a wild and
wondrous
tale revealing
Of the drowned wreck of love below.
Of the drowned wreck of love below.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v18 - Mom to Old
10481 (#309) ##########################################
HENRI MURGER
10481
came back at the end of the five years a pretty enough young
lady, but cold, dry, and uninteresting. Her secluded provincial
life, and the narrow and bigoted education she had received, had
filled her mind with vulgar prejudices, shrunk her imagination,
and converted her heart into a sort of organ limited to fulfilling
its function of physical balance-wheel. You might say that she
had holy water in her veins instead of blood. She received her
cousin with an icy reserve; and he lost his time whenever he
attempted to touch the chord of her recollections - recollections
of the time when they had sketched out that flirtation, in the
Paul-and-Virginia style, which is traditional between cousins of
different sexes. Still Rodolphe was very much in love with his
cousin Angela, who couldn't bear him; and learning one day
that the young lady was going shortly to the wedding-ball of
one of her friends, he made bold to promise Angela a bouquet
of violets for the ball. And after asking permission of her
father, Angela accepted her cousin's gallant offer-always on
condition that the violets should be white.
Overjoyed at his cousin's amiability, Rodolphe danced and
sang his way back to Mount St. Bernard, as he called his lodg
ing-why, will be seen presently. As he passed by a florist's in
crossing the Palais Royal, he saw some white violets in the show-
case, and was curious enough to ask their price. A presentable
bouquet could not be had for less than ten francs; there were
some that cost more.
"The deuce! " exclaimed Rodolphe; "ten francs! and only
eight days to find this fortune! It will be a hard pull, but never
mind; my cousin shall have her flowers. "
This happened in the time of Rodolphe's literary genesis, as
the transcendentalists would say. His only income at that period
was an allowance of fifteen francs a month, made him by a
friend, who after living a long while in Paris as a poet, had by
the help of influential acquaintances gained the mastership of
a provincial school. Rodolphe, who was the child of prodigality,
always spent his allowance in four days; and not choosing to
abandon his holy but not very profitable profession of elegiac poet,
lived for the rest of the month on the rare droppings from the
basket of Providence. This long Lent had no terrors for him;
he passed through it gayly, thanks to his stoical temperament,
and to the imaginary treasures which he expended every day
while waiting for the first of the month,- that Easter which
XVIII-656
## p. 10482 (#310) ##########################################
10482
HENRI MURGER
terminated his fast. He lived at this time at the very top of
one of the loftiest houses in Paris. His room was shaped like a
belvidere, and was a delicious habitation in summer; but from
October to April a perfect little Kamtchatka. The four cardinal
winds which penetrated by the four windows-there was one on
each of the four sides-made fearful music in it throughout the
cold seasons. Then, in irony as it were, there was a huge fire-
place, the immense chimney of which seemed a gate of honor
reserved for Boreas and his retinue. On the first attack of cold,
Rodolphe had recourse to an original system of warming: he cut
up successively what little furniture he had, and at the end of a
week his stock was considerably abridged,- in fact, he had only
a bed and two chairs left; it should be remarked that these three
articles were insured against fire by their nature, being of iron.
This manner of heating himself he called moving up the chimney.
It was January; and the thermometer, which indicated twelve
degrees below freezing-point on the Spectacle Quay, would have
stood two or three lower if moved to the belvidere, which
Rodolphe called indifferently Mount St. Bernard, Spitzenberg, and
Siberia. The night when he had promised his cousin the white
violets, he was seized with a great rage on returning home:
the four cardinal winds, in playing puss-in-the-corner round his
chamber, had broken a pane of glass- the third time in a fort-
night. After exploding in a volley of frantic imprecations upon
Eolus and all his family, and plugging up the breach with a
friend's portrait, Rodolphe lay down, dressed as he was, between
his two mattresses, and dreamed of white violets all night.
At the end of five days, Rodolphe had found nothing to help.
him toward realizing his dream. He must have the bouquet the
day after to-morrow. Meanwhile the thermometer fell still lower,
and the luckless poet was ready to despair as he thought that the
violets might have risen higher. Finally his good angel had pity
on him, and came to his relief as follows:
One morning, Rodolphe went to take his chance of getting a
breakfast from his friend Marcel the painter, and found him con-
versing with a woman in mourning. It was a widow who had
just lost her husband, and who wanted to know how much it
would cost to paint on the tomb which she had erected, a man's
hand, with this inscription beneath :-
"I WAIT FOR HER TO WHOM MY FAITH WAS PLIGHTED »
## p. 10483 (#311) ##########################################
HENRI MURGER
10483
To get the work at a cheaper rate, she observed to the artist
that when she was called to rejoin her husband, he would have
another hand to paint,-her hand, with a bracelet on the wrist,
and the supplementary line beneath:
«AT LENGTH, BEHOLD US THUS ONCE MORE UNITED≫
"I shall put this clause in my will," she said, "and require
that the task be intrusted to you. "
"In that case, madame," replied the artist, "I will do it at the
price you offer- but only in the hope of seeing your hand. Don't
go and forget me in your will. "
"I should like to have this as soon as possible," said the dis-
consolate one: "nevertheless, take your time to do it well; and
don't forget the scar on the thumb. I want a living hand. "
"Don't be afraid, madame, it shall be a speaking one," said
Marcel, as he bowed the widow out.
But hardly had she crossed the threshold when she returned,
saying:
"I have one thing more to ask you, sir: I should like to
have inscribed on my husband's tomb something in verse which
would tell of his good conduct and his last words. Is that good
style? »
"Very good style-they call that an epitaph - the very best
style. »
"You don't know any one who would do that for me cheap?
There is my neighbor M. Guérin, the public writer; but he asks
the clothes off my back. "
Here Rodolphe darted a look at Marcel, who understood him
at once.
"Madame," said the artist, pointing to Rodolphe, "a happy
fortune has conducted hither the very person who can be of
service to you in this mournful juncture. This gentleman is a
renowned poet; you couldn't find a better. "
"I want something very melancholy," said the widow; "and
the spelling all right. "
“Madame,” replied Marcel, "my friend spells like a book. He
had all the prizes at school. "
"Indeed! " said the widow: "my grandnephew has just had
a prize too; he is only seven years old. ”
"A very forward child, madame. "
«<
But are you sure that the gentleman can make very melan-
choly verses? "
## p. 10484 (#312) ##########################################
10484
HENRI MURGER
"No one better, madame, for he has undergone much sorrow
in his life. The papers always find fault with his verses for
being too melancholy. "
"What! " cried the widow, "do they talk about him in the
papers? He must know quite as much, then, as M. Guérin, the
public writer. "
"And a great deal more. Apply to him, madame, and you
will not repent of it. "
After having explained to Rodolphe the sort of inscription
in verse which she wished to place on her husband's tomb, the
widow agreed to give Rodolphe ten francs if it suited her—only
she must have it very soon. The poet promised she should have
it the very next day.
"Oh, good genius of an Artemisia! " cried Rodolphe, as the
widow disappeared. "I promise you that you shall be suited-
full allowance of melancholy lyrics, better got up than a duchess,
orthography and all. Good old lady! May Heaven reward you
with a life of a hundred and seven years-equal to that of good
brandy! "
"I object," said Marcel.
"That's true," said Rodolphe: "I forgot that you have her
hand to paint, and that so long a life would make you lose
money;" and lifting his hands he gravely ejaculated, "Heaven,
do not grant my prayer! Ah! " he continued, "I was in jolly
good luck to come here. "
"By the way," asked Marcel, "what did you want? "
"I recollect—and now especially that I have to pass the
night in making these verses, I cannot do without what I came
to ask you for: namely, first, some dinner; secondly, tobacco and
candle; thirdly, your polar-bear costume. "
"To go to the masked ball? »
"No indeed; but as you see me here, I am as much frozen
up as the grand army in the retreat from Russia. Certainly my
green frock coat and Scotch plaid trousers are very pretty, but
much too summery: they would do to live under the equator,
but for one who lodges near the Pole, as I do, a white-bear skin
is more suitable,—indeed, I may say necessary. "
"Take the fur! " said Marcel: "it's a good idea; warm as a
dish of charcoal,—you will be like a roll in an oven in it. ”
Rodolphe was already inside the animal skin.
"Now," said he, "the thermometer is going to be sold a
trifle. "
## p. 10485 (#313) ##########################################
HENRI MURGER
10485
"Are you going out so? " said Marcel to his friend, after they
had finished an ambiguous repast served in a penny dish.
"I just am," replied Rodolphe: "do you think I care for pub-
lic opinion? Besides, to-day is the beginning of carnival. "
He went half over Paris with all the gravity of the beast
whose skin he occupied. Only on passing before a thermometer
in an optician's window, he couldn't help taking a sight at it.
Having returned home, not without causing great terror to
his porter, Rodolphe lit his candle, carefully surrounding it with
an extempore shade of paper to guard it against the malice of
the winds, and set to work at once. But he was not long in
perceiving that if his body was almost entirely protected from
the cold, his hands were not; a terrible numbness seized his
fingers, which let the pen fall.
"The bravest man cannot struggle against the elements," said
the poet, falling back helpless in his chair. "Cæsar passed the
Rubicon, but he could not have passed the Beresina. "
All at once he uttered a cry of joy from the depths of his
bearskin breast, and jumped up so suddenly as to overturn some
of his ink on its snowy fur. He had an idea!
Rodolphe drew from beneath his bed a considerable mass
of papers, among which were a dozen huge manuscripts of his
famous drama, 'The Avenger. ' This drama, on which he had
spent two years, had been made, unmade, and remade so often
that all the copies together weighed fully fifteen pounds. He put
the last version on one side, and dragged the others towards the
fireplace.
"I was sure that with patience I should dispose of it some-
how," he exclaimed. "What a pretty fagot! If I could have fore-
seen what would happen, I could have written a prologue, and
then I should have more fuel to-night. But one can't foresee
everything. " He lit some leaves of the manuscript, in the flame
of which he thawed his hands. In five minutes the first act of
'The Avenger' was over, and Rodolphe had written three verses
of his epitaph.
It would be impossible to describe the astonishment of the
four winds when they felt fire in the chimney.
"It's an illusion," quoth Boreas, as he amused himself by
brushing back the hair of Rodolphe's bearskin.
