_Mess_. -- He hath indeed, better bettered expectation, than you
must expect me to tell you how.
_Leon_. -- He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much
glad of it.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
Mr. Landholm came back in excellent spirits from Shagarack.
The boys were well entered, Will Junior and Winthrop
Sophomore, and with very good credit to themselves. This had
been their hope and intention, with the view of escaping the
cost of one and two years of a college life. President Tuttle
had received them very kindly, and everything was promising;
the boys in good heart, and their father a proud man.
"Aint it queer, now," he said that evening of his return, as
he sat warming his hands before the blaze, "aint it queer that
those two fellows should go in like that -- one Junior and
t'other Sophomore, and when they've had no chance at all
beforehand, you may say. Will has been a little better, to be
sure; but how on earth Winthrop ever prepared himself I can't
imagine. Why the fellow read off Greek there, and I didn't
know he had ever seen a word of it."
"He used to learn up in his room o' nights, father," said
Asahel.
"He used to carry his books to the field and study while the
oxen were resting," said Winifred.
"He did! -- Well, _he'll_ get along. I aint afeard of him. He
won't be the last man in the College, I guess."
"I guess not, father," said Asahel.
And now the months sped along with slow step, bringing toil-
work for every day. It was cheerfully taken, and patiently
wrought through; both at Shagarack and in the little valley at
home; but those were doing for themselves, and these were
truly doing love's work, for them. All was for them. The crops
were grown and the sheep sheared, that Rufus and Winthrop
might, not eat and be clothed, -- that was a trifle, -- but have
the full good of a College education. The burden and the joy
of the toilers was the same. There were delightful
speculations round the fireside about the professions the
young men would choose; what profound lawyers, what brilliant
ministers, should come forth from the learned groves of
Shagarack; perhaps, the father hinted, -- statesmen. There were
letters from both the boys, to be read and re-read, and loved
and prided in, as once those of Rufus. And clothes came home
to mend, and new and nice knitted socks went now and then to
replace the worn ones; but that commerce was not frequent nor
large; where there was so little to make, it was of necessity
that there should not be too much to mend; and alas! if shirt-
bosoms gave out, the boys buttoned their coats over them and
studied the harder. There were wants they did not tell; those
that were guessed at, they knew, cost many a strain at home;
and were not all met then. But they had not gone to Shagarack
to be' smart,' -- except mentally. That they were.
They were favourites, notwithstanding. Their superiors
delighted in their intellectual prominence; their fellows
forgave it. Quietly and irresistibly they had won to the head
of their respective portions of the establishment, and stayed
there; but the brilliancy and fire of Rufus and the manliness
and temper of his brother gained them the general good-will,
and general consent to the place from which it was impossible
to dislodge them. Admiration first followed elder brother, and
liking the younger; till it was found that Winthrop was as
unconquerable as he was unassuming; as sure to be ready as to
be right; and a very thorough and large respect presently fell
into the train of his deservings. The faculty confided in him;
his mates looked up to him. There was happily no danger of any
affront to Winthrop which might have called Rufus's fire
disagreeably into play. And for himself, he was too
universally popular. If he was always in the foreground,
everybody knew it was because he _could_ not be anywhere else.
If Winthrop was often brought into the foreground, on great
occasions, every soul of them knew it was because no other
would have dignified it so well. And besides, neither Winthrop
nor Rufus forgot or seemed to forget the grand business for
which he was there. With all their diversity of manner and
disposition, each was intent on the same thing, -- to do what
he had come there to do. Lasting eminence, not momentary pre-
eminence, was what they sought; and that was an ambition which
most of their compeers had no care to dispute with them.
"Poor fellows!" said a gay young money-purser; "they are
working hard, I suppose, to get themselves a place in the eye
of the world."
"Yes sir," said the President, who overheard this speech; --
"and they will by and by be where you can't see them."
They came home for a few weeks in the summer, to the
unspeakable rejoicing of the whole family; but it was a break
of light in a cloudy day; the clouds closed again. Only now
and then a stray sunbeam of a letter found its way through.
One year had gone since the boys went to College, and it was
late in the fall again. Mr. Underhill, who had been on a
journey back into the country, came over one morning to Mr.
Landholm's.
"Good morning!" said the farmer. "Well, you've got back from
your journey into the interior."
"Yes," said Mr. Underhill, -- "I've got back."
"How did you find things looking, out there?"
"Middling; -- their winter crops are higher up than yours and
mine be."
"Ay. I suppose they've a little the start of us with the sun.
Did you come through Shagarack?"
"Yes -- I stopped there a night."
"Did you see my boys?"
"Yes -- I see 'em."
"Well -- what did they say?" said the father, with his eye
alive.
