P5 3399 THE GIFT OF '~J...:...oL:.^Z^ A-AJpOM^Oro !j;.U|.(.^..()zb. Cornell University Library PS 3349.W5W2 Warp and woof: or, New 'ra'!;SS,,JSf,,P'S',,fli| 3 1924 022 230 423 The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022230423 WARP AND WOOF: OR, \[ew FraniGS for DM picturGSj BY FRANCES HARTSON WOOD AND EVA PAINE KITCHEL. "For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future In the distance, And the good that we may do." F. H. WOOD, BOOHTON, NEW JERSEY, • 1890. 3 COPYRIGHTED BY FRANCES HARTSON WOOD, 1890. ^ ^ -^^^^i^^'^^^^^k^ DEDICATION. IRYIHS FOREST WOOD. SON AND FRIEND. * * Oh I swift and earnest soul ! Whose flying feet have touched the goal, E'er scarce thy manhood's years begun. CONTENTS. CBAFI£S. FAOE I. Introductory 9 II. The Compton Parsonage 17 III. Keniway 30 IV. Surrounding Influences 38 V. Two Sides 52 VI. Complications 63 VII. Off Spells 76 VIII. Smashing and Hushing 86 IX. Hop Villa 98 X. A Midnight Ride no XI. Orange Blossoms and Asphodels.... 119 XII. Splendid People and Splendid Pov- erty „ 127 XIII. Two Receptions 143 XIV. A Melodeon and a Wig.. 152 XV. A May Basket and a May Lover..... 162 XVI. Pigs and Pledges 167 XVII. On With the New 173 XVIII. At the Wires 189 XIX. Westward Ho! 20 1 XX. Bertha 214 XXI. Which WAS Right? 230 XXII. The Pedestal 242 XXIII. A Trip AND A Dog Tax 258 6 » WARP AND WOOF. XXIV. Capital AND Labor 27° XXV. Scraps 280 XXVI. A Vault AND A Vote 293 XXVII. Street AND Home Talks 303 XXVIII. Hop Sermons S^S XXLX. An After Dinner Speech 326 XXX. Summing AND Winning 33^ XXXI. A Sumter Gun 345 XXXII. Glimpses Here AND There 353 XXXIII. Some Brainy Women 365 XXXtV. Home, Council and Capitol 370 XXXV. PeaceandLaw 378 XXXVI. The Easter Offering 387 XXXVII. A Tea Table AND an Elopement 394 XXXVIII. Analogies 4^5 XXXIX. Last Days IN Granite 412 XL. The Rainbow 425 PREKACE. For the sake of former days And the big old-fashioned rooms, Furnished in old-fashioned ways, Carpeted by grandma's looms. For the sake of those old days, Spent beneath the shingled roof, Where with love our memory strays, We have wove a "Warp and Woof." Black and white and blue and green Are the rags we've sorted o'er. Yarned it too along between ; Carpets thus were made of yore. Dipped in Fancy's brilliant dyes. Cut in strips and wound in balls, Weighed and woven here it lies 'Cross your path our carpet falls. F. H. W. E. P. K. BOONTON, N. J. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. {^Displaying tlie Colors.') "New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth, They must upward be and onward. Who would keep abreast of truth. We ourselves must pilgrims be — Launch our Mayflower ! " That we wni, "and steam right boldly," a pil- grim "on the tempestuous wintry sea "(alias Authoriand). Again it's a grievance that launches a Mayflower — and not so much for myself as for Aunt Kate and my country. I have a husband, but Aunt Kate is a widow and has no home vent ; and it was a breeze stirred by a public one at the church social last evening that launches m^y Mayflower so boldly this morning. It was in my little parlor, and she looked extremely pretty standing there ^mong doctors, lawyers, judges, and "quality" — a minister in front of her and a savant at her side. Her shimmering black satin, sparkling with its jet trimmings, and relieved by a cluster of vivid geraniums, set off the strong brunette face, with its wide forehead, heavy eyebrows and dark, earnest eyes. Her wavy, fluffy hair looks as if she'd put her head out in a snow storm and forgotten to brush off the flakes. 10 WARP AND WOOF. Her voice — delicious, soft, and silvery in gay moods — was deep and solemn, for our country was the theme of discussion. Some one hazarded the remark that the temperance question was not the important issue of the age — the Reverend had given as his opinion that the church militant had other conflicts paramount in importance, and the Professor responded that his party was now and always had been the party of great moral reform — that the temperance question would no doubt receive due attention in time — yes, in time. "Or in eternity," suggested Aunt Kate, in solemn tones. Then all the people pricked up their ears — some of the ears had diamond pendants, too — and prepared to be shocked, for all Granite knows Aunt Kate will say and do unconventional things. Some agreed with the Professor, and the Reverend, giving her a hasty glance, said more. She began — and as she gave a masterly review of the subject, criticising one party and annihilating an- other, her little foot tapped, her pretty hands waved, her eyes shone, and her round head shook, while her eyebrows and dimples put in the grace notes to the spir- ited music of her speech. When she paused the kind Rev'd soothingly remarked he "presumed there was no immediate danger to the Republic. " "No danger !" she exclaimed, a flame in cheek and eye vivid enough to melt the snowflakes in her hair. "No danger ! Why, our Republic is rocking on its worm-eaten foundation ! There is a robber at the vault — want and miasma in the cellar — a drunken row in the lobby — murder and impurity riot together in its gilded INTRODUCTORY. I I corridors — ^a suicide is hanging in the doorway, and dank, dark death everywhere. At bar, board, and altar is this fire everlasting ! Wronged humanity pleads, and you, asleep in its high courts, hear not their cry for protection, protection ! Do wake up, brothers, sisters, patriots ! You have the power to rescue. It is in the ballot. Sharper even than a serpent's tooth, a strong battle-axe, yet dainty enough for woman's jeweled fin- gers. It can pierce to the very heart of America's false god. ' ' Glistening, ' ' and her eyes glistened with tears, "glistening with Christianity, winged with temperance, it would make the Temple of Liberty as pure and bright as the Mount of Transfiguration ! Oh, arouse ! hasten ! or there will be a tremendous downfall, and our epitaph and that of our country will be, 'A magnificent fail- ure ! • " Dear Aunt Kate, in metaphors mixed, maybe — in morals and ideas, never 1 That ended the discussion. Republican shoulders were shrugged and Democratic heads shaken, while a silvery murmur of "fanaticism" rose among the ladies. I longed to vindicate her from such a charge, to tell them that the glowing rose of her passionate thought had its budding away back in child- hood — a tiny bud, maybe, but growing fuller and richer through girlhood and womanhood, until, at fifty, it was to me a surprise and a glory. I longed, but was mute. The sociable was over, people bundled themselves up and went home, leaving me with a heart too heavy to sleep. As the night wore on, I thought of the blood- stained, tear-dewed roses that adorn our public plat- forms. ' 'Thorny ones, " did you say ? (Have you been pricked?) May be they are, byt do yoii realize, good 12 WARP AND WOOF. friends, what has sharpened their words— that on our country's glowing rose there are thorns large and sharp? They threaten its golden heart, and I can but fear, ours — America's — is the last rose of Republican civilization in the garden of History. But what can I do ? I mused along the watches. As the sun rose dazzling through the fog that New Year morning, the mists of fear and doubt lifted, and.I was fairly dazzled with a purpose. I would write, I could at least vindicate Aunt Kate from the charge of fanaticism, and tell something about the thorn — how it grew. Among antiquated letters and journals I would obtain some material I was sure, and early mount- ed the attic stairs. I found mother there before me, and she looked up with a decided New Year expression from her heterogeneous pile of rags, the antiquities of the old cedar chest, and the children were reveling glee- fully among these same. antiquities. Clara, in high top bonnet, was trailing the wedding brocade of her great- grandmother, and Julius, in stove-pipe and swallow- tail, was repeating "The Sword of Bunker Hill," and waving an old umbrella by way of emphasis. The little twinnies were looking on in big-eyed wonder, and moth- er with shears. "O, don't, mother!" I exclaimed. ' 'I'm deaf to don'ts this time, Ida, for these old things are to be cut up at last. Rag-carpets are all the rage, and I'm bound to be in the fashion." While planning a greater sacrilege on ancient char- acters, I could not in conscience further protest, and replied : " Books are all the rage, mother, ' ' with a blush, ' 'and I'll be in the fashion." INTRODUCTORY. 1 3 "Another falling castle on the Rhine?" with unruf- fled serenity. "No, mother, real homes on the river Wine," look- ing up from an old daguerreotype. "See here, mother!" It was an old picture of Aunt Kate in her girlhood, and mother gave it a loving look, remarking : ' 'This is too pretty to be stored away here in the attic. I'll brighten it with a new gilt frame, and put it on the parlor mantel." ' 'Aunt Kate's life is too pretty to be stored away in a memory attic. I'll brighten it by a new gilt frame, and place it on the public shelf, yclept, "A new frame for an old picture." After rummaging among portraits, jewels and yellow old letters in faded ink and seal — I turned to the an- cient garments mother was gathering with loving men- tion. These were the clearer pages, for in the ancient bombazine and some dyed-in-the-wool yarn, moths had not touched, was a dyed-in-the-wool anti-slavery great- grandmother preserved from the moth of time by the "nateral ile" of human kindness. Lifting grandfather's heavily-leaded baptismal robe, I heard again "Father, Son and Holy Ghost" ringing like an anthem over the lake's placid waters. In the old embroidered parlor curtains mother laid aside for shams was a grandmother, as pretty and dainty as the curtains when new, and who never shall be shammed. In the folds of the faded rose-colored barege lay Aunt Kate's girlhood, and beneath the stove-pipe hat, as I looked up, peeped eyes grey and shrewd — ^not Julius's. There was many a garment, ancient and gray, and now mother added a shaker cape, a little blue delaine, a gay dress- 14 WARP AND WOOF. ing-gown, little coats, and bright baby dresses, saying: "My carpet will be just beautiful !" I added these also, mentally, to my collection, and exclaimed joyously : "My carpet will be just beautiful, too, for 'twill be the old and the new, the gray and the gay, cut and wov- en just like yours, and I'll call it "Warp and Woof. " No words or plans of mine disturbed her own very practical ones, and my thoughts went rapidly on through the pages, for if her coloring matter was ' 'cheap but fad- ing, " I knew where, among God's free colors in earth, sky, hearts, and loves, to find the unfading blue and gold and rose. Ah me ! the war with its blood-red, and liquor's pall-black! But theWhiteRibbons will lighten. In her "yarn" was a temptation to yarn it ; but I will not, and my characters will be strong enough with- out "doubling and twisting." I'll never "twist" the truth ! "Don't mix your stripes and colors too much, " were hints. I'll be very careful, and if the "hit and miss is the prettiest, gives it a show off," I'll hit, and the crit- ics will not miss, never fear. In case of a scarcity, mother intends to forage on her neighbors, the "minister" and "Dr." "So can I," I said, as I looked daringly out of my window at a clerical coat in the opposite one, and up at the Dr. 's office. Mother was tying up her bundle now. "When these are all cut and wound, I shall take them to Mrs. Washington. She's a beautiful weaver. " "Mine shall go to Washington, too, mother, and those ' Council Women ' from life's busy looms will weave it beautifully, as did the women of old the Is- raelitish curtains " INTRODUCTORY. 1 5 ' 'The men did the spinning for those curtains, " she remarked. "I'm glad you're well up in the Biblical history, for it's my intention to set the men spinning wool from their own eyes before I'm through." Thus it happened two big bundles came down the attic stairs together, and rivalry began over which car- pet would be finished first, be the prettiest, or the most durable. The little one's feet, I mused, will tread, per- chance, more carefully over grandma's, than they might another*^;— to keep it clean. Will some young feet tread more carefully,for my"Woof's"sake, over dear Colum- bia's? Aunt Kate's thought may be something like mine, for as I called to-day with my New Year greetings I detected a New Year resolve in her clear eye and firm voice. "What is it, Aunt Kate?" I asked. "I'm going to build the wall over against my own house, Ida, "and she explained. She is thorough, and I know will begin at the foundations. There are bright rolls onAuntKate's wheel. They are dyed-in-the-wool and of national colors. She intends to spin them off for her children and the Professor — a banner possibly. My plan is, as her lively tongue spins, Beth's marvelous stenograph shall reel the yarns off the spindle and I will count and knot them for you. Mother has an old-fash- ioned wheel, too, and I know how to set it a-humming. I may not always stop to tell you whose yarn is going into my warp, or how I secured it, but I trust that, like my great-grandmother's anti-slavery, it will he filled with the "nateral ile" of human kindness. I'll be as 1 6 WARP AND WOOF. quiet as puss on the hearth, for the barest hint that the outside world was hstening to the hum of these home voices — I tremble to think of it! Peeps, too, you shall have into this apronful of old letters and journals. Thus early, in loving confidence, do we reveal our plan, and as in honor bound hoist our Mayflower's col- ors. If you suggest that they are "decided" and not ' 'stylish, ' ' I shall remind you that neither were the May- flower's of old ; (who minds it now?) and that decided principles are never stylish in their day. But believing the next generation will flaunt these same colors proud- ly, for their sakes we will pioneer our ship along the naughty(?)cal lines through the great,billowy, political waves till we land on a Plymouth Rock. Then if our children as bravely refuse to pay King Alcohol's taxes as did the descendants of the old pilgrims KingGeorge's they can have a great national Boston beer-party and invite the world. It will be a peaceable one, I ween, and the guests will wear no masks, as did the braves at that gay afiair of yore. However, we shall not — "Attempt the future's portal, With the past's blood-rusted key," but with the bright new one. CHAPTER II. THE COMPTON PARSO N'A G E . [Old-fashioned Yam.) "Weave it of happy hours, Of smiles and summer flowers, Of passing sun-lit showers, Of acts of love." — Higginson. ^'UNT KATE'S forefather was a Pythias, but whether his blood was aristocratic and blue, and whether he landed a pilgrim on Plymouth Rock from the overcrowded Mayflower, I know not, or care, for sure I am, her {ox smother, Isabella Pythias, was a pilgrim from New England. Her Mayflower was a side- saddle, and she landed among the 1790's in "New Ply- mouth" woods, then the far West, now Central New York. She was after liberty. The liberty of worshiping, or not worshiping, any man she chose according to the dictates of her own heart and conscience. She had loved — and he died. I shiver now at her ghost story(for these items I gathered at her knee when I was a little girl and she among the nineties). But 'twas not from this haunt- ing ghost lover that she fled, but a would-be living one and her ambitious family's persecutions, for the lover was rich. In this ' 'New Plymouth, " in Ichabod Hathaway, (2) _ 17 1 8 WARP AND WOOF. who had axed hig way from Rhode Island, she found a spirit brave as her own, and a little cabin by the Rush- way was built, and the Hathaway homestead establish- ed. One forever after noted for its enterprise, thrift, and unbounded hospitality. Its mistress became the Aunt Sibyl of the hamlet and surroundings, carrying on saddle or in "shay" over the "corduroys" the wand of good fortune in her basket of good comforts, and no bridal, birth or death was complete without her sympa- thetic presence. Holy to her was the dawning of the new nineteenth century (just eighty-eight years ago). Above the whirl of busy wheels outside, the loom and the distaff withm, rose an anthem sweet as that sung by the morning stars. White-haired, silver-tongued story-teller, you were a fair young mother then, and grandfather— already the consecrated Samuel— the very Elijah among the preachers — was the little cooing baby in your arms. This child grew up, — massive headed, heavy browed, with Roman nose, and large mouth, clean shaven — and in his prime bore, 'twas said, a striking resemblance to Henry Clay. After an Eastern college education, he founded a home — a parsonage one — in Compton, Ct. The world, however, was his parish, and his ringing, earnest voice resounded along the years, far and near, through many a church arch and school house door- way. In Hstening again in memory to that dear voice, I had almost forgotten our other foremother. She was a Bos- ton Beauchamp,and the handsomest girl in the meeting house. She died young, and left a pretty baby girl to be in time my grandma. THE COMPTON PARSONAGE. ig It was the best possible combination of the strength and vigor of a Hathaway foremother, and the beauty and grace of the Beauchamp, that appeared in the Rev, and Mrs. Samuel's third child. My mother, seven years older, sitting here, gray-headed, with her rag basket, tells her wonder-eyed little grandchildren (I set them a-quizzing) of little kittenish noises one night, way back; of finding something, in early morning, in the Boston rocking-chair before the open wood fire ; how she thought it at first a big doll ; of her delight and curly- headed little Fred's, when it opened its eyes and made another kittenish noise, for 'twas a/we — wide awake — and a "Kitty." She shows them the dainty embroidered lace cap the baby wore, and the little tucked dress with its full, short sleeves. She tells of very bright eyes and decid- ed little nose, and how little Kate grew so pretty and jolly and such a chatter-box ; of the backbone inde- pendence that sat alone very young, and was soon tod- dling about in pretty, helpful ways. Tried even, she says, "to fits"her grandmother's broken pipe, and when the handle broke from the pitcher and wouldn't be fits'd ■was "gad it had anoosle. " "Dolls?" asked her little girl listener, and mother acknowledged that her little sister Kitty was never enthusiastic over ' 'dead dollies, " but "hugged all the live pets and babies in Compton. " Yes, her heart always demanded life vitality, and no dead issues satisfy now. Her investigations were ever leading her into danger, and the burns, sprains, breakages and slivers made splendid practice, during his college course, for prospective young Dr. George Hath- away, a Plymouth cousin. He once fished her out of 20 WARP AND WOOF. the duck pond, too, into which she dove after the "fis- ses. " Her higher education curiosity led her one day to follow this cousin into the college walls, but only to scamper quickly away, for girls weren't wanted. She didn't understand why. She wasn't, I find, like the babies you read of — more like the ones you don't read of. A little sinner she was, who boldly declared that, rather than go to Heaven and play on a harp, she pre- ferred to stay with her pretty ma, and have a monkey and a hand organ, for ' 'I don't know what a arp is, an tould.turn a crank," (and ' 'cranky" she is yet). There was, however, no lack of religion in her nature, but cant, humbug and hyprocrisy were ever her abomina- tions. There came a time when she went up into the Mount, and it proved indeed a Mount of Transfigura- tion, and no one doubted that Kate Hathaway was a Christian. Her religion was a tender, joyous intimacy that filled her soul. This was years later, "But the baby ?" Julius inquires, and his grandmother tells him how General Training and its gay military trappings took her once under a wild horse's heels to come forth all unharmed. She was a political baby from the start, and born of good Whig stock. Her little principles were put to the test once by Httle Soc Hifleur and a whole crowd of juvenile Democrats. It was at recess, and only high- toned words, and she alone hurrahing for Henry Clay. But when she went back into the school room her nose was decidedly retrousse towards Socrates, and she refused to sit on the same seat with the seceding Polk girls, and went off by herself. The amused teacher THE COMPTON PARSONAGE. 21 discovered conscientious convictions, and humored a baby politician. His name was Fry, and little Kitty was delighted when he taught the girls to make bows just like the boys instead of the knee-bending curtsey. Little he dreamed to what such an innovation might lead. She was a brave, valiant little Whig, hurrahing for Clay, yet James K. Polk was elected President, and mixing some Milleriteism, that was going the rounds, with the catastrophy, she cried and asked : "Is the world coming to an end ?" At this Alphonso Blossom, another Whig, and a little lover, had kindly offered her a Jackson ball — they were as hard as their namesake, but so lastingly sweet ! — very tempting to a little girl who seldom tasted candy, but, "No," and she shook her head decidedly. "You wouldn't hurrah for Clay, and I won't touch it," and she didn't, and h? gave it to a little Polk girl. She was very fond of Mr. Fry. He was a high-toned, genial gentleman, and there wdre more tears — quite a spatter — when the summer school closed and "her Fry," as she called him, returned to his position in a postoffice. But back again to Compton he soon came, "turned out!" "What for?" asked his little Kate, drawing back from his proffered kiss with such reproach and doubt in her black eyes. ^' Did you steal ?" ' 'No, my child, and I never will. But I'm a Whig, and the Democrats won't have me in the postoffice." Then and there began her interest in what we call or miss-call civil service and the reforms that are so long coming. She saw with fright and horror a man dead drunk in 22 WARP AND WOOF. the street, and though she could not understand why- big folks were allowed to sell ' ' stuff that did so, " and went right over to the hotel and excitedly expressed her opinion to the landlord — it prepared the way for a to- tal abstinence pledge. This littleWhig easily took the Washingtonian graft. She stumbled, like many others, over the long word "beverage," but the fact that she has never broken the pledge stamped in the bright medal which was tied to her neck with a pink ribbon, shows how she, thus early, understood all its sacred- ness. That Washingtonian movement, named fromMartha, the temperance wife of the immortalGeorge, had noth- ing to do with politics. But, as you will see, this fact bears some relation to a future political tree. Then followed the Rechabites, in whose total absti- nence principles she took more than childish interest. You will be surprised to learn that our little Whig's politics changed, but she had good reason. The big girls on the back seat one day abandoned the usual torture of sticking pins into the little backs in front for a more harrowing one. With solemn faces they announced that a great war had begun, and all the fathers and big brothers would have to go and be killed. "Not mine," said Kate. "Ministers don't fight!" "They'll have to go, though, to do the praying, and my father to cut off the legs, and so on," said Ellen, the Doctor's daughter. She mentioned this ghastly operation with a roguish twinkle, for she had produced the desired deluge among the little ones. But wise little Kate saved her tears till the real trouble should come. THE COMPTON PARSONAGE. 2$ Rushing home to her father's arms, between smiles at his little daughter's credulity and his own stern expres- sion of righteous indignation, he gave her a never-to- be-forgotten lesson in political economy, which some- times means national extravagance. She learned, for the first time, of the complicity of our government with slavery, for we were trying to steal Texas to make more slave States. (Who blames Mexico now for defending her own ?) She had learned something of this abomination of abominations from her grandmother's stories of slav- ery in New England, and with some of the same hot blood in her veins, she, too, could now hate this wrong and oppression with intelligence, vim, and a vengeance, and gave all her brilliant talents as a loving advocate to the uncompromising anti-slavery, home protection party, and ever after hurrahed for Birney. She clapped her little hands for the cause, mother re- members on one commencement occasion. Mr. Alfred Noble was the valedictorian of his class, and delivered a splendid address on ' 'National Retribution. " He was a daring fellow, and those that admired feared to applaud. All but Kate. To the mortification of her conserva- tive older sister and the astonishment of the audience, she clapped her hands with all her might, and he, with a knightly wave, bowed his thanks to the one courag- eous soul in all that vast assembly. Her spirit had leaped to its level, for the Hathaway blood chmbs up and never down. He was kingly-looking, too, erect in form, with a firm mouth, and such depths in his piercing, black eyes. He looked like one who would dare to do the right, though the heavens fell. He dared, 24 WARP AND WOOF. before that classic, conservative audience, to convict Our country and government of its complicity with slav- ery, prophesying of the retribution that has since fol- lowed. I just dote on love scenes, and this is the first of young love's dream, but I fear it spoiled my heroine for another lover. The rumored International Council to celebrate a fortieth anniversary, has led me to question my his- torians on another subject, and this is the reminiscence : Early one summer morning in 1848 the old stage coach came rumbling down the Pike hill as usual, but its Jehu's horn tooted out a new tune. He knew what was in the mail bags, and this was the blast that woke the sleepers, — ' ' Woman's Rights ! W-o-m-a-n-'s R-ig-h-t-s !" There had been, sure enough, a con- vention in New York State that had set the world agog. Half a dozen women (and as since proved, in their right minds) made a new declaration of independ- ence, — asked for higher education, better protective laws, and the ballot ! The news spread like fire in a match box, and even in the Compton parsonage were various opinions on the subject. The aged grandmother, a personal friend of Abbey Kelley, had caught the inspiration of her advanced thought, and exclaimed, "Glory to God !" The pretty mistress wondered if voting would be lady- like. Mother, then seventeen, merely raised her nose, but Kate, often, boldly declared herintention of grow- ing up a woman rather than a lady, and voting. We already see the consequences of making bows like the boys. Every budding has a seed, and when THE COMPTON PARSONAGE. 2$ I inquire to-day what started these buds at Seneca Falls, how happened it that these women, hampered by the time-honored customs of the ages, dared such ideas? I learn that some years previous Mrs. Mott and other good, brainy women were duly appointed and sent as delegates to a world's anti-slavery convention in London. They were rejected on account of sex, but af- ter much parley vouing were magnanimously allowed to sit behind a curtain and listen to their mascuUne bet- ters. Mrs. Stanton was with them, and walking out with a very flushed face and the brave little Quakeress on her arm, a new idea entered that large, curly head. "When we get home we will have a convention all our own." That was the mustard-seed whose branches are to overspread Washington. But other branches were almost overspreading Wash- ington in the times of which we are writing. 'Twas but a little way from the shadow of our National Cap- itol that mother, then a young girl, was arrested for high crime and lodged in jail. She was teaching in the family of a Virginia planter. He owned the most slaves, and was the richest man in the county. But they brought him few comforts, though some of them bore a striking resemblance to their master ! 'Twas one of these, a brave little octoroon, who boldly declared : ' 'When I grow up I'll buy my liberty, and be free. '' The Yankee teacher had not instigated this spirit, but her look of admiration was noted, and a strict watch placed on her movements and also that of his sister, a beautiful girl, as white as a lily. It was soon discovered that the Yankee had been secretly teaching her to read 26 WARP AND WOOF. the Bible, and she, in turn, was secretly instructing others. This made her dangerous property. Her beau- ty and grace of bearing had before this made her an object of jealousy and persecution to her mistress and sisters. Really, it was the forerunner of the John Brown con- spiracy, and alarmed the neighborhood. The Yankee teacher saw her bright pupil cruely beaten at her own father's orders, and dragged away in chains to the slave pen, and she herself was arrested and lodged in the county jail — her sex alone saving her from mob vio- lence. From that criminal cell she sent home a letter that brought consternation to Compton and great anxiety and grief to the parsonage. ' 'Draw on me, Elder, for any amount you may need, " said many an anti-slavery friend, as grandfather depart- ed South, but he needed no assistance. Fortunately, grandpa united a judicial bearing with his strong resem- blance to the distinguished statesman, Henry Clay, and at his request the jail doors were immediately opened, and the fair prisoner discharged, and it was not till long after that he accidentally learned they swung suppos- ably to "Harry Clay, of Kentucky." But mother came home sick in heart and body, with a twofold malaria, and ready to accept and settle down in Compton with her old lover, Milton Upson. Grandfather's report to his neighbors of his South- ern impressions was not as glowing as his success as a lawyer, yet he thought the people sufficiently punished in being obliged to live in a country so barren. Even their pet institution was a torture to them. Kate, the little maid of the parsonage, pondered all these things in her heart. THE COMPTON PARSONAGE. 2/ The fugitive slave law soon after burst forth like a meteor on the northern sky. The aged grandmother cried in tears, "How long, O Lord!" — and Kate, pale with rage, exclaimed, ' 'Even savages would not legislate such an abomnity as that. Why,it's making slaves andlackeys of us all !'» And so it was. ' 'They are not savages, daughter, but Southern Dem- ocrats ! " with great indignation. But grandfather couldn't say much. He was a be- liever in the half loaf doctrine, was tilting with the Whigs on a compromise platform, and had voted for Zachariah Taylor, a slaveholder. (Query : Are there any tilters now?) This law, however, was no meteor. It had come to stay, and the long train of arrests, kidnaps, imprison- ments, murders, and chain-gangs — for the high crime of loving liberty — kept Kate at white heat. Very pale she would be at such recitals. 'Twas well for her that she found some diversion in books. Well equipped, she again, as in her babyhood, ap- plied for admission to the doors of Compton College, to be again told that girls were not wanted. She often visited Uncle Ezra's, the old Hathaway homestead at New Plymouth, taking her loving, helpful ways which were a part of her. She was a great favorite with the family — his only daughter, Sophy, was her dearest friend, and thus it was the cousins went together to Lakewood Seminary. There was little politics stirring in those cloistered halls. Though the memorable '52, the news of the deaths of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster intruded not upon lessons that were from 28 WARP AND WOOF. books and not from real life, but Uncle Tom's Cabin could not be kept out. It spoiled one day's recitations and the indignant, tearful reader's eyes for a week. It was some relief in the vacations passed at Uncle Ezra's to defy a law so inhuman as was the Fugitive Slave Law, and help and cheer the poor, starving refu- gees on to the free State of Canada. Uncle Ezra's was one of the underground railroad stations. She cried much over these wrongs. Slavery was the crying sin in those days, yet I learn it was not the only sin that made folks cry. The fairest, brightest young men of Compton sunk into early dishonored graves because of intemperance. Some of mother's friends were thus widowed, others divorced. At one wedding the wine aroused the bridegroom's slurriberihg appetite, and he made of his wedding trip a debauch, and his return was on a bier. Another girl whose face was sorrow-touched before her marriage because she couldn't give him up, was more deeply scarred after, because she didn't. Another whose inheritance, through the curse, was a maniacal daughter. Still another was cursed with an idiotic son. It took the handsomest cousin at Uncle Ezra's, and from brilliant heights the other son, young Dr. George, had fallen. It blighted some fair, beautiful girls, too, in Comp- ton, sisters they were, whose father had left this inher- itance also with his wealth. Was it any worse for one of them to be picked up in the street than it had been for her father, and was the poor girl as much to blame? THE COMPTON PARSONAGE. 29 It ruined many a fine scholar on College Hill. It came nearer the home and into the heart of the parson- age, and touched the only brother and son, handsome, genial Fred. ' CHAPTER III K EN I W A Y . From the hues of woods of pine, And the grass's tender sheen, Shall this chapter here of mine, Make a ball of deepest green. I^LL these scenes, national and home, my birth, and my father's early death occurred while my grandfather lived atCompton. He had in most earnest ministerial work spent his vitality rapidly, was prematurely old, and now left the Compton parsonage to a younger man, and removed to the lighter and more retired field of East Keniway Hill, locating however on the Keniway Common below. This was while Kate was at Lakewood, and mother, then a blooming young widow in her father's home, became acquainted with the young people first. When Kate came home to Keniway the girls all liked her, and the young men were wild. She was new for one thing, and pretty for another, but that was not all. She had that frank friendliness of manner, that cordial good-fellowship that young men always like. Prof. Noble, then a tutor in his alma mater at Comp- ton, was spending the vacation in Keniway — and was its great catch, and would have been anywhere for that matter — although he was already caught, and engaged 30 KENIWAY. 3 i to a pretty, delicate girl living in East Keniway. There was something peculiar about the engagement. He had unintentionally won her heart, and when he found out the truth, and that in her delicate health there might be fears for her life, sacrificed his own feelings and became engaged to her. It was a romantic story at all events, and I presume it was true. When Kate Hathaway came, they first met in the Keniway Common one evening. He recognized her at once as the little girl who had applauded his oration on ' 'National Retribution, "and told her that her mem- ory had since encouraged him in many an hour of anti- slavery persecution. There was a large swing, and nobody but he could swing her high enough. (It has always been higher, higher! with her.) There was a good deal of nudging and whispering and envious glances from Alice Haw- kins when Professor Noble walked home with Kate. After that every circumstance seemed to draw them together. She did not know, and I think he did not realize what he was doing. None of the girls gossip- ped to her about it, for, with all her pretty nonsense, there was a great deal of real dignity about her, and she always impressed people as abundantly able to take care of herself. "I was," says mother, in relating this, "occupied with you, a little, weakly tot, and had no eyes for any- thing else till one night when out walking we met the young girl face to face." "Who is that pretty girl?" she asked. ' 'Lilly Beed, Professor Noble's fiancee, " I answered. There was a flush, then her roses were pale lilies, the 32 WARP AND WOOF. hand tightened on my arm, she needed support, but when I put mine around her she proudly rejected even that sisterly sympathy and walked on alone, saying nothing. She never said anything, but was always gayer and more reckless when he was by. There came a time, however, when he forgot every thing and argued with Kate, that 'twere better to wreck one life than two ; but she, child that she was, kept her judgment clear and remanded him to his betrothed, but not be- fore he had read her heart. He was married. Nobody, unless it were Uncle Tim, mistrusted, and nobody thought, either, that they were a very happy couple. He remained in Compton until he entered the army. ' 'As for your Aunt Kate, all her great heart's love she lavished on you, a fatherless child. Your little, lov- ing arms were ever clinging to her neck, and as she pressed you so closely to her heart I think it eased the pain," mother concluded. How she, more than another, has filled, for me, a father's place ! for her character and leadings were stronger than my mother's. Her sympathetic and most tactable little kindnesses, I find, went out to other homes and lives. Every door in Keniway was open to her without that decided and characteristic little "knock," besides, her ever deft fingers had a way of fixing up things, making rooms pretty, and people good-looking. Lov- ers came and went along the years, among the rest Socrates Hifleur, He mostly went. This leads up to my own times, for now I shall take up the threads of my own recollection, and give others KENIWAY. 33 a rest. (Aunt Kate is surprised at this new-fledged interest in family traditions, and mother innocently at- tributes all my interrogation points to her interesting rag basket with its ancient garments.) I could not describe to you the Compton home, but I can the Keniway one. It was one of the group of hill towns surrounding Compton, in Western Connec- ticut, the least noticed and visited of them all . As Un- cle Tim said, " 'Twas just hke a hull family of girls. Ten to one, the nicest and prettiest of the lot' 11 be the old maid. Human natur's so consarned contrary it'll go by the best and take up with the worst." It was the greenest, stillest spot in all the world. Its greatest charms were the common and the old pike. The common was a long, grassy stretch, fresh and dewy in the morning.and a delightful hunting ground for fire- flies at night. A good place to live was Keniway, a good place to sleep, and a good place to die. Grand- father perhaps had thought of that. And here I look up, for the twins are especially obstreperous to-day. And I ask "to be borne adown the quiet slope, "as he was, "to my last rest. " "Never mind these directions about your funeral," says my unsentimental lord, "it gives me the shivers, and then you might change your mind." The old turn-pike led across the common and passed our house. It was the sweetest and loveliest of path- ways, through which royal lovers need not blush to ride. Indeed after I had heard the quotation — "Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere Rode through the covert of the deer," I was always looking for them. It was a nice place for ■ (3) 34 WARP AND WOOF. a covert, and a group of fawns was about the only improvement possible to the old pike. I never saw them, however, only now and then a summer boarder or a troop of sun-bonneted little girls going a-maying, or, may be, Uncle Tim driving his cow. The sexton brings me to the Presbyterian meeting house, which ha~d been moved from the upper end of the common right into the middle. The minister thought it might thus be made more easy for old people in winter. There- upon the solemn old church was promptly hustled on rollers and moved, creaking and groaning, further down. The audience room was then placed upstairs, and old people trudged uncomplainingly thither, satis- fied that in some way or other matters had been im- proved. This, to the best of my knowledge, is the solitary instance of enterprise, or anything resembling it ever transpiring in Keniway. As such, it has left the same painful impression of glaring inconsistency as its deacon's interest in the rum -tavern. Both are charac- teristic of the minister, always a trifle given to "swal- lowing camels. " The pike led across a willow-fringed stream to East Keniway, where, upon a hill that its light might not be hid, was the Baptist church. Grand- pa's parishioners hadn't minded a hill. They would have climbed Mt. Blanc and kept warm amid the fire and thunder of his eloquence. Grandpa wasn't what you might call a comfortable minister, neither was Elijah, and for that matter, the Lord Christ himself But the Rev'd Blossom was the most comfortable of men. Yet these brother ministers ofdifferent stamp and creed, dis. cussing St. Paul/«7 and con, differing about baptism, but agreeing over the decrees, were ever the best of friends. KENIWAY. 35 Grandpa had such a kindly way of fathering his young- er brethren, The Rev'd Blossom was then a young man, but recently ordained, giving the council as his call, that an educated young man must do something. It was well that grandfather was not on the council, or there would surely have been a dissenting voice. He believed in a ' 'Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel" call. It was hinted that he followed to Keniway the black- eyed little miss from the Compton school house, with the intention of offering her another Jackson ball — last- ingly sweet. Be that as it may, he was in no undue haste. A mild-mannered young man he was, but very obstinate, — thoughtful, kind and courteous as when a boy, but more "sot." "Dreadful sot in his views," Uncle Tim said. His sermons I seldom heard, but I have most vivid recollections of his prayers on great occasions, so long that I used to feel a childish pity for the Great Listener. They were very instructive in a geographical way, for they took the congregetion all over the globe. And to quote Uncle Tim once more, ' 'he reely had no idee how big the arth was till he heard the parson pray. Moreover, he was thankful that nobody hadn't found out for certain that the planets had inhabitants, for then Rev. B. 'd feel it his duty to remind the Lord of 'em every Sunday in addition to the 'dwellers of the icy north' and the 'islands of the South Sea.' There's some as du say," Uncle Tim con- cluded, "as how he don't reely give himself time to pray for Keniway, poor Ackerman, and such, he's too busy kinder ballooning it over the four quarters of the arth, But, law ! he's young yit. He'll larn." (But he never has.) 36 WARP AND WOOF. Uncle Tim was one of the oddest and raciest ol characters, exceedingly absent-minded, and in his "off- spells," as we called them, would do many queer 'things. He rang the bell according to his feelings. If it pealed forth briskly and rapidly, then we knew Uncle Tim. was in a happy mood ; if slowly, then it was no sign of a funeral. Keniway houses were comfortable, old-fashioned dwellings — grandpa's much like the rest, except that it stood by itself on the east side of the common, and was surrounded by rose-bushes — porcupine roses, so called from being especially thorny. "Nasty, prickly things, forever tearing a fellow's clothes," said Willie Herbert, at ten. At twenty, he compared the very same bushes in full bloom to the cherubims standing guard with flaming swords before the gates of Paradise, Thus differeth childhood from youth. You should have seen the sunsets from Keniway hill- top. We used to' watch them. Aunt Kate and I, as I verily believe sunsets were never watched before. It always seemed as though the grand old fellow was say- ing, "Here now, youngsters, your day has been a mo- notonous one, and I'm bound to give it a right royal send-off by way of compensation. ' ' ' 'Sundown harbor" we called that fair beyond, from a fancy that the clouds were sailing thither like ships. Some rosy dreams weighed anchor there with Uncle Fred and his wee Carrie. He was a charming uncle, with the sweetest of tenor voices, and I don't think would have formed the habits we've hinted at but for Socrates Hifleur. He had won all Fred's marbles and pennies when they were school-boys together at Compton, and possibly a spite KENIWAY. 37 to the owner of that elevated little nose may have been his motive to as adroitly lead him into intemperate hab- its. He had succeeded only too well. Kate had loved this only brother perhaps too well, and she was sadly crushed. Grandma worshiped him. He was break- ing her heart, but the fragments of a mother's heart can always love, and he was her only boy. Aunt Kate in sweet, daughterly devotion, was always, it seemed to me, trying to make up to her parents what they missed in Uncle Fred. Uncle Tim was anxious to have him join theSons of Temperance. He promised him, if Rev. Blossom would. But that gentleman didn't see the need of signing away his liberty ! CHAPTER IV. SURROUNDING INFLUENCES, "We children had our brawls and feuds, Springing from 'trifles light and air ;' But intervening interludes Our little breeches did repair." To what hue this chapter grows, This of childhood's idle ways, Oh ! methinks a hue of rose Colors all our youthful days. jtNTO Aunt Kate's girlhood is twisted my child- hood. The rose was bright that April morning, as with my hand in hers I entered on my school life. Would you like to know what I wore that first day, you little girls that trip away to school in your pret- ty, ribboned hats and dainty, buttoned boots ? I wore that morning a new pair of copper-toed shoes and a Shaker bonnet. (Ask the mammas to describe the Shaker. ) Aunt Kate demurred against my "sunny curls and pathetic blue eyes" being hid by such head gear, but before night of that showery April day it -wa.sjust the tiling, for, as Ruthie Herbert said, you could cry then, and if you only held your head down nobody knew it. Ruthie had numerous scrapes to hide — mind you — and her chubby, brown-eyed little brother, Willie, and my- self had already begun our battles, and I was in tears. 38 SURROUNDING INFLUENCES. 39 Willie Herbert was as smart as a steel-trap, and as saucy as a bantam rooster, so Keniway folks said. From that hour we quarrelled over everything. There was antag- onism in the very air we breathed. One day it was for the head of the spelling class, the next for a wild straw- berry on our way to school, not that we cared so much for the head or the strawberry, but, as with children of larger growth, it was the principle of the thing. I do suppose two more vituperous little wretches never existed. Uncle Tim stood looking at me one day, his hands thrust into the pockets of his baggy breeches, and his battered hat set rakishly over one ear. ' 'It does beatall how them two young ones will quarrel, " he said to AuntKate. ' 'Pears as though there ain't nothin they can reely agree about." He chewed a sprig of spear- mint reflectively, as he continued: "As if 'twarnt bad. enough to git mad over which's cat can jump the farth- est, but t'other day they got all snarled up over sprink- ling and immersion. Willie he thought sprinkling was the thinig, and Idy she stuck to it a 'body couldn't git to Heaven unless they were dipped. ' Idy she was jist taking a drink of water, and I'm beat if she didn't give him more'n a sprinklin, threw it all over him, and he wuz madder'n pizen. Its reely strikin how the cussed- ness '11 come out in younguns afore they can hardly run alone." "Father would scarcely call it cussedness. Uncle Tim," said Aunt Kate. "He believes in the human instinct of self defense, and that children are not quite totally depraved after all." "Wall, wall, beats all. Spose the Elder's right." And it did beat all, for I must give you ahint of some 40 WARP AND WOOF. of the depravities and wrongs, that, in those days, flushed Aunt Kate's rosy cheek to a deep crimson, and awoke in me an element of self defense. Many of the farmers in Keniway drank a little mod- erately and respectably. But Sam Ackerman was the drunkard of the village. He was a kindly, decent man when sober, but a little liquor made him a devil. At such times he abused his wife and children and became the terror of the neighborhood. The school house stood on a slight elevation but a few rods from his miserable dwelling, and on more than one occasion he stood at the foot of this little hill, making threatening gestures and frightening the teacher and pupils half out of their wits. One day he rode straight up on horse- back, barely giving time to lock the door. Round and round the school house he careered, yelling and howl- ing with maniacal laughter, and anon looking in through the windows at the terrified young girl and her group of cowering children. I can see that jeering, scowling face to-day as he threw up his arms, half reeled in the saddle, and then rightening himself by some drunken luck, turned aud rode down the hill. That experience settled my views on the temperance question, and I reminded Willie of it in a dispute which soon occur- red. Whereat he promptly replied — this little boy who had never heard of Dr. Crosby — that it was no sign ev- erybody should stop drinking because one man made a fool of himself; that he was sure 'Squire Ackerman drank and always had, and he, the 'Squire, was a very nice old man. It was perfectly true. 'Squire Acker- man was a fine, hearty old gentleman, and to all ap- pearance none the worse for liquor ; but it was equally SURROUNDING INFLUENCES. 4 1 true that of his four sons, all drank to excess, Sam be- ing the worst. Had I known then what I have since learned of the terrible law of heredity I should have had an answer ready; as it was I retreated and acknowl- edged myself worsted. But I knew I was right all the same, and in years to come had the satisfaction of tell- ing him so. Through grandpa's influence there were temperance lectures and temperance societies in those days. There were pledges vigorously circulated by Aunt Kate, and variously more or less effective measures proposed, but this and other kindred topics were lost sight of in the all absorbing subject, "The Negro." A small debating society was started in Keniway, in which the Hathaway faniily took great interest. It was a lively one. There were as many diiiferences of opin- ion in those years over the slavery problem as there are now over the liquor one. They talked education, mor- al suasion, and humanity to the slaveholder with poor success. Though, with some, the institution was as kind and patriarchal as was Abraham's, and grand, good men at God's call freed their slaves and helped them to Canada or Liberia. This was a colony estab- lished in Africa by those that believed strongly in eman- cipation. Wm. Loyd Garrison had sent out his ideas with the Boston Liberator and been cursed. Church- es had taken up the subject, to their divisions. Rev. Lovejoy had been assassinated. (Does history repeat herself?) Surely it was an unfailing theme, for the time of which I am writing was after the repeal of the Mis- souri Compromise, a conciliating measure, which, as . Uncles Tim said, "was intended to suit everybody, and 42 WARP AND WOOF. didn't suit nobody." Its repeal, however, just suited the South, for it broke the line of 36' 30" .that had said to slavery "thus far and no further, and here shall thy mad waves be stayed !" This opened the whole North- west to slavery or freedom as they themselves should choose, and Kansas was soon a battle-ground. Peace- ful Northerners who were moving in and making homes on this fertile plain, soon found they had no rights that Southern planters or Missouri ruffians were bound to respect, for Iheir, raids were more deadly than the In- dians. Sharp-shooters are surer than tomahawks ! Our Northerners learned to use the rifle in their own defense and Sharp's rifles helped a good cause. John Brown was a brave, bold leader against these border ruffians, and the United States troops who aided them, and, as I read to-day what he saw and suffered, I do not won- der that the brain in that two story head reeled and his great-hearted scheme to emancipate the slaves was a wild failure at Harper's Ferry. But the blows he struck for true liberty aroused a nation of freemen. Another blow had also been struck. It felled our northern pride, Senator Charles Sumner, as he sat defenseless in the Senate Chamber. He had made a grand speech in be- half of Kansas freemen, and the blow of SenatorBrooks's cane reverbrated through the North. All these insults had burned into Aunt Kate's soul, and aroused a deepening hate of — Democrats — mostly I believe. And the little girl who tried to take her ideas as she did her dresses, got very much muddled, but re- tained a general childish impression that things were wrong and wouldn't soon be righted. Kansas, however, in spite of a pro-slavery govern- SURROUNDING INFLUENCES. 43 ment and these riotous proceedings, became a free State,, and its fair and fertile plains, 'tis said, bear no traces of its past conflicts, except in the grit and chiv- alry of its inhabitants. My great-grandmother was the strongest kind of an anti-slavery woman. How tall and majestic was she in her nineties, and with what fire in her aged eye and lighting up of her withered face, she would speak of these national events, and woe tci the luckless individ- ual who dared put in a word for the pecuhar institution ! Sitting one day in my little swing, I heard some con- versation between Uncle Tim, -who had just come up the old pike leading his cow, and Deacon Hawkins, who chanced to cross the common; and I, swinging to and fro under the old oak, took in all my little head would hold of tariff and free trade ! How folks did talk tariff in those days ! 'Twas so convenient ! I believed in free trade and pretty dresses ! They also discussed Brooks, Sumner, and John Brown, and then — they stretched forth on the larger field. "I tell you," said the Deacon, "it would be much better if we'd let the South take care of itself in this matter. We're getting ourselves into a great fuss over something that don't concern us at all. It's nigger, nigger, from morning till night. I'm disgusted with the whole subject. Why can't we attend to the hun- dred and one things that are wrong at home and mind our own business, that's what I want to know ?" Uncle Tim ruminated over his spearmint as usual before he replied. "Wall, wall, as to that pint, it ain't in human natur to mind itsownbusinessfor one. thing, and for another 44 WARP AND WOOF. its a-gittin to be our business when we have to catch 'em for 'em or be shut up, and its time we wuz a dis; cussin it, if we're ever a-goin to. " The Deacon muttered something about wearing out a subject, and Uncle Tim continued : ' ' 'Twas kinder tough on them settlers out in Kansas. Just got settled down comfortable-like, and beginning to feel a little at home, and find they'd no rights there ! Jest having the slave trade rid right over their heads !" Deacon Hawkins looked wrathfully contemptuous, and wisely shifted the argument, remarking that most of the negroes were satisfied as they were ; that they had kind masters and comfortable homes, and, being a good talker, drew quite a pretty picture of the pleas- ant and peaceful life enjoyed by the slaves in the South. ' 'Kinder queer they should act as they do, alius a runnin away and tryiri to git to Canady, but perhaps it's just their contrariness," observed the old man. ' 'They're naturally a lazy, shiftless set, steal every- thing they can lay their hands on, and are better off as they are than they'd ever be free. For my part I'm tired of this eternal go around about slavery. They don't begin to work as hard as I do, grubbing to get the stones out of that ten acre lot." And he laughed a short, spiteful little laugh. "It makes all the difference in the world, " said Aunt Kate, leaning out of the window, ' 'whether it is right or wrong!" "Sho ! now, you there, Kate?" exclaimed Uncle Tim;- "did't know anybody was hearin. Wall, now, what do you think of that pious streak of the govern- ment sendin off the troops beyond the Rocky Moun- SURROUNDING INFLUENCES. 45 'tains just now ? We may need them' at home. Kinder handy for the South perhaps to take that air tack just now !" "Look here," said Deacon Hawkins, branching off into the welcojne subject of polygamy; "Mormonism is the darkest blot on our nation's escutcheon. It blights every prospect of human happiness, degrades womanhood, and robs innocent children. We should rid ourselves of such a curse, if not peacefully, then by the sword. Polygamy indeed !" said he, waxing elo- quent, and waving his hand dramatically. "It is high time our government was doing something to suppress this evil which is making us a by- word among the na- tions." What will my pretty grandma and Aunt Kate say to that, I thought, for they, I knew, gave those troops no blessing, either. And here I interlude into this con- versation a word, not for polygamy, no indeed, but in memory of a real saint who was no polygamist, his seventeenth wife or widovv. She was a weighty argu- ment against that Mormon war. That Beauchamp fore- mother,"the handsomest girl in the meeting house," left not only the little daughter for me a grandma, but her handsome young husband, Ebenezer Damon, for her cousin, bright, black-eyed Rhoda Richards. All would have been nice, and she'd have been ray step-great- grand-mother had not the widower fallen from his horse and made a sad funeral day of an expected happy wed- ding-one. ItwasNewYear, 1814. The betrothed had been a mother to his orphan and true to his memory— all along the years. She had, it is true, with her family and cousins, the Youngs, become Mormons, but we knew 46 WARP AND WOOF. from her letters that she was pure and good, and her face was our Madonna. Her last letter had expressed some anxiety — but more faith in God that could deliver from even the United States government. But grandma or Aunt Kate wouldn't have profaned her name by men- tioning this pretty story in Deacon Hawkins's pres- ence, but the rosy face fastening a bow at her throat, looked out and suggested a better than shot and shell to put away polygamy. 'Twas just like her to think of it. Ribbons and flowers to fix up the first wife fine, so the husbands wouldn't go galivanting off after another wife. Fashioning polygamy out of existence ! [Note. — To-day I'm reminded of this by Aunt Kate's call with a Utah letter, in black, not in Aunt Rhoda's trembling hand now, for she, at last, had gone on New Year day to her youthful lover. After many sunny particulars, the letter ran : ' 'Among her bequests is this little relic o^ your grandfather to you. " And we unfolded the violet and white ribbon wrapping. 'Twas a little square silver pin, with eyes in the corners, and the initials "E. D." She took this, the letter stated, from his cold breast, and had worn it as her pledge of fidelity through the seventy odd waiting years, and the ribbon was the bridal bonnet string. ' 'She thought you, of all her friends, would appreciate it. " Appreciate it ! I guess Aunt Kate did, but her eyes were full of tears as she clasped this Ebenezer Damon pin to her yellow and white bow, and, with a new and holy resolve, said: ' 'Beneath the all-seeing eye, and in memory of a wo- man's devotion, I raise my Ebeneezer against the liquor traffic and woman's oppression, and give to these socie- ties the love Damon gave Pythias." Should you ever SUKUOUNPING INFLUENCES. 47 meet Aunt Kate at convention, you'll know her by these presents.] Aunt Kate's idea of fashioning evil out of existence, just suited Uncle Tim. He laughed heartily and ' 'most wished she was in the White House to tell the bach- elor a thing or two. And then to Deacon Hawkins, "I don't suppose slavery degrades womanhood or them things, " with a mischievous twinkle. ' 'Slavery's a pious thing, I must say, a partin wives and husbands, and a prostitutin of young girls, andamixin up things generally. 'Pears as though your talk don't exactly hang together, does it?" "Fiddlesticks!" ejaculated Deacon Hawkins, grow- ing irritated and speaking rapidly. "I tell you the ne- groes have not the moral sense of the whites. They are ignorant and brutish." ' 'Slavery's a powerful way of eddicatin 'em then, that's all I've got to say," said Uncle Tim. Just then my great-grandmother advanced to the open window and stood there, her hands on the case- ment, and peering forth upon the speakers, her face kindled as with a flame. Suddenly she spoke, her voice rising shrill and high like a clarion. "The day of national retribution is coming, for God has counted all those lashes and tears, and the nation upholding such crimes shall not go unpunished ! I shall not live to see it, but, mark my words — there's to be a great war — for He will avenge, and that right early!" The fairer and rosier face was yet looking through the casement, and well for Deacon Hawkins that he passed on ere another silvery phillipic fell from the sweeter lips of Aunt Kate. Compromise with slav- 48 WARP AND WOOF. ery ever aroused grandmother's ire as do the licensed liquor compromises mine to-day. Willie Herbert, too, leaning over the gate, had heard this conversation, and, as might be expected, it led to a spirited combat of our own. The skirmishing began at the morning recess by his trying to cane meas Brooks caned Sumner. "He deserved it, and you — ." Here he raised the stick, but Uncle Tim happened along and gave him a vigorous caning. Late in the afternoon we deliberately balanced ourselves on the topmost rail of a rickety fence, which separated the Herbert back yard from a small, wet-weather pond. We sat there glaring at each other — he a bare foot boy, and I in my Shak- er and copper-toes. He led off by remarking in a tan- talizing tone, "I think, with Deacon Hawkins, that niggersaren't much more-n half human, anyway. You couldn't make 'em know as much as white folks did, and everybody but Ida Upson, and her relations, knew it." I had heard enough to know that this was entirely untrue, and I was mad — as mad as a little Yankee girl could be. I told him then and there, that the colored people had no chance for anything but ignorance, and stumbled terribly over a sentence I had heard grand- father say about 'centuries of degradation, 'getting more and more tangled up in the big words, but clearing my- self at last by informing him summarily that ' ' they knew a great sight more than the Democrats, and if they did'nt I should pity them." The talk ran higher and higher, while our voices rose with our zeal 'till bye-and-bye Willie said hatefully, "They've done one good job, though — hanging John Brown. He SURROUNDING INFLUENCES. 49 was a crazy old lunatic, pa says. I'm glad he's out of the way, just setting up the darkeys against their masters and making a big fool of himself at Harper's Ferry." John Brown a crazy lunatic indeed ! John Brown, whom I almost worshiped, my young soul bowing in loving reverence before the great heart that broke ^-2i crazy lunatic 1 "You shan't say such things of John Brown," I fairly screamed ; " he was great, he was good, he was wise, he was — well," pausing for breath, "he was everything, and Aunt Kate says he'll live forever in the world." "How can he when he's dead?" asked Willie, a practical question that rather staggered me. " She means — she means — well, I don't know what she means;" then realizing the hateful look of ex- ultation, "Aunt Kate says he was a wonderful man, and sacrificed everything, and that most people aren't smart enough to understand him, and that some time the world will realize what John Brown has done." I paused again; and Willie filled the gap by observing that Aunt Kate and our folks and all the Abolitionists were crazy, but that John Brown was the craziest of them all; that the niggers weren't worth all this fuss, and that the whole crowd, Abolitionists, niggers and all, would soon be nowhere; that Douglass was going to be President soon, and, ,he'd like to know what I was going to do about it ? "Do about it !" said I, , fairly desperate. "I'll do this: I'll push you into that mud-puddle, andl.just wish old Douglass went with you ;" and before he (4) ^O WARP AND WOOF. could think I had given him a violent push ofif the ra,il and into the dirty water, and ran off as fast as possibles I slammed the Herbert gate behind me and hurried across the green, silent common, my face burning, my veins on fire. I was so indignant I should have liked to push in the whole Democratic party and never heard of the miserable subject again. But I was only a little girl, and this first blow struck for my country was hardly in good taste. I ran stra:ight into my house nest, into Aunt Kate's arms, where I sobbed incoherently for sonie moments. "What is it, Ida?" stroking the hair back from my heated brow ; what's the matter with Auntie's dar- Img?" "It's John Brown," I sobbed. She laughed merrily as she replied: "Seems to be the matter with a good many people just now, but what has that to do with these tears?" " Willie Herbert talked so mean and hateful and said Douglass would be President, and I got so mad I pushed him off the fence into the mud-puddle, and I spose he's drowned by this time. O ! Aunt Kate, was'nt it mean ?" "Yes, my little fury, but John Brown's glory can take care of itself, and will, 5^u'll find, as the years go on. We need'nt feel the responsibility of it on our shoulders. Howbeit, I know just how you felt, Ida, but don't approve of your taking justice into your own hands. The mills of the gods grind slowly, but, little Ida, they grind exceedingly small. " I thought I had never seen anything nobler than hei- face as she said this; but Gh ! Aunt Kate, you SURROUNDING INFLUENCES. 51 once upon a time took justice into your own hands — being's you are human, and human theories and practices will somehow fall apart. r^^.'^'*. CHAPTER V. TWO SIDES. {^The Blue Delaine.