"If men desire the rights of property, they must take their
consequences; distinction in social classes. Without the rights
of property civilization can hardly exist, while the highest
class of improvements is probably the result of the very social
distinctions that so many decry. The great political problem to
be solved is to ascertain if the social distinctions that are
inseparable from civilization can really exist with perfect
equality in political rights. We are of opinion they can; and
as much condemn him who vainly contends for a visionary and
impracticable social equality, as we do him who would deny to
men equal opportunities for advancement."--_Political Essay._
My interview with Opportunity Newcome remained a secret between those
who first knew of it. The evening service in St. Andrew's was attended
only by the usual congregation, all the curiosity of the multitude
seeming to have been allayed by the visit in the morning. The remainder
of the day passed as usual, and after enjoying a pleasant eventide, and
the earlier hours of the night in the company of the girls, I retired
early to bed, and slept profoundly until morning. My Uncle Ro partook of
my own philosophical temper, and we encouraged each other in it by a
short conversation that occurred in his room before we respectively
retired to rest.
"I agree with you, Hugh," said my uncle, in reply to a remark of my own;
"there is little use in making ourselves unhappy about evils that _we_
cannot help. If we are to be burnt up and stripped of our property, we
_shall_ be burnt up and stripped of our property. I have a competency
secured in Europe, and we can all live on _that_, with economy, should
the worst come to the worst."
"It is a strange thing to hear an American talk of seeking a refuge of
any sort in the Old World!"
"If matters proceed in the lively manner they have for the last ten
years, you'll hear of it often. Hitherto, the rich of Europe have been
in the habit of laying by a penny in America against an evil day, but
the time will soon come, unless there is a great change, when the rich
of America will return the compliment in kind. We are worse off than if
we were in a state of nature, in many respects; having _our_ hands tied
by the responsibility that belongs to our position and means, while
those who choose to assail us are under a mere nominal restraint. They
make the magistrates, who are altogether in their interests; and they
elect the sheriffs who are to see the laws executed. The theory is, that
the people are sufficiently virtuous to perform all these duties well;
but no provision has been made for the case in which the people
themselves happen to go astray, _en masse_."
"We have our governors and masters at Albany, sir."
"Yes, we _have_ our governors and servants at Albany, and there they
are! There has not been the time, probably, since this infernal spirit
first had its rise among us, that a clear, manly, energetic and
well-principled proclamation alone, issued by the governor of this
State, would not have aroused all the better feelings of the community
and put this thing down; but, small as would have been that tribute to
the right, it has never been paid, and, until we drop double-distilled
patriots, and have recourse again to the old-fashioned, high-principled
gentlemen for offices of mark, it never will be done. Heaven preserve me
from extra-virtuous, patriotic, and enlightened citizens; no good ever
comes of them."
"I believe the wisest way, sir, is to make up our minds that we have
reached the point of reaction in the institutions, and be ready to
submit to the worst. I keep the 'revolver' well primed, and hope to
escape being burnt up at least."
After a little more such discourse, we parted and sought our pillows,
and I can say that I never slept more soundly in my life. If I did lose
my estate, it was what other men had suffered and survived, and why
might not I as well as another? It is true, those other men were, in the
main, the victims of what are called tyrants; but others, again, had
certainly been wronged by the masses. Thousands have been impoverished
in France, for instance, by the political confiscations of the
multitude, and thousands enriched by ill-gotten gains, profiting by the
calamities of those around them; and what has happened there might
happen here. Big words ought to pass for nothing. No man was ever a whit
more free because he was the whole time boasting of his liberty, and I
was not now to learn that when numbers did inflict a wrong, it was
always of the most intolerable character. Ordinarily, they were not much
disposed to this species of crime; but men in masses were no more
infallible than individuals. In this philosophic mood I slept.
I was awoke next morning by John's appearing at my bedside, after having
opened the shutter of my window.
"I declare to you, Mr. Hugh," began this well-meaning, but sometimes
officious servant, "I don't know what will come next at Ravensnest, now
the evil spirit has got uppermost among the inhabitants!"
