Mr. Ducklow had scarcely turned the corner of the street, when, looking
anxiously in the direction of his homestead, he saw a column of smoke.
It was directly over the spot where he knew his house to be situated. He
guessed at a glance what had happened. The frightful catastrophe he
foreboded had befallen. Taddy had set the house afire.
"Them bonds! them bonds!" he exclaimed, distractedly. He did not think
so much of the house: house and furniture were insured; if they were
burned, the inconvenience would be great indeed, and at any other time
the thought of such an event would have been a sufficient cause for
trepidation,--but now his chief, his only anxiety was the bonds. They
were not insured. They would be a dead loss. And what added sharpness to
his pangs, they would be a loss which he must keep a secret, as he had
kept their existence a secret,--a loss which he could not confess, and
of which he could not complain. Had he not just given his neighbors to
understand that he held no such property? And his wife,--was she not at
that very moment, if not serving up a lie on the subject, at least
paring the truth very thin indeed?
"A man would think," observed Ferring, "that Ducklow had some o' them
bonds on his hands, and got scaret, he took such a sudden start. He has,
hasn't he, Mrs. Ducklow?"
"Has what?" said Mrs. Ducklow, pretending ignorance.
"Some o' them cowpon bonds. I ruther guess he's got some."
"You mean Gov'ment bonds? Ducklow got some? 'Ta'n't at all likely he'd
spec'late in them, without saying something to _me_ about it! No, he
couldn't have any without my knowing it, I'm sure!"
How demure, how innocent she looked, plying her knitting-needles, and
stopping to take up a stitch! How little at that moment she knew of
Ducklow's trouble, and its terrible cause!
Ducklow's first impulse was to drive on and endeavor at all hazards to
snatch the bonds from the flames. His next was, to return and alarm his
neighbors, and obtain their assistance. But a minute's delay might be
fatal; so he drove on, screaming "Fire! fire!" at the top of his voice.
But the old mare was a slow-footed animal; and Ducklow had no whip. He
reached forward and struck her with the reins.
"Git up! git up!--Fire! fire!" screamed Ducklow. "Oh, them bonds! them
bonds! Why didn't I give the money to Reuben? Fire! fire! fire!"
By dint of screaming and slapping, he urged her from a trot into a
gallop, which was scarcely an improvement as to speed, and certainly
not as to grace. It was like the gallop of an old cow. "Why don't ye go
'long!" he cried despairingly.
Slap, slap! He knocked his own hat off with the loose ends of the reins.
It fell under the wheels. He cast one look behind, to satisfy himself
that it had been very thoroughly run over and crushed into the dirt, and
left it to its fate.
Slap, slap! "Fire, fire!" Canter, canter, canter! Neighbors looked out
of their windows, and, recognizing Ducklow's wagon and old mare in such
an astonishing plight, and Ducklow himself, without his hat, rising from
his seat, and reaching forward in wild attitudes, brandishing the reins,
at the same time rending the azure with yells, thought he must be
insane.
He drove to the top of the hill, and looking beyond, in expectation of
seeing his house wrapped in flames, discovered that the smoke proceeded
from a brush-heap which his neighbor Atkins was burning in a field near
by.
The revulsion of feeling that ensued was almost too much for the
excitable Ducklow. His strength went out of him. For a little while
there seemed to be nothing left of him but tremor and cold sweat.
Difficult as it had been to get the old mare in motion, it was now even
more difficult to stop her.
"Why! what has got into Ducklow's old mare? She's running away with him!
Who ever heard of such a thing!" And Atkins, watching the ludicrous
spectacle from his field, became almost as weak from laughter as Ducklow
was from the effects of fear.
At length Ducklow succeeded in checking the old mare's speed, and in
turning her about. It was necessary to drive back for his hat. By this
time he could hear a chorus of shouts, "Fire! fire! fire!" over the
hill. He had aroused the neighbors as he passed, and now they were
flocking to extinguish the flames.
"A false alarm! a false alarm!" said Ducklow, looking marvellously
sheepish, as he met them. "Nothing but Atkins's brush-heap!"
"Seems to me you ought to have found that out 'fore you raised all
creation with your yells!" said one hyperbolical fellow. "You looked
like the Flying Dutchman! This your hat? I thought 'twas a dead cat in
the road. No fire, no fire!"--turning back to his comrades,--"only one
of Ducklow's jokes."
Nevertheless, two or three boys there were who would not be convinced,
but continued to leap up, swing their caps, and scream "Fire!" against
all remonstrance. Ducklow did not wait to enter into explanations, but,
turning the old mare about again, drove home amid the laughter of the
bystanders and the screams of the misguided youngsters. As he approached
the house, he met Taddy rushing wildly up the street.
"Thaddeus! Thaddeus! where ye goin', Thaddeus?"
"Goin' to the fire!" cried Taddy.
"There isn't any fire, boy!"
"Yes, there is! Didn't ye hear 'em? They've been yellin' like fury."
"It's nothin' but Atkins's brush."
"That all?" And Taddy appeared very much disappointed. "I thought there
was goin' to be some fun. I wonder who was such a fool as to yell fire
jest for a darned old brush-heap!"
Ducklow did not inform him.
"I've got to drive over to town and git Reuben's trunk. You stand by the
mare while I step in and brush my hat."
Instead of applying himself at once to the restoration of his beaver, he
hastened to the sitting-room, to see that the bonds were safe.
