I D LIKE TO SEE GAIETY AND HAFPIXESS," SAID CANDACE. Deacon Lysander By SARAH PRATT McLEAN GREENE Author of "Cape Cod Folks," "Vesty of the Basins" etc., etc. NEW YORK: THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 33-37 EAST SEVENTEENTH ST., UNION SQ. NORTH PS i Copyright, 1904, By THE BAKER & TAYLOR Co, Published, September, Contents I. GOING TO SEEK HAPPINESS ... 7 II. RECEIVED AT THE SELECT BOARD ING SCHOOL 23 III. TINKERING 47 IV. CARES MULTIPLY 63 V. THE ROMANTIC Miss CARMOODY . 85 VI. AT THE RACES 95 VII. FLEEING CHURCH TO ATTEND A FIRE 122 VIII. FURTHER REVELATIONS TO THE SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS . . . 133 IX. HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED . . 157 X. A WARM BRIDGE AND A COLD DRAWING-ROOM 180 XI. THE CATASTROPHE 202 XII. HOME 218 Illustrations "I D LIKE TO SEE GAIETY AND HAPPINESS," SAID CANDACE Frontispiece "MAY I FEEL THAT You ARE MY FRIEND MY TRUE FRIEND?" Facing page 64 WELL, THE WAY THOSE CREAM PUFFS WENT " 184 "KEEP Yo EYES ON ME," ANGELIQUE AGAIN COM MANDED Us " " 198 Deacon Lysander i GOING TO SEEK HAPPINESS THEY call me Deacon Lysander, at home Deacon Lysander Morse. I own some hundred acres in a hill town in New Hampshire, and I ve a matter of a few thousand dollars in the bank: but these things, though I ve worked hard enough for them, and though they stand out clear of any mortgage or other encumbrance, seem unreal and shaky possessions to me after all, compared with three keys or two keys and a padlock which 1 carry about with me in my breast pocket wherever I go. 7 It doesn t make any difference how broad cast I fling those keys about, or drop them on the road, or give them away to all and whomsoever, I always find them just the same when I get home right there in my breast pocket. Well, one of them is the key to the world s sorrow; and one is to the peace that there is in Work, that is to be doing what ye can to ease up the tugs on somebody s harness; and the other I ll call in a sort of parable way, the key to the padlock on the big barn door, where ye can sit on a three- legged stool or a broken chair, and watch God s sunset in the solitude and peace that be in country places. I used to have a whole lot of shiny patent brass lock-openers jin gling on my key-ring, but now I ve only 8 GOING TO SEEK HAPPINESS these three keys left, and they re just plain iron, but they are eternally stout, and I wouldn t swap them for access to all the strong boxes and safe deposit vaults in this world s Bed lam, I take such content with these old keys of mine. But Candace, my wife, spoke up one day and said she, "I don t see why God took them all," meaning our children. " Maybe we were grubbing with our eyes glued pretty close to the rocks and snags in this soil that we call our own," said I, "and he did it so that we d move our farm up onto Mount Pisgah and get a wider range and, on clear days, see as far as home. Maybe so," said I. "You re always satisfied," said Candace, 9 DEACON LYSANDER rather sharp poor, troubled soul. " It s the rule o healthy mankind to be sometimes tetchy, and you were born to your share; but, late years, you re always the same; if the pie crust s heavy, you smack your lips full as enjoyable; if the weather s bad, it suits ye just as well; if anything goes wrong- on the farm, you don t seem to consider the loss a tuppenny s worth. I always had some * ambition. I ve got to have some sort of am bition, Lysander, and I can t live without ambition." "Well, Candace," said I, "I ll join ye in whatever ambition ye want me to." " Maybe I don t mean ambition," said she sadly, "so much as I do to see something that will take my mind off. We ve always toiled and moiled. We ve never taken a 10 GOING TO SEEK HAPPINESS good long trip anywhere in our lives; and what would be the odds ? Who are we lay ing up for?" " It s a good idea," said I. "Let s go." "I d like to see gaiety and happiness," said Candace; "though I can t ever feel them again myself, I d like to see laughter and joy and happiness." "Well," said I, thinking hard; "now where will we be likely to find the most of those things ? Boston ? " " No," said Candace: " everybody knows that Boston is a sad and thoughtful city. Besides, it s too near home. I want a real trip for once." "New York?" "New York is too wicked," said Candace, "to have any real joy. Paris, of course, is ii DEACON LYSANDER the gayest place in the world but we shouldn t think of going there. But I ve always heard that Washington, D. C, is the most like Paris of any city in America, only more innocent and Puritan in its pleasures." "Then that is just the place we re looking for," said I, "and now that we ve made up our minds to it, let s put right in and go." Candace seemed to hold back a little at my resolution. "Of course," said she, "we go to look at gaiety, Lysander. We don t go to mingle in it." "No," said I; "all I want is to look." "And of course, too," she went on, "Washington is a fashionable place very; so I ve always heard. The clothes we wear Sunday won t be too good to wear every day there." 12 GOING TO SEEK HAPPINESS "It is strange," I mused, "that the very first essential in going to see happiness, is to get ourselves up in some suffering shape." I said that to satisfy Candace a little and put her off her guard; for my old broadcloth sets just as loose and easy on me as the surround ing atmosphere, and my Sunday boots have got worn to a perfect system of expansion wherever it s most needed. So I had to smile a little to myself. " You ll have to have your hair shingled and wear your stovepipe hat," said Candace. "There s a difficulty there," said I. "I can t do both, Candace. If I had my hair shingled my stovepipe hat would fall down over my ears. Take your choice, old girl," said I, very tenderly and cheerfully. Candace looked at me. "You never did DEACON LYSANDER show off any," said she sort of complainingly. " You re the strongest man 1 ever saw, you can lift the most and throw the farthest, but you re just barely medium size. Your eyes are as handsome blue as our Ruthie s were she had your eyes, but your nose stands out like a cod-hook, and your hair s for all the world like the brush of a yellow broom." She kept looking at me thoughtfully. Then she sighed, "They say a good many of the senators and foreign diplomats and such are curious looking and wear long hair," said she: " per haps Washington is just the place where your looks won t be much noticed." This did not hurt me any, for I ve always known that I was a personable man. Can- dace said that just to keep me meek and H GOING TO SEEK HAPPINESS under proper subjection, and I commended her for it in my heart. So I only smiled a little to myself, and I got my grandfather s carpet-bag down out of the attic. (It would not be the first time that bag had seen Washington, for my grandfather had made a name and a stir in the old senate there, in his day.) I packed my bag, alone, for Candace was bound up, heart and soul, in getting all her finery together. I put in my linen and my brush and comb, etc., and then I took a crash towel and rolled up an old every-day suit along with my soft felt hat and carpet slippers, and a few tools that come handy wherever you are, and tucked them away neatly, down at the bottom of the bag. When we got to our select boarding-place 15 DEACON LYSANDER in Washington at last for Candace and I shunned hotels it was very late at night and we were weary. I unpacked my bag, and the towel and its contents were not there. "I ve been robbed, already, Candace," said I. " Do you think," said Candace, " that any body would take the trouble to steal that old turkey-buzzard s nest that you fussed-up and put down in the bottom of your bag? No," said she, combing out her hair in a calm way, "I knew what you were up to, and I took those things out, myself, before we left home, Lysander. I thought it was best." " Well," said I, "it will seem sort of queer to be wearing my meeting clothes and my stovepipe hat everywheres and all days of the week, but I guess you re right, perhaps it s 16 GOING TO SEEK HAPPINESS what I ought to do in such surroundings as this." For the chandeliers hung heavy down from the ceilings in our two rooms, and the bay window looked out on the earthly palaces of the great and rich, and the mirrors reflected us back at every turn so that we had to con template ourselves in the vain show of the flesh, whether or no. Now with regard to my narration of the events which follow I want to say that I am one who thinks the facts, just as they run along in this world, more interesting than anything the novelists make up; and if we ve any duty at all in giving an account, it is to modify and tone it down and to use the brush of palliation to the harp of a lov ing and compassionate spirit. 7 DEACON LYSANDER This select boarding-place to which Can- dace and I had come, was, as we had under stood, an exclusive and fashionable residen tial school for young ladies; but the three Misses Dove at its head " survivors of the old southern aristocracy whose circum stances had become exigent " not having been successful in getting pupils enough to fill their house, had applied to a " Board and Rooms" agent for some estimable married couple of suitable age and disposition to occupy their choicest and most expensive apartment. To the same agent, as it happened, we had applied for temporary home and shelter. This agent was a woman who had the knack of entering heart and soul into other people s wants and of knowing what they 18 GOING TO SEEK HAPPINESS wanted, too, better than they did them selves. "You are just the couple for the Doves," said she "house on Grandpont Circle most aristocratic locality in Washington two connecting rooms. I sent a congress man and his wife there to apply, but well I don t know; the Doves are extremely particular young ladies school, you see. The rooms are still vacant. Take yellow car, out there get off at the circle con ductor will tell you " Almost before she had finished talking, Candace and I found ourselves urged out upon our way. We felt pretty desperate and homeless, out, that time of the night, in a strange city, with only the chance of a young ladies boarding-school taking me in. J 9 DEACON LYSANDER " If they wouldn t take that congressman, Candace," said I, "why should they take me ?" Candace shut her lips together. "I guess they ll take you if 1 stand up for you," said she. Candace was a large woman, any way, and she was getting more and more determined every minute as we wandered out there in the streets, homeless, until now as I looked up at her in the moonlight she seemed pretty near heroic size. "A purer and a better man never walked God s earth, than you are, Lysander Morse!" said she; "and I just want those Doves to question it to my face! " Still, we stopped within a few numbers of the house, for it was a forbidding and im posing-looking block; and I took off my 20 GOING TO SEEK HAPPINESS hat and took my pomatum out of my bag, just as Candace bade me, and she smoothed and patted down my brush of hair with all the ardor she had left. It was a beautiful, broad, quiet street, and nothing doing. One policeman strolled along and looked sharp at us, but I wasn t making any outcry and he passed on. Then we went up and rang the bell, and I asked if any of the folks were up yet. "They-all s up," said the black girl, as slow as if she had no end of time in the bank, " but they-all s out." "What are they out for ?" said Candace, in a very stern mood. " I d n know, m," drawled the girl, "but I heer tell it was a lecture on Cho-pang. " So we sat and waited, and I knew by the 21 DEACON LYSANDER way Candace looked that she would never say anything again about seeking gaiety and happiness if only she could feel the familiar floor beneath her feet in our own old home in New Hampshire. II RECEIVED AT THE SELECT BOARDING SCHOOL AFTER a while we heard the latch-key turn, and the sisters came sailing in, in shim mering moonlight-on-the-water gowns. But I thought they looked at us rather eagerly. " You came from Mrs. B , the agent?" said one of them, and I was sure she smiled, too. "We do," said Candace, who doesn t take impressions easily as I do, and who was sitting there still wrapped up in her sternest mood, " and I want to say right here, as his wife, that I m not prepared to hear any ob jections made to Deacon Morse ! " 23 DEACON LYSANDER "Why of course not/ drawled the smil ing one; "we re real glad to see Deacon Morse, and hope he ll remain with us;" and they all three sat down beside us in a friendly sociable way: they seemed, to tell the truth, particularly pleased with me. I could hardly believe my senses, that I d not only been ad mitted on sight, but was actually being sort of encouraged and lovingly gathered in to a select school for young ladies! I out with my wallet, though, and paid the Doves for a week in advance, and Candace and I were shown up to our rooms. Naturally I felt somewhat set up, though I tried not to have Candace see it. I wasn t so sorry to discover that my old clothes were gone as I might have been under other cir cumstances, and I was busy unpacking when 24 THE BOARDING SCHOOL I noticed that Candace s lips were shut pretty tight again. Presently they opened; "They re hard up," said she. "That s the reason why you re jumping around here so frisky, Lysander Morse, in a young ladies boarding- school ! Those Doves are hard up." "Oh, 1 guess not," said I soothingly; "did ye notice their silk gowns ? " " Did you notice " said Candace " they were all frayed and giving out in the seams ? " " Maybe it s the fashion, here in Wash ington, not to have their dress sleeves sewed in very tight," said I, " and a good fashion, too. Every mortal being ought to have some leeway." "Pish! "said Candace; "they re hard up!" 25 DEACON LYSANDER I was trying to start my top bureau drawer, so as to put away my collars and handkerchiefs and other gimcracks; just about an inch out, the drawer stuck, and it wouldn t budge either way. Finally being in a sort of unthinking and elevated frame of mind, anyway I put forth a jerk that caused that drawer to fling out so sudden that I lost my balance and went over with it onto the floor. "Are you crazy, Lysander," said my wife, from her room, " to be making such an earthquake and turn-over in an aristocratic house at this time of the night! " She was just getting into bed as she spoke, and being a heavy woman, and tired out besides, once over the side board of her couch, she let herself go, with a happy sigh, 26 THE BOARDING SCHOOL altogether, and, well there was an earth quake and a turn-over sure enough. The bed had an underpinning of slats; over that was a wire mattress, but the wires were all worn loose, you see, and came down onto the slats, with Candace and a corn-husk mattress forming the ava lanche. Two slats broke, and the rest fell out, and there was my poor wife staring up at me helpless from the sheerest wreck I d ever seen her in, in my life. It was worse than when the colt ran away. "Help me out, Lysander," gasped she, scared enough. I wasn t long getting her onto her feet. " Are you hurt ? " said I. "I don t know," said she, trembling. " Let me see if I can walk." She leaned on 27 DEACON LYSANDER me and I guided her across into my room, where there was a little half-size bed. " You ll have to lie on this to-night," said I. " I don t believe I can tinker the other up till daylight, and I can get hold of some tools." This was all I said about Candace having taken out my monkey-wrench and screw-driver, that I d packed along with my old clothes; for she felt bad enough as it was. I got her into bed and put chairs all along the side so as to make it seem larger and safer to her, and then I went back to the wreck to see if I could even it up someway so that I could spend the night on it. I tried to light the chandelier, which was right over the bed, so as to illuminate the subject more, but it wasn t ignitible. The only gas- 28 THE BOARDING SCHOOL jet in the room that would light was the one away off by the mirror. My head was dropping with sleep, so I just crawled into the debris, took hold of the side board, and in two seconds I was dream ing that I d been saved from shipwreck and was hanging onto the gun le of a dory, happy and secure, speeding over the dark waves, and bounding off, unhurt, from every rock we struck on. Instead of a night of misery and discomfort, I had about the gayest and wildest sail I d ever enjoyed in my life, and woke up strong and re freshed. Candace was rather reserved, but I was glad to see she d got all her dignity back. She put on a black silk gown, and I had on my broadcloth, of course, and when the 2 9 DEACON LYSANDER second bell rang, according to instructions, we came out to go down to breakfast. We met the good-natured Miss Dove the one I liked best with the three pupils in the hall. "There s an elevator," she drawled in her pleasant way. "I dare say you would be glad to use it, Mrs. Morse. The man who lived in the house before we came had it put in for his own convenience and used to pull himself up and down in it. It s a little out of repair, we think I don t know just what is the matter "Thank you," said Candace, rather stiff and cold, I thought, "I prefer to walk." "Let s see," said I, sliding open the door of the little machine. I didn t want to hurt Miss Dove s feelings by paying no attention THE BOARDING SCHOOL to her offer; and, moreover, I suppose I never have been and never shall be able to help investigating anything that needs tink ering having a sort of gift that way, be sides; so I stepped into the cage and was just going to start it down when, in a flash, one of those three girl-pupils was at my side. " I ll go down too," she said. The cage would hold only two, and after she got in my only desire was to send it speeding down with all possible despatch. She was a beautiful girl, too; taller than I, with an insolent little girl-woman face bend ing over and smiling at me, and she had the makings of a devil in her black eyes. The dimensions of the cage kept her closer to me than would have been at all proper if I d been a younger or less reliable man; but, as 3 1 DEACON LYSANDER I say, all my hope and ambition was to get that elevator down so as to anticipate the ar rival of Candace and Miss Dove on the floor below. So, a dizzy sensation went to my head and a cold chill to my heart, when, just as soon as we d got out of sight of the landing we d started from, the whole thing wavered a sec ond like the pendulum of a clock, and then stopped short there between the walls in mid space. The girl did not scream. I could just see her great eyes shining at me in the dim light, and she put up her hand to her mouth and giggled. It was a smooth little brown hand with a pink diamond on the middle finger and a blue