DEEPHAVEN 
 
 BY SARAH ORNE 
 JEWETT 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 (Cbc fltoewi&c ptres Cambridge
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1877, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. 
 COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY SARAH OKN JEWBTT 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 
 TS 
 
 . 
 
 \ 
 
 - 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS book is not wholly new, several of the 
 chapters having already been published in the 
 " Atlantic Monthly." 
 
 It has so often been asked if Deephaven 
 may not be found on the map of New England 
 under another name, that, to prevent any mis- 
 understanding, I wish to say, while there is 
 a likeness to be traced, few of the sketches are 
 drawn from that town itself, and the characters 
 will in almost every case be looked for there 
 in vain. 
 
 I dedicate this story of out-of-door life and 
 country people first to my father and mother, 
 my two best friends, and also to all my other 
 friends, whose names I say to myself lovingly, 
 though I do not write them here. 
 
 S. O. J. 
 
 369033
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAOB 
 
 KATE LANCASTER'S PLAN 1 
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE AND THE LIGHTHOUSE . 14 
 
 MY LADY BRANDON AND THE WIDOW JIM . . 34 
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 62 
 
 THE CAPTAINS 81 
 
 DANNY 93 
 
 CAPTAIN SANDS 110 
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY . ' . . . . 121 
 
 CuNNER-PlSHINQ 147 
 
 MRS. BONNY 187 
 
 IN SHADOW 203 
 
 Miss CHAUNCEY 223 
 
 LAST DAYS IN DEEPHAVEN 240
 
 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 KATE LANCASTER'S PLAN 
 
 I HAD been spending the winter in Bos- 
 ton, and Kate Lancaster and I had been 
 together a great deal, for we are the best of 
 friends. It happened that the morning when 
 this story begins I had waked up feeling 
 sorry, and as if something dreadful were go- 
 ing to happen. There did not seem to be 
 any good reason for it, so I undertook to 
 discourage myself more by thinking that it 
 would soon be time to leave town, and how 
 much I should miss being with Kate and my 
 other friends. My mind was still disquieted 
 when I went down to breakfast ; but beside 
 my plate I found, with a hoped-for letter 
 from my father, a note from Kate. To this 
 day I have never known any explanation of 
 that depression of my spirits, and I hope 
 that the good luck which followed will help 
 some reader to lose fear, and to smile at 
 such shadows if any chance to come. 
 
 Kate had evidently written to me in an
 
 2 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 excited state of mind, for her note was not 
 so trig-looking as usual; but this is what 
 she said: 
 
 DEAR HELEN, I have a plan I think 
 it a most delightful plan in which you and 
 I are chief characters. Promise that you will 
 say yes ; if you do not you will have to re- 
 member all your life that you broke a girl's 
 heart. Come round early, and lunch with 
 me and dine with me. I *m to be all alone, 
 and it 's a long story and will need a great 
 deal of talking over. K. 
 
 I showed this note to my aunt, and soon 
 went round, very much interested. My latch- 
 key opened the Lancasters' door, and I hur- 
 ried to the parlor, where I heard my friend 
 practising with great diligence. I went up 
 to her, and she turned her head and kissed 
 me solemnly. You need not smile; we are 
 not sentimental girls, and are both much 
 averse to indiscriminate kissing, though I 
 have not the adroit habit of shying in which 
 Kate is proficient. It would sometimes be 
 impolite in any one else, but she shies so 
 affectionately. 
 
 "Won't you sit down, dear?" she said,
 
 KATE LANCASTER'S PLAN 3 
 
 with great ceremony, and went on with her 
 playing, which was abominable that morn- 
 ing; her fingers stepped on each other, and, 
 whatever the tune might have been in real- 
 ity, it certainly had a most remarkable inco- 
 herence as I heard it then. I took up the 
 new Littell and made believe read it, and 
 finally threw it at Kate; you would have 
 thought we were two children. 
 
 " Have you heard that my grand-aunt, 
 Miss Katharine Brandon of Deephaveu, is 
 dead ? " I knew that she had died in No- 
 vember, at least six months before. 
 
 " Don't be nonsensical, Kate ! " said I. 
 " What is it you are going to tell me ? " 
 
 " My grand-aunt died very old, and was 
 the last of her generation. She had a sister 
 and three brothers, one of whom had the 
 honor of being my grandfather. Mamma is 
 sole heir to the family estates in Deephaven, 
 wharf -property and all, and it is a great in- 
 convenience to her. The house is a charm- 
 ing old house, and some of my ancestors who 
 followed the sea brought home the greater 
 part of its furnishings. Miss Katharine was 
 a person who ignored all frivolities, and her 
 house was as sedate as herself. I have been 
 there but little, for when I was a child my
 
 4 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 aunt found no pleasure in the society of 
 noisy children who upset her treasures, and 
 when I was older she did not care to see 
 strangers, and after I left school she grew 
 more and more feeble ; I had not been there 
 for two years when she died. Mamma went 
 down very often. The town is -a quaint old 
 place which has seen better days. There are 
 high rocks at the shore, and there is a beach, 
 and there are woods inland, and hills, and 
 there is the sea. It might be dull in Deep- 
 haven for two young ladies who were fond 
 of gay society and dependent upon excite- 
 ment, I suppose; but for two little girls who 
 were fond of each other and could play in 
 the boats, and dig and build houses in the 
 sea-sand, and gather shells, and carry their 
 dolls wherever they went, what could be 
 pleasanter ? " 
 
 " Nothing," said I promptly. 
 
 Kate had told this a little at a time, with 
 a few appropriate bars of music between, 
 which suddenly reminded me of the story of 
 a Chinese procession which I had read in 
 one of Marryat's novels when I was a child : 
 " A thousand white elephants richly capari- 
 soned, ti-tum tilly-lily," and so on, for a 
 page or two. She seemed to have finished
 
 KATE LANCASTER'S PLAN 5 
 
 her story for that time, and while it was 
 dawning upon me what she meant, she sang 
 a bit from one of Jean Ingelow's verses : 
 
 " Will ye step aboard, my dearest, 
 For the high seas lie before us ? " 
 
 and then came over to sit beside me and tell 
 the whole story in a more sensible fashion. 
 
 " You know that my father has been mean- 
 ing to go to England in the autumn ? Yes- 
 terday he told us that he is to leave in a 
 month and will be away all summer, and 
 mamma is going with him. Jack and Willy 
 are to join a party of their classmates who 
 are to spend nearly the whole of the long 
 vacation at Lake Superior. I don't care to 
 go abroad again now, and I did not like any 
 plan that was proposed to me. Aunt Anna 
 was here all the afternoon, and she is going 
 to take the house at Newport, which is very 
 pleasant and unexpected, for she hates house- 
 keeping. Mamma thought of course that I 
 would go with her, but I did not wish to do 
 that, and it would only result in my keep- 
 ing house for her visitors, whom I know very 
 little ; and she will be much more free and 
 independent by herself. Beside, she can have 
 my room if I am not there. I have promised
 
 6 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 to make her a long visit in Baltimore next 
 winter instead. I told mamma that I should 
 like to stay here and go away when I choose. 
 There are ever so many visits which I have 
 promised ; I could stay with you and your 
 Aunt Mary at Lenox if she goes there, for 
 a while, and I have always wished to spend 
 a summer in town ; but mamma did not en- 
 courage that at all. In the evening papa 
 gave her a letter which had come from Mr. 
 Dockum, the man who takes care of Aunt 
 Katharine's place, and the most charming 
 idea came into my head, and I said I meant 
 to spend my summer in Deephaven. 
 
 " At first they laughed at me, and then 
 they said I might go if I chose, and at last 
 they thought nothing could be pleasanter, 
 and mamma wishes she were going herself. 
 I asked if she did not think you would be 
 the best person to keep me company, and 
 she does, and papa announced that he was 
 just going to suggest my asking you. I am 
 to take Ann and Maggie, who will be over- 
 joyed, for they came from that part of the 
 country, and the other servants are to go 
 with Aunt Anna, and old Nora will come to 
 take care of this house, as she always does. 
 Perhaps you and I will come up to town
 
 KATE LANCASTER'S PLAN 7 
 
 once in a while for a few days. We shall 
 have such jolly housekeeping. Mamma and 
 I sat up very late last night, and everything 
 is planned. Mr. Dockum's house is very near 
 Aunt Katharine's, so we shall not be lonely ; 
 though I know you 're no more afraid of that 
 than I. O Helen, won't you go ? " 
 
 Do you think it took me long to decide ? 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster sailed the 10th 
 of June, and my Aunt Mary went to spend 
 her summer among the Berkshire Hills, so 
 I was at the Lancasters' ready to welcome 
 Kate when she came home, after having said 
 good-by to her father and mother. We meant 
 to go to Deephaven in a week, but were 
 obliged to stay in town longer. Boston was 
 nearly deserted of our friends at the last, 
 and we used to take quiet walks in the cool 
 of the evening after dinner, up and down the 
 street, or sit on the front steps in company 
 with the servants left in charge of the other 
 houses, who also sometimes walked up and 
 down and looked at us wonderingly. We 
 had much shopping to do in the daytime, 
 for there was a probability of our spending 
 many days indoors, and as we were not to 
 be near any large town, and did not mean to 
 come to Boston for weeks at least, there was
 
 8 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 a great deal to be remembered and arranged. 
 We enjoyed making our plans, and deciding 
 what we should want, and going to the shops 
 together. I think we felt most important the 
 day we conferred with Ann and made out a 
 list of the provisions which must be ordered. 
 This was being housekeepers in earnest. Mr. 
 Dockum happened to come to town, and we 
 sent Ann and Maggie, with most of our 
 boxes, to Deephaven in his company a day 
 or two before we were ready to go ourselves, 
 and when we reached there the house was 
 opened and in order for us. 
 
 On our journey to Deephaven we left the 
 railway twelve miles from that place, and 
 took passage in a stage-coach. There was 
 only one passenger beside ourselves. She was 
 a very large, thin, weather-beaten woman, 
 and looked so tired and lonesome and good- 
 natured, that I could not help saying it was 
 very dusty ; and she was apparently delighted 
 to answer that she should think everybody 
 was sweeping, and she always felt, after be- 
 ing in the cars a while, as if she had been 
 taken all to pieces and left in the different 
 places. And this was the beginning of our 
 friendship with Mrs. Kew. 
 
 After this conversation we looked indus-
 
 KATE LANCASTER'S PLAN 9 
 
 triously out of the window into the pastures 
 and pine-woods. I had given up my seat to 
 her, for I do not mind riding backward in 
 the least, and you would have thought I had 
 done her the greatest favor of her life. I 
 think she was the most grateful of women, 
 and I was often reminded of a remark one 
 of my friends once made about some one : 
 " If you give Bessie a half -sheet of letter- 
 paper, she behaves to you as if it were the 
 most exquisite of presents ! " Kate and I had 
 some fruit left in our lunch-basket, and di- 
 vided it with Mrs. Kew, but after the first 
 mouthful we looked at each other in dismay. 
 " Lemons with oranges' clothes on, are n't 
 they ? " said she, as Kate threw hers out of 
 the window, and mine went after it for com- 
 pany ; and after this we began to be very 
 friendly indeed. We both liked the odd wo- 
 man, there was something so straightforward 
 and kindly about her. 
 
 " Are you going to Deephaven, dear ? " she 
 asked me, and then : " I wonder if you are 
 going to stay long? All summer? Well, 
 that 's clever ! I do hope you will come out 
 to the Light to see me ; young folks 'most 
 always like my place. Most likely your 
 friends will fetch you."
 
 10 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 "Do you know the Brandon house?" 
 asked Kate. 
 
 "Well as I do the meeting-house. There! 
 I wonder I did n't know from the beginning, 
 but I have been a-trying all the way to settle 
 it who you could be. I've been up country 
 some weeks, stopping with my mother, and 
 she seemed so set to have me stay till straw- 
 berry-time, and would hardly let me come 
 now. You see she 's getting to be old ; why, 
 every time I 've come away for fifteen years 
 she 's said it was the last time I 'd ever see 
 her, but she 's a dreadful smart woman of 
 her age. ' He ' wrote me some o' Mrs. Lan- 
 caster's folks were going to take the Brandon 
 house this summer; and so you are the ones? 
 It 's a sightly old place ; I used to go and 
 see Miss Katharine. She must have left a 
 power of china-ware. She set a great deal by 
 the house, and she kept everything just as it 
 used to be in her mother's day." 
 
 " Then you live in Deephaven too ? " asked 
 Kate. 
 
 "I've been here the better part of my 
 life. I was raised up among the hills in Ver- 
 mont, and I shall always be a real up-country 
 woman if I live here a hundred years. The 
 sea does n't come natural to me, it kind of
 
 KATE LANCASTER'S PLAN 11 
 
 worries me, though you won't find a happier 
 woman than I be, 'long shore. When I was 
 first married ' he ' had a schooner and went 
 to the banks, and once he was off on a whal- 
 ing voyage, and I hope I may never come to 
 so long a three years as those were again, 
 though I was up to mother's. Before I was 
 married he had been 'most everywhere. 
 When he came home that time from whal- 
 ing, he found I 'd taken it so to heart that 
 he said he 'd never go off again, and then he 
 got the chance to keep Deephaven Light, 
 and we 've lived there seventeen years come 
 January. There is n't great pay, but then 
 nobody tries to get it away from us, and 
 we 've got so 's to be contented, if it is lone- 
 some in winter." 
 
 " Do you really live in the lighthouse? I 
 remember how I used to beg to be taken out 
 there when I was a child, and how I used to 
 watch for the light at night," said Kate 
 enthusiastically. 
 
 So began a friendship which we both still 
 treasure, for knowing Mrs. Kew was one of 
 the pleasantest things which happened to us 
 in that delightful summer, and she used to do 
 so much for our pleasure, and was so good 
 to us. When we went out to the lighthouse
 
 12 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 for the last time to say good-by, we were 
 very sorry girls indeed. We had no idea until 
 then how much she cared for us, and her 
 affection touched us very much. She told us 
 that she loved us as if we belonged to her, 
 and begged us not to forget her, as if we 
 ever could ! and to remember that there 
 was always a home and a warm heart for us 
 if she were alive. Kate and I have often 
 agreed that few of our acquaintances are 
 half so entertaining. Her comparisons were 
 most striking and amusing, and her com- 
 ments upon the books she read for she 
 was a great reader were very shrewd and 
 clever, and always to the point. She was 
 never out of temper, even when the barrels 
 of oil were being rolled across her kitchen 
 floor. And she was such a wise woman ! 
 This stage-ride, which we expected to find 
 tiresome, we enjoyed very much, and we 
 were glad to think, when the coach stopped, 
 and " he " came to meet her with great sat- 
 isfaction, that we had one friend in Deep- 
 haven at all events. 
 
 I liked the house from my very first sight 
 of it. It stood behind a row of poplars 
 which were as green and flourishing as the 
 poplars which stand in stately processions in
 
 KATE LANCASTER'S PLAN 13 
 
 the fields around Quebec. It was an imposing 
 great white house, and the lilacs were tall, 
 and there were crowds of rose-bushes not yet 
 out of bloom ; and there were box borders, 
 and there were great elms at the side of the 
 house and down the road. The hall door 
 stood wide open, and my hostess turned to 
 me as we went in, with one of her sweet, 
 sudden smiles. " Won't we have a good time, 
 Nelly ? " said she. And I thought we should. 
 So our summer's housekeeping began in 
 most pleasant fashion. It was just at sunset, 
 and Ann's and Maggie's presence made the 
 house seem familiar at once. Maggie had 
 been unpacking for us, and there was a de- 
 licious supper ready for the hungry girls. 
 Later in the evening we went down to the 
 shore, which was not very far away ; the fresh 
 sea-air was welcome after the dusty day, and 
 it seemed so quiet and pleasant in Deephaven.
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE AND THE 
 LIGHTHOUSE 
 
 I DO not know that the Brandon house is 
 really very remarkable, but I never have been 
 in one that interested me in the same way. 
 Kate used to recount to select audiences at 
 school some of her experiences with her Aunt 
 Katharine, and it was popularly believed that 
 she once carried down some indestructible 
 picture-books when they were first in fashion, 
 and the old lady basted them for her to hem 
 round the edges at the rate of two a day. It 
 may have been fabulous. It was impossible to 
 imagine any children in the old place ; every- 
 thing was for grown people ; even the stair- 
 railing was too high to slide down on. The 
 chairs looked as if they had been put, at the 
 furnishing of the house, in their places, and 
 there they meant to remain. The carpets 
 were particularly interesting, and I remem- 
 ber Kate's pointing out to me one day a great 
 square figure in one, and telling me she used to 
 keep house there with her dolls for lack of a 
 better play-house, and if one of them chanced
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE 15 
 
 to fall outside the boundary stripe, it was im- 
 mediately put to bed with a cold. It is a house 
 with great possibilities; it might easily be 
 made charming. There are four very large 
 rooms on the lower floor, and six above, a 
 wide hall in each story, and a fascinating gar- 
 ret over the whole, where were many myste- 
 rious old chests and boxes, in one of which we 
 found Kate's grandmother's love-letters ; and 
 you may be sure the vista of rummages which 
 Mr. Lancaster had laughed about was ex- 
 plored to its very end. The rooms all have 
 elaborate cornices, and the lower hall is very 
 fine, with an archway dividing it, and panel- 
 lings of all sorts, and a great door at each 
 end, through which the lilacs in front and the 
 old pensioner plum trees in the garden are 
 seen exchanging bows and gestures. Coming 
 from the Lancasters' high city house, it did 
 not seem as if we had to go upstairs at all 
 there, for every step of the stairway is so 
 broad and low, and you come halfway to a 
 square landing with an old straight-backed 
 chair in each farther corner ; and between 
 them a large, round-topped window, with a 
 cushioned seat, looking out on the garden 
 and the village, the hills far inland, and the 
 sunset beyond all. Then you turn and go up
 
 16 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 a few more steps to the upper hall, where we 
 used to stay a great deal. There were more 
 old chairs and a pair of remarkable sofas, 
 on which we used to deposit the treasures 
 collected in our wanderings. The wide win- 
 dow which looks out on the lilacs and the sea 
 was a favorite seat of ours. Facing each other 
 on either side of it are two old secretaries, 
 and one of them we ascertained to be the 
 hiding-place of secret drawers, in which may 
 be found valuable records deposited by our- 
 selves one rainy day when we first explored 
 it. We wrote, between us, a tragic " journal" 
 on some yellow old letter-paper we found 
 in the desk. We put it in the most hidden 
 drawer by itself, and flatter ourselves that it 
 will be regarded with great interest some time 
 or other. Of one of the front rooms, " the best 
 chamber," we stood rather in dread. It is 
 very remarkable that there seem to be no 
 ghost-stories connected with any part of the 
 house, particularly this. We are neither of 
 us nervous ; but there is certainly something 
 dismal about the room. The huge curtained 
 bed and immense easy-chairs, windows, and 
 everything were draped in some old-fashioned 
 kind of white cloth which always seemed to 
 be waving and moving about of itself. The
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE 17 
 
 carpet was most singularly colored with dark 
 reds and indescribable grays and browns, and 
 the pattern, after a whole summer's study, 
 could never be followed with one's eye. The 
 paper was captured in a French prize some- 
 where some time in the last century, and part 
 of the figure was shaggy, and therein little 
 spiders found habitation, and went visiting 
 their acquaintances across the shiny places. 
 The color was an unearthly pink and a 
 forbidding maroon, with dim white spots, 
 which gave it the appearance of having 
 moulded. It made you low-spirited to look 
 long in the mirror ; and the great lounge one 
 could not have cheerful associations with, 
 after hearing that Miss Brandon herself did 
 not like it, having seen so many of her rela- 
 tives lie there dead. There were fantastic 
 china ornaments from Bible subjects on the 
 mantel, and the only picture was one of the 
 Maid of Orleans tied with an unnecessarily 
 strong rope to a very stout stake. The best 
 parlor we also rarely used, because all the 
 portraits which hung there had for some un- 
 accountable reason taken a violent dislike to 
 us, and followed us suspiciously with their 
 eyes. The furniture was stately and very un- 
 comfortable, and there was something about
 
 18 DEEPBA YEN 
 
 the room which suggested an invisible fu- 
 ueral. 
 
 There is not very much to say about the 
 dining-room. It was not specially interesting, 
 though the sea was in sight from one of the 
 windows. There were some old Dutch pictures 
 on the wall, so dark that one could scarcely 
 make out what they were meant to repre- 
 sent, and one or two engravings. There was a 
 huge sideboard, for which Kate had brought 
 down from Boston Miss Brandon's own sil- 
 ver which had stood there for so many years, 
 and looked so much more at home and in 
 place than any other possibly could have 
 looked, and Kate also found in the closet 
 the three great decanters with silver labels 
 chained round their necks, which had always 
 been the companions of the tea-service in 
 her aunt's lifetime. From the little closets 
 in the sideboard there came a most signifi- 
 cant odor of cake and wine whenever one 
 opened the doors. We used Miss Brandon's 
 beautiful old blue India china which she had 
 given to Kate, and which had been carefully 
 packed all winter. Kate sat at the head and 
 I at the foot of the round table, and I must 
 confess that we were apt to have either a 
 feast or a famine, for at first we often for-
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE 19 
 
 got to provide our dinners. If this were the 
 case Maggie was sure to serve us with most 
 derisive elegance, and make us wait for as 
 much ceremony as she thought necessary 
 for one of Mrs. Lancaster's dinner-parties. 
 
 The west parlor was our favorite room 
 downstairs. It had a great fireplace framed 
 in blue and white Dutch tiles which ingen- 
 iously and instructively represented the ca- 
 reers of the good and the bad man; the 
 starting-place of each being a very singular 
 cradle in the centre at the top. The last two 
 of the series are very high art : a great cof- 
 fin stands in the foreground of each, and the 
 virtuous man is being led off by two dis- 
 agreeable-looking angels, while the wicked 
 one is hastening from an indescribable but 
 unpleasant assemblage of claws and horns 
 and eyes which is rapidly advancing from 
 the distance, open-mouthed, and bringing a 
 chain with it. 
 
 There was a large cabinet holding all the 
 small curiosities and knick-knacks there 
 seemed to be no other place for, odd 
 china figures and cups and vases, unac- 
 countable Chinese carvings and exquisite 
 corals and sea-shells, minerals and Swiss 
 wood-work, and articles of vertu from the
 
 20 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 South Seas. Underneath were stored boxes 
 of letters and old magazines; for this was 
 one of the houses where nothing seems to 
 have been thrown away. In one parting we 
 found a parcel of old manuscript sermons, 
 the existence of which was a mystery, until 
 Kate remembered there had been a gifted 
 son of the house who entered the ministry 
 and soon died. The windows had each a 
 pane of stained glass, and on the wide sills 
 we used to put our immense bouquets of field- 
 flowers. There was one place which I liked 
 and sat in more than any other. The chim- 
 ney filled nearly the whole side of the room, 
 all but this little corner, where there was 
 just room for a very comfortable high-backed 
 cushioned chair, and a narrow window where 
 I always had a bunch of fresh green ferns 
 in a tall champagne-glass. I used to write 
 there often, and always sat there when Kate 
 sang and played. She sent for a tuner, and 
 used to successfully coax the long-imprisoned 
 music from the antiquated piano, and sing 
 for her visitors by the hour. She almost 
 always sang her oldest songs, for they 
 seemed most in keeping with everything 
 about us. I used to fancy that the portraits 
 liked our being there. There was one young
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE 21 
 
 girl who seemed solitary and forlorn among 
 the rest in the room, who were all middle- 
 aged. For their part they looked amiable, 
 but rather unhappy, as if she had come in 
 and interrupted their conversation. We both 
 grew very fond of her, and it seemed, when 
 we went in the last morning on purpose to 
 take leave of her, as if she looked at us im- 
 ploringly. She was soon afterward boxed 
 up, and now enjoys society after her own 
 heart in Kate's room in Boston. 
 
 There was the largest sofa I ever saw 
 opposite the fireplace; it must have been 
 brought in in pieces, and built in the room. 
 It was broad enough for Kate and me to lie 
 on together, and very high and square; but 
 there was a pile of soft cushions at one end. 
 We used to enjoy it greatly in September, 
 when the evenings were long and cool, and 
 we had many candles, and a fire and 
 crickets too on the hearth, and the dear 
 dog lying on the rug. I remember one rainy 
 night, just before Miss Tennant and Kitty 
 Bruce went away ; we had a real drift-wood 
 fire, and blew out the lights and told stories. 
 Miss Margaret knows so many and tells 
 them so well. Kate and I were unusually 
 entertaining, for we became familiar with
 
 22 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 the family record of the town, and could re- 
 count marvellous adventures by land and 
 sea, and ghost-stories by the dozen. We had 
 never either of us been in a society consist- 
 ing of so many travelled people ! Hardly a 
 man but had been the most of his life at sea. 
 Speaking of ghost-stories, I must tell you 
 that once in the summer two Cambridge 
 girls who were spending a week with us un- 
 wisely enticed us into giving some thrilling 
 recitals, which nearly frightened them out 
 of their wits, and Kate and I were finally in 
 terror ourselves. We had all been on the sofa 
 in the dark, singing and talking, and were 
 waiting in great suspense after I had finished 
 one of such particular horror that I declared 
 it should be the last, when we heard foot- 
 steps on the hall stairs. There were lights 
 in the dining - room which shone faintly 
 through the half-closed door, and we saw 
 something white and shapeless come slowly 
 down, and clutched each other's gowns in 
 agony. It was only Kate's dog, who came 
 in and laid his head in her lap and slept 
 peacefully. We thought we could not sleep 
 a wink after this, and I bravely went alone 
 out to the light to see my watch, and, find- 
 ing it was past twelve, we concluded to sit
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE 23 
 
 up all night and to go down to the shore at 
 sunrise, it would be so much easier than get- 
 ting up early some morning. We had been 
 out rowing and had taken a long walk the 
 day before, and were obliged to dance and 
 make other slight exertions to keep ourselves 
 awake at one time. We lunched at two, and 
 I never shall forget the sunrise that morn- 
 ing; but we were singularly quiet and ab- 
 stracted that day, and indeed for several 
 days after Deephaven was " a land in which 
 it seemed always afternoon," we breakfasted 
 so late. 
 
 As Mrs. Kew had said, there was "a 
 power of china." Kate and I were convinced 
 that the lives of her grandmothers must have 
 been spent in giving tea-parties. We counted 
 ten sets of cups, beside quantities of stray 
 ones; and some member of the family had 
 evidently devoted her time to making a col- 
 lection of pitchers. 
 
 There was an escritoire in Miss Brandon's 
 own room, which we looked over one day. 
 There was a little package of letters; ship 
 letters mostly, tied with a very pale and 
 tired-looking blue ribbon. They were in a 
 drawer with a locket holding a faded minia- 
 ture on ivory and a lock of brown hair, and
 
 24 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 there were also some dry twigs and bits of 
 leaf which had long ago been bright wild- 
 roses, such as still bloom among the Deep- 
 haven rocks. Kate said that she had often 
 heard her mother wonder why her aunt never 
 had cared to marry, for she had chances 
 enough doubtless, and had been rich and 
 handsome and finely educated. So there was 
 a sailor lover after all, and perhaps he had 
 been lost at sea and she faithfully kept the 
 secret, never mourning outwardly. " And I 
 always thought her the most matter-of-fact 
 old lady," said Kate; "yet here's her ro- 
 mance, after all." We put the letters out- 
 side on a chair to read, but afterwards care- 
 fully replaced them, without untying them. 
 I 'm glad we did. There were other letters 
 which we did read, and which interested us 
 very much, letters from her girl friends 
 written in the boarding-school vacations, and 
 just after she finished school. Those in one 
 of the smaller packages were charming; it 
 must have been such a bright, nice girl who 
 wrote them! They were very few, and were 
 tied with black ribbon, and marked on the 
 outside in girlish writing: "My dearest 
 friend, Dolly McAllister, died September 3, 
 1809, aged eighteen." The ribbon had evi-
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE 25 
 
 dently been untied and the letters read many 
 times. One began : " My dear, delightful Kit- 
 ten : I am quite overjoyed to find my father 
 has business which will force him to go to 
 Deephaven next week, and he kindly says if 
 there be no more rain I may ride with him 
 to see you. I will surely come, for if there is 
 danger of spattering my gown, and he bids 
 me stay at home, I shall go galloping after 
 him and overtake him when it is too late to 
 send me back. I have so much to tell you." 
 I wish I knew more about the visit. Poor 
 Miss Katharine ! it made us sad to look over 
 these treasures of her girlhood. There were 
 her compositions and exercise-books; some 
 samplers and queer little keepsakes; with- 
 ered flowers and some pebbles and other 
 things of like value, with which there was 
 probably some pleasant association. "Only 
 think of her keeping them all her days," 
 said I to Kate. "I am continually throwing 
 some relic of the kind away, because I for- 
 get why I have it!" 
 
 There was a box in the lower part which 
 Kate was glad to find, for she had heard her 
 mother wonder if some such things were not 
 in existence. It held a crucifix and a mass- 
 book and some rosaries, and Kate told me
 
 26 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 Miss Katharine's youngest and favorite bro- 
 ther had become a Roman Catholic while 
 studying in Europe. It was a dreadful blow 
 to the family ; for in those days there could 
 have been few deeper disgraces to the Bran- 
 don family than to have one of its sons 
 go over to popery. Only Miss Katharine 
 treated him with kindness, and after a time 
 he disappeared without telling even her 
 where he was going, and was only heard 
 from indirectly once or twice afterward. It 
 was a great grief to her. "And mamma 
 knows," said Kate, "that she always had a 
 lingering hope of his return, for one of the 
 last times she saw Aunt Katharine before she 
 was ill she spoke of soon going to be with 
 all the rest, and said, 'Though your Uncle 
 Henry, dear,' and stopped and smiled 
 sadly; 'you'll think me a very foolish old 
 woman, but I never quite gave up thinking 
 he might come home.' " 
 
 Mrs. Kew did the honors of the lighthouse 
 thoroughly on our first visit ; but I think we 
 rarely went to see her that we did not make 
 some entertaining discovery. Mr. Kew's 
 nephew, a guileless youth of forty, lived with 
 them, and the two men were of a mechani-
 
 THE BRANDON BOUSE 27 
 
 cal turn and had invented numerous aids to 
 housekeeping, appendages to the stove, and 
 fixtures on the walls for everything that 
 could be hung up ; catches in the floor to hold 
 the doors open, and ingenious apparatus to 
 close them; but, above all, a system of bar- 
 ring and bolting for the wide " fore door," 
 which would have disconcerted an energetic 
 battering-ram. After all this work being ex- 
 pended, Mrs. Kew informed us that it was 
 usually wide open all night in summer wea- 
 ther. On the back of this door I discovered 
 one day a row of marks, and asked their sig- 
 nificance. It seemed that Mrs. Kew had at- 
 tempted one summer to keep count of the 
 number of people who inquired about the de- 
 predations of the neighbors' chickens. Mrs. 
 Kew's bedroom was partly devoted to the 
 fine arts. There was a large collection of like- 
 nesses of her relatives and friends on the wall, 
 which was interesting in the extreme. Mrs. 
 Kew was always much pleased to tell their 
 names, and her remarks about any feature not 
 exactly perfect were very searching and crit- 
 ical. " That 's my oldest brother's wife, Clo- 
 rinthy Adams that was. She 's well featured, 
 if it were not for her nose, and that looks as 
 if it had been thrown at her, and she was n't
 
 28 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 particular about baring it on firm, in hopes 
 of getting a better one. She sets by her looks, 
 though." 
 
 There were often sailing-parties that came 
 there from up and down the coast. One day 
 Kate and I were spending the afternoon at 
 the Light ; we had been fishing, and were 
 sitting in the doorway listening to a remi- 
 niscence of the winter Mrs. Kew kept school 
 at the Four Corners ; saw a boatful coming, 
 and all lost our tempers. Mrs. Kew had a 
 lame ankle, and Kate offered to go up with 
 the visitors. There were some girls and young 
 men who stood on the rocks a while, and then 
 asked us, with much better manners than the 
 people who usually came, if they could see 
 the lighthouse, and Kate led the way. She 
 was dressed that day in a costume we both 
 frequently wore, of gray skirts and blue 
 sailor- jacket, and her boots were much the 
 worse for wear. The celebrated Lancaster 
 complexion was rather darkened by the sun. 
 Mrs. Kew expressed a wish to know what 
 questions they would ask her, and I followed 
 after a few minutes. They seemed to have 
 finished asking about the lantern, and to 
 have become personal. 
 
 " Don't you get tired staying here ? "
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE 29 
 
 "No, indeed!" said Kate. 
 
 " Is that your sister downstairs ? " 
 
 "No, I have no sister." 
 
 " I should think you would wish she was. 
 Are n't you ever lonesome ? " 
 
 " Everybody is, sometimes," said Kate. 
 
 " But it 's such a lonesome place ! " said 
 one of the girls. " I should think you would 
 get work away. I live in Boston. Why, it 's 
 so awful quiet ! nothing but the water, and 
 the wind, when it blows ; and I think either 
 of them is worse than nothing. And only 
 this little bit of a rocky place ! I should want 
 to go to walk." 
 
 I heard Kate pleasantly refuse the offer 
 of pay for her services, and then they began 
 to come down the steep stairs laughing and 
 chattering with each other. Kate stayed be- 
 hind to close the doors and leave everything 
 all right, and the girl who had talked the 
 most waited too, and when they were on the 
 stairs just above me, and the others out of 
 hearing, she said, " You 're real good to show 
 us the things. I guess you '11 think I 'm silly, 
 but I do like you ever so much ! I wish you 
 would come to Boston. I 'm in a real nice 
 
 store, H 's, on Winter Street ; and 
 
 they will want new saleswomen in October.
 
 30 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 Perhaps you could be at my counter. I 'd 
 teach you, and you could board with me. 
 I 've got a real comfortable room, and I sup- 
 pose I might have more things, for I get 
 good pay ; but I like to send money home 
 to mother. I 'm at my aunt's now, but I am 
 going back next Monday, and if you will tell 
 me what your name is, I '11 find out for cer- 
 tain about the place, and write you. My 
 name 's Mary Wendell." 
 
 I knew by Kate's voice that this had 
 touched her. " You are very kind ; thank 
 you heartily," said she ; " but I cannot go 
 and work with you. I should like to know 
 more about you. I live in Boston too ; my 
 friend and I are staying over in Deephaven 
 for the summer only." And she held out her 
 hand to the girl, whose face had changed 
 from its first expression of earnest good- 
 humor to a very startled one ; and when she 
 noticed Kate's hand, and a ring of hers, 
 which had been turned round, she looked 
 really frightened. 
 
 " O, will you please excuse me ? " said she, 
 blushing. " I ought to have known better ; 
 but you showed us round so willing, and I 
 never thought of your not living here. I 
 did n't mean to be rude."
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE 31 
 
 " Of course you did not, and you were not. 
 I am very glad you said it, and glad you like 
 me," said Kate ; and just then the party 
 called the girl, and she hurried away, and I 
 joined Kate. " Then you heard it all. That 
 was worth having ! " said she. " She was 
 such an honest little soul, and I mean to 
 look for her when I get home." 
 
 Sometimes we used to go out to the Light 
 early in the morning with the fishermen who 
 went that way to the fishing-grounds, but we 
 usually made the voyage early in the after- 
 noon if it were not too hot, and we went fish- 
 ing off the rocks or sat in the house with 
 Mrs. Kew, who often related some of her 
 Vermont experiences, or Mr. Kew would tell 
 us surprising sea -stories and ghost -stories 
 like a story-book sailor. Then we would have 
 an unreasonably good supper and afterward 
 climb the ladder to the lantern to see the 
 lamps lighted, and sit there for a while 
 watching the ships and the sunset. Almost 
 all the coasters came in sight of Deephaven, 
 and the sea outside the Light was their grand 
 highway. Twice from the lighthouse we saw 
 a yacht squadron like a flock of great white 
 birds. As for the sunsets, it used to seem 
 often as if we were near the heart of them,
 
 32 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 for the sea all around us caught the color of 
 the clouds, and though the glory was won- 
 derful, I remember best one still evening 
 when there was a bank of heavy gray clouds 
 in the west shutting down like a curtain, and 
 the sea was silver-colored. You could look 
 under and beyond the curtain of clouds into 
 the palest, clearest yellow sky. There was 
 a little black boat in the distance drifting 
 slowly, climbing one white wave after an- 
 other, as if it were bound out into that other 
 world beyond. But presently the sun came 
 from behind the clouds, and the dazzling 
 golden light changed the look of everything, 
 and it was the time then to say one thought 
 it a beautiful sunset ; while before one could 
 only keep very still, and watch the boat, and 
 wonder if heaven would not be somehow like 
 that far, faint color, which was neither sea 
 nor sky. 
 
