THE CONCLUSION.
CHAPTER FIRST.
THE LANDSCAPE OF THE STORY.
I see old Sylvester Peabody--the head of the Peabody family--seated in
the porch of his country dwelling, like an ancient patriarch, in the
calm of the morning. His broad-brimmed hat lies on the bench at his
side, and his venerable white locks flow down his shoulders, which time
in one hundred seasons of battle and sorrow, of harvest and drouth, of
toil and death, in all his hardy wrestlings with old Sylvester, has not
been able to bend. The old man's form is erect and tall, and lifting up
his head to its height, he looks afar, down the country road which leads
from his rural door, towards the city. He has kept his gaze in that
direction for better than an hour, and a mist has gradually crept upon
his vision; objects begin to lose their distinctness; they grow dim or
soften away like ghosts or spirits; the whole landscape melts gently
into a pictured dew before him. Is old Sylvester, who has kept it clear
and bright so long, losing his sight at last, or is our common world,
already changing under the old patriarch's pure regard, into that
better, heavenly land?
It seemed indeed, on this very calm morning in November, as if angels
were busy about the Old Homestead, (which lies on the map, in the heart
of one of the early states of our dear American Union,) transforming all
the old familiar things into something better and purer, and touching
them gently with a music and radiance caught from the very sky itself.
As in the innocence of beauty, shrouded in sleep, dreams come to the
eyelids which are the realities of the day, with a strange
loveliness--the fair country lay as it were in a delicious dreamy
slumber. The trees did not stand forth boldly with every branch and
leaf, but rather seemed gentle pictures of trees; the sheep-bells from
the hills tinkled softly and as if whispering a secret to the wind; the
birds sailed slowly to and fro on the air; there was no harshness in the
low of the herds, no anger in the heat of the sun, not a sight nor a
sound, near by nor far off, which did not partake of the holy beauty of
the morning, nor sing, nor be silent, nor stand still, nor move, with
any other than a gliding sweetness and repose, or an under-tone which
might have been the echo here on earth, of a better sphere. There was a
tender sadness and wonder in the face of old Sylvester, when a voice
came stealing in upon the silence. It did not in a single tone disturb
the heavenly harmony of the hour, for it was the voice of the orphan
dependent of the house, Miriam Haven, whose dark-bright eye and graceful
form glimmered, as though she were the spirit of all the softened beauty
of the scene, from amid the broom-corn, where she was busy in one of the
duties of the season. Well might she sing the song of lament, for her
people had gone down far away in the sea, and her lover--where was he?
Far away--far away are they,
And I in all the world alone--
Brightly, too brightly, shines the day--
Dark is the land where they are gone!
I have a friend that's far away,
Unknown the clime that bears his tread;
Perchance he walks in light to-day,
He may be dead! he may be dead!
Like every other condition of the time, the voice of Miriam too, had a
change in it.
"What wonder is this?" said old Sylvester, "I neither hear nor see as I
used--are all my senses going?"
He turned, as he spoke, to a woman of small stature, in whose features
dignity and tenderness mingled, as she now regarded him, with reverence
for the ancient head of the house. She came forward as he addressed her,
and laying her hand gently on his arm, said--
"You forget, father; this is the Indian summer, which is the first
summer softened and soberer, and often comes at thanksgiving-time. It
always changes the country, as you see it now."
"Child, child, you are right. I should have known it, for always at this
season, often as it has come to me, do I think of the absent and the
dead--of times and hours, and friends long, long passed away. Of those
whom I have known," he continued eagerly, "who have fallen in battle, in
the toil of the field, on the highway, on the waters, in silent
chambers, by sickness, by swords: I thank God they have all, all of my
kith and kin and people, died with their names untouched with crime;
all," he added with energy, planting his feet firmly on the ground and
rising as he spoke sternly, "all, save one alone, and he--"
He turned toward the female at his side, and when he looked in her face
and saw the mournful expression which came upon it, he dropped back into
his chair and stayed his speech.
At this moment a little fellow, who, with his flaxen locks and blue
eyes, was a very cherub in plumpness and the clearness of his brow, came
toddling out of the door of the house, struggling with a basin of yellow
corn, which, shifting about in his arms, he just managed to keep
possession of till he reached old Sylvester's knee. This was little Sam
Peabody, the youngest of the Peabodys, and as he looked up into his
grandfather's face you could not fail to see, though they grew so wide
apart, the same story of passion and character in each. The little
fellow began throwing the bright grain from the basin to a great
strutting turkey which went marching and gobbling up and down the
door-yard, swelling his feathers, spreading his tail, and shaking his
red neck-tie with a boundless pretence and restlessness; like many a
hero he was proud of his uniform, although the fatal hour which was to
lay him low was not far off. It was the thanksgiving turkey, himself, in
process of fattening under charge of Master Sam Peabody. Busy in the
act, he was regarded with smiling fondness by his mother, the widow
Margaret Peabody, and his old grandfather, when he suddenly turned, and
said--
"Grand-pa, where's brother Elbridge?"
The old man changed his countenance and struggled a moment with himself.
"He had better know all," he said, after a pause of thought, in which he
looked, or seemed to look afar off from the scene about him. "Margaret,
painful though it be to you and to me, let the truth be spoken. God
knows I love your son, Elbridge, and would have laid down my life that
this thing had not chanced, but the child asks of his brother so often,
and is so often evaded that he will be presently snared in a net of
falsehoods and deceptions if we speak not more plainly to him."
An inexpressible anguish overspread the countenance of the widowed
woman, and she turned aside to breathe a brief prayer of trust and hope
of strength in the hour of trial.
The thanksgiving turkey, full of his banquet of corn, strutted away to
a slope in the sun by the roadside, and little Sam Peabody renewed his
question.
"Can't I see brother Elbridge, grand-pa?"
"Never again, I fear, my child."
"Why not, grandfather?"
"Answer gently, father," the widow interposed. "Make not the case too
harsh against my boy."
"Margaret," said the old man, lifting his countenance upon her with
dignity of look, "I shall speak the truth. I would have the name of my
race pure of all stains and detractions, as it has been for an hundred
years, but I would not bear hardly against your son, Margaret. This
child, innocent and unswayed as he is, shall hear it, and shall be the
judge."
Rising, old Sylvester with Margaret's help, lifted the boy to the deep
window-seat; and, standing on either hand, the widow and the old man
each at his side, Sylvester taking one hand of the child in his, began--
"My child, you are the youngest of this name and household, to you God
may have entrusted the continuance of our race and name, therefore thus
early would I have you learn the lesson your brother's errors may
teach."
"That should come last," the widow interposed gently. "The story itself
should teach it, if the story be true."
"Perhaps it should, Margaret," old Sylvester rejoined. "I will let the
story speak for itself. It is, my child, a year ago this day, that an
excellent man, Mr. Barbary, the preacher of this neighborhood,
disappeared from among living men. He was blameless in his life, he had
no enemy on the face of the earth. He was a simple, frugal, worthy
man--the last time alive, he was seen in company with your brother
Elbridge, by the Locust-wood, near the pond where you go to gather
huckleberries in the summer, and hazels in the autumn. He was seen with
him and seen no more."
"But no man saw Elbridge, father, lift hand against him, or utter an
angry word. On the contrary, they were seen entering the wood in close
companionship, and smiling on each other."
"Even so, Margaret," said Sylvester, looking at the child steadily, and
waving his hand in silence toward the widow. "But what answer gave the
young man when questioned of the whereabout of his friend? Not a word,
Margaret--not a word, my child."
"Is Mr. Barbary dead, grandfather?" the child inquired, leaning forward.
"How else? He is not to be found in pulpit or field. No man seeth his
steps any more in their ancient haunts. No man hearkens to his voice."
"But the body, father, was never found. He may be still living in some
other quarter."
"It was near the rock called High Point, you will remember, and one
plunge might have sent him to the bottom. The under currents of the lake
are strong, and may have easily swept him away. There is but one belief
through all this neighborhood. Ethan Barbary fell by the hand--Almighty
God, that I should have to say it to you, my own grandson--of Elbridge
Peabody."
The child sat for a moment in dumb astonishment, glancing, with
distended eyes and sweat upon his brow, fearfully from the stern face of
the old man to the downcast features of the widow, when recovering
speech he asked:--
"Why should my brother kill Mr. Barbary, if he was his friend? Was not
Elbridge always kind, mother? I'm sure he was to me, and used to let me
ride old Sorrel before him to the mill!"
