AN OLD SONG
Not only had the sunshine of a new friendship illumined the edge of
Oliver's clouds, but before the week was out a big breeze laden with
success had swept them so far out to sea, that none but the clearest of
skies radiant with hope now arched above his happy face.
A paste-board sign had wrought this miracle.
One day he had been tramping the lower parts of the city, down among
the docks, near Coenties Slip, looking up the people who on former
visits had said: "Some other time, perhaps," or "If we should have room
for another man we will be glad to remember you," or "We know Mr. Cobb,
and shall be pleased," etc., etc., when he chanced to espy a strange
sign tacked outside a warehouse door, a sign which bore the
unheard-of-announcement--unheard of to Oliver, especially the last
word, "Shipping Clerk WANTED."
No one, for weeks, had WANTED anything that Oliver could furnish.
Strangely enough too, as he afterward discovered, the bullet-headed
Dutch porter had driven the last tack into the clean, white, welcome
face of the sign only five minutes before Oliver stopped in front of
it. Still more out of the common, and still more incomprehensible, was
the reply made to him by the head salesman, whom he found just inside
the door--a wiry, restless little man with two keen black eyes, and a
perfectly bald head.
"Yes, if you can mark boxes decently; can show any references; don't
want too much pay, and can come NOW. We're short of a boy, and it's our
busy season."
Oh! blessed be Mr. Crocker, thought Oliver, as he picked up a
marking-brush, stirred it round and round in the tin pot filled with
lamp-black and turpentine, and to his own and the clerk's delight,
painted, on a clean board, rapidly and clearly, and in new letters
too--new to the clerk--the full address of the bald-headed man's
employers:
MORTON, SLADE & CO.,
121 PEARL STREET, NEW YORK.
More amazing still were the announcements made by the same bald-headed
man after Oliver had shown him Amos Cobb's recommendations: Oliver was
to come to work in the morning, the situation to be permanent provided
Cobb confirmed by letter the good wishes he had previously expressed,
and provided Mr. Morton, the senior partner, approved of the
bald-head's action; of which the animated billiard-ball said there was
not the slightest doubt as he, the ball, had charge of the shipping
department, and was responsible for its efficiency.
All of these astounding, incomprehensible and amazing occurrences
Oliver had written to his mother, ending his letter by declaring in his
enthusiasm that it was his art, after all, which had pulled him
through, and that but for his readiness with the brush, he would still
be a tramp, instead of "rolling in luxury on the huge sum of eight
dollars a week, with every probability of becoming a partner in the
house, and later on a millionnaire." To which the dear lady had
replied, that she was delighted to know he had pleased his employers,
but that what had pleased her most was his never having lost heart
while trying to win his first fight, adding: "The second victory will
come more easily, my darling boy, and so will each one hereafter." Poor
lady, she never knew how sore that boy's feet had been, nor how many
times he had gone with half a meal or none at all, for fear of
depleting too much the small store she had given him when he left home.
With his success still upon him, he had sallied forth to call upon
young Fred Stone who had grasped his hand so warmly the night he had
rescued the dog from the street-boys, and whose sympathy had gone out
to him so freely. He had written him of his good fortune, and Fred had
replied, begging him to call upon him, and had appointed this same
Friday night as the night of all others when he could entertain him
best.
But Oliver is not the same boy who said good-by to Fred that moonlight
night the week before. His eyes are brighter; his face is a-glow with
ill-concealed pleasure. Even his step shows the old-time spring and
lightness of the days at home--on his toes part of the time, as if
restraining an almost uncontrollable impulse to stop and throw one or
two hand-springs just to relieve the pressure on his nerves.
When he reached the bench in the Square where he had sat so many nights
with his head in his hands, one of those quick outbursts of enthusiasm
took possession of him, the kind that sets young hearts singing with
joy when some sudden shift of hope's kaleidoscope opens a wide horizon
brilliant with the light of future success. With an exclamation of
boyish glee he plumped himself down upon the hard planks of the bench,
and jumped up again, pirouetting on his toe and slanting his hat over
one eye as if in a spirit of sheer bravado against fate. Then he
sauntered out of the iron gate to Fred's house.
