iW^U 
 
 fv/.
 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 

 
 / 
 
 ft 
 
 
 
 
 ^ f'j _'".

 
 THE BODLEY BOOKS. 
 
 THIS scries of books consists of five volumes, each independent of -the others, but since the 
 characters are the same in all there is a natural connection between them, and the order of 
 their appearance indicates also the gradual growth of the children who make up the younger 
 members of the Bodley Family. The series is as follows : 
 
 I. DOINGS OF THE BODLEY FAMILY IX TOWN AND COUNTRY. 
 
 This contains some of the doings of Nathan, Philippa, and Lucy Bodley, their father and 
 mother, the hired man Martin, and Nathan's Cousin Ned, upon their removal from Boston 
 to Roxbury. It introduces, also, Nathan's pig, the dog Neptune, Lucy's kitten, Lucy's doll, 
 Mr. Bottom the horse, chickens, mice; it .has stories told to the children by their parents, 
 by Martin, and by each other. Martin's brother Hen is referred to occasionally. 
 
 II. THE BODLEYS TELLING STORIES. 
 
 In this book Nathan's cousin, Ned Adams, a young collegian, is shown as much of the 
 time living with his cousins, and Nurse Young becomes a part of the family. The children 
 are entertained with a good many stories, especially from American history; they have a 
 Mother Goose party, and go on a journey to Cape Cod. Hen remains in the background. 
 
 III. THE BODLEYS ON WHEELS. 
 
 The family enter a carryall and drive, accompanied by Ned on horseback, along the coast 
 of Massachusetts Bay from Boston to Gloucester, and thence, through Ipswich and Rowley, 
 to Newburyport, and so home again. Their drive leads them through historic places and by 
 spots made famous in poetry and legend. On their arrival home they find Martin's brother 
 Hen in the barn, just back from a long voyage. 
 
 IV. THE BODLEYS AFOOT. 
 
 Hen entertains the children with yarns, and, Ned Adams suddenly appearing, it is pro- 
 posed that he and Nathan should take a walk to New York. They set out by Dedham and 
 the old road to Hartford, through Pomfret ; but at Hartford, where they stay a few days 
 with some old relatives, they are joined by Mrs. Bodley, Phippy, and Lucy, who go down 
 the Connecticut River with them to Saybrook, and then go back to Boston, leaving the boys 
 to continue their walk to New York. They are stopped, however, at New Haven, by a dis- 
 patch from Mr. Bodley, which brings them back at once by rail. 
 
 4888&0 
 
 EDUCATION
 
 V. MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 The reason of the dispatch is that Mr. Bodley is unexpectedly called to Europe, and in 
 this final volume of the series he goes abroad, while the rest of the family at first go for a 
 fortnight to Cape Cod, and then return to Roxbury. Mr. Bodley does not return till Thanks- 
 giving time, but lie writes letters home, and, after he returns, tells stories of Europe. The 
 children, besides, have their own journeys and adventures, so that Europe and America ap- 
 pear in equal proportions. Mrs. Bodley, who stays at home, has been to Europe before, so 
 that, she is able to enlarge on what Mr. Bodley writes home, and Hen, who has gone off on a 
 voyage, stumbles upon Mr. Bodley abroad, and comes back before him with fresh yarns. 
 
 The time of the five stories is about 1848-1852.
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 'THE BODLEYS AFOOT," "THE BODLEYS ON WHEELS," "THE BODLEYS TELLING 
 
 STORIES," "DOINGS OF THE BODLEY FAMILY IN TOWN AND COUNTRY," 
 
 "STORIES FROM MY ATTIC," "DREAM CHILDREN," AND 
 
 " SEVEN LITTLE PEOPLE AND THEIR FRIENDS" 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BOSTON 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1881
 
 Copyright, 1880, 
 BY IIOUGHTOX, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 
 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 E I. ECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 
 H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
 
 CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA 
 
 PAGE 
 
 9 
 
 II. ON THE WAY HOME 23 
 
 III. NEWS FROM SCOTLAND . ^ 46 
 
 IV. THE UNITED STATES IN A PASTURE 86 
 
 V. IN THE LOW COUNTRIES 102 
 
 VI. IN THE HIGH COUNTRY 133 
 
 VII. A JOURNEY ROUND THE GARDEN 160 
 
 VIII. DIVERS STORIES 1" 
 
 IX. THANKSGIVING 135 
 
 X. THE MAID OF ORLEANS . ... 196
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA. 
 
 R, CHARLES BODLEY left his family at home at 
 Roseland when he sailed for Europe, early in July, 
 about thirty years ago ; but on the very day, the 
 Fourth of July, when he was steaming out of 
 New York harbor, the family itself, that is, Mrs. Bodley, 
 Nathan, Philippa, and Lucy, with their cousin Ned Adams, 
 set out on a land voyage to their uncle Elisha's at Scupper's Point, 
 Hyannis Port, Cape Cod. That was the old homestead, where 
 Great Gran'ther Scupper had lived and died, after bringing up 
 twelve sons and eight daughters, and there still lived Grand-Uncle 
 Elisha Scupper, in the house which his father had built, and which 
 had taken on a room here and a room there until it was rather 
 difficult to find the original house. It stood with its back to the 
 ocean, looking out upon a little garden, which was always bright 
 with portulacca, petunias, and hollyhocks. Across the country road 
 which strayed over from Hyannis was a square built store, with 
 a faded sign of D. SCUPPER upon its face. The Port was once 
 a busy place for fishermen and their families, and Squire Scupper 
 had been the head and Centre of the little community ; but for
 
 10 Ml!. IHHH.KY ABROAI'. 
 
 many years now there had been no business done here, and Squire 
 Scupper's son kept the key of the store hung in the entry of the 
 old house, taking it down to open the door when some neighbor 
 wanted a spool of thread, a few raisins, or some split pease out 
 of the little stock that was kept for the convenience of the neigh- 
 borhood. Once in a while, on a bright afternoon, Uncle Elisha 
 would open the doors wider and sit in a great arm-chair made for 
 Squire Scupper, and big enough now to hold two people with ease, 
 especially since one of the arms was gone, and there he would read 
 the newspaper and entertain any chance passer. 
 
 The Bodleys always counted on this yearly visit to the Cape, and 
 now that their father had gone they were particularly glad to make 
 the journey with their mother, for it seemed lonely at home. They 
 set out, as I said, on the Fourth of July, and the crackers were pop- 
 ping briskly as they took the early stage-coach. They usually went 
 in their own carryall, but this year they were to go by the public 
 conveyance. Martin, their hired man, had driven them into town 
 to take the stage, and the morning air w r as still cool, but as the 
 day wore on it became excessively hot. 
 
 " I suppose your father is just starting," said Mrs. Bodley about 
 eleven o'clock. 
 
 " I wish his steamer went by Uncle Elisha's," said Nathan. " I 'd 
 wave my pocket handkerchief at him." 
 
 " So would I mine," said Cousin Ned, mopping his forehead, 
 " if it would wave ; but there is n't a particle of air stirring, and 
 my handkerchief is as stringy as a fishing-line. Would n't I like 
 to be off the breakwater at this moment, or diving off one of 
 the rocks ! " 
 
 " We '11 play this stage-coach is a steamer," said Phippy, " and
 
 GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA. 11 
 
 we 're * alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on a wide, wide sea.' 
 Mother, I suppose the Fourth of July is the very middlest middle 
 of midsummer, is n't it? Yesterday was near the top, and to- 
 morrow will begin to fall off, but to-day is the very most middle 
 point, and exactly at twelve o'clock we .shall be at the point of 
 a, pin. Yes, it will begin to be Fall at one minute after twelve 
 o'clock, at one second after twelve." 
 
 " Poh," said Nathan. " The very middle must be at twelve 
 o'clock at night between the thirtieth of June and the first of 
 July." 
 
 " Well, it 's hotter now than it was last Saturday," rejoined 
 Phippy. 
 
 " You 're both wrong," said Ned, pulling up a limp dickey. 
 " Children, midsummer is the twenty-fourth day of June." 
 
 " Just hear him ; how wise he is. Where did you find that 
 out, Mr. Adams?" 
 
 " Oh, I learned it when I was in Ireland." 
 
 " Was ye iver in Ireland ? " The voice came from a corner of 
 the coach where sat a passenger, the only other one beside the 
 family, a woman decently dressed, who had hitherto kept silence. 
 Ned laughed. 
 
 " Ye 're foolin' me," said the woman good-naturedly., " But 
 manny a time I 've watched a midsummer ave, and that 's the 
 same as the ave of St. John the Baptist. It's all the same thing." 
 The children looked at their mother. 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Bodley ; " in Europe St. John's Eve and Mid- 
 summer Eve are one and the same. Did you ever gather St. John's 
 wort, then ? " she asked, with a smile, of their neighbor. 
 
 " Indade, no, but I 've sat up manny a time to see that my sowl 
 did n't wander."
 
 12 MJi. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 What does she mean?" whispered Lucy. The woman had 
 quick cars. 
 
 " Did ye never hear that on that night ivery body's sowl laves 
 his body and Hies off to the place where the man or woman '11 die 
 some day V " 
 
 Never." said Ned. 
 
 " Wil, it does." 
 
 " But what 's the St. John's wort for, mother? " asked Lucy, who 
 wished to get away from such an uncanny subject. 
 
 That is one of the superstitions of the day. I don't know how 
 general it is now, but I suppose in some places young men and 
 women still go out in search of this plant and others, which they 
 think have magical powers. Girls used to think that if they put 
 one of these flowers in their room that night, they could tell in the 
 
 O / 
 
 morning, by the way it bent, whether they should be married within 
 a year or not." 
 
 " Then there 's no use in our hunting yet," said Phippy, with be- 
 coming philosophy. "We 're too young." 
 
 The stage-nmtc did not pass through Plymouth and the Manomet 
 Woods, but by Middleborough, and so to Sandwich. The woods in 
 many places had been burned over, and the stage toiled through 
 roads that were often heavy with sand. It was rather a tedious 
 journey, and the children were glad enough on the second day to 
 be set down at Hyannis. They found their Uncle Elisha waiting 
 for them with his carryall; they had caught sight of it out of the 
 windows of the coach. 
 
 1 The steps are down, Nathan," Phippy cried. "I'm going to 
 step on every one." 
 
 The old carryall was indeed a wonderful vehicle. Its chief glory
 
 SEEKING ST. JOHN'S WORT, MIDSUMMER EVE.
 
 GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA. 15 
 
 was a flight of narrow steps which let down from the door, one after 
 the other, making a somewhat dangerous staircase to climb, for, 
 as soon as one stepped on the lowest, he seemed in danger of tip- 
 ping the whole carryall over toward him, and most people preferred 
 to make as little use as possible of the steps. But it was a fine 
 thing, when one was fairly inside, to have the steps folded over with 
 a clatter and left shut up against the inside of the door. It was 
 hard for the children to decide whether it was more fun to climb 
 the staircase and sit inside, or to fold it up, bang the door, and take 
 a front seat. 
 
 "' I '11 fold up the steps, Uncle Elisha," said Nathan, as his mother, 
 Phippy, and Lucy were crowded into the back seat, and he slapped 
 them over and slammed the door with the air of a veteran stage- 
 driver. He sat with his broad uncle on the front seat, while Ned 
 got into a wagon with the trunks, which a small boy in a wide- 
 brimmed straw hat was to drive. The two loads started briskly 
 over the road. 
 
 " So Charles has gone, has he, Sarah ? " asked Uncle Elisha, when 
 they were fairly off. 
 
 " Yes, he was to sail yesterday noon." 
 
 " I suppose he would like to have gone in one of your ships, Un- 
 cle Elisha," said Nathan, who wished to make conversation with his 
 grand-uncle. Uncle Elisha laughed. 
 
 " It would be rather slow business waiting for a sailing vessel, 
 now, Nathan. My sailing days are over. Since they 've begun to 
 run vessels by tea-kettles I 've been of no account." 
 
 " I guess the Swiftsure would have beaten some steamers," said 
 Nathan, politely, and then he changed the subject. " Do you have 
 pandowdies now, uncle, at your house ?" .
 
 16 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " Blackberry pandoddies ? Well, I rather think your Aunt Polly 
 has n't forgotten how to make them. It 's a little early yet for 
 blackberries, but if you stay long enough you shall have some," and 
 the old gentleman looked good-naturedly down on his little nephew. 
 " So you 've been taking a walk, Nathan ? Got 'most to New York, 
 eh ? Went to New Haven, and saw all the professors walking about 
 with their hands inside out?" 
 
 "Hands inside out? " queried Nathan. " It was vacation, and I 
 don't think I saw any professors. Hands inside out ? " 
 
 " Yes, that 's the way professors used to walk." 
 
 Alexander. 
 
 " Oh, there 's Alexander," exclaimed Lucy, who had been looking 
 hard ^out of the window, and not listening to the random talk. 
 " He 's driving his cow home. Good evening, Alexander."
 
 GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA. 17 
 
 " I hope he '11 take us out in his boat," said Phippy. " I 'm going 
 to be polite to him, too. Good evening, Alexander," she said, lean- 
 ing forward ; "we've .come back again. You know we were here 
 last year ; " but Uncle Elisha cracked his whip, the carryall rattled 
 on, and Phippy bounced back against the seat before Alexander 
 could do anything more than stand by the roadside and stare at the 
 Bodleys. As they drew near the Point the children looked out 
 eagerly for all the old landmarks, and when they drove up to the 
 door they jumped out in excellent spirits. Aunt Polly was there to 
 receive them, and a capital supper was waiting on the table. A 
 thunder-storm came up while they were at tea, but it was nearly 
 over when they got up from the table, and they went out on the 
 back porch to watch the ocean and see the full moon come up 
 through the clouds that lay near the horizon. It was a bewitch- 
 ing scene, and the children were allowed to linger over it. 
 
 " I should n't like to be out on the water in a thunder-storm," 
 said Ned Adams. 
 
 " You 'd have to take all sorts of. weather," said Uncle Elisha. 
 " There 's a large assortment to be had." 
 
 " Were you ever struck by lightning, uncle ? " asked Phippy. 
 
 " Well, no, not particularly, but I 've had something better than 
 that, Phippy. I 've seen the St. Elmo fire." 
 
 " Is it anything like St. Vitus's dance ? " asked Lucy, in a whisper. 
 
 " Did you ever touch it, uncle ? " asked Ned. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Nathan. " Is it animal, vegetable, or 
 mineral ? " 
 
 "Oh, it's an electric light," said Uncle Elisha, that plays round 
 the topmast sometimes. " I 've seen it spirting out at the end of 
 the yards and off the bowsprit. Yes, I put out my hand once to 
 
 2
 
 18 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 touch it, and the current went right through my body and the fire 
 came out at the ends of my fingers. I looked very much like a 
 juggler, I can tell you." 
 Did n't it hurt ?" 
 
 "No, there wasn't any heat, nor any shock, but it seemed to 
 
 _^ draw away the flame 
 I from the spars. I sup- 
 ! pose I was a sort of 
 \ conductor." 
 
 " I wish the sun had 
 : n't gone down," said 
 ; Lucy ;" we might have 
 ; had a rainbow." 
 
 " And gone to hunt 
 | for the pot of gold," 
 I said Ned. " I can re- 
 I member when I really 
 thought there was a 
 pot of gold which a 
 fairy had hidden at the 
 other end." 
 
 " Well, there i s," 
 said Uncle Elisha. 
 "You young folks 
 don't believe it now, 
 I suppose, but I do. Don't you, Sarah ? " 
 
 " What do you mean, uncle ? " she asked, looking up at him. 
 The old gentleman smiled. 
 
 " I '11 tell you what I mean. When the rainbow 's in the sky we 
 
 The Fire of St. Elmo.
 
 GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA. 19 
 
 know the storm 's over, and we can go about our work, and nobody 
 ever found a pot of gold who did n't hunt for it just a little ahead 
 of him. It 's always a leetle farther off, where it looks brightest, 
 at the end of the bow of promise. I 've hunted all my life, but I 
 have n't found it yet. Don't you ever give up looking for the pot 
 of gold." 
 
 " Do you want us all to be rich, uncle ? " 
 
 " Yes, rich with what you get by hunting. You'll never find the 
 pot of gold lying tipped up at your feet. 'People get whatever is of 
 real use to them by hunting for it." 
 
 " I think Lucy knows something about that," said Mrs. Bodley. 
 " Lucy, you know how the wise fairy turned things into gold, don't 
 you ? " So Lucy in the moonlight said these little verses, to which 
 Uncle Elisha listened. 
 
 THE WISE FAIRY. 
 
 BY ALICE CARY. 
 
 Once, in a rough, wild country, 
 
 On the other side of the sea, 
 There lived a dear little fairy, 
 
 And her home was in a tree, 
 A dear little, queer little fairy, 
 
 And as rich as she could be. 
 
 To northward and to southward 
 
 She could overlook the land, 
 And that was why she had her house 
 
 In a tree, you understand, 
 For she was the friend of the friendless, 
 
 And her heart was in her hand. 
 
 And when she saw poor women 
 Patiently, day by day,
 
 20 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 Spinning, spinning, and spinning 
 
 Their lonesome lives away, 
 She would hide in the flax of their distaffs 
 
 A lump of gold, they say. 
 
 And when she saw poor ditchers, 
 
 Knee-deep in some wet dike, 
 Digging, digging, and digging 
 
 To their very graves, belike, 
 She would hide a shining lump of gold 
 
 Where their spades would be sure to strike.
 
 GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA. 
 
 And when she saw poor children, 
 Their goats from the pastures take, 
 
 Or saw them milking, and milking, 
 Till their arms were ready to break, 
 
 What a plashing in their milk-pails 
 Her gifts of gold would make ! 
 
 Sometimes, in the night, a fisher 
 Would hear her sweet, low call, 
 
 21 
 
 And all at once a salmon of gold 
 Right out of his net would fall ; 
 
 But what I have to tell you 
 Is the strangest thing of all. 
 
 If any ditcher, or fisher, 
 
 Or child, or spinner old, 
 Bought shoes for his feet, or bread to eat, 
 
 Or a coat to keep from the cold, 
 The gift of the good old fairy 
 
 Was always trusty gold. 
 
 But if a ditcher, or fisher, 
 Or spinner, or child so gay,
 
 22 
 
 MR. BOD LEY ABROAD. 
 
 Bought jewels, or wine, or silks so fine, 
 Or staked his treasure at play, 
 
 The fairy's gold, in his very hold, 
 Would turn to a lump of clay. 
 
 So, by and by the people 
 
 Got open their stupid eyes : 
 " We must learn to spend to some good end," 
 
 They said, " if we are wise; 
 'T is not in the gold we waste, or hold, 
 
 That a golden blessing lies." 
 
 " That 's good doctrine," said Uncle Elisha, " though the poor 
 fishers about here don't get so very many golden salmon."
 
 GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA. 23 
 
 " We '11 have some scup, anyway, before breakfast," said Ned. " I 
 should be disappointed if the first scup I caught to-morrow morning 
 was a mere chunk of gold." 
 
 " But there used to be a good many fishing vessels leaving the 
 Port, Uncle Elisha," said Mrs. Bodley. " I have heard father tell of 
 them." 
 
 " Yes, indeed, it was busy enough here once : your grandfather, 
 your great-gran'ther Scupper, Nathan, was a famous man for mak- 
 ing up voyages. Nobody thought he 'd settled matters till Squire 
 Scupper had made up his voyage. He used to spend his time over 
 at the store in that big chair you've seen; he was a powerful 
 large man, and though he was only justice of the peace, everybody 
 went to him for the law. If the people got into a quarrel, they 
 carried the matter to Squire Scupper, and whatever he said was 
 final. They tell a story of Josiah Gage, you remember him, 
 Sarah?" 
 
 " That little dried up man, that died a few years ago ? " 
 
 " Yes, that 's the one. He was off in his smack, when the Brit- 
 ish privateers were about, in the War of 1812, and his smack was 
 overhauled. The British captain was treating him rather roughly, 
 when Josiah bristled up, and says he, ' See here. You let me 'lone. 
 If you don't behave yourself, I '11 have you up before Squire Scup- 
 per ! ' " 
 
 "And did he?" asked Nathan. 
 
 " Well," said Uncle Elisha, with a twinkle, " they do say that Jo- 
 siah frightened him a little. He did n't know any bigger man than 
 Squire Scupper." 
 
 " They did n't seem to mind him much, when they caught you," 
 said Ned.
 
 24 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " Oh, when you were in Dartmoor?" exclaimed Phippy, who had 
 heard her grand-uncle tell his mishaps before. 
 
 " Yes, you know all about that," said Uncle Elisha. 
 
 "Oh, but please, uncle, tell us again," said the little girl. 
 
 " Do you want to know how I got in, or how I tried to get out ? " 
 
 " Tell us how you tried to get out." 
 
 " You want to know how your poor old uncle failed, do you ? 
 Well, I am safely out now, and I have a good bed and table, so I 
 don't so much mind having been kept in a few months longer, but I 
 was a pretty severely disappointed man at the time. I was at Dart- 
 moor prison, a lonely place on the side of some high hills, sur- 
 rounded by black moors, and about seventeen miles from Plymouth, 
 on the southwestern coast of England. It was a dismal place, and 
 we were shut up with some wretched French prisoners in a damp, 
 unwholesome prison. I believe prisons are a more agreeable sort 
 of place nowadays, but I 'd just as lieve not stay in one long, though 
 it 's better to be put in for serving your country faithfully than for 
 committing some crime. However, we were in prison, and meant 
 to get out if we could. There were two great walls inclosing the 
 prison. The outer one, which was about sixteen feet in height, was 
 a mile in circumference ; the inner wall was about thirty feet from 
 the outer and a guard was placed on top of it, every twenty feet. 
 Between the two walls were also guards and many small buildings. 
 Our plan was to dig passages from under three of the prisons to a 
 depth of about twenty feet, and then horizontally about two hundred 
 and fifty feet, which would bring us out into the road that passed 
 beyond the prison inclosure. There were a good many of us, and we 
 were all sworn to the most solemn secrecy. The three prisons from 
 which we were trying to escape were numbered four, five, and six.
 
 GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA. 25 
 
 We made a hole in each just large enough for a single fellow to 
 squeeze through, but, after a little progress had been made, we en- 
 larged the opening below so that four men could work abreast. We 
 worked at night, and closed the opening so carefully that no one 
 could discover it except he was in the secret." 
 
 " How did you get rid of the dirt ? " asked Ned. 
 
 " We tried various ways. There was a stream which ran under 
 one of the prisons, at about the rate of four miles an hour ; we 
 threw a good deal of it into that, and it was carried off by the cur- 
 rent. Then we found hollow places in which we stowed it, and we 
 got permission to whitewash the walls, but before we whitewashed 
 we^ daubed the walls with a mortar made of the dirt, and white- 
 washed over that. You see there were three or four thousand pris- 
 oners, and it was not possible to keep a very sharp lookout. We 
 began our work near the end of August, and before September had 
 got about forty feet along. Then the air began to be bad, and we 
 contrived a lamp which we kept burning in the hole, to expel the 
 dead air. But on the second of September we had a great fright. 
 The captain came along with his guards, I was in prison number 
 six, and told us he had found us out. He went straight toward 
 the hole, but could n't find it. Then they began sounding with a 
 crow-bar, and at last hit the spot. You may believe we were pretty 
 well cast down, for we thought that was the end of it. But it turned 
 out that they did not know of the holes in numbers four and five, 
 and all they did was to plug up the 'hole in our prison. They could 
 n't think what we had done with the earth, and when they asked 
 us, we all said we ate it up to make up for our short fare. They 
 laughed at the idea of our getting out, and when the affair was 
 blown over we went to work again. We waited in number six until
 
 26 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 the other holes had been carried farther, for ours was the longest, 
 and then we began again, dug round the stones they had put in to 
 fill up our hole, and went at it like beavers or musk-rats. We 
 worked away with new hope until we were within about forty feet 
 of the place we were to come out. Then we began to form our 
 plans farther. We meant to take a dark, stormy night about ten 
 o'clock, and strike for Torbay, which was about ten miles distant, 
 where we knew there were a lot of small craft, fishing boats, and 
 unarmed vessels, and with these to make our way to France. It 
 was a perfectly feasible plan, and everything was going on well, 
 when, about the middle of September, in broad daylight, a wretch 
 who was in the secret marched up to the turnkeys, went with them 
 to the keeper's house, and told the whole story. He got his reward ; 
 they gave him his liberty and some money, I believe, but I would 
 rather have stayed in Dartmoor the rest of my days than have had 
 a minute of that man's freedom. We should have got out if we 
 had not been betrayed. You can guard yourself against everything 
 but a traitor." 
 
 " What became of the man ? " 
 
 " I never knew. If he has died he has gone to judgment," said 
 Uncle Elisha solemnly. ".If he is alive, he is waiting for the last 
 judgment, but I guess he 's been in a worse prison than Dartmoor 
 a good many years. There 's no prison so bad as a guilty con- 
 science." 
 
 " How did you get out, finally ? " asked Ned. 
 
 " Well, it turned out I was a neutral. I did n't know it, but I had 
 no objection when I found it out. You see I had shipped on board 
 a Nantucket vessel, and when we were caught we were all put 
 down as from Nantucket. So one day the word came for all Nan-
 
 GRAND-UNCLE ELISHA. 
 
 tucket men to come out into the square. I thought I 'd go to see 
 what the fun was, and there was Sir Isaac Coffin, who was a British 
 admiral. He was a Bos- 
 ton boy, but came of 
 the Nantucket Coffins. 
 He was a hearty old 
 fellow, and wanted to 
 do a good turn to his 
 countrymen, so he 
 made out that Nan- 
 tucket was a sort of 
 neutral country and he 
 got us all off." 
 
 " Now that Uncle 
 Elisha is safe at home 
 again, children, I think 
 you may all go to bed. 
 You will have a great 
 deal to do to-morrow. 
 You know you must 
 catch some scup for 
 breakfast." 
 
 " Just one thing more, mother," said Nathan. " Uncle Elisha, I 
 wish you 'd tell me what you meant by professors walking with 
 their hands turned inside out." Uncle Elisha laughed. 
 
 " Why, this way, Nathan," and the old gentleman got up and 
 
 walked along the porch, with his hands held stiffly by his side, the 
 
 i 
 
 palms turned outward. 
 
 " Oh," said Nathan. " Is that it ? " Then they all trooped off 
 
 A Small Chance.
 
 28 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 to bed, and Uncle Elisha, Aunt Polly, and Mrs. Bodley followed 
 shortly. There was nothing left awake in the house -but a mouse 
 which was stealing toward the old clock in the moonlight, while a 
 cat sat fast asleep. Perhaps the mouse had heard Uncle Elisha's 
 story, and expected to escape the guard. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE WAY HOME. 
 
 THE fortnight at Hyannis Port was soon over. It was no new 
 thing for the children to be there, and so they knew exactly what 
 to do, and used all their time with the strictest economy. They 
 went in bathing just as often as they were allowed, and never lost 
 an opportunity to go out in the boat. They went off with their 
 Uncle Elisha after wood, and on stormy days they played in the 
 store, which they kept to their own satisfaction, and it was vastly 
 better fun selling real goods over a real counter to each other than 
 playing at the same game at home. They found an odd assortment 
 of abandoned hats, shoes, and some coats and dresses, with which 
 the store had been stocked years before, but were now wholly out 
 of fashion, even for the plain people of the neighborhood, and they 
 had fine fun dressing themselves in this faded finery and parad- 
 ing about in it. They marched around the neighborhood, and gave 
 great amusement to the very people who had once seen themselves 
 and friends in the same costumes without a smile. On Sunday, after 
 driving over to the village to church, they went at dusk to the
 
 ON THE WAY HOME. 29 
 
 little school-house at the Port to an evening meeting, and were less 
 interested in the meeting itself than in the great variety of lamps 
 contributed by the people who came to the meeting, and in seeing 
 and hearing some of their familiar acquaintances whom they had 
 never suspected of having gifts for exhortation. 
 
 When the fortnight was over Uncle Elisha proposed to drive the 
 family home as far as Plymouth, where they could take the stage. 
 He had some business in Plymouth, and was very glad of the chance 
 of company there, he said. He packed the family into his wagon, 
 though it was a close fit, and they started off early in the morning, 
 intending to dine at Sandwich and get supper at Plymouth. Just 
 as they were leaving the house they heard Aunt Polly calling for 
 Bose, the dog. They looked around but could see nothing of him, 
 but as they drove on Aunt Polly called louder and louder, and 
 seemed to be calling after them. Suddenly she shouted " Stop ! " 
 and Uncle Elisha reined in his horse. Aunt Polly came hurrying 
 toward them. 
 
 "Bose, come here!" she cried, and then it turned out that 
 Bose had been trotting along beneath the wagon, just like an 
 emigrant dog, as Nathan said, and was very reluctant to come 
 out and give up his trip to Plymouth. 
 
 " Bose has friends at Plymouth," said Uncle Elisha. " I 'spect 
 he knew we were going there. Fact is, he used to visit there, 
 and perhaps he 'd be living there now if Captain Ezra Gage 
 had n't got married." 
 