 When we came down from the lighthouse 
 and it grew late, we would beg for an hour 
 or two longer on the water, and row away in 
 the twilight far out from land, where, with 
 our faces turned from the Light, it seemed 
 as if we were alone, and the sea shoreless ; 
 and as the darkness closed round us softly, 
 we watched the stars come out, and were
 
 THE BRANDON HOUSE 33 
 
 always glad to see Kate's star and my star, 
 which we had chosen when we were children. 
 I used long ago to be sure of one thing, 
 that, however far away heaven might be, it 
 could not be out of sight of the stars. Some- 
 times in the evening we waited out at sea for 
 the moonrise, and then we would take the 
 oars again and go slowly in, once in a while 
 singing or talking, but oftenest silent.
 
 MY LADY BRANDON AND THE WIDOW JIM 
 
 WHEN it was known that we had arrived 
 in Deephaven, the people who had known 
 Miss Brandon so well, and Mrs. Lancaster 
 also, seemed to consider themselves Kate's 
 friends by inheritance, and were exceedingly 
 polite to us, in either calling upon us or send- 
 ing pleasant messages. Before the first week 
 had ended we had no lack of society. They 
 were not strangers to Kate, to begin with, 
 and as for me, I think it is easy for me to be 
 contented, and to feel at home anywhere. I 
 have the good fortune and the misfortune to 
 belong to the navy, that is, my father does, 
 and my life has been consequently an un- 
 settled one, except during the years of my 
 school life, when my friendship with Kate 
 began. 
 
 I think I should be happy in any town if I 
 were living there with Kate Lancaster. I will 
 not praise my friend as I can praise her, or 
 say half the things I might say honestly. She 
 is so fresh and good and true, and enjoys life 
 so heartily. She is so childlike, without being 
 childish ; and I do not tell you that she is
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 35 
 
 faultless, but when she makes mistakes she 
 is sorrier and more ready to hopefully try 
 again than any girl I know. Perhaps you 
 would like to know something about us, but 
 I am not writing Kate's biography and my 
 own, only telling you of one summer which 
 we spent together. Sometimes in Deephaven 
 we were between six and seven years old, 
 but at other times we have felt irreparably 
 grown-up, and as if we carried a crushing 
 weight of care and duty. In reality we are 
 both twenty-four, and it is a pleasant age, 
 though I think next year is sure to be plea- 
 santer, for we do not mind growing older, 
 since we have lost nothing that we mourn 
 about, and are gaining so much. I shall be 
 glad if you learn to know Kate a little in my 
 stories. It is not that I am fond of her and 
 endow her with imagined virtues and graces ; 
 no one can fail to see how unaffected she is, 
 or not notice her thoughtfulness and gener- 
 osity and her delightful fun, which never has 
 a trace of coarseness or silliness. It was very 
 pleasant having her for one's companion, for 
 she has an unusual power of winning people's 
 confidence, and of knowing with surest in- 
 stinct how to meet them on their own ground. 
 It is the girl's being so genuinely sympathetic
 
 36 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 and interested which makes every one ready 
 to talk to her and be friends with her ; just 
 as the sunshine makes it easy for flowers to 
 grow which the chilly winds hinder. She is 
 not polite for the sake of seeming polite, but 
 polite for the sake of being kind, and there 
 is not a particle of what Hugh Miller justly 
 calls the insolence of condescension about 
 her ; she is not brilliantly talented, yet she 
 does everything in a charming fashion of her 
 own ; she is not profoundly learned, yet she 
 knows much of which many wise people are 
 ignorant, and while she is a patient scholar 
 in both little things and great, she is no less 
 a teacher to all her friends, dear Kate 
 Lancaster ! 
 
 We knew that we were considered Miss 
 Brandon's representatives in Deephaven so- 
 ciety, and this was no slight responsibility, 
 as she had received much honor and respect. 
 We heard again and again what a loss she 
 had been to the town, and we tried that sum- 
 mer to do nothing to lessen the family repu- 
 tation, and to give pleasure as well as take 
 it, though we were singularly persistent in 
 our pursuit of a good time. 1 grew much in- 
 terested in what I heard of Miss Brandon, 
 and it seems to me that it is a great privilege
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 37 
 
 to have an elderly person in one's neighbor- 
 hood, in town or country, who is proud, and 
 conservative, and who lives in stately fashion ; 
 who is intolerant of sham and of useless nov- 
 elties, and clings to the old ways of living 
 and behaving as if it were part of her reli- 
 gion. There is something immensely respect- 
 able about the gentlewomen of the old school. 
 They ignore all bustle and flashiness, and the 
 conceit of the younger people, who act as if 
 at last it had been time for them to appear 
 and manage this world as it ought to have 
 been managed before. Their position in mod- 
 ern society is much like that of the King's 
 Chapel in its busy street in Boston. It per- 
 haps might not have been easy to approach 
 Miss Brandon, but I am sure that if I had 
 visited in Deephaven during her lifetime I 
 should have been very proud if I had been 
 asked to take tea at her house, and should 
 have liked to speak afterward of my acquaint- 
 ance with her. It would have been impossi- 
 ble not to pay her great deference ; it is a 
 pleasure to think that she must have found 
 this world a most polite world, and have had 
 the highest opinion of its good manners. 
 Noblesse oblige : that is true in more ways 
 than one ! 
 
 3G3033
 
 38 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 I cannot help wondering if those of us who 
 will be left by and by to represent our own 
 generation will seem to have such superior 
 elegance of behavior ; if we shall receive so 
 much respect and be so much valued. It is 
 hard to imagine it. We know that the world 
 gains new refinements and a better culture ; 
 but to us there never will be such imposing 
 ladies and gentlemen as these who belong to 
 the old school. 
 
 The morning after we reached Deephaven 
 we were busy upstairs, and there was a de- 
 termined blow at the knocker of the front 
 door. I went down to see who was there, and 
 had the pleasure of receiving our first caller. 
 She was a prim little old woman who looked 
 pleased and expectant, who wore a neat cap 
 and front, and whose eyes were as bright as 
 black beads. She wore no bonnet, and had 
 thrown a little three-cornered shawl, with 
 palm-leaf figures, over her shoulders ; and it 
 was evident that she was a near neighbor. 
 She was very short and straight and thin, 
 and so quick that she darted like a pickerel 
 when she moved about. It occurred to me 
 at once that she was a very capable person, 
 and had " faculty," and, dear me, how fast 
 she talked! She hesitated a moment when
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 39 
 
 she saw me, and dropped a fragment of a 
 courtesy. "Miss Lan'k'ster?" said she 
 doubtfully. 
 
 "No," said I, "I'm Miss Denis: Miss 
 Lancaster is at home, though : come in, won't 
 you?" 
 
 "O Mrs. Patton!" said Kate, who came 
 down just then. " How very kind of you to 
 come over so soon! I should have gone to 
 see you to-day. I was asking Mrs. Kew last 
 night if you were here." 
 
 " Land o' compassion ! " said Mrs. Pat- 
 ton, as she shook Kate's hand delightedly. 
 " Where 'd ye s'pose I'd be, dear? I ain't 
 like to move away from Deephaven now, 
 after I 've held by the place so long, I 've got 
 as many roots as the big ellum. Well, I 
 should know you were a Brandon, no matter 
 where I see you. You 've got a real Brandon 
 look ; tall and straight, ain't you ? It 's four 
 or five years since I saw you, except once at 
 church, and once you went by, down to the 
 shore, I suppose. It was a windy day in the 
 spring of the year." 
 
 " I remember it very well," said Kate. 
 "Those were both visits of only a day or two, 
 and I was here at Aunt Katharine's funeral, 
 and went away that same evening. Do you
 
 40 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 remember once I was here in the summer 
 for a longer visit, five or six years ago, and 
 I helped you pick currants in the garden? 
 You had a very old mug." 
 
 " Now, whoever would ha' thought o' your 
 rec'lecting that ? " said Mrs. Patton. " Yes. 
 I had that mug because it was handy to 
 carry about among the bushes, and then I 'd 
 empt' it into the basket as fast as I got it 
 full. Your aunt always told me to pick all I 
 wanted ; she could n't use 'em, but they used 
 to make sights o' currant win in old times. 
 I s'pose that mug would be considerable of 
 a curiosity to anybody that was n't used to 
 seeing it round. My grand' ther Joseph Tog- 
 gerson my mother was a Toggerson 
 picked it up on the long sands in a wad of 
 sea-weed : strange it was n't broke, but it 's 
 tough ; I 've dropped it on the floor, many 's 
 the time, and it ain't even chipped. There 's 
 some Dutch reading on it and it's marked 
 1732. Now I should n't ha' thought you 'd 
 remembered that old mug, I declare. Your 
 aunt she had a monstrous sight of chiny. 
 She 's told me where 'most all of it come 
 from, but I expect I 've forgot. My memory 
 fails me a good deal by spells. If you had n't 
 come down I suppose your mother would have
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 41 
 
 had the chiny packed up this spring, what 
 she did n't take with her after your aunt died. 
 S'pose she has n't made up her mind what to 
 do with the house ? " 
 
 " No," said Kate ; " she wishes she could ; 
 it is a great puzzle to us." 
 
 "I hope you will find it in middling 
 order," said Mrs. Patton humbly. " Me and 
 Mis' Dockum have done the best we knew, 
 opened the windows and let in the air and 
 tried to keep it from getting damp. I fixed 
 all the woollens with fresh camphire and to- 
 bacco the last o' the winter ; you have to be 
 dreadful careful in one o' these old houses, 
 'less everything gets creaking with moths in 
 no time. Miss Katharine, how she did hate 
 the sight of a moth-miller ! There 's some- 
 thing I '11 speak about before I forget it : the 
 mice have eat the backs of a pile o' old 
 books that 's stored away in the west cham- 
 ber closet next to Miss Katharine's room, 
 and I set a trap there, but it was older 'n the 
 ten commandments, that trap was, and the 
 spring 's rusty. I guess you 'd better get 
 some new ones and set round in different 
 places, 'less the mice '11 pester you. There 
 ain't been no chance for 'em to get much of 
 a living 'long through the winter, but they '11
 
 42 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 be sure to come back quick as they find 
 there 's likely to be good board. I see your 
 aunt's cat setting out on the front steps. She 
 never was no great of a mouser, but it went 
 to my heart to see how pleased she looks ! 
 Come right back, did n't she ? How they do 
 hold to their old haunts ! " 
 
 " Was that Miss Brandon's cat ? " I asked, 
 with great interest. " She has been upstairs 
 with us, but I supposed she belonged to 
 some neighbor, and had strayed in. She 
 behaved as if she felt at home, poor old 
 pussy ! " 
 
 " We must keep her here," said Kate. 
 
 " Mis' Dockum took her after your mother 
 went off, and Miss Katharine's maids," said 
 Mrs. Patton ; " but she told me that it was 
 a long spell before she seemed to feel con- 
 tented. She used to set on the steps and 
 cry by the hour together, and try to get in, 
 to first one door and then another. I used 
 to think how bad Miss Katharine would 
 feel; she set a great deal by a cat, and she 
 took notice of this as long as she did of any- 
 thing. Her mind failed her, you know. Great 
 loss to Deephaven, she was. Proud woman, 
 and some folks were scared of her; but I 
 always got along with her, and I would n't
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 43 
 
 ask for no kinder friend nor neighbor. I 've 
 had my troubles, and I 've seen the day I 
 was suffering poor, and I could n't have 
 brought myself to ask town help nohow, 
 but I wish ye 'd ha' heared her scold me 
 when she found it out ; and she come march- 
 ing into my kitchen one morning, like a 
 grenadier, and says she, 'Why didn't you 
 send and tell me how sick and poor you 
 are?' says she. And she said. she 'd ha' been 
 so glad to help me all along, but she thought 
 I had means, everybody did ; and I see 
 the tears in her eyes, but she was scolding 
 me and speaking as if she was dreadful mad. 
 She made me comfortable, and she sent over 
 one o' her maids to see to me, and got the 
 doctor, and a load o' stuff come up from the 
 store, so I did n't have to buy anything for 
 a good many weeks. I got better and so 's to 
 work, but she never 'd let me say nothing 
 about it. I had a good deal o' trouble, and 
 I thought I 'd lost my health, but I had n't, 
 and that was thirty or forty years ago. There 
 never was nothing going on at the great 
 house that she did n't have me over, sewing 
 or cleaning or company ; and I got so that 
 I knew how she liked to have things done. 
 I felt as if it was my own sister, though I
 
 44 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 never had one, when I was going over to 
 help lay her out. She used to talk as free 
 to me as she would to Miss Lorimer or Miss 
 Carew. I s'pose ye ain't seen nothing o' 
 them yet ? She was a good Christian woman, 
 Miss Katharine was. * The memory of the 
 just is blessed ' ; that 's what Mr. Lorimer 
 said in his sermon the Sunday after she 
 died, and there was n't a blood-relation there 
 to hear it. I declare it looked pitiful to see 
 that pew empty that ought to ha' been the 
 mourners' pew. Your mother, Mis' Lancas- 
 ter, had to go home Saturday, your father 
 was going away sudden to Washington, I 've 
 understood, and she come back again the 
 first of the week. There ! it did n't make no 
 sort o' difference, p'r'aps nobody thought of 
 it but me. There had n't been anybody in 
 the pew more than a couple o' times since 
 she used to sit there herself, regular as Sun- 
 day come." And Mrs. Patton looked for a 
 minute as if she were going to cry, but she 
 changed her mind upon second thought. 
 
 "Your mother gave me most of Miss 
 Katharine's clothes; this cap belonged to 
 her, that I 've got on now ; it 's 'most wore 
 out, but it does for mornings." 
 
 " O," said Kate, " I have two new ones
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 45 
 
 for you in one of my trunks ! Mamma meant 
 to choose them herself, but she had not time, 
 and so she told me, and I think I found the 
 kind she thought you would like." 
 
 " Now I 'm sure ! " said Mrs. Patton, " if 
 that ain't kind ; you don't tell me that Mis' 
 Lancaster thought of me just as she was 
 going off? I shall set everything by them 
 caps, and I 'in much obliged to you too, Miss 
 Kate. I was just going to speak of that time 
 you were here and saw the mug ; you trimmed 
 a cap for Miss Katharine to give me, real 
 Boston style. I guess that box of cap-fixings 
 is up on the top shelf of Miss Katharine's 
 closet now, to the left hand," said Mrs. Pat- 
 ton, with wistful certainty. " She used to 
 make her every-day caps herself, and she 
 had some beautiful materials laid away that 
 she never used. Some folks has laughed at 
 me for being so particular 'bout wearing 
 caps except for best, but I don't know 's it 's 
 presuming beyond my station, and somehow 
 I feel more respect for myself when I have 
 a good cap on. I can't get over your mother's 
 rec'lecting about me; and she sent me a 
 handsome present o' money this spring for 
 looking after the house^ I never should have 
 asked for a cent ; it 's a pleasure to me to
 
 46 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 keep an eye on it, out o' respect to your 
 aunt. I was so pleased when I heard you 
 were coming long o' your friend. I like to 
 see the old place open ; it was about as bad 
 as having no meeting. I miss seeing the 
 lights, and your aunt was a great hand for 
 lighting up bright; the big hall lantern was 
 lit every night, and she put it out when she 
 went upstairs. She liked to go round same 's 
 if it was day. You see I forget all the time 
 she was sick, and go back to the days when 
 she was well and about the bouse. When 
 her mind was failing her, and she was up- 
 stairs in her room, her eyesight seemed to be 
 lost part of the time, and sometimes she'd 
 tell us to get the lamp and a couple o' can- 
 dles in the middle o' the day, and then she 'd 
 be as satisfied ! But she used to take a no- 
 tion to set in the dark, some nights, and 
 think, I s'pose. I should have forty fits, if I 
 undertook it. That was a good while ago ; 
 and do you rec'lect how she used to play the 
 piano ? She used to be a great hand to play 
 when she was young." 
 
 " Indeed I remember it," said Kate, who 
 told me afterward how her aunt used to sit 
 at the piano in the twilight and play to her- 
 self. " She was formerly a skilful musician,"
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 47 
 
 said my friend, " though one would not have 
 imagined she cared for music. When I was 
 a child she used to play in company of an 
 evening, and once when I was here one of her 
 old friends asked for a tune, and she laugh- 
 ingly said that her day was over and her 
 fingers were stiff ; though I believe she might 
 have played as well as ever then, if she had 
 cared to try. But once in a while when she 
 had been quiet all day and rather sad I 
 am ashamed that. I used to think she was 
 cross she would open the piano and sit 
 there until late, while I used to be enchanted 
 by her memories of dancing-tunes, and old 
 psalms, and marches and songs. There was 
 one tune which I am sure had a history : 
 there was a sweet wild cadence in it, and she 
 would come back to it again and again, al- 
 ways going through with it in the same mea- 
 sured way. I have remembered so many things 
 about my aunt since I have been here," said 
 Kate, " which I hardly noticed and did not 
 understand when they happened. I was afraid 
 of her when I was a little girl, but I think if 
 I had grown up sooner, I should have enjoyed 
 her heartily. It never used to occur to me 
 that she had a spark of tenderness or of senti- 
 ment, until just before she was ill, but I have
 
 48 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 been growing more fond of her ever since. I 
 might have given her a great deal more plea- 
 sure. It was not long after I was through 
 school that she became so feeble, and of course 
 she liked best having mamma come to see her ; 
 one of us had to be at home. I have thought 
 lately how careful one ought to be, to be kind 
 and thoughtful to one's old friends. It is so 
 soon too late to be good to them, and then 
 one is always so sorry." 
 
 I must tell you more of Mrs. Patton ; of 
 course it was not long before we returned her 
 call, and we were much entertained ; we al- 
 ways liked to see our friends in their own 
 houses. Her house was a little way down the 
 road, unpainted and gambrel -roofed, but so 
 low that the old lilac-bushes which clustered 
 round it were as tall as the eaves. The Widow 
 Jim (as nearly every one called her in dis- 
 tinction to the widow Jack Patton, who was 
 a tailoress and lived at the other end of the 
 town) was a very useful person. I suppose 
 there must be her counterpart in all old New 
 England villages. She sewed, and she made 
 elaborate rugs, and she had a decided talent 
 for making carpets, if there were one to be 
 made, which must have happened seldom . But 
 there were a great many to be turned and
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 49 
 
 made over in Deephaven, and she went to the 
 Carews' and Lorimers' at house-cleaning time 
 or in seasons of great festivity. She had no 
 equal in sickness, and knew how to brew 
 every old-fashioned dose and to make every 
 variety of herb-tea, and when her nursing 
 was put to an end by her patient's death, she 
 was commander-in-chief at the funeral, and 
 stood near the doorway to direct the mourn- 
 ing friends to their seats ; and I have no rea- 
 son to doubt that she sometimes even had the 
 immense responsibility of making out the 
 order of the procession, since she had all gen- 
 ealogy and relationship at her tongue's end. 
 It was an awful thing in Deephaven, we 
 found, if the precedence was wrongly assigned, 
 and once we chanced to hear some bitter re- 
 marks because the cousins of the departed wife 
 had been placed after the husband's relatives, 
 " the blood-relations ridin' behind them 
 that was only kin by marriage ! I don't won- 
 der they felt hurt ! " said the person who 
 spoke ; a most unselfish and unassuming soul, 
 ordinarily. 
 
 Mrs. Patton knew everybody's seci-ets, but 
 she told them judiciously if at all. She chat- 
 tered all day to you as a sparrow twitters, 
 and you did not tire of her ; and Kate and I
 
 60 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 were never more agreeably entertained than 
 when she told us of old times and of Kate's 
 ancestors and their contemporaries ; for her 
 memory was wonderful, and she had either 
 seen everything that had happened in Deep- 
 haven for a long time, or had received the 
 particulars from reliable witnesses. She had 
 known much trouble ; her husband had been 
 but small satisfaction to her, and it was not 
 to be wondered at if she looked upon all pro- 
 posed marriages with compassion. She was 
 always early at church, and she wore the same 
 bonnet that she had when Kate was a child ; 
 it was such a well-preserved, proper black 
 straw bonnet, with discreet bows of ribbon, 
 and a useful lace veil to protect it from the 
 weather. 
 
 She showed us into the best room the first 
 time we went to see her. It was the plainest 
 little room, and very dull, and there was an 
 exact sufficiency about its furnishings. Yet 
 there was a certain dignity about it ; it was 
 unmistakably a best room, and not a place 
 where one might make a litter or carry one's 
 e very-day work. You felt at once that some- 
 body valued the prim old-fashioned chairs, 
 and the two half-moon tables, and the thin 
 carpet, which must have needed anxious
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 51 
 
 stretching every spring to make it come to 
 the edge of the floor. There were some mourn- 
 ing-pieces by way of decoration, inscribed 
 with the names of Mrs. Patton's departed 
 friends, two worked in crewel to the mem- 
 ory of her father and mother, and two paper 
 memorials, with the woman weeping under 
 the willow at the side of a monument. They 
 were all brown with age ; and there was a 
 sampler beside, worked by "Judith Beckett, 
 aged ten," and all five were framed in slen- 
 der black frames and hung very high on 
 the walls. There was a rocking-chair which 
 looked as if it felt too grand for use, and 
 considered itself imposing. It tilted far back 
 on its rockers, and was bent forward at the 
 top to make one's head uncomfortable. It 
 need not have troubled itself ; nobody would 
 ever wish to sit there. It was such a big 
 rocking-chair, and Mrs. Patton was proud of 
 it ; always generously urging her guests to 
 enjoy its comfort, which was imaginary with 
 her, as she was so short that she could hardly 
 have climbed into it without assistance. 
 
 Mrs. Patton was a little ceremonious at 
 first, but soon recovered herself and told us 
 a great deal which we were glad to hear. I 
 asked her once if slie had not always lived
 
 52 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 at Deephaven. " Here and beyond East Par- 
 ish," said she. " Mr. Patton, that was my 
 husband, he owned a good farm there when 
 I married him, but I come back here again 
 after he died ; place was all mortgaged. I 
 never got a cent, and I was poorer than when 
 I started. I worked harder 'n ever I did be- 
 fore or since to keep things together, but 't 
 was n't any kind o' use. Your mother knows 
 all about it, Miss Kate," as if we might 
 not be willing to believe it on her authority. 
 "I come back here a widow and destitute, 
 and I tell you the world looked fair to me 
 when I left this house first to go over there. 
 Don't you run no risks, you 're better off 
 as you be, dears. But land sakes alive, ' he ' 
 did n't mean no hurt ! and he set everything 
 by me when he was himself. I don't make 
 no scruples of speaking about it, everybody 
 knows how it was, but I did go through with 
 everything. I never knew what the day would 
 bring forth," said the widow, as if this were 
 the first time she had had a chance to tell her 
 sorrows to a sympathizing audience. She did 
 not seem to mind talking about the troubles 
 of her married life any more than a soldier 
 minds telling the story of his campaigns, and 
 dwells with pride on "the worst battle of all.
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 53 
 
 Her favorite subject always was Miss 
 Brandon, and after a pause she said that 
 she hoped we were finding everything right 
 in the house ; she had meant to take up the 
 carpet in the best spare room, but it did n't 
 seem to need it ; it was taken up the year 
 before, and the room had not been used 
 since, there was not a mite of dust under it 
 last time. And Kate assured her, with an 
 appearance of great wisdom, that she did 
 not think it could be necessary at all. 
 
 " I come home and had a good cry yes- 
 terday after I was over to see you," said 
 Mrs. Patton, and I could not help wonder- 
 ing if she really could cry, for she looked so 
 perfectly dried up, so dry that she might 
 rustle in the wind. "Your aunt had been 
 failin' so long that just after she died it was 
 a relief, but I 've got so 's to forget all about 
 that, and I miss her as she used to be; it 
 seemed as if you had stepped into her place, 
 and you look some as she used to when she 
 was young." 
 
 "You must miss her," said Kate, "and I 
 know how much she used to depend upon 
 you. You were very kind to her." 
 
 " I sat up with her the night she died," 
 said the widow, with mournful satisfaction.
 
 54 DEEP BAY EN 
 
 " I have lived neighbor to her all my life 
 except the thirteen years I was married, and 
 there was n't a week I was n't over to the 
 great house except I was off to a distance 
 taking care of the sick. When she got to be 
 feeble she always wanted me to 'tend to the 
 cleaning and to see to putting the canopies 
 and curtains on the bedsteads, and she 
 would n't trust nobody but me to handle 
 some of the best china. I used to say, ' Miss 
 Katharine, why don't you have some young 
 folks come and stop with you ? There 's Mis' 
 Lancaster's daughter a-growing up ' ; but 
 she did n't seem to care for nobody but your 
 mother. You would n't believe what a hand 
 she used to be for company in her younger 
 days. Surprisin' how folks alters. When I 
 first rec'lect her much she was as straight as 
 an arrow, and she used to go to Boston visit- 
 ing and come home with the top of the fashion. 
 She always did dress elegant. It used to be 
 gay here, and she was always going down to 
 the Lorimers' or the Carews' to tea, and they 
 coming here. Her sister was married; she 
 was a good deal older; but some of her 
 brothers were at home. There was your 
 grandfather and Mr. Henry. I don't think 
 she ever got over it, his disappearing so.
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 55 
 
 There were lots of folks then that 's dead 
 and gone, and they used to have their card- 
 parties, and old Cap'n Manning he 's dead 
 and gone used to have 'em all to play 
 whist every fortnight, sometimes three or 
 four tables, and they always had cake and 
 wine handed round, or the cap'n made some 
 punch, like 's not, with oranges in it, and 
 lemons ; he knew how ! He was a bachelor 
 to the end of his days, the old cap'n was, 
 but he used to entertain real handsome. I 
 rec'lect one night they was a-playin' after 
 the wine was brought in, and he upset his 
 glass all over Miss Martha Lorimer's invis- 
 ible-green watered silk, and spoilt the better 
 part of two breadths. She sent right over for 
 me early the next morning to see if I knew of 
 anything to take out the spots, but I did n't, 
 though I can take grease out o' most any 
 material. We tried clear alcohol, and salera- 
 tus-water, and hartshorn, and pouring water 
 through, and heating of it, and when we 
 got through it was worse than when we 
 started. She felt dreadful bad about it, and 
 at last she says, 'Judith, we won't work 
 over it any more, but if you '11 give me a 
 day some time or 'nother, we '11 rip it up 
 and make a quilt of it.' I see that quilt last
 
 56 DEEPBA YEN 
 
 time I was in Miss Rebecca's north cham- 
 ber. Miss Martha was her aunt; you never 
 saw her; she was dead and gone before your 
 day. It was a silk old Cap'n Peter Lorimer, 
 her brother, who left 'em his money, brought 
 home from sea, and she had worn it for best 
 and second best eleven year. It looked as 
 good as new, and she never would have 
 ripped it up if she could have matched it. I 
 said it seemed to be a shame, but it was a 
 curi's figure. Cap'n Manning fetched her 
 one to pay for it the next time he went to 
 Boston. She did n't want to take it, but he 
 would n't take no for an answer; he was 
 free-handed, the cap'n was. I helped 'em 
 make it 'long of Mary Ann Simms the dress- 
 maker, she 's dead and gone too, the 
 time it was made. It was brown, and a 
 beautiful-looking piece, but it wore shiny, 
 and she made a double-gown of it before 
 she died." 
 
 Mrs. Patton brought Kate and me some 
 delicious old-fashioned cake with much spice 
 in it, and told us it was made by old Mrs. 
 Chantrey Brandon's receipt which she got in 
 England, that it would keep a year, and she 
 always kept a loaf by her, now that she could 
 afford it ; she supposed we knew Miss Katha-
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 57 
 
 rine had named her in her will long before 
 she was sick. " It has put me beyond fear of 
 want," said Mrs. Patton. " I won't deny that 
 I used to think it would go hard with me 
 when I got so old I could n't earn my living. 
 You see I never laid up but a little, and it 's 
 hard for a woman who comes of respectable 
 folks to be a pauper in her last days ; but 
 your aunt, Miss Kate, she thought of it too, 
 and I 'm sure I 'm thankful to be so com- 
 fortable, and to stay in my house, which I 
 could n't have done, like 's not. Miss Re- 
 becca Lorimer said to me after I got news 
 of the will, ' Why, Mis' Patton, you don't 
 suppose your friends would ever have let you 
 want ! ' And I says, ' My friends are kind, 
 the Lord bless 'em ! but I feel better 
 to be able to do for myself than to be be- 
 holden.' " 
 
 After this long call we went down to the 
 post-office, and coming home stopped for a 
 while in the old burying-ground, which we 
 had noticed the day before ; and we sat for 
 the first time on the great stone in the wall, 
 in the shade of a maple tree, where we so 
 often waited afterward for the stage to come 
 with the mail, or rested on our way home 
 from a walk. It was a comfortable perch ;
 
 58 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 we used to read our letters there, I remem- 
 ber. 
 
 I must tell you a little about the Deep- 
 haven burying-ground, for its interest was 
 inexhaustible, and I do not know how much 
 time we may have spent in reading the long 
 epitaphs on the gravestones and trying to 
 puzzle out the inscriptions, which were often so 
 old and worn that we could only trace a letter 
 here and there. It was a neglected corner of 
 the world, and there were straggling sumachs 
 and acacias scattered about the enclosure, 
 while a row of fine old elms marked the 
 boundary of two sides. The grass was long 
 and tangled, and most of the stones leaned 
 one way or the other, and some had fallen 
 flat. There were a few handsome old family 
 monuments clustered in one corner, among 
 which the one that marked Miss Brandon's 
 grave looked so new and fresh that it seemed 
 inappropriate. " It should have been dingy 
 to begin with, like the rest," said Kate one 
 day ; " but I think it will make itself look 
 like its neighbors as soon as possible." 
 
 There were many stones which were sacred 
 to the memory of men who had been lost at 
 sea, almost always giving the name of the 
 departed ship, which was so kept in remem-
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 59 
 
 brance ; and one felt as much interest in the 
 ship Starlight, supposed to have foundered 
 off the Cape of Good Hope, as in the poor 
 fellow who had the ill luck to be one of her 
 crew. There were dozens of such inscrip- 
 tions, and there were other stones perpetuat- 
 ing the fame of Honourable gentlemen who 
 had been members of His Majesty's Council, 
 or surveyors of His Majesty's Woods, or 
 King's Officers of Customs for the town of 
 Deephaven. Some of the epitaphs were beau- 
 tiful, showing that tenderness for the friends 
 who had died, that longing to do them jus- 
 tice, to fully acknowledge their virtues and 
 dearness, which is so touching, and so unmis- 
 takable even under the stiff, quaint expres- 
 sions and formal words which were thought 
 suitable to be chiselled on the stones, so soon 
 to be looked at carelessly by the tearless eyes 
 of strangers. We often used to notice names, 
 and learn their history from the old people 
 whom we knew, and in this way we heard 
 many stories which we never shall forget. It 
 is wonderful, the romance and tragedy and 
 adventure which one may find in a quiet old- 
 fashioned country town, though to heartily 
 enjoy the every-day life one must care to 
 study life and character, and must find plea-
 
 60 DEEPUAVEN 
 
 sure in thought and observation of simple 
 things, and have an instinctive, delicious in- 
 terest in what to other eyes is unflavored 
 dulness. 
 
 To go back to Mrs. Patton ; on our way 
 home, after our first call upon her, we stopped 
 to speak to Mrs. Dockum, who mentioned 
 that she had seen us going in to the " Widow 
 Jim's." 
 
 " Willin' woman," said Mrs. Dockum, " al- 
 ways been respected; got an uncommon fa- 
 cility o' speech. I never saw such a hand 
 to talk, but then she has something to say, 
 which ain't the case with everybody. Good 
 neighbor, does according to her means al- 
 ways. Dreadful tough time of it with her 
 husband, shif'less and drunk all his time. 
 Noticed that dent in the side of her fore- 
 head, I s'pose ? That 's where he liked to 
 have killed her ; slung a stone bottle at her." 
 
 " What!" said Kate and I, very much 
 shocked. 
 
 " She don't like to have it inquired about ; 
 but she and I were sitting up with 'Manda 
 Darner one night, and she gave me the par- 
 ticulars. I knew he did it, for she had a fit 
 o' sickness afterward. Had sliced cucumberg 
 for breakfast that morning ; he was very
 
 MY LADY BRANDON 61 
 
 partial to them, and he wanted some vinegar. 
 Happened to be two bottles in the cellar- 
 way ; were just alike, and one of 'em was 
 vinegar and the other had sperrit in it at 
 haying-time. He takes up the wrong one and 
 pours on quick, and out come the hayseed 
 and flies, and he give the bottle a sling, and 
 it hit her there where you see the scar ; might 
 put the end of your finger into the dent. He 
 said he meant to break the bottle ag'in the 
 door, but it went slantwise, sort of. I don' 
 know, I 'm sure " (meditatively). " She said 
 he was good-natured ; it was early in the 
 mornin', and he had n't had time to get up- 
 set ; but he had a high temper naturally, and 
 so much drink hadn't made it much bet- 
 ter. She had good prospects when she mar- 
 ried him. Six-foot-two and red cheeks and 
 straight as a Noroway pine ; had a good pro- 
 perty from his father, and his mother come 
 of a good family, but he died in debt ; drank 
 like a fish. Yes, 't was a shame, nice woman ; 
 good consistent church-member ; always been 
 respected ; useful among the sick."
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 
 
 IT was curious to notice, in this quaint 
 little fishing-village by the sea, how clearly 
 the gradations of society were defined. The 
 place prided itself most upon having been 
 long ago the residence of one Governor 
 Chantrey, who was a rich ship-owner and 
 East India merchant, and whose fame and 
 magnificence were almost fabulous. It was 
 a never-ceasing regret that his house should 
 have burned down after he died, and there 
 is no doubt that if it were still standing it 
 would rival any ruin of the Old World. 
 
 The elderly people, though laying claim to 
 no slight degree of present consequence, 
 modestly ignored it, and spoke with pride of 
 the grand way in which life was carried on 
 by their ancestors, the Deephaven families 
 of old times. I think Kate and I were as- 
 sured at least a hundred times that Governor 
 Chantrey kept a valet, and his wife, Lady 
 Chantrey, kept a maid, and that the gov- 
 ernor had an uncle in England who was a 
 baronet ; and I believe this must have been 
 why our friends felt so deep an interest in
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 63 
 
 the affairs of the English nobility : they no 
 doubt felt themselves entitled to seats near 
 the throne itself. There were formerly five 
 families who kept their coaches in Deepha- 
 ven ; there were balls at the governor's, and 
 regal entertainments at other of the grand 
 mansions ; there is not a really distinguished 
 person in the country who will not prove to 
 have been directly or indirectly connected 
 with Deephaven. We were shown the cellar 
 of the Chantrey house, and the terraces, and 
 a few clumps of lilacs, and the grand rows 
 of elms. There are still two of the governor's 
 warehouses left, but his ruined wharves are 
 fast disappearing, and are almost deserted, 
 except by small barefooted boys who sit on 
 the edges to fish for sea-perch when the tide 
 comes in. There is an imposing monument 
 in the burying-ground to the great man and 
 his amiable consort. I am sure that if there 
 were any surviving relatives of the governor 
 they would receive in Deephaven far more 
 deference than is consistent with the prin- 
 ciples of a republican government ; but the 
 family became extinct long since, and I have 
 heard, though it is not a subject that one 
 may speak of lightly, that the sons were 
 unworthy their noble descent and came to 
 inglorious ends.
 
 64 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 There were still remaining a few represen- 
 tatives of the old families, who were treated 
 with much reverence by the rest of the towns- 
 people, although they were, like the conies of 
 Scripture, a feeble folk. 
 
