SUMMER TALK AT CANEMA.
In the course of a few days the family circle at Canema was enlarged by
the arrival of Clayton's sister; and Carson, in excellent spirits, had
started for a Northern watering-place. In answer to Nina's letter of
invitation, Anne had come with her father, who was called to that
vicinity by the duties of his profession. Nina received her with her
usual gay frankness of manner; and Anne, like many others, soon found
herself liking her future sister much better than she had expected.
Perhaps, had Nina been in any other situation than that of hostess, her
pride might have led her to decline making the agreeable to Anne, whom,
notwithstanding, she very much wished to please. But she was mistress of
the mansion, and had an Arab's idea of the privileges of a guest; and so
she chatted, sang, and played for her; she took her about, showed her
the walks, the arbors, the flower-garden; waited on her in her own
apartment, with a thousand little attentions, all the more fascinating
from the kind of careless independence with which they were rendered.
Besides, Nina had vowed a wicked little vow in her heart that she would
ride rough-shod over Anne's dignity; that she wouldn't let her be grave
or sensible, but that she should laugh and frolic with her. And Clayton
could scarce help smiling at the success that soon crowned her
exertions. Nina's gayety, when in full tide, had a breezy infectiousness
in it, that seemed to stir up every one about her and carry them on the
tide of her own spirits; and Anne, in her company, soon found herself
laughing at everything and nothing, simply because she felt gay.
To crown all, Uncle John Gordon arrived, with his cheery, jovial face;
and he was one of those fearless, hit-or-miss talkers, that are
invaluable in social dilemmas, because they keep something or other all
the while in motion.
With him came Madam Gordon, or, as Nina commonly called her, Aunt
Maria. She was a portly, finely-formed, middle-aged woman, who might
have been handsome, had not the lines of care and nervous anxiety
ploughed themselves so deeply in her face. Her bright, keen, hazel eyes,
fine teeth, and the breadth of her ample form, attested the vitality of
the old Virginia stock from whence she sprung.
"There," said Nina, to Anne Clayton, as they sat in the shady side of
the veranda, "I've marshalled Aunt Maria up into Aunt Nesbit's room, and
there they will have a comfortable dish of lamentation over me."
"Over you?" said Anne.
"Yes--over me, to be sure!--that's the usual order of exercises. Such a
setting down as I shall get! They'll count up on their fingers all the
things I ought to know and don't, and ought to do and can't. I believe
that's the way relatives always show their affection--aunts in
particular--by mourning over you."
"And what sort of a list will they make out?" said Anne.
"Oh, bless me, that's easy enough. Why, there's Aunt Maria is a
perfectly virulent housekeeper--really insane, I believe, on that
subject. Why, she chases up every rat and mouse and cockroach, every
particle of dust, every scrap of litter. She divides her hours, and is
as punctual as a clock. She rules her household with a rod of iron, and
makes everybody stand round; and tells each one how many times a day
they may wink. She keeps accounts like a very dragon, and always is sure
to pounce on anybody that is in the least out of the way. She cuts out
clothes by the bale; she sews, and she knits, and she jingles keys. And
all this kind of bustle she calls housekeeping! Now, what do you suppose
she must think of me, who just put on my hat in the morning, and go
sailing down the walks, looking at the flowers, till Aunt Katy calls me
back, to know what my orders are for the day?"
"Pray, who is Aunt Katy?" said Anne.
"Oh, she is my female prime minister; and she is very much like some
prime ministers I have studied about in history, who always contrive to
have their own way, let what will come. Now, when Aunt Katy comes and
wants to know, so respectfully, 'What Miss Nina is going to have for
dinner,' do you suppose she has the least expectation of getting
anything that I order? She always has fifty objections to anything that
I propose. For sometimes the fit comes over me to try to be
_house-keepy_, like Aunt Maria; but it's no go, I can tell you. So, when
she has proved that everything that I propose is the height of
absurdity, and shown conclusively that there's nothing fit to be eaten
in the neighborhood, by that time I am reduced to a proper state of
mind. And, when I humbly say, 'Aunt Katy, what _shall_ we do?' then she
gives a little cough, and out comes the whole programme, just as she had
arranged it the night before. And so it goes. As to accounts, why Harry
has to look after them. I detest everything about money, except the
spending of it--I have rather a talent for that. Now, just think how
awfully all this must impress poor Aunt Maria! What sighings, and
rollings up of eyes, and shakings of heads, there are over me! And,
then, Aunt Nesbit is always dinging at me about improving my mind! And
improving my mind means reading some horrid, stupid, boring old book,
just as she does! Now, I like the idea of improving my mind. I am sure
it wants improving, bad enough; but, then, I can't help thinking that
racing through the garden, and cantering through the woods, improves it
faster than getting asleep over books. It seems to me that books are
just like dry hay--very good when there isn't any fresh grass to be had.
