A lovely June day was drawing to a close, as a stage coach drew up at
the one hotel in the little village of Waveland.
"Here at last, mum," said the driver, stepping forward to assist a lady
to alight. "It's been a tedious ride for a delicate looking lady like
you."
She _was_ delicate looking, and _very_ pretty, with an air of refinement
that betokened good birth and careful culture.
"Yes," she said, "it has been a weary day's journey, and I shall be glad
to rest."
She went into the little homespun sitting-room, and laid aside her
bonnet and shawl, then went to the window, and looked out in an absent
way. The high, pure brow, and calm, thoughtful eyes, remind us of one we
have met before, and the slender, nervous hands, locked after her old
fashion when troubled, prove that it is none other than our young
friend, Clemence Graystone.
"Jerushy! ain't she style?"
Her reverie came abruptly to an end, and with a momentary feeling of
annoyance, she retreated from the window, as this exclamation startled
her into the knowledge that half of the inhabitants of the little
village were already out and gazing at her.
"What can I do for you, Miss?" asked the obsequious landlord, a moment
after. It was evident that guests beneath his hospitable roof were "like
angel's visits, few and far between."
"Supper and a room."
"Yes, certainly, certainly, in no time. Here, Cary Elizy, Elizabeth
Angeline, Victory Valery, where on earth air they? Neither of them three
girls is never on hand when they're wanted."
There was a shuffle, a scampering, and much suppressed giggling, then a
frowsy head peered in at the doorway.
"This lady wants something to eat, and a good cup of tea, directly."
"Yes," drawled a voice, "she shall have it if it takes a limb. Here,
girls, spin around, I tell you, and git the young woman suthin to eat."
Meanwhile, Clemence surveyed the little room to which she had been
conducted, guiltless of carpeting, and with only one chair and a
washstand, beside a huge, old fashioned bedstead, and plump feather bed
covered with patchwork. But everything was clean and inviting, and only
too thankful for the opportunity, Clemence smoothed her hair, and bathed
her aching temples, preparatory to partaking of that "good cup of tea,"
which her host had ordered, and which she hoped would drive away her
headache.
But, alas! for human anticipations. The good, wholesome country fare
which she had expected, proved to be only the refuse of what was
considered unsaleable in market. In place of the steaming biscuit,
golden butter, and delicious cream she had promised herself, there were
huge slices of clammy bread, a plate of old-fashioned short-cake, yellow
with saleratus; butter, that to say the least of it, was not inodorous,
and a compound of skim milk and lukewarm water, dignified by the name of
tea. Leaving it almost untasted, Clemence sought her couch, and was soon
buried in profound slumber.
She awoke late the next morning, and after a hasty toilet, went down to
breakfast, to find herself the center of observation. The table was
tolerably well-filled, with one or two blooming damsels, and for the
rest, sun-browned country boys.
"Good morning," said the gentleman of the house, heartily. "Kalkilate
you was pretty well played out, yesterday. Don't look as if you'd stand
much hard work. You're a school teacher, I take it? Yes, I thought so. I
can generally guess at a body's business the first time trying. I ain't
one of the educated sort myself, but I've picked up a few ideas knocking
around the world. I've got some girls now, I'd like to have learn
something, but then they don't seem to take to it. I spose that kind o'
hankerin' after books comes natural to some folks, and to others it
don't. Me nor none of my family never seemed to set much store by that
sort of thing. It's a good thing to be gifted, though. There's neighbor
Green's boy, Bill, he can 'late anything after he's heerd it once, and
when there's any doins' of any kind comin' off, they send him so he can
tell the rest, after he gets home, all what happened. But, as I said
before, it's more'n any of the rest of us can do.
"And, to tell the truth, we don't need to be as wise as Solomon, here in
these parts, to be as good as the best. When a man gets what you may
call a little forehanded, he's bound to have his say about matters and
things, whether he understands them or not. I rather guess, too, Miss,"
he added, good-naturedly, "if you stay long enough round here, you'll
git to teachin' one scholar. There ain't many old maids around here, but
there's any quantity of nice, industrious young men what want wives, and
ain't a goin' far for to find them, eh, girls?"
