"WHERE is grandmother?" Jack asked one morning late in May, as he came
in from the garden, and found her place at the table vacant.
"She does not feel very well this morning, and I told her there was no
need of rising with the lark," answered cousin Jane; but, though her
voice was cheerful, there was a new gravity in her face.
"It is something unusual"--
"She is getting to be an old lady, Jack. There, sit down to your
breakfast while it is nice and hot. No fear but what I will attend to
grandmother."
She had risen; but in the midst of her dressing her hands had lost their
cunning, her limbs their strength. Jane came to look at her in alarm.
"It's a warning," she said, with her grand old smile. "But I have no
pain, and so you can leave me here for a while. My strength may come
back."
Mrs. Darcy was much frightened.
"Remember that ninety-four is a good old age, and she has hardly had a
sick day in her life. After breakfast Jack might go over for Dr.
Maverick. He is sensible, and will not torment her with experiments."
Jack rather hurried through his meal, and then ran up to grandmother's
room. She put out her wrinkled hand, thin to be sure, but still slender
and smooth, with no knobby joints. A proud sort of beauty illumined the
old face, though the eyes were a little dull.
"Dear boy," and there was a curious quaver in her voice, "I've had to
give in at last. The Lord knows best. He has given me many a happy year
with you; yet I have never forgotten the folks over yonder. I shall be
glad to see them again,--your father, Jack, and the rest. 'Then they
came to the land of Beulah, where the sun shineth day and night, and
betook themselves to rest'--you know. We used to read it together."
A sharp pang went to Jack's heart. He pressed the limp hand to his lips,
and gazed into the face that had changed in some indescribable way. Then
Jane came with a tempting breakfast, and fed her with wonderful
gentleness, it seemed to him.
He went out, and brought Maverick back with him.
"It is a general breaking-up of nature," said the doctor with a tender
gravity. "Nothing can be done, unless she should suffer; but I do not
think she will. It is the way lives ought to end oftener. Give her
whatever she will take; and keep cheerful, all of you. After all, it is
only a little journey."
"Where?" the young eyes asked as they met each other in solemn mood.
Jack scarcely left her. She liked to open her eyes, and find him sitting
there, when she would smile faintly, and murmur a few words. Sylvie and
Miss Barry were the only visitors admitted to her room. They used to
read out of "Pilgrim's Progress," the book she had loved so well, and
occasionally they sang some sweet old hymn.
"Jack," she said once, "you will find everything in my old box there in
the bureau. It was my mother's, and came across the sea with me. You
have been a good lad. You took your father's place with me, and you must
never regret that you staid here to make an old woman happy. You have
been a good lad--a good--little lad"-- And her mind wandered to other
years.
Just growing gradually weaker, and falling asleep peacefully. A long,
well-spent life, and a death to remember and desire.
They buried her in Yerbury churchyard, and the townspeople turned out to
do her honor. Jack thought of another death, and the almost solitary
state of the funeral.
How good it was that they had Jane Morgan now! She carried them right
along.
Jack opened the brass-bound box, still fragrant with its sandal-wood
lining. Some old letters, the trinkets she had saved from her poverty,
and a will bequeathing her all, in government bonds, to Jack.
There was nearly seven thousand dollars. With his own little savings he
felt quite rich.
"Jack," said his mother, "all these years you have waited patiently, and
put by your own dreams. Do not think that I did not notice the struggle.
It was very generous and kindly; and I am glad, for grandmother's sake,
that you staid. But now if you like we will go somewhere else, and make
a new home"--did her voice tremble a little then? "I am still young
enough to take root elsewhere, and cousin Jane is so energetic she helps
one to new life. There may be prettier and more prosperous places, and
you have years before you in which to realize a fortune."
He glanced up at the face bending over him, instinct with the honorable
grace of middle life; the hair with a few threads of silver; the soft,
fine skin showing some wrinkles about the eyes and two or three light
creases across the forehead; the cheeks out of which roundness had
vanished, and the lips the scarlet of girlhood, but though both were
pale the mouth was still tender and sweet. A womanly woman,--that seemed
to him a perfect description of his mother, a woman who had loved three
generations, and held by them. Now for his sake she would give up the
old ties, and try a new world,--this shy, shrinking, loving woman.
