” she continued, pausing after each name with some-
thing that their spiritual presences might have interpreted as a
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thing that their spiritual presences might have interpreted as a
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Warner - World's Best Literature - v24 - Sta to Tal
With a loud groan and extended
arms, Temperance glided down the opening to meet the aged
couple, who sobbed aloud as they tremulously followed her into
the presence of the dead.
The former wife and awe-stricken child had already entered;
and that they all, with the new-made widow, who rocked to and
fro at the head of the corpse, wept together, confessed sharers in
a common sorrow, was quite in the natural order of things.
The procession of guests now began to pass through, making
a circuit of the table on which the body lay; and as they moved
out the door, some one raised a hymn. A group in the yard
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-
caught it up, and soon the woods echoed with the weird rhythmic
melody. All night long the singing continued, carried along by
new recruits as the first voices grew weary and dropped out. If
there was some giggling and love-making among the young peo-
ple, it was discreetly kept in the shadowy corners, and wounded
no one's feelings.
The widow took no rest during the night. When exhausted
from violent emotion, she fell into a rhythmic moan, accompanied
by corresponding swaying to and fro of her body,-a movement
at once unyielding and restful.
The church folk were watching her with a keen interest, and
indeed so were the worldlings; for this was Lize Ann's third
widowhood within the short space of five years, and each of the
other funerals had been practically but an inaugural service to a
most remarkable career. As girl first, and twice as widow, she
had been a conspicuous, and if truth must be told, rather a noto-
rious figure in colored circles. Three times she had voluntarily
married into quiet life, and welcomed with her chosen partner
the seclusion of wedded domesticity; but during the intervals
she had played promiscuous havoc with the matrimonial felicity
of her neighbors, to such an extent that it was a confessed relief
when she had finally walked up the aisle with Jake Johnson, as
by taking one woman's. husband she had brought peace of mind
to a score of anxious wives.
It is true that Jake had been lawfully wedded to the first
woman, but the ceremony had occurred in another parish some
years before, and was practically obsolete; and so the church
taking its cue from nature, which does not set eyes in the back
of one's head - made no indiscreet retrospective investigations,
but in the professed guise of a peace-maker pronounced its bene-
diction upon the new pair.
The deserted wife had soon likewise repaired her loss; whether
with benefit of clergy or not, it is not ours to say, but when she
returned to mourn at the funeral it was not as one who had
refused to be comforted. She felt a certain secret triumph in
bringing her boy to gaze for the last time upon the face of his
father. It was more than the childless woman, who sat, acknowl-
edged chief mourner, at the head of the corpse, could do.
There was a look of half-savage defiance upon her face as she
lifted the little fellow up, and said in an audible voice:
“Take one las' look at yo' daddy, Jakey. Dat's yo' own Gord-
blessed father, an' you ain't nuver gwine see 'im no mo', tell yer
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meet 'im in de Kingdom come, whar dey ain't no marryin', nei-
ther givin' in marriage;" and she added, in an undertone, with a
significant sniffle, "nur borryin', nuther. ”
She knew that she whom it could offend would not hear this
last remark, as her ears were filled with her own wails; but the
words were not lost upon the crowd.
The little child, frightened and excited, began to cry aloud.
“Let him cry,” said one. “D'ain't nobody got a better right. ”
“He feel his loss, po' chile! ”
“Blood's thicker'n water ev'y time. ”
“Yas, blood will tell. Look like de po' chile's heart was ren-
dered in two quick 's he looked at his pa. ”
Such sympathetic remarks as these, showing the direction of
the ultimate sentiment of the people, reached the mother's ears,
and encouraged her to raise her head a fraction higher than
before, as, pacifying the weeping child, she passed out and went
home.
The funeral took place on the afternoon following; and to the
surprise of all, the mourning widow behaved with wonderful self-
control during all the harrowing ceremony.
Only when the last clod fell upon the grave did she throw
up her hands, and with a shriek fall over in a faint, and have to
be “toted” back to the wagon in which she had come.
If some were curious to see what direction her grief would
take, they had some time to wait. She had never before taken
long to declare herself, and on each former occasion the declara-
tion had been one of war- a worldly, rioting, rollicking war upon
the men.
During both her previous widowhoods she had danced longer
and higher, laughed oftener and louder, dressed more gaudily
and effectively, than all the women on three contiguous planta-
tions put together; and when, in these well-remembered days,
she had passed down the road on Sunday evenings, and chosen
to peep over her shoulders with dreamy half-closed eyes at some
special man whom it pleased her mood to ensnare, he had no
more been able to help following her than he had been able to
help lying to his wife or sweetheart about it afterward.
The sympathy expressed for her at Jake's funeral had been
sincere. No negro ever resists any noisy demonstration of grief,
and each of her moans and screams had found responsive echo
in more than one sympathetic heart.
## p. 14126 (#316) ##########################################
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RUTH MCENERY STUART
But now the funeral was over, Jake was dead and gone,
and the state of affairs so exact a restoration to a recent well-
remembered condition that it was not strange that the sisters
wondered with some concern what she would do.
They had felt touched when she had fainted away at the
funeral; and yet there were those, and among them his good
wife, who had not failed to observe that she had fallen squarely
into Pete Richards's arms.
Now, every one knew that she had once led Pete a dance, and
that for a time it seemed a question whether he or Jake Johnson
should be the coming man.
Of course this opportune fainting might have been accidental;
and it may be that Pete's mother was supercensorious when, on
her return from the funeral, she had said as she lit her pipe:-
“Dat gal Lize Ann is a she-devil. ”
But her more discreet daughter-in-law, excepting that she
thrashed the children all round, gave no sign that she was
troubled.
For the first few months of her recovered widowhood Lize
Ann was conspicuous only by her absence from congregations
of all sorts, as well as by her mournful and persistent refusal
to speak with any one on the subject of her grief, or indeed to
speak at all.
There was neither pleasure nor profit in sitting down and
looking at a person who never opened her lips; and so, after oft-
repeated but ineffectual visits of condolence, the sisters finally
stopped visiting her cabin.
They saw that she had philosophically taken up the burden
of practical life again, in the shape of a family washing, which
she carried from the village to her cabin poised on her head;
but the old abandon had departed from her gait, and those who
chanced to meet her in the road said that her only passing recog-
nition was a groan.
Alone in her isolated cabin, the woman so recently celebrated
for her social proclivities ranged her wash-tubs against the wall;
alone she soaked, washed, rinsed, starched, and ironed; and when
the week's routine of labor was over, alone she sat within her
cabin door to rest.
For a long time old Nancy Price or Hester Ann Jennings,-
the two superannuated old crones on the plantation, - moved
by curiosity and an irresistible impulse to “talk erligion " to so
## p. 14127 (#317) ##########################################
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fitting a subject, had continued occasionally to drop in to see
the silent woman; but they always came away shaking their
heads, and declining to stake their reputations on any formulated
prophecy as to just how, when, where, or in what direction Lize
Ann would come out of her grief. That she was deliberately
poising herself for a spring they felt sure; and yet their only
prognostications were always prudently ambiguous.
When, however, the widow had consistently for five long
months maintained her position as a broken-hearted recluse not
to be approached or consoled, the people began to regard her
with a degree of genuine respect; and when one Sunday morn-
ing the gathering congregation discovered her sitting in church,
a solitary figure in black, on the very last of the Amen pews in
the corner, they were moved to sympathy.
She had even avoided a sensational entrance by coming early.
Her conduct seemed really genuine; and yet it must be confessed
that even in view of the doleful figure she made, there were
several women present who were a little less comfortable beside
their lovers and husbands after they saw her.
If the wives had but known it, however, they need have
had no fear. Jake's deserted wife and child had always weighed
painfully upon Lize Ann's consciousness. Even after his death
they had come in, diverting and intercepting sympathy that she
felt should have been hers. When she married again she would
have an unincumbered, free man, all her own.
As she was first at service to-day, she was last to depart; and
so pointedly did she wait for the others to go, that not a sister
in church had the temerity to approach her with a welcoming
hand, or to join her as she walked home. And this was but the
beginning From this time forward the little mourning figure
was at every meeting; and when the minister begged such as
desired salvation to remain to be prayed for, she knelt and stayed.
When, however, the elders or sisters sought her out, and kneeling
beside her, questioned her as to the state of her soul, she only
groaned and kept silence.
The brethren were really troubled. They had never encoun-
tered sorrow or conviction of sin quite so obstinate, so intangi-
ble, so speechless, as this. The minister, Brother Langford, had
remembered her sorrowing spirit in an impersonal way, and had
colored his sermons with tender appeals to such as mourned
and were heavy-laden with grief.
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RUTH MCENERY STUART
But the truth was, the Reverend Mr. Langford, a tall, hand-
some bachelor of thirty years or thereabouts, was regarded as
the best catch in the parish; and had he been half so magnetic
in his personality or half so persuasive of speech, all the dusky
maids in the country would have been setting their feathered
caps for him.
When he conducted the meetings, there were always so many
boisterous births into the Kingdom all around him, — when the
regenerate called aloud, as they danced, swayed, or swooned, for
Brother Langford,” – that he had not found time to seek out the
silent mourners, and so had not yet found himself face to face
with the widow. Finally, however, one Sunday night, just as he
passed before her, Lize Ann heaved one of her very best moans.
He was on his knees at her side in a moment. Bending his
head very low, he asked, in a voice soft and tender, laying his
hand the while gently upon her shoulder, “'Ain't you foun' peace
yit, Sis' Johnsing ? ”
She groaned again.
« What is yo' mos' chiefes' sorrer, Sister Johnsing? Is yo'
heart mo' grieveder f'om partin' wid yo' dear belovin' pardner, or
is yo' soul weighted down wid a sense o' inhuman guilt ? Speak
out an' tell me, my sister, how yo' trouble seem ter shape itse'f. ”
But the widow, though she turned up to him her dry beseech-
ing eyes, only groaned again.
"Can't you speak ter yo' preacher, Sis' Johnsing? He crave
in 'is heart ter he'p you. "
Again she looked into his face, and now, with quivering lip,
began to speak: "I can't talk heah, Brer Langford; I ain't fittin';
my heart's clean broke. I ain't nothin' but des a miser'ble out-
cas'. Seem lak even Gord 'isse'f done cas' me orf. I des comes
an' goes lak a hongry suck-aig dorg wha' nobody don't claim,
a-skulkin'roun' heah in a back seat all by my lone se'f, tryin'
ter pick up a little crumb wha' fall f'om de table.
