Chapter IV: Book ONE: In Which the Adventures of Cricket Presented, with Some (3)

We arrived safely, and Sam led his wife by the hand through noisy crowds, and warned me to keep near. We travelled a long time trying to find shelter within our means. We found a place at last, although at a price that made us thoughtful. I was a little worried for myself, there in the cold, indifferent crowds, with so little in my pocket. I felt so very small that day, and feared there was no hope for me.

Well, when the morning had come and I stood gazing at the water-hammers and the flying horses below, and wondering how men were going to tame and control them, who should come and whack me on the shoulder but Bony Squares.

“Hello--old boy!” said he; “here's that two dollars I borrowed.”

It was almost a shock to me--his unexpected honesty and my good-fortune. After all, he could not be so bad as I had thought him.

“Broke and lookin' for a job, I suppose?” he queried, with a smile.

“I've only a little money, and don't know yet what I'm going to do.”

“How would you like to earn fifty dollars to-day?”

Fifty dollars! It was a great sum! I could go home with it and possibly pay my fine, if that were necessary. But how so much in a day if it were honest money?

“It will take nerve,” he said. “I guess you're not brave enough.”

“You're wrong there. I'm brave enough for any work--if it's honest.”

“Oh, it's as honest as my aunt Maria,” he assured me.

I knew that venerable lady, and on the score of honor it seemed rather promising.

“It's as safe as standing here on the sidewalk, but, old boy, it will take some nerve,” he went on. “It will take more nerve than I've got, and I'm no squab at that.”

“What is it?” I asked, burning with curiosity.

“Well, you've heard of the chap who's going to walk a rope across the rapids? It will be way up in the air. You can just see it now, down the river there, hanging between the cliffs. Looks like a spider's thread--but, say, it weighs a ton. I've been helping 'em hang it. The old man wants to carry some light, nervy chap on his shoulders when he makes the trip. There's only one that's used to the game, and he's on a spree, and they're stuck--can't find a fellow game enough for the job.”

It is hard to separate a boy from his folly--not all the schools in the world can help much; and for a long time it is like a sword hanging over his head.

I jumped at the offer, for had I not determined for her sake to fear no peril?

“Come on, then,” said Bony. “He'll want to try you, and there's no time to lose.”

I went to Sam and Fannie, and promised to see them at the inn at six.

“Look out for scamps, boy,” Sam whispered. “Keep your eye peeled.”

I assured him that I would do so, and hurried down the high shore with Bony.

I wonder, sometimes, that I let myself go on. Well, there is something deep in it which I do not profess to understand. The spirit of the time was in me, and I was like ten thousand others. Men loved the perils of adventure those days. No speculation was too reckless for them, no hazard too fearful, no enterprise too difficult. The risks of the desert and the plains and the battle-field had schooled us for that kind of business.

Well, I had learned one thing, at least, since the last lesson--that a good heart may be in a rough body. Remember--you children of luxury--that some rather hard-handed people have been my friends.

ADVENTURE X.--WHICH IS THE ADVENTURE OF CRICKET ON THE HEMPEN BRIDGE

E made our way through crowds of people near the end of the great rope. Bony shouted like one in authority, and they let us pass. We found the rope-walker in a small tent near the edge of the precipice. He was a big, brawny Frenchman, who reminded me of the picture of Goliath confronted by David in my bedchamber at home. He surveyed me from head to foot while Bony called some one aside--it was a man I became acquainted with in due time--and addressed him confidentially. Looking out, I could see the long rope dipping low in the chasm from the cliff's edge and ascending to the farther shore; I could hear the roar of the rapids far below us, and felt a little tremor inside of me. Really, now that I had a chance to make her and all the world wonder at me, I thought of backing out. However, I was not brave enough for that.

The great man came presently, and took hold of my arms and lifted me as if I had been a sack of potatoes. It seemed revolting, I remember, to be so handled, for, clearly, he had no respect for me, and with good reason. He said that he would try me when the rope was ready, and did, and said I would do. Bony and I went outside the tent and saw the great rope being tightened with horse and capstan. It lay almost level, by-and-by, in a long, sweeping curve that could have gone to the moon, I fancy, if its circle had been completed. The Frenchman came out of his tent presently, in tights and shoulder-braces of new leather, upon which two loops or handles had been fastened, one over each shoulder. He carefully examined the capstan and the pawls beneath it. He spoke a swift word or two in French, whereupon a young man, who acted as interpreter, requested me to remove my boots, and I did so. Then the performer stepped in front of me, and, reaching backward over his body, took my hands in his. I jumped to his back and caught the loops over my wrists and clung to the leathern braces, while he carefully placed my feet on his hips.

The big Frenchman took a few paces and began to chatter.

“Loosen up a little,” said the interpreter. “Don't stand so stiff. There, that's better.”

