• ♦ ♦ 
 
 Daniel North 
 
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 * • • vIjT • •• 
 
 Wyoming Valley 
 
 ^ 
 
 S. R. 
 
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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PS 3537.M679D18 
 
 Daniel North of Wyoming.yallev / 
 
 3 1924 021 692 490 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924021692490 
 
Anna Rose. ' 
 
 THB RIGHTBOUS TORY. 
 
Daniel North 
 
 OF 
 
 Wyoming Valley 
 
 BY 
 
 S. R. SMITH. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 
 1897- 
 
THIS BOOK 
 
 MY FIRST FICTION 
 
 I DEDICATE TO 
 
 My Good Friend and Neighbor 
 
 T. L. NEWELL, 
 
 OF KINGSTON, PENN'A. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I WRITE a few prefatory remarks, so that I may have the pleasure of 
 chatting with the reader, who, if he is given to reflection, may ask 
 the author's purpose. I will say, in reply, that there is an ordering 
 of our wills as well as of the events of our lives, which we have 
 so little part in directing. This ordering was my counsellor and 
 dictator. If I had followed, more closely the accepted formulas 
 and methods of composition, this work would be less characteristic 
 of the writer than it now is; it would not as faithfully represent 
 the man who produced it. The author realizes that there is no art 
 which can conceal the man behind his story and that the chief 
 value of a work of the imagination is that which the individuality 
 and character of the writer imparts. If there is no life, light or 
 power behind the little lantern he holds up, neither gaudy coloring 
 nor captivating forms will avail him. He must stand confessed to 
 the reader and this tax he must pay. So should the writing and 
 publishing of one's thoughts be a sacramental rite. 
 
 This was originally a large volume but it is a curious fact that 
 the longer I wrote the smaller the book became, which appears 
 to be a demonstrated paradox. 
 
 None of the characters were taken from life outside of the world 
 of fancy which sometimes seems real enough to the imagination. 
 
 I hope that the reader may have as good an opinion of this 
 volume as the author has and that he will lay it down, saying what 
 children often scribble in books which please them, "This is a 
 good book." 
 
Daniel North. 
 
 Men and women are obliged by necessity as well as by inclination 
 to explain for themselves individually the great riddle of life. We 
 have discretionary power which is absolute, and it invests us with 
 a supreme authority over life, of which God does not and man 
 cannot deprive us, or question. Yet we find within us a greater 
 power than will or circumstance and that is temperament. This 
 makes our fate. No man is wise enough to read the riddle and 
 our solution of the problem would not determine our destinies, for 
 the great spectacle of life moves on regardless of our conclusions. 
 
 At best our mental limitation keeps us from comprehending 
 more than a few necessary facts of life and the universe. But there 
 is revealed to us a truth which points to us our task in life and 
 the supreme end of our endeavor. We are souls and have bodies. 
 The rest of man is raw material out of which he is to make what 
 he can. This is his life work and the limit of his sovereignty. The 
 will stands between the spirit and the flesh, and would drag the 
 spirit down to degradation. This struggle goes on in every human 
 heart. Every other thought falls out of sight in comparison. This 
 makes us pause, for we hold the keys of hfe and death. 
 
 That every one who reads it may be persuaded to live for the 
 spirit, has this story been written. S. R. Smith, 
 
 Aug. 30, '97. Kingston, Pa. 
 
Daniel Nopth. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 NATURE will not be described, it is beyond art or eloquence, just 
 as the heart is too deep to fathom and the soul too infinite to be 
 comprehended. I need hardly add that Wyoming Valley was never 
 described or the history of its past written. We have all we can have 
 from the historians, they have given us the major part of all that 
 is transcribable. 
 
 To attempt to describe this valley and to bring up to the inner 
 sight, that sees what is 'invisible to the eye of flesh, the pictures in the 
 minds of men that we fancy bring back the past, or to name with 
 color-giving words the familiar outlines of our valley is but to be 
 shocked with the insignificance and limitations of our power of dis- 
 cernment and expression. 
 
 Our love and pride constrains us to say that the Wyoming Valley 
 is one of the loveliest spots on the continent. To gaze upon "the great 
 plain" from Campbell's Ledge (if one is capable of such thoughts or 
 feelings) is to feel ones self a primitive man alone with primitive 
 nature, for from that elevation the struggle of human life and the 
 occupancy of the valley by human beings with all their actions seem 
 no more than a colony of ants in a few yards of sand. You are so far 
 above and beyond the cities and towns that you feel nature's everlast- 
 ing citadel is brooding in silence. The crag stands forth in lonely 
 splendor, a great cHff of ivory veined with emerald against a sapphire 
 sky, a realized dream. To the south the ramparts are low, the hills 
 are steadfast while along their base the bloom of civilization creeps 
 up from the plain below. All the noise of the work of life sends 
 
lO Daniel North. 
 
 up a whisper to you, and like a peaceful vision in tranquillity the 
 soul-delighting feast is forever spread in the presence of the soul of 
 the universe. At times the human eye will, curious for a moment, 
 gaze upon it as a child gazes at the sky. As we peer through the 
 beautiful light that falls upon the floor and" walls of this temple of 
 nature we see a radiant promise. The line of the mountain is the 
 line of mystery. 
 
 As the curtain is rung up for this story you find yourself on the great 
 crown of Campbell's Ledge. The morning fog fills the valley so that you 
 look over a sea of mist. All that is visible are the even tips of the Blue 
 Ridge stretching on either side as far as the eye can reach, and flattened 
 by the rising sun. Away to the southeast the lofty ridge of old Pocono 
 looks glorified in the sunlight and old Bald Eagle Mountain looking 
 like a new creation rejoicing in its perennial youth. Below, Prospect 
 Rock is just emerging from the vapor around it, and thp gap beyond 
 casts a blue shadow to proclaim itself When the fog has lifted, several 
 large hawks circle high above the pines, with loud cries and plunge down 
 not far from the face of the Ledge ; as if bent on swift destruction 
 below on the towering tree tops, they would sweep in mad flight 
 across the flat land, and then cross the river and up the face of the 
 opposite Ledge to return and repeat the fearful plunge. 
 
 This is what a young man, who is to be the hero of my story, 
 witnessed on the morning of a beautiful day in early suminer. He 
 was a son of one of those sons of New England, who feared not the 
 face of man, who loved to have the east wind in his face, and hard 
 conditions to conquer. But the son was fashioned for a life in sur- 
 roundings where life is not a war with hard conditions and hard men. The 
 stars must have sang together when he was born for the light that 
 shone through him was like the light in the sky. His name was 
 Daniel North. He was born in a log house on the Kingston flats, 
 opposite Wilkes-Barre, five years before the Massacre of Wyoming, 
 July 3d, 1778. His father cultivated the sandy low lands bordering 
 the river. Daniel's parents would have prospered, but the tories 
 drove off" their stock and carried off their crops and sold them to the 
 Hessians. North was especially unfortunate as he had an enemy 
 
Daniel North. 
 
 II 
 
 artiong ] the tories who gratified his hate in this way until he was 
 destitute. To add to the suffering he had caused he came and burned 
 the house and barn of Daniel's parents, which threw them upon the 
 charity of their friends. This had happened but a short time previous 
 to the Massacre. Daniel, as he steps upon Campbell's Ledge, when 
 this story opens, has just returned to the valley for the first time since 
 he left it with his mother and the fugitives making their way 
 to New England after the massacre as best they could on foot, without 
 sufficient food or shelter. 
 
 Daniel and his mother were in the fort on that fatal July day, with 
 the women, children and old men who gathered there, while the son 
 and sire went to meet the invader. 
 
 A VIBW OF THE SUSQUEHANNA FROM FORTY FORT. 
 
 The Fort at Forty Fort was on the high bank of the river 
 where it makes a curve and crosses straight over toward the mount- 
 ain. From this point you can look up the river four or five miles 
 with Wintermute Island in the distance. This view is one of the 
 finest to be seen in the valley. You can look up over the most 
 picturesque plain conceivable, the upper flat where the battle was 
 fought, and the lower flat over which the settlers fled after the fight. 
 
12 Daniel North. 
 
 The invaders formed an ambush in the underbrush in the shape 
 of a horse shoe, the Indians on the lower end, the British on the 
 upper side and center. The little band marched up the old road 
 from the fort into the trap awaiting them. A volley was fired 
 into the face of the marching men, the officer's command was mistaken, 
 and confusion was followed by demoralization. The battle became 
 a massacre when the Indians on the flank struck up their awful 
 yell. The terrible hatchet was applied and the horror of an Indian 
 butchery began. A few men tore out of the circle of death and 
 plunged across the flat a mile or more to the river. Some reached 
 the river and hid under the foliage or buried themselves in the 
 sand, some swam down the river, while many were shot from the 
 banks. 
 
 After the terrible day had passed and a formal surrender was 
 signed, jVIrs. North with her son went up to look for her husband, 
 who was an officer in the Continental army. Daniel never forgot 
 that long walk. He became tired walking through the long grass. 
 He did not know why his mother cried and held him so fondly 
 as she groaned and sobbed. After walking a long time they came 
 to a man lying in the grass. Daniel thought the man was sleeping, 
 there was a red streak around his neck which he thought was a 
 red ribbon. If his mother had told him that the man was dead 
 and that that red ribbon was a streak of blood from a bullet in his 
 neck he would only have wondered what she meant. Before that 
 journey was over he comprehended the meaning of death, for he 
 saw it stark and grim. He saw such ghastly sights that he smelled 
 and tasted blood for many days. His wondering soul shrank outraged 
 and the poor boy grew sick at the spectacle he beheld. 
 
 Mrs. North found her husband where the first men fell and in 
 his grip a British officer whom Mrs. North recognized as Richard 
 Rose, the tory who had robbed them and burned their house. 
 North had run his sword through his enemy's body. As Mrs. North 
 loosened her husband's hand from the sword she kissed it for the 
 deed it had performed. The mother and son kissed their dead 
 and went back to the fort. 
 
Daniel North. 
 
 13 
 
 The little company in the fort gathered together their scanty 
 possessions and started on their journey to New England through 
 the wilderness. They crossed the Pocono range and took the old 
 route for the Delaware at Fort Penn, near Stroudsburg, a journey 
 of sixty-five miles. Part of the company separated themselves and 
 took a more northerly route to strike the Delaware near where 
 Lackawaxen is located. This road is through a dense, swampy 
 wilderness. Most of those who took this road were never heard 
 from. All that section was known as the "Shades of Death." 
 
 
 SHADBS OF DEATH. 
 
 While the battle was going on there had come to the fort a 
 young woman leading a little girl by the hand. No one in the 
 fort knew the woman but the little girl was recognized as the 
 daughter of Richard Rose, the tory. It was soon evident that the 
 woman was partly deranged though her actions indicated that she 
 had an intelligent comprehension of her surroundings. Daniel was 
 attracted by the blue eyed and golden haired little girl who was 
 as winsome and sweet as a June rose. She received little Daniel's 
 
^4 Daniel North. 
 
 attention with the eagerness that an affectionate child shows when 
 love and sympathy are offered it. This was the beginning of the 
 romance of two lives. They knew not that their fathers were acting 
 a tragedy where love had no part, almost in sight of the fort. The 
 mother experienced a revulsion of feeling as she watched their locks 
 mingle together as they played, for her hatred of the tory was deep 
 and unconquerable. No pen can fitly picture the miseries of the 
 fugitives as they struggled through the wilderness. Anna and Daniel 
 clung together as they trudged on foot on the long toilsome journey. 
 One evening as the party was gathered together for the night the 
 black clouds gathered in the west and distant peals of thunder were 
 heard. The company had no refuge but the kindly shelter of over- 
 hanging trees. A storm was a calamity. They had but little 
 food, the children were homesick, some of them were ill, and all 
 were in terrible straights, for misery stared them in the face, but 
 they bore up with fortitude and patience. A storm in the wilderness, 
 with sick children wearied and sobbing in their arms was the added 
 touch to the cruelty of an unkind fate that crushed them. The 
 storm came and poured -down its pitiless flood on the homeless 
 wanderers, drenching them and all their belongings as if nature knew 
 no pity and God was deaf to prayer. They wondered if there was 
 a merciful Father above to care for the helpless widow and orphans. 
 The storm was not enough ; fate, as if not satisfied with its cruelty, 
 sent death that night to make sad hearts sick and heap more misery 
 upon its victims. That night a little girl died. The death angel 
 that had hovered over the valley with its black wings came down 
 to the eery wilderness to find a victim. Death meant burial. There 
 was no coffin and no spade to dig a grave. The poor mother made a 
 bed of leaves and covered the corpse with branches and left it to 
 sleep on the breast of mother nature. It would be hard to imagine 
 a scene more sad than the mother leaving her child behind, exposed 
 to the elements and wild beasts. 
 
 When the party were within a few miles of Fort Penn they 
 came to a little settlement which was the first sign of civilization they 
 had seen on their journey. Here they were given a welcome that 
 
Daniel North. 15 
 
 made their hearts glad and their immediate wants were supplied. 
 Here, to a great extent their hardships ended for at Fort Penn clothing 
 and money were provided, while the people, as they journeyed, helped 
 them on their way so that they suffered no great hardship after cross- 
 ing the Delaware. 
 
 Fort Penn was one of aline of forts that extended across that 
 section like a chain. They were built during the French and Indian 
 war to protect the eastern boundaries. Near Fort Penn there was a 
 large stone house. This was built previous to the revolution and is 
 still standing. The structure is noticeable for the walls are thick, the 
 windows and doors deep set, massive and prison like. There is one 
 room that is kept locked and if you are admitted you will find the 
 floor and walls splashed with blood. In a large pool on the floor the 
 print of a hand is plainly marked. On the upper floor is a room 
 designed for a cell as the door is made of iron and the fastenings are 
 great bolts and immense padlocks. The house has a strange sense of 
 mystery hanging about it and an unwritten history. When the 
 fugitives reached Fort Penn a Mr. Stapels lived in the stone mansion. 
 Mr. Staples was an ex-tea merchant. He had brought the tea into 
 Boston harbor that was thrown overboard. This loss had driven 
 him out of the business and now he had an extensive plantation mostly 
 located on the large fertile islands in the river near that point. He had 
 many slaves and was an important man in that section. When the 
 fugitives from the valley reached this settlement they were distributed 
 about among the people and entertained. Mrs. North, her son, little 
 Anna Rose and the demented woman were entertained by Mr. Stapels 
 at the stone mansion. Mrs. North and the crazy woman slept in one 
 room and the two children in one adjoining. Mrs. North kissed the 
 children that evening without a suspicion of the terrible tragedy about 
 to take place. That night a cry, shrill and wild rang through the 
 house, then a terrible shriek, a groan, and all was still. Little Daniel 
 started up with that wondering fear and awful dread that children 
 experience when startled in the night by a strange sound. He saw a 
 light in the hallway and slid out of his little cot, then he felt for 
 Anna to waken her up but was surprised to find that she was not there. 
 
i6 
 
 Daniel North. 
 
 He stepped into the hall and looked into his mother's room. There he 
 saw Mr. Stapels and one of the servants and by the dim light of a 
 tallow dip which Mr. Stapels was holding he discovered his mother 
 stretched out on the floor, covered with blood, while on the walls were 
 daubs and blotches. The demented women and Anna were gone, and 
 a little silk bag, the only possession of Mrs. North, except the 
 clothes she wore, was also missing. The front door was standing 
 open and later it was found that a cellar window had been taken out. 
 
 - fJ 
 
 ■1SE^=S 
 
 THE MURDER OF MRS. NORTH. 
 
 This indicated that some one had entered the house. At the front of 
 the house were marks of the wheels of a coach. There was no clue 
 that disclosed the perpetrator of the crime. The murder of Mrs. North 
 left Daniel alone in the world, penniless among strangers. The kind 
 heart of Mr. Stapels was moved with pity for the orphan, and as the boy 
 needed a protector he was only too glad to give him a home and care for 
 him. Daniel found in Mr. Stapels a kind foster father and a pleasant 
 home under his roof Soon the dark tragedy of his mother's death faded 
 from his memory so that it became but a shadow in his imagination. 
 We can but stop and look back for a brief glimpse of the tragedies 
 we have but sketched with a few dashes. First there comes to our 
 fancy the homes scattered here and there by the streams, at the foot 
 of the mountain, along the lanes, some of them log houses, some of 
 
Daniel North. 17 
 
 them the old low frame house. The wood pile, the well, the beehives, 
 the flower beds, the chickens at the door and all that made up their 
 home life. The mother is churning, the daughter is looking after the 
 flowers, the father is doing the chores. Then comes echoing over the 
 valley the report of a cannon ; every dweller in these homes stops, 
 stands still and listens. That report of the signal gun, if the people 
 could have read its echo, would have told them that before the 
 morrow's sun rose over the beautiful brow of the Pocono the father 
 would lie dead and scalped with his son dead near him ; it would 
 say that they would leave their home, within one short hour, to go to 
 the fort for protection ; that the door and gate they shut behind them 
 they would never open ; that on the morrow the flower bed would be 
 trampled down, the beehives turned over and the little house would be 
 a pile of charcoal. All they could do was to take a last look in the 
 garden and the barn, tidy up the house, shut it up carefully and with a 
 few things that they must have go down the lane and across the fields 
 to the fort. The scene may not be tragical but it is very sad and 
 pathetic. What thoughts had the father as he takes his gun down 
 from the hooks, the mother as she takes off her apron and puts on 
 her best dress, or the daughter as she makes up her little bundles ? 
 These things the pages of history never portray, yet such dramas were 
 enacted all over the valley. Who can help thinking of the women 
 gathered in the fort after the men had marched up the valley, after the 
 mother and daughter had said good bye. They must have felt that 
 nature was unkind to be so beautiful and heedless of their misery. 
 They knew that the British and the Indians had come in the valley to 
 destroy them ; that their husbands, sons, and fathers were but a weak 
 barrier against them. They knew that at best most of the children 
 would be fatherless in an hour, more than this they knew that the proba- 
 bilities were that before sundown the fort would be filled with Indians, 
 dashing their brains out. They crowded out of the fort and watched 
 the men as long as they could see them and then they listened. Finally 
 they heard the sound of the guns, then they waited in fearful suspense. 
 At last the continuous shooting ceased and the shots became scatter- 
 ed and nearer. They knew what that meant. Their fate was sealed. 
 
1 8 Daniel North. 
 
 Daniel was carefully educated and when he was through school he 
 went to Philadelphia to study art. The promise of the boy was 
 realized in the growing man, and more. Daniel is not easy to 
 describe mentally. He was a dreamer, refined in his tastes and sensi- 
 bilities, lofty in his ambition and ideals, of a reflective turn of mind, 
 that was original, unique and astute. He was poetic, philosophical, 
 artistic, religious, moral. He had many strong sides to his intellectual- 
 ity. His individuality was the most charming characteristic he pos- 
 sessed and the most striking. He was friendly and affectionate but not 
 sentimental, and perfectly exemplary in his habits. He had read 
 widely and had a wide acquaintance with the best literature and his 
 association with men of talent and culture had given him that touch 
 which makes a man broad and elevated in his thought. He was a little 
 above medium height, his hair was black and hung over his collar, 
 eyes blue grey with the outer corners long and drooping, which is com- 
 mon to men of genius. He has a refined, sensitive chin and mouth, but 
 his jaw had a strong square set that indicated courage and endurance. 
 He had an unfailing hope in the future and in the ordering of his 
 destiny. Back of this was the desire to live his life in harmony with his 
 nature, to seek for the beautiful things and to live in the light of elevat- 
 ing thoughts without much heed for those rewards for which men strive. 
 He was alone in the world for Mr. and Mrs. Stapels were dead. The 
 only one he felt that he could claim any feeling of kinship for was Anna 
 Rose and she was a vision of the night or the lingering fragrance of a 
 rose. She was the only one for his mind to dwell upon and his thought 
 often turned to her. She filled his fancy and like a dreamer he found 
 the dream more real than the reality. 
 
Daniel North. 19 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 W /HEN this story opened we found Daniel on Campbell's Ledge, a 
 W point which he reached by the use of his good strong limbs in the 
 natural way. Daniel followed his fancy which led him to pack up 
 his kit without any plan or definite purpose and strike for the Blue 
 Range on foot, with the vision of the Wyoming Valley hanging in his 
 mind like a pillar of light. 
 
 When he reached the mountain top overlooking the valley he 
 beheld a picture that far surpassed all his creations, that filled him with 
 wonder and delight. The very air breathes poetry while all that is 
 dear to the eye that loves beauty dwells below on the plain and sleeps 
 along the serene hills. 
 
 While Daniel stands on the mountain looking down on the 
 historic valley a stage bearing Anna Rosd is rolling down the hills at 
 the far north. 
 
 Anna Rose was a woman that any mortal might contemplate with 
 pleasure, and know with profit ; a fair soul in a beautiful body. A tall, 
 graceful blonde, strong physically, mentally and morally, but as 
 delicate as a white rose, and as sweet. Anna was coming to the valley 
 at the request of her uncle, Allen Rose. She did not know she had an 
 uncle until she received a letter from him stating that he was the only 
 relative she had living and was her guardian ; that he was a widower 
 without children, with considerable means and good social position. He 
 stated that he had provided for her maintenance and education in the 
 past and would try to make her life in the future pleasant by every 
 means in his power. 
 
 When she received his letter she was in a private school in 
 Canada and had just graduated. This letter was the first clue she had 
 had to throw any light upon her life or her family. She remembered 
 that when a little girl she had crossed the mountains with a company on 
 foot, she remembered Daniel distinctly, she had read the account of 
 that march and all the bloody scenes enacted in the valley and knowing 
 
20 Daniel North. 
 
 that she was born there and had played a part in the tragedy 
 and that if she had parents or friends they were probably there, 
 naturally the valley was the most interesting spot on the face of the 
 earth to her. All she remembered of the tragedy in Stroudsburg was 
 that she had heard a shriek and had seen the blood stained body 
 of Mrs. North lying on the floor of her room as she was carried 
 past the open door, by a man whose face she did not see, to a coach 
 that was in waiting outside, and driven ofif! She never saw the 
 man for he did not ride on the stage. The demented woman was in 
 the stage but left it the next day. She rode a long time and then was 
 taken out by some strange people. This in reality was all that she 
 knew except that she had never been in want, for the friends who had 
 taken care of her were always kind. When she had asked any questions 
 in regard to herself she was answered in an evasive manner or by a 
 discreet silence. 
 
 When she received the letter from her uncle she asked herself, if he 
 could be the murderer of Mrs. North. Unwilling as she was to believe 
 it, still the doubt was a cloud that hung over her to spoil her pleasure 
 in meeting him. 
 
 As the stage approached the inn, which stood on the broad street 
 facing the river, she looked eagerly out of the window, anxious to 
 to identify, if possible, her uucle. The moment it stopped a man, 
 probably fifty years old, elegantly dressed, stepped up and helped her 
 out, at the same time greeting her with that elegant courtesy practiced 
 by a gentleman of the old school. 
 
 The uncle and niece looked at each other, the 
 uncle with evident satisfaction and the niece with 
 not a little pleasure. Anna could not believe that 
 he was a murderer, for his elegant manner was 
 a wall that she could not break down, scale, 
 or even look over to see what was on the other 
 side. 
 
 The uncle pointed across the river to a house 
 AI.I.BN ROSB. which had a porch running the length of the front 
 
Daniel North. 2\ 
 
 upper and lower floors, and stood below a beautiful grove of maple 
 button-wood, saying that it was his home. After she reached 
 her uncle's house she could not restrain herself longer and asked 
 him the questions that disturbed her mind Without a moment's 
 hesitation she inquired who had murdered Mrs. North, what had 
 become of Daniel, what had become of her parents, and why a 
 cloud of obscurity and mystery had hung over her all her life? The 
 uncle looked closely into the excited girl's eyes as if the questions were 
 of little importance and simple. His answers were deliberate and 
 directly to the point. As to her questions he said he did not 
 know who murdered Mrs. North, had never seen the woman and knew 
 nothing of her son. Her own father was an influental tory and had 
 fallen in the Massacre, her mother had died before that event. He 
 ignored all the incidents of mystery of her childhood by saying that he 
 knew nothing about them. 
 
 Anna was a wise woman and though her experience in the ways 
 of the world was limited, she understood, as her uncle intended she 
 should, that she must accept the situation and make the best of it. 
 Her uncle fulfilled his promise to her that he would endeavor to 
 make her life happy. She could come and go without a question, 
 every want was anticipated, and as far as possible gratified. 
 
 The first acquaintance Anna made outside of the inmates of her 
 uncle's house was a small morsel of a girl by the name of Minnie 
 Lee who lived across toward the mountain in the village of Kingston. 
 Minnie came and called upon her in an informal way. Probably she 
 had chanced to learn that Allen Rose's niece had arrived and was 
 curious to see her or had some other reason that was not apparent. 
 
 Anna learned from Minnie that Daniel North was in Kingston 
 and was being entertained by James Barnes, the Quaker, who lived 
 in the stone mansion on the main road, which wa3 in fact the only 
 road except a lane or two, which ran back to the mountain. Things 
 were coming to pass in the ordering of the events of Anna's life so 
 rapidly that she was like a bird in a gale, and had but little time 
 to guess as to how things would shape themselves. Anna also 
 learned that the house in which she lived was on the spot on which 
 
22 Daniel North. 
 
 the home of Daniel's parents had stood, and the broad acres her 
 uncle cultivated and claimed was the North estate. What Minnie 
 did not know nobody in the village knew. She was not a gossip 
 but her perception and instincts were acute, so that which was a 
 mysteiy to others was as clear as sunlight to her. She had the 
 faculty of keeping still at the right time and of tracing connection 
 out to a legitimate conclusion. 
 
 Anna found out what kind of people Daniel had fallen in with 
 and was pleased, for Mr. Barnes and his family were highly respected. 
 She was also gratified to learn that Daniel was an unusual young 
 man. Minnie drew her own conclusions in regard to many things. She 
 had heard of the murder. She finally succeeded in getting Anna to 
 relate the story of her experience in the valley and the part Daniel 
 played in the tragedy. It is not to be marvelled at that she set her 
 mind at work to bring the strangers together. With that end in view 
 she asked Anna to go to church with her on the following Sabbath 
 to services held in the Forty Fort church which had just been erected. 
 She knew that Sarah Barnes would be there and that Daniel would 
 probably be with her as Sarah was a devoted Methodist and would 
 invite him to accompany her. 
 
 The next morning Minnie called on Sarah Barnes and asked 
 to be introduced to the artist Daniel had converted an unused 
 room in the upper story into a studio and was busily painting when 
 the two young ladies knocked at his door. Minnie went around the 
 studio looking at the sketches. She finally turned to Daniel and 
 said "she would not like to be hanged because the rope would tickle 
 her neck" then added that "she was not anxious to go to heaven 
 because she was afraid she would not have any fun there." Her 
 remarks were apparently irrelevant. Daniel laughed over them and 
 asked her to let him make a sketch of her to go with his collection 
 of unusual characters he found in the Valley. She consented, and 
 when it was finished he wrote under it, "The girl who did not want to 
 be hanged because the rope would tickle her neck." She was often 
 afterward referred to as the young lady who did not want to have 
 her neck tickled. 
 
Daniel North. 23 
 
 Daniel did not suspect that this young lady was making plans 
 that would be factors in his life when realized. Minnie sat down 
 and opened a conversation. She told him without any preface that 
 she had called on Anna Rose the day before. Daniel was speechless 
 for he had inquired of Sarah Barnes about Anna and that young 
 lady had never heard of her. 
 
 Minnie enjoyed making a sensation which she had succeeded 
 admirably in doing to her great delight. Then she told him that 
 the property Allen Rose lived on was originally that of his parents. 
 Also that Anna had not forgotten him, that she had invited Anna to 
 attend church with her so that she might meet him. 
 
 Daniel would have started at once across the flats to see Anna 
 but he hesitated and wished to get some hint as to how Mr. Rose would 
 regard him if he presented himself Minnie had a kind heart and 
 her motives were commendable and Daniel appreciated them. Daniel 
 had true and faithful allies in the two girls. Sarah Barnes was 
 a vivacious, refined, intellectual girl with little of the Quaker about 
 her. She was small in figure, with a fine square head, good looking 
 and was a splendid talker, yet not given to frivolity., 
 
 Daniel had met Mr. Barnes when he visited Kingston after he 
 had come down the valley from Campbell's Ledge. The old Quaker 
 was pleased with the young man and had invited him to his home. He 
 found friends and was urged to remain as long as he would. The 
 invitation he gladly accepted, expecting to stay until he made some 
 definite plans for the future. Daniel made friends easily with all 
 classes. He was afifable, approachable and full of the milk of human 
 kindness. He had a simple grace and dignity coupled with com- 
 mensurate tact that made him fit in with any surroundings or company. 
 He was a Bohemian of the right sort and a cosmopolitan in every 
 sense. He loved company and conversation, finding in every one 
 he met something worthy and interesting. Kingston and the sur- 
 roundings he found a pleasant place to live in. The people were 
 descendants of the best blood of New England. Though provincial, 
 they were interested and informed on all public questions. They 
 were all radicals, patriotic, and most of them very religious. Daniel 
 
24 Daniel North. 
 
 found many strange characters whom he sketched and tacked on 
 the wall and he very soon had an interesting collection which formed 
 a unique and amusing exhibition. 
 
 The next day after Minnie called he met a crazy woman on 
 the street, who had a veil drawn across her face so that only one 
 side was visible, which accented her strange appearance. She was 
 a middle aged woman with an intelligent face despite its unnatural 
 expression. Approaching Daniel she told him she was looking for 
 yesterday. Daniel told her that yesterday was past and would 
 never come back again. Then she asked for some flowers to put 
 on its grave. He picked some wild flowers for her which she accepted 
 thankfully and went on her way. 
 
 Daniel found on inquiry that she was demented, that she lived 
 in a little house by herself and was provided for by some unknown 
 friends. He was told that she was constantly begging flowers but 
 that no one knew what she did with them. 
 
