most, and the performers seemed to have less heart in it than usual.
They did their best, and went through with their parts conscientiously,
but they looked as if they never had had a good time in their lives. The
audience was hilarious, and cheered and laughed at the tired clown until
he looked as if he thought his speeches might possibly be funny, after
all. We were so glad we had pleased the poor thing; and when he sang a
song our satisfaction was still greater, and so he sang it all over
again. Perhaps he had been associating with people who were used to
circuses. The afternoon was hot, and the boys with Japanese fans and
trays of lemonade did a remarkable business for so late in the season;
the brass band on the other side of the tent shrieked its very best, and
all the young men of the region had brought their girls, and some of
these countless pairs of country lovers we watched a great deal, as they
"kept company" with more or less depth of satisfaction in each other. We
had a grand chance to see the fashions, and there were many old people
and a great number of little children, and some families had evidently
locked their house door behind them, since they had brought both the dog
and the baby.
"Doesn't it seem as if you were a child again?" Kate asked me. "I am
sure this is just the same as the first circus I ever saw. It grows more
and more familiar, and it puzzles me to think they should not have
altered in the least while I have changed so much, and have even had
time to grow up. You don't know how it is making me remember other
things of which I have not thought for years. I was seven years old when
I went that first time. Uncle Jack invited me. I had a new parasol, and
he laughed because I would hold it over my shoulder when the sun was in
my face. He took me into the side-shows and bought me everything I asked
for, on the way home, and we did not get home until twilight. The rest
of the family had dined at four o'clock and gone out for a long drive,
and it was such fun to have our dinner by ourselves. I sat at the head
of the table in mamma's place, and when Bridget came down and insisted
that I must go to bed, Uncle Jack came softly up stairs and sat by the
window, smoking and telling me stories. He ran and hid in the closet
when we heard mamma coming up, and when she found him out by the
cigar-smoke, and made believe scold him, I thought she was in earnest,
and begged him off. Yes; and I remember that Bridget sat in the next
room, making her new dress so she could wear it to church next day. I
thought it was a beautiful dress, and besought mamma to have one like
it. It was bright green with yellow spots all over it," said Kate. "Ah,
poor Uncle Jack! he was so good to me! We were always telling stories of
what we would do when I was grown up. He died in Canton the next year,
and I cried myself ill; but for a long time I thought he might not be
dead, after all, and might come home any day. He used to seem so old to
me, and he really was just out of college and not so old as I am now.
That day at the circus he had a pink rosebud in his buttonhole, and--ah!
when have I ever thought of this before!--a woman sat before us who had
a stiff little cape on her bonnet like a shelf, and I carefully put
peanuts round the edge of it, and when she moved her head they would
fall. I thought it was the best fun in the world, and I wished Uncle
Jack to ride the donkey; I was sure he could keep on, because his horse
had capered about with him one day on Beacon Street, and I thought him a
perfect rider, since nothing had happened to him then."
"I remember," said Mrs. Kew, presently, "that just before I was married
'he' took me over to Wareham Corners to a caravan. My sister Hannah and
the young man who was keeping company with her went too. I haven't been
to one since till to-day, and it does carry me back same's it does you,
Miss Kate. It doesn't seem more than five years ago, and what would I
have thought if I had known 'he' and I were going to keep a lighthouse
and be contented there, what's more, and sometimes not get ashore for a
fortnight; settled, gray-headed old folks! We were gay enough in those
days. I know old Miss Sabrina Smith warned me that I'd better think
twice before I took up with Tom Kew, for he was a light-minded young
man. I speak o' that to him in the winter-time, when he sets reading the
almanac half asleep and I'm knitting, and the wind's a' howling and the
waves coming ashore on those rocks as if they wished they could put out
the light and blow down the lighthouse. We were reflected on a good deal
for going to that caravan; some of the old folks didn't think it was
improvin'--Well, I should think that man was a trying to break his
neck!"
Coming out of the great tent was disagreeable enough, and we seemed to
have chosen the worst time, for the crowd pushed fiercely, though I
suppose nobody was in the least hurry, and we were all severely jammed,
while from somewhere underneath came the wails of a deserted dog. We had
not meant to see the side-shows, and went carelessly past two or three
tents; but when we came in sight of the picture of the Kentucky
giantess, we noticed that Mrs. Kew looked at it wistfully, and we
immediately asked if she cared anything about going to see the wonder,
whereupon she confessed that she never heard of such a thing as a
woman's weighing six hundred and fifty pounds, so we all three went in.
There were only two or three persons inside the tent, beside a little
boy who played the hand-organ.
The Kentucky giantess sat in two chairs on a platform, and there was a
large cage of monkeys just beyond, toward which Kate and I went at once.