 " Why, what did that have to do with it ? " 
 
 " Well, you see, Bose belonged to Captain Gage, who lived 
 over east, and he was an old bachelor; but he married Desire 
 Crowell, who lived in Plymouth; and before he married he used
 
 30 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 to go there to see Desire, and took Bose along with him. Desire 
 had a cat that she set great store by, and whenever Bose saw 
 that cat he made for her. They kept 'em apart pretty well for 
 a time, but at length it would n't answer, and Desire said to 
 Ezra, ' Now, Ezra Gage, you 've got to choose between me and 
 Bose. You can't have us both. Bose is getting old and I think 
 I shall live the longest, so I 'd advise you to take me ; but do 
 just as you please about it.' ' 
 
 " And he gave up Bose ? " 
 
 " Yes, he gave him up to me ; but I think he kind of hesi- 
 tated about it at first. He 'd got used to Bose, but then he 's 
 got used to Desire now. They came back from Plymouth after- 
 ward. Does n't seem as though Desire ever thought of giving 
 up the cat." 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Bodley, " I once heard of two people mar- 
 rying to please a dog." 
 
 " Let 's hear about it," said Uncle Elisha. " Perhaps I can 
 remember about it to tell Ezra some day, - some day when he 's 
 out fishing and Desire 's well, say three miles off to windward," 
 and Uncle Elisha looked round slyly at Ned, wiio was sitting by 
 him. 
 
 " It 's a French story," said Mrs. Bodley, " which Saintine, who 
 wrote ' Picciola,' tells. He had a friend named Cabassol who was 
 a crusty, growling bachelor, and lived by himself in the country, 
 where he smoked his pipe, read his books, took care of his gar- 
 den, or walked in the fields with his dog. His dog was his best 
 friend, he used to say, and that turned out to mean more than 
 he at first intended. Medor, for that was the name of the dog, 
 had belonged to a widow who lived near the park of St. Germain.
 
 ON THE WAY HOME. 31 
 
 But the park was so very near that it was a constant temptation 
 to Medor to hunt there ; and that was very much against the 
 laws. The keepers declared that they would shoot Medor if they 
 caught him there again ; so the widow, who could not bear to have 
 Medor in danger, looked about for some one to whom she could 
 give the dog. Cabassol was named as one who would be sure to 
 take good care of the dog, and so, though she had never seen 
 him, she sent the dog to him. The two became fast friends, and 
 Cabassol never went anywhere without Medor. 
 
 " But one day, when Medor's nose was in his plate, and he 
 seemed to be thinking of nothing but his dinner, he suddenly 
 raised his head, and, trembling from head to foot, began to howl 
 and whine in the most piteous and unaccountable manner. The 
 door-bell rang ; Medor sprang forward, and when Cabassol joined 
 him, he found him rolling in an ecstasy of joy at the feet of a 
 stranger, and leaping up and down as if beside himself. It was 
 his old mistress who had left St. Germain for Paris, and had come 
 out into the country to see her old friend Medor ; for now, she 
 said, she could keep him without any danger. She cried at the 
 welcome her dog gave her. Would not Monsieur Cabassol per- 
 mit her to have Medor again? She would gladly pay whatever 
 he chose to ask for Medor's board during the last three years, 
 and a good round sum besides. 
 
 " Cabassol was furious. Give up the dog ! No money could buy 
 him, and he was almost uncivil to the widow. 
 
 " ( But he will die of grief,' said she. ' See how fond he is of 
 me. I am sure he could never bear to give me up.' 
 
 " ( I don't believe it,' shouted Cabassol. ' Come, I '11 try it 
 with you. We will go together to yonder hill which lies between
 
 32 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 my house and Paris. There we will separate. You shall go 
 down the southern path, and I will take the northern, that comes 
 back to my house. Medor shall belong to whichever one of us 
 he chooses to follow.' 
 
 " ( Very well,' said she, * I am agreed,' for she was confident 
 that the dog would follow her. Medor did not quite understand 
 the agreement; but he saw that the two people whom he loved 
 best had shaken hands and stopped quarreling and were now talk- 
 ing politely together. He was full of delight, gamboling about 
 them, and petted by both. Cabassol, though a crusty bachelor, 
 was, after all, a pleasant companion when he chose, and now, 
 feeling some pity for the lady who was to be disappointed, he 
 began to talk and to make himself very agreeable ; and the 
 widow, sorry for the loss which she was to cause him, and feeling 
 happy at recovering Medor, was in high spirits and made herself 
 quite entertaining. 
 
 " When the time came for her to go, the three walked slowly to- 
 gether to the top of the hill, the two, I mean for Medor was 
 frisking about them in great glee. At the top they separated, and 
 Cabassol went at once down the northern slop, while the lady went 
 down the southern, and Medor bounded after her. But in a mo- 
 ment he saw that his master was not with them ; he ran back to 
 him ; then he saw his mistress was not following, but was keeping 
 on in her path ; he ran back to her ; then to Cabassol, who was still 
 keeping on in his path ; then to his mistress ; then to Cabassol, then 
 to his mistress; then, and so up and down, backward and for- 
 ward, the road becoming longer and steeper each time. He could 
 not make up his mind- which to leave ; he could not understand it at 
 all ; he went first to one, then to the other, ten times, and then ten
 
 ON THE WAY HOME. 
 
 33 
 
 times more, while they, without turning about, or saying a word, 
 kept straight on in their separate paths. At last, poor Medor, out 
 of breath, the sweat pouring from him, his tongue hanging out of 
 his mouth, fell down 
 completely exhausted, 
 on the very top of the 
 hill where they had sep- 
 arated ; and there, turn- 
 ing his head first to the 
 right and then to the 
 left, he tried to follow, 
 with his eyes at least, 
 the two beings to each 
 of whom he had given 
 half his heart. 
 
 " Cabassol, meanwhile, 
 saw how the poor dog 
 fared, for each time he 
 returned to him he was 
 panting harder. He was 
 seized with pity for him ; 
 he resolved to give back 
 Medor to the lady, else 
 he saw that Medor would 
 surely die. He turned up the hill and came to the top. At the 
 same moment the widow came up the hill from the other side, she, 
 too, out of pity for Medor, resolving to sacrifice her own feelings 
 and suffer Cabassol to keep the beloved dog. They met at the top 
 over the poor fellow, who was now wagging his tail in a feeble 
 
 Poor Medor !
 
 34 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 manner, to express his delight. But how could they make the poor 
 animal submit to a new separation ? If he were to go with either 
 alone, it would break his heart, Cabassol reflected. He saw only 
 one way of getting out of the difficulty, and that was to marry the 
 lady. Would she have him ? Yes, for Medor's sake. And so they 
 married to please the dog." 
 
 " What a pity Bose could n't have managed his affairs better," 
 said Ned. 
 
 " But then Uncle Elisha would n't have had him," objected 
 Phippy. It was late 1 in the afternoon when they came into Plym- 
 outh, and they saw one vessel only in the harbor. 
 
 " There is the Mayflower," said Lucy. " How fortunate we are 
 in getting here now ! We shall be in time to see them land." 
 
 " They are in the cabin now signing their compact," said Ned, 
 " and that 's the reason why we don't see them at this moment." 
 
 " Then they won't land for a month," said Mrs. Bodley, " and we 
 won't wait for them. Besides, the Mayflower was in Provincetown 
 harbor when they signed the compact." 
 
 " That compact was a sensible document," said Uncle Elisha. 
 " It shows how reasonable those Pilgrims were when they saw that 
 they never could prosper in a colony if each family or person looked 
 after themselves only. They meant to agree together and to help 
 each other, and that's the reason why their colony lasted in spite of 
 all the trouble they had." 
 
 The Bodleys had a day in Plymouth before they went home, 
 and they took a little excursion to Duxbury. They had been in 
 Plymouth more than once before and were familiar with the curiosi- 
 ties there, but they never had made a pilgrimage to the home of 
 Standish, and as that famous captain had often been repre-
 
 ON THE WAY HOME. 
 
 35 
 
 sented in their sports, they thought it no more than right that they 
 should look up his bones if they could find them. Uncle Elisha went 
 with the party and carried them to the top of Captain's Hill, which 
 was a part of the old Standish farm. 
 
 Signing the Compact. 
 
 " What a splendid place for a bonfire ! " said Phippy. 
 
 " Splendid indeed," said Uncle Elisha, " and I 've no doubt it saw 
 a good many in Standish's day and afterward. They had no tele- 
 graph in those times, and no light-houses either. I 've no doubt 
 they lighted fires here on stormy nights when they were expecting
 
 36 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 a vessel in, and that they used the hill for a beacon. You know 
 they used to signal from one place to another by means of fires, 
 bale-fires they called them, for they generally were used to warn 
 people of some danger." 
 
 " Yes," said Ned, " don't you remember Scott's 
 
 ' Sweet Teviot! on thy silver tide 
 
 The glaring bale-fires blaze no more? ' " 
 
 " I 'm not sure that 
 bale meant misfortune," 
 said Mrs. Bodley. " I 
 think it meant fagot or 
 N] something of 'the kind, 
 for I remember having 
 read that there used to 
 be signals by numbers, 
 that one bale meant one 
 thing, two something 
 else." 
 
 " Just as it was with 
 the lanterns hung f o r 
 Paul Revere," said Lucy. 
 
 " Exactly, and do you 
 remember, Ned, how the 
 Scotch had another sig- 
 nal by fire when they 
 sent the Fiery Cross 
 about ? " 
 
 " To be sure I do. 
 In the ' Lady of the 
 
 The Fiery Cross.

 
 ON THE WAY HOME. 39 
 
 Lake ' you know Roderick Dhu killed a goat, and then the priest 
 dipped a cross in the blood. But there was n't any fire about it, 
 aunt, I believe. They called it the Fiery Cross because anybody 
 who disobeyed the signal would be put to death by fire. I think 
 that was the reason." 
 
 " But what was the cross for, anyway ? " asked Nathan. 
 
 " Why, it was the method the chief of a clan used to bring his 
 men about him. He made a light cross of wood, and then oh, I 
 remember, he did set the ends on fire, and then put out the fire by 
 dipping it in the blood of a goat, and the cross was sent from village 
 to village, and every man, who saw it must go at once to the ren- 
 dezvous which was named by the messenger." 
 
 " Well, they knew how to send messages in the old colony," said 
 Uncle Elisha, " and they could talk with the Indians in that way. 
 You know Tisquantum brought a rattlesnake skin from Canonicus, 
 and the colonists knew very well that meant defiance. I always 
 liked old Governor Bradford's pluck, when he stuffed the skin full 
 of bullets and sent it back again." 
 
 "Now, uncle," said Nathan, "just show us where Captain Miles 
 Standish was buried, and we '11 go and salute his grave." 
 
 " Nobody knows. I suppose it was somewhere on the side of 
 this hill. Down yonder his house stood, but it was burned after 
 his death. His son Alexander built a house in 1666, which yon see 
 over there, the Faunce House they call it now, and we '11 go down 
 and take a look at it, for it 's an old house, and when you see it 
 you '11 come about as near to seeing Miles Standish's house as you 
 can." They all started down the hill, and Uncle Elisha kept on with 
 his story. " The colony granted the Standish farm to the captain 
 in 1630. I shouldn't wonder if he named the place Duxbury after
 
 40 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 Duxbury Hall in England, where the Standishes lived. There 's a 
 little mystery about the Captain. No one knows exactly why he 
 came with the Pilgrims. He does n't seem to have been made pre- 
 
 Standish House, Duxbury. Built 1666. 
 
 cisely out of the same material, but he was a good soldier, and he 
 was worth a host to the young colony. There, this is the house, 
 and it's pretty certain that Alexander Standish used some of the
 
 THE WAY HOME. 
 
 41 
 
 timbers out of the old house that was burned, for you can see marks 
 on the beams in some places where they used a whipsaw, and as 
 they had saw-mills in Alexander's time, it 's not likely he would 
 have used a whipsaw, though that's not certain." 
 
 " What is a whipsaw ? " 
 
 " It 's a big saw with two handles, worked by a couple of men, 
 but it's slow work. That isn't the only sign though, for the beams 
 
 Fire-place in tne Standish House. 
 
 show evidence of having been used before. They are of oak, and 
 people have found the mortises and tenons used in the old framing. 
 But we '11 ask to go inside." 
 
 Uncle Elisha knocked and a woman came to the door. Her good- 
 natured face looked very familiar, and puzzled Mrs. Bodley a mo- 
 ment. Lucy plucked her mother's gown, but before she could 
 whisper, the woman herself spoke out.
 
 42 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 "It's ye, is it? An are ye lookin' for St. John's wort?" and 
 she broke into a laugh. It was their stage-coach acquaintance of a 
 fortnight ago. Uncle Elisha did n't quite make out the meaning of 
 
 her question. 
 
 " We 've called to ask if these children could see the inside of the 
 old Standish House," he explained. 
 
 Doors and Latches in the Standish House. 
 
 " Walk in, walk in. It's not me that knows anny thing about the 
 old house. I only came yisterday, and the misthress is away. But 
 I know the leddy and her family. Ye 're wilcome, ma'am. It 's a 
 quare old place." She led them into a room where they saw a 
 great fire-place with a crane and an old brick oven. A warming- 
 pan hung on the chimney. 
 
 " There," said Uncle Elisha, " this old hearth-stone is said to have;
 
 ON THE WA Y HOME. 45 
 
 come out from the first house, and there are some doors and latches 
 which tradition says belonged there too." The children walked 
 about and were pretty sure they found these, for there were some 
 very venerable ones, older and quainter than others in the house. 
 
 " How queer it seems," said Ned, as they left, "to see an Irish 
 woman who has n't been over here very long taking care of an old 
 Pilgrim's house." 
 
 " Well, she would n't have come," said Uncle Elisha, " if Miles 
 Stand ish had n't come over first and cleared the way for her. 
 Those ventures two hundred and thirty years ago had, after all, a 
 good deal to do with these ship loads of Irish emigrants now, though 
 they may not know it." 
 
 " Miles got the Indians out of the way before Patrick started," 
 said Nathan, sagely. 
 
 " Yes, he was needed, and perhaps they would have fared much 
 worse without him, for the Pilgrims found it hard to understand 
 the Indians, and they were so unlike each other that it was almost 
 impossible they should not come to blows. But they had no 
 savage, malicious, or envious feelings towards them, and they 
 gladly showed their good will whenever they could. Indeed, the 
 Pilgrims got along rather better with the Indians than the Boston 
 people did, and more than once the Indians would bring in a 
 deer to show their friendliness." 
 
 The morning was pretty much occupied with the visit to Dux- 
 bury, and in the afternoon, when the tide was up, they had a 
 good plunge in the sea. The next day they bade Uncle Elisha 
 good-by and took the stage for Boston. 
 
 " Sha'n't we go through Duxbury again ? " asked Phippy. 
 
 " Not through the part where you were yesterday, but you Ml
 
 46 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 go by the Tree of Knowledge, and that 's on the borders of 
 
 Duxbury." 
 
 " The Tree of Knowledge ! then is Duxbury in the garden of 
 
 Eden ? " 
 
 "Oh, it's the modern Tree of Knowledge," laughed Uncle 
 Elisha. " There was a pine-tree that had a box fastened to it for 
 letters, and the mails used to get carried forward in that way. 
 I suppose folks thought the letters were all full of wisdom, at 
 least those they did n't write themselves. I don't write many let- 
 ters myself, nor get many. Perhaps an apple 's about as good a 
 way to get knowledge as a letter is ; " and with that Uncle 
 Elisha turned away and the stage-coach rolled off with the Pod- 
 leys towards Boston. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 
 
 IT seemed rather lonely to be in Roseland again and not to 
 see Mr. Bodley. The children began to look eagerly for letters 
 before they could possibly come. In those days there was no 
 Atlantic telegraph, and they could not know of the safe arrival 
 of their father's steamer for nearly three weeks. Two of those 
 they had spent at the Cape, and though they knew it was of 
 no use, they began as soon as they got home to hunt the daily 
 paper for news of the arrival out of the Arctic, which was the 
 name of the steamer. The evening paper was left by the car- 
 rier in a little covered box at the foot of the avenue, and usu-
 
 THE STUDY, ABBOTSFORD.
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 
 
 49 
 
 ally Nep was sent down after it. He would lift the lid of the 
 box with his nose, poke his head in, seize the paper and trot up 
 the avenue with it, to lay it at his master's feet ; but now, every 
 evening the children sat in a row on the stone wall, under the 
 hawthorn hedge, watching for the boy, and as soon as they dis- 
 covered him they would rush up the road, and the first one to 
 get the paper had to race back to the house with the others 
 
 View of Abbotsford. 
 
 close behind, in eager chase, while Nep barked furiously, as if 
 he had been defrauded of his right. 
 
 At length, on Saturday night, they were rewarded with a line 
 in the paper telling of the arrival of the Arctic at Liverpool, 
 and they knew that now they should get letters soon ; the next 
 week brought a short letter telling of the voyage over, and then, 
 a week later, came a longer letter from Edinburgh. Mrs. Bodley 
 read it aloud to the family. Part of it was of their father's 
 visit to Abbotsford.
 
 50 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " I took a little excursion to Abbotsford Wednesday," he wrote, 
 " and must tell you and the children of the house. It was by 
 no means so fine as I had expected. I wish I could say it was 
 really fine, but, in spite of the many curiosities about it, it 
 seemed to me a made-up hall. I rapped on the stone to see if 
 it might not be pasteboard. But after all it was like one of 
 Scott's romances, full of odds and ends of Scottish antiquity, 
 cleverly put together. What was wanting was Scott himself who 
 always redeemed his stories from mere cleverness by his own 
 genuine nature, and who would, I am sure, have made Abbots- 
 ford real if he himself had stood in it with his hearty welcome. 
 He was not there, but the place was kept in a way constantly 
 to remind one of him. I went into his study. Scott was not 
 there, but his clothes were ! In a glass case was a complete 
 suit worn by him before his death, and in a little closet near by 
 was his stout walking-stick and some costumes which he some- 
 times wore, I believe. I did not care for them, but I looked 
 long at the table at which he used to write. There stood his 
 easy, stuffed chair drawn up before it, as if he had just gone 
 out to walk with Maida ; upon the walls were shelves lined with 
 the books which he used most. It was a high room and a light 
 gallery ran around it, with a little flight of steps, so that one could 
 get at the books above. I think there was a connection, too, with 
 his bed-chamber from it. The study had not a great many show 
 things in it. There was a massive silver inkstand upon the table, 
 and a few pictures and curiosities about the walls. I liked to think 
 of Scott working there with no need to remind himself of many 
 things, for his head and his heart were full of what he was writ- 
 ing ; all he needed was table and chair, pen, ink, and paper.
 
 THE LIBRARY, ABBOTSFORD
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 53 
 
 " The Library was a more pretentious room. It had a carved 
 oaken roof, and the walls were lined with books, there must have 
 been twenty thousand there. Over the fire-place is a large paint- 
 ing of Scott's eldest son as an officer in the army. The room had a 
 good many curiosities in it, presents to Scott from the Pope, from 
 King George III., and from great authors and others. The armory, 
 however, would interest you most, Nathan. It was a narrow, arched 
 room, lighted by a blazoned window, and crowded with curiosities. 
 There was Rob Roy's gun ; the blunderbuss of Hofer, the Swiss pa- 
 triot ; the pistols of Napoleon, found in his carriage after the battle 
 of Waterloo ; some thumbpins and boots, with which the Covenant- 
 ers were tormented, as you have read in " Old Mortality ; " the two 
 great keys of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, found after the burning 
 of the doors by the mob, for which see " The Heart of Midlothian," 
 and many other things. I wandered back to the study. That, after 
 all, seemed closest to Scott. There he had sat and written his won- 
 derful novels. How I wished he had never broken his heart over 
 this costly plaything of Abbotsford. You must get your mother to 
 tell you about Walter Scott, for you are old enough, at least Ned 
 and Nathan are, not only to read his stories, but to care about the 
 man himself. 
 
 " I went to Melrose afterward, and had a lovely time in the ruins 
 of the old abbey. It was at the end of the afternoon, when no vis- 
 itors were likely to interrupt me. The young woman who conducts 
 people about had left me to myself, and I lay on my back on the 
 turf, looking up to the sky, and letting my eyes ramble over the old 
 stones. It was pleasant, after sight-seeing, to lie there and let my 
 thoughts wander about as aimlessly as the fickle swallows that 
 darted overhead. The ruins were all around me, but the sky was
 
 54 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 best, and the quiet of evening, more quiet because it was gath- 
 ering about me in that deserted sanctuary, seemed to wrap me as 
 with a mantle of rest. I thought of the old monks so long dead, 
 and how their wonderful home was shared now by the swallows and 
 myself. I am thankful that so many, many beautiful old things are 
 standing in this country for me to enjoy. I will leave you, Sarah, 
 to tell the children what Melrose Abbey once was." 
 
 Mrs. Bodley had hurried 
 over this last part of the let- 
 ter, and the last sentence 
 slipped off her tongue before 
 she was aware. 
 
 " Certainly, Aunt Sarah," 
 said Ned. "We know what 
 the Abbey is now, or a part 
 of it, at any rate, for Uncle 
 Charles lay on his back in 
 the grass and looked up to 
 the sky. I don't suppose the 
 monks used to do that." 
 
 " I don't know just what the 
 monks had to do at Melrose, 
 Ned, but a good part of their 
 time was taken up with re- 
 ligious devotions. Then they 
 had their copying to do, copying portions of Scripture or missals, 
 and doing their work very delicately, as if they loved it. That was 
 before the days of printing, you know, when books had to be 
 copied slowly by the pen." 
 
 A Monk at Work.
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 57 
 
 " I 've copied a part of the Epistle to the Hebrews," said Nathan. 
 
 " If you had done as the monks did, you would have made the 
 first word, and especially the first letter, in the epistle brilliant with 
 color, and have painted a little picture about it. I am very glad 
 we have no monks about us in this country, but I should be glad 
 to think that we had more that did their work as carefully and 
 with as much love for it." 
 
 " How big the world is ! " said Lucy, with a sigh. 
 
 " Do you want to see papa again ? " 
 
 " Yes, but I was not thinking of that, then. I was thinking of 
 Melrose Abbey and t the monks, and" -but the little girl was puz- 
 zled to say just what she meant. 
 
 " And how there was room for all that and Roseland, too," ex- 
 plained Ned, who saw what she was struggling with. 
 
 " Yes, that was it. I think I like Roseland best." 
 
 "We all do," said Mrs. Bodley. "But you know you like to go 
 to Hyannis, and you liked our journey to Newburyport and to 
 Hartford, because you liked to find the world was bigger than you 
 knew ; but home 's the best, for home 's a nest." 
 
 When tea was over, the children gathered about Mrs. Bodley to 
 hear what she would tell them of Walter Scott. They had heard 
 some of his stories. They had read " Ivanhoe," and they knew 
 " Kenilworth," at least the older ones did. Mrs. Bodley hesitated 
 what to tell them. Then she reflected that Scott had himself told 
 much of his life, and she resolved to read to them in Scott's own 
 words what he had told of his youth, his old friends, his faithful ser- 
 vants. They were sitting on the doorstep in the long twilight, look- 
 ing across the pleasant fields, and she took the book and read here 
 and there to them, choosing the parts which she thought they would 
 like best to hear, and sometimes putting in a word of explanation.
 
 58 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 "'I was born, as I believe, on the 15th August, 1771, in a 
 house belonging to my father, at the head of the College wynd.' 
 That was in Edinburgh. The wynds were narrow lanes, that 
 turned, it may be, like winding country lanes ; but they were 
 bordered by high, very high, houses instead of by green banks 
 and trees. ' It was pulled down, with others, to make room for 
 the northern front of the new college. I was an uncommonly 
 healthy child, but had nearly died in consequence of my first 
 nurse being ill of a consumption, a circumstance which she chose 
 to conceal, though to do so was murder to both herself and me. 
 She went privately to consult Dr. Black, the celebrated professor 
 of chemistry, who put my father on his guard. The woman was 
 dismissed, and I was consigned to a healthy peasant, who is still 
 alive' this was written in 1808, and the nurse died two years 
 afterward ' to boast of her laddie being what she calls a grand 
 gentleman. I showed every sign of health and strength until I 
 was about eighteen months old. One night, I have been often 
 told, I showed great reluctance to be caught and put to bed ; 
 and after being chased about the room, was apprehended and 
 consigned to my dormitory with some difficulty. It was the last 
 time I was to show such personal agility. In the morning I was 
 discovered to be affected with the fever which often accompanies 
 the cutting of large teeth. It held me three days. On the 
 fourth, when they went to bathe me as usual, they discovered 
 that I had lost the power of my right leg. My grandfather, an 
 excellent anatomist as well as physician, the late worthy Alexan- 
 der Wood, and many others of the most respectable of the fac- 
 ulty were consulted. There appeared to be no dislocation or 
 strain ; blisters and other topical remedies were applied in vain.
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 59 
 
 When the efforts of regular physicians had been exhausted, with- 
 out the slightest success, my anxious parents, during the course 
 of many years, eagerly grasped at every prospect of cure which 
 was held out by the promise of empirics, or of ancient ladies or 
 gentlemen who conceived themselves entitled to recommend various 
 remedies, some of w r hich were of a nature sufficiently singular. 
 But the advice of my grandfather, Dr. Rutherford, that I should 
 be sent to reside in the country, to give the chance of natural 
 exertion excited by free air and liberty, was first resorted to; 
 and before I have the recollection of the slightest event I was, 
 agreeably to this friendly counsel, an inmate in the farm-house 
 
 of Sandy-Knowe 
 
 " ' It is here at Sandy-Knowe, in the residence of my paternal 
 grandfather,' that is, of his father's father, as Dr. Rutherford 
 was his mother's father, ' that I have the first consciousness of 
 existence ; and I recollect distinctly that my situation and appear- 
 ance were a little whimsical. Among the odd remedies recurred 
 to, to aid mv lameness,- -some one had recommended that so often 
 
 %f 
 
 as a sheep was killed for the use of the family, I should be 
 stripped, and swathed up in the skin, warm as it was flayed from 
 the carcass of the animal. In this Tartar-like habiliment I well 
 remember lying upon the floor of the little parlor in the farm- 
 house, while my grandfather, a venerable old man with white 
 
 hair, used every excitement to make me try to crawl My 
 
 grandmother continued for some years to take charge of the farm,' 
 after his grandfather's death, ' assisted by my father's second 
 brother, Mr. Thomas Scott, who resided at Crailing, as factor or 
 land-steward for Mr. Scott of Danesfield, then proprietor of that 
 estate My grandmother, in whose youth the old Border
 
 60 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 depredations,' the forays across the border of England and Scot- 
 land, ' were matters of recent tradition, used to tell me many a 
 tale of Watt of Harden,' an ancestor of his, 'Wight Willie of 
 Aikwood, Jamie Telfer of the fair Dodhead, and other heroes 
 merry men all of the persuasion and calling of Robin Hood and 
 Little John Two or three old books which lay in the win- 
 dow-seat were explored for my amusement in the tedious winter 
 days. Automathes, and Ramsay's " Tea-table Miscellany," were 
 my favorites, although at a later period an odd volume of Jose- 
 phus's " Wars of the Jews " divided my partiality. 
 
 " ' My kind and affectionate aunt, Miss Janet Scott, whose 
 memory will ever be dear to me, used to read these works to 
 me with admirable patience, until I could repeat long passages 
 by heart. The ballad of Hardyknute I was early master of, to 
 the great annoyance of almost our only visitor, the worthy cler- 
 gyman of the parish, Dr. Duncan, who had not patience to have 
 a sober chat interrupted by my shouting forth this ditty. Me- 
 thinks I now see his tall, thin, emaciated figure, his legs cased 
 in clasped gambadoes ' " 
 
 "Gambadoes, gambadoes," said Ned. 
 
