iiiililili -/ L i :^ m !t'K^'' ^^?^ ', ~ TimyL!\ ?:>vr 3 rfTg^ . ICl ■W'-i t Class PS ^5^7 Book , 0i^ 5S>fi, Copyright }l°- <^0l COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV SUN TIME AND CLOUD TIME MINOR CHORDS VERSES SKETCHES TALES BY ANDREW HARVEY SCOBLE R. F. FENNO & COMPANY i8 EAST 17TH ST., NEW YORK tlbR.AKYcf CONGRESS Two Copies Ssceived DEC 29 ie08 y\ Coyyritjm Entry GLASS ft. XXClNq COPY S). Copyright 1908 By Andrew H. Scoble CONTENTS PAGE Life i Mother ...:.. 2 Long Time I Wondered . 3 Victoria Mater ,. . . 4 On the Death of Gounod ........ 6 The Hudson Autumnal 7 Remembrance ., .1 . 8 To Jefferson > . 9 To Mary .10 K. G :., . . ir Old Memories Avaunt ....... ..1 . ■. 12 The Rose •. . . 14 The Soul Cry . .: ,. . 16 The Jilt , 19 Trinity 21 In Memoriam 26 I Lie Face Downward 29 The Song Z7 Quatrains 42 It's Kinder Hard and Sick'ning .45 Sat She in the Shade .48 Pre-lives ; :. . . 51 Equality ,,....., 58 The Brat . ..:.,.. 62 Mullaney ...... .. .1 . . ■• ... 1. 74 Words Eternal loS A Creature of Circumstance ....... 135 Mistress Dorothy ,., ..j 1.. >; 1.1 w « i., ^ > 165 Sun Time and Cloud Time Minor Chords LIFE Sun time and star time, Blue is the sky, and bright; Breath of the morn of the southern clime, Joy and delight. Cloud time and storm time. Chill and the drenching rain; Black is the day in its waking prime, Sorrow and pain. Day time and night time, Hopes of day unsuccessed; Toil of the day ceased at even chime. Sleep and rest. MOTHER I searched Carrara's quarried hills and plain, For stone so white as would thy life befit, That I thy worth might loving cut on it, But found not one but had some hidden stain. My fitful mind I eager, long did strain For thought so pure and strong that once 'twas writ, Or loud out-spoke, thy memory by it Would ever live; Alas! I strove in vain. Sorrowed, I trended hopeless on, and then, Lo ! e'en as I despaired, I heard thy name Out-lisped by babes and soft out-cried by men, More oft bespoke than other word of fame. More loving said, more gently told, than when, Doth tell a lover of his heart's enflame. LONG TIME I WONDERED Long time I wondered that the guilty Fay Was e'er seduced by earth-born loveliness, Did stoop his caste to lingering caress The mortal maiden as she slumb'ring lay; And, cynical, I'd smile and sneering say The Elf was blind, or else 'twas mind dis- tress From beady mountain dew drunk to excess, Or else 'twas done in reckless royst'ring play; For I bethought no woman was sincere, And trustless, scorning, shunned the beau- teous crowd, And wandered from their ways in dreading fear. And deemed her faithful most who never vowed : And so I walked my lonely way and drear. Till fate did kind, to meet thee, me al- lowed. 3 VICTORIA MATER England ! I walk erect apast thy royal stands, And tremble not, nor fear, when roar thy thousand guns; I ponder, all amazed, to see fealty's strands Long bind strong peoples to time-useless thrones : England ! I hate the pomp which glittering en- grands Thy higher living way that ever-scorning runs, Blood proud, disdainful, by thy humble toil- ing bands Whose ruddy hearts do e'er hold back thy setting suns. [But when I, sincere, view thy gracious Queen's-wise reign, And feel her loving care of all her subject ones, Minor Chords 5, When fall her sorrowed tears on thy own valiants slain, Then do I yield the homage which my free thought shuns. Victoria! Queen of England's far-stretched lands, I fain iWould greet Thee more as mother of all England's sons. ON THE DEATH OF GOUNOD The Winds are stilled, JEolhn's strings are mute, Unstrung and dumb, the Lyre broken lies; The Cello moans, the Viol sobbing sighs, Loud shrieks the Fife, and raves the frenzied Flute; The Earth, heart sick, grief struck and desti- tute, Aloud its woe and desolation cries; The Sun's cloud hid, and teem the weeping Skies, And Heaven alone rejoices In Its loot. Gounod ! Beyond yon dreaded mystic haze, The winds of faith or rougher blasts of thought Of'tlmes dispel, were trite the hymns of praise; The choired souls, mind weary, all dis- traught, To theme anew the songs of endless days. Thy greater mind and master soul be- sought. 6 THE HUDSON AUTUMNAL ON A TRIP TO ALBANY. High cliffs, rock cragged, low hills of ever- green, tValley and glade, entanglement of brush, Sands yellow of the sloping bank, the glim- mering sheen Of sun glint, and the autumn wind's sharp rush; Turning the trees and bush in sadful spleen, Leaves falling ruddy in their dying lush; Castle and hut, with happy homes atween; From far-off mist the mountain tops up- push; Smoke haze of busy towns, full hid by screen Of dust, toil raised; the woodlands lonely hush. The merry calls of men who grateful glean The fruits of labor of the summer's flush: Roof and tower, spire and cross — behold! The sun is low, the City's bathed in gold. REMEMBRANCE Nor imaged face, Nor gift of love, Nor smile, nor sigh Nor fervent vow, lYield tithe of joy, Sincerer trust, [As thought of thought Of purer heart 'And constant soul Remembrance. ® TO JEFFERSON Now on Time's mount eternal sleeps old Rip, And all the ages, as his twenty years, Shall be a short night's dreamless slip From one day's rack of strife and scolding tears, To morn of peace; Ah! Friend, who oft did ease The burdens of my soul by your night's play, I ask dear God it him may loving please. That, when you wake to that unending day And clamber down, in maze, to wond'ring view, Of the great Epilogue, the long set scene, Will come with smiles, and hands outstretched to you. We, who have loved you so in acts terrene. 9 TO MARY Oh ! Mary, Mary, Quite contrary, What in your garden grows? The violet and mignonette, And too, the dear moss rose. How canst thou, Mary, Be contrary, Where bloom in gardened rows, Sweet violets, and mignonettes. And Love's own fragrant rose? 10 K. G. Dear ebon band of silk elastic, Which wound my Lady's knee, And bound to limbs so graced and plastic Her dainty hosiery. Ousted from realms of shimmering lace, DId'st thou caressing hold Her limbs, so white, in too strong em- brace? Ah ! Would I were as bold. Unknown to her I made thee mine, I, faithless clasp, thank thee; Sweet mem'ries thou dost strong entwine With dearer hopes for me. By this fair trophy bound by fond ties Of love and loyalty, I will yield me any sacrifice, Her garter knight I'll be. II OLD MEMORIES AVAUNT What recks it me if all my day was bright, And all the west my setting sun did glow, If I must, restless, rove the starless night, And long the lingering hours to go. IWhat doth avail if I did idle play All in my noon, and knew not pains nor woes. If now I bend 'neath loads that heavy weigh, And lie asick and shrink misfortune's blows. Doth sun of day light up the long night's dark? Is toil enlightened by our old time shirk? Doth life enliven any dead and stark? Doth in our griefs and sorrows surcease lurk? 1% Minor Chords 13; Old friends! I wander lonely through the ways Of bygone times, and in my gloom I seek One hand to hold mine in, one voice that says, " Thou art my friend," not any one doth speak. Old joys! I former, careless quaffed the cup From pleasure's fount, o'erflowing, brim- full filled; On crusts from feasts of yesterday I sup. And drain the bitter dregs my fate hath willed. Old hopes! Upon thy many graves I strewed. Ashes of rosemary, never to forget, Yet, so enriched, the barren earth is nude. E'en though the soil my streaming tears did wet. Old memories! Ye haunting, mocking crew, Be gone, ye taunting tormentors accurst, I'll eat my fill of pleasures that are new, Waters of Lethe will cool my parched soul's thirst. THE ROSE The rose, which, cultured, yields a perfume sweet And breathes on all around Its fragrant breath, Neglected, trails, and bruised by random feet, Doth grow to rankness or soon droops to death. Oh, Lady dear! My heart's a budding rose. And wilt thou lay me on thy bosom fair, Close to thy soul, and may I there repose, Or lie entangled In thy sun-klst hair. Or wilt thou go disdainful on thy way, Or see me not and tread me crushing down ; Or Idly pluck me for a moment's play. To toss me from- thee with a scorning frown. 114 Minor Chords 15 If by thy lips I'm touched, I'll fuller blow, Than rose before e'er bloomed in summer time; If on thy breast I lie, in purer snow, I'll open sooner than in tropic clime. If 'neath thy feet I wantonly am trod. My thorns will pierce thee as I hapless lie; If thou dost toss me to the stone and clod And careless pass along, I'll eager die. The heart beloved hath gracious love for all, And, as the sunht moon, is constant bright; The heart unloved lies covered by a pall. And knows no day but lives in cloud-hung night. THE SOUL CRY Then had time passed Since life's errant sway, Fated us parted, Parted away; Sad was my soul, Faint-hearted I lay, Thinking unceasing, Longing alway Sweet one for thee. Then did I list, Thy voice calling me. Floating came over. Over the sea; Dead hopes enllfed, Bade sorrow flee. Leaving me joyous. Setting me free To come to thee. i6 Minor Chords 17 I hoist me sail, The winds strongly blew, Wafting me onward, Onward I flew; Blythe grew my heart, My song stronger grew, Singing so happily, Singing anew Dear one of thee. Then did we meet. Thee sleeping at rest; Sleeping thy death-sleep, Sleep of the blest; Bitter my grief, Woe filled my soul. Sigh I unceasing, None can console Dear one for thee. But 'twas thy voice, I heard calling me, Calling thy soul mate Over the sea; 1 8 Sun Time and Cloud Time Still do I live, Still live seeking thee; Strifing that death will .Take me to be My own with thee. THE JILT A supple form, a fairsome face, A winning smile of guileful grace. High forehead white, dark wavy hair. Arched brows, and eyes, whose limpid brown Now shine with glee, are now cast down To hide the mischief lurking there ; A rounded face, a piquant nose, Cheeks tinted with the flush of rose; Into her ears but whisperings go So tiny are they; soft and low Her dear, sweet voice; her merry laugh. Doth winnow joy from sorrow's chaff. And careless blows all woe away; Her bosoms snowy are and chaste, But graced and swelling, and her waist Is so proportioned as ordained By nature, which art well has feigned; Her hands. Ah me ! Oft have I held Her little hands and was I spelled 19 20 Sun Time and Cloud Time By her fair charms; her arms do seem As chiselled stones which sculptured gleam And rest to prove a master's dream : A witching gown, a glance of lace, Of silken stocking such a trace As she dost grant; an ankle lithe, A restless foot, high-instepped, with The swiftful movings which betray The artful spirit which pervades The beings of all jilting maids. For so no heart nor soul hath she, But, spider-like, she lures until The victims of her witchery. Find that she's spun with charming skill A silken web where happy, they, Entangled in love's meshes lie. Till, wearied with her dainty play, She casts the web with them away, Too cruel, too unkind, to break The binding cords love's weavings make. Whilst she may wander ever free They lie in bitt'rest slavery. TRINITY ,Ye busy marts that crowd the peaceful scene, Ye realms of plotting men and gilded dross, Within thy midst from out her mortalled' green, Old Trinity uplifts her spired cross. Ye narrow streets, ye broader peopled way, Converge ye from the earth's remotest shore. Into one path where vast, invested lay, The wealth of few, the poverty of more. Ye surging crowds intent on urging toil. Ye snaring cliques, and men of constant schemes To eager loot and ruthlessly to spoil The wrecks of trusts, and waken hopeful dreams. 21 22 Sun Time and Cloud Time Why haste ye on, why turn ye not aside, And rest yourselves within this sanctured place? Behind these gates, who here awhile may bide, Will find sweet peace and soul-refreshing grace. I love to linger as in olden days. In these dear aisles, in shades of sombre light, Or bathed in floods of holy tinted rays, Or lost In gloom of early dark'ning night. I hear the organ peal, the choir tune The grand old hymns or hallelujahs raise; I sit me down and list In sweet commune, And join, exultant. In the chanted praise. Oft do I listen as the bells in chime The hours tell, or ring the new year's birth ; Happy my greetings as In life's young time, Though soon I go from out this pleasant earth. Minor Chords 23 I humble go the gravelled paths along, And quiet view my night's fast falling gloom ; Time distant teem the quick and jostling throng, Each rushing, reckless, to his certain doom. I walk among the crumbling stones revered, I tread me on the tear stained, worthy dust ; 'Neath vernal sod, in grewsome depths in- terred. On sleep they fearless in their perfect trust. I know the story of each sturdy life. The careless morning and the day work prest, The ceasing in the even time from strife, The lying down at night to dreamless rest. I pause, ensaddened, where the frail one lies. Tear dimmed, mine eyes discern the time hid scroll, Man's baser passions breed but tears and sighs, A woman's heart doth faithless guard her soul. 24 Sun Time and Cloud Time Days gone, I feel the sea-spray sting my cheek, I valiant fight my ship, and in retreat, My glazing eye sees flying at the peak. My country's flag, unstruck e'en in defeat. Out from yon street come selfish, pompous men, Who, with their plenty, sway the world of greed; This simple shaft doth storey him, who, when His country reeled, upheld her in her need. I read the roll enscribed the martyred brave, I feel their hunger, and their thirst and pains. Their shackles bind me down, a tyrant's slave, And Lo ! They raise me up and break my chains. Fearless I dashed me through the doors of Hell My bleeding hands did batter open wide, Flaming I staggered out and, dying, fell, Content that for another I had died. Minor Chords 2$ I feeble scrawl my thoughts In words but few, The little task my tiring hand enblnds ; Here lleth he who graved for me and you, The thoughts enlightening of ten thousand minds. Here lieth joys, and loves, and hates, and woes. The woofs and warps of life's all colored weave ; The busy loom unceasing, clattering goes, Nor ever stops to broken threads retrieve. I look me on the struggling world beyond These shielding gates, and grateful here I stay. For here I lose me all my dread despond, And see apast my night a brighter day. Why haste ye on, why turn ye not aside, And meditative rest your tired soul? The glare of noon forgot in twilight tide, Let peace your striving heart console. IN MEMORIAM E. W. And one there was Whom God himself did loving make, and took Of all the qualities in Heaven found, And placed in fullest measure them in him Ere finished He his work: Heart kindliness To overflow; content unstrifed not e'en By troubles vast; and faith in fellow men, And love of them ne'er ceased by any lack Of faith of them ; and ever constant truth Untainted e'en by subterfuge: Courage Undaunted by such heavy loads and tasks As seldom men up take and not soon drop Exhausted from the strain: 26 Minor Chords 27 Wisdom of life iWas his, yet quiet voiced: All these enwrapt Within a soul so clean, and strong, and clear As held them pure and showed them ever out To all who looked therein : His brow serene, Unruffled, ne'er gave out a sign of aught That secret cast him down, but pleasant smiles Forever played upon his face. Did one Astray from paths of righteousness, and scorn Of sneering men did fall upon such one, He reached his hand of loving mercy out. And to his proper way he did return Him back and held him there. But God did fear That men, him seeing, would wrong think of him That he an angel was, strayed from the bode 28 Sun Time and Cloud Time Of perfect beings, so, God, sorrowed, laid His hand of love upon him and did blight The man, but so, that through the mar did show The soul as never man did see the slight Deform. I LIE FACE DOWNWARD I lie face downward on the arid plain, I gouge mine eyes with gritting hands, and moan. And babble, and my swollen, parched black tongue Laves, choking, at the scorching sands to ease Its fevered thirst, and then I stumble on, With arms outstretched, in frenzied dreams, to reach The gush of cooling waters which I never find; And so I stagger ever on, miraged Unto my dismal doom. Long time ago I careless, idly, roamed the fertile vale. Hid in the circling midst of green-garbed hills. '> 29; 30 Sun Time and Cloud Time Whose sun-warmed slopes were flush with ripened grapes Whose blood I drank, and ate my fill of all The plenteous yield of corn and luscious fruit; All in ungracious manner did I eat And drink, nor did I ever grateful think To thank the maker of mine ease that I Could roam untoiling, but did listen not To his wise counsel, He who ever was My friend, but went my way and gave me up To reckless romp, which, in the virtuous vale Became unsatisfying, and I longed To climb the hills and scale the guarding range Of higher mounts, and seek the ways beyond Of which so often was I told by some Who, from the outer place had sneering come Into the happy vale, and scorning laughed At the simplicity of mind of those Who quiet lived therein. But he did take My hand and placed it on the plough, and bade Me stay, and in low, loving words did plead Minor Chords 31 With me, and earnest told of woe, and grief, Which ever was beyond the vale, and urged That I should stay, and do my work, and play Not more, and strove to hold me in his strong Embrace of love. And then I sullen grew, And from my gazing at the far-off haze, Which lay upon the mountain tops, I laid My furrows crooked when I listless ploughed, And barely touched the ground, and barren were The fields I worked, nor was reproof of such E'er made by him, save in his eyes the grief Did lie so deep, as when I now do think Of it, I tear my soul that I may feel The pain as penance done, yet would there come A gleam of righteous wrath that even I Did fear, and made me seek my hated task In greater haste. One time I, shirking, crept And climbed the hills and mounts, and wond'- ring looked 32 Sun Time and Cloud Time Down on the fields and plains outstretched to where The sky and earth do meet, so far It Is As are the earth and heaven apart, though It Doth look a little foot-pace, and I saw The glint of gold upon the ways, and heard The shouts and songs of merry-makers who Held out their hands enticing that I should Come down, but I went back to longing dream Of such a widened world of joy. And so One night, while all the vale toil-wearied slept, I rose, and without word of love or kiss To him, though In my hands I took his gifts And generous wage, I ran on through the gloom, Fast to the hills, and stumbling climbed the slopes And mountain sides; and In the pallid morn Ere day had wakened full, I clambered down, And In abandon, In my unpent joy, I careless shouted loud and joined me In Minor Chords 33 The ribald songs, full voiced, and wandered on, And linked me arm in arm with royst'ring men, And women, fair, but wanton in their souls. Who staggering surged on towards the rim Which ever distant was. And for the while I gorged me on the earth's riotous yield Of fruits exotic, and of flaming grain Full swollen in the glare and heat of sun Out from a cloudless sky; and scattering threw In folly's path the little savings of His toil, which had been mine by his dear love And generous indulgence. Came a time The paths grew stony, and the fields untilled Were brown and bare; and then I fain would ask The ones around to give me, of their food. Some part to eat, but none had they with whom 34 Sun Time and Cloud Time I strayed, but they too hungered, and did faint And fall down, screaming, in their famish- ment, Against the ones who stayed behind, within The place of excess joys, who now did urge Us sneering on, and who forbade us to Return, and who refused to give to us Even the husks which threw they to the swine, And laughed exultant at our dread distress. And, taunting, told us of the warning signs Which full displayed we passed, unseeing, in Our reckless run. And then I eager looked To find the path which led aback to where The low hills were, which, guarding, did sur- round The vale I crept out from, for I bethought That he would feed me, and I was so weak My tired legs could bear me but a while Ere I must fall: In vain I sought, the ways Went ever on, but all were barred behind, And though I strained my eyes to see the hills. Minor Chords 35; A heavy mist, whirled into dreadful shapes, By memory's constant swirl, did blurring hide All of the past except the hideous wraiths Of evil joys and doings wrong of mine Which failed my sight. And so I hapless went along, And stumbled on, and picked the bitter leaf And chewed it 'till I sickened grew, and then I spat it out, but now I'd eager take it back So strong doth hunger me beset. And then I came unto the sandy, scorching plain. Where nothing grows, and the hot sun doth seethe The blood within my veins and yet I must Go on, go ever struggling, straining on, For oft a little ways ahead I see My happy vale, and him with arms out- reached To take me and I stagger on, in joy, Till it does glimm'ring fade away, and but The glaring sands do lie around to mock me In my agony. 