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The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories ............................................................................................................1

Lakeside was a pleasant little town of five or six thousand inhabitants, and a rather pretty one, too, as towns

go in the Far West. It had church accommodations for thirtyfive thousand, which is the way of the Far West

and the South, where everybody is religious, and where each of the Protestant sects is represented and has a

plant of its own. Rank was unknown in Lakesideunconfessed, anyway; everybody knew everybody and his

Saladin Foster was bookkeeper in the principal store, and the only highsalaried man of his profession in

Lakeside. He was thirtyfive years old, now; he had served that store for fourteen years; he had begun in his

marriageweek at four hundred dollars a year, and had climbed steadily up, a hundred dollars a year, for four

years; from that time forth his wage had remained eight hundreda handsome figure indeed, and everybody

His wife, Electra, was a capable helpmeet, althoughlike himself a dreamer of dreams and a private

dabbler in romance. The first thing she did, after her marriagechild as she was, aged only nineteen was

to buy an acre of ground on the edge of the town, and pay down the cash for ittwentyfive dollars, all her

fortune. Saladin had less, by fifteen. She instituted a vegetable garden there, got it farmed on shares by the

nearest neighbor, and made it pay her a hundred per cent. a year. Out of Saladin's first year's wage she put

thirty dollars in the savingsbank, sixty out of his second, a hundred out of his third, a hundred and fifty out

of his fourth. His wage went to eight hundred a year, then, and meantime two children had arrived and

increased the expenses, but she banked two hundred a year from the salary, nevertheless, thenceforth. When

she had been married seven years she built and furnished a pretty and comfortable twothousanddollar

house in the midst of her gardenacre, paid half of the money down and moved her family in. Seven years

later she was out of debt and had several hundred dollars out earning its living.

Earning it by the rise in landed estate; for she had long ago bought another acre or two and sold the most of it

at a profit to pleasant people who were willing to build, and would be good neighbors and furnish a general

comradeship for herself and her growing family. She had an independent income from safe investments of

about a hundred dollars a year; her children were growing in years and grace; and she was a pleased and

happy woman. Happy in her husband, happy in her children, and the husband and the children were happy in

The youngest girl, Clytemnestracalled Clytie for short was eleven; her sister, Gwendolencalled Gwen

for short was thirteen; nice girls, and comely. The names betray the latent romancetinge in the parental

blood, the parents' names indicate that the tinge was an inheritance. It was an affectionate family, hence all

four of its members had pet names, Saladin's was a curious and unsexing oneSally; and so was

Electra'sAleck. All day long Sally was a good and diligent bookkeeper and salesman; all day long Aleck

was a good and faithful mother and housewife, and thoughtful and calculating business woman; but in the

cozy livingroom at night they put the plodding world away, and lived in another and a fairer, reading

romances to each other, dreaming dreams, comrading with kings and princes and stately lords and ladies in

Now came great news! Stunning newsjoyous news, in fact. It came from a neighboring state, where the

family's only surviving relative lived. It was Sally's relativea sort of vague and indefinite uncle or second

or third cousin by the name of Tilbury Foster, seventy and a bachelor, reputed well off and corresponding

sour and crusty. Sally had tried to make up to him once, by letter, in a bygone time, and had not made that

mistake again. Tilbury now wrote to Sally, saying he should shortly die, and should leave him thirty thousand

dollars, cash; not for love, but because money had given him most of his troubles and exasperations, and he

wished to place it where there was good hope that it would continue its malignant work. The bequest would

be found in his will, and would be paid over. PROVIDED, that Sally should be able to prove to the executors

that he had TAKEN NO NOTICE OF THE GIFT BY SPOKEN WORD OR BY LETTER, HAD MADE NO

As soon as Aleck had partially recovered from the tremendous emotions created by the letter, she sent to the

Man and wife entered into a solemn compact, now, to never mention the great news to any one while the

relative lived, lest some ignorant person carry the fact to the deathbed and distort it and make it appear that

they were disobediently thankful for the bequest, and just the same as confessing it and publishing it, right in

For the rest of the day Sally made havoc and confusion with his books, and Aleck could not keep her mind on

her affairs, not even take up a flowerpot or book or a stick of wood without forgetting what she had

All day long the music of those inspiring words sang through those people's heads.

From his marriageday forth, Aleck's grip had been upon the purse, and Sally had seldom known what it was

"Thirty thousand dollars!" the song went on and on. A vast sum, an unthinkable sum!

All day long Aleck was absorbed in planning how to invest it, Sally in planning how to spend it.

There was no romancereading that night. The children took themselves away early, for their parents were

silent, distraught, and strangely unentertaining. The goodnight kisses might as well have been impressed

upon vacancy, for all the response they got; the parents were not aware of the kisses, and the children had

been gone an hour before their absence was noticed. Two pencils had been busy during that

hournotemaking; in the way of plans. It was Sally who broke the stillness at last. He said, with exultation:

"Ah, it'll be grand, Aleck! Out of the first thousand we'll have a horse and a buggy for summer, and a cutter

"Oh, Aleck!" he said, reproachfully. "We've always worked so hard and been so scrimped: and now that we

He did not finish, for he saw her eye soften; his supplication had touched her. She said, with gentle

"We must not spend the capital, dear, it would not be wise. Out of the income from it"

"That will answer, that will answer, Aleck! How dear and good you are! There will be a noble income and if

"Not ALL of it, dear, not all of it, but you can spend a part of it. That is, a reasonable part. But the whole of

the capital every penny of itmust be put right to work, and kept at it. You see the reasonableness of that,

"Why, yes. Yes, of course. But we'll have to wait so long. Six months before the first interest falls due."

"Coal. The new mines. Cannel. I mean to put in ten thousand. Ground floor. When we organize, we'll get

"By George, but it sounds good, Aleck! Then the shares will be worth how much? And when?"

"About a year. They'll pay ten per cent. half yearly, and be worth thirty thousand. I know all about it; the

"Land, thirty thousand for tenin a year! Let's jam in the whole capital and pull out ninety! I'll write and

He was flying to the writingdesk, but Aleck stopped him and put him back in his chair. She said:

"Don't lose your head so. WE mustn't subscribe till we've got the money; don't you know that?"

"Why, Aleck, we'll HAVE it, you knowand so soon, too. He's probably out of his troubles before this; it's a

hundred to nothing he's selecting his brimstoneshovel this very minute. Now, I think"

"Oh, well, make it a halo, if you like, _I_ don't care for his outfit, I was only just talking. Can't you let a

"But why should you WANT to talk in that dreadful way? How would you like to have people talk so about

"Not likely to be, for ONE while, I reckon, if my last act was giving away money for the sake of doing

somebody a harm with it. But never mind about Tilbury, Aleck, let's talk about something worldly. It does

seem to me that that mine is the place for the whole thirty. What's the objection?"

"All right, if you say so. What about the other twenty? What do you mean to do with that?"

"All right, if your mind's made up," signed Sally. He was deep in thought awhile, then he said:

"There'll be twenty thousand profit coming from the ten a year from now. We can spend that, can we,

"No, dear," she said, "it won't sell high till we've had the first semiannual dividend. You can spend part of

"Oh, do be patient! It might even be declared in three months it's quite within the possibilities."

"Oh, jolly! oh, thanks!" and Sally jumped up and kissed his wife in gratitude. "It'll be three thousandthree

whole thousand! how much of it can we spend, Aleck? Make it liberal!do, dear, that's a good fellow."

Aleck was pleased; so pleased that she yielded to the pressure and conceded a sum which her judgment told

her was a foolish extravagance a thousand dollars. Sally kissed her half a dozen times and even in that way

could not express all his joy and thankfulness. This new access of gratitude and affection carried Aleck quite

beyond the bounds of prudence, and before she could restrain herself she had made her darling another

granta couple of thousand out of the fifty or sixty which she meant to clear within a year of the twenty

which still remained of the bequest. The happy tears sprang to Sally's eyes, and he said:

"Oh, I want to hug you!" And he did it. Then he got his notes and sat down and began to check off, for first

"Ciphering away, aren't you? That's right. Have you got the twenty thousand invested yet?"

"Why, I have to find work for the thirty thousand that comes out of the coal, haven't I?"

"Scott, what a head! I never thought of that. How are you getting along? Where have you arrived?"

"Not very fartwo years or three. I've turned it over twice; once in oil and once in wheat."

"I thinkwell, to be on the safe side, about a hundred and eighty thousand clear, though it will probably be

"My! isn't it wonderful? By gracious! luck has come our way at last, after all the hard sledding, Aleck!"

"I'm going to cash in a whole three hundred on the missionaries what real right have we care for

"You couldn't do a nobler thing, dear; and it's just like your generous nature, you unselfish boy."

The praise made Sally poignantly happy, but he was fair and just enough to say it was rightfully due to Aleck

Then they went up to bed, and in their delirium of bliss they forgot and left the candle burning in the parlor.

They did not remember until they were undressed; then Sally was for letting it burn; he said they could afford

A good job, too; for on her way back she hit on a scheme that would turn the hundred and eighty thousand

The little newspaper which Aleck had subscribed for was a Thursday sheet; it would make the trip of five

hundred miles from Tilbury's village and arrive on Saturday. Tilbury's letter had started on Friday, more than

a day too late for the benefactor to die and get into that week's issue, but in plenty of time to make connection

for the next output. Thus the Fosters had to wait almost a complete week to find out whether anything of a

satisfactory nature had happened to him or not. It was a long, long week, and the strain was a heavy one. The

pair could hardly have borne it if their minds had not had the relief of wholesome diversion. We have seen

that they had that. The woman was piling up fortunes right along, the man was spending them spending all

At last the Saturday came, and the WEEKLY SAGAMORE arrived. Mrs. Eversly Bennett was present. She

was the Presbyterian parson's wife, and was working the Fosters for a charity. Talk now died a sudden

deathon the Foster side. Mrs. Bennett presently discovered that her hosts were not hearing a word she was

saying; so she got up, wondering and indignant, and went away. The moment she was out of the house, Aleck

eagerly tore the wrapper from the paper, and her eyes and Sally's swept the columns for the deathnotices.

Disappointment! Tilbury was not anywhere mentioned. Aleck was a Christian from the cradle, and duty and

the force of habit required her to go through the motions. She pulled herself together and said, with a pious

"I don't care!" retorted the angry man. "It's the way YOU feel, and if you weren't so immorally pious you'd be

"I do not see how you can say such unkind and unjust things. There is no such thing as immoral piety."

Sally felt a pang, but tried to conceal it under a shuffling attempt to save his case by changing the form of

itas if changing the form while retaining the juice could deceive the expert he was trying to placate. He

"I didn't mean so bad as that, Aleck; I didn't really mean immoral piety, I only meantmeantwell,

Aleckthewell, where you put up that plated article and play it for solid, you know, without intending

anything improper, but just out of trade habit, ancient policy, petrified custom, loyalty totohang it, I

can't find the right words, but YOU know what I mean, Aleck, and that there isn't any harm in it. I'll try again.

"I'M willing," fervently responded Sally, wiping the sweat from his forehead and looking the thankfulness he

had no words for. Then, musingly, he apologized to himself. "I certainly held threes I KNOW itbut I

drew and didn't fill. That's where I'm so often weak in the game. If I had stood patbut I didn't. I never do. I

Confessedly defeated, he was properly tame now and subdued. Aleck forgave him with her eyes.

The grand interest, the supreme interest, came instantly to the front again; nothing could keep it in the

background many minutes on a stretch. The couple took up the puzzle of the absence of Tilbury's

deathnotice. They discussed it every which way, more or less hopefully, but they had to finish where they

began, and concede that the only really sane explanation of the absence of the notice must beand without

doubt wasthat Tilbury was not dead. There was something sad about it, something even a little unfair,

maybe, but there it was, and had to be put up with. They were agreed as to that. To Sally it seemed a

strangely inscrutable dispensation; more inscrutable than usual, he thought; one of the most unnecessary

inscrutable he could call to mind, in factand said so, with some feeling; but if he was hoping to draw Aleck

he failed; she reserved her opinion, if she had one; she had not the habit of taking injudicious risks in any

The pair must wait for next week's paperTilbury had evidently postponed. That was their thought and their

decision. So they put the subject away and went about their affairs again with as good heart as they could.

Now, if they had but known it, they had been wronging Tilbury all the time. Tilbury had kept faith, kept it to

the letter; he was dead, he had died to schedule. He was dead more than four days now and used to it; entirely

dead, perfectly dead, as dead as any other new person in the cemetery; dead in abundant time to get into that

week's SAGAMORE, too, and only shut out by an accident; an accident which could not happen to a

metropolitan journal, but which happens easily to a poor little village rag like the SAGAMORE. On this

occasion, just as the editorial page was being locked up, a gratis quart of strawberry icewater arrived from

Hostetter's Ladies and Gents IceCream Parlors, and the stickful of rather chilly regret over Tilbury's

On its way to the standinggalley Tilbury's notice got pied. Otherwise it would have gone into some future

edition, for WEEKLY SAGAMORES do not waste "live" matter, and in their galleys "live" matter is

immortal, unless a pi accident intervenes. But a thing that gets pied is dead, and for such there is no

resurrection; its chance of seeing print is gone, forever and ever. And so, let Tilbury like it or not, let him rave

in his grave to his fill, no matterno mention of his death would ever see the light in the WEEKLY

Five weeks drifted tediously along. The SAGAMORE arrived regularly on the Saturdays, but never once

contained a mention of Tilbury Foster. Sally's patience broke down at this point, and he said, resentfully:

"How would you feel if you were suddenly cut out just after such an awful remark had escaped out of you?"

Pride had forced him to say something, and as he could not think of any rational thing to say he flung that

out. Then he stole a base as he called itthat is, slipped from the presence, to keep from being brayed in

Six months came and went. The SAGAMORE was still silent about Tilbury. Meantime, Sally had several

times thrown out a feelerthat is, a hint that he would like to know. Aleck had ignored the hints. Sally now

resolved to brace up and risk a frontal attack. So he squarely proposed to disguise himself and go to Tilbury's

village and surreptitiously find out as to the prospects. Aleck put her foot on the dangerous project with

"What can you be thinking of? You do keep my hands full! You have to be watched all the time, like a little

child, to keep you from walking into the fire. You'll stay right where you are!"

"Oh, listen to the man! Some day you've got to prove to the executors that you never inquired. What then?"

He had forgotten that detail. He didn't reply; there wasn't anything to say. Aleck added:

"Now then, drop that notion out of your mind, and don't ever meddle with it again. Tilbury set that trap for

you. Don't you know it's a trap? He is on the watch, and fully expecting you to blunder into it. Well, he is

"As long as you live, if it's a hundred years, don't you ever make an inquiry. Promise!"

"Don't be impatient. We are prospering; we can wait; there is no hurry. Our small deadcertain income

increases all the time; and as to futures, I have not made a mistake yetthey are piling up by the thousands

and tens of thousands. There is not another family in the state with such prospects as ours. Already we are

"Then be grateful for what God is doing for us and stop worrying. You do not believe we could have

achieved these prodigious results without His special help and guidance, do you?"

Hesitatingly, "Nno, I suppose not." Then, with feeling and admiration, "And yet, when it comes to

judiciousness in watering a stock or putting up a hand to skin Wall Street I don't give in that YOU need any

"Oh, DO shut up! I know you do not mean any harm or any irreverence, poor boy, but you can't seem to open

your mouth without letting out things to make a person shudder. You keep me in constant dread. For you and

Her voice broke, and she began to cry, and could not finish. The sight of this smote Sally to the heart and he

took her in his arms and petted her and comforted her and promised better conduct, and upbraided himself

and remorsefully pleaded for forgiveness. And he was in earnest, and sorry for what he had done and ready

And so, in privacy, he thought long and deeply over the matter, resolving to do what should seem best. It was

easy to PROMISE reform; indeed he had already promised it. But would that do any real good, any

permanent good? No, it would be but temporaryhe knew his weakness, and confessed it to himself with

sorrowhe could not keep the promise. Something surer and better must be devised; and he devised it. At

cost of precious money which he had long been saving up, shilling by shilling, he put a lightningrod on the

What miracles habit can do! and how quickly and how easily habits are acquiredboth trifling habits and

habits which profoundly change us. If by accident we wake at two in the morning a couple of nights in

succession, we have need to be uneasy, for another repetition can turn the accident into a habit; and a month's

The castlebuilding habit, the daydreaming habithow it grows! what a luxury it becomes; how we fly to

its enchantments at every idle moment, how we revel in them, steep our souls in them, intoxicate ourselves

with their beguiling fantasiesoh yes, and how soon and how easily our dram life and our material life

become so intermingled and so fused together that we can't quite tell which is which, any more.