 " Leggings for riding, Ned, I think, ' in clasped gambadoes, 
 and his face of a length that would have rivaled the knight of 
 La Mancha's, and hear him exclaiming, " One may as well speak 
 in the mouth of a cannon as where that child is." .... I was in 
 my fourth year when my father was advised that the Bath 
 waters might be of some advantage to my lameness. My affec- 
 tionate aunt, although such a journey promised to a person of 
 her retired habits anything but pleasure or amusement, under- 
 took as readily to accompany me to the wells of Bladud, as if she
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 61 
 
 had expected all the delight that ever the prospect of a watering- 
 place held out to its most impatient visitants. My health was by 
 this time a good deal confirmed by the country air, and the in- 
 fluence of that imperceptible and unfatiguing exercise to which 
 the good sense of my grandfather had subjected me ; for when 
 the day was fine I was usually carried out and laid down beside 
 the old shepherd, among the crags or rocks round which he fed 
 his sheep. The impatience of a child soon inclined me to strug- 
 gle with my infirmity, and I began by degrees to stand, to walk, 
 and to run. Although the limb affected was much shrunk and 
 contracted, my general health, which was of more importance, 
 was much strengthened by being frequently in the open air ; and, 
 in a word, I, who in a city had probably been condemned to 
 hopeless and helpless decrepitude, was now a healthy, high-spir- 
 ited, and, my lameness apart, a sturdy child 
 
 " ' At Bath, where I lived about a year, I went through all the 
 usual discipline of the pump-room and baths, but, I believe, without 
 the least advantage to my lameness. During my residence at Bath 
 I acquired the rudiments of reading at a day school, kept by an old 
 dame near our lodgings, and I had never a more regular teacher, 
 although I think I did not attend her a quarter of a year. An occa- 
 sional lesson from my aunt supplied the rest After being a 
 
 year at Bath, I returned first to Edinburgh, and afterwards for a 
 season to Sandy-Knowe ; and thus the time whiled away till about 
 my eighth year, when it was thought sea-bathing might be of ser- 
 vice to my lameness. For this purpose, still under my aunt's pro- 
 tection, I remained some weeks at Prestonpans, a circumstance not 
 worth mentioning, excepting to record my juvenile intimacy with 
 an old military veteran, Dalgetty by name '"
 
 62 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " Dugald Dalgetty ! " said Ned. " He 's in the ' Legend of Mon- 
 trose.' " 
 
 " The name is, certainly. Scott used it when he needed it, but I 
 do not believe he would have done anything to hurt his old friend's 
 feelings, for Dalgetty, let me see, 'had pitched his tent in that little 
 village, after all his campaigns, subsisting upon an ensign's half -pay, 
 though called by courtesy a captain. As this old gentleman, who 
 had been in all the German wars, found very few to listen to his 
 tales of military feats, he formed a sort of alliance with me, and I 
 used invariably to attend him for the pleasure of hearing those com- 
 munications. Sometimes our conversation turned on the American 
 war, which was then raging.' ' 
 
 " What, our war ? " asked Phippy, " our war of the Revolution ? " 
 
 " Yes. ' It was about the time,' Scott says, * of Burgoyne's un- 
 fortunate expedition, to which my captain and I augured different 
 conclusions. Somebody had showed me a map of North America, 
 and, struck with the rugged appearance of the country, and the 
 quantity of lakes, I expressed some doubts on the subject of the 
 general's arriving safely at the end of his journey, which were very 
 indignantly refuted by the captain.' ' 
 
 " But Burgoyne's expedition did fail." 
 
 " Yes, and so Scott was right and Dalgetty was wrong. He went 
 home after this, and was sent to school, where he did not at first 
 study much, but became a great favorite with his companions. 
 ' Among my companions my good-nature and flow of ready imag- 
 ination rendered me very popular. Boys are uncommonly just in 
 their feelings, and at least equally generous. My lameness, and the 
 efforts which I made to supply that disadvantage, by making up in 
 address what I wanted in activity, engaged the latter principle in
 
 WALTER SCOTT. BY RAEBURN
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 65 
 
 my favor ; and in the winter play hours, when hard exercise was 
 impossible, my tales used to assemble an admiring audience round 
 Lucky Brown's fireside, and happy was he that could sit next to the 
 inexhaustible narrator. I was also, though often negligent of my 
 own task, always ready to assist my friends, and hence I had a little 
 party of staunch partisans and adherents, stout of hand and heart, 
 though somewhat dull of head the very tools for raising a hero 
 to eminence. So, on the whole, I made a brighter figure in the 
 yards than in the class.' ' 
 
 " Did he ever get over his lameness ? " asked Lucy. 
 
 " No, but it was only as he got well on in life that he felt it seri- 
 ously, at any rate as a pain. He walked a great deal when he was 
 a boy, in spite of his lameness. ' My frame,' he says, ' gradually be- 
 came hardened with my constitution, and being both tall and mus- 
 cular, I was rather disfigured than disabled by my lameness. This 
 personal disadvantage did not prevent me from taking much exer- 
 cise on horseback, and making long journeys on foot, in the course 
 of which I often w r alked from twenty to thirty miles a day. A dis- 
 tinct instance occurs to me. I remember walking with poor James 
 Ramsay, my fellow apprentice, now no more, and two other friends, 
 to breakfast at Prestonpans, We spent the forenoon in visiting the 
 ruins at Seton, and the field of battle at Preston dined at Pres- 
 tonpans on tiled haddock very sumptuously drank half a bottle 
 of port each, and returned in the evening. This could not be less 
 than thirty miles, nor do I remember being at all fatigued upon the 
 
 occasion My principal object in these excursions was the 
 
 pleasure of seeing romantic scenery, or, what afforded me at least 
 equal pleasure, the places which had been distinguished by remark- 
 able historical events.' ' 
 
 5
 
 66 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 '* Just our sentiments," said Ned, nudging Nathan with his elbow. 
 
 " See that you learn to tell about them as well," said Mrs. 
 Bodley, and then she went on : " ' The delight with which I re- 
 garded the former, of course had general approbation; but I 
 often found it difficult to procure sympathy with the interest I 
 felt in the latter. Yet to me the wandering over the field of 
 Bannockburn was the source of more exquisite pleasure than 
 gazing upon the celebrated landscape from the battlements of 
 Stirling Castle. I do not by any means infer that I was dead 
 to the feeling of picturesque scenery ; on the contrary few de- 
 lighted more in its general effect. But I was unable with the 
 eye of a painter to dissect the various parts of the scene, to 
 comprehend how the one bore upon the other, to estimate the 
 effect which various features of the view had in producing its 
 
 leading and general effect After long study and many 
 
 efforts I was unable to apply the elements of perspective or of 
 shade to the scene before me, and was obliged to relinquish in 
 despair an art which I was most anxious to practice. But show 
 me an old castle or a field of battle, and I was at home at once, 
 filled it with its combatants in their proper costume, and over- 
 whelmed my hearers by the enthusiasm of my description. In 
 crossing Magus Moor, near St. Andrews, the spirit moved me 
 to give a picture of the assassination of the Archbishop of St. 
 Andrews to some fellow travelers with whom I was accident- 
 ally associated, and one of them, though well acquainted with 
 the story, protested my narrative had frightened away his night's 
 sleep. I mention this to show the distinction between a sense of 
 the picturesque in action and in scenery Meanwhile I en- 
 deavored to make amends for my ignorance of drawing by adopt-
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 67 
 
 ing a sort of technical memory respecting the scenes I visited. 
 Wherever I went I cut a piece of a branch from a tree these 
 constituted what I called my log-book ; and I intended to have a 
 set of chessmen out of them, each having reference to the place 
 where it was cut as the kings from Falkland and Holyrood ; 
 the queens from Queen Mary's yew-tree at Crookston ; the bish- 
 ops from abbeys or episcopal palaces ; the knights from baronial 
 residences ; the rooks from royal fortresses, and the pawns gen- 
 erally from places worthy of historical note. But this whimsical 
 design I never carried into execution.' ' 
 
 "What a capital idea! " said Ned. "Why have not we thought 
 of something of the kind ? " 
 
 " I 've got a seal made out of John Winthrop's pear-tree," said 
 Nathan. 
 
 " I 've thought of something," said Phippy, suddenly. " But I 
 sha'n't tell. At least I sha'n't tell now," and she shut her lips 
 tightly and sealed them with her hand to make sure. " Go on, 
 mother," she gurgled through her fingers. 
 
 " Phippy will keep her secret till it breaks," said Mrs. Bodley, 
 laughing, and taking up her book again. " You see how Walter 
 Scott, without knowing it, was learning all this time to tell 
 stories, for he loved what he saw, and he lived amongst people 
 who told him of what had happened right about him. There is 
 a pretty story which Lockhart, his biographer tells, which will 
 show how industrious he was in after years when he was writing 
 his first famous novel, ' Waverley.' Let me see," and she turned 
 the pages, " here it is. ' Happening to pass through Edinburgh 
 in June, 1814, I dined one day with William Menzies, whose 
 residence was then in George Street, situated very near to, and
 
 68 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 at right angles with, North Castle Street. It was a party of 
 very young persons, most of them, like Menzies and myself, des- 
 tined for the Bar of Scotland, all gay and thoughtless, enjoying 
 the first flush of manhood, w r ith little remembrance of the yes- 
 terday or care of the morrow. When my companion's worthy 
 father and uncle, after seeing two or three bottles go round, 
 left the juveniles to themselves, the weather being hot, we ad- 
 journed to a library which had one large window looking north- 
 ward. After carousing here for an hour or more, I observed 
 that a shade had come over the aspect of my friend, who hap- 
 pened to be placed immediately opposite to myself, and said 
 something that intimated a fear of his being unwell. " No," said 
 he, " I shall be well enough presently, if you will only let me 
 sit where you are, and take my chair ; for there is a confounded 
 hand in sight of me here, which has often bothered me before, 
 and now it won't let me fill my glass with a good will." I rose 
 to change places with him accordingly, and he pointed out to 
 me this hand which, like the writing on Belshazzar's wall, dis- 
 turbed his hour of hilarity. " Since we sat down," he said, " I 
 have been watching it ; it fascinates my eye ; it never stops ; page 
 after page is finished and thrown on that heap of manuscript, 
 and still it goes on unwearied ; and so it will be till candles are 
 brought in, and God knows how long after that. It is the same 
 every night. I can't stand a sight of it when I am not at my 
 books." "Some stupid, engrossing clerk, probably," exclaimed 
 myself, or some other giddy youth in our society. "No, boys," 
 said our host, " I well know what hand it is 'tis Walter Scott's." 
 This was the hand that, in the evenings of three summer weeks, 
 wrote the last two volumes of " Waverley." '
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 69 
 
 " And here is a picture of Scott at Abbotsford which Washington 
 Irving has given us : 
 
 " ' The noise of my chaise had disturbed the quiet of the estab- 
 lishment. Out sallied the warder of the castle, a black grey- 
 hound, and leaping on one of the blocks of stone began a 
 furious barking. This alarm brought out the whole garrison of 
 dogs, all open-mouthed and vociferous. In a little while the lord 
 of the castle himself made his appearance. I knew him at once, 
 by the likenesses that had been published of him. He came 
 limping up the gravel walk, aiding himself by a stout walking- 
 staff, but moving rapidly and with vigor. By his side jogged 
 along a large iron-gray staghound of most grave demeanor, who 
 took no part in the clamor of the canine rabble, but seemed to 
 consider himself bound, for the dignity of the house, to give me 
 a courteous reception. Before Scott reached the gate, he called 
 out in a hearty tone, welcoming me to Abbotsford, and asking 
 news of Campbell. Arrived at the door of the chaise, he grasped 
 me warmly by the hand : " Come, drive down, drive down to the 
 house," said he; "ye 're just in time for breakfast, > and afterwards 
 ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey." 
 
 " ' I would nave excused myself on the plea of having already 
 made my breakfast. " Hut, man," cried he, " a ride in the morn- 
 ing in the keen air of the Scotch hills is warrant enough for a 
 second breakfast." I was accordingly whirled to the portal of the 
 cottage,' for this Avas before the great hall at Abbotsford had been 
 built, i and in a few minutes found myself seated at the break- 
 fast-table. There was no one present but the family, which con- 
 sisted of Mrs. Scott ; her eldest daughter, Sophia, then a fine girl 
 about seventeen ; Miss Ann Scott, two or three years younger ;
 
 70 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 Walter, a well-grown stripling; and Charles, a lively boy, eleven 
 or twelve years of age. I soon felt myself quite at home, and 
 my heart in a glow with the cordial welcome I experienced. I 
 had thought to make a 'mere morning visit, but found I was not 
 to be let off so lightly. " You must not think our neighborhood 
 is to be read in a morning like a newspaper," said Scott ; " it takes 
 several days of study for an observant traveler, that has a relish 
 for auld world trumpery. After breakfast you shall make your 
 visit to Melrose Abbey ; I shall not be able to accompany you, as 
 I have some household affairs to attend to ; but I will put you 
 in charge of my son Charles, who is very learned in all things 
 touching the old ruin and the neighborhood it stands in ; and he 
 and my friend Johnnie Bower will tell you the whole truth about 
 it, with a great deal more that you are not called upon to believe, 
 unless you be a true and nothing-doubting antiquary. When you 
 come back I '11 take you out on a ramble about the neighborhood. 
 To-morrow we will take a look at the Yarrow, and the next day 
 we will drive over to Dryburgh Abbey, which is a fine old ruin, 
 well worth your seeing." In a word, before Scott had got through 
 with his plan, I found myself committed for a visit of several days, 
 and it seemed as if a little realm of romance was suddenly open 
 before me.' I won't read you all that Irving says of his visit, 
 but here is his account of a ramble which he took with Scott and 
 his dogs. 
 
 "'As we sallied forth, every dog in the establishment turned 
 out to attend us. There was the old staghound, Maida, that I 
 have already mentioned, a noble animal, and Hamlet, the black 
 greyhound, a wild, thoughtless youngster, not yet arrived at the 
 years of discretion ; and Finette, a beautiful setter, with soft silken
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 71 
 
 hair, long pendant ears, and a mild eye, the parlor favorite. When 
 in front of the house we were joined by a superannuated grey- 
 hound, who came from the kitchen wagging his tail, and was 
 cheered by Scott as an old friend and comrade. In our walks, he 
 would frequently pause in conversation, to notice his dogs, and 
 speak to them as if rational companions ; and, indeed, there ap- 
 pears to be a vast deal of rationality in these faithful attendants 
 on man, derived from their close intimacy with him. Maida. de- 
 ported himself with a gravity becoming his age and size, and seemed 
 to consider himself called upon to preserve a great degree of dignity 
 and decorum in our society. As he jogged along a little distance 
 ahead of us the young dogs would gambol about him, leap on 
 his neck, worry art his ears, and endeavor to tease him into a 
 gambol. The old dog would keep on for a long time with imper- 
 turbable solemnity, now and then seeming to rebuke the wanton- 
 ness of his young companions. At length he would make a sudden 
 turn, seize one of them, and tumble him in the dust, then giving 
 a glance at us, as much as to say, " You see, gentlemen, I can't 
 help giving way to this nonsense ; " would resume his gravity and 
 jog on as before. Scott amused himself with these peculiarities. 
 " I make no doubt," said he, " when Maida is alone with these 
 young dogs, he throws gravity aside, and plays the boy as much 
 as any of them; but he is ashamed to do so in* our company, and 
 seems to say : Ha' done with your nonsense, youngsters : what 
 will the laird and the other gentleman think of me if I give 
 way to such foolery ? " 
 
 " Now I will read you just one more account by a traveler 
 of how Scott lived at Abbotsford. ' The habits of life at Abbots- 
 ford, when I first saw it, ran in the same easy, rational, and pleas-
 
 72 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 ant course, which I believe they always afterwards took j though 
 the family was at this time rather straitened in its arrangements, 
 as some of the principal rooms were not finished. After break- 
 fast Sir Walter took his short interval of study in the light and 
 elegant little room afterwards called Miss Scott's. That which he 
 occupied when Abbotsford was complete, though more convenient 
 in some material respects, seemed to me the least cheerful and 
 least private in the house. It had, however, a recommendation 
 which perhaps he was very sensible of, that as he sat at his writ- 
 ing-tabFe he could look out at his young trees. About one o'clock 
 he walked or rode, generally with some of his visitors. At this 
 period, he used to be a good deal on horseback, and a pleasant 
 sight it was to see the gallant old gentleman, in his seal-skin 
 cap and short green jacket, lounging along a field-side on his 
 mare, Sibyl Grey, and pausing now and then to talk, with a serio- 
 comic look, to a laboring man or woman, and rejoice them with 
 some quaint saying in broad Scotch. The dinner hour was early ; 
 the sitting after dinner was hospitably but not immoderately pro- 
 longed ; and the whole family party (for such it always seemed, 
 even if there were several visitors) then met again for a short 
 evening, which was passed in conversation and music. I once 
 heard Sir Walter say, that he believed there was a ' pair of cards ' 
 (such was his antiquated expression) somewhere in the house, but 
 probably there is no tradition of their ever having been used. 
 The drawing-room and library (unfurnished at the time of my first 
 visit) opened into each other, and formed a beautiful evening 
 apartment. By every one who has visited at Abbotsford they 
 must be associated with some of the most delightful recollections 
 of his life. Sir Walter listened to the music of his daughters, which
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 75 
 
 was all congenial to his own taste, with a never-failing enthusi- 
 asm. He followed the fine old songs which Mrs. Lockhart sang 
 to her harp with his mind, eyes, and lips, almost as if joining 
 in an act of religion. To other musical performances he was 
 a dutiful, and often a pleased listener, but I believe he cared 
 little for mere music ; the notes failed to charm him if they were 
 not connected with good words, or immediately associated with 
 some history or strong sentiment upon which his imagination 
 could fasten.' ' 
 
 " I wonder if he liked the Blue Bell of Scotland," said Lucy. 
 
 " I 've not the least doubt he did," said her mother. " I 'm 
 sure he must have heard his daughters sing it many a time. 
 But the time was coming when all those pleasant evenings were 
 to end. Scott had been buying land and building while he was 
 writing books ; it seemed as if money flowed in upon him ; but 
 it flowed out faster, and what was worse he had long been lending 
 money to men who were as careless as he about using and keeping 
 it, and so one day he discovered that he was a poor man owing 
 also great sums of money. I am not going to read you now how 
 Scott took up his pen again and began to work once more delib- 
 erately to pay off his debts. It is a sad story, but one or two 
 things I want you to notice. It was a grievous error in him to 
 be careless about his money ; he ought not to have got into debt, 
 but when he fairly discovered his situation, he never shrank from 
 toiling month after month to pay in full all that he owed. And 
 this, too, that much as he loved Abbotsford, what he really cared 
 for most was the suffering his misfortunes brought upon the poor 
 people who were dependent on him. Here is a little passage in 
 his diary : ' I feel neither dishonored nor broken down by the
 
 76 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 bad now really bad news I have received. I have walked my 
 last on the domains I have planted sate the last time in the 
 halls I have built. But death would have taken them from me 
 if misfortune had spared them. My poor people whom I loved 
 so well ! ' and again, ' Poor Will Laidlaw, poor Tom Purdie,' those 
 were his faithful steward and servant, 'such news will wring your 
 hearts ; and many a poor fellow besides, to whom my prosperity 
 was daily bread.' Now hear how these poor people loved and 
 served him. 
 
 " Lockhart visited Abbotsford in 1827. Here is his account of 
 how things looked there then : 
 
 " ( The butler, instead of being the easy chief of a large estab- 
 lishment, was now doing half the work of the house, at probably 
 half his former wages. Old Peter, who had been for five-and- 
 twenty years a dignified coachman, was now plowman in ordi- 
 nary, only putting his horses to the carriage upon high and rare 
 occasions; and so on with all the rest that remained of the an- 
 cient train. And all, to my view, seemed happier than they had 
 ever done before. Their good conduct had given every one of 
 them a new elevation in his own mind ; and yet their demeanor 
 had gained, in place of losing, in simple humility of observance. 
 The great loss was that of William Laidlaw, for whom (the estate 
 being all but a fragment in the hands of the trustees and their 
 agent) there was now no occupation here. The cottage which 
 his taste had converted into a lovable retreat had found a rent- 
 paying tenant ; and he was living a dozen miles off, on the farm 
 of a relation in the Vale of Yarrow. Every week, however, he 
 came down to have a ramble with Sir Walter over their old 
 haunts, to hear how the pecuniary atmosphere was darkening or
 
 GURTH AND WAMBA. FROM SCOTT'S IVANHOE.
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 79 
 
 brightening, and to read, in every face at Abbotsford, that it could 
 never be itself again until circumstances should permit his re- 
 establishment at Keeside. All this warm and respectful solicitude 
 must have had a preciously soothing influence on the mind of 
 Scott, who may be said to have lived upon love. No man cared 
 less about popular admiration and applause ; but for the least 
 chill on the affection of any near and d6ar to him he had the 
 sensitiveness of a maiden. I cannot forget, in particular, how 
 his eyes sparkled when he first pointed out to me Peter Mathie- 
 son guiding the plow on the haugh. " Egad," said he, " auld 
 Pepe " (this was the children's name for their good friend), "auld 
 Pepe's whistling at his darg (work). The honest fellow said a 
 yoking in a deep field would do baith him and the blackies good. 
 If things get round with me, easy shall be Pepe's cushion." 
 
 " Did he ever get rich again ? " asked Phippy. 
 
 " No. He worked till his hand trembled and lost its cunning. He 
 did wonders, and his creditors, moved by his nobleness, gave him 
 back his house and library. Then he was ill. He fancied all 
 his debts were paid ; and his good friends, tenderly concealing 
 the truth from him, ministered to his comfort and took him on 
 a journey to Italy. He went about in churches and in picture 
 galleries, a broken-down old man, but at length was brought 
 home to Abbotsford to die. He called Lockhart to him as he was 
 dying : ' My dear,' he said, ' be a good man ; be virtuous ; be relig- 
 ious ; be a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort 
 when you come to lie here.' ' 
 
 " Did you see him when you were in Scotland ? " asked Phippy. 
 
 " No, Phippy, he died in 1832, and it was a good many years 
 after that that I was in Scotland. I traveled there with your
 
 80 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 father just after we were married, and it is very pleasant for me 
 now to follow him in my mind, though he will not go . as far 
 north as we went. I had an old friend who was living in the 
 Highlands and we went to visit her. It was the late fall when 
 we were there, and we spent a good deal of our time on the water, 
 sailing about among the islands, in and around Skye. We used to 
 see the Highlanders at work, getting ready for the winter, gather- 
 ing the bracken or fern upon the hillside which they had cut and 
 dried, making it ready for winter use. Straw was scarce and 
 costly, so they cut the bracken on the barren hillsides, and loaded 
 their broad boats with it and carried it home for litter for their 
 cattle. The women helped them, and it was a picturesque sight 
 to see, as we sometimes saw, men rowing in the twilight, while 
 a Scotch lassie lay resting on the great heap of bracken which 
 she had helped to gather. But come, it is growing damp, and 
 we must go in." 
 
 So they all went in, but before the children went up-stairs to 
 bed, Mrs. Bodley sat at the piano, and they all sang a song they 
 knew, one which they were sure Walter Scott must often have 
 heard his daughters sing.
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 
 
 83 
 
 " 
 
 QBlue QBell" oC 
 
 OLD ENGLISH BORDER SONG. 
 
 Gracefully. 
 
 -Sr 
 
 Tune composed by Mrs. Jordan, about 1799. 
 
 
 3ES 
 
 
 ^S: 
 
 -* *- 
 
 3t= 
 
 3E 
 
 1. Oh ! where 
 
 2. how? 
 
 and oh I where 
 tell me how 
 
 is your High- land lad - die 
 is your High- land lad - die 
 
 1=^1 
 
 EOTM^ ^+4 
 
 m/ 
 
 ? 
 
 ijii i 
 
 rfe= -4 = 
 
 z # 
 
 
 gone .- 1 
 clad? 
 
 Oh ! where and oh ! where is your Highland lad- die gone ? He's 
 
 Oh! how? tell me how is your Highland lad- die clad? His
 
 84 
 
 MR. BOD LEY ABROAD. 
 
 r- i^i 
 
 gone to fight the French for King George up - on the throne, And it's 
 DOB - net's of the Saxon green, his waist-coat's of the plaid, And it's 
 
 
 in my heart 
 in my heart 
 
 how I wish him safe at home! 
 that I love my High - land lad. 
 
 I . _J_ 
 
 & 9r~ 
 
 BE 
 
 Oh ! where, and oh ! 
 Sup - pose, oh! sup- 
 
 dim. 
 
 
 
 :i= 
 
 :|=gj E^= 
 
 where, did your High- land lad -die dwell? 
 pose, that your High - land lad should die ! 
 
 Oh ! where, 
 Sup - pose, 
 
 and oh ! 
 oh ! sup-
 
 NEWS FROM SCOTLAND. 
 
 85 
 
 s 
 
 "* 
 
 where, did your High -land lad -die dwell? 
 - pose, that your High - land lad should die ! 
 
 He dwelt in nier- ry 
 Though lau - rels would wave 
 
 ,~ ~itliJ I 1 i I [~ 
 
 _ _.. 9 "-I * m * hH I 3 
 
 Scot - land by the sign of The Blue Bell ; And it's oh ! 
 o'er him, I'd lay me down and cry ; And it's oh ! 
 
 
 love my lad - die well, 
 feel he will not 
 
 '*= 
 
 
 V 2d. 
 
 ljl=^rp: 
 
 Oh ! die. 
 
 czz: i 1 
 
 t X t!ZZ~ZZlZII 
 
 dim.
 
 86 MR- BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN A PASTURE. 
 
 DURING the hot August days the children often escaped to the 
 shade of the Grove, where they ensconced themselves in the 
 Gorge by the side of Samson's Nut Cracker, a huge boulder on 
 which the oak-trees dropped acorns, and told stories, or played 
 at tea-party or Indians. It was here, too, that they told each 
 other their secrets. Whenever one of them had a specially cher- 
 ished secret to impart to another, the two would crawl into the 
 deepest recess of the Gorge, and then the mysterious thing would 
 be decanted from one little pitcher into the other. Phippy usu- 
 ally unburdened herself of her secret before she could get to the 
 Grove, but after the evening when they had heard so much about 
 Walter Scott, she maintained a most absorbed air, and the next 
 day before breakfast was seen running from one part of Rose- 
 land to another as if she were bewitched. 
 
 " What can Phip be about ! " said Nathan, as the little girl 
 came running up through the grapery. " I should think she was 
 playing tag with the trees, for she has been running from one 
 to another ever since I have watched her." 
 
 " Perhaps she has been giving them some new names," said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " She could n't. There are no more States, but there are ever 
 so many more trees, at least, if you count the little ones." 
 
 " She had a secret, you know, last night." 
 
 " Well, I don't think that 's much of a secret, to go round and
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN A PASTURE. 87 
 
 play tag with the trees." The breakfast bell rang, and scarcely 
 had breakfast begun, before Phippy jumped up again, ran out, 
 made a little bow, and said : 
 
 ' Those who will come to the Gorge after breakfast may have 
 a piece of my secret." 
 
 " Oh, tell it now, Phippy," said her cousin. " It will be too 
 hot to go down to the Gorge." 
 
 " No, it won't, and you really must come, Cousin Ned, because 
 we shall need you. Corne, and I '11 make you some iced lemon- 
 ade." 
 
 " Oh, I should n't want it so soon after breakfast. But I tell 
 you, Phippy, if it is a real good secret, and you will tell it to 
 me on top of Samson's Nut Cracker, I '11 go, but it 's too hot to 
 be dragged into the Gorge." So after breakfast the three chil- 
 dren went off to the Grove, and Ned Adams sauntered along 
 under an umbrella a little later. He found Nathan and Lucy 
 already in possession of the secret. 
 
 " Is it a good one ? " he asked, critically. 
 
 " First rate," said Nathan. 
 
 " Worth climbing upon the Nut Cracker to hear ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed," said Lucy. 
 
 " Well, bring the ladder," said the lazy fellow. The ladder 
 was a board with cleats nailed to it, which was left in the Secret 
 Chamber, as it was called, of the Gorge, and when it was pulled 
 out it was laid against the rock, and the whole party climbed 
 by it to the top of the big Nut Cracker. There was room for 
 all and a little to spare. 
 
 " Bring the secret up too, Phippy, if there is room." 
 
 " Now, Cousin Ned, you are not to make fun of my secret.
 
 88 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 I 've a great mind not to tell you ; but then we want your 
 knife," she added, reflecting. 
 
 " Oh ho, I 'm to do something, am I ? " 
 
 " Now listen, and I '11 tell you. When mamma was reading 
 about Walter Scott, and how he meant to make a set of chess- 
 men, I had a sudden thought, and I could scarcely think of any- 
 thing else. I ran out this morning, just as soon as I was dressed, 
 to see if it would do, and it would." 
 
 " Took your thought out an airing ? Did you put it in the 
 wheelbarrow ? " 
 
 " But can't you guess, Cousin Ned ? I 've given you lots of 
 hints. Think a moment." 
 
 "Oh, it's too hot to think. Out with it." 
 
 " I wish you 'd guess." 
 
 "Well, is it a set of chessmen?" 
 
 "You're burning." 
 
 "Checkers?" 
 
 " Ned, you heard me tell Nathan." 
 
 " Upon my word ! but how could I, Phippy. You had told 
 him before I had got here." 
 
 " Oh, I told him right after breakfast. I could n't wait to 
 come here." 
 
 " But I don't know what my happy guess means. Checkers ? 
 checkers ? Do you want to make some ? " 
 
 " That 's it ! We want to make a set for papa out of what 
 do you think?" 
 
 " Buttons ? " 
 
 " No. Guess again." 
 
 " Clamshells from every State in the Union ? "
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN A PASTURE. 80 
 
 " Oh, but you could n't. There are no clamshells in Ken- 
 tucky." 
 
 " Yes, there are, lots of them. The annual consumption of 
 clams in Kentucky is several bushels, according to the last 
 census." 
 
 ( " Now, Ned, you know you know, and you 're only teasing us. 
 But I 'm going to tell you. I won't have you guessing my se- 
 cret. We 're going to cut a limb off each State and make a set 
 of checkers for papa. What do you think of that ? " 
 
 " But there are thirty-one States, and you only need twenty- 
 four checkers." l 
 
 u We 're going to leave out some," said Nathan. " That old 
 Pennsylvania, for one." 
 
 " Under which William Penn signed the treaty," said Lucy. 
 " Why, Nathan, never ! " It is, perhaps, time to explain that the 
 children had taken it into their heads some time before to name 
 thirty-one trees which stdod in the grove and orchard after the 
 thirty-one States, and Nathan had carved the initial of each State 
 in the bark of its appropriate tree. They had taken them in a 
 rough sort of relation to each other. The Atlantic coast was 
 represented by the outside fourteen trees in the grove, and the 
 inland States were scattered about in a somewhat confused way. 
 One of their games was to make journeys across the country, 
 visiting each other in remote sections, and a long emigrant train, 
 consisting of the three children with carts laden with household 
 goods from Lucy's doll-house, accompanied by Nep and the kitten, 
 who also sometimes played the part of buffaloes or wolves, fre- 
 
 1 There were only thirty- one States, good reader, when the children were talking. 
 Have not the children grown up since then ?
 
