little ones and a friend or two, to whom I showed my treasures, and
expatiated at large on the comforts and conveniences of the new patent
hive.
But alas for the hopes of man! The little ungrateful wretches--what must
they do but take advantage of my over-sleeping myself, the next morning,
to clear out for new quarters without so much as leaving me a P. P. C.!
Such was the fact; at eight o'clock I found the new patent hive as good
as ever; but the bees I have never seen from that day to this!
"The rascally little conservatives!" said I; "I believe they have never
had a new idea from the days of Virgil down, and are entirely unprepared
to appreciate improvements."
Meanwhile the seeds began to germinate in our garden, when we found, to
our chagrin, that, between John Bull and Paddy, there had occurred
sundry confusions in the several departments. Radishes had been planted
broadcast, carrots and beets arranged in hills, and here and there a
whole paper of seed appeared to have been planted bodily. My good old
uncle, who, somewhat to my confusion, made me a call at this time, was
greatly distressed and scandalized by the appearance of our garden. But,
by a deal of fussing, transplanting, and replanting, it was got into
some shape and order. My uncle was rather troublesome, as careful old
people are apt to be--annoying us by perpetual inquiries of what we gave
for this, and that, and running up provoking calculations on the final
cost of matters; and we began to wish that his visits might be as short
as would be convenient.
But when, on taking leave, he promised to send us a fine young cow of
his own raising, our hearts rather smote us for our impatience.
"'Tain't any of your new breeds, nephew," said the old man, "yet I can
say that she's a gentle, likely young crittur, and better worth forty
dollars than many a one that's cried up for Ayrshire or Durham; and you
shall be quite welcome to her."
We thanked him, as in duty bound, and thought that if he was full of
old-fashioned notions, he was no less full of kindness and good will.
And now, with a new cow, with our garden beginning to thrive under the
gentle showers of May, with our flower borders blooming, my wife and I
began to think ourselves in Paradise. But alas! the same sun and rain
that warmed our fruit and flowers brought up from the earth, like sulky
gnomes, a vast array of purple-leaved weeds, that almost in a night
seemed to cover the whole surface of the garden beds. Our gardeners both
being gone, the weeding was expected to be done by me--one of the
anticipated relaxations of my leisure hours.
"Well," said I, in reply to a gentle intimation from my wife, "when my
article is finished, I'll take a day and weed all up clean."
Thus days slipped by, till at length the article was despatched, and I
proceeded to my garden. Amazement! Who could have possibly foreseen that
any thing earthly could grow so fast in a few days! There were no
bounds, no alleys, no beds, no distinction of beet and carrot, nothing
but a flourishing congregation of weeds nodding and bobbing in the
morning breeze, as if to say, "We hope you are well, sir--we've got the
ground, you see!" I began to explore, and to hoe, and to weed. Ah! did
any body ever try to clean a neglected carrot or beet bed, or bend his
back in a hot sun over rows of weedy onions! He is the man to feel for
my despair! How I weeded, and sweat, and sighed! till, when high noon
came on, as the result of all my toils, only three beds were cleaned!
And how disconsolate looked the good seed, thus unexpectedly delivered
from its sheltering tares, and laid open to a broiling July sun! Every
juvenile beet and carrot lay flat down, wilted and drooping, as if, like
me, they had been weeding, instead of being weeded.
"This weeding is quite a serious matter," said I to my wife; "the fact
is, I must have help about it!"
"Just what I was myself thinking," said my wife. "My flower borders are
all in confusion, and my petunia mounds so completely overgrown, that
nobody would dream what they were meant for!"
In short, it was agreed between us that we could not afford the expense
of a full-grown man to keep our place; yet we must reenforce ourselves
by the addition of a boy, and a brisk youngster from the vicinity was
pitched upon as the happy addition. This youth was a fellow of decidedly
quick parts, and in one forenoon made such a clearing in our garden that
I was delighted. Bed after bed appeared to view, all cleared and dressed
out with such celerity that I was quite ashamed of my own slowness,
until, on examination, I discovered that he had, with great
impartiality, pulled up both weeds and vegetables.