There was a good deal of tittering at this last remark, and the
aforementioned youths blushed to the tips of their ears.
"What singular people I have got among," thought Clemence, who could not
refrain from laughing at their oddity. "What a strange fate has thrown
me among them?"
She was destined to learn a good deal more of their singularities,
during her prolonged sojourn at the little village. A country school
teacher, having to "board round," has a good chance to study human
nature.
Before she had been long at her new occupation, she found that she was
expected to be, literally, "as wise as a serpent, and as harmless as a
dove." There was no subject--religion or politics not excepted--which
she was not expected thoroughly to understand and expound; she was
evidently considered, from her position, as a sort of animated
encyclopedia, to be consulted at will. And all this, to be able to
instruct a half-civilized brood of children, of both sexes, in the
rudiments of reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic and geography, with
enough of grammar to enable them to stammer and stumble through a simple
sentence, and arrive safely at the end without any material injury to
the teacher's nerves.
However, it was, at least, an honorable independence, poorly remunerated
though it was, and she went to work with a will.
Her first boarding place was at the house of an aged couple, by the name
of Wynn, who lived a short distance from the school house. Their
appearance struck her as extremely peculiar. Mrs. Wynn's tall, stooping
figure, spoke plainly of a hard, laborious life. Her sharp features and
keen, piercing eyes, made more prominent by the unusual lowness of the
forehead, told more surely than language, of their owner's propensity to
investigate the affairs of her neighbor, and proved her claim to the
complimentary title, they had bestowed upon her, viz:--"That prying old
mother, Wynn." But what was still more strange, was the silver hair of
both these old people, and which their age did not seem to warrant. The
lady, however, with a little lingering of feminine vanity in her heart,
had made an awkward attempt at hair dye of home manufacture, and from a
too plentiful use of sulphur and copperas, had succeeded in producing a
band of vivid yellow upon each side of her temple, while the hair at the
back and upon the crown of her head, was white as snow. Clemence learned
afterwards that these worthy people had seen a great deal of trouble,
and that their prematurely aged appearance was from that source alone.
She was not aware that they had more than one daughter, who was her
pupil, but as she went into the "spare room" assigned her, and
carelessly took up a "carte de visite" that lay upon the table, she saw
underneath the picture of a buxom damsel, in a feeble, trembling hand,
"My own sweet Rose."
She had before this noticed another queer trait of the people among whom
her lot was so strangely cast, and that was their singular penchant for
fancy and high-sounding names. Among her scholars there were, for the
girls, respectively--Alcestine Alameda, Boadicea Beatrice, Claudia
Clarinda, Eugenia Eurydice, Venetia Ignatia, and so on, indefinitely;
and among a group of ragged, bare-footed boys, a number of time-honored
Bible names, and such distinguished modern ones as George Washington,
Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Edward Everett, and even down to one little
shock-headed, lisping, Abraham Lincoln.
"My own sweet Rose," proved, unhappily for Clemence, to possess more of
the characteristics of a stinging nettle, than of the flower whose name
she bore, and she was glad when her week was out, and she could leave
her charming society, for that which she fondly hoped might be more
congenial.
Clemence had begun to try her strength, and she prayed fervently that
she might not "faint by the way." What other alternative had she than
this? It was too sadly true, as she had told her friend, she was all
alone in the world. What mattered it where the rest of her life was
spent? She tried bravely to do her duty "in that station in life to
which it had pleased God to call her." That was enough for the present.
The future stretched out, dreary and hopeless, before her.
Strangely enough, she never thought that she was young and pretty and
well born, and might form new ties, if she would. She never reasoned
upon the subject, for the bare possibility did not once enter her mind.
This was the more strange, that she had never been in love, and there
were no memories to rise up and haunt her like ghosts of forgotten joys,
no dear face that had beamed upon her with the one profound affection
that comes to every one at some period of their lives. There were only
two graves under the willows that contained all that had ever been dear
to her in life. She never dreamed of any other love than theirs, who had
watched over her childhood, and left her, with prayers to heaven for her
safety upon their pallid lips. Her one hope was to live so that she
might meet them again, and that it might be said of her, "She hath done
what she could."
