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 of the boys (between whom and herself was 
 a sort of half-sisterly sentiment), as a child of 
 the house ; and she might much less easily have 
 been spared than some of the more important 
 inmates. 
 
 The incident above described had no special 
 significance, further than that it served to break 
 the ice and pave the way to a better acquaint 
 ance with " old man " Braxton. 
 
 That gentleman, now about to ascend the 
 stairs, was politely invited by the boys to stop 
 and " take a smoke." The request was sec 
 onded by Colonel Brand, the chief disbursing 
 officer of the Bureau of Ethereal Claims, a vet 
 eran soldier and smoker, who at the same time 
 took his customary chair in a corner, and prof 
 fered a cigar. 
 
 Mr. Braxton, following a first impulse, de 
 clined, but then hesitated, turned back, ac 
 cepted, and sat down at one end of the hair 
 cloth sofa. 
 
 He did everything uneasily, and sometimes 
 with a constraint painful to witness. It seemed 
 bound up with some brooding melancholy, how 
 ever, rather than with any suspicion of a pur 
 pose to conceal actions that might not be hon 
 orably known. He was a man under thirty, 
 and yet perhaps appeared older. His sad ex 
 pression, somewhat rounded shoulders, heavy 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 161 
 
 gait, and a certain carelessness in dress, though 
 it was scrupulously neat, and his total lack of 
 ardor in small concerns like their own, had 
 moved the boys to confer upon him their so 
 briquet. 
 
 They were no respecters of persons nor 
 things. From the hall they often carried the 
 milder forms of romping into the parlor, and 
 talked to the younger ladies there, in their own 
 parlance, " like a father " and " like a Dutch 
 uncle." They had seen " old man " Braxton 
 passing mysteriously in and out among them 
 for some months, carrying curious utensils and 
 acting in a way like nobody else. They were 
 gentlemanly, and a prying curiosity was ta 
 booed from their simple code of morals. Never 
 theless it was but natural they should like to 
 know what manner of man he was, and what 
 was going on. The subject grew in interest 
 as they turned their attention to it. With 
 the brisk confidence of their years, they set to 
 work to make his acquaintance and find him 
 out. 
 
 It transpired incidentally in this interview 
 that Scott Braxton was a graduate, many years 
 back, of the University of Virginia; that he 
 had once crossed the Plains with a surveying 
 party ; that he had come to Washington be 
 cause he liked the climate. He was also of a 
 11 
 
162 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 
 
 Virginia family which Mrs. Chrishoim, the ge 
 nealogist, commented on with favor. 
 
 " Saw you on the Avenue this afternoon," 
 said Morris, passing a light. 
 
 " Yes, I was there. I went to see the land 
 scapes at Radfield s picture - store. It is too 
 seldom we see good pictures here." 
 
 Ah, pictures were a principal interest with 
 him, then? It was this that had drawn him 
 out of his shell to-day ? the boys reflected. But 
 then the bottles ? 
 
 " Wish I could paint," said Bob, artfully. 
 " I Ve seen you at it, you know." 
 
 " I would hardly advise anybody to," said 
 Mr. Scott Braxton. " There are so many of 
 great merit even in this country, to say noth 
 ing of the excellence of the Europeans, that 
 the prospect for anybody without talent of the 
 highest order is far from encouraging." He 
 sighed. " Not that I mean to reflect upon the 
 kind of talent you would no doubt possess," he 
 added pleasantly. 
 
 Colonel Brand, who had sedate opinions, be 
 tween his puffs of smoke, on almost all sub 
 jects, threw in a hopeful remark from his corner 
 about the future of American art. 
 
 " The only hope of of some people," re 
 turned Braxton, " is in some startling new in 
 vention, some inspiring discovery, to change 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 163 
 
 the whole face of things. What if new theo 
 ries of color were demonstrated ? " he said, 
 moving about excitedly in his chair. " That 
 is what if some person of our own country, 
 of this of these times should do it ? " 
 
 Miss Dale was heard singing in the parlor at 
 this moment a ballad to a slow, plaintive waltz 
 measure, 
 
 " When the leaves begin to turn, 
 
 And the summer days are done ; 
 "When the roses fade and die " 
 
 Whether it was this that recalled Scott Brax- 
 ton to something he had forgotten, or only that 
 he had caught himself being run away with, he 
 finished his speech lamely, blushed, and said 
 he thought he had better go up-stairs and look 
 after his fire. 
 
 The boys exchanged glances and whistled 
 shrewdly to themselves. His fire at the be 
 ginning of June ? 
 
 II. 
 
 When "old man" Braxton reached his room, 
 he applied the key to an intricate private lock 
 he had caused to be placed upon the door, en 
 tered, sat down upon a rather quaint, chintz- 
 covered chair, and gazed at his own troubled 
 face in a mirror by the window, before which 
 he chanced to find himself. 
 
164 BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 He had chosen this apartment in the attic, 
 illumined by a large dormer window, for the 
 better light and the privacy. He admitted to 
 it none but himself, and was here carrying on 
 a singular labor. 
 
 " To work ! " he said, " to work ! I was 
 losing time in unprofitable gossip. What has 
 come over me to-day ? " 
 
 But again his despondent face in the glass 
 arrested him. 
 
 " I certainly need success in this," he said, 
 " What else is left to me ? I must, I will suc 
 ceed, or there is no justice in heaven. It is a 
 beautiful world ; am I to have no part in it ? 
 Have I my aspirations for fame, for love, for 
 happiness, like the rest, only to be forever 
 balked in them ? I have been honest, I have 
 worked, I have injured no man knowingly. 
 Bah, Pharisee ! thou art not as other men," he 
 broke off, mockingly, and went to inspect a de 
 coction simmering on the fire in a copper pot. 
 
 There was, in fact, a small stove or furnace, 
 with a steady fire, in the room, even on this hot 
 summer day. 
 
 The apartment was of some size, not uncom 
 fortable in aspect, but decidedly bizarre for the 
 place. The occupant had an appreciation of 
 color, if the flowered chintz coverings, including 
 a canopy to the old " four-poster " bed, and the 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 165 
 
 rich barred table-spread were of his providing. 
 There were a couple of tall blue vases, a piece 
 of armor, a carved oak-chest, a lay figure, easels, 
 and a pair of Indian clubs, for which his hollow 
 ing chest would have been the better had they 
 not been allowed to disappear under an increas 
 ing cover of dust. 
 
 In one corner were canvases, and charcoal and 
 crayon drawings, in large variety, tacked upon 
 the walls. In another were an air-pump, mi 
 croscope, electric batteries, crucibles, spirit- 
 lamps, blow-pipes, and the small furnace. In 
 one corner he would decidedly have been pro 
 nounced artist ; in the other chemist, or even 
 alchemist. 
 
 What is his singular occupation ? He pulls 
 out an old memorandum-book from a mass of 
 papers among which he is searching, and drops 
 down to inspect it. Let us look on as he reads 
 from one of its pages in a soliloquizing wav. 
 
 MEM. LANDSCAPES OF CHANGEABLE COLORS. 
 
 To examine why the vegetation of nature changes 
 from pale and tender greens in spring to full deep 
 greens in summer, and red, yellow, purple, and russet 
 in autumn ? 
 
 Is it the action of the atmosphere on a delicate col 
 oring matter contained in the sap ? 
 
 Might not this coloring matter, if so, be extracted 
 without destroying its properties ? 
 
166 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 
 
 Might it not be possible to combine with it a very 
 sensitive medium or varnish, and paint landscapes so 
 susceptible to the action of the atmosphere as to 
 change with the seasons, as actual landscapes change? 
 
 " Here it is ! " he says. " How little I thought 
 when I put down this entry, as a passing fancy, 
 in university days, that I should ever be actually 
 engaged in trying to carry it into effect ! What 
 would the university men think of me now? 
 Ah, well ! they have all gone their way, and 
 left me astern. Each to his own method for 
 fame and fortune ! If I could but cease think 
 ing of the rewards of success. It paralyzes me. 
 Ah, well, this is not work either." And again 
 he resumed his occupations. 
 
 And this was the drug-store that Mr. Scott 
 Braxton kept ; this the gold-mine, the patent 
 medicine of which he was in search. 
 
 It was many years since he had left college. 
 He had established for himself even there the 
 reputation of a person with some curious kinks 
 in his brain. He had since tried business and 
 a learned profession, and failed. He had been 
 left to himself, traveled, and dissipated in his 
 trials a good share of a moderate property that 
 had fallen to him. He was long confident that 
 he should find the right thing at last, but later 
 on was not so confident. He had always had 
 a certain taste for the fine arts, and beautiful 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 167 
 
 shapes and colors gave him intense pleasure. 
 Something turned his attention especially that 
 way at last, and he asked himself : " Why not 
 be an artist ? It will give me license at least to 
 be different from others, and who knows but it 
 is my true vocation." 
 
 He went at art thereupon, but was not con 
 tent with the usual slow and patient steps. The 
 crotchet took him of some highly original stroke. 
 He must regain the distance, rapidly lengthen 
 ing, between him and the companions of his 
 former life, by some brilliant, new achievement 
 which should lift him far above and beyond 
 the ranks of ordinary men. 
 
 Some may recollect, but probably very few, 
 his effort to create a distinctive " American 
 art." This was to be done by idealizing modern 
 industrial science. He endeavored to glorify 
 and give a sort of personality to machinery. 
 He had in his pictures locomotives, trip-ham 
 mers, steam-dredgers, and steam-harvesters ; he 
 had pale girls among a tangle of spinning-jen 
 nies, and grimy mechanics in dusky boiler-shops. 
 These works were not often admitted to the 
 exhibitions. There were touches of good in 
 them, here and there a pleasing figure or an 
 effect of light, but they were mainly crude 
 and callow. The public resolutely refused to 
 associate its interest in the subjects, but pro- 
 
168 BRAXTON-S NEW ART. 
 
 nounced them " barbaric yawps " after the in 
 expressible. 
 
 This ambition o erleaped itself. Its author 
 retired into seclusion, growing more aud more 
 morose, but eating his heart out with a fiercer 
 determination than ever. 
 
 At length came up again this last idea of 
 his, original indeed. He had revived an early 
 whim, and now persuaded himself that it was 
 actually capable of realization. He had made 
 himself chemist and botanist for ks sake, had 
 withdrawn from all other pursuits of his life, 
 left his home, and labored at it indefatigably 
 for months. 
 
 Shall I describe here his processes ? Shall I 
 enter upon his confused heaps of memoranda, 
 often written upon random scraps, and little in 
 telligible ? Shall I open his large volumes of 
 record, showing the composition of colors, the 
 effect of chemicals upon one another, and of 
 various forces upon them ? It would not be an 
 easy task. He was himself far from a method 
 ical person. He murmurs even now as he looks 
 round at the bulk of his labored accumulations : 
 
 " What disorder here ! Perhaps I should 
 have somebody to help me." " The young 
 Treasury girl is very pleasant," he adds pres 
 ently, perhaps with no very close connection of 
 thought between the two. 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 169 
 
 He picks up a volume of the writings of an 
 ancient alchemist, not that he has faith in 
 those gentry ; he would scorn it in these days 
 of exact scientific research. It is a volume of 
 his bric-a-brac, which he bought when not able 
 to contain a certain feeling of likeness between 
 them and himself, in his peculiar pursuit. He 
 falls upon a passage which insists upon the 
 necessity of a preliminary ingredient, of the 
 second rank, and absolutely necessary to be 
 found before the great secret itself, the elixir of 
 life, or philosopher s stone, as the case may be, 
 could be discovered. This was called, in mystic 
 parlance, sometimes " the ferment of Luna for 
 the red" and sometimes " the ferment of Luna 
 for the white having found which you will re 
 joice" 
 
 The one preliminary which had sometimes of 
 late seemed to Scott Braxton important before 
 all others was that of some sympathetic mind to 
 freely confide in, one also who would help him 
 to keep his traps in order. 
 
 " The money might be measured out, I sup 
 pose, to last for two," he mutters again, and 
 then dismisses these unprofitable ideas. 
 
 He set to work to brew, ferment, distill, and 
 extract essences, as of old. He was utilizing in 
 his labors plants growing in his windows and a 
 dried collection like a housewife s herbarium. 
 
170 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 
 
 He brought back every day fresh leaves and 
 barks gathered in his walks. He produced 
 vacuums and electric and magnetic currents, 
 generated, combined, and decomposed vapors. 
 He kept his vigil far into the night ; then threw 
 himself exhausted on his bed, and dreamed till 
 morning an interminable chemical dream. 
 
 III. 
 
 The acquaintance of Scott Braxton had to be 
 made all over again by the boys next day, so 
 completely had he retired once more into his 
 shell. 
 
 Still, by degrees, after the step accomplished, 
 his moroseness was dissipated, his character 
 mellowed to a certain extent ; he began to join 
 the after-dinner smokers in the hall, and yield 
 himself to society. The toilsome effort in which 
 he was engaged, to tell the truth, was passing 
 the limits of human endurance, and he felt 
 driven almost in spite of himself to the relief of 
 companionship. 
 
 The careless rattle of the boys diverted him, 
 drew him out of himself. No greater contrast 
 in type than he and they could be imagined. 
 He even recalled some quaint, humorous stories 
 of his own, which he told in a shy way. His 
 interest in such matters seemed to have to come 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 171 
 
 back from a very long way off. Finding that 
 Colonel Brand had a fancy for collecting things 
 about the alchemists, he gave him the volume 
 of his own. 
 
 " The alchemists," maintained Colonel Brand 
 stoutly, " were in search of wisdom, and not a 
 tangible philosopher s stone." 
 
 " Then the other was mere child s play," said 
 Scott Braxton. 
 
 The boys asked him to walk with one, then 
 another, and explained to him common things 
 about Washington, where he seemed to have 
 lived in a kind of daze. They took, in their 
 way, a fancy to him, and were somehow sorry 
 for him. Once they even had a rowing expedi 
 tion together on the Potomac, above the Chain 
 Bridge. 
 
 All this threw him much in contact too with 
 Miss Mary Dale, and the boys seconded the as 
 sociation as much as possible. They seemed to 
 make up their minds that it was a benevolent 
 enterprise to bring the two together. 
 
 Still it was not known what Braxton did for 
 a living. 
 
 "It s patent medicine, as sure as a gun," 
 cried Morris again, one day, when an intenser 
 aromatic odor than usual pervaded the upper 
 regions. This was a day when the eccentric 
 neighbor alongside had let fall and broken a 
 bottle of his most costly chemicals. 
 
172 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 
 
 They asked Miss Mary Dale. 
 
 " How should /know? " she replied, coloring. 
 " You should not be so inquisitive. He is not 
 very well. He is interested in scientific things. 
 It would be better for you boys if you had more 
 to occupy yourselves with too." 
 
 Did she yet know ? Perhaps. It is certain 
 that she had seen the interior of his room. That 
 came out upon information of the landlady, who 
 accompanied her there on a certain occasion. 
 
 One day there had been a great clattering in 
 the upper hall. The scuttle was thrown open 
 and a flood of white light let into the obscuri 
 ties below. Workmen were there who had re 
 pairs to make on the roof. Mrs. Stone directed 
 them, and Miss Dale had chanced to accompany 
 her in friendly companionship. All at once the 
 closed door of Braxton s room, jarred by the 
 trampling, swung back, as is sometimes the way 
 of doors in old houses, of its own accord, and 
 disclosed the recluse at his work. Miss Dale 
 was at the moment at its very threshold. 
 
 " Will you not come in ? " he asked politely, 
 rising and responding to her look of evident 
 interest. 
 
 Mrs. Stone, an imperturbable person who 
 saw little and wondered at less, provided only 
 her dues were paid, joined her, and was in 
 cluded in the invitation. The two entered, and 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 173 
 
 the girl, thus freed from timidity, indulged in 
 some of those sprightly ways, the quick-darting, 
 and discovering traits characteristic of the fem 
 inine sex in the bachelor s apartment. 
 
 " What an extremely odd room ! " she ex 
 claimed. " And how attractive ! " in a compli 
 mentary tone. " I like all these things." 
 
 She was shown by the host some of his 
 sketches, bric-a-brac, and miscellaneous prop 
 erties. 
 
 " What are you doing here ? " sprang invol 
 untarily from her lips. That very instant she 
 repented and would have choked the words 
 back, but it was too late. 
 
 " Growing plants, for one thing," he an 
 swered evasively. 
 
 He led the way to the window and showed 
 two small rose-trees in pots. 
 
 " This," he said, indicating a creamy white 
 rose, " is nourished exclusively upon milk. And 
 upon this," showing one of a rich dark crimson, 
 " I pour red wine every day." 
 
 He was going to detach for her the principal 
 blossoms from each, but she strenuously opposed 
 the gift. 
 
 " Why not ? " he asked. " I attach no im 
 portance to them. It is a mere whim. I 
 wanted to see what they would do. It is not 
 my principal work, I assure you. Once I tried 
 
174 BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 an ink-flower also, but that was a very short 
 lived experiment. The ink killed it." 
 
 " What could they do ? " she asked, sticking 
 to the point. "What were you expecting of 
 them ? " 
 
 " As to that, I can hardly say. If I had de 
 veloped some peculiarly rare and choice flower, 
 in my milk-white rose, I should have consid 
 ered it suitable, say for brides and occasions of 
 the purest and most innocent gayety. You see 
 there is little effect as yet it is city milk," 
 he added, with a touch of humor. " My wine- 
 rose, on the other hand, would have been suit 
 able for the heated brows of wild bacchantes." 
 
 " But plants do not flourish on the same sus 
 tenance that is good for men," urged his vis 
 itor. " On the contrary, it is carbonic acid, the 
 very poison that we throw off, which furnishes 
 their life, while they, in turn, set free the oxy 
 gen so necessary to us." 
 
 " Are you a botanist ? " asked Braxton with 
 interest. 
 
 " To a very slight extent. I would like to 
 be. But now your ink-flower ? " she went on. 
 
 " Oh, that, if it had succeeded, would have 
 been worn in the button-holes of tired workers 
 with the brain. Perhaps its aroma would have 
 contained the subtle germs of ideas, or given 
 rise to occult inspirations." 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 175 
 
 The young woman looked at his small array 
 of books, all of a peculiar sort, De Candolle 
 on the Color of Plants, Bohm, Fremy, Lawson 
 on Chlorophyl, Corti on the Movement of Sap. 
 Some were in the original foreign tongues, for 
 he had become a linguist, too, in the pursuit of 
 his aim. 
 
 " But you should have your table here, the 
 book -case on this side, the cabinet here, it 
 seems to me," said Miss Mary Dale. " That 
 would be more convenient." 
 
 With two or three of the changes so deftly 
 indicated carried out, there was already a vast 
 improvement and economy of space. The re 
 cipient of these services looked gratefully after 
 his visitor when she went, and took an air of 
 deep reflection. 
 
 Not long subsequent to this his real scheme 
 was disclosed to her. She had asked him, re 
 ferring to what has just been described : 
 
 " Have you any more singular ideas ? " 
 
 "A few," he replied. He outlined to her 
 a project for a universal language, and another 
 for a system of musical notation with exquisite 
 forms and colors, so that the pleasures from all 
 three sources were to be united in one. 
 
 " I fear you are too much alone ; you are 
 morbid," she said, studying him with a glance 
 of peculiar concern. 
 
176 BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 Then, to defend himself, and as by way of 
 showing that he was not a mere unpractical 
 visionary, and because he was longing for sym 
 pathy, as we have seen, he took her fully into 
 his confidence. 
 
 Thereafter they had this secret in common 
 between them. 
 
 The session of the legislative branch of the 
 Government now came to an end, and the 
 Congressmen and other important people went 
 away, leaving the house quieter. The boys re 
 mained, it is true, but their interest in " old 
 man " Braxton had by this time subsided. 
 They voted him a good fellow enough, and 
 began to take him as a matter of course. 
 
 Miss Dale and the inventor were observed to 
 be much, together, of evenings, in the parlors. 
 They withdrew to remote corners and conversed 
 in low tones, or sometimes read to each other. 
 Once Braxton drew her portrait, a fairly good 
 one. Most sprightly young women were not 
 very considerate to him ; he was " not their 
 style." But this one was highly appreciative, 
 seemed to ignore entirely whatever there was 
 of awkwardness and constraint in his ways, and 
 extended the interest of a mind, itself active, 
 and fond of the curious, new, and thoughtful, 
 to his ideas. Mrs. Chisholm pronounced her 
 more dangerous than ever. 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 177 
 
 It was not that Miss Dale became on the in 
 stant a convert to Mr. Scott Braxton s project. 
 On the contrary, they argued it at length. 
 
 " Would such pictures be anything more 
 than a mere trick and plaything," she asked, 
 " even if they did succeed ? " 
 
 He showed almost a touch of offense at this. 
 He had idealized his conception. He described 
 to her the delicious pictures he fancied under 
 his system. 
 
 " I conceive them," he said, " changing and 
 full of a subtile mystery as bringing in some 
 thing like the genuine breath of nature upon 
 our walls. Contrast them with the ordinary 
 fixed, immovable scenes that we now have, at 
 which, after a sufficient familiarity with them, 
 we almost cease to look, however much we may 
 have liked them in the beginning. On the 
 other hand, these new ones, likely to differ 
 every time they were approached, would retain 
 the charm of perpetual freshness and novelty." 
 
 " They would have to be landscapes, of 
 course ? You could not have figures, build 
 ings, and the like ? " 
 
 " Landscapes, of course." 
 
 " You have your young and tender greens in 
 
 the spring, your dark greens in the summer, 
 
 and your russets in the autumn. What do you 
 
 do for the winter ? You can hardly make your 
 
 12 
 
178 BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 leaves fall and a mantle of snow appear upon 
 the ground." 
 
 " I have thought of that. They would be ar 
 rested by the winter. Perhaps they will have 
 to be put away during the winter, their period 
 having run down, like that of a clock. Or, 
 again, they might stand during that time as 
 ordinary landscapes, in their late autumn as 
 pect. Only on some rare days of a mild tern* 
 perature they might stir again with the pre 
 monition of the new spring." 
 
 " And you might paint in enough evergreens, 
 among the other foliage, in the ordinary way, 
 to keep always an agreeable contrast," said his 
 auditor, contributing a point to the scheme. 
 
 He thanked her with a grateful glance. 
 
 " But in the succeeding spring itself," she 
 continued, " would they not have totally run 
 down, so that they could never renew their 
 rounds again ? You could not expect to make 
 them last forever ? " 
 
 "I should hope to make the medium sensi 
 tive enough, so that they would go on a long 
 time. Very few things do last forever." 
 
 " But there is a difference in the texture as 
 well as in the colors of foliage at different sea 
 sons. Leaves are coarser in summer than in 
 spring," she objected. 
 
 " Ah, Miss Doubting Thomas ! " answered 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 179 
 
 the inventor, " I can give only a suggestion of 
 nature, not nature itself; no painting can do 
 that. I shall convince you yet." 
 
 He often tapped his forehead sagely at the 
 mention of obstacles, saying: "I shall meet 
 that I shall meet that." 
 
 " It is my passion to be known, to do some 
 thing out of the common," he told her. " I 
 cannot understand those who are content to go 
 on in the ordinary humdrum way." 
 
 By degrees the fair young Treasury clerk 
 was impressed. She was not a profound mind, 
 and she had never known the sanguine class of 
 inventors. By little and little all this scientific 
 talk and array of experiment produced its ef 
 fect. Money, and the assiduous effort of a man 
 otherwise intelligent and worthy, were being 
 put into the scheme. That could not be for 
 nothing. She gave him a large measure of her 
 faith, and his scheme a dim admiration. 
 
 They investigated matters of detail together. 
 Braxton made her see how chlorophyl, the mi 
 nute green granules in the fibre of plants, is at 
 the basis of all. He dissolved it from leaves, 
 in alcohol or ether, obtaining a residuum partly 
 wax and partly a peculiar substance allied to 
 indigo. 
 
 It was found, he said, with dextrine, gum, 
 and sugar in the original cellulose or germ-cell 
 
180 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 
 
 of the plant, and its color was not always green. 
 It occurred in but small quantity, yet was the 
 active agent in decomposing the carbonic acid, 
 and converting the other gases into organic mat 
 ter for vegetable life. He hoped much for his 
 purpose from its intense energy. 
 
 Under his microscope he showed how the 
 dark green of the upper layer of a leaf is due 
 to the closer crowding together there than be 
 low of chlorophyl cells. He exhibited in the 
 leaf the multitude of openings through which 
 it breathes and acts upon the crude sap. It 
 draws up from below instead of drinking in the 
 rain from above, as is the popular superstition. 
 
 They followed the course of the sap in the 
 green layer of the bark ; the laws of growth ; 
 the rigid mathematical adaptation of the sys 
 tem of leaves in each separate plant, set at hap 
 hazard though they seem. The occupation, so 
 far, was surely an ennobling one in itself. 
 
 A few times Scott Braxton had joined Mary 
 Dale after her official tasks, and had walked 
 home with her down the long wide stretch of 
 Pennsylvania Avenue. At one end the vista 
 was closed by the white-colonnaded pile of the 
 Capitol ; at the other by the vast granite Treas 
 ury. The street, with all its awnings out, was 
 sultry, almost Oriental, in the hot midsummer 
 afternoons. 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 181 
 
 He ventured now, finally, into the Treasury 
 itself, where the feminine employees are to be 
 seen strolling with blue and green veils over 
 their heads in the long, dim corridors at lunch 
 time. He met there his friend, made an ap 
 pointment with her, and returned, much agi 
 tated, after office hours. They strolled first 
 through the grounds of the White House, and 
 then to the small Lafayette Park, across the 
 way, where they sat down upon a bench. 
 
 Braxton held, as it chanced, a section of 
 young maple wood, showing the successive rings 
 of its development. 
 
 " The tree grows from within outward," he 
 began. " After a time the heart ceases to grow, 
 solidifies, and is dead. I have looked up to the 
 sky through the heart of a great tree entirely 
 hollow, from the outer sap-wood of which, 
 nevertheless, sprung leaves and branches. So 
 it may be with a man, if he give his attention 
 too exclusively to external things." 
 
 Upon this preamble, he made her an ardent 
 proposal. He had a certain far-off, absent look 
 even in the midst of his devotion. His work 
 was the main thing, after all. It was chiefly 
 an aid in his work that he wanted. He had 
 strongly felt that with a little wife and house 
 of his own, the probability of an early success 
 in his project would be greatly enhanced. He 
 
182 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 
 
 said to himself, " I will measure out the money 
 for two. It will carry us through ; and there 
 is no one I would rather share it with than 
 her." 
 
 As to the recipient of this offer of marriage, 
 she had been browbeaten that day by the chief 
 of her bureau. It was often so, and it was but 
 a wearisome, dragging life at best. She liked 
 Braxton, respected his persistent industry, and 
 even his self -absorption at her expense, and 
 they had got on wonderfully well in their 
 friendly companionship. She was greatly sur 
 prised at his offer, and she accepted it. 
 
 The young alchemist had secured his princi 
 pal ingredient. He had secured, he might have 
 assured himself, from the charming, confused 
 play of colors in her complexion, "the fer 
 ment of Luna," both for the " red " and the 
 " white." 
 
 " He is so odd, dear," was her landlady s 
 smiling comment on the news. Mrs. Chisholm 
 thought Miss Dale for having ensnared this 
 scion of a highly respected family ! now at 
 last utterly abandoned. 
 
 There was a regular wedding, quite soon, at 
 a neighboring church. The boys, among the 
 rest, voted to attend the ceremony in a body. 
 They placed themselves in a pew adjoining 
 one full of boarding-school girls who had 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 183 
 
 likewise been casually attracted in by the genial 
 bustle. 
 
 As the principals were rather long in making 
 their appearance, Bob conducted a dumb-show 
 of being the groom, solemn, nervous, in broad 
 cloth and high collar ; then of being the bride, 
 modest, drooping, yet coquettish, in her long 
 veil and wreath of orange blossoms. Whereat 
 the boarding-school girls were convulsed, and 
 people looked inquiringly. Aleck gave his 
 blessing, as ostensible clergyman, to the rest. 
 Gus announced his intention of going out to 
 play on the organ himself, but saying, again, 
 that the G string was broken, concluded to 
 abandon the project. 
 
 But just then the organist struck up Men 
 delssohn s Grand March, the bridal party en 
 tered, and the boys, to do them justice, behaved 
 most commendably throughout all the rest of 
 the proceedings. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The young couple spent some time in a 
 honeymoon which included visits to some rela 
 tives on both sides. Then they returned, and 
 took a vacant cottage in Mount Pleasant, a 
 pretty suburb, inhabited chiefly by politic gov 
 ernment clerks who had succeeded in making 
 themselves fixtures under successive Adminis 
 trations. 
 
184 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 
 
 When it had been intimated to one of them, 
 for instance, that the Administration was about 
 to change, he said : 
 
 " I should like to see any Administration 
 change quicker than I can ; that s all." 
 
