Complete Works of Harriet Beecher Stowe

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  “Well, Mr. Atwood,” said the minister, “you must have had pretty hard work on that load; that ‘s no ordinary oak; it took strong hands to roll those logs, and yet I don’t see but two of your boys. Where are they all now?”

  “Scattered, scattered!” said Heber, as he sat with a great block of cake in one hand, and sipped his mug of flip, looking, with his grizzly beard and shaggy hair and his iron features, like a cross between a polar bear and a man, – a very shrewd, thoughtful, reflective polar bear, however, quite up to any sort of argument with a man.

  “Yes, they ‘re scattered,” he said. “We ‘re putty lonesome now ‘t our house. Nobody there but Pars, Dass, Dill, Noah, and ‘Liakim. I ses to Noah and ‘Liakim this mornin’, ‘Ef we had all our boys to hum, we sh’d haf to take up two loads to the minister, sartin, to make it fair on the wood-spell cake.’”

  “Where are your boys now?” said Mr. Avery. “I have n’t seen them at meeting now for a good while.”

  “Wal, Sol and Tim ‘s gone up to Umbagog, lumberin’; and Tite, he ‘s sailed to Archangel; and Jeduth, he ‘s gone to th’ West Injies for molasses; and Pete, he ‘s gone to the west. Folks begins to talk now ‘bout that ‘ere Western kentry, and so Pete, he must go to Buffalo, and see the great West. He ‘s writ back about Niagry Falls. His letters is most amazin’. The old woman, she can’t feel easy ‘bout him no way. She insists ‘pon it them Injuns ‘ll scalp him. The old woman is just as choice of her boys as ef she had n’t got just es many es she has.”

  “How many sons have you?” said Harry, with a countenance of innocent wonder.

  “Wal,” said Heber, “I ‘ve seen the time when I had fourteen good, straight boys, – all on ’em a turnin’ over a log together.”

  “Dear me!” said Tina. “Had n’t you any daughters?”

  “Gals?” said Heber, reflectively. “Bless you yis. There ‘s been a gal or two ‘long, in between, here an’ there, – don’t jest remember where they come; but, any way, there ‘s plenty of women-folks ‘t our house.”

  “Why!” said Tina, with a toss of her pretty head, “you don’t seem to think much of women.”

  “Good in their way,” said Heber, shaking his head; “but Adam was fust formed, and then Eve, you know.” Looking more attentively at Tina as she stood bridling and dimpling before him, like a bird just ready to fly, Heber conceived an indistinct idea that he must say something gallant, so he added, “Give all honor to the women, as weaker vessels, ye know; that ‘s sound doctrine, I s’pose.”

  Heber having now warmed and refreshed himself, and endowed his minister with what he conceived to be a tip-top, irreproachable load of wood, proceeded, also, to give him the benefit of a little good advice, prefaced by gracious words of encouragement. “I was tellin’ my old woman this mornin’ that I did n’t grudge a cent of my subscription, ‘cause your preachin’ lasts well and pays well. Ses I, ‘ Mr. Avery ain’t the kind of man that strikes twelve the fust time. He ‘s a man that ‘ll wear.’ That ‘s what I said fust, and I ‘ve followed y’ up putty close in yer preachin’; but then I ‘ve jest got one word to say to ye. Ain’t free agency a gettin’ a leetle too top-heavy in yer preachin’? Ain’t it kind o’ overgrowin’ sovereignty? Now, ye see, divine sovereignty hes got to be took care of as well as free agency. That ‘s all, that ‘s all. I thought I ‘d jest drop the thought, ye know, and leave you to think on ‘t. This ‘ere last revival you run along considerable on ‘Whosoever will may come,’ an’ all that. Now p’r’aps, ef you ‘d jest tighten up the ropes a leetle t’other side, and give ’em sovereignty, the hull load would sled easier.”

  “Well,” said Mr. Avery, “I ‘m much obliged to you for your suggestions.”