"Tut, tut, John--what you call the evil spirit is only the 'spirit of
the institutions;' and is to be honored, instead of disliked."
"Well, sir, I don't know what they calls it, for they talks so much
about the hinstitutions in this country, I never can find out what they
would be at. There was a hinstitution near where I lived in my last
place, at the West End, in Lun'on, and there they taught young masters
to speak and write Latin and Greek. But hinstitutions in Hamerica must
mean something, for them as doesn't know any more Latin than I do seems
to be quite hintimate with these Hamerican hinstitutions. But, Mr. Hugh,
would you, _could_ you, believe the people committed parricide last
night?"
"I am not at all surprised at it, for to me they have seemed to be bent
on matricide for some time, calling the country their mother."
"It's hawful, sir--it's truly hawful, when a whole people commits such a
crime as parricide! I know'd you would be shocked to hear it, Mr. Hugh,
and so I just came in to let you know it."
"I am infinitely obliged to you for this attention, my good fellow, and
shall be still more so when you tell me all about it."
"Yes, sir, most willingly; and most unwillingly, too. But there's no use
in 'iding the fact; it's gone, Mr. Hugh!"
"What is gone, John? Speak out, my good fellow; I can bear it."
"The pew, sir--or, rather that beautiful canopy that covered it and made
it look so much like the lord mayor's seat in Guildhall. I 'ave hadmired
and honored that canopy, sir, as the most helegant hobject in this
country, sir."
"So they have destroyed it at last, have they? Encouraged and sustained
by an expression of public sentiment, as proclaimed in a meeting that
had a chairman and secretary, they have actually cut it down, I
suppose?"
"They have, sir; and a pretty job they've made of it. There it stands,
up at Miller's, hover his pig-pen!"
This was not a very heroic termination of the career of the obnoxious
canopy; but it was one that made me laugh heartily. John was a little
offended at this levity, and he soon left me to finish my toilet myself.
I dare say, many of the honest folk of Ravensnest would have been as
much surprised as John himself, at the indifference I manifested at the
fate of this dignified pew. But, certainly, so far as my own social
elevation, or social depression, was concerned, I cared nothing about
it. It left me just where I was--neither greater nor otherwise; and as
for any monuments to let the world know who my predecessors had been, or
who I was at that moment, the country itself, or the part of it in which
we dwelt, was sufficient. Its history must be forgotten, or changed,
before our position could be mistaken; though I dare say the time will
come when some extremely sublimated friend of equality will wish to
extinguish all the lights of the past, in order that there may not exist
that very offensive distinction of one man's name being illustrated,
while another man's name is not. The pride of family is justly deemed
the most offensive of all pride, since a man may value himself on a
possession to which he has not the smallest claim in the way of personal
merit, while those of the highest personal claims are altogether
deprived of an advantage, to the enjoyment of which ancestors alone have
created the right. Now, the institutions, both in their letter and their
spirit, _do_ favor justice in this particular, as far as they can;
though even they are obliged to sustain one of the most potent agents to
such distinctions, by declaring, through the laws, that the child shall
succeed to the estate of the father. When we shall get everything
straight, and as it ought to be, in this progressive country, heaven
only knows; for I find my tenants laying stress on the fact that _their_
fathers have leased my lands for generations, while they are quite
willing to forget that _my_ fathers were the lessors all the while.
I found all four of the girls on the piazza, breathing the air of as
balmy a summer morning as a bountiful nature ever bestowed. They had
heard of the fate of the canopy, which affected them differently, and
somewhat according to temperament. Henrietta Coldbrooke laughed at it
violently, and in a way I did not like; your laughing young lady rarely
having much beyond merriment in her. I make all allowance for youthful
spirits, and a natural disposition to turn things into fun; but it was
too much to laugh at this exploit of the anti-renters for quite half an
hour together. I liked Anne Marston's manner of regarding it better. She
smiled a good deal, and laughed just enough to show that she was not
insensible to the effect of an absurdity; and then she looked as if she
felt that a wrong had been done. As for Patt, she was quite indignant at
the insult; nor was she very backward in letting her opinions be known.