"Let's blow down the pipe," suggested another wind, "and
make the chimney smoke. " But just as they were about to
## p. 10486 (#314) ##########################################
10486
HENRI MURGER
plague the poor poet, the south wind perceived Monsieur Arago
at a window of the Observatory threatening them with his finger;
so they all made off, for fear of being put under arrest. Mean-
while the second act of The Avenger' was going off with im-
mense success, and Rodolphe had written ten lines.
But he only
achieved two during the third act.
"I always thought that third act too short," said Rodolphe:
"luckily the next one will take longer; there are twenty-three
scenes in it, including the great one of the throne. " As the last
flourish of the throne-scene went up the chimney in fiery flakes,
Rodolphe had only three couplets more to write. "Now for the
last act. This is all monologue. It may last five minutes. " The
catastrophe flashed and smoldered, and Rodolphe in a magnifi-
cent transport of poetry had enshrined in lyric stanzas the last
words of the illustrious deceased. "There is enough left for
a second representation," said he, pushing the remainder of the
manuscript under his bed.
At eight o'clock next evening, Mademoiselle Angela entered
the ball-room; in her hand was a splendid nosegay of white vio-
lets, and among them two budding roses, white also. During the
whole night, men and women were complimenting the young girl
on her bouquet. Angela could not but feel a little grateful to her
cousin, who had procured this little triumph for her vanity; and
perhaps she would have thought more of him but for the gallant
persecutions of one of the bride's relatives, who had danced sev-
eral times with her. He was a fair-haired youth, with a magnifi-
cent mustache curled up at the ends, to hook innocent hearts.
The bouquet had been pulled to pieces by everybody; only the
two white roses were left. The young man asked Angela for
them; she refused-only to forget them after the ball on a
bench, whence the fair-haired youth hastened to take them.
At that moment it was fourteen degrees below freezing-point
in Rodolphe's belvidere. He was leaning against his window
looking out at the lights in the ball-room, where his cousin
Angela, who didn't care for him, was dancing.
## p. 10447 (#315) ##########################################
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SE MUSSET.
## p. 10451 (#319) ##########################################
10487
―――――――
ALFRED DE MUSSET
(1810-1857)
BY ALCÉE FORTIER
T
HE three greatest French poets of the nineteenth century are
Lamartine, Hugo, and Musset. The first one touches us
deeply by his harmonious and simple verses; the second
impresses us with the force of his genius; and the third is some-
times light and gay, and sometimes intensely passionate and sad.
Musset wrote several poems which cannot be surpassed by any in
the French language. He was highly nervous and sensitive, and
lacked Lamartine's spirit of patriotism and Hugo's well-balanced
mind. He was unfortunate, and led a reckless life, committing ex-
cesses which nearly destroyed his genius, and rendered it sterile for
the last ten years of his existence. It is, however, to his nervous
temperament—to the fact that he felt so deeply the misfortunes of
love that we owe his finest works. In the beginning of his career
-in 1828, when he was eighteen years old - we see him admitted
at Hugo's house, and considered by the poets of the famous Cénacle,
by the disciples of the Master, as their favorite child, as a Romantic
poet of great promise. He published at that time in a newspaper at
Dijon a poem, 'The Dream,' which was warmly received by his
brother poets and protectors. In 1830 appeared his first volume,
'Tales of Spain and Italy,' which are rather immoral in tone, and
somewhat ironical. The author followed still the precepts of the
Romantic school; but one may see already that he is not a true dis-
ciple of Hugo, not an idolater like Gautier. His famous 'Ballad to
the Moon' was intended as a huge joke, and is indeed wonderful in
its eccentricity. Musset speaks with great irreverence of the celes-
tial body which shone on Lamartine's immortal Lake. '
――――
The 'Ballad to the Moon' created a great sensation; and to this
day, Musset is better known to many people by his earliest poems
than by his magnificent 'Nights. ' It is true that his 'Tales of Spain
and Italy' are entrancing, in spite of their immorality, and contain
some beautiful verses. The last lines of Don Poez' are full of pas-
sion; but most of these poems are ironical. Portia is white-armed
like Andromache, but she is not faithful to her husband like Hector's
wife. The Chestnuts out of the Fire' is, without doubt, a parody
## p. 10452 (#320) ##########################################
WILHELM MÜLLER
10452
Away, away
From my margin stay,
Wicked maiden, lest from thy shadow he wake!
But throw me down
Thy kerchief brown,
So for his eyes I'll a bandage make!
Now good-night, now good-night!
Till all's made right,
Forget all thy hopes, and forget thy fate!
The moon shines bright,
The mists take flight,
And the heaven above me how wide and how great!
VINETA
F
ROM the sea's deep hollow faintly pealing,
Far-off evening bells come sad and slow;
Faintly rise, the wondrous tale revealing
Of the old enchanted town below.
On the bosom of the flood reclining,
Ruined arch and wall and broken spire,
Down beneath the watery mirror shining,
Gleam and flash in flakes of golden fire.
And the boatman, who at twilight hour,
Once that magic vision shall have seen,
Heedless how the crags may round him lower,
Evermore will haunt the charmed scene.
From the heart's deep hollow faintly pealing,
Far I hear them, bell-notes sad and slow,
Ah!
a wild and wondrous tale revealing
Of the drowned wreck of love below.
There a world in loveliness decaying
Lingers yet in beauty ere it die;
Phantom forms across my senses playing,
Flash like golden fire-flakes from the sky.
Lights are gleaming, fairy bells are ringing,
And I long to plunge and wander free
Where I hear those angel-voices singing
In those ancient towers below the sea.
Translation of J. A. Froude.
I
2
8
## p. 10453 (#321) ##########################################
10453
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
(CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK)
(1850-)
W
HEN Miss Murfree's first work appeared, not only was her
pseudonym, Charles Egbert Craddock, accepted by her edi-
tors without suspicion as her proper name, but the public
was equally deceived. The firm, quiet touch, the matter wholly free
from subjectiveness, the robust humor, and the understanding of
masculine life, had no trace of femininity.
Her first book, 'Where the Battle was
Fought,' which finally appeared in 1884,
was the effort of a very young writer, con-
taining more of promise than fulfillment,
though the peculiarities of style and char-
acter were prophetic of her later manner.
No publisher desired it until the great favor
accorded to 'In the Tennessee Mountains'
opened the way. In the maturer story was
struck a more confident note. Miss Murfree
had found her field, and henceforth the
Tennessee mountains and their inhabitants
were to occupy her descriptive powers.
These men and women are for the first part
rude people, kept in unlikeness to the outside world not only by their
distance from civilization, but by the mist of tradition in which they
live. Here is a colony of people who have their own ideas of eti-
quette, and as strict a code as that of Versailles in the time of
Louis XIV. . - their own notions of comfort and wealth, and their own
civil and moral laws. Here they dwell in their mountain fastnesses,
distilling illicit whisky with as clear a conscience as they plant the
corn from which they make it, or as the Northern farmer makes
cider from his apples-in their opinion an exact parallel. Passion-
ately religious, full of picturesque poetry,-which they learn from
the Bible, their only familiar book,-no wonder the "Prophet of the
Great Smoky Mountain" thrilled his audiences when he described the
scenes enacted in the Old Testament as having been transacted on
the very hillsides where he preached, and that the majestic imagery
of the Book was heightened by the majestic surroundings.
MARY N. MURFREE
## p. 10454 (#322) ##########################################
10454
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
But good material," in a literary sense, as are the Tennessee
mountaineers, no sort of idealization nor surface acquaintance, how-
ever aided by artistic intuition, could have made them natural to the
outside world. It was the office of one who knew them as Miss Mur-
free knew them, not only from the inside view but the view of a
social superior, which enabled her to give the picture a perspective.
Nowhere is this gift better indicated than in the artistic story 'Drift-
ing down Lost Creek,' in which the elements of interest are thor-
oughly worked up, the motive of the delicate romance touched with
a perfect consciousness of the author's audience; while there is such
a regard for the verities, that the whole story turns on the every-
day feminine loyalty of a mountain girl to her lover. 'On Big Injin
Mountain' is an episode of a sturdier kind, more dramatic both in
matter and in manner than 'Drifting down Lost Creek'; but at its
close, when the rude mountaineers display a tenderness for the man
they have misunderstood, the reader, gentle or simple, is perforce
thrilled into sympathy, for this is a passage to which the better
part of human nature, wherever found, responds.
-
In Miss Murfree's writings we are perhaps too often reminded of
the pictorial art which she undoubtedly possesses, by the effect she
evolves from the use of words. She has a clear vision and a dra-
matic temperament; and it is a temptation, not always resisted, to
emphasize physical surroundings in order to heighten situations. The
moment a lull occurs in the action of her personages, the mountain
solitudes come in to play their part, the sylvan glades, the chro-
matic hues, the foaming cataracts, the empurpled shadows. Even the
wild animals assume the functions of dramatis personæ, and are an
inarticulate chorus to interpret the emotions of the human actors.
But it is not given to a redundant and enthusiastic nature, a
youthful nature at least in her earlier stories,- for Miss Murfree was
born about 1850 in the township of Murfreesborough, Tennessee, a
town called after her respected and influential family,- always to use
one word when two or three seem to do as well. The normal mind
is more active in the details of human life than in the details of
landscape; but Miss Murfree, although she has not always accepted
this as a fact, has painted scenes where she has perfectly adjusted
her characters and their surroundings. In 'Old Sledge at the Settle-
mint,' the picture of the group of card-players throwing their cards
on the inverted splint basket by the light of the tallow dip and a
pitch-pine fire, while the moon shines without, and the uncanny
echoes ring through the rocks and woods, is as graphic as one of
Spagnoletto's paintings. And she has done a gentler and even more
sympathetic service in depicting the lonely, self-reliant, half mournful
life of the mountain women whom she loves; particularly the young
## p. 10455 (#323) ##########################################
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
10455
women, pure, sweet, naïve, and innocent of all evil. The older women
"hold out wasted hands to the years as they pass,-holding them out
always, and always empty"; but in drawing her old women, Miss
Murfree lightens her somewhat sombre pictures by their shrewd fun
and keen knowledge of human nature. Mrs. Purvine is a stroke of
genius.
Nor could Miss Murfree's stories have won their wide popularity
with an American audience without a sense of huinor, which is to her
landscape as the sun to the mist. Her mountaineer who has been
restrained from killing the suspected horse-thief is rather relieved
than otherwise, having still a sense of justice: "The bay filly ain't
such a killin' matter nohow; ef it was the roan three-year-old
'twould be different. "
The novels which have most added to Miss Murfree's reputation,
perhaps, are 'In the Tennessee Mountains,' 'The Prophet of the Great
Smoky Mountain,' and 'In the Clouds,'-all stories of the Tennessee
mountains, told in her vigorous, dramatic manner.