 Annk and Daniel filled the intervening time with thoughts of 
 their early associations and by the time Sunday arrived they 
 were very anxious to see each other. Anna forgot that she was the 
 daughter of a tory, and Daniel ignored the fact, if he ever thought of it. 
 Anna went to church and so did Daniel. She sat on one 
 side of the church and he on the other. Both looked composed 
 and unconscious but took several good looks at each other before 
 the services were over. After church Minnie and Sarah walked out 
 ahead leaving Daniel to follow out his own plans. Minnie smiled 
 when Daniel came after them out into the yard. Anna did better. 
 She came out and then strolled off into the graveyard. Even then 
 Daniel lingered talking to the girls, for the tall beautiful blonde 
 had dispelled all his dreams and the reality .was such a real substantial 
 substance that he almost feared when he thought of approaching her. 
 
 Noticing his hesitation Minnie gave him a push in the direction 
 Anna had gone. He found her on the river bank waiting for him. 
 When he came to her she turned to him with a smile and a look that 
 proclaimed suppressed emotions. They shook hands, then had a long 
 talk and became acquainted. 
 
Daniel North. 
 
 25 
 
 AT THE RAINBOW Cr,UB. 
 
 Daniel, 
 
 Cassia . 
 
 Sarah. 
 
 Roxey, 
 
26 Daniel North. 
 
 In an hour they had looked into each others hearts and natures 
 so clearly that the bond between them was strong and sure, for they 
 had both tried to show themselves to each other. They walked 
 down to the fort and entered the old stockade which was still standing 
 for children to play in and pigs and cattle to wander in at will. 
 Here Anna reminded Daniel that her father was a tory and that 
 possibly her uncle had killed his mother and she nearly cried as 
 she told him all she knew of the story of her past life. Anna and 
 Daniel parted and returned to their homes, Anna riding on her 
 pony and Daniel afoot. 
 
 When Anna and Daniel met it was the meeting of two royal 
 souls. They would have set apart and valued each other if they had 
 met as strangers in any country, and were not bound by any 
 relationship. Such natures recognize their kind. When their fate is 
 interwoven their lives become blended into one. When such 
 meet they simply and naturally come to their own. 
 
 Most of our relations with one another grow out of and belong 
 to the environments that cause them. Our real brother and sister is 
 ours by nature and we claim each other as we do any beautiful and 
 precious gift heaven has put in our way. Anna and Daniel had 
 looked at each other, that was enough. To each it was like a wanderer 
 going to his father's house, when he would have lavished upon him 
 all that love could suggest and abundance supply. Anna rejoiced to 
 know that there was such a man as she recognized Daniel to be. 
 Her woman's heart was honored in meeting him. What he was was 
 written all over him. It seemed to her that the sky above must 
 smil'e down on such a man. Daniel looked at the splendid woman 
 before him, simple, and dignified, her fine head well poised upon a 
 beautiful neck. The artist would have delighted in her beautiful 
 complexion, fine, clear cut features, and lustrous eyes, if something 
 more and better than these had not revealed themselves to him. He 
 was glad this was the feeling her presence awakened. Her womanly 
 instinct told her plainer than words of the admiration she had 
 awakened in him. 
 
Daniel North. 27 
 
 Anna was as tall as Daniel. As she looked in his face, her 
 hand resting in his, the excitement and strangeness left her face to 
 give place to one of confidence and trust, and these two sincere 
 and noble souls entered into true, simple and lasting relations that 
 doubled their power for happiness and usefulness. They both had 
 received a previous gift and were thankful. 
 
 They expected to meet in the near future but fate did not let 
 them realize their purposes. Anna went home. When she sat down 
 to dinner with her uncle he looked at her face and guessed what 
 had taken place. 
 
 He liked his niece and was proud of her, but no one was spared 
 who stood in the way of his plans. He told her that she was free 
 to choose between himself and Daniel. Then he said, and he said 
 it kindly, that she had better stay with her own; that she was the 
 daughter of a tory who had been, during life, a bitter enemy of the 
 young man's parents. He said he was going to Philadelphia for 
 a few days so that she could decide uninfluenced, then he changed 
 the conversation. 
 
 Daniel that afternoon walked down to Shawney town for a ramble 
 so that he could think undisturbed over the events of the morning. 
 When he reached the whipping-post which interested him, a man 
 rode up on a spirited horse. Daniel observed that he was dis- 
 tinguished looking and elegantly dressed. The man stopped, dis- 
 mounted and read the notices tacked up at that place. When 
 he was through, the gentleman stepped up to Daniel, extended 
 his hand with a gracious smile and asked if he had the pleasure 
 of addressing Daniel North, and then added that his name was 
 Allen Rose, the uncle of Anna Rose, whom he had heard speak of 
 him as being a friend of hers. He invited Daniel to call on him 
 and his niece when he felt inclined to do so and assured him that 
 they would feel honored. Then he mounted his horse and rode off 
 leaving Daniel staring after him in blank amazement. 
 
 Life, it is often said, is made up of surprizes. Daniel thought 
 so after Allen Rose had rode out of sight, and so had Anna Rose 
 thought after the interview with her uncle. 
 
28 Daniel North. 
 
 Daniel looked after Allen Rose and smiled, not because there 
 was anything amusing in the occurrence, and said to himself, 
 "This is what might be called a game of Fox and Geese. Allen 
 Rose makes a good Fox but I will not be the Goose." To his 
 mind the move that Allen Rose had just made showed plainly that 
 that gentleman was a very astute man. Daniel rather admired him 
 and did not fear him. Allen Rose understood that the young man 
 was his equal and could play a long, deep game with consummate 
 skill to the end, so that gentleman was not anxious to cross swords 
 with him. 
 
 Anna also was able to stand firmly in her place. She understood 
 that her uncle wanted to cut loose in every way from a disagreeable 
 past, hoping for a pleasant future. 
 
 Anna that Sunday afternoon went into the grove above the 
 house and thought out what she would do. She wished for a mother 
 or a sister to go to, but she accepted the situation. The questions 
 which confronted her would be decided justly, in accord with her real 
 character. She not only had a conscience, but besides this she had a 
 heart, dnd, what is not to be despised, a clear, comprehensive mind. 
 There was but one course to pursue on any occasion, and that was the 
 one that was just and wise. At last she had found a home and 
 relative who would make her way easy for her; she had found a 
 friend who was the finest type of a man she had ever met. He had 
 come into her life bringing a promise of all that her woman's heart 
 craved. This noble woman could give up her home, her uncle and 
 the ' man her heart was going out to with all its wealth of trust and 
 devotion if it was best. She decided that it was best to give them 
 all up for the present and trust God for the future. Her faith was 
 that if she did in all things what was absolutely right, no harm 
 that might come to her could touch her character. When Anna 
 made up her mind to do anything she never hesitated. 
 
 Anna determined to leave her uncle's house, and to leave the 
 valley. She left the next day without a word to Daniel and only 
 a brief note to her uncle. She left no word for Daniel because she 
 intended to write when she reached the end of her journey. She 
 
Daniel North. 29 
 
 had written a note to Minnie Lee telling her that she was going away 
 without any expectation of returning in the near future. 
 
 Allen Rose, upon his return was greatly disturbed and did not 
 take Anna's departure as philosophically as Daniel did, for the young 
 man had read Anna well enough to understand that her righteous 
 soul would revolt against the peculiar position she was placed in: 
 that she would be just he knew even if she suffered; that she would 
 sacrifice herself rather than do an unrighteous act. 
 
 Allen Rose for once in his life admitted to himself that he had 
 made a false move. He regretted Anna's departure, and above all he 
 did not want her to feel that he had done her an injustice or treated 
 her harshly. His self conceit had received a fearful shock and his 
 hopes a blow. He sat down alone and heartsick, for the game of life 
 was going against him. 
 
 A new influence is about to come into Daniel's life that would 
 not bend it out of its course, but would make it more complete, 
 more useful and joyous. Daniel had fallen in a community where 
 men and women feared God and proclaimed his word with unction. 
 Daniel loved whatever was true, beautiful and of good report. One 
 evening Sarah Barnes asked him to go with her to a class meeting 
 in a little building at the foot of Ross hill, back of the village. 
 Neither expected or thought of what took place. If Sarah wanted 
 to get Daniel under rehgious influence she would not have used 
 subterfuge, but would have made her request known to him, for 
 she was above a small deceit even for a worthy end. More than 
 this, Daniel would not permit any one to play with him. At the 
 class meeting was a stalwart man, strong and weather beaten, but 
 a man of remarkable power; he was a visitor. He was asked to 
 exhort, which he did. By his remarks Daniel discovered that he 
 was a raftsman who had been converted at Forty Fort and that his 
 name was Anning Owen. This captain of a raft, wherever he went, was 
 a light that drew men to him. Daniel listened to him with interest 
 from the start and with deep feeling before he had finished. It seemed 
 to the youug man that every word was addressed to him, and they 
 probably were. The text was "Cease to do evil." After he had uttered 
 
3o Daniel North. 
 
 these words he added, "Learn to do well." How the words the rough 
 man uttered stood out. The speaker knew how to get at the core 
 of the truth he wished to express. The words stuck to Daniel's 
 mind like briers. The speaker cried out: "Strangle the enemies 
 within you, cast out fear and let love grow perfect. . . Have the 
 everlasting assurance and a new birth. Tear away your sins, resist 
 temptation, be brave, be true, and then evil will perish. Evil has 
 no right in the world; be complete, be a man. Godliness turns 
 poverty to riches, ignorance into knowledge, loneliness into friendship, 
 trouble and sorrow into peace and rest." These declarations startled 
 the young artist. The magnetism of the speaker could not be resisted. 
 Daniel soon lost a desire to resist. The preacher went on: "God 
 is a consuming fire to the wicked. God is using me to help others, 
 he will use you if you will let him." He asked if all in his presence 
 were living the Life of God. "God would have you for his child 
 and rid you of that malignant thing called sin." Daniel was under 
 the spell of an awakened conscience. The strength and tenderness 
 of his words, the man's large love for humanity was like a hand 
 laid upon his heart. Daniel was upon the threshold of a life pure 
 and lofty and the upward way looked inviting. His ship was saihng 
 fast; all behind appeared a waste. The preacher's words fell on 
 his ear: "The servant may be like his master. Thou that dwellest 
 between the Cherubim, shine forth and come for salvation to us. Cry 
 unto Jesus, our brother born to save us, Jesus our Redeemer." Thus 
 he preached Christ, and Daniel heard the story. The current of 
 Daniel's life was finding a new channel. The old shores were 
 disappearing with all that appeared on their banks ; all was confusion ; 
 repose had left him. The prayer that followed the exhortation was 
 not heard, only these words, "search me, O God, and know my 
 heart; try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any evil thing 
 in me and lead me in the way everlasting." Daniel was in the 
 wilderness and his whole nature submitted to the struggle. He heard 
 a command, "Thou shalt serve the Lord thy God." He was gathering 
 strength through the old struggle of good and evil. He recognized 
 the necessity of God's mercy and love. Sarah knew that a struggle 
 
Daniel North. 3 1 
 
 Wcis going on in her companion's heart. As they arose to sing the 
 doxology she whispered to him, "O, taste and see, for the Lord 
 is gracious." Sarah, Hke a true friend and a good Christian was 
 as faithful as a sister to him. She did not intrude with ill-timed 
 words but had only sympathy. After they had reached home Sarah 
 sat down at her instrument and sang this simple prayer: 
 " My Redeemer, 
 
 Shine Thou in me clear and bright. 
 
 Till I learn to praise Thee aright; 
 
 Guide me in the narrow way. 
 
 Let me ne'er in darkness stray." 
 In his room that night Daniel determined to live a new life. He 
 groped in the dark. He remembered his mother's last kiss. He 
 felt the consecrating touch of the love of a pure hearted woman. 
 He heard the awful voice of God. He raised the old cry that has 
 gone up in all ages from humanity, "Save, Lord, or I peri.sh." 
 
 He was set free, and a peace that the world cannot make or 
 mar was his. Daniel sat long alone that night and as he mused 
 he had a vision of Anna. She was before him on her knees pleading 
 with him, in tears, to help her. 
 
 He realized that there are thought waves between human beings 
 and that mind reports to mind through the solid globe be between 
 them. While Daniel was promising to answer the prayer that he 
 heard in his soul, Anna was on her knees, many miles away, praying 
 for help and asking God to help Daniel so that he might be able 
 to remove the terrible mystery that kept them apart, so that they 
 might live for each other and be useful and happy. As she prayed 
 she felt Daniel's presence and sympathy fill her with courage. 
 
 They were nearer that night than when they told each other 
 their history under the shadow of the trees on the river bank. The 
 consciousness of each other's presence was never lost between them 
 afterwards, when they were separated. They found they were not 
 what they thought but had somewhat of the infinite, for the soul 
 had disclosed itself They both had wept at night in the garden ; in 
 the morning they went forth into the sunshine with strong, glad and 
 
3 2 Daniel North. 
 
 satisfied hearts. These two possessed that somewhat rare grace which 
 will find in every condition of existence plenty to make life full. They 
 strove to find those who needed the touch of a fine soul and a gifted 
 mind. They would go out of the highway into the byways and 
 obscure corners to help make life better and to bring love, peace 
 and sympathy where they were needed. 
 
 Daniel had found what he needed, the grace of a Christian faith 
 to fit him for the greatest service and usefulness. Anna had that 
 grace. 
 
 Anna went back to Canada and became a teacher and an earnest 
 Christian worker. She wrote a kind letter to Daniel, much to his 
 relief Thus correspondence was kept up all the time they were 
 parted. They told each other all their joys and sorrows, their hopes 
 and plans. They helped each other and the love between them grew 
 for it was planted in rich soil, where it was well watered with tears 
 of sympathy and nourished by the sunshine of faith. 
 
 One of the first fruits of the divine impulse in Daniel was 
 a picture of great beauty and artistic merit. It cannot be described 
 in words. It represented a little girl fitting together fragments of 
 varied colored glass. These she had formed, partly by instinct and 
 partly by chance, into a beautiful mosaic. This Daniel intended as 
 a symbol of his life, which an over ruling Providence was shaping 
 into beauty. 
 
 One day Daniel visited the battle ground and on his way stopped 
 at Forty Fort graveyard. While he was there the crazy woman 
 came up and sat down by his side. She took him by the hand 
 and asked him to go with her, which he did. They traveled a long 
 distance through the tall grass and underbrush in a northerly direction 
 until they came to a swamp. Here they found a long log on 
 which they crossed over to a little island. The spot was one of 
 great beauty. It was covered with flowers of every variety in bloom 
 at that season of the year. The slender birches and maples were 
 covered with vines which drooped down gracefully, the birds sang, 
 butterflies and bees flitted about in company with honey-hunting 
 humming birds. He called the place Flower Island, and thought 
 
Daniel North. 33 
 
 it the fairest picture he had ever looked upon. His companion 
 led him to the center of the island and there he saw a little plot 
 covered with sod. On this were fresh flowers. Daniel thought 
 that it was a grave. The young man then understood what the 
 crazy woman did with the flowers and plants she was constantly 
 gathering. The woman looked to him as if expecting him to show 
 interest and sympathy. He strewed some flowers on the plot, which 
 pleased her. She was silent, leaving Daniel to infer what he might 
 He imagined that some one was buried there whom the woman had 
 loved. On the way back the woman took him in her cottage, prepared 
 a dainty meal for him of which he partook alone, as she did not eat, 
 but waited upon him. At times she sat down and looked him straight 
 in the face and appeared perfectly sane. Her expression during this 
 apparently lucid interval was intelligent and very pleasing. 
 
 A short time after this event he was invited to attend the meetings 
 of a club of men who met weekly in a room they rented for their 
 use on Goose Island. He went; once satisfied him, yet he was glad 
 he was there for the men he met and what he heard were novel 
 and diverting. Daniel came to find that Kingston was a good place 
 to see human curiosities. 
 
 At the club Daniel was treated with great courtesy. All the 
 notions of the human race appeared to be their property. He 
 heard all about hermetic mysteries, elixir vitae, how a man could 
 be burned and rise out of the ashes, that an old woman could be 
 "cindered" and Phoenix-like soar away a beautfiul virgin. One man 
 had a theory which he claimed enabled him to take a bellows and blow 
 a soul into a corpse. Another man claimed that in the winter he 
 could make flowers grow out of the snow and fill the trees with 
 singing birds. He claimed to be a thousand years old, that is, he 
 had the power to renew his youth. They showed him a jar filled 
 with grey ashes and a vase which they claimed contained boiled dew. 
 The ashes would raise the devil so that the members of the club 
 could argue with him ; the dew had the power to impart wisdom 
 and knowledge. The members were evidently intoxicated with the 
 liquor. They had a crystal which they claimed would reveal the 
 
 — 3— 
 
34 Daniel North. 
 
 future of the one who looked at it. Strange and wonderful as anything 
 he had seen was an emerald which, if held over the side of a 
 vessel would draw the precious stones up from the ocean's depths. 
 To transmute baser metals into gold was such a simple performance 
 they would not practice it. One man explained the fall of Adam 
 as a natural result of matrimony. The Almighty was severely 
 criticised. When one man claimed that he had a bottle filled with 
 the water of life, and another with elixir that would enable a man 
 to paint like Raphael and write like Shakespeare, he was not quite 
 sure whether he had spent an evening with mad men or had 
 been the victim of a practical joke. Daniel thought he had 
 seen an exhibition of the frank egotism of a country town. 
 
 Daniel determined to have a club of his own, and one to his 
 own taste. He placed large bulletins in public places inviting those 
 interested in forming a literary club to meet the following Monday 
 evening at the residence of James Barnes, at which time a club would 
 be organized. The bulletins made a great stir as the west side was 
 filled with amateur poets, orators, authors and philosophers who heard 
 with delight of an opportunity to enjoy a pleasant evening. The 
 evening arrived and the parlor was filled. The group was a pleasant 
 one to look upon. The very atmosphere became literary. The tallow 
 candles burned with poetic brightness while each voice took on an 
 unusual accent. Daniel had many plans for the society. He said 
 there would be no dues and all could contribute to the enter- 
 tainment of the club according to their taste and ability. The 
 young people stood in awe of Daniel, besides this they looked upon 
 a literary society as something formidable. 
 
 As Daniel was the projector and manager of the organization 
 he was expected to make some remarks along literary lines. "My 
 friends," he said, "if we open the doors of our hearts the beau- 
 tiful and eternal all about us will pour into and carry us into the 
 calm presence of our Creator. The tapers of thought should be 
 all aflame, then the real will become unreal and the unreal a glorious 
 reality. Then we will see the beautiful flowers that bloom between 
 the thoughts of our hearts and fill us with their sweetness. 
 
Daniel North. 35 
 
 "Beauty withia satisfies the thirst of the human heart. We 
 find in a faint way our dream of beauty, and an enchanted 
 land that persuades us not to despair. There the south winds of 
 joy blow open the doors, there life is a poem and we become wise. 
 We should go to meet life like a plumed knight with a fullness of 
 power. All the gifts of life are beautiful; they would make our lives 
 beautiful, which is the end desired. To be beautiful is the moral 
 of nature. It is the divine sense that is published in a universal 
 language, a revelation. 
 
 "Joy is everywhere, and like beauty it is God's gift to us. It 
 is found in the highway and in our hearts by living in harmony with 
 high laws. 
 
 "We all have moments of inspiration. Then we see into a sky 
 set full of starry thoughts, a celestial vision all worked in dreams ; a 
 moving shining light through the soul — itself a dream. 
 
 "The immortal tide pours into us and we are complete. These 
 are our golden hours. When our ships, laden, cast anchors with 
 the rewards of life, in the waste of time we find life's precious gold. 
 
 " We all want to be liberated from our outcast condition. To do 
 this is greater than the highest stroke of genius. We should feel 
 that our soul is an incomparable possession. When we do this and 
 have inspiring thoughts, we are beyond the reach of time and decay. 
 
 " We should live with every sail of our soul spread to catch the 
 celestial breeze. This is to be an anthem. We may do less than 
 this and men will uncover their pates to us, but that will not make 
 our shame the less. We should be more than anything we possess. 
 
 " Great thoughts are the elements of true manhood. 
 
 "We have our right place in the universe which is the order 
 of God for mortals when beauty touches the imagination and truth the 
 heart. 
 
 " It takes watching, striving and prayer. If we strive we will find 
 a quick response in the bosoms of our fellow men, while the universe 
 will be in connivance with us. We should not fail in moral endeavor 
 nor doubt the ordering of our desfiny. We should cast a light and 
 
36 Daniel North. 
 
 not create a darkness where none existed before. If we do we will 
 go down in the trough of the sea. 
 
 "We should make the reason and the will of God prevail; this is 
 the heart of life. 
 
 "We should not allow ourselves to be twisted by the experiences 
 of life. We should be a center of our own thought and activity; we 
 must discern by the bewildering light of our own brain. 
 
 " It is folly to mock at pale, stern death, make a jest of life, and 
 to declare that life is a paradise by sin maintained. The dignity 
 of the soul is to believe that the life which begins in light does not 
 end in darkness, for at the end we find the other infinite. 
 
 "We throw God down when we believe that the conditions of 
 life do not demand the purification of our minds and are contented 
 to make life the delirium of the animal spirits. 
 
 " Let us not put a fading crowfi upon our wrinkling brow, nor 
 fashion a world to our desires for a naughty wind will come along 
 in this world-a-dark and blow it away. 
 
 " Our souls are other world's flowers. We cannot, by works of 
 supererogation save ourselves from disaster, for our sins put laurel 
 wreaths around our conqueror's brow. 
 
 " As old as the human race is the selfishness of the heart, and the 
 search for the gratification of the physical senses for a satisfaction 
 for the claims of the soul. Through the ages this serpent has 
 glided with small, disdainful eye that turns upon us as it enjoys the 
 proprietorship of the world and the subjection of the simple sons 
 of men who consider her their deity; for her men would fling 
 themselves out of paradise. 
 
 " There is a conviction too deep for human reason, on which the 
 foundations of the soul rest, that if the soul would incarnate what is 
 divinely communicated to it, and would break down the fatal impulses 
 of the heart, the intuition of the soul would be the voice of God, 
 for the soul knows neither deformity nor death. We need not wait 
 for death to find immortality. When our souls find virtue, love and 
 beauty, they become a part of the great eternal soul. We hold the 
 keys of life and death. 
 
Daniel North. 37 
 
 " All goodness waits with works of love, and the gates of immortal 
 life are opened invitingly for all who have found their souls when 
 life has forever fled. The divinity that called us forth has not pro- 
 claimed our origin or destiny nor revealed the Deity to our consciences, 
 yet there is a heaven-implanted conviction within us which is supreme. 
 
 "When our spul was born a song was born and it will sing through 
 eternity. Then the long silence of eternity was broken and time 
 was parted from eternity. 
 
 " Our life is so bright, but it goes from us utterly. A child can 
 see in its calm eye, yet no one can understand its prophecy. Life 
 said, 'Come to this green isle surrounded by the infinite, a little 
 conscious circle in the midst of we know not what, and try to catch 
 an image of what you are, while the soul moves on through the 
 great depth of life on to death.' We surmise that we are strayed 
 souls from paradise, we know that we are sons of God though nature 
 is our mother. Yet we find that there is something at fault, a broken 
 relation. We are the most interesting objects in the universe, we 
 spend our days in the pursuit of life, that is, for our personal ends, 
 nevertheless there is something within us that makes a God-like claim. 
 We find little that we clasp with joy or hold with lasting satisfaction. 
 Our soul is looking for soul treasures that cannot be bought at the 
 booths of the world. We have faith that we are only separated by 
 a thin partition of mortality from a future life; we believe that we 
 have powers with us which will multiply a thousand fold. We brought 
 a great deal with us, but we find that thought was taken for us 
 before we came. We find that we are not the right expression of 
 life ; we believe that this is not life that we are to live, but a rumor 
 of that life, we have intimations of immortality, yet we fear that they 
 are poppy buds, so we weave life through the web of hope and fear, and 
 when we let the shuttle fall we do not know what we have woven. 
 What I wish to proclaim is that we adorn our bodies and leave our 
 mind as naked as when we were born or clothed in a few mean rags, for 
 we care but lightly for the intellect and soul ; our adornments cover 
 mean tastes and often contemptible souls. What a shameless exhibition 
 we make with minds that are only ash barrels for ignorance or passion. 
 
38 Daniel North. 
 
 we leave the intellect and the soul without care. Thoughts that have 
 blossomed through the ages are not common property, but must be 
 sought for. If we know only human nature we will only hear the 
 passing bell of youth and hope so we will be like a lonely stylite on a 
 pillar watching the stars go down. We fancy we are crossing a golden 
 bridge but we learn at last that our bridge was a dream that has 
 crumbled into thin air. We console ourselves by saying that this life 
 has been good enough for us and hope that the other will not be too 
 good, so while we hear the clink of the spurs on that grim 
 rider called death we hold up our unfilled cup for what destiny may 
 pour into it. 
 
 " We go into life in full court suit but the majority crawl quietly 
 out in rags. We do not successfully mount the ladder of life, nor can 
 we pull the ladder up after us. Nature's laws never stop to explain. 
 Let us remember that we have the birds singing in the emerald 
 chambers of nature's sylvan palaces, and the sunshine falling through 
 the green arches. Our life is rimmed round with poetry, mystery and 
 sublimity, our broad foundations vanish into the unknown, and the 
 realities blossom into supernal flowers. We should remember that the 
 moments as they pass bring the divine omniscient gifts ; we forget that 
 every impulse of our hearts is implanted for other ends than our 
 entertainment, we find life different than we expected, but if we 
 live truly, life will be better than if our hopes were realized. My 
 brother, remember that down in our souls ladders are let down and 
 the infinite comes into us. 
 
 "it is a question if the saints in paradise will not say to us 'If you 
 are the beings of whom we have heard so much we are a little 
 disappointed.' We had better be loyal to our hearts which declare 
 the glory of aspiration and of beauty with its incense cloud arising. 
 Be loyal to the real presence, not to give over our sacred vessels, 
 neither to leave go the jeweled hand of faith and hope. 
 
 " Our senses play with elements as beautiful and terrible as fire, 
 nature is not enough, neither is morality a religion, nor charity a 
 gospel. Life is the greatest gift God has given to us and we are fools 
 to hiss it. 
 
Daniel North. 39 
 
 "The only actors worthy to interpret the great drama of life are 
 those who act the play as it is written, and not their own vanities. 
 
 "The world insists on a philosophy of doubt of dallying and 
 desire that catch at the ravelings of life. In our hearts life smiles 
 eternally and would be divined by the sympathies of men. 
 
 " Life is love, beauty and song, our thoughts are casting a shuttle 
 with golden threads through the loom of our lives. The dust of the 
 dead past blows from our garments. Our vision of life should be bright 
 as gold, musical as rippling water and as simple as childhood. 
 
 " We believe that all we love fades, but is waiting for us, all 
 endings are infinite beginnings. ' Only the living are to be pitied.' " 
 
 This address gained for Daniel's literary society a name — The 
 Rainbow Club. 
 
40 Daniel North. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 What surprised Daniel most was the number of orators and poets 
 who put in an appearance. The orators were anxious to orate. They 
 were Hke the old man with a story, always waiting for a chance to 
 be heard. Two remarkable boys came to the club, one a boy 
 of twelve or fifteen years by the name of Harold Hope. This 
 boy was thin and pale, with blue eyes and yellow curls which he wore 
 long. He wrote beautiful verses, composed music, and was a 
 natural orator. Saturdays when he did not have to attend school he 
 would go on long excursions up and down the valley, printing on the 
 smooth surface of the rocks and stones along the highway couplets 
 and even whole poems of his composition.. He was known as the 
 wayside poet. The other young man was about twenty-one with black 
 eyes and hair, a perfectly developed head and finely moulded features. 
 He was neither large nor small but well built. His name was David 
 Lord. Daniel gazed at him in astonishment, for he had never seen 
 a young man who had made quite the impression on him that this 
 one did. He looked boyish and his smile was as sweet and winning 
 as that of a beautiful girl, and his fine symmetrical face indicated great 
 mental power. 
 
 On one side of the room were seven men past middle life whom 
 Minnie christened collectively, "the seven wise men." They were 
 not especially wise, handsome, nor agreeable, but, as Minnie said, "they 
 will do very well." 
 
 A trivial affair often bears fruit that is neither anticipated nor 
 desired. This was the case with a little plan conceived by Minnie 
 Lee and executed by Harold Hope. They both hated the tory with 
 the unreasoning hate of children. They concentrated their hate of the 
 tory collectively on one tory, and he was Allen Rose. Harold could 
 make very effective sketches, for he was both skillful and inventive. 
 He took a large piece of coarse paper and made a picture of Allen 
 Rose hanging to the limb of a tree ; under it he printed in large letters : 
 
Daniel North. 41 
 
 " Allen Rose, the tory, the murderer of Mrs. North, and the man who 
 robbed Daniel North of his parents' estates." Harold went to Wilkes- 
 Barre in the night and tacked it up on the old log jail. No one 
 knew who did it except Minnie, and no one in Kingston heard qf it 
 for a couple of days. The drawing was so dramatic, the likeness so 
 good and the charge so startling that all Wilkes-Barre was looking 
 at the sketch and no one took it down. Allen Rose finally heard of it 
 and rode to Wilkes-Barre and tore it down. He thought of course 
 that Daniel had made the drawing. He determined to shoot him on 
 sight ; finally he changed his mind and determined to horse-whip him. 
 He knew he must be careful for the people would not need much 
 encouragement to hang him as he was represented in the sketch. 
 
 He came to Kingston to look for Daniel and met him on the 
 street Rose rode up to him and without a word began striking him 
 viciously with his whip. Daniel was surprised, and let Rose strike him 
 several times; then he sprang and dragged Rose from his horse. Rose 
 fell on his face, Daniel sprang on him and taking him by the throat 
 with one hand and by the hair with the other, pounded his face on 
 the ground. A friend of Rose going by grabbed Daniel and pulled 
 him off. If he had not Allen Rose would not have lived to be hanged. 
 This encounter set the whole town in an uproar. The story of the 
 sketch was told and Daniel was praised for what he did not do. There 
 was a crowd of young men in Kingston who were ready for a lark 
 at all times. They had a leader by the name of Crips. 
 
 Crips was not a man of genius, neither was he an object of beauty. 
 He had the instinct for possessing what he had little ability to 
 obtain. His eyes were pleasant, his nose long and his mouth was not 
 a bad feature. The only thing about Crips that appeared to be elevated 
 was his cheek bones. Crips thought that the great object of life was 
 to get something. He was generous with what he had, moral in his 
 conduct and upright in his dealings. For years he had tried to figure 
 on matrimony from a business standpoint He considered the fact that 
 he had not married at the proper time as one of his mistakes. His 
 mistakes were the major part of his conversation. " If I had married 
 twenty years ago," he would say, "I would now have boys big enough 
 
42 Daniel North. 
 
 to work for me. A woman who is thrifty and has something of her 
 own would be a help to me." 
 