This hopeful beginning was followed up by a succession of proceedings
which should be recorded for the instruction of all who seek for help
from the race of boys. Such a loser of all tools, great and small; such
an invariable leaver-open of all gates, and letter-down of bars; such a
personification of all manner of anarchy and ill luck, had never before
been seen on the estate. His time, while I was gone to the city, was
agreeably diversified with roosting on the fence, swinging on the gates,
making poplar whistles for the children, hunting eggs, and eating
whatever fruit happened to be in season, in which latter accomplishment
he was certainly quite distinguished. After about three weeks of this
kind of joint gardening, we concluded to dismiss Master Tom from the
firm, and employ a man.
"Things must be taken care of," said I, "and I cannot do it. 'Tis out of
the question." And so the man was secured.
But I am making a long story, and may chance to outrun the sympathies of
my readers. Time would fail me to tell of the distresses manifold that
fell upon me--of cows dried up by poor milkers; of hens that wouldn't
set at all, and hens that, despite all law and reason, would set on one
egg; of hens that, having hatched families, straightway led them into
all manner of high grass and weeds, by which means numerous young chicks
caught premature colds and perished; and how, when I, with manifold
toil, had driven one of these inconsiderate gadders into a coop, to
teach her domestic habits, the rats came down upon her and slew every
chick in one night; how my pigs were always practising gymnastic
exercises over the fence of the sty, and marauding in the garden. I
wonder that Fourier never conceived the idea of having his garden land
ploughed by pigs; for certainly they manifest quite a decided elective
attraction for turning up the earth.
When autumn came, I went soberly to market, in the neighboring city, and
bought my potatoes and turnips like any other man; for, between all the
various systems of gardening pursued, I was obliged to confess that my
first horticultural effort was a decided failure. But though all my
rural visions had proved illusive, there were some very substantial
realities. My bill at the seed store, for seeds, roots, and tools, for
example, had run up to an amount that was perfectly unaccountable; then
there were various smaller items, such as horse shoeing, carriage
mending--for he who lives in the country and does business in the city
must keep his vehicle and appurtenances. I had always prided myself on
being an exact man, and settling every account, great and small, with
the going out of the old year; but this season I found myself sorely put
to it. In fact, had not I received a timely lift from my good old uncle,
I should have made a complete break down. The old gentleman's
troublesome habit of ciphering and calculating, it seems, had led him
beforehand to foresee that I was not exactly in the money-making line,
nor likely to possess much surplus revenue to meet the note which I had
given for my place; and, therefore, he quietly paid it himself, as I
discovered, when, after much anxiety and some sleepless nights, I went
to the holder to ask for an extension of credit.
"He was right, after all," said I to my wife; "'to live cheap in the
country, a body must know how.'"
"WOMAN, BEHOLD THY SON!"
The golden rays of a summer afternoon were streaming through the windows
of a quiet apartment, where every thing was the picture of orderly
repose. Gently and noiselessly they glide, gilding the glossy old
chairs, polished by years of care; fluttering with flickering gleam on
the bookcases, by the fire, and the antique China vases on the mantel,
and even coqueting with sparkles of fanciful gayety over the face of the
perpendicular, sombre old clock, which, though at times apparently
coaxed almost to the verge of a smile, still continued its inevitable
tick, as for a century before.
On the hearth rug lay outstretched a great, lazy-looking, Maltese cat,
evidently enjoying the golden beam that fell upon his sober sides, and
sleepily opening and shutting his great green eyes, as if lost in
luxurious contemplation.
But the most characteristic figure in the whole picture was that of an
aged woman, who sat quietly rocking to and fro in a great chair by the
side of a large round table covered with books. There was a quiet beauty
in that placid face--that silvery hair brushed neatly under the snowy
border of the cap. Every line in that furrowed face told some tale of
sorrow long assuaged, and passions hushed to rest, as on the calm ocean
shore the golden-furrowed sand shows traces of storms and fluctuations
long past.