What would she leave? She had never known any other home in her married
life, though this had been changed and improved since her wedding-day.
Everywhere some trace of his father. The porch with the roses climbing
over it, the great maples in the street, planted by him; the odorous old
balm of Gilead, that he had hunted up because she had cared for it, and
they had one in her old home; the trailing clematis with its shining
smilax-like green, and its heliotrope fragrance; the white rose that had
been planted on the morning of Jack's birth, and had sent up many
generations from the old root; the latticed summer-house with its wealth
of grapes; and almost like a vision Jack could fancy he saw the tall
figure and deliberate step,--the sweet ghost of memory that could never
walk in any other place. Did his mother have such dreams?
Yes, there were better things to life than mere money-getting.
"I believe those were the wild dreams of boyhood,"--smiling a
little,--"the 'long, long thoughts of youth.' I used to want something
that would occupy my whole soul and every energy, that was stirring,
earnest, absorbing, and held a grand outlook. But I think"--very
deliberately, as if he were weighing every word--"that my work has come
to me, instead of my going out to seek it. At all events, I shall not go
away for the present."
"Well," she returned, but she could not keep the great gladness out of
her voice.
Having thus made his election, Jack Darcy looked sturdily about to see
what was to be done, and the best way to do it. He asked two of the old
over-lookers, Hurd and Bradley, to meet him at Maverick's office; and
there they discussed co-operation until long past midnight. They looked
into the cotton-mill connected with the Rochdale experiment; they read
up the workings of those at Oldham and Lancashire, of the industries in
France, and banking in Germany.
"Here we are," said Jack, "with so much of our lives spent in learning
to manage looms and turn out different kinds of cloth. People must wear
clothes until the millennium, and cloth will be made. It seems to me
that it must be a good thing to identify the workmen, and get their real
interest. We should avoid strikes on the one hand, the continual
disputes about wages, and be much less at the mercy of all outside
influence. The men will understand thoroughly that industry, economy,
thrift, and perseverance is good for each individually; that he is using
these qualities not only for the master, but for himself. There will be
better work, and more of it."
Hurd seemed to be taking the measure of Darcy through this speech. Now
he said,--
"Darcy, any man who knows enough to head such a business as Hope Mills,
knows enough to carve out a fortune for himself; and my opinion is that
he would be a fool to let the chance slip."
"A man may have the knowledge, but not the requisite capital," was the
patient answer. "Then he might think"--
"Well, you've a sight of faith, that's all! Your men will go on with the
tramp of soldiers in good times; and when the pinch comes, then look
out! If they were educated, reasonable, sensible; but you and I both
know the mass are not. It will do better in the old countries, for there
children expect to follow in the footsteps of their parents; but here,
where every boy looks upon himself as a possible president, it cannot be
done. It has been tried, and has failed. It will again."
"Then you will not join?"
"I don't say that, Darcy. I can't very well get away from Yerbury: if I
could, the Lord knows I'd go. But there--it is just as bad everywhere
else. Don't be too sanguine though: you young chaps build air-castles
easily."
Bradley wrung his hand warmly at parting. "I want to look into this
thing a little more closely," he said. "I believe you have struck the
keynote. Whatever raises the workman raises the whole world. If you get
him to be self-supporting, there is one less pauper or tramp for the
State to take in charge, and tax all other workingmen for his support."
"I rather like the scheme of the co-operative store," Hurd began
presently. "There's a sight of money somehow between the producer and
the consumer. Farmers are grumbling all the time. I wrote to my
brother-in-law last spring about trading for a small farm, and going
into poultry-business perhaps; and he sent back a list of prices he had
obtained for his produce. Butter twenty-five cents, and we paid forty
this winter. Milk two and a half cents a quart, while ours is from eight
to ten."
"Transportation to be counted in," suggested Maverick.
"The thing discouraged me, so I thought I'd hold on a bit, since I did
not know the first rule for farming. As Darcy says, we have spent all
these years perfecting ourselves in our business, and it hardly looks
reasonable that we should succeed at once in something altogether
different. If you don't mind, Darcy, I'd like to look over that Rochdale
experiment a little at my leisure."
Jack handed him the book, and the small party dispersed. In a week they
met again, with two more, one a stubborn old Englishman who had been in
the business. They had done very well for a while, then the market
flattened. They could not hold their stock, so the big fish swallowed
them up. That was always the end where you had no credit and no reserve
capital. Truth to tell, Jack began to realize how hard it would be to
convert some of the very men he would like to have.