36 Sun Time and Cloud Time The golden rim far lies, So far it is as when I looked it on The first, and yet I must go on, and on, Until I lie unrising, and the sun Will bleach my bones, and then the shifting sands Will drift me o'er and none will ever know That I was ever, which is best, for I ? Have not been good for being, but I pray In my small soul, that I may see again His face, love-lit as always was of old. THE SONG Long rows of storied tenements, red bricked And trimmed with brownish stone; roofs sizzling In the sun glare; blocks long of rock-paved streets Full teeming with the life of hapless men, Who, toiling, move in laggard, listless way, And labor, sweltering, in the scorching heat Of Summer day. Long streaks of gleaming rails, Tinkle of bell, and murmurings and cries. With clash of iron hoofs of straining brutes, And crash of steel-bound wheels. Windows wide ope'd To catch the faltering breathings of the air Redolent with the heavy sick'ning smells Of careless life. 3.7 38 Sun Time and Cloud Time Rooms squalid; hallways deep Encrusted with thick dust ; walls plaster broke And cracked; Floors worn and dirt littered; doors Unhinged and falling down. Up from the dank Foul cellar, filled with rott'ning filth, high piled. And from the narrow chasm of the yard, Full strewn with out-throwings of the night, And from the oozy bottoms of the light Holes rise foul, stenchful odors. In the yard. Stone-flagged and hot, the drunkard, stupored lay, Sodden and purple-faced, and belched his breath. Out fetid with his groans. The little babe Lay dying in the stifling room and moaned Its tiny life away in fevered gasps, Whilst near the mother, sobbing, wrung her hands In grief. Minor Chords 39 Born of the gentle South wind, blythe, The little zephyr lightly blew up towards The City stricken sore, and gay It fell On leaf and bud, and sported In the trees, Untroubled In Its happy play until It reached the hapless place of close abode, And then, In curious mood, It dropped, Into the yawning, gaping holes of yard, And darkened shafts and. Idly, entered in The windows and did rest upon the cheek The little babe did turn so grateful to Its touch. And cooling lay thereon and eased Its flush ; And then did sink so slow Into the yard Where lay the drunkard and did brush his lips Enparched; and then, deep sorrowed, heavily Uprose the sickened breeze and staggered out. Unhappy to the open plain far off, Out on the plain, sun scorched, brown grassed and seared. The tree, leaves listless, drooped 'neath sun's fierce heat, And eager longed for moving breath of air. 40 Sun Time and Cloud Time Out from the City, mind-wearied and sad, The poet, all unthemed, did come in strong Dispirit and did cast him, hapless down Beneath the tree, and plaintive dreary sang Unheard and all untuned, but soon he ceased (His song for very hate of that he sang iUnthemed. Out to the tree the zephyr came, Full burdened with its foulsome load of woe, [And dropped for ease upon each withering leaf 'And rested gladly on each branch and limb So weighted down it was. Eager the tree Inhaled the poisoned air and grateful drank The foul breaths noxious of the little babe And drunken sot, and all the putridness The breeze did bear, and was refreshed by these. And yet did so relieve the zephyr that It merrily uprose and wafted on Again in joy. Minor Chords 41 The tree, enlivened then Exhaled its freshened breath of sweet ozone; The poet drank deep draughts and then out- sang Exultant his new theme, and far his song Did reach, e'en to the City so far off, And did revive and cheer the people there. So that they were upheld and strengthened 'till The cool of even came to cease the heat Of day. Loud did they praise the poet Who did sing their ease of strickened soul. And he did take their praise in gratitude That they had heard his song: But 'twas the song Of drunkard and of babe, and all the foul Odors, of tree and limb, and leaf and breeze. And dirt, all these did theme and tune the song And he but worded it. QUATRAINS POOR YORICK Alas, poor Yorick! Jester, clod and skull. How oft in life, he, kingly mirth provok- ing, Out of the grave a merry jest would'st cull, Now in it — ceases joking. DAUBER It's not so much that Dauber's wond'rous skilled. He, who depicts so truly woman's graces; His name is great, his purse is fatly filled, The secret is — he paints such speaking faces. .42! Minor Chords 43 THE LIAR " I fear thee not," He cries to God and dares iTo dash a hand defiant in His angered face; But cowers, cringing, from man's puny stares, And shrinks a daylong world's disgrace. WOMEN " Let man save man and woman her own sex, And so is solved the saving question vex." Thus did she prate, with learning heavy crammed, I fear me much she wants all women damned. ALONE Man sinned so great a sin that God enraged Didst say, " Hell's torments cannot it atone, Let him live on unloved and all alone," And then God shuddered, all his wrath as- suaged. 44 Sun Time and Cloud Time POLLY Dear Polly took from me, of mine, All that I had, yet I've no lack Of riches, for said she, " I'm thine," And so I got more back. A PROLOGUE "Sweet William and dear folk the shortened time I plead as excuse for my sorry rhyme, But In my theme sincere, I make me bold, And fear me not shouldst any seek to scold. Save that, perchance, I sing some wounding quip, And if't be so, forgive the unintentloned slip. IT'S KINDER HARD AND SICK'NING It's kinder hard and sick'ning, when yer wants ter go ter work, And yer looking 'round the City, fer ter get some kind er job, Ter have the folk look on yer as a loafer and er shirk, And ter say yer are a tramp. And ter think yer are a scamp, And ter watch yer just as if yer was er lay- ing low ter rob. Then you feel that yer er walking On that side of the street. Where the shade is spread on thickest, And the sun does never beat. It's kinder hard and sick'ning, when yer shoes are breaking out. 45 46 Sun Time and Cloud Time And yer hat is getting rusty, and er shine is on yer clothes, And yer feet are sore and swollen from walk- ing all about. And yer know fer er sure fact The coat that's on yer back Doesn't warm yer up a bit when the bitter cold wind blows. Then yer feel that yer er walking. On that side of the street, Where the shade is spread on thickest, And the sun does never beat. It's kinder hard and sick'ning, when yer look ercross the way, And yer see the crowds erwalking in the warm and bright sunshine. And the friends who used ter like yer ain't got er word ter say. Then yer feel er kinder lonely. And yer know that yer have only Got yerself to help yer on, and it ain't no use ter whine. Minor CHords "47! Then yer feel that yer er walking, On that side of the street, Where the shade is spread on thickest, And the sun does never beat. It's kinder hard and sick'ning when yer money is all spent, And yer feel er little weak and faint from living all too low, Yer legs are all er tremb'ling and yer knees are somehow bent, Yer kinder think when yer are sO' blue, God's got yer down and's kicking you. But If yer keep er going straight, yer'll get some kinder show. There'll come a time of brightening, The sun will shine so sweet, 'Twill warm and be er lightening, Both sides of the street. SAT SHE IN THE SHADE Sat she in the shade ; I in the light : " You sent for me ? " " I sent for you, be my friend ! " My face was in the light; I smiled; "Oh, be my friend!" My heart was in the shade ; I sobbed, she heard me not; " Nay ! I cannot be your friend." Her face was in the dark; I heard her sigh; " I beseech you, be my friend ! " Her heart was in the light ; she wept : 'Twas but yester-night she had wedded! him. I thought of him; again I smiled in the light, but in the darkness my heart raged; "Nay! I cannot be your friend." She moaned; " Be my friend! " My heart grieved but my lips laughed ; 48, Minor Chords 49; " But he? " " I love him not ! " My face In the light frowned; my heart In the shadows smiled. " You didst wed him." "I love him not!" My heart throbbed exultant. " Nay ! I cannot be your friend." No word spoke she for a while. And so sat I, face lit and heart hid. ** Be my friend, I love you ! " My heart pained with the joy of it; never before had she so said. " Be my friend, I love you ! " My face sneered ; she saw not my heart. " I cannot be your friend." Cried she; " Be my friend! " Out from the shadows reached she her arms full extended to me, inviting me, entic- ing me; arms that in my daring dreams, but never else, had embraced me In tightest hold. " I cannot be your friend." Out from the shade came she, out into the light; the woman of my love; the body of my desire; the soul of my craving; knelt she '50 Sun Time and Cloud Time down by me, and placed her head against me, and bore upon and enflamed me. " Be my friend, I love you, I love you ! " My heart tore from my bosom; my arms leaped to enfold her; my soul longed for her; pressed she down on me; her arms strained me to her; scorched was my cheek with her breathing; my heaven of love was a hell of passion. ** Be my friend, I love you ! " Abrupt I rose: I flung her from me. I stood in the light; my heart was ht; my face smiled not. " I cannot be your friend, I love you ! " I waited not; out into the night I went; my hell of woe was a heaven of love. Back of me the light; there came a mur- mur, " Be my friend, I love you ! " Front of me the gloom. " I cannot be your friend, I love you ! " PRE-LIVES We are told, and we accept as truth, that within certain periods the material component parts of our body are entirely changed. That our body of to-day is entirely new from that of yesterday, taking yesterday as equiva- lent to the beginning of the accepted term of time of the first formation of the material atoms which make up the body, or the suc- cessive new form.ations thereof. I take it then that if we could dissect and disintegrate a child, after its weaning time, when it takes for its nourishment food other than its mother's milk, and label for identifi- cation each separate particle of Its material make up, and having done so could reassemble these atomic parts and continue the life ex- istence of that child, until the first day suc- ceeding the expiration of the period of such alleged renewal in entirety of such compo- 5.1' 52 Sun Time and Cloud Time nent parts, and could then again disintegrate the body particles, we would find none of the atoms we had labeled, but, in place thereof, other new atoms, similar perhaps, but with none of the constituent being of the previous ones. And so each day we enter on a new physical life though the renewing principle is so gentle In Its operation as to prevent a disastrously abrupt change. Having accepted this ascertained and Indis- putable fact, I find explained, to my reason- ing, many mysteries upon which many times have I pondered. How often do we, whose father and mother, the ones who gave us our first mate- rial, physical parts, were good people, do many things that are wrong. Men speak at such times, of such doings, of heritage, and not erroneously so, except that they lay the blame upon the parents or some lineal ances- tor of the depraved one. But this is contrary to the hypothesis based upon the before re- cited facts proven and accepted as true. If the component parts of the physical body of Minor Chords 53 the wrong-doer have been entirely renewed, and if in the period of renewal such an one has not received from the physical make up of either parent who begat him any renewing sustenance, the culprit has not in him any part whatsoever of such parents. Therefore, how can it be said that his evil parts are re- ceived as a heritage from such parents or from such ancestors? Therefore, we must exonerate and acquit every parent for all the sins and wrong-doings of their offspring, done after the termination of the period of renewal in their children, subsequent to the time of the last nursing by the mother. To what, then, can we attribute the pro- pensity to evil. People, other than physicists, will say, environment, example, need, want, desires. But the physicist insists that phys- ical heritage is the primary cause, though they will allow that environment, necessity and de- sire sway and impel, if the physical heri- tage is not controlling over such. But physical heritage need not be held blamable for evil deeds alone, but must be thanked for good ones. Physical heritage 54 Sun Time and Cloud Time must be granted the applause given to genius, the praise given to mentality, the rewards given to valor, though the begetters of the recipients of such honor were themselves ob- scure and undeserving of such glory. I walk and think in daytime of places in which I have never been ; I see faces I know whom never have I seen in this life; at night, in sleeping mood, I live many Uves and won- der at the strangeness of it. I feel the lust of the sensualist, the severity of the ascetic: I crave strong drink and recoil in horror from a glass of simple wine; I love, and in a while I hate the very thing I loved; I timid tremble, then I'm mad with fierce- ness. This is my physical inheritance, given me, not by the two of my natal time, but by the millions of all time who have been injected into my being by the power of the creative scheme. Nothing is lost. If this Universe, earth, sun, stars, planets, and the unknowns of crea- tion could have been weighed in the begin- ning, and we could know now to the last pen- Minor Chords 55 nywelght of such weighing, to-day we would have only to place upon the scales up to that last pennyweight to balance all. The life-germ never dies. Like seeks like, and in union does its work; when that Is done they fall apart and each takes up work in new fields, In new unions. The stars in the heav- ens shall be counted In a moment, yet a cen- tury Is passed and the peoples that have lived upon the earth are still unnumbered. A pinch of dust, wet with creative moisture, a second's short time of existence, and again dust. This Is life. We take food-seeds and bury them deep in our life dust; these seeds, themselves, are formed of millions of particles of dust of mil- lions of lives. They open and take In of the life principles of the dust in which they lie, and push up and out to give renewed life to the man form of life. I eat of the food life formed from the dust life. My food life is garnered in every clime, in heat and cold, from north and south, from east and west. My food Is assimilated into my physical make up; my muscles are 56 Sun Time and Cloud Time strengthened and increased; my brain is re- newed and Invigorated; Into my being goes the particles of the millions of lives which went Into the dust life, thence into the food life. I go out upon my daily walks; my limbs are aided by a million limbs; my arms have the strength of many who are concentred therein. My mind is actuated by the mind particles of all whose mind parts entered into the food life I have eaten. Do we not know that food seeds have been found lively after thousands of years of dor- mant condition? Has not active animal life been found encrusted in rock stratum of un- counted pre-existent periods? Do we not know that all we see and hear grooves In on our brain matter indelible impressions never to be removed? And so, when I lie down at night and slumber, with my limb movements ceased, do not the brain particles of my body, eased of their care and muscle actuation control, open up and reveal the impressions of their previ- ous existences? Else, why do I then wander Minor Chords 57 under tropic suns or climb the ice fields of the northern climes? Why do I press the lips of some sweet gentle face I never knew, or throttle and stab some foe in hate and anger? iWhy do I roam in garden fields, careless and free, or lie shackled, a slave, In some foul prison den; why do I sail unknown seas, or ride triumphant into conquered towns; why am I saddened, fearful, happy, gay? Dreams, they call them, who know not else to say; lives, many lives, and I am simply the ever transitory depository of parts of each. EQUALITY In the beginning God created the earth. God made man and from man He made wo- man ; and to man and his woman gave He the earth and all that was upon the earth. And the man and the woman knew each other, and the woman labored and bore chil- dren, and the man and the woman multiplied and the earth was cumbered with many peo- ple. And the people of the earth builded thereon; high edifices reared they upon the earth; from the top of the esfrth took they their sustenance ; from the skins of the beasts of the fields took they their raiment; and from the pits of the earth took they their riches. And the people of the earth toiled unceas- ing, ay ! many toiled unceasingly, till from their brows ran down the sweat and nour- ished the earth, and they reeled tired from their toil; and the people of the earth ceased 58 Minor Chords 59 not nor rested from their labor, and the tollers of the earth ate coarse bread and in the eat- ing hungered from the littleness of it and became as weak people, and their garments were tattered, and the skin of their feet be- came hard from walking. But some there were who toiled not, but throve upon the labor of the toilers of the earth: Yea! Kings and Rulers of the earth and rich men of the earth and their wives and their women. And the Kings and Rulers of the earth, and the rich men and their wives and their women, M^axed fat and fed on the plenty of the earth and were garbed in fine linen and in purple garments of silk; and the Kings and Rulers of the earth, and the rich men, and their wives, and their women laughed and were gay; but the toilers of the earth laughed not, and were not gay, but mur- mured and loud complained of their toil, and of the rich men and of the Kings and Rulers, and of the rich men and their wives and women, and cried out against the lack of things to eat. From the north and from the south, from 6o Sun Time and Cloud Time the east and from the west, from the sky and out of the earth came strong winds and blew down the high edifices of the earth; and the people of the earth were scattered even to the ends of the earth and were as strangers one to the other; and the people of the earth were stripped naked of their garments even to their flesh, as they were when they were born, and the ruler in his nakedness was like unto his subject in his nakedness, and the rich man was like unto the poor man in his nakedness, and the people of the earth were like unto the other. And the people of the earth hungered, yea ! all the people of the earth hungered; and the people of the earth toiled and labored, yea! all the people of the earth toiled and labored unceasing that they might eat and be clothed. And the people of the earth with patience and with labor builded up, anew, high edifices, and the sweat of their brows watered the earth; and from the earth took they their sustenance, and with the skins of the beasts of the earth covered they their nakedness : yea ! the people of the earth toiled without rest and were Minor Chords 6 1 tired, but toiled on even from the early hours of the morning until late hours of the night, and were lean and hungry. Came there a time. Aye ! Soon came there a time, and some toiled not nor labored but rested themselves in ease and ate of the earth's food in plenty, and were garbed in silks and satins, and were perfumed with rare spices; and soon did rise up rulers over the people of the earth, and rich men who took their riches from the labor of the people of the earth, and minded not the woe of the people of the earth but trod upon them as, in a wine-press, is trod- den the grape for the juice of it. And always the people of the earth labor and toil, and murmur and loud complain against those who toil not; and always come high winds, and all the people labor for a little while, but even so, in a day's time some labor not but live upon the labor of the peo- ple of the earth. THE BRAT The cold of the night black-dinged into the chill of the dawn gray; down through the air- hole stole the breaking light and crept into the rooms of the tenement. The brat moved uneasily on her floor bed, turned muttering, and sat up, digging the sleep from her drowsed eyes with her little fists; shivering, she stiffly rose and stretched her arms and legs, and yawned wearily, peer- ing, in the dim light, at the broken-handed clock upon the shelf. With a vicious kick at the brute, who lay in his drunken stupor, she stumbled into the other room which still was night dark, and, bending over, gently shook sister, sister, the toiler, who, in her sleep, threw off the disturb- ing hand ; again the brat shook sister, this time roughly,while she almost shouted in her ear, " Wake up ! " Wakened, sister lay, for a 62; Minor Chords 63 moment resentful, then heavy-eyed and weary, yawped and rose listlessly from her floor bed, and, putting on her skirt and waist, shambled out, her feet in unlaced shoes, into the cold, wind-swept hall, to the sink and doused her face and hands with the icy water, using her petticoat, which for warmth had been her night gown, as a towel. The brat lighted the oil stove, for the coal fire of the cook stove never lasted the night through; from the shelf over the table she took down the battered, ever partly filled, tin teapot, reaching it by standing on the broken chair, and after looking in it to see if there was enough of the last night's steeping, placed it on the wick flame, for a moment holding her hands near for the grateful heat. Down from the same shelf, the brat took a half loaf of day before yesterday's bread, and with a large table knife cut three thick slices from it. Sullenly sister sat down and began crumbling the bread and eating it; the brat poured out a cup of almost white but steaming tea, which sister eagerly gulped down without milk or sugar. 64 Sun Time and Cloud Time The brat, who had sat silent, now said: " Where'd yer go last night? " " Up ter Mamie Ryan's," said sister, put- ting a crust of bread in the tea to soften it. "No, yer didn't! " and the brat spat the words out. " Then I lie ! " said sister, flaring up and slamming the empty cup down on the table; the brat carefully took it up and looked at it; it was cracked, but it was an old break, and so she filled it up again. *' Mary Ryan was here last night," the brat said, coldly eyeing sister. " My God ! " and sister looked fearfully over to where the mother lay, sleeping near the coal stove, with baby in her arms. " She didn't come up ; " the brat pushed the last of the cut slices over to sister; " I heard her in the hall, and went down and told her yer was out, and so she went along." Sister's face brightened; "Oh! yer all right, brat," and the rehef in her voice was intense. " Where'd yer go? " urged the brat again; " Oh! I was out with a lady friend," and sis- Minor Chords 6^ ter drank down the last of the second cup of tea. " Who was she ? " and the brat cut another sHce of bread, much thinner than sister's, and poured a little, just a little of the tea into sister's cup and made a sop of the bread, eat- ing it with a spoon ; it was hot and tasted good and the little eyes looked longingly at the remainder of the bread, but up it went on the shelf, and out went the flame of the stove. " No one youse knows," but sister hesi- tated, " she used ter work down in the shop, but she's got er better job now in a restaurant, and she wears swell clothes. My ! Her hat's got er feather that goes all around it, her gen- tleman friend gave it ter her, he sits at her table every day and gives her a lot of things." " My ! But he must be a good thing ! " the brat spoke in wonder struck tones. " Sure he is," said sister, " why he blew in five dollars last night just because we were with him, him and his friend spent nearly ten dollars; I tell yer they are swell all right," and sister's eyes glistened with the memory of the glory of the doings of the night before. 