Great afflictions generally bring in their train a host of smaller
sorrows, each with its own little pang. One of these sorrows had been
the parting with the Merrill family. Under any circumstance it was not
easy for Cynthia to express her feelings, and now she had found it very
difficult to speak of the gratitude and affection which she felt. But
they understood--dear, good people that they were: no eloquence was
needed with them. The ordeal of breakfast over, and the tearful “God
bless you, Miss Cynthia,” of Ellen the parlor-maid, the whole family had
gone with her to the station. For Susan and Jane had spent their last
day at Miss Sadler's school.
Mr. Merrill had sent for the conductor and bidden him take care of Miss
Wetherell, and recommend her in his name to a conductor on the Truro
Road. The man took off his cap to Mr. Merrill and called him by name
and promised. It was a dark day, and long after the train had pulled out
Cynthia remembered the tearful faces of the family standing on the
damp platform of the station. As they fled northward through the flat
river-meadows, the conductor would have liked to talk to her of Mr.
Merrill; there were few employees on any railroad who did not know the
genial and kindly president of the Grand Gulf and sympathize with
his troubles. But there was a look on the girl's face that forbade
intrusion. Passengers stared at her covertly, as though fascinated by
that look, and some tried to fathom it. But her eyes were firmly fixed
upon a point far beyond their vision. The car stopped many times, and
flew on again, but nothing seemed to break her absorption.
At last she was aroused by the touch of the conductor on her sleeve. The
people were beginning to file out of the car, and the train was under
the shadow of the snow-covered sheds in the station of the state
capital. Cynthia recognized the place, though it was cold and bare
and very different in appearance from what it had been on the summer's
evening when she had come into it with her father. That, in effect, had
been her first glimpse of the world, and well she recalled the thrill
it had given her. The joy of such things was gone now, the rapture of
holidays and new sights. These were over, so she told herself. Sorrow
had quenched the thrills forever.
The kind conductor led her to the eating room, and when she would not
eat his concern drew greater than ever. He took a strange interest in
this young lady who had such a face and such eyes. He pointed her out to
his friend the Truro conductor, and gave him some sandwiches and fruit
which he himself had bought, with instructions to press them on her
during the afternoon.
Cynthia could not eat. She hated this place, with its memories. Hated
it, too, as a mart where men were bought and sold, for the wording
of those articles ran in her head as though some priest of evil were
chanting them in her ears. She did not remember then the sweeter aspect
of the old town, its pretty homes set among their shaded gardens--homes
full of good and kindly people. State House affairs were far removed
from most of these, and the sickness and corruption of the body politic.
And this political corruption, had she known it, was no worse than that
of the other states in the wide Union: not so bad, indeed, as many,
though this was small comfort. No comfort at all to Cynthia, who did not
think of it.
After a while she rose and followed the new conductor to the Truro
train, glad to leave the capital behind her. She was going to the
hills--to the mountains. They, in truth, could not change, though the
seasons passed over them, hot and cold, wet and dry. They were immutable
in their goodness. Presently she saw them, the lower ones: the waters of
the little stream beside her broke the black bonds of ice and raced over
the rapids; the engine was puffing and groaning on the grade. Then the
sun crept out, slowly, from the indefinable margin of vapor that hung
massed over the low country.
Yes, she had come to the hills. Up and up climbed the train, through
the little white villages in the valley nooks, banked with whiter snow;
through the narrow gorges,--sometimes hanging over them,--under steep
granite walls seared with ice-filled cracks, their brows hung with
icicles.
Truro Pass is not so high as the Brenner, but it has a grand, wild look
in winter, remote as it is from the haunts of men. A fitting refuge,
it might be, for a great spirit heavy with the sins of the world
below. Such a place might have been chosen, in the olden time, for a
monastery--a gray fastness built against the black forest over the crag
looking down upon the green clumps of spruces against the snow. Some
vague longing for such a refuge was in Cynthia's heart as she gazed
upon that silent place, and then the waters had already begun to run
westward--the waters of Tumble Down brook, which flowed into Coniston
Water above Brampton. The sun still had more than two hours to go on its
journey to the hill crests when the train pulled into Brampton station.
There were but a few people on the platform, but the first face she saw
as she stepped from the car was Lem Hallowell's. It was a very red face,
as we know, and its owner was standing in front of the Coniston stage,
on runners now. He stared at her for an instant, and no wonder, and then
he ran forward with outstretched hands.
