geraint as he had been used to do when he was at arthur's court frequented tournaments before geraint the scourge of the enemy i saw steeds white with foam and after the shout of battle a fearful torrent these tidings came to erbin not i by my confession unto heaven said she there is nothing more hateful unto me than this and the tears she shed and the words she had spoken awoke him and evil betide me said he if thou returnest here until thou knowest whether i have lost my strength so completely as thou didst say then geraint went to see erbin sir said he i am going upon a quest and i am not certain when i may come back take heed therefore unto thy possessions until my return but one person only will go with me and he desired enid to mount her horse and to ride forward and to keep a long way before him and unless i speak unto thee say not thou one word either and though thou shouldst desire to see my defeat and my death by the hands of those men yet do i feel no dread and he received him and that not feebly and say not one word unto me unless i speak first unto thee i will do as far as i can lord said she according to thy desire ah maiden said he it is vain to attempt proceeding forward i cannot by any means refrain from sleep through weariness said he do thou therefore watch the horses and sleep not and when she saw the dawn of day appear she looked around her to see if he were waking and thereupon he woke and they left the wood and they came to an open country with meadows on one hand and mowers mowing the meadows my lord he added will it be displeasing to thee if i ask whence thou comest also wilt thou follow my counsel said the youth and take thy meal from me what sort of meal he inquired then they washed and took their repast i go now lord said he to meet the knight and to conduct him to his lodging i will do lord said she as thou sayest and after they had eaten and drank geraint went to sleep and so did enid also the dates seem unimportant but throughout the period the officers and men of the ship have been unremittingly busy bowers attacked the ship's stores surveyed relisted and restowed them saving very much space by unstowing numerous cases and stowing the contents in the lazarette without steam the leak can now be kept under with the hand pump by two daily efforts of a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes as the ship was and in her present heavily laden condition it would certainly have taken three to four hours each day the large green tent was put up and proper supports made for it the engine room staff and anderson's people on the engines scientists were stowing their laboratories the cook refitting his galley and so forth not a single spot but had its band of workers the men's space such as it is therefore extends from the fore hatch to the stem on the main deck under the forecastle are stalls for fifteen ponies the maximum the space would hold the narrow irregular space in front is packed tight with fodder immediately behind the forecastle bulkhead is the small booby hatch the only entrance to the men's mess deck in bad weather abaft the fore hatch is the ice house we managed to get three tons of ice one hundred sixty two carcases of mutton and three carcases of beef besides some boxes of sweetbreads and kidneys into this space the sacks containing this last added to the goods already mentioned make a really heavy deck cargo and one is naturally anxious concerning it but everything that can be done by lashing and securing has been done forage i originally ordered thirty tons of compressed oaten hay from melbourne the scene is wholly enchanting and such a view from some sheltered sunny corner in a garden which blazes with masses of red and golden flowers tends to feelings of inexpressible satisfaction with all things a great mass of people assembled k and i lunched with a party in the new zealand company's ship ruapehu telegram to say terra nova had arrived sunday night a third sledge stands across the break of the poop in the space hitherto occupied by the after winch the quantity is two and a half tons and the space occupied considerable the ship was over two feet by the stern but this will soon be remedied they must perforce be chained up and they are given what shelter is afforded on deck but their position is not enviable it is a pathetic attitude deeply significant of cold and misery occasionally some poor beast emits a long pathetic whine there are generally one or two on watch which eases matters but it is a squash later in the day the wind has veered to the westward heading us slightly oates and atkinson with intermittent assistance from others were busy keeping the ponies on their legs there was nothing for it but to grapple with the evil and nearly all hands were labouring for hours in the waist of the ship heaving coal sacks overboard and re lashing the petrol cases et cetera in the best manner possible under such difficult and dangerous circumstances no sooner was some semblance of order restored than some exceptionally heavy wave would tear away the lashing and the work had to be done all over again from this moment about four a m the engine room became the centre of interest the water gained in spite of every effort the outlook appeared grim the amount of water which was being made with the ship so roughly handled was most uncertain williams had to confess he was beaten and must draw fires what was to be done the bilge pump is dependent on the main engine on one occasion i was waist deep when standing on the rail of the poop the afterguard were organised in two parties by evans to work buckets the men were kept steadily going on the choked hand pumps this seemed all that could be done for the moment and what a measure to count as the sole safeguard of the ship from sinking practically an attempt to bale her out occasionally a heavy sea would bear one of them away and he was only saved by his chain now this is how arthur hunted the stag and the last dog that was let loose was the favorite dog of arthur cavall was his name then they sounded the death horn for slaying and they all gathered round one wished that it should be given to the lady best beloved by him and another to the lady whom he loved best and after midday they beheld an unshapely little man upon a horse and after him a dame or a damsel also on horseback and after her a knight of large stature bowed down and hanging his head low and sorrowfully and clad in broken and worthless armor i know not who they are said he but i know said guenever this is the knight whom geraint pursued and methinks that he comes not here by his own free will but geraint has overtaken him and avenged the insult to the maiden to the uttermost lady said he at the gate there is a knight and i saw never a man of so pitiful an aspect to look upon as he i do said he he tells me that he is edeyrn the son of nudd then she replied i know him not so guenever went to the gate to meet him and he entered and geraint greets thee well and in greeting thee he compelled me to come hither to do thy pleasure for the insult which thy maiden received from the dwarf now where did he overtake thee sir said she when thinkest thou that geraint will be here to morrow lady i think he will be here with the maiden i am lord said he and i have met with much trouble and received wounds unsupportable well said arthur from what i hear it behooves guenever to be merciful towards thee the mercy which thou desirest lord said she will i grant to him since it is as insulting to thee that an insult should be offered to me as to thyself thus will it be best to do said arthur let this man have medical care until it be known whether he may live to guenever and her handmaidens said he and the steward of the household so ordered her and being young he changed himself and grew to hate the sin that seem'd so like his own of modred arthur's nephew and fell at last in the great battle fighting for the king and when geraint came to the place where guenever was he saluted her then they went in and dismounted heaven protect thee said arthur and the welcome of heaven be unto thee and inasmuch as thou hast vanquished edeyrn the son of nudd thou hast had a prosperous career and from that time she became his wife and the maiden took up her abode in the palace and she had many companions both men and women and there was no maiden more esteemed than she in the island of britain and a year and a second and a third he proceeded thus until his fame had flown over the face of the kingdom and he greets thee well as an uncle should greet his nephew and as a vassal should greet his lord and the neighboring chiefs knowing this grow insolent towards him and covet his land and possessions and arthur told geraint the cause of the mission and of the coming of the ambassadors to him out of cornwall truly said geraint be it to my advantage or disadvantage lord i will do according to thy will concerning this embassy what discourse said guenever do i hear between you said geraint i think i shall have enough of knighthood with me and they set forth and never was there seen a fairer host journeying towards the severn and he said to geraint i am a feeble and an aged man and whilst i was able to maintain the dominion for thee and for myself i did so and every one asked that which he desired and they were not long in giving so eager was every one to bestow gifts and of those who came to ask gifts none departed unsatisfied then geraint sent ambassadors to the men of cornwall to ask them this and they all said that it would be the fulness of joy and honor to them for geraint to come and receive their homage so he received the homage of such as were there and the day after the followers of arthur intended to go away a number of other dates were observed by the christian church at various times as the birthday of jesus the gospels give no date and appear to be quite uncertain really ignorant about it yet there is no evidence that he was born on that day why this discrepancy in a historical document to say nothing about inspiration again matthew says that to escape the evil designs of herod mary and joseph with the infant jesus fled into egypt luke says nothing about this hurried flight nor of herod's intention to kill the infant messiah when we come to the more important chapters about jesus we meet with greater difficulties while it is always on a friday that the crucifixion is commemorated the week in which the day occurs varies from year to year good friday falls not before the spring equinox but as soon after the spring equinox as the full moon allows thus making the calculation to depend upon the position of the sun in the zodiac and the phases of the moon the pagan oestera has become the christian easter but in the absence of evidence origin offers the following metaphysical arguments against the sceptical celsus one if we are to have any mythology at all he seems to argue why object to adding to it the mythus of jesus the immediate companions of jesus appear to be on the other hand as mythical as he is himself who was matthew who was mark who were john peter judas and mary there is absolutely no evidence that they ever existed if peter ever went to rome with a new doctrine how is it that no historian has taken note of him here again we see the presence of a myth he was the only one who saw them peter paul john james judas occupy the stage almost exclusively it is impossible to explain why the contemporaries of jesus the authors and historians of his time do not take notice of him could they have been in a conspiracy against him how else is this unanimous silence to be accounted for how then are we to decide which of the numerous candidates for divine honors should be given our votes and such a faith is never free it is always maintained by the sword now and by hell fire hereafter yet the most impossible utterances are put in jesus mouth only a mythical jesus could virtually hand over the government of the universe to courtiers who have petitions to press upon his attention moreover if jesus could keep his promise there would be today no misery in the world no orphans no childless mothers no shipwrecks no floods no famines no disease no crippled children no insanity no wars no crime no wrong have these prayers been answered how many self deluded prophets these extravagant claims have produced and who can number the bitter disappointments caused by such impossible promises the same which the preachers of today give he parried his answer with many words and at length said that the promise was to be taken with the provision that what we asked for would be given if god thought it for our good but he said if ye ask anything in my name i will do it and if it were not so i would have told you did he not mean just what he said self effort and not prayer is the remedy against ignorance slavery poverty and moral degradation but i am determined not only to know if it is possible the whole truth about jesus but also to communicate that truth to others but there is more of a moral tonic in the open and candid discussion of a subject like the one in hand than in a multitude of platitudes i never deliver a lecture in which i do not either directly or indirectly give full and free expression to my faith in everything that is worthy of faith if i do not believe in dogma it is because i believe in freedom oh he tears down but does not build up is another criticism about my work it is not true no preacher or priest is more constructive clapping truth into jail gagging the mouth of the student is that building up or tearing down when bruno lighted a new torch to increase the light of the world what was his reward the stake count your rights political religious social intellectual and tell me which of them was conquered for you by the priest i wish to tell you something but first let us be impersonal the epithets irreverent blasphemer atheist and infidel are flung at a man not from pity but from envy not having the courage or the industry of our neighbor who works like a busy bee in the world of men and books searching with the sweat of his brow for the real bread of life wetting the open page before him with his tears pushing into the wee hours of the night his quest animated by the fairest of all loves the love of truth we ease our own indolent conscience by calling him names as i approached the city i heard bells ringing and a little later i found the streets astir with throngs of well dressed people in family groups wending their way hither and thither looking about me i saw a gentleman in a neat black dress smiling and his hand extended to me with great cordiality he must have realized i was a stranger and wished to tender his hospitality to me i accepted it gratefully i clasped his hand he pressed mine we gazed for a moment silently into each other's eyes of course you are going there too i said to my friendly guide yes he answered i conduct the worship i am a priest an idol i whispered taken by surprise they worshipped gods that did not exist but the greeks loved their gods i protested my heart clamoring in my breast no i said in a low voice he was an idol then and not a god it made athens a city of light it created the beautiful the true the good yes our religion was divine it had only one fault interrupted my guide what was that i inquired without knowing what his answer would be it was not true produce him i whispered to myself what blasphemy then taking heart i told my guide how more than once i had felt apollo's radiant presence in my heart and told him of the immortal lines of homer concerning the divine apollo do you doubt homer i said to him homer the inspired bard no no apollo is not an idol he is a god and the son of a god the air was heavy with incense a number of men in gorgeous vestments were passing to and fro bowing and kneeling before the various lights and images observing my anxiety to understand the meaning of all this my guide took me aside and in a whisper told me that the people were celebrating the anniversary of the birthday of their beautiful savior jesus the son of god forget apollo he said with a suggestion of severity in his voice there is no such person he was only an idol if you were to search for apollo in all the universe you would never find any one answering to his name or description i want to see jesus i hastened turning toward him will he not be here this morning will he not speak to his worshippers i asked again will he not permit them to touch him to caress his hand to clasp his divine feet to inhale the ambrosial fragrance of his breath to bask in the golden light of his eyes to hear the music of his immaculate accents i asked my eyes filled with wonder and my voice quivering with excitement would not that then i ventured to ask impatiently make jesus as much of an idol as apollo and if faith that jesus is a god proves him a god why will not faith in apollo make him a god a myth is a fanciful explanation of a given phenomenon the mind craves for knowledge the child asks questions because of an inborn desire to know now and then they came close enough to snap at each other with this mythus the primitive man was satisfied until his developing intelligence realized its inadequacy science was born of that realization the myth of a one eyed people living in india has been replaced by accurate information concerning the hindoos and this is precisely the use to which myths have been put is jesus a myth there is in man a faculty for fiction it thinks less than it guesses it is reflection which introduces a bit into the mouth of imagination curbing its pace and subduing its restless spirit we fill the space about and over us with spirits fairies gods and other invisible and airy beings we covet the rainbow we reach out for the moon our feet do not really begin to touch the firm ground until we have reached the years of discretion science was not born until man had matured grown up people create science the cradle is the womb of all the fairies and faiths of mankind the school is the birthplace of science religion is the science of the child in the discussion of this subject i appeal to the mature not to the child mind he is god's mouthpiece and no one may disagree with him the only way i may command your respect is to be reasonable let us place ourselves entirely in the hands of the evidence as intelligent beings we desire to know whether this jesus whose worship is not only costing the world millions of the people's money but which is also drawing to his service the time the energies the affection the devotion and the labor of humanity is a myth or a reality and again when the artist following malicorne's advice was a little late in arriving and when saint aignan had been obliged to be absent for some time it was interesting to observe though no one witnessed them those moments of silence full of deep expression which united in one sigh two souls most disposed to understand each other and who by no means objected to the quiet meditation they enjoyed together in a word malicorne philosopher that he was though he knew it not had learned how to inspire the king with an appetite in the midst of plenty and with desire in the assurance of possession in this manner therefore without leaving her room and having no confidante she was able to return to her apartment thus removing by her appearance a little tardy perhaps the suspicions of the most determined skeptics but the door remained closed and neither saint aignan nor the painter appeared nor did the hangings even move go then dearest love said the king but return quickly no no not to day sire i knew but too well that you had not ceased to love me la valliere with a gesture partly of extreme terror and partly as if invoking a blessing attempted to speak but could not articulate one word at the moment however when the king threw himself on his knees a cry of utter despair rang through the corridor accompanied by the sound of retreating footsteps the captain sitting buried in his leathern armchair his spurs fixed in the floor his sword between his legs was reading a number of letters as he twisted his mustache d'artagnan uttered a welcome full of pleasure when he perceived his friend's son raoul my boy he said by what lucky accident does it happen that the king has recalled you these words did not sound agreeably in the young man's ears who as he seated himself replied upon my word i cannot tell you all that i know is i have come back hum that the king has not recalled you and you have returned i do not understand that at all raoul was already pale enough and he now began to turn his hat round and round in his hand what the deuce is the matter that you look as you do and what makes you so dumb said the captain do people nowadays assume that sort of airs in england i have been in england and came here again as lively as a chaffinch will you not say something i have too much to say ah how is your father forgive me my dear friend i was going to ask you that d'artagnan increased the sharpness of his penetrating gaze which no secret was capable of resisting you are unhappy about something he said i am indeed and you know the reason very well monsieur d'artagnan nay do not pretend to be astonished i am not pretending to be astonished my friend i have neither head nor arm do not despise but help me in two words i am the most wretched of living beings oh oh she is deceiving you said d'artagnan not a muscle of whose face had moved those are big words who makes use of them every one ah if every one says so there must be some truth in it not for a friend for a son the deuce take it you are really ill from curiosity no it is not from curiosity it is from love good another big word i tell you i love louise to distraction well suppose it were only that no sensible man ever succeeded in making much of a brain when the head was turned i have completely lost my senses in the same way a hundred times in my life you would hear but you would not understand me you would understand but you would not obey me oh try try i go far even if i were unfortunate enough to know something and foolish enough to communicate it to you you are my friend you say indeed yes very good i should quarrel with you i never complain as you know but as heaven and my father would never forgive me for blowing out my brains i will go and get the first person i meet to give me the information which you withhold i will tell him he lies and and you would kill him and a fine affair that would be so much the better what should i care you now assume a different tone instead of killing you will get killed yourself i suppose you mean very fine indeed how much i should regret you of course i should go about all day saying ah what a fine stupid fellow that bragelonne was as great a stupid as i ever met with go then raoul go and get yourself disposed of if you like i hardly know who can have taught you logic but deuce take me if your father has not been regularly robbed of his money raoul buried his face in his hands murmuring no no i have not a single friend in the world idle fancies monsieur i do not laugh at you although i am a gascon a carpenter what do you mean upon my word i don't know some one told me there was a carpenter who made an opening through a certain flooring oh i don't know where in whose room then i have told you for the last hour that i know nothing of the whole affair but the painter then the portrait why you seem to have only that name in your mouth i do not suppose it will concern you yes you are right and he made a step or two as if he were going to leave where are you going to look for some one who will tell me the truth who is that a woman you wish to be consoled by some one and you will be so at once she will tell you nothing ill of herself of course so be off you are mistaken monsieur replied raoul the woman i mean will tell me all the evil she possibly can well i admit it and in point of fact why should i play with you as a cat does with a poor mouse you distress me you do indeed wait if you can i cannot so much the worse ah said raoul snatching eagerly at the pen which the captain held out to him how very fortunate that is he was looking for you too she said in the same tone of voice it is not i who am going to speak to him who then i accompany my granddaughter to this this entertainment her ladyship responded it is scarcely a joyous occasion to my mind no need to dress yourself like that if it isn't ejaculated mister binnie if i were sure this was the same man i'd go myself when i find a fellow who's neither knave nor fool i stick to him believe i'll send to find out the only time he had made any comment upon her was the first time he saw her in the dress she had copied from octavia's nice gown that he blurted out didn't get it here i'll wager doesn't look like it he said gruffly no she answered i am not afraid at all i shall not be afraid again in fact she had perfectly confounded her ladyship by her demeanor i beg you will not speak to me of that again she said i will not listen and turning about she walked out of the room and nothing more had been said on the subject since before breakfast miss belinda was startled by the arrival of another telegram which ran as follows arrived to day per russia be with you tomorrow evening friend with me martin bassett well remarked octavia i suppose that would have been an advantage octavia was a marked figure upon the grounds at that garden party another dress my dear remarked missus burnham and what a charming color she has i declare she is usually paler perhaps we owe this to lord lansdowne she's prettier than ever to day and is enjoying herself she was enjoying herself mister francis barold observed it rather gloomily as he stood apart and then had come lord lansdowne who in crossing the lawn to shake hands with his host had been observed to keep his eye fixed upon one particular point burmistone he said after having spoken his first words who is that tall girl in white and in ten minutes lady theobald missus burnham mister barold and divers others too numerous to mention saw him standing at octavia's side evidently with no intention of leaving it not long after this francis barold found his way to miss belinda who was very busy and rather nervous your niece is evidently enjoying herself he remarked octavia is most happy to day answered miss belinda very few people understand octavia said miss belinda i'm not sure that i follow all her moods myself she is not as frivolous as she appears to those who don't know her well barold stood gnawing his mustache and made no reply he was not very comfortable he felt himself ill used by fate and rather wished he had returned to london from broadoaks instead of loitering in slowbridge he had amused himself at first but in time he had been surprised to find his amusement lose something of its zest it's deucedly bad form on his part he said mentally what does he mean by it octavia on the contrary did not ask what he meant by it where he ejaculated i say what a name i had not observed it answered her ladyship but she glared at barold as he passed and beckoned to him where is lucia she demanded i saw her with burmistone half an hour ago he answered coldly have you any message for my mother i shall return to london to morrow leaving here early she turned quite pale what has happened she asked rigidly he looked slightly surprised nothing whatever he replied i have remained here longer than i intended she began to move the manacles on her right wrist she had not brought lucia up under her own eye for nothing chapter twenty three may i go the very day after this octavia opened the fourth trunk evidently something had happened octavia she said mister dugald binnie is at oldclough who is he he is my grand uncle explained lucia tremulously he has a great deal of money i do not quite understand grandmamma octavia she said last night she came to my room to talk to me and this morning she came again and oh she broke out indignantly how could she speak to me in such a manner what did you understand i am to run after a man who does not care for me and make myself attractive in the hope that he will condescend to marry me because mister binnie may leave me his money do you wonder that it took even lady theobald a long time to say that well remarked octavia you won't do it i suppose i wouldn't worry oh i always knew it i didn't guess and she smiled ever so faintly that is one of the reasons why she loathes me so she added lucia thought deeply for a moment she recognized all at once several things she had been mystified by before octavia smiled a little again lucia sat thinking her hands clasped tightly i am glad i came here she said at length i think i shall never be afraid of her any more her delicate nostrils were dilated she held her head up her breath came fast there was a hint of exultation in her tone she walked very fast after she left the house but it was not against him that lucia's indignation was aroused she wondered if he had heard her last words she fancied he had he took hold of her shaking little hand and looked down at her excited face i am angry she said you have never seen me angry before i am on my way to my to lady theobald he held her hand as calmly as before what are you going to say to her he asked she laughed again he held her hand rather closer she has made you very angry he said and then almost before she knew what she was doing she was pouring forth the whole of her story even more of it than she had told octavia lucia he said i wish you would let me go and talk with lady theobald you she said with a little start yes he answered let me go to her if you will say yes to that i think i can promise that you need never be afraid of her any more the fierce color died out of her cheeks and the tears rushed to her eyes she raised her face with a pathetic look i am desperately in love with you he answered in his quietest way hallo colonel how d'ye sell your wood this time why capting we must charge you three and a quarter this time the d l supper was over and i retired to my upper berth situated alongside and overlooking the brag table where the captain was deeply engaged having now the other pilot as his principal opponent head her in shore then and take in six cords if it's good see to it thompson i can't very well leave the game now it's getting right warm this pilot's beating us all to smash the wooding completed we paddled on again they were anxious to learn the game and they did learn it still with all these disadvantages they continued playing they wanted to learn the game oh pretty glibly sir replied the mate we can scarcely tell what headway we are making for we are obliged to keep the middle of the river and there is the shadow of a fog rising this wood seems rather better than that we took in at yellow face's but we're nearly out again and must be looking out for more i saw a light just ahead on the right shall we hail yes yes replied the captain ring the bell and ask em what's the price of wood up here i've got you again here's double kings deal sir if you please better luck next time the other pilot's voice was again heard on deck how much have you only about ten cords sir was the reply of the youthful salesman the captain here told thompson to take six cords which would last till daylight and again turned his attention to the game the pilots here changed places when did they sleep wood taken in the caravan again took her place in the middle of the stream paddling on as usual day at length dawned i had risen and went out with the captain to enjoy a view of the bluffs there it is exclaimed the captain stop her he was gone no more deep blue skies or crimson and amber tints she sat by herself at the fire with unlighted candles on the table behind her thinking over the day the happy walk happy sketching cheerful pleasant dinner and the uncomfortable miserable walk in the garden here was she disturbed and unhappy because her instinct had made anything but a refusal impossible while he not many minutes after he had met with a rejection of what ought to have been the deepest holiest proposal of his life could speak as if briefs success and all its superficial consequences of a good house clever and agreeable society were the sole avowed objects of his desires oh dear her mother came into the room before this whirl of thoughts was adjusted into anything like order mister hale sipped his tea in abstracted silence margaret had the responses all to herself she forgot that he had not made them an offer margaret was preparing her mother's worsted work and rather shrinking from the thought of the long evening and wishing bed time were come that she might go over the events of the day again margaret i want to speak to you about something very serious to us all very serious to us all mister lennox had never had the opportunity of having any private conversation with her father after her refusal or else that would indeed be a very serious affair but she soon felt it was not about anything which having only lately and suddenly occurred could have given rise to any complicated thoughts that her father wished to speak to her mister hale did not answer for a minute or two margaret could not bear the sight of the suspense which was even more distressing to her father than to herself but why dear papa do tell me because i must no longer be a