[Illustration: 9013]
OME, Sam, tell us a story,” said I, as Hariet and I crept to his knees,
in the glow of the bright evening firelight; while Aunt Lois was
busily rattling the tea-things, and grandmamma, at the other end of the
fireplace, was quietly setting the heel of a blue-mixed yarn stocking.
In those days we had no magazines and daily papers, each reeling off
a serial story. Once a week, “The Columbian Sentinel” came from Boston
with its slender stock of news and editorial; but all the multiform
devices--pictorial, narrative, and poetical--which keep the mind of
the present generation ablaze with excitement, had not then even an
existence. There was no theatre, no opera; there were in Oldtown no
parties or balls, except, perhaps, the annual election, or Thanksgiving
festival; and when winter came, and the sun went down at half-past four
o'clock, and left the long, dark hours of evening to be provided
for, the necessity of amusement became urgent. Hence, in those days,
chimney-corner story-telling became an art and an accomplishment.
Society then was full of traditions and narratives which had all the
uncertain glow and shifting mystery of the firelit hearth upon them.
They were told to sympathetic audiences, by the rising and falling light
of the solemn embers, with the hearth-crickets filling up every pause.
[Illustration: 0015]
Then the aged told their stories to the young,--tales of early life;
tales of war and adventure, of forest-days, of Indian captivities
and escapes, of bears and wild-cats and panthers, of rattlesnakes, of
witches and wizards, and strange and wonderful dreams and appearances
and providences.
In those days of early Massachusetts, faith and credence were in the
very air. Two-thirds of New England was then dark, unbroken forests,
through whose tangled paths the mysterious winter wind groaned and
shrieked and howled with weird noises and unaccountable clamors. Along
the iron-bound shore, the stormful Atlantic raved and thundered, and
dashed its moaning waters, as if to deaden and deafen any voice that
might tell of the settled life of the old civilized world, and shut us
forever into the wilderness. A good story-teller, in those days, was
always sure of a warm seat at the hearthstone, and the delighted homage
of children; and in all Oldtown there was no better story-teller than
Sam Lawson.
“Do, do, tell us a story,” said Harry, pressing upon him, and opening
very wide blue eyes, in which undoubting faith shone as in a mirror;
“and let it be something strange, and different from common.”
“Wal, I know lots o' strange things,” said Sam, looking
mysteriously into the fire. “Why, I know things, that ef I should
tell,--why, people might say they wa'n't so; but then they _is so_ for
all that.”
“Oh, _do_, do, tell us!”
“Why, I should scare ye to death, mebbe,” said Sam doubtingly.
“Oh, pooh! no, you wouldn't,” we both burst out at once.
But Sam was possessed by a reticent spirit, and loved dearly to be wooed
and importuned; and so he only took up the great kitchen-tongs, and
smote on the hickory forestick, when it flew apart in the middle, and
scattered a shower of clear bright coals all over the hearth.
“Mercy on us, Sam Lawson!” said Aunt Lois in an indignant voice,
spinning round from her dishwashing.
“Don't you worry a grain, Miss Lois,” said Sam composedly. “I see that
are stick was e'en a'most in two, and I thought I'd jest settle it. I 'll
sweep up the coals now,” he added, vigorously applying a turkey-wing to
the purpose, as he knelt on the hearth, his spare, lean figure glowing
in the blaze of the firelight, and getting quite flashed with exertion.
“There, now!” he said, when he had brushed over and under and between
the fire-irons, and pursued the retreating ashes so far into the red,
fiery citadel, that his finger-ends were burning and tingling, “that
'are's done now as well as Hepsy herself could 'a' done it. I allers
sweeps up the haarth: I think it's part o' the man's bisness when he
makes the fire. But Hepsy's so used to seein' me a-doin' on't, that she
don't see no kind o' merit in't. It's just as Parson Lothrop said in his
sermon,--folks allers overlook their common marcies”--
“But come, Sam, that story,” said Harry and I coaxingly, pressing upon
him, and pulling him down into his seat in the corner.