An attendant brought the balancing-rod, and the performer took it and approached the end of the rope. I could now look down far into the abyss and felt my heart failing me. But I thought of Jo, and imagined that she was there, and said to myself that I would rather die than be a coward. Before I knew it he was on the slant of the rope and slowly descending, and so silently it seemed as if he were walking the soft air. I heard a murmur start suddenly, and go up and down the shore near us. The roar of the waters burst upon me from below. I knew that there was plenty of air beneath us, but was not brave enough to look down through that long, long drop to the foamy water-floor of the chasm. I kept my eyes on the tree-top at the edge of the farther cliff. I heard a voice call to me:

“Are you afraid?”

I shook my head and answered, “No.”

The performer stopped and began to sway a little, his rod moving up and down. I tightened my grip and breathed faster. I remember well the play of his muscles under me. I could feel a change in their action--he was going backward, but very slowly. The roar of the water was diminishing, and stopped as suddenly as it began. We were back on the earth again, and I was very glad and a little shaky.

Well, the Frenchman said that I would do, and half a dozen men shook my hand and made me proud with their compliments. The interpreter told me that we would “cross the bridge” at three, and that I should wait there and have my dinner with them. The big Frenchman put on his clothes and drove away in a carriage.

Those hours of waiting were a great trial to me. I paced up and down before the tent, and Bony tried to talk to me, but I said little and heard less. I remember his telling in a whisper that they would not take a boy so young without the consent of his parents, and that he had told them that he was my father. I assured him, with dignity, that I would not lie about it.

“Just say nothing. I'll do all the lying that's necessary,” said Bony.

“If they ask me I shall tell the truth,” I affirmed.

“You'd better not put me in a hole when I'm trying to do you a favor,” Bony pleaded.

I made no answer, but somehow his words had cheapened the enterprise, of which I had had no high opinion since the performer had lifted me as if I were a thing.

The edges of the cliffs began to turn black with people, and I could hear the sound of many voices. Suddenly those near us began cheering. The great Frenchman had returned. It was about three o'clock. He came straight to me, and shook my hand, and said in French, “_Courage!_” and added something which I could not understand.

“You'll be as safe as you are here,” said the interpreter. “Don't jump if he sways a little, and don't look down.”

The Frenchman hurried to his tent. It was time to “cross the bridge.”

They gave me a pair of white stockings with soles of corrugated rubber, and I drew them on.

The minutes dragged while the Frenchman was dressing. He came out in pink tights, and the crowd, pressing on the ropes around us, began to cheer. He tried his pole, and then came straight to me. That was a bad moment, and I felt like running for my life, but--no--I could not do so now. The interpreter asked me to remove my coat and put on a close-fitting cap in place of the hat I wore.

In a second we were on the rope, and he began reaching for his balance. He felt his way slowly.

The people were cheering and waving their handkerchiefs. The bands ceased playing. He quickened his pace, and went on with a steady stride. A roar of excitement followed the cheering, and then a hush fell on the crowds. For half a moment I could hear only the breathing of the performer and my own heart-beat. Then I heard the snort of the “white horses” far below me. Suddenly the shrill, hysterical cry of a woman rose out of the silence. Right after that I could hear the groans of men behind us, and wild peals of laughter that echoed through the deep chasm and had a weird note in them.

There were those for whom the sight of our peril was as a nightmare. Phrases of prayer came out to my ears--“God have mercy on them,” and the like. Little children called to us. There were two or three men who groaned at every step of the walker, as if they felt the strain of his muscles. It was an old Roman spectacle, and at no other time in the nineteenth century would it have been possible.

I had kept my eyes on the tree-top, and now I could see the lift of the rope before me; I could hear it creak as it bent beneath us. For an instant I let my glance fall. Down, down it went like a plummet sounding the depths below. I shut my eyes, but my thoughts went plunging downward. I was like a man with his hands full of eggs--one falls, and then they all begin to slip away.

When I looked again the cliffs were reeling before us. I had to stop them, single-handed, and I can tell you it was a task. With a mighty effort I shoved them back into place again and held them down--at least, that is the way I thought of it.

We were down in the hollow of the rope, about half-way across the chasm, and were swinging a little in a wind current. The Frenchman slowed his pace, and I could feel the changing tension of his muscles. He struck the rope with one foot and then the other--a sort of hammer blow. It checked the swing, and for half a second he seemed to cling with his feet. He took three quick steps, and settled into an even pace again. I thought of letting go, for the relief of it. But this notion came to me, and I laugh when I think of its oddity: if I should let go I should lose the fifty dollars, which would buy something fine for my mother. And I clung so that my hands ached. I watched a swallow, and ceased to think of myself. That little bird may have saved my life, for me and for you. He coasted through the sunlit air almost to the point of my nose, checked himself with a giggle of surprise, and wound us in loops of song. Somehow it heartened me to hear him.

The rope grew steeper. Now it seemed an impossible journey there ahead of us. But he went on with a steady stride, and the hempen hill bent inward as he put his feet upon it. With joy I could see my tree-top coming nearer, but every step I had to look up a little farther to see it. Suddenly the rope began to swing again--I do not know why. It has been said that some reckless fellow had wilfully pulled a guy-rope. The whole side of the cliff began to rock as before. The strands of muscle under me tightened quickly. The performer slowed his pace, and stopped for half a second. The ends of his pole went up and down like a teeter-board. Again his feet struck the rope.