"Ever kind? He was. There was not a day he did not make glad his poor
mother's heart, with some generous act of devotion to her. No sun set on
the day which did not cheer her lonely hearth with a new light of
gladness and peace from his young eyes."
"Margaret, you forget. He was soft of heart, but proud of spirit, and
haughty beyond his age; you may not remember, even I could not always
look down his anger, or silence his loudness of speech. Why should he
kill Mr. Barbary? I will tell you, child: the preacher, too, had
discerned well your brother's besetting sin, and, being fearless in
duty, from the Sabbath pulpit he spake of it plainly and with such point
that it could not fail to come home directly to the bosom of the young
man. This was on the very Lord's day before Mr. Barbary disappeared from
amongst us. It rankled in your brother's bosom like poison; his passions
were wild and ungoverned, and this was cause enough. If he had been
innocent, why did Elbridge Peabody flee this neighborhood, like a thief
in the night?"
"Why did my brother Elbridge leave us, mother?" said the child, bending
eagerly towards the widow, who wrung her hands and was silent.
"He may come back," said the child, shaking his flaxen locks, and not
abashed in the least by her silence. "He may come back yet and explain
all to us."
"Never!"
At that very moment a red rooster, who stood with his burnished wings on
the garden wall, near enough to have heard all that had passed, lifted
up his throat, and poured forth a clear cry, which rang through the
placid air far and wide.
"He will--I know he will," said little Sam Peabody, leaping down from
his judgment-seat in the window. "Chanticleer knows he will, or he would
not speak in that way. He hasn't crowed once before, you know,
grandfather, since Elbridge went away; we'll hear from brother soon, I
know we shall--I know we shall!"
The little fellow, in his glee, clapped his hands and crowed too. The
grandfather, looking on his gambols, smiled, but was presently sad
again.
"Would to Heaven he may," he said. "If they come who should, to-day, we
may learn of him--for to-day my children should come up from all the
quarters of the land where they are scattered--the East, the West, the
North, the South--to join with me in the Festival of Thanksgiving which
now draws near. My head is whitened with many winters, and I shall see
them for the last time." Sylvester continued: "If they come--in this
calm season, which, so soft and sweet, seems the gentle dawn of the
coming world--we shall have, I feel, our last re-gathering on earth! But
they come not; my eyes are weary with watching afar off, and I cannot
yet discern that my children bear me in remembrance, in this grateful
season of the year. Why do they not come?"
The aged patriarch of the family bowed his head and was silent. From the
broom-corn the gentle voice stole again:
Why sings the robin in the wood?
For him her music is not shed:
Why blind-brook sparkle through the field?
He may be dead! he may be dead!
The murmur of Miriam's musical lamenting had scarcely died away on the
dreamy air, when there came hurrying forward from the garden--where she
had been tending the great thanksgiving pumpkin, which was her special
charge--the black servant of the household, Mopsey by name, who, with
her broad-fringed cap flying all abroad, and her great eyes rolling,
spoke out as she approached--
"Do hear dat, massa?"
"I hear nothing, Mopsey."
"Dere, don't you hear't now? Dey're coming!"
With faces of curiosity, and ears erect, they listened. There was a
peculiar sound in the air, and on closer attention they discerned, in
the stillness of the morning, the jingling traces of the stage-coach, on
the cross-road, through the fields.
"They are not coming," said old Sylvester, when the sound had died away
in the distance; "the stage has taken the other road."
"Dat may be, grandfather," Mopsey spoke up, "but for all dey may come.
Ugly Davis, when _he_ drive, don't always turn out of his way to come up
here. Dey may be on de corner."
As Mopsey spoke, two figures appeared on foot on the brow of the road,
which sloped down toward the Homestead, through a feathery range of
graceful locusts. They were too far off to be distinctly made out, but
it was to be inferred that they were travellers from a distance, for one
of them held against the light some sort of travelling bag or
portmanteau; one of them was in female dress, but this was all they
could as yet distinguish. Various conjectures were ventured as to their
special character. They were unquestionably making for the Homestead,
and it was to be reasonably supposed they were Peabodys, for strangers
were rare upon that road, which was a by-way, off the main thoroughfare.
The family gathered on the extreme out-look of the balcony, and watched
with eager curiosity their approach, which was slow and somewhat
irregular--the man did not aid the woman in her progress, but straggled
on apart, nor did he seem to address her as they came on.
CHAPTER SECOND.
ARRIVAL OF THE MERCHANT AND HIS PEOPLE.
"It is William and Hannah," said the Patriarch, towering above the
household grouped about him, and gaining an advantage in observation
from his commanding height, "I am glad the oldest is the first to come!"
When the two comers reached the door-yard gate the man entered in
without rendering the least assistance or paying the slightest heed to
his companion, who followed humbly in his track. He was some sixty years
of age, large-featured and inclining to tallness; his dress was
oldmanish and plain, consisting of a long-furred beaver hat, a loose
made coat, and other apparel corresponding, with low cut shoes. He
smiled as he came upon the balcony, greeting old Sylvester with a shake
of the hand, but taking no notice whatever either of the widow, little
Sam, or Mopsey. His wife, on the contrary, spoke to all, but quietly and
submissively, which was in truth, her whole manner. She was spare and
withered, with a pinched, colorless face, constrained in a scared and
apprehensive look as though in constant dread of an impending violence
or injury. Over one eye she wore a green patch, which greatly heightened
the pallor and strangeness of her features.
"Where's the Captain and Henrietta?" old Sylvester asked when the
greetings were over.
"They started from the city in a chay," he was answered by William
Peabody, "some hours before us,--the captain,--seaman--way of driving
irreg'lar. Nobody can tell what road he may have got into. Should'nt be
surprised if did'nt arrive till to-morrow morning. Will always have
high-actioned horse."
William Peabody had scarcely spoken when there arose in the distance
down the road, a violent cloud of dust, from which there emerged a
two-wheeled vehicle at a thundering pace, and which, in less than a
minute's time, went whirling past the Homestead. It was supposed to
contain Captain Saltonstall and wife; but what with the speed and dust,
no eye could have guessed with any accuracy who or what they were. In
less than a minute more it came sweeping back with the great white
horse, passing the house again like an apparition, or the ghost of a
horse and gig. With another sally down the road and return, with a long
curve in the road before the Homestead, it at last came to at the gate,
and disclosed in a high sweat and glowing all over his huge person, the
jovial Captain, and at his side his pretty little cherry-faced girl of a
wife, Henrietta Peabody, daughter of William Peabody, who, be it known,
is old Sylvester's oldest son. There also emerged from the one-horse
gig, after the captain had made ground, and jumped his little wife to
the same landing in his arms, a red-faced boy, who must have been
closely stowed somewhere, for he came out of the vehicle highly colored,
and looking very much as if he had been sat upon for a couple of hours
or more. The Captain having freed his horse from the traces, and at old
Sylvester's suggestion, set him loose in the door-yard to graze at his
leisure, rushed forward upon the balcony very much in the character of a
good natured tornado, saluted the widow Margaret with a whirlwind kiss,
threw little Sam high in the air and caught him as he came within half
an inch of the ground, shook the old grandfather's readily extended hand
with a sturdy grasp, and wound up, for a moment, with a great cuff on
the side of the head with a roll of stuff for a new gown for Mopsey,
saying as he delivered it, "Dere, what d'ye say to dat, Darkey!"
Darkey brightened into a sort of nocturnal illumination, and shuffling
away, in the loose shoes, to the keeping of which on her feet the better
half of the best energies of her life were directed, gave out that she
must be looking after dinner.
It was but for a moment only that the Captain paused, and in less than
five minutes he had said and done so many good-natured things, had shown
himself so free of heart withal, and so little considerate of self or
the figure he cut, that in spite of his great clumsy person, and the
gash in his face, and the somewhat exorbitant character of his dress,
his coat being a bob as long and straight in the line across the back,
as the edge of a table, you could not help regarding him as a decidedly
well made, well dressed, and quite handsome person; in fact the Captain
passed with the whole family for a fine-looking man.
"Where's my little girl Miriam?" asked the jovial Captain, after a
moment's rest in a seat by the side of old Sylvester. "I must see my
Dolphin, or she'll think I'm growing old."
Being advised that the young lady in question was somewhere within, the
Captain rushed into the house, pursued by all the family in a body, save
William Peabody, who remained with old Sylvester, seated and in silence.