one on the finger next to that, and there was a yellow rosette in her hair, 3 2 THE BOARDING SCHOOL and a scamp-weed and trumpet-vine pattern running over her gown. "Isn t this great!" she gasped, almost stifled with the mirth of it. "Oh, my!" said she, "if you can t make it go, we ll be late for breakfast. I smell the coffee! I love coffee, but I m not allowed to drink it. Are you?" "Yes, little girl," said I, very gravely, wrenching at the ropes, "I m allowed coffee." I liked her. She didn t know what fear was. I suppose some might think that For tune was shedding a pretty broad smile on me. Here was I, not only welcomed into a fashionable school for young ladies, but swinging between heaven and earth cooped up in a box all alone with this little heathen- 33 DEACON LYSANDER looking Cleopatra, the prettiest of the lot! But I wanted to get down, and I put my energies into a jerk that sent us going down at last, but the brake wouldn t work; we kept going faster and faster. It wasn t very far, of course, to the cellar floor, and by the time the elevator had got up considerable momentum, we d arrived! Sort of abrupt, to be sure, and a good deal of a thump, but we stepped out all right, and Cleopatra was still giggling. She ran ahead of me up the cellar stairs. " Oh, it was great! " she cried as we entered the dining-room. " I was not a bit afraid with Deacon Morse." "I can fix that elevator all right in ten minutes, only give me some tools," said I. 34 THE BOARDING SCHOOL Candace was all of a tremble, and walked to the table holding on to my arm. " I thought you d met your death, Lysander," she said. Candace knew me too well to feel any jeal ousy of that little milk and water school girl; and besides I think it helped up her pride a little she having had such a disaster with her bed for me to land, with a thump that resounded all over the house, onto the cellar floor. As we sat and contemplated that break fast, I did not deny any more in my heart what Candace had said to me, that the Doves were hard up. We ve always been good healthy livers, and treated even our hens and pigs well, and now I felt pity and astonishment both. I could show my astonishment on my face, 35 DEACON LYSANDER for Candace and I were at a little table by ourselves, and I, being the only man in the school, was set with my back to all the other occupants, just facing Candace and a window that let onto the court. The Doves were at a table by themselves, the trails of their dresses sweeping off over the floor, and the young ladies and the resident teacher were at a table by themselves. Candace was facing the whole room, and she picked the burnt-black out of her por ridge, and tasted her " cream " and "coffee " and never showed a sign of what she felt. I looked out of the window. The ell of the house circled around, so that I could see across the court into the kitchen. My far sight is splendid, and I could see the cook in 36 THE BOARDING SCHOOL there and the stove and the kitchen shelf down to the minutest particulars. The cook was a big black woman with only one eye, and she sat with her feet on the stove and that one eye staring into vacancy in a way that seemed to me mighty disconsolate. "It s a terrible affliction, Candace," said I speaking my thought out, low, across the table, " a terrible affliction, not to have but one eye." Candace looked at me sharp. "You did get hurt," said she; "your head s light." "No no I ain t hurt," said I, "wait till I can explain." Just as 1 was speaking, the cook got up and waddled over to the kitchen shelf and took down a pipe and a bag of fine cut to bacco; she filled up her pipe, businesslike, 37 DEACON LYSANDER with her lips moving as though she was mumbling to herself, then she stooped down to the oven and took out a pan of corn bread and laid it on top of the stove and began to carve out each individual piece in a weaving thoughtful way, smoking all the while like the chimney to a soft-coal furnace. "By Gun! Candace," said I, whispering again, before I thought, across the table, "I wonder if she chews." Candace looked hard at me ; but just then our attention was drawn by one of the Miss Doves speaking very firmly over to one of the pupils. " Why do you not eat your breakfast, Miss Carmoody ?" " Because I don t like it," whined a sweet voice straightway in reply, and I knew 38 THE BOARDING SCHOOL although I could not see, that it was the voice of Cleopatra. "If you cannot eat, you are probably unfit for the class-room. You may go to your own room, and remain there this morning, and Miss Lacey will see that your door is locked on the outside." Candace and I fidgeted some, for we hadn t eaten any breakfast either, and when the stern Miss Dove, who seemed to be the head of the establishment, said "Mrs. Morse" in a tone of command, we waited, not know ing whether we were to be locked in or not. " Mrs. Morse," said she ; " one of my sis ters finds some time at her disposal to-day and will be happy to have you and Deacon Morse accompany her in a visit to some of 39 DEACON LYSANDER the most interesting places in Washington. Utter strangers tc the place hardly know what is of the most educative or artistic im portance." "We re very much obliged," said Candace in a strange far-away voice, and as for me, I was looking blank over across at that cook who was smoking hard and taking off one shoe to ease her foot. Candace and I walked up-stairs, and Can- dace locked both doors into the hall, and then she stood and spoke. "Let s go home, Lysander," said she. " Let s tinker things up a little, first," said I. "That isn t your business," said she. " You re a paying boarder. Let them hire a carpenter." "Candace," said I, "I don t believe those 40 THE BOARDING SCHOOL poor Doves have got any money to hire a carpenter with." "They haven t got any money to dress with," said she, "but they dress like em pires and empresses." " You said yourself it was old finery," said I. "Their faces look sad, they look desper ate, to me. You see they haven t got but three pupils in this great rent of a house." " They ought to have less," said Candace, " if they lock them up for not eating victuals that decent pigs would spurn." I did not tell Candace anything about the tableaux I had seen the cook in ; and she went on, "I came here to have my mind distracted with things that were sort of flush and gay, and not to be lectured and starved out at a misses boarding-school," said she. 4 1 DEACON LYSANDER "Well, Candace," said I, "you re the big gest woman I ever knew in mind and heart both. I reckon we ve got to give pity and comfort instead of finding it for ourselves. Looks that way, to me " There was a knock at the door and Can- dace opened it. It was the girl who answered the door and waited at table, and she d come in to make the beds. " What do you think of that?" said Can- dace, not unkindly, pointing her to the wreck of slats and wires and mattresses on the floor. "Idon know, m, I m sure, m," said the girl without any surprise or regret or ex pression whatever on her face, except that, if her eyes hadn t been so cold, they d have been called melancholy. 42 THE BOARDING SCHOOL "There ought to be a carpenter here right away to mend that bed," said Candace. "Yas, m, there ought to be, m that s true enough," said the girl. " But you don t think there will be ?" " I d n know, m, I m sure, "m." Candace had known that she was coming among darkies and that they like bright colors, and she was prepared. She went to her bureau drawer and took out some things, one was a rosette made of different colors of silk ribbon, and she handed it to that girl, who took it and looked as if she was really waking from the dead. "My! m," said he, "if that ain t just what I needed! When you-alls want anything, jes call my name. My name s Blueinetta." " Here s a little purse with a chain, too, 43 DEACON LYSANDER Blueing," said Candace, who hadn t caught the whole of her name. The girl took it, and came to life every inch of her. "I expect the table s usually better than it was this morning ?" said Candace cheerfully. "I d n know, m, I m sure, m. You-alls sees what I am, jes skin an bone that s what I am." " It must take a good deal to run this big house in the city," said Candace, discreetly turning off the subject. "I guess it ud take it all right," said the girl, whose tongue was loose enough now, "if it could git it! Men a-comin here all hours showin up their bills. Course 1 know cause I tends the door. Wish you- alls could hear that gas man talk. Wai , I 44 THE BOARDING SCHOOL calls it cussin that s what I calls it, cussin ." Candace and I didn t want to pump that girl. We looked sober and got out our guide-book, and sat down in the window together studying it. When she d gone out of the room, we looked at each other. " What s to be done ? " said Candace. " I m going to fix your bed so that you can sleep in it to-night, first thing," said I. " I ll look at those places of interest some other time. You go along with Miss Dove tisn t the lecturing one and if you can bring it round without hurting her feelings you take her into a restaurant, and have a good square meal, both of ye. I m going out to find a bite somewheres and get some tools." My having to go out to get tools was a 45 DEACON LYSANDER rather sore topic to Candace, and she flushed up and changed the subject. "I ain t afraid of its hurting her feelings any to treat her to a good square meal," said she; "but I call it ridiculous, paying hotel prices, as we do, to have to go out on the streets with hunger gnawing at out vitals." Ill TINKERING I FOUND a place, four blocks down, where I got a whole mince pie and a cup of coffee for twenty-five cents, and I went into a hard ware shop and bought some tools and materials (for women never have the right sort of tools around the house) and came back up to Grandpont Circle to begin my work. I met the good-natured Miss Dove in the hall all dressed to go out, wearing a long sealskin coat and an ostrich plume hat. "Mrs. Morse hasn t come down yet," said she. 47 DEACON LYSANDER "Why, that s strange," said I, "for I left her with her bonnet and cape on, all ready to go." So I ran up the stairs and into our rooms but no Candace. My flesh began to creep. I rushed to the windows and looked out, and ransacked the big wardrobe closets, and then, as I stepped out into the hall again I heard a voice calling my name in distress, "Lysander! Lysander!" I ran to the door of the little umbrella- room from which the voice seemed to issue. "Why don t you come out, Candace?" said I. " Why don t I come out ! " said she, as if she was crying. "I can t get out! The locks sprung on me and won t turn." There was not any keyhole at all on the 48 TINKERING outside, so I knew it was some little catch- spring arrangement. " Have you turned it every way you can ? " said I. "Do you think I want to spend the rest of my days in here?" said Candace. "Don t you think I ve got the sense to try every way a mortal could to get out? I tell you the spring is out of order and it won t turn." " Well," said I, " thank goodness I ve got some tools at last." "Don t taunt me with those tools again," said she; " tisn t human! " " You just tap with your finger right where the catch is, Candace," said I, "so that I can locate it." She tapped, and I took my auger and bored in and slipped the bolt. I didn t smile 49 DEACON LYSANDER when Candace came out. I kept as long a face as I ever wore in my life. "It s a pesky shame," said I. "What is the next death-trap waiting for my feet around here, I wonder," said Can- dace, measuring every step she took with flashing eyes and her cheeks as mad as red apples. "I might a been rescued long ago if they weren t all as stupid as snakes in this house. I heard Blueing pass the door three times! " "You get right out of it, darlin ," said I. "Miss Dove s waiting for ye, down below, and by the time you get back I ll have every thing shipshape and in running order." I mended the lock and fixed up Candace s bed and did some other tinkering around up stairs; then I took a pane of glass I d brought 50 TINKERING from the hardware shop and went down to the dining-room, for I d noticed the window right back of where Candace sat at table was broken, and I knew she would never stand that draught on her neck without catching cold. I found I d got to go out into the court to fix the window, so I meandered around through the ell there seemed no end of rooms. I knocked, the first door I came to, and after waiting a good while and not getting any answer I peeked in and saw it was vacant. It was a beautiful great room with French windows looking off onto a side street. I judged it was one of the Miss Doves room, for there was a wardrobe door open showing a lot of ball dresses, but the room itself was so bare with only one mean 5 1 DEACON LYSANDER little strip of carpet on the floor, it was enough to make a man s heart ache. I marched through as fast as I could go and came to another door where I heard Miss Lacey talking away in a loud voice about what she saw during her residence in Ger many, so I knew that was the schoolroom. I knocked, and Miss Lacey came to the door, talking all the time about the educa tional advantages of a curriculum in Stutt gart, but when she saw me she stopped. I took off my hat. " I m real sorry to in terrupt the session," I said, "but I m trying to find my way through to get out into the court to fix a window." "Don t mention it," said she. "Things are always getting out of repair. Wherever we go we find that accident and the ravages TINKERING of time make the work of renewal necessary. I have observed in Washington a fact ap plicable to the whole south a tendency to overlook small details of breakage and dis order; this is accounted for by the sluggish ness incident to warm climates or their proximity. The German householders are provident and thrifty, as are also the French; but particularly in New England there is said to exist and the statement is no doubt true an inventive faculty which has produced many marvellous " She had kept right along by my side and kept talking, though we d passed through the schoolroom and stood out in a dark entry alone together: " Marvellous mechanical results. Though not of the highest order of genius, 53 DEACON LYSANDER which we must attribute to the creative arts as displayed in painting, sculpture and literature " " Yes m," said I, very genially, for I didn t want to hurt her feelings. " Yet these little knacks of tinkering come in very handy, and when your school isn t in session I wish you d let me come in and hang up your blackboard for ye, for it looked sort of un handy lying there on the floor." " Thank you! Deacon Morse. Thank you! The young ladies in my charge show la mentably little facility in mathematical calcu lation. The parental desire has evidently been for other attainments, such in fact as lie on the social side of modern existence. Miss Carmoody especially is an heiress. My little flock of three is depleted this morning 54 TINKERING oy her absence, enforced as a disciplinary measure " We heard the two girls in the class-room tittering. "Yes m," said I, very genially, bowing, and stepping away. For though all she said was good and true, I knew that her tongue was her master and if anybody broke up that meeting it would have to be me. So I decided to be as abrupt as was polite and not hurt her feelings, for though she was a good lady, every inch of her, it wasn t just the thing for us two total strangers to stand chirping away alone together in that dark entry with my wife gone out for the day. So I opened the next door, thinking it was only the woodshed or an alleyway, but it was the kitchen. 55 DEACON LYSANDER "Oh my Lawd-ry!" said that one-eyed cook, whom I d only seen hitherto from a distance. She hove up from the sink where she appeared to be wetting down her hair with some paste, but she d only got one side done and the other stood out heterogeneous. "My Savyor!" said she, laying her hand on her heart "ef yo ain t ol Gunnel Vick ry come to life! Yo putty nigh guv me a spasm, Gunnel Vick ry, fo yo is dat shuah as I stan heah, an de grave s guv up her daid!" I don t believe that old black woman ever looked at many people as she did at me, thinking I was " Colonel Vickery." She had a sour face and ugly too for folks in gen eral, but the beam and the look she cast on 56 TINKERING me was the genuine April of an honest love; her teeth shone, her one eye had a tear of joy, and every hard feature melted. "My Savyor! it s Gunnel Vick ry! Ain t I bresh dat ol beavah hat yo got on mo n fo hunderd times, sah ? Hi! he! an dat ol tail coat, my Lawd-ry! an dem blue eyes an dat cohn tassel ha r! Hi! he! I s got to git my ahms roun yo , sho as the grave s guv up her daid! " I saw her coming, and no man s ever called me a mean-hearted man nor a coward neither. I stood my ground and took the shock, for she weighed a couple of hundred: and after that I stood there with her arms pinioning me round the neck and her head laid up against my bosom, while she mur mured, 57 DEACON LYSANDER " It s yo old Angyleek, Gunnel Vick ry, dat was los and is foun , and behol she s come to life ag in! " Just then Blueing happened to come into the kitchen. " She thinks I am some old friend of hers, Blueing," I explained. " She do so! " said Blueing, glancing at us in her calm indifferent way. "She do that, fo shuah! " When Angelique had recovered a little from the first joy of meeting me she wad dled over to a cupboard that was set in the wall over the kitchen shelf, and took out a glass and a bottle. "D ye think I fo got how to mix it fo ye, Gunnel?" said she, her face shin ing like the sun on a new polished 58 TINKERING stove. "No, ol Angyleek ain fo got. Hi! he!" "Now look here, Angelique," said I sooth ingly, "you wait till I have a cold or some thing; then you can mix me up a dose. But that s something I never take in cold blood." " Yo s met wid a mighty change, den, Gunnel, sence yo lep de straits o death," said she, and she sat down and took the liquor herself with tears of joy streaming down her cheek. "Blueing," said I to the younger woman, aside, and I spoke gravely; "don t the Miss Doves ever work around some in their own kitchen, or pass through, anyways, so as to keep an eye on things?" "No, sun," said the girl, "they don keep no eye on things an this cook, she make 59 DEACON LYSANDER mighty short work of em ef they pass through her kitchen." "What?" said I; for she had a lifeless monotonous sort of voice to be making such awful utterances as those. "I say" continued she "ef folks don pay yo yo wages then yo don expec to take no sass f om em do yo ?" I sighed. It was about all the answer 1 could make. "An" if yo don have nothin to cook then how you goin to cook ? " I couldn t answer. " But I tell yo what them Doves does keep their eye on," said Blueing; "an that is to take the money that r a ly belongs to other folks, to put mo an mo fancy goods onto their own backs, an another thing they 60 TINKERING keeps their eye on is big folks receptions, though maybe they ain t asked, and toney theaters an all sech as that. They ain t no ladies. I ve lived with r al ladies I have an they ain t strainin theirselves an runnin after big folks they s big folks theirselves. They jes keeps ca m an w ars what they likes they ain t askiir nobody any questions. This cook an me we needs our wages." She was looking me square in the face with her sad eyes. I sighed again, and I wondered if Candace was finding happiness and gaiety as thick as I was all around me. I went down into the cellar and found a dry goods box to stand on, for there wasn t any step-ladder, and so I went out to mend that window. 