But Mary Warren's manner of viewing the affair pleased me best, as
indeed was fast getting to be the fact with most of her notions and
conceits. She manifested neither levity nor resentment. Once or twice,
when a droll remark escaped Henrietta, she laughed a little; a very
little, and involuntarily, as it might be--just enough to prove that
there was fun in her--when she would make some sensible observation, to
the effect that the evil temper that was up in the country was the true
part of the transaction that deserved attention; and that she _felt_
this as well as saw it. Nobody seemed to care for the canopy--not even
my excellent grandmother, in whose youth the church had been built, when
distinctions of this sort were more in accordance with the temper and
habits of the times than they are to-day. I had been on the piazza just
long enough to note this difference in the manner of the girls, when my
grandmother joined us.
"Oh! grandmother, have you heard what those wretches of 'Injins,' as
they are rightly named, have been doing with the canopy of the pew?"
cried Patt, who had been at the bedside of our venerable parent and
kissed her an hour before; "they have torn it down, and placed it over
the pen of the pigs!"
A common laugh, in which Patt herself now joined, interrupted the answer
for a moment, old Mrs. Littlepage herself manifesting a slight
disposition to make one of the amused.
"I have heard it all, my dear," returned my grandmother, "and, on the
whole, think the thing is well enough gotten rid of. I do not believe it
would have done for Hugh to have had it taken down under a menace, while
it is perhaps better that it should no longer stand."
"Were such things common in your youth, Mrs. Littlepage?" asked Mary
Warren.
"Far from uncommon; though less so in country than in town churches. You
will remember that we were but recently separated from England when St.
Andrew's was built, and that most of the old colonial ideas prevailed
among us. People in that day had very different notions of social
station from those which now exist; and New York was, in a certain
sense, one of the most, perhaps _the_ most, aristocratic colony in the
country. It was somewhat so under the Dutch, republicans as they were,
with its patroons; but when the colony was transferred to the English,
it became a royal colony at once, and English notions were introduced as
a matter of course. In no other colony were there as many manors,
perhaps; the slavery of the South introducing quite a different system
there, while the policy of Penn and New England generally was more
democratic. I apprehend, Roger, that we owe this anti-rent struggle, and
particularly the feebleness with which it is resisted, to the difference
of opinion that prevails among the people of New England, who have sent
so many immigrants among us, and our own purely New York notions."
"You are quite right, my dear mother," answered my uncle, "though New
Yorkers, by descent, are not wanting among the tenants to sustain the
innovation. The last act either from direct cupidity, or to gain
popularity with a set, whereas, as I view the matter, the first are
influenced by the notions of the state of society from which either they
themselves, or their parents, were directly derived. A very large
proportion of the present population of New York is of New England
origin. Perhaps one-third have this extraction, either as born there, or
as the sons or grandsons of those who were. Now, in New England
generally, great equality of condition exists, more especially when you
rise above the lower classes; there being very few, out of the large
trading towns, who would be deemed rich in New York, and scarcely such a
thing as a large landholder at all. The relation of landlord and tenant,
as connected with what we should term estates, is virtually unknown to
New England; though Maine may afford some exceptions. This circumstance
is owing to the peculiar origin of the people, and to the fact that
emigration has so long carried off the surplus population; the bulk of
those who remain being able to possess freeholds. There is a natural
antipathy in men who have been educated in such a state of society to
anything that seems to place others in positions they do not and cannot
occupy themselves. Now, while the population of New York may be
one-third, perhaps, of New England descent, and consequently more or
less of New England notions, a much larger proportion of the lawyers,
editors of newspapers, physicians, and active politicians, are of that
class. We think little, and talk little of these circumstances; for no
nation inquires into its moral influences, and what I may call its
political statistics, less than the Americans; but they produce large
consequences."
"Am I to understand you, sir, to say that anti-rentism is of New England
origin?"