66 Sun Time and Cloud Time " Did yer go out with a fellar? " the brat spoke hard; " Jim came down last night and mother told him yer was up ter Mamie's; I hears Mamie talking to Mrs. Flynn and so I sneaks down and gets her away before Jim sees her and knows yer doing him." "I ain't doing Jim," and sister pouted; " only I wants some fun and Jim's too stingy." " Yer wrong there, and yer knows yer are," the brat's head shook with determination; " don't he take yer out somewheres every Sat- urday night, and every Sunday In the summer ; he blows too much on yer, mother told him so last night:" the brat sat down as though this was a final determination of that ques- tion. " Gee, did mother tell him that? He won't want ter do nothing now except to save up ter get married ; Well ! Let him save up and I'll have a good time with some one else." " And then he'll marry some other girl,'* the brat's head wagged wisely, " Jim's no chump." " Well, then, I'll mn rry some other feller," Minor Chords 67 and sister's pug nose went up the little pos- sible bit more. "Yer er fool," said the brat; "Jim's straight with yer and he's stuck on yer. What made yer run upstairs so quick fer last night? I heard yer, anybody chase yer or did yer gentleman friend get fresh with yer?" and the shrewd little face darkened. " Yer mind yer own business! " but sister flushed up and her eyes wavered before the brat's steady look, " no one can get fresh with me." *' Did he try ter? " the little inquisitor was watching sister too closely for evasion. " Well, he had a lot of drinks and tried, but I guess he won't ever again." Sister tried to speak lightly but her face frowned. " Jim never tried to do anything like that, did he? " the brat spoke quietly, and looked at the clock. " Jim ! Why, Jim wouldn't even try ter kiss me ! " and sister laughed. Quick as a flash the brat darted at her sis- ter and grabbed her fiercely by the arm. " What did that feller try ter do ter yer 68 Sun Time and Cloud Time last night?" and her piping voice was loud and shrill. "Shut up, yer brat!" But sister's voice was tremulous, " yer'll wake mother up. It's none of yer business what anyone does ter me." " Oh ! That's how yer friend gets her line hat and dresses, is it?" The scorn of the brat's words was accented by her hard tones; " just the same as Maggie Mulligan got hers. I'm going ter tell mother and Jim." "God! Don't do that," sister's voice broke, " I don't want any more of him. He didn't do nothing, honest ter God, I broke away from him and I won't ever see him again, but don't tell mother and don't tell Jim. Yer won't, will yer, brat? " sister was white-faced and peaked in her pleading. " Yer going ter give Jim up? " the brat's mouth was set. " Give him up ! not on yer life, he's the best one I know." The brat leaned forward to see if the sin- cerity of the voice showed in the sister's face, and, satisfied, sat back on her chair saying, Minor Chords '69 " That's right, I won't say nothing, but yer'll be late," and then, as sister clambered down the rickety stairs, she cried out: "Jim's com- ing up ternight," and, with another kick at the brute, she lay down in sister's bed which was nearer the still warm cook stove. The light broadened and the sun-gleam brightened up the rooms. The brute grunted, sat up, and cursing and maundering went stumbling, and staggering out, the brat watch- ing him, though she seemed to be asleep. Then the little babe awoke and mother, wakened by its cries, put It to her breast. "Where's Mamie?" mother said to the brat. " Gone ter work," and the brat snuggled up and closed her eyes. " What time did she get home last night? " The brat thought a moment and said, " About twelve o'clock." " What business has she ter stay out on the streets until twelve o'clock. I'll warm her when she comes home ternight ! " mother spoke so vigorously that baby lost its hold and cried again. 70 Sun Time and Cloud Time " Yer better not, mother," the brat spoke slowly, " she might stay out all the time if yer did that." "Shut up, yer brat! I'd like ter know where yer gets all yer knowings from. Yer knows now more than I do." The brat laughed and, while she wondered what mother would do did she but know that it had been two o'clock when sister had come home, she only said: " Shall I make the tea fer yer? " " Sure," said mother; "then yer can take the baby, for I've got ter finish Mrs. Law- rence's wash this morning." " Oh ! but I've got ter go ter school this morning," said the brat; " teacher's going ter have some flowers there ter day and is going ter give us each one, and I wants ter get mine." " Yer'll get no flowers ter day, fer yer can't go ter school. Yer'll have ter mind the baby." The brat's eyes filled with tears; "Oh! mother, — " Minor Chords 71 " Now, no oh, mothering me, and stop yer bellering or I'll make yer beller; take the baby now." The brat, heavy-hearted and sorrowing, took the little one; and then in her love for baby and with the instinctive mother feeling began to croon to it, until, as the hours went and it was past school time, the baby's crow- ing and laughing, and her own little mother talk, eased the pain of her heart. The room became filled with steam from the wash boiler, and so the brat said " Mother, can I take baby down ter the yard?" " Put the coat on her and be careful," and mother lifted a big stickful of hot clothes from the boiler into the tub. Happily, the brat put the tiny arms in the baby sack and buttoned it up closely, and tied the little stringed cap on baby's head, and then, putting on her own coat and hat, started for the stairs. Mother shouted, " Be careful, now, yer brat!" The brat smiled at the idea of mother or 72 Sun Time and Cloud Time any one telling her to be careful with baby, her own little sister, whom she so loved, and started down the creaking stairway. Once upon a time, when the house was new, the landlord had put carpet on the stairs, but that was so long ago that the only traces of such carpets were a fluff here, and a string there, where the trampling feet had not scuffed It away entirely. The brat, holding baby In her arms, and singing a little school song, got nearly to the bottom of the first flight of stairs down, when, as she stepped forward, her foot caught in a fluttering ribbon of this tattered carpet, and, as she strove to recover herself, the baby pitched forward, and In that moment entered into the soul of the brat the courage and devotion that God gives only to brave, hon- est, clean lives. As she tottered she clutched baby tightly In her two, strong, little arms and, with a des- perate twist and swing of her body, turned so that, as she fell, the baby was on top. The crash of the fall and the howls of the baby were heard throughout the house; Minor Chords 73' mother ran down the stair flight, while Mrs. Flynn, who hved on the floor below, came hurrying up. Mother picked up the crying baby, and then, as she found baby was unhurt, she turned fiercely around and shouted out : " Yer damned brat! " but Mrs. Flynn, bending over to help up the brat, gave a cry, and sank on her knees, hands telling her beads, and over, and over saying, " Jesus, Mary." MULLANEY If you have left one little bit of the sense with which you were born, you will never tamper with the temper of the tools with which you work. Mullaney did, and this day, the long wagon with the black plumes went past the truck house, and the men lined up on the sidewalk outside, with the team hooked up, while the bell rang soft and slow. Mullaney didn't care, for his troubles were all gone, and he was off duty forever; but if he hadn't banged the jigger on that night he might have been with the procession com- ing back as well as going out to Calvary. A Tool is a funny thing with no bit of hu- manity in its make-up. You can lie in your chum's bed and he'll curse the woman and still be your friend; you can do your bunkie dirt and rub it in 'till it's a running sore, and yet, some day, when you're out between the 74 Minor Chords 75 rallying fire line and the reds, with a bullet In you keeping you there, he'll come out for you into the dust clouds raised by the tearing lead, and take you back to life. You can sneak and tell on your company men and be a stranger in their midst for years, and still, some night, when you've been hit by a back draught, or have gone down Into hell through the roof they'll come In for you, even though they stay there with you; but, if you do a nasty turn to the tool you must work with, you had better leave the job and take up labor that is new. Sometime, long ago forgotten by you, when the Sergeant called you down, for cause or otherwise. In your mad you banged the breech- lock of your gun In petty spite; Heaven help you ! Some day when you're out in a brush with the Indians and that gun is the only bar to death and torture, that breech will remem- ber your blow and will jam itself, and your name will be marked " Discharged," *' Dead," on the rolls. In the cold when your coupling hose and the hub sticks, you peev- ishly give the rimmer an extra hard twist and (]6 Sun Time and Cloud Time wrench a thread ; better for you to have stayed on the truck, for some night, when you're choked with smoke, and the fire is all around you, and the water from that pipe is the only shield between the flames and you, something will give way, down back on the line, and when they get you 'twill be only a char and a badge to tell just who it is, with perhaps a button or two that the heat couldn't eat up. Mullaney should have known better. Any one who, as a kid, rode on the fuel wagon, and as a youngster helped the first companies stretch in, before the cops formed the fire- lines and drove him back, any one who had hung on the chains and knew the stations by heart should have had more sense, but he didn't and so he went to the yard to-day. The trouble was that Mullaney had but two faults; he had a hot temper and was pig- headed; no one could make him do what he did not want to do or stop him from doing what he had set out to do; otherwise he was all right, except that he had no schooling other than what is picked up in the streets and on the docks and, afterwards, in the gin-mills. Minor Chords 77^ His mother, Widow Mullaney, who cleaned up in the public buildings, had no education either, but she knew the value of it and tried to keep Mullaney at school, but he didn't take to it, and he had his father's way about him, and his father, who died when he was young, had had his own way, and so the widow let Mullaney have his own way, which was a bad way, for the widow and for Mullaney. Mullaney helped in politics. Mullaney Is now dead, and far be it from me to say of the dead anything that is not good. There are enough left in life to howl about without reaching out for the dead ones. Still there were many things that Mullaney did for his leader of which, if he were alive, I would show my disapproval. If a man who is only twenty-three when he dies, has cast forty or more votes, and the election officials take no notice of such doings, I am sure I am not going out of my way to arraign that man for the doing of it. Mullaney had to do some- thing to get solid. If a man has to work, sweatingly, for fifteen minutes on the writing of his own name, he has got to work other 78 Sun Time and Cloud Tim€ 1 ways, In these Civil Service days, to get any kind of an appointment. A man who has been to school can figure out a problem one way, while the man who has no schooling has to figure by his own methods. Mullaney told me once, when he had a confidential feel- ing on, that, had he known how to work out a sum of three figures on white paper, he would not have had to give out a sum of three figures in green paper, a remark that ever since has puzzled me. Mullaney was about twenty-one when he was appointed to the fire work. If he was a little less, what matters it. It is easier to get a man appointed as one of a batch than when only one or two vacancies exist, and what's the odds on a month or two ; the Civil Service rules get worse every day, and there's danger In delay. Mullaney wanted the job badly. As I said before, outside of his two bad faults Mullaney was all right and he was a good son; Mrs. Mullaney said that, and no mother would say so if it were not so, especially If that son was the only one. Mullaney never used his Minor Chords 79 mother badly; if he got drunk he'd sleep it off somewheres else, and he never hit her at all, which is a mighty good record. There's mighty few mothers whose sons treat them as well as did Mullaney act towards the widow ; if he worked he'd always give her some of his wages, and he could see that she wasn't as strong as she used to be. Scrubbing floors is not conducive to good health and washing windows as a steady operation wears one out, and Mrs. Mullaney was getting done; Mul- laney saw it and said he wanted to help the old woman. Then Mullaney was a buff and he would rather hang around the engine house than McCoys; McCoys was the booze shop on the corner of Varick Street; of course Mul- laney didn't leave the gang altogether, but he liked to be near the house if a station hit in, so that, if it was a " go," he could ride out on the tender with the men. Down in my heart I believe, and in fact I know, that the real reason of Mullaney's de- sire to get in the Department was Kitty Reilly who lived down in Greenwich Street and whose father was Mullaney's boss — when he 8o Sun Time and Cloud Time worked. Old man Rellly had two trucks and a nice little home. Kitty went to St. Alphon- sus' and knew Mrs. Mullaney very well; in fact, it was well known, that. If Mrs. Mul- laney, before she became Mrs. Mullaney, had said the right word her name would have been Mrs. Reilly instead; and of course Mr. Reilly had a soft spot for Mullaney, and Mrs. Mul- laney and Kitty were great friends. Kitty and Mullaney had played together as kids and had gone out together to parties when they got beyond kiddom ; it was at these balls and parties that Mullaney's hot temper used to break out; If Kitty danced or talked with any one else but him, he'd go over to the bar room and load up, and Kitty would go home with Mrs. Mullaney or some other re- spectable married lady and wouldn't speak to Mullaney for a week, or a day, or for just so long as Mullaney stayed away before sneak- ing around for forgiveness, for Kitty was an Irish girl, and was good and blameless; every- body said that, even Tommy Ryan who al- ways said " One woman's like another one, only worse'n." Tommy was somewhat justi- Minor Chords 8i fied in his strong views on women; Ryan was his name but he never knew just who was his father; and Tessie, his wife, was so terribly shocked one night by his unexpected return home, that she wandered out in the dark, and to the bad, and landed in the Morgue within a year, while the man is still living a respect- able life somewheres unknown to Tommy. Yet Tommy said of Kitty " She's straight." I guess it was Mrs. Mullaney's stocking that gave up the green paper with the three figures on it that aided in getting his appoint- ment for Mullaney; she never trusted the banks, and so every little saving was carefully put away in that piece of woman's apparel that is always bettered by being well-filled, whether the filling be green paper, or — filhng of the proper kind. It was a proud day for Mrs. Mullaney when her boy came home in his blue clothes with the red lining and the silver buttons; Kitty was there, and a dozen others, neigh- bors, and Mrs. Mullaney sent down for pint after pint to wet the new clothes; and then Mullaney took Kitty home, and old man 82 Sun Time and Cloud Time Reilly, who was laid up by the rheumatism for the day, said, " It's a foine job, me boy. It's a foine job! " Old man Reilly ran with the same machine as did old man MuUaney in the by-gone lire days, and many the story had he told the youngsters of the Volunteer times. Old man Reilly had a bit of a pull with the Boss of the district and so he got the Boss to get the Commissioner to get the Chief to send Mullaney down to 30's, because it was near Mullaney's home, and because it was near old man Reilly's home; you see old man Reilly wanted to have Mullaney near him; perhaps I am wrong, and may be it was Kitty who wanted Mullaney near her, but it was one or the other. Old man Reilly meant It in kindness to Mullaney and to Kitty, but it was a wrong doing for both of them. It's a very bad thing for a man to wear the gloss off his uniform among friends. If the cub gets a swelled head from his job his friends get sore; If he is a good fellow with the boys he gets in over his head and has hard swim- ming to get back and out. It Is better that Minor Chords 8;^: strangers get sore on you for being stuck up, and it is better that you make a swine of your- self amid unknown people; for the loss of friendship of unknowns, and of strangers, don't count like the loss of old friends; old friends are good property to hang on to and the man who throws such away gives up a God-given heritage. Mullaney didn't get stuck up, but the crew of 30's were boozers; and the Captain was the greatest boozer of them all, but they were fire-eaters from first stroke to return taps. Captain Phelan was sent home from a work- ing fire once as being too sober to be fit for duty, and it was to this crew that Mullaney, who, himself, could hit up the drink pretty well, was sent to be broken in to his new job. 30's was a single company and from it's house in Spring Street it covered a lot of ter- ritory and was a hard-worked crew. It's rival was 24's, in Morton Street, a company somewhat different in many ways from 30's; Captain McLoughlin of 24's was a stickler for discipline, yet a good fireman and a just 84 Sun Time and Cloud Time boss. The slogan of 30's crew was " Fire and Booze," while 24's motto was " Fire the Boozer." Mullaney never chummed with any one specially, but Jim Grady and he had been pretty near to being pals. Mullaney's two faults prevented any one from being real friendly, yet every one had a good word for him. Jim was different from Mullaney, be- sides being two years older; Jim's father was a friend of the boss and ran a district for him; Jim wasn't pig-headed like Mullaney, and so, when his father licked him for not go- ing to school, he went, and got through with it. Jim's father had a job as foreman over a gang in the " Sewers," and when Jim left school the boss got him a place on the time sheet; and Jim kept going along until he was twenty-one, when he took the Fire Examina- tion and landed near the top of the list. It is just possible that Jim's schooling was all that put him there, and then again, it is possi- ble Jim had to do some figuring as did Mul- laney, though I think that Jim's father's pull Minor Chords 85 with the boss saved some of the figures on the green paper, for, no matter what your school- ing or your pull, the green paper figures weigh in the average result of examination and ap- pointment. Jim's father was wise, and Jim had some of his father's wisdom. The old man did not vote the Prohibition ticket, but he never took two drinks at the same time, and but sel- dom took one. Jim didn't take booze at all; at meals he'd take a glass of beer, if he felt like it, but he stopped at that. When Jim's father heard that Jim was to be sent to 30's he went to the Boss and asked him to have Jim sent to 24's; this was duly done, which shows what a wonderful man is a Boss. Jim had known Kitty almost as long as had 'Mullaney, but not so well. Jim's mother died when he was a kid, and he and the old man had dug along together. Jim was not so popular with the gang at McCoys as was Mullaney; they didn't think much of him, for he didn't spend his money, or blow like other men. Father Cummings of St. Alphonsus liked Jim and knew how some of Jim's money 86 iSun Time and Cloud Time was blown and spent, but Father Cummings wouldn't tell and the poor box is mute. The gang knew that when the hat was passed around for any good reason, Jim would sling in his bit, and it always was a good bit, but that didn't count with that crowd. Jim was stuck on Kitty, and she and Mul- laney and every one else knew it, but Jim and Mullaney and most everybody knew that Jim had no kind of a chance; yet, even while they palled, and while Jim was trying to push Mul- laney through the examinations, Mullaney would flare up and get hot about Jim's lik- ing Kitty; Jim got used to it and waited until Mullaney cooled down and then Jim would roast Mullaney for his mean suspicions. Jim used to meet Kitty and Mullaney at the dif- ferent rackets, and two or three of MuUaney's quarrels with Kitty were over Jim, which was very foolish, because Kitty was a good girl, and Jim was a man who would never " do " a friend. Kitty had agreed that as soon as Mullaney got appointed and got settled In his new job she'd marry him, and on the day he went to Minor Chords 87 work with 30's the time was set for six months later. Mullaney had but little to learn of the practical part of the business. The fire work was old to him, but it was a trifle labori- ous to do the book work when on house watch, though he managed to pass the not over critical eye of Captain Phelan. If ever there was a gang that guzzled, it was that crew of 30's. Mullaney, at first, went at it easy, but it was not long before he could take his with the best of them and it began to tell. Jim saw but little of him, while Kitty, with innate modesty, kept away from the house and saw Mullaney only at his best, which meant only at his soberest. Poor Mother Mullaney saw him at his worst, which was his drunkenest, and scolded him, which only made him hit it up harder; then the old woman went to Jim, and Jim, who had heard of MuUaney's boozing, took one of his days off, and went down to Mullaney, and gave him some good advice, which was duly resented, and Jim got mad at MuUaney's talk and went off with a hard look, and a harder feeling toward Mullaney, for he was 88 Sun Time and Cloud Time thinking of Kitty and the life before her if it went on, and he was a sorely tempted man, for he knew that, next to Mullaney, Kitty liked him more than any other man. Jim Grady was a good sleeper; he went to bunk at ten o'clock every night, if he could, while on duty; and every time he jumped for the pole while only half-awake, he would curse the man who started the fire, the man who pulled the box, and the man at head- quarters who transmitted the station, but the night after he had had his talk with Mullaney he lay awake till morning, tossing and tumb- ling, fighting a fight and the good in him won out. On his way to breakfast that morning he stopped at Old Man Reilly's and looked Kitty square in the face, saying, " Kitty! Mul- laney is boozing! He'll lose his job and his life, if he don't quit it." Kitty was scared and looked at him with white face. " Oh, Jim ! What shall I do ? " Jim gritted his teeth hard, " Marry him to-morrow if he will take the pledge," and then he hurried away. Minor Chords 89 with sorrow and grief in his heart which was full of love for Kitty, who, as she closed the door, said, " Poor Jim," wonderingly to her- self. Kitty knew Mullaney was on house watch, and, after crying her cry out, she dressed be- comingly, as should a woman who is about to meet her lover's friends, and walked fear- fully around to 30's house. Mullaney was hanging on the chain, scowling at himself and with his head jumping and hammering, for Jim's words and talk had caused him to drink but the more; twice during the night he had not hit the floor until the horses were being turned back, and Captain Phelan, who could not stand for that, had warned him that a third break would send him up on charges. Kitty was not a jollier and she went at him without gloves; she told him in language not exactly sweet or kind, that he was getting to be a " Lush," and that the booze was making a " Bum " of him; she further said, that she would never marry a lush or a bum, and, if he wanted her as a wife, he would have to do 90 Sun Time and Cloud Time three things: Get transferred from 30's, go with her to Father Cummlngs and take the pledge, and marry her that week. Mullaney went up In the air; he called Kitty down for coming near the house; he called her down for coming near him; he called Jim down for being a sneak, at which last Kitty got mad and said Jim was worth two Mullaneys, which she herself didn't think or believe; Mullaney went red and white, and told Kitty to " Get the hell away from here," and Kitty went away with her heart breaking, but her nose up in the air. Then Mullaney took a chance and sneaked over to McCoys and gulped down two good hookers, and got back to the house just in time to take a station, which was lucky, as it was one the company was first due at, and Captain Phelan's only joy, other than boozing, lay in getting first water whether he was or was not entitled to it, and he never forgave a man who fumbled or tangled the harness, or who, in any way, delayed the company on a run. It was a working fire that morning, and Murphy, who was on the pipe with Mullaney, Minor Chords 91 went down and out when the roof fell, and MuUaney was in St. Vincent's for three weeks, and when he came out he had not as much hair on his face as a week old baby. Mur- phy went by the Engine House in the black wagon, just as Mullaney did to-day, but it was a shame, for Murphy had no trouble, and it was not a blessing to him as it was to Mul- laney. Kitty spent part of every day at Mullaney's bedside in the hospital; but Jim only came once, for Mullaney was sore and Jim knew it, and had expected that Mullaney would think wrong of his telling Kitty, but Jim, once his mind was made up, never backed out. A week after Mullaney got back into serv- ice he was sent to 8 Truck In North Moore Street. The crew of 8's were a happy me- dium between 24's and 30's. There were no cranks in 8's company but Captain Hughes would stand for no boozing in hours or in the house ; the men were older and mostly family men; a kid or two is almost as good as a pledge to some men, and as for the women, a child has kept many a one straight. 