61 DEACON LYSANDER It seemed strange to be tinkering away! there with my Sunday clothes and tall silk hat on, but I hardly thought of that, so many other things were filling my mind; when I heard a voice calling to me, gentle and sweet, from way up above, and I looked up, and it was Cleopatra leaning from the win dow and smiling at me. 62 IV CARES MULTIPLY "DEACON MORSE!" said she. "Deacon Morse! " "Well? "said I. "May I feel that you are my friend? my true friend?" " Of course ye may," said I. Her brown face was prettier for having the sun shining on it, and her eyes were bright enough almost to outface the sun, her teeth were as clean as a young colt s, but there was a meek and holy expression play ing all round her mouth that somehow made me feel, more than ever, that that girl would need looking after. 63 DEACON LYSANDER "Thank you! dear Deacon Morse," said she. I went on fixing the window. I heard her clearing her musical throat a good many times, and I was conscious that one little brown hand was up to her cheek, showing off those blue and pink jewels; but I did not look up. After a while I heard her again, very softly, "Dear Deacon Morse." "Well? "said I. "I am so hungry. Would you let Count Bonati tie a box of candy to the string which I will let down and not say anything not to a soul dear Deacon Morse or it would make such trouble for me. Oh, I am famishing! " At that, the tallest man I ever saw came to 64 " MAY I FEEL THAT YOU ARE MY FRIEXD MY TRUE FRIEND? CARES MULTIPLY life and sprang up at double quick growth, as it were, from among the shrubbery in the court. He was so strange and foreign look ing that I fairly gaped at him: he had on an astrachan cap without a visor, that was the top ring, and his black curls bulging out un derneath made another circle; the astrachan collar to his coat made another, and the fur trimming around the bottom of it made the biggest hoop of all; from that came down a pair of long legs in black broadcloth, and his boots were long and thin. He took off his cap to me, and if ever a man wanted to make friends he showed that in his face, which was hard as nails, though it was handsome enough and all broken up in a smile. "I spik de Inglais, Musseer Dikkon," said 65 DEACON LYSANDER he, and unfolded the longest mess of bony fingers I ever touched, trying to press a dol lar into my hand. I held back and shook my head at him. " I m a paying boarder here," said I; "in fact I am paying more to the support of this house than anybody else, and I m just tink ering around a little out of charity. You keep that dollar. I reckon you ll find it come handy." He lifted those oil-painting eyes of his to Cleopatra as if he did not understand. "It is all right, Count," said she, laughing. "Deacon Morse is my dear friend. He is great, Count, splendid! You understand, splendid! He will not go back on us be tray our secret, I mean not he! And the Doves are all out. Miss Lacey and the girls 66 CARES MULTIPLY will not get out of the schoolroom until one o clock. The cook and Blueinetta are my friends, even if they should see us." She was putting down the string as she spoke. The count tied a slick confectioner s box to the end of it, and she pulled it up and began to eat as though candy was just as wholesome a thing to make a late breakfast on as ham and eggs. They talked between themselves and I kept on setting my window pane. Sometimes there d be a silence and I d see a little note fluttering up at the end of the string, and then there d be another coming down. I was troubled and thoughtful as I pegged away at my work and, first I knew, he was gone. I just saw him disappearing through the 67 DEACON LYSANDER alleyway, and when he looked back and saw me he lifted his cap again. Then I looked up at the window, meaning to tell Cleopatra that she was doing a wrong and dangerous thing and that she d got to promise me she wouldn t have anything more to do with that fellow if she wanted me to keep her secret. But she was gone from the window and she would not come back. That little schoolgirl was as canny as the serpent of the Nile. I did not know when I should have another opportunity to speak to her, and if ever I wanted to warn and ad monish any one I wanted to speak my mind out to that beautiful reckless fool of a girl. I even called her name, but it didn t make any difference she would not come. So I finished my task, knowing it wasn t the right 68 CARES MULTIPLY thing, after all, for me to be found there hemming and hawing up at Cleopatra s window. Candace, and the Dove she was with, did not get back for luncheon. I sat at my little table alone with my back to the rest. The wonder of it was, the luncheon I had! Whether Angelique stole it outside the house, or however she got it, it was mighty nice and refreshing. No one else in the room had a luncheon like mine, for I heard remarks among the girls that told me what they were eating and I heard Miss Lacey talking on in her innocent educated way: "Corn, for some years past, has been growing steadily in favor as an article of food. Corn bread when served hot in the morning is not without its pleasing qualities 69 DEACON LYSANDER to those who have a natural and persistent liking for that especial cereal. Doubtless the same nourishing qualities are inherent though served in a cold condition. In Stuttgart I was told by an eminent chemist, who also boasted a large practice as a physician, that the appe tizing and agreeable qualities of the food taken into the system, working through the imagination, added extremely to the benefi cial result imparted by the bare nourishment itself - The stern Miss Dove, at another table, began to talk so loud and imposingly about the interior of some legation house which she had seen, that little Miss Lacey clapped her mouth together meanwhile and listened. But as soon as she got a chance she went on in her innocent way again. If it had not been 70 CARES MULTIPLY for her that house would have been terrible. I wondered why the Doves kept her her mind ran on so free and unrestricted until Candace found out, some time later, that she taught the girls and went out to walk with them, and all that, just for her board! That was another sample of the gaiety and happi ness we d started out to find. I could not help eating, I was so hungry, but it hurt me to feel that all those poor crea tures in the dining-room, around me, were starving. Blueing waited on me without a sign. I think she had told Angelique how I was situated at table, for that old darky kept coming to the kitchen window, peering across the court with her poor one eye as though she was trying to discover me. Sometimes it seemed as though she thought DEACON LYSANDER she saw me, for she d smile and wave a towel, and wave and wave it, until all I could do was to hope that the stern Miss Dove wouldn t peer over from her side table and see those signs of familiarity and affection di rected at me. After I had eaten I continued my odd jobs of tinkering about the house until evening, and at last Candace came back. I was glad as a child to see her. I hadn t let myself real ize until she came how homesick I was. We went up-stairs together and sat down by the bow window to watch the sunset and twilight of that winter day, for it was still a good hour before dinner. Over opposite, set back among evergreen shrubbery, was a great white palace with marble pillars; it looked away off over the 72 CARES MULTIPLY wide streets and marble vistas of that beauti ful city. Everywhere about were grand houses and the white broad streets, but that palace standing there so quiet and so vast seemed the ancient lord of all, established in heraldry and fame and ducal splendor. But it wasn t; it was Jim Dillon s house, built five years ago. I knew all about the family. His father was my father s farm-hand, and Jim went away with fifty dollars and a pickaxe to the Pacific coast. Jim literally fell into gold at last. His wife I know it from responsible testimony used to hang out their clothes to dry with her own hands, on the wizard bushes around their cabin. As Candace and I sat there watching the dying splendors of the sun over the imme- 73 DEACON LYSANDER morial-seeming grandeur of that palace, a green-bodied chariot with a big coat-of-arms emblazoned on it, drawn by horses with glittering harness, and with two men in livery sitting on the box, rolled into the driveway and stopped under the " porte cochere." I saw the same sort of grizzled beard that I remembered so well on old Jim Dillon as he used to stump out to the barn carrying the swill buckets. A fat woman heavy with sable furs stepped out as the footman opened the carriage door, and the grizzled beard and lank form of Jim followed; then the footman took out the rich fur carnage rugs and walked behind, and a porter in livery opened the great hall door, and it closed, and the carriage rolled away. 74 CARES MULTIPLY I smiled, and tenderly. There s nobody in the world but what needs your tenderness and pity. Candace s mouth was open with a sort of awe. " See what some folks come to ! " said she. "And their family wasn t anything like as good as ours." "Jim s lost his only son, Candace," said I, " his only child, for that matter." My wife s face grew soft and sad. The sunset was growing colder; the light seemed to be drawing away from earth and centring in one low passageway to the sky far off to the west. There weren t many lights in the palace; at least it appeared dim and cold from the outside. "I bet," said I, puffing very gently, and at intervals, at my pipe so as not to let any 75 DEACON LYSANDER of the fumes get out into the boarding- school" I bet, Jim and his wife, too, see times when they d like to get away from their present chains of clothes and customs and staring lackeys and paved streets, get away up midway of the ridge again in their old cabin and sprawl around as they like once more between the earth and stars." "I know they would if they could have their boy back," sighed Candace. "Miss Dove said they were tolerated but not assim ilated with the best. here. She said they sometimes struck a false note." " I didn t know that the Dillons were singers." "You know what I mean, Lysander. Miss Dove has been talking all day about people who struck false notes." 76 CARES MULTIPLY All the big carriages were rolling home. " Who s that at the other corner, Can- dace ? " said I for women quickly get posted on neighborhood matters. A woman was alighting, alone, with the usual footman and rugs following. "That s a senator s house, and he s lying inside at death s door with pneumonia. They have two doctors and two trained nurses." "And who is this with the gray horses?" " It s somebody high among the diplo mats. His wife s gone crazy and he s get ting a divorce." " And who s that over at the other hand? " " That s a judge s house. It s as splendid a carriage as any of them! He makes a great income but they haven t any children. Miss 77 DEACON LYSANDER Dove says he was heard to say he d give all his wealth for a child." I did not twit Candace any about finding joy and happiness. We sat there with our hands clasped, for we were homesick but we had each other. "So Miss Dove was warning ye against false notes ? " said I. "Yes. I told her when we started out this morning that I wanted to see the capitol and the White House and the place where they make paper money, and all that and she smiled sort of shocked. She said only common tourists and vulgar people went to those places. She said any one who wanted to become assimilated with the very best in the city must not strike false notes, and she took me into a modiste s opening, and CARES MULTIPLY a milliner s opening, and the biggest jeweller s in town. 1 haven t seen anything to-day but earthly gauds and silly vanities and a man hurt in an automobile accident on the street, and I m sick at heart and tired to death." " Couldn t ye get Miss Dove to go into a restaurant with ye ? " Candace laughed, rather bitterly, I thought. " She jumped at the chance, Lysanderl Of course you have to allow for fancy res taurant prices but she ate two dollars worth! She kept talking away with her head up as though food wasn t any conse quence to her, but she stowed the victuals away like a tomb. I ve done my last sight seeing under her thumb. If you can t go with me, I ll stay at home." 79 DEACON LYSANDER "I ll go with ye to-morrow," said I. " I ve got things in the house pretty well fixed up, for a while, anyway." Then I told Candace about Cleopatra, how worried I was about the handsome little fool getting compromised some way with that foreign chap. "She s away from home," said I, "and her folks think she s having good nourishment and good teaching and good care. Instead of that, she s starved and neglected by these Doves. All they seem to care about is style and getting enough out of somebody to ward off the landlord and the gas man and the grocer, etc., a little longer. We ve come to a queer place, Candace. These Doves wouldn t be sent to an asylum, as I know of, if they were examined for insanity, but according 80 CARES MULTIPLY to my notions of honesty and common sense they re as crazy as Bedlamites." " That s my judgment too," said Candace. " I d be glad to start for home to-morrow." "Something tells me, Candace," said I, "to stay a little longer. We ve come here for a purpose, and, for one thing, perhaps, we re going to save that little Carmoody girl from doing something wild and mad. I don t know how nor when, but we ve got to keep our eyes open, and remember our sweet Ruth, whom God has taken out of this present evil world." Then I told Candace about Angelique and my luncheon. "You ve had a good deal more interesting time than I ve had to-day, Lysander," said my wife, but she was not jealous. Si DEACON LYSANDER The bell rang and we went down to " din ner," and again I had a plate of victuals not like anybody else s. I divided quietly with Candace who had a fair-sized sample of the usual fare. We heard Cleopatra s voice and heard her munching bread crusts on purpose to make it sound loud. The Doves were calm and said a costumier from New York was coming in to show off some negligees in the parlors that even ing, and they asked Candace to stop. Can- dace told them for she was getting more poised every hour, and she was just as calm as they were, that "Once a year she had Miss Perkins from Limner s Falls come to the house and fix up her wardrobe for the year, and that ended it. The rest of the time she had her thoughts on something else." 82 CARES MULTIPLY Then we went up to our rooms and, about eight o clock, I went out to get some pop corn of a man who had rolled his stand up to the corner, to supplement our dinner; for we d made one plate of victuals do for two. We wished we had some home apples pop corn is pretty light, and there was still a craving vacuum that we had to try to fill up with Potomac water. "We ll get some provisions up here to morrow, Candace," said I, and comforted by that thought we went to bed. About midnight I smelled smoke coming into the windows of my room, over the court. As soon as I was well awake I dis covered that it was a mean sort of tobacco smoke. I went and looked out, always dreading that that foreigner might be there 83 DEACON LYSANDER again. Always, now even when I was asleep, my left ear was wide awake to hear any noise from that court. It was all quiet in the moonlight, and the smoke was com ing from inside the house out through the open windows and so into my windows. I puzzled over it. Angelique did not sleep in the house, and being, myself, the only man on the premises, who could be smoking? Until I heard giggling and tittering coming out through the windows, too, and then I knew that those select boarding-school girls were rustling around there in the night, smoking cigarrettes. V THE ROMANTIC MISS CARMOODY THE next morning, the stern Miss Dove spoke right out at table. " Girls! " said she. " Girls who will confiscate a pantry key and steal in there at dead of night to help them selves are not safe members of any commu nity. So I take this opportunity of warning all present to be on their guard." Candace told me that those girls faces were fairly flaming with wrath and pain. When we got up-stairs, we heard a quick knock at the door and in rushed Miss Car- moody. She put her finger to her lip; "It s the devotion hour in the schoolroom," she whispered, "and I slipped out. Miss Lacey 85 DEACON LYSANDER is telling us about Saint Cecilia. She s got twelve different photographs of her. She just raves about her. She won t notice whether I slipped out or not while she s talking about Saint Cecilia. But I must get down when lessons begin or she ll have to report me." "Now you sit down," said Candace. Candace looked glad and motherly. "We re not allowed, you know," said Cleopatra, "to associate with any guests in the house." "Well, you re going to be allowed to as sociate with us," said Candace. "It will do you good, and not harm." "Come and make us a call this evening, little girl," said I. "We re going to have something to eat in here." 86 ROMANTIC MISS CARMOODY She flushed. " All we took last night was a tin of salmon. We did it for fun. Steal ing! The idea! My papa has loads of money. That s what I wanted to come in to tell you. Stealing! You ought to see our table at home, only I m not allowed to have coffee. Don t you think this is a horrid place ? " Candace set her lips. "The view outside is pretty," said she, looking out of the window. I looked out, too. " Only boarders are given the front rooms," said the girl, "though my papa pays a lot. I m over the court." At that she caught my eye and blushed again not with shame or humiliation, alas! but with a wonderful ecstatic joy. Candace led her to a chair, and pressed her into it, and Candace s own face was like a girl s a 87 DEACON LYSANDER good sensible girl s, coming out from prayer. "My little girl," said she, " Lysander told me about yesterday and the man under your window. Do