LIBRARY 
 
 of 
 
 RVJNE

 
 A Maid of Bar Harbor
 
 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 By Henrietta G. Rowe 
 
 Author of " Re-told Tales of the Hills and Shores 
 of Maine," etc. 
 
 Illustrated from Drawings by 
 
 Ellen Wetherald Ahrens 
 
 Boston 
 Little, Brown, and Company 
 
 1902
 
 PS 
 
 3735 
 
 m 
 
 M3 
 
 Copyright, 1 902, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published June, 1902 
 
 UNIVERSITY PRESS JOHN WILSON 
 AND SON CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTBR PACK 
 
 I. Born to Solomon Hadlock i 
 
 II. A Daughter 9 
 
 III. A Declaration of Independence .... 16 
 
 IV. Dame Hedvig 26 
 
 V. The Widder Scripture s Summer Boarder . 38 
 
 VI. A Neighborly Body 47 
 
 VII. " A Daniel Come to Judgment " . . . . 60 
 
 VIII. " Lots which I, a Boy, Cast in the Helm of 
 
 Fate" 70 
 
 IX. " Alack, I Have No Eyes " 79 
 
 X. " Though Blind, My Heart Can See " . . 88 
 
 XI. "Dead? Who is Dead?" 96 
 
 XII. " I Smell a Rat Close By " 103 
 
 XIII. "Nay, Tell It All" no 
 
 XIV. " O Time and Change " 118 
 
 XV. The Thin Edge of the Wedge 128 
 
 XVI. " Blazing " the Way for Fashion .... 136 
 
 XVII. "A Sunshiny World Full of Laughter and 
 
 Leisure" 149 
 
 XVIII. "There is No Wind but Soweth Seeds " .161 
 
 XIX. " A Sealed Palace, Rich and Dim " . . . 1 70 
 
 XX. " I Like Strong Men and Large ; I Like 
 
 Gray Heads" 180 
 
 XXI. " Of Gentle Blood and Manners " . . . 191 
 
 XXII. " Thou Poor Blind Spinner : Work Is Done " 201
 
 vi Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXIII. " Money Is a Good Soldier, Sir, and Will 
 
 On" 213 
 
 XXIV. " A Little More Than Kin, and Less Than 
 
 Kind" 223 
 
 XXV. " I Ve Been to London to See the 
 
 Queen" 234 
 
 XXVI. " He That Is Greedy of Gain Troubleth 
 
 His Own House " 245 
 
 XXVII. "That Old House of Yours That Gave 
 
 Such Welcomes Oft to Me "... 254 
 XXVIII. "I Tell You Love Has Naught to Do 
 
 with Meetness or Unmeetness " . . 264 
 XXIX. "With Marshal Carouzer and Old Lady 
 
 Mouzer " 275 
 
 XXX. " Oh ! I See Thee Old and Formal, Fitted 
 
 to Thy Petty Part " 286 
 
 XXXI. " Comforting Voice, 
 
 I Pray You Be My Wife s Voice " . . . 298 
 XXXII. "We Are Now in the Height of the 
 
 Season" 308 
 
 XXXIII. " Flow Softly Rhymes, His Hand Is On 
 
 the Door" 318 
 
 XXXIV. " With Jeweled Gauds and Toys of Ivory " 328 
 XXXV. " Rich and Rare Were the Gems She 
 
 Wore" 338 
 
 XXXVI. " Pitfalls in the Path They Daily Tread " 348 
 XXXVII. " T is We Two, T is We Two, T is We 
 
 Two for Aye " 357
 
 Illustrations 
 
 " He must carry this pleasant news to Comfort, 
 
 making glad the faithful heart " ... Frontispiece 
 
 "The knowledge that she would have to pass 
 through that solitary road haunted her con 
 tinually" Page 21 
 
 " Both girls watched, scarcely daring to breathe " " 157 
 
 " Time has dealt more kindly with you than 
 
 with us, he said " " 267 
 
 " She felt the electric thrill of the soft palm that 
 
 rested upon her forehead " " 293
 
 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BORN TO SOLOMON HADLOCK 
 
 IN the early years of the last century the Maine 
 farmer, in his hard struggle with the rocky soil 
 and ungenial climate, found every power of mind 
 and body taxed to its utmost to keep that soul and 
 body together. Let his natural inclinations and tastes 
 be what they might, he had no leisure either for the 
 adornment of his home or the cultivation of those little 
 refinements and courtesies that go so far to smooth 
 the rugged front of toil, and make the husbandman s 
 life what God meant it to be, the nearest akin to Eden 
 of any calling upon the face of the earth. 
 
 It was the rule rather than the exception that a 
 small, very small, house, rudely finished to begin 
 with, and never subject to repairs so long as it would 
 hold together, was considered good enough for the 
 family, forming a strange contrast to the big barns, 
 constructed with an eye to convenience as well as 
 room, and actually making a warmer shelter for his 
 stock than the rickety farmhouse did for his house 
 hold.
 
 2 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 The sarcastic comment of Augustus, when granting 
 the prayer of Herod the Great to put his own son to 
 death, that " it was better to be Herod s sow than his 
 son," might, with almost as much truth, so far as 
 creature comforts were concerned, have been applied 
 to many a well meaning but hard-headed Yankee 
 farmer half a century ago. 
 
 Shade trees, flowers, vines, and all the thousand 
 and one pretty, inexpensive household adornments 
 that now seem almost the necessities of life, were 
 sternly tabooed as useless and extravagant out 
 growths of a silly and misplaced pride, that deserved 
 rebuke rather than encouragement. If the great 
 square front yard contained a lilac and cinnamon 
 rose-bush, no matter how straggling and untrimmed 
 the poor things were, that was the utmost concession 
 that the hard-worked owner could be expected to pay 
 to the graces; and the rest of the space was suffered 
 to grow up to rank weeds and grasses that it was too 
 much trouble to keep down, while even the poor little 
 flower beds on either side the front door, that the 
 goodwife and her girls sometimes insisted upon, 
 shared in the general neglect. Only the other side 
 of the low, log fence great fields of yellow grain nod 
 ded and dipped with every passing breeze, as if in 
 airy salute to their pretty, useless partners, the wild 
 pinks ; or tall rows of Indian corn flaunted their green 
 banners and tasselled crests in proud consciousness 
 of their importance and dignity in an atmosphere 
 where utility was held the only beauty. Carefully 
 cultivated, with every intrusive weed ruthlessly 
 weeded out, no wonder they looked down upon the
 
 Born to Solomon Hadlock 3 
 
 poor dwarfed bluebells and gilliflowers hidden be 
 neath the shadow of the riotous pigweed, or thrown 
 completely into the shade by the vivid yellows of the 
 native buttercup and mustard. 
 
 Life was hard at its best, and the constant hand-to- 
 hand struggle of man with ungenial nature, while it 
 seamed his face and bowed his shoulders with pre 
 mature age, ofttimes blinded his eyes to the more 
 spiritual meanings of life, and bred in his soul that 
 most dwarfing and specious of all social heresies, 
 that " man is to live by bread alone." 
 
 Then, too, the common inventions that now rob 
 the farmer s life of its heaviest drudgery had never 
 been so much as dreamed of, either indoors or out. 
 Sowing, planting, and reaping were all done by slow 
 and laborious hand-work, and when the threshing- 
 machine was brought into use, displacing the time- 
 honored flail of our fathers, it was regarded by many 
 with wondering disapproval, some even going so 
 far as to pronounce it " an encouragement to lazi 
 ness." 
 
 To ease the burden of toil in any way in those 
 days was to risk the imputation of being a " shirk," 
 and when Squire Hadlock, with a dim prophecy in 
 his mind perhaps of the coming " cultivator," instead 
 of tramping beside the harrow with which he was 
 smoothing his fields preparatory to sowing, contrived 
 a seat for himself upon it, thus saving his own legs 
 and accomplishing his work quite as speedily and 
 well, the whole town held up its hands as one man, 
 and laughed loud and long at such a ridiculous inno 
 vation upon established custom.
 
 4 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " Next thing he 11 be contrivin some way ter mow 
 settin still, will be gettin him a chariot with 
 scythes, most likely." 
 
 And all the gossips, men and women, cackled and 
 sniffed, and turned up their sage noses (behind the 
 Squire s back, you may be sure), some even hinting 
 that the farmer was getting lazy with advancing years. 
 Possibly, although the broad, well-cultivated acres, 
 the big barns, and comfortable homestead gave no 
 signs of decreasing vigor on the part of their owner, 
 who, as he sits alone before the wide, old-fashioned 
 kitchen fireplace on a certain sharp evening in No 
 vember, his stockinged feet outstretched to the fire, 
 and his brown, sinewy hands idly caressing the arms 
 of the wooden rocker beneath, as if there might be 
 some mysterious kinship between the sturdy, unyield 
 ing oaken fibre and the still harder grained and more 
 unyielding make-up, mental and moral, of the man 
 himself, makes a picture at once interesting and 
 repellant. 
 
 As a direct descendant of one of the earliest set 
 tlers upon the Desert Island, he had always been ac 
 corded a certain right of leadership among his simple- 
 minded neighbors that had, no doubt, helped to 
 foster his naturally arrogant and opinionated temper. 
 Hard-handed and hard-headed, he loved work for its 
 own sake almost as much as for the gains it brought 
 him, and he had little patience with, or pity for, 
 weakness either of mind or body. If he ever noticed 
 that his wife, a gentle, uncomplaining woman, grew 
 paler and sadder as the years went by, it only awoke 
 in him a feeling of half-irritable wonder that any
 
 Born to Solomon Hadlock 5 
 
 woman so well housed and fed, with only the work 
 of her household to attend to, should peak and pine 
 into such a faded middle age. 
 
 That he was a proud man nobody could doubt who 
 noted the supercilious lines about his mouth, and the 
 dignified carriage of his head, unconscious both, 
 and as truly a part of the man as the thick, iron-gray 
 locks, and dark, cold blue of the eyes that never by 
 any chance softened into tenderness, whatever the 
 mood of their owner might be. 
 
 His newspaper had fallen idly upon his knees, and 
 a smile of complacency softened the stern outlines of 
 his face as he watched the slow-dropping embers, 
 reading perhaps in their mysterious depths a leaf 
 from that future that was already mapped out so 
 clearly in his own brain. 
 
 " Four strong, stout, healthy boys ! And every one 
 after the same pattern, no pindlin , peakin , half- 
 breeds, but Hadlocks to the backbone. There s 
 Jotham, only fourteen, but doin a man s work every 
 day of his life; and David and Isaac, they both take 
 to their books fairly well, so I guess I 11 have to send 
 them to college, make a lawyer and a doctor out 
 of them, maybe. This one can share the farm with 
 Jotham, (I ve got enough f r both), or, if he takes to 
 a sea-faring life, I 11 fit him out with as fine a schooner 
 of his own as any man could ask for." 
 
 Not an "if" in the whole calculation. Of course 
 nothing could interfere with his plans in regard to 
 his own children, even their sex being a pre-arranged 
 matter, and that the new comer whose advent was 
 just now expected, and whose destiny was already
 
 6 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 being so coolly mapped out, should venture to dis 
 appoint him in that particular, never entered his 
 mind. 
 
 There were sounds of hurried steps and suppressed 
 voices in the adjoining room, and then a feeble, im 
 perative cry, that first piteous appeal of helpless 
 infancy to the parental instinct that even the most 
 brutalized seldom hear without a thrill of tender pity, 
 and a little later, a neighbor, a brisk, kindly faced 
 woman, came into the kitchen, and, without heeding 
 his inquiring look, set herself to work to prepare the 
 midnight lunch that country hospitality would, on no 
 account, have omitted. 
 
 Now good Mrs. Higgins was not on the best of terms 
 with the Squire, and so long as she volunteered no 
 information in regard to the new baby, no power on 
 earth would have forced the proudly obstinate man 
 to volunteer either question or comment. Of course 
 all was as it should be, or she would not have worn 
 that provokingly satisfied look ; and with a kind of 
 undefined self-gratulation he watched from beneath 
 his half-shut eyelids as she brought out the best goose 
 berry preserves, and a plate of delicate pound cake 
 made expressly to give eclat to the occasion. The 
 tea steamed hospitably upon the hearth, and the 
 pitcher of rich, yellow cream waited for it upon 
 the table, a harmless substitute for the oldtime 
 "caudle" with which our English forbears were wont 
 to celebrate the addition of another twig to the 
 ancestral tree. 
 
 There was nothing to find fault with there, and once 
 more his mind reverted to that little morsel of help-
 
 Born to Solomon Hadlock- 7 
 
 less humanity that had come into this world, destitute 
 of even a name, and following a custom, handed down 
 perhaps from some old, half-heathen ancestor who, 
 in his divinations had simply substituted the Hebrew 
 Scriptures for the Roman, he drew the little stand 
 that held the family Bible closer to his side, and, tak 
 ing advantage of Mrs. Higgins temporary absence, 
 opened the book at random, and with averted eyes, 
 placed his unguided finger upon the verse that was to 
 guide him in the choice of a name for the new-comer. 
 The candle upon the tall wooden mantel shone down 
 clearly upon the sacred page, and lighted up with 
 startling distinctness the words that stared him in the 
 face like a premeditated insult : " And she bare a 
 daughter, and called her name Dinah." 
 
 Frowning, he replaced the book upon the stand with 
 an irreverent thump that set the china upon the table 
 all agig, and provoked a gentle titillation between the 
 creamer and the hot-water pot, as if the two were rub 
 bing noses together in glee over his discomfiture. 
 
 " I guess I 11 let his mother pick out a name for this 
 one," he muttered, rather ashamed, if the truth must 
 be told, of his unreasonable petulance, and propor 
 tionally softened toward the meek little woman, who 
 had never in all the years since she had crossed his 
 threshold as a wife dared to claim a right that he saw 
 fit to deny her. 
 
 " Most likely she 11 want to tack a William Wallace 
 or a Thaddeus of Warsaw onto him, but I guess the 
 Hadlock in im. ll hold its own;" and he chuckled 
 audibly at his own wit, while to the doctor, who at 
 that moment entered the room, he seemed to be
 
 8 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 simply giving vent to the parental ecstasies natural 
 to the occasion. 
 
 The little man advanced smilingly, and with a side 
 glance at the temptingly spread table, took his station 
 in front of the genial fire, and drawing aside his coat- 
 tails disposed himself to catch as much of the warmth 
 as possible without the incivility of turning his back 
 upon his host. 
 
 " Fine child ! " he purred comfortably. " Tipped 
 the scales at eight and a quarter." 
 
 "Very fair, very fair," conceded the Squire, trying 
 hard not to show his exultation. " All of my boys 
 have been as rugged as young bear cubs. The Had- 
 locks are a tough race and a long lived. My grandsire 
 was nigh on to a hundred when he died, and my 
 father was in the nineties." 
 " Why, how you talk ! " 
 
 The doctor had heard this same story of the lon 
 gevity of the Hadlocks a score of times before, and 
 had invariably replied with the same idiomatic for 
 mula. But to-night there was an absent tone in his 
 voice, and he fidgetted uneasily as if in the expecta 
 tion of something not altogether pleasant. Perhaps 
 he was thinking, as doctors sometimes do think, that 
 it was strange that the wives of those sturdy old pat 
 riarchs should have died comparatively young, and 
 wondering if the compression of a soul had anything 
 to do with its premature escape from the body.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 A DAUGHTER 
 
 " A HEM ! " the doctor gave a reassuring flip to his 
 -*^ coat-tails, and glanced across to his companion 
 with a queer mixture of humor and apprehension in 
 his kindly face. 
 
 " She bids fair to hold her own with the boys, I 
 should say." 
 
 He put forth this remark as a gentle " feeler," but 
 the Squire was too comfortably obtuse to comprehend 
 his meaning. 
 
 " Ye-es, I s pose she 11 be round before long. She s 
 always in a takin to be up and seein to things her 
 self, and the boys do need er to look after their clo es 
 an vittles. Hired help don t never keep an eye on 
 things as you do yerself." 
 
 Selfish old brute ! The doctor was getting exas 
 perated, but he hastened to say with an affectation of 
 surprise : 
 
 " Why, you don t think I was speaking like that 
 of your wife, I hope. I referred to your little daugh 
 ter of course ; and I will say this for the wee lassie, 
 that she s the prettiest and most promising baby in 
 the lot." 
 
 Poor little unfortunate ! to need a champion before 
 her baby eyes had even seen the light of day, her 
 only sin her sex, but one that would never be forgiven
 
 io A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 or overlooked by her hard-tempered, prejudiced sire. 
 
 "Do you dare to tell me that the new baby is a 
 girl?" 
 
 His face was crimson with angry disappointment, 
 and he glared at the doctor as if he longed to annihi 
 late him for his unwelcome communication. 
 
 " To be sure," chirruped the little man sweetly, 
 while with difficulty he concealed the satisfaction with 
 which he saw his arrogant neighbor s discomfiture. 
 
 " I supposed that Mrs. Higgins had already told 
 you, for with three boys in the family such a rarity as 
 a girl is usually worth speaking about." 
 
 He smiled blandly, but the Squire could no longer 
 control his angry impatience. 
 
 " A girl ! A poor, useless, good-for-nothing GIRL ! 
 And that too, right in the face of my plannin for 
 another boy. What do you mean ? " he added fiercely, 
 forgetting civility, hospitality, and all the manly cour 
 tesies upon which he had always prided himself, " by 
 standin there smirkin and grinnin like a chessy cat? 
 You ve had the last dollar out of my pocket, let me 
 tell you. I wouldn t call you in to doctor a sick cat." 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 The doctor was angry in his turn, but he was a 
 gentleman and scorned to bandy words with his un 
 reasonable neighbor, but as he drew on and buttoned 
 his overcoat, he said with stern significance : 
 
 " It is well, that with such fathers as you in the 
 world, there is a law to protect the lives, at least, of 
 helpless childhood and womanhood. God knows," 
 he added in a lower tone, as he turned his back upon 
 the angry man, " that they need all the protection that
 
 A Daughter 1 1 
 
 the law can give them in more cases than the world 
 dreams of." 
 
 But the Squire had had time to recover somewhat 
 from the first shock of his disappointment, and, thor 
 oughly ashamed of his angry outburst, he hastened to 
 apologize and urge the doctor to partake of the lunch 
 in waiting for him, before starting upon his cold, 
 homeward drive. 
 
 " I did n t mean to hold you responsible, doctor, for 
 my disappointment, knowin of course, that you ain t 
 the least to blame for it. But I d lotted so on them 
 four boys, a farmer, a doctor, a lawyer an a sea cap n. 
 That s the plan I d staked out, and you know yerself 
 how thunderin mad it makes a man to have his plans 
 stepped on, and nobody that he can make suffer 
 for it." 
 
 "Somebody will suffer for it," thought the kindly 
 man with a sigh, as he accepted the apology so far 
 as to unbutton his coat and seat himself at the table, 
 with the air of one still wavering between the stern 
 desire to show his just resentment, and the fragrant 
 wooing of the steaming teacup that made forgiveness 
 seem, just then, one of the easiest and most amiable 
 of the virtues. 
 
 He was very fond, this little country doctor of ours, 
 of tracing backward the peculiar traits, mental and 
 moral, of the men and women with whom his profes 
 sion brought him into such close contact, and that 
 last expression of the irate Squire still haunted him 
 with a queer, uneasy persistency. 
 
 His host s profuse civilities, evidently intended to 
 atone for his former rudeness, and the mild, matronly
 
 12 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 discourse of Mrs. Higgins fell alike upon his ears as 
 an unmeaning babble, and as he jogged slowly home 
 ward along the lonely country road, the cold stars 
 above, and beneath the frost-hardened earth upon 
 which his horse s hoofs struck with a dull thud, only 
 relieved now and then by the sharp crack of a broken 
 twig, or a sudden ring and flash as the brute s steel- 
 shod feet struck sharply against one of the flinty 
 fragments with which the road was strewn, he be 
 guiled the way with recollections of bits of family 
 history that he had gathered from time to time from 
 stories told by the Squire himself, or by some of the 
 older inhabitants of the Island. 
 
 He could not be sure, but it was somewhere between 
 1750 and 1751 that the first Hadlock came to this 
 country, the hard, stern, determined man, who, 
 after trying in vain for several years to win political 
 power in the Massachusetts colony, sternly withdrew 
 himself to the thinly settled province of Maine, estab 
 lishing a home for his family, the daintily bred 
 English wife and their three stout boys upon the 
 Island, whose fierce cliffs frowning oceanward had a 
 strange attraction for the man s fearless, defiant na 
 ture, while the fertile valleys lying inland appealed 
 quite as strongly to his natural thrift and sagacity. 
 
 The old man had died full of years and honors, his 
 sons too had one by one passed away, but now even 
 down to the third and fourth generation the traits 
 that had so strongly marked their common ancestor 
 had never failed to reappear in his descendants. 
 Brave, energetic, quick to take advantage of any 
 sudden turn in fortune s wheel, and unsparing of
 
 A Daughter 13 
 
 themselves or others so long as any material good 
 could be gained by the struggle, they were good 
 citizens and neighbors, with singularly rigid ideas 
 in regard to their rights, both political and religious, 
 and of such unquestioned honesty that the places of 
 trust in the little community were more frequently 
 filled by them than by any other family perhaps 
 upon the whole Island. But there was another side 
 to the Hadlock character that few comparatively 
 knew anything about, and that was the home side. 
 
 Curiously enough, the Hadlocks had almost invari 
 ably been indebted to the " spindle side " of the 
 house for the money with which they had started in 
 life. From grandsire Hugh down to the present 
 Squire it was the wife s dowry that had been the 
 nest-egg from which her thrifty spouse had contrived 
 to hatch out his lucky chickens, a state of things that 
 would in ordinary cases have given a personally 
 insignificant woman an undisputed position as the 
 head of her own household at least, if no more. But 
 the Hadlocks never, to a man, yielded a whit of their 
 masculine supremacy. Nay, more, they managed by 
 some unexplained power to so impress upon their 
 gentler mates their own natural superiority as the 
 original lords of creation, that each household natur 
 ally became a republic, free only in name, with a 
 Caesar at its head, whose will alone controlled and 
 governed everything down to the smallest details. 
 
 If the more tender and sensitive of these well- 
 trained wives usually faded and grew sad and still 
 before her time, letting go her hold upon life, and 
 dropping off as softly and silently as the spring
 
 14 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 flower whose work is done, and the pale petals safely 
 folded in mother earth s tender bosom before the 
 heat and rush of the busy midsummer overtakes it, 
 people only wondered that " such good providers 
 and forehanded men as the Hadlocks should have 
 such poor luck with their wives," a question that 
 the bereaved husbands themselves were wont to 
 puzzle their brains over in hopeless bewilderment. 
 
 The Squire had remarked frankly to his young 
 wife, on her complaining of a headache : 
 
 " Now, Cinthy, I don t want you to think I m 
 ha ash or unfeelin , but I do think that half the head 
 aches an backaches that folks make such a towse over 
 are just clear imagination. I ain t ever had an ache 
 yet that I could n t work off, and twould be a dread 
 ful disappointment to me if you should turn out one 
 o the pindlin , complainin kind, such as I remember 
 my mother was. I honestly believe she might a 
 lived to a good old age if she d only thought so." 
 
 And from that day Mrs. Hadlock never complained 
 of either headache or heartache in her husband s 
 presence. If her once rosy cheek grew pale, and 
 her form thin and bent, it was no more than might 
 be expected ; " farmers wives always faded young," 
 and with this passing thought her husband calmly 
 dismissed the subject from his mind. He held up 
 his end of the yoke, why should n t she do the same? 
 
 When the poor woman once more crept out of her 
 sick-room, looking so frail and white that it seemed 
 as if any passing wind might blow her away, there 
 was an added line of sorrow about the patient mouth, 
 while the bent shoulders drooped as beneath an 
 added burden.
 
 A Daughter 1 5 
 
 "No wonder," her husband grumbled, "that with 
 that great young one forever in her arms she was 
 such a long while getting up her strength." 
 
 But it was not the care of the rosy smiling baby, 
 who would lie for hours contentedly sucking her wee 
 thumb between the succession of little cat naps that 
 occupied the greater part of the first few months of 
 her innocent life. It was the sad certainty that this, 
 the most precious to her motherly heart of all her 
 babies, was born to an inheritance so cheerless in its 
 spiritual and mental repression, so colorless, so toil 
 some, that it wrung her heart with a fear that not all 
 her pride and satisfaction in the child s growth and 
 beauty had the power to dissipate. 
 
 " What had we better call her ? " was the timid 
 question with which she tried to propitiate her grim 
 husband, and win perhaps some fatherly recognition 
 for the little stranger. 
 
 The Squire removed his pipe from his mouth, and 
 cast a look of cold indifference at the unconscious 
 baby crowing in his wife s lap. " Call er anything 
 you re a mind to, fr all o me. Disappointment 
 would n t be a bad name for er." 
 
 The mother bent her face until her cheek touched 
 the little silken head upon her bosom, while a tear 
 dropped softly, a holy chrism upon the baby 
 forehead. 
 
 " I will call her Comfort, " she said gently. 
 
 And her husband, blind alike to the sad signifi 
 cance of tear and name, and seeing no reason to 
 interfere with his wife s choice, allowed her for once 
 to have her own way, unchecked and unhindered.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 " TT S ever so much prettier than the scarlet beans 
 
 * or the hop-vine," and the child, from her low 
 seat upon the threshold of the back door, paused for 
 a moment from her chopping to look up lovingly at 
 the graceful clematis framing the rough doorway in a 
 wreath of delicate, fairy-like blossoms. 
 
 " David said t wa n t nothin but a weed, and made 
 fun of me for diggin it up and settin it out here, 
 and Jotham said he d tell father that I was litterin 
 the yard up with wild things. But now it s grown 
 so big and pretty, they like to sit in the shade of it 
 as well as anybody." 
 
 She laughed, such a sweet, wholesome, gay little 
 laugh, that her sad-faced mother looked up from her 
 bread kneading with a smile of tender satisfaction 
 that faded the next instant, as she said, appre 
 hensively : 
 
 " Yes, t is pretty, and it shades the door nicely for 
 you to sit there when you re choppin the curd or 
 shellin peas. But I m afraid," with a little catch in 
 her voice, as she glanced at the unsuspecting little 
 face, bright with childhood s unreasoning gladness, 
 " that your father won t let it stay there. He said 
 only the other day that it was the worst thing to 
 scatter its seeds that he ever saw, and he would n t
 
 A Declaration of Independence 17 
 
 have weeds coaxed to grow in his yard, when there 
 was enough that he could n t get rid of." 
 
 "What?" and the childish face flamed up angrily. 
 " Do you s pose that he d pull up my own vine, that 
 I got in the woods, and planted here my own self ? 
 If he did, twould be meaner n dirt, and " 
 
 " There ! there ! That will do." 
 
 Mrs. Hadlock spoke with a sternness that she was 
 far from feeling. For years unquestioning submission 
 and obedience had been the rule of her own life, and 
 the quick, independent temper of her little daughter 
 kept her in a state of constant dread and alarm. 
 What if, with growing years, she should be incautious 
 enough to oppose her will in some matter to that of 
 her hard-tempered sire? The very idea, with its long 
 train of terrible consequences, disinheritance and 
 possible beggary for the creature she loved best in 
 all the world, sent such a chill to her timid heart 
 that for a moment her nerveless hands refused their 
 office, and the unkneaded dough lay in a shapeless 
 mass upon the board as, dropping into the nearest 
 chair, she whispered pleadingly: 
 
 " Don t talk like that, child ! You 11 kill me if you 
 do." 
 
 Comfort looked up, to see the slow tears stealing 
 down the pale cheeks, and catch the look of anxiety 
 in her mother s sad eyes, and in a moment more she 
 was at her side, her rosy arms about her neck, and 
 her sweet face, wet with childhood s ready tears, 
 pressed lovingly to hers. 
 
 " I can t help thinking, mother dear," she whis 
 pered softly, with a quick glance over her shoulder at
 
 1 8 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 the approaching form of Jotham, who was sauntering 
 down the meadow road, with the empty beer-jug 
 swinging in his idle hand. " But I won t say a word, 
 if you don t want me to, if he pulls up all my flowers, 
 even the rose-bush that Granny Hedvig gave me." 
 
 Mrs. Hadlock smiled through her tears, while with 
 a hurried kiss she put the child from her. 
 
 " He won t trouble the rose-bush so long as it is n t 
 in his way. And likely as not he won t think of the 
 vine again, if nobody reminds him of it." 
 
 The little maid knew only too well what that last 
 clause meant, for from her babyhood her ruder 
 brothers had taken a mischievous delight in teasing 
 and thwarting her in all her little plans and pleasures. 
 With the two younger lads it had been merely a boy s 
 natural enjoyment in teasing something that was too 
 weak to pay them back in their own coin, and of 
 whose real suffering they had not the smallest com 
 prehension. But with Jotham, the elder and by far 
 the harder-natured of the three, there was an in 
 grained, perhaps half-unconscious, antipathy to the 
 bright, merry little sister, who had seemed to his 
 selfish soul the one too many in the family group, 
 and who had never in all her life trembled at his 
 frown or cried at his harsh, unbrotherly taunts and 
 sneers. " Ma am s cosset," he delighted to call her, 
 and the knowledge that this species of sister-baiting 
 was a sport in which their father might be counted on 
 not to interfere lent an added zest to their enjoyment 
 of it. 
 
 She was only a girl, with all a girl s silly, babyish 
 ways; and when David hung all her cherished rag
 
 A Declaration of Independence 19 
 
 dolls in a ghastly row upon the smutty kitchen crane, 
 and Isaac smashed the choice bits of china that had 
 served for her mimic housekeeping, her wrath and 
 grief were to them the funniest sight imaginable. 
 " Spit-fire " and " pepper-pot " were the epithets 
 familiarly bestowed upon her, while their mother s 
 distressed remonstrances had little weight in the face 
 of their father s unexpressed but no less evident en 
 joyment of their unkindly jests. And yet Comfort 
 was a loving little creature, willing to put herself to 
 any trouble and inconvenience to help others. But 
 unfortunately that independence of spirit and keen 
 sense of justice that had dwelt in great-grandfather 
 Hugh had come down to her in full measure, and 
 her hot blood boiled at the injustice of punishing her 
 for an accidental injury to Jotham s sled, while the 
 wanton destruction of her playthings was regarded as 
 merely a good joke. Why was this difference made? 
 And over and over in her solitary hours, the little 
 maid pondered the question that so perplexed her 
 childish brain. 
 
 She had returned to her tray of curd, and was 
 chopping diligently to make up for lost time, when 
 Jotham, a heavy, dark-browed youth, came up to the 
 door, and throwing himself lazily upon the step, gave 
 the empty jug a shove into the open doorway, with 
 the peremptory: 
 
 " G long and fill that jug, and see you re spry 
 about it, too. I can t wait all day." 
 
 Comfort paid no attention but went on with her 
 chopping. 
 
 " Ain t you goin ter mind? " he cried threateningly.
 
 20 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " Not unless you ask me decent." 
 
 He glared at her half in anger, half in bewilder 
 ment, at such unheard-of audacity on her part. 
 
 " You 11 fill that jug, or I 11 know why," he growled 
 through his set teeth. 
 
 The little face grew white as the curdled mass 
 beneath her hand, but she never flinched. They 
 were brave men of her race, who had faced cold and 
 flood and hostile bullets for what they deemed their 
 rights, and their blood was in her veins. 
 
 " I won t stir one step," she repeated stoutly, 
 " till you ask me to fill the jug, then I 11 do it, and 
 welcome." 
 
 And the brave little head with its crown of red- 
 brown curls was lifted with an air of unconscious dig 
 nity, and the clear eyes looked at him unflinchingly 
 as she added with a touch of pathos that was entirely 
 wasted upon the angry boy: 
 
 " I wish you d ask me to do things for you as you 
 do the boys. I hate to be spoken to just as if I was 
 a slave ; and I m sure I m always willing to wait on 
 you if you ll only ask me fair." 
 
 The clenched hand was lifted, when something a 
 vague instinct, let us hope, of the unmanliness of such 
 a blow made the boy lower it, and say with an affec 
 tation of indifference, as he slowly rose to his feet : 
 
 " I c n fill it myself. But let me tell you, miss," 
 he continued threateningly, " I 11 be even with you 
 f r this ugly streak, and you won t make nothing 
 out of it either." 
 
 As he disappeared down the cellar stairs, Comfort 
 watched him with something of apprehension as well
 
 A Declaration of Independence 21 
 
 as triumph in her telltale face. To be sure, she had 
 won the day, but she well knew that he would fulfil 
 his threat, and that she would be forced to pay 
 heavily for her momentary victory, and instinctively 
 she braced herself to meet the consequences of this 
 her first protest against the sexual tyranny that she 
 had suffered from since her earliest remembrance. 
 He could n t hurt her pet kitten, for she was careful 
 to keep the pretty creature out of the way when the 
 boys were in the house ; and all her playthings, since 
 the scene of the improvised gibbet, had been safely 
 stored in her own little bedroom. Perhaps he would 
 take the time when she was going through that piece 
 of woods on her way to school to jump out at her, 
 and perhaps frighten her to death, and this thought 
 was to her the most frightful of any that her imagina 
 tion could conjure up. 
 
 A greedy listener to all the stories of wolves and 
 bears, and Indians, tales of pioneer life, that had 
 not had time to grow dim and colorless with age, 
 that strip of unreclaimed woodland through which 
 the road ran for three-quarters of a mile, was, to our 
 simple little school girl a veritable " valley of the 
 Shadow of Death," peopled with " satyrs and hob 
 goblins," and " full of doleful noises. In a word, 
 every whit dreadful." And although Granny Hed- 
 vig s cottage stood about half way, and from there 
 she was sure of Franz s company and protection, the 
 knowledge that she would have to pass through that 
 lonely, solitary road every day on her way to school, 
 haunted her continually, even robbing her of her sleep 
 sometimes when in the darkness her imagination
 
 22 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 found time to conjure up pictures of possible perils 
 and dangers lurking behind those dark, impenetrable 
 pines, or creeping close to the narrow footpath under 
 cover of the dense undergrowth, and snapping at her 
 naked feet that always kept so warily in the very 
 middle of the dusty road, afraid to risk the refreshing 
 coolness and softness of the grassy sward on either 
 side. 
 
 With a sensitive shrinking from ridicule, the child 
 had carefully concealed her cowardly fears even from 
 her mother, and only Franz Hedvig knew of the suf 
 fering that she underwent during her solitary walks 
 to and from school. If he wondered at or tried to 
 reason her out of her groundless terrors he never 
 laughed at her for them, and many a morning her 
 timid heart had leaped for joy at sight of his ragged 
 straw hat bobbing in and out among the blackberry 
 bushes that clustered thickly at the entrance of the 
 wood, and it was these same berries that always served 
 him as an excuse for coming so far out to meet his 
 little friend. 
 
 " I thought some plums would taste good for 
 granny s dinner," he would say apologetically, pre 
 tending not to notice Comfort s radiant face. 
 
 And with him by her side what a delightful, peace 
 ful walk that haunted wood road became. The bobo 
 links answered back to his blithe whistle, while that 
 fearsome rustle in the bushes was nothing in the world 
 but a jolly red squirrel that, perched upon a stump, 
 chattered and flourished his plumy tail as if he had 
 nothing to do in life but to sit in the sun and enjoy 
 himself.
 
 A Declaration of Independence 23 
 
 Franz knew where all the prettiest wild flowers 
 grew, and it was no fault of his if the " mistress " 
 did n t have a big nosegay of ferns and sweet wild 
 roses, or perhaps some paler forest beauty, to brighten 
 her desk every morning all through the long, lusty 
 northern summer. 
 
 Comfort was a social little body, and never lacked 
 for playmates of her own sex and age, but of friends 
 she had one, and one only, the grandson of the old 
 Swedish woman, Dame Hedvig, who lived in the little 
 log cabin in the woods, and supported herself and 
 Franz by spinning the beautifully fine flax thread 
 that was in such demand with the thrifty housewives 
 of the Island. 
 
 Franz was not a handsome boy, even Comfort 
 would not have ventured to claim that distinction for 
 him, indeed, her own brothers, dark-haired young 
 giants, were far more comely to look upon than the 
 freckled, sun-burned Swedish lad, who, even at his 
 best had a slouchy loose-jointedness about him that 
 made his ill-fitting clothes shabbier still, and gave no 
 hint of the latent strength and endurance lurking 
 behind that unpromising exterior. 
 
 Not seldom Franz s shrewd interference had pro 
 tected his little friend from the petty tyranny of her 
 brothers, and while they owed him no good-will on 
 that account, his ready good-nature and skill in wood 
 craft made him a most desirable comrade, and ex 
 empted him from the small insults and ill-turns that 
 otherwise they would have been only too glad to 
 subject him to. 
 
 Fortunately the boy was not in the least sensitive
 
 24 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 in regard to himself or his personal deficiencies, nor 
 did he for an instant dream that honest poverty was 
 an inheritance to be ashamed of. Thus he was good- 
 naturedly invincible against any mean shaft of ridi 
 cule that might be levelled at him on account of his 
 humble station or belongings. But there was one 
 point upon which the good-ternpered, not easily 
 aroused lad was so sensitive that the hardest, most 
 mischief-loving urchin in the whole district would 
 have been shy of venturing hint or jest, and that was 
 the good name of his grandmother. 
 
 That the dame was a character, in her way, cannot 
 be denied, a queer compound of great natural in 
 telligence united with a love of the marvellous, that 
 made her a perfect storehouse of old, weird legends 
 that, in the eyes of her matter-of-fact neighbors, sa 
 vored strongly of the supernatural. Among her other 
 old Scandinavian possessions she claimed the gift 
 of " second sight," and it is not strange that, in a 
 day when ancient superstition still held sway over 
 the vulgar mind to a great extent, the queer, friend 
 less old woman, who persisted in wearing her 
 national kerchief on her head instead of the con 
 ventional matronly bonnet, and who seldom ex 
 changed visits with the goodwives thereabouts, should 
 have gained the unenviable reputation of a witch, 
 among the more ignorant and superstitious of her 
 neighbors. To be sure, sensible folks laughed at 
 the idea, but there was, as in every community, a 
 class of narrow-minded, mystery-loving ones who 
 found it more satisfactory to account for Granny 
 Hedvig s peculiarities by calling her a witch than
 
 A Declaration of Independence 25 
 
 by any more sensible or charitable solution of the 
 question. 
 
 Of course some hint of this had not failed to reach 
 the ears of Franz, and had aroused in his boyish soul 
 all the native chivalry and fierce indignation that a 
 truly manly boy must necessarily feel as the only 
 champion of age and helplessness.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 DAME HEDVIG 
 
 FOR several days after Comfort s rebellion she was 
 on the alert constantly lest Jotham, in fulfilment 
 of his threat, should spring some trap upon her. But 
 as time passed on and nothing happened to cause 
 her any special uneasiness, she gradually forgot her 
 fears, and lapsed into her normal state of innocent 
 security. Her brother was perhaps a shade more 
 surly and unapproachable than usual, but that signi 
 fied nothing. It was his usual manner in the house, 
 and even his father, in moments of extreme exas 
 peration, had been known to call him an " unlicked 
 cub," an epithet well applied to his rude, ungenial 
 nature, housed in a form at once rough and strong, 
 and singularly intolerant of outward culture. Only 
 one thing had aroused the child s suspicions, as 
 being so foreign from his usual practice that there 
 were strong grounds for apprehension in it, although 
 that of itself wore the guise of such unquestioning 
 kindness that she was half ashamed of herself for re 
 garding it as suspicious. One of a brood of chickens 
 of a very rare kind that her father had procured at 
 considerable trouble and expense had been found 
 dead, close to the coop, and the irritated Squire had 
 declared at once that Cherry must have killed it. In 
 vain her little mistress declared, even with tears, that
 
 Dame Hedvig 27 
 
 such a thing was impossible, as it had been killed in 
 the night, and Cherry always slept on the foot of her 
 own bed, a warm nest that it seldom vacated be 
 fore the sun was high in the heavens and all about 
 the farmhouse were astir. 
 
 Still unconvinced, the Squire relentlessly de 
 manded reparation on the part of poor Cherry, 
 whose innocent career would no doubt have been 
 prematurely cut short but for the unexpected inter 
 ference of Jotham in her behalf. 
 
 " I don t believe the kitten had anything to do 
 with it. Twas a critter a good deal older and 
 stronger than she is, that did that piece of mischief." 
 
 The curiosity of the family was aroused, of course, 
 by these mysterious hints, and even his father 
 deigned to ask: 
 
 " Who or what, under the sun, do you mean ? " 
 
 Jotham shook his head, and shut his heavy jaws 
 with a snap. 
 
 " Catch him telling what he thought till he was 
 sure. Wait a day or two and see if any more are 
 killed, and then t would be time enough to speak." 
 
 His father muttered something about not wantin 
 his chickens used to catch a rogue, but he had a 
 good deal of confidence in the sharpness and 
 sagacity of his eldest born, and for the time the 
 suspected Cherry was safe from his vengeance, al 
 though he kept a sharp lookout upon the unconscious 
 pet that kept poor Comfort in a state of constant un 
 rest, and made her start with terror whenever any un 
 usual sounds from the back yard where the chicken 
 coops were kept happened to reach her ear. All day
 
 28 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 long she kept her pet in sight, and many times in the 
 night she awoke from some frightful dream to reach 
 out a trembling hand in the darkness, and softly 
 stroke the little fluffy heap at her feet, to make sure 
 that she was really there, safe and sound, and out of 
 the reach of any possible temptation to try a chicken 
 diet. 
 
 The short summer term of school was over, and 
 when her daily morning tasks were done, nothing 
 so pleased the child as to be sent on an errand to 
 Granny Hedvig s cottage. She was slowly out 
 growing her fear of the lonely road, but with the 
 prospect of listening to one of the dame s stories 
 while she watched her at her spinning, or helping 
 Franz at some of his many tasks, she would willingly 
 have braved actual as well as imaginary dangers 
 rather than forego such a treat. 
 
 It was a beautiful morning early in September, and 
 as she tripped along the narrow grassy pathway that 
 led to the dame s cottage, she sang in her sweet 
 childish treble a snatch from some old song that she 
 had picked up somewhere, as snowbirds will find 
 out the tender, spicy seeds in which they delight 
 where the rest of the world sees only a wide waste of 
 unbroken snow, the clear notes mingling pleasantly 
 with the happy ripple of the brook close by the path, 
 and the far-off whirr of the mill, nestling at the base 
 of the mountain beneath whose friendly shadow the 
 little cottage with its bit of garden had been con 
 tent to shelter itself, protected alike from the fierce 
 wintry tempests and the summer s short but intense 
 heats.
 
 Dame Hedvig 29 
 
 Looking upward, one could see on every hand 
 majestic peaks, cloud-capped and clothed with the 
 living green of pine and hemlock, looking out un 
 moved upon the great, tossing, seething ocean, that 
 knocks forever with foam-white hands against the 
 Island s rock-ribbed gates, still denied, yet never 
 ceasing through all these countless ages, to demand 
 the secrets that wary nature has hidden deep within 
 those impregnable walls of living rock, forged in 
 the very heart of the earth, and tossed upward by 
 the mysterious powers that hold high carnival in 
 those subterranean furnaces, the " Cyclops " of the 
 ancient poets, the " gases " of the modern scientist. 
 
 Born and bred in the midst of these grand, pictur 
 esque surroundings, Comfort had naturally asso 
 ciated them with the commonplace details of her 
 simple life while the unconscious pleasure awakened 
 in her by the sight of them when, as on this clear 
 summer morning, they were at their fairest, might 
 never have deepened into the intense poetic fervor 
 of later years but for her childish association with 
 one whose whole being was so steeped in the roman 
 tic lore of her own land that she deified, to a certain 
 extent, every force and charm of nature until, 
 beneath the shadow of those glorified mountains, 
 and with the never ceasing paeans of the great ocean 
 sounding forever in her ears, life be it ever so humble 
 and plain, could by no possibility become " common 
 or unclean." The little brook close by the pathway 
 hurrying along over its rocky bed to join the large, 
 stream below, laughing in the sunlight and darkling 
 in the shadow, reminded her of that bright, wayward
 
 30 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 little princess, Christiana of Sweden, of whom the 
 dame loved so dearly to talk, while the tall, pink- 
 plumed spireas that stood beside, bending tenderly 
 over the dimpled water, were the stately maids of 
 honor, standing guard over the little queen, and 
 keeping back the vulgar herd of purse-proud dan 
 delions and saucy touch-me-nots. 
 
 Comfort s life was in many respects a solitary one, 
 and the pretty conceits that she fashioned from 
 Dame Hedvig s legendary lore would have as 
 tonished, probably horrified, the sober, matter-of- 
 fact home folks. With them a brook was a brook, a 
 flower was a flower, and any attempt to idealize them 
 would have been regarded as ridiculous, not to say 
 actually wicked. 
 
 Among the household gods that our stern an 
 cestors, following Jacob s example, buried beneath 
 Plymouth Rock, that of Imagination, whose foster- 
 mother had been the resurrected lore of heathen 
 Greece and Rome, had been planted deeper than all 
 the rest. And if some weak-hearted Rachel, still 
 clinging with tender reverence to her old idol, had 
 ventured to hide it in some unsuspected corner of 
 her gray, toilsome life, she was forced to worship in 
 secret, with no music or incense of popular approval 
 to dignify it into respectability. The man who dared 
 to look upon life through the poet s rosy spectacles 
 was " love cracked," while the woman who found 
 more beauty in the blue eyes of the growing flax 
 than in that same flax woven into good, strong tow 
 and linen garments was, to use a favorite, if rather 
 ambiguous, phrase, " next door to a fool."
 
 Dame Hedvig 31 
 
 Mrs. Hadlock, poor, heart-hungry soul ! had tried 
 to satisfy her womanly cravings for something better 
 in life than meat, and drink, and work, by stealthily 
 training a few dwarfed garden flowers in an unoccu 
 pied corner beside the wall of the vegetable garden ; 
 and of late, by decking with the few stray bits of 
 brightness that her husband s marital parsimony 
 would allow her, the pretty little daughter, in whose 
 childish grace and beauty she seemed to see again 
 her own happy self in those old days whose memory 
 had for her the sad sweetness of early violets upon 
 the grave of one once loved. But with Comfort it 
 was different. Her nature was so elastic, so self- 
 dependent and hopeful, that it was easy for her to 
 manufacture her own sunshine out of the stray glints 
 that fell across her repressed and often lonely life. 
 
 Nobody quite understood the child s moods, 
 now blithe and merry as the red-capped cedar birds 
 that, atilt on the lilac boughs, would peep into the 
 dairy windows and peck fearlessly at the crumbs that 
 the little maid scattered for them on the sunny sill. 
 Again, silent, shy, with thought marks between the 
 grave eyes, as if the childish brain was perplexing 
 itself all too early with the unsolved and unsolvable 
 problems of human life. Only the wise old woman, 
 spinning for her bread, in the little woodland cabin, 
 had an intuitive perception of the forces at work upon 
 the girl s mind, and in her quaint fashion she con 
 trived to drop many a hint and sage bit of advice or 
 warning that her listener never forgot. 
 
 " I love dearly to study," she had said sadly one 
 evening as she sat idly watching the delicate thread
 
 32 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 that the dame s skilful fingers drew without seeming 
 effort from the wisp of flax upon her distaff. " And 
 I m most always at the head of my class. But 
 father says, all girls need to know is how to keep 
 the house and take care of children. He says that 
 if he could have his way, not a girl in the country 
 should learn to do anything more than to just read 
 her Bible and write her own name. The boys are 
 going to college when they are old enough, but I m 
 to stay at home and help mother do the work." 
 
 " And why not ? " hummed the dame, in a tone so 
 low that it seemed scarcely more in the stillness than 
 the monotonous murmur of the wheel. " Know you 
 not, my Comfort, that it is the tender, the weak, the 
 never-noticed ones that tame and shape the whole 
 world? There was the cruel wolf Fenris that no 
 cord could be found strong enough to bind, and the 
 tender mountain sprites forged a chain, soft it was 
 and frail as a silken string, for it was made of six of 
 the weakest things that can be found : the footfall of 
 a cat, the beards of women, the roots of stones, the 
 breath of fishes, the nerves of bears, and spittle of 
 birds. Their smith was Patience, and his forge-fire 
 Courage. And never yet has the wolf been strong 
 enough to break the chain." 
 
 The child smiled, and the discontent faded from 
 her face as she said brightly: 
 
 " I guess I know what you mean, Granny. But 
 did n t it take an awful while to make that chain? " 
 
 " Aye, child, a very, very long time." 
 
 And the calm, old face under the folded kerchief 
 took on a shade of tender sadness as she said gently:
 
 Dame Hedvig 33 
 
 " But Patience and Courage can do all things in 
 timer 
 
 But to-day there were no perplexing questions 
 troubling the little maiden as she hastened to do her 
 mother s errand, and then at the dame s invitation to 
 seat herself comfortably in the seat of honor, the 
 only rocking-chair that the little cottage boasted, 
 an ancient wooden affair with a bright patchwork 
 cushion that Granny looked upon with honest pride, 
 as a perfect marvel of taste and ingenuity. The log- 
 cabin, small and unpretentious, was nevertheless as 
 warm and cosy a nest as any pair of Arctic birds 
 used to the long, inclement northern winters could 
 desire. The outer walls, even the sharply sloping 
 roof were covered all summer with a perfect network 
 of wild creepers, that were already beginning to show 
 here and there a crimson or bronze leaf against the 
 russet background of rough logs; while the roses in 
 which the mistress of the cabin delighted, and for 
 slips of which she had bartered many a knot of her 
 finest and smoothest thread, climbed about the low, 
 four-paned windows, and put forth their fragrant 
 blossoms and scarlet hips with equal boldness, sure 
 of a loving welcome in whatever shape they might 
 come. 
 
 On either side of the low sunny doorway stood an 
 ash and an alder that Granny called Aske and Embla, 
 from a tradition that when Odin the creator made 
 man and woman out of these trees, these were the 
 names bestowed upon them, and to keep up the 
 conceit, the old woman always religiously hung her 
 dish-cloths and strainer upon Embla, while the stur- 
 
 3
 
 34 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 dier Aske was obliged to do duty as a support for the 
 rake, hoe, and axe that Franz used in his daily work. 
 There were only two rooms inside, and Franz slept 
 in a bunk built against the kitchen wall, and filled 
 to the top with the tender, spicy tips of pine and 
 hemlock, laid " shingle fashion," layer above layer, 
 until the elastic, fragrant mass became a couch fit 
 for a king, or any other lazy man troubled with 
 insomnia. The great stone fireplace filled nearly one 
 end of the principal room, and over it on a rough 
 shelf was arranged a store of curious things, most of 
 them relics of Granny s old home across the seas. 
 
 There was a queer old picture in a frame of curi 
 ously carved bone, intended to represent the god 
 Odin, in the form of a venerable, sad-faced old man, 
 with a long, white beard falling upon his breast, a 
 wolf fawning at either knee, and his two ravens, 
 Thought and Memory, perched upon his shoulders, 
 whispering to him the dreadful story of all the sin and 
 suffering in the world, that it was their mission to see 
 and repeat. A collection of curious rocks and shells 
 almost crowded the prosaic tinder box out of its 
 place, and left only room enough for the mysterious 
 oaken casket that held the mystic " runes " upon the 
 reading of which Granny s reputation as a seeress 
 was principally founded. Comfort was sometimes 
 permitted as a great favor to handle these cherished 
 "divining rods" that resembled in size and shape 
 the wooden jackstraws that the children of the last 
 generation were so fond of playing with. Very 
 simple, childish things they looked, only little slender 
 sticks of some kind of white wood, carved on both
 
 Dame Hedvig 35 
 
 sides with a great number of odd characters, and 
 huddled together as it seemed without anything of 
 law or order. But in the dame s practised hand they 
 became all at once possessed of a wonderful power 
 that the ignorant unhesitatingly pronounced super 
 natural, and which the old woman herself good 
 Lutheran as she was, and vowed to eschew the Devil 
 and all his works regarded with a kind of awesome 
 wonder not unmixed with fear. 
 
 The gift of reading runes had been handed down in 
 her family for many generations, and although always 
 used gratuitously and in kindness had never proved 
 a blessing to the seeress and those she best loved. 
 They had foretold the death of Granny s young hus 
 band, of her son s ill-fated marriage and death, and 
 lastly of her exile with her orphaned grandchild to 
 the New World, where in comparative poverty she had 
 reared him, a freeman among freemen, and strong in 
 the hope that, in this land of liberty, where every 
 man, whatever his birth and antecedents, may climb 
 if he can and will, the bold blood of his Norse ances 
 tors might win for him the fame and fortune that an 
 untoward fate had denied to his sire and grandsire in 
 the old home. 
 
 Many a time, urged by boyish curiosity, Franz had 
 coaxed his grandam to " tell his fortune " with her 
 magic sticks, but always in vain. 
 
 " It is the bitter runes that fall to me," she would 
 say with a shudder, " and I shall no more read them 
 for my own." 
 
 But this morning, after the boy had gone to his 
 daily task at the mill, she had all at once become
 
 36 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 possessed of an irresistible desire to try the runes in 
 his behalf, and the opportune call of her little friend 
 suggested an idea that she was prompt to take advan 
 tage of. That friendly childish hand instead of her 
 own should shake the charmed box, thus making a 
 break in the spell to avert the malignant influence 
 that she so dreaded. 
 
 Naturally Comfort was delighted with the oppor 
 tunity of thus gratifying her childish curiosity, and 
 when the dame, with much ceremony, had spread a 
 square of finest linen, yellow with age, and wrought 
 in strange cabalistic devices by the hand of some old 
 ancestress, upon the little round cherry-wood stand, 
 the child was permitted herself to unlock the won 
 derful box, gathering the sticks into a compact bunch 
 in her hand, to hold them for a moment suspended 
 in solemn silence above the magic cloth, then letting 
 them fall as they would, scattered in every direction, 
 and crossing and recrossing each other in a score of 
 fantastic shapes, from which Granny s skill was to 
 divine something of the future of the lad so dear to 
 both their hearts. 
 
 The old woman s brow was puckered into an anx 
 ious frown as she pored reverently above the fateful 
 symbols, until, in evident desire to be rid of the 
 child s curious regard, she cried suddenly: 
 
 " I can do nothing with Frigga crying without in 
 the catnip patch. If my child will but go to her " 
 
 " Of course I will, poor Frigga ! I should n t won 
 der a bit if she d been stung by those bees." 
 
 And forgetting all her interest in the runes and 
 their possible revelations in her solicitude for the
 
 Dame Hedvig 37 
 
 cat, whose plaintive mew was every moment grow 
 ing louder and more distressed, Comfort darted out 
 of the cottage and in the direction of the catnip 
 patch in such hot haste that she never noticed the 
 strange gentleman who, sitting in the shadow of the 
 trees on the other side of the foot-path, was busily 
 at work sketching the cottage and its picturesque 
 surroundings.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE WIDDER SCRIPTURE S SUMMER BOARDER 
 
 " I7RIG-GA ! Frig-ga ! " called the childish voice, 
 A and " Frig-ga ! Frig-ga ! " repeated the moun 
 tain echoes, while the stranger under the maple 
 across the way suspended his work for a moment to 
 watch with a smile of amused interest the search 
 going on in the catnip patch. The plot of carefully 
 tended catnip was one of the peculiar institutions 
 that Granny s neighbors were wont to turn up their 
 noses at as one of the whimsies of a half-crazy old 
 woman, although nobody could deny the fact that 
 her bees, for whose sole benefit it was cultivated, 
 were the best honey producers for many miles 
 around. 
 
 " Let the critters do their own foragin ," the other 
 bee keepers would say. There were weeds enough 
 growing wild all over the island without coaxing 
 them to grow, and what were the bees good for if 
 they could n t provide their own fodder? But Gran 
 ny, with her Old World thrift, contended that to bees 
 as well as men " time was money," and if the little 
 workers found their raw material near at hand they 
 would waste no time in searching for it. And as a 
 natural consequence of this wise economy, the row 
 of old-fashioned straw hives bordering one side of 
 the small clearing had a third more honey to spare
 
 Widder Scripture s Summer Boarder 39 
 
 at the end of the season than any others in the neigh 
 borhood, while, owing to the peculiar aromatic flavor, 
 Granny s honey was sure to find eager purchasers. 
 
 But it was not to the bees alone that that garden 
 of sweet-scented purple blooms was a storehouse of 
 tempting sweets. Frigga, the dame s pet cat, found 
 it just the spot that her feline instincts prompted her 
 to forage in, regardless of many a cruel sting from 
 which her undefended nose had suffered during these 
 perilous raids. For Frigga, be it understood, was no 
 ordinary, tame-spirited puss, who once conquered is 
 conquered forever. Far from that ! The blood of a 
 long race of bold Norse mousers ran in her veins, 
 and no doubt she found it hard to forget that her 
 own mother had dared the perils and inconveniences 
 of an ocean voyage, as well as the privations of a 
 pioneer life, and had been the petted friend and com 
 panion of her lonely mistress for many a long and 
 toilsome year. Her glossy black coat showed not a 
 hair of mongrel white, only the soft velvety paws, 
 always daintily scornful of smirch or speck, wore the 
 hue of their ancestral snows ; while the slow, stately 
 grace with which she carried her long tail, as if it had 
 been the train of some grand court lady, and the 
 grave dignity with which she always repelled the 
 smallest advance toward friendliness on the part of 
 her plebeian neighbors said as plainly as words could 
 have done : 
 
 " / am a cat of condition, and we 11 have no famili 
 arities, if you please, ma am." 
 
 But Frigga at ease in the warmest corner of the 
 kitchen hearth, or curled up luxuriously in Comfort s
 
 40 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 lap, and Frigga with the sting of an angry bee in her 
 nose, were two altogether different animals. And 
 now, borne in her rescuer s tender arms to the cabin, 
 she moaned and whined, and rubbed with an impa 
 tient paw the injured member just for all the world 
 as any ordinary cat would have done under like cir 
 cumstances. 
 
 " O Granny ! She s got a dreadful sting on her 
 nose this time," cried Comfort distressfully, as soon 
 as she caught sight of the old woman s face peering 
 from the low doorway. " Do please hurry, and get 
 something to put on it," and she held up her home 
 spun apron with its woful freight, as one sure of 
 sympathy and help. 
 
 To her surprise the dame seemed strangely indif 
 ferent to the sad plight of her pet. She only laughed 
 rather absently, while her withered fingers toyed with 
 the bit of thread that she held between them, and her 
 eyes unnaturally bright, had a far-away look in them 
 as if she were seeing something far beyond the narrow 
 bounds of her own little domain, a look that the 
 child had never seen there before, and which puzzled 
 and somehow awed her into a bewildered silence. 
 
 " And so the poor Frigga has had a taste of Prey s 
 sword?" and she softly patted the head of the dis 
 tressed animal. " But a pat of damp earth will soon 
 make all right." 
 
 And while Comfort held the head of the struggling 
 cat, the dame contrived to fasten the healing loam 
 upon the injured member, too absorbed in her own 
 thoughts to notice the approach of the stranger 
 who, coming up unobserved, now stood watching
 
 Widder Scripture s Summer Boarder 41 
 
 with evident interest the progress of the dame s 
 surgery. 
 
 " It is for thy good, my Frigga," she murmured 
 soothingly, without resenting in the least an angry 
 scratch that the ungrateful patient bestowed upon 
 her, " an thou wilt go into danger, thou must suffer 
 for it." 
 
 Here a movement behind them suddenly caused 
 her to drop the cat and turn to meet the laughing 
 eyes of a stout youngish gentleman, whose dress as 
 well as his unshaven lip showed that he was no 
 dweller hereabouts. 
 
 " Begging your pardon," he said with a brusque 
 courtesy that was as far removed from rudeness as 
 from the prim ceremoniousness of the rustic strangers 
 who sometimes dropped in at the cottage, out of curi 
 osity or to bargain for some of her simple stores. 
 "But will you kindly loan me a cup that I can drink 
 from?" with a nod toward the shining little brook 
 whose clear waters rippling over their pebbly bed 
 looked very much cooler than they really were, as 
 the dame well knew. 
 
 " If the gentleman will come in," dropping a 
 modest courtesy after the fashion of her country 
 women, " he shall have something better than the 
 warm brook water to drink." 
 
 As he seemed only too glad to accept her hospi 
 tality, she bustled about with pleased solicitude to see 
 him comfortably seated, and as she placed a glass and 
 pitcher of foaming mead upon the stand beside him, 
 she explained with natural housewifely pride, that 
 the honey used in the mixture was from her own
 
 42 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 hives, and that more than a twelvemonth had passed 
 since it was brewed, excellences that the gentleman 
 evidently appreciated, if one might judge by the 
 relish with which he sipped the refreshing beverage, 
 his bright, observant glance taking in meanwhile every 
 detail of the quaint furnishings of the room, as well 
 as the odd dress and old world speech and manners 
 of its hospitable mistress. The " runes " had been 
 hastily huddled into their box upon the entrance of 
 the guest, but the linen stand cloth with its queer 
 hieroglyphics still remained and caught the stranger s 
 eye as he replaced his glass. 
 
 "By your leave, madam," and he lifted a corner of 
 the cloth to examine it more closely, while his face 
 lighted up with a smile of intelligent interest. " These 
 Runic characters are not new to me," he said by way 
 of explanation. " I was in Norway almost two years 
 studying the scenery of that country, and I learned 
 something of these. I believe," uncertainly tracing 
 the silken lines with the tip of his pencil, " that this 
 is some story about the god Frey, so far as I can 
 make it out." 
 
 " And so it is." 
 
 The old woman s cheek glowed, and her form grew 
 suddenly erect as if a blast from her own northern 
 mountains had all at once swept across her cheek, 
 kindling the blood of youth once more in her veins, 
 and bringing back the pride and joy of her half- 
 forgotten girlhood, with the scent of her native pines. 
 
 " It is the story of how Frey lost his magic sword, 
 and all for love. My great-great-grandam," she 
 added with pardonable pride, " wrought it with her
 
 Widder Scripture s Summer Boarder 43 
 
 own fingers, of silken threads that her Viking lord 
 brought to her from afar over the seas." 
 
 The stranger smiled good-humoredly. 
 
 " From one of his piratical raids/ he appended 
 with a bit of sly sarcasm, for which he immediately 
 tried to atone by begging the dame to read the legend 
 for him, declaring that his own skill only extended to 
 the translation of a word here and there. 
 
 Little urging did Granny need, for she was in her 
 element with such an interested and intelligent 
 listener, and she would gladly have gone on for 
 hours repeating the stories that had charmed her 
 childhood, and which still held their brightness as 
 undimmed by age or change as the silken threads of 
 her grandmother s mystic embroidery. 
 
 "The god Frey," she began, translating the runes 
 into the familiar vernacular of her day and neighbor 
 hood, " had a wonderful sword, that would fill a whole 
 field with dead men did he once lift it, but he lost it 
 for love, and this is how it came about : One un 
 lucky day he climbed up to Odin s throne, for from 
 there he might look all over the world. And as he 
 looked he saw a lovely maiden, so fair and white 
 was she that her naked arms made the air bright like 
 sunshine whenever she waved them. And Frey the 
 gentle loved her. And he grew pale and thin, and 
 silent; and he ate nothing and drank nothing, neither 
 would he come to the banquet of the gods, but sat 
 apart in solitary places, dreaming ever of the beauti 
 ful maiden whose snowy arms had won from him his 
 heart. 
 
 " Then Skirner the Crafty guessed his secret, and
 
 44 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 he said : O Frey, son of Niord, and god of the rain, 
 the sunshine, and the pleasant fruits, give me thy 
 magic sword, and I will win for thee the maiden Gud- 
 run to be thy bride. So Frey gave him the sword, 
 and the maiden listened to Skirner s honeyed words, 
 and promised that when nine days and nights should 
 have passed away she would wed Frey. Then Frey 
 sang: 
 
 " Long is one night, 
 
 Long are two nights, 
 
 How shall I hold out three ? 
 
 Shorter hath seemed 
 
 A month to me oft, 
 
 Than of this longing time the half. 
 
 "And Skirner, after the sword had destroyed all 
 his enemies, sold it to the King of the Bees, and the 
 Bees have kept it unto this day." 
 
 " But one bee parted with his because he was mad 
 with poor Frigga," put in Comfort, forgetting her 
 shyness of the stranger in her interest in the story. 
 
 The gentleman laughed, such a frank, gay, good- 
 humored laugh that our little maid never dreamed 
 of resenting it. 
 