"Heavens and 'arth!" said Ducklow.
The chair, which had been carefully planted in the spot where they were
concealed, had been removed. Three or four tacks had been taken out, and
the carpet pushed from the wall. There was straw scattered about.
Evidently Taddy had been interrupted, in the midst of his ransacking, by
the alarm of fire. Indeed, he was even now creeping into the house to
see what notice Ducklow would take of these evidences of his mischief.
In great trepidation the farmer thrust in his hand here and there, and
groped, until he found the envelope precisely where it had been placed
the night before, with the tape tied around it, which his wife had put
on to prevent its contents from slipping out and losing themselves.
Great was the joy of Ducklow. Great also was the wrath of him, when he
turned and discovered Taddy.
"Didn't I tell you to stand by the old mare?"
"She won't stir," said Taddy, shrinking away again.
"Come here!" And Ducklow grasped him by the collar. "What have you been
doin'? Look at that!"
"'Twa'n't me!"--beginning to whimper, and ram his fists into his eyes.
"Don't tell me 'twa'n't you!" Ducklow shook him till his teeth
chattered. "What was you pullin' up the carpet for?"
"Lost a marble!" snivelled Taddy.
"Lost a marble! Ye didn't lose it under the carpet, did ye? Look at all
that straw pulled out!"--shaking him again.
"Didn't know but it might 'a' got under the carpet, marbles roll so,"
explained Taddy, as soon as he could get his breath.
"Wal, Sir!" Ducklow administered a resounding box on his ear. "Don't you
do such a thing again, if you lose a million marbles!"
"Ha'n't got a million!" Taddy wept, rubbing his cheek. "Ha'n't got but
four! Won't ye buy me some to-day?"
"Go to that mare, and don't you leave her again till I come, or I'll
_marble_ ye in a way you won't like!"
Understanding, by this somewhat equivocal form of expression, that
flagellation was threatened, Taddy obeyed, still feeling his smarting
and burning ear.
Ducklow was in trouble. What should he do with the bonds? The floor was
no place for them, after what had happened; and he remembered too well
the experience of yesterday to think for a moment of carrying them about
his person. With unreasonable impatience, his mind reverted to Mrs.
Ducklow.
"Why a'n't she to home? These women are forever a-gaddin'! I wish
Reuben's trunk was in Jericho!"
Thinking of the trunk reminded him of one in the garret, filled with old
papers of all sorts,--newspapers, letters, bills of sale, children's
writing-books,--accumulations of the past quarter of a century. Neither
fire nor burglar nor ransacking youngster had ever molested those
ancient records during all those five-and-twenty years. A bright thought
struck him.
"I'll slip the bonds down into that wuthless heap o' rubbish, where no
one 'u'd ever think o' lookin' for 'em, and resk 'em."
Having assured himself that Taddy was standing by the wagon, he paid a
hasty visit to the trunk in the garret, and concealed the envelope,
still bound in its band of tape, among the papers. He then drove away,
giving Taddy a final charge to beware of setting anything afire.
He had driven about half a mile when he met a peddler. There was nothing
unusual or alarming in such a circumstance, surely; but as Ducklow kept
on, it troubled him.
"He'll stop to the house now, most likely, and want to trade. Findin'
nobody but Taddy, there's no knowin' what he'll be tempted to do. But I
a'n't a-goin' to worry. I'll defy anybody to find them bonds. Besides,
she may be home by this time. I guess she'll hear of the fire-alarm, and
hurry home: it'll be jest like her. She'll be there, and--trade with the
peddler?" thought Ducklow, uneasily. Then a frightful fancy possessed
him. "She has threatened two or three times to sell that old trunkful of
papers. He'll offer a big price for 'em, and ten to one she'll let him
have 'em. Why _didn't_ I think on 't? What a stupid blunderbuss I be!"
As Ducklow thought of it, he felt almost certain that Mrs. Ducklow had
returned home, and that she was bargaining with the peddler at that
moment. He fancied her smilingly receiving bright tin-ware for the old
papers; and he could see the tape-tied envelope going into the bag with
the rest! The result was, that he turned about and whipped the old mare
home again in terrific haste, to catch the departing peddler.
Arriving, he found the house as he had left it, and Taddy occupied in
making a kite-frame.
"Did that peddler stop here?"
"I ha'n't seen no peddler."
"And ha'n't yer Ma Ducklow been home, neither?"
"No."
And with a guilty look, Taddy put the kite-frame behind him.
Ducklow considered. The peddler had turned up a cross-street: he would
probably turn down again and stop at the house, after all: Mrs. Ducklow
might by that time be at home: then the sale of old papers would be very
likely to take place. Ducklow thought of leaving word that he did not
wish any old papers in the house to be sold, but feared lest the request
might excite Taddy's suspicions.
"I don't see no way but for me to take the bonds with me," thought he,
with an inward groan.
He accordingly went to the garret, took the envelope out of the trunk,
and placed it in the breast-pocket of his overcoat, to which he pinned
it, to prevent it by any chance from getting out. He used six large,
strong pins for the purpose, and was afterwards sorry he did not use
seven.
"There's suthin' losin' out of yer pocket!" bawled Taddy, as he was once
more mounting the wagon.
Quick as lightning, Ducklow clapped his hand to his breast. In doing so,
he loosed his hold of the wagon-box and fell, raking his shin badly on
the wheel.