^ " And suddenly another squadron bright, Of high archangel glory, stooping, brought A marvelous bow — one base upon the cross, The other on the shoulder of the Bear. They paced from south to north, spanning the heavens. And on each hand dividing good or bad; Who read on either side these burning words, Which ran along the arch in living fire, And wanted not to be believed in full — ' As ye have sown so shall ye reap this day.' " — Polluck. \I seemed to me there was antagonism every- where. Willie Herbert and I were very faint little reflections of the spirit pervading the South and North. ' Those blows we have mentioned and many another on a slave's back, echoed back — sooner than even grandmother prophesied — at Charles- ton Harbor ; for we are nearing the great conflict of the ages. The leaning Whig walls, undermined by slavery, had fallen, and out of the ruins rose the Freesoil Republican ones. " Its walls are of jasper stones, clear as crystal," said Aunt Kate, in her new-kindled admiration and love — and so they seemed. It said to slavery, you shall not extend your borders and take possession of 62 THE BLUE DELAINE. S3 our western territories. It grew rapidly under perse- cution — as everything good does — but its first presi- dential candidate, tlie daring, path-finding (over the Rockies) John C. Fremont, and his still more daring "Jessie," were defeated in '56. The Hathaway family all espoused this new party, Aunt Kate with her whole heart. How she loved Abraham Lincoln ; at the mention of that name, even now, she hears again his last farewell words at Springfield. "His 'pray for me' on that sad morning," she says, "with electric flash sent a nation to its knees in prayerful tears." And then she willpause with bated breath in remembrance of that strife that stripped in its ravages wives of husbands, mothers of their darling sons, colleges and seminaries of professors and pupils, the land the flower of its youth, and homes everywhere of their best beloved. Every hamlet, like Keniway, was a Bethlehem with the Rachels — weeping. ' 'Yet, '•' as grandfather said in a most thrilling voice on an in- spiring occasion, ''' there is a powerful fascination in this, the loudest cannonade of liberty's forces along the lines of time ! That matchless document we all know says ' All men are created free and equal,' and in this christian country, in the light of the 19th cen- tury, are millions deprived of all human rights! Though not such, perhaps, at first, it has become an anti- and pro-slavery contest. The South are the ag- gressors, and have for years been preparing for this strife. So has God ! And He bids us defend our- selves and our country's liberties. It is beyond cdl com- putation! Ancient wars have never represented as many men, never such principles, as our own civil 54 WARP AND WOOF. war." "Civil!" I thought it very uncivil. "Abra- ham Lincoln is our Moses, our Joshua, our Gideon. God grant that, like them, he may prove equal to his hour, his day, and his generation! " How proud I was of grandfather in those days; and of Aunt Kate, whose words were as eloquent and brave. They dared ever for the right, and every foe of their country, and I remember there were many who in her humiliation assailed her. The memories of that war — to the death of a mil- lioji — ^led me again into its .shadow land. I looked up from my desk in tears, to be turned with sudden reversion from the serious to the suiway — even the funny side of the same old war days. Mother, sitting in the bay-window, was cutting into strips my old blue delaine, and at the sight of it again I surprised her with a burst of old childish laughter. It revived memories as bright as was once that little rose-colored vine on the short skirt that Aunt Kate embroidered. Another used to think it pretty. That first evening 'twas finished I wore it across the common to the postoffice, to find a letter in a brilliant orange envelope directed to Miss Ida Upson, and I read it sitting on a stone under the parsonage oak. It was from a way, way-off cousin, a boy I had known. I read aloud, ' 'Prov- idence permitting, you bet I'll be there, " and a gay voice just above my head said, ' 'Providence permits, " and I permitted a kiss. It was Frank himself Frank, with a freckled face, honest blue eyes, and every red hair rampant with manliness (his boyhood was a hope- ful prophecy of later years). He was a regular inquisi- tive, obstreperous boy, and had come to study classics ■ THE BLUE DELAINE. 55 and prepare for college under grandpa. He studied, besides, as the days went on, things not very classical, for he was full of original plans and daring exploits, as you shall see. Aunt Kate was getting along — actually twenty- three. Grandma thought it was really time she was making provision for the future. The subject was receiving careful consideration from the Hathaway family, and. Aunt Kate herself excepted, all agreed with grandma. Mr. Socrates Hifleur was appearing again on the scene of conflict, and following the ex- ample of the historical wolf, donned a wobly-clerical coat. But all the. same he might, perhaps, have de- voured Aunt Kate but for the interference of a young- ster, a frog and a contraband. This theologue was seeking, too, for his profanation, the Elijah mantle just then falling from grandfather's feeble shoulders at East Kenivvay. He had donned good manners with his new clerical coat, was nice, prim, sanctimonious and suave, and had succeeded in ingratiating himself in the family. I thought his composure of dignity perfectly wonderful, but that confidence in the correctness of his views, or that grey eye, exasperated Aunt Kate. But her method of showing it was different than of old, the nose usually kept a pretty aquiline. She would laugh and talk and say all manner of odd and witty things, but there was always a spice of opposition in her manner toward him that I think heightened rather than diminished his ad- miration. Sometimes, if he saw the bias of her opinion soon enough, he would endeavor to agree with her, but oftener she would slyly lead him around to an avowal of his own and then come boldly to the front with some 56 WARP AND WOOF. direct antagonism, I know he thought Frank and me utter nuisances, for we tagged Aunt Kate persistently. He was always trying to speak to her confidentially. That opportunity she seemed resolved never to give him, and during that entire vacation his ministerial soul was vexed within him. He had deceived grandpa and grandma, hut my great-grandmother had an especial dislike to him. Her piercing eyes saw straight through the delusion. She did'nt believe in the visionary ' 'call" he related, had no exalted opinion of the original Greek he quoted, and when she spoke it was sometimes with embarrassing candor. A woman who had once seen a ghost, naturally was not afraid of a theologue. One bright afternoon Mr. Hifleur (not the ghost) dropped in for a chat with AuatKate, and for a wonder found her alone in the parlor. It seemed a favorable opportunity for the tender speeches he hadattempted so long. He would make hay while the sun shone, and improve the shining hour. Unfortunately these useful proverbs had also taken deep root in the juvenile mind of Frank Brooks. He had chosen that particular afternoon for the colonization of half a dozen frogs in the kitchen sink. Grandpa and grandma were off a-visiting; mother had stepped into a neighbor's, and the aged grand- mother was napping. So we brought the frogs from a brook hard by, spattering woefully the pretty, blue •delaine — stopped up the spout and chuckled over our success. Then Frank fell from grace. "Ida," said he, "I'vegot the very idea. I'll see if I can drop one into Mr. Highfly's. pocket, just to see what lie'll do." For reasons of his own Frank air ways called him Mr. Higkfly.^l uttered a feeble^ THE BLUE DELAINE. 57 very feeble — protest, and followed him into the hall. He stole softly into the parlor, where Mr. Hifleur was leaning towards Aunt Kate and talking very earnestly, She sat looking out the window, her pret- ty face, I fancied, wearing a slightly bored expres- sion, and her nose, I thought, a bit retrousse. Frank tiptoed towards them, dropped the frog into its nov- el resting place, and dodged back just as Mr. Hi- fleur, reaching the climax of his oratory I suppose, reached also for his pocket-handkerchief. Dear me, it was terrible, right in the midst of those ardent pro- testations to grasp a cold, cold frog ! We escaped to the kitchen. The frogs were jumping from the sink. Just then grandma returned, and between her profuse apologies, and Aunt Kate's vigorous scolding, and the general confusion incident to the presence of six frogs in a well-ordered kitchen, Mr. Hifleur bowed himself out, very red and excited, but telling Aunt Kate he would call again in the evening.. Frank and I ate a very frugal supper in the kitchen that night, but in the midst of our humiliation entered Aunt Kate with a huge slice of sponge-cake for each, and we felt in some way that she did not consider us sinners beyond hope. Later Mr. Hifleur reappeared, and we all sat in the parlor, Uncle Fred among us. It was a dark, starless night, and Frank was so unnaturally good, the time dragged a little. Suddenly there came a low, stealthy knock at the door. Grandpa opened it. Back in the shadow crouched a figure, and a man's low voice said huskily: "Will you take me in? For God's sake tell me !" "Certainly." And grandpa grasped the horny, black: 58 WARP AND WOOF. hand and drew him inside, hurriedly closing the door. "I'm a runaway slave, and the officers are after me. Oh, mas'r if you'll only let me hide somewhere. I'm trying to get to Canada." The slave stood before us, a noble-looking fellow despite his abject fear. His few clothes in rags and tatters, his dark face haggard and worn ; he was . a strange and terrible contrast to our comfortable group. "Hide you ? Indeed we will — or better, send you safely on your way." "And feed you, too," said grandma. "Poor, poor fellow, how he must have suffered !" , She bustled out into the kitchen. Aunt Kate stand- ing still, her eyes alight, her cheeks flushed, but she said nothing. Mr. Hifleur misinterpreted her silence. ' 'Are you sure that you ought to encourage him in this way, Brother Hathaway ? Ought we not rather to counsel him to return, or at least to do nothing to aid him in his folly, for it's against the law?" "Had you a cruel master ?" he continued, looking coldly into the dark face and pitiful eyes. - "No," answered the slave, to my surprise. "No, I had a kind master, and I won't lie about it. But I wanted to be free. I had enough to eat and drink, but that isn't freedom, and if they tear me limb from limb I'll never go back." ' 'And yet you leave your home to be hounded and hunted ! You don't know when you're well off, " said Mr. Hifleur. ' 'I've traveled from one end of the South to the other, and if the North would only let them alone the negroes are well enough off"; better than I am." THE BLUE DELAINE. 59 "Then you-can have the place Heft,' poor mas'r" — and he showed some very white teeth, Mr. Hifleur seemed lost in the contemplation of some abstract idea, and elevated his nose. Then he went on, to conclude his remarks, by stating that "slavery was, and always had been, a divine institu- tion, established from the very creation," etc. He felt that he had no call to raise a finger against it. The gathering storm broke at last. ' 'You speak of law to a subject of God's higher law ! Divine institution ! Indeed ! On the same principle, murder, lying, drunkenness, and polygamy are God's established institutions," thundered grandpa, shaking his oratorical fist within an ace of that same elevated nose. "No, a thousand times no ! Dare not impeach Jehovah, lay not to His charge this abomination of iniquities; interpret not Scripture in this way, as you hope for success here or mercy hereafter !" Grandpa blew his own nose, Mr. Hifleur looked confused, and my great grandmother followed with some observations of her own. "Seems to me, young man, you can't have studied your Bible very straight, if you can't see that there's considerable difference between slavery as it is now and the slavery talked about in the Scripture. But there 'tis ; it takes more than edication to make a min- ister. Thology won't do it, nor Greek nor Hebrew won't do it. A man's got to have a leaven of com- mon sense and religion. In my opinion, a man that hasn't any call to use common sense and brotherly kind- ness, hasn't any call to preach. " "And," added Aunt Kate, "no call to call on me," 60 WARF AND WOOF. Grandmother had risen in her indignation, and moved towards the young minister. Her tall, gaunt form was imposing in its clinging skirts and old-time drapery, her hand raised, her eyes fairly smiting him in their indignant lightning. Now with a slow and stately movement she seated herself once more, and this time, as it chanced, right on the minister's high silk hat. It was worse than the frog. Hastily gath- ering up his battered hat and rumpled dignity; he left too late, however, to escape Aunt Kate's glance of amusement and the suppressed tittering of- two ill- behaved children. ' 'I bet he never thought of a call till he wanted Aunt Kate," whispered Frank. "What does he care for souls like ours ? — not much !" Whether it was grandmother's opinion or Aunt Kate's refusal, but he gave up preaching and became a partner of Uncle Fred, in hop speculation. To return to the slave. Just then mother entered the room. "Bress the Lord, oh my soul," he exclaim- ed. There was muttial recognition, joy, and gratitude, for it was the boy who would ' 'buy his liberty and be free'' who had thus taken it. He dropped on his knees. Rained tears and kisses on her garments. ' 'And your sister Angle ?" — mother inquired with great interest. Here his tears became raging, and ours in sympathy as he told how he had seen her insulted and bid off on the auction block. A brutal Georgia man in the busi- ness had bought her for that fate worse than death, and he never heard from her more. Gladly would we have harbored this brave, good man — in spite of a Fugi- tive Slave law— buthe dared not linger,and with fervent THE BLUE DELAINE. 6l -Godspeeds and the practical help of Uncle Fred, he was sent on to the next station of that wonderful under- ground railroad. Somehow, being only an unreason- ing child instead of a reasoning theologue, that scene settled and established my notions of human slavery and negro equality to a surprising degree. On another subject I was not settled, and the next morning I pour- ed a very fusilade of questions on defenceless Aunt Kate. "Did you like Mr. Hifleur? I mean did you like him muck?" Why not?" she answered, evasively. "Why should not I like a nice, well educated young man like him?" "Yes; but did you?" "Well, I didn't care much about him," she finally acknowledged. "Why didn't you like him, if he was so nice ?" I determined to sift this mystery to the bottom. "Oh, you tedious puss," she said. "Did jfou like him?" "No," said I. "He was as tall and stiff, and as straight as a meeting-house steeple," looking up at Keniway church. ' 'Am I talking bad about him ?" I hastened to ask, for talking about folks was strictly tabooed at Grandpa's. " "No, darling, you are not," said Aunt Kate, decid- edly. "I'm sure," I added, "a church steeple's a nice object, and does a great deal of good. " ' 'No, " replied Aunt Kate, "it's the warm, loving ser- mons inside the church that does the good. The steeple only shows you where to go to hear them. But, Ida, 62 WARP AND WOOF, in Mr. Hifleur's case I don't believe there's anything warm or loving underneath." ' 'He wouldn't have treated the poor slave as he did if there had been, said I." CHAPTER VI. COMPLICATIONS. {^Tangled Threads.^ "No blood may flow, and no mortal ear The groans of the wounded heart may hear, As it struggles and writhes in their dread control As the iron enters the riven soul. But the youthful form grows wasted and weak. And sunken and wan is the rounded cheek ; The brow is furrowed, but not with years ; The eye is dimmed with its secret tears. And streaked with white is the raven hair — These are the tokens of conflict there." ;HE whole weight of a nation's woe seemed to rest on the parsonage at the Bull Run defeat. That dark Monday I shall never forget. I thought, as President Lincoln once said, ' 'I shall never more be glad." Frank, however, soon dispelled my gloom. Another woe than the nation's fell on Aunt Kate. The Theological Seminary at Comptorl afford- ed supplies for our little church on the East Keniway hill, and these students fairly haunted the parlor and vine-covered piazza. A young minister can find a good many questions to ask an aged one, particularly if the old gentleman has a pretty daughter ! The frequent calls of Rev. Blossom were an interesting innovation to Frank and me. Aunt Kate liked him, as of old, in a friendly fashion. We shrewd watchers were sure of 63 64 WARP AND WOOF. thatj for instead ofopposing him, as she did Mr. Hifleur, she seemed to pleasantly agree with him on most sub- jects. One summer evening grandpa and grandma retired very early, and- so did mother and Frank, but I lingered, waiting for Aunt Kate, and watching her I felt in some childish way that she was not happy. Months before letters had come at regular intervals, with an army post-mark. I had detected a new and happy light in her eye, but now for weeks my answer "Nothing for you, Aunt Kate," had caused. a, look of pain, and once an agonizing murmur, "O, is he dead?" I think Mr. Blossom also felt she was not happy, for he spoke with unusual gentleness, and looked at her sympathetically as she sat with the lamp-light falling full on her drooping face. As he rose to go, she rose, too, and raised her eyes, which I felt sure were tear- ful, to his face. He took her hand and held it an instant, while she said something in a choking voice. He seemed to understand and answered "I will pray for you. I have done so many, many times, and most certainly will again." Now, while I am in duty bound to record this, as well as other acts of Aunt Kate's, I deplore it and its results. I wish it distinctly under- stood that so far as my judgment goes I do not.approve of pretty girls requesting sentimental young clergymen to pray for them, neither do I believe such prayers ever reach the throne of grace. This is the standpoint fironi which I to-day regard such matters, and when I reveal its miserable consequences I think all will agree'with me that Aunt Kate had much better have deferred her request. He held her hand — :how could he drop it while she was asking him to pray for her ? And I, look- COMPLICATIONS. 6$ ing at them from my seat on the little hair-cloth sofa, saw something besides. A tall, handsome man stood in the hall door, his eyes wide open, his face pale and drawn. He, like myself, was watching. Aunt Kate in tears, the minister holding her hand, and regarding her with his soul in his eyes — that was what he saw. In one brief instant he was gone. Just why I said nothing to Aunt Kate about the unknown watcher, I cannot tell. Some childish impulse kept me silent. I was going to add as the story-tellers do — had I spok- en it might have changed the current of two lives. But very likely some other absurdity would have interven- ed, and I'm something of Uncle Tim's opinion, that "when two folks iz bound to be fools, they will, and the smarter they be in general directions the flatter and foolisher they'll act in this." I slept the sleep of the just that night, and knew not how Aunt Kate fared, but next morning, to all appearances, she was as cheery as ever. I overheard Uncle Fred talking about hops and successful investments and large schemes, but grandpa told him that on this national fast-day, set apart for religious observance, he should hear noth- ing of the kind. Grandma sympathized with Uncle Fred, that was plain to see. The day wore on rather drearily, as fast-days are wont to for children, Frank and I wore woefully hungry, and spent much time re- garding the pantry door and in discussion of the occa- sion from a strictly personal standpoint. Later on, I regret to say, we wandered into the orchard. Frank swung himself up into an apple tree and knocked off some late fruit. We sat down and ate our fill, and during the remainder of that New England fast-day we (5) 66 WARF AND WOOF. looked upon each other as partners in guilt, and deriv- ed a dismal satisfaction from the companionship. We were obliged to go to church, and yielded reluctantly, having previously formed a plan to go chestnutting on the hill. But to church we went, a demure and proper little pair, with all sorts of discontents rankling in our minds. Frank sat next the aisle and I beside grandma at the other end of the long pew. By and by grandpa's sermon called my thoughts home. It was a union ser- vice and a wonderful sermon to me — a sermon that thrilled and solemnized the audience, and held them breathless. Grandpa, in the pulpit, with his firm, strong face, was Elijah before Ahab. How the stern, denun- ciatory sentences fell from his lips, and we little ones fairly shivered in our seats with an apprehension of we knew not what. Grandpa had retired from active ser- vice in the church for some years, but he spoke occa- . sionally, and when he did he seemed merely to have been silent that he might gather up the thought and fire of the intervening time. Riding home with me in the big democrat-wagon, Frank confided to me in a whisper his opinion: ' 'Ain't Grandpa a regular roarer at preaching, though ? And didn't he whack that old desk? Tell you what, he made me feel just as if he'd seen us stealing apples, for ali he was talking about the rebels down South." There had been some reverses, and the fast-day was one appointed by the President on which to pray for the Nation's success. There had been all over the North a feeling of great depression. A company was going from Keniway on the following day, and we children were wild to see them and went to the depot, COMPLICATIONS. 6/ where, awaiting the train, we watched them in their army blue, their strong, manly faces fired with a very splendor of patriotism. Then in the train, as we waved our handkerchiefs and cheered, they sung in magnifi- cent chorus ' 'We're coming, father Abraham, three hun- dred thousand strong. ' ' Slowly moving away went the cars, and floating back to us came the inspiring music — above the sobs and weeping and the prayers. Frank and I walked home, our childish brains in a perfect whirl of fervid thoughts too big for utterance. Aunt Kate had gone off in a carriage to comfort Captain Seed's wife. That day seemed to me then, and for long afterwards, the climax of my life. All that here- tofore I had read, thought and dreamed of heroic action, seemed realized in that laden train and the song borne back upon the wind. And who was he in shambling gait that entered the ofifice this morning with his pen- sion money, begging my husband to take care of it for him, but one of those same young men, con- quered by a greater foe than ever wore the grey. Pure then he was, and not the already drunken one in whose care Aunt Kate returned that evening. He, also, had been bright and proud in his new uniform in the morn- ing, and I ask now, as Aunt Kate did then, "Why don't the government protect the soldier boys from a foe that can be put out by military authority?" Other rein- forcements were needed. There was a rally and I verily believe grandfather prayed them in. He wore no officer's epaulets, but he held a fort of prayer at home. Not with random shot did he pray — more like a sharp-shooter's aim, and his cannonading reached, I believe, Heaven's ear. Aunt Kate was very busy all 68 WARP AND WOOF. those days. So many sick beds, funerals, widows and orphans to care for and cry with ; soldiers to smile on and encourage. She seemed to have forgotten her own anxieties in her country's. One evening, some months later, the Wide Awakes had a great torchlight procession, and Frank and I agreed that it was a great thing to be a child in those days. The Wide Awakes were out to welcome Joshua Giddings, and there was a great mass-meeting on tne hill. It was a long walk, so grandpa took old Charlie, and we all went. Joshua Gidding ! That was the first real campaign speech I ever heard, and what a speech and what a speaker ! A tall, heavily-built man, with white hair, and a deep voice that rang out bravely, stirring in the listener a mad enthusiasm for a righteous cause. Then and there I made up my mind that God was God and Abraham Lincoln His mighti- est agent. But the mass-meeting had another interest for me. Among those on the platform was the tall gen- tleman whom I had discovered in the parlor door. Aiiother person's attention had been also directed to the same gentleman. I heard his name. Professor, or rather Colonel Noble ; also that he was going to be married shortly to Deacon Hawkins's daughter and then join his regiment. Deacon Hawkins kept the postofifice. Had that something to do with Aunt Kate's letters ? After the meeting I became in some way detached from Aunt Kate, and' clung hopelessly to grandma's hand. Grandpa did not seem anxious about her, and we drove home, Frank and I in the back seat. "How did that man make you feel, Ida?" asked he, after we had voted him a brick. COMPLICATIONS. ty "As if I wanted to die for something or somebody," said I. "It made me feel more like living for something or somebody," answered Frank, touching a vital point with boyish heedlessness. We reached grandpa's, and I ran upstairs to Aunt Kate's room. I lingered by the window looking out in the soft moonlight. Soon I heard voices, and saw two figures coming up the walk. They paused beneath the elm, and stood there talking long and earnestly. I could not hear much they said, not that I had any scruples about listening, for I felt that Aunt Kate's happiness was involved, and I was eager to know all about it, but they spoke in low tones and I only caught now and then a sentence. I heard her say something about innocence and love, and, quite clear, "Keep your honor pure." And I saw him bending over her, and was sure that he said something about ' 'my in- spiration now and always." Their voices were very sad, — I was sure of that — as if some heavy burden lay on their hearts, and there was something more about a "life-long sacrifice." Then he took both her hands and lingered, still holding them, releasing them at last as though relinquishing a treasure, and turned and walked down the path with bowed head and the steps of an aged man. Aunt Kate came towards the house, and I crept into bed, satisfied that here was a blunder two sensible people need never have committed. From this opinion I have never wavered. She came slowly — oh, so slowly — upstairs, while I hypocritically peep- ed out with one eye. I expected a tear-stained face, but I saw instead such as might have been Mary's as 70 WARP AND WOOF. she stood by the cross and through the darkness and the horror thought of the resurrection and ascension. She knelt long by the bedside. I could not see her face, nor did she utter a cry, but from the white, trem- bling form, heaving breath and clinched hands, I could see that the very billows of woe passed over her. At last all was quiet — so quiet I began to fear-^a great relief and awe filled me as she raised her head, for her face was as peaceful as a child's in its mother's arms, and holy as an angel's. Next morning I noticed grand- pa's searching glance bent on Aunt Kate. He read that chapter "God is our refuge," and in his prayers very tender was the petition that each heart might find rest in the everlasting arms. Out of that same hypo- critical, half-shut eye I saw; as she knelt beside me, a quick, convulsive spasm of pain and 'bitter tears press- ing through her closed eyelids. I noted, too, how, when she rose, she went over to grandpa's side, and brushing the white hair from his brow, kissed him, and the sympathetic tenderness of his manner towards her — grandpa understood it all, and grandpa's heart was aching for her. "Come, Ida," were her first words after the break- fast dishes were washed, "you and I'll go and see Jim Brant's family. He's gone to the war, and they're fair- ly destitute. We'll go right about it, and fix them all up for Sabbath School." She went right about it and fixed up that family, and three or four more, and rush- ed breathlessly from one charity to another. There was a Sanitary Fair — what a blessing was that Society — how our people opened to their 'calls! Aunt Kate had a table, and sold more ice cream and strawberries COMPLICATIONS. "J I and flowers than any one else. This fact was account- ed for in several ways — one, to a tall bouquet of roses, or because she looked in her pure, white muslin and brocaded rose-bud sash so much like a rose-bud her- self. Another cfitically termed her unusual daring gaiety — boldness — and ascribed it to the solid silver Pythias sugar bowl in the center of her table. Perhaps it was the sugar bowl — I can't say — but the Reverend Blossom, who hovered about her all the evening, was evidently of the opinion that sugar was not the sweetest thing in the universe, nor silver the brightest ; and silver sugar bowls don't cause such a pallor as that of a tall gentleman passing through the crowd with Alice Hawkins on his arm. Dear me, I don't think it could have been the sugar bowl. Aunt Kate was very merry in those days, but many an anx- ious glance did grandpa give his idolized child. I called with her one day on a friend of secesh proclivities. She was first cousin to Mr. Highfleur. The fire of words became so hot inside that they went outside, Aunt Kate declaring her a secesh, and having no rights that an honorable woman was bound to respect — confiscated her flowers for the soldiers, while the fair rebel poured hot shot from behind the lattice. She did a great deal of talking ; if her voice was rather loud and stern to cop- perheads, it was very soft and low to the widows and orphans. She looked distractingly pretty when she talked patriotism to her gentlemen friends, and her smile was so winning that with her flowers for an epaulet, many were induced to "buckle on the armor." Then, beside all these things. Aunt Kate painted. She hunted up pallette and brushes, an antiquated easel big 72 WAKP AND WOOF. enough, for a game of bo-peep, and painted a great picture with light and shadows tremendous to see, and emblematic, I dare say, of her unrevealed emotions at this time. As some one has wittily said of a simi- lar effort, "it wouldn't have been wicked to worship it, for it was not the image of anything in the heavens above or earth beneath, or of the waters under the earth." She painted right on, however, databbing on coat after coat, and mixed in some tears. The tears were not observed, as it was a crying time for women generally. A busy time, too, making shirts, caps, dress- ing-gowns, comfort bags, blackberry jam, raising on- ions, besides all the extra home burdens. Indeed there was much to think of — always the war. There were grandfather's prayers at morning and evening, full of faith in a just cause, and reliance on the God of bat- tles. There were the newspapers full of long accounts of the wounded and dying. There were the terrible stories of suffering Uncle John Upson brought back from Libby. One soldier returned with an empty sleeve, another maimed for life. I remember the ladies meet- ing to make a beautiful silken flag, which was set fly- ing from the tall staff the while a service was held in the church Leaving the church we found the flag torn' straight through the center, by the wind. Many ■ regarded that as an evil omen. Aunt Kate wanted to go South to nurse the wounded in the great hospitals, and though a capital nurse, as all Keni.way could tes- tify, her application was refused. "She wasn't old or homely enough. " Mother and grandma did' well their part, too, and I think we all deserved that enconiurri of President Lincoln : "I have never studied the art of COMPLICATIONS. Tl paying compliments to women, but I must say that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women was applied to the women of America it would not do them justice for their conduct during-the war." I believe he would have pensioned them with a ballot, but it wouldn't have balanced all of Justice's scales, or healed the broken hearts. We children were fired, in those days, with earnest desires. While the army was picnicing on the Poto- mac, Frank and I picked lint till our fingers ached, and Frank declared they — the soldiers — might pick their own lint, they'd nothing else to do. We ped- dled pincushions from door to door, too. Then we children talked. Our tongues fairly ran riot on the great theme of the day, and we had our own opin- ions, and all our elders' from which to draw besides. There were the thrilling war ballads, and all the young people singing them, and we children catch- ing the echoes and humming the lines in all the paus- es. I remember Uncle Tim's comment, "This ere war's a sad thing, but it has brought out some power- ful good tunes!" During these days Willie Herbert and I suspended hostilities. For one thing, what we saw and heard awoke a nobler interest, and we forgot to quarrel; and for another, there was Shakespeare and other more dilapidated literature under the eaves of the Herbert attic. We read Byron, and I quoted therefrom to Uncle Tim. "A smart chap," was his verdict, "but should jedgehe'd eaten something puck- ery in his young days, and never fairly got the taste out of his mouth." Shakespeare was our delight, not 74 WARP AND WOOF. from any inherent appreciation of genius, but from the fact of its being dramatic. In the midst of her own drama Aunt Kate started a Shakespeare club. Not a poky, reading one, butaHve, acting one. She herself often performing the tragic, to our great delight. Were we all iitting for the tragic of life's drama ? I say started ; for she always believed in helps and starts, and then leaving children free to work out their own ideas ; and we modified the text to suit ourselves, for we early decided that Shakespeare lacked a moral basis, and represented all our knights, lords, and soldiers fight- ing on the Union side. Receiving an impetus towards temperance, too, from some 6f Sam Ackerman's esca- pades we revised Hamlet. WilHe was the drunken Prince and I an Ophelia, lamenting his lapse from duty. Too much historic or temperance zeal soon banished us from Mrs. Herbert's attic to the barn. Herp an accident happened to the young Shylock and his hand- some, flaming drapery. Too much gesture precipitat- ed him into a hen's nest. Oh ! what a sticky, dripping Shylock was Frank then ! In the orchard we erected our stage, with its flaming curtain, only to be brought low by Ljie Pike's cross bull, who, like some of the present day, was seeking to ' elevate the stage. '{?) Then the persecuted, but not disheartened, tragedians held a business meeting on the back porch, joined by Aunt Kate, who suggested that the Big Rock was the only place where genius could burn unmolested. Here we held novel entertainments, at which, I fear, the star actress rather coquetishly encouraged, than otherwise, the rivalry between the principal actors. And when Frank repeated the passage ' ' What my pretty chick- COMPLICATIONS. 75 ens at one fell swoop !" — alas ! Frank wasn't poetical, and he called it "soup." Willie was angry and I gig- gled, whereat jealous Frank tore the bright red drap- ery from the bloody thane,- hurled a plank at the cur- tain, — and, in this wreck of matter and crash of spheres we lifted up our voices and howled. 'Twas just then Uncle Tim, with his rakish stove-pipe and broad grin, looked through the bushes and exclaimed : "Wall, neow, if that's Shakespeare, I never hearn nothing like it. Its plain he's an inspirin subject." Not so inspiring a subject perhaps as the war, for one is asking "Were all men brave in those days?" "O, no, " I laughed in memory of Mr. Hifleur's neph ew's caution to him. "Don't go, Uncle, you'll get hit in the back!" Heroes don't get hit there, butithurts, all the same. "Did all fight for the love of country?" asks a per- sistent youth of his mamma, and she confesses, with humiliation over human nature, that while many did, with others it was more a boom — a fashion — that music, attentions and military parade won many a thoughtless boy. Officers' honors, a captain's sword and sash "set up" many a family ; in their own opinion! Willie Herbert felt very important when his father was made corporal, announcing "I'ma corporal, too !'' ' 'No you are not, child, " said his mother, ' 'only your father and I are corporals. " Some money in it, too. Some widows that had fine pensions for very poor hus- bands, I thought wonderfully lucky! CHAPTER VII, OFF SPELLS. (A bright streak in the clouded yam.) "Thou, from on high perceivest it were better All men and women on earth should be free; Laws that enslave and tyrannies. that fetter Snap and evanish at the touch of thee." PnE morning, just after grandpa and grandma had driven away to Uncle Fred's, Uncle Tim was observed to drive Jack down the old pike and back again several times. We watched him as he rode ; now and then shaking his head, and apparent- ly unconscious of what he was doing, till mother ex- claimed: "I don't believe Uncle Tim realizes where he is. He's got one of his off spells, and he'll ride half a day if he isn't spoken to." She ran out to the gate and called to him. He stopped his horse, look- ing extremely red and foolish. "Wall, neow, Mrs. Upson, I'm really very much obleeged," said he. "I had started to Narregan for a grist, but I declare for't I sot to thinking and forgot where I was." No wonder Uncle Tim had an 'off-spell.' Some weeks previous Hi Burns, our Keniway miller, had beaten his 76 OFF SPELLS. ^^ wife to death with an oar, and then, to hide his crime, set fire to the house. There had been a trial at the county-seat, and, in consideration of his being drunk when the crime was committed, he was let off with three years' imprisonment. Deacon Hawkins's old barn had also been fired, and Hank Hazzard, the in- cendiary, was, by the same jury, given ten years. These reports had just reached Keniway. It was the computation of the comparative value of good wives and rickety old barns, that had so puzzled and confus- ed the old man's head. If Hank had been sentenced for nine or twelve years, it might have been an easier problem, but a barn ' 'being worth three and one some- thing times women folks ?" After expatiating in strong language on that subject, he turned to one still nearer his heart — poor Mrs. Sam Ackerman. "Heard about Sam this mornin ? I declare it's enough to take the wits out of a man, such goings on 1 Last night he turned his wife and six children out doors, and chased them with an axe into the burying-ground, and made them stay there all night. She's a dreadful 'fraid wo- man, too, Mrs. Ackerman is — afraid of spirits and sich like." "Afraid of spirits ?" said mother. "What demon could haunt that quiet church-yard so terrible as a drunken husband with an axe in his hand ? I dare say the poor woman found the green, silent graves and white stones pleasant after her dreadful home, tenanted by the yelling, carousing wretch who, as all the neighbors say, is a "dreadful nice man when he's sober.'' ' 'Did you hear, " now resumed Uncle Tim, ' 'how the other night he sat up late, and just drank and drank ? 78 WARP AND WOOF. By and by he gits up little Sam — that's the youngest boy — and made him fry up a lot of salt pork and made him eat every mouthful Of it, or he'd shoot him. Said the neighbors shouldn't never say again that he starv- ed his family ? The poor boy didn't dare to dp nothin else." "Has he always been like this?" asked mother. "Law, yes; you might say so, that is, he alius drank some, and Mrs, Ackeaman knew it when she took him. But he was a nice-looking man, and she thought if she wuz married she could reform him." "What a terrible mistake !" said mother. "One day he took it in his head to go to the new minister's. 'Twas before Mr. Blossom, and before they found out who was who, his wife, she came to the door, and Sam had just enough down to make him not ugly, but kinder curis, and I declare if he didn't just make the perlitest bow, and he lifted his hat and says he, 'Is the parson in ?' and says she, 'No, ' and then seein as how he looked dreadful solemn, says she, 'Can I do anything for you ?' and he says, 'Nothin, thank you, only if you'll jist tell the parson as how I've got the small-pox, and wish he'd pray for me, ' and with that he bowed again as perlite as you please and went down the steps. She wuz a dreadful nervous woman, and she jist went and had a fit on the spot. He ain't the only one by a great sight, " he continued, "and it 'pears like there's great deal more drinking than ever — never saw the likes of it ! They say, ' ' (returning to Mrs, Ack- erman, "she sews and cleans house for folks, and tries everyway to git a cent, and he gits hold of it and spends it at Deacon' Hawkins's tavern, and then tears around like mad!" OFF SPELLS. 79 "Why don't they make laws to protect a woman's earnings and shut up the taverns ?" asked Aunt Kate, appearing at the window. "Law's a curis thing, Kate," replied Uncle Tim. "There don't reely seem tp be nothin she can do. There's your beau, Kate," with a sly wink of his eye — "Parson Blossom — he talks about it as clever as pie, and thinks as how we ought to reason with Sam and try moral suasion on him, but I declare for't, I haint got much faith in moral suasion on folks like Sam." "Moral fiddlesticks !" said Aunt Kate. "The man don't need talking to ? What he needs is a law mak- ing it impossible for him to get liquor. Do you sup- pose a man where he is could keep a pledge if he signed one?" "Now you're talking better'n him, Kate!" ejaculat- ed Uncle Tim, delightedly. "That's what I've been sayin all my days. There want's to be a law agin the sellin and a-makin it, and a-fixin things so they couldn't git around the law. I hope I'll live to see the day when this ere land '11 be free from the cuss by a na- tional law. That's what we want along with freedom for the slave. We want freedom for the drunkard — yes siree! Them's twin evils — slavery and drink. Please God, we've got rid of one, and I'm bound to believe we'll git rid of t'other ; but don't look much like it now, I do say — government seems to have gone into the business. Pity they hadn't followed the ex- ample of Jarsey when she tried stoppin the traffic. But there 'twas, Pennsylvania on one side and New York on t'other, and both a sellin. But 'twas a step in the right direction." So WARP AND WOOF. "And Maine," added mother. Willie Herbert then ran down the old pike, and Un- cle Tim regarded him critically. "That ere young one's a smart one," he observed. "He needs protecting, though. I heerd him a repeat- in a great long piece of poetry, or blank verse they call it, about Mark Anthony and Caesar. 'Twas reely affectin, though I didn't rightly get the hang of it, neither. There he stood on the Big Rock repeatin it all by his lone self. Wall, there, I must be a-goin. I guess I've told the news mostly. Ain't nothin inuch stirrin 'cept that Lije Pike's dog's been pizened, and Lije says if he finds out who's done it he'll put the law on him to its fullest extent — to the bitter eend. There seems to be protection in this country for barns and dogs and sheep ? That's a good thing. Maybe in time we'll work it up to houses and human beings ! Wall, git ap ! I'll jog on to Narregan. I'm reely much obleeged to ye, Mrs. Upson, for remindin me that I warn't on the right track." With infinite reluctance old Jack ' 'git apped, " and I sat down on the doorstep to inuse. Older people who have heard all the twaddle about moral suasion, ad nauseam, and who are familiar with the ablest argu- ments pro and con, cannot conceive of the effect this conversation produced on my juvenile mind. "Grandfather," said I, after his return, "why don't they make such a' law as Uncle Tim and Aunt Kate want, if it would keep everybody from getting drunk and making so much trouble ?" "By they, I suppose you meanCongress, my innocent little Ida?"said grandfather,laughing. "I'm sure I can't OFF SPELLS. 8 1 tell you why they don't do a good many things. But they have certainly thought of these things, for way back in 1777, at the meeting of the first Continental Congress.it was recommended to the several Legisla^ tures to pass laws putting an immediate stop to the distilling of grain ; by which the clear-headed men of that day saw that extensive mischief was likely to come. This is a deep subject for you, Ida," And then in triumphant ring, ' 'The Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln has broken slavery's chains ! Suc- cesses to our troops are sealing it with God's approv- al ! I fear, however, this new plan to pay the war debt so largely with a liquor revenue is going to rivet other chains. The government will be in honor bound to protect its liquor partner. " ' 'Then, that's what Uncle Tim meant by 'the gov- ernment has gone into the business?' " said AuntKate, with disappointment in her tone. "That must mean the Republican party, 'for the attitude of government) as one says, 'is fixed by the party in power.' I fear some of the old Whig metallic revenue mortar got mix- ed into its 'jasper walls. ' Don't you think, father, tak- ing morality out of the revenue question — as a finan- cial scheme — they'd far better have prohibited the liquors ? Why, it looks like killing the goose that laid the golden egg 1" Here we were mystified, and Aunt Kate explained: "Keep liquor out and wage-earners will each, by their own industry, be able to pay their quota, contribute the golden eggs day by day along the years. Encourage the drink curse and you kill the goose and have only the revenue egg." ' 'And 'twill be a rotton one at that, "remarked grand- («) ■82 WARP AND WOOF. pa. "But the Lord reigneth and will bring about the better day by and by!" There had been a quiet wedding at Deacon Hawk- kins's, and one present remarked that the Deacon and the Reverend looked more like happy bridegrooms than did the Professor. And why not ? For one saw in it the comfortable disposal of a daughter ; another a rival ; and the other only a mother for his children. Aunt Kate was away looking up Sabbath Schoolchil- dren all that day, and seemed not to know of so inter- esting an event as a wedding in Keniway. She took many a walk alone, much to my disap- pointment. Shortly after she had strolled down the old pike, one evening, the Rev. Blossom crossed the common, and disappeared among the arching trees. He had a. book under his arm, and Ruthie, who was with me in the swing, thought he was going off to study his sermon". "Let's follow and see," suggested I, and how cautiously we followed. We met Uncle Tim. An exchange of roguish whistles and twinkles helped us to a clue, and a good position behind the grey, mossy rocks and climbing vines. There we were sheltered from observation, but could see and hear all and knew forever afterward "how gentlemen propos- ed. " To satisfy the curiosity of little girls and boys who are sometimes tempted to peek or, listen, I'll tell. There they stood together in the old pike's aisle of oaks, the fair, rosy Rev. Blossom and my brilliant, dark-eyed Aunt Kate. The brook and all the scent- ed suinme'r woods were touched with gold, and the beauty of the scene seemed to inspire her, for she compared the place to the "Grotto of the angels be- OFF SPELLS. 83 side the river of gold." Perhaps he was so absorbed in other beauty that he saw none of this, for he an- swered as calmly as if giving out a hymn on Sunday: ' 'Rather, a good place for the earthly proposals for which this glen is famous, "and he reached out a hand over the rock's grey altar, saying, "I am sure, Kate, you will make a good minister's wife!" It was anoth- er 'Jackson ball and lastingly sweet, ' 'twould seem, but what a fall for an imaginative girl ! I believe now had that placid face expressed a suitable appreciation of the beauty of this, God's temple, or the voice quiver- ed a little, she might then and there have accepted him, and he would have made lier a kind, good hus- band and spared her much. She was foolishly roman- tic, for life is not all made of golden clouds, dreams, rivers, or sunsets. I thought then, and still think, he was the more sensible of the two, for Aunt Kate drew back from that offered hand, thanked him calmly and politely for the honor conferred, and suggested anoth- er as better fitted for so responsible a position. She turned away, he followed, and we followed — sensitive Ruthie in tears. "I'm so sorry for him." And he did look, to quote Bunyan, ' 'Much tumbled up and down in his mind, " as he opened the side gate for her. He stopped at the Herbert gate, however, to kiss R.uthie. This se- cret Emd that of the strange gentleman weighed heavily on my mind, and I finally told mother. She laughed over one, listened in utter disgust to the other. "Are you sure it was Professor Noble?" she asked. '•Yes, I'm sure," I replied. "And he came into the door and saw Kate, and left?"' 84 WARP AND WOOF. "Yes, he did. I'm sure it was him." "That accounts for it. What could have possessed him to come at that time of all others, and why would he go straight off and marry Alice Hawkins ? Oh, dear, what a complication ! Such a foolish, needless blunder !" lamented mother. "There was something queer about that correspondence. I believe the Dea- con is none too good to have a hand in it — and then, of course, he could relate in Professor Noble's ear all the gossip about Rev. Blossom and Kate ? And that hand-clasp scene put the Professor in condition to be- lieve it all. Disappointed men or women are so fool- ish and will take up with anybody that's soft like Alice Hawkins!" Mother was unusually excited, and I ven- tured : "Somebody said his first wife made him promise her before she died he'd marry her'cousin Alice ? She'd make such a good mother to his three children. " "Fiddlesticks! He was no such fool as to make such a promise ; but I dare say the thought of getting killed and leaving his children may have precipitated things. I've no doubt he'd sacrifice himself. It's kill- ing Kate, anyway, and it really seems to me that if he has a regiment and has three children he might ex- ercise a little more common sense, " added mother, waxing wrathy. "There's Fred, too, a perpetual wor- ry when he should be a comfort ! It would be some- thing for father and mother to know that Kate was happily married." "Has Fred been teasing for money lately ?" chang- ing the subject abruptly." "He's shy of me. I remem- ber how he speculated all my playthings away once, and none of our's he'll touch." OFF SPELLS. 85 "Yes ; I heard him teasing grandfather for more. He wants to go up to Uncle Ezra's and buy hops. " "Hops!" said mother, contemptously. "What does Fred know about hops ?" "He wants to speculate on them, and thinks he can make a great deal of money." "Well, it's my belief he'll ruin himself and kil the rest of us," said mother. "Kate has always sacrificed herself for him, and he realizes nothing, appreciates nothing. It's drink and speculation, and has been for years !" Mother cried and I cried, too, just to be so- ciable. "I feel misgivings, " she continued. "Moth- er's so apt to fall in with Fred's notions, and father will yield to please mother, and so it goes. Kate, too, brought up to father's idea that a girl may work for her family, for her church, or for charity, but never on any account earn an honest penny for herself. That new partner of Fred's, too, ruined Fred to begin with, and isn't what he should be now ; I'm sure of it. He dropped his theological mask none too soon. Fred's head is naturally clear if he'd only let drink alone, but he won't — in that hop business. I believe that Hifleur will drug him well, and take advantage of his weak- ness. When Fred has taken a little too much there's al- ways a big speculation and wonderful prospects in his head, and nc^where, as at Uncle Ezra's, 'twill be all HOPS, HOPS ! " CHAPTER VIII. SMASHING AND HUSHING. ( Upsetting the Red Dye.) Face thine enemies — accusers, » * * * * And if thou hast trjith to utter, Speak, and leave the rest to God. JUNT KATE and I walked over to East Keni- way one evening on some necessary errand. It was a long walk, but we cared little for that, and strolled on in the soft moonlight, fearing almost to break its holy spell by a careless word. Our way led by Deacon Hawkins's "Rum Tavern." We seldom passed it without a shuddering glance at its brilliantly- lighted bar-room, but this night we saw within a sight which arrested our footsteps. Mr. Socrates Hifleur, tall, handsomely dressed as usual, stood by the bar; near him Uncle Fred. He had been drinking, and Mr. Hifleur with his insinuating smile was pressing another glass upon him, evidently as a means to some end. Uncle Fred's handsome face had something piti- ful in its appeal to the man beside him, and Aunt Kate watched him with pale face and parted lips. Sudden- ly she stepped forward, opened the door, and went SMASHING AND HUSHING. Sj in. I stood on the threshold as she touched her broth- er's arm. "Fred!" she said gently, "please do come home with me?" Mr. Hifleur made a suave bow and smiled sneeringly, but his eyes had the cold fire of a demon's. "Really, Miss Hathaway, your brother and I are just sealing a little compact. I trust you will not take him away just now? " Aunt Kate looked at the false, cruel man, and did a very strange thing. Lady-like ? No. Yet amid the grand proprieties of Heaven, I doubt not she was excusable. She snatched the glass from. Uncle Fred's trembling hand and threw it straight at Mr. Hifleur's face. He dodged — he was good at dodging — and Aunt Kate, with an indignant glance, turned her back square- ly on him and walked out, Uncle Fred following shame- facedly. There was a general sympathy for Elder Hathaway's family in their trouble, and more than one bar-room lounger muttered, "Served him right!" This was but one — a home scene in Keniway. Of more general interest was, how fared our soldiers ? Quite too well, for they had money, and there were suttlers that followed the army like the locusts of Egypt. At one time the government directly was a patron, allow- ing the Chickahominy soldiers a gill of whisky a day ; some not touching it, others drank — several gills. Boys that went out sweet and pure were tempted every way and came home wrecks, and mothers cried in agony : "Would God my son had died in the army!" But remember — this all brought revenue ! To Deacon Hawkins's son, too. He was one of those commissaries that could well afford to go into the 88 WARP AND WOOF. army. How proud was the Deacon over that splendid house on the hill Robert was building ! A better Dea- con was Captain Beed. The temptations of army life were so insiduous that he threw up his commission lest he become a drunkard. Those were times that tried men's souls, and one young husband bore home a se- cret badge of honor, very precious to his wife. He was Dr. Sails's son ; she, a dear friend of Aunt Kate's, and I overheard their story: She had done and suffered much to make a steady, sober man of a fast one — is the only one I ever knew to succeed in the experi- ment. However, when he entered the army, as lieu- tenant, she accepted his pledge, with many misgivings. When he returned a fellow officer told her this story : ' 'Your husband is the bravest man I ever knew. He endured every insult to keep the pledge of total ab- stinence. On one occasion the persecutions became quite unbearable, and with a glass of wine in his hand he rose in our midst and eloquently told the story of his nearly wrecked life and your devotion and trust in him, and said 'One glass and I am overboard ! Shall I drink it ?' 'No !' said they all as I dashed the glass from his hand. He was never urged by us again." The sober, temperate soldier was said to be the brav- est. Generar Early, of the Confederate army, report- ed the loss of the battle of Winchester as due to the drunkenness of his troops. Our men had retired be- fore them in such haste as to leave the whisky barrels behind. The thirsty Confederates capturing these be- came demoralized, and were, in turn, easy to capture. "It seems to me," said Aunt Kate in those days, "that a military law that regulates food and clothing SMASHING AND HUSHING. 89 could regulate this drink — out of the camp !" It wasn't ; tiut it revenued (!) What were the temperance men doing ? Since the early Washingtonian effort, Democratic Maine bad be- come a prohibition State, and other States were follow- ing, and "Now, "grandpa remarked, sadly, "they are waiting till the war is settled, and while they are wait- ing the enemy has come in like a flood." "And it did come like a flood,'' said Jane, the wash- erwoman, eating her late supper. "That's just what he did ! Upset the dirty suds all over the kitchen floor, and he as good and likely a husband as need be before he went in the army, isn't fit now to live in a decent house ! " Successes followed rapidly after the emancipation of the negro. General Grant, modest, true, far-seeing, and persistent, was a great factor, and the war is al- most over in our story. I have come to a sacred paper, which, as Aunt Kate read aloud to us in March, 1864, grandpa pronounced ' 'The grandest public document of the centuries! A rock of ages, prayer, sermon, and glory hallelujah anthem, all in one!" It was the last Presidential message of Abraham Lincoln. Young Americans, listen as she reads : " 'The Almighty has His own purposes. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall he paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be go WARP AND WOOF. said. 'The judgments of the Lord are true and right- eous altogether.' With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.' " "These words," said grandfather, "will go ringing down the ages ! Take them, my dear, " putting his arm around me, "as your motto — 'firmness in the right as God gives you to see the right !' " Ah ! his' wings were lifted. No President could live long who could write such a message. A few days after came the gladdest news — the surrender of the enemy^peace. How every heart and voice was lifted in doxologythat deliciously happy jubilee day. Every pendant, flag, voice and bell told the joyful news ! Every pendant half-mast, every muffled tolling bell told, a few days later, of the blackness, the darkness, the pall — for our warrior President, Father Abraham, was slain ! "Who will take his place?" I asked, in choking tears. "That's another pall, child," said grandpa. "A man who was intoxicated a few days ago while deliv- ering his own inaugural, arid a Republican, too !" I believe he reformed, however, and though Presi- dent Johnson spun around a political circle he kept personally straight. The freedrnen now became the object of our guard- ianship. After generations of ignorance, their avidity for education was truly wonderful. There were many who volunteered to go South and teach them, among the rest Aunt Kate ; but she was rejected for physical disabilities. I overheard enough to suspect that grand- pa was in the conspiracy. When I think now of the SMASHING AND HUSHING. 9I intelligent, /a/r Northern patriots and the degradation of many of the poor colored men, it occurs to me that our women deserved, and could have made better use of the ballot than they. To-day I question Republican leaders to learn that with them it was policy, rather than a principle of justice, that gave to the Constitu- tion its fifteenth amendment. They needed the color- ed vote to retain possession of Fair Liberty's Courts. Surely now the Constitution needs an other a-mending to purify them. But, dear me ! what a chorus of voices I hear enquiring, "That all your heroine's war record? My Uncle Frederick, or my Aunt Jemima, or second cousin — " Just stop a moment. Did your Uncle Fred- erick or second cousin ever capture a rebel ? Aunt Kate did, and I saw it all, and if you'll not call it silly I will repeat this story as the only instance I remem- ber of her failing in whatever she attempted, and that was in husking. Cousin Sophy was to be married. I can- not stop to describeher Will's personal charms or aristo- cratic family, or describe, as I would like, the old Hath- away homestead. This was my first visit. I have hinted that shadows rested on Uncle Ezra and Aunt Maria's home. Please listen first, to this little conver- sation and then you shall have the hushing story. Un- cle Ezra was a rich hop and beer man. ' 'Please tell me. Uncle, " asked Aunt Kate one even- ing, "why the beer brewers should have a congress and organization of their own more than merchants or wheat-growers ?" "Why? For our protection, child!" said he, evasively. "Protection from what, Uncle?" 93 WARP AND WOOF. "First, Kate, to keep up the prices! And then we must protect our business from such temperance fanat- ics as Horace Greely. " Here he took his political scrap-book, found the place, adjusted his spectacles on his broad face and read : "What the temperance men demand is not the regulation of the liquor traffic, but its destruction ; not that its evils be circumscribed (idle fancy !) or veiled, but that they be, to the extent of the State's ability, utterly eradicated. Such a law we are all willing to stand under and (if such be its fate) fall with ; but no shilly- shally legislation can endure, and it would be good for nothing if it would. Stave in the heads of the barrels, put out the fires of the distillery , confiscate the dem- ijohns, bottles and glasses which have been polluted with the infernal traffic; but no act screening great mischief-makers, and bearing down on little ones, can possibly be fastened on the advocates of temperance. They disown and loathe it. — Horace Greely in New York Tribune, Feb. \lth, 1852." "Now," he remarked, "I put out my old distillery fire, I'm free to acknowledge, not because it was wrong, though I knew it was, but because they got to raising grain so cheap up west it didn't pay to distill it here. If the Republicans bring about such a crusade as their leader advocates, what becomes of my hop-fields and beer stock?" "Dear Uncle, I wish—" "Hush, child," he interrupted her tearful protest, "there is no use talking to an old sinner like me. I believe in temperance, the Republican party, and Chris- tianity, but cannot afford to be either, and am no hypo^ crite." SMASHING AND HUSHING. 93 And there the talk stopped. "We'll buy up you Republicans yet ! " said he the next day, looking up from his paper, with a merry eye. "How so. Uncle?" ' 'They are raising, I see, the revenue on liquors to 94 per cent. , and it's at our request, too. 'Twill drive the small 'buggers' out — give us fellows a chance — kind of partnership, you see," and he winked at Kate. "Shouldn't wonder if we'd buy you all up, and Horace Greely thrown in !" At which his niece's head shook very decidedly. We saw little of this genial uncle during that visit. There was one moral reform he had believed in and most daringly practiced for years, and that was anti- slavery. And now he was literally turned out of his own house by a guest — his wife's brother — a Louisi- ana gentleman, who, broken in property and health, had sought refuge in this hospitable home. Cousin Sophy had told us of him immediately on our arrival, of his sensitiveness, too : "We're very careful about hurting his feelings. He's so Southern, you know." "Was he bornSoulh, Sophy?" asked Aunt Kate. "Oh no, he was born and raised in New England; but then, those people make the rankest kind of reb- bels." She paused and looked doubtful. "You will behave, won't you, cousin Kate ?" "Yes, Sophy, I will sheathe my two-edged-sword- of-a-tongue — if necessary, cut it offi You shall see I can be propriety personified. "^ And Auiit Kate was for a time. The Southerner 94 WARP AND WOOF. could be very agreeable, and, as guests in a busy . household, they were left much to themselves. If he had only, appreciated ^fr sensitiveness, all would have been well ; but he didn't. Day after day our martyr- ed President and his brave soldiers were stigmatized as "devils," "snobs," and "Yanks,"— the "Yanks" being th.e climax of speech by this ex-New Englander. But Aunt Kate, was a famous reader, and he was very forjd of her reading. She'd pick out all the dainty tid-bits for this political dyspeptic, and one morning . when he had been particularly irritating to Uncle Ezra at breakfast, she vowed inwardly that, for one after , breakfast dish, he should take anything the "Republi- can" might offer. So in the library when she read those two most honored names in history, grouped together —Washington and Lincoln — he rose, in his wrath and strode across the room, his hair rampant and his , eyes blazing. "Those names, "said he, "should never be mention- ed the same day !" Propriety's thread broke then, and Aunt Kate an- . swered with spirit: "Then I'll mention Abraham Lincoln's the day be- forehand, and get up early in the morning to do it !" Then the war of words began, "What did our soldiers do to you, that you should hate them so ?" "Do!" said he, shaking his fist and stamping his foot. "They entered my home, and I'll never step on tlie ground their vile feet have touched !" "Yes ;" said Aunt Kate, ' 'but they are precisely the same sort of people you find here in New York State, SMASHING AND HUSHING. 