  “Now there ‘s my wife’s brother Josh Baldwin,” said Heber, “he was delegate to the last Consociation, and he heerd your openin’ sermon, and ses he to me, ses he, ‘Your minister sartin doos slant a leetle towards th’ Arminians; he don’t quite walk the crack,’ Josh says, ses he. Ses I, ‘Josh, we ain’t none on us perfect; but,’ ses I, ‘Mr. Avery ain’t no Arminian, I can tell you. Yeh can’t judge Mr. Avery by one sermon, ‘ ses I. You hear him preach the year round, and ye ‘ll find that all the doctrines git their place.’ Ye see I stood up for ye, Mr. Avery, but I thought ‘t would n’t do no harm to kind o’ let ye know what folks is sayin’.”

  Here the theological discussion was abruptly cut short by Deacon Zachary Chipman’s load, which entered the yard amid the huzzahs of the boys. Heber and his boys were at the door in a minute. “Wal, railly, ef the deacon hain’t come down with his shagbark! Wal, wal, the revival has operated on him some, I guess. Last year the deacon sent a load that I ‘d ha’ been ashamed to had in my back yard, an’ I took the liberty o’ tellin’ on him so. Good, straight-grained shagbark. Wal, wal! I ‘ll go out an’ help him onload it. Ef that ‘ere holds out to the bottom, the deacon ‘s done putty wal, an’ I shall think grace has made some progress.”

  The deacon, a mournful, dry, shivery-looking man, with a little round bald head, looking wistfully out of a great red comforter, all furry and white with the sharp frosts of the morning, and, with his small read eyes weeping tears through the sharpness of the air, looked as if he had come as chief mourner at the hearse of his beloved hickory-trees. He had cut down the very darlings of his soul, and come up with his precious load, impelled by a divine impulse like that which made the lowing kine, in the Old Testament story, come slowly bearing the ark of God, while their brute hearts were turning toward the calves that they had left at home. Certainly, if virtue is in proportion to sacrifice, Deacon Chipman’s load of hickory had more of self-sacrifice in it than a dozen loads from old Heber; for Heber was a forest prince in his way of doing things, and, with all his shrewd calculations of money’s worth, had an open-handed generosity of nature that made him take a pride in liberal giving.

  The little man shrank mournfully into a corner, and sipped his tumbler of flip and ate his cake and cheese as if he had been at a funeral.

  “How are you all at home, deacon?” said Mr. Avery heartily.

  “Just crawlin’, thank you, – just crawlin’. My old woman don’t git out much; her rheumatiz gits a dreadful strong hold on her; and, Mr. Avery, she hopes you ‘ll be round to visit her ‘fore long. Since the revival she ‘s kind o’ fell into darkness, and don’t see no cheerin’ views. She ses sometimes the universe ain’t nothin’ but blackness and darkness to her.”

  “Has she a good appetite?” said Mr. Avery.

  “Wal, no. She don’t enjoy her vittles much. Some say she ‘s got the jaunders. I try to cosset her up, and git her to take relishin’ things. I tell her ef she ‘d a good sassage for breakfast of a cold mornin’, with a hearty bit o’ mince-pie, and a cup o’ strong coffee, ‘t would kind o’ set her up for the day; but, somehow, she don’t git no nourishment from her food.”

  “There, Rossiter,” we heard Mr. Avery whisper aside, “you see what a country minister has to do, – give cheering views to a dyspeptic that breakfasts on sausage and mince-pies.”

  And now the loads began coming thick and fast. Sometimes two and three, and sometimes four and five, came stringing along, one after another, in unbroken procession. For every one Mr. Avery had an appreciative word. Its especial points were noticed and commended, and the farmers themselves, shrewdest observers, looked at every load and gave it their verdict. By and by the kitchen was full of a merry, chatting circle, and Mr. Rossiter and Mr. Avery were telling their best stories, and roars of laughter came from the house.

  Tina glanced in and out among the old farmers, like a bright tropical bird, carrying the cake and cheese to each one, laughing and telling stories, dispensing smiles to the younger ones, – treacherous smiles, which meant nothing, but made the hearts beat faster under their shaggy coats; and if she saw a red-fisted fellow in a corner, who seemed to be having a bad time, she would go and sit down by him, and be so gracious and warming and winning that his tongue would be loosened, and he would tell
her all about his steers and his calves and his last crop of corn and his load of wood, and then wonder all the way home whether he should ever have, in a house of his own, a pretty little woman like that.