“Cynthy--Cynthy Wetherell!” he cried. “Great Godfrey!”
He got so far, he seized her hands, and then he stopped, not knowing
why. There were many more ejaculations and welcomes and what not on the
end of his tongue. It was not that she had become a lady--a lady of a
type he had never before seen. He meant to say that, too, in his own
way, but he couldn't. And that transformation would have bothered Lem
but little. What was the change, then? Why was he in awe of her--he, Lem
Hallowell, who had never been in awe of any one? He shook his head,
as though openly confessing his inability to answer that question. He
wanted to ask others, but they would not come.
“Lem,” she said, “I am so glad you are here.”
“Climb right in, Cynthy. I'll get the trunk.” There it lay, the little
rawhide one before him on the boards, and he picked it up in his bare
hands as though it had been a paper parcel. It was a peculiarity of the
stage driver that he never wore gloves, even in winter, so remarkable
was the circulation of his blood. After the trunk he deposited,
apparently with equal ease, various barrels and boxes, and then he
jumped in beside Cynthia, and they drove down familiar Brampton Street,
as wide as a wide river; past the meeting-house with the terraced
steeple; past the postoffice,--Cousin Ephraim's postoffice,--where Lem
gave her a questioning look--but she shook her head, and he did not wait
for the distribution of the last mail that day; past the great mansion
of Isaac D. Worthington, where the iron mastiffs on the lawn were up to
their muzzles in snow. After that they took the turn to the right, which
was the road to Coniston.
Well-remembered road, and in winter or summer, Cynthia knew every tree
and farmhouse beside it. Now it consisted of two deep grooves in the
deep snow; that was all, save for a curving turnout here and there for
team to pass team. Well-remembered scene! How often had Cynthia looked
upon it in happier days! Such a crust was on the snow as would bear a
heavy man; and the pasture hillocks were like glazed cakes in the window
of a baker's shop. Never had the western sky looked so yellow through
the black columns of the pine trunks. A lonely, beautiful road it was
that evening.
For a long time the silence of the great hills was broken only by the
sweet jingle of the bells on the shaft. Many a day, winter and summer,
Lem had gone that road alone, whistling, and never before heeding that
silence. Now it seemed to symbolize a great sorrow: to be in subtle
harmony with that of the girl at his side. What that sorrow was he could
not guess. The good man yearned to comfort her, and yet he felt his
comfort too humble to be noticed by such sorrow. He longed to speak,
but for the first time in his life feared the sound of his own voice.
Cynthia had not spoken since she left the station, had not looked at
him, had not asked for the friends and neighbors whom she had loved so
well--had not asked for Jethro! Was there any sorrow on earth to be felt
like that? And was there one to feel it?
At length, when they reached the great forest, Lem Hallowell knew
that he must speak or cry aloud. But what would be the sound of his
voice--after such an age of disuse? Could he speak at all? Broken and
hoarse and hideous though the sound might be, he must speak. And hoarse
and broken it was. It was not his own, but still it was a voice.
“Folks--folks'll be surprised to see you, Cynthy.”
No, he had not spoken at all. Yes, he had, for she answered him.
“I suppose they will, Lem.”
“Mighty glad to have you back, Cynthy. We think a sight of you. We
missed you.”
“Thank you, Lem.”
“Jethro hain't lookin' for you by any chance, be he?
“No,” she said. But the question startled her. Suppose he had not been
at home! She had never once thought of that. Could she have borne to
wait for him?
After that Lem gave it up. He had satisfied himself as to his vocal
powers, but he had not the courage even to whistle. The journey to
Coniston was faster in the winter, and at the next turn of the road the
little village came into view. There it was, among the snows. The pain
in Cynthia's heart, so long benumbed, quickened when she saw it. How
write of the sharpness of that pain to those who have never known
it? The sight of every gable brought its agony,--the store with the
checker-paned windows, the harness shop, the meeting-house, the white
parsonage on its little hill. Rias Richardson ran out of the store in
his carpet slippers, bareheaded in the cold, and gave one shout. Lem
heeded him not; did not stop there as usual, but drove straight to the
tannery house and pulled up under the butternut tree. Milly Skinner ran
out on the porch, and gave one long look, and cried:--
“Good Lord, it's Cynthy!”