 Crips wanted to be safe and not take any chances. He had 
 learned that to get anything one had to take chances, so he became 
 a philosopher, only to find that philosophy was a snare, for the result 
 of his calculations and his philosophy had no regard whatever for each 
 other. Crips came to an astute conclusion once in a while. One of 
 his conclusions was that if a man cannot get rich he can get married. 
 It was a great satisfaction to him to know that there was one thing in 
 which he had the better of fate, and even Providence. 
 
 He philosophized on religion. He was given to say that there 
 were hypocrites in the church. That was because he had heard 
 it quite often. "The city with golden streets and gates of pearl is an 
 attraction, yet as a place to Hve in I would prefer the fields of living 
 green, for the devil is always in the city, for man made the city, the 
 Almighty the fields." 
 
 Crips was interested in Daniel and enjoyed talking with him. He 
 admired his delightful manner, elegant talk, fine form and splendid 
 presence yet. Crips put a commercial standard upon everything, so 
 naturally Daniel's powers and graces were to him like grace before 
 meat, of no practical value, therefore useless, yet down deep under 
 his desire for material good there was something that rose up to 
 meet the aspiring soul of Daniel. 
 
 Crips and his friends determined to make things lively for Allen 
 Rose. They soon had an opportunity to satisfy their desires. 
 
 Daniel received a challenge from Rose to fight a duel. 
 Daniel was a man of peace and a good Christian, nevertheless, the 
 blood of the old Roman flowed through his veins. When his blood 
 was up he was cool and collected, feared nothing and had the courage 
 of a lion. Crips offered to act as second for Daniel and make all 
 the arrangements. Daniel's friends had no idea that he would fight, 
 although he began the next day practicing shooting at a mark with 
 a pistol and all day long the people of Kingston heard the reports 
 of his weapon. 
 
Daniel North. 
 
 43 
 
 The women became nervous and the men apprehensive. The 
 many friends of Daniel were afraid he might be hurt or killed. They 
 did not dare to interfere with the young man, for the lamb had turned 
 into a lion. Over on the flat opposite Wilkes-Barre could be heard the 
 crack, crack of Allen Rose's pistol, for he too was practicing, conse- 
 quently the people on both sides of the river were interested in the 
 affair and the tory was cursed roundly. It was whispered that if Allen 
 Rose killed that boy he would be hanged. 
 
 By RAII, TO THE DUCK-POND. 
 
 The tragedy ended in a comedy. Crips and his friends met 
 Daniel, on the morning of the duel, in his room. Tying him fast 
 hand and foot, they left one of their number to stay with him. The 
 others went in a coach they had brought and drove off" to the grove 
 above the house of Rose on the river bank, where the duel was to 
 be fought. Allen Rose was on the spot when the carriage from 
 Kingston drove up. Crips and his friends alighted, walked up to 
 Allen Rose, grabbed him and his second, tied them both, then they 
 put Rose on a rail and walked off" with him. They crossed the ferry, 
 
44 Daniel North. 
 
 went to Wikes-Barre where they stopped at a harness shop. They 
 hung him up by the heels, pulled his shirt over his head, and coated 
 him with harness-blacking. They brought him to Kingston, rode him 
 around the town and Daniel was brought out to gaze upon him. Rose 
 was finally taken down to Mud Creek and ducked. Then he was 
 told that the next time they came to see him they would hang him. 
 This last act between our hero and Allen Rose made the latter 
 gentleman many new enemies and stirred up the old ones. 
 
 Shortly after this event Daniel received a note from the 
 tory stating that Minnie Lee had come to his house and 
 told him that a small boy who was clever with a pencil 
 had made the objectionable drawing and posted it up ; that an 
 apology was due him from the writer, which he made regretting his 
 hasty action which had cost him very dear. Daniel went to see Minnie 
 about the matter and found that the young lady's conscience had 
 troubled her so that she had, like a courageous girl, told Mr. Rose 
 the history of the drawing. Daniel felt better when he found out the 
 cause of the assault which had been made upon him. Harold Hope, 
 "the wayside poet," as Daniel called him on account of his printing his 
 poetry along the highway, was such a lovely little fellow that Daniel 
 could not find fault with him. He appreciated the little fellow's loyalty 
 and affection. Harold and Minnie were great friends, the two would 
 often come and spend hours in Daniel's studio when he was painting. 
 Minnie had a way of sitting on the floor curled up in a heap just out 
 of the reach of Daniel's feet. In a confidential way she would tell 
 him her thoughts and ask him all kinds of questions. Harold would 
 lie flat on the floor and write sonnets, ballads and couplets. 
 
 David, the young man with the classical head, as Daniel described 
 him, soon came to spend his leisure in the studio. He would bring 
 a book and lie on his back on a lounge that was in the room, and 
 read aloud. The boy could read Homer in the original Greek nearly 
 as readily as he could read English. He constantly carried the 
 Odyssey or the Iliad in his pocket. A fine critic and a discriminating 
 reader, this youth had great ambition to make his mark in literature. 
 
Daniel North. 45 
 
 Minnie could neither write nor paint, but she had the faculty of 
 making many original, witty and ridiculous speeches, yet despite her 
 levity, she was sympathetic and very companionable. 
 
 Daniel was very fond of little Harold, and David Lord. These 
 three friends would make the hours golden, with no call of duty or care 
 resting upon them, for, as Harold said, "they would only be young 
 once, and as life had come their way and left them celestial beings 
 they could do no better than to keep themselves celestial beings." 
 
 This he said one day as the three sat among the willows on 
 the bank of a lazy stream that flows across the flats from Forty Fort. 
 "The stream," David said, "is emblematic of us three. It stops to 
 reflect the beauty about and above it, it lets the world of men play 
 its part while through the green fields it follows its fancy. As 
 I look down in these beautiful pools and see the sky beneath me, 
 I wonder what is on the other side. We appear to be on the 
 blind side and only see the visible. 1 find that those who live as 
 if there was only a blind side find that on that side are heartbreaks 
 and unrest and to their ears all the sweet bells are out of tune. The 
 little island called our mind appears to be just a tiny speck in a great 
 intelligence. This world is a queer company, that call each other 
 saints and sinners yet we are mortals, so we must live and be a part 
 of the world, or we will be neither men or gods. We love the world 
 and will forgive it as a man forgives his mistress, and we must go 
 hand in hand with it. We may despise it at times and abuse it, there 
 is no blinking at it. Every coin that bears its fascinating inscription 
 is current with us." 
 
 "No, not every coin," Harold replied. "The spirit of the world 
 is a contagion that men catch; it is a disease; it is what makes life 
 a fitful fever. Anyhow it is a book so large that we can never read 
 it all, yet it is the most interesting and the most instructive." 
 
 "Yes, and before mankind reads it half through all the clocks in 
 the steeples will have struck Doomsday," Daniel replied, then he added, 
 " we make it our servant and then we hiss it if it fails to serve us, yet 
 it pays all its debts. We talk as if it was not a fit place for Christians 
 
4^ Daniel North. 
 
 to live in, yet there is no other world down on our maps and this 
 one is probably as good as we are." 
 
 Harold was deep in thought. Finally he said: "At last it will 
 be as we will be, dust and ashes. I heard Silas Finch say that 
 there is no God, no devil, no immortality. He asked if we could 
 weigh, see or feel any of these things; that only in fancy do the 
 waves of immortality wash up on the sands of time. I kept thinking 
 that we had better hold to that state of mind called faith. I remember 
 reading somewhere that we should welcome life like a lover and death 
 like a friend. I heard some one say that faith lends a charm to 
 our acts and makes life real." 
 
 "Yes Harold," Daniel said, "it helps us to act the great drama 
 as it is written. Then what have we to gain by believing that the 
 future is but a shadow? It is quite evident that the devil has littered 
 his brood in all our hearts, and that his progeny swarms in our 
 thoughts. We are all easily amused and hard to satisfy. The devil 
 has scattered over us the dust of his lotus flowers, and we are in- 
 toxicated with the sweet perfume." 
 
 Then Harold said, " I suppose the busy people would say we are 
 killing time. Well, time will kill us. There is no doubt as to who 
 will survive in this duel. I wonder, as we are all disappointed in 
 ourselves, if we are not disappointed in our Creator." 
 
 They wandered up the creek to where Fierce Butler hved. Mr. 
 Butler came down to the stream to talk to our friends. He was 
 a fine looking man and belonged to a family of note. The boys 
 went with him and sat on his porch that overlooked the lower 
 flats. They told him what they had talked about, to which he 
 replied : " I cannot help you, for intellect is utter helplessness 
 in the presence of Divine law. I find myself turning to great 
 minds, and find that they only make me conscious of my lim- 
 itations, yet they help by their power over us. There harmony 
 and beauty gives us inspiration. All of us at some time have 
 tried to eat honey out of the hand of some fair Helen, while we 
 listened to the music under the poplars. We hope that there is 
 a place where all we have lost, longed for or striven for awaits us. 
 
Daniel North. 4 7 
 
 Do you remember the old saying 'Over the sea lies Spain'? It is, you 
 know, about a careless fellow who feared not a wreck though the tide 
 rode high, for some day he said he would sail with a favoring gale 
 into the port of his hopes. We fear that the thread on which these 
 wished for jewels are strung is a slender one. We should have 
 daring eyes if we would be glad. If we have no Spain we have no 
 hope. We find it hard to realize that there is an intelligence apart 
 from our own that we are a part of Because it asks no questions, 
 and answers none, we fancy than it is useless for us to reach out our 
 slender divining rod to stitch two worlds together. There is a 
 world over which no sky arches, filled with dazzling beauty." 
 
 Daniel became aware that behind the lace curtains there was 
 a young lady sitting, looking at them and listening to their conver- 
 sation. He had noticed that she was there when they came up 
 the walk and had remained there. He could see her but faintly, yet 
 knew that a pair of lively, bright brown eyes were regarding them 
 with interest. Daniel did not know, neither did the young lady what 
 fate had in keeping for them. 
 
 Daniel took up the conversation and said : " We call life folly 
 yet we must admit that it is magnificent folly. We may sometimes think 
 that our life is no more heeded than the casting of a pebble and 
 no moving ripples will show that we have lived. The pebble refuses 
 to remember that its splash will be forgotten, and describes its circle 
 as perfectly as a planet its orbit." 
 
 David put in, partly for the young lady so near yet invisible, 
 " Old Father Time stands with a great rake raking us into the past, 
 yes, into a silence that seems stifling." 
 
 "Young man," Mr. Butler said, "see you not in old age the 
 splashing fountain of eternal youth? The passion of life is like wine, 
 for it starts the blood with a spur of wonder and leads us to seek 
 for immortality in the marvelous vale of life. With the eagerness of 
 youth we launch our little boat and sail until we meet death. There 
 in mid-ocean we are flung over-board with out a plank or a prayer. 
 On every white soul there is the shadow of a cross and over every 
 life the shadow of death." 
 
48 Daniel North. 
 
 Then their host asked them to come in and break bread with him 
 and his family, but Daniel asked to be excused. For some reason he 
 could not explain he felt diffident, the brown eyes through the curtain 
 were the cause. His soul probably had a premonition of the future, so 
 the three friends left their host with kind words and a promise to 
 meet again. 
 
 Daniel learned from David that the young lady was a relative 
 of Mr. Butler's and lived on the main road with her parents, and that 
 her name was Cassie Butler. 
 
Darnel North. 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Daniel decided to give a series of public performances, with the 
 help of his friends, and put on the stage some of the most dramatic 
 incidents of Wyoming Valley history in a realistic manner. Daniel 
 invited Mr. Crips and his four friends up to his room one evening for 
 the purpose of interesting them in the scheme. Crips thought he 
 would not do for an actor as he had whiskers on his chin, a large 
 aquiline nose, was stoop shouldered and homely. The principal 
 characters needed were Indians so Crips would not do unless he shaved 
 his chin, which would have made him a capital child of the forest. 
 Daniel thought that he would make rare sport if he was put on the 
 stage in proper costume. Daniel was right in supposing that Crips 
 would afford plenty of amusement, but there was more fun than he 
 anticipated. 
 
 Daniel and his friends had no idea what a tremendous sensation 
 they were about to create with their spectacular representation of the 
 principal events in the settlement of Wyoming. Harold and David 
 composed rhymes about the proposed show. These they wrote on large 
 sheets of coarse paper in charcoal and tacked them up all over the 
 valley. These rhymes were only dogerel, and every paper had on it 
 a sketch of one of the scenes to be represented. 
 
 The people of the valley welcomed a diverson so novel and enter- 
 taining. There is not a great amount of intellectual entertainment in 
 rural districts. The minister and the doctor usually furnish most of 
 the ideas. For sheer lack of some one to put their minds in motion 
 and to furnish them with mental food the people occupy themselves 
 with idle gossip and trivial thoughts. In the early days theology gave 
 them points to argue upon. Sanctification, predestination and free-will 
 were threshed over until like a bundle of dry straw in a tread mill there 
 was not one grain of wheat left to be winnowed out. 
 
 Daniel was often disgusted at hearing women talk about killing 
 pigs ; Miranda's beau, whether he was a good provider and moral ; 
 
so Daniel North. 
 
 who went forward at the protracted meetings ; while the men indulge 
 in an endless round of personal talk and twiddle-twaddle on politics 
 and religion. 
 
 Daniel proposed to give the people a chance to talk about some- 
 thing new. The show was to be given in the grove opposite Wilkes- 
 Barre. There would be a large elevated stage with curtains to be 
 pulled to one side. Behind the stage, which was covered and sided 
 with canvas, was a large tent. The people were to have the grove for 
 an auditorium. 
 
 This grove is a strip of wood between the flats and the river. The 
 trees are large, the ground beneath them as level as a floor ; no temple 
 erected by the genius of man ever surpassed in beauty or grandeur this 
 spot The grove is primitive though not rugged or wild. The river is 
 seen as it gleams through the trees on one side and the wide expanse 
 of plain with the hills fading into a thread of waving blue visible under 
 the green arches on the opposite side. 
 
 The people were invited to this spot to see represented in tableaux 
 the principal events in the frontier period of Wyoming Valley. Many 
 of the men and women who had been actors in the scenes presented 
 would be there. 
 
 The day for the settlers to gather on the flats to see how they 
 suffered, fought and died, arrived. The people flocked to the grove 
 from all parts of the valley. The day was fine ; the people curious 
 and excited. Dr. Clarenden was the presiding officer, Daniel 
 manager and Mr. Crips, Stage Manager. He was appointed to that 
 office because he would not do for anything else. He came dressed in 
 an elegant new suit, silver knee buckles, coat trimmed with silk, fine 
 lace at his throat and dropping down over his hand from his wrist. 
 There was no way to disguise it, he had a marked air of gentility. He 
 looked down over his long hooked nose at his silk stockings as if he 
 were waiting for the homage of the people. Harold Hope, Dr. Claren- 
 den announced, would make the opening address. When that little 
 boy stepped out upon the platform he was greeted with cheers for he 
 looked charming. He was dressed like a prince and his manner was in 
 keeping with his clothes. He made a short address which was entirely 
 
Daniel North. 51 
 
 his own production. He said "The world is a stage, so I am told, 
 but be that as it may, it is a riddle. Along the silver string on 
 which the days are strung there swings a pearl. Old Time has flung 
 it from the slender thread, it has broken into golden hours and into 
 minutes like jewels. One jewel is this day. It has fallen out by a 
 whim of fickle fate that at this time you shall laugh at bloodless 
 tragedy and peaceful war ; that all shall echo with a laugh the Indian's 
 fearful yell, and mimic groans shall mingle with the music of our voices. 
 Sons and daughters of the revolution who are gathered here, I raise a 
 boy's voice and bid you all welcome. I call you all my friends, make 
 my bow and say good bye." If the address was short the boy was 
 both graceful and gracious. 
 
 The first presentation was that of William Penn and Charles 
 the Second, King of England. Penn demanded of the King payment 
 of the money the elder Penn had loaned his majesty. The King gave 
 William a great strip of country reaching from sea to sea on the new 
 continent to liquidate the debt. Crips came forward and said he 
 wished somebody would give him a continent. Then his friends rushed 
 him off. Next came Chevalier de la Luzerne, the Minister of France to 
 the United States, after whom this county was named. Daniel introduced 
 the minister to the people. Crips went up to introduce himself and 
 discovered by a near scrutiny that the minister was his friend Tomb- 
 stonfe. Crips looked as disgusted as if he had taken a bad sixpence by 
 
 mistake. Crips was not the only one who 
 was acting the clown uninentionally for the 
 amusement of the people. 
 
 At a short distance in front of the plat- 
 form was a stump eight or ten feet high. On 
 this was perched a man who kept yelling with 
 great zeal and evident enjoyment, " O Lord, 
 but haint it funny!" or "O Lord, I'm dry!" 
 or "O Lord, what a show!" Every time the 
 curtain would go up he would shout out a 
 "o r/3RD, BUT I'm dry", greeting. 
 
52 Daniel North. 
 
 The Grasshopper war followed the Chevalier. First there ap- 
 peared two little Indian children squabbling over a grasshopper. Then 
 they fought. At this juncture the parents appeared and each 
 mother took sides with her own child. The squaws began 
 clawing and the fight was furious. The man on the stump yelled "O 
 Lord, O Lord," in rapid succession. In a few minutes the stage was 
 crowded with Indians, the husbands of the women. Then all joined 
 in the fight. The Indians represented the Delawares and the Shaw- 
 anese who occupied a portion of the valley, each on an opposite side 
 of the river. The Delawares were the victors. 
 
 This was followed by the Rev. Benjamin Bidlack of Kingston, who, 
 when the curtain was pulled aside was strutting backward and forward 
 singing "The Swaggering Man." The stage represented a prison 
 yard surrounded by a stockade. At the door of the prison on a 
 little porch were seated several officers, and sentinels stood guard. 
 Bidlack sang with great spirit, marching up and down the yard, and 
 every time he made a wider circuit. When he finished the last verse 
 he shouted "Here goes 'the swaggering man'" and vaulted over 
 the enclosure. 
 
 During the struggle between the Pennsylvania claimants who came 
 to drive the Yankee claimants from the valley, Bidlack was taken 
 prisoner and taken to Sunbury. He was a jolly good fellow not- 
 withstanding he was a deacon. The officers would have him brought 
 out evenings to sing for them. He sang "The Swaggering Man" and 
 escaped. 
 
 The next scene was the lost sister of Wyoming, or 
 the stealing of Frances Slocum who was stolen by a band 
 of the Delawares, carried away to their far western 
 villages, where she lived all her life as an Indian, happy 
 and contented. The wife of a chief and mother of a 
 family of children, she was discovered by her family when 
 an old woman, but could not be persuaded to leave her savage 
 life. The incident in her life represented on the stage was where 
 the Indians came'|to her father's house in Wilkes-Barre when he was 
 away from home, shot a boy who, with another young man, was sharpen- 
 
Daniel North. 5 3 
 
 ing a knife on a grind stone which stood on the porch, scalped him, 
 and carried away little five-year-old Frances while the mother was 
 pleading for her child. 
 
 When the curtain parted for the next scene a man was seen 
 sleeping by the side of a log apparently drunk, with a rifle by his 
 side and also a bottle, evidently empty. A man came rushing on the 
 stage pursued by an Indian with his tomahawk raised to brain him. Just 
 as he went by the log he noticed the sleeping man, who at that time 
 was stretching himself. The running man cried, "Inman, shoot that 
 Indian ! " Inman, rising, leveled his rifle and shot the Indian. Inman 
 on the fatal July 3rd, 1778, had started up the valley with the troops 
 to meet the foe. Every place he stopped at on the way up he 
 drank liberally of the whiskey offered him, consequently became 
 too drunk to reach the fort. He laid down beside a log and when 
 a man by the name of Bennett was about to be killed, shot the Indian. 
 After this there was represented the scene where two men and a boy 
 were taken captive by a band of several Indians, who carried them 
 over the mountain with the intention of burning them at the stake 
 the next day. The scene represented several Indians sleeping around 
 a fire at night in the woods while one Indian stands guard. The boy 
 frees his hands and when the guard, who finally sits down on a log 
 nods off to sleep, cuts the cords of his companions. Then they 
 tomahawk the sleeping Indians before they realize their danger. The 
 man on the stump shouted murder so loud that he could be heard in 
 Wilkes-Barre and became so excited that he fell off" the stump. 
 
 The tableau that came next provoked much profanity, which was 
 not the purpose of the good Methodists who were conducting the enter- 
 tainment. The tories were damned through two worlds, while many 
 looked down to the home of Allen Rose and shook their fists. The 
 incident represented was one of the most pathetic in the annals of the 
 valley. A settler lived near Campbell's Ledge. A tory determined to 
 kill. him. To accomplish this he hid himself where he could see in the 
 windows of his intended victim. In the evening when he returned he 
 came and seated himself on a chair by the fire to rest. The tory raised 
 his rifle to fire. Just at that moment the little daughter climbed up on 
 
S4 Daniel North. 
 
 her father's lap and put her arms around his neck. The tory's nerve 
 failed him. He could not shoot. 
 
 Last came a scene that was horrible in the extreme. The actors 
 spared no pains to make it fairly reek with blood. It was the 
 scene at Queen Esther's Rock. The prisoners who were captured 
 at the massacre of Wyoming were taken to a rock below the battle- 
 field. Here Queen Esther with her Indians held a war dance at night. 
 The captives were put down on their knees with their heads upon the 
 rock. Then this blood-thirsty squaw took a tomahawk and went 
 around the circle and brained every man while her companions 
 shouted like demons. This ended the entertainment. 
 
Daniel North. 55 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A great deal depends upon the chance acquaintance that we 
 may pick up at any time without a thought or a wish, how well or 
 ill they will conduct us to the fulfilment of our desires. Those who 
 will become like a breeze in our sails come without any intimation 
 that they will be more to us than the many we meet every day. Now, 
 our hero, if he may be called such, went one day up the valley to 
 sketch. The day was beautiful and the young man wandered over the 
 fields simply for the pleasure it gave him, more to look at nature than 
 with any desire to reproduce any of its beauties. He went a dreamer 
 and a worshiper, with no care for the busy world, neither for its glory 
 nor its gain, for the time, beauty had no rival. The universe withheld 
 naught, all her jewels were at his feet and the cup of that soul satisfying 
 wine which all exalted souls crave was intoxicating him. On this day 
 and in such a mood, a new acquaintance came into his life. Above 
 where he sat sketching, on the upper flats in a grove, stood a large 
 white house, in which lived a wealthy settler named Long. When 
 the noon hour arrived Mr. Long sent his daughter Hattie to invite 
 Daniel to dinner. The young man looked up on hearing a voice 
 almost at his side and beheld a young lady as tall and not unlike Anna 
 Rose ; her hair and eyes were of the same color, and everything about 
 her was well poised. They looked at each other with that frank 
 earnestness common to well bred people who have nothing to fear 
 and are in the presence of their natural friends. 
 
 Daniel enjoyed a pleasant hour with the family and when he 
 returned, Hattie, or Miss Long as she was yet to Daniel, asked him if 
 later in the afternoon he would allow her to bring her fancy work and 
 come to watch him paint. Daniel told her that he would be delighted 
 and would spend most of the time she was there talking, in fact he was, 
 he said, longing to have a talk with her merely for the luxury of a 
 pleasant visit. 
 
56 Jhvtid North. 
 
 It is well known that as soon as two younfj i)co|)lc of intelligence 
 talk together seriously they become personal to the extent of iliscussing 
 how life appears to them. The views they e.\[)icss on life :il sucii 
 times are rosy, radical and romantic with a few dasiies of cynicism 
 thrown in. 
 
 When llatlie came down the sun was falling in long streaks 
 through the foliage on the green grass and moss with which tlie grove 
 was carpeted. Daniel painted a short time in compliance with 1 lattie's 
 request, then they both forgot paints and palettes in comijaring liieir 
 views and asking each other questions. These two well bred people 
 who did not know of each other's existence a few hours before were 
 giving expression to their thoughts and feelings that would not 
 have been so easy if they were better ac([uainted. Daniel liad by 
 combining a log and a stone made a comfortai)le seat with a tree trunk 
 for a back for Hattie and he laid himself on the sloping bank with his 
 arms thrown back under his head. 1 latlie finally said, "I wonder if life 
 is as unsatisfactory to others as to me. Nothing comes of my life. I 
 simply live like a flower, unable to accomplish anything or to satisfy 
 my aspirations. We women are told to marry and be con- 
 tent with a home, and a husband. i have love, friendship and 
 the society of my etjuals and sometimes more tlian enough 
 of even these. Love, I fancy, is not always pleasant to live with, 
 none of us are wise enough to hold these thin^rs so that they are 
 never offended against. The best are often both foolish and impious 
 which is very dreadful. We usually are talkin-^ about something else 
 when we are talking about love. Love like beauty has ends beyond 
 what we propose. I believe that all have a glimpse of the best and 
 have some love for the true and the be.iutiful, for the soul will declare 
 itself, but the holy memory is easily lost by evil tiioii^^dits and things 
 that corrupt." Daniel replied "The earthly is not a light for tlu; sonl 
 to see by. We need wi.sdom added to the keenest insi^dit to see 
 the Godlike face and form. The divine beauty is the sweetness of 
 all pleasure yet how do we see and keep this vision ? If the beauty 
 is not in us we will neither see nor feel it." llattic, to we.ive a new 
 thought, said, "Heaven does not come df)wn like fruit when the wind 
 
DanU'. X:rth. 57 
 
 blows, for the stem logic of life is more powerful than the p^ons." 
 "But i: does cx)me," Daniel said, "when we are seeking to see it Then 
 the golden glow of enchantment throws a glory on all our thdughts and 
 feelings." Hattie said that she was so material that the ^ory did not 
 quite fall on her. She asked Daniel if it fell on him ? He said he 
 "would not believe that these things are beautiful unrealities, of no 
 use but to make us forget our weary selves as we do when we hear a 
 beautiful melody or look at the moon. I am sure we have a hint at 
 times within us of heaven." Hattie said, "The present is often barren 
 enough and if it were not for that alluring thing ahead we call to- 
 morrow one would not care to go on." She charged her companion 
 with being an idealist when he told her that she must make her claim 
 far a larger world and walk in step with the royal music. '-We forget 
 that the supremely good things never impose themselves upon us. It 
 is the highest art to extract from life those things that have the universal 
 stamp and are high, sweet, simple and normaL" Hattie answered ''I 
 find there is a desire for pleasant thoughts, and that a refined spirit 
 finds happiness coming naturally its way. I pity you," she said, "for 
 you are sure to learn the unreality- of your heavenly ideals." To be 
 extravagant Daniel replied "If you cannot surrender j'^ourself to the 
 universe, go weep." ''Yes," she replied, "you talk about these things in 
 a triumphant strain as if they could waft j^ou to paradise. I wish your 
 beautiful vision of life could be realized. I would like to make mine 
 as those snowy clouds that are casting blue fleece over the landscape. 
 I know that we are apart from the material bodies of ours, celestial 
 beings on a bright celestial tide. The best I can attain to is to be in 
 perfect health, in love with nature and in sj-mpathy and touch with 
 those around rae. I cannot make life a unit nor a sjTnphony. Though 
 celestial zephyrs iloat through my sails the keel of my boat is picking 
 the sand.' Daniel asked her if she dreaded to be old and lose her 
 youth ? She said to do so would be an impiety. She asked Daniel 
 if it was possible to be at peace with one's o-sti heart and re- 
 conciled to the conditions of hfe, to be in touch with the great 
 g;ifts we know are f:r us but which we fail to grasp? I know 
 there is a stain or a blemish in us. The answer she received was. 
 
58 Daniel North. 
 
 "You know^ there is a solvent. The soul has affinities which speak its 
 true nature. The soul asks for the whole and not a part. We should 
 have our immortality now in the quality of our daily life and give all 
 for our nobility. The voice of the infinite is not always a love song, I 
 know that what elevates man to the rank of greatness is the fallen 
 divinity struggling irresistibly after a world that is as great as his 
 desires. We must be born again in the complete sense. If we have no 
 vision the emptiness of life crushes us. We should pray for grand 
 thoughts as well as for grace and daily bread. For us to experience the 
 feeling of Adam in paradise we must look upon all we behold as rep- 
 resentative." "Yes," Hattie said "it seems to me that men are dazed 
 between their vision and the realities and are not faithful to either. I 
 know that you will not think me so near-sighted that I do not see that 
 which is good, high and beautiful. Thoughts and impulses help by 
 being an inspiration to us to make hfe beautiful." 
 
 The afternoon faded into twilight. Daniel before he left Hattie 
 invited her to become a member of the Rainbow Club. 
 
 On his return Daniel found an invitation to a wedding awaiting 
 him. Crips the philosopher was to be married. All wondered how he 
 succeeded in wooing and winning such a good looking, intelligent 
 and refined lady. The elegant man often waits in vain for a fair face 
 to smile upon him graciously. While he waits the man without gifts 
 or grace of manner, beauty, youth, or wealth plucks the fairest flower 
 in the garden. Crips' friends were at the wedding. Tombstone 
 remarked that women were beyond his arithmetic. 
 
 Crips made a very astute remark. When his friends came up to 
 congratulate him he said, "I thought I had as a good a right as any 
 one else to make a woman happy." Now Crips did not have much to 
 do with the church and less to do with ministers, consequently the 
 marriage ceremony was not performed by a clergyman but by Squire 
 Jones. Daniel called him the smileless squire for he neither laughed nor 
 smiled and never appeared glad or sad. His expression, like that of 
 many people in a rural district, was one of everlasting blankness. 
 Jones was tall, talkative, gaunt and bony. He did not need much 
 
Daniel North. 59 
 
 law for he had a rule which served him better than legal lore. That 
 rule was to put the cost on the one able to pay it. 
 
 This wedding was a great event in Kingston for no one could 
 believe that Crips, who was never known to look at a woman nor go in 
 society, would marry, especially as he was past fifty and as homely as he 
 was ungainly — which is saying a great deal. Squire Jones' office was 
 the resort of Crips and his friends. This place was a large room where 
 for years dust and rubbish had accumulated. The walls were grimy 
 and grey, in fact it was a perfect hole, especially at night when it was 
 illuminated by one unsnuffed tallow dip. This place was to Crips and 
 his friends the most delightful resort in town, for it was here they spent 
 most of their leisure. 
 