92 iSun Time and Cloud Time Mullaney went with Kitty to Father Cum- mings and signed the pledge and was blessed by the good Father. Kitty was happy; and then began the work of the days before the wedding. How happy would the world be if the before days could be the after ones as well. It was a good time that they all had at Old Man Reilly's house that night. Kitty's father set up a fine feed for them all, with lots of the good stuff for those who wanted it, for, just because you don't want your man to drink is no reason why you should insist on everybody cutting it out. They danced and sang all night and there was a big crowd there. The Boss showed himself, and kissed Kitty, which looked well for MuUaney's fu- ture; some of the Truck men dropped in; all of 30's crew were there at odd moments, for there was free booze to be had within run- ning distance of the Engine House and the Captain let them off once each, and they them- selves, each took off several times during the night; luckily, not a station hit in and the Captain never said a word. Minor Chords 93 Two or three of the boys in 24's came down, and Jim, who Kitty personally invited, sent a present, but stayed away because Mul- laney's sore still ran and wouldn't heal. Jim never went where he was not wanted; Kitty felt sorry and cried a little, which was a bad sign for a bride. Kitty went to live with Mrs. Mullaney, which left Old Man Reilly very lonely, though not for long, for one day he turned a corner overquick and landed on his head and died just after the Priest came. It was but a short time after this that Kitty woke one night and found old mother Mullaney gasping, choking, and red in the face, and Mullaney got around only just in time to see his mother die. And so Kitty and Mullaney were left alone to themselves and with their sorrow. Mullaney had kept his pledge up to this time, but that night he took a drink and kept at it until after the funeral. Kitty, who was full of woe and grief over her father and old lady Mullaney, said nothing, like the wise lit- tle woman she had grown to be, until it was 94 Sun Time and Cloud Time all over, and then she again made him sign the pledge. Mullaney tried hard to keep off the stuff, and did so for over three months; Kitty- wanted him to do so and he'd do anything for Kitty just now, for Kitty was working on clothes too small for either she or he, and Kitty had told him about something that would soon happen in his home. Booze is a queer sort of thing. I've known men to drink their pint a day and live good. God-fearing lives, and die at the age of ninety, mourned and beloved by genera- tions of men. I've known men who have gone to hell in less than a year's time with only a few glasses to their account. Mul- laney's ancestors must have given him a bad stomach and a worse head, for just a few drinks and he was gone — saw blue flickers and then red glare. A little while before the babe was born, a few days, Mullaney took just one; he never knew why he did. The truck had not been out for two days ; the work was easy, and the weather could not have been better. Per- Minor Chords 95 haps it was because of the easy work; per- haps it was because of Kitty and the expected event; perhaps — at any rate, he took the one with Denny SuUivan, the Cop on the house post, and then he took four or five with him- self. There is more hope of Paradise for one on the farther side of Purgatory than there is for the man who drinks alone with only himself as a good fellow. That night he had the last watch, and when a go rang in he was asleep when the men hit the floor, and then began the hell of Mul- laney's life, that, so far as earth is concerned, ended to-day. It wasn't the first catch, but it was the worst, and so his Captain pounded him and he got three days' fine. It is not the pay loss that counts so much; it's the blot on the record telling against promotion ; and with Mullaney it was Kitty, for Kitty learned of it through the wives of the fool men who told their wives. Kitty worried and cried over it, and over the little one who had come and grew pale and wan. Mullaney got sullen and sore and kept drinking and drinking, while Jim, who g6 Sun Time and Cloud Time was now an assistant foreman, heard all of it and looked on from a far off with aching heart, unable to interfere now that Kitty was a wife. Mullaney and Kitty were living now on the corner of Dominick and Hudson Streets in an old fashioned roomy tenement, on the top floor. Kitty had made a nice place out of the effects of her home and Mrs. Mullaney's rooms, and Mullaney was very proud of her and of it. When the little one was christened after him he braced up for a week or two and Kitty took courage and hoped again that he would straighten out. There is an alarm box on the corner of Dominick and Hudson Streets, the station number of which is eighty. 8 Truck is the first hook and ladder due there and 30 Engine is the first company to arrive. Mullaney was glad the box was there and that 30's was only two blocks away, and down in the truck house, if a station, ringing in, started with an eight his heart leaped to his mouth until it com- pleted the call. The other companies due at Minor Chords f)^ box eighty were 13's and 27's, both double en- gine companies, and 20 truck from Mercer Street; Jim's company 24's in Morton Street, took it on the second alarm and had quite a run to make it. Two nights after Mullaney had been up against the Commissioner and had got his three days, he went on the long watch at twelve o'clock midnight; up to that time, since six o'clock, he had had six good long, drinks and he was trembling and irritable. It was a pleasant still night; the sky was clear, blue and moonlit; the air was warm and sweet, and the busy murmur of the down town streets was ceased and quieted, Mullaney was gloomy, muttering and filled with hard thoughts. About one o'clock a station struck in from Barclay and Church Streets, just out- side their first alarm zone. A few minutes hooked up and " Turn them back " from the Captain, and the men trooped back to bunk, and Mullaney was again alone. This call had taken 27's first company and it was a working fire lasting two hours, though it 98 Sun Time and Cloud Time needed but the one battalion to fight It. Hardly had the men dropped to their cots when a box was pulled at Broadway and Bleecker Street taking 30's and the first com- pany of 13's in Wooster Street, and even while the horses were in harness a second alarm came in for Bowery and Rivington Street taking 13's second company while 27's second company located in Broome Street to cover ^^ Engine. Poor Mullaney's fate had focussed. All these fires were nasty little ones; all the com- panies went to work and the district was un- covered. Sometimes we are trapped by cir- cumstances that forbid escape from dire woe, and some of us say " It Is God's will " and others curse our fate. After the men went upstairs from the last wait, Mullaney went back and looked at the horses which, excited by the calls, were a little restless and wild, and Mullaney had some trouble fixing the halter catches, which made him Impatient. He then went to the desk to enter the last station on the blotter, and as he did so he saw thnt the trip had slipped Minor Chords 99 down; with a muttered curse he gave It a jam and In doing so he banged the jigger so it jingled and jangled. Mullaney turned away and hung on the chain looking out into the night. The jigger flushed hot and cold; it was a new bell just out of casting and nervous and anxious, at tension all the time. The jigger knew of the importance of its first strokes and being young was all of a quiver to receive and ring out; the big gong kept saying to the little bell " Easy now, easy now, you'll slip," but the youngster listened not and jumped at the first click. Now a jigger is of some importance In bell- dom. The big gongs are solid, and of course play a heavy part at times of big fires, but the mission of the jigger is to turn the companies out in time to prevent the big fires and so save life and property. In the shop, the little jig- ger had heard the recasts and the repairs talk of this alarm and that call : " How I jumped them out, so quick, it did not get any head- way," and " It was not my fault It went up, I was on time," or " You can't blame me for losing the first water at that station, I was on lOO Sun Time and Cloud Time the jump but Joe's collar slipped " ; and so many tales that impressed upon his bell mind the urgent necessity of quickness, that it was overwrought and highly sensitive. Mul- laney's bang set it all on edge; the hot temper ran out and the jigger trembled and mur- mured In its shame and anger. The big gong tried to soothe it, but to no avail. The hot anger gave way tO' resentment, and God help the man whose working tools harbor resentment against him. Mullaney hung on the chain and cast wist- ful eyes toward Larry Geoghans on the cor- ner but a few feet away. Cling! With a bound he was at the collars, while his shout, " Get up," to the horses rang through the house ; Cling ! — Cling ! — Cling ! — Cling ! — Cling ! — Clinging ! There was a slur on the last stroke, but Mullaney did not notice it; Cling — Cling — Cling — Cling — Cling — Cling — Cling — Cling — Cling — Cling — *' Seventy ! " shouted Mullaney to Reagan the driver, " West and Beach," and Reagan nod- ded and bent his head to clear the door as out they went. The door of the truck house is Minor Chords loi narrow and, on a go, the men, after hooking up the team, run to the sidewalk and dimb the side steps as the truck trails out; the driver and the tiller man have their work cut out for them to take the ponderous apparatus safely from the house, and so, when the jigger, sobered to its senses by the angry slip it had made, clang out quickly, Cling ! Cling ! Cling ! Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling! — Cling! Cling! Chng! Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling! Eighty, and the big gong in fear beat in with its clang, the truck had swung into the straight and was racing down towards the farm of the Docks. On through North Moore Street, across Varick, banging over the dummy tracks of Hudson Street, clashing, clashing, crashing over the stones, now driving straight, now swerving to pass the dinky car; horses bellies to the ground, hoofs beating flashes from the pavement, wheels clattering and bell clanging, clanging, clanging; West Street at last, a quick turn to the north and a run up the farm : — "Where's the fire?" shouted the Captain; "Fire?" said McGinty, who was leaning 102 Sun Time and Cloud Time against the fire-box lamp post; — "Nothing doing on fires here, I've been here for fifteen minutes and no one has pulled this box." A quick glance and the Captain said " Wrong Station " and turned to look for a telephone to call headquarters, when, with a flare of red and a gleam of light, crash of hoofs and a ding of bell, up Hudson Street went the red wagon from Murray Street; "There's the Patrol " cried out Reagan ; " Get up there and follow it " ordered the Captain, and with a shout to the horses, a wheel into Beach Street, clash and dash and swerve, and turn into Hudson Street, and there it was, some blocks away, opened up at top with surge of flame and gusts of smoke. The horses leaped at the whip cuts ; the truck reeled and shook and jumped on — on — on. A policeman, white- faced, came dashing down, " Hurry, Hurry — Women " was all he could gasp. The whip cracked and the truck leaped on. As they crossed Canal Street the flames sank and died; the water was on; and then there came a hoarse cry from Mullaney who was at the bell-cord by P.eagan the driver: — Minor Chords 103 " God Almighty, it's mine ! " and with a jump he was off the truck and rushing on fear-eyed and heart frozen. Horses could not keep up with him. The crowd broke for the truck, and for him, and on he ran, straight into the arms of Jim; "Hold him," said Jim, who was leaning white and sickened against the iron railing of the side areaway. Tears ran down Jim's cheeks, tears, the greatest trib- ute of earth to woe and grief, when they flow from the eyes of a man. " No use " sobbed Jim, " no use, I tried for them," and he held out his hands and arms burned and bleeding, " They're gone, they're gone ! " Mullaney looked at him in a daze, " Gone," and then he looked at some things covered by a blanket on the sidewalk, two things that a few minutes before had been his wife and baby; he looked, and then he sat down there with them, and the crowd moved away for awhile. It was a short fire; 24's due there on a sec- ond alarm; it had a long run to get there as first company. It only took the' top two floors. It started in the one below Mul- 104 Sun Time and Cloud Time laney's home and had gone up the stairwell and cut off escape that way. Had the truck received the station rightly, they could have been in time to take them down by scahng ladders at least. That was only one short year ago and to- day Mullaney went over to meet Kitty and the little one. Jim's acting Chief and is up town; he could not stay in the old neighbor- hood. Mullaney stayed in the old battalion until something gave way in his lungs, and when he spat out blood the Chief put him on the sick list and let him stay there until the end. If there be in your head any mind at all be careful with your tools. Mullaney did a wrong to the jigger and to-day Mullaney went out to Calvary to stay there forever. WORDS ETERNAL This is my tale, told for the very strange- ness of it, loath though I be to talk of my own concerns. Out of the mist of my early child-days' wraithes a sweet-faced woman, sad eyed and sorrowed, and a stern, grave man. Oh, Mother! I, who now know your grief and burden, could have no love for him who brought that sorrow on you did I not know now his anguish and his penitence. Often the time-drift will lighten and I see them both and I vainly long for them. Some- times in my memory's sight I see mother with a tender smile brightening the set gloom of her lips, and father, with her hands in his, talks to her and to me and, though I know not his words, I know that mother is happy and I am even so, unknowingly glad. More times, alas, the mother face of my 105. io6 Sun Time and Cloud Time mind-thought is heavy with woe and over- cast with fear and I am held in tightest clasp by those dear arms which resist not the as- saults on self but forbid any against the loved little one. My soul shrinks from the harsh sounds, the wronging words of these times. Mother ! he meant them not, not even when he spake them. I am told by the dear folk who have been so kind to me throughout my youth that my father was a man of great intellect, that he had gained renown and honor as a discoverer of new truths of science and had developed many theories into successful practices, yet, while possessed of such great mental capacity, his was an intensely jealous nature and he had but little control of a temper sometimes cruel to an extreme. My mother, so they tell me, was then, as she is now, an angel. Previous to marrying my father she was gay and careless, but sweet and pure. ,Many sought her, and yet he had won her, and truly did she love him ; so truly did she love him that none knew that he Minor Chords 107 ever was unkind to her until that last time when she left him, left him because he had said the word no good woman must ever hear of herself and abide with the sayer of it. And then she came unto them and bode with them a little while until they found her, in the twilight of a Sabbath evening, kneeling at the opened window of her room, hands clasped and face quiet in death's peace. Father came back a long while afterward, and I, then but a boy, marveled at a man's tears. He strove to caress me, but I avoided him and shrank from him, so stern and harsh he seemed to me. Then he left, after, as I have since learned, providing for my main- tenance, and never since was he heard of un- til the day on which I received the message which is so wonderful that I am impulsed to tell of it. One month ago this day, I received, by express, a package wrapped in many coverings and addressed to me in the handwriting of my father; with the parcel was a letter from the British Consul at Shingoo, stating that the io8 Sun Time and Cloud Time package had been brought to him by a coohe who told him, with bated breath, that it had fallen from the clouds into the field where he was toiling. It was then enveloped in a wrapper on which was written in many lan- guages, " To the American or British Con- sul." I might say that my father was a master of most of the modern, and many of the an- cient, languages. On opening the outer en- velope a paper was found on which was written a request that the package be for- warded to the address written thereon, which was that of my own; also was there enclosed sufficient money to reward the finder and to defray the forwarding expenses. I have opened the package and I have read the manuscript and I now give it forth, so marvelous is the recital, and from what I know of my father's integrity and his geniused mind I am confident that it is true. I refrain from disclosing any of the tech- nical specifications, as was my father's advice and desire; I have used these in applying for patent rights in the name of others as I am not desirous of taking up any arduous business Minor Chords 109 responsibilities, but otherwise my story Is just as it was written on the border of that realm of nothing filled with everything. *' To my dearly loved son, who, I fear, does neither love nor revere him who did beget him. Oh ! My son, do you forgive me and love me In your memory even as she loved and forgave me, and truly I feel you will so love and forgive me when you know of my life. My son, I bid you but two commands. If from me you have received of my worst nature tear it from you and, rather suffer deception and 111 use than resent what may seem such, and if of my inclination and devotion to re- search and study you are ever possessed do not become enslaved of such. Work and study but play as well; play counterbalances work and keeps a proper equilibrium of mind. Play; some and let others play. My son, I now write of events that rend my soul. I pray you to be patient to the end. It has been told you, no doubt, that I was severe and unkind to your dear mother; even so, it Is true, but my very harshness and cruelty no Sun Time and Cloud Time was born of and fostered by my love for her — hear me my son, — hear me, — my tears fall—. My temperament Is a curse of family de- scent; my mind is one of turbulence and at times It is disordered; at once I am trustful, loving, happy, and then, swift as the flight of eagles Into my soul and brain, come hate and fear. As a lad I loved your mother dearly, but I never even spoke to her though I met her often. Close to my books was I kept by my parents, though I seldom demurred against such for I loved my studies, only when I would know of some gayer affair, forbidden to me, at which she would be, did I rebel, though none knew of the reason of my sullen looks and mood. Your mother was the fairest, sweetest, gay- est girl of all I knew, yet was she not the gentlest and the kindest, for often when I would, hastily, In dismal hopelessness, pass by the little crowd of boys which ever were around her she would smile out sweetly at me and call to me a greeting which I would re- Minor Chords iiii turn, stammeringly I fear, so filled was my heart with joy that my tongue clave to my mouth-roof. I went away, and yet when I returned in some years time, I wondered to find my sweet little lady, unwedded. I had developed and the over assertive nature which has ever been my bane, broke through the cordons of her many friends who hoped for her love and took her to myself, and truly was I rejoiced to find that she had loved me, though she, herself, often wondered that she did so. And so we married, and for a time I was so happy; then you came and much of your mother's time was spent with you and I be- came engrossed in my work and discovered some of nature's secrets which I now give you that you may maintain yourself." Here followed many pages of descriptions and drawings of inventions and appliances which I refrain from introducing here. " Whether It is that my brain is so made up of such extraordinary sane particles of one quality as to weaken all the other brain atoms 112 Sun Time and Cloud Time I know not, but that, at times, I was insane in my love I do know. I loved your mother, loved her so intensely that at times, in my wronging moods, I hated her. In such paroxysms of distrust, so many vile, wicked thoughts ran riot in my mind; why should she love me who was so different in nature to her? Why should she not love some one else? And