Jonathan Bull and Mary Bull who were descendants of Old John Bull, the
head of the family, had inherited contiguous estates in large tracts
of land. As they grew up and became well acquainted, a partiality was
mutually felt, and advances on several occasions made towards a
matrimonial connection. This was particularly recommended by the
advantage of putting their two estates under a common superintendance.
Old Bull however as guardian of both, and having been allowed certain
valuable privileges within the estates, with which he was not long
content, had always found the means of breaking off the match, which
he regarded as a fatal obstacle to his secret design of getting the
whole property into his own hands.
At a moment favorable as he thought for the attempt, he brought suit
against both, but with a view of carrying it on in a way that would
make the process bear on the parties in such different modes, times
and degrees, as might create a jealousy and discord between them.
Jonathan and Mary had too much sagacity to be duped. They understood
well Old Bull's character and situation. They knew that he was deeply
versed in all the subtleties of the law, that he was of a stubborn and
persevering temper, and that he had moreover a very long purse. They
were sensible therefore that the more he endeavored to divide their
interests, and their defence of the suit, the more they ought to make
a common cause, and proceed in a concert of measures. As this could
best be done by giving effect to the feelings long entertained for
each other, an intermarriage was determined on and solemnized, with a
deed of settlement as usual in such opulent matches, duly executed;
and no event certainly of the sort was ever celebrated by a greater
fervor or variety of rejoicings among the respective tenants of the
parties. They had a great horror of falling into the hands of Old
Bull; and regarded the marriage of their proprietors under whom they
held their freeholds, as the surest mode of warding off the danger.
They were not disappointed. United purses, and good advocates
compelled Old Bull, after a hard struggle, to withdraw the suit, and
relinquish forever, not only the new pretensions he had set up, but
the old privileges he had been allowed.
The marriage of Jonathan and Mary was not a barren one. On the
contrary every year or two added a new member to the family; and on
such occasions the practice was to set off a portion of land
sufficient for a good farm to be put under the authority of the child
on its attaining the age of manhood; and these lands were settled very
rapidly by tenants going as the case might be from the estates,
sometimes of Jonathan, sometimes of Mary, and sometimes partly from
one and partly from the other.
It happened that at the expiration of the nonage of the 10th or 11th
fruit of the marriage, some difficulties were started concerning the
rules and conditions, of declaring the young party of age, and of
giving him as a member of the family, the management of his patrimony.
Jonathan became possessed with a notion that an arrangement ought to
be made that would prevent the new farm from being settled and
cultivated, as in all the latter instances, indiscriminately by
persons removing from his and Mary's estate, and confine this
privilege to those going from his own; and in the perverse humor which
had seized him, he listened moreover to suggestions that Mary had some
undue advantage from the selections of the head stewards which
happened to have been made much oftener out of her tenants than his.
Now the prejudice suddenly taken up by Jonathan against the equal
right of Mary's tenants to remove with their property to new farms,
was connected with a peculiarity in Mary's person not as yet noticed.
Strange as it may appear, the circumstance is not the less true, that
Mary when a child, had unfortunately received from a certain African
dye, a stain on her left arm which had made it perfectly black, and
withal somewhat weaker than the other arm. The misfortune arose from
her being prevailed on to let a ship from Africa, loaded with the
article, enter a river running through her estate, and dispose of a
part of the noxious cargo. The fact was well known to Jonathan at the
time of their marriage; and if felt as an objection, it was in a
manner reduced to nothing by the comely form and pleasing features of
Mary in every other respect; by her good sense and amiable manners;
and in part perhaps by the large and valuable estate she brought with
her.
In the unlucky fit however which was upon him, he looked at the black
arm, and forgot all the rest. To such a pitch of feeling was he
wrought up, that he broke out into the grossest taunts on Mary for her
misfortune; not omitting at the same time to remind her of his long
forbearance, to exert his superior voice in the appointment of the
head steward. He had now, he said, got his eyes fully opened, he saw
every thing in a new light, and was resolved to act accordingly. As to
the head steward, he would let her see that the appointment was
virtually in his power; and she might take her leave of all chance of
ever having another of her tenants advance to that station. And as to
the black arm, she should, if the color could not be taken out, either
tear off the skin from the flesh, or cut off the limb: For it was his
fixed determination, that one or the other should be done, or he would
sue out a divorce, and there should be an end of all connection
between them and their estates. I have, he said, examined well the
marriage settlement, and flaws have been pointed out to me, that never
occurred before, by which I shall be able to set the whole aside.