 Nothing could be more charming than the 
 new bride in her quiet, fresh, economic toilets, 
 her native gayety a little subdued by the nov 
 elty of the situation. The groom abated some 
 what the tremendous energy by which he had 
 been distinguished. The cottage had a pretty 
 garden, in the renovation of which he assisted 
 with his own hands, setting out there, also, 
 many plants which he needed in his own labors. 
 He interested himself in the matter of taste 
 fully furnishing the house, cultivated for his 
 wife s sake some acquaintance with the neigh 
 bors, and became in all ways more like ordinary 
 human beings. 
 
 This was but a lull. Scott Braxton was gath 
 ering strength. His energy broke out with a 
 greater zest than before. He prepared a paint 
 ing-room of a peculiar sort. He concocted a 
 prodigious number of sap-greens and varnishes. 
 He refined and refined again upon the delicacy 
 of his medium. By October he was ready to 
 begin a picture, which was to herald forth his 
 invention to the world. 
 
 The painting-room was prepared in accord- 
 
BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 185 
 
 ance with the peculiar conditions of the case. 
 It was fitted with a very perfect heating appa 
 ratus, and made as air-tight as possible. The 
 painting was to be kept while in progress at 
 a uniform, spring-like temperature, and then, 
 when complete, exposed for the greater 
 beauty and completeness of the display in 
 the presence of a company of friends and crit 
 ics, to the influx of a late autumn or winter at 
 mosphere. 
 
 Such was the programme for a first ex 
 perimental canvas ; the later ones, of course, 
 would be allowed to develop naturally. He 
 admitted to his wife that his process was not 
 yet perfect at all points, but he would wait no 
 longer. He wished to launch it in its great 
 main features, like the imperfect phonograph, 
 for instance, and, while enjoying the conse 
 quent fame and fortune, to complete its details 
 at leisure. 
 
 The most excellent of heating arrangements 
 has its faults, and there were annoyances, too, 
 from other sources. Strive as he would, the 
 artist was driven to many an unsatisfactory 
 makeshift, and forced to supplement his curi 
 ous new colors, here and there, with chemicals 
 and pigments of a much less ethereal sort. 
 Pure chromium, for instance, gives a rich, brill 
 iant green, but, under certain conditions, is 
 
186 BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 spontaneously inflammable, and care is to be 
 taken how it is handled. 
 
 As the work progressed he began to with 
 draw his confidences from his wife. A time 
 came when he would no longer even admit her 
 to his painting-room. 
 
 " No," he said, playfully, " I am going to 
 have my surprise for you also." 
 
 None but himself knew the drama that was 
 taking place there, the intolerable strain upon 
 every fibre, mental and physical, the desperate 
 appeals for help, the agonizing into which he 
 entered over his strange project. Sometimes 
 he was relaxed to a point of utter feebleness, 
 and essayed, almost like a child, to coax and 
 wheedle Providence to his aim. 
 
 "Ah, dear Heaven," he cried, well-nigh be 
 side himself, " pray let it be ! You canuot let 
 me fail." 
 
 It was all becoming vague and wild to the 
 young wife, and passing beyond her ken. Once 
 she asked him, nervously, 
 
 "Are you really sure, dear, that we shall 
 succeed ? " 
 
 " We must succeed," he answered. " The 
 money is measured out to last only till then. 
 4 After me, the deluge. " 
 
 He endeavored to turn this off as humor the 
 next moment, but she had her misgivings. She 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 187 
 
 wept bitterly at the new and tragic aspect of 
 the case. She saw her husband grow pale and 
 haggard in these days. She implored him to 
 pause, to take but the most ordinary precau 
 tions for his health. But he repulsed her, and 
 cried fiercely, 
 
 " I would mingle the best drops of my heart s 
 blood with these colors, to make them go." 
 
 Finally, however, he had less absorbed man 
 ners ; then all at once announced : " It is over. 
 It is done." 
 
 On the tenth of December the village of 
 Mount Pleasant showed an unwonted bustle. 
 This was the occasion fixed for the launching of 
 Scott Braxton s strange invention. Although 
 it had long been spoken of as about to occur, 
 the precise date was only determined upon the 
 evening before. All indications then went to 
 show that the morrow would be clear and cold, 
 as was desirable. 
 
 The day was cold, but in its earlier part 
 cloudy. The hour fixed for the unveiling of 
 the picture was two o clock. Guests were in 
 vited for a luncheon at one. A considerable 
 company had assembled. A number of the 
 neighbors, the official employees, had with 
 drawn their valuable services from government 
 business for the time being, to be present. Con- 
 
188 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. 
 
 gressman Wheelright and his family, in town 
 for the new session, were there. The boys 
 or most of them supplied a gayer element. 
 They took a sort of personal pride in the affair. 
 They had known " old man " Braxton when he 
 was pegging away at his invention in its early 
 stages, and considered themselves in a measure 
 co-discoverers with him. The most important 
 thing, however, was the critics. These were a 
 professor from the art museum, and one from 
 the Smithsonian Institution, and the art critics 
 of the morning papers. Greatest of all, influ 
 ence had been made to bring the Washington 
 correspondent of a great New York daily. He 
 could flash it through the whole of the Associated 
 Press, and make you famous in an instant 
 from Dan to Beersheba. 
 
 When luncheon was over, the guests moved 
 to the studio. All put on or kept on their 
 wraps, for the doors and windows were to be 
 thrown open to the chilly out-of-door atmos 
 phere. The critical force was favorably posted 
 and the signal given. 
 
 The requisite openings were made to admit 
 the raw December air, and the covering with 
 drawn from the phenomenal picture. 
 
 A buzz went around the room, now rapidly 
 lowering in temperature. A cry of admiration 
 broke from the lips of the young wife. Her 
 
BRAXTON 8 NEW ART. 189 
 
 husband sent her a sharp glance of reproval, as 
 if this were not in the best of taste. 
 
 For the first few moments nothing peculiar 
 happened. The sun meantime came out, and 
 Scott Braxton accepted it as a happy omen, and 
 beamed accordingly. 
 
 Surely yes, it was indeed so the colors 
 of a group of pale-green trees in the lower left- 
 hand corner of the painting began to shimmer 
 and deepen strangely. The reflection of these 
 in a pool of water followed. The movement 
 communicated itself to the general mass of foli 
 age. It had been but now April it became 
 midsummer. 
 
 The audience held its breath in a kind of 
 awe. The heart of Scott Braxton was nigh 
 bursting with suppressed rapture. 
 
 Red and yellowish appearances ensued. Au 
 tumn hues of varying strengths slid and shifted 
 over the face of the work, the scarlet of maple, 
 the crimson of oak and sumach, the pale and 
 deeper gold of birch and chestnut. But the 
 clouds, too, the parts that should have remained 
 fixed, began to act strangely, gave highly unex 
 pected effects. Soon everything in the picture 
 moved in a universal wavering and flicker. 
 One would have said that it was burning up. 
 
 It was burnino-. 
 
 & 
 
 The picture was going off by spontaneous com 
 bustion. 
 
190 BRAXTON S NEW ART. 
 
 Its maker rushed wildly out-of-doors, with his 
 hands in his hair. His wife, after a first im 
 pulse of solicitude toward the poor painting, 
 which was now all aflame and hopelessly doomed 
 to destruction, followed him. She kept up some 
 how with his strides, hurried as they were, and 
 finally drew his arm through hers, though he at 
 first repulsed her. They walked on a long way 
 in silence. They walked away into the lone 
 some parts of the village, and out upon the open 
 roads, leaving their stupefied or mocking guests 
 behind them. She induced him to stop at an 
 outlying house while she negotiated for a hat 
 for him, making some plausible excuse to ac 
 count for his need of it. She began to let fall 
 some soothing monosyllables, and then fuller 
 words of comfort. 
 
 " You must go away for a while," she said. 
 
 " Of what use ? " he returned, moodily. " I 
 have no further ideas, and the money is spent." 
 
 " Your picture was lovely, even apart from 
 the strange contrivance," she continued. " Did 
 you not hear me cry out in admiration ? " 
 
 " I heard, but thought you fancied that the 
 change had commenced, and was annoyed that 
 you should be premature." 
 
 " I could not help it. It was a fine and beau 
 tiful picture, if I have ever seen one in my life. 
 My heart ached to see it destroyed. You do 
 not know how good it was ? " 
 
BRAXTON S NEW ART. 191 
 
 " I scarcely thought of it, I was so intent 
 upon the process." 
 
 " You can do others as good and noble, I am 
 sure. Come ! that is our future. Let us dis 
 miss these juggleries ! I never more than half 
 liked them, though I was afraid to tell you so. 
 You must study simpler, more legitimate things, 
 and I know that they will succeed. And I 
 I meantime can get back my place in the 
 Treasury." 
 
 The erratic limner bent down and kissed 
 her, with a new birth of affection in his heart. 
 And she had never felt so great a tenderness 
 for him or any other human being as now in 
 his failure and despondency. 
 
 They walked on as the day waned, and did 
 not return till long after the red twilight had 
 ceased to burn behind the wintry copses. 
 
 The affair naturally made a great stir at 
 Mount Pleasant, and not a little elsewhere. 
 The critics of the local papers could not for 
 bear to write humorously of the exceeding 
 "warmth," and the like, of the new coloring; 
 while the correspondent of the great New York 
 daily gave the history at length in his dis 
 patches as that of a freakish inventor with an 
 unusually absurd bee in his bonnet. 
 
 Nevertheless, others too, besides the young 
 wife, had noted the unusual excellence of the 
 picture in itself. The intense preoccupation 
 
192 BRAXTOWS NEW ART. * 
 
 under which it was made had resulted in a 
 naivet^ and unconsciousness of resource, a di 
 rectness and power, and an original charm of 
 effect which could not be denied. Its author 
 seemed a born artist, and had struck, in true 
 landscape, his proper field. 
 
 He was threatened with a violent brain fever, 
 but this was waved back by the sympathetic 
 hand of the sweet ex-Treasury girl, who never 
 for a moment relaxed her vigilance over him. 
 He passed through his metamorphosis, and en 
 tered upon a new period of existence, devoting 
 himself to the simple forms and hues of nature 
 as ardently as he had once tried to divine her 
 chemic mysteries. 
 
 He is to-day younger and gayer, and his pic 
 tures sell for prices that place them beyond the 
 reach of all without Croesus-like bank accounts. 
 
 And, as everything comes to him that already 
 hath, it seems probable that a rich bachelor un 
 cle, who has taken a fancy to his wife, will also 
 make him his sole legatee. 
 
 " I was well-nigh beside myself with loneli 
 ness, disappointment, and brooding over un 
 healthy problems," says Braxton to this amia 
 ble, charming helpmeet. " You brought me 
 back to a simple, natural, human existence. 
 You are the essence of chlorophyl, the result 
 of all my labors. You are my new art, my 
 strange, almost incredible discovery." 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 I. 
 
 GRTJYERE S PLACE. 
 
 IN the spring of the year 1870, gold had 
 fallen so low that it began to be thought that 
 specie payments suspended entirely during 
 the long dreary decade of the epoch of the 
 war of secession would be resumed at once. 
 Silver in considerable quantity actually came 
 into circulation. The restaurants, cigar stands, 
 and other establishments for the sale of the 
 lighter articles of merchandise, gave it out in 
 change, by way of making an extra inducement 
 to customers. 
 
 On one of these days Henry Barwood, a 
 Washington Treasury clerk, and McNab, the 
 rather well-known picture restorer, met by ac 
 cident at the door of Gruyere s restaurant. 
 Gruyere s place, although in the business quar 
 ter, is not supported to any great extent by 
 the hurrying throng of bankers , brokers , mer- 
 
 13 
 
194 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 chants , and lawyers clerks who overrun the 
 vicinity every day at lunch-time. It is a rather 
 leisurely resort, frequented by well-to-do im 
 porters, together with musicians, and artists, 
 people who have traveled, and whose affairs 
 admit of considerable deliberation and repose. 
 Barwood in former times had been in the habit 
 of going there occasionally to air his amateur 
 French, burn a teaspoonful of brandy in his 
 coffee, and take a cheap foretaste of Paris. 
 
 Returned just now to New York to spend a 
 vacation at his home, after a considerable ab 
 sence, he was renewing this with other old as 
 sociations. 
 
 McNab was sprung from the race which has 
 given the world a large share of its versatility of 
 talent and taste for adventure, and was famil 
 iarly known at Gruyere s as "Mac." He was of 
 middle age, rheumatic, and in receipt of an in 
 come barely sufficient, with ingenuities of man 
 agement, to provide for his diversified needs. 
 
 He found leisure to come hither every day to 
 retail the gossip of the studios, and fortify him 
 self for his desultory labors with the artful 
 stimulants adapted to that end. He liked the 
 society of young men for several reasons. For 
 one thing, they were more free with their 
 purses than his older cronies. The associa 
 tion, he also thought, threw a sort of glamour 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 195 
 
 of youth about his own person. Finally, they 
 listened to the disquisitions and artistic rhap 
 sodies in which he was fond of indulging, with 
 an attention by no means accorded them by his 
 equals. 
 
 Barwood was of a speculative turn of mind, 
 with a strong leaning towards whatever was 
 curious and out of the common. These pro 
 clivities in him, the conversation and pursuits 
 of McNab, together with his possession of a 
 rambling studio or store-room full of trumpery, 
 were calculated to gratify. A moderate sort of 
 friendship upon this basis had sprung up be 
 tween the two men. 
 
 They made mutual protestations of pleasure 
 at this casual meeting. Barwood considered it 
 an occasion worthy of a bottle of Dry Verze- 
 nay, a suggestion which was not in the least 
 displeasing to McNab. 
 
 The payment of specie was so entirely a nov 
 elty that after the inquiries and explanations 
 natural to so long a separation were concluded 
 it was among the earliest of the topics they 
 touched upon. 
 
 " Sure, it s the first hard money I ve seen 
 these ten years, so it is," said McNab. 
 
 " That is my case also," said Barwood. " I 
 took as little interest in the matter at the time 
 as a boy of fourteen might be supposed to ; but 
 
196 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 I remember very well how rapidly specie dis 
 appeared at the beginning of the war." 
 
 " And where has it been ? " asked McNab, 
 speculatively. " There s many fine points of 
 interest about it, do you see ? Consider the 
 receptacles in which it has been hoarded the 
 secret places in chimneys, under floors and un 
 der ground, the vaults, old stockings, cabinets, 
 and caskets that have teemed and glittered 
 with it. Then the characters, again, of all its 
 various owners : the timid doubters about the 
 government, the speculators, the curiosity hun 
 ters, the misers " 
 
 " Yes," said Barwood, coinciding, " the his 
 tory of a single one of these pieces would no 
 doubt make a story full of interest." 
 
 It did not detract from the value of McNab s 
 conversation, in his view, that the worthy pic 
 ture restorer pronounced " foine," " hoorded," 
 and the like, instead of in the more conven 
 tional way. 
 
 " But what I m after telling you is n t the 
 singular part of it at all," resumed McNab, 
 taking in a casual way some silver from his 
 pocket and settling down to the subject. 
 " What is ten years to it ? According to the 
 mint reports a coin of the precious metals loses 
 by wear and tear but one twenty -four hun 
 dredth of its bulk a year. These pieces I hold 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 197 
 
 in me hand, coined forty years ago, are as yet 
 scarcely defaced." 
 
 " And in another forty they may not be no 
 ticeably more so," said Barwood. 
 
 " Thrue for you," responded McNab, and he 
 continued : 
 
 " What, for instance, has been the career of 
 this Mexican dollar? Perhaps it was made 
 from bullion fresh from a Mexican mine. In 
 that case there would be little to say. But 
 just as likely as not, on the other hand, it was 
 struck from old Spanish plate, or former coins, 
 melted down. In that case it takes us back to 
 the earliest times, and its origin is lost in ob 
 scurity. The same identical metal has been 
 time after time re-melted, re-cast, re-stamped, 
 and thus maintained in a sort of perpetual 
 youth. This gold piece upon me watch-chain, 
 for example, was perchance coined from the 
 sands of the Pactolus, and once bore Chaldean 
 characters." 
 
 " How incongruous with such romance would 
 seem its modern uses," commented his auditor, 
 reflectively. 
 
 " Right you are," the other went on, gather 
 ing yet more headway. 
 
 Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 
 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. 
 
 And so the pieces counted out for the ransom of 
 
198 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 Richard the Lion-hearted, an Inca of Peru, the 
 material of the spurs of Agincourt, the rings of 
 Cleopatra and Zenobia, the golden targets of 
 Solomon, the ingots of the ships of Tarshish, 
 the treasures of Ophir and of Ormus and of 
 Ind, in our day purchase soap and candles and 
 mutton-chops for Brown, Jones, and Robinson. 
 And yet, why not ? We ourselves have come 
 down to very commonplace uses ; why not the 
 works of our hands ? You with your conven 
 tional hat and English walking-coat, I with me 
 spectacles and me Irish brogue, have had an 
 cestors who wore coats of mail in the first 
 crusades, twanged the bow with merry Robin 
 Hood under his greenwood tree, sailed in the 
 galleys of Hengist and Horsa, and traded from 
 Tyre and Sidon." 
 
 " You think, then," said Barwood, " that 
 some part of the coinage of antiquity may be 
 yet in circulation ? " 
 
 " To be sure it is, don t I tell you ? I say 
 the precious metals are indestructible. All the 
 coins that have figured prominently in history 
 are, in some shape or other, still extant. Don t 
 I show you that twenty-four hundred years 
 would be needed to wear out a coin completely ? 
 But how long will it last, I ask you, in only 
 moderate use, and lying buried for intervals of 
 hundreds of years in the ground? We have 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 199 
 
 among us the rings, brooches, chains, bracelets, 
 the drinking- vessels, and vases that embody the 
 pomp and luxury of the ages, and glitter in all 
 the chronicles from the earliest days." 
 
 Taking a brief pause to moisten his lips, he 
 resumed : 
 
 " My silver dollar here, which I ring upon 
 Gruyere s table, and with which, but for the 
 persuadin way you have wid you, I should have 
 paid for me frugal repast, has haply once been 
 moulded in Cellini s dagger-hilts or crucifixes, 
 or has formed part of a pirate s booty taken 
 out of a galleon scuttled on the Spanish Main. 
 For aught I know, again, it was current money 
 in Nineveh, or Babylon, or Tadmor of the Wil 
 derness. Perhaps it was one of the pieces paid 
 by Abraham to the children of Heth for the 
 double cave that looked towards Mamre." 
 
 " Or one of the pieces of silver paid to Judas 
 for his betrayal of the Master," said Barwood, 
 suddenly. 
 
 McNab looked startled, and half involun 
 tarily pushed the money away from him, ex 
 claiming, 
 
 " That s the divil s own notion ye have 
 there." 
 
 " May be it is ; but it is a natural enough 
 sequence from what preceded." 
 
 Both men remained silent for some moments 
 
200 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 upon this, and contemplated, abstractedly, the 
 small bubbles following one another up the 
 long, delicate stems of their wine-glasses. 
 
 "Do you suppose," finally asked Barwood, 
 in a meditative way, as if himself impressed 
 by the idea he had so fortuitously struck out, 
 " that those thirty pieces, if really extant, 
 Would carry with them an enduring curse ? " 
 
 " There s no good in them, you may de 
 pend," rejoined the other. 
 
 By this time the bottle and the plates of both 
 were empty. 
 
 The train of thought they had been pursuing 
 seemed to have found its climax in the turn 
 given it by Barwood. Over their coffee and 
 dessert they turned to more cheerful topics. 
 
 " Come around to my place before you leave 
 town," urged McNab, on parting. " Ye 11 en 
 joy some new rubbish I have there to show 
 
 ye." 
 
 As he hobbled away he muttered to himself 
 again, 
 
 " It s the divil s own notion, so it is." 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 201 
 
 II. 
 
 THE BUREAU OF ETHEREAL CLAIMS. 
 
 THE Bureau of Ethereal Claims at Washing 
 ton was run by a force of clerks of moderate 
 size, under control of that veteran soldier and 
 office-holder, General Hedge. The general had 
 been a little of everything, in the matter of oc 
 cupation, in his time. At the outbreak of the 
 war he had abandoned the agency of a large 
 life insurance company, set himself to canvass 
 ing for troops instead, and was made a lieuten 
 ant over them. He had displayed not a little 
 courage, but more yet of an artful strategic tal 
 ent, had come out a brevet-brigadier, and had 
 ever since been making a good thing of it in 
 the official service of the government. 
 
 The office bristled also with other military 
 titles. Everybody in it, except Bar wood and 
 one Judge Montane, seemed to be either colonel, 
 major, or captain. As to the judge, a hard- 
 worked, uncommunicative man, who was said 
 to have a large family to support out of his 
 moderate pay, he himself confessed, one day, 
 over a dozen of beer ordered in during a tem 
 porary absence of the chief, that his civic title 
 was not strictly valid. 
 
 " What were you judge of, Montane ? " the 
 
202 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 lively young Mars Brown who, by the way, 
 had no title either asked him. 
 
 " I 11 tell you, boys," he replied, leaving his 
 desk for the first time on record, and by de 
 grees yielding to the genial influences of the 
 occasion, " I m just no judge at all, do you see, 
 except may be as I d be a good judge of whis 
 key, or the like." 
 
 Mars Brown was the son of the senator of 
 that name, a man whose influence few generals 
 or bureaus of claims could afford to disregard. 
 When brought to the office by his father, he 
 was given a place there, and presently became 
 its most privileged character. He chatted fa 
 miliarly with the general, absented himself for 
 several days at a time with calm unconcern, 
 came late in the morning, and went early, as he 
 explained, to make up for it. He was a hand 
 some fellow, thoroughly companionable, and on 
 the best of terms with himself. He displayed 
 a prodigious acquaintance with horses, dogs, 
 guns, boats, and fishing tackle, and was turned 
 to as authority on all matters of that sort. His 
 stock of stories was large, his wit always ready, 
 and his posturings comical. He could con 
 vulse a social company, when all other re 
 sources failed, by no more than making ridic 
 ulous faces. 
 
 Among women, great and small, he was a 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 203 
 
 conquering hero, and the times were rare when 
 he was not in demand for some social observ 
 ance. 
 
 Such was Mars Brown, at the age of, say, 
 twenty-five. He was a confrere of Henry Bar- 
 wood in the government office, but between 
 two persons of such highly dissimilar character 
 there could be no great intimacy. It so hap 
 pened, nevertheless, that shortly after his return 
 to Washington from the vacation described, 
 Bar wood began to regard him with distrust 
 and dislike, as a possible rival in a quarter 
 where his affections were very clearly centred. 
 
 It might have been expected, from a great 
 preoccupation with lobbyists and politicians to 
 which the general gave himself, that the busi 
 ness of the bureau should sometimes languish, 
 and so in fact it did. The heat and burden of 
 it were borne by a few clerks, whose tenure of 
 office depended rather upon their own efficient 
 work than influential backing. The govern 
 ment duties must be performed by somebody, 
 and it so happens, in spite of the great princi 
 ple of rotation in office, that the heads of many 
 men of undeniable usefulness rest firmly upon 
 their shoulders, while hundreds of others topple 
 all about them. 
 
 The Bureau of Ethereal Claims was not with 
 out its spasmodic attempts at discipline. The 
 
204 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 general spent an occasional forenoon there, 
 lying in wait for delinquents, whose shortcom 
 ings, when found, he made the text for a very 
 forcible line of remarks. The business of the 
 office, he would state, should be attended to, or 
 he would make a future theological arrange 
 ment for himself of a very unpleasant sort, if 
 he did n t know the reason why. With Mars 
 Brown, however, he hardly went much farther 
 than to request now and then, as a personal 
 favor, that that young man should try to be 
 on hand henceforth a little earlier and rather 
 oftener. To this young Brown was always 
 ready to assent with the greatest cordiality. 
 
 A new punctuality of attendance in office 
 hours followed, for a few days, these eccentric 
 efforts at reform, whereupon things resumed 
 their usual course. 
 
 In the list of employees, Henry Barwood was 
 neither one of the best nor the worst. What 
 ever might have been the effect of the life, as 
 described, upon the others or the general pub 
 lic, it was certainly harmful to his own private 
 interests and character. Naturally of an im 
 practical and somewhat morbid disposition, he 
 needed the stimulus of pursuits perhaps best 
 a business career in which the necessity for 
 action and the value of the results of action, 
 when accomplished, should be constantly ap- 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 205 
 
 parent. Had he been engaged in ventures, tak 
 ing risks and devising plans, either upon his 
 own or any approved responsibility, he might 
 have abandoned fancies, to which he was too 
 much given, and become a person of much use 
 and value in the world. As it was, he found 
 the amplest opportunity for their indulgence. 
 
 Every day, from the hours of nine to three, 
 he was set to assort, copy, or make abstracts 
 of letters, applications, reports, the objects of 
 which were remote, the expediency doubtful, 
 and the ultimate fate highly problematical. 
 Without interest in the work, or particular 
 pressure for its performance, he moped over it, 
 and often awoke from his reveries to find his 
 tables of figures a muddle, even his written 
 phrases incoherent. 
 
 The morbid are possibly as unintelligible to 
 themselves as to others. The world, viewed 
 by each through the medium of his own dis 
 torted temperament, is seen in strangely tinted 
 lights, which are more than suspected to be 
 delusive, yet cannot be dissipated. Barwood s 
 vision was surely affected by such a disturbing 
 influence. He extracted subtle, unreal mean 
 ings from ordinary things or circumstances, the 
 manner of a nod, the tone of a remark, and 
 having found them, would brood over them for 
 hours. He questioned alike his own motives 
 
206 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 and those of all the world with a painful scru 
 tiny. 
 
 What a dim and mysterious problem is not 
 the mind of every human being to every other ! 
 With what is it filled, at the time when it 
 makes slight outward sign, and is left to its 
 own devices ? There survives in notes in 
 Barwood s own handwriting testimony to the 
 effect that there marched through his brain 
 a procession of vivid, rapidly changing fancies 
 and impressions for the most part inclining to 
 melancholy. There were certain aspirations 
 for fame, or prominence, distrust of his own 
 powers, forecasting of probabilities, repining 
 for past sins and follies, epigrams for meetings 
 with the brilliant, rage and epithets for imagi 
 nary meetings with enemies. Through the rest 
 came breaths of reminiscence of days of perfect 
 peace, in a high-porticoed house, of a grass- 
 grown road, and a sandy beach in a village of 
 the Connecticut const, his childhood s home. 
 He had idealized it far beyond any reality that 
 it had ever had. His fancies were rich and 
 full, often to the verge of the chaotic. His 
 will was strong and imperiously set upon its 
 instant designs, but, from the point of view 
 of any large general plan, somewhat weak and 
 vacillating. 
 
 It could not be said that he was not ambi- 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 207 
 
 tious. He would have desired success, not for 
 its splendors or the opportunity of vaunting 
 himself above others, but to secure the kindly 
 recognition of the world, and obviate some of 
 its jarring harshness and discomforts. But no 
 one prevailing impulse had ever yet enlisted his 
 full powers. He saved money, with a general 
 idea of investing it and becoming a capitalist. 
 He gave much time to studies of various sorts. 
 He had learned music among the rest, late in 
 life, and composed music of his own, using as 
 his inspiration some favorite poem, or picture, 
 or character. These compositions were marked 
 by a quality, if the comparison may be made 
 between things so dissimilar, like that of some 
 quaint Chinese vase, or broken bronze figurine 
 of antiquity. 
 
 His family, the Barwoods, strangely enough, 
 had been from the earliest times a race of 
 shrewd and driving New England store-keep 
 ers, the very antipodes, it would seem, of all 
 sentiment and dilettanteism. How had such a 
 scion sprung from such a stock ? Whence came 
 such incongruities in nature ? 
 
 The Holbrook farm was the one locality, and 
 Nina Holbrook the one figure, in a generally 
 sombre prospect surrounding Barwood, which 
 gleamed in sunshine. They also, by the inter 
 position of even so light and sportive a per- 
 
208 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 son as Mars Brown, were to be presently over 
 shadowed. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE SEARCH. 
 
 It was natural enough, with Barwood s habit 
 of retrospect and casting about for the rare 
 and curious, that the subject so oddly struck 
 out in his talk with the picture - restorer at 
 Gruyere s should have taken a certain hold 
 upon his imagination. But to explain a mis 
 chievous rapidity with which the notion grew, 
 and an all-absorbing influence it presently came 
 to exert upon him, would be far more difficult. 
 The effect of the mind upon the body is but 
 too commonly remarked. By persistent direc 
 tion of thought to the part, one may either 
 create or cure a pain in any specific spot of bis 
 organism. So, too, may the mind affect itself. 
 By intense concentration upon any single sub 
 ject, it may arrive at suspending, and finally 
 destroying, its capacity for interest in any or 
 all others. 
 