But seem
lak de feas' is too good fur me. I goes back ter my little dark
cabin mo' harder-hearted an' mo' sinfuler 'n I was befo'. Des
de ve'y glimsh o' dat empty cabin seem lak hit turn my heart
ter stone. "
She dropped her eyes, and as she bent forward, a tear fell
upon the young man's hand.
His voice was even tenderer than before when he spoke again.
“It is a hard lot, my po' sister, but I am positive sho' dat de
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sisters an' brers o' de chu'ch would come ter you an' try ter
comfort yo' soul ef you would give 'em courage fur ter do so. ”
“You don't know me, Brer Langford, er you wouldn't name
sech a word ter me. I's a sinner, an' a sinner what love sin.
Look lak de wus a sin is, de mo' hit tas’es lak sugar in my
mouf. I can't trus’ myse'f ter set down an' talk wid dese heah
brers an' sisters wha' I knows is one half sperityal an' fo' quarters
playin' ketcher wid de devil. I can't trus' myse'f wid 'em tell
Gord set my soul free f'om sin. I'd soon be howlin' happy on
de Devil's side des lak I was befo', facin' two-forty on de shell
road ter perditiom. ”
"I see, my po' sister-I see whar yo' trouble lay. ”
,
« Yas, an' dat's huccome I tooken tol yer, 'caze I knowed you
is got de sperityal eye to see it. You knows I's right when
I say ter you dat I ain't gwine set down in my cabin an' hol'
speech wid nobody less'n 'tis a thoo-an'-thoo sperityal pusson, lak
a preacher o de gorspil, tell my soul is safe. An' dey ain't
no minister o’ de sperit wha' got time ter come an’ set down an'
talk wid a po' ongordly widder pusson lak me. I don't spect 'em
ter do it. De shepherds can't teck de time to run an' haid
orf a ole frazzled-out black sheep lak I is, what 'd be a disgrace
ter de fol, any way. Dey 'bleege ter spen' dey time a-coaxin' in
de purty sleek yo'ng friskin' lambs, an' I don't blame 'em. ”
“Don't talk dat-a-way, Sis' Johnsing - don't talk dat-a-way.
-
Sence you done specified yo' desire, I'll call an' see you, an' talk
an' pray wid you in yo' cabin whensomever you say de word.
I knows yo' home is kivered by a cloud o' darkness an' sorrer.
When shill I come to you? ”
"De mos' lonesomes' time, Brer Langford, an' de time what
harden my heart de mos', is in de dark berwilderin' night-times
when I fus' goes home. Seem lak ef I c'd des have some reel
Gordly man ter come in wid me, an' maybe call out some little
passenger o’ Scripture to comfort me, tell I c'd des ter say git
usen ter de lonesomeness, I c'd maybe feel mo' cancelized ter de
Divine will. But, co'se, I don't expec' no yo'ng man lak you is
ter teck de trouble ter turn out’n yo' path fur sech as me. ”
"I will do it, Sis' Johnsing, an' hit will be a act o' pleasur-
able Christianity. When de meet'n' is over, ef you will wait, er
ef you will walk slow, I will overtaken you on de road quick as
I shets up de church-house; an' I pray Gord to give me de sea-
sonable word fur yo' comfort. Amen, an' Gord bless yer! ”
'
XXIV-884
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Lize Ann had nearly reached her cabin when the reverend
brother, stepping forward, gallantly placed his hand beneath her
elbow, and aided her to mount the one low step which led to
her door.
As they entered the room, he produced and struck a match;
while she presented a candle, which he lit and placed upon the
table. Neither had yet spoken. If he had his word ready, the
season for its utterance seemed not to have arrived.
«'Scuse my manners, Brer Langford,” she said finally, but
my heart is so full, seem lak I can't fine speech. Take a rock'n'.
cheer an' set down tell I stirs de fire ter meck you welcome in
my po' little shanty. ”
The split pine which she threw upon the coals brought an
immediate illumination; and as the young man looked about the
apartment he could hardly believe his eyes, so thorough was its
transformation since he had seen it on the day of the funeral.
The hearth, newly reddened, fairly glowed with warm color,
and the gleaming white-pine floor seemed fresh from the car-
penter's plane. Dainty white-muslin curtains hung before the
little square windows, and from the shelves a dazzling row of
tins reflected the blazing fire a dozen times from their polished
surfaces.
The widow leaned forward before him, stirring the fire; and
when his eyes fell upon her, his astonishment confirmed his
speechlessness. She had removed her black bonnet, and the
heavy shawl which had enveloped her figure had fallen behind
her into her chair. What he saw was a round, trig, neatly clad,
youngish woman, whose face, illumined by the flickering fire,
was positively charming in its piquant assertion of grief. Across
her shapely bosom lay, neatly folded, a snowy kerchief, less white
only than her pearly teeth, as smiling through her sadness, she
exclaimed as she turned to her guest:-
“Lor' bless my soul, ef I 'ain't raked out a sweet 'tater out'n
dese coals! I 'feared you'll be clair disgusted at sech onman-
nerly doin's, Brer Langford; but when dey ain't no company
heah, I des kivers up my 'taters wid ashes an' piles on de live
coals, an' let 'em cook. I don't reck'n you'd even ter say look at
a roas' 'tater, would you, Brer Langford ? ”
The person addressed was rubbing his hands together and
chuckling “Ef yer tecks my jedgmint, Sis' Johnsing, on de
pretater question, roas'in' is de onies way to cook 'em. ”
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His hostess had already risen, and before he could remon-
strate she had drawn up a little table, lifted the potato from its
bed, and laid it on a plate before him.
“Ef yer will set down an' eat a roas' 'tater in my miser'ble
little cabin, Brer Langford, I 'clar' fo' gracious hit 'll raise my
sperits mightily. Gord knows I wushes I had some'h'n good to
offer you, a-comin' in out'n de col; but ef you'll please, sir, have
de mannerliness ter hol' de candle, I'll empty my ole cupboard
clean inside outen but I'll fin' you some'h'n 'nother to spressify
yo' welcome. ”
Langford rose, and as he held the light to the open safe, his
eyes fairly glared. He was hungry, and the snowy shelves were
covered with open vessels of tempting food, all more or less
broken, but savory as to odor, and most inviting.
"I 'clare, Sis' Johnsing – I 'clare! ” were the only words that
the man of eloquent speech found to express his appreciation
and joy; and his entertainer continued:-
“Dis heah cupboard mecks me 'shame', Brer Langford. Dey
ain't a thing fittin' fur sech as you in it. Heah's a pan o' col'
'tater pone an' some cabbage an' side meat, an' dis heah's a few
ords an' eens o fried chicken an' a little passel o' spare-ribs,
piled in wid co'n-brade scraps. Hit don't look much, but hit's
all clean. Heah, you gimme de candle, an' you retch 'em all
down, please, sir; an' I ain't shore, but ef I don't disremember,
dey's de bes' half a loaf o' reeson-cake 'way back in de fur cor-
Dat's hit. Now, dat's some'h'n like. An' now pass down
de butter; an’ ef yer wants a tumbler o'sweet milk wid yo'
’tater, you'll haf ter hop an' go fetch it. Lis'n ter me, fur Gord
sake, talkin' ter Brer Langford same as I'd talk ter a reg'lar
plantation nigger!
Langford hesitated.
“Less'n you desires de sweet milk, Sis'
Johnsing -
“I does truly lak a swaller o'sweet milk wid my 'tater, Brer
Langford, but seem lak 'fo' I'd git it fur myse'f I'd do widout it.
Won't you, please, sir, teck de candle an' fetch it fur me? Go
right thoo my room. Hit's in a bottle, a-settin' outside de right-
han' winder des as you go in. ”
Langford could not help glancing about the widow's chamber
as he passed through. If the other room was cozy and clean,
this one was charming. The white bed, dazzling in its snowy
fluted frills, reminded him of its owner, as she sat in all her
ner.
»
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## p. 14132 (#322) ##########################################
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RUTH MCENERY STUART
starched freshness to-night. The polished pine floor here was
nearly covered with neatly fringed patches of carpet, suggestive
of housewifely taste as well as luxurious comfort.
He had returned with the bottle, and was seating himself,
when the disconsolate widow actually burst into a peal of laugh-
ter.
“Lord save my soul! ” she exclaimed, “ef he 'ain't gone an'
fetched a bottle o' beer! You is a caution, Brer Langford! I
wouldn't 'a' had you know I had dat beer in my house fur
nothin'. When I was feelin' so po'ly in my fus' grief, seem lak
I craved sperityal comfort, an' I went an' bought a whole lot
o'lager-beer. I 'lowed maybe I c'd drink my sorrer down, but
'twarn't no use. I c'd drink beer all night, an' hit wouldn't
nuver bring nobody to set in dat rockin’-cheer by my side an'
teck comfort wid me. Doos you think fur a perfesser ter teck
a little beer ur wine when he feels a nachel faintiness is a fatal
sin, Brer Langford ? »
“Why, no, Sis' Johnsing. Succumstances alter cases, an'hit's
de succumstances o' drinkin' what mecks de altercations; an' de
way I looks at it, a Christian man is de onies pusson who oughter
dare to trus' 'isse'f wid de wine cup, 'caze a sinner don'know
when ter stop. ”
“Dat soun' mighty reason'ble, Brer Langford. An' sence you
fetched de beer, now you 'bleege ter drink it. But please, sir,
go, lak a good man, an' bring my milk, on de tother side in de
winder. ”
The milk was brought, and the Rev. Mr. Langford was soon
smacking his lips over the best supper it had been his minis-
terial good fortune to enjoy for many a day.
As the widow raked a second potato from the fire, she re-
marked, in a tone of inimitable pathos: -
“Seem lak I can't git usen ter cookin' fur one. I cooks
fur two ev'y day; an' somehow I fines a little spec o' comfort
in lookin' at de odd po'tion, even ef I has ter eat it myse'f.
De secon’’tater on de hyearth seem lak hit stan's fur company.