“Lordy massy, these'ere young uns!” said Sam.
“There's never no contentin' on 'em: ye tell 'em one story, and they
jest swallows it as a dog does a gob o' meat; and they're all ready for
another. What do ye want to hear now?”
Now, the fact was, that Sam's stories had been told us so often, that
they were all arranged and ticketed in our minds. We knew every word in
them, and could set him right if he varied a hair from the usual track;
and still the interest in them was unabated.
Still we shivered, and clung to his knee, at the mysterious parts, and
felt gentle, cold chills run down our spines at appropriate places. We
were always in the most receptive and sympathetic condition. To-night,
in particular, was one of those thundering stormy ones, when the winds
appeared to be holding a perfect mad carnival over my grandfather's
house. They yelled and squealed round the corners; they collected in
troops, and came tumbling and roaring down chimney; they shook and
rattled the buttery-door and the sinkroom-door and the cellar-door and
the chamber-door, with a constant undertone of squeak and clatter, as
if at every door were a cold, discontented spirit, tired of the chill
outside, and longing for the warmth and comfort within.
“Wal, boys,” said Sam confidentially, “what 'll ye have?”
“Tell us 'Come down, come down!'” we both shouted with one voice. This
was, in our mind, an “A No. 1” among Sam's stories.
“Ye mus'n't be frightened now,” said Sam paternally.
“Oh, no! we ar'n't frightened _ever_,” said we both in one breath.
“Not when ye go down the cellar arter cider?” said Sam with severe
scrutiny. “Ef ye should be down cellar, and the candle should go out,
now?”
“I ain't,” said I: “I ain't afraid of any thing. I never knew what it
was to be afraid in my life.”
“Wal, then,” said Sam, “I 'll tell ye. This'ere's what Cap'n Eb Sawin
told me when I was a boy about your bigness, I reckon.
“Cap'n Eb Sawin was a most respectable man. Your gran'ther knew him very
well; and he was a deacon in the church in Dedham afore he died. He was
at Lexington when the fust gun was fired agin the British. He was a
dreffle smart man, Cap'n Eb was, and driv team a good many years atween
here and Boston. He married Lois Peabody, that was cousin to your
gran'ther then. Lois was a rael sensible woman; and I've heard her tell
the story as he told her, and it was jest as he told it to me,--jest
exactly; and I shall never forget it if I live to be nine hundred years
old, like Mathuselah.
“Ye see, along back in them times, there used to be a fellow come round
these'ere parts, spring and fall, a-peddlin' goods, with his pack on his
back; and his name was Jehiel Lommedieu. Nobody rightly knew where he
come from. He wasn't much of a talker; but the women rather liked him,
and kind o' liked to have him round. Women will like some fellows, when
men can't see no sort o' reason why they should; and they liked this'ere
Lommedieu, though he was kind o' mournful and thin and shad-bellied, and
hadn't nothin' to say for himself. But it got to be so, that the women
would count and calculate so many weeks afore 'twas time for Lommedieu
to be along; and they'd make up ginger-snaps and preserves and pies, and
make him stay to tea at the houses, and feed him up on the best there
was: and the story went round, that he was a-courtin' Phebe Ann Parker,
or Phebe Ann was a-courtin' him,--folks didn't rightly know which.
Wal, all of a sudden, Lommedieu stopped comin' round; and nobody knew
why,--only jest he didn't come. It turned out that Phebe Ann Parker had
got a letter from him, sayin' he'd be along afore Thanksgiving; but he
didn't come, neither afore nor at Thanksgiving time, nor arter, nor next
spring: and finally the women they gin up lookin' for him. Some said
he was dead; some said he was gone to Canada; and some said he hed gone
over to the Old Country.
“Wal, as to Phebe Ann, she acted like a gal o' sense, and married 'Bijah
Moss, and thought no more 'bout it. She took the right view on't, and
said she was sartin that all things was ordered out for the best; and
it was jest as well folks couldn't always have their own way. And so,
in time, Lommedieu was gone out o' folks's minds, much as a last year's
apple-blossom.