 (JO MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 quently crossed' the plains and settled in the far West. Such 
 sorrowful leave-takings as they then had with their friends at the 
 East, represented by Lucy's dolls, and such toils and hardships 
 when they came to settle in the new country ! The trees had 
 become so identified in their minds with the States, that they 
 always spoke of them by their names, and they found it easy to 
 act out their stories from history when they had such solid local- 
 ities for the stage of their little drama. They had landed on 
 Plymouth Rock and sailed up the Hudson ; they had coasted along 
 Florida and settled Jamestown ; they had signed a treaty with 
 Indians under a tall oak which was thus by an appropriate con- 
 nection made to stand for Pennsylvania. So when Nathan pro- 
 posed to ignore Pennsylvania Lucy was naturally indignant. 
 
 " But, Lucy," he explained, " the branches are so high we 
 could n't possibly climb up and cut one off, and we don't want 
 but twenty-four anyway." 
 
 " But you '11 have all the States fighting," said Ned. " Are 
 you going to make twelve eastern States fight twelve western, or 
 twelve northern fight twelve southern?" 1 
 
 " No," said Lucy, " we ought to take them at random, with our 
 eyes shut, and then nobody can say we did n't play fair. But 
 don't you think it a good idea, Cousin Ned? You can saw off a 
 little branch from each tree, and then saw it again so as to get 
 a piece of wood like a checker ; it won't be quite round, but then 
 you can file it and cut it and grind it on the grindstone, and 
 mark it with the letter of the State. Don't you see ? " 
 
 "Pat it and prick it and mark it with T, 
 And put it in the oven for Tennessee," 
 
 1 Ah, dear Ned, with your light-hearted just ten years more, and what did you see ?
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN A PASTURE. 91 
 
 said Ned. " It seems to me, though, you have laid out work for 
 me. Am I to climb these trees and tear my trousers, and per- 
 haps saw oft' the limb I sit on ? You say, ' You can saw off a 
 branch,' and so on." 
 
 " Hurrah ! " suddenly exclaimed Phippy, in great excitement. 
 " Oh, come down to the Gorge, I 've got another secret. No, 
 I '11 tell it right here. Listen, all of you, and don't you say a 
 word till I get through, not a single word. Wait a minute, I 
 want to think. Yes, I know it can be done. Cousin Ned will 
 know how." 
 
 " Seems to me Cousin Ned is very much put upon," said that 
 young gentleman. " Come to think of it, I believe I am wanted 
 at the house," and he began lazily to rise from the rock. 
 
 " Oh no, oh no, you must n't go. Truly and honestly, it is 
 something we can all do. Now listen. Don't you say a word 
 till I get through. I 've thought of something splendid. You, 
 know the big grass plat between the grove and the orchard, 
 Paul Bodley's Pasture," for so they had named it from a long 
 dead Paul Bodley who had once owned the place, and was buried 
 in a little brick tomb near by, "well, that is just the best place 
 in the world for the United States. These trees bother us ; but 
 we '11 draw a gigantic map of the United States in Paul Bodley's 
 Pasture, and mark it off into States, and we '11 have Rocky Mount- 
 ains, and " 
 
 " Oh, come, come, Phippy," said Ned Adams, " you are going 
 on altogether too fast. This secret is worse than the last. Why, 
 do you expect me to draw that map with the point of a crow- 
 bar ? I think I see myself doing it ! " 
 
 " But it is n't impossible," urged Phippy, " and it will be splen- 
 did fun, and we can put in the cities, and "
 
 92 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " What will you do about rivers and lakes ? " asked Nathan. 
 
 " And the ocean ? " added Lucy. 
 
 " Where there 's a will there 's a way," persisted Phippy, stoutly. 
 " I am sure Cousin Ned can manage somehow." 
 
 " Don't think to flatter me into such nonsense," said he ; still 
 secretly he was pleased at Phippy's confidence in his ingenuity, 
 and he began to imagine ways in which the thing could be done. 
 
 " There 's about an acre in that piece," he reflected. " If it 
 were winter, Phippy, it would not be wholly impossible. With a 
 good white coating of snow we might hope to draw a map and 
 cut out the edges, but your mother would never let us spade up 
 an outline to the map even if we wanted to." 
 
 "But I don't see, anyway," said Nathan, " how you would man- 
 age. You might make the divisions into states and territories, 
 but you could n't possibly make the physical divisions ; you could 
 n't make mountains and rivers and lakes, or the ocean, as Lucy 
 says." 
 
 " We could have frozen rivers," said Phippy, " and that would 
 be all right if it was winter." 
 
 " They would n't be frozen except away up here in New England," 
 objected Nathan. " New England isn't all the United States." 
 
 " The Hudson would be frozen, because Cousin Ned says it is. 
 He has been on an ice-boat in it on it, I mean. Have n't you 
 Cousin Ned?" 
 
 " Yes, I 've beaten a railroad train on one. We went a little 
 faster than a mile a minute." 
 
 " But do think of some way, Ned," urged Phippy. 
 
 " Well, the only way I think of just now is to mark the out- 
 lines with lime or some white flour, and I don't think that would 
 work very well."
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN A PASTURE. 95 
 
 " If we had the outline marked, then we could run a plow 
 along it," said Phippy, " except where the lines were very short, 
 and then we could use a spade or a sod-cutter." 
 
 " But your mother never would let us cut up the pasture so. 
 It is absurd." 
 
 " Will you do it if mamma will let us ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, I 'm safe in promising that." Away ran Phippy to 
 the house. 
 
 " Now you 've got yourself into a scrape, Ned," said Nathan, 
 and Ned himself began to feel a little uneasy. Presently, Mrs. 
 Bodley came walking toward them with Phippy, who was skipping 
 along and gesticulating earnestly. 
 
 " Yes, yes," she cried, as she came nearer. " Mamma says we 
 may, she says we may." 
 
 " What is this crazy notion ? " asked Mrs. Bodley of Ned, as she 
 came to the rock. " Phippy has made the most extraordinary 
 proposition to draw a gigantic map on Paul Bodley's Pasture, as 
 she calls it, and she says you are to be chief engineer." 
 
 " That depends upon our getting the consent of the Allied Pow- 
 ers," said Ned. " I told her I w r ould help her if you would consent." 
 
 " Oh no, Cousin Ned," explained Phippy. " You are to do it, 
 and we are to help you." 
 
 " I don't know," said Mrs. Bodley, reflecting. " It would keep 
 you all out of mischief." 
 
 " Aunt Sarah ! we shall be getting into mischief all the time." 
 
 " The children will be learning geography," she pursued, as if 
 not hearing him. " Yes, I think I will consent, provided Ned will 
 really undertake to see it all done, and provided, also, that you 
 will really finish it after you begin. But, Phippy, there is another
 
 96 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 condition. Ned's promise to do it, if I would consent, must count 
 for nothing. You must ask him all over again, for he ought not 
 to be entrapped into this." Phippy looked a little doubtful, and 
 Ned put on a very stern face which reassured her. The fact was, 
 Ned was greatly taken with the idea, arid though he had riot be- 
 lieved his aunt would consent, now that she did he was ready to 
 enter into the scheme. So after teasing Phippy a little while, he 
 consented to accept the office, as he said, of engineer-in-chief for 
 the construction of a continent. 
 
 Impracticable as the. scheme at first appeared, the ingenuity of 
 the children, headed by Ned, overcame many difficulties. Their 
 work was to draw a map of the United States on a large scale, 
 with a piece of turf for the blackboard. They set about it in 
 the old-fashioned way of map drawing. They took the largest 
 map of the Union which they had and proceeded to enlarge it, 
 using its dimensions for a scale. An inch of the map, made 
 twenty feet. They laid down parallels and degrees with string 
 which they fastened to pegs outside of the space to be covered 
 by their continent, and thus had easy guides to the eye. They 
 established points all over the field, and by degrees effected their 
 outlines, getting into high glee when, beginning at different points, 
 their lines met as they -should. Of course, they were obliged to 
 disregard nice jottings, but they made the general coast line so 
 true that Mrs.' Bodleyj walking with them about the United States, 
 was able to point out the capes and bays with commendable 
 exactness. The fresh-water lakes they indicated by pieces of cot- 
 ton cloth, cut in proper figures and pinned to the ground by little 
 stakes. The rivers were also made of cotton cloth, though it was 
 a long and serious business to make them, Phippy devoted her-
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN A PASTURE. 97 
 
 self to the Mississippi, and was a fortnight sewing the strips to- 
 gether. They made the principal cities, using chips and stones to 
 represent buildings, although of course, on the scale they chose, 
 their cities were liable to be out of proportion however carefully 
 they reduced the materials. Mr. Bottom was harnessed to a plow 
 and did actually make the coast-line. The children thought the 
 ridge of earth outside the Union would answer very well for the 
 wavy lines which they found on their maps to indicate the sep- 
 aration of land and water. The spade and cutter were used also, 
 and they actually made some very respectable mountains by mold- 
 ing 'clay. 
 
 It must not be supposed that all this was done quickly. They 
 spent the rest of the summer upon it, and long before their 
 great map was made they were playing their old games with fresh 
 zest. There was great fun in crossing the continent now, and 
 they brought out from the barn the Koseland and Santa Fe Rail- 
 road which Hen had made for them the year before, and as they 
 could move it about they made it do service in all parts of the con- 
 tinent and under all manner of names, according as they wished 
 to travel north or south, east or west. It required a great deal 
 of patience, and perhaps this was what Mrs. Bodley had partly 
 in mind when she gave her consent so readily. The children cer- 
 tainly learned also a great deal of geography and the great past- 
 ure was to them a vast object lesson. 
 
 One afternoon as they were all sitting by the library door, which 
 opened under a honeysuckle porch upon a grassy bank, resting from 
 their labors and feeling perhaps a little discouraged, Nathan gave 
 a sigh, and said : 
 
 I wish we had a balloon and could get up high enough to take 
 
 7 
 
 o 
 tt
 
 98 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 a bird's-eye view of the United States. We can't see it from the 
 upper story of the house, and there is no tree high enough to 
 climb and look down on it. I just want to see how it really 
 looks." 
 
 " If you were in a balloon, you could come down in a parachute, 
 you know," said Lucy, looking slyly at her brother. Nathan 
 turned a little red. He had not forgotten how, three years or 
 so before, he had played the part of Professor Wise and under- 
 taken to jump off the pig-pen, and how he had kept a sprained 
 
 ankle some time to 
 remind him of his ex- 
 ploit. 
 
 " I wonder if they 
 ever will make balloons 
 that one can travel in 
 just as now we take a 
 ship," said Ned ; " or, 
 if we shall have private 
 balloons, and you would 
 say, for instance, 4 Mar- 
 tin, please bring round 
 the old balloon, it 's 
 rather wet to-day, and 
 I 'm going to town ; I 
 I! don't want to hurt the 
 
 Early Balloon. 
 
 new one. 
 
 " It won't be for want 
 of trying, at any rate. 
 
 People have been experimenting on balloons for a long while."
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN A PASTURE. 
 
 99 
 
 "Ever since Icarus and Daedalus," said Ned. 
 
 " That was an experiment in flying. I believe the first actual 
 balloon was made by 
 two brothers named 
 Montgolfier, paper 
 makers, who showed 
 that bags of linen lined 
 with paper and filled 
 with heated air would 
 rise and carry heavy | 
 weights with them. I 
 Then a great balloon \ 
 of cloth was filled I 
 with hot air and was | 
 sent up before an im- | 
 mense multitude, j 
 They inflated the bal- g 
 loon by burning 
 chopped straw and 
 wool under the aper- 
 ture. The court at 
 Versailles took a great 
 interest in the experi- 
 ments, and a balloon 
 sixty feet high was 
 made, which was dec- 
 orated with water- The First Balloon Voyage< 
 color paintings, and a car was* hung below it, in which were placed 
 a cock, a sheep, and a duck. They don't seem to have quarreled.
 
 100 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 At any rate they all came safely back, after having been up about 
 fourteen hundred feet and sailing about two miles from where they 
 went up. People began to go wild over ballooning, and in a few 
 months a young Frenchman, Pilatre des Roziers, made a balloon and 
 said he would go up himself in it. He had it securely fastened by 
 eighty feet ropes, for men were not yet ready to cut loose from 
 the earth, and he made several ascents. He kept the air heated 
 
 by a fire built upon a grating of wire in 
 | the car. At length he ventured to try 
 I a journey without the ropes, so he got 
 J into the car with a companion, kindled 
 I his fires, and away they went half a mile 
 HJj up and floated about a mile and a half 
 [ away. That was a great feat, and he 
 kept on ; but one day when he was up 
 in the air with a Mr. Romane the fire 
 caught the balloon and it was burned." 
 " But they don't make balloons go by 
 fire now, do they ? " asked Lucy. 
 
 " No, people learned to fill balloons 
 with hydrogen gas, and they became more 
 and more adventurous. Only three years 
 after balloons were invented two men 
 sailed across the English Channel. The great trouble now seems 
 to be to steer the balloon so as to make it independent of the cur- 
 rents of wind." 
 
 " I never understood how a parachute worked," said Nathan. 
 " I know it is something like an umbrella." 
 
 " An umbrella is the nearest and simplest account of it. When 
 
 A Parachute closed
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN A PASTURE. 
 
 101 
 
 the balloon is in motion the parachute, I believe, is like a shut-up 
 umbrella, with a car attached. If you were to jump off the house 
 with an enormous umbrella held aloft, not caught at the spring, 
 the air, I suppose, would force the folds up and open the umbrella 
 wide, when you would begin to descend more slowly. It is some- 
 thing thus with a parachute. When it is detached from the bal- 
 loon I believe the air opens it and it becomes a great umbrella." 
 
 "I think I should be 
 careful to open my um- 
 brella before I jumped," 
 said Ned. 
 
 "Yes," said Phippy, 
 " and then think how you 
 would clutch the handle ! " 
 
 " People who come down 
 in parachutes," said her 
 mother, " are in a basket, 
 and probably sit very still. 
 I believe the descent at 
 first is fearfully swift, but 
 becomes slower after the 
 parachute is fairly opened. 
 There was a descent made 
 once in a parachute from a height of twelve hundred feet." 
 
 " Whew ! more than five times the height of Bunker Hill Mon- 
 ument. I should want to hang a lot of little umbrellas and para- 
 sols all about. Do you suppose, aunt, they will ever cross the 
 Atlantic in balloons ? " 
 
 " I should not dare to say what might not be done some day." 
 
 A Parachute open.
 
 102 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " How fine it would be," said Phippy, " to see father sail down 
 gracefully into our garden ! " 
 
 " Or even cross the continent," added Nathan. " We might 
 almost go over that with an umbrella in a high wind." 
 * " We must get the United States done before he comes back," 
 said Lucy. " You have n't written him anything about it, have 
 you, mamma ? " 
 
 " No, we will keep it for a surprise for him." So the children 
 went back to their work. Indeed, it was so engrossing an occu- 
 pation that they had agreed to give up the idea of making a set 
 of checkers. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 
 
 WHILE the Bodley children were traveling ov*r their own coun- 
 try in Paul Bodley's Pasture, Mr. Bodley himself was following 
 his business, which kept him some time in London, and then was 
 to take him to the Continent. Every week brought a letter from 
 him and was read aloud in the family, often with the atlas upon 
 the table, that the children might trace their father's wanderings. 
 He was spending Sunday in Antwerp, and wrote thence of his re- 
 cent journey. 
 
 " ( The last day I was in London I had occasion to call on an old 
 gentleman, who is quite poor but a scholar, and lives in the garret 
 of a house in one of the densest quarters of the city. I climbed 
 the dark staircase to his room and knocked, but no one answered.
 
 A LONDON GARDEN.
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 105 
 
 I tried the door, and finding it open, entered, but did not see my 
 friend. There was another door, however, which stood ajar, and 
 light came down it from above. I went there, saw a rude ladder 
 leading up to a sky-light, and climbing that, there I found Mr. 
 Jephson upon the roof, in a snug corner formed by a projecting 
 dormer window, standing before a rude frame in which he had 
 some flowers. All about him were flowers in pots and boxes. It 
 was his garden, and here he came and worked over his beloved 
 flowers ; the city roared below, but the sun shone above, and- you 
 
 can imagine what a charming sight it was to me 
 
 " ' It was Friday morning that I came upon the Continent. I 
 had taken a steamer from Dover to Ostend, having left Dover at 
 half after ten the night before. It was raining hard and seemed 
 dreary enough. The only people who were awake, apparently, 
 were a man and his little son, who accosted me as I left the 
 steamer, and were so unceasing in their attentions that they never 
 left my side till I got into the station and took the seven o'clock 
 train for Bruges. I spent the day there, and went on to Ghent in 
 the latter part of the afternoon, coming here yesterday evening. 
 All this country is familiar ground to you, Sarah, and I am con- 
 stantly reminded of our excursions and the sights we saw. I saw 
 again that wonderful picture at Ghent of the Adoration of the Larnb, 
 by the brothers Van Eyck. I was delighted to see how well I 
 remembered it. That heavenly green sward of the central picture, 
 besprinkled with gem-like daisies, how entirely truthful it seems. 
 Then the figures are grouped so negligently, without any attempt 
 at placing them in easy positions or balancing them against each 
 other. They are all intent on their worship of the Lamb. The St. 
 Cecilia came back to me also with her absorbed devotion.' "
 
 106 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " Is that our St. Cecilia ? " asked Lucy. 
 
 " Yes, that photograph is one which we bought when we were 
 at Ghent." 
 
 " i I heard the carillon, too, again from the high towers, and to 
 my delight the Bruges belfry gave out that old tune of " Life let 
 us cherish," which we heard so constantly. Then I went, in Ghent, 
 to see the Beguines at evening prayer.' ' 
 
 " What are Beguines ? " asked Nathan. 
 
 " They are a community of nuns, or sisters of charity, founded 
 early in the thirteenth century, who occupy a large district in 
 Ghent. We missed going to see them for some reason, so let us 
 hear what your father saw." 
 
 " ' The service was less impressive than I had been given to sup- 
 pose, but quite interesting. There were three or four hundred 
 sisters, most of them in black gowns with white cloth head-dresses, 
 kneeling in rows in the white chapel, while two stood in the 
 chancel and rang two bells. They w^ere wholly in black, and had 
 a singular aspect from where I sat. Black-robed figures kneeling, 
 with white veils, are not so strange as two pulling at ropes, like 
 goblins. I think it was the motion that made them look so queer. 
 One was not so absorbed in her devotions but that she could find 
 time to take a good pinch of snuff. The priest came to the altar, 
 and a monotonous and disagreeable chanting was kept up with the 
 organ in the loft, all done by the sisters, one of whom worked the 
 bellows. When the service was over, each advancing to the altar 
 bowed, took off the white cloth that hung over her head and 
 shoulders, as if it were to be used only in the chapel, folded it in 
 a square, laid it on top of her head, and went out.' ' 
 
 There was more in the letter, but it was chiefly of interest to
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 
 
 107 
 
 Mrs. Bodley. The children continued to study their map and look 
 at the photographs which illustrated their father's and mother's 
 journey, and were always a source of entertainment to them. 
 
 " I don't know much about Belgium," said Ned, frankly, " and 
 I wish Uncle Charles had told us more about his journey from 
 Ostend to Antwerp, but I 
 suppose he has n't much time 
 for letters. Aunt Sarah, we 
 shall have to fall back on 
 your first journey." 
 
 " I will tell you what I 
 will do," said Mrs. Bodley, 
 who had taken up her sew- 
 ing. '''There is a charming 
 poem by Longfellow, called 
 <The Belfry of Bruges.' If 
 you will all learn that poem? 
 and it is not long, I will 
 try to tell you about some of 
 the lines in it which you may 
 not understand." I am glad 
 to say that the children were 
 very ready to learn the verses, 
 for I am sure that there are 
 
 f ,1 Belfry of Bruges. 
 
 lew treasures worth more to 
 
 us than those we store in our memories. Often and often Ned and 
 Nathan, and Phippy and Lucy, in after life, when traveling, per- 
 haps, in the night, or left where there were no books and little to 
 interest them, would bring out some poem or ballad which they had
 
 108 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 cherished in childhood, and amuse themselves with reciting it. So 
 now, the very next evening they were ready with the poem. Be- 
 fore they recited it, Mrs. Bodley said : 
 
 " First, I will recite the ' Carillon,' as he calls it, with which Mr. 
 Longfellow introduces his poem. You know that chimes or caril- 
 lons were invented in the Low Countries ; they were heard in 
 Bruges as early as 1300, and now, wherever you go, you hear 
 them almost incessantly. There are persons skilled in the art who 
 play the chimes, not by pulling ropes, but by means of a great 
 key-board, like that of a piano, the keys of which connect with 
 the hammers that strike the bells. The musician strikes .the keys 
 not with his fingers but with his fists, which are guarded by leathern 
 coverings, and though great force is required, sometimes equal 
 to two pounds' weight on each key, musicians have acquired 
 great skill in playing on these colossal instruments ; they can, 
 indeed, play music in three parts, the bass being played on 
 pedals, and' the first and second trebles with the hands. But the 
 carillons are more frequently played by clock-work, and are con- 
 structed something like a gigantic music-box, with the tunes changed 
 every year. When they are hung away up in the great belfry 
 towers the music sounds very pure and sweet. Here is the carillon 
 which Mr. Longfellow rang. I have not forgotten it, I am sure, 
 for I learned it at Bruges itself." 
 
 o 
 
 CARILLON. 
 
 In the ancient town of Bruges, 
 
 O ' 
 
 In the quaint old Flemish city, 
 As the evening shades descended, 
 Low and loud and sweetly blended,
 
 72V THE LOW COUNTRIES. 1Q9 
 
 Low at times, and loud at times, 
 And changing like a poet's rhymes, 
 Rang the beautiful wild chimes 
 From the Belfry in the market 
 Of the ancient town of Bruges. 
 
 Then with deep sonorous clangor 
 Calmly answering their sweet anger, 
 When the wrangling bells had ended, 
 Slowly struck the clock eleven. 
 And, from out the silent heaven, 
 Silence on the town descended. 
 Silence, silence everywhere, 
 On the earth and in the air, 
 Save that footsteps here and there 
 Of some burgher home returning, 
 By the street lamps faintly burning, 
 For a moment woke the echoes 
 Of the ancient town of Bruges. 
 
 But amid my broken slumbers 
 Still I heard those magic numbers, 
 As they loud proclaimed the flight 
 And stolen marches of the night ; 
 Till their chimes in sweet collision 
 Mingled with each wandering vision, 
 Mingled with the fortune-telling 
 Gipsy-bands of dreams and fancies, 
 Which, amid the waste expanses 
 Of the silent land of trances, 
 Have their solitary dwelling. 
 All else seemed asleep in Bruges, 
 In the quaint old Flemish city. 
 
 And I thought how like these chimes 
 Are the poet's airy rhymes, 
 All his rhymes and roundelays, 
 His conceits, and songs and ditties,
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 From the belfry of his brain, 
 Scattered downward, though in vain, 
 On the roofs and stones of cities ! 
 For by night the drowsy ear 
 Under its curtains cannot hear, 
 And by day men go their ways, 
 Hearing the music as they pass, 
 But deeming it no more, alas ! 
 Than the hollow sound of brass. 
 
 Yet perchance a sleepless wight, 
 
 Lodging at some humble inn 
 
 In the narrow lanes of life, 
 
 When the dusk and hush of night 
 
 Shut out the incessant din 
 
 Of daylight and its toil and strife, 
 
 May listen with a calm delight 
 
 To the poet's melodies, 
 
 Till he hears, or dreams he hears, 
 
 Intermingled with the song, 
 
 Thoughts that he has cherished long ; 
 
 Hears amid the chime and singing 
 
 The bells of his own village ringing, 
 
 And wakes and finds his slumberous eyes 
 
 Wet with most delicious tears. 
 
 
 Thus dreamed I, as by night I lay 
 
 In Bruges, at the Fleur-de-Ble, 
 Listening with a wild delight 
 To the chimes that, through the night, 
 Rang their changes from the Belfry 
 Of that quaint old Flemish city. 
 
 " Now let us try a recitation in chorus of the ' Belfry of Bruges.' ' 
 Mrs. Bodley waved her wooden knitting-needle about in the air, 
 like the conductor of an orchestra, and Ned and the three children 
 kept pretty even pace through
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. HI 
 
 THE BELFRY OF BRUGES. 
 
 BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 In the market-place of Bruges stands the belfry old and brown ; 
 
 Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o'er the town. * 
 
 As the summer morn was breaking, on that lofty tower I stood, 
 And the world threw off the darkness, like the weeds of widowhood. 
 
 Thick with towns and -hamlets studded, and with streams and vapors gray, 
 Like a shield embossed with silver, round and vast the landscape lay. 
 
 At my feet the city slumbered. From its chimneys here and there, 
 Wreaths of snow-white smoke ascending, vanished, ghost-like, into air. 
 
 Not a sound rose from the city at that early morning hour, 
 But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower. 
 
 From their nests beneath the rafters sang the swallows wild and high ; 
 And the world, beneath me sleeping, seemed more distant than the sky. 
 
 Then most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden times, 
 With their strange, unearthly changes rang the melancholy chimes, 
 
 Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the nuns sing in the choir ; 
 And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting of a friar. 
 
 Visions of the days departed, shadowy phantoms filled my brain ; 
 They who live in history only seemed to walk the earth again ; 
 
 All the Foresters of Flanders, mighty Baldwin Bras de Fer, 
 Lyderick du Bucq and Cressy, Philip, Guy de Dampierre. 
 
 I beheld the pageants splendid that adorned those days of old ; 
 
 Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the Fleece of Gold ;
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep-laden argosies ; 
 Ministers from twenty nations ; more than royal pomp and ease. 
 
 I beheld proud Maximilian, kneeling humbly on the ground ; 
 I beheld the gentle Mary, hunting with her hawk and hound; 
 
 And her lighted bridal-chamber, where a duke slept with the queen, 
 And the armed guard around them, and the sword unsheathed between. 
 
 I beheld the Flemish weavers, with Namur and Juliers bold, 
 Marching homeward from the bloody battle of the Spurs of Gold ; 
 
 Saw the fight at Minnewater, saw the White Hoods moving west, 
 Saw great Artevelde victorious scale the Golden Dragon's nest. 
 
 And again the whiskered Spaniard all the land with terror smote ; 
 And a^ain the wild alarum sounded from the tocsin's throat; 
 
 o 
 
 Till the bell of Ghent responded o'er lagoon and dike of sand, 
 "I am Roland ! I am Roland ! there is victory in the land !" 
 
 Then the sound of drums aroused me. The awakened city's roar 
 Chased the phantoms I had summoned back into their graves once more. 
 
 Hours had passed away like minutes ; and, before I was aware, 
 Lo ! the shadow of the belfry crossed the sun-illumined square. 
 
 " So the poet, you see, stayed in the belfry tower all day," said 
 Mrs. Bodley, " and you see what a wide stretch of country he looked 
 over. The Flemish country is low and flat, and from the tower 
 one can see the ocean line at Ostend, and as far as Ghent, which 
 is twenty-seven miles away. All over the country are scattered 
 famous buildings, lofty, with towers and spires, called Town Halls 
 (Hotels de Ville). Perhaps the one with the most beautiful spire 
 is that at Brussels, and these buildings with spires and bell-towers 
 indicate the wealth and power that once resided in the cities, just
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 113 
 
 as cathedrals show how rich and powerful was the church that built 
 them. They were not built in a day, and though now they seem 
 almost deserted, they are monuments of a historic time. In Bruges, 
 for instance, the belfry tower surmounts Les Halles, which was the 
 great market of the town. . ' Thrice consumed and thrice re- 
 builded,' the poet says ; I cannot quite make that out, but it tells 
 the story of the increased wealth of the place. Far back in the 
 eleventh century there was a wooden bell-tower there. It was 
 burned in 1280 and the foundations of this tower laid in 1291. 
 Upon the very tip top was a lofty spire which was struck by light- 
 ning in 1493 and rebuilt in 1502." 
 
 " That 's twice consumed and twice rebuilded," said Ned, count- 
 ing. 
 
 " Well, the spire was burned again in 1741." 
 
 " Thrice consumed." 
 
 " But never rebuilded, but instead a low parapet took its place." 
 
 " That was the third time." 
 
 " We shall have to play it made the thrice rebuilded, to agree 
 with the poet's line." 
 