 When Crips returned from his wedding trip the boys planned to 
 have some fun at his expense. Crips had a rooster which he 
 was fattening for thanksgiving, and guarding with great care lest 
 some thief should steal it. The boys planned to play a practical 
 joke on Crips by giving him a chase. Tombstone was the leader 
 and provided himself one night with a rooster. The boys hid behind 
 Crips' coop, then Toombstone poked his rooster which set up a loud 
 squawking. This had the desired result, for Crips was soon seen 
 rushing out partly dressed to catch the chicken thief Toombstone 
 fled and Crips after him. The racers flew across the flelds. Crips ran 
 well, for he was long of limb and wind. He had fed that rooster and 
 had looked forward to picking its bones, so he strove hard to regain 
 his treasure. Toombstone ran until he was ready to drop. The race 
 was ended by Crips grabbing the rooster. The boys had planned to 
 carry off" Crips rooster while its owner was after Toombstone. This 
 they failed to do for Mrs. Crips stood in the door watching the race. 
 Crips went back, killed the rooster he had captured and had it for 
 dinner. In the meantime he discovered his fowl in its coop. The 
 ne.yt evening when Crips met the boys at Squire Jones' office he made 
 no allusion to the experience of the evening before. Crips measured 
 up the situation by inviting the boys to eat Thanksgiving dinner with 
 him and his wife, upon which Squire Jones broke his record, for he 
 smiled. 
 
6o Daniel NortJu 
 
 Daniel, David and Harold spent much of their time together. 
 One day the three friends were sitting on the edge of a field of 
 clover bordered on one side by a creek overhung \\-ith trees. Harold 
 gathered a hat full of flowers which he wove into a wreath. TTiis 
 he put on Daniel's head, then said as he knelt by his side: 
 
 '• The flowers I twine about your head 
 
 Were over this wide meadow spread : 
 
 I gathered them, my loving friend. 
 
 And now upon my knees I bend. 
 
 To crown my Daniel rare. 
 
 With a flower crown for cai«. 
 
 All the song birds in the woods 
 
 Are carolling his prais^ 
 
 And the sunshine falling on his face, 
 
 Stops to praise his Classic grace. 
 
 A boy in fun has wove a crown of &me, 
 
 I hail a poet and Daniel is his name." 
 David said the ideas were poetical, but the verses were as bad 
 as the worst rhjnnster could make, but I fancy Daniel will find Harold 
 a true poet. Both boys bowed before him and hailed him poet 
 
 Kerce Butler's niece, Cassie Butler, \-isited the club one even- 
 ing: Daniel was speaking when she came in with Minnie. She sat 
 down and eyed him with her dark hazel eyes. She was not large, 
 neither W3S she ven- small She had nut brown hair and a dimpled 
 chin and her lips were fulL Daniel saw that she regarded him kindly 
 and he certainly looked upon her with pleasure. He guessed that she 
 was the girl who was behind the curtains at the time the three friends 
 visited ^Ir. Butler. He liked this Uttle, brown-eyed, vivacious girl 
 before he knew her name or had spoken to her. After the exercises 
 were over Daniel went over to where they were sitting and Minnie 
 made them acquainted. Xo tu-o persons could be more completely 
 opposite in temperament than thej'. Cassie had little in common with 
 Daniel as to tastes and any one might think they would not find each 
 other especially congeniaL Such conclusion would be wrong, for 
 nature had fashioned them to be friends and they came tt^ether in 
 
Daniel North. 6i 
 
 harmony. Cassie looked up at Daniel with a friendly, intelligent 
 expression and without calculation they entered into each others life 
 and heart permanently ; favored mortals. Cassie was a gay girl hunting 
 after a good time. Apparently the end of her life was to serve 
 the world, the flesh and the devil as far as she could without doing 
 violence to her fine sensibilites — a true daughter of Eve. There was 
 another side to her nature that was not on the surface, and that was 
 what Daniel felt. 
 
 No one can explain why out of the many, a soul will meet 
 ours by a natural law, and we are friends without a vow and our 
 pleasure in the relation is the greatest pleasure that life affords. 
 
 The reader remembers that when Daniel first came to Kingston he 
 was invited to visit a club of philosophers on Goose Island. That 
 name may be a bad one to mention in this connection, yet that 
 is the name that end of the street held then and still bears. This 
 club was not to be eclipsed by Daniel's brilliant Rainbow if the 
 philosophers of Kingston could prevent it, and the efforts being made 
 to that end I will relate. 
 
 The reader may say, spare us for we have been clubbed considerably 
 and sufficiently. I am sure that you will enjoy the club, for the mem- 
 bers are neither learned or wise and many of them are amusing fools. 
 You think I should go on with my story ; have patience and I will kill 
 off all the villians and marry all the heroes to your satisfaction before I 
 am through. You may say that there are already fools enough in 
 Kingston without inventing more. No, we never have too many fools. 
 Fools always make the truth prominent by proclaiming the reverse. 
 Then, too, they are company for us. No one will fancy that the town is a 
 fool center. If you stop to think, you will come to the conclusion that 
 what men think and their peculiarities are more interesting than the 
 common-place things they do : that the only real entertainment is in 
 the interchange of ideas. As you see I am endeavoring to entertain 
 you more by gossiping about what men do with their minds than what 
 they do by their actions. You may say that this manner of proceeding 
 is unusual in a story. I hope that the characters of this story are 
 unusual and that this is an unusual book. 
 
62 
 
 Daniel North. 
 
 WVOMIXG VALLEY SCENES. 
 
Daniel North. 63 
 
 The club proposed to make itself so important so £is to pale the 
 Rainbow Club. To do this it placed upon its wall a new name which 
 was the "Universal Redemption Club." They proposed to redeem 
 men from religion, matrimony, morality, and education, and restore to 
 man his natural rights. This society occupied a room, through the 
 courtesy of General Thomas, in his tannery building. I am tempted to 
 divert for a few moments to say that General Thomas lived in a house, 
 now standing, facing the creek. When I was a boy there was a 
 tannery in the rear where a number of us boys would go and play in 
 the tan bark and get covered with fleas. Some times a boy would fall 
 in one of the vats and get a coat of tan which did ^not trouble 
 him as much as the tanning he would get later on at home. This 
 General Thomas was the man whom one of our poets sang about 
 I can only recall a line which ran something like this: 
 
 "General Thomas then commanded all our Western volunteers." 
 It then goes on and tells about the shooting of James Bird who 
 deserted and went to a regiment where he could have a chance to 
 fight. He was shot on the shores of Lake Champlain kneeling by 
 his coffin, and, if I remember right, his pardon came in by a carrier 
 just after the fatal volley was fired. 
 
 To take up my connection again. This club in the second floor 
 of the tannery proposed to be a tannery of the minds of men. One fact 
 can be stated, that is, they transmitted fleas to the county, if not new 
 or valuable ideas. This club had sent seven men to Daniel's club and 
 they were the seven wise men that Minnie said would do and Silas 
 Finch was their leader. This society could not make anything out of 
 Daniel's talks. Every member of this club had a pet notion, yet on 
 one thing they all agreed and that was on what they called the natural 
 rights of man. As their president would say, "If a man had any rights 
 he must have had them from his creator, if this was so no one had any 
 right to deprive him of them," so he came to the conclusion that no 
 man could have a right to dictate laws for others. On that base he 
 raised up a structure most wonderful. Everything must be natural, in 
 other words the only guide for mortals was instinct. Teachers 
 were uncertain guides, as they declared, according to the way 
 
64 . Daniel North. 
 
 they were trained. All this was made plain to Daniel when he 
 visited them. Crips was bitten with these ideas. They had ex- 
 plained how they should -be carried out, what they thought the result 
 would be. "Yes," Crips said, "every man has a right to use his own 
 head," then he added, "if he has one." 
 
 A man with a nose larger than the one Crips wore as a rudder 
 asked Crips if the animals and birds were not more moral, happier and 
 wiser than men, and they had no guide but their instincts. Crips 
 was tied up. 
 
 "Just think," said the man with the big nose, "of animals wearing 
 clothes simply to hide themselves, or going to some one to marry them. 
 All our modesty is caused by our education, which is one of the things 
 that has brought man below the beast. Somebody says something 
 is wrong, and then a man thinks he has committed a crime. If the 
 fool had kept still he would have felt as innocent as a baby taking 
 a bath. The Grecian women went partly nude with their beauti- 
 ful lines exposed with impunity, and they were modest and 
 blameless. The uncivilized man and woman wear clothes only for 
 ornament or protection and are virtuous until civilized man teaches 
 them vice. They invent nearly as good a God as civilized man, and 
 also a devil, consequently they have a religion . If you would take all 
 the different religions and put them in a hat and pick one out at random 
 you would be sure to get one as good as the one you have. They 
 are all shapes out of the same quarry, out of the same material. 
 Each artist has followed his own whims. I could make one that 
 would do as well as any, only I would not go about with a rock to 
 stone the first man who would not let me stuff it down his throat. 
 Now what right has a lot of men to get together and form laws, and 
 punish me if I do not obey them. I must do this, and I cannot do 
 that, until a man is a slave to every other man. We have made 
 slaves out of each other and then declare we are free." 
 
 These things were more than Crips could grasp. He looked 
 around and found Daniel laughing at him, for his facial contortions 
 when he was perplexed were immensely amusing. There was a man 
 present who had a chronic smile, so Crips made an attack upon him, 
 
Daniel North. 65 
 
 hoping to be able to check the flood of argument that was engulfing 
 him., but in this he was mistaken, for the smiler turned a new stream 
 upon him. Crips started out with a show of individual opinion by 
 saying that he was a fatalist. "Ifind," he said, " that a man believes 
 according to the kind of a head nature gave him." 
 
 "You are right," the smiling man said, for Crips had, by a curious 
 fate, hit his hobby. " I could take a machine that I am constructing, 
 and make over any man's mind. The man who has no reason I can 
 take and change the shape of his head so that he would have large 
 reasoning faculties, for men are like animals. Some have part of 
 their mind in humps like the camel. Some men's heads all lay behind, 
 or between the ears and are not properly distributed. With my mental 
 equalizer I can balance up the brain so that every man would be 
 well balanced and intellectual. I could make all men wise, moral and 
 religious by remodeling their skulls. I believe in man being natural, 
 but you must make him want to do right naturally ; and not 
 by taking away his natural rights, force him to do according to 
 the way your head tells you is right. If you want a man to do as 
 you would have him do, change his head accordingly, otherwise, you 
 are simply trying to make a hen swim. Yes sir, Crips, I could make 
 you so you would regard a dollar with indifference." 
 
 "Let us go home," Crips said to Daniel, "for I would not have 
 anything to live for if I did not care for a dollar. What would be 
 the use of living?" 
 
 The man with the smile continued: " I could change the shape 
 of Daniel's head so that he would swear, steal, lie, or kill, roast and eat 
 his own children, if he had any, and have a clearer conscience than 
 he has now." 
 
 Crips feared that man to the day of his death. He went home 
 and told his wife what he had heard. He also told her that he 
 believed in a natural religion. Mrs. Crips squelched him by telling 
 him he was natural enough without getting any more natural ; that 
 for her part she did not want him to be any more natural than he 
 was as she did not admire a natural born fool. If he went any more 
 to the club of natural fools he had better go out and sleep in the 
 
 —5— 
 
66 Daniel North. 
 
 cow-stable. " You had better go and pick off the fleas that you are 
 covered with. " Crips was having a bad night of it. 
 
 Silas Finch wanted to have an argument with Daniel upon natural 
 religion, which is still a notion with some men even in these enlightened 
 times. Like other men whose minds are not planted firmly upon 
 something more than the fancies of men, he was blown about by every 
 strong wind that bore upon his understanding and will. He thought 
 out his arguments and built up a wall that he believed Daniel could 
 not overthrow. This is part of what he put to Daniel: "My dog is 
 happy and contented and has the advantage in every way of his owner. 
 You may say that he is only a dog, well, look at the negro uiider the 
 palms, all he need do is to lay in the shade and when he wants food he 
 need but to reach up and fill himself without thought or toil. He is 
 perfectly in harmony with nature, he eats, sings, follows the dictates 
 of his nature and like my dog is happy and contented while civihzed 
 man is miserable and is tormented all his life." 
 
 Daniel asked him if he was putting himself on a scale with the 
 negro who did not live, but simply existed. "Yes," Daniel said, "that 
 argument would be valued if a man had only a body or was an animal 
 with only instincts. When a man follows only his instincts he forgets 
 that he is made in the image of his Creator and that the man is the soul 
 which is divine and immortal. The spirit is at war with the flesh and 
 puts in its divine claim that will not be denied. Your instincts must be 
 your guide if you are only an animal or a man whose soul has never 
 put in its high claini, but as you have that God-like prerogative of 
 reflecting you must choose and judge between gciod and evil." 
 
 "Oh, you must remember," Silas Finch replied, "that I take no 
 stock in that fable of the fall." 
 
 "You do not propose to assert, do you," Daniel asked, "that man is 
 not fallen, that he does not find the trail of the serpent in his heart. 
 The fact stands uhcoritrovertable, your questioning the cause does not 
 alter the fact that man is fallen. The only salvation from this power of 
 evil that drags upon every mortal to destroy him is in resisting it. 
 There is no argument to be offered when we face a reality, we must 
 recognize the facts and meet them. To either deny or ignore them is to 
 
Daniel North. 
 
 67 
 
 become a victim. God made us men and not brutes. A man who 
 does not live for the spirit is lost. The very soul within us declares 
 that we shall live for the spirit. The dog has no choice, he has only 
 the flesh. We must choose between our immortal soul or our perishing 
 body. There is nothing truer than the fact that the body does not 
 know the soul. As I have often said in your presence you are trying 
 to deprive yourself of both your soul and body." 
 
68 Daniel North. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Murder will out and the secrets so carefully guarded will invariably 
 be proclaimed from the housetops. The secrets Daniel and Anna were 
 so much concerned over were not all revealed, yet a little light on the 
 mystery shone in on Daniel's mind when Minnie told him she had 
 discovered Allen Rose one night leaving some packages on the door- 
 step of the crazy woman. Daniel remembered the crazy woman at the 
 fort and jumped at the conclusion that she was no other than the 
 woman who was looking for yesterday. He exclaimed, "Is it possible 
 that she is Anna's mother ? " Here was evidence, here was a clue. 
 The trouble he had in placing the murder of his mother upon Allen Rose 
 was that he could not discover sufficient motive. He would hardly 
 commit murder to regain his niece when could he have secured her by 
 simply claiming her and why should he commit murder to obtain the 
 crazy woman if she was his brother's wife. Then he remembered 
 hearing that a bag his mother always carried was taken at the 
 time of the murder. What was in the bag he did not know, 
 probably nothing of any importance for cJl ladies carried one 
 as a pocket. This was not in his mind sufficient to lead a man 
 like Allen Rose to murder a heljjless woman. "Yet, how, "he asked, 
 "did Rose secure his father's land," for Daniel had found that he 
 held it legally. He wrote to Anna and Anna wrote at once to her 
 uncle and asked him to explain who the crazy woman was, telling him 
 that she knew he was providing for her. She begged him to tell her if 
 the poor demented woman was her mother for she had learned from 
 Daniel all that young man knew of the woman. The answer she 
 received was to the point. He said the crazy woman was her mother, 
 then added that he realized that it was natural she should hold him 
 guilty of the murder of Mrs. North. She should consider that he could 
 not have had any motive sufficient to lead him to commit such a deed. 
 "I know," he wrote, "that all the circumstances criminate me. I will 
 make a declaration to you upon my honor, and that is, that I never was 
 
Daniel North. 69 
 
 at Fort Penn and never saw the Depuy house. You are justified in 
 refusing my hospitaUty but I hope you will consider me your friend. I 
 will welcome you to my home whenever you feel free to come. I shall 
 never cease to hold you in high esteem and protect your interests." 
 
 This letter had a powerful effect on Anna. It caused her to decide 
 to return to the valley. She wanted to see her mother and care for her 
 and to show her uncle that she appreciated his affection for her. She 
 sent the letter to Daniel and waited for a reply. That young man 
 regarded the confession and profession in a different light than the 
 receiver did. He wrote to Anna that her uncle was a self-confessed 
 perjurer for he had told her that he did not know anything about the 
 crazy woman. That his confession of affection was a neat stroke of 
 policy. The letter proved her uncle was implicated in the crime of 
 murder. That he would like to have her back in the valley she well 
 knew, yet he thought that the murder of his mother stood againsfcher 
 uncle and if he was convicted of the crime it would be horrible to him 
 to have her touched by it in any way. That her uncle wanted to care 
 for her, he did not doubt. 
 
 This letter caused Anna to resolve to wait until the mystery was 
 cleared up and Daniel thought it best for her to return. Her uncle 
 wrote her a second letter in which he told her that her father had 
 burned the home of Daniel's father and robbed them, and that the 
 breach between the two families was so wide that no bridge the 
 children might build could span it. Anna sent this letter to Daniel and 
 said that "she had come to believe her uncle was right." In his reply 
 Daniel tried to express to her his inexpressible sorrow for the conclu- 
 sion over a past for which neither of them had any power to hinder or 
 change. 
 
 Daniel's advent in the valley resulted in an intellectual awakening 
 that produced many results not desirable. Many who had some 
 imitation but little wit were inspired to attempt to write poetry and 
 other literary compositions. All these efforts finally found their 
 way to Daniel. Many came with their poor, sickly poetical offspring 
 to the club and eagerly sought for an opportunity to read them. With 
 these came the orator who thought he had the gift to sway men as 
 
70 
 
 Darnel North. 
 
 the storm sways the trees of the forest. Daniel, to close this epidemic 
 would invite these geniuses to the club to learn their limitations. 
 The budding poet he would call upon to read his verses so that the 
 writer might realize by comparison the great gulf between weak verse 
 and good poetry. 
 
 There was one young man with a lofty ambition. He wished to 
 fill the county with his eloquence and his name as well. 
 
 »S*J* 
 
 JACK HARDING ORATING TO A SCARECROW. 
 
 One day Daniel heard some one, apparently declaiming in a corn- 
 field. He crossed the field and there he found the ambitious young 
 man pouring out his soul in an oration to a scarecrow. He was 
 practicing on the figure which helped him to imagine he had an 
 audience. Daniel asked him if he was making a speech. To this 
 interrogation he replied in evident disgust : " No I'm not making a 
 speech, I am making an oration." 
 
 Of course the orator could not go on for his new auditor had 
 ears. "I am Daniel North," that gentleman said. 
 
 " I am John Harding, a son of the Revolution. My family 
 furnished the first blood in the valley and they have given blood, 
 brains and money ever since and will continue to as long as there 
 
Darnel North. 71 
 
 is a Harding in the valley, when it is needed to maintain the dignity 
 and welfare of the county or nation." 
 
 "You must have a surplus of oratory if you can pour out 
 eloquence to scarecrows and corn stubble," Daniel added. 
 
 "The truth is," Harding said, "I have plenty of time and wind 
 on hand, so I am contributing my surplus where it will be permitted." 
 
 "Who lives over there by the creek?" Daniel asked. 
 
 " Elijah Shoemaker. They are good old stock all the way from 
 Holland. Elijah is doing well. The British and the Indians destroyed 
 all they had and Elijah's widowed mother had a hard time to pull 
 through, but now her boy can take care of her as he is a rising and 
 promising young man. Their property is all right now since the 
 decree of Trenton. I have heard of you as a man with several 
 professions." 
 
 "I am an artist," Daniel said. "Just what I may do later is not 
 apparent. I hope to write a book that will open a literary career 
 for me." 
 
 "Deborah Bedford told me about you, Mr. North," Harding 
 remarked, " she is one of your most ardent admirers. She says you 
 are an artist, preacher, poet, author, orator, philosopher, a Methodist 
 and a bachelor." 
 
 Daniel laughed. So did Harding. Daniel said: "I am honored 
 by being esteemed by this noble 'Mother in Israel.' She is a beautiful 
 character, you know she was one of the first members of the Rose 
 Hill Class. By the way, Mr. Harding, where were the men buried after 
 the massacre. I would like to visit their graves." 
 
 " I wish I could tell you, North, but we would have a long hunt 
 through the underbrush to find them." 
 
 "I have a large collection of skulls and bones that I picked up 
 after the plow, stowed in Jenkin's barn. You can see the marks of the 
 Tomahawk in some of them. I understand that the people are talking 
 about a monument. I do not know when it will be built" "I fancy 
 that it will not be built in our day," Daniel remarked, "if the people are 
 as poor all over the valley as they are in Kingston they will have a hard 
 ime raising the money." Just then a little Frenchman came up. He 
 
72 Daniel North. 
 
 chuckled to himself and shrugging his shoulders he said, "I wish I was 
 back to France. Ze country is no good country, all burn up with 
 fever, and then you freeze." Daniel replied, "I know that a French- 
 man never forgets his sunny France nor ceases to pine to get back. 
 What were you so happy about when you came up ?" "I tell you," he 
 said, "I go after a setting here. I came to a fence and a cow and her 
 calf they be in, what you call it? Yes, yes, harmony with ze nature. 
 I see across the fields a woods, a log cabin. Ze smoke it comes out 
 bluish against the green woods ; blue like the blue mist I see in my 
 France. I get my feet wet while my dog floundered about. Ze dew 
 sparkeled on ze cobwebs so it looks like as he was soaked with pearls. 
 Zen I made up some poetry like this : 
 
 Go zee what I have zeen, 
 
 Go feel what I have felt. 
 
 Walk in zee woods at zee early dawn 
 And smell what I have smelt. 
 I go to ze hous. Mrs. Dolittle she feeds ze pink bellied pigs with 
 bran mash. Mr. Dolittle he says "Good morning" and ask me if I 
 came after one clucking hen. Then he goes for ze clucking hen, I take 
 my hen in a basket, I go to ze fence, I put ze basket on one fence, my 
 dog he gave a leap, ze hen squawks and my basket goes down and ze 
 hen he goes loose. I try to catch him, ze dog gets between my legs, I 
 swear, I catch that damn hen, I take him home, my wife she say ze 
 morning is beautiful and I say damn again. At this point he laughed 
 again. "Yes, I laugh, my dog he kills ze hen and I am revenged." 
 
 After the little setting hen of a Frenchman had left, John Harding 
 asked Daniel why he did not make a fight for his father's property 
 and oust Allen Rose. They talked the matter over. John told Daniel 
 that one of the Rose family had said that "we Yankees were crazy; that 
 it was right and natural that they should be loyal to their mother 
 country and to their king. That it was a disgrace to be a rebel and 
 a traitor, and that Allen and Richard Rose did just right when they 
 cleaned out the North family. Allen has the North estate, and what 
 is more, he will keep it. I know that a sprout of that tree has come 
 back to the valley and is trying to get the property back by courting 
 
Daniel North. 73 
 
 Allen's niece. That courting will never prosper. She should be 
 ashamed of herself, she being a tory, to take up with that fellow. 
 Allen Rose will take care of him as he took care of his mother. He 
 did not kill her, but some one else did. I fancy I know who paid 
 for the job. Allen had a man with him who looked as if he could 
 do anything. The Roses are all smart, they have stiff stomachs. I 
 am glad Anna has gone away, for she might have run away with 
 that long-haired North." 
 
 Daniel did more thinking than talking. "I may," he said, "get 
 a deal that will enable me to trump Allen Rose's cards. I have 
 just enough of the devil in me to shoot that smiling villain. The 
 property can support his carcass, I do not want it 'yet, I cannot forget 
 that he and his brother wrecked my family. The end is not yet. 
 I never like to kill a chicken, yet I could look at Allen over the 
 barrel of a pistol and pull the trigger' if I could do it in a fair fight." 
 
 " Why don't you challenge him to fight a duel," John asked. 
 
 Daniel answered, "That would bring Anna, his niece, in disgrace, 
 make her trouble and cause her pain. I have felt tempted to go 
 and burn him out and shoot him when he came out, then throw his 
 body into the flames. When I think of my mother I feel like doing it. 
 
 "I have wondered," John said "why you stay in the little village of 
 Kingston. There is nothing there. You lived all your life in the city 
 so I am at loss to understand why you do not go where you could 
 practice your art and find congenial associations. Anna Rose is away 
 so she is not keeping you here. I would like to live in the city, it must 
 be a great privilege." 
 
 Daniel did not think so. "No," he said "life is here as well as 
 there and the same human nature." 
 
 "I think. North, you should be practical," John Harding said, "I 
 am not trying to give you advice, yet, you had better go to the city, 
 make a fortune and marry Anna Rose." 
 
 Daniel smiled and was thoughtful. He said, "I have made up my 
 mind since I have talked with you to go back to the city, yet I have a 
 notion that I will be in some way a part of this locality the rest of my 
 life and be buried in the Kingston burying ground. I have some 
 
74 Daniel North. 
 
 friends here who are dear to me. I do not know how to explain the 
 attachment I have formed for the Httle group that meet at the club. We 
 have met every week for a year. I am free to say that while I am not 
 in love with Cassie Butler, I have great affection for her. 
 
 Daniel made the announcement that he had decided to go 
 back to Philadelphia or to some other city and make a place for 
 himself The result of this announcement was that Cassie, Hattie, 
 Minnie, Harold and David called together to see him. They all 
 looked glum. Cassie said she did not want him to go away and 
 without, even blushing told him that if he liked her as much as she 
 did him he would not go away. There was no coquetry in her 
 heart neither was she sentimental. The rest all chimed in with the 
 same plea. Hattie said, "That it was greater to be loved and more 
 desirable than to gain fame and wealth." These pure-hearted girls 
 could express their affection for Daniel without fear for they knew that 
 it was returned with interest, . and besides that they felt sure 
 that no thought of evil would ever enter his heart ; that they could 
 regard him with affection without fear or reproach. Harold and Minnie 
 looked broken-hearted. Minnie always sat on a little rug near Daniel's 
 easel like a turk when she was in his studio and that was very often for 
 these two loved to talk together. " This little group did not know it, yet 
 the influence of that morning call determined Daniel's future. Yet 
 if he could have read the future he would have stayed as he did. 
 Cassie lingered after the rest had left and sat with Daniel out on the 
 porch in the morning sunshine for a little visit. She rather non-plussed 
 the young man when she told him that she knew why he had changed 
 his mind and was not going away. Cassie said "I told you I liked 
 you and that changed your mind. I knew I could make you change 
 your mind." Daniel of course smiled. Cassie thought he would 
 deny it, she thought he would call her a little coquette but 
 he did neither. Cassie as if to make amends for the conceit she had 
 manifested added "But I do like you, I know you like me, I also know 
 that you like others as much and some more than you do me, and I like 
 others, yet I feel that if you should go away life would have less 
 interest for me. You know how I mean and that I am not making 
 
Daniel North. 75 
 
 love." Daniel did not tell her, though he thought he would, that he 
 could not make up his mind to lose the affection she gave him and 
 she understood his feelings better than he could explain. 
 
 Daniel's delineation of the true and beautiful caused him to 
 to be much criticised and started many discussions among the lovers 
 of controversy and they were legion. He was a Godsend to 
 the people on the west side for he gave them something new 
 to talk about worthy their best efforts. Most of the men, even those of 
 high intelligence, who were practical regarded any man with pity or 
 contempt who saw any value apart from the activities of life and dis- 
 claimed any interest in what they were pleased to designate "enthusiastic 
 doctrines." They said "We have the pulpit, we have science, phil- 
 osophy, poetry and art, and do not need these things, for they do 
 not buy bread or whiskey. Finally they pressed their battle of words 
 to Daniel's docrr and he was obliged, or rather saw fit to face 
 his opponents. The controversy came about in this way. There 
 was a very learned doctor by the name of Roswell who wished 
 to meet Daniel. He had heard the young man discussed so 
 often that his curiosity was aroused. Dr. Roswell was a 
 scholarly and talented man and was looked upon as the leading in- 
 tellectual light of the valley. If there was an address to be given 
 he was the favorite speaker. This doctor and several of his friends 
 attended a meeting of the Rainbow Club to see and hear this new 
 light as they called him. Daniel at the meeting found himself con- 
 fronted by the doctor and his friends; he was aware of the motive 
 that brought them to the club. For their benefit Daniel made a short 
 address which gave them the opportunity they desired. Daniel in his 
 remarks said that he had determined to dwell within the circle of his 
 better thoughts and read the meaning of his life, to live in an over- 
 powering reality and float on the tide of a restless energy so that 
 he could find where all good abides. He knew the sweetnees and 
 truth of hfe was his and would make his existence sacred ; that his 
 mission was to desire and find the beautiful and reveal it. The greatest 
 revelation he had had was that the beautiful and ideal rest on morality 
 and transformed Hfe into a happy world of thoughts and feeling. "I 
 
76 Daniel North. 
 
 know," he said, "that the busy world holds these infinite gifts as- 
 shadowy and intangible, as if hearts could not be touched except by 
 companionship. Is there no superhuman help for hearts ? If life did 
 not rest on the infinite could philosophy solace us? I am striving 
 for a life more serene, more beautiful, where the highest thought is 
 married to the most exalted expression, where virtue and beauty are 
 the activities of the heart. Our minds should not be submerged by 
 the senses. It is best to walk with childhood's faith in the light we 
 have, and go out on the high tide of thought, with the sympathies afloat 
 on the stream of human feeling, diligent in caring for sacred things, with 
 this end in view ; to enrich life with high and noble impulses, to 
 interweave beauty and truth into all our thoughts. He would hold 
 sacred the simple pieties of life. He would not prostitute himself in 
 an alien land by making the end of life its glory and its gain. He 
 would teach men that God was more than a symbol of terrible majesty 
 to be feared, that religion is more than a providential provision for 
 human needs, more than a consolation and balm for suffering humanity. 
 Men may turn from religion yet it calls them with a voice of such 
 mysterious sweetness, so infinite, so irresistible that they must listen 
 and believe it true and divine. Men are trying to defraud themselves 
 of heaven and earth. They should be thankful and happy in such 
 a world as this with the blue sky above them and the green earth 
 beneath their feet with sweetness written on the steadfast face of nature. 
 They should bless the heavens and kiss the earth, and wear in their 
 hearts nature's tranquil joy and infinite peace. As they con over the 
 leaves of life they should read that God and love are one. They should 
 bow to no other power, take their crown from no other hand. The 
 fleeting hours will turn to speech on the fadeless pages of God's book. 
 Let the smilax and poppies grow about your mind and heart so that 
 their peace and beauty may be traced on your face. Men should 
 read the living words of the ponderous page spread out before them 
 and there decipher that they cannot go to nature for deliverance 
 nor to their instincts for a guide, but must go to the divinity in man, 
 to the original component mind which connects his spirit with the 
 unseen infinite and makes him conscious of his kinship. This will 
 
Darnel North. yy 
 
 pour a balm upon the wounds which the palpable world has not the 
 power to cure." 
 