THE DANCIN' PARTY AT HARRISON'S COVE
From In the Tennessee Mountains. Copyright 1884, by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
UR ye see, Mis' Darley, them Harrison folks over yander ter
the Cove hev determinated on a dancin' party. "
"F"
The drawling tones fell unheeded on old Mr. Kenyon's
ear, as he sat on the broad hotel piazza of the New Helvetia
Springs, and gazed with meditative eyes at the fair August sky.
An early moon was riding, clear and full, over this wild spur of
the Alleghanies; the stars were few and very faint; even the
great Scorpio lurked vaguely outlined above the wooded ranges;
and the white mist that filled the long, deep, narrow valley be-
tween the parallel lines of mountains, shimmered with opalescent
gleams.
All the world of the watering-place had converged to that
focus the ball-room; and the cool, moonlit piazzas were nearly
deserted. The fell determination of the "Harrison folks to
give a dancing party made no impression on the preoccupied old
gentleman. Another voice broke his revery, -a soft, clear, well-
modulated voice; and he started and turned his head as his
own name was called, and his niece, Mrs. Darley, came to the
window.
"Uncle Ambrose, are you there? So glad! I was afraid
you were down at the summer-house, where I hear the children
―――――
## p. 10456 (#324) ##########################################
10456
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
singing. Do come here a moment, please. This is Mrs. Johns,
who brings the Indian peaches to sell-you know the Indian
peaches? »
Mr. Kenyon knew the Indian peaches; the dark-crimson fruit
streaked with still darker lines, and full of blood-red juice, which
he had meditatively munched that very afternoon. Mr. Kenyon
knew the Indian peaches right well. He wondered, however,
what had brought Mrs. Johns back in so short a time; for
although the principal industry of the mountain people about the
New Helvetia Springs is selling fruit to the summer sojourners,
it is not customary to come twice on the same day, nor to
appear at all after nightfall.
Mrs. Darley proceeded to explain.
"Mrs. Johns's husband is ill, and wants us to send him some
medicine. "
Mr. Kenyon rose, threw away the stump of his cigar, and
entered the room. "How long has he been ill, Mrs. Johns? »
he asked dismally.
Mr. Kenyon always spoke lugubriously, and he was a dismal-
looking old man. Not more cheerful was Mrs. Johns: she was
tall and lank, and with such a face as one never sees except in
these mountains,- elongated, sallow, thin, with pathetic, deeply
sunken eyes, and high cheek-bones, and so settled an expression
of hopeless melancholy that it must be that naught but care
and suffering had been her lot; holding out wasted hands to the
years as they pass,- holding them out always, and always empty.
She wore a shabby, faded calico, and spoke with the peculiar
expressionless drawl of the mountaineer. She was a wonderful
contrast to Mrs. Darley, all furbelows and flounces, with her
fresh, smooth face and soft hair, and plump, round arms half
revealed by the flowing sleeves of her thin black dress. Mrs.
Darley was in mourning, and therefore did not affect the ball-
room. At this moment, on benevolent thoughts intent, she was
engaged in uncorking sundry small phials, gazing inquiringly at
their labels, and shaking their contents.
In reply to Mr. Kenyon's question, Mrs. Johns, sitting on the
extreme edge of a chair, and fanning herself with a pink calico
sun-bonnet, talked about her husband, and a misery in his side.
and in his back, and how he felt it "a-comin' on nigh on ter a
week ago. " Mr. Kenyon expressed sympathy, and was surprised
by the announcement that Mrs. Johns considered her husband's
## p. 10457 (#325) ##########################################
•
10457
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
illness "a blessin', 'kase ef he war able ter git out'n his bed,
he 'lowed ter go down ter Harrison's Cove ter the dancin' party,
'kase Rick Pearson war a-goin' ter be thar, an' hed said ez how
none o' the Johnses should come. "
"What, Rick Pearson, that terrible outlaw! " exclaimed Mrs.
Darley, with wide-open blue eyes. She had read in the news-
papers sundry thrilling accounts of a noted horse-thief and out-
law, who with a gang of kindred spirits defied justice and roamed
certain sparsely populated mountainous counties at his own wild
will; and she was not altogether without a feeling of fear as she
heard of his proximity to the New Helvetia Springs,-not fear
for life or limb, because she was practical-minded enough to re-
flect that the sojourners and employés of the watering-place would
far outnumber the outlaw's troop, but fear that a pair of shiny.
bay ponies, Castor and Pollux, would fall victims to the crafty
wiles of the expert horse thief.
"I think I have heard something of a difficulty between your
people and Rick Pearson," said old Mr. Kenyon. "Has a peace
never been patched up between them? »
«<
"N-o," drawled Mrs. Johns, same as it always war. My
old man'll never believe but what Rick Pearson stole that thar
bay filly we lost 'bout five year ago. But I don't believe he done
it: plenty other folks around is ez mean ez Rick, leastways mos'
ez mean; plenty mean enough ter steal a horse, anyhow. Rick
say he never tuk the filly; say he war a-goin' ter shoot off the
nex' man's head ez say so. Rick say he'd ruther give two bay
fillies than hev a man say he tuk a horse ez he never tuk. Rick
say ez how he kin stand up ter what he does do, but it's these
hyar lies on him what kills him out. But ye know, Mis' Darley,
ye know yerself, he never give nobody two bay fillies in this
world, an' what's more he's never goin' ter. My old man an' my
boy Kossute talks on 'bout that thar bay filly like she war stole
yestiddy, an' 'twar five year ago an' better; an' when they hearn
ez how Rick Pearson hed showed that red head o' his'n on this
hyar mounting las' week, they war fightin' mad, an' would hev
lit out fur the gang sure, 'ceptin' they hed been gone down the
mounting fur two days. An' my son Kossute, he sent Rick word
that he had better keep out'n gunshot o' these hyar woods; that
he didn't want no better mark than that red head o' his'n, an'
he could hit it two mile off. An' Rick Pearson, he sent Kossute
word that he would kill him fur his sass the very nex' time he
## p. 10458 (#326) ##########################################
10458
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
see him, an' ef he don't want a bullet in that pumpkin head o'
his'n he hed better keep away from that dancin' party what the
Harrisons hev laid off ter give, 'kase Rick say he's a-goin' ter it
hisself, an' is a-goin' ter dance too; he ain't been invited, Mis'
Darley, but Rick don't keer fur that. He is a-goin' anyhow; an'
he say ez how he ain't a-goin' ter let Kossute come, 'count o'
Kossute's sass, an' the fuss they've all made 'bout that bay filly
that war stole five year ago-'twar five year an' better. But
Rick say ez how he is goin', fur all he ain't got no invite, an'
is a-goin' ter dance too: 'kase you know, Mis' Darley, it's a-goin'
ter be a dancin' party; the Harrisons hev determinated on that.
Them gals of theirn air mos' crazed 'bout a dancin' party. They
ain't been a bit of account sence they went ter Cheatham's Cross-
Roads ter see thar gran'mother, an' picked up all them queer
new notions. So the Harrisons hev determinated on a dancin'
party; an' Rick say ez how he is goin' ter dance too: but Jule,
she say ez how she know thar ain't a gal on the mounting ez
would dance with him; but I ain't so sure 'bout that, Mis' Dar-
ley: gals air cur'ous critters, ye know yerself; thar's no sort o'
countin' on 'em; they'll do one thing one time, an' another thing
nex' time; ye can't put no dependence in 'em. But Jule say ef
he kin git Mandy Tyler ter dance with him, it's the mos' he
kin do, an' the gang'll be nowhar. Mebbe he kin git Mandy ter
dance with him, 'kase the other boys say ez how none o' them is
a-goin' ter ax her ter dance, 'count of the trick she played on
'em down ter the Wilkins settlemint-las' month, war it? no,
'twar two month ago, an' better; but the boys ain't forgot how
scandalous she done 'em, an' none of 'em is a-goin' ter ax her ter
dance. "
'Why, what did she do? " exclaimed Mrs. Darley, surprised.
"She came here to sell peaches one day, and I thought her such
a nice, pretty, well-behaved girl. "
"Waal, she hev got mighty quiet say-nuthin' sort'n ways, Mis'
Darley, but that thar gal do behave rediculous. Down thar ter
the Wilkins settlemint,- ye know it's 'bout two mile or two
mile'n a half from hyar,-waal, all the gals walked down thar
ter the party an hour by sun; but when the boys went down
they tuk thar horses, ter give the gals a ride home behind 'em.
Waal, every boy axed his gal ter ride while the party war goin'
on, an' when 'twar all over they all set out fur ter come home.
Waal, this hyar Mandy Tyler is a mighty favorite 'mongst the
## p. 10459 (#327) ##########################################
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
10459
boys, they ain't got no sense, ye know, Mis' Darley, -an' stid-
dier one of 'em axin' her ter ride home, thar war five of 'em
axed her ter ride, ef ye'll believe me; an' what do ye think she
done, Mis' Darley? She tole all five of 'em yes; an' when the
party war over, she war the last ter go, an' when she started
out'n the door, thar war all five of them boys a-standin' thar
waitin' fur her, an' every one a-holdin' his horse by the bridle,
an' none of 'em knowed who the others war a-waitin' fur. An'
this hyar Mandy Tyler, when she got ter the door an' seen 'em
all a-standin' thar, never said one word, jest walked right through
'mongst 'em, an' set out fur the mounting on foot, with all them
five boys a-followin' an' a-leadin' thar horses, an' a-quarrelin'
enough ter take off each other's heads 'bout which one war
a-goin' ter ride with her; which none of 'em did, Mis' Darley,
fur I hearn ez how the whole layout footed it all the way ter
New Helveshy. An' thar would hev been a fight 'mongst 'em,
'ceptin' her brother, Jacob Tyler, went along with 'em, an' tried
ter keep the peace atwixt 'em. An' Mis' Darley, all them mar-
ried folks down thar at the party-them folks in the Wilkins
settlemint is the biggest fools, sure when all them married
folks come out ter the door, an' see the way Mandy Tyler hed
treated them boys, they jest hollered and laffed an' thought it
war mighty smart an' funny in Mandy; but she never say a
word till she kem up the mounting, an' I never hearn ez how
she say anything then. An' now the boys all say none of 'em
is a-goin' ter ax her ter dance, ter pay her back fur them fool
airs of hern. But Kossute say he'll dance with her ef none the
rest will. Kossute, he thought 'twar all mighty funny too,-he's
sech a fool 'bout gals, Kossute is,- but Jule, she thought ez how
'twar scandalous. "
--
-
Mrs. Darley listened in amused surprise: that these mount-
ain wilds could sustain a first-class coquette was an idea that
had not hitherto entered her mind; however, "that thar Mandy»
seemed, in Mrs. Johns's opinion at least, to merit the unenviable
distinction, and the party at the Wilkins settlement and the pro-
spective gayety of Harrison's Cove awakened the same sentiments
in her heart and mind as do the more ambitious germans and
kettle-drums of the lowland cities in the heart and mind of
Mrs. Grundy. Human nature is the same everywhere, and the
Wilkins settlement is a microcosm. The metropolitan centres,
stripped of the civilization of wealth, fashion, and culture, would
## p. 10460 (#328) ##########################################
10460
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
present only the bare skeleton of humanity outlined in Mrs.