"Yer side-pocket! it's one o' yer mittens!" said Taddy.
"You rascal! how you scared me!"
Seating himself in the wagon, Ducklow gently pulled up his trousers-leg
to look at the bruised part.
"Got anything in yer boot-leg to-day, Pa Ducklow?" asked Taddy,
innocently.
"Yes, a barked shin!--all on your account, too! Go and put that straw
back, and fix the carpet; and don't ye let me hear ye speak of my
boot-leg again, or I'll _boot-leg_ ye!"
So saying, Ducklow departed.
Instead of repairing the mischief he had done in the sitting-room, Taddy
devoted his time and talents to the more interesting occupation of
constructing his kite-frame. He worked at that, until Mr. Grantley, the
minister, driving by, stopped to inquire how the folks were.
"A'n't to home: may I ride?" cried Taddy, all in a breath.
Mr. Grantley was an indulgent old gentleman, fond of children; so he
said, "Jump in"; and in a minute Taddy had scrambled to a seat by his
side.
And now occurred a circumstance which Ducklow had foreseen. The alarm of
fire had reached Reuben's; and although the report of its falseness
followed immediately, Mrs. Ducklow's inflammable fancy was so kindled by
it that she could find no comfort in prolonging her visit.
"Mr. Ducklow'll be going for the trunk, and I _must_ go home and see to
things, Taddy's _such_ a fellow for mischief! I can foot it; I sha'n't
mind it."
And off she started, walking herself out of breath in her anxiety.
She reached the brow of the hill just in time to see a chaise drive away
from her own door.
"Who _can_ that be? I wonder if Taddy's there to guard the house! If
anything should happen to them bonds!"
Out of breath as she was, she quickened her pace, and trudged on,
flushed, perspiring, panting, until she reached the house.
"Thaddeus!" she called.
No Taddy answered. She went in. The house was deserted. And lo! the
carpet torn up, and the bonds abstracted!
Mr. Ducklow never would have made such work, removing the bonds. Then
somebody else must have taken them, she reasoned.
"The man in the chaise!" she exclaimed, or rather made an effort to
exclaim, succeeding only in bringing forth a hoarse, gasping sound. Fear
dried up articulation. _Vox faucibus hoesit._
And Taddy? He had disappeared; been murdered, perhaps,--or gagged and
carried away by the man in the chaise.
Mrs. Ducklow flew hither and thither, (to use a favorite phrase of her
own,) "like a hen with her head cut off"; then rushed out of the house,
and up the street, screaming after the chaise,--
"Murder! murder! Stop thief! stop thief!"
She waved her hands aloft in the air frantically. If she had trudged
before, now she trotted, now she cantered; but if the cantering of the
old mare was fitly likened to that of a cow, to what thing, to what
manner of motion under the sun, shall we liken the cantering of Mrs.
Ducklow? It was original; it was unique; it was prodigious. Now, with
her frantically waving hands, and all her undulating and flapping
skirts, she seemed a species of huge, unwieldy bird attempting to fly.
Then she sank down into a heavy, dragging walk,--breath and strength all
gone,--no voice left even to scream murder. Then the awful realization
of the loss of the bonds once more rushing over her, she started up
again. "Half running, half flying, what progress she made!" Then
Atkins's dog saw her, and, naturally mistaking her for a prodigy, came
out at her, bristling up and bounding and barking terrifically.
"Come here!" cried Atkins, following the dog. "What's the matter? What's
to pay, Mrs. Ducklow?"
Attempting to speak, the good woman could only pant and wheeze.
"Robbed!" she at last managed to whisper, amid the yelpings of the cur
that refused to be silenced.
"Robbed? How? Who?"
"The chaise. Ketch it."
Her gestures expressed more than her words; and Atkins's horse and
wagon, with which he had been drawing out brush, being in the yard near
by, he ran to them, leaped to the seat, drove into the road, took Mrs.
Ducklow aboard, and set out in vigorous pursuit of the slow two-wheeled
vehicle.
"Stop, you, Sir! Stop, you, Sir!" shrieked Mrs. Ducklow, having
recovered her breath by the time they came up with the chaise.
It stopped, and Mr. Grantley the minister put out his good-natured,
surprised face.
"You've robbed my house! You've took"----
Mrs. Ducklow was going on in wild, accusatory accents, when she
recognized the benign countenance.
"What do you say? I have robbed you?" he exclaimed, very much
astonished.
"No, no! not you! You wouldn't do such a thing!" she stammered forth,
while Atkins, who had laughed himself weak at Mr. Ducklow's plight
earlier in the morning, now laughed himself into a side-ache at Mrs.
Ducklow's ludicrous mistake. "But did you--did you stop at my house?
Have you seen our Thaddeus?"
"Here I be, Ma Ducklow!" piped a small voice; and Taddy, who had till
then remained hidden, fearing punishment, peeped out of the chaise from
behind the broad back of the minister.
"Taddy! Taddy! how came the carpet"----
"I pulled it up, huntin' for a marble," said Taddy, as she paused,
overmastered by her emotions.
"And the--the thing tied up in a brown wrapper?"
"Pa Ducklow took it."
"Ye sure?"
"Yes, I seen him!"