By and by Aleck subscribed to a Chicago daily and for the WALL STREET POINTER. With an eye single to

finance she studied these as diligently all the week as she studied her Bible Sundays. Sally was lost in

admiration, to note with what swift and sure strides her genius and judgment developed and expanded in the

forecasting and handling of the securities of both the material and spiritual markets. He was proud of her

nerve and daring in exploiting worldly stocks, and just as proud of her conservative caution in working her

spiritual deals. He noted that she never lost her head in either case; that with a splendid courage she often

went short on worldly futures, but heedfully drew the line thereshe was always long on the others. Her

policy was quite sane and simple, as she explained it to him: what she put into earthly futures was for

speculation, what she put into spiritual futures was for investment; she was willing to go into the one on a

margin, and take chances, but in the case of the other, "margin her no margins"she wanted to cash in a

It took but a very few months to educate Aleck's imagination and Sally's. Each day's training added

something to the spread and effectiveness of the two machines. As a consequence, Aleck made imaginary

money much faster than at first she had dreamed of making it, and Sally's competency in spending the

overflow of it kept pace with the strain put upon it, right along. In the beginning, Aleck had given the coal

speculation a twelvemonth in which to materialize, and had been loath to grant that this term might possibly

be shortened by nine months. But that was the feeble work, the nursery work, of a financial fancy that had

had no teaching, no experience, no practice. These aids soon came, then that nine months vanished, and the

imaginary tenthousanddollar investment came marching home with three hundred per cent. profit on its

It was a great day for the pair of Fosters. They were speechless for joy. Also speechless for another reason:

after much watching of the market, Aleck had lately, with fear and trembling, made her first flyer on a

"margin," using the remaining twenty thousand of the bequest in this risk. In her mind's eye she had seen it

climb, point by pointalways with a chance that the market would break until at last her anxieties were

too great for further endurance she being new to the margin business and unhardened, as yetand she

gave her imaginary broker an imaginary order by imaginary telegraph to sell. She said forty thousand dollars'

profit was enough. The sale was made on the very day that the coal venture had returned with its rich freight.

As I have said, the couple were speechless. they sat dazed and blissful that night, trying to realize that they

were actually worth a hundred thousand dollars in clean, imaginary cash. Yet so it was.

It was the last time that ever Aleck was afraid of a margin; at least afraid enough to let it break her sleep and

Indeed it was a memorable night. Gradually the realization that they were rich sank securely home into the

souls of the pair, then they began to place the money. If we could have looked out through the eyes of these

dreamers, we should have seen their tidy little wooden house disappear, and twostory brick with a castiron

fence in front of it take its place; we should have seen a threeglobed gaschandelier grow down from the

parlor ceiling; we should have seen the homely rag carpet turn to noble Brussels, a dollar and a half a yard;

we should have seen the plebeian fireplace vanish away and a recherch'e, big baseburner with isinglass

windows take position and spread awe around. And we should have seen other things, too; among them the

From that time forth, although the daughters and the neighbors saw only the same old wooden house there, it

was a twostory brick to Aleck and Sally and not a night went by that Aleck did not worry about the

imaginary gasbills, and get for all comfort Sally's reckless retort: "What of it? We can afford it."

Before the couple went to bed, that first night that they were rich, they had decided that they must celebrate.

They must give a party that was the idea. But how to explain itto the daughters and the neighbors? They

could not expose the fact that they were rich. Sally was willing, even anxious, to do it; but Aleck kept her

head and would not allow it. She said that although the money was as good as in, it would be as well to wait

until it was actually in. On that policy she took her stand, and would not budge. The great secret must be

The pair were puzzled. They must celebrate, they were determined to celebrate, but since the secret must be

kept, what could they celebrate? No birthdays were due for three months. Tilbury wasn't available, evidently

he was going to live forever; what the nation COULD they celebrate? That was Sally's way of putting it; and

he was getting impatient, too, and harassed. But at last he hit itjust by sheer inspiration, as it seemed to

him and all their troubles were gone in a moment; they would celebrate the Discovery of America. A

Aleck was almost too proud of Sally for wordsshe said SHE never would have thought of it. But Sally,

although he was bursting with delight in the compliment and with wonder at himself, tried not to let on, and

said it wasn't really anything, anybody could have done it. Whereat Aleck, with a prideful toss of her happy

"Oh, certainly! Anybody couldoh, anybody! Hosannah Dilkins, for instance! Or maybe Adelbert

Peanutoh, DEARyes! Well, I'd like to see them try it, that's all. Dearmesuz, if they could think of the

discovery of a fortyacre island it's more than _I_ believe they could; and as for the whole continent, why,

Sally Foster, you know perfectly well it would strain the livers and lights out of them and THEN they

The dear woman, she knew he had talent; and if affection made her overestimate the size of it a little, surely

The celebration went off well. The friends were all present, both the young and the old. Among the young

were Flossie and Gracie Peanut and their brother Adelbert, who was a rising young journeyman tinner, also

Hosannah Dilkins, Jr., journeyman plasterer, just out of his apprenticeship. For many months Adelbert and

Hosannah had been showing interest in Gwendolen and Clytemnestra Foster, and the parents of the girls had

noticed this with private satisfaction. But they suddenly realized now that that feeling had passed. They

recognized that the changed financial conditions had raised up a social bar between their daughters and the

young mechanics. The daughters could now look higherand must. Yes, must. They need marry nothing

below the grade of lawyer or merchant; poppa and momma would take care of this; there must be no

However, these thinkings and projects of their were private, and did not show on the surface, and therefore

threw no shadow upon the celebration. What showed upon the surface was a serene and lofty contentment

and a dignity of carriage and gravity of deportment which compelled the admiration and likewise the wonder

of the company. All noticed it and all commented upon it, but none was able to divine the secret of it. It was a

marvel and a mystery. Three several persons remarked, without suspecting what clever shots they were

Most mothers would have taken hold of the matrimonial matter in the old regulation way; they would have

given the girls a talking to, of a solemn sort and untactfula lecture calculated to defeat its own purpose, by

producing tears and secret rebellion; and the said mothers would have further damaged the business by

requesting the young mechanics to discontinue their attentions. But this mother was different. She was

practical. She said nothing to any of the young people concerned, nor to any one else except Sally. He

"I get the idea. Instead of finding fault with the samples on view, thus hurting feelings and obstructing trade

without occasion, you merely offer a higher class of goods for the money, and leave nature to take her course.

It's wisdom, Aleck, solid wisdom, and sound as a nut. Who's your fish? Have you nominated him yet?"

No, she hadn't. They must look the market overwhich they did. To start with, they considered and

discussed Brandish, rising young lawyer, and Fulton, rising young dentist. Sally must invite them to dinner.

But not right away; there was no hurry, Aleck said. Keep an eye on the pair, and wait; nothing would be lost

It turned out that this was wisdom, too; for inside of three weeks Aleck made a wonderful strike which

swelled her imaginary hundred thousand to four hundred thousand of the same quality. She and Sally were in

the clouds that evening. For the first time they introduced champagne at dinner. Not real champagne, but

plenty real enough for the amount of imagination expended on it. It was Sally that did it, and Aleck weakly

submitted. At bottom both were troubled and ashamed, for he was a highup Son of Temperance, and at

funerals wore an apron which no dog could look upon and retain his reason and his opinion; and she was a

W. C. T. U., with all that that implies of boileriron virtue and unendurable holiness. But there is was; the

pride of riches was beginning its disintegrating work. They had lived to prove, once more, a sad truth which

had been proven many times before in the world: that whereas principle is a great and noble protection

against showy and degrading vanities and vices, poverty is worth six of it. More than four hundred thousand

dollars to the good. They took up the matrimonial matter again. Neither the dentist nor the lawyer was

mentioned; there was no occasion, they were out of the running. Disqualified. They discussed the son of the

porkpacker and the son of the village banker. But finally, as in the previous case, they concluded to wait and

Luck came their way again. Aleck, ever watchful saw a great and risky chance, and took a daring flyer. A

time of trembling, of doubt, of awful uneasiness followed, for nonsuccess meant absolute ruin and nothing

short of it. Then came the result, and Aleck, faint with joy, could hardly control her voice when she said:

"Oh, Electra, jewel of women, darling of my heart, we are free at last, we roll in wealth, we need never

scrimp again. it's a case for Veuve Cliquot!" and he got out a pint of sprucebeer and made sacrifice, he

saying "Damn the expense," and she rebuking him gently with reproachful but humid and happy eyes.

They shelved the porkpacker's son and the banker's son, and sat down to consider the Governor's son and

It were a weariness to follow in detail the leaps and bounds the Foster fictitious finances took from this time

forth. It was marvelous, it was dizzying, it was dazzling. Everything Aleck touched turned to fairy gold, and

heaped itself glittering toward the firmament. Millions upon millions poured in, and still the mighty stream

flowed thundering along, still its vast volume increased. Five millions ten millionstwentythirtywas

Two years swept by in a splendid delirium, the intoxicated Fosters scarcely noticing the flight of time. They

were now worth three hundred million dollars; they were in every board of directors of every prodigious

combine in the country; and still as time drifted along, the millions went on piling up, five at a time, ten at a

time, as fast as they could tally them off, almost. The three hundred double itselfthen doubled againand

The business was getting a little confused. It was necessary to take an account of stock, and straighten it out.

The Fosters knew it, they felt it, they realized that it was imperative; but they also knew that to do it properly

and perfectly the task must be carried to a finish without a break when once it was begun. A tenhours' job;

and where could THEY find ten leisure hours in a bunch? Sally was selling pins and sugar and calico all day

and every day; Aleck was cooking and washing dishes and sweeping and making beds all day and every day,

with none to help, for the daughters were being saved up for high society. The Fosters knew there was one

way to get the ten hours, and only one. Both were ashamed to name it; each waited for the other to do it.

"Somebody's got to give in. It's up to me. Consider that I've named itnever mind pronouncing it out aloud."

Aleck colored, but was grateful. Without further remark, they fell. Fell, andbroke the Sabbath. For that was

their only free tenhour stretch. It was but another step in the downward path. Others would follow. Vast

wealth has temptations which fatally and surely undermine the moral structure of persons not habituated to its

They pulled down the shades and broke the Sabbath. With hard and patient labor they overhauled their

holdings and listed them. And a longdrawn procession of formidable names it was! Starting with the

Railway Systems, Steamer Lines, Standard Oil, Ocean Cables, Diluted Telegraph, and all the rest, and

winding up with Klondike, De Beers, Tammany Graft, and Shady Privileges in the Postoffice Department.

Twentyfour hundred millions, and all safely planted in Good Things, giltedged and interestbearing.

Income, $120,000,000 a year. Aleck fetched a long purr of soft delight, and said:

"I am agreed. The good work is finished; we will take a long rest and enjoy the money."

It seemed to her husband that a ton of chains fell from his limbs. He did not say a word; he was happy beyond

After that, they broke the Sabbaths right along as fast as they turned up. It is the first wrong step that counts.

Every Sunday they put in the whole day, after morning service, on inventions inventions of ways to spend

the money. They got to continuing this delicious dissipation until past midnight; and at every s'eance Aleck

lavished millions upon great charities and religious enterprises, and Sally lavished like sums upon matters to

which (at first) he gave definite names. Only at first. Later the names gradually lost sharpness of outline, and

eventually faded into "sundries," thus becoming entirelybut safelyundescriptive. For Sally was

crumbling. The placing of these millions added seriously and most uncomfortably to the family expensesin

tallow candles. For a while Aleck was worried. Then, after a little, she ceased to worry, for the occasion of it

was gone. She was pained, she was grieved, she was ashamed; but she said nothing, and so became an

accessory. Sally was taking candles; he was robbing the store. It is ever thus. Vast wealth, to the person

unaccustomed to it, is a bane; it eats into the flesh and bone of his morals. When the Fosters were poor, they

could have been trusted with untold candles. But now theybut let us not dwell upon it. From candles to

apples is but a step: Sally got to taking apples; then soap; then maplesugar; then canned goods; then

crockery. How easy it is to go from bad to worse, when once we have started upon a downward course!

Meantime, other effects had been milestoning the course of the Fosters' splendid financial march. The

fictitious brick dwelling had given place to an imaginary granite one with a checkerboard mansard roof; in

time this one disappeared and gave place to a still grander homeand so on and so on. Mansion after

mansion, made of air, rose, higher, broader, finer, and each in its turn vanished away; until now in these latter

great days, our dreamers were in fancy housed, in a distant region, in a sumptuous vast palace which looked

out from a leafy summit upon a noble prospect of vale and river and receding hills steeped in tinted mists

and all private, all the property of the dreamers; a palace swarming with liveried servants, and populous with

guests of fame and power, hailing from all the world's capitals, foreign and domestic.

This palace was far, far away toward the rising sun, immeasurably remote, astronomically remote, in

Newport, Rhode Island, Holy Land of High Society, ineffable Domain of the American Aristocracy. As a rule

they spent a part of every Sabbathafter morning service in this sumptuous home, the rest of it they spent

in Europe, or in dawdling around in their private yacht. Six days of sordid and plodding fact life at home on

the ragged edge of Lakeside and straitened means, the seventh in Fairlyandsuch had been their program

In their sternly restricted fact life they remained as of old plodding, diligent, careful, practical, economical.

They stuck loyally to the little Presbyterian Church, and labored faithfully in its interests and stood by its

high and tough doctrines with all their mental and spiritual energies. But in their dream life they obeyed the

invitations of their fancies, whatever they might be, and howsoever the fancies might change. Aleck's fancies

were not very capricious, and not frequent, but Sally's scattered a good deal. Aleck, in her dream life, went

over to the Episcopal camp, on account of its large official titles; next she became Highchurch on account of

the candles and shows; and next she naturally changed to Rome, where there were cardinals and more

candles. But these excursions were a nothing to Sally's. His dream life was a glowing and continuous and

persistent excitement, and he kept every part of it fresh and sparkling by frequent changes, the religious part

along with the rest. He worked his religions hard, and changed them with his shirt.

The liberal spendings of the Fosters upon their fancies began early in their prosperities, and grew in

prodigality step by step with their advancing fortunes. In time they became truly enormous. Aleck built a

university or two per Sunday; also a hospital or two; also a Rowton hotel or so; also a batch of churches; now

and then a cathedral; and once, with untimely and illchosen playfulness, Sally said, "It was a cold day when

she didn't ship a cargo of missionaries to persuade unreflecting Chinamen to trade off twentyfour carat

This rude and unfeeling language hurt Aleck to the heart, and she went from the presence crying. That

spectacle went to his own heart, and in his pain and shame he would have given worlds to have those unkind

words back. She had uttered no syllable of reproach and that cut him. Not one suggestion that he look at

his own record and she could have made, oh, so many, and such blistering ones! Her generous silence

brought a swift revenge, for it turned his thoughts upon himself, it summoned before him a spectral

procession, a moving vision of his life as he had been leading it these past few years of limitless prosperity,

and as he sat there reviewing it his cheeks burned and his soul was steeped in humiliation. Look at her

lifehow fair it was, and tending ever upward; and look at his ownhow frivolous, how charged with mean

vanities, how selfish, how empty, how ignoble! And its trendnever upward, but downward, ever

He instituted comparisons between her record and his own. He had found fault with herso he musedHE!

And what could he say for himself? When she built her first church what was he doing? Gathering other

blas'e multimillionaires into a Poker Club; defiling his own palace with it; losing hundreds of thousands to it

at every sitting, and sillily vain of the admiring notoriety it made for him. When she was building her first

university, what was he doing? Polluting himself with a gay and dissipated secret life in the company of other

fast bloods, multimillionaires in money and paupers in character. When she was building her first foundling

asylum, what was he doing? Alas! When she was projecting her noble Society for the Purifying of the Sex,

what was he doing? Ah, what, indeed! When she and the W. C. T. U. and the Woman with the Hatchet,

moving with resistless march, were sweeping the fatal bottle from the land, what was he doing? Getting

drunk three times a day. When she, builder of a hundred cathedrals, was being gratefully welcomed and blest

in papal Rome and decorated with the Golden Rose which she had so honorably earned, what was he doing?

He stopped. He could go no farther; he could not bear the rest. He rose up, with a great resolution upon his

lips: this secret life should be revealing, and confessed; no longer would he live it clandestinely, he would go

And that is what he did. He told her All; and wept upon her bosom; wept, and moaned, and begged for her

forgiveness. It was a profound shock, and she staggered under the blow, but he was her own, the core of her

heart, the blessing of her eyes, her all in all, she could deny him nothing, and she forgave him. She felt that he

could never again be quite to her what he had been before; she knew that he could only repent, and not

reform; yet all morally defaced and decayed as he was, was he not her own, her very own, the idol of her

deathless worship? She said she was his serf, his slave, and she opened her yearning heart and took him in.