your folks know about him ? Who is he ? You needn t be afraid. Ly sander and I will never bring you any harm." Cleopatra lifted her rapt eyes, the small brown hands with their showy rings resting in Candace s plain strong hands. " He is Count Bonati a real French count, whom his father sent away because he would not marry the ugliest cousin a man ever had. But his father is relenting and sending him lovely letters he shows them to me. Oh, he is sweet. Think of it! how pleased mama and papa would be a count ess 1 " ROMANTIC MISS CARMOODY " You just take his word for it, don t you ?" said Candace. "I d put Philippe s word before any one else s in the world!" flamed the girl not angry, but looking Candace straight in the face with her big exalted eyes. "He con fesses regularly. He s so religious, for a man, and so tall and distinguished looking and such a voice! I d marry him if he hadn t but one eye like the cook I d marry him if he d lost both legs and sat at the street corner begging I d be true to him! I d- "You would let your folks know before you married him ?" "I I think so," said she. But she was a living embodiment of a fool romance, in handsome cover and binding. DEACON LYSANDER " Where do your folks live ? " said I. "Baltimore," said she, proudly. "I thought everybody knew about Le Moine Carmoody, wine merchant, Baltimore." "Now," said I, "my wife and I are go ing to be true to you; but unless you promise that you won t run away or make any fool hardy promises to that foreigner, we shall write to your father and tell him all about it." The girl studied me with her beautiful dreaming eyes. She hadn t been trained much at home, 1 reckon. She did not seem to consider the possibility of anybody being rough with her. " I promise, dear Deacon Morse," said she. "Oh! I like you and Mrs. Morse so much! I m coming to you whenever I can. Now I 90 ROMANTIC MISS CARMOODY must go. Miss Lacey must be about through with Saint Cecilia." She kissed my wife, and sailed out, in a morning gown that made her robust girl frame look quite queenly. Candace sighed when she was gone. " She s a queer species," said she, "that is, to me. What s more, she isn t used to keeping her word, Lysander; she d go off at a spark; she s as light as vanity and as silly as a goose. She ought to be with her mother and a nurse. Why, at her age, our Ruth was as sensible as a woman." "This one was raised half-French in Baltimore," said I, "and Ruth was raised of one kind of stock in old New Hampshire. But it s one of God s poor lambs all the same, Candace, and I m 9 1 DEACON LYSANDER going to keep my ear open, nights. Now, get on your things, for I m going out with ye myself to-day." There was always something happening in that house. Before we could get out, we had another caller, and it was the good- natured Miss Dove. "Deacon Morse," said she, "could you ac commodate me by letting me have seventy- five dollars in advance ? " " In advance of what, Miss Dove ? " said I. "Why, board-money!" said she, smiling. Then her face grew tremendously serious. " I ve got a note to meet to-day," said she, "and I don t know what I am going to do. I really don t know what I am going to do." "Suppose you couldn t meet your notes, and should get turned out of the house ? " 92 ROMANTIC MISS CARMOODY said Candace; "then we should lose our board-money, shouldn t we ? even suppose we wanted to stay here long enough to board out that amount." I was afraid of a rupture between the two women, and I had too many things to look after in that house to be willing to leave just then. "There s no danger of our being turned out," said Miss Dove. " We ve leased the house for a year, and that note won t face us for some time yet." They were poor dead-beats; I could see that. But I kept my council. "Now you make out a receipt here," said I, putting pen and paper before her "for seventy-five dollars in payment of board up to the date named, and here s your 93 DEACON LYSANDER money." I kept my hand lightly on the money until she had signed the receipt. "I think you re crazy," said Candace, after she had gone. "No," said I. "My keys of life tell me we d better hang round here a little while, Candace. Of course, we pay for victuals we don t get, but we can shift over that some how, seeing it isn t for very long. Our rooms are big and sightly not like hotel and boarding-house rooms. That view, off there is worth a pile to me so long as I ve got to stay in a city. Let s make a shift to get along a while, darlin , and when our time s up, we ll go." 94 VI AT THE RACES "Now where shall we go?" we said, when we finally got out-of-doors; for Blue ing had come running to me to say that the furnace had broken down, and I d been down cellar to regulate that; all it needed was a little applied understanding. Car after car passed us as we stood delib erating pleasantly with mutual sympathy, in the bright sunshine : cars that led to Treasury, to Capitol, to Dry Bones Museum, to all sorts of inland places. But there was one car, or rather two cars hitched together the one behind being open with "Chevy Chase 95 DEACON LYSANDER Races " showing on it in big clear letters covering half the dashboard. Car after car of that sort went past, full of people; and at first that was the car we would have failed to associate in any, even the least degree, with our plans. We hardly gave it more than a shocked glance; it was something outside our sphere. " The Congressional Library is said to be a wonderful place," said I. "They re welcome to it," said Candace in so short a tone that I was a little surprised. "I m too distracted and perplexed to go and sit down in a library." Chevy Chase Races. Another car went past with a beaming picnic-like looking lot of folks on it. "There s the Smithsonian Institute," said 96 AT THE RACES I, honestly thinking I was proposing some thing sort of lively. " I don t feel like standing around in a hot building, such a day as this," sighed Can- dace, "to look at canned snakes and mum mies." "Well," said I, thinking; " well, the Senate s adjourned till Tuesday, they say " Chevy Chase Races. "See here, Candace," said I, "what s the harm in you and me getting onto one of those Chevy Chase cars and going out a ways into the country, anyway ? " "I should like it," said Candace; "the air s as soft as it is at home in October. We needn t go to the races." "No, of course not," said I; "we can just ride a piece out into the country." 97 DEACON LYSANDER We hailed a car and things began to look bright right away. It was just a genial com mon lot of folks, not a mite afraid of strik ing false notes. A man that looked like a butcher got up and gave Candace his end- seat, and touched his hat like a gentleman. The folks on the car were all talking and didn t seem to be afraid or suspicious of each other. One woman had three little children that it was pretty difficult for her to take care of; so Candace took one of them into her lap, and the mother looked up glad and thanked her. Candace let the little thing play with her watch-chain and showed it what she had in her chatelaine bag, and the child screwed up its little nose in a contented smile. Children were always comfortable and quiet, sitting in Candace s lap. AT THE RACES "How far had we better go, Candace?" said I, after we d jogged along in this way a good many pleasant miles, and signs were that we were getting into the country lead ing to the races. " 1 am not going to give up this poor dear little one," said Candace, "until the end of the trip. Its mother has more than she can attend to, now." "We can go as far as the park, then," said I, "and stay right on the car when the others get off, and we can go right back to town." "Yes, we can do that," said my wife, who looked happier than I had seen her any time since we came to Washington. She was conversing with several women about her, and I was smoking my pipe on the rear 99 DEACON LYSANDER seat, side by side with the good-natured big man who looked like a butcher. When we got to the park, women and children and all piled off. The motorman was carrying his steering gear to the other end of the car preparatory to going back to town. "Why! ain t you going to get off ?" said the woman, looking disappointed at Can- dace. "Oh! come along," said the big good-natured man to me. " They re straight races. All the best folks goes." We found ourselves sort of half vaguely stepping off the car. "We can wait here and go back on the next car," said Candace. " It will rest us to change our seats." " Yes," said I, " we can do that." 100 AT THE RACES But when the crowd we d got acquainted with began to march off as blithe as a sum mer s day, we being right in their midst, went along with them. "We can go up as far as the gate," said I. " It s such a beauti ful day." " So we will," said Candace. " Have your gate-money all ready," said the big man. "The bell s ringing for the first race! " At that we all stepped double quick, and there was a spring in Candace s step I hadn t seen for a long time. I had our gate-money ready, and Candace and I didn t talk any more. The bell was ringing and we pelted right along with the rest. We got down in the front row, though people were moving about all the time; and I never saw a prettier sight. Out-of- 101 DEACON LYSANDER doors, just the grand stand roof over our heads, the blue hills, the blue sky, the lively people, the jockeys bright colors. We d never been at a real horse-race before. We d been to the home agricultural fair of course, where Seth Eaton and Homer Bidlow and Os Nye rattled and scrambled around the track in their old sulkies and came in on the last heat, by agreement, neck and neck, with the same old three cheers from the crowd. But these were running and hurdle races with big stakes. We had some little books in our hands that we supposed were pro grammes of the races, but pretty soon we saw we d got hold of betting books and, to our amazement, everybody else was betting. There was a big middle-aged woman, bor dering to elderly in the seat just back of us, a clean, comfortable, church-member looking woman, just fit for home life, and you d know, to look at her, she could make the best pies and doughnuts of anybody in her county, and she was betting like a trooper! Candace and I seemed to come up out of water to get a long breath. There were sporting fellows running up against us all the time crying "Want to bet?" We shook our heads. Candace had dropped her little book onto the floor and put her foot on it, and I d let mine slip down too. We felt as though we d shaken off some pretty slimy batrachians when we let those books fall. A boy came along selling sandwiches. They weren t what we would usually have considered first-class, but they were food, 103 DEACON LYSANDER and how good they tasted there in the open air and that free and easy scene! Candace and I hadn t enjoyed a meal so since we came to the Capital City. "Well, this is something like gaiety and happiness, isn t it, Lysander?" said my wife a little triumphantly. "It certainly is," said I, smiling, and suck ing away on a stale piece of ham as if it had been genuine nectar. We did not realize at the moment what a weight of hope, suspense, or despair some of the people there were carrying. But as the pack, horses and riders, came straining home along the track, most of the people on the grand stand rose to their feet, shouting and yelling. The respectable middle-aged woman back of us was making such an up- 104 AT THE RACES roar we even turned away from the track to see what ailed her. She did not notice us. She was looking towards those hammering horses, and she seemed to single out one with her beckoning fingerand burning eyes, "Come on! Come on!" she called to that horse. "Crusoe! Hurrah! Come on! Hold it! One better! Crusoe! Come on, I say! Come on! O-oh Lo-ord! " As the horses swung under the wire, she sank to her seat, and she seemed oblivious of every one there. Great tears coursed down her cheeks, and her lip began to shake enough to break a man s heart. Candace reached over and put her hand on her. "Have you lost?" said she. "I ve lost every race," sobbed the woman hopelessly; "and Nate sent me, DEACON LYSANDER and told me what to bet on. It was to save our place Nate s been sick; there s a pay ment due, or they ll foreclose. Nate said I d have luck to-day. He knew it! Oh, my Lord!" "What s the payment ? " said I. "Fifty dollars," said she, "and instead of getting it, I ve lost my ten all I had to bet with. All gone! All gone! Poor Nate. Oh, my Lord! What shall I do!" There were young women, and men too, with red eyes and pale faces, here and there; but this sensible-looking homey old lady however misguided she was was what went to our hearts. Candace hadn t any money at all with her, and I hadn t but five dollars in my pocket. The old lady was doing wrong; she shouldn t 1 06 AT THE RACES ever have come there to bet, but it went sore against my grain that those sharp Dickies around there had robbed the poor soul of her last ten dollars. I couldn t judge her. She was brought up in a different coun try from what I was, and I seemed indeed to be in a foreign country, seas and continents away from the old farm ; but I figured it out that where there was a burning indignation, as well as compassion, in anybody s bosom, a person wouldn t go far astray if they acted on the impulse. I had seen, now and then, the big good- natured man who came with us on the car, as he wandered from grand stand to pad dock. I spied him again, now. So I told Candace I was going to wander around the place a little and have a smoke. 107 DEACON LYSANDER "Aren t you going to help her?" said Candace. The woman was crying broken- heartedly. "Well, I ll take a look round," I sighed. I found the big man up back of the crowd, and told him the woman s story. He ap peared to be looking at me more than listen ing to what I said. " You remind me so of some folks I knew once when I was a boy," said he in his dull slow way, but looking kindly at me. "They was mighty nice folks too. 1 was born back in New England. You and your wife seem like them folks." "I m dreadfully sorry for that woman," said I. "Seems as though something must be done to help her." "She s a steady-lookin old girl," said the man. " Lots o fools come here. Now if 108 AT THE RACES you want to make a little something for yourself," said he confidentially, "I can put you onto it. Come on down to the pad dock and look over the stock." I went down with him. There were some pretty tough fellows there; the youngest were the worst, they were reck less and excited, with big cigars in their mouths. They called me "Full Dress," not directly, but so I heard it plain, and asked each other "What salary the Baptist Church was paying now?" and "If the sleighing was good over in Skedunk ? " and "If the cows were wintering well?" and " Whether the hen-house needed shing ling?" and such things as that. My big man looked sort of mad at them, but I didn t mind. I ve always found ye could 109 DEACON LYSANDER put everything beneath ye if ye only kept your head up well and looked folks square and pleasant in the eye; and pretty soon they appeared to be getting more respectful and friendly. The big man gave me some hints, off by ourselves; and I won twenty- five dollars, over my five, on the next race. I realized the wickedness of it, and I felt very, very far from home; but after all, all I could see in my mind s eye was that woman crying away up there fit to break her heart. The fifth race was going to be the biggest of all, and there were two favorites down there among the heavy betting men. "I m layin down my pile on Warsaw, I think," said the big man. "It lays between him and Tigress. But Tigress, somehow, is too d d much of a slouch, eh ?" no AT THE RACES They were leading Tigress around, and the mare looked mighty interesting to me. There were ten horses to run and most of them were beauties. Warsaw wasn t bad, but this Tigress at first, I had to smile. She was mousing along with her nose nearly to the ground, and she gaited so loose it was ridiculous; but I kept studying her over, and something I don t know what it was a kind of picture before my eyes, made me see that shambling loose-hung creature leading by a nose or two in the trial of that race. " I m going in for Tigress," said I. "By thunder, then I ll follow ye," said the big man. " You and your wife brought me luck to-day. By hang! I believe it. I ll follow, by hang! I will." in DEACON LYSANDER I had a book, now, just one of the kind Candace and I had trampled under foot; and it was well marked when I tucked it away down in my overcoat pocket, and went back just before the race was called to sit down by my wife. "Couldn t you do anything to help her ?" said Candace and the woman herself was looking at me with eyes fixed like somebody that s drowning. "I don t know," said I. "We ll talk business after this race. I don t know. Let s keep quiet now, anyway, and just watch this race." It was to be twice around the track, and the one that came in first on that last stretch was going to be the winner. I knew my horse by the jockey s yellow and black cap 112 AT THE RACES the yellow quarters made a star. I saw my little star twinkling among the others, as they got the word " Go ; and then it stood out distinct from all the rest but not lead ing. It was loping along behind. "What s the matter, Lysander?" said my wife. "I thought you wanted us to sit quiet." "Sit quiet! " I mocked her, almost crying; and I got up and stood on the seat with some others to follow those antelopes. 1 fixed my eye on the yellow. That jockey looked as though he was going to the post- office on a hot day, and wasn t expecting any mail either. He wasn t trying. 