in my jealousy I would pick out one and another of her old friends and of the few new ones we had made and would imagine such ones as being loved by her, and, finally, as all continued thought will groove its way into the matter of the brain, my fears and distrust trended always toward one, the one whom every one, even I, had once thought she would marry. I wronged him, my son, in such thoughts, but so little does that wrong weigh as to the burden of the wrong done your mother by me, that I speak no more of it except that to you I say that he is a good man, and if he lives and you meet him, greet him with affec- tion for he so loved your mother that none else has since entered his life. Minor Chords 'I131 I am so gladdened In my heart and soul, when I remember that not always was your mother unhappy, but often did we spend some sweet passing hours of joy and affection. As you can see by the papers of specifica- tions which I have left for you, I had con- ceived of several new inventions to utilize some new and some old discoveries. My brain, wearied by the strain of such work, yielded and one night, late, with no cause whatsoever I raged and raved toward her. Alas ! I ever shall see her cringing, pale and horror stricken, as I said awful words. All that night it was so, but in the morning I had calmed so that I went out to take the great panacea of work. All that day I labored ; in the evening, with the bitterness still fomenting in my being, I went back to again rave and accuse, but she had gone, gone never to come back to me, so she said in a little note, and never did she come back to me, for in my madness I shut the house and lost myself in travel. It may be that you have been told more of the happenings of that dreadful night than 114 Sun Time and Cloud Time ever I knew of, but I learned afterwards that she came to her friends with you, and once entered into the place of her retreat never left it but ever sat sadly, quietly, drooping, until she died on that soft, summer Sabbath even- ing. It was the early fall when I, rational again, crept back to seek forgiveness. — forgiveness, Oh, — how I have longed for her forgive- ness. My son, it was not your mother's death that struck me heart frozen, prostrate, when they told me, told me harshly and reproachingly. Death is not an end, my son, it is the begin- ning, and had she died with me near her, with my arms about her and with her soul in my soul, I, though stricken even so sore, would have comforted myself with the right to fol- low after her and to meet her again, but that she had gone from me and had forbidden me ever to follow her, and had ceased to think of me and love me, — Oh ! never yet have there been sins so wrong as warrant the meting out of such a hell's punishment. When I recovered from the horrible shock Minor Chords 115 I eagerly sought to know every httle detail of her life since she had left me, and, heart- wrung as I was by the telling, slowly into my being crept a little feeble hope. God may take from man riches, joys, happiness, power, and give to him only woe, trouble, strife, and labor, yet if man is still left hope will he doggedly go on with his existence, but take hope from him and soon must he fall in self- destruction. Each day, they said, she would sit with you and caress you. Ah, son ! Many times, against your will I fear, have I caressed you, striving that some memory of her dear love, clinging yet to you, might be yielded to me; never a word of me from her, yet never would she let them speak against me. Each night, just as the evening light would soften down to purple haze, she, looking from her window toward the fading west, would pray aloud, but never did any hear her words for none dared to intrude upon such sorrow as was hers. My son, I grew convinced that at some times I must have been mentioned in her ii6 Sun Time and Cloud Time prayers, and, while I shuddered oftentime m fear that she did accuse me to her God, I could not long so fear, for I knew her sweetness and her goodness, and even as I had crept back hoping to hear her dear voice bid me stay when I had knelt hum.bly to her, so did I crave with unutterable longings that I might know her words when she did so pray aloud. They told me that, on that last night, that beautiful Sunday — and ever should there be a Sabbath for this earth as a memorial of earth's gift to heaven in her going there — she prayed even louder than was her wont, and they, hearing her stronger voice, though not knowing her words, smiled, happily think- ing she was better: Of a sudden she ceased, and when they went to call her, she was kneel- ing at her window, which was full opened, and as she knelt she smiled as a little child smiles in pleasant dreamings in the sleep that comes after a tiring day. And so I longed to know her words, those stronger words, which left such a smile of joy on that dear face I had so streaked with grief. My son, many of my inventions, which Minor Chords 117 have been simple appliances based on some- what complicated theories, have been con- ceived of and developed by me for reasons of necessities. Men, knowing of my ability in such matters, have come to me and have stated that their needs called for some new and un- discovered method of procedure, some mechanism never yet constructed, and, for the paltry recompense that the world calls pay, I have bent my endeavors and worked the brain which has been mine, happy and absorbed in the tasks. And so from my great wish and need was there born in my soul a hope that I might hear your mother's words and know whether for me she had prayed, and from my soul I jeal- ously, carefully transplanted that hope into the thought soil of my mentality and from my mind I weeded out all else and bent all my endeavors to the single necessity of my own desire, which was of me, all of me. My son, when first you lay in your mother's arms, a newborn babe, were you then in period of time to the last born of all creation as the tiny knowledge of the laws of the uni- ii8 Sun Time and Cloud Time verse now known to man, is to the immensity of that universe and its law. Strange is it that the greatest comes from the least. We know of people only back a few thousands of years, yet I read from a stone dug but a few feet below the clods we walk upon of the history of the world's form- ulative movements of millions of years, yet man deems himself the greatest of the crea- tions. The many mighty Caesars are as one to all of us. Rome of all power is a ruin. Napoleon and his conquering hordes are crumbling jests, yet Christ In his simplicity and lowliness lives ever and sways to right- eousness the masses of the earth. Many men of tremendous brains write ponderous tomes from which comes nothing, and some simple mind evolves a theory or conceives a construction which progresses all the movements of the world. Once, when I was studying in my school days, I knew a dreamer. The people of the world should place at each of the four corners of the earth shafts reaching to heaven in gratitude to the dream- Minor Chords 119 ers of the earth. From them, poets, thinkers, lovers, idlers, come the sweet things of this life. Jostle them, brush them aside, sneer at them, laugh at them, and on they dream; happy dreamers, happy in their dreams; so unhappy out of their dreamings that I won- der not at their sorrow and their gloom in their wakened hours. This dreamer I laughed at, but as he, too, was thoughtful, I talked often with him. Many of his thoughts then seemed beyond the range of possibilities, yet have I not seen many of these same ideas, as were his, advanced in more tangible shape by older, stronger, more practical minds. Once he asked me, and so earnest was he I smiled not, that if it were true atmospheric waves were produced by concussion, why was it not possible that the very exhalations of the breath when words were uttered should produce wave sounds of lesser intensity than those produced by concussion. I assured him that but a little while before we had been so instructed in our studies, and then he remem- bered that at that particular moment he had 120 Sun Time and Cloud Time been worried concerning a little rhyme in a sonnet which had engrossed his mind. But he continued asking other questions which aroused my curiosity but which I put aside and forgot for these long years. What a wonderful storeroom is memory. We throw everything into it and then, when we want this or that, we search our own or some one else's memory and find that for which we look. And so, possessed of but the one necessity of my soul desire, I ransacked my mind's storehouse and came upon that long forgotten thought of that long forgotten dreamer. Sound waves of speech, started by the tongue and lip movements, radiate out in the direction In which they are directed but fol- lowing nature's plan of seeking lines of least resistance when they encounter the banked up and hardened atmosphere directly in front they Incline slantingly up and up from air strata to air strata until they strike the realm of ether and then — what? That was the question that had been asked of me by the dreamer so many years before — Minor Chords 12 1 and then what? Then I had answered the sceptic answer — " I wonder," but now I too asked myself — and then what? I, now, wanted to know what, for I wanted to follow after your mother's words, my son, and hear them though they had gone up to the belt of nothing. As you know, the atmosphere encloses this globe in stratified circles, each belt being lighter in density as they progress from the earth until is reached the last almost non- existing air strata after which is ether. I made sounds in one strata of atmosphere and caught the same sound in the next suc- ceeding belt above and found that the in- tensity and volume of the sound was un- changed, but I found that sounds in a higher strata could not by their own power be forced into a lower one. I further learned that a sound started in a lower belt entered into and passed through each succeeding stratum above without loss of power or speed but rather as the atmosphere rarified, the speed of the sound waves increased. I interfered with sound waves in different stratum by means of non- 122 Sun Time and Cloud Time conductive and impenetrable bodies and found that If the sound did not move around the interfering body it rested dormant against that body until the interference ceased, when the wave at once resumed its progress as though never stopped. In fact, I ascertained and determined that sound waves once started never ceased their existence in the atmosphere, and as I knew that the ether which surrounded the atmosphere was nonconductive and im- penetrable I was convinced that in that last belt of air were the sounds of all times, to be for all times until this world is dead — and mayhaps afterward. Think, my son, of such a space filled with every sound of this earth's creation and ex- istence and hold thy speech in check that no shameful utterance of yours shall ever live. I learned, by Inquiry, of the atmospheric conditions of the day and night of your mother's death. Her window looked out over the little valley, and, they told me, she prayed just as the village church bell rang for even- ing service. There was a pleasant breeze blowing, but the air was light and so I tried to Minor Chords 123 follow in my mind her prayers as they went out on the night air. Having convinced myself that this theory of perpetuation of sound was practical, I bent my inventive mind to devise a means of reach- ing that upper stratum of atmosphere. Strange it is that this problem did not cause me so much concern as did my fear that my sound wave theory was erroneous. First I thought an inflated balloon would be the best method of reaching the highest stratum and experimented in that direction, but I was thwarted by the expansiveness of the gas, which, in the rarified atmospheres, would burst any confinements light enough to be lifted by it. Eventually, I devised a machine, easily di- rected and operated by the occupant, which overcame the controlling influences of gravity and which would ascend and descend in the air. I cannot tell of my great eagerness to search the atmospheric realms nor of my trou- bles and disappointments. Finally, I found I could raise my air-car up to a certain strata and then I was stopped by the terrible suf- 124 Sun Time and Cloud Time focating rarification of the air which threat- ened to kill me if I persisted in going further. My son, I would have sought death rather than avoided it, had I been assured that in so doing I would join your mother, but I feared that God would condemn me to Hades for self-destruction even did he forgive me for my other wrongdoing, and I feared Hell only because I, then, could never see her or hear her voice and I constantly pray that I again may be with her. Again I spent long days and sleepless nights thinking, praying, striving. Finally, I thought out and constructed a mechanism which re- ceives the sound waves and carries them to an- other device which reproduces them in their original form though accentuated with a slight metallic sound. This is one of the inventions I bequeath to you, which I think will be of great service to the people of the world, as, with it, they may talk from pole to pole. And then I fashioned a balloon, small in size but of hammered-out aluminum, thin and light but strong, and around it I put a net- work of elastic silk and put in it but just Minor Chords 125 enough gas to carry it up; to this balloon I attached what I called a receiver of the sound waves from which ran a thin copper wire, of which I took many miles, and which would serve as a conduit for the sounds as well as to hold captive and guide the balloon. And so, one night, that I would create no scene, I went off alone, up — up — up, never now I think to return, and were it not for you I would not sorrow, but I would like so much to see you once again and have you, too, tell me of some love which I hope will always now be mine. When I had reached the highest altitude in which I could breathe, I released the little balloon and carefully allowed it to rise further and further until I could see it no more. Foot after foot, yard after yard, mile after mile, the wire ran out, until my heart sickened with the fear that I would not have enough to reach into the last zone of atmosphere. Happily, just when I was most despairing, the wire slackened — tautened — slackened, and then I knew my messenger was hitting against the solidness of the nothingness of the ether belt. 126 Sun Time and Cloud Time I made fast my wire so that the balloon would ride free from such ethereal contact, and then I fixed my reproducer to the wire, completed the battery arrangement and, trembling with agitation, placed the little in- strument to my ear. My son, all the days of your life, in morn- ing time, at noon, and in the evening praise God for His mercies to me. At first I heard but a jumbled mass of noises but soon my ear learned to distinguish the different utter- ances and to segregate and separate the sounds, and so much have I heard as never man in all his thought flights has ever dreamed. I have kept a sort of diary of the follow- ing days and I add that to this, for my carry- ing machine is disordered and I cannot con- trol it, and I am drifting slowly up into the upper strata and I soon shall die, but I think it is God's will and so I am happy. My son, while I yet have strength and life I will pack up these words of mine and will drop them down, hoping they will fall into kindly hands, and that you will receive them. Minor Chords 127 Good-bye, my dear son ! Love me, and you must, for your mother did so wish." " This is the third day and I now lie here outstretched, listening to the calls of all time. My ear is now well-trained and each utter- ance, noise, concussion, is distinct from its fellows. I hear the songs of joy; the moans of woe; the cries of grief; the happy shouts of pleasure ; but, alas ! I hear not the voice of my beloved one, but grateful am I that I am now able to hear what I do, so marvelous it is, and so hopeful it makes me. This must be the fifth day. Yesterday I must have slept, tired with the strain, for it was still dark when I came to, though I re- member the ever-glaring brightness of the sun reaching my eyes through my closed lids. I have heard dreadful sounds this day, moans and clash of steel against steel; swish- ing sounds which I can but guess were arrow flights; groans and deep guttural shouts, so savage, in the northern tongue of long ago of which I, knowing many languages, knew but little. So awful was it that I urged my 128 Sun Time and Cloud Time machine on and on but 'twas long ere I left that region, but I soon regained my cheer, for then I heard a mother croon a little babe song, a maiden was telling her prayers, a vir- tuous girl who asked only to be left so, a little babe's laugh and a pater noster of a Romanist in which I, a Protestant, joined and then I slept. . . . What day this is I know not. How can I, living In all the days that ever have been, care for a little day of now! What Is time of man! As a second's pause to eternity's swing Is his life, yet If there be no seconds there be no eternity. My heart is failing me. My soul Is sick- ened with dread and fear that never shall I hear Her voice. Millions of peoples have I heard, yet not the one I eager long to hear. Yesterday I heard the rush of mighty waters falling In tremendous rains; the swash of lapping, rising seas; the roar of mighty Inundating oceans; and I shrank In horror from the fearful wails and soul-rendering cries: of an earth overwhelmed. Some time before, I heard entranced, the Minor Chords 129 sound of sweet music and the songs of a singer telling out the comfort and the glory of the Lord God of Israel and was I soothed thereby. This morn I heard oaths, shouts, blasphemies, and too, prayers and soft lulla- bies. Lewd talk followed dear words of love and ribald songs passed on to sweet melodies. . . . To-day — I know not what day, I heard the thunder of heavy guns spit- ting out the death which too I heard, and too, I heard the crashing of the horsemen charging 'cross the plain and then the shock and cries of their contact, and then I heard carollings of good-will and peace to men. Now do I hear the murmur of the ocean and the beat of it upon the sands; the rolling clash of water- moving pebbles and stones. Now comes tO' me the crash of mighty wheels and the loud acclaims of conquerors mingled with the taunts and gibes to captives. I hear the snarls of fighting beasts and the low sobbing of a child. Widow's tears falling have I heard and the comforting words of friends, but have I not heard the hard bitter reproaches and accusing 130 Sun Time and Cloud Time words of wrongs. My God, will I never hear my beloved. . . . To-day — What day? All days? I have heard not for days for all space — all immensity — all — is void for I have heard the voice of God. I lay listening, eager to grasp the softest whisper of Her being and, of a sudden, was there a stillness and a silence, so vast, so ter- rible, yet was I not afraid so was I held en- thralled by it. It was as though I had en- tered a space held apart for some greater one and truly was it so, for in a little time, I heard, Oh, Sorrowed One ! " Father, for- give " — and then there entered into my soul the peace of infinity and, as I fainted, into my ears poured the sound of the All saying, *' This is my beloved Son " — . When I came to myself I had passed into other sounds, but I know I have heard my Saviour and my God and I am exultant, for surely such would not have been permitted if I were to be so cruelly punished as never again to take to me my sweet one. Strange it is that I fainted so and I am Minor Chords 131 failing in strength for I have no desire to move and my head is light. Perhaps I am in too high an altitude, but I fear to move as my wire will not let me go much lower. Last night as I lay awake watching the near-by stars, each of which I knew as old friends of my studies, my ears constantly pressed to my reproducer, I idly heard the creak of wheels of heavily loaded carts, the slow sober tread of oxen, the clash of stone fitting to stone and the close sound of trowel. Orders and commands heard I and words of many talking at their toil, all in one harsh tongue, and then, in a twinkling, came there a sudden babbling of babel, a jumble of dismayed sounds, a dissension of speech, out of which I was glad to pass. . To-day, I am weaker Oh! If I were but sure that I would be allowed to go to her, I would not fear, but I want not to die until I hear her voice again. If she has not forgiven me, I care not whither I go. If she has forgiven me, God, for her sake, will give me to her, even if He deems me, in my- self, insufficient to enter His realm. 