“Where's Jethro?” demanded Lem.
Milly did not answer at once. She was staring at Cynthia.
“He's in the tannery shed,” she said, “choppin' wood.” But still she
kept her eyes on Cynthia's face. “I'll fetch him.”
“No,” said Cynthia, “I'll go to him there.”
She took the path, leaving Millicent with her mouth open, too amazed to
speak again, and yet not knowing why.
In the tannery shed! Would Jethro remember what happened there almost
six and thirty years before? Would he remember how that other Cynthia
had come to him there, and what her appeal had been?
Cynthia came to the doors. One of these was open now--both had been
closed that other evening against the storm of sleet--and she caught
a glimpse of him standing on the floor of chips and bark--tan-bark no
more. Cynthia caught a glimpse of him, and love suddenly welled up into
her heart as waters into a spring after a drought. He had not seen her,
not heard the sound of the sleigh-bells. He was standing with his foot
upon the sawbuck and the saw across his knee, he was staring at the
woodpile, and there was stamped upon his face a look which no man or
woman had ever seen there, a look of utter loneliness and desolation, a
look as of a soul condemned to wander forever through the infinite, cold
spaces between the worlds--alone.
Cynthia stopped at sight of it. What had been her misery and affliction
compared to this? Her limbs refused her, though she knew not whether she
would have fled or rushed into his arms. How long she stood thus, and he
stood, may not be said, but at length he put down his foot and took the
saw from his knee, his eyes fell upon her, and his lips spoke her name.
“Cynthy!”
Speechless, she ran to him and flung her arms about his neck, and he
dropped the saw and held her tightly--even as he had held that other
Cynthia in that place in the year gone by. And yet not so. Now he clung
to her with a desperation that was terrible, as though to let go of
her would be to fall into nameless voids beyond human companionship and
love. But at last he did release her, and stood looking down into her
face, as if seeking to read a sentence there.
And how was she to pronounce that sentence! Though her faith might
be taken away, her love remained, and grew all the greater because he
needed it. Yet she knew that no subterfuge or pretence would avail her
to hide why she had come. She could not hide it. It must be spoken out
now, though death was preferable.
And he was waiting. Did he guess? She could not tell. He had spoken no
word but her name. He had expressed no surprise at her appearance, asked
no reasons for it. Superlatives of suffering or joy or courage are hard
to convey--words fall so far short of the feeling. And Cynthia's pain
was so far beyond tears.
“Uncle Jethro,” she said, “yesterday something--something happened. I
could not stay in Boston any longer.”
He nodded.
“I had to come to you. I could not wait.”
He nodded again.
“I--I read something.” To take a white-hot iron and sear herself would
have been easier than this.
“Yes,” he said.
She felt that the look was coming again--the look which she had
surprised in his face. His hands dropped lifelessly from her shoulders,
and he turned and went to the door, where he stood with his back to
her, silhouetted against the eastern sky all pink from the reflection
of sunset. He would not help her. Perhaps he could not. The things were
true. There had been a grain of hope within her, ready to sprout.
“I read two articles from the Newcastle Guardian about you--about your
life.”
“Yes,” he said. But he did not turn.
“How you had--how you had earned your living. How you had gained your
power,” she went on, her pain lending to her voice an exquisite note of
many modulations.
“Yes--Cynthy,” he said, and still stared at the eastern sky.
She took two steps toward him, her arms outstretched, her fingers
opening and closing. And then she stopped.
“I would believe no one,” she said, “I will believe no
one--until--unless you tell me. Uncle Jethro,” she cried in agony,
“Uncle Jethro, tell me that those things are not true!”
She waited a space, but he did not stir. There was no sound, save the
song of Coniston Water under the shattered ice.
“Won't you speak to me?” she whispered. “Won't you tell me that they are
not true?”
His shoulders shook convulsively. O for the right to turn to her and
tell her that they were lies! He would have bartered his soul for it.
What was all the power in the world compared to this priceless treasure
he had lost? Once before he had cast it away, though without meaning to.
Then he did not know the eternal value of love--of such love as those
two women had given him. Now he knew that it was beyond value, the one
precious gift of life, and the knowledge had come too late. Could he
have saved his life if he had listened to that other Cynthia?