But I'd rather be out and eat what's growing. Now, what people call
nature never bores me; but almost every book I ever saw does. Don't you
think people are made differently? Some like books, and some like
things; don't you think so?"
"I can give you a good fact on your side of the argument," said Clayton,
who had come up behind them during the conversation.
"I didn't know I was arguing; but I shall be glad to have anything on my
side," said Nina, "of course."
"Well, then," said Clayton, "I'll say that the books that have
influenced the world the longest, the widest, and deepest, have been
written by men who attended to _things_ more than to books; who, as you
say, eat what was growing, instead of dry hay. Homer couldn't have had
much to read in his time, nor the poets of the Bible; and they have
been fountains for all ages. I don't believe Shakespeare was much of a
reader."
"Well, but," said Anne, "don't you think that, for us common folks, who
are not going to be either Homers or Shakespeares, that it's best to
have two strings to our bow, and to gain instruction both from books and
things?"
"To be sure," said Clayton, "if we only use books aright. With many
people, reading is only a form of mental indolence, by which they escape
the labor of thinking for themselves. Some persons are like Pharaoh's
lean kine; they swallow book upon book, but remain as lean as ever."
"My grandfather used to say," said Anne, "that the Bible and Shakespeare
were enough for a woman's library."
"Well," said Nina, "I don't like Shakespeare, there! I'm coming out flat
with it. In the first place, I don't understand half he says; and, then,
they talk about his being so very natural! I'm sure I never heard people
talk as he makes them. Now, did you ever hear people talk in blank
verse, with every now and then one or two lines of rhyme, as his
characters do when they go off in long speeches? Now, did you?"
"As to that," said Clayton, "it's about half and half. His conversations
have just about the same resemblance to real life that acting at the
opera has. It is not natural for Norma to burst into a song when she
discovers the treachery of her husband. You make that concession to the
nature of the opera, in the first place; and then, with that reserve,
all the rest strikes you as natural, and the music gives an added charm
to it. So in Shakespeare, you concede that the plays are to be poems,
and that the people are to talk in rhythm, and with all the exaltation
of poetic sentiment; and, that being admitted, their conversations may
seem natural."
"But I can't _understand_ a great deal that Shakespeare says," said
Nina.
"Because so many words and usages are altered since he wrote," said
Clayton. "Because there are so many allusions to incidents that have
passed, and customs that have perished, that you have, as it were, to
acquire his language before you can understand him. Suppose a poem were
written in a foreign tongue; you couldn't say whether you liked it or
disliked it till you could read the language. Now, my opinion is, that
there is a liking for Shakespeare hidden in your nature, like a seed
that has not sprouted."
"What makes you think so?"
"Oh, I see it in you, just as a sculptor sees a statue in a block of
marble."
"And are you going to chisel it out?" said Nina.
"With your leave," said Clayton. "After all, I like your sincerity in
saying what you do think. I have often heard ladies profess an
admiration for Shakespeare that I knew couldn't be real. I knew that
they had neither the experience of life, nor the insight into human
nature, really to appreciate what is in him; and that their liking for
him was all a worked-up affair, because they felt it would be very
shocking not to like him."
"Well," said Nina, "I'm much obliged to you for all the sense you find
in my nonsense. I believe I shall keep you to translate my fooleries
into good English."
"You know I'm quite at your disposal," said Clayton, "for that or
anything else."
At this moment the attention of Nina was attracted by loud exclamations
from that side of the house where the negro cottages were situated.