minister in the church of england but nothing to the shock she received from mister hale's last speech what could he mean it was all the worse for being so mysterious why can you no longer be a clergyman surely if the bishop were told all we know about frederick and the hard unjust margaret i will tell you about it i will answer any questions this once but after to night let us never speak of it again i can meet the consequences of my painful miserable doubts but it is an effort beyond me to speak of what has caused me so much suffering no not doubts as to religion not the slightest injury to that he paused margaret sighed as if standing on the verge of some new horror margaret how i love the holy church from which i am to be shut out he could not go on for a moment or two margaret could not tell what to say it seemed to her as terribly mysterious as if her father were about to turn mahometan the one staid foundation of her home of her idea of her beloved father seemed reeling and rocking he swallowed down the dry choking sobs which had been heaving up from his heart hitherto and going to his bookcase he took down a volume which he had often been reading lately and from which he thought he had derived strength to enter upon the course in which he was now embarked listen dear margaret said he putting one arm round her waist when god will not use thee in one kind yet he will in another if when thou art charged with corrupting god's worship falsifying thy vows thou pretendest a necessity for it in order to a continuance in the ministry as he read this and glanced at much more which he did not read he gained resolution for himself and felt as if he too could be brave and firm in doing what he believed to be right but as he ceased he heard margaret's low convulsive sob and his courage sank down under the keen sense of suffering i have borne long with self reproach that would have roused any mind less torpid and cowardly than mine he shook his head as he went on margaret i tried to do it i tried to content myself with simply refusing the additional preferment and stopping quietly here strangling my conscience now as i had strained it before god forgive me he rose and walked up and down the room speaking low words of self reproach and humiliation of which margaret was thankful to hear but few margaret i return to the old sad burden we must leave helstone yes i have written to the bishop i dare say i have told you so but i forget things just now said mister hale collapsing into his depressed manner as soon as he came to talk of hard matter of fact details informing him of my intention to resign this vicarage they are but what i have tried upon myself without avail that will be a trial but worse far worse will be the parting from my dear people he will come to stay with us to morrow was it to be so sudden then what does mamma say margaret i am a poor coward after all i cannot bear to give pain yes indeed she must said margaret perhaps after all she may not oh yes she will she must be shocked' as the force of the blow returned upon herself in trying to realise how another would take it to milton northern he answered with a dull indifference for he had perceived that although his daughter's love had made her cling to him and for a moment strive to soothe him with her love yet the keenness of the pain was as fresh as ever in her mind milton northern yes said he in the same despondent indifferent way but he with his quick intuitive sympathy read in her face as in a mirror the reflections of his own moody depression and turned it off with an effort you shall be told all margaret only help me to tell your mother i am going out for the day to bid farmer dobson and the poor people on bracy common good bye would you dislike breaking it to her very much margaret margaret did dislike it did shrink from it more than from anything she had ever had to do in her life before mister hale shook his head despondingly he pressed her hand in token of gratitude margaret was nearly upset again into a burst of crying to turn her thoughts she said now tell me papa what our plans are you and mamma have some money independent of the income from the living have not you aunt shaw has i know seventy of that has always gone to frederick since he has been abroad he must have some pay for serving with the spanish army frederick must not suffer said margaret decidedly in a foreign country so unjustly treated by his own a hundred is left no said mister hale that would not answer i must do something i can always decide better by myself and not influenced by those whom i love said he as a half apology for having arranged so much before he had told any one of his family of his intentions i cannot stand objections they make me so undecided mister hale continued a few months ago when my misery of doubt became more than i could bear without speaking i wrote to mister bell you remember mister bell margaret no i never saw him i think at any rate he has property there which has very much increased in value since milton has become such a large manufacturing town i don't know that he gave me much strength a private tutor said margaret looking scornful what in the world do manufacturers want with the classics or literature or the accomplishments of a gentleman oh said her father some of them really seem to be fine fellows conscious of their own deficiencies which is more than many a man at oxford is some want their children to be better instructed than they themselves have been and in milton margaret i shall find a busy life if not a happy one and people and scenes so different that i shall never be reminded of helstone discordant as it was with almost a detestation for all she had ever heard of the north of england the manufacturers the people the wild and bleak country there was this one recommendation it would be different from helstone and could never remind them of that beloved place when do we go i do not know exactly i wanted to talk it over with you you see your mother knows nothing about it yet but i think in a fortnight after my deed of resignation is sent in i shall have no right to remain margaret was almost stunned but she recovered herself immediately yes papa it had better be fixed soon and decidedly as you say poor poor maria oh if i were not married if i were but myself in the world how easy it would be no said margaret sadly i will do it you must not deceive yourself into doubting the reality of my words my fixed intention and resolve he looked at her in the same steady stony manner for some moments after he had done speaking the blessing of god be upon thee my child the next moment she feared lest this answer to his blessing might be irreverent wrong might hurt him as coming from his daughter and she threw her arms round his neck she heard him murmur to himself the martyrs and confessors had even more pain to bear i will not shrink they were startled by hearing missus hale inquiring for her daughter in seventeen fifty he came forth in the character for which he was eminently qualified a majestick teacher of moral and religious wisdom the vehicle which he chose was that of a periodical paper which he knew had been upon former occasions employed with great success when i was to begin publishing that paper i was at a loss how to name it i sat down at night upon my bedside and resolved that i would not go to sleep till i had fixed its title addison's note was a fiction in which unconnected fragments of his lucubrations were purposely jumbled together in as odd a manner as he could in order to produce a laughable effect whereas johnson's abbreviations are all distinct and applicable to each subject of which the head is mentioned for instance there is the following specimen publick calamities no sense of the prevalence of bad habits negligent of time ready to undertake careless to pursue all changed by time confident of others unsuspecting as unexperienced imagining himself secure against neglect never imagines they will venture to treat him ill ready to trust expecting to be trusted youth ambitious as thinking honours easy to be had different kinds of praise pursued at different periods of the fancy in manhood bruy scholar's friendship like ladies drawn to man by words repelled by passions common danger unites by crushing other passions but they return equality hinders compliance superiority produces insolence and envy too much regard in each to private interest too little of confederacy with superiours every one knows the inconvenience with equals no authority every man his own opinion his own interest man and wife hardly united scarce ever without children computation if two to one against two how many against five in this as in many other cases i go wrong in opposition to conviction for i think scarce any temporal good equally to be desired with the regard and familiarity of worthy men i hope we shall be some time nearer to each other and have a more ready way of pouring out our hearts the greatest benefit which one friend can confer upon another is to guard and excite and elevate his virtues this your mother will still perform if you diligently preserve the memory of her life and of her death a life so far as i can learn useful wise and innocent and a death resigned peaceful and holy i cannot forbear to mention that neither reason nor revelation denies you to hope that you may increase her happiness by obeying her precepts and that she may in her present state look with pleasure upon every act of virtue to which her instructions or example have contributed if you write down minutely what you remember of her from your earliest years you will read it with great pleasure and receive from it many hints of soothing recollection when time shall remove her yet farther from you and your grief shall be matured to veneration no thirty two on patience even under extreme misery is wonderfully lofty and as much above the rant of stoicism as the sun of revelation is brighter than the twilight of pagan philosophy it must indeed be allowed that the structure of his sentences is expanded and often has somewhat of the inversion of latin and that he delighted to express familiar thoughts in philosophical language being in this the reverse of socrates who it was said reduced philosophy to the simplicity of common life this idle charge has been echoed from one babbler to another who have confounded johnson's essays with johnson's dictionary and because he thought it right in a lexicon of our language to collect many words which had fallen into disuse but were supported by great authorities it has been imagined that all of these have been interwoven into his own compositions their styles differ as plain cloth and brocade our extremest pleasure has some sort of groaning and complaining in it would you not say that it is dying of pain the highest and fullest contentment offers more of the grave than of the merry ipsa felicitas se nisi temperat premit even felicity unless it moderate itself oppresses socrates says that some god tried to mix in one mass and to confound pain and pleasure but not being able to do it he bethought him at least to couple them by the tail metrodorus said that in sorrow there is some mixture of pleasure nature discovers this confusion to us painters hold that the same motions and grimaces of the face that serve for weeping serve for laughter too and indeed before the one or the other be finished do but observe the painter's manner of handling and you will be in doubt to which of the two the design tends and the extreme of laughter does at last bring tears and therefore common and less speculative souls are found to be more proper for and more successful in the management of affairs and the elevated and exquisite opinions of philosophy unfit for business this sharp vivacity of soul and the supple and restless volubility attending it disturb our negotiations he who dives into and in his inquisition comprehends all circumstances and consequences hinders his election a little engine well handled is sufficient for executions whether of less or greater weight when the lofty thucydides is about to enter upon his description of the plague that desolated athens one of his modern commentators assures the reader that the history is now going to be exceedingly solemn serious and pathetic and hints with that air of chuckling gratulation with which a good dame draws forth a choice morsel from a cupboard to regale a favorite that this plague will give his history a most agreeable variety such are the true subjects for the historic pen the fall of empires the desolation of happy countries splendid cities smoking in their ruins the proudest works of art tumbled in the dust the shrieks and groans of whole nations ascending unto heaven thus those swarms of flies which are so often execrated as useless vermin are created for the sustenance of spiders and spiders on the other hand are evidently made to devour flies ancient traditions speak much of his learning and of the gallant inroads he had made into the dead languages in which he had made captive a host of greek nouns and latin verbs and brought off rich booty in ancient saws and apophthegms which he was wont to parade in his public harangues as a triumphant general of yore his spolia opima it was observed however that he seldom got into an argument without getting into a perplexity and then into a passion with his adversary for not being convinced gratis his abode which he had fixed at a bowery or country seat at a short distance from the city just at what is now called dutch street soon abounded with proofs of his ingenuity patent smoke jacks that required a horse to work them dutch ovens that roasted meat without fire carts that went before the horses weathercocks that turned against the wind and other wrong headed contrivances that astonished and confounded all beholders it is in knowledge as in swimming he who flounders and splashes on the surface makes more noise and attracts more attention than the pearl diver who quietly dives in quest of treasures to the bottom the romans by this means erected their colonies for perceiving their city to grow immeasurably populous they eased it of the most unnecessary people and sent them to inhabit and cultivate the lands conquered by them sometimes also they purposely maintained wars with some of their enemies not only to keep their own men in action for fear lest idleness the mother of corruption should bring upon them some worse inconvenience and we suffer the ills of a long peace luxury is more pernicious than war and this also was one reason why our king philip consented to send his son john upon a foreign expedition that he might take along with him a great number of hot young men who were then in his pay what other end does the impious art of the gladiators propose to itself what the slaughter of young men what pleasure fed with blood prince take the honours delayed for thy reign and be successor to thy fathers henceforth let none at rome be slain for sport let beasts blood stain the infamous arena and no more homicides be there acted it was not enough for them to fight and to die bravely but cheerfully too insomuch that they were hissed and cursed if they made any hesitation about receiving their death the very girls themselves set them on beginning of revolt at this unexpected command the surprise was great on board the forward light the fires exclaimed some what with asked others and stuff the stove with the masts added warren did you hear me who spoke cried hatteras i did said pen advancing towards the captain i say answered pen with an oath i say we've had enough of it and we won't go any further you shan't kill us with hunger and work in the winter and they shan't light the fires if you repeat what the man says answered hatteras i'll have you shut up in your cabin and guarded a murmur was heard the engineer followed by plover and warren went down to his post the steam was soon got up the anchors were weighed and the forward veered away east cutting the young ice with her steel prow between baring island and beecher point there are a considerable quantity of islands in the midst of ice fields the streams crowd together in the little channels which cut up this part of the sea they had a tendency to agglomerate under the relatively low temperature hummocks were formed here and there and these masses already more compact denser and closer together would soon form an impenetrable mass i am beginning not to answered wall hatteras still hoped to find an open sea beyond the seventy seventh parallel as sir edward belcher had done ought he to treat these accounts as apocryphal the next day the sun set for the first time ending thus the long series of days with twenty four hours in them the men had ended by getting accustomed to the continual daylight but it had never made any difference to the animals the greenland dogs went to their rest at their accustomed hour and dick slept as regularly every evening as though darkness had covered the sky the doctor by following johnson's advice accustomed himself to support the low temperature he almost always stayed on deck braving the cold the wind and the snow there's more than one amongst us who would like to imitate them i think they are cowards mister clawbonny those animals have no provisions as we have and are obliged to seek their food where it is to be found you hope that hatteras will succeed then he certainly will mister clawbonny i am of the same opinion as you johnson and if he only wanted one faithful companion he'll have two prince albert land which the forward was then coasting bears also the name of grinnell land and though hatteras from his hatred to the yankees would never call it by its american name it is the one it generally goes by on the eighteenth of august they sighted britannia mountain scarcely visible through the mist and the forward weighed anchor the next day in northumberland bay and as a mortal apollo sought to earn his bread amongst men afterward people wondered at admetus's ever smiling face and ever radiant being that was before admetus sailed on the argo with jason and the companions of the quest thereafter admetus having the love of alcestis was even more happy than he had been before a radiant figure it was and admetus knew that this was apollo come to him again but apollo turned to admetus a face that was without joy what years of happiness have been mine o apollo through your friendship for me said admetus but still apollo stood before him with a face that was without joy he spoke and his voice was not that clear and vibrant voice that he had once in speaking to admetus admetus admetus he said it is for me to tell you that you may no more look on the blue sky nor walk upon the green earth it is for me to tell you that the god of the underworld will have you come to him admetus admetus know that even now the god of the underworld is sending death for you if one will go willingly in thy place with death thou canst still live on go admetus and then he came upon an ancient woman who sat upon stones in the courtyard grinding corn between two stones there she was sitting as he had first known her with her eyes bleared and her knees shaking and with the dust of the courtyard and the husks of the corn in her matted hair he went to her and spoke to her and he asked her to take the place of the king and go with death but when she heard the name of death horror came into the face of the ancient woman and she cried out that she would not let death come near her admetus took the man's shriveled hand and he asked him if he would not take the king's place and go with death that was coming for him then admetus went into the palace and into the chamber where his bed was and he lay down upon the bed and he lamented that he would have to go with death that was coming for him from the god of the underworld and he lamented that none of the wretched ones around the palace would take his place one should go in your place for you are the king and have many great affairs to attend to now the footsteps seemed to stop it was not so terrible for him as before and the words he had spoken he would have taken back the words that had brought her consent to go with death in his place death would soon be here for her no not here for he would not have death come into the palace he lifted alcestis from the bed and he carried her from the palace no more speech came from her and as for admetus he went within the chamber and knelt beside the bed on which alcestis had lain and thought of his terrible loss to what god is that sacrifice due and then heracles felt that another labor was before him i have dragged up from the underworld he thought the hound that guards those whom death brings down into the realm of the god of the underworld why should i not strive with death and what a noble thing it would be to bring back this faithful woman to her house and to her husband he left the palace of admetus and he went to the temple of the gods you are held by me death and you will not be let go unless you promise to go forth from this temple without bringing one with you and death knowing that heracles could hold him there and that the business of the god of the underworld would be left undone if he were held promised that he would leave the temple without bringing one with him she was veiled and admetus could not see her features here is a woman whom i am bringing back to her husband i won her from an enemy this i cannot do said admetus i have had pangs enough then admetus raised the veil of the woman he had taken across the threshold of his house thus when dogmas lead it what the man really and in general wills remains still the same for these are careful only for themselves for their own egoism just like the bandit from whom they are only distinguished by the absurdity of their means the deeds and conduct of an individual and of a nation may be very much modified through dogmas example and custom with an equal degree of wickedness one man may die on the wheel and another in the bosom of his family it is conceivable that a perfect state or perhaps indeed a complete and firmly believed doctrine of rewards and punishments after death might prevent every crime politically much would be gained thereby morally nothing only the expression of the will in life would be restricted we who here seek the theory of virtue and have therefore also to express abstractly the nature of the knowledge which lies at its foundation will yet be unable to convey that knowledge itself in this expression he sees that the distinction between himself and others which to the bad man is so great a gulf only belongs to a fleeting and illusive phenomenon he recognises himself his will in every being and consequently also in the sufferer but the latter is the necessary and inevitable symptom of that knowledge the opposite of the sting of conscience the origin and significance of which is explained above is the good conscience the satisfaction which we experience after every disinterested deed the good man lives in a world of friendly individuals the well being of any of whom he regards as his own therefore although the knowledge of the lot of mankind generally does not make his disposition a joyful one yet the permanent knowledge of his own nature in all living beings gives him a certain evenness and even serenity of disposition for the interest which is extended to innumerable manifestations cannot cause such anxiety as that which is concentrated upon one the accidents which concern individuals collectively equalise themselves while those which happen to the particular individual constitute good or bad fortune thus though others have set up moral principles which they give out as prescriptions for virtue and laws which it was necessary to follow i as has already been said cannot do this because i have no ought or law to prescribe to the eternally free will further than this it cannot go for there exists no reason for preferring the individuality of another to its own yet the number of other individuals whose whole happiness or life is in danger may outweigh the regard for one's own particular well being so died socrates and giordano bruno and so many a hero of the truth suffered death at the stake at the hands of the priests weeping is accordingly sympathy with our own selves or sympathy directed back on its source it is therefore conditional upon the capacity for love and sympathy and also upon imagination when we are moved to tears not through our own suffering but through that of another this happens as follows either we vividly put ourselves in the place of the sufferer by imagination or see in his fate the lot of humanity as a whole and consequently first of all our own lot and thus in a very roundabout way it is yet always about ourselves that we weep sympathy with ourselves which we feel this seems to be the principal reason of the universal and thus natural weeping in the case of death first of all he certainly weeps for the fate of the dead but he also weeps when after long heavy and incurable suffering death was to this man a wished for deliverance they were in the land this people said before the moon had come into the sky and many of the magicians of egypt who had come with king sesostris stayed in that city of aea and they taught people spells that could stay the moon in her going and coming in her rising and setting medea too his wise daughter knew the secrets taught by those who could sway the moon for jason was the grandson of cretheus and cretheus was the brother of athamas their grandfather jason took peleus and telamon with him as they came to the city a mist fell and jason and his comrades with the sons of phrixus went through the city without being seen the mist lifted and before the heroes was the wonder of the palace in the bright light of the morning on each side of the courtyard were the palace buildings in one king a eetes lived with apsyrtus his son and in the other chalciope and medea lived with their handmaidens and then a dove flew toward her it was being chased by a hawk and medea saw the hawk's eyes and beak we pulled away from that place and thereafter we were driven by the winds back to the mouth of the phasis with him there came the mightiest of the heroes of greece already he has heard of your bitter foes the sauromatae he with his comrades would subdue them for you a eetes's heart was filled with wrath as he looked upon them and his eyes shone as a leopard's eyes and then speaking to the king in a quiet voice jason said his heart was divided as to whether he should summon his armed men and have them slain upon the spot or whether he should put them into danger by the trial he would make of them it may be that ye are truly of the seed of the immortals and it may be that i shall give you the golden fleece to bear away after i have made trial of you she entered softly and she stood away from her father and the four who were speaking with him she had a dark face that was made very strange by her crown of golden hair know that on the plain of ares yonder i have two fire breathing bulls with feet of brass then i sowed the furrows not with the seed that demeter gives but with teeth of a dragon if you can accomplish this that i accomplished in days gone by i shall submit to you and give you the golden fleece but if you cannot accomplish what i once accomplished you shall go from my city empty handed for it is not right that a brave man should yield aught to one who cannot show himself as brave then jason utterly confounded cast his eyes upon the ground i will dare this contest monstrous as it is as he said this he saw the eyes of medea grow wide as with fear phrontis and melas went to where their mother was but what can i do so small and stupid and shy as i am i must find some way to give the little ones a nice christmas tommo will like to have me go with him and sing while he plays his harp in the streets yes i will try and then if i do well the little ones shall have a merry christmas but see then it is cold in the streets the wind bites and the snow freezes one's fingers she thanked tommo and ran away to get ready for she felt sure her father would not refuse her anything then she washed out little ranza's frock and put it to dry because she would not be able to do it the next day she longed to make the beds and dress the children over night she was in such a hurry to have all in order but as that could not be she sat down again and tried over all the songs she knew when she had told her plan peter benari shook his head and thought it would never do but tessa begged so hard he consented at last that she should try it for one week and sent her to bed the happiest little girl in new york as soon as her father was gone tessa flew about and put everything in nice order telling the children she was going out for the day and they were to mind tommo's mother who would see about the fire and the dinner for the good woman loved tessa and entered into her little plans with all her heart poor tessa's heart beat fast as she trudged away with tommo who slung his harp over his shoulder and gave her his hand it was rather a dirty hand but so kind that tessa clung to it and kept looking up at the friendly brown face for encouragement see now have no fear give them bella monica that is merry and will make the laugh whispered tommo tuning his harp one fat old frenchman nodded to her and it seemed to help her very much for she began to sing before she thought and that was the hardest part of it but tommo shook his curly head and answered soberly yes i took you there first for they love music and are of our country but up among the great houses we shall not always do well but she had made half a dollar for tommo divided the money fairly and she felt rich with her share her hands were covered with chilblains for she had no mittens but she put them under her shawl and scuffled merrily away in her big boots feeling so glad that the week was over and nearly three dollars safe in her pocket how gay the streets were that day how brisk every one was and how bright the faces looked as people trotted about with big baskets holly wreaths and young evergreens going to blossom into splendid christmas trees but i can't so i'll fill the socks all full and be happy said tessa as she looked wistfully into the gay stores and saw the heavy baskets go by who knows what may happen if we do well returned tommo nodding wisely for he had a plan as well as tessa and kept chuckling over it as he trudged through the mud we'll try one more street and then go home thou art so tired little one at the fourth some people let them sing all their songs and gave nothing tessa felt so grateful that without waiting for tommo she sang her sweetest little song all alone i'll ask mamma said rose and away she went into the dining room close by as the door opened tessa saw what looked to her like a fairy feast all silver mugs and flowery plates and oranges and nuts and rosy wine in tall glass pitchers and smoking dishes that smelt so deliciously she could not restrain a little sniff of satisfaction ah yes i shall come with much gladness and play as never in my life before cried tommo with a flourish of the old cap that made the children laugh give these to your brothers said the fairy prince stuffing nuts and oranges into tessa's hands ah so kind so very kind i have no way to say thank you but ranza shall be for you a heavenly angel and i will sing my heart out for your tree cried tessa folding the mittens as if she would say a prayer of thankfulness if she knew how she got up early to see if the socks were all right and there she found the most astonishing sight four socks instead of three and by the fourth pinned out quite elegantly was a little dress evidently meant for her a warm woollen dress all made and actually with bright buttons on it tessa screamed and danced in her delight and up tumbled all the children to scream and dance with her making a regular carnival on a small scale in her long stocking she found all sorts of treasures for tommo had stuffed it full of queer things and his mother had made gingerbread into every imaginable shape from fat pigs to full omnibuses little ranza was accepted with delight by the kind lady and her children and tessa learned the song quite easily arose from the crowd of children gathered to the festival before they went home the kind mamma told tessa she should be her friend and gave her a motherly kiss which warmed the child's heart and seemed to set a seal upon that promise the senator took his seat in the pulpit with the minister on one side of him and the superintendent of the sunday school on the other so awed were they by the presence of a living united states senator that during three minutes not a spit ball was thrown after that they began to come to themselves by degrees and presently the spell was wholly gone and they were reciting verses and pulling hair the usual sunday school exercises were hurried through and then the minister got up and bored the house with a speech built on the customary sunday school plan then the superintendent put in his oar then the town dignitaries had their say am i in some populous centre of my own country where the choicest children of the land have been selected and brought together as at a fair for a prize no then where am i yes where am i my soul is