"Perhaps not. Its origin was probably more directly derived from the
devil, who has tempted the tenants as he is known once to have tempted
the Saviour. The outbreak was originally among the descendants of the
Dutch, for they happened to be the tenants, and, as for the theories
that have been broached, they savor more of the reaction of European
abuses than of anything American at all; and least of all of anything
from New England, where there is generally a great respect for the
rights of property, and unusual reverence for the law. Still, I think we
owe our greatest danger to the opinions and habits of those of New
England descent among us."
"This seems a little paradoxical, uncle Ro, and I confess I should like
to hear it explained."
"I will endeavor so to do, and in as few words as possible. The real
danger is among those who influence legislation. Now, you will find
hundreds of men among us who feel the vast importance of respecting
contracts, who perceive much of the danger of anti-rentism, and who wish
to see it defeated in its violent and most offensive forms, but who lean
against the great landlords, on account of those secret jealousies which
cause most men to dislike advantages in which they do not share, and who
would gladly enough see all leases abolished, if it could be done
without a too violent conflict with justice. When you talk with these
men, they will make you the commonplace but unmeaning profession of
wishing to see every husbandman the owner in fee of his farm, instead of
a tenant, and that it is a _hardship_ to pay rent, and quantities of
such twaddle. Henry the Fourth, in a much better spirit, is said to have
wished that each of his subjects had "_une poule dans son pot_," but
that wish did not put it there. So it is with this idle profession of
wishing to see every American husbandman a freeholder. We all know such
a state of society never did exist, and probably never will; and it is
merely placing a vapid pretension to philanthropy in the foreground of a
picture that should rigidly represent things as they are. For my part, I
am one of those who do not believe that this or any other country would
be any the better for dispensing with landlords and tenants."
"Mr. Littlepage!" exclaimed Mary Warren, "you surely do not mean that
competency widely diffused is not better than wealth in a few hands and
poverty in a great many!"
"No, I shall not go as far as that; but I do say, that what this country
most wants just now is precisely the class that is connected with the
independence of character and station, the leisure, with its attendant
cultivation and refinement, and the _principles_ as well as taste that
are connected with all."
"Principles! Mr. Littlepage!" added my uncle's sweet interlocutor; "my
father would hardly uphold _that_, though he agrees with you in so much
of what you say."
"I do not know that. I repeat the word _principles_; for when you have a
class of men who are removed from a large range of temptations, without
being placed above public opinion, you get precisely those who are most
likely to uphold that sort of secondary, but highly useful morals which
are not directly derived from purely religious duties. Against the last
I shall not say one word, as it comes from the grace, which is of the
power of God, and is happily as accessible to the poor as to the rich,
and more too; but, of men as they are, not one in a hundred regulates
his life by a standard created under such impulses; and even when they
do, the standard itself is, in some degree, qualified by the ordinary
notions I apprehend. The Christian morality of an East Indian is not
identical with that of a Puritan, or that of a man of highly cultivated
mind with that of one who has enjoyed fewer advantages. There is one
class of principles, embracing all those that are adverse to the
littlenesses of daily practice, which is much the more extended among
the liberal-minded and educated, and it is to that set of principles I
refer. Now we want a due proportion of that class of men, as our society
is getting to be organized; of those who are superior to meannesses."
"All this would be deemed atrociously aristocratic, were it told in
Gath!" exclaimed Patt, laughing.
"It is atrociously common sense, notwithstanding," answered my uncle,
who was not to be laughed out of anything he felt to be true; "and the
facts will show it. New England early established a system of common
schools, and no part of the world, perhaps, has a population that is
better grounded in intelligence. This has been the case so long as to
put the people of Connecticut and Massachusetts, for instance, as a
whole, materially in advance of the people of any other State, New York
included; although, by taking the system from our eastern brethren, we
are now doing pretty well. Notwithstanding, who will say that New
England is as far advanced, in many material things, as the Middle
States. To begin with the kitchen--her best cookery is much below that
of even the humbler classes of the true Middle States' families; take
her language for another test, it is provincial and vulgar; and there is
no exaggeration in saying that the laboring classes of the Middle
States, if not of New England origin, use better English than thousands
of educated men in New England itself. Both of these peculiarities, as I
conceive, come from the fact that in one part of the country there has
been a class to give a tone that does not exist in the other. The
gentlemen of the larger towns in the East have an influence where they
live, no doubt; but in the interior, as no one leads, all these matters
are left to the common mind to get along with as well as it can."