 " But, mamma," asked Phippy, "how came the people to build 
 these great halls and towers ? " 
 
 " It was because the people, or rather the towns in Flanders grew 
 powerful by manufacturing and commerce, and were able to hold 
 their own against noblemen and petty princes. All along the shores 
 of the North Sea were fishing and trading villages, and inland the 
 weavers wove from the flax which grew on the plains. They car- 
 ried on trade with England and with the Mediterranean, and began 
 to gather riches. The weavers and other artisans formed guilds 
 which combined to protect their interests. The noblemen who
 
 114 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 claimed to rule over them were all the while getting impoverished 
 by their wars and their costly living, and when they wanted more 
 money they got it from these towns by giving up to them certain 
 rights of government. So, little by little the towns gained the power 
 which the earls and counts had, and as a count built a castle, so the 
 town built a public hall. They hung bells in the towers to call 
 the people together, and the government of the city showed its 
 dignity and splendor by holding its meetings in splendid halls. 
 See, in this picture, what a rich one they built at Louvain, perhaps 
 the most richly decorated building of its kind in the world, and 
 others were scarcely less magnificent. We see them now as show 
 places, but once they were signs of a great municipal and commer- 
 cial power. Why, at one time, in what is now the quiet dreamy 
 town of Bruges, when the bell rang for work to cease, at the end 
 of the day, fifty thousand workmen tramped over the bridges, and 
 the law forbade the draws to be raised at that hour. You can guess 
 that something like this was in the poet's mind when he says, ' At 
 my feet the city slumbered.' To be sure, it was early in the morn- 
 ing, but he wants to put a great silence between the present and 
 the past to make us feel more strongly the activity and rush of 
 the old times." 
 
 " Yes," said Lucy, " and then he wakes up suddenly and sees 
 
 ' All the Foresters of Flanders mighty Baldwin Bras de Fer, 
 Lyderick du Bucq and Cressy, Philip, Guy de Dampierre.' 
 
 Who were all these people, mamma ? " 
 
 " In those two lines Longfellow has gone with a hop, skip, and 
 jump down the centuries of Flemish history, from the people who 
 inhabited the vast forests of the earliest times, to Baldwin Iron Arm,
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 115 
 
 
 
 the first Count of Flanders, in the ninth century, who brought his 
 bride Judith to his strong fort here and made it his chief seat." 
 
 " Then there were the ' pageants splendid,' " said Lucy. " What 
 was the Fleece of Gold ? Was it Jason's Fleece ? " 
 
 " It was an order of knights instituted at Bruges in 1429 by 
 the Philip we have just heard of, when he was married to Isabella 
 of Portugal. He had by inheritance and purchase acquired au- 
 thority over some of the richest cities and provinces of the Nether- 
 lands ; indeed, almost the whole country was united under him. 
 He stood equal with kings and emperors, and when he established 
 the order of the Golden Fleece he limited the number of mem- 
 bers to twenty-five, and made it a condition that these members 
 should belong to no other order; it included emperors, kings, 
 princes, and nobles, and was a singular illustration of the half- 
 religious, half -commercial sentiment of the place and time. Each 
 knight wore suspended at his breast an image of the Lamb of God, 
 and the symbol indicated both the Christian humility assumed by 
 the order and the source of the Burgundian wealth and power. 
 There was a vast trade, then, with Lombardy and Venice, and the 
 court of Philip was crowded with ministers from the great states 
 of Christendom 
 
 ' Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep-laden argosies ; 
 Ministers from twenty nations; more than royal pomp and ease.' 
 
 The order of the Golden Fleece became Austrian when Philip's 
 granddaughter, Mary, married the archduke, afterward emperor, 
 Maximilian ; it was this Mary, ' hunting with her hawk and hound,' 
 who died from the effects of a fall from her horse near Bruges. 
 She was buried beneath the choir of Notre Dame in Bruges."
 
 116 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " And why did the proud Maximilian kneel humbly on the 
 ground ? " 
 
 " There is. a whole chapter of history in that line, Nathan, and 
 as it has a good deal to do with our town halls, I will tell it to you 
 in as few words as I can. The cities, as I have said, represented 
 the freedom of the people and self-government, wrested or pur- 
 chased from the nobles ; but the contest was always going on, and 
 there were always two parties in the several cities, the party of the 
 nobles and the party of the people. But the cities were also jeal- 
 ous of each other, and instead of uniting against a common enemy, 
 they were very apt to be suspicious of each other, and so increased 
 the opportunity of the nobles. The nobles, when in difficulty, 
 were always making promises to the cities, and would then try to 
 retreat from the promises when the difficulty was over. The 
 gentle Mary, when she died, left a son, Philip, four years old, who 
 was recognized as her successor. Maximilian, his father, was rec- 
 ognized by all the provinces of the house of Burgundy, except 
 Flanders, as governor during Philip's minority. The representa- 
 tives of the cities seized Philip and carried on the government 
 in his name. Then Maximilian came with some cavalry against 
 Bruges, but was taken prisoner and would not be released until 
 he had knelt on the ground in Bruges and sworn to observe a 
 treaty by which Flanders was to be governed by its own council, 
 in the name of Philip. But no sooner was he at liberty than he 
 came with an army, broke his oath, subdued the magistrates, and 
 regained authority. He courted by turns each party to destroy 
 the power of the other." 
 
 Lucy had been keeping track of the verses of the poem, and 
 was ready now with another question : " Had the battle of the 
 Spurs of Gold anything to do with the Fleece of Gold ? "
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 117 
 
 " Oh, I know about that," said Ned. " Let me show off my 
 historical knowledge, Aunt Sarah. The Battle of the Golden Spurs 
 was fought between the Flemings and the French early in the 
 fourteenth century." 
 
 " 1302," interrupted Mrs. Bodley. " You may as well be exact, 
 Ned." 
 
 "Well, the beginning was in one of those quarrels, you told us 
 about, when Philip the Handsome, king of France, pretended to 
 espouse the cause of the Flemish towns against Guy de Dampierre, 
 Count of Flanders, but really used the rich cities as his money 
 sack. He had left Chatillon, his queen's uncle, in rule, and had 
 made himself very obnoxious to the people ; an occasion came when 
 there was a direct conflict between them. The men of Bruges 
 had usually sounded their great bell when they wanted to call the 
 people together ; but the French had possession of that, so they 
 improvised an alarm bell, and at the. time agreed upon they seized 
 their cauldrons and pounded their copper sides." 
 
 " I 've done that," said Phippy. 
 
 " Yes, and what a din it makes, does n't it ? Either the noise 
 or the fury of the people did the work ; for the French were set 
 upon, and for three days there was a great massacre, which Cha- 
 tillon escaped only by running away. It was a popular rising, 
 and everything depended on its becoming general, for it was very 
 certain that the French would send an army against these rebellious 
 weavers. The men of Bruges marched to Ghent to get the alliance 
 of that city, but the wretched jealousy and the factious spirit made 
 the Ghentese hesitate, and so when the forces were drawn up, 
 Bruges was aided only by the towns of Ypres, Nieuport, Berghes, 
 Fumes, and Gravelines. Philip sent an army in which were hun-
 
 MR - BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 dreds of French noblemen to chastise these insolent workmen, and 
 the two armies met before the town of Courtrai, upon a large 
 plain. The French were arrogant and full of contempt for their 
 enemy. They were cavalry, heavily clad in mail. The Flemings 
 were on foot, armed only with pikes shod with iron ; but they 
 were fighting for their country. Before the battle the holy com- 
 munion was taken by the men as was customary ; but as the time 
 was pressing they did not wait for the bread, but each stooped 
 down and raised to his lips a morsel of the turf he trod upon. 
 Their country was sacred to them. Then the French came riding 
 headlong upon them, but they despised their enemy so much that 
 they scarcely observed the form of battle, they were in such a 
 hurry to ride down these miserable w r eavers and smiths. They 
 did' not see, either, that a great canal, thirty feet wide, covered the 
 plain, and suddenly they all began to plunge head first into this 
 ditch. The Flemings sprang upon them with their pikes, and as 
 the French were encased in their coats of mail they struggled in 
 vain to get free. They were helpless in that ditch, and were lit- 
 erally beaten to death ; seven hundred gilt spurs were taken from 
 them, and hung in the cathedral at Courtrai as spoils and tro- 
 phies. That is the reason the battle was called the Battle of the 
 Golden Spurs. Namur and Juliers were the two counts who led 
 the Flemings." 
 
 " There was a vast deal of fighting, it seems to me," said Nathan, 
 " and here comes the fight at Minnewater." 
 
 " Yes, but w r e won't stop for anything now but the White Hoods 
 and Philip Van Artevelde. In 1381 Bruges, which was a great 
 rival always of Ghent, wanted to have direct navigation to the Lis, 
 and so to the sea, instead of sending all her goods through Ghent,
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 
 
 119 
 
 which then held control of the Lis ; so she made a secret arrange- 
 ment with the Earl of Flanders, and began to dig a channel to the 
 Lis, which would have left Ghent upon one side, and destroyed 
 much of her revenue. There was an old custom in Ghent, by which 
 
 Van Artevelde and the White Hoods. 
 
 persons disaffected with the government ranged themselves into 
 a corps and wore white hoods as a distinctive dress, so this cus- 
 tom was revived under the leadership of one Heins Lyon, and a 
 party went out to attack the Bruges diggers. These retreated
 
 120 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 without fighting ; but the affair was the beginning of a bitter feud 
 between the two cities, which dragged in the other cities of Flan- 
 ders. With Bruges, which professed to espouse the cause of the 
 Earl of Flanders, were Oudenarde, Dendermonde, Lisle, and Tour- 
 nay ; while with Ghent were Ypres, Courtray, Grammont, and 
 others ; and as the Ghent cause seemed to be that of the people, 
 while the Bruges was of the Earl of Flanders, the strife came to 
 be regarded as a struggle between citizens and feudal lords. The 
 nobles were better organized, and little by little all the cities siding 
 with Ghent were subdued. Ghent alone remained, and there was 
 grave fear in the city that it might be necessary to yield to the 
 Earl of Flanders. At this critical moment, a leader was brought 
 forward in Philip Van Artevelde, the son of a patriotic Ghent 
 man who had himself been killed by the people years before, after 
 he had won freedom for them. Van Artevelde was led to a win- 
 dow of the Town Hall, where he was presented to the people. 
 They set up a shout, and welcomed him as their chief, swearing 
 faithful obedience. 
 
 " Now, as soon as Philip Van Artevelde became governor of 
 Ghent, news was brought that the Earl of Flanders was coming 
 upon the city with a great army. Then all the towns and cities 
 about were forbidden to have any intercourse with Ghent. The 
 earl meant to starve his rebellious subjects into obedience. The 
 famine came upon them ; people began to die of hunger. Philip, 
 unable to endure the suffering, resolved to appeal to the earl. 
 With eleven others he set out for Tournay, where they expected 
 to meet him. The people waited anxiously for the return of their 
 ambassadors. It was Easter, but there was no joy or festivity in 
 Ghent. At length, after days of suspense, the twelve were seen
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 121 
 
 returning. The people flocked about Philip for his answer, but 
 he refused to give it until the next day, bidding them all meet 
 him in the market-place at nine in the morning. 
 
 "At that hour a vast crowd of emaciated, hungry people met 
 before the Town Hall. Philip, clad in armor, stepped out upon the 
 broad window-sill, and with him were the eleven who had gone 
 with him to Tournay, and other leaders of the White Hoods. He 
 delivered the earl's answer. All the men of Ghent between the 
 ages of fifteen and sixty were commanded to come out of the city 
 to a plain six miles distant, to come bare-headed, bare-footed, clad 
 only in shirts, and wearing halters about their necks, and kneel 
 upon the ground for the earl's pardon or execution, as that lord 
 might determine. When the people heard this message they all 
 fell to weeping and wailing, and after there was some silence 
 Philip spoke again, and said there were three courses from which to 
 take choice : either to shut themselves all up in the churches ,and 
 die like martyrs, or to march out as the earl had commanded, or 
 for five thousand of them to take their lives in their hands and 
 make a desperate assault upon Bruges. Those nearest him asked 
 what he advised. He was for the sortie, and his courage and 
 enthusiasm suddenly inspired the people with fresh hope. They 
 shut all the gates of the town, and would let no one go out while 
 the preparations were making, and the next afternoon the gates 
 were opened and out marched the five thousand, with two hun- 
 dred carts laden with cannon and artillery, and seven carts only 
 with provisions, so reduced were they. Those left behind followed 
 them a little way declaring that the moment they heard of the death 
 cr defeat of the party they should set fire to the town and perish in 
 the flames. For a day the desperate five thousand kept on their
 
 122 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 way to Bruges, living chiefly upon what they could find on their 
 way, and on the evening of the day after they had left Ghent, on 
 Friday evening, that is, encamped on the plain before Bruges. But 
 for the rest of the story I will turn to Froissart and read you what 
 that chronicler says : 
 
 " ' The Saturday was a fine bright day, and, being the feast of 
 the Holy Cross, the inhabitants of Bruges, according to custom, 
 made the usual processions. News was soon brought to Bruges 
 that the Ghent army was near at hand ; so that every one began 
 to murmur until the earl heard it as well as those about his person. 
 He was much surprised, and said, " See how the wickedness of these 
 mad and foolish people of Ghent leads them to their destruction : 
 indeed, 4t is time this war should be put an end to." His knights 
 and others instantly waited on him, whom he very graciously re- 
 ceived, and said, " We will go and fight these wicked people ; 
 however, they show courage in preferring death by the sword 
 rather than famine." They determined to send out three men 
 at arms to examine the force and situation of -the enemy. The 
 marshal of Flanders ordered three valiant squires on this service, 
 whose names were Lambert de Lambres, Damas de Buffy, and John 
 de Beart: they set out, mounted on the finest horses in the town, 
 and advanced toward the Ghent army. While this was going for- 
 ward, every person in Bruges made himself ready, and showed 
 the most eager desire to sally forth and combat the men of Ghent, 
 of whom I will now say a word, and of the manner in which they 
 had drawn themselves up. 
 
 " ' On the Saturday morning, Philip van Artevelde ordered his 
 whole army to pay their devotions to God, and masses to be said 
 in different places (for there were with them several monks) ; that
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 123 
 
 every man should confess himself, and make other becoming prep- 
 aration, and that they should pray to God with that truth, as 
 people looking to him alone for mercy. All this was done, and 
 mass celebrated in seven different places. After each mass was a 
 sermon, which lasted one hour and a half After the ser- 
 mons, the whole army assembled round a small hill, on which Philip 
 van Artevelde placed himself, in order to be the better heard, and 
 harangued them very ably, explaining to them every point in 
 which they were justified in this war; and how Ghent had fre- 
 quently sought pardon from the earl, and never could obtain it 
 without submitting to conditions too hard for the town and its 
 inhabitants; that now they had advanced so far they could not 
 retreat ; and, that if they would consider, they would see nothing 
 could be gained were they to return, for all they had left behind 
 were in sorrow and misery. They ought not, therefore, to think 
 of Ghent, their wives and children who were in it, but to act in 
 such manner as was becoming their honor. Philip van Artevelde 
 addressed many more fine speeches to them ; for he was very elo- 
 quent, and had words at command, which was fortunate for him, 
 and towards the end he added, " My good friends, you see here all 
 your provision : divide it among you fairly, like brethren, without 
 any disturbance ; for when it is gone you must conquer more, if 
 you wish to live." 
 
 " ' At these words they drew up very regularly and unloaded the 
 carts, when the bags of bread were given out, to be divided by con- 
 stable wicks, and the two tuns of wine placed on their bottoms ; 
 and there they moderately breakfasted, each man having a suffi- 
 ciency at that time ; after which breakfast they found themselves 
 more determined and active on their feet than if they had eaten
 
 124 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 more. This repast being over, they put themselves in order and 
 retired within their ribeaudeaus. These ribeaudeaus are tall stakes, 
 with points shod with iron, which they were always accustomed to 
 carry with them. They fixed them in front of the army, and in- 
 closed themselves within. 
 
 " t The three knights who had been sent by the earl to recon- 
 noitre, found them in this situation ; they approached the entrances 
 of these ribeaudeaus ; but the Ghent men never moved, and rather 
 seemed rejoiced to see them. They returned to Bruges, where they 
 found the earl in his palace, surrounded by many knights, waiting 
 for them, to hear what intelligence they had brought back. They 
 pushed through the crowd, and came near the earl, when they 
 spoke aloud, for the earl wished all present to hear, and said they 
 had advanced so close to the Ghent army that they might have shot 
 at them, if they had so chosen, but they left them in peace ; and 
 that they had seen their banners, and the army inclosed within their 
 ribeaudeaus. "And what are their numbers, think ye ?" said the 
 earl. They answered that as near as they could guess, they might 
 be from five to six thousand. " Well," said the earl, " now let 
 every one instantly get ready ; for I will give them battle, and this 
 day shall not pass without a combat." At these words the trumpet 
 sounded in Bruges, when every one armed himself and made for 
 the market-place. As they came., they drew up under their proper 
 banners, as they had usually done, in bands and constable wicks. 
 
 " ' Many barons, knights, and men at arms, drew up before the 
 palace of the earl. When all was ready, and the earl armed, he 
 came to the market-place, and was much pleased to see such num- 
 bers in battle array. They then marched off, for none dared dis- 
 obey his commands ; and, in order of battle, made for the plain ;
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 125 
 
 the men at arms afterwards issued forth from Bruges. It was a 
 handsome sight, for there were upwards of forty thousand armed 
 heads ; and thus horse and foot advanced in proper order, near to 
 the place where the Ghent men were, and then halted. It was late 
 in the afternoon when the earl and his army arrived, and the sun 
 going down. One of the knights said to the earl, " My Lord, you 
 now see your enemies ; they are but a handful of men in compar- 
 ison with your army, and as they cannot escape, do not engage 
 them this day, but wait for to-morrow, when you will have the day 
 before you ; you will, beside, have more light to see what you are 
 about, and they will be weaker, for they have not anything to eat." 
 " ' The earl approved much this advice, and would willingly have 
 followed it ; but the men of Bruges, impatient to begin the fight, 
 would not wait, saying they would soon defeat them and return 
 back to their town. Notwithstanding the orders of the men at arms, 
 for the earl had not less than eight hundred lances, knights and 
 squires, the Bruges men began to shoot and to fire cannons. The 
 Ghent men being collected in a body on an eminence, fired at once 
 three hundred cannon ; after which they turned the marsh, and 
 placed the Bruges men with the sun in their eyes, which much dis- 
 tressed them, and then fell upon them, shouting " Ghent!" The 
 moment the men of Bruges heard the cannon and the cry of Ghent, 
 and saw them marching to attack them in front, they, like cowards, 
 opened their ranks, and letting the Ghent men pass without making 
 any defense, flung down their staves and ran away. The Ghent 
 men were in close order, and, perceiving their enemies were de- 
 feated, began to knock down and kill on all sides. They advanced 
 with a quick step, shouting " Ghent ! " and saying, " Let us pursue 
 briskly our enemies, who are defeated, and enter the town with 
 them ; God eyes us this day with looks of pity."
 
 126 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " ' They followed those of Bruges with so much courage, that 
 whenever they knocked down or killed any one, they marched on 
 without halting or quitting the pursuit, whilst the men of Bruges 
 fled with the haste of a defeated army. I must say, that at this 
 place there were multitudes of slain, wounded, and thrown down ; 
 for they made no defense, and never were such cowardly wretches 
 as those of Bruges, or who more weakly or recreantly behaved 
 themselves, after all their insolence when they first took the field. 
 Some may wish to excuse them by supposing there might have been 
 treason, which caused this defeat. This was not so ; but such poor 
 and weak conduct fell on their own heads. 
 
 " ' When the Earl of Flanders and the men at arms saw that, by 
 the miserable defense of the men of Bruges, they had caused their 
 own defeat, and that there was not any remedy for it, for every 
 man was running away as fast as he could, they were much sur- 
 prised, and began to be alarmed for themselves, and to make off in 
 different directions. It is true, that had they seen any probability 
 of recovering the loss which the Bruges men were suffering, they 
 would have done some deeds of arms, by which they might have 
 rallied the'm a little ; but they saw it was hopeless, for they were 
 flying to Bruges in all directions, and neither the son waited for the 
 father, nor the father for his child. 
 
 " ' The men at arms, therefore, began to break their ranks. Few 
 had any desire to return to Bruges, for the crowd was so great on 
 the road thither that it was painful to see and hear the complaints 
 of the wounded and hurt. The men of Ghent were close at their 
 heels, shouting out, " Ghent, Ghent ! " knocking down all that ob- 
 structed them. The greater part of these men at arms had never 
 before been in such peril ; even the earl was advised to make for
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 127 
 
 Bruges, and to have the gates closed and guarded, so that the Ghent 
 men should not be able to force them and become masters of the 
 town. The Earl of Flanders saw no help for his men, who were 
 flying on all sides, and, as it was now dark night, followed this ad- 
 vice and took the road to Bruges, his banner displayed before him. 
 He ordered guards to defend the gates if the Ghent men should 
 come thither, and then rode to his palace, from whence he issued 
 a proclamation that every person, under pain of death, should as- 
 semble in the market-place. The intention of the earl was to save 
 the town by this means ; but it did not succeed, as you shall hear. 
 
 " ' While the earl was in his palace, and had sent the clerks of 
 the different trades from street to street, to hasten the inhabitants 
 to the market-place, in order to preserve the city, the men of Ghent, 
 having closely pursued their enemies, entered the town with them, 
 and instantly made for the market-place, without turning to the 
 right or left, where they drew themselves up in array. Sir Robert 
 Mareschant, one of the earl's knights, had been sent to the gates to 
 see they were guarded ; but while the earl was planning means for 
 defending the town, Sir Robert found a gate flung off its hinges, 
 and the Ghent men masters of it. Some of the citizens said to him, 
 " Robert, Robert, return and save yourself, if you can, for the 
 Ghent men have taken the town." The knight returned as speedily 
 as he could to the earl, whom he met coming out of his palace on 
 horseback, with a number of torches. The knight told him what 
 he had heard ; but notwithstanding this the earl, anxious to defend 
 the town, advanced toward the market-place, and as he was enter- 
 ing it with a number of torches, shouting, " Flanders for the Lyon ! 
 Flanders for the Earl ! " those near his horse and about his person, 
 seeing the place full of Ghent men, said, " My Lord, return ; for if
 
 128 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 you advance further you will be slain, or at the best made prisoner 
 by your enemies, as they are drawn up in the square and are wait- 
 ing for you." 
 
 " ( They told him truth ; for the Ghent men, seeing the great 
 blaze of torches in the street, said " Here comes my lord, here comes 
 the earl : how he falls into our hands ! " Philip Van Artevelde had 
 given orders to his men that if the earl should come every care 
 was to be taken to preserve him from harm, in order that he might 
 be carried alive and in good health to Ghent, when they should be 
 able to obtain what peace they chose. The earl had entered the 
 square, near to where the Ghent men were drawn up, when several 
 people came to him and said : " My Lord, do not come further ; for 
 the Ghent men are masters of the market-place and of the town, 
 and if you advance you will run a risk of being taken. Numbers of 
 them are now searching for their enemies -from street to street, and 
 many of the men of Bruges have joined them, who conduct them 
 from hotel to hotel to seek those whom they want. You cannot 
 pass any of the gates without danger of being killed, for they are in 
 their possession ; nor can you return to your palace, for a large 
 rout of Ghent men have marched thither." 
 
 " ' When the earl heard this speech, which was heart-breaking as 
 you may guess, he began to be much alarmed and to see the peril 
 he was in. He resolved to follow the advice of not going further, 
 and to save himself if he could, which was confirmed by his own 
 judgment. He ordered the torches to be extinguished, and said to 
 those about him, " I see clearly that affairs are without remedy ! I 
 therefore give permission for every one to depart and save himself 
 in the best manner he can." His orders were obeyed. The torches 
 were put out and thrown in the streets ; and all who were in com-
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 129 
 
 pany with the earl separated and went away. He himself went to 
 a by-street, where he was disarmed by his servant ; and, throwing 
 down his clothes, put on his servant's, saying, " Go about thy busi- 
 ness, and save thyself if thou canst ; but be silent if thou fall into 
 the hands of my enemies ; and if they ask thee anything about me 
 do not give them any information." " My Lord," replied the valet, 
 " I will sooner die." 
 
 " ' The Earl of Flanders thus remained alone, and it may be 
 truly said he was in the greatest danger ; for it was over with him 
 if he had at that hour, by any accident, fallen into the hands of 
 the mob, who were going up and down the streets, searching every 
 house for the friends of the earl ; and whomsoever they found they 
 carried before Philip van Artevelde and the other captains in the 
 market-place, when they were instantly put to death. It was God 
 alone who watched over him, and delivered him from this peril : for 
 no one had ever before been in such imminent danger, as I shall 
 presently relate. The earl inwardly bewailed his situation from 
 street to street at this late hour," for it was a little past midnight, 
 and he dared not enter any house, lest he should be seized by the 
 mobs of Ghent and Bruges. Thus, as he was rambling through 
 the streets, he at last entered the house of a poor woman, a very 
 unfit habitation for such a lord, as there were neither halls nor 
 apartments, but a small house, dirty and smoky, and as black as 
 jet; there was only in this place one poor chamber, over which 
 was a sort of garret that was entered by means of a ladder of 
 seven steps, where, on a miserable bed, the children of this woman 
 lay. 
 
 " ( The earl entered this house with fear and trembling, and said' 
 to the woman, who was also much frightened, " Woman, save me :
 
 130 MR - BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 I arn thy lord, the Earl of Flanders ; but at this moment I must 
 hide myself, for my enemies are in pursuit of me ; and I will hand- 
 somely reward thee for the favor thou showest me." The poor 
 woman knew him well, for she had frequently received alms at 
 his door ; and had often seen him pass and repass, when he was 
 going to some amusement, or hunting. She was ready with her 
 answers, in which God assisted the earl: for had she delayed it 
 ever so little they would have found him in conversation with 
 her by the fireside. " My lord, mount this ladder, and get under 
 -the bed in which my children sleep." This he did while she em- 
 ployed herself by the fireside with another child in a cradle. 
 
 " ' The Earl of Flanders mounted the ladder as quickly as he 
 could, and, getting between the straw and the coverlid, hid him- 
 self, and contracted his body- into as little space as possible. He 
 had scarcely done so, when some of the mob of Ghent entered the 
 house ; for one of them had said he had seen a man go in there. 
 They found this woman sitting by the fire, nursing her child, of 
 whom they demanded, " Woman, where is the man we saw enter 
 this house, and shut the door after him ? " " By my troth," re- 
 plied she, " I have not seen any one enter here this night ; but 
 I have just been at the door to throw out some water, which I 
 then shut after me ; besides, I have not any place to hide him in, 
 for you see the whole of this house ; here is my bed, and my chil- 
 dren sleep overhead." Upon this one of them took a candle, and 
 mounted the ladder, and, thrusting his head into the place, saw 
 nothing but the wretched bed in which the children were asleep. 
 He looked all about him, above and below, and then said to his 
 companions, " Come, come, let us go, we only lose our time here ; 
 the poor woman speaks truth : there is not a soul but herself and
 
 IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 
 
 her children." On saying this, they left the house and went inlo 
 another quarter ; and no one afterwards entered it who had bad 
 intentions. 
 
 " ' The Earl of Flanders, hearing all this conversation as he lay 
 hid, you may easily imagine was in the greatest fear of his life. 
 In the morning he could have said he was one of the most pow- 
 erful princes in Christendom, and that same night he felt him- 
 self one of the smallest. One may truly say that the fortunes 
 of this world are not stable. It was fortunate for him to save his 
 life ; and this miraculous escape ought to be to him a remembrance 
 his whole lifetime.' ' 
 
 . "Well," said Nathan, rather scornfully, "I don't think much of 
 that earl's courage. A pretty figure he cuts hiding under the poor 
 woman's bed, and changing clothes with his servant. I should 
 think he exposed his servant to all the danger he escaped." 
 
 "But what became of the starving people in Ghent?" asked 
 Lucy. 
 
 " ' On the Monday morning,' " Mrs. Bodley read further, " ' the 
 happy news of the defeat of the earl and his army was brought to 
 Ghent ; that their men had not only conquered them, but also the 
 town of Bruges, of which they were now masters. You may guess 
 the joy the people felt who had been so lately in the greatest tribu- 
 lation ; they made many processions to the church to return thanks- 
 givings to God for the mercy he had shown them, and for the victory 
 
 he had given to their army Philip van Artevelde and Peter 
 
 du Bois considered that when they had quitted Ghent they had left 
 it destitute of all provision, for there was neither corn nor wine in 
 the town ; they instantly detached a large party to Damme and 
 Sluys to gain those towns and the provisions which were in them,
 
 132 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 in order to supply their fellow-citizens in Ghent. On the detach- 
 ment arriving at Damme the gates were thrown open, and the town 
 with all in it surrendered. They ordered out of the fine cellars 
 the wines of Poitou, Gascony, and La Rochelle, and from other 
 distant countries, to the amount of six thousand tuns, which they 
 loaded on carriages and sent by land to Ghent, and also by boats 
 on the river Lis. They then marched on to Sluys, which instantly 
 submitted to them and opened its gates. They found there great 
 quantities of casks of corn and flour, in ships and in the storehouses 
 of foreign merchants, and having paid for the whole sent it by land 
 and water to Ghent. Thus was Ghent delivered from famine, through 
 the mercy of God. It could not have happened otherwise, and well 
 ought the Ghent men to remember it ; for that God assisted them 
 is very clear, when five thousand famished men defeated forty 
 thousand even before their own doors.' ' 
 
 " I 've been waiting patiently," said Phippy, " to hear about great 
 Artevelde scaling the Golden Dragon's nest." 
 