 Deephaven is utterly out of fashion. It 
 never recovered from the effects of the em- 
 bargo of 1807, and a sand-bar has been 
 steadily filling in the mouth of the harbor. 
 Though the fishing gives what occupation 
 there is for the inhabitants of the place, it 
 is by no means sufficient to draw recruits 
 from abroad. But nobody in Deephaven cares 
 for excitement, and if some one once in a 
 while has the low taste to prefer a more ac- 
 tive life, he is obliged to go elsewhere in 
 search of it, and is spoken of afterward with 
 kind pity. I well remember the Widow Moses 
 said to me, in speaking of a certain mis- 
 guided nephew of hers, " I never could see 
 what could 'a' sot him out to leave so many 
 privileges and go way off to Lynn, with all 
 them children too. Why, they lived here no 
 more than a cable's length from the meetin'- 
 house ! " 
 
 There were two schooners owned in town, 
 and 'Bijah Mauley and Jo Sands owned a 
 trawl. There were some schooners and a
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 65 
 
 small brig slowly going to pieces by the 
 wharves, and indeed all Deephaven looked 
 more or less out of repair. All along shore 
 one might see dories and wherries and whale- 
 boats, which had been left to die a lingering 
 death. There is something piteous to me in 
 the sight of an old boat. If one I had used 
 much and cared for were past its usefulness, 
 I should say good-by to it, and have it towed 
 out to sea and sunk; it never should be left 
 to fall to pieces above high-water mark. 
 
 Even the commonest fishermen felt a sat- 
 isfaction, and seemed to realize their privi- 
 lege, in being residents of Deephaven ; but 
 among the nobility and gentry there lingered 
 a fierce pride in their family and town re- 
 cords, and a hardly concealed contempt and 
 pity for people who were obliged to live in 
 other parts of the world. There were ac- 
 knowledged to be a few disadvantages, 
 such as living nearly a dozen miles from the 
 railway, but, as Miss Honora Carew said, 
 the tone of Deephaven society had always 
 been very high, and it was very nice that 
 there had never been any manufacturing 
 element introduced. She could not feel too 
 grateful, herself, that there was no disagree- 
 able foreign population.
 
 66 DEEPBAVEN 
 
 "But," said Kate one day, "wouldn't 
 you like to have some pleasant new people 
 brought into town ? " 
 
 " Certainly, my dear," said Miss Honora 
 rather doubtfully ; " I have always been 
 public-spirited ; but then, we always have 
 guests in summer, and I am growing old. I 
 should not care to enlarge my acquaintance 
 to any great extent." Miss Honora and Mrs. 
 Dent had lived gay lives in their younger 
 days, and were interested and connected 
 with the outside world more than any of our 
 Deephaven friends ; but they were quite con- 
 tented to stay in their own house, with their 
 books and letters and knitting, and they 
 carefully read Littell and " the new maga- 
 zine," as they called the Atlantic. 
 
 The Carews were very intimate with the 
 minister and his sister, and there were one 
 or two others who belonged to this set. 
 There was Mr. Joshua Dorsey, who wore his 
 hair in a queue, was very deaf, and carried 
 a ponderous cane which had belonged to his 
 venerated father, a much taller man than 
 he. He was polite to Kate and me, but we 
 never knew him much. He went to play 
 whist with the Carews every Monday even- 
 ing, and commonly went out fishing once a
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 67 
 
 week. He had begun the practice of law, 
 but he had lost his hearing, and at the same 
 time his lady-love had inconsiderately fallen 
 in love with somebody else ; after which he 
 retired from active business life. He had a 
 fine library, which he invited us to examine. 
 He had many new books, but they looked 
 shockingly overdressed, in their fresher bind- 
 ings, beside the old brown volumes of essays 
 and sermons, and lighter works in many- 
 volume editions. 
 
 A prominent link in society was Widow 
 Tully, who had been the much-respected 
 housekeeper of old Captain Manning for 
 forty years. When he died he left her the 
 use of his house and family pew, besides an 
 annuity. The existence of Mr. Tully seemed 
 to be a myth. During the first of his widow's 
 residence in town she had been much affected 
 when obliged to speak of him, and always 
 represented herself as having seen better 
 days and as being highly connected. But 
 she was apt to be ungrammatical when ex- 
 cited, and there was a whispered tradition 
 that she used to keep a toll-bridge in a town 
 in Connecticut; though the mystery of her 
 previous state of existence will probably 
 never be solved. She wore mourning for the
 
 68 DEEPBAVEN 
 
 captain which would have befitted his widow, 
 and patronized the townspeople conspicu- 
 ously, while she herself was treated with much 
 condescension by the Carews and Lorimers. 
 She occupied, on the whole, much the same 
 position that Mrs. Betty Barker did in Gran- 
 ford. And, indeed, Kate and I were often re- 
 minded of that estimable town. We heard 
 that Kate's aunt, Miss Brandon, had .never 
 been appreciative of Mrs. Tully's merits, and 
 that since her death the others had received 
 Mrs. Tully into their society rather more. 
 
 It seemed as if all the clocks in Deep- 
 haven, and all the people with them, had 
 stopped years ago, and the people had been 
 doing over and over what they had been 
 busy about during the last week of their 
 unambitious progress. Their clothes had 
 lasted wonderfully well, and they had no 
 need to earn money when there was so little 
 chance to spend it ; indeed, there were sev- 
 eral families who seemed to have no more 
 visible means of support than a balloon. 
 There were no young people whom we knew, 
 though a number used to come to church on 
 Sunday from the inland farms, or "the 
 country," as we learned to say. There were 
 children among the fishermen's families at
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 69 
 
 the shore, but a few years will see Deep- 
 haven possessed by two classes instead of 
 the time-honored three. 
 
 As for our first Sunday at church, it must 
 be in vain to ask you to imagine our delight 
 when we heard the tuning of a bass-viol in the 
 gallery just before service. We pressed each 
 other's hands most tenderly, looked up at the 
 singers' seats, and then trusted ourselves to 
 look at each other. It was more than we had 
 hoped for. There were also a violin and some- 
 times a flute, and a choir of men and women 
 singers, though the congregation were ex- 
 pected to join in the psalm-singing. The first 
 hymn was 
 
 " The Lord our God is full of might, 
 The winds obey his will," 
 
 to the tune of St. Ann's. It was all so delight- 
 fully old-fashioned; our pew was a square 
 pew, and was by an open window looking 
 seaward. We also had a view of the entire 
 congregation, and as we were somewhat early, 
 we watched the people come in, with great 
 interest. The Deephaven aristocracy came 
 with stately step up the aisle ; this was all the 
 chance there was for displaying their unques- 
 tioned dignity in public.
 
 70 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 Many of the people drove to church in 
 wagons that were low and old and creaky, 
 with worn buffalo-robes over the seat, and 
 some hay tucked underneath for the sleepy, 
 undecided old horse. Some of the younger 
 farmers and their wives had high, shiny wag- 
 ons, with tall horsewhips, which they "some- 
 times brought into church, and they drove 
 up to the steps with a consciousness of being 
 conspicuous and enviable. They had a bashful 
 look when they came in, and for a few min- 
 utes after they took their seats they evidently 
 felt that all eyes were fixed upon them ; but 
 after a little while they were quite at their 
 ease, and looked critically at the new arrivals. 
 
 The old folks interested us most. " Do you 
 notice how many more old women there are 
 than old men?" whispered Kate tome. And 
 we wondered if the husbands and brothers 
 had been drowned, and if it must not be sad 
 to look at the blue, sunshiny sea beyond the 
 marshes, if the far-away white sails reminded 
 them of some ships that had never sailed 
 home into Deephaven harbor, or of fishing- 
 boats that had never come back to land. 
 
 The girls and young men adorned them- 
 selves in what they believed to be the latest 
 fashion, but the elderly women were usually
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 71 
 
 relics of old times in manner and dress. They 
 wore to church thin, soft silk gowns that must 
 have been brought from over tne seas years 
 upon years before, and wide collars fastened 
 with mourning-pins holding a lock of hair. 
 They had big black bonnets, some of them 
 with stiff capes, such as Kate and I had not 
 seen before since our childhood. They trea- 
 sured large rusty lace veils of scraggly pattern, 
 and wore sometimes, on pleasant Sundays, 
 white China-crape shawls with attenuated 
 fringes ; and there were two or three of these 
 shawls in the congregation which had been 
 dyed black, and gave an aspect of meekness 
 and general unworthiness to the aged wearer, 
 they clung and drooped about the figure in 
 such a hopeless way. We used to notice often 
 the most interesting scarfs, without which no 
 Deephaven woman considered herself in full 
 dress. Sometimes there were red India scarfs 
 in spite of its being hot weather; but our 
 favorite ones were long strips of silk, em- 
 broidered along the edges and at the ends 
 with dismal-colored floss in odd patterns. I 
 think there must have been a fashion once, 
 in Deephaven, of working these scarfs, and 
 I should not be surprised to find that it was 
 many years before the fashion of working
 
 72 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 samplers came about. Our friends always 
 wore black mitts on warm Sundays, and 
 many of them carried neat little tags of vari- 
 ous designs on their arms, containing a pre- 
 cisely folded pocket-handkerchief, and a fru- 
 gal lunch of caraway seeds or red and white 
 peppermints. I should like you to see, with 
 your own eyes, Widow Ware and Miss Ex- 
 per'ence Hull, two old sisters whose personal 
 appearance we delighted in, and whom we saw 
 feebly approaching down the street this first 
 Sunday morning under the shadow of the two 
 last members of an otherwise extinct race of 
 
 There were two or three old men who sat 
 near us. They were sailors, there is some- 
 thing unmistakable about a sailor, and 
 they had a curiously ancient, uncanny look, 
 as if they might have belonged to the crew 
 of the Mayflower, or even have cruised about 
 with the Northmen in the times of Harold 
 Harfager and his comrades. They had been 
 blown about by so many winter winds, so 
 browned by summer suns, and wet by salt 
 spray, that their hands and faces looked like 
 leather, with a few deep folds instead of 
 wrinkles. They had pale blue eyes, very keen 
 and quick ; their hair looked like the fine sea*
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 73 
 
 weed which clings to the kelp-roots and mus- 
 sel-shells in little locks. These friends of ours 
 sat solemnly at the heads of their pews and 
 looked unflinchingly at the minister, when 
 they were not dozing, and they sang with 
 voices like the howl of the wind, with an 
 occasional deep note or two. 
 
 Have you never seen faces that seemed 
 old-fashioned ? Many of the people in Deep- 
 haven church looked as if they must be if 
 not supernaturally old exact copies of their 
 remote ancestors. I wonder if it is not pos- 
 sible that the features and expression may 
 be almost perfectly reproduced. These faces 
 were not modern American faces, but be- 
 longed rather to the days of the early settle- 
 ment of the country, the old colonial times. 
 We often heard quaint words and expressions 
 which we never had known anywhere else but 
 in old books. There was a great deal of sea- 
 lingo in use ; indeed, we learned a great deal 
 ourselves, unconsciously, and used it after- 
 ward to the great amusement of our friends ; 
 but there were also many peculiar provin- 
 cialisms, and among the people who lived 
 on the lonely farms inland we often noticed 
 words we had seen in Chaucer, and studied 
 out at school in our English literature class.
 
 74 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 Everything in Deephaven was more or less 
 influenced by the sea ; the minister spoke 
 oftenest of Peter and his fishermen compan- 
 ions, and prayed most earnestly every Sunday 
 morning for those who go down to the sea in 
 ships. He made frequent allusions and drew 
 numberless illustrations of a similar kind for 
 his sermons, and indeed I am in doubt whe- 
 ther, if the Bible had been written wholly in 
 inland countries, it would have been much 
 valued in Deephaven. 
 
 The singing was very droll, for there was 
 a majority of old voices, which had seen 
 their best days long before, and the bass-viol 
 was excessively noticeable, and apt to be a 
 little ahead of the time the singers kept, 
 while the violin lingered after. Somewhere 
 on the other side of the church we heard an 
 acute voice which rose high above all the rest 
 of the congregation, sharp as a needle, and 
 slightly cracked, with a limitless supply of 
 breath. It rose and fell gallantly, and clung 
 long to the high notes of Dundee. It was like 
 the wail of the banshee, which sounds clear 
 to the fated hearer above all other noises. 
 We afterward became acquainted with the 
 owner of this voice, and were surprised to 
 find her a meek widow, who was like a thin
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 75 
 
 black beetle in her pathetic cypress veil and 
 big black bonnet. She looked as if she had 
 forgotten who she was, and spoke with an 
 apologetic whine ; but we heard she had a 
 temper as high as her voice, and as much to 
 be dreaded as the .equinoctial gale. 
 
 Near the church was the parsonage, where 
 Mr. Lorimer lived, and the old Lorimer house 
 not far beyond was occupied by Miss Re- 
 becca Lorimer. Some stranger might ask the 
 question why the minister and his sister did 
 not live together, but you would have under- 
 stood it at once after you had lived for a 
 little while in town. They were very fond of 
 each other, and the minister dined with Miss 
 Rebecca on Sundays, and she passed the day 
 with him on Wednesdays, and they ruled 
 their separate households with decision and 
 dignity. I think Mr. Lorimer's house showed 
 no signs of being without a mistress, any 
 more than his sister's betrayed the want of 
 a master's care and authority. 
 
 The Carews were very kind friends of ours, 
 and had been Miss Brandon's best friends. 
 We heard that there had always been a cool- 
 ness between Miss Brandon and Miss Lori- 
 mer, and that, though they exchanged visits 
 and were always polite, there was a chill in
 
 76 DEEP HA YEN 
 
 the politeness, and one would never have sus- 
 pected them of admiring each other at all. 
 We had the whole history of the trouble, 
 which dated back scores of years, from Miss 
 Honora Carew, but we always took pains to 
 appear ignorant of the feud, and I think Miss 
 Lorimer was satisfied that it was best not to 
 refer to it, and to let bygones be bygones. 
 It would not have been true Deephaven 
 courtesy to prejudice Kate against her grand- 
 aunt, and Miss Rebecca cherished her dislike 
 in silence, which gave us a most grand re- 
 spect for her, since we knew she thought her- 
 self in the right ; though I think it never had 
 come to an open quarrel between these ma- 
 jestic aristocrats. 
 
 Miss Honora Carew and Mr. Dick and 
 their elder sister, Mrs. Dent, had a charm- 
 ingly sedate and quiet home in the old Ca- 
 rew house. Mrs. Dent was ill a great deal 
 while we were there, but she must have been 
 a very brilliant woman, and was not at all 
 dull when we knew her. She had outlived 
 her husband and her children, and she had, 
 several years before our summer there, given 
 up her own home, which was in the city, and 
 had come back to Deephaven. Miss Honora 
 dear Miss Honora ! had been one of the
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 77 
 
 brightest, happiest girls, and had lost none of 
 her brightness and happiness by growing old. 
 She had lost none of her fondness for society, 
 though she was so contented in quiet Deep- 
 haven, and I think she enjoyed Kate's and 
 my stories of our pleasures as much as we did 
 hers of old times. We used to go to see her 
 almost every day. " Mr. Dick," as they called 
 their brother, had once been a merchant in 
 the East Indies, and there were quantities of 
 curiosities and most beautiful china which he 
 had brought and sent home, which gave the 
 house a character of its own. He had been 
 very rich and had lost some of his money, 
 and then he came home and was still consid- 
 ered to possess princely wealth by his neigh- 
 bors. He had a great fondness for reading 
 and study, which had not been lost sight of 
 during his business life, and he spent most 
 of his time in his library. He and Mr. Lori- 
 mer had their differences of opinion about 
 certain points of theology, and this made 
 them much fonder of each other's society, 
 and gave them a great deal of pleasure ; for 
 after every series of arguments, each was sure 
 that he had vanquished the other, or there 
 were alternate victories and defeats which 
 made life vastly interesting and important.
 
 78 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 Miss Carew and Mrs. Dent had a great 
 treasury of old brocades and laces and orna- 
 ments, which they showed us one day, and 
 told us stories of the wearers, or, if they were 
 their own, there were always some reminis- 
 cences which they liked to talk over with 
 each other and with us. I never shall forget 
 the first evening we took tea with them ; it 
 impressed us very much, and yet nothing 
 wonderful happened. Tea was handed round 
 by an old-fashioned maid, and afterward we 
 sat talking in the twilight, looking out at the 
 garden. It was such a delight to have tea 
 served in this way. I wonder that the fash- 
 ion has been almost forgotten. Kate and I 
 took much pleasure in choosing our tea-poys ; 
 hers had a mandarin parading on the top, 
 and mine a flight of birds and a pagoda ; and 
 we often used them afterward, for Miss Ho- 
 nora asked us to come to tea whenever we 
 liked. " A stupid, common country town " 
 some one dared to call Deephaven in a letter 
 once, and how bitterly we resented it! That 
 was a house where one might find the best 
 society, and the most charming manners and 
 good-breeding, and if I were asked to tell 
 you what I mean by the word "lady," I
 
 DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY 79 
 
 should ask you to go, if it were possible, to 
 call upon Miss Honora Carew. 
 
 After a while the elder sister said, " My 
 dears, we always have prayers at nine, for 
 I have to go upstairs early nowadays." And 
 then the servants came in, and she read sol- 
 emnly the King of glory Psalm, which I have 
 always liked best, and then Mr. Dick read 
 the church prayers, the form of prayer to be 
 used in families. We stayed later to talk 
 with Miss Honora after we had said good- 
 night to Mrs. Dent. And we told each other, 
 as we went home in the moonlight down the 
 quiet street, how much we had enjoyed the 
 evening, for somehow the house and the peo- 
 ple had nothing to do with the present, or 
 the hurry of modern life. I have never heard 
 that psalm since without its bringing back 
 that summer night in Deephaven, the beauti- 
 ful quaint old room, and Kate and I feeling 
 so young and worldly, by contrast, the flick- 
 ering, shaded light of the candles, the old 
 book, and the voices that said Amen. 
 
 There were several other fine old houses in 
 Deephaven beside this and the Brandon house, 
 though that was rather the most imposing. 
 There were two or three which had not been
 
 80 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 kept in repair, and were deserted, and of 
 course they were said to be haunted, and we 
 were told of their ghosts, and why they 
 walked, and when. From some of the local 
 superstitions Kate and I have vainly endeav- 
 ored ever since to shake ourselves free. There 
 was a most heathenish fear of doing certain 
 things on Friday, and there were countless 
 signs in which we still have confidence. When 
 the moon is very bright and other people 
 grow sentimental, we only remember that it 
 is a fine night to catch hake.
 
 THE CAPTAINS 
 
 I SHOULD consider my account of Deep- 
 haven society incomplete if I did not tell you 
 something of the ancient mariners, who may 
 be found every pleasant morning sunning 
 themselves like turtles on one of the wharves. 
 Sometimes there was a considerable group of 
 them, but the less constant members of the 
 club were older than the rest, and the epi- 
 demics of rheumatism in town were sadly 
 frequent. We found that it was etiquette to 
 call them each captain, but I think some of 
 the Deephaven men took the title by brevet 
 upon arriving at a proper age. 
 
 They sat close together because so many 
 of them were deaf, and when we were lucky 
 enough to overhear the conversation, it seemed 
 to concern their adventures at sea, or the 
 freight carried out by the Sea Duck, the 
 Ocean Kover, or some other Deephaven ship, 
 the particulars of the voyage and its dis- 
 asters and successes being as familiar as the 
 wanderings of the children of Israel to an old 
 parson. There were sometimes violent alter- 
 cations when the captains differed as to the
 
 82 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 tonnage of some craft that had been a prey 
 to the winds and waves, dry-rot, or barnacles 
 fifty years before. The old fellows puffed 
 away at little black pipes with short stems, 
 and otherwise consumed tobacco in fabulous 
 quantities. It is needless to say that they 
 gave an immense deal of attention to the 
 weather. We used to wish we could join this 
 agreeable company, but we found that the ap- 
 pearance of an outsider caused a disapprov- 
 ing silence, and that the meeting was evi- 
 dently not to be interfered with. Once we 
 were impertinent enough to hide ourselves 
 for a while just round the corner of the ware- 
 house, but we were afraid or ashamed to try 
 it again, though the conversation was incon- 
 ceivably edifying. Captain Isaac Horn, the 
 eldest and wisest of all, was discoursing upon 
 some cloth he had purchased once in Bristol, 
 which the shop-keeper delayed sending until 
 just as they were ready to weigh anchor. 
 
 " I happened to take a look at that cloth," 
 said the captain, in a loud droning voice, 
 " and as quick as I got sight of it, I spoke 
 onpleasant of that swindling English fellow, 
 and the crew, they stood back. I was dread- 
 ful high-tempered in them days, mind ye; 
 and I had the gig manned. We was out in
 
 THE CAPTAINS 83 
 
 the stream, just ready to sail. 'T was no use 
 waiting any longer for the wind to change, 
 and we was going north - about. I went 
 ashore, and when I walks into his shop ye 
 never see a creatur' so wilted. Ye see the 
 miser'ble sculpin thought I 'd never stop to 
 open the goods, an' it was a chance I did, 
 mind ye ! 4 Lor,' says he, grinning and turn- 
 ing the color of a biled lobster, * I s'posed ye 
 were a-standing out to sea by this time.' 
 * No,' says I, * and I 've got my men out here 
 on the quay a-landing that cloth o' yourn, 
 and if you don't send just what I bought and 
 paid for down there to go back in the gig 
 within fifteen minutes, I '11 take ye by the 
 collar and drop ye into the dock.' I was 
 twice the size of him, mind ye, and master 
 strong. 'Don't ye like it?' says he, edging 
 round; ' I '11 change it for ye, then.' Ter'- 
 ble perlite he was. ' Like it ? ' says I, ' it 
 looks as if it were built of dog's hair and 
 divil's wool, kicked together by spiders ; and 
 it 's coarser than Irish frieze ; three threads 
 to an armful? says I." 
 
 This was evidently one of the captain's 
 favorite stories, for we heard an approving 
 grumble from the audience. 
 
 In the course of a walk inland we made a
 
 84 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 new acquaintance, Captain Lant, whom we 
 had noticed at church, and who sometimes 
 joined the company on the wharf. We had 
 been walking through the woods, and com- 
 ing out to his fields we went on to the house 
 for some water. There was no one at home 
 but the captain, who told us cheerfully that 
 he should be pleased to serve us, though his 
 women-folks had gone off to a funeral, the 
 other side of the P'int. He brought out a 
 pitcherful of milk, and after we had drunk 
 some, we all sat down together in the shade. 
 The captain brought an old flag-bottomed 
 chair from the woodhouse, and sat down 
 facing Kate and me, with an air of certainty 
 that he was going to hear something new and 
 make some desirable new acquaintances, and 
 also that he could tell something it would be 
 worth our while to hear. He looked more 
 and more like a well-to-do old English spar- 
 row, and chippered faster and faster. 
 
 " Queer ye should know I 'm a sailor so 
 quick ; why, I 've been a-farming it this 
 twenty years ; have to go down to the shore 
 and take a day's fishing every hand's turn, 
 though, to keep the old hulk clear of barna- 
 cles. There ! I do wish I lived nigher the 
 shore, where I could see the folks I know,
 
 THE CAPTAINS 85 
 
 and talk about what 's been a-goin' on. You 
 don't know anything about it, you don't ; but 
 it 's tryin' to a man to be called ' old Cap'n 
 Lant,' and, so to speak, be forgot when 
 there 's anything stirring, and be called 
 gran'ther by clumsy creatur's goin' on fifty 
 and sixty, who can't do no more work to- 
 day than I can ; an' then the women-folks 
 keeps a-tellin' me to be keerful and not fall, 
 and as how I 'm too old to go out fishing ; 
 and when they want to be soft-spoken, 
 they say as how they don't see as I fail, 
 and how wonderful I keep my hearin'. I 
 never did want to farm it, but 4 she ' al- 
 ways took it to heart when I was off on a 
 v'y'ge, and this farm and some consider'ble 
 means beside come to her from her brother, 
 and they all sot to and give me no peace of 
 mind till I sold out my share of the Ann 
 Eliza and come ashore for good. I did keep 
 an eighth of the Pactolus, and I was ship's 
 husband for a long spell, but she never was 
 heard from on her last voyage to Singapore. 
 I was the lonesomest man, when I first come 
 ashore, that ever you see. Well, you are 
 master hands to walk, if you come way up 
 from the Brandon house. I wish the women 
 was at home. Know Miss Brandon ? Why,
 
 86 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 yes ; and I remember all her brothers and 
 sisters, and her father and mother. I can see 
 'em now coming into meeting, proud as Lu- 
 cifer and straight as a mast, every one of 
 'em. Miss Katharine, she always had her 
 butter from this very farm. Some of the 
 folks used to go down every Saturday, and 
 my wife, she 's been in the house a hundred 
 times, I s'pose. So you are Hathaway Bran- 
 don's grand-daughter ? " (to Kate) ; " why, 
 he and I have been out fishing together 
 many 's the time, he and Chantrey, his 
 next younger brother. Henry, he was a dis- 
 app'intment ; he went to furrin parts and 
 turned out a Catholic priest, I s'pose you 've 
 heard ? I never was so set ag'in Mr. Henry 
 as some folks was. He was the pleasantest 
 spoken of the whole on 'em. You do look 
 like the Brandons ; you really favor 'em con- 
 sider'ble. Well, I 'm pleased to see ye, I 'm 
 sure." 
 
 We asked him many questions about the 
 old people, and found he knew all the family 
 histories and told them with great satisfac- 
 tion. We found he had his pet stories, and 
 it must have been gratifying to have an en- 
 tirely new and fresh audience. He was adroit 
 in leading the conversation around to a point
 
 THE CAPTAINS 87 
 
 where the stories would come in appropri- 
 ately, and we helped him as much as pos- 
 sible. In a small neighborhood all the people 
 know each other's stories and experiences by 
 heart, and I have no doubt the old captain 
 had been snubbed many times on beginning 
 a favorite anecdote. There was a story which 
 he told us that first day, which he assured 
 us was strictly true, and it is certainly a re- 
 markable instance of the influence of one 
 mind upon another at a distance. It seems 
 to me worth preserving, at any rate ; and as 
 we heard it from the old man, with his sol- 
 emn voice and serious expression and quaint 
 gestures, it was singularly impressive. 
 
 "When I was a youngster," said Captain 
 Lant, " I was an orphan, and I was bound 
 out to old Mr. Peletiah Daw's folks, over on 
 the Ridge Road. It was in the time of the 
 last war, and he had a nephew, Ben Dighton, 
 a dreadful high-strung, wild fellow, who had 
 gone off on a privateer. The old man, he set 
 everything by Ben ; he would disoblige his 
 own boys any day to please him. This was in 
 his latter days, and he used to have spells of 
 wandering and being out of his head ; and he 
 used to call for Ben and talk sort of foolish 
 about him, till they would tell him to stop.
 
 88 DEEP HA VEN 
 
 Ben never did a stroke of work for him, 
 either, but he was a handsome fellow, and had 
 a way with him when he was good-natured. 
 One night old Peletiah had been very bad all 
 day and was getting quieted down, and it was 
 after supper ; we sat round in the kitchen, 
 and he lay in the bedroom opening out. 
 There were some pitch-knots blazing, and the 
 light shone in on the bed, and all of a sudden 
 something made me look up and look in ; and 
 there was the old man setting up straight, 
 with his eyes shining at me like a cat's. 
 ' Stop 'em ! ' says he ; ' stop 'em I ' and his 
 two sons run in then to catch hold of him, 
 for they thought he was beginning with one 
 of his wild spells ; but he fell back on the 
 bed and began to cry like a baby. ' O, dear 
 me,' says he, * they 've hung him, hung him 
 right up to the yard-arm ! O, they ought n't 
 to have done it ; cut him down quick ! he 
 did n't think ; he means well, Ben does ; he 
 was hasty. O my God, I can't bear to see 
 him swing round by the neck ! It 's poor Ben 
 hung up to the yard-arm. Let me alone, I 
 say ! ' Andrew and Moses, they were holding 
 him with all their might, and they were both 
 hearty men, but he 'most got away from them 
 once or twice, and he screeched and howled
 
 THE CAPTAINS 89 
 
 like a mad creatur', and then he would cry 
 again like a child. He was worn out after a 
 while and lay back quiet, and said over and 
 over, * Poor Ben ! ' and ' hung at the yard- 
 arm ' ; and he told the neighbors next day, 
 but nobody noticed him much, and he seemed 
 to forget it as his mind come back. A 11 that 
 summer he was miser'ble, and towards cold 
 weather he failed right along, though he had 
 been a master strong man in his day, and his 
 timbers held together well. Along late in the 
 fall he had taken to his bed, and one day 
 there came to the house a fellow named Sim 
 Decker, a reckless fellow he was too, who had 
 gone out in the same ship with Ben. He 
 pulled a long face when he came in, and said 
 he had brought bad news. They had been 
 taken prisoner and carried into port and put 
 in jail, and Ben Dighton had got a fever there 
 and died. 
 
 " * You lie ! ' says the old man from the 
 bedroom, speaking as loud and f 'erce as ever 
 you heard. ' They hung him to the yard-arm ! ' 
 
 " * Don't mind him,' says Andrew ; * he 's 
 wandering-like, and he had a bad dream 
 along back in the spring; I s' posed he 'd for- 
 gotten it.' But the Decker fellow he turned 
 pale, and kept talking crooked while he lis-
 
 90 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 tened to old Peletiah a-scolding to himself. 
 He answered the questions the women-folks 
 asked him, they took on a good deal, 
 but pretty soon he got up and winked to me 
 and Andrew, and we went out in the yard. 
 He began to swear, and then says he, ' When 
 did the old man have his dream ? ' Andrew 
 could n't remember, but I knew it was the 
 night before he sold the gray colt, and that 
 was the 24th of April. 
 
 " ' Well,' says Sim Decker, ' on the twenty- 
 third day of April Ben Dighton was hung to 
 the yard-arm, and I see 'em do it, Lord help 
 him ! I did n't mean to tell the women, and 
 I s'posed you 'd never know, for I 'm all the 
 one of the ship's company you 're ever likely 
 to see. We were taken prisoner, and Ben 
 was mad as fire, and they were scared of him 
 and chained him to the deck ; and while he 
 was sulking there, a little parrot of a mid- 
 shipman come up and grinned at him, and 
 snapped his fingers in his face ; and Ben 
 lifted his hands with the heavy irons and 
 sprung at him like a tiger, and the boy 
 dropped dead as a stone ; and they put the 
 bight of a rope round Ben's neck and slung 
 him right up to the yard-arm, and there he 
 swung back and forth until as soon as we
 
 THE CAPTAINS 91 
 
 dared one of us dim' up and cut the rope 
 and let him go over the ship's side ; and they 
 put us in irons for that, curse 'em ! How did 
 that old man in there know, and he bedrid- 
 den here, nigh upon three thousand miles 
 off ? ' says he. But I guess there was n't any 
 of us could tell him," said Captain Lant in 
 conclusion. " It 's something I never could 
 account for, but it 's true as truth. I 've 
 known more such cases ; some folks laughs at 
 me for believing 'em, ' the cap'n's yarns,' 
 they calls 'em, but if you '11 notice, every- 
 body 's got some yarn of that kind they do 
 believe, if they won't believe yours. And 
 there 's a good deal happens in the world 
 that 's myster'ous. Now there was Widder 
 Oliver Pinkham, over to the P'int, told me 
 with her own lips that she " But just 
 here we saw the captain's expression alter 
 suddenly, and looked around to see a wagon 
 coming up the lane. We immediately said 
 we must go home, for it was growing late, 
 but asked permission to come again and 
 hear the Widow Oliver Pinkham story. We 
 stopped, however, to see " the women-folks," 
 and afterward became so intimate with them 
 that we were invited to spend the afternoon 
 and take tea, which invitation we accepted
 
 92 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 with great pride. We went out fishing, also, 
 with the captain and " Danny," of whom I 
 will tell you presently. I often think of Cap- 
 tain Lant in the winter, for he told Kate 
 once that he " felt master old in winter to 
 what he did in summer." He likes reading, 
 fortunately, and we had a letter from him, 
 not long ago, acknowledging the receipt of 
 some books of travel by land and water 
 which we had luckily thought to send him. 
 He gave the latitude and longitude of Deep- 
 haven at the beginning of his letter, and 
 signed himself, " Respectfully yours with 
 esteem, Jacob Lant (condemned as unsea- 
 worthy)."
 
 DANNY 
 
 DEEPHAVEN seemed more like one of the 
 lazy little English seaside towns than any 
 other. It was not in the least American. 
 There was no excitement about anything; 
 there were no manufactories ; nobody seemed 
 in the least hurry. The only foreigners were 
 a few stranded sailors. I do not know when 
 a house or a new building of any kind had 
 been built ; the men were farmers, or went 
 outward in boats, or inward in fish-wagons, 
 or sometimes mackerel and halibut fishing in 
 schooners for the city markets. Sometimes a 
 schooner came to one of the wharves to load 
 with hay or firewood ; but Deephaven used 
 to be a town of note, rich and busy, as its 
 forsaken warehouses show. 
 
 "We knew almost all the fisher-people at 
 the shore, even old Dinnett, who lived an 
 apparently desolate life by himself in a hut 
 and was reputed to have been a bloodthirsty 
 pirate in his youth. He was consequently 
 feared by all the children, and for misde- 
 meanors in his latter days avoided generally.
 
 94 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 Kate talked with him a while one day on the 
 shore, and made him come up with her for 
 a bandage for his hand which she saw he 
 had hurt badly ; and the next morning he 
 brought us a " new " lobster apiece, fisher- 
 men mean that a thing is only not salted 
 when they say it is " fresh." We happened 
 to be in the hall, and received him ourselves, 
 and gave him a great piece of tobacco and 
 (unintentionally) the means of drinking our 
 health. " Bless your pretty hearts ! " said 
 he ; " may ye be happy, and live long, and 
 get good husbands, and if they ain't good to 
 you may they die from you ! " 
 
 None of our friends were more interesting 
 than the fishermen. The fish-houses, which 
 might be called the business centre of the 
 town, were at a little distance from the old 
 warehouses, farther down the harbor shore, 
 and were ready to fall down in despair. 
 There were some fishermen who lived near 
 by, but most of them were also farmers in a 
 small way, and lived in the village or far- 
 ther inland. From our eastern windows we 
 could see the moorings, and we always liked 
 to watch the boats go out or come straying 
 in, one after the other, tipping and skim- 
 ming under the square little sails; and we
 
 DANNY 95 
 
 often went down to the fish-houses to see 
 what kind of a catch there had been. 
 
 I should have imagined that the sea would 
 become very commonplace to men whose 
 business was carried on in boats, and who 
 had spent night after night and day after 
 day from their boyhood on the water; but 
 that is a mistake. They have an awe of the 
 sea and of its mysteries, and of what it hides 
 away from us. They are childish in their 
 wonder at any strange creature which they 
 find. If they have not seen the sea-serpent, 
 they believe, I am sure, that other people 
 have, and when a great shark or black-fish 
 or sword-fish was taken and brought in shore, 
 everybody went to see it, and we talked 
 about it, and how brave its conqueror was, 
 and what a fight there had been, for a long 
 time afterward. 
 
 I said that we liked to see the boats go 
 out, but I must not give you the impression 
 that we saw them often, for they weighed 
 anchor at an early hour in the morning. I 
 remember once there was a light fog over 
 the sea, lifting fast, as the sun was coming 
 up, and the brownish sails disappeared in 
 the mist, while voices could still be heard 
 for some minutes after the men were hidden
 
 96 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 from sight. This gave one a curious feeling, 
 but afterward, when the sun had risen, every- 
 thing looked much the same as usual ; the fog 
 had gone, and the dories and even the larger 
 boats were distant specks on the sparkling 
 sea. 
 
 One afternoon we made a new acquaint- 
 ance in this wise. We went down to the 
 shore to see if we could hire a conveyance 
 to the lighthouse the next morning. We often 
 went out early in one of the fishing-boats, 
 and after we had stayed as long as we pleased, 
 Mr. Kew would bring us home. It was 
 quiet enough that day, for not a single boat 
 had come in, and there were no men to be 
 seen alongshore. There was a solemn com- 
 pany of lobster-coops or cages which had 
 been brought in to be mended. They always 
 amused Kate. She said they seemed to her 
 like droll old women telling each other se- 
 crets. These were scattered about in differ- 
 ent attitudes, and looked more confidential 
 than usual. 
 