132 Sun Time and Cloud Time All Is here, somewhere here, all that ever was, and all will ever be here that ever Is. Oh ! If all who live could but this know, would they not stay their bitter words, their Idle talk, their wrong sayings, their false vows, which can never die. How happy were It If In this bidlng-place of all sounds were naught but good ones. Perhaps God wanted it not so, for so lovely Is this earth, that, were It so, It would not be needful to remove man there- from to find his heaven. I am weakening and fear I shall not last long. I shall write now a statement leading up to this diary and shall wrap all up and drop it, hoping that my dear son shall receive It. My days are done ! God be praised — my son — praise God — I have not strength to write — I have heard — my loved one — forgave me — loves me. I faint — I die. ... I thought to die and I am near to my end for which I long but while yet I can write I must tell — I have drifted up — close to the deadly suffocating stratum — I cannot work back, as my machine is unman- Minor Chords 133 ageable. I have but a little time and that seems so long, for I do so want my loved one. I was asleep, so tired, so weak, and the sun glow, just showing past the earth's west, trou- bled my eyes and awakened me. I lay listen- ing as I ever did in my waking moments. For a little while the old sounds came and went, song and sob, cry and shout, trill of bird, moan of sick, chatter, talk and the wind's soughing in the trees; and then came there to my ears a sound of my memory, the pleasant ring of a church bell; I heard it idly, till into my consciousness was driven the remem- brance of this very ring, and I knew I heard the bell of the little church that rang even as she died, and then. Dear God, I thank Thee! I heard her voice once more. Oh! I know the angel band she hath joined will hush their songs to hear her dear voice, so sweet is it; and she prayed for me and for our son, and said, aloud, how she loved us both, and, (wrung was my heart with sorrow, though It was filled with joy), how she longed for me to come back to her and take her in my arms, and even as she asked God to bless me, even 134 ^^^ Time and Cloud Time as the bell rang out, she gasped and said no more. Eagerly I tried to hear again her words, but I went along, and then I cast adrift my balloon and have since endeavored to descend that I may seek my son and tell him of her prayer, of her love, and of her forgiveness, and ask him to keep me near him who is of her and of me, but who is so like her." A CREATURE OF CIRCUMSTANCE " We are all creatures of circumstances, obeying the impulses and dictates of our con- ditions, and doing the bidding of our neces- sities; sometimes in so doing we violate the rules adopted by men, and if the violation be one that breaks what is called morality, and we be found out in violating of such rule, we suffer punishment, more or less as our wrong-doing is sized with our social posi- tion and our money worth; the sin of a man little in the view of the world Is larger and greater than Is the evil done by the man big, according to worldly estimation. If a man breaks a rule which men have laid down as law, then, if he be apprehended and con- victed of the crime, Is he punished under the prescribed law. And In all this there Is righteousness, reason, and necessity; there must be rules of government or there will be ^35, 136 Sun Time and Cloud Time no government, and if there be no govern- ment there will be no community, and be there no community there will be no fixed place of abode for men, for man is an animal which ever seeks companionship and must have others around him to preserve and invigorate his mental and physical condition. " But we are more than creatures of cir- cumstances, we are creatures of the creators of our circumstances; the laborer sets out to his work in the dark hours of the morning and sweats in his labor 'till the late hours of the night, returning wearily to his humble home to eat of the coarse food of his table and to sleep heavily until begins another toil-day; he is a creature of his circumstances but are not those circumstances controlled by the man who hires him and who pays him his wage, and if he is swayed by his circumstances which are ordered by his employer is he not a crea- ture of such master? It is so in every stratum of life, there are ones controlled and ones in power over such as are controlled, yet even they, who are in power, are themselves con- trolled in some greater or lesser degree." Minor Chords 137 " The prosecuting attorney will argue to you that the testimony of the witnesses against the prisoner was direct and unrefuted: He will say that the prisoner's guilt was so evident that even I, the prisoner's attorney, deemed it folly to attempt to disprove it; you have the facts in your mind; the prisoner, who is a mechanic, one of a labor organization, on strike against an unjust and unwarranted re- duction of wages; prompted by his necessities, goaded by the clamorlngs of hungry children and rendered reckless of law and of con- sequences by the unuttered wail of a dying woman, his wife, the mother of his children, whose life could have been main- tained by but a little good food, committed an attack upon society by breaking Into a store and taking therefrom, what? — Dia- monds? — Gold? — Silks or Satins? — No! Food ! — Food ! — Food ! — Food for those hungry children, food for that sickened, life- wearied wife; and he was taken right in the act. And I come here and, because I have studied and know the many set rules of men, I act for him and talk for him, and he Is my 138 Sun Time and Cloud Time creature in this time and in these circum- stances; and I have told him to plead not guilty, not because he did not do this thing — No ! A man's necessity may make of him a thief, but It need not make of him a liar; I told him to say, ' Not guilty,' so I could rise up and talk to you, the twelve men who have been elected to sit and hear and deliberate on the facts and truths of this doing, that in the end you can say, he is guilty of this crime or he is not guilty of this crime. " Gentlemen, the prosecution presented the owner of the goods stolen from his store, which were shown to you, and he Identified them as his property. He alleged that he had not sold them to the prisoner and that, being called to the police station late on the night the prisoner was arrested, he was shown the property and recognized it as his own by marks upon It. He further stated that after the Interview at the police station he went to his store and found signs that the door had been broken open and other evidences of theft. He further stated the value of the property ; and to all this we have not one word Minor Chords 139 to say to prove these charges untrue. We are not liars, my client and I. " The two police officers are worthy of com- mendation for their alertness and zeal, and their courage in detecting and arresting the prisoner. They say they came upon him as he was robbing the store and they took him into custody. Not one word say we contrary to these allegations. Nevertheless, the prisoner at the bar is not the thief he is indicted to be. He did not commit this theft. He did not do this act. The theft was done by the cir- cumstances which controlled him. He acted under the duress of his conditions. His chil- dren were famished, his wife was dying of lack of nourishment. His circumstances com- mitted the crime. But you say circumstances are inanimate and the law cannot apprehend and punish circumstances. That is true ! Then hearken back to the creator of those cir- cumstances. Gentlemen of the jury, I ask that your verdict be directed against the man who demanded of this prisoner that he work all his day for forty cents less than he had been previously giving him. I ask a verdict 140 Sun Time and Cloud Time of guilty against the man who demanded that he pay for his food to eat more money than he paid for such food when he was getting higher wages for his labor. These are the thieves, gentlemen, these are the doers of this crime upon which you are sitting in judgment : For the man before you, sitting humble and broken In his seat of shame I ask mercy, for- giveness, justice. He sought to gain his ne- cessities. He trod the long, rugged, stony, uphill road of toil; at every step he was beset by obstacles and privations; he worked un- ceasing, uncomplaining, to enrich the fruitful place, belonging to his masters, along his way. He could see the ripened fruits hanging on the yielding trees just over the walls, but he was satisfied to take for his labor the wind- fall and the core; and he and his throve on the poverty of it; but when even these were refused him, when his toil was belittled and his brow sweat was cheapened he stopped his toil and sat down hoping that his idleness would so prevent the picking of the ripened fruit as to compel his masters, in their need, to give him a sufficiency for his needs. And Minor Chords 141 then, gentlemen, hungered beyond endurance, crazed by the cries of children and the woe of his wife, he broke down the feeble fence of ownership rights, and was attacked for so doing by the very society of which he was a part, and now the OAvners of these fructifying trees clamor that his liberty be taken from him, and that he be branded a wrongdoer, and yet it was these clamoring owners of fruits that he had helped to produce, that had roughened and stoned his road and had cheap- ened his toil and labor. " These are the thieves, and I demand jus- tice against them ! I ask sympathy for him ! I ask his liberty from you ! " The voice tired by its own intensity quavered — and broke. The judge opened his eyes and looked, in- quiringly, at the speaker, then, as the defend- ant's counsel sat down, said, " Mr. Martin." The attorney for the people slowly rose, his hard lined face showing the perplexity and bewilderment of his mind. His glance wandered from the judge to the jury, then to the few people scattered behind the guard rail, 142 Sun Time and Cloud Time and finally rested on the hollow cheeked white face of the lawyer who had just ceased his argument. " The people rest," he said, and in his tone there was a mixture of wonder and contempt. " Surely there is no necessity for further talk on this case when the defendant and his coun- sel both practically confess the doing of the crime as charged in the indictment. As to the criminal culpability of some people remote from the intent, from the scene, from the act- ual commission of the crime, without knowl- edge of such or desire to be accessory to it, it would be absurdity bordering on lunacy for me to argue against such false and ludicrous assertions. I am content to leave the people's case in the hands of this jury, satisfied that justice will be done and the social laws upheld. The people rest." As slowly as he had risen he sat down and gathered up his papers; for him the matter was finished; his duty done, and thoroughly done in his own way, he was careless of the result though in this case he was confident of a conviction, but it would be but another good mark on a record of many Minor Chords 143' such verdicts as against but few acquittals. Bulldog Martin they called him because he hung on with teeth to every fact and law to convict and the lawyers, with pohtical af- filiations, ever strove that he be not assigned to any case that they were defending. The cold, gray December day was darken- ing down though It was but four o'clock. The room was cheerless and gloomy in its almost terrifying severity of decorations. The silence, broken only by the voices of the lawyers or the uneasy shuffling and moving of the sitters in the back, was ominous. On a chair, near his counsel, guarded by two burly red-cheeked officers, the gaunt, haggard-faced defendant, sat with bowed head, eyes ever looking down, and hands clutching and pick- ing the slouch hat held in them. As the people's attorney ceased speaking, a little gleam of satisfaction came into the deep sunk eyes of the prisoner's counsel which in- stantly passed out and was followed by a flash of bitterness as he saw Martin lean over and talk to another man sitting at the prose- cutor's table. Penfield's teeth closed with a 144 "^^"^ Time and Cloud Time snap and his nose distended and all his fight- ing instinct surged into his heart. The venerable judge, his hair whitened by- time, began his charge. The shuffling and the whispering ceased. The men of the jury leaned forward eagerly to be guided by the wisdom, the experience, and more than all by the authority of his words. " The prisoner, at eleven o'clock on the night of September 2nd last, was arrested while in the store of one Henry Albros, who is the owner of a grocery at the corner of Hudson and Jane Streets, the prisoner having unlawfully broken into the said grocery store with intent to rob. This constitutes the crime of burglary with which he is charged. The testimony of the witnesses for the prosecution has been heard by you. The defendant has not produced any evidence to disprove the charge but he is not compelled to do so. The prosecution must prove the guilt of the pris- oner beyond a reasonable doubt. The fact that the prisoner does not testify or bring others to testify must not weigh against him at all. If, in your opinion, the prosecution Minor Chords 145 has clearly and undoubtedly proven the pris- oner's guilt, then your verdict must be that he is guilty. If in your minds there be a doubt as to the prisoner's guilt you must give him the benefit of that doubt and acquit him of this crime. It is needless for me to go over the evidence or the testimony as it was short and must be fresh in your minds. I give you the case and leave you to your duty." The day had darkened and, at a word from the judge an attendant opened the door of the light closet and with a switch-turn flooded the court room with a yellow glare. Penfield slowly rose and said: *' If the court pleases I request that the jury be in- structed that anything that has been produced, introduced or brought out, either on examina- tion, cross-examination or," and, seemingly carelessly, Penfield turned towards Martin, who, while listening to Penfield's request, was still talking to the man who had incited the hard feeling in Penfield's mind, " in my sum- ming up." The last words were spoken slow- ly, but in a tone much lower than the others ; it would seem as though, tired by his en- 1^6 Sun Time and Cloud Time deavors the defendant's lawyer had said them without care as to the hearing of them. The judge, now busied with some papers presented tO' him for signature and trusting to the Dis- trict Attorney's watchfulness, hardly heard all the request. Martin, hearing the first part of the request in a usual form and diverted by the earnestness of his conversation made no objection; but not a juryman was there but into whose mind had been driven those intense words, " or in summing up." The judge looked up saying, " So charged," and again turned to his papers. A quick flush of hope lit up Penfield's face going out instantly, leaving there only the same quiet look of steadfast purpose. " I further request that the jury be in- structed that it is their sole right to declare as to the innocence or guilt of this prisoner; " Martin trained to receive impressions at all times was roused to alertness by this strange request, but made no objection to it. " So charged ! " The judge after his glance at Martin continued reading the documents before him. Minor Chords 147 Martin's fellow-talker had risen and now walked to a seat just inside the rail. Martin, his whole mind again on the case, idly drummed on the table before him. " I request," Penfield's voice rang out clear and deliberate, " that the jury under the evi- dence, the testimony and all the other proceed- ings be directed that they may find the pris- oner innocent of the crime as charged " — Quickly Martin was on his feet; " I ob- ject," he bellowed. The judge sat back and looked at the two attorneys. " If it pleases the court," Penfield's pallid features had a quiet gleam of amusement, " and Mr. Martin doesn't object, I shall fin- ish my request and then Mr. Martin can Interpose any legal objection he deems ex- pedient." " Proceed," said the judge with a quiet smile, while Martin sulkily sat down with tightened lips and hardened face. " I request that the jury be directed that they may find the prisoner Innocent of the crime as charged, or that they may find the prisoner guilty of any degree of the crime as 148 Sun Time and Cloud Time charged or of an attempt to commit the crime." " So directed," said the judge without giv- ing Martin time to say one word. Penfield turned to Martin with a courteous, *' I am finished, Mr. Martin." Martin simply shrugged his shoulders and said, " No re- quests," and the judge nodded to the jury officer who opened the door of the jury box and lead the twelve men to the room set aside for them. It was now half past four o'clock. The judge said, " Mr. Penfield, Mr. Martin, I shall be in my chambers until half past six; if the jury have not reached a verdict by that time I shall direct a sealed verdict and have it read to-morrow morning." The two lawyers, now conversing in a friendly way, nodded as- sent and rose respectfully as the judge passed out to his private office. "Penfield!" And Martin put his hand on Penfield's shoulders as he spoke, "If you were not Penfield, the man I know incapable of doing such a dirty trick I would accuse you of throwing this case. Why, man! What Minor Chords 149 were you thinking of, no defense, no good character witnesses, what were you thinking of, and such tomfoolery in your summing up." Martin looked his almost indignant wonder. Penfield shook his head sadly; " Charac- ter," he said, " who would vouch for his character? " " Why his friends, his employers," said Martin. Penfield waved his hand toward a little group of low talking men who were excitedly talking among themselves; unkempt faces, threadbare coats, rough hands; "Those are his friends," he said, " good honest friends, good honest men, but who would vouch for them?" Martin looked at the group, then shrugged his shoulders, saying, " But his employers? " Penfield sneered, "His employers? You had them alongside of you in the trial; twenty- one years a faithful servant yet one fit to be hounded to jail," and he nodded toward the man sitting with his back to the guard rail. " Oh 1 " Martin smiled, " Conkling, I see," 150 Sun Time and Cloud Time then he continued with a laugh, " But the starving wife and famished children, where were they?" Penfield had turned away and was putting some papers in his satchel; he straightened up and his face was hardened and set. " I couldn't get the wife — she couldn't come." " Couldn't come," Martin was dogged, " make her come • — sick, bring her on a stretcher — sore on him, arrest her." Penfield wearily turned away, saying, " No good, either of them — no jurisdiction. She died a week after this affair." Martin, cold and indifferent as he was, looked troubled and said, " Oh ! — Poor chap, well ! I wasn't so awful hard on him, now was I? " Penfield laughed; "No — but don't take any credit for that, you thought it was not necessary." Martin smiled and said no more. The prisoner, who had sat quietly through- out the trial now went past the two lawyers, between two keepers, on his way to the court Minor Chords 151 pen. Penfield took his hand as he passed and said, *' Keep up your courage, things will brighten up." The man looked up eagerly, but seeing Martin, scowled and went along his dismal way. " Your client does not seem to like me ! " Martin said in an indifferent tone. " You could not expect him to manifest any amount of sincere affection for you," retorted Penfield. "No," said Martin absently, "I don't strive to win their affection." " Martin," and Penfield put his hand on the prosecutor's shoulder, " do me a good turn and win the gratitude of that man. Help me to win the utmost clemency for him from the court, will you ? " Martin looked at him and said carelessly, " All right, Penfield, Pll consent to anything in reason." " Thank you, Martin," and Penfield's tired face brightened again as he walked down through the rail gate to the little group of men in the rear, the prisoner's friends. 152 Sun Time and Cloud Time Eagerly they closed around him, question- ing, anxious and doubtful, their voices low even in the absence of the judge. Martin glanced at the clock, pondered for one moment and then strode down to the door, leaving instructions that he should be called in case of a verdict, and proceeded to his room on the floor above. Penfield, busied as he was with his ques- tioners, was closely watching Martin, and, seeing Conkling rise and hurry after him, motioned to a young man who had been at his side all the day, and who, at a whispered instruction from Penfield hastened after Conkling returning almost instantly to report to Penfield who seemed much disturbed by the occurrence. Penfield resumed his conversation with the little band of faithful, worried, despairing men, resuming his cheerfulness as he pro- ceeded, his hearers listening attentively to his talk and sometimes nodding assent and some- times shaking their heads dubiously at his declarations. Minor Chords 153; Suddenly, just forty-five minutes after the jury had left the room, an attendant came hastily in, spoke to the assistant-clerk busy at the desk, who at once rose and went into the chambers, coming back followed in a mo- ment by the judge who was donning his black gown even as he entered the door. Martin came hurrying in and Penfield leisurely walked to his former place near the jury box. The prisoner was brought from the pen cell, white and trembling, for he now was to hear his doom. Penfield looked searchingly around the room, but Conkling had not re-entered. A whisper to his associate and the young man tiptoed out of the court room. The judge smacked the marble block in front of him with his gavel. The jury filed in solemnly and quietly took their seats in the box. The clerk rose and in a sing song way said, " Gentlemen, have you reached a verdict? " " We have," said the foreman, a man stern- faced but with honest gray eyes. 154 3un Time and Cloud Time " Gentlemen of the jury, what Is your ver- dict?" The clerk's words were recited by rote, so many times had he said them. The stillness of the room was terrible; the air was filled with a tense suspense. " We find the defendant guilty of an at- tempt to commit burglary and we recommend him to the mercy of the court." Penfield sighed his relief and gratitude. The prisoner's eyes bulged, for he did not understand his salvation. Guilty of burglary ! It was he who was guilty; all his life honest; all his life a toiler; now a thief — the horror of it gripped his heart and his head sank on his breast. The group in the back, as little knowing as he, were sorrowed and depressed. Pen- field had not explained to him, nor to them, the difference In crime degrees. It was a hopeless case they had told him when they brought It to him, but the man was their friend and they must fight for him. It was a hopeless case he told himself but when he saw the man and heard his story he reached down to his fighting soul and drew the sword Minor Chords I155 of his intellect and threw the scabbard away, and now he, and he alone of all who had fought with him, knew he had won. Martin, stung by his defeat, was instantly on his feet, but a surprised look from the judge stopped him and he sat down quietly but grim-faced and with hardened heart. " Poll the jury," directed the judge sitting back, twirling his eye glass in his fingers. The clerk called the roll of the twelve men, each stating that the verdict was as he had voted. Penfield slowly rose, looking around at the door; " If the court pleases I ask, and in my request I am joined by the attorney for the people, that the sentence upon the prisoner, to be made in accordance with this verdict, be suspended." Martin too had risen, and now was he Bulldog Martin in face, in voice, in manner. " Mr. Penfield," and his tone was a snarl, " has stated wrongfully that the District At- torney joins in the request for a suspension of sentence. The prosecuting attorney is amazed at the miscarriage of justice in this case. I — I move," and he hesitated for a mo- 156 Sun Time and Cloud Time ment, his mind pondering the unusual pro- cedure, " I move that the verdict be set aside as against the weight of evidence — as against all the evidence." The judge shook his head, " Motion denied." And then as though his fury could not be contained Martin bellowed, " I ask that the utmost penalty of the law be Imposed on this defendant. I ask that he be sentenced to prison for the longest possible time. Here is a man caught committing a crime, with his plunder in his hands ; he comes Into this court and virtually admits his guilt. He offers no reason for the doing of the crime and cannot," and Martin thundered this, " and cannot bring one voucher for his good character, and with all this, these twelve