 The idea that the hard coin which figured as 
 the price of the treason of Judas may be still 
 extant and current, in such every-day, common 
 place times as ours, seems at first sight utterly 
 incongruous, incredible, perhaps, even a little 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 209 
 
 sacrilegious. Yet the fact is evidently possi 
 ble. 
 
 " The precious metals are practically inde 
 structible," soliloquized Barwood, going again 
 over the ground. " They do not perish, like 
 baser metals, by oxidation, and the most vio 
 lent excesses of the elements have no effect 
 upon them. Where, then, are the treasures of 
 the ages, if not still with us ? " 
 
 " Are they buried underground, or in the 
 ocean ? " he asks, going on with his musings. 
 
 " From the nature of the case no great pro 
 portion can have been thus disposed of. This 
 form of wealth has been too highly esteemed, 
 too jealously guarded, and searched for, for 
 that. In all the wars and convulsions of so 
 ciety, though it has changed hands, it has not 
 been destroyed. Alexander and Tamerlane and 
 Timour the Tartar and Mahomet may overrun 
 the world, burning and laying waste, melting 
 its more ephemeral forms of riches, like a frost 
 work before the hot blast of conquest, but 
 money is as useful to the victor as to the van 
 quished. Rome received the heritage of Alex 
 ander, the barbarians that of Rome, and mod 
 ern civilization that of the barbarians." 
 
 44 The billows of time," said Barwood, dream 
 ing at his desk in the Bureau of Claims, " roll, 
 above and engulf all the monuments of men, 
 14 
 
210 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 all that money may buy, sell, and as it were 
 create; but these cunning tokens of gold and 
 silver glitter and toss irrepressibly in the very 
 topmost foam-crests of the flood. The chief 
 instrument and witnesses of the pomp and 
 luxury, wars, treasons, and varied mercenary 
 crimes of history, are still in our world and 
 of it." 
 
 " Why not, then, with all the rest," he runs 
 on, " those evil pieces of money cast down by 
 Judas before the chief priests, when going out, 
 in his agony of remorse, to destroy himself for 
 having betrayed the Saviour of mankind ? " 
 
 Such were the reflections that occurred to 
 Barwood with a strange and vivid persistency, 
 and, favored by his humoring of them, finally 
 possessed him with a resistless fascination. All 
 coins began to acquire a new and entertaining 
 interest in his eyes. He saw in each a possible 
 exponent of countless centuries of human life 
 and passion. It is true that in such a country 
 as our own a large part of the coinage must be 
 rather new from its native bed in the mine. 
 Yet his occasional encounters with foreign 
 pieces, especially those of Mexico and Canada, 
 so current here, and consideration of the im 
 mense sums received as dues at the great ports 
 of customs, in his regard, leavened the entire 
 mass with a touch of romance. 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 211 
 
 " Is there anywhere to be found," he asked 
 himself, " any account of the career of the thirty 
 pieces subsequent to their appearance in the 
 Scriptures ? " 
 
 The Capitol library, one of the most exten 
 sive collections of books in the world, offers an 
 ample facility for research, and there Barwood 
 began to be found some part of every day, for 
 a period of many months. 
 
 He consulted, in his singular investigation, 
 commentaries of every sort upon the Gospels ; 
 lives of the Apostles ; collections of apocryphal 
 gospels and scriptural traditions ; the works of 
 the early fathers ; chronicles of the Middle 
 Ages ; treatises on Oriental life and customs ; 
 histories of symbolism and Christian art ; and 
 works on numismatics, with, finally, accounts 
 of all the more memorable crimes and casual 
 ties. 
 
 For so possessed was he, that he, after a time, 
 framed an entirely new theory of history. 
 
 He looked to find that all the great treasons, 
 briberies, betrayals of trust, murders for mer 
 cenary advantage, with perhaps also great finan 
 cial crises, had been set on foot by this fatal 
 money, now become an instrument of the divine 
 wrath. 
 
 44 They have mown a swath through history 
 like a discharge of grape-shot," said he. 
 
212 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 He believed that, if the truth were known, 
 some of these coins would be found in the bank 
 accounts of the dastardly Byzantine Emperor 
 Manuel Comnenus, and of Egmont, Benedict 
 Arnold, the Hungarian Gorgey, and many 
 others of their sort. 
 
 His progress was not rapid. Much of the 
 literature among which he delved was musty 
 with age, written in mediseval Latin, or in ob 
 solete characters, and gave up its secrets with 
 reluctance. A collection of apocryphal gospels 
 " printed for Richard Royston, at the Angel in 
 Amen Corner, MDCLXX," furnished him some 
 particulars about Judas which by no means 
 appear in the Scriptures. Judas was, when 
 young, for instance, it said, a playmate of the 
 boy Jesus, and was even then delivered by him 
 from a devil by which he was already possessed. 
 The chief value of this book was in its reference 
 to another and fuller Gospel of Judas Iscariot, 
 not extant, with the exception of some passages 
 quoted from it in the writings of some such 
 early father as Irenasus. These passages proved, 
 however, to be upon the very subject of his 
 quest, and it was in the early fathers of the first 
 half of the second century that Barwood finally 
 came upon a definite mention of his coins. 
 
 The story of the treason followed in the main 
 that of the authorized version of Scripture. 
 
ONE OF TEE THIRTY PIECES. 213 
 
 But after the relinquisliment of the coins by 
 Judas, because he had betrayed innocent blood, 
 and their employment in the purchase of the 
 potter s field, occurred a supplementary account 
 translated out of its old Latin by Barwood as 
 follows : 
 
 " Now these shekels were of the coinage of 
 Simon, the high-priest ; which Antiochus au 
 thorized him to issue. They bore the signs of 
 the pot of manna and the flowering rod of 
 Aaron, the high-priest. But he to whom they 
 were given for the potter s field knew that they 
 were the price of blood, and he was afraid. 
 And he stamped them with a mark like unto a 
 cross, that they might be known. Neverthe 
 less, great tribulation came upon this man, and 
 tribulation came likewise upon all them that 
 bought and sold with the money of Judas." 
 
 Later on, Leontinus, a Byzantine writer of 
 the sixth century, in a treatise on the efficacy of 
 certain forms in imparting a virtue to inanimate 
 matter, instanced, as well known, the malevo 
 lence inherent in the thirty silver pieces of Ju 
 das. They were swift to carry ruin with them 
 wherever they went. Thence the legend was 
 traced onward. In the Middle Ages, so de 
 lighting in all that was romantic, mysterious, 
 and portentous, it appeared to have been im 
 plicitly received. Such authorities as Eginhard, 
 
214 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 abbot of Seligenstadt, under Charlemagne, if 
 we cite correctly, William of Malmesbury, 
 the English chronicler of the twelfth century, 
 and Roger Bacon of the thirteenth, Malespini, 
 the Italian of the same date, and others of 
 equal note, mentioned, as fully established, that 
 the coins of Judas were in circulation, and in 
 flicted serious injury upon those into whose 
 possession they came. It was said to be im 
 possible to amalgamate the material of which 
 they were made with any other silver. Either 
 it would not melt at all, or in melting remained 
 obstinately distinct. This was, however, a 
 mooted point. Some alchemists, on the other 
 hand, seemed disposed to attribute the ill suc 
 cess of their efforts at transmutation to the 
 presence of some baleful taint from this source 
 in the silver upon which they were conducting 
 their experiments. 
 
 Matthew Paris, who first popularized the le 
 gend of the Wandering Jew, and might have 
 been supposed to treat of this also, on the 
 other hand, strangely enough, makes no men 
 tion of it. 
 
 The conclusions arrived at by Barwood were 
 these : 
 
 1. There was for hundreds of years a well- 
 defined belief in the continued existence and 
 active circulation of the thirty pieces of Judas. 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 215 
 
 2. They were supposed to be utilized as an 
 agency of the divine judgment, to be a potent 
 factor of evil, and leave ruin in their track. 
 
 3. The tradition gradually disappeared, and 
 is not traced in the literature of modern times. 
 
 Here was a useful occupation indeed for a 
 young American Treasury clerk. It would have 
 been interesting to have General Hedge s opin 
 ion upon it, for instance. But that functionary 
 was too busy with confidential transactions with 
 his brother-in-law, Richard Roe, a claim agent 
 practicing before the bureau, and wittf schemes 
 of addition, division, and silence with Congress 
 man Doublegame, to attend to matters even 
 more worthy of his attention than this. 
 
 Barwood did not stop here. Now that his 
 belief was put in tangible shape, he felt im 
 pelled onward towards some verification of it. 
 He examined minutely every coin collection in 
 Washington, and, as he could, made journeys 
 also to see those in several of the greater cities. 
 Very seldom did he anywhere find a specimen 
 of Jewish money, since Jewish coins are rare. 
 
 "The Jews, as he noted in one of his memo 
 randum books, had no coinage of their own until 
 the time of Maccabeus. Simon Maccabeus, by 
 virtue of a decree of Antiochus (1 Mace. xv. 6) 
 issued a shekel and also a half-shekel. These, 
 with the exception of some brass coins of the 
 
216 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 Herods, Archelaus, and Agrippa, and a doubt 
 ful piece attributed to Bar Cochba, the leader 
 in the last rising against the Romans, are the 
 only coins of Judea extant." 
 
 He now began to be affected by a nervous 
 dread brought on, no doubt, by his too close 
 study and preoccupation with this subject. As 
 he alone had felt this strange interest and pros 
 ecuted the strange inquiry, might it not be that 
 he was being drawn in some mysterious way 
 within the influence of the fatal money ? Per 
 haps he himself was to be involved in its re 
 lentless course. He imagined at times that he 
 felt a peculiar influence at the touch of certain 
 pieces, and shuddered at the thought that it 
 might then be near. He held this to be a 
 clairvoyant sense, that they had perhaps figured 
 in crimes at least. Contact with hands hot with 
 baleful passion had no doubt imparted to them 
 subtle properties, capable of being detected by 
 a sensitive organization like his own. 
 
 In such unusual study and speculation Bar- 
 wood passed the spring and summer of 1870. 
 Towards the middle of August occurred the 
 well-remembered flurry in Wall Street conse 
 quent upon the breaking out of the Franco- 
 Prussian war. Gold jumped up to one hundred 
 and twenty-three. Money commanded exorbi 
 tant rates, and the whole financial system was 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 217 
 
 disturbed. It was no more a question now of 
 specie payments. Even the small scattering of 
 silver was withdrawn again from circulation, 
 and did not reappear for many a long day. 
 
 The effect of these events upon Bar wood, al 
 though not immediate, was highly important. 
 With the disappearance of the specie, the daily 
 sight and handling of which had given his mor 
 bid conception a tangible support, its strength 
 began to decline. It was not forgotten, but 
 time drew it away from him little by little, and 
 threw hues of distance and strangeness over it. 
 At length he looked back upon it with a half 
 wonderment himself, and a new interest yet 
 more powerful arose to take its place. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE HOLBKOOK FARM. 
 
 The day had been sultry. Even after sunset 
 the atmosphere in the city was oppressive, and 
 pavements and railings were warm to the touch 
 from the steady blaze to which they had been 
 subjected. At the Holbrook farm, however, 
 occasional puffs of air stirred the silver poplars 
 skirting the road, and the brown timothy grass 
 growing knee-deep well up towards the veran 
 da, and gave a more refreshing temperature. 
 
218 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 Two idle negro urchins, Porto Rico and 
 Carter s boy, turning somersaults in the grass, 
 suddenly relinquished the fascinating sport to 
 rush and clamor for the privilege of holding 
 Barwood s horse. Porto Rico s longer legs and 
 greater force gave him the advantage. He 
 climbed into the vacated saddle almost before 
 Barwood was well out of it, and trotted off to 
 the stable, Carter s boy whooping and bobbing 
 his woolly head in pursuit. 
 
 " Never you mind," cried Carter s boy, " I 11 
 have the other gen l m n s." 
 
 " No other gen l m n ain t comin ," said Porto 
 Rico. " I done tole you, child, dey don t bofe 
 come de same day." 
 
 The Holbrook house, three miles from the 
 Capitol, of the white dome of which it com 
 mands a glimpse across an expanse of green 
 foliage, was a residence surviving from the 
 days of the slave-holders. Like other such 
 places it had been altered and improved upon. 
 It seemed to have been originally a one-and-a- 
 half-story stone dwelling, to which a later pro 
 prietor had added a high-peaked roof, dormer 
 windows, and ample piazzas. It stood half-way 
 up a pleasant slope, crowned by a thick grove. 
 A brook ran down the left hand of the en 
 trance road, and beyond this rose a steep little 
 bluff covered with scrub-oaks and chestnuts. 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 219 
 
 The attraction that drew people to Holbrook 
 farm was not so much the proprietor himself, 
 nor an elderly maiden sister, his housekeeper, 
 nor yet Carter, his farmer and general manager 
 who came with the rest from Richmond. It 
 was the engaging manners and amiable beauty 
 of Nina Holbrook, the daughter of the house. 
 The old gentleman was a partial paralytic, 
 whimsical, and not especially sociable. He was 
 known to have lived in princely style at Rich 
 mond. He was said to have met with contin 
 ual reverses, in the loss of property, sickness, 
 and the death of friends, and the farm had been 
 bought with the last remnants of a great fortune. 
 
 Barwood strode to the piazza, riding- whip in 
 hand. A young lady rose from her reading. 
 
 Blonde beauty is oftentimes slightly indefi 
 nite ; its edges are, as it were, too much softened 
 off into the background. But the figure before 
 Barwood was blonde, and yet fresh, distinct, 
 clear-cut, pre-Raphaelitish, to take a word 
 from painting. In all the details, from the 
 black ribbon binding her feathery hair to the 
 pretty buttoned boot, there was about her the 
 ineffable aroma of a pure, delicate taste. 
 
 To a man of Barwood s temperament the 
 matter of falling in love was not too facile. 
 He analyzed the tender passion,. put it under a 
 lens, asked it too many questions, and chilled 
 and repelled it. 
 
220 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 Nevertheless, after two years of an intimate 
 association, he had discerned in Nina Holbrook 
 a frankness and loveliness of character com 
 mensurate with her personal graces, and had 
 arrived at no less a condition than falling in 
 love. First, he believed that her permanent 
 influence upon his character could cure his 
 moodiness and unpractical tendencies, and 
 enable him to exert his fullest powers. Sec 
 ond, by making the supposition that anything 
 was to limit or break off their intercourse, he 
 found it had become indispensable to him. 
 
 Their acquaintance had begun in some of the 
 ordinary ways in which such young people meet. 
 It might have been at a tea-party, a Secretary s 
 reception, or an excursion by boat on the Poto 
 mac. They discovered that they had mutual 
 acquaintances. His evening rides began to be 
 directed through the pretty lanes that led to 
 Holbrook. She loaned him a book ; he brought 
 her confectionery ; they played piano duets to 
 gether. 
 
 On her side the feeling, from the beginning, 
 was very different. She admired Barwood for 
 fine traits, and was grateful to him for many 
 kindnesses. But certain peculiar moods of his 
 made her uncomfortable. His interest, also, 
 was too much occupied with books, speculations 
 about the anomalies and problems of life, and 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 221 
 
 similar serious matters. She found it sometimes 
 wearisome and difficult to follow him. She re 
 spected such things, of course, but she had not 
 as much head for them as he gave her credit 
 for. Her taste was of a more practical, com 
 monplace, and cheerful order. She was well 
 enough satisfied with people and things in their 
 ordinary aspects. 
 
 She got on much better with Mars Brown, 
 for instance. With him she exchanged gossip 
 on the affairs of her friends and his, discussed 
 the last party or the next wedding, and laughed 
 gayly at his drolleries. She confessed her own 
 stupidity and frivolity with a charming frank 
 ness, making no secret at all of it. 
 
 Barwood was conscious that he did not al 
 ways interest her, though she had never shown 
 him anything but the most ladylike attention. 
 He went away lamenting bitterly a destiny 
 that had fashioned his nature in so small and 
 unconformablc a groove. His happiness did not 
 consist in being with her, for then he was too 
 often oppressed by his uncomfortable conscious 
 ness. It was rather in retrospect, in the de 
 licious memory, when he had left her, of her 
 sweetly roseate face, the tones of her voice, the 
 shine of her hair. He gave her such small 
 gifts as he might within the bounds of pro 
 priety. It would have consisted with his no- 
 
222 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 tion of the fitness of things to have given her 
 everything and left himself a beggar. 
 
 Barwood rode to Holbrook to-day with a defi 
 nite purpose. Mars Brown, the " other gen l- 
 man " of Carter s boy, was devoting more atten 
 tion in this direction of late than the exigencies 
 of his boat and ball clubs, his shooting and 
 fishing, and the claims of the social world in 
 town would seem to warrant. Barwood did not 
 really fear him as a rival ; it was only the sug 
 gestion of a possibility. There might at any 
 time, too, be other rivals. He had determined 
 to forestall the danger, and tell her to-day of 
 his affection. 
 
 Yet Mars Brown was a dangerous rival, 
 though perhaps himself as little aware of it as 
 Barwood. He also had been impressed, upon 
 some casual meeting, by the animated beauty 
 of Nina Holbrook. Accustomed to success, he 
 had aimed at first to add one more to his list of 
 flirtations and conquests. The result had by 
 no means answered to his expectations. When 
 he approached sentiment Nina laughed at -him. 
 By degrees he had been piqued into serious 
 ness, and for the first time in his life approxi 
 mated, in his regard for her, a real esteem and 
 attachment. 
 
 Although Nina had laughed at first, she came, 
 later on, to sometimes blush at his voice or step, 
 
ONE OF THE THIPfTY PIECES. 223 
 
 or the touch of his hand ; and had his custom 
 ary shrewd vision not been disturbed by some 
 unusual influences at work within himself, he 
 might have seen earlier these indications of 
 favor. 
 
 He had the audacity that charms women, a 
 frank, open face, a hearty laugh, an entirely 
 healthy, cheery nature, an air of strength, too, 
 under all his frivolity ; and there was little 
 more that she could have desired. 
 
 Bar wood drew closer one of the comfortable 
 chairs at hand, and sat down by Nina. They 
 began to talk at first of the unusual heat, the 
 news of the day, and what each had been doing 
 since their last meeting. 
 
 The prospect before their eyes was very se 
 cluded and peaceful. Bar wood felt a soothing 
 influence from it pervade his troubled spirit. 
 
 " I am improving my mind, you see," said 
 Nina, lightly, holding up to him her book, one 
 of Motley s histories. " Even you can hardly 
 find fault with this." 
 
 " Am I in the habit of finding fault ? " he re 
 turned, gently. 
 
 " Oh no, I don t mean that, but you know so 
 much that you frighten one." 
 
 " Thank you." 
 
 He spoke with a grave smile, but was bleed 
 ing inwardly. 
 
224 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 " Why were you not at the Hoyts ? " asked 
 Nina, changing the subject. " I wish you had 
 been, if only to see Betty Goodwin. You used 
 to know her. It is but so short a time since 
 she was a little girl, and now she is out of 
 school and as old as anybody. You should have 
 seen the attention she received, and her perfect 
 self-possession. It makes one feel extremely 
 antiquated. Am I really getting very much 
 wrinkled?" 
 
 She posed herself before him in a sort of 
 quizzical way for inspection. Barwood gazed 
 with such an admiration at her face as almost 
 to forget to speak. She was to him the very 
 personification of youthful bloom and beauty. 
 Any notion of age and wrinkles in her regard 
 was simply inconceivable. 
 
 " Methuselah was n t a circumstance," he an 
 swered. 
 
 She dismissed this subject in its turn with a 
 little pout. 
 
 " I am so glad you have come early," she re 
 sumed, " I wish the others would imitate your 
 example." 
 
 "What others?" 
 
 "Mr. Hudson, the Hoyt boys, Mr. Brown, 
 Fanny Travers, Alice Robinson, and the rest. 
 You did not suppose you were to do them alone, 
 I hope." 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 225 
 
 " Do what alone ? I don t understand." 
 
 " The tableaux, Evangeline. Did you not 
 get my message ? " 
 
 " No, I have had no message. Am I to be 
 implicated in tableaux ? " 
 
 " Why, certainly. You are to be Evange- 
 line s father, you know. They are for the 
 benefit of the French wounded. I sent you a 
 note this morning, and this is our meeting to 
 arrange preliminaries." 
 
 Barwood saw that if he would not lose the 
 opportunity and postpone his purpose, no time 
 was to be lost. The other visitors might arrive 
 at any moment. 
 
 Rarely, perhaps, is the marriage proposal any 
 thing less than embarrassing, and Barwood was 
 too self-conscious to be greatly transported out 
 of himself, even when most ardent. 
 
 " I have something of the greatest moment 
 to say to you," he commenced. "I hardly know 
 how to begin." 
 
 " Only those things are well said which it 
 is difficult to say," she returned, sending him 
 back gayly a French mot, without suspicion of 
 what was coming. 
 
 She looked before her at the glowing even 
 ing sky, and so did Barwood. The crickets 
 and katydids had struck up their chirruping 
 notes and the tree-toads their long monotonous 
 
 15 
 
226 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 rhythm, while there came from the woods at in 
 tervals the sweet, sad note of the whippoorwill. 
 Fire-flies began to twinkle in the uncertain light. 
 
 " We have sometimes laughed together, you 
 and I, at sentiment," he continued, "voted it 
 an invention of the story-books ; but there are 
 times there is a sentiment which in 
 short, dear Nina, I have come to ask you to be 
 my wife. I love you very dearly." 
 
 44 Oh, Mr. Barwood," said Nina, looking 
 hastily towards him, with heightened color and 
 a tone of regret, " you must not say so. I can 
 not let you go on." 
 
 " I must go on," said he. " I have never 
 felt so strongly upon any subject as this. I 
 know I am not worthy of such happiness, yet 
 I cannot bear the thought of losing you. Con 
 sider our long friendship. You will be mine ? 
 Oh, say so, Nina ! " 
 
 In a panic of dread lest his petition was al 
 ready refused, he became almost incoherent. 
 
 Nina was a tender-hearted young lady, and 
 by this time in tears. His evident distress, and 
 her appreciation of the great compliment he 
 paid her, would have commanded from her al 
 most any return save the one he asked. But 
 the sacrifice was too great. She had not 
 thought it would ever be necessary to change 
 their relation of friendship. 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 227 
 
 " I am very sorry to have to say what is 
 painful to you," said she, with a sob only half 
 repressed. " I want you to be always my 
 friend. I shall be very unhappy on account of 
 this, but I cannot you will find some other 
 you" 
 
 " Do not speak further," he interrupted, im 
 petuously. " You have not yet said the fatal 
 word. Reserve it. Take time and consider. 
 Let me still hope ! " 
 
 " No," she began, I ought not " but 
 wheels and merry voices were heard close at 
 hand. " Oh ! they must not see me like this," 
 she broke off, and hurried away for a brief 
 space to cover her agitation. 
 
 In a moment more, the Robinsons carriage 
 was at the steps. When Nina came down, with 
 a sweet, restored composure, there was a jolly 
 party of ten or twelve in the drawing-room. 
 Mars Brown was already amusing the rest with 
 his absurd posturings. 
 
 " I shall be Evangeline," said he, wrapping 
 a lady s shawl about him and sitting on an arm 
 of the sofa in a collapsed attitude. " No, I 11 
 be Basil the blacksmith." He made a pretense 
 of delivering tremendous muscular strokes, on 
 an imaginary anvil, with a tack-hammer that 
 happened in his way. 
 
 Everybody had his or her own notions of the 
 
228 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 appropriate and picturesque. A vast deal of 
 talking was required in arranging the various 
 scenes. 
 
 " Evangeline should manifest a celestial 
 brightness. I don t think you do it quite 
 right," said Alice Robinson to the candidate 
 for that place. " You should smile a little." 
 
 " Oh no, not at all ; she should have an ear 
 nest, far-off look," said another. 
 
 " Of course she should," contributed Mars 
 Brown, " something in this way." 
 
 And he rumpled his hair and contorted his 
 features into an expression of idiotic vacancy. 
 
 " If we only had a real artist to arrange 
 them ! " sighed Nina. " What would I not give 
 for my old McNab, who was so good at such 
 things ! " 
 
 44 You know McNab, too ? " exclaimed Bar- 
 wood in surprise. " Could it by any chance be 
 the picture-restorer ? " 
 
 " He was my drawing-teacher at Richmond 
 for years," she replied. 
 
 " What a small world, to be sure ! " said Bar- 
 wood, giving vent once more to a favorite re 
 flection of his. The mention of McNab brought 
 back for a brief moment the remembrance of 
 their last meeting, its subjects of conversation, 
 and the strange pursuit into which it had led 
 him. 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 229 
 
 The signing of the marriage contract was 
 selected, among others, by. the amateurs as a 
 fitting subject for illustration. 
 
 " We must have a table," said Miss Travers. 
 " At one side sits the notary, lifting his pen 
 from the document to which he has just affixed 
 his name. At the other her father pushes to 
 wards the notary a roll of money in payment." 
 
 " Here you are," said one George Hudson, 
 taking his place and assuming the appropriate 
 attitude ; " here s your notary ; bring on your 
 old gentleman and his money." 
 
 " A roll of copper cents would be just the 
 thing," said Miss Travers. " They look an 
 tique enough." 
 
 " Will some gentleman deposit with the 
 treasurer a roll of antique copper cents," said 
 Brown, passing a hat. " No gentleman de 
 posits a roll of copper cents. Very well, then 
 the wedding can t go on." 
 
 " Do you think I 11 sign marriage contracts 
 for copper ? " said Hudson., " No indeed ; I m 
 not that kind of a notary." 
 
 " I will bring down some of papa s coins, 
 then," said Nina. " He is very particular, but 
 I don t believe he will mind just for once." 
 
 She returned in a moment with a dozen or 
 more, from a collector s cabinet, most of them 
 silver pieces, and placed them on the table. 
 
230 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 Barwood, standing by, took them up and began 
 to examine them listlessly. 
 
 " I did not know your father was a numis 
 matist," said he. 
 
 " He once had a great taste in that way," 
 said Nina, " but his collection now is broken 
 up ; when we left Richmond most of it was 
 sold off, and he retained only a few of the 
 choicest pieces, which he keeps with much care 
 in his room. I don t know much about such 
 things. This is considered among the most 
 peculiar, I believe." She selected one from 
 among the rest, in a friendly, explanatory way. 
 " It was taken out of a wreck on the California 
 coast. It was the last that papa bought before 
 his failure. I think it is Russian or Arabic 
 no, let me see " 
 
 She was studying it abstractedly, when Bar- 
 wood took it from her. Scarcely had he re 
 ceived it into his hand when he uttered a loud, 
 frightened exclamation and fell back into a 
 chair, pale, trembling, almost fainting. 
 
 The coin was a Jewish shekel, with the pot of 
 manna and the flowering rod of Aaron, the high 
 priest, and upon one side was stamped or cut 
 the mark of a cross. 
 
 He pleaded a sudden illness, and rode home 
 ward in a state of indescribable agitation. 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 231 
 
 V. 
 
 YOUNG FOETINBEAS. 
 
 Barwood s strange and almost forgotten con 
 ception was thus at length most strikingly re 
 vived. He would now have overthrown, if he 
 could, the structure which he had so carefully 
 elaborated. He reviewed, step by step, all the 
 details of his former study, but no argument 
 availed to set it aside in the face of the ex 
 traordinary realization it had received. One 
 of the thirty pieces was found, the account of 
 the early father verified. 
 
 That the fatal piece should appear in the 
 hands of the people whom of all others he most 
 esteemed, and with whom his own fortunes 
 were the most intimately bound up, was al 
 most beyond belief. This, then, was the clew 
 to the catalogue of Holbrook s misfortunes also. 
 What could that old man have been, to be so 
 signally marked out for vengeance ? But the 
 question of vital interest now was whether any 
 thing could be done to save the family so dear 
 to him from the ruin to be dreaded as certainly 
 impending over them. 
 
 With the recovery of some calmness, he felt 
 that his first duty was to remove the coin from 
 
232 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 their possession. How was it to be done ? He 
 could not disclose to them his acquaintance 
 with its baleful properties. It would be set 
 down as the vagary of a disordered brain, and 
 would not be entertained for an instant. His 
 object must be accomplished, if at all, by 
 stealth. 
 
 Nearly a week had elapsed, after the evening 
 when so great and distracting emotions had 
 crowded into his life, before he next rode to 
 the farm. He could not in a lesser period re 
 duce his feelings to even moderate control. He 
 aroused himself to an unusual degree of cheer 
 fulness, with the double object of removing 
 any disagreeable impression attendant upon the 
 manner of his departure, and as a means of for 
 warding his purpose. The subject uppermost 
 in the thoughts of both was at first carefully 
 avoided. 
 