 Just as we were going away we happened 
 to see a man at work in one of the sheds. 
 He was the fisherman whom we knew least 
 of all; an odd-looking, silent sort of man, 
 more sunburnt and weather-beaten than any 

 
 DANNY 97 
 
 of the others. We had learned to know him 
 by the bright red flannel shirt he always 
 wore, and besides, he was lame; some one 
 told us he had had a bad fall once, on board 
 ship. Kate and I had always wished we 
 could find a chance to talk with him. He 
 looked up at us pleasantly, and when we 
 nodded and smiled, he said " Good-day " in 
 a gruff, hearty voice, and went on with his 
 work, cleaning mackerel. 
 
 " Do you mind our watching you ? " asked 
 Kate. 
 
 "No, ma'am!" said the fisherman em- 
 phatically. So there we stood. 
 
 Those fish-houses were curious places, so 
 different from any other kind of workshop. 
 In this there was a seine, or part of one, fes- 
 tooned among the cross-beams overhead, and 
 there were snarled fishing-lines, and barrows 
 to carry fish in, like wheelbarrows without 
 wheels; there were the queer round lobster- 
 nets, and " kits " of salt mackerel, tubs of 
 bait, and piles of clams; and some queer 
 bones, and parts of remarkable fish, and 
 lobster-claws of surprising size fastened on 
 the walls for ornament. There was a pile of 
 rubbish down at the end; I dare say it was 
 all useful, however, there is such mystery 
 about the business.
 
 98 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 Kate and I were never tired of hearing 
 of the fish that come at different times of 
 the year, and go away again, like the birds ; 
 or of the actions of the dog-fish, which the 
 'longshore-men hate so bitterly; and then 
 there are such curious legends and tradi- 
 tions, of which almost all fishermen have a 
 store. 
 
 "I think mackerel are the prettiest fish 
 that swim," said I presently. 
 
 "So do I, Miss," said the man, "not to 
 say but I 've seen more fancy-looking fish 
 down in southern waters, bright as any flower 
 you ever see ; but a mackerel," holding up 
 one admiringly, " why, they 're so clean-built 
 and trig-looking ! Put a cod alongside, and 
 he looks as lumbering as an old-fashioned 
 Dutch brig aside a yacht. 
 
 " Those are good-looking fish, but they 
 an't made much account of," continued our 
 friend, as he pushed aside the mackerel and 
 took another tub. " They 're hake, I s'pose 
 you know. But I forgot, I can't stop to 
 bother with them now." And he pulled for- 
 ward a barrow full of small fish, flat and 
 hard, with pointed, bony heads. 
 
 " Those are porgies, are n't they ? " asked 
 Kate.
 
 DANNY 99 
 
 " Yes," said the man, " an' I 'm going to 
 sliver them for the trawls." 
 
 We knew what the trawls were, and sup- 
 posed that the porgies were to be used for 
 bait ; and we soon found out what " sliver- 
 ing " meant, by seeing him take them by the 
 head and cut a slice from first one side and 
 then the other in such a way that the pieces 
 looked not unlike smaller fish. 
 
 "It seems to me," said I, "that fisher- 
 men always have sharper knives than other 
 people." 
 
 " Yes, we do like a sharp knife in our 
 trade ; and then we are mostly strong- 
 handed." 
 
 He was throwing the porgies' heads and 
 backbones all that was left of them after 
 slivering in a heap, and now several cats 
 walked in as if they felt at home, and began 
 a hearty lunch. " What a troop of pussies 
 there is round here," said I ; " I wonder what 
 will become of them in the winter, though, 
 to be sure, the fishing goes on just the 
 same." 
 
 "The better part of them don't get through 
 the cold weather," said Danny. " Two or 
 three of the old ones have been here for 
 years, and are as much belonging to Deep-
 
 100 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 haven as the meetin'-house ; but the rest of 
 them an't to be depended on. You '11 miss 
 the young ones by the dozen, come spring. 
 'I don't know myself but they move inland 
 in the fall of the year ; they 're knowing 
 enough, if that 's all ! " 
 
 Kate and I stood in the wide doorway, 
 arm in arm, looking sometimes at the queer 
 fisherman and the porgies, and sometimes 
 out to sea. It was low tide ; the wind had 
 risen a little, and the heavy salt air blew 
 toward us from the wet brown ledges in the 
 rocky harbor. The sea was bright blue, and 
 the sun was shining. Two gulls were swing- 
 ing lazily to and fro ; there was a flock of 
 sand-pipers down by the water's edge in a 
 great hurry, as usual. 
 
 Presently the fisherman spoke again, be- 
 ginning with an odd laugh : " I was scared 
 last winter ! Jack Scudder and me, we were 
 up in the Cap'n Manning storehouse hunt- 
 ing for a half-bar'l of salt the skipper said 
 was there. It was an awful blustering kind 
 of day, with a thin icy rain blowing from 
 all points at once ; sea roaring as if it wished 
 it could come ashore and put a stop to every- 
 thing. Bad days at sea, them are, rigging 
 all froze up. As I was saying, we were hunt-
 
 DANNY 101 
 
 ing for a half-bar'l of salt, and I laid hold 
 of a bar'l that had something heavy in the 
 bottom, and tilted it up, and my eye ! there 
 was a stir and a scratch and a squeal, and 
 out went some kind of a creatur', and I 
 jumped back, not looking for anything live, 
 but I see in a minute it was a cat ; and per- 
 haps you think it is a big story, but there 
 were eight more in there, hived in together 
 to keep warm. I car'd 'em up some new fish 
 that night ; they seemed short of provisions. 
 We had n't been out fishing as much as com- 
 mon, and they had n't dared to be round the 
 fish-houses much, for a fellow who came in 
 on a coaster had a dog, and he used to chase 
 'em. Hard chance they had, and lots of 'em 
 died, I guess ; but there seem to be some 
 survivin' relatives, an' al'ays just so hungry ! 
 I used to feed them some when I was ashore. 
 I think likely you 've heard that a cat will 
 fetch you bad luck ; but I don't know 's that 
 made much difference to me. I kind of like 
 to keep on the right side of 'em too ; if ever 
 I have a bad dream there 's sure to be a cat 
 in it ; but I was brought up to be clever to 
 dumb beasts, an' I guess it 's my natur'. 
 Except fish," said Danny after a minute's 
 thought ; " but then it never seems like they
 
 102 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 had feelin'8 like creatur's that live ashore." 
 And we all laughed heartily and felt well 
 acquainted. 
 
 "Is 'pose you misses will laugh if I tell 
 ye I kept a kitty once myself." This was said 
 rather shyly, and there was evidently a story, 
 so we were much interested, and Kate said, 
 " Please tell us about it; was it at sea? " 
 
 " Yes, it was at sea ; leastways, on a coaster. 
 I got her in a sing'lar kind of way: it was 
 one afternoon we were lying alongside Charles- 
 town Bridge, and I heard a young cat screech- 
 ing real pitiful ; and after I looked all round, 
 I see her in the water clutching on to the pier 
 of the bridge, and some little divils of boys 
 were heaving rocks down at her. I got into 
 the schooner's tag-boat quick, I tell ye, and 
 pushed off for her, 'n' she let go just as I got 
 there, 'n' I guess you never saw a more mis- 
 er'ble-looking creatur' than I fished out of 
 the water. Cold weather it was. Her leg was 
 hurt, and her eye, and I thought first I 'd drop 
 her overboard again, and then I did n't, and 
 I took her aboard the schooner and put her 
 by the stove. I thought she might as well die 
 where it was warm. She eat a little mite of 
 chowder before night, but she was very slim ; 
 but next morning, when I went to see if she
 
 DANNY 103 
 
 was dead, she fell to licking my finger, and 
 she did purr away like a dolphin. One of her 
 eyes was out, where a stone had took her, and 
 she never got any use of it, but she used to 
 look at you so clever with the other, and she 
 got well of her lame foot after a while. I got 
 to be ter'ble fond of her. She was just the 
 knowingest thing you ever saw, and she used 
 to sleep alongside of me in my bunk, and 
 like as not she would go on deck with me 
 when it was my watch. I was coasting then 
 for a year and eight months, and I kept her 
 all the time. We used to be in harbor con- 
 sider'ble, and about eight o'clock in the fore- 
 noon I used to drop a line and catch her a 
 couple of cunners. Now, it is cur'us that she 
 used to know when I was fishing for her. She 
 would pounce on them fish and carry them 
 off and growl, and she knew when I got a bite, 
 she 'd watch the Jine ; but when we were 
 mackereling she never give us any trouble. 
 She would never lift a paw to touch any of our 
 fish. She did n't have the thieving ways com- 
 mon to most cats. She used to set round on 
 deck in fair weather, and when the wind 
 blew she al'ay s kept herself below. Sometimes 
 when we were in port she would go ashore 
 a while, and fetch back a bird or a mouse, but
 
 104 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 she would n't eat it till she come and showed it 
 to me. She never wanted to stop long ashore, 
 though I never shut her up; I always give 
 her her liberty. I got a good deal of joking 
 about her from the fellows, but she was a 
 sight of company. I don' know as I ever had 
 anything like me as much as she did. Not to 
 say as I ever had much of any trouble with 
 anybody, ashore or afloat. I 'm a still kind 
 of fellow, for all I look so rough. 
 
 " But then, I han't had a home, what I call 
 a home, since I was going on nine year old." 
 
 " How has that happened?" asked Kate. 
 
 " Well, mother, she died, and I was bound 
 out to a man in the tanning trade, and I hated 
 him, and I hated the trade ; and when I was 
 a little bigger I ran away, and I 've followed 
 the sea ever since. I was n't much use to him, 
 I guess ; leastways, he never took the trouble 
 to hunt me up. 
 
 " About the best place I ever was in was 
 a hospital. It was in foreign parts. Ye see I 'm 
 crippled some? I fell from the topsail yard 
 to the deck, and I struck my shoulder, and 
 broke my leg, and banged myself all up. It 
 was to a nuns' hospital where they took me. 
 All of the nuns were Catholics, and they 
 wore big white things on their heads. I don't
 
 DANNY 105 
 
 suppose you ever saw any. Have you ? Well, 
 now, that 's queer ! When I was first there I 
 was scared of them ; they were real ladies, 
 and I was n't used to being in a house, any- 
 way. One of them, that took care of me most 
 of the time, why, she would even set up half 
 the night with me, and I couldn't begin 
 to tell you how good-natured she was, an' 
 she 'd look real sorry too. I used to be ugly, 
 I ached so, along in the first of my being 
 there, but I spoke of it when I was com- 
 ing away, and she said it was all right. She 
 used to feed me, that lady did ; and there 
 were some days I could n't lift my head, and 
 she would rise it on her arm. She give me a 
 little mite of a book, when I come away. I 'm 
 not much of ,a hand at reading, but I always 
 kept it on account of her. She was so pleased 
 when I got so 's to set up in a chair and look 
 out of the window. She was n't much of a 
 hand to talk English. I did feel bad to come 
 away from there ; I 'most wished I could be 
 sick a while longer. I never said much of 
 anything either, and I don't know but she 
 thought it was queer, but I am a dreadful 
 clumsy man to say anything, and I got flus- 
 tered. I don't know 's I mind telling you ; I 
 was 'most a-crying, I used to think I 'd lay by
 
 106 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 some money and ship for there and carry her 
 something real pretty. But I don't rank able- 
 bodied seaman like I used, and it 's as much 
 as I can do to get a berth on a coaster; I 
 suppose I might go -as cook. I liked to have 
 died with my hurt at that hospital, but when 
 I was getting well it made me think of when 
 I was a mite of a chap to home before mother 
 died, to be laying there in a clean bed with 
 somebody to do for me. Guess you think I 'm 
 a good hand to spin long yarns; somehow it 
 comes easy to talk to-day." 
 
 " What became of your cat?" asked Kate, 
 after a pause, during which our friend sliced 
 away at the porgies. 
 
 " I never rightfully knew ; it was in Salem 
 harbor, and a windy night. I was on deck 
 consider'ble, for the schooner pitched lively, 
 and once or twice she dragged her anchor. 
 I never saw the kitty after she eat her sup- 
 per. I remember I gave her some milk, I 
 used to buy her a pint once in a while for a 
 treat ; I don't know but she might have gone 
 off on a cake of ice, but it did seem as if she 
 had too much sense for that. Most likely she 
 missed her footing, and fell overboard in the 
 dark. She was marked real pretty, black and 
 white, and kep' herself just as clean! She
 
 DANNY 107 
 
 knew as well as could be when foul weather 
 was coming ; she would bother round and 
 act queer; but when the sun was out she 
 would sit round on deck as pleased as a queen. 
 There ! I feel bad sometimes when I think of 
 her, and I never went into Salem since with- 
 out hoping that I should see her. I don't 
 know but if I was a-going to begin my life 
 over again, I 'd settle down ashore and have 
 a snug little house and farm it. But I guess 
 I shall do better at fishing. Give me a trig- 
 built topsail schooner painted up nice, with 
 a stripe on her, and clean sails, and a fresh 
 wind with the sun a-shining, and I feel first- 
 rate." 
 
 " Do you believe that codfish swallow stones 
 before a storm?" asked Kate. I had been 
 thinking about the lonely fisherman in a sen- 
 timental way, and so irrelevant a question 
 shocked me. " I sawlie felt slightly embar- 
 rassed at having talked about his affairs 
 so much," Kate told me afterward, " and I 
 thought we should leave him feeling more at 
 his ease if we talked about fish for a while." 
 And sure enough he did seem relieved, and 
 gave us his opinion about the codfish at once, 
 adding that he never cared much for cod any- 
 way; folks up country bought 'em a good
 
 108 DEEPHA VEN 
 
 deal, he heard. Give him a haddock right 
 out of the water for his dinner ! 
 
 " I never can remember," said Kate, " whe- 
 ther it is cod or haddock that have a black 
 stripe along their sides " 
 
 " O, those are haddock," said I; "they say 
 that the Devil caught a haddock once, and it 
 slipped through his fingers and got scorched ; 
 so all the haddock had the same mark after- 
 ward." 
 
 " Well, now, how did you know that old 
 story? " said Danny, laughing heartily ; "ye 
 mustn't believe all the old stories ye hear, 
 mind ye ! " 
 
 " O, no," said we. 
 
 "Hullo! There's Jim Toggerson's boat 
 close in shore. She sets low in the water, so 
 he's done well. He and Skipper Scudder 
 have been out deep-sea fishing since yester- 
 day." 
 
 Our friend pushed the porgies back into a 
 corner, stuck his knife into a beam, and we 
 hurried down to the shore. Kate and I sat 
 on the pebbles, and he went out to the moor- 
 ings in a dirty dory to help unload the fish. 
 
 We afterward saw a great deal of Danny, 
 as all the men called him. But though Kate 
 and I tried our best and used our utmost skill
 
 DANNY 109 
 
 and tact to make him tell us more about him- 
 self, he never did. But perhaps there was 
 nothing more to be told. 
 
 The day we left Deephaven we went down 
 to the shore to say good-by to him and to 
 some other friends, and he said, " Goin', are 
 ye ? Well, I 'm sorry ; ye 've treated me first- 
 rate ; the Lord bless ye ! " and then was so 
 much mortified at the way he had said fare- 
 well that he turned and fled round the cor- 
 ner of the fish-house.
 
 CAPTAIN SANDS 
 
 OLD Captain Sands was one of the most 
 prominent citizens of Deephaven, and a very 
 good friend of Kate's and mine. We often 
 met him, and grew much interested in him 
 before we knew him well. He had a reputa- 
 tion in town for being peculiar and somewhat 
 visionary ; but every one seemed to like him, 
 and at last one morning, when we happened 
 to be on our way to the wharves, we stopped 
 at the door of an old warehouse which we had 
 never seen opened before. Captain Sands sat 
 just inside, smoking his pipe, and we said 
 good-morning, and asked him if he did not 
 think there was a fog coming in by and by. 
 We had thought a little of going out to the 
 lighthouse. The cap'n rose slowly, and came 
 out so that he could see farther round to the 
 east. " There 's some scud coming in a' ready," 
 said he. " None to speak of yet, I don't know 's 
 you can see it, yes, you 're right ; there 's 
 a heavy bank of fog lyin' off, but it won't be 
 in under two or three hours yet, unless the 
 wind backs round more and freshens up. 
 Were n't thinking of going out, were ye ? "
 
 CAPTAIN SANDS 111 
 
 "A little," said Kate, " but we had nearly 
 given it up. We are getting to be very wea- 
 ther-wise, and we pride ourselves on being 
 quick at seeing fogs." At which the cap'n 
 smiled and said we were consider'ble young 
 to know much about weather, but it looked 
 well that we took some interest in it ; most 
 young people were fools about weather, and 
 would just as soon set off to go anywhere 
 right under the edge of a thunder-shower. 
 "Come in and set down, won't ye?" he 
 added ; " it ain't much of a place ; I 've got 
 a lot of old stuff stowed away here that the 
 women-folks don't want up to the house. I 'm 
 a great hand for keeping things." And he 
 looked round fondly at the contents of the 
 wide low room. " I come down here once in 
 a while and let in the sun, and sometimes I 
 want to hunt up something or 'nother ; kind 
 of stow-away place, ye see." And then he 
 laughed apologetically, rubbing his hands to- 
 gether, and looking out to sea again as if he 
 wished to appear unconcerned ; yet we saw 
 that he wondered if we thought it ridiculous 
 for a man of his age to have treasured up 
 so much trumpery in that cobwebby place. 
 There were some whole oars and the sail of 
 his boat and two or three killicks and paint-
 
 112 DEEPS AV EN 
 
 ers, not to forget a heap of worn-out oars and 
 sails in one corner and a sailor's hammock 
 slung across the beam overhead, and there 
 were some sailor's chests and the capstan of 
 a ship and innumerable boxes which all seemed 
 to be stuffed full, besides no end of things 
 lying on the floor and packed away on shelves 
 and hanging to rusty big-headed nails in the 
 wall. I saw some great lumps of coral, and 
 large, rough shells, a great hornet's nest, and 
 a monstrous lobster - shell. The cap'n had 
 cobbled and tied up some remarkable old 
 chairs for the accommodation of himself and 
 his friends. 
 
 " What a nice place ! " said Kate in a 
 frank, delighted way which could not have 
 failed to be gratifying. 
 
 " Well, no," said the cap'n, with his slow 
 smile, " it ain't what you 'd rightly call ' nice,' 
 as I know of : it ain't never been cleared out 
 all at once since I began putting in. There 's 
 nothing that 's worth anything, either, to any- 
 body but me. Wife, she 's said to me a hun- 
 dred times, ' Why don't you overhaul them 
 old things and burn 'em ? ' She 's al'ays at 
 me about letting the property, as if it were a 
 corner-lot in Broadway. That 's all women- 
 folks know about business ! " And here the
 
 CAPTAIN SANDS 113 
 
 captain caught himself tripping, and looked 
 uneasy for a minute. " I suppose I might 
 have let it for a fish-house, but it 's most too 
 far from the shore to be handy and well 
 there are some things here that I set a good 
 deal by." 
 
 " Is n't that a sword-fish's sword in that 
 piece of wood ? " Kate asked presently ; and 
 was answered that it was found broken off as 
 we saw it, in the hull of a wreck that went 
 ashore on Blue P'int when the captain was 
 a young man, and he had sawed it out and 
 kept it ever since, fifty-nine years. Of 
 course we went closer to look at it, and we 
 both felt a great sympathy for this friend of 
 ours, because we have the same fashion of 
 keeping worthless treasures, and we under- 
 stood perfectly how dear such things may be. 
 
 " Do you mind if we look round a little ? " 
 I asked doubtfully, for I knew how I should 
 hate having strangers look over my own trea- 
 sury. But Captain Sands looked pleased at 
 our interest, and said cheerfully that we 
 might overhaul as much as we chose. Kate 
 discovered first an old battered wooden fig- 
 ure-head of a ship, a woman's head with 
 long curly hair falling over the shoulders. 
 The paint was almost gone, and the dust cov-
 
 114 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 ered most of what was left : still, there was 
 a wonderful spirit and grace, and a wild, 
 weird beauty which attracted us exceedingly ; 
 but the captain could only tell us that it had 
 belonged to the wreck of a Danish brig which 
 had been driven on the reef where the light- 
 house stands now, and his father had found 
 this on the long sands a day or two after- 
 ward. " That was a dreadful storm," said 
 the captain. " I 've heard the old folks tell 
 about it ; it was when I was only a year 
 or two old. There were three merchantmen 
 wrecked within five miles of Deephaven. 
 This one was all stove to splinters, and they 
 used to say she had treasure aboard. When 
 I was small I used to have a great idea of 
 going out there to the rocks at low water and 
 trying to find some gold, but I never made 
 out no great." And he smiled indulgently 
 at the thought of his youthful dream. 
 
 " Kate," said I, " do you see what beauties 
 these Turk's- head knots are ? " We had been 
 taking a course of first lessons in knots from 
 Danny, and had followed by learning some 
 charmingly intricate ones from Captain Lant, 
 the stranded mariner who lived on a farm 
 two miles or so inland. Kate came over to 
 look at the Turk's-heads, which were at either
 
 CAPTAIN SANDS 115 
 
 end of the rope handles of a little dark-blue 
 chest. 
 
 Captain Sands turned in his chair and 
 nodded approval. " That 's a neat piece of 
 work, and it was a first-rate seaman who did 
 it ; he 's dead and gone years ago, poor young 
 fellow ; an I-talian he was, who sailed on the 
 Ranger three or four long voyages. He fell 
 from the mast-head on the voyage home from 
 Callao. Cap'n Manning and old Mr. Lori- 
 mer, they owned the Ranger, and when she 
 come into port and they got the news they 
 took it as much to heart a& if he 'd been some 
 relation. He was smart as a whip, and had a 
 way with him, and the pleasantest kind of a 
 voice ; you could n't help liking him. They 
 found out that he had a mother alive in Port 
 Mahon, and they sent his pay and some 
 money he had in the bank at Riverport out 
 to her by a ship that was going to the Medi- 
 terranean. He had some clothes in his chest, 
 and they sold those and sent her the money, 
 all but some trinkets they supposed he 
 was keeping for her; I rec'lect he used 
 to speak consider'ble about his mother. I 
 shipped one v'y'ge with him before the mast, 
 before I went out mate of the Daylight. I 
 happened to be in port the time the Ranger
 
 116 DEEPS AVEN 
 
 got in, an' I gee this chist lying round in 
 Cap'n Manning's storehouse, and I offered 
 to give him what it was worth ; but we was 
 good friends, and he told me take it if I 
 wanted it, it was no use to him, and I ' ve 
 kept it ever since. 
 
 " There are some of his traps in it now, I 
 believe ; ye can look." And we took off some 
 tangled cod - lines and opened the chest. 
 There was only a round wooden box in the 
 till, and in some idle hour at sea the young 
 sailor had carved his initials and an anchor 
 and the date on the cover. We found some 
 sail-needles and a palm in this " kit," as the 
 sailors call it, and a little string of buttons 
 with some needles and yarn and thread in a 
 neat little bag, which perhaps his mother had 
 made for him when he started off on his first 
 voyage. Besides these things there was only 
 a fanciful little broken buckle, green and gilt, 
 which he might have picked up in some for- 
 eign street, and his protection-paper carefully 
 folded, wherein he was certified as being a 
 citizen of the United States, with dark com- 
 plexion and dark hair. 
 
 " He was one of the pleasantest fellows 
 that ever I shipped with," said the captain, 
 with a gruff tenderness in his voice. " Always
 
 CAPTAIN SANDS 117 
 
 willin' to do his work himself, and like 's not 
 when the other fellows up the rigging were 
 cold, or ugly about something or 'nother, he 'd 
 say something that would set them all laugh- 
 ing, and somehow it made you good-natured 
 to see him round. He was brought up a 
 Catholic, I s'pose; anyway, he had some 
 beads, and sometimes they would joke him 
 about 'em on board ship, but he would blaze 
 up in a minute, ugly as a tiger. I never 
 saw him mad about anything else, though 
 he wouldn't stand it if anybody tried to 
 crowd him. He fell from the main-to'-gallant 
 yard to the deck, and he was dead when they 
 picked him up. They were off the Bermu- 
 das. I suppose he lost his balance, but I 
 never could see how ; he was sure-footed, and 
 as quick as a cat. They said they saw him 
 try to catch at the stay, but there was a 
 heavy sea running, and the ship rolled just 
 so 's to let him through between the rigging, 
 and he struck the deck like a stone. I don't 
 know 's that chest has been opened these ten 
 years, I declare it carries me back to look 
 at those poor little traps of his. Well, it 's 
 the way of the world ; we think we 're some- 
 body, and we have our day, but it is n't long 
 afore we 're forgotten."
 
 118 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 The captain reached over for the paper, 
 and taking out a clumsy pair of steel-bowed 
 spectacles, read it through carefully. " I '11 
 warrant he took good care of this," said he. 
 " He was an I Lilian, and no more of an Amer- 
 ican citizen than a Chinese ; I wonder he 
 had n't called himself John Jones, that 's the 
 name most of the foreigners used to take when 
 they got their papers. I remember once I 
 was sick with a fever in Chelsea Hospital, 
 and one morning they came bringing in the 
 mate of a Portugee brig on a stretcher, and 
 the surgeon asked what his name was. 'John 
 Jones,' says he. ' O, say something else,' 
 says the surgeon; 'we've got five John 
 Joneses here a'ready, and it 's getting to be 
 no name at all.' Sailors are great hands for 
 false names ; they have a trick of using them 
 when they have any money to leave ashore, 
 for fear their shipmates will go and draw it 
 out. I suppose there are thousands of dollars 
 unclaimed in New York banks, where men 
 have left it charged to their false names; 
 then they get lost at sea or something, and 
 never go to get it, and nobody knows whose 
 it is. They're curious folks, take 'em alto- 
 gether, sailors is; specially these foreign fel- 
 lows that wander about from ship to ship.
 
 CAPTAIN SANDS 119 
 
 They're getting to be a dreadful low set, 
 too, of late years. It 's the last thing I 'd 
 want a boy of mine to do, ship before 
 the mast with one of these mixed crews. 
 It's a dog's life, anyway, and the risks 
 and the chances against you are awful. It 's 
 a good while before you can lay up any- 
 thing, unless you are part owner. I saw all 
 the p'ints a good deal plainer after I quit 
 followin' the sea myself, though I 've always 
 been more or less into navigation until this 
 last war come on. I know when I was ship's 
 husband of the Polly and Susan there was 
 a young man went out cap'n of her, her 
 last voyage, and she never was heard from. 
 He had a wife and two or three little chil- 
 dren, and for all he was so smart, they would 
 have been about the same as beggars, if I 
 had n't happened to have his life insured 
 the day I was having the papers made out 
 for the ship. I happened to think of it. Five 
 thousand dollars there was, and I sent it 
 to the widow along with his primage. She 
 had n't expected nothing, or next to nothing, 
 and she was pleased, I tell ye." 
 
 " I think it was very kind in you to think 
 of that, Captain Sands," said Kate. And the 
 old man said, flushing a little, " Well, I 'm
 
 120 .DEEPHAVEN 
 
 not so smart as some of the men who started 
 when I did, and some of 'em went ahead of 
 me, but some of 'em did n't, after all. I 've 
 tried to be honest, and to do just about as 
 nigh right as I could, and you know there 's 
 an old sayin' that a cripple in the right road 
 will beat a racer in the wrong."
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 
 
 KATE and I looked forward to a certain 
 Saturday with as much eagerness as if we 
 had been little school-boys, for on that day 
 we were to go to a circus at Denby, a town 
 perhaps eight miles inland. There had not 
 been a circus so near Deephaven for a long 
 time, and nobody had dared to believe the 
 first rumor of it, until two dashing young 
 men had deigned to come themselves to put 
 up the big posters on the end of 'Bijah Mau- 
 ley's barn. All the boys in town came as 
 soon as possible to see these amazing pic- 
 tures, and some were wretched in their secret 
 hearts at the thought that they might not 
 see the show itself. Tommy Dockum was 
 more interested than any one else, and men- 
 tioned the subject so frequently one day 
 when he went blackberrying with us, that 
 we grew enthusiastic, and told each other 
 what fun it would be to go, for everybody 
 would be there, and it would be the greatest 
 loss to us if we were absent. I thought I 
 had lost my childish fondness for circuses, 
 but it came back redoubled ; and Kate may
 
 122 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 contradict me if she chooses, but I am sure 
 she never looked forward to the Easter Ora- 
 torio with half the pleasure she did to this 
 " caravan," as most of the people called it. 
 
 We felt that it was a great pity that any 
 of the boys and girls should be left lament- 
 ing at home, and finding that there were 
 some of our acquaintances and Tommy's 
 who saw no chance of going, we engaged Jo 
 Sands and Leander Dockum to carry them 
 to Denby in two fish-wagons, with boards 
 laid across for the extra seats. We saw them 
 join the straggling train of carriages which 
 had begun to go through the village from all 
 along shore, soon after daylight, and they 
 started on their journey shouting and carous- 
 ing, with their pockets crammed with early 
 apples and other provisions. We thought 
 it would have been fun enough to see the 
 people go by, for we had had no idea until 
 then how many inhabitants that country 
 held. 
 
 We had asked Mrs. Kew to go with us ; 
 but she was half an hour later than she had 
 promised, for, since there was no wind, she 
 could not come ashore in the sail-boat, and 
 Mr. Kew had had to row her in in the dory. 
 We saw the boat at last nearly in shore,
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 12$ 
 
 and drove down to meet it: even the horse 
 seemed to realize what a great day it was, 
 and showed a disposition to friskiness, evi- 
 dently as surprising to himself as to us. 
 
 Mrs. Kew was funnier that day than we 
 had ever known her, which is saying a great 
 deal, and we should not have had half so 
 good a time if she had not been with us ; 
 although she lived in the lighthouse, and 
 had no chance to " see passing," which a 
 woman prizes so highly in the country, she 
 had a wonderful memory for faces, and could 
 tell us the names of all Deephaveners and 
 of most of the people we met outside its 
 limits. She looked impressed and solemn as 
 she hurried up from the water's edge, giving 
 Mr. Kew some parting charges over her 
 shoulder as he pushed off the boat to go 
 back ; but after we had convinced her that 
 the delay had not troubled us, she seemed 
 more cheerful. It was evident that she felt 
 the importance of the occasion, and that she 
 was pleased at our having chosen her for 
 company. She threw back her veil entirely, sat 
 very straight, and took immense pains to bow 
 to every acquaintance whom she met. She 
 wore her best Sunday clothes, and her manner 
 was formal for the first few minutes; it was
 
 124 DEEPBAVEN 
 
 evident that she felt we were meeting under 
 unusual circumstances, and that, although we 
 had often met before on the friendliest terms, 
 our having asked her to make this excursion 
 in public required a different sort of behavior 
 at her hands, and a due amount of ceremony 
 and propriety. But this state of things did 
 not last long, as she soon made a remark at 
 which Kate and I laughed so heartily in 
 lighthouse-acquaintance fashion, that she un- 
 bent, and gave her whole mind to enjoying 
 herself. 
 
 When we came by the store where the post- 
 office was kept we saw a small knot of people 
 gathered round the door, and stopped to see 
 what had happened. There was a forlorn 
 horse standing near, with his harness tied up 
 with fuzzy ends of rope, and the wagon was 
 cobbled together with pieces of board ; the 
 whole craft looked as if it might be wrecked 
 with the least jar. In the wagon were four 
 or five stupid-looking boys and girls, one of 
 whom was crying softly. Their father was 
 sick, some one told us. " He was took faint, 
 but he is coming to all right ; they have give 
 him something to take : their name is dra- 
 per, and they live way over beyond the Ridge, 
 on Stone Hill. They were goin' over to Denby
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 125 
 
 to the circus, and the man was calc'lating to 
 get doctored, but I d' know 's he can get so 
 fur; he 's powerful slim-looking to me." Kate 
 and I went to see if we could be of any use, 
 and when we went into the store we saw the 
 man leaning back in his chair, looking ghastly 
 pale, and as if he were far gone in consump- 
 tion. Kate spoke to him, and he said he was 
 better ; he had felt bad all the way along, 
 but he had n't given up. He was pitiful, poor 
 fellow, with his evident attempt at dressing 
 up. He had the bushiest, dustiest red hair and 
 whiskers, which made the pallor of his face 
 still more striking, and his illness had thinned 
 and paled his rough, clumsy hands. I thought 
 what a hard piece of work it must have been 
 for him to start for the circus that morning, 
 and how kind-hearted he must be to have 
 made such an effort for his children's plea- 
 sure. As we went out they stared at us gloom- 
 ily. The shadow of their disappointment 
 touched and chilled our pleasure. 
 
 Somebody had turned the horse so that he 
 was heading toward home, and by his actions 
 he showed that he was the only one of the 
 party who was glad. We were so sorry for 
 the children ; perhaps it had promised to be 
 the happiest day of their lives, and now they
 
 126 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 must go back to their uninteresting home 
 without having seen the great show. 
 
 " I am so sorry you are disappointed," 
 said Kate, as we were wondering how the 
 man, who had followed us, could ever climb 
 into the wagon. 
 
 " Heh ? " said he blankly, as if he did not 
 know what her words meant. " What fool 
 has been a-turning o' this horse ? " he asked 
 a man who was looking on. 
 
 " Why, which way be ye goin' ?" 
 
 " To the circus," said Mr. Craper with de- 
 cision, "where d' ye s'pose? That's where I 
 started for, anyways." And he climbed in 
 and glanced round to count the children, 
 struck the horse with the willow switch, and 
 they started off briskly, while everybody 
 laughed. Kate and I joined Mrs. Kew, who 
 had enjoyed the scene. 
 
 " Well, there ! " said she, " I wonder the 
 folks in the old North burying-ground ain't 
 a- rising up to go to Denby to that caravan ! " 
 
 We reached Denby at noon ; it was an un- 
 interesting town which had grown up around 
 some mills. There was a great commotion in 
 the streets, and it was evident that we had 
 lost much in not having seen the procession. 
 There was a great deal of business going on
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 127 
 
 in the shops, and there were two or three 
 hand-organs at large, near one of which we 
 stopped a while to listen, just after we had 
 met Leander and given the horse into his 
 charge. Mrs. Kew finished her shopping as 
 soon as possible, and we hurried toward the 
 great tents, where all the flags were flying. 
 I think I have not told you that we were to 
 have the benefit of seeing a menagerie in ad- 
 dition to the circus, and you may be sure we 
 went faithfully round to see everything that 
 the cages held. 
 
 I cannot truthfully say that it was a good 
 show ; it was somewhat dreary, now that I 
 think of it quietly and without excitement. 
 The creatures looked tired, and as if they 
 had been on the road for a great many years. 
 The animals were all old, and there was a 
 shabby great elephant whose look of general 
 discouragement went to my heart, for it 
 seemed as if he were miserably conscious of 
 a misspent life. He stood dejected and mo- 
 tionless at one side of the tent, and it was 
 hard to believe that there was a spark of vi- 
 tality left in him. A great number of the 
 people had never seen an elephant before, 
 and we heard a thin little old man, who stood 
 near us, say delightedly, " There 's the old
 
 128 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 creatur', and no mistake, Ann 'Liza. I 
 wanted to see hitn most of anything. My 
 sakes alive, ain't he big ! " 
 
 And Ann 'Liza, who was stout and sleepy- 
 looking, droned out, " Ye-es, there 's con- 
 sider'ble of him ; but he looks as if he ain't 
 got no animation." 
 
 Kate and I turned away and laughed, while 
 Mrs. Kew said confidentially, as the couple 
 moved away, " /She need n't be a-reflectin' 
 on the poor beast. That 's Mis' Seth Tanner, 
 and there is n't a woman in Deephaven nor 
 East Parish to be named the same day with 
 her for laziness. I 'm glad she did n't catch 
 sight of me ; she 'd have talked about no- 
 thing for a fortnight." 
 