“It's relly affectin' to think how little these'ere folks is missed
that's so much sot by. There ain't nobody, ef they's ever so important,
but what the world gets to goin' on without 'em, pretty much as it did
with 'em, though there's some little flurry at fust. Wal, the last
thing that was in anybody's mind was, that they ever should hear from
Lommedieu agin. But there ain't nothin' but what has its time o' turnin'
up; and it seems his turn was to come.
“Wal, ye see, 'twas the 19th o' March, when Cap'n Eb Sawin started with
a team for Boston. That day, there come on about the biggest
snow-storm that there'd been in them parts sence the oldest man could
remember.'Twas this'ere fine, siftin' snow, that drives in your face
like needles, with a wind to cut your nose off: it made teamin' pretty
tedious work. Cap'n Eb was about the toughest man in them parts. He'd
spent days in the woods a-loggin', and he'd been up to the deestrict o'
Maine a-lumberin', and was about up to any sort o' thing a man gen'ally
could be up to; but these'ere March winds sometimes does set on a fellow
so, that neither natur' nor grace can stan' 'em. The cap'n used to say,
he could stan' any wind that blew one way 't time for five minutes; but
come to winds that blew all four p'ints at the same minit,--why, they
flustered him.
“Wal, that was the sort o' weather it was all day: and by sundown Cap'n
Eb he got clean bewildered, so that he lost his road; and, when night
came on, he didn't know nothin' where he was. Ye see the country was all
under drift, and the air so thick with snow, that he couldn't see a foot
afore him; and the fact was, he got off the Boston road without knowin'
it, and came out at a pair o' bars nigh upon Sherburn, where old Cack
Sparrock's mill is.
“Your gran'ther used to know old Cack, boys. He was a drefful drinkin'
old crittur, that lived there all alone in the woods by himself
a-tendin' saw and grist mill. He wa'n't allers jest what he was then.
Time was that Cack was a pretty consid'ably likely young man, and his
wife was a very respectable woman,--Deacon Amos Petengall's dater from
Sherburn.
“But ye see, the year arter his wife died, Cack he gin up goin' to
meetin' Sundays, and, all the tithing-men and selectmen could do, they
couldn't get him out to meetin'; and, when a man neglects means o' grace
and sanctuary privileges, there ain't no sayin' _what_ he 'll do next.
Why, boys, jist think on't!--an immortal crittur lyin' round loose
all day Sunday, and not puttin' on so much as a clean shirt, when
all 'spectable folks has on their best close, and is to meetin'
worshippin' the Lord! What can you spect to come of it, when he lies
idlin' round in his old week-day close, fishing, or some sich, but what
the Devil should be arter him at last, as he was arter old Cack?”
Here Sam winked impressively to my grandfather in the opposite corner,
to call his attention to the moral which he was interweaving with his
narrative.
“Wal, ye see, Cap'n Eb he told me, that when he come to them bars and
looked up, and saw the dark a-comin' down, and the storm a-thickenin'
up, he felt that things was gettin' pretty consid'able serious. There
was a dark piece o' woods on ahead of him inside the bars; and he knew,
come to get in there, the light would give out clean. So he jest thought
he'd take the hoss out o' the team, and go ahead a little, and see where
he was. So he driv his oxen up ag'in the fence, and took out the hoss,
and got on him, and pushed along through the woods, not rightly knowin'
where he was goin'.
“Wal, afore long he see a light through the trees; and, sure enough, he
come out to Cack Sparrock's old mill.
“It was a pretty consid'able gloomy sort of a place, that are old mill
was. There was a great fall of water that come rushin' down the rocks,
and fell in a deep pool; and it sounded sort o' wild and lonesome: but
Cap'n Eb he knocked on the door with his whip-handle, and got in.
“There, to be sure, sot old Cack beside a great blazin' fire, with his
rum-jug at his elbow. He was a drefful fellow to drink, Cack was! For
all that, there was some good in him, for he was pleasant-spoken and
'bliging; and he made the cap'n welcome.