Johns's talk of Harrison's Cove, the Wilkins settlement, the en-
mities and scandals and sorrows and misfortunes of the mountain
ridge. As the absurd resemblance developed, Mrs. Darley could
not forbear a smile. Mrs. Johns looked up with a momentary
expression of surprise; the story presented no humorous phase
to her perceptions, but she too smiled a little as she repeated,
"Scandalous, ain't it? " and proceeded in the same lack-lustre
tone as before.
"Yes,- Kossute say ez how he'll dance with her ef none the
rest will, fur Kossute say ez how he hev laid off ter dance, Mis'
Darley; an' when I ax him what he thinks will become of his
soul ef he dances, he say the Devil may crack away at it, an' ef
he kin hit it he's welcome; fur soul or no soul he's a-goin' ter
dance. Kossute is a-fixin' of hisself this very minute ter go; but
I am verily afeard the boy'll be slaughtered, Mis' Darley, 'kase
thar is goin' ter be a fight, an' ye never in all yer life hearn
sech sass ez Kossute and Rick Pearson done sent word ter each
other. "
Mr. Kenyon expressed some surprise that she should fear for
so young a fellow as Kossuth. Surely," he said, "the man is
not brute enough to injure a mere boy: your son is a mere boy. "
"That's so," Mrs. Johns drawled. "Kossute ain't more'n
twenty year old, an' Rick Pearson is double that ef he is a day;
but ye see it's the firearms ez makes Kossute more'n a match
fur him, 'kase Kossute is the best shot on the mounting, an' Rick
knows that in a shootin' fight Kossute's better able ter take keer
of hisself an' hurt somebody else nor anybody. Kossute's more
likely ter hurt Rick nor Rick is ter hurt him in a shootin' fight;
but ef Rick didn't hurt him, an' he war ter shoot Rick, the
gang would tear him ter pieces in a minute; and 'mongst 'em I'm
actially afeard they'll slaughter the boy. "
Mr. Kenyon looked even graver than was his wont upon re-
ceiving this information, but said no more; and after giving Mrs.
Johns the febrifuge she wished for her husband, he returned to
his seat on the piazza.
«<
Mrs. Darley watched him with some little indignation as he
proceeded to light a fresh cigar. "How cold and unsympathetic
Uncle Ambrose is," she said to herself. And after condoling
effusively with Mrs. Johns on her apprehensions for her son's
safety, she returned to the gossips in the hotel parlor; and Mrs.
## p. 10461 (#329) ##########################################
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
10461
Johns, with her pink calico sun-bonnet on her head, went her way
in the brilliant summer moonlight.
The clear lustre shone white upon all the dark woods and
chasms and flashing waters that lay between the New Helvetia
Springs and the wide, deep ravine called Harrison's Cove; where
from a rude log hut the vibrations of a violin, and the quick
throb of dancing feet, already mingled with the impetuous rush
of a mountain stream close by, and the weird night sounds of
the hills, the cry of birds among the tall trees, the stir of the
wind, the monotonous chanting of frogs at the water-side, the
long, drowsy drone of the nocturnal insects, the sudden faint
blast of a distant hunter's horn, and the far baying of hounds.
--
Mr. Harrison had four marriageable daughters, and had arrived
at the conclusion that something must be done for the girls; for
strange as it may seem, the prudent father exists even among
the "mounting folks. " Men there realize the importance of pro-
viding suitable homes for their daughters as men do elsewhere,
and the eligible youth is as highly esteemed in those wilds as is
the much scarcer animal at a fashionable watering-place. Thus
it was that Mr. Harrison had "determinated on a dancin' party. "
True, he stood in bodily fear of the Judgment Day and the cir-
cuit-rider: but the dancing party was a rarity eminently calcu-
lated to please the young hunters of the settlements round about;
so he swallowed his qualms, to be indulged at a more convenient
season, and threw himself into the vortex of preparation with an
ardor very gratifying to the four young ladies, who had become.
imbued with sophistication at Cheatham's Cross-Roads.
Not so Mrs. Harrison: she almost expected the house to fall
and crush them, as a judgment on the wickedness of a dancing
party; for so heinous a sin, in the estimation of the greater part
of the mountain people, had not been committed among them for
many a day. Such trifles as killing a man in a quarrel, or on
suspicion of stealing a horse or wash-tub or anything that came
handy, of course do not count; but a dancing party! Mrs. Har-
rison could only fold her idle hands, and dread the heavy penalty
that must surely follow so terrible a crime.
It certainly had not the gay and lightsome aspect supposed
to be characteristic of such a scene of sin: the awkward young
mountaineers clogged heavily about in their uncouth clothes and
rough shoes, with the stolid-looking, lack-lustre maids of the
hill, to the violin's monotonous iteration of The Chicken in the
## p. 10462 (#330) ##########################################
10462
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
Bread-Trough,' or 'The Rabbit in the Pea-Patch,'-all their
grave faces as grave as ever. The music now and then changed
suddenly to one of those wild, melancholy strains sometimes heard
in old-fashioned dancing tunes, and the strange pathetic cadences.
seemed more attuned to the rhythmical dash of the waters rush-
ing over their stone barricades out in the moonlight yonder, or
to the plaintive sighs of the winds among the great dark arches
of the primeval forests, than to the movement of the heavy,
coarse feet dancing a solemn measure in the little log cabin in
Harrison's Cove. The elders, sitting in rush-bottomed chairs close
to the walls, and looking on at the merriment, well pleased despite
their religious doubts, were somewhat more lively; every now
and then a guffaw mingled with the violin's resonant strains and
the dancers' well-marked pace; the women talked to each other
with somewhat more animation than was their wont, under the
stress of the unusual excitement of a dancing party; and from
out the shed-room adjoining came an anticipative odor of more
substantial sin than the fiddle or the grave jiggling up and down
the rough floor. A little more cider too, and a very bad article
of illegally distilled whisky, were ever and anon circulated among
the pious abstainers from the dance; but the sinful votaries of
Terpsichore could brook no pause nor delay, and jogged up and
down quite intoxicated with the mirthfulness of the plaintive old
airs, and the pleasure of other motion than following the plow or
hoeing the corn.
And the moon smiled right royally on her dominion: on the
long dark ranges of mountains, and mist-filled valleys between;
on the woods and streams, and on all the half-dormant creatures
either amongst the shadow-flecked foliage or under the crystal
waters; on the long white sandy road winding in and out
through the forest; on the frowning crags of the wild ravine;
on the little bridge at the entrance of the gorge, across which a
party of eight men, heavily armed and gallantly mounted, rode
swiftly and disappeared amid the gloom of the shadows.
The sound of the galloping of horses broke suddenly on the
music and the noise of the dancing; a moment's interval, and
the door gently opened, and the gigantic form of Rick Pearson
appeared in the aperture. He was dressed, like the other mount-
aineers, in a coarse suit of brown jeans somewhat the worse for
wear, the trousers stuffed in the legs of his heavy boots; he
wore an old soft felt hat, which he did not remove immediately
## p. 10463 (#331) ##########################################
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
10463
on entering, and a pair of formidable pistols at his belt conspicu-
ously challenged attention. He had auburn hair, and a long full
beard of a lighter tint reaching almost to his waist; his com-
plexion was much tanned by the sun, and roughened by exposure
to the inclement mountain weather; his eyes were brown, deep-
set, and from under his heavy brows they looked out with quick,
sharp glances, and occasionally with a roguish twinkle; the ex-
pression of his countenance was rather good-humored: a sort of
imperious good-humor, however, the expression of a man accus-
tomed to have his own way and not to be trifled with, but able
to afford some amiability since his power is undisputed.
He stepped slowly into the apartment, placed his gun against
the wall, turned, and solemnly gazed at the dancing, while his
followers trooped in and obeyed his example. As the eight
guns, one by one, rattled against the wall, there was a startled
silence among the pious elders of the assemblage, and a sudden
disappearance of the animation that had characterized their inter-
course during the evening. Mrs. Harrison, who by reason of
flurry, and a housewifely pride in the still unrevealed treasures
of the shed-room, had well-nigh forgotten her fears, felt that the
anticipated judgment had even now descended; and in what
terrible and unexpected guise! The men turned the quids of
tobacco in their cheeks, and looked at each other in uncertainty:
but the dancers bestowed not a glance upon the new-comers; and
the musician in the corner, with his eyes half closed, his head
bent low upon the instrument, his hard, horny hand moving the
bow back and forth over the strings of the crazy old fiddle, was
utterly rapt by his own melody. At the supreme moment when
the great red beard had appeared portentously in the doorway,
and fear had frozen the heart of Mrs. Harrison within her at
the ill-omened apparition, the host was in the shed-room, filling
a broken-nosed pitcher from the cider barrel. When he re-
entered, and caught sight of the grave sunburned face with its
long red beard and sharp brown eyes, he too was dismayed for
an instant, and stood silent at the opposite door with the pitcher
in his hand. The pleasure and the possible profit of the dancing.
party, for which he had expended so much of his scanty store
of this world's goods and risked the eternal treasures laid up in
heaven, were a mere phantasm; for with Rick Pearson among
them, in an ill frame of mind and at odds with half the men in
the room, there would certainly be a fight, and in all probability
-
## p. 10464 (#332) ##########################################
10464
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
one would be killed, and the dancing party at Harrison's Cove
would be a text for the bloody-minded sermons of the circuit-
rider for all time to come.