lost in wonder at the thought earth has no higher no grander position for me then what is it what did my consciousness reply ah think of that now i could hardly keep the tears back i was so grateful they could not give him a costly education but they were good and wise and they sent him to the sunday school he loved the sunday school i hope you love your sunday school ah i see by your faces that you do that is right always love your teachers my children for they love you more than you can know now and by and by the people made him governor and he said it was all owing to the sunday school why the people gave him a towering illustrious position a grand imposing position it was senator of the united states that poor little boy that loved his sunday school became that man that man stands before you above all things my children be honest when senator dilworthy departed from cattleville he left three dozen boys behind him arranging a campaign of life whose objective point was the united states senate never mind polly said jasper there's all next summer and after our winter in dresden and all our hard work over music won't it be fine though to jaunt round again and his eyes glistened and you'll go on drawing and painting until you get to be a great artist ran on polly enthusiastically and then we'll see something you've done in the louvre maybe the louvre cried adela o dear me polly pepper tom selwyn had been very sober during all this merry chatter and now in his seat across the narrow aisle he drummed his heels impatiently on the floor what's up little mother asked tom in surprise at her unusual manner it's just this tom when the news was circulated as it was pretty soon that the party was not to be broken into at all till paris was a completed story the jubilation was such as to satisfy even tom oh isn't it oats peas beans and barley grow cried polly as they watched them intently and his long arm went out and picked a jacket end of an urchin who incautiously regarding such quiet travellers as not worth minding had hovered too near while trying to tease the girls and presently a woman came and took little blue pinafore off and then the rest of the girls unclasped their hands and the ring melted away and the game was over i'm glad the girls over here have fun said polly as grandpapa and his party moved off isn't it nice to think they do two or three days of rest at martigny put everybody in good shape and gave them all a bit of time to pick up on many little things that were behindhand that's my third letter polly announced jasper on the other side of the table now i am going to begin on joel's one two said polly counting why i thought i'd written three well this one is most finished jasper dare said tom delighted to think that no terrible result had really ensued from his words that after they were out had scared him mightily i'll post yours too polly give them here then his face brightened and he said and she's right polly while polly fished a franc out of joel's little money bag that hung at her belt do get the stamps please jasper and put them on as he took up her two letters and she gave the bag a little pat for joel's sake wishing it was his stubby black hair that her fingers could touch i don't know where we are going to get nice white paper for our round robin said polly leaning her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands i know ejaculated tom whirling on his heel and dashing out i want polly to said phronsie wriggling away from the pen that polly held out alluringly phronsie who hadn't heard what polly said her small head being full of the responsibility of beginning the important letter and considering since it was to be done it was best to have it over with as soon as possible fell to scribbling the letters as fast as she could all of them running down hill it's all right granddaddy'll like it he said i tell you you don't know my granddaddy he's got lots of fun in him he added i won't cry any more declared phronsie wiping off the last tear trailing down her nose then i shall be all as well as ever said polly kissing the wet little face we must put in little pictures said polly trying to make herself cheery as the work went busily on polly you always do think of the best things exclaimed jasper beaming at her which made her try harder than ever to smile i wouldn't feel so badly polly he managed to whisper when phronsie was absorbed with her work he'll like it probably just as father did the gingerbread boy he seems to accomplish something every time he goes observed jasper drily halloo just look at him now o dear me exclaimed adela as her scissors slipped now you've joggled the table again then she caught polly's eye rather not much obliged tom bobbed his thanks picture after picture cut from railroad guide books illustrated papers and it seemed to jasper gathered as if by magic with cunning little photographs broke up the letter and wound in and out with funny and charming detail of some of their journey the rest of it is nice whispered jasper and i venture to say he'll like that the best of all mister king thought so too and he beamed at phronsie so you did he cried now that's fine i wish you'd write me a letter sometime i don't know how to say good by to you nellie told dorothy and nan next morning oh that will be splendid declared nan you are quite rich now aren't you remarked dorothy and dorothy went up and down the room like the pictures of cinderella's proud sisters and we will be on hand thank you replied the joking dorothy come nellie called missus mc laughlin i am ready where is your hat we might be able to manage that too nellie told him my uncle is a fireman and he can take us through his engine house most of them i guess answered bert well we have had a good vacation and i am willing to go to work again so am i declared nan vacation was just long enough i think mister bobbsey was down from the city of course to take the family home and now all hands even freddie and flossie were busy packing up there were the shells to be looked after the fish nets besides downy the duck and snoop the cat and so our little friends had spent all their vacation captain bull the commander of a small garrison at saybrook permitted him to land but when the governor began to read his commission bull ordered him to be silent what has happened mister prince wadsworth asked for he could see that the man was greatly excited governor andros has come again gasped mister prince why should that alarm us the fellow though given to boasting is not dangerous or liable to put his threats into execution but he has grown dangerous declared mister prince the liberties of the colony are involved captain wadsworth became a little uneasy though he was still inclined to treat the matter lightly we have stubbornly refused to yield our charter voluntarily for it is the guardian of our political rights that is true captain wadsworth continued mister prince and to subdue our stubbornness this viceroy has come to hartford with sixty armed men to demand the surrender of the charter in person captain wadsworth bounded to his feet in a rage and placing his hand on the hilt of his sword declared he shall not have it the day was well nigh spent when he arrived and the members were engaged in a heated debate on a subject of the utmost importance he consented however to await the discussion but as soon as it was ended he declared that he would have the charter after the captain had taken two or three turns across the room he paused and asked what is the assembly doing engaged in a debate and will he wait until it has ended he has promised to do so mister prince fixed his amazed eyes on the captain's face and read there a desperate determination captain he began mister prince bowed and hastily returned to the house where the assembly was in session as soon as he was gone charles stevens said yes charles you will answer what do you mean uncle never did debaters take greater interest in a minor subject what do you intend doing uncle will you fight them remember the work must be done right at the time not too soon nor too late the sun was setting and the captain said come charles let us hasten to the assembly by no means but i want you to be fully impressed with the seriousness of your mission take your place charles and be prepared to do your part whispered captain wadsworth charles got as close to the long table used by the secretaries as possible without attracting special attention the discussion went on darkness came and four lighted candles were placed on the table and two set on a shelf on the wall those two candles on the wall were a great annoyance to charles until he saw a man stationed near them though the lights were extinguished through the windows the faint starlight dimly illuminated the scene he followed him as rapidly as he could the youth was close behind him and when they were outside seized his arm boy have a care how you approach me the soldiers began to crowd about the house when at a signal from captain wadsworth the train bands came on the scene and prepared to grapple with the soldiers where is the charter you have your soldiers at the door and we have the train bands of connecticut ready to defend us against violence who of you has the charter it was the boy cried the enraged governor every member of the assembly shook their heads we do not know him he does not live in connecticut where does he live little did the captain or his youthful assistant dream that their simple act would make the old tree historic the tree in which the document was hidden was ever afterward known as the charter oak it remained vigorous bearing fruit every year until a little after midnight august eighteen fifty six when it was prostrated by a heavy storm of wind when the order for the seizure of the charters was first made known the assembly of rhode island sent a most loyal address to the king saying he formally dissolved the assembly broke the seal of the colony which bore the figure of an anchor and the word hope admitted five of the inhabitants into his legislative council and assumed the functions of governor but he did not take away the parchment on which the charter was written from that time until the enforced union of the colonies for mutual defence at the breaking out of the french and indian war the inhabitants of rhode island bore their share in the defensive efforts especially when the hostile savages hung along the frontiers of new york like an ill omened cloud the history of that commonwealth is identified with that of all new england from the beginning of king william's war soon after to the expulsion of andros a beautiful day had grown out of the dreadful storm and everybody was so happy the neptune the vessel that had struck on the sand bar was now safely anchored near shore and the sailors came in and out in row boats back and forth to land just as they wished then we had to go back to work at the logs went on the captain and then one of our crew took a fever that was what delayed us so finally we had every log loaded on the schooner and we started off we counted on getting home last week when this last storm struck us and drove us out of our course about the value asked mister bobbsey who was down from the city the value repeated the captain aside so that the strangers might not hear well i'm a rich man now and so is my mate mc laughlin for that wood was contracted for by the largest and richest piano firm in this country and now it is all but delivered to them and the money in our hands yes indeed it would have taken us a lifetime to accumulate as much money as we have earned in this year maybe aunt emily will take you down to the city on her shopping tour suggested nan he made the clerks remove all the truck from the aisles and i guess everybody was glad the army fell down the wonderful fresh air that these men lived in night and day had brightened their eyes too so that even the plainest face and the most awkward man among them was as nimble as an athlete from his perfect exercise called bert who had heard his uncle getting ready to run down to the water's edge it's a schooner said mister bingham to mister minturn and she has a very heavy cargo to this cord was fastened a heavy rope or cable what's that board for asked bert as he saw a board following the cable that's the directions said hal they are printed in a number of languages and they tell the crew to carry the end of the cable high up the mast and fasten it strongly there oh i see said bert the line will stretch then and the breeches buoy will go out on a pulley it was clear day now and much of the wicked storm had passed with the daylight came girls and women to the beach missus bobbsey missus minturn nellie and her mother besides dorothy and nan were all there flossie and freddie being obliged to stay home with dinah and susan of course the girls asked all sorts of questions and bert and hal tried to answer them as best they could it seemed a long time before any movement of the cable showed that the buoy was returning nearer and nearer it came until now a man's head could be seen the girls and women were too frightened to talk and nellie clung close to her mother a big roller dashing in finished the work for the life guards and a man in the cork belt bounded upon shore everybody gathered around and nellie with a strange face and a stranger hope broke through the crowd to see the rescued man oh it is my father she screamed falling right into the arms of the drenched man but the half drowned man rubbed his eyes as if he could not believe them then the next minute he pressed his little daughter to his heart unable to speak a word and is george bingham out there anxiously asked the brother safe and well came the welcome answer i guess our prayers were heard last night here comes another man exclaimed the people as this time a big man dashed on the sands well i declare we did land on a friendly shore just as mister bingham said the life saving work turned out to be a social affair for there was a great time greeting nellie's father and hal's uncle and hal and his father too put in nan what a morning that was at sunset beach i'm so glad we prayed said little flossie to freddie when she heard the good news pray captain quoth i as i was going down into the cabin is a man never overtaken by death in this passage why there is not time for a man to be sick in it replied he what a cursed lyar for i am sick as a horse quoth i already what a brain upside down hey day sick sick sick sick when shall we get to land the wind chopp'd about s'death then i shall meet him full in the face captain quoth she for heaven's sake let us get ashore was not democritus who laughed ten times more than i town clerk of abdera nay if you don't believe me you may read the chapter for your pains i see shoals of them depart not perhaps without an innate longing too to quit the island along with those happy snobs farewell dear friends i say you little know that the individual who regards you from the beach is your friend and historiographer and brother i went to day to see our excellent friend snooks on board the queen of the french many scores of snobs were there on the deck of that fine ship marching forth in their pride and bravery they will be at ostend in four hours they will inundate the continent next week they will carry into far lands the famous image of the british snob i have seen snobs in pink coats and hunting boots scouring over the campagna of rome and have heard their oaths and their well known slang in the galleries of the vatican and under the shadowy arches of the colosseum my lady marchioness comes on board looks round with that happy air of mingled terror and impertinence which distinguishes her ladyship and rushes to her carriage for it is impossible that she should mingle with the other snobs on deck there she sits and will be ill in private the strawberry leaves on her chariot panels are engraved on her ladyship's heart and davis you'd best take the pistol case into the cabin look at honest nathan houndsditch and his lady and their little son what a noble air of blazing contentment illuminates the features of those snobs of eastern race what a toilette houndsditch's is he will never spare himself any cheap enjoyment i have said before i like to look at the peoples on their gala days they are so picturesquely and outrageously splendid and happy yonder comes captain bull spick and span tight and trim who travels for four or six months every year of his life who does not commit himself by luxury of raiment or insolence of demeanour but i think is as great a snob as any man on board bull passes the season in london sponging for dinners and sleeping in a garret near his club see he is up to old carabas already i told you he would that broad shouldered buck with the great whiskers and the cleaned white kid gloves is mister phelim clancy of poldoodystown he calls himself mister de clancy he endeavours to disguise his native brogue with the richest superposition of english and if you play at billiards or ecarte with him the chances are that you will win the first game and he the seven or eight games ensuing the next person is but hark when a gross instance of snobbishness happens why should not the indignant journalist call the public attention to that delinquency too how for instance could that wonderful case of the earl of mangelwurzel and his brother be examined in the snobbish point of view all we require is that a man should be recommended to us by the earl of mangelwurzelshire o you pride of all snobland o you crawling truckling self confessed lackeys and parasites it was her snobbish sentiment that misled her and made her vanities a prey to the swindling fortune teller how would you account for the prodigious benevolence exercised towards the interesting young french lady the honest boarding house people were at her feet at once good honest simple lord loving children of snobland finally there was the case of the right honourable mister vernon at york the right honourable was the son of a nobleman and practised on an old lady then he cast his nets over a family of father mother and daughters one of whom he proposed to marry one day the traitor fled with a teapot and a basketful of cold victuals it was the right honourable which baited the hook which gorged all these greedy simple snobs would they have been taken in by a commoner alas and alas what mortal man that speaks the truth can hope for such a landlady and yet all these instances of fond and credulous snobbishness have occurred in the same week's paper with who knows how many score more we are three sisters from seventeen to twenty two we are just the same to persons with a handle to their name as to those without it if you do i cannot help it but i am of a sanguine disposition and entertain a lingering hope excuse this scrawl but i always write headlong we never write on perfumed paper in short i can't help thinking that if you knew us you would not think us snobs i shall have a black crape round my white hat and my usual bamboo cane with the richly gilt knob i am sorry there will be no time to get up moustaches between now and next week from seventeen to two and twenty ye gods what ages dear young creatures i can see you all three seventeen suits me as nearest my own time of life but mind i don't say two and twenty is too old no no and that pretty roguish demure middle one peace peace thou silly little fluttering heart you snobs dear young ladies i will pull any man's nose who says so there is no harm in being of a good family you can't help it poor dears what's in a name that very confidence savours of arrogance and to be arrogant is to be a snob but are there no kindly natures no tender hearts no souls humble simple and truth loving ponder well on this question sweet young ladies interest however still runs on in both cases the periodical or accidental payments of it just serving to keep the memory of the affair alive till at length in some evil hour pop comes the creditor upon each and by demanding principal upon the spot together with full interest to the very day makes them both feel the full extent of their obligations as the reader for i hate your ifs has a thorough knowledge of human nature i need not say more to satisfy him that my hero could not go on at this rate without some slight experience of these incidental mementos to speak the truth he had wantonly involved himself in a multitude of small book debts of this stamp which notwithstanding eugenius's frequent advice he too much disregarded thinking that as not one of them was contracted thro any malignancy but on the contrary from an honesty of mind and a mere jocundity of humour they would all of them be cross'd out in course eugenius would never admit this and would often tell him that one day or other he would certainly be reckoned with and he would often add in an accent of sorrowful apprehension to the uttermost mite what inclined eugenius to the same opinion was as follows yorick followed eugenius with his eyes to the door he then closed them and never opened them more alas poor yorick nevertheless in general appearance the harrier and the foxhound are very much alike the one obvious distinction being that of size if you want to hunt your harriers on foot sixteen inches is quite big enough almost too big to run with but if you are riding to them twenty inches is a useful height or even nineteen inches it is useless to lay down any hard and fast rule as to colour it is so much a matter of individual taste but puppies are usually sent out to walk and may easily be procured to be kept and reared until they are old enough to be entered to their work he is of course finer but with the length of neck so perfect in the bigger hound the little shoulders of the same pattern and the typical quarters and second thighs and when he is fairly on a line of course he sticks to it as the saying is like a beagle it is quite possible therefore that the beagle was crossed with the welsh southern or otterhound to get more size and power as there certainly was a welsh rough coated beagle of good eighteen inches and an almost identical contemporary that was called the essex beagle that a great many of the true order were bred became very manifest as soon as the harrier and beagle association was formed and more particularly when a section of the peterborough hound show was reserved for them then they seemed to spring from every part of the country one hears now of the chauston the halstead place very noted indeed the hulton the leigh park the stoke place the edinburgh the surbiton the trinity foot the wooddale missus g w hilliard's missus price's and missus turner's eyes brown dark hazel or hazel not deep set nor bulgy and with a mild expression ears long set on low fine in texture and hanging in a graceful fold close to the cheek neck moderately long slightly arched the throat showing some dewlap shoulders clean and slightly sloping fore legs quite straight well under the dog of good substance and round in the bone feet round well knuckled up and strongly padded coat smooth variety smooth very dense and not too fine or short height not exceeding sixteen inches all things which follow from the absolute nature of any attribute of god must always exist and be infinite or in other words are eternal and infinite through the said attribute proof conceive if it be possible supposing the proposition to be denied that something in some attribute of god can follow from the absolute nature of the said attribute and that at the same time it is finite and has a conditioned existence or duration for instance the idea of god expressed in the attribute thought in its nature infinite must necessarily exist we have now granted therefore thought not constituting the idea of god and accordingly the idea of god does not naturally follow from its nature in so far as it is absolute thought for it is conceived as constituting and also as not constituting the idea of god which is against our hypothesis and beyond the limits of the duration of the idea of god supposing the latter at some time not to have existed or not to be going to exist thought would perforce have existed without the idea of god which is contrary to our hypothesis for we supposed that thought being given the idea of god necessarily flowed therefrom bear in mind that the same proposition may be affirmed of anything which in any attribute necessarily follows from god's absolute nature corollary hence it follows that god is not only the cause of things coming into existence but also of their continuing in existence that is in scholastic phraseology god is cause of the being of things essendi rerum corollary individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of god or modes by which the attributes of god are expressed in a fixed and definite manner such a corps such a time you never did see i was wishing somebody would give the conversation a start when indiany made a break this ain't no great stock country says he to the old gentleman with the cane no sir says the old gentleman there's very little grazing here and the range is pretty much wore out the young lady smiled through her veil and the old lady snapped her eyes and looked sideways at the speaker i'm gwine down to orleans to see if i can't git a contract out of uncle sam to feed the boys what's been lickin them infernal mexicans so bad i've read some accounts of the battle says the old gentleman that didn't give a very flattering account of the conduct of some of our troops the old preacher listened to him with evident signs of displeasure twistin and groanin till he couldn't stand it no longer he shut his mouth right in the middle of what he was sayin and looked at the preacher while his face got as red as fire swearin says the old preacher is a terrible bad practice and there ain't no use in it nohow umphs but indiany kept shady he appeared to be cowed down the old gentleman with the cane took a part in the conversation and the hoosier listened without ever opening his head he was at sodom and gomorrow and seen the place whar lot's wife fell ah yes says the preacher he went to the very spot and what's the remarkablest thing of all he seen the pillar of salt what she was turned into yes sir he seen the salt standin thar to this day what says the hoosier real genewine good salt yes sir a pillar of salt jest as it was when that wicked woman was punished for her disobedience right out in the open air he asked we had then but little of that minute and accurate knowledge of the interior of the continent which was requisite for a determination of the problem several different parties were therefore organized to examine the various routes supposed to be practicable within the northern and southern limits of the united states the only discrimination made was in the more prompt and thorough equipment of the parties for the extreme northern line and this was only because that was supposed to be the most difficult of execution of all the surveys inquiries were made with regard to gunpowder which subsequently led to the use of a coarser grain for artillery the officers of these regiments were chosen partly by selection from those already in service in the regular army and partly by appointment from civil life under instructions from the president the list was therefore revised and modified in accordance with this new element of geographical distribution after some further discussion of the question the visitors withdrew dissatisfied with the result of the interview the quartermaster general on hearing of this conversation hastened to inform me that it was all a mistake that the appointee to the office had been confounded with his father who was a well known whig but that he the son was a democrat i assured the general that this was altogether immaterial adding that it was a very pretty quarrel as it stood and that i had no desire to effect a settlement of it on any inferior issue the social attitude towards smoking in early victorian days and for some time later was curious now missus quilp he says i feel in a smoking humour and shall probably blaze away all night but sit where you are if you please in case i want you the dwarf's tastes however were catholic but quilp and brass were not in society there were still plenty of active opponents and denouncers of tobacco one of the most distinguished was the great duke of wellington who abominated smoking and was annoyed by the increase of cigar smoking among officers of the army the ladies had a keen scent for the abominable odour of tobacco and distrusted the men who smoked here is fitz boodle's or thackeray's comment on it what is this smoking that it should be considered a crime i believe in my heart that women are jealous of it as of a rival i would lay a guinea that many a lady who has just been kind enough to read the above lines lays down the book after this confession of mine that i am a smoker and says oh the vulgar wretch and passes on to something else germany has been puffing for three score years france smokes to a man psha look at his progress thus the odour of tobacco was not brought into the drawing room the journalists and bohemians who met at the cogers were above or below the dictates of fashion and smoking was always a feature of their gatherings both queen victoria and the prince consort detested it so tobacco was taboo wherever the court was at that very time at ten in the morning of the second of september napoleon was standing among his troops on the poklonny hill looking at the panorama spread out before him the brightness of the morning was magical but my clemency is always ready to descend upon the vanquished yet here she is lying at my feet with her golden domes and crosses scintillating and twinkling in the sunshine but i shall spare her from the height of the kremlin yes there is the kremlin yes i will give them just laws i will teach them the meaning of true civilization i will make generations of boyars remember their conqueror with love i will tell the deputation that i did not and do not desire war that i have waged war only against the false policy of their court that i love and respect alexander and that in moscow i will accept terms of peace worthy of myself and of my people i do not wish to utilize the fortunes of war to humiliate an honored monarch he will have to be told all the same said some gentlemen of the suite but gentlemen a single report of a signaling gun followed and the troops who were already spread out on different sides of moscow moved into the city through tver kaluga and dorogomilov gates his major domo came in a second time to say that the frenchman who had brought the letter from the countess was very anxious to see him if only for a minute and that someone from bazdeev's widow had called to ask pierre to take charge of her husband's books as she herself was leaving for the country there was no one in the passage the hall porter was standing at the front door from the landing where pierre stood there was a second staircase leading to the back entrance he went down that staircase and out into the yard no one had seen him when he felt he was being looked at he behaved like an ostrich which hides its head in a bush in order not to be seen he hung his head and quickening his pace went down the street he hired the first cab he met and told the driver to go to the patriarch's ponds where the widow bazdeev's house was this was the authentic scotch acts with bazdeev's notes and explanations he sat down at the dusty writing table and having laid the manuscripts before him opened them out closed them finally pushed them away and resting his head on his hand sank into meditation makar alexeevich came twice that evening shuffling along in his galoshes as far as the door and stopped and looked ingratiatingly at pierre the officers were about to take leave but prince andrew apparently reluctant to be left alone with his friend asked them to stay and have tea seats were brought in and so was the tea the officers gazed with surprise at pierre's huge stout figure and listened to his talk of moscow and the position of our army round which he had ridden so you understand the whole position of our troops not being a military man i can't say i have understood it fully but i understand the general position well then you know more than anyone else be it who it may said prince andrew and tell me your opinion of barclay de tolly pierre looked at timokhin with the condescendingly interrogative smile with which everybody involuntarily addressed that officer we see light again since his serenity has been appointed your excellency said timokhin timidly and continually turning to glance at his colonel why so asked pierre then why was it forbidden at smolensk too he judged correctly that the french might outflank us as they had larger forces he ordered us to retreat and all our efforts and losses went for nothing so it has been with barclay while russia was well a foreigner could serve her and be a splendid minister but as soon as she is in danger she needs one of her own kin and they say he's a skillful commander rejoined pierre i don't understand what is meant by a skillful commander replied prince andrew ironically a skillful commander replied pierre pierre looked at him in surprise and yet they say that war is like a game of