 " So the realism of To-day bruises the heels of an 
 ideal Past," he laughed half regretfully, then address 
 ing the dame he asked with a show of kindly 
 interest : 
 
 " Is this little lass your grandchild?" 
 
 " She is none of my kin." 
 
 The gravity with which she emphasized the words 
 seemed to strike her listener with an odd sense of 
 some hidden meaning underlying the simple assertion,
 
 Widder Scripture s Summer Boarder 45 
 
 for he regarded her sharply for a moment before rising 
 to take his leave, with thanks for her hospitality and 
 the courteous request that he might be allowed to 
 repeat his visit. 
 
 " Why, that s the Widder Scripture s summer 
 boarder," exclaimed Comfort, as his broad shoulders 
 and careless straw hat disappeared from sight down 
 the leafy avenue. " He s from the city, and he s 
 staying here to paint pictures of all the places round 
 here. The widder told mother that he had some of 
 the prettiest ones she ever saw." 
 
 " And well he may make beautiful pictures with all 
 this beauty before his eyes." 
 
 The old woman s glowing face was uplifted, and 
 the dim eyes were turned yearningly toward the 
 mountain peaks half veiled in the purple September 
 haze, through whose rifts the gray and ruddy granite 
 gleamed warm and bright in the idle sunshine, a 
 beautiful contrast to the sombre green of the low-grow 
 ing pines with which the proud monarch deigned to 
 " cover " his royal feet. Scarce a stone s throw away 
 lay Witch Hollow Pond, a brooch of diamond- 
 studded lapis-lazuli upon the meadow s fair breast, 
 while the soft lapping of waves upon the sandy beach 
 of the not far distant cove could be distinctly heard 
 in the noonday stillness, as the two outwardly so un 
 like, and yet with that mystic spirit bond so strong 
 between them, stood at the humble, vine-framed door, 
 silent and thoughtful, yet conscious of a joy too in 
 tense to be unmixed with pain. It was the same 
 sensation that the child had been so often conscious 
 of in listening to some old song, whose simple beauty
 
 46 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 and pathos had brought the unbidden tears to her 
 eyes. 
 
 Franz came whistling up the path, and the spell 
 was broken. 
 
 " Halloo there, Granny, Comfort ! What are you 
 looking at?" 
 
 " Nothing," replied the child, with an abashed 
 laugh. 
 
 " Heaven," murmured the dame with reverent ten 
 derness. And she hastened into the house to spread 
 the table for their noonday meal. 
 
 As the artist had said, truly the practical treads 
 ever upon the heels of the ideal.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A NEIGHBORLY BODY 
 
 " T? ARLY to bed and early to rise " was one of the 
 
 -L Widow Scripture s favorite maxims, and the 
 heaviest trial that her summer boarder laid upon her 
 much-enduring shoulders was the seven o clock break 
 fast, that his late rising necessitated in her otherwise 
 well-regulated household. Not that she endured this 
 innovation upon long-established custom with patient 
 equanimity by any means, for long before the loud- 
 voiced clock in the kitchen corner had given its five 
 matin strokes, her brisk step sounded upon the bare 
 boards overhead, and her shrill tones awoke the echoes 
 of the dusky old farmhouse with the familiar call : 
 
 " Come, Tabby, up with ye ! It s high time decent 
 folks was out o their beds." 
 
 And woe to the luckless Tabby if, counting upon 
 her mother s housewifely distractions, she ventured 
 upon so much as one little " beauty nap." 
 
 The widow was a strong-armed as well as deter 
 mined woman, or she could never have transferred 
 that hundred and ten pounds avoirdupois from the 
 bed to the floor with such wonderful celerity as she 
 did when her first summons was disregarded. And 
 if the summer boarder had not been an uncommonly 
 brave man he would have trembled in his own bed 
 lest a similar experience might befall him too. After
 
 48 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 the fashion of country homes of that day the best 
 sleeping-room was below stairs, and as it was pro 
 vided with wooden partitions, the energetic mistress 
 of the house had no need to raise her voice above its 
 usual pitch to reach the ears of the offending laggard 
 in the next room, who could thus be conveniently 
 talked at, when common prudence forbade a more 
 direct address. 
 
 She raked open the bed of coals in the fireplace 
 with a tremendous rattle of shovel and tongs, a thud 
 of heavy wood, and the protesting creak of the 
 burdened fire dogs that, like their mistress, had evi 
 dently never learned to bear life s burdens uncomplain 
 ingly. Then came the brisk, cheery snapping and 
 crackling of the dry beechen logs, the not unmusical 
 tinkle of the water against the iron sides of the tea 
 kettle, and above all the sharp, strident tones of the 
 house mistress : 
 
 " Here, Tabby, you run out an dig a mess o per- 
 taters f r breakfast. An don t you let the grass grow 
 under yer feet, f r I ve got work enough on hand f r 
 to-day to keep a dozen women on the clean jump 
 from sunrise to sunset." 
 
 And as the door slammed behind the obedient 
 Tabby, she went on in the same elevated key, evi 
 dently indifferent to or oblivious of a long, sleepy 
 sigh from the unfortunate boarder s room. 
 
 " I s pose I ve got ter fry them trout f r breakfast 
 or there 11 be a terrible to-do. It s hard when a 
 body puts herself out to cook, an wash, an iron f r a 
 stranger, a great lazy man that can t find nothin 
 ter do in the world but ter paint pictures o things
 
 A Neighborly Body 49 
 
 that folks can look at any time without costin em a 
 cent, it s hard, I say, that he can t get up in time 
 f r is meals." 
 
 The bedstead in the next room creaks uneasily as 
 if it had a conscience ill at ease, and the pork in the 
 frying pan fizzles and sputters in sympathy, while the 
 widow, with a grim smile slowly smothers the trout 
 in meal, unheedful of its beautifully dappled and 
 slender grace. 
 
 " Beauties ? " she had repeated wonderingly, as 
 the artist, after his yesterday s tramp had proudly 
 produced them from his fishing basket, with a 
 natural comment upon their brilliant coloring, "I 
 don t know what you mean by callin a fish beau 
 tiful. They re good wholesome eatin , but I must 
 say I don t see where the beautiful comes in." 
 
 The artist smiled indulgently. 
 
 " Well, Mrs. Scripture," he asked with a glance at 
 her hard, practical face, " what is your idea of 
 beauty? Who or what do you call beautiful? " 
 
 The widow considered a moment, with her bare 
 arms akimbo, while she regarded her questioner 
 with a look at once pitying and triumphant, then 
 suddenly throwing open the door of the " front 
 room," she motioned her guest to enter, and with a 
 smile of proud triumph pointed to a small, round 
 stand occupying the place of honor beneath the 
 narrow gilt-framed looking-glass. 
 
 "There, that s what /call han some." 
 
 It was a spray of some kind of flower, presumably 
 roses, ingeniously fashioned from tiny pink and white 
 shells, and perched upon it, almost hiding it, with 
 
 4
 
 50 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 his gaudy red and green plumage, was a stuffed 
 parrot. 
 
 " Cap n Scriptur* brought it home with him from 
 his last v yage. It s furrin, you see, they don t 
 make nothin o this kind in these parts, and he 
 paid four dollars and thirty-seven cents f r it. I 
 would n t sell it though f r twice the money." 
 
 Her voice faltered, and a tear stole down her 
 withered cheek, a wifely tribute to the sailor hus 
 band who had sailed away one fine morning and had 
 never been heard from since, leaving his then young 
 wife to grow old, and sharp, and grasping, in the 
 desperate struggle to find bread and shelter for her 
 self and child. 
 
 But a moment later she was scolding Tabby for 
 her shiftlessness in allowing the biscuit to scorch, 
 and bustling about getting the meal upon the table, 
 as if work and worry were the real business of life, 
 and love and sorrow simply episodes, to be passed 
 over as of too little consequence to be long or often 
 thought of. 
 
 Meanwhile the artist, as he took his favorite seat 
 upon the worn block of granite that served for a 
 doorstone, and watched the gray mists slowly creep 
 ing over the peaks on either hand, parting here with 
 a shimmer of glowing scarlet, and there of russet and 
 gold, as the setting sun s rays fell upon their wooded 
 sides now clothed in the triumphal glories of the 
 ripened year, he recalled the scene just passed, and 
 tried for the hundredth time perhaps to solve the 
 problem that will perplex the thinking world for 
 generations to come as it has perplexed ages preced 
 ing ours:
 
 A Neighborly Body 51 
 
 Is nature or education at fault when men and 
 women go through the world as blind as dumb 
 beasts to the natural beauties about them? Did our 
 Lord s " Consider the lilies " have no meaning 
 beneath the obvious one of God s protecting care? 
 It has been said that " The undevout astronomer is 
 mad," and the same words might be applied to the 
 student of nature in any of her wonderful and varied 
 forms. 
 
 There is a beauty in the fitness, the marvellous 
 adaptability of each created thing, however humble, 
 to its various needs and uses, that draws the soul up 
 ward from the created to the Creator, to the per 
 fection of beauty that exists only in the Godhead, 
 and we can see how a Phidias may have been as 
 devout a man in his way as a Fra Angelico. And 
 yet, it is an undeniable fact that, to the great mass of 
 fairly intelligent people, the odd, the peculiar, the 
 grotesque, has a far greater interest and charm than 
 the actually beautiful. 
 
 Where one will look with illumined eyes and heart 
 all aglow with reverent delight upon the grand and 
 beautiful scenery of the White Mountains, ninety- 
 nine will be far more interested and impressed by the 
 strange, stony profile of the " Old Man of the Moun 
 tain," while crowds spend their breath and time in 
 praising and wondering at the engineering skill dis 
 played in the construction of the Green Mountain 
 railway, who never have the smallest conception of 
 the majesty and beauty of the outlook from the 
 mountain s lofty summit. One is everywhere re 
 minded of the old lady who looked upon Niagara
 
 52 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 and the suspension bridge for the first time : " I 
 don t call them Falls no great things," she declared, 
 " because God made em, an t wa n t nothin for Him 
 to do. But that bridge, Good land ! to think that 
 any mortal man should a been smart enough ter 
 contrive that, jest fairly takes away my breath." 
 
 And yet, although we may be blind to the natural 
 beauties about us, forgetting that the common and 
 familiar loses none of its charms by that familiarity 
 if we only choose to look upon it with reverent and 
 willing eyes, there is a sentiment that springs up all 
 unconsciously in even the dullest nature for the 
 scenes that have been associated with their earlier 
 years, a kind of clannish affection for that small 
 bit of the great earth that we have best known and 
 enjoyed. Thus the born New Englander, transplanted 
 to the prairies of the West, pines with homesick long 
 ing for the rugged mountains and pine-capped hills 
 of his native State ; the dweller by the seacoast may 
 toil contentedly upon his inland farm, but he never 
 ceases to long for a " sniff of salt sea air," and a sight 
 of the grand, tossing, tumultuous sea familiar to his 
 boyhood ; and the country-bred man or woman, 
 though successful and happy in a city home, seldom 
 fails to keep in some corner of his or her metropoli 
 tan heart a tender memory of the old farmstead with 
 its thousand and one little objects of interest and 
 love, and as life wanes toward its setting it grows 
 even dearer and more real than amidst the heat and 
 bustle of the noonday. 
 
 Our artist had had experience of this feeling, and 
 as he sat there in the chill of the now fast-falling
 
 A Neighborly Body 53 
 
 night, his mind reverted to those other days and 
 nights across the seas, when, with a young man s 
 steadfast belief in the superior charms of nature in 
 the Old World, he had roamed from land to land, 
 with pencil and sketch-book, ever patient, ever 
 hopeful, and yet with a certain unsatisfied longing 
 at his heart for the homelikeness, the beauty that 
 has in it something more than delights the eye, the 
 tender personality that comes only from the heart, 
 and makes the dull bit of painted canvas instinct 
 with life and sentiment. 
 
 He had painted the Drusenfall, with its gigantic 
 stony figure keeping watch and ward over the foamy 
 mass leaping madly down the rugged face of the 
 cliff, but all the time there danced before his mind s 
 eye the wonderful waterfalls of his own land, 
 grander, fairer a thousandfold than this Thuringian 
 beauty, until he threw aside the half-finished pic 
 ture in a spasm of self-disgust, and betook himself 
 to the work of delineating some of the tamer and 
 gentler features of the lands through which his wan 
 dering feet strayed. But forest, stream, and meadow, 
 even the gorgeous hues of Italian sunsets, only 
 recalled distracting memories of those of his own 
 land, until, like the knight who spent a life-long exile 
 in a vain search for the " Holy Grail " and found it 
 at last at his own castle gate, our artist turned his 
 face homeward, firm in the conviction that for ma 
 jesty, grace and beauty no land could equal his own. 
 
 Years had passed since then, and he had won a 
 fair share of fame and fortune in the busy world 
 where he toiled and lived, but to the simple Island
 
 54 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 folks he was just the "Widow Scripture s boarder," 
 a man who " was too lazy to work, and so painted 
 pictures for a living." His unshaven lip and a certain 
 foreign air in dress and manner, even his name 
 (Humbre,) had an outlandish sound to their unac 
 customed ears, and all tended to prove conclusively 
 to the whole neighborhood that he was an " odd fish " 
 anyway, and more than one prudent matron had 
 taken upon herself to warn the widow to be on her 
 guard against fortune-hunters, and men who, for 
 aught she knew, might have a dozen wives already. 
 
 In time, however, the frank good fellowship and 
 open handedness of the stranger won over the most 
 suspicious to his side, one good woman even going 
 so far as to admit that " if painting was a lazy trade, 
 it was at least an honest one," while the widow her 
 self stood up manfully in defence of her maligned 
 boarder. 
 
 " I 11 say this much fer im," she declared, " he s 
 a clever, accommodatin critter as you d wish to see. 
 Time an ag in when me n Tabby s been up to our 
 eyes in work, he s taken the hoe an gone out into 
 the garding, an dug a mess o pertaters f r dinner 
 jest as handy as if he had n t done nothin else all his 
 life. He ain t fussy either about what he eats the 
 only thing we don t hitch hosses on is napkins, he 
 sticks to it that he must have a clean one every meal, 
 and I say two a week s enough f r anybody." 
 
 It was true that the napkin question was the one 
 bone of contention, as the widow had said, and on 
 this particular morning it was the familiar tocsin that 
 succeeded finally in arousing the sleeper from his
 
 A Neighborly Body 55 
 
 nap to the consciousness that it was time for honest 
 folks to be astir. 
 
 " Now, Tabby, you slap them pertaters into the 
 bake-kittle in short metre, an then run over to Mis 
 Hadlock s and borrow one of her flat-irons. Them 
 pesky napkins that Mr. Humbre thinks he can t eat 
 without, had ter be washed yesterday, an I Ve got 
 to iron em this forenoon or there 11 be a pretty 
 kittle o fish. Step lively, now, there ain t no time 
 to waste." 
 
 But Tabby hung back. 
 
 "Where s yer own irons, ma am?" she demanded. 
 
 " Hangin on the pole o the cheese-press," was the 
 prompt reply, " an I don t propose to take em off 
 when a neighbor s got one that she can spare as 
 well s not." 
 
 " But," urged the reluctant Tabby, " the last time 
 you borried hers she had to send for it four times 
 before you could spare it, and you swore then that 
 you never d borry anything of her again as long as 
 you lived." 
 
 The widow s sallow face reddened, but she drew 
 herself up majestically and pointed one bony finger 
 towards the door: 
 
 " Put, you sauce box ! Do you s pose," she 
 added with serene unconsciousness of the fact that 
 the boot might be considered on the other foot in 
 this case, "that I ll humor her in her ugliness? 
 Hain t I accommodated her time an ag in in a hun 
 dred ways, besides standin her boys sass ever since 
 they was born? " 
 
 And as Tabby unwillingly departed upon her
 
 56 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 errand, her mother watched her with a disturbed and 
 anxious face. 
 
 " I don t see why some folks should be so much 
 better off n others, f r the life of me. There s Tabby 
 now, as likely lookin an smart a girl as there is on 
 the Island (if she is my young one), but I ain t got 
 the means to keep er dressed up all neat an trim as 
 Mis Hadlock does Comfort, let me pinch an strain 
 ever so hard. That girl never s had to go bare- 
 fut onless she wanted to a day in her life, and 
 she always has new hair ribbons f r meetin an ex 
 amination days, while Tabby has to save her one pair 
 o shoes f r Sundays, an tie her hair up with a strip 
 of calico." 
 
 The aggrieved look still lingered as she replied 
 crustily to her boarder s cheery morning salutation : 
 
 " Yes, pleasant enough, I s pose, f r them that likes 
 weather sharp enough ter take the hair right off o 
 yer face. Time f r frosty nights an mornin s? Yes, 
 of course t is. It s always time f r cold, or fog, or 
 frost in this God-forsaken hole, where a body has ter 
 jest scratch f r a livin , an mighty mean livin at 
 that." 
 
 Her listener glanced at the comfortably spread 
 table, the blazing fire, and homely conveniences of 
 the room, and smiled indulgently. " I don t suppose 
 any one would be likely to make a fortune by farm 
 ing here," he admitted, " but there are plenty of 
 other things that an enterprising man might go into 
 besides cultivating the land. There s some fine 
 granite here, and " 
 
 " Don t say granite in this neighborhood, f r the
 
 A Neighborly Body 57 
 
 land sakes ! " and the widow held up both floury 
 hands in horrified deprecation. " Diggin granite 
 come pretty nigh bein the ruination of us all. It 
 was Squire Hadlock s scheme, but some men from 
 New Hampsheer put im up to it in the first place. 
 That back pastur o his is a master place for that 
 kind o stun, an he got up a company an under 
 took to work it. It was all pay out an no pay in, 
 till everybody got discouraged an give it up as a 
 bad bargain. I don t s pose there ever was a more 
 disapp inted man than the Squire, for he d lotted on 
 making a fortune out o that pastur , an naterally 
 them that lost by it laid all the blame on him, so he 
 had cusses as well as losses to bear." 
 
 " That was hard on him," assented the artist ab 
 sently, and as he took his seat at the table in obedi 
 ence to the widow s hint that " time an tide an 
 buckwheat cakes wait for no man," he wondered in 
 an indifferent, idle fashion if that rough, picturesque 
 strip of land sloping down to the sandy beach, and 
 backed by the near grove of " lady " birches, of 
 which he had only the day before made a charming 
 study, could be the scene of the Squire s discom 
 fiture. He had noticed the signs of an old quarry, 
 and 
 
 Just here his meditations were interrupted by 
 Tabby, who burst into the room, her sunbonnet fly 
 ing by the strings, and her rosy face fairly purple 
 with excitement. 
 
 " Oh, ma ! They re havin the awfulest time down 
 to the Hadlocks. Somethin s killed all the Squire s 
 Dorkin chickens, an Jotham s laid it to Granny
 
 58 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 Hedvig s cat that she got Comfort to take care of 
 while she was away f r a week. The Squire s mad as 
 a hatter, an* swears he 11 have the cat s life, an 
 Jotham, he s all ready f r the job, got a rope ready 
 to hang er with, but Comfort s got er all cuddled 
 up in her apron, an won t give er up. Mis Had- 
 lock s cryin , an the Squire s jawin , an the boys 
 are laughin an eggin Jotham on. I should n t 
 wonder a mite if Comfort had a fit or somethin , 
 she s that white an trembly." 
 
 The widow laid down her knife and fork, and, 
 rising, wiped her mouth deliberately upon the roller 
 towel, and as she took her trusty sunbonnet from its 
 nail behind the door, she remarked resolutely: 
 
 " I ain t one to shirk a dooty, an it s plain ter be 
 seen that somebody ought ter interfere in this case. 
 The Squire s a dretful masterful man, an Mis Had- 
 lock s clever, but she ain t got no more backbone to 
 er than a tow string. To be sure, Comfort s pretty 
 gritty, but she s been put upon ever since she was 
 born, by the whole lot of em, an it s tough work 
 holdin er own with all of em ag in er. You see to 
 the breakfast." 
 
 The conclusion of her remarks were intended for 
 the special benefit of Tabby, who, thus defrauded of 
 the privilege of accompanying her mother on her 
 neighborly mission, took a truly feminine revenge 
 upon the innocent boarder by serving his buckwheats 
 upon the coldest plate she could find, and putting the 
 scant allowance of cream into her own instead of his 
 coffee, while she kept up a grumbling accompani 
 ment to every mouthful :
 
 A Neighborly Body 59 
 
 " Ma s always hankerin to get her fingers into 
 other folks s pies, an f r my part," with an aggrieved 
 sniff, and a vicious shove of the butter plate towards 
 the boarder s end of the table, " I don t care if she 
 gets em scorched this time." 
 
 Neither did the boarder, for that matter.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 "A DANIEL COME TO JUDGMENT" 
 
 AS Tabby had intimated, there was a terrible 
 commotion going on in the Hadlock farmhouse, 
 or rather in its dooryard, for the real scene of the 
 contention was there, right in the fore-front of the 
 desolated coop, whose three ghastly occupants were 
 laid decently side by side upon a pile of chip dirt, all 
 their pretty feathers ruffled and ragged, and those 
 budding topnots that had been the pride of their own 
 and their owners hearts, trailing helplessly in the 
 dust. 
 
 That Dame Hedvig s cat had been suspected of the 
 murder was due entirely to the zeal and sagacity of 
 Jotham, who declared with much show of reason that 
 nothing smaller than Frigga could have overcome 
 such well-grown chicks; adding, in confirmation of 
 his theory, that he had himself heard a suspicious 
 noise in the henhouse towards morning, and looking 
 from his window had seen, indistinctly of course, 
 in the dim, gray light, a creature he would almost 
 swear was Frigga, stealing away toward the shed 
 where a bed had been made for her by Comfort. 
 The Squire in his anger had been only too ready to 
 accept this circumstantial evidence against the stran 
 ger, and, hasty as usual, instantly ordered Jotham to 
 kill her without further parley.
 
 "A Daniel Come to Judgment" 61 
 
 " She had n t even the excuse of hunger," he 
 declared with a wrathful glance at poor puss, who, 
 unsuspicious of danger, had just come out lazily 
 blinking her sleepy eyes, to see what all the uproar 
 was about, " for she has n t eaten so much as a wing. 
 It was pure deviltry." And Frigga purred compla 
 cently, and rubbed her glossy side against his trou 
 sers leg, all unmindful of the terrible fate hanging 
 over her. 
 
 A kick rewarded her civilities, and Jotham made a 
 grab at her at the same instant, but luckily missed 
 his mark, and in another moment Comfort had her in 
 her arms, and with her apron wrapped protectingly 
 about her, faced them all with a resolute, set face, 
 that Jotham at least knew meant " war to the 
 knife." 
 
 "You sha n t touch Frigga," she cried, as Jotham 
 made a feint of snatching the cat from her, " Granny 
 trusted her to me, and I won t let anybody hurt her." 
 
 " But father says," began Jotham, while the Squire 
 interrupted with a stern " Give Jotham that cat, Com 
 fort, this minute ! She s killed three of my biggest 
 Leg orns, an I 11 make sure that she don t kill no 
 more of em. Put er down, I say ! " 
 
 Comfort grew white to her very lips, but she held 
 the frightened creature all the closer. 
 
 " She never touched the chickens, I know, father," 
 she insisted. 
 
 Then with a pleading look that few fathers would 
 have had the heart to resist, " Don t let him hurt her, 
 please. Granny trusted her to me, and I promised 
 to take good care of her. I can t let her be killed."
 
 62 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 Here Mrs. Hadlock, almost as much distressed as 
 her child, timidly interposed with an argument that 
 she thought might possibly influence her angry 
 spouse : 
 
 " You don t want to do anything that 11 make hard 
 feelin s, father. You know the old woman makes a 
 perfect pet of the cat, and she 11 lay it up against us 
 as long as she lives if we should kill it." 
 
 " It s her witch-cat," broke in David, who was of 
 a superstitious turn, and had perhaps a little secret 
 enjoyment of the bold stand that his small sister was 
 taking against the family tyrant and bully, that 
 Jotham had long since grown to be. " She always 
 holds it in her lap when she tells the fortune sticks 
 fr folks ; an Bud Riley swears he s seen er ridin on 
 its back through the air on stormy nights." 
 
 The Squire sniffed, and Jotham grinned derisively. 
 
 "What balderdash ! " growled the old man. Then 
 assuming his most determined air, he said sternly, 
 " Now, Comfort, I mean jest what I say. You give 
 Jotham that cat before I can count ten, or I 11 take 
 er from ye, an give you one o the worst whippin s 
 that you ever had in all yer life, into the bargain." 
 
 The child looked up into his face in horrified 
 amazement. Indifferent, unloving, he had always 
 been. She could not remember in all her life to have 
 received a kiss or loving word from him, but neither 
 had he been severe or harsh in his treatment of her. 
 She was an encumbrance, the "one too many" in the 
 family circle, and as such he had ignored her as far 
 as possible, but she could not remember that he had 
 ever laid his hand upon her in anger. This was the
 
 "A Daniel Come to Judgment" 63 
 
 first time that he had ever threatened such an indig 
 nity, and there was more of astonishment and incre 
 dulity than fear in the look with which she regarded 
 him. 
 
 "But \promised, father," she began, 
 
 "One two " 
 
 " Oh, father, I can t let her be killed." 
 
 " Three four five " 
 
 " Give it here, an stop yer foolin ! " 
 
 But Friggawas by this time fully alive to the situa 
 tion, and as Jotham accompanied his words with a 
 clutch at her undefended head she dealt him a scratch 
 that made him spring back with an exclamation of 
 rage and pain. 
 
 " Darn the jade ! I 11 pay ye f r this," with a grim 
 ace at the offending animal, " I ll make yer hangin 
 a longer job than you 11 like." 
 
 Comfort shuddered, and held her precious charge 
 still closer as the terrible count went on. 
 
 " Six seven " 
 
 " Look here, Squire, seems ter me yer havin quite 
 a time here. What s the rumpus, hey? " 
 
 And the Widow Scripture s faded sunbonnet made 
 its appearance upon the scene, fair as the white 
 wing of an angel of deliverance in poor Comfort s 
 eyes, while its owner, with the most innocent air 
 imaginable, contrived to place herself directly in front 
 of the weeping child, thus partially screening her 
 from the sight of her angry father, who, irritated as 
 he was at the unexpected interruption, could find no 
 excuse for not giving a civil answer to his neighbor s 
 question.
 
 64 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " That s the trouble," he said grimly, with a nod 
 in the direction of the dead chicks. " Three of my 
 young Leg orns killed, and we Ve found out that 
 Granny Hedvig s cat did the mischief. Comfort s set 
 erself up that she sha n t be killed, but I 11 " 
 
 " Land sakes alive ! " interrupted the dame briskly, 
 "you don t say so? That cat kill them half-grown 
 chicks? Well, well! Twa n t a weasel or a skunk 
 now, was it? " 
 
 The bait took. " Of course t wa n t, " and Jotham s 
 tone was hurried and a little apprehensive. " I Ve 
 looked em over an there ain t a mark of a tooth on 
 em." 
 
 "Not even a cat s tooth?" she asked shrewdly. 
 Then ignoring Jotham s evident discomfiture, she 
 went on, with a sly, reassuring " nudge " of the trem 
 bling child behind her: "Now, Squire, let s take a 
 squint at them dead chickens. Like as not they 
 wa n t killed at all, died o the gapes, maybe; I ve 
 heard o sech things." 
 
 And as she led the way, the squire, however loath, 
 could do no less than follow her lead, while the pro 
 cession was swelled by Mrs. Hadlock and the boys, 
 all curious to see what this novel coroner s inquest 
 would prove. 
 
 Very solemnly the widow inspected each fowl in 
 order, passing it to the Squire with the significant 
 comment: 
 
 "Not a tooth mark on this one." 
 
 And when the examination was completed she 
 summed up the result as follows : 
 
 " Necks wrung, cats don t wring necks ; not a
 
 "A Daniel Come to Judgment" 65 
 
 sign of a bite on one of em, cats leave their tooth- 
 marks on what they kill; an the queerest of all, 
 every one o them dead chickens is a rooster. Now, 
 I don t b lieve that a cat would a been considerate 
 enough ter pick out the roosters an leave the 
 pullets." 
 
 The Squire s grim features relaxed into a smile. 
 
 " I guess you ve got the rights of it, neighbor, 
 this time," he said, "f r I must say it looks like a 
 piece o mischief done with hands instead of claws 
 an teeth. What you waitin fer?" turning sharply 
 upon Jotham, who, growing red and white by turns, 
 stood the very picture of guilty embarrassment " Go 
 into yer breakfast right off, an don t stand there 
 gapin like a stuck pig. We ve fooled away a good 
 half-hour now, an there s all that rye ter git in 
 before another rain comes on." 
 
 Jotham waited for no second orders, but as he 
 passed the sobbing child, who now crouched upon 
 the doorstone, was shedding a flood of glad yet silent 
 tears over her rescued charge, he bent down and 
 hissed sharply in her ear: 
 
 "I ve missed it this time; but don t you forget, 
 I 11 be even with ye yet." 
 
 The child s blue eyes twinkled saucily through her 
 tears, and the defiant smile that Jotham so hated 
 curved for an instant her red lips as she retorted: 
 
 " Folks that dig pits for others had better look out 
 for themselves." 
 
 Angrily the youth raised his brawny hand, but 
 Comfort laughingly dodged the blow, and hearing 
 his father s step close behind, he hurried into the 
 
 5
 
 66 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 house, with a guilty dread at his heart lest the death 
 of the chickens should be traced to his own door, and 
 he felt a still bitterer hatred toward the little sister 
 whose sharp eyes had evidently penetrated his shame 
 ful secret. 
 
 " If she dares to tell tales about me I 11 make life 
 bitter fer er," was the evil thought that passed 
 through his mind as he hastily devoured the smoking 
 griddle-cakes upon his plate, taking no note apparently 
 of the brisk chatter of the younger boys, who, delighted 
 with this divertisement in their quiet lives, went over 
 again and again all the features of that extraordinary 
 barnyard tragedy with many vague surmises as to the 
 author of the mischief. 
 
 " Ducky Welch s been drunk ever since he got 
 home," remarked David, leisurely sipping his over- 
 hot coffee, " an I should n t be a mite s rprised if him 
 an that Boody feller that he s got so thick with 
 killed the chickens jest f r mischief." 
 
 " It s lucky for Granny Hedvig that she s out of 
 the way jest now," interrupted Isaac, to whom the 
 name of the drunken sailor had served as a diversion 
 from the subject in hand. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 Mrs. Hadlock had just come in with a fresh relay 
 of hot cakes, and her attention had been arrested by 
 the boy s significant words, which seemed to intimate 
 that some mischief was contemplated against the help 
 less old dame, and now she stood anxiously awaiting 
 the reply to her question. 
 
 Jotham frowned at the boy, and David gave him a 
 sly pinch under the table ; but Isaac, heartily resent-
 
 "A Daniel Come to Judgment" 67 
 
 ing the bullying that, as the youngest brother, he was 
 forced to undergo, was only too glad to annoy them 
 by telling the little he knew about the matter. 
 
 "Why, Ducky Welch, an Tim Taylor, an that 
 Boody feller got her to tell their fortunes before they 
 started on their last voyage. An she promised em 
 awful good luck, said they d have fair winds, an 
 a quick trip, an somethin else she promised em, 
 I don t jest know what t was, somethin about a pot 
 of gold that would make em all rich men, I b lieve. 
 Anyhow, it all turned out to be a lie from beginning 
 to end. They had one or two terrible gales, like 
 ter been shipwrecked half a dozen times; an the 
 cap n was a perfect old screw, kep em on wormy 
 biscuits an rotten meat, an when they was sick an 
 could n t work docked em of their wages. They 
 swore if they ever got home again they d pay the 
 old woman f r cheatin em so; an* I heard Ducky 
 tell Jotham yesterday " 
 
 " Come, come ! It s time we was off," and the 
 Squire, who had paid little or no heed to the boys 
 chatter, pushed back his chair with an impatient 
 gesture, and hurried off to the scene of the day s toil, 
 his boys following with more or less reluctance ; only 
 Isaac, who was a born gossip, lingered a moment 
 to reply to a question from his mother. 
 
 " Duck er, most likely. That s what Boody told 
 Jotham he d like to do." 
 
 As their footsteps died away and Comfort and her 
 mother had leisure and room to sit down to their 
 own breakfast, Mrs. Hadlock asked anxiously : 
 
 " When are Granny and Franz coming home? "
 
 68 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " To-morrow or next day. Granny was to have a 
 week s spinning for Mis Cap n Hanley, and three 
 days for the Seabirds." 
 
 As she spoke she stooped to smooth Frigga s soft 
 back, to which the grateful animal responded with a 
 low, confidential purr that did n t seem to interfere in 
 the least with her enjoyment of the saucer of rich, 
 creamy milk with which her little hostess had sup 
 plied her. 
 
 Mrs. Hadlock looked worried and doubtful. 
 
 " I wish Mis Scripture had n t been in such a 
 hurry to get back home," she said with the natural 
 instinct that prompts a weak, dependent nature to 
 turn to a more resolute one in any sudden per 
 plexity. 
 
 " What Isaac said about them wild sailors threats 
 worries me. They don t reverence either God or 
 man, and they d think t was a good joke to scare 
 an like as not half-drown that poor old body, just 
 for a mad frolic. An she ain t got no men folks 
 round the house to defend her if worse comes to 
 worst." 
 
 Comfort s childish cheek grew pale, but she tried 
 to reassure herself as well as her mother with the 
 reminder: 
 
 " Why, there s Franz. He d die before he d let 
 anybody hurt Granny." 
 
 " But he s only a boy," and Mrs. Hadlock sighed. 
 " An those drunken rascals might kill them both if 
 their blood was up, without really meanin it, either. 
 If she only would stay away until after their ship 
 sails, I should be so thankful."
 
 "A Daniel Come to Judgment" 69 
 
 Comfort said nothing, but she privately determined 
 to put Franz upon his guard as soon as he should 
 reach home, and meanwhile she must keep her own 
 eyes and ears open for any chance hint that the boys, 
 whom she strongly suspected of complicity in the 
 plot, might let fall.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 "LOTS WHICH I, A BOY, CAST IN THE HELM OF 
 FATE " 
 
 THE artist s visit to Granny s cottage was the 
 first of many, and before the season was over 
 the two the quaint, dreamy old dame, wise in 
 Nature s hidden secrets, yet simple as a child in the 
 ways of the great world, and the thoughtful, beauty- 
 loving man whose life mission was to interpret to 
 duller lives and hearts the grand and beautiful mys 
 teries of mountain, lake, and sea had become, in 
 the best sense of the word, friends. That special gift 
 which Nature bestows with such motherly impartiality 
 upon the poor and humble quite as often as upon the 
 fortunate, favored ones of earth, of a quick and sub 
 tile apprehension of what others strive to express by 
 pencil and song, was wonderfully developed in the 
 solitary old woman, who, without a knowledge of the 
 simplest rules of art was yet so quick to feel the 
 beauty that her own hand had not the skill to por 
 tray, that there was inspiration even in the smile that 
 lighted up her intelligent face when some familiar 
 spot that she had long known and loved glowed in 
 living beauty upon the painter s canvas. 
 
 To the artist it was an actual disappointment that 
 Franz could not share his grandmother s enthusiasm
 
 "Lots which I, a Boy, Cast" 71 
 
 for landscape painting. They were " pretty," the 
 boy acknowledged, and he " liked to see them," but 
 that was all ; nothing of the artistic, of the soul- 
 sight with which Granny was endowed, and at first 
 the artist set him down as a well-meaning, but unin 
 teresting clown. For the old dame s sake he had 
 often employed him as a guide on his sketching 
 excursions, and it was due to this close companion 
 ship that he gradually came to modify his first harsh 
 judgment, and to respect the sterling good sense and 
 manly self-respect that seemed to know as by intui 
 tion not only what was due to others, but to himself 
 as well. 
 
 With the sturdy virtues of his race, Franz had 
 been of course more or less influenced in his ideas 
 of life and its uses by the atmosphere about him, 
 the practical, unimaginative atmosphere of early 
 New England life. Moreover, from his childhood 
 the boy had felt the pinch of poverty, and had 
 looked forward with eager longing for the day when 
 he should be old and strong enough to take upon his 
 own young shoulders the burden that his grand 
 mother had hitherto borne so cheerfully and willingly 
 for both. Thus the thought that, with the gen 
 erous recompense made him for his services as guide, 
 he could add many a needed comfort to the poor 
 little home before the cold winter should be upon 
 them, made his long tramps by forest and shore 
 doubly delightful, for, absorbed in his work, the artist 
 little dreamed of the pleasure that the shy, silent boy 
 found in listening for the first time to the correct 
 speech and intelligent conversation of a really re-
 
 72 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 fined, educated gentleman. In his own mind he 
 wondered sometimes that this man, who seemed 
 to his simple comprehension to know everything, 
 should be content to spend his life in painting pic 
 tures when he might be out in the world, doing some 
 great work for it and himself. But he wisely kept his 
 thoughts to himself, and the artist dreamed as little 
 of his admiration as of his dispraise. 
 
 It was the week following the episode related in 
 our last chapter that the artist, with Franz for a guide 
 and companion, had betaken himself to a retired 
 nook near the shore and under the lee of a huge 
 granite boulder, where the autumn sunshine lay 
 warm and bright, and the ferns and trailing partridge 
 vines were as fresh and untouched by the frost as in 
 midsummer. There was no brook here for Franz to 
 fish for trout in, and the artist as he arranged his 
 traps wondered casually what the lad would find to 
 occupy himself with. He noticed that, for the first 
 time, he had sticking from the pocket of his rough 
 pea-jacket an old and well-thumbed book, " One 
 of the old dame s sagas , most likely," he thought 
 carelessly, and then dismissing both boy and book 
 from his mind, he was soon absorbed in his own 
 fascinating toil. 
 
 Higher and higher crept the sun, and industri 
 ously the artist s hand sketched line by line the 
 sharp, uncertain outlines of the peaks towering in 
 the dim distance, sharp and splintered from some 
 long ago wrestle with the terrible force chained 
 down in the hot heart of the earth to-day, adding a 
 touch here and deepening a shadow there, while with
 
 "Lots which I, a Boy, Cast" 73 
 
 equal industry and preoccupation the sunburned lad, 
 stretched at full length upon the sand with his open 
 book beside him, and a little heap of sand and 
 pebbles that he had built up for his experiments, ar 
 ranged, rearranged, and made a series of liliputian 
 tunnels in every direction with careful, steady hand, 
 heedless that the first wave higher than its fellows 
 would be sure to wash it all away. 
 
 " There, by George ! I ve got it." 
 
 The artist looked up in surprise and laughed at 
 the boy s flushed, excited face. 
 
 "What is it?" he asked curiously, rising from his 
 seat to look at the boy s work. " What in the world 
 have you been trying to study out, here? " 
 
 " How to make a road through a mountain to save 
 going over it." 
 
 And Franz rubbed his damp forehead until his 
 sandy foretop bristled like the aureole about the 
 heads of some of those ugly old saints that one is 
 expected to go into raptures over in foreign cathe 
 drals. Rather surprised and a good deal interested, 
 the good-natured artist examined the ingenious 
 model and listened with intelligent comprehension to 
 the crude theory that in his boyish enthusiasm Franz 
 felt sure that he had demonstrated the feasibility of. 
 
 "You see they might make holes " 
 
 " Shafts." 
 
 " Yes, that s what this calls em;" and he con 
 sulted with an air of implicit confidence the columns 
 of a tattered newspaper that he had taken from his 
 pocket, and carefully unfolded with tender care for 
 its dilapitated condition. " Yes, they might make
 
 74 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 shafts here and there all the way acrost the top of 
 the mountain to let the air in, (you see I Ve made 
 mine in this sand-heap just so far apart) and they 
 could let the light in, too, in the same way. I should 
 think," with boyish complacency, " that a road like 
 that would pay for itself in a little while." 
 
 " That would depend upon situation and the cost 
 of construction, with many other things that a practi 
 cal engineer would have to take into consideration. 
 But how came you to think about it, anyway?" 
 
 The boy colored bashfully. It was evident that he 
 had hitherto kept this dream of his life a secret. 
 
 " Well, I always liked to study into these things, 
 and this book that used to be my father s," touching 
 reverently with one bare toe the old volume lying on 
 the sand, " gives a good many ideas about roads and 
 bridges, and things of that sort. Then a year or so 
 ago one o them sports that come here fishin f r a 
 spell every spring left this paper layin round, and I 
 found it and read in it somethin about a tunnel that 
 they re talkin about through the Alps, (the same 
 mountain, you know, that Bonnypart had sech a 
 time crossin ), and I Ve been chewin on it ever since, 
 and tryin to figger out how they 11 fetch it." 
 
 Only a simple, rustic country lad, but evidently 
 one of ideas, crude and unformed of course, but 
 with the possibilities that brains always insure their 
 possessors whether circumstances allow of their de 
 velopment or not. The kindly artist had not the 
 heart to throw cold water upon the boy s innocent 
 enthusiasm, and yet how, with his poverty and ig 
 norance of men and the world generally, could he
 
 "Lots which I, a Boy, Cast * 75 
 
 obtain the necessary instruction to make his natural 
 gifts profitable? Still there was no disputing the fact 
 that even this imperfect and rude plan showed a re 
 markable aptitude, a real genius for engineering that 
 might, if properly trained, make Dame Hedvig s 
 grandson one of the foremost engineers of his day. 
 
 Mr. Humbre said little at the time, but he took 
 occasion on his next visit at the cottage to speak 
 of the matter and urge upon the old dame the desir 
 ableness of the boy being allowed to follow his natu 
 ral bent by accepting a place as apprentice in a large 
 iron foundry, with the proprietor of which he him 
 self had a personal acquaintance that would probably 
 insure any protege of his a situation. 
 
 " It would be a good school for him," he urged, 
 " and after the first two years he could be earning 
 enough so that he could save up something to help 
 him complete his engineering studies. It is no kind 
 ness to a youth to make his preparation for his life- 
 work too easy for him. We all prize most that which 
 we work the hardest for." 
 
 But the old woman listened with a dissatisfied, not 
 to say disgusted face. In her utter ignorance of the 
 rapid strides that mechanical science was making in 
 the world outside, the idea of her freedom-loving boy 
 being tied down to the drudgery of the forge and 
 workshop was peculiarly distasteful. If, like his bold 
 viking ancestors, he had longed to follow the sea, 
 and win fame and fortune upon its fraternal bosom, 
 she would have bid him godspeed and have cheer 
 fully borne the loneliness of her solitary life without 
 a word of complaint. But to devote himself in all
 
 76 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 the energy and strength of his young manhood to 
 anything so prosaic, so different from anything that 
 she had planned for him, was too disappointing to be 
 contemplated for a moment, and with a querulous- 
 ness in sharp contrast with her usual sunny good na 
 ture she blamed their new friend for encouraging 
 such absurd fancies in the lad. 
 
 " He shall be no smith, no worker in grimy iron, 
 my brave boy. It is fit work only for the dwarfs and 
 mountain elves, this stealing of the iron from the dark 
 bosom of the earth and hammering at it day after 
 day, hidden from the sunshine, over some choking 
 forge fire. My Franz has lived all his life in the free 
 air and the sunshine, and, please the good God, he 
 shall live there till he die." 
 
 " But," urged her friend, with an adroit turning of 
 the tables that made her smile in spite of herself, 
 " when you despise the smith s calling you forget 
 that one of the greatest of the Norse gods, the 
 mighty Thor, was skilled in the use of the hammer. 
 Don t let your prejudices stand in the way of the 
 boy s real good. To be sure, he will have to begin 
 at the bottom of the ladder and work his way up 
 through a good deal of grime, and smut, and hard 
 labor. But if he has the brains and the will, as I 
 believe he has, to use the practical knowledge that 
 he will get in his years of apprenticeship, he may 
 make a good place for himself in the world. In these 
 days, when railroads are being stretched over the 
 country in every direction, a man of ability in that 
 line has the chance to make himself rich, and famous 
 in his specialty. The world," he added, with a sigh,
 
 "Lots which I, a Boy, Cast" 77 
 
 " is far better pleased to honor the man who adds to 
 its comforts and conveniences, than he who spends 
 a lifetime trying to elevate and ennoble it." 
 
 To Franz, the prospect of a chance to devote him 
 self to the work that had so strange a fascination for 
 him made him almost beside himself for joy, and for 
 the first time in his life he listened with impatience to 
 his grandmother s pleadings, vexed and mortified to 
 find the calling that seemed to him the grandest and 
 most alluring in the world treated as something be 
 neath even a poor boy like himself. 
 
 " You don t know, Granny," he persisted, in reply 
 to her advocacy of a seafaring life, " what the life of a 
 common sailor now-a-days is. Them fierce, free old 
 sea-kings that you know about, sailed where they 
 pleased, and did as they was a mind to after they got 
 there. But that time has gone by, and sailors now 
 get kicks an cuffs, and like as not are half starved on 
 mouldy bread and poor meat, with just pay enough 
 to keep soul and body together. If that s what you 
 call a free life on the broad, blue sea, I must say 
 I d ruther steer clear of it." 
 
 The dame caught her breath with something like a 
 sob, and slowly twisted the linen thread between her 
 deft fingers with an absent, preoccupied air. It was 
 evident that the boy was a boy no longer. That one 
 bright, bewildering glance into a possible future had 
 brought to sudden maturity a host of manly plans 
 and purposes that the careless, undirected life of the 
 little woodland home would no longer satisfy. The 
 young bird had found that there was a great world 
 outside its own nest, and an instinct that would not
 
 78 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 be repressed prompted it to try its wings for a higher 
 and wider flight. 
 
 Poor granny ! She had not looked for this so soon, 
 and the tender, brooding love in her woman s breast 
 fluttered painfully in an unavailing protest against 
 that which reason told her was inevitable and might 
 be she would try very hard to think so the very 
 best thing for her nursling, after all. And so the old 
 story of woman s love and sacrifice : 
 
 " to nurse, to rear, 
 To love and then to lose," 
 
 was lived over again in the humble cottage, and the 
 boy, who for sixteen years had been the light and joy 
 of that lonely woman s life went out, with as brave 
 a heart, as true a purpose, and as high a hope, to bat 
 tle with and overcome the forces that poverty and 
 inexperience must meet in a selfish, indifferent world, 
 as any mail-clad knight of old who sought to win 
 name and fortune with the warlike sword, rather than 
 the peaceful hammer. 
 
 " It shall be all for you, granny dear," were his 
 parting words. " We 11 have a beautiful home one 
 of these days, all our own too, where your tired fin 
 gers shall never have to spin any more, and where 
 we 11 be together always." 
 
 " Yes, always." 
 
 And far beyond her tear-blinded vision the lonely 
 old woman saw that dream fulfilled, and that beautiful 
 home where toil and care are not, and partings shall 
 be no more, the thrice blessed rest of God s own 
 house.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 " ALACK, I HAVE NO EYES " 
 
 THE lingering autumn crept slowly into winter 
 and the little hamlet settled down contentedly 
 to the quiet and isolation that was the inevitable lot 
 of the Island folk at that inclement season. Every 
 bit of news, no matter how unimportant, was hailed 
 with eagerness as a ripple upon the dead sea of exis 
 tence at that time, and this was perhaps the reason 
 why the mad pranks of the sailor lads, who still hung 
 about, waiting for the opening of the spring to ship 
 for another cruise, were regarded with more leniency 
 than usual, more, in fact, than they deserved. 
 
 It is rather amusing to hear of midnight raids upon 
 our neighbor s hen roosts so long as our own remain 
 untouched, and if the old finger-post was torn down 
 and buried in some secret place under the snow it 
 was no great matter after all. Everybody in those 
 parts knew the way to Somesville without its aid, and 
 if by any chance a stranger should wander that way, 
 why, any boy in the town could direct him. To be 
 sure, the sedate farm and fisher folk listened with 
 decorous displeasure to the stories rife in the neigh 
 borhood of the midnight orgies down to McNeal s 
 disreputable shanty; and many a timid housewife, 
 whose goodman was away at sea, was careful for the 
 first time in her life to see that her doors and windows
 
 8o A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 were securely fastened at night; while bolder souls, 
 like the Widow Scripture, took care to have it under 
 stood that a gun loaded with buckshot was in readi 
 ness for any untimely invader of their premises. One 
 thing, strangely enough, the good people seemed to 
 have overlooked, or to have counted as of small con 
 sequence, and that was the ill effect of such dissolute 
 companionship upon their own boys. Even Squire 
 Hadlock would listen with ill-concealed amusement 
 to jests and stories, repeated at second hand by the 
 boys, that were coarse and irreverent, not to say pro 
 fane ; while in reply to his wife s timid reminders of 
 the evils that might come from such companionship 
 he only replied with his usual scornful self-confidence 
 that: 
 
 " The boys are no molly coddles, to be tied to their 
 mother s apron string all their lives. Let them mix 
 with all kinds of folks, t will toughen their morals, 
 just as all kinds of weather has toughened their 
 bodies." 
 
 Poor Mrs. Hadlock, what could she do? She had 
 a mother s tender solicitude for her rude, often un 
 feeling boys, and many a night she lay awake into 
 the " wee sma hours," listening for Jotham s stealthy 
 footfall upon the stairs, or Isaac s silly laugh and 
 chatter that told only too plainly how his evening 
 had been spent, and where. For Comfort, too, the 
 winter brought new anxieties and cares, and even 
 her mother little dreamed how heavy was the weight 
 resting upon the child s uncomplaining shoulders, or 
 what sad forebodings mingled continually with all her 
 thoughts, sleeping or waking.
 
 "Alack, I have no Eyes" 81 
 
 Before Franz and his artist friend left the Island, 
 the lad had sought out his playmate, his " little 
 Comfort," as in the innocence of his boyish heart he 
 secretly styled her, and solemnly intrusted his grand 
 mother to her care. 
 
 " I Ve fixed the house all up," he said, manfully 
 putting the best foot first, " and the lean-to is full 
 of good, seasoned wood, all ready to burn. And 
 she s got plenty of potatoes, and fish, and rye meal 
 (you know she won t eat wheat flour,) and honey, 
 and " 
 
 " Mother says I may carry her a quart of milk 
 every day," interrupted Comfort, cheerily. 
 
 "Did she? That s real good in her, just like 
 you, Comfort. But what I was going to say was, you 
 think a good deal of Granny, don t you? " 
 
 " I guess I do," and the childish face glowed 
 warmly. "I think more of her than I do of any 
 body else in the world except mother and you." 
 
 " I thought so," returned the lad honestly, " and 
 that s why I took it upon me to ask you to look out 
 for er a little through the winter. She can t get out 
 much after the snow comes, an I m afraid she 11 
 get lonesome an down-hearted if you don t see to 
 er pretty often. So I m going to leave er in your 
 care." 
 
 The child s eyes sparkled with proud delight at 
 the honor thus unexpectedly thrust upon her. 
 
 " I 11 take just as good care of her as you could do 
 your own self," she said gravely. 
 
 No noisy outburst of zeal, no eager assertion of 
 her affection for her friends, but there was something 
 
 6
 
 82 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 in the steadfast honesty of those clear, innocent 
 eyes, a wordless promise, that went far to set the 
 lad s anxious heart at rest, without further words. 
 To be sure she was only a child, young and in 
 experienced, and yet Franz never for a moment 
 doubted her ability or faithfulness. She was not 
 like other girls of her age, well meaning but 
 careless and changeable. Where others forgot, she 
 remembered, and where they neglected, she never 
 failed to keep her word. And knowing these things, 
 the boy placed the most implicit confidence in her 
 promise to care for Granny. 
 
 Mrs. Hadlock s permission for Comfort to make a 
 daily visit to the cottage was easily obtained, and 
 through storm and shine, through untrodden as well 
 as beaten paths, the little maid with her pail of new 
 milk, never failed each morning to make her appear 
 ance at Granny s door, not seldom with permission to 
 spend the day if the dame seemed less cheerful and 
 brisk than usual. 
 
 At first the absence of her grandson seemed to 
 make little change in the always cheerful, blithe old 
 woman. To be sure, her letters from him were few 
 and far between, for postage was high in those days, 
 and the Island mails infrequent. But she knew that 
 he was pleased with his work, and that, thanks to Mr. 
 Humbre s kind oversight, he had procured lodgings 
 with a good woman who was willing to board him 
 for the chores that he could find time to do after his 
 working hours. 
 
 " So you see," he wrote, in speaking of this arrange 
 ment, " that I can save the allowance made me for
 
 "Alack, I have no Eyes" 83 
 
 board to send to you, and in a couple of years per 
 haps I shall earn enough to bring you here, and we 
 will have a little home to ourselves once more." 
 
 Comfort must read this precious epistle aloud again 
 and again, until the paper was so worn that it would 
 scarcely hold together, and both dame and child 
 knew every word of it by heart, and had wondered, 
 and speculated, and tried to read between the lines 
 after a fashion that would have astonished the boyish 
 writer not a little could he have overheard them. 
 But as the cold increased and the wintry days grew 
 shorter Comfort s watchful eye detected a change in 
 her old friend. There were more often traces of 
 tears upon the wrinkled cheeks, while the heavy, 
 lack lustre eyes told their own sad story of sleep 
 less nights and weary, lagging days. Her strength, 
 too, began to fail, and for hours at a time she 
 would sit, listlessly crouching in a corner of the 
 wide stone fireplace, sometimes crooning to herself 
 snatches from some old Norse ballad, or with a far 
 away look in her tired eyes, studying the blazing 
 embers, unheedful of all that the child could do to 
 rouse her from her abstraction. 
 
 In vain Mrs. Hadlock, who was a frequent visitor 
 at the cottage, urged the need of medical advice. 
 Granny was obstinate. No, she had been her own 
 doctor all of these years, and she would have no 
 other now. So Comfort, under her direction, steeped 
 wonderful mixtures of healing roots and herbs, that 
 the old woman dutifully partook of, but in an indif 
 ferent, half-hearted fashion that showed how little 
 faith she really had in their efficacy. Sickness in a
 
 84 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 country neighborhood is a wonderful humanizer, and 
 many a good housewife who had looked askance at 
 the queer old Swedish woman, who told fortunes 
 with a lot of little sticks, and insisted upon wearing 
 a handkerchief over her head even to meeting, now 
 hastened to proffer her services in nursing, and pro 
 viding for her invalid appetite. But to their surprise 
 and chagrin Granny courteously declined all their 
 services, and only Comfort and her mother were 
 allowed to minister to her in her growing feebleness. 
 To them alone she spoke of the hopes that buoyed 
 her up, in anticipation of the rest and peace that 
 awaited her on the other side. 
 
 " No tears there," she read from her little Swedish 
 Bible, following the dim text with one trembling 
 finger; "no sorrow, no parting. Ah, but the good 
 God has us in His keeping there as here." 
 
 As her hold upon earth grew weaker it was wonder 
 ful to see how the natural restlessness of her char 
 acter seemed hushed into a calm peacefulness that 
 was as far removed from apathy as from fear. She 
 never complained now of loneliness, but her friends 
 never left her long alone, and soon it came to be an 
 understood thing, that Comfort should spend all her 
 nights at the cottage. Not that any immediate 
 change was apprehended, for Granny was not even 
 confined to her bed, but in her feeble state a thou 
 sand little services were needed that the child could 
 easily render, and, as Mrs. Hadlock said, it " would 
 be heathenish to leave her all alone, with not a soul 
 to speak to if she should want anything." Franz s 
 old bunk in the kitchen recess had been prepared
 
 "Alack, I have no Eyes" 85 
 
 for her, and the scent of the sweet, springy pine tips 
 lent to her dreams a summer sweetness that they 
 never would have known with one of her mother s 
 fluffy feather beds beneath her. 
 
 " I dreamed of the green woods and wild roses, and 
 thought I was wading in Duck Brook all night long," 
 she declared laughingly, as Granny, with some anx 
 iety, inquired on the first morning after trial of the 
 rustic couch if she had slept well. " With my eyes 
 shut I smell the pine boughs and think it s summer." 
 
 The cold, gray light of a December morning was 
 just creeping in at the white-curtained window when 
 Comfort awoke from one of these pleasant dreams to 
 a realization that winter was not gone yet, let dreams 
 say what they would, and softly creeping out of bed, 
 with bare feet and hands tingling with cold, proceeded 
 to rake open the embers that she had so carefully 
 covered the night before, and with the skill of an ex 
 perienced fire builder, to place forestick and kindlings 
 in their proper order, filling in with plenty of dry 
 pine chips that caught eagerly as they came in con 
 tact with the glowing coals, until the whole blazing 
 mass rushed roaring and snapping up the wide chim 
 ney throat, filling the rude little room with an incense 
 as sweet and pure as any that ever smoked upon 
 Eastern altars. 
 
 Hurrying on her clothes, the little housekeeper be 
 stirred herself to fill the iron teakettle, and hang it 
 over the fire before raking open a corner among the 
 hot embers in which to roast the potatoes that were 
 to serve for her own breakfast, while Granny s bit of 
 toast and cup of tea were delayed until the sun had
 
 86 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 crept over the eastern hills and lay, a pale but cheer} 
 glint, upon the bare floor of the kitchen, then very 
 softly she opened the door of the inner room, and 
 as softly entered. Everything was as she had left it 
 the night before, the blue and white coverlet was as 
 smooth, the night draught in just the same spot on 
 the little stand where she had placed it, and from her 
 position it was evident that the old woman had 
 scarcely stirred the whole night long. 
 
 " Are you awake, Granny? " 
 
 The sleeper started at the sound of her voice, and 
 turning her face toward her regarded her, as it seemed, 
 with a bewildered stare. 
 
 " Do you want your tea now, before you get up ? " 
 and she smoothed tenderly the white locks beneath 
 the scarce whiter cap border. 
 
 "Tea?" The old woman passed her hand uncer 
 tainly over her forehead. " Why, no, not so early as 
 this. I never eat my breakfast before it s light, you 
 know." 
 
 Comfort s face grew pale with a strange, undefined 
 terror. 
 
 " But it is n t dark, Granny, it s broad daylight. 
 Don t you see the sunshine on your bed, there, 
 close to your hand?" 
 
 Silently the tremulous old hand was outstretched, 
 moving slowly over the spread until beneath the patch 
 of sunlight it rested for an instant, then, joined by 
 its fellow, was uplifted as in supplication. 
 
 " No," quavered the low voice pitifully, " I can 
 feel the sunshine, but I can see none of it. God s 
 pity ! " and great tears rolled from beneath the
 
 "Alack, I have no Eyes" 87 
 
 now closed eyelids, " It has come at last, and I am 
 blind." 
 
 " Blind ! Oh no, not BLIND ! " 
 
 And the child threw herself upon her knees beside 
 the bed, and sobbed frantically; for once, she had no 
 word of comfort or hope to bestow.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 "THOUGH BLIND, MY HEART CAN SEE" 
 
 FOR the first time, Granny that day refused to 
 leave her bed, or taste the nourishment that her 
 little friend with loving care had provided for her. 
 Her sudden blindness seemed but a part of the 
 strange change that had all at once passed over her. 
 Indeed, after the first she made no reference to it, but 
 babbled continually of the scenes and friends dear to 
 her girlhood, paying little or no heed to Comfort s 
 efforts to arouse her to a comprehension of present 
 needs and interests. The little parish church in her 
 own beloved Norland village, decorated with green 
 boughs and flowers for her bridal, the music of the 
 maidenly choir, the grave, sweet voice of the old 
 parish priest, as he read the quaint marriage service, 
 and Granny s weak tones grew stronger as she 
 repeated with a slow, uncertain utterance, as of an 
 unaccustomed reader, picking out word by word with 
 laborious care, the printed page : 
 
 " I give thee in marriage this damsel, to be thy 
 wedded wife, in all honor, and to share thy lock and 
 key, and every third penny which you two may pos 
 sess, or may inherit, and all the rights which Upland 
 laws provide, and the holy King Erik gave." 
 
 Wonderingly the child listened, while, regardless 
 of her timid questionings, the old woman babbled
 
 "Though Blind, My Heart can See" 89 
 
 on, of the gay bridal dress, with scarlet bodice, and 
 sleeves of snowy linen of her own spinning, the crown 
 of sweet wild roses and cypress, and the cherished 
 silver ornaments that her great-great-grandmother 
 wore before her, dwelling with innocent vanity upon 
 their beauty and value, even as the girl herself might 
 have done on that happy, love-blessed day, to which, 
 pausing for a moment upon the threshold of eternity, 
 the woman of seventy winters looked back as to the 
 brightest, sweetest spot in all her toilsome, care-full 
 life. The sad things, the bereavements and disap 
 pointments seemed to have passed entirely from her 
 mind, leaving only memories of the brightness and 
 love that had blessed her youth, and yet to her bewil 
 dered half-frightened listener those softly murmured 
 words of tender endearment for one who for half a 
 century had been but dust and ashes were more sad 
 to listen to than any conscious outburst of grief could 
 have been. 
 
 Anxiously as the hours crept by the child listened 
 for her mother s footsteps at the door, but she listened 
 and watched in vain. She could not know that a 
 nervous headache was holding her an unwilling pris 
 oner in her own room, and that Isaac, who had been 
 despatched to the cottage soon after breakfast to see 
 that all was well, had chosen to turn his steps in an 
 exactly opposite direction, leaving the errand undone 
 and in all probability forgotten. 
 
 Now and then Granny would arouse herself as if 
 from a dream, and recognizing the voice of the weary 
 watcher by her bed would grope for and stroke 
 tenderly the trembling little hand, with a few feeble
 
 90 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 words of grateful acknowledgment and affection. 
 It was in one of these lucid intervals that Comfort, 
 by much coaxing, induced her to drink the tea that 
 she had kept hot for her and which seemed for the 
 time to revive and refresh her, so that as the child 
 took away the cup she said in a perfectly natural 
 tone: 
 
 " Look in the till of the big chest, my child, thou 
 wilt find the key under my pillow, and bring to me 
 the box with the silver clasps." 
 
 Comfort obeyed, and taking the oaken casket in 
 her tremulous hand the old woman pressed a spring, 
 thus making the lid fly back and disclosing a set of 
 quaintly wrought silver ornaments, which she drew 
 forth one by one, passing them tenderly between her 
 shrivelled fingers, while a smile of satisfaction lighted 
 up her wan face as she said softly: 
 
 " They are thine, my little Comfort, thine only, 
 when I am gone." 
 
 The child s honest face flushed deeply with 
 embarrassment. 
 
 " Oh no, Granny, not mine, you forget Franz." 
 
 But the old woman shook her head decidedly. 
 
 " Nay, but they are thine, not his. The runes 
 gave to him gold and lands, but it was through thy 
 hand they came. Thy hand," she repeated with 
 solemn emphasis, " holds alone the good fortune for 
 my boy, and to thee only may be given these, that 
 the brides of our house have worn for so many 
 generations." 
 
 She held out to her as she spoke a small silver 
 cross, and with as much awe as curiosity Comfort
 
 "Though Blind, My Heart can See" 91 
 
 took the precious relic in her hand and with a kind 
 of shy pleasure, as of one half doubtful of her right 
 to do so, turned the beautiful bauble over and over 
 with ever-increasing delight in its wonderful delicacy 
 and grace. Even to her unaccustomed eyes it bore 
 evidences of great antiquity and value. It was of 
 solid silver, daintily wrought with intertwined thorns 
 and palm leaves, typical of the agony and the triumph 
 of Him who suffered thereon, while at the base, an 
 emblem of that lingering heathenism that the Chris 
 tianized Northman was so loath to quit his hold of, 
 was a tiny hammer, with the familiar war cry of the 
 ancient vikings, in old Norse characters: 
 
 " Thor aide ! " 
 
 A slender, delicate chain of tiny silver links was 
 attached to this heirloom, and before the child was 
 aware of her intention, the old woman had clasped 
 this about her neck, and unheeding her remon 
 strances, had hidden it beneath the waist folds of her 
 homespun gown. Then evidently exhausted, she 
 seemed to sleep, and gathering up the heavy silver 
 ear-rings and bracelets that still lay scattered upon 
 the bed, Comfort replaced them in their casket, try 
 ing at the same time to unclasp the chain about her 
 own neck, that she might add the cross to the other 
 relics, and lock them up safely until Granny should 
 have some more rational ideas in regard to the dis 
 posal of them. But there was some trick in the 
 clasp, and try as she would she could not loosen it, 
 so with a half-guilty feeling as if she had in some way 
 taken advantage of her friend s mental weakness, she 
 crept into the kitchen, and replacing the casket in
 
 92 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 the chest, which, in her hurry she forgot to lock, she 
 seated herself by the window overlooking the path, 
 where, with ever-increasing anxiety she strained her 
 eyes to catch a glimpse of some passing neighbor to 
 whom she might appeal for aid in her lonely vigil. 
 But the hours crept slowly by and not a soul came 
 near the solitary cottage, while in the deathlike still 
 ness the child trembled and started nervously at the 
 snapping of a spark, or even the gentle purring of 
 Frigga who lay curled up upon the hearth-rug, only 
 raising her head now and then to glance at the droop 
 ing form by the window, with a look of almost human 
 intelligence in her great green eyes. 
 