Clemence Graystone was possessed of little worldly ambition, and she had
no incentive to exertion, beyond what was necessary to maintain an
honorable independence. She was content, with fine talents that might
have won her a name, to be left behind upon the road to fame by those
who were better adapted to the contest. What was it to her? A
short-lived popularity, the adulation of the vulgar, the cool, critical
glances of those who might sympathize and appreciate, but ever seemed
more ready to condemn. She had no wish to be petted by the crowd, or
court the gaze of idle curiosity. Better solitude and her own thoughts.
She had enough of the latter, you may well believe. Obscure and
poverty-stricken, the world passed on, and forgot even her existence,
after a way it has. She did not "keep up with the times," and she was
left by the receding tide, a lonely waif upon unknown shores. What lay
before her, God alone knew. Clemence felt grieved, too, to find that she
was not liked by the village people. Old Mrs. Wynn took care to inform
her of that, with a due amount of exaggeration. Her crime consisted in
minding her own business, and letting others do the same--and they
called her gentle reticence, "airs," said she felt above common folks,
and prophesied that any amount of evil would befall her. She did not
know that it is a trait of human nature to condemn that, which, through
ignorance, people cannot appreciate the value. Therefore she mourned in
secret, and blamed herself for being unsocial, and tried hard to be
patient and forgiving.
At this juncture, when she most needed a counsellor, she made an
acquaintance, and formed a lasting friendship. She had often admired,
upon the outskirts of the village, a pretty cottage, embowered in trees,
and curiosity had led her to question others about its occupant. She
could only learn that a lady by the name of Hardyng lived there, quite
alone. That was all she could find out in regard to it.
One morning, however, very much to her surprise, as she had never met
the lady, she found on her desk an informal invitation to visit her at
the cottage. Tired of her own thoughts, and wishing for something to
take up her attention, she at once resolved to accept it--and, in
pursuance of this determination, after school was dismissed, responded
to the message in person. The door was opened immediately on her low
rap.
"How kind of you to come," said one of the sweetest voices she had ever
heard. "I have hoped and feared alternately, as to the result of my
unceremonious request. Pray make yourself perfectly at home. I have
wanted to get acquainted with you ever since I first saw you, but I go
out so little, I was almost in despair, until I hit upon this method. I
believe I have not yet introduced myself. I am Ulrica Hardyng, a lonely
and sorrowing woman, with no one in the whole wide world to love or care
for me, and I want to be your friend."
She knelt down before the young girl, whom she had already seated, and
gazed with dark, unfathomable eyes into the sweet face before her.
"Loyal and true," she said, stroking the white hand softly. "I want you
to love me, Miss Graystone. I knew at the first glimpse of your face,
that you had suffered, poor child, and I felt for you from that moment;
for who can sympathize with the afflicted so well as one who has drained
to the dregs the bitter cup?"
"Oh, Madame!" said Clemence, impetuously, fascinated, as every one else
had always been by the woman before her, "I shall be forever grateful
for the smallest portion of your regard. You cannot imagine how
completely isolated I have been, during my brief sojourn here."
"I believe that," was the reply; "a girl of your intellect and
refinement can have little in common with, these obtuse village people.
They cannot understand your feelings, and you cannot possibly sympathize
with theirs. Your former life must have been very different from this.
Tell me about it?"
It was a strange interview, but then, Ulrica Hardyng was a strange
woman, and never did anything like anybody else.
"You will come again?" she said, that evening as they parted. "Fate has
been kinder to me than I deserve, and sent me a sweet consoler. You and
I have nothing to do with the idle forms of society. We meet each other,
and that is quite enough."
"I will come again, kind friend," Clemence answered gratefully, "at an
early day; for now that I have once enjoyed the pleasure of your
society, it would be hard to deny myself the privilege in future."
After that they met nearly every day.
Mrs. Wynn had her say about it, too.
