ONE EVENING my ears caught a mysterious allusion which Mrs. Todd made to
Shell-heap Island. It was a chilly night of cold northeasterly rain, and
I made a fire for the first time in the Franklin stove in my room, and
begged my two housemates to come in and keep me company. The weather had
convinced Mrs. Todd that it was time to make a supply of cough-drops,
and she had been bringing forth herbs from dark and dry hiding-places,
until now the pungent dust and odor of them had resolved themselves into
one mighty flavor of spearmint that came from a simmering caldron
of syrup in the kitchen. She called it done, and well done, and had
ostentatiously left it to cool, and taken her knitting-work because
Mrs. Fosdick was busy with hers. They sat in the two rocking-chairs, the
small woman and the large one, but now and then I could see that Mrs.
Todd's thoughts remained with the cough-drops. The time of gathering
herbs was nearly over, but the time of syrups and cordials had begun.
The heat of the open fire made us a little drowsy, but something in the
way Mrs. Todd spoke of Shell-heap Island waked my interest. I waited to
see if she would say any more, and then took a roundabout way back to
the subject by saying what was first in my mind: that I wished the Green
Island family were there to spend the evening with us,--Mrs. Todd's
mother and her brother William.
Mrs. Todd smiled, and drummed on the arm of the rocking-chair. “Might
scare William to death,” she warned me; and Mrs. Fosdick mentioned her
intention of going out to Green Island to stay two or three days, if the
wind didn't make too much sea.
“Where is Shell-heap Island?” I ventured to ask, seizing the
opportunity.
“Bears nor-east somewheres about three miles from Green Island; right
off-shore, I should call it about eight miles out,” said Mrs. Todd. “You
never was there, dear; 'tis off the thoroughfares, and a very bad place
to land at best.”
“I should think 'twas,” agreed Mrs. Fosdick, smoothing down her black
silk apron. “'Tis a place worth visitin' when you once get there. Some
o' the old folks was kind o' fearful about it. 'Twas 'counted a great
place in old Indian times; you can pick up their stone tools 'most any
time if you hunt about. There's a beautiful spring o' water, too. Yes,
I remember when they used to tell queer stories about Shell-heap Island.
Some said 'twas a great bangeing-place for the Indians, and an old chief
resided there once that ruled the winds; and others said they'd always
heard that once the Indians come down from up country an' left a captive
there without any bo't, an' 'twas too far to swim across to Black
Island, so called, an' he lived there till he perished.”
“I've heard say he walked the island after that, and sharp-sighted folks
could see him an' lose him like one o' them citizens Cap'n Littlepage
was acquainted with up to the north pole,” announced Mrs. Todd grimly.
“Anyway, there was Indians--you can see their shell-heap that named the
island; and I've heard myself that 'twas one o' their cannibal places,
but I never could believe it. There never was no cannibals on the coast
o' Maine. All the Indians o' these regions are tame-looking folks.”
“Sakes alive, yes!” exclaimed Mrs. Fosdick. “Ought to see them painted
savages I've seen when I was young out in the South Sea Islands! That
was the time for folks to travel, 'way back in the old whalin' days!”
“Whalin' must have been dull for a lady, hardly ever makin' a lively
port, and not takin' in any mixed cargoes,” said Mrs. Todd. “I never
desired to go a whalin' v'y'ge myself.”
“I used to return feelin' very slack an' behind the times, 'tis true,”
explained Mrs. Fosdick, “but 'twas excitin', an' we always done extra
well, and felt rich when we did get ashore. I liked the variety. There,
how times have changed; how few seafarin' families there are left! What
a lot o' queer folks there used to be about here, anyway, when we was
young, Almiry. Everybody's just like everybody else, now; nobody to
laugh about, and nobody to cry about.”
It seemed to me that there were peculiarities of character in the region
of Dunnet Landing yet, but I did not like to interrupt.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Todd after a moment of meditation, “there was certain
a good many curiosities of human natur' in this neighborhood years ago.
There was more energy then, and in some the energy took a singular turn.
In these days the young folks is all copy-cats, 'fraid to death they
won't be all just alike; as for the old folks, they pray for the
advantage o' bein' a little different.”