"Aristocratic, sir--rank aristocracy!"
"If it be, has aristocracy, as you call it, which in this instance must
only mean decided social position, no advantages? Is not even a wealthy
idler of some use in a nation? He contributes his full share to the
higher civilization that is connected with the tastes and refinements,
and, in fact, he forms it. In Europe they will tell you that a court is
necessary to such civilization; but facts contradict the theory. Social
classes, no doubt, are; but they can exist independently of courts, as
they can, have, do, and ever will in the face of democracy. Now, connect
this class with the landed interest, and see how much your chances for
material improvement are increased. Coke, of Norfolk, probably conferred
more benefit on the husbandry of England than all the mere operatives
that existed in his time. It is from such men, indeed, from their
enterprise and their means, that nearly all the greater benefits come.
The fine wool of America is mainly owing to Livingston's connection with
land; and if you drive such men out of existence, you must drive the
benefits they confer with them. A body of intelligent, well-educated,
liberalized landlords, scattered through New York, would have more
effect in advancing the highest interests of the community than all the
'small potato' lawyers and governors you can name in a twelvemonth. What
is more, this is just the state of society in which to reap all the
benefits of such a class, without the evils of a real aristocracy. They
are and would be without any particular political power, and there is no
danger of corn-laws and exclusive legislation for their benefit. Rich
and poor we _must_ have; and let any fair-minded man say whether he wish
a state of things in which the first shall have no inducement to take an
extended interest in real estate, and the last no chance to become
agriculturists, except as hired laborers?"
"You do not mince matters, uncle Ro," put in Patt, "and will never go to
Congress."
"That may be, my dear, but I shall retain my own self-respect by fair
dealing. What I say I _mean_, while many who take the other side do not.
I say, that in a country like this, in which land is so abundant as to
render the evils of a general monopoly impossible, a landed gentry is
precisely what is most needed for the higher order of civilization,
including manners, tastes, and the minor principles, and is the very
class which, if reasonably maintained and properly regarded, would do
the most good at the least risk of any social caste known. They _have_
always existed in New York, though with a lessening influence, and are
the reason, in my judgment, why we are so much before New England in
particular things, while certainly behind that quarter of the country in
many others that are dependent on ordinary schooling."
"I like to hear a person maintain his opinion frankly and manfully,"
said my grandmother; "and this have you done, Roger, from boyhood. My
own family, on my father's side, was from New England, and I subscribe
to a great deal that you say; and particularly to the part that relates
to the apathy of the public to this great wrong. It is now time,
however, to go to the breakfast-table, as John has been bowing in the
door yonder for the last minute or two."
To breakfast we went; and, notwithstanding incendiaries, anti-rentism,
and canopies of pig-pens, a merry time we had of it. Henrietta
Coldbrooke and Anne Marston never came out with more spirit, though in
their several ways, than each did that morning. I believe I looked a
little surprised, for I observed that my uncle stole occasional glances
at me, that seemed to say, "There, my fine fellow, what do you think of
that, now?" whenever either of his wards uttered anything that he
fancied cleverer than common.
"Have you heard, ma'am," asked my uncle Ro of my grandmother, "that we
are to have old Sus and Jaaf here at the Nest, shortly, and both in
grand costume? It seems the red men are about to depart, and there is to
be smoking of pipes and a great council, which the Trackless fancies
will be more dignified if held in front of the house of his pale-face
friends than if held at his own hut."
"How did you ascertain that, Roger?"