 " The Golden Dragon's nest was the top of the spire upon the 
 Belfry of Bruges. Tradition said that the great copper-gilt dragon, 
 as big as a bull, which surmounted the spire, had been brought from 
 Constantinople in 1204. I don't suppose Philip climbed up." 
 
 " Shinned up, mother." 
 
 " Scaled, we '11 say, the spire to get it down, but it really was 
 carried off to Ghent as a trophy and perched upon the top of their 
 own belfry, where it still is, I believe." 
 
 " There was one more time of fighting that the Bruges belfry 
 witnessed," said Ned. 
 
 " Yes, in the sixteenth century Charles V. of Spain took the coun- 
 try, and he cut out the tongue of great Roland, the bell which hung
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 133 
 
 in the Ghent belfry, and cast it to the ground, to humble the 
 Ghentese. Roland had an inscription upon it in Flemish, like this 
 in English. 
 
 " ' I am Roland; sound I low, there is fire at hand, 
 But sound I loudly, it means foes in Flemish land.' " 
 
 " Well, Aunt Sarah," said Ned, as Froissart was closed and put 
 away, " we might get up a copy of The Belfry of Bruges with foot- 
 notes and illustrations." 
 
 " I wish we could all some day make foot-notes there," said Na- 
 than. " on the spot." 
 
 " Nathan, if you make puns," said Ned, " I shall illustrate your 
 remarks with wood-cuts from this rule in my hand." 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 
 
 As the summer drew near its end it seemed to gather its heat 
 and send it out more steadily. The grasshoppers hopped up and 
 down as if the earth burned them when they touched it. The Bod- 
 leys had ice-cream nearly every day, and would have had it oftener 
 if it had not been necessary to turn the crank of the freezer. Nurse 
 Young seemed to be the only cool person. She went about her 
 work, washing laces and laying them upon the grass to bleach, and. 
 would stand out there in the sun looking at them, and turning them 
 as if they were cakes on a griddle iron. 
 
 " Are n't you ever hot, Nurse Young ? " asked Lucy disconsolately, 
 as she sat on the step of the woodshed.
 
 134 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " Well, no, my dear, except when I sit down and think about it. 
 You see in Newfun'land we never had it very hot, and I suppose I 
 got my bones frozen, like, when I was a little gell, and the sun does 
 them good now." 
 
 " Then you were always hearing about Greenland and those cold 
 places. I suppose that cooled you off. I should like to be at the 
 North Pole for just about five minutes." 
 
 " You 'd want to warm yourself at the Northern Lights," said 
 Nurse Young, good-naturedly. " I rather think the poor men that 
 0:0 wandering; round trvins; to find the Pole would like to warm 
 
 O O */ O 
 
 their hands on the Equator. We always want to be somewhere 
 else, but thanks be to praise, I 'in contented. I know a good home 
 when I get it." Lucy got up and walked slowly back into the 
 house, where she got into her little rocking-chair and rocked slowly 
 back and forth. Mrs. Bodley, walking in and out on some house- 
 hold errands, saw her. 
 
 " Run and help Nathan string peach-pits," she said, and Lucy 
 rose and walked off to the piazza. Nathan and Phippy had been 
 cracking peach-stones and were stringing the pits on thread. It was 
 quite a little business with the Bodleys ; they saved all the peach- 
 stones, cracked them, strung the pits, and sold them strung for five 
 cents a hundred, while Mrs. Bodley used them for flavoring blanc- 
 mange. Her mother watched Lucy as she went out, and fell to 
 thinking. At breakfast the next day her thoughts came out. 
 
 " Do you think," she asked, " that we could get packed to-day for 
 a week among the mountains ? " The children shouted, and Lucy's 
 eyes brightened. " We will try, at any rate," she went on, " and if 
 we can we will take the train for Alton Bay to-morrow." The rest 
 of the day was a lively one. The children seemed to forget the
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 137 
 
 heat, so eager were they to be off, and the next day they were all 
 on their way to the White Mountains. Mrs. Bodley knew of a 
 quiet little village called Tannvorth, half way between Senter Har- 
 bor and Conway, where she could find board, and there she meant 
 to take her little flock. The day was heavy and close, but as they 
 got away from the city they seemed to breathe more freely. As 
 they came closer to the hills their spirits rose and the children were 
 running first to one side and then to the other of the car. At Al- 
 ton Bay they changed from the railroad to the little steamer Lady 
 of the Lake, and so crossed Lake Winnipiseogee to Senter Harbor, 
 the cool wind blowing across the water, and the round Red Hills 
 before them. They dined at the Senter House, and after dinner 
 clambered up upon the stage-coach and drove off to Tamworth, 
 which they reached in time for an early tea. Chocorua stood 
 sharply before them, a noble mountain, that looked almost inacces- 
 sible with its rough granite summit; and other mountains, Sandwich 
 Dome, Passaconaway, White Face, and one which from its appear- 
 ance, their landlady said, sometimes was called Tumble Bed Mount- 
 ain, were ranged along the near horizon. 
 
 " It does look exactly like a great feather bed into which some- 
 body has jumped," said Lucy. 
 
 " Chocorua looks like a ploughshare," said Ned. " Aunt Sarah, 
 can you get any idea of Switzerland from these mountains ? " 
 
 " Oddly enough, Ned, Chocorua itself has a likeness to the Mat- 
 terhorn, one of the Swiss mountains. It is not, to be sure, so high, 
 but its shape is like it, and if it were in perpetual snow I think 
 it would look nearly as grand." 
 
 " Oh, would n't I like to walk in Switzerland ! " 
 
 " We '11 go some day, Ned," said Nathan. "Depend upon it."
 
 138 
 
 MR. BOD LEY ABROAD. 
 
 " I suppose the mountains are all covered wi'th snow in the 
 winter," said Phippy, " and then they must do nearly as well as 
 
 . Switzerland." 
 
 " Chocorua is not," 
 said the landlady. 
 ~" The snow blows off 
 its granite top, but 
 there is a beautiful 
 sight W T e see there 
 every spring. The 
 snow stays o n the 
 mountain longer than 
 it does below, but 
 after it is all gone 
 everywhere else, you 
 can trace it on the 
 face of Chocorua in 
 the shape of a beau- 
 tiful white cross. I 
 don't know as you 
 can make it out very 
 well in this light, but 
 perhaps you can see 
 a ravine filled with 
 trees and bushes 
 running up the 
 head ? " 
 
 " Yes, I think I can make it out." 
 
 " There 's another crossing it, and the snow will lie on those ra- 
 
 The Matterhorn.
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 
 
 139 
 
 vines in among the bushes, when it has fallen off the rocks, and you 
 will see a white cross." 
 
 " Oh, I 'd like to come here in the winter-time 1 " exclaimed 
 Lucy. 
 
 " Well, we like it," said the landlady. " We think the winter 
 here is finer than the summer sometimes, but it does get rather 
 
 A Sleighing Party in the Mountains. 
 
 lonely. There are n't as many young folks here as there were when 
 I was a girl. Then we had fine sport, going on sleighing parties 
 and having bees. It 's pretty quiet here nowadays." 
 
 It could not be called noisy even in the summer season. The 
 place had not yet become a summer resort, and only now and then 
 did any one come to use the village as a headquarters from which
 
 140 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 to plan excursions. But the children were very happy in their life 
 there. They took long drives with a stout horse and wagon, and 
 though they did not climb Chocorua they made many ascents of 
 lesser hills. One day they planned a picnic upon the shores of 
 Chocorua Lake. It was a lovely autumn day. The goldenrods 
 were indeed beginning to show signs of drooping, and the maples 
 here and there were shot with bright colors, while the sumachs in 
 the meadows had already begun to cast their slender leaves. They 
 drove through the woods and to the lake, and, crossing the little 
 causeway which separates the two ponds, followed a cart path into 
 the fields and up to a little knoll which overlooked the water. 
 Above them they could see the tall mountain, and all about them 
 rocks, trees, and water. Not a house was within sight. They took 
 the horse from the shafts and let him browse in the dry pasture, 
 while they scattered in search of blackberries. A few late rasp- 
 berries they found also, and even one or two tiny mountain straw- 
 berries which had a singular fruitiness for such little berries. Per- 
 haps their rarity made them seem more delicious. When they 
 came back to their picnic ground and showed their spoils, they had 
 been so successful that it was agreed to put off their lunch until 
 they had finished their berrying, for the chief business of the pic- 
 nic was to gather berries enough to allow Mrs. Bodley to make 
 blackberry jam for the winter. So their lunch was not until nearly 
 three o'clock. They had just seated themselves on the grass to 
 eat it when they heard wheels approaching, and in a moment 
 their landlady appeared, clucking to her horse, and making toward 
 them. 
 
 " What is it, Mrs. Bruce ? " asked Ned, starting up. Mrs. Bruce 
 dropped the reins and fumbled under the cushion of the wagon.
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 141 
 
 " There was a letter came," said she, " and I was driving over 
 toward Albany, so I thought I 'd stop and leave it, thinking maybe 
 you 'd like to have it at your picnic. You don't mean to say, Mrs. 
 Bodley, you 've picked all those berries ! Well, the children have 
 been smart." 
 
 " Stop and have some lunch, Mrs. Bruce," said Mrs. Bodley. 
 
 " Lunch now at three o'cloc % k ! Well, you must be mortal hun- 
 gry, or else you ain't, I don't know which. No, I must be going 
 on. Huddup, Katy ! " and she turned her wagon about, holding 
 the reins on high, and disappeared among the bushes. 
 
 " Is n't it splendid ! " said Phippy ; " it 's a letter from father. 
 How did it get to Tamworth?" 
 
 " I left word to have it sent on if it should come. Yes, it is 
 from Geneva, Switzerland." 
 
 " I hope he 's been among the Alps," said Ned. " It would be 
 highly appropriate to hear it here under Chocorua." 
 
 " We '11 hear it, wherever he has been," said Mrs. Bodley. " Why, 
 here is a note inside for Nathan." 
 
 " And is n't there one for me ? " asked Phippy. 
 
 " Why, yes," said Nathan, opening his; " your's is inside of mine." 
 
 " Oh, get at mine," said Lucy ; and Phippy, opening hers, dropped 
 out, sure enough, a little one for Lucy. 
 
 " Now, Lucy, give me mine," said Ned ; but although all the 
 sheets were opened and shaken nothing fell out for Ned Adams. 
 " Then I must have a piece of each," said he. 
 
 " Mine seems to be little more than a sketch of what your father 
 has done since he last wrote," said Mrs. Bodley, glancing over her 
 sheet. The letter told how from Belgium he had gone to Cologne, 
 and from there on the Rhine to Coblentz; at Coblentz he had
 
 142 
 
 MR. DODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 taken rail again, by Strasburg and Freiburg to Basle, when he 
 entered Switzerland. The first point he had made there was Lu- 
 cerne ; thence by the 
 Brlinig Pass to B r i - 
 e n z and Interlaken, 
 whence he had made 
 excursions to Murren 
 and other points ; by 
 the Grimsel to the 
 Valley of the Rhone ; 
 down that valley to 
 Martigny, with a side 
 excursion to the Baths 
 of Leuk ; from Mar- 
 tigny to Vevey and 
 back, and then by the 
 Tete Noire to Cha- 
 mounix, and so to 
 Geneva. 
 
 " My letter is from 
 Basle," said Nathan. 
 
 " You shall each 
 read your letter 
 aloud," said his moth- 
 er, and I think Na- 
 than must begin, as 
 he is the oldest. 
 
 Strasburg Spire 
 
 "Mine is from Vevey," said Phippy. 
 . "And mine from Chamounix," said Lucy.
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY, 143 
 
 " Then the order is in the order of his journey. Come, Nathan, 
 let us hear about Basle." 
 
 " There is not much about Basle," said Nathan, who had been 
 reading his letter. " It is mostly about Strasburg, with lots of 
 photographs in it," and then he read : 
 
 " ' You must study German before you travel abroad, Nathan. I 
 have so little of the language that I had some trouble getting a 
 towel this morning. I found that the maid had neglected to leave 
 me one. So I rang, and a boy came. I put my sleepy head and 
 hands out of the door-crack, said I wanted a towel, and performed 
 a mimic wiping of my face and hands. In five minutes the maid 
 came with something wrapped in tin foil, which I suppose was 
 soap. I said " No, no, no ! " and shouted " Towel ! " as if the louder 
 I spoke the more perfectly she would understand. Then I gave my 
 face and hands 'another dry wipe, and she exclaimed, " Wasser ! " 
 " No, no! " I cried again, and louder still, " Towel ! " Off she went, 
 and in five minutes more there came an English-speaking servant 
 who took my order, and at last the precious article came. 
 
 " ' But I meant to tell you about my visit to Strasburg. It is in 
 French territory, 1 and to avoid having my luggage twice examined, 
 I stopped at Kehl, a little village on the Baden side of the Rhine, 
 and, leaving my bags, took an excursion lightly equipped across 
 the river. I had seen the spire in the distance, and as I passed 
 through the city I was entertained by the vast roofs of the houses, 
 which were most picturesquely irregular. They seemed to be jum- 
 bled together in such a confused way that one would think each 
 feared to slide off into the street, and was seizing its neighbor 
 
 1 So it was when Mr. Bodley was there years ago.
 
 144 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 to hold itself in place. An avalanche of these steep roofs would 
 seem something to be expected ; and then the queer little windows, 
 poked out of the roof, higher and higher, made me think that a 
 race of astronomers must live in them. 
 
 " i The cathedral rose finely from an open square, its spire tower- 
 
 Strasburg Cathedral 
 
 ing four hundred and sixty-eight feet above the pavement, the 
 tallest spire in the world, and, indeed, taller, I believe, than any 
 structure of man's building. I went in through the beautiful porch, 
 and I think if I could have chosen a first cathedral to show you, I 
 should, perhaps, have chosen this, because of two things. There 
 are no little chapels and very few pictures, so that there is little
 
 THE PROCESSION OF PRIESTS.
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 
 
 147 
 
 to draw off the eye from the great masses of form and color. The 
 stone is a reddish sandstone, which made 
 the church appear to be in twilight. Then 
 there is a r superb western marigold win- 
 dow, and you would see how beautiful 
 colored glass could be. But what you 
 would be most interested in would be the 
 famous astronomical clock. I happened 
 to enter the cathedral just as a proces- 
 sion of priests was ascending the broad 
 flight of steps which leads into the part 
 of the cathedral called the choir. In an 
 hour the service was over, and as it was 
 nearly twelve o'clock, I made my way 
 to the South Transept to see the famous 
 clock. This clock takes the place of one 
 which was made a long while ago, but had fallen into decay ; 
 it stopped in 1789, after running more than two hundred years, 
 and in 1838 a Strasburg clockmaker undertook to repair and im- 
 prove it ; so I suppose it is finer than it ever was. The clock 
 is of three stories, and is sixty feet high, with a tower in which 
 the weights are contained. There was a little crowd of people 
 waiting for the clock to strike twelve, and when the hour came, 
 a figure representing Time, seated in a niche above the dial, struck 
 with a hammer on a bell which he held. Then Childhood slowly 
 passed before Time and struck another blow. Every quarter of 
 an hour in the hour, a new figure strikes : at quarter after twelve, 
 Youth would strike ; at half after twelve, Manhood ; and, at a quar- 
 ter before the hour, Old Age ; and, at the same time, a figure at 
 
 Porch of Strasburg Cathedral.
 
 148 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 each quarter of an hour turned a sand-glass. Away up at the top 
 was a figure representing the Saviour, and now the twelve Apostles 
 began to march past him, each one bowing as he came opposite, 
 Avhile he waved a little flag over them. Then, upon the top of 
 a side tower was a cock, which flapped its wings and crowed three 
 times. It was like the crow of a very young cock. Besides this, 
 Diana came out of a niche lower down, for it was Monday, and 
 each day the deity whom the ancients connected with the day 
 comes out and shows himself or herself. Then the clock sets in 
 motion a chime of bells; so you see I had to keep my eyes and 
 ears open lest I should miss something. I am very much afraid 
 that I have not told everything that was to be seen at twelve 
 o'clock ; but this is all that I can remember. 
 
 " * I wish you were in my room now. I am in a hotel called the 
 Trois Rois, or the Three Kings, and my room has a little balcony 
 off from it looking out upon the river Rhine, which flows directly 
 past the hotel, washing its walls in fact. There is a bridge across 
 the river just below, and the current is very swift. As I sat on the 
 balcony a little while ago eating my tea and honey, I saw a party 
 of swimmers, who were making very little motion but were shoot- 
 ing down the stream with a rush. They had started far above, 
 and a boat was following them which carried their clothes. A man 
 was standing in the stern steering it, while the swimmers kept 
 ahead of the boat and seemed almost to dance through the water. 
 In two or three minutes they were far below the bridge. The roofs 
 here have a window which overhangs the walls, perhaps for a crane 
 to haul up things from the street below. They look as if they were 
 peeping over to see what was going on below.' ' 
 
 " Is that the end, Nathan ? " asked Phippy.
 
 THE FAMOUS ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK.
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 
 
 151 
 
 " Yes, except, ' Your affectionate father.' ' 
 
 " Well, then, I '11 read mine ; it is from Vevey ; listen. ' I have 
 just been to visit ' " 
 
 " Is that the very beginning, Phippy ? " 
 
 " Yes, except, ' My dear Phippy.' ' 
 
 " Oh well, we know that. Go on." 
 
 " ' I have just been to visit the Castle of Chillon, which is on a 
 rock projecting into the Lake of Geneva. The castle is an old one, 
 but see why I and thousands of other people visit it. An English 
 poet, Lord Byron, once wrote 
 a poem upon it, and ever 
 since people have passed 
 many other castles without 
 stopping, but have not failed 
 to go to Villeneuve to see the 
 Castle of Chillon. It was not 
 long after Columbus discov- 
 ered America that Bonni- 
 vard, a patriot of Geneva, 
 was confined here in this 
 castle. In those days pris- 
 oners were treated often with great cruelty. Deep in the castle 
 are dungeons, dark and gloomy, where prisoners were confined. 
 They were chained to stone pillars, and the guide pointed out the 
 one to which Bonnivard was chained for six years. The iron ring 
 to which his chain was attached is still there, and in front of it 
 a hole in the solid rock said to have been worn by the action pf 
 his feet as he walked up and down for eight feet, the length which 
 his chain permitted him. There is a room into which I went, 
 
 Bonnivard in his Dungeon.
 
 152 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 which had a trap-door in it. Sometimes, when prisoners were to be 
 executed, the door was opened and they were bidden walk down 
 the steps, which led into the darkness below. The fearful man 
 would take one step, two steps, three, feeling his way cautiously, 
 but when he felt for the fourth, he would plunge down (for there 
 was 'no fourth step), down, down, eighty feet into the lake below. 
 Let us hope that some of them went down feet foremost, struck 
 the water with their toes, and were not too stunned to swim 
 ashore. 
 
 " * Now I must tell you of my visit to the Baths of Leuk. If 
 Cousin Ned is with you he will tell you to pronounce that word'" 
 " Loik," said Ned promptly. 
 " Yes, that is the way father says." 
 
 " ' There is a little village shut in by such a wall of rocks on all 
 sides but one that you would never think it possible to get out of it 
 save by the winding valley that leads up to the base of the rock, 
 unless, indeed, you were an Alpine Goat ; but wait a bit till I have 
 told you about the baths. There are some 
 warm springs of mineral water, and so abun- 
 dant that nine tenths of the water flows away 
 unused. The other tenth is saved for bathing, 
 and people come from far and near to be cured 
 of rheumatism. I think I would willingly suf- 
 fer a good many twinges before I submitted to 
 the treatment. Four hours in the morning 
 and four in the afternoon, do the patients have 
 Alpine Goat. to stand or sit up to their chins in hot water. 
 
 This would be so stupid in solitude that they bathe in one great 
 room, all clad in some coarse stout garments. I went in to see
 
 "frV THE HIGH COUNTRY. 153 
 
 them, for the baths are open to visitors. The steam from the water 
 was very hot and I began to perspire at once, but I think I should 
 have laughed myself into a heat besides if I had not been restrained 
 by politeness. There were twenty or thirty poor wretches floating, 
 about in the water, their heads just out and looking very unhappy 
 indeed. Each one had a little floating table before him, on which 
 he had taken his breakfast. Some played dominoes, but one of 
 them, an Englishman whom I had met on the way up, and who was 
 splashing about in a melancholy fashion, said they were apt to drop 
 the pieces into the water, and then they had to dive for them. I 
 never saw such uncomfortable looking people. They seemed to 
 look beseechingly at me standing there clothed and dry, while they 
 were boiling, boiling in that horrid vat. A man sat in a balcony 
 and played some dismal kind of hurdy-gurdy, and when he stopped 
 the poor things clapped their hands and chirped, as if they never 
 had heard anything so delightful. Then, for amusement, they 
 squirted water at each other, though that, I believe, is against the 
 rules. When the time for the end of the bath comes, an attendant 
 opens a little door and each one floats out in turn to a dressing- 
 room. They have to go to bed for an hour after each bath. I am 
 sure I should want to take a bath after I came out, to wash off that 
 hot water. 
 
 " ' I said that there seemed to be no way of getting out of the 
 place except by the little valley that led up to it, but really there 
 is, one of the famous mountain passes of Switzerland, the Gemmi. 
 At first you do not see any crack in that massive mountain wall, 
 which hems in the valley. You almost expect to see a wizard touch 
 some secret spring in the rock and open a mysterious door, but as 
 you come nearer the precipice you begin to see a narrow path. I
 
 154 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 climbed it one morning early. It goes up by a most zigzag route, 
 the path being often hewn out of the solid rock, and making such 
 short turns that it seemed almost impossible there should be any 
 way of getting further. I constantly found myself as if on a mere 
 shelf, looking down five hundred feet of precipice. It was one of 
 the hottest walks I ever took, for the sun shone steadily on me, and 
 
 it was only once in a while 
 that I could find any little 
 dark corner to crawl into 
 and keep cool there for a 
 few minutes. The path is 
 four or five feet wide, and 
 protected sometimes by 
 parapets at the side, but 
 they were not parapets that 
 I should have enjoyed lean- 
 ing over. I went up on 
 foot, but coming down I met 
 my Englishman going up on 
 a donkey, and it was evi- 
 dently serious business with 
 him. 
 
 " i On another side of the 
 valley where there is no 
 pass, there is what is called 
 lfheshoulds " p The Ladders. The people 
 
 here perch their villages often upon almost inaccessible heights, 
 where they live a primitive life with their flocks and herds, making 
 cheese and butter. There is such a village in Albinen, which has
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 
 
 155 
 
 a path leading down to the Khone, but is nearest to the Baths 
 of Leuk, except that a straight line to that town is a perpendicu- 
 lar line. Yet the Baths give them a market. If the people of 
 Albinen were richer, they would have hewn an ingenious path 
 down the precipice, like the Gemmi; but being poor they have 
 hung a succession of eight ladders, up and down which they go, 
 men, women, and children, whenever they wish to visit the place. 
 I climbed to the top and got some charming views, but it certainly 
 is a droll way to reach a village, to go up stairs to it. The mode 
 of dress of the women has undergone a change in consequence of 
 this way of traveling, and they all 
 wear something like a Bloomer cos- 
 tume.' " 
 
 " Well, I 've got a surprise for you,"* 
 said Lucy, as Phippy finished her let- 
 ter. She had been peeping into her 
 own letter and had caught sight of a 
 word or two. 
 
 " What ! is papa coming home right 
 away ? " 
 
 " Oh, you need not guess. You may 
 just listen." 
 
 " ' This is almost the end of Switz- 
 erland for me, for I shall go directly 
 to Geneva and Paris from here, on my 
 way home. I have often thought as I 
 have been traveling how much I should 
 
 v> 
 
 like to have my little Lucy with me, walking along the road or 
 ridino- on a donkey. All the people here walk, men and boys, 
 
 A Swiss Peasant Woman.
 
 156 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 women and girls. You see women with big baskets strapped to 
 their backs trotting along the roads as if they never had heard of 
 a horse or pair of wheels. You will have to grow strong, though, 
 
 Swiss Chalets. 
 
 before you can see everything there is to see here. I should like 
 to show you the houses, or chalets as they are called, with great 
 rocks laid upon the roofs, to keep them from blowing away, and
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 
 
 157 
 
 balconies reached by ladders from below, and quaint texts carved 
 in the wood. I should like, too, to show you the waterfalls. There 
 
 Climbing the Alps in Imaginaion. 
 
 is one valley which I visited called Lauterbrunnen, which means
 
 158 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " nothing but springs ; " and so you would say, for the rocks seem 
 bursting everywhere with water, as if there were a vast reservoir 
 behind, and there were leaks or places where faucets had been left 
 open. As if that were not enough it began to rain, and to rain 
 hard, too, so we were dinned by water in every direction. There 
 was a lovely waterfall, the Staubbach, or Dust Brook, a little mount- 
 ain brook, that, hurrying down the hill suddenly comes to the edge 
 of a precipice nine hundred feet high, and, pop ! over it goes, fall- 
 ing so far that the very water is shattered, and seems to rise and 
 fall in the air like dust, until striking a projecting rock near the 
 ground it gets body again and scrambles down to the valley. It 
 is like the falling fire from a rocket of golden rain, except that it 
 is water and not fire. 
 
 " ' I have climbed some high mountains, but always on my own 
 feet. Sometimes I have come upon parties on horse or donkey 
 back, and they are pushed and pulled often by the guides, so that 
 I should think they would all be more anxious about how they got 
 to the top than what they saw after they got there. Here at Cha- 
 mounix I am right under Mont Blanc, the greatest of all the Swiss 
 mountains, but hallo ! 
 
 " ' What do you think, Lucy ! You never will guess. Just as I 
 had written so far, I happened to look out of the window, and there, 
 coming down the road on a donkey, was Hen ! ' 
 
 " What, Hen ! our Hen ! " exclaimed Phippy. " Away off there 
 in Switzerland ! " 
 
 " Oh, let 's hear, Phippy," said Nathan. " I '11 warrant he had 
 some tall story to tell papa." 
 
 " ' I rubbed my eyes,' " went on Lucy, " ' and looked again. There 
 was no mistake. I jumped up, clapped on my hat, and ran out of
 
 IN THE HIGH COUNTRY. 150 
 
 the house. Hen was sitting on the donkey, looking about on the 
 mountains as calmly as if he were on our barn floor. 
 
 " ' How d' ye do, Mr. Bodley ? ' said he, when I came up. < This 
 is quite a country. That 's Mount Blank, is it ? ' and he looked at 
 it critically. ' Well, I 'd 'bout as lieve see Mount Washington. 
 'T is n't much after the Himalayas.' 
 
 " ' Now, Hen,' said I, ' don't pretend you ever saw the Hima- 
 layas.' He looked at me a moment in that curious way he has, 
 looked at the guide who was with him, and then said, ' Well, 
 p'r'aps he doos n't understand very well, but I go on the prin- 
 ciple of making light of the scenery round here. They think so 
 much of it, and if you go into fits over it they charge you just 
 so much extra. Well, how d' ye do, any way ? ' and he shook 
 hands again. ' How d' ye leave them all at home ? I 'd like to see 
 that little Lucy again ; but I 've got something in my chest for 
 her.' " 
 
 "Oh, what is it, Lucy?" asked Phippy, eagerly. 
 
 " He does n't say. Papa does n't say. I don't believe he asked 
 Hen." 
 
 " Go on, Lucy." 
 
 . " ' Hen had come to Marseilles from New York, and had taken it 
 into his head to visit Switzerland. He was traveling all alone, and 
 his one idea seemed to be to hurry by all the important places 
 and always stop at a little resting-place farther on. So now he 
 was passing through Chamounix to Les Ouches. His guide-book 
 told him the place was famous for its honey, so he was bound for 
 Les Ouches, he said, to get a sticky supper. He admitted that he 
 found it difficult to teach his guides what he wanted, He had been 
 on this donkey all the way from Martigny, and seemed quite
 
 160 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 attached to him. If he ever gets back to Roxbury you may be 
 sure that there will be no place in Switzerland which he has left 
 unvisited.' ' 
 
 " Good for Hen ! " cried Ned. " To think of Uncle Charles dis- 
 covering him there in Chamounix ! I can imagine the coolness with 
 which Hen greeted uncle, as if it were the most natural thing in the 
 world for them to have met just there." 
 
 " I do believe Hen will get back first," said Nathan. " I expect 
 to see him come up the avenue on his donkey." 
 
 "A donkey would be a fine addition to our household," said 
 Phippy. 
 
 The letters and chat had kept them busy, and the afternoon was 
 drawing to a close, so they packed the remains of their lunch, 
 covered the baskets of berries with paper, and drove back to Tarn- 
 worth. The next day Mrs. Bodley made blackberry jam and pre- 
 served blackberries, and blackberry wine, and blackberry cordial. 
 The jars and bottles were all safely packed, and in two days more 
 they were at home again in Roseland, very much refreshed by their 
 little excursion. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A JOURNEY ROUND THE GARDEN. 
 