"So you've made the acquaintance of that stuck-up widow, have you? I've
a piece of advice for you. You're an unprotected girl, and might easily
get talked about. There's something queer about this Mis' Hardyng. She
don't mingle with the rest of us, and I wouldn't be too thick with her,
if I was in your place. Leastways, I won't let my Rose make any advances
towards an acquaintance. Mind, I don't say anything _against_ her, but I
do as I'd be done by, and give you a friendly warning, such as I'd have
anybody do by a child of mine, if they was around the world. For my
part, I always consider it a safe plan to wait and see what other people
think about them, before I make up to anybody myself. 'Taint expected
that a woman that's got a character to lose should commit herself in the
eyes of the world. Remember, too, that on account of your being in a
public capacity, so to speak, you'd ought to be more particular about
your morals. It's expected that you will do your best to set a good
example to the rest of the young folks round here; not, of course, that
_I_ would say anything, whatever you might do, but then, everybody ain't
so careful of the 'unruly member,' as the minister calls it. You know
people will talk. For instance, Miss Pryor dropped in here a few minutes
yesterday, and while we was taking a sociable cup of tea together, she
told me that Mis' Parsons told Caleb Sharp, and he told her, that you
looked a little too sanctimonious to have it natural, and she meant to
keep her eyes on you, for all you seemed so wrapped up in your own
affairs. They think you feel pretty big, I guess, for Miss Pryor said
she wasn't agoing to wait to be put down by you, but took particular
pains to flounce past you, with her head turned the other way, and never
pretending to know you was there. Mind, though, you don't say anything
to anybody about it. I am one of that kind that don't believe in making
mischief, and if there's anything I do _dispise_, its tattling about my
neighbors. It's a thing I never do, to talk against folks behind their
back. There's plenty that do, though, in this very town. Now, there's
that Mis' Swan, where you're going to board next week, she's been pretty
well talked about, first and last, and they _do_ say not without cause,
for you know the sayin' about there always bein' some fire where there's
any smoke. She makes believe all innocence, but I could tell some things
that I've seen with these two eyes, if I choose.
"The last teacher we had before you came, was a single young gentleman
by the name of Sweet. He was a nice, fine-looking man, with a real
innocent face, and pleasant ways, and I took quite a motherly interest
in him. He used to be at the Swans' very often, and I had a few
suspicions of my own. I used to send Rose in, kind of sudden like,
whenever I see him go by to their house. Mis' Swan felt guilty, for she
knew what I meant; but, will you believe, the malicious creature
actually insinuated that I had designs on him, and positively had the
impudence to send me a saucy message, one day, by Rose, right before her
husband and that young Sweet. I was so mad that I published the whole
affair over the place within twenty-four hours. I put on my bonnet, and
went in one direction, and sent Rose in another, and Mis' Swan found
herself in a pretty mess, with her name on everybody's lips. But, will
you believe in the ingratitude of human nature, the woman's own husband
called me a meddlesome old busy-body, after I had solemnly warned him of
his wife's unfaithfulness, and I was made the laughing stock of the town
where I was born, and have lived a long and useful life. Nobody can tell
me anything to convince me that my suspicions wasn't correct, and it
went to my heart to have them say that I did it all out of spite,
because I wanted to secure the school-master for my daughter. But I've
lived it down, though, and have shown some people about here, that I
consider them as far beneath me, as the heavens are _above_ the earth."
Clemence found the Swan's a little homespun couple, but, on the whole,
much more endurable than Mrs. Wynn and Rose.
"I suppose you have heard all about Kate's outrageous proceedings from
our elderly friend?" laughed Mr. Swan, at the tea-table. "Poor Mrs.
Wynn. She laid me under infinite obligations, by her efforts on my
behalf, so much so, that sometimes the load of gratitude fairly
oppresses me. In case matters had turned out as she feared, though, I
might eventually have consoled myself with the fair Miss Rose's
agreeable society."
"There, there, Harry!" said his wife, "don't say anything to prejudice
Miss Graystone against them. I have forgiven her long ago, and I only
hope that Rose may succeed in obtaining half as good a husband as
somebody I know of."
"Well," he said, bestowing a fond glance upon the bright face beside
him, "we won't say anything against them. By the way, Kitty, I received
a letter to-day from Sweet, and he announces the advent of another
juvenile Sweet-ness, to be named in honor of your ladyship. You see,
Miss Graystone, he is a relative, having married a cousin of my wife's.