On the round, green-covered table beside her lay the quiet companion of
her age, the large Bible, whose pages, like the gates of the celestial
city, were not shut at all by day, a few old standard books, and the
pleasant, rippling knitting, whose dreamy, irresponsible monotony is the
best music of age.
A fair, girlish form was seated by the table; the dress bonnet had
fallen back on her shoulders, the soft cheeks were suffused and earnest,
the long lashes and the veiled eyes were eloquent of subdued feeling, as
she read aloud from the letter in her hand. It was from "our Harry," a
name to both of them comprising all that was dear and valued on earth,
for he was "the only son of his mother, and she a widow;" yet had he not
been always an only one; flower after flower on the tree of her life had
bloomed and died, and gradually, as waters cut off from many channels,
the streams of love had centred deeper in this last and only one.
And, in truth, Harry Sargeant was all that a mother might desire or be
proud of. Generous, high-minded, witty, and talented, and with a strong
and noble physical development, he seemed born to command the love of
women. The only trouble with him was, in common parlance, that he was
too clever a fellow; he was too social, too impressible, too versatile,
too attractive, and too much in demand for his own good. He always drew
company about him, as honey draws flies, and was indispensable every
where and to every body; and it needs a steady head and firm nerves for
such a one to escape ruin.
Harry's course in college, though brilliant in scholarship, had been
critical and perilous. He was a decided favorite with the faculty and
students; yet it required a great deal of hard winking and adroit
management on the part of his instructors to bring him through without
infringement of college laws and proprieties: not that he ever meant the
least harm in his life, but that some extra generous impulse, some
quixotic generosity, was always tumbling him, neck and heels, into
somebody's scrapes, and making him part and parcel in every piece of
mischief that was going on.
With all this premised, there is no need to say that Harry was a special
favorite with ladies; in truth, it was a confessed fact among his
acquaintances, that, whereas dozens of creditable, respectable,
well-to-do young men might besiege female hearts with every proper
formality, waiting at the gates and watching at the posts of the doors
in vain, yet before him all gates and passages seemed to fly open of
their own accord. Nevertheless, there was in his native village one
quiet maiden who held alone in her hand the key that could unlock his
heart in return, and carried silently in her own the spell that could
fetter that brilliant, restless spirit; and she it was, of the
thoughtful brow and downcast eyes, whom we saw in our picture, bending
over the letter with his mother.
That mother Harry loved to idolatry. She was to his mind an
impersonation of all that was lovely in womanhood, hallowed and sainted
by age, by wisdom, by sorrow; and his love for her was a beautiful union
of protective tenderness, with veneration; and to his Ellen it seemed
the best and most sacred evidence of the nobleness of his nature, and of
the worth of the heart which he had pledged to her.
Nevertheless, there was a danger overhanging the heads of the three--a
little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, rising in the horizon of
their hopes, yet destined to burst upon them, dark and dreadful, in a
future day.
In those scenes of college hilarity where Harry had been so
indispensable, the bright, poetic wine cup had freely circulated, and
often amid the flush of conversation, and the genial excitement of the
hour, he had drank freer and deeper than was best.
He said, it is true, that he cared nothing for it, that it was nothing
to him, that it never affected him, and all those things that young men
always say when the cup of Circe is beginning its work with them.
Friends were annoyed, became anxious, remonstrated; but he laughed at
their fears, and insisted on knowing himself best. At last, with a
sudden start and shiver of his moral nature, he was awakened to a
dreadful perception of his danger, and resolved on decided and
determinate resistance. During this period he came to Cincinnati to
establish himself in business, and as at this time the temperance
reformation was in full tide of success there, he found every thing to
strengthen his resolution; temperance meetings and speeches were all the
mode; young men of the first standing were its patrons and supporters;
wine was quite in the vocative, and seemed really in danger of being
voted out of society. In such a turn of affairs, to sign a temperance
pledge and keep it became an easy thing; temptation was scarce presented
or felt; he was offered the glass in no social circle, met its
attraction nowhere, and flattered himself that he had escaped so great a
danger easily and completely.