Even as he waited on the stone steps of Miss Teeturn's boarding-house
for the dowdy servant-girl's return--such dirty, unkempt steps as they
were, and such a dingy door-plate, spotted with rain and dust, not like
Malachi's, he thought--he could hardly restrain himself from beating
Juba with his foot, a plantation trick Malachi had taught him, keeping
time the while with the palms of his hands on his shapely legs.
Meanwhile another young enthusiast is coming downstairs three steps at
a time, this one bare-headed, all out of breath, and without a coat,
who pours out his heart to the first Juba-beating enthusiast as the two
climb the stairs together to the second enthusiast's room on the very
top floor. He tells him of his delight at seeing him again and of the
lot of fellows waiting to welcome him under the skylight; and of what a
jolly lot the "Skylarkers" really are; and of Mr. Slade, Oliver's
employer, whom Fred knows and who comes from Fred's own town; and of
how much Mr. Slade likes a certain new clerk, one Oliver Horn, of
Kennedy Square, he having said so the night before, this same Horn
being the precise individual whose arm at that very moment was locked
in Fred's own and which was now getting an extra squeeze merely for the
purposes of identification.
All of this Fred poured into Oliver's willing ear without stopping to
take breath, as they mounted the four long flights of stairs that led
to the top floor, where, under the roof, there lived a group of
Bohemians as unique in their personalities as could be found the great
city over.
When the two pairs of feet had at last reached the last flight of steps
under the flat roof of the house, the "Skylarkers" were singing "Old
Dog Tray" at the top of their voices, to the accompaniment of a piano,
and of some other instruments, the character of which our young hero
failed to recognize, although the strains had grown louder and louder
as the young men mounted the stairs.
As Oliver stood in the open doorway and looked in through the haze of
tobacco-smoke upon the group, he instantly became conscious that a new
world had opened before him; a world, as he had always pictured it,
full of mystery and charm, peopled by a race as fascinating to him as
any Mr. Crocker had ever described, and as new and strange as if its
members had been the denizens of another planet.
The interior was not a room, but a square low-ceiled hall into which
opened some six or more small bedrooms, slept in, whenever sleep was
possible, by an equal number of Miss Teetum's boarders. The
construction and appointments of this open garret, with two exceptions,
were similar to those of all other garrets of its class: it had walls
and ceiling, once whitewashed, and now discolored by roof-leaks from a
weather-beaten skylight; its floor was bare of carpet, and its
well-worn woodwork was stained with time and use. Chairs, however, were
scarce, most of the boarders and their guests being seated on the floor.
The two exceptions, already noted, were some crisp, telling sketches,
big and little, in color and black-and-white, the work of the artist
members of this coterie, which covered every square inch of the
leak-stained surface of ceiling and wall, and the yellow-keyed,
battered piano which occupied the centre of the open space and which
stood immediately under two flaring gas-jets. At the moment of Fred's
and Oliver's arrival the top of this instrument was ornamented by two
musically inclined gentlemen, one seated cross-legged like a Turk,
voicing the misfortunes of Dog Tray, the other, with his legs resting
on a chair, beating time to the melody with a cane. This cane, at short
intervals, he brought down upon the shoulders of any ambitious member
who attempted to usurp his place. The chief object of the gathering, so
far as Oliver's hasty glance could determine, was undoubtedly the
making of as much noise as possible.
While the young men stood looking into the room waiting for the song to
cease prior to Oliver's entry and introduction, Fred whispered
hurriedly into his guest's ear some of the names, occupations, and
characteristics of the group before him.
The cross-legged man with the long neck, drooping mustache, and ropy
black hair, was none other than Bowdoin, the artist--the only American
who had taken a medal at Munich for landscape, but who was now painting
portraits and starving slowly in consequence. He mounted to this eyry
every Friday night, so as to be reminded of the good old days at
Schwartz's. The short, big-mustached, bald-headed man swinging the
cane, was Bianchi--Julius Bianchi--known to the Skylarkers as "The
Pole," and to the world at large as an accomplished lithographer and
maker of mezzotints. Bianchi was a piece of the early artistic
driftwood cast upon our shores--an artist every inch of him--drawing
from life, and handling the crayon like a master.