There was some trouble about the match, for Uncle Eben objected to the
young man, on account of his being a schoolteacher, He used to come to
Kate for advice, and being rather a favorite with uncle, she finally
succeeded in reconciling him to the marriage. The young couple naturally
think her 'but little lower than the angels,' since her efforts in their
behalf, and I never saw Sweet so indignant at anybody in my life as he
was at the Wynns, for starting that infamous story. But I told him not
to mind, it would blow over, and it did. Mrs. Wynn is pretty well known
here, and like the rest of us, I suppose, has her good traits and her
bad ones."
"How do you like our little village?" asked Mrs. Swan, to turn the
conversation, a few moments after.
"I have been here so short a time that I can hardly judge, as yet,"
replied Clemence. "I think I shall like it better than I at first
expected."
"Indeed, I hope you will," said her hostess. "We would like very much to
have you settle among us. You must have observed, by this time, that
there are few people of liberal education in the place."
"Yet, they are a shrewd, sensible people," said Mr. Swan, "who might,
under more favorable auspices, make a figure in the world. There are
many kind-hearted, Christian men and women in Waveland, Miss Graystone,
notwithstanding their rough and almost repulsive exterior."
"I dare say there are many such," she replied earnestly, thinking of the
cold, heartless worldlings she had left behind her in the great, busy
city. "I do not judge altogether by outward appearances."
"Nor I," was the cordial answer; "the coat don't make the man, in this
community, but if any one is sick, or in trouble, they will always find
these rough-handed villagers ready to sympathize and aid."
Mr. Swan never made a truer remark than this last. The primitive
inhabitants of Waveland, although they gossipped about each other, and
speculated a little beyond the bounds of politeness and decorum, in
regard to the affairs of the few strangers, who now and then appeared
among them, were, on the whole, a kind-hearted, sober, industrious
community. The little village possessed two stores, a hotel, blacksmith
shop, a school house in which religious services were also held, and a
post office, presided over, in an official capacity, by the village
doctor.
There was also a weekly paper published there, by an ambitious youth,
called the "Clarion," which contained snappish editorials about its
neighbors, aspiring criticisms upon the publications of different
authors, always ending in an unmistakable "puff," if they were at all
popular, or a feeble attempt at discriminating censure, if the unlucky
scribe was unknown to fame, and had (poor wretch,) his way yet to make
in the literary world.
Clemence got quite attached to the Swans' during her brief stay with
them. She regretted to leave them for the uncongenial society of
strangers.
Her next boarding place was at Dr. Little's. He was rightly named, Mrs.
Wynn had taken pains to inform her, and they were a well-matched pair.
"The way that man charged, when my Rose had the fever and chills, was
amazin'. I know one thing, there would be a good opening in Waveland for
any single young man who wanted to set up opposition to the old Doctor.
For _my_ part, I'd call on him every time my family needed his services,
which would probably be pretty often, for Rose is kind of delicate like.
He'd be sure to have one patron, for it would do me good to spite the
Little's."
Clemence thought, when she first saw this couple, about whom she had
heard so much, that though the little weazen-faced Doctor might chance
to be rightly named, yet the same remark could not, by any means, apply
to the mountain of flesh he called his wife.
"Oh, but you don't know her," said Maria, their one servant, after tea.
"I always thought, before I came here, that fat people, especially them
that had plenty of means, sort of took life easy. But I've changed my
mind, since I knew Mis' Little. I've been in her service risin' of five
years, and you might as well think of catching a weasel asleep. It's
'Mariar,' the last thing at night, and 'Mariar,' the first thing in the
morning. I don't know when she rests, for she never lays down while I am
awake, for fear I shant do just so much. If them there philysophers,
that want to find out the secret of perpetual motion, and can't, would
come across Mis' Little, they'd own beat. She's just kept a spinning for
the last five years. And Sundays she's more regular to church than the
minister himself, besides all the weekly meetings, and always gets up
and tells what the Lord's done for her soul. Then the Doctor he follows,
and talks about the gold-paved streets, and all that, and is sure to
bring in a Latin quotation. After that, he sits down, and goes to
twirlin' that big jack-knife of his, and I can't help thinkin', though I
know it's wicked, that if he was to get to heaven as he expects, the
very first thing he'd do, would be to whip out that knife, and go to
scrapin' away to get a little gold dust to put in his pocket; he! he!
he! Don't look so horrified, Miss Graystone. I suppose, now you think
I'm dreadful ungrateful. One thing I know, they'll palaver you till
you'll think they was two pink and white angels that had slid down a
rainbow, especially to make themselves agreeable to you; but Maria
Mott's no fool, and she knows what she's a talkin' about every time."