"How go matters in the city, William?" he said, removing his hand from
his brow, where it had rested in contemplation for several minutes.
"After the old fashion, father," William Peabody answered, smiling with
a fox-like glance at his father; "added three new houses to my property
since last year."
"Three new houses?"
"Three, all of brick,--good streets--built in the latest style. The city
grows and I grow!"
"Three new houses, and all in the latest style--and how does Margaret's
little property pay?"
"Poorly, father, poorly. Elbridge made a bad choice when he bought
it--greatly out of repair--rents come slowly."
"In a word, the old story, the widow gets nothing again from the city. I
had hopes you would be able to bring her some returns this time, for she
needs it sadly."
"I do the best I can, but money's not to be got out of stone walls."
"And you have three new houses which pay well," old Sylvester continued,
turning his calm blue eye steadily upon his son.
"Capital--best in the city! Already worth twice I gave for 'em. The city
grows and I grow!"
"My son, do you never think of that other house reserved for us all?"
William Peabody was about to answer, it was nonsense for a man only
sixty and in sound condition of body and mind to think too much of that,
when his eye, ranging across the fields, espied in shadow as it were,
through the dim atmosphere, the mist clearing away a little in that
direction, an old sorrel horse--a long settler with the family and
well-known to all its members--staggering about feebly in a distant
orchard, and in her wanderings stumbling against the trees.--"Is old
Sorrel blind?" he asked, shading his own eyes from the light.
"She is, William," old Sylvester replied; "her sight went from her last
New-Year's day."
"My birth-day," said the merchant, a sudden pallor coming upon his
countenance.
"Yes, you and old Sorrel are birth-mates, my son."
"We are; she was foaled the day I was born," said William Peabody, and
added, as to himself, musingly, "Old Sorrel is blind! So we pass--so we
pass--young to-day--to-morrow old--limbs fail us--sight is gone."
They sat silently, contemplating the still morning scene before them,
and meditating, each in his own particular way, on the history of the
past.
To William, the merchant, it brought chiefly a recollection how in his
early manhood he had set out from those quiet fields for a hard struggle
with the world, with a bare dollar in his pocket, and when that was gone
the whole world seemed to combine in a desperate league against him to
prevent his achieving another. How at last, on the very edge of
starvation and despair, he had wrung from it the means of beginning his
fortunes; and how he had gone on step by step, forgetting all the
pleasant ties of his youth, all recollections of nature and cheerful
faces of friends and kinsfolk, adding thousand to thousand, house to
house; building, unlike Jacob, a ladder, that descended to the lower
world, up which all harsh and dark spirits perpetually thronged and
joined to drag him down; and yet he smiled grimly at the thought of the
power he possessed, and how many of his early companions trembled before
him because he was grown to be a rich man.
Old Sylvester, on the other hand, in all his memory had no thought of
himself. His recollection ran back to the old times when his neighbors
sat down under a king's sceptre in these colonies, how that chain had
been freed, the gloomy Indian had withdrawn his face from their fields,
how the darkness of the woods had retired before the cheering sun of
peace and plenty; and how from a little people, his dear country, for
whose welfare his sword had been stained, had grown into a great nation.
Scattered up and down the long line of memory were faces of friends and
kindred, which had passed long ago from the earth. He called to mind
many a pleasant fire-side chat; many a funeral scene, and burying in
sun-light and in the cold rain; the young Elbridge too was in his
thoughts last of all; could he return to them with a name untainted, the
old man would cheerfully lie down in his grave and be at peace with all
the world.
In the meanwhile, within the house the Captain in high favor was seated
in a great cushioned arm-chair with little Sam Peabody on his knee, and
the women of the house gathered about him, looking on as he narrated the
courses and adventures of his last voyage. The widow listened with a sad
interest. Mopsey rolled her eyes and was mirthful in the most serious
and stormiest passages; while little Sam and the Captain's wife rivalled
each other in regarding the Captain with innocent wonder and
astonishment, as though he were the most extraordinary man that ever
sailed the sea, or sat in a chair telling about it, in the whole
habitable globe. Miriam Haven alone was distant from the scene, gliding
to and fro past the door, busied in household duties in a neighboring
apartment, and catching a word here and there as she glanced by.
It was a wonderful story, certainly, the Captain was telling, and it
seemed beyond all belief that it could be true that one man could have
seen the whales, the icebergs, the floating islands, the ships in the
air, the sea-dogs, and grampuses, the flying-fish, the pirates, and the
thousand other wonders the Captain reported to have crossed his path in
a single trip across the simple Atlantic and back. He also averred to
have distinctly seen the sea-serpent, and what was more, to have had a
conversation with a ship in the very middle of the ocean. Was there
anything wonderful in that? it occurs every day--but listen to the
jovial Captain!--a ship--and he had news to tell them of one they would
like to hear about. They pressed close to the Captain and listened
breathlessly; Miriam Haven pausing in her task, and stopping stone-still
like a statue, in the door, while her very heart stayed its beating.
Go on--Captain--go on--go on!
"Well, what do you think; we were in latitude--no matter, you don't care
about that--we had just come out of a great gale, which made the sea
pitch-dark about us; when the first beam of the sun opened the clouds,
we found ourselves along side a ship with the old stars and stripes
flying like a bird at the mast-head. There was a sight, my hearties. We
hailed her, she hailed us, we threw her papers, she threw us, and we
parted forever."
"Is that all?"
"Not half. One of these was a list of passengers; I run my eye up, and I
run my eye down, and there, shining out like a star amongst them all, I
find, whose d'ye think--Elbridge Peabody--as large as life."
Miriam Haven staggered against the door-post, the widow fell upon her
knees, "Thank God, my boy is heard from."
Little Sam Peabody darted from the Captain's knee and rushed upon the
balcony, crying at the top of his lungs, "Grandfather, brother Elbridge
is heard from."
"I don't believe it," said William Peabody; the poor old blind sorrel
had disappeared from sight into a piece of woods near the orchard, and
the merchant had quite recovered his usual way of speaking. "Never will
believe it. You hav'nt heard of that youngster,--never will. Always knew
he would run away some day--never come back again."
The Captain's story was rapidly explained by the different members of
the family, who had followed little Sam, to repeat it to old Sylvester,
each in her own way. Miriam and Hannah Peabody, who at sound of the
commotion had come forth from an inner chamber, whither she had been
retired by herself, joined the company of lookers on.
"What all amount to," he continued, in his peculiar clipped style of
speech. "Expect to see him again, do you. Mighty fine chance--where
going to?"
The Captain could'nt tell.
"One of the Captain's fine stories--no--no--if that boy ever comes back
again, I'll--"
There was a deep silence to hear what the hard old merchant proposed.
"I'll hand over to him the management of his late father's property, he
was always hankering after, and thought he could make so much more of
than his hard-fisted old uncle."
This was a comfortable proposition, and little Sam Peabody, as though it
were a great pear or red pippin that was spoken of, running to his
mother, said,
"Mother, I'd take it."
"I do," said the widow, "and call you all to witness."
William Peabody smiled grimly on Margaret; his countenance darkened
suddenly, and he was, no doubt, on the point of retracting his confident
offer, when his wife uttered in an under tone, half entreaty, half
authority, "William," at the same time turning on her husband the side
of the countenance which wore the green shade. He stifled what he
intended to utter, and shifting uneasily in his seat, he looked toward
the city and was silent. Whatever the reason, it was clear that when
they were seated at the table, partaking of the meal, it was Captain
Saltonstall that had the best attention from every member of the
household, (and the best of the dish,) from all save old Sylvester, who
held himself erect, as usual, and impartial in the matter.
"The ways of Providence are strange," said old Sylvester. "Out of
darkness he brings marvellous light, and from the frivolous acorn he
spreads the branches wide in the air, which are a shelter, and a solace,
and a shadowy play-ground to our youth and old age. We must wait the
issue, and whatever comes, to Him must we give thanks."
With this sentiment for a benediction, the patriarch dismissed his
family to their slumbers, which to each one of the household brought its
peculiar train of speculation; to two, at least, Miriam and the widow
Margaret, they brought dreams which only the strong light of day could
disprove to be realities.
CHAPTER THIRD.
THE FARMER-FOLKS FROM THE WEST.