 NOT long after the family returned from Tamworth, Ned's last 
 college year began, and. he left Roseland before his uncle had re- 
 turned from Europe. The schools, too, in Roxbury had opened 
 again, and the children were busy with their books, but the days
 
 A JOURNEY ROUND THE GARDEN. 161 
 
 were still long, and much of their time was passed out of doors. 
 Their father's letters home and their own excursion to the mount- 
 ains had filled their heads with the notion of travel, and all their 
 sports were in that direction. They crossed and recrossed the 
 United States in Paul Bodley's pasture with untiring enthusiasm, 
 and laid new railroads in the wilderness, and even founded towns, 
 at what they regarded favorable points, not yet reached by ordi- 
 nary emigrants. But so constant a tramping on the field made sad 
 havoc with the boundaries, and they were compelled every little 
 while to stop their traveling and do a little engineering and survey- 
 ing again of the coast. The gradual obliteration of the United 
 States lessened their ardor somewhat, and they began to neglect 
 this play. 
 
 " What do you say, Nathan," said Phippy one day at dinner, " to 
 making a Europe ? We might travel over papa's route then, or we 
 might make the two hemispheres and sail across the Atlantic be- 
 tween them." 
 
 " Oh, I don't believe we could," said Nathan. " There isn't room 
 to do them on a large scale, and it would be no fun to have to step 
 carefully, lest we should be in London on one leg and in Paris on 
 the other." 
 
 " Besides, Cousin Ned is n't here," added Lucy. 
 
 "I wish we could make a real journey of discovery," said Phippy. 
 
 " That is not so difficult " said Mrs. Bodley. " There was a 
 Frenchman once who wrote a book which he called ' A Journey 
 round my Room,' and another Frenchman has followed his example 
 with ' A Journey round my Garden.' Now if you children wish 
 to be real travelers, you must learn how to travel at home, and to 
 
 see what lies under your eyes. Why do you not sally out and 
 11
 
 162 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 make voyages of discovery to day ? It is Wednesday afternoon, and 
 you have no school. Set out in different directions, and at tea you 
 can give an account of your travels. Only I would make it a rule 
 not to go out of our own place. I am sure you will see some things 
 you never saw before." 
 
 The children entered into the plan with enthusiasm. Phippy 
 armed herself with a note-book, in which she said she meant to keep 
 a journal ; Nathan slung a satchel over his shoulder and carried his 
 pocket spy-glass and compass ; while Lucy said she meant to ex- 
 plore the world under protection of Nep, the dog, whom she took 
 with her. They gathered under the library window to take leave 
 of their native land, and then set out in different directions. Mrs. 
 Bodley watched them as they walked away, but did not see them 
 again until just before tea time, when they all came up the avenue 
 together. 
 
 " What, have you been traveling in company, after all ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Oh no, it was the most surprising thing," said Nathan ; " we all 
 met near the gate. We thought perhaps there would be an illu- 
 mination or some guns fired on the return of the great explorers, 
 but it seems pretty quiet." 
 
 " I hear the supper bell ringing now," said Mrs. Bodley, " and 
 all the people will assemble at the table to hear the stories of the 
 celebrated travelers. You know when great travelers come back 
 the Historical Society gives them a dinner or supper. I will be the 
 Historical Society, and invite you to an entertainment." So they 
 all marched into the house, and after the celebrated travelers had 
 washed off their stains, the Historical Society received them at the 
 supper table, where an unusual feast of good things had been pre- 
 pared.
 
 A JOURNEY ROUND THE GARDEN. 163 
 
 " We '11 go off again," said Nathan enthusiastically, " if this is the 
 reception we are to get on coming back." 
 
 " You must show that you have brought back something worth 
 feasting you for," said the Historical Society with dignity. " Will 
 Miss Lucy Bodley, the youngest of the three travelers, favor the 
 Society with an account of her adventures ? " 
 
 " Oh, they were n't adventures," said Lucy. " There was just one 
 new thing that I saw, besides all the old ones. But I '11 tell you 
 about it." 
 
 LUCY'S STORY. 
 
 " I went down the Hollow, because that was the first place I went 
 to when we came to Roseland. I was a little bit of a girl then, and 
 I remember that I saw a hand-organ man and his little girl Lisa ; 
 but this time there was nobody about, and I went inio the past- 
 ure by the old well and across the pasture. Nep was with me and 
 I did not feel afraid, and I wanted very much to see exactly what 
 there was, clear over on the other side of the pasture. You know 
 there 's a house over there where Mrs. Airly, who sometimes comes 
 here to wash, lives, and I thought I would call that a foreign coun- 
 try, because Mrs. Airly is an Irish woman, and see what I could see 
 there. Whes I got to the house Mrs. Airly was in the yard and 
 knew me. ' Come in,' said she ; ' I 've got a little niece with me just 
 about as old as you are/ I can't talk Irish, so I won't try, * and 
 she 'd like to see you ! I never knew she had any children in the 
 house, but I knew you would let me go in, mamma, and I was very 
 much surprised when I went in to see a little girl sitting by the 
 window. There was a crutch by her side, and then I saw why Mrs. 
 Airly asked me to come in instead of asking her niece to come out
 
 164 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 to see me. She lives in Wrentham, but had come over to visit her 
 aunt, and she had a beautiful geranium on the window-seat by her. 
 I asked her where she got it, and she said she brought it with her, 
 because she did n't dare to leave it at home. She patted the pot 
 
 Mrs. Early's Niece 
 
 with her hand ; and I asked Mrs. Airly if I might bring Nep in, and 
 she said I might, and so Nep came in, and Emily, that was the little 
 girl's name, was a little afraid of him at first, but pretty soon she 
 patted him, and she was such a nice little girl that I stayed there
 
 A JOURNEY ROUND THE GARDEN. 165 
 
 all the afternoon. I was sure you would let me, mamma, for I have 
 heard you say that Mrs. Airly was a very good woman." 
 
 " Her name is n't Airly," broke in Nathan. " It 's Early. Don't 
 you know the line 
 
 ' Call me early, call me early, mother dear.' 
 
 That 's her name, but she says ' Call me airly.' ' 
 
 " The little girl called her Aunt Becky. I think I should like to 
 go to see her again, and take her some of my playthings." 
 
 " Well, Lucy's journey was a sensible one," said Mrs. Bodley. 
 " She discovered a new person, and that was certainly like going to 
 a foreign country. Now let us hear Phippy's account." Phippy 
 immediately produced a very crumpled piece of paper, which she 
 called her log-book, and consulted occasionally with a critical eye. 
 
 PHIPPY'S STORY. 
 
 " Left Eoseland Castle at 3.30 P. M., the governess of the castle 
 that's you, mamma waving a flag, that's a pocket handker- 
 chief, you know. Steered about due east " 
 
 " Why, Phippy, you did n't go to sea," said Nathan. 
 
 " No matter, I steered, there 's wind on land is n't there ? 
 and made for the Grove. Visited Samson's Nut Cracker, the Gorge, 
 and P. Bodley's tomb. All these I had seen before. Bore away 
 to the northeast, and, let me see, by 4 p. M." 
 
 " You did n't have any watch, Phippy." 
 
 " There were four o'clocks there, you know there were," said 
 she, triumphantly. " And by four o'clock, by several of them, in 
 fact, followed along the pasture wall till I came near Mr. Porter's 
 orchard. There wasn't anything to see on our continent, so I
 
 166 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 looked over the wall and saw Johnny Porter sitting on the ground, 
 and Tom Porter pulling a branch down to get some apples. 
 
 " ' Hallo, Tom Porter,' said I. 
 
 " ' Hallo,' said he. 
 
 " ' Getting apples ? ' said I. 
 
 " ' Yes,' said he. 
 
 " ' What kind are they ? ' said I. 
 
 " ' Porter,' said he." 
 
 " Oh, come, Phippy, don't spin out your story so." 
 
 " That 's the way they do in story books," said Phippy. " That 
 would make several lines if it was printed, and it would be very 
 easy reading. You 'd get right to the bottom of the page and turn 
 over before you were tired." 
 
 " Well," said Nathan, " I should very soon get tired of that stuff. 
 Did you stay and play with those boys all the afternoon ? " 
 
 " No, I came back and played with them. I went off first round 
 the pasture, almost to Mrs. Early's, and then I went back, and Tom 
 and Johnny were still in the orchard. 
 
 " ' Hallo, Johnny,' said I. 
 
 "'Hallo,' said he." 
 
 " Come, now, Phippy, you 're giving us that stuff right over 
 again." 
 
 " No, I 'm not, it was Tom Porter before ; it 's Johnny this 
 time." 
 
 " Well, did he say they were Porter apples, too ? " 
 
 "I didn't ask him." 
 
 u What did you ask him ? " 
 
 " That 's just what I was going to tell when you interrupted. I 
 asked him if he 'd show me his rabbits, and he did, and they were 
 so cunning I forgot to look for anything else."
 
 PORTER APPLES.
 
 A JOURNEY ROUND THE GARDEN. 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Bodley, Phippy seems to have visited a zoo- 
 logical garden. What did you see, Nathan ? Where did you go ? " 
 
 NATHAN'S ADVENTURE. 
 
 " Well, I went away down to the farthest corner of the place, to 
 that mound where the spruce-tree is, and climbed it to see if I 
 could see the harbor from there. I always thought I could and 
 meant to try. I got rather sticky, but I could see the water and I 
 could make out the smoke of a steamer." 
 
 " Why, we can see that any day from the play-room up stairs," 
 said Phippy. 
 
 ' Yes, but I saw it from the spruce-tree. I was perched up there 
 when I saw a man coming along the road, who got up on the wall 
 and climbed over and lay down inside. I did n't know exactly what 
 to do. I was n't exactly afraid " 
 
 " Oh no." 
 
 " I say, I was n't exactly afraid, and I did n't want the poor man 
 to be afraid of me, so after a while I began to whistle. He pricked 
 up his ears and looked about him, and I whistled again. Then he 
 looked up, and spied me. I thought I 'd speak first. 
 
 " ' I hope you 've enjoyed your nap,' said I. 
 
 " ' What are you doing up in that tree ? ' said he. You 'd have 
 thought he owned the tree by the way he spoke. 
 
 " ' I 'm looking at that steamer,' said I, pointing across to the 
 smoke. ' You can see the harbor from up here ! ' I spoke in such 
 a kind, friendly way that I don't think he was frightened any more, 
 and he did n't think it necessary to look so fierce. He was sitting 
 up by this time. 
 
 " ' I would n't climb a tree to look at a steamer,' said he.
 
 170 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " ' But you can't see it down there,' said I." 
 
 " Seems to me your story is modeled on mine, Nathan," said 
 Phippy. 
 
 " It 's a true story, Phippy. I can't remember all the conversa- 
 tion. Boys never can, but girls do. Anyway he got to talking 
 
 about steamers and the harbor, and he said he crossed Boston Har- 
 bor that time, you know, when it was all frozen over, and saw a 
 steamer cut its way through the ice don't you remember ? " 
 
 " Oh yes," said Phippy, " I remember, and always thought it a 
 pity we could n't go. But what became of the man'? " 
 
 " Oh, he stayed and stayed, he enjoyed my conversation so much,
 
 A JOURNEY ROUND THE GARDEN. 
 
 and at length he went away, and when he had gone far enough not 
 to come back I shinned down." 
 
 " Well, Nathan," said his mother, " you seem to have been dis- 
 creet in your journeying. When you fell in with the natives you 
 parleyed with them at a safe distance. Perhaps discretion is a more 
 valuable quality than courage in traveling, but both are sometimes 
 needed." 
 
 Just then Martin came, bringing a letter from the post-office. It 
 was addressed to Lucy. 
 
 " It is from Cousin Ned," said she, recognizing the handwriting, 
 which was written with great plainness for Lucy's benefit. She 
 opened the envelope. " Why, there 's no letter at all ; it 's one of 
 his little stories." Sure enough, Ned had amused himself writing 
 a story for Lucy, and oddly enough it was a story of travel, so it 
 came just in the nick of time, as an end to this Journey round the 
 Garden.
 
 172 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 THE OBSTINATE WEATHERCOCK. 
 
 That no one could say ; 
 but everybody could see 
 it upon the school-house 
 belfry, and everybody did 
 see it. " We shall have a 
 storm to-day, the old ship 
 is sailing east," the people 
 would say, as they looked 
 at it ; or, " Fair weather 
 to-day, the captain 's look- 
 ing westward." When 
 the bell in the belfry 
 rang the children into 
 school the ship trembled, 
 but it kept on its course. 
 
 And what was its course ? Always in the teeth of the wind. 
 It was a full-rigged ship, all sails set, and the captain standing 
 
 on the poop. He always stood there, rain or shine, fair weather 
 
 or foul, morning, noon, and night, such a faithful captain was he. 
 
 His hands were in his pockets, and his tarpaulin was cocked on the
 
 A JOURNEY ROUND THE GARDEN. 173 
 
 side of his head. Captain Prim, the children called him. Captain 
 Prim had always sailed this ship. He could not remember the time 
 when he had sailed any other. It was a long memory, too, that the 
 captain had. He could remember the time when he lived in the 
 same house with a golden cock and a galloping horse and a locomo- 
 tive. Where were they now ? Gone, no one knew where, while 
 the captain Captain Prim was still sailing his ship. You may 
 believe that the captain thought none the worse of himself for : 
 that. 
 
 Captain Prim was always ready to put his ship about whenever 
 he saw a change of wind coming. At the slightest touch on his 
 bronzed cheek, he would sing out : " Haul away on the main sheet ! 
 Belay there ! " and round the ship would come, and the captain 
 would look straight ahead and be ready for the next tack. 
 
 Whither was he bound ? Ah, that 's the question. You could 
 not have got it from the captain, but I will tell you. Although 
 he looked so sturdy and knowing, deep down in his brave little 
 heart was his secret, he wanted to get out upon the open sea. 
 It vexed him to be always in sight of land. He could n't get away 
 from the dreadful mountains all about him, and once in a great 
 while, w r hen there was a fog, he was terribly anxious lest his ship 
 should go on the rocks. So it w r as that night and day he kept his 
 post and sailed in the teeth of the wind, for those were his sailing 
 orders. " Captain," said a man whom he had known in his early 
 days, " always sail in the teeth of the wind and you '11 do your 
 duty." 
 
 One day he was startled by seeing a head looking at him over 
 the rail. 
 
 " I say, there," said the head, " want a passenger ? " and before
 
 174 MR- BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 the captain could answer the stranger had climbed over the rail 
 and stood on the deck, where he shook himself. 
 
 " Pretty dusty, eh ! " 
 
 " Who are you ? " growled the captain. " Land-lubber ! dusty ! 
 out at sea ! " 
 
 " Hear him ! " laughed the passenger. " Why, captain, you 
 have n't started yet." 
 
 "When you are as old as I am, young stranger," began 
 Captain Prim. 
 
 " When you 've traveled as far as I have," began the passenger, 
 "you'll know whether it *s dusty or not." 
 
 Captain Prim longed to ask him where he had come from, but 
 his pride prevented. 
 
 "May be it isn't dusty between here and Colorado. May be 
 these hills are n't pretty rough climbing. I 'm tired of it. I 'm 
 ready for a voyage. Pull up your anchor and weigh it. Oh, I 
 know a thing or two about the sea; just weigh your anchor and 
 tell me how heavy it is, cap'n." 
 
 " Who are you, any way ? " asked the captain, his curiosity 
 getting the better of his pride. 
 
 " I ? Did n't you ever see one of my family before ? Why, 
 I 'm a Potato Bug. I have had enough of this country. I 'm 
 going abroad." 
 
 Just then the wind veered a little. 
 
 " Haul away on the main sheet ! " cried the captain, and the 
 Potato Bug, not seeing anybody at work, put his head down the 
 hatchway and repeated the order. 
 
 " I say, chambermaid, the cap'n wants you ; " but no one an- 
 swered.
 
 A JOURNEY ROUND THE GARDEN. 175 
 
 " Well, this is a ghostly ship," said the Potato Bug. " I ' m not 
 going to work my passage." 
 
 " Belay there ! " cried the captain, as the ship swung round and 
 was still again. 
 
 " Oh, we 're going now, are we ? " asked the passenger ; " this is 
 comfortable," and he crossed his legs. "But I say, cap'n," he 
 began again, pretty soon, " we don't get ahead. I 've been watch- 
 ing that meeting-house and it does n't move a particle. It ought 
 to. It ought to look as if it was moving. Oh, I know something 
 about motion." 
 
 " Mind your business," said the captain, badly frightened; He, 
 too, had always had an eye on that meeting-house, when the wind 
 was in the west, and it bothered him that he should never seem 
 to get by it. 
 
 "Well, I think I will. I'll get out of this Flying Dutchman," 
 said the Potato Bug. getting up and climbing over the rail again. 
 " I 'm a live passenger, I am. I 'm used to getting ahead in the 
 world. You may stay and sail to nowhere, if you want to. Good- 
 by ! " and he dropped over the side. 
 
 " He 's an ignorant land-lubber," said Captain Prim, breathing 
 a little more freely, but not daring yet to look at the meeting- 
 house again. He could see the Potato Bug, a distant speck out 
 on the end of the school-house, and then the Potato Bug was gone. 
 But Captain Prim, now that he was alone again, kept firmly to his 
 post. His hands were in his pockets, the tarpaulin was cocked on 
 the side of his head, and he kept his ship head on to the wind. 
 Obstinate fellow ! 
 
 And what became of the Potato Bug ? He had more traveling 
 to do. He thought he would just look off over the roof of the
 
 176 
 
 MR. BODLEY, ABROAD. 
 
 school-house, and make up his mind where to go next, but it made 
 him dizzy, and down he dropped to the ground. Young McPherson 
 found him there lying on his back. 
 
 " That 's a fine specimen ! " said he. " I '11 send him home to 
 the old folks." 
 
 But the old folks lived in Scotland, and so Potato Bug had to 
 travel in an envelope across the ocean. In the darkness of that 
 sealed envelope he thought of Captain Prim. 
 
 " Perhaps he knew what he was about. Perhaps he was doing 
 his duty," Potato Bug said faintly to himself. " If ever I go to 
 sea again, I '11 go in Captain Prim's ship." 
 
 But he never went to sea again. He died of too much travel.
 
 DIVERS STORIES. 177 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DIVERS STORIES. 
 
 ONE day in September, Martin was in the stable early in the 
 morning, dressing Mr. Bottom and giving him his breakfast. To 
 dress him he took him to a corner of the barn, fastened his halter 
 to an iron ring that hung there, and proceeded to comb him with a 
 curry-comb, and brush him down with the horse-brush. When all 
 this was through he would give him his breakfast of chopped hay 
 and meal-hash, as he called it, and lead him to the trough for water. 
 Mr. Bottom stood by the ring, and Martin was brushing his 
 haunches, giving him a slap now and then to make him move, and 
 uttering a sort of whistling sound as he polished Mr. Bottom's coat. 
 
 " Get round there, Mr. Bottom. Hi ! there, don't step on my 
 toes. Lively, now ! " he was saying to the old horse, when a voice 
 spoke out behind him : 
 
 " Don't mind his toes, Mr. Bottom ; they 're covered with nails." 
 Martin turned short round. 
 
 " Hen ! where did you drop from ! " 
 
 " Hens drop, they don't get dropped." 
 
 " Well, I never. I heard you 'd been in Switzerland along with 
 Mr. Bodley. Where 's your donkey ? " 
 
 " Left him in Europe, where he belongs. Folks all well ? " 
 
 u Yes, and they '11 be mighty glad to see you." Hen sat down 
 by Mr. Bottom, on the threshhold of the carriage house, and took 
 out his knife to whittle. 
 
 " That sounds like Nathan, in the shed," he said in a moment, 
 and then began to whistle the tune of Admiral Benbow. He had 
 
 12
 
 178 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 hardly whistled more than a stave or two before Nathan came run- 
 ning out of the shed. Mr. Bottom concealed Hen from his view, but 
 
 O J 
 
 Hen kept on whistling. 
 
 " Those are his legs ! " shouted Nathan, who caught sight of a 
 familiar pair stretched out. After Nathan, came Phippy and Lucy, 
 who were not far behind, and they all began pulling Hen about, 
 who kept on whistling until he had finished his tune. 
 
 " There! " said he. " Never begin a thing that you don't finish." 
 He felt himself bound to treat the children with little moral pre- 
 cepts which he kept about him. " I thought maybe you 'd remem- 
 ber Admiral Benbow. How d' ye do ? How 's your mother ? 
 How 's Nurse Young ? " 
 
 " Oh, we 're all well," said Phippy. " How do you do ? but what's 
 the use of asking, when we can see you. When did you get here ? 
 did Martin know you were coming ? " 
 
 " No, I did n't know anything about it," said that young man. 
 " Hen never lets on when he 's coming." 
 
 "Well, now you 're here," said Phippy, with great satisfaction, 
 " and mean to stay, don't you ? " 
 
 " Oh, 1 '11 stay till I go." 
 
 " What was it you brought Lucy ? " 
 
 " Oh, you heard, did you ? Well, let me see where it can be," and 
 he began running his hand into one pocket after another. Then he 
 got up and shook himself. Then he started to pull off his boots, but 
 changed his mind. He passed his hand through his hair, which was 
 very curly. " Oh, I remember now," he suddenly said, and stood 
 looking down the avenue. " It 's in my chest." The children fol- 
 lowed his eye. A small boy with a wheelbarrow was coming up the 
 avenue, and on the wheelbarrow was Hen's chest. The boy looked 
 exceedingly hot.
 
 DIVERS STORIES. 
 
 " Here, sonny," said Hen, as the boy came near. " You can put 
 that chest right in the carriage-house. Martin won't mind. And 
 here 's your dollar." 
 
 " A dollar, Hen ! my time, did you hire that boy to wheel your 
 chest out for a dollar. Any expressman would have brought it for 
 a quarter." 
 
 "It's worth a dollar," said the boy, sitting on the edge of his 
 wheelbarrow, looking very limp. 
 
 " Of course it was," said Hen. " You see," he explained, as the 
 boy trundled his wheelbarrow off, "the boy was on the wharf, right 
 there, and he took the chest right on board and I showed him the 
 way. He got going so slow though, for he couldn't keep up with 
 the buggy, that I told him where it was, and left him to follow." 
 
 " Did you come out in a buggy, Hen ? " 
 
 " Why, yes. I 'm not much of a walker, and the buggy was right 
 there on the wharf." 
 
 " Well, if you a'n't a traveler, Hen," said Martin. " I wonder 
 you did n't get out and wheel the barrow." 
 
 " Well, I did a little way; you see the boy got rather tired." 
 
 " And you put him in the buggy ? " 
 
 " Look here, Martin, I 'm here, and here 's my chest. There is n't 
 any boy here. Let the boy go." 
 
 " He 's gone," said Martin chuckling to himself. Just then the 
 breakfast bell rang, and the children went back to the house, prom- 
 ising to come out again as soon as breakfast was over. Mrs. Bodley 
 came with them, and Hen ducked to her with great readiness. 
 
 " Mornin', Miss' Bodley. I saw Mr. B. at Mount Blank a few 
 weeks ago. He was looking uncommon well. Hope you 're 
 well ? "
 
 180 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " Very well, Hen, and much obliged to you for coming back to 
 us. You must make yourself at home here." 
 
 " Thank ye kindly. I mostly am," and he ducked again. Then 
 he disappeared a moment in the carriage house and came back with 
 something wrapped in paper. "I thought I'd bring something 
 home to Lucy, to remember me by when I 'm on the raging seas. 
 That 's what people call 'em, Lucy. I got this of a chap at Mar- 
 seilles." It was a lovely piece of coral, and the children were en- 
 thusiastic over it. 
 
 " It was fished up at the Silver Banks of Hayti, ma'am." 
 
 " Did the man fish it up ? " asked Lucy. 
 
 Hen looked round cautiously. " Well, yes. Should say he did. 
 Yes, the very same chap went down there after it in a diving bell. 
 You don't exactly fish for corals you know." 
 
 " I 've brought up small shells in twenty feet of water down at 
 Hyannis Port," said Nathan. 
 
 " Want to know ! and you dove for them, did you ? " 
 
 " Yes ; off a rock." 
 
 " And how long did you stay under ? " 
 
 " I guess about three minutes," said Nathan, reflecting. 
 
 " Just wait a minute," said Hen, pulling out a heavy silver watch. 
 He looked steadily at the face, and when one of the children began 
 to speak, he raised his forefinger. After a while, he put it back in 
 his pocket. " Three times as long as that ? " 
 
 " Well, that does seem rather long." 
 
 " Two times is long," said Hen. " I 've seen those fellows in the 
 Mediterranean dive for sponges, and if they stay under two min- 
 utes they think it doing pretty well." 
 
 " How do they get the sponges ? " asked Lucy.
 
 DIVERS STORIES. 
 
 181 
 
 " They tear them off the rocks, or they cut them off with a knife 
 they carry down." 
 
 " What fun ! " said Nathan. 
 
 " And did the man you knew dive for this coral ? " asked Lucy. 
 
 " Did you see him dive ? " 
 
 Diving for Sponges. 
 
 " Well, come to think of it," said Hen, " he did n't exactly dive 
 for it. It was his brother who was a diver, and went down in a 
 diving bell." 
 
 " Oh, I 'd like that," said Phippy. " Hen, did you ever go down 
 in a diving bell ?" 
 
 Hen looked about him. " Well, yes. Yes, I went down once." 
 
 " What was it like ? "
 
 182 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " It was rather tight across the chest. I expect you can tell 
 about it better than I, ma'am." 
 
 " I suppose Hen felt the compression of the air. The diving bell 
 holds some air, but it is soon exhausted, and fresh air has to be 
 pumped in." 
 
 "That's it," said 
 Hen. " I 've seen them 
 working a diving bell. 
 There are seats inside, 
 where they sit down till 
 they get to the bottom 
 of the sea. Then they 
 move the bell about 
 when they want t o 
 change the place, and 
 so they go poking 
 round under water. I 
 should n't like it." 
 
 " It seems to me," 
 whispered Phippy to Nathan, " that Hen is only telling what he 
 has heard." 
 
 " Should n't like it for steady work," said Hen, presently, his 
 ears being pretty sharp. " But the divers who go down in armor 
 have a better time. I saw some of them in Marseilles. They 've 
 got a new kind, Mrs. Bodley. They carry a box of air on their 
 back, and draw from that, and the people up above pump fresh air 
 into it." 
 
 " The people up above ?" asked Lucy. 
 
 a Yes ; you see the man that goes down gets into an India-rubber 
 
 Interior of a Diving Bell.
 
 DIVERS STORIES. 
 
 183 
 
 suit, trousers, boots, and jacket, all one piece, don't you see, with 
 a helmet that rests on his shoulders, and has an air pipe that is as 
 long as can reach from the top of the water to the bottom, and the 
 people up above keep that filled with fresh air. He gets into his 
 heavy armor, has a line fastened to his belt, so that he can be pulled 
 up when he signals, drops off into the water, and when he gets to 
 the bottom goes about like a great beetle." 
 
 " How does he 
 see ? " asked Phippy. --^t\- 
 
 " Oh, he has glass 
 windows in his hel- 
 met. It 's pretty 
 light down there." 
 
 ' ; But what do they 
 go poking about for ? 
 Sponges ? " 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so, 
 and pearls. And then 
 the men that lay the 
 .foundations for piers 
 
 Of bridges 
 
 French Diving Apparatus. 
 
 work so. They say everything 's lighter down at the bottom, and 
 you can use a crowbar just like a walking stick." 
 
 " Then you never tried it ? " said Phippy, innocently. 
 
 " No, I never tried it. Well, no. There was n't anything very 
 heavy lying round when I went down. But say, Nathan, that 's the 
 way they go down sometimes to bring up things from wrecks." 
 
 " I was reading only the other day," said Mrs. Bodley, " of some 
 deep-sea diving, off the coast of China, where a ship had sunk -with
 
 184 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 a great deal of money on board. The ship was lost near a high 
 rock, and no vessel could get near to it, so the divers went out in a 
 boat, and hunted and hunted till they found the wreck. The after 
 part was nearly two hundred feet below the surface of the water, 
 and it was there that the treasure was. The man who went down 
 
 found that worms had 
 eaten into the boxes 
 containing the coins, 
 and these lay in heaps 
 before him. He 
 worked four hours at 
 one time below, and 
 came up very much 
 exhausted, but he se- 
 cured about forty 
 thousand pounds ster- 
 
 1 J? 
 
 hug. 
 
 " I 'd go down for 
 that," said Hen. 
 
 " But he came near losing it all. He was very much exhausted, 
 and wanted some water, so his companion volunteered to go up to 
 the top of the island and fetch some. When he was getting his 
 water he looked off and saw a great fleet of white sails coming, from 
 the main land. He hurried back and told the diver, who said they 
 must be Chinese piratical junks." 
 
 "I know the fellows," said Hen. "His life wasn't worth ten 
 cents if he got into their hands." 
 
 " So he thought, and though he was nearly dead with fatigue, 
 
 Divers at Work.
 
 THANKSGIVING. 
 
 185 
 
 they both took the oars, for the wind was light, and by hard pull- 
 ing they managed to 
 get into Shanghae safe- 
 ly, but they did not go 
 back for the rest. But, 
 bless me ! why, Nathan, 
 do you know what time 
 it is ? it wants only 
 twenty minutes of nine 
 o'clock. You must all 
 scamper off to school 
 this minute." 
 
 "Good-by, Hen," 
 they shouted. "Be sure 
 and be here when we 
 come back." They were 
 half afraid he would give 
 them the slip and be off 
 no one knew where. But Hen was in no hurry to go to sea again. 
 He was very well contented to stay with the Bodleys. 
 
 A Chinese Junk. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THANKSGIVING. 
 