“_Courage!_” he whispered.

He took two or three quick steps and stopped again. He had checked the swing of the rope, and now resumed his progress up the steep hill. He climbed slowly near the end of it, and a mighty cheer ran up and down the edge of the cliffs when he sprang ashore.

I jumped from his back, and saw, when he shook my hand, that his own trembled a bit and that he was breathing heavily.

He put on a suit of clothes and beckoned me to a carriage that stood near. I took a seat beside him, and went to his inn. The interpreter met us there, and had my bouts, coat, and hat with him.

“Monsieur wishes me to thank you, and say that we have paid your father,” he remarked.

“My father!”

“Yes; the man who came with you. Is he not your father?”

“No,” I said, “and he has taken my money and gone with it.”

So bitter was my disappointment that I sat down upon the floor, and covered my face and wept. Then there was a great chattering in French, and the performer came and gave me a pat of sympathy on my shoulder and a ten-dollar bill.

A crowd of curious people followed me on my way to my inn--mostly boys of about my own age and younger. They felt of my garments, and ran before me, staring into my face. Grievous and heavy was my sense of distinction. It covered me with shame. There was something wrong about my bravery.

At the inn I found Sam and his bride and Ephraim Baker. Somehow they had heard of my part in the rope-walking.

“Did that crowd of boys follow you?” Sam inquired.

“Yes.”

“They can't see the biggest fool in America _every day_,” said Mr. Baker.

Well, I suddenly got a strong desire to move on. I was a bit wiser when I started for Graham's hotel in Buffalo, where Mr. McCarthy was to meet me. Ephraim Baker had called me a fool, but I knew better than that. I had sense enough now, at least, to understand the difference between courage and folly. It is about the last lesson of boyhood.

That narrow, bending path of hemp had been for me a bridge between the cliffs of youth and young manhood, of recklessness and prudence. The crossing is ever full of peril, and there is always some one to pull the rope and increase our difficulty.

I asked Sam and his bride to say nothing of my adventure in Summerville, and bade them goodbye at the depot, and went on my way to a new school of experience.

ADVENTURE XI.--IN WHICH CRICKET MEETS THE HAND-MADE GENTLEMAN AND THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

RAHAM'S hotel was near the depot, as I asked my way of an officer, and he went with me. At the desk I inquired timidly for my friend.

“Mr. James Henry McCarthy is here,” the clerk answered, with a smile. “He is making the homes of this city bright and beautiful, Wish to see him?”

“Yes,” I answered.

He called a colored youth, and sent word to Mr. McCarthy. The colored youth returned presently, and said:

“Mr. McCarthy says, 'Please ask the gentleman to send up his card.'”

I wrote my name on a card, and in a few minutes presented myself at Mr. McCarthy's door.

“I am pleased to see you,” said he, with dignity. “Come in.”

He was well dressed in new clothing.

“How are you?” I inquired.

“How do I look?” he asked, promptly.

“Splendid,” was my answer.

“That suit cost me twenty-one dollars,” he remarked, with a glance at himself. “Feel of the cloth.”

I did as he bade me.

“Isn't this a grand room?” he went on. “I guess you must have thought that I was getting along in the world when you were asked to send up your card to Mr. McCarthy.”

He laughed, and rattled his change.

“Will you have a cigar?” he asked, removing two from his waistcoat-pocket.

“I do not smoke.”

“Nor I,” said he, “but I carry them for the sake of appearances.”

“How is business?”

“Grand,” said he. “I have six men at work for me, and have started a little factory at home. My sister makes Sal, and the agents buy it from us, and so we have no bother. We ship it in crates, like a lot of eggs, and each ball is neatly wrapped and all ready for the customer. I am also beginning the manufacture of soap.”

I expressed my delight over his good-fortune.

“How are you getting along?” he asked.

I told him the story of my failure.

“There's the trouble,” said Mr. McCarthy. “A green hand is apt to slip down making the goods.=

````"'There's many a fall

`````'Twixt the powder and ball,'=

as ye might say. That's why I started the factory.”

I paid my debt to him.

“Are you going to take out another line of goods?” he asked.

“No; I'm going home,” was my answer. “I'll write to you if I decide to try it again.”

“Maybe you need this money to get home with,” he suggested, in a careless and opulent manner.

“No; I have enough,” was my answer.

“Sit down, an' le' 's have a little visit,” said he. “I like you, an' by-an'-by I'll take you out an' show you the sights. I want to treat you as one gentleman would treat another. Have you noticed that I don't say 'ain't' for 'isn't' or 'them' for 'those' any more?”

“I notice that you speak very properly,” I assured him.

“I've got a grammar, and have begun to study it,” said he. “My tea-pot is all made, as ye might say, an' I have begun to put a polish on it. Let me show ye.”

He rose and put on his hat.