“'Ye see, Cack,' said Cap'n Eb, 'I'm off my road, and got snowed up down
by your bars,' says he.
“'Want ter know!' says Cack. 'Calculate you 'll jest have to camp down
here till mornin',' says he.
“Wal, so old Cack he got out his tin lantern, and went with Cap'n Eb
back to the bars to help him fetch along his critturs. He told him he
could put 'em under the mill-shed. So they got the critturs up to the
shed, and got the cart under; and by that time the storm was awful.
“But Cack he made a great roarin' fire, 'cause, ye see, Cack allers had
slab-wood a plenty from his mill; and a roarin' fire is jest so much
company. It sort o' keeps a fellow's spirits up, a good fire does. So
Cack he sot on his old teakettle, and made a swingeing lot o' toddy; and
he and Cap'n Eb were havin' a tol'able comfortable time there. Cack was
a pretty good hand to tell stories; and Cap'n Eb warn't no way backward
in that line, and kep' up his end pretty well: and pretty soon they was
a-roarin' and haw-hawin' inside about as loud as the storm outside; when
all of a sudden, 'bout midnight, there come a loud rap on the door.
“'Lordy massy! what's that?' says Cack. Folks is rather startled allers
to be checked up sudden when they are a-carryin' on and laughin'; and
it was such an awful blowy night, it was a little scary to have a rap on
the door.
“Wal, they waited a minit, and didn't hear nothin' but the wind
a-screechin' round the chimbley; and old Cack was jest goin' on with his
story, when the rap come ag'in, harder'n ever, as if it'd shook the door
open.
“'Wal,' says old Cack, 'if 'tis the Devil, we'd jest as good's open, and
have it out with him to onst,' says he; and so he got up and opened the
door, and, sure enough, there was old Ketury there. Expect you've
heard your grandma tell about old Ketury. She used to come to meetin's
sometimes, and her husband was one o' the prayin' Indians; but Ketury
was one of the rael wild sort, and you couldn't no more convert _her_
than you could convert a wild-cat or a painter [panther]. Lordy massy!
Ketury used to come to meetin', and sit there on them Indian benches;
and when the second bell was a-tollin', and when Parson Lothrop and his
wife was comin' up the broad aisle, and everybody in the house ris' up
and stood, Ketury would sit there, and look at 'em out o' the corner
o' her eyes; and folks used to say she rattled them necklaces o'
rattlesnakes' tails and wild-cat teeth, and sich like heathen trumpery,
and looked for all the world as if the spirit of the old Sarpent himself
was in her. I've seen her sit and look at Lady Lothrop out o' the corner
o' her eyes; and her old brown baggy neck would kind o' twist and work;
and her eyes they looked so, that 'twas enough to scare a body. For all
the world, she looked jest as if she was a-workin' up to spring at her.
Lady Lothrop was jest as kind to Ketury as she always was to every poor
crittur. She'd bow and smile as gracious to her when meetin'
was over, and she come down the aisle, passin' out o, meetin'; but
Ketury never took no notice. Ye see, Ketury's father was one o' them
great powwows down to Martha's Vineyard; and people used to say she was
set apart, when she was a child, to the sarvice o' the Devil: any way,
she never could be made nothin' of in a Christian way. She come down to
Parson Lothrop's study once or twice to be catechised; but he couldn't
get a word out o' her, and she kind o' seemed to sit scornful while he
was a-talkin'. Folks said, if it was in old times, Ketury wouldn't have
been allowed to go on so; but Parson Lothrop's so sort o' mild, he let
her take pretty much her own way. Everybody thought that Ketury was a
witch: at least, she knew consid'able more'n she ought to know, and so
they was kind o' 'fraid on her. Cap'n Eb says he never see a fellow seem
scareder than Cack did when he see Ketury a-standin' there.