One Sunday afternoon some time after this they were sailing the summer seas in their dream yacht, and

reclining in lazy luxury under the awning of the afterdeck. There was silence, for each was busy with his

own thoughts. These seasons of silence had insensibly been growing more and more frequent of late; the old

nearness and cordiality were waning. Sally's terrible revelation had done its work; Aleck had tried hard to

drive the memory of it out of her mind, but it would not go, and the shame and bitterness of it were poisoning

her gracious dream life. She could see now (on Sundays) that her husband was becoming a bloated and

repulsive Thing. She could not close her eyes to this, and in these days she no longer looked at him, Sundays,

But shewas she herself without blemish? Alas, she knew she was not. She was keeping a secret from him,

she was acting dishonorably toward him, and many a pang it was costing her. SHE WAS BREAKING THE

COMPACT, AND CONCEALING IT FROM HIM. Under strong temptation she had gone into business

again; she had risked their whole fortune in a purchase of all the railway systems and coal and steel

companies in the country on a margin, and she was now trembling, every Sabbath hour, lest through some

chance word of hers he find it out. In her misery and remorse for this treachery she could not keep her heart

from going out to him in pity; she was filled with compunctions to see him lying there, drunk and contented,

and ever suspecting. Never suspectingtrusting her with a perfect and pathetic trust, and she holding over

The interrupting words brought her suddenly to herself. She was grateful to have that persecuting subject

from her thoughts, and she answered, with much of the oldtime tenderness in her tone:

"Do you know, Aleck, I think we are making a mistakethat is, you are. I mean about the marriage

business." He sat up, fat and froggy and benevolent, like a bronze Buddha, and grew earnest. "Considerit's

more than five years. You've continued the same policy from the start: with every rise, always holding on for

five points higher. Always when I think we are going to have some weddings, you see a bigger thing ahead,

and I undergo another disappointment. _I_ think you are too hard to please. Some day we'll get left. First, we

turned down the dentist and the lawyer. That was all right it was sound. Next, we turned down the banker's

son and the porkbutcher's heirright again, and sound. Next, we turned down the Congressman's son and

the Governor'sright as a trivet, I confess it. Next the Senator's son and the son of the VicePresident of the

United Statesperfectly right, there's no permanency about those little distinctions. Then you went for the

aristocracy; and I thought we had struck oil at lastyes. We would make a plunge at the Four Hundred, and

pull in some ancient lineage, venerable, holy, ineffable, mellow with the antiquity of a hundred and fifty

years, disinfected of the ancestral odors of saltcod and pelts all of a century ago, and unsmirched by a day's

work since, and then! why, then the marriages, of course. But no, along comes a pair a real aristocrats from

Europe, and straightway you throw over the halfbreeds. It was awfully discouraging, Aleck! Since then,

what a procession! You turned down the baronets for a pair of barons; you turned down the barons for a pair

of viscounts; the viscounts for a pair of earls; the earls for a pair of marquises; the marquises for a brace of

dukes. NOW, Aleck, cash in! you've played the limit. You've got a job lot of four dukes under the

hammer; of four nationalities; all sound in the wind and limb and pedigree, all bankrupt and in debt up to the

ears. They come high, but we can afford it. Come, Aleck, don't delay any longer, don't keep up the suspense:

Aleck had been smiling blandly and contentedly all through this arraignment of her marriage policy, a

pleasant light, as of triumph with perhaps a nice surprise peeping out through it, rose in her eyes, and she

Prodigious! Poor man, it knocked him silly, and he fell over the garboardstrake and barked his shin on the

catheads. He was dizzy for a moment, then he gathered himself up and limped over and sat down by his

wife and beamed his oldtime admiration and affection upon her in floods, out of his bleary eyes.

"By George!" he said, fervently, "Aleck, you ARE greatthe greatest woman in the whole earth! I can't ever

learn the whole size of you. I can't ever learn the immeasurable deeps of you. Here I've been considering

myself qualified to criticize your game. _I!_ Why, if I had stopped to think, I'd have known you had a lone

hand up your sleeve. Now, dear heart, I'm all redhot impatiencetell me about it!"

The flattered and happy woman put her lips to his ear and whispered a princely name. It made him catch his

"Land!" he said, "it's a stunning catch! He's got a gamblinghall, and a graveyard, and a bishop, and a

cathedralall his very own. And all giltedged fivehundredpercent. stock, every detail of it; the tidiest

little property in Europe. and that graveyard it's the selectest in the world: none but suicides admitted;

YES, sir, and the freelist suspended, too, ALL the time. There isn't much land in the principality, but there's

enough: eight hundred acres in the graveyard and fortytwo outside. It's a SOVEREIGNTYthat's the main

"Think of it, Sallyit is a family that has never married outside the Royal and Imperial Houses of Europe:

"True as you live, Aleckand bear scepters, too; and handle them as naturally and nonchantly as I handle a

yardstick. it's a grand catch, Aleck. He's corralled, is he? Can't get away? You didn't take him on a margin?"

"No. Trust me for that. He's not a liability, he's an asset. So is the other one."

"His Royal Highness SigismundSiegfriendLauenfeldDinkelspielSchwartzenberg Blutwurst, Hereditary

"How wonderful it all seems, and how beautiful! It's one of the oldest and noblest of the three hundred and

sixtyfour ancient German principalities, and one of the few that was allowed to retain its royal estate when

Bismarck got done trimming them. I know that farm, I've been there. It's got a ropewalk and a

candlefactory and an army. Standing army. Infantry and cavalry. Three soldier and a horse. Aleck, it's been

a long wait, and full of heartbreak and hope deferred, but God knows I am happy now. Happy, and grateful to

"Good. And we'll want to do these weddings up in the very regalest style that's going. It's properly due to the

royal quality of the parties of the first part. Now as I understand it, there is only one kind of marriage that is

"Then we will insist upon it. MoreI will compel it. It is morganatic marriage or none."

"That settles it!" said Sally, rubbing his hands with delight. "And it will be the very first in America. Aleck, it

Then they fell silent, and drifted away upon their dream wings to the far regions of the earth to invite all the

During three days the couple walked upon air, with their heads in the clouds. They were but vaguely

conscious of their surroundings; they saw all things dimly, as through a veil; they were steeped in dreams,

often they did not hear when they were spoken to; they often did not understand when they heard; they

answered confusedly or at random; Sally sold molasses by weight, sugar by the yard, and furnished soap

when asked for candles, and Aleck put the cat in the wash and fed milk to the soiled linen. Everybody was

stunned and amazed, and went about muttering, "What CAN be the matter with the Fosters?"

Three days. Then came events! Things had taken a happy turn, and for fortyeight hours Aleck's imaginary

corner had been booming. Upupstill up! Cost point was passed. Still upand up and up! Cost point

was passed. STill upand upand up! Five points above costthen tenfifteentwenty! Twenty points

cold profit on the vast venture, now, and Aleck's imaginary brokers were shouting frantically by imaginary

She broke the splendid news to Sally, and he, too, said, "Sell! selloh, don't make a blunder, now, you own

the earth! sell, sell!" But she set her iron will and lashed it amidships, and said she would hold on for five

It was a fatal resolve. The very next day came the historic crash, the record crash, the devastating crash, when

the bottom fell out of Wall Street, and the whole body of giltedged stocks dropped ninetyfive points in five

hours, and the multimillionaire was seen begging his bread in the Bowery. Aleck sternly held her grip and

"put up" ass long as she could, but at last there came a call which she was powerless to meet, and her

imaginary brokers sold her out. Then, and not till then, the man in her was vanished, and the woman in her

"I am to blame, do not forgive me, I cannot bear it. We are paupers! Paupers, and I am so miserable. The

weddings will never come off; all that is past; we could not even buy the dentist, now."

A bitter reproach was on Sally's tongue: "I BEGGED you to sell, but you" He did not say it; he had not the

heart to add a hurt to that broken and repentant spirit. A nobler thought came to him and he said:

"Bear up, my Aleck, all is not lost! You really never invested a penny of my uncle's bequest, but only its

unmaterialized future; what we have lost was only the incremented harvest from that future by your

incomparable financial judgment and sagacity. Cheer up, banish these griefs; we still have the thirty thousand

untouched; and with the experience which you have acquired, think what you will be able to do with it in a

These are blessed words. Aleck saw how true they were, and their influence was electric; her tears ceased to

flow, and her great spirit rose to its full stature again. With flashing eye and grateful heart, and with hand

But she was interrupted by a visitor. It was the editor and proprietor of the SAGAMORE. He had happened

into Lakeside to pay a dutycall upon an obscure grandmother of his who was nearing the end of her

pilgrimage, and with the idea of combining business with grief he had looked up the Fosters, who had been

so absorbed in other things for the past four years that they neglected to pay up their subscription. Six dollars

due. No visitor could have been more welcome. He would know all about Uncle Tilbury and what his

chances might be getting to be, cemeterywards. They could, of course, ask no questions, for that would

squelch the bequest, but they could nibble around on the edge of the subject and hope for results. The scheme

did not work. The obtuse editor did not know he was being nibbled at; but at last, chance accomplished what

art had failed in. In illustration of something under discussion which required the help of metaphor, the editor

It was sudden, and it made the Fosters jump. The editor noticed, and said, apologetically:

"No harm intended, I assure you. It's just a saying; just a joke, you knownothing of it. Relation of yours?"

Sally crowded his burning eagerness down, and answered with all the indifference he could assume:

"Iwell, not that I know of, but we've heard of him." The editor was thankful, and resumed his composure.

The Fosters were trembling with grief, though it felt like joy. Sally said, noncommittallyand tentatively:

"If you are including Tilbury," said he, "it don't apply. HE hadn't a cent; the town had to bury him."

The Fosters sat petrified for two minutes; petrified and cold. Then, whitefaced and weakvoiced, Sally

"Well, I should say! I was one of the executors. He hadn't anything to leave but a wheelbarrow, and he left

that to me. It hadn't any wheel, and wasn't any good. Still, it was something, and so, to square up, I scribbled

The Fosters were not listeningtheir cup was full, it could contain no more. They sat with bowed heads,

An hour later. Still they sat there, bowed, motionless, silent, the visitor long ago gone, they unaware.

Then they stirred, and lifted their heads wearily, and gazed at each other wistfully, dreamily, dazed; then

presently began to twaddle to each other in a wandering and childish way. At intervals they lapsed into

silences, leaving a sentence unfinished, seemingly either unaware of it or losing their way. Sometimes, when

they woke out of these silences they had a dim and transient consciousness that something had happened to

their minds; then with a dumb and yearning solicitude they would softly caress each other's hands in mutual

compassion and support, as if they would say: "I am near you, I will not forsake you, we will bear it together;

somewhere there is release and forgetfulness, somewhere there is a grave and peace; be patient, it will not be

They lived yet two years, in mental night, always brooding, steeped in vague regrets and melancholy dreams,

Toward the end the darkness lifted from Sally's ruined mind for a moment, and he said:

"Vast wealth, acquired by sudden and unwholesome means, is a snare. It did us no good, transient were its

feverish pleasures; yet for its sake we threw away our sweet and simple and happy life let others take

He lay silent awhile, with closed eyes; then as the chill of death crept upward toward his heart, and

"Money had brought him misery, and he took his revenge upon us, who had done him no harm. He had his

desire: with base and cunning calculation he left us but thirty thousand, knowing we would try to increase it,

and ruin our life and break our hearts. Without added expense he could have left us far above desire of

increase, far above the temptation to speculate, and a kinder soul would have done it; but in him was no

My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian. This is what my mother told

me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself. To me they are only fine large words meaning nothing. My

mother had a fondness for such; she liked to say them, and see other dogs look surprised and envious, as

wondering how she got so much education. But, indeed, it was not real education; it was only show: she got

the words by listening in the diningroom and drawingroom when there was company, and by going with

the children to Sundayschool and listening there; and whenever she heard a large word she said it over to

herself many times, and so was able to keep it until there was a dogmatic gathering in the neighborhood, then

she would get it off, and surprise and distress them all, from pocketpup to mastiff, which rewarded her for

all her trouble. If there was a stranger he was nearly sure to be suspicious, and when he got his breath again

he would ask her what it meant. And she always told him. He was never expecting this but thought he would

catch her; so when she told him, he was the one that looked ashamed, whereas he had thought it was going to

be she. The others were always waiting for this, and glad of it and proud of her, for they knew what was

going to happen, because they had had experience. When she told the meaning of a big word they were all so

taken up with admiration that it never occurred to any dog to doubt if it was the right one; and that was

natural, because, for one thing, she answered up so promptly that it seemed like a dictionary speaking, and for

another thing, where could they find out whether it was right or not? for she was the only cultivated dog there

was. By and by, when I was older, she brought home the word Unintellectual, one time, and worked it pretty

hard all the week at different gatherings, making much unhappiness and despondency; and it was at this time

that I noticed that during that week she was asked for the meaning at eight different assemblages, and flashed

out a fresh definition every time, which showed me that she had more presence of mind than culture, though I

said nothing, of course. She had one word which she always kept on hand, and ready, like a lifepreserver, a

kind of emergency word to strap on when she was likely to get washed overboard in a sudden waythat was

the word Synonymous. When she happened to fetch out a long word which had had its day weeks before and

its prepared meanings gone to her dumppile, if there was a stranger there of course it knocked him groggy

for a couple of minutes, then he would come to, and by that time she would be away down wind on another

tack, and not expecting anything; so when he'd hail and ask her to cash in, I (the only dog on the inside of her

game) could see her canvas flicker a moment but only just a momentthen it would belly out taut and

full, and she would say, as calm as a summer's day, "It's synonymous with supererogation," or some godless

long reptile of a word like that, and go placidly about and skim away on the next tack, perfectly comfortable,

you know, and leave that stranger looking profane and embarrassed, and the initiated slatting the floor with

And it was the same with phrases. She would drag home a whole phrase, if it had a grand sound, and play it

six nights and two matinees, and explain it a new way every timewhich she had to, for all she cared for

was the phrase; she wasn't interested in what it meant, and knew those dogs hadn't wit enough to catch her,

anyway. Yes, she was a daisy! She got so she wasn't afraid of anything, she had such confidence in the

ignorance of those creatures. She even brought anecdotes that she had heard the family and the dinnerguests

laugh and shout over; and as a rule she got the nub of one chestnut hitched onto another chestnut, where, of

course, it didn't fit and hadn't any point; and when she delivered the nub she fell over and rolled on the floor

and laughed and barked in the most insane way, while I could see that she was wondering to herself why it

didn't seem as funny as it did when she first heard it. But no harm was done; the others rolled and barked too,

privately ashamed of themselves for not seeing the point, and never suspecting that the fault was not with

You can see by these things that she was of a rather vain and frivolous character; still, she had virtues, and

enough to make up, I think. She had a kind heart and gentle ways, and never harbored resentments for

injuries done her, but put them easily out of her mind and forgot them; and she taught her children her kindly

way, and from her we learned also to be brave and prompt in time of danger, and not to run away, but face

the peril that threatened friend or stranger, and help him the best we could without stopping to think what the

cost might be to us. And she taught us not by words only, but by example, and that is the best way and the

surest and the most lasting. Why, the brave things she did, the splendid things! she was just a soldier; and so

modest about itwell, you couldn't help admiring her, and you couldn't help imitating her; not even a King

Charles spaniel could remain entirely despicable in her society. So, as you see, there was more to her than her

When I was well grown, at last, I was sold and taken away, and I never saw her again. She was

brokenhearted, and so was I, and we cried; but she comforted me as well as she could, and said we were

sent into this world for a wise and good purpose, and must do our duties without repining, take our life as we

might find it, live it for the best good of others, and never mind about the results; they were not our affair.

She said men who did like this would have a noble and beautiful reward by and by in another world, and

although we animals would not go there, to do well and right without reward would give to our brief lives a

worthiness and dignity which in itself would be a reward. She had gathered these things from time to time

when she had gone to the Sundayschool with the children, and had laid them up in her memory more

carefully than she had done with those other words and phrases; and she had studied them deeply, for her

good and ours. One may see by this that she had a wise and thoughtful head, for all there was so much

So we said our farewells, and looked our last upon each other through our tears; and the last thing she

saidkeeping it for the last to make me remember it the better, I thinkwas, "In memory of me, when there

is a time of danger to another do not think of yourself, think of your mother, and do as she would do."

It was such a charming home!my new one; a fine great house, with pictures, and delicate decorations, and

rich furniture, and no gloom anywhere, but all the wilderness of dainty colors lit up with flooding sunshine;

and the spacious grounds around it, and the great gardenoh, greensward, and noble trees, and flowers, no

end! And I was the same as a member of the family; and they loved me, and petted me, and did not give me a

new name, but called me by my old one that was dear to me because my mother had given it me Aileen

Mavoureen. She got it out of a song; and the Grays knew that song, and said it was a beautiful name.