"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Ducklow, "I never was so beat! Mr. Grantley, I
hope--excuse me--I didn't know what I was about! Taddy, you notty boy,
what did you leave the house for? Be ye quite sure yer Pa Ducklow"----
Taddy repeated that he was quite sure, as he climbed from the chaise
into Atkins's wagon. The minister smilingly remarked that he hoped she
would find no robbery had been committed, and went his way. Atkins,
driving back, and setting her and Taddy down at the Ducklow gate,
answered her embarrassed "Much obleeged to ye," with a sincere "Not at
all," considering the fun he had had a sufficient compensation for his
trouble. And thus ended the morning's adventures, with the exception of
an unimportant episode, in which Taddy, Mrs. Ducklow, and Mrs. Ducklow's
rattan were the principal actors.
At noon Mr. Ducklow returned.
"Did ye take the bonds?" was his wife's first question.
"Of course I did! Ye don't suppose I'd go away and leave 'em in the
house, not knowin' when you'd be comin' home?"
"Wal, I didn't know. And I didn't know whuther to believe Taddy or not.
Oh, I've had such a fright!"
And she related the story of her pursuit of the minister.
"How could ye make such a fool of yerself? It'll git all over town, and
I shall be mortified to death. Jest like a woman, to git frightened!"
"If _you_ hadn't got frightened, and made a fool of _yourself_, yelling
fire, 'twouldn't have happened!" retorted Mrs. Ducklow.
"Wal! wal! say no more about it! The bonds are safe."
"I was in hopes you'd change 'em for them registered bonds Reuben spoke
of."
"I did try to, but they told me to the bank it couldn't be did. Then I
asked 'em if they would keep 'em for me, and they said they wouldn't
object to lockin' on 'em up in their safe; but they wouldn't give me no
receipt, nor hold themselves responsible for 'em. I didn't know what
else to do, so I handed 'em the bonds to keep."
"I want to know if you did now!" exclaimed Mrs. Ducklow, disapprovingly.
"Why not? What else could I do? I didn't want to lug 'em around with me
forever. And as for keepin' 'em hid in the house, we've tried that!" and
Ducklow unfolded his weekly newspaper.
Mrs. Ducklow was placing the dinner on the table, with a look which
seemed to say, "_I_ wouldn't have left the bonds in the bank; _my_
judgment would have been better than all that. If they are lost, _I_
sha'n't be to blame!" when suddenly Ducklow started and uttered a cry of
consternation over his newspaper.
"Why, what have ye found?"
"Bank robbery!"
"Not _your_ bank? Not the bank where _your bonds_"----
"Of course not; but in the very next town! The safe blown open with
gunpowder! Five thousand dollars in Gov'ment bonds stole!"
"How strange!" said Mrs. Ducklow. "Now what did I tell ye?"
"I believe you're right," cried Ducklow, starting to his feet. "They'll
be safer in my own house, or even in my own pocket!"
"If you was going to put 'em in any safe, why not put 'em in Josiah's?
He's got a safe, ye know."
"So he has! We might drive over there and make a visit Monday, and ask
him to lock up----yes, we might tell him and Laury all about it, and
leave 'em in their charge."
"So we might!" said Mrs. Ducklow.
Laura was their daughter, and Josiah her husband, in whose honor and
sagacity they placed unlimited confidence. The plan was resolved upon at
once.
"To-morrow's Sunday," said Ducklow, pacing the floor. "If we leave the
bonds in the bank over night, they must stay there till Monday."
"And Sunday is jest the day for burglars to operate!" added Mrs.
Ducklow.
"I've a good notion--let me see!" said Ducklow, looking at the clock.
"Twenty minutes after twelve! Bank closes at two! An hour and a half,--I
believe I could git there in an hour and a half. I will. I'll take a
bite and drive right back."
Which he accordingly did, and brought the tape-tied envelope home with
him again. That night he slept with it under his pillow. The next day
was Sunday; and although Mr. Ducklow did not like to have the bonds on
his mind during sermon-time, and Mrs. Ducklow "dreaded dreadfully," as
she said, "to look the minister in the face," they concluded that it was
best, on the whole, to go to meeting, and carry the bonds. With the
envelope once more in his breast-pocket, (stitched in this time by Mrs.
Ducklow's own hand,) the farmer sat under the droppings of the
sanctuary, and stared up at the good minister, but without hearing a
word of the discourse, his mind was so engrossed by worldly cares, until
the preacher exclaimed vehemently, looking straight at Ducklow's pew,--
"What said Paul? 'I would to God that not only thou, but also all that
hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, _except
these bonds_.' _'Except these bonds'!_" he repeated, striking the Bible.
"Can you, my hearers,--can you say, with Paul, 'Would that all were as I
am, _except these bonds_'?"
A point which seemed for a moment so personal to himself, that Ducklow
was filled with confusion, and would certainly have stammered out some
foolish answer, had not the preacher passed on to other themes. As it
was, Ducklow contented himself with glancing around to see if the
congregation was looking at him, and carelessly passing his hand across
his breast-pocket to make sure the bonds were still there.
Early the next morning, the old mare was harnessed, and Taddy's adopted
parents set out to visit their daughter,--Mrs. Ducklow having postponed
her washing for the purpose. It was afternoon when they arrived at their
journey's end. Laura received them joyfully, but Josiah was not expected
home until evening. Mr. Ducklow put the old mare in the barn, and fed
her, and then went in to dinner, feeling very comfortable indeed.