1 wanted to get a grip at the back of his collar. I wanted to fling him off and get on myself. " Lysander" said my wife, tugging at my "3 DEACON LYSANDER coat-tail, "were you trying to help her out that way?" Her face was pale, but I thought I saw a sort of solemn sympathy, only waiting for me to speak the word. I couldn t speak. The yellow star began to look some as if it was going for the doc tor. It was climbing up and getting in among the other colors. "Lysander" said my wife, tugging at me violently "which one is it?" "Get up here!" said I. "I ll help ye!" The herd was all rounding in on the first stretch, and yellow and blue Warsaw were tearing away, neck and neck, ahead of the rest. "The yellow! Candace. Ain t he gaining a little? Say! Ain t he gaining? He s got a big long chance before him to pull ahead now." 114 AT THE RACES But as they swept round the curve for the second pull, blue led him again, and I took hold of Candace s arm. She was standing beside me now, and she was white as a sheet, but she stroked my hand as a mother would a child in a high fever. " How is it?" said she presently, "I haven t got my far-off glasses." I dared to look again, with her comforting me that way and, all of a sudden it looked as though yellow had heard the gates of a reservoir burst behind him and was forging against death to warn the town! No, that boy didn t ride his horse he d settled into a part of him, easy, light wind and fire, get there or die. "Get there or die," I echoed the spirit, aloud. "5 DEACON LYSANDER On they came, neck and neck again. " Lysander," said my wife in a voice that sounded miles away, " Lysander, be calm." But when the yellow star gained a nose, I felt one of Candace s feet pounding on the seat, and when he stretched himself out another bit, "Go!" she cried. "Do it, now you re so near! Do it! " And he did. He lit in under that wire, a good half-length ahead of everything. It was pandemonium, with cheers and yells, and Candace and I were there right in it. I took off my silk hat that had never witnessed such a scene before, and never would again and spun circles round my head with it and jumped up and down on the seat yelling. And Candace stood there like a statue, except for the tears of joy coursing down 116 AT THE RACES her cheeks, and one hand waving her hand kerchief as automatic as a screw-factory. " Wait a minute! " said I, and I flew down the stairs. The big man was there before me with his hand on Tigress s flank. I told my gratitude to the mare, too, and to the jockey. Then I collected up my fares, and went up to that disconsolate woman, with a good round roll of greenbacks in my hand. 1 put them down into her lap, and Candace was as pleased as I. " Here s more than fifty," said the woman, looking new-born as a child. "You can keep it," said I " on one con dition. We haven t got any Bible here. Just put your hand up to your heart and promise us on your honor, and by the love of the mother who bore ye, ye 11 never bet money 117 DEACON LYSANDER on a race again ? You ll quit it, in true and faithful meaning?" "I promise, true and faithful, God knows." She tucked that money away with trembling fingers, and then she up and threw both arms round Candace s neck, and kissed her. " God bless you, and I ll try to be fit to meet you again in the land where there s no trouble," she sobbed; and then she turned to me, and up went both arms round my neck and she kissed me just as she had Candace. My big man had come over, and he was watching, but he didn t so much as smile. "See here," said he, trying to press some of his roll of money into my hand, "I really owe this to you." "No," said I. "I d try to get a promise out of you too, if I could." He looked 118 AT THE RACES sheepish. "I d like to shake hands with you and your wife, anyway," said he. So we shook hands, and then Candace and I found ourselves in a crowd again, making for the cars; some of the folks were merry and still chaffing, but there were more that looked disappointed, tired and sad. Candace and I didn t speak. We d been in a far country. Until our car had rolled along quite a piece on the way home; then " I was thinking " said Candace, very sad and low, " would anybody in our own old home believe it ? Would you and I have believed it, only a few hours ago ? that we ve been standing up on the seats at a horse race, stamping and yelling and betting money? You and I, Lysander!" "It doesn t seem believable," said K. 119 DEACON LYSANDER "It shows," said Candace, "we re all fearsomely alike, after all, and where a little step will bring us." "Yes, that s true," I said; "and some of the worst of it we didn t see to-day. They told me that, yesterday, they had a hurdle race, over in that place inside the tracks, where you remember seeing the white fences, and three horses got mixed and fell in a heap; and one of those little jockey lads was so hurt he ll die." Candace gripped my hand. It was sunset again, of that short winter day though the air was mild and we were in an open car. So we journeyed along, watching out at that gate in the west, that opens for travellers at sunset the wide world over; the gate that we all plead at, limp through, crawl through, AT THE RACES somehow, winners and losers alike; and not very sorry any of us, perhaps, when that time comes, that the race is over. 121 VII FLEEING CHURCH TO ATTEND A FIRE WE were in a far country, Candace and I, sure enough; and we walked softly for the sum of our "false notes" was rolling up upon us. It was " Christmas " Sunday, and we asked the name of the most eloquent preacher in Washington. We didn t ask for the godliest man, but the preacher that was going to stir and thrill us the most ah, it was a far cry to the old meeting-house and the good peaceful naps we enjoyed under the best and kindest man that ever walked in the shape of a minister. "I don t know" said the stern Miss 122 TO ATTEND A FIRE Dove, in answer to our question "what you mean, exactly, by the most eloquent preacher; but so and so (she mentioned a lot of distinguished names) attend the Raines Memorial Church, and the music there is very fine indeed." So Candace and I took a car, and wan dered off to the other end of the town. We took seats pretty well back in the church. It seemed odd and interesting too not to be sitting right up under the pulpit. Candace said she d always wished that she could sit back in church just once in her life, so that she could watch the people come in. Her father was a deacon too, and she d always been close under the pulpit eaves. This minister tired folks out with the length of his prayer to begin with. Way 123 DEACON LYSANDER back home, even our old-fashioned parson never made such a long-winded meandering prayer as that. " What ll the sermon be ?" I whispered. Candace shook her head. But there was a lot of classical music to come before that. The choir was back of us, and we couldn t catch the words, but it seemed to be a reiteration of something. The soprano had it first and she gave it out six or seven times, or more; then she handed it over to the tenor who took an equal turn at it, and passed it on to the bass, who had a good long spell at it himself. But when the soprano reached out for it again with a screech that penetrated our ear drums, Candace and I looked at each other, and I saw that my wife s head was troubling her; so we took the opportunity to tiptoe 124 TO ATTHND A FIRE out quietly, so as not to give offense. As I was going out, I raised my eyes to the choir, and who was that tenor standing there but " Count Bonati!" "Candace," said I, as we stood in the porch, " Miss Carmoody s count was stand ing up there in that choir, and I m going to try to find out something about him." We d already had a good talk with the sexton, for we d got to church early. He was an elderly man with a long beard, who had hailed originally, he said, from the same part of the country as we, and we felt ac quainted from the start. He d been moving around the church, inside and out, appearing to be pleased to stay outside whenever he had the chance. When we tiptoed out, he tiptoed out after us. I2 5 DEACON LYSANDER "My wife wasn t feeling well," said I. "I thought it might be the singin ," said he. "Before I got used to that kind of music, I used to take a good deal of time outside myself." "I want to make my little contribution to the church," said I, and I put into his hand the dollar which I always give at home, unless there s some special plea. "Can you tell me," said I, "anything about the tall fellow up in your choir that sings tenor?" "If you d asked me that question last Sunday, I couldn t," said he. "You see it isn t like the good old times when church members did the singing. But nowadays anybody with a voice is paid to come in and do his work and he goes out when he s through, and that s the end of it. But this 1 26 TO ATTEND A FIRE being Christmas time, the church has been making some special effort to look up all who participate in any way in its services: and this Eyetalian, I heard some of the ladies say in a mother s meeting in the vestry, is a poor fellow that gives music lessons here and there, and his father keeps a peanut and fruit stand somewhere on Pennsylvania Avenue; they live up over the shop, and there s a big family of them. They didn t get it out of the fellow himself, for he s close-mouthed and he s taken another name than his father s anyway. But the women found it out a woman ll beat a detective any time, if there s anything she really wants to find out." "I don t see how he dared tell that girl such lies!" said Candace, as we went 1 27 DEACON LYSANDER down the church steps. "The crazy for eigner! " "There s lots of bluff dared in a city like this," said I: "and it isn t his being poor, it s the proportions of his lying that makes him out a fool and a devil. A medium-sized one is bad enough. I don t mean that that little girl shall have anything to do with one of his dimensions." As we spoke, suddenly we were aware of a great hubbub. If you ve never seen the marshal and the fire-engines and the hook and ladder company coming at call down one of those long broad Washington streets, then you ve missed a picture, a sad picture too; but, since it had to be, we stood and looked with all our eyes. The horses thun dered past us, with the crowd following, and 128 TO ATTEND A FIRE we saw how some in the church where we d been, slipped out and chased after too. "Do you suppose it s a big fire?" said Candace. "I don t know," said I, watching the tail of the ladder wagon; " it looks like it." We were marching quick step, in the same direction with the rest, not minding whether we were striking false notes or not; until Candace spoke, "Why, if there isn t that old sexton that we talked with, running as if for his life, along with that batch of little boys! " "Well," said I, "it s nothing wicked, that ever I heard of to go to a fire." At that we struck into the best pace we could on account of Candace being so heavy. I d not seen my wife race to her limit for 129 DEACON LYSANDER many a year, and the way she got over the ground, without losing any of her dignity made me surprised and proud. We were by no means the last in the pro cession when we got down to the fire. It was in a frame tenement house in a block of old buildings; and it was a strange and abrupt contrast, from the prayer we d heard back in that beautiful church, easy, white- handed and slow, to the way those firemen were shouting their quick words and doing their desperate duty in smoke and flame, on roof and ladder and window-ledge. To get a woman and two children on the top floor, before the frightened creatures jumped to the pavement, that was the business of those men; and I ll never see braver or quicker work done than I saw 130 TO ATTEND A FIRE that morning. The cheers went up, and the tears streamed from our eyes, to think what duty can come to mean to humanity, just common humanity, unlettered, in a blue flannel shirt, with dirty face and hands. Their tragic business summed up in "duty," to save life, to save property, self-regardless. The work did not seem so bitter, when it was life they ventured all to save, but when that was done and one of them fell in the sweating dizzy toil to save the miserable block, my heart fell as crushed as his body. The sexton was at our side again. "It s all wrong!" he swore. "Civiliza tion is all wrong. The world s mad " perhaps he d heard it at one of those women s meetings in the vestry I don t know. " Peo ple, hived in cities walls and pavements DEACON LYSANDER and life crushed out in all manner o ways. It s all wrong." " Yes," said I though 1 felt as helpless as any sexton, "but he did his duty. He couldn t change the world, but he did his duty in it. That s enough." "I feel as though I d been in a dreadful vast church, with no smaller roof than the sky, Candace," said I as we went away. "We slipped out of church," said she very pale, " and raced to a fire." "No," said I; "we only went out into a bigger church." "Maybe so, Lysander," she sighed. VIII FURTHER REVELATIONS TO THE SEEKERS OF HAP PINESS "My mind is diverted enough by events," said Candace. " It s the greatest cat-dance in this house, all the time, that I ever saw, but it isn t the kind that makes merry that s sure." " No," said I, "it does all seem to favor the minor key." "The gas collector has got so he even glowers at paying boarders, when we see him standing in the hall; the door-bell doesn t rest, day or night, for folks chasing here with their bills; the marketing tastes as though it was done at the tail end of DEACON LYSANDER the garbage cart, and I m afraid there isn t even any coal." Candace rang her room bell for the third time, and Blueing came, "Still there isn t any heat in the pipes, Blueing, and it is very chilly in here. Will you tell Miss Dove that we ve got to have some heat." Yas m, I ll tell her, m. I ll tell her shu enough." Blueing, is there any coal ? " "I ain t say in that there is or there ain t. I ain t sayin nothin . But I wish you-alls go down in the cellar an see what you think about coal." " Tell Miss Dove we want to see her." After some time the stern Miss Dove knocked and did not wait for an answer but SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS sailed right in, in one of her usual elaborate trailing gowns. "I cannot understand what is the matter," said she. " I am very seriously engaged this morning, and Blueinetta keeps running to me with your demands. The furnace is full of coal and there s a tremendous fire on. You will feel the warmth presently, 1 am sure." She smiled on us coldly and condescend ingly, and left with as little ceremony as she d come. "Now, if there is no coal in the cellar I m going to get hold of that baggage I don t care how seriously engaged she is and speak my mind to her," declared Candace. " She isn t any more seriously engaged now than she will be when I get hold of her! " The door opened again, suddenly I don t DEACON LYSANDER know whether Miss Dove heard Candace s last words; but she was quite gracious. After all, she was getting money out of us, and wanted to get more. "We are to have a most interesting lecture on the Eye, in the parlors, this afternoon," she said. " Professor Maxwell no doubt you have heard of him is coming to speak to the young ladies on the forma tion, character and treatment of the eye. We shall be happy to have you attend." And so, having discharged herself of all duty towards us, she shut the door on us again. "I suppose he ll say our eyes are pretty green," said Candace, " and I shan t blame him." "They re blue, darlin ," said I, "and that s 136 SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS one of the patientest and kindest colors for an eye, in the world." Candace sniffed, and I did not wonder. " You re soft, Lysander," said she. "That s it," said I, "we ought to feel pity. I m afraid these Doves are hard. I m getting to be afraid they are. Dove is not a hard name, but it seems to me these folks are pretty near what we call dead-beats. They ve had their struggle with the world. They ve failed and started up a bluff, and failed and started up another bluff, and kept it up until there s no more of the daisy and violet left in them than there is in a manu factured cake of ice. They ll have to thaw and come to earth before there ll be anything natural about them. I pity folks that are poor and in trouble, God knows; but I don t DEACON LYSANDER want to be faced out with lies! Now I m going down to see if there s any coal." The result of my observations made me deliberate considerable before going back to Candace. Old Louis Angelique s husband who came morning and evening to tend the furnace, was in the cellar, sure enough, and he welcomed me with an anxious smile. "I been scrapin round heah wid an iron rake," said he, "tryin* ter beat up some lit tle hy-spy piece o coal, maybe, som er s; but dar ain t nufT fo a sample. No, suh, I cayn t find nuff fo de leetles no-count sam ple o what coal is." "Have the Doves ordered any coal, Louis ? " I said, and I was beginning to feel rather grim as I compared Miss Dove s words with that dead furnace. 