The pale-faced young fellow at the piano, with bulging watch-crystal
eye-glasses and hair tucked behind his ears, was the well-known,
all-round musician, Wenby Simmons--otherwise known as "Pussy Me-ow"--a
name associated in some way with the strings of his violin. This
virtuoso played in the orchestra at the Winter Garden, and occupied the
bedroom next to Fred's.
The clean-shaven, well-groomed young Englishman standing behind Simmons
and holding a coal-scuttle half full of coal which he shook with
deafening jangle to help swell the chorus, was "My Lord Cockburn" so
called--an exchange clerk in a banking-house. He occupied the room
opposite Fred's.
With the ending of the chorus Fred Stone stepped into the open space
with his arm through that of his guest, and the noise was hushed long
enough for the entire party to welcome the young Southerner--a welcome
which kindled into a glow of enthusiasm when they caught the look of
frank undisguised pleasure which lighted his face, and noticed the
unaffected bow with which he entered the room, shaking hands with each
one as Fred introduced him--and all with that warm, hearty, simple,
courteous manner peculiar to his people.
The slight ceremony over--almost every Friday night some new guest was
welcomed--Fred seated himself on the floor with his back to the
whitewashed wall, although two chairs were at once offered them, and
made room for Oliver, who settled down beside him.
As they sat leaning back, Oliver's eyes wandering over the room
drinking in the strange, fascinating scene before him, as bewildering
as it was unexpected, Fred--now that they were closer to the scene of
action, again whispered or shouted, as the suddenly revived noise
permitted, into Oliver's alert and delighted ears, such additional
facts concerning the other members present as he thought would interest
his guest.
The fat man behind the piano astride of a chair, a pipe in his mouth
and a black velvet skull-cap on his head, was Tom Waller, the
sheep-painter-Thomas Brandon Waller, he signed it--known as the Walrus.
He, too, was a boarder and a delightful fellow, although an habitual
grumbler. His highest ambition was to affix an N. A. at the end of his
name, but he had failed of election by thirty votes out of forty cast.
That exasperating event he had duly celebrated at Pfaff's in various
continued libations covering a week, and had accordingly, on many
proper and improper occasions, renewed and recelebrated the event,
breathing out meanwhile, between his pewter mugs, scathing anathemas
against the "idiots" who had defeated him out of his just rights, and
who were stupid enough to believe in the school of Verboeckhoeven.
Slick and shiny Verboeckhoeven, "the mechanic," he would call him, with
his fists closed tight, who painted the hair on every one of his sheep
as if it were curled by a pair of barber's tongs--not dirty and woolly
and full of suggestions as, of course, he--the great Waller, alone of
all living animal-painters--depicted it. All of which, to Waller's
credit, it must be parenthetically stated, these same "idiots" learned
to recognize in after years as true, when that distinguished
animal-painter took a medal at the Salon for the same picture which the
Jury of N. A.'s had rejected at their Spring Exhibition.
The irreproachable, immaculate young person, with eyes half-closed,
lying back in the arm-chair--one which he had brought from his own
room--was "Ruffle-shirt" Tomlins. He was the only member who dressed
every day for dinner, whether he was going out afterward or
not--spike-tailed coat, white tie and all. Tomlins not only knew
intimately a lady of high degree who owned a box at the Academy of
Music, in Fourteenth Street, and who invited him to sit in it at least
once a season, but he had besides a large visiting acquaintance among
the people of quality living on Irving Place. A very agreeable and
kindly little man was "Ruffle-shirt" Tomlins--so Fred said--the sort of
a little man whose philosophy of life was based on the possibility of
catching more innocent, unwary flies with honey than he could with
vinegar, and who, in consequence, always said nice things about
everybody--sometimes in a loud tone enough for everybody to hear. This
last statement of Fred's Tomlins confirmed ten minutes later by
remarking, in a stage whisper to Waller:
"Did you see how that young Mr. Horn entered the room? Nobody like
these high-bred Southerners, my boy. Quite the air of a man of the
world--hasn't he?" To all of which the distinguished sheep-painter made
no other reply than a slight nod of the head, as he blew a cloud of
smoke toward the ceiling--Tomlins's immaculate appearance being a
constant offence to the untidy painter.