"Why, she isn't more than two thirds as big as the picture," said Mrs.
Kew, in a regretful whisper; "but I guess she's big enough; doesn't she
look discouraged, poor creatur'?" Kate and I felt ashamed of ourselves
for being there. No matter if she had consented to be carried round for
a show, it must have been horrible to be stared at and joked about day
after day; and we gravely looked at the monkeys, and in a few minutes
turned to see if Mrs. Kew were not ready to come away, when to our
surprise we saw that she was talking to the giantess with great
interest, and we went nearer.
"I thought your face looked natural the minute I set foot inside the
door," said Mrs. Kew; "but you've--altered some since I saw you, and I
couldn't place you till I heard you speak. Why, you used to be spare; I
am amazed, Marilly! Where are your folks?"
"I don't wonder you are surprised," said the giantess. "I was a good
ways from this when you knew me, wasn't I? But father he run through
with every cent he had before he died, and 'he' took to drink and it
killed him after a while, and then I begun to grow worse and worse, till
I couldn't do nothing to earn a dollar, and everybody was a coming to
see me, till at last I used to ask 'em ten cents apiece, and I scratched
along somehow till this man came round and heard of me, and he offered
me my keep and good pay to go along with him. He had another giantess
before me, but she had begun to fall away consider'ble, so he paid her
off and let her go. This other giantess was an awful expense to him, she
was such an eater; now I don't have no great of an appetite,"--this was
said plaintively,--"and he's raised my pay since I've been with him
because we did so well. I took up with his offer because I was nothing
but a drag and never will be. I'm as comfortable as I can be, but it's a
pretty hard business. My oldest boy is able to do for himself, but he's
married this last year, and his wife don't want me. I don't know's I
blame her either. It would be something like if I had a daughter now;
but there, I'm getting to like travelling first-rate; it gives anybody a
good deal to think of."
"I was asking the folks about you when I was up home the early part of
the summer," said Mrs. Kew, "but all they knew was that you were living
out in New York State. Have you been living in Kentucky long? I saw it
on the picture outside."
"No," said the giantess, "that was a picture the man bought cheap from
another show that broke up last year. It says six hundred and fifty
pounds, but I don't weigh more than four hundred. I haven't been weighed
for some time past. Between you and me I don't weigh so much as that,
but you mustn't mention it, for it would spoil my reputation, and might
hender my getting another engagement." And then the poor giantess lost
her professional look and tone as she said, "I believe I'd rather die
than grow any bigger. I do lose heart sometimes, and wish I was a smart
woman and could keep house. I'd be smarter than ever I was when I had
the chance; I tell you that! Is Tom along with you?"
"No. I came with these young ladies, Miss Lancaster and Miss Denis, who
are stopping over to Deephaven for the summer." Kate and I turned as we
heard this introduction; we were standing close by, and I am proud to
say that I never saw Kate treat any one more politely than she did that
absurd, pitiful creature with the gilt crown and many bracelets. It was
not that she said much, but there was such an exquisite courtesy in her
manner, and an apparent unconsciousness of there being anything in the
least surprising or uncommon about the giantess.
Just then a party of people came in, and Mrs. Kew said good by
reluctantly. "It has done me sights of good to see you," said our new
acquaintance; "I was feeling down-hearted just before you came in. I'm
pleased to see somebody that remembers me as I used to be." And they
shook hands in a way that meant a great deal, and when Kate and I said
good afternoon the giantess looked at us gratefully, and said, "I'm very
much obliged to you for coming in, young ladies."
"Walk in! walk in!" the man was shouting as we came away. "Walk in and
see the wonder of the world, ladies and gentlemen,--the largest woman
ever seen in America,--the great Kentucky giantess!"
"Wouldn't you have liked to stay longer?" Kate asked Mrs. Kew as we came
down the street. But she answered that it would be no satisfaction; the
people were coming in, and she would have no chance to talk. "I never
knew her very well; she is younger than I, and she used to go to meeting
where I did, but she lived five or six miles from our house. She's had a
hard time of it, according to her account," said Mrs. Kew. "She used to
be a dreadful flighty, high-tempered girl, but she's lost that now, I
can see by her eyes. I was running over in my mind to see if there was
anything I could do for her, but I don't know as there is. She said the
man who hired her was kind. I guess your treating her so polite did her
as much good as anything. She used to be real ambitious. I had it on my
tongue's end to ask her if she couldn't get a few days' leave and come
out to stop with me, but I thought just in time that she'd sink the dory
in a minute. There! seeing her has took away all the fun," said Mrs. Kew
ruefully; and we were all dismal for a while, but at last, after we were
fairly started for home, we began to be merry again.