With the following day, (which was calm, gentle, and serene as its
predecessor,) a little after the dispatch of dinner, the attention of
the household was summoned to the clatter of a hurrying wagon, which,
unseen, resounded in the distant country. Old Sylvester was the first to
hear it--faintly at first, then it rose on the wind far off, died away
in the woods and the windings of the roads, then again was entirely lost
for several minutes, and at last growing into a portentous rattle,
brought to at the door of the homestead, and landed from its ricketty
and bespattered bosom Mr. Oliver Peabody, of Ohio; Jane his wife, a
buxom lady of fair complexion, in a Quaker bonnet; and Robert, their
eldest son, a tall, flat-featured boy, some thirteen years of age.
The countryman in a working shirt, who had the control of the wagon, and
who had been beguiled by Oliver some five miles out of his road home,
(to which he was returning from the market town,) under pretence of a
wish to have his opinion of the crops--the poor fellow being withal a
hired laborer and never having owned, or entertained the remotest
speculation of owning, a rood of ground of his own,--with a commendation
from Oliver, delivered with a cheerful smile, that "his observations on
timothy were very much to the purpose," drove clattering away again. Mr.
Oliver Peabody, farmer, who had come all the way from Ohio to spend
thanksgiving with his old father--of a ruddy, youthful and twinkling
countenance--who wore his hair at length and unshorn, and the chief
peculiarity of whose dress was a grey cloth coat, with a row of great
horn-buttons on either breast, with enormous woollen mittens, brought
his buxom wife forward under one arm with diligence, drawing his tall
youth of a son after him by the other hand--threw himself into the bosom
of the Peabody family, and was heartily welcomed all round. He didn't
say a word of half-horses and half-alligators, nor of greased lightning,
although he was from the West, but he did complain most bitterly of the
uncommon smoothness of the roads in these parts, the short grass, and
the 'bominable want of elbow-room all over the neighborhood. It was with
difficulty he could be kept on the straitened stage of the balcony long
enough to answer a few plain questions of children and other matters at
home; and immediately expressed an ardent desire to take a look at the
garden.
"We got somefin' to show thar, Mas'r Oliver," said Mopsey, who had stood
by listening, with open mouth and eyes, to the strong statements of the
western farmer, "we haint to be beat right-away no how!"
Old Sylvester rose with his staff, which he carried more for pleasure
than necessity, and led the way. As they approached there was visible
through all the plants, shrubs and other growths of the place, whatever
they might be--a great yellow sphere or ball, so disposed, on a little
slope by itself, as to catch the eye from a distance, shining out in its
golden hue from the garden, a sort of rival to the sun himself, rolling
overhead.
"Dere, what d'ye tink of dat, Oliver," Mopsey asked, forgetting in the
grandeur of the moment all distinctions of class or color, "I guess
dat's somefin."
"That's a pumpkin," said Mr. Oliver Peabody, calmly.
"Yes, I guess it is--_de tanksgivin punkin_!"
She looked into the western farmer's face, no doubt expecting a spasm or
convulsion, but it was calm--calm as night. Mopsey condescended not
another word, but walking or rather shuffling disdainfully away,
muttered to herself, "Dat is de very meanest man, for a white man, I
ever did see; he looked at dat 'ere punkin which has cost me so many
anxious days and sleepless nights--which I have watched over as though
it had been my own child--which I planted wid dis here hand of my own,
and fought for agin the June bugs and the white frost, and dat mouse
dat's been tryin to eat it up for dis tree weeks and better--just as if
it had been a small green cowcumber. I don't believe dat Oliver Peabody
knows it is tanksgivin'. He's a great big fool."
"I see you still keep some of the old red breed, father," said Oliver
when they were left alone in the quiet of the garden, pointing to the
red rooster, who stood on the wall in the sun.
"Yes," old Sylvester answered, "for old times' sake. We have had them
with us now on the farm for better than a hundred years. I remember the
day the great grandfather of this bird was brought among us. It was the
day we got news that good David Brainard, the Indian missionary,
died--that was some while before the revolutionary war. He died in the
arms of the great Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton; their souls are at
peace."
"I recollect this fellow," Oliver continued, referring to the red
rooster, "When I was here last he was called Elbridge's bird, that was
the year before last."
"There is no Elbridge now," said the old grandfather.
"I know all," said Oliver, "I had a letter from Margaret, telling me the
story and begging me to keep a watch for her boy."
"A wide watch to keep and little to be got by it, I fear," old Sylvester
added.
"Not altogether idle, perhaps; we have sharp eyes in the West and see
many strange things. Jane is confident she saw our Elbridge, making
through Ohio, but two months after he left here; he was riding swiftly,
and in her surprise and suddenness she could neither call nor send after
him."
"You did not tell us of that," said the old man.
"No, I waited some further discovery."
"Be silent now, you may easily waken hopes to be darkened and dashed to
the ground. Which way made the boy?"
"Southward."
During this discourse, as though he distinguished the sound of his young
master's name and knew to what it related, Chanticleer walked slowly,
and as if by accident or at leisure, up and down the garden-wall,
keeping as near to the speakers as was at all seemly. When they stopped
speaking he leaped gently to the ground and softly clapped his wings.
A moment after there came hurrying into the garden, in a wild
excitement, and all struggling to speak first, little Sam Peabody in the
lead, Robert, the flat-featured youth of thirteen, and Peabody Junior,
(who, it should be mentioned, having found his way into a pantry a
couple of minutes after his arrival with the Captain, and appropriated
to his own personal use an entire bottle of cherry brandy, had been
straightway put to bed, from which he had now been released not more
than a couple of hours), and to announce as clamorously as they
respectively could, that Brundage's Bull had just got into "our big
meadow."
"Nobody hurt?" asked old Sylvester.
"Nobody hurt, grandfather, but he's ploughing up the meadow at a
dreadful rate," said little Sam Peabody.
"Like wild," Peabody Junior added.
This statement, strongly as it was made, seemed to have no particular
effect on old Sylvester. Oliver Peabody, on the other hand, was
exceedingly indignant, and was for proceeding to extremities
immediately, the expulsion of the Brundage bull, and the demanding of
damages for allowing his cattle to cross the boundary line of the two
farms.
Old Sylvester listened to his violence with a blank countenance; nor did
he seem to comprehend that any special outrage had been committed, for
it must be acknowledged that the only indication that the grandfather
had come to his second childhood was, that, with his advancing years,
and as he approached the shadow of the other world, he seemed to have
lost all idea of the customary distinctions of rank and property, and
that very much like an old apostle, he was disposed to regard all men as
brethren, and boundary lines as of very little consequence.
He therefore promptly checked his son Oliver in his heat, and
discountenanced any further proceedings in the matter.
"Brundage," he said, "would, if he cared about him, come and take his
bull away when he was ready; we are all brethren, and have a common
country, Oliver," he added, "I hope you feel that in the West, as well
as we do here."
"Thank God, we have," Oliver rejoined with emphasis, "and we love it!"
"I thank God for that too," old Sylvester replied, striking his staff
firmly on the ground, "I remember well, my son, when your great state
was a wilderness of woods and savage men, and now this common sky--look
at it, Oliver--which shines so clearly above us, is yours as well as
ours."
"I fear me, father, one day, bright, beautiful, and wide-arched as it
is, the glorious Union may fall," said Oliver, laying his hand upon an
aged tree which stood near them, "may fall, and the states drop, one by
one away, even as the fruit I shake to the ground."
As though he had been a tower standing on an elevation, old Sylvester
Peabody rose aloft to his full height, as if he would clearly
contemplate the far past, the distant, and the broad-coming future.
"The Union fall!" he cried. "Look above, my son! The Union fall! as long
as the constellations of evening live together in yonder sky; look down,
as long as the great rivers of our land flow eastward and westward,
north and south, the Union shall stand up, and stand majestical and
bright, beheld by ages, as these shall be, an orb and living stream of
glory unsurpassable."
The children were gathered about, and watched with eager eyes and
glowing cheeks, the countenance of the grandfather as he spoke.
"No, no, my son," he added, "there's many a true heart in brave Ohio, as
in every state of ours, or they could not be the noble powers they are."
While old Sylvester spoke, Oliver Peabody wrenched with some violence,
from the tree near which they stood, a stout limb, on the end of which
he employed himself with a knife in shaping a substantial knob.
"What weapon is that you are busy with, Oliver?" old Sylvester asked.
"It's for that nasty bull," Oliver replied. "I would break every bone in
his body rather than let him remain for a single minute on my land; the
furtherance of law and order demands the instant enforcement of one's
rights."
"You are a friend of law and order, my son."