 There was a picture of a huge snake in 
 Deephaven, and I was just wondering where 
 he could be, or if there ever had been one, 
 when we heard a boy ask the same question 
 of the man whose thankless task it was to 
 stir up the lions with a stick to make them 
 roar. " The snake 's dead," he answered good- 
 naturedly. " Did n't you have to dig an awful 
 long grave for him ? " asked the boy ; but 
 the man said he reckoned they curled him 
 up some, and smiled as he turned to his lions, 
 who looked as if they needed a tonic. Every-
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 129 
 
 body lingered longest before the monkeys, 
 who seemed to be the only lively creatures 
 in the whole collection ; and finally we made 
 our way into the other tent, and perched our- 
 selves on a high seat, from whence we had 
 a capital view of the audience and the ring, 
 and could see the people come in. Mrs. Kew 
 was on the lookout for acquaintances, and 
 her spirits as well as our own seemed to rise 
 higher and higher. She was on the alert, 
 moving her head this way and that to catch 
 sight of people, giving us a running com- 
 mentary in the mean time. It was very plea- 
 sant to see a person so happy as Mrs. Kew 
 was that day, and I dare say in speaking of 
 the occasion she would say the same thing of 
 Kate and me, for it was such a good time ! 
 We bought some peanuts, without which no 
 circus seems complete, and we listened to the 
 conversations which were being carried on 
 around us while we were waiting for the 
 performance to begin. There were two old 
 farmers whom we had noticed occasionally in 
 Deephaven ; one was telling the other, with 
 great confusion of pronouns, about a big pig 
 which had lately been killed. "John did feel 
 dreadful disappointed at having to kill now," 
 we heard him say, "bein' as he had calc'lated
 
 130 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 to kill along near Thanksgivin' time ; there 
 was goin' to be a new moon then, and he 
 expected to get seventy-five or a hunderd 
 pound more on to him. But he did n't seem 
 to gain, and me and 'Bijah both told him 
 he 'd be better to kill now, while everything 
 was favor'ble, and if he set out to wait some- 
 thing might happen to him, and then I 've 
 always held that you can't get no hog only 
 just so fur, and for my part I don't like 
 these great overgrown creatur's. I like well 
 enough to see a hog that '11 weigh six hun- 
 derd, just for the beauty on 't, but for my 
 eatin' give me one that '11 just rise three. 
 'Bijah 's accurate, and he says he is goin' 
 to weigh risin' five hunderd and fifty. I 
 shall stop, as I go home, to John's wife's 
 brother's and see if they 've got the particu- 
 lars yet ; John was goin' to get the scales 
 this morning. I guess likely consider'ble 
 many '11 gather there to-morrow after meet- 
 ing. John didn't calc'late to cut up till 
 Monday." 
 
 " I guess likely I '11 stop in to-morrow," 
 said the other man ; " I like to see a han'- 
 some hog. Chester White, you said? Con- 
 sider them best, don't ye ? " But this ques- 
 tion never was answered, for the greater part
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 131 
 
 of the circus company in gorgeous trappings 
 came parading in. 
 
 The circus was like all other circuses, ex- 
 cept that it was shabbier than most, and the 
 performers seemed to have less heart in it 
 than usual. They did their best, and went 
 through with their parts conscientiously, but 
 they looked as if they never had had a good 
 time in their lives. The audience was hilari- 
 ous, and cheered and laughed at the tired 
 clown until he looked as if he thought his 
 speeches might possibly be funny, after all. 
 We were so glad we had pleased the poor 
 thing ; and when he sang a song our satis- 
 faction was still greater, and so he sang it 
 all over again. Perhaps he had been asso- 
 ciating with people who were used to cir- 
 cuses. The afternoon was hot, and the boys 
 with Japanese fans and trays of lemonade 
 did a remarkable business for so late in the 
 season ; the brass band on the other side of 
 the tent shrieked its very best, and all the 
 young men of the region had brought their 
 girls, and some of these countless pairs of 
 country lovers we watched a great deal, as 
 they " kept company " with more or less 
 depth of satisfaction in each other. We had 
 a grand chance to see the fashions, and there
 
 132 DEEP HAY EN 
 
 were many old people and a great number 
 of little children, and some families had evi- 
 dently locked their house door behind them, 
 since they had brought both the dog and the 
 baby. 
 
 " Does n't it seem as if you were a child 
 again ? " Kate asked me. " I am sure this is 
 just the same as the first circus I ever saw. 
 It grows more and more familiar, and it puz- 
 zles me to think they should not have altered 
 in the least while I have changed so much, 
 and have even had time to grow up. You 
 don't know how it is making me remember 
 other things of which I have not thought for 
 years. I was seven years old when I went 
 that first time. Uncle Jack invited me. I 
 had a new parasol, and he laughed because 
 I would hold it over my shoulder when the 
 sun was in my face. He took me into the 
 side-shows and bought me everything I asked 
 for, on the way home, and we did not get 
 home until twilight. The rest of the family 
 had dined at four o'clock and gone out for a 
 long drive, and it was such fun to have our 
 dinner by ourselves. I sat at the head of the 
 table in mamma's place, and when Bridget 
 came down and insisted that I must go to 
 bed, Uncle Jack came softly upstairs and
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 133 
 
 sat by the window, smoking and telling me 
 stories. He ran and hid in the closet when 
 we heard mamma coming up, and when she 
 found him out by the cigar-smoke, and made 
 believe scold him, I thought she was in ear- 
 nest, and begged him off. Yes ; and I re- 
 member that Bridget sat in the next room, 
 making her new dress so she could wear it to 
 church next day. I thought it was a beauti- 
 ful dress, and besought mamma to have one 
 like it. It was bright green with yellow spots 
 all over it," said Kate. " Ah, poor Uncle 
 Jack ! he was so good to me ! We were al- 
 ways telling stories of what we would do 
 when I was grown up. He died in Canton 
 the next year, and I cried myself ill ; but for 
 a long time I thought he might not be dead, 
 after all, and might come home any day. He 
 used to seem so old to me, and he really was 
 just out of college and not so old as I am 
 now. That day at the circus he had a pink 
 rosebud in his buttonhole, and ah ! when 
 have I ever thought of this before ! a wo- 
 man sat before us who had a stiff little cape 
 on her bonnet like a shelf, and I carefully 
 put peanuts round the edge of it, and when 
 she moved her head they would fall. I 
 thought it was the best fun in the world,
 
 134 DEEP HA YEN 
 
 and I wished Uncle Jack to ride the donkey ; 
 I was sure he could keep on, because his 
 horse had capered about with him one day 
 on Beacon Street, and I thought him a per- 
 fect rider, since nothing had happened to 
 him then." 
 
 "I remember," said Mrs. Kew presently, 
 "that just before I was married 4 he' took 
 me over to Wareham Corners to a caravan. 
 My sister Hannah and the young man who 
 was keeping company with her went too. I 
 have n't been to one since till to-day, and it 
 does carry me back same 's it does you, Miss 
 Kate. It does n't seem more than five years 
 ago, and what would I have thought if I had 
 known ' he ' and I were going to keep a light- 
 house and be contented there, what 's more, 
 and sometimes not get ashore for a fortnight; 
 settled, gray-headed old folks! We were gay 
 enough in those days. I know old Miss Sa- 
 brina Smith warned me that I 'd better think 
 twice before I took up with Tom Kew, for he 
 was a light-minded young man. I speak o' 
 that to him in the winter-time, when he sets 
 reading the almanac half asleep and I 'm 
 knitting, and the wind 's a-howling and the 
 waves coming ashore on those rocks as if they 
 wished they could put out the light and blow
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 135 
 
 down the lighthouse. We were reflected on a 
 good deal for going to that caravan ; some 
 of the old folks didn't think it was im- 
 provin' Well, I should think that man 
 was a-trying to break his neck ! " 
 
 Coming out of the great tent was disagree- 
 able enough, and we seemed to have chosen 
 the worst time, for the crowd pushed fiercely, 
 though I suppose nobody was in the least 
 hurry, and we were all severely jammed, 
 while from somewhere underneath came the 
 wails of a deserted dog. We had not meant 
 to see the side-shows, and went carelessly past 
 two or three tents ; but when we came in 
 sight of the picture of the Kentucky giant- 
 ess, we noticed that Mrs. Kew looked at it 
 wistfully, and we immediately asked if she 
 cared anything about going to see the won- 
 der, whereupon she confessed that she never 
 heard of such a thing as a woman's weighing 
 six hundred and fifty pounds, so we all three 
 went in. There were only two or three per- 
 sons inside the tent, beside a little boy who 
 played the hand-organ. 
 
 The Kentucky giantess sat in two chairs 
 on a platform, and there was a large cage of 
 monkeys just beyond, toward which Kate and 
 I went at once. " Why, she is n't more than
 
 136 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 two thirds as big as the picture," said Mrs. 
 Kew, in a regretful whisper ; " but I guess 
 she 's big enough ; does n't she look discour- 
 aged, poor creatur' ? " Kate and I felt ashamed 
 of ourselves for being there. No matter if she 
 had consented to be carried round for a show, 
 it must have been horrible to be stared at 
 and joked about day after day ; and we 
 gravely looked at the monkeys, and in a few 
 minutes turned to see if Mrs. Kew were not 
 ready to come away, when to our surprise we 
 saw that she was talking to the giantess with 
 great interest, and we went nearer. 
 
 " I thought your face looked natural the 
 minute I set foot inside the door," said Mrs. 
 Kew ; " but you Ve altered some since I 
 saw you, and I could n't place you till I 
 heard you speak. Why, you used to be spare ; 
 I am amazed, Marilly ! Where are your 
 folks?" 
 
 " I don't wonder you are surprised," said 
 the giantess. " I was a good ways from this 
 when you knew me, was n't I ? But father 
 he run through with every cent he had be- 
 fore he died, and 'he' took to drink and it 
 killed him after a while, and then I begun 
 to grow worse and worse, till I could n't do 
 nothing to earn a dollar, and everybody was
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 137 
 
 a-coming to see me, till at last I used to ask 
 'em ten cents apiece, and I scratched along 
 somehow till this man came round and heard 
 of me, and he offered me my keep and good 
 pay to go along with him. He had another 
 giantess before me, but she had begun to 
 fall away consider' ble, so he paid her off and 
 let her go. This other giantess was an awful 
 expense to him, she was such an eater; now 
 I don't have no great of an appetite," this 
 was said plaintively, " and he 's raised my 
 pay since I 've been with him because we 
 did so well. I took up with his offer because 
 I was nothing but a drag and never will be. 
 I 'm as comfortable as I can be, but it 's a 
 pretty hard business. My oldest boy is able to 
 do for himself, but he's married this last year, 
 and his wife don't want me. I don't know 's 
 I blame her either. It would be something 
 like if I had a daughter now ; but there, I 'm 
 getting to like travelling first-rate ; it gives 
 anybody a good deal to think of." 
 
 " I was asking the folks about you when I 
 was up home the early part of the summer," 
 said Mrs. Kew, " but all they knew was that 
 you were living out in New York State. 
 Have you been living in Kentucky long? I 
 saw it on the picture outside."
 
 138 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 "No," said the giantess, "that was a pic- 
 ture the man bought cheap from another 
 show that broke up last year. It says six 
 hundred and fifty pounds, but I don't weigh 
 more than four hundred. I have n't been 
 weighed for some time past. Between you 
 and me I don't weigh so much as that, but 
 you must n't mention it, for it would spoil 
 my reputation, and might hender my getting 
 another engagement." And then the poor 
 giantess lost her professional look and tone as 
 she said, " I believe I 'd rather die than grow 
 any bigger. I do lose heart sometimes, and 
 wish I was a smart woman and could keep 
 house. I 'd be smarter than ever I was when 
 I had the chance ; I tell you that ! Is Tom 
 along with you ? " 
 
 " No. I came with these young ladies, 
 Miss Lancaster and Miss Denis, who are 
 stopping over to Deephaven for the sum- 
 mer." Kate and I turned as we heard this 
 introduction ; we were standing close by, and 
 I am proud to say that I never saw Kate 
 treat any one more politely than she did that 
 absurd, pitiful creature with the gilt crown 
 and many bracelets. It was not that she 
 said much, but there was such an exquisite 
 courtesy in her manner, and an apparent
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 139 
 
 unconsciousness of there being anything in 
 the least surprising or uncommon about the 
 giantess. 
 
 Just then a party of people came in, and 
 Mrs. Kew said good-by reluctantly. " It has 
 done me sights of good to see you," said our 
 new acquaintance ; " I was feeling down- 
 hearted just before you came in. I 'm pleased 
 to see somebody that remembers me as I 
 used to be." And they shook hands in a way 
 that meant a great deal, and when Kate and 
 I said good-afternoon the giantess looked at 
 us gratefully, and said, " I 'm very much 
 obliged to you for coming in, young ladies." 
 
 " Walk in ! walk in ! " the man was shout- 
 ing as we came away. " Walk in and see 
 the wonder of the world, ladies and gentle- 
 men, the largest woman ever seen in 
 America, the great Kentucky giantess ! " 
 
 " Would n't you have liked to stay longer ? " 
 Kate asked Mrs. Kew as we came down the 
 street. But she answered that it would be 
 no satisfaction; the people were coming in, 
 and she would have no chance to talk. "I 
 never knew her very well; she is younger 
 than I, and she used to go to meeting where 
 I did, but she lived five or six miles from 
 our house. She 's had a hard time of it, ac-
 
 140 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 cording to her account," said Mrs. Kew. 
 " She used to be a dreadful flighty, high- 
 tempered girl, but she 's lost that now, I can 
 see by her eyes. I was running over in my 
 mind to see if there was anything I could 
 do for her, but I don't know as there is. 
 She said the man who hired her was kind. 
 I guess your treating her so polite did her 
 as much good as anything. She used to be 
 real ambitious. I had it on my tongue's end 
 to ask her if she could n't get a few days' 
 leave and come out to stop with me, but 
 I thought just in time that she 'd sink the 
 dory in a minute. There! seeing her has 
 took away all the fun," said Mrs. Kew rue- 
 fully; and we were all dismal for a while, 
 but at last, after we were fairly started for 
 home, we began to be merry again. 
 
 We passed the Craper family whom we 
 had seen at the store in the morning ; the 
 children looked as stupid as ever, but the 
 father, I am sorry to say, had been tempted 
 to drink more whiskey than was good for 
 him. He had a bright flush on his cheeks, 
 and he was flourishing his whip, and hoarsely 
 singing some meaningless tune. " Poor crea- 
 ture ! " said I, " I should think this day's 
 pleasuring would kill him." "Now, would n't
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 141 
 
 you think so ? " said Mrs. Kew sympathiz- 
 ingly ; " but the truth is, you could n't kill 
 one of those Crapers if you pounded him in 
 a mortar." 
 
 We had a pleasant drive home, and we 
 kept Mrs. Kew to supper, and afterward 
 went down to the shore to see her set sail for 
 home. Mr. Kew had come in some time be- 
 fore, and had been waiting for the moon to 
 rise. Mrs. Kew told us that she should have 
 enough to think of for a year, she had en- 
 joyed the day so much ; and we stood on the 
 pebbles watching the boat out of the harbor, 
 and wishing ourselves on board, it was such 
 a beautiful evening. 
 
 We went to another show that summer, 
 the memory of which will never fade. It is 
 somewhat impertinent to call it a show, and 
 " public entertainment " is equally inappro- 
 priate, though we certainly were entertained. 
 It had been raining for two or three days ; 
 the Deephavenites spoke of it as "a spell of 
 weather." Just after tea, one Thursday even- 
 ing, Kate and I went down to the post-office. 
 When we opened the great hall door, the salt 
 air was delicious, but we found the town ap- 
 parently wet through and discouraged ; and
 
 142 DEEPHA VEN 
 
 though it had almost stopped raining just 
 then, there was a Scotch inist, like a snow- 
 storm with the chill taken off, and the Chan- 
 trey elms dripped hurriedly, and creaked 
 occasionally in the east wind. 
 
 " There will not be a cap'n on the wharves 
 for a week after this," said I to Kate ; "only 
 think of the cases of rheumatism ! " 
 
 We stopped for a few minutes at the Ca- 
 rews', who were as much surprised to see us 
 as if we had been mermaids out of the sea, 
 and begged us to give ourselves something 
 warm to drink, and to change our boots the 
 moment we got home. Then we went on to the 
 post-office. Kate went in, but stopped, as she 
 came out with our letters, to read a written 
 notice securely fastened to the grocery door 
 by four large carpet-tacks with wide leathers 
 round their necks. 
 
 " Dear," said she exultantly, " there 's go- 
 ing to be a lecture to-night in the church, 
 a free lecture on the Elements of True Man- 
 hood. Would n't you like to go ? " And we 
 went. 
 
 We were fifteen minutes later than the 
 time appointed, and were sorry to find that 
 the audience was almost imperceptible. The 
 dampness had affected the antiquated lamps
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 143 
 
 so that those on the walls and on the front of 
 the gallery were the dimmest lights I ever 
 saw, and sent their feeble rays through a 
 small space the edges of which were clearly 
 defined. There were two rather more ener- 
 getic lights on the table near the pulpit, 
 where the lecturer sat, and as we were in the 
 rear of the church, we could see the yellow 
 fog between ourselves and him. There were 
 fourteen persons in the audience, and we 
 were all huddled together in a cowardly way 
 in the pews nearest the door : three old men, 
 four women, and four children, besides our- 
 selves and the sexton, a deaf little old man 
 with a wooden leg. 
 
 The children whispered noisily, and soon, 
 to our surprise, the lecturer rose and began. 
 He bowed, and treated us with beautiful de- 
 ference, and read his dreary lecture with en- 
 thusiasm. I wish I could say, for his sake, 
 that it was interesting ; but I cannot tell a 
 lie, and it was so long ! He went on and on, 
 until it seemed as if I had been there ever 
 since I was a little girl. Kate and I did not 
 dare to look at each other, and in my desper- 
 ation at feeling her quiver with laughter, I 
 moved to the other end of the pew, knocking 
 over a big hymn-book on the way, which at-
 
 144 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 tracted so much attention that I have seldom 
 felt more embarrassed in my life. Kate's 
 great dog rose several times to shake himself 
 and yawn loudly, and then lie down again 
 despairingly. 
 
 You would have thought the man was ad- 
 dressing an enthusiastic Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association. He exhorted with fervor 
 upon our duties as citizens and as voters, and 
 told us a great deal about George Washing- 
 ton and Benjamin Franklin, whom he urged 
 us to choose as our examples. He waited for 
 applause after each of his outbursts of elo- 
 quence, and presently went on again, in no 
 wise disconcerted at the silence, and as if he 
 were sure that he would fetch us next time. 
 The rain began to fall again heavily, and the 
 wind wailed around the meeting-house. If 
 the lecture had been upon any other subject 
 it would not have been so hard for KaU and 
 me to keep sober faces ; but it was directed 
 entirely toward young men, and there was 
 not a young man there. 
 
 The children in front of us mildly scuffled 
 with each other at one time, until the one at 
 the end of the pew dropped a marble, which 
 struck the floor and rolled with a frightful 
 noise down the edge of the aisle where there
 
 THE CIRCUS AT DENBY 145 
 
 was no carpet. The congregation instinc- 
 tively started up to look after it, but we re- 
 collected ourselves and leaned back again in 
 our places, while the awed children, after 
 keeping unnaturally quiet, fell asleep, and 
 tumbled against each other helplessly. After 
 a time the man sat down and wiped his fore- 
 head, looking well satisfied; and when we 
 were wondering whether we might with pro- 
 priety come away, he rose again, and said it 
 was a free lecture, and he thanked us for 
 our kind patronage on that inclement night ; 
 but in other places which he had visited 
 there had been a contribution taken up for 
 the cause. It would, perhaps, do no harm, 
 would the sexton 
 
 But the sexton could not have heard the 
 sound of a cannon at that distance, and slum- 
 bered on. Neither Kate nor I had any money, 
 except a twenty-dollar bill in my purse, and 
 some coppers in the pocket of her water- 
 proof cloak which she assured me she was 
 prepared to give ; but we saw no signs of 
 the sexton's waking, and as one of the wo- 
 men kindly went forward to wake the chil- 
 dren, we all rose and came away. 
 
 After we had made as much fun and 
 laughed as long as we pleased that night,
 
 146 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 we became suddenly conscious of the pitiful 
 side of it all ; and being anxious that every 
 one should have the highest opinion of Deep- 
 haven, we sent Tom Dockum early in the 
 morning with an anonymous note to the lec- 
 turer, whom he found without much trouble ; 
 but afterward we were disturbed at hearing 
 that he was going to repeat his lecture that 
 evening, the wind having gone round to 
 the northwest, and I have no doubt there 
 were a good many women able to be out, and 
 that he harvested enough ten-cent pieces to 
 pay his expenses without our help ; though 
 he had particularly told us it was for " the 
 cause," the evening before, and that ought 
 to have been a consolation.
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 
 
 ONE of the chief pleasures in Deephaven 
 was our housekeeping. Going to market was 
 apt to use up a whole morning, especially if 
 we went to the fish-houses. We depended 
 somewhat upon supplies from Boston, but 
 sometimes we used to chase a butcher who 
 took a drive in his old canvas-topped cart 
 when he felt like it, and as for fish, there 
 were always enough to be caught, even if we 
 could not buy any. Our acquaintances would 
 often ask if we had anything for dinner that 
 day, and would kindly suggest that some- 
 body had been boiling lobsters, or that a boat 
 had just come in with some nice mackerel, 
 or that somebody over on the Ridge was cal- 
 culating to kill a lamb, and we had better 
 speak for a quarter in good season. I am 
 afraid we were looked upon as being in dan- 
 ger of becoming epicures, which we certainly 
 are not, and we undoubtedly roused a great 
 deal of interest because we used to eat mush- 
 rooms, which grew in the suburbs of the town 
 in wild luxuriance. 
 
 One morning Maggie told us that there
 
 148 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 was nothing in the house for dinner, and, 
 taking an early start, we went at once down 
 to the store to ask if the butcher had been 
 seen, but finding that he had gone out deep- 
 sea fishing for two days, and that when he 
 came back he had planned to kill a veal, 
 we left word for a sufficient piece of the 
 doomed animal to be set apart for our fam- 
 ily, and strolled down to the shore to see if 
 we could find some mackerel ; but there was 
 not a fisherman in sight, and after going to 
 all the fish-houses we concluded that we had 
 better provide for ourselves. We had not 
 brought our own lines, but we knew where 
 Danny kept his, and after finding a basket 
 of suitable size, and taking some clams from 
 Danny's bait-tub, we went over to the hull 
 of an old schooner which was going to pieces 
 alongside one of the ruined wharves. We 
 looked down the hatchway into the hold, and 
 could see the flounders and sculpin swim- 
 ming about lazily, and once in a while a lit- 
 tle pollock scooted down among them imper- 
 tinently and then disappeared. "There is 
 that same big flounder that we saw day be- 
 fore yesterday," said I. " I know him because 
 one of his fins is half gone. I don't believe 
 he can get out, for the hole in the side of the
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 149 
 
 schooner is n't very wide, and it is higher up 
 than flounders ever swim. Perhaps he came 
 in when he was young, and was too lazy to 
 go out until he was so large he couldn't. 
 Flounders always look so lazy, and as if they 
 thought a great deal of themselves." 
 
 " I hope they will think enough of them- 
 selves to keep away from my hook this 
 morning," said Kate philosophically, " and 
 the sculpin too. I am going to fish for cun- 
 ners alone, and keep my line short." And 
 she perched herself on the quarter, baited 
 her hook carefully, and threw it over, with 
 a clam-shell to call attention. I went to the 
 rail at the side, and we were presently much 
 encouraged by pulling up two small cun- 
 ners, and felt that our prospects for dinner 
 were excellent. Then I unhappily caught 
 so large a sculpin that it was like pull- 
 ing up an open umbrella, and after I had 
 thrown him into the hold to keep company 
 with the flounder, our usual good luck seemed 
 to desert us. It was one of the days when, 
 in spite of twitching the line and using all 
 the tricks we could think of, the cunners 
 would either eat our bait or keep away alto- 
 gether. Kate at last said we must starve 
 unless we could catch the big flounder, and
 
 150 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 asked me to drop my hook down the hatch- 
 way ; but it seemed almost too bad to destroy 
 his innocent happiness. Just then we heard 
 the noise of oars, and to our delight saw 
 Cap'n Sands in his dory just beyond the next 
 wharf. "Any luck?" said he. "S'pose ye 
 don't care anything about going out this 
 morning?" 
 
 " "We are not amusing ourselves ; we are 
 trying to catch some fish for dinner," said 
 Kate. " Could you wait out by the red buoy 
 while we get a few more, and then should 
 you be back by noon, or are you going for a 
 longer voyage, Captain Sands ? " 
 
 " I was going out to Black Rock for cun- 
 ners myself," said the cap'n. " I should be 
 pleased to take ye, if ye 'd like to go." So 
 we wound up our lines, and took our basket 
 and clams and went round to meet the boat. 
 I felt like rowing, and took the oars while 
 Kate was mending her sinker and the cap'n 
 was busy with a snarled line. 
 
 " It 's pretty hot," said he presently, " but 
 I see a breeze coming in, and the clouds 
 seem to be thickening ; I guess we shall have 
 it cooler 'long towards noon. It looked last 
 night as if we were going to have foul wea- 
 ther, but the scud seemed to blow off, and it
 
 CUNNER-FISHING 151 
 
 was as pretty a morning as ever I see. ' A 
 growing moon chaws up the clouds,' my 
 gran'ther used to say. He was as knowing 
 about the weather as anybody I ever come 
 across; 'most always hit it just about right. 
 Some folks lay all the weather to the moon, 
 accordin' to where she quarters, and when 
 she 's in perigee we 're going to have this 
 kind of weather, and when she 's in apogee 
 she 's got to do so and so for sartain ; but 
 gran'ther he used to laugh at all them things. 
 He said it never made no kind of difference, 
 and he went by the looks of the clouds and 
 the feel of the air, and he thought folks 
 couldn't make no kind of rules that held 
 good, that had to do with the moon. Well, 
 he did use to depend on the moon some; 
 everybody knows we are n't so likely to have 
 foul weather in a growing moon as we be 
 when she 's waning. But some folks I could 
 name, they can't do nothing without having 
 the moon's opinion on it. When I went my 
 second voyage afore the mast we was in port 
 ten days at Cadiz, and the ship she needed 
 salting dreadful. The mate kept telling the 
 captain how low the salt was in her, and we 
 was going a long voyage from there, but no, 
 he would n't have her salted nohow, because
 
 152 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 it was the wane of the moon. He was an 
 amazing set kind of man, the cap'n was, and 
 would have his own way on sea or shore. 
 The mate was his own brother, and they 
 used to fight like a cat and dog ; they owned 
 most of the ship between 'em. I was slush- 
 ing the mizzen-mast, and heard 'em a-dis- 
 putin' about the salt. The cap'n was a first- 
 rate seaman and died rich, but he was 
 dreadful notional. I know one time we were 
 a-lyin' out in the stream all ready to weigh 
 anchor, and everything was in trim, the men 
 were up in the rigging and a fresh breeze 
 going out, just what we 'd been waiting for, 
 and the word was passed to take in sail and 
 make everything fast. The men swore, and 
 everybody said the cap'n had had some kind 
 of a warning. But that night it began to 
 blow, and I tell you afore morning we were 
 glad enough we were in harbor. The old 
 Victor she dragged her anchor, and the fore- 
 to'-gallant sail and r'yal got loose somehow 
 and was blown out of the bolt-ropes. Most 
 of the canvas and rigging was old, but we 
 had first-rate weather after that, and did n't 
 bend near all the new sail we had aboard, 
 though the cap'n was most afraid we 'd come 
 short when we left Boston. That was 'most
 
 CUNNER-FISHING 153 
 
 sixty year ago," said the captain reflec- 
 tively. " How time does slip away ! You 
 young folks haven't any idea. She was a 
 first-rate ship, the old Victor was, though I 
 suppose she would n't cut much of a dash 
 now 'longside of some of the new clippers. 
 
 " There used to be some strange-looking 
 crafts in those days ; there was the old brig 
 Hannah. They used to say she would sail 
 backwards as fast as forwards, and she was 
 so square in the bows, they used to call her 
 the sugar-box. She was master old, the Han- 
 nah was, and there was n't a port from here 
 to New Orleans where she was n't known ; 
 she used to carry a master cargo for her size, 
 more than some ships that ranked two hun- 
 dred and fifty ton, and she was put down for 
 two hundred. She used to make good voyages, 
 the Hannah did, and then there was the 
 Pactolus; she was just about such another, 
 you would have laughed to see her. She sailed 
 out of this port for a good many years. Cap'n 
 Wall he told me that if he had her before 
 the wind with a cargo of cotton, she would 
 make a middling good run, but load her deep 
 with salt, and you might as well try to sail 
 a stick of oak timber with a handkerchief. 
 She was a stout - built ship : I should n't
 
 154 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 wonder if her timbers were afloat somewhere 
 yet; she was sold to some parties out in 
 San Francisco. There ! everything 's changed 
 from what it was when I used to follow the 
 sea. I wonder sometimes if the sailors have 
 as queer works aboard ship as they used. 
 Bless ye ! Deephaven used to be a different 
 place to what it is now ; there was hardly 
 a day in the year that you did n 't hear the 
 shipwrights' hammers, and there was always 
 something going on at the wharves. You 
 would see the folks from up country comin' in 
 with their loads of oak knees and plank, and 
 logs o' rock-maple for keels when there was 
 snow on the ground in winter-time, and the 
 big sticks of timber -pine for masts would 
 come crawling along the road with their 
 three and four yoke of oxen all frosted up, 
 the sleds creaking and the snow growling 
 and the men flapping their arms to keep 
 warm, and hallooing as if there wa'n't nothin' 
 else goin' on in the world except to get them 
 masts to the ship-yard. Bless ye ! two o' 
 them teams together would stretch from here 
 'most up to the Widow Jim's place, no 
 such timber-pines nowadays." 
 
 " I suppose the sailors are very jolly to- 
 gether sometimes," said Kate meditatively,
 
 CUNNER-FISHING 155 
 
 with the least flicker of a smile at me. The 
 captain did not answer for a minute, as he 
 was battling with an obstinate snarl in his 
 line ; but when he had found the right loop 
 he said, " I 've had the best times and the 
 hardest times of my life at sea, that 's cer- 
 tain ! I was just thinking it over when you 
 spoke. I '11 tell you some stories one day or 
 'nother that '11 please you. Land ! you 've no 
 idea what tricks some of those wild fellows 
 will be up to. Now, saying they fetch home 
 a cargo of wines and they want a drink ; 
 they Ve got a trick so they can get it. Say- 
 ing it 's champagne, they '11 fetch up a bas- 
 ket, and how do you suppose they '11 get 
 into it?" 
 
 Of course we did n't know. 
 
 " Well, every basket will be counted, and 
 they 're fastened up particular, so they can 
 tell in a minute if they 've been tampered 
 with ; and neither must you draw the corks 
 if you could get the basket open. I suppose 
 ye may have seen champagne, how it 's all 
 wired and waxed. Now, they take a clean 
 tub, them fellows do, and just shake the 
 basket and jounce it up and down till they 
 break the bottles and let the wine drain out ; 
 then they take it down in the hold and put
 
 156 DEEPBAVEN 
 
 it back with the rest, and when the cargo is 
 delivered there 's only one or two whole bot- 
 tles in that basket, and there 's a dreadful 
 fuss about it 's being stowed so foolish." The 
 captain told this with an air of great satis- 
 faction, but we did not show the least sus- 
 picion that he might have assisted at some 
 such festivity. 
 
 " Then they have a way of breaking into 
 a cask. It won't do to start the bung, and it 
 won't do to bore a hole where it can be seen, 
 but they 're up to that : they slip back one 
 of the end hoops and bore two holes under- 
 neath it, one for the air to go in and one for 
 the liquor to come out, and after they get all 
 out they want they put in some spigots and 
 cut them down close to the stave, knock back 
 the hoop again, and there ye are, all trig." 
 
 " I never should have thought of it," said 
 Kate admiringly. 
 
 " There is n't nothing," Cap'n Sands went 
 on, " that '11 hender some masters from cheat- 
 ing the owners a little. Get them off in a 
 foreign port, and there 's nobody to watch, 
 and they most of them have a feeling that 
 they ain't getting full pay, and they '11 
 charge things to the ship that she never seen 
 nor heard of. There were two shipmasters
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 157 
 
 that sailed out of Salem. I heard one of 'em 
 tell the story. They had both come into port 
 from Liverpool nigh the same time, and one 
 of 'em, he was dressed up in a handsome suit 
 of clothes, and the other looked kind of 
 poverty -struck. ' Where did you get them 
 clothes ? ' says he. * Why, to Liverpool,' says 
 the other ; * you don't mean to say you come 
 away without none, cheap as cloth was there? ' 
 ' Why, yes,' says the other cap'n, * I can't 
 afford to wear such elothes as those be, and I 
 don't see how you can, either.' 4 Charge, 'em 
 to the ship, bless ye ; the owners expect it.' 
 
 " So the next v'y'ge the poor cap'n he had 
 a nice rig for himself made to the best tailor's 
 in Bristol, and charged it, say ten pounds, in 
 the ship's account ; and when he came home 
 the ship's husband he was looking over the 
 papers, and ' What 's this ? ' says he, * how 
 come the ship to run up a tailor's bill?' 
 ' Why, them 's mine,' says the cap'n, very 
 meaching. ' I onderstood that there would n't 
 be no objection made.' 'Well, you made 
 a mistake,' says the other, laughing ; ' guess 
 I 'd better scratch this out.' And it was n't 
 long before the cap'n met the one who had 
 put him up to doing it, and he give him a 
 blowing up for getting him into such a fix.
 
 158 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 ' Land sakes alive ! ' says he, ' were you fool 
 enough to set it down in the account ? Why, 
 I put mine in, so many bolts of Russia duck.' " 
 
 Captain Sands seemed to enjoy this remi- 
 niscence, and to our satisfaction, in a few min- 
 utes, after he had offered to take the oars, he 
 went on to tell us another story. 
 
 " Why, as for cheating, there 's plenty of 
 that all over the world. The first v'y'ge I 
 went into Havana as master of the Deer- 
 hound, she had never been in the port before 
 and had to be measured and recorded, and 
 then pay her tonnage duties every time she 
 went into port there afterward, according to 
 what she was registered on the custom-house 
 books. The inspector he come aboard, and he 
 went below and looked round, and he mea- 
 sured her between decks ; but he never offered 
 to set down any figgers, and when we came 
 back into the cabin, says he, ' Yes yes 
 good ship ! you put on one doubloon front 
 of this eye, so / ' says he, ' an' I not see with 
 him ; and you put one more doubloon front 
 of other eye, and how you think I see at all 
 what figger you write ? ' So I took his book 
 and I set down her measurements and made 
 her out twenty ton short, and he took his 
 doubloons and shoved 'em into his pocket.
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 159 
 
 There, it is n't what you call straight deal- 
 ing, but everybody done it that dared, and 
 you 'd eat up all the profits of a v'y'ge and 
 the owners would just as soon you'd try a 
 little up-country air, if you paid all those 
 dues according to law. Tonnage was dread- 
 ful high and wharfage too, in some ports, 
 and they 'd get your last cent some way or 
 'nother if ye were n't sharp. 
 
 " Old Cap'n Carew, uncle to them ye see to 
 meeting, did a smart thing in the time of the 
 embargo. Folks got tired of it, and it was 
 dreadful hard times; ships rotting at the 
 wharves, and Deephaven never was quite the 
 same afterward, though the old place held 
 out for a good while before she let go as ye 
 see her now. You 'd 'a' had a hard grip on 't 
 when I was a young man to make me believe 
 it would ever be so dull here. Well, Cap'n 
 Carew he bought an old brig that was lying 
 over by East Parish, and he began fitting her 
 up and loading her for the West Indies, and 
 the farmers they 'd come in there by night 
 from all round the country, to sell salt-fish 
 and lumber and potatoes, and glad enough 
 they were, I tell ye. The rigging was put in 
 order, and it was n't long before she was ready 
 to sail, and it was all kept mighty quiet. She
 
 160 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 lay up to an old wharf in a cove where she 
 would n't be much noticed, and they took care 
 not to paint her any or to attract any atten- 
 tion. 
 