“I ain't heard of a copy-cat this great many years,” said Mrs. Fosdick,
laughing; “'twas a favorite term o' my grandfather's. No, I wa'n't
thinking o' those things, but of them strange straying creatur's that
used to rove the country. You don't see them now, or the ones that used
to hive away in their own houses with some strange notion or other.”
I thought again of Captain Littlepage, but my companions were not
reminded of his name; and there was brother William at Green Island,
whom we all three knew.
“I was talking o' poor Joanna the other day. I hadn't thought of her for
a great while,” said Mrs. Fosdick abruptly. “Mis' Brayton an' I recalled
her as we sat together sewing. She was one o' your peculiar persons,
wa'n't she? Speaking of such persons,” she turned to explain to me,
“there was a sort of a nun or hermit person lived out there for years
all alone on Shell-heap Island. Miss Joanna Todd, her name was,--a
cousin o' Almiry's late husband.”
I expressed my interest, but as I glanced at Mrs. Todd I saw that she
was confused by sudden affectionate feeling and unmistakable desire for
reticence.
“I never want to hear Joanna laughed about,” she said anxiously.
“Nor I,” answered Mrs. Fosdick reassuringly. “She was crossed in
love,--that was all the matter to begin with; but as I look back, I can
see that Joanna was one doomed from the first to fall into a melancholy.
She retired from the world for good an' all, though she was a well-off
woman. All she wanted was to get away from folks; she thought she wasn't
fit to live with anybody, and wanted to be free. Shell-heap Island come
to her from her father, and first thing folks knew she'd gone off out
there to live, and left word she didn't want no company. 'Twas a bad
place to get to, unless the wind an' tide were just right; 'twas hard
work to make a landing.”
“What time of year was this?” I asked.
“Very late in the summer,” said Mrs. Fosdick. “No, I never could laugh
at Joanna, as some did. She set everything by the young man, an' they
were going to marry in about a month, when he got bewitched with a girl
'way up the bay, and married her, and went off to Massachusetts. He
wasn't well thought of,--there were those who thought Joanna's money
was what had tempted him; but she'd given him her whole heart, an' she
wa'n't so young as she had been. All her hopes were built on marryin',
an' havin' a real home and somebody to look to; she acted just like a
bird when its nest is spoilt. The day after she heard the news she was
in dreadful woe, but the next she came to herself very quiet, and took
the horse and wagon, and drove fourteen miles to the lawyer's, and
signed a paper givin' her half of the farm to her brother. They never
had got along very well together, but he didn't want to sign it, till
she acted so distressed that he gave in. Edward Todd's wife was a good
woman, who felt very bad indeed, and used every argument with Joanna;
but Joanna took a poor old boat that had been her father's and lo'ded in
a few things, and off she put all alone, with a good land breeze, right
out to sea. Edward Todd ran down to the beach, an' stood there cryin'
like a boy to see her go, but she was out o' hearin'. She never stepped
foot on the mainland again long as she lived.”
“How large an island is it? How did she manage in winter?” I asked.
“Perhaps thirty acres, rocks and all,” answered Mrs. Todd, taking up the
story gravely. “There can't be much of it that the salt spray don't fly
over in storms. No, 'tis a dreadful small place to make a world of;
it has a different look from any of the other islands, but there's a
sheltered cove on the south side, with mud-flats across one end of it
at low water where there's excellent clams, and the big shell-heap keeps
some o' the wind off a little house her father took the trouble to build
when he was a young man. They said there was an old house built o' logs
there before that, with a kind of natural cellar in the rock under it.
He used to stay out there days to a time, and anchor a little sloop he
had, and dig clams to fill it, and sail up to Portland. They said the
dealers always gave him an extra price, the clams were so noted. Joanna
used to go out and stay with him. They were always great companions, so
she knew just what 'twas out there. There was a few sheep that belonged
to her brother an' her, but she bargained for him to come and get them
on the edge o' cold weather. Yes, she desired him to come for the sheep;
an' his wife thought perhaps Joanna'd return, but he said no, an' lo'ded
the bo't with warm things an' what he thought she'd need through the
winter. He come home with the sheep an' left the other things by the
house, but she never so much as looked out o' the window. She done it
for a penance. She must have wanted to see Edward by that time.”
Mrs. Fosdick was fidgeting with eagerness to speak.