 The early winter night was closing in, making the 
 dim forest vistas so dark that, strain her eyes as she 
 might, Comfort could not even distinguish the out 
 lines of the white birches that straggled along on 
 either side of the way like a procession of ragged 
 penitents doing penance in the conventional white 
 sheet. The wind had risen and whirled and twisted 
 the tops of the shivering trees, making a weird moan 
 ing through their naked branches, and tearing from 
 one just outside the window its latest relic of summer 
 joys in the shape of a tiny bird s nest, which it flung 
 all battered and forlorn against the pane to which 
 our anxious little watcher s face was pressed. The 
 child shivered, and instinctively stretched out a pity 
 ing hand toward the poor, wind-tossed waif. 
 
 " Poor birdies ! they won t find you here when they 
 come home in the spring," she whispered softly, half- 
 frightened at the sound of her own voice in the still 
 ness and the gloom. Then with a vague intuition of
 
 "Though Blind, My Heart can See * 93 
 
 the near approach of that mysterious messenger, 
 whose dark wings seemed even now to be hovering 
 unseen over the humble threshold, she broke into a 
 passionate flood of weeping. " And I m afraid you 
 won t find Granny here either, to scatter crumbs, and 
 bits of flax for your nest." 
 
 Again and again she crept on tiptoe into the old 
 woman s room, but only to find her still wrapped in 
 that quiet undisturbed sleep. Her face was placid 
 and calm, so that it was evident that she was not 
 suffering, although her breathing was so faint that 
 only by putting her ear close to the pallid lips could 
 Comfort be sure that she really breathed at all. 
 
 Nine, ten, eleven, and the childish watcher, un 
 used to such a long vigil, had fallen asleep with her 
 head upon the folded arms that rested in their turn 
 upon the little cherry-wood stand in the shadowy, 
 fire-lighted kitchen. All at once as by a touch she 
 started up wide awake and listened breathless with 
 terror. What could it be? She clutched the stand 
 with both trembling hands and hushed her breathing 
 to catch the sound of what ? 
 
 The wind was blowing fiercely, but it was not the 
 wind that made that stealthy, crunching noise in the 
 snow, as of heavy footfalls, or the familiar groaning 
 and creaking of the tempest-tossed trees, that sub 
 dued murmur of human voices. In an instant it all 
 came back to her ; the half-forgotten threats of those 
 rude sailors that, in the excitement of Franz s de 
 parture and her anxiety over Granny s increasing 
 feebleness had slipped her mind altogether. In a 
 drunken frolic they had come to carry out their
 
 94 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 threat of vengeance upon the unprotected old wo 
 man, and Comfort had just time to spring to the door 
 and slip the bolt into its socket before a heavy blow 
 from the outside made it tremble, while a rude voice 
 shouted through the midnight stillness : 
 
 " Avast there, ye ould witch ! Open the door, 
 or, be jabbers, I 11 brain ye wid yer own broom 
 stick." 
 
 Ducky Welch s voice had betrayed him, thus mak 
 ing Comfort s fears certainties, and in her desperation 
 a courage before undreamed of came to her aid, and 
 putting her lips close to the door she called out with 
 a calmness that surprised herself: 
 
 " Go away, please. For Granny is very sick, and 
 mustn t be disturbed." 
 
 A shout of derisive laughter replied, and some 
 heavy object was thrown against the door, making it 
 shake fearfully, while the shower of kicks and blows 
 rained upon it made it evident that the ruffianly as 
 sailants were determined to force an entrance, and 
 that the frail barrier could not long withstand their 
 united efforts unless strengthened in some way from 
 within. 
 
 Despairingly the child glanced about the bare, de 
 fenceless little room when suddenly her eye fell upon 
 the great oaken chest, and with a strength born of 
 desperation, she managed to drag it from its place 
 and use it as a prop for the yielding door, while half 
 frantic at her own helplessness she climbed upon its 
 lid and bracing her feet, tried with all her childish 
 strength to uphold the trembling structure against 
 which the mad rioters without were beating and
 
 "Though Blind, My Heart can See" 95 
 
 crowding, with fiendish oaths and cries of rage at 
 this unexpected resistance. 
 
 They had come out primed for a frolic, and mad 
 dened by drink and a spirit of wanton mischief had 
 thought it a good joke to frighten the "old witch" 
 into giving them a drink of her famous mead, with 
 threats of a "ducking" in some convenient snow 
 drift as a reward for telling their fortunes falsely. 
 
 Too tipsy to recognize Comfort s voice, they had 
 jumped at once to the conclusion that the speaker 
 was no other than the old dame herself, and that her 
 plea of sickness was only a ruse to get rid of them. 
 And now to be baffled by a weak old woman, who not 
 only refused them entrance into her cottage but ac 
 tually had the boldness to barricade her door against 
 them, was not for a moment to be endured, and with 
 mingled oaths and yells of savage rage they kicked 
 and beat against the door, shouting with drunken 
 triumph as one of the panels fell inward with a crash 
 and the living prop against it gave a wild shriek of 
 pain and terror. Then through all, above all, the 
 frantic child heard the shrill cry: 
 
 " Help ! Help, my Comfort ! " 
 
 And careless of everything but the safety of her 
 old friend, the girl ran instantly at the piteous call, 
 scarcely conscious of the falling timbers that came so 
 near as to actually graze her shoulder as she leaped 
 from the chest.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 "DEAD? WHO IS DEAD?" 
 
 EARLY in the evening Comfort had placed a lamp 
 in the room of the sick woman with a vague, un 
 defined instinct that, although useless to her darkened 
 vision, there was something of companionship in the 
 cheery little flame by whose light she now saw the 
 deathly face and staring, sightless eyes of Granny, 
 who, evidently aroused by the clamor of the marau 
 ders, sat bolt upright in bed, her snowy hair, escaped 
 from the cap, streaming wildly over her shoulders, 
 while in a voice weak and tremulous but shrill with 
 terror, she called again and again : 
 
 " Help ! Help ! In the good God s name, help ! " 
 
 With an unreasoning impulse to protect her help 
 less charge at any risk to herself, the child flung her 
 self upon the bed and clasped her arms closely about 
 the trembling form. 
 
 " Don t be scared, Granny," she whispered reas 
 suringly, although her tongue seemed suddenly stiff 
 ened with terror; " I won t let them hurt you." 
 
 Just then, with a howl of mingled rage and triumph, 
 the whole riotous crew burst through the shattered 
 door, and in an instant the outer room seemed full of 
 shouting, struggling men, men whose forms by the 
 fading light of the dim kitchen fire appeared like 
 some grotesque monsters, disguised as they were by
 
 "Dead? Who is Dead?" 97 
 
 handkerchiefs tied over the lower part of their faces, 
 and caps drawn low over their brows so that only their 
 eyes, shining with fierce glee, were visible. 
 
 "Where s the witch?" shouted half a score of 
 voices, and then, coupled with a savage oath the 
 demand : " Give us a glim ! " 
 
 The cherished little stand, kicked into a wreck, was 
 tossed upon the fire, and blazing up in a moment re 
 vealed to the child s horrified eyes a scene of the 
 wildest confusion. The broken door fallen inward 
 had crushed the lid of the chest, so that the poor old 
 dame s hoarded store of linen was strewn from end to 
 end of the kitchen, trampled upon and kicked into 
 heaps by the rude feet, while chairs and settle alike 
 shared in the wanton destruction. 
 
 With a faint moan Granny fell back upon her pil 
 low, and frantic at sight of the general devastation, 
 Comfort sprang from the bed and standing boldly in 
 the doorway sobbed piteously: 
 
 " Don t spoil Granny s things ! They re all she s 
 got." 
 
 Framed in the doorway she stood, a slight girlish 
 form, the red gold of her hair shading a face so pure 
 and innocent, so brave, too, in spite of the tearful eyes 
 and quivering lips, that it seemed as if some pitying 
 angel had interposed to save the helpless old dame 
 from further insult and injury. At sight of her the 
 intruders paused for a moment in evident confusion 
 and surprise. 
 
 " Sure, an it s one o* her own spirits that she s 
 called oop ! " muttered the burly ringleader, with a 
 momentary superstitious terror that made him slink 
 
 7
 
 98 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 back into the shadow; "we d best be oot o this, 
 me lads, or we 11 be afther findin oorselves bewitched 
 intirely." 
 
 Suiting the action to the word, he was making good 
 his retreat, when a whispered word from one of his 
 comrades checked him, and the next moment he had 
 resumed all his ruffianly hardihood, and, unheeding 
 the child s entreaties and cries, he lifted her in his 
 strong arms as if she had been a feather, and tossing 
 her into Granny s armchair, which, strangely enough, 
 had survived the general wreck, he shouted gleefully: 
 
 " Coom on, me brave byes ! We 11 make the ould 
 witch pay f r this night s jinerin , or by the saints 
 above us we 11 pull the ould shanty doun over 
 her hid." 
 
 As with mad laughter and threats the maudlin 
 crowd rushed after him into Granny s room, Com 
 fort, though half blinded by her tears, saw, as the 
 fragments of the table flamed up brightly for an 
 instant, one of the ruffians who had loitered behind 
 his fellows, snatch something from the wreck of 
 the chest, and hide it in his bosom. It was the 
 work of an instant, but the gleam of metal as it 
 caught the firelight betrayed the fact that it was no 
 other than the little silver-bound casket containing 
 Granny s precious heirlooms that was being thus 
 stealthily confiscated, and with the frantic energy 
 of despair, she grasped his arm as he rushed past 
 her. 
 
 " They re Granny s, and if you steal them, I 11 " 
 
 A stinging blow across her cheek made her recoil 
 with a cry of pain, and the next instant a sudden
 
 "Dead? Who is Dead?" 99 
 
 hush replaced the rude clamor, and in a confused 
 but strangely silent mass the mob crowded past 
 her, making for the door in such frantic haste that 
 she barely escaped being trodden under foot in 
 their wild exit. What could it mean? She glanced 
 into the old woman s room and saw that nothing 
 had been disturbed and that the inmate was appar 
 ently calm and quiet. Without, she could hear 
 their footsteps fast dying away in the distance, 
 while not a single voice was lifted either in triumph 
 or defiance. What power could thus suddenly 
 have sobered and silenced that drunken rout? 
 
 Roused from her terrified bewilderment by the 
 piercing cold, against which the shattered door could 
 no longer serve as a protection, Comfort bestirred 
 herself to prop up the wreck as well as possible, 
 and by hanging before it the soiled and scattered 
 blankets rifled from poor Granny s stores managed 
 to make the room habitable for the night, then piling 
 the great fireplace high with birchen logs, she has 
 tened to the old woman s bedside with words of 
 encouragement and cheer. She had expected to 
 find her nervously excited, but to her surprise she 
 seemed resting peacefully upon her pillow, her wan 
 hands clasped as if in prayer, and a smile of perfect 
 restfulness upon the pale face, such a smile as in 
 all these toilsome years the child had never seen 
 there before. The little maid drew a long breath of 
 relief, she might not be so much the worse for the 
 terrible experience, after all, and laying her cheek, 
 still smarting from that cowardly blow, upon the pil 
 low where her old friend s head was resting so peace-
 
 ioo A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 fully, she whispered with a nervous sob that she 
 could not control: 
 
 " They re gone, Granny. And I ve fixed up the 
 door, and built a good, nice fire, so we sha n t freeze 
 before morning. Then I 11 run over home and get 
 father or one of the boys to make the door all right 
 again." 
 
 But the old woman neither spoke nor moved. 
 
 " Did n t you hear me? " she asked in a louder tone. 
 " Oh, dear, they frightened you so ! But I 11 get you 
 something hot to drink, and that will make you feel 
 ever so much better." 
 
 And as she spoke she patted tenderly the clasped 
 hands that rested without stir or motion upon the 
 coverlet. What was there in that touch that sent a 
 chill as of death to the child s heart, and made her 
 grasp the bed head for a moment to support herself ? 
 Dear old Granny ! for her there could be no more of 
 fear or sorrow. The pulseless hands were like ice, 
 frozen into that eternal rest that, in His own good 
 time, our Father will surely give to His beloved. 
 
 Comfort had never in all her life before stood in the 
 presence of Death, and awestruck and grieved as she 
 was, the idea of anything terrifying in that peaceful, 
 pulseless clay never once occurred to her. Her fear 
 of the living, of brutal, godless humanity had, in the 
 space of one short hour transformed the dependent, 
 timid child into the brave, resourceful woman, de 
 veloping in her qualities that in the ordinary routine 
 of daily life might have laid dormant for years. She 
 had been forced to stand alone through an experience 
 that might well have daunted one far older and bolder
 
 "Dead? Who is Dead?" 101 
 
 than our simple, unworldly little maiden, and with a 
 calmness that surprised herself, she kissed tearfully 
 the cold, calm brow, and with a touch reverent as 
 tender, smoothed decently the covering over the 
 silent form and left it alone in the quiet, shadowed 
 room, while she returned to the now comfortable 
 kitchen, and drawing Granny s chair to the fireside, 
 sat quietly down to wait the approach of the lagging 
 dawn. 
 
 As she glanced sadly about the disordered room, 
 her eye fell upon an object half hidden beneath the 
 pile of tumbled linen, and picking it up she found as 
 she had thought, that it was a mitten lost by one of 
 the unbidden visitors in their raid upon the cottage. 
 An eager flush rose to her pale cheek as taking the 
 relic to the firelight she examined it with something 
 more than childish curiosity. The raiders had been 
 so disguised that, in the gloom and confusion she 
 could only identify the ringleader, whose Irish 
 tongue had betrayed him. But here was a proof 
 of the identity of one at least, if the ownership 
 could only be proved, and with a new, stern impulse 
 firing her childish breast to bring to justice the vil 
 lains who had without doubt been the immediate 
 cause of her old friend s death, she examined it with 
 eyes rendered sharp by that restless longing to 
 discover some trace by which one of the culprits 
 at least might receive the punishment that he so 
 richly deserved. It was only a common double mit 
 ten of blue and white yarn, knitted in what the 
 Island housewives called a " fox and geese " pattern, 
 the same pattern that two-thirds of the men and
 
 IO2 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 boys in the neighborhood had their mittens knit by. 
 There was nothing peculiar about it, unless she 
 turned back the long, seamed wrist, and held it 
 to the firelight to make sure of any private mark 
 that might be there. Yes, there it was, carefully 
 marked in cross-stitch with scarlet thread, the single 
 letter "H." 
 
 She knew it in a moment as the work of her own 
 fingers, and remembered that each one of her brothers 
 had his mittens thus elaborated. With a sense of 
 the keenest humiliation, sadder than sorrow over 
 the dead, bitterer by far than any feeling of per 
 sonal wrong, the child laid her weary head upon 
 the cushion, Granny s own handiwork, as if resting 
 it upon the bosom of a friend, and softly cried her 
 self to sleep.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 " I SMELL A RAT CLOSE BY " 
 
 NATURALLY there was a great commotion in 
 the little community when the story of the 
 midnight assault and Granny s death was told, and 
 Mrs. Hadlock was obliged at last to refuse to admit 
 any one to see her little daughter, who, completely 
 worn out with her watching and the terrible scenes 
 through which she had passed, lay all day long upon 
 her bed, speaking little, and then only when spoken 
 to ; weeping and starting nervously at the sound of 
 a strange step or voice outside her door. 
 
 The Squire in his judicial capacity took upon him 
 self to see that the effects of the deceased were safely 
 locked up, to wait the appearance of the lawful heir, 
 as well as to arrange for the inquest, which was to 
 decide in what manner the old dame came to her 
 death, and how far the invaders of her home were 
 responsible for that event. Now, it would be a very 
 harsh thing to say that the Squire was really glad 
 that Granny was dead, so that he could hold an in 
 quest over her, but to put it more mildly, if she must 
 die, and an inquest was really necessary, it was very 
 fortunate that he, Solomon Hadlock, Esquire, Jus 
 tice of the Peace and Quorum, should have the 
 longed-for opportunity of proving his fitness for the 
 office by presiding over that tribunal and " sifting
 
 104 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 the matter," to use his own words, " to the very 
 bottom." 
 
 Seven good men and true were summoned to 
 serve as a jury, and Mrs. Hadlock received orders to 
 have a good fire in the front room, with plenty of 
 chairs, as well as pen, ink, and paper to take down 
 the deposition of the witnesses. 
 
 " I s pose Comfort 11 have to testify ? " she asked, 
 with a quaver in her voice that made her husband 
 glance at her curiously. 
 
 " Of course she will. Let me tell you," with the 
 first display of fatherly pride that he had ever shown 
 toward his little daughter, " that her testimony 11 be 
 the settler. She was the only witness, an it s her 
 word that ll decide whether them fellers shall see the 
 inside of State s prison or not." 
 
 Mrs. Hadlock turned pale as death, and leaned 
 heavily against the dresser for support. 
 
 " Oh, no, father, it can t be so bad as that. They 
 did n t lay a finger on er, Comfort says so, an " 
 
 "What o that? Didn t they scare er to death? 
 an didn t they break an enter her house, an 
 smash an burn her furnitoor? You ll find," brist 
 ling with importance, and glaring fiercely at his agi 
 tated wife as if he held her in some sense responsible 
 for the crime, " that the law 11 know how to deal 
 with sech scamps, no matter what a silly woman may 
 think about it." 
 
 Something like a moan burst from his wife s white 
 lips. 
 
 " Perhaps," she faltered, " some of the boys right 
 here in the neighborhood might have had a hand in
 
 "I Smell a Rat Close By" 105 
 
 it. They did n t mean it for anything but a foolish 
 joke, I suppose, and they did n t know that she was 
 sick." 
 
 "What difference does that make?" retorted her 
 lord, swelling with virtuous indignation. " Do you 
 s pose that, as a magistrate, I d shirk my dooty 
 in this case? I don t care if twas the son of my 
 next door neighbor, I d find him guilty if he was 
 guilty just as quick as I d shoot a henhawk off n his 
 barnyard fence. In sech times as these t ain t no 
 use tryin to block the wheels of the law. I say, let 
 them that has danced pay the fiddler." 
 
 Comfort s face, too, wore a troubled, downcast 
 look, at which her father secretly wondered. Why, 
 when for the first time in her life she was to occupy 
 a position of importance, should she look as scared 
 and ashamed as if she was one of the accused instead 
 of being chief accuser? Others, too, noticed her de 
 jected air, and as the curious neighbors dropped in 
 on the afternoon of the inquest, one after another, 
 until the large sitting-room was crowded with eager 
 women and girls, more than one inquisitive matron 
 found herself unexpectedly foiled in an attempt to 
 draw from the pale, silent child the story of that 
 terrible night s experiences. 
 
 " Her father said she d best not talk about it until 
 after the inquest," explained Mrs. Hadlock, un 
 comfortably conscious of the offended faces of the 
 disappointed gossips, and to this the Widow Scrip 
 ture, in her seat of honor nearest the door of the 
 next room, where the hum of masculine voices could 
 be distinctly heard, added her testimony the testi-
 
 106 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 mony of one who knew whereof she affirmed, for had 
 she not been herself a witness in a breach of promise 
 case, and knew all the ins and outs of a court of jus 
 tice by personal experience? 
 
 " Yes, that s accordin to law. Sometimes they 
 lock em up f r weeks before the court sets, so t they 
 can t get the chance to make common talk of what 
 they know." 
 
 At this all the women and girls looked straight at 
 Comfort with eyes of awful commiseration, making 
 her blush and hang her head guiltily, while Tabby 
 Scripture gave her apron a sly tweak, and whispered 
 under cover of the general chatter: 
 
 " Have they got it in there to set on?" 
 
 Comfort looked bewildered. 
 
 " Got what?" she asked. 
 
 Tabby s rosy face was drawn into a solemn pucker, 
 and she lifted her hand with a warning gesture. 
 
 "Hush sh! Don t talk so loud. It? why I 
 mean Granny Hedvig s corpse, of course. Ain t that 
 what they re settin on in there? Ma am said twas." 
 
 "Why y, no," and Comfort s eyes were wide 
 with wonder. " There s nobody but some men in 
 there with father, and when he calls me, I Ve got to 
 go in and tell em all I know about poor Granny s 
 death. Oh, Tabby!" in a sudden burst of confidence, 
 " what do you s pose they d do to me if I would n t 
 tell all I know?" 
 
 " I dunno, I m sure, what they d do \.Q you, but ma 
 says that in old times they used to squeeze em to 
 death if they would n t tell." 
 
 "Used to what?" gasped Comfort.
 
 "I Smell a Rat Close By" 107 
 
 "Squeeze em to death," repeated the other with 
 as much composure as if the terrible " peine forte et 
 dure " were as much a matter of everyday occurrence 
 in a nineteenth century Maine village as a cuff upon 
 the ear or the application of a birch rod to the back 
 of some refractory schoolboy. 
 
 "The way twas done," went on Tabby with in 
 finite relish, " they laid em down on their backs and 
 tied their legs and arms to stakes driv into the ground, 
 just like that picture of Saint Andrew s in ma s book 
 o Fox s Martyrs, you ve seen that?" 
 
 Comfort shook her head, she was too frightened to 
 speak. 
 
 " Ain t? Well, you ought to, it s lots o fun lookin 
 at the pictures. But about this squeezin . After 
 they ve got em tied down good an strong, they pile a 
 good-sized stun on their stomach, an then they say, 
 Will ye tell now? If they say no, they pile another 
 on top o that, askin every time if they 11 tell, " 
 
 A horrible pause, and Comfort s voice was almost 
 inaudible as she asked with a shudder: 
 
 "What if they won t? " 
 
 " Then they 11 keep pilin on the stones till you re 
 as flat as as a pancake." 
 
 Comfort leaned back against the wall, white and 
 shivering, while her companion, really frightened at 
 the effect of her vivid word-picture, tried, without 
 taking any humiliating back tracks, to reassure her: 
 
 " Oh, law ! you need n t be scart, seein yer own 
 father s at the helium. Besides," with a sharp look, 
 " there ain t nothin that you d object to tellin , of 
 course, eh? "
 
 io8 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 The color came slowly back to the child s cheek 
 and brow as she said, in a voice scarce above a 
 whisper: 
 
 " Whatever I tell, I shall tell the truth" 
 
 The low-spoken words probably never reached the 
 ear of her companion, whose attention just then was 
 attracted by her mother s loud tones as she dispensed 
 her law knowledge with a liberal hand to the group 
 of interested listeners about her : 
 
 " Yes, this breakin an enterin is a pretty serious 
 business, let me tell you. It s a State s prison crime 
 even if they hadn t scart the old woman to death. 
 You don t s pose," addressing Mrs. Hadley, who sat 
 pale and anxious among them, saying little and taking 
 no part whatever in the discussion as to who the cul 
 prits might be, " that they really stole anything ? 
 T would go hard with em if that could be proved." 
 
 All eyes were fixed upon the evidently agitated 
 woman, who waited a full minute, apparently intent 
 upon a dropped stitch in her knitting, before she 
 replied : 
 
 " Their object don t seem to have been robbery, 
 and we all know that the poor old soul had nothing 
 of value that would be likely to be a temptation to a 
 lot of drunken, mischievous boys." 
 
 Tabby pricked up her ears, and glanced shrewdly 
 from the troubled face of the mother to that of her 
 no less agitated daughter. 
 
 " I would n t be afraid to bet considerable," she 
 thought, " that one o the Hadlock boys was in that 
 scrape, an his mother an Comfort knew it, too." 
 
 And fired with the zeal of discovery she stole un-
 
 "I Smell a Rat Close By" 109 
 
 observed out to the back door, where she encountered 
 Isaac, who, all agog with boyish curiosity, was hang 
 ing about, looking and listening with all his eyes and 
 ears to catch the smallest hint of what was going on 
 within, for in deference to the importance of the 
 occasion, the Squire had insisted upon the inquest 
 being held with closed doors. Tabby smiled sweetly 
 upon the boy. 
 
 " They ain t left you to look out f r all the hosses, 
 have they?" she asked with flattering solicitude and 
 a glance at the half-dozen well-blanketed animals 
 scattered about the yard, while their owners were 
 devoting themselves to the State s service within. 
 "Where s the other boys?" 
 
 "Jote s hangin round somewheres, in the barn, 
 I guess ; an Dave s down to the Cove ter get some 
 tea f r ma am. He went long before dinner, an we 
 hain t seen hide nor hair of im sence." 
 
 " Humph ! " thought Miss Tabby complacently, as 
 she strolled leisurely back into the sitting-room, 
 " Dave s the. one, sure s fate." 
 
 And as Comfort just then, in obedience to her 
 father s summons, staggered rather than walked 
 across the threshold of the door that some friendly 
 hand held open for her, the girl s not unkindly heart 
 felt an unwonted throb of pity, and for the moment 
 she devoutly wished that she had held her tongue 
 about that horrible old witness business, that was out 
 lawed years ago most likely. But it was too late to 
 unsay it now, and pity was soon forgotten in an over 
 weening curiosity to know what the outcome of it all 
 would be.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 "NAY, TELL IT ALL" 
 
 COMFORT HADLOCK, advance and take the 
 oath." And the Squire, who had never in his life 
 been present at an inquest before, and whose ideas 
 were decidedly misty as to the usual formula on such 
 occasions, frowned sternly upon his little daughter as 
 she timidly " advanced " beneath the curious eyes of 
 the lookers on, and at his bidding held up her childish 
 hand to take the witness s oath. " You solemnly 
 promise on this Holy Book," touching the Bible that 
 lay in solitary state upon the table, " that you 11 tell 
 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
 so help you God? " 
 
 The small uplifted hand trembled and wavered 
 uncertainly. 
 
 " I 11 tell the truth, and nothing but the truth." 
 Her voice was low and soft, but in the stillness her 
 words were distinctly audible in every corner of the 
 room, and not a man of them all doubted for an 
 instant the sincerity of the promise thus honestly 
 given. Only our old acquaintance the doctor, who 
 had all these years kept up his friendly interest in 
 the unwelcome baby, noted the omission with a 
 feeling of passing wonder. Were there any reasons 
 why the little maid should not tell all she knew? 
 And with equal interest but more keenness perhaps
 
 "Nay, Tell It All" in 
 
 than his neighbors, the shrewd little man listened to 
 the story of that dreadful night, the assault upon the 
 cottage and the death of its aged mistress. As a 
 medical man, he had already given his testimony 
 that Dame Hedvig came to her death by chronic 
 heart disease, aggravated and hastened, without doubt, 
 by the terrible shock that the invasion of her home 
 caused her, and Comfort s story corroborated his 
 theory, thus making the marauders undeniably guilty 
 of manslaughter. But now the duty of the jury was 
 to find out who these marauders were, and the fore 
 man hastened to ask with a gravity befitting the 
 importance of the subject: 
 
 " Did you recognize any of these men who broke 
 into the house? " 
 
 " Only Ducky Welch," was the prompt reply, " I 
 knew him by his voice. But they all had handker 
 chiefs tied over their faces, and the fire was so low 
 that there was hardly any light in the kitchen to 
 see anything by." 
 
 " But wa n t there some mark, somethin about their 
 build or their clo es, that looked nateral? The one 
 that stole the jewelry, now, he come near enough to 
 slap yer face ; could n t you give a guess as to who 
 he was ? " 
 
 The child s pale cheek grew a shade paler, but she 
 answered steadily : 
 
 " His face was covered like all the rest, and he 
 never spoke a word. Besides, I was so frightened 
 and hurt by the blow, that I did n t really see him 
 before he d gotten away with the rest." 
 
 The faces of the jury wore a dissatisfied look as
 
 H2 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 they exchanged glances of mingled doubt and 
 perplexity. 
 
 " Do you mean to tell us that only sailor Welch 
 said anything?" demanded a rough-spoken old farmer, 
 in such a suspicious tone that Comfort colored uncom 
 fortably; it seemed as if he half doubted her word. 
 
 " Oh, no, I did n t mean that," she hastened to say. 
 " They were all shouting and swearing, and threaten 
 ing what they d do if I did n t unbar the door. But 
 the voices were all so mixed up that I could n t tell 
 one from another. Only Ducky spoke Irish," she 
 added with childish simplicity, " and that s how I 
 knew him." 
 
 " It ain t likely," put in the Squire, " that in all 
 that crowd there wa n t some that live hereabouts. 
 There ain t more n half a dozen of them sailors in 
 town, an the rest must a been recruits from our 
 own neighborhood." 
 
 At this suggestion several of the jury who were 
 the fathers of grown-up sons began to show signs of 
 uneasiness, and the disposition to question the wit 
 ness further upon the identity of the accused parties 
 visibly weakened. Not so the Squire, who, not ill 
 pleased at the effect of his unwelcome hint upon the 
 jury, took a hand at cross-questioning the witness 
 himself. 
 
 " But could n t you tell what they wore, their 
 coats or caps? " 
 
 " No ; they all looked alike to me, they were so 
 crowded." 
 
 " They did n t leave nothin behind em, a hand 
 kerchief or a mitten, eh ? "
 
 "Nay, Tell It All" 113 
 
 It had come at last, and the child s face grew 
 white as death while she gasped a scarcely audible 
 affirmative. 
 
 The Squire s face beamed with proud satisfaction, 
 and he rubbed his hands sharply together till the 
 hard palms creaked and grated like a rope rubbing 
 against a wooden beam, Comfort thought, with a 
 sickening horror that fairly took away her breath. 
 
 "Well, what was it? Tell us what you found, 
 remember you re on yer oath." 
 
 Her oath ! Little danger was there of her forget 
 ting it, when every beam and rafter of the suddenly 
 hushed room seemed to send back the terrible echo. 
 Even the tall eight-day clock in the corner with its 
 monotonous " tick-tick " was slowly spelling out the 
 fateful words : " Your oath ! your oath ! " She reeled 
 dizzily and would have fallen had not the kindly 
 doctor placed his own chair for her, while under 
 cover of this little courtesy he took occasion to 
 whisper reassuringly: 
 
 "Don t be frightened, little lass. Tell the truth, 
 and nobody will blame or hurt you." 
 
 But the Squire was growing indignant and not a 
 little mortified. That a child of his should act so 
 much like a simpleton, was not for an instant to be 
 endured, and raising his voice with the combined 
 authority of the parent and the magistrate, he said 
 sharply : 
 
 "Tell us this minute what you found, if twa n t 
 nothin but a gallus button." 
 
 Comfort shut her eyes, she had not the courage to 
 face his angry frown, while in the innocence of her
 
 H4 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 childish heart she prayed for courage to do right, 
 to speak the whole, terrible, shameful truth, let what 
 would come of it. 
 
 " I found a mitten, a man s blue and white mitten," 
 she said steadily, although she could hear the beat 
 ing of her own frightened heart above the words 
 themselves. 
 
 And as at her father s command she produced the 
 article in question, a wild hope shot across her brain 
 that perhaps after all the mark might go unnoticed or, 
 if seen, fail to be traced to the right source. There 
 were plenty of families in town whose names began 
 with that initial, and if nobody should remember to 
 ask directly if she recognized it, the terrible exposure 
 that she so dreaded might not come even now. 
 
 This mitten was passed from hand to hand, and 
 the Squire was the first to spy the private mark. 
 
 " Marked with an H ," was his exulting comment. 
 "Well, well, we re on the track now, sure. Who 
 is there whose name begins with an H that would 
 be likely to be in a scrape like this?" 
 
 He did not notice the significant glances that passed 
 from man to man, nor did he for an instant suspect 
 that Comfort s reluctance to produce this important 
 piece of evidence had had its root in anything but 
 childish diffidence or obstinacy. And he went on 
 with the most unconcerned air imaginable to run over 
 the names in the neighborhood beginning with " H ". 
 
 " Hamet their children are all girls; Higgins 
 there s young Tom, but he s been shut up in the 
 house f r a fortnight from the kick o that frisky 
 colt o* theirs ; Hamor hain t got a chick nor a child
 
 "Nay, Tell It All" 115 
 
 in the world ; then there s, let me see, Why," 
 with a sharp glance at the foreman, " there s you, 
 Hull. Where d that Abel o yours spend last Monday 
 night?" 
 
 " In his bed, thank the good Lord ! " thundered 
 the farmer, in a towering rage, for Abel was noted 
 for his good steady habits, and a breath of suspicion 
 had never before fallen on him. "P r aps," with a 
 knowing glance about the room, " f I can ask the 
 little gal a question or two I can find out who owns 
 that mitten without any more guessin ." 
 
 The Squire nodded a stately assent, and the still 
 irate Hull turned to Comfort with the sharply put 
 question : 
 
 " Do you know whose mitten t is? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 Had a thunderbolt fallen in their midst it could 
 not have created greater consternation than the utter 
 ance of that one word. Every man rose to his feet in 
 the excitement of the moment, or leaned forward in 
 his chair with staring, wonder-full eyes, while in the 
 solemn stillness you might have heard a pin drop, as 
 slowly the questioner asked : 
 
 "Who is it?" 
 
 Twice the girl s pale lips unclosed but no sound 
 came from them. It was a terrible ordeal for one so 
 young and tender, but the lesson learned at her Chris 
 tian mother s knee could not so easily be unlearned, 
 and in a tone shrill and sharp as of some tortured an 
 imal, she cried piteously: 
 
 " Oh, why did you ask me that? It belongs to one 
 of my own brothers, either Jotham or David
 
 1 1 6 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 Then with a strange ringing in her ears she fell back 
 into her seat, while the angry voice of her father and 
 the nearer, kindly tones of the good doctor mingled 
 strangely in her half-unconscious ears as the latter 
 tenderly bore her from the room and gave her into 
 her mother s arms, with the whispered warning : 
 
 " It s been too much for her nerves, with all she d 
 gone through before. It s no light thing," he added 
 with a meaning emphasis, as his eyes met those of 
 the frightened woman, " for a sister to have to tell that 
 of her own brother that will put him into the State s 
 prison, if he can be caught." 
 
 A good, law-abiding citizen was our friendly little 
 doctor, and who shall say that he had the least idea 
 that his very natural comment would, as the Squire 
 had expressed it, do anything to " block the wheels 
 of the law," or that Mrs. Hadlock, in acting upon the 
 warning thus given, should a little later take the time 
 to air her scarlet stand cloth by hanging it from her 
 chamber window, allowing her motherly affection 
 to get the better of her love of justice ? When Love 
 and Reason fail to agree, Love is pretty sure to have 
 his way, and if the poor, foolish lad escaped, to be 
 henceforth a wanderer upon the face of the earth, no 
 body was any the worse for it. 
 
 Jotham when summoned before the tribunal over 
 which his crestfallen father reluctantly presided, 
 easily cleared his own skirts by producing both of his 
 own mittens, while he unhesitatingly declared that the 
 one shown him " belonged to Dave." Moreover, the 
 sudden disappearance of that unfortunate youth, in 
 the company of Ducky Welch and his disreputable
 
 "Nay, Tell It All" 117 
 
 mates before, in the confusion, steps could be taken 
 to arrest them, showed only too plainly that the 
 suspicions against him were well founded. 
 
 The Squire was terribly humiliated, but he tried 
 hard to hold up his head, and pretend that he had 
 faith that time would unravel the mystery, and show 
 that " the boy wa n t so much to blame after all," 
 while Jotham made no bones of expressing his scorn 
 and contempt for his runaway brother. 
 
 " Dave wa n t never more n half baked," he de 
 clared, with not so much as a single word of pity for 
 the poor youth s disgrace. " Why, in thunder, if he d 
 got into a scrape like that did n t he stay an brazen it 
 out like a man, instead o turnin tail like a whipped 
 dog, an sneakin off nobody knew where? " 
 
 Why, indeed? Jotham was wise in his generation, 
 and a faithful observer of his favorite maxim : 
 " Better a lie well stuck to than the truth wavering."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 "o TIME AND CHANGE" 
 
 O PRING is apt to loiter in making her first appear- 
 ^ ance in the Desert Island, but when she once 
 makes up her mind she throws herself heart and soul 
 into the work of making things presentable after the 
 frost, and ice, and gloom of winter. With true house 
 wifely zeal she sweetens, cleanses, and furbishes up 
 every dirty, cluttered, or unsightly spot from end to 
 end of its rock-ribbed expanse, and decks it with 
 lavish hand for the approach of June, fair bridal 
 month of the year in our northern clime. 
 
 The spring succeeding Granny s death was no ex 
 ception to the general rule, and Comfort, after the 
 first sweet promise that the pussy willows brought, 
 had a long season of impatient waiting, for it seemed 
 even longer than usual before her eyes were glad 
 dened by the brave yellow stars of the coltsfoot, upon 
 whose sturdy heels came crowding the frailer blos 
 soms, the shivering anemones, the liverworts, and 
 flaunting rock columbines, all eager, it would seem, 
 to make the most of their brief time by getting their 
 new households well under way before the summer s 
 uncongenial heat should force them into the back 
 ground of a withered, unlovely old age. 
 
 The slow melting of the snow had left the roads in 
 a very bad condition, and it was well into May before
 
 "O Time and Change" 1 19 
 
 our little maiden ventured to pay her longed-for visit 
 to the deserted cottage of the Hedvigs. It was a clear 
 bright morning as she walked down the narrow wood 
 path, skilfully picking her way from stone to hum 
 mock, or springing lightly from side to side to avoid 
 the treacherous mud whose depth and stickiness she 
 had too often tested to try her weight upon it now. 
 
 The birds were singing as cheerily in the misty 
 green of the budding tree-tops as if each little house 
 holder held a promissory note from the clerk of the 
 weather that the full foliage should be all ready for a 
 roofing the very day that the nests were ready for it. 
 The air was sweet with spicy odors from the spruce 
 and pine, and within hand s reach the young birches 
 stretched out their slender arms, whose half-unfolded 
 buds, creased and dimpled bits of rosy bronze, made 
 one think of the chubby fist of a well-to-do Indian 
 baby. The tiny green fans of the maples were 
 feathered with the same ruddy hue, and the alder that 
 stood by the entrance of the now silent cottage had 
 hung itself from tip to trunk with tassels of brown and 
 gold that dangled and swayed to every passing breeze 
 and seemed to have a special attraction for Granny s 
 bees, scores of whom hummed contentedly about its 
 pollen-dropping twigs. 
 
 As they approached the cottage, Frigga, who was 
 now Comfort s special charge, and who had kept 
 close to her heels as usual, pricked up her ears and 
 glanced over her shoulder at her young mistress with 
 a startled, not to say frightened, look upon her wise 
 old face. 
 
 "What is it, kitty?" laughed the child, glad to
 
 i 20 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 shake off the gloom that the spot and its sad memo 
 ries had cast over her. " Have you remembered 
 Frey s sword all this time?" 
 
 Perhaps Frigga felt the reminder as a slur upon 
 her courage, for she turned deliberately and walked 
 off a little way into the woods, where, with a very 
 dignified air, she sat herself down at the foot of an 
 old stump, and pretended to be so interested in the 
 gambols of a very lively young squirrel that she 
 could n t hear a word of the call that Comfort sent 
 after her. 
 
 " Frigg 3 * Frigga, you naughty kitty ! come here 
 this minute." 
 
 Her sweet, clear, young voice rang out pleasantly 
 upon the still morning air, penetrating to the recesses 
 even of the silent cabin. 
 
 "Comfort! I say, Comfort! Halloo, there!" and 
 Franz, just as freckled and brown, and honest-eyed as 
 of old, came from the cottage, looking for all the 
 world, Comfort thought, as if he had never left it. 
 
 She rubbed her eyes and stared at him for a 
 moment in dazed silence. Had all the dreadful 
 things that had happened during these last few 
 months been but a dream after all? and were Franz 
 and Granny still safe and sound in the old home? 
 For one bewildered moment she half expected to 
 see the dame s kerchiefed head looking over her 
 grandson s shoulder, and to hear again the familiar 
 greeting: 
 
 " Good-morning to thee, my Comfort." 
 
 But the next moment it all came back to her, 
 Granny s death, and the shame and sorrow that had
 
 "O Time and Change" 121 
 
 fallen upon her own household, and with a wild out 
 burst of grief, she cried between her sobs : 
 
 " Oh, Franz ! To come back to this." 
 
 The youth s face that had beamed with pleasure at 
 sight of his favorite playmate slowly darkened. 
 
 " Your father wrote me part, and the Widow Scrip 
 ture told me the rest last night," he said, stepping 
 back into the desolate doorway, while the hand that 
 had only a moment before held her own in its friendly 
 clasp fell limp and undecided at its owner s side. 
 
 The girl s sensitive nature felt the unconscious re 
 coil, and there was a pleading tenderness in her tones 
 as she ventured upon the threadbare excuse that, in 
 her heart, she felt was no excuse at all. 
 
 " Then you know that they were not really them 
 selves, and did n t half know what they were about. 
 It was awfully wicked and mean," she added in re 
 sponse to Franz s look of stern disapproval ; " but 
 they were only boys, you know, and, Oh, Franz ! " 
 with a sudden burst of tears that went farther to 
 soften the angry youth than any elaborate defence 
 could have done. " Dave would n t have hurt a hair 
 of Granny s head, for the world, meaning to. And 
 now he s gone shipped in a whaler that sailed 
 about that time, we think, and never can see his 
 home or mother again without being in danger of 
 the State s prison. We never have tried to excuse 
 him for his share in the mischief, but is n t his pun 
 ishment heavy enough as it is?" 
 
 She had followed him into the cottage, where the 
 chill, musty air made one more than ever sensible of 
 the desolation and gloom that now reigned over the
 
 122 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 once happy little home, and his face was turned from 
 her as he lifted one familiar object after another, 
 handling each with a tenderness that contrasted 
 sharply with the cold constraint of his tone as, after 
 an embarrassing silence, he asked irrelevantly: 
 
 " Did your father lock up the pictures and books, 
 and the trinkets she thought so much of in the 
 chest?" 
 
 "Yes, everything," replied the child, with a shiver 
 that was not all due to the unsunned air of the cot 
 tage. " He mended the chest, and mother packed 
 all the bedding and the other things, everything 
 but the furniture and dishes, into it. The wheel was 
 broken, and she took it home, because she thought it 
 would be safest there until it could be mended." 
 
 "That was right. She is welcome to keep it. And 
 I want her and you, Comfort, to have all the bedding 
 and other housekeeping things. I have n t forgot," 
 and his voice softened into the old well-remembered 
 tones, " how good you both were to poor Granny, 
 and how much you did for her. I m glad she gave 
 you the silver cross," - (so the widow had told him 
 of that, too), " for I think if anybody deserves it 
 you do." 
 
 There was the old frank heartiness in speech and 
 manner, while the grateful smile that lighted up his 
 face as he turned it toward her, showed that the 
 friendly words were not to be taken simply as a 
 polite acknowledgment of his obligation to them on 
 Granny s account. What was it, then, that the girl 
 missed, and that gave her an uneasy feeling of con 
 straint that she had never known before in the
 
 "O Time and Change" 123 
 
 company of her old playfellow? She was not wise 
 enough to analyze it; but it was not quite fair in 
 Franz to speak of obligations to them, just as if 
 household stuffs and silver ornaments could pay for 
 the tender love and care that it had been a pleasure 
 rather than a task to bestow upon her dear old friend. 
 Why could n t he have said " I want you to have 
 Granny s things because she loved you, and you her," 
 instead of " You deserve them for taking such good 
 care of her " ? 
 
 Now there are, as we know, seven primary colors, 
 and no one who is not color blind has any difficulty 
 in distinguishing them. But it requires a delicate, 
 carefully trained eye to detect the thousand and one 
 varying shades and tints so wonderfully blended and 
 absorbed that a green field may, in some lights, strike 
 the eye as a vivid yellow, while the fog wreaths 
 slowly dropping at sunrise from some far-off moun 
 tain peak may assume in turn the softened, uncertain 
 hues of red, indigo, and violet, without actually repre 
 senting either of these colors as a color. 
 
 Thus with human nature in its varying capacities 
 for feeling and sentiment. Where one sensitive, 
 finely wrought temperament feels the slightest in 
 equality, the least jar upon its sensibilities, the great 
 mass remain comfortably unconscious that there is 
 any jar, and if the red is only red enough, and the 
 blue is of the conventional indigo, they can neither 
 see nor feel the smallest lack in themselves or in the 
 world about them. 
 
 Franz would not for the world have hurt the feel 
 ings of the little friend whom he loved dearly, after
 
 i 24 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 his honest, unsentimental boy fashion, any sooner in 
 fact than the girl herself would have given speech to 
 the vague discomfort that his words had caused her. 
 Those few short months of separation had wrought a 
 change in the relations between them, so subtile and 
 undefined that only the sensitive, impulsive nature of 
 the girl-woman detected it, and without putting the 
 feeling into words, shrank timidly into herself when 
 the silver cross was referred to, while with an em 
 barrassment for which she could not herself have 
 accounted, she hesitated to speak of the prophecy 
 and the circumstances under which the gift of the 
 treasured heirloom had been made. 
 
 If it should come true, and Franz become rich and 
 famous through her instrumentality, it would be time 
 enough then to tell him of the old dame s partial pre 
 diction. And with this resolve once made, the un 
 easiness that had troubled her vanished, and with all 
 the old, tender interest she listened to the story of 
 his new life, and laughed and wondered by turns 
 over the oddities and peculiarities of the people with 
 whom he had come in contact. 
 
 " Mr. Humbre has been real good to me," he de 
 clared gratefully, as, gladly forsaking the chilly, 
 darkened cottage, the two seated themselves upon 
 a big, flat stone just outside the door, where the 
 humming of the bees and the soft purling of the 
 little brook close to their feet made a pleasantly 
 familiar music to their accustomed ears. " He comes 
 into the foundry to see me every once in a while, 
 and twice he s invited me to his house to dinner 
 Sundays."
 
 " O Time and Change " 125 
 
 Comfort s bright face beamed with pride and 
 pleasure. 
 
 " How good that was in him ! " she cried heartily. 
 " But," with a touch of feminine curiosity, " is he 
 married? You said his house." 
 
 " Oh, no. He and his mother, she s a widow, 
 and his sister, Miss Delphine, and Lois Gregory, all 
 live together in a splendid, great house. Why," 
 warming with his subject, " you never saw such fine 
 things as they have. Their forks are silver, just 
 think of it, solid silver forks, and the teapot, and 
 pitcher, and sugar-bowl all silver, too." 
 
 His listener drew a long breath of mingled wonder 
 and delight. 
 
 " And such a dinner ! Turkey, and all the nice 
 fixin s with it ; and after we d got through with that, 
 the hired girl cleared off the dishes and passed round 
 plates with two or three kinds of pie on em, and 
 after that what do you guess? " 
 
 Comfort shook her head ; such unheard-of luxury 
 fairly took away her breath. 
 
 " Well, we had oranges and grapes, great white 
 fellers, sweet as honey, and raisins and nuts to top 
 off with. Lois Gregory slipped her orange into her 
 pocket, and Mis Humbre told me to, if I wanted to." 
 
 "But the folks themselves?" broke in Comfort, 
 with glowing cheeks. " Is Mr. Humbre s mother as 
 nice as he is? and what is Miss Delphine like? and 
 who is Lois Gregory?" 
 
 Franz laughed, the old, happy laugh that was so 
 pleasant to hear. 
 
 " One at a time, Comfort, one at a time. Yes
 
 1 26 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 no well, Mis Humbre is kind o nice, and kind o 
 not. She means to be good and pleasant, I guess, 
 but she makes you feel all the time as if she was 
 standin on a high ladder, and handin things down to 
 you. Miss Delphine is funny and bright, but she s 
 that sharp that you never know just how to take er ; 
 and Lois Gregory is " 
 
 "What?" insisted Comfort, greatly interested. 
 
 " Well, she s a girl about your age I should say, 
 and Mr. Humbre is her gardeen, because her father 
 and mother are both dead, and she has n t any 
 relations to look out for her." 
 
 "My age?" repeated the girl, curiously. "And 
 what is she like? How does she look, and is she 
 pleasant to know? " 
 
 Franz s face grew very red and he gave a vicious 
 poke with his foot at a harmless toad that had crept 
 out into the grateful sunshine. 
 
 " Oh, land ! She s too high and mighty to notice a 
 poor boy like me. She s been brought up a lady, 
 and knows almost everything, and Mr. Humbre 
 wanted her to play the planner when I was there, but 
 she crawled out of it, pretending she had a headache. 
 I caught her pokin fun at my big boots, and when I 
 dropped my fork at the table she giggled right out." 
 
 " The mean, hateful thing ! " cried Comfort indig 
 nantly, " to treat you like that, and you company, too." 
 
 "We 11, yes, twas mean in er," assented the 
 boy with a reluctance that made his companion 
 regard him with wondering eyes. "But I met her 
 next day on the street, and she smiled and bowed as 
 if I d been a king, and I was in my old workin
 
 "O Time and Change" 127 
 
 clo es, too. She s as pretty as a picture, with black 
 eyes that seem always laughing at you, and hair curling 
 in little rings all round her face. And you never saw 
 such pretty little dimpled hands, just like a baby s." 
 
 " I don t suppose that she has the dishes to wash," 
 remarked Comfort meekly, with an unconscious 
 glance at her own brown and roughened palms. 
 
 " Oh, no indeed ! " cried Franz calmly unconscious 
 of the mild sarcasm underlying his companion s very 
 natural comment. " They have lots of help to do the 
 work. Ladies like them don t work, you know." 
 
 Comfort smiled, but there was a little ache at her 
 heart as she said, half sadly: 
 
 " It must be a fine thing to be pretty and rich, and 
 have all the time you want to study or play. But I 
 guess I d rather have a mother to love and work for, 
 after all. And that makes me think," slowly rising 
 from her seat, and drawing over her face the sun- 
 bonnet that had fallen unheeded upon her shoulders 
 as she listened to Franz s talk, " that it is time I was 
 at home seeing to the dinner. I get almost all the 
 dinners now," she explained in reply to his surprised 
 look, " for mother hardly ever gets up much before 
 noon. She has n t been well since, " she stopped 
 short, and a hot flush overspread her face, as she 
 added after a moment s pause, " since last winter." 
 
 But Franz did not notice her confusion. His 
 thoughts were elsewhere, and calling to her to wait 
 until he had locked the door, he walked along beside 
 her, laughing and chatting, the same and yet not the 
 same boy with whom she had walked this same path 
 only one short year before.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE 
 
 FRANZ won golden opinions from the thrifty 
 Squire by the shrewd, manful way in which he 
 went to work to wind up affairs, and dispose of the 
 few effects that had belonged to Granny. The half- 
 dozen acres about the cottage, adjoining as it did his 
 own back pasture, was readily purchased by the 
 Squire for a new, crisp ten-dollar bill, a very fair 
 price for it considering that the soil was too thin and 
 poor to be of any use as farming land, and the timber 
 was small and scraggy, consisting largely of stunted 
 white birches and ragged cedars, that made one 
 think of a family of half-starved children under the 
 rule of the proverbial step-mother, cuffed and buf 
 feted by the merciless sea gales, and kept on the 
 scanty commons that the poverty-stricken, ungener 
 ous earth was loath to provide them. 
 
 " The cottage would make a good shingle camp," 
 reasoned the buyer, " and there was a fair show 
 of cedar in the vicinity that would work up into 
 shingles, and keep the boys out of mischief through 
 the long winter days and evenings." 
 
 The bees, strange as it may seem, found no ready 
 purchaser in the little hamlet. Nobody wanted "the 
 bother" of them, those who already kept bees having 
 an idea that the introduction of a strange swarm
 
 The Thin Edge of the Wedge 129 
 
 would give such offence to the present tenants that 
 they would desert in a body ; while those who had 
 had no experience in bee-raising regarded the touchy 
 little insects as a nuisance, to which it was best to 
 give as wide a berth as possible. Franz did n t really 
 know what to do with them. 
 
 " Granny used to sell a good deal of honey in the 
 course of the year," he said to Comfort, as they 
 stood together beside the fresh-springing, spicy- 
 breathed catnip patch about which the bees were 
 humming, evidently impatient for the appearance of 
 the purple honey-cups. " If I could get anybody 
 to look out for them, they don t need a great deal 
 of care, they could have all the honey they wanted 
 for themselves, and if there was any to sell we could 
 divide the profits between us." 
 
 With a thoughtful face, Comfort slowly wound and 
 unwound the strings of her calico sunbonnet around 
 one slender brown finger, as she said hesitatingly : 
 
 " / might, I suppose. Granny showed me just 
 how to manage them, and I ain t a bit afraid of them 
 nor they of me. Perhaps, well, if father will let 
 me, I will take care of them for you." 
 
 " I don t doubt you could as well as anybody" (he 
 would have believed her capable of flying if she had 
 claimed that power), "but your father hates bees. 
 I ve heard him say so time an ag in, and I don t 
 believe he d agree to your keepin em." 
 
 "You can ask him?" 
 
 Yes he could, and did, and strange to say, won his 
 consent to the arrangement. In truth, it astonished 
 the Squire s family not a little the favor that he act- 
 
 9
 
 130 
 
 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 ually put himself out to show to the grandson of 
 Granny Hedvig. They could not know what a pan 
 acea it was to his terribly wounded family pride to 
 be able to oblige in any way one who might, he well 
 knew, have treated his advances with a scornful con 
 tempt that would, under the circumstances, have 
 added greatly to his inward humiliation. 
 
 Franz, the soul of candor and justice, never on his 
 part, after the first bitterness of the discovery of 
 Dave s complicity in the cruel frolic that led to poor 
 Granny s death had passed away, even thought of 
 such a thing as blaming the innocent members of 
 the family. He accepted the Squire s friendly over 
 tures with the same frank, unsuspiciousness that he 
 did those of the wife and daughter, while Jotham s 
 surly avoidance of his company, no less than Isaac s 
 undesirable effusiveness, was so perfectly in keeping 
 with the character of each that he thought little of it 
 anyway. 
 
 Summer was close at hand before the youth was 
 ready to return to the city and his work, and for 
 several reasons it was a season long to be remem 
 bered by the various actors in our little neighbor 
 hood drama. First and foremost, it brought to the 
 Widow Scripture applications for board from so 
 many summer tourists that, spurred on by her few 
 enterprising neighbors, and by Tabby, who had sun 
 dry little ambitions of her own, she decided to build 
 an " addition," and after the fashion of her day and 
 kind, she hastened to talk it over with each neighbor 
 in turn, explaining the reasons why she felt called 
 upon to take such an unprecedented step, as well as
 
 The Thin Edge of the Wedge i 3 1 
 
 the character of the change that she proposed mak 
 ing in the unpretentious farmhouse that had served 
 her so faithfully as a peaceful and comfortable home 
 for more than a score of years. 
 
 " You see," she explained to Mrs. Hadlock, as, 
 knitting in hand, she settled herself for a neighborly 
 afternoon chat, "You see, Mr. Humbre, he wants 
 me to take his mother an sister, an a Miss Ward, 
 his ward he calls er, so I s pose she s his intended. 
 An there s four more o them painter fellers that 
 wants board, an a sick man an his little boy. I 
 did think of fixin up field beds in the shed chamber, 
 an me an Tabby sleepin in the barn. But we con 
 cluded that bein city folks they might object to 
 sleepin in that way, so the best we could do seemed 
 to be to build on." 
 
 Mrs. Hadlock s pale face was all aglow with in 
 terest. Poor soul, any diversion from her own sad 
 thoughts was a godsend. 
 
 "Where are you goin to put your addition?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " I m goin to put on a two-story front." 
 
 The words were a whole mouthful, as the widow 
 rounded and emphasized them to give due effect to 
 their importance. 
 
 " Why, how you talk ! " exclaimed her awestruck 
 listener. " That 11 make it big enough for a tavern." 
 
 " Yes, I reckon on four good-sized sleepin rooms 
 up stairs an two down. I shall take what s the 
 south front room now to feed em in, an they can 
 set in the new front room on the off side o the entry. 
 There s one thing I shall insist on, yes, two,
 
 132 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 an that is, I won t have the wimmin folks dabbin 
 round in the kitchen, washin out a handkerchief or a 
 pair o stockin s, an wantin the flatirons jest when I 
 want to be usin em myself. Female boarders make 
 an awful sight o bother that way. An the other is, 
 I shall make a p int of havin my meals right on the 
 dot, whether there s anybody there to eat em or not. 
 Why, Mis Hadlock," warming with her pet griev 
 ance, " an angel from heaven could n t keep a man s 
 dinner standin f r an hour after t was cooked an 
 have it fit to eat." 
 
 " But," ventured her friend, " if these people pay 
 handsomely for their board they 11 expect privileges. 
 An if they won t always be on time to their meals 
 what can you do ? " 
 
 " I 11 give em a cold dinner or two, an that 11 
 bring em to their fodder, I guess. They need n t 
 think I m goin to all this trouble and expense jest f r 
 their convenience. Keepin boarders f r fun? Not 
 by a long chalk. I can live without them, thank the 
 good Lord ! but they d find it a hard scratch to get 
 along without me, here, at any rate." 
 
 " They say," interrupted the Squire, who had en 
 tered the room while the widow was speaking, " that 
 the pictures that Mr. Humbre and all the other artists 
 have painted of places hereabouts have set folks all 
 over the country crazy to come and see for them 
 selves what Mount Desert is like. If that s so, you 
 mark my words, t won t be long before there 11 be 
 more boarders than there 11 be folks to board em." 
 
 "Oh, dear, I hope not," faltered Mrs. Hadlock, 
 timidly. " Such an army of em ! Why, they d take
 
 The Thin Edge of the Wedge 133 
 
 the bread right out of our children s mouths. They d 
 eat everything up in the summer so t when it come 
 winter we should have a regular famine, such as they 
 had in these parts in them cold seasons that I ve 
 heard my mother tell about." 
 
 The Squire laughed scornfully. 
 
 " Don t you worry about that yet awhile. Let em 
 come, / say. We 11 find room and vittles for em as 
 long as they pay a fair price for em. The more 
 boarders, the more money," he added, facetiously. 
 
 And the widow, comprehending his idea, laughed 
 and nodded her approval. 
 
 Tabby, too, had her own plans and ambitions, 
 some of which would have astonished her prudent 
 mother beyond measure if the young woman had 
 been incautious enough to make a confidante of her, 
 which she was not. In Comfort s ear alone she 
 poured the story of her hopes and aspirations, too 
 secure in her own fancied sagacity and knowledge of 
 the world to fear any adverse criticism from her 
 modest neighbor. Life was such a tiresome, one- 
 horse affair in that out of the way corner of the 
 world ; and a girl, let her be ever so smart and hand 
 some, stood no chance at all of marrying well unless 
 she could get acquainted with some rich young folks 
 outside. 
 
 " What I Ve planned," confided Tabby, with a 
 calm certainty that astonished her listener not a little, 
 " is to make friends with some of ma s female board 
 ers, an get an invitation to come and visit em in the 
 city, in the winter. Then they 11 take me round an 
 introduce me to everybody, of course, and
 
 1 34 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " What? " asked simple Comfort. 
 
 Tabby laughed, and tossed her buxom head with a 
 knowing air. 
 
 " How can I tell? Time will show. But I know 
 one thing," stiffening up so suddenly that the stiffly 
 starched folds of her indigo calico rustled as aggress 
 ively as if they had been of the costliest brocade, 
 " an that is, I 11 have something fit to wear out of 
 this summer s work, or I 11 know the reason why." 
 
 Comfort drew a tired sigh. She had nothing 
 against Tabby, but somehow she always wearied her 
 terribly with her confidences. One must be an angel 
 of unselfishness or very much in love with the 
 speaker to be very long interested in a conversation 
 that has forever as its objective point the all impor 
 tant " I." But Tabby liked to talk, and she liked 
 equally well to hear Tabby talk, especially if she 
 talked about Tabby, so she went on with undim- 
 inished relish: 
 
 " I m bound to have a new delaine dress made 
 with a spencer, and a pair of green morocco shoes, 
 and a string of blue beads, and a sunshade. And 
 then, well, I guess if there s anything left over, 
 I 11 have my picture taken." 
 
 Comfort laughed merrily. 
 
 " You 11 be fine enough with all your new clothes 
 to want a picture of yourself, but," with a sudden 
 remembrance of what Franz had told her about these 
 same people who were to serve the aspiring Tabby 
 as a ladder upon which she was to climb to social 
 distinction, " do you suppose that Mr. Humbre s 
 folks will be as pleasant and easy to please as he is?
 
 The Thin Edge of the Wedge 135 
 
 Franz says they re rich and have everything splendid 
 at home, so I should be afraid they d be kind o 
 proud and set up." 
 
 Tabby tossed her head with an air of saucy assur 
 ance. 
 
 " They won t try none of their stuck-up airs on 
 us," she said, loftily. " We re to hum here, an if 
 strangers want to come an look round, we 11 treat 
 em civil, but we won t stand no crowdin nor pushin 
 from nobody, not if t was the President himself. 
 We ain t the kind to sell our birthright f r a mess o 
 potash." 
 
 Ah, Tabby, remember the text, " Let not him who 
 putteth on his armor boast as him who taketh it off."
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 " BLAZING " THE WAY FOR FASHION 
 
 " TT is so dull, and last night I could n t sleep at 
 
 * all with the tiresome beat, beat of those horrid 
 waves on the shore. It was dreadful, and I honestly 
 believe it will do me more harm than good to spend 
 the summer here." 
 
 Mrs. Humbre was a fair, delicate-featured woman, 
 with a low, soft, dependent voice in which the quer 
 ulous note was just now decidedly prominent. Her 
 slender white hands, rather shrivelled, as the looseness 
 of the costly rings that glittered upon her idle fingers 
 made evident, were folded upon or rather half-buried 
 in the snowy fleece of her knitted breakfast shawl, 
 while with one daintily slippered foot she tapped 
 listlessly upon the small parti-colored mat that her 
 son Robert had brought with the rocking chair out 
 upon the piazza, for her use, immediately after break 
 fast. 
 
 " Now be sure to stay out here in this pure, sweet 
 air just as long as you can," had been his parting ad 
 monition, as he stooped to leave a good bye kiss 
 upon her withered cheek, a boyish habit he had 
 never outgrown. " I expect great things for you 
 from this summer by the sea." 
 
 And as he shouldered his artist s " traps," and with 
 his two friends set off down the road at an easy,
 
 "Blazing" the Way for Fashion 137 
 
 swinging gait, his well-knit figure seemed the person 
 ification of manly strength and vigor, while the group 
 upon the piazza looked after him with varying emo 
 tions of pride, affection, and wonder. 
 
 " Robert is a fine-looking man," remarked his 
 mother with pardonable pride. " If he would only 
 be a little more particular about his dress I m sure 
 there are few men who could compare with him." 
 
 She glanced at her daughter, but Miss Delphine 
 was sharpening her pencil, and for a moment did not 
 answer, and when she did speak it was in reply to a 
 question from Lois as to the intended route of the 
 sketching party for the day: 
 
 "To Eagle Lake, I believe that s where they were 
 planning last night to go to-day. Robert knows all 
 the most beautiful places, he has been here so much, 
 and he never is selfish even in his most precious 
 finds. He is always willing to show the others his 
 own pet haunts, which is saying a good deal for the 
 generosity of an artist." 
 
 Lois yawned and looked longingly in the direction 
 of the shore. " Come, Cousin Del," she said coax- 
 ingly, " let s go down on the beach and see what we 
 can find. Robert says there s some of the loveliest 
 pebbles and shells that would do for my aquarium." 
 
 Miss Delphine gave a good-humored nod as she 
 busied herself in arranging upon the stand before her 
 her drawing paper, and a soup plate containing a very 
 unpromising but evidently curious specimen of the 
 short-tailed crab common in that vicinity, and which 
 she had captured in her early morning walk before 
 the party were astir.
 
 138 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " Wait till I draw this fellow s picture, and then I 11 
 go with pleasure, if mother can spare us." 
 
 Mrs. Humbre nodded her permission, but at the 
 same time drew her chair a little farther away, while 
 Lois, for want of something better to do, leaned over 
 its back, and while softly stroking her hair, smooth 
 and glossy as gray satin beneath the delicate bit of 
 lace called by courtesy a cap, chatted in the 
 low, soothing tone that the elder lady especially 
 enjoyed. 
 
 "What do you think of it all, auntie? Do you 
 suppose that you can manage to be comfortable here 
 for three whole months?" 
 