The member with the stentorian voice, who was roaring out his opinions
to Cockburn, Fred continued, was "Fog-horn" Cranch, the auctioneer. His
room was next to Waller's. His weaknesses were gay-colored waistcoats
and astounding cravats. He varied these portions of his dress according
to wind, weather, and sales of the day--selecting blue for sunshiny
mornings, black for rainy ones, green for pictures, red for household
furniture, white for real estate, etc. Into these color-schemes he
stuck a variety of scarf-pins--none very valuable or rare, but each one
distinct--a miniature ivory skull, for instance, with little garnets
for eyes, or tiny onyx dice with sixes on all sides.
The one man of all the others most beloved by Fred and every other
boarder, guest, and habitue that gathered around the piano in this
garret-room, and now conspicuous by his absence, he having gone to the
circus opposite the Academy of Music, and not likely to return until
late--a fact greatly regretted by Fred who made this announcement with
lowered voice to Oliver--was a young Irishman by the name of
McFudd--Cornelius McFudd, the life of the house, and whom Waller, in
accordance with the general custom, had christened "Continuous
McFuddie," by reason of the nature of the Hibernian's habits. His room
was across the open space opposite Fred's, with windows overlooking the
yard.
This condensation of good-nature, wit, and good-humor, Fred went on to
say, had been shipped to "The States" by his father, a rich
manufacturer of Irish whiskies in Dublin, that he might learn something
of the ways of the New World. And there was not the slightest doubt in
the minds of his comrades, so Fred assured Oliver, that he had not only
won his diploma, but that the sum of his knowledge along several other
lines far exceeded that of any one of his contemporaries. His
allowances came regularly every month, through the hands of Cockburn,
who had known him in London, and whose bank cashed McFudd's
remittances--a fact which enabled my lord to a greater extent than the
others to keep an eye on the Irishman's movements and expenditures.
Whatever deviltry was inaugurated on this top floor during the day as
well as the night, and it was pretty constant, could be traced without
much difficulty to this irrepressible young Irishman. If Tomlins found
his dress-suit put to bed, with a pillow for a body and his crush-hat
for a head; or Cranch found Waller's lay-figure (Waller often used his
bedroom as a studio) sitting bolt upright in his easy-chair, with its
back to him reading a newspaper--the servant having been told to
announce to Cranch, the moment she opened the door, that "a gentleman
was waiting for him in his room"; or Cockburn was sent off on some
wild-goose chase uptown--it was safe to say that Mac was at the bottom
of it all.
If, Fred added impressively, this rollicking, devil-may-care, perfectly
sound and hearty young Hibernian had ever been absolutely, entirely,
and completely sober since his sojourn in the land of the free, no one
of his fellow-boarders had ever discovered it.
Of this motley gathering "Ruffle-shirt" Tomlins, the swell; "Fog-horn"
Cranch, the auctioneer; "Walrus" Waller, the sheep-painter; "My Lord"
Cockburn, the Englishman; Fred Stone and Cornelius McFudd, not only
occupied the bedrooms, but had seats at Miss Teetum's table, four
flights below. Bianchi and the others were the guests of the evening.
All this, and more, Fred poured into Oliver's willing ear in loud or
soft tones, dependent upon the particular kind of bedlam that was loose
in the room at the moment, as they sat side by side on the floor,
Oliver's back supported by a pillow which Tomlins had brought from his
own bed and tucked behind his shoulders with his own hand.
This courtesy had been followed by another, quite as comforting and as
thoughtful. Cockburn, the moment Oliver's back touched the wall, had
handed him a tooth-brush mug without a handle, filled to the brim with
a decoction of Cockburn's own brewing, compounded hot according to
McFudd's receipt, and poured from an earthen pitcher kept within reach
of Cockburn's hand, and to which Oliver, in accordance with his
habitual custom, had merely touched his lips, he being the most
temperate of young gentlemen.
While they talked on, stopping now and then to listen to some outburst
of Cranch, whose voice drowned all others--or to snatches of song from
Wenby Simmons, the musician, or from Julius Bianchi, Waller's voice
managed to make itself felt above the din with an earnestness that
gained the attention and calmed all the others.
"You don't know what you're all talking about," he was heard to say. He
was still astride his chair, his pipe in his hand. "Inness's picture
was the best thing we had in the Exhibition, except Eastman Johnson's
'Negro Life at the South.' Kensett's 'Lake George' was--"
"What--that Inness smear?" retorted "My Lord" Cockburn, who still stood
with the coal-scuttle in his hand ready for another chorus.