“Won't you tell me that they are not true?”
Even then he did not turn to her, but he answered. Curious to relate,
though his heart was breaking, his voice was steady--steady as it always
had been.
“I--I've seen it comin', Cynthy,” he said. “I never knowed anything
I was afraid of before--but I was afraid of this. I knowed what your
notions of right and wrong was--your--your mother had them. They're the
principles of good people. I--I knowed the day would come when you'd
ask, but I wanted to be happy as long as I could. I hain't been happy,
Cynthy. But you was right when you said I'd tell you the truth. S-so I
will. I guess them things which you speak about are true--the way I got
where I am, and the way I made my livin'. They--they hain't put just as
they'd ought to be, perhaps, but that's the way I done it in the main.”
It was thus that Jethro Bass met the supreme crisis of his life. And
who shall say he did not meet it squarely and honestly? Few men of finer
fibre and more delicate morals would have acquitted themselves as well.
That was a Judgment Day for Jethro; and though he knew it not, he spoke
through Cynthia to his Maker, confessing his faults freely and humbly,
and dwelling on the justness of his punishment; putting not forward any
good he may have done; nor thinking of it; nor seeking excuse because
of the light that was in him. Had he been at death's door in the face of
nameless tortures, no man could have dragged such a confession from him.
But a great love had been given him, and to that love he must speak the
truth, even at the cost of losing it.
But he was not to lose it. Even as he was speaking a thrill of
admiration ran through Cynthia, piercing her sorrow. The superb strength
of the man was there in that simple confession, and it is in the nature
of woman to admire strength. He had fought his fight, and gained, and
paid the price without a murmur, seeking no palliation. Cynthia had not
come to that trial--so bitter for her--as a judge. If the reader has
seen youth and innocence sitting in the seat of justice, with age and
experience at the bar, he has mistaken Cynthia. She came to Coniston
inexorable, it is true, because hers was a nature impelled to do right
though it perish. She did not presume to say what Jethro's lights and
opportunities might have been. Her own she knew, and by them she must
act accordingly.
When he had finished speaking, she stole silently to his side and
slipped her hand in his. He trembled violently at her touch.
“Uncle Jethro,” she said in a low tone, “I love you.”
At the words he trembled more violently still.
“No, no, Cynthy,” he answered thickly, “don't say that--I--I don't
expect it, Cynthy, I know you can't--'twouldn't be right, Cynthy. I
hain't fit for it.”
“Uncle Jethro,” she said, “I love you better than I have ever loved you
in my life.”
Oh, how welcome were the tears! and how human! He turned, pitifully
incredulous, wondering that she should seek by deceit to soften the
blow; he saw them running down her cheeks, and he believed. Yes, he
believed, though it seemed a thing beyond belief. Unworthy, unfit though
he were, she loved him. And his own love as he gazed at her, sevenfold
increased as it had been by the knowledge of losing her, changed in
texture from homage to worship--nay, to adoration. His punishment would
still be heavy; but whence had come such a wondrous gift to mitigate it?
“Oh, don't you believe me?” she cried, “can't you see that it is true?”
And yet he could only hold her there at arm's length with that new and
strange reverence in his face. He was not worthy to touch her, but still
she loved him.
The flush had faded from the eastern sky, and the faintest border of
yellow light betrayed the ragged outlines of the mountain as they walked
together to the tannery house.
Millicent, in the kitchen, was making great preparations--for Millicent.
Miss Skinner was a person who had hitherto laid it down as a principle
of life to pay deference or do honor to no human made of mere dust, like
herself. Millicent's exception; if Cynthia had thought about it, was a
tribute of no mean order. Cynthia, alas, did not think about it: she
did not know that, in her absence, the fire had not been lighted in the
evening, Jethro supping on crackers and milk and Milly partaking of the
evening meal at home. Moreover, Miss Skinner had an engagement with a
young man. Cynthia saw the fire, and threw off her sealskin coat which
Mr. and Mrs. Merrill had given her for Christmas, and took down the
saucepan from the familiar nail on which it hung. It was a miraculous
fact, for which she did not attempt to account, that she was almost
happy: happy, indeed, in comparison to that which had been her state
since the afternoon before. Millicent snatched the saucepan angrily from
her hand.
“What be you doin', Cynthy?” she demanded.