95 where you are an honored guest. How can you enter these 'Yanks' homes ?" So the talk ran high. But, after all, the real trouble wasj his all was invested in Ginfederate bonds — and our soldiers had sent these down one hundred per cent, below par. He attempted to read aloud a "Southern Side." With fun outside, but earnestness inside, she declared it "contraband," and confiscated the book. H e was very sensitive to the defeat of his Confederacy, And one evening Aunt Kate was winning a game of chess with Cousin Ned, and Uncle Josiah reminded hini of it. "Yes, uncle, " said the scapegrace, "she's whipping me about as bad as we whipped the rebels !" "But she didn't have two to one to begin with," was his ready reply. Ned took his revenge the next evening. We were out to one of the'fetes made in his honor, and Ned set a whole crowd of young larks,about the piano,— marching John Brown's soul on — and hanging Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree, — with a jerk, a twitch, and a will. This was too bad, for Uncle Josiah was a personal friend of the latter gentleman, and^ wiping his eyes, he told com- forting Sophy that, "if they knew him as well as he did, they wouldn't wish to hang him on a sour apple tree. " I fear those tears didn't melt Aunt Kate. At all events he surrendered soon after to the little Yank who so unconsciously had captured him. He hung out a flag of truce in the shape of a sentimental blush on his haggard cheek, and laid down his arms and sued for peace in a lackadaisical proposal, which, sooth to say, the fair.patriot refused. Moral : Nobody will 96 WARP AND WOOF. fall in love with you for hushing where a principle is involved. They may for earnest defense. She could hush for herself, her party — her country even, but for Abraham Lincoln — never! Her high appreciation of that noblest, knightliest chief that, like Moses,God took to the summit of human fame to crown — may be gath- ered from a letter written some years later. : Springfield, Illinois. "How tenderly did all the old memories of Abraham Lin- coln come crowding back to-day as I visited his tomb. " "First I went to Illinois' fine State Capitol, where he graduated into the highest honors,then passing on. "Here," said cousin Henry Hathaway, "is just where, when I was a boy, I watched Mr. Lincoln playing a game of ball one day. Some one came up and handed him a dispatch. He looked Surprised, for it was the first news of his Presi- dential nomination. But," he continued, "this — one-thing at-a-time-and-that-done-well — man put - it in his pocket, saying, 'We'll finish this ball game first, anyhow !' " Ida, it was the same strong hand, firm nerve, unerring eye, strik- ing the ball then, that three years later, with God-like power, struck the ball of slavery's chains, that sent them clanging down the centuries to come. Then I visited Oakdale, where a loving people have erected a magnificent structure of marble and bronze in commemoration of a character — strong as its foundations — pure as its marble — and bright as its bronze in the sunlight. Passing inside the grated door, we stood beside the marble catafalque. Cousin James call- ed to mind when he, a little chap, was lifted to look at the face within ; tarried awhile in the museum — filled with evi- dences of his honors and handiwork — then up the long flight leading to the marble terrace. My interest in these glowing bronze representations of war were lost in the greater interest in the warrior. Se stood before me, look- ing, it seemed, like one who had borne our sins, and car- ried the whole weight of a nation's sorrow ere he was sac- rificed on its altar. In his left hand is the Emancipation Proclamation ; in the right, and resting on the American flag, is the pen that set a race free. At his feet the wreath SMASHING AND HUSHING. 97 of laurel to crown the victor. 'Does it look like him ?' I asked Aunt Wealthy, who had known him. 'Yes ; it is perfect,' she answered. I thought as I looked at that face — so different from all other human faces— that God. sure- ly broke that pattern that another such image of Himself could never again be made. Peace, rest, immortality to our laurel-wreathed, glory-crowned Abraham Lincoln." (■0 CHAPTER IX. HOP VILLA. {Mustn't all be brig,ht, they say. Here a ball of sober grey. ) "Toiling — rejoicing — sorrowing, Onward through life she goes ; Each morning sees some task begun, Each evening sees it close; Something attempted, something done.'' — Longfellow. were called home from that delightful visit before the wedding by trouble at the parson- age. Grandpa was right about the hops, of course, but grandma, idolizing her one boy, and hoping great things, overpersuaded him. Grandma had faith in Uncle Fred, and faith in hops. Grandpa had faith in neither. Butj^he little wave of tears and plead- ing at last beat admission in the rock, and grandpa weakly yielded. There were weeks of confidence and weeks of suspense, aunt Kate and 1 had been spared ; and then a day came when all knew that the few thou, sands grandpa had added to the old family nest eggs had been swept away by a Western financial cyclone on hops and a greater cyclone of manhood. Nothing was left but a small farm at Keniway. Uncle Fred occasion- ally came to the house, and there was always a deeper HOP VILLA. 99 shadow when he left. The comforts were disappear- ing from the home, and grandpa's once stately form was bowed by grief and care. Every day he har- nessed old Charlie and climed into the democrat-wag- on to ride eight long miles, trying this aged scholar and preacher in his last days to superintend and work a farm ! Verily Elijah was sitting now 'neath the juni- per tree, but he waited long for the touch of the an- gel. It was well for the aged grandmother that she had slipped away from life ere the trouble came. Meanwhile, in these dark days, how fared Aunt Kate? Her spirits seldom flagged, but what could she do ? She had received a good education, but had no spec- ialty which she could teach. She had learned many pretty accomplishments — had practiced them, too, to the delight and help of everybody, — but not one by which she could earn her bread and butter. Read this, ye who have daughters, if you read nothingslse ! This bright, pretty, petted aunt of mine, when it came to the time of trial, had not one resource. She had an ex- ceptional talent for mathematics, but grandpa thought mathematics a useless study for a girl, and so had her taught music, for which she had no gift at all. These Elijahs, you know, are the least bit in the world apt to be opinionated in their own households, and grand- pa was no exception, save when grandma's influence, backed by her gentle voice and exquisite ladyhood, came to the rescue. But in this they thought alike — a girl's natural destiny was to marry, of course, and what could a wife and mother want of mathematics beyond counting her spoons and making change ? So Aunt Kate's training had been ornamental rather than 1 00 WARP AND WOOF. useful. She read one day of a Vassar for girls. ' 'Oh, " said she, "if it could only have come in my day !" This subject is being thoroughly ventilated, and it is well, for, friends, had you seen that aunt of mine in her dire extremity, you would have cried for very pity. She and mother held many counsels together, to which I sat and listened. "Kate," said mother one evening after the dear old people had gone to bed, "don't you think you should try and forget that old love affair, and be satisfied with somebody that you can marry?" "Oh, Lucy!" exclaimed Aunt Kate, "don't talk to me of marrying as my last refuge ! I'll work my fin- gers off. I can't come to that. " "Well," said mother, "I am older than you are. I don't mean to be heartless^ but there is something in the fact that marriage is both possible and respecta- ble, and while marrying for money is a most despica- ble thing, and one to which, I hope, no sister of mine will ever stoop, yet it seems to me that marrying for home and shelter, and to help dear ones, is very differ- ent. Think of father and mother in their old days ; think of Fred worrying the life out of them, and then think of some one to whpm. you could give honest re- spect and cordial liking, and consider if it isn't selfish to hug that dream to your heart when so much de- pends on giving it up?" She made no reply, but sat with her head bowed upon the table. ' 'Then you talk of working your fingers off, " went on mother, ' 'when you know there is nothing you can do. Why not look the thing, squarely in the face ? You HOP VILLA. lOI can't support yourself. How, then, are you going to take care of the rest? Kate, there is nothing for you to do but get married." An eligible marriage to a prominent official I knew awaited Aunt Kate's decision. Still, with her head upon the table, her silence broke my heart. "You shan't get married unless you want to, Aunt Kate," said I, throwing my arms about her neck, and bursting into tears. "I'll help you, see if I don't. " "Dear little girl, you do help me. And, Ida, what- ever happens in life, learn to do some one thing well — if it's washing. " "There's father, too,"pursued mother, remorselessly, "an old man, going day after day, to that miserable farm and getting next to nothing for his trouble. This hard life will kill him." Aunt Kate sat in deep thought, but I, who knew her so well, felt sure that out of the chrysalis of her brown study would flutter ere long some particularly bright-winged idea, and I was not disappointed. "Why can't / go out on that farm and board the help myself, and make things comfortable for father ?" she asked. "I can take some furniture, and Lucy and I can keep house — you can't deny that." Nobody tried to deny it, but all tried to dissuade her, all but me, to whom itseemed the finest possible lark. It was not a lark to Aunt Kate — but a disagreeable duty — albeit, she insisted it was only fun. But she carried her point as usual, and off we went one morn- ing — grandpa. Aunt Kate and 1 — on the top of a load of goods. Much as I wanted to go, I shed some bit- ter tears at leaving Keniway. I had lived there all my I02 WARP AND WOOF. life, and it was a long one to me. What play-ground was ever so sweet as the still, grassy common, where we children could race among the daisies with no ' 'Keep off the grass" to affright us ? How the fire-flies starred it at eventide, and, oh ! the glory of it when the sum- mer wind rumpled it like the waves of the sea ! When the moonlight flooded it,. what could be fairer or more suggestive of peace ? From what westward windows should I ever look on such sunsets — seemingly the con- centrated splendor and passion of all the sunsets of all the ages ? Such dawnings, when I used to drive the cow — the dear old contrary cow — that always wanted to go the wrong way, and come home re-christened with the dew ! And where, oh ! where, should I find such playmates, and such a boy as Willie wherewith to quar- rel ? — a foeman in every way so worthy of my steel. These thoughts came to me regretfully as we rode down the steep hill. One of Aunt Kate's regrets was leaving the Good Templars of Keni way . They were the first temperance organization to recognize woman's influence, and she was a prominent and active officer. The farm had always been a joke in the family. There was a tenant and an apocryphal lease which called for butter, eggs and chickens, together with other desir- able articles which we never saw and never expected to see. But the tenant out, and us in, there might be some- thing for our support. That was our hope as we rode to a lonesome farm-house, surrounded by acres of the stoniest land in all that stony region. There were neither hills, nor rivers, nor lakes to embeUish the land- scape, but toppling stone-walls, weedy pastures, and the general look of nothingness, characteristic of a HOP VILLA. 103 farm in that locality. A discouraged brook struggled along-abridged by a few planks — not the remotest dash or sparkle in its waters, but just matching every- thing else. Aunt Kate laughed at the dismal prospects, and told ridiculous stories, which made even poor grandpa^ sitting majestically on the top of a straw-bed, un- bend from his sad dignity. Thus we entered upon our new life, and she was the cheeriest of little heroines. She brightened up the house by all sorts of tasteful and economical devices. She had pleasant words for the help, and loving smiles for grandpa, while she worked with a will, for smiles won't feed three hungry men. "We'll only try to live one day at a time," said our wise mentor. And that was enough as the weeks went by. It wasno ' 'lark. " I find the little yellowjournal of those days tear-stained. Those tears, having no political significance, will not be transferred to these pages; but who shall say our country's curse caused not the tears ? I hid them as Aunt Kate did, though some- times they would burst forth among her sweetest ca- resses and adjectives., "Bright, hopeful, heroic Ida," she would say in choking voice. She studied in the spare hours, faithfully reviewing the long-neglect- ed common branches, with a view towards the district school in the near future. Ere winter, as might have been expected, grandma and mother came to the lit- tle brown house, and we were all together again. In the long winter evenings we read from the books we had brought; Aunt Kate played on the old piano, and we sung together, while, by every means in her pow- I04 WARP AND WOOF. er, she sought to revive the failing courage of those who, next to God, leaned upon her as their greatest comfort. The farm went on, we lived after a fashion, but Uncle Fred was the blackest shadow of all. As grandpa often said : ' 'It's the boy's sinful ways that's killing me more than the loss of the money. And oh! if God will only save his poor soul !" And grand- ma would clasp her thin hands and answer: "I can't believe God will let him go entirely to ruin. . He will answer prayer. It's the drink, If it only wasn't for the drink!" Yes, if it onlywasrH t for the drink. The days wore away. We were becoming accus- tomed to sheriffs' writs, attachments, and that sort of thing, and really there didn'tseem much left to attach. "There was a dismal satisfaction in that," as Aunt Kate said. There was the tumble-down house, with its plainest of furniture, and outside the chickens arid cows. It was something of a contrast to the old par- sonage at Keniway, with its broad hall and pleasant, old-fashioned rooms. ' 'Lover and friend hast thou put far from me," read grandpa in the Psalms one evening, and I glanced at Aunt Kate. Where were the hand- some gentlemen who used to pick up her gloves and fan, and wait upon her lightest wish ? Not here, sure- ly. They were not fishing in the droning brook, nor strolling through the weedy pasture, nor leaning on the toppling wall. We were not beset by them as of j'ore, but we still had many true friends who occasion- ally rode over from Keniway to see us, and whose sympathy we found unutterably precious. A hop vine clambered over the little front porch, and one day I suggested Hop Villa as an appropriate name for our residence. HOP VILLA. 10$ "It's quite an aspiring name, I'm sure," said moth- er. "Hops contain the element of a rise," and she actually chuckled over her infamous p«n. ' 'Yes, " observed Aunt Kate, ' 'they've raised Fred's expectations, and the roof from our heads, and the money from our pocket-books ; and, in view of the fact that they're raising my energies, I consider the name quite suitable, " "And it's quite a long and hard hop from Keniway and our good times, there, " I added. So Hop Villa it remained. One morning we were startled by a loud knock at the door, and Aunt Kate, looking her very prettiest, opened it. "Good morning, " said the man in view, who proved to be another sheriff". "Good morning," said Aunt Kate. "I have here a document empowering me to take your cows as payment for a debt owed by Mr. Fred Hathaway to this gentleman, " looking aside, and Aunt Kate's eyes flashed in indignation at the sight of the bold but triumphant ones of Mr. Socratee Hifleur, who now bowed. ' 'What debt?" said she, looking anything but meek. The sheriif explained briefly, adding, ' 'Now, if I may trouble you to tell me where they arc." Aunt Kate knew perfectly well where they were, for she and I had driven them down a by-path to a more distant pasture that very morning, but she looked Mr, Hifleur and the sheriff" in the face and answered : "No, I shall not tell you, sirs, for they are not yours ! I06 WARP AND WOOF. There was a pause — a great, big, solemn pause. "I beg your pardon, Miss Hathaway," said Mr. Hi- fleur, sublimely, "but the debt is to me and this gentle- man," pointing to a stranger at the gate. "We are bound to be secured, and its no use to talk about it. Tell us immediately !" said he, with authority. His rough manner made no impression. "It's by the merest quibble of law," said Aunt Kate. ' 'You've no moral or really legal right, and I positive- ly refuse to tell you where they are!" "Kate, Kate !" said grandma. "How can you talk so when Fred gave him a mortgage, and we must not withhold what is another's due." "Never !" thundered grandpa, who now appeared. "Never !" though I rest in a pauper's grave. "I will withhold nothing that is an honest debt. The Lord will provide, child." "Well, it is not an honest debt, and I will provide that you shan't rest in a pauper's grave," sputtered Aunt Kate. "But nobody but Ida and I know where those cows are, and we don't propose to tell ! Do we, Ida?" "/tell ?" — I shook my head and shut my lips. It would have taken more than a sheriff to unlock them. The pasture was half a mile distant, and we rightly decided that there would be some delay. If we could have managed grandpa, but when it came to a question of honor, grandpa was not easily managed. The third man — a big, handsome fellow — seemed amused, and apologized, and spoke in a low tone to the others. Grandpa took his hat and cane, with a withering — "Kate, to which pasture did you take the cows?" HOP VILLA. 107 The tears sprang to Aunt Kate's eyes, as for the first time she disobeyed that look, and answered : "I love you too well, father, to tell." And there were answering ones in his own, as they all marched off. They took some salt, I believe, and Mr. Hifleur was swearing under his breath. Aunt Kate and I ran out of the back door, across lots, her cheeks glowing, her pink gingham fluttering as she ran. We reached the pasture first, and found the cows peaceful- ly browsing by the bars. Beyond the pasture stretched a swamp, a. wet thicket hard to penetrate. Up came the others just as we had completed our plans, the big man still apologetic, grandpa despair- ing, yet withering in his displeasure, Mr. Hifleur mad- der than ever before. They began to take down the bars, when suddenly we rushed in among them, "shooing" with all our might, waving our arms and aprons, and making such a pow-wow that the cows turned about in a hurry and raced away. This time Mr. Hifleur swore over his breath, and indulged in some indefinite remarks about viragos and Ama- zons, but they soon gave place to an adroit appeal to us as ladies ' 'not to disgrace ourselves, " which we were too busy even to notice. Grandpa expostulated in a flood of indignant eloquence. They experimented with the salt. Grandpa called, "Coboss, coboss," and the cows again drew near. But, just as, those long-suffer- ing animals were to be persuaded past the bars. Aunt Kate and I "shoo'd" once more, redoubling our form- er efforts, throwing sticks and stones, and keeping up such a very pandemonium of racket that the cows, with loud loos and a wild flourish of horns and heels, fled I08 WARP AND WOOF. affrighted into the swamp. Things began to look se- rious. The big, handsome man, whose name proved to be Van Dressen, remarked : "Really, gentlemen, I think Mr. Hathaway's prop- erty is very well defended, and, for my part, I am will- ing to defer my claims for the present. I had no idea things were so bad, and, in view of this young lady, — " "Lady!" interrupted Mr. Hifleur, whose eyes were anything but cold now. "Anyone who can claim t/tai title would never chase cows, smash glasses in a bar- room, and cheat people out of their hbnest dues. She's no lady !" Aunt Kate turned upon him and faced him — faced him like a queen. "Don't dare to call yourself a gentleman !" she ex- claimed. ' 'You who, after robbing us of Fred and all else, now come here trying, on a mere pretext of law, to take from father his only support ! I shall defend his property now and forever, by every means in my power, and don't need to ask you for any right to do so!" The big, handsome man bowed and smiled approv- ingly. The cattle were in the swamp, and it was no easy task to get them out, with us to heacf them off. And the up- shot of it all was, they then went away, but before they went the big man handed his card to grandpa. The cattle were unmolested after that, and I suspected why, especially, as, soon after, Mr. Van Dressen, who prov- ed to be a widower, asked permission to pay his ad- dresses to Aunt Kate. Possibly Uncle Ezra's glowing description of her had something to do with his person- al calls as a creditor. HOP VILLA. 109 - In the autumn she undertook the district school, and taught thirty little imps for thirty dollars a month — walking two miles to and from. She always considered her school a dead failure, but from what I have since learned from those boys now grown to manhood I am inclined to think differently. There is splendid Dr. Foster here in Granite, who traces the date of new aims and nobler purposes to that year in the district school and the influence of the dark-eyed teacher. That adventure of shooing the cows was a little com- edy amidst impending tragedy I've no heart to recall. Though she knows it not, Aunt Kate is shooing again with me through these pages. It's for human protec- tion this time, and our debtors are more exacting and relentless than were even Mr. Van JDressen and Mr. Hifleur, and I might add President Johnson. It was a diversion, in those days, to read in the Weekly Tribune of the troublesome times in the Cabinet and Congress. "I thought, when I was a child," remarked Aunt Kate, ' 'that the President's Cabinet was a museum of curiosities shut up in a case. Secretary Stanton seems to be one now." He, like us, was retaining his property by right of possession. And-we all occasionally went, merry over that absurd "Impeachment trial" of our chief Uncle Tim brought us a piece of news that delighted his kind old heart immensely: "Oh, Kate, the freed- men are going to have a Bureau now, and it's a burnin shame they'd ne'er a place tbkeep a Sunday shirt be- fore!" We did not correct, but laughed heartily. What would Aye have done without something' funny occa- sionally ? CHAPTER X. A MIDNIGHT RIDE. {Dashing Hues. ) "We weary of heartache and sorrow, Of labors of waiting and pain, Of poverty, failure and losses, Of wishing and hoping in vain." OW about Mr. Van Dressen. He was a widow- er. We knew all about his family — neighbors they were of Uncle Ezra's, in New York State. It was an exceptionally fine family. That was quite an item with grandpa. The Hathaways, you remem- ber, are good, honest folks. None of them, to my knowledge, have been imprisoned for theft, or burnt for witchcraft. Grandpa was the gi'andest, blessedest old minister that ever preached, but he was human. I should wrong him if I affirmed that the fine family and large possessions of Mr. Van Dressen weighed a straw against his daughter's future happiness. Not at all. He most thoroughly liked and admired the widower, and, perchance, the eyes, now grown so keen for the heav- enly vision, did not read quite so clearly, as of old, the fine print of human nature. It all seemed quite natural with the old people, for Aunt Kate had years before -won his mother's admiration by the way she whirled a 110 A MIDNIGHT KIDE. Ill spinning-wheel, and encouraged her son's visits. She, this shrewd Mrs. Van Dressen, could tell j ust how smart a girl was by the way she turned a wheel. But how could a woman tell so much by a spinning-wheel ? It was very nice in the future mother-in-law, and she would never have the opportunity of saying, ' 'he might have done better !" Then Mr. Van Dressen was very entertaining, and grandma was pleased. Dear grandma was usually pleased with people. She never could see any cause forAunt Kate's rejection of former suitors. She thought them all very nice, even to Mr. Hifleur — very nice in- deed. As to Aunt Kate herself, I think it had come to her that she must be sacrificed for her brother's sin. He had won her gratitude — that was much — he could offer her much, but that was not all with Aunt Kate. It was that she could compensate her father and moth- er for her brother's fault to some extent. This was always in her mind, I think. Her lover was not sen- timental, . It was not his way, we reasoned. Neither was Aunt Kate, at least not with this lover. He was very proud of her, that was plain, and. frequently compli- mented her on her beauty. She took the compliments without blushes, and when he kissed her at parting, took that in a matter-of-fact way also. We were all happier than we had been. Grandpa, especially, had not looked so young for years, and mother was delighted with the turn affairs had taken. As for me, 1 thought everything splendid, and enjoy- ed exceedingly the generous boxes of confectionery, of which I was frequently the recipient; Still I watched Aunt Kate, partly from a young girl's curiosity on 112 WAKP AND WOOF. such subjects, and partly from the intense sympathy which had always existed between us. She was quiet- ly happy in the sacrifice, as noble natures always are. The school was given up at the close of the year, the wedding-day Set for August, and as the time drew near there was a pleasant bustle of preparation in the little brown house. One evening, as we sat in the rickety little porch, Mr. Foster, a neighbor, rode up with the mail, and handed out a letter for Aunt Kate. She opened it, and her face blanched to such a whiteness that I cried out in terror: "What is it, Aunt Kate?" She read it aloud, with those anxious, loving eyes upon her, there was no use in attempting to hide the truth. From Uncle Fred, as our bad news generally came. "Kate," so ran the letter, "I suppose I've killed Mr. Hifleur, but he has wronged me and deserved it, God knows. I was drunk, and I knew not what I did. I struck him, and they say he will die. What shall I do? Pity me, and help me, Kate, if you can. The court is in session, but there's nobody here to speak one word for me, and my trial is at nine o'clock to- morrow. — Fred. ' ' That was all — ^just a half sheet of soiled paper, with a dozen scrawly lines. But, oh ! the poor old people with their white hair, and the ghastly, grey faces raised heavenward ! . "What shall we do ?" asked grandma, weakly. "I shall go at once," said grandpa. "Would God I might suffer — die for thee, my son, oh my son !" He dropped helplessly into his chair, his pitiful eyes wet with the bitter tears of age, and Aunt Kate knelt beside him. A MIDNIGHT RIDE. 113 ' 'I am going to see the Governor ! Perhaps he will do something ! I can but try !" "A Governor," replied grandfather, "would have no power to pardon before a trial, but he is a lawyer, and a "good man, and mightact in Fred's defense, but, child,—" • 'You !" said mother. "It's twenty miles away, and off the line of railroad besides. ' "I shan't go in the cars," she answered.. "I'm go- ing to take oldChariie, and go through the woods." "Oh, Kate!" said mother, "you can't go through those dreadful woods at night. Besides, what can you do for Fred ? You can't help him." "I can but try," she replied. "I must do what I can, and there is no time to be lost." "Let me go with you," I pleaded. 'I'll be com- pany for you, and it won't, be so lonesome in the woods." "No, no, child. I'm going on horseback, and I can't take anybody. Every moment is precious. If I wait till to-morrow it may be too late." But I begged and coaxed till she finally consented. The others sought to keep her back, but her mind was made up. I remember thinking, too, that she was right after all. Some immediate effort should be made for poor Uncle Fred, and I knew in their hearts the others felt this also. I remember, too, the sad confu- sion of our preparations, mother's worried face, grand- ma's tremulous embraces, and the touch of grandpa's hand laid in my hair as in benediction, and I clinched my girlish hands in a wild, faithless prayer that some- how, ere long, the better day should come, when I 14 WARP AND WOOF. hearts should break no more over the miserable troub- le of drink. Now, Douglas's woods was at that time a long, lone- some stretch of forest, several miles in length, through which we must pass on our way. A most dreary route it was. At some time there had been a murder com- mitted there — in itself sufficient to frighten a timid girl — but that was not all. At a certain spot the coun- try folks declared horses always shied, and carriages, going by, lifted one wheel from the ground and went on in that fashion. Various other ghostly legends were reported, which, while we gave them no special credence, yet filled us with a vague discomfort as we harnessed old Charlie to the light buggy and rode off in the sweet sunset. We made all possible speed at the commencement of our journey — driving rapidly for the first few miles — yet .'twas the edge of the evening when we entered the long woods. We talked cheer- fully at first, spying the ridiculous side to this very serious situation, laughing at our own humorous re- marks. Desperation gave play to inventive genius, and, though I was trembling in every nerve, I remem- ber discovering among the shadows a Knight of Chiv- alry, with helmet and sword — such as I had read of in Scott's novels — and I promised Aunt Kate, when I wrote my bbok, (it was ever my dream) she should figure in this scene with chariot and four ! But the shadows grew deeper, and by and by we dropped all pretense of conversation andjust sat closely together-^ hurrying old Charlie as fast as possible. The moon was small and afforded but little light. Its faint beam, falling across our path, looked, to my excited imagin- A MIDNIGHT RIDE. II5 alion, an evil aiid unholy thing — the very air seemed full of cruel whispers — the thickets of grizzly forms waiting to spring and catch at us. Faster and faster we rode. Blacker grew the Woods before us. Darker and drearier the shadows behind, at which we dared not turn to look. We were in the very heart of the forest, trembling, cowering closely, when, suddenly, the horse — one of the soberest of beasts — sheered violently to' the left, nearly upsetting us, and then reared wildly ahead, as though pursued by demons. Aunt Kate and I sat in a numb, cold hor- ror from head to foot. On and on he tore, and at last — with a long sigh of relief — we came out into the clearing. We turned towards each other, and either face was pale as death. Without further adventure we reached S at ear- ly dawn, and went straight to the Governor's home. The Governor was not in — would be back on an early train — so we sat down to wait. The long, slow hour dragged wearily by, and a gentleman of sixty, with an honest, kindly face, and something of dignity in his manner, entered the parlor. He bowed, and Aunt Kate introduced us and her errand. He sat quietly, considering and regarding her with a look of sorrowful pity. "My deal- child," he said, after a long pause, "you know not what you ask. If I were to defend of par- don every man who commits a crime under the influ- ence of liquor, thestreets would be full of miscreants." "Think of his father," pleaded Aunt Kate; "think of his old mother, bowed down with her weight of tare. It will surely kill her^-the shame and the dis- Il6 WARP AND WOOF. hohor. Give him but a chance to redeem himself. He was not himself. Surely you would not incarcerate an insaneperson in jail." "I will do this," said the Governor: "I'll attend the trial and see what can be done for him. Where are you from?" he asked suddenly. "From Keniway Flats," she answered. "From Keniway Flats!" he echoed. "How did you get here at this time, pray?" "I drove through the woods," said Aunt Kate, briefly. "Through those long woods? When did you start?" "Last evening as soon as I heard of Fred's trouble." "And you rode all night 1 You are a brave girl, and I promise you this : If there is any loop-hole, your brother shall have its advantage. But I fear," he add- ed, after a moment's thought, "that there is none." Refusing his pressing invitation to breakfast, we went out and sought the jail. Uncle Fred was sober enough now — terribly sober. For once he wasn't humming a tune, nor talking about great investments and specu- lations in hops. Aunt Kate did not reproach him, neither did she give him much encouragement — she merely told him she would do all she could. "And you came through Douglas woods in the night ! Oh ! Kate, you have done and suffered so much for me. I don't deserve such a sister." He broke down — careless, selfish Uncle Fred — and sob- bed aloud. We stayed with him till the trial began, and then accompanied him to the court-room. Witnesses gave evidence to the shooting affray. ■ Some insulting word in the bar-room had led to the A MIDNIGHT RIDE. 117 blow. Both parties, I suppose, were just drunk enough to be extremely dignified. Then I was tremblingly brought forward as a wit- ness against Mr. Hifleur's character — to tell what I knew. Then Aunt Kate was called upon. She testified to her brother's easy, good-nature under all circumstan- ces when sober. And it was plain to see that the row of sunburnt farmers in the jury-box were favorably im- pressed. In eloquent earnestness she pictured the scene in the bar-room. Then suddenly clasped her hands, and turned her face upon the jury, her eyes big and bright and tearful as she plead for his life and freedom. She reminded them of his aged parents — bowed in shame and dishonor over what was no fault of theirs — and begged them to criminate, not the one who knew not what he did, but the man who sold him the liquor, and the man who gave him the right to sell. And then the Judge hemmed and hawed, and the jury stroked, meditatively, their unshaven chins^ and look- ed indefinitely upward, as though a verdict might be expected to evolve from space. Every man of them was ashamed of his weakness, and not one but should have been proud. Another felt the justice of Aunt Kate's argument, and that was the little wizened law- yer who summed up the evidence. His nature was fresh and sweet and kindly beneath the wrinkled husk outside, and he wasn't ashamed to cry. He took out a good, big handkerchief and wiped his eyes before everybody. I've loved that little wizened lawyer ever since, and expect to meet him in Heaven wearing a body to match his soul. Il8 WARP AND WOOF. Uncle Fred was acquitted, of course. The Gover- nor congratulated Aunt Kate, and patted me on my shoulder. We climbed into the old buggy again, and this time with light hearts. We drove through the long woods, Uncle Fred with us, and I in Aunt Kate's lap. No ghostly terrors affrighted us now. The woods were cool and sweet and fragrant, with hints of shy squirrels and delicate mosses. At home in' the solemn summer twilight, surround- ed once more by the patient and loving faces, Uncle Fred vowed that he would henceforth live worthy of the father and mother he had wronged and the sister who had braved so much for him, and I am glad to record that he kept his word. Sharp boys turn sharp corners, they say, and in this case it proved true. ■"■"fliiiililiJlJlWilliilMhiiiiJi^Hii'* ""' CHAPTER XI. ORANGE BLOSSOMS AND ASPHODELS. ( White and Black. ) "She had sent through all the village Messengers with wands of willow, As a sign of invitation, As a token of the feasting, And the wedding guests assembled." — Longfellow. . OW, as to weddings ; Aunt Kate had her own ideas, and very original ones they were. Her lover saw that there was no possibility of anything like elegance in that tumble-down cottage, and expressed his willingness that she should arrange everything to suit herself. So there were no regular invitations, but she said to one and another friend, "7)^ you wish to see me married, come Wednesday after- noon. No presents expected, and no refreshments served." At the last clause, mother and grandma raised an indignant protest — a wedding without wed- ding-cake 1 But Aunt Kate insisted that somebody should set a better fashion, and it might as well be she as anybody. ' 'Think of it ; mother and Lucy, " she exclaimed, ' 'steaming over the kitchen-stove, in Au- gust, making wedding fixings ! Besides, we can't afford It, and that is reason enough. If we were rich I would 1 20 WARP AND WOOF. not do it ; but we are poor, and everybody knows it, and what is the use of pretending anything to the con- trary?" She carried her point as usual, but grandma and mother prepared a nice dinner for the guests from a distance, and, by dint of much harmless artifice, an extra quantity of lemonade and plain cake. I wa'S in the secret, and, for a wonder, kept it from Aunt Kate. Everything but the wedding-dress was very plain,' and Aunt Kate so dearly loved pretty things, you couldn't really expect her to be married without a pretty dress. It was a simple white alpaca, but it shone like silk, and 'twas trimmed with soft lace and satin pipings. It had a satin surplice waist, and I thought then, and think still, it was the prettiest wedding-dress I ever saw. The day came, and the bridegroom with it. None of the New Plymouth cousins came, but some of the Pythias family, from Compton, and some that were Pythiases before they became anybody else. They rode up from the Keniway depot in the old stage- coach, and rustled in and out of the porch, finally settUng themselves in a stiff and shining row on the cane-seat chairs in the parlor. I noticed they all had the keen eyes of that story-telling great- grandmother, but their noses were retrousse — every nose of them — with what you might call a "realizin" sense that they had, in by-gone days boosted the Hathaways. The Van Dressens were there ; that discriminating old lady who so well understood girls and spinning wheels; also Prof. Adolphus Van Dressen, a brother of the bride- groom, a young, spectacled bachelor then, yet an astronomical mathematician ! The Hathaways heard ; ORANGE BLOSSOMS AND ASPHODELS. 121 that with a thrill of awe. There was Uncle Fred in his right mind, and his wee Carrie with her pretty ways. The bridegroom's children, too. They were at the age described as between hay and grass, and took a lively interest in the refreshments. A noisy collection of cousins were gathered in the spare-room, where Aunt Kate was dressing, among them cousin Marilda Hathaway. Now, there wasn't anything bad about Cousin Marilda, but she must have a pattern, and know the price of everything. And then she called that lovely drapery of Aunt Kate's blue silk ^^ flops!" Flops ! they were more like angel wings ! Aunt Kate became pale and nervous amidst the bustle and buzz, and politely requested all to leave the room — all but me, "You shall be my maid of honor, Ida." So I dressed Aunt Kate for her bridal — fastened the dainty home- made slippers and white gloves, combed oiit the soft, wavy hair, arranged just a little hint of orange blos- soms ; and, when she was ready, she said : ' 'Now, Ida, run down and tell him I am ready." I ran, and where do you think I found that bridegroom ? Out in the yard under a scraggly apple tree, tilted back in his chair, and dressed still in his business suit, while a vast array of checks, bills for hops, etc. , were spread out upon his lap. He was completely ab- sorbed ; and when I touched his elbow and reminded him that Aunt Kate was ready he looked up and said : "Ready? Oh yes. I had forgotten. I'll be there presently." How could he have forgotten? I was provoked, but that was riot all. What was it in the handsome face now lifted to mine that awoke a fool- , ish suspicion in my girlish brain ? Was it what Ruthie I. 122 WARP AND WOOF. Herbert would call a "sniff of a whiff" in his breath? Surely I was mistaken. I was always imagining things, Howbeit, I went back among the guests burdened by a vague disquiet. In a few minutes he appeared in shining broadcloth, looking very imposing and hand- some. As he went upstairs, I wondered if he were still mentally examining hop bills, or if he would no- tice how pretty Aunt Kate looked. I think he did, for he seemed very proud. Grandpa married them, and very strong was the honor and obey, and very tender the charge to love and cherish his precious daughter. There was a buzz and hum of congratulations— ^the simple refreshments were served, and then the bridal pair drove off to Keniway depot — while I stood leaning over the gate and watched them down the dusty road. Everybody said Aunt Kate had married so beauti- fully. Why was it that I, little Ida Upson, was still oppressed with that vague disquiet ? Was I so selfish ? Did I think of my own bitter loneliness? No, I was not selfish. I was honestly glad of Aunt Kate's good fortune ; but there was something. Yes it was, and by the shake of his shrewd old head I knew Uncle Tim was not satisfied either. Though when, in his jovial way, Mr. Van D had kissed me good-bye I detected nothing but the odor of some delicious perfume, yet I knew in my heart of hearts that there kad been something else. I thought of Mr. Blossom, and of other suitors of AuntKate's,and hoped with all the strength of my affectionate little heart that of them all she had not wedded the lover who would love her the least. Yet I took some hope from Prof. Adol- ORANGE BLOSSOMS AND ASPHODELS. 123 phus Van Dressen's phrenological examination of their craniums, for he proved conclusively that they were made for each other. The extremely liberal wedding fee enabled us to take the dear old house at Keniway again. Now that Uncle Fred" had reformed, we hoped grandfather might renew his strength — that length of days awaited him. But the iron had entered his soul. It was becoming clear even to my mother's hopeful eyes that grandpa was passing away, not with any sudden or alarming symptoms, but there was a grad- ual weakening of all his physical powers, and a gentle loosening of his hoM on earthly things. His talk was less of life's battles and oftener of the Eternal Camp- ing Ground. Mr. Blossom, with his mild-mannered obstinacy, had always aggravated my grandfather, but oftener now they talked of the themes on which they could agree. Grandpa-no longer plead for "Woman's Rights" in the other church, prayer-meeting, neither did he seek to shift original sin from poor unlucky Adam's shoulder — (where it had been resting all the centuries) — on to our own responsible humanities. He turned no big wheel or little wheel of ancient proph- ecy. He seemed wrapped in the ecstatic thought that he was soon to seethe "King in His glory!" There were none more congenial than Uncle Tim with his bright thoughts in homely guise. During that last spring-time he often sat in the side yard, leaning back in his easy-chair — and Uncle Tim coming up the old pike would lean over the gate as they talked togeth- er. He could appreciate the glowing imagery as grand- pa, from his mountain height of seventy odd years, 124 WARP AND WOOF. would look back to the little log cabin at its foot, where his life and the nineteenth century's began together. He would point out the improvements along that path — canals, railroads, the telegraph, steam power, light painting, photography, gas, balloons. The changes in popular governments — sweeping away despotisms — and slavery, that relic of barbarism. Then he would raise his voice and arms as if again in the pulpit, and recount the marvelous progress of evangelization through all the earth, and ' 'thank the Lord, "that he had lived in the best time of all the ages of the world's history. From "these delightful fields of thought he must come down — look across the common — see Sam Ackerman reeling out of Deacon Hawkins's tavern — see, too, WilHe Her- bert bounding in. He would heave a deep "O ! dear! if that curse could but be removed ! It will. Brother Whittaker, for the Lord reigneth, and He will bring about a better day." It was in June, the roses were in bloom, and the grass lay deepest and greenest on the common he loved so well. It touched me to tears to remember that even to the very last he heard my lessons, and seemed to find a joy in the common and familiar task. It was towards nightfall, of that last, last day — we knew it would not be long, but how bright and clear his eye as he sat up among the pil- lows. Neighbors had taken their tearful good-byes, and gone sadly homeward. Was Heaven so bright grandpa could leave us all without a pang ? Yes ; but every parting word was helpful and comforting. He besought Uncle Fred to redeem the time. He laid his hand in tender blessing on my head and little Carrie's. "If my darling Kate were only here. Give her mydy- ORANGE BLOSSOMS AND ASPHODELS. 125 ing blessing. I've prayed that the baby boy might be a watchman on the Heights of Zion !" We thought these very faint words — the last ; but there was a low knock nt the door. I opened it, and before me stood Sam Ackerman and his wife. He was dressed neatly, and seemed perfectly sober. She stood with her faded shawl wrapped about the quiet baby on her arm. "Grandpa cannot see anybody," I began, but a sound within in- terrupted me, and, as I hastened to the bedside, he said, "Let them come in." So they entered the little back parlor and joined the quiet group. Never shall I forget that noble and touching picture — the sorrow- ful family, Sam Ackerman and his wife in their shabby clothing, with the shy, silent baby in her arms, and in the midst my grandfather. Was it the bright light in the thin face and blue eyes that attracted the baby ? With a wan smile the little, pitiful child reached out her hands to go to him, and he motioned the mother to come nearer. With an effort he kissed the baby's cheeks, and in a voice yet clear we heard him say to the hopeless woman, ' 'A better day is coming by and by for the baby, poor friends, if not for you. " His eyes closed. Silently — weeping they went out. Would I rather that last kiss had been for us ? No ; thank God 'twa& forthe baby. "Swing low, sweet chariot, " forthe vault of the strong, swift soul ! "And Elijah said unto Elisha what shall I do unto thee before I be taken from thee ? And Elisha said, I pray thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." In the last years of grand- pa's life, so ready to every good work, so thoughtful of others' comfort, so earnest, so courageous in the right did Uncle Fred become that it was easy to fancy 126 WARP AND WOOF. we heard the question asked of old by the sacred riv- er. He worked with might and main against the traf- fic that had well nigh proved his ruin, and his charm- ing tenor rose sweet and clear in song and speech. Always for temperance. • ' 'That's the only way I can help on father's better day that's coming by and by," he often said. And I answered : — We'll think of him while days go on As one, who stepping on the strand. Turns hack to us and waves his hand From that sweet land where he hath gone. CHAPTER XII. SPLENDID PEOPLE AND SPLENDID POVERTY. ( Tapestry. ) "Prohibition ! We'll echo that dear name, While listening millions laud its honest fame; Speak it, altho' it blister lips and cheek. It is a holy word, speak it, oh, speak ! Its reign supreme, its fields forever vernal, 'Tis based on Truth, and Truth has life eternal.' jVERYTHING, except evil, in Keniway was just as innocent and humdrum as possible. Thither, in the summer, came two city boarders, attracted by certain ■ enticing reports of the stillness and queerness of the place, its pure air and pleasant walks. They were delightful people, and vigorous woman suffragists, the daughter being the secretary of a large society. It Was then that I learned to ad- mire and revere such women as Elizabeth Cady Stan- ton, Lucy Stone Blackwell, and her, who more than others, has borne the scoffs, despising the shame of a noble cause, Susan B. Anthony. These boarders of ours knew intimately many of those gifted women in the days when they were ridi- culed by narrow men and idle girls, and many of their brave and inspiring words were repeated to me just as they^ell from their lips. Thus^sittihg at the feet of 128 WARP AND WOOF. Mrs. Fairchild, her thin hand stroking my hair — I learned the thoughts and aims of these women, and my young spirit thrilled at the story. It seemed to me that mine eyes had been holden. Earnest work and equal wage, woman, no longer a delightful play- thing, but a co-labprer — these were new thoughts to me, as I presume to most girls of fifteen. I could not keep silent, so great was my new theme, and I rested not till I had talked it over with the other girls of the village. To my surprise I found that the subject interested them very little. Some had lovers, and the future looked all rosy to them ; some were well enough off as they were, and had "no call" to be interested in anybody else, while a third class thought the whole movement masculine and vulgar. I was <:onvinced then, as now, that it is as much woman's in- difference as man's selfishness that is hindering this, one of the grandest of causes. The inertia of the many is the stumbling block of the few. Indolent women are not willing to stir from their rut, though the heav- ens fall. It is some trouble to think for one's self. My New England grit was fully aroused, as Mrs. Fairchild told me stories of oppressive laws and customs beneath which women are struggling, and have struggled for centuries. j Had there been a yellow ribbon then as now, I would have decked myself in that conspicuous color from head to foot. As it was, I talked and talked — some sense and much nonsense, no doubt. I retailed I Mrs. Fairchild's theories, and set the sleepy old farm- i ers to thinking, and that was something. Men that I hadn't read an epistle of St. Paul's for the past ten SPLENDID PEOPLE AND SPLENDID POVERTY. 12g years rummaged their Bibles over to see what he said about long hair, and women speaking in church. Lije Pike — whose wife supported him by sale work — actually remarked, with a most judicial expression of countenance, that if Idy Upson ever got married he guessed she'd alter some of them curus notions of her'n. It's perfectly clear to my mind," he further remarked, "that wimmin is weak critters, and not calkerlated fur head-work. She needs apertecter, and if there's anything to my mind sad and dejected, it's an old maid. Yes-sir-ee, an old maid. Her nature is too weak to go with her mind. And how can she git along in this rough and stormy sphere without a man to steer her, so to speak ?" It seemed perfectly clear, and by a superhuman effort I held my tongue. But I haven't got over my "curus" notions, and never shall. Uncle Tim Whittaker always cheered me on. "They'd orter to go together, them two idees — tem- prance and a wider sphere for woman. Them's the two grandest notions in the universe, to my mind. The Lord's raising up .leaders to push 'em on. It riles me when I hear folks a-quotin Scriptur on them ere two solemn subjects. I reely believe that if Jesus Christ was a walkin this ere common as He useter walk by Galilee, or talkin in this old meetin-house, he'd a-been thestrongestkindof a woman suffragist. Fact, I think He begun the thing. And as for men, there's Martin Luther, he'd a-been the tallest kind of an argyfier, and he'd a sent somethin bigger'n than an ink bottle at this devil of narrer-mindedness. So'd Abraham Lincoln, if he'd rightly got it through his head. " Then drop- ping his voice suddenly^ he added, "Common cusses (9) I30 WARP AND WOOF. can't be expected to look into this thing straight off, but I tell you the two ideas orter be worked up to- gether, and in apolitical platform, too. It's all a-liftin up the fallen an a supportin of the weak — the Lord's very notion " A call going forth from the Good Templars, at Os- wego, on the 27th of May of that year, 1869, had istirred Uncle Tim's blood, and he was eager to go to that first and now memorable convention in Chicago. During the month of August he was much exercised in mind and there was much consultation on the sub- ject, Mrs. Whittaker and most of the neighbors hold- ing that the claims of old Mooley and the chickens should not be ignored for the sake of any temperance notions. Cow and poultry finally left to neighborly keeping, Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker at last drove down Keniway hill, arrayed in their store clothes — she anx- iously absorbed in a railway guide, he satisfied that he couldn't miss finding a temperance convention, and that 'twould "sorter infect the air like the first scents of spring. " They came back to Keniway a few weeks later, blithe and hearty. They had visited old friends along, and had the best of times. Uncle Tim was full of the convention, and the wizened up face was fairly alight. "Idy," said he, in a brief chat over the side fence, ' 'your grandpa orter have lived to seen that day. There they wuz in Fansell Hall — five hundred of 'em — big hearted, brainy men ; and Jerry Smith, he spoke to 'em — a big, fine-looking chap — and he jist laid it down powerful, jist as he had it over slavery. Then they fixed a platform, and every plank in it was sea- soned with good common sense. The beer brewers SPLENDID PEOPLE AND SPLENDID POVERTY. 13I had kinder put 'em in mind of the hull thing — a shin- in example of how the Lord makes the wrath of man to praise hiin. There wuz considerable discussion about severin the old bonds and makin a bran new party ; but these ere men weren't no shaky reeds, and they jist pitched in hammer and tongs and druv it through. 'Twas the first Prohibition convention, but, please God, it won't be the last ! I never expect to see a nobler sight this side of Heaven ! Statesmen are big folks, but reformers are bigger. Reformers sow the seed, and statesmen git big credit for reapin the harvest. Law ! there ain't no comparison between 'em!" If the new party did not then put the "two togeth- er," they certainly did at their first Presidential con- vention, in 1872, when we read that the right of suf- rage should depend "on no color, race, sex," etc. The summer was a glorious one, and from its pleas- ant talks was evolved one prohibitionist and woman suffragist, who, if nothing else, is always earnest. Not * to the great or wise so often as to the earnest people is the battle. In the autumn, Ruthie Herbert and I went of to boarding-school together. I have said very little con- cerning Willie. In truth, there was little to tell. He had reached that unspeakable age of a boy'slife when he begins to reaUze, as Uncle Tim would say, that "girls is girls." It is a period of which I wish to speak only in the gentlest and most considerate man- ner. Washington has been there, so has Benjamin Franklin and Martin Tupper. Manifestations are sim- ilar in character, but vary in extent, and in Willie's 132 WARP AND WOOF. case were quite extensive. He was going to complete his education at a New England college, Ruthie and I devoutly hoped he would improve with time. He did. On the day he came home — a moustached young sophomore — I breathed a long sigh of relief to find that, in the language of the health bulletins, he had passed the crisis and was convalescent. We heard now and then from Aunt Kate. Her let- ters were cheery, and full of the bright sayings and doings of her babies. Some, however, told of a city filled with saloons ; of their Sabbath desecration ; how the charitable society, of which she was president had labored to close their doors on the Sabbath ; how she appeared before a common council with a protest sign- ed by the best men and every woman but one in the city, and they, these big councilmen, closed the saloons tf«i? Sabbath I "But, "she added, "I was pleas- ed with the avidity of the these poor women in signing our petition, some fearing for their lives should their husbands find it out.. Never fear, Ida, women will vote on temperance if they ever have the chance. " She wrote in a motherly way of the society tempta- tions that beset her husband's children, now young people — almost enough to upset old heads like hers. "Though I can not do much," she added, "my little Washingtonian pledge is honor bright ! 'Then you'll not drink a glass of champaign with me on my birth- day?' said a gallant host last eve, as I sat at his right. 'I couldn't, and besides, do you not think the less champaign you drink the more birthdays you'll have ?* 'Fact,' he answered, 'I believe that's so,' and he sat down his glass untasted. It requires moral stamina for SPLENDID PEOPLE AND SPLENDID POVERTY. 1 33 people to dare to be singular. Old folks certainly shouldn't tempt the young, but they will, and how I would like to help every one of them to do the right though the heavens should fall !" She was an ardent Republican, and, from her carriage in a public park, she listened to the glowing eloquence of Senator "Zach" Chandler and reported his witty ridicule of the Demo- crats. She wrote about everybody and everything but what we wanted to hear of most, her own home and hus- band. We knew that the home was an elegant one, and the husband — well, I had never quite forgotten my fears on the wedding-day. Generous invitations had' come from time to time to us all to visit her, and for the spring vacation of '74 came an urgent one to me. "You will see life in a new variety at the wedding re- ception of our son, and it will do you good." I was crazy to go. For weeks f talked, thought, lived on nothing but the prospects of seeing A unt Kate. All the old childish desire for her presence came back sweet and strong. I could not realize that any new ties or joys or sorrows had intervened between the dear old days when she was all to me and I was much to her. I had a safe and pleasant journey, and found the city beautifully situated on one of the great lakes. A car- riage with costly livery was at the station, and I was driven through the most aristocratic part of the city. On the bluff overlooking the lake, with broad piazzas and terraced grounds, was Aunt Kate's home. She stood in the door, elegantly dressed, but with a tired look in her sweet face. "My dear, dear little Ida," she said, as she took me in her arms, and I just cried on her shoulder for very joy. I had so much to say to 134 WARP AND WOOF. her that I scarcely noticed that she was more quiet than of old. Then there were the charming children, Beth, Ernest and Roy — regular darlings every one of them, with real little Hathaway faces — Beth four, Ernest two, Roy a six-month baby, and sweet enough to eat. I didn't care for the city or reception ; I just wanted to sit in that beautiful nursery with Aunt Kate and the children. But the dinner-bell rang, and we went down to the handsome dining-hall, where, — so thoroughgoing a temperance girl was I — the very first thing I noticed were the decanters on the side-board ! Presently in came the master of the house. He zvas master, too. Handsome still, bigger than ever, and grown a trifle gross. He welcomed me cordially, and the meal pro- gressed pleasantly. There was a son and daughter at the table, the son a fine-looking fellow with a face I liked, the daughter a dashing, stylish girl. All was social and delightful, and I was enjoying myself till we came to the decanters. Mr. Van Dressen proposed my health in wine, and when I left mine untouched, remarked with a spice of irritation, I thought: "What a pity a young girl like you should be imbued with these whims 1 Kate is a hopeless case, but I didn't imagine that she had any doubles." "I should be only too glad to be Aunt Kate's doub- le," I replied. I glanced at her — she sat white and silent. The son took no wine ; the daughter sipped hers ap- preciatively ; Mr. Van Dressen took several glasses, and grew talkative and funny.and went off to his club with a pompous and slightly tremulous step. With all this to think of, I could not sleep that night, besides I was SPLENDID PEOPLE AND SPLENDID POVERTY; 1 35 disturbed at midnight by Aunt Kate's new cook's row with the butler. A policeman had escorted her home ! When all was again quiet, the smell of gas led me to the dining-room, where she lay on the floor in drunk- en uncon=cinusness that she was setting the house on fire. 1 h'- room w as rapidly filling from one open burn- er, and another blazing jet wasready to ignite it. My wakefulness saved the family that night. Dozing off at last, a policeman's bell again reverberated through the house. There had been a theft, and this woman was suspected. Empty pockets proved her innocent. But think of it ! This was the same Ellen — the Dr's beautiful daughter — who had stuck pins into Aunt Kate's back, way back in the Compton school-room, and frightened her over the Mexican war, whom Aunt Kate was now repaying in kindness — had been a refin- ed, beautiful woman — seen as good days as her mis- tress — very much like them — and her children were in the orphan asylum, and she staggering in at midnight ! "Yet some will say," said Aunt Kate the next day, "that a woman should protect her own home. We cannot — our side-board, kitchen, or even nursery! For, Ida," she declared, with a shudder, "the drink fiend has been after all my babies from their very birth ! Beth was put to sleep with a night-cap by her nurse, Ernest was nearly killed by the whisky his nurse drank on the sly, and Roy's, a well recommended woman, came to me intoxicated. I would be worse than a brute if I didn't try to protect my own offspring. Yet I cannot protect these babies even in their cradles, i much more the older ones whose fair babyhood was soaked with brandy, morphine and soothing syrups." 136 WARP AND WOOF. And yet the world is unreasonable enough to blame the mother for every fledgling that goes astray. So, my youngfriends, would you keep your mothers' hon- or bright, keep your own lives pure ? While the evil exists there is danger everywhere. The Crusade was the first temperance effort that struck at the root. Add the Hop Villa past, to Aunt Kate's present, and do you wonder she was crusading that wonderful, memorable '74 ? I could see her very soul was on fire as she related its thrilling scenes. One day we drove to the church where a large number of la dies were assembled, and I was with her on the side- walk, at the head of a long procession of devoted wo- men. I shall never forget her face as, a few moments la- ter, she knelt on the floor of a fashionable saloon, and her low, thrilling voice rose in a prayer, which drew tears to eyes all unused. Beside the raging keeper stood a tall, well-dressed man, with a bitter and cynical face, and as Aunt Kate rose and went out with a gesture of infinite sorrow, through the keeper's storm of angry oaths, I caught this man's words, cold and pitiless as hailstones: "Mrs. Van Dressen's course to-day is in accordance with what one might expect. The law can, and shall, interfere with such illegal riot." I knew him in an instant. It was Hifleur — courteous, cold, contemptible as of old. Here I regaled Uncle Tim's report of the new Pro- hibition party. She was interested, but scarcely thought a new third party necessary. "The Repub- licans are doing that work. " We came back late in the afternoon. Entering the library, I saw Mr. Van Dressen stretched out upon the SPLENDID PEOPLE AND SPLENDID POVERTY. I37 sofa, fast asleep, mouth open, and snoring horribly. There was no doubtful hint of alcohol — he was reek- ing with it. I stood for an instant, looking at him, thinking — thinking very hard, too, as on that day when the bridal pair drove away from Keniway. Yawn- ing stupidly, he opened his eyes, and said, with a fool- ish chuckle, "Hey, Ida, that you? I can't talk. I guess I'm too — too drunk." Back he sank, and I went upstairs to my room. I sat down by the win- dow and looked out on the smiling lake. Often as I had thought of Aunt Kate with a fear at my heart, I had never imagined anything so bad as this. Tears of pity and disgust filled my eyes, which I did not wipe away quickly enough that they escaped Aunt Kate's notice as she entered. "What, crying, Ida?" she said. "You're not cry- ing for me, I hope?" "Yes — I am," I sobbed. "Do give me the small comfort of crying for you." "Your sympathy is vei-y precious," she replied; "but save some of your tears for the poor young bride who is coming home to-morrow. Rex drinks already as badly as his father ; and she is so young, with all her life before her." "Has he drank like this ever since your marriage — I mean your — " to save my life, I could not say "hus- band" of that bloated sleeper down stairs. "I never dreamed of such a thing till we had fairly begun house-keeping, " she said. "He knew my prin- ciples, and kept his habits well concealed. You can not imagine my distress when he first insisted on the after-dinner wine. For the past year it has been much 138 WARP AND WOOF. worse. Rex has learned the habit at his father's table, and when I think of the other children it drives me wild. I have talked and plead with him, but I am ut- terly helpless. He laughs me to scorn. " "How came he with these habits ?" I asked. "Were they born, reared, or inherited?" ' 'Neither, Ida, unless through a cider-drinking grand- father. Uncle Ezra tells a story of his father, Deacon. Van Dressen, when this first baby was born : The nurse told him to get her some brandy or the boy would die. 'Let him die then,' said this tenderest and most common-sensed young father. He knew that wasn't the stuff to nourish babies. No, Ida, he was rightly reared. It was this speculative, exciting hop business, with its constant contact with beers and brewers. When hops are 'going up,' they must cele- brate.over the gains ; when 'going down, ' drown their losses. Mr. Van Dressen has naturally fine traits. When thoroughly sober, tender and true to me. I could love him ardently, and we might be so happy and blest." "Does he object to your crusading?" "That depends, too, on his own condition. He sometimes gets so disgusted that he bids me crusade anywhere, and then I crusade out our side-board with a vengeance. And, then, again, he commands other- wise, raves over the fanatics, and threatens — / '// me the day." "But was there not an 'obey'? — " ' 'Yes, Ida, but the human command is 'drink the wine,' and the divine, 'look not on it.' He also com- mands 'go ye,' and Ayhere will you find greater heath- en than you have seen to-day? Father little dreamed SPLENDID PEOPLE AND SPLENDID POVERTY. 