"Josiah's got a nice place here. That's about as slick a little barn as
ever I see. Always does me good to come over here and see you gittin'
along so nicely, Laury."
"I wish you'd come oftener, then," said Laura.
"Wal, it's hard leavin' home, ye know. Have to git one of the Atkins
boys to come and sleep with Taddy the night we're away."
"We shouldn't have come to-day, if 't hadn't been for me," remarked Mrs.
Ducklow. "Says I to your father, says I, 'I feel as if I wanted to go
over and see Laury; it seems an age since I've seen her,' says I. 'Wal,'
says he, 's'pos'n' we go!' says he. That was only last Saturday; and
this morning we started."
"And it's no fool of a job to make the journey with the old mare!" said
Ducklow.
"Why don't you drive a better horse?" said Laura, whose pride was always
touched when her parents came to visit her with the old mare and the
one-horse wagon.
"Oh, she answers my purpose. Hossflesh is high, Laury. Have to
economize, these times."
"I'm sure there's no need of your economizing!" exclaimed Laura, leading
the way to the dining-room. "Why don't you use your money, and have the
good of it?"
"So I tell him," said Mrs. Ducklow, faintly.--"Why, Laury! I didn't want
you to be to so much trouble to git dinner jest for us! A bite would
have answered. Do see, father!"
At evening Josiah came home; and it was not until then that Ducklow
mentioned the subject which was foremost in his thoughts.
"What do ye think o' Gov'ment bonds, Josiah?" he incidentally inquired,
after supper.
"First-rate!" said Josiah.
"About as safe as anything, a'n't they?" said Ducklow, encouraged.
"Safe?" cried Josiah. "Just look at the resources of this country!
Nobody has begun yet to appreciate the power and undeveloped wealth of
these United States. It's a big rebellion, I know; but we're going to
put it down. It'll leave us a big debt, very sure; but we handle it now
easy as that child lifts that stool. It makes him grunt and stagger a
little, not because he isn't strong enough for it, but because he don't
understand his own strength, or how to use it: he'll have twice the
strength, and know just how to apply it, in a little while. Just so with
this country. It makes me laugh to bear folks talk about repudiation and
bankruptcy."
"But s'pos'n' we do put down the Rebellion, and the States come back:
then what's to hender the South, and Secesh sympathizers in the North,
from j'inin' together and votin' that the debt sha'n't be paid?"
"Don't you worry about that! Do ye suppose we're going to be such fools
as to give the Rebels, after we've whipped 'em, the same political power
they had before the war? Not by a long chalk! Sooner than that, we'll
put the ballot into the hands of the freedmen. They're our friends.
They've fought on the right side, and they'll vote on the right side. I
tell ye, spite of all the prejudice there is against black skins, we
a'n't such a nation of ninnies as to give up all we're fighting for, and
leave our best friends and allies, not to speak of our own interests, in
the hands of our enemies."
"You consider Gov'ments a good investment, then, do ye?" said Ducklow,
growing radiant.
"I do, decidedly,--the very best. Besides, you help the Government; and
that's no small consideration."
"So I thought. But how is it about the cowpon bonds? A'n't they rather
ticklish property to have in the house?"
"Well, I don't know. Think how many years you'll keep old bills and
documents and never dream of such a thing as losing them! There's not a
bit more danger with the bonds. I shouldn't want to carry 'em around
with me, to any great amount,--though I did once carry three
thousand-dollar bonds in my pocket for a week. I didn't mind it."
"Curi's!" said Ducklow: "I've got three thousan'-dollar bonds in my
pocket this minute!"
"Well, it's so much good property," said Josiah, appearing not at all
surprised at the circumstance.
"Seems to me, though, if I had a safe, as you have, I should lock 'em up
in it."
"I was travelling that week. I locked 'em up pretty soon after I got
home, though."
"Suppose," said Ducklow, as if the thought had but just occurred to
him,--"suppose you put my bonds into your safe: I shall feel easier."
"Of course," replied Josiah. "I'll keep 'em for you, if you like."
"It will be an accommodation. They'll be safe, will they?"
"Safe as mine are; safe as anybody's: I'll insure 'em for twenty-five
cents."
Ducklow was happy. Mrs. Ducklow was happy. She took her husband's coat,
and with a pair of scissors cut the threads that stitched the envelope
to the pocket.
"Have you torn off the May coupons?" asked Josiah.
"No."
"Well, you'd better. They'll be payable now soon; and if you take them,
you won't have to touch the bonds again till the interest on the
November coupons is due."
"A good idea!" said Ducklow.
He took the envelope, untied the tape, and removed its contents.
Suddenly the glow of comfort, the gleam of satisfaction, faded from his
countenance.
"Hello! What ye got there?" cried Josiah.
"Why, father! massy sakes!" exclaimed Mrs. Ducklow.
As for Ducklow himself, he could not utter a word; but, dumb with
consternation, he looked again in the envelope, and opened and turned
inside out, and shook, with trembling hands, its astonishing contents.
The bonds were not there: they had been stolen, and three copies of the
"Sunday Visitor" had been inserted in their place.
* * * * *
Very early on the following morning a dismal-faced middle-aged couple
might have been seen riding away from Josiah's house. It was the
Ducklows returning home, after their fruitless, their worse than
fruitless, journey. No entreaties could prevail upon them to prolong
their visit. It was with difficulty even that they had been prevented
from setting off immediately on the discovery of their loss, and
travelling all night, in their impatience to get upon the track of the
missing bonds.