"I think I am," Oliver answered, standing erect and planting his club,
in the manner of Hercules in the pictures, head down on the ground.
"I hope you are, Oliver; but I fear you forget the story I used to tell
of my old friend Bulkley, of Danbury, who, being written to by some
neighboring Christians who were in sore dissension, for advisement, gave
them back word:--Every man to look after his own fence, that it be built
high and strong, and to have a special care of the old Black Bull;
meaning thereby no doubt, our own wicked passions;--that is the true
Christian way of securing peace and good order."
Oliver threw his great trespass-club upon the ground, and was on the
point of asking after an old sycamore, the largest growth of all that
country, which, standing in a remote field had, in the perilous times
sheltered many of the Peabody family in its bosom--when he was
interrupted by the sudden appearance of Mopsey in a flutter of
cap-strings, shuffling shoes, and a flying color in her looks of at
least double the usual depth of darkness. It was just discovered that
the poultry-house had been broken into over night, and four of the
fattest hens taken off by the throat and legs, besides sundry of the
inferior members of the domicile; as wicked a theft, Mopsey said, as
ever was, and she hadn't the slightest hesitation in charging it on them
niggers in the Hills, (a neighboring settlement of colored people, who
lived from hand to mouth, and seemed to be fed, like the ravens by some
mystery of providence.)
Oliver Peabody watched closely the countenance of the patriarch, not a
little curious to learn what effect this announcement would have upon
his temper.
"This is all our own fault," said old Sylvester, promptly. "We should
have remembered this was thanksgiving time, and sent them something to
stay their stomachs. Poor creatures, I always wondered how they got
along! Send 'em some bread, Mopsey, for they never can do anything with
fowls without bread!"
"Send 'em some bread!" Mopsey rejoined, growing blacker and more ugly of
look as she spoke: "Send 'em whips, and an osifer of the law!--the four
fattest of the coop."
"Never mind," said old Sylvester.
"Six of the ten'drest young'uns!"
"Never mind that," said old Sylvester.
"I'd have them all in the county jail before sundown," urged Mopsey.
"Oliver, we will go in to tea," continued the patriarch. "We have enough
for tea, Mopsey?"
"Yes, quite enough, Mas'r."
"Then," cried the old man, striking his staff on the ground with great
violence, rising to his full height, and glowing like a furnace, upon
Mopsey, "then, I say, send 'em some bread!"
This speech, delivered in a voice of authority, sent Mopsey, shuffling
and cowering, away, without a word, and brought the sweat of horror to
the brow of Oliver, which he proceeded to remove with a great cotton
pocket-handkerchief, produced from his coat behind, on which was
displayed in glowing colors, by some cunning artist, the imposing scene
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence getting ready to affix
their names. Mr. Oliver Peabody was the politician of the family, and
always had the immortal Declaration of Independence at his tongue's end,
or in hand.
CHAPTER FOURTH.
THE FORTUNES OF THE FAMILY CONSIDERED.
When Oliver and old Sylvester entered the house they found all of the
family gathered within, save the children, who loitered about the doors
and windows, looking in, anxious-eyed, on the preparations for tea going
forward under the direction of the widow Margaret, and Mopsey. The other
women of the household were busy with a discussion of the merits of Mrs.
Carrack, of Boston, the fashionable lady of the family.
"I should like to see Mrs. Carrack above all things," said the Captain's
pretty little wife, "she must be a fine woman from all I have heard of
her."
"Thee will have small chance, I fear, child," said Mrs. Jane Peabody,
sitting buxomly in an easy arm chair, which she had quietly assumed,
"she is too fine for the company of us plain folks in every point of
view."
"It's five years since she was here," the widow suggested as she
adjusted the chairs around the table, "she said she never would come
inside the house again, because the best bed-chamber was not given to
her--I am sorry to say it."
"She's a heathen and wicked woman," Mopsey said, shuffling at the door,
and turning back on her way to the kitchen--"your poor boy was lying low
of a fever and how could _she_ expect it."
"In one point of view she may come; her husband was living then,"
continued Mrs. Jane Peabody, "she has become a rich woman since, and may
honor us with a visit--to show us how great a person she has got to
be--let her come--it need'nt trouble thee, nor me, I'm sure." Mrs. Jane
Peabody smoothed her Quaker vandyke, and sat stiffly in her easy chair.
Old Sylvester entering at that moment, laid aside his staff and
broad-brimmed hat, which little Sam Peabody ran in to take charge of,
and took his seat at the head of the table; the Captain, who was busy at
the back-door scouring an old rusty fowling-piece for some enterprise he
had in view in the morning, was called in by his little wife; the others
were seated in their places about the board.
"Where's William?" old Sylvester asked.
He was at a window in the front room, where he had sat for several
hours, with spectacles on his brow, poring over an old faded parchment
deed, which related to some neighboring land he thought belonged to the
Peabodys, (although in possession of others,) and which he had always
made a close study of on his visits to the homestead. There was a dark
passage, under which he made their title, which had been submitted to
various men learned in the law; it was too dark and doubtful, in their
opinion, to build a contest on, and yet William Peabody gave it every
year a new examination, with the hope, perhaps, that the wisdom of
advancing age might enable him to fathom and expound it, although it had
been drawn up by the greatest lawyer of his day in all that country. His
wife Hannah, grieving in spirit that her husband should be toiling
forever in the quest of gain, sat near him, pale, calm and disheartened,
but speaking not a word. He could not look at her with that fearful
green shade on her face, but kept his eyes always fixed on the old
parchment. When his aged father had taken his seat, and began his thanks
to God for the bounties before them, as though the old Patriarch had
brought a better spirit from the calm day without, he thrust the paper
into his bosom and glided to his place at the table. It would have done
you good to hear that old man's prayer. He neither solicited forgiveness
for his enemies nor favors for his friends; for schools, churches,
presidents or governments; neither for health, wealth, worldly welfare,
nor for any single other thing; all he said, bowing his white old head,
was this:
"May we all be Christian people the day we die--God bless us."
That was all; and his kinsfolk lost no appetite in listening to it--for
it was no sooner uttered than they all fell to--and not a word more was
spoken for five minutes at least, nor then perhaps, had not little Sam
Peabody cried out, with breathless animation, and delight of feature,
"The pigeons, grandfather!" at the same time pointing from the door to
the evening sky, along which they were winging their calm and silent
flight in a countless train--streaming on westward as though there was
no end to them; which put old Sylvester upon recalling the cheerful
sports of his younger days.
"I have taken a couple of hundred in a net on the Hill before breakfast,
many a time," he said. "You used to help me, William."
"Yes, I and old Ethan Barbary," said the merchant, "used to spring the
net; you gave the word."
"Old Ethan has been dead many a day. Ethan," continued old Sylvester, in
explanation, "was the father of our Mr. Barbary. He was a preacher too,
and carried a gun in the revolution. I remember he was accounted a
peculiar man. I never knew why. To be sure he used to spend the time he
did not employ in prayers, preaching and tending the sick, in working on
the farms about, for he had no wages for preaching. When there was none
of that to be had, he took his basket, and sallying through the fields,
gathered berries, which he bestowed on the needy families of the
neighborhood. In winter he collected branches in the woods about, as
fire-wood for the poor."
"That was a capital idea," said Oliver the politician. "It must have
made him very popular."
"Wasn't he always thought to be a little out of his head?" asked the
merchant. "He might have sold the wood for a good price in the severe
winters."
"I remember as if it were yesterday," old Sylvester went on in his own
way, not heeding in the slightest the suggestions of his sons, "he and
black Burling, who is buried in the woods by the Great Walnut tree, near
the pond, both fought in the American ranks, and had but one gun between
them, which they used turn about."
"You saw rough times in those days, grandfather," said the Captain.
"I did, Charley," old Sylvester answered, looking kindly on the Captain,
who had always been something of a favorite of his from the day he had
married into the family; "and there are but few left to talk with me of
them now. I am one of the living survivors of an almost extinguished
race. The grave will soon be our only habitation. I am one of the few
stalks that still remain in the field where the tempest passed. I have
fought against the foreign foe for your sake; they have disappeared from
the land, and you are free; the strength of my arm delays, and my feet
fail me in the way; the hand which fought for your liberties is now open
to bless you. In my youth I bled in battle that you might be
independent--let not my heart, in my old age, bleed because you abandon
the path I would have you follow."