1 39 that such marriage vow would conflict with higher vows, and, if from the sweet realms above, he knows — he exonerates. 'Here I stand, God helping me, I I can do nothing less.' " "Oh, sweetest and most feminineLuther" said I, "I will arraign you no further." I asked curiously why she chose for servants such homely old women. Her answer was such a look of pain and humiliation that I indignantly asked : ' 'Aunt Kate, why do you live with him ?" "He needs me, Ida — and the children — bylaw they belong entirely to him. And j udges even, who are often kinder to mothers than the law, wouldn't take them from a wealthy father to be brought up by a penniless mother. If they did, it would be the old Hop Villa question ; for what could I do to support myself or them ? Do be thorough, dear, in some one thing. " We talked long and sorrowfully till the grey dusk came down upon the lake, and the little ones claimed of mamma a good-night kiss. "Did Aunt Kate always suffer in silence?" I am, glad to answer, no ! A little spark of the old mischief occasionally. Mr. Van Dressen didn't like sickness in the house. Never gave a fatherly welcome to the little new-com- ers, but always had some important business that could not be deferred. I've no patience with such fathers, and am glad that these pages give me an opportunity of saying so. Like most healthy men, when he was sick he made a prodigious fuss over it. When he came home one day in awful distress, and Aunt Kate's private inquir- ies of the doctor assured her that the ailment was 140 WARP AND WOOF. very trifling, I took my place for a time at the bed- side. To our surprise she soon entered in her most elegant toilet, and carrying in her hand a gold card- case. "What ! Where in thunder are you going, Kate ?" he demanded very energetically for a man in his death agony. "To call on Mrs. Governor F , to be sure, as you reques-ed me this morning !" "And leave me? I wasn't sick then !" he yelled. "Why not? Nothing, even sickness, you' said when baby was ill, should interfere with one's social duties ! I'm owing so many calls, too, besides I have 'important business that cannot be deferred !' And the day is delightful. I've ordered the carriage ! Ida is a famous nurse," and with some directions about the medicine, she smilingly left. For a moment he was actually speechless, and I saw he was doing some very busy thinking. It was a good lesson. When she returned, he had quite recovered, and showed a tenderer touch of consideration than usual. She had enjoyed the afternoon immensely, for she numbered many real friends among these fash- ionables. Another incident was quite ludicrous. Aunt Kate had not included "doing up"shirts among her accom- plishments. In the hard life at Keniway Flats, moth- er and grandma had always foreseen grandpa's very simple necessities in that line. Therefore, she was sadly dismayed when the illness of her laundress left her vji^five shirts to be put in presentable shape by somebody. She was too wise a manager to appeal to cook, waitress, or nurse, and it was before the days of SPLENDID PEOPLE AND SPLENDID POVERTY. I4I Chinamen. The pile of shirts loomed up before her, a linen Ossa to be leveled, and she set about, the task with fear and trembling, for Mr. Van Dressen was very particular. She tried cold starch, and left a yel- low monogram on the first. Then she tried boiled starch ; salted and waxed her irons. Still they stuck — but I thought them quite respectable, though I must confess, a critical analysis revealed some streaks, clouds, spots, and blisters ! Blisters, too, on the fair fingers, and very damp roses on Aunt Kate's cheeks, as she laid them away in their various stages of stiffness and murkiness. Passing through the upper hall the next morning, the sound of violent imprecations arrested my steps. Evidently the elegant Mr. Van Dressen was looking over his shirts 1 "Who did these up?" he spluttered, amid violent dashes. "I did," replied Aunt Kate, in very placid tones ; "and 6J\Avaybest. Appreciate the effort, please, if you cannot it's success !" But, one by one, they were discarded — thrown upon the floor, rustling like shocks of corn — while he stamp- ed upon them in his rage, consigning them where T thought they would not be needed ! I declare I was so ailgry when I thought of Aunt Kate's hard work that I could have sent him beyond the civilization of a shirt bosom ! "A pretty mess this is ! I should like to know what I'm to do for a shirt!" he vociferated, tearing around the room in a hurricane of kicks and thumps, inter- mixed with a hailstorm of still harder words. "I don't see but you'll have to go without, " said the 142 WARP AND WOOF. calm voice breaking into a silver ripple of laughter. Comedy overshadowed the tragedy ! He put on something and hurried to the nearest store, while the house reverberated with the banging of sundry doors through which he rushed on his way. That day we drove about the city and to the C street orphanage, of which Aunt Kate was directress. "Poor Httle waifs," she said, as she returned to the carriage, "with a few exceptions they are brought where they are, by their parents' drinking habits. The iniquity of the fathers is visited upon the children. Here they are. when they might be in happy, comfort- able homes of their own. At the Charitable Union, it is the same story, drink ! drink ! It has made that society necessary, too. Do you wonder that I hate this evil ! — that it seems sometimes that all the love and kindliness had gone from my nature, and my whole be- ing focussed into one burning hate. Oh ! Ida, how long — how long?" and she burried her face in her hands, and shook with dry, tearless sobs. CHAPTER XIII. TWO RECEPTIONS. (Colored be this darkest ball, With the blackness of the pall. ) "Wri'e! and tell out this Woody tale; Reccd this dire eclipse, This day of wrath, this endless wail. This dread apocalypse." — Longfellow. , EX VAN DRESSEN came home next day with p* his fair, young wife. He resembled his father in look and manner, and also in the unmistakable marks of dissipation. At dinnerhis father opened a bottle of champaign in his special honor. He reached out his hand and eager- ly took it, but, at a look from his mother, sat down the glass untasted. His father was too much absorb- ed in his own to notice. I observed the trusting pleas- ure of the bride's glance. She saw the firm mouth, but not the clinched teeth, or grinning demons awak- ening to this fresh home temptation. Aunt Kate look- ed anxious as she whispered to a servant, who remov- ed that tempting glas The day for the" reception was bright and beautiful, and all was bustle and confusion in the house on the bluff. I observed Aunt Kate's anxious watch of Rex. In the evening she came in the old informal fashion to 144 WARP AND WOOF. assist me in dressing. As she fastened the flowers in my hair, she said: "I so fear for Rex! He's not tak- en anything, he says, during his courtship or honey- moon — has carefully avoided the sight or smell — but here in his father's house he is wild for it. I have be- sought him for his wife's sake, for love's sake, for honor's, for God's, to keep sober to-night! He says his wife suspects nothing — love is so blind, you know — and when I begged him to be worthy of such love and confidence, he only laughed — a bitter, hafd, un- mirthful laugh — such as drunkards laugh, and such as I have heard in answer to all my protests for years. I've locked up every drop in the house, and should have locked him in, for he's gone out — I don't know where. I've sent the coachman after him, but the Lord only knt)ws when or how he will return. " All through the great rooms, light, and beauty, and fragrance. I had never in my life seen anything like it. Such flowers ! Tables heaped, with lilies, and fringed with ferns ; ferns and lilies, too, on the broad mantels and framing in the pictures and exquisite statuary. In my heart I thanked God for my fresh country eyes, that could take in the whole as a beautiful surprise, and. not merely as the adjunct to a fashionable entertain- ment. Then the music ! Never obtrusive, but a grateful un- dercurrent to the ripples of light conversations. It was played by an unseen orchestra, and for aught I could fancy was persuasive and dreamful enough to have echoed from the Hesperides. Then the people ! Such cordial, smiling, well-dressed people. How handsome was the master of the house — so genial and affable as he welcomed his guests ! TWO RECEPriONS. 1 45 Aunt Kate, too, in her trained black velvet was more charming, and as pretty, almost, as in her girlhood days. The fair, young bride wore blue arid silver. Rex had not yet appeared. That was a queer freak, but then Rex Van Dressen was a law to himself, and if he chose to be a trifle tardy at his own reception, society is ever tolerant to her favorites. So the bowing and smiling and introducing went on. The pretty heads shook and nodded till the diamonds twinkled like a cas- cade of stars. The gentlemen, too, were in the best of humor. They talked and shook hands and hobnobb- ed. It was a blithe and merry scene. "How delight- ful all the Van Dressen entertainments are !" said one lady to another. ' 'Everything is always in such per- fect taste." Half an hour passed, and Rex had not yet come. It certainly was strange. People looked inquiringly at each other, and glanced slyly at watch- es. Aunt Kate whispered to Pete, and looked im- mensely relieved as she reported to the bride that Rex had returned — was in his room — and would be down presently. (Pete had kindly withheld the fact of his young master's unequal steps thitherward.) The dreamful music ebbed and flowed, and the young bride grew pale again. "Why didn't Rex come down ?" By and by she slipped softly upstairs. I stood in the hall beneath, and heard her light footsteps along the corridor. I heard her call "Rex, why don't you comedown?" There was no reply, though I strained my ears to catch one. ' 'Rex ! Rex ! " said the soft, surprised tones again. Still no reply. Then she opened the door — there was an instant's silence — then — God (10) 146 WARP AND WOOF. shut my ears from ever hearing such a cry as that ! It rose wild, and high, and horrible^-rstilling the music and the talk, turning happy, smiling faces pale as death, stiffening the warm, young blood in purple veins, and dying in a low wail of utter despair ere something fell heavily on the floor above. With an answering cry, I sprang up into the broad stairway, and burst into the room. There on the floor, in a dead faint, lay the bride, in her blue and silver, and, oh ! the ghastly, grisly thing on the bridal-bed, with the blood-stains on the snowy, silken drapery and the carpet of white and violet ! Then there was hurrying to and fro, and wringing of weak hands. The brother stood, his face fairly distorted by his pain ; and the sister, her real grief mixed with her shame and mortification ; the father smote upon his breast ; the terrified little chil- dren clung to Aunt Kate, and she,with her stony white face, and, worst of all, the fair, young wife, so passion- ately in love with her handsome husband that she had never seen what others could ! Among the "exceed- ingly shocked and deeply regretting" guests who did not find THIS Van Dressen entertainment in "perfect taste" was Professor Adolphus Van Dressen, the as- tronomer, — too much interested in the stars, to have observed the eccentric orbits of the human souls around him. He had served in the late war, and early allied himself to the Republican party, and had thus, to his complete satisfaction, paid his debt to his country. There was a Congressman — one of those dear, pon- derous gentlemen who sit. in majestic conclave at the Capitol, and devote their energies to the protection of silk, and wool, and pig-iron, and the tariff — the bless- ed, handy tariff, that is always so nice to fall back up- TWO RECEPTIONS. 1 47 on. There were also present Representatives of the State Legislature ; but I would not thoughtlessly recall the scene to their minds, for they are busy with civil damage laws, fish laws, and game laws, laws against cruelty to animals and unhealthy meat. (They're handy, too.) We must not overburden our Legisla- ture ! Aunt Kate worked — she talked little — but she work- ed for the wretched girl-wife, for the heart-broken fath- er, for the brother and sister, for the little, pitiful,ques- tioning children, but from no one did she attempt to hide the bitter truth. She said not, ' 'He was out of his mind ;" but she said, "He was drunk." Three days later there was another reception at the house on the bluff. Rex was present this time. There . were no anxious glances or whispered.surmises as to his whereabouts. Instead of the softj entrancing music, a dirge. In the place of fragrant lilies and drooping ferns, wreaths, anchors and pillows with rest wrought out in purple violets. No smiling and bowing and intro- ducing this time, but a prayer above a coffin, where, with skillful arrangement of drapery to hide a blue seam in his throat, Rex Van Dressen received his friends. They were all there, for he had been a pop- ular fellow, and they came in crowds to pay the last debt of affection. Senators and Legislators were there, along with plenty of other distinguished people. Re- calling that saddest funeral, I wonder if in God's bal- ance the sobs, and tears, and prayers of that pale girl- wife may not tip the beam against pig-iron, heavy though it be. I wonder if in "a certain gloomy port of entry some of these law-makers may not pay a heavy tariff on the souls imported thither. I wonder. 148 WARP AND WOOF. also, if He, who made His disciples fishers of men and hunted on the mountains for the hundredth lamb, may not have fish and game laws widely different from those framed at the State Capitol. And, last of all, being a weak-minded and gullible woman, who believes her Bible, I wonder if, at the reception where the Son of Man meets the inhabitants of earth, and nobody can put in the plea of a previous engagement, Rex Van Dressen, with the mark across his throat, may not rise up in judgment against some of these. After others had gone, the guests from a distance were treated by their host to the costliest wines, and the sister, in her elegant mourning, drank, too ! Aunt Kate kept up through it all with the same stony face, but when it was over, and the pale girl- wife went back to her father's home, she said : "I am going to take the children and go home with Ida for a few weeks. I must see mother and Lucy, and the change will do me good." The husband acquiesced. ' I do not think that he was exactly pleased, but he real- ized that it was best, though he first suggested a fash- ionable sea resort. "No," said Aunt Kate, "it's home and mother I want, and I'm going to Keniway." So we took Beth, and Ernest, and Baby Roy, and left the house on the bluff. We left the nurse, also, rightly deciding that at Keniway she would be an un- welcome intruder. The journey was one of two days, and on the morning of the second we changed cars in a bustling little city, and were driven from one depot to another. Sitting thus in the carriage, Roy in her arms, and Beth and Ernest close beside her, we wait- ed at a crossing for the passing of a large, loaded dray. Just then a tall, handsome, dark-eyed gentlemaa TWO RECEPTIONS. I49 came briskly around the corner. I know not what drew the two pair of eyes together, nor how it was that Aunt Kate should chance to look away from baby and children, nor what attracted the passer's glance within the carriage, but he said, "Kate;" and she said, "Al- fred." That was all. But the pair of faces! ' Each might have been a risen Lazarus, as he came, tremu- lous with an unutterable thanksgiving, at the call of his Lord. Such a rapture of recognition shone in eyes and brow and parted -lips ! Such a rose of happiness flushed pallid cheeks ! The carriage moved on, and Aunt Kate turned to me, smiling through her tears, and said : "He has lived worthily. I know it by that one glance." She did not know that I understood, but spoke involuntarily, and I made no reply. The quiet visit to Keniway was a rest and help to her. There, in the simple rooms alone with us and her chil- dren, she seemed to forget something of her splendid misery. We walked together down the old pike, and watched the sunsets from the front porch, and lived the humdrum, innocent life of Keniway, and it did her good. The charming babies tumbled among the dais- ies, and toddled after fireflies on the grassy common, and stole their grandma's heart completely. She vis- ited many of her old friends, was helpful and kind as of old ; but she seldom spoke of her home life. I never told grandma ; what was the use ? I said nothing of the ghastly reception, and the dear old lady went to her rest, firmly persuaded that Aunt Kate's home was as happy as it was splendid. When she visited the bury- ing-ground at Keniway, and read grandpa's name on the plainest of stones and the words "They that be wise shall shine as the firmament, and they that turn many ISO WARP AND WOOF. to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever," she said: "Ida, I would like to have raised a more fitting monument to father, but, Ida, a woman may live in luxury and yet not have a dollar she can really call her own." With such an epitaph, what mattered the mon- ument, thought I. There was none where fell the proph- et's mantle by the Jordan, but Aunt Kate with her piti- ful face standing by his grave for whose sake and that of other dear ones she had borne so much ! There was a ripple among the good people of Keni- way, when, at the weekly prayer and conference meet- ing of the Presbyterian Church, Aunt Kate arose (just like a man, as some of the sisters said) and spoke some very gentle and earnest words of exhortation. There were various opinions on the subject, and for a few days talk ran high. Deacon Hawkins, who owned, as you remember, a large interest in a "rum tavern" in the village below, thought it would forever quench the spirit of grace if females were allowed to testify to their love of Christ. Others among them, noticeably Uncle Tim, approved. "It's small-souled and narrer-minded, " he said, "this ere a-sittin up over wimmin, right-minded, eddi- cated sisters, and a-sayin they shan't say nothin about their religion in public ! Anyway, there's no law agin it! Why; here's Idy and Ruthie Herbert experi- enced a change and joined the church, and, with their young hearts almost a-bustin with emotion, they must sit still and hear some brother that's spoke in every prayer-meeting for the last twenty years, and reelly's got no gift at all, tell how he expects the rest feel, It's a-throwin great discredit on St. Paul, too, the broadest Christian that ever suffered for his Master, this a-pilin TWO RECEPTIONS. I5I the responsibility of their own narrer-mindedness on him. Hadn't orter wear the plainest kind of a gold ring for that matter. Don't Deacon Hawkins's wife and darters wear costly apparel, and broider their hair ? The fact is, there ain't a woman in Keniway that fol- lers St. Paul literally,- except Mis Ackerman ; and Sam, bein a pretty liberal customer at the Deacon's tavern, she hain't no call to be extravagant in her clothes. The Lord made the silk-worm, and giv it a nateral bent toward spinnin, and He made the gold in the arth, and I reely don't suppose 'twas all intended for fillin teeth. I expect He wants us to foller the leadings of the common sense He's given us. We'd orter realize we're livin in the age of lightnin-rods and steam-engines, and that we hain't in Corinth, A. D.. 56. My opinion is, let the sisters speak, provided, of course, they've got somethin to say, and that ere provision orter apply to the men." CHAPTER XIV. A MELODEON AND A WIG. ( Winding nozv the strifes of rose, Bright and gay th? carpet grows.') "There's a musical isla up the river of Time, Where the softest airs are straying ; There's a cloudless sky, and a tropical clime. And voices as sweet as a vesper chime, While the breeze vfith the roses is playing," —B. F. Taylor. )HE time came for Aunt Kate's good-byes. I alone of the three loving women knew to what she was returning. I drove her to the depot, and, as she stepped upon the train, she turned to me and said : "Ida, you know what my life is. It has brought peace to those I love, and, for their sake, I can bear it. I am going back, but I have gained rest and strength from the green hill-top, and God will help me!" The children — the dear little children — clung to me, kissing me with arms twined tight around my neck. I didn't let Aunt Kate see, but, holding Baby Roy for a last hug, I left some hot tears on his embroidered dress. How had Rev. Blossom, of Keniway, greeted Aunt 152 A MELODEON AND A WIG. I53 Kate ? Very cordially, to be sure. He had married a real nice woman too, with not a bit of strong- mindedness about her, and mother said she was that same little Polk girl that accepted the 'lastingly sweet Jackson ball' after Aunt Kate's refusal of it. Suppose he had wore the willow all this time? Dear no ! He was not the man to let his emotions get the better of his judgment, as a rule. Besides, have I not told you he was an obstinate man ? So was General Grant, in the White House, splendidly obstinate — turning his wine glasses upside-down, thus preaching temperance sermons. In the Rev. Blossom's case, he was not preaching or doing anything about it, and his "sot- ness" wasn't to my taste, or uncle Tim's, either. This temperance question, that tugged at the good old man's heart with hopes, fears, plans and sugges- tions, didn't trouble Rev. Blossom one bit. He always prayed about it, to be sure, taking it to the Throne of Grace and leaving it there. He didn't wrestle on his knees, and get up with his heart on fire, but he pray- ed about it in a reasonable way. But 'mid these hints as to Rev. Blossom, let me not forget his exquisite politeness. He was so gentle, so courteous that I say dear oistinate Mr. Blossom, never dear pig-headed Mr. Blossom. The vacation had passed, without the old hostilities between Willie and myself. Slavery's' demise follow- ed John Brown's. It had been buried beyond a resur- rection for years, thoughUncleTim still, from sheer hab- it, prayed every morning the for the "downtrodden and oppressed."" Between President Johnson, his Cabinet, and Congress, Willie had never cared which beat. He never was pleased with the fifteenth constitutional "fix- 154 WARP AND WOOF. ins' 'that had given the negro the ballot, to the delight of UncleTim. But that was a buried past, too, and couldn't be helped. Now, he didn't care which side up were Pres- ident Grant's glasses, and temperance was reduced to a minimum in Keniway. We had stretched above strawberries and the spelling-class. Really, there was absolutely nothing we could conveniently quarrel over. I went back to school, and Willie to college. We did not correspond, but there were always long messages in Ruthie's letters, and she, proud of her brother, talk- ed about him half of the time. I heard frequently from Aunt Kate. In one of her letters was the follow- ing passage : ' 'You ask me if Rex's death made a last- ing impression on Mr. Van Dressen. I am sorry to tell you such is not the case. If our trouble had been in a story, Ida, he would have reformed and led a sober life. But real drunkards are not like the story drunk- ards. I think very few permanently reform. In Fred's case, the grace of God and father's importunate prayers worked together, with the Hathaway grit ; but there are few such instances. I have no hope for my hus- band — he has none for himself.- God pity us all." Grandma had slipped away in a winter twilight, when the snows lay deepest and whitest on Keniway common — gone with her sweet, quavering voice and gentle ways, beyond_ drifted level and purple shadow, into the springtime and the dawning. Ruthie and I returned on this June with our diplo- mas, class rings, and the noble purpose of teaching. Willie had graduated with distinguished honors and journalistic plans. There were no openings, however, for either of us, and thus we were left in Keniway. I promised the rose for this ball. Aunt Kate's roses A MELODEON AND A WIG. 155 are faded like this old pink barege dress mother is winding. So — though I unfold my own bright fabric reluctajntly^cut relentless scissors right through it, for the sweet sakes of the dear young girls I love so well. While, waiting for this wheel of fortune to turn, Willie Herbert came courting me. At least I suppose it was courting, for we walked and talked together, and as Uncle Tim said, "when you see a girl and feller, and they're both a-lookin at their toes, and she's for- ever a-pokin the ground with her parasol, it's a pretty sure sign. " There was much of this sort of thing, and he came over to read French with me, and we sat on the piazza, while the children trapped grass-hoppers outside. We were a young and innocent pair. Willie was a very moderate young man. He was fond of re- marking that he never went to extremes — was not fanatical in any of the lines in which earnest people are wont to be; He believed in moderation. He was a fine scholar, of exceptionally refined manners and cultivated tastes. I liked him wonderfully well, but I could not quite agree with him in everything, and when I reasoned with him of temperance and some of the real things of life, he always listened with the great- est attention, but, as if more interested in me than my opinions. This tried me at times ; but he was the most charming of companions, and his eyes ! — well, I don't believe any girl could look long into such bril- liant, brown eyes and not be dazzled a bit. Many cir- cumstances drew us together, but I am inclined to believe, with Uncle Tim, " 'twas the melodjin that done it." Uncle Tim still drove his cow to pasture down the old pike, and, as of old, talked over the side fence. IS6 WARP AND WOOF. One day, in a particularly "off spell," he drove her straight into our yard, thinking he had reached home. "Wall, wall," said he, after old Mooley was safely out, "what a queer old fool I be ! Hello there ! Ida, is that you ? It isn't the temperance notion this time," as he shook his head and winked slyly. ' 'Good cracky I I'm all upsot when I see young folks a steerin straight into love, and all so innercent like. That air melodjin's done the job, and I hain't nothin to say agin it if I was only as sure of his temprance principles as I be of yourn. But there, I'm an old man with a hobby, and they du say I ride it to death." About the melodeon. The students had long since run out the church on the hill, and I had become a par- ishoner of Rev. Blossom's. The orchestra was quite primitive. It consisted of Deacon Hawkins, Willie Herbert, Ruthie and myself. Sometimes two or three more dropped in, but we were the stand-bys. We were assisted by a small reed organ, known as a melodeon. This I played. It was the most wheezy, asthmatic in- strument imaginable. The bellows were continually out of order, and worked in a gasping, convulsive fash- ion peculiarly it's own. The "pumping" was quite diiificult. Hence it became the custom for Willie Her- bert to sit beside me and work the bellows. Mean- while we evoked such music as I verily believe was never before discoursed in a Christian church. I can see the old gallery now, with it's high railing, rows of hard seats, that little melodeon, and Willie waiting for me beside it — I can see it all, even to the dog-eared hymn book. Why, girls, you may have known such charming fellows, but you never can have played such a melodeon, and have heard such a A MELODEON AND A WIG. IS/ mellow baritone close by your shoulder. And, for the sake of that fond and foolish time, to this day I skip the funny paragraphs and useful maxims in the village pa- per, and turn to it's one love story. And for it's sake, I never see a pair of sentimental young noodles go moon- ing down the street, but, to the neglect of my dish- pan, I stand and watch them, and earnestly hope he'll prove "likely and stiddy." "Would not all life's music," Willie whispered one morning in the pauses of Old Hundred, "would not all life's music grow more harmonious if we but sat side by side?" I shook my head. In my heart of hearts I knew that while I should be striking the full chords of some sweet and solemn measures, he would be pedalling the airy pirouette of a dance tune. Aunt Kate had a hint of this intimacy, and wrote : "Never marry a man to reform him. You'll die first and leave him to torture some other woman. " While it did not apply to Willie, in that as he had as yet no very bad habits to reform, it did convince me that since I had so little influence on him now I should never be likely to have any more. He had become somewhat of a Democratic politician, too. He remarked to Uncle Tim one day, with a little of the old sauciness : "We have as good a liquor plank in our platform now as the Republicans ! It was about time, too, with that Raster resolution in theirs to catch our best mon- ied men. You church people never understood that game, but the liquor dealers have had the inside track some time. We'll beat you now. Uncle Tim !" And he read, " 'We believe in the liberty of individual con- IS? WARP AND WOOF. duct, unvexed by sumptuary laws, ' and we can go pic- nicing Sundays, too, as well as the Republicans. " Uncle Tim, with his shrewdest grey-eyed glance, declared it "didn't matter to him whether that furrin rooster had his personal liberty or was. saryed up sump- tuous for dinner!" He didn't "care a whit for their stuffins no-ways. Plymoth Rock chickens were good enough for him." There was no bombarding this solid old breastwork. Uncle Tim didn't throw his Prohibition pearls where they would be trampled underfoot, and Willie retired a trifle discomfited. One Sabbath afternoon things went particularly wrong in the old church. For one thing the bell was not rung in time. Uncle Tim and his wife had been to Narregan to attend a conference meeting. Return- ing to Keniway, some youngster called out: "Say, Uncle Tim, where's your wife?" The look of amaze- ment on Uncle Tim's face was succeeded by one of alarm. He drove back Narregan way in a hurry. Somebody rang the bell, the people came together as usual, and by and by Uncle Tim and his wife entered the church in good condition. Uncle Tim in his ' 'off spell, " hadn't noticedher slipping out of the "hind end" of his wagon as they drove up Keniway hill, and he had found her seated like Evangeline on a stone by the wayside. This little incident caused some smiles among the young people, as Uncle Tim mounted to his usual perch in the gallery. Our 'five o'clock' that day was a temperance address by a grave and dignified gentleman from abroad. He waxed very eloquent over the evils of the liquor traf- fic. He waved his arms, he sawed the air, and rolled A MELODEON AND A WIG. 1 59 his eyes upward. He gave us a startling array of sta- tistics and blood-curdling anecdotes, got out of breath, and made his face red. Then he told us to use moral suasion on the drunkard, to be kind and charitable to him. He enjoined it as a duty of the church to do this, and expressed it as his conviction that the millen- ium would dawn right speedily. Willie had nodded assent occasionally, but Uncle Tim leaned over and whispered with a comical look of disgust on his shrewd old face, ' 'Jest dickered with the subject. Hain't reely touched the case at all. It's like doctorin up the col- lery morbus with catnip tea." Then, after the lecturer sat down and wiped his heated face, Rev. Blossom fol lowed up the felicitous conclusions by giving out "The year of jubilee has come. " The glorious old tune went as badly as possible, as though it resented the incon- gruity of an introduction at such a juncture. We sung right on, however, and the tune grew worse with every stanza. It wouldn't have been so bad, though, if only Deacon Hawkins had not lost his wig. Deacon Hawkins was the chorister. There were some who said Deacon Hawk- ins took a drop too much. Be that as it may, perhaps it's all right that a man who owns a "rum tavern" and thereby digs pits for others' follies, should now and then be made a laughing stock himself. The melodeon wheezed and groaned, Willie worked the old bellows in utter desperation, while the Deacon whirled his bat- on, the bass and tertor floundered clumsily about, and the sopranos soared up among the high "G's. " The lecturer looked positively alarmed. The congregation were turned about and facing us. They were a meek and well-behaved congregation, and accustomed to l60 WARP AND WOOF. pretty nearly anything in the way of music — took it philosophically. Not so with Deacon Hawkins. He shook his head angrily, and actually shook his wig off, leaving a crown as shining as the Jungfrau. He clutched at it wildly as well as he could, with a singing book in one hand and a baton in the other, but it was gone — gone down over the railing and among the con- gregation. I know not how it happened — it is among the secrets of the ages ; the crazy melodeon stopped short from sheer astonishment. Then a young man, sitting in one of the back seats, stooped and picked up that fallen wig, and, with a bow — graceful as though it were a lace handkerchief — handed it up to Deacon Hawkins, who replaced it on his head with much con- fusion of countenance. The young man's hair was red, and he never smiled, but acted just as if his business was to pick up wigs. Everybody looked at the young man. They would inevitably have looked at a stranger in Keniway, but a stranger who had shown such unus- ual self control was an object of especial interest. Wil- lie whispered, "Oh wad some power," but I made no no reply. I was staring with all my might. My thoughts went back to a parsonage parlor and a starched-up theologue and a cold frog! Surely I had seen that face. It was most certainly Frank — dear, red-headed Frank, whose parents had all this time been out to Kansas, and impoverished by a grasshopper famine, or something else equally indefinite and dismal. They had returned east, and he was practicing law in Gran- ite, a little town in a neighboring State. Old memories — perhaps, of a curly head — had brought him again to Keniway. It isn't necessary to recount it all here, but we were exceedingly glad to see each other, and A MELODHON AND A WIG. I6l he announced his intention of keeping up his cousin- ship henceforth and forever. (11) CHAPTER XV. A MAY BASKET AND A MAY LOVER. (True Blue.) "Warrior, who coraest to the battle now With a careless step and a thoughtless brow, As if the day was already won, Pause, and gird all thy armor on ; In thy hand does the sword of truth flame bright ? Is thy banner inscribed for God and the right ? In the might of prayer dost thou wrestle and plead ? Never had warrior greater need !" — Anna C. Lynch, 1 UTHIE HERBERT ran over one afternoon p*^ with a plan incident to a pleasant custom of New England. "Come, Ida," she began, "we'll go through the old pike, and hang a May- basket to Eddie Grimes's. 'Twill be lots of fun, the moon is full, and we can rest by the Big Rock. But, better than all, it will brighten up his hard Hfe for a week." Eddie Grimes was a poor boy, just recovering from a hard sickness. We made the prettiest possible basket — all gilt and white, and of marvelous capacity. We filled it with delicious cakes, confectionery, picture books, story papers, lovely flowers, and added a small bill apiece from our scant pocket-books. There were four of us — Ruthie, Willie, a newly arrived cousin and myself. Setting off merrily, at sunset, we reached the little brown house at early dusk, and we girls hid be- hind a huge clump of lilacs, while Willie stole softly 162 A MAY BASKET AND A MAY LOVER. 1 63 up, gave a thundering knock, and sprang back into the shadow. Mrs. Grimes came to the door, and when she saw the basket, called out in such a pleased voice, "Here, Eddie, you've got a Mayvbasket. " The sick boy raised a weak shoiit of delight, and we all looked in through the shutterless windows, and enjoyed their surprise with them. When the bills were discovered the mother and son fairly sobbed in each other's arms, and we turned away with moistened eyes. There was no chasing as of old, so we went back through the woods, lingering along idly, as young people do. It was the fashion in Keniway for people to take their time. We talked, anon kept silent, till a line from Goethe called forth some exceedingly lively and impartial criticism of one of his books. Ruthie's cousin was a very pro- found young lady — a trifle wearying to others and possibly to herself. She hardly approved of May-bask- ets — was more interested in a philanthropic scheme for introducing the Wagnerian harmonies among the Chin- ese. She would have made a congenial wife for Pro- fessor Adolphus Van Dressen ! The soft purling of the water saluted us, and we liiigered by the Big Rock, till Ruthie playfully drew her cousin on, remarking that it was time for honest folks to be in bed. I remember all these trifles as we ever do those connected with some great pain or pleas- ure. Willie walked slowly, and I had a girl's intuition that something was coming. He reminded me of the many good times we had enjoyed there, to all of which I assented. We talked of the practical sprinkling esca- pade and the Shakespearian mishaps. "How we used to quarrel, didn't we ?" said he. "I i 164 WARP AND WOOF. believe we should never do that again ; you and I gen- erally agree now, don't we, Ida ?" "Not always," I answered. "Well, then, we'll agree to disagree. There are so many points of sympathy, I think we can afford to drop a few that are otherwise." "Not when they are vital points," jaid I, desper- ately — trying to look away from the dark eyes, so brilliant just then. "Oh! Pshaw!" said he, lightly, "don't let's get into an argument, Ida. You know well enough what I mean. You must know. Won't you wait for me one brief year? I shall have a good position then, they say, and I know it's in me. But success without you would be nothing. " Poor, weak girl, lingering along that charmed path- way, how could I refuse ? With all the years between, I wonder how I summoned courage to answer as I did. "No ; I cannot marry you. These little things, as you call them, are mountains in my eyes. You have known my feelings on these subjects, and yet you have never changed ; neither would you if I married you." "And you," he cried, hotly, "after all our friend- ship, after all our hours together, after all that we have felt and thought, can turn me off for an idle whim ?'^ "It is no whim," I answered. "It is no idle thing^ for a girl to link her life with one who sees no harm ia a social glass. " "Ida," he said, "you would insult me. Do you think / would ever drink to be the worse for it ? What do you take me for?" "I take you for the dearest friend I ever had, but 1 A MAY BASKET AND A MAY LOVER. 165 won't marry any man who is not a total abstainer, and, more than that, will not work for the cause." "Well, I won't do such a ridiculous thing as that for any girl living," he answered, angrily, but in a moment added, gently: "Ida, you and I can't think alike on this subject, and never shall ; but I love you, and must believe you love me. Don't let's wreck our lives' happiness in this way. I can't let you refuse me. Why, I've loved you ever since you pushed me into that puddle when we quarreled over John Brown." And he laughed so pleasantly that it seemed. to me I could NOT go through life without hearing that laugh once in a while. I hesitated — wasn't I whimsical ? Hadn't I strained a point ? Everybody would say so. And all the time the brilliant eyes looked straight into mine. A thought came to me just then. Perhaps in answer to Aunt Kate's prayers, for she has told me since that in her petitions she never forgot to ask that I might be spared such grief as her's. If life were always in the moonlight, what pleasanter companion could I ask than Willie ? But, ah ! the moon might sometimes have an eclipse, and, then, Willie would not do at all ! Then came another thought, of the little arms that might sometime cling around my neck. I could not give my children such a father and counsellor. It were far better if girls had such thoughts, far better than to wait for them till the ring is on, till by and by the little hands reach up to them, and they realize that they must guide the baby feet alone — father is no help. Or, worse still, when the babies come into the world with perverted tastes and evil appetites; Don't be afraid, dear girls, of these thoughts of the children to come, but think them rev- 166 WARP AND WOOF. erently, and they will do you good. Thank God ! I had seen Aunt Kate's home, and I answered again : •^'No, no — I will not marry you. It's of no use. My mind is made up." Then all the way home he coaxed and pleaded, and painted fairy pictures of the life we might lead togeth- er, and would not cease, for he knew I cared for him. Then, on the piazza, when I burst into tears, and beg- ged him to ask me no more, he put both arms around me and held me tight, declaring that all the crazy tem- perance fanaticism in the world should never separate those whom the Lord has made for each other ; that height, nor depth, nor any other creature should in- tervene, much less a whim of mine. Nervous, and almost desperate, at last I pushed him from me and ran into the house, and cried as I had not cried before since grandfather died. It seemed such a cruel thing to refuse him — such a hard, bitter, unreasonable thing. Then to think this quarrel must never be made up ! In the old times, after some bitter dispute, we would get right, as the children say, and share an apple or a cooky. To be sure, it was only for a brief season ; we squabbled again, but there was always the knowledge that sooner or later we should be reconciled. But this could never, never be righted. Only to forget my hob- bies and go back to fireflies and Shakespeare ! It is so much easier to play at tragedies than to live them, and though I knew I was right, I was bitterly lonesome I CHAPTER Xyi, PIGS AND PLEDGES. {The Dye Pot.) "Albeit, in my heart I knew liim King." JOU did the right thing," said Uncle Tim, for the news was all over Keniway. "You did the right thing. I don't mind acknowledging that Willie seemed the nateral one for you to take, but a feller that's got a personal liberty plank in his platform ain't the one for a girl like you. Alius a-standin up for high license and nice places to drop in any day with a friend, and forever a railin and makin fun of fanatics. 'Taint the feller for you, no siree. Such girls as you," he added, reflectively, ' 'is quite apt to be old maids, so many's afraid of a girl that's smarter than they be themselves. But, law ! 'taint no diggrace to be an old maid, nor ain't been since Susan B. growed up." "That's so, Uncle Tim," I answered, laughing. ' 'And, as for lonesomeness, I 'low it's the nateral thing for young folks to couple oiT; but I reckon a woman can be jest as happy all by herself as with a tipsy husband for company. Joan-out-the-ark never got married, neither." "Joan of Arc," I timidly suggested. "Joan-(7«Aofthe-ark, " he repeated, with decision. 167 l68 WARP AND WOOF. "Leastwise she warn't in it, or there'd been somethin in Scriptur about her. I don't know nothin about her, except that she done as much for her country as if she'd got married and trained up half a dozen boys to get drunk and chew terbackey. I've about come to the pint where I'm ready to say, if a feller is too weak to support a principle, he's too weak to support a wife, and folks, like Willie, that believe in liberty, it's the best thing to let 'em have it. Furthermore, if I was a young girl, and goin to get married, I du reely be- lieve I'd rather marry a way-down dtunkard than a man jist startin in. He'd be at the bottom, and you'd know where to find him. But this ere watchin some- body you love a-weakenin and a slidin, and you all the time powerless ! I du believe it's enough to kill a woman." There were divers opinions as to my refusal of Wil- lie, most people thinking me far too particular about a trifle. As for me, I was niore lonely than I can ever express. I felt like some poor, little craft, stranded high and dry on the rock of principle, and was sure I should never float again on the rosy seas. But, as this is Aunt Kate's story, and not mine, I know not of what avail it would be to stretch my agon- ies over pages of this volume or to declare that no girl ever might, could, would, or should suffer as I did. Most girls do suffer. As Martin Luther said to Cath- erine after his daughter's death, "It's a hard world for girls." Like most New England maids, I didn't wear my heart on my sleeve, and forced myself to be cheer, ful. These were days when the green, still common and quiet woods seemed to mock me with their peace and PIGS AND PLEDGES. 1 69 quiet, and I longed madly for something to take my thoughts and time. But I had to stay just where I was, and could not, like all the heroines nowadays, — and very sensibly, too, ^forget myself in work. An episode just here was the pig and the dye- pot. It seems incongruous to mention it just here, but it happened just here, and perhaps a pig never tumbled into a dye-kettle anywhere but here on Keniway hill ! My mother arose one morning with the light of a new determination in her gentle eyes. " I do believe I shall dye that old silk, and it will really be very, respectable, when its made up. And I guess I'll put the kettle on, and go right about it." I groaned. To talk of dye-pots to a girl who was positive that her heart was broken ! "Oh, mother !" I said, "I do wish you hadn't such implicit faith in dyeing. It's such lots of work, and dyed things are always horrid !" It was useless. My mother, gentle and yielding to me in most matters, was inflexible about dyeing ; and, with a sigh, I helped her adjust the kettle, put in the water and coloring matter, and then, with a most mar- tyr-like air, rinsed and prepared the garments for their inky bath. Did I scold any ? Well — not at first, but when the dyeing went on hour after hour, and she would find and put in all the faded articles in the house and grew more tired every moment, and when at last she brought forth an old sacque of mine and proceeded to wash it, my wrath overflowed. • "Oh, mother — mine !" I cried. "Do, please let my old duds alone ! Let's clean up things, and have a good ramble down the old pike. " N. B. — I had longed for work, but no heroine that I/O WARP AND WOOF. ever I heard of wanted to drown her grief in a dye-pot ! Mother shook her head with an inexorable air, and went straight on with her preparations. Then I scold- ed and remonstrated, but to no purpose. She dyed that sacque and an old hood, and some flannels were waiting their turn ! Fairly desperate, I lifted that huge kettle, by a mighty effort, and carried it into the yard, smoking like a witch's cauldron. Mother followed, helpless to prevent, and I, by another Herculean lift, took her in my arms and deposited her in an easy-chair by the window, and bade her remain there. The dye and mother had both cooled off when the pig appear- ed. I have not before mentioned this important ad- junct to our household. Everybody in Keniway kept a pig, therefore we kept a nice white one aetat two months. But was ever a pig more artful and distract- ingly contrary than this one ! A series of squeals in- fromed me that he had for the dozenth time escaped form his pen, and now Oliver Twist (so called because he always asked for more) was headed directly for the dye. I ran out, hair and apron streaming in the wind, my whole feminine soul intent on one purpose, viz : to keep that pig out of the kettle. Too late was I. With a loud squeal and a wild upheaval of feet and tail, over went piggy, rolling, and splashing, and flopping and upset- ting the dye-pot with its inky tide pouring on the grass, and a splutter and splatter behind him. On went piggy straight for a hole in the side fence. His lively crooks and turns occupied but a second, but in that second I overtook him, and just as his ears appeared on the old pike side, I grasped him firmly by one leg. It was an exciting moment, and just then a voice said pleasantly : "I'll catch him for you." And Frank — the dear, PIGS AND PLEDGES. I7I red-headed Frank — appeared, just in time to help out of trouble — not Deacon Hawkins' and his wig, but our Oliver Twist. He actually took that dyed pig from my hands. Oliver had a progressive spirit. He squeal- ed and, kicked, and floundered with all his might, and hit against some hard object in the grass, shattering it in pieces. It proved to be a brandy-bottle. "Thank heaven so much of the miserable stuff is gone," said Frank. "Yes," said mother, "and, in consideration of pig- gy's good deed, we'll forgive him his bad one." She pointed, a few feet further, where, partially concealed by the grapevine, Sam Ackerman lay in a drunken sleep. Piggy was now in his pen and nailed up (the pen, not the pig). We returned to the scene of action. There he lay, big, bloated, besotted Sam Ackerman. Slowly struggling to his senses, he sat up, and, miss- ing his bottle, demanded with drunken dignity : "Where's my bottle ? I'd like to know'? Ain't a poor man no right to his own property ? One man's as good as another, and a d — d sight better. I'll let folks know." ' 'There's your bottle, " said Frank, pointing to the fragments. ' 'And I wish every brandy bottle in the United States was like it." "Who broke it?" said he, fiercely. "I'll prosecute 'em for interfering with my rights. I won't be impos- ed upon. I'll — " "Oh, come now," said Uncle Tim, who had been a silent eye witness to the whole performance. "You can't prosecute a pig ; and you know yourself, Sam, it's a curse to you." 172 WARP AND WOOF. "Curse!" shrieked the drunkard shrilly. "Curse, did you say ? It's my hell, damn it, damn it, damn it. I say-^it's robbed me of home, reputation, happiness and Heaven !" Then, suddenly dropping into maud- lin sobs, his burly form shook like a baby's. Frank was much moved, and Sam went on : "Yes, you fine gentleman can talk, and cry, and argify, but there ain't one on ye'U take a step towards the thing that'll stop it. Law's what's wanted. If there was a law against the sellin and a makin it, I'd vote for it, if I crawled to the polls over burning coals ; but there ain't and won't never be. Talk is cheap — as cheap as a politician's conscience — but there ain't one on ye '11 work and vote to help us." There was a pause — then a manly arm upraised to Heaven — ' 'So help me God, from this time forth, I give my best efforts for the temperance cause, and my vote as well." "I'm with you there, young man," said Uncle Tim. and the horny palm met the white, student fingers in close compact. CHAPTER XVII. ON WITH THE NEW ! (Unfading Rose.) "Are we not one ? Are we not joined by heav'n ? Each interwoven with each other's fate ? Are we not mix'd like streams of meeting rivers, Whose blended waters are no more distinguished, But roll into the sea one common flood ?" — Rowe. I" RANK'S very informal visit made a pleasant variety in our life. After his return to Granite, he remembered me in many ways — as a roll of music, or a new book — till, at last, at his own sugges- tion, we prepared to leave Keniway and remove to Granite. He could assist me to a school, and render us other services, sijich as catching our pigs ! We did not, however, take Oliver Twist ! Uncle Tim as- sumed the charge of him for the remainder of his days, and in commemoration of his prohibition proclivities re-christened him Neal Dow. There is something grim in the thought of all that spunk and spirit pickled down into a cold pork-barrel, but to that end he eventually came. Frank helped us settle, of course. Frank did every- thing in those days, even to that severest test of mas- culine friendship, the adjustment of our stove-pipes. I introduce this time-honored subject for the sake of say- ing it isn't the silk, but the sheet-iron stove-pipes, dear 1 74 WARP AND WOOF. girls, that reveal the inmost depths of a man's nature. His cousinship was as indefinite as the lost Pleiad, but like that poetical planet, was a pleasing mystery. His grandmother was a Pythias, however, and one of that majestic row, sitting in the cane-seat chairs at Aunt Kate's wedding. (If there's anything wearying to me, it's reckoning relationship !) I had little time for fretting about Willie during the next two years, for I was teaching school, and strain- ing every nerve to propitiate a board of trustees who bore an unpleasant reputation for "bouncing" teach- ers on slight provocations. A profounder mystery than relationship puzzled those shrewd little physiognomists — the school children. They averred that whenever Miss Upson met lawyer Brooks her face always turned as red as his hair ! Tommy Hayes, a little wretch of Celtic extraction, was the first to whisper this. Re- tained one afternoon for distributing a penny's worth of sneezing snuff, he sat writhing and twisting his wiry, little frame, interlocking his freckled fingers, and kick- ing viciously at a knot in the floor, when Frank ap- peared at the door with an invitation for a ride. Tom- my, released on probation, scuttled down stairs with a villainous chuckle, and went forth to tell what he knew. Was I too soon, off with the old and on with the new? Ah! well, "We seldom wed whom first we love," remarked some poet, and I, for one, think it's a good thing we don't. Here was a man, staunch and strong — a man who had espoused the temperance cause with his whole soul — a man who could pick up a wig without laughing, if a smile would add to the wearer's embarrassment- — a man who believed in wo- ON WITH THE NEW. I7S man's receiving equal wages with man, and herspeak- ing in prayer-meeting, provided she wanted to, and had anything to say. Besides, he was in love with his future mother-in-law — did't just tolerate her for the sake of her daughter, but liked her for her own admir- able qualities, and she fully reciprocated his feelings. So we were engaged. We didn't send out any cards to that effect, but Frank's face was an engagement card in itself, that he who ran might read. Such a triumph in his eye, and the corners of his mouth turn- ed up so pleasantly, as if a laugh was playing bo-peep in the thickets of his moustache ! And then his walk ! It was just splendid to see him swing back the front gate, go marching off, his head up, his shoulders back, and a martial music in the very ring of his boots upon the sidewalk ! Give me a Prohibition lover, girls, — there's nothing like one for strength, courage, manli- ness, and honor ! Give me a Prohibition lover, who'll not pledge my name in a glass of wine, and get tipsy while he's singing my praises ! Give me a Prohibition lover, for, girls, I believe, with Uncle Tim, that "a feller too weak to support a principle's too weak to support a wife" ! We had a brief, blessed, care-free engagement, and then a quiet wedding. Aunt Kate sent us her bene- diction by mail, and urged us to visit her on our wed- ding tour. For we had a wedding tour ! Some people don't believe in them, but / do, especially for people of moderate means. Many a time, when I've been making flannel petticoats for the twins, or sewing the evanescent buttons on Julius's jacket, with no pros- pect of ever getting anywhere again, I've congratulat 176 WAKP AND WOOF. ed myself that neither twins nor tribulations could ever take away the memory of that one good trip. Some people say, too, that you can't tell anything of a man's character during his honeymoon. That's anoth. er bubble I might as well puncture here as anywhere. I never accompanied but one gentleman on a wedding trip, it is true, but Frank began as he held out. He didn't repeat poetry about ' 'two souls as one, " but he looked out for my rubbers and waterproof. Our ideas harmon- ized so beautifully, too. One benevolent old gentleman on the train watched us suspiciously, till Frank, arranging one arm com- fortably over the back of my seat, raised the other argumentatively, as he observed : ' 'Take, for example, the resumption of specie payment." Then the old gentleman nodded his head in a satisfied way. He knew that no newly-wedded pair woiild talk on such a subject as that ! Over our dinners we discussed the woman plank in the Prohibition platform, and relieved our minds on High License while waiting at stations. To the palatial old Hathaway homestead we went. Hospitable as of old, but the shadows had deepened in the loss, by dissolute habits, of bright Ned, and the wreck of Will Doxstater, Sophy's husband. She, a physical wreck, was home with her only child, Adell. Of Dr. George, nothing had been heard for years. Aunt Maria was bowed with grief, but patient and lovely still. "Mother has religion, " explained Uncle Ezra. "I believe in it, but it doesn't pay as well as my brewery, and I hire a substitute to do my re- ligion for me." (How much good his home mission- ary "substitute" did for him we shall see later.) Un- ON WITH THE NEW. \f7 cle's brewery stood by the beautiful Rushaway, on the site of the old grist-mill, which, in spite of my great grandmother's protest, had been displaced by a distil- lery. Now, if her spirit haunted the old place it was no better pleased with the great brewery thereupon, though it was a "profitable business," as Uncle said. In amiable mood he unlocked for us all its hidden se- crets, from malting attic to deep vaulting store-rooms. Among the surprises was the fact that few hops are used, and in the stock-room were also many packages of rice. "It makes villainous beer, but then it's cheap !" said Uncle. "These seeds in foreign brand," Frank remarked, "look like the fish-berry I sometimes throw out on the water to intoxicate the fish." "Just what it is,'' said Uncle Ezra, "and a very strong narcotic — a Httle dangerous, 'tis true, and the doctor has forbidden me touching it. But it saves our stock, and makes that light, cheap stuff they sell in 'schooners'." I peered into an open drawer. "And this looks like the family dyes ; and this^why, Uncle, its arsenic, or strichnine ! For the rats ? That little brute raked out of the perfumejd wort-vat was a poisoned-looking spec- imen 1" Yet, in the barreling-room, I tasted, and made a very wry face. "You will hke it when you once get used to it!'' encouraged Uncle, laughing at me. Glad we were to get out into the pure sunlight again, but looking at the loads of grain pouring in through the high arched gateway and the loads of beer pouring (12) 1/8 WARP AND WOOF. out, and thinking, in vivid contrast, of the little grist- mill's sweet mission of comfort to the valley's first inhabitants, I exclaimed sadly: "As oi" yore, but a thousand times more, comes the golden grain ; but not of yore, but ten thousand times more, and worse than nothing for humanity's good, goes this bitter foam ! Far 'better to have spread it as a banquet for the birds' !" "Oh, the wastes of alcohol " said Frank. Passing some mulching tramps in Aunt Maria's kitchen door- way, he reasoned. "No wonder my people cry for lack of bread, when the richest lands of the richest country are given over to poisoning instead oi feeding its inhab- itants !" "Uncle Ezra was now, to my surprise, a Repuhli- can, and explained: "I told your Aunt Kate Hath- away in '65 that we beer-brewers would buy you all up yet, and have Horace Greeley thrown in ! Well, so it was. You see the liquor men were mostly Dem- ocrats, and, at the meeting of the Beer Brewers' Con- gress in '72, our chairman said : 'They have placed at the head of their ticket a man whose antecedents will warrant him a pliant tool in. the hands of the temper- ance party, and none of you gentlemen can support him.' Very few of us did ! But we didn't give away to the Republicans. We had 2, price — it was the Raster Resolution ! They accepted it, and we gave Grant that overwhelming majority that killed Horace Greeley." About that much disputed resolution which "disap- proves of the resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing evils by interference with the rights not surrendered by the people to the State or National Government," Mr. Raster shall explain: ON WITH THE NEW. I79 Chicago, Illinois, July lo, 1872. J. M. Miller. Dear Sir : — In reply to yours of July 8th, I have this to say, that I have written the sixteenth resolution of the Philadelphia platform, and that it was adopted by the platform committee with the full and ex- plicit understanding that its purpose was the discounte- nancing of all so-called temperance(prohibitory)and Sunday laws. This purpose was meant to be expressed by refer- ence to those rights of the people which had not been del- egated to either national or state governments ; it being assumed that the right to drink what one pleases (being responsible for the acts committed while under the in- fluence of strong drink) and the right to look upon the day on which christians have their prayer-meetings as any other day, were among the rights not delegated by the peo- ple, but reserved to themselves. Whether this explanation of the meaning of the resolution will satisfy you or not I do not know. But you want to serve the cause of truth, so do I ; and what I have stated here in regard to the ' 'true meaning and intent" of the sixteenth resolution of the Philadelphia platform is the truth. Very Respectfully Yours, Herman Raster. "To be sure," Uncle Ezra continued, "the Demo- crats afterwards made up for their pious Greeley streak by declaring in their platform for 'liberty of individual conduct, unvexed by sumptuary laws, ' which means about the same, and many of them went back to their old party ; but 'there are vastly more liquor dealers in the Republican ranks to-day than people generally sup- pose. ' Our township here runs on and off, hit and miss, whichever side uses the most money ! Tom Benson here, a Republican, is supervisor though, every time, — that's our principal office. He has plenty of money, and drinks, too, for he keeps a saloon with a free bar on election days ! It's a disgrace ; but we hold our elections there, and respectable gentlemen like Domi- nie Benton and I have to elbow through a drunken l8o WARP AND WOOF. crowd to vote for him ! But, then, brewers and hop- growers ought not to complain of such sneaks, or the Republican party, either ! 