 " Really I don t know, but I would be willing to 
 stay almost anywhere to please Robert." And the 
 sigh that accompanied the words was as soft and 
 sweet as the breath of an aeolian harp, Mrs. Humbre 
 did nothing ungracefully. 
 
 " The rooms are very bare and plain," went on the 
 lady, " but they are clean and airy, and, as Robert 
 says, we did n t come here to find luxuries, unless we 
 count the sea air and bathing such. The woman 
 herself seems a good cook and housekeeper, but, oh 
 Lois ! did you notice how disgustingly familiar she 
 was? Shaking hands with Robert as if he d been an 
 old friend, and asking if his ma and the other wim- 
 min folks wa n t jest about tuckered out? It was 
 perfectly ridiculous, such assurance." 
 
 Lois laughed, and patted caressingly the faded 
 cheek. 
 
 " They re awfully funny, both the woman and the 
 girl, and I mean to have heaps of fun with them. Do
 
 "Blazing" the Way for Fashion 139 
 
 you know I caught that Tabby, as her mother calls 
 her, cutting the pattern of my plaid wrap this morn 
 ing. She did n t know that I was up, and when she 
 did see me looking right at her, she did n t seem a 
 bit abashed, just went on with her work, and when 
 she d finished, hung it up again with a nod at me, 
 and a much obleeged. But I 11 have fun enough 
 out of her to pay for it." 
 
 " They re dreadfully ignorant and presuming," 
 sighed Mrs. Humbre, unmindful of the mischief in 
 Lois s black eyes, " and nothing seems to daunt them. 
 They act exactly as if we were invited guests, and 
 that part of their duty was to entertain us." 
 
 " Cousin Robert does n t seem to mind it," sug 
 gested the girl demurely. 
 
 His mother made a gesture of annoyance. 
 
 " He s used to their ways, and does n t care how 
 much they talk if they only serve his meals well, and 
 keep things neat and clean about him. But with 
 ladies, of course, it s different, and I m terribly 
 afraid," sinking her voice to a mysterious whisper, 
 " that they 11 take the liberty of intruding their com 
 pany upon us whenever they feel like it. The idea 
 came to me in the dead of the night, and it worried 
 me so that I never closed my eyes until after day 
 light Now I cannot bear that." 
 
 "Tell them so then," interpolated Miss Delphine, 
 putting the finishing touch to one of the crab s legs, 
 and holding the picture up to get a good look at it. 
 " If you don t want their company, say so." 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I could n t bear such a scene in my 
 weak state of health," cried the poor lady, really
 
 140 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 terrified at the idea of asserting herself in the face of 
 this big, masterful daughter of the people. Then as 
 a heavy step sounded upon the floor, she added help 
 lessly, " There she comes now ; don t for the world 
 have any words with her, for if I am unable to awe 
 her with my presence, it will be much better to let 
 Robert manage affairs for us." 
 
 Her daughter made no reply, and the next moment 
 the calico short gown and wide blue apron came full 
 sail around the corner, their wearer bearing on her 
 arm a big basket of peas, and in one hand a splint- 
 bottomed chair which she hastened to plant in Mrs. 
 Humbre s close vicinity, while with a face beaming 
 as much with hospitable good-will as with the heat 
 and exertion of picking the peas, she remarked 
 complacently : 
 
 " Well, this is what I call good growin weather. 
 I sowed these peas the twenty-first day of April, 
 ruther early the neighbors said, but peas 11 stand a 
 sight of cold. Now you see," holding out a handful 
 of the plump pods, " these air as well filled as any 
 body d want. Do you raise yer own vegetables?" 
 after waiting a moment for a response. 
 
 " Certainly not. The market supplies us with 
 them in abundance." An icicle would have been 
 warm compared to Mrs. Humbre s tone, but the 
 widow evidently took no notice of it. 
 
 " How do you like the looks of things about here, 
 so fur?" she asked with a glance about her of com 
 fortable proprietorship. " We kalkilate on doin our 
 best f r strangers, an if they ain t satisfied it s their 
 own fault."
 
 "Blazing" the Way for Fashion 141 
 
 Lois giggled, and Miss Delphine bent lower over 
 her drawing, but to poor Mrs. Humbre it was no 
 laughing matter, and she replied very stiffly and with 
 all the dignity she could muster for the occasion : 
 
 " The place is pretty enough. But as I came here 
 for my health alone, I shall want to be very quiet and 
 free from outside intrusion." 
 
 " Oh, law ! you need n t worry about that," cried 
 the widow, cheerily, stirring up the peapods with 
 so energetic a hand that her guest s sensitive nerves 
 were all a-quiver with actual pain. " I don t imagine 
 many of the neighbors will call, you see, it s a 
 pretty busy time o year just now. But honestly 
 now, f I was you, I d try ter make some acquain 
 tances. You Ve no idea how good company kind o 
 chirks a body up when they get spleeny and down 
 sperited." 
 
 Mrs. Humbre sank back in her chair with such a 
 dismayed face that her daughter felt it high time to 
 come to the rescue : 
 
 " See, Lois," and she held up a half-completed 
 picture so that all could see it, " How is that? " 
 
 The widow stopped shelling peas, and looked curi 
 ously at the pencilled figure. 
 
 " That s meant f r a crab, ain t it? " she asked. 
 
 Delphine meekly replied that it was, then turning 
 her batteries upon the unsuspecting widow, she pro 
 ceeded to put that worthy woman through a series of 
 investigations that might have struck terror to the 
 heart of the boldest scientist. 
 
 " Yes, I am greatly interested in the molluscs, and 
 I have come here this summer on purpose to study
 
 142 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 them. I suppose there are plenty of the Cephalo- 
 peda hereabouts, both naked and testaceous?" 
 
 She paused for a reply, but for once the widow s 
 tongue refused to do its duty, and she only stared 
 at her interlocutor with a look of such helpless be 
 wilderment that Lois was almost convulsed with the 
 laughter that she dared not give vent to. 
 
 " Wae-ell, yes. I dunno as I rightly understand." 
 
 " Oh, you know the species I mean," cried Miss 
 Delphine with the most innocent smile that ever was 
 seen. 
 
 " They have neither spine nor bones, and the nerv 
 ous system consists of nervous knobs, the ganglia as 
 they are called, that give off filamentous nerves 
 in all directions. Living here all your life, you must 
 be familiar with the bivalve molluscs, the Pectenjace- 
 bus and the Ostra edulis, yes Mytiluse dulis, you 
 know them, of course? " 
 
 " No, thank the Lord ! I never heard of sech mon 
 sters in these parts," gasped the widow, squirming 
 like a half-boiled lobster. " I don t see," with a 
 mighty effort to assert herself, " how sech lies could 
 a got round about us. We re poor, honest, workin 
 farmer an fisher folks, an we hain t got no canni 
 bals nor even savages amongst us." 
 
 " But the Decapods?" urged the new boarder with 
 undiminished zeal and hopefulness, "I know there are 
 plenty of them here. There s the Cancer pagurus and 
 the Pagurus Bernhardus, Astacus gammarus, and the 
 Cragnon vulgaris, and, " 
 
 " Good Lord, deliver us ! " and huddling her peas, 
 pods and all, into her apron, the discomfited widow
 
 "Blazing" the Way for Fashion 143 
 
 fairly fled the field, leaving Miss Delphine to join her 
 companions in a merry laugh over her well-won 
 victory. 
 
 " The lobsters and shrimps finished her," declared 
 Lois, " and I believe they would me if I had to call 
 them by those horrible old scientific names. Just 
 think, auntie with your delicate nerves and lungs, 
 to have to get up breath enough if you wanted to be 
 helped to turkey, to say: 
 
 " I 11 thank you for some of the Meleagris gallofiave, 
 with a bit of the Ostreaediilis stuffing." 
 
 Mrs. Humbre smiled languidly at her favor 
 ite s wit, and Miss Delphine patted her shoulder 
 approvingly. 
 
 "You re coming on famously, after all. I d no 
 idea that you remembered that much of your natural 
 history lesson. And now as a reward, I 11 take you 
 with me this afternoon to see the ruins of the old 
 Gregoire house. That will interest you if the jelly 
 fish and sea anemones don t." 
 Lois s bright face was all aglow with delight. 
 
 "That will be just splendid!" she cried. "I 
 dearly love to know all about the people, and what 
 they did, and how they looked who lived in the olden 
 times. You know, cousin Del, that I always have 
 my history lesson perfect. But I don t like, and I 
 never shall, to handle those nasty, slimy things that 
 cling to the wet rocks or burrow in the sand, if they 
 are interesting." 
 
 " Neither do I," interposed Mrs. Humbre with a 
 dainty shiver. " And I don t think such studies are 
 either becoming or ladylike. For my part," with a
 
 144 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 reproachful look at her evidently unmoved daughter, 
 " I don t see where Delphine got such masculine 
 tastes, for I m sure it has always been a peculiarity 
 of the ladies of my family that they either fainted or 
 went into hysterics at the sight of a mouse or spider. 
 My mother and both my sisters were noted for their 
 delicate sensibilities." 
 
 " No doubt, no doubt," returned Miss Delphine 
 absently, never pausing an instant in her work, " but 
 my sensibilities are not a bit delicate, you know. 
 Here, you rascal (to the crab), keep still, will you?" 
 tapping him on the head with her pencil, a famil 
 iarity that made her mother shudder, "I never 
 belonged to the order of 
 
 Ribbons and laces, 
 And sweet, pretty faces, 
 
 but I honestly believe if I d been born a man, I should 
 have made a famous naturalist. It s in me." 
 
 Mrs. Humbre shrugged her shoulders with a pretty, 
 half-petulant air, but said nothing. They had been 
 all over this same ground a hundred times, more or 
 less, the plan of attack being often slightly varied, 
 while the defence was always and everywhere the 
 same, natural tastes and inclinations so strong that 
 even the disabilities of sex and position could not 
 discourage them. 
 
 Mrs. Humbre was one of those unfortunate hen 
 mothers who, having hatched a pair of ducklings, 
 could not for the life of her comprehend the longing 
 that possessed them to paddle in forbidden waters, 
 rather than peck their grains of golden corn in lux-
 
 "Blazing" the Way for Fashion 145 
 
 urious security under the shade of the traditional 
 family dock and pigweed. Robert s Bohemian ten 
 dencies were a great trial to her, but since the world, 
 her world, had condescended to honor him as a 
 rising artist, she had grown very proud of him, 
 although even now his careless indifference to the 
 conventionalities that were the very breath of her 
 nostrils, was a source of much secret annoyance and 
 regret. But in her daughter s case the regrets had 
 far more of the bitterness of disappointed maternal 
 ambition than she would have cared to acknowledge, 
 even while she bewailed " dear Delphine s unaccount 
 able fascination for scientific studies." A great belle 
 in her youth, and even now, faded and aged by 
 ill health and indolent self indulgence, a pretty, 
 delicate woman, she had regarded her only daughter s 
 lack of personal beauty as in some sense a slur upon 
 herself, as if she had been put off with an inferior 
 article in lieu of something commensurate with her 
 own charms. 
 
 " To think," she would bemoan to her confidential 
 friends, " that I of all people, should be the mother 
 of such a plain child as Delphine. She has the 
 Humbre features, well enough for a man, but so 
 large and decided that they make a woman look like 
 an Amazon. And such a figure ! no more waist than 
 my pug Flora. Try? of course I tried, faithfully, 
 tearfully, I had almost said prayerfully, to keep stays 
 on her when she was young enough to make a figure. 
 But she would n t keep them on, declared she could n t 
 breathe in them, and cut the laces as soon as she 
 could get out of my sight. And since she grew up
 
 146 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 she will not wear them. What can I do? She s a 
 sight with a waist like that, and nobody knows it 
 better than I, but I can only suffer in silence." 
 
 But in Lois Gregory, the child of an old friend 
 whose death Mrs. Humbre had mourned as deeply as 
 it was in her nature to mourn anybody, the disap 
 pointed mother found an unlooked-for panacea for 
 her maternal woes. Pretty and graceful from her 
 babyhood, and only too willing as she grew older 
 to employ all the arts of dress and manner to enhance 
 her charms, she was to the idle, passt woman of the 
 world a resurrection of her own regretted past, a 
 beautiful creation, that under her training and tuition 
 should in time burst upon the fashionable world, a 
 vision of dazzling loveliness, in whose rosy reflection 
 she might once more taste something of the proud 
 triumphs of her own lost youth. Although Lois had 
 been left almost penniless at her parents death, Mrs. 
 Humbre had, from motives of her own, given the 
 girl to understand from the first that she was pos 
 sessed of ample means of her own, upon which her 
 guardian, Mr. Robert, drew for the funds needed in 
 her education and support. 
 
 " She should never grow up with the feeling of 
 dependence about her," reasoned the worldly wise 
 woman, " for if she was to be a famous belle and 
 make a brilliant match, as she was sure to do with 
 the advantages that she was to have, she must have 
 a proper pride in herself as a rich as well as beautiful 
 woman, and that could hardly be if she was conscious 
 of the truth that she was a penniless dependent upon 
 the bounty of her friends."
 
 "Blazing" the Way for Fashion 147 
 
 Although not admitted to their mother s confidence 
 in the matter, neither Robert Humbre nor his sister 
 would for the world have stooped to remind the 
 orphan of her dependence, and thus Lois had grown 
 up from childhood to maidenhood surrounded by 
 luxuries, and given every advantage of education 
 that her city home afforded, never dreaming that 
 the money so lavishly spent upon her was drawn 
 from Mrs. Humbre s private purse. That her partial 
 but ill judging protectress had not succeeded in quite 
 spoiling the girl was due to two things. First and 
 foremost was her own naturally warm and loving 
 heart, that not all this injudicious petting and flattery 
 had been able to harden, supplemented by Miss 
 Delphine s always wholesome influence. 
 
 The strong common sense that this sturdy offshoot 
 of the Humbres invariably brought to bear upon the 
 many vexing questions of their daily life, served to 
 dispel many a harmful illusion, and clear away many a 
 foolish outgrowth of childish vanity and conceit that 
 her mother s injudicious flattery had fostered. To be 
 sure it was apt to be up-hill work, for Lois had a fair 
 share of the self-will and obstinacy of the ordinary 
 spoiled child, but Miss Delphine s perseverance and 
 unfailing good temper accomplished much, especially 
 in the educational line, and by constant leading, coax 
 ing, and spurring, the naturally indolent student had 
 really become quite well informed upon many sub 
 jects that school girls of her age, even in this day of 
 good schools, know little or nothing about. Apart 
 from this she was quick witted and original, and Miss 
 Delphine remembered and quoted years afterwards
 
 148 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 her comment upon the events of this their first day 
 upon the Desert Island : 
 
 " Maybe we "re blazing a path through these 
 woods for other people to find their way by, just as 
 those old Pathfinders used to do. Would n t it be 
 funny, though, if sometime we should come back here 
 and find broad roads and big cities where we have to 
 make our own paths now? " 
 
 " Too funny to be probable," laughed Miss Del- 
 phine. 
 
 But for all that, she remembered the unwitting 
 prophecy, and repeated it in after years with no little 
 pride and satisfaction.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 "A SUNSHINY WORLD FULL OF LAUGHTER 
 AND LEISURE" 
 
 FOR a week or more Miss Delphine and Lois 
 found ample amusement in wandering without 
 other guide than their own wayward fancies, from end 
 to end of the rock-strewn beach, hunting for the 
 beautiful bits of feldspar and chalcedony that, worn 
 smooth as glass by the constant washing of the tide 
 for centuries, glowed in as many and delicate tints of 
 red, green, and pearl as if some gnome in his rocky 
 cavern beneath had, in sweeping out his doorway, 
 scattered in wanton wastefulness the precious rubbish 
 of chipped and rejected gems from his fairy work 
 bench. Sometimes they climbed upon the great 
 granite boulders, from which they could get a long 
 look out to sea, and the girl listened with half-incred 
 ulous wonder as her companion explained how 
 these same boulders, broken from the rocky founda 
 tions of the island, and carried seaward by the irresist 
 ible force of wind and wave, had, in the mighty 
 tempests of the past, been tossed like egg-shells upon 
 the beach, where they now lay stranded, huge hulks 
 of earth-born granite, smoothed at their bases by the 
 ever-lapping tides, and patched on their landward 
 side with mosses and lichen, as varied in shape and 
 color as a piece of crazy patchwork.
 
 150 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 On many a bare ledge of level rock they found a 
 pleasant excitement in tracing the long parallel lines 
 scratched upon its telltale surface, unmistakable 
 hints of a time when that mighty glacial torrent came 
 moving majestically down from Katahdin to the 
 Atlantic, bearing upon its bosom great icebergs 
 whose glittering peaks towered mountains high in 
 the cold Arctic air, and marking with iron heel their 
 footprints in the solid stone, strange hieroglyphics 
 in which future ages might read the story of that 
 grand, terrible, voiceless march to the sea. They 
 lingered about the fallen, weed-grown cellar of the 
 old Gregoire mansion, where Lois, with a girl s love 
 for the romantic and marvellous, exercised her wits 
 reconstructing the old-time household, picturing 
 the stately Frenchman and his beautiful wife in the 
 aristocratic seclusion in which the lord and lady 
 of this Island castle must necessarily have dwelt, and 
 where, cheered and charmed by the beauties that 
 Nature spread so lavishly around them, they walked 
 hand in hand down the sloping pathway of life to the 
 " low green tent " at its end. 
 
 In retrospect all seemed transfigured and ethereal- 
 ized by the mists of the past just as the Island fogs, 
 gray and formless in themselves, had power to cast 
 about the mountains to whose rugged sides they 
 clung, an ineffable mystery and charm, increasing 
 rather than marring their beauty to the poetic mind : 
 
 " Like troops of angels climbing fearlessly 
 Into a dark, and rough, and hardened soul." 
 
 In vain Miss Delphine relentlessly brought to bear 
 the local traditions upon the subject of the queer old
 
 "A Sunshiny World Full of Laughter" 151 
 
 pioneers, declaring them " avaricious, slatternly, and 
 addicted to snuff, rum, and Catholicism." Lois pre 
 ferred her own ideals to the Island folks distorted 
 pictures, and more than once, unknown to her friends, 
 she found a romantic satisfaction in decking with 
 wreaths of wild flowers the neglected graves where 
 the forefathers of the Island lay. But beach rambles 
 and even the memories of the Gregoires were begin 
 ning to grow a bit tiresome, when, one beautiful 
 sunny morning, just the day to be out of doors, 
 Mrs. Humbre took to her room with one of her low 
 nervous attacks, and as her daughter could not leave 
 her, the girl was left for the first time to wander at 
 her own sweet will wherever she would, with only the 
 faintly murmured caution from amidst the fluffy 
 depths of the invalid s down pillow: 
 
 " Don t get your feet wet, dear, and don t 
 forget to wear your gloves, your hands burn so 
 easily." 
 
 " I think," the girl said to herself as with a thrill of 
 that proud exultation that one who tries, for the first 
 time and alone, untrodden byways, is prone to feel, 
 she strolled aimlessly down the dusty highway that 
 led past the widow s front door, " I think I 11 try that 
 road that leads down towards the woods. Tabby said 
 yesterday that it was the schoolhouse road, and went 
 close to Granny Hedvig s hut. She s a coarse, 
 spiteful thing, that Tabby." 
 
 And a listener would have been puzzled to see the 
 connection between Tabby s bit of local information 
 and the sudden flash of Lois s black eyes at that 
 moment. Perhaps Tabby s choice of words was un-
 
 152 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 fortunate, but at any rate Miss Lois seemed to have 
 no hesitation in availing herself of the information 
 thus gained, for she set off with a brisk step down 
 the narrow grass-grown road, that was now so seldom 
 travelled by other than pedestrians that it looked 
 in the distance, she thought, like a broad striped 
 ribbon of gray and green, only flecked here and 
 there with the gold of an intrusive buttercup or the 
 violet of a bit of self-heal. 
 
 What a bright, sweet, blithesome morning it was ! 
 The memory of it came back to the girl many a time 
 in after years, like some half-forgotten yet still beau 
 tiful dream, when tired and soiled with the dust of 
 life s broader highway, she was glad at times to shut 
 her eyes, and see again the fresh green sward, the 
 starry-eyed daisies and golden buttercups nodding in 
 neighborly fashion to each other, the buxom purple 
 clover keeping watch and ward over his paler cousins, 
 the sweet-breathed white and pink, to say nothing of 
 that Puck among wild flowers, the flame-capped cel 
 andine, pert, tricksy little elf! ready to resent in 
 a moment the touch of rude or careless fingers. 
 Here and there, standing stiff and graceless by the 
 wayside, rose a tall spruce or pine, wreathed from top 
 to toe with the fresh green leaves and feathery snow 
 of the clematis, while crowds of sweet wild roses 
 thrust inquisitive faces out from the shelter of alder 
 thickets and nodded a friendly welcome to the charmed 
 stranger. With eager delight the girl picked hand- 
 fuls of the fragrant blossoms, decking belt and bosom 
 with their delicate loveliness. There was a kind of 
 delicious bravado in taking advantage of this lavish
 
 "A Sunshiny World Full of Laughter" 153 
 
 open-handedness on the part of Nature, as if one 
 should say in wanton mood : 
 
 " Give much, give more, and ever more, 
 Still grasp I, add I, to my store." 
 
 The grasshopper s whirr and the occasional note of 
 a paternal robin, too busy now in providing for the 
 hungry youngsters at home to find time to practise 
 those marvellous bravuras that a few weeks earlier 
 had made the woodland vocal with music, were the 
 only sounds outside of the never-ceasing, distant lap 
 ping of the waves upon the rocky beach that broke 
 the midsummer stillness. In that atmosphere and 
 amidst these surroundings, life seemed all at once to 
 have become the sweetest, most blessed thing of 
 which the imagination of man can conceive. Sorrow, 
 disappointment, pain and death were as unreal and 
 far away as were the ice, and snow, and chilling 
 frosts of winter. It was joy enough to be, to live, 
 and move, and breathe in this blessed to-day, and let 
 the future as the past take care of itself. 
 
 Delusions, say you? Yes, but thank God for these 
 delusions, fleeting and short though they may be, and 
 recall when perchance the storms of life beat over the 
 shivering soul, and sorrow s icy touch chills the most 
 hopeful heart, these blessed, heaven-sent spots in our 
 pilgrimage, and let them be a promise, sure and un 
 changeable, of that rest beyond, in the Garden of our 
 Lord where " the tender grapes appear ; and the 
 pomegranates bud forth ; and the mandrakes give a 
 pleasant smell, all of which I have laid up for thee, 
 O my beloved."
 
 1 54 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 It may have been some unexplainable attraction, or 
 it may have been a glimpse of a pink sunbonnet flit 
 ting in and out among the leafy shadows, that served 
 her as a guide, but it is sure that the girl was at no 
 loss when she came to the scarce-trodden footpath, to 
 know that it led to Granny Hedvig s cottage and to 
 follow it unhesitatingly. Hut indeed ! Why the little 
 cottage was the most picturesque thing imaginable, 
 with the clematis and wild morning-glories wreathing 
 its low, log-built walls with garlands of white, and 
 rose, and purple, while the roses that had been their 
 mistress pride and joy, now in full bloom, made the 
 air heavy with their dainty perfume. The little 
 brook rippled as placidly over its pebbly bed as if it 
 had never known the let and fret of troublesome 
 boulder or fallen tree trunk, while in the blossoming 
 catnip patch the bees were humming, undisturbed in 
 the least by the slender, girlish figure that walked 
 so fearlessly among them, pausing often at one spe 
 cial hive where something unusual seemed to be 
 going on. 
 
 Lois was not troubled with diffidence, neither did it 
 enter into her head that she might be considered an 
 intruder, and she had no hesitation in taking the most 
 direct road to the gratification of her curiosity, al 
 though a wholesome dread of the bees themselves 
 kept her outside their special domain, thus forcing 
 her to raise her voice to a very unladylike key as she 
 called abruptly: 
 
 " What is it? what are you doing with the bees? " 
 
 The girl started, and turning displayed a face be 
 neath the pink sunbonnet browned, and by no means
 
 "A Sunshiny World Full of Laughter" i 55 
 
 beautiful according to Lois s somewhat exaggerated 
 standard, but very pleasing in its unaffected friendli 
 ness and utter absence of either suspicion or servility. 
 
 "I m watching for them to swarm," she said, with a 
 look of honest admiration in her clear, straightforward 
 eyes, as she took in at a glance the pretty, dainty 
 figure, from the broad gipsy hat of the finest Leg 
 horn straw, to toe tips of the high, neatly laced boots. 
 "Don t you want to see them?" she asked, with a 
 momentary flush of embarrassment as she saw the 
 glance of surprise that the city-bred Miss cast upon 
 her. "They re all ready, I know, for I ve heard the 
 old queen scolding for the last two hours, and she 11 
 be sure to start soon." 
 
 "Scolding? The queen scolding?" repeated her 
 listener, half indignant at the idea that the stranger 
 was trying to quiz her. 
 
 Comfort laughed. 
 
 " I call it that," she said with a quick look in the 
 direction of the hive where an angry buzzing was 
 going on, growing louder and more aggressive every 
 minute. " You know that when a young queen is 
 hatched out the old one is so mad that she tries to get 
 at her to sting her to death. But the workers keep 
 them apart, till at last the old queen won t stay there 
 any longer, and for a long time you can hear, if you 
 put your ear close to the hive, her hum growing louder 
 and louder every minute, then you may know that 
 she s all ready to start out with a new swarm." 
 
 " But why do they swarm?" asked Lois, straining 
 her eyes to get a good look at the interesting insects. 
 
 " Because the hive is too full, and the part that
 
 156 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 hold to the old queen go out under her lead and 
 start a new colony. I ve got a nice hive all ready 
 that I coaxed my brother Isaac to make, and he 
 promised to help me hive em, but he s gone off 
 somewhere and I shall have to do the best I can 
 alone." 
 
 " Oh, let me help ! " and Lois fairly danced in her 
 excitement, this was better than all the old cellars 
 on the Island. "What shall I do? and won t they 
 sting me? " 
 
 " Not if you don t scare them," replied the other, 
 with a tone of assurance that set her companion s 
 rising fears at rest at once. " All you need to do is, 
 when the swarm rises into the air, throw a handful of 
 dust in their faces. That kind of bewilders them and 
 keeps them from flying away, so they 11 keep near 
 and I can hive them." 
 
 " Oh, I can do that." 
 
 And all alive with the excitement of the occasion, 
 off went the gloves that Mrs. Humbre had insisted 
 upon, and turning back her cuffs with the air of a 
 prize fighter, the new assistant declared her readiness 
 to throw a handful, or, if needed, a cartload of 
 dust into the eyes of the winged emigrants. 
 
 " There they come ! " cried Comfort excitedly. 
 
 "Now," producing a long pole from which was 
 suspended a thick woolen stocking, "just as soon as 
 they rise, you throw the dust right among them, and 
 I It hold the stocking where they 11 light on it." 
 
 Too much excited to think of possible danger to 
 herself, as the winged crowd rose from the over 
 crowded hive, Lois tossed handful after handful of
 
 "A Sunshiny World Full of Laughter" 157 
 
 the yellow dust toward them, until as Comfort had 
 predicted they settled down upon the convenient 
 stocking, and with a gentle yet deft motion of the 
 bearer s hand were easily transferred to the new 
 hive, while both girls watched, scarcely daring to 
 breathe, until the bewildered, uncertain movements 
 ceased, and the new swarm took up its regular routine 
 as if nothing had happened to disturb the even tenor 
 of its way. Lois picked up her gloves and hat, and 
 with a very red, heated face began to brush the dust 
 from her disordered dress, while Comfort, all at once 
 remembering that hiving bees was not as familiar a 
 business to every girl as to herself, hastened to ex 
 press her thanks, as well as her sense of the other s 
 courage under what was, no doubt, to her a trying 
 experience. 
 
 " I m ever so much obliged to you for helping me, 
 and I think,"- with a touch of shyness, "that you 
 must be the bravest girl in the world to dare to do it. 
 I have helped Granny so many times, and the bees 
 know me so well that I don t think anything of it 
 myself, but lots of folks round here would have been 
 so frightened that they would n t have dared to do a 
 single thing." 
 
 Lois actually blushed with pleasure. She had 
 been called pretty, and charming, and sweet, and all 
 that, ever since she could remember, but brave, 
 here was something to be proud of indeed 1 and it 
 is doubtful if in the social triumphs of her later years 
 the little maiden ever tasted a sweeter cup than this 
 innocent, honest tribute to her yet fresh lip. It was 
 a new sensation, too, this consciousness of being useful
 
 158 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 to somebody, and at the same time awoke in her a 
 feeling of half-unconscious fellowship that she had 
 never in all her life felt toward any companion of 
 her own age and condition. This little brown-faced 
 country girl, in her plain home-made gown, ungloved 
 and unshod, not a whit more tasteful or fashionable 
 in her dress than the despised Tabby Scripture, had 
 something about her that drew and kept the friendly 
 interest of this stranger, who was in almost every 
 respect as far removed from her as one of the same 
 age and sex could well be. 
 
 On any ordinary occasion, Comfort would never 
 have dreamed of intruding herself upon the " stuck- 
 up city Miss," as Tabby bitterly called her, for the 
 child had an honest pride of her own that would 
 never have allowed her to expose herself willingly 
 to the rebuffs of a social superior. But everything 
 had come about so naturally and unexpectedly that 
 there had been no time for ceremony, and in her 
 own mind Comfort was now thoroughly convinced 
 that the little lady had been grievously slandered by 
 the jealous Tabby, while the girlish delight with 
 which she regarded her beauty, set off by its dainty 
 adornments, had in it not a trace of envy or jealous 
 detraction. 
 
 In her way, too, Lois was quite as much in love 
 with the little bee-keeper, and as they sat together in 
 the shadow of the deserted doorway, and with girlish 
 freedom talked of a thousand things dear to the lives 
 if not the hearts of each, a sense of comradeship that 
 had nothing whatever to do with the birth, education, 
 or position of either, awoke in them, and made the
 
 "A Sunshiny World Full of Laughter" 159 
 
 acquaintanceship thus oddly begun a promise of 
 future enjoyment and possible profit to both. 
 
 " She s the dearest, most innocent little thing you 
 ever saw," declared Lois in the family conclave that 
 evening. 
 
 " You need n t look so unbelieving, auntie," as that 
 very prudent chaperon shook her head with an air 
 of gentle incredulity. " She s a little lady, with all 
 her country ways, and I mean to be real intimate 
 with her while we re here, for I m tired to death 
 having no girl to go round with." 
 
 " Now, Robert," began Mrs. Humbre, with a vague 
 feeling that somebody ought to interfere with this 
 unequal friendship, but Robert for once was on the 
 other side. 
 
 " Don t trouble yourself, mother," he spoke 
 gently, as he always did to his mother, but there was 
 a decision in his tones that showed a more than 
 common interest in the subject, as well as a deter 
 mination that rather surprised his listeners. " This 
 little Comfort Hadlock is an old friend of mine, and if 
 Lois will take pattern by her in the womanly virtues 
 of unselfishness, modesty, and perfect truthfulness, she 
 may prove the very best friend that she could have." 
 
 Miss Delphine looked up quickly from her book. 
 
 " Is she the one you told us of who barred the 
 door of that old woman against the midnight robbers, 
 and was forced at the inquest to testify against her 
 own brother? " 
 
 Robert smiled at his sister s characteristic way of 
 putting it, but he replied with a glance at Lois s eager 
 glowing face :
 
 160 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 lf The same. And for my part, I think the defense 
 of her helpless old friend, gallant as it was, required 
 less courage than that truthful testimony that she 
 gave at the inquest. Moral courage is always supe 
 rior, to my mind, than physical, let the world say 
 what it will." 
 
 " Why, Cousin Robert, she s as brave as Jennie 
 Deans ! " cried Lois, and Robert nodded. Evidently 
 he thought so, too.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 "THERE IS NO WIND BUT SOWETH SEEDS" 
 
 "OHE needs mothering, poor child!" repeated 
 ^ Mrs. Hadlock to herself, as through the half- 
 closed kitchen door she listened to the blithe chatter 
 of the girls, for Lois had, by this time, become almost 
 as much at home in the old farmhouse as Comfort 
 herself. From the first, there had been something 
 about the pretty, wilful, impulsive child that had 
 appealed strongly to the good woman s motherly 
 sympathies, and she had almost unconsciously come 
 to include her in all the little tender privileges and 
 loving tendance that she lavished upon her own 
 child. 
 
 Mrs. Humbre would scarcely have recognized the 
 dainty, pert, self-conscious little lady in miniature, of 
 her careful training, in the helpful, happy child who 
 hunted eggs in the fragrant, high-heaped mows, picked 
 the strawberries for her own supper, and actually 
 helped Comfort in her dish-washing with as deft and 
 neat a hand as if she had done nothing else in all her 
 life. That warm, tender atmosphere of motherly love 
 seemed to bring out all that was best and sweetest 
 in the girl, whose inner nature unfolded petal by 
 petal, under its wholesome sunshine, as certain flowers, 
 fair but scentless, all at once acquire a fragrance be 
 fore unknown when exposed to the proper climatic
 
 1 62 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 influences. There is no doubt that children may be 
 dry nursed into a healthful, vigorous maturity, but 
 it is certain that those same children will carry about 
 with them all their lives a sense of something lacking 
 to their childhood, a right of which they have been 
 defrauded, the right to that "mothering" that 
 every creature, from the bird that builds in the lilac 
 at your door, to the cat upon the hearth-rug cuddling 
 her helpless babies close to her furry breast, finds it 
 the joy and duty of life to bestow. The mother 
 who looks upon her innocent baby as an encum 
 brance, to be shifted as far as possible upon the 
 shoulders of hirelings, is as great a monstrosity as the 
 two-headed girl or the frog boy. 
 
 How often we hear the expression : " Tied down to 
 a family of children." That is just it, " tied," held, 
 bound to home and all its sweet, helpful, purifying in 
 fluences, bound by the silken cord of a love that, in 
 its unselfish devotion, is nearest akin to the Divine 
 of any that humanity can know, set apart, as in a 
 blessed shrine, from all the turmoil and tumult of the 
 busy world outside. Happy, thrice happy the woman 
 who, with conscious pride, wears these love-woven 
 bands as the insignia of a royalty more to be desired 
 than the diadem of princes. 
 
 But there are mothers, and mothers ; and Mrs. 
 Humbre being one of the " and mothers," it is not 
 strange that while caring faithfully for the bodily 
 needs of her young charge, she should feel that her 
 duties were well fulfilled, and that its own mother 
 could not have done better by the beautiful child 
 than she had done. And Lois had never realized the
 
 "There is no Wind but Soweth Seeds" 163 
 
 difference until, in this old farmhouse by the sea, she 
 had learned something of the tender, unselfish nature 
 of true motherhood, and had come to long unspeak 
 ably for something like it in her own life. 
 
 Comfort, on her part, was learning in a hundred 
 little ways from this companionship to modify her 
 ruder notions of speech and manner, to amend her 
 grammar as well as her dress, and best of all to acquire 
 an intense longing for a broader, higher type of educa 
 tion than her own little world afforded. In her eyes 
 Lois was a paragon of learning, and Miss Delphine the 
 wisest woman in the whole world. It was a perfect 
 delight to guide her new friends to the various points 
 of interest in the neighborhood, and to help to collect 
 the specimens that the elder lady had so sharp an eye 
 for. It was so strange that all her life she had looked 
 upon these wonders of sea and shore without realizing 
 half their beauty and rarity, and never did a teacher 
 have a more zealous and apt scholar in scientific study 
 than did Miss Delphine in the Squire s bright little 
 daughter. 
 
 Under her directions she learned to prepare and 
 press the beautifully colored seaweeds and mosses, 
 and even to classify some of the commoner kinds, 
 thus outdoing Lois, who was perfectly content to pre 
 serve their delicate beauty in a convenient form with 
 out troubling herself with their genealogies or social 
 habits. In the shallow caves along the shore, where 
 the tides of the ages have worn away the solid rock, 
 leaving the cavernous mouths ever gaping helplessly 
 at the incoming destroyer, were wonderful collections 
 of animal and vegetable growths, each a museum
 
 1 64 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 in itself, overflowing with wonders to the intelligent 
 stranger who was fortunate enough to discover its 
 hoarded secrets. It was to one of these caves on a 
 pleasant July afternoon that Miss Delphine and her 
 girlish companions took their way, mainly on Com 
 fort s recommendation, and as always under her 
 guidance. In her researches the learned lady had 
 never paid much heed to the sentiment that " The 
 proper study of mankind is Man," inarticulate 
 Nature had always interested her much more than 
 the peculiarities, physical, mental, or moral, of her 
 own kind. But on this lazy, hazy summer afternoon, 
 the sea-bronzed, dilapidated old fishermen dotted 
 here and there along the beach, like heaps of rusty 
 brown sea-kelp, seemed so congenial and in harmony 
 with the rough, weather-beaten rocks and stunted 
 pines and spruces along the shore, that she was in 
 clined for once to encourage her companions in their 
 girlish good-fellowship for these veterans of the sea, 
 and their sunburned, barefooted children. 
 
 " There s old Sol ! " cried Comfort, and somewhat 
 to Miss Delphine s surprise, Lois seemed to recog 
 nize the individual at once, and hastened after her 
 friend in the direction of a solitary figure sitting upon 
 a rock and so busy in his work of mending a net that 
 he was evidently unaware of their approach until they 
 were close beside him, then civilly touching his bat 
 tered sou wester, he returned their greeting with a 
 hospitable smile that made every wrinkle of his 
 weather-worn face express a separate welcome. 
 
 " Yer sarvent, ladies ! " rising from his seat with 
 as much alacrity as his rheumatic limbs would
 
 "There is no Wind but Soweth Seeds" 165 
 
 allow, and glancing a little doubtfully at the stranger 
 lady. 
 
 " I m loth ter disapp int ye," he went on, evidently 
 under the impression that his services as a boatman 
 were desired, " but Jake s out fishin with the dory, 
 an the pinkie leaks like a sieve." 
 
 Comfort hastened to explain that they were out 
 for a walk instead of a sail, and that their destination 
 was the " Mermaid s Cave," whereat old Sol scratched 
 his grizzled head, and " allowed " that they d " have 
 ter step spry," or they " would n t get there while 
 twas slack water. You see, ma am," addressing Miss 
 Delphine, as the responsible member of the party, 
 "she s a nasty place, that air cave is, f r a body ter 
 get stranded in when the tide s comin in. I railly 
 think now that t would be safer f r me ter take that 
 pinkie o Bill Jones s, an* row ye over. That ll save 
 time, an I c n keep a lookout so t you won t get 
 caught onawares when the tide comes in." 
 
 Miss Delphine cast her eyes along the rocky, far- 
 stretching shore and was half persuaded, but Lois 
 interposed impatiently: 
 
 " No, no, Cousin Del ! it s ever so much more fun 
 to walk. I want to get some of those sea-urchins, 
 and you know you promised you d help us find a 
 razor-shell." 
 
 Miss Delphine yielded, though rather against her 
 own judgment, and the fisherman, watching them 
 as they walked away, ruminated with a look of appre 
 hension on his weather-beaten old face : 
 
 " She do look kind o ugly," scanning meanwhile 
 the summer sky, over which a few fleecy white clouds
 
 1 66 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 were leisurely sailing. " Dog Mounting s bed his 
 storm signal out ever sense the turn o the tide. 
 Here, you Mandy," stirring with his toe a small 
 bundle of faded and tattered calico burrowing in the 
 sand, behind a convenient rock, as shapeless, un 
 couth, and evidently as wild as the sand crabs that 
 she was digging for, " what dandy craft s that, that 
 Squire Hadlock s gal s got in tow? " 
 
 " Lor, gran daddy, don t ye know? Well, you are 
 green," piped up a small voice, with a laugh that 
 had a queer, muffled sound as if the throat it came 
 from was full of the Island fog. " Did n t ye ever 
 hearn o them city swells harborin down ter the 
 Widder Scripture s?" 
 
 "Why, yis, yis, sure enuff," and the old man 
 walked a little farther down the shore, and stretched 
 his neck to get a good look at the retreating figures. 
 " Schooner rigged, both of em, an the little one 
 carries a fair show o buntin " (evidently referring to 
 the ribbons on Lois s hat). " See here, you Mandy," 
 turning the ungainly figure around, and regarding it 
 with a meditative eye, " mebbe if you had as trim a 
 rig o stompers on yer hoofs as that un, an hed yer 
 brush all slicked up an braided smooth an trim, 
 even if ye did n t have no streamers ter decker with, 
 and hed yer canvas all clean an whole as them uns 
 has, you Wlook kind o smart an wholesome, too." 
 
 A hot flush of angry shame sprang to the freckled, 
 sunburned face, and almost quenched the tears that 
 filled her blue eyes as she turned them, half in anger 
 yet full of tender reproach upon her grandfather. 
 
 " I hain t no lady, an I hain t got nobody ter buy
 
 "There is no Wind but Soweth Seeds" 167 
 
 me a lady s rigour., and if I hed, I should n t be no 
 body but Mandy all the same. I didn t think, 
 gran daddy," and now the tears overflowed her eyes 
 and ran unchecked down her hot cheeks, " I did n t 
 think you d ever be ashamed of me." 
 
 " No more I hain t, sweetheart," cried the remorse 
 ful old man, with a hearty slap upon her shoulder, 
 the nearest approach to a caress in which he ever 
 indulged; " ye re the best cook on the Island, f I 
 do say it, an what Jake an I d do without ye the 
 Lord only knows. Ye see I was only kind o spekil- 
 latin " (treading softly as if realizing that he was 
 on dangerous ground,) "as ter how much better, 
 bein clipper-built, you d look in their riggin than 
 they do." 
 
 Mandy drew the back of one dirty little hand across 
 her eyes, and a smile spread like sunshine over her 
 childish face as she graciously accepted the old 
 man s amende honorable. And yet somehow, the 
 incautious words had left a wound that could not be 
 easily healed, and the fisherman s little half-wild 
 grand-daughter for the first time in her life, found 
 herself painfully conscious of her bare feet and torn 
 gown, as she slowly picked her way back to the 
 humble cabin where, with her grandfather and the 
 boy Jake, she had until now lived without a thought 
 of anything better than its rough shelter and scanty 
 resources afforded. 
 
 Now, the first thing that she did after re-kindling 
 the decaying brands in the rude stone fireplace, was 
 to bring out a wooden pocket comb from some 
 obscure corner, and set herself resolutely to work to
 
 1 68 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 comb out the tangles in her matted, sunburned hair. 
 It was a tremendous undertaking, and the child tugged 
 and pulled at the refractory snarls, until the pain 
 brought the tears to her eyes, and a volley of explo 
 sives, more forcible than polite, from her lips. Still 
 she persevered, for she had been born of a patient, 
 determined race, and when the task was fairly com 
 pleted, and the long, heavy locks neatly braided, 
 their owner took a good long look at herself in the 
 bit of broken looking-glass that graced the tall 
 wooden chimney shelf, and gave a sigh of rare 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " My brush is longer by two inches than that city 
 gal s," she chuckled, holding out the long braid ad 
 miringly, " an now I 11 wash my face an han s, an 
 mend the biggest holes in my gown, an see what 
 gran daddy 11 say to me then." 
 
 Poor little Mandy ! You are getting your first 
 taste of the unrest and dissatisfaction with self that 
 civilization of every grade is sure to bring in its train, 
 and without which neither nations nor individuals 
 would ever have emerged from their original barbar 
 ism. There is a feeling of self-respect and honest 
 satisfaction engendered by the consciousness of being 
 neatly and fittingly attired, let satirists and stoics say 
 what they will, and the woman who first invented a 
 covering for her head, and clothed her naked shoul 
 ders with a mantle of her own weaving, was as truly 
 the benefactor of her sex and species as she who 
 to-day bravely contends for the right to make the 
 most of the natural gifts bestowed upon her by her 
 Maker.
 
 "There is no Wind but Soweth Seeds" 169 
 
 Many frivolities and belittling ideas and notions 
 were to be introduced into the lives of, and grafted 
 upon the sturdy old Island stock, by the incoming 
 tide of fashionable pleasure seekers. But when we 
 remember the greater breadth of thought, the refin 
 ing and enlightening influences that necessarily have 
 found their way through a thousand channels into the 
 sleepy little community, awakening ambitions that 
 are not all selfish and mercenary by any means, we 
 must own that the wealth and material prosperity 
 that Fashion has brought to the sea-girt Island is not 
 the only or the best gift bestowed upon it. Poverty 
 and isolation are strong barriers in the advance of 
 any community, and whatever force overcomes them 
 and throws open the gates to a neighborly inter 
 change of civilities with the world outside, is and 
 must be largely a beneficent one.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 "A SEALED PALACE, RICH AND DIM" 
 
 TN spite of old Sol s prediction, the blue summer 
 sea lay unruffled by so much as a cat s paw of 
 wind, leaving a wide stretch of wet beach from which 
 the tide had so lately receded that the heaps of sea 
 weed were alive with the curious forms of animal life 
 left by the inflowing wave, and the girls gladly loi 
 tered at the mouth of the cave, hunting for star-fishes 
 and sea-urchins, the first of every age and size 
 from the tiny rosette with its five shapeless knobs 
 sticking out in every direction, to the full-grown 
 animal with its five mail-clad fingers capped with a 
 watchful eye at the tip of each, and hundreds of tiny 
 feet with which it crawls over the rocks and sands, 
 searching for food to satisfy the ever hungry mouth 
 beneath. It was rare fun to catch the curious things, 
 and dropping them into one of the pools left by the 
 retreating tide, watch them as they sucked in the sea 
 water through the minute filter that Nature has pro 
 vided in the shape of a little plate of lime, pierced 
 with holes between two of the mailed fingers; and 
 even Lois, despite her reluctance to touch the " slimy, 
 creepy things," could not resist the contagion of her 
 companion s enthusiasm, and curiously watched this 
 glutton of the sea at his feeding, even catering to his 
 greed by now and then dropping a plump mussel
 
 "A Sealed Palace, Rich and Dim" 171 
 
 shell in his path, or stirring him up with the tip of 
 one cautious finger, just to see him curl up the tips 
 of his rays, and from all five of his red eyes dart a 
 look of angry defiance at his tormentor. 
 
 The girls would have found amusement enough in 
 these queer playfellows to have lasted them all the 
 afternoon, but Miss Delphine was getting impatient to 
 explore the cave, whose dim, dark recesses promised 
 a far rarer treat to her scientific palate than those 
 common if curious creatures that every heap of sea 
 weed harbored a colony of. As they passed beneath 
 the grim, overarching gateway, the sudden change from 
 the warmth and sunshine that reigned without sent an 
 involuntary chill to even Comfort s accustomed nerves, 
 while Lois grumbled audibly, and Miss Delphine hur 
 ried forward as if half suspicious that her escort might 
 fail her even now, and this bit of wonderland be left 
 unexplored after all. Advancing a few yards from 
 the mouth, the light grew dim, almost like twilight, 
 while the echoing waves made a strange weird music 
 in their ears that checked for a moment the girls 
 careless chatter, and sent a feeling of awe even to 
 Miss Delphine s sober scientific bosom. The floor 
 was of pale pink limestone, worn smooth as marble 
 by the tide, and half hidden by dull green heaps of 
 drifted seaweed, over which Lois stumbled help 
 lessly, with many an impatient exclamation. 
 
 " I don t see what there is to look at in this damp, 
 nasty hole ! " she cried, catching at the rough walls 
 of the cavern to steady herself. " It s so dark and 
 pokerish that I can hardly tell rock from seaweed. 
 Ugh ! " with a frantic clutch at Miss Delphine s skirts,
 
 172 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " Some ugly thing hanging on the wall caught at my 
 fingers. I just won t stay another minute, so there ! " 
 
 But Miss Delphine only laughed, giving her a little 
 reassuring shake, as she explained for her benefit, 
 that " T was nothing but a sea anemone, a beautiful 
 harmless creature, that could n t hurt one if he 
 would." 
 
 And now that their eyes were becoming accus 
 tomed to the dim light, the group plucked up courage 
 enough to look about them with a wondering curiosity 
 that had in it something of repulsion as well as 
 pleasure. The walls of the cavern, never visited by 
 the direct rays of the sun, were thickly covered with 
 those marvellous growths that form the connecting 
 link between animal and vegetable life, and lend 
 plausibility to the theories of certain scientists who 
 contend that both sprang from the same parent atom. 
 There were anemones, clinging cuplike to the rock, 
 with waving plumes of scarlet, green, and orange ten 
 tacles, and throwing off countless buds that in time 
 would develop the same beautiful form and hues of 
 the parent plant-animal. Pale green sponges, drip 
 ping with the briny moisture that the tide had left in 
 their numberless canals ; and thousands of the little 
 shell fish called " acorn shells " securely anchored to 
 the rock, and each waving a tuft of transparent 
 threads like a curl of delicate hair, from the door of 
 his shelly, cone-shaped home. 
 
 Miss Delphine was in her element, and her com 
 panions could do no less than listen to her enthusi 
 astic comments. 
 
 " See here," calling their attention to the veritable
 
 "A Sealed Palace, Rich and Dim" 173 
 
 anemone whose chilly welcome had so disgusted 
 Lois, " isn t he a beauty? He s one of the lasso- 
 throwers that I described to you, Lois, of the same 
 family, you know, as the jellyfish and coral animal." 
 
 " A beauty ! " cried Lois, highly indignant. " An 
 ugly, spiteful old thing, I call him. I should n t 
 wonder a bit," ruefully examining the endangered 
 finger, " if he d poisoned me with his nasty lasso." 
 
 " No danger of that," and Miss Delphine deliber 
 ately proceeded to place her own finger in the midst 
 of the feathery cluster. " The lassos are so minute 
 that they make no impression upon a person s skin, 
 but they serve to paralyze the small slugs and sea 
 worms upon which the creature feeds." 
 
 Here Lois, who had been gradually getting up her 
 courage, hastened to distinguish herself by a dis 
 covery on her own account: 
 
 " See here, Cousin Del," peering curiously into a 
 rocky crevice filled with water, " what a funny crea 
 ture this is. He looks like a plump brown sausage." 
 
 Miss Delphine was all alive with excitement. 
 
 " Where? where? Why, I really do believe you ve 
 found a sea-cucumber. Yes," straining her eyes to 
 get a good look at the sluggish creature as he lay 
 motionless upon his rocky couch, " yes, there are 
 the five stripes down his back, and oh, girls ! do see 
 those lovely purple tentacles about his mouth. I 
 would n t have missed him for the world." And the 
 speaker actually trembled with the joy and excite 
 ment of the unexpected discovery. 
 
 " If I can only get him, where s the pail, Com 
 fort? "
 
 174 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 And as Comfort hastily produced the pail filled 
 with sea water that had been taken along with them 
 for possible " specimens," Miss Delphine very gin 
 gerly introduced the tips of her fingers into the 
 cucumber s bath, and with insinuating gentleness 
 proceeded to lift the unresisting occupant from the 
 water, when all at once, with a swift, gliding 
 motion, the almost captive slipped from her hand, 
 and in an instant, discharging from its body the 
 water that formed nine-tenths of its bulk, simply 
 effaced itself by shrinking into a crevice so small 
 that even Lois s slender fingers could not reach him. 
 
 " That s one of his tricks," cried Miss Delphine, 
 not a little disappointed, while both girls " won 
 dered " in concert at his remarkable agility and 
 power of reducing his bulk at will. 
 
 It was " as good as a museum," declared Lois, 
 who, now used to the dusk and dampness, wandered 
 fearlessly about the rocky chamber, insisting upon a 
 minute examination of every new discovery, and en 
 joying herself immensely in playing the tutor to 
 Comfort, whose bewilderment in the face of all these 
 before unheard-of wonders was so funny that it called 
 forth peals of laughter from her merry mate, and 
 made the dim old cavern echo with the unfamiliar 
 music. Miss Delphine was so occupied in filling her 
 pail with rare specimens of these strange cave 
 dwellers that she failed to notice the increasing 
 gloom, until a sudden exclamation from one of the 
 girls aroused her to a consciousness that the twilight 
 was fast darkening about them, while the soft purr 
 of the tide without had swelled into a hoarse, angry
 
 "A Sealed Palace, Rich and Dim" 175 
 
 note, that had something ominous and threatening to 
 their startled ears. 
 
 " Bless my soul ! I never dreamed that it was get 
 ting so late." And closely followed by her girlish 
 companions, Miss Delphine hurried to the mouth of 
 the cave, where she stood for a moment, thunder 
 struck at the transformation that a few short hours 
 had wrought in sky and ocean. The sea was of an 
 angry green, and its hurrying waves, thickly dotted 
 with white caps, ominous of the coming storm, 
 were beaten down by the fierce north wind that 
 whirled the foamy crests far to leeward, or dashed 
 them against the grim face of the cliff in creamy 
 patches, bespattering beach and boulder with the 
 cold, salt spray. The fair islands that had lain 
 almost within hailing distance upon the bosom of 
 the placid summer sea were now hidden from sight 
 in a thick gloom of gray fog; while the sea gulls, 
 skirmishing with fearless wing the threatening waves, 
 sent forth a shrill, boding cry, that to an imaginative 
 mind might have seemed either a warning or a dirge. 
 But Miss Delphine s was not an imaginative mind, 
 and after the first start of surprise with which she 
 had recognized the coming storm, she lost no time 
 in useless regrets or fears, but with a cheerful word 
 of encouragement to Lois, took her hand, and led by 
 Comfort, hastened across the rocky beach in the 
 direction from which they had come a few hours 
 before. 
 
 To the Island-bred girl the way though rough was 
 by no means impassable, although the tide was now 
 coming in so fast that they were soon drenched from
 
 1 76 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 head to foot with the spray, and the rocks, made 
 slippery by the damp, served as so many traps for 
 their unused feet. They were now forced to abandon 
 the smoother sand and clamber as best they could 
 over the decaying tree trunks and debris that the 
 ocean had flung from time to time upon the unreturn- 
 ing shore, and which now lay in hopeless confusion, 
 bleached and battered by the remorseless hand of 
 Time. 
 
 Lois was soon crying bitterly with fatigue and cold, 
 while Miss Delphine tried hard to keep up her own 
 spirits as well as those of her charge, by the hopeful 
 prophecy that " the way would certainly be easier 
 soon." But swiftly, surely, the gray damp fog closed 
 in upon them, absorbing them into its cold, grim 
 folds, making her feel, Miss Delphine declared 
 afterwards, as if some giant antediluvian jellyfish 
 was making a meal of them after his own peculiar 
 fashion. Every landmark was hidden, not a moun 
 tain peak, not an island, not a familiar tree even was 
 visible through the dense veil, while the sometime 
 smiling, bland, and hospitable sea was transformed 
 into a ravening beast of prey, whose every spring 
 brought him nearer to their trembling feet, and sent 
 the foam from his fierce lips upon their frightened, 
 bewildered faces. 
 
 Dear, blessed, little Comfort! What would they 
 have done without her cheery guidance and helpful 
 suggestions? Inured to, and almost as much at 
 home in the fog and tempest as the gulls themselves, 
 she had need of little thought for her own comfort 
 and safety, and with her help and encouragement the
 
 "A Sealed Palace, Rich and Dim" 177 
 
 hardest part of the tramp had actually been accom 
 plished, when suddenly Miss Delphine s uncertain 
 feet slipped, and she fell heavily to the ground, 
 uttering a cry of mingled pain and dismay that terri 
 fied beyond measure her young companions, as they 
 tried in vain to lift her from the wet sand upon which 
 she had fallen. Lois sank helplessly upon her knees 
 beside her, and took the cold damp hands in her own : 
 
 "What is it, Cousin Del?" she sobbed, "Where 
 are you hurt? " 
 
 "It is my ankle, I m afraid I ve sprained it." 
 And rallying all her powers of self control, the in 
 jured woman made a desperate effort to sit upright, 
 and smiled faintly into the dismayed faces bending 
 over her. " One thing is certain, I can t get away 
 from here without help." 
 
 Lois uttered a cry of despair, but Comfort s voice 
 was steady and even cheerful as she said with a 
 promptness that carried hope with it: 
 
 " It is n t very far from here to old Sol s cabin, as I 
 reckon it. And if we can get you up a little farther 
 among the pines, you 11 be kind of sheltered from 
 the spray, and with this shawl over you, maybe you 
 won t so much mind waitin while I run ahead and 
 get somebody to come and help." 
 
 " It seems the only thing to do," admitted Miss 
 Delphine, suppressing a groan, " but are you sure 
 you know the way, and won t get lost in the fog 
 yourself ? " 
 
 Comfort actually laughed, a pleasant little ripple 
 upon that great ocean of sound that roared about 
 them. 
 
 12
 
 178 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " I could find my way in the darkest night that 
 ever was," she returned confidently; "and it won t 
 take me long either." 
 
 Then half dragging, half supporting their almost 
 helpless burden, the girls at length succeeded in 
 establishing her in a comparatively comfortable spot 
 under the shelter of a big boulder, out of whose 
 side a young pine had sprung, whose lusty branches 
 helped to keep the now fast-falling raindrops from 
 her otherwise undefended head. Poor Lois was so 
 completely exhausted that she could only nestle close 
 to Miss Delphine s side, and drawing the skirt of her 
 flannel dress over her head, cling to her shivering 
 but silent, too much spent to even reply to Comfort s 
 cheery admonition to " keep up a good heart and 
 not to forget to keep a lookout along shore for the 
 lantern that the old fisherman would bring with him 
 in his search for them." A moment more and the 
 slender, active figure had faded into the mists, and 
 the two, left alone in that desolate place, felt a new, 
 strange sense of utter desolation creeping over them, 
 as if the last link that bound them to their kind had 
 been suddenly severed, and they left in the outer 
 darkness of an unpeopled, impenetrable world of fog 
 and mists. 
 
 Queer, weird fancies chased each other across Miss 
 Delphine s brain, fancies that made her smile even 
 in her pain and loneliness, for it was as if a band of 
 tricksy elves had chosen the Widow Scripture s 
 potato patch for their midnight revels. Ariels, in 
 long, trailing robes of violet fog, beckoned to her 
 from the overhanging cliff; while gray, filmy-winged
 
 "A Sealed Palace, Rich and Dim" 179 
 
 creatures, purple-haired like the ghosts of departed 
 sea anemones, flitted, crept, and crawled over the 
 wet sands and rocks, or held high carnival in the 
 fast-filling pools that the rising tide had created. A 
 quotation from Homer, learned long ago in her 
 school days, came back to her there in the darkness 
 and gloom, and poor little Lois actually shook with 
 terror, thinking her delirious, as she muttered the 
 words, not so inappropriate really, with the odor of 
 decaying herring in their nostrils. 
 
 " Now doth our ambush seem 
 Beyond endurance, for the noisome smell 
 Of those sea-nourished creatures sickens us, 
 And who could bear to sleep beside a whale ? " 
 
 " Oh, Cousin Del ! " sobbed the girl clutching her 
 arm in her nervous grasp, " please talk about for- 
 minifira, or miliolites, or orbitolites, or any other 
 lites if you want to, but don t quote poetry here 
 or I shall go crazy, too." 
 
 " You ridiculous little goose ! " 
 
 Miss Delphine laughed aloud and the spell was 
 broken. The fog, the sea, and the creeping tide 
 were only everyday things after all, and the two set 
 tled down in comparative comfort, keeping, as they 
 had been warned to do, a sharp lookout for the 
 promised light that was to be to them the herald 
 of shelter, warmth, and it was to be hoped a good 
 supper as well.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 "I LIKE STRONG MEN AND LARGE; I LIKE GRAY 
 HEADS " 
 
 LOOK ere you Mandy?" 
 Sol always gave a rising inflection to his voice 
 when addressing this member of the family, that 
 might mean either a doubt of her presence or of 
 her personality, or even of both. Mandy on her 
 side evidently understood the remark as an interrog 
 ative for after the manner of her race and place, 
 she replied to it with another: 
 
 " Well, gran daddy, what is it? " 
 
 The old man smoked his pipe meditatively for a 
 few minutes before he deigned a reply, and when 
 he did speak there was a foggy irrelevancy about 
 his words that would have left a stranger com 
 pletely in the dark as to what point he was steering 
 for. 
 
 " They say, them as knows, that they re more 
 likely to be caught nappin on a wild night like 
 this than when the moon shines." 
 
 Mandy tossed a flapjack into the air and dextrously 
 caught it brown side up, in the long-handled iron 
 skillet, while her childish face, aglow in the firelight, 
 suddenly assumed a troubled, anxious look, as she 
 glanced across at the bent form of the old fisher 
 man in the chimney corner, who rather from force
 
 "I Like Strong Men and Large" 181 
 
 of habit than from any actual craving for the 
 warmth, was spreading his big, toil-worn hands to 
 catch as much as possible of the genial blaze. 
 
 " Gran daddy, that s fool s gold, jest as true s you 
 live." 
 
 " Mebbe t is, Mandy, an then ag in, mebbe t ain t." 
 And drawing from some secret pocket of his rough 
 pea-jacket a battered leathern wallet, he produced 
 from it a piece of soiled paper worn and creased 
 by much handling, and bending nearer the fire 
 began with much difficulty to trace out the irregu 
 lar lines faintly visible by the flickering light; " Le s 
 see, you steer straight up the road fur s Higgins s 
 ile shed then turn to yer left an see here, you 
 Jake, yer eyes air younger n mine, du you call that 
 a mark, or ain t it nothin but a crease in the paper? " 
 
 Jake, a tall, shy, shambling lad, whose chief aim in 
 life seemed to be, like that of the sea cucumber, to 
 efface himself as far as possible from the sight and 
 touch of humanity in general, approached awk 
 wardly and looked over the old man s shoulder 
 with a furtive, half-uncertain air as of an unde 
 fended hermit crab looking out for a new house. 
 
 " Ya as, she s a crease, I shou d say." 
 
 The old man gave a dissatisfied snort, and the youth 
 scuttled back to his seat upon the dye-pot cover with 
 such absurd haste that he came near overturning 
 the little supper table, thereby calling forth a char 
 acteristic rebuke from Mandy, that seemed to be 
 wilder him still more, for in his flurry he managed 
 to dislodge the bit of board that served as a cover, 
 and set himself fairly down into the odorous liquid,
 
 1 82 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 that splashed not only over himself, but painted wall 
 and floor with picturesque patches of the deepest 
 indigo. 
 
 " Wa al, you gump ! you Ve been an done it now," 
 cried the girl with a burst of derisive laughter that, 
 coupled with his wretched plight, actually aroused 
 the unfortunate lad to something like indignation. 
 
 " Try it yerself, f ye think it s fun gettin ducked 
 in a darnation old dye-pot," he grumbled, as with 
 Sol s help he managed to extricate himself from 
 his unpleasant predicament, and stood erect with 
 the sombre fluid dripping from every thread and 
 ragged edge of his dilapidated trousers. " I call it a 
 darned mean trick ter set a stinkin old trap like 
 that f r a feller, and then set up a cackle when 
 he s in." 
 
 But Mandy s heart was as hard as the nether mill 
 stone. 
 
 " Hain t I told ye, time an time ag in, that that 
 air cover was onsafe? And hain t you jest anchored 
 yerself thar night after night, when you might a 
 had a stool f r yerself, as well as the rest on us? " 
 
 Both tone and words were so exasperating that 
 the offended Jake could find no terms in his limited 
 vocabulary strong enough to express his feelings, and 
 silently retiring, with his parti-colored rags still drip 
 ping fragrance, into the darkest corner of the cabin, 
 he sullenly refused to join them at supper, although 
 old Sol, whose hearty soul could not endure to see 
 even a dog go hungry, condescended, after a fashion 
 of his own, to "entreat" him. 
 
 "Come now, like a man, an don t skulk in a
 
 "I Like Strong Men and Large" 183 
 
 corner like a boss mackerel that s lost is tail. These 
 jo-floggers air prime, an make about the best ballast 
 that a man c n have f r a night s cruise." 
 
 Jake said nothing, but Mandy took up the word 
 with suspicious eagerness: 
 
 " What d ye mean by that, gran daddy ? " she asked 
 with the imperious air of one who knows that her 
 word is law. " You don t mean that you re goin 
 gold diggin to-night in this blow?" 
 