138 SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS "Oh yas, dey s ordered coal nuff. Yas, suh, dey s nuff coal ordered. But pears to me dem dealers is gittin tired looks dat way to me." " Let s look around here for some splinters and get up a little blaze, Louis," I said, "and I ll see what can be done." We found what few dry goods boxes there were remaining and Louis began knocking them up. I went up-stairs straight and indignant to Miss Dove s door. But before I knocked I hesitated. After all, she was a woman desperately fixed, and if it was mainly through her own fault, so much the harder for her. While I had a good competency laid away besides my farm; and the cash I had brought with me was sufficient for emergencies. Candace DEACON LYSANDER must be warmed. I shouldn t make any thing by upbraiding Miss Dove, for it was not probable she had any money left and she certainly hadn t any credit. So I slunk out the back way, so that Can- dace would not see me from her window, and found the nearest coal dealer. But I de cided to be canny. "Have you any bill against the Doves on Grandpont Circle?" I asked. For I thought, just as like as not, after I d paid for some coal he might keep the money in payment of some old debt of the Doves, and not send up the fuel at all. However the man looked over his books and said he d never had any dealings with any body by the name of Dove. At that 1 breathed freely again, and made a bargain whereby some coal was to be sent 140 SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS instanter. Old Louis was glad, and Angel- ique gave me an affectionate poke in the chest, when I got back, and called me her "beluvving Gunnel Vick ry," right where we three stood in the kitchen. "Nex thing, Gunnel Vick ry, suh," said Louis, "how my wife, heah, gwine ter git her wages ? Six weeks she been a-wukkin off her marrer bones mongst dese yere heathen at free dollah a week. How much dat come to?" " Eighteen dollars," said I. "Mah Glory! How she gwine git dat ?" "She ll have to board it out," said I, and began to laugh in spite of myself. Angelique was not slow at seeing the joke, and held her sides and shook her head, the tears flowing, fairly helpless with merriment. I wished 141 DEACON LYSANDER Candace had seen her. Louis had some solemn inclinations on the subject, but he laughed with a boisterous bass. "Wai", I got to be gwine," said he. " I be round to tend de fire when de coal comes." Louis had a little express wagon with a pole, which he trailed after him wherever he went. He wore a long white apron; he limped and carried a cane and was smoking a pipe be sides, so that his whole appearance was that of an individual extremely actively employed and burdened with care, but what were the offices performed on his seemingly heavy peregrinations I never knew. I went up to Candace. " Well," said she turning from the window where she was often interested " is there any coal ? " "There is some ordered/ I said. "I ve 142 SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS found that out to my satisfaction, and it will be here presently." " Pooh! they ll never pay for it," said Can- dace. " Those poor tradesmen! " "No," said I, "I believe, myself, they ll never pay for it." I knew that Candace was going to probe me further, as to whom I saw about the mat ter and whether I went to Miss Dove, etc., when her attention was suddenly diverted and she exclaimed, "Do come here, Lysander. Of all the works going on in and around this house I believe there s no match in Bedlam! Come here! " The admiral s little boy next door had crept out through a window to the third story balcony of that big gray stone house, DEACON LYSANDER armed with a basin of water and a drinking glass. The full basin formed his base of supplies, to which he reverted with his glass, and with this projectile he was sprinkling the passers-by, far down on the sidewalk below. We could see him select his victims with the kindling eye of a true warrior. Not every one did he sprinkle, but he worked with the discrimination of an artist and a Christian. The girl with crutches, the totter ing old man, the negro woman with her basket of clothes, passed by unscathed. " But here comes one will have to take it," gasped Candace to me, and we saw a youth swinging down the avenue, conceit and fash ion personified in his gait. The little brown hand, unseen, so high above, darted out with 144 SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS its full glass, and the dude received the douche, graceful as a fountain, over the eaves of his silk hat. The boy dodged out of sight under the railing of the balcony. The dude looked up, looke 1 around, looked everywhere, shook his hat, took out his handkerchief and wiped his face, muttered, started to go up to ring somebody s anybody s door-bell, hesi tated, and walked away, mad as a hornet. As he passed out of sight, up came the admiral s little boy again. "Don t let the little imp see you smiling," said Candace. "I don t know but it s your duty, Lysander, to step over and tell his folks what he s up to. But before we could decide on this, we saw, coming very stately down the avenue, the stern Miss Dove herself who had been MS DEACON LYSANDER out on some little errand. She had on a twenty dollar hat and a fur cloak that reached nearly to her ankles, and you wouldn t think, to look at her, that the very cook in her kitchen was making supplication to a stranger for her wages. Her head was up, and she had just the calm insolent face she d shown to us when we sat shivering and she told us the furnace had a tremendous fire on. "Shall I go over before she gets under the balcony, Candace?" said I. "He may pick her out. No knowing." " You sit still," said Candace. Of course we knew he d pick her out. She had every sign manual of the race he was extinguishing; and, sure enough, the little brown hand darted out again, and it never missed its aim. Miss Dove got the 146 SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS charge full in her face. The boy ducked out of sight, but there were Candace and I, blank and stupefied, gazing square down on her from our window. She didn t suspect us, however. She knew the ambush and just who lay behind it, and she tripped up the steps and rang that admiral s door-bell viciously. "The dear little boy!" said Candace. "Can t you make signs to him to get inside with his glass and basin before she has time to tell of him ? " But even as we were speaking a man servant stepped through the window to the balcony, picked up the little rascal and car ried him, kicking, inside. "It s a shame!" said my wife. "To tell on a child like that! The sweet baby ! Did DEACON LYSANDER you see what lovely eyes he had, Ly- sander?" "Yes," said 1, "he s a pretty little fellow. But don t you fret. They won t punish him much. Children don t get whipped for their pranks now as they used to." "She got it full in the face, didn t she?" said Candace with unholy satisfaction, re verting to Miss Dove. " What did you say to her, Lysander, when you went to see her about the coal?" " Well, I didn t say as much to her as I m going to say," I replied. I wondered what Miss Dove would think when she heard that fuel being delivered, rattling down into the cellar. I studied to meet her in the hall, and at last I came face to 148 SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS face with her. She was so dignified she hardly saw me. "See here, Miss Dove," said I, "I d rather help ye than fight ye, any day, but just be tween you and me " and I lowered my voice so no one could hear " I ask ye not to lie to me. You told us there was a big fire in the furnace, whereas you knew all the time there was not any fire nor any fuel in the cellar. Now I ve got some coal and paid for it, and I want you and me to be honest friends and tell the truth to each other." She looked at me as though I d come from the barnyard, and she never blushed or quailed. I was beginning to see she was a sort of woman I d never fallen in with before. " If you do not like it here," said she, "it DEACON LYSANDER is perfectly optional with you to go some where else." "But I ve paid ye in advance," said I, and I almost wished Candace was there to shake her. "Oh, well," said she, " my lawyer would tell you that you could not possibly claim anything refunded on that score." "Your lawyer ? " said I. " There s another! You haven t got any lawyer" but she d left me standing there, and I was only talking to vacancy. At first I thought I d go to Candace and share my indignation with her; then I de cided to smother it down and make things as bearable for my wife as they could be. Be sides, as I thought a bit more, I always felt sorry for that hard Miss Dove. She must- be SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS as hopeless and bitter as mire weed inside, thought I. It was a terrible thing to have young girls under such an influence, taught that " social position " and dress were all, and leaving character out of the account. Why shouldn t Cleopatra deceive and lie, even more, perhaps, than she had inclined to by nature ? And as I thought of her and " Count Bonati" I did not feel like quitting the camp just yet. Miss Dove seemed to have declared war, though. Neither she nor her sisters recog nized us when we went in to luncheon. They had placed the pupils so that they all sat with their backs turned even to Candace, now, and they had been told not to look up at us, either, when we came in. "I expect she feels pretty sore about your DEACON LYSANDER stirring her up to get coal and then having that water dashed into her face!" said Can- dace, afterwards, but still my wife looked as though she, herself, couldn t quite get over the relish of it. " Let s go in to their eye lec ture this afternoon," she continued. "Per haps it will make them feel better. You know we ve slighted all their parlor dress- exhibitions." We went down to the parlors early and took seats. Presently the Misses Dove and the lecturer came in, followed by Miss Lacey, the three pupils, and some other girls who had been haled in so as to make it look as though there was more of a school. Blueing, in a clean white apron and a cap, was made to sit down as a sort of attendant, by the door; for those Doves could put style onto SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS any affair; they d have fixed up three burnt matches so as to give them an air. The lecturer spread out his blood and nerve paintings of the eye, and Candace shivered she never could bear to see the human mechanism all turned inside out. He had an unconsciously amusing manner, and it was evident that Cleopatra and those strange girls who had come in were going to be fated to giggle before things went much farther. However, he was getting on with his lec ture deep and far, and we had all settled down to listen patiently and respectfully when we heard a heavy waddling gait com ing along the hall, and there in the doorway stood poor old Angelique in her kitchen sacque and sink apron. She had not taken any pains to fix up, for she was angry. DEACON LYSANDER Blueing had been invited to the eye lecture, and she had not. But she had planned an attack that clean put the eye-lecturer and all his audience to rout. "O1" Miss Dove," said she, in gutteral tones and you would never believe that Angelique s face as we saw it before us now could be anything but hostile and ugly " Ol Miss Dove, will yo please ter pay me my wages right straighterway! I want ter git out o dis yer job. Dey s nuffin ter cook, an nuffin ter cook it -aid, tell Gunnel Vick ry went out dis mornin and Miss Dove started up to go to draw her aside out of the door, but Angelique never moved nor turned her face. " Wat s mo ," said she, glaring at the lec turer, "yo was brung in heah ter taunt me 154 SEEKERS OF HAPPINESS wid not huvin but one eye! Dat s why yo was brung inter dis house. Yo all come in heah ter make derision o me cause 1 ain t got but one eye Bluein an all, an on y me lef out. Yo blow de horn an congergate an mux in heah togedda jes ter scorn me cause I ain t got but one eye Miss Dove took hold of her to draw her away, but Angelique straightened up so forcibly that Miss Dove fell back. "Gi" me my wages ol Miss Dove," she screeched " I wan ter git out o dis yer! " Candace gave me a push, though I was all ready to advance of my own accord, and I went up to Angelique, but I did not take hold of her forcibly. I bowed and offered her my arm. "Beg your pardin, grant yer grace, *55 DEACON LYSANDER Gunnel Vick ry," said she with one of her beaming smiles, as she curtsied low and laid her hand on my coat sleeve in readiness to walk away with me. " Dey s low-down folks in dar not fit fo a gemman like you fer sociate wid, Gunnel," said she, throwing a last black glance towards the occupants of the parlor "a mess o low-down folks w at blowed deir horn an 1 muxed deirselves in dar togedda jes ter taunt me cause I ain t got but one eye." 156 IX HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED I SAW that Candace was getting interested. While she did not own up to it by any actual admission and it certainly was not joy and gaiety that were holding her, yet in a tacit quiet sort of way she had stopped making complaints an.d she did not harp any more on our making haste to get back to New Hampshire. She seemed more contented around the house. Of course we went out to places of interest; and saw how the money was manufactured, and looked at the dead and gone things in the museum, and took the elevator in the capitol three days in suc- DEACON LYSANDER cession only to have word sprung on us when we got up that the "senate had ad journed." Candace did not seem put out or even disappointed. She always seemed willing to go back to the house: for one thing, the admiral s little boy, in the next house, had the croup; when she heard that Candace had gone right up without asking leave of anybody and rung their door-bell, for she could cure croup if anybody could, and they d let her in and she had doctored the little man; until now she loved to look at him playing on the sidewalk outside with his Christmas fire-engines and catapults, just as he used to do. She d sit at the window and smile and wave at him, and when he waved back as he did every few minutes, she looked as happy as sunshine. HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED Then, the fact is, our house on Grandpont Circle seemed to be charged with something all ready to go off, and with intimations of livelier business than any of these makeshifts that are put on at theatres. It may have been just a singular sort of moral atmosphere that the Doves created, but that was the silent feeling we had that there was gun powder stored under the decks, so to speak. They had dismissed Angelique, but she would not go, for her wages had not been paid, and they did not dare to call in an officer. They dismissed us daily with cold forbidding looks, but they d got us to pay them in advance, so they couldn t eject us. They could not, for all their trying, get any worse things to put on the table than we d been having right along but Candace and I DEACON LYSANDER kept our regular supplies up in our own rooms now. We went down to meals, for we did not want to hurt their feelings where we could help it. We d honestly have been glad to save them from themselves if we could. " Lysander," said my wife, " I never break an egg down in that dining-room. I wouldn t be so mean. But I think when it comes to putting eggs on the plate before one, that fairly smell through the shell, folks must have lost their self-respect. Blueing says that s the kind of eggs that s sent in for Angelique to cook, and what can Angelique do ?" " 1 don t blame Angelique a mite for using strong tobacco," said I. Candace laughed, as she could afford to do, for we were well provisioned. 1 60 HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED "Blueing is going lo be married," said she; "and she isn t going to wait until her wages are paid, either. She told me about it this morning. She said the Doves would sit up in their chairs mighty sudden one of these days when they found her gone. And what do you think, Lysander? she said the Doves told her to make up our beds last, or not at all, just as she liked; but she comes in here first of all and spreads fifteen minutes work over an hour, every day of her life." "Well, it s nice to have folks like to be with us." " Yes," said Candace. The calls we d had since we d started our general housekeeping and victualing department up-stairs had cheered my wife wonderfully. 161 DEACON LYSANDER Miss Lacey, whom the Doves had given a little hall bedroom with only one window light, became a sort of sister to us in the fre quency of her visits, and it did us good to see the poor starved little woman tuck down the wholesome victuals. At the beginning, the good-natured Miss Dove had dropped in once or twice, and when we offered her a little treat she d accepted right pleased and made the most of the opportunity, not seem ing one mite offended. But now at the in stigation of the stern Miss Dove and the other sister who kept close in her room painting some oil portraits of their great- great-grandparents she turned against us too and was almost the worst of the lot, in forming the others that we kept food in our room, so that they were all on the watch to 162 HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED entrap Miss Lacey and the girls when they came in to see us. For all the three pupils were well ac quainted with us now, and ran in whenever they could get a chance. In our front room Candace s room there was a clothes closet as big in itself as a small room. Lately, Candace had put a chair in there. So that, when one of the Miss Doves thinking she d find some one eating with us came and knocked sharply, if we had a guest, she had plenty of time to get into the closet and sit down comfortably and let us lock her in, before either Candace or I went to open the door. For we kept our doors locked, now, so that the Doves could not open on us without ceremony. Then Miss Dove would say with- 163 DEACON LYSANDER out any greeting whatever, only a hard look, "I thought I detected the odor of burning food in the hall. Can you account for it, Mrs. Morse ? " And Candace, who was only sorry for them after all, would say sadly, "Even if I were cooking food, which I am not, I should not allow it to burn, Miss Dove." Which was very true; we bought our meats, etc., all cooked. And all the while, the key to the closet with a tag on it that the Miss Doves had put on for their own use before we came, "Key to closet of Ball Dresses," would be lying safe in the bottom of Candace s pocket while instead of ball dresses inside the closet, now, there were 164 HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED stores of nice provisions, and, just as like as not, either Miss Lacey or one of the girls sit ting musing contentedly there in the chair, waiting for Miss Dove to go. Then when Miss Dove did turn, shutting our door to with a bang, and go off to see if the one she suspected was in her own proper room, that one would have time to get out into the halls or parlors, or any inno cent place, and be moving about on her own business with nothing to confess. It was sort of child s play, to be sure, but we re all "children of a larger growth," and it was dreadfully exciting. We were really helping the Doves, through it all, we felt that; for Miss Lacey told us she should have had to leave them if it had not been for us, and the two pupils from the West declared 65 DEACON LYSANDER they d have run away if it had not been for us. Small wonder that Cleopatra, being what she was, was carrying on like a flighty goose. When we had her by herself, on one occasion, we told her just what we d as certained about Count Bonati and his family, thinking she would flame up, feel bad, have a good cry, and that would be the end of it. She did flame up, but then her eyes lighted and lifted in a way that betokened no hope for our warnings. "Shall I be untrue to him because he is poor ?" she cried, clasping her hands together just as she d seen people do on the stage. "No! No!" "It isn t that," said Candace; " but he s a liar an awful one. You don t want to get 166 HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED yourself involved with a dirty liar, do you ? " That was just the touch that wounded; for Count Bonati, in spite of all his furs and airs, somehow gave you the impression that he d never got into any intimate affections with the bath-tub. Cleopatra herself was as fastidious and dainty as a girl could be. Nothing counted, though, alongside the over powering nature of her sentiment and her longing to get away from the Doves estab lishment. She went a little pale at what Candace said and her eyes glinted, meaning, more than ever, it seemed to me, that she was going to have her own way. "You ought to write to your good kind father and get his advice," said I, soothingly. " I wrote papa when I first came here, how 167 things were, and begged him to come and take me away or tell me I might come home, and he wrote back, it must be a nice place up in this quarter of the city; that girls in a boarding-school were always finding fault, that he d paid for me a half year in advance, and I must make up my mind to stay." "Just ask him to come on and see ye and have a Sunday dinner with ye, that s the worst of all. That would settle him." " He has been to see me, but then they go out and buy things to eat and have every thing swell, and pet me and make eyes at him, and then he says I m silly