Such was Miss Skinner's little way of showing deference. Though
deference is not usually vehement, Miss Skinner's was very real,
nevertheless.
“Why, Milly, what's the matter?” exclaimed Cynthia, in astonishment.
“You hain't a-goin' to do any cookin', that's all,” said Milly, very red
in the face.
“But I've always helped,” said Cynthia. “Why not?”
Why not? A tribute was one thing, but to have to put the reasons for
that tribute, into words was quite another.
“Why not?” cried Milly, “because you hain't a-goin' to, that's all.”
Strange deference! But Cynthia turned and looked at the girl with a
little, sad smile of comprehension and affection. She took her by the
shoulders and kissed her.
Whereupon a most amazing thing happened--Millicent burst into
tears--wild, ungovernable tears they were.
“Because you hain't a-goin' to,” she repeated, her words interspersed
with violent sobs. “You go 'way, Cynthy,” she cried, “git out!”
“Milly,” said Cynthia, shaking her head, “you ought to be ashamed of
yourself.” But they were not words of reproof. She took a little lamp
from the shelf, and went up the narrow stairs to her own room in the
gable, where Lemuel had deposited the rawhide trunk.
Though she had had nothing all day, she felt no hunger, but for Milly's
sake she tried hard to eat the supper when it came. Before it had fairly
begun Moses Hatch had arrived, with Amandy and Eben; and Rias Richardson
came in, and other neighbors, to say a word of welcome to hear (if the
truth be not too disparaging to their characters) the reasons for her
sudden appearance, and such news of her Boston experiences as she might
choose to give them. They had learned from Lem Hallowell that Cynthia
had returned a lady: a real lady, not a sham one who relied on airs and
graces, such as had come to Coniston the summer before to look for a
summer place on the painter's recommendation. Lem was not a gossip, in
the disagreeable sense of the term, and he had not said a word to his
neighbors of his feelings on that terrible drive from Brampton. Knowing
that some blow had fallen upon Cynthia, he would have spared her these
visits if he could. But Lem was wise and kind, so he merely said that
she had returned a lady.
And they had found a lady. As they stood or sat around the kitchen (Eben
and Rias stood), Cynthia talked to them--about Coniston: rather, be it
said, that they talked about Coniston in answer to her questions. The
sledding had been good; Moses had hauled so many thousand feet of lumber
to Brampton; Sam Price's woman (she of Harwich) had had a spell of
sciatica; Chester Perkins's bull had tossed his brother-in-law, come
from Iowy on a visit, and broke his leg; yes, Amandy guessed her
dyspepsy was somewhat improved since she had tried Graham's Golden
Remedy--it made her feel real lighthearted; Eben (blushing furiously)
was to have the Brook Farm in the spring; there was a case of spotted
fever in Tarleton.
Yes, Lem Hallowell had been right, Cynthia was a lady, but not a mite
stuck up. What was the difference in her? Not her clothes, which she
wore as if she had been used to them all her life. Poor Cynthia, the
clothes were simple enough. Not her manner, which was as kind and sweet
as ever. What was it that compelled their talk about themselves, that
made them refrain from asking those questions about Boston, and why
she had come back? Some such query was running in their minds as they
talked, while Jethro, having finished his milk and crackers, sat
silent at the end of the table with his eyes upon her. He rose when Mr.
Satterlee came in.
Mr. Satterlee looked at her, and then he went quietly across the room
and kissed her. But then Mr. Satterlee was the minister. Cynthia thought
his hair a little thinner and the lines in his face a little deeper. And
Mr. Satterlee thought perhaps he was the only one of the visitors who
guessed why she had come back. He laid his thin hand on her head, as
though in benediction, and sat down beside her.
“And how is the learning, Cynthia?” he asked.
Now, indeed, they were going to hear something at last. An intuition
impelled Cynthia to take advantage of that opportunity.
“The learning has become so great, Mr. Satterlee,” she said, “that I
have come back to try to make some use of it. It shall be wasted no
more.”
She did not dare to look at Jethro, but she was aware that he had sat
down abruptly. What sacrifice will not a good woman make to ease the
burden of those whom she loves! And Jethro's burden would be heavy
enough. Such a woman will speak almost gayly, though her heart be heavy.
But Cynthia's was lighter now than it had been.
“I was always sure you would not waste your learning, Cynthia,” said Mr.