 " Those coins you had the other evening, 
 Miss Nina, rather interested me," said Bar- 
 wood, carelessly. " Would you mind letting 
 me see them again ? " 
 
 "I should be glad to do so," she returned, 
 "but my father has locked them up for the 
 present, and gone away on a journey which 
 will keep him a fortnight, taking the key of his 
 cabinet with him. I know he will show them 
 to you himself with pleasure when he comes 
 back." 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 233 
 
 Disappointed in this, there seemed to be no 
 other immediate resource, and Barwood re 
 verted to the subject of his love. If she would 
 but consent to be his, he might disclose the 
 danger, and they could plan together to avert 
 it. He told her that he had been awaiting her 
 decision, with sleepless anxiety, and appealed 
 to her once more with all the ardor at his com 
 mand. As he finished he took one of her soft 
 white hands into his. 
 
 She did not withdraw it, but yet went on to 
 tell him with great calmness and dignity that 
 the consummation he desired could never be. 
 She hoped that their friendship might always 
 continue, but as for any closer relationship, she 
 could not enter into it. It would be unjust to 
 him without the genuine affection which the 
 situation demanded, and which she felt that she 
 had not to give. 
 
 Her suitor went away very much broken 
 down. He said that his life had become a 
 burden to him ; he had no longer a use for it. 
 The next day he came again and acted most 
 strangely. He mingled appeals for her hand 
 with wild talk about her father s coins, in such 
 a way as to almost frighten her. 
 
 The few succeeding days made a striking 
 change in the appearance of Barwood. He 
 became pale, haggard, and wasted, and seemed 
 
234 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 to have lost his capacity for work or any fixed 
 attention. He sat at his desk staring help 
 lessly at his papers, for hours at a time. The 
 General by chance observed it, and being with 
 all his faults a rather good-hearted person, 
 thought he was sick, and told him to go home 
 and take care of himself. Barwood did so, and 
 there delivered himself wholly to his torment 
 ing reflections. He was indeed drawn within 
 the influence of the fatal coin. It was towards 
 him that its full malignity was directed. He 
 believed his doom was approaching, as in 
 deed it was. He gazed at his altered face in 
 a mirror, and, pitying himself almost as if he 
 were another, pitying the fate to which he had 
 come, he, who had once expected so much, 
 cried aloud, with tears streaming down his 
 cheeks : 
 
 " Poor Henry Barwood ! poor Henry Bar- 
 wood ! " 
 
 Sympathy need rarely be enlisted on the side 
 of the unsuccessful lover. It goes out naturally 
 enough to one who seems defrauded of a happi 
 ness that should have been his. But what is 
 the right of the case, dear friends ? Because 
 Chloe s face is fair, her ways winsome, her form 
 of a distracting, youthful symmetry, and her 
 hair has a golden shine, does that establish 
 a tangible claim upon her in favor of all who 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 235 
 
 recognize these very evident facts ? No ! sym 
 pathy is very well, but the blame cannot be cast 
 upon Chloe every time that Daphnis chooses to 
 go off in dudgeon to the South Sea Islands, or 
 perchance to the insurrection in Cuba, or make 
 a good-for-nothing sot of himself. It is one of 
 those ill-adjustments of which there are not a 
 few in life, the endurance of which is no doubt 
 of service in some direction not yet fully under 
 stood. 
 
 Upon the heels of all the rest now came a 
 message from Holbrook farm to this effect : 
 
 " My father has just returned, but we are off 
 again immediately. It is more than possible 
 that we shall take up our permanent residence 
 at Richmond again. We start on Monday. 
 Shall we not see you before we go? If not, 
 believe me always, 
 
 " Faithfully your friend, 
 
 " NINA HOLBROOK." 
 
 The distracted young man mounted his horse 
 at once. He did not know exactly what he was 
 going to do or say. His ideas were in a hope 
 less whirl of confusion, and there was a numb 
 ness over all his sensations. He gave himself 
 up to a blind destiny. 
 
 He found Nina sitting under the shade of a 
 large old apple-tree, half way down the lawn, 
 
236 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 near a little plateau serving as a croquet 
 ground. He tied his horse to the fence with 
 out, much to the disappointment of the two 
 rollicking negro urchins, and walked up. Nina 
 was holding in her lap a tray of coins, and 
 was brightening the contents with a piece of 
 chamois leather. She assumed, on his appear 
 ance, a sprightliness not quite natural to her, 
 and evidently designed to obviate the awkward 
 ness of their peculiar relations. 
 
 " We have had an accident," she hurriedly 
 said. " One of the chimneys fell last night, 
 and shook down the plastering in papa s room. 
 The glass in his cabinet of coins was broken, 
 and the rain came in so that, this morning, it 
 was in but a sorry condition. I am repairing 
 damages." 
 
 "Ah, I see," her visitor commented, gloom- 
 
 Hy- 
 
 "If I were superstitious," she went on, in 
 the same hasty, nervous way, " I should fear of 
 late that something were going to happen. I 
 have spilled salt, crossed funerals, and made 
 one of a party of thirteen at dinner." 
 
 Ah, if she but knew, indeed, the tragic por 
 tent so near to her ! Barwood was in no mood 
 for flippancy. He assumed a dozen different 
 positions in a brief space of time. He sat first 
 in a camp-chair beside her, then hurriedly 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 237 
 
 paced up and down, then prostrated himself, 
 as if carelessly, upon the grass. The old, use 
 less argument on his part was gone through 
 with again. Nina told him plainly at last that 
 it annoyed her, and that he was very incon 
 siderate to continue a subject so displeasing to 
 her. 
 
 He got up upon this, and resumed his walk 
 ing. It could be seen that he twisted and 
 clutched his hands, clasped together behind 
 him. As he came by her, at the fifth or sixth 
 turn, it happened that she had the ominous 
 Jewish shekel in her hand. He took it from 
 her with a certain calmness, and looked at it in 
 a curious way. 
 
 " Yes, it is indeed fatal money," he cried 
 suddenly, in a harsh, strident voice, " and I am 
 its latest victim ! " 
 
 He hurled the coin from him with great force. 
 It rose high in the air, skimmed towards the 
 woods, and fell into the brook, raising a little 
 twinkle on the water where it struck. 
 
 It was a very slight incident. No magic 
 hand, such a hand as held up the enchanted 
 sword Excalibar, arose from the waves to re 
 ceive the coin. The beauty of the August day, 
 the peace of the simple, home-like American 
 landscape, were not marred. 
 
 A storm of the night before had swollen the 
 
238 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 brook, and it ran, tumbling and yellow, on the 
 way to its junction with the Potomac, making 
 little of this trifling addition to its burdens. 
 
 Nina Holbrook made him no reproaches. 
 She knew that her father would consider the 
 loss irreparable, yet she found no words in 
 which to characterize this extraordinary rude 
 ness and spoliation. 
 
 After a turn or two more of his walk Bar- 
 wood again paused close beside her. 
 
 " For the last time, I ask you," said he; "I 
 have urged everything and can say no more." 
 
 Nina did not reply. 
 
 " Is it all of no use ? " 
 
 Still she did not reply. Her eyes were low 
 ered upon her work. 
 
 " Is that your answer ? " he persisted. 
 
 "Yes, that is my answer," she said, impa 
 tiently, gazing up at him. " I am engaged to 
 Mars Brown." 
 
 He went forward a little distance, and stood, 
 in a tottering way. The girl saw him draw 
 forth a little revolver, one he carried sometimes 
 when riding late in the evening, and hold it to 
 his temple. He seemed to deliberate one ter 
 rible moment while she sat spell-bound as if 
 by a nightmare. Then he fired. 
 
 She tried to reach his lifeless body, but fell 
 fainting on the way. 
 
ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 239 
 
 Mars Brown, riding also to Holbrook as it 
 happened, was at the time within sound, and 
 almost sight, of the shot. 
 
 Upon the closing scenes of Hamlet, where 
 the characters, after their period of stormy con 
 flict and exquisite anguish, lie strewn in vio 
 lent deaths, arrives, at the head of his marching 
 army, the young Norway Conqueror Fortinbras. 
 Tall, sturdy, in his chain-mail, the impersona 
 tion of rugged life and success, he enters, and 
 leans upon his sword above the pitiable spec 
 tacle. 
 
 So, too, the brilliant Mars Brown, elegant in 
 figure, well-dressed, joyous, lightly cynical in 
 his thoughts, came half whistling up the path, 
 cutting off the clover-tops with his stick. He 
 was in a most excellent humor. The sights and 
 sounds of rural life of which he was not, in 
 general, too fond the pleasing prospect, the 
 aromas, the dancing butterflies, appealed to him 
 to-day with an attraction they had rarely exer 
 cised before. 
 
 " Egad ! this is n t so bad, you know," he 
 said within himself. 
 
 The next moment he reached the large, old 
 apple-tree, and stood beside the two inanimate 
 bodies. 
 
 Thus we have traced here, in detail, the sue- 
 
240 ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. 
 
 cessive steps of a somewhat remarkable history. 
 The Washington dispatch of a New York paper 
 summarized it much more briefly, the morning 
 
 after the calamity, as follows : 
 
 " Henry Barwood, a young clerk employed 
 in the Bureau of Ethereal Claims of the Treas 
 ury Department, came to his death yesterday, 
 by the discharge of a pistol in his own hands. 
 The shooting was at first said to have been ac 
 cidental, but later developments show that he 
 had been ill and depressed for some time, and 
 that he was given to eccentricities, which make 
 the theory of insanity, taking the form of sui 
 cidal mania, much more probable." 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 MclNTYEE was a rough-and-ready young 
 fisherman of the Maine coast, rough, but 
 after all meaning no great harm, who intro 
 duced to his home on Little Box Island the 
 first sample it had ever seen of a " false face." 
 
 The object thus termed was one of the or 
 dinary grotesque masks of the carnival time, 
 such as it is in American cities. It had a pro 
 digious, rubicund nose, goggling eyes, and a 
 very highly-colored complexion in general. The 
 false face enjoyed for a short time after its 
 arrival a most distinguished success. Boister 
 ous guffaws issued from the single store on 
 the wharf that evening, and an unusual attend 
 ance was drawn to the always popular resort. 
 
 " Them things had n t ought to be allowed," 
 said one member of the company to the rest, 
 recovering but slowly from the fright that had 
 been put upon him with it as he first entered 
 the door. 
 
 16 
 
242 MclNTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 " What in time be they for ? " inquired a 
 younger member, with an ingenuous scientific 
 interest. 
 
 In reply a traveled associate explained to 
 him some of the goings-on he had once seen 
 with them at a German Easter ball in Boston. 
 
 Next, Mclntyre, desirous to extend the field 
 of his triumphs, slipped out with his false face 
 to slyly call at the abode of the Skeltons. 
 This Skelton boarded the quarry hands, when 
 there were any, for it was a quarry of much 
 less importance than that on Great Box Island, 
 and now and then shut down. His daughter 
 Lill was called the greatest feminine case " to 
 carry on " in the settlement. What with Lill 
 and the quarry hands, the fun at Skelton s was 
 certain to be fast and furious, and some of the 
 audience at the store followed discreetly behind 
 in order to witness it. 
 
 Mclntyre knocked at the door of a large 
 kitchen, used also as a sitting-room, and en 
 tered. He was surprised to find but a single 
 person present, and that the one of all his cir 
 cle of acquaintance whom he knew the least. 
 It was the quiet, delicate-looking, young new 
 wife of Amos Cooley. She sat in a chair ex 
 pectantly, a shawl drawn over her head, and a 
 tin pail in her hand, having come over on an 
 errand for milk. Amos had married his wife 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 243 
 
 from an island of the archipelago still smaller 
 than Little Box, and inhabited by but one other 
 family besides her own. 
 
 She started np on the entry of Mclntyre in 
 his hideous false face, gasped, as at sight of 
 something incredible, put her hand to her side, 
 screamed horribly, and fell to the floor in vio 
 lent convulsions, all before the jester had a 
 chance to snatch off the absurd imposition and 
 reassure her. 
 
 She was out of her mind for a month, and 
 within two years she died, never having re 
 covered from the shock. 
 
 Amos Cooley, her husband, who later took to 
 drink and did not long survive her, in the first 
 fury of his rage, rushed in search of Mclntyre 
 and struck at him with an axe. 
 
 " I did n t go to do it, Amos ! " cried the 
 luckless masquerader deprecatingly, but without 
 the least avail. 
 
 Only the interposition of friends, who hur 
 ried him at once into a boat and off to the main 
 land, saved him from instant destruction. Later, 
 Amos even took his gun and hunted him there, 
 and was so unrelenting in his hate that Mcln 
 tyre finally went " out South," as it was said, 
 where he was supposed to have permanently 
 settled. 
 
 This is the whole of his personal connection 
 
244 McIN TYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 with these adventures, but the grimace of his 
 trumpery mask went on, by a strange fate, 
 smiling a fixed and baleful influence down into 
 the lives of later generations. 
 
 II. 
 
 Amos Cooley s wife left behind her two in 
 fant sons. The first was born not long after 
 her fright, the second a year later. These chil 
 dren were called respectively Albon and Al- 
 rick, in deference to a taste for the ornate and 
 novel prevailing in the locality where were 
 also found, for instance, a Uno and Una, a 
 Coello and Coella, a Martecia, a Violena, and a 
 Leonorena. 
 
 Albon, the elder, proved to be a hopeless im 
 becile. Nothing, on the other hand, was ad 
 duced against Alrick but a sullenness of tem 
 per, which grew upon him, and might have 
 been justified perhaps by many mortifications 
 he endured on his brother s account, and his 
 general situation. Albon, the idiot, became a 
 standing resource for the amusement of the 
 island in every idle hour. He grew up large, 
 spare, and loose-jointed, and ran about in a 
 shambling way, with his head down. He had 
 little or no forehead, but his appetite was tre 
 mendous. 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 245 
 
 Sometimes lie would turn upon a persecutor 
 and cry, " You clog, you ! " likening him pa 
 thetically to that which he himself, perhaps, 
 most resembled. 
 
 The two were grudgingly maintained by an 
 uncle, on their father s side, till the elder was 
 towards his twelfth year. It was said that this 
 uncle made Albon sleep in the cellar and beat 
 Alrick cruelly for slight cause. He made legal 
 affidavit, finally, that he was unable any longer 
 to continue this benevolent support, and threw 
 them upon the cold charity of the public. 
 
 A peculiar problem was now mooted. Little 
 Box Island, under the laws of the sovereign 
 state of which it formed a part, was organized 
 (as a community having insufficient inhabi 
 tants to be a township) under the primitive form 
 of government of a plantation. There was no 
 copy of the revised statutes on the island, and 
 no case of pauperism had before arisen ; but 
 it was the opinion of the most eminent jurists 
 assembled in Maxon s store that a plantation 
 makes its own roads and schools its own chil 
 dren, but if it has any paupers to be taken 
 care of it sends them to the nearest town. 
 
 The constable of the island, therefore, con 
 veyed Albon and Alrick to the nearest town, 
 which was Great Box Island, about the same 
 distance out to sea as itself, and twelve miles 
 
246 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 to the eastward, and there happily got rid of 
 them. 
 
 But in less than a week, when the govern 
 ment of Little Box Island was in session, the 
 constable of Great Box Island strode into their 
 midst, carrying Albon and Alrick by the collars 
 of their jackets, one in each hand, and set them 
 down on the floor with a thump. 
 
 " Here they be, and don t you forget it," he 
 said. " You can t send em over our way no 
 more. We ve got enough of our own to tend 
 to. Ef I d a ben down to the poor-farm to 
 Baker s Neck, the day they come, they would n t 
 a ben left there, you bet. Where paupers is 
 born and brung up is where it belongs fur em 
 to be took care of. We don t bundle none of 
 ourn over to you, and expect you to shell out 
 for their grub." 
 
 The magnates of Little Box, in consterna 
 tion, reiterated their theory of the legal aspects 
 of the case. The constable of Great Box was 
 severely caustic. 
 
 "That don t hardly jibe," he said; "that 
 won t wash. Go to law about it, if you want 
 to ! Go on ! take it up to the Supreme Court 
 at Wash nton or to the High Jint Commishin 
 at Genevy, for what we care. Mebbe it 11 
 cost ye as much fore you re through with it s 
 though ye d tended to the young uns at home." 
 
McINTYRPS FALSE FACE. 247 
 
 The Little Box magistrates appeared im 
 pressed by this consideration, and were upon 
 the point of making some new provision for the 
 infants, when one half of their embarrassment 
 was suddenly removed. A fanner of Great Box 
 Island, one Bowker, happening to be present, 
 declared that he wanted a boy, and would take 
 Alrick away with him. 
 
 " I have got a house full of girls," he ex 
 plained, " and there ought to be some boy round 
 somewheres. 
 
 " You could go along o me and tend sheep, 
 and do chores, and go to school some between 
 times, could n t ye, think ? " he said, address 
 ing the protege. 
 
 Alrick directed at him a furtive look out of 
 his bright, small eyes, in which there was a 
 touch of obliquity at moments of agitation, and 
 gave in reply a nod of his mop-like head, but 
 did not speak. 
 
 A small sum was, upon this, voted for Albon, 
 who, for his part, went back to the guardian 
 ship of his relative, and, sustained somehow by 
 his wonderful appetite, slept regularly in his 
 cellar as before for many a long year there 
 after. 
 
 Alrick crossed over by sea with his new pat 
 ron, and came to a large old farm-house, weath 
 er-beaten but comfortable, which combined with 
 
248 MdNTYEE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 numerous out-buildings to make up a pleasing 
 mass. He slept here, in the attic, on a cot, 
 spread with the horse-blankets and a patch 
 work calico quilt. About him were bags of 
 meal and seed corn, festoons of dried apples, an 
 old horse-hair trunk, the best harness and whip, 
 used only on state occasions, and the farmer s 
 boots and oil-skin suit for rainy weather. For 
 the first time in his life he was well-fed, warm, 
 and contented. He did not mind the scamper 
 ing mice. He liked the bar of sunlight that 
 came into the dusky place, and traced the 
 squares of the window on the floor. 
 
 On summer mornings he was awakened by 
 the scratching of the branches of a tree against 
 the panes, and the cackle of the barn-yard 
 fowls. In the spring he smelled the fragrance 
 of lilacs and cherry blossoms, pure and sweet 
 with dew. Processions of white schooners pa 
 raded along the blue belt of sea plainly in sight 
 before him. He followed the cows to pasture, 
 stopping with them as they munched lazily a 
 mouthful of toothsome grass here and there on 
 the way. He turned the crank of the churn, 
 brought in fire-wood, gee-hawed the oxen, fol 
 lowed the mowers with his rake, topped tur 
 nips, lent the farmer a hand at putting up a 
 new length of fence or mending a stone wall. 
 Between times he got such schooling . for 
 
McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 249 
 
 which in truth he showed no great inclination 
 as was possible under the circumstances. 
 
 He was often perverse and sullen in the be 
 ginning. The farmer s wife had to keep a stick 
 for him in the fire-place " to break his temper 
 with," as she said. 
 
 " We don t want no boys round here that 
 won t mind," she told him. " Our boys allus 
 had to mind " (her boys were all dead or mar 
 ried off now), " and you will." 
 
 It was predicted by the neighbors that he 
 would run away as a former boy had done, 
 one " Fred," who had gone from Bowker s, tak 
 ing stolen property with him, and joined a cir 
 cus. Why should not this one follow suit ? 
 
 But Alrick did not run away. On the con 
 trary he came, through humane treatment, to 
 seem an entirely tractable and reliable person. 
 He was a playmate of the children and a mem 
 ber of the family on equal terms. He played 
 with the daughters of the house, with Marietta, 
 Caroline, and Idella, the youngest, whom he 
 came particularly to like. Up to fifteen he was 
 of a slender build, swift and agile of movement, 
 but in the hobbledehoy period he grew stocky 
 and took a rustic heaviness which remained 
 with him, though he was at no time a bad- 
 looking fellow. 
 
250 McINTYftE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 III. 
 
 The quarry on Great Box Island, once pros 
 perous, had " failed up," as the islanders said, 
 owing its employees, store-keepers, and others. 
 It came, through a legal claim, into the hands 
 of a large building firm of New York. Pend 
 ing the settlement of some complication about 
 the title, the firm sent a young man, a nephew 
 of its senior partner, to keep a general eye out, 
 and see that none of the movable property was 
 disturbed. 
 
 The young man, Francis Fosdick by name, 
 found, on his arrival, a straggling hamlet of 
 poor wooden houses, catching such a foothold 
 as it could on a hillside of granite bowlders. 
 There were no noticeable trees. Its midsum 
 mer aspect was almost as dreary as that of mid 
 winter elsewhere. His quarry was on the hill 
 to the right. Rust-colored water stood deep in 
 its pits. The blocks taken from them, some 
 for sills and doorsteps, others to roar as Bel 
 gian pavement under the traffic of a great city, 
 lay forlornly about. Here was a broken der 
 rick ; there a great pair of rusted wheels ; again 
 a forge, with scraps of iron and mildewed 
 leather ; by it a tool-house, and again a powder- 
 house, with padlocked doors and a portentous 
 air of mystery. 
 
McINTYRPS FALSE FACE. 251 
 
 " Kinder dull, like, around," said a denizen 
 of the place, picking his way past, as the new 
 comer sat meditating near his charge. 
 
 Fosdick admitted that it was dull, and listened 
 to the denizen s account of what it used to be, 
 how there had been more than fifty fellers 
 at work ; how they used to be down to the 
 wharf every night, holding calico parties and 
 other festivities, in the hall. 
 
 The denizen passed on, and he continued his 
 meditations. The gist of them was that such 
 a banishment seemed rather hard lines for a 
 person of his age, twenty-four, a club man, who 
 had attained to a dog-cart, and confidently as- 
 pired to a four-in-hand. Ah, if the issue of his 
 great speculation in the stock of C. Q. & K. 
 had been different ! But then he recalled to 
 himself that he had made the C. Q. & K. ven 
 ture. He had been lured into it by the wiles 
 of one in whose employ he was to have learned 
 the business of banking and brokerage, and had 
 lost all his own patrimony, together with a good 
 part of the substance of a confiding aunt whom 
 he in his turn had innocently inveigled. It 
 had been decidedly harder lines recently when 
 he was without any occupation, brow-beaten on 
 all sides, and humbly doubting whether he 
 should ever make a figure in the world at all. 
 The facing of the disagreeable, he had been 
 
252 McINTYRFS FALSE FACE. 
 
 informed, was one of the first conditions of 
 success. The prospect here was surely disa 
 greeable enough to abound with hope, even 
 though it might not endure more than a couple 
 of months. He set himself, therefore, to face 
 his new situation resolutely. He read some of 
 the books he had brought with him, cultivated 
 the acquaintance of the fishermen and store 
 keepers, and sometimes took a dory and went 
 out to the stretch of water called the Reach, to 
 fish. There was one of the storekeepers who 
 was in the habit of scrawling rude diagrams of 
 yachts and the like on sheets of brown wrap 
 ping paper, and ornamenting his walls with 
 them. 
 
 Fosdick complimented him as (in a style of 
 phraseology at the date) an excellent "dravv- 
 ist." 
 
 44 Sho ! " returned the drawist, with affected 
 modesty. " I draw em off jess s they come. 
 I never learned no rules." 
 
 The young daughter of the house where he 
 took up his quarters, dressed up, in the evening, 
 after her day s work, and played upon the me- 
 lodeon ; but Fosdick found in her a common- 
 placeness of view, a lack of imagination and 
 liveliness, which made her but a slight resource 
 for his entertainment. 
 
 He took to exploring the island, and thought 
 
McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 253 
 
 the outlook in its interior far pleasanter than 
 that at the landing. He recalled the fag-ends 
 of some stray botany and geology, and tried to 
 develop bucolic tastes. 
 
 On a certain first day of August he came, in 
 the neighborhood of the south shore, where the 
 view of the ocean was broad and the bluffs high 
 and crested at intervals with dense small groves 
 of spruce, fir, and cedars, to a large wooden 
 farmhouse with numerous out-buildings as gray 
 as the granite bowlders in the surrounding sheep 
 pastures. 
 
 " It s the kind of thing you read about," said 
 Fosdick to himself, quite impressed at the sight. 
 
 Desirous to view it nearer at hand, he went 
 to an open door from which feminine faces were 
 peering at him, and made the conventional re 
 quest for a glass of milk. An elderly woman 
 in a faded red and black delaine wrapper, one 
 end of a coil of rusty hair falling down her 
 neck, was engaged within, together with a pale 
 young girl, in domestic duties. 
 
 " Fears to be a close day for traveling said 
 the old woman. " Walk into the settin -room 
 and set down. Marietta 11 fetch you the milk 
 there." 
 
 The kitchen with an immense fire-place, and 
 a great wheel for spinning wool set out for use 
 in the sitting-room, were sufficiently in keeping 
 with the interesting exterior. 
 
254 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 " But is n t there in the whole country," 
 mused the visitor, impatiently, as he sipped his 
 milk in the presence of the pale Marietta, " a 
 person of the feminine sex worth looking at a 
 second time ? " 
 
 In the very instant of this criticism a door 
 opened, admitting another young girl, who en 
 tered saunteringly, and sat down in a small 
 wooden rocking-chair, assuming an .indifferent 
 air, as though the fact of a stranger s being 
 there had nothing whatever to do with her 
 coming. Fosdick felt his question at once and 
 charmingly answered. The sterile region did 
 not produce much that was attractive, he de 
 cided, but when it did, it made a complete job 
 of it. There was in her a certain half Puri 
 tan, half worldly daintiness or elegance of ef 
 fect, which gave a decided piquancy. She wore 
 the simplest of gingham frocks, a neat ruffle 
 ending its skirt. A row of smoked pearl but 
 tons which fastened it down the back, in young 
 girlish fashion, were not fully buttoned. Here 
 was a type justifying all that eulogists have 
 said of rustic comeliness. Her lightish hair 
 was cut square across her forehead. Her nose 
 turned in just the slightest degree upward. 
 The blue of her eyes was of an opaque kind, 
 and very distinctly visible across the room, so 
 that it connected itself with the blue of the sea 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 255 
 
 and the mountains of the mainland, showing 
 through the open doors. She folded her arms 
 across the breast of a very slender figure, and 
 rocked in her chair. The motion showed a 
 pair of neat small ankles, in slippers retained 
 in place by elastics over the instep. 
 
 Marietta addressed this person, who was her 
 sister, as Idella. 
 
 The young man, thus impressed by Miss 
 Idella, was of much better looks and manners 
 than the visitors that usually came to them, 
 and she on her side was wondering, through 
 her assumed indifference, who he might be. 
 He was certainly not a peddler, neither did he 
 sell lightning-rods, cabinet-organs, sewing-ma 
 chines, nor reapers. Nor with any more rea 
 son could he be taken for one of those plausi 
 ble sailor-men who try to sell at exorbitant 
 prices common silks and velvets, purporting to 
 have been smuggled. 
 
 Fosdick made as much conversation as possi 
 ble in order not to have to go away too soon. 
 He complimented the milk, and told them the 
 old story of the city lady who resented, in the 
 country, being served with milk with the cream 
 on it, on the score that it was a greasy yellow 
 scum. It was not old there, and was well re 
 ceived. The housewife also came in to listen. 
 
 " Which way was you from ? " she inquired, 
 
256 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 beginning to manifest an interest. He was not 
 loath to establish himself in their respect, and 
 so told them of his coming from New York and 
 his purpose in the island. The pretty one of 
 the two sisters, who had been offish at first, also 
 gave him more of her attention on learning 
 this. It took an aggressive manner, but this 
 was only a form of coquetry. 
 
 " I don t like New Yorkers," she said to him, 
 pertly. " You never can trust them." 
 
 " Perhaps it is due, in the cases you have 
 noticed, to association at some time with Great 
 Box Islanders," he returned. 
 
 " That s going a long ways for a reason." 
 
 Sudden, wild, laughing shrieks without in 
 terrupted at this point the exchange of repar 
 tee. 
 
 A third young girl, followed by a stout young 
 farm-hand, burst into the kitchen in a tumult; 
 but seeing the stranger they retreated through 
 opposite doors almost as precipitately as they 
 came. 
 
 " Ca line Bowker, what is the matter ? " 
 called her mother. 
 
 There was a sound of hasty ablutions in a 
 tin basin without. Then the pursued girl re 
 turned, breathless still, and with a furtive de 
 mure look at the visitor at the same time, from 
 a pair of nice dark eyes, explained, 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 257 
 
 " Alrick jumped out and chased me, just as 
 I was goin to blow the horn for supper, and he 
 rubbed blackberries in my face." 
 
 " He is the roughest boy. I guess I d make 
 him stop," said Idella. 
 
 The pursuer himself, somewhat later, hav 
 ing made a toilet by soddening his stiff hair 
 with water and bringing it up in a pair of wisps 
 forward of his ears came in and leaned a stal 
 wart shoulder against the door-jamb. 
 
 " Has the calves been fed, Alrick ? " inquired 
 Mrs. Bowker. 
 
 " Yes m. I give m all the feed there was. 
 That there chunky-built one is the fearfulest 
 eater, most, I ever see." 
 