 THE Sunday before Thanksgiving Day the Bodleys were at 
 church, and watching eagerly for the unfolding of that great sheet 
 of printed paper which contained the Governor's Proclamation of
 
 186 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 the annual Thanksgiving. They knew perfectly well that the day 
 was coming on Thursday, but the announcement of it in church 
 with so much formality always gave them great satisfaction. So 
 they listened to the sounding phrases, and heard the final " God 
 save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ! " with almost as much 
 solid pleasure as the eating of the dinner itself afforded. Their chief 
 joy, however, was in the anticipation of their father's return. He 
 had sailed, that they knew, and he had promised that he would be 
 at home on Thanksgiving Day ; but as Monday, Tuesday, Wednes- 
 day went by without any sign of the Malta, they began to be 
 uneasy. The turkey had come, the mince pies had been made, and 
 the kitchen had been busy with signs of preparation ; but what 
 would a Thanksgiving dinner be without their father ! Thursday 
 morning opened bright, sunny, and cold, and the family came down 
 to breakfast. The children had all been in the play-room at the 
 top of the house, looking by turns through Nathan's spy-glass, and 
 trying to make out the Malta in Boston harbor. 
 
 " I thought I saw it once," said Nathan. " I made out what 
 looked like black smoke." 
 
 " Hen says she ought to be in to-day," said Lucy. 
 
 " But it 's an English steamer," said Phippy, " and she won't care 
 anything about its being Thanksgiving Day." 
 
 " You don't mean to say he has n't come yet ? " said a voice from 
 the china-closet. The children looked at each other, and then all 
 sprang up from the table just as Ned Adams walked out of the 
 closet. 
 
 " Now, Ned," said Phippy, " I think that 's real mean. I thought 
 for just a second it was papa. How did you get here ? What 
 makes you so dusty ? Why, you 're all over coal."
 
 THANKSGIVING. 187 
 
 " Am I ? " said the young gentleman, screwing his head round to 
 get a view of his shoulders. " Well, there was some coal there." 
 
 " You did n't come in through the coal-window, surely ? " said 
 his aunt. 
 
 " Then, why did n't you leave a door open ? I don't think it very 
 hospitable, when I come out here early in the morning, for you to 
 keep every place locked except the coal-window. I '11 warrant 
 Uncle Charles is down in the coal-bin now." 
 
 " Oh, let 's go and look ! " said Phippy, eagerly. " But of course 
 he is n't. It 's only young collegians like you who try to surprise 
 us so. How did you get up-stairs ? " 
 
 " Oh, Levia guessed I was coming, and came down cellar just at 
 the right time, at least not a bit too late ; " and Levia looked very 
 ' red as she moved about, setting a place for Ned. 
 
 " Did she scream ? " asked Nathan, when Levia had left the room. 
 
 " She could n't decide whether to scream or to faint, and while 
 she was making up her mind I took the chance to tell who I was." 
 
 " You deserve to go back to the coal-bin," said his aunt, " break- 
 ing in in this fashion, but instead you may go up-stairs and get 
 ready for breakfast. You will have to take your uncle's place at 
 dinner, I 'm afraid," she said, when he had come down-stairs again ; 
 " but we won't give him up until dinner is over." 
 
 They all went to church, and listened with what patience they 
 could to the sermon, and then hurried home. The children ran up 
 the avenue, racing for the first glimpse of their father, but he had 
 not come, and Lucy went straight up-stairs to Nurse Young to have 
 a quiet cry over her disappointment. Ned had gone into town 
 directly after church to see if he could learn any news of the Malta, 
 and Phippy and Nathan had again climbed up into the window-seat, 
 spy-glass in hand, in a vain lookout for the steamer.
 
 188 
 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " Come, come/' cried Mrs. Bodley, at the foot of the stairs. " I 
 have an errand for you all before dinner." They came down slowly 
 and gathered in the hall. 
 
 " I want to send something to Mrs. Early and Emily for their 
 Thanksgiving dinner, and you may all go over there together." 
 The basket was ready, and there was besides a mould of cape cran- 
 berries and a jar of Tamworth blackberry jam, to be carried sepa- 
 rately, so the children were 
 each laden, and they set oft' 
 across the fields to Mrs. Ear- 
 ly's house. They found Emily 
 in her seat by the window, 
 and Mrs. Early by the fire 
 smoking a pipe. They were 
 very much surprised at this, 
 and stood looking so hard and 
 w r ith such open eyes, that Mrs. 
 Early laughed and said : - 
 
 "Your mother does n't 
 smoke, I know. Well, well, 
 
 Mrs . Eariy . it 's a poor habit, and when I 
 
 get older I mean to break it off. Emily does n't smoke." 
 
 " Aunt Rebecca says it 's good for the geranium," said Emily 
 softly. Her crutch was by the side of her chair and her geranium 
 on the window-seat. 
 
 " Has your father come back ? " asked Mrs. Early. 
 " No, not yet," said Nathan. " We 're expecting him every min- 
 ute. Is your father coming to Thanksgiving?" he asked Emily. 
 Emily did not answer.
 
 THANKSGIVING. 189 
 
 " Never mind, dear," said Mrs. Early, putting her pipe down and 
 going up to the child. " See what Mrs. Bodley has sent, Cran- 
 berry ! Why, here 's a cranberry tart." 
 
 " That 's for Emily herself," said Phippy. I made that yester- 
 day ; Lucy stirred the cranberry, and I rolled the crust." Mrs. 
 Early took occasion of this diversion to whisper to Nathan, 
 
 "The child's father is a-dying, out at Wrentham. She's just 
 heard. We had n't told her before." Lucy had seen by the tears 
 in Emily's eyes that something was wrong, and was standing by her, 
 holding her hand. 
 
 " I tell you what, Emily," said Nathan ; " I '11 come down with the 
 little cart after dinner and drag you up to our house. Don't you 
 want to come ? " 
 
 " Oh, that will be splendid," said Phippy, " and we can have 
 games." 
 
 " Do come," said Lucy, in a half whisper. Emily had been sev- 
 eral times to the house, and loved dearly to go. Her little heart 
 was easily moved, and she looked up with a smile. 
 
 " You're real good, Nathan," she said. 
 
 " Oh, not a bit," said he. " See, I can make a cart wheel," and 
 before the children could protest, he was spinning over Mrs. Early's 
 floor. He came down disastrously at the end of the whirl, but they 
 all laughed so hard that the Bodleys tumbled out of the house and 
 began capering up the road before Emily's window. They sobered 
 down presently. 
 
 " You did n't hear," said Nathan, " but Mrs. Early told me that 
 Emily's father was going to die, and she had just told her." 
 
 " I knew something was the matter," said Phippy. " I just knew 
 something was the matter by the way Emily looked." Lucy said 
 nothing aloud. She was saying over and over to herself,
 
 190 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 " Oh, if father should die ; what if he has been drowned on that 
 dreadful steamer ! " 
 
 They passed the old well in the pasture, and so by the Hollow up 
 to the pleasant lawn. Nathan was just saying, " I wonder if Ned 
 has come back yet," when he burst out : 
 
 " I see him ! I saw him first ! " and he sped like an arrow 
 across the grass. After him ran Phippy, but she stopped, turned, 
 and held out her hand : 
 
 " Quick, Lucy, catch my hand ! " and so the two girls scampered 
 up to the door. Yes, there stood their father in the doorway. He 
 had that moment arrived, and the three children in a twinkling had 
 their arms about his neck, and little Lucy, sobbing for very gladness, 
 had buried her face in his bosom. 
 
 " It 's good to get back ! " said Mr. Bodley, while Mrs. Bodley, 
 smiling with mouth and eyes, looked at her husband and children. 
 Ned came a half an hour afterward to tell them that the Malta was 
 just in, and it was a happy, merry company that sat about the 
 table. 
 
 In 'the afternoon, Nathan and the girls went with the little cart 
 for Emily, and they spent the afternoon playing games. Martin 
 went to town with Mr. Bottom and brought out Mr. Bodley's lug- 
 gage, and the games were very much interrupted by the constant 
 running back and forth as the trunks were unpacked ; but the pleas- 
 antest time was in the evening, when the family were alone before 
 the wood-fire in the dining-room. The lamp was not lighted, and 
 they talked and chatted. 
 
 " I do hope you never will go away again," said Lucy. 
 
 " If I do, I hope I may take you all with me, for I was very 
 lonely without you."
 
 THANKSGIVING. 191 
 
 " I like it very much better when we all go together," said Lucy. 
 " We came out here together. I remember that first day. It was 
 the first journey I remember a great deal about, and it was only 
 three miles long." 
 
 u Yes," said Phippy, " and don't you remember how Nathan shot 
 an arrow over at the orphans ? " 
 
 " And how he fell off the pigsty ? " added Lucy. 
 
 " Seems to me you remember my misfortunes pretty well," said 
 Nathan. " That was the year father suspended." 
 
 " And we ate Nathan's pig," quickly added his mother. 
 
 " I remember that Thanksgiving Day very well," said Mr. Bod- 
 ley. " It was quite as pleasant as this." 
 
 " It was after that that we had our picture-gallery," said Phippy. 
 
 " I think I ought to have some reminiscences," said Ned. " Let 
 me see, there was the Mother Goose party, and the coasts we had 
 on Japhet." 
 
 " And don't you remember my birthday," said Lucy, " when we 
 all drove to the printing-office ? " 
 
 " And the time we drove to Cambridge and Bunker Hill and 
 Faneuil Hall," said Nathan. 
 
 " And how Nathan sold eggs in Faneuil Hall Market," added 
 Phippy, slyly. " That was not so very long ago." 
 
 " It was before we took our drive down the coast to Newbury- 
 port," said her mother. 
 
 " Oh, I never shall forget that as long as I live," said Phippy. 
 " I mean to take my children on just such a drive." 
 
 *" Papa," said Nathan, " I wish you would let Ned and me walk 
 through Europe just as when we went to New Haven last spring." 
 
 " Just the thing ! " said Phippy, " and we '11 meet you on the
 
 192 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 way, and surprise you at Paris, or Constantinople, or some other 
 place." 
 
 " I think the family has done quite enough traveling for the 
 present," said Mrs. Bodley. " We must wait till you 're a little 
 older." 
 
 " After all," said Mr. Bodley, " if you had got back from a jour- 
 ney, as I have, you 'd think no place quite so delightful as home. 
 Come, Sarah, open the piano, and we '11 all sipg ' Dulce Domum.' 
 That's not a bad Thanksgiving song;" and so the lamp was lighted, 
 the piano opened, and the Bodleys gathered about to sing the sweet 
 song :
 
 THANKSGIVING. 
 
 193 
 
 Come, companions, ;om ?our toice& 
 
 (Dulce Domum.) 
 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Tm attrihaed to John Readi ^' 
 
 time, and smoothly. 
 
 i|_^zzzi 
 
 
 -.0 tf_ 
 
 1. Come, com - pan - ions, join your voi - ces, Hearts with pleas - ure hound - 
 
 2. Con - ci - na- mus, O so - - da - les! E - ja, quid si - le - 
 
 V 
 
 =1 
 
 * i ^fc 
 
 ^ ~g ^ tf 
 
 =tt=r- 
 
 ~ g- 
 =H r= 
 
 H -s 
 
 =l=f^ 
 
 1 ' ua 
 
 ing, Sing we the no- hie lay, Sweet song of ho -li- day .Joys of home, sweet home, re 
 mus? No - bi - le can - ti-cum, dul - ce me - los, Do-mum, do- mum re- so 
 
 rt 
 
 I -7- 
 
 13
 
 194 
 
 MR. BOD LEY ABROAD. 
 
 ==^ff= ~ } 7V"7f3= Ef^Kfc^^ 
 :==: ^^ Ejfei:!*^^ ^K= 
 
 - Bound- ing, Home! sweet hom0,wttbey - 'ry pleas - ure, Home! with ev - 'ry bless - ing 
 - ne - mus, Do - mum ! do- mum ! dul - ce do - mum ! Dul - ce do - mum re - so - 
 
 
 crown'd ! Home I our best de- light and treas - ure ! Home ! the wel - come strain re - 
 mus. Do- mum! do -mum! dul - ce do -mum! Dul - ce do - mini re - so - 
 
 Quit, my woa - ry muse, your 
 Mu - sa, li - bros mit - te, 
 
 
 J^ 
 
 la - hors, Quit your books and learn - 
 fes - sa, Mi - ten - pen - sa du - 
 
 S J J 
 
 ** 
 
 r 
 
 r
 
 THANKSGIVING. 
 
 195 
 
 
 yearn-ing,Home ! sweet home,with ev - 'ry pleas -ure, Home .'with ev' - rv bless- ine 
 - ra: Do -mum! do - mum! dul - ce do - mum! Dul - ce do - miim re - so 
 
 *r*=f? 
 
 _* i 
 
 -#-<& 0f 
 
 
 crown'd; Home Jour best de- light and treas- ure .'Home! the wel - come strain re 
 lie - mus. Do - mum ! do-mum ! dul - ce do - mum ! Dul - ce do - rnuin re - so 
 
 ^ 
 
 sound ! 
 - ne-mus ! 
 
 -1- 
 
 
 i i 
 
 _3_I*- 
 
 ^=
 
 196 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE MAID OF ORLEANS. 
 
 IN the winter Mr. Bodley traveled to Europe over again, but 
 this time in a very simple and agreeable manner, in company with 
 his family. He had brought home a good many photographs and 
 engravings, and he took the leisure evenings for making a scrap- 
 book of these, arranging them in the order of his journey. Many 
 of the pictures illustrated what he had written about, and the chil- 
 dren grew very familiar with them. Then when they came across 
 anything in their books about places or people in Europe, they were 
 very sure to go to papa and papa's scrap-book for further informa- 
 tion, and it often happened that a whole evening would be spent 
 by Mr. Bodley in answering questions. So it was that one evening 
 Phippy, who had been reading a story, found something in it about 
 the Maid of Orleans. 
 
 "Papa," said she, " who was the Maid of Orleans ? Did you see 
 her ? " 
 
 " No, Phippy, I did not see her, though I saw her statue in Or- 
 leans when I was there. Here it is in my scrap-book. Would you 
 like to hear about her ? " Phippy's book was instantly shut, and 
 Nathan and Lucy bent over the scrap-book with her, as her father 
 turned the pages and told them the story of Joan of Arc. 
 
 " You know that England and France are two separate countries, 
 having different people and different rulers, but it was not always 
 so. From France, the Normans crossed the English Channel, and 
 made themselves masters of the land. That was about the time 
 that the Northmen made their voyages to this country. Then
 
 THE MAID OF ORLEANS. 
 
 197 
 
 nearly four hundred years afterwards, seventy years before Colum- 
 bus again discovered our country, the English were making war 
 upon France, and claiming to rule it, and the French king, Charles, 
 was very hardly pushed. The principal point of attack by the 
 English was the town 
 o f Orleans, on the 
 banks of the river 
 Loire. They had laid 
 siege to the place, and 
 so grave seemed the 
 time that some were 
 even advising king 
 Charles to flee to Spain, 
 or even to Scotland, for 
 Scotland was then a 
 separate country from 
 England, and very apt 
 to be at war with it, 
 and friendly with 
 France. 
 
 " Now, there was a 
 little village, called Vau- 
 couleurs, not far from 
 the border of France 
 and Germany, and 
 
 placed in a WOOded and Statue of Joan of Arc, at Orleans. 
 
 hilly country. Here, at the village inn, was a country girl from the 
 neighborhood, named Joan of Arc, who was a servant, and as she 
 waited at the table she heard many stories of the distress of France
 
 198 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 and of the French king. She was different from the people about 
 her, a silent, devout girl, who thought about many things, and 
 passed much of her time alone. In that wild country the peasants, 
 ignorant and simple, were used to think that everything strange 
 came from fairies or from saints and angels. If there was anything 
 which they could not explain, they thought it had to do with the 
 other world, for to them the other world was close about them, and 
 when they walked through the woods, or sat by the fountains, they 
 were expecting to hear the wings of fairies, or to see visions of 
 saints and angels. 
 
 " Joan could not read, but she went to church and heard the gos- 
 pels, and the prayers, and the psalms. Before she was a maid at 
 the inn, she was a shepherd girl, and I think she must often have 
 thought of David keeping his sheep, and of the shepherds who 
 heard the song of the angels. She brooded over the wrongs of her 
 country and her country's king, and when she thought of those 
 English invaders, she remembered the psalms of David, and how he 
 called on God to arise and smite His enemies ; she remembered how 
 David himself went from keeping his sheep to fight alone the giant 
 Goliath. She had from childhood seen visions, as she thought ; 
 sometimes of the Archangel Michael, sometimes of Saint Catherine, 
 or Saint Margaret, and now, wrought to excitement by the wrongs 
 of her country, she heard a voice, which she said was the voice of 
 God, bidding her go to the help of King Charles. 
 
 " She went to the chief magistrate of Vaucouleurs, and so elo- 
 quently did this silent maid plead, that the rough man, much won- 
 dering, determined to send her on. He gave her a suit of man's 
 clothes and a horse, and, placing her under the care of an escort, 
 sent her forward to the king's camp at Chinon. There was the
 
 THE MAID OF ORLEANS. 201 
 
 king in the midst of his companions, and, to test her powers, he 
 appeared like them, dressed no differently, and not marked in any 
 way. Joan, not hesitating, went straight to the one man out of 
 three hundred. Charles listened to her as she told her visions and 
 her mission. She had been sent by God, she said, for the deliver- 
 ance of France. Some jeered and scoffed, but there were many 
 who were ready to believe her. How could France be saved in this 
 extremity, except by a miracle ? and here was the miracle, a woman 
 sent of God. Joan cared nothing for herself or her honor. She 
 was filled with an enthusiasm for her country and her God, and that 
 made people believe her. Charles believed her. At any rate he 
 saw what power she had. He gave her a suit of armor, and gaining 
 confidence every day, he finally gave her a little army of six thou- 
 sand men or more, and with them she marched to the relief of Or- 
 leans. There she sent a message to the English general, calling on 
 him in the name of God to deliver the kingdom to its rightful heir, 
 or she would drive him out of the country. The English killed her 
 messenger and treated Joan with contempt. But Joan showed her- 
 self a true leader of men. She was everywhere, inspiring her follow- 
 ers with courage and zeal. She succeeded in introducing provisions 
 into the besieged city ; she outwitted the English general. She 
 succeeded finally in bringing her army within the walls of Orleans ; 
 and now the city reenforced, and full of devotion to the maid, fought 
 desperately. Joan herself was on the walls, directing, encouraging, 
 inspiring the soldiers. The French called her a saint, the English 
 called her a sorceress, and began to say that it was an unequal con- 
 test, for they were fighting against powers of the air. They lost 
 confidence, and gave way before the French. Twice did Joan sally 
 out at the head of . her troops and drive the English before her ; and
 
 202 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 at length, making a wild attack upon the bastile of Tournelles, Joan 
 herself scaling the ramparts, sword in hand, the French threw the 
 English into unutterable confusion. These fled, leaving sick and 
 wounded, and arms and ammunition, behind them. The siege was 
 raised, and Orleans was delivered. 
 
 " Then Joan went to Tours where Charles was. Though called 
 king, and claiming to be king, he had not yet been browned, and 
 Joan coming before him, still obeying the voice which she heard, 
 knelt and delivered her message, that he was to go to Rheims to 
 be consecrated. The English still held possession of that ancient 
 city where the kings of France had for generations received their 
 crowns ; but, dispirited by the loss of battle at Orleans, they gave 
 way again before the Maid of Orleans, who rode by the side of 
 Charles, and, defeated in battle at Patay, left Rheims to the con- 
 quering army, its king, and its heroine. 
 
 " In the splendid cathedral of that city Charles was crowned king 
 of France, and Joan declared her work accomplished. She had no 
 thought for her own honor ; she had saved France ; Charles had 
 been consecrated king. For herself, she wished now that God would 
 suffer her to go back to the woods and fields of Domremy, to take 
 care of her poor father and mother, and feed once more her sheep 
 and lambs. But she could not go back to that simple life. She had 
 been appointed to another end. Paris was still in the hands of the 
 enemy, and Charles had not the enthusiasm of Joan. The victory 
 gained was slipping out of hands that had not the nerve to hold 
 it, and once more Joan appeared before Charles, and demanded, in 
 obedience to her visions, that the army should inarch upon Paris. 
 Charles hesitated, his generals were cautious, and they moved 
 forward slowly. But at length they came before the city, and
 
 THE MAID OF -ORLEANS. 205 
 
 Joan of Arc, springing before the army, sword in hand, dashed 
 
 Rheims Cathedral. 
 
 up to the walls and called upon the English to render up the city 
 to its rightful owners. The storm of battle raged about her, and
 
 206 
 
 MR. BVDLEY A 
 
 she fell pierced by an arrow from an English archer ; wounded, 
 she still urged on the men ; but night came, the city was not taken, 
 and a retreat was ordered. In vain Joan besought the generals to 
 make a stand. The army fell back, while the English and some 
 treacherous French allies sallied forth from the city and pursued 
 Charles and his forces. Compiegne was besieged, and Joan, who 
 had partially recovered from her wounds, made a dash with some 
 
 faithful followers into 
 the city, placed her- 
 self at the head of 
 the forces there, and 
 again confronted the 
 English. Taking a 
 handful of men, she 
 sallied out from the 
 gates and rushed up- 
 on the enemy. Her 
 men were cut down, 
 and, falling back step 
 by step, she sought 
 to regain the walls of the city. She reached the gates, but base 
 treachery within had closed them against her. She was alone upon 
 her horse, shut out from those she was defending, and at the mercy 
 of the men she was fighting. They dragged her from her horse 
 and took her prisoner to the English camp. 
 
 " There were base Frenchmen in alliance with the English, and 
 Joan was delivered over to them to be tried. She was accused of 
 rebellion and of sorcery. For four months she was under trial and 
 torture at Rouen, a picturesque old city with a famous cathedral, 
 
 Joan of Arc Tower.
 
 HOTEL DU BOUNGTHEROULDE.
 
 THE MAID OF ORLEANS. 209 
 
 and they show still the round tower in which Joan was confined, 
 and where she was tried and tortured. Poor girl ! there was no 
 one to defend her. She had a homesickness for the old Domremy 
 woods and pastures, but she would not yield to the tortures, and 
 she maintained that she had been only obedient to the visions which 
 God had given her. I stood, when in Kouen, in the old Hotel du 
 Boungtheroulde, used now as a banking-house, and looked out on 
 the market-place, where there is a fountain with a cross above it. 
 On that spot, May 20, 1431, in the twenty-ninth year o/ her age, 
 Joan of Arc was burned to death in the presence of her judges 
 and of a vast company of French and English. It was a terrible 
 end, but that hour of suffering only makes brighter the heroism of 
 the girl and the cowardice and ignominy of her king and her per- 
 secutors. In the midst of the flames she was faithful to those 
 who had been faithless to her. 
 
 " ' Whatever I have done,' she shouted, ' well or ill, my king is 
 not to blame.' 
 
 " ' My voices were from God ; the voices have not deceived me.' 
 " Think of that ! she believed in her divine mission, and she for- 
 gave her enemies. Ah, Phippy, I sometimes hear you talking about 
 the grand things you would like to do. The greatness of Joan of 
 Arc was not seen half so much when she was flashing her sword 
 before the army, as when she was dying alone but obedient in the 
 flames at Rouen." 
 
 This was not the last story which Mr. Bodley told to the chil- 
 dren, nor was it the last journey which he took, but after this the 
 children were busy with their schools and their books. Nathan 
 
 14
 
 210 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 was getting ready for college ; Ned Adams was nearly ready to 
 leave college. The Bodley Family lived on, even though the chil- 
 dren gradually ceased to be children. Yet I do not like even now 
 to say good-by to them. If we could only keep them young a 
 little while longer !
 
 EXCELLENT BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS. 
 
 f= Every one of the boolcs named on tJiis page is thoroughly Interestina 
 and so wholesome that parents may safely put it in the hands of chil-' 
 dren. These books are admirable for Holiday or Birthday Gifts. 
 
 THE DELIGHTFUL BODLEY BOOKS. 
 
 The little folk all know the Bodley Books and delight in them. Mr. Scudder is a model story- 
 teller for children, a miracle worker in the matter of awakening interest. New York Eveniii"- Post. 
 
 So delightful that any reader, young or old, would be glad to have more like them. The Watch- 
 man (Boston). 
 
 DOINGS OF THE BODLEY FAMILY IN TOWN AND COUNTRY. 
 
 With 77 beautiful illustrations. $1.50. 
 THE BODLEYS TELLING STORIES. 
 
 With 8 1 attractive Pictures, and a richly illuminated cover. $1.50. 
 
 THE BODLEYS ON WHEELS. 
 
 With 77 excellent Pictures, and a curiously ornamental cover. $1.50. 
 THE BODLEYS AFOOT. 
 
 With 79 engaging Pictures, and a fascinating cover. $1.50. 
 MR. BODLEY ABROAD. 
 
 The " Bodley Book " for 1880. With numerous fine Pictures and a Holiday cover. $1.50, 
 fl^^ The Bodley Books are among the best, most popular, and most attractive books ever produced 
 for young folks, and older readers find them singularly interesting. 
 
 MOTHER GOOSE'S MELODIES FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 Illustrated with 8 full-page Colored Pictures, by ALFRED KAPPES. Cover beautifully 
 
 stamped. $3.00. 
 
 This is beyond comparison the most beautiful " Mother Goose " ever printed. The pictures are 
 very well drawn, the color printing is admirable, and both old folks and young folks will find 
 " Mother Goose " more fascinating than ever in this new dress. This is a Royal Gift-Book. 
 
 BEING A BOY. 
 
 By CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, author of " My Summer in a Garden," etc. Illustrated 
 
 by "Champ." $1.50. 
 
 The book is full of the dry, unexpected humor of which Mr. Warner is a master, and is equally 
 delightful to boys of all ages from six to say sixty or seventy years. It is full of clever pictures, too, 
 by " Champ," who has so fully entered into the author's spirit that the text and the illustrations seem 
 to be necessary parts of the single whole. New York Evening Post. 
 
 THE STORY OF A CAT. 
 
 An amusing French story, translated by T. B. ALDRICH. With many entertaining sil-. 
 houette pictures, and a wonderful cover. $1.00. 
 
 THE STORY OF A BAD BOY. 
 
 By T. B. ALDRICH. Fully illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 Tom Bailey has captivated all his acquaintances. He must be added hereafter to the boys' gallery 
 of favorite characters, side by side with " Robinson Crusoe," and the " Swiss Family Robinson,' and 
 " Tom Brown at Rugby." New York Tribune. 
 
 PLAY-DAYS. 
 
 A Book of Stories for Children. By SA'RAH O. JEWETT, author of " Deephaven." $1.50. 
 A book that children will take great delight in. It has charming stories of the Water Dolly, Prissy's 
 Visit, Nancy's Doll, The Best China Saucer, Half-done Polly, Woodchucks, The Kitten s Ghost, Ihe 
 Pepper Owl, The Yellow Kitten, and others that will entertain little readers thoroughly. The s 
 are equally wholesome and entertaining. 
 
 V for sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price by the Publishers, 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLJN AND COMPANY, BOSTON, MASS.
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE BODLEY BOOKS." 
 
 . 
 
 STORIES AND ROMANCES. 
 
 A New Volume, by HORACE E. SCUDDER. i vol. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 CONTENTS : Left Over from the Last Century. A House of Entertainment. Accidentally 
 Overheard. A Hard Bargain. A Story of the Siege of Boston. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
 John. Do not even the Publicans the same ? Nobody's Business. 
 
 " This is an uncommonly attractive volume of short stories. They are marked by fine imagination, 
 felicitous description, delicate humor, and a literary charm which makes them delightful reading." 
 
 THE DWELLERS IN FIVE-SISTERS COURT. 
 
 A Novel. i6mo. $1.25. 
 
 A very pleasant, genial story it is, with sufficient variety in incident, a flavor of romance and mys- 
 tery, which adds to its attractions. Worcester Spy. 
 
 There are two excellent tendencies in the present novel. One is that of the dry humor shown, for 
 example, in the author's amusing treatment of the four German musicians ; the other, which is more 
 important, is his reliance on simple sentiment as an element of interest. Atlantic Monthly. 
 
 SEVEN LITTLE PEOPLE AND THEIR FRIENDS. 
 
 With illustrations and vignettes on stone and on wood. In one vol. i6mo. Decorative 
 
 binding. 75 cents. 
 
 It is the greatest merit of the book that it is designed for the culture and development of the im- 
 agination in children. The Atlantic Monthly. 
 
 STORIES FROM MY ATTIC. 
 
 With wood-cut engravings and vignettes. In one volume. i6mo. Cloth, $1.00. 
 
 Mr. Scudder, who has written this pretty book, has as pleasant a gift as any author we know for 
 interesting children through their imaginative and generous side, most people being content to 
 take their wonder and fancy. He writes suggestively for them, as here and there an agreeable 
 essayist or poet does for his elders ; and he has a style so charmingly simple and easy that we can 
 no more give him up to the children than we can allow them Andersen altogether. The Atlantic 
 Monthly. 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, BOSTON, MASS.
 
 
 
 tk; V * 
 
 1 
 
 sjsn 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 i 
 
 u uKL-LO 
 DECia 

 
 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000483869