“Some thought the first cold snap would set her ashore, but she always
remained,” concluded Mrs. Todd soberly.
“Talk about the men not having any curiosity!” exclaimed Mrs. Fosdick
scornfully. “Why, the waters round Shell-heap Island were white with
sails all that fall. 'Twas never called no great of a fishin'-ground
before. Many of 'em made excuse to go ashore to get water at the spring;
but at last she spoke to a bo't-load, very dignified and calm, and said
that she'd like it better if they'd make a practice of getting water to
Black Island or somewheres else and leave her alone, except in case of
accident or trouble. But there was one man who had always set everything
by her from a boy. He'd have married her if the other hadn't come about
an' spoilt his chance, and he used to get close to the island, before
light, on his way out fishin', and throw a little bundle way up the
green slope front o' the house. His sister told me she happened to see,
the first time, what a pretty choice he made o' useful things that a
woman would feel lost without. He stood off fishin', and could see them
in the grass all day, though sometimes she'd come out and walk right
by them. There was other bo'ts near, out after mackerel. But early next
morning his present was gone. He didn't presume too much, but once he
took her a nice firkin o' things he got up to Portland, and when spring
come he landed her a hen and chickens in a nice little coop. There was a
good many old friends had Joanna on their minds.”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Todd, losing her sad reserve in the growing sympathy
of these reminiscences. “How everybody used to notice whether there
was smoke out of the chimney! The Black Island folks could see her with
their spy-glass, and if they'd ever missed getting some sign o' life
they'd have sent notice to her folks. But after the first year or two
Joanna was more and more forgotten as an every-day charge. Folks lived
very simple in those days, you know,” she continued, as Mrs. Fosdick's
knitting was taking much thought at the moment. “I expect there was
always plenty of driftwood thrown up, and a poor failin' patch of
spruces covered all the north side of the island, so she always had
something to burn. She was very fond of workin' in the garden ashore,
and that first summer she began to till the little field out there, and
raised a nice parcel o' potatoes. She could fish, o' course, and there
was all her clams an' lobsters. You can always live well in any wild
place by the sea when you'd starve to death up country, except 'twas
berry time. Joanna had berries out there, blackberries at least,
and there was a few herbs in case she needed them. Mullein in great
quantities and a plant o' wormwood I remember seeing once when I
stayed there, long before she fled out to Shell-heap. Yes, I recall the
wormwood, which is always a planted herb, so there must have been folks
there before the Todds' day. A growin' bush makes the best gravestone;
I expect that wormwood always stood for somebody's solemn monument.
Catnip, too, is a very endurin' herb about an old place.”
“But what I want to know is what she did for other things,” interrupted
Mrs. Fosdick. “Almiry, what did she do for clothin' when she needed to
replenish, or risin' for her bread, or the piece-bag that no woman can
live long without?”
“Or company,” suggested Mrs. Todd. “Joanna was one that loved her
friends. There must have been a terrible sight o' long winter evenin's
that first year.”
“There was her hens,” suggested Mrs. Fosdick, after reviewing the
melancholy situation. “She never wanted the sheep after that first
season. There wa'n't no proper pasture for sheep after the June grass
was past, and she ascertained the fact and couldn't bear to see them
suffer; but the chickens done well. I remember sailin' by one spring
afternoon, an' seein' the coops out front o' the house in the sun. How
long was it before you went out with the minister? You were the first
ones that ever really got ashore to see Joanna.”
I had been reflecting upon a state of society which admitted such
personal freedom and a voluntary hermitage. There was something
mediaeval in the behavior of poor Joanna Todd under a disappointment of
the heart. The two women had drawn closer together, and were talking on,
quite unconscious of a listener.
“Poor Joanna!” said Mrs. Todd again, and sadly shook her head as if
there were things one could not speak about.
“I called her a great fool,” declared Mrs. Fosdick, with spirit, “but I
pitied her then, and I pity her far more now. Some other minister would
have been a great help to her,--one that preached self-forgetfulness and
doin' for others to cure our own ills; but Parson Dimmick was a vague
person, well meanin', but very numb in his feelin's. I don't suppose at
that troubled time Joanna could think of any way to mend her troubles
except to run off and hide.”