'It is more worthy of the confidence and support of liquor men than the Demo- cratic. Our interests are better protected under Re- publican administration than under Democratic' " Uncle paused a moment, and Frank asked a ques- tion that opened the door of a broader political arena. "In unity is strength, and we favor boycotting, and only patronize such business men as will work hand in hand with us. But don't we give out a lot of money, though? Why, it may take ^100,000 in Albany this winter to manage that excise law ! When everything else fails we hire the doctors to swear enough 'sick-a- bed r I believe the poor fools sometimes believe it themselves." Uncle's hearty "ha 1 ha!" was contagious. "And you never get exposed?" asked Frank. "Never; and we've used millions. You see, much is done through the saloons. They have more power than all your churches and colleges put together ! We are afraid, though, of you Prohibition fellows and the women' s prayers — like your Aunt Maria's ! You seem so DEAD IN EARNEST," Uncle Went on. "The world would sink, I suppose, if 'twasn't for such. I'm sure I should," and he gave sweet Aunt a look of love and gratitude. "How do you people stand on High License?" queried Frank. ' 'We are unanimous for it. Don't you see, it makes us respectable ! and it is for our interest, too. Why not ? Doesn't the whisky lobby at Washington fight to preserve the $66, 000, 000 per year federal tax on our ON WITH THE NEW. l8l manufacture ? And, sir, the government has been very- good indeed to us ! It offered to print and mail free for us the report of our Brewers' Convention ! They have never done that for any other body. We have a good showing at the capital." "Too good a showing altogether !" interluded brave Frank. "The Speaker on one occasion issued an order closing up the grog-shops in Washington, giving as his reason : .'This Congress shall adjourn sober. ' The Sen- ate had been compelled to adjourn more than once be- cause the drunkenness of some of the members block- ed public business." "Ha ! ha!" again laughed Uncle Ezra; and I was very proud of Frank in the discussion that followed. This was Uncle Ezra's conclusion : "Though society feels above us, fraternities discard, and churches only care for our money, yet, through two great political parties, we rule this country ! You Prohibitionists will have to kick against the pricks ? How do you expect to get along as a lawyer without whisky practice?" he asked, in gay bandinage. However, at parting, he said: "Young man, I ad- mire your principles and pluck ! Go ahead, and God bless you ! I'd be a Prohibitionist myself if I could afford it ; for God knows I've seen enough of the evil of this liquor business. " His voice choked. Poor, dear. Uncle Ezra, with his splendid make-up — how my heart has gone out after him ever since that tearful good-bye ! Uncle Ezra's family trouble was no exception in the royal homes of old distilling, hop-growing Plymouth. Many scions of their pride and victims of its cifrse had been borne away with funereal pomp to "the village on 1 82 WARP AND WOOF. the hill." From these saddened homes my mind wan- dered to those of a New York tenement house, where, seeingihe pitchers of beer going in, I had inquired the price. I must have looked very grave and abstract for a bride, as I grappled with the great question of Saxe : "Where goes the money?" And Frank asked: "What are you puzzling your head over?" ' 'Abominable mathematics, a.nd need your help, Frank !" Abominable mathematics it is," said he, when we had reached these moneyed results and more startling moral ones. For the barrel of beer Uncle sells at J?8.oo,have been spoiled 2 bushels or more of grain, fragrant hops, et cetera, all costing, perhaps, 1^3.00. The consumer pays for this, by the glass or quart, from ^20.00 to ;^30.oo. Profitable business, indeed, to wholesaler and retailer ! In return, the buyer gets out of his barrel as much nourishment as he could from a penny roll ! tak. ing meanwhile 5 gallons, or sufficient alcohol, if taken pure, to kill one hundred men. Think of giving ;?5oo. 00 or more for the 26 barrels, containing a ten-penny loaf! What an effort to be nourished ! No, lady or gentle- man tippler, acknowledge it is this killing alcohol you like, and the exhilarating effect produced by Nature's effort to expel the poison she abhors ! The brewery business seemed to us to have scarce the excuse of an industry, for very few men were employed for the cap- ital invested. "No wonder money is tight," said Frank, "when the consumer pays ten times the cost of manufacture, and the Saturday night's wages paid out for honest in- dustry — through this inflated, dishonest one — are in ON WITH THE NEW. 1 83 the saloonist's credit shut up in banks and safe vaults on Monday morning ! There goes the money !" Profitable business, is it, poHtical economist ? Is it humane to provide gold and royal robes and board for one family — to the fleecing and starving of the many ? "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread ?" thought I, as we stopped for refreshment, and the lunchers thronged the bar. We visited about here and there, and at last brought up at Aunt Kate's. She was graver and stiller, but as pretty as ever. The property, she told us, was slip- ping away in unfortunate hop-speculation. Roger, the remaining son — tall and fair — was a comfort and hon- or to them all. Bertha, the beautiful daughter — tall and dark — who sipped the wine at my other visit, sip. ped no longer, but drank — drank at the fashionable evening parties, to which she constantly went, and came home heavy-eyed and fretful. The little ones were as charming as in their babyhood. Their father loved them with a maudlin tenderness, while toward Aunt Kate, I fancied, he always felt something like anger. Now, in his degradation, he seemed to have a dislike for the wife who had borne so much. Her pres- ence was a constant rebuke, which he resented in his drunken fashion. I think such is often the case, and he had never forgiven her for crusading. Frank and I felt these things keenly for Aunt Kate, but the end was nearer than we thought. She and Roger went with us one evening to hear Kellogg. Bertha was — well, nobody knew just where. She would probably come home late, her cheeks flush- ed with something besides the excitement of dancing ; yet all this was in the best society, so-called. The 184 WARP AND WOOF. children were in the nursery, where Aunt Kate also spent most of her time. But we coaxed her out this evening, and when we returned the house was in dis- tress, for the master was in deliriums. Three strong meii were required to hold him down in his terrible paroxysms. Frank alternated with Roger as the third. Aunt Kate watched faithfully with him. I sat down stairs, hoping, fearing, praying, as the hours passed by. Tramp, tramp, tramp, over my head went the heavy footsteps ; tramp, tramp, then, maybe, a yell so fright- ful that the poor servant girls stopped their ears. On the third day he seemed better, and sat once more in his right mind — conversing pleasantly. Then he called for Beth — always her father's favorite — and, when she ran up to him, lifted her to his knee and kissed her fondly. One of her long curls brushed across his cheek. With an execration he thrust her from him, and she fell, bruised and crying to the floor. Shrieking, howling, cursing, he tore across the room ; away, away, anywhere — away from the twisting, writh- ing, slimy snake his fevered imagination had fashion- ed out out of the soft, shining tress of hair. Away, away, out of the world — out of the sight of Beth's innocent face, and Aunt Kate's pitiful eyes — raving, foaming, gnashing, he fell into a drunken fit, from which he was taken up dead ! Dead — yes, dead. Red, bloated, sensual face, white and still at last ; purple lips, bitten through by gnashing teeth, silent at length ; hands, trembling with the drunkard's premature age, folded in a long composure. Aunt Kate stood, with Frank and me beside his bier, and looked at him long and sorrowfully, with a world of compassion in her ON WITH THE NEW. 1 8$ gaze, then, bending over him, kissed him pitifully, lov- ingly, forgivingly, and left the room. Too many, and horrid, death-beds in my story? Blame the drink curse — not me. Do you tire of death scenes ? You never tire of love stories, if only there's variety in them. You can't complain that my death- beds are alike. Some of these friends passed away so sweetly, so hopefully, that the pen lingers lovingly over their last words, and would fain illuminate the pages that describe their going home. Rex and his father died, and Draco's "Ink of Blood" might well lend a lurid glow to the gloomy record. Yet tell me, who will, that I have exaggerated by a hair's breadth. On the examination of books and the reading of the will it was found that of all the fine estates but little remained. Roger and Bertha had something, enough to support them by dint of Roger's profession. A few thousands were left to" the little ones, sufficient for their maintenance and education; to Aunt Kate, nothing! This most inhuman will was dated 1874, and gave as the reason "that his wife, Katharine, had, contrary to his express commands, joined the crusaders." He had turned his real estate into bonds, and thus made it legal. "You see, Kate," said Prof. Adolphus, "that you gained his displeasure by your folly. However, I will not reproach you, as I dare say you bitterly regret it. " "Never !" exclaimed she, rising to her feet. "Nev- er ! Better a thousand fortunes gone than to shirk my duty ! I am glad that with 'empty arms and treasure lo.st' my soul is white from such dishonor !" But the empty arms hurt all the same, and the moth- er's heart was rent with anguish as she looked at her 1 86 ^ WARP AND WOOF. darlings ; for, that his drunken resentment might fol- low her the rest of her days, the children, too, had been willed away — actually and totally willed to Prof. Adolphus Van Dressen ; assigning as a reason for this strange bequest that he did not wish them brought up with fanatical ideas ! At this clause Aunt Kate had turned questioningly to Frank, and he, with big tears of indignation in his honest eyes, admitted that, save in three States of the Union, a man had legal right to will his children away from their own mother ! Professor Adolphus, wiping some mists from his small, blue eyes and spectacles, then spoke : ' 'Kate, I am not a marrying man, but that is no rea- son I shouldn't have a home. I have knocked around at hotels long enough, and I would like to establish my- self somewhere — in some town where there is a decent elevation for a telescope. Take the three children and come East and keep house for me. If the children are mine to train up, you must help me." Here, Frank and I put in a plea for Granite. Gran- ite was conveniently near to Prof. A 's college, the scenery was delightful, the society congenial. There couldn't be a more suitable place for an astronomer, for it sat on as many hills as ancient Rome. It was healthful, it was handy, it was everything; so they promised to consider it, jvhile they stopped in the col- lege town for the winter. Roger went west, hoping, poor fellow, to make a happy home for Bertha and himself. Frank helped Aunt Kate in the disposal of the plate and other val- uables, and we finished up our wedding tour by escort- ing them East, to the pretty flat the Professor had tak- en. ON WITH THE NEW. 1 87 I had scarcely again started housekeeping, this time with Frank, before there came a summons from Aunt Kate to attend with her a "Woman's Congress in New York. " I gladly obeyed. What a delight it was to see and hear those women whom Mrs. Fairchild had taught me to love years before ! They had verily suf- fered for the cause of Woman Suffrage. How we drank in their words as our eyes feasted on their noble faces ! One was so peaceful and saintly in its Quaker cap with "Truth forauthority and not authority for truth !" An- other — something hke Aunt Kate's — a rare blending of baby sweetness, woman's delicacy, and manhood's strength. One woman, though a happy wife, retained her maiden name. The word ' 'relict" will never be carv- ed on her tombstone ! Those dear homespun sisters interested me, too. They had protected their Daiseys and Brindles from unjust taxation — something as Aunt Kate and I had ours from unjust creditors. Among them, there was a handsome doctor, modest in manner, distinguished in reputation ; also a grand professor, looking with telescopic eyes into a hopeful future. How wise was one in statesmanship 1 How beautiful another, with her Titian face! How brilliant and kind was another's petition to the legislature ! 'Twas a sweet voice that gave the report and rhymes, and the queen of all the host was one so tall, angular, true and womanly ! Aunt Kate enjoyed this sweet, pure scene wonder- fully, for, from her new home in the neighboring city, she had heard nothing, she declared, "but Dutch, and seen nothing but beer !" Selling and drinking beer did seem to be their principal business ! She was dis- turbed night and day by drunken rows, and the heavy. ISO WARP AND WOOF. rolling, grinding beer- wagons. There were few chuch- es — few members. Sabbath with its open stores, sa- loons, beer-gardens, and crowds of children playing in its streets. Crowds always passing to the revelry and deviltry in the parks beyond. "If that's the continental Sabbath they are trying to import to our shores," she exclaimed, vehemently, "I say bury it on its way hither in the wild waves of a nation's wrath!" CHAPTER XVIII. AT THE WIRES. {Stretching the threads.) " Sovereign people, will ye kneel, Put your necks beneath the heel Of the Oligarch, and wait. While he moves with tread of fate? O, how patient! O, how meek! Sovereign people, are ye weak? " — Rev, Dwight Williams, iUNT Kate had ever lovingly remembered fDr. George Hathaway, the cousin who had bound up her childhood's wounds, and once fished her out of the duck-pond. She now returned that kindness, many times over, by fishing him out of deeper waters — for he had fallen from the very pinnacle of his profession into the depths of New York saloon vice. Her heart bled, too, over her own Godforsaken city, and once she remarked : "'The lever to move the world, ' 'tis said, 'is in woman's hands;' but I can see no lever, or oppor- tunity to grip or move anything here." She was glad enough, in the spring, when a new factory went up, and smoked Professor Adolphus out, for he couldn't see a single star through that black- ness. Aunt Kate told him she "was smoked out, too, and drowned out — she couldn't see a single star of hope through the blackness ! " But my ! he was 189 igO WARP AND WOOF. too oblivious of moral smokes to understand her ; or why she was so glad to move to desolate Granite. Sitting in sackcloth beside her beautiful Hurry-up — for the want of fire or smoke — her great factory fires had gone out, with no prospect of rekindling. ' ' But, " thought Professor Van Dressen, ' ' was ever prospect better of seeing world and stars than from the top of Granite hill?" They located temporarily, while the Professor was building a Queen Ann cottage on the very summit. In the meantime, beginning my housekeeping under mother's gentle supervision, I did not perpe- trate quite so many blunders as most young wives ; consequently Frank formed certain exalted opinions which have sustained him during these years of mar- ried life. Though Baby Clara was sick most of the first summer, and we were distressed and distracted, we didn't nourish her with brandy or soothing syrup ! We were fond and foolish, but we were consistent. We were scarcely used to Clara when Julius stepped upon the platform I The twins followed more leisurely; but upon Frank's manly brow had appear- ed a silver thread among the red, even at this era of my story, and Julius was then the baby. Aunt Kate's pohtical loves had been as ardent as her personal ones, She had given her whole political heart from its very first to the Republican party; but* political love is as blind as personal love, and she earnestly believed that everything would go to ruin if the Democrats came into power. I mention this in palliation of her peculiar electioneering methods. She would have gone to the polls that election day under the hottest fires, — the shot and shell of woman's AT THE WIRES. IQI sarcasm — if thereby she could have helped the Re- publican cause, lying right on her heart. She, how- ever, wisely decided, like the Jews, to work on her own home-wall. Very suave and courteous was she, though I admit that Professor Van Dressen was hur- ried ofif to the polls without prayers. But then nobody in that house thought of asking the Lord's direction in the election, and it made no difference with its re- sult, I am sure. Next, the grocer was politely " in- terviewed," before she gave him the usual orders. This led to a report before night that Mrs. Van Dressen would hereafter buy no goods, would not eat a potato, even, that wasn't raised on right sound Republican loam! The butcher, on his round, was met with meaty arguments that strengthened his chicken-heartedness. The minister, passing in his walk of pleasure, was forcibly reminded of stem duty at the polls. When he contended that beyond voting the straight Republican ticket, ministers should keep out of politics, it was undignified, unprofessional, she dissented most decidedly. She certainly had a great interest (possibly it was personal.) In building that home, while the Professor had come down from starry orbits to homely walks and drives, she had ascended from domestic to mechanical science, and become its architect. Reading the Tn'^aw^ all summer she verily thought the pretty Queen Anne wouldn't be worth the rocks it stood upon, if the Democrats came into power. This morning, when Aunt Kate climbed the hill-* side, I don't think she saw the magnificent off-crop, and the workmen might have botched with impunity, if they would but help her protect this cottage from 193 WARP AND WOOF. Democratic usurpation! Stopping at the garden plot, she found the stone-masons breaking a huge granite boulder into oblong blocks for stepping- stones. As they helped me to the buggy behind Major, to day, I was reminded of the solid. Christian, granite stepping-stones, like grandfather's, I shall need bye and bye, to mount me to my heavenly chariot! But very sure am I, that on that November day, 1880, Aunt Kate moralized not over chariots or stepping-stones, unless she reflected that her political rock was granite, for she was glad to find the master- mason thereupon. His assistant, to Aunt Kate's disgust, was off; in feet, positively refused to -vote. Suavity, argument and entreaty were of no avail. To see a man — a colored man — for whose citizen's rights the great treasure had been given and the best blood shed, thus obstinate, was too much for a dis- franchised " woman, pauper, or idiot " to endure pa- tiently, and what could be expected of patriotic Aunt Kate? She fixed her eyes, firmly, on Sher- man's whites, and gave him — I must call it a boycot. "You are indebted to this Republican party for all you are! You are indebted to your good, hard- working Martha for a home ! For her sake, I in- duced the Professor to employ you here, and thus you are indebted to me for months of steady work and good pay. If you do not to-day deposit a Re- publican ballot for yourself, Martha or me, to aid and help us protect our homes, I cannot conscientiously favor you longer I '' He went home in high dudgeon, but Martha gave him no sympathy, in his abuse of her ex-mistress, and he voted. AT THE WIRES. I93 The sun was rising high as she hastened on to the unfinished house and cheerfully querried up the lad- ■ der? "All right," came heartily down, "but here's a man to go for, Mrs. Van Dressen! " That strong Irishman stopped on the last round with a hod of mortar on his back and answered her plea with : " By St. Mary, it's meself going to vote for the man as'U pay me the most ! " Aunt Kate talked "home pro- tection," "capital and labor," and sent Tribune shot and shell up those sounds; but still the broguey re- frain, "It's the pay I'm after, sure it's that'll be de- ciding me," This was a severe shock to Aunt Kate's loyal heart. From this Vesuvius came many a memory stone of incident and fact that in blind zeal and contest she had not noticed. The bare thought, that the great "moral idea" had demoral- ized ! " Has my party sunk so low that a burly voter is watching for its bid, in money or whisky?" Her country's horizon was suddenly darkened by the reve- lation that the liberties for which our forefathers had fought, and our brothers had died, could all be bar- tered at the bar! Which party gave our sturdy Irish- man the" most we shall never know, for that night, during the huzzahs of rejoicing, he went reeling into his humble hillside home. In blind frenzy he lost his moorings, fell down the cellar stairs, and his poor soul went reehng on into eternity! Who are re- sponsible for such lost souls? Aunt Kate rejoiced that a man above men, above his party — pure, knightly Christian — was to take the helm as pilot, but she began to realize, and candidly acknowledged to Frank, that the power behind the throne was captain 13 194 WARP AND WOOF. of this ship of states! I remember later, when Presi- 'dent Garfield was carried so lovingly to his burial, accounts reached us of disgraceful scenes on the funeral train and a huge liquor bill. Pat's unfortunate fall scarcely made a ripple in Granite. We are quite used to that sort of a thing here. 'Tw3s one of the events of the dead past when I called over on the hillside the following Saturday. The returns were livelier and Professor Adolphus was •the first to glorify and jollify over them. "People that do the least generally are," I observed. "It's a mighty party, Mrs. Brooks," said he, so big like, that I hatefully quoted : " How are the mighty fallen? " "And with what bottle did it die?" murmured Aunt Kate. Professor A. seemed amazed at such audacity, as I replied: " Whisky bottles, Aunt Kate, beer bottles, and the doctor's bottles! " ' ' Slavery is dead, thank the Republican party for that!" said the Professor, sublimely rallying. "Butwhy, Adolphus," asked Aunt Kate, "spend energies and fourth of July orations over past great- ness, when the present is so full of danger from an- other oligarchy? Shall I give it longer my work, my faith, my prayer? " said she, reflectively: "I don't think, Kate, we'll lose much if you don't," said Professor A. "You can't vote — I wish women could, though — and as for faith and prayer, they don't mix well with politics." "Not your kind," I muttered. "No, Adolphus," with much seriousness, " I never expect to vote; (she does now) my influ- AT THE WIRES. I95 ence isn't much, but I see by Sherman it's some- thing, and it's important that the little should be good; for God will hold me responsible if you do not. If I give it to a party that ignores temperance, isn't it saying to Pat and Fritz, ' I don't care what becomes of you or your abused wives and babies? " ' " O ! well, Kate, we are not commanded to care for everybody." ' ' Cain was not commanded to care for Abel, yet God said: 'The voice of thy brother's blood cryeth;' and I'd be Cainish if I didn't care if my mistake caused the death groan of another. " "Well, Kate" — and Prof. Adolphus looked joyous — ' ' it is confidentially reported that our party is going in for high license ! That'll please you both." Walk- ing beside my brave Frank, I had outmarched my aunt and replied : ' ' It's the old story. Professor, of the spider and the fly, and it's the sweetest boys in the land that feed this high class saloon spider!" Aunt Kate smiled approval and the darkening Professor growled: '' You women know nothing about it, and I don't suppose would be satisfied with local option, even!" "Why should we, if there is something better? Blame women for wanting the best!" "No! brother Adolphus, Ida is right, and what- ever you say about it's not mixing well with religion, it's serious business for me. As a Christian woman, the foundation of my life-work should be on the Rock of Ages; as a patriotic woman its frame-work should be the Declaration of Independence — protection in 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;' and 196 WAKP AND WOOF. as a temperance woman, its strongest plank from my own old Washingtonian tree." (How the little graft has grown !) ' ' Adolphus, is the Republican now such a party?" He was silent, and I sputtered: "Frank would say it was a long shot from that mark !" "Then Ida, dear, what shall \ do?" "Do, Aunt Kate, why divorce this old lord of yours and marry again before he has the tremens and .leaves you a political widow!" Adolphus answered: "No, I wouldn't Kate, he's only a little gay, he'll reform. That high license rumor may be a mistake," " Well Adolphus " — she was very grave — "I have loved it long and well. I will hope." (All wives do that.) " I will wait — how long must I wait?'' ' ' The slave war took four years ; this is more difficult — we better give in seven. Will be quite a revolu- tion, I think." "Politics is solemn, and now, Ida, I propose to understand it better myself before I instruct others in it." "I really think you'd better, Aunt Kate, you've been fairly crazy over this Garfield election, and as to watching that old lover — nonsense ! You'd better watch something else." " What else?" she asked. I borrowed Frank's metaphor and replied: "That little cloud, no- larger than a man's hand, looming up in the political horizon. It has good signs of promise. " "A reign of righteousness, Ida?" " Yes, Aunt Kate, and its bow of hope I believe to be the glad coming of the Prince of Peace, whose AT THE WIRES. 197 arrival you have been long waiting ! Why, we are a kind of John the Baptist! Anyway, I'd study some- thing besides the New York Tribune. " " Then, Adolphus" — and she looked quite inspired and spoke decidedly — "bring me, please, a variety of reading, and I will study this subject, through books, papers, eyes, ears, reasons and instinct, and seize upon truth where'er 'tis found — on Christian or on heathen gronnA." ' "Precious little you'll find Among . heathen Demo- crats," said Professor Adolphus, going off to his heavenly orbits. Being left to the earthy problem of what could be done for Granite, we reviewed its past, marveled much at the forbearance of the women here that had not crusaded its liquors into Hurryup's waters ! Re- viewed together the episode of Amanda, a servant- girl, who gave her Will tit-for-tat, and hit every time. " He soon learned to behave himself when drunk, and lie down like a dog," she said. We also recalled how Joe's gymnastics made life with Rachel quite too exciting. We laughed over her buying him a powder-horn to keep him sober, when he was danger- ous and noisy enough without powder or horn! Aunt Kate spoke in tender sympathy of Margaret's wifely pride and motherly care ; how she silently took the two-mile home walk morning and evening — to protect her babes — while in her kitchen she earned their food; and of poor Eliza, whose lover of ten years had become a drunkard, and threatened her death if she did not marry him. "No, Ida, our sphere must not be confined to the sweet domesticities," and she glanced outside at ig8 WARP AND WOOF. patient Frank with his sleeping baby, "while rum is making all these domesticities impossible to a sister." ' ' I wish all the domesticities were sweet. My whole house is a pickle-jar in ferment, with this de- testable house-cleaning! " She didn't hear^ — search- ing as usual for that lever; for, like Archimedes, she would move a world! "And," she said, " if we have a willing mind, Ida, God will show us the way." Her mind, however, was soon absorbed in the ' house with seven gables. ' They moved in, and under her exquisite management, every room became a poem, from the nursery, mother goose, to the blank verse of the attic. Blank enough of everything (for ours held all the heirlooms) except in the corner, where Professor Adolphus had rigged up his observ- atory. Blank enough was he, when by some wrong adjustment he mistook Mike Flannagin's pipe for a metoric shov/er, and telegraphed the important infor- mation to headquarters! To tell the truth, the Professor sees nothing but stars ! From my own experience on the ice, I think he must have had a never-got-over bump some time in his boyhood, for as far as go the real live issues of life, he's been in a dazed condition every since I've known him. He is, as you see, a Republican, rooted and grounded in the faith, whenever you can get his eyes away from the telescope. Aunt Kate and he get along beautifully, and she is the nicest of housekeepers — not the nicest, but the wisest. We both now had pleasant homes, and thought earnestly of those that were not so pleasant. " We will organize a Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union," said Aunt Kate. AT THE WIRES. I99 "That's just it," "But decently and in order, Ida, to a Covention we will go, learn how, and secure an organizer." And, we went, leaving home cares behind. Cousin Carrie joined us, and we all had a grand, good time. Why, those women seemed to have forty or more levers and good grips on them. We decided the world would move — in time ! But why did I leave Aunt- Kate, one evening, and go with Carrie to Asbury Park to hear Mr. Gough? Why? Oh, because of the " consarned contrariness of human nature," I sup- pose. I'm glad I heard that most wonderful and in- imitable of temperance speakers, but even the mem- ory of his matchless oratory did not haunt me as did the chairman's eyes. It was ridiculous that a mar- ried woman and the mother of a family, should think and dream of a man's eyes ! I had seen them before, somewhere. I was sure of it, and so I told Carrie. Large, black and piercing, yet anon, gentle and ten- der, they suited well his face, which was one of the handsomest I have ever seen. I never did run wild over handsome men, but his was a beauty, noble and grand, yet almost womanly in sweetness. It was irreverent, maybe, but looking at him, I thought of Christ healing in Galilee, so gentle and pitiful was his expression, at times. We were perhaps more worldly than heavenly minded in selecting an organizer. Aunt Kate looked for beauty and talent; and I, for style and poetry. Mrs. K — fortunately had both, and a noble Chris- tian spirit." But at every attempt to speak to her a wild-eyed man loomed up between us after her auto- graph. So that evening, as we sat on the veranda of 200 WARP AND WOOF. the ' Linwood' drinking in the sea air, I suddenly exclaimed : " There she is now! Mustn't let your aesthetic ideas run away with your duty, Aunt Kate. I'm going to speak to her!" " How much do you ask?" was my first question. ''Ask for what?" s\\z exclaimed in some surprise. "Ask to speak in Granite, where there isn't a bit of interest in anything, and everybody's purse is empty." " Ten dollars and expenses," was her concise reply. "Well," said I, " it will be hard on us, but if Aunt Kate will work up the enthusiasm, I will try and collect the money." So I walked from one end of Granite to the other, with Clara and Julius pulling at my skirts, button- holing the ministers, editors, and everybody else, and secured the money. Aunt Kate meanwhile enthused the community! She planned well, too, how to get the money's worth for which I had worked so hard, by arranging for ten lectures in the three days of Mrs. K' — s stay, thus reduced to $\ a lecture! They were splendid; and thus with Mrs, Van Dressen as President, the Granite Union, with its young ladies and juvenile attachments, first flaunted their white ribbon banner. A reform club followed, ■so good an example, and somehow the saloons and bars in town were dosed. Even this didn't satisfy unreasonable Aunt Kate. There were squatters on our borders, and she didn't like Stephen A. Doug- las' belief in Squatter Sovereignty! Indeed, she in- sisted that every saloon in the land should be closed; and really believed that what had been done in one place might with equal grit, grace and gumption be accomplished in another! CHAPTER XIX. WESTWARD ho! {Gathering everywhere and a little Indian red.) "It is in words to paint you? O ye fallen! Fallen from the wings of reason and hope! Boasters of liberty fast bound in chains! Lords of the wide creation and the shame! ' M UNT KATE'S step-children, as well as her '■ own, have sought in many little ways to undo their father's wrong. When Roger in his successful career became a high official on a long line of Western Railroad, his first act was to send her as a New- Year card, a pass, accompanied by a check, and an earnest invitation to visit him and the regions beyond. He felt no little pride in this, for it was his daring feats of engineering skill over mountain-pass and through wild gorge, that had opened up those same "regions beyond." They were the wonder of his profession, at home and abroad, and must be seen to be fully appreciated. We all entered heartily into Roger's plan. I insisted on taking Beth, to keep Julius out of mischief, little realizing the capacity for mischief-making in a girl, J << Where the brook and river meet." Cousin Carrie — who has scarcely been mentioned since her pretty black-eyed babyhood — developed into lovely womanhood, and married Prof. Lester, 201 203 WARP AND WOOF. the assistant of Prof. Van Dressen. Though only recently married, with notable self-sacrifice Carrie insisted that Roy would even brighten a honey moon and took him with her to Uncle Fred's. Prof. Adolphus really needed Earnest to tote his fish and kill the mosquitoes among the Adirondacks. Aunt Kate is a wise mother, and a Christian. Be- lieving the Lord could care for her darlings, without her help, she left all her cares and worries behind and gave herself to rest and enjoyment. Her long letters were just delightful, but I shall give only ex- tracts that touch the political or temperance horizon. I am scarce giving you anywhere but one color and hue of a brilliant rainbow-hued character. She had, as we know, been studying the situation hereabouts. Prof. Adolphus, always really kind to his sister-in- law, was fearful of fanaticism and threatened to stop all the dailies. Said he: "You cannot read a paper, Kate, but you are sure to find a whisky murder to cry and rave over. It's Democratic New York; things are dif- ferent in the Republican West." ' ' I hope so, Adolphus, and will report to you and Ida what I find !" ' ' Hail to Republican Ohio ! I've reached its Queen City!" was her first epistolary greeting. "How beautiful she looked, this morning, in her royal robes of summer loveliness, enthroned on the hillsides by Erie's placid waters! The Hatheway cousins met us, and in that short stop we drove through the city. ' The finest avenue in the world, ' is enchanted Euclid. On a hillside they were piling white granite blocks into a college for her sons. ' Daughters, too ? ' — ' ' Per- WESTWARD HO ! 203 haps." (The sequel answered '««;/ /') I did not stop to advocate co-education, for we were bound for Lake View. And what a ' view ' — before, beyond, around — as we rode through this loveliest of gardens! No mound suggested death and the grave. It was like my dream of Heaven, as a world of beautiful statuary. The angels of Faith, Hope, Charity, Innocence, Love, and Resurrection, all dwell here ; some with crosses — some with crowns. ' ' Looking at these, and through the iron gate at the coffin of our great chief, I thought: If these represent their dead, what must their Itmn£ be ? I concluded, Ida, that as Prof. Adolphus says: 'It's different West,' and Cleveland, Ohio, was the fair Elysium! 'No drink-curse in your city, is there?' I remarked. 'O! my dear,' said cousin Melinda, ' Many of these beautiful marbles are over drunk- ards' graves! ' " At St. Louis she wrote of its fairy garden, its level)' parks, and elegant, cousinly homes. "But our fine Beauchamp host," she added, "was busy attempting to express his righteous indignation, ex- ceeding^}/ mild, as he wished his article published in a daily paper. "Kansas City," she said in a postal, "is beautiful for situation, but the temperance situation is not altogether beautiful." From Roger's home was a long letter, telling of a lovely city, so clean and pure, of a handsome house, and finer than all, of Roger's manly character. " His elegant board is not disfigured as was his father's. He is master in this, tholigh under Bertha's protest. He is anxious, how- ever, for his sister that cannot forget her old days, and old pleasures, and is usually out evenings at party 204 WARP AND WOOF. or entertainment, and somehow, in high circles they are yet tempted, even here." One evening Aunt Kate sat with Roger by the open window, awaiting Bertha's return. 'Twas easy to see that the poor fellow's heart was heavy, and she longed to comfort him, as now and then a deep-drawn sigh testified to his anxiety. An hour dragged away ere the carriage paused before the house, and Bertha was, with some difficulty, assisted to alight. The driver explained that the young lady was sick when she left the ball-room. The tall gentleman who as- sisted him added, that he had noticed her illness as she entered the carriage, and came home with her thinking she might need aid. So spoke the firm, yet tender lips, but the mournful, pitying glance told another story. Roger thanked him brokenly. Aunt Kate had hastened down the steps and taken Bertha's arm to lead her in. Her murmured words to Roger arrested the stranger, and he uttered a low cry of rec- ognition. Did the aching arms unfold for an instant, or was it fancy? They stood face to face — love — life — loss — all were expressed in that brief moment, a moment so fraught with joy and pain that even poor Roger forgot for an instant his grief in wonder. Then the courteous hands met and courteous lips forced themselves to utter every day phrases, and the two went thei'r divided ways. Roger, in recounting this to me, long afterwards, said with tears that did not shame him, that it seemed to him his mother's face wore thereafter a shadow and a glory ! Prof. Noble was at the head of the thriving college in this city ; was prominent in all their evangelical, temperance, and charitable movements, and had a wide influence WESTWARD HO. 205 among young men. A father to his pupils, he had left the bedside of a dying student, and, observing Bertha, had in kindness escorted her home. Nothing was thought of Bertha's illness in her gay circle. The heat or bad air explained it, and the reckless girl was for a time more careful. Aunt Kate, we may be sure, begged her to change her course for her own and Roger's sake. She laughed carelessly: "I'm no worse than the rest. Life is short, and one must have a good time." When she bade her good-bye, she said: " Bertha, if you ever need a friend come to me." "I will," she answered, laughing, "but you won't see me; never fear." At Clifton, she found cousin Laura giving practical protection to a Railroad cousin of theirs; for, she explained, "when he gets over the Kansas line he falls in with- b^d company, but here he is safe." At "queer, quaint Santa Fe," she saw the stuff at the hotel, but had no time to look into the barren Adobes, that report tells us are made wretched by drunken violence. "Never mind, Ida," added she hopefully, "We'll rise above all this soon among the pure snow-covered mountain tops of Colorado!" The next letter was from a little mining town, or rather Mr. Van Dressen's ranclv, two miles out. "Harry finds it exceedingly difficult to secure sober, reliable ranch-men," she wrote, "and we depended on a carpenter in vain to help us fix up the little par- lor." Lest you forget that Aunt Kat;e has other than political accomplishments, I will quote more of that letter : ' ' We will leave a pretty little parlor as our souvenir of this visit. Harry and Nell have just moved out here. It is not a home — only a frame 306 WARP AND WOOF. building, thrown together at the foot of Old Baldy. It is delightful outside. One couldn't wish for any finer prospect than the varied range of snow-capped mountains with the sporting clouds below ; but within it was barren. Nell has succeeded, with many cheap devices, (surely necessity is the mother of inven- tion), in making some rooms comfortable. Her clean linen, bright silver, and the tempting dishes she concocts from her imported cans, cover a multi- tude of rough surroundings; but I knew that, fresh from her elegant Eastern home, she couldn't live this way. She was already becoming discouraged, as everything costs so much. My first night was spent in planning. There was a little room all ready to finish off, if we could clear it of an accumulation of ' bachelor rubbish. ' I had brought with me a piece of cretonne — you know, Ida, that always comes good somewhere ! Roger ordered a carpet from Chicago that would match the cretonne. All on the place entered heartily into our plan, and those rough beams and rafters were soon covered with pure white mus- lin. You couldn't tell it from hard finish! A dainty paper of light blue with the most natural of moss rose-buds finished the side walls — except a frieze. Harry said there'd h& freeze enough next winter, and it is already freezing here in August ! We wanted a rose-colored band which the paper store couldn't fur- nish, but the dry-good's did. That cambric makes it just complete. Then the wood-work — burnt Sianna and turpentine — have made it look like cherry. I did the staining and varnishing. Roger cut over a discarded bunk into a couch; this, with the rude tables, chairs and a tier of shelves, were all dressed WESTWARD HO. 207 in cherry, too. Then that carpet was tacked down, and these things covered and cushioned, and the win- dows draped with the lovely cretonne. Little nick- nacks, tidies, spreads, pictures and books were col- lected from hiding places, and each made to show off to its best advantage. Two more self-satisfied women never sat down in regal state than did Nell and L If after this Harry leaves her and goes off to spend his money and evenings at one of those groggeries, I'll call him a brute! I've told you all about downing this nest, Ida, because I have no heart to tell you of this town of fifteen hundred people, with one little church leaven of only thirteen members! Drunkenness is only one of the three great social vices. I wouldn't soil your thoughts by descriptions of those who stop here to pay toll at the gate, for all their way leads to the City of Destruction ! I saw an honorable Senator with a bold beauty of a bride sitting on the hotel balcony, and I pronounced them worse than these. They were sinning against greater light, and against a lovely divorced wife, living alone in palatial sorrow. When will Congress attend to our divorce laws and make such wrongs impossible? By the way, Ida, I've met in the real estate business here Uncle Ezra's missionary 'substitute.' He says it pays better than preaching ; but Harry says ' he's a curse to the com- munity.' I believe it's the curse on the hop-money." From these scenes, but for its polygamy, Aunt Kate might have been refreshed by a contrasting temper- ance picture at Salt Lake City. California, we are told, would be an Elysium but for its wine vineyards and drink curse ; and alcohol there is taking the place of the lighter beverages. Finding its consumption, of 208 WAKP AND WOOF. late years, so largely on the increase, in proportion to the population both east and west, and realizing there are many more teetotalers, we must conclude that ex- cesses are alarmingly increasing ; and all the more dan- gerous, that we are such a nervous people. In Aunt Kate's next letter she told of seeing, in haggard mien, the same Ellen who, when a little girl at Compton, had punctured her with pins, and whom later she had sought to reform. "She would not rec- ognize me, but my heart ached for her all the same." Aunt Kate continued : "I had almost forgotten the Indians, how they have been robbed of wigwam and hunting ground, shot down, and driven from pillar to post, until I saw their last Ute post among the mount- ains, and wondered what protection we were giving them. I boarded the crowded express alone; Roger had gone on, and was to meet me at the Garden of the Gods. I fortunately found a seat with a seal-fishery gentleman, from Alaska. He was pleasant and in- telligent, and I plied him with questions about Alaska, seals, and Indians; particularly the Indians that mur- der these beautiful, innocent seals for us. You wouldn't have several of these gentle creatures killed for the sake of a seal-skin cloak, would you, Ida?" (I rather think I would, if I could afford it). " ' What kind of people and workers are they ? ' I asked. ' Per- fectly peaceful,' he answered, ' kind, ready to do any- thing for you when sober, but perfectly reckless and ungovernable when drunk — just as soon kill you as not. Keep the whisky out, treat them kindly, and you will have no Indian wars or massacres ; and they know it, and have repeatedly petitioned the Govern- ment for protection from the whisky-trader. But noth- WESTWARD HO. 2O9 ing is done, and their condition is deplorable enough.' Is it possible, Ida, that a great party of moral and humane ideas, twenty years in power, either can not or will not protect one poor Indian ? We had reached the summit of our climb, and were 10,000 feet above the sea. Above, below, beyond, around, all else lost in sublimity of scene. O, what a great country is this from Atlantic to Pacific slope ! And shall our nation, owning all this, live and prosper, or shall it die by its own vices? No ! we will not forget that she has great virtues, too, and will yet redeem herself from her great vices. On the bright side I will men- tion my walk the next morning, through Colorado Springs, without seeing a saloon. It is prohibited, I learn, through the foresight of its founder. What a heavenward uplift this circumstance had given the town ! And why should not pioneers oftener think to plant their towns and cities on prohibition princi- ples?" Aunt Kate was prepared on her return to make this report to Prof. Adolphus : That go west, go north, or go south, on Republican or Democratic ground, whenever tiot positively prohibited by legal enactment, the great monster evil rules. But the poor man was in no condition to listen to more bad news. It was campaign year. He had returned early from the Adirondacks and worn himself out. He had tramped, and paraded, and speechified; and when he really made himself believe that Cleveland was elected, he took to his bed with nervous prostration! It was a mournful sight to see that Astronomical Professor, forsaken of appetite and reason, and yelling frantically, "Protection! Protection!" and then with mournful 14 2IO WARP AND WOOF. cadence like the wind through the pine trees, "Blaine! Blaine!" And Kate gave the sick man the best of care, She doctered him up and soothed his disap- pointed feelings. She applied mustard plasters to his feet, gentle reasoning to his brain, and he slowly recovered. Colonel Briggs called frequently, and she said it was a touching thing to see the two mingle their tears together. Colonel Briggs quoted Cowper's hymn about a "Frowning Providence," and when Professor Adolphus wiped his eyes she left the room. House-keeping and baby-tending are wearing, and mother sent me off for a trip. I took an easterly one, and could have told, the same story as Aunt Kate; At Keniway we, called on Uncle Tim. " Wallneow, wallneow!" he exclaimed, " I'm glad to see you. I'm glad you two hitched horses, for it's a comfort to think Idy has found the right kind of a man. It alius seemed to rile her to see a feller teeterin like in his morals — she wanted something firm and stiddy. " Frank inquired how the good cause prospered there. "Wall, slow, I was talking to Rev. Blossom on that subject tother day." He paused and seemed waiting for a question, so I said : " I hope he was interested in that, Uncle Tim?" "No, not much; I asked him if he wouldn't jine our Good Templars and be an officer in it, just to bring in the young men, some had said they'd jine if he would. Says he, ' I don't know as the session will approve it; besides I reely haven't the time.' I told him as how they was a goin to ruin many of em wid- ders sons, and it reely seemed as though somethin •orter be did for em. " WESTWARD HO. 211 "That surely was a Christian enterprise," said I. "Wall, no ; he didn't seem to think so. He said he wasn't prepared to say whether he approved of such societies or not. At present he was a goin to a meetin of the Presbytery and was anxious to lay before them a plan to locate a Theological Seminary in the Feegee Islands. He didn't feel no encourage- ment to do anything in Keniway, when all the heathen was a perishin abroad. I was riled, I was reely." " What did you say to that? " asked Frank, much amused. " I told him that I'd nothing gin those blessed heathens, and as he was interested in heathens, I wished he'd pray for one I knew; and says he, ' What heathen ? ' and says I, ' Timothy Whita- ker;' and says he, 'What prayer shall I offer for you ? ' and I told him I felt I needed patience — yes, siree, -patience to git along with fools, that aint got sense enough to see that a minister's got something else to do than to sit up in the third balcony of Heaven and read the New York Tribune, and look at the farthest ends of creation through a spy-glass ! ' With that I left, and I haint seen him sence. " " Very likely he's gone to the Presbytery," said Frank. "Very likely," said Uncle Tim. "I'd orter re- minded him as how Blaine didn't vote on the tem- perance question at his State election, (when he was a National candidate), because he said it was a State issue. True, he voted for the other officers, but as soon as he did that, most likely he had to go to a meeting of the Presbytery." 212 WAKP AND WOOF. " There's a better day coming bye and bye," said Frank. " That's what your grandpa always said, Idy. Yes, it's a comin ; it's like the waters issuing out of the east porch in Ezekiel, that I never rightly got the hang on fer all the explanation I've heerd. They're to the ankles already and they're goin to be a river to swim in — yes, siree ! And the Democrats and Republicans can't stop it, nor bridge it, nor ford it; and the 'miry places and the marshes given to salt' — I don't know what that stands for less 'tis the folks that keep peg- gin away at high license and won't be convinced, and there's a wind and a shakin of the dry bones," said he with a flourish of his old hat and waxing excited over the metaphus of Ezekiel, "and I'm sure of it, a better day is comin bye and bye." "Rev. Mr. Blossom has had a call to Granite, Un- cle Tim," said Frank, with a twinkle in his eye. "Dutell!" exclaimed the old man, "I'd heerd he'd had a call, but didn't know 'twas to your place. I told the old woman as how he'd better accept it, for twasn't likely he'd ever have another. " "If he comes, I'll take up the argument where you leave off; between us and Aunt Kate, perhaps we'll convert him," answered Frank. "She'll do it if anybody; for I never seed the par- son more sot about anything than he was for her. I shouldn't be surprised if he took up his courtin where he left off, and bein's she's a widder, perhaps he'll have better luck." "Perhaps so," I answered, laughing. Aunt Kate had received a letter from Roger during our absence. It was full of courage and plans — for WESTWARD HO. 213 the Presidency of an Eastern line of railroad, had been tendered him, and he would soon, with Bertha, re- move to New York, "nearer you, mother." She read between the lines the poor fellow's heartache. An interesting event in the family circle, as well as the social and professional circle of Granite, was the removal thither of Cousin George Hathaway, with his wife and daughter. He took a cozy cottage in Granite, and his bright conversation and genial humor made him the nucleus of many a pleasant gathering. So far as we could see, his reform was assured, and his life was one of honest, Christian manhood. Aunt Maria, his mother, rejoiced and gave fervent thanks to Aunt Hale, as did also Uncle Ezra, CHAPTER XX. BERTHA. {The Scarlet Whiter Than Snow.) " I have seemed to see those two, who went forth hand in hand from Eden, on the saddest of all mornings, after the fall, and I have said in my heart, ' Oh, if those clasped hands had never parted company, our poor world had been to-day the place God wants to see it, and the place Christ came to make it.' Let us have self-respect. Girls come and ask, ' Would you have round dances? ' O my sister, my dear little sister. No.' don't dance a round dance; the women of the future will not do it." — Frances E. Willard. former chapters I have alluded to some hum- ble sisters addicted to the drink habit. With the allusion, in our last chapter to Bertha — who is of another class — I purposed to drop this humiliating phase of the subject, and, passing over a still more delicate one,, also omit the thrilling scenes of 1885. But a letter from Bertha forbids. After mentioning some terrible scenes, connected with her work among the outcasts, she writes: " Ida, do warn the girls ! If you think my life-story might be the means of saving others, don't hesitate to tell it. I shall soon pass beyond all the pain of its humilia- tion, for my career has robbed me of the long life that might have been. I am trying, in my weakness, to atone, by helping others ; for, dear Ida, I do want stars in my crown, and perhaps my story may help BERTHA. 315 win them, long after I am gone. God bless you and the book!" , The story is this. Late in the fall Roger removed to New York, took a handsome house, and plunged headlong into business. He had a cool, careful head, and made no wreck for himself or company. Bertha, meanwhile, plunged headlong into society, and the wine-cup. She was a belle and pronounced queen, but her head was hot and reckless, and the v^reck was, under the circumstances, inevitable. We saw little of either during the winter. It was a cold, dark, rainy night in the late spring. There had been a "Y" sociable at Aunt Kate's. Those bright young folks were gone and the mid- night train had whistled past, yet Frank and I still lingered by the warm grate, dreading the storm with- out. Beth struck up a soft air on the piano. Earnest accompanied her on the violin. A soft footstep was heard outside on the flagging. There was a timid pull at the bell. Roy opened the door, and a woman fell, in a faint, across the threshold — a woman in drench- ed, disordered garments, and heavy, black, wavy hair, loose about her face. We drew it aside. "Bertha! for heaven's sake," exclaimed Aunt Kate, "how came you here in this plight ?" The voice aroused her. She sighed a long, weary sigh, and essayed to speak, but uttered only a groan. Professor Adolphus looked on in a dazed way, while Beth was crying in pity and distress. We did the one thing that was to be done — made her warm and comfortable. The faint soon passed away, we assisted her into the library, and fastened up the draggled hair. Aunt Kate brought her a cup of tea and something to eat. She sipped 2l6 WARP AND WOOF. a little tea with difficulty,, but ate nothing. We then noticed her lips were raw and swollen, and a great fear seized us. "Have you swallowed poison, Bertha?" asked Aunt Kate. She shook her head. Bertha Van Dressen was never demonstrative; I did not expect her to tell her story now. By this time Professor Adolphus came in. Here was another erratic planet for him to consider. I think he would have been thankful had the intervening distance rend- ered a telescope necessary. "Mother! Uncle!" she cried, "turn me away, I have ruined myself, broken Roger's heart, and shut every door of decency against me. I have no right here or anywhere. Nowhere under the skies is there a home or hearth for such as I!" Frank and I went home, to our innocent darlings, and left Bertha to Aunt's never failing kindness. I did not see her for a week. That week of quiet had done much. She was gentle and subdued in manner. Looking in her still lovely face. Aunt Kate saw that God had given her a work to do, and I knew she would not shirk it. Prayer-meeting night came around ; I was surprised to see Bertha enter the lecture room with the Van Dressens. The news had spread over the town. As they entered, Granite, or the prayer-meeting element of it, greeted Bertha with a cold stare, and drew their skirts a little closer. The air was .fairly icy. They sang, "Come Thou fount of every blessing," with hard, metallic voices. Rev. Blossom who had recently become pastor, took for his subject the Command- ments, and dwelt long and with emphasis on the BERTHA. 217 seventh. The poor girl sat there cut to the heart by her reception in a Christian church ; and finally, with a whispered " I'll stand it no longer, mother," stole softly out in the darkness. Aunt Kate touched Earnest's arm, and he followed. Aunt Kate sat there thinking hard, I know, for when the usual invitation was given for "brethren to lead in prayer or remarks, and sisters to. recite verses," she arose to her feet and recited her verse: "And Jesus said unto them, whosoever is without sin let him cast the first stone. " Then she told them, so touchingly, something of the poor girl's past; that she had come back into their home, and here, on the first evening at prayer-meeting, she had been grieved to the heart. " If she goes back to sink lower, blame yourselves brothers and sisters of a Christian church, and remember you have cast your opportunity to the winds !" She sat down; some of them cried. I cried, but had not stared or drawn back my skirts. Then Rev. Blossom rose and ahem'd: "My dear Christian friends, while realizing as you do, the pathos and beauty of sister Van Dressen's remarks, yet I must differ with her in this : while we pray for the erring and fallen, yet our first duty is ever to the protection of the home." Still, ptotection! When all got home, " Uncle Adolphus acted just awful, " Beth reported. ' 'Bertha had gone to her room. Uncle Adolphus talked about protection, waved his hand dramatically, and turned red even to his nose and ears. He said: 'Of all quixotic' notions this tak- ing in a drinking and dissolate girl as a companion for the children is the most absurd. ' He thought it showed 'incipient insanity in mamma, 'and he should 'not allow 3l8 WARP AND WOOF. it.' 'As the master of the house,' he declared, 'I shall put my foot down on such a procedure!' and more in the same strain. Then Cousin Ida, mamma took the floor, and kept it, while she contended that Bertha was not dissolate, reminding him of her temp- tations, and evident desire to do right — so submissive and different from the Bertha of old. She told him that if she, no kith or kin, could take her in, it ill behooved her uncle to cast her out ! Mamma talked until she was out of breath, and then uncle began again. He gasped and sputtered in a great rage." "'She shan't stay, niece or no niece; I say she shan't, I'll turn her out of doors, see if I don't !' Then mamma capped the climax: "When she goes I'll go to!" We young folks discussed pro's and con's. Roy and I out-argued Earnest, and by the time Uncle Adolphus really got it through his pate, that her go- ing really meant mamma's going too, why you would have laughed at the revolution. He finally yielded to what he could not help, for mamma carried her point, of course. We then went up stairs. Bertha was dressed to leave, but mamma carried her point there, too! Next morning. Uncle Adolphus prayed for the President, the Jews, and all those in power, etc. At the close. Bertha burst out: "O somebody, somebody please pray for me 1" Mamma prayed, not smoothly like Rev. Blossom, but as if she knew what Bertha needed, and expected the Lord to give it." Rev. Blossom soon called on his erratic parishioner. "He hoped she had not misinterpreted anything he had said. He felt strongly the importance of reform- ing such people, and there were institutions where it could safely be accomplished ; and while he admired • BERTHA. 219 her Christian charity, yet he presumed she had changed her views as to the propriety of retaining her in her home !" Aunt Kate told him she had con- sidered all these questions, and had also considered Christ's injunction about the least of His disciples, and such she now considered Bertha; that moreover she would consider herself recreant to duty and honor if she failed to do ought in her power to save her husband's daughter. Professor Adolphus spoke then ! — the dear, misty old fellow had considered also. He said that he sustained Mrs. Van D. in her position on the subject. After she had managed Professor A. and Rev. B. she had all Granite to manage — Mrs. Briggs and the whole church included. They "advised, recom- mended, and regretted," until she at last told them point blank she should follow her Bible and do her duty! Yet Bertha was "saved as by fire;" for the terrible appetite would come upon her with such fierceness that she would beg them to lock her in her room alone. But Aunt Kate always stayed with her, and it would be a long time before the fearful spasms \vould pass. Then she would drop to sleep from exhaustion. Meanwhile, she showed her appreciation. She taught Beth painting, Earnest the violin, and relieved Aunt Kate of many household cares. From her I received an account of this little home scene. Professor Adolphus came in one evening, threw down the daily, and sat down as calmly as usual to his starry computations. Aunt Kate took the paper and read. Then she arose excitedly and exclaimed: 220 WARP AND WOOF. "Adolphus, how can you sit there? Why arn't you up and getting ready?" ' ' Getting ready for what, Kate? " "Why, to deliver those poor, kidnapped, mailled, chained, prostituted slaves in those Wisconsin dens! You fought for the black slave — you certainly will for the white ! " He looked provokingly indifferent. "If you don't enlist," said she, vehemently, " I shall; for^ those poor girls must be delivered from those awful wretches before night ! Why, think of it, Adol- phus! Suppose one of those poor innocents was Beth?" He looked graver now, as he gave his neice a fond glance, and replied : " Be quiet, Kate, it can't be done to-night, anyway ; and your going, my going, or the government' s going, would be no earthly use. The government has no jurisdiction over the States," "Then," she interrupted, "why doesn't Wisconsin send out an army?" "I must say, Kate, that you are a most ignorant woman if you think the United States can coerce a State, or a State can coerce a District or County — " "Can't coerce! coerce! 1 Then I'll coerce myself! " The dinner bell rang. ' ' I can neither eat nor sleep while such horrors exist." "Come Kate," said he, starting for the dining room, "I must have my dinner, whether this Paul is 'killed or not; and your going without yours will not help matters any I" " But what is to be done, Adolphus? How is this evil to be reached?" asked Aunt Kate, more calmly, as she served the soup. BERTHA. 221 "By education and moral suasion;" (with most ex- asperating calmness). "The education and moral suasion of the gibbet!"' she replied, ^dropping the ladle, with a touch of scorn in her fierce eye. "Are you losing your wits, mamma?" asked Beth. " No, child; but the nation's wits — the State's wits — the county's wits — the Governor or judge's wits — or somebody's wits, heart, soul and humanity, are lost, wanting or devilized, if those vile dens are not broken up, and the most pitiable prisoners the world ever knew set free in less than forty-eight hours! " This conversation was years ago, "And excited by a sensational newspaper report," says one, and I am bound to, stop and investigate. I trust only to an eye witness of undoubted veracity who has spent months in this dark region, and from the proof she gives, I am compelled to acknowledge the terrible- ness of the revelations. Thus she testifies : " There exists in northern Wisconsin a system con- trolled by male capitalists which has for its object the amassing of fortunes by the degradation of young women." ' ' In the mistaken notion that the existence of these dance-houses improves business, many merchants and others refuse to prosecute these capitalists in crime, and sometimes aid and abet them in their illegal doings." ' ' A large proportion of the inhabitants of the North, eithet through fear or policy, refuse to testify openly against the existence of this system of crime." ' ' Physicians not only tolerate, but often encourage the spread of this iniquity because of the practice it brings them" 232 WARP AND WOOF. ' ' The agents of these capitalists in crime are scouring the country in search of inmates for these dens." ' ' A large number of members of the industrial world are being unwittingly and unwillingly turned into the criminal world through the efforts of these procurers. ''' " There is abundant evidence that these agents pro- cure young women of chaste life as well as those lacking previous chaste characters. '■' " These women are literal slaves, in that they are compelled to acquire property for others and not for themselves." " These unwilling inmates of dens are subjected to cruel treatment. The extent of this iniquity is alarm- ingly great ''"^ We learn that Wisconsin has as good laws as any State in the Union, and must infer that this darkest stain on her banner is by the will of her average man, official and unofficial, and the indifference of her average woman ! They talk, I understand, as do some others of necessity — revenue — protection of one by the slavery of another! In memory of the good and pure, let me toss such arguments scornfully back to their devilish source! O, liquor is such a decoy! And the father-\ie.^x^ and the motker-\\&^x\. of the land are crying: "How shall we protect our sons and our daughters?" Bertha, now in her own right mind, thought of her sisterhood, of Lily, Rex's wife, from whom she had not heard directly for years, she told me, and added : ' ' It seems as if Rex's death might have been enough, but I have a great undefined fear that I have not told mother ; but if she will only go to that National W. «See W. C. T. U. State Work, Madison, Wis., November, 1888. BERTHA. 223 C. T. U. Convention in Philadelphia where Lily — now Mrs. DeQuincy — lives, and look her up, I be- lieve she could help her. Besides, dear, self-sacrific- ing mother needs the change." Aunt Kate acted promptly upon the suggestion and went. On her return from Philadelphia, she re- ported to Bertha and me: "No words can do a 'National' justice." "But of Lilly?" "Don't hurry me, girls, I'll come to it; but I must relate my adventures in proper order. Her address was on Chestnut street. Walking up the fine avenue in front of me were two young girls, chatting along in a gay and pretty way, as girls will. There is nothing so attractive to me as a young girl, (unless it is a boy,) and these seemed so innocent, until they stopped at a massive, stone entrance. Then one said : ' ' Come in, Edith, I made some punch last night; it is perfectly lovely; come in and try it!" Could I pass youth and beauty in danger without a warning word ? Not rudely, however, I summoned tact, for I was a little puzzled, over my number. They have such queer ways in Philadelphia. So I asked direction. But, O, the sad reply ! ' ' What, do you know her ? Why, she is a drunkard — you'd better not go there, it might not be pleasant," said this Edith. "And then again it might," said her companion. Mrs. DeQuincy is a lovely lady when she is herself. " I merely answered : ' ' Perhaps I might help her. " ' 'I fear not, I think it is too late," said Edith. "How did it happen? " I inquired. "O, I suppose she hasn't self control and didn't know when to stop," said the other. "O, my dear 324 WARP AND WOOF. girls," said I, "take warning! Do stop now! Don't drink that punch!" They looked up in mortification and surprise; and then and there, with an increasing interest in these lovely girls in danger, I plead with them to abandon it all. I appealed to reason, said nothing of my relation to Mrs. DeQuincy, but told them of you. Bertha — of your brave, agonizing struggle to be free. They were in tears. I told theni too, of our society, of my dear 'Y's,' and showed them the girls' names in my little pledge-album and asked for theirs. ' ' Come Edith, let us sign it and be on the safe side." Then and there, at the close of that mellow autumn day, I took two willing hands in mine and with the others raised — and lifted eyes — they repeated after me our sacred pledge." She showed us the names of Edith Cory and Dora Deens, delicately traced in her book, remarking: "I believe those names are written, too, in God's album. " I hastened on sorrowful, and found Lilly in a mag- nificent home — a perfect vision of loveliness — and so glad to see me. She has no children ; but an elegant husband. It was an elegant dinner, too. He left immediately after, and we sat down to watch the flames, leaping up that great open-mouthed chimney in the library. Then she looked up so earnestly at me and asked : ' Has any one told you ? ' ' Yes, ' I answered simply, ' but my poor, dear child, tell me all about it; let me help you !' ' God bless you for the wish, but there is no help,' she answered with a look of despair. She told me of her happy marriage, after two years of widowhood, to this handsome, gifted husband ; of his club-habits, which robbed her of happiness even in the honey-moon; of the times BERTHA. 