“Now, suppose I've rung the bell an' Mrs. Smith opens the door. I bow so, and say: 'Good-morning, madam,' or 'Good-afternoon, madam. Would you like to engage a servant who will work for you at half a cent a day and board herself? I have one of the name of Sal. Sal cleans woodwork, silver, and all kinds of metal, and never complains.'

“I don't talk as much as I used to. Some way it don't sound honest, and I find out that gentlemen are not apt to be gabby. I try to please and show that I want to earn an honest living, and I get along.

“Ye see, the children like me because I like them, and everybody is glad to see me when I come around. The other day a woman asked me to mind her children while she went of an errand. It would have tickled you to see how they piled on me.”

He sat in a chair and laughed, and put his wooden leg on the bed, and pulled a grip and two pillows into his lap, and flung the bolster over his leg.

“There, that's about the way I looked,” he went on, with a laugh. “I made faces for 'em and told 'em how I lost my leg, and we had a grand time of it. It's the same way with grownup folks. If you want them to like you, you've got to like them. A gentleman never speaks badly of any one; that's another thing I've learnt.”

“I'm not a gentleman, then,” I answered.

“Why?”

“There's one man about whom I couldn't say anything mean enough.”

“Well, if you owe him a thrashing, wait until you can pay him off proper. You can't do it with your tongue.”

I knew then that James Henry McCarthy, crude as he was, had got a little ahead of me.

“You see, I'm working on my gentleman every day,” he went on, “I'll have him in decent shape by-an'-by. I read a good deal, because every gentleman reads, and I'm beginning to enjoy it.”

“I wish you'd make me a visit; I want you to meet my mother,” said I.

“I'd like to,” he answered. “You must come from a very respectable family.”

“What makes you think so?” I asked.

“Oh, I can tell by your looks and your way of talking,” he remarked. “You've been well brought up--a ready-made gentleman, as ye might say. It's grand to have all that done for ye. I wasn't so lucky. But I'm made upon honor--hand-sewed and stitched and double-soled. I ought to wear well. You could rely on me to behave myself if you took me into your home.”

Just then a colored boy came to the door and said: “There's a man down-stairs who wants to see Mr. McCarthy, and he won't give me a card.”

“Show the gentleman up,” said my friend, as if accustomed to many callers.

Presently in walked the Pearl of great price with the dog, Mr. Barker. I was overjoyed to see them.

“Let me feel of you,” he said, as he took my hand. “Now don't be scairt an' jump out o' the window. Just agree to stay with me for a minute. I'll agree not to kill you. I--I couldn't get even with you in that way.”

“What's the matter?” I asked.

“First, le' 's have the minutes of the previous meetin',” said Mr. Pearl.

It must be remembered that H. M. Pearl, Esq., had lived through years of oratory and public assemblage, and that his thoughts ran more or less in their cant.

“The meeting will now come to order, and Mr. Barker will take the floor,” said the Pearl of great price.

The dog came and stood on his hind feet, facing his master.

“You will recall,” said Mr. Pearl, addressing the animal, “that I once spoke to you on the subject of bad company. Is the same true to-day or not?”

The dog gave a loud bark.

“It is true,” said Mr. Pearl; “of course it is true! Therefore, Mr. Barker, please bear in mind that there is nothing that makes so much trouble as bad company. It will bring your black hairs in sorrow to the grave.”

The dog was excused, and the Pearl turned to me and said:

“You went into the barn at Baker's, an' I'll swear ye didn't come out of it.”

It was he, then, who had followed me. My heart began to warm with delight, and that singular masquerade of mine came back to me, and I went through it all for them. So great was the amusement of Mr. Pearl that he flirted his feet in the air and laughed, while Mr. McCarthy whacked his wooden leg with the stove poker, and shook his head, and gave an odd cackle. Alas! I cannot tell it now as I did then, for those days I had the heart of youth in me and a voice for joy.

“I've chased you for three weeks,” said the Pearl. “You're like a flea on the body o' the United States. I had a talk with a friend o' your mother, an' set out to bring you back. Made a birch-bark canoe, an' run her down to the St. Lawrence an' up to the end o' the lake. Heard from your mother at Sackett's; she said you were at Baker's and would meet Mr. McCarthy here. You jumped from Baker's to somewhere, an' then to the Falls, an' then here, an' I've been a jump behind you all the way.”

I rose, dumb with surprise, and Mr. Pearl continued:

“I got back to Mill Pond a day or two after you an' Bony lit out. A good deal was bein' said, an' I had to lick a man for sayin' a part of it, which the said language wasn't calculated to improve your reputation. Oh, I tell ye, things have warmed up an' transpired since you went away! I says to 'em that you wasn't any Dan'l Webster, an' that Bony had drawed you into his game. I know you didn't have no more idea o' wrong-doin' than a pickerel has of a vest-pocket. One day I promised to go down to the big river an' see if I could pick ye up. So here I am, an' the next thing in the order of exercises will be new business. We've got to convey ourselves out o' here immediately, if not sooner.”

“I am ready,” I said, rising and putting on my hat.

“We've got to move, an' conversation won't carry us. To get down to plain language, have you any money?”

“Eight dollars and forty-three cents,” I answered.