 So spake Daniel and his critics were silent. Daniel did not know 
 it but he gained a friend that night who came nearer to him than 
 a brother, who was a father to him as well as a friend. 
 
 Daniel invited Dr. Roswell to speak to the club which he did. 
 He told with humorous frankness what had brought him to the club 
 and of the impression Mr. North's speech had made upon him. He 
 paid that young man a glowing tribute and closed by saying he would 
 consider it an honor to be numbered among his friends. This is 
 how it came to pass that Daniel linked himself to a man who was 
 to be his counselor and helper in his efforts to work out his mission 
 among men. 
 
 Dr. Roswell was much amused with the arguments that would 
 take place between Daniel and the seven wise men. These men 
 were practical, so practical, that they wanted Daniel to give them 
 definite rules for them to follow so that they might realize all that 
 he preached. This made the young man ridiculous and his teachings 
 absurd. All enjoyed the spectacle of hard headed farmers trying to 
 form a code of morals and conduct out of the poetry and idealism that 
 Daniel proclaimed. 
 
 The chief speaker of the seven wise men was Silas Finch. His 
 philosophy was easy to comprehend and safe to follow. He gave a talk 
 that evening that caused Daniel to feel for the time that his lofty aims 
 were grotesque. Finch said "What good is poetry ? What use is all 
 the ideas which you can't put to any use. I have tried to hook on to 
 the things Daniel has taught us but I can't; no celestial breezes blow me 
 into paradise. I tried to think beautiful thoughts, and feel the waves 
 of immortality pouring in upon me. I went out in the fields to let the 
 eternal tide pour into my soul. I tried to feel the loveliness of the world 
 as Daniel called it. I can't do any of these things ; I am not made up 
 that way. I went back to my work considering that there are all 
 kinds of us. I think I have no use for poetry. My advice is for every 
 young man to learn how to make a living and then make it, court a girl 
 and marry her, lay by something for his children and old age, then 
 
78 Daniel North. 
 
 die. I don't know anything about heaven; I am not anxious to go 
 where there is no farming to be done. I guess the preacher is off when 
 he says we will play harps and sing hallelujah. I can't sing a note or 
 play upon a Jew's harp, and if heaven is filled with a lot of old fellows 
 that can't sing any more than I can, I can say that the music won't 
 be any great shucks. I can't say that there will be very much to do 
 but loaf. If heaven is made up of the kind of men and women I have 
 seen, who the dominie said went there, the company won't be very 
 select. I have noticed that the fellows who found so much poetry in 
 life never found anything else. I like to hear the pretty things Daniel 
 says, but they are of no sort of use to Silas Finch. I look at beautiful 
 pictures, hear grand music, read a great poem, but they haint no sort 
 of use to me. I am not built that way. God made beauty, music, 
 poetry and everything, but he did not make them for everybody. No 
 one can give me what God did not give me, so I say to myself, 'Silas 
 Finch you are not a poet or a fool, jist tend to your own business.'" 
 
Daniel North. yg 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 The comedy and tragedy of a little country town are as interest- 
 ing as the most graphic story the pen ever pictured. In Kingston the 
 great drama of Hfe was being enacted as it is everywhere, yet like the 
 spectacle of nature, the people looked upon what was taking place as 
 a monotonous repetition. The young artist, like all thinking and ob- 
 serving men regarded life as a stage and men and women actors, 
 where each life was a tragedy, a farce and a comedy in turn. Our 
 hero asked himself why he should go out of his way to see life, as 
 he found it in endless variations all about him. His experience was 
 unusual he knew, yet he asked himself if it was more novel and interest- 
 ing than others. 
 
 Allan Rose occupied undisturbed his parents' estate. The prayej 
 Anna had put up to him to remove the stain of blood between her 
 family and his was riot apparently heeded. " When he dwelt in the 
 circle of his better thoughts and followed his aspirations or contemplat- 
 ed nature he was happy and when he came in contact with the stern 
 logic of life he found much to enjoy and much to regret, which is the 
 debt we pay to nature. Allen Rose he knew was acting a more dra- 
 matic part than himself Daniel guessed, and guessed correctly 
 that that man was sitting in solitude over by the river while his heart 
 was being eaten out. The drawing Harold had made he knew ex- 
 pressed what people felt. Then he was a tory, and there was no place 
 for a tory in this country nor anywhere_else. Those who had gone back 
 to England to be rewarded for their loyalty to the king had met with a 
 reception worse than the cold charity extended to beggars. Rose had 
 built for years on the hope of spending his declining days in the society 
 of his niece, but she had turned against him, and he knew that the 
 proud girl would never again come under his roof. Day and night he 
 dreaded that Daniel would confront him and demand reparation or an 
 explanation. ' His reason and instinct told him that there would come a 
 
8o Daniel North. 
 
 day when that young man would lay aside his dreams and demand 
 justice. 
 
 Hattie Long became an influence in Daniel's life. She was highly 
 intellectual, cultured and refined, clear headed and pure of heart. 
 She became quite interested in a young man of Troy. This 
 divided Hattie's attention and caused Daniel to be a less confidential. 
 Hattie and the young man from Troy did not play the part of Beatrice 
 and Benedic for he married a young lady who was common-place like 
 himself 
 
 Daniel was brought to consider seriously his future by a conversa- 
 tion he had one day with Mr. Long, Hattie's father. Daniel was well 
 acquainted with Mr. Long who was an influential man in the church 
 and in all public affairs and very wealthy. He made a proposition to 
 Daniel. 
 
 He began by saying : "I hoped that you and Hattie would fall in 
 love with each other and I would have you for a son-in-law. I never 
 interfere in such matters, only I have no son and I 
 have a good daughter, and I would like to have 
 her marry a man who would be a son to me and 
 my wife. I have abundant means. Hattie is a 
 very intelligent, cultured, affectionate, true-hearted 
 girl, and she likes you very much, and also 
 appreciate your talent and character. It would 
 please me if you would be my daughter's husband. 
 AN OLD-FASHIONED ^ ^now that you will hesitate marrying a wealthy 
 i-ove FEAST. girl, but I assure you that you will never be made 
 
 to feel that you lack a fortune. I have a large business, and if you 
 wish you can come in as a partner and earn a fortune of your own. Of 
 course my daughter knows nothing of my efforts in her behalf If she 
 did she would be offended. You know, Daniel, that she is unsettled 
 in her affections, as she showed when she became interested in my 
 neighbor. Her affections have gone out to you without any ex- 
 pectation that you will give her any more than you promised you 
 would when the acquaintance began, consequently she is liable to be a 
 victim to the first fortune-hunter who comes along." 
 
Daniel North. 8 1 
 
 Mr. Long told Daniel to consider the matter and feel free to 
 do as he thought best. If he did not wish to do as he had suggested 
 it would make no difference in their relations ; he would always be a 
 welcome guest in his house and need not make any explanation or 
 refer to the matter in the future if he decided adversely. 
 
 That evening Daniel inquired of Mr. Barnes how Mr. Long had 
 acquired his fortune, if he had inherited it. Mr. Barnes said Mr. Long 
 had made every dollar he possessed. Daniel wanted to know how a 
 man could accumulate a large fortune in a thinly settled community by 
 trade and farming, how he came to own so much property. The 
 Quaker said, "You know money makes money. If a man has money 
 he can loan it on good security and when payments become due if they 
 are not made he can fall back on the security and the consequence 
 is that he becomes a large real estate owner." 
 
 Daniel reasoned it out that this was the way Mr. Long had become 
 wealthy. He said "To put it in plain English, when a man gets in 
 straits he borrows money of Long and gives him his property as 
 security. When the money comes due Mr. Long takes the property 
 getting for a few hundred that which is worth thousands. When a man 
 with a little property gets hard up and needs goods Long lets him trade, 
 then sells him out and takes his home. That is he has robbed all this 
 section and still is held as an honest man." Mr. Barnes made no 
 reply to Daniel's summing up yet he came as near winking as is con- 
 sistent with a good Quaker. 
 
 Daniel did not go up to Troy and ask Hattie to be his wife. He 
 cared for her and admired her for she was a very lovable woman. It 
 is often said that a young lady with a fortune, and attractive, will have 
 no trouble to find a husband, yet these are not more in demand than 
 the portionless girls, for in real life the average young man or woman 
 does not marry for money. 
 
 —6- 
 
82 Daniel North. 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 A little group was gathered in Daniel's studio one evening. They 
 were indulging in an all-around conversation. Hattie had heard Daniel 
 and David talking over the Goose Island Club and their views upon 
 religion. Hattie sat deep in thought and finally she said to Daniel, "I 
 can see that their natural religion makes them infidels, yet I like the 
 word natural. I often feel, when I hear people talk about religion, that 
 they are advising people to do unnatural things. We are told to give up 
 the world and that is unnatural and it seems to me to be impossible. 
 We are to live for others and deny ourselves pleasure. We are to love 
 reading our Bibles. We must not get angry or do anything that is not 
 right We are to be spiritually minded and happy, rejoicing in all our 
 troubles ; to love those that injure us and do not like us. Now I do 
 not do anything very wrong and I am a christian. I go to church and 
 I pray. I love to help any one that I can to be better or to make them 
 comfortable ; I am not selfish. I read my Bible, yet I prefer to read 
 other books. I do not love my enemies though I could not harm them. 
 I feel inclined to get angry ; I know that would be wrong so I do not. 
 I love nice clothes, kind people, and I love dearly to go to pleasant 
 parties and have a good time, yet when I hear the preacher say that all 
 these things are vain, I feel that something is wrong and that I am 
 asked to do things that are unnatural for a young lady to do and in 
 fact quite impossible. I do not like to do peculiar things and to be 
 thought peculiar, yet I want to do right and try to. I cannot go out as 
 some old people do and ask others if they are christians and tell them 
 that they are poor miserable sinners when I know that they are probably 
 living as carefully as I do and are nice people. It seems to me to be 
 insulting and impertinent. It makes me feel indignant to hear people 
 who, simply because they profess religion, call all who do not poor 
 miserable sinners. Some people whom I know to be wicked in some 
 ways are very good in other ways, and some I know who do not 
 make any religious profession, yet live beautiful lives, much better than 
 some people who are always enveloped in an atmosphere of sanctity 
 
Daniel North. 83 
 
 I read the Bible and I find that Christ is charitable and had great 
 sympathy for even the low women of his day while we talk down to 
 them as if they were wild beasts. I am inclined to beheve in being 
 more natural." 
 
 Roxy Oldtree was one of the group ; she was a lovable, charming 
 and high-minded young lady. Roxy said, "I am curious to hear what 
 Daniel will say, for I have often felt the same way that Hattie does. 
 I want to live as a christian should, but, I cannot do £is I am often 
 told I should, and I feel condemned and think I am not a christian. I 
 must be myself." 
 
 Daniel did not appear to be much troubled over the problems that 
 his friends had presented for solution yet he knew that what he answered 
 might be remembered and be a help or a stumbling block to them. 
 He said, "If you take the Bible £is a guide you will not go astray. You 
 are both right about one thing. Of course what I say is just my 
 opinion and I am no more infallible than either of you and I probably 
 do not live better. What I think is this, that God does not want you 
 to be anybody else but just yourselves. He put you where he wanted 
 you and he made you just as he saw fit. You should not feel con- 
 demned if you have a temper or inclinations that lead you wrong. 
 You are to be natural. I sometimes wonder why I spend my life away 
 off here in a little village, yet I am sure if God had wanted to use me 
 somewhere else He would have sent me, for I want to be where He 
 needs me and to do what He wants me to do. I have come to the con- 
 clusion that He wanted me to be here or I would not be here." 
 
 Cassie was looking at Daniel with a confession on her face as plain 
 as if she had expressed it in words. Daniel asked her what she was 
 thinking about; she replied: "I have stopped trying to be unnatural. I 
 tried hard to be a saint and I was miserable. I tried to give up the 
 world, the flesh and the devil. I was neither good nor happy and I 
 made up my mind that I was made wrong. I have given up trying and 
 if God wants to punish me for it I can't help it ; I take my chances 
 with the crowd." 
 
 "Cassie," Daniel said, "God made you just as He wanted you and 
 He put you where He wanted you and He did not make a mistake. I 
 
§4 Daniel North. 
 
 think He did quite the reverse. He made a splendid girl and He does 
 not want you to feel condemned and that he will punish you for being 
 just what you are. You cannot be someone else and it would be 
 a failure as well as a mistake to try. Now, let us see what is expected 
 of us that is natural and what is possible. First we are to be His 
 disciples. We all are, and we should never consider ourselves anything 
 else, even if we do not do in all things as we think and know we 
 should. The only way I know is to want to be a Christian and try 
 to be one. If we want to do right and try, and pray, we learn how. 
 We go astray as soon as we stop trying and desiring to do right. God 
 looks at the heart and not at the outward part, as the world sometimes 
 looks. Thomas doubted Him and Peter denied Him, yet both followed 
 their Master to the end, and their Master loved them. All of us 
 are given our better inheritance, which is ourselves. All of us are 
 like a piece of ground that has not been cultivated. If we leave it 
 in a natural state it will grow up with weeds every time. Some of us 
 find that our plot is already sown with weeds, while thistles and brier 
 seeds blow into it with every breeze. Now, to be natural is 
 just to let nature have her way. The only way we can make our 
 little patch blossom and bear fruit is to keep at work in it. We do not 
 do it in one day and weeds grow all the time, yet we pick them out 
 and plant fruits and flowers, and there is always a seed-time and harvest 
 If we only try we will have a fairly respectable plot that will delight 
 us as well as sustain us. This is the garden of the heart or the garden 
 of the soul. If we do not cultivate our plot the soul has nothing to 
 sustain it, and it is cast down. To cultivate this plot is what God wants 
 us to do and he helps us if we try, but we must do the work. God 
 gives the soil, the seed, the sunshine and the rain to the farmer, but he 
 must plant and cultivate or there will be no harvest. The land will be 
 wasted and the man will come to want and disgrace. Cassie, if you 
 find your plot full of weeds that seem to grow faster than you can pull 
 them up, it goes to prove that the soil is good. You just dig away and 
 give the fruit and flowers a chance and you will have a beautiful plot. 
 If you make up your mind that you do not want to care for it, 
 remember that it is your only possession and that you will have 
 
Daniel North. 85 
 
 it forever. Remember the old declaration that 'as a man thinketh in 
 his heart so is he'. We are what our plot is, and our plot is just what 
 we make it You must not sow evil seed; try to take care of the 
 good seed. You all know how just as well as I can tell you. If our 
 neighbor's ground is protected and good seed appears to grow naturally 
 while ours is all weeds, never mind, yours can be made just as fruitful. 
 It may not look as nice, or be like his, yet if you keep at it, the angels 
 passing by will stop and lean over the fence to admire and praise it ; 
 the bees and the butterflies will find it; the birds will build their 
 nests in the shrubbery. If the surroundings are unlovely it will appear 
 as a beautiful oasis. Otherwise it will be a garden of weeds or a patch 
 that yielded neither fruits nor flowers. Cassie, keep at your patch ; 
 we will all come for flowers from your garden, we will wear them 
 and you will have abundance. They may not be pink and yellow 
 and white. They probably will be royal scarlet, blood red and crimson 
 with golden hearts. They will become you when you wear them, and 
 you will delight in your work. You have cut down a good many weeds, 
 fruit and flowers are springing up all over it, it is not as bad as you 
 think. You will be surprised to see how fast the despised plot will 
 take on beauty if you give it more care. I have noticed that our 
 neighbor's garden appears to be richer than ours, and easier cultivated, 
 but the truth is, he thinks the same of ours. Your garden is just as 
 good as his, only keep cultivating it. 
 
 All that Cassie said was : "I won't give up my religion anyhow, 
 even if I am weedy." Cassie liked what Daniel ^aid to her, she knew 
 that he held her dear — and what all true women crave, that he under- 
 stood her and had sympathy for her. She knew that he never criti- 
 cised even though he heartily disapproved. This helped her more 
 than to find fault with her and she liked him for it. She did not know 
 why, yet she thought that she came nearer to him than the rest 
 of the group and she was sure that while Anna had every ad- 
 vantage of her, that Daniel held her dearer than any one else even 
 though he might not realize it. Nothing could hide it from her. She 
 felt it just as a man with his eyes shut feels the sunshine as soon as it 
 /alls upon him. When ever she came near Daniel she felt his affection. 
 
86 Darnel North. 
 
 She went her way, and he, his, she was contented for she thought that 
 the strongest of bonds held their hearts true. 
 
 Daniel asked the little group if they wanted him to answer the 
 rest of their questions. 
 
 "No," Roxy replied, "If we want to be right and try we will be 
 shown how." 
 
 Minnie said : "1 guess I will plow my plot up. That is the only 
 way for me to do anything with mine. I have several little patches and 
 the rest of the ground is just as it grew. I will have it plowed up 
 and take a fresh start." 
 
 Cassie replied : "I guess if all of us would have our plots plowed up 
 it would be a good thing. I think I had better get plowed up and stop 
 planting patches that never come to anything." 
 
 Hattie said : "I believe that is the trouble with us all." 
 
 Daniel told his friends about going to class meeting with Sarah 
 when he first came to Kingston and how he had his heart plowed up. 
 " When Sarah gets her crown she is sure of one star in it, for she took 
 me to meeting." 
 
 "That was nothing," Sarah said, "I only asked you to go with me ; 
 I did not know you were not a christian. When I found you wanted to 
 be one I wanted to help you." 
 
 Cassie and Daniel were invited to a party. Cassie took a fancy 
 to have Daniel attend the party with her and so he went. Early 
 in the evening he noticed strangers coming into the village, on horse- 
 back, the men riding in front all spruced up, with their ladies behind, 
 wearing turtle shell combs in their hair, strings of pearl beads about their 
 necks, high heeled slippers on their feet, and what Daniel called Queen 
 Anne gowns. These were high waisted, low in the neck, the sleeves short. 
 God never made anything more charming or perfect. Their eyes were 
 more dangerous than a battery of shotted cannon, their voices more 
 musical than Solomon's choir of singers and his bands of stringed 
 instruments. These girls could bake a pumpkin pie and were not 
 afraid of cows. 
 
 As Daniel stood looking at the young people drive by, Crips came 
 up and remarked that "When the Almighty made man he was sorry ' 
 
Darnel North. 87 
 
 for what he had done; when Ke made woman and had finished the job 
 he clapped his hands and smiled." 
 
 These young people knew how to enjoy themselves. They did 
 not know that Lord Chesterfield considered laughing out loud very bad 
 form. Chesterfield would have learned a new social code from these 
 red-lipped, rosy-cheeked girls. 
 
 Early in the evening Daniel called for Cassie. Before she had put 
 her outer wraps on she came into the parlor for Daniel to look at her. 
 There was no vanity in what she did. She looked lovely. It was a natural, 
 girlish act. She had perfect health, youth and a happy heart. She 
 certainly looked beautiful in her evening dress, and she could not help 
 feeling a little self-conscious as Daniel looked at her, yet she felt free 
 from the restraint of fear, for she knew that her friend would be 
 pleased. There was nothing at the party that gave either so much pleasure 
 as that simple act of Cassie, coming in to have Daniel see how nice she 
 looked. 
 
 The party was given by Col. Dorrance, who was a wealthy 
 settler living up toward Troy. 
 
 These descendants of the austere Puritan forgot their ancestors, 
 for the Madeira flowed and the fiddle squeaked while the girls and 
 the young bucks danced until the roosters out in the barn-yard crowed 
 for sunrise. The longer the young people danced the harder they 
 danced, but it was not left entirely to the young peop,le, for ever)' 
 one who could, and had no religious scruples, danced. The fiddler 
 and cards were the symbols of the evil one to the Christians, while 
 good stiff whiskey and Madeira were drunk by saints and sinners 
 alike. 
 
 The pigeon-wing double shuffle with heel and toe resounded upon 
 the old floors until the house shook, for these dancers had plenty 
 of muscle in their limbs. They let themselves out. Cassie went 
 swinging around in the arms of a big bumpkin. Daniel wondered what 
 was the matter for all at once Cassie had lost half of her charms and 
 appeared cheap and commonplace. He went to another part of the 
 house, a fact which was not lost upon Cassie He went where the men 
 were talking and tried to smoke, but it made him sick 
 
88 Daniel North. 
 
 Col. Dorrance showed Daniel relics of the massacre. The most 
 prized souvenir of that bloody affair that the colonel displayed was 
 a burst gun. It had tried so hard to destroy the British that it had 
 ended its career of usefulness. There Wcis a suit of clothes that a 
 dead Dorrance had worn and a scalp of some one who had not left 
 his card. The family tree was next displayed and the blood was 
 traced back to the Flood. 
 
 Daniel was advised by one to study law, by another to be a 
 preacher, and the military men, who were in evidence in large numbers, 
 also pointed out to him the way to glory. 
 
 Cassie had especially enjoyed the evening because she was envied 
 by some of the young ladies who thought Daniel handsome, 
 dignified and distinguished looking besides being agreeable and kind. 
 Cassie had another reason to congratulate herself She had completely 
 captivated several of the young men who had neglected the young 
 ladies just mentioned so that the young men had buzzed about her all 
 the evening. She thought Daniel made a splendid escort He did not 
 hang about her and when she wanted his company she could have 
 it He never had any fault to find, so she tried to make him express 
 some objections to her dancing. "You Methodists think we are all 
 awful", she said, on her way home. 
 
 Daniel said, "When I go to a party I go because I want to go and 
 have a good time, and not to find fault ; it would be in bad taste and 
 absurd. I do not go there to preach, besides I never criticise you." 
 
 Cassie wanted to have it out with him but she could not, she was 
 fairly well satisfied. 
 
Daniel North. 89 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 It probably was a misfortune to both Anna and himself that they 
 were parted during this period, for it would have helped them both, for 
 they stood alone when their characters were becoming fixed. At the 
 same time fate had a chance to play them a strange fortune. The 
 young man, Daniel, was constantly, as Mrs. Barnes said, "breaking out 
 in a new place." 
 
 The club was proving a source of pleasure and profit, yet Daniel 
 felt that he was not bringing very much to pass that was of any im- 
 portance. So he made a move without consulting any one. He asked 
 Mr. and Mrs. Barnes if he might hold a series of religious meetings 
 in their front room. This they gladly consented to. Daniel wrote 
 with Sarah's help, invitations to all the young men and women in 
 Kingston and vicinity, inviting them to come to a series of religious 
 meetings he intended holding. He conceived the idea one day, and 
 on the next the invitations went out. No one was surprised 
 at anything he proposed, and no one doubted his ability to 
 carry his plans through successfully, for all had learned that Daniel was 
 sufficient for all his undertakings. 
 
 There was no church in Kingston so he had the field to himself 
 His motives were pure, and the end in view was the greatest that any 
 man can strive for. Every one loved to hear him talk. The worst 
 ruffian in town would have knocked anyone down who would have 
 dared to interfere with him in any way, for he was loved by all classes. 
 He prepared no sermon and used no text, taught no doctrines, pro- 
 claimed no creed. First he purchased hymn books and formed a choir 
 and Sarah played on the instrument. All, as they came in the door, 
 were met by Daniel who thanked them for coming and gave them 
 a welcome. As he stood up to talk he realized that many there would 
 heed his words who would sit and scoff at religion if they were in 
 church. Daniel would not do for a minister for he would not conform 
 to any rules, but free to think and act as he pleased without 
 being responsible to any one. Most of his hearers were young people 
 
90 Daniel North. 
 
 and many of them were bitter with the free thinking so prevalent in his 
 day. He proposed to take the Gospel pure and simple, and teach the 
 necessity and desirability of living a christian life, ignoring all the 
 objections that could be brought by his "hearers against the Bible and its 
 teachings. He proposed to make religion and a christian life so desir- 
 able that it would charm his hearers. He said to his hearers : " We 
 all have an ideal of a perfect life, of a perfect man, a dream of perfec- 
 tion. We ask for it from ourselves and from every one we meet. We 
 have an idea of eternal happiness. We reason if there is a part there 
 must be a whole. We accept it as true that sin, misery and imper- 
 fection are our inheritance. We must accept the cross, and, at best, 
 have for our inspiration and hope a vision of a blessed immortality. 
 We know we have sorrow here and a hope of obtaining happiness in 
 the future. My friends, is this all you have for the needs of your soul ? 
 The sunshine of some distant to-morrow is not a light for to-day. Is 
 hope all we rest upon ? Is this all we have to give us peace — to take 
 the sting out of sorrow ? Know, my friends, that the greatest science, 
 art and philosophy is to know how to live so as to cultivate the 
 elements of our natures to our elevation, and not to have them about 
 our necks as millstones to drag us down. 
 
 Every power we possess becomes a God to redeem us or a devil 
 to destroy us, as we choose. We must learn to live. This is the greatest 
 art. God holds out to us love and hate, the true and the false, wisdom 
 and folly, good and evil. We choose the evil, and ask for the fruits of 
 right doing. You let the things around you rule you, and the soul is 
 thrown down, and you eat dirt and cry — 'Worse than vanity.' Every- 
 thing in us or that touches us has the elements of happiness in it. The les- 
 son for every human being to learn is to set his soul free. If we tie to 
 human frailty and sin ; if we add to the debasing power of our passion 
 an evil heart, we have pulled the ladder, on which we might climb to 
 the skies, down on us and we are crushed. As the days go by, sin and 
 sorrow are carving on your face that which makes you shrink from your 
 own image, or else God is carving nobility, faithfulness, a regal grace and 
 manliness there, a suggestion of something divine that men love if they 
 but look into your face. Every human being can have the face of a devil. 
 
■ Daniel North. 91 
 
 or an angel or a christian. Every pdth of suffering leads to God. Every 
 experience but puts a jewel in our crown. At our infancy the gates of 
 heaven open to us, and all our journey through they stand open. The 
 angels of God almost drew us in the gates of Paradise. The gates of 
 heaven are on these human shores. Love God and keep his command- 
 ments, and you shall have life full and abundant. If you do not, the 
 sweet shall be bitter ; love will pierce you ; the rewards of life fail you. 
 Every cup you hold up will be reached out in vain. Your passions will 
 slay you, and the conditions of life crush you, and empty-handed you 
 will sit down at last like a spendthrift, robbed of all but misery." 
 
 This address was not followed by revival services, common to 
 special meetings, but by something akin to them — an informal talk 
 in which any one could take part. Daniel made the experiment of 
 engaging a little gathering in giving their views as they would at' a 
 public meeting called to consider some public question. Dr. 
 Clarenden opened the discussion by a short talk in which he stated 
 that he had something to say to the young people. It was this, in 
 substance : 
 
 "Young people are told many things about life and its experiences 
 that they find later in life are not true. I, for instance, was often told 
 when a young man, that I was seeing my best days. I concluded that 
 when I was old I would only have the past to occupy my thoughts, and 
 would crease to look forward. Be not deceived by this view of 
 old age. Though apparently you have nothing but the infirmities 
 of years and death before you, you still have the feeling that life is 
 before you, and not behind you. The appetites and passions cease 
 to goad you, and your soul reaches out with an undying hope. Nature 
 never loses her equipoise, but carries the cup of life full to the brim for 
 all who deserve it, even to the end. But age sees that youth needs 
 fully as much as he. ' The soul knows neither youth nor age, nor 
 deformity nor death.' Life is not to me an empty goblet out of which 
 I have drank all but the dregs of the wine of life. No, it is still full to 
 the brim of life's sparkling nectar. The delirium of youth has given 
 place to the serenity and peace of age. Life stretched before me 
 in my youth, it stretches before me in my more advanced years, and 
 
92 Daniel North. 
 
 ' hope springs eternal in the human breast.' We are all trying to rise 
 to a fair vision of our true selves and of truth. When we do rise high 
 enough to see truth, we are preserved from harm. This is the soul's 
 true estate. When your senses are purified they move to their allotted 
 task in the order of law. When there is self control life is happiness. 
 Find the good in yourselves, and become fashioned by it. This is 
 royal. You then become like God. You think this is only an elegant 
 way of entertaining you, for you think heaven does not come down like 
 fruit when the wind blows. You claim that the present is barren 
 enough. It is so because you do not make your claim for a larger 
 inheritance. You are 'hangers on' of life. I heard a man say that 
 men were the victims of fate. No, events come from God, and our 
 characters constrain fate. Fate should be a forgotten religion. Nature 
 not only speaks through you, but along with you, and there is some- 
 thing about you greater than man. God and heaven you deem far 
 away, but they are nearer than your own flesh. As I close, I will give 
 you a motto. Try to make the little corner you can influence less 
 miserable and ignorant than it was before you entered it" 
 
 Dr. Roswell went off" in a different line. He said: "Salvation 
 counts for something; faith counts for something. The borderland 
 between love and faith is where you feel the refining influence of both, 
 and the mind is molded in this imperial fashion. I love to be the 
 friend of such. Our friend Mr. Finch said the other evening that 
 beautiful thoughts haven't any kind of use, but they breed contem- 
 plation, and contemplation, reverence; and that is akin to a religious 
 state of mind. 
 
 "I will sum up Mr. Finch's philosophy in the expression that 
 common sense knows nothing of fine distinctions. I will add that fine 
 sense discerns them. 
 
 "Here one of the 'seven wise men' broke in by saying that justice 
 should not conflict with self interest. That many honorable things are a 
 burden, and goodness and poverty go hand in hand, also that selfish 
 and successful men have the most happiness; and ended by saying 
 that before virtue is set toil" 
 
Darnel North. 93 
 
 The doctor said: "There is a philosophy, which many beheve, 
 that teaches that crooked ways ascend to a higher fortune which will be 
 a tower of defense, where a man can be lord of bliss. Virtue is not 
 easy — but then nothing great is easy — but it brings the only real 
 happiness. Evil is always evil, though its material benefits may extend 
 to the third and fourth generations." 
 