Seein' as you relishes de beer, Brer Langford, I's proud you
made de mistake an' fetched it. Gord knows somebody better
drink it! I got a whole passel o’ bottles in my trunk, an' I
don't know what ter do wid 'em. A man what wuck an' talk
an' preach hard as you does, he need a little some'h'n' 'nother
ter keep his cour'ge up. "
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It was an hour past midnight when finally the widow let her
guest out the back door; and as she directed him how to reach
home by a short cut through her field, she said, while she held
his hand in parting: -
“Gord will bless you fur dis night, Brer Langford, fur you is
truly sakerficed yo'se'f fur a po' sinner; an' I b’lieve dey's mo'
true 'ligion in comfortin' a po' lonely widderless 'oman lak I is,
what 'ain't got nobody to stan' by 'er, dan in all de sermons
a-goin': an' now I gwine turn my face back todes my lonely
fireside wid a better hope an' a firmer trus', 'caze I knows de
love o' Gord done sont you ter me. My po' little brade an' meat
warn't highfalutin' nur fine, but you is shared it wid me lak a
Christian, an' I gi'n it ter you wid a free heart. ”
Langford returned the pressure of her hand, and even shook
it heartily during his parting speech:
"Good-night, my dear sister, an' Gord bless you! I feels mo'
courageous an' strenk'n'd myse'f sence I have shared yo' lonely
fireside; an' please Gord, I will make it my juty as well as
my pleasure to he'p you in a similar manner whensomever you
desires my presence. I rejoices to see that you is tryin' wid a
brave heart to rise f'om yo' sorrer. Keep good cheer, my sister,
an' remember dat the Gord o' Aberham an' Isaac an' Jacob - de
patriots o' de Lord - is also de friend ter de fatherless an' wid-
ders, an' to them that are desolate an’ oppressed. ”
With this beautiful admonition, and a last distinct pressure
of the hand, the Rev. 'Mr. Langford disappeared in the darkness,
carefully fastening the top button of his coat as he went, as if
to cover securely the upper layer of raisin-cake which still lay,
for want of lower space, just beneath it within.
He never felt better in his life.
The widow watched his retreating shadow until she dimly saw
one dark leg rise over the rail as he scaled the garden fence;
then coming in, she hooked the door, and throwing herself on
the floor, rolled over and over, laughing until she cried, verily.
“Stan' back, gals, stan' back! ” she exclaimed, rising. “Stan'
back, I say! A widder done haided yer off wid a cook-pot! ”
!
-
With eyes fairly dancing, she resumed her seat before the fire.
She was too much elated for sleep yet.
"I 'clare 'fo' gracious,
I is a devil! ” she chuckled. « Po' Alick - an' po' Steve — an'
po' Jake!
” she continued, pausing after each name with some-
thing that their spiritual presences might have interpreted as a
>
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14134
RUTH MCENERY STUART
sigh if they were affectionately hovering near her. "But,” she
added, her own thoughts supplying the connection, “Brer Lang-
ford gwine be de stylishes' one o' de lot. ” And then she really
sighed. “I mus' go buy some mo' beer. Better git two bottles.
He mought ax fur mo', bein' as I got a trunkful. ” And here
alone in her cabin she roared aloud. “I does wonder huc-
come I come ter be sech a devil, anyhow? I 'lowed I was safe
ter risk de beer. Better git a dozen bottles, I reck'n; give 'im
.
,
plenty rope, po' boy! Well, Langford honey, good-night fur to-
night! But perpare, yo'ng man, perpare! And chuckling as
she went, she passed into her own room and went to bed.
The young minister was as good as his promise, and during
the next two months he never failed to stop after every evening
meeting to look after the spiritual condition of the “widder John-
sing ”; while she, with the consummate skill of a practiced hand,
saw to it that without apparent forethought her little cupboard
should always supply a material entertainment, full, savory, and
varied. If on occasion she lamented a dearth of cold dishes,
it was that she might insist on sharing her breakfast with her
guest; when producing from her magic safe a ready-dressed
spring chicken or squirrel, she would broil it upon the coals in
his presence, and the young man would depart thoroughly satu-
rated with the odor of her delightful hospitality.
Langford had heard things about this woman in days gone
by, but now he was pleased to realize that they had all been
malicious inventions prompted by jealousy: Had he commanded
the adjectives, he would have described her as the most gen-
erous, hospitable, spontaneous, sympathetic, vivacious, and witty,
as well as the most artless, of women. As it was, he thought of
her a good deal between visits; and whether the thought moved
backward or forward, whether it took shape as a memory or an
anticipation, he somehow unconsciously smacked his lips and swal-
lowed.
And yet, when one of the elders questioned him as to
the spiritual state of the still silent mourner, he knit his brow,
and answered with a sigh:
“It is hard ter say, my brothers — it is hard ter say. De ole
lady do nourish an' cherish 'er grief mightily; but yit, ef we hol'
off an' don't crowd 'er, I trus' she'll come thoo on de Lord's side
yit. ”
If there had been the ghost of a twinkle in his interlocutor's
eye, it died out, abashed at itself at this pious and carefully
»
## p. 14135 (#325) ##########################################
RUTH MCENERY STUART
14135
framed reply. The widow was indeed fully ten years Langford's
senior,- a discrepancy as much exaggerated by outward circum-
stances as it was minimized in their fireside relations.
So matters drifted on for a month longer. The dozen bottles
of beer had been followed by a second, and these again by a
half-dozen. This last reduced purchase of course had its mean-
ing. Langford was reaching the end of his tether. At last there
were but two bottles left. It was Sunday night again.
The little cupboard had been furnished with unusual elabo-
ration, and the savory odors which emanated from its shelves
would have filled the room but for the all-pervading essence of
bergamot with which the widow had recklessly deluged her hair.
Indeed, her entire toilet betrayed exceptional care to-night.
She had not gone to church, and as it was near the hour
for dismissal, she was a trifle nervous; feeling confident that the
minister would stop in, ostensibly to inquire the cause of her
absence. She had tried this before, and he had not disappointed
her.
Finally she detected his familiar announcement, a clearing of
his throat, as he approached the door.
"Lif' up de latch an' walk in, Brer Wolf,” she laughingly
called to him; and as he entered she added, “Look lak you
come in answer to my thoughts, Brer Langford. ”
"Is dat so, Sis' Johnsing? ” he replied, chuckling with delight.
“I knowed some'l' n' 'nother drawed me clean over f'om de chu'ch
in de po'in’-down rain. ”
« Is it a-rainin'? I 'clare, I see yer brung yo' umberel; but
sett'n heah by de fire, I nuver studies 'bout de elemints. I been
studyin' 'bout some'h'n' mo'n rain or shine, I tell yer. ”
"Is yer, Sis' Johnsing? What you been studyin' 'bout ? »
“What I been studyin' 'bout? Nemmine what I been studyin'
'bout! I studyin' 'bout Brer Langford now. De po' man look
so tired an’ frazzled out, 'is eyes looks des lak dorg-wood blor-
soms. You is des nachelly preached down, Brer Langford, an'
you needs a morsel o' some'h'n' 'nother ter stiddy yo' cornstitu-
tion. ” She rose forthwith, and set about arranging the young
man's supper.
“But you 'ain't tol' me yit huccome you 'ain't come ter chu'ch
ter-night, Sis' Johnsing ? ”
“Nemmine 'bout dat now. I ain't studyin' 'bout gwine ter
chu'ch now. I des studyin' 'bout how ter induce de size o' yo'
(C
»
## p. 14136 (#326) ##########################################
14136
RUTH MCENERY STUART
(
eyes down ter dey nachel porportiom. Heah, teck de shovel, an'
rake out a han'ful o' coals, please, sir, an' I'll set dis pan o' rolls
ter bake. Dat's hit. Now kiver de led good wid live coals an’
ashes. Dat's a man! Now time you wrastle wid de j'ints o’ dis
roas' guinea-hen, an' teck de corkscrew an' perscribe fur dis beer
bottle, and go fetch de fresh butter out'n de winder, de rolls '11
be a-singin' Now is de accepted time! )
It was no wonder the young man thought her charming.
Needless to say, the feast, seasoned by a steady flow of hu-
mor, was perfect. But all things earthly have an end; and so,
by-and-by, it was all over. A pattering rain without served to
enhance the genial in-door charm, but it was time to go.
"Well, Sis' Johnsing, hit's a-gittin' on time fur me ter be
a-movin',” said the poor fellow at length - for he hated to leave.
« Yas, I knows it is, Brer Langford,” the hostess answered
with a tinge of sadness, “an'dat ain't de wust of it. ”
How does you mean, Sis' Johnsing? ”
“Ain't I tol yer, Brer Langford, ter-night dat my thoughts
was wid you ? Don't look at me so quizzical, please, sir, 'caze I
got a heavy sorrer in my heart. ”
“A sorrer 'bout me, Sis' Johnsing? How so? ”
“Brer Langford -I-I been thinkin' 'bout you all day, an'-
an'— ter come right down ter de p'int, 1-1-” She bit her lip
and hesitated. I 'feerd I done put off what I ought ter said
ter you tell look lak hit 'll 'mos' bre’k my heart to say it. ”
"Speak out, fur Gord sake, Sis' Johnsing, an' ease yo' min'!
What is yo' trouble ? »
She seemed almost crying. “You — you — you mustn't come
heah no mo', Brer Langford. ”
« “Who- me? Wh-wh-what is I done, Sis' Johnsing? ”
“My Gord! how kin I say it? You 'ain't done nothin', my
dear frien'. You has been Gord's blessin' ter me; but — but — I
'clare 'fo' Gord, how kin I say de word ? But — don't you see
yo’se'f how de succumstances stan'? You is a yo'ng man li'ble
to fall in love wid any lakly yo'ng gal any day, an' ter git mar-
ried — an' of co'se dat's right: but don't you see dat ef a po' lone-
some 'oman lak me put too much 'pendence orn a yo'ng man lak
you is, de time gwine come when he gwine git tired a-walkin'
all de way from chu'ch in de po'in'-down rain des fur charity ter
comfort a lonely sinner pusson lak I is; an'- an' settin' heah by
myse'f ter-night, I done made up my min' dat I gwine 'scuse you
»
## p. 14137 (#327) ##########################################
RUTH McENERY STUART
14137
f'om dis task while I kin stand it. Of co’se I don't say but hit
'll be hard. You is tooken me by de han' an' he'ped me thoo
a dark cloud; but you an' me mus' say far'well ter-night, an'
you — you mustn't come back no mo'. ”
Her face was buried in her hands now, and so she could not
see her guest's storm-swept visage as he essayed to answer her.
“You — you — you — you — talkin' 'bout you c'n stan' it, Sis'
Johnsing, an'- an'- seem lak you 's forgitt'n' all bout me. ” His
voice was trembling. I-I knows I ain't nothin' but a no-
'count yo'ng striplin', so ter speak, an' you is a mannerly lady
o' speunce: but hit do seem lak 'fo' you'd send me away, des
lak ter say a yaller dorg, you'd — you'd ax me could I stan' it;
an' — an', tell de trufe, I can't stan' it, an' I ain't gwine stan' it,
'less'n you des nachelly, p'int-blank, out an' out, shets de do' in
>
my face. ”
(
"Brer Langford — ”
"Don't you say Brer Langford ter me no mo', ef you please,
ma'am; an'- an' I ain't gwine call you Sis' Johnsing no mo',
nuther. You is des, so fur as you consents, hencefo'th an'fo'.
ever mo', in season an'out'n season des my Lize Ann. You
knows yo’se'f dat we is come ter be each one-'n'ner's heart's
delight. ” He drew his chair nearer, and leaning forward, seized
her hand, as he continued: “Leastwise, dat’s de way my heart
language hitse'f. I done tooken you fur my sweetness 'fo' ter-
night, Lize Ann, my honey. "
But why follow them any further ? Before he left her, the
widow had consented, with becoming reluctance, that he should
come to her on the following Sunday with the marriage license
in his pocket; on one condition, and upon this condition she in-
sisted with unyielding pertinacity. It was that Langford should
feel entirely free to change his mind, and to love or to marry
any other woman within the week ensuing.