"Well -- not much," said Mr. Underhill.
"They were well, I suppose?"
"First-rate -- only Winthrop looked to me as if he was workin'
pretty hard. He's poorer, by some pounds, I guess, than he was
when he was to hum last August."
"Didn't he look as usual?" said the father with a smothered
anxiety.
"There wa'n't no other change in him, that I could see, of no
kind. I didn't know as Rufus was going to know who I was, at
first."
"He hasn't seen much of you for some time."
"No; and folks lose their memory," said Mr. Underhill. "I saw
the -- what do you call him? -- the boss of the concern --
president! -- President Tuttle. I saw him and had quite a talk
with him."
"The president! How came you to see him?"
"Well, 'taint much to see a man, I s'pose, -- is it? I took a
notion I'd see him. I wanted to ask him how Will and Winthrop
was a getting along. I told him I was a friend o' yourn."
"Well, did you ask him?"
"Yes I did."
"What did he say?" said Mr. Landholm, half laughing.
"I asked him how they were getting along."
"Ay, and what did he answer to that?"
"He wanted to know if Mr. Landholm had any more sons?"
"Was that all?" said the farmer, laughing quite.
"That was the hull he said, with a kind of kink of his eye
that wa'n't too big a sum for me to cast up. He didn't give me
no more satisfaction than that."
"And what did you tell him -- to his question?"
"I? -- I told him that two such plants took a mighty sight of
room to grow, and that the hull county was clean used up."
"You did!" said Mr. Landholm laughing heartily. "Pretty well!
-- pretty good! -- Have some tobacco, neighbour?"
"How is it?" said Mr. Underhill taking a bunch gravely.
"First-rate, -- _I_ think. Try."
Which Mr. Underhill did, with slow and careful consideration.
Mr. Landholm watched him complacently.
"I've seen worse," he remarked dryly at length. "Where did you
get it, squire?"
"Nowhere short of the great city, neighbour. It came from
Mannahatta."
"Did, hey? Well, I reckon it might. Will you trade?"
"With what?" said Mr. Landholm.
"Some of this here."
"With you?"
"Yes."
"Well -- let's hear," said the farmer.
"Don't you think the post ought to be paid?" said Mr.
Underhill, diving into some far-down pockets.
"Why, are you the post?"
"Don't you think that two sealed letters, now, would be worth
a leetle box o' that 'ere?"
"Have you brought letters from the boys?"
"Well I don't know who writ 'em," said Mr. Underhill; -- "they
guv 'em to me."
Mr. Landholm took the letters, and with a very willing face
went for a 'little box,' which he filled with the Mannahatta
tobacco.
"Old Cowslip don't keep anything like this," Mr. Underhill
said as he received it and stowed it coolly away in his
pocket. "I mean to shew it to him."
"Will you stay to dinner, neighbour?"
"No thank 'ee -- I've got to get over the river; and my little
woman'll have something cooked for me; and if I wa'n't there
to eat it I shouldn't hear the last of my wastefulness."
"Ay? is that the way she does?" said Mr. Landholm laughing.
"Something like it. A tight grip, I tell ye!"
And with these words Mr. Underhill took himself out of the
house.
"Where's your mother, Asahel? call her and tell her what's
here," said Mr. Landholm, as he broke one of the seals.
"Shagarack, Dec. 3, 1810.
"My dear parents,
"I take the opportunity of friend Underhill's going home to
send you a word -- I can't write much more than a word, I'm so
busy. I never drove my plough at home half so industriously as
now I am trying to break up and sow the barren fields of mind.
But oh, this is sweeter labour than that. How shall I ever
repay you, my dear father and dear mother, for the efforts you
are making -- and enduring -- to give me this blessing. I feel
them to my very heart -- I know them much better than from your
words. And perhaps this poor return of words is all I shall
ever be able to make you, -- when it seems to me sometimes as
if I could spill my very heart to thank you. But if success
can thank you, you shall be thanked. I feel that within me
which says I shall have it. Tell mother the box came safe, and
was gladly received. The socks &c. are as nice as possible,
and very comfortable this weather; and the mittens, tell
Winnie, are like no other mittens that ever were knit; but I
wish I could have hold of the dear little hands that knit them
for a minute instead -- she knows what would come next.
"You bid me say if I want anything -- sometimes I think I want
nothing but to hear from you a little oftener -- or to see you!
-- that would be too pleasant. But I am doing very well, though
I _do_ want to know that ma is not working so hard. I shall
relieve pa from any further charge of me after this. I
consulted the President; and he has given me a form in the
grammar school to take care of -- I believe pa knows there is a
grammar school connected with the Institution. This will pay
my bills, and to my great joy relieve my father from doing so
any more. This arrangement leaves me but half of the usual
study hours (by day) for myself; so you see I have not much
leisure to write letters, and must close.
