One summer afternoon there were two passengers, middle-aged men, on
the small steamer James Madison, which attended the comings and goings
of the great Boston steamer, and ran hither and yon on errands about
Penobscot Bay. She was puffing up a long inlet toward East Rodney
Landing, and the two strangers were observing the green shores with
great interest. Like nearly the whole stretch of the Maine coast,
there was a house on almost every point and headland; but for all
this, there were great tracts of untenanted country, dark untouched
forests of spruces and firs, and shady coves where there seemed to be
deep water and proper moorings. The two passengers were on the watch
for landings and lookouts; in short, this lovely, lonely country was
being frankly appraised at its probable value for lumbering or for
building-lots and its relation to the real estate market. Just now
there appeared to be no citizens save crows and herons, the sun was
almost down behind some high hills in the west, and the Landing was in
sight not very far ahead.
"It is nearly twenty years since I came down here before," said the
younger of the two men, suddenly giving the conversation a personal
turn. "Just after I was out of college, at any rate. My father had
bought this point of land with the islands. I think he meant to come
and hunt in the autumn, and was misled by false accounts of deer and
moose. He sent me down to oversee something or other; I believe he had
some surveyors at work, and thought they had better be looked after;
so I got my chum Carew to come along, and we found plenty of trout,
and had a great time until he gave his ankle a bad sprain."
"What did you do then?" asked the elder man politely, keeping his eyes
on the shore.
"I stayed by, of course; I had nothing to do in those days," answered
Mr. Aldis. "It was one of those nice old-fashioned country
neighborhoods where there was plenty of fun among the younger
people,--sailing on moonlight nights, and haycart parties, and dances,
and all sorts of things. We used to go to prayer-meeting nine or ten
miles off, and sewing societies. I had hard work to get away! We made
excuse of Carew's ankle joint as long as we could, but he'd been all
right and going everywhere with the rest of us a fortnight before we
started. We waited until there was ice alongshore, I remember."
"Daniel R. Carew, was it, of the New York Stock Exchange?" asked the
listener. "He strikes you as being a very grave sort of person now;
doesn't like it if he finds anybody in his chair at the club, and all
that."
"I can stir him up," said Mr. Aldis confidently. "Poor old fellow, he
has had a good deal of trouble, one way and another. How the Landing
has grown up! Why, it's a good-sized little town!"
"I'm sorry it is so late," he added, after a long look at a farm on
the shore which they were passing. "I meant to go to see the people up
there," and he pointed to the old farmhouse, dark and low and
firm-rooted in the long slope of half-tamed, ledgy fields. Warm
thoughts of Nancy filled his heart, as if they had said good-by to
each other that cold afternoon in Boston only the winter before. He
had not been so eager to see any one for a long time. Such is the
triumph of friendship: even love itself without friendship is the
victim of chance and time.
When supper was over in the Knox House, the one centre of public
entertainment in East Rodney, it was past eight o'clock, and Mr. Aldis
felt like a dim copy of Rip Van Winkle, or of the gay Tom Aldis who
used to know everybody, and be known of all men as the planner of
gayeties. He lighted a cigar as he sat on the front piazza of the
hotel, and gave himself up to reflection. There was a long line of
lights in the second story of a wooden building opposite, and he was
conscious of some sort of public interest and excitement.
"There is going to be a time in the hall," said the landlord, who came
hospitably out to join him. "The folks are going to have a dance. The
proceeds will be applied to buying a bell for the new schoolhouse.
They'd be pleased if you felt like stepping over; there has been a
considerable number glad to hear you thought of coming down. I ain't
an East Rodney man myself, but I've often heard of your residin' here
some years ago. Our folks is makin' the ice cream for the occasion,"
he added significantly, and Mr. Aldis nodded and smiled in
acknowledgment. He had meant to go out and see the Gales, if the boat
had only got in in season; but boats are unpunctual in their ways, and
the James Madison had been unexpectedly signaled by one little landing
and settlement after another. He remembered that a great many young
people were on board when they arrived, and now they appeared again,
coming along the street and disappearing at the steep stairway
opposite. The lighted windows were full of heads already, and there
were now and then preliminary exercises upon a violin. Mr. Aldis had
grown old enough to be obliged to sit and think it over about going to
a ball; the day had passed when there would have been no question; but
when he had finished his cigar he crossed the street, and only stopped
before the lighted store window to find a proper bank bill for the
doorkeeper. Then he ran up the stairs to the hall, as if he were the
Tom Aldis of old. It was an embarrassing moment as he entered the low,
hot room, and the young people stared at him suspiciously; but there
were also elderly people scattered about who were meekly curious and
interested, and one of these got clumsily upon his feet and hastened
to grasp the handsome stranger by the hand.
"Nancy heard you was coming," said Mr. Gale delightedly. "She expected
I should see you here, if you was just the same kind of a man you used
to be. Come let's set right down, folks is crowding in; there may be
more to set than there is to dance."