 The old man laid down his knife and fork, and 
 drawing the back of his hand across his mouth in 
 lieu of a napkin, slowly and gravely replied : 
 
 " That s jest what I m goin ter do. Did n t that 
 feller that had the jaw with Cap n Kidd s sperit, tell 
 us we d have ter take a dark night with a high wind, 
 so t the sperits d be under cover? " 
 
 " Ye-es," assented Mandy, with evident reluctance, 
 while Jake from his corner gave vent to a queer, rum 
 bling sound that might have been a groan, although 
 it sounded very much like " darned old fool ! " " But 
 now, gran daddy, you mark my words," and the small 
 maid placed her hands on her hips, and assumed that 
 attitude of feminine authority that the fisher wives of 
 the hamlet affected on occasions of difference between 
 themselves and their brawny lords, " you won t never 
 find no money by diggin for it. All the money you ll 
 get 11 be dug out o the sea with a trawl f r a shovel." 
 
 The old man laughed a little shamefacedly as he 
 took down the old tin lantern and proceeded to re 
 place the half-burned candle with a fresh one. 
 
 " I believe there s gold thar, or I would n t a spent 
 all my hard airnin s in buyin up a lot o land that a
 
 1 84 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 grasshopper d starve on. The man talked honest, and 
 I hain t a bit o doubt but what Cap n Kidd s sperit 
 told im was true. You see, a sperit, not havin no 
 use f r money itself, would n t naterally begrutch it to 
 anybody that d made a good use of it." 
 
 " Then what s he sneakin* round, keepin an eye 
 on it for? " demanded Mandy shrewdly. " I believe, 
 gran daddy," she added with solemn deliberateness, 
 " that that air feller were a sucker, an that he were 
 jest playin you with store-flies that had n t no meat 
 in em." 
 
 The old man looked really mortified and hurt. 
 
 " Now Mandy, " he began, but the sentence was 
 never finished, for just then came a tap upon the 
 door, and in an instant more the white, anxious face 
 of Comfort Hadlock looked in upon them, and her 
 voice, faint and hoarse from her hard walk through 
 the damp, windy night, called out with the uncere 
 moniousness that marked the intercourse of the simple 
 villagers upon all occasions great and small : 
 
 " Uncle Sol, hurry up, do ! Miss Delphine and 
 Lois are back here a mile or so on the beach, and 
 Miss Delphine s hurt her ankle so t she can t step a 
 step. I run ahead to get you to go and help them." 
 
 " Wa-all, so ye did, so I will," cried the fisherman 
 bestirring himself with a will, while Jake, emerging 
 from his sulky retirement, seemed all at once inspired 
 with new life, as, under the old man s directions, he 
 bustled about, bringing out the only chair that the 
 cabin afforded, a broad, strong-armed, splint-bot 
 tomed affair, which, with the aid of a couple of oars 
 was speedily improvised into a very respectable sedan
 
 "I Like Strong Men and Large" 185 
 
 chair, in which not only the helpless lady herself but 
 her young companion, might, with some squeezing, be 
 fairly well accommodated. 
 
 Comfort, though exhausted and wet, would willingly 
 have gone back with the relief party, but upon this 
 project old Sol very peremptorily put his foot. 
 
 " You c n give me the bearin s, an I c n haul em in 
 without no help from you. Besides," with a quick 
 glance at Mandy s half- frightened face, " you c n give 
 my little gal a p int or two as ter what 11 need to be 
 done f r em, when they re once in port." 
 
 So, after giving the needed directions, Comfort 
 made herself at home in the little cabin, helping the 
 bewildered Mandy to spread clean blankets upon her 
 own bed, which was in the farthest corner of the 
 cabin, and in deference to her sex was modestly par 
 titioned off with an old, much bepatched sail, that 
 made an effective if not exactly elegant screen for the 
 humblelittle bedchamber. The teakettle was hung over 
 the fire, and Mandy, encouraged and aided by the 
 " Squire s gal," soon had an appetizing supper ready 
 for] the coming guests: fresh herring, not two hours 
 out of their native element, and fried to a delicious 
 brown by Mandy s experienced hand, a hot spider cake 
 or, as Mandy called it, a " fresh smother," lobster 
 scarce cold from the kettle, and a cup of tea, strong, 
 and black, and bitter, but wonderfully invigorating to 
 tired bodies and strained nerves. With wide, wonder 
 ing eyes, the small mistress of the cabin regarded the 
 setting of the table, a task that Comfort took upon 
 herself, spreading over it a bit of clean white canvas 
 that she was fortunate enough to find among Sol s
 
 1 86 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 stores, and setting the few rude cracked dishes upon 
 it in as tempting and orderly a fashion as possible. 
 
 " Me n gran daddy likes sweetenin in our tea," 
 suggested Mandy, as she saw the dipper of molasses 
 removed to make room for other dishes. "Our one 
 stravagance he calls it." And she looked at her 
 companion with such untamed, innocent eyes, that 
 the girl had not the heart to dispel her little illusion 
 by hinting that this poor luxury of the fisherman s 
 cabin would be regarded as a most undesirable addi 
 tion to their meal, by the city-bred strangers. 
 
 " If they want their tea sweetened they can say so," 
 she said with assumed brusqueness, while Mandy, no 
 longer concerned about the menu, watched and lis 
 tened, running every other minute to the door to peer 
 out into the damp darkness for a glimpse of the ap 
 proaching lantern, and quite as often slipping slyly 
 behind the canvas curtain to give a finishing pat to 
 the humble little bed that, with its clean blankets, 
 and downy pillows filled with sea-birds feathers, was, 
 to her uneducated eye the very tip-top of elegance, 
 a couch fit for one of the nereids. And yet, when 
 the party actually arrived, wet, tired, but in remark 
 ably good spirits, Mandy had vanished, not a tag 
 of her faded gown, nor even a glint of her yellow 
 hair to reveal her hiding-place. Comfort was left to 
 play the hostess, and after seeing them comfortably 
 warmed and dried, to serve up the hot toothsome 
 supper, to which all did full credit, Miss Delphine 
 declaring that nothing in all her life had ever tasted 
 so good as the fresh sweet fish and strong tea. 
 
 Lois, too, had regained all her natural vivacity,
 
 "I Like Strong Men and Large" 187 
 
 and with that instinctive craving for admiration that 
 was as much a part of herself as her eyes and hair, 
 set herself to work to charm and bedazzle the 
 unsophisticated fishermen, keeping old Sol open- 
 mouthed with delighted wonderment over her merry 
 chatter, and smiling so bewitchingly on Jake that, 
 when it was suggested that he travel through all the 
 darkness and rain to carry news of their safety to 
 the anxious friends at home, he actually started off 
 without a word of objection, something so un 
 precedented on his part that the old fisherman 
 looked after him in innocent amazement. 
 
 " What s got ter the lad?" he exclaimed wonder- 
 ingly ; " I hain t so sure," with a comical glance at the 
 bespattered floor, "but a duckin in the dye-pot d do 
 him good as often as once a week." Then, to Lois s 
 intense delight, he went on to describe in his dry, 
 humorous fashion, poor Jake s strange mishap, with 
 its uncomfortable consequences. Under cover of the 
 general laughter, Mandy contrived to slip in from 
 nobody could guess where, and timidly sheltering 
 herself behind her grandfather looked out from 
 under his arm, as silent, watchful, and shy as some 
 half-tamed wild animal, which, while trusting the 
 hand of its tamer, looks with distrustful wonder upon 
 all the world besides. 
 
 Even Lois found her merry spells unavailing here. 
 Not a word or smile could she wile from those shy, 
 silent lips; while to Miss Delphine s friendly ad 
 vances the old man was forced to respond instead : 
 
 " She hain t never had the chance, Mandy hain t, 
 ter get acquainted with folks," and he rubbed her
 
 1 88 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 timid head with his elbow, much as a fatherly cod 
 might caress the young one swimming beside him, 
 with a convenient flipper. " But the time 11 come, 
 fore soon, maybe, who knows? that she ll hold up 
 her head with the best. Fine clo es, schooling an a 
 two-story house painted white " 
 
 " With green blin s, gran daddy," piped up an eager 
 voice behind his chair. 
 
 " Yes, with green blin s," and the old man winked 
 shrewdly at his amused audience, " an , lemme 
 see, what else?" 
 
 " A cordion to play on." 
 
 " Yes, a cordion ; an a pinkie all er own, painted 
 green, " 
 
 " No, no, gran daddy ! white, with a green stripe 
 round er." And forgetting in the delights of castle 
 building all her shyness, Mandy actually climbed 
 into the old man s arms, and with flushed cheeks, 
 and restless hands stroking his gray-bearded face, 
 poured forth in an odd jargon of sea and shore 
 words and phrases the pent-up aspirations of her 
 untrained soul. 
 
 Knowing how great must be the anxiety of her 
 mother and brother, Miss Delphine was not at all 
 surprised on rising from the breakfast table at an 
 early hour the next morning, to hear the welcome 
 sound of wheels and to catch sight of Robert s face 
 as he drove up to the door where old Sol, with the 
 unaccustomed honors of a host fresh upon him, 
 stood beaming a most hospitable welcome. 
 
 " Ye 11 find yer strays all right ! " he shouted, 
 giving the young man s hand a grip that made him
 
 "I Like Strong Men and Large" 189 
 
 wince; " but f it had n t been f r me an Jake an the 
 Squire s little gal they d a been in pretty poor 
 sleddin , I m afraid." 
 
 Miss Delphine was evidently of the same opinion, 
 for besides expressing her heartiest thanks, she ven 
 tured with some diffidence to press upon her host a 
 generous remuneration for his services, which was 
 indignantly refused. He " did n t sell kindness," and 
 in spite of all that Robert and his sister could urge, 
 he proudly persisted in his refusal to accept money 
 for his hospitality. It was his one pride, his right as 
 an honest man and a householder to exercise his 
 hospitality without let or stint to equal and superior 
 alike, and the thanks of these rich, idle, city folks, 
 whose lavishness was the wonder of the hamlet, was 
 a bigger feather in his cap, according to his ideas, 
 than any costly gifts that they might have bestowed 
 upon him. But Mandy, ragged little Mandy, with 
 her bare feet and her one shabby gown, what cared 
 she for the privilege of hospitality upon which her 
 grandfather so prided himself ? But she did not 
 know that he noticed her whispered words to the 
 lady at parting, or that noticing them he was shrewd 
 enough to guess their import, until, as the carriage 
 disappeared around the curve he turned upon her 
 with eyes of grave reproach. 
 
 " Mandy, come here." 
 
 Mandy obeyed, with a hang-dog look that was in 
 itself a confession of guilt. 
 
 " What did you say to them folks out thar? " 
 
 " I did n t ask em for no money, gran daddy," 
 cried the girl, the guilty crimson spreading to
 
 190 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 the very roots of her hair, " I never did, honest 
 true." 
 
 " Mandy," and now there was surprise as well as 
 sorrow in his tones, " I would n t a thought it of ye, 
 truly I would n t." Mandy hid her face and cried 
 softly into a corner of her ragged apron. "We re 
 poor an ignorant, the Lord knows, but we ain t got 
 quite so low that we c n demean ourselves ter take 
 pay f r a common act of neighborly civility. Yes, 
 pay, Mandy, f r it amounts to the same thing 
 whether it s in money or " 
 
 " A new frock," appended the conscience-stricken 
 Mandy. 
 
 " Yes, or a new frock. I don t want ter be ha ash 
 or onreasonable, an I wa n t never ashamed of yer 
 ragged clo es or yer bare feet whatever ye think. 
 But when it comes ter this, that a gran darter o 
 mine 11 try ter make my honest manhood pay f r fine 
 feathers to deck erself out in, I 11 own ter bein that 
 mortified that I d be glad ter hide my head in the 
 very first pigpen I come to." 
 
 " I won t take the frock, gran daddy, f you say so," 
 sobbed the culprit, " but oh ! I did want it awful." 
 
 " An you shall have it, Mandy," and there was 
 something pathetic in the smile with which he re 
 garded the sobbing girl. " I won t invest in that 
 other piece o land I lotted on ; you shall have a 
 frock an some shoes into the bargain. How 11 that 
 do?" 
 
 " You re awful clever, gran daddy." 
 
 And so both were satisfied.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 "OF GENTLE BLOOD AND MANNERS" 
 
 THE injury to Miss Delphine s ankle proved not 
 to be so slight as at first appeared, and greatly 
 to her disgust the energetic lady was forced to con 
 fine herself to the house and her armchair for several 
 weeks, during which time she solaced herself with 
 studying the various specimens of island flora that 
 the girls brought her, or, much to Comfort s delight, 
 gave them a lesson now and then in reading, by let 
 ting them read by turns from some book that she 
 thought likely to interest as well as instruct them. 
 That was before the days of " object teaching," so 
 called, but Miss Delphine was a born teacher, and 
 instinctively chose the best means that came to hand 
 to interest her pupils, and incite them to study out 
 for themselves many things that were not written 
 down in the text books of their day. An old Indian 
 pipe found in one of the shell heaps with which the 
 island abounded served as a text for lessons on Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, the settlement in Virginia, the dis 
 covery of tobacco, and the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
 Here Lois was in her element, her imagination 
 fairly revelling in pictures of the stately virgin queen 
 and her gallant courtier, admiral, and poet; while the 
 story of the brave cavaliers, who dared the dangers
 
 192 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 of an almost unknown deep to plant the flag of their 
 country upon the shores of a new world, sent the hot 
 blood tingling to Comfort s finger ends, and made 
 leathern jerkin and slashed doublet alike glorious in 
 her eyes. The one was dazzled with the outside 
 show and glitter, the other looked deeper for the un- 
 purchasable jewel of manly worth and courage that 
 no mean attire or circumstance could mar, or ducal 
 coronet adorn. 
 
 It was this trait in the Squire s little daughter that, 
 apart from all her innocent, winsome ways, made her 
 a decided favorite with the blunt, unaffected woman, 
 whose honest soul had been for years constantly 
 fretted and annoyed by the petty inconsistencies and 
 small subterfuges of a life where outside appearances 
 were all, and where the soul might shrivel and harden 
 like the kernel of a dry acorn if only the shell were 
 smooth, and plump, and fair to look upon. Her own 
 lack of tact had, as she well knew, gone far to lessen 
 her influence in home and social circles, and none 
 knew better than herself the opinion that her mother s 
 fashionable friends held in regard to her, " So un 
 ladylike in her tastes, and a perfect dowdy." 
 
 She might have been a selfish, heartless, deceitful 
 coquette, with no more heart in her bosom than the 
 rocky figure of the Assyrian over yonder, but she 
 would have been petted and caressed by her own 
 sex, and adored by the other, even though behind her 
 back they called her "jilt" and "flirt," possibly a 
 harsher name. But Comfort, young and unsophisti 
 cated, while the soul of candor and honesty, had yet 
 that rare gift, rarer than most people suppose,
 
 " Of Gentle Blood and Manners " 193 
 
 of holding inflexibly to her own ideas of right and 
 wrong without making herself in the least obnoxious 
 to those of opposite opinions. 
 
 Of all things in the world Miss Delphine had a 
 passion for symmetry, that nice proportion that the 
 student of Nature finds everywhere in her vast realm, 
 in which no part dwarfs or overtops another, but each 
 performs its own functions in its own way without let 
 or hindrance from the rest. And this mental and 
 moral symmetry she had found where she would 
 never have dreamed of looking for it, in the home- 
 trained, unpretentious daughter of a plain Mount 
 Desert farmer. Lois was delighted to see with what 
 favor her friend was received by one and all. Even 
 Mrs. Humbre, after the first uneasy suspiciousness 
 with which she regarded the rustic dress and speech 
 of the little country maiden, began to look upon her 
 with an interest that gradually warmed into unquali 
 fied approval as she found that the girl was gifted 
 with that unexplainable magnetic power by means of 
 which her small hands were able to charm away the 
 pain of an aching head, a task that their owner 
 gladly undertook whenever her services were needed, 
 to the nervous invalid s great satisfaction and 
 comfort. 
 
 " I don t see," remarked that lady one evening, as, 
 attended by her family, she sat upon the western 
 piazza, enjoying one of those superb sunsets seen 
 nowhere but at Mount Desert, " I don t see where 
 that little Hadlock girl got her gentle, modest, unob 
 trusive manners. I don t believe she could do a rude 
 or awkward thing under any circumstances. And yet, 
 
 13
 
 1 94 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 before we came here, I doubt if she ever was in the 
 society of a really well-bred person in all her life." 
 
 Robert and his sister exchanged amused glances, 
 as the former said in a meditative tone : 
 
 " I fancy she did n t get them at all. They are a 
 part of herself, not a graft upon the original wild 
 stock." 
 
 " She is never awkward," interposed Miss Delphine, 
 "because she has so little self-consciousness; and 
 she is never rude because she consults other people s 
 conveniences and tastes before her own." 
 
 " She is a very interesting and agreeable little girl," 
 and Mrs. Humbre frowned at Lois, who had care 
 lessly trodden on Flora s tail, thus making that pam 
 pered pet give mouth to a sharp yelp. " I have been 
 thinking that with proper training she would make 
 an excellent maid for Lois, when the child is ready 
 to come out. I have half a mind to offer to take 
 her to Boston with me and let Jane teach her dress 
 making so that she will understand the care and 
 arrangement of Lois s clothes. Then she could learn 
 hair dressing from Monsieur - , I know he would 
 teach her to oblige me, and " 
 
 " There, there, mother ! That won t do at all. If 
 you invite Comfort Hadlock to your home it must be 
 as Lois s friend and equal, not as her servant." 
 
 The group looked at him for a moment in silent 
 astonishment. The sentiment was what might have 
 been expected from one so democratic in his ideas, 
 but the unwonted sharpness of his tones, and more 
 than all, the angry flush that rose to his face as he 
 indignantly repudiated the thought of offering a
 
 "Of Gentle Blood and Manners" 195 
 
 menial position to the free-born island maiden, sent 
 a thrill of apprehensive wonder to Mrs. Humbre s 
 jealous soul. What if he had taken the notion into 
 his head to adopt and educate this girl, who had in 
 spired them all with such a friendly interest? It 
 would be just like him, such a quixotic scheme, and 
 Delphine would be sure to aid and abet him in it. 
 Such a project if formed must be promptly nipped 
 in the bud, for it would never do to have a possible 
 rival to Lois growing up under the same roof, and 
 sharing in the same privileges that were the portion 
 and right of her foster child. 
 
 Perhaps her son divined something of her thoughts, 
 for after a moment s embarrassed silence he added in 
 his ordinary tone of gentle tolerance : 
 
 " Begging your pardon, mother, for my warmth, 
 but if you knew the Hadlocks as I do, you would 
 never have imagined the possibility of carrying out 
 such a scheme. They are not poor people, and the 
 Squire is, in his way, one of the proudest men I ever 
 knew. There is plenty of room at home for his 
 daughter, and if he chooses he is amply able to give 
 her as good an education as even Lois will have." 
 
 " Isaac is going to college," interrupted Lois, who 
 knew all the ins and outs of the Hadlock family, " and 
 he is n t half as bright, and does n t care half as much 
 about learning things as Comfort does. But her 
 father says, a woman s place is in her chimney 
 corner." 
 
 Miss Delphine laughed, but there was no mirth in 
 her laugh as she murmured under her breath: 
 
 " So poor little Comfort is one of the unfortunate
 
 196 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 ones who are to crowd and squeeze themselves into 
 the niche that ages of narrow prejudice have been 
 hollowing out for them, without the smallest regard 
 to their tastes or feelings." 
 
 " What nonsense you talk, Delphine," sighed Mrs. 
 Humbre plaintively. " Now for my part, I think 
 that the home and family circle are where a woman 
 really belongs, and where she ought to find her 
 highest enjoyment." 
 
 And with this sweetly virtuous sentiment, the gentle 
 dame gathered Flora into her arms, while she cast a 
 look of undisguised disapproval, not to say disgust, 
 at the stern, sad face of her daughter, that daughter 
 whose restless yearning for something higher and 
 better than the idle life of a lady of leisure, were far 
 less intelligible to her than the dyspeptic pug s un 
 easy grunts and groans. 
 
 Robert said nothing, but under cover of the gather 
 ing shadows, his hand furtively sought his sister s, 
 and its reassuring clasp spoke volumes of sympathy 
 to the lonely, dispirited woman whom love even 
 the love that first welcomes us to life and follows us 
 beyond the grave, seemed to have passed by. 
 
 Mrs. Humbre was right in her supposition that 
 this was Comfort s first intimate companionship with 
 what might be called cultivated society, but even she, 
 with her exaggerated notions of the benefits of such 
 companionship, would have been surprised at the 
 beauty and wealth of the new world that was every 
 day opening before the girl s delighted vision. For 
 the first time in her life she saw a mother and sister 
 treated with a tender deference, a protective thought-
 
 " Of Gentle Blood and Manners " 197 
 
 fulness of which in her own home and life she had 
 never dreamed. The thousand and one little cour 
 tesies that Robert Humbre paid as a matter of course 
 to the ladies of his family, the looking out for their 
 comfort and convenience before his own ; placing for 
 his mother the easiest chair, and bringing the needed 
 covering for her shoulders, or the stool for her feet; 
 always ready to put aside his own book or paper to 
 join in the conversation about him, and never too 
 busy or self absorbed to listen to his mother s com 
 plaints, or Miss Dclphine s latest discovery in regard 
 to the habitat of some rare plant or animal with an 
 unpronounceable name. 
 
 " He acts," thought the girl, with a feeling akin to 
 worship, as she watched this man who, to her simple 
 instincts, seemed a God-chosen Saul, towering as 
 far above the ordinary man morally and intellectually 
 as did the son of Kish above his physically inferior 
 brethren, " he acts just as if he thought his mother 
 and sister as good as himself if they are only women, 
 and as if he loved them a good deal better because 
 they are not as strong and big as he is." 
 
 " A gentleman ! " the words so often heard ac 
 quired all at once a newer and nobler significance, 
 and when Miss Delphine told them the touching 
 story of Sir Philip Sidney, and the cup of water put 
 away from his own parched lips that the dying 
 soldier might drink instead, no doubt she would have 
 smiled in puzzled bewilderment if she could have 
 read the thought passing through the mind of her 
 simple pupil : " He would have done just the same." 
 
 With the restlessness of a petted invalid, Mrs.
 
 198 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 Humbre was continually on the lookout for some 
 new distraction to break the monotony of her quiet 
 seaside life, and one day she surprised everybody by 
 desiring her hostess to bring down from the attic her 
 linen wheel, and let her see the process of spinning. 
 An eminent artist of Robert s acquaintance had 
 lately delighted the picture-loving public with a 
 beautiful representation of the Puritan maid Priscilla 
 at her spinning wheel, and poor Mrs. Humbre was 
 devoured with envy at the praises bestowed upon it. 
 
 " I have always thought," she declared, " that he 
 put his spinner on the wrong side of the wheel, and 
 now that there is a chance to prove it I am de 
 termined to see whether the artist or myself is in the 
 right." 
 
 But the widow, who, in learning her duties as land 
 lady, had not had her affections greatly drawn out 
 toward the exacting, purse-proud lady, was by no 
 means willing to indulge her curiosity at the expense 
 of her own hard-earned leisure. 
 
 " My wheel s all out o gear," she grumbled un 
 graciously, " and if t wa n t, I hain t got no time to 
 play spin, when there s work enough ter be done ter 
 keep half a dozen ordinary wimmin on the clean 
 jump from mornin till night. Mebbe though," with 
 a sarcastic emphasis that Tabby, who had her own 
 grievances, readily understood, and returned with a 
 spiteful sniff, " mebbe Miss Hadlock 11 let that 
 gal o hers lug old Granny Hedvig s wheel over here, 
 an spin on it f r a spell, seein she don t seem ter 
 have nothin ter do but to hang round my front 
 piazzer."
 
 " Of Gentle Blood and Manners " 199 
 
 The wheel referred to had been mended, and 
 Comfort, under her mother s teaching had learned to 
 spin a little, "enough," as she modestly allowed, 
 " to show how it was done." 
 
 Mrs. Humbre was all interest and excitement. Here 
 was something new, a " real curiosity," she declared, 
 and she examined and admired the foreign wood of 
 which it was made, and passed her delicate hand 
 over the polished surface, wondering at its satin 
 smoothness, in which she declared she could see the 
 reflection of the slender distaff about which the pale 
 yellow flax was deftly wound, the work of Granny s 
 own hands, for the original stock had not been ex 
 hausted by Comfort s few lessons in spinning. 
 
 " Now, Lois, you bring me that copy of Mr. Squire s 
 picture. And, Comfort, you sit right down aiid 
 begin to spin. I want to compare you with the 
 picture, and see for myself." 
 
 The girls gladly obeyed, and Mrs. Humbre lean 
 ing back luxuriously in her easy-chair, with gold- 
 rimmed eye-glasses carefully adjusted, proceeded 
 with all the airs of a competent connoisseur, to com 
 pare the pictured spinner with the real one. 
 
 " Ye-es, it is the same side, but really, look here, 
 Delphine, is n t that arm in the picture raised a trifle 
 too high? Comfort s is the proper angle, of course, 
 and I think this Priscilla s is a bit higher." 
 
 Miss Delphine dutifully left her drawing and took 
 a critical survey of the contrasted arms. 
 
 " Perhaps so, yes, on the whole, I should say 
 that it was a little higher." 
 
 " There ! " cried the lady, highly elated with her
 
 2OO A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 own artistic sharpness, " I thought so. Now, what 
 will Robert say, I wonder, when I point out the blun 
 der to him? He thinks Mr. Squire is such a wonder. 
 I really believe he looks up to him as a second Titian, 
 when, as I ve told him a hundred times, he s not a 
 bit superior to himself. But that is Robert s great 
 weakness to be always thinking other people superior 
 to himself. Now I believe in a becoming modesty in 
 everybody;" and removing her eye-glasses, the 
 speaker proceeded with great deliberateness to polish 
 them upon a corner of her delicate cambric hand 
 kerchief, "but never to be satisfied with one s 
 own work, to be forever reaching and straining after 
 something higher, is, according to my ideas, perfect 
 nonsense. I don t see any call for it." 
 
 Miss Delphine glanced from her mother s character 
 less face to the two bright, interested ones bending 
 over the flax wheel, Comfort drawing with slow, 
 uncertain fingers, the pale, shining thread from the 
 wisp of flax upon the distaff, and Lois, full of de 
 lighted curiosity over the, to her, wonderful feat. 
 
 " Better strive and fail, than never strive at all," 
 she said. But her mother was settling herself com 
 fortably for a nap, and did n t even hear her, which, 
 all things considered, was perhaps just as well.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 "THOU POOR BLIND SPINNER: WORK IS DONE" 
 
 LOOK, Comfort ! What is that paper? " 
 And Lois, with girlish curiosity, carefully 
 drew from among the threads of flax upon the almost 
 exhausted spindle, a sheet of thin foreign-looking 
 paper, and smoothing out the creases, tried to spell 
 out the queer, crabbed characters : 
 
 "It is dated Upsala, Aug. 2d, 1851, and it s 
 signed" spelling out with difficulty the signature at 
 the bottom of the page, " Gustaf Larsson, Prof, of 
 Mathematics in the University of Upsala, Sweden. " 
 
 " I know who that is," cried Comfort eagerly. " He 
 is an uncle of Franz s mother, and I remember carry 
 ing the letter to Granny, myself, father brought it 
 home from Somesville, and mother sent me over 
 with it." 
 
 " But what made her hide it in such a funny 
 place?" broke in Lois, delighted to find something 
 that promised to have a mystery in it. " If you 
 had n t happened to use up the flax it might have 
 stayed there for years, for there s only a little bit of 
 flax between that and the spindle." 
 
 " I think I know why she wanted to put it out of 
 sight," admitted Comfort with a very grave face. 
 " You see the Larsson family thought themselves 
 very much above the Hedvigs, who always worked
 
 202 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 with their hands instead of being scholars, and they 
 disowned their young cousin when she married 
 Granny s son, and never even answered the letter 
 telling of her death. Granny resented this dread 
 fully, for she was proud of her son and she loved his 
 wife dearly, and I ve heard her say more than once 
 that Franz was all Hedvig, and that she d have no 
 Larsson meddling with him, and making him ashamed 
 of his own father." 
 
 Miss Delphine s attention had by this time been 
 attracted, and taking the letter she examined it with 
 an interest and curiosity equal to that expressed by 
 the girls : 
 
 " It is written in Swedish," she said regretfully, 
 " and I do n t know a word of that language. We 
 must wait till Robert comes, and get him to read it 
 for us." 
 
 This, Robert was only too willing to do, and the 
 contents proved a matter of surprise as well as con 
 gratulation to the friends of Franz Hedvig. It was 
 addressed quaintly to : 
 
 " ULRICA HEDVIG, wife of August Hedvig, deceased, 
 
 L isle des Monts-desert, 
 State of Main, County Hancock, 
 
 U. S. A." 
 
 The contents of the letter, while stiffly courteous, 
 were worded in such a way that it was easy to under 
 stand how the sensitive family pride of the old dame 
 must have been wounded by it, and why, under the 
 influence of that irritation, she had chosen, after her 
 own whimsical fashion, to put it out of the possible
 
 "Thou Poor Blind Spinner" 203 
 
 sight of anybody by hiding it in the flax that she was 
 just then winding about her distaff. Whether she 
 would ever have revealed the contents to Franz if she 
 had lived to see him again, is doubtful, but they read 
 as follows: 
 
 To MISTRESS ULRICA HEDVIG : 
 
 As the nearest living kinsman of your grandson, Franz 
 Hedvig, I feel it my duty to take upon myself the expenses 
 of his education, always provided that he has inherited some 
 thing of the scholarly tastes of his mother s family. Having 
 neither wife nor child of my own, I will take sole charge of 
 him, and God willing, will make of him an honest man. If 
 some responsible person will communicate with me on his 
 behalf, I will forward the necessary funds for his journey to 
 this place. 
 
 GUSTAF LARSSON 
 
 Prof. Mat. Uni. Upsala, Swe. 
 
 " Short and tart ! " laughed Miss Delphine, but 
 her brother seemed rather saddened than amused. 
 
 " Poor Granny ! Here was a demand from one 
 whose very name was hateful to her, to give into his 
 hands the boy who was her one treasure, the hope 
 and pride and comfort of her life. I knew her so 
 well that I can understand something of the pain that 
 she must have suffered, not only at the idea of a last 
 ing separation from him but from the ever-present 
 fear that he would learn to scorn the humble stock 
 from which he sprang." 
 
 Comfort had drawn close to his side as he was 
 speaking, and the grateful smile that brightened her 
 sweet face spoke far more eloquently than words
 
 204 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 could have done the thanks that this kindly tribute 
 to her old friend called forth from her faithful soul. 
 
 " Granny said that this great-uncle of Franz s was 
 a dried-up old book-worm, and if he could get his 
 hands on the boy, he would squeeze all the manhood 
 out of him in that laboratory of his." 
 
 The girl spoke soberly enough, although her keen 
 sense of humor brought the warm color into her 
 brown cheek, and sent a crowd of mischievous 
 dimples playing about her comely mouth. 
 
 " She has the making of a beautiful woman in 
 her," was the thought that passed through the mind 
 of brother and sister at the same moment, while the 
 former remarked aloud with characteristic decision : 
 "The boy is alone now and unprotected, and if he 
 chooses to do so, there is nothing to hinder his 
 acceptance of his kinsman s kindly meant offer. 
 Don t you remember, Delphine," with a critical re- 
 examination of the Norse professor s signature, " that 
 Mr. Gosse spoke of a professor at Upsala, where 
 he studied when he was abroad, whose name was 
 Larsson? " 
 
 Miss Delphine rubbed her forehead reflectively. 
 
 "The one who was such an odd character, 
 and whom the students nicknamed old double 
 equations ?" 
 
 " Yes, I am inclined to think that this is the man. 
 I will write Franz, and send him the letter, and when 
 I get home I will hunt Gosse up, and see what he 
 says about the boy s probable chances with the old 
 fellow." 
 
 Miss Delphine nodded her approval while Lois,
 
 "Thou Poor Blind Spinner" 205 
 
 who always had a word to say, asked with some 
 sharpness: 
 
 " But is n t he going to be an engineer? I m sure 
 you said yourself, Cousin Robert, that he had a 
 perfect genius for it. And now, if he goes off to this 
 foreign university to live with that rusty, crusty old 
 uncle, how is he going to learn engineering, I should 
 like to know?" 
 
 Robert laughed indulgently, and made a feint of 
 pinching the small ear that, in company with the 
 cheek close beside it, was just then of a suspicious 
 crimson. 
 
 " He will get there just the training that he needs 
 for his profession," he said. "These Swedish uni 
 versities turn out a completely equipped class of 
 students, and if this uncle is really able to carry out 
 his promises, the boy s chance to make something 
 of himself is of the best." 
 
 " He 11 go," Comfort said, as she told her mother 
 the wonderful story of the discovered letter. " He 
 don t feel as Granny did about his mother s kin, and 
 I know he 11 decide to go." 
 
 Her mother looked at her in mild surprise. 
 
 "How do you know?" she asked wonderingly. 
 " It s a long way over the sea to that country that 
 Granny came from. I ve heard her tell many a time 
 of the long, tedious voyage, and what she suffered 
 from sickness and rough weather." 
 
 " Franz won t mind that, if he sees the road to 
 fortune beyond it." 
 
 " But he 11 have to leave all the friends he s got 
 in the world behind him."
 
 206 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 The gentle woman s voice trembled a little in her 
 sympathy for the motherless lad, but the girl s tones 
 were steady and hopeful. 
 
 " He will make new friends, everybody likes 
 Franz, he is so bright and pleasant. And besides," 
 her fingers sought the slender chain about her 
 neck, toying unconsciously with its dainty links, as 
 she added, with a shade of tender regret : " now that 
 Granny is gone, there is nobody that he will miss 
 very much." 
 
 The short bright summer wore away only too fast, 
 and with the first hint of frost Mrs. Humbre declared 
 herself pining for the comforts and privileges of 
 home, insisting, too, that it was high time for Lois to 
 return to her studies, and more than hinting that the 
 girl had had quite enough of the rustic companion 
 ship of which she had been so unaccountably fond. 
 So to the regret of all but herself, the lady and her 
 family took their departure, leaving the widow Scrip 
 ture a richer woman, not only in money, but in the 
 experience that to the keeper of summer boarders 
 may not be estimated in dollars and cents. To 
 Comfort Hadlock the departing visitors left a legacy 
 of awakened ambitions and scarce comprehended 
 longings that might, as time would show, prove 
 either a blessing or a bane. 
 
 Immediately upon his return home, Mr. Humbre 
 hunted up his old acquaintance, the Swedish student, 
 and found as he had suspected, that the eccentric 
 professor and Franz Hedvig s kinsman were one and 
 the same. Acting upon this knowledge, he wrote
 
 "Thou Poor Blind Spinner" 207 
 
 him, at the boy s request, giving the facts in regard 
 to his character and present circumstances, with the 
 addition of a warm personal recommendation of the 
 lad to the kindness and assistance which he so richly 
 deserved. In due time the promised funds were re 
 ceived, with a letter that, in spite of its prim formality, 
 showed an awakened interest in the youth and set to 
 rest whatever doubts his kind friend might have felt 
 in regard to his welcome in the new home. 
 
 Comfort judged rightly when she predicted that 
 the parting from his old friends and neighbors would 
 not be a lasting sorrow to Franz s sanguine, sunny 
 nature. Not that he was cold or unfeeling, but he 
 was young and light hearted ; and the future stretch 
 ing out so temptingly before him dazzled him with 
 the rainbow hues of happy anticipation, while the 
 deeper springs of his emotional nature remained 
 as yet untouched by the fingers that would in 
 time call from them the sweetest strains of joy 
 or the minor notes of disappointment and sorrow. 
 To Comfort he wrote with boyish frankness of 
 his plans and hopes, winding up with a declara 
 tion of never-dying friendship for the old playmate 
 whose childish devotion had made comfortable the 
 last days of the one he had loved best in the 
 world. 
 
 " For dear old Granny s sake," he wrote, " I shall 
 always be your friend, even if we never see each 
 other again. And I never shall forget either that, 
 if it had n t been for you, I might never have known 
 of the letter that has brought such good fortune to 
 me. It was you who found the letter, or I might
 
 208 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 never have seen it at all, and all this splendid 
 chance of an education would have been lost to me." 
 
 Comfort s heart throbbed with pleasure as she read 
 the unconsciously significant words, and she pressed 
 the little silver cross more closely to her bosom, with 
 a thrill of glad satisfaction that she had indeed earned 
 the right to wear it honestly and without reproach. 
 
 Granny s prediction, bewildering and scarce compre 
 hended at the time, had, as the months crept by> 
 grown somehow peculiarly distasteful to her unfold 
 ing womanly instincts. Franz was dear, as dear 
 as an own brother could have been, and had it not 
 been for that premature unfolding of his grand 
 mother s scheme she would never have troubled to 
 analyze her feelings toward him at all, but have 
 accepted his friendly confidence in just the same 
 spirit in which it was offered. 
 
 To her loyal, sincere nature it had been a real 
 pain, to feel that at heart she could not bring her 
 self to look upon her boyish playmate with the 
 reverent affection that the simple old dame seemed 
 to think a natural consequence of their boy and girl 
 friendship. Then, too, she had by constant associa 
 tion with the superstitious daleswoman come to 
 have a childish faith in the mystic runes as in some 
 way the arbiters of her own destiny, and that Franz 
 could only reach the grand future in store for him 
 through her means, she never thought of doubting. 
 And now his own words had unwittingly solved the 
 vexing problem, and removed a weight from her 
 heart and conscience that she had so long borne 
 unshared and in silence. It was as he had said,
 
 "Thou Poor Blind Spinner" 209 
 
 her hand that had brought the fateful letter to 
 light, and the feeling of helpless responsibility that 
 had rested so heavily upon her young shoulders 
 was changed to one of cheerful complacency and 
 thankfulness that the task assigned her by an in 
 flexible Fate had been so early and happily accom 
 plished. 
 
 Letters came occasionally from Lois to cheer the 
 long, lonesome winter, nor were these the only token 
 of her summer friends kind remembrance. At Christ 
 mas came a box from Miss Delphine of carefully 
 selected books, a small library in themselves, 
 every volume having been carefully chosen with 
 reference to her special needs and associations. 
 Lois had added a few volumes of poems and some 
 of Scott s novels, while away down in the bottom 
 of the box was a beautifully illustrated copy of 
 Shakespeare, with annotations in pencil upon almost 
 every page, showing that it was a well-read and evi 
 dently favorite text-book of the donor. Upon the 
 blank leaf were the words, written in the same pe 
 culiar hand, that had traced the marginal notes: 
 
 " A thorough knowledge of Shakespeare is an education in 
 itself, and no one familiar with its beauties can be called 
 illiterate. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 ROBERT HUMBRE." 
 
 " How kind in him to take so much trouble ! " Mrs. 
 Hadlock exclaimed again and again, as, with the 
 hectic flush deepening upon her thin cheeks, and 
 her hands trembling with nervous delight, she turned
 
 2io A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 over page after page of the beautiful volume, with 
 the eager enjoyment of one tasting for the first time 
 a draught for which he has all his life longed and 
 thirsted in vain. 
 
 Very faithfully and thoroughly Comfort studied 
 the books that Miss Delphine s thoughtfulness had 
 provided, and wider and wider grew her mental hori 
 zon from day to day. But dearer, closer to her heart 
 than all else were the wonderful creations of the great 
 dramatist, read by the bedside of her dying mother 
 during many a sad midnight vigil, when the hacking 
 cough would not let the poor invalid sleep, and noth 
 ing could distract her mind and soothe her tired 
 nerves like a reading from that marvellous book that 
 had, from the first, proved such a delight to her. 
 Could Robert Humbre, in his busy, over-full life, 
 have heard the words of grateful praise bestowed 
 upon him for that one simple, already half-forgotten 
 act of considerate kindness, that had proved such a 
 solace to those two sad hearts in the old farmhouse 
 by the sea, it is probable that he would have been 
 quite as much surprised as touched at the unlooked- 
 for tribute. He could not know how, even at the 
 last, his gift soothed and quieted the feverish unrest 
 of the dying woman, or how, on a certain never-to-be- 
 forgotten night in the early spring, when all nature 
 was waking to new life and vigor, the faithful watcher 
 by her bed, listening by turns to the faintly falling 
 breath and the low, far-off murmur of the sea, whis 
 pering its sad prophecies to the still night air, heard 
 again the familiar request. 
 
 " I can t sleep, dear, with the sound of the tide in
 
 "Thou Poor Blind Spinner" 21 1 
 
 my ears all the time. Read me again about that 
 island where the old magician and his daughter 
 lived, and had spirits to wait upon them." 
 
 And the girl read, in her soft, soothing voice, the 
 lines that she had gone over so often that she needed 
 no help from the dim candle to render them correctly : 
 
 "The isle is full of noises, 
 
 Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. 
 Sometimes a thousand twanging instruments 
 Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices, 
 That, if I then had waked, after long sleep, 
 Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming, 
 The clouds methought, would open, and show riches 
 Ready to drop upon me ; that, when I waked 
 I cry d to dream again. 
 
 The sick woman smiled, and her thin, nerveless 
 hand was laid tenderly upon her child s bowed head 
 as she whispered dreamily: 
 
 " That seems like our own island, Comfort. I lay 
 here day after day, and listen to all the pleasant 
 sounds that the spring brings us, and when the 
 window is open I can smell the salt spray, and 
 hear it lap lap on the rocks just as it has done 
 ever since I can remember, and just as it will go on 
 doing after I am gone, and I shut my eyes and won 
 der if Heaven itself can really be more beautiful and 
 sweeter." 
 
 Comfort s tears were dropping silently upon the pil 
 low where she had laid her head close, close to that 
 dear one, as if her own warm, strong-breathed presence 
 could keep at bay the chill shadow that was silently 
 creeping over the pale, sweet face.
 
 212 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 "I wouldn t ask for a better Heaven," sighed the 
 dying woman, " if only, only 
 
 Ah, that " if only " ever has and ever will mar the 
 beauty of every earthly Paradise, the sorrow, the 
 pain, the disappointments, the sickness, and the death 
 that dog our footsteps forever through this beautiful 
 world that even its Divine Creator called " good." 
 The Heaven of negatives that inspiration pictures for 
 us is surely the best adapted to the comprehension of 
 the dwellers upon this earth of change and sorrow. 
 
 " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
 more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any 
 heat, and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
 eyes."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 " MONEY IS A GOOD SOLDIER, SIR, AND WILL ON " 
 
 A CITY by the sea, a fair, bright, beautiful city, 
 whose foundations are of jasper, of chalcedony, 
 and of amethyst, and within whose rock-ribbed cham 
 bers the great pulses of the ocean beat ceaselessly to 
 day, even as they beat when this gray old earth was 
 young, and God s voice sounded through the terrible 
 stillness : " Let the waters be gathered together in one 
 place, and let the dry land appear." A city to be 
 proud of, with its grand hotels, its stately churches, 
 and its beautiful, picturesque summer cottages where 
 wealth and fashion wedded to taste and leisure, have 
 lavished what would have seemed a princely fortune 
 to the simple island folk a few years previous to 
 the date at which this chapter opens. The natural 
 beauties and advantages of the island had been opened 
 to the world by the artists, who first discovered and 
 transferred those beauties to canvas, and shortly 
 after the close of the Civil War, when business was 
 good and the spirit of speculation ran high, shrewd 
 men, wise in the signs of the times, began to find land 
 upon the Desert Island a profitable investment, and 
 hotels and cottages sprang up as by magic to meet 
 the ever-increasing demand for seasonable accommo 
 dations.
 
 214 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 The advance guard of this great army of pleasure 
 seekers, charmed by the unrivalled grandeur and 
 beauty of the scenery, the sea air and boating, came 
 to rest and recuperate from the cares of business or 
 the wearying demands of society, and few returned 
 home disappointed or unrefreshed. But as the years 
 slipped by a different class of visitors made their ap 
 pearance, and the plain-living islanders were bewil 
 dered with the glare and glitter of this, their first 
 glimpse of fashionable dissipation, a glitter as in 
 appropriate in this one of Nature s pet haunts as if 
 one had decked the wild-roses with pink satin bows, 
 and put gold-bowed eye-glasses upon the red squirrels 
 that frisked and chattered in every tree top. Hereto 
 fore, the strangers had in a way affiliated with the na 
 tives, paying them fairly for their hospitality, laughing 
 good naturedly at their rustic solecisms, and bearing 
 with equal good humor the salty flavored jests that, 
 as unseasoned landsmen, they were not seldom made 
 the subject of. 
 
 A fair degree of prosperity smiled upon the rocky 
 isle, and life, while growing broader and fuller with 
 every passing year, had lost little of its honest sim 
 plicity and self-respect by this unlooked-for contact 
 with the outer world. But with the influx of fashion 
 able travel all this was changed. When the island 
 folk, like the Romans of the empire, became pos 
 sessed with the idea that money is the great good, 
 and that the chief aim of man is or should be the 
 getting of it, the whole course of thought and feeling 
 naturally changed with it. The sturdy independence 
 that would once have scorned an unearned penny,
 
 "Money is a Good Soldier" 215 
 
 now, under the demoralizing influence of an open- 
 handed, often wasteful snobbishness, learned to swal 
 low the contemptuous sneers and jibes of the stranger 
 within its gates for the privilege of pocketing his 
 money; while simple souls who had been content 
 with a modest competence, learned to be heartily 
 ashamed of themselves and their unambitious past, 
 and to cherish a vague discontent that brought them 
 neither rest nor happiness. 
 
 This much of the island as a whole, now let us 
 see what changes the years have in passing wrought 
 in the fortunes of our friends in the farmhouse by the 
 sea. 
 
 That Squire Hadlock should after the death of his 
 wife have fallen into a weak and premature old age 
 was as great a cause of wonder to himself as to his 
 neighbors and his family. Idle and listless, he 
 neglected the work that had for years filled his life 
 full of its restless hum and bustle, and spent his days 
 sitting silent and moody in the chimney corner, or 
 wandering from room to room of the lonely house, 
 peering expectantly into each, and then turning 
 away with a disappointed sigh, and the muttered " I 
 would n t a thought I d missed er so." At the 
 beginning of the war Isaac enlisted in the army, and 
 met his fate at Shiloh, but even the news of his death 
 seemed to have little effect in rousing the old man 
 from his gloomy abstraction. " She d a felt it," was 
 all the comment that he made, although all through 
 that day and the next he visited her room oftener 
 than usual, patting with his tremulous hands the un- 
 pressed pillow and coverlid, as if through his failing
 
 2 1 6 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 brain some dim idea of a needed consolation that he 
 had no power to bestow, was trying to make itself 
 understood. 
 
 In business matters he was rational enough, and 
 readily acceded to Jotham s suggestion that he 
 should make a will, disposing of his property before 
 his mind should be so shattered that he was unable to 
 do so legally. The document was drawn up, signed 
 and witnessed in due form, with only one dissenting 
 voice and that was good Doctor Peabody, who had 
 been called in as a witness, and who now took it upon 
 himself, as Comfort s first friend and well wisher in 
 this world, to put in a plea for the girl, who had 
 been left entirely dependent upon the bounty of her 
 brother for even a roof to shelter her. 
 
 " Do you realize, Squire, that you ve left Comfort 
 about the same as homeless and penniless by this 
 will?" 
 
 The old man tapped impatiently the arm of his 
 easy-chair. 
 
 " I don t believe in leavin money to girls. They 
 don t know what to do with it if they have it, and 
 they either throw it away themselves, or let some 
 body else throw it away for em. Jotham 11 see that 
 she don t suffer, and then, most likely, she ll get 
 married, most girls do." 
 
 " But if she don t?" persisted the little doctor with 
 a heightened color. " Marriage is n t a certainty, by 
 any means. And with a handsome property like 
 yours, it s only fair that she should have her share, 
 married or not." 
 
 " That s so," put in the other witness. " Where
 
 "Money is a Good Soldier" 217 
 
 there s only these two, Jotham and Comfort, 
 they ought to share alike, I think. I don t be 
 lieve in makin fish o one child and flesh of an 
 other." 
 
 A little flush crept to the old man s sallow cheek, 
 faint but significant as the glow of an unquenched 
 coal beneath a veil of dead, gray ashes. 
 
 " Well, mebbe you re right," he muttered uneasily. 
 " You " (to the lawyer) " may put a coddycil into 
 that will givin my darter Comfort this house f r her 
 own as long as she lives and wants ter occupy it. If 
 she dies intestate it goes to Jotham or his heirs. 
 Moreover, I give and bequeath to her, and to her 
 heirs and assigns f rever, that back pastur down by 
 the shore where the old granite quarry is, with the 
 proviso that she ain t never to sell or give it away 
 without the permission of her brother, Jotham Had- 
 lock. Two disapp intments ought to bring good 
 luck to somebody." 
 
 The shrill cackle that accompanied the last sen 
 tence emphasized the joke that his old neighbors, 
 who had known all about his disappointed hopes in 
 both directions, fully comprehended ; and as they 
 took their leave, it was with the sad consciousness 
 that their intercession in behalf of the slighted girl 
 had gained nothing for her, after all, but a barren, 
 rocky waste of pasture land, picturesque, to be 
 sure, with its shelving ledges dipping their mossy 
 feet almost into the surf, while a background of 
 dusky pines and cedars, with tangled thickets of 
 blackberry and raspberry, made a picture that an 
 artist would have dwelt upon with pleasure, but for
 
 2 1 8 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 all practical purposes it was as useless as a waste of 
 barren sand would have been. 
 
 If the girl knew of this cruelly unjust division of 
 the property, it made no difference in her treat 
 ment of the infirm, dependent old man. Perhaps his 
 unfeigned sorrow for her, whose loss had so recently 
 shadowed her own young life with a grief that had 
 seemed for the time to dry up all the springs of hope 
 and gladness in her heart, touched her with a tender 
 sympathy that not all his unfatherly indifference and 
 neglect had the power to chill or discourage. " He 
 must," she reasoned, " have really loved her, in spite 
 of all his harsh, domineering ways, or he would not 
 have been so completely broken down by her death." 
 With this thought ever uppermost, she bore patiently 
 with all his caprices, and cheerfully sacrificed health, 
 strength, and even the rare leisure that had been so 
 precious to her, to his convenience and comfort. 
 
 It could not be expected that she should mourn 
 for him at his death as she had mourned for the ten 
 der, ever-loving mother who had gone before, and 
 yet, when she returned from her father s grave and 
 sat down alone in the silent, solitary old farmhouse, 
 it seemed to her that, of all creatures on the face 
 of God s earth she was the most desolate. Even 
 Jotham s ungracious presence would have been a 
 comfort, a companionship of kin, if not of heart 
 and soul, but even that poor solace was denied 
 her, for Jotham was no longer an inmate of his 
 father s house. Several months previous to his 
 father s death he had married Tabby Scripture, and 
 the young couple had taken up their abode in the
 
 "Money is a Good Soldier" 219 
 
 now spacious and modernized dwelling that some 
 merrily inclined summer boarder had christened 
 "The Widow s Mite." Not that the widow had in 
 the least relaxed her hold upon the guiding rein, but 
 as she said in reference to the projected marriage, " a 
 man was handy round the house to chore, and drum 
 up slack-payin boarders." In fact the match had 
 proved a very good one in more ways than one, and 
 more satisfactory to all parties concerned than might 
 have been anticipated by those who knew them best. 
 Jotham s grumpiness and ill-temper troubled nobody 
 so long as he attended to his own part of the work, 
 while his domineering tendencies were kept in check 
 by his wife and mother-in-law, who fully appreciated 
 their position as the real proprietors of the establish 
 ment, and never hesitated from any tenderness or 
 delicacy of feeling to remind him of the fact when 
 ever he showed signs of rebelling against the domi 
 nant female element. 
 
 Above all things, better even than his own way, 
 the young man loved money and the respect and im 
 portance that money brings its possessor, and as he 
 grew older and wiser in the ways of the world, he 
 learned to assume a certain polish of manner, and a 
 heartiness that might easily pass for genuine good- 
 fellowship and kindliness. It was not long before the 
 newspaper correspondents began to speak of him in 
 their letters as the " genial and accommodating host 
 
 of the House," and even his old neighbors, 
 
 while admitting that he was " tight-fisted and sharp 
 at a bargain," allowed that no man on the island was 
 doing more for its advancement and prosperity than
 
 22O A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 he. It was such a convenience to have a ready mar 
 ket for all their fresh fruits and vegetables, and if the 
 prosperous, well-fed landlord haggled over every 
 quart of strawberries, and had a nose that could tell 
 at a sniff just how long to a minute a fish had been 
 out of its native element, he paid for everything 
 down in good hard cash, and nobody could accuse 
 him of cheating a soul out of his dues. 
 
 Success wins confidence at home as well as 
 abroad, and when, after a few years of married life, 
 her son-in-law proposed to the widow to sell her 
 house and invest the proceeds in a big hotel, he had 
 made up his mind to build at Bar Harbor, she was 
 not inclined to scorn the idea as she would once 
 have done, although too cautious to close with his 
 proposal without looking the ground all over, inch 
 by inch. 
 
 " You say the tide o travel is to ards Bar Har 
 bor? Well, mebbe tis, I don t say t ain t, but we ve 
 got to remember that Bar Harbor ain t all the world. 
 There s Sou west Harbor an Nor east Harbor, both 
 on em places that ain t ter be grinned at by them 
 that ain t got no teeth." 
 
 " That s a fact, that s a fact ! " 
 
 Jotham had trained himself so long and thor 
 oughly in this form of polite concession that it 
 slipped as naturally from his tongue in reply to a 
 theological problem as to a pretended catch of fish 
 by a summer boarder who did n t know a trout from 
 a catfish. 
 
 " But it s the folks with the money that are stuck 
 on Bar Harbor, and that s what s going to make it
 
 "Money is a Good Soldier" 221 
 
 the hub o the island. They ve begun building cot 
 tages, an I don t mind telling you, though I 
 should n t want it spoke of outside, there s been 
 parties here lately from Boston an New York buyin 
 up buildin 1 lots, to put up cottages to rent. That 
 means business, an them that s first in the field gets 
 the best cuts." 
 
 The widow s face flushed crimson with excitement. 
 
 " Sho, now ! why how you talk ! Parties from 
 Boston an New York ? " she repeated, half dazed 
 with the magnitude of the idea. " Why, Jotham, next 
 thing we know they 11 be crowdin us off into the sea 
 so s ter get our places. New York parties ! Well, 
 well, I never ! " 
 
 Jotham laughed. 
 
 " We ve got ter hang on tooth an nail f we don t 
 want ter be shoved one side," he said, evidently well 
 pleased with the impression that he had made. 
 " Now I ve been talkin with some of these specula- 
 ters, an they ve made me a good offer for that tim 
 ber land of mine on the west side. There s a good 
 outlook to ards the sea, an it s uneven an rocky 
 enough in all conscience ter suit anybody. What 
 I get f r that with the ready money that I Ve got on 
 hand and what you can get f r this place, I reckon I 
 can put up a smashin tavern, a hotel I s pose 
 we shall have ter call it, that 11 astonish the 
 natives. An you d better believe," he added, with 
 a shrewd twinkle in his hard eyes, " that I 11 charge 
 smashin rates, too. There s lots o folks that 11 will- 
 in ly pay five dollars f r a dinner of wilted vegetables 
 an stale fish, that d turn up their noses at the same
 
 222 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 things all fresh an sweet if they was charged only 
 fifty cents fr the meal." 
 
 The widow looked at her son-in-law in open- 
 mouthed admiration. " Well, well ! You do beat all 
 f r spellin out things," she said. " Why, when you 
 an Tabby set out that I should raise my board from 
 one to two dollars a day, I was actually skairt, for I 
 was afraid my rooms d stand empty all summer." 
 
 " But they was all full, an you had to turn away 
 crowds," reminded Jotham with a complacent grin. 
 " Now I mean ter put on lots o style, act when I 
 give a man a room as if I was turnin myself out o 
 house an home fr his accommodation, an takin his 
 five dollars a day with an air as if I was doin him the 
 greatest favor in the world. That s the kind o 
 thing folks pay well and willin ly for, an when they 
 come next year they 11 bring all their friends with 
 em." 
 
 And so the widow was persuaded, and the hotel 
 was built, a wonder to the simple townsfolk, who 
 flocked in crowds to admire its size and beauty, and 
 to speculate in private whether in future years it 
 would be known as " Hadlock s Folly," or honored 
 as the pioneer of a long line of stately spacious edi 
 fices that should bring honor and prosperity to the 
 as yet only half-awakened hamlet.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 "A LITTLE MORE THAN KIN, AND LESS 
 THAN KIND " 
 
 ,, Mandy?" 
 "Well, Comfort?" 
 Democracy pure and simple, for Mandy never 
 dreamed that the relations between herself and the 
 young mistress of the farmhouse demanded that tacit 
 acknowledgment of inferiority on her part that a 
 prefix would have been, according to her notions. 
 Had n t she known Comfort Hadlock all her life, and 
 was she going to begin to "Miss" her at this late 
 day? Not she. But on the other hand, did n t Com 
 fort, after her poor old grandfather s death had left 
 her homeless and friendless, offer her a home under 
 her own roof, and had n t she been the kindest and 
 most patient of teachers, training her into her own 
 neat, dainty household ways, and smoothing down 
 her half-tamed nature until few would have recog 
 nized in the modest, neat-handed Phyllis of the Had 
 lock farmhouse, the neglected, half-savage little maid 
 of the old fisherman s cabin? And Mandy never for 
 an instant forgot or belittled her obligations to the 
 gentle girl, and even while bravely maintaining her 
 own right to social equality, would willingly have laid 
 down her life, if need be, to save that of the only 
 being in the world who, besides her dead grandfather, 
 she had ever really loved.
 
 224 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 This morning it was evident that something of 
 unusual importance was being debated in the little 
 family conclave, and Mandy s childish face wore a 
 look of bashful indecision as her companion said 
 encouragingly: 
 
 " There s nothing like trying, and if you don t suc 
 ceed you ve nothing to lose. Jotham s head waiter 
 has promised to see that the cards and bouquets 
 are placed by the plates of the right people, and all 
 you 11 have to do is to take the flowers over just 
 before dinner, and the next morning go and get any 
 orders that may be left for you. I really believe 
 you 11 make quite a nice little sum of it if you 11 only 
 try." 
 
 Mandy wrinkled her forehead reflectively. 
 
 " But s pos n they should think a quarter of a 
 dollar too high? It does seem a pretty steep price 
 f r flowers that are growed so easy as sweet peas, and 
 lady s delights, and sweet clover. Now, if I had 
 some sturtions and Chiny oysters, 
 
 " Nasturtiums and China asters," gently corrected 
 Comfort. 
 
 " Yes, if I had something of that kind I should 
 have more of a face to charge for em, but I m 
 afraid, " 
 
 " That they are so common with us is no proof 
 that they are not beautiful to city folks. Why, I ve 
 read that our common mullein is kept in conserva 
 tories in England, where they call it the American 
 Velvet plant; and last summer all the ladies here 
 wore yellow-weed and buttercups, and even white- 
 weed in their belts and bosoms on all occasions.
 
 "A Little More Than Kin" 225 
 
 Tabby said that goldenrod and field daisies, as they 
 called them, were all the fashion, and some even car 
 ried home roots of them for their private conserva 
 tories. You see they have all the rare, cultivated 
 flowers in plenty at home, but Mount Desert flowers 
 are as great a rarity as Mount Desert air and 
 scenery." 
 
 " They must be hard up," grumbled Mandy, only 
 half convinced even now. But she went to work for 
 all that, to cull the blossoms in her modest garden 
 beds, while Comfort occupied herself in writing in 
 her pretty, delicate hand, upon a score or more of 
 neat cards, with a bit of bright ribbon in the corner 
 of each: 
 
 " Orders for corsage and buttonhole bouquets can 
 be left with the clerk of the hotel." 
 
 " I think twas awful clever in Mr. Chase to take 
 charge of an order-book for us," remarked Mandy, 
 who, having a natural gift for arranging flowers, was 
 busily at work making up the tiny nosegays that 
 were to serve as an advertisement of her dainty 
 wares. " But I m dreadfully afraid the big bugs 11 
 make fun of my poor little posies, and think they 
 ain t worth the buyin ." 
 
 " Afraid never climbed the mountain, " 
 
 quoted Comfort, with a reassuring smile. " I remem 
 ber, long ago, that summer when Mrs. Humbre 
 and her family were here, how Miss Delphine 
 loved the sweet peas and southernwood that the 
 Widow Scripture always had in her garden. Even 
 Mrs. Humbre, who didn t care at all for simple
 
 226 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 things, used to wear bachelor s-buttons in her belt, 
 because she said they were the favorite flower of the 
 German emperor, and had a kind of aristocratic 
 look." 
 
 Mandy tied together a spray of pink and white 
 peas, a bit of forget-me-not, and blue-eyed grass, 
 with the dainty curling leaf tip of a carrot for a back 
 ground, and as she held it up to note the general 
 effect, she asked with a sudden show of interest : 
 
 "What s become o them Humbres, do you 
 know?" 
 
 There was no reason in the world why Comfort s 
 tell-tale face should flush so hotly from brow to chin, 
 or why her voice should all at once grow low and 
 tender as she replied, after a moment s pause : 
 
 " They went to Europe the next year after they 
 were here, that is the ladies did, so that Lois could 
 study music in Germany. But Mr. Humbre enlisted 
 on the breaking out of the war, and served all 
 through it, " 
 
 " Lost is arm, did n t he?" asked the scarce sym 
 pathetic listener. 
 
 " Yes," and the girl caught her breath with some 
 thing like a sob. " Yes, his right arm. He came 
 out of the war with a general s shoulder-straps, but 
 all his hopes as an artist were lost forever." 
 
 "That s too bad." Mandy spoke briskly, unmind 
 ful of the pitiful tenderness underlying her com 
 panion s words. " But where are they now?" 
 
 Comfort s face was bent over her work, and it was 
 a full minute before she replied to the question. 
 
 " Lois has n t written me for more than a year, but
 
 "A Little More Than Kin" 227 
 
 in Franz s last letter he said that they were about 
 starting for home. That was six months ago, and 
 they are probably at home long before this." 
 
 " How is he, Franz Hedvig, getting along? " 
 
 This was a question that Comfort was well used to 
 hearing, for, knowing that he had corresponded with 
 her ever since he went to Sweden, the good folks not 
 unnaturally jumped to the conclusion that the boy 
 and girl friendship had ripened into a stronger and 
 tenderer sentiment, although the easy, unembarrassed 
 manner in which she always spoke of him should, 
 long ago, have disabused them of that idea. 
 
 " Very well, I hope. Since his graduation and his 
 uncle s death he has spent most of his time in Ger 
 many, where he has been one of the royal engineers, 
 with very fair pay and a good prospect of rising in 
 his profession." 
 
 She did not choose to speak of the ambitious 
 hopes that he had confided to her alone, of the 
 precious invention that, if he could only get the 
 means to perfect it, and bring it before the eyes of 
 the scientific world, must needs prove a stepping- 
 stone for him to fame and fortune. With a woman s 
 unquestioning trust, she firmly believed in the ulti 
 mate success of his plans, and none but herself 
 guessed how bitter had been her disappointment 
 when a project that she had counted on as an aid to 
 him came to nothing in her weak hands. 
 
 As religiously as one would keep a registered vow, 
 she had year by year put aside Franz s share of the 
 " bee money," so called, and as the busy little work 
 ers had thriven and increased wonderfully under her
 
 228 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 wise care, the sum laid by each season had assumed 
 very respectable proportions to her unaccustomed 
 eyes, so that upon the youth s graduation she wrote 
 with pardonable pride of the amount in her hands, 
 asking his directions as to the disposal of it. 
 
 His reply was not only a disappointment, but a 
 humiliation as well. 
 
 " I would rather," he wrote, " that you kept it 
 yourself, Comfort, you ought to have it after all 
 your trouble and care, and I hope you will decide to 
 keep it. But so small a sum would do me little good, 
 just now, and if you are determined, as you say, that 
 I shall have the benefit of it, you may use it to buy 
 back Granny s few acres of land. I hated to sell 
 them when I did, but I could do no better then, and 
 no doubt your father will be glad to have them off 
 his hands. If I should ever come back to the old 
 home, as I hope to do some day, I would like to feel 
 that I could call the small estate that she felt so 
 much pride in, my own." 
 
 It was all sensible and clearly stated, Franz al 
 ways spoke to the point, but to have that precious 
 hoard that she had accumulated penny by penny, 
 and which she had counted over and over with ever 
 increasing pride and triumph, as the years went by, 
 regarded as not worth the trouble of transportation, 
 gave her a real heartache that she would have been 
 at a loss to make plain to Franz, of all people in the 
 world. So she simply followed his directions without 
 a word of question or cavil, reclaiming not only the 
 original acres but adding an adjoining lot, at her 
 father s suggestion, as of possible value in some
 
 "A Little More Than Kin" 229 
 
 distant future when the building lots might be in 
 greater demand than now. 
 