We passed the Craper family whom we had seen at the store in the
morning; the children looked as stupid as ever, but the father, I am
sorry to say, had been tempted to drink more whiskey than was good for
him. He had a bright flush on his cheeks, and he was flourishing his
whip, and hoarsely singing some meaningless tune. "Poor creature!" said
I, "I should think this day's pleasuring would kill him." "Now, wouldn't
you think so?" said Mrs. Kew, sympathizingly; "but the truth is, you
couldn't kill one of those Crapers if you pounded him in a mortar."
We had a pleasant drive home, and we kept Mrs. Kew to supper, and
afterward went down to the shore to see her set sail for home. Mr. Kew
had come in some time before, and had been waiting for the moon to rise.
Mrs. Kew told us that she should have enough to think of for a year, she
had enjoyed the day so much; and we stood on the pebbles watching the
boat out of the harbor, and wishing ourselves on board, it was such a
beautiful evening.
* * * * *
We went to another show that summer, the memory of which will never
fade. It is somewhat impertinent to call it a show, and "public
entertainment" is equally inappropriate, though we certainly were
entertained. It had been raining for two or three days; the
Deephavenites spoke of it as "a spell of weather." Just after tea, one
Thursday evening, Kate and I went down to the post-office. When we
opened the great hall door, the salt air was delicious, but we found the
town apparently wet through and discouraged; and though it had almost
stopped raining just then, there was a Scotch mist, like a snow-storm
with the chill taken off, and the Chantrey elms dripped hurriedly, and
creaked occasionally in the east-wind.
"There will not be a cap'n on the wharves for a week after this," said
I to Kate; "only think of the cases of rheumatism!"
We stopped for a few minutes at the Carews', who were as much surprised
to see us as if we had been mermaids out of the sea, and begged us to
give ourselves something warm to drink, and to change our boots the
moment we got home. Then we went on to the post-office. Kate went in,
but stopped, as she came out with our letters, to read a written notice
securely fastened to the grocery door by four large carpet-tacks with
wide leathers round their necks.
"Dear," said she, exultantly, "there's going to be a lecture to-night in
the church,--a free lecture on the Elements of True Manhood. Wouldn't
you like to go?" And we went.
We were fifteen minutes later than the time appointed, and were sorry to
find that the audience was almost imperceptible. The dampness had
affected the antiquated lamps so that those on the walls and on the
front of the gallery were the dimmest lights I ever saw, and sent their
feeble rays through a small space the edges of which were clearly
defined. There were two rather more energetic lights on the table near
the pulpit, where the lecturer sat, and as we were in the rear of the
church, we could see the yellow fog between ourselves and him. There
were fourteen persons in the audience, and we were all huddled together
in a cowardly way in the pews nearest the door: three old men, four
women, and four children, besides ourselves and the sexton, a deaf
little old man with a wooden leg.
The children whispered noisily, and soon, to our surprise, the lecturer
rose and began. He bowed, and treated us with beautiful deference, and
read his dreary lecture with enthusiasm. I wish I could say, for his
sake, that it was interesting; but I cannot tell a lie, and it was so
long! He went on and on, until it seemed as if I had been there ever
since I was a little girl. Kate and I did not dare to look at each
other, and in my desperation at feeling her quiver with laughter, I
moved to the other end of the pew, knocking over a big hymn-book on the
way, which attracted so much attention that I have seldom felt more
embarrassed in my life. Kate's great dog rose several times to shake
himself and yawn loudly, and then lie down again despairingly.
You would have thought the man was addressing an enthusiastic Young
Men's Christian Association. He exhorted with fervor upon our duties as
citizens and as voters, and told us a great deal about George Washington
and Benjamin Franklin, whom he urged us to choose as our examples. He
waited for applause after each of his outbursts of eloquence, and
presently went on again, in no wise disconcerted at the silence, and as
if he were sure that he would fetch us next time. The rain began to fall
again heavily, and the wind wailed around the meeting-house. If the
lecture had been upon any other subject it would not have been so hard
for Kate and me to keep sober faces; but it was directed entirely toward
young men, and there was not a young man there.
The children in front of us mildly scuffled with each other at one time,
until the one at the end of the pew dropped a marble, which struck the
floor and rolled with a frightful noise down the edge of the aisle where
there was no carpet. The congregation instinctively started up to look
after it, but we recollected ourselves and leaned back again in our
places, while the awed children, after keeping unnaturally quiet, fell
asleep, and tumbled against each other helplessly. After a time the man
sat down and wiped his forehead, looking well satisfied; and when we
were wondering whether we might with propriety come away, he rose again,
and said it was a free lecture, and he thanked us for our kind patronage
on that inclement night; but in other places which he had visited there
had been a contribution taken up for the cause. It would, perhaps, do no
harm,--would the sexton--But the sexton could not have heard the sound
of a cannon at that distance, and slumbered on. Neither Kate nor I had
any money, except a twenty-dollar bill in my purse, and some coppers in
the pocket of her water-proof cloak which she assured me she was
prepared to give; but we saw no signs of the sexton's waking, and as one
of the women kindly went forward to wake the children, we all rose and
came away.
