"Oh, yes!" said f.a.n.n.y; "why don"t you!"
"I will!"
"Very likely!"
"I"m glad you agree with me; but here is the _considerate_."
And turning the leaf, he read--
"I SAY, OLD FELLOW:
"May your course in life be serene and happy; and may your friends be as numerous and devoted as the flies and mosquitos in the Eastern Range.
"Your friend, till death,
"The fact is," said Ralph, in explanation, "that this is probably the finest wish in the book."
"Were there many flies?" said f.a.n.n.y,
"Myriads!"
"And mosquitos?"
"Like sands on the seash.o.r.e, and of a size which it is dreadful to reflect upon even now."
"Very large?"
"You may judge, my dear f.a.n.n.y, when I tell you, that one of them flew against a scallop of oysters which the boots was bringing to my apartment, and with a single flap of his wings dashed it from the hand of the boots--it was dreadful; but let us get on: this is the last I will read."
And checking Miss f.a.n.n.y"s intended outburst at the oyster story, Mr.
Ralph read on--
"You ask me, my dear Ashley, to give you some advice, and write down my good wishes, if I have any in your direction. Of course I have, my dear fellow, and here goes. My advice first, then, is, never to drink more than three bottles of wine at one sitting--this is enough; and six bottles is, therefore, according to the most reliable rules of logic--which I hate--too much. You might do it if you had my head; but you havn"t, and there"s an end of it. Next, if you want to bet at races, ascertain which horse is the general "favorite," and as our friend, the ostler, at the Raleigh says--go agin him. Human nature invariably goes wrong; and this a wise man will never forget. Next, if you have the playing mania, never play with anybody but gentlemen. You will thus have the consolation of reflecting that you have been ruined in good company, and, in addition, had your pleasure;--blacklegs ruin a man with a vulgar rapidity which is positively shocking. Next, my dear boy--though this I need"nt tell you--never look at Greek after leaving college, or Moral Philosophy, or Mathematics proper. It interferes with a man"s education, which commences when he has recovered from the disadvantages of college. Lastly, my dear fellow, never fall in love with any woman--if you do, you will inevitably repent it. This world would get on quietly without them--as long as it lasted--and I need"nt tell you that the Trojan War, and other interesting events, never would have happened, but for bright eyes, and sighs, and that sort of thing. If you are obliged to marry, because you have an establishment, write the names of your lady acquaintances on sc.r.a.ps of paper, put them in your hat, and draw one forth at random. This admirable plan saves a great deal of trouble, and you will inevitably get a wife who, in all things, will make you miserable.
"Follow this advice, my dear fellow, and you will arrive at the summit of happiness. I trust I shall see you at the Oaks at the occasion of my marriage--you know, to my lovely cousin. She"s a charming girl, and we would be delighted to see you.
"Ever, my dear boy,
"Your friend
"and pitcher,
"Did anybody--"
"Ever?" asked Ralph, laughing.
"Such inconsistency!" said f.a.n.n.y.
"Not a bit of it!"
"Not inconsistent!"
"Why, no."
"Explain why not, if you please, sir! I wonder if--"
"That cloud does not threaten a storm, and whether I am not hungry?"
said Ralph, finishing Miss f.a.n.n.y"s sentence, putting the alb.u.m in his pocket, and attacking the baskets.
"Come, my dear cousin, let us, after partaking of mental food, a.s.sault the material! By Jove! what a horn of plenty!"
And Ralph, in the midst of cries exclamatory, and no little laughter, emptied the contents of the basket on the velvet sward, variegated by the sunlight through the boughs, and fit for kings.
The lunch commenced.
CHAPTER XLI.
USE OF COATS IN A STORM.
It was a very picturesque group seated that day beneath the golden trees; and the difference in the appearance of each member of the party made the effect more complete.
Redbud, with her mild, tender eyes, and gentle smile and sylvan costume, was the representative of the fine shepherdesses of former time, and wanted but a crook to worthily fill Marlow"s ideal; for she had not quite
"A belt of straw and ivy buds, With coral clasps and amber studs,--"
her slender waist was encircled by a crimson ribbon, quite as prettily embroidered as the zone of the old poet"s fancy, and against her snowy neck the coral necklace which she wore was clearly outlined, rising and falling tranquilly, like May-buds woven by child-hands into a bright wreath, and launched on the surface of some limpid stream.
And f.a.n.n.y--gay, mischievous f.a.n.n.y, with her mad-cap countenance, and midnight eyes, and rippling, raven curls--f.a.n.n.y looked like a young d.u.c.h.ess taking her pleasure, for the sake of contrast, in the woods--far from ancestral halls, and laughing at the follies of the court. Her hair trained back--as Redbud"s was--in the fashion called _La Pompadour_; her red-heeled rosetted shoes--her silken gown--all this was plainly the costume of a courtly maiden. Redbud was the country; f.a.n.n.y, town.
Between Verty and Ralph, we need not say, the difference was as marked.
The one wild, primitive, picturesque, with the beauty of the woods.
The other richly dressed, with powdered hair and silk stockings.
This was the group which sat and laughed beneath the fine old tulip trees, and gazed with delight upon the splendid landscape, and were happy. Youth was theirs, and that sunshine of the breast which puts a spirit of joy in everything. They thought of the scene long years afterwards, and saw it bathed in the golden hues of memory; and sighed to think that those bright days and the child-faces had departed--faces lit up radiantly with so much tenderness and joy.
Do not all of us? Does the old laughter never ring again through all the brilliant past, so full of bright, and beautiful, and happy figures--figures which ill.u.s.trated and advanced that past with such a glory as now lives not upon earth? Balder the beautiful is gone, but still Hermoder sees him through the gloom--only the form is dead, the love, and joy, and light of brilliant eyes remains, shrined in their memory. Thus, we would fain believe that no man loses what once made him happy--that for every one a tender figure rises up at times from that horizon, lit with blue and gold, called youth: some loving figure, with soft, tender smiles, and starlike eyes, and arms which beckon slowly to the weary traveller. The memory of the old youthful scenes and figures may be deadened by the inexorable world, but still the germ remains; and this old lost tradition of pure love, and joy, and youth, comes back again to bless us.
The young girls and their companions pa.s.sed the hours very merrily upon the summit of the tall hill, from which the old border town was visible far below, its chimneys sending upward slender lines of smoke, which rose like blue and golden staves of olden banners, then were flattened, and so melted into air.