"Positively, Waller, you Americans amuse me. Do you really think that
you've got anybody about you who can paint anything worth having--"
"Oh! oh! Hear the high-cockalorum! Oh! oh!"
The sheep-painter raised his hand to command silence.
"Do I think we've got anybody about here who can paint?--you fog-headed
noodle from Piccadilly? We've got a dozen young fellows in this very
town that put more real stuff into their canvases than all your men put
together. They don't tickle their things to death with detail. They get
air and vitality and out-of-doors into their work, and--"
"Names! Names!" shouted "My Lord" Cockburn, rattling the scuttle to
drown the answers to his questions.
"George Inness for one, and young McEntee and Sanford Gifford, and
Eastman Johnson, Page, Casilear--a lot of them," shouted "The Walrus."
"Go to the Exhibition and see for yourself, and you--"
The rest of the discussion was lost to Oliver's ears owing to the roar
of Cranch's fog-horn, accompanied by another vigorous shaking of the
scuttle, which the auctioneer caught away from "My Lord" Cockburn's
grasp, and the pounding of Simmons's fingers on the yellow keys of the
wheezy piano.
The tribute to Inness had not been missed by Oliver, despite the
deafening noise accompanying its utterance. He remembered another green
smear, that hung in Mr. Crocker's studio, to which that old enthusiast
always pointed as the work of a man who would yet be heard from if he
lived. He had never appreciated it himself at the time, but now he saw
that Mr. Crocker must be right.
Someone now started the chorus--
Down among the dead men, down.
Instantly every man was on his feet crowding about the piano, Oliver
catching the inspiration of the moment and joining in with the others.
The quality of his voice must have caught the ear of some of the
singers, for they gradually lowered their tones; leaving Oliver's voice
almost alone.
Fred's eye glowed with pleasure. His new-found friend was making a
favorable impression. He at once urged Oliver to sing one of his own
Southern songs as the darkies sung them at home, and not as they were
caricatured by the end men in the minstrel shows.
Oliver, at first abashed, and then anxious to contribute something of
his own in return for all the pleasure they had given him, hummed the
tune for Simmons, and in the hush that followed began one of the old
plantation songs that Malachi had taught him, beginning with
De old black dog he bay at de moon,
Away down yan ribber.
Miss Bull-frog say she git dar soon,
Away down yan ribber.
As the melody rang through the room, now full and strong, now plaintive
as the cooing of a dove or the moan of a whippoorwill, the men stood
stock-still, their wondering eyes fixed on the singer, and it was not
until the timely arrival of the Bull-frog and the escape of her lover
had been fully told that the listening crowd allowed themselves to do
much more than breathe. Then there came a shout that nearly raised the
roof. The peculiar sweetness of Oliver's voice, the quaintness of the
melody, the grotesqueness of his gestures--for it was pantomime as well
as music--and the quiet simplicity and earnestness with which it had
all been done, had captivated every man in the room. It was Oliver's
first triumph--the first in all his life.
And the second was not far off, for in the midst of all the uproar that
followed, as he resumed his place on the floor, Cockburn sprang to his
feet and proposed Mr. Oliver Horn as a full member of the Skylarkers'
Club. This was carried unanimously, and a committee of two, consisting
of "Ruffle-shirt" Tomlins and Waller, were forthwith appointed to
acquaint the said member, who stood three feet away, of his election,
and to escort him to Tomlins's chair--the largest and most
imposing-looking one in the room. This action was indorsed by the
shouts and cat-calls of all present, accompanied by earthquake shakings
of the coal-scuttle and the rattling of chairlegs and canes on the
floor.
Oliver rose to his feet and stood blushing like a girl, thanking those
about him in halting sentences for the honor conferred upon him. Then
he stammered something about his not deserving their praise, for he
could really sing very few songs--only those he had sung at home to
help out an occasional chorus, and that he would be delighted to join
in another song if any one of the gentlemen present would start the
tune.