"Your affectionate son,
"Winthrop Landholm.
"I don't forget Asahel, though I haven't said a word of him;
and give my love to Karen."
Mr. and Mrs. Landholm looked up with pleasant faces at each
other and exchanged letters. She took Winthrop's and her
husband began upon the other, which was from Rufus. Asahel and
Winifred were standing anxiously by.
"What do they say?"
"You shall hear directly."
"Does he say any thing about me?" said Winifred.
But father and mother were deep in the precious despatches,
and the answer had to be waited for.
"Shagarack College, Dec. 1810.
"My dear friends at home,
"This funny little man says he will take letters to you; -- so
as it is a pity not to cultivate any good disposition,
Governor and I have determined to favour him. But really there
is not much to write about. Our prospects are as bare as your
garden in November -- nothing but roots above ground or under --
some thrown together, and some, alas! to be dug for; only ours
are not parsnips and carrots but a particularly tasteless kind
called _Greek_ roots; with a variety denominated _algebraic_, of
which there are quantities. At these roots, or at some
branches from the same, Governor and I are tugging as for dear
life, so it is no wonder if our very hands smell of them. I am
sure I eat them every day with my dinner, and _ruminate_ upon
them afterwards. In the midst of all this we are as well as
usual. Governor is getting along splendidly; and I am not much
amiss; at least so they say. The weather is pretty stinging
these few days, and I find father's old cloak very useful. I
think Winthrop wants something of the sort, though he is as
stiff as a pine tree, bodily and mentally, and won't own that
he wants any thing. He won't want any thing long, that he can
get. He is working _confoundedly_ hard. I beg mamma's pardon -- I
wouldn't have said that if I had thought of her -- and I would
write over my letter now, if I were not short of time, and to
tell truth, of paper. This is my last sheet, and a villainous
bad one it is; but I can't get any better at the little
storekeeper's here, and that at a horridly high price.
"As Governor is writing to you, he will give you all the
sense, so it is less matter that there is absolutely nothing
in this epistle. Only believe me, my dear father and mother
and Winnie and Asahel, ever your most dutiful, grateful, and
affectionate son and brother,
"Will. Rufus Landholm.
"My dear mother, the box was most acceptable."
After being once read in private, the letters were given aloud
to the children; and then studied over and again by the father
and mother to themselves. Winifred was satisfied with the
mention of her name; notwithstanding which, she sat with a
very wistful face the rest of the afternoon. She was longing
for her brother's hand and kiss.
"Have your brothers' letters made you feel sober, Winnie?"
said her mother.
"I want to see him, mamma! --"
"Who?"
"Governor. --"
It was the utmost word Winifred's lips could speak.
"But dear Winnie," said her mother sorrowfully, "it is for
their good and their pleasure they are away."
"I know it, mamma, -- I know I am very selfish --"
"I don't think you are," said her mother. "Winnie, remember
that they are getting knowledge and fitting themselves to be
better and stronger men than they could be if they lived here
and learnt nothing."
"Mamma," said Winifred looking up as if defining her position,
"I don't think it is right, but I can't always help it."
"We have one friend never far off."
"Oh mamma, I remember that all the while."
"Then can't you look happy?"
"Not always, mamma," said the little girl covering her face
quickly. The mother stooped down and put her arms round her.
"You must ask him, and he will teach you to be happy always."
"But I can't, mamma, unless I could be right always," said
poor Winifred.
Mrs. Landholm was silent, but kissed her with those soft
motherly kisses which had comfort and love in every touch of
them. Soon answered, for Winifred lifted up her head and
kissed her again.
"How much longer must they be there, mamma?" she asked more
cheerfully.
"Two years," Mrs. Landholm answered, with a sigh that belonged
to what was not spoken.
"Mamma," said Winifred again presently, trying not to shew
from how deep her question came, "aint you afraid Winthrop
wants something more to wear?"
And Mrs. Landholm did not shew how deep the question went, but
she said lightly,
"We'll see about it. We'll get papa to write and make him tell
us what he wants."
"Maybe he won't tell," said Winifred thoughtfully. "I wish I
could write."
"Then why don't you set to and learn? Nothing would please
Governor so much."
"Would it!" said Winifred with a brightened face.
"Asahel," she said, as Asahel came in a few minutes after,
"mamma says Governor would like nothing so well as to have me
learn to write."
"I knew that before," said Asahel coolly. "He was talking to
me last summer about learning you."
"Was he! Then will you Asahel? Do you know yourself?"
"I know how to begin," said Asahel.
And after that many a sorrowful feeling was wrought into
trammels and pothooks.