 " Ca line, you come and see what there is to 
 make some more mash of for em," said Mrs. 
 Bowker. 
 
 " Ca-a line," mimicked Idella, with impatient 
 emphasis, under her breath, to the visitor. " I 
 wish she would call her Carrie or even Cad 
 but she won t." 
 
 "You re all right, though," ventured Fos- 
 dick whether it was his real opinion or not 
 is not relevant, " you have a very pretty 
 name." 
 
 " Do you think so ? Well, I don t like my 
 last one." 
 
 " Oh, you 11 get rid of that easily enough." 
 
 16 
 
258 MclNTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 " No, I guess not," she returned, with a dep 
 recating rising inflection. 
 
 But she gave him a grateful, approving glance 
 for the compliment. 
 
 Alrick, on the other hand, gave a person who 
 perpetrated novel and wishy-washy talk like 
 that a glance of a kind quite the reverse. 
 
 When Fosdick had gone away, he was the 
 subject of discussion at the supper-table. Al 
 rick leveled coarse sarcasms at him, represent 
 ing his ease and polish of manner, so unwonted 
 there, as foppery and a " putting on of frills." 
 But the girls defended him, particularly Idella, 
 who found herself at one time so considerably 
 in advanse of the rest in his praise that she 
 came to an abrupt halt. 
 
 "Look at Dell blush ! " cried Etta. 
 " Shut up ! " Idella returned. " I guess I 
 ain t blushing." 
 
 But she blushed now if not before. 
 Fosdick carried a pleasing image in his mind 
 that day, pursuing his way back through the 
 woodland and over the long stretch of road 
 lying between it and his forlorn quarries. In 
 the general dreariness, any touch of grace in 
 his surroundings took an extreme value, and 
 perhaps he exaggerated that which he had just 
 found. It was not formal beauty, but only 
 piquant comeliness of a purely Yankee sort. 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 259 
 
 It coincided with a notion of his of something 
 daintily, ideally French, entertained before he 
 had made the European tour. 
 
 The other sisters too, though rustic more 
 after the common order, were not uninterest 
 ing. Caroline was almost pretty, and Marietta 
 was of a certain activity of mind, reaching out 
 to a suggestion of something above her station. 
 He made the pretext of desiring to find a 
 vein of copper, said to exist somewhere in the 
 neighborhood, to stop soon at the farm-house 
 again. 
 
 " I want to know if they set store by that 
 yet," said Mrs. Bowker, stopping the movement 
 of her rolling-pin to gossip. " There ain t noth 
 ing to it but fools gold. My son from Cali- 
 forny told em so years ago, when he was on." 
 
 "Californy ! " said Marietta, giving her mother 
 an apologetic hug. 
 
 " Well, t is Californy, hain t it ; San Fran 
 cisco is ? " returned the old woman, hopeless of 
 improvement. 
 
 Idella donned her large straw hat, and went 
 as far as the gate with Fosdick, to give him the 
 bearings of the copper-mine. When there, he 
 praised the fine old farm-house and the scenery 
 round about. She was highly indifferent as to 
 the view. As to the house, she said incredu 
 lously : " Yes, it 11 look a little better when it 
 
260 McINTYR&S FALSE FACE. 
 
 gets some paint on it. Father is going to paint 
 it in the fall." 
 
 " Never let him touch it with a brush. You 
 will spoil it," protested the connoisseur warmly. 
 
 Idella took this for more banter, but it was 
 of a kind beyond her, and she kept silence. A 
 man of thirty or so, with a sandy beard, now 
 drove by in a wagon, and she exchanged salu 
 tations with him. 
 
 " It s the mail boy," she explained. " He s 
 always asking me to ride with him when he 
 passes along. He said to me the other day: 
 4 Here you re gittin to be a regular old maid, 
 Dell ; why don t you ever stir out anywheres ? 
 He s got two nice horses and a farm, I guess 
 I 11 go for him." 
 
 She laughed, and Fosdick thought it a very 
 musical sort of laugh. 
 
 " Oh, go for me," he appealed. 
 
 " Maybe I will," and she laughed again. 
 
 He had said that he would stop on his return 
 and let them know what he found at the mine. 
 Marietta and Caroline were still in calico then, 
 but Idella had put on more careful raiment. 
 This new dress, he saw it so often that he came 
 to know it, was a kind of plaited jacket and 
 skirt, in modest dark brown, with a simple 
 white collar. It seemed eminently adapted to 
 her circumstances, yet at the same time of a 
 
MclNTYRFSS FALSE FACE. 261 
 
 certain stamp of distinction. Hers, he thought, 
 was one of those cases of natural taste and deft 
 ness, the more to be valued when found amid 
 un propitious surroundings. 
 
 On his return home he turned the talk upon 
 these new acquaintances with the matter-of-fact 
 Miss Emeline, his landlord s daughter. It ap 
 peared that there was some sort of a feud be 
 tween herself and them. Her accounts of them 
 were not of the most favorable. 
 
 She considered them, among other things, 
 " stuck up." 
 
 " What about ? " 
 
 " That s more than I know, unless it is on ac 
 count of their visitin in Boston. They Ve got 
 a sister married there. Dell s been there most 
 o the time the past two years. She only comes 
 home for a kind of vacation in the summer." 
 
 Fosdick pursed his lips for a whistle. " Oh 
 ho ! " he began, " you mean to say, then " 
 But he continued, " And the brother, is he 
 stuck up too ? " 
 
 " There ain t no brother. Oh, you mean Al- 
 rick Cooley, I guess." 
 
 Then she gave a succinct history of the broth 
 ers Alrick and Albon, as heretofore related. 
 Alrick, Miss Emeline said, had left the Bow- 
 kers when he was twenty-one, and gone into 
 various occupations, sailing in vessels, work- 
 
262 McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 
 
 ing in the quarries, and so on ; but continually 
 turned up there again. She thought he was al 
 ways dangling after Idella. 
 
 " I thought it was the other one he seemed 
 to be fond of." 
 
 "No, it is Delia. My ! if I was as airified 
 as she sets up to be, I would n t have no such 
 poorhouse trash round me." 
 
 So then it was sophistication on her part, 
 and not a phenomenal rustic grace that had 
 charmed him. It was the married sister in the 
 city, the latest fashion plates, the emanations 
 from shop-windows and pavements of a metropo 
 lis, to the subtle influence of which he had 
 yielded. 
 
 That simple gingham frock had been artfully 
 planned; that belted jacket, as likely as not, 
 copied from Beacon Street. 
 
 IV. 
 
 These disclosures, however, by no means put 
 an end to the young quarry -superintendent s 
 need of distraction. He returned to the farm 
 house again and again. For the pleasure of be 
 ing with Idella he drew the farmer into long 
 narratives, to which when started he did not 
 always pay the closest attention. 
 
 " I had a step-mother, and was licked around 
 
MfflNTYRE S FALSE FACE. 263 
 
 from pillar to post, when I was a boy," the 
 sun-browned and baked old farmer, sitting in 
 his shirt-sleeves and waistcoat of faded check, 
 would say. " I run away from her when I was 
 ten, and never see home again till I was twenty- 
 one, and then I d been most all over the world 
 and was master of a vessel. I s pose I Ve 
 caught more fish than any other man in the 
 United States. I Ve sailed sixty odd trips in a 
 Grand Banker. I was nigh gettin into the 
 slave-trade once." 
 
 " How was that ? " inquired Fosdick absently, 
 taking a moment from his whisperings with 
 Idella. 
 
 "A man originally from these parts per 
 suaded me. He was one o the smartest of em 
 all. They sailed out o Salem then, yes, old 
 God-and-morality Massachusetts, that s it, 
 that s it. An old don in Cuby worth his mil 
 lions first got him into it. He made loads o 
 money, but it took most all of it after a while 
 to get pardoned so s he could come back here 
 and live. Sumner done it for him, when Andy 
 Johnson was president." 
 
 The farmer had sailed out of New Bedford 
 in a clipper ship half as long as from where he 
 sat to the school-house at the cross-roads. He 
 had been on Alexander Selkirk s island, on 
 Easter Island, and in New Holland, where the 
 
264 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 aborigines can track a deserter from a ship over 
 the naked rocks by no more than his scent 
 alone. 
 
 Fosdick could amplify a detail here and there 
 from his own reading. He may not have added 
 much to his general standing in the house in 
 this way, but he certainly did to the growing 
 jealousy of Alrick, who put in a remark, though 
 of little pertinence, now and then to show that 
 he was not to be wholly crowded out of the 
 talk. 
 
 " Well, we ain t had time to do much readin 
 here," said the mother of the family. " We ve 
 always had to work. What we know is mostly 
 what we Ve see. I was fraid the girls would 
 get in a kind of idlin , readin way down to 
 Boston, but I dunno s they have. Dell, you 
 don t read novils and such like when you re 
 down to Georgiana s do you ? " 
 
 " Why, do you s pose I would ? " returned 
 Idella, smiling slyly at Fosdick at the same 
 time. 
 
 " Land ! I dunno, I dunno ; there s goin s 
 on that s beyond me in these times." 
 
 Alrick had a confidante in the matter of his 
 regard for Idella Bowker. It was a certain 
 Mrs. Wixon, a sort of nurse and general utility 
 woman in the neighborhood. She read stray 
 copies of the weekly story-papers and kept 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 265 
 
 up an amiable sentimentalism rare in the prac 
 tical community of which she made a part. 
 She took almost the interest of a school-girl in 
 any matter of the affections. She was accus 
 tomed to encourage the young folk of the hum 
 bler sort to come to her cottage, and they held 
 many an evening s merry-making there. But 
 Alrick had got in the way of holding sober 
 conferences with her in quiet moments. In re 
 turn for his confidences she always predicted to 
 him the most hopeful things. He came now 
 in alarm to complain of the aggressive new in 
 timacy of Fosdick. 
 
 " I am as good as him, any day," he said, 
 indignantly, concluding his story. She agreed 
 with him in this ; assured him, indeed, that he 
 was much better. He was to keep cool, and 
 be certain that everything would come out all 
 right in due time. 
 
 " They re an empty, flighty set, these city 
 fellers," she said. " They don t really amount 
 to a row o pins. I know em well. You 11 
 see, this one will get tired and go off pretty 
 quick ; and besides, Dell 11 be sick of him even 
 fore that." 
 
 In the Bowker family " father " was held in 
 a wholesome respect, and his girls waited, to 
 carry out some of their most cherished plans, 
 till he was well down the road in his wagon, or 
 
266 McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 
 
 off to sea in his boat. With " mother," on the 
 other hand, a certain reliance could be placed 
 in coaxing and wheedling. One of their proj 
 ects, set for an afternoon when their father 
 should be securely out of the way, was a visit 
 to Baker s Neck. Now, at Baker s Neck, in a 
 rude cabin, lived an old couple, " half -Indian," 
 as it was said, and Mrs. Baker, the woman, told 
 fortunes by means of a tea-cup. 
 
 " Ask Em to come, too," they suggested to 
 Fosdick, but his landlord s daughter, with her 
 lack of imagination, declined. 
 
 " There ain t no Indian about em, as I know 
 of," she said. " They ve always lived that way, 
 cookin their vittles over a few sticks, and 
 shootin and fishiri round, because they d rather 
 do that than work. They ain t folks I should 
 much care to associate with. The town poor 
 are kept there, to their house, too, when there 
 are any. They get so much a week for takin 
 care of em. They used to have a woman pau 
 per down there with teeth as much s two inches 
 long. She s dead, though, by this time. I did 
 hear, the other day, that there was talk of put- 
 tin Albon Cooley there. Everybody on Little 
 Box Island is more than tired of him by this 
 time. Alrick hain t ever wanted him round 
 where he was. I don t know how they 11 man 
 age it." 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 267 
 
 Baker s Neck was best reached by boat, across 
 a narrow inlet, after passing over some wide 
 fields. The expedition was a merry one. Fos- 
 dick was considerate enough to keep Alrick in 
 a good humor by leaving Idella to him a part 
 of the way. He spoke, upon rejoining her, of 
 the possibility of their finding the unfortunate 
 Albon at the place. 
 
 " Oh, I do hope it is n t so," she replied. 
 " Alrick is so worried by him." 
 
 While they were in the boat, a fog or mist 
 of light consistency, almost dry, and held in 
 suspense in the sunshine like a silver powder, 
 drifted up to them, involved them, and as 
 quickly passed over. While enshrouded in it, 
 they splashed and spattered gaily to all points 
 of the compass, pretending to have lost their 
 way. On landing, Alrick scoffed contempt 
 uously at the fortune-telling nonsense, and, tak 
 ing a pail, strolled off to pick berries, while 
 they should be occupied with it. The rest of 
 the party were stationed by Delia on a high 
 bowlder, to wait while she should prepare Mrs. 
 Baker, who was often surly, and then followed 
 in response to a signal waved up to them by 
 her. 
 
 There were no paupers visible at the mo 
 ment, unless it were three tow-headed children, 
 who cowered against a side of the cabin and 
 
268 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 drew the open door back upon them to partly 
 cover their rustic confusion. It was soon 
 learned, however, that the idiot Albon was in 
 fact on the island. 
 
 The preparation of Mrs. Baker by Delia did 
 not seem to have been very effectual. She took 
 little notice at first of the presence of the vis 
 itors. She barely inquired of one of the girls, 
 " How s your mar, deary ? " and went on im- 
 perturbably with her culinary operations at a 
 fire, which she replenished from time to time 
 from a pile of brushwood occupying a consider 
 able space of the interior. In dark shadow, by 
 a ladder mounting to a poor loft, sat an old 
 man, old Baker, the husband, with a crutch 
 across his lap. He made some feeble remark 
 about his " rheumatiz," and lapsed into silence. 
 
 " To think of a real fortune-teller surviving 
 to this time of day, with a short, black pipe in 
 her mouth, a red handkerchief on her head, and 
 who says deary ! " soliloquized Fosdick. 
 
 Delia was obliged to renew her solicitations 
 to the old crone to predict their destinies. 
 
 " I can t, deary, I can t," Mrs. Baker replied, 
 in a harsh, croaking monotone. " It s all lies 
 I tell ye, any way. Sides, I got to git supper. 
 Some other time, gals, some other time." 
 
 Against this it was urged that their friend 
 Fosdick might not then be with them. With- 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 269 
 
 out at all changing from her indifferent man 
 ner upon this, and as if it were only some casual 
 part of the domestic duties in which she was 
 engaged, she brought out a cup containing a 
 little water and tea-grounds, and handed it to 
 Fosdick. She told him to turn it around and 
 spill the water out, framing at the same time 
 a wish. The fortune was to be construed from 
 the appearance of the particles of tea thus left 
 stranded in the cup. 
 
 " You 11 get your wish " (it was no more im 
 portant than for a kiss from the pretty Idella). 
 " You 11 have a letter fore long. You re 
 thinkin of writin a letter. You re goin to 
 have some trouble with a dark man. Pears 
 as though you d come through all right. Yes, 
 you 11 come through all right. You re goin 
 to cross water afore long. You want to look 
 out sharp for that dark man. Here s a light 
 woman and a dark woman, but I can t exac ly 
 see now how you stan towards em. You ve 
 see some un sence you come on this island that 
 you think a mighty good deal of." 
 
 " Why ! did n t we tell you he was a married 
 man ? " cried the girls. They had agreed upon 
 this little fiction, in order to test the old wom 
 an s occult art to the utmost. 
 
 " I don t care ; he s see somebody on this 
 island he loves more n he does himself. No, 
 
270 McINTYEE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 he hain t married," she pronounced boldly, the 
 next moment, catching and interpreting shrewd 
 ly one of the amused glances passing between 
 them. 
 
 The turn of Idella came next. To her she 
 said, 
 
 " You 11 get your wish, too. You 11 meet a 
 man with a hat-brim about a foot wide. Your 
 husband is going to be worth fifty thousand 
 dollars in gold. He 11 take you away to the 
 city. It s a big city, too. There t is, plain s 
 can be," and she pointed with a bony and 
 leathern forefinger at a considerable quantity of 
 the tea grounds collected in a mass. 
 
 To the other girls she prophesied lovers, 
 handsome husbands, money and happiness in 
 unstinted supply. Marietta was to have a 
 lawyer ; Caroline a doctor. Each of these was 
 to be worth one hundred thousand in gold. 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Baker," protested Delia, " it s 
 too mean of you to give them more money than 
 me." 
 
 " I can t help it, child, can I, if the cup reads 
 that way ? But pears as though, lookin 
 at yours ag in, there was suthin else comin to 
 you to make it up, by will or some such way." 
 
 And thus the good-natured sorceress deftly 
 equalized the fates. 
 
 The company romped back, in the same gay 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 271 
 
 spirits, to the shore, where Alrick was await 
 ing them at the boat. Fosdick and Idella had 
 trimmed each other s large straw hats with 
 flowers and a small short-stemmed cranberry 
 growing in the dry moss on the tops of the 
 bowlders. Idella, in a gay bravado, set the 
 young man s a moment on her own head. 
 
 " You know what the forfeit is," he said, as 
 she gave it back. He made a gentlemanly feint 
 of claiming the traditional privilege, which she 
 as easily evaded. 
 
 "You shan t kiss my sister," said Caroline, 
 pretending to bristle a little at sight of it. 
 
 " I didn t," he said, with a pretended air of 
 injury. 
 
 " She would n t let me," he added the next 
 moment, and they all laughed at this defense. 
 
 As they two loitered behind, the others got 
 before them into the boat, and pretended to 
 row away and abandon them there. But they 
 sat comfortably down upon the shore to wait. 
 
 " Are you anything of a phrenologist ? " 
 Idella asked. "Can you tell people s charac 
 ters that way ?" 
 
 She bared her pretty head saucily to the 
 breeze, laden with the grateful odors of sum 
 mer and the sea. 
 
 "Let me try," returned Fosdick. 
 
 He touched her hair lightly with a finger or 
 two. 
 
272 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 "This, now, I should say," imitating the 
 professional manner, " was a person who had a 
 married sister in Boston, a person who visited 
 there a great part of the year " 
 
 " Stuff and nonsense ! " she interrupted, 
 twisting suddenly away from him. " You knew 
 that. Who told you ? How did you find out ? " 
 
 They began to talk about Boston. She gave 
 him, in a diffident way, an address there, if he 
 should ever come and should care to call upon 
 her. 
 
 She almost seemed to have something else 
 on her mind, which she was going to speak out, 
 but she did not. 
 
 She hated the island, she went on to tell him, 
 and thought the folks on it horrid. She hated 
 housekeeping, and she hated the country. She 
 proved not to know even so much of the flowers 
 and shrubs about them as he. She could not 
 tell hackmatack from cedar, nor wheat from 
 oats, classing all the cereals alike under the 
 head of "grain," and boasted, instead of regret 
 ting, that she could not spin, like her sisters. 
 Perhaps she fancied that she commended her 
 self to the favor of the young man in assuming 
 an interest only in more sophisticated and luxu 
 rious things than those to which she had been 
 used. 
 
 If so, it was a mistake on her part. Fosdick 
 
McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 273 
 
 was desirous to look at her solely from a bu 
 colic point of view. He wanted to sentimen 
 talize her as a nymph of the woods and pas 
 tures. Such a one in his fancy might even 
 become for him (were it perfectly certain and 
 established that he was not cut out by destiny 
 for a career of dog-carts and four-in-hands) the 
 head of a very superior order of modest rural 
 establishment. 
 
 " Oh, you ought to like housekeeping and the 
 country, you know," he said, reproving her. 
 
 He ventured to reprimand her again for walk 
 ing in the thinnest of coquettish slippers, dis 
 closed by the accident of their getting entangled 
 in a piece of marshy ground. She returned him 
 but defiant answers, however, when he took the 
 tone of patronage. 
 
 But for the delay on the shore, as described, 
 the excursion would have passed without an 
 apparent flaw. But the delay proved to have 
 momentous consequences. While the boat was 
 returning for the pair, and was still a few rods 
 distant, the ungainly figure of the idiot Albon 
 Cooley shambled hastily down the hill and 
 came close to them. He peered into their 
 faces, seemed to find a pleasure in the sight 
 of Idella, and tried to lay hold of her. She 
 shrank away from him in intense disgust. Fos- 
 dick threw himself between them, and enabled 
 
 18 
 
274 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 her to embark, but was himself detained with 
 an elfish pertinacity by the idiot. 
 
 " Alrick, you 11 have to get him away," ap 
 pealed Marietta to the young farm-hand, who 
 sat in the boat, an agonized witness of this 
 scene, so humiliating to himself. Had he sus 
 pected the presence of Albon on the island, he 
 reflected, untold wealth would not have induced 
 him to come. How could he hold up his head 
 again before the city chap, having been thus 
 shamed. 
 
 He leaped from the boat, with a black and 
 savage face. He strode towards his brother, 
 freed Fosdick from his grasp with a wrench, 
 and, when Albon would have fastened upon 
 him in turn, thrust him off with such a brutal 
 violence that he fell heavily among the rocks. 
 A sympathizer with the fool and his protector 
 at other times, he could now have blasted his 
 hateful presence from the face of the earth. 
 
 Albon gathered himself up, and with a feeble, 
 uncertain aim, hurled missiles after the retreat 
 ing boat. During all of the homeward journey, 
 though the others tried in a friendly way to 
 draw him out, hardly a monosyllable escaped 
 from Alrick s parched and contracted lips. 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 275 
 
 V. 
 
 Mrs. Bowker regarded this " gallivanting 
 round," as she called it, as a useless waste of 
 time. She was not deterred, one day, when 
 Fosdick came, upon appointment, to join a 
 rowing party, by any considerations of the 
 awkwardness of the thing, from saying so. 
 
 The daughters, assembled in the sitting-room 
 with their polished visitor, and desirous to 
 give him only the best impression, exchanged 
 glances and frowns of dismay at the counter 
 mand, and then entered upon expostulations, 
 but all without avail. 
 
 " Dell, you ain t a-goin out on the water 
 again ! " the shrill voice of Mrs. Bowker ex 
 claimed from the kitchen. " There s the fog 
 comin up so thick now you can t see High 
 Head. You 11 catch your deaths. Gracious 
 sakes ! there s more work in this house ! 
 Who s goin to fetch the cows, I d like to 
 know ? Who s goin to do the milkin ? Al- 
 rick, he s away, gone to see bout gittin Mose- 
 ley s mowin - machine, and your pa, he s 
 away. Nett, you come along and wash up 
 these dishes that s been stannin ever sence 
 mornin. Dell, you ve got to git the cows, 
 or Ca line, one. Land sakes ! " 
 
276 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 " I 11 get the cows," volunteered Fosdick, 
 and restored the spirits of the embarrassed cir 
 cle by his charming way of taking it. 
 
 " You don t know where to find them. But 
 you can come with Cad and me, if you want 
 to," said Idella. 
 
 It was a long stretch that they made, up and 
 down over the rocky pastures. Caroline took 
 the fences alone, disdaining aid. Idella paused 
 in a dainty assumed perplexity on the top, and 
 permitted his assistance to be extended to her. 
 
 It was a bond of intimacy between them, in 
 the fancy of Fosdick, that her mother had 
 scolded them together. A woman in a faded 
 delaine wrapper, who said " Californy " and 
 " settin -room," had scolded him, Fosdick the 
 ex-club man. 
 
 They came to a cool spring, running into an 
 old moss-grown tub, where Idella gave him a 
 drink from a birch-bark dipper, hid in a cleft 
 in the rocks. Cad stampeded the cows, which 
 broke through the bushes on a run, whisked 
 their tails and threw out their legs in their 
 sideway, awkward fashion. The party thought 
 they saw a man lurking mysteriously in the 
 edge of the woods. They got caught in a piece 
 of soft ground (this was the time of the slipper 
 episode above mentioned) ; and these were the 
 whole of their petty adventures. 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 277 
 
 Three days thereafter, Fosdick came - to say 
 good-by. Old Mrs. Baker s prediction, won 
 derfully enough, was coming true. He had re 
 ceived a letter. It recalled him from the isl 
 and, and he must leave by the City of Camden 
 the next morning. He stayed to tea with the 
 Bowkers. They gave him, among other viands, 
 a certain strip taken from along the back of one 
 of the sun-dried salt-fish of their shore. This 
 they instructed him was " the dream-line," and 
 whoever ate of it was likely to be visited at 
 night by a vision of his future wife or husband, 
 who would offer a glass of water to quench the 
 thirst it occasioned. By a not unnatural asso 
 ciation of ideas, he dreamed that night of Idella. 
 He received again from her hand a draught of 
 cool water in the birch-bark dipper of the 
 spring. 
 
 It was a lovely, mild summer night, with light 
 milky clouds drifting across a nearly full moon, 
 when he finally took his departure. His new 
 found friends insisted upon escorting him a part 
 of the way. They went arm in arm at first, all 
 sinning, but by degrees he fell to the rear with 
 Idella. 
 
 " It was quite unprincipled of you to refuse 
 to pay the forfeit that day, for wearing my 
 hat," he said to her. " Do you not think so ? " 
 
 " No, I do not think so." 
 
278 McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 
 
 " It is a custom of the country, and I should 
 not think you would want to transgress it. It 
 probably came over in the Mayflower, and had 
 its origin in the most ancient times." 
 
 "It came over in the City of Camden, I 
 guess," she rejoined smartly. 
 
 " You are very hard-hearted," he argued, in 
 a pleading tone. 
 
 "It would n t do you any good," she said in 
 reply. 
 
 There was certainly a trace of relenting in 
 this. 
 
 " Oh yes, it would, dear. I am going away. 
 It is the last time I should carry away such 
 a sweet remembrance of you." 
 
 He bent down, and without more ado passed 
 an arm lightly around her waist. For a brief 
 instant she suffered her head to rest against his 
 strong shoulder and her charming lips to meet 
 his, offering but the faintest show of resistance 
 demanded as a concession to self-respect. 
 
 They parted at last and he went on alone. 
 
 He halted in the midst of the moonlit wood, 
 where heavy black shadows were blotted in 
 strong relief down upon the road, and pale 
 ghostly vistas vanished on either hand. He 
 asked himself abruptly : 
 
 " What do I mean by it, now that it is all 
 over?" 
 
McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 279 
 
 He made no answer to his own question, but 
 moved on in a deeply pensive mood. He spoke 
 again presently, saying, 
 
 " Well, she has amused herself, too, I sup 
 pose. She does not have a person of my sort 
 to play off all her little points upon every day." 
 
 The recollection of these little points in de 
 tail and in mass overwhelmed him, and he 
 sighed : 
 
 "Ah, it is lucky I am getting away from 
 here just as I am." 
 
 But in the morning whom should he see at 
 the boat, again, but Idella. She had accepted 
 the mail-boy s invitation to-day, and aroused in 
 his breast delusive hopes that his honest merits 
 were going at last to be recognized, only to se 
 cure a final leave-taking with a more favored 
 lover. She made the pretext of having brought 
 Fosdick a little package of unimportant trifles 
 that he had left at the farm-house. Alas for 
 the poor mail-boy! Another coquettish cos 
 tume, too, to-day, a new one of dark blue. 
 
 What with the effect of this and his recollec 
 tions of the evening and night before, Fosdick 
 made her much warmer speeches of farewell 
 than he had intended or than he could approve 
 to his own conscience. 
 
 The plank was about to be drawn on board. 
 
 " Ninety - seven Mackintosh Street, then," 
 
280 McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 
 
 said the young man, as repeating reassuringly 
 the address she had given him for Boston. 
 
 "Ninety-six," amended the girl. "If you 
 don t find me at home, you always can at 
 Gay & Talbot s store. I tend there." 
 
 This is what she had long had on her mind 
 to tell him. 
 
 There was no time for more. The ex-quarry- 
 superintendent sailed away. She tended there ? 
 he reflected. She came very well indeed by 
 her stylish aspect then, if she were one of the 
 young women behind Gay & Talbot s coun 
 ters. It was a choice and delicate variety of 
 goods they handled at the emporium named. 
 To move about among them so freely must be 
 almost as good as owning them one s self. Still, 
 he liked far better his idea of her as the girl of 
 the woods and waters and the unpainted old 
 farm-house. Smoking his cigar on the upper 
 deck of the steamer, as she voyaged among the 
 fair blue islands made, now and again, fairer, 
 bluer, and more mystic by fleeting effects of 
 mirage he felt extremely remorseful and un 
 comfortable. He thought more positively than 
 ever how lucky it was to be getting away from 
 there, having gone no further. 
 
 No sooner had he gone, than Alrick Cooley, 
 seizing the most unpropitious moment possible 
 to speak his mind, said to Idella : 
 
McINTYR&S FALSE FACE. 281 
 
 " I want you to marry me, Dell. You ve 
 know d I did all along." 
 
 " I have n t known anything of the kind." 
 
 " Well, then you know it now." 
 
 " I don t want to know anything about it." 
 
 " That city feller s turned your head. He 11 
 make another Jen Belden of you, ef you take 
 up with him ; that s what he 11 do." 
 