"I have been at the wigwam this morning, and have the fact directly from
the Onondago, as well as from the interpreter, whom I met there. By the
way, Hugh, we must shortly decide what is to be done with the prisoners,
or we shall have writs of habeas corpus served on us, to know why we
detain them."
"Is it possible, uncle Ro," for so his wards called him habitually--"to
rescue a gentleman from the gallows by marrying him?" asked Henrietta
Coldbrooke, demurely.
"That is so strange a question, that as a guardian I feel curious to
hear its meaning."
"Tell--tell at once, Henrietta," said the other ward, urging her
companion to speak. "I will save your blushes, and act as your
interpreter. Miss Coldbrooke was honored by Mr. Seneca Newcome with this
letter, within the last twenty-four hours; and, it being a family
matter, I think it ought to be referred to a family council."
"Nay, Anne," said the blushing Henrietta, "this is hardly fair--nor am I
sure that it would be quite lady-like in me to suffer that letter to be
generally known--_particularly_ known to you it certainly is already."
"Perhaps your reluctance to have it read does not extend to me,
Henrietta?" said my uncle.
"Certainly not, sir; nor to my dear Mrs. Littlepage, nor to
Martha--though I confess that I cannot see what interest Mr. Hugh can
have in the subject. Here it is; take it and read it when you please."
My uncle was pleased to read it on the spot. As he proceeded a frown
collected on his brow, and he bit his lip like one provoked as well as
vexed. Then he laughed, and threw the letter on the table, where no one
presumed to molest it. As Henrietta Coldbrooke was blushing all this
time, though she laughed and seemed provoked, our curiosity was so great
and manifest that my grandmother felt an inclination to interfere.
"May not that letter be read aloud, for the benefit of all?" she asked.
"There can be no particular reason for concealing it," answered uncle
Ro, spitefully. "The more it is known, the more the fellow will be
laughed at, as he deserves to be."
"Will that be right, uncle Ro?" exclaimed Miss Coldbrooke, hastily.
"Will it be treating a gentleman as he----"
"Pshaw!--it will not be treating a gentleman at all. The fellow is, at
this moment, a prisoner for attempting to set an inhabited house on
fire, in the middle of the night."
Henrietta said no more; and my grandmother took the letter, and read it
for the common benefit. I shall not copy the effusion of Seneca, which
was more cunning than philosophical; but it contained a strong
profession of love, urged in a somewhat business manner, and a generous
offer of his hand to the heiress of eight thousand a year. And this
proposal was made only a day or two before the fellow was "taken in the
act," and at the very time he was the most deeply engaged in his schemes
of anti-rentism.
"There is a class of men among us," said my uncle, after everybody had
laughed at this magnificent offer, "who do not seem to entertain a
single idea of the proprieties. How is it possible, or where could the
chap have been bred, to fancy for an instant that a young woman of
fortune and station would marry _him_, and that, too, almost without an
acquaintance. I dare say Henrietta never spoke to him ten times in her
life."
"Not five, sir, and scarcely anything was said at either of those five."
"And you answered the letter, my dear?" asked my grandmother. "An
_answer_ ought not to have been forgotten, though it might have properly
come, in this case, from your guardian."
"I answered it myself, ma'm, not wishing to be laughed at for my part of
the affair. I declined the honor of Mr. Seneca Newcome's hand."
"Well, if the truth _must_ be said," put in Patt, dryly, "_I_ did the
same thing, only three weeks since."
"And I so lately as last week," added Anne Marston, demurely.
I do not know that I ever saw my uncle Ro so strangely affected. While
everybody around him was laughing heartily, he looked grave, not to say
fierce. Then he turned suddenly to me, and said:
"We must let him be hanged, Hugh. Were he to live a thousand years he
would never learn the fitness of things."
"You'll think better of this, sir, and become more merciful. The man has
only nobly dared. But I confess a strong desire to ascertain if Miss
Warren alone has escaped his assaults."