HENRI MURGER
10481
came back at the end of the five years a pretty enough young
lady, but cold, dry, and uninteresting. Her secluded provincial
life, and the narrow and bigoted education she had received, had
filled her mind with vulgar prejudices, shrunk her imagination,
and converted her heart into a sort of organ limited to fulfilling
its function of physical balance-wheel. You might say that she
had holy water in her veins instead of blood. She received her
cousin with an icy reserve; and he lost his time whenever he
attempted to touch the chord of her recollections - recollections
of the time when they had sketched out that flirtation, in the
Paul-and-Virginia style, which is traditional between cousins of
different sexes. Still Rodolphe was very much in love with his
cousin Angela, who couldn't bear him; and learning one day
that the young lady was going shortly to the wedding-ball of
one of her friends, he made bold to promise Angela a bouquet
of violets for the ball. And after asking permission of her
father, Angela accepted her cousin's gallant offer-always on
condition that the violets should be white.
Overjoyed at his cousin's amiability, Rodolphe danced and
sang his way back to Mount St. Bernard, as he called his lodg
ing-why, will be seen presently. As he passed by a florist's in
crossing the Palais Royal, he saw some white violets in the show-
case, and was curious enough to ask their price. A presentable
bouquet could not be had for less than ten francs; there were
some that cost more.
"The deuce! " exclaimed Rodolphe; "ten francs! and only
eight days to find this fortune! It will be a hard pull, but never
mind; my cousin shall have her flowers. "
This happened in the time of Rodolphe's literary genesis, as
the transcendentalists would say. His only income at that period
was an allowance of fifteen francs a month, made him by a
friend, who after living a long while in Paris as a poet, had by
the help of influential acquaintances gained the mastership of
a provincial school. Rodolphe, who was the child of prodigality,
always spent his allowance in four days; and not choosing to
abandon his holy but not very profitable profession of elegiac poet,
lived for the rest of the month on the rare droppings from the
basket of Providence. This long Lent had no terrors for him;
he passed through it gayly, thanks to his stoical temperament,
and to the imaginary treasures which he expended every day
while waiting for the first of the month,- that Easter which
XVIII-656
## p. 10482 (#310) ##########################################
10482
HENRI MURGER
terminated his fast. He lived at this time at the very top of
one of the loftiest houses in Paris. His room was shaped like a
belvidere, and was a delicious habitation in summer; but from
October to April a perfect little Kamtchatka. The four cardinal
winds which penetrated by the four windows-there was one on
each of the four sides-made fearful music in it throughout the
cold seasons. Then, in irony as it were, there was a huge fire-
place, the immense chimney of which seemed a gate of honor
reserved for Boreas and his retinue. On the first attack of cold,
Rodolphe had recourse to an original system of warming: he cut
up successively what little furniture he had, and at the end of a
week his stock was considerably abridged,- in fact, he had only
a bed and two chairs left; it should be remarked that these three
articles were insured against fire by their nature, being of iron.
This manner of heating himself he called moving up the chimney.
It was January; and the thermometer, which indicated twelve
degrees below freezing-point on the Spectacle Quay, would have
stood two or three lower if moved to the belvidere, which
Rodolphe called indifferently Mount St. Bernard, Spitzenberg, and
Siberia. The night when he had promised his cousin the white
violets, he was seized with a great rage on returning home:
the four cardinal winds, in playing puss-in-the-corner round his
chamber, had broken a pane of glass- the third time in a fort-
night. After exploding in a volley of frantic imprecations upon
Eolus and all his family, and plugging up the breach with a
friend's portrait, Rodolphe lay down, dressed as he was, between
his two mattresses, and dreamed of white violets all night.
At the end of five days, Rodolphe had found nothing to help.
him toward realizing his dream. He must have the bouquet the
day after to-morrow. Meanwhile the thermometer fell still lower,
and the luckless poet was ready to despair as he thought that the
violets might have risen higher. Finally his good angel had pity
on him, and came to his relief as follows:
One morning, Rodolphe went to take his chance of getting a
breakfast from his friend Marcel the painter, and found him con-
versing with a woman in mourning. It was a widow who had
just lost her husband, and who wanted to know how much it
would cost to paint on the tomb which she had erected, a man's
hand, with this inscription beneath :-
"I WAIT FOR HER TO WHOM MY FAITH WAS PLIGHTED »
## p. 10483 (#311) ##########################################
HENRI MURGER
10483
To get the work at a cheaper rate, she observed to the artist
that when she was called to rejoin her husband, he would have
another hand to paint,-her hand, with a bracelet on the wrist,
and the supplementary line beneath:
«AT LENGTH, BEHOLD US THUS ONCE MORE UNITED≫
"I shall put this clause in my will," she said, "and require
that the task be intrusted to you. "
"In that case, madame," replied the artist, "I will do it at the
price you offer- but only in the hope of seeing your hand. Don't
go and forget me in your will. "
"I should like to have this as soon as possible," said the dis-
consolate one: "nevertheless, take your time to do it well; and
don't forget the scar on the thumb. I want a living hand. "
"Don't be afraid, madame, it shall be a speaking one," said
Marcel, as he bowed the widow out.
But hardly had she crossed the threshold when she returned,
saying:
"I have one thing more to ask you, sir: I should like to
have inscribed on my husband's tomb something in verse which
would tell of his good conduct and his last words. Is that good
style? »
"Very good style-they call that an epitaph - the very best
style. »
"You don't know any one who would do that for me cheap?
There is my neighbor M. Guérin, the public writer; but he asks
the clothes off my back. "
Here Rodolphe darted a look at Marcel, who understood him
at once.
"Madame," said the artist, pointing to Rodolphe, "a happy
fortune has conducted hither the very person who can be of
service to you in this mournful juncture. This gentleman is a
renowned poet; you couldn't find a better. "
"I want something very melancholy," said the widow; "and
the spelling all right. "
“Madame,” replied Marcel, "my friend spells like a book. He
had all the prizes at school. "
"Indeed! " said the widow: "my grandnephew has just had
a prize too; he is only seven years old. ”
"A very forward child, madame. "
«<
But are you sure that the gentleman can make very melan-
choly verses? "
## p. 10484 (#312) ##########################################
10484
HENRI MURGER
"No one better, madame, for he has undergone much sorrow
in his life. The papers always find fault with his verses for
being too melancholy. "
"What! " cried the widow, "do they talk about him in the
papers? He must know quite as much, then, as M. Guérin, the
public writer. "
"And a great deal more. Apply to him, madame, and you
will not repent of it. "
After having explained to Rodolphe the sort of inscription
in verse which she wished to place on her husband's tomb, the
widow agreed to give Rodolphe ten francs if it suited her—only
she must have it very soon. The poet promised she should have
it the very next day.
"Oh, good genius of an Artemisia! " cried Rodolphe, as the
widow disappeared. "I promise you that you shall be suited-
full allowance of melancholy lyrics, better got up than a duchess,
orthography and all. Good old lady! May Heaven reward you
with a life of a hundred and seven years-equal to that of good
brandy! "
"I object," said Marcel.
"That's true," said Rodolphe: "I forgot that you have her
hand to paint, and that so long a life would make you lose
money;" and lifting his hands he gravely ejaculated, "Heaven,
do not grant my prayer! Ah! " he continued, "I was in jolly
good luck to come here. "
"By the way," asked Marcel, "what did you want? "
"I recollect—and now especially that I have to pass the
night in making these verses, I cannot do without what I came
to ask you for: namely, first, some dinner; secondly, tobacco and
candle; thirdly, your polar-bear costume. "
"To go to the masked ball? »
"No indeed; but as you see me here, I am as much frozen
up as the grand army in the retreat from Russia. Certainly my
green frock coat and Scotch plaid trousers are very pretty, but
much too summery: they would do to live under the equator,
but for one who lodges near the Pole, as I do, a white-bear skin
is more suitable,—indeed, I may say necessary. "
"Take the fur! " said Marcel: "it's a good idea; warm as a
dish of charcoal,—you will be like a roll in an oven in it. ”
Rodolphe was already inside the animal skin.
"Now," said he, "the thermometer is going to be sold a
trifle. "
## p. 10485 (#313) ##########################################
HENRI MURGER
10485
"Are you going out so? " said Marcel to his friend, after they
had finished an ambiguous repast served in a penny dish.
"I just am," replied Rodolphe: "do you think I care for pub-
lic opinion? Besides, to-day is the beginning of carnival. "
He went half over Paris with all the gravity of the beast
whose skin he occupied. Only on passing before a thermometer
in an optician's window, he couldn't help taking a sight at it.
Having returned home, not without causing great terror to
his porter, Rodolphe lit his candle, carefully surrounding it with
an extempore shade of paper to guard it against the malice of
the winds, and set to work at once. But he was not long in
perceiving that if his body was almost entirely protected from
the cold, his hands were not; a terrible numbness seized his
fingers, which let the pen fall.
"The bravest man cannot struggle against the elements," said
the poet, falling back helpless in his chair. "Cæsar passed the
Rubicon, but he could not have passed the Beresina. "
All at once he uttered a cry of joy from the depths of his
bearskin breast, and jumped up so suddenly as to overturn some
of his ink on its snowy fur. He had an idea!
Rodolphe drew from beneath his bed a considerable mass
of papers, among which were a dozen huge manuscripts of his
famous drama, 'The Avenger. ' This drama, on which he had
spent two years, had been made, unmade, and remade so often
that all the copies together weighed fully fifteen pounds. He put
the last version on one side, and dragged the others towards the
fireplace.
"I was sure that with patience I should dispose of it some-
how," he exclaimed. "What a pretty fagot! If I could have fore-
seen what would happen, I could have written a prologue, and
then I should have more fuel to-night. But one can't foresee
everything. " He lit some leaves of the manuscript, in the flame
of which he thawed his hands. In five minutes the first act of
'The Avenger' was over, and Rodolphe had written three verses
of his epitaph.
It would be impossible to describe the astonishment of the
four winds when they felt fire in the chimney.
"It's an illusion," quoth Boreas, as he amused himself by
brushing back the hair of Rodolphe's bearskin.