  By afternoon, the minister’s wood-pile was enormous. It stretched beyond anything before seen in Cloudland; it exceeded all the legends of neighboring wood-piles and wood-spells related by deacons and lay delegates in the late Consociation. And truly, among things picturesque and graceful, among childish remembrances, dear and cheerful, there is nothing that more speaks to my memory than the dear, good old mossy wood-pile. Harry, Tina, Esther, and I ran up and down and in and about the piles of wood that evening with joyous satisfaction. How fresh and spicy and woodsy it smelt! I can smell now the fragrance of the hickory, whose clear, oily bark in burning cast forth perfume quite equal to cinnamon. Then there was the fragrant black birch, sought and prized by us all for the high-flavored bark on the smaller limbs, which was a favorite species of confectionery to us. There were also the logs of white birch, gleaming up in their purity, from which we made sheets of woodland parchment.

  It is recorded of one man who stands in a high position at Washington, that all his earlier writing-lessons were performed upon leaves of the white birch bark, the only paper used in the family.

  There there were massive trunks of oak, veritable worlds of mossy vegetation in themselves, with tufts of green velvet nestled away in their bark, and sheets of greenness carpeting their sides, and little white, hoary trees of moss, with little white, hoary apples upon them, like miniature orchards.

  One of our most interesting amusements was forming landscapes in the snow, in which we had mountains and hills and valleys, and represented streams of water by means of glass, and clothed the sides of our hills with orchards of apple-trees made of this gray moss. It was an incipient practice at landscape-gardening, for which we found rich material in the wood-pile. Esther and Tina had been filling their aprons with these mossy treasures, for which we had all been searching together, and now we all sat chatting in the evening light. The sun was going down. The sleds had ceased to come, the riches of our woodland treasures were all in, the whole air was full of the trembling, rose-colored light that turned all the snow-covered landscape to brightness. All around us not a fence to be seen, – nothing but waning hollows of spotless snow, glowing with the rosy radiance, and fading away in purple and lilac shadows; and the evening stars began to twinkle, one after another, keen and clear through the frosty air, as we all sat together in triumph on the highest perch of the wood-pile. And Harry said to Esther, “One of these days they ‘ll be bringing in our wood,” and Esther’s cheeks reflected the pink of the sky.

  “Yes, indeed!” said Tina. “And then I am coming to live with you. I ‘m going to be an old maid, you know, and I shall help Esther as I do now. I never shall want to be married.”

  Just at this moment the ring of sleigh-bells was heard coming up the street. Who and what now? A little one-horse sleigh drove swiftly up to the door, the driver sprang out with a lively alacrity, hitched his horse, and came forward toward the house. In the same moment Tina and I recognized Ellery Davenport!

  CHAPTER XXXVIII.

  ELLERY DAVENPORT.

  TINA immediately turned and ran into the house, laughing, and up stairs into her chamber, leaving Esther to go seriously forward, – Esther always tranquil and always ready. For myself, I felt such a vindictive hatred at the moment as really alarmed me. What had this good-natured man done, with his frank, merry face and his easy, high-bred air, that I should hate him so? What sort of Christian was I, to feel in this way? Certainly it was a temptation of the Devil, and I would put it down, and act like a reasonable being. So I went forward with Harry, and he shook hands with us.

  “Hulloa, fellows!” he said, “you ‘ve made the great leap since I saw you, and changed from boys into men.”

  “Good evening, Miss Avery,” he said, as we presented him to her. “May I trench on your hospitality a little? I am a traveller in these arctic regions, and Miss Mehitable charged me to call and see after the health and happiness of our young friends here. I see,” he said, looking at us, “that there need be no inquiries after health; your looks speak for themselves.”

  “Why, Percival!” he said, turning to Harry, “what a pair of shoulders you are getting! Genuine Saxon blood runs in your veins plainly enough, and one of these days, when you get to be Sir Harry Percival, you ‘ll do honor to the name.”

  The proud, reserved blood flushed into Harry’s face, and his blue eyes, usually so bright and clear, sparkled with displeasure. I was pleased to see that Ellery Davenport had made him angry. Yes, I said to myself, “What want of tact for him to dare to touch on a subject that Harry’s most intimate friends never speak of!”

  Esther looked fixedly at him with those clear, piercing hazel eyes, as if she were mentally studying him. I hoped she would not like him, yet why should I hope so?

  He saw in a moment that he had made a mistake, and glided off quickly to another subject.