These last suggestions being eminently distasteful to the group, were
immediately drowned in a series of protests, the noise only ceasing
when "Fog-horn" Cranch mounted a chair and in his best real estate
voice commanded silence.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," thundered the auctioneer, "I have the honor to
announce that the great barytone, Mr. Oliver Horn, known to the
universe as the 'Musical Cornucopia,' late of the sunny South, and now
a resident of this metropolis, will delight this company by singing one
of those soul-moving plantation melodies which have made his name
famous over two hemispheres. Mr. 'Pussy Me-ow' Simmons, the
distinguished fiddling pianist, late of the Bowery, very late, I may
remark, and now on the waiting list at Wallack's Theatre--every other
month, I am told--will accompany him."
"Hear! Hear!" "Horn! Horn!" "Don't let him get away, Fred." "Song!
Song!" was heard all over the room.
Oliver again tried to protest, but he was again shouted down by cries
of--
"None of that!" "Can't fool us." "You know a barrel of 'em." "Song!
Song!"
Cranch broke in again--"Mr. Horn's modesty, gentlemen, greatly endears
him to his fellow-members, and we love him the better for it, but all
the same--" and he raised his hand with the same gesture he would have
used had it held an auctioneer's hammer--"All in favor of his singing
again say 'Aye!' Going! Going! Gone! The ayes have it." In the midst of
the cheering Cranch jumped from the chair and taking Oliver by the hand
as if he had been a young prima donna at her first appearance, led him
to the piano with all the airs and graces common to such an occasion.
Our young hero hesitated a moment, looked about in a pleased but
helpless way, and nerving himself tried to collect his thoughts
sufficiently to recall some one of the songs that were so familiar to
him at home. Then Sue's black eyes looked into his--there must always
be a woman helping Oliver--and the strains of the last song he had sung
with her the night before he left home floated through his brain.
(These same eyes were gazing into another's at the moment, but our
young Oliver was unconscious of that lamentable fact.)
"Did you ever happen to hear 'The Old Kentucky Home'?" Oliver asked
Simmons. "No? Well, it goes this way," and he struck the chords.
"You play it," said Simmons, rising from the stool.
"Oh, I can only play the chords, and not all of them right--" and he
took Simmons's seat. "Perhaps I can get through--I'll try it," he
added, simply, and squared himself before the instrument and began the
melody.
The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home, 'Tis summer, the
darkies are gay. The corn-top's ripe and the meadow is in bloom, While
the birds make music all the day.
Weep no more, my lady--oh, weep no more to-day! We'll sing one song for
the old Kentucky home, For the old Kentucky home far away.
As the words rolled from his lips Oliver seemed to forget the scene
before him. Somehow he could see the light in Sue's eyes, as she
listened, and hear her last words. He could hear the voice of his
mother, and feel her hand on his head; and then, as the soft vowels and
cadences of the quaint melody breathed themselves out, he could catch
again the expression of delight on the face of Malachi--who had taught
him the song--as he listened, his black cheek in his wrinkled palm. It
was a supreme moment with Oliver. The thrill of happiness that had
quivered through him for days, intensified by this new heaven of
Bohemia, vibrated in every note he uttered.
The effect was equally startling on those about him. Cranch craned his
head, and for once lowered his voice to a whisper in speaking to the
man next him. Bowdoin, the painter, and one of the guests, left his
seat and tip-toed to the piano, his eyes riveted on Oliver's face, his
whole being absorbed in the melody. Bianchi and Waller so far lost
themselves that their pipes went out, while Simmons was so entranced
that he forgot to applaud when Oliver finished.
The effect produced was not so much due to the quality in Oliver's
voice--sweet and sympathetic as it was--nor to his manner of singing,
nor to the sentiment of the song itself, but to the fact of its being,
with its clear, sweet notes, a positive contrast to all of noise and
clamor that had gone before. This fact, more than any other, made his
listeners hold their breath in wonder and delight. It came like the
song of a bird bursting out after a storm and charming everyone with
the beauty of its melody, while the thunder of the tempest still
reverberated through the air.
In the hush of the death-like stillness that followed, the steady tramp
of feet was heard on the staircase, and the next instant the head of a
young man, with a rosy face and side-chop coachman whiskers, close-cut
black hair and shoe-button eyes, glistening with fun, was craned around
the jamb of the door.
It was the property of Mr. Cornelius McFudd!
He was in full evening dress, and as immaculate as if he had stepped
out of a bandbox.