to be complaining at such treatment as that. Oh, I hate them! " "Well, don t injure yourself, lassie, just to spite them. Try to be patient and we ll see through the clouds." For Cleopatra was 1 68 HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED one of those well grown girls a girl in a royal young woman s form who, if she d only had sense given her, or could acquire it, would win hearts worthy of her and prevail majestically. Always, it seems, there has to be something lacking, and she, with her dark brave eyes and beautiful presence, and the bewitching clothes she wore, had not, up to date, sense enough to compete with a well trained two-year-old on any track. My wife, in spite of her direct plain speech to her, seemed to fascinate the girl. She was always laying her head on Candace s shoulder or taking her hand to hold; and it made my heart ache to see the look that would come into Candace s eyes, and how gentle she was with her, withal for I knew she was thinking of our Ruth. 169 DEACON LYSANDER The girl brought Candace her clothes to mend, my wife s request. They were very handsome clothes, but the girl would let them go with any number of rents and rips rather than mend them herself, and Candace was strangely happy at the work. She used to sit there and sew with just such a look as I remembered on her face when our little ones were coming to us. The western girls brought in their clothes, too; and, for one thing, I ve seen Candace sitting there with as many as twenty pairs of stockings to darn, at her elbow, looking so blessed and happy I couldn t begrudge her the task. No question but that they found the victual closet attractive too. Especially Cleopatra had an appetite corresponding to her size, 170 HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED vigor, and temperament. It was no small item in our system of supplies. She was better acquainted than any of the rest, per haps, with the smug little chair in the food closet, and she was the one the Doves were after most of all, to prevent her from resort ing to us not seeming to realize that we were all that warmed their house and kept it together, that we only wanted to take them in, too, and that, as far as Cleopatra was concerned, we were anxiously on the guard to keep her from disgracing herself and them. One evening, we knew we were going to be safe from surveillance, for the Doves had been talking at their table about going to some very high-toned place of entertain ment, and it was so much on their minds, 171 DEACON LYSANDER with their dressing and all, that they never gave a thought to us. They had a cab call for them and entered it in evening gowns, one after the other. It wasn t two minutes after the cab door closed before that whole household was in with Candace and me. We brought the entertain ment out of the closet, and all drew up our chairs together and talked and feasted mer rily. It was a homelike scene, and all the weight seemed lifted from the atmosphere. At ten o clock our guests thought it safest to disperse, however, and go to their rooms. Candace and I undressed, put out our lights and went to bed. It was near midnight I was sound asleep when it began to be impressed upon me, as a dream at first, that the door-bell of the 172 HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED house was ringing violently and persistently. I awakened and found that it was even so it was ringing sharp and long. I stole through Candace s room she was fast asleep and stuck my head out of the window to see if I could discover who was on the porch. There were the three Miss Doves, shivering and stamping their feet, and talking loudly, their patience being all worn out. " Look in your pocket again, Lucille. Are you sure you ve lost the latch-key ? How could you do it! " "There s a little rent in my pocket." " There always is! I ll carry it myself, an other time. Where /sBlueinetta! The stupid nigger! I told her to sit up anyway, to night, until eleven." DEACON LYSANDER " We were here at that time. We ve been standing here an hour! It s unbearable. I wish I could get at some of them, inside I d make them capable of hearing ! " " The Morses up in front must have heard us. Their window is open " I dodged be hind the curtain, for now they all looked up, and I had only my night-gown on. "They re keeping us out on purpose! The brutes! " Candace had awakened by this time. I held up my hand to her. "Hush!" I whis pered. "It s nothing. Don t be afraid." But she crept out of bed and came over and stood by my side, where I was sort of trans fixed at hearing those women talk. The bell gave another long vicious ring and we heard Miss Lacey, aroused by this time, knocking timidly at Candace s door and talk- HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED ing a whole book full of conjectures and sup positions. We did not heed her, we were so transfixed by the window. The bell went again and again. "That old hayseed and his stupid old Sa- manthy " one of them almost shouted " I d like to wring their necks! " " That means us," said Candace very com posedly. "Yes," said I. It had not been five min utes since I first heard the bell, and every in tention of my soul was to run and put on my clothes and let the Dove sisters in, if their talk had not transfixed me. " I wish I had a rock to throw into the im beciles window," said one of them. "A call of that sort on the pate might let some gleam of intelligence into them. I can hear DEACON LYSANDER the old hay-ricks snoring. Oh, this is too exasperating! " "Go back to bed, Lysander," commanded my wife firmly, " and 1 will do the same." " Cannot account," went on Miss Lacey s voice in the hall outside our door "for the almost unceasing ringing of the door-bell at this hour of the night. Sorry to find it necessary to make the attempt to awaken you, dear Mrs. Morse, but it has occurred to me as a possible contingency the Doves may have forgotten to take, or have lost, their latch-key, and Blueinetta is evidently either not in or is not awakened by the peremptory and almost ceaseless ringing of the " As the sound of Miss Lacey s familiar monotone still continued, both Candace and 176 HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED I came to our senses in a way, and Candace said nothing to dissuade me when I began dressing. I went down and opened the door, ex pecting no thanks expecting almost an attack, and I got it, in words. "Where is Blueinetta ? " demanded the stern Miss Dove of me first thing, as I let them in out of the cold. "Miss Dove," said I, rather severely, "I haven t seen your handmaiden since she waited on table at dinner." So they all piled up to the attic to find Blueing, and they were mad. We heard them rummaging, and then coming down the stairs with low murmurs. It seems Blueing had taken that night to go off and get married. She had taken her 177 DEACON LYSANDER own clothes, and, as they discovered after wards, some of the Miss Doves too, in lieu of wages, I suppose. Anyway, they never heard from her or got track of her again. For several weeks Candace had missed some of her laces, which we knew by thorough search were not in either of our rooms. We d said nothing and accused no one: but the morning after Blueing s depar ture, Candace found a pathetic soiled little paper parcel all done up and placed con spicuously in one of her bureau drawers. She unfolded it, and there were her missing laces. No word, no explanation; but it spoke for itself, and the tears came to our eyes. That was Blueing s apology, love- token, and good-bye. She wouldn t steal from Candace she couldn t, after all; and 178 HOSPITALITY ESTABLISHED Candace treasured those laces afterwards far beyond any other finery, because they spoke to her always of poor Blueing s atonement. X A WARM BRIDGE AND A COLD DRAWING-ROOM THE house seemed more undermined than ever after poor Blueing went away. We did our own room-work of course, and then it being a specially pleasant spell of weather we went sight-seeing. We found the Senate adjourned again; and started for Arlington to see the soldiers graves. But we did not get beyond Long Bridge. The bridge simply fascinated us. It was a panorama; and after all, we liked things, like that, that were out-of-doors, the best. The humanity that passed over it were, almost all, people who strike false notes 180 A WARM BRIDGE people getting back into the country with their dilapidated market wagons, and what truck they had not sold poor men, women and children, white and black, trudging over the shaky old structure, with the muddy Potomac underneath and the blue sky and hills stretching above and beyond. It was like our spring, and we lingered around there, getting acquainted with lots of folks, hearing their troubles and lending a hand wherever we could. In fact, we made a sort of home of the bridge. We did not dare tell each other, even, how much we liked it. When we got tired, we d get into the antediluvian-looking stage that travelled back and forth across it; and, after a little, we began to make up par ties of folks that couldn t afford the fare, 181 DEACON LYSANDER old folks, and lame, and women weighted down with children and bundles. They all seemed to trust us. We told them we d got more tickets than we could use, and bundled them in; it was quite a long trip especially if you re going with crutches or a cane, or a baby on your arm. Then when we d all got inside, we d con verse and often get to laughing; for these people who strike false notes seem glad to take a bit of sympathy from any body no matter whom and don t mind putting their own troubles far away from them when they re helping the crowd to smile. It was not exactly the sort of mirth and gaiety Candace had come to Washington to find, but I could see that my wife s face was 182 A WARM BRIDGE growing quieter and more content every day. She used to have a good deal of fear of false notes herself, but now she didn t care how many she struck, so that she could make a few furlongs, anyway, of somebody s life the easier and brighter. "Let s not go back to the house for luncheon," said she; " let s get some victuals - and give them to those starved looking young ones." For there were two or three colored women loitering around over the bridge with the thinnest, sickliest-looking children I ever saw. There wasn t any restaurant near; but there was a bake-shop, where they were just out of rolls but had plenty of cream puffs. So I got two dozen in a paper bag and came down to where Candace stood 83 DEACON LYSANDER keeping her eye on that thin-looking set. She did not appear to notice them, however, and we were as polite to their feelings as if we d been in a state dining-room. "What in the world, Lysander," said my wife, putting on as if she was cross with me, "did you get so many for? We ll have to throw them in the water " said she " unless " and then she caught the eye of that set looking up at us and the big paper bag with their mouths open "unless," said Candace, " some of these little folks will help us out with them. When I was that age, I was always hungry." Well, the way those cream puffs went, not only the children, but the mothers took hold, and an old man with long white hair and his legs shivering, he was so thinly clad 184 WELL, THE WAY THOSE CREAM I UFKS WENT. A WARM BRIDGE he stopped and got assimilated with us, and one after another all looking as though they had the right credentials sure enough for joining the party. I made another trip to the bake-shop, speculating in more puffs, and all the mince pies they had this time; and after all it was just as well perhaps that only fancy goods were procurable that day, for cream puffs and mince pies tasted just as well to that set, I reckon, as plain rolls. We had a regular soiree all together, grouped up along the railings of the old bridge. A mulatto girl came along towards us cry ing. A little breeze had taken the feather out of her hat and blown it over into the water; all the same, that girl was heart broken. 185 DEACON LYSANDER " Nev yo min , Minnie," said an older woman at her side; " twas jes an old loose- tooth rheumatiz fedda, anyway. Yo git one o dese yere fass nators like I wear." The woman had a kind of dirty worsted thing tied around her head. We d seen a lot of the same kind crossing the bridge. " I don t want no fassinator," moaned the girl, through her sobs. " I want my fedda." Foolish or wise, grief is all the same, when your heart breaks like that. " Look here, little girl, "said Candace and I stood amazed myself, but Candace did it! She took off her bonnet and ordered out my jack-knife, and off came her new five-dollar feather; and she handed it to that girl. "I ve got trimming enough at home," said Candace, and put on her bare velvet bonnet with decision. 186 A WARM BRIDGE Nobody would have cared for a feather who could have seen that girl s face. " Yo foolin me!" she said when she could speak. But there was an awesome sense that it might be true in the joy and wonderment of her face. "I don t fool people," said Candace, aus terely; then she patted her gently on the shoulder, and the delighted creature passed on out of sight. I ve never forgotten the way that girl looked though. I believe Can- dace will see that same look on that same face, on some other day of wonder. Of course Candace and I ate with our guests. Cream puffs, when you haven t any plates or napkins are sort of clinging, affec tionate things to handle. We certainly had a bedaubed mess of hands and faces, all 187 DEACON LYSANDER round, with here and there some spikes of pie-crust adhering to the cleft of a chin or the tip of a nose. Occasionally, a nice car riage or cab crossed the bridge, and, all of a sudden, I was sure that I saw the Miss Doves looking out at us from a cab with cold un- recognizing eyes. I remembered in a flash how we d heard them talking about taking an acquaintance over to see Arlington some day soon. I was right in the middle of a puff, with two or three little colored children leaning up against each of my legs for support, and hadn t even time to get out my handkerchief to wipe the cream off of my face. So I simply gazed, sure it was they, and called Candace s attention. "Well, what if it is!" said she indiffer- 188 A WARM BRIDGE ently. The fact is we were so deep in false notes, we didn t care. That night, though, in our rooms, after Candace had fixed up her bonnet again with some bows and lace, she held it off, eyeing it, and said she, " Lysander, seems as though we ought to go to one real stylish function." " How can we ? " said I. " We haven t as sociated with anything but what s called the ragtag and bobtail of creation, since we came here. We re respectable folks, I know and fine family but how are we going to alter our course now ? "I don t want to alter it," said Candace proudly ; " but I wouldn t mind mixing in with the cream here once in a way. I d like to go to the President s New Year 189 DEACON LYSANDER reception to-morrow! It s free to all," she added. "Yes, said I, "I know it s free to all. Well, let s go." Candace did not often do up her hair to wave, nowadays, but that night she put it up in crimping pins; and next morning, I was rather scandalized to see the time my wife spent before the mirror. She put on her black silk, her best laces, and white gloves. "You ll have to hurry," said I, "or we shall be late." "No, Lysander," said she calmly; "we don t come in, anyway, until after the for eign legations and the army and navy." We went down to where the White House Was in view, and an officer told us we d have to find our place at the end of the procession 190 A WARM BRIDGE that was waiting to be admitted to the grounds. The aspect of things wilted Can- dace some; still she was going to the White House to shake hands with the President, so we trudged around, a good long walk away from everything to take our proper places at the end of the line standing two abreast. " I guess my plain clothes would have done just as well," said Candace a little rue fully, holding up the trail of her silk gown; for by all the indications we d got in with our usual sort of crowd. We were very sure of it, when almost as soon as we d got in line, the couple ahead of us turned around with beaming faces that disclosed Angelique and her husband. The old man had left his express wagon and 191 DEACON LYSANDER white apron at home, and Angelique had on a cotton mourning veil that almost com pletely enveloped her, so we had not recog nized them from their backs at the first in stant. They carried themselves haughtily, besides; far more so than any of the white people in their vicinity, so that we began to feel we ought to be proud to have such friends and be patronized by them. " How shall we know the President when we get inside, Angelique?" said my wife, deferentially; for Angelique s head in its mourning bonnet was tilted back at an angle that we couldn t think of as anything but queenly. " Don t yo fret, honey," replied Angelique; "yo jes watch me, an whar yo see me -;urchy, yo come along an curchy, arter me. 192 A WARM BRIDGE Yo f be all right jes keep yo eyes on me." We could not do much else, perforce, for Angelique was very broad and her veil voluminous, and the procession packed us up closer and closer to her as the tail of the line kept extending. Candace s good heart went heavy at the sight of so much mourning goods, and presently I heard her whisper to Angelique, "My dear friend, have you lost a child recently ? " "No, honey, I ain t," said Angelique, turn ing a society-like condescending face to us again. " My chillun s all married an gone, de Lawd knows whar ." "Are you in mourning for a sister or a brother?" asked Candace softly. DEACON LYSANDER "No, dat I ain t," declared Angelique boldly, with high good cheer. "I mo nin fo de sins o dis yer rotten world, ef yc want to know what I mo nin fo . I mo nin cause I cayn t git mah dues outer dem mis ra- ble white trash I wukkin fo . I mo nin for dis, dat, and de othah" she continued ju bilantly, giving her veil a toss, "dat s what I s mo nin fo ." A good many people were turning to look at our group by this time, and listening, de lighted, with all their ears so Candace sub sided, and we watched some parties ahead of us who were in a discussion with a mar tial-looking white woman as to whether a man in glorious uniform who had just passed down the street was a general. "I know he was not, " said the martial 194 A WARM BRIDGE woman finally. "I know because I m in the army myself." They were young girls whom she d had the contention with and after that, they gig gled among themselves about "veterans" and "pension bureaus " and other disagree able war topics. But the woman stood stout and did not appear to heed them, though her ears burned. But on the whole, it was a good-natured happy crowd, and people passing us