“Mother used to say she didn't see how Joanna lived without having
nobody to do for, getting her own meals and tending her own poor self
day in an' day out,” said Mrs. Todd sorrowfully.
“There was the hens,” repeated Mrs. Fosdick kindly. “I expect she soon
came to makin' folks o' them. No, I never went to work to blame Joanna,
as some did. She was full o' feeling, and her troubles hurt her more
than she could bear. I see it all now as I couldn't when I was young.”
“I suppose in old times they had their shut-up convents for just such
folks,” said Mrs. Todd, as if she and her friend had disagreed about
Joanna once, and were now in happy harmony. She seemed to speak with new
openness and freedom. “Oh yes, I was only too pleased when the Reverend
Mr. Dimmick invited me to go out with him. He hadn't been very long in
the place when Joanna left home and friends. 'Twas one day that next
summer after she went, and I had been married early in the spring. He
felt that he ought to go out and visit her. She was a member of the
church, and might wish to have him consider her spiritual state. I
wa'n't so sure o' that, but I always liked Joanna, and I'd come to be
her cousin by marriage. Nathan an' I had conversed about goin' out to
pay her a visit, but he got his chance to sail sooner'n he expected. He
always thought everything of her, and last time he come home, knowing
nothing of her change, he brought her a beautiful coral pin from a port
he'd touched at somewheres up the Mediterranean. So I wrapped the little
box in a nice piece of paper and put it in my pocket, and picked her a
bunch of fresh lemon balm, and off we started.”
Mrs. Fosdick laughed. “I remember hearin' about your trials on the
v'y'ge,” she said.
“Why, yes,” continued Mrs. Todd in her company manner. “I picked her the
balm, an' we started. Why, yes, Susan, the minister liked to have cost
me my life that day. He would fasten the sheet, though I advised against
it. He said the rope was rough an' cut his hand. There was a fresh
breeze, an' he went on talking rather high flown, an' I felt some
interested. All of a sudden there come up a gust, and he gave a screech
and stood right up and called for help, 'way out there to sea. I knocked
him right over into the bottom o' the bo't, getting by to catch hold of
the sheet an' untie it. He wasn't but a little man; I helped him right
up after the squall passed, and made a handsome apology to him, but he
did act kind o' offended.”
“I do think they ought not to settle them landlocked folks in parishes
where they're liable to be on the water,” insisted Mrs. Fosdick. “Think
of the families in our parish that was scattered all about the bay, and
what a sight o' sails you used to see, in Mr. Dimmick's day, standing
across to the mainland on a pleasant Sunday morning, filled with
church-going folks, all sure to want him some time or other! You
couldn't find no doctor that would stand up in the boat and screech if a
flaw struck her.”
“Old Dr. Bennett had a beautiful sailboat, didn't he?” responded Mrs.
Todd. “And how well he used to brave the weather! Mother always said
that in time o' trouble that tall white sail used to look like an
angel's wing comin' over the sea to them that was in pain. Well, there's
a difference in gifts. Mr. Dimmick was not without light.”
“'Twas light o' the moon, then,” snapped Mrs. Fosdick; “he was pompous
enough, but I never could remember a single word he said. There, go on,
Mis' Todd; I forget a great deal about that day you went to see poor
Joanna.”
“I felt she saw us coming, and knew us a great way off; yes, I seemed to
feel it within me,” said our friend, laying down her knitting. “I kept
my seat, and took the bo't inshore without saying a word; there was a
short channel that I was sure Mr. Dimmick wasn't acquainted with, and
the tide was very low. She never came out to warn us off nor anything,
and I thought, as I hauled the bo't up on a wave and let the Reverend
Mr. Dimmick step out, that it was somethin' gained to be safe ashore.
There was a little smoke out o' the chimney o' Joanna's house, and it
did look sort of homelike and pleasant with wild mornin'-glory vines
trained up; an' there was a plot o' flowers under the front window,
portulacas and things. I believe she'd made a garden once, when she was
stopping there with her father, and some things must have seeded in. It
looked as if she might have gone over to the other side of the island.
'Twas neat and pretty all about the house, and a lovely day in July.
We walked up from the beach together very sedate, and I felt for poor
Nathan's little pin to see if 'twas safe in my dress pocket. All of a
sudden Joanna come right to the fore door and stood there, not sayin' a
word.”