"Let's blow down the pipe," suggested another wind, "and
make the chimney smoke. " But just as they were about to
## p. 10486 (#314) ##########################################
10486
HENRI MURGER
plague the poor poet, the south wind perceived Monsieur Arago
at a window of the Observatory threatening them with his finger;
so they all made off, for fear of being put under arrest. Mean-
while the second act of The Avenger' was going off with im-
mense success, and Rodolphe had written ten lines.
But he only
achieved two during the third act.
"I always thought that third act too short," said Rodolphe:
"luckily the next one will take longer; there are twenty-three
scenes in it, including the great one of the throne. " As the last
flourish of the throne-scene went up the chimney in fiery flakes,
Rodolphe had only three couplets more to write. "Now for the
last act. This is all monologue. It may last five minutes. " The
catastrophe flashed and smoldered, and Rodolphe in a magnifi-
cent transport of poetry had enshrined in lyric stanzas the last
words of the illustrious deceased. "There is enough left for
a second representation," said he, pushing the remainder of the
manuscript under his bed.
At eight o'clock next evening, Mademoiselle Angela entered
the ball-room; in her hand was a splendid nosegay of white vio-
lets, and among them two budding roses, white also. During the
whole night, men and women were complimenting the young girl
on her bouquet. Angela could not but feel a little grateful to her
cousin, who had procured this little triumph for her vanity; and
perhaps she would have thought more of him but for the gallant
persecutions of one of the bride's relatives, who had danced sev-
eral times with her. He was a fair-haired youth, with a magnifi-
cent mustache curled up at the ends, to hook innocent hearts.
The bouquet had been pulled to pieces by everybody; only the
two white roses were left. The young man asked Angela for
them; she refused-only to forget them after the ball on a
bench, whence the fair-haired youth hastened to take them.
At that moment it was fourteen degrees below freezing-point
in Rodolphe's belvidere. He was leaning against his window
looking out at the lights in the ball-room, where his cousin
Angela, who didn't care for him, was dancing.
## p. 10447 (#315) ##########################################
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SE MUSSET.
## p. 10451 (#319) ##########################################
10487
―――――――
ALFRED DE MUSSET
(1810-1857)
BY ALCÉE FORTIER
T
HE three greatest French poets of the nineteenth century are
Lamartine, Hugo, and Musset. The first one touches us
deeply by his harmonious and simple verses; the second
impresses us with the force of his genius; and the third is some-
times light and gay, and sometimes intensely passionate and sad.
Musset wrote several poems which cannot be surpassed by any in
the French language. He was highly nervous and sensitive, and
lacked Lamartine's spirit of patriotism and Hugo's well-balanced
mind. He was unfortunate, and led a reckless life, committing ex-
cesses which nearly destroyed his genius, and rendered it sterile for
the last ten years of his existence. It is, however, to his nervous
temperament—to the fact that he felt so deeply the misfortunes of
love that we owe his finest works. In the beginning of his career
-in 1828, when he was eighteen years old - we see him admitted
at Hugo's house, and considered by the poets of the famous Cénacle,
by the disciples of the Master, as their favorite child, as a Romantic
poet of great promise. He published at that time in a newspaper at
Dijon a poem, 'The Dream,' which was warmly received by his
brother poets and protectors. In 1830 appeared his first volume,
'Tales of Spain and Italy,' which are rather immoral in tone, and
somewhat ironical. The author followed still the precepts of the
Romantic school; but one may see already that he is not a true dis-
ciple of Hugo, not an idolater like Gautier. His famous 'Ballad to
the Moon' was intended as a huge joke, and is indeed wonderful in
its eccentricity. Musset speaks with great irreverence of the celes-
tial body which shone on Lamartine's immortal Lake. '
――――
The 'Ballad to the Moon' created a great sensation; and to this
day, Musset is better known to many people by his earliest poems
than by his magnificent 'Nights. ' It is true that his 'Tales of Spain
and Italy' are entrancing, in spite of their immorality, and contain
some beautiful verses. The last lines of Don Poez' are full of pas-
sion; but most of these poems are ironical. Portia is white-armed
like Andromache, but she is not faithful to her husband like Hector's
wife. The Chestnuts out of the Fire' is, without doubt, a parody
## p. 10452 (#320) ##########################################
WILHELM MÜLLER
10452
Away, away
From my margin stay,
Wicked maiden, lest from thy shadow he wake!
But throw me down
Thy kerchief brown,
So for his eyes I'll a bandage make!
Now good-night, now good-night!
Till all's made right,
Forget all thy hopes, and forget thy fate!
The moon shines bright,
The mists take flight,
And the heaven above me how wide and how great!
VINETA
F
ROM the sea's deep hollow faintly pealing,
Far-off evening bells come sad and slow;
Faintly rise, the wondrous tale revealing
Of the old enchanted town below.
On the bosom of the flood reclining,
Ruined arch and wall and broken spire,
Down beneath the watery mirror shining,
Gleam and flash in flakes of golden fire.
And the boatman, who at twilight hour,
Once that magic vision shall have seen,
Heedless how the crags may round him lower,
Evermore will haunt the charmed scene.
From the heart's deep hollow faintly pealing,
Far I hear them, bell-notes sad and slow,
Ah!
a wild and wondrous tale revealing
Of the drowned wreck of love below.
There a world in loveliness decaying
Lingers yet in beauty ere it die;
Phantom forms across my senses playing,
Flash like golden fire-flakes from the sky.
Lights are gleaming, fairy bells are ringing,
And I long to plunge and wander free
Where I hear those angel-voices singing
In those ancient towers below the sea.
Translation of J. A. Froude.
I
2
8
## p. 10453 (#321) ##########################################
10453
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
(CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK)
(1850-)
W
HEN Miss Murfree's first work appeared, not only was her
pseudonym, Charles Egbert Craddock, accepted by her edi-
tors without suspicion as her proper name, but the public
was equally deceived. The firm, quiet touch, the matter wholly free
from subjectiveness, the robust humor, and the understanding of
masculine life, had no trace of femininity.
Her first book, 'Where the Battle was
Fought,' which finally appeared in 1884,
was the effort of a very young writer, con-
taining more of promise than fulfillment,
though the peculiarities of style and char-
acter were prophetic of her later manner.
No publisher desired it until the great favor
accorded to 'In the Tennessee Mountains'
opened the way. In the maturer story was
struck a more confident note. Miss Murfree
had found her field, and henceforth the
Tennessee mountains and their inhabitants
were to occupy her descriptive powers.
These men and women are for the first part
rude people, kept in unlikeness to the outside world not only by their
distance from civilization, but by the mist of tradition in which they
live. Here is a colony of people who have their own ideas of eti-
quette, and as strict a code as that of Versailles in the time of
Louis XIV. . - their own notions of comfort and wealth, and their own
civil and moral laws. Here they dwell in their mountain fastnesses,
distilling illicit whisky with as clear a conscience as they plant the
corn from which they make it, or as the Northern farmer makes
cider from his apples-in their opinion an exact parallel. Passion-
ately religious, full of picturesque poetry,-which they learn from
the Bible, their only familiar book,-no wonder the "Prophet of the
Great Smoky Mountain" thrilled his audiences when he described the
scenes enacted in the Old Testament as having been transacted on
the very hillsides where he preached, and that the majestic imagery
of the Book was heightened by the majestic surroundings.
MARY N. MURFREE
## p. 10454 (#322) ##########################################
10454
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
But good material," in a literary sense, as are the Tennessee
mountaineers, no sort of idealization nor surface acquaintance, how-
ever aided by artistic intuition, could have made them natural to the
outside world. It was the office of one who knew them as Miss Mur-
free knew them, not only from the inside view but the view of a
social superior, which enabled her to give the picture a perspective.
Nowhere is this gift better indicated than in the artistic story 'Drift-
ing down Lost Creek,' in which the elements of interest are thor-
oughly worked up, the motive of the delicate romance touched with
a perfect consciousness of the author's audience; while there is such
a regard for the verities, that the whole story turns on the every-
day feminine loyalty of a mountain girl to her lover. 'On Big Injin
Mountain' is an episode of a sturdier kind, more dramatic both in
matter and in manner than 'Drifting down Lost Creek'; but at its
close, when the rude mountaineers display a tenderness for the man
they have misunderstood, the reader, gentle or simple, is perforce
thrilled into sympathy, for this is a passage to which the better
part of human nature, wherever found, responds.
-
In Miss Murfree's writings we are perhaps too often reminded of
the pictorial art which she undoubtedly possesses, by the effect she
evolves from the use of words. She has a clear vision and a dra-
matic temperament; and it is a temptation, not always resisted, to
emphasize physical surroundings in order to heighten situations. The
moment a lull occurs in the action of her personages, the mountain
solitudes come in to play their part, the sylvan glades, the chro-
matic hues, the foaming cataracts, the empurpled shadows. Even the
wild animals assume the functions of dramatis personæ, and are an
inarticulate chorus to interpret the emotions of the human actors.
But it is not given to a redundant and enthusiastic nature, a
youthful nature at least in her earlier stories,- for Miss Murfree was
born about 1850 in the township of Murfreesborough, Tennessee, a
town called after her respected and influential family,- always to use
one word when two or three seem to do as well. The normal mind
is more active in the details of human life than in the details of
landscape; but Miss Murfree, although she has not always accepted
this as a fact, has painted scenes where she has perfectly adjusted
her characters and their surroundings. In 'Old Sledge at the Settle-
mint,' the picture of the group of card-players throwing their cards
on the inverted splint basket by the light of the tallow dip and a
pitch-pine fire, while the moon shines without, and the uncanny
echoes ring through the rocks and woods, is as graphic as one of
Spagnoletto's paintings. And she has done a gentler and even more
sympathetic service in depicting the lonely, self-reliant, half mournful
life of the mountain women whom she loves; particularly the young
## p. 10455 (#323) ##########################################
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
10455
women, pure, sweet, naïve, and innocent of all evil. The older women
"hold out wasted hands to the years as they pass,-holding them out
always, and always empty"; but in drawing her old women, Miss
Murfree lightens her somewhat sombre pictures by their shrewd fun
and keen knowledge of human nature. Mrs. Purvine is a stroke of
genius.
Nor could Miss Murfree's stories have won their wide popularity
with an American audience without a sense of huinor, which is to her
landscape as the sun to the mist. Her mountaineer who has been
restrained from killing the suspected horse-thief is rather relieved
than otherwise, having still a sense of justice: "The bay filly ain't
such a killin' matter nohow; ef it was the roan three-year-old
'twould be different. "
The novels which have most added to Miss Murfree's reputation,
perhaps, are 'In the Tennessee Mountains,' 'The Prophet of the Great
Smoky Mountain,' and 'In the Clouds,'-all stories of the Tennessee
mountains, told in her vigorous, dramatic manner.