After we had made as much fun and laughed as long as we pleased that
night, we became suddenly conscious of the pitiful side of it all; and
being anxious that every one should have the highest opinion of
Deephaven, we sent Tom Dockum early in the morning with an anonymous
note to the lecturer, whom he found without much trouble; but afterward
we were disturbed at hearing that he was going to repeat his lecture
that evening,--the wind having gone round to the northwest,--and I have
no doubt there were a good many women able to be out, and that he
harvested enough ten-cent pieces to pay his expenses without our help;
though he had particularly told us it was for "the cause," the evening
before, and that ought to have been a consolation.
_Cunner-Fishing_
One of the chief pleasures in Deephaven was our housekeeping. Going to
market was apt to use up a whole morning, especially if we went to the
fish-houses. We depended somewhat upon supplies from Boston, but
sometimes we used to chase a butcher who took a drive in his old
canvas-topped cart when he felt like it, and as for fish, there were
always enough to be caught, even if we could not buy any. Our
acquaintances would often ask if we had anything for dinner that day,
and would kindly suggest that somebody had been boiling lobsters, or
that a boat had just come in with some nice mackerel, or that somebody
over on the Ridge was calculating to kill a lamb, and we had better
speak for a quarter in good season. I am afraid we were looked upon as
being in danger of becoming epicures, which we certainly are not, and we
undoubtedly roused a great deal of interest because we used to eat
mushrooms, which grew in the suburbs of the town in wild luxuriance.
One morning Maggie told us that there was nothing in the house for
dinner, and, taking an early start, we went at once down to the store to
ask if the butcher had been seen, but finding that he had gone out
deep-sea fishing for two days, and that when he came back he had planned
to kill a veal, we left word for a sufficient piece of the doomed animal
to be set apart for our family, and strolled down to the shore to see if
we could find some mackerel; but there was not a fisherman in sight, and
after going to all the fish-houses we concluded that we had better
provide for ourselves. We had not brought our own lines, but we knew
where Danny kept his, and after finding a basket of suitable size, and
taking some clams from Danny's bait-tub, we went over to the hull of an
old schooner which was going to pieces alongside one of the ruined
wharves. We looked down the hatchway into the hold, and could see the
flounders and sculpin swimming about lazily, and once in a while a
little pollock scooted down among them impertinently and then
disappeared. "There is that same big flounder that we saw day before
yesterday," said I. "I know him because one of his fins is half gone. I
don't believe he can get out, for the hole in the side of the schooner
isn't very wide, and it is higher up than flounders ever swim. Perhaps
he came in when he was young, and was too lazy to go out until he was so
large he couldn't. Flounders always look so lazy, and as if they thought
a great deal of themselves."
"I hope they will think enough of themselves to keep away from my hook
this morning," said Kate, philosophically, "and the sculpin too. I am
going to fish for cunners alone, and keep my line short." And she
perched herself on the quarter, baited her hook carefully, and threw it
over, with a clam-shell to call attention. I went to the rail at the
side, and we were presently much encouraged by pulling up two small
cunners, and felt that our prospects for dinner were excellent. Then I
unhappily caught so large a sculpin that it was like pulling up an open
umbrella, and after I had thrown him into the hold to keep company with
the flounder, our usual good luck seemed to desert us. It was one of the
days when, in spite of twitching the line and using all the tricks we
could think of, the cunners would either eat our bait or keep away
altogether. Kate at last said we must starve unless we could catch the
big flounder, and asked me to drop my hook down the hatchway; but it
seemed almost too bad to destroy his innocent happiness. Just then we
heard the noise of oars, and to our delight saw Cap'n Sands in his dory
just beyond the next wharf. "Any luck?" said he. "S'pose ye don't care
anything about going out this morning?"
"We are not amusing ourselves; we are trying to catch some fish for
dinner," said Kate. "Could you wait out by the red buoy while we get a
few more, and then should you be back by noon, or are you going for a
longer voyage, Captain Sands?"
"I was going out to Black Rock for cunners myself," said the cap'n. "I
should be pleased to take ye, if ye'd like to go." So we wound up our
lines, and took our basket and clams and went round to meet the boat. I
felt like rowing, and took the oars while Kate was mending her sinker
and the cap'n was busy with a snarled line.