Lize Ann arrived late at service on the following Sunday
evening Her name had just been announced as a happy con-
vert who rejoiced in new-found grace; and when she stepped
demurely up the aisle, arrayed in a plain white dress, her face
beaming with what seemed a spiritual peace, the congregation
were deeply touched, and, eager to welcome her into the fold,
began to press forward to extend the right hand of fellowship
to one who had come in through so much tribulation.
a happy time all round; and no one was more jubilant than the
It was
## p. 14138 (#328) ##########################################
14138
RUTH MCENERY STUART
young pastor, who seemed indeed to rejoice more over this
recovered lamb than over the ninety-and-nine within the fold
who had not gone astray.
The young girl converts of recent date, never slow to respond
to any invitation which led to the chancel, were specially demon-
strative in their affectionate welcome; some even going so far as
to embrace the new “sister,” while others were moved to shout
and sing as they made the tour of the aisles.
When, however, as soon as congratulations were over, it was
formally announced that this identical convert, Mrs. Eliza Ann
Johnsing, was then and there to be joined in the holy estate
of matrimony to the Reverend Julius Cæsar Langford, the shock
was so great that these same blessed damosels looked blankly
one upon the other in mute dismay for the space of some
minutes; and when presently, as a blushing bride, Lize Ann
again turned to them for congratulations, it is a shame to have
to write it, but they actually did turn their backs and refuse to
speak to her.
The emotions of the company were certainly very much
mixed; and the two old crones, Nancy Price and Hester Ann
Jennings, sitting side by side in a front pew, were seen to
nudge each other, as, their old sides shaking with laughter, they
exclaimed:-
“What I tol' yer, Sis' Hest' Ann? ”
«What I tol yer, Sis' Nancy ? »
Dat's des what we tol' one-'n'ner Lize Ann gwine do! ”
Though no guests were bidden to share it, the wedding sup-
per in the little cabin that night was no mean affair; and when
Langford, with a chuckling, half-embarrassed, new-proprietary air,
drew the cork from the beer bottle beside his plate, Lize Ann
said: -
“Hit do do me good ter see how you relishes dat beer. ”
But she did not mention that it was the last bottle, and may-
be it was just as well.
>
## p. 14139 (#329) ##########################################
14139
WILLIAM STUBBS
(1825-)
BY E. S. NADAL
W
SILLIAM STUBBS, Bishop of Oxford, was born at Knaresboroug'n
June 21st, 1825, and was educated at the Grammar School,
Ripon, and Christ Church, Oxford. He was graduated at
Oxford in 1848, taking a first-class in classics and a third-class in
mathematics; and was at once elected to a fellowship at Trinity Col-
lege. In 1848 he was ordained, and later became vicar of a parish in
Essex; he was appointed librarian to Archbishop Longley at Lambeth
in 1862. He served as a school inspector from 1860 to 1866, when he
was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. In 1867
he was elected Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, — always a great dis-
tinction,- and later became an honorary fellow of that college. He
received in succession a number of university and ecclesiastical dig-
nities, and in 1884 was appointed Bishop of Chester, from which soe
he was translated to that of Oxford in 1889.
Bishop Stubbs printed in succession a number of learned editions
of various chronicles relating to ecclesiastical and political history,
such as “Registrum Sacrum Anglicum,' Memorials of St. Dunstan,'
etc. In 1870 he published a work which proved to be the beginning
of a very important contribution to English history. This was Select
Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History,
from the Earliest Period to the Reign of Edward 1. In 1874 ap-
peared the first volume of his great work, «The Constitutional His-
tory of England in its Origin and Development. The second and
third volumes followed in 1875 and 1878 respectively. This book of
Dr. Stubbs's is the ablest and most authoritative work upon the
subject.
To Dr. Stubbs's view, English constitutional history is not an
isolated matter confined to England. To him it is but part of
the history of the development of Teutonic institutions throughout
Europe. These institutions have spread to countries which are not
Teutonic in blood or language. The four German countries are
France, Spain, England, and Germany. Of these, France and Spain
German neither in blood nor language. We are given an
are
## p. 14140 (#330) ##########################################
14140
WILLIAM STUBBS
interesting comparison of the course of German civilization in these
four countries.
In France, German civilization resulted in despotism; the reason
for which fact is set forth by Dr. Stubbs very clearly. The system
which for the last twelve centuries has formed French history was
originally an adaptation of German polity to the government of a con-
quered race. The Franks, a German people, conquered Gaul, already
a Romanized country. The form of feudalism they set up there was
without any tendencies toward popular freedom. Feudal government
in French history, therefore, runs its logical course. The central
power, which is the cause of the conquest, grows weaker and weaker,
until it is reduced to a shadow, and the parts get stronger. By-and-
by the reverse process sets in: with the decay of the feudal system,
the central power grows stronger and stronger, until it absorbs unto
itself all the power which had once been in the feudatories. An ab-
solute despotism is the result; which ultimately takes the form of
an egotistical tyranny, leading in the end to revolution and disaster.
Owing to the fact that the Germans conquered Gaul, the German
system was imposed on France without the safeguards which it had
on its original ground.
Spain is Germanic in the sense that the governnient is in the
hands of Visigoths, who are kindred to the Germans; and that the
common law and institutions are Germanic.
In Germany there is no alien race; for Germany is never con-
quered but by Germans. When one German tribe has conquered
another, there is a feudal tenure of land. But where the race
mains in its ancient seats, the free German polity continues. The
imperial system, however, — what Dr. Stubbs calls the “Mezentian
union with Italy," — has modified German polity in Germany. It is
for this reason that the German polity has had a freer development
in England than in Germany itself.
Dr. Stubbs emphasizes the essentially German character of the
British constitution; showing that the English are people of German
descent in blood, character, and language, but more especially in the
development of the primitive German civilization. The work, there-
fore, begins with the description of the Germans in their ancient
homes, as given by Cæsar and Tacitus. The characteristics of the
aboriginal society are described. In proceeding, the writer follows
with great learning the course of constitutional development, from
the days of the migration to those of Magna Charta. Volume i. closes
with an account of the triumph of the barons over John. The second
volume pursues the subject through the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries; the third through the fifteenth century. The third volume
is composed of four chapters, each of which is in itself a short history
re-
с
## p. 14141 (#331) ##########################################
WILLIAM STUBBS
14141
»
of great value and authority. These chapters are (Lancaster and
York,' The King, the Clergy, and the Pope,' Parliamentary Antiqui-
ties,' and (Social and Political Influences at the Close of the Middle
Ages.
The first volume concludes with that point in the history of Eng-
land, when, as regards the rest of the world, it has become a self-
reliant and self-sustained nation; and when, internally, it has been
prepared for representative institutions. The picture which the author
gives incidentally of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries would
seem to represent a period of reaction and unmeaning violence. The
political bloodshed of the fourteenth century preludes the internecine
warfare of the fifteenth century. In the fourteenth century, public
and private morality is at a low ebb, and the court is marked by a
splendid extravagance and a coarse indulgence. The author does not
find anything even in the stories of Chaucer to brighten the wretch-
edness of the period. If there has been a retrogression in morals,
there has been one also in art. In architecture the Perpendicular
Style is a decline from the grace and affluent variety of the Decora-
tive. « The change in penmanship is analogous: the writing of the
fourteenth century is coarse and blurred compared with the exqui-
site elegance of the thirteenth, and yet even preferable to the vulgar
neatness and deceptive regularity of the fifteenth. ” But weak as is
the fourteenth century, Dr. Stubbs finds that the fifteenth century
is weaker still: “more futile, more bloody, more immoral. Yet out of
it emerges, in spite of all, “the truer and brighter day. ” He seems
to consider this long period of violence and reaction in a sense the
preparation for the constitutional development of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Upon this point, however, another very able and exact writer,
Mr. Gairdner, is at issue with him. Mr. Gairdner considers the events
of the fifteenth century as tending not at all in the direction of lib-
erty and constitutional government, but of pure absolutism. To the
ordinary reader it will not be quite clear in what way the fifteenth
century differs from any other period of reaction, except in degree
and duration.
The question will naturally arise, as one reads the pages of Dr.
Stubbs (and it is especially pertinent in this work, which is dedicated
to literature), whether this very able writer is a literary historian.
We are decidedly of the opinion that he is. One characteristic of
literature he has to a very high degree,– truthfulness. With him the
word or phrase must always be as nearly as possible the precise
image of the thought. The expression is never allowed to vary a
hair's-breadth to the right or left for the sake of effect. Perhaps he
is at times too scrupulous in his preference for a dry or dull phrase
which is clearly within the truth, to a brighter one which might go
C
»
## p. 14142 (#332) ##########################################
14142
WILLIAM STUBBS
beyond it. One would think that without the sacrifice of truth he
might have made the story livelier; for the work is for the most part
hard reading. Indeed the style might often be improved in ease and
lucidity. But that literary truthfulness of which we have spoken we
see everywhere. We see it in the conscientious description of the
abstractions among which the reader is required to grope, and to
which the greater part of his work is devoted. But there are, here
and there, pages in which the writer forsakes the abstract for the
concrete, and the dry description of ideas and principles for the de-
lineation of manners and men; and here the literary power is marked.
The powerful strokes express the results of a judgment cautious and
deliberate in the extreme, and yet firm. The combination of a strong
intellect and character with vast knowledge and intense truthfulness
produces a deep impression on the mind of the reader. His confi-
dence is won, and he recognizes the influence and guidance of a
strong individuality. This again is an indication of the presence of
literary power.
In conclusion, it seems to us that the point of view given in this
great work is one which it is especially desirable should be impressed
upon the people of this country. English history is regarded by Dr.
arms, Temperance glided down the opening to meet the aged
couple, who sobbed aloud as they tremulously followed her into
the presence of the dead.