White as I am all over, I can no longer consort with one marked with
such a deformity as the blot on your person.
Mary was so stunned with the language she heard that it was sometime
before she could speak at all; and as the surprise abated, she was
almost choked with the anger and indignation swelling in her bosom.
Generous and placable as her temper was, she had a proud sensibility
to what she thought an unjust and degrading treatment, which did not
permit her to suppress the violence of her first emotions. Her
language accordingly for a moment was such as these emotions prompted.
But her good sense, and her regard for Jonathan, whose qualities as a
good husband she had long experienced, soon gained an ascendancy, and
changed her tone to that of sober reasoning and affectionate
expostulation. Well, my dear husband, you see what a passion you had
put me into. But it is over now, and I will endeavor to express my
thoughts with the calmness and good feelings which become the relation
of wife and husband.
As to the case of providing for our child just coming of age, I shall
say but little. We both have such a tender regard for him and such a
desire to see him on a level with his brethren as to the chance of
making his fortune in the world, that I am sure the difficulties which
have occurred will in some way or other be got over.
But I cannot pass so lightly over the reproaches you cast on the color
of my left arm; and on the more frequent appointment of my tenants
than of yours, to the head stewardship of our joint estates.
Now as to the first point; you seem to have forgotten, my worthy
partner, that this infirmity was fully known to you before our
marriage, and is proved to be so by the deed of settlement itself. At
that time you made no objection whatever to our union; and indeed how
could you urge such an objection, when you were conscious that you
yourself was not entirely free from a like stain on your person. The
fatal African dye, as you well know, had found its way into your abode
as well as mine; and at the time of our marriage, had spots and specks
scattered over your body as black as the skin on my arm. And although
you have by certain abrasions and other applications, taken them in
some measure out, there are visible remains which ought to soften at
least your language when reflecting on my situation. You ought surely,
when you have so slowly and imperfectly relieved yourself from the
mortifying stain, although the task was comparatively so easy, to have
some forbearance and sympathy with me who have a task so much more
difficult to perform. Instead of that you abuse me as if I had brought
the misfortune on myself, and could remove it at will; or as if you
had pointed out a ready way to do it, and I had slighted your advice.
Yet so far is this from being the case, that you know as well as I do,
that I am not to be blamed for the origin of the sad mishap; that I am
as anxious as you can be to get rid of it; that you are as unable as I
am to find out a safe and feasible plan for the purpose; and moreover,
that I have done every thing I could in the mean time, to mitigate an
evil that cannot as yet be removed. When you talk of tearing off the
skin or cutting off the unfortunate limb, must I remind you of what
you cannot be ignorant, that the most skilful surgeons have given
their opinions that if so cruel an operation were to be tried, it
could hardly fail to be followed by a mortification or a bleeding to
death. Let me ask too, whether, should neither of the fatal effects
ensue, you would like me better in my mangled or mutilated condition,
than you do now? And when you threaten a divorce and an annulment of
the marriage settlement, may I not ask whether your estate would not
suffer as much as mine by dissolving the partnership between them? I
am far from denying that I feel the advantage of having the pledge of
your arm, your stronger arm if you please, for the protection of me
and mine; and that my interests in general have been, and must
continue to be the better for your aid and counsel in the management
of them. But on the other hand you must be equally sensible that the
aid of my purse will have its value, in case Old Bull or any other
rich litigious fellow should put us to the expense of another tedious
law suit. And now that we are on the subject of loss and gain, you
will not be offended if I take notice of a report that you sometimes
insinuate, that my estate, according to the rates of assessment, does
not pay its due share into the common purse. I think, my dear
Jonathan, that if you ever entertained this opinion you must have been
led into it, by a very wrong view of the subject. As to the direct
income from rents, there can be no deficiency on my part; the rule of
apportionment being clear and founded on a calculation by numbers. And
as to what is raised from the articles bought and used by my tenants,
it is difficult to conceive that my tenants buy or use less than
yours, considering that they carry a greater amount of crops to
market, the whole of which, it is well known, they lay out in articles
from the use of which the bailiff regularly collects the sum due. It
would seem then that my tenants selling more, buy more; buying more,
use more; and using more, pay more. Meaning, however, not to put you
in the wrong, but myself in the right, I do not push the argument to
that length, because I readily agree that in paying for articles
bought and used, you have beyond the fruits of the soil on which I
depend, ways and means which I have not. You draw chiefly the interest
we jointly pay for the funds we were obliged to borrow for the fees
and costs the suit Old Bull put us to. Your tenants also turn their
hands so ingeniously to a variety of handicraft and other mechanical
productions, that they make not a little money from that source.