Mrs. Gray was thirty, and so sweet and so lovely, you cannot imagine it; and Sadie was ten, and just like her

mother, just a darling slender little copy of her, with auburn tails down her back, and short frocks; and the

baby was a year old, and plump and dimpled, and fond of me, and never could get enough of hauling on my

tail, and hugging me, and laughing out its innocent happiness; and Mr. Gray was thirtyeight, and tall and

slender and handsome, a little bald in front, alert, quick in his movements, businesslike, prompt, decided,

unsentimental, and with that kind of trimchiseled face that just seems to glint and sparkle with frosty

intellectuality! He was a renowned scientist. I do not know what the word means, but my mother would know

how to use it and get effects. She would know how to depress a ratterrier with it and make a lapdog look

sorry he came. But that is not the best one; the best one was Laboratory. My mother could organize a Trust on

that one that would skin the taxcollars off the whole herd. The laboratory was not a book, or a picture, or a

place to wash your hands in, as the college president's dog saidno, that is the lavatory; the laboratory is

quite different, and is filled with jars, and bottles, and electrics, and wires, and strange machines; and every

week other scientists came there and sat in the place, and used the machines, and discussed, and made what

they called experiments and discoveries; and often I came, too, and stood around and listened, and tried to

learn, for the sake of my mother, and in loving memory of her, although it was a pain to me, as realizing what

she was losing out of her life and I gaining nothing at all; for try as I might, I was never able to make

Other times I lay on the floor in the mistress's workroom and slept, she gently using me for a footstool,

knowing it pleased me, for it was a caress; other times I spent an hour in the nursery, and got well tousled and

made happy; other times I watched by the crib there, when the baby was asleep and the nurse out for a few

minutes on the baby's affairs; other times I romped and raced through the grounds and the garden with Sadie

till we were tired out, then slumbered on the grass in the shade of a tree while she read her book; other times I

went visiting among the neighbor dogs for there were some most pleasant ones not far away, and one very

handsome and courteous and graceful one, a curlyhaired Irish setter by the name of Robin Adair, who was a

The servants in our house were all kind to me and were fond of me, and so, as you see, mine was a pleasant

life. There could not be a happier dog that I was, nor a gratefuler one. I will say this for myself, for it is only

the truth: I tried in all ways to do well and right, and honor my mother's memory and her teachings, and earn

By and by came my little puppy, and then my cup was full, my happiness was perfect. It was the dearest little

waddling thing, and so smooth and soft and velvety, and had such cunning little awkward paws, and such

affectionate eyes, and such a sweet and innocent face; and it made me so proud to see how the children and

their mother adored it, and fondled it, and exclaimed over every little wonderful thing it did. It did seem to

Then came the winter. One day I was standing a watch in the nursery. That is to say, I was asleep on the bed.

The baby was asleep in the crib, which was alongside the bed, on the side next the fireplace. It was the kind

of crib that has a lofty tent over it made of gauzy stuff that you can see through. The nurse was out, and we

two sleepers were alone. A spark from the woodfire was shot out, and it lit on the slope of the tent. I

suppose a quiet interval followed, then a scream from the baby awoke me, and there was that tent flaming up

toward the ceiling! Before I could think, I sprang to the floor in my fright, and in a second was halfway to

the door; but in the next halfsecond my mother's farewell was sounding in my ears, and I was back on the

bed again., I reached my head through the flames and dragged the baby out by the waistband, and tugged it

along, and we fell to the floor together in a cloud of smoke; I snatched a new hold, and dragged the screaming

little creature along and out at the door and around the bend of the hall, and was still tugging away, all excited

"Begone you cursed beast!" and I jumped to save myself; but he was furiously quick, and chased me up,

striking furiously at me with his cane, I dodging this way and that, in terror, and at last a strong blow fell

upon my left foreleg, which made me shriek and fall, for the moment, helpless; the came went up for another

blow, but never descended, for the nurse's voice rang wildly out, "The nursery's on fire!" and the master

The pain was cruel, but, no matter, I must not lose any time; he might come back at any moment; so I limped

on three legs to the other end of the hall, where there was a dark little stairway leading up into a garret where

old boxes and such things were kept, as I had heard say, and where people seldom went. I managed to climb

up there, then I searched my way through the dark among the piles of things, and hid in the secretest place I

could find. It was foolish to be afraid there, yet still I was; so afraid that I held in and hardly even whimpered,

though it would have been such a comfort to whimper, because that eases the pain, you know. But I could

For half an hour there was a commotion downstairs, and shoutings, and rushing footsteps, and then there was

quiet again. Quiet for some minutes, and that was grateful to my spirit, for then my fears began to go down;

and fears are worse than painsoh, much worse. Then came a sound that froze me. They were calling

It was muffled by distance, but that could not take the terror out of it, and it was the most dreadful sound to

me that I had ever heard. It went all about, everywhere, down there: along the halls, through all the rooms, in

both stories, and in the basement and the cellar; then outside, and farther and farther awaythen back, and

all about the house again, and I thought it would never, never stop. But at last it did, hours and hours after the

Then in that blessed stillness my terrors fell little by little away, and I was at peace and slept. It was a good

rest I had, but I woke before the twilight had come again. I was feeling fairly comfortable, and I could think

out a plan now. I made a very good one; which was, to creep down, all the way down the back stairs, and hide

behind the cellar door, and slip out and escape when the iceman came at dawn, while he was inside filling the

refrigerator; then I would hide all day, and start on my journey when night came; my journey towell,

anywhere where they would not know me and betray me to the master. I was feeling almost cheerful now;

That was despair. There was no plan for me; I saw that; I must say where I was; stay, and wait, and take what

might come it was not my affair; that was what life ismy mother had said it. Thenwell, then the

calling began again! All my sorrows came back. I said to myself, the master will never forgive. I did not

know what I had done to make him so bitter and so unforgiving, yet I judged it was something a dog could

They called and calleddays and nights, it seemed to me. So long that the hunger and thirst near drove me

mad, and I recognized that I was getting very weak. When you are this way you sleep a great deal, and I did.

Once I woke in an awful fright it seemed to me that the calling was right there in the garret! And so it was:

it was Sadie's voice, and she was crying; my name was falling from her lips all broken, poor thing, and I

I broke in with SUCH a grateful little yelp, and the next moment Sadie was plunging and stumbling through

the darkness and the lumber and shouting for the family to hear, "She's found, she's found!"

The days that followedwell, they were wonderful. The mother and Sadie and the servantswhy, they just

seemed to worship me. They couldn't seem to make me a bed that was fine enough; and as for food, they

couldn't be satisfied with anything but game and delicacies that were out of season; and every day the friends

and neighbors flocked in to hear about my heroismthat was the name they called it by, and it means

agriculture. I remember my mother pulling it on a kennel once, and explaining it in that way, but didn't say

what agriculture was, except that it was synonymous with intramural incandescence; and a dozen times a day

Mrs. Gray and Sadie would tell the tale to newcomers, and say I risked my life to say the baby's, and both of

us had burns to prove it, and then the company would pass me around and pet me and exclaim about me, and

you could see the pride in the eyes of Sadie and her mother; and when the people wanted to know what made

me limp, they looked ashamed and changed the subject, and sometimes when people hunted them this way

and that way with questions about it, it looked to me as if they were going to cry.

And this was not all the glory; no, the master's friends came, a whole twenty of the most distinguished

people, and had me in the laboratory, and discussed me as if I was a kind of discovery; and some of them said

it was wonderful in a dumb beast, the finest exhibition of instinct they could call to mind; but the master said,

with vehemence, "It's far above instinct; it's REASON, and many a man, privileged to be saved and go with

you and me to a better world by right of its possession, has less of it that this poor silly quadruped that's

foreordained to perish"; and then he laughed, and said: "Why, look at meI'm a sarcasm! bless you, with all

my grand intelligence, the only think I inferred was that the dog had gone mad and was destroying the child,

whereas but for the beast's intelligenceit's REASON, I tell you!the child would have perished!"

They disputed and disputed, and _I_ was the very center of subject of it all, and I wished my mother could

Then they discussed optics, as they called it, and whether a certain injury to the brain would produce

blindness or not, but they could not agree about it, and said they must test it by experiment by and by; and

next they discussed plants, and that interested me, because in the summer Sadie and I had planted seedsI

helped her dig the holes, you knowand after days and days a little shrub or a flower came up there, and it

was a wonder how that could happen; but it did, and I wished I could talkI would have told those people

about it and shown then how much I knew, and been all alive with the subject; but I didn't care for the optics;

it was dull, and when the came back to it again it bored me, and I went to sleep.

Pretty soon it was spring, and sunny and pleasant and lovely, and the sweet mother and the children patted me

and the puppy goodby, and went away on a journey and a visit to their kin, and the master wasn't any

company for us, but we played together and had good times, and the servants were kind and friendly, so we

And one day those men came again, and said, now for the test, and they took the puppy to the laboratory, and

I limped threeleggedly along, too, feeling proud, for any attention shown to the puppy was a pleasure to me,

of course. They discussed and experimented, and then suddenly the puppy shrieked, and they set him on the

floor, and he went staggering around, with his head all bloody, and the master clapped his hands and shouted:

"It's soyou've proved your theory, and suffering humanity owes you a great debt from henceforth," and

they crowded around him, and wrung his hand cordially and thankfully, and praised him.

But I hardly saw or heard these things, for I ran at once to my little darling, and snuggled close to it where it

lay, and licked the blood, and it put its head against mine, whimpering softly, and I knew in my heart it was a

comfort to it in its pain and trouble to feel its mother's touch, though it could not see me. Then it dropped

down, presently, and its little velvet nose rested upon the floor, and it was still, and did not move any more.

Soon the master stopped discussing a moment, and rang in the footman, and said, "Bury it in the far corner of

the garden," and then went on with the discussion, and I trotted after the footman, very happy and grateful,

for I knew the puppy was out of its pain now, because it was asleep. We went far down the garden to the

farthest end, where the children and the nurse and the puppy and I used to play in the summer in the shade of

a great elm, and there the footman dug a hole, and I saw he was going to plant the puppy, and I was glad,

because it would grow and come up a fine handsome dog, like Robin Adair, and be a beautiful surprise for

the family when they came home; so I tried to help him dig, but my lame leg was no good, being stiff, you

know, and you have to have two, or it is no use. When the footman had finished and covered little Robin up,

he patted my head, and there were tears in his eyes, and he said: "Poor little doggie, you saved HIS child!"

I have watched two whole weeks, and he doesn't come up! This last week a fright has been stealing upon me.

I think there is something terrible about this. I do not know what it is, but the fear makes me sick, and I

cannot eat, though the servants bring me the best of food; and they pet me so, and even come in the night, and

cry, and say, "Poor doggiedo give it up and come home; DON't break our hearts!" and all this terrifies me

the more, and makes me sure something has happened. And I am so weak; since yesterday I cannot stand on

my feet anymore. And within this hour the servants, looking toward the sun where it was sinking out of sight

and the night chill coming on, said things I could not understand, but they carried something cold to my heart.

"Those poor creatures! They do not suspect. They will come home in the morning, and eagerly ask for the

little doggie that did the brave deed, and who of us will be strong enough to say the truth to them: 'The

The family consisted of four persons: Margaret Lester, widow, aged thirty six; Helen Lester, her daughter,

aged sixteen; Mrs. Lester's maiden aunts, Hannah and Hester Gray, twins, aged sixtyseven. Waking and

sleeping, the three women spent their days and night in adoring the young girl; in watching the movements of

her sweet spirit in the mirror of her face; in refreshing their souls with the vision of her bloom and beauty; in

listening to the music of her voice; in gratefully recognizing how rich and fair for them was the world with

this presence in it; in shuddering to think how desolate it would be with this light gone out of it.

By natureand insidethe aged aunts were utterly dear and lovable and good, but in the matter of morals

and conduct their training had been so uncompromisingly strict that it had made them exteriorly austere, not

to say stern. Their influence was effective in the house; so effective that the mother and the daughter

conformed to its moral and religious requirements cheerfully, contentedly, happily, unquestionably. To do

this was become second nature to them. And so in this peaceful heaven there were no clashings, no irritations,

In it a lie had no place. In it a lie was unthinkable. In it speech was restricted to absolute truth, ironbound

truth, implacable and uncompromising truth, let the resulting consequences be what they might. At last, one

day, under stress of circumstances, the darling of the house sullied her lips with a lieand confessed it, with

tears and selfupbraidings. There are not any words that can paint the consternation of the aunts. It was as if

the sky had crumpled up and collapsed and the earth had tumbled to ruin with a crash. They sat side by side,

white and stern, gazing speechless upon the culprit, who was on her knees before them with her face buried

first in one lap and then the other, moaning and sobbing, and appealing for sympathy and forgiveness and

getting no response, humbly kissing the hand of the one, then of the other, only to see it withdrawn as

Twice, at intervals, Aunt Hannah followed with the muttered and amazed ejaculation:

It was all they could say. The situation was new, unheard of, incredible; they could not understand it, they did

At length it was decided that the erring child must be taken to her mother, who was ill, and who ought to

know what had happened. Helen begged, besought, implored that she might be spared this further disgrace,

and that her mother might be spared the grief and pain of it; but this could not be: duty required this sacrifice,

duty takes precedence of all things, nothing can absolve one from a duty, with a duty no compromise is

Helen still begged, and said the sin was her own, her mother had had no hand in itwhy must she be made

But the aunts were obdurate in their righteousness, and said the law that visited the sins of the parent upon the

child was by all right and reason reversible; and therefore it was but just that the innocent mother of a sinning

child should suffer her rightful share of the grief and pain and shame which were the allotted wages of the

At this time the doctor was approaching the house. He was still a good distance away, however. He was a

good doctor and a good man, and he had a good heart, but one had to know him a year to get over hating him,

two years to learn to endure him, three to learn to like him, and four and five to learn to live him. It was a

slow and trying education, but it paid. He was of great stature; he had a leonine head, a leonine face, a rough

voice, and an eye which was sometimes a pirate's and sometimes a woman's, according to the mood. He knew

nothing about etiquette, and cared nothing about it; in speech, manner, carriage, and conduct he was the

reverse of conventional. He was frank, to the limit; he had opinions on all subjects; they were always on tap

and ready for delivery, and he cared not a farthing whether his listener liked them or didn't. Whom he loved

he loved, and manifested it; whom he didn't live he hated, and published it from the housetops. In his young

days he had been a sailor, and the saltairs of all the seas blew from him yet. He was a sturdy and loyal

Christian, and believed he was the best one in the land, and the only one whose Christianity was perfectly

sound, healthy, fullcharged with common sense, and had no decayed places in it. People who had an ax to

grind, or people who for any reason wanted wanted to get on the soft side of him, called him The Christian

a phrase whose delicate flattery was music to his ears, and whose capital T was such an enchanting and vivid

object to him that he could SEE it when it fell out of a person's mouth even in the dark. Many who were fond

of him stood on their consciences with both feet and brazenly called him by that large title habitually, because

it was a pleasure to them to do anything that would please him; and with eager and cordial malice his

extensive and diligently cultivated crop of enemies gilded it, beflowered it, expanded it to "The ONLY

Christian." Of these two titles, the latter had the wider currency; the enemy, being greatly in the majority,

attended to that. Whatever the doctor believed, he believed with all his heart, and would fight for it whenever

he got the chance; and if the intervals between chances grew to be irksomely wide, he would invent ways of

shortening them himself. He was severely conscientious, according to his rather independent lights, and

whatever he took to be a duty he performed, no matter whether the judgment of the professional moralists

agreed with his own or not. At sea, in his young days, he had used profanity freely, but as soon as he was

converted he made a rule, which he rigidly stuck to ever afterward, never to use it except on the rarest

occasions, and then only when duty commanded. He had been a hard drinker at sea, but after his conversion

he became a firm and outspoken teetotaler, in order to be an example to the young, and from that time forth

he seldom drank; never, indeed, except when it seemed to him to be a duty a condition which sometimes

Necessarily, such a man is impressionable, impulsive, emotional. This one was, and had no gift at hiding his

feelings; or if he had it he took no trouble to exercise it. He carried his soul's prevailing weather in his face,

and when he entered a room the parasols or the umbrellas went upfiguratively speaking according to the

indications. When the soft light was in his eye it meant approval, and delivered a benediction; when he came

with a frown he lowered the temperature ten degrees. He was a wellbeloved man in the house of his friends,

He had a deep affection for the Lester household and its several members returned this feeling with interest.

They mourned over his kind of Christianity, and he frankly scoffed at theirs; but both parties went on loving

He was approaching the houseout of the distance; the aunts and the culprit were moving toward the

The three last named stood by the bed; the aunts austere, the transgressor softly sobbing. The mother turned

her head on the pillow; her tired eyes flamed up instantly with sympathy and passionate motherlove when

"Wait!" said Aunt Hannah, and put out her hand and stayed the girl from leaping into them.

"Helen," said the other aunt, impressively, "tell your mother all. Purge your soul; leave nothing unconfessed."