“The report is accepted,” Mr. Pearl went on. “It is as good as a million dollars. We'll go down to the lake an' take a steamer, get off at Sackett's, walk a few miles, an' proceed with our own steam.”

It was arranged, with the hearty concurrence of H. M. Pearl, Esq., that Mr. McCarthy should go with us.

“It will give me a rest, and I can put some agents at work in your part of the country,” said the latter.

We set out together, and got to Sackett's Harbor next day. It was a long walk to the beach at Anderson's, where the big canoe of my friend was lying. He had left a small tent and two horse-blankets in a house near by. Mr. McCarthy bought a basket of provisions at a store, and soon after noon of the second day of our journey we were all aboard and headed down the river, Mr. Pearl in the stern seat and I in the bow. We two had paddles, while Mr.

McCarthy sat amidships near the dog, pushing further into the sea of knowledge with his grammar and dictionary. We went on with a steady stroke, and a light breeze behind us. It was a cloudless day, and the cool, crystal floor of the river chasm tempered the heat of the sun.

“I am in pursuit of history,” Mr. McCarthy remarked soon.

“Well, if you get acquainted with history, by-an'-by history is apt to get acquainted with you,” Mr. Pearl remarked.

“I have here a pack of white cards,” Mr. McCarthy went on. “Every one contains a fact. I'll read a few of them to show you what I mean. Number one says, 'Columbus discovered America, 1492 '; number two says, 'The French settled at Quebec in 1608'; number three says, 'The Spanish settled at St. Augustine in 1565,' and so on. Here's a hundred cards and a hundred facts. First, I put 'em all in one coat-pocket. Every day I take out a card and learn what's on it, and put it into another pocket, and keep the pack moving.”

“Have you got it down that H. M. Pearl, Esquire, was born at Machias, Maine, in 1817?” was a query that came from' the stem seat.

“No; Hildreth says that all history is necessarily incomplete,” Mr. McCarthy answered, with a laugh. “I like that word _incomplete_. It has a good sound to it. I've got my book full of new words. Say, what's a horruck? It ain't in my dictionary.”

I explained the term, which he had overheard in Pearl's talk at Graham's.

The islands were now thick around us, and we landed in a little cove on one of them, and went up under the shade of the trees for a bite of luncheon.

“There's power for ye,” said Mr. Pearl, with a glance at the river sweeping by us. “Lord! she's like a belt off the world's engine.”

I had begun to see the power in the man Pearl himself, young as I was. It is clear to me now: the genius of the Republic, soon to express itself in dauntless enterprise, in prodigious and unheard-of enginery, had begun to stir in him; the imagination that builds and discovers, the humor that accepts failure without discouragement, the energy which may not be overcome were all in this man.

“If I had capital,” Mr. Pearl added, presently, “I'd show ye some actions which speak louder than words.”

“What would you do with it?” I asked.

“Well, here's the river,” he said, mapping it on a stretch of sand with his finger. “Here's the falls at your house. Here's the town o' Heartsdale, about half a mile up the river--shops an' mills an' stores an' houses an' two thousand people, all about as slow as West Injy molasses.”

He looked up at us, and took another bite.

“What they need is power,” he went on. “That's what 'll put the zip into a town. It 'll wake up the people, an' shake 'em off the cracker-barrels an' tumble 'em out o' the rockin'-chairs. It 'll set a pace for 'em.”

I began to wonder what rude miracle he proposed for the dreaming village of Heartsdale.

“It was located wrong,” he went on; “but there it is, an' I know how to shove some power into it--power enough to put everything on the jump.” He turned to Mr. McCarthy, and added: “Make a note in your history that H. M. Pearl, Esquire, said it, an' that a full account of his actions will appear in a later volume.”

I asked him how he proposed to do this wonderful thing.

“How, wherefore, and, also, why,” he said, as he took another bite of cheese. “Well, ye know where the river jumps over the rocks an' stands up like a man thirty feet tall, there by your house? That's where I'll perform my actions--right there.” He drew a line in the sand.

“Here's a stream o' water thirty feet wide an' a foot an' a half thick. There's a horse-power in every square foot of it. I'll take off, say, one-quarter o' the fall an' head her into an iron pipe an' let her jump down. She strikes like a triphammer, dropping thirty feet in a big, cast-iron cylinder. There are holes around the bottom of it. The water squirts through 'em with power enough to kick a man's leg off. Now, I'll put a wheel there at the bottom, with a big steel rim that has buckets on it like the slats in a windmill. Well, out come the jets o' water an' give them buckets a cuff that sets the wheel goin'. A shaft on this wheel moves the dynamo, an' there you have it.”

“What?” Mr. McCarthy asked.

