[figure description] Page 067.[end figure description]

And now Henry Graham is very happy.
The days were never so full of sunshine
for him. He is up with the larks in the morning,
and singing as gaily as they. In all respects,
indeed, he is improving; there is a refining
influence in the atmosphere of Woodside
now that was never in it before. He does not
repeat his old and familiar slang phrases so
habitually; he is not aware of dropping them,
perhaps, but in conversing with Annette he
finds no uses for them. The blue trowsers he
used to wear about home, with grey patches over
the knees, hang from a peg in the stable, and
those formerly appropriated to Sundays and
market days are in every-day requisition. The
weather-beaten straw hat has kindled one of

[figure description] Page 068.[end figure description]

the kitchen fires, and a new one, with a broad
rim and black ribbon, is substituted. He spends
more time among the flowers than formerly,
giving the sickle and the plow into other hands.
In air and feature he seems improving, too:
in the shadow of the broad rim, and the flowers,
the bronze is softening on his cheek; the
beard that used to look crisped and scorched,
as it were, and faded, too, carefully kept now,
assumes a richer dye, and curls full and gracefully.

“Really Hal,” says Annette one evening, as
he approaches where she sits, reading, under the
low apple tree boughs, “Really Hal, you do resemble
your brother a great deal more than I
at first supposed.” The smile that illuminated
the young man's face increased the resemblance,
for it was, perhaps, the smile, more
than any regularity or grace of feature, that
made the picture of Stafford beautiful.

“You are very kind, but my brother has
greatly the advantage of me, in every way.”
He looked down and his pleased expression
vanished as he spoke.

“By the way,” said Annette, coquettishly

[figure description] Page 069.[end figure description]

playing with the straw hat which he had
thrown aside, “why don't you have your
picture painted?”

“Because,” he replied, still bending his eyes
on the grass, “I should not value it myself,
and no one else would, I am sure.”

“Remember what a treasure it would be to
your friends, if by any chance you were separated.”

“Humph!” was his only answer.

“You are not amiable to-night;” and she
put on a half-offended air, and became suddenly
enamored of the prospect that presented
itself in the direction opposite.

She had invariably succeeded in pleasing
before, when she had exerted her powers, and
now was really vexed.

Both were silent for a time, but a woman is
usually the first to break silence under such
circumstances, and Annette said, at length, in
a careless tone: “What day will you be going
to market?”

He mentioned the day, simply; and if he
understood the intimation that Annette would
return home with him, he did not betray it.

[figure description] Page 070.[end figure description]

To say truth, he was not quite assured of his
position; since coming to Woodside, Annette
had completed the conquest over him previously
begun, but whether the feelings she
had inspired were reciprocated at all, and if
so, how far, was extremely questionable.

One day she would rake hay in the meadow
with him, and enter with playful seriousness
into all his plans for the future cultivation and
improvement of Woodside; or talk of the next
month and next year as though her interests
were identified with his; but all the while
keep herself involved in a mist; and try as he
would, he could not see precisely where to
find her. Once or twice he had essayed to
strip off this obscuration, but with each endeavor
she either “made herself into thin air
and vanished,” or stood out distinctly visible
and impenetrable as a statue.

“I belong to myself and you belong to me,”
seemed, whether it were so or not, to be the
thought which governed all her wayward
policy toward the conquered and anxious
swain. But to-night the business of lovemaking,
which had hitherto been carried on

[figure description] Page 071.[end figure description]

in playful banter, seemed likely to assume
a more serious aspect. Henry had unconsciously
adopted a manner best calculated to
bring his mistress to terms.

“Perhaps, after all,” she thought, as she
sat in silent meditation, “he has been as little
sincere as myself.” But while she was revolving
some little stroke of art by which to lessen
the distance between them, she saw herself
suddenly deserted.

A party of rustic girls was entering the
gate, and he was gone to meet them. They
seemed in high spirits, but their mingled
voices and laughter came gratingly on the
nerves of Annette, and the more so, perhaps,
that one of them, a rosy-cheeked, curly-haired
creature, of not more than sixteen, seemed to
command the especial notice of Henry; while
that she looked pretty in her rustic dress and
simple white hood, there was no denying.

They had been sauntering among the flowers
fifteen or twenty minutes, when Rache, having
got through with the milking, joined the little
party—her sleeves rolled up as usual, and
her skirt pinned over her petticoat and

[figure description] Page 072.[end figure description]

hanging in a long point behind. She shook hands
with each of the girls, saying, as she did so,
“I am well, I thank you—how do you do
yourself?”

Afterward she asked of affairs at home, saying
to one, “I understand your father is very
sick: what doctor does he have?”

“Oh dear me, suz!” she exclaimed, on
hearing the name of the attending physician,
“do tell your father if he wants to die to take
poison at once. I meant to have gone to see
him, but I have so many cares and duties at
home.”