Whatever stimulants had permeated his system and fired his imagination
had evidently escaped his legs, for they were as steady as those of a
tripod. His entrance, in a measure, restored the assemblage to its
normal condition. Mr. McFudd raised his hand impressively, checking the
customary outbreak that always greeted his appearance on occasions like
this, struck a deprecatory attitude and said, solemnly, in a rich,
North-of-Ireland accent:
"Gentlemen, it is with the greatest surprise that I find ye contint to
waste your time over such riotous proceedings as I know have taken
place here to-night, when within a block of yez is a perfarmance that
would delight yer souls. Think of a man throwing a hand-spring over--"
At this instant a wet sponge was fired point blank from an open bedroom
door, missed McFudd's head by an inch and bounded down the staircase.
"Thank ye, Admiral Lord Cockburn, for yer civility," cried McFudd,
bowing low to the open bedroom door, "and for yer good intintions, but
ye missed it as yer did yer mither's blessing--and as ye do most of the
things ye try to hit." This was said without raising his voice or
changing a muscle of his face, his eyes fixed on the door inside of
which stood Cockburn.
McFudd continued, "The perfarmance of this acrobat is one of the--"
Cries of "Don't you see you disturb the music?" "Go to bed!" "Somebody
sit on McFudd!" etc., filled the room.
"Go on, gentlemen. Continue your insults; defame the name of an honest
man who is attimpting to convey to yer dull comprehinsions some idea of
the wonders of the acrobatic ring. I'll turn a hand-spring for yez
meself that will illustrate what I mane," and Mr. McFudd carefully
removed his coat and began sliding up his shirt-cuffs.
At this juncture "My Lord" Cockburn, who had come from behind the door,
winked significantly at Waller, and creeping on all fours behind
McFudd, just as that gentleman was about lifting his legs aloft, swept
him off his feet by a twist of his arm, and deposited him on the small
of his back next to Oliver, his head resting against the wall. There
Waller stood over him with a chair, which he threatened to turn over
him upside down and sit on if the prostrate Irishman moved an inch.
McFudd waved his hand sadly as if in acquiescence to the inscrutable
laws of fate, begged the gentlemen present to give no further thought
to his existence, and after a moment of silence continued his remarks
on the acrobatic ring to Oliver in the same monotonous tone of voice
which he had addressed to the room before Cockburn's flank movement had
made him bite the dust.
"It may seem to you, Mr.-- Mr.--, I haven't your name, sir," and he
bent his head toward Oliver.
"Horn, sir," Oliver suggested. "Oliver Horn."
"Thanks, it may seem to you that I'm exaggerating, Mr. Oliver Horn, the
wonder of this perfarmance, but-"
The rest of the sentence, despite the Hibernian's well-intentioned
efforts, was not addressed to Oliver, but to the room at large, or
rather to its furniture, or to be still more exact, to the legs of the
piano, and such chairs and tables as the Irishman's prostrate body
bumped into on the way to his room. For at that instant Waller, to save
Oliver, as he pretended, from further annoyance, had caught the
distinguished Hibernian by both feet, and in that position dragged him
along the floor, as if he had been a wheelbarrow, McFudd's voice never
changing its tone as he continued his remarks on physical culture, and
the benefits which would accrue to the human race if they would
practice the acrobat's hand-spring.
When Fred and Oliver had closed their bedroom door for the night, the
guests having departed and all the regular boarders being supposedly
secure in their beds (Fred without much difficulty had persuaded Oliver
to share his own bed over night), there came a knock at Fred's door,
and the irrepressible Irishman stalked in.
He had removed his vest, high collar, and shoes, and had the air and
look of an athlete. The marvellous skill of the acrobat still occupied
his mind.
"Don't disturb yourself, my dear Stone, but me deloightful conversation
with yer friend, Mr. Horn, was interrupted by that wild beast of a
Waller, and I wanted to finish it. I am quite sure I can do it--the
trick I was telling ye of. I've been practizing in me room. It's as
easy as rolling off a jaunting car."
"No, Mac, old man. Go to bed again," pleaded Fred.
"Not till I show ye, me boy, one of the most beautiful feats of
agility--"
"Come off, Mac, I say," cried Fred, catching the Irishman around the
waist.