Dr. Little had one other servant, a simple minded, ignorant boy by the
name of Harvey. He worked for his board, perfectly convinced that the
pious teachings of the worthy couple were sufficient remuneration for
such light services as were required of him. Harvey was an humble member
of the same church in which his employer was a shining light, therefore
it was his privilege to listen, with a thankful spirit, to many precious
pearls of wisdom that dropped from their revered lips. In fact, Harvey
was enveloped continually in the very odor of sanctity, whereby he was
greatly profited. Thus the promptings of his sinful nature were
effectually stifled, and he grew each day, outwardly as well as
spiritually, more ethereal, less "of the earth earthly."
Maria Mott was wicked enough to say that it was because he did not get
enough to eat, and to openly lament the change in the once bright-eyed,
round-faced boy.
The worthy old Doctor, however, congratulated himself, and said he was
fitting the boy for heaven.
Mrs. Little used to remain at the tea table to administer instruction,
not, let us hope, as Maria averred, to watch Harvey so he wouldn't eat
so much.
"Harvey," she asked, on one occasion, "are you not thankful that the
Lord has given you so good a home?"
"Yes, Mis' Little, keeps me pretty busy though to earn it," came
hollowly from the depths of a teacup.
"Mamma," called young Charlie Little, over the banister, "I want Harvey
to do an errand for me. Will you please give him my order. Here is a
bright new silver piece for him, too."
"Such extravagance, Charlie!" said his mother, but, coloring as Clemence
passed her, "I want you to be generous to the poor, my son, I have
always striven to inculcate the lesson of charity conscientiously."
Mrs. Little _was_ good-hearted and liberal. Clemence felt sorry for
having misjudged her, as she saw a bright silver piece glitter in her
hand the next Sabbath, as she sat beside her during the weekly
collection of contribution for the missionary fund. Maria was wrong, and
she was sorry she laughed when she spoke flippantly of Mrs. Little's
magnificent gift of a penny a Sabbath amounting to fifty-two cents
annually. She ought to be more careful to give people the benefit of the
doubt.
But she thought differently, when she got home and found Harvey
patiently blacking Master Charlie's boots.
"Why, Harvey, you were not at church?" she asked, in surprise.
"No, Miss Graystone, they kept me too busy here," was the reply, in a
disheartened tone, "and now Master Charlie's been off fishin', and got
all covered with dust, I've got to black these boots over again. I
should think he'd be ashamed ordering me round like a dog, and then
walking off without even saying, thank you. If he would give me a
quarter, now and then, I would not mind, for I never have a penny of my
own for anything, not even to give of a Sunday. But I don't suppose a
poor boy like me, has any right to have a soul," he added bitterly. "I
don't much care, sometimes, whether I ever go to church again or not."
"Oh, don't say that, Harvey," said Clemence, in distressed tones. A new
light broke in upon his mind. She took from her own scanty supply of
pocket money, a twenty-five cent note, crisp and new, and handed it to
him. "I have no bright silver piece for you, Harvey," she said, "but
here is something nearly as good if you will accept it."
"Oh, thank you, a thousand times," was the grateful response, "I will
get it changed into pennies for my missionary offering. I was just
wishing for some money of my own, to take this afternoon to my Sunday
school teacher."
"Well, I am very glad that I had it to give you," said Clemence. "Don't
despair, Harvey, if your lot is hard. God sees, and he will surely
reward you."
"Oh, I will try to be patient," said the boy, lifting his honest face,
with the great, tear-filled eyes. "If everybody was only like you, I
would be willing to do anything. But it's only Harvey here, and Harvey
there, and never a pleasant word, only before folks. It's hard to bear.
It did not use to be so before mother died. To be sure, we were very
poor, and I had to work hard, but mother loved me."
"Poor boy!" sighed Clemence, turning away, "every heart knoweth its own
sorrow."