chess he remarked the relative strength of bodies of troops can never be known to anyone success never depends and never will depend on position or equipment or even on numbers and least of all on position but on what then on the feeling that is in me and in him he pointed to timokhin and in each soldier a battle is won by those who firmly resolve to win it why did we lose the battle at austerlitz we've lost so let us run and we ran but tomorrow we shan't say it but what awaits us tomorrow the fact is that those men with whom you have ridden round the position not only do not help matters but hinder that's the truth the real truth said timokhin it's not the day for that they say all were silent the officers rose yes yes answered prince andrew absently the french have destroyed my home and are on their way to destroy moscow they have outraged and are outraging me every moment they are my enemies in my opinion they are all criminals and so thinks timokhin and the whole army since they are my foes they cannot be my friends whatever may have been said at tilsit yes yes muttered pierre looking with shining eyes at prince andrew they talk to us of the rules of war of chivalry of flags of truce of mercy to the unfortunate and so on it's all rubbish they plunder other people's houses issue false paper money and worst of all they kill my children and my father and then talk of rules of war and magnanimity to foes take no prisoners but kill and be killed prince andrew who had thought it was all the same to him whether or not moscow was taken as smolensk had been was suddenly checked in his speech by an unexpected cramp in his throat he paced up and down a few times in silence but his eyes glittered feverishly and his lips quivered as he began speaking and when there was a war like this one it would be war what is needed for success in warfare and in spite of all this it is the highest class respected by everyone how does god above look at them and hear them i see that i have begun to understand too much and it doesn't do for man to taste of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ah well it's not for long he added however you're sleepy and it's time for me to sleep go back to gorki said prince andrew suddenly go go before a battle one must have one's sleep out repeated prince andrew no he does not want it pierre concluded and i know that this is our last meeting one picture succeeded another in his imagination on one of them he dwelt long and joyfully his characters get drunk or go mad with jealousy or fall in epileptic fits or rave hysterically if dostoevsky had had less vision he would have been strindberg like them he is a novelist of torture certainly the lust of cruelty the lust of destruction for destruction's sake is the most conspicuous of the deadly sins in dostoevsky's men and women he may not be a cruel author but they are never in balance they are always in demoniacal conflict even the lust is never or hardly ever the lust of a more or less sane man dostoevsky could not have described the sin of nekhludov in resurrection this is a madhouse cries some one in the idiot one result of this is a multiplicity of action even the talk is of actions more than of ideas he sows violent deeds not with the hand but with the sack but one had noticed during those last two days that the other was wearing a silver watch on a yellow bead chain which he seems not to have seen on him before he took a knife and when his friend had turned away he approached him cautiously from behind took aim turned his eyes heavenwards crossed himself and praying fervently god forgive me for christ's sake he never paints everyman he always projects dostoevsky or a nightmare of dostoevsky that is why crime and punishment belongs to a lower range of fiction than anna karenina or fathers and sons we sympathize indeed with the fears the bravado the despair that succeed the crime he is a grotesque made alive by sheer imaginative intensity and passion one does not grudge an artist an abnormal character or two he invents vicious grotesques as dickens invents comic grotesques was very fond of hanging cats and burying them with great ceremony as for the karamazovs themselves he portrays the old father and the eldest of his sons hating each other and fighting like brutal maniacs serve him right shouted dmitri breathlessly if i haven't killed him i'll come again and kill him it is easy to see why dostoevsky has become a popular author no melodramatist ever poured out incident upon the stage from such a horn of plenty dostoevsky is always ready to show them all in at once on two opposite pages of the idiot one finds the following characters brought in by name general epanchin prince s adelaida ivanovna lizaveta prokofyevna yevgeny pavlovitch radomsky princess byelokonsky aglaia prince myshkin kolya ivolgin ippolit varya ferdyshchenko nastasya filippovna nina alexandrovna ganya ptitsyn and general ivolgin but the secret of dostoevsky's appeal is something more than the multitude and thrill of his incidents and characters mister murry boldly faces the difficulty and attempts the definition to him dostoevsky's work is the record of a great mind seeking for a way of life it is more than a record of struggle it is the struggle itself and those voices take shape in certain unforgettable fragments of dialogue that have been spoken by one spirit to another in some ugly mean tavern set in surrounding darkness ultimately they are the creations not of a man who desired to be but of a spirit which sought to know because they are possessed they are no longer men and women this is all in a measure true to say this is not to deny the spiritual content of dostoevsky's work the anguish of the imprisoned soul as it battles with doubt and denial and despair there is in dostoevsky a suggestion of caliban trying to discover some better god than setebos the ultimate attitude of dostoevsky is as christian as the apostle peter's lord i believe help thou mine unbelief and beyond the dark night of suffering and dissipating the night dostoevsky still sees the light of christian compassion or even by the compassion of others like prince myshkin in the idiot his work like his face bears the mark of this terrible conflict the novels are the perfect image of the man as to the man himself the vicomte de voguee described him as he saw him in the last years of his life when he became excited on a certain point one could have sworn that one had seen him before seated on a bench in a police court awaiting trial or among vagabonds who passed their time begging before the prison doors at all other times he carried that look of sad and gentle meekness seen on the images of old slavonic saints that is the portrait of the man one sees behind dostoevsky's novels a portrait one might almost have inferred from the novels it is a figure that at once fascinates and repels he is not by temperament a singer his music is a still small voice unevenly matched against his consciousness of midnight and storm truth to tell mister hardy is neither sufficiently articulate nor sufficiently fastidious to be a great poet he does not express life easily in beautiful words or in images thus he writes in i found her out there of one who there could not be an uglier and more prosaic exaggeration than is contained in the image in the last line and prose intrudes in the choice of words as well as in images take for example the use of the word domiciled in the passage in the same poem about when we as strangers sought their catering care veiled smiles bespoke their thought of what we were catering care is an appalling phrase is a line of good poetry you did not come and marching time drew on and wore me numb yet less for loss of your dear presence there than that i thus found lacking in your make that high compassion which can overbear reluctance for pure loving kindness sake grieved i when as the hope hour stroked its sum you did not come there are hints of the grand style of lyric poetry in these lines but phrases like in your make and as the hope hour stroked its sum are discords that bring it tumbling to the levels of victorian commonplace he has a temperament sensitive beyond that of all but a few recent writers to the pain and passion of human beings one can remember poem after poem of his with a theme that might easily have served for mister hardy too late cristina the lost mistress the last ride together the statue and the bust to name a few but what a sense of triumph there is in browning's tragedies his world is a place of opulence not of poverty to have loved even for an hour is with browning to live for ever after in the inheritance of a mighty achievement to have loved for an hour is in mister hardy's imagination to have deepened the sadness even more than the beauty of one's memories for then i undistrest by hearts grown cold to me could lonely wait my endless rest with equanimity but time to make me grieve part steals lets part abide and shakes this fragile frame at eve with throbbings of noontide and despair is by no means triumphant in what is perhaps the most attractive of all mister hardy's poems the oxen we pictured the meek mild creatures where they dwelt in their strawy pen nor did it occur to one of us there to doubt they were kneeling then the mood of faith however or rather of delight in the memory of faith is not mister hardy's prevailing mood he can enter upon a war without ironical doubts as we see in the song men who march away how long he cries in a poem written some years ago when shall the saner softer polities whereof we dream have sway in each proud land and patriotism grown godlike scorn to stand bondslave to realms but circle earth and seas but perhaps his characteristic attitude to war is to be found not in lines like these but in that melancholy poem the souls of the slain in which the souls of the dead soldiers return to their country and question a senior soul flame as to how their friends and relatives have kept their doughty deeds in remembrance and general how hold out our sweethearts sworn loyal as doves some fickle and fleet hearts have found them new loves and our wives quoth another resignedly dwell they on our deeds mister hardy has too bitter a sense of reality to believe much in the glory of war the real world to mister hardy is the world of ancient human things in which war has come to be a hideous irrelevance it may be thought on the other hand that mister hardy's poems about war are no more expressive of tragic futility than his poems about love futility and frustration are ever recurring themes in both his lovers like his soldiers rot in the grave defeated of their glory lovers are always severed both in life and in death in beyond the last lamp we have the same mournful cry over severance no shade of pinnacle or tree or tower while earth endures will fall on my mound and within the hour steal on to yours one robin never haunt our two green covertures they bring us face to face with an experience intenser than our own nothing of tiniest worth have i wrought pondered planned no one thing asking blame or praise since the pale corpse like birth of this diurnal unit bearing blanks in all its rays dullest of dull hued days in one corner of the little room kenneth forbes squatted upon a bench with an empty pine box held carelessly in his lap while duncan worked the boy was busy with his pencil but neither had spoken for at least a half hour then riding slowly up the hedge bordered road his troubles once more assailed him and he wondered if there was not some spot upon the broad earth to which he could fly for retirement until the girls had left elmhurst for good nora shied and he looked up to discover that he had nearly run down a pedestrian a stout little man with a bundle under his arm who held up one hand as if to arrest him where do you want to go asked the boy then it's the same jane as ever he responded with a shake of his grizzled head do you know i sort o hoped she'd reformed and i'd be glad to see her again they tell me she's got money aunt jane's rich aunt jane echoed the man quickly what's your name lad don't like girls i take it another long pause then the boy suddenly turned questioner you know aunt miss merrick sir i used to when we were both younger kenneth stopped short and the mare stopped and the little man with a whimsical smile at the boy's astonishment also stopped john merrick that's me you were the tinsmith they kept track of her because she suddenly became rich and a great lady and that was a surprising thing to happen to a merrick thank you lad returned the man gratefully i thought a little exercise would do me good but this three miles has seemed like thirty to me i will said the man the boy turned away but in a moment halted again his interest in miss jane's brother john was extraordinary there's little danger in this quarter i'm sure so i may as well be friends with the poor child ah why not beth hesitated the letter asking me to visit her was the first i have ever received from her but since she asked me to visit her we judged she had softened and might wish to become friendly and so i accepted the invitation surely two girls will have a better time in this lonely old place than one could have alone oh yes she has corrected louise you mean patricia doyle yes then we may conclude she's left out of the arrangement said beth calmly you'll fight for your chance and fight mighty hard why my dear cousin i don't want aunt jane's money my mother and i are amply provided for and i am only here to find rest from my social duties and to get acquainted with my dead father's sister that is all my father teaches music and mother scolds him continually for not being able to earn enough money to keep out of debt we've never seen a cent of her money although father has tried at times to borrow enough to help him out of his difficulties i even kissed her when she asked me to and it sent a shiver all down my back for my part i am fond of everyone and it delights me to fuss around invalids and assist them you say you like to care for invalids and i don't you're trying to make me think you don't want elmhurst when you're as anxious to get it as i am they call me beth sullenly i couldn't live in this out of the way corner of the world you know but suppose she leaves it to you persisted beth louise seemed to meditate it's a magnificent estate said beth looking at her cousin doubtfully now shall we be friends she asked lightly to be sure i should want you to my dear such a girl friend it had never been her privilege to have before and when her suspicions were forgotten she became fairly responsive and brightened wonderfully silas she said when he entered what do you think of my nieces they are very charming girls he answered although they are at an age when few girls show to good advantage why did you not invite kenneth to dinner jane the boy he is constantly saying disagreeable things very well said the lawyer quietly which of my nieces do you prefer asked the old lady after a pause i cannot say on so short an acquaintance he answered with gravity which do you prefer jane they are equally unsatisfactory she answered i cannot imagine elmhurst belonging to either silas i must see that other niece the one who defies me and refuses to answer my second letter there would be a dozen heirs to fight for my money and dear old elmhurst would be sold to strangers she resumed with bitterness they are but lukewarm lovers who can content themselves with a dialogue carried on at bowshot distance if there be an elysium on earth it is this his own daughter his only daughter of the best blood of southern aristocracy beautiful accomplished everything to secure him a splendid alliance holding nightly assignation with a horse hunter he could well concede so much to her caprice since her staying at home could be no disadvantage to the cause that had prompted him to the stern counsel it is already known that this road passed the hacienda of casa del corvo at some distance from the house and on the opposite side of the river on reaching the copse he dismounted led his horse in among the underwood hitched him by looping his bridle rein around the topmost twigs of an elastic bough then detaching a long rope of twisted horsehair from the horn of his saddle and inserting his arm into its coil he glided out to the edge of the island on that side that lay towards the hacienda before forsaking the shadow of the copse he cast a glance towards the sky and at the moon sailing supremely over it the droll conceit which has so oft amused the nocturnal inebriate of great cities appeared to produce a like affect upon the night patroller of the prairie and for a moment the shadow late darkening his brow disappeared it's not likely at this hour unless it be the owner of a bad conscience who can't sleep troth there's one such within those walls if he be abroad there's a good chance of his seeing me on the open ground not that i should care a straw if it were only myself to be compromised it's no use waiting upon the moon deuce take her it is true he had designs upon the hacienda but these did not contemplate either its cash plate or jewellery if we except the most precious jewel it contained the mistress of the mansion herself he tarried at genishau a few days and came up to gardow where i then resided he was apparently without any business that would support him but he soon became acquainted with my son thomas with whom he hunted for a long time and made his home with him at my house winter came on and he continued his stay the enraged husband well knowing that he should feel a blow if he waited to hear the order repeated instantly retreated and went down the river to his cattle we protected the poor nanticoke woman and gave her victuals and allen sympathized with her in her misfortunes till spring when her husband came to her acknowledged his former errors and that he had abused her without a cause promised a reformation and she received him with every mark of a renewal of her affection the indians were soon answered by the american officer that the wampum was cordially accepted and that a continuance of peace was ardently wished for my son thomas went with them with allen's horse and carried the goods allen on finding that his enemies had gone came back to my house where he lived as before but of his return they were soon notified at niagara and nettles who married priscilla ramsay with a small party of indians came on to take him nettles at length abandoned the chase went home and allen all in tatters came in by running in the woods his clothing had become torn into rags so that he was in a suffering condition almost naked allen made his trowsers himself and then built a raft on which he went down the river to his own place at mount morris there an indian gave him some refreshment and a good gun with which he hastened on to little beard's town where he found his squaw not daring to risk himself at that place for fear of being given up he made her but a short visit and came immediately to gardow the love of liberty however added to his natural swiftness gave him sufficient strength to make his escape to his former castle of safety his pursuers came immediately to my house where they expected to have found him secreted and under my protection still unsatisfied and doubting my veracity they advised my indian brother to use his influence to draw from me the secret of his concealment which they had an idea that i considered of great importance not only to him but to myself i persisted in my ignorance of his situation and finally they left me he came to my house in the night and awoke me with the greatest caution fearing that some of his enemies might be watching to take him at a time when and in a place where it would be impossible for him to make his escape at that time allen lay in a secret place in the gulph a short distance above my flats in a hole that he accidentally found in the rock near the river the pavlograds held feast after feast celebrating awards they had received for the campaign and made expeditions to olmutz to visit a certain caroline the hungarian who had recently opened a restaurant there with girls as waitresses the guards had made their whole march as if on a pleasure trip parading their cleanliness and discipline the regiments had entered and left the town with their bands playing and by the grand duke's orders the men had marched all the way in step a practice on which the guards prided themselves the officers on foot and at their proper posts boris had been quartered and had marched all the way with berg who was already in command of a company boris during the campaign had made the acquaintance of many persons who might prove useful to him and by a letter of recommendation he had brought from pierre had become acquainted with prince andrew bolkonski through whom he hoped to obtain a post on the commander in chief's staff berg and boris having rested after yesterday's march were sitting clean and neatly dressed at a round table in the clean quarters allotted to them playing chess well how are you going to get out of that he remarked at that moment the door opened dear me how you have changed he was about to embrace his friend but nicholas avoided him he wanted to pinch him push him do anything but kiss him a thing everybody did but notwithstanding this boris embraced him in a quiet friendly way and kissed him three times they had not met for nearly half a year and being at the age when young men take their first steps on life's road each saw immense changes in the other quite a new reflection of the society in which they had taken those first steps i did not expect you today he added you know of course that his imperial highness rode with our regiment all the time so that we had every comfort and every advantage what receptions we had in poland what dinners and balls i can't tell you oh you guards said rostov i say send for some wine he went to his bed drew a purse from under the clean pillow and sent for wine yes and i have some money and a letter to give you he added oh don't mention it count i quite understand said berg getting up and speaking in a muffled and guttural voice go across to our hosts they invited you added boris berg put on the cleanest of coats without a spot or speck of dust stood before a looking glass and brushed the hair on his temples upwards in the way affected by the emperor alexander and having assured himself from the way rostov looked at it that his coat had been noticed left the room with a pleasant smile oh dear what a beast i am muttered rostov as he read the letter why well have you sent gabriel for some wine all right let's have some in the letter from his parents was enclosed a letter of recommendation to bagration which the old countess at anna mikhaylovna's advice had obtained through an acquaintance and sent to her son asking him to take it to its destination and make use of it why have you thrown that away asked boris it is some letter of recommendation what the devil do i want it for he looked intently and inquiringly into his friend's eyes evidently trying in vain to find the answer to some question would you believe it count i was not at all alarmed because i knew i was right i came forward berg stood up and showed how he presented himself with his hand to his cap and really it would have been difficult for a face to express greater respect and self complacency than his did well he stormed at me as the saying is stormed and stormed and stormed it was not a matter of life but rather of death as the saying is albanians and devils and to siberia said berg with a sagacious smile still i remained silent and what do you think count the next day it was not even mentioned in the orders of the day that's the way count said berg lighting his pipe and emitting rings of smoke yes that was fine said rostov smiling rostov was a truthful young man and would on no account have told a deliberate lie he began his story meaning to tell everything just as it happened but imperceptibly involuntarily and inevitably he lapsed into falsehood prince andrew who liked to help young men was flattered by being asked for his assistance and being well disposed toward boris who had managed to please him the day before he wished to do what the young man wanted in spite of prince andrew's disagreeable ironical tone in spite of the contempt with which rostov from his fighting army point of view regarded all these little adjutants on the staff of whom the newcomer was evidently one rostov felt confused blushed and became silent boris inquired what news there might be on the staff and what without indiscretion one might ask about our plans we shall probably advance replied bolkonski evidently reluctant to say more in the presence of a stranger berg took the opportunity to ask with great politeness whether as was rumored the allowance of forage money to captains of companies would be doubled i was there said rostov angrily as if intending to insult the aide de camp with a slightly contemptuous smile he said yes there are many stories now told about that affair but our stories are the stories of men who have been under the enemy's fire our stories have some weight not like the stories of those fellows on the staff who get rewards without doing anything however he added rising you know my name and where to find me but don't forget that i do not regard either myself or you as having been at all insulted and as a man older than you my advice is to let the matter drop exclaimed prince andrew and with a bow to them both he went out and he was still more angry at having omitted to say it he ordered his horse at once and coldly taking leave of boris rode home should he go to headquarters next day and challenge that affected adjutant or really let the matter drop was the question that worried him all the way it was long since the rostovs had news of nicholas not till midwinter was the count at last handed a letter addressed in his son's handwriting on receiving it he ran on tiptoe to his study in alarm and haste trying to escape notice closed the door and began to read the letter each time that these hints began to make the countess anxious and she glanced uneasily at the count and at anna mikhaylovna the latter very adroitly turned the conversation to insignificant matters but for god's sake be careful you know how it may affect your mamma no on my true word of honor said natasha crossing herself i won't tell anyone and she ran off at once to sonya she rushed to sonya hugged her and began to cry it's true that all you women are crybabies remarked petya pacing the room with large resolute strides you are all blubberers and understand nothing natasha smiled through her tears what nasty brutes they are hold your tongue petya what a goose you are sonya smiled do i remember nicholas i remember nikolenka too i remember him well she said no she shut her eyes she felt that sonya was speaking the truth that there was such love as sonya was speaking of she believed it could be but did not understand it shall you write to him she asked now that he was already an officer and a wounded hero would it be right to remind him of herself and as it might seem of the obligations to her he had taken on himself i don't know sonya smiled no it's because she was in love with that fat one in spectacles that was how petya described his namesake the new count bezukhov and now she's in love with that singer he meant natasha's italian singing master that's why she's ashamed petya you're a stupid said natasha the countess had been prepared by anna mikhaylovna's hints at dinner on retiring to her own room she sat in an armchair her eyes fixed on a miniature portrait of her son on the lid of a snuffbox while the tears kept coming into her eyes the count put his ear to the keyhole and listened at first he heard the sound of indifferent voices then anna mikhaylovna's voice alone in a long speech then a cry then silence then both voices together with glad intonations and then footsteps anna mikhaylovna opened the door when she heard this sonya blushed so that tears came into her eyes and unable to bear the looks turned upon her ran away into the dancing hall whirled round it at full speed with her dress puffed out like a balloon and flushed and smiling plumped down on the floor the countess was crying from all he says one should be glad and not cry how charmingly he describes said she reading the descriptive part of the letter and what a soul i always said when he was only so high i always said i have been told that mister van brandt is in prison for debt i said and i saw for myself last night that he had left you helpless he left me the little money he had with him when he was arrested she rejoined sadly his cruel creditors are more to blame than he is for the poverty that has fallen on us even this negative defense of van brandt stung me to the quick i ought to have spoken more guardedly of him i said bitterly i ought to have remembered that a woman can forgive almost any wrong that a man can inflict on her when he is the man whom she loves she put her hand on my mouth and stopped me before i could say any more how can you speak so cruelly to me she asked you know to my shame i confessed it to you the last time we met you know that my heart in secret is all yours what wrong are you talking of is it the wrong i suffered when van brandt married me with a wife living at the time and living still do you think i can ever forget the great misfortune of my life the misfortune that has made me unworthy of you it is no fault of mine god knows but it is not the less true that i am not married and that the little darling who is playing out there with her doll is my child and you talk of my being your wife knowing that the child accepts me as her second father i said it would be better and happier for us both if you had as little pride as the child pride she repeated in such a position as mine a helpless woman with a mock husband in prison for debt am i to marry you for my food and shelter am i to marry you because there is no lawful tie that binds me to the father of my child bad as he is he has not forsaken me he has been forced away my only friend is it possible that you think me ungrateful enough to consent to be your wife the woman in my situation must be heartless indeed who could destroy your place in the estimation of the world and the regard of your friends the wretchedest creature that walks the streets would shrink from treating you in that way oh what are men made of how can you how can you speak of it i yielded and spoke of it no more every word she uttered only increased my admiration of the noble creature whom i had loved and lost bitterly as i hated the man who had parted us i loved her dearly enough to be even capable of helping him for her sake hopeless infatuation i don't deny it i don't excuse it hopeless infatuation you have forgiven me i said let me deserve to be forgiven it is something to be your only friend you must have plans for the future tell me unreservedly how i can help you complete the good work that you have begun she answered gratefully help me back to health make me strong enough to submit to a doctor's estimate of my chances of living for some years yet a doctor's estimate of your chances of living i repeated what do you mean i hardly know how to tell you she said without speaking again of mister van brandt does speaking of him again mean speaking of his debts i asked why need you hesitate you know that there is nothing i will not do to relieve your anxieties never let me tell you the plain truth there is a serious necessity for his getting out of prison yes this is his position in two words a little while since he obtained an excellent offer of employment abroad from a rich relative of his and he had made all his arrangements to accept it unhappily he returned to tell me of his good fortune and the same day he was arrested for debt the snare that had been set for her was plainly revealed in those four words in the eye of the law she was of course a single woman she was of age she was to all intents and purposes her own mistress what was there to prevent her from insuring her life if she pleased and from so disposing of the insurance as to give van brandt a direct interest in her death thanks to the happy accident of my position the one certain way of protecting her lay easily within my reach i could offer to lend the scoundrel the money that he wanted at an hour's notice and he was the man to accept my proposal quite as easily as i could make it you are quite mistaken i replied i am only doubting whether your plan for relieving mister van brandt of his embarrassments is quite so simple as you suppose are you aware of the delays that are likely to take place before it will be possible to borrow money on your policy of insurance i know nothing about it she said sadly will you let me ask the advice of my lawyers they are trustworthy and experienced men and i am sure they can be of use to you cautiously as i had expressed myself her delicacy took the alarm promise that you won't ask me to borrow money of you for mister van brandt she rejoined and i will accept your help gratefully i could honestly promise that my one chance of saving her lay in keeping from her knowledge the course that i had now determined to pursue i rose to go while