Satterlee, gravely; “that you would make the most of the advantages God
has given you.”
“I am going to try, Mr. Satterlee. I cannot be content in idleness. I
was wasting time in Boston, and I--I was not happy so far away from you
all--from Uncle Jethro. Mr. Satterlee, I am going to teach school. I
have always wanted to, and now I have made up my mind to do it.”
This was Jethro's punishment. But had she not lightened it for him a
little by choosing this way of telling him that she could not eat his
bread or partake of his bounty? Though by reason of that bounty she was
what she was, she could not live and thrive on it longer, coming as it
did from such a source. Mr. Satterlee might perhaps surmise the truth,
but the town and village would think her ambition a very natural one,
certainly no better time could have been chosen to announce it.
“To teach school.” She was sure now that Mr. Satterlee knew and
approved, and perceived something, at least, of her little ruse. He
was a man whose talents fitted him for a larger flock than he had at
Coniston, but he possessed neither the graces demanded of city ministers
nor the power of pushing himself. Never was a more retiring man. The
years she had spent in his study had not gone for nothing, for he who
has cherished the bud can predict what the flower will be, and Mr.
Satterlee knew her spiritually better than any one else in Coniston. He
had heard of her return, and had walked over to the tannery house, full
of fears, the remembrance of those expressions of simple faith in
Jethro coming back to his mind. Had the revelation which he had so long
expected come at last? and how had she taken it? would it embitter her?
The good man believed that it would not, and now he saw that it had not,
and rejoiced accordingly.
“To teach school,” he said. “I expected that you would wish to, Cynthia.
It is a desire that most of us have, who like books and what is in them.
I should have taught school if I had not become a minister. It is a high
calling, and an absorbing one, to develop the minds of the young.” Mr.
Satterlee was often a little discursive, though there was reason for
it on this occasion, and Moses Hatch half closed his eyes and bowed his
head a little out of sheer habit at the sound of the minister's
voice. But he raised it suddenly at the next words. “I was in Brampton
yesterday, and saw Mr. Graves, who is on the prudential committee of
that district. You may not have heard that Miss Goddard has left. They
have not yet succeeded in filling her place, and I think it more than
likely that you can get it.”
Cynthia glanced at Jethro, but the habit of years was so strong in him
that he gave no sign.
“Do you think so, Mr. Satterlee?” she said gratefully. “I had heard of
the place, and hoped for it, because it is near enough for me to spend
the Saturdays and Sundays with Uncle Jethro. And I meant to go to
Brampton tomorrow to see about it.”
“I will go with you,” said the minister; “I have business in Brampton
to-morrow.” He did not mention that this was the business.
When at length they had all departed, Jethro rose and went about the
house making fast the doors, as was his custom, while Cynthia sat
staring through the bars at the dying embers in the stove. He knew now,
and it was inevitable that he should know, what she had made up her mind
to do. It had been decreed that she, who owed him everything, should be
made to pass this most dreadful of censures upon his whole life. Oh, the
cruelty of that decree!
How, she mused, would it affect him? Had the blow been so great that he
would relinquish those practices which had become a lifelong habit with
him? Would he (she caught her breath at this thought) would he abandon
that struggle with Isaac D. Worthington in which he was striving to
maintain the mastery of the state by those very practices? Cynthia
hated Mr. Worthington. The term is not too strong, and it expresses her
feeling. But she would have got down on her knees on the board floor
of the kitchen that very night and implored Jethro to desist from that
contest, if she could. She remembered how, in her innocence, she had
believed that the people had given Jethro his power,--in those days when
she was so proud of that very power,--now she knew that he had wrested
it from them. What more supreme sacrifice could he make than to
relinquish it! Ah, there was a still greater sacrifice that Jethro was
to make, had she known it.
He came and stood over her by the stove, and she looked up into his face
with these yearnings in her eyes. Yes, she would have thrown herself
on her knees, if she could. But she could not. Perhaps he would abandon
that struggle. Perhaps--perhaps his heart was broken. And could a man
with a broken heart still fight on? She took his hand and pressed it
against her face, and he felt that it was wet with her tears.
“B-better go to bed now, Cynthy,” he said; “m-must be worn out--m-must
be worn out.”
He stooped and kissed her on the forehead. It was thus that Jethro Bass
accepted his sentence.