 Jenny Belden, it seemed, was a girl of the 
 island who had been betrayed by a city man, 
 under particularly distressing circumstances. 
 
 "Alrick Cooley, I won t listen to no such 
 talk ! " and she started off in high dudgeon. 
 
 " I did n t mean nothin , Dell," he said, tak 
 ing a humbler tone, upon which the girl turned 
 back. u I ve got a little pile o money saved 
 up, quite considerable for these parts, and I kin 
 make more. Your father he s gittin old, and 
 wants summun round he kin depend on. You 
 understan the farmin business, too. We should 
 callate to take the farm and keep it right along, 
 when the old folks was done with it." 
 
 He paused, but Idella did not speak. 
 
 " That ain t no kind of livin for girls, in 
 them city stores," he continued. " I ve heard 
 it from them as knows." 
 
 Another pause, still without response from 
 her. She was listening in unmistakable dis 
 dain ; she would not even condescend to argu 
 ment. 
 
282 McINTYRVS FALSE FACE, 
 
 " I suppose Albon s got somethin to do with 
 it," said Alrick, reproachfully, " but I could n t 
 help that, could I ? Anybody might have had 
 a brother like that." 
 
 " He has n t got nothing to do with it." 
 
 " Your father was a poor boy himself. He 
 come up from nothin at all, I ve often heerd 
 him say so." 
 
 " Well, / did n t, then. And I don t calcu 
 late to go down to it, either, what s more." 
 
 " Look out you don t ! " cried Alrick sav 
 agely, picking up a scythe he had had in his 
 hands and walking off. 
 
 But he put down his scythe at the barn, in 
 stead of going to the fields with it, and resigned 
 his place. He took service first in the mackerel 
 fleet just off shore, and later was heard of in 
 the coasters, and then as making the danger 
 ous winter fishing voyages from Gloucester to 
 George s Banks. His confidante, Mrs. Wixon, 
 watched over his poor interests as best she 
 could during his absence. Towards spring she 
 felt moved to address him a letter of gossip 
 from the island, as follows : 
 
 FKEND ALRICK, Dallas Munson s Engaig- 
 ment is Broke off. Eudora heerd something 
 about him after they was publishd and the 
 Wedding all reddy. He was so set in his Way 
 
McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 283 
 
 he don t clear up nothing, sayin he guess he 
 could stan it if she can. Otis Watson s wife 
 carrid off the Prize at spinning-match down to 
 Judson s Cove last week. Nobody sepposed she 
 was so Spry. Same week the folks was up to 
 our House one nite, high goins on. Wisht you 
 had been Along. Emeline Benson was down 
 to Boston and she stop in to see Idella Bowker 
 at her store, thinkin she would. Whoshd she 
 meet comin out but that city felow, the same 
 one, F. Fosdick. Idella she blusht Up and 
 denied it. Likely he goes a Great eel. So if 
 I was you Id give it up and not waste enny 
 more time on Idella Bowker. There Is plenty 
 more jesst as good and mighty site better. 
 Wether hear ben cold. So no more at Presant 
 from your true Frend, 
 
 CATHEEIN A. WIXON. 
 
 To which, in course of time, Alrick replied : 
 
 DEER FKEND MISSES WIXON, Its no Use 
 I kant help Thinkin of Her thow other Gurls 
 may bee just as good as you Say. I pass by her 
 stor. Bein to Boston one day but dont go In 
 not bein stile enough to her taist (So I seppose) 
 I hav ben wreck down Block Island way sense 
 I seen you. We left Swamscot wind bein fresh 
 at the time S. E. bein thick and Foggy. Run 
 
284 McINTYEE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 till the skipper judge himself as up with the 
 Island, header her off S. E. with his jib Haul to 
 the Winderd, made Breakers ahed, tried her for 
 stays she would not come roun. went ashore 
 stern forrard, a total Lost. Cargo bein Lime 
 took fire but no lifes lost. If one Was, you no 
 who, some folks woodnfc a cared much. So no 
 more at Presant from your tru frend, 
 
 ALKICK COOLEY. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Having escaped his entanglement, before, as 
 it seemed, any serious harm was done, Mr. 
 Fosdick, now under guidance of what he was 
 pleased to call his better judgment, was dis 
 posed to guard himself carefully against any 
 renewal of it. This became the easier every 
 day, as new impressions and interests, includ 
 ing new sentimental attachments, obliterated 
 the old, in a memory not too keenly retentive 
 of such things. He advanced to higher grades 
 in the service of his building firm, and began 
 to take a more favorable view of his prospects 
 in life. Idella was as good as forgotten. Once 
 only, happening to be in Boston, with an idle 
 hour on his hands, he half yielded to a new 
 enticement in her direction. 
 
 Standing on the steps of his hotel, a walking 
 
McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 285 
 
 advertisement came by and thrust into his hand 
 a bill describing the bargains offered at present 
 at Gay & Talbot s. Gay & Talbot were sell 
 ing off dress patterns, balbriggan and lisle 
 thread hosiery, and ten thousand dozen em 
 broidered handkerchiefs, for the next twenty 
 days, at an astonishing sacrifice. It recalled 
 Idella Bowker vividly to mind. Why might 
 he not step in and have a word with her across 
 the counter? The store was not far distant. 
 He stepped down the street and entered it. 
 But no sooner was he fairly in the midst of its 
 heavy, patchouli-scented atmosphere and clus 
 tering crowds than a strong sense of the folly 
 of what he had been going to do overcame him, 
 and he turned on his heel and departed. It 
 was this visit, and this alone, in which he was 
 seen by Emeline Benson, and which served as 
 the basis of her reports in the island, and the 
 letter of Mrs. Wixon to Alrick Cooley. 
 
 In the following summer Fosdick was sent 
 once more for a short time to the quarry on 
 Little Box Island. It was now out of its legal 
 difficulties, and was again being worked. It 
 was early in the summer, and he hoped to de 
 part before Idella should have arrived for her 
 vacation. Her sisters were absent as well as 
 herself. 
 
 How strangely uninteresting was the house, 
 
286 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 with its remaining inmates now ! He went 
 alone to Baker s Neck, and saw Albon there, 
 whittling a stick. He was told by Mrs. Baker 
 another fortune, of a light lady and a dark lady 
 and a letter and a journey, all quite different 
 from the first. He talked with the " drawist," 
 who still papered his store with the brown paper 
 yachts, and he went out to the Reach to fish in 
 his dory as before. 
 
 At this time Alrick Cooley had returned by 
 degrees towards the scene of his discomfiture, 
 and was a part of the crew of the coaster Eleanor 
 Jane, plying with miscellaneous freight among 
 several considerable towns on the main, and fre 
 quently passed through the channels of Great 
 Box Island. 
 
 On a certain day, when the Eleanor Jane 
 came down the Reach before a fresh breeze, Al 
 rick was at the wheel, brooding moodily over 
 the place whose every stock and stone he knew 
 so well, and lost a couple of points in his steer 
 ing. The variation would bring the vessel un 
 pleasantly close to a dory, containing a man, 
 which lay off Barlow s Point. Alrick would 
 have brought down his helm to remedy the 
 error, but suddenly recognizing the inmate of 
 the boat, with a fierce exclamation, put it up 
 instead. 
 
 The man in the boat got up his anchor in a 
 
McINTYR&S FALSE FACE. 287 
 
 panic, lost one of his oars, and attempted to 
 paddle out of danger with the other. The brig 
 followed all his weak evasions, and bore down 
 upon him with an unerring aim. The shadow 
 of the great black hull was already over him. 
 The helmsman gloated in anticipation of his 
 longed-for vengeance. The skiff would be 
 cracked like an egg-shell, and pass along under 
 the keel with a slight scratching sound, and 
 that would be all. 
 
 By what chance was it that the skipper came 
 on deck at this moment, rubbing his eyes from 
 a nap ? He had scarcely time even to rip out 
 a sounding oath. He rushed upon his steers 
 man, hurled him aside, and dragged the wheel 
 with a great wrench to starboard. 
 
 The brig fell off with a sudden yaw. The 
 small boat danced frightfully in its wash for an 
 instant, and was safe. The skipper turned then 
 upon his seaman, who hid his attempted crime 
 under an affectation of stupidity, and cursed 
 him, as the saying is, up hill and down dale. 
 
 This account of the affair was given by Al- 
 rick himself to Mrs. Wixon. Sometimes, he 
 told her, he awoke nights trembling with hor 
 ror at the thought of what he had so nearly 
 done. Again, he blamed himself bitterly for 
 his failure to rid the world of his hated rival. 
 This was a degree in sentimentalism far beyond 
 
288 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 the simple mind of Mrs. Wixon. She was se 
 cretly alarmed at the wild and moody temper 
 of her confidant, and much inclined to curtail 
 their friendship thereafter, a desire in which 
 she was soon effectually aided by circumstances. 
 
 The Great Box Island quarry had delivered 
 to the main a quantity of building stone, which 
 for some reason was rejected. Fosdick went 
 thither to reclaim it, found another purchaser 
 for it in a city to the eastward, and shipped it 
 on board the Eleanor Jane, which lay in port 
 open to engagement. As the prevailing winds 
 promised a short run, he also thought good to 
 take passage in her himself. 
 
 A skipper, three men, and a boy composed 
 the crew of the Eleanor Jane. Fosdick was 
 not a little surprised to find Alrick forming a 
 part of it. He spoke to him pleasantly, but 
 his advances were rebuffed with short and surly 
 answers. 
 
 There was not much "heft," the skipper 
 said, to the breeze. Instead of passing Great 
 Box in the night, they were only abreast of it 
 some ten miles off towards noon of a fol 
 lowing day. Fosdick was discoursing with the 
 captain, and told him of his recent narrow es 
 cape from being run down in a dory while fish 
 ing. 
 
 "Why, was you the one?" cried the cap- 
 
McINTYRVS FALSE FACE. 289 
 
 tain. " This was the vessel. If I had n t a 
 grabbed the wheel, you would n t a been no live 
 man now. Cooley ! " he continued, shouting in 
 a facetious tone to Alrick, who stood at the 
 rail, splicing ropes, " here s the party you nigh 
 run down in Great Box Reach. He s a comin 
 there to pitch you overboard to pay for it." 
 
 " I wish I had sent him to hell," returned 
 Alrick, scowling darkly. 
 
 There was no responsive humor in his mood, 
 and he did not change his position. 
 
 " I won t have no such talk out of you," cried 
 the skipper in a rage. 
 
 " You 11 have just what talk you kin git." 
 
 The captain started towards him, catching 
 up a belaying-pin as he went. Fosdick threw 
 himself between them. The intense bitterness 
 of this humble rival towards him, the dark 
 sense of injury under which he must have la 
 bored to make it so abiding, flashed upon him 
 as in a sudden illumination. With it came a 
 sense of the keenest regret for the flippant and 
 purposeless conduct which could have aroused 
 such a feeling, which could have had such mo 
 mentous consequences in the life of another. 
 
 " Let it go this time," he appealed good- 
 humoredly to the captain. " It was an accident, 
 and he is sore on the subject. It s all right, 
 /have no fault to find." 
 
 19 
 
290 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE, 
 
 " Oh, you don t find no fault ! you don t ! 
 Much obliged ! D n you ! " the morose sailor 
 returned, with an infuriated shriek. Seizing a 
 heavy iron bar, which offered a weapon to his 
 hand, he aimed a frenzied blow at Fosdick, and 
 knocked him bloody and senseless to the deck. 
 
 He paralyzed with it next the hand of the 
 captain, who had drawn a revolver against him, 
 and possessed himself of this also. 
 
 The remainder of the crew would have seized 
 him, but his prowess in the struggle was pro 
 digious. He shot one in the thigh and drove 
 the other two before him in terror to the rig 
 ging, where he bound them fast. 
 
 The captain escaped to his cabin. Besieged 
 there, he fired through the door a shot from a 
 single-barreled pistol, which still remained to 
 him. It took effect, though this did not at 
 once appear. 
 
 Alrick, in a kind of untamable Berserker 
 rage, was complete master of the vessel. He 
 fired a shot into Fosdick to finish him, and 
 spurned the prostrate body of his enemy with 
 his foot. Finally, with an axe he smashed the 
 steering gear, cut the sails and every important 
 hoist-rope, staved in all the boats but one, and, 
 taking that, escaped to land. The men who had 
 been tied worked themselves free of their bonds 
 and came down to release the captain, attend 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 291 
 
 to the wounded and dying, and work their craft 
 into port as best they could in its cruelly dis 
 abled condition. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The assassin reached the land of Great Box 
 Island, near his old home, towards evening. 
 He set his boat adrift, threw his revolver into 
 the bushes, climbed the cliffs, and passed the 
 night in the woods. A cold, dismal fog drove 
 in upon the shore. All night long, even in his 
 fitful slumbers, he heard the blowing-buoy, in 
 the surf off the Cup and Saucer reef, seeming 
 to call, as was its way, " Oh! Wo! Wo! " The 
 flash-light of the lighthouse on the hill threw 
 its broad rays, projected upon the fog, slowly 
 round and round in a circle, like a great eye in 
 exorably searching for the wretched criminal 
 cowering in the dark woods below. 
 
 At break of day, when Mrs. Bowker opened 
 the farm-house door, this same figure presented 
 itself before her, in most pitiable plight. To 
 account for it, he said that he had been driven 
 ashore, and his bruises and tatters were the re 
 sult of falls among the rocks. He dared say 
 nothing of a shot-wound in his side, inflicted by 
 the captain s pistol, from which the warm blood 
 was constantly trickling down. He wanted 
 only warmth, food, and rest for the day, he 
 
292 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 said, till he could get back by some fishing-boat 
 to the main. 
 
 Idella had come home. When she came 
 down to breakfast, this day, with her hair, not 
 too carefully done, but comely still, even in dis 
 array, the disabled Alrick was lying on an im 
 promptu couch, formed of three chairs, by the 
 kitchen fire. 
 
 " Goin to shake hands, ain t ye, Dell ? " he 
 said, putting out one of his own. 
 
 She had meant to do this, and had ap 
 proached him for the purpose, but an unac 
 countable repugnance and terror seized her. 
 She diverted her course to the pantry, and care 
 fully kept away from the kitchen for the rest 
 of the day. 
 
 The farmer towards evening brought word 
 that a chance offered to go to the mainland, 
 which the guest accepted. 
 
 " Like enough you could come back ag in and 
 give us a lift with the hay in a spell, could n t 
 ye, Alrick, fore ye go off on another trip any 
 wheres ? " asked farmer Bowker. 
 
 " Like enough," returned the hapless man. 
 
 He groaned aloud, overcome by the pain of 
 his wounds, a sudden recollection of the past, 
 and the destiny that awaited him. It was to 
 the grisly, monstrous gallows that he was to go, 
 and not to healthful toil in the hay-fields and 
 
McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 293 
 
 to the companionship of the pretty Idella in the 
 peaceful farm-house. 
 
 He had foreseen the end even in the midst 
 of his fury, but had cried to himself, glorying, 
 with a kind of desperate improvidence, in his 
 deed. 
 
 " Very well ! it is the price I will pay." 
 
 The island family saw no more of their quon 
 dam protege till he stood in the prisoner s pen, 
 in the city of nearest jurisdiction. They looked 
 at him there with a startled, fearful fascination. 
 It seemed incredible that a friend, an inmate 
 of their household, almost a son, could have 
 done the hideous crimes laid to his charge. If 
 it were so, they believed there must first have 
 been operated in him some physical change, 
 which had affected every atom of his frame, 
 and made him a totally different being. 
 
 The hurts of Fosdick proved serious, but, 
 though he was slow of recovery, not perma 
 nently disabling. 
 
 Nor was it by him, but rather in the interest 
 of the sailor shot at the same time, whose 
 wound gangrened and proved mortal, that the 
 criminal was pursued in the courts of justice. 
 
 He met with Idella during the trial. She 
 was the trimmest and neatest figure in all the 
 court-room. Yet somehow his crack on the 
 head had disillusioned him, and made him 
 
294 McINTYRE S FALSE FACE. 
 
 amazingly fastidious. To his new state of 
 mind, her commonness of manners, her least 
 solecism of speech or action was glaringly ap 
 parent. Her family and neighbors too, away 
 from their island, were stripped even of the 
 small interest he had attached to them there. 
 Idella said, " I seen it " and " I done it," and 
 ate, at the hotel table, with her knife, daintily, 
 it is true, but still indisputably with her knife. 
 Fosdick could not make himself to feel in need 
 of further repentance now. He thought it pe 
 culiarly hard, in fact, and out of all proportion 
 to his offense, that so tremendous a retribution 
 had come down upon him, a year after he had 
 resolutely broken off the flirtation, without the 
 slightest intention of ever renewing it. 
 
 At the same time he felt easier in his mind 
 after a little explanation they had together, 
 when his ex-sweetheart told him : " I should 
 never have married Alrick Cooley, even if I 
 had never seen you." 
 
 He was easier still when he learned within a 
 year that she had married the faithful mail- 
 boy, and later, that this mail-boy had been ap 
 pointed lighthouse keeper, and made her a 
 most excellent husband. 
 
 Alrick, in a second trial, which an ingenious 
 counsel procured for him, was adjudged insane, 
 and committed to an asylum instead of a prison. 
 
McINTYRPS FALSE FACE. 295 
 
 From this, in time, he was released as cured, 
 and went to begin the world anew in parts un 
 known. 
 
 It proved that the idiot Albon, the deformed 
 brother, who had been once his care, and then 
 his shame, became in the dark hour of his trial 
 the most efficient of all his protectors. Pro 
 duced in court, he made a profound impression. 
 When all the circumstances of the birth and 
 early life of the two brothers were recited, it 
 was the opinion of a jury of twelve good men 
 and true locked up no more than forty-eight 
 hours before arriving at this decision that 
 the eccentricity of Alrick, like that of Albon, 
 was to be ascribed entirely to Mclntyre s false 
 face. 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 THE first advent of Mr. Alexander Dwight 
 Braisted Hicks to the actual cognizance of Miss 
 Louisa Calderon was on the occasion of the 
 delivery of his great Yale Commencement ora 
 tion on " The Causes of Decay in Nations." 
 
 Could nations have been aware in time of 
 the contents of this admirable document, there 
 is no telling what notable events might have 
 been otherwise, what calamitous consequences 
 averted. As it was, his own name, together 
 with that of his treatise, were simply misspelled 
 in the newspapers ; the oration aroused no 
 great public furor, and came, in time, to be 
 thrust into a very dark closet and regarded with 
 disdain even by its author. 
 
 But at present he skipped easily around the 
 world and the ages, from ancient Assyria and 
 Athens, to Salt Lake, and the Argentine Re 
 public. The trading Phoenicians, the Amphic- 
 tyonic League, Carthage, Venice, the Low 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 297 
 
 Countries, Macchiavelli, Montaigne, and Macau- 
 lay s New Zealander sitting on the rains of 
 London Bridge all came in for a fair share of 
 representation. "What do we everywhere 
 find ? Is not the lesson ever the same ? And 
 again and sixthly But may we not, despite 
 this long record of disaster and decay, despite 
 the momentous portents that seem to lower on 
 the horizon of the future, still look for the 
 dawning of a brighter day ? Oh yes, my class 
 mates, fellow-countrymen, fellow -patriots, bid 
 me not yet, in the language of despair, to 
 doubt of the glorious destiny that still awaits 
 humanity ! " 
 
 The attention of Miss Calderon was not un 
 waveringly riveted upon this discourse, though, 
 it was the particular wish of her brother (James 
 Borden Calderon, of the catalogue) that it 
 should be so. Her brother, where he sat, with 
 the body of his class in the centre aisle, sent 
 her from time to time solicitous glances which 
 said as plainly as words, 
 
 " Aha ! did I tell you so, or did n t I ? " 
 
 She telegraphed back in return some faint 
 sympathetic smiles which might have meant an 
 entire coincidence of critical opinion or only a 
 sweet sisterly interest in himself. 
 
 The orator of the day, it appeared, was one 
 of those prodigies which our institutions of 
 
298 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 learning do not fail to supply annually in suf 
 ficient number. His devotee, Calderon, never 
 had done talking about him in the vacations. It 
 is no place here to set down perfections which 
 would require solid quartos to do them justice, 
 but Calderon expatiated without ceasing upon 
 his quickness of invention, his readiness of re 
 source, his judgment, memory, the profundity 
 and versatility of his learning. Hicks had even 
 a wondrous mechanical turn. He had origi 
 nated an anchor which was looked upon with 
 favor by the vessel-men at Bell Dock, and 
 which he thought of having patented. 
 
 Miss Calderon had not in fact been as much 
 impressed by these accounts as might have 
 seemed desirable. There is a natural perver 
 sity in the feminine mind at the school-girl pe 
 riod which does not always respect even the 
 highest and holiest, and this perversity she ex 
 ercised at the expense of Mr. Hicks. She had 
 allowed herself to mock, among other things, 
 at his superfluity of middle names, and more 
 than once had inquired in her letters after " the 
 Great Hicks " and " the Extraordinary Mr. 
 Hicks." Calderon was naturally disgusted, as 
 an admiring brother would be, at a levity like 
 this. Still there was nothing to be done but 
 await the opportunity of some meeting between 
 the two, when its insensate folly would be glar- 
 
MISS C ALDER ON* S GERMAN. 299 
 
 ingly apparent. Such an opportunity had now 
 arrived, and the Decay of Nations was in mag 
 nificent train to produce the desired conviction. 
 
 There were locusts rattling, in their sultry 
 way, from the boughs of the great over-arching 
 elm-trees without. Within the church, the 
 warm atmosphere was heavy with the odor of 
 flowers and sandal- wood, and full of a sort of 
 mesmeric flicker of waving fans, which gave a 
 drowsy influence. It was hard to fix one s at 
 tention. Lou Calderon s wandered to a hat al 
 most exactly like her own, upon another young 
 head in the vicinity, and the speculation could 
 hardly fail to be suggested whether she too 
 should not have done well to choose the ruffled 
 bow instead of the buckle. 
 
 A further distraction was an elderly gentle 
 man, who had made her acquaintance earlier 
 in the day and now bent over occasionally from 
 his seat in front, to address her confidential re 
 marks. 
 
 One could hardly have taken him for any 
 thing but a business-man, as he was. His dress 
 was neither good nor bad, his speech neither 
 elegant nor coarse. His hair stood up in a 
 rather spiky manner. An air of being ready 
 to date an acceptance ahead, for a round lot, or 
 throw off an extra five per cent, for cash, was 
 not in abeyance even in his time of relaxation. 
 
300 MISS CALDEEON S GERMAN. 
 
 He spoke to the young girl with the freedom of 
 superior age and of an assured standing. 
 
 " You don t remember me, of course, I sup 
 pose not," he had said ; "but I know you. You 
 must excuse me, but I have been looking at you 
 for some time. I ought to know John Calde- 
 ron s daughter, I should think." 
 
 " My father ? " said Miss Lou, elevating her 
 eyebrows. 
 
 " Why, certainly ; John Calderon. Our stores 
 were alongside of each other for years. After 
 he went out of trade I kind of lost sight of him. 
 I have trotted you on my knee many a time. 
 I could hardly do that now, with such a pretty 
 girl, old fogy as I am." 
 
 " Oh ! " said the young girl, thinking him 
 eccentric, but pleased with the compliment. 
 
 Miss Annie Valentine, her companion, whose 
 guest she was in the town for the few days of 
 these festivities, sat by with an amused look. 
 
 " Yes, my name is Hoopley," continued the 
 stranger ; " you may possibly have heard of 
 me. I have a boy here ; that is why I am on 
 hand. He does n t seem to come on the stage 
 and show off, among the geniuses. Well, we 
 can t all be geniuses. I 11 have to make a mer 
 chant of him. Let s see; you had a brother 
 too. He ought to be pretty well along by this 
 time." 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 301 
 
 " Oh yes ; he is one of the graduates to-day." 
 
 " I want to know if John Calderon has a son 
 old enough to be a graduate. Well, well, how 
 time goes ! I must look him up. He and my 
 boy ought to be friends." 
 
 The orator descended, and walked up the 
 aisle, adjusting his wrist-bands, with a calm 
 consciousness of intellectual power and desert 
 in the plaudits lavishly bestowed upon him. 
 He had done grandly and he knew it. Noth 
 ing occurred to mar the desirable state of mind 
 in which he was left till evening, for which the 
 University Ball was set. 
 
 He went to this entertainment, but estab 
 lished himself in a favorable position only as a 
 spectator to find material, in the shifting, 
 parti-colored crowd, for Thought. He did not 
 dance. If any imputed as a fault the omission 
 from his repertoire of so slight an accomplish 
 ment, they were not persons whose opinions 
 were entitled to the least degree of respect. 
 
 The truth about his dancing was if the di 
 gression be pardoned that his ignorance of 
 it was the result of youthful caprice. He had 
 entertained an impression at a very early ag3 
 that music and dancing were effeminate arts, 
 by no means fitted to form part of the occupa 
 tion of the Spartan-like being whom he figured 
 the ideal boy to be. 
 
302 MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 u Yes, you want to make a girl of me," lie 
 had replied with withering sarcasm to all effort 
 in this direction. " You will want me to sew 
 next. I won t dance ! " he persisted heroically. 
 " I won t dance with a girl^ any way." 
 
 Mr. Hoopley was also present at the Univer 
 sity Ball. During the day he had conversed 
 with the president of the University, and calcu 
 lated the profits in a removal from the present 
 site and sale of the buildings. He seemed to 
 feel his own presence " among the young fry " 
 as a sort of grim joke. Being here, however, 
 he thought how it might be turned to account. 
 His children were poor and would have their 
 own canoes to paddle in the world. If they 
 could conciliate friends in prosperous circum 
 stances so much the better. 
 
 Mr. Hoopley had a large family, which for 
 economy s sake he kept in a suburban town 
 near the metropolis. He no doubt intended to 
 act for their best good, but consulted it often in 
 a way that seemed intolerable tyranny. In 
 spite of his formidable business air also, he had 
 had no great success in his affairs. He had 
 been through at least one bankruptcy, and 
 there had been rumors at the time but when 
 are there not rumors ? Besides, is a man with 
 the pressure of a family upon him to be amen 
 able to all the petty scruples so easily observed 
 by people whose affairs go swimmingly ? 
 
MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 303 
 
 " It seems to me," said he, in confidential ad 
 vice to his son at the University Ball, " that if 
 I was a young fellow, I should make up to that 
 girl of Calderon s. She will have fifty thousand 
 dollars from her father s estate, and maybe 
 more." 
 
 To Calderon, the brother, when he had re 
 newed the old acquaintance he claimed with 
 him, his manner was the perfection of brusque 
 hospitality. He pressed him to visit them. 
 
 "Any friend of my son s," he exclaimed cor 
 dially. "This must be kept up this must be 
 cultivated. As long as we have a crust in the 
 house, any friend of my boy s can have most 
 all of it." 
 
 Calderon had been hurrying, when thus de 
 tained, to find the extraordinary Hicks for 
 presentation to his sister, and now went on. He 
 hoped that Hicks, though not a dancing man, 
 would be good enough not to object to this. He 
 desired his sister to have the honor and im 
 proving influence of Hicks s acquaintance. 
 
 Mr. Hicks, magnanimously, did not object to 
 be presented. 
 
 Miss Calderon, in her part of this ceremony, 
 made him a profound courtesy. She sank down 
 with a willowy droop ; she rose with a touch 
 of hauteur. He made the observation, un 
 wonted for him, during the moment in which 
 
304 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 her bright eyes were lowered and their long 
 dark lashes lay upon a complexion fresh and 
 healthful, without decided color, that she was re 
 markably prett}^. Her mouth, somewhat large, 
 opened to laughter upon slight provocation, and 
 displayed dazzling white teeth. She had placed 
 near one corner of it a most vain and worldly 
 dot of black court-plaster. Her round, young 
 arms, a little angular as yet, were bare. Above 
 a delicate line undulating about the shoulders, 
 the diaphanous muslin which covered them took 
 the warm ivory tinge of the flesh beneath. 
 
 " I think very highly of your brother," began 
 Mr. Hicks, when he had given her his arm for 
 a promenade. 
 
 " How patronizing ! " was her internal com 
 ment. She set to work at once to devise un 
 comfortable responses for him. He touched 
 upon the exercises of the day. 
 
 " If he thinks I am going to congratulate him 
 upon his pompous old oration," she reflected, 
 " he is very much mistaken." And so he was. 
 If he chose light topics, she accused him of 
 making concessions to her inferior mental cali 
 bre ; if graver, of pedantry. It was strange 
 how poorly they got along. In despair, for the 
 mere purpose of keeping up the talk, he turned 
 to the Townsend prize essays, the award of 
 which had been recently made. The style of 
 
MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 305 
 
 treatment adopted by Smith of Pomfret, in his 
 discussion of " Suffrage as a Natural Right," 
 seemed to him especially admirable. 
 