my resolution still sustained me kiss me she whispered before you go it is only your goodness that overpowers me it's a sad thing for a body to lack brains when she wants to be a teacher isn't it penelope has studied so hard all winter and she hasn't gone anywhere thought the older sister wistfully doris dreamed of pretty dresses all that night and thought about them all the next day so it must be confessed did penelope though she would not have admitted it for the world she knew that penelope had started out to say a new dress doris hunter i believe it's an old quilt listen penelope my dear doris love to penelope and yourself your affectionate aunt adella hunter i don't see its beauty said penelope with a grimace it may have been pretty once but it is all faded now tell me dorrie does it argue a lack of proper respect for my ancestors that i can't feel very enthusiastic over this heirloom especially when grandmother hunter died years before i was born it was very kind of aunt adella to send it said doris dutifully why the wrong side is ever so much prettier than the right exclaimed penelope what lovely old timey stuff and not a bit faded i declare it is as good as new well let us go and have tea said penelope i'm decidedly hungry besides i see the poverty pucker coming it is something to possess an heirloom after all penelope was surprised as much as the tender sisterly heart could wish when doris flashed out upon her triumphantly on the evening of the party with the black skirt nicely pressed and re hung and the prettiest waist imaginable a waist that was a positive creation of dainty rose besprinkled silk with a girdle and knots of black velvet so penelope went to blanche's party and her dress was the admiration of every girl there penelope thought her altogether charming she looks as if she had just stepped out of the frame of some lovely old picture she said to herself my aunt adella gave me gave us the material she stammered i am named after her missus fairweather suddenly put her arm about penelope and drew the young girl to her her lovely old face aglow with delight and tenderness then you are my grandniece she said when i saw your dress i felt sure you were related to her i should recognize that rosebud silk if i came across it in thibet penelope was four years older than i was but we were devoted to each other soon after this our mother died and our household was broken up my dear i am a very lonely old woman with nobody belonging to me now she patted missus fairweather's soft old hand affectionately doris and penelope found their lives and plans changed in the twinkling of an eye when missus fairweather had gone doris and penelope looked at each other as she slipped into her blue print afternoon dress her aunt called to her from below aunt jane was standing at the foot of the stairs with a lamp in one hand and a year old baby clinging to the other she was a big shapeless woman with a round good natured face cheerful and vulgar as a sunflower was aunt jane at all times and occasions i want to run over and see how missus brixby is this evening siddy and you must take care of the baby till i get back sidney sighed and went downstairs for the baby all her days were alike as far as hard work and dullness went but she accepted them cheerfully and uncomplainingly but she did resent having to look after the baby when she wanted to write her letter the room was small a mere box above the kitchen which sidney shared with two small cousins her bed and the cot where the little girls slept filled up almost all the available space just at that particular angle one eye appeared to be as large as an orange while the other was the size of a pea and the mouth zigzagged from ear to ear sidney hated that mirror as virulently as she could hate anything her mother had died the day after and sidney thereupon had come into the hands of good aunt jane with those books for her dowry since nothing else was left after the expenses of the double funeral had been paid presently she began to write with a flush of real excitement on her face only one answer came to ellen douglas and that was forwarded to her by the long suffering editor of the maple leaf he wrote that although his age debarred him from membership in the club he was twenty and the limit was eighteen he read the letters of the department with much interest and often had thought of answering some of the requests for correspondents he never had done so but ellen douglas's letter was so interesting that he had decided to write to her would she be kind enough to correspond with him he was two years out from the east and had not yet forgotten to be homesick at times sidney liked the letter and answered it she never expected to meet john lincoln nor did she wish to do so in the correspondence itself she found her pleasure john lincoln wrote breezy accounts of ranch life and adventures on the far western plains so alien and remote from snug humdrum plainfield life that sidney always had the sensation of crossing a gulf when she opened a letter from the bar n as for sidney's own letter this is the way it read as she wrote it the evergreens plainfield dear mister lincoln i love life and its bloom and brilliancy i love meeting new people i love the ripple of music the hum of laughter and conversation the man i had been talking with was paul moore the great novelist as it was i had contradicted him twice and he had laughed and liked it but his books will always have a new meaning to me henceforth through the insight he himself has given me it is such meetings as these that give life its sparkle for me you will be weary of my rhapsodies over her she has sympathy and understanding for my every mood yours sincerely sidney richmond aunt jane came home presently and carried away her sleeping baby sidney said her prayers went to bed and slept soundly and serenely she mailed her letter the next day and a month later an answer came sidney did not sleep that night but tossed restlessly about or cried in her pillow the good woman shook her head sidney trod the way of the transgressor and found that its thorns pierced to bone and marrow you see that road out thar and there was no harbour or glimpse of distant sea visible had the hotel keeper made a mistake this is his place nobody calls it the evergreens but myself i don't understand he said perplexedly oh sidney threw out her hands in a burst of passionate protest no and you never will understand i can't make you understand everything i told you about it and my life was just imagination then why did you write them he asked blankly why did you deceive me oh i didn't mean to deceive you i never thought of such a thing i just couldn't write you about my life here not because it was hard but it was so ugly and empty and when once i had begun i had to keep it up i found it so fascinating too those letters made that other life seem real to me i never expected to meet you these last four days since your letter came have been dreadful to me oh please go away and forgive me if you can it was worse than she had even thought it would be he was so handsome so manly so earnest eyed john lincoln opened the gate and went up to her please don't distress yourself so sidney he said unconsciously using her christian name i think i do understand i'm not such a dull fellow as you take me for after all those letters were true or rather there was truth in them this young man was certainly good at understanding you you'll forgive me then she stammered but in the state of innocence there would have been no weakness of old age on the contrary everything generated is first imperfect but in the state of innocence children would have been begotten by generation therefore from the first they would have been imperfect in bodily size and power therefore in the state of innocence there was no need for women to be born on the contrary nature's process in generation would have been in harmony with the manner in which it was established by god four whether in that state man would have been master over men therefore in the state of innocence man had no mastership of the animals therefore in the state of innocence before man had disobeyed nothing disobeyed him that was naturally subject to him secondly this is proved by the order of divine providence which always governs inferior things by the superior thirdly this is proved from a property of man and of other animals now whatever is participated is subject to what is essential and universal therefore the subjection of other animals to man is proved to be natural they would not however on this account have been excepted from the mastership of man as neither at present are they for that reason excepted from the mastership of god whose providence has ordained all this this is signified by the fact that god led the animals to man that he might give them names expressive of their respective natures so all animals would have obeyed man of their own accord as in the present state some domestic animals obey him objection one it would seem that in the state of innocence man would not have had mastership over all other creatures much less therefore would it have obeyed man in the state of innocence therefore since it is by his reason that man is competent to have mastership it seems that in the state of innocence man had no dominion over plants now in man reason has the position of a master and not of a subject i answer that we must needs admit that in the primitive state there would have been some inequality at least as regards sex because generation depends upon diversity of sex and likewise as regards age for some would have been born of others nor would sexual union have been sterile there might also have been bodily disparity inequality might also arise on the part of nature as above described without any defect of nature objection one it would seem that in the state of innocence man would not have been master over man therefore in the state of innocence man would not have been subject to man in another sense mastership is referred in a general sense to any kind of subject and in this sense even he who has the office of governing and directing free men can be called a master such a kind of mastership would have existed in the state of innocence between man and man for two reasons more than this he hath been heard to rail on you my lord who are now his judge judge thy just doom would be to die on the spot still let us hear what thou hast to say then the judge to sum up the case spoke thus you see this man who has made such a stir in our town thus while one lost his life for the truth a new man rose from his death to tread the same way with christian come good hopeful said christian let us walk on the grass so they set off through the field hopeful i had my fears from the first and so gave you a hint christian good friend i grieve that i have brought you out of the right path hopeful say no more no doubt it is for our good christian we must not stand thus let us try to go back then said giant despair you have no right to force your way in here the ground on which you lie is mine they had not much to say as they knew that they were in fault and by this act we kill our souls as well he now went on till he came to the house at the door of which he was to knock this he did two or three times christian i have come to see the good man of the house christian sir i am come from the city of destruction and am on my way to mount zion i was told by the man that stands at the gate that if i came here you would show me good things that would help me he stood as if he would plead for men and a crown of gold hung near his head christian what does this mean then he took him to a large room that was full of dust for it had not been swept and interpreter told his man to sweep it christian what means this then you next saw the maid come in to lay the dust so is sin made clean and laid low by faith in the book just as christian came up to the cross his load slid from his back close to the mouth of the tomb where it fell in and i saw it no more as he stood thus and wept lo three bright ones came to him and one of them said peace be to thee thou hast grace from thy sins christian gave three leaps for joy and sang as he went ah what a place is this blest cross blest tomb he went on thus till he came to a vale where he saw three men who were in a sound sleep with chains on their feet christian sirs whence come you and where do you go formalist and hypocrisy we were born in the land of vain glory and are on our way to mount zion for praise know you not that he that comes not in at the door but climbs up to get in the same is a thief they told christian that he had no need for care on that score for long use had made it law and they could prove that it had been so for years yes said they no doubt of it and if we get in the road at all pray what are the odds is not our case as good as yours i saw then that they all went on till they came to the foot of the hill of difficulty where there was a spring now when christian got as far as the spring of life he drank of it and then went up the hill now half way up was a cave made by the lord of that hill that those who came by might rest there timorous said that zion was the hill they meant to climb but that when they had got half way they found that they met with more and more risk so that great fear came on them and all they could do was to turn back yes said mistrust for just in front of us there lay two beasts of prey in our path we knew not if they slept or not but we thought that they would fall on us and tear our limbs yet he thought once more of what he had heard from the men and then he felt in his cloak for his scroll that he might read it and find some peace he felt for it but found it not so he fell down on his knees to pray that god would give him grace for this act and then went back to look for his scroll oh fool that i am said he to sleep in the day time so to give way to the flesh as to use for ease that rest which the lord of the hill had made but for the help of the soul such was the lot of the jews for their sin they were sent back by the way of the red sea and i am made to tread those steps with grief which i might have trod with joy had it not been for this sleep how far might i have been on my way by this time now by this time he had come to the vale once more where for a spell he sat down and wept but at last as he cast a sad glance at the foot of the bench he saw his scroll which he caught up with haste and put in his cloak words are too weak to tell the joy of christian when he had got back his scroll he laid it up in the breast of his coat and gave thanks to god with what a light step did he now climb the hill ah thought he these beasts range in the night for their prey and if they should meet with me in the dark how should i fly from them the name of the man who kept the lodge of that house was watchful and when he saw that christian made a halt as if he would go back he came out to him and said is thy strength so small fear not the two wild beasts for they are bound by chains and are put here to try the faith of those that have it and to find out those that have none keep in the midst of the path and no harm shall come to thee then i saw in my dream that still he went on in great dread of the wild beasts he heard them roar yet they did him no harm but when he had gone by them he went on with joy till he came and stood in front of the lodge where watchful dwelt christian sir what house is this may i rest here to night when watchful told her why christian had come there she said what is your name then christian bent down his head and went with them to the house piety come good christian since our love prompts us to take you in to rest let us talk with you of all that you have seen on your way christian with a right good will and i am glad that you should ask it of me prudence and first say what is it that makes you wish so much to go to mount zion there they say is no death and there i shall dwell with such as love the lord charity have you a wife and babes christian yes i have charity and why did you not bring them with you but they would not come with me nor have me leave them thus did christian talk with these friends till it grew dark and then he took his rest in a large room the name of which was peace there he slept till break of day and then he sang a hymn and they brought out the jaw bone of an ass with which samson did such great feats and the sling and stone with which david slew goliath of gath what is the name of this land said christian then they told him it was immanuel's land it was a night when sorrow may come to the brightest without causing any great sense of incongruity when with impressible persons love becomes solicitousness hope sinks to misgiving and faith to hope when the exercise of memory does not stir feelings of regret at opportunities for ambition that have been passed by and anticipation does not prompt to enterprise still to a close observer they are just as perceptible the difference is that their media of manifestation are less trite and familiar than such well known ones as the bursting of the buds or the fall of the leaf if anything could be darker than the sky it was the wall and if any thing could be gloomier than the wall it was the river beneath an indescribable succession of dull blows perplexing in their regularity sent their sound with difficulty through the fluffy atmosphere not long after a form moved by the brink of the river this was all that was positively discoverable though it seemed human the shape went slowly along but without much exertion for the snow though sudden was not as yet more than two inches deep at this time some words were spoken aloud one two three four five between each utterance the little shape advanced about half a dozen yards here the spot stopped and dwindled smaller then a morsel of snow flew across the river towards the fifth window the river would have been seen by day to be of that deep smooth sort which races middle and sides with the same gliding precision any irregularities of speed being immediately corrected by a small whirlpool the window was struck again in the same manner then a noise was heard apparently produced by the opening of the window said the blurred spot in the snow tremulously i asked which was your window forgive me well i said that you might o must i it is when shall we be married frank i have money and we live in two parishes do we what then if i said so of course i will the fact is i forgot to ask good night frank good night he hoped nothing serious had happened to drag her out at such an untoward time but as the rain gave not the least sign of cessation he observed i think we shall have to go back never why not he inquired i cannot understand how you should know me while i have no knowledge of you oh but you know me about me at least i should think so he's my father indeed but we have been tenants of sylvania castle on the island here this season my father's is a comparatively humble residence hard by but he could afford a much bigger one if he chose you have heard so i don't know he doesn't tell me much of his affairs my father she burst out suddenly is always scolding me for my extravagance was that this evening and there on the nets they sat jocelyn thought it strange that he should be thrown by fate into a position to play the son of the montagues to this daughter of the capulets no i shall go on and get a lodging in budmouth town if ever i reach it it is so late that there will be no house open except a little place near the station where you won't care to stay the island was an island still they had not realized the force of the elements till now he steadied her bodily by encircling her waist with his arm and she made no objection he pitied her and while he wondered at it admired her determination their application for admission led to the withdrawal of a bolt and they stood within the gaslight of the passage he could see now that though she was such a fine figure quite as tall as himself she was but in the bloom of young womanhood i will tell the servant to do this and send you up something to eat he felt ravenously hungry himself and set about drying his clothes as well as he could and eating at the same time by the aid of some temporary wraps and some slippers from the cupboard he was contriving to make himself comfortable when the maid servant came downstairs with a damp armful of woman's raiment you are sleepy my girl said pierston he again became conscious of the change which had been initiated during the walk the well beloved was moving house had gone over to the wearer of this attire and how about little avice caro things arrange themselves but the countess never gave way an inch the following was the answer which she returned to the note written to her by aunt julia i should not know how to drink wine with them and should do a hundred things which would make them think me a beast but the girl begged for some delay it was a matter that required to be considered pride in him might be as weak as pride in them if they would put out their hands to him why should he refuse to put out his own our tailor received him courteously having learned to like the man understanding that he had behaved with honesty and wisdom in regard to his client and respecting him as one of the workers of the day but he declared that for the lovel family as a family he did not care for them particularly they are poles asunder from me he said but by your good fortune and merit if you will allow me to say so you have travelled from the one pole very far towards the other at present i think that the sense of the country is in favour of an aristocracy of birth when you were foremost among them did you not wish to be their master it is one to which all legislative and all human efforts should and must tend when you make much water boil mister thwaite some of it will probably boil over i quite agree with you that the silk gowns should be kept for their elders and so the conversation was ended with her there was a real wish that the poles might be joined together by her future husband if you really wish it you shall go he said and a blue one to be married in alas me must i have a pink silk gown to walk about in early in the morning i'd sooner see you darning my worsted stockings sweetheart i can do that too and now i'll sit down and write a letter to my lord she draws close and satisfies he could not forget missus pine avon's eyes though he remembered nothing of her other facial details afterwards they kept apart awhile in the drawing room for form's sake but eventually gravitated together again and finished the evening in each other's company but this was not all but was he able it was unfair to go further without telling her even though hitherto such explicitness had not been absolutely demanded he determined to call immediately on the new incarnation she lived not far from the long fashionable hamptonshire square and he went thither with expectations of having a highly emotional time at least but somehow the very bell pull seemed cold although she had so earnestly asked him to come raising her eyes in a slightly inquiring manner from the book she was reading she leant back in the chair as if soaking herself in luxurious sensations which had nothing to do with him and replied to his greeting with a few commonplace words just as they turn madeira into port in the space of a single night so this old air has been taken and doctored and twisted about and brought out as a new popular ditty indeed she thawed a little and then they went on to talk about her house which had been newly painted and decorated with greenish blue satin up to the height of a person's head an arrangement that somewhat improved her slightly faded though still pretty face and was helped by the awnings over the windows yes i have had my house some years she observed complacently and i like it better every year don't you feel lonely in it sometimes o never what an uncivil thing to say she murmured in surprise it is rather uncivil as a punishment she did not ring the bell but left him to find his way out as he could i saw him at lady channelcliffe's the other night jocelyn pierston o didn't he marry her said missus pine avon with a start but jocelyn was receding from the pretty widow's house with long strides lady iris had left the drawing room for a moment to see that all was right in the dining room and when he was shown in there stood alone in the lamplight nichola pine avon she had been the first arrival as the other guests dropped in the pair retreated into a shady corner and she talked beside him till all moved off for the eating and drinking he had not been appointed to take her across to the dining room but at the table found her exactly opposite the spring in the present case was the artistic commendation she deserved and craved the lady on jocelyn's left wife of a lord justice of appeal was in like manner talking to her companion on the outer side so that for the time he was left to himself it came from the wife of one of his father's former workmen and was concerning her son whom she begged jocelyn to recommend as candidate for some post in town that she wished him to fill what is necessary to the completeness of the story at this stage is not to recapitulate but to take up some of the loose ends of threads woven in and follow them through until the clear and comprehensive picture of events can be seen the way of the inventor is hard he can sometimes raise capital to help him in working out his crude conceptions but even then it is frequently done at a distressful cost of personal surrender when the result is achieved the invention makes its appeal on the score of economy of material or of effort and then labor often awaits with crushing and tyrannical spirit to smash the apparatus or forbid its very use possibly our national optimism as revealed in invention the seeking a higher good needs some check possibly the leaders would travel too fast and too far on the road to perfection if conservatism did not also play its salutary part in insisting that the procession move forward as a whole on the contrary the conditions for its acceptance had been ripening fast yet the very vogue of the electric arc light made harder the arrival of the incandescent a number of parent arc lighting companies were in existence and a great many local companies had been called into being under franchises for commercial business and to execute regular city contracts for street lighting thus in a curious manner the modern art of electric lighting was in a very true sense divided against itself with intense rivalries and jealousies which were none the less real because they were but temporary and occurred in a field where ultimate union of forces was inevitable hence twenty years after the first edison stations were established the methods they involved could be fairly credited with no less than sixty seven per cent it will be readily understood that under these conditions the modern lighting company supplies to its customers both incandescent and arc lighting frequently from the same dynamo electric machinery as a source of current and that the old feud as between the rival systems has died out in fact for some years past the presidents of the national electric light association have been chosen almost exclusively from among the managers of the great edison lighting companies in the leading cities the other strong opposition to the incandescent light came from the gas industry there also the most bitter feeling was shown the gas manager did not like the arc light but it interfered only with his street service which was not his largest source of income by any means here again was given a most convincing demonstration of the truth that such an addition to the resources of mankind always carries with it unsuspected benefits even for its enemies this was not long nor universally the spirit shown and to day in hundreds of cities the electric and gas properties are united under the one management which does not find it impossible to push in a friendly and progressive way the use of both illuminants the most conspicuous example of this identity of interest is given in new york itself so much for the early opposition of which there was plenty but it may be questioned whether inertia is not equally to be dreaded with active ill will of course a great many accounts were written and read but while genuine interest was aroused it was necessarily apathetic we got it at a great bargain and only paid a small sum down and the balance on mortgage we sold them for forty cents but there were only about twenty or thirty thousand of them the fourth year i got it down to thirty seven cents and i made all the money up in one year that i had lost previously one of the incidents which caused a very great cheapening was that when we started one of the important processes had to be done by experts after feeling around for some days i got a clew how to do it i then made another machine which did the work nicely incidentally it may be noted as illustrative of the problems brought to edison that while he had the factory at harrison an importer in the chinese trade went to him and wanted a dynamo to be run by hand power for making the dynamos edison secured as noted in the preceding chapter the roach iron works on goerck street new york and this was also equipped to sigmund bergmann who had worked previously with edison on telephone apparatus and phonographs and was already making edison specialties in a small way in a loft on wooster street new york was assigned the task of constructing sockets fixtures meters safety fuses and numerous other details in the early part of eighteen eighty one the edison electric light company leased the old bishop mansion at sixty five fifth avenue close to fourteenth street for its headquarters and show rooms this was one of the finest homes in the city of that period and its acquisition was a premonitory sign of the surrender of the famous residential avenue to commerce the experience with the little gas engine was rather startling one day it was not going very well and i went down to the man in charge and got exploring around for the next four or five years sixty five was a veritable beehive day and night the routine was very much the same as that at the laboratory in its utter neglect of the clock i was telling a gentleman one day that i could not keep a cigar even if i locked them up in my desk they would break it open he suggested to me that he had a friend over on eighth avenue who made a superior grade of cigars and who would show them a trick he said he would have some of them made up with hair and old paper and i could put them in without a word and see the result i thought no more about the matter i didn't remember anything about it i was too busy on other things to notice speaking of those days or nights edison says years ago one of the great violinists was remenyi he would talk with me but i never asked him to bring his violin one night he came with his violin about twelve o'clock after that every time he came to new york he used to call at sixty five late at night with his violin another visitor who used to give us a good deal of amusement and pleasure was captain shaw the head of the london fire brigade he would go out among the fire laddies and have a great time speaking of telling stories i once got telling a man stories at the harrison lamp factory in the yard as he was leaving it was winter and he was all in furs i had nothing on to protect me against the cold then i got pleurisy and had to be shipped to florida for cure it had merely enjoyed the delights of anxious anticipation and the perilous pleasure of backing edison's experiments now active exploitation was required london its guilt and glory they say best men are molded out of faults and for the most become much more the better for being a little bad standing on a broken column of the old steeple three hundred feet above primrose hill william struck an attitude of theatrical fashion and uttered the following oratorical flight glorious london sad how sad to think that the day will come when not a vestige of this wonderful mass of human energy shall remain where the cry of the wolf bat and bittern shall only be heard and nature again resume her rustic splendid desolation the devil's tavern was a resort for actors authors bohemians lords and ladies who did not retire early to their downy couches william and myself soon found rest in deep slumber and wafted away into a dreamless realm our tired bodies lay in the enfolding arms of morpheus until the porter knocked at our door the next morning as the clock of the tower struck the hour of nine our first sight of sunrise in london gave us great expectations of fame and fortune for surely all we had was glowing expectations oft expectation fails and most oft there where most it promises and oft it hits where hope is coldest and despair most fits deuces won double and sixes treble coin william to the great amazement of the dealer flung a guinea in the center pot which was immediately tapped by jack while the others looked on in silent expectation the polite jack replied all right sir take your word for it i have set my life upon a cast and will stand the hazard of the die i immediately