on the sidewalk looked along the line with fre quent evidences of sympathy and amuse ment. Four Japanese young men, of the "qual ity " of that country I should say, dressed in American fashion, came along together, so natty and immaculate they were pleasant to DEACON LYSANDER look at, with their slim broadcloth legs, faultless boots and shiny tall hats. Each one had a rose in his button-hole, too. For per fection, they transcended anything I d ever looked at in the form of fashion. They were chatting and laughing together in such good spirits they were sort of lark- ish, and when they saw Angelique with her proud looks they all put on a solemn face as quick as a wink, and stopped and took off their hats to her as though they were going to bow to the earth. In the first flash, we thought this would only elevate her more but it seemed she was on her guard against ridicule, and made distinctions as to the sort of homage she wanted; for on the instant, with a terrible threat of vengeance, she darted out of our 196 A WARM BRIDGE ranks and after those fellows, who took to their heels. Angelique was very fat, and was ham pered by her mourning veil; and though she made a determined chase and was cheered by many in the crowd, yet it was evident from the first that she was "not in it " with those lithe young foreigners. She came back panting with her bonnet over on one ear and began to readjust herself. "What s the matter here? 1 " said a police man, coming up. "Sho nuff!" said Angelique, unafraid, her queenly attitude resumed. "Dat s what / ask what s the mattah, when spectable folks standin heah, deep dyed in de mo nin o der griefs, has derision poked at em by a lot o low-down idol-wusshipers. Yes, sah, 197 DEACON LYSANDER dey blow deir horn as dey pass by, an* shoot derision at me cause I ain t got but one eye." "Well, keep your place," said the officer sympathetically, "and move along with the crowd." For we had begun to move now; packed up in line, we followed the side-walk, turned into the gates and made approach to the White House. "Keep yo eyes on me," Angelique again commanded us. We passed into the White House, with guards hurrying us, each side; passed through a number of rooms it was all so quickly done, I only remember seeing An gelique make for a gaudy-looking man in white and red, or some other bright color I remember seeing her make a dive for him, 198 " KEEP YO EYES ON ME," ANGELI^UE AGAIN COMMANDED US. A WARM BRIDGE and him smiling and holding back: but it wasn t the President she d picked out for that functionary; it was only a lackey or guard dressed up in livery. Candace and I had not even seen the Presi dent, that we knew of, when we came out; nor shaken hands with anybody, and An- gelique was raving. " Did yo see him ! " she said " coil hisself way fom me! Dat s a nice pres dunt! arter I took all dese yer pains to be frien ly wid him, ter hy-spy an coil hisself way fom me, jes cause I ain t got but one eye! " We convinced her finally that she d picked out the wrong man, and then she soothed down once more. The line was still pouring in and others attaching themselves to its tail. It seemed to 199 DEACON LYSANDER be an instantaneous and mutual decision; anyway, we went around and got to the end of the tail again. "I bet yo , I cotches de right one dis time," said Angelique cheerfully again. "Jes" keep yo eyes on me." We did not though; we kept a keen look out for the sturdy man in civilian s clothes, and had a quick hand-shake with him, though there was room enough for distraction for Angelique, having darted for another gay fel low had got pushed back into rank and file again by the guard. This time she would not believe us though we tried to explain it to her again when we got out under the blue vault of heaven. "I know dat man I sprung fo was de pres dunt," said she. " Dey s a low-down gov munt at de presen time in dat White A WARM BRIDGE House now standin . I despise em an I spit at em." With that she directed an effusive illustra tion of her words towards the whole execu tive institution, of which we had had so fleeting a vision; and recovering her haughty demeanor, she set out towards home. Candace and I went home too. I brushed up my clothes and Candace sponged and mended her dress; and the next day we went back to the Bridge again. 201 XI THE CATASTROPHE THERE were some notes going up and down, from window to court, one night presently. The wind blowing fitfully out side, and I standing there in the darkness, I caught one of them as it was wafted to wards me and speedily detached it from the string. A dim long figure was searching about, there below, for a good hour afterwards, trying to find where the wind had blown that note; but the Count never found it. I closed the window softly and went to the gaslight to read it. "Prying is new business for me," said I 202 THE CATASTROPHE to Candace, "but I believe, just this once, the Lord will forgive me for my eaves dropping." We were very sure of it when we read the note. There was not much time to spare. In the morning I slicked myself up to the best of my ability and let myself out of the house, going down to the railroad station to take the first train for Baltimore. I expected Cleopatra s father the wine merchant to be a ruddy coarse kind of man, but he had features like a cameo, with a pale girlish complexion. His eyes were poetical, like Cleopatra s, and when I saw him I was more glad than ever that I d come. I sat down and told him the whole story. 203 DEACON LYSANDER "She ain t a mite to blame I told him. " She s been under heedless, selfish, bad in fluence. I know, to look at ye, you ll be kind to her." " I ll go back with you and get her," said he. He was as slick as those civilized Japanese, yet he did not seem to make any account of looks. He had me precede him everywhere, and bowed whenever he opened a door for me, and he said, "Sir "to me, just as folks used to do in my young days to people who were older than they were. It was only just luncheon time when we got back to the house, in Washington. "Now," said I to Mr. Carmoody, "I want you to pop right in with me without giving the Doves a chance to make extra prepara tions, and see what kind of fare, for one 204 THE CATASTROPHE thing, has been driving your poor girl to desperatioit." Faith, I did not do it to expose or humili ate them; it helped them, in the end, and I felt he ought to see and know some things with his own eyes. So we marched into the dining-room, and the Doves rose, blushing, but profuse in all their courtesies and make-shifts. But Carmoody, after greeting his daughter, sat down at the table with Candace and me, and looked calmly with his handsome eyes at a plate of cold sliced corn muffins and two little pats of butter, not as large as a thimble and nothing else. Then he glanced briefly to where his daughter sat, and seeing only the same provisions there, he kept that same calm beautiful face, paying attentions all the 205 while to Candace at the table, with what food there was, as if she had been a duchess. All there was in the pantry began to come on, now, but it was not much at the best and he understood. The Doves had got a stylish new colored maid (knowing nevertheless they could never pay her her wages). She put on lots of airs and seemed to aim to make herself conspicuous over the general undercurrent of excitement in the atmosphere; for, as far as I ve seen, that race are apt to have a pre monition of anything particularly lively im pending and enjoy it more than they do meat and drink. She whispered ostentatiously, though low, to Miss Lacey and the girls; then she came and whispered to us three, 206 THE CATASTROPHE "Angelique she tol me to warn yo> not to eat de wine jell . She say, she put soap in dat wine jell stead o wine. She say she gwine to persecute dem Doves cause, long time now, dey been a-persecutin her." Carmoody s face did not change from its sweet amiable look. " What kind of soap did she put in it ?" he murmured back. "She use her own toilette-bokay," replied the girl with a flourish, " cause she say it more lather-y." Here, the door-bell rang, and I remembered that this was the hour the Doves creditors were apt to come, thinking to find the sisters in. Out flounced the serving maid for she had not had time to get canny in affairs, like 207 DEACON LYSANDER Blueing and back she came to the dining- room and announced flippantly in her stylish way, " De gas man desire au jence wid you, Miss Dove. I sot him in de parlor. He say he wait." The Doves smiled they were Spartan, in a way. But they could have torn her limb from limb, not to mention how they felt towards me. I felt that the bell would peal again, and it did. The Doves squirmed. The new waitress came back with more airs. " From de cos-tu-rni-ers, Miss Dove. I sot him in de parlor, too. De cab-hire man standin longside him on de do -step, so I conjur him to come in, too. Dey say dey wait." 208 THE CATASTROPHE Once more the tragedy burst upon us through that maid s airy demeanor. " De man fo his rent, Miss Dove. I sot him in de parlor. He say he wait." After that meal my wife took Cleopatra to her room with her, and Carmoody and I, at the Doves request, went with them into the stately parlors where those men were wait ing to clamor for their dues. All of a sud den the sisters had turned to us as friends. They were speechless and trembling. Carmoody kept his calm face. " Have you anything to pay these, and, probably, other bills ? " he asked them. They shook their heads. " Then you must vacate at once, he said, in his pleasant even voice, "and not let this thing run on any worse or any longer. 209 DEACON LYSANDER Have you any furniture wherewith to make partial compensation for your debts ? " " No," they said. That too was hired and the rent unpaid. " By to-morrow morning," said Carmoody, " you must leave this place." There was thunder on the faces of those men, but they were helpless, they had been done for; there was no property to attach. "We will announce our failure," said the trembling Miss Doves. "All that we have is at the mercy of our creditors." With that the suitors had to depart. But as it turned out the Doves had not any thing, not a mite of a foothold anywhere, no home, no friends who would take them in, no place where to go. THE CATASTROPHE They were weeping, now, and Carmoody and I knew it was only too true. "If ye ll hear to me now," I said, more gently and respectfully than I d ever spoken to them before in my life, " I ve got a little plan." Carmoody turned his bright eyes to me, watching me quietly. " Over at our place in New Hampshire," I went on, making up my mind as I went along, "there s a little house rny father and mother used to live in. I ve always kept it up and in good repair because, somehow, I couldn t do otherwise. It s near enough to our house so nobody would be lonely there. We ve got furniture enough, more than we use, so that we could fit it up real cozy and snug, and give land enough around it so that DEACON LYSANDER any one, so disposed, could make a tidy living there." Carmoody never took his eyes off of me. They were wonderful serious eyes, and his voice ran earnest and fast. "I wish my girl had the chance to get out of this modern life, of false estimates and mean deceit to get out there with you and Mrs. Morse for a year s training. Then I d take her back again. I d give more for it than for all the schools The Doves reddened, and he drew his white hand across his mouth and stopped speaking. " A tidy living," I went on. " We would tide you over with provisions, of course, until spring comes, when ye could get to work on your garden and chicken-raising 212 THE CATASTROPHE and so forth. Ye could get some sewing to do, too the folks out there are real neigh borly, and with no sneers on their faces, neither." " Good," said Carmoody, looking from me to them. " We ll take ye right along home with us," said I, " and in three days we can have that little house all fit for ye to dwell in." ;( Good," said Carmoody again; but they did not speak. " If the Misses Dove decline your offer, I shall accept it! " said Carmoody. "That is well enough for you to say," said the stern Miss Dove to him, then, with some thing of her old manner. " You have all that the world can give. Great wealth " "How do I win it? "said Carmoody to 213 DEACON LYSANDER her. "By work. In six weeks before I ve not had so much of a holiday as I ve taken here to-day. Constant scheming, guarding, application of all a man s powers. Incessant work and for what ? To be cheated when ever I let any interest out of my immediate oversight He stopped again, for we were thinking of his girl and how nearly she had been be trayed. Then his voice suddenly took on an inflexibility I had not known was in him. "You are fools if you refuse," he said. He took out his pocketbook and counted out ten new ten-dollar notes. " Do me the favor to accept these," said he, "if you decide to take up with this gentleman s offer. His ex ample has infected me. I do not know why I should care, or he should care, where you go; 214 THE CATASTROPHE that s the world. But he seems not to be of the world; he is infecting me with fool ish thoughts. The spell of his hypnotism may not last long. Take this filthy lucre while it is within your grasp. Go and pack your trunks. Clear out with his good wife and him to-morrow. The Lord knows where else you can go. As for me, I swear to you, I d desire no better fate. True friendship, field and sky, innocence and honest employment; my God! what do you want?" They took in the ten-dollar notes and thanked him feebly and said they would be ready in the morning. Carmoody found his daughter. The way he held her when she threw her arms round his neck, I knew there was no fear but that he 215 DEACON LYSANDER would be good to her. The two western girls were getting ready joyously for their de parture. Carmoody found out Angelique too, and made further interested inquiries about the substitution of soap for wine in the jelly he seemed to have a good deal of native humor about him. He told her it was hardly fair, since he was a wine merchant, for her to introduce another commodity for the flavor ing of jellies, equally good. But he paid up her wages free-handedly, and she was happy. Cleopatra hugged my wife as if she had been her own mother, when they said good bye to us on the evening of that same day. Cleopatra seemed to have forgotten all about the Count she was that light and simple, THE CATASTROPHE and gay in the thought of her deliverance from the Doves. She must by nature have taken after her mother, I think, for Car- moody s eyes flashed strange deep thoughts at me as he held out his hand in farewell. "1 cannot pay you for the honor and the service you have done me," he said. " I can not say a mere Thank you. I mean to see you again some time. Sir," he said and then he said a strange excited thing, and his lip trembled, " I believe God has not forgot ten me, since He led me, in so strange a way, to meet you." 219 XII HOME IT was a morning, fair of earth and sky, when we set out from the city where we had come to find mirth and gaiety. Well, there was as much of those things there as anywhere, but, for God s good rea son, there s another shape that seems to loom more largely on the earth the great en- shadowing shape of pain and sorrow. The poor and anxious faces seemed far more in number, as we looked, than the merry; some infirmity, some stamp of trouble, we saw wherever our eyes turned; the hearse with its pall was there, and the mourners went about the streets. 218 HOME The Doves were not with us. All trace of them had vanished early that morning. They had fled with the cash Carmoody put in their hand, to some strange city ; there, well dressed and plausible, to renew their house-hiring and boarding school tricks, to run up bills they had no thought of paying; to come again to dissolution and disaster, as I had learned on good authority they had done many times even before I knew them. But they are growing old and weary, and they will come to us, some day. I say, I have a conviction that they will come, some day. We keep the little house ready. I wish that I had told them they would be always welcome; but I reckon, when the time comes, they will feel sure of that. Can- dace says that she believes they will come, 219 DEACON LYSANDER too, and I always rely on Candace s intui tions. Carmoody came, the second summer after our trip. He appeared at the door, one even ing, with his calm face and beautiful eyes; it was all as natural as though we d been ex pecting him he had that way. He told us that Cleopatra was married to a poor clerk of his, a "steady reliable climbing fellow," whom he trusted, he said, more than any one on earth except Candace and me! When he said that and he certainly had a way with him Candace blushed up so pleased she forgot she had not had warning enough of his coming to get on her best silk dress and cap. He stayed a week with us. He seemed not to care to talk much, but his face was full of 220 HOME pleasant talk even when he was still. He churned, and helped me reap nothing would stay him ; and one day we rigged up some fish poles and went fishing together. He spent the longest time, Sunday morning, brushing his clothes, though there never ap peared to be a speck on him at any time, and polished his boots till they shone, to go to meeting with Candace and me. He listened to our old minister as if he d been a prophet. When the contribution box came round I was one of the deacons to pass the box, and our pew came in on my circuit he put ii. a bill all crumpled up into a wad so it did not make any show. When that bill was unrolled it proved to be two bills! and each one was for a hundred dollars. It helped us mightily with our DEACON LYSANDER church finances; and I ve been asked by the church committee, ever since, if my city friend was coming to make me another visit! Well, to go back to our keys, that Can- dace and I treasure and cannot lose, however we fling them around, the key to the world s sorrow, the key to the world s work, and the key that opens the padlock to the big barn door at sunset. I m growing very soft and fond over that padlock key, as my limbs fail and my old eyes grow dim. It s all lovely to look at the sunset from a house-window; but when you get seated on some old rack in the west barn-door, there s a careless sense about it; you re not so much watching as you re almost there! It s grandest in October. I catch my breath sometimes; the old sense 222 HOME of revelry comes back, life with its zest, young and keen. The whole past story, however sad it was, seems glad, sorrow seems glad, and the little step from this to That Yonder seems joyful with the rest. 323 The Greenwich Press, New York, U. S. A. Date Due PRINTED IN U.S.A. CAT. NO. 24 161 A 000 548 838 2