“Why, ye see, boys, she was as withered and wrinkled and brown as an old
frosted punkin-vine; and her little snaky eyes sparkled and snapped, and
it made yer head kind o' dizzy to look at 'em; and folks used to say that
anybody that Ketury got mad at was sure to get the worst of it fust or
last. And so, no matter what day or hour Ketury had a mind to rap at
anybody's door, folks gen 'lly thought it was best to let her in; but
then, they never thought her coming was for any good, for she was just
like the wind,--she came when the fit was on her, she staid jest so long
as it pleased her, and went when she got ready, and not before. Ketury
understood English, and could talk it well enough, but always seemed to
scorn it, and was allers mowin' and mutterin' to herself in Indian, and
winkin' and blinkin' as if she saw more folks round than you did, so
that she wa'n't no way pleasant company; and yet everybody took good
care to be polite to her.
“So old Cack asked her to come in, and didn't make no question where she
come from, or what she come on; but he knew it was twelve good miles
from where she lived to his hut, and the snow was drifted above her
middle: and Cap'n Eb declared that there wa'n't no track, nor sign o' a
track, of anybody's coming through that snow next morning.”
“How did she get there, then?” said I.
“Didn't ye never see brown leaves a-ridin' on the wind? Well,' Cap'n Eb
he says, 'she came on the wind,' and I'm sure it was strong enough to
fetch her. But Cack he got her down into the warm corner, and he poured
her out a mug o' hot toddy, and give her: but ye see her bein' there
sort o' stopped the conversation; for she sot there a-rockin' back'ards
and for'ards, a-sippin her toddy, and a-mutterin', and lookin' up
chimbley.
“Cap'n Eb says in all his born days he never hearn such screeches
and yells as the wind give over that chimbley; and old Cack got so
frightened, you could fairly hear his teeth chatter.
“But Cap'n Eb he was a putty brave man, and he wa'n't goin' to have
conversation stopped by no woman, witch or no witch; and so, when he see
her mutterin', and lookin' up chimbley, he spoke up, and says he, 'Well,
Ketury, what do you see?' says he. 'Come, out with it; don't keep it to
yourself.' Ye see Cap'n Eb was a hearty fellow, and then he was a leetle
warmed up with the toddy.
“Then he said he see an evil kind o' smile on Ketury's face, and she
rattled her necklace o' bones and snakes' tails; and her eyes seemed to
snap; and she looked up the chimbley, and called out, 'Come down, come
down! let's see who ye be.'
“Then there was a scratchin' and a rumblin' and a groan; and a pair
of feet come down the chimbley, and stood right in the middle of
the haarth, the toes pi'ntin' out'rds, with shoes and silver buckles
a-shinin' in the firelight. Cap'n Eb says he never come so near bein'
scared in his life; and, as to old Cack, he jest wilted right down in
his chair.
“Then old Ketury got up, and reached her stick up chimbley, and called
out louder, 'Come down, come down! let's see who ye be.' And, sure
enough, down came a pair o' legs, and j'ined right on to the feet: good
fair legs they was, with ribbed stockings and leather breeches.
“'Wal, we're in for it now,' says Cap'n Eb. 'Go it, Ketury, and let's
have the rest on him.'
“Ketury didn't seem to mind him: she stood there as stiff as a stake,
and kep' callin' out, 'Come down, come down! let's see who ye be.' And
then come down the body of a man with a brown coat and yellow vest, and
j'ined right on to the legs; but there wa'n't no arms to it. Then Ketury
shook her stick up chimbley, and called, '_Come down, come down!_' And
there came down a pair o' arms, and went on each side o' the body; and
there stood a man all finished, only there wa'n't no head on him.
“'Wal, Ketury,' says Cap'n Eb, 'this 'ere's getting serious. I 'spec' you
must finish him up, and let's see what he wants of us.'
“Then Ketury called out once more, louder'n ever, 'Come down, come down!
let's see who ye be.' And, sure enough, down comes a man's head, and
settled on the shoulders straight enough; and Cap'n Eb, the minit he sot
eyes on him, knew he was Jehiel Lommedieu.