Standing stricken and forlorn before her judges, the young girl mourned her sorrowful tale through the end,

"Forgive you, my darling? Oh, come to my arms!there, lay your head upon my breast, and be at peace. If

There was a sounda warningthe clearing of a throat. The aunts glanced up, and withered in their

clothesthere stood the doctor, his face a thundercloud. Mother and child knew nothing of his presence;

they lay locked together, heart to heart, steeped in immeasurable content, dead to all things else. The

physician stood many moments glaring and glooming upon the scene before him; studying it, analyzing it,

searching out its genesis; then he put up his hand and beckoned to the aunts. They came trembling to him,

"Didn't I tell you this patient must be protected from all excitement? What the hell have you been doing?

They obeyed. Half an hour later he appeared in the parlor, serene, cheery, clothed in sunshine, conducting

Helen, with his arm about her waist, petting her, and saying gentle and playful things to her; and she also was

"Now, then;" he said, "goodby, dear. Go to your room, and keep away from your mother, and behave

yourself. But waitput out your tongue. There, that will doyou're as sound as a nut!" He patted her cheek

She went from the presence. His face clouded over again at once; and as he sat down he said:

"You too have been doing a lot of damageand maybe some good. Some good, yessuch as it is. That

woman's disease is typhoid! You've brought it to a showup, I think, with your insanities, and that's a

"You'll do nothing of the kind; you've done enough harm for one day. Do you want to squander all your

capital of crimes and follies on a single deal? Sit down, I tell you. I have arranged for her to sleep; she needs

it; if you disturb her without my orders, I'll brain you if you've got the materials for it.

They sat down, distressed and indignant, but obedient, under compulsion. He proceeded:

"Now, then, I want this case explained. THEY wanted to explain it to meas if there hadn't been emotion or

excitement enough already. You knew my orders; how did you dare to go in there and get up that riot?"

Hester looked appealing at Hannah; Hannah returned a beseeching look at Hesterneither wanted to dance

Fingering at the fringes of her shawl, and with lowered eyes, Hester said, timidly:

"We should not have disobeyed for any ordinary cause, but this was vital. This was a duty. With a duty one

has no choice; one must put all lighter considerations aside and perform it. We were obliged to arraign her

The doctor glowered upon the woman a moment, and seemed to be trying to work up in his mind an

"She told a lie! DID she? God bless my soul! I tell a million a day! And so does every doctor. And so does

everybodyincluding you for that matter. And THAT was the important thing that authorized you to

venture to disobey my orders and imperil that woman's life! Look here, Hester Gray, this is pure lunacy; that

girl COULDN'T tell a lie that was intended to injure a person. The thing is impossible absolutely

"Hester didn't mean that it was that kind of a lie, and it wasn't. But it was a lie."

"Well, upon my word, I never heard such nonsense! Haven't you got sense enough to discriminate between

lies! Don't you know the difference between a lie that helps and a lie that hurts?"

"ALL lies are sinful," said Hannah, setting her lips together like a vise; "all lies are forbidden."

The Only Christian fidgeted impatiently in his chair. He went to attack this proposition, but he did not quite

"Hester, wouldn't you tell a lie to shield a person from an undeserved injury or shame?"

There was a husha silence which endured a measurable interval then Hester answered, in a low voice,

"Because to tell such a lie, or any lie, is a sin, and could cost us the loss of our own soulsWOULD, indeed,

"Strange . . . strange . . . it is past belief." Then he asked, roughly: "Is such a soul as that WORTH saving?"

He rose up, mumbling and grumbling, and started for the door, stumping vigorously along. At the threshold

he turned and rasped out an admonition: "Reform! Drop this mean and sordid and selfish devotion to the

saving of your shabby little souls, and hunt up something to do that's got some dignity to it! RISK your souls!

The good old gentlewomen sat paralyzed, pulverized, outraged, insulted, and brooded in bitterness and

indignation over these blasphemies. They were hurt to the heart, poor old ladies, and said they could never

Time slipped along, and in due course a change came over their spirits. They had completed the human

being's first dutywhich is to think about himself until he has exhausted the subject, then he is in a condition

to take up minor interests and think of other people. This changes the complexion of his spiritsgenerally

wholesomely. The minds of the two old ladies reverted to their beloved niece and the fearful disease which

had smitten her; instantly they forgot the hurts their selflove had received, and a passionate desire rose in

their hearts to go to the help of the sufferer and comfort her with their love, and minister to her, and labor for

her the best they could with their weak hands, and joyfully and affectionately wear out their poor old bodies

"And we shall have it!" said Hester, with the tears running down her face. "There are no nurses comparable to

us, for there are no others that will stand their watch by that bed till they drop and die, and God knows we

"Amen," said Hannah, smiling approval and endorsement through the mist of moisture that blurred her

glasses. "The doctor knows us, and knows we will not disobey again; and he will call no others. He will not

"Dare?" said Hester, with temper, and dashing the water from her eyes; "he will dare anythingthat

Christian devil! But it will do no good for him to try it this timebut, laws! Hannah! after all's said and

done, he is gifted and wise and good, and he would not think of such a thing. . . . It is surely time for one of

They caught the sound of his approaching step. He entered, sat down, and began to talk.

"Margaret is a sick woman," he said. "She is still sleeping, but she will wake presently; then one of you must

go to her. She will be worse before she is better. Pretty soon a nightandday watch must be set. How much

"You DO ring true, you brave old relics! And you SHALL do all of the nursing you can, for there's none to

match you in that divine office in this town; but you can't do all of it, and it would be a crime to let you." It

was grand praise, golden praise, coming from such a source, and it took nearly all the resentment out of the

aged twin's hearts. "Your Tilly and my old Nancy shall do the restgood nurses both, white souls with black

skins, watchful, loving, tenderjust perfect nurses!and competent liars from the cradle. . . . Look you!

"How can you make an odious confession like that, in so indifferent a tone, when you know how we feel

"Hush! You are as ignorant as cats, both of you, and you don't know what you are talking about. You are like

all the rest of the moral moles; you lie from morning till night, but because you don't do it with your mouths,

but only with your lying eyes, your lying inflections, your deceptively misplaced emphasis, and your

misleading gestures, you turn up your complacent noses and parade before God and the world as saintly and

unsmirched TruthSpeakers, in whose coldstorage souls a lie would freeze to death if it got there! Why will

you humbug yourselves with that foolish notion that no lie is a lie except a spoken one? What is the

difference between lying with your eyes and lying with your mouth? There is none; and if you would reflect a

moment you would see that it is so. There isn't a human being that doesn't tell a gross of lies every day of his

life; and youwhy, between you, you tell thirty thousand; yet you flare up here in a lurid hypocritical horror

because I tell that child a benevolent and sinless lie to protect her from her imagination, which would get to

work and warm up her blood to a fever in an hour, if I were disloyal enough to my duty to let it. Which I

should probably do if I were interested in saving my soul by such disreputable means.

"Come, let us reason together. Let us examine details. When you two were in the sickroom raising that riot,

"To keep me from finding out your guilt; to beguile me to infer that Margaret's excitement proceeded from

some cause not known to you. In a word, to tell me a liea silent lie. Moreover, a possibly harmful one."

"You not only tell myriads of silent lies, but you tell lies with your mouthsyou two."

"It is so. But only harmless ones. You never dream of uttering a harmful one. Do you know that that is a

"It is an unconscious concession that harmless lies are not criminal; it is a confession that you constantly

MAKE that discrimination. For instance, you declined old Mrs. Foster's invitation last week to meet those

odious Higbies at supperin a polite note in which you expressed regret and said you were very sorry you

could not go. It was a lie. It was as unmitigated a lie as was ever uttered. Deny it, Hesterwith another lie."

The color stole into the cheeks of both women, and with a struggle and an effort they got out their confession:

"Goodthe reform is beginning; there is hope for you yet; you will not tell a lie to save your dearest friend's

soul, but you will spew out one without a scruple to save yourself the discomfort of telling an unpleasant

"We have lied; we perceive it; it will occur no more. To lie is a sin. We shall never tell another one of any

kind whatsoever, even lies of courtesy or benevolence, to save any one a pang or a sorrow decreed for him by

"Ah, how soon you will fall! In fact, you have fallen already; for what you have just uttered is a lie.

Mother and child were lingering in the grip of the hideous disease. Of hope for either there was little. The

aged sisters looked white and worn, but they would not give up their posts. Their hearts were breaking, poor

old things, but their grit was steadfast and indestructible. All the twelve days the mother had pined for the

child, and the child for the mother, but both knew that the prayer of these longings could not be granted.

When the mother was told on the first daythat her disease was typhoid, she was frightened, and asked if

there was danger that Helen could have contracted it the day before, when she was in the sickchamber on

that confession visit. Hester told her the doctor had poopooed the idea. It troubled Hester to say it, although

it was true, for she had not believed the doctor; but when she saw the mother's joy in the news, the pain in her

conscience lost something of its forcea result which made her ashamed of the constructive deception

which she had practiced, though not ashamed enough to make her distinctly and definitely wish she had

refrained from it. From that moment the sick woman understood that her daughter must remain away, and she

said she would reconcile herself to the separation the best she could, for she would rather suffer death than

have her child's health imperiled. That afternoon Helen had to take to her bed, ill. She grew worse during the

Hester turned cold; she opened her lips, but the words refused to come. The mother lay languidly looking,

Hester told this incident to Hannah, who received it with a rebuking look, and said, coldly:

"Oh, Hannah, it was a sin, but I could not help it. I could not endure the fright and the misery that were in her

"Oh, I know it, I know it," cried Hester, wringing her hands, "but even if it were now, I could not help it. I

In the morning she had a cruel report to bear to the mother, and she braced herself for the trial. When she

returned from her mission, Hester was waiting, pale and trembling, in the hall. She whispered:

Hester gathered her to her heart, with a grateful "God bless you, Hannah!" and poured out her thankfulness in

After that, the two knew the limit of their strength, and accepted their fate. They surrendered humbly, and

abandoned themselves to the hard requirements of the situation. Daily they told the morning lie, and

confessed their sin in prayer; not asking forgiveness, as not being worthy of it, but only wishing to make

record that they realized their wickedness and were not desiring to hide it or excuse it.

Daily, as the fair young idol of the house sank lower and lower, the sorrowful old aunts painted her glowing

bloom and her fresh young beauty to the wan mother, and winced under the stabs her ecstasies of joy and

In the first days, while the child had strength to hold a pencil, she wrote fond little lovenotes to her mother,

in which she concealed her illness; and these the mother read and reread through happy eyes wet with

thankful tears, and kissed them over and over again, and treasured them as precious things under her pillow.

Then came a day when the strength was gone from the hand, and the mind wandered, and the tongue babbled

pathetic incoherences. this was a sore dilemma for the poor aunts. There were no lovenotes for the mother.

They did not know what to do. Hester began a carefully studied and plausible explanation, but lost the track

of it and grew confused; suspicion began to show in the mother's face, then alarm. Hester saw it, recognized

the imminence of the danger, and descended to the emergency, pulling herself resolutely together and

plucking victor from the open jaws of defeat. In a placid and convincing voice she said:

"I thought it might distress you to know it, but Helen spent the night at the Sloanes'. There was a little party

there, and, although she did not want to go, and you so sick, we persuaded her, she being young and needing

the innocent pastimes of youth, and we believing you would approve. Be sure she will write the moment she

"How good you are, and how dear and thoughtful for us both! Approve? Why, I thank you with all my heart.

My poor little exile! Tell her I want her to have every pleasure she canI would not rob her of one. Only let

her keep her health, that is all I ask. Don't let that suffer; I could not bear it. How thankful I am that she

escaped this infectionand what a narrow risk she ran, Aunt Hester! Think of that lovely face all dulled and

burned with fever. I can't bear the thought of it. Keep her health. Keep her bloom! I can see her now, the

dainty creaturewith the big, blue, earnest eyes; and sweet, oh, so sweet and gentle and winning! Is she as

"Oh, more beautiful and bright and charming than ever she was before, if such a thing can be"and Hester

After a little, both aunts were laboring upon a difficult and baffling work in Helen's chamber. Patiently and

earnestly, with their stiff old fingers, they were trying to forge the required note. They made failure after

failure, but they improved little by little all the time. The pity of it all, the pathetic humor of it, there was none

to see; they themselves were unconscious of it. Often their tears fell upon the notes and spoiled them;

sometimes a single misformed word made a note risky which could have been ventured but for that; but at

last Hannah produced one whose script was a good enough imitation of Helen's to pass any but a suspicious

eye, and bountifully enriched it with the petting phrases and loving nicknames that had been familiar on the

child's lips from her nursery days. She carried it to the mother, who took it with avidity, and kissed it, and

fondled it, reading its precious words over and over again, and dwelling with deep contentment upon its

"Mousie darling, if I could only see you, and kiss your eyes, and feel your arms about me! I am so glad my

practicing does not disturb you. Get well soon. Everybody is good to me, but I am so lonesome without you,

"The poor child, I know just how she feels. She cannot be quite happy without me; and Ioh, I live in the

light of her eyes! Tell her she must practice all she pleases; and, Aunt Hannah tell her I can't hear the piano

this far, nor hear dear voice when she sings: God knows I wish I could. No one knows how sweet that voice

"Only becausebecauseit was just a memory. When I came away she was singing, 'Loch Lomond.' The

"And me, too. How heartbreakingly beautiful it is when some youthful sorrow is brooding in her breast and

"I am very ill. Sometimes it comes over me that I shall never hear that dear voice again."

"Theretherelet me put my arms around you. Don't cry. Thereput your cheek to mine. Be comforted. I

wish to live. I will live if I can. Ah, what could she do without me! . . . Does she often speak of me?but I

"I knew it. It is her dear, impulsive, affectionate way. I knew it without asking, but I wanted to hear you say

it. The petted wife knows she is loved, but she makes her husband tell her so every day, just for the joy of

hearing it. . . . She used the pen this time. That is better; the pencilmarks could rub out, and I should grieve

"I was hoping you would say that. There was never such a dear and thoughtful child! . . . Aunt Hannah?"

"Go and tell her I think of her all the time, and worship her. Whyyou are crying again. Don't be so worried

The grieving messenger carried her message, and piously delivered it to unheeding ears. The girl babbled on

unaware; looking up at her with wondering and startled eyes flaming with fever, eyes in which was no light

"Are youno, you are not my mother. I want heroh, I want her! She was here a minute agoI did not see

her go. Will she come? will she come quickly? will she come now? . . . There are so many houses . . . and

they oppress me so . . . and everything whirls and turns and whirls . . . oh, my head, my head!"and so she

wandered on and on, in her pain, flitting from one torturing fancy to another, and tossing her arms about in a

Poor old Hannah wetted the parched lips and softly stroked the hot brow, murmuring endearing and pitying

words, and thanking the Father of all that the mother was happy and did not know.

Daily the child sank lower and steadily lower towards the grave, and daily the sorrowing old watchers carried

gilded tidings of her radiant health and loveliness to the happy mother, whose pilgrimage was also now

nearing its end. And daily they forged loving and cheery notes in the child's hand, and stood by with

remorseful consciences and bleeding hearts, and wept to see the grateful mother devour them and adore them

and treasure them away as things beyond price, because of their sweet source, and sacred because her child's

At last came that kindly friend who brings healing and peace to all. The lights were burning low. In the

solemn hush which precedes the dawn vague figures flitted soundless along the dim hall and gathered silent

and awed in Helen's chamber, and grouped themselves about her bed, for a warning had gone forth, and they

knew. The dying girl lay with closed lids, and unconscious, the drapery upon her breast faintly rising and

falling as her wasting life ebbed away. At intervals a sigh or a muffled sob broke upon the stillness. The same

haunting thought was in all minds there: the pity of this death, the going out into the great darkness, and the

Helen stirred; her hands began to grope wistfully about as if they sought somethingshe had been blind

some hours. The end was come; all knew it. With a great sob Hester gathered her to her breast, crying, "Oh,

my child, my darling!" A rapturous light broke in the dying girl's face, for it was mercifully vouchsafed her to

mistake those sheltering arms for another's; and she went to her rest murmuring, "Oh, mamma, I am so

A sheaf of white crape and black was hung upon the door of the house, and there it swayed and rustled in the

wind and whispered its tidings. At noon the preparation of the dead was finished, and in the coffin lay the fair

young form, beautiful, and in the sweet face a great peace. Two mourners sat by it, grieving and

worshipping Hannah and the black woman Tilly. Hester came, and she was trembling, for a great trouble

Hannah's face blanched. She had not thought of this; it had seemed that that pathetic service was ended. But

she realized now that that could not be. For a little while the two women stood looking into each other's face,

"Yes. It would break her heart." She looked at the dead face, and her eyes filled. "I will write it," she said.

"Darling Mousie, dear sweet mother, we shall soon be together again. Is not that good news? And it is true;

"Poor child, how will she bear it when she knows? I shall never see her again in life. It is hard, so hard. She

"How good you are, and careful, dear Aunt Hester! None goes near herr who could carry the infection?"