THE DANCIN' PARTY AT HARRISON'S COVE
From In the Tennessee Mountains. Copyright 1884, by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
UR ye see, Mis' Darley, them Harrison folks over yander ter
the Cove hev determinated on a dancin' party. "
"F"
The drawling tones fell unheeded on old Mr. Kenyon's
ear, as he sat on the broad hotel piazza of the New Helvetia
Springs, and gazed with meditative eyes at the fair August sky.
An early moon was riding, clear and full, over this wild spur of
the Alleghanies; the stars were few and very faint; even the
great Scorpio lurked vaguely outlined above the wooded ranges;
and the white mist that filled the long, deep, narrow valley be-
tween the parallel lines of mountains, shimmered with opalescent
gleams.
All the world of the watering-place had converged to that
focus the ball-room; and the cool, moonlit piazzas were nearly
deserted. The fell determination of the "Harrison folks to
give a dancing party made no impression on the preoccupied old
gentleman. Another voice broke his revery, -a soft, clear, well-
modulated voice; and he started and turned his head as his
own name was called, and his niece, Mrs. Darley, came to the
window.
"Uncle Ambrose, are you there? So glad! I was afraid
you were down at the summer-house, where I hear the children
―――――
## p. 10456 (#324) ##########################################
10456
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
singing. Do come here a moment, please. This is Mrs. Johns,
who brings the Indian peaches to sell-you know the Indian
peaches? »
Mr. Kenyon knew the Indian peaches; the dark-crimson fruit
streaked with still darker lines, and full of blood-red juice, which
he had meditatively munched that very afternoon. Mr. Kenyon
knew the Indian peaches right well. He wondered, however,
what had brought Mrs. Johns back in so short a time; for
although the principal industry of the mountain people about the
New Helvetia Springs is selling fruit to the summer sojourners,
it is not customary to come twice on the same day, nor to
appear at all after nightfall.
Mrs. Darley proceeded to explain.
"Mrs. Johns's husband is ill, and wants us to send him some
medicine. "
Mr. Kenyon rose, threw away the stump of his cigar, and
entered the room. "How long has he been ill, Mrs. Johns? »
he asked dismally.
Mr. Kenyon always spoke lugubriously, and he was a dismal-
looking old man. Not more cheerful was Mrs. Johns: she was
tall and lank, and with such a face as one never sees except in
these mountains,- elongated, sallow, thin, with pathetic, deeply
sunken eyes, and high cheek-bones, and so settled an expression
of hopeless melancholy that it must be that naught but care
and suffering had been her lot; holding out wasted hands to the
years as they pass,- holding them out always, and always empty.
She wore a shabby, faded calico, and spoke with the peculiar
expressionless drawl of the mountaineer. She was a wonderful
contrast to Mrs. Darley, all furbelows and flounces, with her
fresh, smooth face and soft hair, and plump, round arms half
revealed by the flowing sleeves of her thin black dress. Mrs.
Darley was in mourning, and therefore did not affect the ball-
room. At this moment, on benevolent thoughts intent, she was
engaged in uncorking sundry small phials, gazing inquiringly at
their labels, and shaking their contents.
In reply to Mr. Kenyon's question, Mrs. Johns, sitting on the
extreme edge of a chair, and fanning herself with a pink calico
sun-bonnet, talked about her husband, and a misery in his side.
and in his back, and how he felt it "a-comin' on nigh on ter a
week ago. " Mr. Kenyon expressed sympathy, and was surprised
by the announcement that Mrs. Johns considered her husband's
## p. 10457 (#325) ##########################################
•
10457
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
illness "a blessin', 'kase ef he war able ter git out'n his bed,
he 'lowed ter go down ter Harrison's Cove ter the dancin' party,
'kase Rick Pearson war a-goin' ter be thar, an' hed said ez how
none o' the Johnses should come. "
"What, Rick Pearson, that terrible outlaw! " exclaimed Mrs.
Darley, with wide-open blue eyes. She had read in the news-
papers sundry thrilling accounts of a noted horse-thief and out-
law, who with a gang of kindred spirits defied justice and roamed
certain sparsely populated mountainous counties at his own wild
will; and she was not altogether without a feeling of fear as she
heard of his proximity to the New Helvetia Springs,-not fear
for life or limb, because she was practical-minded enough to re-
flect that the sojourners and employés of the watering-place would
far outnumber the outlaw's troop, but fear that a pair of shiny.
bay ponies, Castor and Pollux, would fall victims to the crafty
wiles of the expert horse thief.
"I think I have heard something of a difficulty between your
people and Rick Pearson," said old Mr. Kenyon. "Has a peace
never been patched up between them? »
«<
"N-o," drawled Mrs. Johns, same as it always war. My
old man'll never believe but what Rick Pearson stole that thar
bay filly we lost 'bout five year ago. But I don't believe he done
it: plenty other folks around is ez mean ez Rick, leastways mos'
ez mean; plenty mean enough ter steal a horse, anyhow. Rick
say he never tuk the filly; say he war a-goin' ter shoot off the
nex' man's head ez say so. Rick say he'd ruther give two bay
fillies than hev a man say he tuk a horse ez he never tuk. Rick
say ez how he kin stand up ter what he does do, but it's these
hyar lies on him what kills him out. But ye know, Mis' Darley,
ye know yerself, he never give nobody two bay fillies in this
world, an' what's more he's never goin' ter. My old man an' my
boy Kossute talks on 'bout that thar bay filly like she war stole
yestiddy, an' 'twar five year ago an' better; an' when they hearn
ez how Rick Pearson hed showed that red head o' his'n on this
hyar mounting las' week, they war fightin' mad, an' would hev
lit out fur the gang sure, 'ceptin' they hed been gone down the
mounting fur two days. An' my son Kossute, he sent Rick word
that he had better keep out'n gunshot o' these hyar woods; that
he didn't want no better mark than that red head o' his'n, an'
he could hit it two mile off. An' Rick Pearson, he sent Kossute
word that he would kill him fur his sass the very nex' time he
## p. 10458 (#326) ##########################################
10458
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
see him, an' ef he don't want a bullet in that pumpkin head o'
his'n he hed better keep away from that dancin' party what the
Harrisons hev laid off ter give, 'kase Rick say he's a-goin' ter it
hisself, an' is a-goin' ter dance too; he ain't been invited, Mis'
Darley, but Rick don't keer fur that. He is a-goin' anyhow; an'
he say ez how he ain't a-goin' ter let Kossute come, 'count o'
Kossute's sass, an' the fuss they've all made 'bout that bay filly
that war stole five year ago-'twar five year an' better. But
Rick say ez how he is goin', fur all he ain't got no invite, an'
is a-goin' ter dance too: 'kase you know, Mis' Darley, it's a-goin'
ter be a dancin' party; the Harrisons hev determinated on that.
Them gals of theirn air mos' crazed 'bout a dancin' party. They
ain't been a bit of account sence they went ter Cheatham's Cross-
Roads ter see thar gran'mother, an' picked up all them queer
new notions. So the Harrisons hev determinated on a dancin'
party; an' Rick say ez how he is goin' ter dance too: but Jule,
she say ez how she know thar ain't a gal on the mounting ez
would dance with him; but I ain't so sure 'bout that, Mis' Dar-
ley: gals air cur'ous critters, ye know yerself; thar's no sort o'
countin' on 'em; they'll do one thing one time, an' another thing
nex' time; ye can't put no dependence in 'em. But Jule say ef
he kin git Mandy Tyler ter dance with him, it's the mos' he
kin do, an' the gang'll be nowhar. Mebbe he kin git Mandy ter
dance with him, 'kase the other boys say ez how none o' them is
a-goin' ter ax her ter dance, 'count of the trick she played on
'em down ter the Wilkins settlemint-las' month, war it? no,
'twar two month ago, an' better; but the boys ain't forgot how
scandalous she done 'em, an' none of 'em is a-goin' ter ax her ter
dance. "
'Why, what did she do? " exclaimed Mrs. Darley, surprised.
"She came here to sell peaches one day, and I thought her such
a nice, pretty, well-behaved girl. "
"Waal, she hev got mighty quiet say-nuthin' sort'n ways, Mis'
Darley, but that thar gal do behave rediculous. Down thar ter
the Wilkins settlemint,- ye know it's 'bout two mile or two
mile'n a half from hyar,-waal, all the gals walked down thar
ter the party an hour by sun; but when the boys went down
they tuk thar horses, ter give the gals a ride home behind 'em.
Waal, every boy axed his gal ter ride while the party war goin'
on, an' when 'twar all over they all set out fur ter come home.
Waal, this hyar Mandy Tyler is a mighty favorite 'mongst the
## p. 10459 (#327) ##########################################
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
10459
boys, they ain't got no sense, ye know, Mis' Darley, -an' stid-
dier one of 'em axin' her ter ride home, thar war five of 'em
axed her ter ride, ef ye'll believe me; an' what do ye think she
done, Mis' Darley? She tole all five of 'em yes; an' when the
party war over, she war the last ter go, an' when she started
out'n the door, thar war all five of them boys a-standin' thar
waitin' fur her, an' every one a-holdin' his horse by the bridle,
an' none of 'em knowed who the others war a-waitin' fur. An'
this hyar Mandy Tyler, when she got ter the door an' seen 'em
all a-standin' thar, never said one word, jest walked right through
'mongst 'em, an' set out fur the mounting on foot, with all them
five boys a-followin' an' a-leadin' thar horses, an' a-quarrelin'
enough ter take off each other's heads 'bout which one war
a-goin' ter ride with her; which none of 'em did, Mis' Darley,
fur I hearn ez how the whole layout footed it all the way ter
New Helveshy. An' thar would hev been a fight 'mongst 'em,
'ceptin' her brother, Jacob Tyler, went along with 'em, an' tried
ter keep the peace atwixt 'em. An' Mis' Darley, all them mar-
ried folks down thar at the party-them folks in the Wilkins
settlemint is the biggest fools, sure when all them married
folks come out ter the door, an' see the way Mandy Tyler hed
treated them boys, they jest hollered and laffed an' thought it
war mighty smart an' funny in Mandy; but she never say a
word till she kem up the mounting, an' I never hearn ez how
she say anything then. An' now the boys all say none of 'em
is a-goin' ter ax her ter dance, ter pay her back fur them fool
airs of hern. But Kossute say he'll dance with her ef none the
rest will. Kossute, he thought 'twar all mighty funny too,-he's
sech a fool 'bout gals, Kossute is,- but Jule, she thought ez how
'twar scandalous. "
--
-
Mrs. Darley listened in amused surprise: that these mount-
ain wilds could sustain a first-class coquette was an idea that
had not hitherto entered her mind; however, "that thar Mandy»
seemed, in Mrs. Johns's opinion at least, to merit the unenviable
distinction, and the party at the Wilkins settlement and the pro-
spective gayety of Harrison's Cove awakened the same sentiments
in her heart and mind as do the more ambitious germans and
kettle-drums of the lowland cities in the heart and mind of
Mrs. Grundy. Human nature is the same everywhere, and the
Wilkins settlement is a microcosm. The metropolitan centres,
stripped of the civilization of wealth, fashion, and culture, would
## p. 10460 (#328) ##########################################
10460
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
present only the bare skeleton of humanity outlined in Mrs.