 The papers were all legally executed, and Franz 
 acknowledged their receipt in a jocose postscript 
 attached to his next letter : 
 
 " Title deeds received all right. Now I am a landed 
 proprietor, and I do hope I shall never be forced, like old 
 Monsieur Gregoire, to sell my estate at a dollar an acre to 
 anybody who wants just room enough to set his log cabin 
 on." 
 
 After her father s death, Franz resolutely refused 
 to claim any of the " bee money," and as she had 
 now a good market for it, it added quite a sum to 
 Comfort s yearly income an income drawn from 
 the produce of her garden and the small salary paid 
 her as teacher of the village school through the 
 summer. Both Jotham and his wife ignored her as 
 far as possible, the former driving as hard a bargain 
 with her for the vegetables, honey, and fresh eggs 
 that she supplied him with, as with any hard-handed 
 farmer or fisherman on the island. 
 
 Curious summer visitors, attracted by the refined 
 and delicate face, no less than by the sweet voice 
 that on Sundays filled the pretty Gothic church with 
 its pure melody, were briefly informed that she was 
 " the girl who kept the village school." And never 
 by any chance did the bustling, pretentious, and 
 gorgeously attired landlady of the House pre 
 sent any of her guests to the gentle, modestly dressed 
 girl, whom they so often met in their walks and rides, 
 as " my husband s sister." Ashamed of the relation-
 
 230 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 ship? That could hardly be, for, apart from a natural 
 grace and courtesy of manner, Comfort s taste in dress 
 was unquestioned, even Mrs. Tabby reluctantly 
 admitting that " Comfort s ten-cent ginghams never 
 looked out of place anywhere, for she wore em as 
 the rich folks wore their silks and laces, just as if 
 they grew on er." 
 
 Jotham, suave and smiling to his guests, the 
 very type of the popular landlord, had another 
 side for the sister, whom his narrow, mean soul hated 
 with all its strength. If she had been obsequious 
 and humble, flattering his masculine vanity by de 
 ferring to him on all occasions, and pretending, if she 
 did not think, that he was the greatest man in the 
 world, he might have despised and slighted her, but 
 he would never have hated her as he did now. 
 Sometimes it almost seemed like the hatred en 
 gendered by a secret fear, for there was a bravado in 
 his manner toward her, an unconscious challenge that 
 seemed oddly at variance with his habitual indiffer 
 ence and feigned contempt. Had Comfort been 
 capable of that vice of little minds, envy, she must 
 have felt keenly the difference between her own 
 narrow, confined life, and the opportunities and privi 
 leges that her sister-in-law enjoyed without stint. 
 
 With the establishment of the new hotel, Mistress 
 Tabby had withdrawn from any share in the house 
 keeping department, and in the royal seclusion of 
 her own apartments received and entertained those 
 guests who, either from a desire to be amused by the 
 would-be lady s airs and graces, or for more pruden 
 tial motives, paid court to her, and flattered her with
 
 "A Little More Than Kin" 231 
 
 the idea that the wife of a Bar Harbor landlord was 
 necessarily a princess in her own right, and should 
 be treated with the deference due to her rank and 
 position. 
 
 " It is cheaper to keep on the soft side of the land 
 lady than to fee the waiters," shrewdly remarked a 
 lady guest, whose pedigree was a good deal longer 
 than her purse. And as there were plenty of these 
 thrifty souls at Bar Harbor, the portly Tabby, like 
 the old dame in the legend, 
 
 " Sitting nursed by man and maid, 
 Felt still her heart grow prouder," 
 
 until, no longer satisfied with her annual winter visits 
 to the great cities of her own land, she felt an ambi 
 tion stirring beneath her gay matronly feathers to 
 "see Rome," to be able to say to travelled dilet 
 tantes, with an air as assured as their own : " I, too, 
 know Raphael and Michael Angelo, and have swept 
 the dust of the Vatican with my own flounced and 
 Hamburg-trimmed petticoat." 
 
 Better even than this, would be the power to set 
 right any untravelled slip of aristocracy upon the 
 vexed question of some Parisian fashion, with the 
 ultimatum, " I know, for I ve been there." 
 
 So Tabby, taking advantage of a promising excur 
 sion party, went to Europe, and having thoroughly 
 " done" the Old World in three months, was at home 
 again, a little fatter, a little finer as to dress, and 
 more than a little coarser and more arrogant than 
 when she went away. 
 
 Comfort had not seen her since her return, but her
 
 232 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 ears had rung with the wonderful stories of " Jotham s 
 wife s fine dresses and splendid jewelry and things," 
 the " things " representing any number of foreign 
 ornaments and articles of vertu, from the Swiss carv 
 ing of a rooster match-safe to one of Guide s Ma- 
 
 o 
 
 donnas (copied right from the original). 
 
 It was not in Comfort s nature to make any dis 
 paraging comment upon her sister-in-law, but Mandy 
 was not so forbearing, and sometimes expressed 
 herself upon the subject with a tartness that nobody 
 wondered at, and with which most of her listeners 
 either secretly or openly sympathized. 
 
 " Been acrost the seas, and seen all the sights, has 
 she? Well, as to that, lots o folks could go if they d 
 only demean to half starve their help, so s ter sell the 
 leavin s to the Indians in the camp back here. I know 
 f r a fact, that Tabby Hadlock makes more money in 
 a season sellin the scraps from the boarders plates, 
 instead of lettin her table girls have em, than them 
 girls wages come to. I would n t work for er if I 
 was starvin ." 
 
 Cherishing this opinion of the travelled dame, it is 
 not strange that Comfort s honest-souled little hand 
 maiden should have seen with an uncomfortable feeling 
 of repulsion, as with her basket of flowers she passed 
 in the kitchen entrance, the mistress herself in spotless 
 morning dress, laying down the law to the steward in 
 a mincing, affected tone, while she emphasized her 
 words with a stubby forefinger upon which glittered 
 conspicuously a diamond of considerable value. 
 
 " Now I want you to remember that my lemon is 
 to be thoroughly rolled before it is squeezed into the
 
 "A Little More Than Kin" 233 
 
 glass, and brought to me just ten minutes before 
 the gong strikes." 
 
 The steward bowed respectfully. 
 
 " I will see that it is done, madam." 
 
 And as the flattered Tabby sailed grandly away, 
 Mandy s shyness was all forgotten in a burst of tri 
 umphant laughter, as one of the table girls, seizing 
 the lemon threw it on the floor, and rolling it beneath 
 one of her substantial feet, called merrily to her 
 mates : 
 
 " I ll give her lemon a squeezing that 11 bring out 
 the flavor." 
 
 The steward was old at his business, and he found 
 it convenient just then to look the other way, Mis 
 tress Tabby might as well eat her peck of dirt in that 
 form as any other.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 " I VE BEEN TO LONDON TO SEE THE QTJEEN " 
 
 FT was a bright June morning, and Comfort Had- 
 * lock sat in her favorite seat upon the warm door- 
 stone, putting the finishing touches to a new gown 
 that she was making for Mandy, and singing softly to 
 herself, so softly that her voice scarcely rose above 
 the hum of the bees, that haunted the clematis over 
 head. There are days that we all have known, when 
 the restfulness of perfect peace seems to fill all the 
 placid atmosphere, when the air while warm and 
 balmy is invigorating, and not a harsh or misplaced 
 note is to be heard in the whole grand symphony of 
 Nature about us. And such a day was this, with its 
 cloudless sky and brightly shimmering sea, that, as 
 the girl s eyes, full of a wordless content, watched it, 
 seemed like the breast of some mighty, mail-clad 
 warrior, whose foam-white beard curled softly above 
 and around the glittering hauberk, as if the two were 
 one and inseparable now and forever. Swiftly her 
 needle flew, for she remembered that school would 
 begin in two weeks at the farthest, and that then her 
 needle must of necessity give place to pen and 
 pencil. 
 
 For three summers she had taught the village school, 
 and although no special bargain had been made be 
 tween herself and Jotham, who was the agent this year,
 
 " I ve Been to London " 235 
 
 there was a tacit understanding that she was to fill 
 the place as heretofore. Mandy s new venture had 
 proved a success, her simple nosegays finding a ready 
 sale among the summer visitors who had thus early 
 made their appearance, and Comfort took a benevo 
 lent pleasure in the pride and delight of her faithful 
 satellite, who was overjoyed at the thought that she 
 was able to add in this way to the general housekeep 
 ing fund. Not that the girl had ever been an idle 
 dependent upon her friend s bounty, for without her 
 watchful ministry Comfort would have missed a score 
 of little luxuries that, with her other duties, she could 
 never have found time to provide for herself, to say 
 nothing of the companionship that made her forget 
 for the time, in its full, overflowing vitality, the lone 
 liness and silence of these memory-haunted rooms. 
 Nor did the fisherman s little maid disdain on occa 
 sion to try her hand in a small way at her grand 
 father s calling, and always so successfully that not 
 only was the family larder the richer, but many a 
 dollar found its way into their hoard from the sale 
 of her finny trophies. 
 
 And now as she stepped briskly about her house 
 hold tasks within, stopping now and then to ex 
 change a merry word with her young mistress in the 
 open doorway, her face wore a look of such perfect 
 content that Comfort, as she bent over her sewing, 
 smiled to herself with moistened eyes, as she recalled 
 the forlorn little figure, ragged and draggled, with 
 unkempt hair and tear-stained face, that, on that sad 
 evening when, after her father s funeral, she sat all 
 alone in the silent house, came timidly in at the door,
 
 236 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 never stopping for the ceremony of knocking, 
 and creeping close to her side, whispered in a voice 
 tremulous with pity as well as cold : 
 
 " Don t ye want me ter bide with ye till yer gits a 
 little used ter pullin a single oar? I know what t is." 
 
 And from that hour the lonely little waif had freely 
 shared her bit and sup, repaying a thousand-fold by 
 her affectionate devotion the time and patience ex 
 pended upon her. With that natural womanly desire 
 to " mother " something, a desire that finds its out 
 come in the little girl s tender devotion to her doll as 
 really as when, in later years, she gladly denies her 
 self that she may expend all her means and energies 
 upon the adornment of her child, Comfort took an 
 innocent pride in dressing her protege as prettily 
 and neatly as their small means would permit, and 
 Mandy s simple print and gingham gowns were as 
 daintily and tastefully planned and finished as if they 
 had been fashioned of the costliest silks. The girl 
 was growing tall and womanly, and her kind friend 
 thought, with pleased satisfaction, how well she 
 would look in the pretty gingham that fitted so per 
 fectly her slender, well-rounded form. 
 
 " There," with a satisfied sigh, as she shook out the 
 crisp, fresh folds, " your dress is all finished, even to 
 the loops to hang it up by. Now if you will bring me 
 that muslin for your apron I will cut and baste it, so 
 that you can make it yourself when you have time." 
 
 Mandy s face shone delightedly. 
 
 " I m ever and ever so much obliged. Yes, I 11 
 get " 
 
 She stopped so suddenly that Comfort looked up
 
 "I ve Been to London" 237 
 
 in some surprise, as a shadow fell across her folded 
 hands, and there was Mrs. Tabby, in all the full 
 blown luxuriance of a rose-colored silk tea-gown, and 
 hat fairly bristling with French daisies, mincing down 
 the grassy pathway, her high-heeled slippers making 
 her pace quite as ungainly as that of her heathen 
 sister on the other side of the globe. Comfort rose 
 to receive her with a momentary feeling of embar 
 rassment, for this was the first time that her sister-in- 
 law had deigned to show her face at the old 
 farm-house since her return from abroad, months be 
 fore, and it was not in human nature to be oblivious of, 
 or quite unresentful of the slight. But Mistress Tabby 
 had an axe to grind, and, with the crafty diplomacy 
 of her kind, she assumed an air of affectionate cor 
 diality that made the suspicious Mandy, who was 
 peeping from a convenient doorway, shrewdly sus 
 pect that some mischief was in the wind. 
 
 " Oh, you dear, dear girl ! How glad I am to see 
 you once more." 
 
 And she clasped the " dear girl " in such a close 
 embrace that her own taut laces creaked with the 
 unwonted strain. 
 
 " I ve been dying to see you ever since I got 
 home, but I ain t been well, an the boarders are 
 beginning to come, an , well, the truth is, Mr. 
 Hadlock can t bear to have me out of his sight a 
 minute, I ve been gone so long, you know." 
 
 Comfort assented with an amused smile, as she 
 invited her flushed visitor into the cool, shaded par 
 lor; but Mrs. Tabby sank down upon the sheltered 
 doorstone with a sigh of oily satisfaction.
 
 238 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " It s too hot to go into the house," she panted ; 
 " I 11 set right down here, I can get my breath 
 better in the open air, an I ve got sights of 
 things to tell you about." 
 
 Comfort quietly resumed her sewing, and her visi 
 tor went on to unburden her mind of its promiscuous 
 hoard. 
 
 " Oh, how I wish you could see Parse, dear, 
 beautiful Paree! " clasping her fat hands in an ecstacy 
 of gorgeous retrospection. " With its splendid shops, 
 an churches, an gardings, an the bullyvards, 
 there you see all the big bugs from everywhere, 
 ridin on horseback or in the stunnin est carriages, 
 with ribbons on the whip an the horses heads that 
 must have cost all of four an six a yard ; an the 
 gentleman that drove an the one that rid behind 
 both dressed to kill, with gold lace on their coats an 
 white kid gloves, jest as if they was goin to a wed- 
 din ." 
 
 " Did you see the Palace of the Tuileries, and the 
 Louvre, and the old prison of the Conciergerie where 
 poor Marie Antoinette was confined?" asked Com 
 fort with eager interest, as Tabby paused for a 
 moment to take breath. 
 
 The travelled lady regarded her with calm disdain. 
 
 " Them old duds ! why, nobody goes to see them 
 now. They re all gone by, an folks that go to Paree 
 now go to see something new and stylish. Why," 
 warming with her subject, " you can get more new 
 wrinkles in the way of dress than you could get any 
 where else in the world. Do you see this? " turning 
 up one fat shoulder to call her listener s attention to
 
 "I ve Been to London" 239 
 
 the muslin cape she wore ; " well, I got the pattern 
 of this from one that belonged to a real countess 
 that was stayin at the hotel where we was. They 
 call it a commyeelfe over there, an you 11 laugh to 
 know how well I worked it to get the pattern." 
 
 Comfort smiled, but made no comment, and Mrs. 
 Tabby went on with infinite relish to tell the story of 
 the confiscated cape pattern: 
 
 " She was awful stylish, and high toned, and all 
 that, you know, looked right over our heads if she 
 happened to meet us (just as if some of us could n t 
 a bought er twice over). But her maid was a social 
 body, and knew enough English to make consider- 
 ble talk. So I found out lots of things that I never 
 should have known any other way, about how much 
 her dresses cost, and what jewelry she had, and why 
 she didn t live with her husband, and all that sort 
 of thing, you know. Well, one day I saw her going 
 out and she had on one of these new kind of capes, 
 so I said something to Marie, the maid, about its 
 being a stylish thing, and the maid smiled and 
 hunched up her shoulders, (a way all them French 
 women have), and says she: 
 
 " Ah, we ! Madame is always commyeelfe. That 
 was just what I wanted, the name, you see, so I 
 went to a dressmaker s shop and told the woman 
 what I wanted. She did n t seem to know what I 
 meant at first, but I ketched up a piece of muslin 
 that was layin there and folded it as well as I could, 
 and threw it over my shoulders. And she froze to 
 the idea right off, and I got my cape, though I had to 
 pay an outrageous price for it. But, as I told Mr.
 
 240 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 Hadlock, when I went away, I was going to go the 
 whole hog or none." 
 
 Comfort was only human, and as she glanced at 
 her sister-in-law s complacent face and heard her 
 boast of the money that in her ignorance she had 
 wasted upon a mere trifle, the temptation grew strong 
 within her to undeceive her by the simple explana 
 tion of the real meaning of the Frenchwoman s 
 phrase. Tabby richly deserved the mortification and 
 chagrin that she would feel if once she knew of her 
 ridiculous blunder, and few, under the circumstances, 
 would have refrained from telling her of it. But 
 with Comfort the temptation was only momentary, 
 and she was soon so interested in Tabby s further 
 communication that she forgot all about it for the 
 time. 
 
 " But who do you think I run acrost in one o 
 them German towns, (I forget the name of it now,) 
 somebody that you an me used to know years 
 ago?" 
 
 "Not the Humbres?" 
 
 " Yes, the Humbres, the old woman and her 
 daughter, and Lois Gregory. And, queerest of all 
 there was Franz Hedvig, as big as life, tagging round 
 after that Lois, jest as if there wa n t such a body as 
 Comfort Hadlock in the world." 
 
 She glanced sharply at Comfort s interested face, 
 evidently curious to see how this bit of foreign gossip 
 would be received. But the girl was so startled and 
 surprised that she took no heed of her scrutiny. 
 
 " Is it possible? Franz wrote of meeting them in 
 Berlin, but I never guessed that he might be in-
 
 "I ve Been to London" 241 
 
 terested in Lois. But," she asked with sudden 
 apprehension, " did Mrs. Humbre approve of the 
 intimacy? " 
 
 " Not much," and Tabby laughed spitefully. 
 " She was sick all the time, had some kind of a 
 stroke, I believe, and the young folks had it all their 
 own way, for the old maid daughter had all she 
 could do to tend out on her mother. The old 
 woman was cross as a bear with a sore head, so 
 the chambermaid told me, and from what I knew 
 of her I don t doubt it." 
 
 " And you think Lois really cares for him?" 
 
 There was an anxious strain in the girl s voice as 
 she put her question. That Lois, beauty and belle 
 as she was, was expected to make a grand match, 
 and had been trained and tutored for that very pur 
 pose, Comfort well knew, and could it be possible 
 that for her own selfish gratification she would trifle 
 with a heart as true and loyal as that of Franz 
 Hedvig must needs be? She would not believe it, 
 and her gossipy visitor was puzzled and rather taken 
 aback by the frank, unaffected interest that she cer 
 tainly took in the love affairs of these two, one of 
 whom had for years been accredited with being her 
 own sweetheart. 
 
 As Mrs. Tabby at length rose to take her leave a 
 sudden thought seemed to strike her, and she re 
 marked carelessly: 
 
 " There, I came pretty near forgetting the errand 
 that Mr. Hadlock sent by me: He wanted me to tell 
 you that he d like to buy that old pastur o yours. 
 We re going to keep two or three cows of our own 
 
 16
 
 242 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 this summer, and he s sold all his own pastur land 
 an had ruther buy than hire. He said he d drop 
 in in a day or two an talk it over." 
 
 Her parting " Come in and see us some day," was 
 spoken with such a hurriedly indifferent air, that as 
 Comfort watched the big rose-colored cloud dis 
 appearing from sight down the long, grass-bordered 
 highway, a strange feeling came over her, as if all 
 this pretended cordiality, so different from her usual 
 manner, had been intended as a blind, and that her 
 mission once accomplished, she had dispensed with 
 it as quickly as possible. In vain she blamed her 
 self for this unwonted suspiciousness, but all through 
 the day that false ring in her visitor s parting com 
 munication rang in her ears and would not be for 
 gotten. It haunted her with an uneasy foreboding 
 of coming ill as she sat alone in the twilight, 
 Mandy having dropped into a neighbor s for an hour, 
 so that she was very glad of the diversion when 
 the Widow Scripture s familiar voice broke in upon 
 her solitude, and forced her to turn her attention to 
 something outside of her own moody fancies. 
 
 The widow was full of business as usual, talking of 
 certain improvements that they had made in the 
 house and its arrangements, of the guests, the help, 
 the lateness of the season, of everything, in fact, but 
 her daughter and her foreign experiences. Comfort 
 was the first to introduce the subject. 
 
 " Tabby had a fine time abroad, she tells me. I m 
 glad she enjoyed herself so well, and is at home 
 again safe and sound." 
 
 The widow started nervously. " Where did you
 
 " I ve Been to London " 
 
 243 
 
 see er?" she asked with a sharpness that the subject 
 scarcely seemed to warrant. 
 
 " She made me a long call this forenoon," returned 
 Comfort pleasantly. 
 
 Her companion shuffled her feet uneasily, and 
 there was a tone of mingled anxiety and suspicion in 
 her voice as she asked, after a moment s pause : 
 
 " What d she have ter say?" 
 
 " Oh, she told me all about the sights in Paris, and 
 her meeting with the Humbres and Franz Hedvig in 
 Germany. I knew," she added with a little hesita 
 tion, remembering the widow s prejudices, "that Mrs. 
 Humbre had been in poor health for a long time, 
 but I did n t know before that she was a paralytic." 
 
 The widow gave an unsympathetic grunt. 
 
 " She can be just as lazy as she wants to now," she 
 sniffed. " I really think that s long s she s got some 
 body to wait on er, she s as well contented in bed as 
 she d be anywhere." 
 
 Comfort did not feel herself called upon to cham 
 pion the absent lady, and after a few more irrele 
 vant remarks, the good woman rose to take her leave, 
 lingering in the doorway to pick a bit of sweet clover, 
 with the low-spoken reminder: 
 
 " I give yer mother this root the summer before 
 she died, and somehow the smell of it brings her 
 back to me." 
 
 Tears sprang to Comfort s eyes as she stood there 
 in the quiet starlight. For some reason she felt 
 strangely desolate and unprotected, Oh, if that 
 mother were only with her now ! 
 
 Suddenly with a quick, resolute movement, the
 
 244 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 widow turned, and laid a trembling hand upon the 
 girl s shoulder, as she whispered sharply in her ear : 
 " Don t you sell one foot o yer land to Jotham at 
 any price." Then disregarding the girl s exclamation 
 of astonishment, she hurried away with the muttered : 
 "It s a mean bird that fouls its own nest, but I 
 can t see your mother s child cheated, nohow."
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 " HE THAT IS GREEDY OF GAIN TROUBLETH HIS 
 OWN HOUSE " 
 
 WHAT could the widow s warning mean ? It was 
 evidently spoken with reluctance, and under 
 the softening influence of some tender recollections 
 of the gentle woman, whose harmless life had been 
 lived out in that old farmhouse, like a wandering 
 morning-glory vine that Comfort had once watched 
 as it crept unawares into the cellar windows, and 
 wreathing the rough stone wall with its delicate ten 
 drils and pale pink and purple trumpets, had tried 
 its best to cheer and beautify the deep gloom, 
 although the sunlight for which it pined never glad 
 dened it into the riotous luxuriance that was its birth 
 right. All through her morning tasks the girl pondered 
 with an anxious heart the significant words that 
 meant, if they did not say: "Don t trust your 
 brother, he will wrong you if you do." 
 
 Comfort s womanly heart shrank with sensitive 
 dread from the thought that her only relative in the 
 wide world, the brother who had lain an innocent 
 baby upon the breast of their sainted mother, 
 could find it in his heart to wrong her, as his mother- 
 in-law had intimated. Jotham had always been harsh, 
 and with increasing prosperity coldly neglectful of 
 her, but that he would deliberately plan to do her
 
 246 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 an actual wrong she could not and would not allow 
 herself to believe. 
 
 Her father had been harsh and stern but he had been 
 the soul of honor, and although he had bequeathed 
 her a barren heritage, hedging even that about with 
 restrictions that left her only the uncertain power 
 of veto, he had evidently believed in the will as well 
 as the wisdom of his favorite son to act for her best 
 good in the matter should the unlikely question of a 
 sale ever arise. There had been some talk lately in 
 the neighborhood that land was rapidly increasing 
 in value, and that desirable building lots would soon 
 command fabulous prices. But this was mere specu 
 lation, and Comfort had never thought of it in con 
 nection with her own barren, rocky possessions. 
 Perhaps Jotham wanted to speculate on it, and she 
 decided, when he should make the promised call, 
 to ask him frankly in regard to the matter. 
 
 Mandy, unsuspicious of the secret trouble of her 
 young mistress, had gone off in high spirits with her 
 basket of nosegays, as usual, and Comfort sat down 
 by the open window with her sewing to await the 
 appearance of her brother who, she felt a secret 
 intuition, would take the time when she was sure to 
 be alone to make his visit. Yes, there he was, hurry 
 ing along the road that led from the pasture. He 
 had evidently been taking a survey of the land, for 
 in his hand he carried a slender birch switch with 
 which he was absently whipping off the heads of the 
 unoffending buttercups and daisies, a habit, as 
 Comfort remembered with half a smile, that he 
 had had from boyhood.
 
 " He that is Greedy of Gain " 247 
 
 Unnoticed herself, she watched him with eyes made 
 keen by her newly aroused suspicion, as he came 
 briskly up the path, not as one bent upon a leisurely 
 morning call, but with an air that meant business, 
 sharp, prompt, unscrupulous, the gait, the air, 
 the look bespoke the man whose sole aim in life 
 was gain. And yet, when his sister met him with 
 her frank, kindly welcome, and invited him into the 
 well-remembered room where their mother always 
 sat, even pressing upon him the easy-chair that was 
 especially devoted to her use during the last years 
 of her life, a momentary flush as of shame passed 
 over his hard face, and he glanced uneasily at his 
 father s picture upon the wall opposite, as if half 
 afraid that those stern lips might open to denounce 
 him as false to his trust as a man and a brother. 
 But he was not a man to be swayed by fancies, and 
 after a moment s embarrassed silence he came straight 
 to the object of his visit. 
 
 " I can t stop but a minute, Comfort. I ve got a 
 hundred things to see to this mornin , but I jest 
 dropped in to talk about that pastur , Mis Had- 
 lock told you that I d take it off o yer han s?" 
 
 Comfort nodded, and in spite of the gathering 
 heaviness about her heart she could not refrain from 
 a smile at the little affectation of speaking to her of 
 Tabby as if she had been a stranger. But Jotham 
 was as oblivious of the smile as he was ignorant of 
 the thought that lay beneath. 
 
 " You see," he went on, " I ve been thinkin that 
 land ain t no good to you, but it might do to pastur 
 some o my hosses in, "
 
 248 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " They should have agreed upon the kind of 
 animal beforehand," thought Comfort, with a remem 
 brance of Tabby s plausible story of yesterday. And 
 at that moment a new spirit was born within her, a 
 calm determination that she would be neither coaxed 
 nor bullied into selling this land that her father had 
 bequeathed her, that she would exercise the right of 
 woman no less than man to stand on the defensive 
 for her rights. 
 
 " I ve been thinkin ," went on the unsuspicious 
 Jotham, " that seein I m gettin along fairly well in 
 the world, an you re all the one that s left of our 
 family, that t won t hurt me to pay you more n the 
 land is really worth." 
 
 He straightened himself with an assumed air of 
 benevolence that sat ill upon him, and called up the 
 blushes to Comfort s sensitive face, he had not the 
 grace to be ashamed of himself, but his sister was 
 ashamed for him. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 She spoke but the single word, with an effort, for 
 he had paused evidently expecting a reply. 
 
 " Yes, I 11 give you, lemme see," counting up 
 the acres on his fingers, " I ll give you a hundred and 
 twenty-five dollars if you 11 give me a deed of the 
 whole. Pay you the cash right down, an we 11 have 
 the deed made out this very day." 
 
 In his eagerness he had overshot the mark, for his 
 haste was in itself a confirmation of her suspicions, 
 and in a few calmly spoken words she refused his 
 offer. 
 
 " I shall not part with the property at any price,
 
 " He that is Greedy of Gain " 249 
 
 for the present," she said, turning away her eyes 
 from his angry, astonished face. " I have heard that 
 the price of land about here is steadily rising, and if I 
 can hold it a few years I may get thousands instead 
 of hundreds for it. At any rate it seems wise to wait." 
 
 She tried to speak lightly, playfully, even, but her 
 brother was in no mood for pleasantries. 
 
 " Who has been putting such devilish nonsense 
 into yer head?" he blustered. "It s a lie, and no 
 body but a fool would believe it. Did she, the old 
 woman, tell you that? " 
 
 Comfort was thankful that she could give a truth 
 ful negative, on hearing which the angry man by 
 a great effort controlled himself, and for the first time 
 in their lives, deigned to- reason with his refractory 
 sister. 
 
 " Now, Comfort, you jest put all that nonsense out 
 o your head, an listen to reason. I don t pretend 
 that land ain t higher here now than twas ten years 
 ago, that Stan s ter reason, for this is a growin 
 place, as every fool knows. But let me tell you it 
 makes a mighty sight o difference where the land is. 
 That old pastur ain t nothin but rocks an bushes, 
 and nobody in their senses 11 ever think of buildin 
 on it. These rich folks that pay fancy prices f r 
 house lots want some land round em that they can 
 lay out in walks an drives. I tell you the land 
 won t be worth a boodle more ten years from now 
 than it is to-day, an let me tell you a hundred 
 an twenty-five dollars don t grow on every bush." 
 
 But Comfort once decided no power on earth 
 could move her.
 
 250 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " Perhaps you re right," she said steadily ; " but 
 I m not going to sell the land at present. It costs 
 nothing to keep it and I 11 run my risk." 
 
 Jotham looked at her with the old hatred in his 
 eyes that had looked out of those same windows 
 years ago when as a child she had boldly asserted 
 her independence of his authority. 
 
 " You re doin it jest to spite me. I know yer 
 tricks of old," he cried savagely, forgetting his pru 
 dence in his disappointed rage. " But let me tell 
 you one thing, my lady,"- he lowered his voice 
 almost to a whisper and bent forward until his hot 
 breath, stifling with the fumes of his morning draught, 
 smote upon her shrinking cheek, " you re in my 
 power, an I never will give my consent to yer sellin 
 an acre of that land to anybody else, if t would make 
 you a millionaire." 
 
 Comfort stared at him, fairly stunned at such un 
 heard-of malice. 
 
 " You would n t allow me to sell my own land that 
 my father left to me if I could get enough for it to 
 make me independent?" she asked incredulously. 
 
 " No," and the angry man ground his teeth to 
 gether like some enraged animal. " The old man 
 left it so that you couldn t sell a foot of it without 
 my consent, and that consent I swear you never shall 
 have. I d see you starve in the gutter first." 
 
 " You can t mean it, Jotham? " 
 
 The girl s tones were sadly incredulous, and she 
 looked with wistful eyes at the hard, set face of him 
 who should have been her protector rather than her 
 tyrant. But the mean animal nature of the man was
 
 " He that is Greedy of Gain " 251 
 
 uppermost, and nothing but humble submission and 
 compliance with his wishes could have touched him. 
 That, all the honest independence of the girl s nature 
 forbade, and her pale cheek only grew a shade paler, 
 and the lines about her mouth more determined as 
 she listened to his unmanly tirade. 
 
 " You Ve always set yerself ag inst me, from a 
 young one, and I ain t forgot the day that you d a* 
 drove me off and branded me as a thief, as you did 
 Dave, if I had n t been too cute f r ye." 
 
 " Were you too " 
 
 The speaker s lips were white as ashes, and her 
 eyes sought his face with a frightened stare that 
 evidently recalled him to his senses, for he burst into 
 a harsh laugh that had more of fear than mirth in it. 
 
 " What do you mean, you fool? I only meant yer 
 will was good enough to have brought us both into 
 trouble if you could." 
 
 He was trembling from head to foot, was it from 
 passion or fear? And there was that stern, pictured 
 face looking down upon him with its eyes that 
 seemed to read every thought, every memory, even, 
 that floated through his troubled brain, while the soft 
 chintz covering of the chair against which he leaned 
 his head reminded him of the touch of a tender, 
 motherly hand, and he seemed to hear the whispered 
 words that no mortal ear but his own had listened to : 
 
 " Whoso repenteth and forsaketh his sin shall find 
 mercy." He roused himself and looked about him. 
 Comfort s head was bowed upon the table beside her 
 and she was crying softly, the bees were humming 
 cheerfully about the morning-glory vine that crept
 
 252 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 over the window, and without, the voice of the re 
 turning Mandy was heard singing a merry tune. 
 
 Foiled, angry with his sister and himself, he 
 assumed an air of cold indifference, as he rose to go 
 with the significant warning: 
 
 " You d be wise to think better of it. An if you 
 do," he added in a sharp whisper that might not 
 reach the ears of the girl outside, " you can come to 
 me and say so. I shan t never make you the offer a 
 second time." 
 
 He was gone, and when a few moments later Mandy 
 came into the room she found its occupant with pale, 
 tear-stained face, but able to smile back kindly to her 
 bright bits of village gossip, and even after a little to 
 take a decided interest in something that the girl s 
 sharp ears had overheard, and her sharper intelli 
 gence quickly caught at the significance of. 
 
 " While I was waiting for Mr. Chase to take the 
 flowers out of the basket, I heard a strange man say: 
 I understand that that belongs to Hadlock s sister, 
 how can he sell it? Of course I pricked up my 
 ears at that, and the other says, It s in his care, he 
 tells me, and he has the sole right to dispose of it. 
 He has promised to let us have it for twenty thou 
 sand, and we can make a fair profit on that. You 
 could a knocked me down with a feather," went 
 on Mandy excitedly. " Only think of it ! Twenty 
 thousand dollars! Why, my heart come right up in 
 my mouth, and I thought f r the minute I should a 
 choked. Mr. Chase had to speak to me three times 
 before I even heard him, and when he gave me the 
 three silver dollars and some change, I just longed to
 
 " He that is Greedy of Gain " 253 
 
 toss em into the air, and holler so that everybody 
 could hear me : What s three dollars to folks 
 that s rich as Comfort and me are ? 
 
 Comfort smiled, but there were tears in her eyes 
 as she said : 
 
 " I m afraid we shall be no better off for this offer. 
 My brother objects to my selling the land." 
 
 Mandy s face fell. 
 
 " I s pose he thinks they 11 bid higher still, ruther n 
 not get it," she said ruefully. " But you know a bird 
 in the hand is worth two in the bush, and with twenty 
 thousand dollars we should be rich, and not have to 
 worry and plan about the things that we need to eat 
 and wear." And the excited girl laid her head down 
 in Comfort s lap, and sobbed out all her grief and 
 disappointment. 
 
 " T would be such a help, and nobody knows but 
 you and I how much we need it."
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 " THAT OLD HOUSE OF YOURS THAT GAVE SUCH 
 WELCOMES OFT TO ME" 
 
 have never wanted for anything that we 
 really needed, and we are just as well off 
 now as we ever have been." 
 
 Thus Comfort cheered the heart of her little hand 
 maid, and although Mandy found it hard to come out 
 of her rosy cloud of anticipation into the dull, gray 
 atmosphere of the old everyday life, she was a sensi 
 ble body, and tried hard to make the best of things 
 as they were, without adding to her mistress" burdens 
 by useless pinings and regrets. 
 
 It was several days after Jotham s visit, and Com 
 fort s disturbed mind was gradually settling back into 
 its normal state of cheerful serenity. Jotham had 
 been terribly disappointed in the failure of the grand 
 speculation that he had evidently thought himself so 
 sure of, and in his unreasoning anger he had threat 
 ened what, upon second thought, he would himself 
 see the meanness and injustice of. No doubt the 
 property would increase in value, and when the first 
 keen edge of his wrath should be a little blunted, he, 
 her own brother, would scorn to stand in the way of 
 her realizing a fortune from it. 
 
 It is wonderful the amount of loving ingenuity that 
 some women expend in inventing excuses for the
 
 " That Old House of Yours " 255 
 
 fathers, the husbands, and the brothers, over whose 
 faults the broad mantle of their own unselfish love is 
 thrown, to hide not from the world alone but from 
 their own eyes as well, the glaring deformities of 
 character that their owner himself will not take the 
 pains either to amend or hide. Comfort had had 
 little reason to love her unbrotherly brother, but he 
 was her mother s son, and of her own blood and 
 name, and in spite of all his neglect and abuse she 
 could not find it in her heart to condemn him utterly. 
 
 " He is kinder at heart than he seems," served her 
 as it has done thousands of her wronged yet loving 
 sisters since the world began, and will so long as it 
 stands. 
 
 She had been busy all the morning looking over 
 her text books in preparation for her school duties 
 which would begin as usual on the following week, 
 and when glancing from the window she saw Mandy 
 returning with her empty flower basket, she glanced 
 at the clock in surprise. She had no idea that it was 
 so late, the time had passed as it always did when 
 absorbed in her books, unheeded. It seemed a little 
 strange that the girl should loiter about the kitchen 
 instead of coming directly to report herself as usual, 
 and stranger still when, on calling to her, she received 
 no reply. Perhaps she was sick or had met with ill luck 
 in selling her flowers ; and ready with help and sym 
 pathy, Comfort gathered her books hurriedly together 
 and sought the kitchen, guided by a faint, smothered 
 sound that sounded suspiciously like suppressed sobs 
 or moans. With her head resting on the kitchen 
 table, and her arms flung above it in an attitude of
 
 256 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 the deepest dejection, Mandy seemed the very picture 
 of despair, while the sobs that she was trying bravely 
 to suppress shook her slender frame from head to 
 foot and sent an apprehensive thrill to Comfort s 
 heart, as, laying a tender hand upon the bowed head, 
 she asked in a half whisper: 
 
 " What is it, Mandy? Are you sick or hurt? " 
 
 The girl lifted her head and brushed back the 
 hair that had fallen over her face, with an unsteady, 
 reluctant hand. Her face was discolored and swollen 
 with weeping, and her whole body seemed to share in 
 the general dejection, it was as if all its sinews had 
 suddenly become flaccid and prostrate. 
 
 " No, I ain t sick nor hurt, but, " 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 If Comfort s heart sank, her will was strong, and 
 in her voice there was no hint of the fear that 
 possessed her. The girl sat up and tried to smile 
 through her tears, but the smile was sadder than the 
 tears. 
 
 " I suppose I must tell you but I hate to dread 
 fully. When Mr. Chase was putting the flowers into 
 water to keep them fresh till the people called for 
 them, Mr. Hadlock came in and wanted to know what 
 he was doing. When he told him, he snapped out that 
 he did n t hire a clerk to sell other folks wares, and 
 he would n t have any more of it. Mr. Chase tried to 
 excuse himself by sayin that as twas for his own 
 sister he did n t s pose he d have cared. But he 
 would n t hear a word, and he turned to me and 
 ordered me out of the house, just as if I d been a 
 beggar or a thief."
 
 " That Old House of Yours " 257 
 
 And Mandy s tears burst forth afresh, while her 
 companion tried in vain to comfort her. 
 
 "I wouldn t mind it, he s cross just now with 
 me about that land. And you can find a market for 
 
 your flowers at some of the other hotels, the 
 
 House isn t the only place at Bar Harbor where the 
 guests are fond of flowers. I would n t be discouraged 
 at such a little thing as that, I m not." 
 
 The girl looked at her with a world of tender pity 
 in her wet eyes. 
 
 "I haven t told you the worst," she went on in a 
 lowered tone, " but I s pose I shall have to tell you. 
 I went into Dunham s store on my way home, to get 
 some thread, and while Mr. Dunham was doing it up 
 he asked me how it happened that you wa n t going 
 to keep the district school this summer. I just 
 stared at him for a minute ; my mouth was that dry 
 that I could n t make a sound, but at last I made out 
 to ask: Why? Why, said he, giving me a sur 
 prised look, the agent, Mr. Hadlock, came to my 
 house yesterday, and engaged my Maria to keep the 
 school. I thought by that that his sister did n t want 
 it. " 
 
 Comfort dropped into the nearest chair, while a 
 strange, suffocating feeling came over her, and she 
 put out a trembling hand, groping as if for something 
 to steady herself. 
 
 "Maria Dunham to have my school?" she stam 
 mered. 
 
 Then as if all at once taking in the full significance 
 of the words, she covered her face with her hands, 
 while the silent tears trickled through her slender 
 
 17
 
 258 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 fingers, and dropped unheeded upon the spotless 
 folds of her neat morning gown. Very bitter were 
 those tears, and yet the bitterness was not all that of 
 disappointment and anticipated poverty. It was the 
 cruel blow to her feelings, the blow that, coming from 
 a brother s hand seemed heavier than she could bear. 
 
 It was now Mandy s turn to play the comforter. 
 
 " There, there ! I would n t take it so to heart f I 
 was you. The summer s a good time to be poor in, 
 for it costs less to live than at any other season. 
 And there s the honey, and the eggs, and the garden 
 truck, and flowers. Oh, law ! " with an airiness that 
 would have been amusing if it had been a whit less 
 pathetic " we can live like pigs in clover, and if worse 
 comes to worst, I can take up gran daddy s trade. 
 I 11 bet I could catch fish enough in the course o 
 the summer to buy our wood and flour f r the 
 winter." 
 
 Comfort rose from her seat, and putting her arms 
 around the girl, kissed her tenderly, a rare expres 
 sion of affection from this true daughter of New Eng 
 land, with whom kisses were too rare and precious a 
 coin for everyday use. Mandy felt the tender signifi 
 cance, and blushed rosy red with modest pleasure, as, 
 with her hand instinctively seeking the tiny chain about 
 her neck, Comfort said, with an attempt at hopeful 
 ness: 
 
 " Granny used to say that no one with health and 
 a fair show of sense need either beg or go hungry in 
 this great land of ours, where there is work for every 
 body, if he will only do it. And now I will put away 
 my books and start the fire, while you pick the peas
 
 "That Old House of Yours" 259 
 
 for dinner; the work that comes next to hand is 
 always the best, one must catch the nearest gos 
 lings before he can get the red-winged goose." 
 
 The momentary depression had passed, and they 
 were lifted once more to the dead level of everyday 
 needs and duties. And who shall say that the friend 
 less girl, fearlessly facing a dark and doubtful future, 
 as she went about her homely tasks with a firm trust 
 and hope in her young heart that the God of her 
 fathers had power to keep His own, let the outlook 
 be ever so cloudy, was not as brave and heroic in her 
 way as the ever-famous yeoman legislator, who stood 
 manfully in his place in the halls of his State capitol, 
 and spoke long and well upon the important question 
 of the fisheries, by the light of candles, while the 
 world without was in the fearful darkness of a total 
 solar eclipse? 
 
 There are many grades of poverty, and those that 
 by their abject physical suffering appeal most strongly 
 to the sympathies of the public, are not always those 
 who feel the burden most heavily. Warmed, fed, 
 and decently clothed they are satisfied, but how 
 many struggle through life, the victims of respectable 
 penury, not able to dig and with too much honest 
 self-respect to beg ; harassed and tormented with 
 alternate fears and hopes, losing heart and courage 
 under the pressure of constant disappointments, and 
 at last sinking into premature graves, under a weight 
 that cannot longer be borne. 
 
 To Comfort Hadlock, refined and proudly self- 
 respecting, the necessity of thrusting herself into the 
 arena of struggling men and women who strive by
 
 260 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 force or fraud to gain a foothold for themselves 
 among the bread-winning masses, to be forced to 
 practise the pinchings and scrimpings from which 
 her generous soul revolted, was inexpressibly terri 
 ble. There was, too, the depressing consciousness 
 that she was really weaponless. Debarred by her 
 father s narrow theory of the mental inequality of the 
 sexes, from the education that she had so longed for 
 in her earlier days, she had, while making the most 
 of the opportunities that had come in her way, missed 
 the necessary discipline and order of study that a 
 proper school training would have given her, and 
 while above the average in general information she 
 was perfectly conscious that she would be sure to fail 
 in certain important studies if subjected to a competi 
 tive examination for a higher grade of school than 
 that of her own small village. 
 
 " I am perfect in nothing," she sadly acknowledged 
 to herself as she sat alone in the shadows that even 
 ing, trying until her brain reeled, to think of something 
 by which she might support herself and the equally 
 friendless Mandy. There was factory work, but 
 her heart sank like lead at the thought of exchanging 
 the congenial quiet and spotless cleanliness of her 
 own home for the bustle, the bare unattractiveness, 
 and worst of all, the undesirable companionship of 
 a factory boarding house. It might be necessary, 
 but she would not yet allow herself to think of a 
 banishment from all the sweet, familiar sights and 
 sounds of her seaside home, to toil for her bread 
 amidst the noisy clatter of busy looms, and the end 
 less stretch of weary beams and bars, in an atmos-
 
 " That Old House of Yours " 261 
 
 phere where neither the salt breath of the friendly 
 sea, nor the softer winds of the perfumed spring 
 could ever come. 
 
 There was nothing in her of that adventurous spirit 
 that finds a pleasant exhilaration in buffeting the 
 adverse tides of the great world without. The 
 daughter of Cynthia Hadlock had inherited her 
 gentle mother s love for home and home duties. 
 There was her kingdom, her rest, her inspiration, and 
 from its windows she could look out upon the world 
 outside with its inventions, its philanthropies, and its 
 marvellous discoveries in science, with a more intelli 
 gent appreciation, a clearer vision, perhaps, than if 
 her eyes had been blurred and her ears bewildered 
 with the dust and din of the near conflict. She was 
 so absorbed in her anxious thoughts that she failed to 
 hear Mandy s step upon the stairs, or comprehend 
 until it was twice repeated, the announcement: 
 
 " Here s a letter for you." 
 
 " From Franz," was her thought as, with listless, 
 unhastening hand she lighted the lamp upon her 
 dressing table, and holding the letter close to the 
 slowly kindling blaze, read with some surprise the 
 address and postmark. 
 
 " It s from Boston," she said to the waiting Mandy, 
 " and I think it s Miss Humbre s handwriting. I 
 thought they must be at home by this time," she 
 added as she broke the seal, and with a face by turns 
 surprised, wondering, and pleased, read the four 
 closely written pages, then slowly refolding it, she 
 returned it to the envelope with: "What do you 
 think? Miss Delphine writes to know if I will take
 
 262 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 her mother, herself, and Lois to board this summer. 
 She offers to pay liberally for the privilege, as she 
 calls it, and seems anxious to come, as her mother is 
 an invalid, and cannot bear a hotel or boarding house, 
 as she must have perfect quiet." 
 
 Mandy clapped her hands gleefully. 
 
 " I knew that letter had good news in it, I felt it 
 in my bones. That 11 a good deal more n make 
 up for the loss of the school, won t it? When they 
 coming? " 
 
 " As soon as we can be ready for them. But, 
 Mandy, Mrs. Humbre is sick and nervous, and very 
 likely hard to get along with. Can we be patient 
 and attentive, let her say what she may?" 
 
 Mandy s face looked the reproach that she would 
 not speak. " I can bear what you can," she said 
 shortly. 
 
 " But," as bent upon holding up the shady side to 
 her own as to her handmaid s eyes, " we shall have 
 to work hard to satisfy these people, who have been 
 all their lives used to the best of everything." 
 
 " Yes," assented Mandy. 
 
 " And we must remember," she went on in an un 
 faltering voice while in the dim light the sensitive 
 color that mantled cheek and brow was unnoticed, 
 " that they are not coming here as invited guests, but 
 simply as boarders, and if they feel and show some 
 thing of their social superiority, we mustn t resent it 
 or take it to heart." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " I used to know and love Lois dearly. But that 
 was years ago, and she s a fashionable young lady
 
 " That Old House of Yours " 263 
 
 now, and of course it is not to be expected that she 
 will remember our childish friendship as I do." 
 
 What a sensible, prudent, matter-of-fact view, to be 
 sure. But as Comfort laid her head upon its pillow 
 that night the memory of her old playmate brought 
 the tender tears to her eyes, and a smile to her lips 
 as she recalled a line of Miss Delphine s letter: 
 
 " We all, and Lois especially, long for a sight of the 
 dear old farmhouse and its dearer little mistress."
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 "I TELL YOU LOVE HAS NAUGHT TO DO WITH 
 MEETNESS OR UNMEETNESS " 
 
 EVERYTHING was ready, and to-day the guests 
 were to arrive. What a blessed thing it had 
 proved that Squire Hadlock, instead of following the 
 neighborhood fashion of small houses and big barns, 
 had consulted his own individual tastes and conven 
 iences in the rearing of the comfortable old farm 
 house, with its high, airy rooms, every one of which 
 had its full share of sunshine and of the bracing sea 
 breezes; quaint and many cornered, like his own 
 rough, angular nature, with the same capabilities of 
 ornamentation and engrafted graces that the man in 
 his proud self-sufficiency had scorned to avail himself 
 of, but which in this, the unresisting work of his 
 hands, had been taken advantage of by Comfort s 
 dextrous fingers, so that the neat, well-ordered rooms 
 had blossomed into a beauty and brightness that 
 surprised even herself when the work was fairly 
 completed. 
 
 Over Lois s room she had lingered longest, and 
 upon it she had bestowed a hundred loving atten 
 tions and dainty touches. The room had been 
 chosen not only for its size and sightliness, but for 
 a certain grace and fitness in its furnishings that no 
 other apartment however pleasant could boast. The
 
 "I Tell You Love Has Naught to Do" 265 
 
 wall paper was bright with the pale pink tint of 
 clambering wild-roses, that matched well the full 
 muslin curtains looped back with pink ribbon, and 
 the pretty painted furniture and toilet set all of the 
 same hue and pattern. 
 
 It was late for wild-roses, but Granny s climbing 
 rose was in full bloom, and of these the girls gath 
 ered handfuls, filling every vase and pitcher with 
 their creamy blooms until the whole house smelled 
 like a rose garden. Roses everywhere, in chambers, 
 parlor, and hall, "the queen of flowers, a fitting 
 welcome to the queen of hearts," whispered Comfort 
 with a shy little laugh, all for her own benefit (she 
 had long ago learned the wisdom of keeping her 
 foolish little fancies to herself). They seemed 
 strained and affected to other ears, as she well knew. 
 She thought, too, of Tabby s story, and recalled the 
 memory of her first meeting with Lois in the catnip 
 patch. So she brought from among the old dame s 
 tenderly cherished stores a cup of painted china, 
 quaint and grotesque in its rude adornment and 
 coloring, but highly prized by Granny in her life 
 time, as a relic of her girlhood s home, and filling 
 this with the purple, spice-breathed catmint, she 
 placed it by itself upon an unoccupied bracket in 
 a corner of the girl s room. 
 
 " Granny, the bees, and Franz ! I wonder if she 
 will read the riddle." 
 
 And she tried to recall the pretty, wilful, yet affec 
 tionate child as she had last seen her, wondering 
 meanwhile with a secret fear that she could not 
 shake off, if all these years of luxurious ease and
 
 266 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 fashionable dissipation had changed the old play 
 mate that she had loved so fondly, past recognition. 
 
 " I shall understand from the very first word and 
 look, even, what we are to be to each other," she said 
 to herself. At that moment the signal-whistle of the 
 boat sounded in her ears, warning her that the meet 
 ing she so dreaded and at the same time longed for 
 was at hand. 
 
 Mandy was bustling about, hurrying up the dinner, 
 and after putting a few finishing touches to the table, 
 Comfort, too nervous to stay indoors, betook herself 
 to the foot of the lane where, under the shade of the 
 two great elms that had from time immemorial stood 
 sentinel upon either side of the gateway, she watched 
 with wildly beating heart the approach of the ex 
 pected coach. There it was, she could catch the 
 glitter of the horses head-gear before she could make 
 out the carriage itself, and they were driving more 
 slowly than usual, on Mrs. Humbre s account prob 
 ably. Was it, could it be Mr. Humbre on the seat 
 with the driver, shading his eyes with his hand, and 
 looking so earnestly in her direction? And that little 
 gloved hand waving from the window, as the coach 
 swept up to the door, and a face, bright, eager, with 
 tremulous lips, and cheeks flushed rosy red with joy 
 ful recognition: 
 
 " Comfort ! dear, blessed little Comfort ! " 
 
 Fairly speechless with mingled emotions of joy 
 and wonder, Comfort felt herself clasped in a pair of 
 loving arms, while a shower of tender kisses fell upon 
 cheeks, lips, and brow. 
 
 " Why have n t you grown in all these years, you
 
 "I Tell You Love Has Naught to Do" 267 
 
 lazy little beach pea? " And both girls laughed 
 through happy tears at the remembrance of this 
 old-time pet name that Lois had not in all these years 
 forgotten. " Only see," and she put one arm about 
 the slight figure and drew her closer to her side, 
 while her dark eyes danced with mingled joy and 
 fun, "What a wee thing it is, only up to my 
 shoulders ! " with a final hug that said more than any 
 spoken words of endearment could have done. 
 
 "Come, come, Lois! Don t be so silly, don t 
 you see that I am almost fainting in this close car 
 riage? I shall be glad to get to my room as soon as 
 possible, when your raptures are over." 
 
 The sharp, querulous tones, familiar though sharp 
 ened by time and habit, recalled Comfort to a sense 
 of her duties as hostess, and with a guilty blush and 
 murmured word of regret, she hastened to welcome 
 her other guests, Mrs. Humbre languidly touching 
 her proffered hand with the tips of her nerveless 
 fingers, while Miss Delphine gave her a friendly kiss, 
 and Robert, holding for an instant her trembling 
 hand in his own, looked searchingly, she could 
 almost fancy admiringly, into her glowing face. 
 
 " Time has dealt more kindly with you than with 
 us," he said, with the old gentle courtesy. But there 
 was a note of pain in the pleasantly spoken words, 
 that Comfort, sadly conscious of that empty sleeve, 
 understood in part at least. 
 
 Mrs. Humbre deigned to express her approval of 
 the cool, airy, daintily appointed chamber that had 
 been assigned her, and when Miss Delphine came 
 down to dinner, leaving her comfortably asleep, she
 
 268 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 threw herself into the wide-armed old rocking-chair 
 by the open window, with a sigh of relief, that told 
 its own story of the weary, thankless thraldom that 
 had been her portion for the last three years. 
 
 " You ve no idea, Comfort," she said, with a smile 
 of unfeigned satisfaction, and dropping all at once 
 into the easy familiarity of other days, " what a rest 
 and satisfaction it is to have such a pleasant, quiet, 
 homey home to bring my mother to for the summer. 
 We ve travelled round from pillar to post ever since 
 she was able to be moved, because she would not 
 come home. She wanted Lois to go everywhere, and 
 she would n t hear a word of our leaving Europe so 
 long as the girl was sought after and admired. Now 
 that Robert has put his foot down and insisted upon 
 our coming home, I really think that she is going to 
 be better contented here than she has been anywhere 
 for a long time; and I hope it will do her good, 
 I know it will me." 
 
 She tried to laugh, but Comfort noted with pain 
 the sad lines of patient endurance that had deepened 
 about the once firm mouth, and the whitened hairs 
 that had crept prematurely into the dark, heavy 
 locks that had been their owner s one pride in the 
 old days. 
 
 Lois, with her travelling dress hastily exchanged 
 for a cool white wrapper, was flitting in and out like 
 a domesticated butterfly, merrily bantering the shyly 
 delighted Mandy, feeding the little yellow chicks in 
 the coop outside with crumbs from the table, and 
 leaving an offering by Miss Delphine s plate in the 
 shape of a crimped tansy leaf with a globe of dull
 
 "I Tell You Love Has Naught to Do" 269 
 
 gold in its bosom, and now and then bursting into a 
 stray fragment of song, as blithe and effortless as the 
 carol of a robin. 
 
 "Lois is half wild, I do believe," laughed Miss 
 Delphine. " The poor child is tired to death of the 
 hedged -in, conventional life she has lived for the last 
 few years. Yes," in reply to Comfort s wondering 
 comment, " yes, she has been greatly admired, and 
 has lived in a constant whirl of pleasures ever since 
 she left school. But don t you know," lowering her 
 voice unconsciously, evidently from force of habit, 
 as if this bit of social heresy was something to be 
 spoken in an aside, " that people with brains and 
 heart are apt to get dreadfully tired of the inevitable 
 monotony of such an existence? There is plenty of 
 outside show and glitter, but smooth words and smiles, 
 and stale compliments come in time to pall upon 
 one, like a diet of ice-cream and cake. In fashion 
 able life people seek for novelties as for hid treasure, 
 and happy the lucky she who finds one, she calls 
 together her friends, her kinsmen, and her neighbors, 
 to rejoice with her, and make the most of it before it 
 melts into the dull, flat ditch-water of common usage." 
 
 Comfort laughed. Miss Delphine was the same 
 shrewd, crisp, quaint-spoken body that she had ever 
 been, and even Lois s merry affectionateness seemed 
 less a part of old-time memories than these character 
 istic bits of unworldly wisdom that came so naturally 
 from her lips. 
 
 " Did General Humbre, your brother, travel 
 with you after the war was over?" 
 
 "Yes, he was with us most of the time, all of
 
 270 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 the time, in fact, after mother s last attack. You 
 know, I suppose," and a spasm of pain passed over 
 her face, " that he lost his right arm in the war ? " 
 
 " Yes, I knew it." 
 
 As by a common impulse the two women looked 
 questioningly into each other s faces. 
 
 " But you did not know perhaps that he has been 
 learning to use his brush and pencil with his left 
 hand? Most men," continued Miss Delphine, a 
 proud flush rising to her dark cheek as she spoke, 
 " would have thought their life-work in that line 
 finished, but Robert is made of firmer stuff. And for 
 my part, I look upon his patient persistence in the 
 work that God meant him to do, in the face of such 
 a terrible disability, as more heroic than the charge 
 in which he led his men to victory, and gave his 
 right arm for the cause that he loved." 
 
 A few natural tears dropped upon the speaker s 
 clasped hands, and blurred her vision so that she 
 failed to see the answering fire in her listener s 
 downcast eyes. Robert was her s here, her s alone, 
 and why should any other woman feel her soul 
 kindle at his praises? That night as the two girls 
 sat alone in Lois s chamber, Comfort ventured for the 
 first time to speak the name that had been upper 
 most in her thoughts all day long. Lois had, with 
 out any comment, removed Granny s cup of purple 
 blooms from the dusky corner where it had been 
 placed, and as she sat before the glass, brushing out 
 the soft waves of her beautiful hair, her eyes rested 
 oftener upon the modest, homely blossoms than upon 
 the fair reflection opposite.
 
 "I Tell You Love Has Naught to Do" 271 
 
 "What about Franz Hedvig? You saw him in 
 Germany? " 
 
 Comfort s voice faltered a little as she put the 
 question, and Lois turned upon her with a sharpness 
 that astonished, and for the moment somewhat dis 
 concerted her. 
 
 " And what if I did? What is he to you? Did he 
 tell you that that he met us there? " 
 
 The words came tumbling one over the other so 
 exactly as they used to do in the mouth of the child 
 Lois, when angry or excited, that Comfort, after the 
 first moment of embarrassment, laughed outright. 
 
 " One question at a time, do you remember how 
 Miss Delphine used to say that to you? What is 
 Franz to me? You know, as well as I, that he is my 
 old friend and playfellow, as dear almost as a 
 brother; and for his dear old Granny s sake as well 
 as his own, I have kept up a friendly correspondence 
 with him all these years. He mentioned once or 
 twice meeting your party in Germany. Will that 
 do?" 
 
 There was an arch significance in the words and 
 the smile that accompanied them that made Lois 
 turn hastily away to hide the blushes that, in spite of 
 her, betrayed the secret of her love for the young 
 engineer. 
 
 " Is that all he told you?" she asked, trying to 
 speak indifferently, as she made a feint of gathering 
 up her long hair into the silken net that was to con 
 fine it. 
 
 " What was there more for him to tell? " 
 
 The girl s tell-tale blushes, no less than her un-
 
 272 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 called-for display of feminine jealousy, had betrayed 
 her secret, and Comfort s friendly heart was lightened 
 as to Franz s possibly hopeless attachment. She 
 could afford to be a bit mischievous and oblige her 
 companion to take the initiative in the forthcoming 
 confidence. 
 
 " Oh, nothing ! I did n t know but he might have 
 spoken of those excursions that we made up the 
 Rhine, they were just lovely. I used to tell Franz 
 
 Mr. Hedvig that they were like what the Hud 
 son would be five hundred years hence. It will take 
 all that time to get the newness worn off, and mellow 
 the picture down as it should be. Oh, you need n t 
 look so knowing," with a playful nip at her friend s 
 ear, " Cousin Del always went with us, and Robert 
 usually made one of the party. Do you know," with 
 a little undertone of triumph, " that Robert has the 
 highest respect for, and confidence in him? " 
 
 " But what did Mrs. Humbre say? " 
 
 Lois s bright face clouded, and her eyes had a 
 dangerous gleam in them, as she said in a half 
 whisper: 
 
 " She said everything that was hateful and unjust, 
 
 called Franz a low-born adventurer, and me an 
 ungrateful fool. O Comfort ! " and the girlish 
 bosom heaved convulsively with mingled grief and 
 passion, " you don t know what I ve suffered from 
 that woman. She brought me up with the idea that 
 I was a rich girl, and that I must marry money, and 
 a title if I could, let me despise the man ever so 
 much. I did n t care much about it anyway, at first, 
 for I liked to be admired and flattered, and have a
 
 "I Tell You Love Has Naught to Do" 273 
 
 good time without any worry for the morrow. But 
 when I came to know and like Franz, I just hated 
 the thought of marrying any one but him ; I told 
 her so, and that it was no use to try to coax me into 
 giving any encouragement to that little smirking 
 French count that had followed us from Paris, and 
 that she was bound I should have. Then she told 
 me that I had been all these years a dependent upon 
 her bounty, and that I was under obligations to do as 
 she wished in such an important matter. And I was 
 that wild with shame and rage that I really believe 
 that if it had n t been for Cousin Del I should have 
 left her then and there, and married Franz, although 
 I know I should be nothing but a helpless burden 
 upon the poor fellow, for she took care to bring me 
 up so that I have n t a single gift that I could make 
 myself useful with." 
 
 It was the most natural thing in the world for 
 Comfort to take the pretty creature in her arms, and 
 kiss the tears from her hot cheeks, with murmured 
 words of tender soothing. 
 
 " If Franz has no money, he is rich in youth and 
 health and manly courage. And, Lois," with a 
 sudden thought that almost took away her breath, 
 " he may be rich in money, too. I don t mean a 
 millionaire, but with enough to push that invention 
 that is sure to make his fortune, if he can only get 
 the means to introduce it." 
 
 Lois pushed back the damp rings from her flushed 
 forehead, and looked eagerly into her friend s face. 
 
 " What what do you mean ? " 
 
 Then as Comfort spoke of the land of which he 
 
 iS
 
 274 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 held the deed, and the reported rise of real estate in 
 that neighborhood, she clapped her hands delight 
 edly. 
 
 " I 11 write him this very night," she cried, " and 
 tell him to come right home and see about it. To 
 think, Comfort, that your little speculation on his 
 account may be the means of making his fortune. 
 But you ve been his good angel always, and should 
 have been his love." 
 
 There was a wistful tenderness in the concluding 
 words, and as she bent for her good-night kiss, Com 
 fort felt the grateful tears upon her cheek, and her 
 heart thrilled at the significant whisper: 
 
 " I hope you 11 be as happy yourself some day as 
 you Ve made me."
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 "WITH MARSHAL CAROUZER AND OLD 
 LADY MOUZER " 
 
 MISS Delphine s hopeful prediction in regard to 
 the improvement in her mother s health seemed 
 to be in a fair way of being fulfilled, for after a rest 
 of a few days, Mrs. Humbre declared herself so much 
 better that she was able to be helped down stairs, 
 and on sunny days to have her invalid s chair brought 
 out upon the wide, vine-shaded piazza, where, with 
 Miss Delphine and Lois to read to her, Comfort 
 to bathe her head with fragrant waters or chafe her 
 always cold hands between her own warm, moist 
 palms, and Robert to talk to, she was tolerably com 
 fortable and contented. Her former experience of 
 the loneliness of the place had scarcely prepared 
 her for the congenial society that she soon found 
 herself a centre of. Fashionable friends who had 
 half forgotten her existence during her long stay 
 abroad were only too glad to renew their acquain 
 tance at this time and place, and scarcely a day 
 passed that the interesting invalid, in the daintiest 
 of embroidered wrappers, with rose-colored knots 
 of ribbon judiciously disposed to lend, if possible, a 
 bit of color to her faded cheek, did not hold an in 
 formal reception, usually upon the piazza, where 
 the flickering shadows of the vine leaves playing
 
 276 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 over her listless figure lent something of their airy 
 grace to her still helplessness, and helped not only 
 her friends but herself to forget for the time the 
 seclusion and pale quiet of the sick-room. 
 
 After a few days of stand-offishness Mrs. Humbre 
 had graciously condescended to accept the situation, 
 and treat her young hostess with the same friendly 
 familiarity as did her daughter and Lois, while the 
 modest unobtrusiveness of Comfort herself, who 
 had not the slightest desire to force herself upon 
 the notice of these stately dames and chattering 
 damsels, relieved her from any embarrassing possi 
 bilities in the way of introduction, etc. 
 