"That is so good. Others one could not trust; but you two guardian angelssteel is not so true as you. Others

"Let me kiss you for her, Aunt Hester; and when I am gone, and the danger is past, place the kiss upon her

dear lips some day, and say her mother sent it, and all her mother's broken heart is in it."

Within the hour, Hester, raining tears upon the dead face, performed her pathetic mission.

Another day dawned, and grew, and spread its sunshine in the earth. Aunt Hannah brought comforting news

to the failing mother, and a happy note, which said again, "We have but a little time to wait, darling mother,

"Aunt Hannah, it is tolling. Some poor soul is at rest. As I shall be soon. You will not let her forget me?"

"Do not you hear strange noises, Aunt Hannah? It sounds like the shuffling of many feet."

"We hoped you would not hear it, dear. It is a little company gathering, forfor Helen's sake, poor little

prisoner. There will be musicand she loves it so. We thought you would not mind."

"Mind? Oh no, nooh, give her everything her dear heart can desire. How good you two are to her, and how

"How lovely! It is her organ. Is she playing it herself, do you think?" Faint and rich and inspiring the chords

floating to her ears on the still air. "Yes, it is her touch, dear heart, I recognize it. They are singing. Whyit

is a hymn! and the sacredest of all, the most touching, the most consoling. . . . It seems to open the gates of

With the closing of the hymn another soul passed to its rest, and they that had been one in life were not

At midnight they sat together, grieving, and the angel of the Lord appeared in the midst transfigured with a

"For liars a place is appointed. There they burn in the fires of hell from everlasting unto everlasting. Repent!"

The bereaved fell upon their knees before him and clasped their hands and bowed their gray heads, adoring.

"Speak! that I may bear the message to the chancery of heaven and bring again the decree from which there is

"Our sin is great, and we suffer shame; but only perfect and final repentance can make us whole; and we are

poor creatures who have learned our human weakness, and we know that if we were in those hard straits

again our hearts would fail again, and we should sin as before. The strong could prevail, and so be saved, but

They lifted their heads in supplication. The angel was gone. While they marveled and wept he came again;

By courtesy of Mr. Cable I came into possession of a singular book eight or ten years ago. It is likely that

mine is now the only copy in existence. Its titlepage, unabbreviated, reads as follows:

No one can take up this book and lay it down again unread. Whoever reads one line of it is caught, is chained;

he has become the contented slave of its fascinations; and he will read and read, devour and devour, and will

not let it go out of his hand till it is finished to the last line, though the house be on fire over his head. And

after a first reading he will not throw it aside, but will keep it by him, with his Shakespeare and his Homer,

and will take it up many and many a time, when the world is dark and his spirits are low, and be straightway

cheered and refreshed. Yet this work has been allowed to lie wholly neglected, unmentioned, and apparently

The reader must not imagine that he is to find in it wisdom, brilliancy, fertility of invention, ingenuity of

construction, excellence of form, purity of style, perfection of imagery, truth to nature, clearness of statement,

humanly possible situations, humanly possible people, fluent narrative, connected sequence of events or

philosophy, or logic, or sense. No; the rich, deep, beguiling charm of the book lies in the total and miraculous

ABSENCE from it of all these qualitiesa charm which is completed and perfected by the evident fact that

the author, whose naive innocence easily and surely wins our regard, and almost our worship, does not know

that they are absent, does not even suspect that they are absent. When read by the light of these helps to an

understanding of the situation, the book is deliciousprofoundly and satisfyingly delicious.

I call it a book because the author calls it a book, I call it a work because he calls it a work; but, in truth, it is

merely a duodecimo pamphlet of thirtyone pages. It was written for fame and money, as the author very

franklyyes, and very hopefully, too, poor fellow says in his preface. The money never cameno penny

of it ever came; and how long, how pathetically long, the fame has been deferred fortyseven years! He

was young then, it would have been so much to him then; but will he care for it now?

As time is measured in America, McClintock's epoch is antiquity. In his longvanished day the Southern

author had a passion for "eloquence"; it was his pet, his darling. He would be eloquent, or perish. And he

recognized only one kind of eloquencethe lurid, the tempestuous, the volcanic. He liked wordsbig

words, fine words, grand words, rumbling, thundering, reverberating words; with sense attaching if it could

be got in without marring the sound, but not otherwise. He loved to stand up before a dazed world, and pour

forth flame and smoke and lava and pumicestone into the skies, and work his subterranean thunders, and

shake himself with earthquakes, and stench himself with sulphur fumes. If he consumed his own fields and

vineyards, that was a pity, yes; but he would have his eruption at any cost. Mr. McClintock's eloquence

and he is always eloquent, his crater is always spoutingis of the pattern common to his day, but he departs

from the custom of the time in one respect: his brethren allowed sense to intrude when it did not mar the

sound, but he does not allow it to intrude at all. For example, consider this figure, which he used in the

village "Address" referred to with such candid complacency in the titlepage above quoted"like the

topmost topaz of an ancient tower." Please read it again; contemplate it; measure it; walk around it; climb up

it; try to get at an approximate realization of the size of it. Is the fellow to that to be found in literature,

ancient or modern, foreign or domestic, living or dead, drunk or sober? One notices how fine and grand it

sounds. We know that if it was loftily uttered, it got a noble burst of applause from the villagers; yet there

McClintock finished his education at Yale in 1843, and came to Hartford on a visit that same year. I have

talked with men who at that time talked with him, and felt of him, and knew he was real. One needs to

remember that fact and to keep fast hold of it; it is the only way to keep McClintock's book from undermining

As to the book. The first four pages are devoted to an inflamed eulogy of Womansimply woman in

general, or perhaps as an institution wherein, among other compliments to her details, he pays a unique

one to her voice. He says it "fills the breast with fond alarms, echoed by every rill." It sounds well enough,

but it is not true. After the eulogy he takes up his real work and the novel begins. It begins in the woods, near

Brightening clouds seemed to rise from the mist of the fair Chattahoochee, to spread their beauty over the

thick forest, to guide the hero whose bosom beats with aspirations to conquer the enemy that would tarnish

It seems a general remark, but it is not general; the hero mentioned is the tobe hero of the book; and in this

abrupt fashion, and without name or description, he is shoveled into the tale. "With aspirations to conquer the

enemy that would tarnish his name" is merely a phrase flung in for the sake of the soundlet it not mislead

the reader. No one is trying to tarnish this person; no one has thought of it. The rest of the sentence is also

merely a phrase; the man has no friend as yet, and of course has had no chance to try him, or win back his

The hero climbs up over "Sawney's Mountain," and down the other side, making for an old Indian

"castle"which becomes "the red man's hut" in the next sentence; and when he gets there at last, he "surveys

with wonder and astonishment" the invisible structure, "which time has buried in the dust, and thought to

himself his happiness was not yet complete." One doesn't know why it wasn't, nor how near it came to being

complete, nor what was still wanting to round it up and make it so. Maybe it was the Indian; but the book

Beside the shore of the brook sat a young man, about eighteen or twenty, who seemed to be reading some

favorite book, and who had a remarkably noble countenanceeyes which betrayed more than a common

mind. This of course made the youth a welcome guest, and gained him friends in whatever condition of his

life he might be placed. The traveler observed that he was a wellbuilt figure which showed strength and

grace in every movement. He accordingly addressed him in quite a gentlemanly manner, and inquired of him

the way to the village. After he had received the desired information, and was about taking his leave, the

youth said, "Are you not Major Elfonzo, the great musician [2]the champion of a noble cause the

modern Achilles, who gained so many victories in the Florida War?" "I bear that name," said the Major, "and

those titles, trusting at the same time that the ministers of grace will carry me triumphantly through all my

laudable undertakings, and if," continued the Major, "you, sir, are the patronizer of noble deeds, I should like

to make you my confidant and learn your address." The youth looked somewhat amazed, bowed low, mused

for a moment, and began: "My name is Roswell. I have been recently admitted to the bar, and can only give a

faint outline of my future success in that honorable profession; but I trust, sir, like the Eagle, I shall look

down from the lofty rocks upon the dwellings of man, and shall ever be ready to give you any assistance in

my official capacity, and whatever this muscular arm of mine can do, whenever it shall be called from its

buried GREATNESS." The Major grasped him by the hand, and exclaimed: "O! thou exalted spirit of

inspirationthou flame of burning prosperity, may the Heavendirected blaze be the glare of thy soul, and

There is a strange sort of originality about McClintock; he imitates other people's styles, but nobody can

imitate his, not even an idiot. Other people can be windy, but McClintock blows a gale; other people can

blubber sentiment, but McClintock spews it; other people can mishandle metaphors, but only McClintock

knows how to make a business of it. McClintock is always McClintock, he is always consistent, his style is

always his own style. He does not make the mistake of being relevant on one page and irrelevant on another;

he is irrelevant on all of them. He does not make the mistake of being lucid in one place and obscure in

another; he is obscure all the time. He does not make the mistake of slipping in a name here and there that is

out of character with his work; he always uses names that exactly and fantastically fit his lunatics. In the

matter of undeviating consistency he stands alone in authorship. It is this that makes his style unique, and

entitles it to a name of its ownMcClintockian. It is this that protects it from being mistaken for anybody

else's. Uncredited quotations from other writers often leave a reader in doubt as to their authorship, but

McClintock is safe from that accident; an uncredited quotation from him would always be recognizable.

When a boy nineteen years old, who had just been admitted to the bar, says, "I trust, sir, like the Eagle, I shall

look down from lofty rocks upon the dwellings of man," we know who is speaking through that boy; we

should recognize that note anywhere. There be myriads of instruments in this world's literary orchestra, and a

multitudinous confusion of sounds that they make, wherein fiddles are drowned, and guitars smothered, and

one sort of drum mistaken for another sort; but whensoever the brazen note of the McClintockian trombone

breaks through that fog of music, that note is recognizable, and about it there can be no blur of doubt.

The novel now arrives at the point where the Major goes home to see his father. When McClintock wrote this

The road which led to the town presented many attractions Elfonzo had bid farewell to the youth of deep

feeling, and was now wending his way to the dreaming spot of his fondness. The south winds whistled

through the woods, as the waters dashed against the banks, as rapid fire in the pent furnace roars. This

brought him to remember while alone, that he quietly left behind the hospitality of a father's house, and

gladly entered the world, with higher hopes than are often realized. But as he journeyed onward, he was

mindful of the advice of his father, who had often looked sadly on the ground, when tears of cruelly deceived

hope moistened his eyes. Elfonzo had been somewhat a dutiful son; yet fond of the amusements of life had

been in distant landshad enjoyed the pleasure of the world, and had frequently returned to the scenes of his

boyhood, almost destitute of many of the comforts of life. In this condition, he would frequently say to his

father, "Have I offended you, that you look upon me as a stranger, and frown upon me with stinging looks?

Will you not favor me with the sound of your voice? If I have trampled upon your veneration, or have spread

a humid veil of darkness around your expectations, send me back into the world, where no heart beats for

mewhere the foot of man had never yet trod; but give me at least one kind wordallow me to come into

the presence sometimes of thy winterworn locks." "Forbid it, Heaven, that I should be angry with thee,"

answered the father, "my son, and yet I send thee back to the children of the worldto the cold charity of the

combat, and to a land of victory. I read another destiny in thy countenanceI learn thy inclinations from the

flame that has already kindled in my soul a strange sensation. It will seek thee, my dear ELFONZO, it will

find theethou canst not escape that lighted torch, which shall blot out from the remembrance of men a long

train of prophecies which they have foretold against thee. I once thought not so. Once, I was blind; but now

the path of life is plain before me, and my sight is clear; yet, Elfonzo, return to thy worldly occupationtake

again in thy hand that chord of sweet sounds struggle with the civilized world and with your own heart; fly

swiftly to the enchanted groundlet the nightOWL send forth its screams from the stubborn oaklet the

sea sport upon the beach, and the stars sing together; but learn of these, Elfonzo, thy doom, and thy

hidingplace. Our most innocent as well as our most lawful DESIRES must often be denied us, that we may

Remembering such admonitions with gratitude, Elfonzo was immediately urged by the recollection of his

McClintock has a fine gift in the matter of surprises; but as a rule they are not pleasant ones, they jar upon the

feelings. His closing sentence in the last quotation is of that sort. It brings one down out of the tinted clouds

in too sudden and collapsed a fashion. It incenses one against the author for a moment. It makes the reader

want to take him by this winterworn locks, and trample on his veneration, and deliver him over to the cold

charity of combat, and blot him out with his own lighted torch. But the feeling does not last. The master takes

again in his hand that concord of sweet sounds of his, and one is reconciled, pacified.

His steps became quicker and quickerhe hastened through the PINY woods, dark as the forest was, and

with joy he very soon reached the little village of repose, in whose bosom rested the boldest chivalry. His

close attention to every important objecthis modest questions about whatever was new to himhis

reverence for wise old age, and his ardent desire to learn many of the fine arts, soon brought him into

One mild winter day, as he walked along the streets toward the Academy, which stood upon a small

eminence, surrounded by native growth some venerable in its appearance, others young and prosperous

all seemed inviting, and seemed to be the very place for learning as well as for genius to spend its research

beneath its spreading shades. He entered its classic walls in the usual mode of southern manners.

The artfulness of this man! None knows so well as he how to pique the curiosity of the readerand how to

disappoint it. He raises the hope, here, that he is going to tell all about how one enters a classic wall in the

usual mode of Southern manners; but does he? No; he smiles in his sleeve, and turns aside to other matters.

The principal of the Institution begged him to be seated and listen to the recitations that were going on. He

accordingly obeyed the request, and seemed to be much pleased. After the school was dismissed, and the

young hearts regained their freedom, with the songs of the evening, laughing at the anticipated pleasures of a

happy home, while others tittered at the actions of the past day, he addressed the teacher in a tone that

indicated a resolution with an undaunted mind. He said he had determined to become a student, if he could

meet with his approbation. "Sir," said he, "I have spent much time in the world. I have traveled among the

uncivilized inhabitants of America. I have met with friends, and combated with foes; but none of these gratify

my ambition, or decide what is to be my destiny. I see the learned world have an influence with the voice of

the people themselves. The despoilers of the remotest kingdoms of the earth refer their differences to this

class of persons. This the illiterate and inexperienced little dream of; and now if you will receive me as I am,

with these deficiencieswith all my misguided opinions, I will give you my honor, sir, that I will never

disgrace the Institution, or those who have placed you in this honorable station." The instructor, who had met

with many disappointments, knew how to feel for a stranger who had been thus turned upon the charities of

an unfeeling community. He looked at him earnestly, and said: "Be of good cheerlook forward, sir, to the

high destination you may attain. Remember, the more elevated the mark at which you aim, the more sure, the

more glorious, the more magnificent the prize." From wonder to wonder, his encouragement led the impatient

listener. A strange nature bloomed before himgiant streams promised him successgardens of hidden

treasures opened to his view. All this, so vividly described, seemed to gain a new witchery from his glowing

It seems to me that this situation is new in romance. I feel sure it has not been attempted before. Military

celebrities have been disguised and set at lowly occupations for dramatic effect, but I think McClintock is the

first to send one of them to school. Thus, in this book, you pass from wonder to wonder, through gardens of

hidden treasure, where giant streams bloom before you, and behind you, and all around, and you feel as

happy, and groggy, and satisfied with your quart of mixed metaphor aboard as you would if it had been

Now we come upon some more McClintockian surprisea sweetheart who is sprung upon us without any

preparation, along with a name for her which is even a little more of a surprise than she herself is.

In 1842 he entered the class, and made rapid progress in the English and Latin departments. Indeed, he

continued advancing with such rapidity that he was like to become the first in his class, and made such

unexpected progress, and was so studious, that he had almost forgotten the pictured saint of his affections.

The fresh wreaths of the pine and cypress had waited anxiously to drop once more the dews of Heaven upon

the heads of those who had so often poured forth the tender emotions of their souls under its boughs. He was

aware of the pleasure that he had seen there. So one evening ,as he was returning from his reading, he

concluded he would pay a visit to this enchanting spot. Little did he think of witnessing a shadow of his

former happiness, though no doubt he wished it might be so. He continued sauntering by the roadside,

meditating on the past. The nearer he approached the spot, the more anxious he became. At that moment a tall

female figure flitted across his path, with a bunch of roses in her hand; her countenance showed uncommon

vivacity, with a resolute spirit; her ivory teeth already appeared as she smiled beautifully,

promenadingwhile her ringlets of hair dangled unconsciously around her snowy neck. Nothing was

wanting to complete her beauty. The tinge of the rose was in full bloom upon her cheek; the charms of

sensibility and tenderness were always her associates. In Ambulinia's bosom dwelt a noble soulone that

Ambulinia! It can hardly be matched in fiction. The full name is Ambulinia Valeer. Marriage will presently

round it out and perfect it. Then it will be Mrs. Ambulinia Valeer Elfonzo. It takes the chromo.