Meanwhile Hamilton Minor came up with some capitalists, and Hope Mills
was put up at auction. They looked around the town, examined the
building and machinery, which was the best of its kind; but nobody
could tell whether we had reached bottom prices or not, and, though the
place was to be offered at an immense sacrifice, they were wary. Empty
mills and rusting machinery were not profitable investments. Mr. Minor's
eloquence went for nothing. These long-headed dons would rather hold on
to their money, though they expressed a good deal of sympathy for the
Lawrence estate.
"I do believe it will go for the face of the mortgage," said Jack to
Maverick that evening. "Twenty thousand dollars, and a year's interest
and taxes. Twenty-two thousand would cover the whole thing; and three
years ago Mr. Lawrence wouldn't have looked at fifty thousand. Maverick,
I can get together ten thousand of my own, and if there was one other
person"--
"We will hunt him up," returned Maverick hopefully. "There is the
reputation of the cloth already made, which is one great step in your
favor. Yes, it must be done."
Yerbury was looking a little brighter and better at midsummer.
Scarlet-fever had pretty well disappeared; but malaria had come in its
stead, convenient name for want of nourishment, stagnation, and
despondency. The haggard-looking wives and mothers went out to a day's
washing or scrubbing; but the children, better off, roamed over the
fields in search of berries or a stray ownerless fruit-tree, laughing
and happy in their rags and bare feet.
Darcy tried two or three pretty well-to-do men, that he fancied had the
good of the town at heart; but the project looked wild to them. If David
Lawrence couldn't stand up against hard times, no new men could. He,
Darcy, had better put his money in government-bonds, and live on the
interest. Nothing could be made in such times as these.
"It seems as if one half of the world has decided that the other half
should starve," Jack declared in a discouraged tone. "No one is willing
to start the ball again. If it wasn't for mother I would risk every
dollar of my own. And then to think of the land lying idle about
here,--enough to feed half the town! I do not wonder that we are fast
coming to beggary and ruin."
Maverick was pretty sober for several days, then he went off to
Narragansett Pier; "tired of my everlasting badgering," said Jack to
Sylvie, who, poor child, had her hands and heart full of projects that
she talked over with Miss Morgan and her aunt, and did not make much
more progress than Jack.
So it happened one July evening that Jack sat smoking on the porch in a
rather despondent frame of mind. Miss Morgan and his mother had gone to
make some neighborly calls.
A quick step came down the street. "If Maverick wasn't in Rhode Island!"
thought Jack; then it came nearer, with a little halt, and Jack sprang
down the steps in the moonlight.
"Hillo, old fellow!" said the rich, laughing voice. "Have you looked
after my patients, and entertained my office-callers, in my absence?
That would only be fair play, for I have been about your business; and,
by Jove! succeeded too!"
"Maverick!" There was an odd little tremble in Jack's voice.
"Ask me to sit down, and stay me with--well, a pipe, for I have finished
my last cigar. I came in the train just fifteen minutes ago, and
skulked--that's the very word--under the trees and through by-ways, lest
some one, seeing, should lay violent hands on me. Yes, get out your best
armchair, old chap, and treat me like a prince."
The two seated themselves again, and stretched out their legs to the
porch-railing. The soft light fell around, outlining here and there a
bit of vine as if it were held against a silver background. A few early
insects were chirping, and somewhere down the street there was a waft of
distant music.
"Succeeded!" Jack drew a long breath.
"Yes: with a woman too. Nay, you need not look at me so wonderingly. I
have not sold myself for base gold to the Evil One," laughing lightly.