The old patriarch leaned his head upon his hand, and the company was
silent as though they had listened to a voice from the grave. He
presently looked up and smiled--"Old Ethan, I call to mind now," he
renewed, "had a quality which our poor Barbary inherited, and for
which," he added, looking toward his son William, "and for which I
greatly honor his memory. He counted the money of this world but as
dross. From his manhood to the very moment of his entering on the
ministry, he never would touch silver nor gold, partly, I think, because
it was the true Scripture course, and partly because a dreadful murder
had once happened in the Barbary family, growing out of a quarrel for
the possession of a paltry sum of money."
The bread she was raising to her lips fell from the widow's hand, for
she could not help but think of the history of her absent son; and the
voice of Miriam, who did not present herself at the table, was heard
from a distant chamber, not distinctly, but in that tone of chanting
lament which had become habitual to her whether in house, garden, or
field. It was an inexpressibly mournful cadence, and for the time
stilled all other sounds. They were only drawn away from it by descrying
Mopsey, the black servant, at a turn of the road, hurrying with great
animation towards the homestead, but with a singularity in her progress
which could not fail to be observed. She rushed along at great speed,
for several paces, and suddenly came to a halt, during which her head
disappeared, and then renewed her pace, repeating the peculiar
manoeuvre once at least in every ten yards. In a word, she was
shuffling on in her loose shoes, (which were on or off, one or the other
of them every other minute,) at as rapid a rate as that peculiar species
of locomotion allowed. Bursting with impatience and the importance of
her communication, her cap flaunting from her head, she stood in the
doorway and announced, "We've beat Brundage--we've beat Brundage!"
"What's this, Mopsey?" old Sylvester inquired.
"I've tried it and I've spanned it. I can't span ours!"
On further questioning it appeared that Mopsey had been on a pilgrimage
to the next neighbor's, the Brundages, to inspect their thanksgiving
pumpkin, and institute a comparison with the Peabody growth of that
kind, with a highly satisfactory and complacent result as regarded the
home production. Nobody was otherwise than pleased at Mopsey's innocent
rejoicing, and when she had been duly complimented on her success, she
went away with a broad black guffaw to set a trap in the garden for the
brown mouse, the sole surviving enemy of the great Peabody thanksgiving
pumpkin which must be plucked next day for use.
With the dispatch of the evening meal, old Sylvester withdrew to the
other room, with a little hand lamp, to read a chapter by himself. The
others remaining seated about the apartment; the Captain and Oliver
presently fell into a violent discussion on the true sources of national
wealth, the Captain giving it as his opinion that it solely depended on
having a great number of ships at sea, as carriers between different
countries. Oliver was equally clear and resolute that the real wealth of
a nation lay in its wheat crops. When wheat was at ten shillings the
bushel, all went well; let it fall a quarter, and you had general
bankruptcy staring you in the face. Mr. William Peabody was'nt at the
pains to deliver his opinion, but he was satisfied, in his secret soul,
that it lay in the increase of new houses, or the proper supply of
calicoes--he had'nt made up his mind which. Presently Oliver was
troubled again in reference to the supply of gold in the world--whether
there was enough to do business with; he also had some things to say
(which he had out of a great speech in Congress) about bullion and rates
of exchange, but nobody understood him.
"By the way," he added, "Mrs. Carrack's son Tiffany is gone to the Gold
Region. From what he writes to me I think he'll cut a very great figure
in that country."
"An exceedingly fine, talented young man," said the merchant, who had,
then, sundry sums on loan from his mother.
"In any point of view, in which you regard it," continued Oliver, "the
gold country is an important acquisition."
"You hav'nt the letter Tiffany wrote, with you?" interrupted the
Captain.
"I think I have," was the answer. "I brought it, supposing you might
like to look at it. Shall I read it?"
There was no objection--the letter was read--in which Mr. Tiffany
Carrack professed his weariness of civilized life--spoke keenly of
misspent hours--a determination to rally and do something important,
intimating that that was a great country for enterprising young men,
and, in a familiar phrase, closed with a settled resolution to do or
die.
"I have a letter to the same effect," said the Captain.
"And so have I," said William Peabody, "word for word."
"He means to do something very grand," said the Captain. Something very
grand--the women all agreed--for Mr. Tiffany Carrack was a nice young
man, and had a prospect of inheriting a hundred thousand dollars, to say
nothing of the large sums he was to bring from the Gold Regions. It was
evident to all that he was going into the business with a rush. They, of
course, would'nt see Mr. Tiffany Carrack at this Thanksgiving
gathering--he had better business on hand--Mr. Tiffany Carrack was
clearly the promising young man of the family, and was carrying the
fortunes of the Peabodys into the remotest quarters of the land.
"In a word," said Mr. Oliver Peabody, developing the Declaration of
Independence on his pocket-handkerchief. "He is going to do wonders in
every point of view. He'll carry the principles of Free Government
everywhere!"
The consideration of the extraordinary talents and enterprise of the son
imparted a new interest to the question of the coming of Mrs. Carrack;
which was rediscussed in all its bearings; and it was almost unanimously
concluded--that, one day now only intervening to Thanksgiving--it was
too late to look for her. There had been a general disposition, secretly
opposed only by Mrs. Jane Peabody, to yield to that fashionable person
the best bed-chamber, which was always accounted a great prize and
distinguished honor among the family. But now there was scarcely any
need of reserving it longer--and who was to have it? Alas! that is a
question often raised in rural households, often shakes them to the very
base, and spreads through whole families a bitterness and strength and
length of strife, which frequently ends only with life itself.
To bring the matter to an issue, various whispered conversations were
held in the small room, lying next to the sitting-room, at first
between Mrs. Margaret Peabody and Mopsey, to which one by one were
summoned, Mrs. Jane Peabody, the Captain's wife, and Mrs. Hannah
Peabody. The more it was discussed the farther off seemed any reasonable
conclusion. When one arrangement was proposed, various faces of the
group grew dark and sour; when another, other faces blackened and
elongated; tongues, too, wagged faster every minute, and at length grew
to such a hubbub as to call old Sylvester away from his Bible and bring
him to the door to learn what turmoil it was that at this quiet hour
disturbed the peace of the Peabodys. He was not long in discovering the
ground of battle, and even as in old pictures Adam is shown walking
calmly in Eden among the raging beasts of all degrees and kinds, the old
patriarch came forward among the women of the Peabody family--"My
children," he said, "should dwell in peace for the short stay allotted
them on earth. Why make a difference about so small a matter as a
lodging-place--they are all good and healthful rooms. I have seen the
day when camping on the wet grounds and morasses I would have held any
one of them to be a palace-chamber. The back chamber, my child," he
continued, addressing the Captain's wife, "looks out on the orchard,
where you always love to walk; the white room, Hannah, towards your
father's house; and Jane, you cannot object to the front chamber which
is large, well-furnished, and has the best of the sunrise. The Son of
Man, my children, had not where to lay his head, and shall we who are
but snails and worms, compared with his glory and goodness, presume to
exalt ourselves, where he was abased."
The old patriarch wished them a good night, and with the departure of
his white locks gleaming as he walked away, as though it had been the
gentle radiance of the moon stilling the tumult of the waters, they each
quietly retired, and without a further murmur, to the chambers assigned
them.
CHAPTER FIFTH.
THE CHILDREN.
There was no question where the children were to lodge, for there had
been allotted to them from time immemorial, ever since children were
known in the Peabody family, a great rambling upper chamber, with beds
in the corners, where they were always bestowed as soon after dark as
they could be convoyed thither under direction of Mopsey and the
mistress of the household. This was not always--in truth it was
rarely--easy of achievement, and cost the shuffling black servant at
least half an hour of diligent search and struggling persuasion to bring
them in from the various strayings, escapes, and lurking-places, where
they shirked to gain an extra half-hour of freedom.
To the children, however darker humors might work and sadden among the
grown people, (for whatever hue rose-favored writers may choose to throw
over scenes and times of festivity, the passions of character are always
busy, in holiday and hall, as well as in the strifes of the world,) to
the Peabody children this was thanksgiving time indeed--it was
thanksgiving in the house, it was thanksgiving in the orchard, climbing
trees; it was thanksgiving in the barn, tumbling in the hay, in the
lane. It was thanksgiving, too, with the jovial Captain, a grown-up boy,
heading their sports and allowing the country as he did, little rest or
peace of mind wherever he lead the revel; it was not four-and-twenty
hours that he had been at the quiet homestead before the mill was set
a-running, the chestnut-trees shaken, the pigeons fired into, a new bell
of greater compass put upon the brindle cow, the blacksmith's anvil at
the corner of the road set a-dinging, fresh weather-cocks clapped upon
the barn, corn-crib, stable, and out-house, the sheep let out of the
little barn, all the boats of the neighborhood launched upon the pond.