The former wife and awe-stricken child had already entered;
and that they all, with the new-made widow, who rocked to and
fro at the head of the corpse, wept together, confessed sharers in
a common sorrow, was quite in the natural order of things.
The procession of guests now began to pass through, making
a circuit of the table on which the body lay; and as they moved
out the door, some one raised a hymn. A group in the yard
(
## p. 14124 (#314) ##########################################
14124
RUTH MCENERY STUART
-
caught it up, and soon the woods echoed with the weird rhythmic
melody. All night long the singing continued, carried along by
new recruits as the first voices grew weary and dropped out. If
there was some giggling and love-making among the young peo-
ple, it was discreetly kept in the shadowy corners, and wounded
no one's feelings.
The widow took no rest during the night. When exhausted
from violent emotion, she fell into a rhythmic moan, accompanied
by corresponding swaying to and fro of her body,-a movement
at once unyielding and restful.
The church folk were watching her with a keen interest, and
indeed so were the worldlings; for this was Lize Ann's third
widowhood within the short space of five years, and each of the
other funerals had been practically but an inaugural service to a
most remarkable career. As girl first, and twice as widow, she
had been a conspicuous, and if truth must be told, rather a noto-
rious figure in colored circles. Three times she had voluntarily
married into quiet life, and welcomed with her chosen partner
the seclusion of wedded domesticity; but during the intervals
she had played promiscuous havoc with the matrimonial felicity
of her neighbors, to such an extent that it was a confessed relief
when she had finally walked up the aisle with Jake Johnson, as
by taking one woman's. husband she had brought peace of mind
to a score of anxious wives.
It is true that Jake had been lawfully wedded to the first
woman, but the ceremony had occurred in another parish some
years before, and was practically obsolete; and so the church
taking its cue from nature, which does not set eyes in the back
of one's head - made no indiscreet retrospective investigations,
but in the professed guise of a peace-maker pronounced its bene-
diction upon the new pair.
The deserted wife had soon likewise repaired her loss; whether
with benefit of clergy or not, it is not ours to say, but when she
returned to mourn at the funeral it was not as one who had
refused to be comforted. She felt a certain secret triumph in
bringing her boy to gaze for the last time upon the face of his
father. It was more than the childless woman, who sat, acknowl-
edged chief mourner, at the head of the corpse, could do.
There was a look of half-savage defiance upon her face as she
lifted the little fellow up, and said in an audible voice:
“Take one las' look at yo' daddy, Jakey. Dat's yo' own Gord-
blessed father, an' you ain't nuver gwine see 'im no mo', tell yer
((
## p. 14125 (#315) ##########################################
RUTH MCENERY STUART
14125
(C
meet 'im in de Kingdom come, whar dey ain't no marryin', nei-
ther givin' in marriage;" and she added, in an undertone, with a
significant sniffle, "nur borryin', nuther. ”
She knew that she whom it could offend would not hear this
last remark, as her ears were filled with her own wails; but the
words were not lost upon the crowd.
The little child, frightened and excited, began to cry aloud.
“Let him cry,” said one. “D'ain't nobody got a better right. ”
“He feel his loss, po' chile! ”
“Blood's thicker'n water ev'y time. ”
“Yas, blood will tell. Look like de po' chile's heart was ren-
dered in two quick 's he looked at his pa. ”
Such sympathetic remarks as these, showing the direction of
the ultimate sentiment of the people, reached the mother's ears,
and encouraged her to raise her head a fraction higher than
before, as, pacifying the weeping child, she passed out and went
home.
The funeral took place on the afternoon following; and to the
surprise of all, the mourning widow behaved with wonderful self-
control during all the harrowing ceremony.
Only when the last clod fell upon the grave did she throw
up her hands, and with a shriek fall over in a faint, and have to
be “toted” back to the wagon in which she had come.
If some were curious to see what direction her grief would
take, they had some time to wait. She had never before taken
long to declare herself, and on each former occasion the declara-
tion had been one of war- a worldly, rioting, rollicking war upon
the men.
During both her previous widowhoods she had danced longer
and higher, laughed oftener and louder, dressed more gaudily
and effectively, than all the women on three contiguous planta-
tions put together; and when, in these well-remembered days,
she had passed down the road on Sunday evenings, and chosen
to peep over her shoulders with dreamy half-closed eyes at some
special man whom it pleased her mood to ensnare, he had no
more been able to help following her than he had been able to
help lying to his wife or sweetheart about it afterward.
The sympathy expressed for her at Jake's funeral had been
sincere. No negro ever resists any noisy demonstration of grief,
and each of her moans and screams had found responsive echo
in more than one sympathetic heart.
## p. 14126 (#316) ##########################################
14126
RUTH MCENERY STUART
But now the funeral was over, Jake was dead and gone,
and the state of affairs so exact a restoration to a recent well-
remembered condition that it was not strange that the sisters
wondered with some concern what she would do.
They had felt touched when she had fainted away at the
funeral; and yet there were those, and among them his good
wife, who had not failed to observe that she had fallen squarely
into Pete Richards's arms.
Now, every one knew that she had once led Pete a dance, and
that for a time it seemed a question whether he or Jake Johnson
should be the coming man.
Of course this opportune fainting might have been accidental;
and it may be that Pete's mother was supercensorious when, on
her return from the funeral, she had said as she lit her pipe:-
“Dat gal Lize Ann is a she-devil. ”
But her more discreet daughter-in-law, excepting that she
thrashed the children all round, gave no sign that she was
troubled.
For the first few months of her recovered widowhood Lize
Ann was conspicuous only by her absence from congregations
of all sorts, as well as by her mournful and persistent refusal
to speak with any one on the subject of her grief, or indeed to
speak at all.
There was neither pleasure nor profit in sitting down and
looking at a person who never opened her lips; and so, after oft-
repeated but ineffectual visits of condolence, the sisters finally
stopped visiting her cabin.
They saw that she had philosophically taken up the burden
of practical life again, in the shape of a family washing, which
she carried from the village to her cabin poised on her head;
but the old abandon had departed from her gait, and those who
chanced to meet her in the road said that her only passing recog-
nition was a groan.
Alone in her isolated cabin, the woman so recently celebrated
for her social proclivities ranged her wash-tubs against the wall;
alone she soaked, washed, rinsed, starched, and ironed; and when
the week's routine of labor was over, alone she sat within her
cabin door to rest.
For a long time old Nancy Price or Hester Ann Jennings,-
the two superannuated old crones on the plantation, - moved
by curiosity and an irresistible impulse to “talk erligion " to so
## p. 14127 (#317) ##########################################
RUTH MCENERY STUART
14127
fitting a subject, had continued occasionally to drop in to see
the silent woman; but they always came away shaking their
heads, and declining to stake their reputations on any formulated
prophecy as to just how, when, where, or in what direction Lize
Ann would come out of her grief. That she was deliberately
poising herself for a spring they felt sure; and yet their only
prognostications were always prudently ambiguous.
When, however, the widow had consistently for five long
months maintained her position as a broken-hearted recluse not
to be approached or consoled, the people began to regard her
with a degree of genuine respect; and when one Sunday morn-
ing the gathering congregation discovered her sitting in church,
a solitary figure in black, on the very last of the Amen pews in
the corner, they were moved to sympathy.
She had even avoided a sensational entrance by coming early.
Her conduct seemed really genuine; and yet it must be confessed
that even in view of the doleful figure she made, there were
several women present who were a little less comfortable beside
their lovers and husbands after they saw her.
If the wives had but known it, however, they need have
had no fear. Jake's deserted wife and child had always weighed
painfully upon Lize Ann's consciousness. Even after his death
they had come in, diverting and intercepting sympathy that she
felt should have been hers. When she married again she would
have an unincumbered, free man, all her own.
As she was first at service to-day, she was last to depart; and
so pointedly did she wait for the others to go, that not a sister
in church had the temerity to approach her with a welcoming
hand, or to join her as she walked home. And this was but the
beginning From this time forward the little mourning figure
was at every meeting; and when the minister begged such as
desired salvation to remain to be prayed for, she knelt and stayed.
When, however, the elders or sisters sought her out, and kneeling
beside her, questioned her as to the state of her soul, she only
groaned and kept silence.
The brethren were really troubled. They had never encoun-
tered sorrow or conviction of sin quite so obstinate, so intangi-
ble, so speechless, as this. The minister, Brother Langford, had
remembered her sorrowing spirit in an impersonal way, and had
colored his sermons with tender appeals to such as mourned
and were heavy-laden with grief.
## p. 14128 (#318) ##########################################
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RUTH MCENERY STUART
But the truth was, the Reverend Mr. Langford, a tall, hand-
some bachelor of thirty years or thereabouts, was regarded as
the best catch in the parish; and had he been half so magnetic
in his personality or half so persuasive of speech, all the dusky
maids in the country would have been setting their feathered
caps for him.
When he conducted the meetings, there were always so many
boisterous births into the Kingdom all around him, — when the
regenerate called aloud, as they danced, swayed, or swooned, for
Brother Langford,” – that he had not found time to seek out the
silent mourners, and so had not yet found himself face to face
with the widow. Finally, however, one Sunday night, just as he
passed before her, Lize Ann heaved one of her very best moans.
He was on his knees at her side in a moment. Bending his
head very low, he asked, in a voice soft and tender, laying his
hand the while gently upon her shoulder, “'Ain't you foun' peace
yit, Sis' Johnsing ? ”
She groaned again.
« What is yo' mos' chiefes' sorrer, Sister Johnsing? Is yo'
heart mo' grieveder f'om partin' wid yo' dear belovin' pardner, or
is yo' soul weighted down wid a sense o' inhuman guilt ? Speak
out an' tell me, my sister, how yo' trouble seem ter shape itse'f. ”
But the widow, though she turned up to him her dry beseech-
ing eyes, only groaned again.
"Can't you speak ter yo' preacher, Sis' Johnsing? He crave
in 'is heart ter he'p you. "
Again she looked into his face, and now, with quivering lip,
began to speak: "I can't talk heah, Brer Langford; I ain't fittin';
my heart's clean broke. I ain't nothin' but des a miser'ble out-
cas'. Seem lak even Gord 'isse'f done cas' me orf. I des comes
an' goes lak a hongry suck-aig dorg wha' nobody don't claim,
a-skulkin'roun' heah in a back seat all by my lone se'f, tryin'
ter pick up a little crumb wha' fall f'om de table.
But seem
lak de feas' is too good fur me. I goes back ter my little dark
cabin mo' harder-hearted an' mo' sinfuler 'n I was befo'. Des
de ve'y glimsh o' dat empty cabin seem lak hit turn my heart
ter stone. "
She dropped her eyes, and as she bent forward, a tear fell
upon the young man's hand.