  “Where ‘s my fair little enemy, Miss Tina?” he said.

  His “fair little enemy” was at this moment attentively studying him through the crack in the window-curtain. Shall I say, too, that the first thing she did, on rushing up to her room, was to look at her hair, and study herself in the glass, wondering how she would look to him now. Well, she had not seen herself for some hours, and self-knowledge is a virtue, we all know. And then our scamper over the wood-pile, in the fresh, evening air must have deranged something, for Tina had one of those rebellious heads of curls that every breeze takes liberties with, and that have to be looked after and watched and restrained. Esther’s satin bands of hair could pass though a whirlwind, and not lose their gloss. It is curious how character runs even to the minutest thing, – the very hairs of our heads are numbered by it, – Esther, always in everything self-poised, thoughtful, reflective; Tina, the child of every wandering influence, tremulously alive to every new excitement, a wind-harp for every air of heaven to breathe upon.

  It would be hard to say what mysterious impulse for good or ill made her turn and run when she saw Ellery Davenport. That turning and running in girls means something; it means that the electric chain had been struck in some way; but how?

  Mr. Davenport came into the house, and was received with frank cordiality by Mr. Avery. He was a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and the good man regarded him as, in some sort, a son of the Church, and had, no doubt, instantaneous promptings for his conversion. Mr. Avery, though he believed stringently in the doctrine of total depravity, was very innocent in his application of it to individuals. That Ellery Davenport was a sceptic was well known in New England, wherever the reputation of his brilliant talents and person had circulated, and Mr. Avery had often longed for an opportunity to convert him. The dear, good man had no possible idea that anybody could go wrong from any thing but mistaken views, and he was sure, in the case of Ellery Davenport, that his mind must have been perplexed about free agency and decrees, and thus he hailed with delight the Providence which had sent him to his abode. He plunged into an immediate conversation with him about the state of France, whence he had just returned.

  Esther, meanwhile, went up stairs to notify Tina of his arrival.

  “Mr. Ellery Davenport is below, and had inquired for you.”

  Nobody could be more profoundly indifferent to any piece of news.

  “Was that Mr. Ellery Davenport? How stupid of him to come here when we are all so tired! I don’t think I can go down; I am too tired.”

  Esther, straightforward Esther, took things as stated. Tina, to be sure, had exhibited no symptoms of fatigue up to that moment; but Esther now saw that she had been allowing her to over-exert herself.

  “My darling,” she said, “I have been letting you do too much altogether. You are quite right; you should lie down here quietly, and I ‘ll bring you up your tea. Perhaps by and by, in the evening, you might come down and see Mr. Davenport, whe
n you are rested.”

  “O nonsense about Mr. Davenport! he does n’t come to see me. He wants to talk to your father, I suppose.”

  “But he has inquired for you two or three times,” said Esther, “and he really seems to be a very entertaining, well-informed man; so by and by, if you feel rested, I should think you had better come down.”

  Now I, for my part, wondered then and wonder now, and always shall, what all this was for. Tina certainly was not a coquette; she had not learned the art of trading in herself, and using her powers and fascinations as women do who have been in the world, and learnt the precise value of everything that they say and do. She was, at least now, a simple child of nature, yet she acted exactly as an artful coquette might have done.

  Ellery Davenport constantly glanced at the door as he talked with Mr. Avery, and shifted uneasily on his chair; evidently he expected her to enter, and when Esther returned without her he was secretly vexed and annoyed. I was glad of it, too, like a fool as I was. It would have been a thousand times better for my hopes had she walked straight out to meet him, cool and friendly, like Esther. There was one comfort; he was a married man; but then that crazy wife of his might die, or might be dead now. Who knew? To be sure, Ellery Davenport never had the air of a married man, – that steady, collected, sensible, restrained air which belongs to the male individual, conscious, wherever he moves, of a home tribunal, to which he is responsible. He had gone loose in society, pitied and petted and caressed by ladies, and everybody said, if his wife should die, Ellery Davenport might marry whom he pleased. Esther knew nothing about him, except a faint general outline of his history. She had no prepossessions for or against, and he laid himself out to please her in conversation, with that easy grace and quick perception of character which were habitual with him. Ellery Davenport had been a thriving young Jacobin, and Mr. Avery and Mr. Rossiter were fierce Federalists.