“'Lectricity,” was the prompt answer of the Pearl. “Don't you know how it's made? Nor I, neither, but I guess I can come as nigh tellin' as any one. Here's a stationary wheel out by the end o' the shaft with some short bars of iron fastened to the rim of it, an' each bar is wound with a coil o' wire. Now, when ye send a current through the coil, that bar o' iron gets alive. It will take hold o' any other piece o' iron an' hang on like a bulldog. Folk call it a magnet, an' it's some like a boy--never gives any reason for his conduct which nobody understands. It just takes hold, an' that's all there is about it. Now, there's another wheel that moves with the shaft an' has the same number o' bar ends on it, all made o' soft iron but not wrapped with wire. Set these wheels parallel an' close, so the bar ends are not more 'n a quarter of an inch apart. The magnets begin to pull. The power in 'em jumps over that quarter-inch o' open space an' takes hold o' the soft iron. You have to put an awful power on the shaft to stir the one wheel on account o' the cling o' the magnets. It's like pullin' a cat out of a hole backwards. The power begins to spit an' make actions. When you move the wheel an' break the hold o' the magnets the power begins to travel an' chases 'round the rim. It opens the gate o' the great reservoir an' out comes a stream, an' it's 'lectricity. Nobody knows why nor wherefore, an' the magnets keep to work an' say nothin'. It's like churnin' cream till ye get butter. Ye break the pull o' the magnets an' set it whirlin' in a kind of a current, an' you get a power that zips off on a wire at the rate of a hundred and eighty thousand miles in a second. That's 'lectricity. It's rather fractious an' fond o' travel. But ye can coop it up in the wheels an' steer it where ye like. Ye can pen it in with glass an' rubber an' other things just as easy as ye can hold water with a tin pail.”

“You hold it in popper sections, fastened to both wheels, sweep it up with a brush, an' send it off on a wire. I've got a scheme for takin' it from the other end o' the wire in large or small quantities to suit the purchaser, an' I believe that I can move all the wheels in Heartsdale, an' a good many more.”

“If I get along in business maybe I can furnish the capital one o' these days,” said Mr. McCarthy.

“Then you'll begin to make history,” said the Pearl of great price.

Mr. McCarthy looked thoughtful. The idea of making history brightened his eyes.

“We will see what can be done,” he answered.

Again we took our places in the canoe, and it seemed to spring away with the current.

“We'll ride the belt,” said Mr. Pearl. “We ought to make ten miles between now an' sundown.”

The breeze left us, and the river slackened its pace in a gentler mood. Reeds lined its margin with soft shadows into which, often, bunches of blue iris flung their color.

“Gentlemen,” said Mr. McCarthy, presently, “I'm in need of advice.”

“Touchin' what subject?” Mr. Pearl inquired.

“My mind is set on matrimony,” said the young man.

“Tell it to get up an' move on,” said Mr. Pearl.

“Are you in love?” I asked.

“I fear that I am,” said Mr. McCarthy, with his accustomed frankness.

“All depends on the other party,” said Mr. Pearl.

“It's a beautiful girl by the name o' Betsey Fame,” the boy answered.

“Better be Miss Fame than Misfortune,” said the Pearl of great price.

“My trouble is all on account of this wooden leg,” Mr. McCarthy explained. “I saved her mother's life in a runaway an' got my ankle smashed. She took care o' me when I was laid up, and told me to study an' improve my mind and be a gentleman. I fell in love with her, and I'm getting along. But my gentleman has begun to crush the life out o' Pegleg McCarthy. He's killed my best hope, for he won't let me ask her to marry me. She's a wonderful nice girl, and belongs to a good family. But here's my wooden leg, and it comes o' my tryin' to save her mother. She might think she had ought to accept me whether she cares for me or not. She's just that kind of a girl. Do you think it's fair for me to ask her? I don't.”

Pearl and I rested the paddles. Our playful spirit had gone out of us in a jiffy.

“By the great horn spoon!” Pearl exclaimed. “Me being a gentleman, what can I do?” Mr. McCarthy inquired.

“Well, first you go to New York an' get yourself a decent leg, if you can afford it,” said the Pearl of great price. “There's a man by the name o' Marks made a leg for a friend o' mine. He wears a shoe an' walks as well as ever. Ye wouldn't know that he had a wooden leg. It's a case o' wood an' wouldn't.”

“That's a good idea,” said Mr. McCarthy. “Then you can tell her that you're really better off than you was before the accident--that you've only half the liability to pains in the feet. Go to work an' pile up some money, an' show her that nobody has any license to be sorry for you. Maybe you'll see your chance by-an'-by.”

“I believe that I'm going to be a rich man,” said Mr. McCarthy. “I kind o' feel it in my bones.”

“My bones are beginnin' to talk to me,” said the Pearl, as he moved in his seat a little. “We must begin to look for a camping-place.”

The sun had gone down, and glowing bars of cloud were drifting over the west. Their reflection made a long, golden raft in the ripples.

The raft seemed to break as I was looking, and its timber floated far and wide into dusky coves and marshes, and some of it went leaping through rapids half a mile below. As we rode along in the still twilight, Mr. Pearl sang an old ballad in a voice of remarkable power and sweetness. Well, the river and the shadows and the sky sang with him, as I am well aware, but no music ever got so deep in me as that did.