His voice was even tenderer than before when he spoke again.
“It is a hard lot, my po' sister, but I am positive sho' dat de
>
## p. 14129 (#319) ##########################################
RUTH MCENERY STUART
14129
sisters an' brers o' de chu'ch would come ter you an' try ter
comfort yo' soul ef you would give 'em courage fur ter do so. ”
“You don't know me, Brer Langford, er you wouldn't name
sech a word ter me. I's a sinner, an' a sinner what love sin.
Look lak de wus a sin is, de mo' hit tas’es lak sugar in my
mouf. I can't trus’ myse'f ter set down an' talk wid dese heah
brers an' sisters wha' I knows is one half sperityal an' fo' quarters
playin' ketcher wid de devil. I can't trus' myse'f wid 'em tell
Gord set my soul free f'om sin. I'd soon be howlin' happy on
de Devil's side des lak I was befo', facin' two-forty on de shell
road ter perditiom. ”
"I see, my po' sister-I see whar yo' trouble lay. ”
,
« Yas, an' dat's huccome I tooken tol yer, 'caze I knowed you
is got de sperityal eye to see it. You knows I's right when
I say ter you dat I ain't gwine set down in my cabin an' hol'
speech wid nobody less'n 'tis a thoo-an'-thoo sperityal pusson, lak
a preacher o de gorspil, tell my soul is safe. An' dey ain't
no minister o’ de sperit wha' got time ter come an’ set down an'
talk wid a po' ongordly widder pusson lak me. I don't spect 'em
ter do it. De shepherds can't teck de time to run an' haid
orf a ole frazzled-out black sheep lak I is, what 'd be a disgrace
ter de fol, any way. Dey 'bleege ter spen' dey time a-coaxin' in
de purty sleek yo'ng friskin' lambs, an' I don't blame 'em. ”
“Don't talk dat-a-way, Sis' Johnsing - don't talk dat-a-way.
-
Sence you done specified yo' desire, I'll call an' see you, an' talk
an' pray wid you in yo' cabin whensomever you say de word.
I knows yo' home is kivered by a cloud o' darkness an' sorrer.
When shill I come to you? ”
"De mos' lonesomes' time, Brer Langford, an' de time what
harden my heart de mos', is in de dark berwilderin' night-times
when I fus' goes home. Seem lak ef I c'd des have some reel
Gordly man ter come in wid me, an' maybe call out some little
passenger o’ Scripture to comfort me, tell I c'd des ter say git
usen ter de lonesomeness, I c'd maybe feel mo' cancelized ter de
Divine will. But, co'se, I don't expec' no yo'ng man lak you is
ter teck de trouble ter turn out’n yo' path fur sech as me. ”
"I will do it, Sis' Johnsing, an' hit will be a act o' pleasur-
able Christianity. When de meet'n' is over, ef you will wait, er
ef you will walk slow, I will overtaken you on de road quick as
I shets up de church-house; an' I pray Gord to give me de sea-
sonable word fur yo' comfort. Amen, an' Gord bless yer! ”
'
XXIV-884
## p. 14130 (#320) ##########################################
RUTH MCENERY STUART
14130
(
Lize Ann had nearly reached her cabin when the reverend
brother, stepping forward, gallantly placed his hand beneath her
elbow, and aided her to mount the one low step which led to
her door.
As they entered the room, he produced and struck a match;
while she presented a candle, which he lit and placed upon the
table. Neither had yet spoken. If he had his word ready, the
season for its utterance seemed not to have arrived.
«'Scuse my manners, Brer Langford,” she said finally, but
my heart is so full, seem lak I can't fine speech. Take a rock'n'.
cheer an' set down tell I stirs de fire ter meck you welcome in
my po' little shanty. ”
The split pine which she threw upon the coals brought an
immediate illumination; and as the young man looked about the
apartment he could hardly believe his eyes, so thorough was its
transformation since he had seen it on the day of the funeral.
The hearth, newly reddened, fairly glowed with warm color,
and the gleaming white-pine floor seemed fresh from the car-
penter's plane. Dainty white-muslin curtains hung before the
little square windows, and from the shelves a dazzling row of
tins reflected the blazing fire a dozen times from their polished
surfaces.
The widow leaned forward before him, stirring the fire; and
when his eyes fell upon her, his astonishment confirmed his
speechlessness. She had removed her black bonnet, and the
heavy shawl which had enveloped her figure had fallen behind
her into her chair. What he saw was a round, trig, neatly clad,
youngish woman, whose face, illumined by the flickering fire,
was positively charming in its piquant assertion of grief. Across
her shapely bosom lay, neatly folded, a snowy kerchief, less white
only than her pearly teeth, as smiling through her sadness, she
exclaimed as she turned to her guest:-
“Lor' bless my soul, ef I 'ain't raked out a sweet 'tater out'n
dese coals! I 'feared you'll be clair disgusted at sech onman-
nerly doin's, Brer Langford; but when dey ain't no company
heah, I des kivers up my 'taters wid ashes an' piles on de live
coals, an' let 'em cook. I don't reck'n you'd even ter say look at
a roas' 'tater, would you, Brer Langford ? ”
The person addressed was rubbing his hands together and
chuckling “Ef yer tecks my jedgmint, Sis' Johnsing, on de
pretater question, roas'in' is de onies way to cook 'em. ”
## p. 14131 (#321) ##########################################
RUTH MCENERY STUART
14131
(C
His hostess had already risen, and before he could remon-
strate she had drawn up a little table, lifted the potato from its
bed, and laid it on a plate before him.
“Ef yer will set down an' eat a roas' 'tater in my miser'ble
little cabin, Brer Langford, I 'clar' fo' gracious hit 'll raise my
sperits mightily. Gord knows I wushes I had some'h'n good to
offer you, a-comin' in out'n de col; but ef you'll please, sir, have
de mannerliness ter hol' de candle, I'll empty my ole cupboard
clean inside outen but I'll fin' you some'h'n 'nother to spressify
yo' welcome. ”
Langford rose, and as he held the light to the open safe, his
eyes fairly glared. He was hungry, and the snowy shelves were
covered with open vessels of tempting food, all more or less
broken, but savory as to odor, and most inviting.
"I 'clare, Sis' Johnsing – I 'clare! ” were the only words that
the man of eloquent speech found to express his appreciation
and joy; and his entertainer continued:-
“Dis heah cupboard mecks me 'shame', Brer Langford. Dey
ain't a thing fittin' fur sech as you in it. Heah's a pan o' col'
'tater pone an' some cabbage an' side meat, an' dis heah's a few
ords an' eens o fried chicken an' a little passel o' spare-ribs,
piled in wid co'n-brade scraps. Hit don't look much, but hit's
all clean. Heah, you gimme de candle, an' you retch 'em all
down, please, sir; an' I ain't shore, but ef I don't disremember,
dey's de bes' half a loaf o' reeson-cake 'way back in de fur cor-
Dat's hit. Now, dat's some'h'n like. An' now pass down
de butter; an’ ef yer wants a tumbler o'sweet milk wid yo'
’tater, you'll haf ter hop an' go fetch it. Lis'n ter me, fur Gord
sake, talkin' ter Brer Langford same as I'd talk ter a reg'lar
plantation nigger!
Langford hesitated.
“Less'n you desires de sweet milk, Sis'
Johnsing -
“I does truly lak a swaller o'sweet milk wid my 'tater, Brer
Langford, but seem lak 'fo' I'd git it fur myse'f I'd do widout it.
Won't you, please, sir, teck de candle an' fetch it fur me? Go
right thoo my room. Hit's in a bottle, a-settin' outside de right-
han' winder des as you go in. ”
Langford could not help glancing about the widow's chamber
as he passed through. If the other room was cozy and clean,
this one was charming. The white bed, dazzling in its snowy
fluted frills, reminded him of its owner, as she sat in all her
ner.
»
>>
## p. 14132 (#322) ##########################################
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RUTH MCENERY STUART
starched freshness to-night. The polished pine floor here was
nearly covered with neatly fringed patches of carpet, suggestive
of housewifely taste as well as luxurious comfort.
He had returned with the bottle, and was seating himself,
when the disconsolate widow actually burst into a peal of laugh-
ter.
“Lord save my soul! ” she exclaimed, “ef he 'ain't gone an'
fetched a bottle o' beer! You is a caution, Brer Langford! I
wouldn't 'a' had you know I had dat beer in my house fur
nothin'. When I was feelin' so po'ly in my fus' grief, seem lak
I craved sperityal comfort, an' I went an' bought a whole lot
o'lager-beer. I 'lowed maybe I c'd drink my sorrer down, but
'twarn't no use. I c'd drink beer all night, an' hit wouldn't
nuver bring nobody to set in dat rockin’-cheer by my side an'
teck comfort wid me. Doos you think fur a perfesser ter teck
a little beer ur wine when he feels a nachel faintiness is a fatal
sin, Brer Langford ? »
“Why, no, Sis' Johnsing. Succumstances alter cases, an'hit's
de succumstances o' drinkin' what mecks de altercations; an' de
way I looks at it, a Christian man is de onies pusson who oughter
dare to trus' 'isse'f wid de wine cup, 'caze a sinner don'know
when ter stop. ”
“Dat soun' mighty reason'ble, Brer Langford. An' sence you
fetched de beer, now you 'bleege ter drink it. But please, sir,
go, lak a good man, an' bring my milk, on de tother side in de
winder. ”
The milk was brought, and the Rev. Mr. Langford was soon
smacking his lips over the best supper it had been his minis-
terial good fortune to enjoy for many a day.
As the widow raked a second potato from the fire, she re-
marked, in a tone of inimitable pathos: -
“Seem lak I can't git usen ter cookin' fur one. I cooks
fur two ev'y day; an' somehow I fines a little spec o' comfort
in lookin' at de odd po'tion, even ef I has ter eat it myse'f.
De secon’’tater on de hyearth seem lak hit stan's fur company.