"There'll be not the least use in going to-night," Josiah had said. "If
they were stolen at the bank, you can't do anything about it till
to-morrow. And even if they were taken from your own house, I don't see
what's to be gained now by hurrying back. It isn't probable you'll ever
see 'em again, and you may just as well take it easy,--go to bed and
sleep on it, and get a fresh start in the morning."
So, much against their inclination, the unfortunate owners of the
abstracted bonds retired to the luxurious chamber Laura gave them, and
lay awake all night, groaning and sighing, wondering and surmising, and
(I regret to add) blaming each other. So true it is, that "modern
conveniences," hot and cold water all over the house, a pier-glass, and
the most magnificently canopied couch, avail nothing to give
tranquillity to the harassed mind. Hitherto the Ducklows had felt great
satisfaction in the style their daughter, by her marriage, was enabled
to support. To brag of her nice house and furniture and two servants was
almost as good as possessing them. Remembering her rich dining-room and
silver service and porcelain, they were proud. Such things were enough
for the honor of the family; and, asking nothing for themselves, they
slept well in their humblest of bed-chambers, and sipped their tea
contentedly out of clumsy earthen. But that night the boasted style in
which their "darter" lived was less appreciated than formerly: fashion
and splendor were no longer a consolation.
"If we had only given the three thousan' dollars to Reuben!" said
Ducklow, driving homewards with a countenance as long as his whip-lash.
"'Twould have jest set him up, and been some compensation for his
sufferin's and losses goin' to the war."
"Wal, I had no objections," replied Mrs. Ducklow. "I always thought he
ought to have the money eventooally. And, as Miss Beswick said, no doubt
it would 'a' been ten times the comfort to him now it would be a number
o' years from now. But you didn't seem willing."
"I don't know! 'twas you that wasn't willin'!"
And they expatiated on Reuben's merits, and their benevolent intentions
towards him, and, in imagination, endowed him with the price of the
bonds over and over again: so easy is it to be generous with lost money!
"But it's no use talkin'!" said Ducklow. "I've not the least idee we
shall ever see the color o' them bonds again. If they was stole to the
bank, I can't prove anything."
"It does seem strange to me," Mrs. Ducklow replied, "that you should
have had no more gumption than to trust the bonds with strangers, when
they told you in so many words they wouldn't be responsible."
"If you have flung that in my teeth once, you have fifty times!" And
Ducklow lashed the old mare, as if she, and not Mrs. Ducklow, had
exasperated him.
"Wal," said the lady, "I don't see how we're going to work to find 'em,
now they're lost, without making inquiries; and we can't make inquiries
without letting it be known we had bought."
"I been thinkin' about that," said her husband. "Oh, dear!" with a
groan; "I wish the pesky cowpon bonds had never been invented!"
They drove first to the bank, where they were of course told that the
envelope had not been untied there. "Besides, it was sealed, wasn't
it?" said the cashier. "Indeed!" He expressed great surprise, when
informed that it was not. "It should have been: I supposed any child
would know enough to look out for that!"
And this was all the consolation Ducklow could obtain.
"Just as I expected," said Mrs. Ducklow, as they resumed their journey.
"I just as much believe that man stole your bonds as that you trusted
'em in his hands in an unsealed wrapper! Beats all, how you could be so
careless!"
"Wal, wal! I s'pose I never shall hear the last on 't!"
And again the poor old mare had to suffer for Mrs. Ducklow's offences.
They had but one hope now,--that perhaps Taddy had tampered with the
envelope, and that the bonds might be found somewhere about the house.
But this hope was quickly extinguished on their arrival. Taddy, being
accused, protested his innocence with a vehemence which convinced even
Mr. Ducklow that the cashier was probably the guilty party.
"Unless," said he, brandishing the rattan, "somebody got into the house
that morning when the little scamp run off to ride with the minister!"
"Oh, don't lick me for that! I've been licked for that once; ha'n't I,
Ma Ducklow?" shrieked Taddy.
The house was searched in vain. No clew to the purloined securities
could be obtained,--the copies of the "Sunday Visitor," which had been
substituted for them, affording not the least; for that valuable little
paper was found in almost every household, except Ducklow's.
"I don't see any way left but to advertise, as Josiah said," remarked
the farmer, with a deep sigh of despondency.
"And that'll bring it all out!" exclaimed Mrs. Ducklow. "If you only
hadn't been so imprudent!"
"Wal, wal!" said Ducklow, cutting her short.
Before resorting to public measures for the recovery of the stolen
property, it was deemed expedient to acquaint their friends with their
loss in a private way. The next day, accordingly, they went to pay
Reuben a visit. It was a very different meeting from that which took
place a few mornings before. The returned soldier had gained in health,
but not in spirits. The rapture of reaching home once more, the flush of
hope and happiness, had passed away with the visitors who had flocked to
offer their congratulations. He had had time to reflect: he had reached
home, indeed; but now every moment reminded him how soon that home was
to be taken from him. He looked at his wife and children, and clenched
his teeth hard to stifle the emotions that arose at the thought of their
future. The sweet serenity, the faith and patience and cheerfulness,
which never ceased to illumine Sophronia's face as she moved about the
house, pursuing her daily tasks, and tenderly waiting upon him, deepened
at once his love and his solicitude. He was watching her thus when the
Ducklows entered with countenances mournful as the grave.