 * One day Cap'n Carew was over in River- 
 port dining out with some gentlemen, and 
 the revenue officer sat next to him, and by 
 and by says he, * Why won't ye take a ride 
 with me this afternoon ? I 've had warning 
 that there 's a brig loading for the West In- 
 dies over beyond Deephaven somewheres, and 
 I 'm going over to seize her.' And he laughed 
 to himself as if he expected fun, and some- 
 thing in his pocket beside. Well, the first 
 minute that Cap'n Carew dared, after din- 
 ner, he slipped out, and he hired the swiftest 
 horse in Riverport and rode for dear life, and 
 told the folks who were in the secret, and 
 some who were n't, what was the matter, 
 and every soul turned to and helped finish 
 loading her and getting the rigging ready 
 and the water aboard ; but just as they were 
 leaving the cove the wind was blowing just 
 right along came the revenue officer with 
 two or three men, and they come off in a boat 
 and boarded her as important as could be. 
 
 " ' Won't ye step into the cabin, gentlemen, 
 and take a glass o' wine ? ' says Cap'n Carew,
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 161 
 
 very polite ; and the wind came in fresher, 
 something like a squall for a few minutes, 
 and the men had the sails spread before you 
 could say Jack Robi'son, and before those 
 fellows knew what they were about the old 
 brig was a-standing out to sea, and the folks 
 on the wharves cheered and yelled. The 
 Cap'n gave the officers a good scare and 
 offered 'em a free passage to the West In- 
 dies, and finally they said they would n't 
 report at headquarters if he 'd let 'em go 
 ashore ; so he told the sailors to lower their 
 boat about two miles off Deephaven, and they 
 pulled ashore meek enough. Cap'n Carew 
 had a first-rate run, and made a lot of money, 
 so I have heard it said. Bless ye ! every ship- 
 master would have done just the same if 
 he had dared, and everybody was glad when 
 they heard about it. Dreadful foolish piece 
 of business that embargo was ! 
 
 " Now I declare," said Captain Sands, 
 after he had finished this narrative, " here 
 I 'm a-telling stories and you 're doin' all the 
 work. You '11 pull a boat ahead of anybody, 
 if you keep on. Tom Kew was a-praisin' up 
 both of you to me the other day : says he, 
 * They don't put on no airs, but I tell ye 
 they can pull a boat well, and swim like fish,'
 
 1G2 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 says he. There now, if you'll give me the 
 oars I '11 put the dory just where I want her, 
 and you can be getting your lines ready. I 
 know a place here where it 's always toler'ble 
 fishing, and I guess we '11 get something." 
 
 Kate and I cracked our clams on the gun- 
 wale of the boat, and cut them into nice little 
 bits for bait with a piece of the shell, and by 
 the time the captain had thrown out the kil- 
 lick we were ready to begin, and found the 
 fishing much more exciting than it had been 
 at the wharf. 
 
 " I don't know as I ever see 'em bite 
 faster," said the old sailor presently ; " guess 
 it 's because they like the folks that 's fish- 
 ing. Well, I 'm pleased. I thought I 'd let 
 'Bijah take some along to Denby in the cart 
 to-morrow if I got more than I could use at 
 home. I did n't calc'late on having such a 
 lively crew aboard. I s'pose ye would n't 
 care about going out a little further by and 
 by to see if we can't get two or three had- 
 dock?" And we answered that we should 
 like nothing better. 
 
 It was growing cloudy, and was much 
 cooler, the perfection of a day for fishing, 
 and we sat there diligently pulling in 
 cunners, and talking a little once in a while.
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 163 
 
 The tide was nearly out, and Black Rock 
 looked almost large enough to be called an 
 island. The sea was smooth and the low 
 waves broke lazily among the seaweed-cov- 
 ered ledges, while our boat swayed about on 
 the water, lifting and falling gently as the 
 waves went in shore. We were not a very 
 long way from the lighthouse, and once we 
 could see Mrs. Kew's big white apron as she 
 stood in the doorway for a few minutes. 
 There was no noise except the plash of the 
 low-tide waves and the occasional flutter of 
 a fish in the bottom of the dory. Kate and 
 I always killed our fish at once by a rap on 
 the head, for it certainly saved the poor crea- 
 tures much discomfort, and ourselves as well, 
 and it made it easier to take them off the 
 hook than if they were flopping about and 
 making us aware of our cruelty. 
 
 Suddenly the captain wound up his line 
 and said he thought we 'd better be going in, 
 and Kate and I looked at him with surprise. 
 " It is only half past ten," said I, looking at 
 my watch. " Don't hurry in on our account," 
 added Kate persuasively, for we were hav- 
 ing a very good time. 
 
 " I guess we won't mind about the had- 
 dock. I 've got a feelin' we 'd better go
 
 164 DEEPS AV EN 
 
 ashore." And he looked up into the sky and 
 turned to see the west. " I knew there was 
 something the matter ; there 's going to be 
 a shower." And we looked behind us to 
 see a bank of heavy clouds coming over 
 fast. " I wish we had two pair of oars," said 
 Captain Sands. "I'm afraid we shall get 
 caught." 
 
 " You need n't mind us," said Kate. "We 
 are n't in the least afraid of our clothes, and 
 we don't get cold when we 're wet ; we have 
 made sure of that." 
 
 '* Well, I 'm glad to hear that," said the 
 cap'n. " Women-folks are apt to be dread- 
 ful scared of a wetting ; but I 'd just as lief 
 not get wet myself. I had a twinge of rheu- 
 matism yesterday. I guess we '11 get ashore 
 fast enough. No. I feel well enough to-day, 
 but you can row if you want to, and I '11 take 
 the oars the last part of the way." 
 
 When we reached the moorings the clouds 
 were black, and the thunder rattled and 
 boomed over the sea, while heavy spatters 
 of rain were already falling. We did not go 
 to the wharves, but stopped down the shore 
 at the fish-houses, the nearer place of shelter. 
 "You just select some of those cunners," 
 said the captain, who was beginning to be a
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 165 
 
 little out of breath, " and then you can run 
 right up and get under cover, and I '11 put 
 a bit of old sail over the rest of the fish to 
 keep the fresh water off." By the time the 
 boat touched the shore and we had pulled it 
 up on the pebbles, the rain had begun in 
 good earnest. Luckily there was a barrow 
 lying near, and we loaded that in a hurry, 
 and just then the captain caught sight of a 
 well-known red shirt in an open door, and 
 shouted, " Halloa, Danny ! lend us a hand 
 with these fish, for we 're nigh on to being 
 shipwrecked." And then we ran up to the 
 fish-house and waited a while, though we stood 
 in the doorway watching the lightning, and 
 there were so many leaks in the roof that 
 we might almost as well have been out of 
 doors. It was one of Danny's quietest days, 
 and he silently beheaded hake, only winking 
 at us once very gravely at something our 
 other companion said. 
 
 " There! " said Captain Sands, "folks may 
 say what they have a mind to ; I did n't see 
 that shower coming up, and I know as well 
 as I want to that my wife did, and impressed 
 it on my mind. Our house sets high, and she 
 watches the sky and is al'ays a-worrying 
 when I go out fishing for fear something 's
 
 166 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 going to happen to me, 'specially sence I 've 
 got to be along in years." 
 
 This was just what Kate and I wished to 
 hear, for we had been told that Captain 
 Sands had most decided opinions on dreams 
 and other mysteries, and could tell some 
 stories which were considered incredible by 
 even a Deephaven audience, to whom the 
 marvellous was of every-day occurrence. 
 
 " Then it has happened before ? " asked 
 Kate. " I wondered why you started so sud- 
 denly to come in." 
 
 "Happened!" said the captain. "Bless 
 ye, yes ! I '11 tell you my views about these 
 p'ints one o' these days. I 've thought a good 
 deal about 'em by spells. Not that I can ex- 
 plain 'em, nor anybody else, but it 's no use 
 to laugh at 'em as some folks do. Cap'n 
 Lant you know Cap'n Lant ? he and I 
 have talked it over considerable, and he says 
 to me, ' Everybody 's got some story of the 
 kind they will believe in spite of everything, 
 and yet they won't believe yourn.' " 
 
 The shower seemed to be over now, and 
 we felt compelled to go home, as the cap- 
 tain did not go on with his remarks. I hope 
 he did not see Danny's wink. Skipper Scud- 
 der, who was Danny's friend and partner,
 
 CUNNER-FISHING 167 
 
 came up just then and asked us if we knew 
 what the sign was when the sun came out 
 through the rain. I said that I had always 
 heard it would rain again next day. " O 
 no," said Skipper Scudder, " the Devil is 
 whipping his wife." 
 
 After dinner Kate and I went for a walk 
 through some pine woods which were beau- 
 tiful after the rain ; the mosses and lichens 
 which had been dried up were all freshened 
 and blooming out in the dampness. The 
 smell of the wet pitch-pines was unusually 
 sweet, and we wandered about for an hour 
 or two there, to find some ferns we wanted, 
 and then walked over toward East Parish, 
 and home by the long beach late in the 
 afternoon. We came as far as the boat-land- 
 ing, meaning to go home through the lane, 
 but to our delight we saw Captain Sands 
 sitting alone on an old overturned whale- 
 boat, whittling busily at a piece of dried 
 kelp. *' Good - evenin'," said our friend 
 cheerfully. And we explained that we had 
 taken a long walk and thought we would 
 rest a while before we went home to supper. 
 Kate perched herself on the boat, and I sat 
 down on a ship's knee which lay on the peb- 
 bles.
 
 168 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 " Did n't get any hurt from being out in 
 the shower, I hope ? " 
 
 "No, indeed," laughed Kate, "and we 
 had such a good time. I hope you won't 
 mind taking us out again some time." 
 
 "Bless ye! no," said the captain. "My 
 girl Lo'isa, she that 's Mis' Winslow over to 
 Riverport, used to go out with me a good 
 deal, and it seemed natural to have you 
 aboard. I missed Lo'isa after she got mar- 
 ried, for she was al'ays ready to go anywhere 
 'long of father. She 's had slim health of 
 late years. I tell 'em she 's been too much 
 shut up out of the fresh air and sun. When 
 she was young her mother never could pr'vail 
 on her to set in the house stiddy and sew, 
 and she used to have great misgivin's that 
 Lo'isa never was going to be capable. How 
 about those fish you caught this morning? 
 good, were they ? Mis' Sands had dinner on 
 the stocks when I got home, and she said 
 she would n't fry any till supper-time ; but 
 I calc'lated to have 'em this noon. I like 'em 
 best right out o' the water. Little more and 
 we should have got them wet. That 's one 
 of my whims; I can 't bear to let fish get 
 rained on." 
 
 " O Captain Sands ! " said I, there being
 
 CUNNER-FISHING 169 
 
 a convenient pause, "you were speaking of 
 your wife just now; did you ask her if she 
 saw the shower ? " 
 
 " First thing she spoke of when I got into 
 the house. * There,' says she, * I was afraid 
 you would n't see the rain coming in time, 
 and I had my heart in my mouth when it 
 began to thunder. I thought you'd get soaked 
 through, and be laid up for a fortnight,' says 
 she. ' I guess a summer shower won't hurt 
 an old sailor like me,' says I." And the cap- 
 tain reached for another piece of his kelp- 
 stalk, and whittled away more busily than 
 ever. Kate took out her knife and also be- 
 gan to cut kelp, and I threw pebbles in the 
 hope of hitting a spider which sat compla- 
 cently on a stone not far away, and when he 
 suddenly vanished there was nothing for me 
 to do but to whittle kelp also. 
 
 " Do you suppose," said Kate, " that Mrs. 
 Sands really made you know about that 
 shower?" 
 
 The captain put on his most serious look, 
 coughed slowly, and moved himself a few 
 inches nearer us, along the boat. I think he 
 fully understood the importance and solem- 
 nity of the subject. " It ain't for us to say 
 what we do know or don't, for there 's no-
 
 170 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 thing sartain. but I made up my mind long 
 ago that there 's something about these p'ints 
 that 's myster'ous. My wife and me will be 
 sitting there to home and there won't be no 
 word between us for an hour, and then of a 
 sudden we '11 speak up about the same thing. 
 Now the way I view it, she either puts it 
 into my head or I into hers. I 've spoke up 
 lots of times about something, when I did n't 
 know what I was going to say when I began, 
 and she '11 say she was just thinking of that. 
 Like as not you have noticed it sometimes ? 
 There was something my mind was dwellin' 
 on yesterday, and she come right out with 
 it, and I 'd a good deal rather she had n't," 
 said the captain ruefully. " I did n't want 
 to rake it all over ag'in,/'m sure." And then 
 he recollected himself, and was silent, which 
 his audience must confess to have regretted 
 for a moment. 
 
 " I used to think a good deal about such 
 things when I was younger, and I 'm free to 
 say I took more stock in dreams and such 
 like than I do now. I rec'lect old Parson 
 Lorimer this Parson Lorimer's father who 
 was settled here first spoke to me once 
 about it, and said it was a-tempting of Provi- 
 dence, and that we had n't no right to pry
 
 C UNNER-FISHING 171 
 
 into secrets. I know I had a dream-book 
 then that I picked up in a shop in Bristol 
 once when I was in there on the Ranger, and 
 all the young folks were beset to get sight of 
 it. I see what fools it made of folks, bother- 
 ing their heads about such things, and I 
 pretty much let them go : all this stuff about 
 spirit-rappings is enough to make a man 
 crazy. You don't get no good by it. I come 
 across a paper once with a lot of letters in it 
 from sperits, and I cast my eye over 'em, and 
 I says to myself, * Well, I always was given 
 to understand that when we come to a f utur' 
 state we was goin' to have more wisdom than 
 we can get afore ' ; but them letters had n't 
 any more sense to 'em, nor so much, as a man 
 could write here without schooling, and I 
 should think that if the letters be all straight, 
 if the folks who wrote 'em had any kind of 
 ambition they 'd want to be movin' back here 
 again. But as for one person's having some- 
 thing to do with another any distance off, 
 why, that 's another thing ; there ain't any 
 nonsense about that. I know it 's true jest as 
 well as I want to," said the cap'n, warming 
 up. " I '11 tell ye how I was led to make up 
 my mind about it. One time I waked a man 
 up out of a sound sleep looking at him, and it
 
 172 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 set me to thinking. First, there was n't any 
 noise, and then ag'in there was n't any touch 
 so he could feel it, and I says to myself, 
 * Why could n't I ha' done it the width of two 
 rooms as well as one, and why could n't I ha' 
 done it with my back turned ? ' It could n't 
 have been the looking so much as the think- 
 ing. And then I car'd it further, and I says, 
 4 Why ain't a mile as good as a yard ? and 
 it 's the thinking that does it,' says I, ' and 
 we 've got some faculty or other that we don't 
 know much about. We 've got some way of 
 sending our thought like a bullet goes out 
 of a gun and it hits. We don't know nothing 
 except what we see. And some folks is scared, 
 and some more thinks it is all nonsense and 
 laughs. But there 's something we have n't 
 got the hang of.' It makes me think o' them 
 little black polliwogs that turns into frogs 
 in the fresh -water puddles in the ma'sh. 
 There 's a time before their tails drop off and 
 their legs have sprouted out, when they don't 
 get any use o' their legs, and I dare say 
 they 're in their way consider'ble ; but after 
 they get to be frogs they find out what they 're 
 for without no kind of trouble. I guess 
 we shall turn these fac'lties to account some 
 time or 'nother. Seems to me, though, that
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 173 
 
 we might depend on 'em now more than 
 we do." 
 
 The captain was under full sail on what we 
 had heard was his pet subject, and it was a 
 great satisfaction to listen to what he had to 
 say. It loses a great deal in being written, 
 for the old sailor's voice and gestures and 
 thorough earnestness all carried no little per- 
 suasion. And it was impossible not to be sure 
 that he knew more than people usually do 
 about these mysteries in which he delighted. 
 
 "Now, how can you account for this?" 
 said he. "I remember not more than ten 
 years ago my son's wife was stopping at our 
 house, and she had left her child at home 
 while she come away for a rest. And after 
 she had been there two or three days, one 
 morning she was sitting in the kitchen 'long 
 o' the folks, and all of a sudden she jumped 
 out of her chair and ran into the bedroom, 
 and next minute she come out laughing, and 
 looking kind of scared. * I could ha' taken 
 my oath,' says she, ' that I heard Katy cryin' 
 out mother,' says she, 'just as if she was 
 hurt. I heard it so plain that before I stopped 
 to think it seemed as if she were right in the 
 next room. I 'm afeard something has hap- 
 pened.' But the folks laughed, and said she
 
 174 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 must ha' heard one of the lambs. ' No, it 
 wasn't,' says she, 'it was Katy.' And sure 
 enough, just after dinner a young man who 
 lived neighbor to her come riding into the 
 yard post-haste to get her to go home, for the 
 baby had pulled some hot water over onto 
 herself and was nigh scalded to death and 
 cryin' for her mother every minute. Now, 
 who 's going to explain that ? It was n't any 
 common hearing that heard that child's cryin' 
 fifteen miles. And I can tell you another 
 thing that happened among my own folks. 
 There was an own pousin of mine married to 
 a man by the name of John Hathorn. He 
 was trading up to Parson sfielel, and business 
 run down, so he wound up there, and thought 
 he 'd make a new start. He moved down to 
 Denby, and while he was getting under way, 
 he left his family up to the old place, and at 
 the time I speak of, was going to move 'em 
 down in about a fortnight. 
 
 " One morning his wife was fidgeting 
 round, and finally she came downstairs with 
 her bonnet and shawl on, and said somebody 
 must put the horse right into the wagon and 
 take her down to Denby. ' Why, what for, 
 mother ? ' they says. * Don't stop to talk,' says 
 she ; * your father is sick, and wants me. It 's
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 175 
 
 been a-worrying me since before day, and I 
 can't stand it no longer.' And the short of 
 the story is that she kept hurrying 'em faster 
 and faster, and then she got hold of the reins 
 herself, and when they got within five miles 
 of the place the horse fell dead, and she was 
 nigh about crazy, and they took another 
 horse at a farmhouse on the road. It was 
 the spring of the year, and the going was 
 dreadful, and when they got to the house 
 John Hathorn had just died, and he had 
 been calling for his wife up to 'most the last 
 breath he drew. He had been taken sick 
 sudden the day before, but the folks knew it 
 was bad travelling, and that she was a feeble 
 woman to come near thirty miles, and they 
 had no idee he was so bad off. I 'm telling 
 you the living truth," said Captain Sands, 
 with an emphatic shake of his head. " There 's 
 more folks than me can tell about it, and if 
 you were goin' to keel-haul me next minute, 
 and hang me to the yard-arm afterward, I 
 could n't say it different. I was up to Parsons- 
 field to the funeral ; it was just after I quit 
 following the sea. I never saw a woman so 
 broke down as she was. John was a nice man , 
 stiddy and pleasant-spoken and straightfor- 
 rard and kind to his folks. He belonged to
 
 176 DEEPHAYKN 
 
 the Odd Fellows, and they all marched to 
 the funeral. There was a good deal of re- 
 spect shown him, I tell ye. 
 
 " There is another story I 'd like to have 
 ye hear, if it 's so that you ain't beat out 
 hearing me talk. When I get going I slip 
 along as easy as a schooner wing-and-wing 
 afore the wind. 
 
 " This happened to my own father, but I 
 never heard him say much about it ; never 
 could get him to talk it over to any length, 
 best I could do. But gran'ther, his father, 
 told me about it nigh upon fifty times, first 
 and last, and always the same way. Gran'- 
 ther lived to be old, and there was ten or a 
 dozen years after his wife died that he lived 
 year and year about with Uncle Tobias's folks 
 and our folks. Uncle Tobias lived over on 
 the Ridge. I got home from my first v'y'ge 
 as mate of the Daylight just in time for his 
 funeral. I was disapp'inted to find the old 
 man was gone. I 'd fetched him some first- 
 rate tobacco, for he was a great hand to 
 smoke, and I was calc'latin' on his being 
 pleased : old folks like to be thought of, and 
 then he set more by me than by the other 
 boys. I know I used to be sorry for him 
 when I was a little fellow. My father's sec-
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 177 
 
 ond wife she was a well-meaning woman, but 
 an awful driver with her work, and she was 
 always making of him feel he was n't no use. 
 I do' know as she meant to, either. He never 
 said nothing, and he was always just so 
 pleasant, and he was fond of his book, and 
 used to set round reading, and tried to keep 
 himself out of the way just as much as he 
 could. There was one winter when I was 
 small that I had the scarlet-fever, and was 
 very slim for a long time afterward, and I 
 used to keep along o' gran'ther, and he would 
 tell me stories. He 'd been a sailor, it runs 
 in our blood to f oiler the sea, and he 'd 
 been wrecked two or three times and been 
 taken by the Algerine pirates. You remind 
 me to tell you some time about that; and I 
 wonder if you ever heard about old Citizen 
 Leigh, that used to be about here when I 
 was a boy. He was taken by the Algerines 
 once, same 's gran'ther, and they was dread- 
 ful f 'erce just then, and they sent him home 
 to get the ransom money for the crew ; but 
 it was a monstrous price they asked, and the 
 owners would n't give it to him, and they 
 s' posed likely the men was dead by that 
 time, any way. Old Citizen Leigh he went 
 crazy, and used to go about the streets with
 
 178 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 a bundle of papers in his hands year in and 
 year out. I 've seen him a good many times. 
 Gran'ther used to tell me how he escaped. 
 I '11 remember it for ye some day if you '11 
 put me in mind. 
 
 " I got to be mate when I was twenty, and 
 I was as strong a fellow as you could scare 
 up, and darin' ! why, it makes my blood 
 run cold when I think of the reckless things 
 I used to do. I was off at sea after I was 
 fifteen year old, and there was n't anybody 
 so glad to see me as gran'ther when I came 
 home. I expect he used to be lonesome after 
 I went off, but then his mind failed him quite 
 a while before he died. Father was clever to 
 him, and he 'd get him anything he spoke 
 about; but he wasn't a man to set round 
 and talk, and he never took notice himself 
 when gran'ther was out of tobacco, so some- 
 times it would be a day or two. I know bet- 
 ter how he used to feel now that I 'm getting 
 to be along in years myself, and likely to be 
 some care to the folks before long. I never 
 could bear to see old folks neglected ; nice 
 old men and women who have worked hard 
 in their day and been useful and willin'. I 've 
 seen 'em many a time when they could n't 
 help knowing that the folks would a little
 
 CUNNER-FISHING 179 
 
 rather they 'd be in heaven, and a good re- 
 spectable headstone put up for 'em in the 
 burying-ground. 
 
 " Well, now, I 'm sure I 've forgot what I 
 was going to tell you. O, yes ; about grand- 
 mother dreaming about father when he come 
 home from sea. Well, to go back to the first 
 of it, gran'ther never was rugged; he had 
 ship-fever when he was a young man, and 
 though he lived to be so old, he never could 
 work hard and never got forehanded ; and 
 Aunt Hannah Starbird over at East Parish 
 took my sister to fetch up, because she was 
 named for her, and Melinda and Tobias 
 stayed at home with the old folks, and my 
 father went to live with an uncle over in 
 Kiverport, whom he was named for. He was 
 in the West India trade and was well-off, and 
 he had no children, so they expected he would 
 do well by father. He was dreadful high- 
 tempered. I 've heard say he had the worst 
 temper that was ever raised in Deephaven. 
 
 " One day he set father to putting some 
 cherries into a bar'l of rum, and went off 
 down to his wharf to see to the loading of a 
 vessel, and afore he come back father found 
 he 'd got hold of the wrong bar'l, and had 
 sp'ilt a bar'l of the best Holland gin; he
 
 180 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 tried to get the cherries out, but that was n't 
 any use, and he was dreadful afraid of Uncle 
 Matthew, and he run away, and never was 
 heard of from that time out. They supposed 
 he 'd run away to sea, as he had a leaning 
 that way, but nobody ever knew for certain ; 
 and his mother she 'most mourned herself 
 to death. Gran'ther told me that it got so 
 at last that if they could only know for sure 
 that he was dead it was all they would ask. 
 But it went on four years, and gran'ther got 
 used to it some ; though grandmother never 
 would give up. And one morning early, be- 
 fore day, she waked him up, and says she, 
 ' We 're going to hear from Matthew. Get 
 up quick and go down to the store ! ' ' Non- 
 sense,' says he. * I 've seen him,' says grand- 
 mother, ' and he 's coming home. He looks 
 older, but just the same other ways, and 
 he 's got long hair, like a horse's mane, all 
 down over his shoulders.' ' Well, let the dead 
 rest,' says gran'ther ; ' you 've thought about 
 the boy till your head is turned.' * I tell you 
 I saw Matthew himself,' says she, * and I 
 want you to go right down to see if there 
 is n't a letter.' And she kept at him till he 
 saddled the horse, and he got down to the 
 store before it was opened in the morning,
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 181 
 
 and he had to wait round, and when the man 
 came over to unlock it he was 'most ashamed 
 to tell what his errand was, for he had been 
 so many times, and everybody supposed the 
 boy was dead. When he asked for a letter, 
 the man said there was none there, and asked 
 if he was expecting any particular one. He 
 didn't get many letters, I s'pose; all his 
 folks lived about here, and people did n't 
 write any to speak of in those days. Gran'- 
 ther said he thought he would n't make such 
 a fool of himself again, but he did n't say 
 anything, and he waited round a while, talk- 
 ing to one and another who came up, and 
 by and by says the store-keeper, who was 
 reading a newspaper that had just come, 
 ' Here 's some news for you, Sands, I do be- 
 lieve! There are three vessels come into 
 Boston Harbor that have been out whaling 
 and sealing in the South Seas for three or 
 four years, and your son Matthew's name is 
 down on the list of the crew.' ' I tell ye,' 
 says gran'ther, ' I took that paper, and I 
 got on my horse and put for home, and your 
 grandmother she hailed me, and she said, 
 " You 've heard, have n't you ? " before I 
 told her a word.' 
 
 " Gran'ther he got his breakfast and started
 
 182 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 right off for Boston, and got there early the 
 second day, and went right down on the 
 wharves. Somebody lent him a boat, and he 
 went out to where there were two sealers 
 laying off riding at anchor, and he asked a 
 sailor if Matthew was aboard. ' Ay, ay,' says 
 the sailor, ' he 's down below.' And he sung 
 out for him, and when he come up out of 
 the hold his hair was long, down over his 
 shoulders like a horse's mane, just as his 
 mother saw it in the dream. Gran'ther he 
 did n't know what to say, it scared him, 
 and he asked how it happened ; and father 
 told how they 'd been off sealing in the South 
 Seas, and he and another man had lived 
 alone on an island for months, and the whole 
 crew had grown wild in their ways of living, 
 being off so long, and for one thing had gone 
 without caps and let their hair grow. The 
 rest of the men had been ashore and got 
 fixed up smart, but he had been busy, and 
 had put it off till that morning ; he was just 
 going ashore then. Father was all struck up 
 when he heard about the dream, and said 
 his mind had been dwellin' on his mother 
 and going home, and he come down to let 
 her see him just as he was, and she said it 
 was the same way he looked in the dream.
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 183 
 
 He never would have his hair cut father 
 would n't and wore it in a queue. I re- 
 member seeing him with it when I was a 
 boy ; but his second wife did n't like the 
 looks of it, and she come up behind him one 
 day and cut it off with the scissors. He was 
 terrible worked up about it. I never see 
 father so mad as he was that day. Now this 
 is just as true as the Bible," said Captain 
 Sands. " I have n't put a word to it, and 
 gran'ther al'ays told a story just as it was. 
 That woman saw her son , but if you ask me 
 what kind of eyesight it was, I can't tell you, 
 nor nobody else." 
 
 Later that evening Kate and I drifted into 
 a long talk about the captain's stories and 
 these mysterious powers of which we know 
 so little. It was somewhat chilly in the house, 
 and we had kindled a fire in the fireplace, 
 which at first made a blaze which lighted 
 the old room royally, and then quieted down 
 into red coals and lazy puffs of smoke. We 
 had carried the lights away, and sat with our 
 feet on the fender, and Kate's great dog was 
 lying between us on the rug. I remember 
 that evening so well ; we could see the stars 
 through the window plainer and plainer as 
 the fire went down, and we could hear the 
 noise of the sea.
 
 184 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 " Do you remember in the old myth of 
 Demeter and Persephone," Kate asked me, 
 " where Demeter takes care of the child, and 
 gives it ambrosia and hides it in fire, because 
 she loves it and wishes to make it immortal, 
 and to give it eternal youth ; and then the 
 mother finds it out and cries in terror to 
 hinder her, and the goddess angrily throws 
 the child down and rushes away ? And he 
 had to share the common destiny of man- 
 kind, though he always had some wonderful 
 inscrutable grace and wisdom, because a 
 goddess had loved him and held him in her 
 arms. I always thought that part of the 
 story beautiful where Demeter throws off her 
 disguise and is no longer an old woman, and 
 the great house is filled with brightness like 
 lightning, and she rushes out through the 
 halls with her yellow hair waving over her 
 shoulders, and the people would give any- 
 thing to bring her back again, and to undo 
 their mistake. I knew it almost all by heart 
 once," said Kate, " and I am always finding 
 a new meaning in it. I was just thinking 
 that it may be that we all have given to us 
 more or less of another nature, as the child 
 had whom Demeter wished to make like the 
 gods. I believe old Captain Sands is right,
 
 GUNNER-FISHING 185 
 
 and we have these instincts which defy all 
 our wisdom and for which we never can 
 frame any laws. We may laugh at them, but 
 we are always meeting them, and one cannot 
 help knowing that it has been the same 
 through all history. They are powers which 
 are imperfectly developed in this life, but one 
 cannot help the thought that the mystery of 
 this world may be the commonplace of the 
 next." 
 
 " I wonder," said I, " why it is that one 
 hears so much more of such things from 
 simple country people. They believe in 
 dreams, and they have a kind of fetichism, 
 and believe so heartily in supernatural causes. 
 I suppose nothing could shake Mrs. Patton's 
 faith in warnings. There is no end of ab- 
 surdity in it, and yet there is one side of 
 such lives for which one cannot help having 
 reverence ; they live so much nearer to na- 
 ture than people who are in cities, and there 
 is a soberness about country people often- 
 times that one cannot help noticing. I won- 
 der if they are unconsciously awed by the 
 strength and purpose in the world about 
 them, and the mysterious creative power 
 which is at work with them on their familiar 
 farms. In their simple life they take their
 
 186 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 instincts for truths, and perhaps they are 
 not always so far wrong as we imagine. Be- 
 cause they are so instinctive and unreasoning 
 they may have a more complete sympathy 
 with Nature, and may hear her voices when 
 wiser ears are deaf. They have much in com- 
 mon, after all, with the plants which grow 
 up out of the ground and the wild creatures 
 which depend upon their instincts wholly." 
 
 " I think," said Kate, " that the more one 
 lives out of doors the more personality there 
 seems to be in what we call inanimate things. 
 The strength of the hills and the voice of 
 the waves are no longer only grand poetical 
 sentences, but an expression of something 
 real, and more and more one finds God him- 
 self in the world, and believes that we may 
 read the thoughts that He writes for us in the 
 book of Nature." And after this we were si- 
 lent for a while, and in the mean time it grew 
 very late, and we watched the fire until there 
 were only a few sparks left in the ashes. The 
 stars faded away and the moon came up out 
 of the sea, and we barred the great hall door 
 and went upstairs to bed. The lighthouse 
 lamp burned steadily, and it was the only 
 light that had not been blown out in all 
 Deephaven.
 
 MKS. BONNY 
 
 I AM sure that Kate Lancaster and I must 
 have spent by far the greater part of the 
 summer out of doors. We often made long 
 expeditions out into the suburbs of Deep- 
 haven, sometimes being gone all day, and 
 sometimes taking a long afternoon stroll and 
 coming home early in the evening hungry as 
 hunters and laden with treasure, whether we 
 had been through the pine woods inland or 
 alongshore, whether we had met old friends 
 or made some desirable new acquaintances. 
 We had a fashion of calling at the farm- 
 houses, and by the end of the season we knew 
 as many people as if we had lived in Deep- 
 haven all our days. We used to ask for a 
 drink of water ; this was our unfailing in- 
 troduction, and afterward there were many 
 interesting subjects which one could intro- 
 duce, and we could always give the latest 
 news at the shore. It was amusing to see the 
 curiosity which we aroused. Many of the 
 people came into Deephaven only on special 
 occasions, and I must confess that at first 
 we were often naughty enough to wait until
 
 188 DEEPHA VEN 
 
 we had been severely cross-questioned be- 
 fore we gave a definite account of ourselves. 
 Kate was very clever at making unsatisfac- 
 tory answers when she cared to do so. We 
 did not understand, for some time, with what 
 a keen sense of enjoyment many of those 
 people made the acquaintance of an entirely 
 new person who cordially gave the full par- 
 ticulars about herself; but we soon learned 
 to call this by another name than imperti- 
 nence. 
 
 I think there were no points of interest in 
 that region which we did not visit with con- 
 scientious faithfulness. There were cliffs and 
 pebble-beaches, the long sands and the short 
 sands ; there were Black Rock and Roar- 
 ing Rock, High Point and East Point, and 
 Spouting Rock ; we went to see where a ship 
 had been driven ashore in the night, all hands 
 being lost and not a piece of her left larger 
 than an axe-handle ; we visited the spot where 
 a ship had come ashore in the fog, and had 
 been left high and dry on the edge of the 
 marsh when the tide went out ; we saw where 
 the brig Methuselah had been wrecked, and 
 the shore had been golden with her cargo of 
 lemons and oranges, which one might carry 
 away by the wherry ful.
 
 MRS. BONNY 189 
 
 Inland there were not many noted locali- 
 ties, but we used to enjoy the woods, and our 
 explorations among the farms, immensely. 
 To the westward the land was better and the 
 people well-to-do ; but we went of tenest to- 
 ward the hills and among the poorer people. 
 The land was uneven and full of ledges, and 
 the people worked hard for their living, at 
 most laying aside only a few dollars each 
 year. Some of the more enterprising young 
 people went away to work in shops and fac- 
 tories ; but the custom was by no means uni- 
 versal, and the people had a hungry, dis- 
 couraged look. It is all very well to say that 
 they knew nothing better, that it was the 
 only life of which they knew anything ; there 
 was too often a look of disappointment in 
 their faces, and sooner or later we heard or 
 guessed many stories : that this young man 
 had wished for an education, but there had 
 been no money to spare for books or school- 
 ing ; and that one had meant to learn a 
 trade, but there must be some one to help 
 his father with the farm-work, and there was 
 no money to hire a man to work in his place 
 if he went away. The older people had a 
 hard look, as if they had always to be on the 
 alert and must fight for their place in the
 
 190 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 world. One could only forgive and pity their 
 petty sharpness, which showed itself in tri- 
 fling bargains, when one understood how 
 much a single dollar seemed where dollars 
 came so rarely. We used to pity the young 
 girls so much. It was plain that those who 
 knew how much easier and pleasanter our 
 lives were could not help envying us. 
 
 There was a high hill half a dozen miles 
 from Deephaven which was known in its 
 region as " the mountain." It was the high- 
 est land anywhere near us, and having been 
 told that there was a fine view from the top, 
 one day we went there, with Tommy Dockum 
 for escort. We overtook Mr. Lorimer, the 
 minister, on his way to make parochial calls 
 upon some members of his parish who lived 
 far from church, and to our delight he pro- 
 posed to go with us instead. It was a great 
 satisfaction to have him for a guide, for he 
 knew both the country and the people more 
 intimately than any one else. It was a long 
 climb to the top of the hill, but not a hard 
 one. The sky was clear, and there was a 
 fresh wind, though we had felt none at all 
 at the sea-level. After lunch, Kate and I 
 spread our shawls over a fine cushion of 
 mountain-cranberry, and had a long talk
 
 MRS. BONNY 191 
 
 with Mr. Lorimer about ancient and modern 
 Deephaven. He always seemed as much 
 pleased with our enthusiasm for the town as 
 if it had been a personal favor and compli- 
 ment to himself. I remember how far we 
 could see, that day, and how we looked 
 toward the far-away blue mountains, and 
 then out over the ocean. Deephaven looked 
 insignificant from that height and distance, 
 and indeed the country seemed to be mostly 
 covered with the pointed tops of pines and 
 spruces, and there were long tracts of maple 
 and beech woods with their coloring of lighter, 
 fresher green. 
 