Mary--pretty Mary--she blushed scarlet, but shook her head, and refused
to give any answer. We all saw that her feelings were not enlisted in
the affair in any way; but there was evidently something of a more
serious nature connected with Seneca's addresses to her than in
connection with his addresses to either of the others. As I have since
ascertained, he really had a sort of affection for Mary; and I have been
ready to pardon him the unprincipled and impudent manner in which he
cast his flies toward the other fish, in consideration of his taste in
this particular. But Mary herself would tell us nothing.
"You are not to think so much of this, Mr. Littlepage," she cried, so
soon as a little recovered from her confusion, "since it is only acting
on the great anti-rent principle, after all. In the one case, it is only
a wish to get good farms cheap--and in the other, good wives."
"In the one case, other men's farms--and in the other, other men's
wives."
"Other men's wives, certainly, if wives at all," said Patt, pointedly.
"There is no Mr. _Seneky_ Newcome there."
"We must let the law have its way, and the fellow be hanged!" rejoined
my uncle. "I could overlook the attempt to burn the Nest House, but I
cannot overlook this. Fellows of this class get everything _dessus
dessous_, and I do not wonder there is anti-rentism in the land. Such a
matrimonial experiment could never have been attempted, as between such
parties, in any region but one tainted with anti-rentism, or deluded by
the devil."
"An Irishman would have included my grandmother in his cast of the net;
that's the only difference, sir."
"Sure enough, why have you escaped, my dearest mother? You, who have a
fair widow's portion, too."
"Because the suitor was not an Irishman, as Hugh intimated--I know no
other reason, Hodge. But a person so devoted to the ladies must not
suffer in the cruel way you speak of. The wretch must be permitted to
get off."
All the girls now joined with my grandmother in prefering this, to them,
very natural petition; and, for a few minutes, we heard of nothing but
regrets and solicitations that Seneca might not be given up to the law.
"Tender mercies of the law" might not be an unapt way to express the
idea, as it is now almost certain that the bigger the rogue, the greater
is the chance of escape.
"All this is very well, ladies; mighty humane and feminine and quite in
character," answered my uncle; "but, in the first place, there is such a
thing as compounding felony, and its consequences are not altogether
agreeable; then, one is bound to consider the effect on society in
general. Here is a fellow who first endeavors to raise a flame in the
hearts of no less than four young ladies: failing of which, he takes
refuge in lighting a fire in Hugh's kitchen. Do you know, I am almost as
much disposed to punish him for the first of these offences as for the
last?"
"There's a grand movement as is making among all the redskins, ma'am,"
said John, standing in the door of the breakfast parlor, "and I didn't
know but the ladies, and Mr. Littlepage, and Mr. Hugh, would like to see
it. Old Sus is on his way here, followed by Yop, who comes grumbling
along after him, as if he didn't like the amusement any way at all."
"Have any arrangements been made for the proper reception of our guests
this morning, Roger?"
"Yes, ma'am. At least, I gave orders to have benches brought and placed
under the trees, and plenty of tobacco provided. Smoking is a great part
of a council, I believe, and we shall be ready to commence at that as
soon as they meet."
"Yes, sir, all is ready for 'em," resumed John. "Miller has sent an
'orse cart to bring the benches, and we've provided as much 'baccy as
they can use. The servants 'opes, ma'am, they can have permission to
witness the ceremony. It isn't often that civilized people _can_ get a
sight at real savages."
My grandmother gave an assent, and there was a general movement,
preparatory to going on the lawn to witness the parting interview
between the Trackless and his visitors.
"You have been very considerate, Miss Warren," I whispered Mary, as I
helped her to put on her shawl, "in not betraying what I fancy is the
most important of all Seneca's love secrets."
"I confess these letters have surprised me," the dear girl said
thoughtfully, and with a look that seemed perplexed. "No one would be
apt to think very favorably of Mr. Newcome; yet it was by no means
necessary to complete his character, that one should think as ill as
this."
I said no more--but these few words, which appeared to escape Mary
unconsciously and involuntarily, satisfied me that Seneca had been
seriously endeavoring to obtain an interest in _her_ heart
notwithstanding her poverty.