We got out on a pebble beach. There were grassy shores, close-cropped by cattle, near us, and a hard-wood grove. The Pearl began to put up his tent, while we gathered a bit of wood for a fire, and spread our supper on a big napkin. When we had eaten, Mr. Pearl removed his coat and vest from a carpet-bag. He spread the coat over his shoulders, but hung the vest on a stick, which he had driven into the ground beside him. He had turned it inside out, so that two medals, pinned to its lining, could be seen in the firelight. “What are they?” Mr. McCarthy asked. “Medals of honor.” The Pearl spoke carelessly as he was filling his pipe.

“Medals of honor!” exclaimed Mr. McCarthy. “How did you get 'em?”

“Won 'em in the Mexican War.”

“Why don't you wear 'em on the outside of your jacket?” Air. McCarthy inquired.

“I rise to a point of order,” said the Pearl, as he got to his feet. “If I had a thousand dollars, would I wear it on the outside o' my pocket? Or if I was Mr. McCarthy, would I have to tell people that I was a gentleman?” The Pearl gathered power like a locomotive when he got to going. His words conveyed a message of special value to Mr. McCarthy.

“Never want to show your cards more than is necessary before you play 'em,” the Pearl continued. “I could have used those medals to get a job many a time when I wouldn't, any more than you'd let a girl marry you out o' pity. There have been years when I wa'n't as good as the medals--there's the truth of it. Every night when I go to bed I hang that vest on a chair, wrong side out, an' take a look at 'em, an' try to make myself as good as they are.”

“Tell me how you won them?” Mr. McCarthy urged.

“That isn't in the order o' exercises,” the Pearl went on. “The chair begs to advise the gentleman from Hermon Center that if he, the said gentleman, ever succeeds in doing a big thing, the sooner _he_ forgets it the longer it will be remembered. If a man makes his history it's all that can be expected o' him. Somebody else ought to do the tellin', if it has to be told.”

“That's sound,” said Mr. McCarthy, “and I'm going to put it down in my note-book.”

“I'm goin' to forget it,” said the Pearl, as he began to prepare for bed.

We were up at sunrise in the morning. Late that day we landed, and Pearl took the canoe on his back and we put across country. A walk of six miles brought us to our own river, and we saved thereby a day of water travel. The sun was low when we wet our canoe again.

“The committee on refreshments will please report,” said Mr. Pearl, when he had put down his load.

Mr. McCarthy reported by laying out three pieces of cheese, half a dozen crackers, and a bit of dried beef.

The Pearl called “Mr. Barker,” and when the animal stood up before him, said: “The chair respectfully suggests that without food it will soon have no leg to stand on. You should cultivate the virtue of thoughtfulness. Do not wait to be told, Mr. Barker, but always consider what is to be done, and do it.”

If the Pearl had advice to give he invariably addressed it to “Mr. Barker,” and so it came to us through the dog, as one might say, and was never lost upon us.

Mr. McCarthy and I hurried away, while Mr.

Pearl got a fire going. We were both ashamed that the idea of increasing our stores had not occurred to us. We returned soon with eggs and bacon, and new bread and coffee, and all needed appliances.

“I move that the report be laid on the table,” said Mr. Pearl, as he began to warm the spider.

I think always with a grateful heart of that supper, which we ate in the cool twilight, with a knoll for a table, and, for a cloth, a mat of grass interwoven with white clover blossoms. It was quite dusk when we launched the canoe and resumed our journey.

Had I words fit for beauty and delight, I should try to tell of our night journey on the river--of the wondrous flattery of moon and shadow, of wet banks showered with “barbaric pearl,” of geese that sailed by, magnified to swanlike size, of a little village on the shore, whose painted boards shone like white marble and filled the eye with illusions of splendor and grand proportion.

When we were over the last carry at Mill Pond the hand-made gentleman fell asleep, but we kept on with a steady stroke of the paddles. I would not be the first to speak of stopping, for every stroke brought me nearer home, and the thought of it!--worth all the misery and peril I had known. Near two o'clock we got out on the shore, a mile below the Mill House, and lay down with our blankets and went to sleep.

The sunlight and the robins wakened us. It was one of my best days--that of my return. So much of it has come along up the road with me! Especially I remember its glad faces and the touch of its loving hands, and the sound of its gentle voices and its peace. Who can estimate the value of such a day save one who has been blessed with it? True, the moments go like falling water, but they return and are never quite ended, after all.

The cascade seemed to sing a welcome with its big, hearty voice. The garden flowers expressed my happiness in color, and sent their perfume to bid me welcome at the gate.

The Pearl and the hand-made gentleman turned away while I went up the old stair with my arms around my mother and sister, now dearer than ever to me. We sat down upon the old sofa, and I began to ravel out my follies. They rose to prepare breakfast, and I looked about me. There were the familiar three commandments of my mother hanging on the wall:

BE TRUTHFUL. BE KIND. BE HAPPY.

“If I had told the truth to Mr. Weatherby I would never have gone away,” was my remark.

“The more truth the less trouble,” said my mother. “It keeps you in the right road. If you're going to tell the truth you've got to make it worth telling, or, at least, good enough so that you will not be ashamed of it.”

