The Captain gave a humorous nod of submissive good-nature to his daughter as she went out. In fact, putting Sally to bed was taking away his plaything, and leaving him nothing to do but study faces in the coals, or watch the fleeting sparks which chased each other in flocks up the sooty back of the chimney.
It was Sat.u.r.day night, and the morrow was Sunday,--never a very pleasant prospect to the poor Captain, who, having, unfortunately, no spiritual tastes, found it very difficult to get through the day in compliance with his wife"s views of propriety, for he, alas! soared no higher in his aims.
"I b"lieve, on the hull, Polly, I"ll go to bed, too," said he, suddenly starting up.
"Well, father, your clean shirt is in the right-hand corner of the upper drawer, and your Sunday clothes on the back of the chair by the bed."
The fact was that the Captain promised himself the pleasure of a long conversation with Sally, who nestled in the trundle-bed under the paternal couch, to whom he could relate long, many-colored yarns, without the danger of interruption from her mother"s sharp, truth-seeking voice.
A moralist might, perhaps, be puzzled exactly what account to make of the Captain"s disposition to romancing and embroidery. In all real, matter-of-fact transactions, as between man and man, his word was as good as another"s, and he was held to be honest and just in his dealings. It was only when he mounted the stilts of foreign travel that his paces became so enormous. Perhaps, after all, a rude poetic and artistic faculty possessed the man. He might have been a humbler phase of the "mute, inglorious Milton." Perhaps his narrations required the privileges and allowances due to the inventive arts generally. Certain it was that, in common with other artists, he required an atmosphere of sympathy and confidence in which to develop himself fully; and, when left alone with children, his mind ran such riot, that the bounds between the real and unreal became foggier than the banks of Newfoundland.
The two women sat up, and the night wore on apace, while they kept together that customary vigil which it was thought necessary to hold over the lifeless casket from which an immortal jewel had recently been withdrawn.
"I re"lly did hope," said Mrs. Kittridge, mournfully, "that this "ere solemn Providence would have been sent home to the Cap"n"s mind; but he seems jist as light and triflin" as ever."
"There don"t n.o.body see these "ere things unless they"s effectually called," said Miss Roxy, "and the Cap"n"s time ain"t come."
"It"s gettin" to be t"ward the eleventh hour," said Mrs. Kittridge, "as I was a-tellin" him this afternoon."
"Well," said Miss Roxy, "you know
""While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return.""
"Yes, I know that," said Mrs. Kittridge, rising and taking up the candle. "Don"t you think, Aunt Roxy, we may as well give a look in there at the corpse?"
It was past midnight as they went together into the keeping-room. All was so still that the clash of the rising tide and the ticking of the clock a.s.sumed that solemn and mournful distinctness which even tones less impressive take on in the night-watches. Miss Roxy went mechanically through with certain arrangements of the white drapery around the cold sleeper, and uncovering the face and bust for a moment, looked critically at the still, unconscious countenance.
"Not one thing to let us know who or what she is," she said; "that boy, if he lives, would give a good deal to know, some day."
"What is it one"s duty to do about this bracelet?" said Mrs. Kittridge, taking from a drawer the article in question, which had been found on the beach in the morning.
"Well, I s"pose it belongs to the child, whatever it"s worth," said Miss Roxy.
"Then if the Pennels conclude to take him, I may as well give it to them," said Mrs. Kittridge, laying it back in the drawer.
Miss Roxy folded the cloth back over the face, and the two went out into the kitchen. The fire had sunk low--the crickets were chirruping gleefully. Mrs. Kittridge added more wood, and put on the tea-kettle that their watching might be refreshed by the aid of its talkative and inspiring beverage. The two solemn, hard-visaged women drew up to each other by the fire, and insensibly their very voices a.s.sumed a tone of drowsy and confidential mystery.
"If this "ere poor woman was hopefully pious, and could see what was goin" on here," said Mrs. Kittridge, "it would seem to be a comfort to her that her child has fallen into such good hands. It seems a"most a pity she couldn"t know it."
"How do you know she don"t?" said Miss Roxy, brusquely.
"Why, you know the hymn," said Mrs. Kittridge, quoting those somewhat saddusaical lines from the popular psalm-book:--
""The living know that they must die, But all the dead forgotten lie-- _Their memory and their senses gone, Alike unknowing and unknown_.""
"Well, I don"t know "bout that," said Miss Roxy, flavoring her cup of tea; "hymn-book ain"t Scriptur", and I"m pretty sure that ar ain"t true always;" and she nodded her head as if she could say more if she chose.
Now Miss Roxy"s reputation of vast experience in all the facts relating to those last fateful hours, which are the only certain event in every human existence, caused her to be regarded as a sort of Delphic oracle in such matters, and therefore Mrs. Kittridge, not without a share of the latent superst.i.tion to which each human heart must confess at some hours, drew confidentially near to Miss Roxy, and asked if she had anything particular on her mind.