Of another she inquired the age of the
baby; how much it weighed, and what name
was talked of. “I understand it has a dreadful
deformed foot,” she said, “and that the
doctor has put it in some kind of a machine
which he screws up tighter every day, and
that the little thing cries with all its might
whenever its foot is touched. Poor innocent!
just to think how it suffers when it cries till it
gets black and blue in the face.”

To another, with the same thoughtless,
and impudent familiarity, “I understand your

[figure description] Page 073.[end figure description]

brother has come home; they say that so far
from making money where he has been, he is
back worse than nothing. I hear he looks
dreadful bad too, and coughs like he had the
consumption.”

It was ludicrous to see her, with a hand set
upon either hip, conversing in such fashion,
and with a careworn expression on her face so
unsuited to her years.

“We are going to a debating society to-night,”
said Henry, making his most polite
bow, as with the young women he approached
his capricious and uncertain charmer; “shall
we have the pleasure of your company, Miss
Furniss?”

Miss Furniss felt like replying, “Thank you,
Mr. Graham; you do me more honor than I
desire.”

She did not so reply, however, but accepted
the invitation as courteously as if it were with
the greatest delight. But in vain she twisted
flowers among her hair and tried to be gay.
No woman likes to see another taking from
her the attentions she has been accustomed to

[figure description] Page 074.[end figure description]

receive, especially if that other be younger
and prettier than herself; and Annette could
not quite reconcile her fancy to the society of
Rache, with whom she was coupled, while
Mr. Graham offered his arm to a fair damsel
in a white hood.

The little woman looked odd enough on the
way to the debating society. She had devoted
five minutes to the making of her toilet; and
wore now a pair of coarse shoes on her feet,
and on her head a yellow bandana handkerchief.
She had rolled down her sleeves, and
tied on a long, narrow, black silk apron, the
property of her “granmam,” as she called
Mrs. Graham. This last article was the part
of her apparelling that she was particularly
proud of; she repeatedly caught it up and
shook it smartly (for it fell greatly below her
skirt), reiterating each time, “How silk does
catch the dust!”

Once or twice she rallied Annette about her
depressed spirits, asking whether the cat had
got her tongue; what made her talk so much;
and the like. To all of which that somewhat

[figure description] Page 075.[end figure description]

disturbed young lady replied, that she was
not especially silent, as she knew of, and that
she was sure she felt very well.

The twilight grew darker and darker, and
here and there a white star trembled overhead,
as the party entered a field of woodland, so
narrow as to be readily seen through. The
way, previously dusty, became damp, for the
branches of the trees interlocked above; grapevine
swings depended from some of them; and
small pens of sticks here and there, called
playhouses by the children, indicated proximity
to a schoolhouse.

It was a small, square building of hewn
logs, with the low boughs of maple blowing
against the windows. About the door the
ground was beaten smooth and hard, by
the treading of many feet, and across some
of the fallen logs slabs were balanced, that
told of the charming play of see-saw. But
all the attraction to-night was within doors,
and many were the groups of girls and boys
who suddenly appeared, as if just risen up
out of the woods.

There were no shouts, no laughter, but a

[figure description] Page 076.[end figure description]

suppressed hum of voices instead, denoting
the coming on of a great affair. Most of the
members of the society were already assembled,
and conversation in undertones was
going on. There were old farmers and young
farmers, mechanics and day laborers, of various
ages and conditions. A rusty stove occupied
the middle of the floor, and seated upon
it, when our party made their entrance, was
a lad of eighteen, perhaps, thick-set, with a
round freckled face, and bold black eyes.
Trowsers and shirt composed all his dress, and
in one hand he held an old straw hat, with
part of the rim torn away. Altogether he
was quite as noticeable a figure as the schoolmaster
himself, a smiling old man, whose grey
queue was tied with a fresh black ribbon, and
whose carefully-brushed, thread-bare suit told
the poor gentleman looking his best. He paid
his respects to Graham and his friends with
graceful urbanity, offered them the best seats,
and hoped the evening would afford them
some compensation for their trouble in coming.
He wore no goose quill in his hair as a badge
of his profession; his hands were white, with

[figure description] Page 077.[end figure description]

nails of monstrous length, the careful shaping
and preservation of which betrayed the direction
of his vanity.

“Stop a minute,” spoke Rache, as he was
about retiring; “I want to know how you sell
horn; I see you have a sign out; if you'll just
cut them ere off,” she said, taking his hand
familiarly, “I'll send a two bushel basket
to-morrow and get them.” And she folded
her long silk apron into a fan, which she
flirted violently, adding, “What a good air
silk does make!”

There was some laughter, here and there
an indication of surprise or displeasure at the
creature's impudence, and a general confusion,
which presently subsided, and the school-master
was discovered in earnest examination
of the contents of his desk, and Rache,
with her apron spread smoothly down, fanning
herself with the torn hat beforementioned,
and the youth with the scant dress no
longer sitting, but standing in evident ecstasy
of admiration—his head, as it were, involuntarily
reaching toward the bold face of Mrs.

[figure description] Page 078.[end figure description]

Graham's hired girl. She had made a conquest,
there was no doubt about that.