"How is Nancy, isn't she coming?" asked Tom, feeling the years tumble
off his shoulders.
"Well as usual, poor creatur," replied the old father, with a look of
surprise. "No, no; she can't go nowhere."
At that moment the orchestra struck up a military march with so much
energy that further conversation was impossible. Near them was an
awkward-looking young fellow, with shoulders too broad for his height,
and a general look of chunkiness and dullness. Presently he rose and
crossed the room, and made a bow to his chosen partner that most
courtiers might have envied. It was a bow of grace and dignity.
"Pretty well done!" said Tom Aldis aloud.
Mr. Gale was beaming with smiles, and keeping time to the music with
his foot and hand. "Nancy done it," he announced proudly, speaking
close to his companion's ear. "That boy give her a sight o'
difficulty; he used to want to learn, but 'long at the first he'd turn
red as fire if he much as met a sheep in a pastur'. The last time I
see him on the floor I went home an' told her he done as well as any.
You can see for yourself, now they're all a-movin'."
The fresh southerly breeze came wafting into the hall and making the
lamps flare. If Tom turned his head, he could see the lights out in
the bay, of vessels that had put in for the night. Old Mr. Gale was
not disposed for conversation so long as the march lasted, and when it
was over a frisky-looking middle-aged person accosted Mr. Aldis with
the undimmed friendliness of their youth; and he took her out, as
behoved him, for the Lancers quadrille. From her he learned that Nancy
had been for many years a helpless invalid; and when their dance was
over he returned to sit out the next one with Mr. Gale, who had
recovered a little by this time from the excitement of the occasion,
and was eager to talk about Nancy's troubles, but still more about her
gifts and activities. After a while they adjourned to the hotel piazza
in company, and the old man grew still more eloquent over a cigar. He
had not changed much since Tom's residence in the family; in fact, the
flight of seventeen years had made but little difference in his
durable complexion or the tough frame which had been early seasoned by
wind and weather.
"Yes, sir," he said, "Nancy has had it very hard, but she's the life
o' the neighborhood yet. For excellent judgment I never see her equal.
Why, once the board o' selec'men took trouble to meet right there in
her room off the kitchen, when they had to make some responsible
changes in layin' out the school deestricts. She was the best teacher
they ever had, a master good teacher; fitted a boy for Bowdoin College
all except his Greek, that last season before she was laid aside from
sickness. She took right holt to bear it the best she could, and begun
to study on what kind o' things she could do. First she used to make
out to knit, a-layin' there, for the store, but her hands got crippled
up with the rest of her; 't is the wust kind o' rheumatics there is.
She had me go round to the neighborin' schools and say that if any of
the child'n was backward an slow with their lessons to send 'em up to
her. Now an' then there'd be one, an' at last she'd see to some class
there wasn't time for: an' here year before last the town voted her
fifty dollars a year for her services. What do you think of that?"
Aldis manifested his admiration, but he could not help wishing that he
had not seemed to forget so pleasant an old acquaintance, and above
all wished that he had not seemed to take part in nature's great
scheme to defraud her. She had begun life with such distinct rights
and possibilities.
"I tell you she was the most cut up to have to stop dancin'," said
Mr. Gale gayly, "but she held right on to that, same as to other
things. 'I can't dance myself,' she says, 'so I'm goin' to make other
folks.' You see right before you how she's kep' her word, Mr. Aldis?
What always pleased her the most, from a child, was dancin'. Folks
talked to her some about letting her mind rove on them light things
when she appeared to be on a dyin' bed. 'David, he danced afore the
Lord,' she'd tell 'em, an' her eyes would snap so, they didn't like to
say no more."
Aldis laughed, the old man himself was so cheerful.
"Well, sir, she made 'em keep right on with the old dancin'-school she
always took such part in (I guess 't was goin', wa'n't it, that fall
you stopped here?); but she sent out for all the child'n she could get
and learnt 'em their manners. She can see right out into the kitchen
from where she is, an' she has 'em make their bows an' take their
steps till they get 'em right an' feel as good as anybody. There's
boys an' girls comin' an' goin' two or three times a week in the
afternoon. It don't seem to be no hardship: there ain't no such good
company for young or old as Nancy."
"She'll be dreadful glad to see you," the proud father ended his
praises. "Oh, she's never forgot that good time she had up to Boston.
You an' all your folks couldn't have treated her no better, an' you
give her her heart's desire, you did so! She's never done talkin'
about that pretty dancin'-school with all them lovely little child'n,
an' everybody so elegant and pretty behaved. She'd always wanted to
see such a lady as your aunt was. I don't know but she's right: she
always maintains that when folks has good manners an' good hearts the
world is their 'n, an' she was goin' to do everything she could to
keep young folks from feelin' hoggish an' left out."
Tom walked out toward the farm in the bright moonlight with Mr. Gale,
and promised to call as early the next day as possible. They followed
the old shore path, with the sea on one side and the pointed firs on
the other, and parted where Nancy's light could be seen twinkling on
the hill.