His usual fortune of social popularity followed him, and his visiting
circle became full as large and importunate as a young man with any
thing else to do need desire. He was diligent in his application to
business, began to be mentioned with approbation by the magnates as a
rising young man, and had prospects daily nearing of competence and
home, and all that man desires--visions, alas! never to be realized.
For after a while the tide that had risen so high began imperceptibly to
decline. Men that had made eloquent speeches on temperance had now other
things to look to. Fastidious persons thought that matters had, perhaps,
been carried too far, and ladies declared that it was old and
threadbare, and getting to be cant and stuff; and the ever-ready wine
cup was gliding back into many a circle, as if, on sober second
thoughts, the community was convinced that it was a friend unjustly
belied.
There is no point in the history of reform, either in communities or
individuals, so dangerous as that where danger seems entirely past. As
long as a man thinks his health failing, he watches, he diets, and will
undergo the most heroic self-denial; but let him once set himself down
as cured, and how readily does he fall back to one soft indulgent habit
after another, all tending to ruin every thing that he has before done!
So in communities. Let intemperance rage, and young men go to ruin by
dozens, and the very evil inspires the remedy; but when the trumpet has
been sounded, and the battle set in array, and the victory only said and
sung in speeches, and newspaper paragraphs, and temperance odes, and
processions, then comes the return wave; people cry, Enough; the
community, vastly satisfied, lies down to sleep in its laurels; and then
comes the hour of danger.
But let not the man who has once been swept down the stream of
intemperate excitement, almost to the verge of ruin, dream of any point
of security for him. He is like one who has awakened in the rapids of
Niagara, and with straining oar and wild prayers to Heaven, forced his
boat upward into smoother water, where the draught of the current seems
to cease, and the banks smile, and all looks beautiful, and weary from
rowing, lays by his oar to rest and dream; he knows not that under that
smooth water still glides a current, that while he dreams, is
imperceptibly but surely hurrying him back whence there is no return.
Harry was just in this perilous point; he viewed danger as long past,
his self-confidence was fully restored, and in his security he began to
neglect those lighter outworks of caution which he must still guard who
does not mean, at last, to surrender the citadel.
* * * * *
"Now, girls and boys," said Mrs. G. to her sons and daughters, who were
sitting round a centre table covered with notes of invitation, and all
the preliminary _et cetera_ of a party, "what shall we have on Friday
night?--tea, coffee, lemonade, wine? of course not."
"And why not wine, mamma?" said the young ladies; "the people are
beginning to have it; they had wine at Mrs. A.'s and Mrs. B.'s."
"Well, your papa thinks it won't do,--the boys are members of the
temperance society,--and _I_ don't think, girls, it will _do_ myself."
There are many good sort of people, by the by, who always view moral
questions in this style of phraseology--not what is right, but what will
"_do_."
The girls made an appropriate reply to this view of the subject, by
showing that Mrs. A. and Mrs. B. had done the thing, and nobody seemed
to make any talk.
The boys, who thus far in the conversation had been thoughtfully rapping
their boots with their canes, now interposed, and said that they would
rather not have wine if it wouldn't look shabby.
"But it _will_ look shabby," said Miss Fanny. "Lemons, you know, are
scarce to be got for any price, and as for lemonade made of sirup, it's
positively vulgar and detestable; it tastes just like cream of tartar
and spirits of turpentine."
"For my part," said Emma, "I never did see the harm of wine, even when
people were making the most fuss about it; to be sure rum and brandy and
all that are bad, but wine----"
"And so convenient to get," said Fanny; "and no decent young man ever
gets drunk at parties, so it can't do any harm; besides, one must have
something, and, as I said, it will look shabby not to have it."
Now, there is no imputation that young men are so much afraid of,
especially from the lips of ladies, as that of shabbiness; and as it
happened in this case as most others that the young ladies were the most
efficient talkers, the question was finally carried on their side.
Mrs. G. was a mild and a motherly woman, just the one fitted to inspire
young men with confidence and that _home_ feeling which all men desire
to find somewhere. Her house was a free and easy ground, social for most
of the young people of her acquaintance, and Harry was a favorite and
domesticated visitor.