225 she searched him out of his haunts and won him home ; of dragging him in from the gutter, lest he perish there ; of her patient, loving efforts to reform him ; then of poor health, doctor's prescriptions, and discouragements that at last drove her to the cup her- self. 'To drown my trouble, I thought,' she added, 'but it has proved but the beginning of it. I know where I am going,' and she clinched those pretty hands — ' 1 have felt all the horrors of delirium tremens ! They call it brain-fever. I try to reform, but its no use, for I cannot live without it, and I am lost' — I told her of the 'mighty to save,' — I asked about her husband, thinking he might now re- turn loving favor, and help her, 'He has not drank a drop since he first saw me intoxicated ; and then his heart turned away. He hates me ! O, it's so cruel ! If he would love me, I might try ! ' What could I say, girls ; what could I do ? I did take her day after day to the convention. She would hang on the word of our leaders as if for very life. I spoke, too, most decidedly, to that husband, of his coldness, and have come back to you. Bertha, crying with Rev. Blossom and Professor Adolphus, ' protection! protection!^''' Aunt Kate also acted protection. Bertha's face was very peaceful those days, ' ' I hope he'll take me home to mother," she said. To all questioning she was silent; and not until the birth of her child did she reveal the name of its father — the Hon. Socrates Hifleur. It was well at this juncture that the innocent baby demanded attention, or some ven- geance would immediately have followed Aunt Kate's terribly flashing eyes. Later, we all appealed to Bertha. "They will not believe me," she cried. "Let 15 226 WARP AND WOOF. it go ; let me drop out of the world ; let it be as though I had never been; I am not worthy of all your kindness! " "You shall go before the Court and prove your innocence!',' exclaimed Aunt Kate. "That rascal shall be brought to justice! You owe it to the world, to other young girls, and to the com- munity! " She yielded at last. Frank undertook the case, and brought suit against the Hon. Hifleur for seduc- tion. That influential politician was surprised and disgusted, but carried his head as high as ever. Meanwhile, Aunt Kate bolstered up poor Bertha's courage. She telegraphed to the President of the W. C. T. U. at the county seat to meet us with her " band " at the court house "at eleven a. m. sharp — a clear case of protection ! " Frank had told us of a dozen cases on the docket that would precede this, as he drove off with Bertha, and left Aunt Kate, Carrie and me to follow." But, alas, this "interesting" case, through some hook or crook, came first. When we entered, with this grand re-inforcement of white-ribboneid women, and Aunt Kate carrying that baby, a miserable, brow- beating lawyer was examining the witness. He was a fellow after Mr. Hifleur's own heart, sharp, un- scrupulous, and sarcastic. Poor Bertha stood in the witness-box, her beautiful face flushed a burning crim- son, the little hands tightly together, and tears of shame in her eyes, as she answered the lawyer's in- decent and insulting questions. It was that same lawyer's turn to blush as we entered. The tone of the cross-questioning changed abruptly. With BERTHA. 227 our kind faces near her, the warmth of our presence to encourage her, she answered every question so clearly and sensibly that the counsel for defense were somewhat abashed, and the serene expression waver- ed in Mr. Hifleur's lofty countenence. Bertha's examination was then continued. She told of her own habit of drinking, as dozens of other fashionable girls drank; and showed clearly how, through the dizzy whirl of the dance, waltz, and dtugged drink, she had fallen a prey to this fascinat- ing, designing man. She told of her own horror of her sin when she came to herself. There was a sen- sation as she described the rage of Mr. Hifleur, and his attempt to conceal the consequences of his crime ; of his tracking her to a metropolitan boarding-house, where she had fled for safety ; of his wild and fruit- less attempt to persuade her to become the slayer of her unborn child; how she indignantly told him she was no murderess, nor proposed to commit one crime to hide another, but expected to bear, as best she could, the result. Then she hesitated, gave one glance at Mr. Hifleur's face, and related how he had seized her by the hair and forced a vial to her lips, exclaiming, "Take this, and hush your blab forever !" Also, how, suddenly — she knew not why — he had loosened his grasp, when she fled into the street, and darkness. He followed her, she was sure, but she had caught a passing car and found her way to her mother's home! Blank surprise on the face of the opposing counsel ! Blank surprise on everybody's face — except Mr. Hifleur's. That political gentleman was as white as his beautifully ironed shirt-front. 228 WARP AND WOOF. "' Tis false .'" )\'/j. Little steam engines they are, and on the right track ! Aunt Kate, who is County President, was all grace and spirit and sprung Prohibition and Woman's Suf- frage on us without mercy. It raised a breeze, as usual. " Why?" asked cousin Carrie, "when we were all agreeing so nicely." "See here, young woman!" I answered, "we can't go back on our record ; and Aunt Kate is quite a veteran and thinks it's better for us to smell a little powder now — get used to it — for it's coming. " What's coming ? " asked Mrs. Briggs. "Prohibition and Woman's Suffrage," said I. "Not unless the Republicans give it to us," she said. "Some time hence then, I fear," and I thought of these words of Mrs. Stanton's : "While mothers give the hey-day of their lives to bring up sons for the state, surely fathers should make it their duty to see that our towns, and cities are safe for them to live in, guarded by wise laws from the present dangers and tempta- tions. If they have not the power to do this, then 292 WARP AND WOOF. place the ballot in the hands of women, the reserve force in society, ever ready to unite with good men to enforce law and order." Our Granite W. C. T. U. is doing its best on every line. To be sure, Col. Briggs, who is an elder, will no longer allow us to hold our prayer-meetings in the Lecture Room — standing with his arms akimbo in the doorway. But then, Frank said woman's prayers wouldn't hurt his business, and if they did he'd close his office; and now we go there, and can pray for temperance as loud as we choose ! Poor Reverend Blos- som is between two fires, and in his efforts to please both the Colonel and Aunt Kate, is very much upset in his mind. CHAPTER XXVI. A VAULT AND A VOTE. {Ball of Gold Heavy.) No ! we women can't vote. I think if we could, Some wrongs would be righted, some errors made good. jRANITE'Slocal election was coming. The ques- tion was : "License," or "No License." "What can be done to influence the voter?" asked the Granite Union." "A mass meeting," answered our ready President. "They'll all come, and we'll appeal to their heads and hearts." And a mass-meeting it was — a crowded hall and mu- sic, with short scientific and statistical addresses. The engineer's sad story was recited pathetically by cousin Carrie Lester. I tried to plead in simple rhyme, but the sentiment, I fear, was lost in the jingle. Thus it was left for Aunt Kate to win the voters. How earnestly did she plead for Granite's homes ! Her speech was a rare combination of wisdom and wit, pi- ety and pathos, logic and laughter. But it was fear- fully solemn when, in answer to that ever intruding light and pavement argument, after expressing our preference to stumble along in the darkness over cob- ble-stones rather than walk on golden pavements light- 294 WARP AND WOOF. ed by electricity, if at the price ol blood and manhood, she concluded : "O, brothers, I beg of you to seriously, reverently consider that in this election your ballot for license may be the deciding one which shall light our streets with ^& flame unquenchable and pave them with our YOUNG MEN SLAIN !" All were ready to say : ' 'No doubt we shall gain the election now." Yet we did not rest satisfied with this. The W. C. T. U. served coffee and sandwitches. I confess I had not entered heartily into this project. I had proposed a change of work — we to do the voting; they to do the cooking ! State law was against that.plan. Then I suggested that we treat them only who treated us with a no-license ballot. Aunt Kate proposed that as a man's ballot is .supposed to come from his head or heart, for once we try only appeals to his higher na- ture, leaflets and posters instead of bread and butter. In reply, some one asserted that ■the avenue to his mind and heart led through his stomach ! After much discussion, we agreed to try both aven- ues, and went doubly supplied. But when we began to serve the dessert of ballots and leaflets, there was a shaking of the dry bones among the Briggs element. Reverend Blossom, who, you know, takes no inter- est in politics, whispered to us: "I appreciate your good intentions, ladies — ahem ! but this dissemination of literature will, I fear, do harm. The situation is pe- culiar, and we must be careful!" We didn't "appre- ciate" his compromising timidity, or the fact that the Colonel was listening, and when we grew a little loud and excited, he "Hush — sh — sh'd!" and went off puff- ing and agitated, while Aunt Kate and I sat down on a bench outside and watched the ' 'citizens. " Mike Fin- A VAULT AND A VOTE. 295 negan came up, a little under the weather, and, handing me his ballot, he said: "Will yez be afther reading this little paper for me, Mrs. Brooks?" I read and explained, pleasantly urging a better one upon him. "Won't you vote this temperance ballot for yourself and me ?" "For you ! Women can't vote," he said, disdain- fully ; "and sure it's their ignorance-^they don't know enough!" And the "citizen" reeled away with his whisky ballot. There is "gun-powder" in my make-up, and I was positively mad ; but Aunt Kate calmly remarked : "It's Just as your grandfather used to say, 'Repub- lics have so far been a failure ; ours is only a trial, and I am by no means sure of its success. The masses are too ignorant and depraved to govern themselves. I don't know how we are coming out; but the Lord reigneth 1' I think were he now alive he would say, 'Satan reigneth, and this drink curse is the great cmti- Christ, and perhaps the great battle of Armageddon has already begun on the shores of time. ' " She added, feeling sure the prophecy will- be fulfilled according to grandpa's interpretation: "If we had paid more at- tention to the 'wheel' sermons we might have known when the millenium is coming." "We're all in the hub now, I'm sure," I remarked, as Prof A. and Frank came up, having listened to some of our prophecy. This was Prof. A. 's first broadside. "See here, Mrs. Croakers, how can we make ship- wreck when Uncle Sam is so rich ? He has more mon- ey than he can use and land enough to give us all a 296 WARP AND WOOF. farm — yes, splendid ones for such boys as Ernest and Roy here !" "Yes," said Frank, "if the railroad corporations don't beg it all away before they can get there ! But why in common sense doesn't Uncle Sam pay his honest debts ^r.f^? [Since Mrs. Stanton mentioned this subject in Washington, the administration has been doing this very thing !] It's a bad example to his boys. Why, do you know, that the country's vaults are fill- ed with blood money, put there by this liquor-tax of go cents a gallon ?" "He'd better buy a potter's field to bury his victims in," said I, "I wonder if God, who prices and bottles all the tears and keeps a book of remembrance, should settle on what you gentlemen call a hard money basis, what would then be the financial condition of the United States of America ?" This from Aunt Kate in her deepest tones. "Now, good fanatics, you are all wrong," said the Professor, "for the government, in collecting a tax, doesn't make itself responsible for the business." "Then it's no kind of a mother or guardian either," answered Aunt Kate, with some spirit; such argu- ments are enough to stir a saint, let alone a woman ! "When our Roy here surprised us one morning by marching off with his arms full of papers, and calling, ' Here s your Sea-Shore Record!' we didn't stop him, nor ask a share in the profits ; for we knew his papers were good, and selling them was an honorable busi- ness. Indeed, we rather enjoyed the freak of boyish independence. But, supposing Ernest more avaricious, had sold Police Gazettes, or something worse. You and A VAULT AND A VOTE. 2^^ I could have done one of two things. I could put down my motherly foot of decision, or you extend your arm of law, and thus stop his mischief. It's quite a stretch of imagination, dear old guardy, but supposing we found we could get some money out of Ernest's bad business by insisting that he should pay into the family fund 90 cents on every dollar's worth of papers. He's ambitious, works Sunday — for it is his best day — pays his tax, and yet makes three or four times as much as Roy. Our pockets and vaults are full of nickles, but then we are not responsible ! We haven't even noticed that our fine boy is growing hard and bad as his pa- pers ! You wouldn't talk such nonsense, would you ?" "No !" answered Adolphus, not quite seeing the point. "I should say we were more to blame than the boy, and responsible for the Sabbath desecration and the vice and crime that inevitably follow these papers. That money-glitter couldn't blind eyes if it did harden hearts." ' 'But that ^92, OCX), 000 revenue on liquor does Uncle Sam's, "she replied, ' 'I know you're getting hungry, but listen a moment, and you boys, too. The State gov- ernment has a motherly foot of decision. Uncle Sam, or the National government, has an arm of law, and is the appointed guardian of his subjects, just as Uncle Adolphus is of yours. Now, why isn't it just as non- sensical to say that the governtnent is not responsible as that we are not ?" I thought, as did Aunt Kate in the Keniway parson- age : ' 'This revenue on poison is killing the goose that lays the golden egg." Frank's eyes twinkled to see the Professor cornered, and he remarked : 298 WARP AND WOOF. ' 'It seems to me like the deacon who told the boys not to fish on Sunday, but added, 'Remember father likes fish !' " "Worse than that," said I ; "Uncle Sam says, 'Go ahead, by hook or crook !' " "Let us not be the proudest of nations till we can be the wisest and worthiest !" said Aunt Kate, loftily, looking at the Professor, who can't forget that the Re- publicans once whipped the rebels, and is always saying "When I was in the army." Justherehe didn't stilt, but, politely offering his arm, said with suave courtesy : ' 'Let us go home to dinner , your arguments are as hard and heavy as your bread ! You can't ex- pect me to digest either." "It makes me mad," said I, taking up the gaiintlet. in my aunt's defense, "to think, after Aunt Kate has made nine hundred and ninety-nine loaves of light, sweet bread, you must be everlastingly raking her over the coals for that OTte dried-up, little failure ; and that, because of a neighbor's sick child — not politics or W. C. T. U. 's ! If a man gets worsted in an argument it's always ' Better attend to your bread or your babies !' I'd like to know how many of the dolls who don't ar- gue would feed mankind better than you two fellows are fed!" Frank laughed good-naturedly. There lives no more satisfied husband than Frank Brooks "Men appreciate successes, not effortsV said Aunt Kate. "And women, too, in the housekeeping line." Now, I claim to be a good housekeeper, but I'm not a fussy one. I'm notaethetic, either. I like bright col- ors — rainbow hues — such as nature gives us in her land- scapes. My walls only are tints and half tints. My A VAULT AND A VOTE. 299 easy-chairs and couches are as bright and more com- fortable, by far, than mossy banks. I like poetical grace — even in pie-crust! "Command my hands, mother, they are your' s, " I said in my girlhood ; "but my head belongs to Ida Upson !" Even now, while so busy with home duties, I believe my thoughts circle higher than Prof Van Dressen's ; but they revolve ever in the home-orbit, and there is no danger of these im- mortal children, with their everlasting hugs and kisses, suffering any neglect for any mortal book \ The babies' faces are usually clean, and, as we walked down Main street, I described to Aunt Kate Mrs. Jacob's expres- sion when she saw the twins on the front door-step with faces covered, with taify. Their faces were, by far, sweeter than hers, as she remarked to the stranger with her : ' 'She writes for the papers ! She'd better be tending to her babies^" I told Aunt Kate I felt like crying that one couldn't sing a song in the ears of the people without being under a detective's eye ever after. She put her arm around me. ' 'Never mind ! Ida, dear, the Lord- knows, and He's going to take us by and by where there's no critics or mo'asses-candy ! The little angels' faces will be always clean, and, think of it ! no housekeeping to be done forever and ever I" "I want this surprise party for vaoth.er first," I an- swered, ' 'for it is her birthday. " If I have said little of mother, she's by no means "an author's dummy. " But for her graridmotherly care I would have been "dumb. " I really don't know how I could do without her. She is a grandmother with all that is implied in the title. Talk no longer of mother-love, but let some poet strike his lyre and sing of the devotion of grandmothers, who, having tenderly cared for their own children, begin' 300 WARP AND WOOF. with new faith and courage to work for the grandchil- dren. Naomi and Lois, the dear Scriptural grand- mothers, stand at the head of a long procession stretch- ing down through all the generations ; and my own dear mother is well worthy of her company. For the grandmothers, as I told Aunt Kate the other day, I verily believe, will be a special nook in Heaven not far from the central glory, where they can sit with tired hands at rest and talk together of earth with its toil of love, of Heaven with its rest of peace. A nd when I gave vent one day to this tribute of daughterly affection Frank spoke up in his most melodious voice (always so except when singing) and said : ' 'Yes, and for the MOTHER-iN-LAWS ! They bolster up a fellow and take care of his babies ; they train up his wife, and prescribe for his headaches ; and if my wife is an angel, my moth- er-in-law is a divinity, and I confess myself unworthy of either. " Dear, red-haired husband, he's so willing to make the most of life ! He helped every way about the party, but I'll nev- er be guilty of trying to surprise mother again. I had all sorts of tribulation in my efforts to supply the sim- ple refreshments of cake and coffee. Mother insisted that cake was unhealthy for the little ones, and insin- uated that a mother had no right to pander to her own perverted taste to the detriment of her children. It was strange that things could have shaped themselves so crookedly. One of the birthday presents — an exquisite little headdress of white and lavender — was packed in a box and placed upon a closet shelf on a previous day. It chanced that Frank, on that very evening, was to deliver a speech upon "Intemperance and Its Reme- dy." Rushing in at the last moment he hunted for a A VAULT AND A VOTE. 301 package of important documents which he thought was on that closet shelf. He seized the package and went off at a galloping speed. After a very logical address, with an effective flourish of his arm, he concluded : "Gentlemen, I have in this little package arguments more convincing than any poor words of mine, which I hereby present you. Please circulate them through the audience." He opened the box, and there lay his mother-in-law's head-dress ! He stared at it for one blank second, then his Yankee wit coming to his aid he said: "Gentlemen, I have made a mistake !" Then raising the bit of lace and ribbon in the air he conclud- ed, amid the prolonged cheers of the audience: "But a pretty head-gear, and a motherly face beneath, is about as good an argument as can be raised." A series of calamities befell me all that terrible birth- day. The babies were discovered dipping their Sunday caps in the sink, and little Clara upset the mucilage on the parlor carpet. Julius, in his daily slide down the banisters, collided with the Rev. Blossom, just enter- . ing, and knocked off his spectacles ; and in my frantic efforts to slick things up for the lively merry- making, and all the time hide my efforts from mother's observ- ant eye, I was surprised myself by a visit from Aunt Melinda Hathaway, who is as deaf as a post. She is a dear soul, though, and the state of affairs having been confided to her she promised to keep it a dead secret, and alluded to it in whispers loud enough to startle the seven sleepers ! Mother was invited out, and did get off at last. On her return, she was greeted with a chorus of laughter. "Is this party for me ? Well, I declare, Ida, I could have planned it ever so much better !" 302 WARP AND WOOF. "We didn't want your planning, mother, " said Frank. "Well, how much I might have helped"— as the cake and coffee were dispensed. That was her grief, that she couldn't surprise herself ! Frank enjoyed the whole affair, and some good soul remarked to mother: "How glad you ought to be that your son-in-law is so good to you !" "Good to me !" said mother, firing up. "Well, I never ! I should think the goodness was on the other side, after all I've spent bringing up and educating Ida, and then give her to him, arid myself to bring up his children ! He might well appreciate me !" Frank does appreciate, and that's a comfort. They all broke up at a late hour, wishing her many happy returns. Indeed they may. What would we do without her ? And is not the motherly element needed just the same in the great national family? I had to laugh, but I was so sorry for Aunt Kate ! It was very embarrassing for her, a widow. The hall was a trifle dark, and Rev. Blossom coming in with Frank she kissed him by mistake. She apologized, and he "begged pardon," but her face was aflame all the even- ing. Clara innocently inquired what made Aunty's face so red, and everybody winked aud blinked. I'm afraid I did, too ! Frank went out at midnight to hear the result of our temperance election, and reported: " Lost by one vote !" "Whose vote was it ?" I asked,among misty dreams. "Col, Briggs's! He's up for office, and he and the hotel-keeper together made up the ticket!" in a tone loud and sharp enough to wake the neighbors. CHAPTER XXVII. STREET AND HOME TALKS, ( The Rev'd's and the Dr. 's coats.) "God's ways seem dark, but soon or late, They touch the shining hills of day ; * ^f « * * * * The good can well afford to wait." — W^itlier. ^HESE words are a great comfort after an elec- tion like yesterday's — a majority of one for license! "Of saloons?" Oh, no ; nice, well regulated hotels for the accommodation of the travel- ing public ! Some have passed us because of no bar, and now Granite is going to try first-class high license ! We all felt badly, and Frank candidly reviewed the whole situation. ' 'There has never been any real temperance senti- ment here, wifey, only an occasional local option boom. What we've builded one year has been torn down the next. Our temperance temple has had a sandy foun- dation, and the lager and soft drinks have washed away the whole structure !" Rev. Blossom and Aunt Kate were discussing the sit- uation in Frank's hearing, as she and Major were wait- ing for the mail. 304 WARP AND WOOF. "This whole license progeny is the offspring of Sa- tan," said the Reverend, with unusual heat. With an arch smile as she coolly surveyed him, she answered — a bit preachy — "A very respectable-look- ing godfather you make for his majesty's offspring, standing with your party, sponsor at the ballot's altar, and 'high license' is inscribed on your church's chcin- cel !" Then, pitying his evident embarrassment — for real- ly he had nothing to say — and discerning, as usual, a little star of hope, she gloved her pussycat-claw, say- ing : "There is one comfort in all this disappointment, Mr. Blossom." "And, pray, what is it, Sister Van Dressen?" ' 'You pastors won't say 'hush, hush, ' again to us women." "Hush ? how?" said he, looking as innocent as our twins, who just then trundled by with Clara and Julius. Aunt Kate gave him a look of remembrance as she half answered his question: "You know, Mr. Blos- som, I can hurrah for prohibition and the third party right here, on Main street, this morning, and you won't — ^ahem, remind me that the situation is peculiar ; that we are living over a powder magazine, and that one third party match would send all the good temperance feeling into the next century ! You must be convinced at last that all the good feeling is mere apathy. There isn't enough genuine temperance in Granite to make an explosion — scarcely a puff-ball !" He looked as if he wished she was a puff ball, and he could blow her into oblivion, but she was merci- less. From her exalted seat in the buggy, she had the pulpit, and he, for once, the pew. She continued : STREET AND HOME TALKS. 3O5 " It proves to me that all this coffee, sandwiches and smiles alone don't amount to more than a thistle-down blown away by a breath." Her manner was a little stilted, though she said, "I am a humble citizen, or rather 'idiot', of Granite, but I propose, now that we've found out the real situation, that we build on some solid, rock ; like conviction. It may be safe to use the church now for a temperance lecture, and have it amount to something ! People can't warm us up when we freeze and muzzle them" — with a significant smile. "Mrs. Van Dressen,'' he at last spoke, "you inti- mated not long ago that you were losing your facul- ties. You certainly haven't lost your memory. I al- most wish — " and he shook his head. "Oh, no, Brother Blossom, and you can't tell me that I'll kill the spring elections, now that they are dead. You can make better introductory prayers on public occasions, for it must be embarrassing to ask the Lord to give people 'right words, ' and all the time expect them to follow your directions. I've always be- lieved in trusting those Christian men and women who come to us as teachers, not as pupils — but, then, with you it's different. Your situation, like Granite, has been 'peculiar' ! Col. Briggs will be peculiarly busy, too — perhaps we women will hold a prayer-meeting in the lecture room yet ?" She laughed her old girlish, mischievous laugh, but it was so musical he couldn't take offense, and he re- plied : "I have tried to labor for the peace of Zion — " "Woe to them that are at peace in Zion !" shouted Frank, rushing down stairs from his office two steps at 20 306 WARP AND WOOF. a time, as a prolonged scream from the twins turned all eyes to the crossing where Clara had upset the baby-wagon, scattering cushions, afghans and babies broadcast. Frank raced down street, his red hair on end, and the puffy Reverend at his heels. For once Aunt Kate had overawed him, and, ac- cording to Beth's report, she lectured the Professor, too — choosing the dinner hour, as a hungry man is apt to be quiet then. Professor Adolphus was blue over the results of the election. "Why should you be down-hearted? " she inquired. "It's the same high license you've been advocating for years ! It reduces the number of saloons wonder- fully ! There'll be money for sidewalks, and the pro- prietor can put plate-glass windows and French pic- tures in the 'American ! ' Quite an improvement on the old twenty-seven doggeries, isn't it ? " He forgot all about consistency, and laid down his spoon, giving her a most searching look. "Kate Hathaway Van Dressen, do you mean it or not?" "No, Adolphus, I don't believe in decorating devil- try, and, for my part, would rather have nine hundred and twenty-seven of the old sort than one of the new. Truly has it been said : 'Such license is contrary to the spirit of God's law, A moral wrong cannot be made a legal right. We are taught not to tempt our broth- er, or to cause him to offend or stumble. Every grog- shop is a temptation ; high-licensed grog-shop is a more dangerous temptation.' No, high license hasn't cleared one criminal cell, or redueed the death rate, or the amount of liquor consumed ! " "Aren't you mistaken there, Kate?" STREET AND HOME TALKS. 307 "No. If I am, why do brewers and distillers advo- cate it, as I could prove to you ? A distinguished clergyman of a Southern city declared there is 28 per cent, more crime, and 124 per cent, more drunkenness under high license than low. A Western citizen re- ports also a great increase — four murders in a year in one ;^8oo saloon ; and your own Synod in Nebraska reports 'that it has failed .disastrously in every point as a corrective for the evil — where longest tried has prov- en the greatest failure. It is a subterfuge of Satan that is deceiving the very elect !' Call high license just what it is, Adolphus, — 'aw easy way to raise a revenue from vice — but pray do not further impose on the innocent public by calling it a temperance or reform measure. ' 'It was the revenue argument that beat us, ' cried one from Michigan's conflict. It was the revenue cry that defeated prohibition in Atlanta, and it is the revenue argument — this wretched subterfuge — that has beaten us here in Granite ! Thus with his coin Satan enters the temperance temple. How I'd like to drive him out with a whip of small cords. Christ didn't stop for an argument about walks and pavements in Jerusalem, the education of its children, or the defenses of Ca- naan's coast — " "Kate, you can't appreciate the fact that a half loaf is better than none !" "It is when applied to good, sweet bread ; but there's poison in the liquor license loeS every time!" "How do you like local option, mother ?" said Ern- est, looking up from his dessert. "Better, for its good as far as it goes; but, as one says, 'it is too local, too optional, and too temporary, - allowing the liquor traffic easily to re-establish itself, 30S WARP AND WOOF. as we have found here in Granite, where we've put up our morals at annual auction. Local option, too, is put under bonds not to trespass on his neighbor Li- cense, who is free to encroach all around, as the 'Colum- bia' has. It's much like Beth's crazy-quilt, Adolphus, and Granite as a local option city has been a little lone patch in the center of a soiled State lining, and I ques- tion if we could finish out a whole State-quilt, with its overlapping counties well cat-stitched on by law, whether we could prevent the United States from soil- ing it. One calls it 'an escape-valve for temperance enthusiasm,' but it is tampering with eternal verities, and really keeps — 'Truth f irever on the scaffold Wrong forever on the throne.' " The Professor interluded the stereotyped argument, that "public sentiment wasn't prepared," etc., and she inquired if it was not the office of law to create public sentiment — even in a college. He shifted to "pledges," and she admitted they did seem to be a bug-bear to a bachelor ! But there is no use wasting words not printed in the Tribune over Prof. Adolphus. Apropos to all this, I recall Uncle Tim's quaint re- marks on the subject during our last visit to K '-. ' 'This new notion the temperance folks have took is enough to drive a man out of his senses. Jest a-goin to let 'em sell all they want to, provided they'll pay enough for the privilege. That's the programy, as 1 get the hang on't. High license, I du say, is the queer- est, inconsistentest idee I ever heer'd advanced. It's astonishin, reely astbnishin,"- he had continued chew- ing reflectively the sprig of spearmint, ' 'how folks that's cute enough -in most things'll git took in by the Devil. STREET AND HOME TALKS. 3O9 This is the sharpest dodge the old cuss is up to — makin pious folks believe that if they increase the price of the license it'll reduce drunkenness. It'll reduce the pro- fits of them as don't sell naterally enough, but it's strange folks can't see that if a feller's drunk he's drunk ; and if he gets to drinkin he'll have it, if he has to go into the jaws of Eternity to get it ; and, in course, these fixed-up places is what'll catch these high-step- pin young' fellers. Tarnation! what fools folk's be !" Aunt Kate was anxious about the twins after- the morning tumble, and came over. Finding them as bright as ever, we talked "license, " and she remarked: "Is this the way to check a murky, turbid stream, producing miasma and death — to dam it ?" "Yes, dam it anyway!" said Frank. Julius looked up. "Why, papa, the Bible says you mustn't swear, es- pecially folks that teach in Sunday School." The twins looked up in innocent wonder at a new word from papa. ' 'Do talk Mother Goose, or something else, Kate. You and Frank together are enough to muddle the lit- tle twins hopelessly with your great moral ideas." This from mother. ' 'You are just father again, right over. Why can't you keep cool, and not preach half the time?" "That's easier than to practice Lucy, as Dr. Sail said to father ; but, Frank, do explain to these little pitchers what I did mean by damming the liquor stream. They'll think 'Auntie' swears, too !" "Well, Julius, you've seen the Falls to-day ?" ' 'Yes, papa, and they're big as Niagara. The upper 3IO WARP AND WOOF. bridge is down, and Hurry-up is foaming and growl- ing because it can't take the lower !" "Why doesn't somebody dam it, Julius ?" Julius looked supreme contempt. He's studied geo- graphy, and knows a thing or two. He spoke up as big as life. ' 'A dam won't stop it, or anything else ; but you take me up to old Snow-top, and I'll stuff up it's spring' tight in five minutes !" "That's like the liquor business, we must go back to the source, the manufacturers, and not wait till it's a Niagara, tearing away men and boys. Then, my boy, it d-a-m-n-s souls." Mother had her rag-basket as usual, and proudly pro- duced a second ball of black broadcloth, beautifully cut up — the first had been grandpa's coat — this was Rev. Blossom's. "While Aunt Kate was cutting up the cloth this morning," said Frank, laughing, "mother was cutting up the coat." "Well," said mother, innocently, "it was nice and good, and it did seem too bad to cut it up, but Frank wouldn't wear a black swallow-tail, and it didn't seem to be worth while to save it for Julius." "I don't think it would ever fit him," said Frank, laughing. Unlike mother, he sees no ministerial grace in Julius, and I laughed at the idea of Julius ever filling out the bow-windows of Rev. B. 's garment. Dr. Foster had come in with a weather-beaten coat which mother declared would work in beautifully ; ' 'the rougher the better", I thought of Uncle Tim and the book. The neighbors were contributing, sure enough. STREET AND HOME TALKS. 31 1 The Dr. 's real errand was to inquire about his babies, of whom he's very fond. The four children were on his lap before he essayed to speak, for he had heard some remark about choking up the liquor stream. "See here, Mr. Fanatic, and you, Mrs. Crank, you haven't left a drop for medicine ! How many will die in consequence ?" His eyes were as merry as in the long-ago days, when he was Robert in the Hop Villa school-house. "How many die in consequence ? You treat your patients as you wouldn't treat an old nag ! When poor nature can't go another step and wants rest and nour- ishment, you put on the brandy-whip. It isn't sur- prising that you pitch some of them overboard ! You'll have to answer, too, for habits that many of your pa- tients have formed. Some of you are very good, Rob- ert, but Dr. Sail said thatj as a class, you hindered nature oftener than helped — killed more than you cured! That's where the faith cure comes in. The Lord gets so disgusted with some of the professionals that He performs a miracle to show it !" This from Aunt Kate, yet how speedily she sends for one when anything se- rious is the matter ! "And Dr. Sail, when dying, said 'Never give it again,' " said mother. "Doctors disagree," said Frank, "and we must use our own common sense." "Now, you are rubbing in the mustard-plaster, Frank," growled Dr. Foster. "Yes, and onions," said Aunt Kate. "See here," said the Dr., glaring at her fiercely, "I seldom prescribe alcohol, excepting drop by drop to old or infirm people, as I would mercury or any other 312 WARP AND WOOF. poison ; but if Mrs. Van D. is going to rehearse onion cures, I might as well be off. I've been mad at her for years ! Why" — with mock seriousness — ' 'when I say a body is going to die, what business has she to come in with her onion syrup and goose oil and cure him ? That little rascal, Dick Blossom, with his aunt absorbed in her housekeeping, and his father looking after the 'lost tribes, ' had much better died ! She's a ruination to the medical profession. There was Judge Jacob's son with his pneumonia. I had just said to myself, there's a fat job, when in she comes, feeds him onion syrup like a baby, and cures him, too, when a man of his position should have been doctored scientifically — live ox die !" We all laughed merrily, as Dr. Foster told of some wonderful cures from new remedies, turpentine, etc. , . and Aunt Kate, in answer to his "What are you laugh- ing at?" replied, "How grandma Hathaway would shake her sides to think that with all your 'edicatiori' you have come round to her notions! 'Pine gum bal- sam of fir ile, and smart-weed would cure all diseases of any one who had a Hathaway freckle,' declared old Dr. Sail, in memory of his rival." "The nation is diseased," said Frank, thoughtfully, and I believe I know what it needs." "It's the plague !" said Aunt Kate, decidedly, "but the old party allopaths would rather have it die of it than swallow the homeopathic Prohibition pill !" This with a defiant toss of the "snowflakes" at Dr. Foster, but a merry eye, as she went off to prayer-meeting. I think the repulse at the sociable, and the little ser- mon at the postoffice have given nev/ ardor to Rev. Blossom's pursuit of Aunt Kate. He walked home from prayer-meeting with her. She must have forgot- STREET AND HOME TALKS. 313 ten that she's fifty, and a widow, to linger outside ; for Beth, hstening from an upper winhow, as I did of yore, heard the following conversation : "Kate," — very sweet^"why cannot our old-time friendship ripen at last into the new-time love ? I would do anything tomake you happy !" "Except vote the Prohibition ticket !" said she. ' '0 1 Mrs. Van Dressen — my dear Kate — there is something in life besides politics." "Yes, there's principle I" said she, obstinately. "Ah ! but you know surely that I would seek to do everything that was right," And Beth says he blushed in the moon light. "Well," said she, "this is a serious matter, and not to be decided rashly — give me time." "Do you need time to think of this at your age?" said he. "Because we're old we won't be ridiculous," said she ; "we'll not marry in haste. " "I'm sure you will never repent it, "said he. And Beth is sure that he took her hands and kissed them just as if he was a lover of twenty-five. "I hope mamma isn't losing her mind," said Beth, "She didn't speak decided at all, 'yes' or 'no'; only Won't you come in ? Another time, Mr. Blossom. Really, I shouldn't like to have my family see me out here ! I am too old. And he replied, 'Never too old for true affection ; but I'll wait — wait for years, if I might win my Rachel at last 1' Rather an ancient Ja- cob I thinki cousin Ida." There is something very touching in Mr. Blossom's devotion, and he loved her so long ago in Keniway. Really she couldn't do better. Supposing she doesn't 314 WARP AND WOOF. realize her very highest conception of two souls in one ; there's a great opportunity in the life of a clergyman's wife, and he'd be the best of fathers to those children. If he was only settled in his mind, he would pay some attention to Dick. He has scarcely changed since he offered his hand by the old rock's altar in Keniway. He has grown a trifle older ; side-boards have de- veloped into whiskers — nice blondewhiskers, border- ing a pair of rosy cheeks — not too rosy, but just rosy enough ; he has grown, too, somewhat rotund — not too rotund, you understand, but pleasantly suggestive of a clear conscience and good dinners. He preaches, as of yore, plain doctrinal sermons, with an occasional overhauling on foreordination. Ordinarily he attempts no oratorical flights. His prayers are as geograph- ical as ever. He has always been an obstinate man, and she couldn't expect him to vote the Prohibition ticket! I admit he isn't a "Heaven's falling man," as she talks of. There aren't many that are! But he's so gentle, so courteous ; and, at Aunt Kate's age, one ought not to expect much sentiment ! CHAPTER XXVIII. HOP SKRMONS. {Some like gayer tints I ween. Here's for hops that should be green !) "O statesmen, guard us, guard the eye, the soul, ^ 1^ * i^ 1^ * And save the one true seed of freedom sown ; ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ K For saving that, ye help to save mankind," — Tennyson. BELIEVE it's Rev. Blossom's Sunday efforts ' that spoil his weekly prospects of winning Aunt Kate. His voice is so sweet in common conver- sation she forgets that when he prays in public it is distressingly harsh and unnatural. But he isn't the only one who seem to think the Supreme Being hon- ored by long elocutionary efforts ! Then he preaches, as well as he can — sometimes with his hands in his pockets — which makes her fairly cringe, (thinking of herself, may be, as an appendage to those clerical skirts.) How did such a gentleman ever form such a h&,bit ? But if she was his wife she could sew up those pockets ! She never could, like the preced- ing Mrs. B — , contrive to fall asleep ; she could never have that much confidence in any man. She could do better than that — I am sure — improve those sermons. 3l6 WAKP AND WOOF. There is enough of her Elijah father in her to give them pith and point — and thai' s what they lack. These w&re Sabbath morning reflections as I glanced across the way, and when a carriage came and the Rev- erend drove off I inferred an exchange and in heart congratulated Aunt Kate. "What was the stranger's subject?" I asked mother on her return. "African Missions." "Did he speak of the rum on the Congo ?" I queried. "No, perhaps he hasn't heard of it." "Heard of it!" said I, excitedly, "doesn't every- body know that more than four million gallons have gone there from under the very shadow of Bunker Hill? Why, one firm is sending 3,000 gallons a day and that good ship Stanley, with a missionary on board, has its hole just full of the awfullest rum, and it's beast- alizing them below the reach of any missionary. And yet ours a Christian country ! Those savages must gain high opinions of our chnstianity, and of our honor, too, for there is an international treaty that should protect them ! "He couldn't have known that, Ida, for he was as calm as a clock. " And mother wisely changed the subject by remarking : ' 'Cousin Adell Doxstater has come, and was at church with your Aunt. " Uncle Ezra had recently died and I was so anxious to know if Aunt Maria's prayers were answered for her grandfather, that I went directly over after dinner to see Dell. Yet I dreaded to hear the answer to that ever solemn question. How did he die? In embar- rassment I asked Aunt Kate about the sermon. She replied: "Mrs. Briggs has a new bonnet." HOP SERMONS. ^IJ ' 'And didn't you hear a word of it ?" said Beth, with wide open eyes. ' *I fear not, daughter, for with the fresh, bright, gol- den, green hops on that bonnet in front, and Uncle Ezra's granddaughter at my side, amid the voices of the past, I heard not the words ringing through our church arches ; and a little sermon of my own came tumbling in hap-hazard, during the pulpit one." "Please preach it over to us," I coaxed, "and if it's a sermon, it wouldn't be wicked, Beth, to take notes;" and she did. Aunt Kate began : ' 'First I wanted a sniff at that bonnet. I always liked the smell of hops, and your grandfather's hop field in the olden time, Dell, was a regular sanitarium. It gave sleep and a prodigious ap- petite and thus cured every disease. It was a harvest festival, too. In church to-day I recalled that first visit to Uncle Ezra so vividly that I almost quaffed again that delicious nectar of the woods !" "Do they grow in woods?" asked Beth. "No, child, but I had never seen anything like them, and thought the poles were trees covered with vines. Little girl that I was, that comparison of the oak and ivy seemed beautiful, and I was almost willing to grow up a hop vine of a woman, leaning for support on some man, when suddenly down came the false tree and the vine lay with its wounded tendrils trailing over a hop- box." Stopping to moralize, she added: "Some men have no more roots and can no better protect a loving vine of a wife than a hop-pole ; so look out !" "Is Rev. Blossom a hop-pole ?" asked impertinent Beth. We all laughed, for in outward form the resem- blance is not striking. 3l8 WARP ANU WOOF. "You interrupt!" she hurried on. "I was only a little visitor, but the real workers were gathering, lads for the heavy work of pulling the poles, and lassies for the dainty gathering of the funny fruit — oh ! my dears, to how many was it bitter fruit!" But Aunt Kate omits the unpleasant and tells of the lovers nods and smiles, winks and blushes, as girls were gallantly invited by their rustic swains to a part- nership, and how some maidens shied coyly away — just as they do now — to be sought for, and how the lassies looked like moss-rose buds among their dewy green. ' 'Those old, pure, hop-field attachments made many a happy wedding for Christmas. I heard again to-day the birds singing in those fragrant woods, and other musics-first one group, then another — till like a great camp-meeting the whole glad company joined in the strain : 'Wild roves an Indian girl — bright Alfaretta — Where swift -the waters are — the Blue Junietta.' I wished Alfaretta would come and help me, for I was a clumsy Yankee, and not to the manor born. They seemed to settle so fast ; and reaching my arms down to lighten — like all shams^only made them heavier. Dear Uncle Ezra came in pity to help me and the box was filled. How he laughed at my honesty when I in- sisted upon his deducting from that 'two shillings !' ' "I've heard grandpa laugh over that and say he owed you a nickle yet," recalled Dell. "Did you give it to the missionaries ?" asked Beth. ' 'No ! I thought a great deal of the missionaries — was brought up on the Judson Lives — but that money was spent on perforated board and crewel for a card case, and wasn't it a beauty, though?" HOP SERMONS. 3I9 While Aunt Kate had been picturing this pure, early scene I recalled a later one, hearing from the unkempt foreigners the rude leer and jest, and how they made of the old homestead now a hop boarding house — a house of riot and den of vice ! Aunt Maria had even wished the old, vacant church on the hill might burn down to save it from vile desecration. I mentioned these and cousin Dell replied sadly: "Hops lead to crime ^rst as well as last, and I'm so glad we are out of the whole husiness^drewefy and all!" We were surprised. She was, we knew, Uncle's only heir ! "Has this bright, capable girl — her grand- father's right hand for years — found the business un- profitable, or has she risen to a glorious opportunity?" said our looks of interest. "No, it was grandfather," she answered, and then she told a sweet tear-provoking story — it was a sermon all of itself. No need to ask now, ' 'How did he die ?" Uncle Ezra's habits had become very dissipated, yet Aunt Maria died in faith. The answer to her prayer came through a change of pastors. He always went to church — it was a good, quiet place to sleep. Rev. Benton had not meddled with his hearer's business, but Rev. Broady came and his first text was, "Woe unto you for ye devour widow's houses," and giving a temperance ring to his anvil that really delighted him. "His business here is to save our souls, and he starts in as though he intended to do it. I'll double my sub- scription, " said grandfather. Dell went on: "He didn't sleep under his broad- sides ! Then Uncle George's awful crime and death, and grandma following so soon, made a powerful im- pression. It prostrated him, and Rev. Broady came. 320 WARP AND WOOF. watched over him and talked to him so lovingly — but firmly — giving him no quarter. Like Elijah he said : 'If God be God serve Him ; if Baal or beer, then serve them ! ' But O ! poor grandpa was so old and had so much to give up ! That brewery had made him very rich ; it was running in full blast, and his investments were of the same character. It was a terrible struggle. Like the man who came to Jesus, he must give up all earthly possessions to save his soul. The habits foraied were the hardest. You would have cried in very pity to have seen him. When he began to seek the Lord he didn't try to save his soul and brewery too. Nor did he sell out to a foreign syndicate, to the risk of their souls. He stopped the breweries and all their attachments. He was President of their Associ- ation — a very king among them^but he came clear down to be a beggar at the feet of Jesus. Those friends forsook him. and threatened his life. But he was so sweet and childlike in his spirit and faith ! It was amid the wreck of friendships and fortune that he went tri- umphantly home. Those empty brewery walls, stand- ing there because of his Christian principle, are his monument f "And who could wish a better ?'' asked Aunt Kate, as soon as she could speak.- "It would please grandfather, and I shall build a grist- mill again on the old site; and I'll try to undo the wrongs a little by feeding the innocent paupers the brewery made," Dell saidnobly. "And what of Rev. Broady?" "A great revival followed his practical, earnest preaching. Old topers were converted, and young men, too, who were getting fast. But he was too pro- HOP SERMONS. 321 nounced on temperance to suit hop-growers, and this spring was obHged to leave, I suppose some nimby- namby will take his place,, but I do hope our hop-grow- ing members — there are only a few, but they rule — will go out of partnership with the brewer, for that is the relation which they really sustain. We can recall Mr. Broady then, artd have pteaching! Grandfather became an enthusiastic Prohibitionist," Dell went on. "He used to explain to me, how, as these hop-grow- ers and brewers were so many of them Republicans, it would be fatal to our state party to put a genuine temperance sentiment in platform or legislation, and why it is necessary to make believe, occasionally, and keep the temperance voters, too ! The loss of either wing — as he called it — would kill the party; and the loss of New York, being a pivotal state, would be fa- tal to the National Government ! He also explained how these wings might, in an emergency, compromise or sell out to each other, " etc. "The Republicans have done something in Maine and Iowa," interrupted Beth with spirit. "As have the Democrats in the South, Beth, but that does not help sister states where the environments are different. " This from his mother ; and Roy asked: "What are you going to do about it, then ?" "Work and pray for National Prohibition that shall protect all," said she earnestly. "Prohibition of one state alone only drives the alcoholic liquor into an- other. Think, Roy, how a state- right theory would work here in this family. If we compare it to the United States, home I must fill cellar and side-board with cask and bottle. Your Uncle Adolphus, then, 21 ,^ ,, . . .' 32'2 WARP AND WOOF. drinks his high wines and gives you a high time ! Beth takes punch and practices punch on you! Ernest comes home, fills his head with champaigne and his hands with pistols and tries to blow his own brains out and yours too! Bridget takes the whisky and you the whisking with the broom-handle I While Wil- liam takes the beer and will I fear be brought home on a bier ! Now, darling, what kind of a house would it be to live in ? Could you save yourself or brother ? What would you advise me as the manager of this es- tablishment to do ?" "Do ! Why, mamma, raise that Ebenezer of yours and turn the liquor all out !" "But, Roy"-— she tested — "if we should clear the side-board, wouldn't that do?" "Why, no," he answered, in sublime contempt for such reasoning, ' 'the bottles in the Cellar would be just as bad, and the decanters would get filled again f" "Roy, " said she impressively, "Maine and Iowa's g^od habits, and even clearing their state side-boards, give inadequate relief to themselves and help not the sister states. When will Uncle Seim raise his Ebenezer and clear cellar and all? Perhaps the beer-cask which is most common is doing most harm, and, as Uncle Ezra explained, is a great factor in politics, but mixes poorly with religion." Beth warded off further moralizing by telling me how my exasperating boy behaved in church to-day. "Uncle Adolphus sat fast asleep, and Julius pulled a straw from the carpet and reached over to the Roman nose ! Clara was slyly giggling and urging him on." "Didn't Uncle start, though,^' interrupted Roy. "I believe he thought there was a fly on his nose by HOP SERMONS^ 32J the way he ru>bbed it;- but when Julius saw his grand- ma's eyes he quickly collapsed.'" ' 'I wish your Uncle had a Rev, Broadly to keep hi™' awake," said his mamma. Apropos of Aunt Kate's children, I have intimated that she and the nebulous Professor have generally agreed on the subject of family government. But one day he came down from his attic with a brand new idea in his bald caput. A circus had come to Giranite, alow, half-way affair, and it occurred to Prof. A. that he would take Roy to see the animals. Every woman of experience knows that the best of men take just such streaks. "Come, Roy," he said, "you and I will go to the circus. " He said it with the air of an S. S. superin- tendent introducing a new scholar. Of course Roy was delighted, but just then Aunt Kate intervened. "No, Roy can't go." "Why not?" gasped Professor A., amazed at this unexpected opposition. "Because it isn't a proper place for him." "I should like to know why not. I went to the circus when I was a boy, and it never did me any harm." ' 'I'll venture to say that it never did you any good; at" all events my boy can't go." ' 'He ain't your boy, " sputtered Professor Adolphus, getting red and blowzy, and rubbing his spectacles with disastrous violence ; "he's »«y boy, and I'm legally bound to protect him from fanatics. " "Yesi" replied Aunt Kate, "he's your boy, and Fm a fanatic" — in bitter tears — "you do well to re- mind me. Take him where you choose, and ruin him 324 WARP AND WOOF. if you wish, as Rex was ruined, I have no right to lift a finger to prevent". "Ahem—hRmi — AHEM— Kate ! I guess on the whole I have a previous engagement for this afternoon. I have no right to be dictatorial, none at all. I rec- , ognize the injustice of Brother William's bequest. He must have been in liquor to have ever perpetrated such an infamous document and he never would have been so bad, but for that miserable hop business. There is certainly something wrong about laws, too, which make such arrangements possible." And muddling up his real regret in the longest possible words, he marched himself off upstairs. That was another hard day for Aunt Kate when Prof. Adolphus first paid her wages as nurse and house- keeper, for such was her position. He blundered and fidgeted over it, but finally took a generous roll of bills from his pocket and laid them on the sewing- machine at which she sat stitching. "What is this ?" said she,' with a very small red spot on either white cheek. "Some compensation — you understand — for — "• "For taking care of my own children?" "Well, yes, if you choose to regard it in that light." "For taking care of vfvy own darlings, " she repeated. "Well, I suppose so, and he blew his nose elabor- ately, while she bowed her head, and wept the hard, hot tears that come to those who seldom cry. "Kate," said he at length, "it's a burning shame and shows what a brute liquor can make of a man. It is ahumiliating legal position in which you are placed, as nurse to your own children, but you understand of course that I do not so regard you." HOP SERMONS. 325 "I understand — you are very kind, " she replied. And so he is. He's happy, too, in his queer, misty way, and the arrangement is really an excellent one for all concerned. CHAPTER XXIX. AN AFTERDINNER SPEECH, {A hit and miss ball. Aimed at the Pfofessor.) 'AH these scenes do I behold. These, and many left untold In that building long and low ; While the wheel goes round and round And the spinners backward go !" JRE you most ready to sum up, as papa does?" asks Julius, looking up from his troublesome fractions, "I shall be a poor lawyer, dear, at summing up. It would be something like fractions, I suppose ; adding things together, getting a common denominator, or re- ducing to their lowest terms. My fractions, like yours, are decimals — they represent thousands, whose denom- inator is not expressed, but understood. I find the liquor traffic is the country's common denominator, and has already reduced its political morals to about their lowest terms !" ' 'But are you most through, mamma ? My jacket has a button off." ' 'Give me the jacket ; you shall not be neglected. Keep up courage, darling." Before the jacket was returned in repair, I had a 326 AN AFTER DINNER SPEECH. 327 plan. Aunt Kate's more logical tirain should do my summing up. More anon. Now, it's Aunt Kate's very latest— and an after-din- ner speech. I hoped to gain something for your des- sert ; ours was a delicious mince pie- — without a sug- gestion of brandy. It reminded me that she was the mince-meat, and Uncle Tim the spice of Warp and Woof ; but it takes a crust to make the pie. None of this aloud, however. I've kept one secret from her sharp eyes, so far. The talk at the table ran ^/?^^^ enough to print, but it was not political. After dinner we retired to the cheer- ful library — cheerful from Aunt Kate's face, her chil- dren's mirrored reilection, and the bright Baltimore re- flecting on the unique red and gold walls. I snuggled down by the fire, while Aunt Kate, as is her wont, sat by the table and drop-light, looking over the Daily and reading aloud little items of interest; among the rest an elegant after-dinner speech. "After-dinner speeches are quite the rage^-time you, were practicing, Aunt Kate !" "Well," she acknowledged, "I ^at'^ something to s^y to Frof. Adolphus" booking towards the open doorway. "Nowisy.o,urtime !" I started up quick. "Takethat high-stepping Eegasus of big words and high-sounding phrases — whip up — outdo him if possible !" I like to see Aunt Kate make him dodge — just a lit- tle — when he stands so straight and square in the Re- publican ranks — ^just as he did under Sherman — ready to obey orders, if it takes him "into the very jaws of death—into the mouth" — No ; that was a slip — ^he's withal a good Christian^ and he'll never get there ! 328 WARP AND WOOF. Aunt Kate, like the rest, needed a little urging, and I said : ' 'I can see that you are becoming dangerously full of your righteous indignation ! A speech might enlight- en him and relieve you." This I said low, arid Prof. A^ was already pre- siding at his study table. Her cherry and greytea- gbwn was elegant enough for a dinner dress. She snatched a paper from the table, marched in, and made her very lowest bow. We followed. ' "Some fast writing now," I whispered to Beth, and she was ready. With a quizzical smile the Professor made his very best bow in return. He's always good-natured after dinner. In an inspired v6ice, and with a rhetorical wave of the hand, our graceful orator began : "My country's inteVnal enemies stand convicted of high crime ! It's my country ! I have inherited it through a long line of good ancestry ! Some of my family's name and their deeds are recorded in a book — some on war records, more on peaceful, fertile hillsides. Because I love it, and for its sake, I would have the criminals punished ! If Dr. Guthrie's words were true of Scotland years ago, what language now is too strong? Listen!" She read from her paper. "Must I, too," she continued, "tell the people their sins and mistakes?" "No," said Adolphus, nervously, and shuffling hia papers, ' 'I thing you had better find out for yourself first." "I wish, mamma, you would find out the mistake in this problem," said Ernest, with his head bowed over an algebra. AN AFTER DINNER SPEECH. 329 "You boys get too much mathematics and too little patriotism at school, and I must put in my tutoring where it's the most needed," replied Aunt Kate. Prof. Adolphus had laid down his pen and specta- cles, and sat with a "no help-for-it-is-coming" look on his face. ^'Seriously, it seems to me, that the first great mis- take our Country made was in licensing what inevitably produces crime. ' These liquor licenses remind me of Tetze! Selling the' Pope's indulgences to lie, steal, murder, etc." "That opened Luther's eyeS," said Roy, who reads Daubigne, and don't puzzle over the 'Diet of Worms,' as I used to. "That Pope was the head of church and state, held the whole power, and a life office; and couldh't be stopped from thus collecting his-internal reveniietax on crime. Nor could he be put out of "his life office. Our pope \i party ; has only a four years' lease atmost ; can be put out of office for selling such indulg'ences, and it seems to me every voter of this party, his wife, widow, or sister-in-law, whether he or she^ caSts a bal- lot or not, is a /a^/ of the head, eye, ear, muscle, ■>urve hand, or/oo^of this Party Pope, and is responsible for these internal indulgences ! [Uproarious cheers from Roy, while the Professor winced. J Now, as a mbhied measure, it looks to me like turning into the spiggot of receipt, while you let out the bung-hole of pauper and crime expenses !" "Don't try to palm' off that Tetzel illustration as or iginal," said Prof; A — '■ — , desperately trying to change the subject. * 'I heard ^^«^ years ago." ' ' "Well, I'didn't," she' replied, ' "and your criticism 330 WARP AND WOOF. only sJiDws that great minds, be they mea's or wo- men's, do run in the same channels. The illustration is /a/, isn't it?" He deigned no reply, and she went on. "You men claim the monopoly of almost evety- thing but petticoats and bangs, and sometimes they try those, " — provokingly alluding to that third avenue procession and Col. Briggs's hair, — "and as you men claim all the statesmanship and logic, I'll promise to keep off masculine ground if you will answer me » few questions." His look became despairing, for, like the rest of his race, he didn't mind how much a woman "splurges," provided she doesn't ask questions. His "Well, let'& have it!" was a trifle tart. ' 'What is legitimate, merchandised business, Adol- phus?" "Why, hardware, groceries, dry goods, and such things, of course, " — relieved that the first was so easy. ' 'Should not any man under the proper law regula- tions be allowed to engage in such business?" "Why certainly — if he wishes."' "Do you license or tax such business?" "Certainly not, Kate. What an absurdity!" ' 'Is selling beer, wine, whisky, etc. , legitimate busi- ness?" He looked doubtful, and experimented : "Suppose I should say — y-es'?" "Then I ask you, why do you not allow any man, temperance or not, to engage in it ? Is it fair to that class of merchants to restrict their number ; for why in justice hasn't one as good a right as another ? That y0.u alllew in gmaeeries and dry goods. Why do you AN AFTER BINNER SPEECH. 331 compti a man to pay from fifty to five thousand dol- lars for the privilege of doing legitimate buaifless, be- sides proving their good character, and that the com- munity needs it ?" "Mamma would make a pretty good lawyer for them, wouldn't she?" said Ernest, forgetting his alge- bra. "Yes," said I, "from your Uncle A-dolphus's prem- ises she would !" "Well, I'll answer, no," said the Professor, '4t is not regular, legitimate business, and it's only allowed because we make money out of it — ahem ! and because we can't stop it — that's the truth, and now I'll surren- der and go to work !" and he dove for his pen. "Not quite yet — one question more," coaxingly. ''Now, that you class it with its boon companions, murder and gambling, why don't you, like Tetzel, sell your indulgences to steal and gamble, too? If financiers and statesmen decide on this policy, why shouldn't they collect a revenue from the crimes themselves as well as from the cause of these crimes ? Many a man would pay a big price for the privilege of murdering his wife without the slight danger of hanging instead of the publicity of a divorce — and burglary would thus add another to the regular business professions, if con- sistency were not so rare a jewel ! If right and legiti- mate, let everybody engage in it 1 If wrong, " here she brought down a small fist for emphasis, ' 'if wrong and illegitimate, stopix all, forthereis no middle ground, or platform, or patchings between right and wrong which will STAND AT THE LAST DAyI" There was a pause. "Then, to think His Highness, Satan, after his reign 332 WARP AND WOOF. in the Wesf should spread himself like a green bay- tree all overthe East ! He is gilding up lus palaces of art and beauty,' and calling them high license saloons! To think that he can't even be kept out x)f Granite 1 Oh"! boys, if you were only oldsenough to .head him off, or off his head ! Adolphus, how can this be stop- ped ?" "O, " responded our Professc*, as cool as you please, "by education and moral suasion. " "And we Tvomen' have used more of those commod- ities than > whole generations of you men !" answered she, with some fire, "We have warned and instructed the children, talked moral suasion to drunken husbands and hardened liquor sellers. What has it all amounted to? How many Methuselah lives would it take to make one convert? No ; we've been booted for our talk as you know, Adolphus." [He.understood that look. Idid not think Uncle William was that bad.]"We have risen from such abuse to. advocate another way to save the millions sacrificed to the bacchanalian revel. The ballot is the only power that will stop it, and why not use it at once ?" "Because prohiliition never kas, and never ie/«// pro- hibit!" and he Ittoked like Marmion's Rock. "Prohibition is the highest divine law of God's uni- verse," she answered, loftily. "See here, sir, did you not search Portland in vain ? And — remiss as they have been of late^ — their Governor says, 'it has closed every .distillery and brewery- -greatly diminished the sale and use of intoxicating liquors, and increased so- briety and morality among the people. ' Isn't that some- thing ? As one so eloquently says:: '.'If we cannot '^xq- hibit, we are slaves:!: \ivts darexio'i; v^&ste cowards P AN AFTER DINNER SPEEEH. 