"How are you gittin' along, Reuben?" said Ducklow, while his wife
murmured a solemn "good morning" to Sophronia.
"I am doing well enough. Don't be at all concerned about me! It a'n't
pleasant to lie here, and feel it may be months, months, before I'm able
to be about my business; but I wouldn't mind it,--I could stand it
first-rate,--I could stand anything, anything, but to see her working
her life out for me and the children! To no purpose, either; that's the
worst of it. We shall have to lose this place, spite of fate!"
"Oh, Reuben!" said Sophronia, hastening to him, and laying her soothing
hands upon his hot forehead; "why won't you stop thinking about that? Do
try to have more faith! We shall be taken care of, I'm sure!"
"If I had three thousand dollars,--yes, or even two,--then I'd have
faith!" said Reuben. "Miss Beswick has proposed to send a
subscription-paper around town for us; but I'd rather die than have it
done. Besides, nothing near that amount could be raised, I'm confident.
You needn't groan so, Pa Ducklow, for I a'n't hinting at you. I don't
expect you to help me out of my trouble. If you had felt called upon to
do it, you'd have done it before now; and I don't ask, I don't beg of
any man!" added the soldier, proudly.
"That's right; I like your sperit!" said the miserable Ducklow. "But I
was sighing to think of something,--something you haven't known anything
about, Reuben."
"Yes, Reuben, we should have helped you," said Mrs. Ducklow, "and did,
did take steps towards it"----
"In fact," resumed Ducklow, "you've met with a great misfortin', Reuben.
Unbeknown to yourself, you've met with a great misfortin'! Yer Ma
Ducklow knows."
"Yes, Reuben, the very day you came home, your Pa Ducklow made an
investment for your benefit. We didn't mention it,--you know I wouldn't
own up to it, though I didn't exactly say the contrary, the morning we
was over here"----
"Because," said Ducklow, as she faltered, "we wanted to surprise you; we
was keepin' it a secret till the right time, then we was goin' to make
it a pleasant surprise to ye."
"What in the name of common-sense are you talking about?" cried Reuben,
looking from one to the other of the wretched, prevaricating pair.
"Cowpon bonds!" groaned Ducklow. "Three thousan'-dollar cowpon bonds!
The money had been lent, but I wanted to make a good investment for you,
and I thought there was nothin' so good as Gov'ments"----
"That's all right," said Reuben. "Only, if you had money to invest for
my benefit, I should have preferred to pay off the mortgage the first
thing."
"Sartin! sartin!" said Ducklow; "and you could have turned the bonds
right in, if you had so chosen, like so much cash. Or you could have
drawed your interest on the bonds in gold, and paid the interest on your
mortgage in currency, and made so much, as I rather thought you would."
"But the bonds?" eagerly demanded Reuben, with trembling hopes, just as
Miss Beswick, with her shawl over her head, entered the room.
"We was jest telling about our loss, Reuben's loss," said Mrs. Ducklow
in a manner which betrayed no little anxiety to conciliate that terrible
woman.
"Very well! don't let me interrupt." And Miss Beswick, slipping the
shawl from her head, sat down.
Her presence, stiff and prim and sarcastic, did not tend in the least to
relieve Mr. Ducklow from the natural embarrassment he felt in giving his
version of Reuben's loss. However, assisted occasionally by a judicious
remark thrown in by Mrs. Ducklow, he succeeded in telling a sufficiently
plausible and candid-seeming story.
"I see! I see!" said Reuben, who had listened with astonishment and pain
to the narrative. "You had kinder intentions towards me than I gave you
credit for. Forgive me, if I wronged you!" He pressed the hand of his
adopted father, and thanked him from a heart filled with gratitude and
trouble. "But don't feel so bad about it. You did what you thought best
I can only say, the fates are against me."
"Hem!" coughing, Miss Beswick stretched up her long neck and cleared her
throat "So them bonds you had bought for Reuben was in the house the
very night I called!"
"Yes, Miss Beswick," replied Mrs. Ducklow; "and that's what made it so
uncomfortable to us to have you talk the way you did."
"Hem!" The neck was stretched up still farther than before, and the
redoubtable throat cleared again. "'Twas too bad! Ye ought to have told
me. You'd actooally bought the bonds,--bought 'em for Reuben, had ye?"
"Sartin! sartin!" said Ducklow.
"To be sure!" said Mrs. Ducklow.
"We designed 'em for his benefit, a surprise, when the right time
come," said both together.
"Hem! well!" (It was evident that the Beswick was clearing her decks for
action.) "When the right time come! yes! That right time wasn't
somethin' indefinite, in the fur futur', of course! Yer losin' the bonds
didn't hurry up yer benevolence the least grain, I s'pose! Hem! let in
them boys, Sophrony!"
Sophronia opened the door, and in walked Master Dick Atkins, (son of the
brush-burner,) followed, not without reluctance and concern, by Master
Taddy.
"Thaddeus! what you here for?" demanded the adopted parents.
"Because I said so," remarked Miss Beswick, arbitrarily. "Step along,
boys, step along. Hold up yer head, Taddy, for ye a'n't goin' to be hurt
while I'm around. Take yer fists out o' yer eyes, and stop blubberin'.