During the height of the temperance reform, fathers and brothers had
given it their open and decided support, and Mrs. G.--always easily
enlisted for any good movement--sympathized warmly in their endeavors.
The great fault was, that too often incident to the gentleness of
woman--a want of self-reliant principle. Her virtue was too much the
result of mere sympathy, too little of her own conviction. Hence, when
those she loved grew cold towards a good cause, they found no sustaining
power in her, and those who were relying on her judgment and opinions
insensibly controlled them. Notwithstanding, she was a woman that always
acquired a great influence over young men, and Harry had loved and
revered her with something of the same sentiment that he cherished
towards his own mother.
It was the most brilliant party of the season. Every thing was got up in
faultless taste, and Mrs. G. was in the very spirit of it. The girls
were looking beautifully; the rooms were splendid; there was enough and
not too much of light and warmth, and all were doing their best to
please and be cheerful. Harry was more brilliant than usual, and in fact
outdid himself. Wit and mind were the spirit of the hour.
"Just taste this tokay," said one of the sisters to him; "it has just
been sent us from Europe, and is said to be a genuine article."
"You know I'm not in that line," said Harry, laughing and coloring.
"Why not?" said another young lady, taking a glass.
"O, the temperance pledge, you know! I am one of the pillars of the
order, a very apostle; it will never do for me."
"Pshaw! those temperance pledges are like the proverb, 'something
musty,'" said a gay girl.
"Well, but you said you had a headache the beginning of the evening, and
you really look pale; you certainly need it as a medicine," said Fanny.
"I'll leave it to mamma;" and she turned to Mrs. G., who stood gayly
entertaining a group of young people.
"Nothing more likely," replied she, gayly; "I think, Harry, you have
looked pale lately; a glass of wine might do you good."
Had Mrs. G. known all of Harry's past history and temptations, and had
she not been in just the inconsiderate state that very good ladies
sometimes get into at a party, she would sooner have sacrificed her
right hand than to have thrown this observation into the scales; but she
did, and they turned the balance for him.
"You shall be my doctor," he said, as, laughing and coloring, he drank
the glass--and where was the harm? One glass of wine kills nobody; and
yet if a man falls, and knows that in that glass he sacrifices principle
and conscience, every drop may be poison to the soul and body.
Harry felt at that very time that a great internal barrier had given
way; nor was that glass the only one that evening; another, and another,
and another followed; his spirits rose with the wild and feverish gayety
incident to his excitable temperament, and what had been begun in the
society of ladies was completed late at night in the gentlemen's saloon.
Nobody ever knew, or thought, or recognized that that one party had
forever undone this young man; and yet so it was. From that night his
struggle of moral resistance was fatally impaired; not that he yielded
at once and without desperate efforts and struggles, but gradually each
struggle grew weaker, each reform shorter, each resolution more
inefficient; yet at the close of the evening all those friends, mother,
brother, and sister, flattered themselves that every thing had gone on
so well that the next week Mrs. H. thought that it would do to give wine
at the party because Mrs. G. had done it last week, and no harm had come
of it.
In about a year after, the G.'s began to notice and lament the habits of
their young friend, and all unconsciously to wonder how such a fine
young man should be so led astray.
Harry was of a decided and desperate nature; his affections and his
moral sense waged a fierce war with the terrible tyrant--the madness
that had possessed him; and when at last all hope died out, he
determined to avoid the anguish and shame of a drunkard's life by a
suicide's death. Then came to the trembling, heart-stricken mother and
beloved one a wild, incoherent letter of farewell, and he disappeared
from among the living.
In the same quiet parlor, where the sunshine still streams through
flickering leaves, it now rested on the polished sides and glittering
plate of a coffin; there at last lay the weary at rest, the soft,
shining gray hair was still gleaming as before, but deeper furrows on
the wan cheek, and a weary, heavy languor over the pale, peaceful face,
told that those gray hairs had been brought down in sorrow to the grave.
Sadder still was the story on the cloudless cheek and lips of the young
creature bending in quiet despair over her. Poor Ellen! her life's
thread, woven with these two beloved ones, was broken.