 THE SEVEN WISE MEN OF GOOSE ISLAND. 
 
 One of the seven remarked that the first concern of life was the 
 real, the na.tural, and the essential. 
 
 The doctor replied: "Oh, heavens! are we mortals with only 
 bodies? Better be a slave, poor and portionless. To die a slave to 
 our bodies is worse than death. Many men believe that the greatest 
 and dearest pleasure is in the unrestrained gratification of desire. It 
 is no cause for praise when a man destroys himself and then others. 
 Then he needs a hell to hide in." 
 
 It was growing late, yet no one wanted the conversation to 
 stop. Daniel arose to close the meeting. 
 
94 Daniel North. 
 
 He was interrupted by a rather aristocratic looking man, with 
 black hair and eyes, more than good looking, with a face in which was 
 the unmistakable mark of dissipation. Everything about him was 
 striking from his pale face to his long, finely formed hands. 
 
 "They say I am an infidel. Yes, I am. I think if heaven was what 
 you christians say it is it would be as ridiculous as your bake-oven hell. 
 You prate about eternal death, which is to declare an impossible 
 paradox. You talk about christians and sinners. Your pitiless 
 distinctions are revolting. I would advise you to meddle more modestly 
 with what you know nothing about. Christ was but an oriental dervish. 
 Virtue is an hypothesis ; faith, credulity. We are all pensioners on 
 nature, and not responsible beings. Rehgion is the paradox of idiots and 
 the lie of imbeciles. We all walk in a treadmill prepared for us. You 
 are dreamers, and cannot substantiate your hope and faith. We are all a 
 passing tale, and soon shall be forgotten fables. Life is a great bore 
 and death serves us a mean trick. Like footprints in the snow or a 
 shadow on the wall, so transitory is human life. The chariot wheels of 
 life do not run on golden streets, nor speculation lead to immortality. 
 You claim that you have grasped all the soul craves. You might as 
 well go out doors and try to grasp the sunshine in your arms." 
 
 The speaker sat down, and no one replied. There was an awkward 
 pause until someone started a hymn. This speech brought about 
 a result not wished by the speaker. Daniel made up his mind that all 
 beautiful talk on religion would end, and he would preach the old- 
 fashioned gospel. 
 
 He sprang to his feet and made such an appeal that before he 
 finished some were in tears and all were under the power of the Gospel. 
 Like a flood the speaker poured upon his hearers the commandments 
 and promises of God. His invitations were almost irresistiable. 
 
 Dr. Roswell looked at the young man in amazement, for Daniel 
 was bringing the power of God down on the company, and he was 
 speaking as one inspired. Back in a corner sat the infidel watching 
 Daniel from under his black eye-brows. The look was not lost on 
 Daniel, for it was partly sympathetic and of undisguised admiration for 
 the power Daniel was displaying. The two doctors were helpless in a 
 
Daniel North. 95 
 
 revival, and the young christians present were timid. The fact soon 
 became apparent that the speaker had brought men and women to their 
 knees. Could he bring them to a christian's hope ? The fire that 
 was kindled in that front room, was leaping into a flame. Night after 
 night the people filled the house. Daniel preached and prayed as if 
 God were speaking in him. He had the power to lead men from dark- 
 ness into light. Soon a band of converts gathered about him. In 
 nearly every house in Kingston some new convert was praising God. 
 Revs. Bidlack and Owen came to see what was going on, and praised 
 God for what they saw and heard. 
 
 The day after the infidel had spoken in the meeting, Daniel 
 called upon him. The first thing the young man did was to apologize to 
 Daniel for the part he had played. He said : "I am an infidel, but I 
 am not so stupid as not to understand the manner of man you are and 
 to realize that the work you are doing is a Godsend to Kingston. 
 I believe it is all an illusion, yet I know that men are helped and pro- 
 tected by it. Daniel found himself in the presence of a man whom he 
 deemed his equal, intellectually and socially. These men recognized 
 and understood each other. They did not argue on religion. Daniel 
 asked him if he would not come to their meeting adding that he would 
 not annoy him by any personal appeal. The young man came. It is a 
 long story — but he flung down his infidelity and came out a redeemed 
 man. His name was Penn Pennington. 
 
 One evening Daniel went up to Troy to spend the 
 night with Penn Pennington. They sat up nearly all night, 
 talking as young people are wont to do, going over their 
 experiences and plans for the future. Penn was a young 
 lawyer. The family had given to the bench and bar 
 several brilliant members, with a good prospect of 
 adding, in the person of Penn, an additional light 
 
 The next morning Penn walked down with Daniel. 
 
 PENN PENN- . , , , 
 
 iNGTON. As they came down the mam street, they came to Cassie's 
 home. That young lady was in the yard. The boys stopped and 
 went in. Daniel introduced Penn. This was one of the trivial in- 
 incidents that are usually of only a passing interest, yet on such 
 
96 
 
 Daniel North. 
 
 acts very often hang results of great moment. Penn' was like Daniel 
 in many things, especially in his temperament. Penn and Cassie 
 were attracted to each other just as Cassie and Daniel had been. 
 The reason was in their nature. Cassie was ready to be gracious 
 to any one who was a friend to Daniel, and she was gracious 
 to Penn. Daniel was thoughtful all the rest of the way down 
 to Kingston. He kept his thoughts to himself, the reason 
 became apparent later on. He learned some time after that Penn 
 had by mere chance met Cassie several times and had also called on 
 
 DANCING THE OI,D YEAR OUT. 
 
 her. Daniel soon found that Penn was ill at ease about something. 
 Finally Penn told his friend that he was growing interested in Cassie. 
 He wanted Daniel to tell him before he called on her again if he was 
 free to go without coming between lovers already pledged. Daniel 
 told him to ask Cassie. 
 
 Penn asked Cassie if he could come to see her with the hope of 
 being more than a friend. She knew it was coming and asked a 
 few days to decide. She spent a sleepless night. In the morning 
 she sent her little brother with a note down to Daniel, asking him 
 to come up as she wished to see him. He went with a clear realization 
 of what the request meant. 
 
Daniel North. 97 
 
 Cassie did not wait until she lost her courage to say what she had 
 to say. She told Daniel that Penn had asked permission to pay her 
 attention. "O, Daniel, I can't say 'yes' to Penn until you tell me I 
 had best do so." 
 
 This is his answer : " My advice is that when you do not know 
 what to do, not to do anything." Cassie knew that she had put her 
 friend in a trying situation. 
 
 They walked out into the yard. It was filled with old-fashioned 
 flowers and great tall rose-bushes and shrubbery. Cassie was not quite 
 through. She plucked a flower and pinned it on his coat. Then she 
 took both his hands and asked him to kiss her, for the first and prob- 
 ably the last time. That kiss was fatal to Penn's courting. Cassie 
 accepted his attentions for several weeks and then asked to be con- 
 sidered no more than a friend and sister, but she did not tell Daniel. 
 
 The Spaniards say, "A wise man does at once what a fool does 
 at last." Something like this was the conclusion Daniel came to in 
 regard to art, namely; that he must give it up, for he was finding that 
 he could not fight successfully against the dictates of nature. He was 
 learning that by hook or crook nature would be master. All the 
 instincts of his nature demanded that he should strike out into the 
 current of thought and feeling, and swim in the tide of life with 
 humanity. The canvas was not a printed page nor a voice to move 
 men. He wanted to do the work he was called to perform. He knew 
 he had power, but the problem he had to solve was to find a way to 
 use his talents. The only way he knew was to keep as he had 
 begun until he gained the public ear and had a hearing. He knew that 
 it was no easy task. 
 
 He wondered what David would do with his talents, as he had 
 wealthy parents, was a scholar and was about to go to college. He sur- 
 mised he would become a professor of literature in some university or 
 college. On the other hand, Harold's parents were poor. His life 
 seemed to be a search after the beautiful and great, and as Daniel was 
 thinking about him, the boy came in with his arms full of wild flowers, 
 (he always stopped to pluck wild flowers), and began apostrophizing 
 on the blossom. He said : "A window into an unseen world. See 
 
98 Daniel North. 
 
 my sweetheart in royal robes — little teacher of purity and goodness, 
 holding up its face to the sun to kiss the air sweet Its breath is 
 heaven scented. It came from heaven and it will go to heaven. I will 
 wear a flower on my breast to keep me company in the wasting deso- 
 lation of death." 
 
 "Harold," Daniel said, "Do you know that you are a flower, and 
 the storms of life will fall on you ? Old age will crush the bloom from 
 your cheeks, temptation will assail you, and the realities of life kill the 
 poetry in your souL" 
 
 "No," he replied, "nothing can touch my soul. The flower stands 
 the storm as well as the oak. God made them, God made me to suit 
 himself, and he will care for me the same as he does the flowers if I 
 love and trust him, and I know I do," 
 
 "Harold, you have preached better to me than my fears. I 
 will try to trust Him as you do." Daniel never forgot the little poet- 
 preacher's sermon. 
 
Daniel North. 
 
 99 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Sarah Barnes came up to Daniel's studio as he was busy painting 
 to inform him that two men had called to see him. He requested her 
 to send them up. Daniel had never seen these two men. One was a 
 slim, sleek, smirking, sanctimonious man who was neither a gentleman 
 nor an intelligent man, though he assumed and believed himself to be 
 both. He had a ministerial look, his voice had a holy hush and he 
 moved as though he was performing some sacred, service. His grammar 
 was bad and his clothes did not fit him, that is they fitted him too 
 
 PIOUS EI,I. 
 
 well, and they had a shine that grew brighter as they grew older. His 
 companion was a great hulk of a fellow who looked as if he had been 
 originally poured into a suit of ill shapen garments and had hardened 
 to about the consistency of jelly. A pair of little pig eyes bhnked 
 complacently, knowingly, and indicated that one might find a jewel in 
 a pig's snout. The sanctimonious individual introduced himself 
 as Eli Teeter, a merchant, and his companion as "Ap," a man in 
 his employ. Eli said : "I had decided to enter the ministry, and 
 I have come to receive some advice. I have a small shop in Wilkes- 
 
lOO 
 
 Daniel North. 
 
 Barre, Ap has a room over my place of business and peddles my goods. 
 Ap is not pious, he is a great glutton and cares only for the flesh pots 
 of Egypt. Worse than this, he is in direct communication with the 
 devil, but he can sell goods." Eli smacked his lips and brought his 
 hands together with a motion that suggested a holy adoration. Daniel 
 glanced at Ap and then looked again. The thick, flabby lips, the little 
 blinking eyes, the heavy face that appeared to have but one unvarying 
 expression, that of a fat hog, did not mislead him. The pig 
 eyes were innocently blinking, yet the quick perception and intuition 
 of Daniel discovered that Eli was only a piece of putty in the pudgy 
 hands of his lackey. 
 
 "I want to enter the ministry, I have talked it over with Ap and 
 he says that it will pay. That if I enter the ministry I will have a good 
 social position, and that I can marry into one of the first families in the 
 valley. He has advised me to preach free salvation, but to remember 
 that a 'dumb priest loses his benefits.' I have practiced some of my 
 sermons on Ap and he says they are master-pieces. 'Tell them' he 
 says, 'that salvation is free, that heaven is paved with gold and .that the 
 walls are as thick with jewels as the freckles on my face. That no 
 capital is required, no risk run, and that there is as much in it as you 
 are smart enough to get out of it.' I wish, as Ap advises, to get 
 
Daniel North. loi 
 
 married as a means to the end I have in view. A wife with means and 
 high social position would make my way plain and easy. 
 
 "There is a young lady living near here by the name of Roxy 
 Oldtree. Ap has suggested that I propose to her and I want you 
 to introduce me. Ap tells me that she will jump at my proposal and 
 be glad to marry a man of my character, intelligence and prospects. I 
 have never courted any, and I rely upon Ap's advice." 
 
 Ap was apparently not listening to the conversation, but was 
 gazing about the room upon the pictures. There were many portraits 
 in different stages of completion, as Daniel was over-run with orders. 
 Ap was doing what Daniel was doing, that was to let- Eli do the 
 talking. Daniel appreciated the fun that Ap was having at Eli's 
 expense and did not propose to spoil it, so he told Eli that 
 if Ap thought best fof him to present himself to the young lady, that he 
 would not question his judgment. He thought that an introduction was 
 not necessary in his case and that he would do as well if he went alone. 
 Daniel was sure that Roxy would consider the proposal a good joke, 
 which she did. 
 
 Now Roxy was a splendid woman and often entertained Daniel at 
 her father's house. She was active in Christian work and the two 
 together looked after the poor and the sick. She was wealthy in her 
 own name, and her father was a wealthy and influential man. Roxy 
 was in love with a young lawyer, who was a man of ability, but, as he 
 had no means, and as yet had but little practice, he would not declare 
 his love. Roxy understood his position and was also aware that he 
 loved her devotedly, though he tried to keep that fact in the back- 
 ground. Naturally, Eli's advancements, even if he had been the peer 
 of a royal family, would have met with no encouragement from her. 
 Eli finally, so Daniel learned from Ap, later on, went and proposed. 
 The scene that took place Eli never painted for his friends, he only said 
 on his return he thought he would not get married. 
 
 Daniel called on Eli in Wilkes-Barre and met his mother. She 
 opened the door in the back of the store when Daniel came in, just 
 wide enough to stick her long sharp nose out and she watched like a 
 spider in his web all that took place in the store. Eli took Daniel back 
 
I02 Daniel North. 
 
 and introduced him to his mother. She was a very disgusting woman. 
 She was so penurious that she would go to her neighbor's well for water 
 so as to be sparing of that in the well at her back door. Soap was a 
 luxury only for the rich. She would not wash her clothes because wash- 
 ing wore them out. She even stopped her clock and went to the neighbors 
 to learn the time so that the clock would not wear out. She was filled 
 with a pretentious piety. 
 
 Eli had a dog and the dog was pious. Ap named him Doxology. 
 This ill favored cur would in a dumb way ask grace at the table. He 
 would sit up, cross his paws, close his eyes and remain motionless for a 
 minute. Eli and his mother would bow their heads. There was some- 
 thing quite curious in the dog performing the ceremony under the cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 Ap's apartment was shown to Daniel. They found that individual 
 there. Daniel came over because he was anxious to become acquainted 
 with this freak of nature. Eli told Daniel that Ap was in direct com- 
 munication with the devil and went on to explain. He pointed to a 
 little image of the devil in bronze on a table near Ap and said that Ap 
 always consulted it when he wanted any information or advice. "Ap," 
 Eli said, "warns people when they will die. If any one is sick he con- 
 sults his devil and if he learns that they will die he goes and sets on the 
 door step and waits for them to breath their last. Every one knows 
 what it means when Ap is found at the door. Ap never leaves the 
 premises until he is well served with plenty to eat. When he wants to 
 give advice he consults his devil. He has lately proposed that I 
 make another effort. He has found a lady who is wealthy and deeply in 
 love with me. I attend the church where s he worships and I have 
 observed that she watches me. Ap told me to cast sheep's eyes at her 
 whenever she looks at me and I have. Her name is Madeleine Guise. 
 Her uncle is a man that stands high in this section and she lives with 
 him. I have given up the idea of preaching, and will stick to my 
 business." 
 
 Daniel knew Madeleine, she was an old friend. She was well born 
 and well educated, yet had nothing and was no more in her uncle's 
 jjouse than a servant. Fate had not favored her and she was going to 
 
Daniel North. 103 
 
 seed without hope for the future, poor girl. If she had found a chance 
 she would have made a splendid woman, but, as things were, she had no 
 choice. Her uncle considered her as an encumbrance, yet was too 
 proud to let her go out and seek any kind of employment. She had no 
 associates but those she found at the back door of her uncle's house. 
 
 "Madeleine is wealthy, so Ap tells me, and belongs to one of the 
 first families," Eli repeated. "Ap has had some conversation with her 
 on the subject and I intend to present myself in the near future. I have 
 figured it all out and I think it will pay me and be a profitable enterprise. 
 She can come and live with my mother and her money will permit me 
 to enlarge my business and be a man as good as the best, for a man's 
 position all depends upon his wealth and family connection.s, at least 
 Ap says so and he consults his devil." 
 
 Daniel, as he left, asked Ap to walk over to the ferry with him. 
 He bid Eli good-bye and the two went away together. Daniel said 
 to Ap : "I wish you would not let Madeleine marry Eli. She probably 
 will if he asks her. She has had a hard time all her life and this will 
 bring her more misery." 
 
 " I know Madeleine," Ap replied, " I often talk to her when I 
 am peddling. I gossip with her every time I go to her back door 
 She will be enough for Eli — she is a tartar. She will enlighten Eli on 
 several points. She will make him walk as she wills. I have told her 
 that he is wealthy, pious and a man of parts. She is anxious to get 
 away from her uncle's house and will jump at a proposal of marriage 
 from him." Daniel pleaded for the girl and threatened to interfere, but 
 Ap would not make any promises. 
 
 The two parted. Daniel several month afterwards met Ap and 
 was surprised to find that he was well dressed and was driving a wagon 
 laden with goods and not lugging a pack. Daniel had intended to in- 
 terfere with Ap's plans. He had heard that Eli and Madeleine had 
 courted vigorously for a short time and then it came to an end. 
 
 Ap got off of his wagon and sat down by Daniel on a bank. They 
 
 had met on the road to Hanover. Ap explained the whole affair. " I 
 
 brought the two together," he said, "and they made love furiously. In 
 
 he meantime Madeleine took a great interest in me as I was a go-be- 
 
I04 
 
 Daniel North. 
 
 tween for them. She taught me to write and began my education and in- 
 sisted that I should spruce up, which I did. One day we were out in the 
 garden, back of the house, she picked some flowers for me and pinned 
 
 M.\DELEINE GUISE. 
 
 them on my coat. I repented, as I looked at her, for the wrong I was 
 doing her and I told her all about Eli and my part in the miserable 
 farce that was going on. She sat down and cried. I despised myself 
 and told her so. I said that I was not fit to look in her face and never 
 would. She looked up and told me that I was the only friend she had 
 in the world. Do you know what happened ? She got up from the bench 
 she was sitting on and asked me how I could be so cruel to her as she 
 had always treated me kindly. Something was the matter with both 
 of us for I reached out my arms and she came in them. I found for 
 the first time that I was a man. I \\ish you would go over and 
 see Madeleine, she is like one born again. We have both found 
 our life." Ap laid down upon his back, on the bank, to take a sun 
 bath and began describing a geometrical problem in the air with his 
 fingers. Daniel asked him what he was doing. He said that he 
 was working out his geometry lesson. I have a head for mathematics and 
 
Daniel North. 105 
 
 Madeleine is making a mathematician out of me. She had great courage 
 to undertake to make a man of me, but considering the material 
 she is doing well. I expect to be rich. I have a liking for business. I 
 have stopped being a glutton. I left my little bronzed devil 
 with Eli as a gift from myself to him. Madeleine does not look like an 
 old maid. I insisted that she should not wear curls down in front of 
 her ears and dress oddly. She has looked after my appearance and I 
 have ceased to be a scare-crow. I have given her advice as to what 
 becomes her and now she looks like a Greek goddess, for Madeleine is 
 a beautiful woman. What I think of her I am not advertising to the 
 people, I save my opinions and tell them to her." 
 
 There was a young man who w£is well known 
 in the valley who was constantly hunting along the 
 cliffs for gold mines. He was called Golden or 
 "Golden Sands." Daniel was introduced to him 
 by Hattie. Golden lived near her home, and she 
 brought him down because she knew that Daniel 
 would like to meet him. The young man was a 
 pleasant object to look upon. He had long 
 golden hair, hazel eyes an oval face and a mouth 
 that indicated fine feeling and affection. Golden, 
 Goi,DEN. ^g Daniel found out when they became acquainted, 
 
 was one of the strange children that nature creates at times to use up 
 the fine material that is not available in the make-up of more practical 
 men. Golden was simply a soul, through which sunshine and dreams 
 were revealed. The actual world did not exist to him. It was only 
 a place to dream in, to walk over and pluck flowers, and give full play 
 to the affections of the heart. This is all he did except to hunt gold 
 mines. If he had found one he would never have dug the gold. It 
 was just a dream that he had, for, to him, the only realities were the 
 fancies of his mind. He would stroll over the valley when the weather 
 was fine and make friends with every one who had time to visit with him. 
 Hattie said to Daniel : "I have brought in the perfect fruit of your 
 philosophy. I criticise and find fault with him only when he is absent. 
 
io6 Daniel North 
 
 When he is present he seems beyond criticism. God must have 
 wanted him as he is or he would not have made him." 
 
 Daniel asked Golden what he wcfuld do with his gold. He 
 replied: "I will buy the valley, build a dam between the mountains 
 at Nanticoke, make a lake of it and build myself a palace up 
 on Ross Hill." "What will become of the people living here?" Daniel 
 asked. "I will build them palaces all along the mountains and they 
 can visit me." 
 
 Hattie said, "Crips would like to meet Golden for he might help 
 that gentleman to become wealthy. If Golden finds gold he can hand it 
 over to Crips, who will know what to do with it and appreciate it." Daniel 
 went after Crips and brought him to see Golden. What happened was 
 not anticipated. Crips looked at Golden out of the corners of his eyes, 
 for Crips was no fool. He talked with Golden about finding gold, to 
 humor him. He asked him if he knew where there was any gold. 
 Golden said, "I have made a great discovery up at Campbell's Ledge. 
 At the foot of the Ledge I found a rock that is formed like a donkey's 
 head. It is about ten feet long. It is a hard climb to get up through 
 the brush to it, and that is why no one has discovered it before. I 
 noticed that there is a natural opening in one of the ears that is 
 dropped down as if to be talked into. I called into the opening one 
 day and was surprised to hear a voice from within answer me. I asked 
 if there was any gold in the ledge, and the voice replied 'Yes,' and I 
 asked where, and the voice replied, 'Where the donkey's right eye 
 looks. The Indians used to get gold out of this ledge. They put a 
 large stone in the opening of the mine when they left.' " 
 
 Golden said he had hunted for the opening but had not found 
 it. Golden asked Crips if he would like to be rich, and Hattie and 
 Daniel laughed while Crips sheepishly said he would. The absolute 
 sincerity and intelligence with which Golden told his remarkable story 
 made Crips look at Golden and marvel. He thought to himself that 
 maybe the gold was there, but said that he believed it was a hoax, but 
 Golden said he would go with him and talk into the donkey's ear 
 himself All that was avaricious in Crips' soul arose and his incredulity 
 was overcome. Crips had heard that the Indians used to dig gold in 
 
Daniel North. 107 
 
 the valley, or near by, and he thought that maybe Golden had found the 
 location. Golden agreed to go with him to talk into the donkey's 
 ear. Crips, Daniel noticed, did not appoint a day, and surmised 
 that he might not go with Golden, but alone and hunt for the donkey's 
 head. 
 
 That afternoon Hattie, Roxy Oldtree and Daniel went over to see 
 Madeleine, as Daniel had promised Ap they would. While they were 
 there Ap came, and Daniel told what Golden had said to them about the 
 gold mine and the stone donkey. Ap had nothing whatever to say on 
 the subject, but he evidently did some thinking, as the results will 
 prove. The little party had a delightful visit and then returned home. 
 
 After a few days Crips came into Daniel's room and showed him 
 some gold dust and told him he had found it at Campbell's Ledge. 
 Crips had had it tested and it was valuable ore. Daniel was puzzled. 
 He did not believe that there was any gold in the Ledge, yet it was 
 evident that Crips had found some 
 
 Soon every body in the valley heard of the find and became excited 
 over it and the people flocked to the foot of Campbell's Ledge. Crips 
 claimed that he was the owner of all the gold. He went to the owner 
 of the property and learned that a peddler who was called Ap had 
 bought the ground but a few days before. Ap appeared on the scene 
 and agreed to sell out if a company was formed. The opening of the 
 mines had not been found, but where the right eye of the donkey looked 
 there was a large boulder and there Crips had found the gold dust and 
 others found some in smaller quantities. Ap sold out and left 
 the gold seekers of the Valley free to search for the treasure. 
 
 Daniel asked Ap if he had put the ore there and had played a 
 hoax. Ap began working out a geometrical problem in the air and 
 never winked. This was what he had done, as Crips and the company, 
 of course, never found the gold mine. Ap was the only one who struck 
 gold. He never told Maedleine, and Daniel never mentioned the 
 matter again. 
 
 A tragedy grew out of this episode. Eli heard of the gold mine 
 and wanted to become a stock owner. He went to his mother for the 
 money, as she, like Judas, held the money bag — she would not give it up. 
 
I08 Daniel North. 
 
 One night Eli tried to steal it from her while she was asleep. She had 
 it in a bag that was fastened to a cord about her body. While Eli was 
 carefully removing it his mother awoke and a fierce struggle took place. 
 The devil in their hearts arose. The mother bit and clawed her son 
 like a tiger. Eli tried to break the cord. The woman sank her teeth 
 in his cheek. He let go of the money bag and took her by the throat 
 and choked her until she was unconscious. He then cut the cord 
 and lighting a candle dip, found that his mother was dead. The shock 
 had killed her as she was an old woman. Eli fled. He was caught 
 and tried and the facts, as they are here recorded, were developed in 
 the trial. He died a miserable death, in prison, before the day he was 
 to be executed. 
 
 As I have mentioned Roxy Oldtree and her lover, I will say more 
 about that charming couple at this point and then go on with. my story. 
 Roxy Oldtree, and Hugh Morris her lover, are sitting in Roxy's 
 parlor, Roxy on a sofa rather suspiciously at one end and Hugh is 
 sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. , Hugh is silent and is 
 evidently thinking intently. The sound of a fife and drums came in 
 through the open window. A company from Kingston is preparing 
 to leave for the northern frontier. Roxy asks her companion if he is 
 going with the troops to tHe front. Hugh does not look at her nor 
 does he answer at once, finally he replies, "That is not my intention." 
 Roxy flushes and replies "I am afraid that you lack either patriotism or 
 courage." If he felt any sting from her words not a line or muscle in 
 his face betrayed it. Finally he arose and was about to open the parlor 
 door when Roxy put her back against it and told him he could not go 
 unitl he had forgiven her for her injust and hasty remark. Hugh went 
 to the window, reached out, plucked a rose and came and put it in her 
 hair. She slipped aside and he said "good bye," and went out. He 
 either did not see or ignored the hand she was reaching out to him. 
 Hugh embarked with the Kingston company the next day at Toby's 
 Eddy and went to the war without saying good bye to the girl he loved. 
 Hugh was a Tory and that is what prompted the patriotic Roxy to 
 address him as she did. 
 
Daniel North. 1 09 
 
 Hugh was taken down with a fever after he had reached the front. 
 Roxy was in great distress for she learned that he was in poor quarters 
 and was not having proper care. With a woman's true instinct she 
 called into council and to aid her the last person that others would 
 have appealed to and that was Golden. The result was that Golden 
 started at once to go and care for Hugh. Roxy furnished him with 
 plenty of money and bound him by a solemn pledge not to disclcse to 
 anyone who sent him on his errand of mercy. There was a company 
 from this section going to the front and Golden went with them. 
 When the officer in command learned Golden's mission he was hurried 
 on to the front. 
 
 Great was the surprise of his friends when they learned that 
 Golden was off to the war as a nurse, and the surprise would have been 
 greater if they knew why and how he came to go. Hugh thought 
 Golden a natural born nurse and such he was in fact. Though he was 
 apparently only a butterfly, he had a splendid physique. Hugh was 
 puzzled. How came Golden there and how did he get there. Golden 
 came in as if he were a butterfly floating by and chanced in and staid. 
 Hugh decided as Daniel had that this man or boy Golden was a 
 marvel. Golden nursed Hugh and when he was well enough brought 
 him home. Then Golden went back to his butterfly existence as if 
 nothing had happened. 
 
 As Hugh had no money when he reached home he went to teach- 
 ing school to maintain himself He had called upon Roxy but the visit 
 was not satisfactory. Hugh felt his poverty, and pride kept him away. 
 He had not finished his law course, and his prospects were not bright. 
 Roxy felt badly. The thought that she had money in abundance and 
 Hugh, with his splendid abilities, had none, spoiled her peace, yet she 
 was helpless. She knew that Hugh loved her as a woman cares to be 
 loved. He had never told her so, yet she could feel his love whenever 
 he was near. A woman knows if a man truly loves her. He was a 
 man that a woman could love and be proud of She was a woman and 
 must keep silent. A woman usually finds a way to express her feelings 
 and wishes. Roxy thought and planned to help Hugh, yet she could 
 not come to a plan that was practical. She went to Golden. He was 
 
I lO Daniel North. 
 
 not like other men. She could tell him anything, for his nature was so 
 fine and sympathetic. 
 
 Golden smiled when she explained that she wanted Hugh to use 
 her money, to loan it to him, or take it any way he wished, to help him 
 until he had secured practice in his profession. Golden told her that 
 he would see Hugh. What Golden would say to Hugh she could not 
 guess, yet she had confidence that no one could be as wise as Golden 
 when he wanted to be wise. Golden told Hugh that Miss Oldtree 
 wanted to loan him money, as she thought it would be a safe and 
 profitable investment. Then he added, "You had better call, as she 
 wants to see you about it." Golden was too deep for the lawyer. He 
 could not cross-question him. Hugh went to see Roxy and told her 
 what Golden had said. Hugh looked at the fair girl before him and 
 the truth flashed upon him that she had sent Golden to nurse him and 
 that she was trying hard to help him. 
 
 For once the feelings of his heart overcame him, and tears came 
 into his eyes. He told her simply all he had felt and thought. He 
 told her it was a crime in his eyes for him to avow his love for her 
 until he had some prospect of being in a position to ask for her hand, 
 yet the thought of what she had done for him, and her desire to help 
 him made it impossible for him to keep silent. 
 
 Roxy had said nothing, she preferred to listen just then, for there 
 would be plenty of time for her to talk. 
 
 "Roxy, I did not intend to let you know that I loved you," 
 Hugh said. 
 
 She smiled and replied, "Hugh, I have known a long" time that you 
 love me. Do you suppose that my heart would not find it out? You 
 would not tell me because you are not well off You think you are 
 wise, yet you do not know a woman's heart, or how a woman feels 
 when she cannot let her heart speak and can not love openly. If you 
 will not take some of my money you will be cruel. If I were poor I 
 could come and put my arms about your neck and tell you that I 
 would suffer anything with and for you ; now I must be held off by 
 you pri de." 
 