followed in his footsteps and found him joking with the landlady about a couple of infant bull pups she was fondling in her capacious lap if he had dropped out of the clouds william could not have been more pleased or surprised and the feeling was reciprocal the printing shop of field was only a short distance from the devil's tavern and we were invited to visit the establishment james burbage gazed for a moment on the manly form of william and blurted out in his bluff manner what do you know the next day everybody in the house began to make preparations for the journey everything was done very leisurely though there was a lot of talking and disputing and the giving of contrary orders the old porter was there directing and scolding the servants as they piled the rugs and blankets and bags of food and pots and pans and dishes into the wagon there was quite a procession when at last the big wagon rumbled out through the gateway behind it came the grandmother in her dhoolie dak a sort of a litter or easy chair swung between two long poles besides the family there were many servants and several others walked beside the slow moving wagon the cook too went with them good bye shouted little nao from his garden wall as they went by good bye they shouted greetings to their friend the potter as they passed him and also to the old fakir smeared all over with ashes who sat in a little brick hut by the bridge and pretended to make wonderful cures this is more fun than going to school said chola as the oxen plodded along through clouds of dust these lovely birds are found nearly everywhere in india and in some parts run quite wild his long matted hair hung on his shoulders and he was saying his prayers with the help of a rosary of beads which he continually passed through his hands as the wagon came up a young man who accompanied the holy man ran up and held out a begging bowl saying give oh charitable people to this holy one no country in the world has so many beggars as india many of them are called holy men because they do nothing but make pilgrimages from one sacred place to another living solely on the alms that are given to them when they had eaten their lunch the young people went to explore the garden near them perhaps there are dogs said mahala a little fearfully but they forgot about dogs when they saw a thicket of sugar cane down by a stream perhaps we can buy some from the man there he is now ploughing by the stream said chola it is looking for water said the farmer as he took a long stalk of cane and gently guided it down to the stream the snake is another sacred animal of the hindus and they would not kill or injure one for anything as they were about to move on again they saw a great cloud of dust down the road it turned out that it was a great and powerful rajah going in state on a journey to visit another rajah or ruler of one of the small kingdoms or states of which modern india was formerly made up first there came a big elephant all decorated with silk and gold and silver on the elephant's back was a howdah which is like a big chair with a canopy over it and in this sitting cross legged was the rajah a big fat fellow dressed in coloured silks and jewels with a great diamond set plume in his turban behind the howdah stood a servant holding a big umbrella of fine feathers over the rajah's head the driver sat on the neck of the elephant and guided the big beast by prodding him on one side or the other with an iron shod stick or goad isn't it fine to ride like that on a big elephant and all the rest of the day the little folk talked of nothing but the great rajah and his escort our party came to a halt among many other bullock carts the owners of which were already sitting around on the ground cooking their suppers or bargaining for food at the little booths these they used for plates heaping them up with their boiled rice and curry and fish and all sorts of puddings and sweets as supper was being eaten another party stopped at the parao and camped not far away when the litter was put down a young boy stepped out looking very proud and haughty his servants at once spread a handsome rug on the ground for him to sit on and rushed about waiting on him taking good care to keep every one at a distance yes and how he orders every one about him around the little brahmin's neck was a thin cord or thread which was the sign of his high caste meanwhile the haughty little brahmin ate his supper with his head turned away so no one could see him eat and then growing tired of respectful glances of the crowd around him he got into his litter again and the servants fastened the curtains tightly around him everybody slept soundly in spite of the fact that one of the servants was beating a drum most of the night which they really believed was the way to keep off evil spirits oh the thieves he cried they are as bad as the beggars what art thou guarding so carefully shriya asked her brother he and chola were walking beside the wagon for a change the lattices were raised so shriya and her mother and aunt could enjoy the fresh air they are my dolls said the little girl sadly as she patted the bundle beside her i take them as an offering to the holy river poor little woman must thou sacrifice thy toys too smiled her uncle as he patted her head chapter forty nine griggs is stubborn the days glided by with the stiffness in chris lee's limbs growing less painful and the pony recovering fast for the clear mountain air seemed to act like a cure for wounds every day that came showed the injured animal in better condition its efforts to move no longer made chris wince and forget his own pains in those he felt at seeing the mustang suffer every one was busy for the keeping watch regularly took up a good deal of time it's all nonsense ned cried chris for them to think they are staying on account of us hullo griggs were you listening how did your pony go this morning splendid just halted a little on the bad leg but it's better than it was yesterday did you canter this morning canter we went at a good swinging gallop and what about you oh i'm only a little stiff still we shall get strong more quickly journeying over the plains or climbing in and out among the mountains he says we're to start to morrow at daybreak hurrah cried chris but we shan't my lad why not because i've seen indians again oh you're always seeing indians again well they showed themselves to me i didn't want them said griggs dryly they're an artful lot never been away at all i believe we couldn't see em but if we'd made a start they'd have been close upon our heels directly ah you'll have to trap them chris said ned maliciously look here if you say that again we shall quarrel hear that griggs oh yes i hear serve you right if you can't show us a better way you had better hold your tongue very well i can do that said ned haughtily there that's enough cried chris don't be so petty ned that's right cried griggs look here lads i've just been trying that place again any time the doctor likes being shot at by fellows with bows and arrows sounds bad enough but there's not much risk here i don't know about that said chris anxiously don't you well i do i should be running fast and dodging in and out among the rocks and trees but the enemy won't be standing still continued griggs i don't believe there's a bit of risk for me i shall be all right but our animals will be well back in that hollow said chris yes my lad but i want them to be planted farther back still i'm afraid father will say that the ponies ought to be close at hand yes that's right if it can be done but it would go hard with us all if the indians gave up the bait of the trap and turned upon those who set it well you must talk it over with father said chris too many redskins about as i told you there are always too many redskins about cried chris impatiently i wish we could charge them boldly and send them flying over the plains never to come back again said ned sharply not quite my lads don't you see that we're playing a very ticklish game just then the doctor came into the shelter where the boys had been talking bringing with him wilton who had been shooting or rather trying to shoot for he had had no success and they too were talking earnestly about ways and means oh here you are griggs cried the doctor had a good turn at scouting yes sir the indians have shifted their quarters and they're in about as awkward a position as they could contrive for our purpose we must get away from here to some good hunting ground do the indians seem to be camping or only on the move they seem to me to be hatching up some dodge or another replied griggs then he began to walk up and down slowly evidently deep in thought there he said i've made up my mind it is very evident that we may wait here till our stores are exhausted and be as far off the opportunity we seek as ever the indians can wait we cannot and they seem to know it going to give up young chris's plan said griggs slowly no i'm going to put it in force at once we start to night but all the same we can be making our preparations the barrels can be filled with water and every one's bottle provisions can be packed in our wallets in fact everything held ready for a start finally just at dusk the animals can be driven in for food and water and exactly replied the doctor but before any more is said griggs i want to offer you the opportunity to draw back what for said griggs sharply not a bit of it sir i'm going to take care they don't hit me i mean to do a bit to carry out young chris's plan and shut up the redskins for a week or two perhaps a month while we get right away there is a horrible side to it griggs would be if we let them get the better of us sir you mean the shutting up the enemy here to starve ejaculated griggs so sharply that the boys started serve em right if they did sir what business have they to want our scalps but we shouldn't shut them up to starve they'd have weeks of work before they could get their horses out but without horses they'd be out in a week starve nonsense but there i don't want to make speeches it's all settled gentlemen but you've got to tell the lookout what's coming off now every one understands that he is to be ready without showing any watchful indian scout that there is something on the way yet so strong was the effect upon him of contemplating a large fortune that in despite of reason and desire he lived in eager expectation of the word which should make him rich a part of that impression was due to the engagement which he must now fulfil to shuffle out of this duty would make him too ignoble even in his own eyes because in his salad days he dallied with a girl who had indeed many charms step by step he had come to the necessity of sacrificing his prospects to that raw attachment unable to think of work he left the house and wandered gloomily about regent's park he felt himself ill used by destiny and therefore by marian who was fate's instrument he wrote to marian will you let me hear or come and see me i scarcely thought of biffen as likely to kill himself but why the deuce did he go all the way out there i hoped you would bring me some news poverty i can only suppose but i will see whelpdale i hadn't come across biffen for a long time was he still so very poor asked amy compassionately i'm afraid so his book failed utterly oh if i had imagined him still in such distress surely i might have done something to help him perchance his death was in part attributable to that hopeless love he sent me a copy of his novel she said and i saw him once or twice after that having this subject to converse upon put the two more quickly at ease than could otherwise have been the case amy might take a foremost place among brilliant women especially now that her father is threatened with blindness is it so serious even if mister yule recovers his sight it is not at all likely that he will be able to work as before our difficulties are so grave that he paused and let his hand fail despondently i have a good deal of will you remember and what i have set my mind upon no doubt i shall some day achieve there was silence the last three years he continued have made no slight difference in my position recall where i stood when you first knew me just now i am in need of a little encouragement you don't notice any falling off in my work recently do you see my things in the current and so on generally sometimes i believe i have detected you when there was no signature her story in that girls paper has attracted attention and i could so easily put her at rest by renouncing all claim upon her i surmise that that you yourself would also be put at rest by such a decision don't look at me with that ironical smile he pleaded i couldn't go about declaring that i was heartbroken in any event i must be content for people to judge me according to their disposition and judgments are pretty sure to be unfavourable what can i do the case is too delicate i fear for my advice well i'll go back to my scribbling again jasper held the white soft hand for a superfluous moment yet for such feelings he reproached himself and the reproach made him angry marian could not mistake the air of restless trouble on her companion's smooth countenance she had divined that there was some grave reason for this summons and the panting with which she had approached was half caused by the anxious beats of her heart he began abruptly he gave her such details as he had obtained then added there are two of my companions fallen in the battle i ought to think myself a lucky fellow marian what you are better fitted to fight your way jasper more of a brute you mean you know very well i don't i have made up my mind about our affairs he went on presently yes will you marry me and let us take our chance you feel yourself indispensable to your father at present i should be so afraid of the effect upon his health jasper she paused and looked up at him touchingly dear i can't feel it would be my duty to renounce you because my father had become blind has one thing occurred to you will he consent to receive an allowance from a person whose name is missus milvain and if he obstinately refuses what then what is before him she listened anxiously and reflected as i have said there is the very serious doubt whether your father would accept money from you when you are my wife it isn't your fault marian and well then there's only one thing to do except jasper that if father is helpless i must find means of assuring his support do you think them insurmountable that is just what i have decided is impossible marian you shall have the plain truth i don't trust myself but shall you face them willingly put up your umbrella marian what do i care for a drop of rain she exclaimed with passionate sadness when all my life is at stake how am i to understand you every word you speak seems intended to dishearten me why need you conceal it if that is the truth is that what you mean by saying you distrust yourself we must see each other again marian how am i to live an hour in such uncertainty as this i do wish it her emotion had an effect upon him and his voice trembled there is no natural law that a child should surrender everything for her parents you know so much more of the world than i do can't you advise me is there no way of providing for my father good god this is frightful marian i can't stand it i will be faithful to you he had made a pretence of holding his umbrella over her but marian turned away and walked to a little distance and stood beneath the shelter of a great tree her face averted from him moving to follow he saw that her frame was shaken by soundless sobbing in what can there be more selfishness but i couldn't say a word that would seem to invite such misery as this you don't love me jasper and that's an end of everything happiness or misery come to us by fate is it in my power to make you happy but if you had said you loved me before that i should have it always to remember if i believe anything i believe that i did love you what can you say to me more than you have said now remember me as a man who disregarded priceless love such as yours to go and make himself a proud position among fools and knaves indeed that's what it comes to soon enough you would thoroughly despise me and though i should know it was merited my perverse pride would revolt against it what can be simpler than the truth it is a thing that happens every day either in man or woman and all that honour demands is the courage to confess the truth marian will you do this will you let our engagement last for another six months but without our meeting during that time that seems to me childish the rain fell unceasingly and with it began to mingle an autumnal mist jasper delayed a moment then asked calmly are you going to the museum yes go home again for this morning marian you can't work i must and i have no time to lose good bye she gave him her hand they looked at each other for an instant then marian left the shelter of the tree opened her umbrella and walked quickly away jasper did not watch her he had the face of a man who is suffering a severe humiliation his sister said very little for she recognised genuine suffering in his tones and aspect a few weeks ago he actually proposed to a woman for whom he does not pretend to have the slightest affection but who is very rich and who seemed likely to be foolish enough to marry him yesterday morning he received her final answer a refusal you will understand though surely you need no fresh proof how utterly unworthy he is of you you are the only friend i have of my own sex and i could not bear to lose you several days passed before there came a reply i must only ask that you will write to me without the least reference to these troubles tell me always about yourself and be sure that you cannot tell me too much we have succeeded in amassing two hundred ounces of silver enough i trust to erect a handsome bronze figure to be sure it seems a shame yet if i could steal the money this priest is boasting about i could live at ease for the rest of my days and so he began casting about how best he might compass his purpose but the priest far from guessing the drift of his comrade's thoughts journeyed cheerfully on till they reached the town of kuana here there is an arm of the sea which is crossed in ferry boats that start as soon as some twenty or thirty passengers are gathered together and in one of these boats the two travellers embarked when the boatmen and passengers heard the splash and saw the priest struggling in the water they were afraid and made every effort to save him but the wind was fair and the boat running swiftly under the bellying sails so they were soon a few hundred yards off from the drowning man who sank before the boat could be turned to rescue him when he saw this the ronin feigned the utmost grief and dismay and said to his fellow passengers this priest whom we have just lost was my cousin he was going to kiyoto to visit the shrine of his patron and as i happened to have business there as well we settled to travel together now alas by this misfortune my cousin is dead and i am left alone he spoke so feelingly and wept so freely that the passengers believed his story and pitied and tried to comfort him then the ronin said to the boatmen what think you gentlemen added he turning to the other travellers they of course were only too glad to avoid any hindrance to their onward journey and all with one voice agreed to what the ronin had proposed and so the matter was settled when at length they reached the shore they left the boat and every man went his way but the ronin overjoyed in his heart took the wandering priest's luggage and putting it with his own pursued his journey to kiyoto fortune favouring his speculations he began to amass great wealth and lived at his ease denying himself nothing and in course of time he married a wife who bore him a child since then all has gone well with me yet had i not been poor i had never turned assassin nor thief he would have fled into the house but the ghost stretched forth its withered arm and clutching the back of his neck scowled at him with a vindictive glare and a hideous ghastliness of mien so unspeakably awful that any ordinary man would have swooned with fear at length undone by such ceaseless vexation tokubei fell ill and kept muttering oh misery misery the wandering priest is coming to torture me now it chanced that the story reached the ears of a certain wandering priest who lodged in the next street and hiding his head under the coverlet he lay quivering all over three years ago at the kuana ferry you flung me into the water and well you remember it happily continued the priest i had learned to swim and to dive as a boy so i reached the shore and after wandering through many provinces succeeded in setting up a bronze figure to buddha thus fulfilling the wish of my heart on my journey homewards i took a lodging in the next street and there heard of your marvellous ailment thinking i could divine its cause i came to see you and am glad to find i was not mistaken and would it not ill become me to bear malice repent therefore and abandon your evil ways to see you do so i should esteem the height of happiness be of good cheer now and look me in the face and you will see that i am really a living man and no vengeful goblin come to torment you in a fit of madness i was tempted to kill and rob you fortune befriended me ever after but the richer i grew the more keenly i felt how wicked i had been and the more i foresaw that my victim's vengeance would some day overtake me haunted by this thought i lost my nerve till one night i beheld your spirit and from that time forth fell ill but how you managed to escape and are still alive is more than i can understand a guilty man said the priest with a smile shudders at the rustling of the wind or the chattering of a stork's beak a murderer's conscience preys upon his mind till he sees what is not every well ordered japanese home of the old fashioned kind has its little shrine which is the centre of the religious life of the house she it is who sets the rice and wine before the ancestral tablets who lights the little lamp each night and who sees that at each feast day and anniversary season the proper food is prepared and set out for the household gods these must be kept carefully by the mother as a safeguard against the many evils that beset child life visits to noted temples by relatives and friends often result in additions to the child's collection all these are put together by the careful mother and preserved as jealously as queen althea kept the charred stick that governed the destiny of her son as the children arrive at years of discretion these treasures pass out of the mother's faithful keeping into the hands of their actual owners and they are usually kept stored away in some little used drawer or cabinet until death removes the necessity for any further safeguards over life each animal brings its own kind of good or bad luck into the hour day or year over which it presides and only a skillful balancer of pros and cons can read aright the combinations and understand what the luck of any particular hour in any particular day of any particular year will be for the greater events of family life the home prophecies are felt to be too uncertain and the services of the fortune teller must be called in no well managed family would think of building a new house without finding in what direction to face the front door after this matter has been settled and the house is fairly begun there are occasional crises in its construction upon which much depends of these the most important is the day when the roof is raised the house owner then decides whether the day set by the builder is a lucky one for himself and his family a present of money to each workman is also in order and will conduce to the rapid and faithful execution of the job in hand when at last the house is finished and carpenters and plasterers are ready to leave it the local firemen who have assisted all along in the building as unskilled laborers often ascend to the roof and from the ridge pole cast down cakes for which the children of the neighborhood scramble joyfully all come who can and those who cannot come send servants or provisions on the day after the death often in the evening the body must be placed in the cask shaped coffin that until recently was the style commonly in use in japan now among the wealthier classes the long coffin has superseded the small square or round one but the smaller expense connected with burial in the old way makes the survival of the old type a necessity for the majority of japanese at an appointed time all the relatives assemble in the death chamber and preparations are made for the bathing of the corpse there is no official ceremonial mourning of parents for their children nor does custom require them to perform any of the last rites or attend the funeral upon the younger brothers and sisters falls the duty of attending to all the last sad ministrations when the body has been washed it is dressed in white in silk habutai whenever the family can afford it the body to be placed in the coffin must be folded into a sitting posture the chin resting upon the knees the position of the mummies found in many aboriginal american tombs this difficult to us apparently impossible feat safely accomplished there are placed in the coffin a number of small things that the dead takes with him to the next world the single exception to this rule about metal is that small copper coins may be put in to fee the old hag who guards the bank of the river of death last of all the vacant spaces in the coffin are filled in with bags of tea so long as the coffin is in the house it must be watched over continually it is their duty to see that the incense burning before the coffin is never allowed to go out while the food for the dead is renewed at regular intervals by the mourners themselves there are few enlightened japanese who will defend the present system of cruelty to the afflicted or who do not long for some change but so great is the force of conservatism in this regard so haunting the fear that any change may indicate a lack of respect for the dead that reform advances slowly individual instances occur in which some of the worst features of these customs are modified a case in point is that of the late mister fukuzawa a man whose life was devoted to the advancement of his countrymen in modern ways and who in his death continued his teaching in his will he provided that his body was to be buried without washing in the clothing in which he died through this growing feeling and the unselfishness of maternal affection may come in time the release from these mournful ceremonies just before the procession starts a religious ceremony is held at the house which is attended by the friends of the deceased and which is substantially the same as that performed at the cemetery on the day of the burial great bunches of natural flowers are sent to the dead each bunch so large as to require the services of one man to carry it sometimes with the gift a man is sent to take part in the procession but if the giver feels too poor to hire a man this burden too falls upon the bereaved household for etiquette requires that all flowers sent be borne to the grave by uniformed coolies who march in the funeral train another favorite present at this time among buddhists is a cage of living birds to be borne to the grave and released thereon it seems more like a bridal than a burial during this period the spirit of the deceased is supposed to be still inhabiting the house and a tablet or shrine is set up in the death chamber before which food and flowers are renewed daily of course you must be elaine anne said diana of course it would be romantic conceded jane andrews but i know i couldn't keep still but it's so ridiculous to have a redheaded elaine mourned anne and elaine was the lily maid your complexion is just as fair as ruby's said diana earnestly and your hair is ever so much darker than it used to be before you cut it it was splendid to fish for trout over the bridge and the two girls learned to row themselves about in the little flat bottomed dory mister barry kept for duck shooting it was anne's idea that they dramatize elaine those days she said were so much more romantic than the present they had often gone down like this and nothing could be more convenient for playing elaine the black shawl having been procured anne spread it over the flat and then lay down on the bottom with closed eyes and hands folded over her breast it spoils the effect because this is hundreds of years before missus lynde was born jane you arrange this it's silly for elaine to be talking when she's dead jane rose to the occasion left behind at the landing anne gave one gasping little scream which nobody ever heard she was white to the lips but she did not lose her self possession there was one chance just one under such circumstances you don't think much about making a flowery prayer the flat drifted under the bridge and then promptly sank in midstream ruby jane and diana already awaiting it on the lower headland saw it disappear before their very eyes and had not a doubt but that anne had gone down with it the minutes passed by each seeming an hour to the unfortunate lily maid why didn't somebody come where had the girls gone her imagination began to suggest all manner of gruesome possibilities to her anne shirley how on earth did you get there he exclaimed it was certainly extremely difficult to be dignified under the circumstances what has happened anne asked gilbert taking up his oars we were playing elaine explained anne frigidly without even looking at her rescuer and i had to drift down to camelot in the barge i mean the flat for a moment anne hesitated her heart gave a quick queer little beat her resentment which to other and older people might be as laughable as its cause was in no whit allayed and softened by time seemingly no she said coldly i shall never be friends with you gilbert blythe and i don't want to be all right i'll never ask you to be friends again anne shirley and i don't care either of course he had insulted her terribly but still everything i do gets me or my dearest friends into a scrape anne's presentiment proved more trustworthy than presentiments are apt to do will you ever have any sense anne groaned marilla i don't see how said marilla ever since i came to green gables i've been making mistakes and each mistake has helped to cure me of some great shortcoming vanity and vexation of spirit the spring was abroad in the land and marilla's sober middle aged step was lighter and swifter because of its deep primal gladness i must say with all her faults i never found her disobedient or untrustworthy before and i'm real sorry to find her so now perhaps you're judging her too hasty marilla of course i knew you'd take her part matthew but i'm bringing her up not you demanded marilla anxiously going over to the bed anne cowered deeper into her pillows as if desirous of hiding herself forever from mortal eyes no get right up this minute and tell me this minute i say there now what is it anne had slid to the floor in despairing obedience yes it's green moaned anne i thought nothing could be as bad as red hair you haven't got into any scrape for over two months and i was sure another one was due now then what did you do to your hair anne shirley didn't you know it was a wicked thing to do yes i knew it was a little wicked admitted anne i know what it feels like to have your word doubted and missus allan says we should never suspect anyone of not telling us the truth unless we have proof that they're not but i hadn't then and i believed every word he said implicitly who said who are you talking about oh i didn't let him in the house in a trice i saw myself with beautiful raven black hair and the temptation was irresistible oh marilla what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive your hair must be cut off there is no other way you can't go out with it looking like that with a dismal sigh she went for the scissors but there is nothing comforting in having your hair cut off because you've dyed it a dreadful color is there i'm going to weep all the time you're cutting it off if it won't interfere it seems such a tragic thing anne wept then but later on when she went upstairs and looked in the glass she was calm with despair yes i will too i never thought i was vain about my hair of all things but now i know i was in spite of its being red because it was so long and thick and curly i expect something will happen to my nose next anne's clipped head made a sensation in school on the following monday but to her relief nobody guessed the real reason for it not even josie pye who however did not fail to inform anne that she looked like a perfect scarecrow it's hard to be told you look like a scarecrow and i wanted to say something back but i didn't it makes you feel very virtuous when you forgive people doesn't it i mean to devote all my energies to being good after this and i shall never try to be beautiful again of course it's better to be good i do really want to be good marilla like you and missus allan and miss stacy and grow up to be a credit to you diana says when my hair begins to grow to