Johns's talk of Harrison's Cove, the Wilkins settlement, the en-
mities and scandals and sorrows and misfortunes of the mountain
ridge. As the absurd resemblance developed, Mrs. Darley could
not forbear a smile. Mrs. Johns looked up with a momentary
expression of surprise; the story presented no humorous phase
to her perceptions, but she too smiled a little as she repeated,
"Scandalous, ain't it? " and proceeded in the same lack-lustre
tone as before.
"Yes,- Kossute say ez how he'll dance with her ef none the
rest will, fur Kossute say ez how he hev laid off ter dance, Mis'
Darley; an' when I ax him what he thinks will become of his
soul ef he dances, he say the Devil may crack away at it, an' ef
he kin hit it he's welcome; fur soul or no soul he's a-goin' ter
dance. Kossute is a-fixin' of hisself this very minute ter go; but
I am verily afeard the boy'll be slaughtered, Mis' Darley, 'kase
thar is goin' ter be a fight, an' ye never in all yer life hearn
sech sass ez Kossute and Rick Pearson done sent word ter each
other. "
Mr. Kenyon expressed some surprise that she should fear for
so young a fellow as Kossuth. Surely," he said, "the man is
not brute enough to injure a mere boy: your son is a mere boy. "
"That's so," Mrs. Johns drawled. "Kossute ain't more'n
twenty year old, an' Rick Pearson is double that ef he is a day;
but ye see it's the firearms ez makes Kossute more'n a match
fur him, 'kase Kossute is the best shot on the mounting, an' Rick
knows that in a shootin' fight Kossute's better able ter take keer
of hisself an' hurt somebody else nor anybody. Kossute's more
likely ter hurt Rick nor Rick is ter hurt him in a shootin' fight;
but ef Rick didn't hurt him, an' he war ter shoot Rick, the
gang would tear him ter pieces in a minute; and 'mongst 'em I'm
actially afeard they'll slaughter the boy. "
Mr. Kenyon looked even graver than was his wont upon re-
ceiving this information, but said no more; and after giving Mrs.
Johns the febrifuge she wished for her husband, he returned to
his seat on the piazza.
«<
Mrs. Darley watched him with some little indignation as he
proceeded to light a fresh cigar. "How cold and unsympathetic
Uncle Ambrose is," she said to herself. And after condoling
effusively with Mrs. Johns on her apprehensions for her son's
safety, she returned to the gossips in the hotel parlor; and Mrs.
## p. 10461 (#329) ##########################################
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
10461
Johns, with her pink calico sun-bonnet on her head, went her way
in the brilliant summer moonlight.
The clear lustre shone white upon all the dark woods and
chasms and flashing waters that lay between the New Helvetia
Springs and the wide, deep ravine called Harrison's Cove; where
from a rude log hut the vibrations of a violin, and the quick
throb of dancing feet, already mingled with the impetuous rush
of a mountain stream close by, and the weird night sounds of
the hills, the cry of birds among the tall trees, the stir of the
wind, the monotonous chanting of frogs at the water-side, the
long, drowsy drone of the nocturnal insects, the sudden faint
blast of a distant hunter's horn, and the far baying of hounds.
--
Mr. Harrison had four marriageable daughters, and had arrived
at the conclusion that something must be done for the girls; for
strange as it may seem, the prudent father exists even among
the "mounting folks. " Men there realize the importance of pro-
viding suitable homes for their daughters as men do elsewhere,
and the eligible youth is as highly esteemed in those wilds as is
the much scarcer animal at a fashionable watering-place. Thus
it was that Mr. Harrison had "determinated on a dancin' party. "
True, he stood in bodily fear of the Judgment Day and the cir-
cuit-rider: but the dancing party was a rarity eminently calcu-
lated to please the young hunters of the settlements round about;
so he swallowed his qualms, to be indulged at a more convenient
season, and threw himself into the vortex of preparation with an
ardor very gratifying to the four young ladies, who had become.
imbued with sophistication at Cheatham's Cross-Roads.
Not so Mrs. Harrison: she almost expected the house to fall
and crush them, as a judgment on the wickedness of a dancing
party; for so heinous a sin, in the estimation of the greater part
of the mountain people, had not been committed among them for
many a day. Such trifles as killing a man in a quarrel, or on
suspicion of stealing a horse or wash-tub or anything that came
handy, of course do not count; but a dancing party! Mrs. Har-
rison could only fold her idle hands, and dread the heavy penalty
that must surely follow so terrible a crime.
It certainly had not the gay and lightsome aspect supposed
to be characteristic of such a scene of sin: the awkward young
mountaineers clogged heavily about in their uncouth clothes and
rough shoes, with the stolid-looking, lack-lustre maids of the
hill, to the violin's monotonous iteration of The Chicken in the
## p. 10462 (#330) ##########################################
10462
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
Bread-Trough,' or 'The Rabbit in the Pea-Patch,'-all their
grave faces as grave as ever. The music now and then changed
suddenly to one of those wild, melancholy strains sometimes heard
in old-fashioned dancing tunes, and the strange pathetic cadences.
seemed more attuned to the rhythmical dash of the waters rush-
ing over their stone barricades out in the moonlight yonder, or
to the plaintive sighs of the winds among the great dark arches
of the primeval forests, than to the movement of the heavy,
coarse feet dancing a solemn measure in the little log cabin in
Harrison's Cove. The elders, sitting in rush-bottomed chairs close
to the walls, and looking on at the merriment, well pleased despite
their religious doubts, were somewhat more lively; every now
and then a guffaw mingled with the violin's resonant strains and
the dancers' well-marked pace; the women talked to each other
with somewhat more animation than was their wont, under the
stress of the unusual excitement of a dancing party; and from
out the shed-room adjoining came an anticipative odor of more
substantial sin than the fiddle or the grave jiggling up and down
the rough floor. A little more cider too, and a very bad article
of illegally distilled whisky, were ever and anon circulated among
the pious abstainers from the dance; but the sinful votaries of
Terpsichore could brook no pause nor delay, and jogged up and
down quite intoxicated with the mirthfulness of the plaintive old
airs, and the pleasure of other motion than following the plow or
hoeing the corn.
And the moon smiled right royally on her dominion: on the
long dark ranges of mountains, and mist-filled valleys between;
on the woods and streams, and on all the half-dormant creatures
either amongst the shadow-flecked foliage or under the crystal
waters; on the long white sandy road winding in and out
through the forest; on the frowning crags of the wild ravine;
on the little bridge at the entrance of the gorge, across which a
party of eight men, heavily armed and gallantly mounted, rode
swiftly and disappeared amid the gloom of the shadows.
The sound of the galloping of horses broke suddenly on the
music and the noise of the dancing; a moment's interval, and
the door gently opened, and the gigantic form of Rick Pearson
appeared in the aperture. He was dressed, like the other mount-
aineers, in a coarse suit of brown jeans somewhat the worse for
wear, the trousers stuffed in the legs of his heavy boots; he
wore an old soft felt hat, which he did not remove immediately
## p. 10463 (#331) ##########################################
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
10463
on entering, and a pair of formidable pistols at his belt conspicu-
ously challenged attention. He had auburn hair, and a long full
beard of a lighter tint reaching almost to his waist; his com-
plexion was much tanned by the sun, and roughened by exposure
to the inclement mountain weather; his eyes were brown, deep-
set, and from under his heavy brows they looked out with quick,
sharp glances, and occasionally with a roguish twinkle; the ex-
pression of his countenance was rather good-humored: a sort of
imperious good-humor, however, the expression of a man accus-
tomed to have his own way and not to be trifled with, but able
to afford some amiability since his power is undisputed.
He stepped slowly into the apartment, placed his gun against
the wall, turned, and solemnly gazed at the dancing, while his
followers trooped in and obeyed his example. As the eight
guns, one by one, rattled against the wall, there was a startled
silence among the pious elders of the assemblage, and a sudden
disappearance of the animation that had characterized their inter-
course during the evening. Mrs. Harrison, who by reason of
flurry, and a housewifely pride in the still unrevealed treasures
of the shed-room, had well-nigh forgotten her fears, felt that the
anticipated judgment had even now descended; and in what
terrible and unexpected guise! The men turned the quids of
tobacco in their cheeks, and looked at each other in uncertainty:
but the dancers bestowed not a glance upon the new-comers; and
the musician in the corner, with his eyes half closed, his head
bent low upon the instrument, his hard, horny hand moving the
bow back and forth over the strings of the crazy old fiddle, was
utterly rapt by his own melody. At the supreme moment when
the great red beard had appeared portentously in the doorway,
and fear had frozen the heart of Mrs. Harrison within her at
the ill-omened apparition, the host was in the shed-room, filling
a broken-nosed pitcher from the cider barrel. When he re-
entered, and caught sight of the grave sunburned face with its
long red beard and sharp brown eyes, he too was dismayed for
an instant, and stood silent at the opposite door with the pitcher
in his hand. The pleasure and the possible profit of the dancing.
party, for which he had expended so much of his scanty store
of this world's goods and risked the eternal treasures laid up in
heaven, were a mere phantasm; for with Rick Pearson among
them, in an ill frame of mind and at odds with half the men in
the room, there would certainly be a fight, and in all probability
-
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10464
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE
one would be killed, and the dancing party at Harrison's Cove
would be a text for the bloody-minded sermons of the circuit-
rider for all time to come.