Daniel North. 1 1 1 
 
 Hugh asked Roxy to wait for him until he could make his way, as 
 he could not use her money. 
 
 Hugh had told his love and Roxy had let her heart speak. When 
 the maid swept out the parlor the next morning she found a rose that 
 Roxy had worn the day before on the floor quite crushed, and yet it 
 was evident that no one had stepped upon it. 
 
 Golden had a curious fancy. He brought a rose leaf jar to the 
 club, empty, and put it upon the mantel. He said that it was to hold 
 beautiful thoughts, good wishes, love and friendship. No one criticised 
 his poetical fancy and the beautiful bowl of china adorned with a design 
 of delicate pink and tender blue flowers was not touched. When Sarah 
 Barnes dusted her mantel she carefully wiped it without stirring it and 
 would look into it with a feeling of strange pleasure and reverence, for 
 she could not make up her mind that it did not hold in its keeping the 
 program of the minds and hearts of the members of the club. She 
 kept the jar and handed it down to her children. Sweethearts and 
 lovers would whisper into it their tender vows. No one could quite 
 convince themselves that it was not a repository of precious memories 
 and a centre from which was transmitted to the very atmosphere all 
 that the heart craves and the soul adores. Golden had another fancy 
 and that was that part of his soul became a part of the soul of every one 
 who loved him and that he would be their souL companion. There was 
 some ground for this fancy for it did seem that his spirit entered into 
 those whom he loved and who were in sympathy with him. To those 
 who came near him there was a spiritual companionship that could not 
 be defined nor denied. He would tell his friends that he had assisted 
 them when they were away and asked them if they did not remember it. 
 He would look at a friend as if he saw their soul and was looking right 
 into their thoughts. He seemed but a spirit that had no use for his 
 body unless it were to enable him to have human companionship. One 
 day when Minnie told him that he would die in the Poor house he asked 
 her if she did not know that a soul never grows old and never dies ? 
 "This body of mine,," he said, "is but my bone house that I am waiting 
 in for awhile. I have another body that you cannot see. That is my 
 real body. It will never be touched by time or decay. I like living 
 
112 Daniel North. 
 
 in this bone house that I carry about. Every thing has a body that 
 is unseen and unchangeable. Just look at the flowers, when we 
 see them they are visible because they are revealed for a short time in 
 a natural way. By the way, Minnie, where do you suppose the flowers 
 go in the winter ? They simply leave off" their coarse garments. I will 
 leave off" my coarse garments some day. You think because I see the 
 sky I do not see the earth. I will gather a double harvest. I will have 
 an earthly immortality and an abundance of the goods of this |earth. 
 His prophecy was fulfilled. 
 
Daniel North. 1 1 3 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The following winter the ice on the river froze to an unusual 
 thickness. 'The snow did not melt all winter and in the back-woods 
 laid very deep. In the spring there came a warm spell and then a 
 heavy rain. The result was that the river began rising rapidly and the 
 people gathered on the river bank at Wilkes-Barre to see 
 
 THE ROSB HOUSE IN THE ICE. 
 
 the ice break up and go out. It was expected that the low- 
 land would be flooded, but little fear was entertained that the water 
 would come up in Wilkes-Barre. On the flats were two or three 
 houses below high water mark. Allen Rose's residence was one 
 of them but was protected from the ice by the grove on the river bank 
 above the house. Rose rarely moved out when threatened by a 
 freshet. He went up stairs, having first taken his stock to the high land. 
 The rain continued to pour down, and the river rose rapidly. 
 Everybody knew what to expect, and moved out of danger — all, but 
 Allen Rose. The little house in which the crazy woman lived 
 was on the edge of the bank of Turtle. Creek, between the upper 
 an'd lower flats, near Forty Fort, and was out <5f reach of the usual 
 rise in the river. No one feared a flood except when they had crops 
 on the flats. On the other hand, they enjoyed the excitement it 
 occasioned. All day in the rain -the people had watched the river to 
 see the ice break, and when night came the old fashioned tin lantern 
 and bonfire told that men were still watching. The night was dark, the 
 
1 14 Daniel North. 
 
 rain poured down, and the wind blew with a desolate moan that made 
 the night one in which men found their hearts beating fast and their 
 minds strangely alert. 
 
 Daniel, David and Harold were out watching the rising 
 water. Late at night they heard the ice breaking in the river, 
 which was nearly a mile away, and soon the water came up to 
 the high ground on which Kingston stands. The boys remembered that 
 the crazy woman's house was not quite out of reach, so they hurried up 
 to Forty Fort. When they reached the bank above the house, they 
 found that the ice covered all the lower flats and was grinding against 
 the trees half way up the bank. They went down as near to the house 
 as they could go, and found the water up to the top of the door, and 
 the ice piling up against it in a fearful manner. They built a fire that 
 threw a light so they could see the house and the great mass of moving 
 ice which stretched out a mile wide. No one knew anything about the 
 woman. Daniel shouted, and finally a terror stricken face appeared at 
 the little upstairs window. Just as she appeared, the ice came crowding 
 in around the house and lifted it from its fouudation, and it moved away 
 as if it were a hen-coop. The group on the bank were filled with horror, 
 but the woman in the fatal house gave no cry, while the night swallowed 
 everything up in darkness. The night wore away, and the morning 
 disclosed a great floating mass of ice from Kingston to Wilkes-Barre, 
 but on the lower flats it was stationary as a dam had driven it over the 
 flats. When the dam broke, the water was not able to move the great 
 mass of ice. Over on the flats a short distance above Allen Rose's 
 house could be seen the little house from Forty Fort. About half 
 •of it was visible above the ice. The house of Rose was banked up to 
 the second story. No sign of life could be detected in either house, as 
 they were too far away. The friends, as well as every one, watched 
 anxiously for the water to fall so that an effort could be made to rescue 
 the crazy woman and Allen Rose. It was three days before the water 
 fell enough to make it safe for any one to climb over the ice. 
 
 On the third morning, as soon as it was light, the three friends 
 made the attempt. The ice lay from ten to twenty feet deep between 
 Kingston and the river. It was found that there was no danger if care 
 
Daniel North. , 115 
 
 was taken not to fall in a hole. The young men pressed eagerly forward, 
 and as they came near the house they became excited. Thete was a sense 
 of tragedy and a feeling of horrible apprehension that greatly distressed 
 them. There was no sign of life about the little cabin, tilted up partly 
 on its side, and at the house of Rose they could not tell anything about 
 the inmates, as they were approaching it from behind. They finally 
 reached the house then climbed around to get on the front porch. As 
 they came around to the front and could see under the porch, 
 they saw a sight that gave them a shock. What they saw was the 
 body of Allen Rose, hanging by the neck, from a rope that was 
 fastened to a projecting rafter. His face was white and rigid. Near it 
 sat the crazy woman. As soon as the boys appeared she arose and 
 walked toward them. She had a very sad and distressed expression on 
 her face, and Daniel's first glance at her convinced him that a marvelous 
 change had come over the woman. She came to the railing of the 
 porch and said, "You are Daniel North and these two young men are 
 your friends. I have regained my reason. The terrible experience I 
 have passed through has worked a miracle. You see what has hap- 
 pened here. I came down over the ice yesterday and found Mr. Rose 
 as you see him. I spent the night alone. I went to bed and slept for I 
 was worn out. I found food upstairs, as Mr. Rose had evidedtly pre- 
 pared for several days confinement. I look upon you as my friend. My 
 mind was unbalanced, yet I comprehended intelligently some things. I 
 know that you are a friend to my daughter Anna Rose. I saw you meet 
 her in the Forty Fort burying-ground. I was sitting on the bank but 
 you did not see me. I knew your mother and father. I remember you 
 as a little boy in the Fort. I was in the room and saw your mother. I 
 can clear up that mystery, but I must consult my daughter first. I have 
 looked upon you almost as a son. I know that I can look to you for protec- 
 tion until my daughter can come to me. I am so unstrung that I am 
 helpless, and need some one to rely upon until I have rested and have 
 adjusted myself to the peculiar situation I find myself in. I thank God 
 for my reason, but I want to getaway from this awful place." 
 
 Daniel and the two boys assisted Mrs. Rose over the ice. When 
 they came to Kingston all the people were on the street waiting for 
 
1 1 6 Daniel North. 
 
 them. The first to meet them were Mr. Long and Hattie. They were 
 quick to see what had happened to Mrs. Rose. Mr. Long had a 
 carriage and he insisted that Mrs. Rose should go with him, which she 
 did. Daniel went back alone over the ice to the house to see if he 
 could find any papers which would throw any light on his claim to the 
 propertj-. He found a will on the table. He glanced over the parchment 
 and found that the property was all deeded to Anna Rose. This will 
 he put in his pocket He searched every drawer, and finally, in an old 
 trunk in the garret he found a little silk bag. In this he found 
 his father's original deed to the property. At last he had the little 
 bag that was taken from his mother when she was murdered. On the 
 way back Daniel met a large crowd coming over the ice. He went 
 home and wrote to Anna at once, telling her the facts that were of such 
 deep interest to her, and he also sent the will. He did not consult any- 
 one before he sent it. Daniel, paid little attention to the excitement 
 over the suicide of Rose and the funeral that followed. Rose was 
 buried in the little burying^ground at the edge of the village of Kingston 
 towards Ross HilL 
 
 Daniel could hardly sleep. He wondered what Anna would say 
 or do ; if she would come or send for her mother ; what Mrs. Rose 
 would disclose in regard to the murder of his mother ; if Anna would 
 be willing to accept the property which she knew her uncle had robbed 
 him ofif! 
 
 In a few days Daniel received a message from Anna that she had 
 just arrived at Mr. Long^s, and wished him to come up as soon zs con- 
 venient. He returned with the messenger. He met Anna in the 
 presence of the family and Mrs. Rose. Their greeting was cordial, yet 
 rather formal. Anna was weary from her long ride in a stage. She 
 said that she could not wait until she was rested to see him, but had 
 sent down for him at once. She would ask him to come up in the 
 morning and they would talk over the many things that interested 
 them. Mrs. Rose asked Daniel to bring Penn Pennington in the morn- 
 ing to act as her daughter's attorney. 
 
 This put a new face on the situation, and led him to infer that the 
 mother and daughter intended to ignore his claim to the prop- 
 
Daniel North. 117 
 
 erty, but this did not trouble him as he had no desire to 
 contest the case with them. He could have fought for it while 
 Allen Rose held it, but now all he could do was to put the htlte 
 silk bag of his mother's and his father's deed out of sight, and 
 remain silent as to its existence. He certainly expected that the next 
 time he came he would know who murdered his mother, and have all the 
 disturbing elements between Anna and himself explained. He did not 
 feel quite at ease the next morning as he sat in Mr. Long's front room 
 waiting for Anna. That young lady finally came in alone. Daniel 
 detected there was a cloud hanging over her happiness. When he 
 asked her what was troubling her, she said he would know when he 
 , talked with her mother. They went to Mrs. Rose's room, and she did 
 the talking. She said she had consulted with her daughter and they 
 had decided that for the present it was best that all the facts in regard 
 to the murder of his mother be suppressed, as the parties associated 
 with the deed were in their graves and it would serve no purpose. She 
 then referred to the property by saying, that she was aware that at one 
 time Allen Rose's estate was owned by Richard North. While that was 
 true, it was evident that her husband's brother had come into possession 
 of it. Even if it were shown that this was not the case, .she was not willing 
 to rehnquish her daughter's claim unless the law compelled her to do so. 
 She was not through with the young man. "You are," she said' 
 "Interested in Anna. I think that you should not stand in my 
 daughter's way." 
 
 Daniel looked at Anna to see how she regarded the straight 
 business arrangement her mother was making. Daniel, when he looked 
 over to Anna found her watching the expression of his face very 
 anxiously. She, he could see, was grieved. He could read an appeal 
 in her face that was responded to and understood by Daniel. 
 
 When Daniel left, Anna followed him out to the gate and walked 
 down the path with him. Neither mentioned what was on their 
 minds. Anna stopped and said she must go back. Daniel began to 
 say something in regard to her mother's remarks. Anna stopped 
 him. He told her he certainly would not refer to the subject if she did 
 not wish him to do so. She put her hands on his shoulders and said, 
 
ii8 Daniel North. 
 
 "You have a kind heart. It is a great deal to ask, but I want you to 
 be true to me, for I never needed your sympathy more than I do 
 now. Do you love me well enough to sacrifice your rights for the 
 present without a question ? I am in a hard situation. I am trying to 
 be just It cuts me to the heart to appear unjust to you." 
 
 Daniel smoothed back her hair with a caress and they parted. 
 
 That afternoon Penn Pennington came down to talk with Daniel 
 before he accepted the proposition of Mrs. Rose, that he act as her 
 attorney, for he could not think of doing so without consulting Daniel. 
 That young man urged him to accept the business by all means, as 
 he had no claim that he wished to present He told him that he would 
 consider it a personal favor if he would do so. Daniel tried to settle 
 down to his work, but found that his mind was elsewhere. 
 
 Later in the week, he received a note from Anna saying she was 
 coming down Monday evening with Hattie to attend the Rainbow Club. 
 She wished that he would have David, Harold and Cassie there, if it 
 were convenient for them to cbme, so that she could meet them. She 
 said that she was coming down early so that she could call upon 
 Minnie. She added that she would also be pleased to meet all his 
 friends. She supposed, of course, that Dr. Clarendon and Dr. Roswell 
 would be there, and that she would meet them also. 
 
 Daniel made arrangements for a special program. He wanted 
 David and Harold to give an exercise so that Anna could see what 
 talent these boys possessed. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Barnes were quite excited over Anna's visit They 
 finally sent her an invitation to be their guest for the night with 
 Hattie Long. They prepared to have a lunch after the club had met, 
 for Daniel's closest friends, Penn, David, Harold, Minnie, Cassie and 
 the doctors. They sent them each an invitation to take tea with 
 them after the meeting of the club. It turned out that it 
 was more of a reception than a literary meeting. Every one came 
 dressed in their best, as it was known that Anna Rose and other guests 
 would be there. 
 
 The gathering was very enjoyable. Anna met all of Daniel's friends. 
 Daniel was proud of the beautiful and gracious young woman. She 
 
Daniel North. 119 
 
 possessed a natural dignity and a bearing that would have made her con- 
 spicuous in any gathering. Caissie was a little abashed, and she felt that 
 she could not stand a comparison with the charming and accomplished 
 blonde. She looked a little dejected. When Anna met her she was rather 
 formal. Anna asked her to walk around with her. They went and sat down 
 on the stairs. Anna asked Cassie to be her friend. These two young 
 ladies knew that Daniel was blameless in his relation to them, while at 
 the same time he was in a hard position, for he wanted to be perfectly 
 honorable. Anna found it hard but she finally told Cassie she wanted 
 to talk to her about Daniel. She was frank, and told her companion 
 if Daniel ever wanted to be more than a friend to her, she could feel 
 free to accept an offer, as he was not bound to her. She admitted that 
 she cared for him, yet there was so much that neither were responsible 
 for that would keep them apart. She was afraid that she might spoil 
 his life and she cared too much for him to do that, even if she had to 
 sacrifice herself. "You know," she said, "that a terrible crime stands 
 between us, and now a new barrier has presented itself that makes me 
 hopeless. I want you to understand the hard position Daniel is placed 
 in, and not to blame or punish him." 
 
 Cassie was a hard girl to understand. She appeared on the surface 
 to be bent on her own pleasure and not careful or considerate of others. 
 She told Anna that she was usually misjudged, while at heart she was 
 faithful to those she cared for, and was just, though she appeared to be 
 otherwise. She was surprised at what Anna then told her. 
 
 "Miss Butler, you probably think I am to be envied. When I tell 
 you how I am situated, you will not think so. I believe that this is the last 
 time I will be permitted to meet the delightful friends gathered here in 
 the same relation I now occupy. I will tell you what you would probably 
 know in a short time, and I do not want you to misjudge me. I have 
 thought much about you for Daniel has always been perfectly open 
 to me in his correspondence. As I will probably never be permitted, 
 by a cruel fate, to walk by his side as his companion, so I want to 
 do all I can to secure his happiness, and not to rob him of love that 
 might be his. You will soon learn from others that my uncle has willed 
 me all he possessed, the property on which he lived, which is a 
 
1 20 Daniel North. 
 
 large estate, and a large sum of ready money. This property 
 belonged to Daniel's parents. My father, during the war, drove off the 
 stock and stripped the fields, for several seasons, of the crops and sold 
 them to the Hessians. He finally burned their house down, and 
 persecuted them. He had a personal hatred for Mr. and Mrs. North. 
 This I learned from my mother, whom, you know, has regained her 
 reason. After the massacre my mother visited the battle-field unob- 
 served, and found her husband dead, with the sword of Richard North 
 through his body. Then there came the murder of Mrs. North. My 
 mother was in the room with her. I now know who committed that 
 terrible crime, but I have pledged my mother not to disclose the 
 perpetrator of the deed. The people believe that my uncle, Allen 
 Rose, did it. I cannot say anything to clear him. When I received 
 the glad news that my mother had recovered her reason, I received 
 from Daniel my uncle's will. No one knows of the will but Daniel, my 
 mother and myself, and the witnesses who were tory friends of my 
 uncle's. When I received the will I was glad, for I would be able 
 to give Daniel his own. When I reached Troy, and met my mother, 
 she thought differently. She said Daniel had no claim to the property ; 
 that if I gave the estate away I was robbing her. She has employed 
 Penn Pennington to claim the estate for me. I am helpless. In a few 
 days the people will know that I have inherited the property, and they 
 will expect me to make restoration. When they find that I do not do so, 
 and do not marry Daniel, every one will be indignant, for I cannot 
 explain, and as I am the daughter of a tory, I will be spurned. To- 
 night every friend has a smile for me; in a few days every door will be 
 closed against me. I look happy, but it breaks my heart to know 
 that I cannot keep these dear friends whom I would learn to love." 
 
 Cassie put her arms around Anna's neck and kissed her many 
 times, while her tears fell on Anna's face. Anna knew that she had 
 a friend. Cassie was not slow to see an outcome that Anna had not 
 referred to. She said, "Why Miss Rose — " " Never call me anything 
 but Anna," Anna stopped her to say. 
 
 " I was about to say" said Cassie, "that Daniel will not give you 
 up for any of the reasons you have given. He is true as steel." 
 
Daniel North. 1 2 1 
 
 " I know him better than you do. I know he is true, yet you 
 forget that I will be rich. I know that he would never come to me 
 and accept, even from me, what he could not bring to me. While he 
 and I would wait, youth would pass and both of our lives would be 
 spoiled. I have thought it over. I have given him up. I know he 
 loves you and would love us both, and I know you will be willing 
 for him to have a kind place in his heart for me." 
 
 When they returned to the parlor, Daniel met them and said 
 they looked as if they had attended a love feast. As he looked at 
 them he grew silent, for he felt that a sacrament had been held, and 
 he was, unconsciously, a part of the ceremony. 
 
 Harold had a little speech prepared. He was looking blue, for he 
 found that there was to be no program. Daniel brought back the 
 'dimples to his cheeks when he told him that after the spread he was 
 to be called upon and then he could cover himself with glory. When 
 he was introduced to Anna early in the evening, she had knelt down to 
 talk to him. As she did so, he put his arms about her neck, and told 
 her she was the sweetest woman he had ever seen. Then he added, 
 a little to her embarassment, that Daniel must be proud and happy 
 to have such a lovely sweetheart. Anna kissed him. 
 
 When David was introduced, Anna received him so graciously, 
 that Harold appeared jealous. Everybody laughed when he came 
 and stood by her side and said he was her sweetheart. David 
 corrected him and told him he meant little lover. Anna reached her 
 hand down under his chin and drew him to her, much to that little 
 fellow's delight. Daniel asked him if he had discarded Minnie. "I can 
 like her too, can't I?" he said to Anna. Minnie put in "I am not 
 jealous, for he is my lover every day, and he is yours only to-night." 
 Minnie was older than Harold, and considered herself an older sister 
 to him. 
 
 The little party which gathered about Mr. Barnes' table late that 
 night was good to look upon. ■ Youth, beauty, refinement, grace, 
 genius, beautiful old age, and health, and all with guileless 
 hearts. Anna, as far as she could, forgot her sad thoughts, and gave 
 herself up to the rare company and the joy of the occasion. Harold 
 
122 Daniel North 
 
 was eager to make his speech, and Minnie, it was evident, was anxiously- 
 waiting for her little friend to honor himself and her by his brilliant 
 performance. It was pleasant to observe Mr. and Mrs. Barnes as they 
 looked around at the happy faces gathered about them. Anna held up 
 her glass and proposed a toast to Mr. and Mrs. Barnes, and Sarah, the 
 Quaker Methodist. As she held up her glass, all the company joined her. 
 " Here is to three friends we all honor and love. We will always pray 
 to God to bless them, preserve them, and in heaven reward them." 
 
 Penn sang a song, then Harold was called upon for his speech. 
 This what he said: 
 
 "Idiots will not think, no, not for a thousand a year, and the noblest 
 intellects will go to the devil. The stellar space in most minds is not 
 filled with many stars." Here Daniel stopped him and asked him if the 
 speech was all his own. He blushed and said "David had helped him 
 a little." Anna told him to go on. ' He went on, "In fact, most minds 
 are an appalling solitude. Men say the world is disappointing, especi- 
 ally as it killed vanity which is the worst loss we can experience. We 
 find vanity to be the foundation of happiness. It is the whip to 
 achievement ; better than necessity or selfishness ; better than wine or 
 a good dinner. I will preach a sermon. My text is, that ignorance is 
 a weed and will always be a weed though you plant it in the garden of 
 Eden and celestial zephyrs fondle it. Ignorance is darkness." 
 
 Penn asked him to put on the cap and bells and to begin to joke 
 even if he ended with fireworks. 
 
 Harold said, "Let me go on. I have not whittled my thoughts 
 out of a stick, and I am not trying to spread such an achievement to 
 fame. If I did not point out my ideas, you might not know I had any. 
 I have all my thoughts well washed, powdered and tinted, and you 
 should not interrupt me. I would paint your future as peaceful and 
 beautiful, as a stately ship on a majestic tide with happiness sitting at 
 your side. I hope you will be so tender hearted that you will be 
 self-reproached if you pluck a violet, and conscience stricken when you 
 shake the gold out of a hlly." 
 
 Penn said he expected that he would be if he belonged much longer 
 to the Rainbow Club conscience smitten when he ate mutton." 
 
Daniel North. 123 
 
 Anna said, "I never mar a beautiful snow bank without doing 
 violence to to my poetic sense." 
 
 Harold said he wished they would let him go on as he had the 
 floor. He said; "I am Greek enough to think Daphne dwells in the breeze 
 and Narcissus in the flowers. I fancy this is the borderland between 
 religion and poetry." 
 
 Cassie said : "Where did you get that ?" 
 
 "David gave it to me." He went bravely on. "Do you think it a 
 virtue not to tear the rose from the stalk or to eat flesh. It may be 
 fanciful, but I would like to be a friend to such as do not for they must 
 have a soul like the breath of June. This is mine", the speaker said. 
 "I pity those who find the time between meals dreary intervals. Such 
 people should be killed off for they are not part of God's plan and are 
 outside of infinite law." He was greeted with cheers. This encouraged 
 him, and he went on. "Life is richer though we do not garner much. 
 No fate has the authority to stand between us and our destiny, neither 
 can a priest join us to anything or any soul that doesinot belong to us. 
 A great man once said, 'I maintain that you should be enough for 
 yourself and your own happiness, and not in great need of other men.' 
 I think that sounds well, but I want those I like even if it is not 
 philosopical. I have a moral to my address. Like the sun you should 
 rise early and make use of the heavenly pattern and make the ways of 
 men agreeable to God. The south wind will blow and the sun will shine. 
 The years will go on without waiting for your help. The world is not a 
 philosopher nor a saint, and a great man will achieve great things and 
 a small man small things, but no one will achieve anything if he does 
 not try." 
 
 He made a bow and sat down and all clapped their hands. David 
 was called to give his paper. He said : "Harold has missed a good 
 thing in his paper, and I will give it. It is the heart and not the 
 intellect the world needs. Admiration is what the world craves. They 
 crave praise above the grace of God. They will give all their gold, and 
 throw their souls in, to obtain it. They care more for it than love, but 
 they need affection more than applause." 
 
124 
 
 Daniel North. 
 
 "For my part I have a collection of proverbs. The best 
 things in true love are those which come from the heart and go to the 
 heart. The soul is not a part of the material universe. By reflecting on 
 the good, the true and the beautiful, we bring ourselves divine moments. 
 We should awaken curiosity, but should not satisfy it. All victories 
 
 A NEW year's CAI,!,. 
 
 breed hatred. To know is to live. Ignorance never gets beyond 
 wonder. Be ill at ease when you please the mob. Have little to do with 
 fools. A wise man never makes a profession of wisdom. All excess is 
 a failing. Follow the prudent for they take the odd trick. Never sin 
 against the unwritten law of good taste. Fortune, being a woman, 
 favors the bold. Leave your good fortune before it leaves you. 
 Courtesy is irresistible. Exaggeration is as fatal as deliberate lying. 
 Avoid contradicting or being contradicted. Hurry is the failing of 
 fools. It is not as important how you begin as how you end, for the 
 world only asks if you succeed. A friend is an added existence. 
 Grace wins as well as merit. Never complain or talk of yourself nor 
 speak of a man in his presence. Avoid being disliked. Never take 
 anythifig too seriously. A friend doubles your pleasures and divides 
 
Daniel North. 
 
 125 
 
 your sorrows. Never be familiar, for dignity gives power. The 
 imagination jumps too soon. Promises are the pitfalls of the foolish. 
 Never depreciate. Attempt an easy task as if it were difficult, and a 
 difficult task as if it were easy. Contempt is the most subtle form of 
 revenge. If a few words do not suffice, it is a case for silence. Never 
 let matters come to a rupture. Know how to sell wind if you would 
 gain fame and fortune. The wise man does at first what the foolish 
 man does at last. Nothing so becomes a man as to be a man. Avoid 
 notoriety as contagion. Take care of your body. Be good, and know 
 something. So say I, so say we all." 
 
 Daniel refused to read his paper as it was getting late, but promised 
 to read it when a favorable opportunity presented itself in the future. 
 So the evening ended. The fact that Anna was in the same house with 
 him so wrought upon this self-contained man that he hardly slept, 
 in fact, he did not lie down until nearly morning. He waited to hear 
 the family stir and when he heard Anna's voice as she was going over 
 with Sarah the events of the evening, he felt that he must be dreaming. 
 He could hear them both go up into his studio. Then he went up and 
 joined them. The sensation of seeing Anna moving about his room 
 with Sarah, as if she were one of the household, was exquisite. Anna 
 felt it for she said to him, "Would it not be lovely if I could be with 
 you all the time ?" Sarah went out and left them. Daniel took one of 
 her hands. He was partly sitting on a table, and she stood by his side, 
 looking out of the window He said : Let us break with all that has 
 spoiled our lives. I will sacrifice all my ambitions. I will give all in 
 my power to make you happy. I know you have means, but you 
 know that I want only you. Can you love me well enough to take the 
 chances with me? Let us make our own fate." 
 
 Nature was putting in her righteous claim, and both had but one 
 wish and that was to obey. Anna held his hand in both of hers. She 
 stood still and fought the battle with love and duty. She finally grasped 
 the hand she held tightly, then she cried, "Oh Daniel' what shall I do ? 
 I want to stay. Oh, how I would love you ! I must go and get my 
 mother's consent. I must do what is right." 
 
126 Daniel North. 
 
 The words of Daniel which followed seemed a little hard. "Anna, 
 love justifies much, even the thwarting a mother's wishes, if necessary, 
 for the lover. When love commands, all opposition that has not a just 
 cause must be brushed aside. Anna, do you know that even righteous- 
 ness may, if not wisely held in obedience to the dictates of the laws of 
 life, become a crime?" 
 
 "I must have time to think," she answered. "If I followed my 
 heart, and will, and reason, I would give myself to you, here and now, 
 for time and eternity. I must do right, even if it breaks my heart." 
 
 Daniel answered, "Anna, you know I would not ask you to do 
 what is wrong. I feel with all my heart that this is right; that 
 if we part now, we will be carried forever in opposite directions." 
 
 If Sarah had not come to call them to breakfast at this juncture, 
 Anna would have been wise for herself and wise for Daniel. On such 
 small chances hangs human destiny. 
 
 The wise old Quakers seemed to understand that a crisis had been 
 reached, and wisely allowed the young people to direct the conversation. 
 When Anna bade them good-by, she not only thanked them 
 for their kindness to her, but to Daniel as well. Mrs. Barnes, as she 
 took Anna's hand, looked at her wistfully and said : "Dear Daniel 
 we love as our son. We think thee will be doing a great wrong to 
 thyself and Daniel if thou will leave the hearts who hold thee dear." 
 Again Anna would have yielded if Daniel had stood by her at that 
 moment. Evidently fate had not sanctioned the bond. 
 
 After Anna reached home, she wrote to Daniel. It was a sad 
 letter, so sad that Daniel felt how deeply she was suffering. She told 
 him that she wished with all her heart that she had not come home, but 
 had followed her heart. Her mother had told her that she had reasons 
 for objecting to their marriage. One was that she was a tory and 
 hated the Yankee Puritan. "'She felt for you,' she said, 'the greatest 
 regard, but her objection was deeper.' Finally she told me that her 
 hus'oand loved your mother and that was what caused her to lose her 
 reason. When she married my father he became her bitterest enemy 
 and made her life miserable. I now understand why my mother has 
 come between us. I am grieved to write to you such fearful news 
 
Daniel North. 1 2 7 
 
 Daniel, I am sorely burdened and you must bear with me. I think I 
 had better go to away for a while, for I feel as if I must get out of the 
 shadow that hangs over me. I have decided that I will take a trip 
 to Europe, and take my mother, so that she can regain her health. I 
 would love to see you, but it would be so hard for me to part that I will 
 say good-by and write to you often. 
 
 Daniel had food for thought. One more page of the unhappy 
 history of his parents' life had been turned over for his perusal. There 
 remained one more chapter to complete the story 
 of the fearful tragedy. "Would- it ever be re- 
 vealed ?" he asked. 
 