Seein' as you relishes de beer, Brer Langford, I's proud you
made de mistake an' fetched it. Gord knows somebody better
drink it! I got a whole passel o’ bottles in my trunk, an' I
don't know what ter do wid 'em. A man what wuck an' talk
an' preach hard as you does, he need a little some'h'n' 'nother
ter keep his cour'ge up. "
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## p. 14133 (#323) ##########################################
RUTH MCENERY STUART
14133
»
C
It was an hour past midnight when finally the widow let her
guest out the back door; and as she directed him how to reach
home by a short cut through her field, she said, while she held
his hand in parting: -
“Gord will bless you fur dis night, Brer Langford, fur you is
truly sakerficed yo'se'f fur a po' sinner; an' I b’lieve dey's mo'
true 'ligion in comfortin' a po' lonely widderless 'oman lak I is,
what 'ain't got nobody to stan' by 'er, dan in all de sermons
a-goin': an' now I gwine turn my face back todes my lonely
fireside wid a better hope an' a firmer trus', 'caze I knows de
love o' Gord done sont you ter me. My po' little brade an' meat
warn't highfalutin' nur fine, but you is shared it wid me lak a
Christian, an' I gi'n it ter you wid a free heart. ”
Langford returned the pressure of her hand, and even shook
it heartily during his parting speech:
"Good-night, my dear sister, an' Gord bless you! I feels mo'
courageous an' strenk'n'd myse'f sence I have shared yo' lonely
fireside; an' please Gord, I will make it my juty as well as
my pleasure to he'p you in a similar manner whensomever you
desires my presence. I rejoices to see that you is tryin' wid a
brave heart to rise f'om yo' sorrer. Keep good cheer, my sister,
an' remember dat the Gord o' Aberham an' Isaac an' Jacob - de
patriots o' de Lord - is also de friend ter de fatherless an' wid-
ders, an' to them that are desolate an’ oppressed. ”
With this beautiful admonition, and a last distinct pressure
of the hand, the Rev. 'Mr. Langford disappeared in the darkness,
carefully fastening the top button of his coat as he went, as if
to cover securely the upper layer of raisin-cake which still lay,
for want of lower space, just beneath it within.
He never felt better in his life.
The widow watched his retreating shadow until she dimly saw
one dark leg rise over the rail as he scaled the garden fence;
then coming in, she hooked the door, and throwing herself on
the floor, rolled over and over, laughing until she cried, verily.
“Stan' back, gals, stan' back! ” she exclaimed, rising. “Stan'
back, I say! A widder done haided yer off wid a cook-pot! ”
!
-
With eyes fairly dancing, she resumed her seat before the fire.
She was too much elated for sleep yet.
"I 'clare 'fo' gracious,
I is a devil! ” she chuckled. « Po' Alick - an' po' Steve — an'
po' Jake!
” she continued, pausing after each name with some-
thing that their spiritual presences might have interpreted as a
>
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## p. 14134 (#324) ##########################################
14134
RUTH MCENERY STUART
sigh if they were affectionately hovering near her. "But,” she
added, her own thoughts supplying the connection, “Brer Lang-
ford gwine be de stylishes' one o' de lot. ” And then she really
sighed. “I mus' go buy some mo' beer. Better git two bottles.
He mought ax fur mo', bein' as I got a trunkful. ” And here
alone in her cabin she roared aloud. “I does wonder huc-
come I come ter be sech a devil, anyhow? I 'lowed I was safe
ter risk de beer. Better git a dozen bottles, I reck'n; give 'im
.
,
plenty rope, po' boy! Well, Langford honey, good-night fur to-
night! But perpare, yo'ng man, perpare! And chuckling as
she went, she passed into her own room and went to bed.
The young minister was as good as his promise, and during
the next two months he never failed to stop after every evening
meeting to look after the spiritual condition of the “widder John-
sing ”; while she, with the consummate skill of a practiced hand,
saw to it that without apparent forethought her little cupboard
should always supply a material entertainment, full, savory, and
varied. If on occasion she lamented a dearth of cold dishes,
it was that she might insist on sharing her breakfast with her
guest; when producing from her magic safe a ready-dressed
spring chicken or squirrel, she would broil it upon the coals in
his presence, and the young man would depart thoroughly satu-
rated with the odor of her delightful hospitality.
Langford had heard things about this woman in days gone
by, but now he was pleased to realize that they had all been
malicious inventions prompted by jealousy: Had he commanded
the adjectives, he would have described her as the most gen-
erous, hospitable, spontaneous, sympathetic, vivacious, and witty,
as well as the most artless, of women. As it was, he thought of
her a good deal between visits; and whether the thought moved
backward or forward, whether it took shape as a memory or an
anticipation, he somehow unconsciously smacked his lips and swal-
lowed.
And yet, when one of the elders questioned him as to
the spiritual state of the still silent mourner, he knit his brow,
and answered with a sigh:
“It is hard ter say, my brothers — it is hard ter say. De ole
lady do nourish an' cherish 'er grief mightily; but yit, ef we hol'
off an' don't crowd 'er, I trus' she'll come thoo on de Lord's side
yit. ”
If there had been the ghost of a twinkle in his interlocutor's
eye, it died out, abashed at itself at this pious and carefully
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## p. 14135 (#325) ##########################################
RUTH MCENERY STUART
14135
framed reply. The widow was indeed fully ten years Langford's
senior,- a discrepancy as much exaggerated by outward circum-
stances as it was minimized in their fireside relations.
So matters drifted on for a month longer. The dozen bottles
of beer had been followed by a second, and these again by a
half-dozen. This last reduced purchase of course had its mean-
ing. Langford was reaching the end of his tether. At last there
were but two bottles left. It was Sunday night again.
The little cupboard had been furnished with unusual elabo-
ration, and the savory odors which emanated from its shelves
would have filled the room but for the all-pervading essence of
bergamot with which the widow had recklessly deluged her hair.
Indeed, her entire toilet betrayed exceptional care to-night.
She had not gone to church, and as it was near the hour
for dismissal, she was a trifle nervous; feeling confident that the
minister would stop in, ostensibly to inquire the cause of her
absence. She had tried this before, and he had not disappointed
her.
Finally she detected his familiar announcement, a clearing of
his throat, as he approached the door.
"Lif' up de latch an' walk in, Brer Wolf,” she laughingly
called to him; and as he entered she added, “Look lak you
come in answer to my thoughts, Brer Langford. ”
"Is dat so, Sis' Johnsing? ” he replied, chuckling with delight.
“I knowed some'l' n' 'nother drawed me clean over f'om de chu'ch
in de po'in’-down rain. ”
« Is it a-rainin'? I 'clare, I see yer brung yo' umberel; but
sett'n heah by de fire, I nuver studies 'bout de elemints. I been
studyin' 'bout some'h'n' mo'n rain or shine, I tell yer. ”
"Is yer, Sis' Johnsing? What you been studyin' 'bout ? »
“What I been studyin' 'bout? Nemmine what I been studyin'
'bout! I studyin' 'bout Brer Langford now. De po' man look
so tired an’ frazzled out, 'is eyes looks des lak dorg-wood blor-
soms. You is des nachelly preached down, Brer Langford, an'
you needs a morsel o' some'h'n' 'nother ter stiddy yo' cornstitu-
tion. ” She rose forthwith, and set about arranging the young
man's supper.
“But you 'ain't tol' me yit huccome you 'ain't come ter chu'ch
ter-night, Sis' Johnsing ? ”
“Nemmine 'bout dat now. I ain't studyin' 'bout gwine ter
chu'ch now. I des studyin' 'bout how ter induce de size o' yo'
(C
»
## p. 14136 (#326) ##########################################
14136
RUTH MCENERY STUART
(
eyes down ter dey nachel porportiom. Heah, teck de shovel, an'
rake out a han'ful o' coals, please, sir, an' I'll set dis pan o' rolls
ter bake. Dat's hit. Now kiver de led good wid live coals an’
ashes. Dat's a man! Now time you wrastle wid de j'ints o’ dis
roas' guinea-hen, an' teck de corkscrew an' perscribe fur dis beer
bottle, and go fetch de fresh butter out'n de winder, de rolls '11
be a-singin' Now is de accepted time! )
It was no wonder the young man thought her charming.
Needless to say, the feast, seasoned by a steady flow of hu-
mor, was perfect. But all things earthly have an end; and so,
by-and-by, it was all over. A pattering rain without served to
enhance the genial in-door charm, but it was time to go.
"Well, Sis' Johnsing, hit's a-gittin' on time fur me ter be
a-movin',” said the poor fellow at length - for he hated to leave.
« Yas, I knows it is, Brer Langford,” the hostess answered
with a tinge of sadness, “an'dat ain't de wust of it. ”
How does you mean, Sis' Johnsing? ”
“Ain't I tol yer, Brer Langford, ter-night dat my thoughts
was wid you ? Don't look at me so quizzical, please, sir, 'caze I
got a heavy sorrer in my heart. ”
“A sorrer 'bout me, Sis' Johnsing? How so? ”
“Brer Langford -I-I been thinkin' 'bout you all day, an'-
an'— ter come right down ter de p'int, 1-1-” She bit her lip
and hesitated. I 'feerd I done put off what I ought ter said
ter you tell look lak hit 'll 'mos' bre’k my heart to say it. ”
"Speak out, fur Gord sake, Sis' Johnsing, an' ease yo' min'!
What is yo' trouble ? »
She seemed almost crying. “You — you — you mustn't come
heah no mo', Brer Langford. ”
« “Who- me? Wh-wh-what is I done, Sis' Johnsing? ”
“My Gord! how kin I say it? You 'ain't done nothin', my
dear frien'. You has been Gord's blessin' ter me; but — but — I
'clare 'fo' Gord, how kin I say de word ? But — don't you see
yo’se'f how de succumstances stan'? You is a yo'ng man li'ble
to fall in love wid any lakly yo'ng gal any day, an' ter git mar-
ried — an' of co'se dat's right: but don't you see dat ef a po' lone-
some 'oman lak me put too much 'pendence orn a yo'ng man lak
you is, de time gwine come when he gwine git tired a-walkin'
all de way from chu'ch in de po'in'-down rain des fur charity ter
comfort a lonely sinner pusson lak I is; an'- an' settin' heah by
myse'f ter-night, I done made up my min' dat I gwine 'scuse you
»
## p. 14137 (#327) ##########################################
RUTH McENERY STUART
14137
f'om dis task while I kin stand it. Of co’se I don't say but hit
'll be hard. You is tooken me by de han' an' he'ped me thoo
a dark cloud; but you an' me mus' say far'well ter-night, an'
you — you mustn't come back no mo'. ”
Her face was buried in her hands now, and so she could not
see her guest's storm-swept visage as he essayed to answer her.