333 Did you see or hear of it in brave Kansas ? If prohib- itory laws are not always a success, it's because such gentlemen as you, after voting them, step back in their citizen dignity, and leave them to enforce themselves. " "Well," said he, jerking his head back in disdain, "I'm not going nosing around to see what people are at. It's not my business. " Then Aunt Kate's head jerked back, too, and she replied, in her solemnest voice : "The Lord himself could come down from Heaven, and the business of makin^'worlds and regulating stars (He is a greater astronomer than you) to see what one Cain was doing, and to hand him, too ! and if such work was not beneath Him; you needn't feel it beneath your dignity to come down from your observatory to look after the many worse Cains of to-day !" He laughed heartily at her tragic tone, and I do think he was convinced that prohibition does prohibit, and it was someone's duty to follow up Satan's nosings. I went home to be greeted by the "goo-goo" of the twinnies, standing hand in hand at the top of the stairs looking in their nighties more beautiful than Raphael cherubs. But Julius was screaming in a closet, and Clara, as calm and quiet as a church steeple in the moonlight, saying: "Howl away, Julius, it sounds just like music !" He's a generous boy, my Julius is, and was giving the neighbor's children pickles and had upset the jar. Mother had locked him in the closet, and released him on condition that he would study his Sabbath School lesson! "The Lord gave the word and great was the company of them that published it, " he repeated in a loud voice. ' 'I suppose Mr. Jacobs (who is our editor) is one of 'em." 334 WARP AND WOOF. "Hear that wifey; among them all you'll find a pub- lisher," Beth ran in a day or two later with story- telling eyes. "O, Ida, its just too funny for anything I You know Bridget has gone--and some other things besides. I had a headache this morning, and mamma had everything in the world to do. She was all tired out and discour- aged when the door-bell rang. She went down in her apron and dusting-cap and there was Mr. Blossom ! I was over my headache and at the register pretty quick ! You don't think it's wicked in me, or mean ? Am I not an interested party, I'd like to know ? And, cousin Ida, he was so gracious and soothing and cour- teous — I presume he was squeezing her hand. I begin to have hopes ! O, you should have heard him say, 'Never, never, shall these sordid cares weigh down your aspiring spirit — never shall those hands be con- taminated by the touch of dish-water or coal-hod ! I promise you freedom from all such vexations. I want you to grace my parlor as you alone can adorn it ! May I not hope my patience is to be rewarded ?" Now wouldn't that be nice ? His sister is so domestic, mamma wouldn't have a thing to do !" "But what did your mamma answer to such a glow- ing picture, Beth ?" "She didn't say 'yes.' I don't think she said 'no.' 'Some other time — I'm not myself this morning,' I distinctly heard. 'But Vva. myself,' he said, 'and some other time may be eternity if you go to Wash- ington without this decision. Some Senator—. ' He was just leaving then and they were in the hall and I could get a good view. Mamma caught a look at herself cap and general forlornness in the mirror. "Twas too AN AFTER DINNER SPEECH. 335 ludicrous to think of catching a Senator and she burst out a-laughing. I guess he mistook her, for he bounded off like a boy. And mamnaa said aloud to herself — its her way sometimes, you know — 'Love me for myself ? Fudge, he knows no more about me-old friend that he is — than he does the ten lost tnbes !" I crept back on the ■couch and closed my eyes and she came back and fin- ished her dusting. Looking into a partly open drawer, I don't know what she saw ; perhaps a picture — she shut that draA^er with a bang that sounded like no. I hope not, I don't think," Beth rattled on, "she could do better than to have him, do you, Cousin Ida, sup- posing they don't agree about temperance and bap- tism !" "Yes, Beth," — I now found a chance tospeak^ — "I do think his comfortable feather-bed sort of religion is just what your mamma needs — for a foil — she's so terribly downright and earnest ; and then if he were once marrred and that off his mind he might pay some attention to Dick. Julius was bad enough before he came, but he's wofse ever since." It is the Jackson ball, again offered, I mused — ^last- ingly sweet and tempting — but he does not hurrah for her candidate ! CHAPTER XXX. SUMMING AND WINNING. {Tlie finest white of all.) I think we ihall find after all at the end, When these different opinions in harmony blend, When the peace song is sung, and the white banner furled, That fanatics have struck some stout blows for the' world. ) HE original plan for an orderly summing up of the temperance subject was a ' 'Parlor Meeting" like Aunt Kate's. Her little teas had been de- lightful social occasions and /would have the toniest ladies and the dantiest lunch. .Give Aunt Kate a philanthropic motive and all the rest is assured. And assured was I that she would make the neatest, con- cisest little speech, that would win members to our W, C. T, U., and with Beth's stenographic pen, give you a concluding chapter. 'fGive them a little outline of temperance work and workers in the present century — just a peef only at the grand Crusade. (My school girl poem — of which I give you a verse in the heading- — Aunt Kate says, entitles me to the laurel, too, and I'll wear it as proudly as though my head was gray.) "Something about our 19th Century Brigade, and a fewcoaxey words," I added. \ SUMMING AND WINNING. 33/ As you have seen, Aunt Kate's trials never soured her — at least, not perceptibly. If the milk of human kindness has ever curdled one bit, she's added enough of the soda of christian grace to mix up a sparkling character. Rich, magnetic, genuine, none could re- sist the charm of her presence as she assisted me in receiving the guests. There was but the faintest, daintiest reserve on the tips of Mrs. Judge Jacob's fingers, but it gave me a warm thought of the book as a vindication of her and her principles. Should this reach the public — and those fingers ? Well, my mind will be relieved ; and as one work is work enough for one life, I hoped that when Vesuvius has had its full eruption and scattered its deluge of fiery thoughts on an amazed world, it would be quiet henceforth and not keep up a scarry rumbling and smoking as if more might follow. Thus I mused, not wholly absorbed with my charm- ing company. At my signal Beth's brilliant render- ing of some Bethoven symphonies hushed the buz- zing soprano's. There was also a choice recitation from Cousin Carrie Lester, and then Aunt Kate, framed in the archway, announced her theme as ' 'broad as hu- manity's and deep as her heart's life, " but she at- tempted no dark picture of it ; but rather sought to gather something bright froni its shadowy gloom. "Back in the misty morning's past darkness," she be- gan, " rose like a Bethlehem star the new 19th Cen- tury. It came, says the logic of subsequent events — 7o set the captive free.' Already has it lightened heathendom, rent slavery's chains ; and with new flash- ing lights of science and forces of love and law shall not its close see Alcohol's victims free ? We glance 22 338 WARP AND WOOF. backward and see its glimmering dawning. Dr. Rush, the one fanatical temperance light in a conservative, in- temperate world. Then followed a bright flash and Dr. Lyman Beecher with a fiery pen wrote his Six Temper- ance Sermons, and thundered them forth to a startled world. Hear his clarion warning: 'Our vices are digging the grave of our liberties and preparing to entomb our glory!' It cleared the air a little, and 600,000 fol- lowed loving Father Matthews guidance. In 1833, to declare their independence, a group of temperance fathers assembled in Philadelphia. Dr. Rush's name is written on our history's — two immortal 'In- dependence' pages ! There was another gathering at Saratoga Springs, and a shy young girl sat the first woman in temperance council !" It was no glittering torch-light of drum and tramp Aunt Kate now sketched — but a bold, clear day — life panorama as the good and true of the past marched rapidly before us. I knew she was thinking of Uncle Fred-?-as she spoke of some whom God had suffered to sink very low that in rising they might lift others up. "Those this side are bearing their heavy cross. The other side they are. glory crowned !" In brief outline she reviewed the different temperance batallions along the lines. "Yet, "she reported, "we find with all the earnest marching soldiery, except in Maine — no laws had been enforced that had protected one mother's boy or tempted husband." Here her figure changed ; her eye kindled ; her hand pointed eastward as she said: "Little protection to New York Harbor would be fair Liberty's light, if an enemy was night and day destroying this haven by throwing in great rocks, and forming circling, eddying whirlpools ! While these SUMMING AND WINNING. 339 lights and mother love had been seeking to protect the little crafts, she, herself, had launched on life's waters, liqicof laws and liquor interests were filling even the harbor of boyhood with treacherous rocks and open- ing fatal whirlpools. And beyond boyhood (a minor) into manhood's angry ocean there was no law beacon ! Ah sisters," as she swept her glistening eye around, "do you wonder that women cried and prayed for pro- tection to these freighted precious, barks ? But Hell-gate saloons, shoals and angry liquor ocean demon, only laughed derision, But God saw the tear, heard the prayer, and said, 'Go, woman, thyself, amid the wild waves, and I will be with thee!' Some obeyed that strange mandate, and are immortalized as the women of the Crusade ! It was another and spontaneous expres- sion of Woman's Rights !" Ears pricked up suddenly, but she continued : "The right of the wife to the hus- band, given her by God and human law — the right of a mother to her own boy !' Very brieily she told of its conception, and described the little Saratoga girl, now grown to a Judge's wife, leading the first band from out the little church at Hillsboro, Ohio, and a very little only of her own \yestern crusading. . Her voice began low, but rose majestic as she said : "Efifortsare ours — results are God's, and he crowned all with glorious success. From this chrysalis thought sprang the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, but it was no butterfly — more like a bee." With beautiful word-painting, she introduced the officers of this fair brigade. She spoke of the sacrifice in rank and file, in great things and small — even the little fancy-work we love and plan to do in that indefinite period when the children are grown — remarking : ' 'Per. 340 WARP AND WOOF. haps God notes all these sacrifices, and as we weave on in our life's carpet" [I thought of Warp and Woof] — ' 'always wrong side out, who knows but our life art- work may not surpass any touch of brush or design of needle ? We'll see it bye and bye. " She reminded us that "our Rock — the fulcrum. — is Christ Jesus, but the lever to move the world is in woman's hands and that one who gives in His name a total abstinent ex- ample, a plan, leaflet, prayer, or like one hostess opens her pretty home for the good cause — these all have a hand on the lever, and thus our souls are linked with the angels in each doing Christ's bidding." Her words come strong and clear now. "War and brute forces are receding into the past, and the spir- itual and more feminine powers are crowning the women of this day, age and country with glorious op- pottunities ! It is indeed the Woman's Century of the world history ! Our life here is but a trial-trip on Time's river, ere our bark is launched on the ocean of eternity ! Shall we prove seaworthy ? Such privileges as ours were never before given to women. Then let us present ourselves a thank-offering and be ready to enter His open doors. It may be a little thing we can do — only a word — a song — a smile ; but like a pebble ■ in the brooklet, it starts a ripple, which moves on and on and circles at last into Eternity's ocean. Are the responsibilities of life's ads grave f The responsibil- ities of life's neglects are graver." Then in a practical way, she urged us not to hide our temperance talents in a napkin of indifference. Idlers would soon be in an unfashionable minority. "When the victory shall have come," she warned, ' 'there will be young bright eyes looking into our SUMMING AND WINNING. 34 1 dim ones and questioning about what we did in those great old days; and if we wish our posterity to be proud of us we must have the courage of right convictions now. The temperance men need the help of every woman ; help to instruct and influence the voter of to-day ; help to pledge and educate the voter of to-morrow! The truth is, as has been proved by the past years, that the men alone cannot roll into oblivion this car of Jugger- not that is crushing its thousands of victims. We shall be saved, not by faith and folded arms, but by FAITH and POINTED AIMS ! "Our family legend runs that when my grandfather was erecting in newly settled Plymouth the first grist mill, all the men of the hamlet came, as was neighborly custom to the raising! From rough toil — with arms sin- ewy — each post and beam moved easily to its place ;. all but one — and this was the one that welded the frame together and upon which all its support depended. Each man bent heavily to his lever bar. 'Heave-away, ' cried the builder, but their utmost and united strength was not sufficient to lift it further. It poised in mid air, and the frame was vascillating in the winds. To drop it was to be crushed ! The women, watching from the opposite bank of the river, saw the danger. They sank on their knees and wept and prayed — in vain. But grandmother's voice, louder than the Rushaway's, aroused them \.o personal action ! 'Sisters !' she loudly cried, "If we would have our husbands and sons saved to-night, tvs must go and help ! If they perish, we perish with them !" Quickly they followed her rapid footsteps over the new bridge and took their places by the side of father, brother, husband and lover. The beam lifted! Mortice met socket and all 342 WARP AND WOOF. were saved ! What ostracism for a man to have deemed such backbone labor undignified or unprofessional, and refuse it ! Or for a woman to have selfishly lin- gered on the Rushaway's bank, because her brother or friend were safe on the mountain side, or because she thought it unlady-like ! But does not such fas- tidiousness find its counterpart to-day in the descend- ants of the Plymouths, who stand on society's banks with silly excuses and hearts that are indifferent to the fate of our Republic and her sons ? To be sure, those sons saw their danger and gladly accepted motherly help, while our Republic's are blind sxidfinniky !" Aunt Kate has such sublime contempt for the men who are quite willing their wives should handle broom, scrubbing-brush and frying-pan — but mercy no — wouldn't for the world have their hands soiled with a ballot, that this repellant word "finniky" would crop out ! "Women ! the frame-work of our unfinished Repub- lic is vascillating in the political winds ! One little hamlet group on the banks of a great alcoholic Rush- away is trying to lift the beam of justice to its proper place. Like grandfather, they would have its power grind the bread for humanity. They call for 'kelp' to save our heavily framed republic ! Amid this mighty cataract's roar men standing around — some behind their pulpits — hear them not ! Amidst its foaming spray they see not the danger ! We women do see ! It's our sons — our husbands to be saved from death — or a worse than death. We, too, are tearfully praying, but all in vain, I fear, unless we follow brave leaders who call 'On to the rescue !' Shall we, too, not quickly cross this new bridge of privilege and lift side by side -HUMMING AND WINNING. 343 with these brave brothers ? Ow united strength would save. Remember if our Republic goes down, we must fall with it! There is a beyond. " Looking beyond the little parlor as the light came brilliantly through our doorway, she thus pictured one last thought on our memory. ' 'There was a stained glass window in a foreign cathedral made of the little, odd, scattered fragments of glass, which had been left over from the other windows. The artist had formed these little pieces wondrously together. Was it very beautiful ? One looking at it from the outside saw no beauty whatever — ^just some form of stars — a faint touch of color — dim combinations. He had come from afar to see this wonder of the world and it was sadly disappointing. He passed inside the cathedral, and was lost in joy and amazement at the beauty, harmony, and glory of the chancel window. The great Artist \s gathering the little fragments of time, thought, money and ballots — each of these, perhaps, some- thing left over from other duty — odd and unique ; but He knows where each will fit, how to arrange the bright stars among the duller bits, just where this little dia- mond should sparkle, and how to blend all harmon- iously together. Yet, looking as w^ must, from the outside — this side — it is disappointing. Little harmony, beauty, glory or success in the temperance work. But if the acts of earth make t\\& pictutes of heaven, shall it not be, when we pass over the other side inside the arches of its cathedral that we shall see the com- plete, glorified picture, made by the life-acts of the temperance men, women and little children of the Nineteenth Century? Then let us each give some- 344 WARP AND WOOF. thing of our own, or ourselves for this, our great Art- ist's own GRAND mosaic !" " So let it be, in God's own might, We gird us for the coming fight, And strong in Hirn whose cause is ours. In conflict with unholy powers, We grasp the weapons he has given — The Light, and Truth, and Love of Heaven !" CHAPTER XXXI. A SUMTER GUN. {Trouble with the warp.) " Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive," fOME one has said that "slamming a door is a woman's oath." I wouldn't say "Aunt Kate 'swore," but she did bang my front door! ' ' Love, " she always said, ' ' has its Mason and Dixon line. " And now I have crossed it. That bang was as sharp and-decisive as the Sumter gun ! Will this little unpleasantness last forever, or only four years ? I've always been completely under her general government thumb, and this, too, is a State Right's trouble over private property. ' 'Quite too private altogether, " she would say. ' 'Abandon, " shall I ? and after all my hard work? Ay ! there's the rub. Frank, dear man, with outward calm and inward desperation has tended the babies in order that I might place an effort of genius before the public ! Mother has darned and mended ; Julius, dear boy Julius, has sharpened pencils and fitted pens for the sake of his own mamma's book; Clara has wiped dishes; and the twinnies, with preter- natural intelligence, have attended to their own cherubic noses and munched indigestible pastry in 345 346 WARP AND WOOF. silence ! After all this, shall I surrender my pet in- stitution ? Give up my property ? (It's all in black and white like the Southerner's). No! never! The coolness between Aunt Kate and myself be- gan last week at the artist's. I had set my heart on having my book illustrated. Pictures do brighten up so — besides, they make it go farther. Mine, like the story, should be taken from real life. Ernest has uplifted both nose and camera at my officious bidding and grouping. I have a good picture of her for a frontispiece. I had pilfered old lovers and friends from the antiquated albums to scatter in along, but how should I secure an allegorical "pedes- tal" picture for that chapter? Remembering how quickly and unconsciously our New York artist cap- tures her lofty expressions, I entered into a secret and daring conspiracy with him to take her draped in the American flag ! She readily went to help me with the twins — who were the foil — and her eyes brightened when in the sky-light she saw our beauti- ful silken scarf. An innocent looking boy and a draped camera were in waiting. Everything prom- ised success. But just there the artist mistook his subject. He intimated that he had just been taking an impression of a noted actress as a Goddess of Liberty. "Let me throw it over your shoulders a moment, Mrs. Van Dressen, just to see how you look in the character," and he came toward her. But she shrank from the flag this actress had worn as though it had been a viper ! "She's a Goddess of Liberty, I should say!" and A SUMTER GUN. 347 Aunt Kate fled from the room. I followed and ex- postulated : "Now do, Aunt Kate, humor his whim; there is really no contamination. No woman's life, home or foreign^ can soil our national emblem." "Dress yourself in it, then, Ida; you are younger and better looking ; and how ridiculous I would look /" It was no use to talk or argue. She needn't have been so finniky. I couldn't get over the disappoint- ments of that day, for the babies were frightened, and set up a howl that spoilt their pictures, too. This might have been forgotten — in time. But when, one day, Kathleen appeared with the flour- dredge and Helen with the ink bottle, and she likened (not the first time either) my priceless cherubs to the twin vices — Kathleen to intemperance, perverting the cereals from a right to a wrong use; and Helen to the social evil, blackening all by its contact — I could endure it no longer. Twin vices! The 'pedestal' was nothing to this. It was a John Brown execution of ^notherly pride preparing the way for this after- noon's Sumter-gun bang! She came in suddenly. I was sitting in the bay window putting an elaborate square patch on the rear of Julius' pants, to which I quickly called attention, for the table was strewn with manuscript; but no — she saw it, and her own name thereon ! She gave the poor little whooping twins a hasty brush instead of the usual kiss, seated her- self emphatically in a very shaky rocker, and de- manded what it meant. Was George Washington's father's eye as stern as Aunt Kate's that he '^couldn't tell a lie ? " My pen had been the tempting hatchet. Like him, I now told the whole truth, expatiating 348 WARP AND WOOF. on my exalted motive- — to vindicate her from the charge of fanaticism ! Did she doubt me, and think it literary vanity? Or, doesn't she care to be vindi- cated, so long as she can believe in and respect her- self ? She showed no appreciation, and I was not praised like the immortal George, for not telling a lie. Indeed, I had never seen Aunt Kate so angry. I appealed to her philanthropy — the opportunity of sending out her life-story as a missionary to .the uttermost parts of the earth, to do the good grandpa had so wished us all to do. I reminded her that she had inspired my literary ambitions — had always ap- proved of stories of " real life " and not make " be- lieves" — had even asked me to parade my own love affairs for the benefit of the temperance cause! I had done so. Were her love affairs more sacred than mine? I watched the effect. She had softened and was captured on her own logical premises, surrender- ing quite graciously. I should have stayed there, but I did not, I stepped off, so to speak, on the parsonage grounds by saying: " I hope you will give me a basis of fact by marry- ing; but whether you do or not, I must of course marry you off at the end of my story. " There was, I explained, a certain incompleteness in a story which left its heroine a widow. I told her there was no poetry or romance in such a conclusion. I considered it more befitting a heroine to marry, and such a finale would impart to her a dignity and solemnity other- wise lacking. She demurred decidedly. "The idea of marrying me off ! You'll have all the incongruity of a crape veil looped back with orange blossoms." A SUMTER GUN. 349 "But," I said "it is not consistent with the entity of the story not to marry my heroine." Tiien Aunt Kate, in her excitement, swung loose from her grammatical moorings, and said she didn't care nothing about my entities. "Aunt Kate, think what an inspiration and en- couragement to the widows all over the land — -to the war widows, the drunkards' widows, the grass-widows, and the widows bewitched, if I should marry you off at the end of the book to good Rev. Blossom, with a chime of bells and flourish of trumpets." There was a pause — an ominous pause. She arose and came towards me. '"Never, never," she screamed, "will I submit to such an outrage, though it were Martin Luther! O, Ida! after all I've done for you!" It is true Aunt Kate has done everything for me — except write my obituary poetry — and about that we had made a mutual ministerial funeral sermon arrange- ment. I now arose, laying down the small corduroys. In this desperate emergency I laid down a proposition as square and bungling as the patch thereon. If she would allow me to marry her off as I chose in my story, and write up the International for me, I would give her half of the profits ! ' You should have seen her' eyes then! I really might have known better, for that, she declared, was "the unkindest cut of all. Why, Ida! to be married off again for paltry gold, if once wasn't enough!" With the concentrated uppishness of all the Pythiases of all the generations in her nose, she shook out her drapery with a flourish that left just visible her sham underskirt, and muttering those historic words: "In- 350 WARP AND WOOF. gratitjide is the basest of crimes T' She sailed through my narrow entry and banged my front door. She shook her whip threateningly at a small boy who dared hitch on behind, and drove down street shower- ing the mud and slush for rods behind. The parson- age door opposite opened cautiously, and a grave, rosy, reverend face appeared, wearing a look of slight alarm. It speedily vanished and I sat down to meditate, my reflections adopting the words of the melancholy hymn floating outward from the shed, where Frank, splitting kindlings, with every descent of the hatchet thundered out: " Mistaken soul that dreams of bliss!" Surely it is not to be found in author-land. I was expecting, you know, to go with her to that Wash- ington Council of Women. I've paid my dollar, got my card, yellow ribbon and all. I was intending to write up this woman question for a sort of doxology at the close; but here are my whole family down with the whooping-cough and I must stay at home. Aunt Kate'll go; but no good will it do me, or will she ever do me again! But one thing, she never shall blast me with her blank-verse obituary poetry ; and if she tried rhymes she'd make outrageous mis- takes in the meter! I "shant live long anyway, if this goes on, and I'll write my own obituary poem this very day and have it ready! Perhaps I'd better make my will, too ! This manuscript shall go to the cause ! I had scarcely finished those lugubrious lines, (really Aunt Kate couldn't have done worse), and sealed my will, when cousin Beth bounded in, all eyes and laughter! Amid her violent explosives A SUMTER GUN. 35I I gathered these facts: That Aunt Kate gave her answer to Rev. Blossom last night; or, rather, she didrit give her answer, for she told him she could not decide ; and, rather than give herself any more sleep- less nights, she should, during her stay at the Inter- national, refer the matter to Miss Anthony and Miss Willard and leave it entirely to their judgment. " I consider them,'' Beth heard at the register, "two of the wisest women on the globe, and, no doubt, they have had just such experiences, and will give me their counsel with pleasure; and, besides, they represent the important subjects of Woman Suffrage and Pro- hibition upon which we can never agree ! " "How I'd like to have peeked through the por- tierrejustthen," said Beth, " and seen Rev. Blossom's face, but mamma is very suspicious lately, and I dare not attempt it. But I heard his answer, hurt like : ' Kate, you surely will not take this matter of affection to be decided by utter strangers ! ' " "I doubt, dear friend," mamma said, very slowly, "whether this is a matter of genuine affection — or I could not have seemed even to trifle with it — and these ladies are no strangers ! They are dear friends, and would be entirely disinterested! My mind is made up. I shall take the matter to them, and if they are unwilling to decide, I may possibly submit it to the council;" and mamma laughed herself at the idea, and then solemnly: "I will not be longer in doubt as to duty." "You've kept me in doubt long enough,'' he an- swered, jumping up. "I fled up stairs,'' said Beth, "but I don't think the scowl I saw from the window looked ministerial 352 WARP AND WOOF. at all. To think that whether I have a new papa or not, depends on that Washington Council, makes it awfully solemn ! " Beth looked anything but solemn as she whispered, "Don't tell," and tripped merrily down the street to join Lionel Briggs waiting on the corner. CHAPTER XXXII. GLIMPSES HERE AND THERE. {^Butternut and yellow together?) " They talk about a woman's sphere As though it had a limit; There's not a place in earth or heaven, There's not a task to mankind given, There's not a blessing or a woe, There's not a whispered yes or no, There's not a life, or death, or birth That has a feather's weight of worth. Without a woman in it!" EAR RUTHIE HERBERT, of Keniway , memory, visited me on her way home from the West. Through that delightful week, above the wailing of the twinnies and the squabbling of the older children, the alto and soprano rose in delicious confabulation, and we began every morning with re- newed zeal. Ruthie's digestion was all right and everything tasted good. She thought my children splendid, and that fired me with new courage ! The memory of that blessed visit will never leave me till I reach the better country and talk over old times with the saints. Willie was dead! I had heard of his death two years previous, but I had not heard of his last words. A constitution weakened by excessive drinking had succumbed easily to a malarial fever. The news- papers that eulogized his talents, and lamented the 353 23 354 WARP AND WOOF. early darkening of a leading light in journalism, omitted to mention the true cause of his death, or his last regretful words. ' ' Ida was right after all — there is no such thing as moderation ; it is prohibition or excess." When Ruthie, with brimming eyes, told me these things, I retreated to the kitchen, and it was no harm to Frank that I dropped some bitter tears for the brown-haired lover of my girlhood. Yes, tears! But mine were few and for a long-ago lover; but the tears are falling all the time, and through salt seas of them the black craft of infamy ploughs its way, relentlessly, remorselessly, unceas- ingly! Ruthie stayed until the council week, and decided to go on to Washington with Aunt Kate and Cousin Carrie. I had a glimpse of Aunt Kate in a brief and frosty call which she made on the day of leaving. She really looked very well for a woman of her age. She took her old black velvet (it has been made over, and is positively elegant), and she wore her sealskin' sack, given her as a sort of thank- offering by Prof. Adolphus after she had nursed him through that Blaine fever, and a bonnet which I must admit was very becoming. She had that peculiarly lofty ex- pression which she always assumes when any men- tion is made of a higher sphere for woman, and her W. C. T. U. badge and yellow ribbon pinned on with that ridiculous Ebcnezer pin, of which she is so vain. She, Carrie and Ruthie went off together; and, as if that wasn't enough, mother's yarns and rags marched off in state on Mike's shoulder to Mrs. Washington's to be woven. It deepened the im- GLIMPSES HERE AND THERE. 355 pression that everything was going to Washington but me. "Watch Aunt Kate well — incipient insanity," were my last base words to Ruthie and Carrie. "O, to what depths will not human nature plunge to obtain the latest news!" was one of my remorseful reflections, as I was left behind in the midst of a huge pile of spring sewing, a jumping toothache and four children down with the whoop- ing cough 1 The neighbors all said I ought to be very thankful that warm weather was coming instead of cold, for the children's sake, but positively, when L saw the train move off toward the city and looked around on the pile of blue-checked gingham, and the four whooping little savages, I felt as if I could cry. But I musn't cry with a sick family around me, so I ran the sewing machine heroically. Clara and Julius whooped, the twinnies coughed and strangled, Frank came home with a lame ankle, mother had premoni- tions of a sore throat, my tooth throbbed and twanged, two visitors dropped in to dinner, and on the top of it all came a peddler and somebody with a subscription list for a stained glass window in the church ! That was the proverbial last straw. I glared at the unfortunate girl who presented the paper, and showed her out with a list none the longer and an opinion of Mrs. Frank Brooks none the better. The day wore away. I was so glad when the twilight fell, for fear something more might happen, and plentifully reinforced with datnip-tea, cough-syrup, liniment and paregoric, our disconsolate family crept off up stairs. 356 WARP AND WOOF. After I had put the babies to bed, I took my yel- low ribbon from the drawer and gave it a long look. I don't expect to wear it, except on state occasions, for the dear twinnies cannot be made to understand that it represents a great moral idea, and insist upon putting their chubby hands, all dough or molasses, as the case may be, straight on the gorgeojas em- blem. But on this evening I gave it a long look and seemed to trace in its deep color the depths of thought and warmth of heart which characterizes its wearers. Surely it is appropriate that / wear a yellow ribbon, for yellow had always been a lucky color for me and mine. There were the fluffy dandelions that grew on the dear old Keniway common, and I remem- bered that I held a glorious bunch of them in my hand that afternoon that I quarreled with Willie Herbert over John Brown's execution. There were the homely "butter and eggs" that grew along the weedy pastures at Keniway Flats, where Aunt Kate and I "shood'' away the cows; and the sprays of honeysuckle at her belt when we rode through the haunted Douglass woods together, the sweet-scented lilies that blossomed by the piazza when I sent Willie off and wouldn't give up my woman's notions for His man's idea! Yes, and there was the wild, windy March sunset when I stood by a westward window and Frank told me his love story, and the sky was one sheet of deepest, purest orange from zenith to horizon ! Even on my wedding day the boquet at my corsage had been of deep-hearted yellow roses. Surely this color had always been for me associated with triumph — never with defeat — and this must not be the beginning. GLIMPSES HERE AND THERE. 357 I laid the bright bit away among the rather sober ribbons and laces in the drawer, and went to bed to dream of an International Council, addressed by Cadijah, first wife of Mahomet, on the subject of "Woman, as a Pirate." I told my dream in the morning, and mother repeated her one sign in which she places implicit faith : "Dream of the dead, and you'll hear from the living." Sure enough, in the afternoon Julius burst in ex- claiming: "Mamma, mamma, there's an old man coming up our steps with a valise and umbrella! Maybe he's a peddler." Opening the door, before me stood dear Uncle Tim Whitaker, dressed in his store clothes, and with a quizzical smile on his shrewd old face. " Why, Uncle Tim," I said, " I'm ever so glad to see you. Come right in! Frank and mother will be so glad, too." "Wall," said the old man, after his butternut overcoat had been removed and he sat beside the grate, "the old woman and I've been kinder visitin around this winter; we 'lowed as how 'twould be the last trip, we ever took till we checked our baggage for the New Jerusalem, and I felt as if I'd kinder like to see you and take a look at your twins ; and she said she'd go on to Keniway, for she'd no idea you'd want to see us here in Granite." " Why not, for pity's sake?" I inquired; "That's what I told her. 'Sez I, Idy and Frank and their ma be jist the same in Granite as Keniway. ' 'You see, sez I,' 'they be somebody, and aint no call 358 WARP AND WOOF. to be afeerd to speak to their old acquaintances. You see folks that aint sure what they be, and know that nobody else aint sure neither, kinder see-sawin, so to speak, twixt somethin and nothin, aint safe folks to go visitin to unawares. I haint nothin but the most charitable feelins towards 'em, and wish to be so understood', sez I, ' but Idy and her ma aint that kind.'" "No," I answered, laughing, "I'm delighted to see you, if only you don't mind the noise." "That's what I come for," said the old man de- lightfully. " Babies seem to have kinder run out in our section, and I'm starvin for the sight of 'em." He stayed a week at our earnest request, and Frank declared he had seldom enjoyed a week better, and I felt that Uncle Tim and his racy talk was the very next thing to going to the International. "Them blessed little varmints," Helen and Kathleen, climbed upon his arm chair and rode to Banbury Cross on his knee, and stood round-eyed beside him munching the peppermints from his capacious pockets. He pro- nounced them the smartest pair of twins since the time of Jacob and Esau. Many a bit of Keniway news he brought us, which, told in his quaint fashion, was doubly interesting. Sam Ackerman was dead — "died in the gutter just as he had lived," said Uncle Tim. " Miss Ack- erman had kinder lived along forty years, expecting to reform him , but when he died she seemed to give up hope, and she died, too. Their children though be a doin well^ especially Carline, the girl. You, re- member the little young one as your grandpa kissed just afore he died. Wall, she's a school-marm out in GLIMPSES HERE AND THERE. 359 Leavenworth and gits big wages. She was one of them first wimmen as voted there. Just as your grandpa said, the better day's come for her. Deacon Hawkins — the church has sorter concluded that run- nin a church and rum-tavern was too much to onst, and they've bounced him. He's kinder down and needs somebody to pick up his wig for him, for he's reely made himself ridickerlous. " " Is he still in the postofifice ? " I inquired. "Laws, no, Idy — he's been out of that sometime. Folks thought there were too many queer mistakes with the letters, and 'twas said for some time the young folks hadn't got no letters the Deacon didn't approve of. It does seem as though there's nothing like an interest in a rum business for demoralizing a man's whole nature. He's married off his darters howsomever, and the one as married a Noble, and went west, she did well; but she's been dead, Mis' Noble has, a year or so." He paused, reflected and began again : "There didn't never seem to me no sense in that school teacher and your Aunt Kate not hitching bosses; leastwise after that first wife of his'n died, and for that matter, by the way he acted, I believe it was awful hard for him to marry her. When I heard she was dead I thought it would be Kate sure pop; but everybody said how'd she's engaged to Elder Blossom! Somhow she didn't marry him, neither." "I'm so sorry," he said for the fourteenth time, " Mis' Van Dressen's gone away. I do somhow believe 'twould have given me a new lease of life to seen Kate. I heard of that 'ere Council fore I got 360 WARP AND WOOF. here, and thought 'twould be just like her to go to it, I staid over night in New York, and I see'd the notice of a big meeting at Chickerin Meetin House, and I went. 'Twas late, but it paid — he was a pow- erful speaker. He mentioned that 'ere Council — why, cracky, how forgetful I be — I knew I'd seen him somwhere. Why, it. vi&5 Noble himself ! Hair streaked with grey, and big fine lookin ; somethin, too, about his eyes kinder solemn arid bright, as if he'd been through a shadder and it lay on him yet. I believe that 'ere shadder won't be lifted till he greets your aunt in another world." ' "Maybe he won't wait for another world. Per- haps — who knows — he might meet her in Wash- ington," said mother, hopefully as usual. "No they wont!" said F; "there'll be a Rey. Blossom, or a Deacon Hawkins, or some other con- catenation of circumstances to keep them apart ! How would they meet in a great crowd? And they wouldn't know each other if they did." "They'd know each other; don't you be afeared of that," said Uncle Tim. "Thatlcind of folks ain't changed to each other by time and distance. Well, he's a gentleman yet, no mistake." Uncle Tim resumed the Keniway news and said: " Lige Pike's darter Addy, she's been ruined by some rich feller and her pa can't git no justice done him at a court of law. Lige, he could put the law on the feller that pizened his dog to the bitter eend, but there's some quibble in this case that prevents his gittin justice done to the pizener of his darter's virtoo. Hain't quite worked it up to humanity yet; GLIMPSIiS HERE AND THERE. 361 but a better day is comin bye and bye, and I expect your grandpa's a rejoicin over it in heaven.'' A characteristic letter from Ruthie Herbert was the next thing : "Dearly Beloved Ida Brooks: — I take it for granted you are as anxious to hear as I to write of our experiences. To begin with our journey, Rev. Blossom bade us adieu at Granite depot, and the last glimpse I had was of his mildly 'sot' countenance as we steamed away. At Philadelphia, a Mrs. De- Quincy, right in the cars threw her arms around your Aunt Kate's neck and burst into tears. Happy tears though, for she smiled radiantly through them. It has since come out that she is Rex Van Dressen's wife, and was reformed through your Aunt Kate's kindness and sympathy. No wonder she worships Mrs. Van Dressen. She is a lovely woman, with a face that has a story in it, and a singularly attractive manner. Plenty of distinguished people were on the train, and your Aunt made scores of conquests among them. But I must tell you what she did at Washington. It is too inexhaustibly funny, and I must tell you even though it involves the confession of a little eavesdropping. We obeyed your injunction to watch, and she did seem nervous and preoccupied, and insisted on going straight to the Riggs house. I was tired and wanted to go to our boarding place, but she carried- her point. There is no withstanding her, so Mrs. Lester and I dragged our tired selves thither. Mrs. Lester once ventured to ask her why this anxiety for headquarters, but she merely replied that Miss Willard and Susan B, would be there. ' Yes, but you don't want to see them to-night, do you Auntie? ' ' I must have it off my mind,' was her reply. What "it" was, she did not say; and with what you call an 'inspired look' in her eye, we dared not ask. On we marched, and found that Miss Willard and Miss Anthony were in the red 362 WARP AND WOOF. parlor, conferring over another council. She grace- fully entered, and I blush to admit that we heard the conversation. What do you think she was say- ing? Ida Brooks you can never guess, so I must tell you. They recognized and met her very cordially. She proceeded to ask their advice in regard to the Rev. Blossom ! Well, I do think / could have made up my mind on such a subject as that without taking it to the International Council. But she couldn't. Miss Willard and Miss Anthony heard her story with deep interest — they're only women after all — and then Miss Willard sighed pro- foundly and said : ' How can two walk together ex- cept they be agreed?' Miss Anthony spoke up: ' You could have the privilege of being a relict then, in case he should die.' To this weighty argument, Mrs. Van Dressen responded that she was a relict already, and might as well be one man's as another's. There was more whispering and conferring, and Aunt Kate came out with a relieved appearance. Mrs. Lester and I nudged each other and followed meekly. Later she posted a letter with a big B on the envelope, remarking, ' Ida shall finish her story to suit herself; what diifference will it make to me ? Poor child, how hasty and unreasonable I was ! ' She came down to dinner, looking fairly radiant in her garnet and jet, and I heard ever so many whisper, ' Who's that?' " The letter closed with a promise to write again, and I laid it aside just as the door-bell rang, and Prof. Adolphus came in. He was lonesome without Aunt Kate, it was plain to see. Something had got wrong with the telescope, and he was apparently finding the week a hard one. To do him justice, I do not think he noticed at all the antiquated "store clothes," but he seemed to regard Uncle Tim him- self something as a bran new comet. The subject of capital punishment came up ; electricity versus hang- GLIMPSES HERE AND THERE. 363 ing — that's his latest hobby — and Uncle Tim told him ' ' Jersey lightning was a makin criminals pretty fast, and wasn't it more important to prevent a new crop than to git up new ways of disposin of the old ones?" Prof. Adolphus looked thoughtfully out in the starry heavens, and seemed to be trying to scoop up an argument with the great Dipper. Apparently unsuccessful, he responded to Uncle Tim's inquiry by affirming that his question was not a scientific one. "Probably not," said the old man, "I hain't no great on science, but kinder lookin into human hearts and human lives, them's my views." Whatever Professor A.'s reply might have been I am unable to record it, for just then Roy called for his uncle with the carriage. The boy was in hilari- ous spirits. "Oh! Cousin Ida," he exclaimed, "my watch is found; isn't it splendid?" "When and where?" said I, almost as much in- terested as he. "Mamma's found it in Washington! She was in the Opera House, and a well-dressed man was sitting near. You know she never forgets faces, and she felt just sure that she had seen him somewhere. She was leaning over to catch the speaker's words, when, as he looked at his watch, she noticed the familiar seal. It was my watch. Cousin Ida, what do you think of that? At the close he saw mamma's sharp eyes and tried to get to the door, but she caught hold of him just as she did when he stole it, and then called for help. She wrote that if she'd been in a crowd of men, she might have shouted till 364 WARP AND WOOF. doomsday, but being women, Jthey got hold of him' and held on till mamma got an officer there, and now she's going to prove property and expects to bring my beautiful old watch home. I'm so glad! " "So am I, Roy, and I wonder what moralizing Aunt Kate will do over this." "She will say," said Uncle Tim, " that wimmen have cuter instincts and kinder feel the frauds of society and party — and they'd cut red tape and help themselves and each other, and protect the pure gold boys from the treachery of them party corruptions." ' ' And that the world's lost treasures may yet be recovered by the grit and pluck of the women," added 1. During Roy's story. Professor A. blushed up to the rims of his spectacles and teetered uneasily from one foot to the other after the manner of the Republican party, but at the close he suggested that it was grow- ing late and went off with Roy. CHAPTER XXXIII. SOME BRAINY WOMEN. ( Weaving in all colors.) " Like the hand Of a strong angel on my shoulders laid, Touching the secret of the spirit's wings, My heart grows brave." >ETH came in next day with some notes of Aunt Kate's and we all sat down and listened : ' 'Our train is passing through Baltimore, and I am reminded of a wise remark of President Lincoln's that has switched me around many a Baltimore of family government. 'Our troops,' said one to him, 'must pass through Baltimore if it costs the blood of every man in the nation.' ' Wouldn't it be better to pass through Baltimore without costing the blood of the nation ? ' said our leader. May the Prohibitionists and Woman Suffragists be led as wisely. Reached Washington and went to the Riggs House. ( ' She doesn't say what for,' I soliloquized just here.) The past twenty-four hours have been of intense interest. That reception of hundreds, nay, thousands of brainy, hearty, kindly people, representing all classes, that came out to see — what ? Women of ideas and ad- vanced thought! Its such a pleasure, Beth, to see that the advocacy of woman's rights has only softened and beautified faces that were familiar years ago and are sweeter now. Indeed these brainy women are not simply to be admired at a distance, but to be loved as sisters. They dress and behave like other 36S 366 WARP AND WOOF. well-bred people, and in looking over the crowd, on]y the nobler and sweeter expressions of face dis- tinguishes the strong-minded from the rest. I really felt more at home than at a church-sociable in Granite, and enjoyed every moment, but one. In the crowded hall was a tainted breath, and that a beautiful girl's! Just to think of Susan & Co., so stirring all this eclat ! My impression is that Washington is the nicest kind of a town to live in. I send you the re- port of a service conducted entirely by reverend ladies — the sermon on ' Heavenly Vision,' was by a reverend Miss in a womanly robe of black velvet.'' Heavenly visions opened before us at the thought that the angels of the Lord were leaning over the battlements, and Beth asked : ' ' Do you think grandpa was listening ?" "Yes, Beth; I do not think he looks out from Heaven on ordinary occasions, but this sermon had enough of real Holy Ghost for an old-fashioned re- vival! He believed in work, too, and this reverend lady's ideas would just suit him.'' Apropos I thought of my old seminary days. Miss Sarah Smiley, a most beautiful and gifted Quakeress, visiting our school, spoke evening after evening so beautifully and pathetically that her services were re- quested by the village people for one Sabbath in church. On that occasion the minister rose in his place, a tall, straight man, with every feature of his face hardened into a strict Calvinistic mould, and an- nounced that, while it was contrary to his custom — ahem ! in view of the peculiarities of the case, he had decided to allow Miss Smiley the privilege of ad- dressing his audience. I do suppose if the Virgin Mary should come back to earth and offer to tell the SOME BRAINY WOMEN. 367 story of the annunciation, there are some ministers who would exclude her from their pulpits, and others would introduce her with an air of infinite conde- cension ! I remember I thought of this supposable case and turned over and over in my hands a small hymn book, reflectively. I don't suppose the tall, dignified clergyman could have guessed that the de- mure, young girl of sixteen, in front of him, with her hair in a braid down her neck, and her dresses not fairly long, was thinking that she would like to send that hymn book straight at his iron-gray head. Not that I had any desire to hurt him, but I should have enjoyed seeing his amazement at this forcible ex- pression of feminine sentiment. And I have since wondered that, with my feelings so intense, I had not done it. I thought, that while there might be plenty of foolish people, plenty of mistaken people, plenty of over-zealous and extreme people in heaven, I won- dered if there would be any narrow people there. Rehearsing some of these thoughts, Uncle Tim ob- served, sagely: " You can't tell, ldy,w/io'Ilhe'm Heaven! There'll be some powerful surprises, I reckon. For my part I expect to see narrow-minded folks there in plenty, but there'll be a great deal of widening out, I reckon. The Lord, He'll make allowances for the build of a man's mind, and we needn't concern ourselves ; least- wise folks like you, Idy, that's got twins, haint no call to pick out the inhabitants of Heaven! " Very apropos was the old gentleman's remark, for the babies having crept slyly up stairs came tumbling down in one indiscriminate hubbub of squall and bump. I picked them up, heaved a sigh of relief to 368 WARP AND WOOF. find that no bones were broken, and turned to find Clara with the syrup-cup upset on her best dress! This mischief repaired, JuHus and Dick Blossom hove in sight, carrying the Brooks and Blossom cats tied together by the tails, in imitation of Samson's foxes ! But the cats were overlooked, for both boys were munching some brandy lozenges. "They gave us some lemonade, too, down to the 'American,' that was just splendid! " said Dick. " It tasted strong and nice, like Aunt Mary's mince pies.'' "The landlord said we might have more, some time; wasn't he good, mamma?'' chimed in Julius. What should I do for my boy? Nothing, just then, but a stern admonition to never, never go near that miserable "American"' again; and never, never to taste those murderous lozenges ! There was a lump in the gravy, boiling over the fire, and a lump in my throat, as I turned upon Uncle Tim an eye so distressed and discouraged, that he said, kindly: ' ' Cry, if you want to Idy 1 I reckon the Lord don't grudge a woman all the relief she can get. He's wil- lin she should let her burdens melt into tears, or run off her pen into poetry — ain't writ none lately, have ye?" looking over his spectacles. "No," said I. "I never heard of a mother of twins writing poetry." "That ain't sayin 'twouldn't be a good thing if a mother of twins should^' he replied, "and I'm thinkin 'twould do ye good to kinder write it out, specially now we're discussin the woman question." I wrote a poem which he 'lowed sounded just like ' Hervey's meditations among the tombs.' (Sorry I SOME BRAINY WOMEN. 369. wanted to die!) Also that "women what love and suffer to sich an extent, ought to have the benefit of better laws and a hand in fixin 'em." Beth had stirred the gravy while I wrote the poem, and now went home with tears in her eyes, promising to bring over a budget of Woman's Tribunes on the morrow. Frank came in with a pain, and mother must prepare him a hot sling of Jainaica Ginger, which I, in my highly-wrought state of mind, dashed from his hand before he touched it. " Why, mother, don't you know that stuff is ninety- five per cent, alcohol?'' To think I must instruct one of her age about these decoctions, and prohibition Frank equally careless ! Dear me, I must live, or they'll all go to destruction together! 24 CHAPTER XXXIV. HOME, COUNCIL AND CAPITOL. ( Though the rest be dark 'tis true. Flashes softly across the sense Mid the sad and sombre hues Yellow — vivid and intense,") " In Woman's hands the destiny Of all the world is held secure, And, as she frames, shall it endure In that great age which is to be." JURE enough the next day Roy toiled in labor- iously, with a huge pile of papers, etc., from * which Frank sat down and read aloud. "Don't disturb him, Idy," said Uncle Tim, as I ventured some remark ; "a man with a newspaper's like a dog with a bone, its for a body's interest to let 'im alone. Frank," as Helen pulled his grizzled fore- top, "just read that 'ere Declaration of Independence, won't you, I always liked them things." Frank read it. "Consarned contrariness inhuman natur,'' he com- mented, " that ever made wimmen have to draw up sich a thing. Its a grand dockyment, and no mis- take, and not much behind the one they read on the Fourth. Let's see, where was the first convention to discuss wimmen's rights?" 370 HOME, COUNCIL AND CAPITOL. 37 1 "At Seneca Falls," said I, " on the 19th and 20th of July, 1848. Mrs. Stanton decided that no docu- ment ever framed was strong enough to express the grievances of women, save the Declaration of our fathers, and accordingly this was changed to suit the occasion, and its application in this way startled the world with its majestic arraignment of the disabilities under which women rested." "Read Susan's speech, won't ye, Frank?" said Uncle Tim, cocking his sage old head on one side, Frank read her short, opening address. Uncle Tim listened with approval, and observed that to him the most refreshing sight on this terrestrial globe was an old maid capable of hoeing her own row. "Tain't the -folks that kinder dicker with a subject that wins," concluded the old man; "she hain't never dickered, and she's the most magnifercent old maid on the continent, yes, sir-ee! Who's next on the programmy, Frank?" " Mrs. Stanton," answered my husband, and read an eloquent extract. Then he turned to some earnest thoughts most beautifully expressed by our temper- ance women. To the dear old man it was a new revelation. For once he sat in speechless admira- tion, and when Frank had closed with a vision of the "Temperance Temple,'' he solemnly quoted: "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation! '' He added: " If I live I'll go clear to Chicago to see it when they get it done! '' Roy read from his mamma's criss-crossed notes : " Why is that man on the platform ? ' To represent his race, I suppose 1 ' said a Southern lady by my side, 372 WARP AND WOOF. with intense sarcasm, pointing to a fine-looking old gentleman who years ago so eloquently attracted my attention to the 'Dangers of the Republic. ' I fired a little and sputtered : ' He represents his own generous, knightly manhood, for as soon as his own shackles were loosened, he tried to help women loose theirs. There's another man, too, nearly white ; he says he'll never go to the polls without his wife and daughter, and he has been waiting twenty years. Miss Anthony had her eye on us, and we stopped whispering and listened to Pundita's wit." "Banditti! did you say," queried Uncle Tim, in some surprise. " I really shouldn't suppose there'd be nothin of that sort allowed around the Council! " I explained, and he could appreciate a work and soul as brave as hers. Frank read aloud her little speech, closing thus: "The Hindoos liken educa- tion to Nectar, and they say if women have education they will become immortal and get all the country and kill the men. If education is given to women, of course the women will turn on the men and tread them down and kill them or do something dreadful, and so of course they think it best nojt to give them education. They believe in common with most peo- ple that woman was created from the rib of Adam, and just as the rib is crooked, so woman is crooked, and if they try to make her straight, she never will be straight, and since the object of education is to try to make people straight, it is of no use to give it to women." "Them Hindoos ain't the only ones trying to make their women straight, " commented Uncle Tim, " and they always make a botch of it. For my part I like HOME, COUNCIL AND CAPITOL. 373 'em better'n as they are. Them blessed, forrin mis- sions! " Here Rev. Blossom called, and after parting his broadcloth skirts and seating himself elaborately, was ready to listen to what has proved Uncle Tim's last prophetic inspiration: '' The Prohibitionist party's comin through the woods and the darkness, but soon 'twill reach the clearin' — ghostly shadows behind and around it — ^just like that ere ride Idy and her aunt took together through Douglas; but there's a clearin' ahead, and nearer, maybe, than folks think. The Democratic party's like my old mooley — she always ate the fast- est just before she was turned in for the night; and they've browzed pretty lively lately, and naturally will come to a standstill. The Republicans'll go at last like the dyin swan, kinder singin its death-song, as it swims up Salt River, and like that ere poetical fowl, they'll keep up their reputation for dignity and glory to the last.'' "The Anti-Saloon Republicans — what are they like?" asked Frank, curiously. " Pretty nice kind of a lot, generally; its too bad to say it, but they remind me of the monkeys — kinder betwixt and between. I've often thought the Lord himself must have laffed after He made the monkeys. Only made a few, you notice, jist for a variety, as you might say," and Uncle Tim's thoughts, leaped again to higher themes. "The Cranks and one-idea'd folks'll git the floor up there and keep it, I reckon. The world'll think a sight more of 'em after they're gone. That's an- other instance of the consarned contrariness of hu- 374 WARP AND WOOF. man natur. It often don't recognize true greatness till the man's dead, and then hurts itself composin obituary poetry. John Brown's body'd been mould- erin in the grave a good while before folks realized that his soul went marchin on. I used to think of that great soul as kinder lonesome forever a trampin and a trampin, but Lord! there's plenty of others before and behind in its march down the generations, and they're kinder signalin to the 'fraid ones to fall into line. Its a glory and an honor to join on to the hind eend of that procession! '' He waved his hand as though seeing afar that shad- owy throng, and considering the old man's simple creed and honest practice, I felt him well worthy of a place in it. Rev. Blossom shook hands cordially, but the expression of his eye was as " sot '' as ever, and I was convinced that nothing in this world but a young wife would ever undermine that "sotness." Uncle Tim on his journey home had an off spell — this time a long one. They found him leaning against the car seat, the ancient stove-pipe tilted a trifle back and his face as innocent and peaceful as a baby's. Dear Uncle Tim! He had passed where there's " no more fraud and stuffin of ballot-boxes, and the consarned contrariness is forever taken out of human natur!" Grandfather and Uncle Tim! I like to think of them together. In that land where they are gone, the story-tellers, the philosophers, and the politicians of the earth must seem, I fancy, much like the children playing at Shakespeare and mud- dling the glorious text! Is there laughter up yonder? Then, I fancy, there is kindly merriment between those two over the blunders, the follies, and inconsist- HOME, COUNCIL AND CAPITOL. 375 encies of earth, and looking into each other's glorified faces, they murmur again : "A better day is coming bye and bye." No word had come directly to me from Aunt Kate, but an exceedingly exciting letter came to Frank, which we read with breathless interest. It ran as fol- lows: Dear Frank : " Woe to him that committeth a sin and hideth it, for it will surely find him out." The Hon. Hypocriticus Hifleur's sin has surely come to light. But how shall I begin to tell you of this day's revelations ? I'll try to be calm and explicit. I thought the revelations of- the morning were over- whelming when 5000 women met to discuss with womanly delicacy the great social evil and to suggest remedies and helps to fallen sisterhood. My heart was full this afternoon when Mrs. Rrockett, my land- lady, and I went again to the Capitol. My country never seemed grander than when I walked with her thmugh the great corridors into the galleries of the House of Representatives. It is a noble room and there were noble faces. They were discussing a bill for the protection of codfish! Bye and bye arose the familiar form of Mr. Hifleur. He's just the one for such protection, you know. Tall and handsome as ever, and the eyes which had looked so coldly on the runaway slave and the despairing Bertha, quite warmed as his rounded periods rose and fell in behalf of codfish! He happened to glance in our direction, started, and for a second looked blank ; but he pres- ently recovered himself and went on with his fishy theme. But Mrs. Brockett trembled and caught my arm. "Who is he? Do you know? Can't you tell me who that man is? " "Yes, "said I, "he's the Hon. Hifleur, Senator from our State." 376 WARP AND WOOF. "From your State?" she whispered, and I was startled by her pale and anxious face. " Where have I seen him?" she whispered again, After our return from the evening session, Carrie and Ruthie went directly to their room, and I sat down in the parlor alone with Mrs. Brockett. "I've been thinking all the evening," she said, "of that Senator Hifleur's face. It is a striking one, and I can't but think he's the same man who tried to murder a girl in my house." I jumped to my feet and almost screamed; but the thought came to me that I had better get her story first. I suggested a mouse as an excuse for my ex- traordinary emotion, and controlled myself by a su- preme effort, as I listened : "I was keeping a boarding-house in New York three years ago, and there came one evening a young lady, elegantly dressed and carrying a small bundle." Here she described Bertha. "She gave her name as Belle Vanderhoof. She had been there but a day or two, when at nine o'clock one evening the door-bell rang, and going to the door, I saw this very man whom we heard to-day. He inquired for Miss Van Dressen. I told him there was no such person there, but a Miss Vanderhoof. 