 Daniel was never greatly elated nor deoressed 
 for he would not allow himself to fall into any 
 great extreme of feeling, yet after Anna left, he 
 felt out of joint with himself and the world. "Yes," 
 he said, "we make our plans but they fall apart 
 AN OLD-TIME TRAGEDY, like waste paper. I suppose if this were nc/t so, 
 we would try to reduce nature to slavery and make God our lackey. 
 We find that despair and death is our portion. We try to stare over 
 the edge of the world. We search where others have searched before. 
 We are constantly being tempted by a gracious sky and the hush of 
 dreams. We fancy when we look on the glory of life that we can be 
 satisfied with its glory. We stop and drink at every spring in our search 
 for the magic waters. We pluck flowers from every blossoming bank with 
 eager hands, but they all are the scabbard that holds the glittering 
 blade. There is no defence. The world to me in this bitter hour 
 seems an everlasting, unchanging, universal monotony, as incomprehen- 
 sible as blank space. On the bosom of life we sleep and dream fair 
 dreams, with our eyes fixed on the immortal mountains that rise from 
 an enchanted sea where all above is story magic. The world seems 
 a great monster, apart from us. It is as if it knew no beginning and 
 would never know an end. I may be looking for my recompense through 
 the realms of despair. I was rearing fair temples in my dreams ; my heart 
 wrought exquisite images ; I gazed upon them with a longing love. 
 They are like the stars above. They have no speech ; no music echoes 
 
128 Daniel North. 
 
 from their walls; and in these fair temples no angels wait, no bene- 
 dictions fall. Yet I am a son of God, nurtured by earth with an 
 indissoluble kinship to the skies. I sit with beautiful, majestic nature, 
 and read with her the poem of earth and the mysterious story of human 
 life, but the universe holds its master-secret to the last, and the silence 
 from the silence never makes its divine confession until we read the last 
 page in the narrow book of life. It is the old struggle of the flesh and 
 spirit which never ceases. I believe immortality has kissed us, yet we 
 stand at the door of existence half in hope and half in fear, while a fiend 
 stands by to destroy us. He pins a veil over our eyes, and then pushes us 
 on the sword's point. On the surface life seemed to be hollow ; no past, 
 no present, no future. Friendship, a soon faded flower; and love, a 
 passing impulse." 
 
 He walked awhile in the soft morning air, and felt the poetry, 
 harmony, and beauty of nature pouring in upon him. He went out to 
 nature and found relief from life's contagion. He held up to nature his 
 empty heart like a waiting cup, and it was filled with a sacred impulse. 
 There are times when each one of us puts our bundle down, and stand 
 to look up and down the road of life, uncertain as to which way we 
 should go. We finally do as Daniel did, pick up our little bundle and 
 go on as before. 
 
Daniel North. 
 
 129 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Roxy, Hattie, Cassie, and Minnie were spending an afternoon with 
 Sarah. After indulging for some time in what the old people designated 
 as "girl talk" they went into the parlor and inspected Golden's thought 
 bowl. Cassie and Minnie were obliged to stand on their tip toes and 
 stretch themselves up to see into it, and Sarah was obliged to place the 
 family Bible on the floor, as a stool, to enable her to see into it 
 without jumping up, by holding on the mantel. 
 
 
 GOING ON IHKIR WEDDING JOORNEV. 
 
 '•I wonder if the things that we say and the many things that we 
 think in the club are really preserved as Golden says they are in the 
 bowl," Minnie remarked. 
 
 "It is just like Golden to have such a fancy, it may be just a notion, 
 yet it is beautiful, almost as delightful as Golden is himself," Roxy 
 added. 
 
I30 Daniel North. 
 
 "Would it not be wonderful if we really could look in and see 
 what each of us had thought when we were all here together", Sarah 
 put in. 
 
 "Oh, my," Cassie said, "just think of it, the men would probably 
 be greatly flattered. That is, sometimes they would, and sometimes 
 they wouldn't. I wish I could see what they think of us. I would like 
 that part of it. Then maybe I wouldn't. Hattie would like to know 
 what Golden thinks of her. " 
 
 "What are you talking about?" Hattie said with some show of 
 spirit, "You know that I do not think any more about him than 
 the rest do. I know you are always poking fun at him. I do not think 
 half as much about him as you do about Daniel. There is no harm in 
 your thinking about Daniel. As soon as you come near him he comes 
 right down from that study of his inside his head. Then he is within 
 reach and not so remote. No, he is never remote when you are here. 
 I have known Golden ever since he was a boy, in fact he is a boy now, 
 and I sometimes wonder if he will not always be a boy. I half wish it. 
 You know that he is no beau. I am no more his sweetheart than 
 Roxy is. I think we all know who her sweetheart is. I think Golden 
 would be a delightful lover if he would fall in love." 
 
 Cassie replied : "I guess it would be a fall, a bad fall for him. He 
 would break a wing and ever after that he would neither fly nor walk." 
 
 "I am going to look in the bowl and see if I can see Golden's 
 romance," Minnie said. She looked in and after deliberating said : "I 
 will tell you what I see. Golden will fall, as Cassie said, and he will fall 
 right into Hattie's arms and will be so delighted with his roost that he 
 will never want to fly out again." 
 
 Sarah took a look in the bowl to see what she could see. She 
 said : "I see Minnie and David down there as loving as two turtle 
 doves." 
 
 "You don't see anything of the kind," Minnie said, almost indig- 
 nant, "I never tried to play the turtle-dove act with him. We are only 
 good friends and that is all." 
 
 The girls all laughed at the mock seriousness displayed by Minnie 
 and she finally joined in the laughter. Roxy said : " I wish 
 
Daniel North. 131 
 
 Golden was here to look in the bowl and would tell us what he saw. 
 I will tell you what we can do. Each one look in and see what she can 
 remember of what she heard, when we were all here together, that was 
 especially good. I do not mean Daniel's addresses, but the nice things 
 that were said when we all talked about everything we chanced to 
 think of. 
 
 Sarah was asked to take the first look. She stepped with her 
 slippers upon the Bible, then with a hand clasping each side of the bowl 
 she gazed thoughtfully in. She said : "The first thing that comes to 
 me is something Daniel said to me one day when I was having the 
 blues and wished I was dead. He said : 'We want earth to obtain 
 heaven.' I guess I know just what he meant for he added 'that love, 
 poetry, and beauty were not poetical lies that inflame the imagination 
 but truths that produce a harmonious growth of feehng, thought, and 
 aspirations which fit us for the struggle of life.' I had complamed that 
 beauty, poetry and even my religion were failing me. I began to joke 
 and he said that there were tears oozing through my wit." 
 
 Cassie put her arms about Sarah and lifted her down and took a 
 look. "I can see something the doctor said which I do not believe. 
 He said : 'To do right should be as compulsory as to wear clothes.' 
 I see something else, that Little Harold said : 'Love of a woman for a 
 man is to him like pouring rain and brilliant sunshine.' How he 
 ever came to think of it I can't see. The author of 'Christ the great 
 poet preacher,' whom I never did like, (you remember that he is 
 one of the Goose Island Club, and that he wrote a book 
 with that title), said this after listening to Daniel : 'The beauti- 
 ful language of the imagination makes me ashamed of life.' Some 
 one else said, 'that romance and love gave heart and soul to life. 
 David said this : 'The rose by being beautiful makes us good.' I never 
 remember many verses from the Bible yet I think I can see, down in 
 the bowl, Sarah's father saying, one night, as if for a benediction, this 
 verse : 'What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to 
 to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.' I like that verse, only 
 the humbly does not seem natural to me." 
 
132 Daniel North 
 
 Roxy asked Cassie to let her see and she held her beautiful head 
 over the bowl and inquisitively looked down into the shallow dimness. 
 The girls all knew that what Roxy would remember would be like her. 
 In succession she repeated the following beautiful thoughts. "Noble- 
 ness enkindleth nobleness." "Love is the harmony of the world." 
 "Thought once awakened shall not slumber again." 
 
 "The true shekinah is man." 
 
 "Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust" 
 
 "There is only one good; namely knowledge, and one evil, namely 
 ignorance ; and that is the curse of God." 
 
 "Knowledge is wings to fly to heaven." 
 
 "I don't believe it," Cassie put in. 
 
 Hattie took a look and this is the message she beheld. "If you 
 will only weave God will supply thread." "Nature is the art of God.'' 
 "I feel ashamed every time I think of the next thought that I see among 
 the immaterial rose leaves. ' They are never alone who are accom- 
 panied by noble thoughts.' Now I am often lonely simply for the 
 want of thoughts that are aspiring. I see another thought that is 
 inspiring to me. ' Man is one world and has another to attend him.' " 
 
 Cassie said, "He probably is married." 
 
 "Yes and I can see something without looking in the bowl. Silas 
 Finch said it after Daniel had proven that Shakespeare was right when 
 he said 'There is no darkness but ignorance.' Finch remarked 'that a 
 cobbler did more for his fellows than Shakespeare." Then Minnie 
 made a weak attempt at a joke by saying that she supposed that he 
 meant that Shakespeare shaped minds while the cobbler shaped soles. 
 
 Hattie said they were becoming trivial in their remarks. 
 
 "Well anyhow, if what Daniel said is true, Shakespeare is not 
 a poet much of the time. Maybe I don't remember it right yet I am 
 sure he said, 'it is not poetry to picture the outside world.' I have never 
 read Shakespeare, but all I have heard quoted gave me the idea that 
 he was a good outside painter. Probably he can paint the inside, I 
 am not a critic." 
 
Daniel North. 133 
 
 Sarah, to give them a breath as fancy's sails hung hmp, said : 
 "Golden said, 'the deeper we go in our own souls, the higher we rise.'" 
 
 "What is the sense of talking so much about the soul?" Cassie 
 asked, "how do we know we have a soul? The ideal is the most vague 
 thing I can think of I agree with Golden that the ideal is silent, 
 without matter. That was a curious thing for him to say." 
 
 Minnie said, "that earth has no value without heaven." 
 
 "Yes, I remember that the Goose Island quack said that joy never 
 goes without a warning of sorrow, and you people talk as if you could 
 fly to the ideal from all the ills of life. I know that he said that 'hope 
 always accompanies distress.' I find happiness so near, yet so im- 
 possible." 
 
 Minnie said, "I wonder where the men find all the smart things 
 they say at the club. I often hunt for something so that I can gain 
 a littly glory and make them think that women sometimes have an 
 idea. I never can find anything and what makes me feel worse is that 
 sometimes they will say something I have thought of, and it did not 
 seem to be anything, and yet it and it sounds just splendid. I 
 have come to the conclusion that we are a lot of geese, and for the 
 life of me I cannot see how it is that the men think, or at least act as 
 if they thought, that we are the incarnation of beauty, virtue and 
 perfection ; too good to be true." 
 
 "Yes we are too good to be true," Cassie remarked. "If they 
 could see me sometimes when my brothers or my father have muddied 
 the floor with their dirty feet after I have scrubbed, or when I am 
 obliged to do something I do not want to do, they would not speak of 
 me as if I were an Sngel in petticoats." 
 
 "What puzzles me is that these men who worship the ideal should 
 worship us," Minnie said. 
 
 "How do you know they worship us?" Roxy asked. 
 
 "I mean some of us. I believe that Cassie could do most any- 
 thing that was not really bad and Daniel would not be shocked nor care 
 the less for her. That is just what I like about our friends here. I 
 never feel afraid that I will be criticised or found fault with. It is 
 nice of them," Cassie replied. 
 
134 Daniel North. 
 
 Roxy said, "All our charms are like the charms of beauty, of 
 poetry and of nature, an inner charm that cannot be grasped or 
 defined." 
 
 "Oh yes, Roxy, we must have an inner charm that we ourselves 
 cannot grasp or understand, but we like to have our visible charms 
 understood, preserved, and, to tell the truth, grasped." Cassie, as she 
 said this looked around at her friends to have them agree with her. 
 
 Sarah solemnly said, "Vain that weary search to find the bliss that 
 only centers in the mind." 
 
 Minnie in a mock heroic tone added: "It is the mind that makes 
 the man. Happiness is acquired, like glory, by virtue." 
 
 Hattie came in with an apt quotation : " 'We tjiste the spices 
 of Arabia, yet never feel the scorching sun.' Man is the spice and he 
 brings Arabia's gifts to us. He endures the scorching to get them. This 
 is right, and the truth is, I am sure that the man prefers to bring us 
 wisdom rather than to take wisdom from us. Only blockheads fall in love 
 with wise women. Cassie, your chances are good and so are mine, for 
 the men we prefer are not blockheads." 
 
 "Hattie," Cassie said, "don't you remember that Paradise was 
 created by Eve's faults." 
 
 Roxy remarked that "Man can see the worth of woman even 
 through the dust she throws in his eyes." 
 
 "I guess," Cassie said, "a hidden image is revealed to enchanted 
 souls." Cassie looked in the bowl and said : "We are souls for 
 which man has a longing, he is in search of a sacred nature 
 that is the lovely dream of a good man. He thinks that he 
 will find it in the woman he loves ; he fancies that she is born 
 for inspiration, sweet melody and prayer. The end of his thought 
 is the moulding of her soul. The achievement is a disenchant- 
 ment, yet, if the man I love would unveil my heart he would not be dis- 
 enchanted." Cassie fairly glowed as she added the last sentence — she 
 looked enchanting. 
 
 Roxy wished that Daniel had been there. She thought that the 
 power that revealed to her the invisible in Cassie was as wonderful 
 as the vision that revealed the heavens. 
 
Daniel North. 13S 
 
 Minnie broke in with a new thought. She asked "if they thought 
 Daniel would barter the immortality of his soul to gain immortality for 
 his beautiful thoughts ?" 
 
 "You must have looked in the bowl to have found such a strange 
 idea," Roxy said. 
 
 "I never can separate his soul from his thoughts and I guess they 
 are a part of it," Sarah answered. "I am not sure that Golden 
 did not say what was true when he said, "My soul becomes a part of 
 those souls I love,' and I like to think that Daniel gives a portion of his 
 soul with his thoughts, so that we will share his immortality and he will 
 share our immortality as he does our mortality." 
 
 "I guess we have all looked into the bowl," Roxy said, "for we are 
 not talking like girls but like the poets of the club." 
 
 Minnie called out, "I have found another thought in the bowl, just 
 listen : 'We should enter the soul by the avenue of beauty. I see 
 another, 'Heaven belongs to the invisible universe and not to nature.' " 
 
 "You have a good memory," Cassie replied. 
 
 "No," Minnie said, "I have a note book.'' 
 
 "What else have you?" Cassie asked. 
 
 Minnie read from a little book she had kept out of sight, "Beauty 
 is the creator of the universe." "Genius founds a fatherland for every 
 man." "I will read one more, 'Happy the man who has a home." ' 
 
 Roxy said : "We have looked at reality from the wonderful win- 
 dows of the imagination We have not found a dead soul nor an 
 empty heart, so we will kiss each other and go home." 
 
 Cassie said she would kiss the four gods, so she walked over to the 
 chairs usually occupied by the four young men and went through the 
 motion of kissing them. 
 
 Roxy wanted to have Golden come properly into possession of his 
 rich inheritance of mental and spiritual powers. She decided that the 
 best way to come to attain desirable consummation was to waken within 
 him the masculine instincts. This she proposed to do by bringing him 
 under or within the influence of an attractive woman. Hattie Long was 
 the young lady she selected. Neither Hattie nor Golden were informed 
 
136 Daniel North. 
 
 of the plan she proposed to carry out. It was an easy matter to bring 
 them to her house as often as she wished. Golden was in his proper 
 element when he was in the society of a companionable young lady. 
 Roxy threw them together a great deal, and Hattie, it was evident, was nat- 
 urally drifting in a state that was in accord with Roxy's wishes. With 
 Golden it was quite the reverse for he was evidently unconscious that 
 there was any other relation possible than that of companionship. Fate 
 evidently was in connivance with Roxy's plans for Golden's awakening 
 came about through a circumstance which she had no part in bringing 
 to pass. 
 
 Golden came to Daniel one day and asked him to take a tramp 
 with him over the Kingston mountain. Daniel was glad to go as it was 
 a beautiful day in early autumn. Golden told Daniel that upon the 
 mountain in a secluded spot, hidden by dense shrubbery, there was a 
 pool in among the rocks where you could see faces. Daniel regarded 
 the statement as one of Golden's fancies, yet was sure that Golden had 
 found a beautiful bit of nature that would be well worth seeing. They 
 finally arrived at the pool. Daniel was charmed with the spot, it was 
 glorious. The bright sunlight poured down in the little opening, on the 
 gorgeous foliage, the gray rocks, and the pool of perfectly transpareht 
 water that apparently had neither inlet nor outlet. A spell that delighted 
 his soul seemed to dwell there. Golden asked him to lean over the bowlder . 
 and look in the pool and he would see a woman's face looking at him 
 from the other side. Daniel smiled at Golden's fancy, nevertheless he 
 leaned over and looked into the clear water, and to his astonishment he 
 beheld a young woman reflected in the water as if she were leaning over 
 from the opposite side. He knew the brown, vivacious eyes that 
 looked up at him so friendly, as they had often looked at him before. 
 He started back and asked Golden to look and see if he could see a 
 young lady with brown eyes reflected upon the opposite side. Golden 
 looked and said "Yes, I see a young lady and she has blue eyes. It is 
 Hattie Long." Daniel thought Golden must be joking or out of his 
 senses. They both cast their eyes above to the rocks, as if to 
 see the young ladies whose faces they had seen mirrored in the 
 pool, but no forms were there, only two little birds taking a bath 
 
Daniel North. 137 
 
 and splashing each other as they chirped with delight, and broke 
 the beautiful mirror into fragments. Yet as they again looked into 
 the water, each saw a different reflection. Golden sat a long time 
 gazing into the blue eyes looking lovingly into his. Daniel would not 
 look again. There was nothing mysterious or unnatural to Golden 
 about the reflection, but it was different with Daniel. He was stunned. 
 He was not superstitious, and did not believe that dreams were re- 
 velations or that the supernatural was in the order of natural law. 
 He hurried Golden away. That young man walked back as a man 
 in a trance, and seemed to Daniel to be in a romantic state of 
 mind, and enveloped in a world of his own creating. He said 
 little or nothing all the way home. He left Daniel and went to 
 Roxy's home, and there he found Hattie. He went to her, took both 
 of her hands and told her that he had awakened from a dream and 
 found that he was a man like other men, and that his whole soul was 
 hers. He looked into Hattie's face for a while, and then he said : 
 "Hattie, I have onlymy visions. I have seen the sun rise and with 
 it came a sweet voice as if the music of bells were floating over the 
 mountains. As they rang I thought they told me that I was to 
 look up from the flowers at my side and beyond them to 
 what was above me. I am going to follow the bells. I will go 
 out into the world and when I come back Hattie, I will ask you to 
 put your hand in mine and we will go together. I have power that I 
 will use, when I have trained it, that will be of use in the world. Wait 
 for me and have faith in me." Hattie promised. 
 
138 Daniel North 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Daniel, while taking a tramp, had visited a little valley that lies 
 below the Wyoming Valley, and had conceived a plot for a book; 
 In this little valley walled around with tall mountains, he found a log 
 cabin on a little green bank, overspread by a great elm. In the yard 
 was a grave. The house was going to decay. An owl sat up in 
 the rafters and a silver fox glided out with an easy grace from under 
 the logs, as he entered the door. He found, hidden behind a little 
 cupboard, a number of manuscripts which he took home to look 
 over. On the bottom of each production was the name of Scarlet. 
 The little valley, as Daniel looked over it from the little green plot 
 in front of the house, was perfectly still. The silence was only broken 
 by the scream and moving shadow of a bird, flying over the mead- 
 ow. Away up in the air on the mountains the eagles whirled and 
 circled. At his feet, by the border of a clear spring, beautiful lillies 
 stood stately as if they were pillars to the gates of paradise. When 
 he was again at home, Daniel read the old, time-stained and weather 
 beaten manuscript with interest and delight. The plan he talked over 
 with Penn was to write a httle book and publish it. He would call the 
 book "Daniel Scarlet the Dreamer," and give an imaginary history of 
 this man Scarlet. He fancied he could throw about the story an air 
 of realism that might charm the people. 
 
 Daniel did not realize what a startling book he was writing. The 
 dreamer alone, down between the mountains away from all the world, 
 lived on the pages as he wrote. You could see the flowers reflected in 
 the spring, and at night watch the stars rise over the mountain, and 
 feel the seasons come and go. This dreamer, he pictured as a man who, 
 finding no place for himself in the busy haunts of men, took a horse, 
 some provisions, and a few implements, and left the throng to dwell 
 amidst the solitudes of this beautiful valley. There he lived alone, 
 dreaming and writing his thoughts, forgetting the world and by the 
 world forgotten, without friends, love, or companionship, alone with 
 
Daniel North. 139 
 
 himself, nature and God, while time told off the golden moments which 
 stretched out into unheeded years. One day he went out of his door 
 laid down on the green grass in the moving shadow of the over-hanging 
 elm, and, with only the lilies at his feet to heed him he breathed out his 
 soul to God who had loaned it to mortality. 
 
 He finished the manuscript, and sent it to New York to find a 
 publisher. The first publisher accepted and offered to publish it 
 it on commission. In a short time the book came out, so short, in fact, 
 that Daniel wondered at the haste. The book soon began to be com- 
 mented on by the press, and the name of Daniel Scarlet seemed a 
 reality in the public mind. Many went over into the little valley and 
 visited the little cabin. The productions in the book were considered 
 the work of a genius. They were read, quoted, and recited. 
 
 Just over the creek at Goose Island, at the time of our story, stood 
 a little cabin surrounded by elders, which grow luxuriantly in this 
 region. The cabin was on the low land below the Plymouth road, 
 and the plough still turns up the debris as it goes through the soil 
 where it stood. To all appearances the people who lived there were 
 like the class they represented. That class are referred to as the 
 nobodies. The men worked a little as farm hands ; fished a little ; shot 
 musk rats and any thing they could find. They smoked and drank a 
 little, they never begged or stole. Their library was usually the 
 almanac, sometimes a Bible. They were the "little boats that keep 
 near shore." It is not an uncommon experience with any of us to be 
 very much mistaken in our estimation of our neighbor. We sometimes 
 learn that the nobody down the lane has not spent his life in the back- 
 ground or the backyard of a town. The neighbors and acquaintances 
 of the family living in the house on the edge of the village of Kingston 
 never thought that the inmates had seen much of the world. 
 
 The family consisted of a widow and three sons. The sons were 
 like the rest of their class and spent most of their time simply living. 
 One day the youngest son comes home and tells his mother that there 
 is a young man up at Barnes' by the name of Daniel North. The 
 mother says nothing. Later the woman goes out doors and finds the 
 chickens in a patch she has just planted. She flies at them and the air 
 
I40 
 
 Daniel North. 
 
 resounds with oaths. That woman was born into a family of nobility, 
 she was reared in a home where all the virtues and graces of life found 
 constant expression. She was the younger of three sisters. When 
 she became a young woman, with her parents and sisters she went on 
 an ocean voyage. The ship was boarded by pirates and all on board 
 
 DANIEI, SCARLET. 
 
 were put to the sword but these three beautiful girls. They 
 were taken on the pirates' vessel and three piraes threw dice for 
 their prisoners. The youngest fell to the lot of a murderous looking 
 villain by the name of Daniel Scarlet. We find her far from the sea 
 in Kingston, with her three sons, gossipping, scolding and swearing, 
 completely filling her station. The pirate made a good husband in his 
 way, while she became a part of the life they lived. Scarlet was a 
 heartless murderer, yet he was an indulgent and loving husband, and 
 honored and loved by wife and children. 
 
 In her house in Kingston there hung a jewelled cimeter over the 
 low fire-place, so covered with dust that the neighbors never dreamed 
 of its value, nor of its history. If that keen edged blade could have 
 recorded the blood it had shed, the awful tragedies it had taken 
 a part in, the good people of Kingston would have had to sit up with 
 each other nights to drive away their fright. When her son John came 
 
Daniel North. 141 
 
 home and told her that Daniel North was up at Barnes' she guessed 
 who he might be. She had lived an outlaw so many years that she 
 knew when to keep quiet. Some of the neighbors came in to gossip, 
 and had a great deal to say about Dan North, Sal Barnes, Cas Butler 
 and Rox Oldtree, which was the way our progenitors sometimes 
 abbreviated given names. Some of their descendants have inherited 
 the disgusting habit. The wife of Daniel Scarlet soon learned all 
 that was known of Daniel North. 
 
 One day a man near his own age stopped him on the street and 
 asked him if he was Daniel North. The stranger said, "My name 
 is John Scarlet. I wrote the manuscripts you found over in the log 
 house. I appreciate the Hterary use you made out of the place and 
 my fa'ther's name. I have had literary ambition, but I have not enough 
 talent. I can do now and then a good thing, but there is not enough 
 of me. I am very impractical. I have a poetic temperament, just 
 enough to spoil my usefulness. I inherit my talent from my mother, 
 who was well born. She was the daughter of a French count. Daniel 
 invited him to his studio where they had a long talk. 
 
 Daniel asked for more particulars about the old place. Scarlet 
 told him that his father had lived over there alone for many years, had 
 died there, and was buried out in the yard; that his name was 
 Daniel. John explained the manuscripts being there. He said, "I 
 sometimes went over to see him and wrote while I was there, because I 
 had nothing else to do. Daniel naturally asked why his father lived 
 alone there away from his family. At this Scarlet looked confused, and 
 refused to explain. Later he said, "I can't see why I should not tell 
 you as all those who are to blame are dead. I know you will be 
 deeply interested to know what I can tell you, and I believe I will, and 
 take the chance of any harm coming out of it. My father was a tory, 
 and was on friendly terms with the two Rose brothers. One brother 
 was killed in the massacre and Allen, who was a slick fox and had but 
 little property, . wished to get possession of the property of your 
 parents. My father was a bad man. He was, in his younger days, a 
 pirate. He had married, and left the sea, and was a kind husband and 
 father. Allen Rose hired him to meet the party at Fort Penn, and 
 
142 Daniel North. 
 
 secure Anna and the deed in your mother's possession. He left him free 
 to use any means he saw fit. Allen met him there, carried Anna away 
 and placed her in a boarding school. Allen came back, claimed 
 the property, prospered, though hated, for the land he cultivated 
 was rich, and he farmed and raised stock on an extensive scale. 
 He was afraid of my father. Finally he persuaded him to live out 
 of the valley, for if he staid in the valley he would drink, and Allen 
 feared that when he was intoxicated the secret would come out, 
 then there would be a double hanging without judge or jury. So Allen 
 paid my father well to keep away. You see your Daniel Scarlet and 
 the real Daniel Scarlet are not much aliAe." 
 
 This revelation was the first chapter of the tragedy for which 
 Daniel had been seeking so long, and while it was horrifying, to his 
 sensitive mind, the fact that Allan Rose had not, in person, done the 
 terrible deed gave him a feeling of relief 
 
 Penn was in a study, all his law books apparently had failed him, 
 so he went to see Hugh and Roxy. Hugh and Penn were law partners. 
 Penn told Roxy what was on his mind. Penn was Anna's lawyer and 
 had charge of her estate. Her mother was dead and Anna was in 
 Canada. Penn had made a marriage proposal to Anna by mail, and 
 she had replied that if Daniel would let her hand over to him his 
 parent's estate she would favorably consider his proposal of marriage. 
 
 No wonder that Penh worried for it was even beyond the nerve of 
 a lawyer to make such a proposal to Daniel. Penn persuaded Roxy to 
 go with him and explain the case to him. 
 
 She told Penn frankly that she hoped Daniel would refuse and 
 marry Anna himself and she thought as Anna was a woman she might 
 be persuaded. 
 
 Penn asked Roxy if she thought Daniel knew that he had pro- 
 posed. "I do not know," she replied, "I know that they correspond. 
 I know that she has tried to persuade him to take his property." 
 
 "How do you know all this ?" Penn asked. 
 
 Roxy replied : "I correspond with Anna, so do Golden and 
 David, so you see you are not quite in full possession of the heart of 
 
Daniel North. 143 
 
 this lovely woman and if you do get her she will be a true wife, yet you 
 will not be the only object of her interest and affection." 
 
 Penn asked her what Daniel would say ? 
 
 "He may not say much, yet I know that he will do what is best 
 and he will be nice about it." 
 
 Roxy told Daniel what Penn wanted. She looked right in his 
 eyes to read his thoughts. She could see that his mind was taking in 
 with a flash all that the proposal meant and that was all that she could 
 guess. 
 
 He walked to Penn and shook hands with him and congratulated 
 him. That was his answer. Penn and Anna made the property over 
 to him. He never set foot upon it nor received any revenue from it ; 
 he did not need it, and further, he had no love for the associations con- 
 nected with the place. 
 
 Daniel had planted a rose bush by the side of the wall by the stone 
 house. He said he wanted all his friends to be married in June so 
 that he could give the brides a cluster of Roses. 
 
 Anna had the first cluster from the bush, Roxy the second, Minnie 
 the third when she married David. As Golden expected soon to grad- 
 uate as a physician he told Hattie she would have the fourth. 
 
 Anna and Roxy told him that he could pick Hattie's cluster, then 
 no roses should be picked from that bush except by them, and only 
 for his bride. 
 
 The old Kingston burying ground has long ago gone into disuse. 
 The pleiades, the seven young ladies who grace this attempt at an 
 epitome of life, sleep near each other, and the little group of men who 
 have acted their part in the story, near them. Yet, as the old philoso- 
 pher Epictitus declared, in regard to himself, no one could bury him, so 
 in like manner Daniel and his friends are not sleeping. 
 
 The old stone house still stands disgraced by age, at the Kingston 
 Corners. The old house near the river bridge is well preserved, still 
 
144 
 
 Daniel North. 
 
 hinting at its youthful beauty when it was one of the mansions of the 
 Wyoming Valley. The curious, if they doubt the existence of the 
 donkey head at the base of Campbell's Ledge may satisfy their curiosity 
 by inspecting the Ledge. Goose Island is still Goose Island and the 
 old house of General Thomas is still standing though rapidly going to 
 decay. 
 
 The writer hopes that all the lies he has told in these pages may 
 be forgiven and that the words of truth he has recorded may be written 
 on the invisible manuscript in the reader's mind, there to remain, among 
 other scenes, from the ever varied drama of human life. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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