Mr. Ducklow, that boy knows somethin' about Reuben's cowpon bonds."
"Thaddeus!" ejaculated both Ducklows at once, "did you touch them
bonds?"
"Didn't know what they was!" whimpered Taddy.
"Did you take them?" And the female Ducklow grasped his shoulder.
"Hands off, if you please!" remarked Miss Beswick, with frightfully
gleaming courtesy. "I told him, if he'd be a good boy, and come along
with Richard, and tell the truth, he shouldn't be hurt. _If_ you
please," she repeated, with a majestic nod; and Mrs. Ducklow took her
hands off.
"Where are they now? where are they?" cried Ducklow, rushing headlong to
the main question.
"Don't know," said Taddy.
"Don't know? you villain!" And Ducklow was rising in wrath. But Miss
Beswick put up her hand deprecatingly.
"If _you_ please!" she said, with grim civility; and Ducklow sank down
again.
"What did you do with 'em? what did you want of 'em?" said Mrs. Ducklow,
with difficulty restraining an impulse to wring his neck.
"To cover my kite," confessed the miserable Taddy.
"Cover your kite! your kite!" A chorus of groans from the Ducklows.
"Didn't you know no better?"
"Didn't think you'd care," said Taddy. "I had some newspapers Dick give
me to cover it; but I thought them things 'u'd be pootier. So I took
'em, and put the newspapers in the wrapper."
"Did ye cover yer kite?"
"No. When I found out you cared so much about 'em, I dars'n't; I was
afraid you'd see 'em."
"Then what _did_ you do with 'em?"
"When you was away, Dick come over to sleep with me, and I--I sold 'em
to him."
"Sold 'em to Dick!"
"Yes," spoke up Dick, stoutly, "for six marbles, and one was a
bull's-eye, and one agate, and two alleys. Then, when you come home and
made such a fuss, he wanted 'em ag'in. But he wouldn't give me back but
four, and I wa'n't going to agree to no such nonsense as that."
"I'd lost the bull's-eye and one common," whined Taddy.
"But the bonds! did you destroy 'em?"
"Likely I'd destroy 'em, after I'd paid six marbles for 'em!" said Dick.
"I wanted 'em to cover _my_ kite with."
"Cover _your_--oh! then _you_'ve made a kite of 'em?" said Ducklow.
"Well, I was going to, when Aunt Beswick ketched me at it. She made me
tell where I got 'em, and took me over to your house jest now; and Taddy
said you was over here, and so she put ahead, and made us follow her."
Again, in an agony of impatience, Ducklow demanded to know where the
bonds were at that moment.
"If Taddy'll give me back the marbles," began Master Dick.
"That'll do!" said Miss Beswick, silencing him with a gesture. "Reuben
will give you twenty marbles; for I believe you said they was Reuben's
bonds, Mr. Ducklow?"
"Yes, that is"----stammered the adopted father.
"Eventooally," struck in the adopted mother.
"Now look here! What am I to understand? Be they Reuben's bonds, or be
they not? That's the question!" And there was that in Miss Beswick's
look which said, "If they are not Reuben's, then your eyes shall never
behold them more!"
"Of course they're Reuben's!" "We intended all the while"----"His
benefit"----"To do jest what he pleases with 'em," chorused Pa and Ma
Ducklow.
"Wal! now it's understood! Here, Reuben, are your cowpon bonds!"
And Miss Beswick, drawing them from her bosom, placed the precious
documents, with formal politeness, in the glad soldier's agitated hands.
"Glory!" cried Reuben, assuring himself that they were genuine and real.
"Sophrony, you've got a home! Ruby, Carrie, you've got a home! Miss
Beswick! you angel from the skies! order a bushel and a half of marbles
for Dick, and have the bill sent to me! Oh, Pa Ducklow! you never did a
nobler or more generous thing in your life. These will lift the
mortgage, and leave me a nest-egg besides. Then when I get my back pay,
and my pension, and my health again, we shall be independent."
And the soldier, overcome by his feelings, sank back in the arms of his
wife.
"We always told you we'd do well by ye, you remember?" said the
Ducklows, triumphantly.
The news went abroad. Again congratulations poured in upon the returned
volunteer. Everybody rejoiced in his good fortune,--especially certain
rich ones who had been dreading to see Miss Beswick come round with her
proposed subscription-paper.
Among the rest, the Ducklows rejoiced not the least; for selfishness was
with them, as it is with many, rather a thing of habit than a fault of
the heart. The catastrophe of the bonds broke up that life-long habit,
and revealed good hearts underneath. The consciousness of having done an
act of justice, although by accident, proved very sweet to them: it was
really a fresh sensation; and Reuben and his dear little family, saved
from ruin and distress, happy, thankful, glad, was a sight to their old
eyes such as they had never witnessed before. Not gold itself, in any
quantity, at the highest premium, could have given them so much
satisfaction; and as for coupon bonds, they are not to be mentioned in
the comparison.
"Won't you do well by me some time, too?" teased little Taddy, who
overheard his adopted parents congratulating themselves on having acted
so generously by Reuben. "I don't care for no cowpen bonds, but I do
want a new drum!"
"Yes, yes, my son!" said Ducklow, patting the boy's shoulder.
And the drum was bought.
Taddy was delighted. But he did not know what made the Ducklows so much
happier, so much gentler and kinder, than formerly. Do you?