While we had learned those three commandments, not until now had I begun to feel the power in them.

I looked about me at all the familiar things: the pictures--especially a crayon portrait of my father--the mottos, wrought in colored yam. Wisdom was more available than art those days in the north country, and the walls of many a simple home were decorated with the sayings of bard or prophet, each neatly framed. My mother's mottos were all her own, however. She was a daughter of the pioneers who had learned much in a hard school of experience. The best of it all had come down to her, and was a bit refined by her own thought. There was a kind of history in those mottos that hung on the walls of the Mill House--the heart history of men who had had to think for themselves. I read them anew and thoughtfully:=

```The kindly will never want a friend;

```The mean will never lack an enemy.=

```One good word deserves another,

```But receives more than it deserves.=

```To-day is the best of all days,

```But to-morrow will be better.=

```Let heaven begin here.=

After all my regretful thinking on that journey, which had now come to its end, these words began to fill with meaning. That last injunction, printed in golden threads, sank deeply into my heart and led to this conviction: that the Mill House was one of the outlying provinces of heaven; far removed, maybe, but still as much a part of it as those isles ten thousand miles from London are a part of the British Empire.

Breakfast being ready, I went down after my good friends. The Pearl would not come in.

“Just hand me a little snack,” said he; “I ain't fit to go in.”

He would not yield to urging, and so I brought his breakfast to him, and he sat down and ate at the foot of the stairway.

My mother and sister sat at the table with Mr. McCarthy and me. The manners of the handmade gentleman became exceedingly formal. He spoke only when spoken to, save when he said:

“May I be so bold as to ask for a glass of water?”

When I suggested the subject of Sal, he began to relax, and went to his grip and gravely presented my mother with a dozen balls of it.

The breakfast over, my mother went below-stairs with me to thank Mr. Pearl for his kindness, but he was gone. I found her looking up the river, where he was going out of sight, far up the shaded avenue of water, in his canoe. She looked very sad as I walked to the garden with her.

“Come, let us look at the flowers,” she said, as she put her arm-about me. “These roses have just opened this morning; they have been waiting for you, and so has this letter.”

My heart quickened, for I had seen the postmark and the girlish penmanship on the envelope, and had caught its odor of violets. Eagerly I broke the seal, and read as follows:

Dear Friend,--I have just been picking flowers and they reminded me of your letter. I have not forgotten you; everything that is beautiful makes me think of those days when you were here--we had such a good time; at least, I did. I should like to hear from you often, but I don't want you to think that I care so very, very much. I wouldn't want to have you try to remember me. I still have my troubles, but they are not quite so dreadful. Last night my father brought home another young man. I do not like him; he has such a queer way of staring into my eyes, and can talk of nothing but dogs and horses. Fannie has come back, and Sam is with her. He is going to take care of the garden and the grounds until they can find a farm. Fannie says that he has got over being afraid and is very affectionate. I think of you often, and of those pleasant evenings that we had together, and of all that you went through. I wonder if you would dare come again! Well, I am sure that I shall never get another letter from you, even, but I wish you good luck, anyway.

Yours truly, Jo.

P. S.--I have made this letter short for fear it would bore you.

It was my first letter from a fair maid, and what a state of mind it put me in! My mother read it with a smile.

“It's a pretty letter,” said she.

“Not so pretty as Jo,” I answered. Then I told about my visit in Summerville.

“And the girl is alone with that old drunkard?” said my mother.

“Yes.”

“Too bad! I wish I could see her.”

“I love her,” I said, soberly.

“Child!” she exclaimed, “you're not yet sixteen.”

“A boy has feelings,” I protested.

“If I'm not in love, I'd like to know what it is that makes me feel as I do. I would die for her.”

“Yes--yes, I know,” she answered, holding my hand in hers. “I was like you when I was a young miss--thought I was in love two or three times when I was not. Write to her if you wish, but you must be fair to her. Don't say a word about it until you see if it lasts. She may not care for you, anyway.”

This letter made me sure that she did care for me, however, and that and others like it were, indeed, the treasures of my youth. The notion of being fair to her grew in me, for, after all, my heart had had its change, and was it now to be wholly trusted?

Mr. McCarthy met us at the stairs.

“I've been reading your three commandments,” said he to my mother. “Are they in the Bible?”

“Yes; but I got them out of the Book of Nature,” said she. “You learn to be truthful by the study of men, for what is a man unless he is himself--the thing he pretends to be? Kindness--I learned that from the earth, where we all reap as we sow, and everything that lives teaches us to be happy. These birds and flowers--see how happy they are! And this boy of mine just returned from the path of error--who could be happier than he is?”

“That's sound,” said the hand-made gentleman. “I'm going to write it down in my book.” He sat down and wrote while she helped him a little in the phrasing of his notes.

“I must devote myself to business,” said Mr. McCarthy, when he had closed the book. “I will visit the leading villages in the county, and return as expeditiously as possible.”

He glanced at me as if to note the effect of this impressive declaration.

“Good luck; and remember here is always a good welcome,” my mother said to him, as he took the road to Heartsdale.