 "Suppose we go down, now," said Mr. 
 Lorimer, long before Kate and I had meant 
 to propose such a thing ; and our feeling was 
 that of dismay. " I should like to take you 
 to make a call with me. Did you ever hear 
 of old Mrs. Bonny ? " 
 
 " No," said we, and cheerfully gathered 
 our wraps and baskets; and when Tommy 
 finally came panting up the hill after we 
 had begun to think that our shoutings and 
 whistling were useless, we sent him down to 
 the horses, and went down ourselves by an- 
 other path. It led us a long distance through 
 a grove of young beeches; the last year's
 
 192 DEEPBAVEN 
 
 whitish leaves lay thick on the ground, and 
 the new leaves made so close a roof over- 
 head that the light was strangely purple, as 
 if it had come through a great church win- 
 dow of stained glass. After this we went 
 through some hemlock growth, where, on 
 the lower branches, the pale green of the 
 new shoots and the dark green of the old 
 made an exquisite contrast each to the other. 
 Finally we came out at Mrs. Bonny's. Mr. 
 Lorimer had told us something about her on 
 the way down, saying in the first place that 
 she was one of the queerest characters he 
 knew. Her husband used to be a charcoal- 
 burner and basket-maker, and she used to 
 sell butter and berries and eggs, and choke- 
 pears preserved in molasses. She always 
 came down to Deephaven on a little black 
 horse, with her goods in baskets and bags 
 which were fastened to the saddle in a mys- 
 terious way. She had the reputation of not 
 being a neat housekeeper, and none of the 
 wise women of the town would touch her 
 butter especially, so it was always a joke 
 when she coaxed a new resident or a strange 
 shipmaster into buying her wares ; but the 
 old woman always managed to jog home 
 without the freight she had brought. " She
 
 MRS. BONNY 193 
 
 must be very old now," said Mr. Lori- 
 mer ; " I have not seen her in a long time. 
 It cannot be possible that her horse is still 
 alive ! " And we all laughed when we saw 
 Mrs. Bonny's steed at a little distance, for 
 the shaggy old creature was covered with 
 mud, pine-needles, and dead leaves, with 
 half the last year's burdock-burs in all Deep- 
 haven snarled into his mane and tail and 
 sprinkled over his fur, which looked nearly 
 as long as a buffalo's. He had hurt his leg, 
 and his kind mistress had tied it up with 
 a piece of faded red calico and an end of 
 ragged rope. He gave us a civil neigh, and 
 looked at us curiously. Then an impertinent 
 little yellow -and -white dog, with one ear 
 standing up straight and the other drooping 
 over, began to bark with all his might; but 
 he retreated when he saw Kate's great dog, 
 who was walking solemnly by her side and did 
 not deign to notice him. Just now Mrs. Bonny 
 appeared at the door of the house, shading 
 her eyes with her hand, to see who was com- 
 ing. " Landy ! " said she, " if it ain't old Par- 
 son Lorimer ! And who be these with ye ? " 
 " This is Miss Kate Lancaster of Boston, 
 Miss Katharine Brandon's niece, and her 
 friend Miss Denis."
 
 194 DEEP HAVEN 
 
 " Pleased to see ye," said the old woman ; 
 " walk in and lay off your things." And we 
 followed her into the house. I wish you could 
 have seen her : she wore a man's coat, cut 
 off so that it made an odd short jacket, and 
 a pair of men's boots much the worse for 
 wear ; also, some short skirts, beside two or 
 three aprons, the inner one being a dress- 
 apron, as she took off the outer ones and 
 threw them into a corner ; and on her head 
 was a tight cap, with strings to tie under her 
 chin. I thought it was a nightcap, and that 
 she had forgotten to take it off, and dreaded 
 her mortification if she should suddenly be- 
 come conscious of it ; but I need not have 
 troubled myself, for while we were with her 
 she pulled it on and tied it tighter, as if she 
 considered it ornamental. 
 
 There were only two rooms in the house ; 
 we went into the kitchen, which was occu- 
 pied by a flock of hens and one turkey. The 
 latter was evidently undergoing a course of 
 medical treatment behind the stove, and was 
 allowed to stay with us, while the hens were 
 remorselessly hustled out with a hemlock 
 broom. They all congregated on the door- 
 step, apparently wishing to hear everything 
 that was said.
 
 MRS. BONNY 195 
 
 " Ben up on the mountain ? " asked our 
 hostess. " Heal sightly place. Goin' to be a 
 master lot o' rosbries ; get any down to the 
 shore sence I quit comin' ? " 
 
 " O yes," said Mr. Lorimer, " but we miss 
 seeing you." 
 
 " I s'pose so," said Mrs. Bonny, smoothing 
 her apron complacently ; " but I 'm getting 
 old, and I tell 'em I 'm goin' to take my com- 
 fort ; sence ' he ' died, I don't put myself out 
 no great ; I 've got money enough to keep 
 me long 's I live. Beckett's folks goes down 
 often, and I sends by them for what store 
 stuff I want." 
 
 " How are you now ? " asked the minister ; 
 " I think I heard you were ill in the spring." 
 
 " Stirrin', I 'm obliged to ye. I was n't laid 
 up long, and I was so's I could get about 
 most of the time. I 've got the best bitters 
 ye ever see, good for the spring of the year. 
 S'pose yer sister, Miss Lorimer, wouldn't 
 like some? she used to be weakly lookin'." 
 But her brother refused the offer, saying that 
 she had not been so well for many years. 
 
 " Do you often get out to church nowa- 
 days, Mrs. Bonny ? I believe Mr. Reid 
 preaches in the school -house sometimes, 
 down by the great ledge ; does n't he ? "
 
 196 DEEPIIA YEN 
 
 " Well, yes, he does ; but I don't know as 
 I get much of any good. Parson Reid, he 's 
 a worthy creatur', but he never seems to have 
 nothin' to say about foreordination and them 
 p'ints. Old Parson Padelford was the man ! 
 I used to set under his preachin' a good deal ; 
 I had an aunt living down to East Parish. 
 He 'd get worked up, and he 'd shut up the 
 Bible and preach the hair off your head, 
 'long at the end of the sermon. Could n't 
 understand more nor a quarter part what he 
 said," said Mrs. Bonny admiringly. " Well, 
 we were a-speaking about the meeting over 
 to the ledge ; I don't know 's I like them 
 people any to speak of. They had a great 
 revival over there in the fall, and one Sun- 
 day I thought 's how I 'd go ; and when I 
 got there, who should be a-prayin' but old 
 Ben Patey, he always lays out to get con- 
 verted, and he kep' it up diligent till I 
 could n't stand it no longer ; and by and by 
 says he, ' I 've been a wanderer ' ; and I up 
 and says, ' Yes, you have, I '11 back ye up on 
 that, Ben ; ye 've wandered around my wood- 
 lot and spoilt half the likely young oaks and 
 ashes I 've got, a-stealing your basket-stuff.' 
 And the folks laughed out loud, and up he 
 got and cleared. He 's an awful old thief,
 
 MRS. BONNY 197 
 
 and he 's no idea of being anything else. I 
 wa'n't a-goin' to set there and hear him 
 makin' b'lieve to the Lord. If anybody's 
 heart is in it, I ain't a-goin' to hender 'em ; 
 I 'm a professor, and I ain't ashamed of it, 
 week-days nor Sundays neither. I can't bear 
 to see folks so pious to meeting, and cheat 
 yer eye-teeth out Monday morning. Well, 
 there ! we ain't none of us perfect ; even old 
 Parson Moody was round-shouldered, they 
 say." 
 
 " You were speaking of the Becketts just 
 now," said Mr. Lorimer (after we had 
 stopped laughing, and Mrs. Bonny had set- 
 tled her big steel-bowed spectacles, and sat 
 looking at him with an expression of extreme 
 wisdom. One might have ventured to call her 
 " peart," I think). " How do they get on? 
 I am seldom in this region nowadays, since 
 Mr. Reid has taken it under his charge." 
 
 " They get along, somehow or 'nother," 
 replied Mrs. Bonny ; " they 've got the best 
 farm this side of the ledge, but they 're dread- 
 ful lazy and shiftless, them young folks. Old 
 Mis' Hate-evil Beckett was tellin' me the 
 other day she that was Samanthy Barnes, 
 you know that one of the boys got fight- 
 ing, the other side of the mountain, and come
 
 198 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 home with his nose broke and a piece <>' one 
 ear bit off. I forget which ear it was. Their 
 mother is a real clever, willin' woman, and 
 she takes it to heart, but it 's no use for her 
 to say anything. Mis' Hate-evil Beckett, says 
 she, ' It does make my man feel dreadful to 
 see his brother's folks carry on so.' ' But 
 there,' says I, ' Mis' Beckett, it 's just such 
 things as we read of ; Scriptur' is fulfilled : 
 In the larter days there shall be disobedient 
 children.' " 
 
 This application of the text was too much 
 for us, but Mrs. Bonny looked serious, and 
 we did not like to laugh. Two or three of 
 the exiled fowls had crept slyly in, dodg- 
 ing underneath our chairs, and had perched 
 themselves behind the stove. They were long- 
 legged, half -grown creatures, and just at this 
 minute one rash young rooster made a man- 
 ful attempt to crow. " Do tell ! " said his 
 mistress, who rose in great wrath, " you 
 need n't be so forth-putting, as I knows 
 on ! " After this we were urged to stay and 
 have some supper. Mrs. Bonny assured us 
 she could pick a likely young hen in no 
 time, fry her with a bit of pork, and get us 
 up " a good meat tea " ; but we had to dis- 
 appoint her, as we had some distance to walk
 
 MRS. BONNY 199 
 
 to the house where we had left our horses, 
 and a long drive home. 
 
 Kate asked if she would be kind enough 
 to lend us a tumbler (for ours was in the 
 basket, which was given into Tommy's 
 charge). We were thirsty, and would like 
 to go back to the spring and get some water. 
 
 " Yes, dear," said Mrs. Bonny, " I 've got 
 a glass, if it 's so 's I can find it." And she 
 pulled a chair under the little cupboard over 
 the fireplace, mounted it, and opened the 
 door. Several things fell out at her, and 
 after taking a careful survey she went in, 
 head and shoulders, until I thought that she 
 would disappear altogether; but soon she 
 came back, and reaching in took out one 
 treasure after another, putting them on the 
 mantel-piece or dropping them on the floor. 
 There were some bunches of dried herbs, a 
 tin horn, a lump of tallow in a broken plate, 
 a newspaper, and an old boot, with a num- 
 ber of turkey-wings tied together, several 
 bottles, and a steel trap, and finally, such a 
 tumbler ! which she produced with triumph, 
 before stepping down. She poured out of it 
 on the table a mixture of old buttons and 
 squash-seeds, beside a lump of beeswax which 
 she said she had lost, and now pocketed with
 
 200 DEEPHA VEN 
 
 satisfaction. She wiped the tumbler on her 
 apron and handed it to Kate, but we were 
 not so thirsty as we had been, though we 
 thanked her and went down to the spring, 
 coming back as soon as possible, for we could 
 not lose a bit of the conversation. 
 
 There was a beautiful view from the door- 
 step, and we stopped a minute there. " Real 
 sightly, ain't it ? " said Mrs. Bonny. " But 
 you ought to be here and look across the 
 woods some morning just at sun-up. Why, 
 the sky is all yaller and red, and them low 
 lands topped with fog ! Yes, it 's nice wea- 
 ther, good growin' weather, this week. Corn 
 and all the rest of the trade looks first-rate. 
 I call it a forrard season. It 's just such 
 weather as we read of, ain't it ? " 
 
 " I don't remember where, just at this 
 moment," said Mr. Lorirner. 
 
 " Why, in the almanac, bless ye ! " said 
 she, with a tone of pity in her grum voice ; 
 could it be possible he did n't know, the 
 Deephaven minister ! 
 
 We asked her to come and see us. She 
 said she had always thought she 'd get a 
 chance some time to see Miss Katharine 
 Brandon's house. She should be pleased to 
 call, and she did n't know but she should be
 
 MRS. BONNY 201 
 
 down to the shore before very long. She 
 was 'shamed to look so shif'less that day, 
 but she had some good clothes in a chist in 
 the bedroom, and a boughten bonnet with a 
 good cypress veil, which she had when "he" 
 died. She calculated they would do, though 
 they might be old-fashioned, some. She 
 seemed greatly pleased at Mr. Lorimer's 
 having taken the trouble to come to see her. 
 All those people had a great reverence for 
 "the minister." We were urged to come again 
 in " rosbry " time, which was near at hand, 
 and she gave us messages for some of her old 
 customers and acquaintances. " I believe 
 some of those old creatur's will never die," 
 said she ; " why, they 're getting to be ter'ble 
 old, ain't they, Mr. Lorimer ? There ! ye 've 
 done me a sight of good, and I wish I could 
 ha' found the Bible, to hear ye read a Psalm." 
 When Mr. Lorimer shook hands with her, 
 at leaving, she made him a most reverential 
 courtesy. He was the greatest man she knew ; 
 and once during the call, when he was speak- 
 ing of serious things in his simple, earnest 
 way, she had so devout a look, and seemed 
 so interested, that Kate and I, and Mr. 
 Lorimer himself, caught a new, fresh mean- 
 ing in the familiar words he spoke.
 
 202 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 Living there in the lonely clearing, deep 
 in the woods and far from any neighbor, she 
 knew all the herbs and trees and the harm- 
 less wild creatures who lived among them, 
 by heart ; and she had an amazing store of 
 tradition and superstition, which made her 
 so entertaining to us that we went to see 
 her many times before we came away in the 
 autumn. We went with her to find some 
 pitcher-plants, one day, and it was wonder- 
 ful how much she knew about the woods, 
 what keen observation she had. There was 
 something so wild and unconventional about 
 Mrs. Bonny that it was like taking an after- 
 noon walk with a good-natured Indian. We 
 used to carry her offerings of tobacco, for 
 she was a great smoker, and advised us to 
 try it, if ever we should be troubled with 
 nerves, or " narves," as she pronounced the 
 name of that affliction.
 
 IN SHADOW 
 
 SOON after we went to Deephaven we took 
 a long drive one day with Mr. Dockum, the 
 kindest and silentest of men. He had the 
 care of the Brandon property, and had some 
 business at that time connected with a large 
 tract of pasture-land perhaps ten miles from 
 town. We had heard of the coast-road which 
 led to it, how rocky and how rough and wild 
 it was, and when Kate heard by chance that 
 Mr. Dockum meant to go that way, she asked 
 if we might go with him. He said he would 
 much rather take us than " go sole alone," 
 but he should be away until late and we 
 must take our dinner, which we did not mind 
 doing at all. 
 
 After we were three or four miles from 
 Deephaven the country looked very differ- 
 ent. The shore was so rocky that there were 
 almost no places where a boat could put in, 
 so there were no fishermen in the region, 
 and the farms were scattered wide apart ; 
 the land was so poor that even the trees 
 looked hungry. At the end of our drive we
 
 204 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 left the horse at a lonely little farm-house 
 close by the sea. Mr. Dockum was to walk a 
 long way inland through the woods with a 
 man whom he had come to meet, and he told 
 us if we followed the shore westward a mile 
 or two we should find some very high rocks, 
 for which he knew we had a great liking. It 
 was a delightful day to spend out of doors ; 
 there was an occasional whiff of east wind. 
 Seeing us seemed to be a perfect godsend to 
 the people whose nearest neighbors lived far 
 out of sight. We had a long talk with them 
 before we went for our walk. The house was 
 close by the water by a narrow cove, around 
 which the rocks were low, but farther down 
 the shore the land rose more and more, and 
 at last we stood at the edge of the highest 
 rocks of all and looked far down at the sea, 
 dashing its white spray high over the ledges 
 that quiet day. What could it be in winter 
 when there was a storm and the great waves 
 came thundering in ? 
 
 After we had explored the shore to our 
 hearts' content and were tired, we rested for 
 a while in the shadow of some gnarled pitch- 
 pines, which stood close together, as near 
 the sea as they dared. They looked like a 
 band of outlaws ; they were such wild-look-
 
 IN SHADOW 205 
 
 ing trees. They seemed very old, and as if 
 their savage fights with the winter winds had 
 made them hard-hearted. And yet the little 
 wild-flowers and the thin green grass-blades 
 were growing fearlessly close around their 
 feet; and there were some comfortable 
 birds'-nests in safe corners of their rough 
 branches. 
 
 When we went back to the house at the cove, 
 we had to wait some time for Mr. Dockum. 
 We succeeded in making friends with the 
 children, and gave them some candy and 
 the rest of our lunch, which luckily had been 
 even more abundant than usual. They looked 
 thin and pitiful, but even in that lonely place, 
 where they so seldom saw a stranger or even 
 a neighbor, they showed that there was an 
 evident effort to make them look like other 
 children, and they were neatly dressed, though 
 there could be no mistake about their being 
 very poor. One forlorn little soul, with hon- 
 est gray eyes and a sweet, shy smile, showed 
 us a string of beads which she wore round 
 her neck ; there were perhaps two dozen of 
 them, blue and white, on a bit of twine, and 
 they were the dearest things in all her world. 
 When we came away we were so glad that 
 we could give the man more than he asked
 
 206 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 us for taking care of the horse, and his thanks 
 touched us. 
 
 " I hope ye may never know what it is to 
 earn every dollar as hard as I have. I never 
 earned any money as easy as this before. I 
 don't feel as if I ought to take it. I 've done 
 the best I could," said the man, with the 
 tears coming into his eyes, and a huskiness 
 in his voice. " I 've done the best I could, 
 and I 'm willin' and my woman is, but every- 
 thing seems to have been ag'in' us ; we never 
 seem to get forehanded. It looks sometimes 
 as if the Lord had forgot us, but my woman 
 she never wants me to say that; she says 
 He ain't, and that we might be worse off, 
 but I don' know. I have n't had my health ; 
 that 's hendered me most. I 'm a boat-builder 
 by trade, but the business 's all run down ; 
 folks buys 'em second-hand nowadays, and 
 you can't make nothing. I can't stand it to 
 foller deep-sea fishing, and well, you see 
 what my land 's wuth. But my oldest boy, 
 he 's getting ahead. He pushed off this 
 spring, and he works in a box-shop to Bos- 
 ton ; a cousin o' his mother's got him the 
 chance. He sent me ten dollars a spell ago 
 and his mother a shawl. I don't see how he 
 done it, but he 's smart ! "
 
 IN SHADOW 207 
 
 This seemed to be the only bright spot in 
 their lives, and we admired the shawl and sat 
 down in the house a while with the mother, 
 who seemed kind and patient and tired, and 
 to have great delight in talking about what 
 one should wear. Kate and I thought and 
 spoke often of these people afterward, and 
 when one day we met the man in Deephaven 
 we sent some things to the children and his 
 wife, and begged him to come to the house 
 whenever he came to town ; but we never saw 
 him again, and though we made many plans 
 for going again to the cove, we never did. 
 At one time the road was reported impass- 
 able, and we put off our second excursion 
 for this reason and others until just before 
 we left Deephaven, late in October. 
 
 We knew the coast-road would be bad 
 after the fall rains, and we found that Le- 
 ander, the eldest of the Dockum boys, had 
 some errand that way, so he went with us. 
 We enjoyed the drive that morning in spite 
 of the rough road. The air was warm, and 
 sweet with the smell of bayberry-bushes and 
 pitch-pines and the delicious saltness of the 
 sea, which was not far from us all the way. 
 It was a perfect autumn day. Sometimes we 
 crossed pebble beaches, and then went far-
 
 208 DEEPEAVEN 
 
 ther inland, through woods and up and down 
 steep little hills ; over shaky bridges which 
 crossed narrow salt creeks in the marsh- 
 lands. There was a little excitement about 
 the drive, and an exhilaration in the air, and 
 we laughed at jokes forgotten the next min- 
 ute, and sang, and were jolly enough. Le- 
 ander, who had never happened to see us in 
 exactly this hilarious state of mind before, 
 seemed surprised and interested, and became 
 unusually talkative, telling us a great many 
 edifying particulars about the people whose 
 houses we passed, and who owned every wood- 
 lot along the road. " Do you see that house 
 over on the pi'nt?" he asked. "An old fel- 
 low lives there that 's part lost his mind. He 
 had a son who was drowned off Cod Rock 
 fishing, much as twenty-five years ago, and 
 he 's worn a deep path out to the end of the 
 pi'nt where he goes out every hand's turn o' 
 the day to see if he can't see the boat com- 
 ing in." And Leander looked round to see 
 if we were not amused, and seemed puzzled 
 because we did n't laugh. Happily, his next 
 story was funny. 
 
 We saw a sleepy little owl on the dead 
 branch of a pine tree ; we saw a rabbit cross 
 the road and disappear in a clump of juni-
 
 IN SHADOW 209 
 
 per, and squirrels run up and down trees 
 and along the stone-walls with acorns in their 
 mouths. We passed straggling thickets of 
 the upland sumach, leafless, and holding high 
 their ungainly spikes of red berries ; there 
 were sturdy barberry-bushes along the lonely 
 wayside, their unpicked fruit hanging in bril- 
 liant clusters. The blueberry-bushes made 
 patches of dull red along the hillsides. The 
 ferns were whitish-gray and brown at the 
 edges of the woods, and the asters and 
 golden-rods which had lately looked so gay 
 in the open fields stood now in faded, frost- 
 bitten companies. There were busy flocks of 
 birds flitting from field to field, ready to 
 start on their journey southward. 
 
 When we reached the house, to our sur- 
 prise there was no one in sight and the place 
 looked deserted. We left the wagon, and 
 while Leander went toward the barn, which 
 stood at a little distance, Kate and I went to 
 the house and knocked. I opened the door 
 a little way and said " Hallo ! " but nobody 
 answered. The people could not have moved 
 away, for there were some chairs standing 
 outside the door, and as I looked in I saw 
 the bunches of herbs hanging up, and a trace 
 of corn, and the furniture was all there. It
 
 210 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 was a great disappointment, for we had 
 counted upon seeing the children again. Le- 
 ander said there was nobody at the barn, and 
 that they must have gone to a funeral ; he 
 could n't think of anything else. 
 
 Just now we saw some people coming up 
 the road, and we thought at first that they 
 were the man and his wife coming back; 
 but they proved to be strangers, and we 
 eagerly asked what had become of the fam- 
 ily. 
 
 " They 're dead, both on 'em. His wife she 
 died about nine weeks ago last Sunday, and 
 he died day before yesterday. Funeral 's go- 
 ing to be this afternoon. Thought ye were 
 some of her folks from up country, when we 
 were coming along," said the man. 
 
 " Guess they won't come nigh," said the 
 woman scornfully ; " 'f raid they 'd have to 
 help provide for the children. I was half- 
 sister to him, and I 've got to take the two 
 least ones." 
 
 " Did you say he was going to be buried 
 this afternoon?" asked Kate slowly. We 
 were both more startled than I can tell. 
 
 "Yes," said the man, who seemed much 
 better-natured than his wife. She appeared 
 like a person whose only aim in life was to
 
 IN SHADOW 211 
 
 have things over with. " Yes, we 're going 
 to bury at two o'clock. They had a master 
 sight of trouble, first and last." 
 
 Leander had said nothing all this time. 
 He had known the man, and had expected 
 to spend the day with him and to get him 
 to go on two miles farther to help bargain for 
 a dory. He asked, in a disappointed way, 
 what had carried him off so sudden. 
 
 " Drink," said the woman relentlessly. 
 " He ain't been good for nothing sence his 
 wife died : she was took with a fever along 
 in the first of August, /'d ha' got up from 
 it I " 
 
 " Now don't be hard on the dead, Mar- 
 thy," said her husband. " I guess they done 
 the best they could. They were n't shif'less, 
 you know ; they never had no health ; *t was 
 against wind and tide with 'em all the time." 
 And Kate asked, " Did you say he was your 
 brother ? " 
 
 " Yes. I was half-sister to him," said the 
 woman promptly, with perfect unconscious- 
 ness of Kate's meaning. 
 
 "And what will become of those poor 
 children?" 
 
 " I 've got the two youngest over to my 
 place to take care on, and the two next them
 
 212 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 has been put out to some folks over to the 
 cove. I dare say like 's not they '11 be sent 
 back." 
 
 " They 're clever child'n, I guess," said 
 the man, who spoke as if this were the first 
 time he had dared take their part. " Don't 
 be ha'sh, Marthy! Who knows but they 
 may do for us when we get to be old?" 
 And then she turned and looked at him 
 with utter contempt. " I can't stand it to 
 hear men-folks talking on what they don't 
 know nothing about," said she. " The ways 
 of Providence is dreadful myster'ous," she 
 went on with a whine, instead of the sharp 
 tone of voice which we had heard before. 
 " We 've had a hard row, and we 've just 
 got our own children off our hands and able 
 to do for themselves, and now here are these 
 to be fetched up." 
 
 " But perhaps they '11 be a help to you ; 
 they seem to be good little things," said 
 Kate. " I saw them in the summer, and they 
 seemed to be pleasant children, and it is 
 dreadfully hard for them to be left alone. 
 It 's not their fault, you know. We brought 
 over something for them ; will you be kind 
 enough to take the basket when you go 
 home ? "
 
 IN SHADOW 213 
 
 " Thank ye, I 'm sure," said the aunt, re- 
 lenting slightly. "You can speak to my 
 man about it, and he '11 give it to somebody 
 that 's going by. I 've got to walk in the 
 procession. They '11 be obliged, I 'm sure. 
 I s'pose you're the young ladies that come 
 here right after the Fourth o' July, ain't 
 you? I should be pleased to have you call 
 and see the child'n if you 're over this way 
 again. I heard 'em talk about you last time 
 I was over. Won't ye step into the house 
 and see him ? He looks real natural," she 
 added. But we said, " No, thank you." 
 
 Leander told us he believed he would n't 
 bother about the dory that day, and he 
 should be there at the house whenever we 
 were ready. He evidently considered it a 
 piece of good luck that he had happened to 
 arrive in time for the funeral. We spoke to 
 the man about the things we had brought 
 for the children, which seemed to delight 
 him, poor soul, and we felt sure he would be 
 kind to them. His wife shouted to him from 
 a window of the house that he 'd better not 
 loiter round, or they would n't be half ready 
 when the folks began to come, and we said 
 good-by to him and went away. 
 
 It was a beautiful morning, and we walked
 
 214 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 slowly along the shore to the high rocks and 
 the pitch-pine trees which we had seen be- 
 fore; the air was deliciously fresh, and one 
 could take long deep breaths of it. The tide 
 was coming in, and the spray dashed higher 
 and higher. We climbed about the rocks 
 and went down in some of the deep cold 
 clefts into which the sun could seldom shine. 
 We gathered some wild-flowers ; bits of 
 pimpernel and one or two sprigs of fringed 
 gentian which had bloomed late in a shel- 
 tered place, and a pale little bouquet of 
 asters. We sat for a long time looking off 
 to sea, and we could talk or think of almost 
 nothing beside what we had seen and heard 
 at the farm-house. We said how much we 
 should like to go to that funeral, and we 
 even made up our minds to go back in sea- 
 son, but we gave up the idea : we had no 
 right there, and it would seem as if we were 
 merely curious, and we were afraid our pre- 
 sence would make the people ill at ease, the 
 minister especially. It would be an intrusion. 
 We spoke of the children, and tried to 
 think what could be done for them : we were 
 afraid they would be told so many times that 
 it was lucky they did not have to go to the 
 poorhouse, and yet we could not help pitying
 
 IN SHADOW 215 
 
 the hard-worked, discouraged woman whom 
 we had seen, in spite of her bitterness. Poor 
 soul ! she looked like a person to whom no- 
 body had ever been very kind, and for whom 
 life had no pleasures : its sunshine had never 
 been warm enough to thaw the ice at her 
 heart. 
 
 We remembered how we knocked at the 
 door and called loudly, but there had been 
 no answer, and we wondered how we should 
 have felt if we had gone farther into the 
 room and had found the dead man in his 
 coffin, all alone in the house. We thought 
 of our first visit, and what he had said to us, 
 and we wished we had come again sooner, 
 for we might have helped them so much more 
 if we had only known. 
 
 " What a pitiful ending it is," said Kate. 
 " Do you realize that the family is broken 
 up, and the children are to be half strangers 
 to each other ? Did you not notice that they 
 seemed very fond of each other when we saw 
 them in the summer ? There was not half the 
 roughness and apparent carelessness of one 
 another which one so of ten sees in the country. 
 Theirs was such a little world ; one can un- 
 derstand how, when the man's wife died, he 
 was bewildered and discouraged, utterly at
 
 216 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 a loss. The thoughts of winter, and of the 
 little children, and of the struggles he had 
 already come through against poverty and 
 disappointment were terrible thoughts; and 
 like a boat adrift at sea, the waves of his 
 misery brought him in against the rocks, and 
 his simple life was wrecked." 
 
 " I suppose his grandest hopes and wishes 
 would have been realized in a good farm and 
 a thousand or two dollars in safe keeping," 
 said I. " Do you remember that merry little 
 song in ' As You Like It ' ? 
 
 ' Who doth ambition shun 
 And loves to live i' the sun, 
 Seeking the food he eats, 
 And pleased with what he gets ' ; 
 and 
 
 'Here shall he see 
 
 No enemy 
 But winter and rough weather.' 
 
 That is all he lived for, his literal daily bread. 
 I suppose what would be prosperity to him 
 would be miserably insufficient for some 
 other people. I wonder how we can help be- 
 ing conscious, in the midst of our comforts 
 and pleasures, of the lives which are being 
 starved to death in more ways than one." 
 " I suppose one thinks more about these
 
 IN SHADOW 217 
 
 things as one grows older," said Kate 
 thoughtfully. " How seldom life in this world 
 seems to be a success ! Among rich or poor 
 only here and there one touches satisfaction, 
 though the one who seems to have made an 
 utter failure may really be the greatest con- 
 queror. And, Helen, I find that I understand 
 better and better how unsatisfactory, how 
 purposeless and disastrous, any life must be 
 which is not a Christian life. It is like being 
 always in the dark, and wandering one knows 
 not where, if one is not learning more and 
 more what it is to have a friendship with 
 God." 
 
 By the middle of the afternoon the sky 
 had grown cloudy, and a wind seemed to be 
 coming in off the sea, and we unwillingly de- 
 cided that we must go home. We supposed 
 that the funeral would be all over with, but 
 found we had been mistaken when we reached 
 the cove. We seated ourselves on a rock near 
 the water ; just beside us was the old boat, 
 with its killick and painter stretched ashore, 
 where its owner had left it. 
 
 There were several men standing around 
 the door of the house, looking solemn and 
 important, and by and by one of them came 
 over to us, and we found out a little more
 
 218 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 of the sad story. We liked this man, there 
 was so much pity in his face and voice. 
 " He was a real willin', honest man, Andrew 
 was," said our new friend, " but he used to 
 be sickly, and seemed to have no luck, though 
 for a year or two he got along some better. 
 When his wife died he was sore afflicted, and 
 could n't get over it, and he did n't know 
 what to do or what was going to become of 
 'em with winter comin' on, and well I 
 may 's well tell ye ; he took to drink and it 
 killed him right off. I come over two or 
 three times and made some gruel and fixed 
 him up 's well 's I could, and the little gals 
 done the best they could, but he faded right 
 out, and did n't know anything the last time 
 I see him, and he died Sunday mornin', when 
 the tide begun to ebb. I always set a good 
 deal by Andrew ; we used to play together 
 down to the great cove ; that 's where he was 
 raised, and my folks lived there too. I've 
 got one o' the little gals. I always knowed 
 him and his wife." 
 
 Just now we heard the people in the house 
 singing " China," the Deephaven funeral 
 hymn, and the tune suited well that day, 
 with its wailing rise and fall ; it was strangely 
 plaintive. Then the funeral exercises were
 
 IN SHADOW 219 
 
 over, and the man with whom we had just 
 been speaking led to the door a horse and 
 rickety wagon, from which the seat had been 
 taken, and when the coffin had been put in 
 he led the horse down the road a little way, 
 and we watched the mourners come out of 
 the house two by two. We heard some one 
 scold in a whisper because the wagon was 
 twice as far off as it need have been. They 
 evidently had a rigid funeral etiquette, and 
 felt it important that everything should be 
 carried out according to rule. We saw a 
 forlorn-looking kitten, with a bit of faded 
 braid round its neck, run across the road in 
 terror and presently appear again on the 
 stone- wall, where she sat looking at the peo- 
 ple. We saw the dead man's eldest son, of 
 whom he had told us in the summer with 
 such pride. He had shown his respect for his 
 father as best he could, by a black band on 
 his hat and a pair of black cotton gloves a 
 world too large for him. He looked so sad, 
 and cried bitterly as he stood alone at the 
 head of the people. His aunt was next, with 
 a handkerchief at her eyes, fully equal to the 
 proprieties of the occasion, though I fear her 
 grief was not so heartfelt as her husband's, 
 who dried his eyes on his coat-sleeve again
 
 220 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 and again. There were perhaps twenty of 
 the mourners, and there was much whisper- 
 ing among those who walked last. The min- 
 ister and some others fell into line, and the 
 procession went slowly down the slope ; a 
 strange shadow had fallen over everything. 
 It was like a November day, for the air felt 
 cold and bleak. There were some great sea- 
 fowl high in the air, fighting their way to- 
 ward the sea against the wind, and giving 
 now and then a wild, far-off ringing cry. 
 We could hear the dull sound of the sea, 
 and at a little distance from the land the 
 waves were leaping high, and breaking in 
 white foam over the isolated ledges. 
 
 The rest of the people began to walk or 
 drive away, but Kate and I stood watching 
 the funeral as it crept along the narrow, 
 crooked road. We had never seen what the 
 people called " walking funerals " until we 
 came to Deephaven, and there was something 
 piteous about this ; the mourners looked so 
 few, and we could hear the rattle of the 
 wagon-wheels. " He 's gone, ain't he ? " said 
 some one near us. That was it, gone. 
 
 Before the people had entered the house, 
 there had been, I am sure, an indifferent, 
 business-like look, but when they came out,
 
 IN SHADOW 221 
 
 all that was changed ; their faces were awed 
 by the presence of death, and the indiffer- 
 ence had given place to uncertainty. Their 
 neighbor was immeasurably their superior 
 now. Living, he had been a failure by their 
 own low standards ; but now, if he could 
 come back, he would know secrets, and be 
 wise beyond anything they could imagine, 
 and who could know the riches of which he 
 might have come into possession ? 
 
 To Kate and me there came a sudden con- 
 sciousness of the mystery and inevitableness 
 of death ; it was not fear, thank God ! but a 
 thought of how certain it was that some day 
 it would be a mystery to us no longer. And 
 there was a thought, too, of the limitation of 
 this present life ; we were waiting there, in 
 company with the people, the great sea, and 
 the rocks and fields themselves, on this side 
 the boundary. We knew just then how close 
 to this familiar, every-day world might be the 
 other, which at times before had seemed so 
 far away, out of reach of even our thoughts, 
 beyond the distant stars. 
 
 We stayed a while longer, until the little 
 black funeral had crawled out of sight ; un- 
 til we had seen the last funeral guest go 
 away and the door had been shut and fas-
 
 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 tened with a queer old padlock and some 
 links of rusty chain. The door fitted loosely, 
 and the man gave it a vindictive shake, as 
 if he thought that the poor house had some- 
 how been to blame, and that after a long 
 desperate struggle for life under its roof and 
 among the stony fields the family must go 
 away defeated. It is not likely that any one 
 else will ever go to live there. The man to 
 whom the farm was mortgaged will add the 
 few forlorn acres to his pasture-land, and 
 the thistles which the man who is dead had 
 fought so many years will inarch in next 
 summer and take unmolested possession. 
 
 I think to-day of that fireless, empty, for- 
 saken house, where the winter sun shines in 
 and creeps slowly along the floor ; the bitter 
 cold is in and around the house, and the 
 snow has sifted in at every crack; outside 
 it is untrodden by any living creature's foot- 
 step. The wind blows and rushes and shakes 
 the loose window - sashes in their frames, 
 while the padlock knocks knocks against 
 the door.
 