 " The suffrage is not altogether, as it were," 
 said he, " a natural right. It is a gift of soci 
 ety granted upon certain definite conditions." 
 
 "I suppose you are very fond of dancing? " 
 said Miss Calderon, with a languid air. 
 
 " Well, no, ahem no," replied Mr. Hicks, 
 " 1 do not exactly, as it were dance." 
 
 " Oh, don t you ? " she exclaimed, with an 
 extreme rising inflection. " I think it anybody s 
 Christian duty to dance." 
 
 A ripping and rending sound was audible. 
 Confused by a transition from Smith of Pom- 
 fret to the newer topic, so sudden that it made 
 his head swim, he inadvertently trod upon a 
 lady s train pulsing gracefully along in front of 
 them, and tore it. 
 
 " I hope it is not irreparably injured," he re 
 marked with concern to his companion. 
 
 " Oh, no, such matters are easily repaired. 
 It is different from the decay of nations." 
 
 She slightly nibbled her exquisite under lip. 
 It was not possible that she was laughing at 
 him? That would have been a novelty, in 
 deed, for Alexander Dwiglit B misted Hicks. 
 Still, he was thoroughly uncomfortable, and 
 
306 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 would have been glad when the interview ended, 
 except for the manner in which it ended. 
 
 Mr. Hoopley came up to them, putting for 
 ward his son with a hearty air. 
 
 " I want to see you making friends with this 
 nice girl that I have discovered in my travels," 
 said he loudly. " What sort of taste have you 
 got ? If I were a young fellow, I should have 
 my name down in her day-book there, a page 
 or so. You are a dancing-jack, aren t you? 
 You understand this whirligig business, don t 
 you ? " 
 
 "He must not be scolded," said she; "he 
 has done his painful duty. We have one en 
 gagement, at least, and it seems to me it is the 
 very next to this." 
 
 " Oh, you know him, do you ? Well, he is n t 
 a spokesman, like our friend Hicks here. He 
 probably won t ever set any rivers on fire. You 
 must take him as a kind of favor to his family, 
 when there s nobody else to be had." 
 
 Far from being a backward youth, as de 
 scribed by his father, the young Hoopley was 
 in fact shrewd, quick, of a certain cynical hu 
 mor, and likely in time to do full credit to the 
 head of his house. 
 
 " Is n t he the most incorrigible old duffer 
 that ever was ? " he asked. 
 
 " No ! " protested Miss Lou, pleased with the 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 307 
 
 broad flattery she had received, and still more 
 with the manner of fatherly kindness, sadly un 
 wonted to her, for she had lost both parents of 
 her own long before. "I think him just as 
 jolly and nice as he can be. That s only his 
 way." 
 
 " Well, it s a very poor way." 
 It was highly irrational, of course, but Mr. 
 Hicks began to find himself made uncomforta 
 ble by no more than a bare inspection of Miss 
 Calderon s conduct after this. He observed her 
 chat with the greatest zest with such inconse 
 quential fellows as Smallgood, and the callowest 
 of under-classmen, persons who hardly knew 
 Agamemnon from Aristides. She made pre 
 tense of dangerously assailing them with her 
 fan. The cool unconcern with which she al 
 lowed them to encircle her waist, belted into its 
 zone of dainty laces, was enough to cause fore 
 bodings of the speedy decay of any nation in 
 which such things were possible. 
 
 He did not, however, refuse in consequence 
 to pay a visit to her with her brother, on the 
 following evening, at the house of Miss Valen 
 tine. In the calmer circle of domestic life he 
 felt that his exceptional powers would be able 
 to display themselves at last to their proper 
 advantage ; and he burned for the opportunity 
 to establish himself in his natural prominence. 
 
308 MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 It is really painful to have to record that this 
 second attempt was, if anything, even less suc 
 cessful than the first. The intellectual gifts 
 of Mr. Alexander D wight Braisted Hicks 
 seemed to be in some inexplicable way under 
 eclipse. Miss Calderon, quite early in the con 
 versation, caught up a pretty Maltese kitten of 
 the house that happened by, kept it on her lap, 
 purred and cooed to it, and gave to it at least as 
 much of her attention as to him. 
 
 Her brother, who saw the manner of the in 
 terview, looked stern reproach at her across the 
 parlor for this, but she affected not to under 
 stand. She raised her eyebrows or wrinkled 
 her forehead, as in limpid innocence, or quiz 
 zical inquiry. Other visitors arrived. Hicks 
 lapsed into silence, wholly discouraged. Not 
 ing this, she presently turned to him and in 
 cluded him in some sweeping remark, as, 
 
 " And Mr. Hicks, who seldom talks." 
 
 " You hardly appreciate how very much I 
 improve my mind by listening," he returned, in 
 irony as withering as he dared. 
 
 For the first time, upon this, she gave him 
 a certain glance of favor. Perhaps she was, in 
 her small way, of that Brunhilda type which 
 is best pleased by an exhibition of rurle mas 
 tery. Perhaps she was not to be won till bound 
 hand and foot with the girdle of Siegfried. 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 309 
 
 " Must you go ? " she asked him, tantaliz- 
 
 ino-lv, when he arose to take his leave. 
 
 & j 
 
 " I fear I must." 
 
 And he bowed gravely over his hat, which 
 he held in both hands. 
 
 His last glimpse of her showed her standing 
 near the doorway, endeavoring in a laughing 
 panic to avert the paw of the playful kitten, 
 which had climbed upon her shoulder and was 
 aiming at the tangles of her shining hair. 
 
 It would hardly be credited, but it is true, 
 that so sage a philosopher, so profound an in 
 quirer into the destinies of nations and the like, 
 should go to his home, in a distant city, and 
 institute complaints in the bosom of his family 
 that he had not been taught to dance. 
 
 " But, my son," expostulated his mother, sur 
 prised and anxious, " I did everything in this 
 world to have you learn, as you know, and you 
 would not." 
 
 " I know, I know," he responded, still quer 
 ulous, " but, all the same, you ought to have 
 made me." 
 
 II. 
 
 Young Calderon was warmly urged further 
 to make the visit to the Hoopleys at their 
 place at Woodstone, as suggested, and he ac- 
 
310 MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 cepted. His visit was in time returned with 
 interest by young Hoopley. Hoopley began at 
 once to make a bold push to carry out the 
 views laid down by his father with regard to 
 the rich and pretty sister. It cannot be said 
 that he makes over other admirers any very no 
 table progress at first. Still, she is but eight 
 een, and her full property rights do not begin 
 till she is twenty-one. He establishes a good 
 understanding with her, so that there is no 
 reason for discouragement, and he can keep his 
 eyes open in other directions in the mean time. 
 Hoopley took a business career. In course 
 of time he set up a bank at Woodstone, under 
 the eye of his father, and in partnership with 
 a capitalist, Brodhead, who was induced to put 
 in the greater part of the funds, as against his 
 knowledge of affairs and influence in the local 
 ity. Woodstone was a place to which, at this 
 time, much attention was being directed. It 
 was maintained by some that investment could 
 nowhere so advantageously be made as in its 
 fast -appreciating improvements. The Hoop- 
 leys were enthusiasts in the " boom," as it was 
 called, and the elder Hoopley mortgaged his 
 scanty possessions liberally to become the head 
 and front of a corporation known as the Wood- 
 stone Land and Loan Company, engaged in for 
 warding the improvements. 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 311 
 
 Calderon, for his part, chose to go into the 
 profession of medicine. 
 
 The place for the gifted Hicks was naturally 
 the law. He made a year s preliminary studies 
 at his home and then came to New York, bring 
 ing with him a vivid recollection of the fasci 
 nating Miss Calderon. She had scarcely been 
 absent from his thoughts an instant in the 
 mean time. If he had fallen in love with her, 
 as seemed very probable, it would have been 
 hard to tell why. It must have been the power 
 of purely feminine good looks alone, since he 
 had seen so little else, so little of qualities of 
 mind or character to account according to his 
 own theories of what would have been justifi 
 able in the matter for the feeling. He longed 
 for her possession, as he might for that of a 
 charming vase or flower, or lovely jewel, to 
 which it is no disparagement that it has not 
 long been known, and is seen but for the first 
 time. Once seen it is revered, allures, entrances 
 on the instant. This had happened to Hicks, 
 as it has to others, as wise, before him. Not 
 that he could be expected to admit so much. 
 On the contrary, he constructed for her an ideal 
 nature in keeping with the fair externals that 
 won him. In his view she was she must be 
 noble, generous, of a good heart and keen 
 interest in the higher things of life, only ob- 
 
312 MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 scared a little at present by waywardness and 
 some defects of early education. As to her 
 early education it had, no doubt, its defects, 
 for it was under the lax government of a weak 
 maiden aunt, who had succeeded to the direc 
 tion of the Calderon household when it was 
 bereft of both parents, and allowed her to do 
 just as she pleased. 
 
 Calderon had now gone to Vienna, for its su 
 perior advantages in medicine. He had taken 
 the specialty of an eye and ear practice, follow 
 ing thus a tendency of the time towards divis 
 ion of labor in his profession and trusting to 
 make the most of his moderate abilities. 
 
 The absence of Calderon made the reopening 
 of the acquaintance a little more difficult for 
 Hicks ; still he found means to reopen it. His 
 heart gave a strong throb when he first saw 
 her; she was prettier than ever. He had a 
 keen remembrance of his early rebuffs, but felt 
 himself more a man of the world now, more a 
 master of himself. He had learned much in 
 the mean time. She would be more impressed 
 by him, and he would know better how to take 
 her on her amiable side. 
 
 " It is said that if one makes an excellent 
 impression the first time," he began, boldly, on 
 his initial visit, " he will do well to stay away, 
 so as not to spoil it. I have determined to see 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 313 
 
 if the reverse be not also the case. Our first 
 meeting perhaps hardly came up to expecta 
 tion on either side. I thought you a little rude, 
 and you found me possibly a little stupid. Is 
 it not so ? " 
 
 " I cannot be expected to answer for your 
 impression, but mine was not very different 
 from the way you state it." 
 
 " You are frank." 
 
 " But you began it. Did you not say that I 
 was rude ? " 
 
 I ah that is an unfortunate expres 
 sion, used but in jest. Allow me to withdraw 
 it, and to say that I thought you at the time all 
 that was ah amiable and 
 
 " Perhaps you mean to imply that you do 
 not- think so now ? " she cut in and kept him 
 from perjuring himself further. 
 
 " Really," he cried, badgered into an outburst 
 of his honest conviction, " I think you are ab 
 solutely ferocious." 
 
 Louisa Calderon threw back her head with a 
 merry laugh. Hicks frowned with displeasure 
 at first, but the next instant could not re 
 frain from following her example. After this 
 there was a much better understanding between 
 them. 
 
 Hicks having surrendered unconditionally, 
 there was no longer any need of her attitude 
 
314 MISS CALDEROJTS GERMAN. 
 
 of perpetual menace towards him. Out of the 
 strong, as it were, came forth sweetness ; out 
 of eater came forth meat. Still, as he had sur 
 rendered, he could hardly expect to escape all 
 of the inconveniences attending the lot of a 
 prisoner of war. He aspired to the dazzling 
 pinnacle of her supreme favor, and he was not 
 yet admitted even to her select coterie of inti 
 mates. He was not yet a dancing man ; how 
 could he become a dancing man at this late day? 
 And she was bent upon dancing and reveling 
 in her youth, like a bonny young Terpsichore 
 of Madison Avenue. He hung about, growing 
 more and more enamored, and also more and 
 more disappointed, looking on moodily from the 
 position of wall-flower, and seeking indications 
 which he did not find. Finally he went away, 
 saying nothing to her about his affection, hav 
 ing made up his mind that it would be quite 
 useless. 
 
 Soon after, she sailed for Europe, to join her 
 brother at Vienna, and make a long stay abroad. 
 Hicks set up an office for the practice of the 
 law in his native place, in a far from exemplary 
 state of mind. 
 
 There were substantial reasons he said to 
 himself, as he fumed over his tasks in the new 
 office why he could hardly have pressed his, 
 suit, even with the most ample encouragement. 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 315 
 
 He "had "a fortune in his education," as he had 
 heard his family say was intended, but there 
 were plenty of other brothers and sisters to be 
 taken care of at his home, and that was practi 
 cally all he had. This had in the college period 
 given him very little concern. Successful in 
 his studies there, puffed up with his small tri 
 umphs, used only to a text -book and black 
 board view of existence, as it might be called, 
 he had expected to step forth into the world 
 and at once claim the place rightfully the due 
 of the man of superior education and culture. 
 He had at one time flattered his soul with 
 the somewhat arrogant motto : " The man of 
 ability needs no friends." But he had discov 
 ered, on his arrival in the great world, a very 
 considerable amount of ability already in the 
 field. He discovered that, pending the adapta 
 tion of the expensively-educated citizen to its 
 practical requirements, it gets along very well 
 with the citizen prepared for his place by hard 
 knocks and his own quick wits. The man of 
 study must have special resources within him 
 self, he must extract from his state compen 
 sating pleasures of a special refinement, or else 
 he is forever at a disadvantage with the man 
 of action in the race for material success. This 
 is well-nigh indisputable philosophy, but it is 
 astonishing how cavalierly even good philos- 
 
316 MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 ophy may be treated by a young man who 
 would like to marry at once. He regretted 
 that he had not been put to service in the most 
 bald and sterile kind of trade at fifteen, that he 
 might now be a merchant in receipt of ample 
 income, and master of his own destiny. He 
 came one day, in a rage, upon his manuscript 
 Causes of Decay in Nations, in the dark closet 
 to which he had committed it, and tossed it 
 into the fire. He had hoped at one time that 
 it might be demanded on the lecture platform, 
 and that he should deliver it to entranced audi 
 ences throughout the length and breadth of the 
 land. 
 
 Another reminiscence of those callow days, 
 which he came upon at the same time, was 
 the improved anchor invented by him. This 
 was the one the vessel-men at Bell Dock had 
 thought well of, as above. He lingered over 
 it meditatively ; it looked surprisingly good 
 to him. He could not see what was the mat 
 ter with this idea even now. The invention 
 claimed for itself increased holding power, ex 
 emption from fouling the cable, facility in trip 
 ping, and also in transportation and storage. 
 These advantages were to be obtained by pivot 
 ing the flukes upon the shank, so as to turn 
 freely, instead of making one and fast with it 
 in the usual way " all substantially as de 
 scribed." 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 817 
 
 The youthful lawyer took it out, and began, 
 in the ample leisure he enjoyed, to tinker at 
 it again. He called to mind the great fortunes 
 often made by such things, but sighed : 
 
 " Ah, I am not the Aladdin sort of fellow 
 to have any such luck happen to me." 
 
 Nevertheless he made ready to get it pat 
 ented. It was worth risking the cost of the 
 patent fees upon, at any rate, he thought. But 
 in the midst of this lie obtained employment as 
 junior counsel in a bank case, which developed 
 into an unexpected importance, and the anchor 
 was unceremoniously put away. He acquitted 
 himself so well, too, in the bank case, as to 
 secure further business, and soon quite a small 
 run of prosperity. 
 
 The Calderon brother and sister returned in 
 due course from abroad. The latter brought 
 with her a supply of ravishing Paris toilettes, 
 though these were by no means needed to en 
 hance her natural fascinations and draw a circle 
 of admirers again about her. The brother 
 brought his diplomas as a full-fledged doctor, 
 and proceeded to set up an office in an eligible 
 location, for the practice of the eye and ear 
 specialty. 
 
 Hicks had managed to be present to welcome 
 them back, and thereafter began to avail him 
 self of every possible pretext to make visits to 
 
318 MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 the metropolis and them. Oh, joy ! oh, rapture ! 
 she was not yet engaged, and he could not 
 learn that anybody enjoyed any greater favor 
 than himself. Hoopley was very persistent, 
 but Hoopley somehow seemed utterly out of the 
 question. In these visits, if he chanced not to 
 find her, he talked with almost equal delight to 
 her aunt, usually esteemed a very uninterest 
 ing person. His state of feeling surrounded 
 with a halo of regard everything in the remot 
 est way connected with her. 
 
 One day, while he was with her, a package of 
 photographs of herself was sent home from the 
 maker s. She graciously allowed him to retain 
 one. Emboldened by this, he found himself the 
 next moment rashly proposing to her. He had 
 had almost nothing else in his heart and on 
 his lips ever since her return, but he had not 
 meant to come to it in this sudden way. He 
 threw out the suggestion of the inconceivable 
 happiness it would be to him if, with the pic 
 ture, he might be allowed to hope to have also 
 at some time the dear original. 
 
 " There is nothing very novel about your 
 method," said she. " You might have found 
 something a little original. They all say that 
 when they get a chance." She spoke as one 
 being an authority, and he, meekly, did not 
 gainsay her. " It is enough to take one s breath 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 319 
 
 away to be snapped at in such sudden fashion. 
 No, of course you cannot," she concluded. 
 
 He returned, and renewed his importunity on 
 this subject, more than once, so that it got to 
 be a kind of quaint controversy between them. 
 " I tell you no" the girl would say. " I like 
 you well enough, but not well enough to marry 
 you. I am not in love with you." 
 Oh, why ? " 
 
 " You have gray eyes, for one thing, and you 
 have often heard me say that I never could 
 bear gray eyes." 
 
 "They are not gray, not exactly, and, be 
 sides, what a trifling reason that is, if you have 
 none better," the harassed lover complained. 
 
 " It is not trifling. But that does not make 
 any difference ; I don t wish to hear anything 
 more about it." 
 
 Hicks thought of making her brother the 
 confidant of this affair, but the new-fledged 
 doctor was full of his own trouble, and he did 
 not do so. The doctor had seen more of life 
 in the mean time, and considerably abated the 
 exaggerated reverence in which he had once 
 held his friend, the prodigy of college days, and 
 was besides engaged, with small success, in 
 building up a practice. 
 
 As an entire ton of lead is squandered in 
 battle to the end of the destruction of every 
 
320 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 human life, so each patient of the doctor was 
 secured only at the expense of an infinitude of 
 time and pains. A small fortune in time and 
 money preceded his acquisition, and even then 
 he was not sure, for the doctor, naively betray 
 ing his youth and inexperience, was apt to lose 
 him again by very excess of solicitude. Cal- 
 deron, in fact, with the very best disposition, 
 had not the art of " getting along " in the world. 
 He was simple, and rather vacillating of judg 
 ment, over-confiding, to his own detriment, and 
 of a hotness of temper, when stirred up, which 
 increased rather than diminished his liability 
 to be imposed upon. In the untoward condi 
 tion of his practice he began to take counsel as 
 to what he had best do ; and, oddly enough, it 
 was young Hoopley, as it happened, to whose 
 advice he chiefly committed himself. Young 
 Hoopley finally came forward with a sudden, 
 fortunate inspiration. 
 
 " I will tell you," said he, clasping* his hands 
 together behind his head, as he sat, in an easy 
 chair, in the doctor s comfortable apartment, and 
 biting one of the doctor s excellent cigars tight 
 in his teeth and talking around it, " I hate to 
 make a man feel uncomfortable when there is 
 no way of helping the case, but when there is, 
 it is my way to speak out, fair, square, and 
 above-board, every time." 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 321 
 
 Dr. Calderon listened with, interest. 
 
 " Frankly," said the adviser, " your role is 
 business and not a profession. Your talents all 
 point that way. I have long seen it. Your 
 perseverance, thoroughness, theoretical notions 
 of minutiae and economy are all thrown away 
 here, in a profession which is, besides, greatly 
 overcrowded. 
 
 "No? Why I don t know, half the time, 
 which is the right window to go to to get my 
 checks cashed," returned Calderon, flattered to 
 have so admirable a list of qualities ascribed to 
 his credit. 
 
 " Oh, all that is easily learned. Details are 
 nothing when one has, like you, the natural 
 talent, the business head. I should not won 
 der, now, if you made the biggest kind of 
 strike in some such line as ours. If I were you 
 I would just clear out this beggarly rabble of 
 patients, strike my shingle, and make a totally 
 new deal." 
 
 This was too radical advice to be taken at 
 once, but Calderon let it sink deep into his con 
 sciousness. Nor was this a mere random con 
 versation. It proved that the partner B rod- 
 head, young Hoopley s associate in the Wood- 
 stone bank, was at this very time anxious to 
 dispose of his interest and get out. 
 
 " He wants to recuperate his health, to travel, 
 21 
 
322 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 and that sort of thing," Hoopley explained. 
 " He is an eccentric person, is Brodhead ; lets 
 no sacrifice of his own interest stand in his way, 
 once he has made up his mind to do a thing. 
 Now here you have a half interest in a solidly- 
 established, paying concern, of the highest 
 standing, everything A 1 about it, increas 
 ing custom, gilt-edged paper, shares of the 
 Crooked Air Line, and the Woodstone Land 
 and Loan Company, everything ; and all to 
 be had at even less than Brodhead s original 
 investment. It s a chance such as won t occur 
 again in years." 
 
 The elder Hoopley came also to join in the 
 persuasive argument. It seemed to him, too, a 
 chance that rarely offered. How appropriate 
 that an old friendship between the two boys 
 should be thus cemented by a prosperous busi 
 ness connection. What a perfect and restful 
 confidence they could have in each other, so 
 different from the usual distrust. 
 
 " My boy Tom, there," said he, " would trust 
 you with untold millions. I am sure of it." 
 
 " You are right, I would," added the mag 
 nanimous Tom. 
 
 Young Calderon weakly yielded, abandoned 
 his profession of medicine, and, as much to his 
 own surprise as anybody else s, shortly became 
 a banker. One half of his purchase - money, 
 
MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 323 
 
 paid to Brodhead, was the same evening turned 
 over by the latter to Hoopley, a transaction 
 which almost looked like a commission for the 
 sale of the interest. Brodhead retired to his 
 travel and the recuperation of his health with 
 but a shred of his original capital, but he man 
 ifested a good deal of contentment even with 
 that. He had, in fact, cherished the hallucina 
 tion that the bank was about to break, and 
 thought himself well out of it on any terms. 
 Nothing of course could be more baseless than 
 this, for had not both the Hoopleys shown Cal- 
 deron that it was on the very flood-tide of pros 
 perity, and the opportunity to buy into it one 
 of those rare strokes of good fortune with diffi 
 culty to be secured ? 
 
 Woodstone appeared to continue to improve, 
 as an opening for investments, from this time 
 onward. The bank was able to use, in these 
 directions, unlimited funds, and by degrees all 
 the money of Calderon was transferred hither. 
 It was but natural next that, her brother being 
 now a banker, Miss Calderon s money also 
 should be deposited in the bank. 
 
 The new arrangement brought about a close 
 intimacy between the families. Miss Calderon, 
 in her turn, visited the Hoopleys, found that 
 their place at Woodstone had a somewhat run 
 down- at - the - heel and needy air. There were 
 
324 MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 numerous little children, some rather un 
 kempt, and it was but a ramshackle convey 
 ance that drove her to and from the station. 
 But the fatherly air of Hoopley towards her 
 was even more marked than before, and in con 
 sideration of this she took a genial view of 
 everything. She reflected that kind hearts are 
 better than fine appearances, and was disposed 
 to be pleased with all. 
 
 It even began to be talked at this time that 
 they should remove to Woodstone. Her brother 
 was anxious to do so. He had acquired a glib 
 method of thumbing over bank bills, and was 
 now the paying-teller of his own bank. His 
 sister did not desire to stand in the way of what 
 was for his best good and pleasure, and so the 
 handsome New York residence was sold and 
 they took another in Woodstone, depositing 
 the balance saved in expenses in the same place 
 as the other funds. 
 
 Long before this, however, Hicks had dropped 
 off from his long r61e of patient devotion, finally 
 abandoning the field, as he said to himself. A 
 man can put up with a good deal in this way, 
 but there comes a time when the conviction is 
 forced upon him that the heart for whose sym 
 pathy and affection he so longs is hopelessly 
 cold towards him ; and this time had come for 
 
MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 325 
 
 Hicks. He lapsed into a sullen moodiness. 
 From this he was aroused by a stinging feeling 
 of resentment, which finally accomplished what 
 all other motives combined had not been able 
 to. He threw himself into the gayest of com 
 pany ; he became a dancing man, and an ex 
 cellent one at that. This new departure was 
 not long in being followed, as the way is, by 
 reports of especial devotion on his part, now to 
 this fair one, now to that. Some of these were 
 carried, by roundabout agencies, even as far as 
 Miss Calderon. On hearing them, she charac 
 terized such light and fickle conduct, in her 
 own mind, as it deserved. 
 
 Some reports of her also came to his ears, 
 especially after her removal to Woodstone, 
 where there was a family of Braisteds, his 
 near relatives, naturally acquainted with all her 
 movements. He did not listen too willingly to 
 these reports, and they were but casual. Finally 
 came a rumor, first denied, then re-asserted, of 
 her engagement to Hoopley. This seemed to 
 him a very natural consummation, Hoopley 
 being her brother s partner, and, with a bit 
 terly afflicted heart, he now looked upon the 
 affair as wholly at an end. 
 
 Five years had elapsed since the first presen 
 tation of Alexander D wight Braisted Hicks to 
 Louisa Calderon. If he were still a prig, it was 
 
326 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 not for want of hard knocks and acquaintance 
 with many phases of life. His elusive dream of 
 happiness and its disappointment had passed 
 into a quasi-forgetfulness ; his period of spas 
 modic gayety had lapsed as well, and he had 
 settled back into something like his normal, 
 though changed self. 
 
 The improved anchor had had but small 
 share, in all this time, of an attention too much 
 engrossed by other things. It had been pat 
 ented, nevertheless. This year, in a more 
 liberal vacation than usual which he allowed 
 himself, he proposed to indulge himself in the 
 luxury of having one of the anchors cast, on a 
 large scale. In the mean time he had had made 
 a number of pretty miniature models of it, to 
 distribute among manufacturers and others with 
 the view of drawing their attention to it and 
 endeavoring to put it to some practical use. 
 True, the leading manufacturers had rejected 
 it already. Still there might be others to re 
 ceive it more favorably, and this chance he 
 thought well to try for. On the very day that 
 the models came home, he was summoned, by 
 telegram, to go and draw some very confiden 
 tial papers for his relatives, the Braisteds, at 
 Woodstone. He would much rather not have 
 gone to a place capable of exciting in him mem 
 ories of so painful a nature, and where, by ac- 
 
MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 327 
 
 cident even, a painful meeting might await him. 
 But on the whole it was not in the least likely 
 that he should meet her ; the business was of 
 but a few hours only, and it was of pressing 
 importance. 
 
 He thrust his miniature models hastily into 
 his pocket, in order to examine them at leisure 
 on the way, and took the train. 
 
 III. 
 
 He found awaiting him, in an office on the 
 pleasant main street of Woodstone, one of the 
 younger Braisteds, junior partner with his fa 
 ther in a firm which, according to the inscrip 
 tion on the shades in the plate-glass windows, 
 dealt in real estate and commercial paper. The 
 senior partner had not yet come down, and the 
 two gossiped in a friendly way pending his 
 arrival. Hicks touched lightly, among other 
 things, upon his patent, and, in response to the 
 request of Braisted, who manifested an interest, 
 passed over one of the small models for inspec 
 tion. 
 
 At this very moment, as the fatality of des 
 tiny would have it, two ladies in a pony phae 
 ton drove up to the door, and here again were 
 Louisa Calderon and Annie Valentine. A tiger 
 in ornate livery was climbing down from his 
 
328 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 perch behind to deliver a message, when Brais- 
 ted, apparently knowing himself called for, ran 
 out in person to the ladies at the curb-stone. 
 
 " So good of you to come out," said Miss Cal- 
 deron, bending forward while holding the reins 
 loosely in her lap. " We want you for to-mor 
 row evening, if we can get you. It is a little 
 German for Annie, quite impromptu. I am 
 seeing everybody myself. She insists that she 
 is suddenly called home, when I was depending 
 upon her to make me such a nice long visit. 
 Tell her how bad she is." 
 
 Braisted looked at Miss Valentine, who smiled 
 gently from below her lace-edged parasol, in 
 deprecation of her badness. He was still dan 
 gling the little shining metal anchor, which he 
 had held in his hand at the time of the inter 
 ruption. 
 
 " What is that ?" asked Miss Calderon, her 
 attention drawn to it. 
 
 " The model for a patent anchor. Will you 
 look at it ? By the way, it is the invention 
 of your friend Mr. Hicks, who was just show 
 ing it to me," and he transferred it delicately 
 from the hold of his forefinger and thumb to 
 hers. 
 
 " Oh, is Mr. Hicks here ? " she exclaimed, 
 startled, and involuntarily turning to gaze at 
 the window, where she detected him, staring 
 
MISS CALDEKON S GERMAN. 329 
 
 out at her with a moody and contemplative 
 air. 
 
 "Possibly Mr. Hicks will honor us also?" 
 she added, re-assuming all her dignity of man 
 ner. 
 