With night, darkness closed upon wild frolic; bed-time came, and
thanksgiving had a pause; a pause only, for Mopsey's dark head, with its
broad-bordered white cap, was no sooner withdrawn and the door firmly
shut, than thanksgiving began afresh, as though there had been no such
thing all day long, and they were now just setting out. For half a
minute after Mopsey's disappearance they were all nicely tucked in as
she had left them--straight out--with their heads each square on its
pillow; then, as if by a silent understanding, all heads popped up like
so many frisking fish. They darted from bed and commenced in the middle
of the chamber, a great pillow-fight amicable and hurtless, but
furiously waged, till the approach of a broad footstep sent them
scampering back to their couches, mum as mice. Mopsey, well aware of
these frisks, tarried till they were blown over, in her own chamber hard
by, a dark room, mysterious to the fancy of the children, with spinning
wheels, dried gourd-shells hung against the wall, a lady's
riding-saddle, now out of use this many a day, and all the odds and ends
of an ancient farm-house stored in heaps and strings about.
It was only at last by going aloft and moving a trap in the ceiling,
which was connected in tradition with the appearance of a ghost, that
they were at length fairly sobered down and kept in bed, when Mopsey,
looking in for the last time, knew that it was safe to go below. They
had something left even then, and kept up a talk from bed to bed, for a
good long hour more, at least.
"What do you think of the turkey, Bill?" began Master Robert Peabody,
the flat-featured, rising from his pillow like a homely porpoise.
"I don't know," Peabody Junior answered, "I don't care for turkeys."
Little Sam Peabody, the master of the turkey, took this very much to
heart.
"I think he's a very fine one," continued Master Robert, "twice as big
as last year's."
"I'm very glad to hear you say that, Cousin Robert," said little Sam
Peabody, turning over toward the quarter whence the voice of
encouragement came.
"As fine a turkey as I've ever seen," Robert went on. "When do they kill
him?"
Little Sam struggled a little with himself, and answered feebly,
"To-morrow."
There was silence for several minutes, broken presently by Peabody
Junior, fixing his pillow, and saying "Boys, I'm going to sleep."
Allowing some few minutes for this to take effect, Master Robert called
across the chamber to little Sam, "I wonder why Aunt Hannah wears that
old green shade on her face?"
"Pray don't say anything about that," little Sam answered, "Cousin don't
like to hear about that!"
Master Robert--rather a blunt young gentleman--is not to be baffled so
easily.
"I say, Bill, why does your mother wear that green patch over her eye?"
he called out.
There was no answer; he called again in a louder key.
"Hush!" whispered Peabody Junior, who was not asleep, but only thinking
of it, in a tone of fear, "I don't know."
"Is the eye gone?" Robert asked again, bent on satisfaction of some
kind.
"I don't know," was the whispered answer again. "Don't ask me anything
about it."
"I'm afraid Aunt Hannah's not happy," suggested little Sam, timidly.
"Pr'aps she is'nt, Sam," Peabody Junior answered.
"What is the reason," continued little Sam, "I always liked her."
"Don't know," was all Peabody Junior had to reply.
"Did you ever see that other eye? Bill," asked the blunt young
gentleman, whose head was still running on the green shade.
"Oh, go to sleep, will you, Nosey," cried Peabody Junior. "If you don't
leave me alone I'll get up and wollop you."
The flat-featured disappeared with his porpoise face under the
bed-clothes and breathed hard, but kept close; and when he fell asleep
he dreamed of dragons and green umbrellas all night, at a fearful rate.
"I would'nt be angry, Cousin," said little Sam, when the porpoise gave
token that he was hardbound in slumber. "He don't mean to hurt your
feelings, I don't believe."
"Pr'aps he don't," Peabody Junior rejoined. "What could I tell him, if I
wanted to; all I know is, mother has worn the shade ever since I can
recollect anything. I think sometimes I can remember she used to have it
on as far back as when I was at the breast, a very little child, and
that I used to try and snatch it away--which always made her very sad."
"Don't she ever take it away?" asked little Sam.
"I never saw it off in all my life; nor can I tell you whether my dear
mother has one eye or two. I know she never likes to have any one look
at it. It makes her melancholy at once; nurse used to tell me there was
a mystery about it--but she would never tell me any more. It always
scares father when she turns that side of her face on him, that I've
noticed; and he always at home sits on the other side of the table from
it."
"I wouldn't think any more about it to-night, Cousin," said little Sam.
"I know it makes you unhappy from your voice. Don't you miss some one
to-night that used to keep us awake with telling pleasant stories?"
"I do," answered Peabody Junior. "I'm thinking of him now. I wish Cousin
Elbridge was back again."
"You know why he isn't?"
"Father says it's because he's a bad young man."
"And do you believe it, William?"
"I'm afraid he is--for father always says so."
A gentle figure had quietly opened the chamber-door, and stood listening
with breathless attention to the discourse of the two children.
"You wait and see," continued little Sam firmly, "I'm sure he'll come
back--and before long."
"What makes you think so?" William asked. "I'm sure I hope he will."
"Because the red rooster," answered little Sam, "crowed yesterday
morning for the first time since he went away, and the red rooster knows
more than anybody about this farm except old grandfather."
Thinking how that could be, Peabody Junior fell asleep; and little Sam,
sure to dream of his absent brother, shortly followed after. The gentle
figure of Miriam Haven glided into the chamber, to the bed-side of
little Sam, and watching his calm, innocent features--which were held to
greatly resemble those of the absent Elbridge--with tears in her eyes,
she breathed a blessing from her very heart on the dear child who had
faith in the absent one. "A blessing!" such was her humble wish as she
returned to her chamber and laid her fair head on the pillow, "a
blessing on such as believe in us when we are in trouble and poverty,
out of favor with the world, when our good name is doubted, and when the
current running sharply against, might overwhelm us, were not one or two
kind hands put forth to save us from utter ruin and abandonment!"
CHAPTER SIXTH.
THE FASHIONABLE LADY AND HER SON.
All the next day, being the Wednesday before thanksgiving, was alive and
busy with the various preparations for the great festival, now held to
be a sacred holiday throughout this wide-spread union. The lark had no
sooner called morning in the meadow than Mopsey, who seemed to regard
herself as having the entire weight of the occasion on her single
shoulders, slipped from bed, hurried to the garden, and taking a last
look at the great pumpkin as it lay in all its golden glory, severed the
vine at a stroke and trundled it with her own arms, (she saw with a
smile of pity the poor brown mouse skulking off, like a little pirate as
he was, disappointed of his prize,) in at the back-door. The Peabodys
were gathering for breakfast, and coming forward, stood at either side
of the entrance regarding the pumpkin with profound interest. It fairly
shook the house as it rolled in upon the kitchen floor.
When little Sam, who had lingered in bed beyond the others, with
pleasant dreams, came down stairs, he was met by young William Peabody.
"What do you think, Sam?" said Peabody Junior, smiling.
"I suppose Aunt Carrack has come," Sam answered. "It's nothing to me if
she has."
"No, that isn't it.--Turkey's dead!"
Little Sam dropped a tear, and went away by himself to walk in the
garden. Little Sam took no breakfast that morning.
Every window in the house was thrown wide open to begin with; every
chair walked out of its place; the new broom which Miriam had gathered
with a song, was used for the first time freely on every floor, in every
nook and corner; then the new broom was carried away, and locked in a
closet like a conjuror who had wrought his spell and need not appear
again till some other magic was to be performed. All the chairs were set
soberly and steadily against the wall, the windows were closed, and a
sacred shade thrown over the house against the approaching festival. The
key was turned in the lock of the old parlor, which was to have no
company (save the tall old clock talking all alone in the corner to
himself) till to-morrow.