Her heart yielded to no feeling but the love of Elfonzo, on whom she gazed with intense delight, and to whom

she felt herself more closely bound, because he sought the hand of no other. Elfonzo was roused from his

apparent reverie. His books no longer were his inseparable companionshis thoughts arrayed themselves to

encourage him to the field of victory. He endeavored to speak to his supposed Ambulinia, but his speech

appeared not in words. No, his effort was a stream of fire, that kindled his soul into a flame of admiration,

and carried his senses away captive. Ambulinia had disappeared, to make him more mindful of his duty. As

she walked speedily away through the piny woods, she calmly echoed: "O! Elfonzo, thou wilt now look from

thy sunbeams. Thou shalt now walk in a new pathperhaps thy way leads through darkness; but fear not, the

To McClintock that jingling jumble of fine words meant something, no doubt, or seemed to mean something;

but it is useless for us to try to divine what it was. Ambulinia comeswe don't know whence nor why; she

mysteriously intimateswe don't know what; and then she goes echoing awaywe don't know whither; and

Not many days afterward, as surrounded by fragrant flowers she sat one evening at twilight, to enjoy the cool

breeze that whispered notes of melody along the distant groves, the little birds perched on every side, as if to

watch the movements of their new visitor. The bells were tolling, when Elfonzo silently stole along by the

wild wood flowers, holding in his hand his favorite instrument of music his eye continually searching for

Ambulinia, who hardly seemed to perceive him, as she played carelessly with the songsters that hopped from

branch to branch. Nothing could be more striking than the difference between the two. Nature seemed to have

given the more tender soul to Elfonzo, and the stronger and more courageous to Ambulinia. A deep feeling

spoke from the eyes of Elfonzo such a feeling as can only be expressed by those who are blessed as

admirers, and by those who are able to return the same with sincerity of heart. He was a few years older than

Ambulinia: she had turned a little into her seventeenth. He had almost grown up in the Cherokee country,

with the same equal proportions as one of the natives. But little intimacy had existed between them until the

year fortyonebecause the youth felt that the character of such a lovely girl was too exalted to inspire any

other feeling than that of quiet reverence. But as lovers will not always be insulted, at all times and under all

circumstances, by the frowns and cold looks of crabbed old age, which should continually reflect dignity

upon those around, and treat the unfortunate as well as the fortunate with a graceful mien, he continued to use

diligence and perseverance. All this lighted a spark in his heart that changed his whole character, and like the

unyielding Deity that follows the storm to check its rage in the forest, he resolves for the first time to shake

At last we begin to get the Major's measure. We are able to put this and that casual fact together, and build

the man up before our eyes, and look at him. And after we have got him built, we find him worth the trouble.

By the above comparison between his age and Ambulinia's, we guess the warworn veteran to be

twentytwo; and the other facts stand thus: he had grown up in the Cherokee country with the same equal

proportions as one of the natives how flowing and graceful the language, and yet how tantalizing as to

meaning!he had been turned adrift by his father, to whom he had been "somewhat of a dutiful son"; he

wandered in distant lands; came back frequently "to the scenes of his boyhood, almost destitute of many of

the comforts of life," in order to get into the presence of his father's winterworn locks, and spread a humid

veil of darkness around his expectations; but he was always promptly sent back to the cold charity of the

combat again; he learned to play the fiddle, and made a name for himself in that line; he had dwelt among the

wild tribes; he had philosophized about the despoilers of the kingdoms of the earth, and found outthe

cunning creature that they refer their differences to the learned for settlement; he had achieved a vast fame

as a military chieftain, the Achilles of the Florida campaigns, and then had got him a spellingbook and

started to school; he had fallen in love with Ambulinia Valeer while she was teething, but had kept it to

himself awhile, out of the reverential awe which he felt for the child; but now at last, like the unyielding

Deity who follows the storm to check its rage in the forest, he resolves to shake off his embarrassment, and to

return where before he had only worshiped. The Major, indeed, has made up his mind to rise up and shake his

faculties together, and to see if HE can't do that thing himself. This is not clear. But no matter about that:

there stands the hero, compact and visible; and he is no mean structure, considering that his creator had never

structure, considering that his creator had never created anything before, and hadn't anything but rags and

wind to build with this time. It seems to me that no one can contemplate this odd creature, this quaint and

curious blatherskite, without admiring McClintock, or, at any rate, loving him and feeling grateful to him; for

McClintock made him, he gave him to us; without McClintock we could not have had him, and would now

But we must come to the feast again. Here is a courtship scene, down there in the romantic glades among the

raccoons, alligators, and things, that has merit, peculiar literary merit. See how Achilles woos. Dwell upon

the second sentence (particularly the close of it) and the beginning of the third. Never mind the new

personage, Leos, who is intruded upon us unheralded and unexplained. That is McClintock's way; it is his

habit; it is a part of his genius; he cannot help it; he never interrupts the rush of his narrative to make

It could not escape Ambulinia's penetrating eye that he sought an interview with her, which she as anxiously

avoided, and assumed a more distant calmness than before, seemingly to destroy all hope. After many efforts

and struggles with his own person, with timid steps the Major approached the damsel, with the same caution

as he would have done in a field of battle. "Lady Ambulinia," said he, trembling, "I have long desired a

moment like this. I dare not let it escape. I fear the consequences; yet I hope your indulgence will at least hear

my petition. Can you not anticipate what I would say, and what I am about to express? Will not you, like

Minerva, who sprung from the brain of Jupiter, release me from thy winding chains or cure me" "Say no

more, Elfonzo," answered Ambulinia, with a serious look, raising her hand as if she intended to swear eternal

hatred against the whole world; "another lady in my place would have perhaps answered your question in

bitter coldness. I know not the little arts of my sex. I care but little for the vanity of those who would chide

me, and am unwilling as well as ashamed to be guilty of anything that would lead you to think 'all is not gold

that glitters'; so be no rash in your resolution. It is better to repent now, than to do it in a more solemn hour.

Yes, I know what you would say. I know you have a costly gift for methe noblest that man can make

YOUR HEART! You should not offer it to one so unworthy. Heaven, you know, has allowed my father's

house to be made a house of solitude, a home of silent obedience, which my parents say is more to be

admired than big names and highsounding titles. Notwithstanding all this, let me speak the emotions of an

honest heart allow me to say in the fullness of my hopes that I anticipate better days. The bird may stretch

its wings toward the sun, which it can never reach; and flowers of the field appear to ascend in the same

direction, because they cannot do otherwise; but man confides his complaints to the saints in whom he

believes; for in their abodes of light they know no more sorrow. From your confession and indicative looks, I

Elfonzo replied, "Pardon me, my dear madam, for my frankness. I have loved you from my earliest

dayseverything grand and beautiful hath borne the image of Ambulinia; while precipices on every hand

surrounded me, your GUARDIAN ANGEL stood and beckoned me away from the deep abyss. In every trial,

in every misfortune, I have met with your helping hand; yet I never dreamed or dared to cherish thy love, till

a voice impaired with age encouraged the cause, and declared they who acquired thy favor should win a

victory. I saw how Leos worshiped thee. I felt my own unworthiness. I began to KNOW JEALOUSLY, a

strong guestindeed, in my bosom, yet I could see if I gained your admiration Leos was to be my rival. I

was aware that he had the influence of your parents, and the wealth of a deceased relative, which is too often

mistaken for permanent and regular tranquillity; yet I have determined by your permission to beg an interest

in your prayersto ask you to animate my drooping spirits by your smiles and your winning looks; for if you

but speak I shall be conqueror, my enemies shall stagger like Olympus shakes. And though earth and sea may

tremble, and the charioteer of the sun may forget his dashing steed, yet I am assured that it is only to arm me

"Return to yourself, Elfonzo," said Ambulinia, pleasantly: "a dream of vision has disturbed your intellect; you

are above the atmosphere, dwelling in the celestial regions; nothing is there that urges or hinders, nothing that

brings discord into our present litigation. I entreat you to condescend a little, and be a man, and forget it all.

When Homer describes the battle of the gods and noble men fighting with giants and dragons, they represent

under this image our struggles with the delusions of our passions. You have exalted me, an unhappy girl, to

the skies; you have called me a saint, and portrayed in your imagination an angel in human form. Let her

remain such to you, let her continue to be as you have supposed, and be assured that she will consider a share

in your esteem as her highest treasure. Think not that I would allure you from the path in which your

conscience leads you; for you know I respect the conscience of others, as I would die for my own. Elfonzo, if

I am worthy of thy love, let such conversation never again pass between us. Go, seek a nobler theme! we will

seek it in the stream of time, as the sun set in the Tigris." As she spake these words she grasped the hand of

Elfonzo, saying at the same time"Peace and prosperity attend you, my hero; be up and doing!" Closing her

remarks with this expression, she walked slowly away, leaving Elfonzo astonished and amazed. He ventured

not to follow or detain her. Here he stood alone, gazing at the stars; confounded as he was, here he stood.

Yes; there he stood. There seems to be no doubt about that. Nearly half of this delirious story has now been

delivered to the reader. It seems a pity to reduce the other half to a cold synopsis. Pity! it is more than a pity,

it is a crime; for to synopsize McClintock is to reduce a skyflushing conflagration to dull embers, it is to

reduce barbaric splendor to ragged poverty. McClintock never wrote a line that was not precious; he never

wrote one that could be spared; he never framed one from which a word could be removed without damage.

Every sentence that this master has produced may be likened to a perfect set of teeth, white, uniform,

Still, it is now necessary to begin to pull, and to keep it up; for lack of space requires us to synopsize.

We left Elfonzo standing there amazed. At what, we do not know. Not at the girl's speech. No; we ourselves

should have been amazed at it, of course, for none of us has ever heard anything resembling it; but Elfonzo

was used to speeches made up of noise and vacancy, and could listen to them with undaunted mind like the

"topmost topaz of an ancient tower"; he was used to making them himself; hebut let it go, it cannot be

guessed out; we shall never know what it was that astonished him. He stood there awhile; then he said, "Alas!

am I now Grief's disappointed son at last?" He did not stop to examine his mind, and to try to find out what

he probably meant by that, because, for one reason, "a mixture of ambition and greatness of soul moved upon

his young heart," and started him for the village. He resumed his bench in school, "and reasonably progressed

in his education." His heart was heavy, but he went into society, and sought surcease of sorrow in its light

distractions. He made himself popular with his violin, "which seemed to have a thousand chordsmore

symphonious than the Muses of Apollo, and more enchanting than the ghost of the Hills." This is obscure, but

During this interval Leos did some unencouraged courting, but at last, "choked by his undertaking," he

Presently "Elfonzo again wends his way to the stately walls and newbuilt village." He goes to the house of

his beloved; she opens the door herself. To my surprisefor Ambulinia's heart had still seemed free at the

time of their last interviewlove beamed from the girl's eyes. One sees that Elfonzo was surprised, too; for

when he caught that light, "a halloo of smothered shouts ran through every vein." A neat figurea very neat

figure, indeed! Then he kissed her. "The scene was overwhelming." They went into the parlor. The girl said it

was safe, for her parents were abed, and would never know. Then we have this fine pictureflung upon the

Advancing toward him, she gave a bright display of her rosy neck, and from her head the ambrosial locks

breathed divine fragrance; her robe hung waving to his view, while she stood like a goddess confessed before

There is nothing of interest in the couple's interview. Now at this point the girl invites Elfonzo to a village

show, where jealousy is the motive of the play, for she wants to teach him a wholesome lesson, if he is a

jealous person. But this is a sham, and pretty shallow. McClintock merely wants a pretext to drag in a

The lovers went to the play. Elfonzo was one of the fiddlers. He and Ambulinia must not been seen together,

lest trouble follow with the girl's malignant father; we are made to understand that clearly. So the two sit

together in the orchestra, in the midst of the musicians. This does not seem to be good art. In the first place,

the girl would be in the way, for orchestras are always packed closely together, and there is no room to spare

for people's girls; in the next place, one cannot conceal a girl in an orchestra without everybody taking notice

Leos is present. Of course, one of the first things that catches his eye is the maddening spectacle of

Ambulinia "leaning upon Elfonzo's chair." This poor girl does not seem to understand even the rudiments of

concealment. But she is "in her seventeenth," as the author phrases it, and that is her justification.

Leos meditates, constructs a planwith personal violence as a basis, of course. It was their way down there.

It is a good plain plan, without any imagination in it. He will go out and stand at the front door, and when

these two come out he will "arrest Ambulinia from the hands of the insolent Elfonzo," and thus make for

himself a "more prosperous field of immortality than ever was decreed by Omnipotence, or ever pencil drew

or artist imagined." But, dear me, while he is waiting there the couple climb out at the back window and

scurry home! This is romantic enough, but there is a lack of dignity in the situation.

Some correspondence follows now. The bitter father and the distressed lovers write the letters. Elopements

are attempted. They are idiotically planned, and they fail. Then we have several pages of romantic powwow

and confusion dignifying nothing. Another elopement is planned; it is to take place on Sunday, when

everybody is at church. But the "hero" cannot keep the secret; he tells everybody. Another author would have

found another instrument when he decided to defeat this elopement; but that is not McClintock's way. He

The evasion failed, of course. Ambulinia, in her flight, takes refuge in a neighbor's house. Her father drags

Elfonzo was moved at this sight. The people followed on to see what was going to become of Ambulinia,

while he, with downcast looks, kept at a distance, until he saw them enter the abode of the father, thrusting

her, that was the sigh of his soul, out of his presence into a solitary apartment, when she exclaimed, "Elfonzo!

Elfonzo! oh, Elfonzo! where art thou, with all thy heroes? haste, oh! haste, come thou to my relief. Ride on

the wings of the wind! Turn thy force loose like a tempest, and roll on thy army like a whirlwind, over this

mountain of trouble and confusion. Oh friends! if any pity me, let your last efforts throng upon the green

hills, and come to the relief of Ambulinia, who is guilty of nothing but innocent love." Elfonzo called out

with a loud voice, "My God, can I stand this! arouse up, I beseech you, and put an end to this tyranny. Come,

my brave boys," said he, "are you ready to go forth to your duty?" They stood around him. "Who," said he,

"will call us to arms? Where are my thunderbolts of war? Speak ye, the first who will meet the foe! Who will

go forward with me in this ocean of grievous temptation? If there is one who desires to go, let him come and

shake hands upon the altar of devotion, and swear that he will be a hero; yes, a Hector in a cause like this,

which calls aloud for a speedy remedy." "Mine be the deed," said a young lawyer, "and mine alone; Venus

alone shall quit her station before I will forsake one jot or tittle of my promise to you; what is death to me?

what is all this warlike army, if it is not to win a victory? I love the sleep of the lover and the mighty; nor

would I give it over till the blood of my enemies should wreak with that of my own. But God forbid that our

fame should soar on the blood of the slumberer." Mr. Valeer stands at his door with the frown of a demon

upon his brow, with his dangerous weapon [3] ready to strike the first man who should enter his door. "Who

will arise and go forward through blood and carnage to the rescue of my Ambulinia?" said Elfonzo. "All,"

exclaimed the multitude; and onward they went, with their implements of battle. Others, of a more timid

It will hardly be believed that after all this thunder and lightning not a drop of rain fell; but such is the fact.

Elfonzo and his gang stood up and blackguarded Mr. Valeer with vigor all night, getting their outlay back

with interest; then in the early morning the army and its general retired from the field, leaving the victory

with their solitary adversary and his crowbar. This is the first time this has happened in romantic literature.

The invention is original. Everything in this book is original; there is nothing hackneyed about it anywhere.

Always, in other romances, when you find the author leading up to a climax, you know what is going to

happen. But in this book it is different; the thing which seems inevitable and unavoidable never happens; it is

We have now arrived at the end. But it is not exciting. McClintock thinks it is; but it isn't. One day Elfonzo

sent Ambulinia another notea note proposing elopement No. 16. This time the plan is admirable;

admirable, sagacious, ingenious, imaginative, deep oh, everything, and perfectly easy. One wonders why it

was never thought of before. This is the scheme. Ambulinia is to leave the breakfasttable, ostensibly to

"attend to the placing of those flowers, which should have been done a week ago"artificial ones, of course;

the others wouldn't keep so longand then, instead of fixing the flowers, she is to walk out to the grove, and

go off with Elfonzo. The invention of this plan overstrained the author that is plain, for he straightway shows

failing powers. The details of the plan are not many or elaborate. The author shall state them himself this

"You walk carelessly toward the academy grove, where you will find me with a lightning steed, elegantly

equipped to bear you off where we shall be joined in wedlock with the first connubial rights."