 MISS CHAUNCEY 
 
 THE Deephaven people used to say some- 
 times complacently that certain things or 
 certain people were " as dull as East Par- 
 ish." Kate and I grew curious to see that 
 part of the world which was considered duller 
 than Deephaven itself; and as upon inquiry 
 we found that it was not out of reach, one 
 day we went there. 
 
 It was like Deephaven, only on a smaller 
 scale. The village though it is a question 
 whether that is not an exaggerated term to 
 apply had evidently seen better days. It 
 was on the bank of a river, and perhaps half 
 a mile from the sea. There were a few old 
 buildings there, some with mossy roofs and 
 a great deal of yellow lichen on the sides of 
 the walls next the sea; a few newer houses, 
 belonging to fishermen; some dilapidated 
 fish-houses ; and a row of fish-flakes. Every 
 house seemed to have a lane of its own, and 
 all faced different ways except two fish- 
 houses, which stood amiably side by side. 
 There was a church, which we had been 
 told was the oldest in the region. Through
 
 224 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 the windows we saw the high pulpit and 
 sounding-board, and finally found the keys 
 at a house near by; so we went in and 
 looked around at our leisure. A rusty foot- 
 stove stood in one of the old square pews, 
 and in the gallery there was a majestic bass- 
 viol with all its strings snapped but the 
 largest, which gave out a doleful sound when 
 we touched it. 
 
 After we left the church we walked along 
 the road a little way, and came in sight of a 
 fine old house which had apparently fallen 
 into ruin years before. The front entrance 
 was a fine specimen of old-fashioned work- 
 manship, with its columns and carvings, and 
 the fence had been a grand affair in its day, 
 though now it could scarcely stand alone. 
 The long range of out-buildings were fall- 
 ing piece by piece ; one shed had been blown 
 down entirely by a late high wind. The 
 large windows had many panes of glass, and 
 the great chimneys were built of the bright 
 red bricks which used to be brought from 
 over-seas in the days of the colonies. We 
 noticed the gnarled lilacs in the yard, the 
 wrinkled cinnamon-roses, and a flourishing 
 company of French pinks, or " bouncing 
 Bets," as Kate called them.
 
 MISS CHAUNCEY 225 
 
 " Suppose we go in," said I ; " the door 
 is open a little way. There surely must be 
 some stories about its being haunted. We 
 will ask Miss Honora." And we climbed 
 over the boards which were put up like pas- 
 ture-bars across the wide front gateway. 
 
 " We shall certainly meet a ghost," said 
 Kate. 
 
 Just as we stood on the steps the door 
 was pulled wide open ; we started back, and, 
 well-grown young women as we are, we have 
 confessed since that our first impulse was to 
 run away. On the threshold there stood a 
 stately old woman who looked surprised at 
 first sight of us, then quickly recovered her- 
 self and stood waiting for us to speak. She 
 was dressed in a rusty black satin gown, 
 with scant, short skirt and huge sleeves; 
 on her head was a great black bonnet with 
 a high crown and a close brim, which came 
 far out over her face. " What is your plea- 
 sure ? " said she ; and we felt like two awk- 
 ward children. Kate partially recovered her 
 wits, and asked which was the nearer way 
 to Deephaven. 
 
 " There is but one road, past the church 
 and over the hill. It cannot be missed." 
 And she bowed gravely, when we thanked
 
 226 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 her and begged her pardou, we hardly knew 
 why, and came away. 
 
 We looked back to see her still standing 
 in the doorway. " Who in the world can 
 she be ? " said Kate. And we wondered and 
 puzzled and talked over " the ghost " until 
 we saw Miss Honora Carew, who told us 
 that it was Miss Sally Chauncey. 
 
 " Indeed, I know her, poor old soul ! " 
 said Miss Honora ; " she has such a sad his- 
 tory. She is the last survivor of one of the 
 most aristocratic old colonial families. The 
 Chaunceys were of great renown until early 
 in the present century, and then their for- 
 tunes changed. They had always been rich 
 and well educated, and I suppose nobody 
 ever had a gayer, happier time than Miss 
 Sally did in her girlhood, for they enter- 
 tained a great deal of company and lived in 
 fine style; but her father was unfortunate 
 in business, and at last was utterly ruined 
 at the time of the embargo ; then he became 
 partially insane, and died after many years 
 of poverty. I have often heard a tradition 
 that a sailor to whom he had broken a pro- 
 mise had cursed him, and that none of the 
 family had died in their beds or had any 
 good luck since. The East Parish people 

 
 MISS CHAUNCEY 227 
 
 seem to believe in it, and it is certainly 
 strange what terrible sorrow has come to 
 the Chaunceys. One of Miss Sally's bro- 
 thers, a fine young officer in the navy, who 
 was at home on leave, asked her one day if 
 she could get on without him, and she said 
 yes, thinking he meant to go back to sea; 
 but in a few minutes she heard the noise of 
 a pistol in his room, and hurried in to find 
 him lying dead on the floor. Then there 
 was another brother who was insane, and 
 who became so violent that he was chained 
 for years in one of the upper chambers, a 
 dangerous prisoner. I have heard his hor- 
 rid cries myself, when I was a young girl," 
 said Miss Honora, with a shiver. 
 
 " Miss Sally is insane, and has been for 
 many years, and this seems to me the sad- 
 dest part of the story. When she first lost 
 her reason she was sent to a hospital, for 
 there was no one who could take care of her. 
 The mania was so acute that no one had the 
 slightest thought that she would recover or 
 even live long. Her guardian sold the fur- 
 niture and pictures and china, almost every- 
 thing but clothing, to pay the bills at the 
 hospital, until the house was fairly empty ; 
 and then one spring day, I remember it well,
 
 228 DEEPHA VEN 
 
 she came home in her right mind, and, with- 
 out a thought of what was awaiting her, ran 
 eagerly into her home. It was a terrible 
 shock, and she never has recovered from it, 
 though after a long illness her insanity took 
 a mild form, and she has always been per- 
 fectly harmless. She has been alone many 
 years, and no one can persuade her to leave 
 the old house, where she seems to be con- 
 tented, and does not realize her troubles ; 
 though she lives mostly in the past, and has 
 little idea of the present, except in her house 
 affairs, which seem pitiful to me, for I re- 
 member the housekeeping of the Chaunceys 
 when I was a child. I have always been to 
 see her, and she usually knows me, though 
 I have been but seldom of late years. She 
 is several years older than I. The town 
 makes her an allowance every year, and she 
 has some friends who take care that she does 
 not suffer, though her wants are few. She 
 is an elegant woman still, and some day, if 
 you like, I will give you something to carry 
 to her, and a message, if I can think of one, 
 and you must go to make her a call. I hope 
 she will happen to be talkative, for I am 
 sure you would enjoy her. For many years 
 she did not like to see strangers, but some
 
 MISS CHAUNCEY 229 
 
 one has told me lately that she seems to be 
 pleased if people go to see her." 
 
 You may be sure it was not many days 
 before Kate and I claimed the basket and 
 the message, and went again to East Parish. 
 We boldly lifted the great brass knocker, 
 and were dismayed because nobody answered. 
 While we waited, a girl came up the walk 
 and said that Miss Sally lived upstairs, and 
 she would speak to her if we liked. " Some- 
 times she don't have sense enough to know 
 what the knocker means," we were told. 
 There was evidently no romance about Miss 
 Sally to our new acquaintance. 
 
 " Do you think," said I, " that we might 
 go in and look around the lower rooms? 
 Perhaps she will refuse to see us." 
 
 "Yes, indeed," said the girl; "only run 
 the minute I speak ; you '11 have time enough, 
 for she walks slow and is a little deaf." 
 
 So we went into the great hall with its 
 wide staircase and handsome cornices and 
 panelling, and then into the large parlor on 
 the right, and through it to a smaller room 
 looking out on the garden, which sloped down 
 to the river. Both rooms had fine carved 
 mantels, with Dutch-tiled fireplaces, and in 
 the cornices we saw the fastenings where
 
 230 DEEPS A YEN 
 
 pictures had hung, old portraits, perhaps. 
 And what had become of them? The girl 
 did not know : the house had been the same 
 ever since she could remember, only it would 
 all fall through into the cellar soon. But the 
 old lady was proud as Lucifer, and would n't 
 hear of moving out. 
 
 The floor in the room toward the river was 
 so broken that it was not safe, and we came 
 back through the hall and opened the door 
 at the foot of the stairs. " Guess you won't 
 want to stop long there," said the girl. Three 
 old hens and a rooster marched toward us 
 with great solemnity when we looked in. The 
 cobwebs hung in the room, as they often do 
 in old barns, in long, gray festoons ; the lilacs 
 outside grew close against the two windows 
 where the shutters were not drawn, and the 
 light in the room was greenish and dim. 
 
 Then we took our places on the threshold, 
 and the girl went upstairs and announced 
 us to Miss Sally, and in a few minutes we 
 heard her come along the hall. 
 
 " Sophia," said she, " where are the gentry 
 waiting ? " And just then she came in sight 
 round the turn of the staircase. She wore 
 the same great black bonnet and satin gown, 
 and looked more old-fashioned and ghostly
 
 MISS CHAUNCEY 231 
 
 than before. She was not tall, but very erect, 
 in spite of her great age, and her eyes seemed 
 to " look through you " in an uncanny way. 
 She slowly descended the stairs and came to- 
 ward us with a courteous greeting, and when 
 we had introduced ourselves as Miss Carew's 
 friends she gave us each her hand in a most 
 cordial way and said she was pleased to see 
 us. She bowed us into the parlor and brought 
 us two rickety, straight-backed chairs, which, 
 with an old table, were all the furniture there 
 was in the room. " Sit ye down," said she, 
 herself taking a place in the window-seat. 
 I have seen few more elegant women than 
 Miss Chauncey. Thoroughly at her ease, she 
 had the manner of a lady of the olden times, 
 using the quaint fashion of speech which she 
 had been taught in her girlhood. The long 
 words and ceremonious phrases suited her 
 extremely well. Her hands were delicately 
 shaped, and she folded them in her lap, as 
 no doubt she had learned to do at boarding- 
 school so many years before. She asked Kate 
 and me if we knew any young ladies at that 
 school in Boston, saying that most of her in- 
 timate friends had left when she did, but 
 some of the younger ones were there still. 
 She asked for the Carews and Mr. Lori-
 
 232 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 mer, and when Kate told her that she was 
 Miss Brandon's niece, and asked if she had 
 not known her, she said, " Certainly, my 
 dear ; we were intimate friends at one time, 
 but I have seen her little of late." 
 
 "Do you not know that she is dead?" 
 asked Kate. 
 
 " Ah, they say every one is ' dead,' nowa- 
 days. I do not comprehend the silly idea ! " 
 said the old lady impatiently. " It is an ex- 
 cuse, I suppose. She could come to see me 
 if she chose, but she was always a ceremoni- 
 ous body, and I go abroad but seldom now ; 
 so perhaps she waits my visit. I will not 
 speak uncourteously, and you must remem- 
 ber me to her kindly." 
 
 Then she asked us about other old people 
 in Deephaven, and about families in Boston 
 whom she had known in her early days. I 
 think every one of whom she spoke was dead, 
 but we assured her that they were all well 
 and prosperous, and we hoped we told the 
 truth. She asked about the love-affairs of 
 men and women who had died old and gray- 
 headed within our remembrance ; and finally 
 she said we must pardon her for these tire- 
 some questions, but it was so rarely she saw 
 any one direct from Boston, of whom she
 
 MISS CHAUNCEY 233 
 
 could inquire concerning these old friends 
 and relatives of her family. 
 
 Something happened after this which 
 touched us both inexpressibly : she sat for 
 some time watching Kate with a bewildered 
 look, which at last faded away, a smile com- 
 ing in its place. "T think you are like my 
 mother," she said ; " did any one ever say to 
 you that you are like my mother ? Will you 
 let me see your forehead ? Yes ; and your 
 hair is only a little darker." Kate had risen 
 when Miss Chauncey did, and they stood side 
 by side. There was a tone in the old lady's 
 voice which brought the tears to my eyes. 
 She stood there some minutes looking at 
 Kate. I wonder what her thoughts were. 
 There was a kinship, it seemed to me, not 
 of blood, only that they both were of the 
 same stamp and rank : Miss Chauncey of 
 the old generation and Kate Lancaster of 
 the new. Miss Chauncey turned to me, say- 
 ing, " Look up at the portrait and you will 
 see the likeness too, I think." But when she 
 turned and saw the bare wainscoting of the 
 room, she looked puzzled, and the bright 
 flash which had lighted up her face was gone 
 in an instant, and she sat down again in the 
 window-seat ; but we were glad that she bad
 
 234 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 forgotten. Presently she said, " Pardon me, 
 but I forget your question." 
 
 Miss Carew had told us to ask her about 
 her school-days, as she nearly always spoke 
 of that time to her ; and, to our delight, Miss 
 Sally told us a long story about her friends 
 and about her " coming-out party," when 
 boat-loads of gay young guests came down 
 from Riverport, and all the gentry from 
 Deephaven. The band from the fort played 
 for the dancing, the garden was lighted, the 
 card-tables were in this room, and a grand 
 supper was served. She also remembered 
 what some of her friends wore, and her own 
 dress was a silver-gray brocade with rose- 
 buds of three colors. She told us how she 
 watched the boats go off up river in the 
 middle of the summer night ; how sweet the 
 music sounded ; how bright the moonlight 
 was ; how she wished we had been there at 
 her party. 
 
 " I can't believe I am an old woman. It 
 seems only yesterday," said she thoughtfully. 
 And then she lost the idea, and talked about 
 Kate's great-grandmother, whom she had 
 known, and asked us how she had been this 
 summer. 
 
 She asked us if we would like to go up-
 
 MISS CHAUNCEY 235 
 
 stairs where she had a fire, and we eagerly 
 accepted, though we were not in the least 
 cold. Ah, what a sorry place it was ! She 
 had gathered together some few pieces of 
 her old furniture, which half filled one fine 
 room, and here she lived. There was a tall, 
 handsome chest of drawers, which I should 
 have liked much to ransack. Miss Carew had 
 told us that Miss Chauncey had large claims 
 against the government, dating back sixty 
 or seventy years, but nobody could ever 
 find the papers ; and I felt sure that they 
 must be hidden away in some secret drawer. 
 The brass handles and trimmings were black- 
 ened, and the wood looked like ebony. I 
 wanted to climb up and look into the upper 
 part of this antique piece of furniture, and it 
 seemed to me I could at once put my hand 
 on a package of " papers relating to the em- 
 bargo." 
 
 On a stand near the window was an old 
 Bible, fairly worn out with constant use. 
 Miss Chauncey was religious ; in fact, it was 
 the only subject about which she was perfectly 
 sane. We saw almost nothing of her insanity 
 that day, though afterward she was different. 
 There were days when her mind seemed 
 clear ; but sometimes she was silent, and often
 
 236 DEEPHAVEN 
 
 she would confuse Kate with Miss Brandon, 
 and talk to her of long-forgotten plans and 
 people. She would rarely speak of anything 
 more than a minute or two, and then would 
 drift into an entirely foreign subject. 
 
 She urged us that afternoon to stay to 
 luncheon with her ; she said she could not 
 offer us dinner, but she would give us tea 
 and biscuit, and no doubt we should find 
 something in Miss Carew's basket, as she 
 was always kind in remembering her fancies. 
 Miss Honora had told us to decline, if she 
 asked us to stay ; but I should have liked to 
 see her sit at the head of her table, and to be 
 a guest at such a lunch-party. 
 
 Poor creature ! it was a blessed thing that 
 her shattered reason made her unconscious 
 of the change in her fortunes, and incapable 
 of comparing the end of her life with its 
 beginning. To herself she was still Miss 
 Chauncey, a gentlewoman of high family, 
 possessed of unusual worldly advantages. 
 The remembrance of her cruel trials and sor- 
 rows had faded from her mind. She had no 
 idea of the poverty of her surroundings when 
 she paced back and forth, with stately steps, 
 on the ruined terraces of her garden ; the 
 ranks of lilies and the conserve-roses were
 
 MISS CHA.UNCEY 237 
 
 still in bloom for her, and the box-borders 
 were as trimly kept as ever ; and when she 
 pointed out to us the distant steeples of Riv- 
 erport, it was plain to see that it was still 
 the Riverport of her girlhood. If the boat- 
 landing at the foot of the garden had long 
 ago dropped into the river and gone out with 
 the tide ; if the maids and men who used to 
 do her bidding were all out of hearing ; if 
 there had been no dinner company that day 
 and no guests were expected for the even- 
 ing, what did it matter ? The twilight had 
 closed around her gradually, and she was 
 alone in her house, but she did not heed the 
 ruin of it or the absence of her friends. On 
 the morrow, life would again go on. 
 
 We always used to ask her to read the 
 Bible to us, after Mr. Lorimer had told us 
 how grand and beautiful it was to listen to 
 her. I shall never hear some of the Psalms 
 or some chapters of Isaiah again without be- 
 ing reminded of her ; and I remember just 
 now, as I write, one summer afternoon when 
 Kate and I had lingered later than usual, 
 and we sat in the upper room looking out 
 on the river and the shore beyond, where 
 the light had begun to grow golden as the 
 day drew near sunset. Miss Sally had opened
 
 238 DEEPHA VEN 
 
 the great book at random and read slowly, 
 " In my Father's house are many mansions " ; 
 and then, looking off for a moment at a leaf 
 which had drifted into the window-recess, 
 she repeated it : " In my Father's house are 
 many mansions ; if it were not so, I would 
 have told you." Then she went on slowly to 
 the end of the chapter, and with her hands 
 clasped together on the Bible she fell into a 
 reverie, and the tears came into our eyes as 
 we watched her look of perfect content. 
 Through all her clouded years the promises 
 of God had been her only certainty. 
 
 Miss Chauncey died early in the winter 
 after we left Deephaven, and one day when 
 I was visiting Kate in Boston Mr. Lorimer 
 came to see us, and told us about her. 
 
 It seems that after much persuasion she 
 was induced to go to spend the winter with 
 a neighbor, her house having become unin- 
 habitable, and she was, beside, too feeble to 
 live alone. But her fondness for her old 
 home was too strong, and one day she stole 
 away from the people who took care of her, 
 and crept in through the cellar, where she 
 had to wade through half-frozen water, and 
 then went upstairs, where she seated herself 
 at a front window and called joyfully to the
 
 JfISS CHAUNCEY 239 
 
 people who went by, asking them to come in 
 to see her, as she had got home again. After 
 this she was very ill, and one day, when she 
 was half delirious, they missed her, and found 
 her at last sitting on her hall stairway, which 
 she was too feeble to climb. She lived but a 
 short time afterwards, and in her last days 
 her mind seemed perfectly clear. She said 
 over and over again how good God had al- 
 ways been to her, and she was gentle, and 
 unwilling to be a trouble to those who had 
 the care of her. 
 
 Mr. Lorimer spoke of her simple good- 
 ness, and told us that though she had no 
 other sense of time, and hardly knew if it 
 were summer or winter, she was always sure 
 when Sunday came, and always came to 
 church when he preached at East Parish, her 
 greatest pleasure seeming to be to give money, 
 if there was a contribution. " She may be a 
 lesson to us," added the old minister rever- 
 ently ; " for, though bewildered in mind, be- 
 reft of riches and friends and all that makes 
 this world dear to many of us, she was still 
 steadfast in her simple faith, and was never 
 heard to complain of any of the burdens 
 which God had given her."
 
 LAST DAYS IN DEEPHAVEN 
 
 WHEN the summer was ended it was no 
 sorrow to us, for we were even more fond of 
 Deephaven in the glorious autumn weather 
 than we had ever been before. Mr. Lancas- 
 ter was abroad longer than he had intended 
 to be at first, and it was late in the season 
 before we left. We were both ready to post- 
 pone going back to town as late as possible ; 
 but at last it was time for my friend to re- 
 establish the Boston housekeeping, and to 
 take up the city life again. I must admit we 
 half dreaded it: we were surprised to find 
 how little we cared for it, and how well one 
 can get on without many things which are 
 thought indispensable. 
 
 For the last fortnight we were in the house 
 a good deal, because the weather was wet 
 and dreary. At one time there was a mag- 
 nificent storm, and we went every day along 
 the shore in the wind and rain for a mile or 
 two to see the furious great breakers come 
 plunging in against the rocks. I never had 
 seen such a wild, stormy sea as that; the 
 rage of it was awful, and the whole harbor
 
 LAST DAYS IN DEEPHAVEN 241 
 
 was white with foam. The wind had blown 
 northeast steadily for days, and it seemed to 
 me that the sea never could be quiet and 
 smooth and blue again, with soft white clouds 
 sailing over it in the sky. It was a treach- 
 erous sea ; it was wicked ; it had all the trem- 
 bling land in its power, if it only dared to 
 send its great waves far ashore. All night 
 long the breakers roared, and the wind howled 
 in the chimneys, and in the morning we 
 always looked fearfully across the surf and 
 the tossing gray water to see if the light- 
 house were standing firm on its rock. It 
 was so slender a thing to hold its own in 
 such a wide and monstrous sea. But the sun 
 came out at last, and not many days after- 
 ward we went out with Danny and Skipper 
 Scudder to say good-by to Mrs. Kew. I 
 have been some voyages at sea, but I never 
 was so danced about in a little boat as I was 
 that day. There was nothing to fear with 
 so careful a crew, and we only enjoyed the 
 roughness as we went out and in, though it 
 took much manoauvring to land us at the 
 island. 
 
 It was very sad work to us saying good- 
 by to our friends, and we tried to make be- 
 lieve that we should spend the next summer
 
 li4'J DEEPIIAVEN 
 
 in Deephaven, and we meant at any rate to 
 go down for a visit. We were glad when the 
 people said they should miss us, and that 
 they hoped we should not forget them and 
 the old place. It touched us to find that they 
 cared so much for us, and we said over and 
 over again how happy we had been, and that 
 it was such a satisfactory summer. Kate 
 laughingly proposed one evening, as we sat 
 talking by the fire and were particularly 
 contented, that we should copy the Ladies 
 of Llangollen, and remove ourselves from 
 society and its distractions. 
 
 " I have thought often, lately," said my 
 friend, " what a good time they must have 
 had, and I feel a sympathy and friendliness 
 for them which I never felt before. We 
 could have guests when we chose, as we 
 have had this summer, and we could study 
 and grow very wise, and what could be plea- 
 santer? But I wonder if we should grow 
 very lazy if we stayed here all the year 
 round ; village life is not stimulating, and 
 there would not be much to do in winter, 
 though I do not believe that need be 
 true; one may be busy and useful in any 
 place." 
 
 " I suppose if we really belonged in Deep-
 
 LAST DAYS IN DEEPHAVEN 243 
 
 haven we should think it a hard fate, and 
 not enjoy it half so much as we have this 
 summer," said I. " Our idea of happiness 
 would be making long visits in Boston ; and 
 we should be heartbroken when we had to 
 come away and leave our lunch-parties, and 
 symphony concerts, and calls, and fairs, the 
 reading-club and the children's hospital. We 
 should think the people uncongenial and be- 
 hind the times, and that the Ridge road was 
 stupid and the long sands desolate; while 
 we remembered what delightful walks we 
 had taken out Beacon Street to the three 
 roads, and over the Cambridge Bridge. Per- 
 haps we should even be ashamed of the dear 
 old church for being so out of fashion. We 
 should have the blues dreadfully, and think 
 there was no society here, and wonder why 
 we had to live in such a town." 
 
 "What a gloomy picture!" said Kate, 
 laughing. " Do you know that I have under- 
 stood something lately better than I ever did 
 before, it is that success and happiness are 
 not things of chance with us, but of choice. 
 I can see how we might so easily have had 
 a dull summer here. Of course it is our own 
 fault if the events of our lives are hindrances ; 
 it is we who make them bad or good. Some-
 
 244 DEEPHA VEN 
 
 times it is a conscious choice, but oftener 
 unconscious. I suppose we educate ourselves 
 for taking the best of life or the worst, do 
 not you ? " 
 
 " Dear old Deephaven ! " said Kate gently, 
 after we had been silent a little while. " It 
 makes me think of one of its own old ladies, 
 with its clinging to the old fashions and its 
 respect for what used to be respectable when 
 it was young. I cannot make fun of what 
 was once dear to somebody, and which real- 
 ized somebody's ideas of beauty or fitness. I 
 don't dispute the usefulness of a new, bus- 
 tling, manufacturing town with its progres- 
 sive ideas ; but there is a simple dignity in 
 a town like Deephaven, as if it tried to be 
 loyal to the traditions of its ancestors. It 
 quietly accepts its altered circumstances, if 
 it has seen better days, and has no harsh 
 feelings toward the places which have drawn 
 away its business, but it lives on, making its 
 old houses and boats and clothes last as long 
 as possible." 
 
 " I think one cannot help," said I, " hav- 
 ing a different affection for an old place like 
 Deephaven from that which one may have 
 for a newer town. Here though there are 
 no exciting historical associations and none
 
 LAST DAYS IN DEEPHAVEN 245 
 
 of the veneration which one has for the very 
 old cities and towns abroad it is impos- 
 sible not to remember how many people have 
 walked the streets and lived in the houses. 
 I was thinking to-day how many girls might 
 have grown up in this house, and that their 
 places have been ours ; we have inherited 
 their pleasures, and perhaps have carried on 
 work which they began. We sit in some- 
 body's favorite chair and look out of the 
 windows at the sea, and have our wishes and 
 our hopes and plans just as they did before 
 us. Something of them still lingers where 
 their lives were spent. We are often re- 
 minded of our friends who have died ; why 
 are we not reminded as surely of strangers 
 in such a house as this, finding some trace 
 of the lives which were lived among the 
 sights we see and the things we handle, as 
 the incense of many masses lingers in some 
 old cathedral, and one catches the spirit of 
 longing and prayer where so many heavy 
 hearts have brought their burdens and have 
 gone away comforted?" 
 
 " When I first came here," said Kate, " it 
 used to seem very sad to me to find Aunt 
 Katharine's little trinkets lying about the 
 house. I have often thought of what you
 
 246 DEEPHA VEN 
 
 have just said. I heard Mrs. Pattern say the 
 other day that there is no pocket in a shroud, 
 and of course it is better that we should carry 
 nothing out of this world. Yet I can't help 
 wishing that it were possible to keep some 
 of my worldly goods always. TTiere are one 
 or two books of mine and some little things 
 which I have had a long time, and of which 
 I have grown very fond. It makes me so 
 sorry to think of their being neglected and 
 lost. I cannot believe I shall forget these 
 earthly treasures when I am in heaven, and 
 I wonder if I shall not miss them. Is n't it 
 strange to think of not reading one's Bible 
 any more ? I suppose this is a very low view 
 of heaven, don't you ? " And we both smiled. 
 " I think the next dwellers in this house 
 ought to find a decided atmosphere of content- 
 ment," said I. " Have you ever thought that 
 it took us some time to make it your house 
 instead of Miss Brandon's ? It used to seem 
 to me that it was still under her management, 
 that she was its mistress ; but now it belongs 
 to you, and if I were ever to come back with- 
 out you I should find you here." 
 
 It is bewildering to know that this is the 
 last chapter, and that it must not be long.
 
 LAST DAYS IN DEEPHAVEN 247 
 
 I remember so many of our pleasures of 
 which I have hardly said a word. There were 
 our guests, of whom I have told you nothing, 
 and of whom there was so much to say. Of 
 course we asked my Aunt Mary to visit us, 
 and Miss Margaret Tennant, and many of 
 our girl-friends. All the people we know who 
 have yachts made the port of Deephaven if 
 they were cruising in the neighboring waters. 
 Once a most cheerful party of Kate's cousins 
 and some other young people whom we knew 
 very well came to visit us in this way, and 
 the yacht was kept in the harbor a week or 
 more, while we were all as gay as bobolinks 
 and went frisking about the country, and 
 kept late hours in the sober old Brandon 
 house. My Aunt Mary, who was with us, 
 and Kate's aunt, Mrs. Thorniford, who knew 
 the Carews, and was commander of the yacht- 
 party, tried to keep us in order, and to make 
 us ornaments to Deephaven society instead 
 of reproaches and stumbling-blocks. Kate's 
 younger brothers were with us, waiting until 
 it was time for them to go back to college, 
 and I think there never had been such pic- 
 nics in Deephaven before, and I fear there 
 never will be again. 
 
 We are fond of reading, and we meant to
 
 248 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 do a great deal of it, as every one does who 
 goes away for the summer ; but I must con- 
 fess that our grand plans were not well car 
 ried out. Our German dictionaries were on 
 the table in the west parlor until the sight 
 of them mortified us, and finally, to avoid 
 their silent reproach, I put them in the 
 closet, with the excuse that it would be as 
 easy to get them there, and they would be 
 out of the way. We used to have the maga- 
 zines sent us from town ; you would have 
 smiled at the box of books which we carried 
 to Deephaven, and indeed we sent two or 
 three times for others ; but I do not remem- 
 ber that we ever carried out that course of 
 study which we had planned with so much 
 interest. We were out of doors so much that 
 there was often little time for anything else. 
 Kate said one day that she did not care, 
 in reading, to be always making new ac- 
 quaintances, but to be seeing more of old 
 ones ; and I think it a very wise idea. We 
 each have our pet books ; Kate carries with 
 her a much worn copy of " Mr. Rutherford's 
 Children," which has been her delight ever 
 since she can remember. Sibyl and Chryssa 
 are dear old friends, though I suppose now 
 it is not merely what Kate reads, but what
 
 LAST DAYS IN DEEPHAVEN 249 
 
 she associates with the story. I am not often 
 separated from Jean Ingelow's " Stories told 
 to a Child," that charmingly wise and plea- 
 sant little book. It is always new, like Kate's 
 favorite. It is very hard to make a list of 
 the books one likes best, but I remember 
 that we had " The Village on the Cliff," and 
 " Henry Esmond," and " Tom Brown at Rug- 
 by," with his more serious ancestor, " Sir 
 Thomas Browne." I am sure we had " Fen- 
 elon," for we always have that; and there 
 was " Pet Marjorie," and " Rab," and "An- 
 nals of a Parish," and "The Life of the 
 Reverend Sydney Smith" ; beside Miss Tyt- 
 ler's " Days of Yore," and " The Holy and 
 Profane State," by Thomas Fuller, from 
 which Kate gets so much entertainment and 
 profit. We read Mr. Emerson's essays to- 
 gether, out of doors, and some stories which 
 had been our dear friends at school, like 
 "Leslie Goldthwaite." There was a very 
 good library in the house, and we both like 
 old books, so we enjoyed that. And we used 
 to read the " Spectator," and many old-fash- 
 ioned stories and essays and sermons, with 
 much more pleasure because they had such 
 quaint old brown leather bindings. You will 
 not doubt that we had some cherished vol-
 
 250 DEEPEAVEN 
 
 umes of poetry, or that we used to read them 
 aloud to each other when we sat in our fa- 
 vorite corner of the rocks at the shore, or 
 were in the pine woods of an afternoon. 
 
 We used to go out to tea, and do a great 
 deal of social visiting, which was very plea- 
 sant. Dinner parties were not in fashion, 
 though it was a great attention to be asked 
 to spend the day, which courtesy we used to 
 delight in extending to our friends; and we 
 entertained company in that way often. When 
 we first went out we were somewhat interest- 
 ing on account of our clothes, which were of 
 later pattern than had been adopted gener- 
 ally in Deephaven. We used to take great 
 pleasure in arraying ourselves on high days 
 and holidays, since when we went wandering 
 on shore, or out sailing or rowing, we did 
 not always dress as befitted our position in 
 the town. Fish-scales and blackberry-briers 
 so soon disfigure one's clothes. 
 
 We became in the course of time learned 
 in all manner of 'longshore lore, and even 
 profitably employed ourselves one morning in 
 going clam-digging with old Ben Horn,amost 
 fascinating ancient mariner. We both grew 
 so well and brown and strong, and Kate and 
 I did not get tired of each other at all, which
 
 LAST DATS IN DEEPHAVEN 251 
 
 I think was wonderful, for few friendships 
 would bear such a test. We were together 
 always, and alone together a great deal ; and 
 we became wonderfully well acquainted. We 
 are such good friends that we often were 
 silent for a long time, when mere acquaint- 
 ances would have felt compelled to talk and 
 try to entertain each other. 
 
 Before we left the leaves had fallen off 
 all the trees except the oaks, which make in 
 cold weather one of the dreariest sounds one 
 ever hears: a shivering rustle, which makes 
 one pity the tree and imagine it shelterless 
 and forlorn. The sea had looked rough and 
 cold for many days, and the old house itself 
 had grown chilly, all the world seemed 
 waiting for the snow to come. There was 
 nobody loitering on the wharves, and when 
 we went down the street we walked fast, 
 arm-in-arm, to keep warm. The houses were 
 shut up as close as possible, and the old sail- 
 ors did not seem cheery any longer; they 
 looked forlorn, and it was not a pleasant 
 prospect to be so long weather-bound in 
 port. If they ventured out, they put on an- 
 cient great - coats, with huge flaps to the 
 pockets and large horn buttons, and they 
 looked contemptuously at the vane, which
 
 252 DEEPHA YEN 
 
 always pointed to the north or east. It felt 
 like winter, and the captains rolled more 
 than ever as they walked, as if they were on 
 deck in a heavy sea. The rheumatism claimed 
 many victims, and there was one day, it 
 must be confessed, when a biting, icy fog 
 was blown in shore, that Kate and I were 
 willing to admit that we could be as com- 
 fortable in town, and it was almost time for 
 sealskin jackets. 
 
 In the front yards we saw the flower-beds 
 black with frost, except a few brave pansies 
 which had kept green and had bloomed un- 
 der the tall china-aster stalks, and one day 
 we picked some of these little flowers to put 
 between the leaves of a book and take away 
 with us. I think we loved Deephaven all the 
 more in those last days, with a bit of com- 
 passion in our tenderness for the dear old 
 town which had so little to amuse it. So long 
 a winter was coming, but we thought with a 
 sigh how pleasant it would be in the spring. 
 
 You would have smiled at the treasures 
 we brought away with us. We had become 
 so fond of even our fishing-lines ; and this 
 very day you may see in Kate's room two 
 great bunches of Deephaven cat-o'-nine-tails. 
 They were much in our way on the journey
 
 LAST DATS IN DEEPHAVEN 253 
 
 home, but we clung affectionately to these 
 last sheaves of our harvest. 
 
 The morning we came away our friends 
 were all looking out from door or window 
 to see us go by, and after we had passed the 
 last house and there was no need to smile 
 any longer, we were very dismal. The sun 
 was shining again bright and warm as if the 
 Indian summer were beginning, and we 
 wished that it had been a rainy day. 
 
 The thought of Deephaven will always 
 bring to us our long quiet summer days, and 
 reading aloud on the rocks by the sea, the 
 fresh salt air, and the glory of the sunsets; the 
 wail of the Sunday psalm-singing at church, 
 the yellow lichen that grew over the trees, 
 the houses, and the stone-walls ; our boating 
 and wanderings ashore; our importance as 
 members of society, and how kind every 
 one was to us both. By and by the Deep- 
 haven warehouses will fall and be used for 
 firewood by the fisher-people, and the wharves 
 will be worn away by the tides. The few old 
 gentlefolks who still linger will be dead 
 then ; and I wonder if some day Kate Lan- 
 caster and I will go down to Deephaven for 
 the sake of old times, and read the epitaphs 
 in the burying-ground, look out to sea, and
 
 254 DEEPIIA VEN 
 
 talk quietly about the girls who were so 
 happy there one summer long before. I should 
 like to walk along the beach at sunset, and 
 watch the color of the marshes and the sea 
 change as the light of the sky goes out. It 
 would make the old days come back vividly. 
 We should see the roofs and chimneys of 
 the village, and the great Chantrey elms look 
 black against the sky. A little later the 
 marsh fog would show faintly white, and we 
 should feel it deliciously cold and wet against 
 our hands and faces ; when we looked up 
 there would be a star ; the crickets would 
 chirp loudly; perhaps some late sea-birds 
 would fly inland. Turning, we should see 
 the lighthouse lamp shine out over the water, 
 and the great sea would move and speak to 
 us lazily in its idle, high-tide sleep.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 LotAjigetes 
 ThU book u DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 JAN 20 8 
 
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 University ol California, Los Angeles 
 
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