"Get along off! don't want none o' yo old trash here! No, no, Miss Nina
don't want none o' yo old fish! She's got plenty of niggers to ketch her
own fish."
"Somebody taking my name in vain in those regions," said Nina, running
to the other end of the veranda. "Tomtit," she said to that young
worthy, who lay flat on his back, kicking up his heels in the sun,
waiting for his knives to clean themselves, "pray tell me what's going
on there!"
"Laws, missis," said Tom, "it's just one of dese yer poor white trash,
coming round here trying to sell one thing o' nother. Miss Loo says it
won't do 'courage 'em, and I's de same 'pinion."
"Send him round here to me," said Nina, who, partly from humanity, and
partly from a spirit of contradiction, had determined to take up for the
poor white folks, on all occasions. Tomtit ran accordingly, and soon
brought to the veranda a man whose wretchedly tattered clothing scarcely
formed a decent covering. His cheeks were sunken and hollow, and he
stood before Nina with a cringing, half-ashamed attitude; and yet one
might see that, with better dress and better keeping, he might be made
to assume the appearance of a handsome, intelligent man. "What do you
ask for your fish?" she said to him.
"Anything ye pleases!"
"Where do you live?" said Nina, drawing out her purse.
"My folks's staying on Mr. Gordon's place."
"Why don't you get a place of your own to stay on?" said Nina.
There was an impatient glance flashed from the man's eye, but it gave
place immediately to his habitual cowed expression, as he said,--
"Can't get work--can't get money--can't get nothing."
"Dear me," said her Uncle John, who had been standing for a moment
listening to the conversation. "This must be husband of that poor
hobgoblin that has lighted down on my place lately. Well, you may as
well pay him a good price for his fish. Keep them from starving one day
longer, may be." And Nina paid the man a liberal sum, and dismissed him.
"I suppose, now, all my eloquence wouldn't make Rose cook those fish for
dinner," said Nina.
"Why not, if you told her to?" said Aunt Maria, who had also descended
to the veranda.
"Why not?--Just because, as she would say, she hadn't _laid out_ to do
it."
"That's not the way _my_ servants are taught to do!" said Aunt Maria.
"I'll warrant not," said Nina. "But yours and mine are quite different
affairs, aunt. They all do as they have a mind to, in my '_diggings_.'
All I stipulated for is a little of the same privilege."
"That man's wife and children have come and '_squatted_' down on my
place," said Mr. Gordon, laughing; "and so, Nin, all you paid for his
fish is just so much saving to me."
"Yes, to be sure! Mr. Gordon is just one of those men that will have a
tribe of shiftless hangers on at his heels!" said Mrs. Gordon.
"Well, bless my soul! what's a fellow to do? Can't see the poor heathen
starve, can we? If society could only be organized over, now, there
would be hope for them. The brain ought to control the hands; but among
us the hands try to set up for themselves;--and see what comes of it!"
"Who do you mean by brain?" said Nina.
"Who?--Why, _we_ upper crust, to be sure! We educated people! We ought
to have an absolute sway over the working classes, just as the brain
rules the hand. It must come to that, at last--no other arrangement is
possible. The white working classes can't take care of themselves, and
must be put into a condition for us to take care of them. What is
liberty to them?--Only a name--liberty to be hungry and naked, that's
all. It's the strangest thing in the world, how people stick to names! I
suppose that fellow, up there, would flare up terribly at being put in
with my niggers; and yet he and his children are glad of the crumbs that
fall from their table! It's astonishing to me how, with such examples
before them, any decent man can be so stone blind as to run a tilt
against slavery. Just compare the free working classes with our slaves!
Dear me! the blindness of people in this world! It's too much for my
patience, particularly in hot weather!" said Mr. John, wiping his face
with a white pocket-handkerchief.
"Well, but, Uncle John," said Nina, "my dear old gentleman, you haven't
travelled, as I have."
"No, child! I thank the Lord I never stepped my foot out of a slave
state, and I never mean to," said Uncle John.