And so the day sailed on, like a dainty boat with silent oar on a
calm-flowing stream, to evening, when, as though it had been a new-born
meteor or great will-o'-the-wisp, there appeared on the edge of the
twilight, along the distant horizon, a silvery glitter, which, drawing
nearer and nearer, presently disclosed a servant in a shining band
mounted on a great coach, with horses in burnished harness; with
champing speed, which it seemed must have borne it far beyond, it came
to in a moment at the very gate of the homestead, as at the striking of
a clock. A gentleman in bearded lip, in high polish of hat, chains and
boots, emerged, (the door being opened by a stripling also in a banded
hat, who leaped from behind,) followed by a lady in a gown of glossy
silk and a yellow feather, waving in the partial darkness from her hat.
Such wonder and astonishment as seized on the Peabodys, who looked on it
from the balcony, no man can describe.
Angels have descended before now and walked upon the earth--giants have
been at some time or other seen strutting about--ghosts appear
occasionally in the neighborhood of old farm-houses, but neither ghost,
giant, nor angel had such a welcome of uplifted hands and staring eyes
as encountered Mrs. Carrack and her son Tiffany, when they, in the body
entered in at the gate of the old Peabody mansion at that time. There
was but one person in the company, old Sylvester perhaps excepted, who
seemed to have his wits about him, and that was the red rooster who,
sitting on the wall near the gate when Mr. Tiffany Carrack pushed it
open, cocked his eye smartly on him, and darted sharply at his white
hand, with its glittering jewel as he laid it on the gate.
"Nancy," said old Sylvester, addressing her with extended grasp, and a
pleasant smile of welcome on his brow, "we had given up looking for
you."
Was there ever such a rash old man! "Nancy!" as though she had been a
common person he was speaking to.
Mrs. Carrack, who was a short woman, stiff and stern, tossing her
feather, gave the tips of her fingers to the patriarch, and ordering in
a huge leathern trunk all over brass nails and capital C's, condescended
to enter into the house. In spite of all resolutions and persuasions to
the contrary the door of the best parlor unlocked before her grandeur
of demeanor, and she took possession as though she had not the slightest
connection with the other members of the Peabody family, nor the
remotest interest in the common sitting-room without. Mr. Tiffany
Carrack, with patent shanks to his boots which sprang him into the air
as he walked, corsets to brace his body in, new-fangled straps to keep
him down, a patent collar of a peculiar invention, to hold his head
aloft, moving as it were under the convoy of a company of invisible
influences, deriving all his motions from the shoe-maker, stay-maker,
tailor and linen-draper, who originally wound him up and set him
a-going, for whose sole convenience he lives, having withal, by way of
paint to his ashy countenance, a couple of little conch-shell tufts,
tawny-yellow, (that being the latest to be had at the perfumer's,) on
his upper lip; the representative and embodiment of all the latest new
improvements, patents, and contrivances in apparel, Mr. Tiffany Carrack
followed his excellent mother.
"Why, Tiffany," said old Sylvester, who notwithstanding the immensity of
these people, calmly pursued his old course, "we all thought you were in
California."
The family were gathered around and awaited Mr. Tiffany Carrack's answer
with a good deal of curiosity.
"That was all a delusion, sir," he replied, plucking at his little crop
of yellow tufts,--"a horrible delusion. I had some thought of that kind
in my mind, in fact I had got as far south as New Orleans, when I met a
seedy fellow who told me that the natives had rebelled and wouldn't work
any more; so I found if I would get any of the precious, I must dig with
a shovel with my own dear digits; of course I turned back in disgust,
and here I am as good as new--Jehoshaphat!"
It was well that Mr. Tiffany had a fashion of emphasizing his discourse
with a reference to this ancient person, whom he supposed to have been
an exquisite of the first water, which happily furnished a cover under
which the entire Peabody family exploded with laughter at Mr. Carrack's
announcement of the sudden termination of his grand expedition to the
Gold Region. Without an exception they all went off in an enormous
burst, the Captain, little Sam, and Mopsey leading.
"Every word true, 'pon my honor," repeated Mr. Carrack.
The great burst was renewed.
"It was a capital idea, wasn't it?" he said again, supposing he had made
a great hit.
The explosion for the third time, but softened a little by pity in the
female section of the chorus.
Mrs. Carrack had sat stately and aloof, with an inkling in her brain
that all this mirthful tumult was not entirely in the nature of a
complimentary tribute to her son.
"I think," she said, with haughty severity of aspect, "my son was
perfectly right. It was a sinful and a wicked adventure at the best, as
the Reverend Strawbery Hyson clearly showed from the fourth Revelations,
in his last annual discourse to the young ladies of the church."
"He did, so he did," said Mr. Tiffany, stroking his chin, "I remember
perfectly: it was very prettily stated by Hyson."
"The Reverend Strawbery Hyson," said Mrs. Carrack. "Always give that
excellent man his full title. What would you say, my son, if he should
appear in the streets without his black coat and white cravat? Would you
have any confidence in his preaching after that?"
"Next to myself," answered Mr. Tiffany, "I think our parson's the
best-dressed man in Boston."
"He should be, as an example," said Mrs. Carrack. "He has a very genteel
congregation."
Old Sylvester, who had on at that moment an old brown coat and a frayed
black ribbon for a neck-cloth, ordered Mopsey to send the two best pies
in the house immediately to the negroes in the Hills. Mrs. Carrack
smiled loftily, and drew from her pocket an elegant small silver vial of
the pure otto of rose, and applied it to her nostrils as though
something disagreeable had just struck upon the air and tainted it.
"By the way," said Mr. Tiffany Carrack, adjusting his shirt collar, "how
is my little friend Miriam?"
"Melancholy!" was the only answer any one had to make.
"So I thought," pursued Mr. Carrack, rolling his eyes and heaving an
infant sigh from his bosom. "Poor thing, no wonder, if she thought I was
gone away so far. She shall be comforted."
Mopsey looking in at this moment, gave the summons to tea, which was
answered by Mr. Tiffany Carrack's offering his arm, impressively, to his
excellent mother, and leading the way to the table.
It was observed, that in his progress to the tea-table, Mr. Tiffany
adopted a tottering and uncertain step, indicating a dilapidated old
age, only kept together by the clothes he wore, which was altogether
unintelligible to the Peabody family, seeing that Mr. Carrack was in the
very prime of youth, till Mrs. Carrack remarked, with an affectionate
smile of motherly pride:
"You remind me more and more every day, Tiff, of that dear delightful
old Baden-Baden."
"I wish the glorious old fellow would come over to me for a short lark,"
rejoined Mr. Tiffany. "But he couldn't live here long; there's nothing
old here."
"Who's Baden Baden?" asked Sylvester.
"Only a prince of my acquaintance on the other side of the water, and a
devilish clever fellow. But he could'nt stand it here--I'm
afraid--everything's so new."
"I'm rather old," suggested Sylvester, smiling on the young man.
"So you are, by Jove--But that aint the thing I want exactly; I want an
old castle or two, and a donjon-keep, and that sort of thing.--You
understand."
"Something," suggested the grandfather, "in the style of the old
revolutionary fort on Fort Hill?"
"No--no--you don't take exactly. I mean something more in the
antique--something or other, you see"--here he began twirling his
forefinger in the air and sketching an amorphous phantom of some sort,
of an altogether unattainable character, "in a word--Jehoshaphat!"
The moment the eye of Mrs. Carrack fell upon the blue and white
crockery, the pewter plates which had been in use time out of mind in
the family, and the plain knives and forks of steel, she cast on her son
a significant glance of mingled surprise and contempt. "Thomas," she
said, standing before the place assigned to her, her son doing the same,
"the napkins!"
The napkins were brought from a great basket which had accompanied the
leathern trunk.
"The other things!"
The other things, consisting of china plates, cups and saucers, and
knives and forks of silver for two, were duly laid--Mrs. Carrack and her
son having kept the rest of the family waiting the saying of grace by
old Sylvester, were good enough to be seated at the old farmer's (Mrs.
Carrack's father's) board.
When old Sylvester unclosed his eyes from the delivery of thanks, he
discovered at the back of Mrs. Carrack and her son's chairs, the two
city servants in livery, with their short cut hair and embroidered coats
of the fashion of those worn in English farces on the stage, standing
erect and without the motion of a muscle. There is not a doubt but that
old Sylvester Peabody was a good deal astonished, although he gave no
utterance to his feelings. But when the two young men in livery began to
dive in here and there about the table, snapping up the dishes in
exclusive service on Mrs. Carrack and Mr. Tiffany Carrack, he could
remain silent no longer.
"Boys," he said, addressing himself to the two fine personages in
question, "you will oblige me by going into the yard and chopping wood
till we are done supper. We shall need all you can split in an hour to
bake the pies with."