Last scene of all, which the author, now much enfeebled, tries to smarten up and make acceptable to his

spectacular heart by introducing some new propertiessilver bow, golden harp, olive branchthings that

can all come good in an elopement, no doubt, yet are not to be compared to an umbrella for real handiness

And away she ran to the sacred grove, surrounded with glittering pearls, that indicated her coming. Elfonzo

hails her with his silver bow and his golden harp. The meetAmbulinia's countenance brightens Elfonzo

leads up the winged steed. "Mount," said he, "ye truehearted, ye fearless soulthe day is ours." She sprang

upon the back of the young thunderbolt, a brilliant star sparkles upon her head, with one hand she grasps the

reins, and with the other she holds an olive branch. "Lend thy aid, ye strong winds," they exclaimed, "ye

moon, ye sun, and all ye fair host of heaven, witness the enemy conquered." "Hold," said Elfonzo, "thy

dashing steed." "Ride on," said Ambulinia, "the voice of thunder is behind us." And onward they went, with

such rapidity that they very soon arrived at Rural Retreat, where they dismounted, and were united with all

There is but one Homer, there is but one Shakespeare, there is but one McClintockand his immortal book

is before you. Homer could not have written this book, Shakespeare could not have written it, I could not

have done it myself. There is nothing just like it in the literature of any country or of any epoch. It stands

alone; it is monumental. It adds G. Ragsdale McClintock's to the sum of the republic's imperishable names.

1. The name here given is a substitute for the one actually attached to the pamphlet.

2. Further on it will be seen that he is a country expert on the fiddle, and has a threetownship fame.

[The foregoing review of the great work of G. Ragsdale McClintock is liberally illuminated with sample

extracts, but these cannot appease the appetite. Only the complete book, unabridged, can do that. Therefore it

I begin this little work with an eulogy upon woman, who has ever been distinguished for her perseverance,

her constancy, and her devoted attention to those upon whom she has been pleased to place her

AFFECTIONS. Many have been the themes upon which writers and public speakers have dwelt with intense

and increasing interest. Among these delightful themes stands that of woman, the balm to all our sighs and

disappointments, and the most preeminent of all other topics. Here the poet and orator have stood and gazed

with wonder and with admiration; they have dwelt upon her innocence, the ornament of all her virtues. First

viewing her external charms, such as set forth in her form and benevolent countenance, and then passing to

the deep hidden springs of loveliness and disinterested devotion. In every clime, and in every age, she has

been the pride of her NATION. Her watchfulness is untiring; she who guarded the sepulcher was the first to

approach it, and the last to depart from its awful yet sublime scene. Even here, in this highly favored land, we

look to her for the security of our institutions, and for our future greatness as a nation. But, strange as it may

appear, woman's charms and virtues are but slightly appreciated by thousands. Those who should raise the

standard of female worth, and paint her value with her virtues, in living colors, upon the banners that are

fanned by the zephyrs of heaven, and hand them down to posterity as emblematical of a rich inheritance, do

Man is not sensible, at all times, of the nature and the emotions which bear that name; he does not

understand, he will not comprehend; his intelligence has not expanded to that degree of glory which drinks in

the vast revolution of humanity, its end, its mighty destination, and the causes which operated, and are still

operating, to produce a more elevated station, and the objects which energize and enliven its consummation.

This he is a stranger to; he is not aware that woman is the recipient of celestial love, and that man is

dependent upon her to perfect his character; that without her, philosophically and truly speaking, the brightest

of his intelligence is but the coldness of a winter moon, whose beams can produce no fruit, whose solar light

is not its own, but borrowed from the great dispenser of effulgent beauty. We have no disposition in the world

to flatter the fair sex, we would raise them above those dastardly principles which only exist in little souls,

contracted hearts, and a distracted brain. Often does she unfold herself in all her fascinating loveliness,

presenting the most captivating charms; yet we find man frequently treats such purity of purpose with

indifference. Why does he do it? Why does he baffle that which is inevitably the source of his better days? Is

he so much of a stranger to those excellent qualities as not to appreciate woman, as not to have respect to her

dignity? Since her art and beauty first captivated man, she has been his delight and his comfort; she has

Whenever the billows of adversity and the tumultuous waves of trouble beat high, her smiles subdue their

fury. Should the tear of sorrow and the mournful sigh of grief interrupt the peace of his mind, her voice

removes them all, and she bends from her circle to encourage him onward. When darkness would obscure his

mind, and a thick cloud of gloom would bewilder its operations, her intelligent eye darts a ray of streaming

light into his heart. Mighty and charming is that disinterested devotion which she is ever ready to exercise

toward man, not waiting till the last moment of his danger, but seeks to relieve him in his early afflictions. It

gushes forth from the expansive fullness of a tender and devoted heart, where the noblest, the purest, and the

most elevated and refined feelings are matured and developed in those may kind offices which invariably

In the room of sorrow and sickness, this unequaled characteristic may always been seen, in the performance

of the most charitable acts; nothing that she can do to promote the happiness of him who she claims to be her

protector will be omitted; all is invigorated by the animating sunbeams which awaken the heart to songs of

gaiety. Leaving this point, to notice another prominent consideration, which is generally one of great moment

and of vital importance. Invariably she is firm and steady in all her pursuits and aims. There is required a

combination of forces and extreme opposition to drive her from her position; she takes her stand, not to be

Firm and true to what she undertakes, and that which she requires by her own aggrandizement, and regards as

being within the strict rules of propriety, she will remain stable and unflinching to the last. A more genuine

principle is not to be found in the most determined, resolute heart of man. For this she deserves to be held in

the highest commendation, for this she deserves the purest of all other blessings, and for this she deserves the

most laudable reward of all others. It is a noble characteristic and is worthy of imitation of any age. And

when we look at it in one particular aspect, it is still magnified, and grows brighter and brighter the more we

reflect upon its eternal duration. What will she not do, when her word as well as her affections and LOVE are

pledged to her lover? Everything that is dear to her on earth, all the hospitalities of kind and loving parents,

all the sincerity and loveliness of sisters, and the benevolent devotion of brothers, who have surrounded her

with every comfort; she will forsake them all, quit the harmony and sweet sound of the lute and the harp, and

throw herself upon the affections of some devoted admirer, in whom she fondly hopes to find more than she

has left behind, which is not often realized by many. Truth and virtue all combined! How deserving our

admiration and love! Ah cruel would it be in man, after she has thus manifested such an unshaken confidence

in him, and said by her determination to abandon all the endearments and blandishments of home, to act a

villainous part, and prove a traitor in the revolution of his mission, and then turn Hector over the innocent

victim whom he swore to protect, in the presence of Heaven, recorded by the pen of an angel.

Striking as this train may unfold itself in her character, and as preeminent as it may stand among the fair

display of her other qualities, yet there is another, which struggles into existence, and adds an additional

luster to what she already possesses. I mean that disposition in woman which enables her, in sorrow, in grief,

and in distress, to bear all with enduring patience. This she has done, and can and will do, amid the din of war

and clash of arms. Scenes and occurrences which, to every appearance, are calculated to rend the heart with

the profoundest emotions of trouble, do not fetter that exalted principle imbued in her very nature. It is true,

her tender and feeling heart may often be moved (as she is thus constituted), but she is not conquered, she has

not given up to the harlequin of disappointments, her energies have not become clouded in the last movement

of misfortune, but she is continually invigorated by the archetype of her affections. She may bury her face in

her hands, and let the tear of anguish roll, she may promenade the delightful walks of some garden, decorated

with all the flowers of nature, or she may steal out along some gently rippling stream, and there, as the silver

waters uninterruptedly move forward, shed her silent tears; they mingle with the waves, and take a last

farewell of their agitated home, to seek a peaceful dwelling among the rolling floods; yet there is a voice

rushing from her breast, that proclaims VICTORY along the whole line and battlement of her affections. That

voice is the voice of patience and resignation; that voice is one that bears everything calmly and

dispassionately, amid the most distressing scenes; when the fates are arrayed against her peace, and

Woman's affections are deep, consequently her troubles may be made to sink deep. Although you may not be

able to mark the traces of her grief and the furrowings of her anguish upon her winning countenance, yet be

assured they are nevertheless preying upon her inward person, sapping the very foundation of that heart

which alone was made for the weal and not the woe of man. The deep recesses of the soul are fields for their

operation. But they are not destined simply to take the regions of the heart for their dominion, they are not

satisfied merely with interrupting her better feelings; but after a while you may see the blooming cheek

beginning to droop and fade, her intelligent eye no longer sparkles with the starry light of heaven, her

vibrating pulse long since changed its regular motion, and her palpitating bosom beats once more for the

midday of her glory. Anxiety and care ultimately throw her into the arms of the haggard and grim monster

death. But, oh, how patient, under every pining influence! Let us view the matter in bolder colors; see her

when the dearest object of her affections recklessly seeks every bacchanalian pleasure, contents himself with

the last rubbish of creation. With what solicitude she awaits his return! Sleep fails to perform its officeshe

weeps while the nocturnal shades of the night triumph in the stillness. Bending over some favorite book,

whilst the author throws before her mind the most beautiful imagery, she startles at every sound. The

midnight silence is broken by the solemn announcement of the return of another morning. He is still absent;

she listens for that voice which has so often been greeted by the melodies of her own; but, alas! stern silence

Mark her unwearied watchfulness, as the night passes away. At last, brutalized by the accursed thing, he

staggers along with rage, and, shivering with cold, he makes his appearance. Not a murmur is heard from her

lips. On the contrary, she meets him with a smileshe caresses him with tender arms, with all the gentleness

and softness of her sex. Here, then, is seen her disposition, beautifully arrayed. Woman, thou art more to be

admired than the spicy gales of Arabia, and more sought for than the gold of Golconda. We believe that

Woman should associate freely with man, and we believe that it is for the preservation of her rights. She

should become acquainted with the metaphysical designs of those who condescended to sing the siren song of

flattery. This, we think, should be according to the unwritten law of decorum, which is stamped upon every

innocent heart. The precepts of prudery are often steeped in the guilt of contamination, which blasts the

expectations of better moments. Truth, and beautiful dreamsloveliness, and delicacy of character, with

cherished affections of the ideal woman gentle hopes and aspirations, are enough to uphold her in the

storms of darkness, without the transferred colorings of a stained sufferer. How often have we seen it in our

public prints, that woman occupies a false station in the world! and some have gone so far as to say it was an

unnatural one. So long has she been regarded a weak creature, by the rabble and illiteratethey have looked

upon her as an insufficient actress on the great stage of human lifea mere puppet, to fill up the drama of

human existencea thoughtless, inactive being that she has too often come to the same conclusion

herself, and has sometimes forgotten her high destination, in the meridian of her glory. We have but little

sympathy or patience for those who treat her as a mere Rosy Melindiwho are always fishing for pretty

complements who are satisfied by the gossamer of Romance, and who can be allured by the verbosity of

highflown words, rich in language, but poor and barren in sentiment. Beset, as she has been, by the

intellectual vulgar, the selfish, the designing, the cunning, the hidden, and the artfulno wonder she has

sometimes folded her wings in despair, and forgotten her HEAVENLY mission in the delirium of

imagination; no wonder she searches out some wild desert, to find a peaceful home. But this cannot always

continue. A new era is moving gently onward, old things are rapidly passing away; old superstitions, old

prejudices, and old notions are now bidding farewell to their old associates and companions, and giving way

to one whose wings are plumed with the light of heaven and tinged by the dews of the morning. There is a

remnant of blessedness that clings to her in spite of all evil influence, there is enough of the Divine Master

left to accomplish the noblest work ever achieved under the canopy of the vaulted skies; and that time is fast

approaching, when the picture of the true woman will shine from its frame of glory, to captivate, to win back,

Mighty and glorious are the days of youth; happy the moments of the LOVER, mingled with smiles and tears

of his devoted, and long to be remembered are the achievements which he gains with a palpitating heart and a

trembling hand. A bright and lovely dawn, the harbinger of a fair and prosperous day, had arisen over the

beautiful little village of Cumming, which is surrounded by the most romantic scenery in the Cherokee

country. Brightening clouds seemed to rise from the mist of the fair Chattahoochee, to spread their beauty

over the the thick forest, to guide the hero whose bosom beats with aspirations to conquer the enemy that

would tarnish his name, and to win back the admiration of his longtried friend. He endeavored to make his

way through Sawney's Mountain, where many meet to catch the gales that are continually blowing for the

refreshment of the stranger and the traveler. Surrounded as he was by hills on every side, naked rocks dared

the efforts of his energies. Soon the sky became overcast, the sun buried itself in the clouds, and the fair day

gave place to gloomy twilight, which lay heavily on the Indian Plains. He remembered an old Indian Castle,

that once stood at the foot of the mountain. He thought if he could make his way to this, he would rest

contented for a short time. The mountain air breathed fragrancea rosy tinge rested on the glassy waters that

murmured at its base. His resolution soon brought him to the remains of the red man's hut: he surveyed with

wonder and astonishment the decayed building, which time had buried in the dust, and thought to himself, his

happiness was not yet complete. Beside the shore of the brook sat a young man, about eighteen or twenty,

who seemed to be reading some favorite book, and who had a remarkably noble countenanceeyes which

betrayed more than a common mind. This of course made the youth a welcome guest, and gained him friends

in whatever condition of life he might be placed. The traveler observed that he was a wellbuilt figure, which

showed strength and grace in every movement. He accordingly addressed him in quite a gentlemanly manner,

and inquired of him the way to the village. After he had received the desired information, and was about

taking his leave, the youth said, "Are you not Major Elfonzo, the great musicianthe champion of a noble

cause the modern Achilles, who gained so many victories in the Florida War?" "I bear that name," said the

Major, "and those titles, trusting at the same time that the ministers of grace will carry me triumphantly

through all my laudable undertakings, and if," continued the Major, "you, sir, are the patronizer of noble

deeds, I should like to make you my confidant and learn your address." The youth looked somewhat amazed,

bowed low, mused for a moment, and began: "My name is Roswell. I have been recently admitted to the bar,

and can only give a faint outline of my future success in that honorable profession; but I trust, sir, like the

Eagle, I shall look down from lofty rocks upon the dwellings of man, and shall ever be ready to give you any

assistance in my official capacity, and whatever this muscular arm of mine can do, whenever it shall be called

from its buried GREATNESS." The Major grasped him by the hand, and exclaimed: "O! thou exalted spirit

of inspirationthou flame of burning prosperity, may the Heavendirected blaze be the glare of thy soul,

The road which led to the town presented many attractions. Elfonzo had bid farewell to the youth of deep

feeling, and was not wending his way to the dreaming spot of his fondness. The south winds whistled through

the woods, as the waters dashed against the banks, as rapid fire in the pent furnace roars. This brought him to

remember while alone, that he quietly left behind the hospitality of a father's house, and gladly entered the

world, with higher hopes than are often realized. But as he journeyed onward, he was mindful of the advice

of his father, who had often looked sadly on the ground when tears of cruelly deceived hope moistened his

eye. Elfonzo had been somewhat of a dutiful son; yet fond of the amusements of lifehad been in distant

landshad enjoyed the pleasure of the world and had frequently returned to the scenes of his boyhood,

almost destitute of many of the comforts of life. In this condition, he would frequently say to his father,

"Have I offended you, that you look upon me as a stranger, and frown upon me with stinging looks? Will you

not favor me with the sound of your voice? If I have trampled upon your veneration, or have spread a humid

veil of darkness around your expectations, send me back into the world where no heart beats for mewhere

the foot of man has never yet trod; but give me at least one kind wordallow me to come into the presence

sometimes of thy winterworn locks." "Forbid it, Heaven, that I should be angry with thee," answered the

father, "my son, and yet I send thee back to the children of the world to the cold charity of the combat, and

to a land of victory. I read another destiny in thy countenanceI learn thy inclinations from the flame that

has already kindled in my soul a stranger sensation. It will seek thee, my dear ELFONZO, it will find

theethou canst not escape that lighted torch, which shall blot out from the remembrance of men a long

train of prophecies which they have foretold against thee. I once thought not so. Once, I was blind; but now

the path of life is plain before me, and my sight is clear; yet Elfonzo, return to thy worldly occupationtake

again in thy hand that chord of sweet soundsstruggle with the civilized world, and with your own heart; fly

swiftly to the enchanted ground let the nightOWL send forth its screams from the stubborn oak let the

sea sport upon the beach, and the stars sing together; but learn of these, Elfonzo, thy doom, and thy

hidingplace. Our most innocent as well as our most lawful DESIRES must often be denied us, that we may

Remembering such admonitions with gratitude, Elfonzo was immediately urged by the recollection of his

father's family to keep moving. His steps became quicker and quickerhe hastened through the PINY

woods, dark as the forest was, and with joy he very soon reached the little village or repose, in whose bosom

rested the boldest chivalry. His close attention to every important objecthis modest questions about

whatever was new to himhis reverence for wise old age, and his ardent desire to learn many of the fine

One mild winter day as he walked along the streets toward the Academy, which stood upon a small