 Lois, to be sure, took special pains to impress 
 upon her young lady friends the desirability of an 
 acquaintance with this, her "first love," as she play 
 fully called her, and Comfort, ever gentle and tol 
 erant of others, listened with girlish curiosity to their 
 reminiscences of where they had been and what they 
 had seen, finding as the novelty wore off, and 
 her ears ceased to be charmed by the names of 
 people and places that awoke a crowd of interesting 
 memories in her mind, that by a very little stretch 
 of the imagination she might easily fancy herself 
 listening to a knot of her rustic girl neighbors, com 
 paring notes on their way home from a spelling bee 
 or singing school. It was like the game of " what 
 he said, and what she said, and what the world said " 
 played over and over, with so little variety that the 
 listener secretly wondered how they could keep it 
 up indefinitely. To be sure there was this consola 
 tion that each had her own way of telling the same
 
 " With Marshal Carouzer " 277 
 
 story, thus making something like variety in the 
 perpetual round of uninteresting gossip. One young 
 lady especially had a wonderful gift of forgetting the 
 names of the persons and places that she was talk 
 ing about, and the foreign gossip that made up the 
 principal part of her conversation ran something 
 after this fashion : 
 
 " O, Lois, you remember that General, what-d ye- 
 call- im, the tall Russian that we met at where 
 was it that pleasant little place in France or 
 was it in Italy? (I never can remember names of 
 places) but at any rate, he had the fiercest eyes 
 you remember him ? He sat at the table with the 
 what was the name of that English family with the 
 three daughters, that awful homely family?" 
 
 "Johnson?" suggested Lois at random. 
 
 "Yes, Johnson, that s the name. Well, after you 
 came away, he was challenged by the brother of that 
 Miss I can t think of her name, but she always 
 wore pink morning gowns, to give her some color, 
 I suppose, for she was frightfully sallow, you know 
 who I mean, her father was connected some way 
 with western railroads, had made a fortune in that 
 line?" 
 
 " Miss Barham." 
 
 "The very one. Well, one of her brothers chal 
 lenged him, because he boasted at his club that he d 
 have a finger in the old gentleman s pocket before he 
 was many months older. And this brother, was 
 it Tom or Dick, I can t think which they called 
 him, 
 
 "Augustus," laughed Lois.
 
 278 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " So it was. I don t wonder you laugh, I ve 
 such a wretched memory. But as I said, the offi 
 cer and young Barham had a meeting outside the 
 city walls with pistols and coffee for two, you know. 
 But the police got wind of it and arrested them 
 both, and they had to swear to keep the peace. 
 And when we came away, I had it from good 
 authority, that Miss Barham had ordered her trous 
 seau of Worth." 
 
 If tame, such gossip was certainly harmless, but 
 Comfort s cheeks burned and all the honest woman 
 liness of her nature rose indignantly at the spiteful 
 aspersions and hints that formed the staple of some 
 of the elder dames conversation, as they strove in 
 their own way to cheer and enliven the invalid. 
 Nobody was quite right, there was an " out " in 
 every character, no matter how correct the outer life 
 might be. The mothers of marriageable daughters 
 were invariably "manceuvering" for a rich son-in-law. 
 The girls themselves were either " shameless fortune 
 hunters " or " outrageous flirts," while the very worst 
 construction was put upon every little mistake or 
 blunder if there was even the shadow of a mystery 
 about it. One rich maiden lady, whose tongue was 
 as long as her purse, spent much of her leisure in 
 " cheering up poor, dear Mrs. Humbre," and Com 
 fort listened astounded to the impertinent questions 
 and comments of this so-called lady. 
 
 She " had heard that Delphine was preparing some 
 scientific papers for a leading magazine, was that 
 so ? and if so, how much did she expect to be paid for 
 them? Did she support herself by her writing, or did
 
 " With Marshal Carouzer " 279 
 
 everything have to come out of poor Mrs. Humbre s 
 own income? It was such a pity that she couldn t 
 have married some foreign professor, everybody 
 hoped she would when she went away, there was 
 so little chance for a woman of her age, and a blue 
 stocking at that, the men fought shy of that kind. 
 And was it true that Lois refused a French count 
 because she was in love with that Swedish engineer? 
 And (she had heard, but did n t really believe it,) that 
 she (Mrs. Humbre) had actually threatened to turn 
 the girl into the street if she did n t give up Hedvig? 
 Was Robert making anything with his pictures now 
 that he could only paint with his left hand? She 
 had heard that it was understood among his brother 
 artists that he never would be able to do much in 
 that line, and would n t it be wiser, while his war 
 record was fresh in men s minds, to apply for some 
 kind of a place under government? He might get 
 a very respectable salary, enough at any rate for 
 a single man to live on." 
 
 And so on and on, until the conventional smile 
 upon poor Mrs. Humbre s face seemed frozen there, 
 and Comfort could scarce resist the temptation to 
 turn the insolent tale-bearer from her door without 
 further ceremony. How strange that Mrs. Humbre, 
 to whom her almost daily visits were a continual tor 
 ture, should receive her with smiling cordiality, and 
 upon her departure urge her to renew the visit. Did 
 that elegant cottage with its rich furnishings, where 
 the most delightful musicales and " pink teas " re 
 galed the outer and inner man after the most ap 
 proved fashion, make palatable the bitter morsels
 
 280 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 that the mistress of the mansion forced her ill-fated 
 friends (?) to swallow upon occasion? It must be so, 
 for Mrs. Humbre was never weary of expatiating upon 
 the elegance and costliness of Miss s establish 
 ment, or her thoughtful kindness in inviting her for a 
 day s visit, although the poor soul kept her bed for a 
 whole week afterwards. 
 
 But this was only one side of the picture. Frivol 
 ity and vulgar pride did not have it all their own 
 way in this bit of Vanity Fair, these rose like foam 
 to the surface of society, and the casual on-looker 
 might not penetrate to the still, deep, pure waters 
 beneath. Less numerous, less showy, and far less 
 assuming, they came, once and in most cases again 
 and again, the friends of Robert Humbre and his 
 sister, quiet, thoughtful men and women, simple 
 hearted as children out for a holiday, whose eyes 
 and hearts rejoiced at the beauty and grandeur about 
 them, and who drew inspiration from every simple 
 wayside flower as gratefully as from the mighty 
 ocean or the cloud-wreathed granite peaks reflected 
 on its broad bosom. Artists, poets, students, and 
 lovers of Nature in all her varying shapes and 
 moods, souls so uplifted beyond the petty aims 
 and rivalries of the little world that danced and 
 flirted, or lounged and yawned about them, that they 
 dwelt, as it were, apart in an atmosphere of their 
 own, cool, healthful, and invigorating to body and 
 soul. There were names among them that the island 
 maid had for years regarded with reverential awe, as 
 of beings too far removed from the dull homeliness 
 of everyday life to be approached with any familiar-
 
 " With Marshal Carouzer " 281 
 
 ity by ordinary mortals, but rather as devotees ap 
 proaching a shrine. Now she wondered to find them 
 the simplest hearted, most modest and approachable 
 of mortals, with aims and ambitions so lofty that their 
 own littleness beside the giant intellects that they must 
 needs worship afar off, taught them that they must 
 tread softly and humbly in the footsteps of the great 
 masters that had gone before. 
 
 Mrs. Humbre, poor, tired, harassed soul, spent 
 many a restful hour listening to the easy chat, never 
 by any chance stilted or pragmatical, with which 
 some learned professor or gifted author whom Robert 
 had brought in to see her contrived to fill rather 
 than fritter away the idle interim between breakfast 
 and the noon lunch. Now, indeed, Comfort listened, 
 whenever she could snatch a half hour of leisure, to 
 conversation that neither humiliated nor jarred upon 
 her womanly sensibilities, and if in her heart she 
 shared the pride with which the mother and sister of 
 Robert Humbre saw the respect and unfeigned 
 friendliness with which these honored him, nobody 
 was any the wiser for it. 
 
 It was no light task, as she had foreseen, to pro 
 vide acceptably for these unconsciously critical 
 guests, and as the morning always found her busied 
 with household duties, it soon came to be an under 
 stood thing that, after his daily call upon his mother, 
 Robert should find some excuse for a visit to the 
 kitchen to pass a pleasant hour in the company of 
 its bright, cheery little mistress, gravely insisting 
 upon his right to make himself useful by picking 
 over berries or shelling the peas for dinner, a feat
 
 282 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 that Mandy, ever mindful of his missing hand, viewed 
 with curious, wondering eyes. 
 
 Miss Delphine, busy with her pen, smiled, well 
 pleased at the echo of a laugh so blithe and hearty 
 that it seemed to bring the boy Robert back to her, 
 while Lois joyfully declared that " Cousin Robert 
 was actually himself again." 
 
 Comfort, with that instinctive delicacy that never 
 seemed to take note of anything different in his con 
 dition from that of other men, had all unconsciously 
 applied the most soothing balm to his irritated feel 
 ings that could have been found. 
 
 To a man of his temperament, proud of his phy 
 sical manliness and conscious of the powers with 
 which Nature had endowed him, the pity that he had 
 been forced to endure had been the bitterest trial 
 that had fallen to him. With a morbid sensitiveness 
 he had shrunk from the curious or sympathetic eyes 
 that always seemed to spy at a glance that empty 
 sleeve, and to ask mutely the oft-repeated question: 
 " How and where did you lose it? " 
 
 Even the tender sympathy, the thousand and one 
 little unconscious reminders in the way of unwonted 
 services and womanly tendance that his sister and 
 Lois bestowed upon him, annoyed and humiliated 
 him. But Comfort had never from the first seemed 
 to even notice it. His proffered services were never 
 refused, and after a time merrily claimed, with a gay 
 effrontery as free and unembarrassed as that of Lois, 
 who, by the way, had taken upon herself the airs of a 
 full-fledged housekeeper, haunting the kitchen and 
 pantry, and gravely insisting that nobody in the
 
 " With Marshal Carouzer " 283 
 
 house but herself could compound a salad or froth a 
 custard properly. 
 
 It was a little bewildering sometimes to have so 
 many cooks with spoons in the broth, and Mandy 
 now and then secretly rebelled, declaring that " so 
 much clatter and gabble was enough to drive a 
 body s wits to the seven winds of heaven," and 
 solemnly predicting that, on some unlucky day not 
 far distant they would probably find their cucumbers 
 sweetened or their coffee salted if this state of things 
 was allowed to continue. But somehow the domestic 
 tangles smoothed themselves out naturally enough, 
 and Robert and Lois mixed and meddled, with 
 plenty of laughter and fun, and a careless incon 
 sequence that made Comfort at times shake in her 
 shoes for the success of her most important dishes. 
 
 The roomy, sweet-smelling old kitchen, spotlessly 
 neat in all its appointments, was a " Little Trianon " 
 to the world-tired man, as well as to the novelty- 
 loving girl, and Mrs. Humbre wondered in vain 
 "what they could find in that hot kitchen, full of the 
 fumes of cookery, to care to stay in it?" Fumes! 
 Why the fragrance of that plump, delicately spiced 
 loaf as it came brown and savory from the oven was 
 enough to make an epicure s mouth water ; even the 
 flies clinging to the outside of the screen door and 
 peeping longingly in had the sense to know that it 
 was pleasanter inside than out. The poetry of life is 
 not by any means confined to the parlor and drawing- 
 room, nor does it scorn at times to nestle in the folds 
 of a kitchen apron. Parnassus pastured sheep on its 
 green sides, and the Grecian Penelope wove as in-
 
 284 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 dustriously as any Yankee farmer s wife of ye olden 
 times. 
 
 Very naturally Mrs. Humbre preferred the cool 
 quiet of the piazza or her own chamber, with the 
 companionship of her chosen cronies, whose glowing 
 reports of the boatings and picnics, the " hops " at 
 the hotels, and the musicales and lawn parties given 
 by the various cottagers, were almost as good as 
 being able to attend in person. The younger people 
 had plenty of invitations to join the pleasure parties 
 of all descriptions, and while Miss Delphine usually 
 declined on the plea that her mother could not be 
 left alone, Robert and Lois sometimes accepted, 
 although the latter declared that " even watermelon 
 parties and buckboard rides were a bore, unless you 
 could pick your company." 
 
 Pleasantest and most restful of all, to all, were the 
 boatings on those calm, sweet summer evenings, with 
 Robert at the helm, and the three girls ready by 
 turns to assume the r61e of either crew or passengers. 
 Never did two at least of that merry party forget 
 those evenings, when the starry sky above and the 
 placid deep below were like a dream of heaven in 
 their majestic loveliness, when the graceful yachts and 
 sail-boats at anchor off shore painted their fluttering 
 pennons and tapering masts against a blue-gray back 
 ground of lightly curling mists, through which the blue 
 of sky and ocean was just discernible. In shore the 
 countless lights of hotels and cottages, like watchful, 
 unwinking eyes, kept watch and ward over the fair 
 summer city where Wealth and Fashion had planted 
 their gilded gonfalon, and taken possession of the
 
 "With Marshal Carouzer " 285 
 
 land in the name of His High Mightiness the Prince 
 of this world. Amidst such scenes and in such com 
 panionship it was wonderful how one s own individual 
 anxieties and cares seemed all at once to drop from 
 his burdened shoulders into the friendly, all-embrac 
 ing bosom of the great deep, and how very small and 
 insignificant the worries and annoyances of the day 
 became. 
 
 Miss Delphine forgot to speculate if her last article 
 would find acceptance with the editor of the magazine 
 to which, with much fear and trembling, she had sent 
 it; Lois played absently with the modest pearl ring 
 that encircled her slender finger, looking with a 
 dreamy smile toward the little inlet beyond which 
 the clustering pines and cedars pointed out the hid 
 ing place of that low log-built cabin, now decayed 
 and deserted by all but the creeping vines that ten 
 derly hid its infirmities beneath their own all-embrac 
 ing loveliness. 
 
 And Robert and Comfort Hadlock looked shyly 
 into each other s eyes, and read what?
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 " OH, I SEE THEE OLD AND FORMAL, FITTED TO 
 THY PETTY PART " 
 
 MRS. HUMBRE sat alone in her chamber, and 
 thought and thought, trying in vain to think 
 her way out of the dilemma that, all unexpectedly, 
 had arisen to confront her, and ruffle the tide of self 
 ish self-absorption upon which her barque had for 
 so many years lazily floated. That Robert, fastidious 
 and proud of his name and race, a man of the world, 
 admired and caressed by that world, with high artistic 
 hopes for the future, should stoop to share his name 
 and honors with this little, unknown, untutored rustic, 
 was gall and wormwood to the proud woman whose 
 hopes had all centered in her son from his babyhood, 
 her pride in him taking the place of that true, 
 unselfish motherly love that it was not in her nature 
 to bestow. 
 
 That Comfort was a sweet, modest, gentle-man 
 nered girl she freely admitted. Indeed, she had 
 made no secret of her liking for her, or of the pleas 
 ure and relief that she found in her tender ministra 
 tions. But that Robert, her son, should look upon 
 her with eyes of love, should pass by with cold indif 
 ference the wealthy, high-bred girls of his own clique 
 to ally himself with this nameless and dowerless 
 maiden, was something too monstrously absurd to 
 be even thought of as a possibility. But what could 
 she do?
 
 "Oh, I See Thee Old and Formal" 287 
 
 Robert was not the man to be interfered with or 
 even advised in so delicate a matter as this, his 
 mind made up no power on earth could change it. 
 Ridicule, argument, entreaty would all rebound 
 harmlessly from that nature, true as steel, and utterly 
 incapable of change or wavering. If he had even for 
 a single instant shown the least sign of being ashamed 
 of this infatuation as she mentally termed it, 
 there would have been some faint hope that change 
 of scene and absence might restore him to his senses. 
 But as she looked backward, she saw with dismay 
 that from the first he had sought the girl s society so 
 frankly and openly that it was plain to be seen that 
 he considered his love for her an honor to himself, 
 and if successful in his suit would proudly expect the 
 congratulations of his friends. 
 
 There was no side upon which he could be attacked 
 with any hope of success, and Mrs. Humbre peevishly 
 admitted to herself that she might as well make the 
 best of the situation and pretend, if she could not 
 feel, a motherly interest in her future daughter-in- 
 law. Fortunately, she had not committed herself in 
 the least when her son had hinted to her of his hopes, 
 and he had left her with the comfortable conviction 
 that from her he had no opposition to expect. And 
 as a plan, suddenly formed, developed in her mind, 
 a plan by which, without exposing herself to 
 blame, she might after all spoil this untimely romance 
 and prevent the impending mesalliance, her spirits 
 rose, and she laughed softly to herself, while she 
 patted complacently the head of the sleeping pug 
 curled up in her lap.
 
 288 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " I have it ! Now, my pet, we 11 spin a nice little web, 
 all smooth and fine and silky, but the silly little 
 fly 11 find it no easy thing, once in, to get out again." 
 
 A step sounded without, and she gave the ear of 
 the pug a pinch that made the pampered pet set up 
 a shrill howl, which naturally drew the attention of 
 Mandy, who was passing just then. 
 
 " Does he want his lunch, mum? " 
 
 Mandy had a soft side toward dogs, and was per 
 fectly willing to cater to the wants, real or fancied, 
 of this aristocratic specimen. Mrs. Humbre opened 
 her half-closed eyes and looked up languidly at the 
 sound of her voice. 
 
 "Ah, is it you? No, I think not yet; he had a 
 bad dream, probably; his digestion has been bad 
 lately. But you may step to my daughter s door and 
 say that I would like to see her." 
 
 "Why, she ain t in, mum," in a tone of surprise; 
 " you was on the piazza yerself when she went out to 
 walk, all of an hour ago." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I remember now. But where is Miss 
 Lois?" 
 
 " In er room. Shall I call er? " 
 
 " No, no, don t interrupt her, she has letters to 
 write this morning. I wonder," with an affectation 
 of diffidence that made Mandy eye her curiously, " if 
 Miss Comfort could spare me half an hour this morn 
 ing? I feel one of my nervous headaches coming on, 
 and if she would bathe my head for a little I think it 
 might pass off." 
 
 " Of course, to be sure she will," responded the 
 unsuspicious Mandy, who had long since learned that
 
 "Oh, I See Thee Old and Formal" 289 
 
 the invalid s wishes were the law of the household, 
 and that, at the cost of any inconvenience or self- 
 sacrifice, her slightest needs must be attended to by 
 all beneath the same roof. 
 
 Now Mrs. Humbre knew just as well before as 
 after the girl s communication that her daughter and 
 Lois were well out of the way, so that she had 
 nothing to fear from their inopportune appearance 
 during the interview that she had planned with Com 
 fort, but a crooked way of doing things suited her 
 much better than a straightforward one. It would 
 not have been like her to say directly, " My head 
 aches, and if Comfort can spare the time, I would be 
 glad to have her bathe it." She considered herself 
 a very sagacious and shrewd woman, and it had been 
 one of the many regrets of her life that she had never 
 been given the opportunity for exercising her talents 
 for intrigue in some courtly or diplomatic circle. Her 
 conversation usually abounded in mysterious hints 
 and vague prophecies, that sometimes led the unin 
 itiated into the belief that she was really the deposi 
 tory of a vast store of marvellous secrets, that but for 
 her remarkable powers of repression, would long 
 before this have spread confusion and tumult through 
 out the community of which she was the wisely silent 
 center. But a very short acquaintance usually served 
 to reveal the poor lady s shallowness, and on this 
 occasion her over-profuse apologies and even tender 
 welcome sent a chill of indefinite apprehension to 
 Comfort s heart. 
 
 What could she be about to do or say? And the 
 girl s thoughts flew back, as if to gather strength and 
 
 9
 
 290 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 courage, to that last evening upon the moonlit sands, 
 with the calm summer sea, furrowed as by countless 
 shares of glistening silver, the soft lapping of the 
 incoming tide at their feet, and above, over the 
 highest mountain peak, a great yellow star, gleaming 
 with a friendly, reassuring light, as if some angelic 
 watchman upon those overlooking heights was 
 swinging his lantern over the fair summer city 
 nestled below, with the comfortable assurance: 
 " Ten o clock ! and all s well." Never, so long as 
 life and reason were hers, could she forget that hour, 
 with its atmosphere of peace and joy, when with her 
 tremulous hand in his firm clasp, Robert Humbre 
 had told his love in his own manly, earnest, straight 
 forward fashion, and prayed her to be the comfort 
 and inspiration of his life. 
 
 " Comfort, little Comfort," he had softly repeated, 
 and there was a quaver in the strong man s voice 
 that told that his soul was stirred to its very depths; 
 " it seems to me now, as I look backward, that I 
 have loved you from that very day, years ago, when, 
 a shy, sweet-faced child, I first saw you at poor 
 Granny Hedvig s cottage. It was the pure, womanly 
 soul in you, looking out of those childish eyes, that 
 responded all unconsciously to the unsatisfied long 
 ings of my own nature and drew me to you, little as 
 I understood it then." 
 
 The girl s eyes were downcast and her lip trembled, 
 but, woman-like, she could not forbear to toy with 
 this wondrously sweet stranger, this love that, all 
 unlocked for, had entangled his wings in the dull 
 gray web of her everyday life.
 
 "Oh, I See Thee Old and Formal" 291 
 
 " The impression could scarcely have been very 
 deep," she murmured, with a pretense of playful 
 incredulity, " when, for all these long years, you 
 have made no effort to see me again." 
 
 But he was too much in earnest to respond in the 
 same strain. 
 
 " No," he returned, gravely, " you were for years 
 simply a sweet, tender memory, that somehow never 
 grew indistinct or colorless. Half unconsciously the 
 scenes that here had charmed me with their grand, 
 majestic beauty and the bright little maid in their 
 midst seemed strangely intermingled, I could not 
 think of them separately. And in the often weary 
 hours of camp life, on the bed of pain in the hospital, 
 and in the gay, bustling life that we led abroad, when 
 I would shut my eyes on it all and smell again the 
 breath of the great, free ocean, and listen to its never- 
 ceasing murmur, there always mingled with them the 
 picture of that soft-voiced, tenderly helpful little maid, 
 whose innocent eyes had never in them a shadow of 
 guile or deceit. O Comfort," and she seemed to feel 
 again the trembling of the hand that held her own in 
 a clasp that was in itself an appeal from heart to heart, 
 " you who have been a comfort and blessing to others 
 all of your life, will you come into my life and be the 
 comfort and blessing that I so much need? " 
 
 From her childhood he had been her ideal, her 
 model of all that was high and true and noble in 
 man, and that he should stoop to her ! Why, it was 
 as if that sentinel star up there in heaven should 
 long to fold to his bosom one of these pale evening 
 primroses whose faint perfume the evening breeze
 
 292 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 was bearing to them at that moment, and yet, a love 
 at once proud, pure, and trustful welled up from her 
 over-full heart, a love self-respectful, as became the 
 recipient of such a princely gift. 
 
 " If I be dear to someone else, then should I be to myself 
 more dear." 
 
 And it was with maidenly pride as well as trust 
 that she had plighted her troth to this man whom 
 the great world without would account as so greatly 
 her superior in every way. 
 
 And yet, so far, that thought had had no power to 
 mar her happiness. This was no boy s love, the 
 whim or fancy of an hour, forgotten in the next, 
 but the deep, tender sentiment of a thoughtful, ma 
 ture man, who had found in her his soul s mate and 
 in her modest, unadorned womanhood, had discerned 
 the softening, spiritualizing influence that his grave, 
 self-controlled life needed. 
 
 It may seem strange that no prudential considera 
 tions, no thought of the possible opposition of the 
 family of Robert Humbre to his choice had as yet 
 crossed her mind. Not a cloud had arisen to dim 
 the sunshine of her new-born happiness, not a doubt 
 or fear had found lodgment in her unsuspicious 
 breast. For the first time in all her life she had 
 tasted of the blessedness of a love strong to protect 
 and shelter, and this of itself, to one who had even 
 from childhood been the bearer of others burdens, 
 the care-taker and supporter of those she loved, 
 comforted and cheered her woman s heart, and made 
 the future seem to her illumined vision, one long 
 vista of restful, love-sheltered happiness,
 
 "Oh, I See Thee Old and Formal" 293 
 
 " A sunshiny world, full of laughter and leisure, 
 And young hearts untainted by sorrow or thrall." 
 
 But now, in a moment as it were, while, with even 
 tenderer touch than usual she passed her soothing 
 hands across the aching forehead of Robert Humbre s 
 mother, and marked with a suddenly sharpened vi 
 sion, the hard, proud lines that time had drawn upon 
 that once fair face, her heart sank within her, and the 
 little cloud, at first no bigger than a man s hand, grew 
 little by little, shutting out the sunshine of hope and 
 love, and brooding darkly like an impalpable presence 
 over them, as Mrs. Humbre, in her sweetest, softest 
 tones, went on to talk of her own family affairs with a 
 freedom that was in itself suspicious. 
 
 " I think one reason why I have these headaches so 
 often lately is because I worry so much about Robert." 
 
 She felt the electric thrill of the soft palm that 
 rested upon her forehead, and with a woman s intu 
 ition, knew beyond a doubt that the love that Robert 
 had taken no pains to hide was known and returned. 
 Suspicion had become certainty, and hardening her 
 heart she went on, lowering her voice to a confiden 
 tial tone. 
 
 " My husband at his death left his whole fortune 
 unreservedly to me, to do as I pleased with. Of 
 course I paid the expenses of Robert s education, but 
 as soon as he was able to earn an income from his 
 art he naturally preferred to be independent, and he 
 was fast accumulating a fortune, when he was foolish 
 enough to leave all and enlist in the army. There 
 he lost his arm, and with it all hopes of ever winning 
 even a competency by his own exertions."
 
 294 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 She paused a moment as if expecting some com 
 ment, but as her listener remained silent, she asked 
 directly : 
 
 " You see for yourself that that leaves him at 
 present entirely dependent upon me?" 
 
 " It would seem so." 
 
 There was surprise and something of incredulity in 
 her tones, nothing more, and while the wily woman 
 would gladly have had a look at the face above her, 
 she could not obtain even a glimpse without a notice 
 able effort that would in itself seem suspicious, and 
 she was forced to content herself with surmises as to 
 the effect of her revelations. 
 
 " Of course, as my own son, I am perfectly willing 
 to help him, as I have told him a hundred times, but 
 he is proud, and the feeling of dependence weighs 
 upon him terribly. Why, he has aged more in the 
 last year than he should have done in ten, and all 
 that I can do or say seems to have no effect in 
 lessening the feeling of humiliation that he groans 
 under. I have turned the matter over in my mind 
 until my brain has whirled, and still I can see only 
 one way in which it is possible for him to regain his 
 self-respect, and with it his peace of mind, and that 
 is for him to marry a fortune. Don t misunderstand 
 me, dear," as Comfort gave a low, involuntary cry of 
 pained astonishment, " I did n t mean to marry any 
 lady simply and solely for her money (I would n t 
 be so mercenary as that for the world), but that in 
 marrying he must be prudent enough to look out 
 that the lady has a fortune that will suffice for both. 
 Now I shall betray no confidences, but there is a
 
 "Oh, I See Thee Old and Formal" 295 
 
 young lady, an heiress in her own right, and a 
 lovely, accomplished girl besides, whom I have 
 every reason to think would not say him nay, if he 
 would put aside that false pride of his, and ask her 
 hand in marriage." 
 
 A shudder ran through the girl s frame, but her 
 voice never wavered as she asked with simple 
 directness : 
 
 " Do you mean that he loves this lady that you 
 speak of, but because of his poverty will not ask her 
 to become his wife ? " 
 
 Mrs. Humbre laughed uneasily. 
 
 " I did n t say so, did I ? But this much I will say 
 that Robert Humbre, wedded to poverty and ob 
 scurity, would be the most wretched man alive, and 
 to guard against any such foolhardiness on his part, 
 I shall certainly disinherit him if he marries without 
 my consent." 
 
 Miss Delphine s voice and step upon the stair was 
 a welcome interruption, and Comfort was glad to 
 excuse herself from further attendance upon her 
 tormentor, and in the welcome solitude of her own 
 room, try to collect her distracted thoughts, and look 
 bravely into the face of this terrible revelation, 
 letting reason rather than passion judge how far his 
 mother s judgment of Robert Humbre was correct. 
 It could not be that he, a man in the prime of life, 
 gifted as few men are, was an idle dependent upon 
 his mother s bounty, tamely wearing the yoke that 
 galled and tortured him, because of a foolish pride 
 that forbade him to seek in honorable channels an 
 independent livelihood. That his own mother would
 
 296 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 thus belittle and misrepresent him for purposes of 
 her own seemed incredible to the simple-minded 
 girl. In spite of his luxurious home-surroundings, 
 he was a man of simple tastes and habits, and the 
 idea of his happiness being dependent upon outside 
 surroundings seemed to her a false one. But on the 
 other hand we are all more or less the creatures of 
 habit, and if these costly comforts that he had been 
 all his life used to were to be withheld, would he 
 not feel all the humiliation and discomfort that his 
 mother had foreshadowed ? 
 
 The hints that Mrs. Humbre had thrown out about 
 the desirable heiress, only waiting like a ripe plum 
 for him to open his mouth, she put aside with a 
 smile of contempt. His love for herself she never for 
 an instant doubted, the question was would that love 
 make or mar his life ? Of herself, of her lonely, 
 desolate life without him, she could not, would not 
 think. If in the acceptance of his love she would 
 really add to his burdens, make his dependence 
 more bitter, perhaps, even, by bringing upon him 
 his mother s displeasure, deprive him of his rightful 
 inheritance, would her love have the power to make 
 up to him the loss of home, friends, and patrimony ? 
 
 Over and over again through that long remem 
 bered day, did she ask herself the question, and 
 slowly but surely the conviction grew, that in the pres 
 ent state of affairs, it would be a wrong to the man 
 she loved to become his wife. The future was not 
 without hope, for Jotham might relent, and instead 
 of a penniless bride she might be welcomed by his 
 family as the upbuilder of his fortunes. Then, too,
 
 "Oh, I See Thee Old and Formal" 297 
 
 his own dreams of artistic triumphs might be realized, 
 and the support of a wife be no burden upon him or 
 his. Yes, it was that very burden of indebtedness for 
 the grudged bounty of that selfish, proud woman. 
 There was the sting that not all her reasonings, not 
 all the power of her loving devotion was able to dull. 
 The honest pride of her race shrank from this 
 humiliation, even for love s sake, and in her inmost 
 soul she knew that she was unequal to it. 
 
 She would have gloried in toiling for the man she 
 loved, in bravely keeping step with him, let the path 
 be smooth or rugged, and in bearing cheerfully her 
 share of the inevitable burden of life. But even for 
 his sake she could not bow her neck to the yoke that 
 would ever wound and humiliate her, the yoke 
 that Mrs. Humbre herself admitted pressed so heavi 
 ly upon her own son that it was wearing the life and 
 courage out of his young manhood, and reducing 
 him to the pitiable condition of a family pauper. 
 With her strong faith in him she believed that, un 
 burdened by family ties, he would soon work out his 
 own independence, and until that day should come, 
 for his sake, for both their sakes, it would be wisest 
 and best that he should be untrammelled by prom 
 ises even. 
 
 " He will see it as I do, and wait," she concluded 
 hopefully, as at last she turned her face to her tear- 
 wet pillow and slept the dreamless sleep of youth 
 and hope, and an untried faith in a happy future.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 " COMFORTING VOICE, 
 I PRAY YOU BE MY WIFE S VOICE" 
 
 WHY is it that a man in love is the most un 
 reasonable, pig-headed, wilfully blind animal 
 upon the face of the earth ? He may be possessed 
 of all the manly virtues of courage, self-control, and 
 endurance, he may be a very Solomon for wisdom, 
 be just, clear-headed, and sensible, but let him be 
 overtaken by that amiable madness that we call love, 
 all these virtues count for naught. Reason, entreaty, 
 argument are alike wasted upon him, so long as his 
 eyes are dazzled and his ears charmed with the rain 
 bow shimmer and rustle of the boy-god s wings, 
 will, reason, self-interest are all dominated by that 
 one overmastering passion, nor was Robert Humbre 
 an exception to the general rule. 
 
 At first he met Comfort s objections with tender 
 raillery. Did she suppose that the loaf that overfed 
 the one might not be made to suffice for two ? To 
 be sure, he was not a rich man, but he was fast re- 
 learning his old artistic touch and even if that dream 
 should prove an illusion, the income that he derived 
 from his father s property would alone support them 
 comfortably if not luxuriously. 
 
 " The income ? " 
 
 And the girl s face grew very pale, and her eyes
 
 " Comforting Voice " 299 
 
 looked searchingly into his own, with a startled, half- 
 doubtful expression, that puzzled him. 
 
 " I should have explained that my father at his 
 death, while he left the bulk of his property to my 
 mother, arranged for the payment of a yearly income 
 to each of us my sister and myself that let what 
 would happen, we might be sure of a support at least 
 as long as we lived. During the years that I was 
 earning a livelihood with my pencil I allowed the in 
 come to accumulate, and since leaving the army I 
 have found the sum saved very welcome as a means 
 of support. Are you satisfied with my financial 
 report, little Yankee ? " with a laugh as tenderly 
 mischievous as the kiss that accompanied it. 
 
 Comfort smiled, but there was a troubled look in 
 her eyes, and as the momentary blush faded, her 
 cheek took again the pallid hue of doubt and per 
 plexity. Painful as it was to her to know that the 
 mother of Robert Humbre had demeaned herself to 
 so misrepresent matters in regard to his financial 
 standing, the truth as coming from his own lips had 
 taken a world of vicarious mortification from off her 
 heart, and awakened a hope that perhaps, after all, 
 her boasted power to disinherit him at will had quite 
 as little foundation as the fiction of his present de 
 pendence upon her bounty. Her heart beat thick 
 and fast with alternate hope and fear, as in a voice 
 scarce above a whisper, she put the question whose 
 answer must be either the seal or knell of her own 
 happiness. 
 
 "But can she, your mother, disinherit you at 
 the last, if she pleases?"
 
 300 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 A dark flush rose to the man s forehead, and for 
 the first time Comfort saw the lurid fire of anger 
 in her lover s eyes, as he replied with evident reluc 
 tance to her question: 
 
 " She has a right to dispose of her own share, 
 which comprises two-thirds of the whole estate, as 
 she pleases. My father had the utmost confidence 
 not only in her discretion but in her maternal 
 devotion, and no doubt he honestly believed that 
 by putting this power into her hands, he secured 
 us from any dangerous business or matrimonial 
 entanglements." 
 
 He laughed, but there was no mirth in the laughter. 
 It was evident that the pride of the man was sorely 
 wounded by this threatening sword constantly sus 
 pended over his head, from his youth up. It was 
 not so much the threatened loss of the money, that 
 should be his by right, but the feeling that his birth 
 right, the God-given, inalienable right of the first 
 born, could be set at naught by the mere whim of 
 another, even though that other was his own mother, 
 that touched him to the quick. That she would take 
 advantage of her power to wrest from him the fair 
 heritage to which he was born, he had never for an 
 instant imagined, and when Comfort with tearful per 
 sistency, urged her determination never to be his 
 wife without his mother s consent, he was by turns 
 incredulous, hurt, and angry. It was ridiculous, the 
 most preposterous idea that had ever entered the 
 brain of a woman, or man either, for that matter, 
 that when he loved and would wed the dearest 
 and noblest girl in the whole world, his mother would
 
 " Comforting Voice " 301 
 
 disinherit him, merely because that helpful little hand 
 that he was so proud to claim was not lined with 
 gold. Why, it was plain that she was herself in love 
 with her. He had heard her praise scores of times 
 her womanly grace and tender helpfulness. Of course 
 she would be only too proud and glad to welcome 
 her as a daughter. 
 
 Then as Comfort still persisted in her determina 
 tion that the welcome should be a preliminary to 
 their betrothal, her lover actually lost his temper at 
 what he honestly considered her obstinacy. Should 
 he go like a child in pinafores to ask his mamma s 
 leave before he ventured to pluck the fruit for which 
 his soul longed? Should he, a man, with a man s 
 brain and heart, ask the consent of any human being 
 to plight his troth to the woman he loved? 
 
 It was putting him into the pitiable category of im 
 beciles and dependents to ask such a thing of him. 
 And poor Comfort, bruised, and hurt, and half per 
 suaded by his impetuous flood of argument, entreaty, 
 and reproaches, to follow the leadings of her own 
 heart, and trust the future to take care of itself, was 
 tempted to yield her will to his, and as his wife face 
 fearlessly his mother s scorn and anger. 
 
 Had her love been a whit less unselfish she would 
 have given up the struggle, and allowed herself the 
 peace and rest for which her tired heart cried so im 
 portunately. But for his sake they must wait, must 
 trust to time and circumstances to soften down the 
 opposition that he, manlike, chose to ignore the pos 
 sibility of. Something, many things might happen 
 to reconcile the proud dame to their marriage. If
 
 302 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 she could only have confided to him the facts in 
 regard to her own heritage he might better have un 
 derstood the motives that prompted her seemingly 
 unreasonable opposition to his will. But here family 
 pride and the ties of kinship sealed her lips. How 
 could she say to this honorable, upright man, whose 
 respect was almost as precious to her as his love: 
 
 " My own brother is a villain, who refuses to allow 
 me to sell my land for what would be to me a fortune, 
 because he thinks that, in time, under the cruel pres 
 sure of want and poverty, I will part with it to him for 
 a song, to keep myself from starving." 
 
 To only one friend in the world could she confide 
 the shameful secret, and as the days slipped by, each 
 bringing nearer the return of Franz Hedvig to his 
 boyhood s home, her bruised and aching heart felt a 
 revival of hope and courage. 
 
 Once, twice, she had written to her brother, for 
 she felt herself unequal to a personal interview, and 
 with all the eloquence of which she was capable, im 
 plored his leave to dispose of that part of her land 
 that the speculators had already made her a generous 
 offer for. 
 
 " I shall never," she reasoned, " dispose of it for 
 less than the sum already offered. And so long as I 
 have my health and strength, I shall be under no 
 necessity of selling it for the means of living com 
 fortably and honestly." 
 
 To the first of these notes came the hard, brief 
 answer : 
 
 " Sell it to me, or keep it, just as you please." 
 
 To the last no reply whatever was vouchsafed.
 
 " Comforting Voice " 303 
 
 But what could Franz do in the case? The law 
 could not be appealed to, for the clause in the will 
 was direct and explicit. The land could not be sold 
 without Jotham s consent. No threat of exposure 
 could move him, for there was the plausible excuse 
 ever ready to his hand, that " land was every year in 
 creasing in value, and that therefore it was the kindest 
 and wisest thing that could be done to hold it for a 
 higher bidder." To appeal to his brotherly sym 
 pathies, to his honor as a man, would be worse than 
 useless, and yet, in their boy and girl days, Franz 
 had always been her friend and helper. 
 
 Shrewd and sagacious by nature, he had that in 
 born faculty, as rare as it is precious, of finding the 
 right end by which the skein, however tangled, might 
 be unwound, simple and easy enough in his hands, 
 however puzzling it might have seemed to everybody 
 else. That the knots in his own love skein were being 
 so easily untied, thanks to her prudence and foresight, 
 rejoiced the girl s unselfish heart, and in listening to 
 Lois s tender confidences, and glowing pictures of the 
 future, she often forgot for the time her own troubles, 
 Mrs. Humbre s cold scorn, Miss Delphine s ill-con 
 cealed anxiety, and hardest of all, Robert s reproach 
 ful face, that told its own story, in spite of the loving 
 words and attentions under which he strove to hide 
 his bitter disappointment. With a persistency that 
 seemed to have little in it of hope or courage, he 
 devoted himself so entirely to his art that his mother s 
 plaintive prediction that he " was working himself to 
 death," really seemed confirmed by the thinness of his 
 cheek and the dark circles about his eyes, as each
 
 304 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 evening he joined the little circle at the farmhouse, 
 sitting in their midst, a listener rather than a sharer in 
 the household gossip, always kind and thoughtful of 
 others and yet in some unexplainable way, apart from 
 them, as if the doors of his heart, having once felt 
 the magic touch of love upon their barred portals, 
 could never again unclose to the hand, however 
 tender, of another. 
 
 In her secret soul, Comfort knew that the blame 
 rested at Mrs. Humbre s own door, that it was for 
 her, and her alone, to speak the word that would 
 bring sunshine once more into these overshadowed 
 lives, and yet there was an atmosphere about her of 
 constant reproach, unconscious, perhaps, but none the 
 less real, that made her feel that all regarded her as 
 the blamable one. 
 
 While secretly delighted at the turn that matters 
 had taken, Mrs. Humbre, with characteristic deceit, 
 calmly ignored her own responsibility in the affair, 
 taking pains to treat and speak of her son with a 
 motherly solicitude, as if he had in some way been 
 most shamefully dealt with, while to Comfort she 
 vouchsafed only the coldest and briefest of courtesies. 
 That the object of her attentions evidently chafed 
 under this obtrusive display of sympathy, made not the 
 least difference to the wily dame. Robert must on 
 no account be allowed to marry this dowerless, un 
 fashionable girl, and yet he must be made to feel that 
 it was the girl s fault and not hers. 
 
 Although he was too proud to confide to her the 
 story of his disappointment, she knew quite as well 
 how matters stood as if she had listened to the whole
 
 " Comforting Voice " 305 
 
 discussion, and so long as she could evade any actual 
 appeal to her motherly authority, and thus ignore the 
 fact that her opposition was the real lion in the way 
 of her son s happiness, she might still retain his love 
 and confidence, without appearing openly as the dis 
 turber of his peace. If this girl really had pride 
 enough not to force herself unwelcomed upon her, 
 Robert would in time, like other men, get over his 
 fancy, and when he decided to marry, would make a 
 match worthy of himself and the name he bore. 
 Underlying this fixed determination that he should 
 marry a fortune was a secret undreamed of by her 
 family, that seemed to make a wealthy marriage a 
 necessity to him. 
 
 Although the fortune left by her husband had been 
 a large one, her own extravagant, self-indulgent 
 habits had greatly reduced it, and to make this up 
 she had secretly invested in promising ventures that 
 had invariably proved failures, so that at this time her 
 income barely sufficed to provide for the actual neces 
 sities of herself and Lois. In fact, it was due in a 
 great measure to this state of her finances that she 
 had come to give her consent to the girl s marriage 
 with the young engineer, whose prospects now seemed 
 so bright that her future, as his wife, was better as 
 sured than it would be as a dependent upon her now 
 uncertain bounty. Jealously resenting any interfer 
 ence in her business affairs, she had contrived to keep 
 her children in ignorance of the real state of her 
 finances, not only her pride but her love of power 
 being concerned to keep up the appearance of an 
 authority that had really, could they have only
 
 306 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 known it, become but a bladeless sword in her 
 feeble hands. 
 
 Of all the inmates of the farmhouse Lois was nat 
 urally the least disturbed by the little melodrama 
 going on about her. Franz was on his way home 
 at last, and any day she might see his familiar form 
 coming up the lane, with the easy, swinging step that 
 she remembered so well, and hear again the frank, 
 cheery tones that to her were the sweetest music in 
 the world. Every day, rain or shine, she paid a visit 
 to Granny s ruined cottage, for fresh roses wherewith 
 to bedeck the rooms, and her bonny self as well; and 
 at last, because she could think of nothing else to do, 
 she must needs resurrect Granny s old flax wheel from 
 the dust and rubbish of the attic, and under Comfort s 
 inefficient tutelage, set herself to work to learn to spin 
 flax, taking care always to have the wheel close to 
 the open door, so that Franz in approaching the 
 house, could not fail to see her at her graceful 
 task. 
 
 " It would make it seem like home to him," she ex 
 plained, in reply to Miss Delphine s rather contempt 
 uous expressions of surprise, and she " only wished 
 that the old cabin was in some kind of shape, so that 
 she could have the wheel there, and Granny s own 
 chair beside it, to give him a real home welcome." 
 
 It would have been quite useless, and in a way 
 cruel, to have reminded the happy girl that Franz 
 was one of the most unpoetic of mortals, and there 
 was not the least likelihood that he would know 
 Granny s roses or her flax wheel from any others. 
 Lois would have manufactured a romance in three
 
 " Comforting Voice " 307 
 
 volumes from a cedar door post, only giving her the 
 smallest bit of sentiment wherewith to glorify it, and 
 if Franz, unimaginative, straightforward, cool-headed 
 Franz, had no power to see through her rose-colored 
 spectacles, why, in all probability, she would be able 
 to see enough for both, and like scores of sensible men 
 before him, he would placidly enjoy the reflection of 
 the rainbow that he had no power to see at the first 
 hand.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 " WE ARE NOW IN THE HEIGHT OF THE SEASON " 
 
 THE ferry-boat was steaming gallantly across the 
 Bay, and a young man leaning carelessly over 
 her deck railing, straightened himself for a long, 
 sharp, eager look at the fast-approaching roofs and 
 spires of Bar Harbor. Was it a mirage, or had some 
 potent enchanter suddenly transformed the quiet 
 hamlet into this busy, bustling summer city by the 
 sea? He rubbed his eyes as if to clear them from 
 some cheating mist, and with a low whistle of 
 mingled astonishment and incredulity, exclaimed be 
 neath his breath : 
 
 " Bar Harbor ! But where has Bar Harbor gone 
 to?" 
 
 A figure at his side put up an inquisitive eye-glass 
 and stared at him for a moment in mute bewilder 
 ment, then all at once awaking to the fact that this 
 stranger, whose foreign dress contrasted so oddly 
 with his unmistakably Yankee speech, might be worth 
 the expenditure of some of his carefully hoarded 
 courtesies, he took upon himself to explain, after the 
 manner of his kind. 
 
 "Oh! aw! Yes, it s Baw Hawber, and no mis 
 take. Most chawming spot on earth, finest women 
 to be seen at, aw any watering place awn this side 
 the big ditch. Plenty of fun going awn, hops and
 
 "In the Height of the Season" 309 
 
 drives, and boating and flirting, baw Jove ! I never 
 can bear, you know, to tear myself away." 
 
 The young man addressed thrust his hands into 
 his pockets, and looked down upon his diminutive 
 companion with a kind of benevolent wonder, much 
 as a kindly tempered mastiff might regard a skye- 
 terrier who had ventured upon offering him some 
 small doggish civilities. 
 
 " Ah, yes. Beg your pardon, but did I understand 
 you to say that this new Bar Harbor was entirely 
 given over to the fashionable pleasure seekers ? 
 There seems to me a good deal of business going on, 
 such wonderful growth must have made things 
 pretty lively for the island folks." 
 
 " Aw, yes, I suppose so. The natives feather 
 their own nests, without a doubt. They make you 
 pay, aw, a dollar or so every time you turn wound, 
 -it s perfectly pweposterous. But then, you know, 
 when you re with the Womans you must do as the 
 Womans do, you understand? " 
 
 " Of course, if one herds with the Romans," 
 laughed the other good naturedly. " But in speak 
 ing of the diversions here you did n t mention rock 
 ing. That used to be a great favorite with summer 
 visitors here, years ago." 
 
 " Wocking did you say? Weally, I don t think I 
 catch on, you know." 
 
 " It was nothing but clambering over the rocks 
 hunting after marine specimens or sea-birds eggs- 
 Very innocent fun, but the people who came here 
 then seemed to enjoy it." 
 
 " Tewibly destructive to clothing ! " and the speaker
 
 3 1 o A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 gave a dainty shiver, and hastily brushed a cinder 
 from the cuff of his gray travelling coat. " Such 
 boistwous sports are, aw, not in good fawm with the 
 uppaw classes that fwequent Baw Hawber now 
 adays." 
 
 " Indeed. Well tastes change at Bar Harbor as 
 elsewhere, I suppose." Then turning to the captain, 
 a lank, sharp-eyed man, with a wary look upon his 
 weather-beaten face, he asked curiously: "Are all 
 those big buildings hotels? It looks from here as if 
 the place was pretty much all hotel." 
 
 There was a half-reluctant wrinkling of the parch 
 ment-like skin about the mouth of the person ad 
 dressed that was meant to do duty for a smile, but 
 his speech was slow and meditative as became the 
 man and his subject. 
 
 " Wa-11, yes, there s a pretty fair sprinklin o them 
 kind o buildin s, to be sure, but they be chock full 
 every season. I tell you," drawing closer, and speak 
 ing confidentially, " the man that knows how to run a 
 hotel at Bar Harbor can make money hand over fist. 
 Yes," illustrating his simile with a corresponding 
 motion of his own leathery extremities, " hand 
 over fist. Do you see that big one over there where 
 Sol Higgins s ile shed used ter stand? Yes, -well 
 that s Jote Hadlock s hotel, he and his mother-in- 
 law, the Widder Scripture, own it together. T was 
 one o the first on the ground, and he s grown rich 
 keepin it. Last year he sent his wife (she twas 
 Tabby Scripture), to Europe, and they do say she 
 cut an awful swathe there, spent money like water, 
 went to see the queen and the wax works and the
 
 "In the Height of the Season" 311 
 
 bear gardings, and the Lord knows what not. 
 She s been so toppin sense she got back that you 
 can t touch er with a ten-foot pole. Thinks she s 
 head an shoulders above good, nice, stay-at-home 
 girls, like Mandy f r instance. But money makes the 
 mare go here as well as everywhere else." 
 
 He sniffed discontentedly, but the stranger s eye 
 turned with a look of pleased recognition to his now 
 familiar face, and he stretched out his hand with the 
 unaffected cordiality of an old friend who is sure of a 
 welcome. 
 
 " Why, Jake ! I thought you looked natural, but I 
 never should have known who it was if you had n t 
 mentioned Mandy." 
 
 " Why-y, yis," and the proffered hand was rather 
 coolly accepted, as with possible reservations. " It s 
 Jake sure enough, but, blast me f I can call your 
 name." 
 
 " Hedvig Franz Hedvig, you have n t for 
 gotten? " 
 
 " Oh, Lord ! No, no, not by a long chalk ! " and 
 Franz s hand ached with the wrench he gave it. 
 
 " Well, well, I never ! After all these years, to 
 come back to this." 
 
 The proud exultation of the native Bar Harborite 
 in the grandeur of his own transformed hamlet spoke 
 in every glance of his eye, and in the tone and 
 emphasis with which he pronounced that significant 
 " this." It was a grand pictured volume in itself, and 
 carried a world of meaning to Franz s sympathetic 
 apprehension, who might have read something like 
 this between the lines : This fair summer city of
 
 312 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 palaces, where wealth and fashion, and beauty hold 
 their court; where Nature and Art unite to charm 
 the jaded senses, and the fresh, bracing northern air 
 paints as impartially the cheek of faded beauty as, a 
 few weeks later, it will play the tirewoman to the 
 forest leaves that now deck the green woodland 
 arches, and, like the oaks of Dodona, rustle with 
 mystic meaning to the ears attuned to receive their 
 prophecies. Fashion and folly, wisdom and art, the 
 gamester s cards and the clergyman s cassock. Youth 
 hand in hand with Joy, and Age ever casting longing 
 looks backward, or hopefully facing a faith-illumined 
 sunset. Men and women of every age, class, and 
 condition, all intent upon the pursuit of happiness in 
 one form or another, make up the sum of human life 
 in this fair and stately playground of the American 
 pleasure seeker. 
 
 Here, too, come the " lions " of the world, of every 
 stripe and degree, political, moneyed, literary, and 
 artistic, of whose roar the dainty Unas of fashion 
 have no fear, for in their silken bands of elegant 
 leisure even the most ferocious forgets for the time 
 that he has claws and fangs at need, and good natur- 
 edly poses upon the drawing-room rug, like any 
 innocent, harmless domestic cat. Here is the lion 
 that somebody heard " roar in the lobby," -a grand, 
 stately, sagacious beast, whose roar has, upon occa 
 sion, shaken the halls of Congress and made even the 
 dome at Washington reverberate with its thunder. 
 Here, too, comes the African lion, hardy, patient, de 
 termined, a pathfinder through worse than Indian 
 jungles, whose mighty paw has swept aside the rub-
 
 "In the Height of the Season" 313 
 
 bish of centuries, uncovered the hidden sources of 
 mighty rivers, and let in the life-giving sunlight of 
 civilization upon lands lying in the darkness and 
 gloom of heathendom. 
 
 The roar of the Asiatic lion, musical as the chime 
 of silver bells, is telling in melodious numbers of 
 white dromedaries, with gemmed and silken housings, 
 who bear dark-eyed maidens, beautiful as houris, 
 upon their stately shoulders ; of palm gardens, of 
 chariot races, and sweetest of all, of Him whose mis 
 sion to earth was to save and to bless fallen humanity. 
 If the golden shekels wherewith the Judaean lion be 
 dazzles the eyes of men make some foolish souls 
 forget that honor, truth, and love are more precious 
 than gold, and more to be desired than hid treasure, 
 why, it is not to be laid to the account of the long- 
 descended beast himself. The lust of the eyes and 
 the pride of life will make a god of Mammon so long 
 as the world stands. 
 
 But to return to the incoming steamer, with Franz 
 Hedvig and Cap n Jake upon her deck, the former 
 eagerly searching for some old remembered land 
 mark that would at least assure him that his home 
 coming was not all an illusion. There were the cliffs, 
 tall and dark and grim as of yore, the sea as blue 
 and bright, and the numberless islands lying green 
 beneath the summer s sun, just as they had lain years 
 ago when he had taken a last sorrowful look at their 
 wave-washed shores. Here and there a fisherman s 
 dory with its patched sail scarcely flapping in the 
 light breeze met his eye, but the bay was gay with 
 smartly rigged yachts, flying bunting enough to
 
 3 14 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 equip a navy if judiciously distributed; sailboats and 
 steam-boats of every size and build ; while anchored 
 off shore lay the dark hull of a man-of-war, with the 
 Russian Bear floating from her masthead. Cap n 
 Jake followed the direction of his eye as it rested 
 upon the last-named craft, and remarked with con 
 siderable asperity : 
 
 " Sech a time as they ve been makin over them 
 Rushers! Cosetin an pettin em as if they d come 
 from another spear. Dress a jackass up in furrin 
 uniform, with plenty o buttons an gold lace, and 
 nine wimmin out o every ten would swear that he 
 was the finest figger of a man that the Lord ever 
 made." 
 
 Franz laughed. Jake at least was the Jake of 
 other days, and the temptation to draw him out was 
 not to be resisted. 
 
 " Say," with a nod over his shoulder, at the tourist, 
 who had withdrawn himself somewhat and was lan 
 guidly waving his handkerchief in response to a 
 signal from the shore, " Say, Jake, that s a new kind 
 of animal that Bar Harbor seems to have imported 
 along with her hotels and cottages, what do you 
 call it?" 
 
 The cynical philosopher cast a look half scornful, 
 half sorrowful at the specimen in question, then 
 without a shadow of mirth in eye or tone, gravely 
 responded : 
 
 " Well, they go by the name o sports up Canady 
 way, the New Yorkers call em swells/ an the Ver- 
 monters coots, but with the Boston an Bar Harbor 
 folks they re mostly known as dudes. They re
 
 "In the Height of the Season" 315 
 
 harmless and pretty peaceable ginerally, but I never 
 could see, to save my soul, what the Lord made em 
 for, unless t was to kind of encourage tailorin an 
 shoemakin . Their only real business seems ter be 
 to dress up an look pretty, an between whiles they 
 dance an flirt a little, or let some girl take em out 
 rowin ." 
 
 The boat was now fast nearing the shore, and 
 Cap n Jake was obliged to break off his confidences 
 with a few hurried words of welcome, and a cordial 
 invitation to visit him in his new home. 
 
 " I ve got the nest all ready and furnished," he 
 whispered with rather a sheepish air, " but Mandy, 
 she won t leave Comfort Hadlock alone, so there 
 tis." 
 
 He was gone, and as the boat swung up alongside 
 the crowded wharf Franz could scarcely disabuse him 
 self of the idea that he was really a stranger among 
 these unfamiliar scenes, and that the quiet, peaceful 
 memories of years had been but a dream, after all. No 
 body recognized him, although many glanced curi 
 ously at the stout, well-knit figure in its foreign dress, 
 for the young man wore the undress uniform to 
 which his rank in the corps of Royal Engineers en 
 titled him. Once upon firm land he glanced quickly, 
 searchingly about him. Every face, whether of man 
 or woman, wore the cold, unrecognizing look of a 
 stranger, and a sharp pang of disappointment shot 
 through his heart as he remembered how many times 
 during these long years he had pictured this home 
 coming, and the welcome he fondly fancied he would 
 find awaiting him, and now
 
 3 1 6 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " Carriage, sir ! Rodick House ! " shouted a hack 
 driver at his elbow. 
 
 The name was a familiar one, and he brightened up, 
 shaking off the gloom that had oppressed him, with a 
 half-ashamed smile. 
 
 " I wonder if Dan 11 know me? " he thought, as he 
 pointed out his luggage to the driver. He was about 
 to enter the carriage, when a hand was laid upon his 
 shoulder, and the voice of Robert Humbre called out 
 in glad welcome : 
 
 " Franz Hedvig ! Welcome home, old fellow ! I ve 
 been on the lookout for you every time the boat has 
 come in for the last two weeks." 
 
 What a sudden breaking away of the clouds those 
 few hearty, unaffected words of friendly greeting had 
 effected, and as the two rode together to the hotel, 
 they talked and laughed with a boyish gleefulness that 
 made the blood flow faster in their veins, as if all these 
 intervening years with their cares and crosses had 
 been but a changeable dream, leaving only a broken, 
 indistinct memory of their more sombre features. 
 " Dan " did know his old friend, and gave him a right 
 royal welcome, and in spite of his impatience to report 
 at the farmhouse, the afternoon shadows had begun 
 to lengthen before Franz could tear himself away from 
 the old acquaintances who, one after another, on 
 hearing of his arrival, dropped in to see him. 
 
 Robert had considerately vanished, and with a heart 
 swelling high with love and hope, the young man set 
 out for the longed-for visit, taking the same road that 
 his bare, boyish feet had so often trodden, and with 
 every inch of which he was as familiar as with the
 
 "In the Height of the Season" 317 
 
 face of his best friend. There were the choke-cherry 
 bushes already glowing with their racemes of crimson 
 fruit (how well he remembered the pleasant, puckery 
 taste of the tiny drupes), and he could not resist the 
 temptation even now to climb the fence and help 
 himself as in his boyish days, when stolen cherries 
 had a flavor that honestly earned ones seemed, 
 somehow, to lack. The creamy-white elder blooms 
 and bright-faced buttercups had a homely welcome 
 for him, while the pretty hedge sparrow perched upon 
 the topmost rail of the orchard fence sang just the 
 same song, and preened his dainty feathers with the 
 same air as did his great-great-grandfather before 
 him. If men had changed and grown old, Nature had 
 not, and the gladness of his heart found expression 
 in a whistled tune, so blithe and care free that the 
 sparrow tilted his saucy head to catch the note, and 
 an ambitious bobolink started up from the neighboring 
 clover field, and tried his best to join in the wordless 
 chorus.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 " FLOW SOFTLY, RHYMES, HIS HAND IS ON 
 THE DOOR" 
 
 IF Franz had imagined that his arrival was unknown 
 at the farmhouse all this time, he was greatly 
 mistaken, for Mandy, who was ordering her dinner at 
 the village market, and at the same time keeping a 
 sharp lookout for the incoming boat, had caught 
 sight of him as he rode with General Humbre to the 
 hotel, and had lost no time in carrying the news home, 
 thereby throwing the whole household into a ferment 
 of delighted anticipation. 
 
 Apart from her own natural longing to see him, 
 Comfort could not but enter heart and soul into Lois s 
 rapturous delight, and if Miss Delphine who, to use 
 the common phrase, had " never been there herself," 
 wondered a little over the girl s enthusiastic, and, it 
 seemed to her, extravagant expressions of joy, her 
 kind heart would never have allowed her for an instant 
 to dampen that joy by appearing indifferent to it. 
 Even Mrs. Humbre, having once resigned herself to 
 the inevitable, magnanimously refrained from any 
 slighting comment, even going so far as to suggest 
 that an order be sent to her dressmaker in Boston 
 immediately, to have the necessarily limited trousseau 
 gotten ready as soon as possible.
 
 "Flow Softly, Rhymes" 319 
 
 " If, as you say, my dear, he will have to sail for 
 Europe by the first of October, you will have to be 
 married here, and a wedding dress would be just 
 foolishness, with nobody to see it. I will write 
 Madame to make your travelling dress handsome 
 enough for you to be married in and oh, did you 
 know that the Rt. Rev. Bishop Hianmity was expected 
 here next month? We must have him perform the 
 marriage ceremony, and I should like to ask Miss 
 Van Tucker, " 
 
 " The old cat ! " muttered Lois under her breath. 
 
 " And young Tadpole and his sister, " 
 
 " They 11 be frogs one of these days when their 
 rich Aunt Betty dies, yes?" 
 
 " And Mrs. Stuyvesant Smythe (you know what 
 splendid wedding presents she always gives)." 
 
 " Oh, the jingling of the guinea ! " quoted Lois, 
 half angry, half ashamed of all this sordid calculation, 
 and yet, laughing in spite of herself, at the idea of 
 the incongruous elements that were to be brought 
 together on the occasion of her marriage, then 
 soberly: " I m afraid they would n t consider it any 
 honor, auntie, to be invited to a marriage like mine. 
 Franz and I are very prosaic, common kind of folk, 
 once out from under your wing, and the few thou 
 sands that he will get from the sale of his land will 
 only serve as a stepping-stone to something greater. 
 To people who pay a hundred thousand dollars for a 
 summer cottage, our little fortune, important as it is 
 to us, will make us of very little importance to 
 them." 
 
 Mrs. Humbre sighed, and looked reproachfully at
 
 320 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 her foster-child. " And to think that you might, if 
 only" 
 
 "There, there, auntie, none of that, please." 
 
 And emphasizing her words with a kiss, Lois hur 
 ried off to find Comfort, and consult with her as to 
 the probable time it would take Franz to change his 
 clothes, and eat his dinner (that is, if his impatience 
 would allow him to wait for dinner), and walk the 
 scant quarter of a mile to the farmhouse, allowing, 
 of course, the few minutes that he would naturally 
 spend with Robert. To Comfort s suggestion that 
 he might be detained by meeting old friends, who 
 would be sure to claim his attention if it was once 
 known that he had arrived, Lois was incredulous, 
 almost indignant. 
 
 " Who, pray, did he come across the ocean to see? a 
 lot of old codgers, whose names even he had probably 
 forgotten by this time, or his promised wife ? He must 
 be a queer kind of a lover who would hang about the 
 hotel talking to Tom, Dick, and Harry, when his lady 
 love was waiting for him not fifteen minutes walk 
 away. Would n t it be well to have an early lunch, so 
 that they could get into their afternoon dresses before 
 he came ? For her part, she should wear that beautiful 
 embroidered muslin that she had on in Vienna that 
 evening, the first time she had met him after they 
 went abroad. It was dreadfully out of style, to be 
 sure, but it was always becoming, and with a cluster 
 of those rosy bronze woodbine leaves from Granny s 
 cabin it would be charming, quite unique, and 
 
 " Antique," supplemented her friend teasingly. 
 
 With the knowledge that Franz was really at home
 
 "Flow Softly, Rhymes" 321 
 
 again, Comfort s heart had grown strangely light and 
 hopeful, and she was equally ready to sympathize 
 with or jest at the whimsical fancies of his volatile 
 bride-elect. But as the hours, in spite of the early 
 lunch, dragged wearily by, Lois s high spirits sank, 
 little by little, until, after passing through the various 
 stages of unrest, disappointment, and the deepest 
 despondency, she reached that of dignified resent 
 ment, where she firmly declared her determination to 
 refuse to see him when he did come. " If indeed he 
 comes at all," with a scorn that her tears belied. 
 
 Very likely, now that he was sure of her, she had 
 lost all value in his eyes, that was always the way, 
 it is what men want, not what they have that is 
 dear to them. Perhaps, stranger things had hap 
 pened, he had met with some one he liked better, 
 some beauty and heiress who had made him forget 
 his penniless fiancee across the Atlantic, and now he 
 delayed his coming, dreading to break the news to 
 her. Not that he need trouble himself, she was 
 willing to give him back his plighted troth whenever 
 he wished it, no doubt she could find a bridegroom 
 as easily as he a bride. And by way of relieving her 
 overcharged feelings, she sat down at the parlor 
 organ near the open window, and sang religiously 
 through from beginning to end (and without so much 
 as a glance at the village road, in plain sight) the 
 song that tells the sad fate of "The three old maids 
 of Lee." 
 