[Illustration: 0035]
“Old Cack knew him too; and he fell flat on his face, and prayed the
Lord to have mercy on his soul: but Cap'n Eb he was for gettin' to the
bottom of matters, and not have his scare for nothin'; so he says to
him, 'What do you want, now you hev come?'
“The man he didn't speak; he only sort o' moaned, and p'inted to the
chimbley. He seemed to try to speak, but couldn't; for ye see it isn't
often that his sort o' folks is permitted to speak: but just then there
came a screechin' blast o' wind, and blowed the door open, and blowed
the smoke and fire all out into the room, and there seemed to be a
whirlwind and darkness and moans and screeches; and, when it all cleared
up, Ketury and the man was both gone, and only old Cack lay on the
ground, rolling and moaning as if he'd die.
“Wal, Cap'n Eb he picked him up, and built up the fire, and sort o'
comforted him up, 'cause the crittur was in distress o' mind that was
drefful. The awful Providence, ye see, had awakened him, and his sin had
been set home to his soul; and he was under such conviction, that it all
had to come out,--how old Cack's father had murdered poor Lommedieu for
his money, and Cack had been privy to it, and helped his father build
the body up in that very chimbley; and he said that he hadn't had
neither peace nor rest since then, and that was what had driv' him
away from ordinances; for ye know sinnin' will always make a man leave
prayin'. Wal, Cack didn't live but a day or two. Cap'n Eb he got the
minister o' Sherburn and one o' the selectmen down to see him; and they
took his deposition. He seemed railly quite penitent; and Parson Carryl
he prayed with him, and was faithful in settin' home the providence to
his soul: and so, at the eleventh hour, poor old Cack might have got
in; at least it looks a leetle like it. He was distressed to think he
couldn't live to be hung. He sort o' seemed to think, that if he was
fairly tried, and hung, it would make it all square. He made Parson
Carryl promise to have the old mill pulled down, and bury the body; and,
after he was dead, they did it.
“Cap'n Eb he was one of a party o' eight that pulled down the chimbley;
and there, sure enough, was the skeleton of poor Lommedieu.
“So there you see, boys, there can't be no iniquity so hid but what
it 'll come out. The wild Indians of the forest, and the stormy winds and
tempests, j'ined together to bring out this'ere.”
“For my part,” said Aunt Lois sharply, “I never believed that story.”
“Why, Lois,” said my grandmother, “Cap'n Eb Sawin was a regular
church-member, and a most respectable man.”
“Law, mother! I don't doubt he thought so. I suppose he and Cack got
drinking toddy together, till he got asleep, and dreamed it. I wouldn't
believe such a thing if it did happen right before my face and eyes. I
should only think I was crazy, that's all.”
“Come, Lois, if I was you, I wouldn't talk so like a Sadducee,” said
my grandmother. “What would become of all the accounts in Dr. Cotton
Mather's 'Magnilly' if folks were like you?”
“Wal,” said Sam Lawson, drooping contemplatively over the coals, and
gazing into the fire, “there's a putty consid'able sight o' things in
this world that's true; and then ag'in there's a sight o' things that
ain't true. Now, my old gran'ther used to say, 'Boys, says he, 'if ye
want to lead a pleasant and prosperous life, ye must contrive allers
to keep jest the _happy medium_ between truth and falsehood.' Now, that
are's my doctrine.”
Aunt Lois knit severely.
“Boys,” said Sam, “don't you want ter go down with me and get a mug o'
cider?”
Of course we did, and took down a basket to bring up some apples to
roast.
“Boys,” says Sam mysteriously, while he was drawing the cider, “you jest
ask your Aunt Lois to tell you what she knows 'bout Ruth Sullivan.”
“Why, what is it?”
“Oh! you must ask _her_. These 'ere folks that's so kind o' toppin'
about sperits and sich, come sift 'em down, you gen 'lly find they knows
one story that kind o' puzzles 'em. Now you mind, and jist ask your Aunt
Lois about Ruth Sullivan.”
[Illustration: 5040]