“You — you — you — you — talkin' 'bout you c'n stan' it, Sis'
Johnsing, an'- an'- seem lak you 's forgitt'n' all bout me. ” His
voice was trembling. I-I knows I ain't nothin' but a no-
'count yo'ng striplin', so ter speak, an' you is a mannerly lady
o' speunce: but hit do seem lak 'fo' you'd send me away, des
lak ter say a yaller dorg, you'd — you'd ax me could I stan' it;
an' — an', tell de trufe, I can't stan' it, an' I ain't gwine stan' it,
'less'n you des nachelly, p'int-blank, out an' out, shets de do' in
>
my face. ”
(
"Brer Langford — ”
"Don't you say Brer Langford ter me no mo', ef you please,
ma'am; an'- an' I ain't gwine call you Sis' Johnsing no mo',
nuther. You is des, so fur as you consents, hencefo'th an'fo'.
ever mo', in season an'out'n season des my Lize Ann. You
knows yo’se'f dat we is come ter be each one-'n'ner's heart's
delight. ” He drew his chair nearer, and leaning forward, seized
her hand, as he continued: “Leastwise, dat’s de way my heart
language hitse'f. I done tooken you fur my sweetness 'fo' ter-
night, Lize Ann, my honey. "
But why follow them any further ? Before he left her, the
widow had consented, with becoming reluctance, that he should
come to her on the following Sunday with the marriage license
in his pocket; on one condition, and upon this condition she in-
sisted with unyielding pertinacity. It was that Langford should
feel entirely free to change his mind, and to love or to marry
any other woman within the week ensuing.
Lize Ann arrived late at service on the following Sunday
evening Her name had just been announced as a happy con-
vert who rejoiced in new-found grace; and when she stepped
demurely up the aisle, arrayed in a plain white dress, her face
beaming with what seemed a spiritual peace, the congregation
were deeply touched, and, eager to welcome her into the fold,
began to press forward to extend the right hand of fellowship
to one who had come in through so much tribulation.
a happy time all round; and no one was more jubilant than the
It was
## p. 14138 (#328) ##########################################
14138
RUTH MCENERY STUART
young pastor, who seemed indeed to rejoice more over this
recovered lamb than over the ninety-and-nine within the fold
who had not gone astray.
The young girl converts of recent date, never slow to respond
to any invitation which led to the chancel, were specially demon-
strative in their affectionate welcome; some even going so far as
to embrace the new “sister,” while others were moved to shout
and sing as they made the tour of the aisles.
When, however, as soon as congratulations were over, it was
formally announced that this identical convert, Mrs. Eliza Ann
Johnsing, was then and there to be joined in the holy estate
of matrimony to the Reverend Julius Cæsar Langford, the shock
was so great that these same blessed damosels looked blankly
one upon the other in mute dismay for the space of some
minutes; and when presently, as a blushing bride, Lize Ann
again turned to them for congratulations, it is a shame to have
to write it, but they actually did turn their backs and refuse to
speak to her.
The emotions of the company were certainly very much
mixed; and the two old crones, Nancy Price and Hester Ann
Jennings, sitting side by side in a front pew, were seen to
nudge each other, as, their old sides shaking with laughter, they
exclaimed:-
“What I tol' yer, Sis' Hest' Ann? ”
«What I tol yer, Sis' Nancy ? »
Dat's des what we tol' one-'n'ner Lize Ann gwine do! ”
Though no guests were bidden to share it, the wedding sup-
per in the little cabin that night was no mean affair; and when
Langford, with a chuckling, half-embarrassed, new-proprietary air,
drew the cork from the beer bottle beside his plate, Lize Ann
said: -
“Hit do do me good ter see how you relishes dat beer. ”
But she did not mention that it was the last bottle, and may-
be it was just as well.
>
## p. 14139 (#329) ##########################################
14139
WILLIAM STUBBS
(1825-)
BY E. S. NADAL
W
SILLIAM STUBBS, Bishop of Oxford, was born at Knaresboroug'n
June 21st, 1825, and was educated at the Grammar School,
Ripon, and Christ Church, Oxford. He was graduated at
Oxford in 1848, taking a first-class in classics and a third-class in
mathematics; and was at once elected to a fellowship at Trinity Col-
lege. In 1848 he was ordained, and later became vicar of a parish in
Essex; he was appointed librarian to Archbishop Longley at Lambeth
in 1862. He served as a school inspector from 1860 to 1866, when he
was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. In 1867
he was elected Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, — always a great dis-
tinction,- and later became an honorary fellow of that college. He
received in succession a number of university and ecclesiastical dig-
nities, and in 1884 was appointed Bishop of Chester, from which soe
he was translated to that of Oxford in 1889.
Bishop Stubbs printed in succession a number of learned editions
of various chronicles relating to ecclesiastical and political history,
such as “Registrum Sacrum Anglicum,' Memorials of St. Dunstan,'
etc. In 1870 he published a work which proved to be the beginning
of a very important contribution to English history. This was Select
Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History,
from the Earliest Period to the Reign of Edward 1. In 1874 ap-
peared the first volume of his great work, «The Constitutional His-
tory of England in its Origin and Development. The second and
third volumes followed in 1875 and 1878 respectively. This book of
Dr. Stubbs's is the ablest and most authoritative work upon the
subject.
To Dr. Stubbs's view, English constitutional history is not an
isolated matter confined to England. To him it is but part of
the history of the development of Teutonic institutions throughout
Europe. These institutions have spread to countries which are not
Teutonic in blood or language. The four German countries are
France, Spain, England, and Germany. Of these, France and Spain
German neither in blood nor language. We are given an
are
## p. 14140 (#330) ##########################################
14140
WILLIAM STUBBS
interesting comparison of the course of German civilization in these
four countries.
In France, German civilization resulted in despotism; the reason
for which fact is set forth by Dr. Stubbs very clearly. The system
which for the last twelve centuries has formed French history was
originally an adaptation of German polity to the government of a con-
quered race. The Franks, a German people, conquered Gaul, already
a Romanized country. The form of feudalism they set up there was
without any tendencies toward popular freedom. Feudal government
in French history, therefore, runs its logical course. The central
power, which is the cause of the conquest, grows weaker and weaker,
until it is reduced to a shadow, and the parts get stronger. By-and-
by the reverse process sets in: with the decay of the feudal system,
the central power grows stronger and stronger, until it absorbs unto
itself all the power which had once been in the feudatories. An ab-
solute despotism is the result; which ultimately takes the form of
an egotistical tyranny, leading in the end to revolution and disaster.
Owing to the fact that the Germans conquered Gaul, the German
system was imposed on France without the safeguards which it had
on its original ground.
Spain is Germanic in the sense that the governnient is in the
hands of Visigoths, who are kindred to the Germans; and that the
common law and institutions are Germanic.
In Germany there is no alien race; for Germany is never con-
quered but by Germans. When one German tribe has conquered
another, there is a feudal tenure of land. But where the race
mains in its ancient seats, the free German polity continues. The
imperial system, however, — what Dr. Stubbs calls the “Mezentian
union with Italy," — has modified German polity in Germany. It is
for this reason that the German polity has had a freer development
in England than in Germany itself.
Dr. Stubbs emphasizes the essentially German character of the
British constitution; showing that the English are people of German
descent in blood, character, and language, but more especially in the
development of the primitive German civilization. The work, there-
fore, begins with the description of the Germans in their ancient
homes, as given by Cæsar and Tacitus. The characteristics of the
aboriginal society are described. In proceeding, the writer follows
with great learning the course of constitutional development, from
the days of the migration to those of Magna Charta. Volume i. closes
with an account of the triumph of the barons over John. The second
volume pursues the subject through the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries; the third through the fifteenth century. The third volume
is composed of four chapters, each of which is in itself a short history
re-
с
## p. 14141 (#331) ##########################################
WILLIAM STUBBS
14141
»
of great value and authority. These chapters are (Lancaster and
York,' The King, the Clergy, and the Pope,' Parliamentary Antiqui-
ties,' and (Social and Political Influences at the Close of the Middle
Ages.
The first volume concludes with that point in the history of Eng-
land, when, as regards the rest of the world, it has become a self-
reliant and self-sustained nation; and when, internally, it has been
prepared for representative institutions. The picture which the author
gives incidentally of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries would
seem to represent a period of reaction and unmeaning violence. The
political bloodshed of the fourteenth century preludes the internecine
warfare of the fifteenth century. In the fourteenth century, public
and private morality is at a low ebb, and the court is marked by a
splendid extravagance and a coarse indulgence. The author does not
find anything even in the stories of Chaucer to brighten the wretch-
edness of the period. If there has been a retrogression in morals,
there has been one also in art. In architecture the Perpendicular
Style is a decline from the grace and affluent variety of the Decora-
tive. « The change in penmanship is analogous: the writing of the
fourteenth century is coarse and blurred compared with the exqui-
site elegance of the thirteenth, and yet even preferable to the vulgar
neatness and deceptive regularity of the fifteenth. ” But weak as is
the fourteenth century, Dr. Stubbs finds that the fifteenth century
is weaker still: “more futile, more bloody, more immoral. Yet out of
it emerges, in spite of all, “the truer and brighter day. ” He seems
to consider this long period of violence and reaction in a sense the
preparation for the constitutional development of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Upon this point, however, another very able and exact writer,
Mr. Gairdner, is at issue with him. Mr. Gairdner considers the events
of the fifteenth century as tending not at all in the direction of lib-
erty and constitutional government, but of pure absolutism. To the
ordinary reader it will not be quite clear in what way the fifteenth
century differs from any other period of reaction, except in degree
and duration.
The question will naturally arise, as one reads the pages of Dr.
Stubbs (and it is especially pertinent in this work, which is dedicated
to literature), whether this very able writer is a literary historian.
We are decidedly of the opinion that he is. One characteristic of
literature he has to a very high degree,– truthfulness. With him the
word or phrase must always be as nearly as possible the precise
image of the thought. The expression is never allowed to vary a
hair's-breadth to the right or left for the sake of effect. Perhaps he
is at times too scrupulous in his preference for a dry or dull phrase
which is clearly within the truth, to a brighter one which might go
C
»
## p. 14142 (#332) ##########################################
14142
WILLIAM STUBBS
beyond it. One would think that without the sacrifice of truth he
might have made the story livelier; for the work is for the most part
hard reading. Indeed the style might often be improved in ease and
lucidity. But that literary truthfulness of which we have spoken we
see everywhere. We see it in the conscientious description of the
abstractions among which the reader is required to grope, and to
which the greater part of his work is devoted. But there are, here
and there, pages in which the writer forsakes the abstract for the
concrete, and the dry description of ideas and principles for the de-
lineation of manners and men; and here the literary power is marked.
The powerful strokes express the results of a judgment cautious and
deliberate in the extreme, and yet firm. The combination of a strong
intellect and character with vast knowledge and intense truthfulness
produces a deep impression on the mind of the reader. His confi-
dence is won, and he recognizes the influence and guidance of a
strong individuality. This again is an indication of the presence of
literary power.
In conclusion, it seems to us that the point of view given in this
great work is one which it is especially desirable should be impressed
upon the people of this country. English history is regarded by Dr.