tie a black velvet ribbon around my head with a bow at one side i will call it a snood that sounds so romantic my head is better now it was terrible bad this afternoon though junior avonlea found it hard to settle down to humdrum existence again perhaps after a while i'll get used to it but i'm afraid concerts spoil people for everyday life i suppose that is why marilla disapproves of them i feel just now that i may grow up to be sensible yet i just lay awake and imagined the concert over and over again eventually however avonlea school slipped back into its old groove and took up its old interests none of the sloanes would have any dealings with the bells because the bells had declared that the sloanes had too much to do in the program and the sloanes had retorted that the bells were not capable of doing the little they had to do properly the winter weeks slipped by on anne's birthday they were tripping lightly down it keeping eyes and ears alert amid all their chatter for miss stacy had told them that they must soon write a composition on a winter's walk in the woods and it behooved them to be observant i can scarcely realize that i'm in my teens it's a great comfort to think that i'll be able to use big words then without being laughed at ruby gillis thinks of nothing but beaus said anne disdainfully she's actually delighted when anyone writes her name up in a take notice for all she pretends to be so mad i'm trying to be as much like missus allan as i possibly can for i think she's perfect if i had alice bell's crooked nose said anne decidedly i wouldn't but there i'm afraid i think too much about my nose ever since i heard that compliment about it long ago oh diana look there's a rabbit they're so white and still as if they were asleep and dreaming pretty dreams i wrote it last monday evening it's called the jealous rival or in death not divided i read it to marilla and she said it was stuff and nonsense it's a sad sweet story cordelia was a regal brunette with a coronet of midnight hair and duskly flashing eyes you know so much more than you did when you were only twelve they grew in beauty side by side until they were sixteen i asked ruby gillis if she knew anything about how men proposed because i thought she'd likely be an authority on the subject having so many sisters married but she pretended to be geraldine's friend the same as ever let you and me have a story club all our own and write stories for practice you ought to cultivate your imagination you know miss stacy says so only we must take the right way this was how the story club came into existence no boys were allowed in it although ruby gillis opined that their admission would make it more exciting and each member had to produce one story a week each girl has to read her story out loud and then we talk it over mine is rosamond montmorency all the girls do pretty well i'm sure that must have a wholesome effect the moral is the great thing mister allan says so i read one of my stories to him and missus allan and they both agreed that the moral was excellent jane and ruby almost always cry when i come to the pathetic parts miss josephine barry wrote back that she had never read anything so amusing in her life i'm sure missus allan was never such a silly forgetful little girl as you are i felt so encouraged when i heard that missus lynde says she always feels shocked when she hears of anyone ever having been naughty no matter how small they were now i wouldn't have felt that way peleg snuggers the general utility man of the hall had just brought the boys up from cedarville to which place they had journeyed from ithaca on the regular afternoon boat running up cayuga lake with the rovers had come fred garrison larry colby and several others of their old school chums oh how do you do mister strong and he ran to meet the head teacher well thomas i hope you have left all your pranks behind observed george strong hullo aleck i've gained fifteen pounds and yo lemme go sah yo is stickin pins in my hand howled pop he moaned as tom ran off throwing away several tiny tacks as he did so so you've come back have you observed missus green as tom stopped at the kitchen door asked tom and then his face fell oh dear you always did put me down as the worst boy in the school when i i do my very best and almost sobbing tom put his face up against his coat sleeve missus green was very tender hearted in spite of her somewhat free tongue and she was all sympathy immediately there there tom i didn't mean to hurt your feelings she said soothingly i i don't know sobbed tom come sit down and have the pie that's a good boy it's really like home he murmured presently missus green when you die they ought to erect an awfully big monument over your grave what was her trouble tom consumption and yet with it all she couldn't help but like the boy an to think the term's just begun and he mopped his brow with his red bandanna handkerchief wot kind of a joke is that master rover oh it's no joke you are handsome have you got a camera to be sure here it is sam drew a tiny box from his pocket now stand still and i'll take a snap shot now stand straight and look happy cried sam as a crowd collected around raise you right hand to your breast just as all statesmen do now wait a minute and the picture will be finished no this is a new patented process sam drew a square of tin from the box i don't see any picture growled snuggers looking at the square blankly it's a little fresh yet the boys gathered around set up a shout sam rover i'll git square see if i don't demanded sam innocently isn't it a good picture show me off for a donkey a donkey oh peleg i did nothing of the kind it's a donkey's head i say and i say it's your picture i guess i know a donkey's head when i see it master rover peleg there is some mistake here oh you can't joke me no more one night when both were sleeping the prince had a remarkable dream they rushed into the room added their cries to hers and forgetting all their former precautions left the doors open so that the guards outside hearing the clamour entered and saw the prince she is a disgrace to her family and shall soon see her husband impaled on a stake then with his forehead disfigured by a fearful frown he continued to abuse the prince and having tied his hands behind him dragged him from the room treated thus like some wild beast roughly shaken and neglected rajavahana would have suffered greatly had he not been protected by the magic jewel given to him in patala and which he had contrived to conceal in his hair advancing therefore with a large army he prepared to besiege champa the capital city a terrible battle ensued in which both kings performed prodigies of valour should there be any pity for the violator of the harem if the old king my father now in his dotage was foolish enough to favour the criminal for the sake of his worthless daughter you had no need of his permission and ought not to have been influenced by him let that vile seducer be immediately put to death by torture and his paramour be shut up in prison till i come have ready also a fierce elephant suitably equipped which i shall mount immediately after the wedding to overtake my army in march against the enemy and as i set out i will make the elephant trample the life out of that criminal while he stood there calmly awaiting death which now seemed inevitable he suddenly felt his feet free and a beautiful lady appeared before him she humbly bowing down said let my lord pardon his servant for the injury which she has unconsciously caused i am an apsaras born from the rays of the moon one day as i was flying through the air wearing a white dress a swan mistaking me for a lotus flower attacked me in his anger he cursed me saying o wicked one for this offence you are condemned to be changed into a piece of unconscious metal the change took place immediately and i fell to the ground turned into a silver chain on his way he saw the silver fetter descended to the ground picked it up and continued his flight the slayer of chandavarma hearing this came out of the palace and quickly mounting the elephant who held down his trunk to receive him placed himself behind the prince great was their mutual astonishment and joy when they recognised each other the prince exclaiming is it possible is it really you my dear friend apaharavarma who have done this deed through these they forced their way employing with good effect the weapons placed on the elephant for the use of chandavarma before however they had gone far they heard the noise of battle at a distance and saw the soldiers in front of them scattered in all directions we have just now encountered and utterly defeated the enemy so that there is no fear of any further resistance rajavahana agreed to this out of curiosity he hung one of them outside his house in cases of scorpion sting dommara medicine men rub up patent boluses with human milk or juice of the milk hedge plant euphorbia tirucalli and apply them to the parts when the umbilical cord of a kondh baby sloughs off a spider is burnt in the fire and its ashes are placed in a cocoanut shell mixed with castor oil and applied by means of a fowl's feather to the navel they then call the dead man by his name and eagerly wait till some insect settles on the cloth blood was described as oozing out of his eyes make the patient suck the milk of the breast of a woman whose baby is more than eighty days old his camp boy told him of a case in which death was said to have resulted from eating one of these animals cooked with some jak fruit a few years ago a scare arose in connection with an insect which was said to have taken up its abode in imported german glass bangles which compete with the indigenous industry of the gazula bangle makers the insect was reported to lie low in the bangle till it was purchased when it would come out and nip the wearer after warning her to get her affairs in order before succumbing his body was long and slender hard and agile his sight keen his aim unerring in the month of agrahayan kanti had gone out shooting near the swamp of nydighi with a few sporting companions one morning as kanti was seated in his boat cleaning a favourite gun he suddenly started at what he thought was the cry of wild duck looking up he saw a village maiden coming to the water's edge with two white ducklings clasped to her breast the girl put the birds into the water and watched them anxiously looking round kanti saw one of his men pointing an unloaded gun at the ducks kanti went on cleaning his gun after kanti had eaten and drunk the brahmin begged him to introduce himself kanti gave his own name his father's name and the address of his home and then said in the usual way if i can be of any service sir i shall deem myself fortunate so saying kanti repeated his salute and went back the brick built mansion of the mazumdars had been borrowed for the wedding ceremony which was fixed for next magh as kanti did not wish to delay in due time the bridegroom arrived on his elephant with drums and music and with a torchlight procession and the ceremony began in that bashful downcast face crowned with the wedding coronet and bedecked with sandal paste he could scarcely recognise the village maiden of his fancy and in the fulness of his emotion a mist seemed to becloud his eyes the light of the lamps seemed to grow dim and darkness to tarnish the face of the bride herself at first he felt angry with his father in law the old scoundrel had shown him one girl and married him to another close upon it followed the girl he had seen before oh the mad girl cried the women as they made signs to her to leave the room all the women in the room began to titter the increasing laughter in the room betokened an amusing joke with a sigh of intense relief as of escape from calamity he looked once more into the face of his bride the fawn had taken his morning meal and now lay curled up on a bed of moss whenever the fawn caught up he was quite content to frisk about the danger was certain now it was near the hounds had struck her trail where she turned and the fawn was safe one was rowing the other had a gun in his hand what should she do her tired legs could not propel the tired body rapidly the doe saw the boat nearing her in a moment more the boat was on her and the man at the oars had leaned over and caught her i was tormented by thirst but had abstained from drinking for many days according to the doctors orders that old man ceased to give so much annoyance yet sometimes he appeared to me in dreams felice had given them orders not to speak to me of this this maid had stolen from me certain little things of some importance and in her fear of being detected she would have been very glad if i had died accordingly she allowed me twice to take as much as i could of the water so that in good earnest i swallowed more than a flask full one i then covered myself and began to sweat and fell into a deep sleep they say that my poor friend was on the point of falling to the ground so grieved was he to hear this afterwards he took an ugly stick and began to beat the serving girl with all his might shouting out ah traitress you have killed him for me then she may indeed have saved my life so lend me a helping hand for i have sweated and be quick about it felice recovered his spirits dried and made me comfortable and i being conscious of a great improvement in my state began to reckon on recovery just then the other doctor bernardino put in his appearance who at the beginning of my illness had refused to bleed me maestro francesco that most able man exclaimed oh power of nature she knows what she requires and the physicians know nothing that simpleton maestro bernardino made answer saying if he had drunk another bottle he would have been cured upon the spot afterwards he turned to me and asked if i could have drunk more water i answered no because i had entirely quenched my thirst in like manner she was asking for what she wanted when the poor young man begged you to bleed him if you knew that his recovery depended upon his drinking two flasks of water why did you not say so before you might then have boasted of his cure at these words the wretched quack sulkily departed and never showed his face again the very evening i was taken with great precautions in a chair well wrapped up and protected from the cold do not permit him any irregularities for though he has escaped this time another disorder now would be the death of him then he turned to me and said my benvenuto be prudent commit no excesses and when you are quite recovered i beg you to make me a madonna with your own hand and i will always pay my devotions to it for your sake so i made my mind up and prepared to travel that day many friends came to see me among others pier landi who was the best and dearest friend i ever had next day there came a certain niccolo da monte aguto who was also a very great friend of mine i had harboured him in rome and provided for his costs while he had turned my whole house upside down for the man was subject to a species of dry scab which he was always in the habit of scratching with his hands meanwhile that able physician francesco da monte varchi attended to my cure with great skill there they seated me to wait until the duke went by many of my friends at court came up to greet me and expressed surprise that i had undergone the inconvenience of being carried in that way while so shattered by illness they said that i ought to have waited till i was well and then to have visited the duke at these words maestro agostino the dukes tailor made his way through all those gentlemen and said if that is all you want to know you shall know it at this very moment giorgio the painter whom i have mentioned happened just then to pass and maestro agostino exclaimed there is the man who accused you now you know yourself if it be true or not as fiercely as i could not being able to leave my seat i asked giorgio if it was true that he had accused me he denied that it was so and that he had ever said anything of the sort maestro agostino retorted you gallows bird dont you know that i know it for most certain giorgio made off as quickly as he could repeating that he had not accused me then after a short while the duke came by whereupon i had myself raised up before his excellency and he halted the duke gazed at me and marvelled i was still alive afterwards he bade me take heed to be an honest man and regain my health when i reached home niccolo da monte aguto came to visit me and told me that i had escaped one of the most dreadful perils in the world quite contrary to all his expectations for he had seen my ruin written with indelible ink now i must make haste to get well and afterwards take french leave because my jeopardy came from a quarter and a man who was able to destroy me i answered that i had done nothing to displease him but that he had injured me and told him all the affair about the mint he repeated get hence as quickly as you can and be of good courage for you will see your vengeance executed sooner than you expect i the best attention to my health gave pietro pagolo advice about stamping the coins and then went off upon my way to rome without saying a word to the duke or anybody else you want them to immortalise that ferocious tyrant you have never made anything so exquisite which proves you our inveterate foe and their devoted friend and yet the pope and he have had it twice in mind to hang you without any fault of yours it was firmly believed that duke alessandro was the son of pope clement messer francesco used also to say and swear by all his saints that if he could he would have robbed me of the dies for that medal i responded that he had done well to tell me so and that i would take such care of them that he should never see them more i now sent to florence to request lorenzino that he would send me the reverse of the medal niccolo da monte aguto to whom i had written wrote back saying that he had spoken to that mad melancholy philosopher lorenzino for it he had replied that he was thinking night and day of nothing else and that he would finish it as soon as he was able nevertheless i was not to set my hopes upon his reverse but i had better invent one out of my own head and when i had finished it i might bring it without hesitation to the duke for this would be to my advantage i composed the design of a reverse which seemed to me appropriate and pressed the work forward to my best ability this being so as he was a fellow of much humour we used often to laugh together about the great credit he had gained i therefore dismounted at once got my fowling piece ready and at a very long range brought two of them down with a single ball i never used to shoot with more than one ball and was usually able to hit my mark at two hundred cubits which cannot be done by other ways of loading i lifted my foot and let the water run out then when i had mounted we made haste for rome there was no answer and after one or two ineffectual attempts phronsie turned fearfully away i'll try and she laid a quick hand on the knob two red spots burned on her cheeks and her pale blue eyes snapped oh i'm sure i heard it raging up and down i don't want any dinner said charlotte drawing back yes indeed said polly cheerily just as fine as can be assuredly said old mister king with great satisfaction in polly's pleasure and at her success in drawing charlotte out and after this there were no more quiet days for charlotte chatterton oh bless me it's you phronsie in pleased surprise yes grandpapa said phronsie coming in and shutting the door carefully i came on purpose to see you all alone so you did dear said mister king highly gratified and pushing away his writing table he held out his hand oh no grandpapa cried phronsie in a rapture i could never be too big for that so she perched up as of old on his knee then she folded her hands and looked gravely in his face well my dear what is it asked the old gentleman presently you've come to tell me something i suppose yes grandpapa i have said phronsie decidedly and it is most important too grandpapa and oh i do wish it so much and she clasped her hands tighter and sighed well then phronsie if you want it i suppose it must be said mister king quite as a matter of course oh she left you everything she had phronsie a couple of millions or so it is why charlotte poor repeated the old gentleman why no not exactly her father isn't rich but charlotte i think may do very well especially as i intend to keep her here for a while and then i shall never let her suffer phronsie never indeed grandpapa said phronsie wasn't missus chatterton aunt to charlotte if missus chatterton was aunt to charlotte persisted phronsie slowly it seems as if charlotte ought to have some of the money it really does grandpapa maybe said the old gentleman with a short laugh and i shouldn't wonder if cousin eunice was sorry over a few other things too phronsie wouldn't it make her very glad if i gave charlotte some of the money for answer mister king set her down hastily on the floor and took two or three turns up and down the room oh i do so wish i might she said there's so much for a little girl like me it would be so nice to have charlotte have some with me still no answer i was writing a note to missus fargo said phronsie putting up her lips for a kiss sure as i can be phronsie said old mister king smiling good by dear there there my sister's boy shall never say that but come in come in not to be ungracious the young man threw himself into a chair oh hang it uncle why can't you let me alone which is a wonder interpolated pickering i know you did uncle said pickering you've done everything that's good for heaven's sake pickering cried his uncle darting in front of the chair and its restless occupant don't say that again i've been a lazy dog all my life and a good for naught but i hope i've not sunk to that the church bells were ringing and people on the avenue going by to service turned curious inquiring looks up at the great house and then went on talking of the recent events which had so strangely entered into and made history in the city and all through his impassioned appeal this morning there was a note of sadness and rebuke and stern condemnation that made many of the members pale with self accusation or with inward anger raymond had voted to continue for another year the saloon the christians of raymond stood condemned by the result for that had been the fact in raymond for years the saloon ruled president marsh sat there his usual erect handsome firm bright self confident bearing all gone his head bowed upon his breast the great tears rolling down his cheeks unmindful of the fact that never before had he shown outward emotion in a public service what if he had begun to do as jesus would have done long ago when had the first church yielded to such a baptism of tears what had become of its regular precise conventional order of service undisturbed by any vulgar emotion and unmoved by any foolish excitement they had been living so long on their surface feelings that they had almost forgotten the deeper wells of life the meeting was tender it glowed with the spirit's presence it was alive with strong and lasting resolve to begin a war on the whiskey power in raymond that would break its reign forever since the first sunday when the first company of volunteers had pledged themselves to do as jesus would do the different meetings had been characterized by distinct impulses or impressions and all through it ran one general cry for deliverance from the saloon and its awful curse gray and his wife were besieged by inquirers who wanted to know what loreen's friends and acquaintances were expected to do in paying their last respects to her gray had gone up to virginia's and after talking it over with her and maxwell the arrangement had been made i am and always have been opposed to large public funerals said gray whose complete wholesome simplicity of character was one of its great sources of strength but the cry of the poor creatures who knew loreen is so earnest that i do not know how to refuse this desire to see her and pay her poor body some last little honor what do you think mister maxwell i will be guided by your judgment in the matter i am sure that whatever you and miss page think best will be right under the circumstances i have a great distaste for what seems like display at such times but this seems different it happened that that afternoon a somewhat noted newspaper correspondent was passing through raymond on his way to an editorial convention in a neighboring city she was a common street drunkard and yet the services at the tent were as impressive as any i ever witnessed in a metropolitan church over the most distinguished citizen it struck me of course being a stranger in the place with considerable astonishment to hear voices like those one naturally expects to hear only in great churches or concerts at such a meeting as this mister maxwell spoke of the fact that the dead woman had been fully prepared to go but he spoke in a peculiarly sensitive manner of the effect of the liquor business on the lives of men and women like this one raymond of course being a railroad town and the centre of the great packing interests for this region is full of saloons then followed what was perhaps the queer part of this strange service it was one of the simplest and at the same time one of the most impressive sights i ever witnessed there must have been a hundred of these women and i was told many of them had been converted at the meetings just recently the next moment he fell back in amazement before the impetuous rush of a starry eyed flushed cheeked young woman who demanded where is he pete miss billy gasped the old man aunt hannah's cheeks too were flushed and her eyes starry but with dismay and anger the last because she did not like the way pete had said miss billy's name it was one matter for her to object to this thing billy was doing but quite another for pete to do it of course it's she retorted aunt hannah testily as if you yourself didn't bring her here with your crazy messages at this time of night pete where is he interposed billy tell mister bertram i am here or wait i'll go right in and surprise him pete had recovered himself by now but he did not even glance toward aunt hannah miss billy miss billy you're an angel straight from heaven you are you are oh i'm so glad you came it'll be all right now all right he's in the den miss billy billy turned eagerly but before she could take so much as one step toward the door at the end of the hall aunt hannah's indignant voice arrested her billy stop pete go tell your master that we are here and ask if he will receive us pete's lips twitched but his face was preternaturally grave when he spoke a flying figure brushed by him and fell on its knees by the couch with a low cry bertram's eyes flew open dong ling found him there a minute later polishing a silver teaspoon with a fringed napkin that had been spread over bertram's tray in the hall above aunt hannah was crying into william's gray linen duster that hung on the hall rack aunt hannah's handkerchief was on the floor back at hillside then very gradually it dawned over them that there was after all something strange and unexplained in it all as if to make sure that she was here like this he drew her even closer bertram was so thankful that he did have one arm that was usable why of of course stammered billy i couldn't help thinking that maybe you had found out you didn't want me demanded bertram angry and mystified as for my not painting again you didn't understand pete dearie she pulled herself half away from bertram's encircling arm billy drew a quivering sigh good heavens is kate in this too bertram's voice was savage now well she wrote a letter billy laughed gayly but she shifted her position and did not meet her lover's eyes and you never did think for a minute billy that you cared for him he had not been slow to mark that swift lowering of her eyelids billy was so glad bertram had turned the question on her love instead of arkwright's after a minute billy stirred and sighed happily you see i wasn't in love with mister arkwright and and you didn't care specially for for miss winthrop billy put a soft finger on his lips bertram kissed the finger and subsided humph he commented well what is that is that kate too demanded bertram grimly there was another silence then suddenly bertram stirred billy i'm going to marry you to morrow he announced decisively i don't know as i can trust you out of my sight till then you'll read something or hear something or get a letter from kate after breakfast to morrow morning that will set you saving me again and i don't want to be saved that way i'm going to marry you to morrow i'll get he stopped short with a sudden frown confound that law i forgot five days indeed sir i wonder if you think i can get ready to be married in five days don't want you to get ready retorted bertram promptly i saw marie get ready and i had all i wanted of it if you really must have all those miles of tablecloths and napkins and doilies and lace rufflings we'll do it afterwards not before but besides i need you to take care of me cut in bertram craftily the tender glow on billy's face told its own story and bertram's eager eyes were not slow to read it sweetheart see here dear he cried softly tightening his good left arm billy my dear it was aunt hannah's plaintive voice at the doorway a little later we must go home and william is here too and wants to see you you mean it'll be before october aunt hannah glanced from one to the other uncertainly yes nodded billy demurely yes i know that is a good while cut in bertram airily we wanted it to morrow but we had to wait on account of the new license law in my recent travels in the west i have felt that out there freedom as an idea has become feeble and ineffectual the same thing is happening now with the people of the west they are flattered into believing that they are free and they have the sovereign power in their hands thus it has become more and more evident to me that the ideal of freedom has grown tenuous in the atmosphere of the west the mentality is that of a slave owning community with a mutilated multitude of men tied to its commercial and political treadmill he who cares to have slaves must chain himself to them he who builds walls to create exclusion for others builds walls across his own freedom he who distrusts freedom in others loses his moral right to it have they acquired a true love of freedom the great epic of the soul of our people the mahabharata gives us a wonderful vision of an overflowing life full of the freedom of inquiry and experiment when the age of the buddha came humanity was stirred in our country to its uttermost depth it hardened into an age of inert construction the organic unity of a varied and elastic society gave way to a conventional order which proved its artificial character by its inexorable law of exclusion life has its inequalities i admit but they are natural and are in harmony with our vital functions by squeezing human beings in the grip of an inelastic system and forcibly holding them fixed we have ignored the laws of life and growth we have forced living souls into a permanent passivity making them incapable of moulding circumstance to their own intrinsic design and of mastering their own destiny our stupefaction has become so absolute that we do not even realise that this persistent misfortune dogging our steps for ages cannot be a mere accident of history removable only by another accident from outside they will be incapable of holding a just freedom in politics and of fighting in freedom's cause it represents the active aspect of inertia which has the appearance of freedom but not its truth and therefore gives rise to slavery both within its boundaries and outside it is at the foot of woman that we lay the laurels that without her smile would never have been gained it is her image that strings the lyre of the poet that animates our voice in the blaze of eloquent faction and guides our brain in the august toils of stately councils is there no hope for them so full of hope it makes the heart ache but to picture such vicissitudes to the imagination the knowledge that such changes can occur flits over the mind like the thought of death obscuring all our gay fancies with its bat like wing and tainting the healthy atmosphere of our happiness with its venomous expirations mine own what did what could you do i beat about my chamber like a silly bird in a cage do not think of moving to day do not keep the messenger an instant he is on my pony write only one word to your own henrietta ferdinand to henrietta god bless you my henrietta my beloved my matchless henrietta what has that separation not cost me pangs that i could not conceive any human misery could occasion and yet i ought to be grateful that he was uninjured last night i dare not now own how foolish i was do not be angry with your henrietta but i am nervous about concealing our engagement from papa days must elapse before you can reach bath and i know ferdinand i know your office is more difficult than you will confess but come back my own as soon as you can and write to me at the post office as you settled the consciousness that you are so near makes me