Besides all this, you gain much by the fish you catch and carry to
market; by the use of your teams and boats in transporting and trading
on the crops of my tenants; and indeed in doing that sort of business
for strangers also. This is a fair statement on your side of the
account, with the drawback however, that as your tenants are supplied
with a greater proportion of articles, made by themselves, than is the
case with mine, the use of which articles does not contribute to the
common purse, they avoid in the same proportion, the payments
collected from my tenants. If I were to look still further into this
matter and refer you to every advantage you draw from the union of our
persons and property, I might remark, that the profits you make from
your teams and boats, and which enable you to pay your quota, are in
great part drawn from the preference they have in conveying and
disposing of the products of my soil; a business that might fall into
other hands, in the event of our separation. I mention this, as I have
already said, not by way of complaint, for I am well satisfied that
your gain is not altogether my loss in this more than in many other
instances; and that what profits you immediately may profit me also in
the long run. But I will not dwell on these calculations and
comparisons of interest, which you ought to weigh as well as myself,
as reasons against the measure to which you threaten a resort. For
when I consult my own heart, and call to mind all the endearing proofs
you have given of yours being in sympathy with it, I must needs hope
that there are other ties than mere interest, to prevent us from ever
suffering a transient resentment on either side, with or without
cause, to bring on both, all the consequences of a divorce;
consequences too which would be a sad inheritance indeed for our
numerous and beloved offspring.
As to the other point relative to the head stewards, I must own, my
worthy husband, that I am altogether at a loss for any cause of
dissatisfaction on your part or blame on mine. It is true, as you say,
that they have been oftener taken from among my tenants than yours;
but under other circumstances the reverse might as well have happened.
If the individuals appointed, had made their way to the important
trust, by corrupt or fallacious means; if they had been preferred
merely because they dwelt on my estate, or had succeeded by any
interposition of mine contrary to your inclination; or finally, if
they had administered the trust unfaithfully, sacrificing your
interests to mine, or the interests of both to selfish or unworthy
purposes, in either of these cases, you would have ground for your
complaints. But I know Jonathan that you are too just and too candid
not to admit that no such ground exists. The head stewards in question
could not have been appointed without your own participation as well
as mine. They were recommended to our joint choice by the reputed
fairness of their characters, by their tried fidelity and competency
in previous trusts, and by their exemption from all charges of impure
and grasping designs; and so far were they from being partial to my
interest at the expense of yours, that they were rather considered by
my tenants as leaning to a management more favorable to yours than to
mine. I need not say that I allude to the bounties direct and indirect
to your teams and boats, to the hands employed in your fisheries, and
to the looms and other machineries, which without such encouragements
would not be able to meet the threatened rivalships of interfering
neighbors; I say only, that these ideas were in the heads of some of
my tenants. For myself I should not have mentioned them but as a
defence against what I must regard as so unfounded a charge, that it
ought not to be permitted to make a lasting impression.
But laying aside all these considerations, I repeat, my dear Jonathan,
that the appointment of the head steward lies as much, if not more,
with you than with me. Let the choice fall where it may you will find
me faithfully abiding by it, whether it be thought the best possible
one or not, and sincerely wishing that he may equally improve better
opportunities of serving us both, than was the lot of any of those who
have gone before him.
Jonathan who had a good heart, as well as a sound head and steady
temper, was touched with this tender and conciliatory language of
Mary; and the bickering which had sprung up ended as the quarrels of
lovers _always_, and of married folks _sometimes_ do, in an increased
affection and confidence between the parties.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.