"But you ought to see the _northern_ working people," said Nina. "Why,
the Governors of the States are farmers, sometimes, and work with their
own men. The brain and the hand go together, in each one--not one great
brain to fifty pair of hands. And, I tell you, work is _done_ up there
very differently from what's done here! Just look at our ploughs and our
hoes!--the most ridiculous things that I ever saw. I should think one of
them would weigh ten pounds!"
"Well, if you don't have 'em heavy enough to go into the ground by their
own weight, these cussed lazy nigs won't do anything with them. They'd
break a dozen Yankee hoes in a forenoon," said Uncle John.
"Now," said Nina, "Uncle John, you dear old heathen, you! do let me
tell you a little how it is there. I went up into New Hampshire, once,
with Livy Ray, to spend a vacation. Livy's father is a farmer; works
part of every day with his own men; hoes, digs, plants; but he is
Governor of the State. He has a splendid farm--all in first-rate order;
and his sons, with two or three hired men, keep it in better condition
than our places ever saw. Mr. Ray is a man who reads a great deal; has a
fine library, and he's as much of a gentleman as you'll often see. There
are no high and low _classes_ there. Everybody works; and everybody
seems to have a good time. Livy's mother has a beautiful dairy, spring
house, and two strong women to help her; and everything in the house
looks beautifully; and, for the greater part of the day, the house seems
so neat and still, you wouldn't know anything had been done in it. Seems
to me this is better than making slaves of all the working classes, or
having any working classes at all."
"How wise young ladies always are!" said Uncle John. "Undoubtedly the
millennium is begun in New Hampshire! But, pray, my dear, what part do
_young_ ladies take in all this? Seems to me, Nin, _you_ haven't picked
up much of this improvement in person."
"Oh, as to that, I labor in my vocation," said Nina; "that is, of
enlightening dull, sleepy old gentlemen, who never travelled out of the
state they were born in, and don't know what can be done. I come as a
missionary to them; I'm sure that's work enough for one."
"Well," said Aunt Maria, "I know I am as great a slave as any of the
poor whites, or negroes either. There isn't a soul in my whole troop
that pretends to take any care, except me, either about themselves or
their children, or anything else."
"I hope that isn't a slant at me!" said Uncle John, shrugging his
shoulders.
"I must say you are as bad as any of them," said Aunt Maria.
"There it goes!--now, I'm getting it!" said Uncle John. "I declare, the
next time we get a preacher out here, I'm going to make him hold forth
on the duties of wives!"
"And husbands, too!" said Aunt Maria.
"Do," said Nina; "I should like a little prospective information."
Nina, as often, spoke before she thought. Uncle John gave a malicious
look at Clayton. Nina could not recall the words. She colored deeply,
and went on hastily to change the subject.
"At any rate, I know that aunt, here, has a much harder time than
housekeepers do in the free states. Just the shoes she wears out chasing
up her negroes would hire help enough to do all her work. They used to
have an idea up there, that all the southern ladies did was to lie on
the sofa. I used to tell them it was as much as they knew about it."
"_Your_ cares don't seem to have worn you much!" said Uncle John.
"Well, they will, Uncle John, if you don't behave better. It's enough to
break anybody down to keep you in order."
"I wish," said Uncle John, shrugging up his shoulders, and looking
quizzically at Clayton, "somebody would take warning!"
"For my part," said Aunt Maria, "I know one thing: I'd be glad to get
rid of my negroes. Sometimes I think life is such a burden that I don't
think it's worth having."
"Oh, no, you don't, mother!" said Uncle John; "not with such a charming
husband as you've got, who relieves you from all care so perfectly!"
"I declare," said Nina, looking along the avenue, "what's that? Why, if
there isn't old Tiff, coming along with his children!"
"Who is he?" said Aunt Maria.
"Oh, he belongs to one of these miserable families," said Aunt Nesbit,
"that have squatted in the pine-woods somewhere about here--a poor,
worthless set! but Nina has a great idea of patronizing them."
"Clear Gordon, every inch of her!" said Aunt Maria, as Nina ran down to
meet Tiff. "Just like her uncle!"
"Come, now, old lady, I'll tell of _you_, if you don't take care!" said
Mr. Gordon. "Didn't I find you putting up a basket of provisions for
those folks you scolded me so for taking in?"
"Scold, Mr. Gordon? I never scold!"