Intelligent men," the sarcasm in Martin's words was too evident to be misunderstood and some of the jurymen fidgeted while the others started up angrily only to be restrained by the clash of the gavel, "says he is guilty of what? — a mis- demeanor! which is the same as saying he did not steal these things, — he did not com- Minor Chords 157J mit this crime — he is not a bad character. I ask the court to inflict the fullest penalty the law will allow, as that penalty is but little compared to the punishment the crime com- mitted merited." During this tirade Penfield had stood mo- tionless against the jury rail. The young clerk whom he had sent out came quietly up and handed him a Httle slip of paper which Penfield read, then he nodded and the young man sat down in the chair next to him. " The prosecuting attorney says," and there was a menace in Penfield's drawl, " that he did not join in my request for a suspension. I repeat that he gave me his consent to any request I should make, but I admit," and Pen- field turned on Martin, now sitting with his chair tilted back and watching him defiantly, " I admit that the consent, though given but a few moments ago, was given before a hap- pening which probably has altered the aspect of the matter in Mr. Martin's opinion, and, if Mr. Martin desires I shall later on state what Is that happening." Martin's composed features betrayed no uneasiness or anxiety, 158 Sun Time and Cloud Time nevertheless, Penfield felt that Martin was wondering how much he knew of what had taken place. " If your honor pleases, I am prompted to make this request by these facts. The jury," and Penfield turned and bowed to the jury- men, who, though dismissed, still remained in their seats, " these men have recommended the defendant to your mercy. I know you will give weight to such a recommendation. Furthermore, they have found him guilty of a misdeameanor only, the utmost punishment of which is imprisonment for one year and a fine of five hundred dollars or either or both. The minimum, punishment is one day im- prisonment and a fine of one dollar or either or both, in your discretion. Under the law, you have the discretion to suspend sentence. It would be a cruel punishment to inflict upon this man, who stole food because he had no money, the penalty of a fine for he could not pay such, nor could his friends, who are poor as is he, pay any fine, and as he could not pay such a fine he would have to be Imprisoned Minor Chords 159 to work out the fine at so much a day, there- fore the logical and natural penalty, if any be inflicted, would be imprisonment." " I asked mercy for the defendant from the jury, I ask mercy for him now from you. The jury of twelve men gave him all the mercy that righteous regard to justice and their consciences would allow — and they, having done so, ask you, too, to be merciful. " This man meant to steal; the jury say so, and we did not deny it, but what was stolen was food to be eaten by children and by a wife. It was not money to be squandered on dresses or drink or on illicit doings. It was food for hungering children and for a wife starving to death. " The children now are cared for in the home of a charitable organization. The wife is dead, not so much of starvation as of shame and sorrow. I did not tell this to the jury. It was not for them to be influenced by such woe, but it is proper for you the judge to know this that you may lay off from the pun- ishment you may be minded to inflict a part i6o Sun Time and Cloud Time as having been paid by the loss of his children, a part as being served by the loss of the wife he loved so well as to steal for her. His sorrow and his shame should cut down the term of imprisonment you may feel It neces- sary to sentence him to; surely a great part of the maximum sentence is so reduced. But he has been confined in jail three months. No one was there to give security to release him until he was tried and, therefore, I claim that his punishment is complete ■ — more than com- plete. I ask that he be released on suspended sentence, and I ask that Mr. Martin as prose- cuting attorney consent to such suspension." " Mr. Martin as prosecuting attorney," re- torted Martin, pounding the table, " abso- lutely refuses to consent to any commutation of sentence whatsoever, and Insists that the extreme penalty be imposed. The defendant even then is escaping much of his just dues." Penfield watching the judge as Martin spoke saw the slight tightening of his lips as Martin said, " Insists," and his hopes were raised a little. " Mr. Martin," the judge spoke coldly and Minor Chords i6i deliberately, " did you tell Mr. Penfield that you would consent to a suspension of sentence in this case? " " I did not," Martin said slowly, as a man who strives to speak some pondering thoughts, " I did not. I told Mr. Penfield I would con- sent to any request he made that was in reason." Penfield spoke, " Does it seem unreasonable where a man has been found guilty in such a degree of the crime charged, and where he has suffered as this defendant has, and where he has been imprisoned so long that further pun- ishment be suspended? If the court pleases at the time I spoke of when Martin gave me the consent, which he says was conditional, he was softened and inclined to be merciful. He is now hard, unbending, and merciless. What has caused this change? Why has he hardened and thrown out his mercy? " " If the court pleases," Martin sneered, " the prosecuting attorney is prompted by a feeling of duty only : He does not know the defendant. To him it is but a proceeding and the people depend upon him to keep their 1 62 Sun Time and Cloud Time right inviolate and he is but striving im- partially, impersonally so to do." " That," and Penfield's voice vibrated with bitterness, " that is untrue. When Mr. Mar- tin gave me the assent to any proper request I might make he was prompted by impartial and unbiased feeling, but now I charge him with being actuated by personal interests, and I call the court's attention to the fact that during the concluding proceedings of the trial Mr. Martin was in communication, in conversa- tion, with Mr. Conkling, the general attorney for the manufacturing company for whom this defendant worked for nearly twenty-five years. After the jury went out Mr. Martin and Mr. Conkling, whom I allege is here in the interest of this company as against this defendant, whom they claim was leader in the labor trou- bles they have had, were in conference in Mr. Martin's room and I further say that Mr. Conkling is even now in Mr, Martin's office waiting to hear from Mr. Martin as to the verdict and the sentence. I do not know what the consideration was or is," and Penfield turned on Martin accusingly, " but I do know Minor Chords 163 that Mr. Martin has changed from a prose- cutor to a persecutor." Penfield ceased, white as the prisoner, while Martin's face was reddened with rage and re- sentment, yet he could but stand speechless. The venerable judge, unmoved and calm, waited for a minute, then, as both lawyers sat down, looked steadily at the prisoner saying, " Defendant Monroe, you committed a crime; the jury with all their mercy to you say so ; you have said so; your lawyer has said so; the motive has not been denied, either by you or by the prosecution ; the necessity that prompt- ed you does not excuse the crime, but the crime done from necessity is not so heinous as one done by desire of some non-necessitous thing. But you have done wrong, you have broken a law, therefore you must suffer pun- ishment for so doing." There was a long pause while the judge tried to look into the very being of the prisoner who looked at him respectfully but unflinchingly. " You have had much punishment; your home gone; your children gone; your wife gone forever." The prisoner's mouth quivered. " You have been 164 Sun Time and Cloud Time confined for three months In jail without lib- erty. This is your first offense. I suspend sentence." The judge wheeled around in his chair, nodded to Penfield and to Martin, and rising went to his chambers. Penfield reached over and seized Monroe's hand with a hearty clasp, turned to the jury with a grateful, " thank you, gentlemen," and then turning faced Martin who was striding toward the door. Martin stopped, looking Penfield square in the face and almost shouted, " This is a most wanton abuse of justice ! " " It Is so," Penfield quietly said, picking up his papers; *' do you intend to prosecute the real criminals? " MISTRESS DOROTHY, Needless it is for me to speak of myself at all in this narration. Nay! fain would I not speak at all of these happenings, were it not for the defaming and reviling of a good gen- tleman, who, enlisted though he be in an unrighteous and rebellious cause, hath yet left upon my mind and heart the impress of a man of good intent but of perverted action; therefore, I deem it doth behoove me to tell, with all honesty of purpose and without a deviation from the rigid line of strict truth, all that did happen on the Sabbath morn of yestermonth when Mr. Washington (for it befits me ill to grant title of General to him who holds not the King's Commission as such, yet who still is an English subject), attended divine service at our church, and concerning whose behavior then so much of ill-fame hath been spread. i6ii 1 66 Sun Time and Cloud Time Sad it is, In these days of beauteous June, when nature hath arrayed herself in flower and blossom bedecked vernal garb, that man shouldst war with man, and brother lift hand against brother. It is my daily, earnest prayer that these unruly malcontents be quick- ly subdued, and that the power of His Gra- cious Majesty be fully restored, yet, I do hope and pray that Mr. Washington will see the error of his doing, and will sue for pardon ere it be too late, for I feel 'twould grieve me much were he to have meted out to him such punishment as merits such rebellious strife. Truly these are troublous times and I can scarce compose my mind for the simple duties of my humble office, or quell my fears while performing them, yet, am I not upheld and encouraged by the calm and serene demeanor of Doctor Inglis, and the intrepid and un- flinching manner in which Mr. Wharton meets all the perplexities and dangers. Dr. Inglis, to whom I have told my intent to publish this, hath approved of my doing, though first did he write to Doctor Auchmuty at New Bruns- wick, who, in his reply to Dr. Inglis' letter Minor Chords .167 highly commended my action, so just a man is our good Rector. When Mr. Ogilvie died two years ago, Doctor Inglis, who hath ever been my adviser and my friend, and who first impulsed me into the paths of Godly servitude, requested that I be given Mr. Ogilvie's place, but Doctor Auchmuty, deeming me over young for such an exalted office, gave preference to Mr. Wharton, who, besides having more years than were mine, had received much favor- able notice for his work amongst the negroes and the natives; yet our good Rector, desir- ing not to slight me, nor to deprive me of my living, made office for me subordinate to Mr. Wharton. Laymen, and indeed some of churchly habit and proclivities, who know him not so well, do not perceive in Mr. Wharton the devoutness and sincerity of a man of God; tall is he, with strong and straight limbs, and broad of back, and too, loud voiced yet not unseemingly so. Ofttimes have I watched him as, arrayed in his holy garments, he hath read the lesson or expounded the gospels; truly his are vigorous 1 68 Sun Time and Cloud Time exhortations and showeth a spirit militant turned to God. Verily, I believe 'tis well that we meeker ones of the Church have some few such in our midst; we gaining power from their strength, they gaining grace from our humility. When Doctor Auchmuty in the Spring, at the coming of the Rebels into our city, re- moved his family and his household goods to his summer home at New Brunswick, his duties devolved on Doctor Inglis, who, for their better protection against the insults and assaults of the rabble (yet doth not justice de- mand that I say, well are they held in check by those who hath command over them) , hast sent his family and some of his possessions to the home of his friends someways up Hud- son's River, and with Mistress Dorothy, his niece, who refuses to leave him, hath taken an abode in the Rectory. Mistress Dorothy is most devoted to her Uncle, and, since her coming back to us from London, where she hath been staying some years, she hath done much to keep our hearts strong; Nay! I doubt not but by her fearlessness and virtuous power 'Minor Chords 169 we all are preserved from wounds and may- hap death. Long time it is since Mistress Dorothy and I sat side by side, on our little stools in good old Master Brightly's school room, striving, in awe and tribulation, to gather into our re- bellious minds the lessons he would teach to us. Such a demure little maid was she, with soft, dimpled cheek with hue of this month's rose; Ah me, I wonder if that cheek hath lost its softness; once 'twas mine the privilege to know, and now, Oh! I trust none hath that right again as yet; her hair was lighter then than now, but not so glossy; didst ever see hair of brown that glistens as doth hers? Her lips — but I must not speak of such else I'll be overcome by yearning for their sweet touch; e'en then her body gave a promise that kind time hath in goodly measure fulfilled. Strange it is, that feelings akin to rancor rise in my breast, exerting me to greatest spiritual efforts to subdue them, when roving eyes rest on her swelling bosom, or glance covertly at her dainty foot and trim ankle. Ofttimes, since her return, doth she tell of some newly 170 Sun Time and Cloud Time remembered doing whilst away from us and eager do I listen, until she speaks of some dancing affair, and then hasten I to say adieu or to make excuse that I may not hear of any hand that hath held hers or any ruthless' arm that in some stately measure did' encircle her gracesome waist. In those old days, we slept cribbed together, ■for father nor mother had I within my mem- ory, save Doctor Inglis and his dear wife who did befriend me almost from my birth; nor have I ever violated the sanctity of that un- conscious bed. Ay ! Stainless hath been my life, for could I do evil having ever her purity before me. True, I speak never now of that time, but ofttimes a thrill passes through me at the memory thereof. Many times, when boy and girl, we wan- dered through the fields and in the woods, plucking roses, picking the wild berries, and searching for trailing arbutus and the hidden wood violet; oh! so happy in our freedom, until I, timid Knight, with naught of temer- ity, would restrain my Princess from going or doing as hadst been forbidden; then wouldst Minor Chords 17 1 she, pouting, turn her way homeward, un- speaking and disdaining, whilst I would walk behind, sorrowed, and the sun of my happi- ness hid by the clouds of her anger; but stay, I must not maunder thus, I do forget my con- secration and speak over much of myself. Many were there then, who loved the little maiden; Oh! how our hearts grieved when her father, long in the King's service In for- eign stations, sent for her to come to him, as he, returning to England, yearned for his dear daughter whom he had seen not since she was but a babe : Nay, 'twas a tearful time e'en for the woman folks, and as for me I went not near the embarking but fled out to the fields and woods, our fields and our woods, and there, stretched out on the leaf-strewn ground, I sobbed and moaned out my pain and grief whilst none were near me. Dreary were my days and long for a while after her departure, but the good Doctor, who had taken up my instruction, deemed It wiser that I should enter the King's College and most kindly, by strong effort, obtained for me a tutorship there, which did maintain me while 172 Sun Time and Cloud Time I prepared and trained for the service of the Church, and now am I striving to exalt the Lord and teach His holy word. How long it is since she did go and now hath she returned stately and beautiful; be- sought and bepraised: yet do I see no differ- ence in her soul or heart, save that I stand aloof where former times I was so close ; Yea ! kind was she when she bade the bevy of gal- lants and King's officers to make me a way to her and certain it is her face was smiling as I gave her welcome, and she took my hand with much graciousness, and did she not say she was most glad to see me once again, and called me her dearest friend. Ah ! how my heart filled with the happiness of that mo- ment, and since her coming back to us, the days have been so happy; Yea! were it not for this dreadful warring, truly could we deem ourselves most blessed. Ofttimes since I became acquainted with Mr. Wharton I strove to speak with him of her, for fain would I talk of her, and my heart yearned to confide the love it bore for her, but each time Fd speak, he Minor Chords 173 bade me speak not thus, or else had much to do to prevent. I did not know that ever had he met her, he spake never so, but, it doth seem, that e'er he came to us he had spent some time in London and had met her there. I do therefore wonder at his reticence, for surely one who loves, eager should be to hear of his dear one : In truth, my tongue could babble ever be she but on it. First did we know of their acquaintance when her Uncle and I, being with her, she spoke concerning his whereabouts, he then being at New Brunswick aiding Doctor Auch- muty in setting up his house. Much surprised was I, and I confess not overpleased, for I deemed it churlish in him to have refrained from telling me of his knowing her; surely much could he have told me of her doings while away, and hungered was I ever for such news. Nay, on his return, I reproached him and too whilst she was near and covered was he with such confusion that he answered me not. Methinks she too deemed him in the wrong, for stayed she not long while I did speak, but left us hastily ere I did end my say. 174 Sun Time and Cloud Time I think not there was much of friendship be- tween them whilst away, for little warmth could I detect in their greeting on his return, and well did I watch them, for love is argus- eyed as well as blind, as does contend Mr. Shakespeare. It is but of late my heart has worried been, and now doth the pangs entor- ture me constant. Nay ! not yet shall I yield, but shall I not strive valiant that her love be mine, and if it be not so, then to whom could I give her with a surety that her soul be in good keep, if not to him. I pray constant that she bestows her heart not upon that de- praved soldier John Haynes, whose eyes see naught but the beauties of her fair face and blooming body; Nay, he hath not godliness of spirit and is carnal in his living; still must I, in candor, tell that most courageous is he and greatly trusted by Mr. Washington who hath highly praised him, nor hath he told us this himself, but rather have we heard of these from others. Alas ! women are of fraility and a great stalwart man,, of shapely leg, and straight back and handsome face doth outvie one of Minor Chords I175 such meagreness of stature and sallowness of cheek as are mine, but truly mine is the stronger mind and the better character, and, with her, surely such will outweigh the others. Mr. Haynes (he is termed Colonel by his fellow rebels but I cannot so call him), first met our Mistress Dorothy when he presented to Dr. Inglis letters introductory, written by his mother, who lives in Boston, and who deeply deplores her son's dereliction from the King's service (for he once held His Maj- esty's commission) , to Doctor Auchmuty, who she begs will strive to open his eyes to his great offense and wrongdoing. Since that first meeting, his attendance at Church services hath been the wonder of his fellows, who hast ever known him to be averse to sacred asso- ciations; whilst his calls and visits, many though they have been, hath yielded naught to the furtherance of the desire of his mother, so abmpt are they, if Mistress Dorothy be not there, and so tediously long if she doth receive him. Truly, the little irritation of my nature doth arise on these occasions; moreover, it doth 176 Sun Time and Cloud Time seem that he hath done much to install into her mind some of the virulent poison of this infamous rebellion. Verily do I protest to her against her questioning concerning the supposed and preposterous claims of these rebels, who hath not a righteous cause ; yet do I hesitate to answer her, for hard it is to prove the unrighteousness thereof. The good Doc- tor is much disquieted, and he watches her most anxiously for 'twould grievous be were she to espouse the cause of these rebellious people, but I do needless worry, our Dorothy will ever loyal be. It is my customed duty on the Sabbath day early to go to the Church and see that Mr. Washburn, who now acts as our sexton, right- ly performs his duties so all may be in keeping with God's holiness; and that Sabbath I did even so. How beautiful was the morn; the sun shone with a soft brightness; the grass in the yard, and in the fields beyond, was freshly green; the air was sweet and warm; the trees, newly leaved, were burst in fragrant blossom or yet full budded ; down through the hedges and the Minor Chords 177' bush clumps the bay and the river sparkled and glistened; the birds, flitting or perched, chirped and twittered, and sang out their praise melodies. I attended, myself, the unlocking of the doors, bespoke the opening of the windows that the soft spring air might enter, and did my other duties as became my office. Whilst so doing, I heard the heavy clatter of horses, which ceased at the Church-yard, so I bade Mr. Washburn see who was there, for I feared some violation of our property. Quickly did he return to me, and told me that two men, officers, he said, in the rebel army, awaited my presence In the little yard that abuts on the broad road that runs back of our Church. Some intuition bade me fear; and so, hastily arraying myself in my ecclesiastical garments, I went forth filled with forebod- ings, but fortified by a moment's prayer. Truly was I shocked, when, descending the steps from the vestry door, I saw the monster named Lee who Is called General by the Rebels. Truly do I think he Is considered with aversion even by his own companies. 