 " It will give me great pleasure to go and 
 ask him," said Braisted, and he ran in to do so, 
 leavino- the model with her. 
 
 O 
 
 He returned the next moment, bringing with 
 him Hicks, who, having been discovered, could 
 hardly refuse to make his appearance. The 
 sudden apparition of his lost love had caused 
 him most poignant emotions, but he was now 
 in a measure in control of them. 
 
 " How do you do ? Is n t it a lovely day ? " 
 she began, as if they had parted but yester 
 day and on the most commonplace of terms. 
 " I have asked Mr. Braisted to help me per 
 suade you to come to a little German we are 
 going to give Annie- to-morrow evening. You 
 are not fond of dancing, I know, but my brother 
 is not either now, he is getting to be such an 
 inveterate man of affairs ; and we will try to 
 find some way of amusing you." 
 
 " I regret that I shall not be able to." 
 
 " We were admiring your patent," continued 
 Miss Calderon, apparently paying little atten 
 tion to this. " An anchor must be a very good 
 thing to invent ; it is the emblem of hope." 
 
330 MI88 CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 Hicks looked, in surprised reproach, to see if 
 there were a meaning in this, but the next mo 
 ment, as if struck by another thought, she said, 
 holding the model before her eyes for admira 
 tion, " They would make such lovely favors for 
 my German." 
 
 " Perhaps they could not be put to better 
 use," said Hicks. " I have a pocketful, spoiled 
 in the casting, by the omission of the patent 
 stamp and date, and they are quite at your ser 
 vice." 
 
 " But you cannot spare them ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, perfectly, if you will take 
 them." 
 
 He found it impossible to cherish resentment 
 in her winsome presence, though a secret feel 
 ing at the same moment told him that he should 
 experience dire consequences of bitterness and 
 repining from the contact, brief as it was. He 
 drew forth the models and placed them in her 
 lap. 
 
 " They will be such a novelty ! " she ex 
 claimed, showing a childish delight over them. 
 " They must have little pink and blue ribbons 
 run through the rings and fastened to rosettes. 
 You shall have all the credit; you will see 
 what a great success they will be." 
 
 " I thank you very much. I am here but 
 for a few hours only, and I was not intending 
 to stay." 
 
MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 331 
 
 " But you might if you wished to, and on 
 my brother s account, if not mine." 
 
 She spoke in a half-pouting way, but he was 
 not to be persuaded, and she abandoned him, 
 with an air of reluctance, and drove away. 
 
 " It hardly looks right," said Braisted, as 
 they turned back again into the office, of the 
 blue shades and plate-glass windows. " She *s 
 a nice girl, and all that, but it would be a lit 
 tle more decent for them to try and get along 
 without Germans just now." 
 
 " Just now ? What special sort of time is it 
 just now that people who can afford it should 
 not give entertainments if they wish ? " 
 
 " You have not heard, then ? But how should 
 you, for you do not live here, and it is matter 
 only of furtive rumor and not public knowl 
 edge as yet. But we have facilities for getting 
 inside information, being in somewhat the same 
 line, and I don t mind letting out to you in 
 confidence, since you are interested in them, a 
 point or two about Calderon s bank." 
 
 " What is the matter with it ? " queried 
 Hicks, in sharp surprise. 
 
 " Oh, it is going all to pieces. Hoopley and 
 Calderon are hopelessly loaded down with all 
 sorts of trash, any quantity of Land and Loan 
 Company s shares, old Hoopley s private paper, 
 and so on. They ve been in a bad way ever 
 
332 MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 since Brodhead went out. He got out only by 
 the skin of his teeth, I understand. I should 
 not be astonished to hear of their going to smash 
 now almost any day. I doubt if creditors will 
 be pleased then to recall these festive doings, 
 that s all." 
 
 " And is there no mistake about this ? " 
 
 u It is as sure as fate." 
 
 " It is not possible that Miss Calderon knows 
 of the situation as yet. They must have kept 
 it from her." 
 
 " Now I think of it, that may be. That sim 
 pleton of a brother of hers may have been 
 afraid to tell her. He has probably lost her 
 money with his own. I would hardly care to 
 be in his shoes, the idiot ! He won t be able to 
 support himself, when thrown upon his own 
 resources, much less her." 
 
 " But she is engaged to Hoopley," said Hicks, 
 nervously, " and he has no doubt saved some 
 thing, and will at any rate be a better pro 
 tector." 
 
 " They said she was engaged to Hoopley at 
 one time, but for quite a while past I ve doubted 
 it, if it ever was so. That s one of the bad 
 signs, you see. Hoopley has been in a better 
 position than anybody else to know just what 
 she had, and what he could make out of her by 
 marrying her. He s seemed to play fast and 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN . 333 
 
 loose with her, and just now there is n t much 
 evidence of any engagement at all. I ve al 
 ways half liked the fellow, he s good com- 
 p any? __ but I believe he s capable of throwing 
 a girl over in a minute, as soon as he made up 
 his mind that it wasn t to his advantage to 
 marry her." 
 
 This hint of impending trouble found in 
 Hicks a sympathetic auditor. It could be said 
 of him, as of the early Scotch monarch, even 
 had the case been one in which he possessed no 
 such personal interest as the present, 
 " A tender heart had brave Fitz- James, 
 Fast poured his eye at pity s claims." 
 
 " I infer, then, that you will not go to their 
 German ? " said he, by way of rousing himself 
 from a half-absent mood of pondering commis- 
 seration and tender yearning into which he had 
 been plunged by the intelligence. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I shall," returned Braisted, cheer 
 fully. " I want to be in at the death, and I 
 suppose Jean stand it if they can." 
 
 At the earliest feasible moment Hicks hurried 
 to Calderon, at his bank, won his confidence by 
 working with all the ingratiating art at his 
 command upon his feelings, and drew the whole 
 miserable story from him. The bankrupt made 
 at first a faint attempt at facetiousness. 
 
 " We have been expecting you before," said 
 
334 MISS CALDE RON S GERMAN. 
 
 he. " It was well you did not put off your 
 visit longer, or you might not have seen our 
 magnificent institution at its best. We think 
 of putting up the shutters." 
 
 " Is it so bad as that, my poor friend ? " said 
 Hicks, with no inclination at all to smile. 
 
 "It is worse than that," cried Calderon, 
 breaking down ; " it is worse than anything 
 you can possibly imagine. " Oh, Hicks, why 
 have I been so robbed and ruined ? I have not 
 a dollar left in the world." 
 
 Hicks threw a strong arm for a moment 
 about his shoulders, calling him " old fellow," 
 and some other of the few brief expressions 
 that men may use to each other in kindness. 
 
 " Poor Lou ! poor Lou ! " groaned the broth 
 er. " It is all well enough for me, I deserve 
 it, but what shall I say to her ? What shall 
 I do with her ? " 
 
 " Hers, too ? Her means of livelihood all 
 gone with the rest ? " 
 
 " Every dollar of it ; every cent of it." 
 
 " And what has become of it, Calderon ? 
 Tell me truly. I want to help you, if I can." 
 
 " How do I know ? Ask Hoopley, rather. 
 Everything was in his hands from the begin 
 ning. I almost suspect him of being a swin 
 dling, d d scoundrel, Hicks. How can I help 
 it ? Oh, why have I been so ensnared and 
 
MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 335 
 
 plundered, when I have tried so hard to use the 
 gifts that I had and make an honorable posi 
 tion for myself and the rest of us in the 
 world ? " 
 
 " One thing more let me ask. Does your 
 sister does Miss Calderon know of it ? " 
 
 " Not yet. I have not had the heart to tell 
 her ; and shall not now, till this entertainment 
 is over and her friend has gone. Such is the 
 extent of my notable capacity for affairs. She 
 shall have one more day of uninterrupted hap 
 piness in her life. That at least I can accom 
 plish." 
 
 The first important case of Hicks, as we have 
 seen, had turned upon the fraudulent wrecking 
 of a bank, and the knowledge thus acquired 
 now again proved highly useful. 
 
 " Let us begin at once," he proposed to Cal 
 deron, " an examination of the books, while 
 Hoopley s suspicion is not yet excited, and we 
 shall not be interfered with." 
 
 "If I could but trust you, if I could but trust 
 you ! " moaned the unhappy victim of misplaced 
 confidence, ready to manifest distrust of the 
 most innocent now, when hesitation could no 
 longer do any good. Oh, forgive me, forgive 
 me ! " he went on. "I cannot feel that I have 
 any longer a friend in the world." 
 
 He produced the books, and scanned the face 
 
336 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 of the friend, newly come to his rescue, with a 
 sort of helpless docility. 
 
 The worst surmises of Hicks were but con 
 firmed by this inquiry. The pair of confiding 
 young people had been shamefully plundered, 
 and that under guise of the most sacred feel 
 ings, under pretense of romantic and generous 
 friendship, hospitality, and fatherly care. The 
 examination continued nearly all night and ex 
 tended into the next day. Hicks was still oc 
 cupied over the ledgers when Hoopley came in. 
 Hoopley s countenance changed when he saw 
 what was being done. He turned pale, and 
 asked, 
 
 " To what may we attribute this kind inter 
 est in our affairs ? " 
 
 "Let me refer you to Mr. Calderon," re 
 joined Hicks, frigidly. 
 
 Philosopher and attorney as he was, he could 
 have choked the perjured rascal with a good 
 grace. 
 
 The sword of Damocles was thus hanging 
 above the house, and the last retaining fila 
 ments of the hair breaking away, as it were, 
 when the dainty diversion of Miss Calderon s 
 German took place. The dance, as is its wont, 
 was a multitude of charming plays, such as 
 might have been indulged in by the shepherds 
 
MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 337 
 
 and shepherdesses of a Watteau s Arcadia. The 
 dancers raised a May-pole, decorated with long 
 colored streamers, the ends of which they took 
 at random, and the two who found themselves 
 with streamers of the same color were partners. 
 They thrust their hands at random over the 
 top of a high screen, and those whose hands 
 met were partners. Candidates for favor were 
 brought up behind a maid seated in a chair, 
 and looked over her shoulder into a mirror in 
 which she saw them. She rejected as many as 
 might suit her caprice, till she found the right 
 one, and whirled away with him in the sinuous 
 dance. 
 
 They called and chose one another, in the 
 various figures, by the names of flowers, rose, 
 pink, azalea, and heliotrope. They decorated 
 one another with stars, crosses, rosettes, and 
 butterflies. They presented nosegays and bon- 
 bonnieres. They pulled gilt mottoes, which 
 parted with a little explosion, giving out caps 
 and garments of tissue paper. These they put 
 on, and danced thus in motley. There were 
 flight and chase, captivity and setting free ; 
 there were marching columns, labyrinths, and 
 enchainments. Ever and again they broke into 
 the gay rotations of the waltz, the soft, en 
 chanting measures of which unceasingly per 
 vaded the whole, as if it were declared that 
 
338 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 all combination, all definitely settled plans were 
 vain, and the only good was in a mad, joyous 
 whirl. There was a zest of the unpremedi 
 tated and unforeseen, so that those who espe 
 cially desired to be partners, when they found 
 themselves so, could be pleased with fancies of 
 a sudden providential interposition in their fa 
 vor. 
 
 Miss Valentine was a very pleasing person, 
 and her new friends of the place expressed a 
 sincere feeling of regret that she must go. She 
 was dressed in pink, of a soft and winning 
 shade, recalling the amiable manners she pos 
 sessed. About the hostess, Miss Calderon, on 
 the other hand, was a certain dazzle, in keeping 
 with the manner of her youthful beauty. She 
 wore a white silken gown, of a creamy tone, 
 which shot out gleams through an over-drapery 
 of lace, like the gleam of ripples on water in a 
 mist. 
 
 A number of elderly persons, in the shape 
 of parents, chaperons, and the like, were also 
 present at the entertainment, with the rest. 
 They looked on at the dancing a part of the 
 time, and again dispersed to amusements of 
 their own. Some found entertainment in whist, 
 and gave it no little interest. Audible laugh 
 ter and controversy from their tables, at times, 
 drew the attention of some fair young couple, 
 
MISS CALDE RON S GERMAN. 339 
 
 who would stop, in passing by, to look over the 
 shoulders of the elders and exchange glances of 
 quizzical wonderment that persons of such an 
 age could still find zest and enjoyment in life. 
 
 The senior Hoopley, with others, held, in a 
 certain defiant way, a place among these wall 
 flowers. Calderon had not countermanded his 
 invitation, already issued, because he felt that 
 he could not do so without exciting his sister s 
 mistrust and leading to inquiries. Hoopley, on 
 the other hand, presented himself here by way 
 of an assertion to all the world, to be taken 
 into account afterwards, that he was not a 
 man who could be expected to keep the run of 
 all the bankruptcies, or who knew much more 
 about them than anybody else. He was con 
 versing with an old Mr. Bolton, a wealthy 
 retired ship-builder, who had come with his 
 daughter, and they talked in the positive way 
 that old men, long fixed and confident in their 
 opinions, adopt. They had got upon the sub 
 ject of political reform. 
 
 " The suffrage is to blame, in the first place," 
 said he, strenuously. " It needs purification ; 
 there lies the point. If I had my way, I would 
 make any tampering with it the worst offense 
 on the statute-book. I would hang the scurvy 
 rascal who did it as high as Hainan." 
 
 " Sound ! " cried Mr. Bolton, with even greater 
 
340 MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 beat. " And next, sir, we ought to look after 
 the thieving villains in private life ; those car 
 rying out the betrayals of trust, bogus failures, 
 and all the financial crimes of our day. Society 
 is rotten with them, rotten to the core. They 
 have got to be rooted out." 
 
 This could surely not have been intended as 
 of a personal bearing, yet the elder Hoopley, 
 for some unexplained reason, winced under it. 
 
 It need hardly be said that young Hoopley 
 was not present, being very much occupied just 
 then with putting some few affairs of his in 
 order, preparatory to a hasty departure. He 
 purposed to remain away till certain develop 
 ments should blow over. 
 
 A very blonde young girl approached Bolton 
 with a little anchor and other trinkets in her 
 hand, and, smilingly getting his attention from 
 the discussion, said : 
 
 " I have brought you my favors to keep for 
 me, papa. Here is one, a pretty anchor, that 
 is quite in your line. Isn t it lovely? I 
 thought it would amuse you. Sleepy little 
 papas ought to be amused when they are kept 
 up so late." 
 
 She brushed her father s cheek with a little 
 kiss, and he dropped the favors carelessly into 
 his lap, paying the anchor, for the moment, no 
 more attention than the rest, dismissed her 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 341 
 
 with some playful admonition, and went on 
 with his talk with his neighbor. 
 
 Hicks, coming late to the party, leaned for 
 some time against an outer door-jamb and looked 
 in from the hall upon the scene of gayety, 
 brightness, and color in the drawing-rooms. 
 He could regard this revelry upon the very 
 brink of ruin with but a gloomy eye. The 
 merry, rhythmic dance swept by him, as he 
 gazed, in many a delectable change. Ever his 
 eye sought its central figure as she moved with 
 looks of unwonted foreboding mingled with 
 tenderness and compassion. Aspirations to save 
 her, were there any way possible, struggled in 
 effectually through his brain. 
 
 All at once, as he thus meditated, he saw 
 her driven towards him as one of a charming 
 team of girls, three in number, trammeled up 
 in the harness of a white, silken ribbon, and 
 urged forward by a youth with a riding-whip 
 in his hand. It was the whip and reins figure 
 of the German. A girl was forming a similar 
 team of youths, over against the first. As she 
 came by, she threw her rein playfully over 
 Hicks, and included him in the trio. He would 
 have protested, but she would grant him no 
 respite. Each was the partner of him or her 
 to whom he found himself opposite, and he was 
 opposite Louisa Calderon. 
 
342 MISS CALDE RON S GERMAN. 
 
 For a moment he saw a slight involuntary 
 trace of annoyance upon her countenance. How 
 stupid of him, she was thinking, to allow him 
 self to be involved in the dance when he was 
 not a master of it, and to thus show an unnec 
 essary awkwardness I Why would he do it, 
 when he appeared to good enough advantage, 
 as she admitted, in other ways ? She sup 
 pressed it notwithstanding, and gracefully held 
 out her arms, to be taken into his when they 
 met, purposing, after a semblance of a turn or 
 two, to make him go for a glass of water and 
 return her to her seat. 
 
 But what was her surprise when his step 
 melted into hers, easily and in the most perfect 
 accord. They glided away together, without a 
 jar, in harmony with the delicious music. She 
 felt herself firmly supported, lightly and know 
 ingly guided. Never had she danced with more 
 ecstatic zest ; she could have wished that the 
 enchanting measure might last forever. He 
 whirled her back at length, slowly circling, to 
 her place. 
 
 " I suppose you think you have accomplished 
 something very wonderful ? " she said to him as 
 soon as she could get her breath, panting with 
 pleasure. 
 
 " Not in the least wonderful," he answered, 
 smiling. 
 
MISS CALDE RON S GERMAN. 343 
 
 " Where and how did you learn ? " she could 
 not forbear asking next, more seriously. " You 
 were always so opposed to it, and made such 
 a time about it." 
 
 " The fascinations of our girls at home were, 
 after all, too much for me. Oh, they are fasci 
 nators there, indeed," he answered, with a cer 
 tain roguishness. She appeared slightly crest 
 fallen, and he bowed himself away. 
 
 Hicks felt his spirits involuntarily elated by 
 this incident. It was a species of small triumph 
 over her in her own domain, though, to be sure, 
 thought of triumph at such a time was un 
 worthy. So good a dancer as he did not lack 
 further invitations. Miss Calderon began to 
 watch for the first time with a certain envy 
 his affable acceptance of them, and his graceful 
 and dignified bearing, from which she could 
 not now withhold her entire approval. 
 
 Towards midnight there was a pause while 
 supper was partaken of. The young women 
 spread napkins over their laps and bestowed 
 themselves comfortably in camp-chairs or on 
 the stairway. Their partners brought them, 
 from a central table, oysters, salads, and ices. 
 A merry chatter, broken by laughter, filled the 
 rooms. A handsome man of thirty told the 
 company of his mastiff, which had come gravely 
 stalking home with a ham in its mouth, stolen 
 from nobody knew where or whom. 
 
344 MI88 CALDEROWS GERMAN. 
 
 "A dog like that is worth having," com 
 mented a listener. " He might be taught to 
 keep the house in provisions." 
 
 " This teaches us never to resist temptation," 
 said another frolicsome maid, who had a way 
 of tagging on a moral to everything. 
 
 " For my part, it is the only thing I can t 
 resist," said the narrator, gazing at Miss Culde- 
 ron, who passed at the moment. 
 
 Miss Calderon and Hicks found themselves 
 together in the music-room, deserted now by 
 the musicians. There was but one other couple 
 present. 
 
 "Play something, Miss Maud," the mascu 
 line member of it was urging. 
 
 " I can t ; I only play a little for my own 
 amazement" replied his companion, and they 
 retired, leaving our friends alone. 
 
 The impending disaster and his altered re 
 lations towards her though known as yet 
 only to himself gave Hicks a courage to de 
 clare himself, which he had never before pos 
 sessed in the same degree. Once more, without 
 in the slightest acquainting her with his pecul 
 iar knowledge of her affairs, he brought about 
 an explanation with Miss Calderon, and prayed 
 her to be his wife. 
 
 " I have never half dared to talk to you 
 about it before," he said, "I was so troubled 
 
MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 345 
 
 about my affairs. They are in better shape 
 now, though by no means brilliant. It was 
 always, to me, a good deal like looking in at 
 the window of a candy shop, without the abil 
 ity to buy. That is the way the children are 
 tantalized." 
 
 She smiled at the complimentary notion of 
 her being as attractive as that. 
 
 " It seems to me that I ought somehow to 
 have been more forcible and pushing. I ought 
 to have carried you by storm. They say women 
 like that." 
 
 " Well, if that is n t the most extraordinary 
 well, I can tell you, sir, that they don t, and 
 you would n t ! " she protested, energetically. 
 
 Then she half closed her eyes, meditating 
 with interest, perhaps, upon what his process of 
 carrying her by storm might have been. 
 
 At this point a loud voice interrupted, and 
 old Mr. Bolton came into the room in a search 
 ing way, dangling, by its rosette, the little 
 anchor his daughter had left in his lap with 
 her other favors, and said, 
 
 " I am looking for the young man who had 
 the head on his shoulders to get up this idea. 
 Ah, here you are," to Hicks. " Now, then, let 
 us talk it over." 
 
 " One moment," returned Hicks, petulantly, 
 wishing this meddlesome intruder at the bottom 
 
346 MISS CALDERON S GERMAN. 
 
 of the Red Sea. Then, to his sweetheart, in a 
 low, caressing tone, " Do not answer now. Only 
 think of what I have said. Think of it if 
 if any misfortune should soon should ever 
 befall you." Upon which he gave his at 
 tention to the new demand upon it. 
 
 " It seems to me that you have a very good 
 thing here, young man, a very good thing, 
 indeed." 
 
 " Quite likely," responded Hicks, dryly. 
 
 " It may be so good a thing that it would 
 pay the right parties to take it up and go into 
 it, if you wanted to make the right arrange 
 ments. It is something in my line, you see. 
 I m a kind of sea-faring man, as you might say. 
 I Ve built a great many vessels in my time, 
 and sailed in em, too. I know the value of a 
 thing of this kind the minute I set eyes on it." 
 
 It may well be supposed that the apathy of 
 the inventor vanished at short notice upon this 
 preamble. An appointment was made for the 
 the next day. An interview was held at Bol- 
 ton s house, after which Bolton was to take a 
 week for careful consideration of the patent 
 and submit a proposition. 
 
 During the week in question Hicks was la 
 boriously occupied with the affairs of the bank 
 rupt .Calderon, and hardly appeared to give his 
 patent a thought. At the end of it he saw 
 
MISS CALDE RON S GERMAN. 347 
 
 Bolton again, and hurried from Bolton s pres 
 ence straight to that of Louisa Calderon. His 
 demeanor was elated and joyous. 
 
 " I have come to announce to you a great 
 piece of good luck," he said. " My anchor has 
 met with a wonderful success. Mr. Bolton is 
 tired of being a retired capitalist, sighs to em 
 bark again in some active enterprise, and finds 
 it adapted to his purpose. He buys an inter 
 est in it, and is willing to put up the money to 
 go into the manufacture of it on a large scale. 
 There is no telling what we shall make from 
 the very start. When you consider the num 
 ber of ships there are, and that it will be in 
 dispensable to every one of them, any moderate 
 estimate seems paltry." 
 
 All this was very pleasant for him, no doubt, 
 but Miss Calderon could hardly be expected to 
 indulge exaggerated enthusiasm over the suc 
 cess of others, with her own affairs in such de 
 plorable condition. Was it kind, was it delicate 
 in him to flaunt it thus before her at a time 
 like this ? The first shock of the bankruptcy, 
 with its shattering of ideals and its revelations 
 of falsehood and ruin, was over, and she was 
 looking into the future with a certain calmness, 
 but still overcome with a deep despondency even 
 more wearing than the earlier tears of despair. 
 She endeavored to muster, nevertheless, such 
 
348 MISS CALDE RON S GERMAN. 
 
 expressions of felicitation as politeness de 
 manded. 
 
 " Now," said he, cutting abruptly into the 
 midst of these half-hearted words, " I am not 
 accustomed to brag; you must know why I 
 have laid these matters before you ? I have 
 come for my answer. What is it to be ?" 
 
 He had begun with a zealous boldness, but 
 somehow, with the last sentence, lapsed into 
 his former diffidence of tone and manner. 
 
 Pretty Miss Calderon was startled. She had 
 made up her mind that after all that had hap 
 pened in the interval, there was an end of the 
 subject as a matter of course. He would not 
 recur to it and he would not come back. But 
 he had come back. Well then, it was only in 
 pursuance of some fancied sense of duty or 
 magnanimity. But now, again, she recollected 
 that he had spoken at the time in a mysterious 
 way of some misfortune, something that might 
 befall her. Could it have been that he knew 
 of what was to happen, and his offer had con 
 templated exactly her present situation ? 
 
 She would accept no such sacrifice, for sac 
 rifice it would be. Were there not plenty of 
 other girls with fortunes, too, whereas she 
 had nothing who would be only too glad to 
 marry him ? Having pursued all these reflec 
 tions, she replied to his inquiry and expectant 
 
MISS CALDEROWS GERMAN. 349 
 
 manner, twisting her hands the while with an 
 involuntary nervousness, in her lap, 
 
 " I have concluded not to accept." 
 
 " You have not so concluded ; I will not hear 
 of it," protested the lover, cheerily affecting to 
 contradict her, but in reality in growing af 
 fright. 
 
 " Yes, I have" she insisted. 
 
 " Oh, don t say so, my darling. You break 
 my heart ! " he appealed, now in a far different 
 tone. 
 
 " Yes, you think," she began, half inaudibly, 
 but with a vestige of her old manner of will 
 fulness and defiance, " that just because I have 
 lost my money " 
 
 " No, I do not think anything of the kind. 
 You are as capable of refusing me as ever. I 
 know you would like to for that very reason. 
 But it shall not be put upon that ground. You 
 are as rich as anybody. If you give Germans, 
 and introduce people s patents, and make their 
 fortunes, I suppose you are entitled to a part of 
 the proceeds. Anybody else would take the 
 whole." 
 
 " But your fascinating girls at home, whose 
 influence was so irresistible ? " she objected, 
 retreating to a last feeble position. 
 
 " Nonsense ! there is not one of them worth 
 mentioning in the same century with you." 
 
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 Half calf 9.00 
 
 Ivanhoe. Fancy binding. 8vo i.oo 
 
 Half calf 2.50 
 
Houghton, Mifflin and Company. n 
 Horace E. Scudder. 
 
 The Dwellers in Five-Sisters Court. i6mo .... $1.25 
 Stories and Romances. i6mo 1.25 
 
 Mark Sibley Severance. 
 
 Hammersmith: His Harvard Days. I2mo . . . 1.50 
 
 T. D. Sherwood. 
 
 Comic History of the United States. Illustrated. I2mo 2.50 
 
 J. E. Smith. 
 
 Oakridge : An Old-Time Story of Maine. I2mo . . 2.00 
 
 Mary A. Sprague. 
 
 An Earnest Trifler. i6mo 1.25 
 
 Harriet Beecher Stowe, 
 
 Agnes of Sorrento. i2mo . . . 
 The Pearl of Orr s Island. I2mo 
 
 Uncle Tom s Cabin. Popular Illustrated Edition. 
 
 I2mo 2.00 
 
 The Minister s Wooing. i2ino 
 
 The Mayflower, and Other Sketches. I2mo 
 
 Nina Gordon (formerly called " Dred "). I2mo 
 
 Oldtown Folks. i2mo 50 
 
 Sam Lawson s Fireside Stories. Illustrated. New 
 
 Edition, enlarged 1.50 
 
 The above eight volumes in box 12.00 
 
 Uncle Tom s Cabin. Holiday Edition. With red line 
 border. Introduction, and a Bibliography by George 
 Bullen, of the British Museum. Over 100 Illustra 
 tions. I2mo ? CQ 
 
 Half calf g.oo 
 
 Morocco, or tree calf 7.50 
 
 Gen. Lew Wallace. 
 
 The Fair God ; or, The Last of the Tzins. I2mo . 1.50 
 
 Henry Watterson. 
 
 Oddities in Southern Life and Character. Illustrated- 
 i6mo i.t 
 
12 Works of Fiction. 
 
 Richard Grant White. 
 
 The Fate of Mansfield Humphreys, together with the 
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 i6mo $1.25 
 
 Adeline D. T. Whitney. 
 
 Faith Gartney s Girlhood. Illustrated. I2mo . . . 1.50 
 Hitherto: A Story of Yesterdays. I2mo .... 1.50 
 
 Patience Strong s Outings. I2mo 
 
 The Gayworthys. 12 mo 
 
 Leslie Goldthwaite. Illustrated. I2mo . . . 
 We Girls : A Home Story. Illustrated. I2mo 
 
 Real Folks. Illustrated. I2mo 
 
 The Other Girls. Illustrated. I2mo . 
 
 5 
 50 
 .50 
 .50 
 5 
 5 
 
 Sights and Insights. 2 vols. I2mo 3.00 
 
 Odd, or Even ? I2mo 
 
 Boys at Chequasset. Illustrated. I2mo. 
 
 50 
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 The above twelve volumes in box 18.00 
 
 * # * For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price (in 
 check on Boston or New York, money -order, or registered letter) by the 
 Publishers, 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, 
 
 4 PARK ST., BOSTON, MASS.; n EAST SEVENTEENTH ST., 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 A Catalogue containing portraits of many of the above authors, 
 with a description of their works, will be sent free, on application, 
 to any address. 
 

 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 JUN 3 1953 
 WN281953LU 
 
 ,D 21-100m-7, 52(A2528sl6)476 
 

 YB 
 
 BBBHNB