"I beg pardon--that you reproved me for!"
Ladies generally are not displeased for being reproached for their
charities; and Aunt Maria, whose bark, to use a vulgar proverb, was
infinitely worse than her bite, sat fanning herself, with an air of
self-complacency. Meanwhile, Nina had run down the avenue, and was busy
in a confidential communication with Tiff. On her return, she came
skipping up the steps, apparently in high glee.
"Oh, Uncle John! there's the greatest fun getting up! You must all go,
certainly! What do you think? Tiff says there's to be a camp-meeting in
the neighborhood, only about five miles off from his place. Let's make
up a party, and all go!"
"That's the time of day!" said Uncle John. "I enrol myself under your
banner, at once. I am open to improvement! Anybody wants to convert me,
here I am!"
"The trouble with you, Uncle John," said Nina, "is that you don't _stay_
converted. You are just like one of these heavy fishes--you bite very
sharp, but, before anybody can get you fairly on to the bank, you are
flapping and floundering back into the water, and down you go into your
sins again. I know at least three ministers who thought they had hooked
you out; but they were mistaken."
"For my part," said Aunt Maria, "I think these camp-meetings do more
harm than good. They collect all the scum and the riff-raff of the
community, and I believe there's more drinking done at camp-meetings in
one week than is done in six anywhere else. Then, of course, all the
hands will want to be off; and Mr. Gordon has brought them up so that
they feel dreadfully abused if they are not in with everything that's
going on. I shall set down _my_ foot, this year, that they shan't go any
day except Sunday."
"My wife knows that she was always celebrated for having the handsomest
foot in the country, and so she is always setting it down at _me_!" said
Mr. Gordon; "for she knows that a pretty foot is irresistible with me."
"Mr. Gordon, how can you talk so? I should think that you'd got old
enough not to make such silly speeches!" said Aunt Maria.
"Silly speeches! It's a solemn fact, and you won't hear anything truer
at the camp-meeting!" said Uncle John. "But come, Clayton, will you go?
My dear fellow, your grave face will be an appropriate ornament to the
scene, I can assure you; and, as to Miss Anne, it won't do for an old
fellow like me, in this presence, to say what a happiness it would be."
"I suspect," said Anne, "Edward is afraid he may be called on for some
of the services. People are always taking him for a clergyman, and
asking him to say grace at meals, and to conduct family prayers, when he
is travelling among strangers."
"It's a comment on our religion, that these should be thought peculiar
offices of clergymen," said Clayton. "Every Christian man ought to be
ready and willing to take them."
"I honor that sentiment!" said Uncle John. "A man ought not so be
ashamed of his religion anywhere, no more than a soldier of his colors.
I believe there's more religion hid in the hearts of honest laymen, now,
than is plastered up behind the white cravats of clergymen; and they
ought to come out with it. Not that I have any disrespect for the
clergy, either," said Uncle John. "Fine men--a little stiffish, and
don't call things by good English names. Always talking about
dispensation, and sanctification, and edification, and so forth; but I
like them. They are sincere. I suppose they wouldn't any of them give me
a chance for heaven, because I rip out with an oath, every now and then.
But, the fact is, what with niggers, and overseers, and white trash, my
chances of salvation are dreadfully limited. I can't help swearing, now
and then, if I was to die for it. They say it's dreadfully wicked; but I
feel more Christian when I let out than when I keep in!"
"Mr. Gordon," said Aunt Maria, reprovingly, "do consider what you're
saying!"
"My dear, I _am_ considering. I am considering all the time! I never do
anything else but consider--except, as I said before, every now and
then, when what-'s-his-name gets the advantage over me. And, hark you,
Mrs. G., let 's have things ready at our house, if any of the clergy
would like to spend a week or so with us; and we could get them up some
meetings, or any little thing in their line. I always like to show
respect for them."
"Our beds are _always_ prepared for company, Mr. Gordon," said Aunt
Maria, with a stately air.
"Oh, yes, yes, I don't doubt that! I only meant some special
preparation--some little fatted-calf killing, and so on."
"Now," said Nina, "shall we set off to-morrow morning?"
"Agreed!" said Uncle John.