"Well, Mis" Kittridge," said Miss Roxy, "I ain"t one of the sort as likes to make a talk of what I"ve seen, but mebbe if I was, I"ve seen some things _as_ remarkable as anybody. I tell you, Mis" Kittridge, folks don"t tend the sick and dyin" bed year in and out, at all hours, day and night, and not see some remarkable things; that"s my opinion."
"Well, Miss Roxy, did you ever see a sperit?"
"I won"t say as I have, and I won"t say as I haven"t," said Miss Roxy; "only as I have seen some remarkable things."
There was a pause, in which Mrs. Kittridge stirred her tea, looking intensely curious, while the old kitchen-clock seemed to tick with one of those fits of loud insistence which seem to take clocks at times when all is still, as if they had something that they were getting ready to say pretty soon, if n.o.body else spoke.
But Miss Roxy evidently had something to say, and so she began:--
"Mis" Kittridge, this "ere"s a very particular subject to be talkin"
of. I"ve had opportunities to observe that most haven"t, and I don"t care if I jist say to you, that I"m pretty sure spirits that has left the body do come to their friends sometimes."
The clock ticked with still more _empress.e.m.e.nt_, and Mrs. Kittridge glared through the horn bows of her gla.s.ses with eyes of eager curiosity.
"Now, you remember Cap"n t.i.tcomb"s wife, that died fifteen years ago when her husband had gone to Archangel; and you remember that he took her son John out with him--and of all her boys, John was the one she was particular sot on."
"Yes, and John died at Archangel; I remember that."
"Jes" so," said Miss Roxy, laying her hand on Mrs. Kittridge"s; "he died at Archangel the very day his mother died, and jist the hour, for the Cap"n had it down in his log-book."
"You don"t say so!"
"Yes, I do. Well, now," said Miss Roxy, sinking her voice, "this "ere was remarkable. Mis" t.i.tcomb was one of the fearful sort, tho" one of the best women that ever lived. Our minister used to call her "Mis"
Muchafraid"--you know, in the "Pilgrim"s Progress"--but he was satisfied with her evidences, and told her so; she used to say she was "afraid of the dark valley," and she told our minister so when he went out, that ar last day he called; and his last words, as he stood with his hand on the k.n.o.b of the door, was "Mis" t.i.tcomb, the Lord will find ways to bring you thro" the dark valley." Well, she sunk away about three o"clock in the morning. I remember the time, "cause the Cap"n"s chronometer watch that he left with her lay on the stand for her to take her drops by. I heard her kind o" restless, and I went up, and I saw she was struck with death, and she looked sort o" anxious and distressed.
""Oh, Aunt Roxy," says she, "it"s so dark, who will go with me?" and in a minute her whole face brightened up, and says she, "John is going with me," and she jist gave the least little sigh and never breathed no more--she jist died as easy as a bird. I told our minister of it next morning, and he asked if I"d made a note of the hour, and I told him I had, and says he, "You did right, Aunt Roxy.""
"What did he seem to think of it?"
"Well, he didn"t seem inclined to speak freely. "Miss Roxy," says he, "all natur"s in the Lord"s hands, and there"s no saying why he uses this or that; them that"s strong enough to go by faith, he lets "em, but there"s no saying what he won"t do for the weak ones.""
"Wa"n"t the Cap"n overcome when you told him?" said Mrs. Kittridge.
"Indeed he was; he was jist as white as a sheet."
Miss Roxy now proceeded to pour out another cup of tea, and having mixed and flavored it, she looked in a weird and sibylline manner across it, and inquired,--
"Mis" Kittridge, do you remember that ar Mr. Wadkins that come to Brunswick twenty years ago, in President Averill"s days?"
"Yes, I remember the pale, thin, long-nosed gentleman that used to sit in President Averill"s pew at church. n.o.body knew who he was, or where he came from. The college students used to call him Thaddeus of Warsaw.
n.o.body knew who he was but the President, "cause he could speak all the foreign tongues--one about as well as another; but the President he knew his story, and said he was a good man, and he used to stay to the sacrament regular, I remember."
"Yes," said Miss Roxy, "he used to live in a room all alone, and keep himself. Folks said he was quite a gentleman, too, and fond of reading."
"I heard Cap"n Atkins tell," said Mrs. Kittridge, "how they came to take him up on the sh.o.r.es of Holland. You see, when he was somewhere in a port in Denmark, some men come to him and offered him a pretty good sum of money if he"d be at such a place on the coast of Holland on such a day, and take whoever should come. So the Cap"n he went, and sure enough on that day there come a troop of men on horseback down to the beach with this man, and they all bid him good-by, and seemed to make much of him, but he never told "em nothin" on board ship, only he seemed kind o"
sad and pinin"."
"Well," said Miss Roxy; "Ruey and I we took care o" that man in his last sickness, and we watched with him the night he died, and there was something quite remarkable."