'There must be some mis- take about the name, but please hand her this card,' producing one with the name 'John R. Smith.' I carried up the card. The girl looked surprised — not just pleased — but went down. Something in the man's looks made me suspicious, and when she went into the front parlor, I noiselessly slipped into the back parlor and concealed myself behind the por- tieres. She asked indignantly, ' Why have you sought me out, and why send up my friend's card instead of your own? ' ' Because I love you and de- sire your good,' he answered, very suavely. 'See what I've brought you — nothing that will harm you, my dear,' producing a small vial. I had my ears open now, I can tell you, and he went on to tell her HOME, COUNCIL AND CAPITOL, 377 that if she would only destroy her unborn child and hide her disgrace, he would marry her and take her to Europe; and he began to paint a glowing future for her, promising all sorts of things. I wish you could have heard that girl's reply. She fairly stormed in her noble indignation as she told him that what- ever her other sins, she was no murderess! He argued and protested, and she steadfastly refused. Then she tried to leave the room. He was terribly angry, and looked like a fiend incarnate. Grasping her by the throat, he tried to force the stuff into her mouth, and I rushed out. Her back was toward me, but he saw me and let go his hold. I had not spoken ; I believe I was too terrified to open my lips; but he dropped bottle, handkerchief and all, and as she ran out into the street he followed. I could not overtake him, and I've no doubt he would have shot me if I had." ' ' You called in the police, of course, and had an investigation?" "Of course I did no such thing. It would have ruined the reputation of the house and amounted to nothing, anyway. Such men always get clear. Be- sides who could trace him out in a great city? But I kept his handkerchief and the bottle. It contained prussic acid, I do wish I knew what became of that girl." Now, Frank, I'll keep all this secret till you can work it up, but I did ask her if she would like to see such a villain shut up, and she answered emphatically : "I could hang that man myself." % >: ^C^iMzy < ■$ CHAPTER XXXV. PEACE AND LAW. ( White and red stripe with some tape.) ' I dipt into the future as far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the World and all the wonder that would be, Till the war-drum throbbed no longer and the battle-flags were furled. In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World." — Tennyson. Another letter from Ruthie : Dear Ida Brooks: We were all out early this morning, through gardens that brought the whole world of plant and tree beauty to us. We passed the colossal Garfield monument, into the Cap- itol grounds, then off to the Navy Yard. Found much of interest in the Receiving Ship, and the Mu- seum, with its common guns, wwcommon guns, and historic guns. Thence into the great Cannon manu- factory. There they were long as a room, and row upon row ; great piles of shell, too, shaped like an old- fashioned sugar-loaf. Mrs. Van Dressen queried and commented : " How many will each shell kill? How many of these guns will they fire?'' She quite startled the workmen by her excited remark: "All this time, work, and metal, is but to kill! kill! KILL!!" And out we hurried from their clanging. In the next room was but one workman — an old man who was polishing some peaceful-looking copper. 378 PEACE AND LAW. 379 "And, pray, what is this for?'' asked Mrs. Van D. , a little softened. "These are to carry the guns; " and he explained how they would turn and automatically retreat. "Just like any sneaking coward," commented Carrie. Tears were starting in Mrs. Van D.'s eyes. She looked very pale. "Are you faint — is the air bad?'' asked the old man, in alarm. " Yes ! " she answered, with a vehemence that be- lied her words, ' ' I am faint and sick ! and its the air! the very air! implements of death everywhere! Kill! KILL! Did God so design it?" Horrible war-memories must have come over her, and fears of another, as this man explained the necessity of being prepared for war, by saying: " Compare our navy with England's, and I can tell you when that good woman over there dies, we'll need it to defend ourselves.'' "And must it be," replied Mrs. Van D.," that in the light of the Nineteenth Century such things are even possible? Why hasn't some other way of settling differences been invented than blood! blood! If our country cannot, by just government and wise arbitra- tion, keep out of this horrid, bloody business, they shall never have my sons to starve, maim, or butcher — never! They have cost me too much, and their lives are too precious, also, to the God who made them and the Saviour who died for them,'' added she, very softly. "You would make a poor, old Roman matron! '' said I. ' ' I am no Roman matron of the dark ages, but an American mother of today. The men have been do- ing the family-government, alone, long enough. It has been War Departments for ages. Its time we women organized a Peace Department! or, better, put the motherly element of peace right into the family 380 WARP AND WOOF, national councils! In the government, as in the home, her legislation would be pacific; and if neces- sary her financial wisdom would devise ways and means for compromises— rather than arms, burials and pensions ! ' ' I think, Ida, it would be better to spend a little money beforehand to prevent war, than so much after- ward to pay its expenses ! The dull, gray eyes that lighted and fixed upon your Aunt at our entrance, had, through all this con- versation, seemed to be searching her face for some lost memory. Was it the voice, gesture, or -the still baby face that led him back to the little girl on the front seat in the old red school-house of Compton? Now, he was sure ; and taking both of her neatly- gloved hands in his hard and soiled ones, he looked really handsome, as he ardently exclaimed : " You are m.y little Katy Hatheway ! " "And you are? " Yes, she remembered the kind eyes. ' ' You are my Fry ! ' ' It was really interesting to watch and listen. There were pleasant little reminders: " Would you sit on the same seat with a Polk girl now?" "Yes," said Carrie, "Aunt Kate would sit beside of anybody who would work for temperance ! " " That's right, and good — first rate ! but work for civil service reform, too ! " Deform I should say, that had victimized this high- toned gent'eman. He was, however, unstained. The pledge he had given to little Kate Hatheway not to steal, had kept him from many an official temptation. " Perhaps," he said, a little bitterly, " that is why you find me here to-day — a victim of false hopes and pledges called civil service reform " — he raised his eye upward — " but I shall go soon where the civil service needs no reform ! " Back we went to the opera house, just in time to PEACE AND LAW. 381 hear the eloquent words of an officer of the Uni- versal Peace Society, "Let's start one in Granite," said Mrs. Van D. "Remove the causesof warby justice," the speaker says, "and protest against the wrongs and evils of the world, if we would bring about universal peace.'' Quite a large undertaking, Ida ; however, you are doing your share." "That's the Quaker plank in our platform, and its hard to live it," interrupted Frank, coming in, with a gathering temptest in consequence of a base slan- der on the Prohibition party. I stopped in the midst of my letter. The scene around me wasn't peaceful. The babies and Butter- cup, the yellow cat, were disputing for the posses- sion of a cup of milk. Clara and Julius were quar- reling over a picture book. Mother was making frantic efforts to dislodge an unwelcome cockroach from the mantel. When order was restored, I read from the papers of Abby Kelly's first brave protest for women, from an anti-slavery platform, in 1838. Her name was a household word. Julius brightened up at mention of her, and Clara inquired why she hadn't been named "Abby." I waded perseveringly through columns of eloquent speeches, made by fac- tory girls, women-farmers, nurses, physicians, mis- sionaries. Knights of Labor, and what not. With a sigh of relief, I turned once more to Ruthie's letter : " From council we climbed to the top of the Treas- ury building, to find, happy contrast to the scene of the morning ! — A Life Saving Station ! As all was explained, Mrs. Van D. commented: ' ' No big killing guns ! Only a little cannon a child might roll, but it throws a rope of safety ! Have you saved many lives ? '' 383 WARP AND WOOF. He pointed to a long list of wreckers saved. "That's just what the women of the council are doing," said your Aunt, " firing off the little cannons that are throwing out the rope of safety to life's wrecks!" " God bless you all then ! " said our host, feelingly. I thought of your remark, that your Aunt had all her life gone on, not doing the great things, but start- ing the little wheels that move the Corliss of Eternity! " I'll help you fire your cannon, mamma! " inter- rupted Julius, with much enthusiasm. ' ' Bang! 'twould be Fourth of July all the year round 1 '' We went out (so ran the letter) to search among the counterfeit for genuine coin. " I wish life's genuine and counterfeits were thus labeled,'' said I. " God labels them," she replied. Just then there was a girlish outbreak, and Mrs. Van D. introduced me to Misses Carey and Deems, and those charming, stylish young ladies told us how she had won them to the temperance cause, some years since, in the streets of Philadelphia." This closed Ruthie's long letter, and I hoped for a little rest, but Beth came with another installment. ' ' I suppose they will question us on these papers, and it will be a sort of woman's suffrage examination when they get back. I declare, my head is so full of it, I told Roy this morning to run over to Mrs. B. 's for a teaspoonful of /o/zV/ca/ economy ! I meant baking powder, and the poor child thought I had gone daft, and looked so mystified that I had to explain. Such a muddle of notions and hobbies and theories — women from Finland and nobody knows where. The sun won't shine at midnight if they're in such a fog as I am. I can't get a chance to do anything. The Tribune overshadows everything, and Ernest says if I PEACE AND LAW. 383 don't pay more attention to the cooking he'll make a colossal bonfire of the whole pile! Mamma says," Beth continued, uplifting her pretty nose from the little heap of scrawly notes, taken by Aunt Kate, "on the fly" to adopt a base-ball simile, "that I must be sure and read my legal conditions. " She looked puzzled, and Ernest hastened to remark : " I would advise you to marry a lawyer, and he can explain them to you at his leisure. Mamma is getting too deep for any comfort. If you're going to study legal conditions, and mamma political conditions, I'd like to know the family condition! " "Hear this, you ridiculous boy!" and she read with mortification, shame and indignation, of laws that give the wife and mother scarcely any legal right to home or children, or even a grave beside her husband ! " If such is the case, I prefer to belong to myself ! " said Beth, excitedly. ' ' Till you have a chance to belong to somebody else," observed Ernest. " Didn't grandpa take care of grandma's money, Ida?" "Yes,'' I answered, "and it all went with the rest. That seemed the saddest part of it all for him, and when an obdurate creditor asked for the last dollar, he declared that the moral claim of the wife of his youth should not be entirely ignored." " Hear this! " exclaimed Beth. ' ' As an Indian woman I was free. I owned my home, my person, the work of my own hands ; and my children could never forget me ; I was better as an Indian woman than under white law." 384 WARP AND WOOF. " Well, if we are worse off than these poor Indians, it's time we knew it, and made a fuss! " Her cheeks were as red as Aunt Kate's gown, and she was for the instant strikingly like her mother in her girlhood. She presently calmed and read a de- scription of a Presidential reception, at which none could be admitted without a yellow ribbon. "The time will soon come," concluded Aunt Kate, "when the yellow only will admit an occupant to that White Ribbon House. I shall soon be at home, richer by a thousand thoughts. There is such sweet- ness and devotion here. I shall try to capture some. Woman-suffrage is presented only as the means to a beneficent end. Read about the pioneers, Beth, and you will find who have improved our political con- ditions.'' Beth folded up the letter and said : " My property conditions are askew, I admit, but I believe my political ones are all right now, and I don't see, Ida, what you and mamma want to vote for! It's the lonesorrie old maids and grass-widows and such people that want to vote. If I have to bother my head with politics, along with these French exercises, I shall go wild." "I, too," said Ernest, "It's positively wearing. It's woman-suffrage for breakfast and prohibition for dinner, and some of mamma's pet theories for lunch. I'm a wastin' and wearin' like Uriah Heep." "Why doiit you women vote. Cousin Ida,'^ said Roy. ' ' You can in school elections. Put some women like Carrie and Mrs. Briggs on the Board and have things fixed up right! Take your rights, as boys do, and not be forever talking about them," PEACE AND LAW. 385 The youngsters gave me no chance to reply, for Ernest began : " Ida would have to take the twins, and what a picture she would make — two babies hanging on to her skirts, with Jiilius and Clara bringing jn the rear ! Frank would go in for it, though ; he would have Ida for State Governor if he could!" ' ' I suppose mamma'll give us more oatmeal than ever," remarked Roy, pathetically. "Or she'll bring home some other new idea on diet, and I'm afraid we'll starve yet! " "Not with me around," said Beth, "Give me the old fashioned fare ! As for rights — except prop- erty ones- — I've got all I can attend to — " " Until some one comes along to attend to them for you? " teased Ernest. "Well, I haven't all the rights I'd like," said I. " If my husband should die to-morrow I could stay in the home that I have helped make, forty days! That's all the law allows in half of the States in the Union I " " Not so, my dear," said Frank, coming in. " I've made my will — " "I'm not so selfish as just to think of myself, Frank. I want my sisters all over the land — " "Oh! bother the sisters all over the land!'' said Ernest, disrespectfully. " Beg your pardon, Ida; I'll make my will as Prof. Lester did, on his wedding trip, and we'll go on the principle of 'us four and no more.' This philan- thropy is wearing — distressingly wearing. If 'the sisters all over the land ' had their rights, what would it amount to? They would vote just as their hus- 25 386 WARP AND WOOF. bands did — except in cases where the husbands voted just as the wives did! " ' ' Ernest, you've forgotten that half of the women haven't husbands, and you don't appreciate what I mean." "I appreciate a pretty girl — that's better,'' said Ernest, irrelevantly, '' and I know this project is go- ing to rob courtship of all its charms. The question won't be, 'Does she suit?' but, ' Do her politics suit?' What fun will there be in buying a girl pea- nuts and ice-cream, if she's going to talk some great moral theme all the time she's eating? The girls will cut off their hair and expand their brains and buy you a copy of Congressional Reports for a Christmas present. No, sir! Give me things as they used to be!" It seems the other side had a hearing, also, at the Council, in the person of Mistress O'Rafferty: " If we take to the polls niglit and morning Our delicate charms will all flee, The dew will be brushed from the rose, dear, The down from the pache — don't you see ? We'll soon take to shillalahs and shindies When we get to be sovereign electors — And turn all our husbands' hearts from us. Then what will we do for protectors ? We'll have to be crowners and judges, And such like ould malefactors ? Or they'll make common-councilman of us Then where will be our charat'ters ? Oh ! Bridget, God save us from voting. For sure as the blissed sun rolls We'll land in the State-House or Congress ! Then what will become of our souls ? " CHAPTER XXXVI. THE EASTER OFFERING. {Old rose bright as new.) "Through the harsh noises of our day, A low, sweet prelude finds its way ; Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear, A light is breaking calm and clear." vm sow fitting were the words of Mrs. Stanton, that closed this first International Council of ^^ Women. " An artist traveling in a foreign land found a little block of marble buried beneath the dust and mold for ages. While raising it up some one asked him what he desired to do. Said he: 'I wish to bear it away to my home ; there is an imprisoned angel in it that I would fain set free. ' He took it home and set to work with fine instruments, and cut and carved it weary days and years and years, until at last the block of marble was transformed into an angel of light, radiant with majesty and beauty." "We, too, are sculptors, one and all, and our life work is not to build up false customs, creeds and codes for the subjugation of immortal minds, but we are the instrumentalities of science and civilization to roll off the mountains of superstition that have so long oppressed the human soul, and set the im- prisoned angel free." 387 388 WARP AND WOOF. Surely, as the morning paper concludes: "The Council has made an impression that nothing can efface. To attend its sessions was more than a liberal education — it was an enlightenment and an uplifting. The reformers of the council are women who grace the home and have the most definite of ideas as to what they want and what they are going to do with it. They are women who have achieved success in their various reforms. The suffragists point to unre- stricted suffrage in some places and partial suffrage in others; and as a result, better laws everywhere. The temperance workers tell of States now ranged with them, and others nearly conquered. The advo- cates of higher education show the doors of aged and conservative institutions, creaking on the hinges at woman's knock. The missionaries point to their Zenana's work, and teachers to their kindergartens." "And each and all," I added, "to Him who is the best friend woman ever knew.'' "It was He" Aunt Kate will say, "who hath wrought this great good to me," for here is a letter from Carrie: Dearly Beloved Cousin Ida: This is positively my last appearance, but I have such news to tell you that I could not wait till I reached home. We have had such a charming time and it has sped all too swiftly. Auntie is such a delightful companion, and we are continually meeting pleasant people, includ- ing some of her old Crusade friends. I see and listen till my whole being seems eyes and ears. So far from being a woman's suffrage idea, it has repre- sented more than forty societies or ideas. How you would have enjoyed it all! I guess Auntie misses you, for once in the midst of a particularly fine ad- dress, she whispered to me: "And Ida's children THE EASTER Of^FERING. 389 must have the whooping cough at just this time!" But this isn't the news that I am so anxious to tell; so I won't beat around the bush any longer, but come straight to the point. You remember that time at Asbury Park, when we went to hear Gough lecture, and we spoke of the chairman and his fine and noble face and wondrous eyes, and you said he haunted you, and puzzled and perplexed you, for you were positive you had seen him somewhere. Well, you were right — you had seen him. He turns out to be an old friend of our Aunt's, and it is the most delightful concatenation of affairs imag- inable. She is perfectly blissful, and he — well, he would be exceedingly interesting if he could see, hear, or think anything but her! She will tell you all about it, of course, but I couldn't wait. It seems he has been married twice, by some ridiculous blunder, but there is no dangei- of his making a third mistake, for he don't leave her lotig enough. It all came about in such a beautiful and unconventional way, too. It was Easter Sabbath. Ruthie and I went to Dr. B.'s church, and Auntie took it into her head to go somewhere else. After Dr. B. 's sermon, there was a communion-service, and it seems that she, on her way home, paused a moment and peeped in to see the exquisite decorations. The table was spread under a canopy of roses, through which a white dove had flown and was poised in air. It was too beauti- ful, and when Auntie saw the emblems, she stole in and seated herself near the door. It was the most impressive communion I ever witnessed, and when the general invitation was given, she rose and ad- vanced to the altar, kneeling there beside a tall gen- tleman of middle age, whose face I had not seen. When the communicants rose, the gentleman and Auntie faced each other. There was a little gasp of mutual recognition. Through joyous, brimming eyes, 390 WARP AND WOOF. love's telephone in one brief instant answered all ques- tionings, and the two walked down the aisle together as naturally as though they had been side by side all these years. I half believe they have. At the close of the service they passed out, and must have walked very slowly, for, taking a cross street, we reached home and joined the group in the parlor, when I, peeping out, saw them approaching. They stood there and talked a long while. Bye and bye she came in, with such a heavenly face ! That evening he called in the front parlor. The girls in the other were nudging and whispering, but every one seemed to sympathize with Auntie in her new happiness. She is very sympa- thetic herself, you know, and the half-dozen newly- married couples who for the past week have been the recipients of her kindly interest and graceful cour- tesy, are paying her back in congratulatory nods, smiles and compliments. All the boarders, including the' Congressman who has been badly worsted in sev- eral wordy encounters, are delighted at the new turn of affairs. This Prof. Noble is the president of a large western college, is a man of exceeding culture in his manner and address, and undeniably fine looking. He looks like one who, to quote Longfellow, knows how '' to suffer and be strong." I believe they are to be mar- ried soon, and I am glad. I don't believe in delays, where people known and loved for years, as they have. I do not believe "Third Party" or " Woman's Suffrage" has been mentioned, but my curiosity led me to question the doctor, and I'm sure they'll agree. Even Misses Anthony and Willard approve of this match. Miss A. thinks one wouldn't mind being the relic of such a man ! The International has been simply sublime, and when I get back to Granite I'll give you an unpreju- diced account of everything, for you mustn't trust Aunt Kate's illuminated text. She is in too exalted a frame to describe anything lucidly ! Seriously, I am THE EASTER OFFERING. 39I SO glad for her. As far as her past pain and suffer- ing go, I believe these past hours have taken all bitter- ness away. I dare say it is something like our first moments in heaven. " We shall look some time with wonder At the troubles we have had." We are coming home Wednesday. A lively time I shall have of it with my middle-aged lovers. Mid- dle-aged, did I say? She looks as if she had taken not a dip but a swim in the famous fountain. When I tell her that I suppose the very car will rumble to the music of the spheres, and that they will board the wrong train and buy a ticket for Arcadia, if I don't keep a close watch on them, when I talk this nonsense she smiles, such a good, sweet, happy, smile that I am rebuked. ^ The Council is a marvelous success — such a meet- ing together of mighty brains and loving hearts as I have never before witnessed. I feel, for one, that I have been in the land of Beulah, and wonder if I shall ever return to crazy patch-work and paper flowers. It seems hardly possible now. Good-bye. Love to all, and a pair of kisses for the inexhaustible babies. Lovingly, Carrie B. Lester. Following close on this astonishing letter came a note from Aunt Kate, telling me of her new-found happiness, and after certain incoherent allusions to Paradise, closing as follows : "Aye, infinitely higher is the bliss of those who have suffered, and as we clasp hands in perfect rest and peace, we bless the great Author of our being, who has thus sanctified and purified and fitted us to realize the possibilities of two souls as one. For as two streams diverging among mountain tops, aiid wander- ing solitary and alone among the shadows, at .last mingle, and each is lost in the fair river singing 392 WARP AND WOOF. through the plains below, so our two souls have at last realized," etc. Now, that sentence is what I call " involved;'' and the image it presented before my mind's eye was that of Aunt Kate and her Professor, wandering about in the Capitol, hand in hand, like two mature " Babes in the Woods." Well, Aunt Kate, I dare, say it is all so and more, but who would have dreamed you would have ever been so sentimental? Now, / have married the right man, and the man after mine own heart; but the coffee gets cold, and shirt buttons fly off, and I have neuralgia and he snores — and such is life and always has been. It is strange middle-aged lovers can't realize. They came home — the four — Aunt Kate with her lover at her chariot wheels, to speak in a highly fig- urative manner. The relations and friends were all charmed with him. He is very scholarly, and yet earnest and sympathetic. Now Carrie, who is usually a well meaning little woman, confided to me as a dead secret the follow- ing lines. She declares that on the way home from Washington, the car thumped and thundered them out, and that she is in no way responsible for them. She further declares that she considers it very vex- atious, the persistent way in which a railway car will sometimes take a tune to itself and repeat it till a sen- sitive person is nearly wild. She looked worn and nervous and I believe she spoke the truth. THE EASTER OFFERING. 393 We're coming, Uncle Sammy, ti-tum-ti-tum-ti-tu, We're coming to the Capitol, a yellow-ribboned crew, The feet that trip in dances and feet that never trip, But toil around the house work, with a baby on her hip; You'll find they'll march to music, as with thunderous tramp they come, And Susan bears the banner, and Frances beats the drum. The fingers needle-pricked so long will patch up worn out laws. With hooks and eyes and biases, fit out a noble cause. We'll whisk a lively duster among your statute books. And sprinkle insect-powder in your moth-infected nooks. We've cleared up things for years at home, we'll now clear up for you. For we're coming, Uncle Sammy, a yellow-ribboned crew ! We've made the pastry long at home and now methinks we'll try To put a cautious finger in Columbia's nice mince-pie; And, Uncle, you may trust us, we'll make 'em sweet and nice, But we won't put brandy in 'em, we'll try some other spice. Methinks you'll see us coming, our legions staunch and true. Up Pennsylvania avenue, a yellow-ribboned crew. We'll be knocking at the Capitol with broom and brush in hand. We'll scour things up right gleefully with scrubbing brush and sand; And you, ye ponderous Congressmen, that sit so stiff and glum. Your seats will shake beneath you when you hear our fife and drum. That everlasting tarifTs kinder sorter settin' round; We'll put it in its proper place. ip a hurry, I'll be bound; And those three miles of codfish, you've discussed so long and loud. We'll dish it up right into balls and feed the hungry crowd. And you, ye legislatures, we'll not be rude or rash. But your fish and game and sheep laws we'll chop'up into hash. Come, sweet domestic angels, put your yellow, ribbons on, Jane, ain't you 'sham'ed to shove the -cares of government off on John? CHAPTER XXXVII. A TEA TALK AND AN ELOPEMENT. (Some knots.) "Statesmen, draping self-love's .conclusions In cheap vernacular patriotisms, Bring us the higheV example : release us Into the larger coming time." fUNT KATE had returned from Washington accompanied by Dr. Noble. The news'spread- rapidly and the story of their early and faithful love was repeated with many additions and modifications, while numerous calls of congratulation proved^ how entirely her joy was Granite's. Everybody wanted to see the hero of so much romance and the general verdict was, "No wonder Mrs. Dan Dressen loved him !" "He reminds me," saidRuthie, who had been Aunt Kate's guest for a month, ' 'of Lowell's description of Agassis." "His msgic was not far to seek, — He wa'! so human ! Whether strong or weak At manhood's simple level, and where'er He met a stranger, there he left a friend." "And Rev. Blossom?"! quizzed. "Are his con- gratulations as lengthy as his pastoral calls ?" "They are old friends, you know," she answered. A TEA TALK AND AN ELOPEMENT. 39S with a tell-tale blush, ' 'and Mr. Blossom is very kind and courteous." ' 'And more, to whom ? Ah, you innocence, I see you are captured, too. You will make a better minister's wife than ever could that strong-minded, opinionated aunt of mine, and I'll never put you in a book either," I added thankfully as I kissed the roses. We parted for a season, she promising to be back to the wedding and I surmise that one of her own will soon follow. Dr. Noble left for a few days, too. I was glad, for I wanted a little of Aunt Kate to myself. I thought to surprise her with perfect confidence, but nothing will ever surprise her again. Yet to my care- fully prepared pages of council notes she gave sweet praise. "Had you been there you might have attempted a great, original, complete picture and failed. This lit- tle sketch is better — something like that old one of mine," pointing to a dilapidated outHne of something in a disfigured frame. Father used to admire it and show it off to visitors as his daughter's work." ' 'Do you think grandpa will show cousin Ida's to the angels as his granddaughters' work ?" queried Beth. "If it does any good in the world he will," an- swered Aunt Kate soberly. "That's some comfort anyway," I thought. "You seem to have plenty of exclamation and in- terrogation points, Ida," she went on— turning the rough leaves. ' 'That's correct^; for whether you com- pare a woman to a lily, rose, sweet-brier, pink, mari- gold, or thistle, it's with an exclamation point every time. 'Let your women keep silence, ' never meant for uS, will surely be a dead letter now. You couldn't be 396 WARP AND WOOF. expected to give a grand finishing touch at this dis- tance, but Mrs. S — has, and I repeat, girls, I do wish you could have been there. It was a mighty Niagara carrying away on its bosom all the world's drift-wood of prejudice, a Great Eastern ship-load of brains and hearts — a Tower of Babel with as many tongues — Yes," and her voice softened, her glowing metaphors confused — "« sublime Pisgah of consecration ! Its very memory takes me into the belfry of Trinity's chimes, but I couldn't describe the music, or the living flow- ers — the fresh, dewy gems of thought — or even the setting, Albeigh Opera House ! It all seems like a dream — yes, that one of Heaven with it's living stat- uary, each representing in drape, look or poise, past histories — present aims — and future hopes." "My future hope. Aunt Kate, is for a generous publisher; my present aim, to take you and Prof A. home to tea !" "God's providence will provide for the future of what has become dear to you, and we'll enjoy the present teaing. The starry Professor will be glad to come into some other orbit than Venus, judging by the way he mutters 'Jupitet !' " "You may have forgotten, Aunt Kate, but it's campaign year, and Frank will soon swing him into the political orbit." "Poor Professor! it will be a variety, at least." Rasping sounds had issued from the parlor while I was preparing supper. They were nothing unusual between any two gentlemen who differ politically. Yet mother must have enjoyed the conversation, for at the table she placidly remarked: "It .seems like old times to hear this tariff talk again. It used to be A TEA TALK AND AN ELOPEMENT. 397 only the Democrats who harped upon it, but since last November they're all at it." "It's a harp of a thousand strings, responded Aunt Kate, and the Professor spoke up in his big way: "It is the greatest issue of the campaign — the . important question of the hour and the Nation !" "Pardon me, Professor, but you're mistaken there, it is at most only a commercial and not a moral question. The question of the hour and Nation is the destruc- tion of the hquor-trafific. " This from Frank : "Prof. A. don't like to be contra- dicted — few professors do — and in his efforts to prove himself extremely calm, he forgot to put cream in his tea, took a very hot swallow, and by mistake set down the china cup with emphasis on a knife handle where: it upset, flowing in a fragrant rivulet over the table- cloth ! I pitied his embarrassment, when to my hor- ror Julius piped in small boyish treble, (he's a born pol- itician, that boy!) "That's the way your dish'll get tipped over next November, Professor." I glared at him, while Frank continued eloquently, if not origi- nally : ' 'Let me thunder it in your ear, burn it in your con- science, write it in your heart, that the one great and growing issue of American politics is that which de- clares, the saloon must go ! ' 'The liquor-tariff of ^900,000,000, is doing more to rob the.workingmen, than any other tariff can help or hurt them. I passed the Professor a second cup and re- marked : "This tariff talk reminds me of Kathleen's sore finger. She cut it slightly six weeks ago and has been pitied for it ever since. Amid all the real danger or trouble, she always holds up that finger to 398 WARP AND WOOF. be kissed It's her pet misery and every body must attend to it. But both parties seem to pet the tariff, yet rail at each other ! How do they keep sober faces ?" The Prof, changed position and tactics, sipped his fresh cup of tea, and reminded us that he had followed with patriotic pride, his party's flag, while above it floated the starry banner for which so many brave patriots died. It had established as a fact, one politi- cal reform and might another. "Not unless it changes front," said blessed old Frank, with an unusually sink or-swim expression, in his eye. "The immense amount of liquor consumed, and your treatment of your own good anti-saloon men and women, at your last convention, are not encoura- ging signs. And now, dear Professor, can you not sacrifice cherished associations and enlist under our Prohibition flag, 'bleached snowy white by tears of smitten women and children through generations of want and sorrow ?' " "At all events it shall not wave over me until every negro is protected in his divine right of sovereignty" spoke the Professor loftily. ' 'And whj' wasn't he during your many years' reign ? Could you give him more protection now ? If we protect him in the human right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, by delivering him from the worst master he ever had, the divine right of sovereignty will soon follow. Prohibition would do more for him in one year than sovereignty would in twenty !" "Then, Mr. Brooks, I'll vote to keep the Democrats out." "Now, Professor, that is unworthy of you, when A TEA TALK AND AN ELOPEMENT. 399 there is scarce a difference between the old parties on the liquor question — and that is the only living issue before the people." "And our party is settling it by local option and high license;" with much emphasis. "Local option is not a temperance measure; it sim- ply takes the power, to grant license from courts and gives it to the people. You are irrevocably commit- ted to license and the saloon keepers are working with you to have it high ! The business has had two hun- dred years of prosperity under license. Isn't that enough to prove it a failure as a temperance measure ?" "Yes, and we are with you ior free rum." "Not exactly, Professor, for 'we would take this"arch criminal out of prison to hang him, you to set him at libetty !' 'But we never can have victory while bishops and brewers, ministers and malsters, deacons and dis- tillers, rectors and rectifiers vote the same temperance ticket!' " ' 'You forget entirely how many Prohibition laws we have adopted." "And you have repudiated as many," answered Frank. "The Prohibition party has no business here, " mut- tered the Professor. "And pray, " queried Aunt Kate, "what were the men to do that did not believe in license, personal lib- ^r/y and Sabbath desecration ? And we without our knightly brothers ?" "I admit, Kate, we Republicans have been selfish and unjust to women. I know the party has aban- doned the temperance question, but I love it for its glorious past, and shall cling to it, whatsoever it does !" 400 WARP AND WOOF. "His scowl was a warning and Frank branched oflF. "Our present one, Professor, may, like the old anti-slavery party, be merged into another, but the principle of Prohibition will live and tnumph ; and, as Dr. Strong after mentioning several dangers says, 'I believe it is in the hands of the christians of the United States during the next twenty years to hasten, or retard the coming of Christ's kingdom by hundreds of years. We of this generation occupy the Gibralter of the ages which commands the world's future.' " "Still another danger threatens and one not men- tioned by Dr. Strong," spoke up Aunt Kate. "It is Republican greenbackism ! Why, there are about $400,000,000 mere printingpress greenbacks that have no silver, gold or lands to secure their payment, these counterfeits are flooding ." "They are not counterfeits for they tell on their face just what they are," interrupted the Professor. ' 'And yet they are counterfeits in What they deceive the common people who know not one greenback from another. They tend to depreciate our currency and its good hard money certificates. What is wrong in the individual is wi-ong also in the nation, and a day of reckoning will surely come!" Yet her cheerful tone rather belied her solemn threatening words. Dear Aunt Kate, she has grown so fresh and blithe- some it does one's heart good to see her ! I believe she dropped all her burdens at Washington. She al- ways said she would forgive and forget her grudge against the South, if one would say "I'm sorry," She found one and now she is content. We talked of all this as she helped me dry the dishes and had a little A TEA TALK AND AN ELOPEMENT. 4OI laugh that the one idea in politics, which our bright honest young lawyer, Mr. Gage, considered so deplor- able, had become fashionable ! "Reactionary diseases like the tariff, are not very dangerous,' said Aunt Kate. "People will conval- esce after election, and perceive that the pro- tection of industries is only hue and cry for politi- cal effect. Why, dear, our old anti-slavery voices were just drowned in that din years ago. There's a good time coming, Ida," and she waved her dish-towel like a banner and repeated: "Then shout beside thine Oak, oh! North, Oh ! South, give answer with thy palm ; And in our Nations heritage, Together sing our Nation's psalm!" A few days after this, Ernest Van Dressen gave us a daring episode. It brought a night of agony to his fond mother and humiliation to his uncle, the high- browed, Roman nosed. Prof Van Dressen, Some- time, in some way, to every life comes a crisis. To Ernest, rapidly maturing, it came early. He called it a "culmination," not to us, but to a certain girl in Granite. Beware how you say "culmination" to Ern- est Van Dressen now, for, not even the audacious JuHus dares mention it. "Ernest was in love. He was sure of it himself, and so was the girl. He had taken her coasting all winter down the magnificent hills of Granite. He had sent her a valentine, and she had given him a lock of her hair. He had gone the length of a sonnet — but I spare you that ! He was sure he knew his own mind, and if a man of sixteen doesn't know his own mind, who does ? He mooned around the house 26 402 WARP ANO WOOF. and stroked his upper lip to the delectation of Roy. The girl, in whom the young scion oi a Van Dressen delighted, was the daughter of the hotel-keeper. Not that she was to be tlamed for that — I only mention it in passing. Ernest is not one to let his emotions run riot in his manly bosom — the while he presents an outward calm. On the other hand, he early decided on an important step. He would elope, would Ernest. So he wrote a note to the fair maid, imploring her to fly with him to- a more genial clime. Roy and Beth have since made cautious inquiries as to the latitude of that genial clime — but dark and threatening is his aspect, whenever this delicate question is broached. A copy of this note, in pencil scratch was left on his dressing table. It was Julius — dear, precious Julius — that saved him. They — Ernest and his girl — stood in a clump of trees in the school ground, and Julius paused, and poised in air a hickory-nut, intending to hit Ernest ; but a remark from his cousin changed his purpose. Julius' eyes were like moons. Here was a piece of information ! Ernest was going to do. some- thing — he was not quite sure what. The "genial clime" and "culmination" were beyond his ken, but the seven o'clock train for "Chesterfield" he could un- derstand. He fairly flew along his homeward path and would have told the story to me and prevented further mischief, but Dick Blossom yelled out from a conven- ient perch on the parsons gate-post: "What's the rush — kid ?" ' 'Kid ? Indeed ! That was too much. Julius paused. He forgot Ernest and then and there avenged his pre- cious honor, or would have done so, had not a third boy interposed ; and the three youngsters speedily for- A TEA TALK AN ELOPEMENT. 4O3 got everything in a game that lasted till supper time. There was company at tea and not till he laid his head on my knee for his evening's cuddle, did he think of his secret. Then he told it. I started to my feet in dismay, ran out of the front door through the street pausing for nothing till I burst open the door and stood white and breathless, in the Van Dressen midst gasping : "Ernest — the seven o'clock train — is trying to elope !" "Ernest ridiculous ! Why, he's only gone to the post-office, and will be back in a few moments !" said Prof. Adolphus calmly. "But they won't be back," I persisted. "Julius overheard the whole story — they are gone." ' 'Beth ran up to her brother's room and found that tell-tale slip of paper. She showed it to the Professor who came down rapidly from a calculation of the spheres, to a ra/2^ calculation of the number of miles to the village of Chesterfield. How he flew around, did the dignified Prof! He stayed not on the order of his going, but seized the nearest coat which hap- pened to be Williams — leaped on Major's back and rode off at a galloping pace to intercept his amorous nephew. Would he reach there in time ? He did — rushed into the waiting-room and found a blushing and desperate pair waiting for the next train to take them to a "genial clime." He collared the would-be bride-groom, gave him a vigorous shaking, put him and the hotel-keeper's pretty daughter on a Granite bound train in the charge of the conductor — think of it, a man of sixteen ! — and then turned Major about and started for his homeward ride. In the grey dawn as he rode along the outskirts of 404 WARP AND WOOF. Keith, Major paced leisurely, a little tired, and the Prof, was musing. There was a sudden thud of horses hoofs — a rush — a shout — a scramble — a heavy hand on his shoulder — and a great, coarse, red-faced man arresting him — arresting him. Prof. Adolphus Van Dressen, the astronemer — for a horse-thief ! It was in vain ; the Prof, produced his card, explained and ex- platerated. It was in vain he grew red and excited and stamped his foot in rage. His over-coat was against him. They were looking for a horse-thief ; the sher- iff knew he was right, and knowledge is power. Mad- der than he had ever been in the whole course of his scholarly life, he rode back hand-cuffed, was put in a dirty cell, and stared at all day long by a crowd of curious passers. They had never heard of Prof. Van Dressen, nor did they want to, with a live horse-thief to contemplate. So they stared on ! And he en- dured it till his telegram to Granite was answered by the appearance of Frank. The Sheriff, of course, was drunk when he arrested him, but he was a Repub- lican, and voted the straight ticket right through ; and when I ventured to ask the Professor if that fact did not make his trial more endurable, he said seriously : ' 'A party is not to blame for the blunders of individuals. " "Who said it was I should like to know ?" CHAPTER XXXVII 1. analogies! ( Weaving in a little black. ^ "Beauty of character includes every good of which a human heart can know and makes the woman who posseth it a princess in Israel, whose home is everybody's heart and whose heaven is ev- erywhere." — Frances E. Willard, ROF. ADOLPHUS has written a very able ar tide on ' 'Chloroform as a substitute for hang- ing, " but I don't believe it will ever be published for like many a theory it has failed in practice. Roy came in this morning with a particularly lively twinkle in his eye. I may not be wise in all phases of human nature, but I'm quite well read in boys, so I said: "Well, Roy, what's the matter?" "That audacious child looked me straight in the face and solemnly remarked : ' 'The black Republican cat is dead!" That was a singular announcement and savored not a little of disrespectto the great party of much vaunted morality, but I knew Roy, the cat, and the Professor's article, and questioned my young cousin : "How did the chloroform work?" "Not worth a cent," he responded promptly. "The cat kicked, scratched, clawed, mewed, howled, and had to be hung after all !" 406 WARP AND WOOF. "Indeed, who hung him finally?" "I did ; and cousin Ida, you'd have laughed yourself to have seen Uncle Adolphus — it was such a lark !" And Roy went off into a wild paroxism of glee at the recollection, in which Julius joined uproariously though entirely ignorant of the cause. Now to explain the cat. It was last year that the family, off for the seashore, were waiting at the land- ing, when Irish Jen appeared with a basket from which issued a most mysterious scratching. "What's ^^s;* Jennie?" asked Aunt Kate. "A cat?" "Faith, and a cat it is, and an abused darling — to be sure. It's meself '11 be a taking it to the seashore where it won't be hurt of nobody !" "What color is it?" queried Aunt Kate anxiously, for she isn't fond of dlack cats, and I for one have never wondered at the popular notion of the devil's possession of them. Jennie opened the basket, and there was the creature — a most uncanny beastie — clip- ped as to ears, abbreviated as to tail, and black as a coal ! There it crouched, glaring at us with impish green eyes. No wonder Beth screamed. Jim, (Jen- nie's lover) she acknowledged had docked the cat in a fit of jealously, "just because I went to a Republi- can show-off with his brother Mike !" "A black Republican cat, then it seems," with an unmerciful look. "Poor httle thing, it's only another waif, Kate," said Prof A — who is fond of cats; for Aunt Kate was at that very moment escorting a little blue-eyed mis- sion-child, yclept Lily, and fair as her name to the sea- shore for a month's outing. The contrast between the two waifs was so striking ANALOGIES. 407 that I, who had come down to see them off, bethought myself to watch the crowd and see what kind of waifs were the correct things. Not children, you may be sure of that; not a child, except Aunt Kate's Lily, but trotted under family care. But waifs enough, such as they were — canaries, one peacock, dogs — dear yes, lap dogs, spanniels and terriers. Not that I dislike dogs, or birds, but ah me ! the babies — the little piti- ful, big-eyed babies ! These dogs are petted and fondled and dragged from city to seashore, while the little waifs of humanity sti- fle and perish for want of loving attention. Through the barking and mewing and chirping I hear the cry of the children, and it breaks my mother-heart. But to "return to the black cat whose clipped ears and tail — so produced by Democratic rivalry — sug- gested to Aunt Kate's mind, black Republicanism. Aun'tKate couldn't say "scat" without Jennie's 'scat- ting ! So it thrived in the kitchen, but Jen joining her Jim, left the cat to the fond bachelor Professor. Alas ! he was also fond of scientific investigation and there was more story in Roy's face and twinkling eyes. "He gave it chloroform enough to kill two ordin- ary Republicans," but it scratched and kicked and yowled triumphantly and wouldn't die. Then I got a rope and hitched to a tree, and Uncle got his head caught in it, and when I gave a mighty jerk, he came very near being hung too ! When he pulled himself out, his face was red and his collar rumpled, and his hair stuck up in every direction. Mamma laughed and asked \{ politicians hadn't tried the same process and failed; whereat he marched himself off into the library." "It is something like, Roy. They have eliminated 408 WARP AND WOOF. that black Satanic beast's tail, cut off his ears, given him catnip-tea resolutions and moral suasion chloro- form, but he is yowling triumphantly still ; And mere prefessors of temperance better look out for their own necks, for the gritty Prohibition boy will hang him. " " You bet!" as he marched off. Another story was in Frank's eye as he returned from a S. S. convention. "What is it Frank?" "Aunt Kate's resolution,asking that the Superinten- dents be instructed to observe the Quarterly Sunday as a temperance one. It was hinted that some Supt's omit it entirely, and others allow it five minutes ! She said the W. C, T. U. and others, beseeched and besieged the National S. S. for years for the temperance lesson. ' 'And of what avail if such lesson is not used — or for only five minutes! Months spent ' in that clearest of voices, 'over the forty years wanderings of the children of Israel in the desert, and only twenty minutes a year on the evil that is sending its millions wandering- through the Sahara of despair through all eternity! Critical reviews of ancient history will not keep the boy out of the next corner saloon !' Her resolution passed. Aunt Kate always hits the nail on the head." ' 'Because she practiced with her hammer years ago on the old sitting room carpet. I remember once as grandpa was on his knees stretching the old red and green ingrain and she was driving in the tacks she asked him if he wasn't tired ? 'O no ! daughter,' he said, 'I enjoy watching you ! You hit the nail so square on the ^fa:a? every time !' 'That's the best compliment I ever had, father," perking up archly and her eyes twinkled roguishly as she added 'I must have taken my carpen- ANALOGIES. 409 try talents from your practical theology ! That's the way you preach !" "You seem to make a close connection, wifey, be- tween carpet tacks, politics, and religion!" said my husband. ' 'And there is, Frank, I believe your home hammer- ing helps you professionally, and if Rev. Blossom would do the same, it might help him to hit some the- ological nails square on the head, and drive them in. It wouldn't hurt Prof. Adolphus, either, to come down from celestial stars to the practical adjustment of mun- dane things !" Aunt Kate came in later and there were more analogies. "How busy", remarked mother, "you used to keep father tinkering around among boxes and frames to make pretty things for the house ! You would stain, varnish, embroider and paint. If you wanted an easel or canvas stretched for one of your pretty little pict- ures, somehow he always did it for you ? "And don't I remember what strategy I used?" answered Aunt Kate with a smile and dimple, ' 'If I asked him outright, he would always object to my plan and I soon learned the best way was to go about it my- self, make all the noise possible with my old tools, pound my fingers and cry a little, and then he'd look up from his 'ology or 'ism, with 'What is the matter? What are you trying to do now ?' After I had reluct- antly answered, and in spite of bruises, persistently kept at it, he would appreciate the situation, and go off with it to some shop where they kept good tools and make it beautifully." "And I remember," added mother "that when you 410 WARP AND WOOF. had painted one of your pretty little home-scenes on it, he would enjoy it the more for his own part in it." "If he hadn't helped me, I'd gone to a shop for tools and made it somehow myself! I wish the men were all hke father in this home-tinkering ? We've been coaxing them for years to fix frames and canvas for the pretty home pictures. We've heenpuioffand snubbed off We've taken the old jaw-saw and have don e the best we could with our W. C. T. U. hammer, but after all, we do pound our own fingers and sometimes each other's. There's been many a cry. Some a Ht- tle braver than the rest have been vexing the political shops for tools, at least a law-sharpener; I wonder if we couldn't make a jig-saw of a jaw one, Lucy? We'll have to go into the National carpentry business our- selves, and when we fix the constitutional frame, stretch and nail the political canvas, and paint such a pretty home scene as they never saw, the men will be ready enough to dance a jig around it to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner." And Aunt Kate in happy antici- pation was actually on her feet practicing a minuet (?) till mother reminded her that it was unbecomtng in a widow of her age, and that the women wern't yet ad- mitted to that shop, and wouldn't be for some time if the men continued so contrary ! "Well, then, we'll give them 'Hail Columbia,' as Roy says, for it's their own contrariness that has set us to hammering, isn't it Ida ? But I think the men will yet, like father, come around and fix up things for us." "Mother's head was full of reminisences. A horse- race story pricked up my ears, for Aunt Kate is de- cidedly opposed to anything running but children and ANALOGIES. 411 colts ! It was with that first partner of Dr. Noble's on a return drive from a picnic, and the fortunate bride in the phaeton waved her whip as a challenge to Aunt Kate, jogging along with my father and mother. "May I ?" she asked of father with very red cheeks and fire in her eye, "Yes, " he answered hastily, and father's fine bays at her urging, flew, like Roman steeds before a chariot and quickly distanced the Prof and Mrs. ; and the triumphant sweep of her hand now quite an- nihilated the fair bride, though her partner seemed to enjoy it ? But the winning horses were then beyond her control, and it required a strong manly arm and a mighty effort to curb their bounding ambition. As mother told the story, I thought how much it was hke Frank curbing my ambitions that are forever running awaywithme. "I'm sure," I remarked, "Aunt Kate needs a firm, strong coachman to put brakes on to her locomotion now !" "And I am glad," said mother, "she has again won the "Noble race!" "Because God has been guiding the reins" — Aunt Kate looked solemnly sentimental — and I escaped, breathing the hope that ariother cause may triumph in its noble race." ->^^^^^^^^0^^^k^ CHAPTER XXXIX. LAST DAYS IN GRANITE. "Onward, voters! hope is blooming, Dawns the day of ruin's death, Sunlight breaking lifts the glooming ; Raiding ranks the right assuming. Rum and ruin are entoinbing ; Tardy statesman, hold your breath ! Let the drum beat loud and long! See Prohibition legions coming. Many hundred thousands strong." JHE graduation of Clarence Noble, the Dr's son, attracted us all to Commencement. He was valedictorian and his theme was National Retri- bution discussed from the standpoint of temperance, as fearlessly as his father had discussed the same ques- tion from the slavery standpoint. He is a fine, bright fellow and his oration showed deep thought and thor- ough culture. Aunt Kate was as proud of him as his father, and Beth^well, it was a clear case of love at first sight. She was certainly very pretty in her white albatross set off by its trimmings of deep red, and the young valedictorian looked at her with his heart in his eyes. It is so delightful to see young folks fall in love ! Wonder if I'll feel so when my fledglings mate ? Beth is a very intelligent sensible, girl, and should win a true lover ; for the day is past when mere beauty can LAST DAYS IN GRANITE. 413 be a girl's passport to popular favor, and that's a sign that a better day is coming. Beth complains no more that her nose cannot be counted where her grandfather's was, or threatens to put his 'Alma Mater', in the background, because she will be daughterless; for she's to enter that Western Co'ed with her brother and fit herself worthily for a 'Noble' career ! I see Aunt Kate looks anxiously at these young doves, for with all her present happiness she hopes no caprice of the fickle goddess will ruffle their lives. Both are so honest and frank, that I think a misunderstanding would be impossible. Poor Prof. Adolphus puts on unusual dignity as he demurely studies this planet Venus, but I really think is home-sick among all this cooing. He isn't neglect- ed however and is urged to accept a position in that same western College. Roy and .Major will go too. Imagine what the Brookes think about it ! Yet it would be wicked to wish Aunt Kate had never seen Washing- tori ! Dr. Noble, with all his searchings, would never have found her here in Granite ! He is thoughtful for every one, and encourages Frank with, 'a good opening for a Prohibition lawyer;' but I think he is needed more East, for he repdrts, that the West, is far in advance of us on this subject. I wish you could hear him discourse on his favorite theme. He is a happy conversational- ist. Julius pronounces him yW/j/, and they've had many a game of ball together. Frank is almost jealous of the hugs and kisses the twinnies give him ; and without seeming to observe the necessity, he has given me many a helpful suggestion on family government ! Rev. Blossom seems to enjoy this revival of their old friendship immensely, and through some happy influ- 4r4 WARP AND WOOF. ence he remembers to pray for the temperance cause every Sunday ! Indeed a more earnest spirit pervades the church and community. The prayer meeting is quite revolutionized; Sisters are no longer h'mited to "reciting a verse," but are so cordially invited to speak and pray, and so happily appreciated, that we all en- joy, but do not abuse, our liberty by crowding the brethren out. Their prayers and exhortations are shorter and to the point and the pleasant general in- terchange of Christian thought reminds me of a family fireside; for how stupid it would be at home to have Frank and Julius do all the talking ! Even Col. Briggs says "It doesn't ;^2/rf." It was a woman's quick instinct, a woman who never had been to college, who,gav£ us thckey for,, "Achilles in 428 WARP AND WOOF. sandals !"laughed Aunt K^ate merrily at the first glance, "and who supposes his fair Briseus ever stood an equal by his side," pointing to the two prominent central figures: ' ^No, No, gentlemen, search an older book than the Britannica, for higher than Roman war- fare is here ! No Achilles of the past but the living Christian warrior ol^& present, wearing with his brazen armor the sandals of peace, and for his helmet, the cross with its hope." "The Greek symbol of love is on his breast-plate,'" now assisted Dr. Noble '''Y\\.Q shield va. his left hand is faith, I think, for old Apollyonis after it," added Uncle Fred. "And if there isn't another demon tugging at his skirts !" discerned Frank. "That robe must represent Christ's righteousness," said Aunt Kate. The same, I verily thought, that these lovely souls around me are wearing; for while they were studying faces on the shield, / was studying faces more noble and beautiful than the silvered ones in bas-relief ! Even Rev. Blossom's looked quite inspired, as he likened the sword, grasped with strength and nerve in the warrior's right hand, to ' 'the siiinrd of tlie Spirit — the word of God. " And more beautiful, thought I, than a warrior's silvered belt, is the pure girdle of truth ! The scene, as Aunt Kate said, is described in an older and truer encyclopedia, even that of all knowl- edge ; and in the 6th chapter of Ephesians'we found this picture of Christian life — t^ue both to the ancient and the modern. Beneath, around, and pointing wih bow-strung arrows toward the central figures, were a host of demons, and I mused quite complacently: ' "No THE RAINBOW. 429 wonder we sometimes fall with such demoniacs after us !" Aunt Kate was naturally more interested in the woman than the warrior. Clad simply in womanly garments she stood by his side, and was carrying aloft over both a banner inscribed, ^'Dei Gratia." As she turned to Rev. Blossom with,— "Your Latin, please. "—I saw one fair representation of womanhood, and she was clad in heliotrope satin ! Indeed Aunt Kate had carried aloft and conquered with her ' 'DeiGtatia" banner, for "By the grace of God, " the Rev. answered reverently, adding however, in a rallying manner : "Her garments are not aesthetic or military ; neither sword, helmet nor shield, Mrs. No- ble. You woman suffragists would scarcely be satis- fied with her equipments ?" "Yes we would, Mr. Blossom" — and Aunt Kate's eyes were like diamonds — ' 'had each of us a warrior as true and brave as he. Indeed we'd ask no higher mission than her's — see ! she is reaching the hand of help out on those drunkards with bloated faces — lifting them to her rock. Because of dead and fallen manhood, few sisters have a protector. Most of us must battle alone, and we would not only defend our- selves and each other, but lift manhood up as well. And, O ! brother ! do join us in our conflict with the dragon drunkenness, and help us to a weapon and then we can help j/oul" And there was a take-no-de- nial look in the tear-dimmed diamonds. Intense interest was in everybody's face. It seemed as solemn as a funeral. The clock on the mantle could be heard, and it ticked six times as the color came and went (like a dodging politician) in the Reverend's ro- tund face. His firm mouth relaxed like ababv's. iust 430 WARP AND WOOF. going to cry. The ^'sot" heart relented, and ex- pression brightened, as, placing one hand in Aunt Kate's and the other in Dr. Noble's, he triumphantly answered "I will ! With the sword of Prohibition and Suffrage for all, we'll stand together on the Rock, while first of all we fight the devil of conservatism." There was a general hand clasp, all around the circle "Ring around rosy" said Clara, placing her little one in mine. Aunt Kate's face was fairly radiant as she took a full white rose — the badge of the Prohib- ition party — and with a bit of our suffrage yellow rib- bon fastened it in Rev. Blossom's button hole ! I should have considered this prophetically hopeful of ministerial converts genarally, had not Frank whis- pered of a rumored change in Col. Briggs' politics; but I hadn't the heart to mention that, or lovely Ruthie's influence, to satisfied Aunt Kate. Analogies may run in our family, for Uncle Fred now called our attention to one between this ' 'Blossom- ing" crown of our rejoicing and the one borne by the angel.'; and attendant heavenly host ready to descfend upon the woman represented in the shield. Her pictured crown was made of crosses. "Just as our Heavenly ^razc«j will be of earth's crosses," said Dr. Noble. Bright anticipations were expressed of the home of the future, thus beautifully prefigured, when each man shall defend the woman he loves, (I hope there'll be enough to go around) and she clad in gar- ments o? womanhood with the simple crown o{ inotlur- hood, shall bear her Dei Gratia banner! Why I I thought, that will be the Millenmum! and all the paraphernalia of parties and societies will be among the relics of the dark ages ! Yet I breathed a hope- — THE RAINBOW. 43 I it passed into a prayer — that Warp and Woof might mingle with the great whole influences that are bring- ing in that prophetic blessedness. It is Aunt Kate's fervent wish, I know; and as you see, she always has her own way. Sure enough, she had her rainbow. She had hoped for one as you know, but certainly on that cloudless July day, I did not expect that a rainbow would put in an appearance. There was just the lightest dash of rain, just a tinkle on the window, a crystal sprinkle on the wisteria-vined porch, and sure enough, when they entered the carriage to drive away, she caught my arm and said, "Look! Ida, " and there was the bow — a beautiful bright one. The clildren screamed with delight ; the twinnies cooed and gurgled ; and as the newly wedded pair clasped hands anew, Dr. Noble, with happy rainbow tears in his eyes fervently re- marked: "God grant that in our lives, the cares, crosses and shadows of this life may be to us no more than the transient storm, which casts gloom upon the earth only for an hour, but when past the sun shines as brightly, the birds sing more sweetly, and nature through her glistening tear-drops smiles more loving- ly, while on the weeping cloud, He paints his golden bow oi beauty, love and promise T And Uncle Fred in happy response : "When the morning speeds afar, Star enfolding after star, How the cool translucent dews Glitter with their rainbow hues! So the sorrows of our years, With their unforbidden tears. Shall be touched with light divine, And transformed in beauty shine. Trusting, Lord, in thy dear care. Waiting still in love and prayer, Until the day break," «■*'?,