"I have never told you much about myself; for, like the needy
knife-grinder, 'story, God bless you! there was none to tell;' but there
is a chapter now, and you must hear it first. My mother was left an
orphan in her infancy, and her aunt adopted her. She was a canny
Scotswoman, by name Jean McLeod. She was very good to my mother, who
married quite to her liking, although my father was not rich, but we
always lived in a certain style, and my father had a fine reputation as
a lawyer. My mother's death, the result of an accident, so prostrated
him, that he never recovered from the shock. Aunt McLeod came to stay
with us through that weary time. Then she took us both to her heart and
home: it was a large warm heart and a beautiful home. My father left a
little: it was made over to me; and my sister, five years younger than
I, was brought up properly, and married properly, and lives in Chicago
in elegant style. Then Aunt Jean tried her hand on me, chose a suitable
young woman, and insisted that the fates had decided it. The upshot was
a quarrel. Not but what the girl was nice enough, and all that, but I
did not care to marry; and so I walked off to Europe, and was there
three years. Some rather cool letters passed between us at first, but
they grew warmer; and when I returned it was winter, and she was in New
York. I went straight up to her house. She was very glad to see me; and
there in her lovely library, all glow and softness and perfume, by the
side of the grate, with a screen in her hand, sat Anastasia Lothrop. She
is Aunt Jean's pet _protégée_, though she has home and lands and people
of her own. A handsome woman too, by Jove! However, we have gone our
separate ways. I think she (Aunt Jean) was rather annoyed at my settling
at Yerbury.
"Well, I went to Narragansett, and found her alone this time; and she
has promised to buy Hope Mills. I do believe there's no end to the
woman's money. She talked it over as a mere bagatelle. I am to meet her
in New York, and you are to go down, Jack; and we are to see the holder
of the mortgage, and do no end of business. I think she is rather
interested in the scheme, and I do believe she is delighted to do me a
favor. Now you can keep your money for a kind of reserve fund. The mere
savings of labor will not answer at first, you know."
Maverick drew a long breath then, and puffed lustily at his cigar.
"I don't know how ever to thank you."
"Don't thank me, Darcy. You see, I am interested in this experiment. I
want to see if there is enough faith and honesty and industry and
trustfulness left in the world to make such a general partnership a
success. You know it has been said that since the war our character as a
whole has degenerated fearfully. Politically there is no doubt of it.
Commercially and industrially are still open questions. If we could
succeed in making one hundred people comfortable, instead of one rich,
nine comfortable, and the other ninety next door to pauperism, we shall
have done something. If we can so educate ninety men that they are able
to understand the difficulties and embarrassments of carrying on
business and its numerous fluctuations, we shall have raised them higher
in the social scale. And it is most sadly true of all the large failures
of late, some one has been dishonest, some one or two or three have
taken other people's money to speculate with. It should be called
stealing as much as when a poor man takes it, even if he spends it for
rum. And, Darcy, we will keep our eye single upon one thing: we shall
not move the world, or convert it, but haply one little corner of
Yerbury; while all the wit and wisdom the world has been saving up for
ages will be hurled against us in different shapes, from puffy snowballs
to the grim old fellows soaked in water and frozen hard. And sometimes I
think, with all the energy you are going to bring to bear upon this, you
could carve out a fortune somewhere else."
"I don't know as to that, Maverick," said Darcy in a half-funny,
half-sad tone. "From New York to St. Louis, from thence to New Orleans,
to Florida, and back here again, I never found an opening. Two or three
people did promise to write to me, but they have not. I felt the world
could go on quite as well without me and hundreds of others. So, then,
the only thing is to create a place; and Heaven knows I shall try hard
enough to make a success of this."
"And you will do it too: I'm not afraid. Give us your hand, old chap! I
never swore friendship with but just one fellow: that was in my college
days, and I have his note for one hundred dollars as a memento. I might
have been keener, I dare say; but one of the transcendentally lovely
things of youth is its perfect faith. These preternaturally wise and
prudent young people come into the world mentally gray-headed. But I do
it now with my eyes wide open; and, when you are a rich man, I have
another scheme I want to take through, a sort of home or hospital of my
own planning: so don't fancy I shall let you off easy."
They held each other's hands in a long, lingering clasp. Beside the
warmth and magnetism that was a component part of Dr. Maverick's nature
when he chose to use it, which was not nearly always, there was a
steadfast kindliness, the vigor of a true and pure manhood, that made a
clear atmosphere about him, in which insincerity, weakness, and
selfishness seemed to flicker into pale shadows, and shrink away from
the intense mental light he turned upon them.
And just here the vision of the boy face came back to Jack, the
strangling arms about his neck, the fluttering breath and quivering
lips, and the sound of the rather thin, childish voice,--"You are _my_
King Arthur, and I shall love you my whole life long."
The sadness in the smile was for the old ideal.