restless i wish to meet him with as much calmness as i can command on the pratzen heights where he had fallen with the flagstaff in his hand lay prince andrew bolkonski bleeding profusely and unconsciously uttering a gentle piteous and childlike moan suddenly he again felt that he was alive and suffering from a burning lacerating pain in his head was his first thought he feebly moved his leg and uttered a weak sickly groan which aroused his own pity lift this young man up and carry him to the dressing station prince andrew remembered nothing more he lost consciousness from the terrible pain of being lifted onto the stretcher the jolting while being moved and the probing of his wound at the dressing station during this transfer he felt a little stronger and was able to look about him and even speak he asked on seeing the prisoners i commanded a squadron replied repnin prince repnin named lieutenant sukhtelen after looking at him napoleon smiled youth is no hindrance to courage muttered sukhtelen in a failing voice a splendid reply said napoleon prince andrew who had also been brought forward before the emperor's eyes to complete the show of prisoners could not fail to attract his attention his face shone with self satisfaction and pleasure the soldiers who had carried prince andrew had noticed and taken the little gold icon princess mary had hung round her brother's neck but seeing the favor the emperor showed the prisoners they now hastened to return the holy image prince andrew did not see how and by whom it was replaced but the little icon with its thin gold chain suddenly appeared upon his chest outside his uniform how good it would be to know where to seek for help in this life and what to expect after it beyond the grave how happy and calm i should be if i could now say lord have mercy on me either to a power indefinable incomprehensible which i not only cannot address but which i cannot even express in words the great all or nothing said he to himself or to that god who has been sewn into this amulet by mary the stretchers moved on the quiet home life and peaceful happiness of bald hills presented itself to him he is a nervous bilious subject said larrey and will not recover that too sir you will of course undertake then something has happened he has some special information some great news when block appeared it was evident that something had gone wrong with him gone now just when we most want him never idiot triple idiot you shall be dismissed discharged from this hour you are a disgrace to the force it is that or your great gluttony my gentleman made himself most pleasant well at any rate for my sins i accepted we entered the first restaurant that of the reunited friends you know it perhaps monsieur i had no fear of him not till the very last when he played me this evil turn i suspected nothing when he brought out his pocketbook it was stuffed full monsieur i saw that and my confidence increased called for the reckoning and paid with an italian bank note excuse me one moment pray he went out monsieur and piff paff he was no more to be seen why let him out of your sight it was only now at the eleventh hour that the italian had become inculpated and the question of his possible anxiety to escape had never been considered he left everything behind hand it me said the chief and when it came into his hands he began to turn over the leaves hurriedly i do not understand not more than a word here and there it is no doubt italian of course such a consummate ass as you have proved yourself would not think of searching the restaurant or the immediate neighbourhood or of making inquiries as to whether he had been seen or as to which way he had gone it was a note for a hundred lire a hundred francs and the restaurant bill was no more than seventeen francs hah he was much pressed in a great hurry directly he crossed the threshold he called the first cab and was driving away but he was stopped the devil he wished to pass on to leave her she would not consent then they both got into the cab and were driven away together but this thy host so wide dispread wakes in my heart one doubt and dread lest threatening rama good and great ill thoughts thy journey stimulate he is my eldest brother he is like a father dear to me i go to lead my brother thence who makes the wood his residence no thought but this thy heart should frame this simple truth my lips proclaim as guha thus and bharat each to other spoke in friendly speech the day god sank with glory dead and night o'er all the sky was spread soon as king guha's thoughtful care had quartered all the army there well honoured bharat laid his head beside satrughna on a bed thus sighing and distressed in misery and bitter grief with fevered heart that mocked relief distracted in his mind the chief still mourned and found no rest rest duteous minded i will keep my watch while rama lies asleep for in the whole wide world is none dearer to me than raghu's son harbour no doubt or jealous fear i speak the truth with heart sincere for from the grace which he has shown will glory on my name be thrown great store of merit shall i gain and duteous form no wish in vain let me enforced by many a row of followers armed with shaft and bow for well loved rama's weal provide who lies asleep by sita's side with words like these i spoke designed to move the high souled bharat's mind but he upon his duty bent plied his persuasive argument o how can slumber close mine eyes when lowly couched with sita lies the royal rama he whom no mighty demon no nor heavenly god can overthrow see guha how he lies alas with sita couched on gathered grass now as his son is forced to fly the king ere long will surely die reft of his guardian hand forlorn in widowed grief this land will mourn but ah for sad kausalya how fare she and mine own mother now how fares the king with hopes upon satrughna set my mother may survive as yet but the sad queen will die who bore the hero for her grief is sore too late the king will cry and conquered by his misery die when fate has brought the mournful day which sees my father pass away how happy in their lives are they allowed his funeral rites to pay thus bharat stood with many a sigh lamenting and the night went by when guha saw the long armed chief whose eye was like a lotus leaf with lion shoulders strong and fair high mettled prostrate in despair pale bitterly afflicted he reeled as in earthquake reels a tree kausalya by her woe oppressed the senseless bharat's limbs caressed as a fond cow in love and fear caresses oft her youngling dear then yielding to her woe she said weeping and sore disquieted what torments o my son are these of sudden pain or swift disease the lives of us and all the line depend dear child on only thine rama and lakshman forced to flee i live by naught but seeing thee for as the king has past away thou art my only help to day show me the couch whereon he lay tell me the food he ate i pray then calm and still absorbed in thought he drank the water lakshman brought and then obedient to his vows he fasted with his gentle spouse here stands the tree which lent them shade here is the grass beneath it laid where rama and his consort spent the night together ere they went he ceased where where is sita scorched by the fiery god of day high on this mighty hill i lay each morn and eve he brought me food and filial care my life renewed swift to the south his course he bent and cleft the yielding element the holy spirits of the air came round me as i marvelled there and cried as their bright legions met o say is sita living yet thus cried the saints and told the name of him who held the struggling dame then from the flood sampati paid due offerings to his brother's shade seven nights in deadly swoon i passed but struggling life returned at last around i bent my wondering view but every spot was strange and new on comrades to the cave i cried and all within the portal hied here thou with hospitable care hast fed us with the noblest fare preserving us about to die with this thy plentiful supply but how o pious lady say may we thy gracious boon repay he ceased the ascetic dame replied well vanars am i satisfied a life of holy works i lead and from your hands no service need then spake again the vanar chief we came to thee and found relief now listen to a new distress and aid us holy votaress our wanderings in this vasty cave exhaust the time sugriva gave once more then lady grant release and let thy suppliants go in peace again upon their errand sped for king sugriva's ire we dread and the great task our sovereign set alas is unaccomplished yet and heard his waters roar and rave terrific with each crested wave the month is lost in toil and pain and now my friends what hopes remain your hearts with strong affection fraught his weal in every labour sought and the true valour of your band was blazoned wide in every land come let us all from food abstain and perish thus since hope is vain far better thus to end our lives and leave our wealth our homes and wives leave our dear little ones and all than by his vengeful hand to fall our forfeit lives will surely pay for idle search and long delay and our fierce king will bid us die the favour of his friend to buy then tara softly spake to cheer the vanars hearts oppressed by fear despair no more your doubts dispel come in this ample cavern dwell thou fondly hopest in this cave the vengeance of the foe to brave but lakshman's arm a shower will send of deadly shafts those walls to rend thy loving kinsman true and wise looks on thee still with favouring eyes he heard the prince's furious tread he saw his eyes glow fiercely red swift sprang the monarch to his feet upstarting from his golden seat ungrateful vanar king art thou and faithless to thy plighted vow now if thy pride disown what he high thoughted prince has done for thee struck by his arrows shalt thou fall and bali meet in yama's hall still open to the gloomy god lies the sad path thy brother trod then to thy plighted word be true nor let thy steps that path pursue he ceased and tara starry eyed thus to the angry prince replied not to my lord shouldst thou address a speech so fraught with bitterness not thus reproached my lord should be and least of all o prince by thee from paths of truth he never strays nor wanders in forbidden ways ne'er will sugriva's heart forget by rama saved the lasting debt restored to fame by rama's grace to empire o'er the vanar race from ceaseless dread and toil set free restored to ruma and to me by grief and care and exile tried new to the bliss so long denied like visvamitra once alas he marks not how the seasons pass the matrons of the vanar race see marks of fury in thy face they see thine eyes like blood are red and will not yet be comforted she ceased and lakshman gave assent won by her gentle argument so tara's pleading just and mild his softening heart had reconciled the hero's side i will not leave but he the conquest shall achieve so strong art thou so brave and bold so pure in thought so humble souled that thou deservest well to reign and all a monarch's bliss to gain lend thou my brother aid and all his foes beneath his arm will fall whatever hand it was that shot down bourbon rome after his death was plundered devastated and ravaged by a brutal greedy licentious and fanatical soldiery wherefore for the future write us nothing at all but appoint us the time and place of meeting and we will bring our sword for you to cross protesting that the shame of any delay in fighting shall be yours seeing that when it comes to an encounter there is an end of all writing sir answered the spaniard permit me to do my office and say what the emperor has charged me to say nay i will not listen to thee said francis if thou do not first give me a patent signed by thy master containing an appointment of time and place sir i have orders to read you the cartel and give it you afterwards burgundy without being put out began again sir nay said francis i will not suffer him to speak to me before he has given me appointment of time and place give it me or return as thou hast come i am quite willing said the king let him have it the peace of cambrai was called the ladies peace in honor of the two princesses who had negotiated it though morally different and of very unequal worth they both had minds of a rare order and trained to recognize political necessities and not to attempt any but possible successes all the great political actors seemed hurrying away from the stage as if the drama were approaching its end in fifteen sixty two at the battle of dreux he was aged and so ill that none expected to see him on horseback he fully armed save only his head answered him right well sir this is the real medicine that hath cured me for the battle which is toward and a preparing for the honor of god and our king the ladies peace concluded at cambrai in fifteen twenty nine lasted up to fifteen thirty six incessantly troubled however by far from pacific symptoms proceedings and preparations at last he decided upon retreating it was garcilaso de la vega the prince of spanish poesy the spanish petrarch according to his fellow countrymen montmorency signed a similar one for piedmont they all repaired together to the house prepared for their reception and after dinner the emperor being tired lay down to rest on a couch queen eleanor before long went and tapped at his door and sent word to the king that the emperor was awake francis with the cardinal de lorraine and the constable de montmorency soon arrived on entering the chamber he found the emperor still lying down and chatting with his sister the queen who was seated beside him on a chair yes said charles i had made such cheer that i was obliged to sleep it off francis did the converse with his own collar only seven of the attendants remained in the emperor's chamber and there the two sovereigns conversed for an hour after which they moved to the hall where a splendid supper awaited them the ghentese pleaded their privilege of not being liable to be taxed without their own consent orders had been sent everywhere to receive him as kings of france are received on their joyous accession lelechka was a delightful child there was no other such child there never had been and there never would be lelechka's mother serafima aleksandrovna was sure of that lelechka's eyes were dark and large her cheeks were rosy her lips were made for kisses and for laughter but it was not these charms in lelechka that gave her mother the keenest joy she felt cold with her husband he was always fresh and cool with a frigid smile and wherever he passed cold currents seemed to move in the air it even seemed to serafima aleksandrovna that she was in love with her future husband and this made her happy the bride was also good looking she was a tall dark eyed dark haired girl somewhat timid but very tactful he had connexions and his wife came of good influential people this might at the proper opportunity prove useful after their marriage there was nothing in the manner of sergey modestovich to suggest anything wrong to his wife later however when his wife was about to have a child sergey modestovich established connexions elsewhere of a light and temporary nature serafima aleksandrovna found this out and to her own astonishment was not particularly hurt she awaited her infant with a restless anticipation that swallowed every other feeling serafima aleksandrovna drifted farther and farther away from him lelechka then ran away stamping with her plump little legs over the carpets and hid herself behind the curtains near her bed where is my baby girl the mother asked as she looked for lelechka and made believe that she did not see her then she came out a little farther and her mother as though she had only just caught sight of her seized her by her little shoulders and exclaimed joyously here she is my lelechka her mother's eyes glowed with passionate emotion her mother went to hide lelechka turned away as though not to see but watched her mamochka stealthily all the time where's my mamochka asked lelechka a smile of absolute bliss played on her red lips lelechka was getting nearer her mother's corner her mother was growing more absorbed every moment by her interest in the game her heart beat with short quick strokes and she pressed even closer to the wall disarranging her hair still more lelechka suddenly glanced toward her mother's corner and screamed with joy through the half closed doors he heard the laughter the joyous outcries the sound of romping even fedosya felt abashed now for her mistress now for herself he liked coming here where everything was beautifully arranged this was done by serafima aleksandrovna who wished to surround her little girl from her very infancy only with the loveliest things serafima aleksandrovna dressed herself tastefully this too she did for lelechka with the same end in view one thing sergey modestovich had not become reconciled to and this was his wife's almost continuous presence in the nursery it's just as i thought i knew that i'd find you here he said with a derisive and condescending smile merely you see that the child should feel its own individuality he explained in answer to serafima aleksandrovna's puzzled glance she's still so little said serafima aleksandrovna i don't insist it's your kingdom there i'll think it over his wife answered smiling as he did coldly but genially then they began to talk of something else that the mistress does it well that's one thing but that the young lady does it that's bad why asked fedosya with curiosity this expression of curiosity gave her face the look of a wooden roughly painted doll yes that's bad repeated agathya with conviction terribly bad well it's the truth i'm saying remember my words agathya went on with the same assurance and secrecy it's the surest sign the old woman had invented this sign quite suddenly herself and she was evidently very proud of it madam madam she said quietly in a trembling voice serafima aleksandrovna gave a start fedosya's face made her anxious what is it fedosya she asked with great concern is there anything wrong with lelechka no madam said fedosya as she gesticulated with her hands to reassure her mistress and to make her sit down lelechka is asleep may god be with her only i'd like to say something you see lelechka is always hiding herself that's not good i can't tell you how bad it is said fedosya and her face expressed the most decided confidence i understand nothing of what you are saying you see madam it's a kind of omen explained fedosya abruptly in a shamefaced way nonsense said serafima aleksandrovna who told you all this asked serafima aleksandrovna in an austere low voice knows exclaimed serafima aleksandrovna in irritation as though she wished to protect herself somehow from this sudden anxiety what nonsense as though lelechka could die she saw clearly that there could be no possible connexion between a child's quite ordinary diversion and the continuation of the child's life she made a special effort that evening to occupy her mind with other matters but her thoughts returned involuntarily to the fact that lelechka loved to hide herself when lelechka was still quite small and had learned to distinguish between her mother and her nurse she sometimes sitting in her nurse's arms made a sudden roguish grimace and hid her laughing face in the nurse's shoulder then she would look out with a sly glance though she reproached herself at once for this unfounded superstitious dread nevertheless she could not enter wholeheartedly into the spirit of lelechka's favourite game and she tried to divert lelechka's attention to something else she eagerly complied with her mother's new wishes serafima aleksandrovna tried desperately to amuse lelechka perhaps thought serafima aleksandrovna she is not as strongly drawn to the world as other children who are attracted by many things if this is so is it not a sign of organic weakness serafima aleksandrovna herself began the game once or twice though she played it with a heavy heart she suffered as though committing an evil deed with full consciousness it was a sad day for serafima aleksandrovna her mother covered her with a blue blanket lelechka drew her sweet little hands from under the blanket and stretched them out to embrace her mother her mother bent down she seemed so small and so frail under the blanket that covered her serafima aleksandrovna remained standing over lelechka's bed a long while and she kept looking at lelechka with tenderness and fear i'm a mother is it possible that i shouldn't be able to protect her she thought as she imagined the various ills that might befall lelechka she prayed long that night but the prayer did not relieve her sadness several days passed lelechka caught cold the fever came upon her at night when serafima aleksandrovna awakened by fedosya came to lelechka and saw her looking so hot so restless and so tormented she instantly recalled the evil omen and a hopeless despair took possession of her from the first moments a doctor was called and everything was done that is usual on such occasions but the inevitable happened and lelechka grew feebler from hour to hour nothing made her so unhappy as the reiterations of fedosya uttered between sobs she hid herself and hid herself our lelechka fever was consuming lelechka and there were times when she lost consciousness and spoke in delirium three days passed torturing like a nightmare serafima aleksandrovna hid her face behind the curtains near lelechka's bed how tragic a white mamochka whispered lelechka mamochka's white face became blurred and everything grew dark before lelechka she met her husband serafima aicksandrovna was standing by the coffin and looking dully at her dead child sima my dear don't agitate yourself said sergey modestovich in a whisper you must resign yourself to your fate she'll be up in a minute persisted serafima aleksandrovna her eyes fixed on the dead little girl sergey modestovich looked round him cautiously he was afraid of the unseemly and of the ridiculous sima don't agitate yourself he repeated he was confused and annoyed her face seemed tranquil and her eyes were dry she went into the nursery and began to walk round the room looking into those places where lelechka used to hide herself she walked all about the room and bent now and then to look under the table or under the bed and kept on repeating cheerfully where is my little one where is my lelechka after she had walked round the room once she began to make her quest anew fedosya motionless with dejected face sat in a corner and looked frightened at her mistress then she suddenly burst out sobbing and she wailed loudly she hid herself and hid herself our lelechka our angelic little soul when she entered the parlour there were several people between her and lelechka there was an oppressive feeling of heaviness in serafima aleksandrovna's head as she approached lelechka lelechka lay there still and pale and smiled pathetically the little one did not reply serafima aleksandrovna stood up erect sighed in a lost way smiled and called loudly lelechka lelechka was being carried out at this moment the heavy beat of the storm on the roof ceased with miraculous suddenness leaving the outside world empty of sound save for the drip drip drip of eaves we had every sort of people with us off and on and as i was lookout at a popular game i saw them all at the same instant i heard the rip of steel through cloth and felt a sharp stab in my left leg then i scouted to see what had cut me and found that the fellow had lost a hand in place of it he wore a sharp steel hook there was no doubt of his being alive for he was breathing hard like a man does when he gets hit over the head it didn't sound good when a man breathes that way he's mostly all gone men got batted over the head often enough in those days sour wine is fine to put a wound in shape to heal but it's no soothing syrup their coffin was their ship and their grave it was the sea blow high blow low what care we and the quarter that we gave them was to sink them in the sea down on the coast of the high barbaree it fair made my hair rise to hear him with the big still solemn desert outside and the quiet moonlight and the shadows and him sitting up straight and gaunt his eyes blazing each side his big eagle nose and his snaky hair hanging over the raw cut across his head however i made out to get him bandaged up and in shape and pretty soon he sort of went to sleep then again he'd sing that barbaree song until i'd go out and look at the old colorado flowing by just to be sure i hadn't died and gone below or else he'd just talk he began when he was a kid and he gave his side of conversations pausing for replies i used to listen by the hour but i never made out anything really important as to who the man was or where he'd come from or what he'd done i didn't pay any attention to him for he was quiet usually i didn't bother with his talk for it didn't mean anything but something in his voice made me turn he was lying on his side those black eyes of his blazing at me but now both of them saw the same distance where are my clothes he asked very intense one little squeeze talk about your deadly weapons but he'd been too sick and too long abed in a minute or so he came to now you're a nice sweet proposition said i as soon as i was sure he could understand me they're safe enough let me have them he begged now look here said i you can't get up to day you ain't fit i know he pleaded but let me see them just to satisfy him i passed over his old duds i've been robbed he cried where's my coat he asked you had no coat when i picked you up i replied he looked at me mighty suspicious but didn't say anything more he wouldn't even answer when i spoke to him after he'd eaten a fair meal he fell asleep when i came back that evening the bunk was empty and he was gone i didn't see him again for two days then i caught sight of him quite a ways off guess he suspicions i stole that old coat of his thinks i and afterwards i found that my surmise had been correct however he didn't stay long in that frame of mind i ran up pulling my gun the mex was flat on his face his arms stretched out on the middle of his back knelt my one armed friend anyway i thrust the muzzle of my colt's into the sailor's face what's this i asked i ween heem at monte off antonio curvez said he the gleam died from his eye the snarl left his lips in any case he flew poco pronto leaving me and my friend together during the next two months he was a good deal about town mostly doing odd jobs i saw him off and on however i didn't pay much attention to that being at the time almighty busy holding down my card games that's all right said i but you better stay right there i want to make up to you for your trouble said he what kind of a good thing i asked treasure said he he looked all right enough neither drunk nor loco sit down said i over there the other side the table he did so now fire away said i and it's a big thing said handy solomon to me for they's not only gold but altar jewels and diamonds it will make us rich and a dozen like us and you can kiss the book on that that may all be true said i but why do you tell me why don't you get your treasure without the need of dividing it why mate he answered it's just plain gratitude didn't you save my life and nuss me and take care of me when i was nigh killed look here anderson or handy solomon or whatever you please to call yourself i rejoined to this if you're going to do business with me and i do not understand yet just what it is you want of me you'll have to talk straight it's all very well to say gratitude but that don't go with me the devil's a preacher if you ain't lost your pinfeathers said he well it's this then i got to have a boat to get there and she must be stocked and i got to have help with the treasure if it's like this fellow said it was it's money i got to have and it's money i haven't got and can't get unless i let somebody in as pardner why me i asked why not he retorted we talked the matter over at length i stood out for a larger party he strongly opposed this as depreciating the shares but i had no intention of going alone into what was then considered a wild and dangerous country finally we compromised a third of the treasure was to go to him a third to me and the rest was to be divided among the men whom i should select this scheme did not appeal to him but since there existed for us no responsibility we each reported dutifully at the roll call of habit and dropped back into our blankets with a grateful sigh i remember the moon sailing a good gait among apparently stationary cloudlets i recall a deep black shadow lying before distant silvery mountains i glanced over the stark motionless canvases each of which concealed a man the air trembled with the bellowing of cattle in the corrals seemingly but a moment later the cook's howl brought me to consciousness again three were to care for the remuda five were to move the stray herd from the corrals to good feed three branding crews were told to brand the calves we had collected in the cut of the afternoon before that took up about half the men the rest were to make a short drive in the salt grass we were the only ones who did go afoot however although the corrals were not more than two hundred yards distant between the upright bars of greasewood we could see the cattle and near the opposite side the men building a fire next the fence we pushed open the wide gate and entered one stood waiting for them to finish a sheaf of long j h stamping irons in his hand all the rest squatted on their heels along the fence smoking cigarettes and chatting together the first rays of the sun slanted across in one great sweep from the remote mountains homer wooden and old california john rode in among the cattle as the loop settled he jerked sharply upward exactly as one would strike to hook a big fish homer wrapped the rope twice or thrice about the horn and sat over in one stirrup to avoid the tightened line and to preserve the balance nobody paid any attention to the calf behind him followed his anxious mother her head swinging from side to side near the fire the horse stopped the two bull doggers immediately pounced upon the victim it was promptly flopped over on its right side thus the calf was unable to struggle when once you have had the wind knocked out of you or a rib or two broken you cease to think this unnecessarily rough hot iron yelled one of the bull doggers marker yelled the other the brander pressed the iron smoothly against the flank perhaps the calf blatted a little as the heat scorched the brand showed cherry which is the proper colour to indicate due peeling and a successful mark then he nicked out a swallow tail in the other it seems to me that a great deal of unnecessary twaddle is abroad as to the extreme cruelty of branding undoubtedly it is to some extent painful and could some other method of ready identification be devised it might be as well to adopt it in preference inextinguishable laughter followed the spread of this doctrine through arizona imagine a puncher descending to examine politely the ear tags of wild cattle on the open range or in a round up a calf usually bellows when the iron bites but as soon as released he almost invariably goes to feeding or to looking idly about besides which it happens but once in a lifetime and is over in ten seconds a comfort denied to those of us who have our teeth filled one of the little animals was but a few months old so the rider did not bother with its hind legs but tossed his loop over its neck mister frost's bull calf alone in pictorial history shows the attitudes and then of course there was the gorgeous contrast between all this frantic and uncomprehending excitement and the absolute matter of fact imperturbability of horse and rider as he knew his business and as the calf was a small one the little beast went over promptly bit the ground with a whack and was pounced upon and held he would catch himself on one foot scramble vigorously and end by struggling back to the upright you can imagine what happened next this is productive of some fun if it fails by now the branding was in full swing when the nooses fell they turned and walked toward the fire as a matter of course rarely did the cast fail men ran to and fro busy and intent sometimes three or four calves were on the ground at once dust eddied and dissipated no more necked calves they announced then he would spit on his hands and go at it alone if luck attended his first effort his sarcasm was profound there's yore little calf said he would you like to have me tote it to you or do you reckon you could toddle this far with yore little old iron toward noon the work slacked finally homer rode over to the cattleman and reported the branding finished the latter counted the marks in his tally book one hundred and seventy six he announced the markers squatted on their heels told over the bits of ears they had saved the total amounted to but an hundred and seventy five finally wooden discovered it in his hip pocket they had been doing a wrestler's heavy work all the morning but did not seem to be tired i saw once in some crank physical culture periodical that a cowboy's life was physically ill balanced like an oarsman's in that it exercised only certain muscles of the body