178 Sun Time and Cloud Time Coarse is he and gross in body and in mind; Fat jowled are his cheeks, and bulging his eyes, which hath a fishy stare. Sorry was I to see him, nor did the presence of Mr. Haynes, who stood somewhat away, reheve my appre- hension for I could discern in his open counte- nance trouble and vexation. The monster cried, " Who are you, Sir? " Said I with an unaffected dignity; " Sir, I have the high priv- ilege of serving the Lord as an assistant to the good Doctor Auchmuty who is Rector of this parish " — thus spake I, but he didst interrupt, and bellowed, " Who holds service here to-day, Sir? " Truly I know not what prompted me in my answer to him, for I didst reply, " I do. Sir," nor was I untruthful therein, for Doctor Inglis often allowed Mr. Wharton and myself to officiate, and 'twas but the previous Sabbath that Mr. Wharton had been so allowed, and to-day therefore could be mine if I so re- quested of the good Doctor. Truly my pur- pose was to prevent the Doctor from being put to anxiety and trouble. " Well, be he who he may ! " snarled he, Minor Chords 179 with the face of a demon gloating over some poor, lost soul, " I come to inform you, that General Washington will honor your services this morn by his presence, and I do bid you that naught must be said to the King's praise or benefit! " Truly did I pale and almost did I reel, for long had we feared this, and now had it fallen on us. My white face seemed to please him, for he leered and said, " Come, Sir ! heard you not my words ? What say you ! " I had no need to answer him, for Mr. Wharton, who it seems had stood just inside the doorway, unseen, but hearing, came quietly down the steps and to us, and said unfaltering- ly, " Nay ! surely you mean not such a bid- ding; know you not that we servants of the Lord can change not a whit the services laid down and ordained for our teaching; Nay! we cannot do your bidding, though we will wel- come Mr. Washington to our temple." And then this fiend, purple faced and rag- ing, cried out, " It must be done so, and, if it be not done so, the consequences be upon your own heads, and your blood be on your own i8o Sun Time and Cloud Time hands," and this with such dreadful cursings and blaspheming that Mr. Wharton, whose face paled, cried out, "Peace, Sir! Respect the sanctuary of the Lord," but, alas! to no avail. And then, like an angel sent to rebuke a devil and to deliver from his power, poor sin- ners, came Mistress Dorothy, out of the vestry, down the steps and to us. " Nay," said she, and high was her color, but low her voice, " If thou canst not respect God's holy edifice, I pray you respect me a woman, and cease thy evil-sounding words." Truly was he, for the moment, abashed, and then, his evil nature even pregnant with bastard foulness, he sneered, and said, " What early sequestered devotees." So engrossed was I in my timid fears I un- derstood him not, but Mr. Wharton's hands clinched and his eyes inflamed, but ere he could move e'en his finger, Mr. Haynes bounded forward, and said thickly, " You scoundrel ! To me will you answer for this." Then did I perceive the import of his words, and truly could I have done him harm, man of God Minor Chords i8i though I am, but she, though her eyes were filled with tears and her Hps trembled, said with quietness, " Nay ! quarrel not with such a one; hold thyself for battling with men not beasts. Colonel Haynes," and he, reluctant, obeyed her, and now I know that hers was the better way, so do our passions blind us. Ven- geance Is the Lord's, let us not do the work He hath reserved for His own hands. When thus she spoke he stared at her, and most then did I fear, so lustful were his eyes; and then Mr. Wharton who, too, didst see him look, said sternly, "If you have more to say, say what you will, and then go." He turned and looked at us all and then he smiled with grimness and unmerciful, " Naught else have I to say, save that if my orders be not obeyed, I shall answer neither for your life nor your Church," and his eyes wandered gloatingly from ourselves to the Church and its environments. He then turned with a curt command to Mr. Haynes and they both mounted their horses and rode away. Dismayed and terrified, we stood silent, 1 82 Sun Time and Cloud Time watching them as they galloped along until a turn in their course hid them from our view. Then spake out Mistress Dorothy, with tre- mored voice, " Uncle must not preach to-day. Surely services on one occasion can be sus- pended? " Mr. Wharton said, and slow was his ut- terance, " Nay ! your Uncle hath not the power to do so, save with Doctor Auchmuty's sanction, nor should the word of the Lord be hushed by the ravings of man; nevertheless, harm must not be done your Uncle; I shall hasten to him and beg him to allow me to officiate this morn, and prevail upon him to leave not his study." "Nay!" said I, and I confess regretfully, a wave of indignation and resentment swept through my being, so eager was I that I shouldst do for her and not let him do so. " 'Twas but last Sabbath, and the previous one, that you didst so of- ficiate ; to-day is my Sabbath for so doing, and I will hasten to the Rectory, and beg the right to read the lessons and to preach this morn." " Nay ! " said he, and I fear we would have quarrelled had she not said, " I beg of Minor Chords 183 you that you quibble not as to who doth have the right, but that you hasten there and do obtain for one the privilege," and then she faltered, " but there is danger too for that one." Oft do I wonder that I noticed not toward which of us looked she when she so spake, but saw I only her paling cheek; in my trou- ble then and worry concerning the safety of our Church and our pastor, I thought not of myself. Fain would I think 'twas I she looked at, so selfish are we all. Whilst we thus stood speaking, we observed a horseman. In uniform, galloping past us but made no comment thereof, so engrossed In our troubles were we ! Then came another dashing recklessly up the broadway, at great speed, whom on his near approach discerned we to be Mr. Haynes, who had left us so soon since. Dismountng at the rail fence, he hastily tied his horse, and then with head uncovered he came to us. His face was white and drawn, though his eyes were gleaming and his teeth were set together. He bowed and strove to speak but failed, for the mo- 184 Sun Time and Cloud Time ment, so great was his emotion. Finally, he said with great effort, " Miss Inglis, and you, gentlemen, I beg you that you strive with best endeavors that none speak within this place this morn, or else speak not of the King. — I fear me that bloodshedding will fol- low, if such Is done, for orders hath been given that if one word against our cause or to the glory and benefit of the King be spoke, that the speaker be fired on and the Church be razed." Mr. Wharton said with great horror and indignation, " And does Mr. Washington countenance such barbarity? " Mr. Haynes replied sadly, " He has left it all to General Lee, and all that he may do will perforce be sanctioned." And then. Mistress Dorothy, turning dis- dainfully from Mr. Haynes, said coldly, " As Colonel Haynes is one of General Washington's officers he must necessarily sus- tain these doings also, so if he will but excuse me, I beg of him to return and aid in such preparation as must needs be made toward making successful such sacrilege." Minor Chords 185 In truth 'twas most unchristlike that these words did please me, but I do confess even so; so frail is man who ever seeks the belittle- ment of others and the praise of himself. High swept the blood In Mr. Haynes' face, and with choking voice, he said, " You do me wrong, Miss Inglis; I shall have naught to do with this atrocious thing, but will ever try tO' aid you." Then Mr. Wharton said, and In his voice I did perceive some pity for him, " Mr. Haynes, I shall preach here to-day In place of Dr. Inglis." Mr. Haynes looked at him coldly, for whilst neither bore any enmity toward the other, yet have I seen a coolness between them, and yet, once. It Is said, were they friends of close familiarity. Then said he and his brow cleared somewhat, " That is well ! You will then omit all observances to the King." " Nay," said Mr. Wharton calmly, " That I shall not do, for I cannot do so." " But," said Mr. Haynes, and his face clouded once again, " Then you will suffer even as would Doctor Inglis," and as he said 1 86 Sun Time and Cloud Time it he looked not at Mr. Wharton, nor at me, but at her, but no sign gave she. " So be it," said Mr. Wharton, with no tremor of voice or sign of fear, " If ill betide me, it is good to have died for one's con- victions," and then he added softly, " Even as you may, Jack Haynes." They looked into each other's eyes for a moment and then Mr. Haynes said brusquely, " As you will, but does Doctor Inglis con- sent to this sacrifice? " " He shall not know of it," said Mr. Wharton quietly. " Not know of it," said Mr. Haynes in great surprise. " Why, know you not that General Lee has sent peremptory orders to him at the Rectory, for, after we did leave you, he did question me close, and in truth was I compelled to tell who was who, and of your several offices." And then once more dread, and dismay, and heart sickness sat upon us, for well knew we the good Doctor wouldst forbid any taking his place at such a time, nor, as we knew full Minor Chords 187 well, would he cease his services or abridge them as was commanded. !And so we stood each racking our minds for some escape, but I could see noways. 'Twas Mistress Dorothy who first spoke, and she said quietly but with an odd ring in her tones, " Mr. Wharton, will you kindly seek my Uncle at the Rectory, and strive to induce him to cease from services this day, and you," said she, to me, sweetly, " Wilt enter the Church and arrange the poor spring blossoms I have gathered to adorn the altar." We both bowed acquiescent, but waited, wonder- ing whither went she. " Nay ! " said she, " but please me by doing as I did request," and SO' we went off half-unwillingly, leaving her with Mr. Haynes. Awhile they stood, she talking to him, I watching them through the open door, then did they walk down the Broadway, he beside her, leading his horse, and neither saying one word. Sore perplexed and fearful, stood I, and watched; wondering whither went they, and why, nor yet was mine a jealous, selfish mood, 1 8 8! Sun Time and Cloud Time for well I knew, that, at that moment, no thought had Mr. Haynes save that of succour for us, yet my heart sighed and my soul was troubled that in the moment of her distress he should be at her side, whilst she didst bid me leave her. When they had gone from my sight I re- tired to the study room, and poured out my fears to the Lord. Long time I prayed, crav- ing the vanquishment of our enemies and the sustaining of the Lord's words; while thus doing Doctor Inglis and Mr. Wharton came with slow and sobered steps into the room. Ceased then I my pleadings. The good Doc- tor's face shone through its pallor with the holy light that alone comes from the determi- nation of doing the right against all that may betide. Tenderly, and with much affection, did he place his hands upon us, and, thus standing, he exhorted us to be of strong faith and valiant, as didst become the chosen of the Lord; to fear not nor to be dismayed; ever lifting upward our eyes to see e'en the fleet- ing glimpses of our Lord; ever to strain our Minor Chords [189 ears to hearken to e'en the whispers of our God who speaks not always aloud; to walk forward even though we grope in darkness. " Stumbling upward," saith he, " Is better far than running swiftly downward," " Yield not one inch of the ground gained in the course of the Lord, but stand firm, yea, to He still in death, rather than to lively flee." Then did he lift up his eyes, and open his voice to his God, and pray, that he might be given succour, not for himself, but for his people's sake; that the wrath of our foes be softened toward us, and their hearts melted; that they might be turned from their evil pur- poses and their errors, and then he begged that sustaining grace be given him and all of us for the trials that were come upon us; that the Lord whose arms are ever about us would lift us up to His bosom, and, e'en though we weep In pain, would there be no fear. While thus he spake, and prayed, the pa- rishioners, slowly were entering and going to their accustomed sittings; and so the good Doctor bade Mr. Wharton and myself to go among them and make them acquainted with .190 Sun Time and Cloud Time the distress brought to us that they who wished might not endanger their lives; and so we did, and some there were, who, timid ever, hastened to depart and spread the tidings round about, but few these were and the major part of our people, so strong were their con- victions and so great their love for their pas- tor, stayed, and sat praying and resolute, some with fearful faces, others hard and bitter in their attitude. Our good sexton had rung the bell, as was his wont, and now, as the hour neared for the beginning of the services, my heart beat heav- ily in my bosom, and I felt choked and stifled, so, robed in my surplice though I was, I went out through the vestry door into our little back-yard, and there saw I, the instruments of our undoing gathering In great numbers; Grouped and in pairs and singly came they, armed with musket and with sabre, with pistol and with stave; some bearing fagots for the burning of our temple; Forbidding was their appearance, yet too were they ludicrous; a motley crew, with ragged uniforms and an- cient accoutrements, yet none the less deadly Minor Chords 191 to an unarmed enemy as were we. Verily, when the King's troops with their mighty weapons and their brilliant trappings doth confront them, they will look a sorry figure. Truly did they scoff at me with jeerlngs and scowls, but I heeded them not and stood there gaining strength and grace from their very venom, nor did I rebuke them, for well I knew 'twas foolhardy and would avail me nothing. Many curious ones had gathered around the Church, for, by this time was the trouble well known, and low-breathed, bitter words were spoke against the ruffian's bands, and against their leader, and many were the dark looks of hatred shown, for, glory be to God, our people are loyal people In the main, and do uphold the sovereignty of His Gracious Majesty. Then, did I see turning Into the broadway, far down, toward the Battery Green, a little cortege, and I knew our trial time was come. Slowly and almost solemnly Mr. Washington and his officers approached, holding their horses In check, and greeted with acclama- 192 Sun Time and Cloud Time tions and cheers by their followers. Hearing the clamor, Doctor Inglis and Mr. Wharton arrayed in their holy vestments came out and stood with me. The little band of horsemen reached the rail fence, and Mr. Washington dismounted, followed by his officers, and then did he advance toward us. Eagerly did I search, but I saw neither Mr. Haynes, nor that Monster Lee. Then stepped out Mr. Washington; truly Vv'ould I tell of him but 'twould be treason were I to exalt and praise him; slowly came he unto us, we three, standing there, a pitiful force to oppose a mighty one. Doctor Inghs, calm and serene; Mr. Wharton with face un- ruffled yet stern eyed; whilst I couldst not keep my lip from quivering, e'en though I dug my nails into my palm's flesh 'till blood did come. " Sirs," said Mr. Washington, and gracious was his voice, " It has been my custom, if it be a possible doing, to attend divine service each Sabbath morn. To-day, I beg that I be allowed to enter this sanctuary and listen to the discourse and partake of the communion." Minor Chords 193 Then did I know nor deem I it disloyal to say so, a man who spake like this could not be wholly evil, and without pity or be merciless; Nay! on my disquiet fell a peace and a calm that eased the ache of my heart and soul. Doctor Inglis spake with trembling words for he too was much affected by this man's utterance. " Sir," said he, " 'Tis the privi- lege of all to enter God's holy house, and to listen and to pray; and to those who hath been consecrated to God and our Church is the privilege of communion given, nor any man is there who can bid such nay, save such hath been adjudged unworthy of such privilege." " Yea ! " said Mr. Washington gravely, " To me has that privilege been given, nor has it from me been taken," and then he added sadly, " as yet." And then, all praise and glory be to the Lord, God Jehovah, who marketh the spar- row's fall, and who doth stretch out his hands to save us all from evil and from woe, Mr. Washington turned to his officers, who stood a little ways from him ; said he, " Gentlemen, 194 ^"^ Time and Cloud Time It is my pleasure that you await me outside this house of God this happy May Sabbath; I bid you take station some at each door of this holy edifice, and, while disallowing none who fain would enter to do so, it is not seemly that men with arms in their hands should enter so, and I bid you warn and order that no man do aught to sacrilege nor defile in any manner whatsoever this sanctuary, and if there be any who likes not the word of God or the lessons as laid down in the ritual for the utterence of these men of God, then let such not enter. I bid you and hold you each responsible that there be no disturbance of our services this morn." Almost In stupor stood we and whilst we stood, and even as he spake, came Mistress Dorothy with Mr. Haynes; her face, suffused with blushes though It was, beamed with a glad thankfulness and silent she stood with eyes cast down and hands clasped till he had done. Then did he turn to her and, bowing, said. In courteous way, " Mistress Dorothy, I pray you do allow me to sit beside you this morn," and then he added, " By this may I Minor Chords 195 show my greater devotion to the Lord, that I be not distracted from the service by thy presence near me." And so went they in, she leaning on his arm, we following with prayers of thanksgiv- ing on our lips. My doings during the service time that morn is hid in mist; Full well I know I did my part as did become me, yet I saw but her face raised from the pew to us; I heard but her voice out of the full hymning. Naught disturbed us in our gathering; nor loud boisterousness was there outside; most of those who had gathered to do mischief slunk away unsatisfied ; whilst some few entered but stirred not, nor murmured, when the King's prayer was said : and when I saw Mr. Wash- ington eat of the bread and drink of the wine, the body and blood of our Christ, I knew he was my brother, and glad am I of it, rebel though he be. Dr. Inglis, after the Church was emptied, save of us, bade us to his home, and there we learned from her dear lips of the manner of our salvation, for 'twas she, woman though 196 Sun Time and Cloud Time she is, who saved us and our Church. On our importunating, and the Doctor's bidding, she told with flushings of cheek and heaving of bosom, how, when we, perplexed and fear- ful saw no way of escape, she conceived a way; saith she, " Much had I heard of the goodness and gallantry of Mr. Washington, and, though I did hesitate from thrusting my- self into his presence, and more though I feared to pass the gaping crows of armed men, and flirting officers, yet did I prevail upon Colonel Haynes to escort me thither, and to gain me access to his hearing; This did Colonel Haynes do, and surely was I suf- fered to go to the tavern unmolested, and, moreover, while he didst seek for me an au- dience with Mr. Washington, was I protected by the taverner's daughter into whose charge gave he me, with many biddings to have me not intruded on, nor was I so; nor did I wait for long, for soon was I ushered all abashed before Mr. Washington.* " Truly was he gallant and most gracious, and stood before me whilst I sat, for he didst Minor Chords 197 bid me sit, which most gladly did I, for my legs were all tremble and most weak; I know," said she and the tears stood welling her eyes, " My voice didst shake, for he bade me fear not and to speak as I would; So did I, telling him of the coming of General Lee, and of his biddings, and of our tribulation, and our fears, and though my cheeks burned did I tell him of the cursings of that man, and verily methinks was he angered, though said he nothing, and when I did tell him of the threats of sacrilege and danger to us, was he much agitated, yet did he not speak till I didst finish my say. Then didst I beg of him not so to deal with us so harshly, but to be of mercy to us, and fain would I kneel, but he would permit me not but lifted me up, and bade me sit as before, and said so sadly, * mine enemies fear I not, as fear I my friends,' and then said I, ' Colonel Haynes can tell that I speak but truthfully,' ' Nay! ' said he, * I do believe your teUing,' but rang he for Colonel Haynes, who came hastily, being near by in waiting, and they spake together, 198 Sun Time and Cloud Time Mr. Washington in low gentle way, but Col- onel Haynes not so softly, but in anger to- wards General Lee. " And then he turned to me and bade me go with Colonel Haynes, nor to have fear of any harm for me or mine, and I was com- forted, and peace came upon me, for well knew I no harm could come upon us if he willed it not, and I arose and curtseyed to him and thanked him with many tears, for though he be a rebel he truly is a good man and a gentle one, nor think I he had known one whit of those intents of General Lee's." When she had done we spake not a while, but sat in thought; Then spake Doctor Inglis, saying, " Yea, that he be ! " and I saw ap- proval in Mr. Wharton's manner, and my heart yearned toward him then in grateful sorrow that he is a rebel, for surely is he one of the greatest men of mine acquaintance. Little more is there for me to say; many hath gone about defaming Mr. Washington, and now that he hath gone, venomous tongues do spit against him. Truly, I deem it but a duty that I tell these things that they who Minor Chords 199 hear may know the full truth of the happen- ings of that Sabbath morning. It is true that General Lee hast received not the punishment that well he merits, but Colonel Haynes hath told us that he hath great power with some of the men of politics, who hath shielded him often before as now; I sadly fear that Mr. Washington will be hurt grievously yet by this man. Since then we have wended our ways as was our wont, yet we fear much that soon must we close our Church. Even now Doctor Inglis is in New Brunswick with Doctor Auchmuty conferring as to the advisability of so doing; with him hath gone Mistress Doro- thy, and, truly the days seemeth long and not so happy. Mr. Wharton and I have charge of the parish and busy are we both, nor do we speak much of her, yet many times I would broach such converse, but he hath much else to talk of. Once only hath he spoke of her, and that was when we heard through one who came thence, that Colonel Haynes had taken his abode In that town, having been assigned thereto by Mr. Washington, It being on the 200 Sun Time and Cloud Time line between our City and Philadelphia. Then said Mr. Wharton, but not to me, nor to any save to /himself, and so sadly said he it, " Nay if so it be may I be sustained." Now am I convinced that he and I both doth love her, and full well know we that Colonel Haynes doth love her also. Doth any know which of us three loveth she ? Pray God she loveth me! THE END DEC 39 im^' Hliuiiuiii:. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 018 407 874 *