"I'll come nothing! Unhand me, gentlemen, or by the--" and tearing
himself free McFudd threw a hand-spring with the ease of a
professional, toppled, for a moment, his feet in the air, scraped along
the whitewashed wall with his heels, and sweeping the basins and
pitchers filled with water from the wash-stand measured his length on
the floor. Then came the crash of broken china, a deluge of water, and
Fred and Oliver began catching up sponges and towels to stay the flood.
A minute later a man in a long gray beard and longer night-robe--one of
the regular boarders--bounded up the stairs two steps at a time and
dashed through Fred's open door.
"By thunder, boys!" he cried, "I don't mind how much noise you make,
rather like it; but what the devil are you trying to drown us out for?
Wife is soaking--it's puddling down on our bed."
By this time every door had been flung open, and the room was filled
with half-dressed men.
"It's that lunatic, McFudd. He's been to the circus and thinks he's
Martello," cried Fred, pointing to the prostrate Irishman with the
sponge which he had been squeezing out in the coal-scuttle.
"Or the clown," remarked Waller, stooping over McFudd, who was now
holding his sides and roaring with laughter.
Long after Fred had fallen asleep, Oliver lay awake thinking of the
night's pleasure. He had been very, very happy--happier than he had
been for many months. The shouts of approval on his election to
membership, the rounds of applause that had followed his rendering of
the simple negro melodies, resounded in his ears, and the joy of it all
still tingled through his veins. This first triumph of his life had
brought with it a certain confidence in himself--a new feeling of
self-reliance--of being able to hold his own among men, something he
had never experienced before. This made it all the more exhilarating.
And the company!
Real live painters who sold their pictures and who had studied in
Munich, and who knew Paris and Dresden and all the wonderful cities of
which Mr. Crocker had talked. And real musicians, too!--who played at
theatres; and Englishmen from London, and Irishmen from Dublin, and all
so jolly and unconventional and companionable. It was just as Mr.
Crocker had described it, and just what he had about despaired of ever
finding. Surely his cup of happiness was full to the brim.
We can forgive him; we who still remember those glimpses behind the
scenes--our first and never-to-be-forgotten! How real everything
seemed, even the grease-paint, the wigs, and the clothes. And the
walking gentleman and the leading old man and low comedian! What
splendid fellows they were and how we sympathized with them in their
enforced exiles from a beloved land. How they suffered from scheming
brothers who had robbed them of their titles and estates, or
flint-hearted fathers who had turned them out of doors because of their
infatuation for their "art" or because of their love for some dame of
noble birth or simple lass, whose name--"Me boy, will be forever
sacred!" How proud we were of knowing them, and how delighted they were
at knowing us--and they so much older too! And how tired we got of it
all--and of them--and of all their kind when our eyes became accustomed
to the glare and we saw how cheap and commonplace it all was and how
much of its glamour and charm had come from our own inexperience and
enthusiasm--and youth.
As Oliver lay with wide-open eyes, going over every incident of the
evening, he remembered, with a certain touch of exultant pride, a story
his father had told him of the great Poe, and he fell to wondering
whether the sweetness of his own song, falling on ears stunned by the
jangle of the night, had not produced a similar effect. Poe, his father
had said, on being pressed for a story in the midst of a night of
revelry in a famous house on Kennedy Square, had risen from his seat
and repeated the Lord's Prayer with such power and solemnity that the
guests, one and all, stunned and sobered, had pushed their chairs from
the table and had left the house. He remembered just where his father
sat when he told the story and the impression it had made upon him at
the time. He wished Kennedy Square had been present to-night to have
heard him and to have seen the impression his song had made upon those
gathered about him.
Kennedy Square! What would dear old Richard Horn, with his violin
tucked lovingly under his chin, and gentle, white-haired Nathan, with
his lips caressing his flute, have thought of it all, as they listened
to the uproar of Cockburn's coal-scuttle? And, that latter-day
Chesterfield, Colonel John Howard Clayton, of Pongateague, whose
pipe-stemmed Madeira glasses were kept submerged in iced finger-bowls
until the moment of their use, and whose rare Burgundies were drunk out
of ruby-colored soap-bubbles warmed to an exact temperature. What would
this old aristocrat have thought of McFudd's mixture and the way it was
served?
No! It was just as well that Kennedy Square, at the moment of Oliver's
triumph, was fast asleep.