 Her usually clear, sweet voice was so hoarse and 
 husky with tears that only a lover s ear could have 
 recognized it, and even he, as he stood unseen in the
 
 322 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 open doorway, wondered if it could be the bright 
 winsome girl whom he had pictured hastening to 
 meet him, all smiles and blushes, who sang with 
 drooping head and doleful accents the mournful 
 refrain : 
 
 " And there they are, and there they 11 be, 
 To the end of the chapter, three times three, 
 Those three old maids of Lee." 
 
 The tender touch of loving hands upon her startled 
 shoulders, and kisses that no other had the right to 
 give, upon cheek and lips, broke the spell of jealous 
 doubt and fear, and with a glad cry the girl forgot 
 her wounded dignity, and all that dreary list of 
 imagined infidelities, and laid her head upon her 
 lover s breast, shedding tears no longer of doubt but 
 of loving certainty. 
 
 " You were a long time getting here," she faltered 
 at last, with a weak attempt at reproachfulness. 
 
 Franz s own eyes were moist, and his voice a trifle 
 unsteady, as he hastened to apologize. 
 
 " So many old friends crowded to see me that I 
 could n t get away, although I was dying to." 
 
 A dreadfully natural and prosaic reason, but Lois 
 took it as complacently as if a tornado or earthquake 
 had been the real cause of the delay that made 
 such a commotion in her own day, and it is doubt 
 ful if, even at this hour, Franz has quite unravelled 
 the mystery of that mood that so bewildered him by 
 its fantastic intermingling of pathos and humor. 
 
 As Comfort had foreseen, Franz proved himself 
 the very friend in need that she had hoped for, and 
 while he listened with honest indignation to the story
 
 "Flow Softly, Rhymes" 323 
 
 of her wrongs, he cheered her with hopeful proph 
 ecies of better times in the near future. 
 
 " Jotham is a big man among the Bar Harborites, 
 and he would n t like to have it known, for his own 
 sake, that he was cheating his sister out of her rights. 
 So long as you are willing that I should try what I 
 can do, I 11 just put the matter to him in such a light 
 that he 11 be ashamed to stand in the way of your 
 happiness any longer." 
 
 " I m afraid you don t know him," urged the girl 
 doubtfully, " but perhaps he will listen to you." 
 
 And Franz in his heart was very sure that he 
 would. Jotham had met him with such a show of 
 hearty good-will, and had even put himself out a 
 good deal to aid him in the disposal of his land, 
 indeed his good offices had added several hundreds 
 to the modest fortune realized from the sale of his 
 small patrimony, and with the unsuspicious hope 
 fulness of his nature, the young man believed it 
 would be an easy thing for him to gain for Comfort 
 the permission she wished. 
 
 From Lois s eager confidences, no less than from 
 his own observation, he soon learned how matters 
 stood between his friends, and he honestly believed 
 that if Jotham only knew how deeply his sister s hap 
 piness was involved, he would be ashamed to stand 
 in the way of her marriage with a man of Robert 
 Humbre s character and position. With these thoughts 
 in his mind, he took occasion to make an early call 
 upon the prosperous publican, who, in the fulness 
 of his hospitality, actually invited him into the inner 
 sanctuary of his establishment, where the affable
 
 324 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 Tabby received him (figuratively speaking) with 
 open arms. 
 
 It was so delightful to see him again, and did he 
 remember that evening at Baden-Baden, and how 
 beau-ti-fully the band played, and what fun it was 
 to watch the people at the gaming tables, and how 
 horribly the mineral water tasted (though one had 
 to drink it for fashion s sake), and the promenading 
 and the riding and the crowds of elegantly dressed 
 folks ! Oh, it was heavenly ! And Tabby turned 
 up the whites of her eyes, and clasped her pudgy 
 hands in a very ecstacy of retrospection. And Franz, 
 who had seen scores of just such silly dames before, 
 good naturedly followed her lead, and laughed and 
 chatted about nothing, venturing now and then upon 
 a prettily turned compliment that threw the flattered 
 Tabby into a perfect twitter of delight. 
 
 She bantered him about his forthcoming marriage, 
 and at last, in the fulness of her neighborly kindness, 
 actually hinted that, if he desired, the spacious parlors 
 
 of the House would be at their disposal for a 
 
 wedding reception. Nothing would give her greater 
 pleasure than to present her guests and friends to 
 them, adding, with a naivete that made the young 
 man smile shrewdly behind his blond mustache : 
 
 " It is so romantic this match of yours, and every 
 body is on tiptoe to get a look at you. Three of the 
 most aristocratic ladies who own cottages here, and 
 who never spoke to me before, asked an introduction 
 when they heard that we were old friends, and I 
 might be able to help them to an acquaintance with 
 you. It is so dull here just now," she continued
 
 " Flow Softly, Rhymes " 325 
 
 plaintively. " Earlier in the season there was an 
 escaped convict from Siberia, and a real Chinese 
 mandarin. But they ve been gone some time now, 
 and there really is n t anybody uncommon enough 
 now to interest people." 
 
 Franz laughed outright, and the steady blue eyes 
 sparkled with mischief. 
 
 " I m afraid Lois might object to being put up for 
 a show, in default of a supply of convicts and manda 
 rins," he said, with a sly drollery that the obtuse 
 Tabby failed to see the reason for. " For myself, 
 I d submit to almost anything in that line to gratify 
 my friends." 
 
 He bowed so courteously that Tabby thought he 
 really meant to compliment her, and was flattered 
 and pleased accordingly. But after he had gone, 
 and she had time and space for reflection, her natural 
 shrewdness began to get the better of her vanity, 
 and an uneasy remembrance of the mocking mischief 
 in his eyes, made her reflect with annoyance: 
 
 " Comfort s filled his ears with stories about us, 
 and that s why, inside, he s making fun of us all 
 the time. I told Jotham only yesterday that I d 
 bet anything she d put him up to get our consent 
 to her selling that land." A heavy frown darkened 
 her matronly face, and a greed as cruel as that of her 
 sordid mate distorted for a moment her unguarded 
 features. " But I 11 risk Jotham." 
 
 The words came hissing through her shut teeth, 
 with a venomous emphasis that few would have given 
 the shallow, vain, easy-going woman the capability of, 
 and she glanced involuntarily toward the empty chair
 
 326 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 where her late visitor had sat, as if challenging that 
 mute witness to mar her confidence in the hardness 
 and cunning that had heretofore been her best 
 weapons in an encounter with the world generally. 
 Suddenly the glitter of some small object on the 
 carpet beneath the chair attracted her attention, 
 and picking it up she found it to be a small silver 
 key of a peculiar shape, that she had noticed sus 
 pended from the young man s watch chain, her at 
 tention having been called to it by his habit when in 
 conversation of absently playing with it, in which way 
 it must have become detached, and fallen unheeded 
 upon the carpet at his feet. Her first impulse was 
 to ring for a call boy, and send the trinket to its 
 owner, who was, as she well knew, closeted with her 
 husband in his private office. Then, struck with a 
 sudden thought, she withdrew her hand, and with a 
 strange pallor creeping over her face, began to 
 examine more minutely the curious toy. 
 
 It was not a watch key, that could be seen at a 
 glance, and as Tabby turned it over and over, search 
 ing in vain for some sign or inscription upon it, 
 the frightened look gave way to one of dogged deter 
 mination, as, having first taken care to secure the 
 door of her room, she seated herself before the hand 
 some escritoire that occupied a conspicuous place 
 in the inner room, and with a key from her own 
 chatelaine, unlocked the upper part, and selecting 
 one of the smaller drawers, pressed her thumb firmly 
 against the spring that confined it. It was not the 
 first time by many that she had, unknown to him, 
 penetrated to this her husband s private repository
 
 "Flow Softly, Rhymes" 327 
 
 for such valuable papers as he did not care to leave 
 in his office desk, and she knew just where to put 
 her hand upon the curiously carved oaken box, 
 black with age, and bound with bands of tarnished 
 silver, that had grown dim by long seclusion and 
 disuse. She knew, for her husband had once in con 
 fidence acknowledged as much, that, for want of 
 a key the casket had never been opened since it 
 came into his possession. More than this, she re 
 membered that years ago, on his first visit after 
 Granny s death, she had seen a small silver key in 
 Franz s possession, and overheard him telling her 
 mother that it was the key to the stolen casket, and 
 that Mrs. Hadlock finding it under the old woman s 
 pillow, after her death, had kept it for him. 
 
 Could this be the key? Her brain reeled at the 
 thought, and her fingers trembled so that she had 
 much ado to fit the tiny instrument to the lock 
 while a low, grating sound as she slowly and with 
 considerable difficulty turned it, made her start and 
 tremble with a nervous apprehension, that had in it 
 more of superstition than actual fear of any possible 
 danger to herself in thus intruding upon the hidden 
 secret of years.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 "WITH JEWELED GAUDS, AND TOYS OF IVORY" 
 
 "PSHAW! Them old duds! Why, they ain t 
 * worth five dollars, the whole parcel of em." 
 And Mistress Tabby cast disdainful glances upon 
 the quaint silver ornaments, dulled and discolored as 
 they were, that met her eyes upon the opening of the 
 mysterious casket 
 
 What she had really expected to find it would be 
 hard to say. Perhaps visions of rare gems, heirlooms, 
 handed down from some old Viking ancestor, had 
 floated before her mental vision, and cheated her 
 with the fancy that anything worth such careful 
 hoarding must of necessity possess great moneyed 
 value, the only standard of worth of which she had 
 any conception. And what had she found? Only a 
 few tarnished silver trinkets that, resting upon their 
 bed of faded purple velvet, seemed to taunt her with 
 their worthlessness. Years of secrecy and darkness, 
 and jealous seclusion, and this was the outcome of it 
 all, a pair of bracelets or anklets (they were big 
 enough for the latter), and great unwieldy looking 
 earrings, better suited to an Indian brave than to be 
 worn in the delicate ear of a fashionable lady. 
 
 As she impatiently closed the lid of the casket and 
 replaced it in the cobwebbed corner where it had lain 
 undisturbed for so many years, there came a tap at
 
 "With Jeweled Gauds" 329 
 
 the door of the room, and a feminine voice called 
 from without : 
 
 " Can I come in? " 
 
 " In just a minute." 
 
 And hastily closing the escritoire, Mrs. Tabby 
 hastened to unlock the door of her chamber and 
 admit her visitor, a slender, dark-eyed woman, in 
 dainty morning negligee, who threw herself into the 
 easiest chair in the room with a long-drawn sigh and 
 the discontented comment: 
 
 " I m completely worn out with this everlasting 
 planning and contriving for other people. I do wish 
 that somebody would scare up an idea of her own, 
 once in a while, and not call on me to rack my brains 
 for their benefit, every time." 
 
 Tabby smiled significantly, but it was not her place 
 to remind the complaining visitor that that was just 
 what she was there for, to serve upon occasion, as 
 the getter-up of fanciful costumes for those who were 
 willing to pay handsomely for the originality and 
 artistic skill by which they were to benefit, so she 
 only said : 
 
 "There are people here who would hire somebody 
 to breathe for em if they could. But how are things 
 getting on? Have most of the ladies decided on their 
 costumes? " 
 
 " Decided ! " and Mrs. Lane, or as she was known 
 to the Bar Harbor fashionables Madame Blondine, 
 rolled up her eyes and shrugged her graceful 
 shoulders with a Frenchified air. " I am half wild 
 with their quibbles and silly notions. Why is it," 
 letting her hands fall helplessly upon the arms of her
 
 3 30 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 chair, and lifting eyes at once appealing and desper 
 ate to the face of her landlady, " that every woman 
 over forty wants to take the part of a flower girl or a 
 Hebe?" 
 
 Tabby laughed good naturedly, she was still 
 young enough herself to enjoy this fling at her 
 elders. 
 
 " I m sure I don t know. But how is it with the 
 girls?" 
 
 Madame wrung her slender hands distractedly. 
 
 " Worse still. Why, that little chit of a Kitty Van- 
 dermere insists upon going as a nun, and Pet Tadpole 
 will personate Bar Harbor Fog, all in grey tulle, 
 without a bit of color to lighten her up just think 
 of it ! I ve talked and reasoned and implored, but 
 all to no purpose, I might as well talk to the fog 
 itself. It s awfully provoking." 
 
 But somehow Tabby did n t seem to lay it to heart 
 so very much that two of the belles of the season 
 should persist in making frights of themselves at the 
 forthcoming masquerade. 
 
 " But there are the Celandines, they are lazy and 
 indifferent enough to let you have your own way, and 
 choose whatever you think best." 
 
 " Yes," and Madame brightened up a little, " and 
 I m determined that they shall make a sensation just 
 to spite those other wilful things, if for nothing else. 
 I ve an idea, are you sure," sinking her voice to a 
 mysterious whisper, and peering sharply about her, 
 even under the chairs and couch, " that there is 
 nobody within hearing?" 
 
 Tabby hastened to reassure her.
 
 "With Jeweled Gauds" 331 
 
 "Ah, well, I don t mind telling you, although I 
 would n t have it get out for the world, but I m 
 tired to death of all these Greek goddesses, and 
 queens, and flower girls, and gypsies, they re 
 completely worn out, as stale as stale can be, so 
 I m going to try something new in getting up cos 
 tumes for the Celandines." 
 
 " What is it? Do tell ! " urged the curious Tabby. 
 
 Madame looked at her with a doubtful air. 
 
 " Did you ever hear of the Norse goddess of spring, 
 Freya? or of Thor the Thunderer? " 
 
 She evidently expected a negative, but Tabby had 
 not quite forgotten the legends with which Granny 
 Hedvig used to delight the children of the neighbor 
 hood, and somewhat to the customer s surprise she 
 returned an animated 
 
 " Oh, land ! Yes, indeed ! I knew all about them 
 years ago." 
 
 "What, really?" and Madame seemed for a mo 
 ment somewhat disconcerted, she had not cal 
 culated upon finding this vulgar, under-bred woman, 
 whom she secretly despised, so well up in Norse 
 mythology, " Well, I shall dress young Celandine 
 as Thor and his sister as Freya." 
 
 " Even to the cats?" laughed Tabby. 
 
 " Yes, we have two splendid coon cats that we have 
 hired for the occasion, and Miss Celandine and I prac 
 tice them two or three hours every day in her room. 
 You would be astonished to see how tractable they 
 are, she drove them in the silken harness that I 
 contrived, for almost half an hour yesterday, and they 
 never once balked. You may guess what a big plate
 
 332 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 of chicken they got for a reward that time. Miss 
 Celandine was perfectly wild with delight." 
 "But could you hire the costumes, too?" 
 " No," and Madame s tone bespoke the triumph of 
 a great mind over seemingly insurmountable difficul 
 ties, " with the help of her maid I made them 
 myself." 
 
 It was just a little spiteful in Tabby to withhold the 
 praise that the ingenious lady s feat certainly deserved, 
 but Tabby could be spiteful on occasion, and the 
 Celandines had never condescended to notice her, so 
 she only asked with hardly a trace of the curiosity 
 that was inwardly consuming her: 
 
 " Really? Well, how did you make out? " 
 " Admirably. The costumes are perfect with only 
 one exception, and that is the silver ornaments that 
 Freya should wear. If there was only time Miss 
 Celandine could send to New York and have some 
 made to order, but it is too late now. We have tried 
 everywhere to buy, hire, or borrow something of the 
 kind, but nobody has anything that is antique enough 
 for our purpose, and I suppose we shall have to make 
 some modern stuff do. But it just breaks my heart 
 to see a lot of bangles and modern trumpery putting 
 to shame the royal velvet and graceful draperies of a 
 Norse goddess." 
 
 For a full minute Tabby pondered the question, 
 "should she, or should she not?" Madame had it in 
 her power to do her no end of favors in the social 
 line, and it was wise to keep the right side of her. 
 Then there were the Celandines, young and foolish, 
 and very rich, and a loan just now was sure to be re-
 
 "With Jeweled Gauds" 333 
 
 paid, not only by some elegant token of their grati 
 tude, but in a way that would be of even more value 
 to her aspiring soul, a recognition of her claims to 
 social equality. It could do no possible harm to let 
 these hidden trinkets see the light for one evening, 
 and no human being would for an instant mistrust 
 that they were not the young lady s own property, 
 they might have been an heirloom in her own family, 
 who would know? To Madame she remarked 
 with feigned reluctance as, taking from its hiding 
 place the oaken casket, she proceeded to unlock 
 it before her eyes : 
 
 " I have some silver ornaments that are old enough, 
 if that s what you want. They have been in my hus 
 band s family for generations (O Tabby!), and he s 
 very choice of them. I have n t never had em on 
 myself, but if they d do Miss Celandine any good, 
 she s welcome to the use of em." 
 
 The smile of polite indifference with which the 
 costumer at first sight regarded the tarnished trinkets 
 vanished as she regarded them more closely, and an 
 eager crimson rose to her cheek as she cried 
 excitedly : 
 
 "Why, they re lovely! exquisite! They might 
 have been made to wear with this costume. See 
 here," taking a bit of chamois skin from her pocket 
 and touching up one of the earrings with the skill of 
 a professional, " what a dainty thing it is, a cat s 
 head, with tiny emeralds for eyes, and see, the 
 whiskers are separate hairs of silver wire as fine and 
 delicate as pussy s own. How perfect this twig of 
 pine that forms the support is, with its cones and bits
 
 334 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 of needles, each one wrought as carefully as if the 
 workman had been engraving a gem instead of work 
 ing in such common metal as silver." 
 
 " They are very old," stammered Tabby, bewildered 
 and in truth rather alarmed at the unexpected dis 
 closure of the value and rarity of the hitherto under 
 valued trinkets. 
 
 And Madame, unconscious of her companion s 
 growing perplexity, went on innocently enough to 
 express her thanks for the timely loan. 
 
 " I was never so relieved and thankful in my life as 
 I am for these ornaments, and if I can oblige you in 
 any way I shall be only too happy to do so. You 
 have decided on the Sea Nymph s costume for your 
 self ? Yes? Well, I ll get a bandeau of pearls for 
 your hair, and I know where I can borrow a clasp for 
 your girdle, two sea-urchins of green jasper, that 
 will be just the thing." 
 
 Tabby swallowed down her half-spoken refusal to 
 let the ornaments go out of her hands, after all, and 
 with a troubled consciousness that she was " in for 
 it," she decided that there was nothing left for her to 
 do but to run her risk, as it was not in the least 
 likely that any harm could come to the treasured 
 relics during the few hours that the masquerading 
 belle would have occasion to wear them. One pre 
 caution she took, however, in parting with them, and 
 that was to remove them from the casket where they 
 had so long rested, which casket she hastened to lock 
 and replace in the secret drawer, with the confiden 
 tial comment, " They are Mr. Hadlock s property, 
 and it will be just as well not to let him know that I
 
 " With Jeweled Gauds " 335 
 
 lent them, men are so fussy, you know, about any 
 thing that belongs to them." 
 
 Madame smiled grimly, she had been twice mar 
 ried herself. 
 
 The precaution proved a wise one, for that very 
 night, awaking from an uneasy dream, Tabby saw 
 with silent astonishment her husband, by the dim 
 light of a night lamp, searching in that private drawer, 
 and as his hand touched the oaken casket he uttered 
 a low exclamation of relief. 
 
 " Thank goodness ! That s all right." 
 
 " What in the world are you after there, this time 
 o night?" 
 
 If he had been a whit less nervous and startled him 
 self he could not have failed to notice the tremulous, 
 frightened tones of his wife s voice, but he was too 
 absorbed in his own anxious speculations just then to 
 spare a thought to her. 
 
 " I ve been looking," he stammered with a guilty 
 shrinking from even her eyes, " to see if that box 
 (that you know about) is all safe. I dreamed that 
 Franz Hedvig had it, filled with gunpowder, and that 
 he was going to blow us up with it, and I could n t 
 sleep till I d made sure that t was safe." 
 
 " Stuff and nonsense ! " blustered Tabby, shaking 
 in every limb, " What could have set you out to 
 think of such a thing? " 
 
 Her husband shut the drawer with a stealthy motion 
 as of a thief fearing detection. 
 
 " Why, I s pose t was what he said to me about 
 Comfort to-day that put the idea into my head." 
 
 Tabby was wide awake now, and as she sat up in
 
 336 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 bed furtively watching his motions, her eyes shone 
 with a light that was not all anger, there was fear 
 as well as rage beneath the sharply put question : 
 
 "What business is it of his? He don t want to 
 marry her himself, does he, after all?" 
 
 " No, but he wants that Humbre to. And Com 
 fort, who s as proud as the devil, won t have him 
 without his mother s consent. That the old lady 
 never 11 give while she s poor." 
 
 Tabby lay back on her pillow with a cruel laugh. 
 
 "That s the way the wind blows, is it? So, my 
 lady, if she can get your consent to sell her land, is 
 going to get in with the top knots, and have the 
 chance to crow over us" 
 
 Jotham shut his heavy mouth with a vicious snap. 
 
 " Not if I know myself," he growled savagely, 
 " and I said as much to Hedvig. Says I, Comfort 
 Hadlock knows who she can sell that land to, and I 
 swear before God, that as long as I live, she never 
 shall sell it to anybody else. " 
 
 " What did he say to that? " 
 
 " What do you suppose ? " with a harsh laugh. 
 
 " Called me an unnatural brother, of course, and 
 swore he d bring me to terms yet. He s the same 
 blustering fool," went on Jotham, with the superi 
 ority of one who feels his own position secure, 
 " ready to burn his own fingers pulling other folks 
 chestnuts out o the fire, but I guess he 11 find it hard 
 work drivin me. I ain t one o the sort that stands 
 much o that kind o nonsense." 
 
 True, and yet Tabby, as she laid her head once 
 more upon its pillow, wished with all her heart that
 
 "With Jeweled Gauds" 337 
 
 the contents of that fateful casket were safe in her 
 own hands once more, and that she had not yielded 
 to that foolish impulse to risk even a possible ex 
 posure in her desire to conciliate the social powers 
 whose notice she ambitiously coveted. 
 
 22
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 " RICH AND RARE WERE THE GEMS SHE WORE " 
 
 FOR several weeks the fancy dress party that the 
 guests of the House had arranged for had 
 
 been the subject of interesting discussion and com 
 ment among the pleasure-loving fashionables of Bar 
 Harbor, and an amount of invention and shrewd 
 finesse had been expended on the selection and 
 arrangement of costumes, that must be kept a pro 
 found secret even from one s most intimate friends 
 to have equipped and managed a miniature Worth s 
 here in the very stronghold of Yankee republicanism. 
 Madame s services were in constant demand, and 
 it must be confessed that the petulant complaints of 
 that much beset woman were not without cause, for, 
 while professing to defer to her taste and judgment, 
 nineteen out of every twenty were sure that their own 
 ideas were far better, and thus kept her continually 
 harassed and hampered by the alternate impor 
 tunities and objections that her experienced hand 
 was expected to dispose of as easily as if they had 
 been so many irresponsible cobwebs. Knowing 
 that her own reputation was at stake, the costumer 
 naturally tried her best to contrive costumes suitable 
 to the age and personal characteristics of each, but it 
 would seem in most cases that Queen Elizabeth s
 
 "Rich and Rare were the Gems" 339 
 
 looking-glass must have been the only one in use, 
 judging from the youthful characters that certain 
 portly, middle-aged matrons and scrawny spinsters 
 insisted upon personating. It would never do for the 
 hired artist to say "You are too fat and coarse to 
 personate Titania, or too lean and sallow to venture 
 on the r61e of Cleopatra." No indeed, she could 
 only venture on the delicate reminder, " A Queen 
 Catharine or possibly a Ceres would better fit your 
 style, madam," or " Why not try a gipsy fortune 
 teller or a Breton peasant woman? Either costume 
 could be made very striking and picturesque." 
 
 Again and again these hints and suggestions were 
 repeated, and just as often certain individual instances 
 of wonderful stage rejuvenations, brought about by 
 arts of the toilet, were produced as unanswerable argu 
 ments, until the very name of Maggie Mitchell and 
 her illustrious compeers became, to put it politely, a 
 stench in poor Madame s nostrils, who went so far at 
 times in her desperation as to wish that the author of 
 " Mignon " had died before the production of that 
 popular drama. 
 
 Of the party at the farmhouse two only were care 
 free enough to feel any special interest in the ap 
 proaching f6te. Secure and happy in her own love, 
 Lois could not believe that the uncertainty and 
 gloom hanging over her friend would not be in time 
 dispelled, and as Comfort was too unselfish to insist 
 upon sharing her troubles with another, it came 
 about, as is usual in such cases, that those nearest 
 her half forgot that she had any troubles to share. 
 As for Frariz, aside from his enjoyment of Lois s
 
 340 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 pleasure, he had all the natural curiosity and interest 
 of a young man who has, as yet, merely tasted the 
 foam upon the cup of pleasure, and finding the taste 
 pleasant, naturally concludes that the sweetness in 
 creases the deeper he drinks. Then, too, it was very 
 pleasant to have his costume planned and commented 
 upon by his partial mistress, who took such an inno 
 cent, unaffected pride in its fitness and becomingness. 
 James Fitzjames, in hunting gear, with plumed cap 
 and dress of Lincoln green, wearing his silver bugle 
 and knightly belt and spurs with an unconscious 
 grace that Lois pronounced " kingly," was really, for 
 the time being, as truly the disguised Scottish mon 
 arch as the disguised Swedish engineer, and if the 
 maiden in 
 
 " Satin snood, and silken plaid, and golden brooch," 
 
 clinging to his arm as they entered the large, bril 
 liantly lighted room on that eventful evening, had 
 not broken the spell with the whispered comment, 
 " Mrs. Winstanley makes a beautiful Madame Re- 
 camier," he would most surely have forgotten to doff 
 his cap to the mistress of ceremonies, unconsciously 
 exercising his royal prerogative, and while all stood 
 bare in the room, he alone would have worn the cap 
 and plume of the monarch. 
 
 It was such an entirely new experience, this mas 
 querading in the dress and character of another, and 
 cool and unimaginative as he was, both by nature 
 and habit, he found himself completely bewildered 
 and charmed by the unwonted scene. Plumed 
 knights in glittering mail promenaded through the
 
 "Rich and Rare were the Gems" 341 
 
 stately rooms with gipsy maidens or Swiss peasant 
 girls upon their arms ; Cedric, the Saxon, lisped his 
 delicate compliments into the willing ear of Mary, 
 Queen of Scots; a friar in gown of gray with a hem 
 pen girdle flirted shamelessly with Lady Washington; 
 and a Roman soldier with clumsy good-will was help 
 ing Lady Macbeth to adjust her train over her arm in 
 preparation for the coming waltz. 
 
 Franz s brain whirled, and he was glad that Lois 
 could do the talking for both until he should have 
 time to get his bearings, and make sure that this glit 
 tering phantasmagoria was not, after all, the foolish 
 imagery of a sleep-bewildered brain. Little by little 
 the mists cleared away, and he began to recognize 
 beneath their foreign feathers the familiar shapes 
 and features of his more or less familiar acquaint 
 ances. A good-natured dowager, with her two pretty 
 daughters, wearing the guise of the Primrose por 
 traits, gave them a cordial greeting; Tabby Hadlock s 
 ruddy face looked out from a cloud of sea-green 
 tulle, with a furtive, anxious glance ; while pages, 
 queens, monks, and nymphs, in passing, one and all 
 saluted them in the English tongue and after the 
 English fashion not a " salve " or " pax vobiscum " 
 by any chance dropped from Roman or priestly lips. 
 And Franz, with lightened eyes, soon found him 
 self able to share in Lois s amusement at incongruities 
 of dress and feature visible everywhere about them, 
 as they walked leisurely through the now crowded 
 rooms, commenting, and in turn being commented 
 upon, by the gay assemblage. 
 
 " See that couple," and Lois gave her cavalier s
 
 342 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 arm a little pinch to call his attention to the pair in 
 question. 
 
 " Ichabod Crane and Katrina Van Tassel. They 
 are gotten up capitally, but who would have thought 
 that such a dude as Dicky Tandem would have 
 chosen that character? Lute Marven makes a good 
 Katrina, though, if only she were a little plumper; 
 and Jimmy Fitz as Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, is 
 first rate (if one only leaves out the second line). 
 Madame Golden and Sam are just the ones for Mrs. 
 Partington and Ike ; but who ever saw a black-eyed, 
 black-haired Queen Elizabeth before, or a Puck in 
 velvet knee breeches?" 
 
 The gentle " Ellen " was getting rather critical, and 
 her gallant escort, while sharing her amusement, was 
 far more easily imposed upon by the false lights that 
 art had hung out to hide the decay of nature, and 
 more than once brought down upon his devoted head 
 the merry banter of his sharper-eyed companion. 
 
 " That s a wig, and, why, she s enamelled, 
 (fifty years old, if she s a day). Bleached, you 
 dear old innocent! Never heard of such a thing? 
 Why, it s as common as painting the eyebrows and 
 eating arsenic for the complexion. Don t look so 
 horrified. Somebody will notice and wonder what I 
 am saying to you." 
 
 And the silken plaid was " mantled with modest 
 care " over a breast so shaken with merriment at 
 his innocence of fashionable mysteries, that Franz 
 was thankful for the interruption occasioned by a 
 new arrival that for some reason seemed to attract 
 everybody s attention and occasion a sudden lull, in
 
 "Rich and Rare were the Gems" 343 
 
 which the soft tinkle of silver bells could be distinctly 
 heard throughout the crowded rooms. 
 
 " The god Thor, and Freya, goddess of spring," 
 announced the usher, and every eye was turned to 
 the handsome pair who at that moment entered the 
 room. 
 
 Yellow haired, tall and stately, came the Scandina 
 vian deities, the god in tunic of purple velvet, upon 
 the breast of which gleamed in silver the raven of 
 Odin. His leggings, sandals, and belt were clasped 
 with the same precious metal, while upon the handle 
 and head of his massive silver hammer gleamed 
 costly gems that flashed and burned as the light 
 struck them, like sparks of living fire. Beside him 
 came the fair goddess, gravely guiding her span of 
 cats, docile as ponies in their silken harness, from the 
 collars of which were suspended silver bells that 
 tinkled musically as the well-trained animals trotted 
 before her into the brilliantly lighted room, with an 
 unconcern as perfect as that assumed by their stately 
 mistress. Over an under tunic of primrose silk, the 
 beautiful Freya wore a mantle of green velvet, upon 
 which was painted with exquisite skill garlands of 
 violets, of crocuses, and hyacinths, with pale yellow 
 primroses that seemed to have been flung fresh from 
 their native woods upon the rich background. A 
 garland of pine confined her flowing locks, while 
 upon arms, bosom, and shoulders gleamed the pale 
 brilliancy of silver in the most fanciful and unique 
 designs. 
 
 " Let us get a little nearer," suggested Lois. " I 
 want to get a good look at those lovely ornaments,
 
 344 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 Where in the world could Virginia Celandine have 
 found them? They look like something that has 
 been handed down for generations from mother to 
 daughter, and the Celandines, with all their money, 
 are new people, you know." 
 
 Franz smiled with just a hint of mischief in the 
 smile. 
 
 " She probably had them made for the occasion. 
 A skilful workman can imitate designs a thousand 
 years old just as well as those that were made yes 
 terday." 
 
 But Lois was wiser in such matters than her com 
 panion. 
 
 " No," she urged, with her eyes still fixed upon 
 the charmed ornaments, that they were now near 
 enough to observe closely, " that is no modern 
 jeweler s work. Look at those earrings, I ve 
 seen some of that work in the museums abroad, and 
 I should know it anywhere. Why, what?" and 
 she stared half frightened into her lover s pale, agi 
 tated face. 
 
 " What is it, Franz, are you ill? " 
 
 The young man controlled himself by a mighty 
 effort. " Let us get out of this crowd, where we can 
 be by ourselves a few minutes," he urged in a voice 
 so strained and harsh that Lois scarcely recognized 
 it, and as they found themselves secure from obser 
 vation in one of the curtained recesses, she asked 
 again with an anxious tenderness that was its own 
 excuse for the seeming importunity, "Do tell me, 
 Franz, what is the trouble?" 
 
 Thus adjured, the young man tried to smile reas-
 
 "Rich and Rare were the Gems" 345 
 
 suringly, but there was a hard, cruel look in his eyes 
 that brought the tears to the girl s own, and made 
 her timidly withdraw the hand that she had laid 
 upon his arm. Unlike himself, he seemed for once 
 oblivious of her pain. 
 
 " Did you ever know," he asked half reluctantly, 
 as if loath to turn back to the long-closed page, 
 " of the jewel casket that one of the wretches stole, 
 who broke into her cabin and frightened my poor 
 old grandmother to death?" 
 
 " Yes," was the softly murmured reply. " I know, 
 Comfort tried to take it from him and he struck her." 
 
 " That casket," continued her companion, still in 
 that low, deep tone of concentrated passion, " held 
 the family ornaments of silver that had been the 
 bridal gift of the Hedvigs for more generations 
 than we have any account of. They were of such 
 a peculiar pattern that I should recognize them any 
 where ; and more than that there was a private mark 
 upon them that no stranger would be likely to notice, 
 but by which I could establish their identity beyond 
 a question. And," he bent his head, and spoke in a 
 fierce whisper, " the ornaments that that girl is wear 
 ing to-night are the very same that were stolen from 
 Granny s cabin years ago." 
 
 " Impossible ! " cried Lois incredulously. "Where 
 could Virginia Celandine get Granny s ornaments? 
 They are like, but they can t be the same." 
 
 Franz shook his head decidedly. The first shock 
 of his discovery over, his clear brain and steady will 
 regained their power, and enabled him to pierce at 
 once to the heart of the seeming mystery.
 
 346 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " She either bought or borrowed them, and that 
 very recently, for I have reason to think that in all 
 these years whoever had the casket in his possession 
 has not been able to get at the contents, unless 
 indeed he should destroy the casket, which he would 
 be very unlikely to do." 
 
 " Why do you think so ? " 
 
 " Because, while it shuts with a spring, it could 
 only be opened with the key belonging to it, and 
 that key the thief never had, for it came into my pos 
 session and I have worn it as a watch charm until 
 three days ago, when, in calling upon the wife of 
 Jotham Hadlock, I lost it." 
 
 The two looked silently into each other s eyes, 
 half dreading to speak the thought that was in the 
 mind of each. 
 
 " He is Comfort s brother," pleaded Lois. 
 
 Franz nodded he had no need of the reminder. 
 
 " And he has lived all these years with that sin on 
 his soul ! " went on the girl, with a half-pitying won 
 der. " And if this is as we suspect, you can ruin him 
 in the eyes of the world that he has worked so hard 
 to win the respect of ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "And you will?" 
 
 The young man s thoughts flew back over the 
 wide waste of years, and he seemed to hear again 
 the tender tones of the woman who had loved him 
 better than all the world beside, the woman who, 
 old and weak and defenceless, had been hurried to 
 her death by a mob of drunken boors, insulted, 
 threatened and robbed by their brute hands, with
 
 "Rich and Rare were the Gems" 347 
 
 only a child a tender, loving, brave child, to 
 stand between her and insult. 
 
 The devotion of the sister half cancelled the debt 
 of the brutal, unnatural brother, and there was an 
 unwonted moisture in Franz s eyes as he said 
 thoughtfully : 
 
 " Let him do her justice, and I shall make no 
 effort to bring upon him the punishment that he so 
 richly deserves, the price of my silence will be 
 her right to do what she will with her own."
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 " PITFALLS IN THE PATH THEY DAILY TREAD " 
 
 " "\7"ES, indeed, I Ve known Virginia for years, ever 
 * since we were at school together, and when 
 the dancing begins I 11 introduce you, and you can 
 engage her for a waltz. Then you can get a good 
 look at the ear jewels, and make sure that they are 
 the ones you think." 
 
 Lois, in the excitement of unravelling an interesting 
 mystery, had forgotten everything but the absorbing 
 question of the identity of the ornaments worn by Miss 
 Celandine, and there was so much enjoyment in 
 following up the clew thus unexpectedly given, that 
 she entirely overlooked for the time all possible con 
 sequences to the parties concerned. It was no diffi 
 cult matter for Franz to secure the fair Freya for a 
 waltz, and as they floated down the long room to the 
 bewitching strains of the orchestra, the goddess grad 
 ually relaxed her dignity, and condescended to chat 
 familiarly with " Lois Gregory s foreign lover," receiv 
 ing his compliments upon the beauty and originality 
 of her costume with a girlish smirk and simper that 
 one would scarcely have expected from the stately 
 Norse goddess. 
 
 "Yes, I flatter myself that Ted and I made quite a 
 sensation. But I had no end of trouble in training those
 
 "Pitfalls in the Path they Daily Tread" 349 
 
 cats, and as it was, I expected every minute that the 
 treacherous creatures would give me the slip, and spoil 
 it all. And then the girl who was to paint the mantle 
 only brought it home an hour before it was time to 
 dress. I thought I should have gone distracted, I was 
 that anxious, and Madame and my maid were at their 
 wits end to keep me from crying, and spoiling my 
 eyes for the evening." 
 
 "What a shame that would have been ! " 
 
 Surely the young man s good genius must have 
 taught him the art of blending indignation with the 
 proper amount of sympathy, for the susceptible 
 Virginia was perfectly charmed with his air and 
 manner, and as a natural consequence grew more and 
 more communicative. 
 
 " It really seemed providential," she went on in a 
 flattering undertone, while her pine-crowned head 
 almost touched his shoulder, " about the bracelets 
 and earrings." Franz s heart gave a sudden bound, 
 and he made an awkward misstep that his partner 
 graciously pretended not to notice. " You see," she 
 went on, secretly pleased at his evident confusion, 
 which she naturally attributed to the effect of her own 
 charms, " there was no time after the selection of the 
 character for me to get ornaments made that would 
 be fitting for it, and Madame and I tried everywhere 
 to find some. But everything in that line was so 
 frightfully modern, that we were almost in despair, 
 when, all unexpectedly we came across these, you 
 never could guess where." 
 
 "At Bee s?" suggested the young man with a 
 flattering show of interest.
 
 350 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 The goddess shook her pine-wreathed tresses with 
 an air of playful mystery : 
 
 " Now, you naughty man, you know better than 
 that. Why, these ornaments are hundreds of years old." 
 
 " Is it possible? " taking the opportunity thus given 
 for a long and satisfying look at the relics in question. 
 " But if the question is not impertinent, who could 
 have had such wonderful antiques in his or her 
 possession?" 
 
 " That s the funny part of it," laughed his unsuspi 
 cious partner, with a quick glance around to make 
 sure that they were not overheard, " They belong to 
 Mrs. Hadlock, the landlady of the House." 
 
 "Why, where could she have gotten them?" 
 
 Freya looked mysterious. 
 
 " We can only guess." 
 
 She spoke with the grave deliberateness of an oracle, 
 and Franz was forced to curb his impatience until it 
 should please her to resume the story, which it was 
 evident she longed yet rather hesitated to tell. 
 
 " I don t suppose," she said at length, " that it s 
 just fair for me to tell, so long as she was kind enough 
 to lend them to me, but of course you won t say 
 anything about it. Well, she pretended to Madame 
 that they were heirlooms in her husband s family, (a 
 likely story !) and the oaken casket that she took them 
 from was black with age, while the silver bands and 
 even the jewels themselves were so tarnished that it 
 was plain to be seen that they had n t been disturbed 
 for years." 
 
 "Did her husband know she lent them?" 
 
 " Not he," and the speaker laughed mischievously.
 
 " Pitfalls in the Path they Daily Tread " 3 5 1 
 
 " And she took precious good care that he should n t 
 find it out, by re-locking the empty casket and putting 
 it back into the drawer she took it from." 
 
 " But they belong to him? " 
 
 " Certainly, his wife acknowledged that much. And 
 Madame and I think we know how he came by them." 
 
 Franz looked the question that he could not trust 
 his voice to ask. 
 
 " We think that he got them from some represen 
 tative of an old but impoverished family who was 
 unable to pay his board, and so left these heirlooms 
 as security. That would account for his keeping them 
 hidden out of sight so jealously, and for his wife not 
 daring to let him know that she had lent them." 
 
 " How wise you are. You should have been a 
 Pallas instead of a Freya," laughed the young man 
 merrily. 
 
 This girl s incautious revelations had made every 
 thing clear, and in the exultation of the moment his 
 spirits rose so lightly that he could scarce refrain from 
 giving speech to the triumph that thrilled every nerve 
 of his body. Crafty, secretive as he had ever been, 
 the thief and housebreaker was caught at last, and on 
 only one condition could he escape the inevitable 
 consequences of his crime. 
 
 The constancy and unselfish devotion of Comfort 
 Hadlock should now be rewarded, and the proud, 
 hard man who had scorned and hated his unoffend 
 ing sister, would find himself indebted to that same 
 sister for his exemption from a felon s punishment. 
 Until now, Franz had never thought that more than 
 one of the Hadlock s could have been concerned in
 
 352 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 that dastardly deed whose memory even now made 
 his blood boil with fierce resentment. Dave s flight 
 had stamped him as guilty, and nobody had for an 
 instant suspected that the elder brother might be as 
 deeply implicated as the more timid fugitive. 
 
 The Squire had died in the comfortable belief that 
 in his only remaining son he had left an honorable 
 representative of his race and name, while the un 
 questioned business ability and character for fairness 
 that Jotham had won from his fellow-townsmen 
 seemed a natural fulfilment of the promise of his 
 young manhood. Could it be that his wife knew the 
 secret of that stolen casket, from which she had fool 
 ishly unearthed the proofs of her husband s guilt? 
 The question recurred to him again and again, as 
 every now and then throughout the evening he 
 caught the eye of a certain substantial sea-nymph 
 watching him with a look of anxious scrutiny, that 
 had in it something of actual terror. And as, towards 
 the close of the revels, he lingered for a moment in 
 the almost deserted hall to exchange a few private 
 words with Lois, he put the question to her: 
 
 " Does his wife know where he got the jewels? " 
 
 Lois nodded knowingly. 
 
 " How can she help it?" 
 
 " I don t know," and the young man s voice had a 
 half-doubtful tone as if he would gladly exonerate, in 
 part at least, his old play-fellow. " She may not know 
 all the circumstances, or that the discovery of them 
 makes him liable to a trial for manslaughter, you 
 know that was what the jury at the inquest decided 
 the maurauders guilty of."
 
 "Pitfalls in the Path they Daily Tread" 353 
 
 A portiere near which they were standing was 
 pushed hastily aside, and Tabby Hadlock s face 
 looked out at them, so pale and agitated that no 
 words were needed to prove that she had been play 
 ing the part of eavesdropper. 
 
 " Come in here," she whispered with a frightened 
 clutch atLois s hand, " come right in here, and let me 
 have a talk with you." 
 
 There was no resisting the importunity of those 
 imploring eyes and tones, and the two silently fol 
 lowed her into the small withdrawing room, now con 
 veniently vacant, where, dropping into the nearest 
 chair, she asked without any circumlocution : 
 
 " How did she come to tell you where she got 
 them? and will Jotham have to go to State s prison if 
 he is tried and proved guilty of being one of them 
 that broke into Granny Hedvig s house that time?" 
 
 Franz nodded ; he would not add to her pain by 
 any wordy explanation. 
 
 She saw the pity in his face, and womanlike, hast 
 ened to take the blame upon her own shoulders. 
 
 "They never ve been any good to im, for he 
 never s seen the inside of the box even. I was the 
 one that opened it, with a key that you dropped in 
 my room the other day; and he did n t know a thing 
 about my lendin them to Miss Celandine. But," 
 with a sudden hopefulness, " they ain t hurt a bit, and 
 I 11 send em back to you to-morrow morning safe 
 and sound. Won t that make it all square between 
 you and him? " 
 
 " No." And Franz s voice was so firm and unre 
 lenting that the frightened woman felt despairingly 
 
 23
 
 354 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 that her proffered restitution of the stolen property 
 would not alone cancel the debt for which outraged 
 filial affection now demanded a stern repayment. 
 " His possession of the stolen property proves him 
 guilty also of the deeper crime, and for that crime I 
 will have him arrested unless he will agree to give his 
 sister a written permit, allowing her to sell the land 
 that her father willed to her, to whom she pleases." 
 
 Tabby caught her breath with a mingled cry of sur 
 prise and despair. 
 
 " Oh, he never, never will do that ! " she urged. " I 
 believe he d die before he d come down to that." 
 
 " There are some things dearer than life," and the 
 young man spoke with a calm deliberateness that was 
 like the voice of doom to the half-distracted Tabby. 
 "A man s good name among men, for instance. 
 And if he is called upon publicly to answer for his 
 crime, although he may by some legal technicality 
 escape the full punishment, his reputation will receive 
 a blow from which it will never recover. He will un 
 derstand all this, and do you suppose that he will let 
 his hatred of his sister or even his lust for gain keep 
 him from buying his safety at the price offered?" 
 
 Tabby s only reply was a groan, and producing his 
 tablets, Franz pencilled a few lines upon one of the 
 blank leaves, which he handed her with: 
 
 " There is the permission for him to sign, and if 
 by to-morrow I receive the casket and this note 
 signed with your husband s name, I solemnly promise 
 never to try to bring him to punishment for the crime 
 of his youth. If not, you know the consequences." 
 
 Then drawing Lois s arm through his own, he bade
 
 " Pitfalls in the Path they Daily Tread " 355 
 
 the weeping Tabby a courteous good-night, and left 
 the room with the assurance strong within him that 
 to-morrow s sun would bring rest and happiness to 
 the twain, whose unselfish friendship for himself had, 
 from first to last, been the inspiring and helpful in 
 fluence that had directed his life from youth to man 
 hood, even up to the sunshiny love-blessed present. 
 Nor would he mar the gentle girl s happiness by 
 opening her eyes to the fact, hitherto unsuspected, 
 of Jotham s complicity in the house-breaking affair. 
 It was better that the discovery of the stolen jewels 
 should remain a secret, and that she should be al 
 lowed to believe that her brother s tardy compliance 
 with her wishes was due to the all-powerful influence 
 of his old schoolfellow and neighbor. 
 
 " She has a large share of her father s pride of 
 race," he explained to Lois, as they were on their 
 way home from the party, " and the knowledge that 
 her brother was a thief as well as burglar would be 
 a drop of bitterness in her cup as long as she lives. 
 Besides Robert is a good fellow, and would not let 
 himself think any the less of her for it but a man 
 cannot, even if he is honestly in love, forget all at 
 once the honest prejudices of a lifetime, and it is his 
 boast that not one of the Humbre blood has ever dis 
 graced it by an alliance with crime in any shape." 
 
 " But don t you feel," questioned Lois, with a mis 
 chievous little laugh, " as if you were somehow com 
 pounding felony by letting this man go scot free, 
 when you know that he richly deserves punishment? " 
 
 Franz looked grave, he took the question more 
 seriously than she had intended it.
 
 356 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 " No," he said, after a moment s thought. " If I, 
 who am the only one wronged, am satisfied with the 
 restitution of the stolen property, I see no reason for 
 any outside interference. Perhaps," he added smil 
 ing and not unwilling to turn the tables upon his 
 teasing companion, " I am not so zealous to uphold 
 the majesty of the law as I should be if I could fairly 
 count myself a citizen of the Republic." 
 
 This was a sensitive point, and Lois caught it up 
 sharply, as he knew she would. 
 
 "What nonsense!" she cried, "just as if living a 
 few years in Germany was going to make a German 
 of you, and I ve declared all my life that I never 
 would marry a foreigner. Really you ought to be 
 ashamed of yourself to talk like that." 
 
 Of course the young man was properly penitent, 
 but as he lifted her from the coach, with a good 
 night kiss upon a smiling but very sleepy face, she 
 remarked, with a sudden recollection of the subject 
 under discussion some time before : 
 
 " I know you re right about keeping our discovery 
 secret, but honestly, I shall feel dreadfully mean to 
 keep a secret from Comfort, of all people in the 
 world." 
 
 " For her own good and happiness," reminded 
 Franz. 
 
 " Yes," with a look at the darkened window of her 
 friend s room. " But I m awfully glad that she is n t 
 sitting up for me. I want time to get used to the 
 situation, or I shall be sure to give it all away with 
 out in the least meaning to."
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 T TNDER the circumstances, Franz, in spite of a 
 ** hundred formless misgivings that, however 
 foolish, had served to drive sleep from his eyes, 
 through the silent hours of the night, was not at all 
 surprised at receiving early in the day by the hand 
 of a special messenger, the casket of jewels and the 
 written permit signed in Jotham Hadlock s crabbed, 
 unmistakable hand. The young man examined the 
 signature with curious interest. What years of secret 
 fear and shame, perhaps of remorse, those reluctantly 
 penned characters represented ! Hate, as unnatural 
 as it was undeserved, had joined hands with avarice 
 to wrong out of her rightful inheritance the gentle 
 girl, whose unobtrusive yet self-respectful life had 
 ever been a silent reproach to him, and for which he 
 hated her with all the strength of a mean, self-centered 
 nature. Now this unlooked-for humiliation had fallen 
 upon him like a lightning flash from a summer sky, 
 the threat of a discovery that would in an hour 
 shatter at one blow the fair hopes and promises of 
 a lifetime. 
 
 Drawn by a natural impulse, Franz had, upon re 
 ceiving the promised package, hastened away from 
 the gay distractions of the crowded hotel, betaking
 
 358 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 himself to the more congenial quiet and solitude of 
 the deserted cabin, where, seated upon the old moss- 
 covered doorstone, he now proceeded to examine at 
 his leisure the revered treasure, and recall with dim 
 eyes but a smile of natural satisfaction the memories 
 of those other days and the fateful promises that were 
 being so strangely and unexpectedly fulfilled. A 
 hundred long-forgotten scenes of his boyhood, its 
 hopes, its plans, its troubles and pleasures, the 
 many mickles that make up the muckle of a boy s 
 life, danced before his mind s eye, as much a real 
 ity for the moment as the yellow and white butterflies 
 that fluttered their wings in the sunshine before his 
 natural vision, and as a favorite type of the soul s re 
 surrection, led his mind by a whimsical combination 
 of ideas, back to one of the games dear to his boyish 
 fancy, and called in default of a better name, the 
 " planting game." While toying absently with the 
 restored ornaments, he found himself half uncon 
 sciously adapting the game to the present subject of 
 his thoughts, in which his own fortunes and those of 
 his old neighbors were so strangely intermingled. 
 " Plant a sin, and what will come up? " 
 Was it his own voice, or the echo of the surf beat 
 ing ceaselessly upon the rocky shore never silent, 
 never weary, beating on and on, through countless 
 seons, as unmindful of the hum and stir of human 
 life upon that shore as was the little brook flowing at 
 his feet, of the humming bees that flitted to and fro, 
 dry winged above its dancing waters? Who can 
 tell? Nevertheless, clear and distinct upon the still 
 morning air it came, stirring even the dusky depths
 
 " T is We Two for Aye " 359 
 
 of the old cabin to something like life with the stern, 
 relentless reply: 
 
 " Retribution." 
 
 And it was a righteous retribution that had over 
 taken at last that proud, hard man, this relentless 
 unearthing of his secret sin and shame, and Franz 
 could almost find it in his heart to pity him in his 
 silent humiliation and unavailing rage. To know 
 that it was in another s power to brand him as a 
 thief in the worst and most shameful sense of the 
 word, must, to a man of his proud, suspicious nature, 
 be like the fabled sword of Damocles, ever suspended 
 over his head, ready at any moment to fall, bringing 
 ruin and destruction in its train. A more careless- 
 tempered man might, with comparative ease, give 
 the whole matter the go by, so long as the world out 
 side remained in ignorance of his guilt, but Jotham 
 Hadlock was cast in a different mould. Intense, 
 sullen, hard, and determined, he had inherited a 
 depth and breadth of character that would not allow 
 him to regard the discovery of his crime as a small 
 matter so long as even one fellow-being held in his 
 bosom the shameful secret. The stern, narrow con 
 scientiousness of a long line of God-fearing ancestors 
 had become in him an equally stern and far more 
 narrow form of intense self-worship. And the Dagon 
 of Self thrown from his high place, even though 
 secrecy and deep darkness might cover his terrible 
 humiliation, could never again feel the proud security 
 of an unquestioned and flawless deity. He was proud 
 too of the old name, proud of its unsullied honesty 
 and thrift, and just so long as that secret sin of his
 
 360 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 youth remained close locked in his own breast it had 
 troubled him little. To him, as to many another, the 
 unresurrected sin had been but mouldering clay, that, 
 when thrown into the balance with a long record of 
 honest, decent outward living, weighed no more than 
 any other handful of dead dust. Discovery alone 
 could reanimate it, and make of it a lash to drive the 
 guilty soul to desperation. 
 
 Franz was not at fault when he decided that the 
 punishment already meted out to the guilty man was 
 a sufficiently heavy one, while the drop that would 
 make his cup of humiliation and secret rage run over 
 would be his sister s prosperity and happiness, brought 
 about by his own act, and in spite of him. Now, too, he 
 must carry the pleasant news to Comfort, making 
 glad the faithful heart that, through all these years 
 had been so true to their childish friendship, and, 
 oh, there were many things, now that she was at 
 liberty to dispose of that much coveted strip of land 
 alongshore, in which he could advise and aid her. 
 His own small patrimony had been fairly disposed of, 
 and he inly decided that while free from the clutch of 
 her grasping brother the inexperienced girl should 
 not be cheated by some shrewd speculator into sell 
 ing her birthright for a penny less than its full value. 
 
 It was one of those perfect summer evenings pecu 
 liar to the breeze-swept shores of the Desert Island, 
 and Mrs. Humbre sat in her own room listening with 
 wonder-wide eyes to the story that Miss Delphine was 
 telling with a relish that proved how warm was her 
 heart toward their young hostess.
 
 " Tis We Two for Aye" 361 
 
 " And you say that the land has been disposed of 
 for fifty thousand dollars?" 
 
 The words were spoken with respectful emphasis, 
 although the speaker made a wry face as if somehow 
 they were not quite palatable to her. 
 
 " About two-thirds of the land," returned Miss 
 Delphine, with her usual exactness. " They are the 
 most desirable lots, but the others may in time be 
 come equally valuable." 
 
 Mrs. Humbre picked at the lace frills of her dress 
 ing gown and sighed resignedly. 
 
 " She is really a very sweet girl, and it is well for 
 her that she won t be left to fall a prey to some de 
 signing fortune hunter. I am glad that everything 
 was arranged between her and Robert before this 
 happened, so that nobody can say that he married 
 her for her money." 
 
 Miss Delphine checked the laugh that rose to her 
 lips. It was well that her mother should take her 
 own way of meeting a condition of things too strong 
 for her control, in fact, she had always been one to 
 submit gracefully to the inevitable, and it would be 
 much pleasanter all round that she should do so now. 
 A bride of her own fashionable set would of course 
 have pleased her much better than this simply reared 
 country girl, but even Miss Delphine was surprised 
 at the genuine warmth with which her mother offered 
 her congratulations to Comfort upon her accession 
 to wealth and consequent importance. 
 
 " You are not one to be spoiled by riches," she 
 said frankly, as she drew the girl to her side and 
 kissed her blushing cheek with something like
 
 362 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 motherly tenderness. " And I am sure that you 
 will be as gentle and tender a wife to Robert as if 
 you had come to him, as the Scotch say, without a 
 penny in your pack." 
 
 And there were tears in her eyes, real, genuine 
 tears, drops from that fountain of maternal love 
 that years of narrow, unresisted selfishness had not 
 been able to choke entirely even in that world-hard 
 ened heart. 
 
 There was a double wedding a few weeks later in 
 the old farmhouse, and now Mrs. Humbre actually 
 forgot her languor in superintending the bridal ar 
 rangements that, in deference to her wishes, were 
 more elaborate than the young people themselves 
 really cared for, or that Lois had at the first planned 
 for herself. 
 
 " What is the use of a wedding without wedding 
 finery?" she urged in reply to the objections of the 
 prospective brides to receiving at her hands the veils 
 of costly lace that she had taken care to order for 
 them. " Besides, do you think I am going to let that 
 envious Kate Sevier boast that my adopted daughter 
 and my son s fiancee can t wear as costly veils as that 
 upstart niece of hers who was married last winter ? " 
 
 It seemed really cruel to cross her at this time, and 
 so she had her way, and the brides wore the conven 
 tional satin and lace and orange blossoms, Lois alone 
 protesting against the pearls that, at the last moment, 
 her foster mother pressed upon her as part of the 
 bridal array. 
 
 "No," she said with gentle firmness, "I will wear 
 only the family jewels of the Hedvigs, the silver
 
 " T is We Two for Aye " 363 
 
 ear jewels and bracelets that have been the bridal 
 ornaments of Franz s family for centuries." 
 
 And Mrs. Humbre, who had an immense reverence 
 for the " long descended," could make no further 
 objections. 
 
 Never before, as on that bright September morn 
 ing, had the friendly sunshine looked in upon the old- 
 fashioned farmhouse decked out in such gay attire. 
 It was a transformation that nobody would have 
 deemed possible who had looked upon the sober, 
 unadorned rooms in their everyday homespun. Mrs. 
 Humbre had suggested that a florist be employed to 
 decorate the rooms with the conventional palms and 
 hothouse flowers, but Comfort s loyal heart recoiled 
 from this as a kind of desecration of the dear old 
 home, and in this she had her way. With their own 
 tasteful hands the young people had decked the 
 modest rooms with trailing evergreen and long 
 streamers of bronze and crimson woodbine from 
 Granny s cottage, ferns and pine tops filling every 
 odd nook and corner, while wild asters and golden- 
 rod made a shimmer of purple and gold everywhere. 
 The pale beach-pea in her rose-colored hood looked 
 shyly down from the tall, moss-draped wooden man 
 tels, and jostled with neighborly freedom the pink 
 and white trumpets of the convolvulus that, fresh 
 from their morning bath of dew, shook out from their 
 faintly perfumed depths a hundred fragrant if word 
 less " God-speeds" upon the waiting air. 
 
 As Comfort passed with pale cheeks but with a 
 glad smile in her brown eyes, through the old familiar 
 rooms, grown so dear to her faithful heart by all the
 
 364 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 tender associations of years, the present seemed to 
 fade as in a dream, and as she laid her cheek lovingly 
 against the faded chintz covering of that ever sacred 
 old arm-chair where her loved had sat with the tired 
 hands folded, waiting for the long, long rest that He 
 giveth His beloved, she seemed to feel once more 
 the touch of those dear hands upon her bent head, 
 and to hear again in those never-to-be-forgotten tones 
 the words of that oft-spoken prayer: 
 
 " God bless and keep my Comfort." 
 
 The voices of Mrs. Humbre and Lois, discussing 
 and admiring the bridal gifts in an adjoining room, 
 the faint echo of Mandy s tones softly singing as she 
 went about her work behind the closed kitchen door, 
 the shrill piping of the canary in his gilded cage, and 
 the rustle of leaves in the old elm outside, all blended 
 in one indistinct murmur; and awed as by the trailing 
 of an invisible robe through the silent room, the girl s 
 whole soul rose up within her in this hour of sacred 
 joy, while as spoken by unseen lips came the glad 
 refrain: 
 
 " And she shall be blessed." 
 
 That the wedding guests were rather an oddly 
 assorted company could not be denied, but that only 
 added, as Mrs. Humbre complacently remarked, to 
 the uniqueness and simple grace of the occasion. A 
 bevy of Lois s girl friends, foremost of whom were 
 Virginia Celandine and her brother, formed a pleasant 
 contrast to the few sharp-faced, cold-eyed matrons 
 who, as Mrs. Humbre s special guests adorned (?) 
 the scene. Scholarly if sometimes cynical men, and 
 dreamy-looking artists, with here and there an erect
 
 " T is We Two for Aye " 365 
 
 figure in the old army blue that Robert would always 
 look upon as the badge of a friend and brother, were 
 scattered everywhere throughout the pleasant rooms, 
 while Tabby, in her finest Parisian gown, flitted to 
 and fro, self-elected mistress of ceremonies, confiding 
 to everybody who would listen to her that, 
 
 " Mr. Hadlock was so sorry that he could n t be at 
 home to see his sister and dear General Humbre mar 
 ried, it just broke his heart to be away at such a 
 time." 
 
 The Widow Scripture, stiff and starched, but show 
 ing her satisfaction in every line of her shrewd face, 
 formed the important center of a group of old neigh 
 bors and their wives, while Mandy, her eyes brim 
 ming with happy tears, kept close to the side of 
 Cap n Jake, slyly nudging him when any especially 
 fine costume crossed their vision, and flushing 
 proudly at the thought that all these fine folk were 
 gathered here to do honor to one who had been the 
 best friend of her own unfriended girlhood. 
 
 No stranger bishop, but the old white-haired pas 
 tor, who had watched with eyes of fatherly solicitude 
 the girl from infancy to maidenhood, pronounced the 
 beautiful benediction of the church over the wedded 
 pair, while good Doctor Peabody, at his own request, 
 gave away the bride with an air of such triumphant 
 assurance that a stranger would certainly have been 
 deceived into the belief that the daughterless little 
 man had been an adept in the business for a score of 
 years at least. 
 
 Considering that all her life Comfort had been 
 inured to the cold of our long Maine winters, the
 
 366 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 reason given by her newly wedded lord for spending 
 their honeymoon abroad, somewhat against his 
 mother s wishes, might have been considered a rather 
 flimsy one if anybody had been disposed to cavil 
 at it. 
 
 " These winters on the Maine coast are so trying 
 to the constitution, and I think Comfort really needs 
 the change that the climate of Southern Europe will 
 give her." 
 
 Then after Franz and his bonny bride were fairly 
 established in their German home it would be so de 
 lightful to drop in upon them at some unexpected 
 moment, almost like a sniff of Mount Desert air. 
 Then Rome, Florence, and Vienna must be visited, 
 and Comfort would so enjoy a sail up the Rhine. 
 They must take in England and Scotland, of course, 
 must visit the Highlands, and try a ride in a 
 jaunting-car, and so on and on until Miss Del- 
 phine brought him to his senses with the pertinent 
 inquiry, 
 
 " How many years do you intend to remain abroad, 
 Robert?" 
 
 " Poor, dear Mrs. Humbre behaved beautifully," 
 so all her friends declared, and Comfort in her heart 
 gratefully acknowledged the effort that Robert s 
 mother certainly made to put aside her natural ma 
 ternal jealousies, and welcome with kindly smiles and 
 good wishes the bride of his choice. 
 
 Miss Delphine gave her blessing with an odd 
 mixture of humor and pathos. 
 
 " I hope you will be as happy as the day is long; 
 but if either of you should find yourselves disap-
 
 " Tis We Two for Aye " 367 
 
 pointed in the life matrimonial, my advice is to turn 
 your attention to the study of natural history. I Ve 
 tried it, and I know that it s the very best panacea 
 for an aching and hungry heart that can be found." 
 
 And Mandy? Why, really, after the fashion of 
 the world generally, I had forgotten all about the 
 little fisher maid in my interest in her betters. But 
 Cap n Jake had not been so forgetful, and when 
 Comfort, with mingled tears of joy and sadness, 
 turned from her island home to go out into new and 
 untried paths, one of her many sources of satisfac 
 tion was the knowledge that that home, with all its 
 tender associations, would not be left to the care of 
 unsympathetic strangers, but be cared for as faith 
 fully under Mandy s tendance as it had been under 
 her own. For, with a self-sacrifice that did him 
 credit, the gallant captain consented to rent his be 
 loved cottage, and in deference to the wishes of his 
 promised bride, to aid her in the task of keeping 
 bright and immaculate the home that Comfort, so 
 long as she lived, would hold as her own, to be loved 
 and, if possible, re-visited as often as each year 
 should bring around the time for the year s rest and 
 recreation. 
 
 The wedding over, the hasty adieux given, and 
 now there is nothing to do but to " clear away " the 
 half-withered flowers and ferns, to brush up the car 
 pet, draw the curtains, and see that Mrs. Humbre has 
 her glass of iced milk that Miss Delphine is too busy 
 with her packing to attend to. 
 
 It was very doleful and lonesome, Mandy thought,
 
 368 A Maid of Bar Harbor 
 
 and a few dejected tears trickled down her nose as 
 she went about her preparations for dinner, the 
 last that she was to prepare for the " summer 
 boarders," who were to leave by the afternoon boat. 
 And yet, one could not be altogether miserable with 
 the prospect of a wedding of one s own a week later, 
 to say nothing of the handsome presents bestowed 
 upon her by the parted as well as the parting guests. 
 " Gran daddy would say, Don t take em, Mandy, 
 I s pose. But time has changed at Bar Harbor sense 
 he died, and if he was alive now I hain t a doubt but 
 he d say, like all the rest, Take all you can get, and 
 make the most of it. " 
 
 THE END
 
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