“The house will now please come to order,”
said the president, taking the schoolmaster's
chair.

Then followed considerable discussion about
congressional and parliamentary rules, in the
midst of which the boys, hitherto whispering
about the door, made their entrance: two, and
three, and half a dozen, at a time.

During this preliminary debate, also, the
youth with the black eyes made himself useful
by snuffing the candles, a process requiring
some sleight of hand, the fingers being used as
snuffers, and all-out-of-doors as a tray. The
inkstands of those days were mostly earthen
or pewter jugs, and were made on occasions
of this kind to serve as candlesticks. An
opportunity was offered Rache to pay back
some of the admiration he had bestowed
on her. “Now be careful,” she said, as he
took up the inky candlestick nearest her:
“silk burns so easy.”

The expression of the interesting young

[figure description] Page 079.[end figure description]

person's countenance showed that he felt honored
by such notice, and his gratitude was evinced
by an amiable smile and a familiar wink.

She evidently understood him, for she prosecuted
the acquaintance by asking how he
hurt his fingers, one or two of which appeared
to be in bandages, and by recommending
a poultice of flaxseed and honey,
which, she said, had cured a certain friend of
hers, after the doctors had given him up.

Meantime the interesting discussion of the
parliamentary rules was waived, and the regular
exercises of the evening opened by announcing
the question for debate: “Ought
women to be allowed the right of suffrage?”

A great excitement pervaded the house when
it was read, during which two or three persons
took the floor and began speaking at
once.

There was a cry of “Order!”

“The question is absurd,” said one, an old
man, with thin grey hair, parted and combed
back from either temple, like a girl's; “I am
surprised that gentlemen will admit”—

Here his voice was drowned by the sharp

[figure description] Page 080.[end figure description]

tones of a youth with long legs and a forehead
much the shape and size of a yearling heifer's.
“I cannot express my pleasure,” he said, “in
being permitted to raise my voice in favor of
the feeble and the downtrodden, and the
beautiful.” Here he bowed toward the ladies,
and then resumed: “Man, Mr. President, is a
tyrant.”

Cries of “Order,” and “Sit down,” completely
overpowered both disputants.

A controversy as to who had rightful possession
of the floor followed, and it was finally
voted that both gentlemen should take their
seats.

“Has no member of this society any argument,
pro or con, on this soul-stirring topic?”
asked the presiding officer.

“Mr. President,” said a smooth-faced, yellow-haired
person, blushing with embarrassment,
“wholly unprepared as I am, and
unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I
must beg your indulgence for the few brief
remarks I have to make. When the Creator,
sir, had finished this little world, sir, in his
usual elegant and delicate style, sir, he made

[figure description] Page 081.[end figure description]

Eden, sir, and in that Eden he placed man,
you know; and what did man do there, sir,
surrounded with gorgeous flowers and delicious
fruit, as he was, sir, and dressed in gold
and purple, sir, like a king upon his throne?
Why, sir, he—he—he” (here the eloquent
young man dropped his voice), “he was kind
o' lonesome, sir! and therefore,” elevating
his tone, “woman was created; yes, sir, created,
sir, out of his ribs, sir; and does n't that
prove that she is as good as he is? And now,
sir, that man, with his blind, brute instincts,
should deny her the right of suffrage, the
glorious right for which our revolutionary
sires fought and bled, seems to me, sir, a
wicked, wicked sin.”

He paused, wiped the perspiration from his
face, and resumed in a plaintive and pleading
tone, extending one hand in the most graceful
manner imaginable toward the ladies:
“Look upon her, gentlemen, and let your
stony hearts be melted; how eloquent is her
persuasive smile! how dignified and charming
her every motion! the eyes of the gazelle are
dim compared with hers, and the nightingale's

[figure description] Page 082.[end figure description]

note is hoarse contrasted with her voice. Oh,
gentlemen, gentlemen! when you next rally
round the polls, make her your guiding star,
and as you avail yourselves of the inestimable
privilege of self-government, `look through
nature up to nature's God.' With these few
hasty remarks, Mr. President, I submit the
subject into abler hands;” and he sat down,
quite exhausted.

Up rose a tall, dark youth, with bushy black
hair, and a nose like the beak of an eagle, in
another part of the room, and exclaimed,
“Mr. President, imagine your mother, sir, on
the stump!” he spoke in an irreverent tone, his
head bent forward, and his keen grey eyes
fixed on the distinguished personage he addressed:
“just imagine her babbling forth her
political notions to the populace! There is no
man, sir” (here he placed his hand where his
beard should have been) “who has a higher
regard for woman than myself, and it is that I
honor and esteem and love her, that I would
save her from the corrupt influence of that
public career which is associated with the
ballot-box. Heaven hide from us the day”

[figure description] Page 083.[end figure description]

(and he looked devoutly upward) “when her
bright eyes shall be intoxicated with the
applause of partisan assemblages! In her
proper sphere, the heart of man is ever ready
to do her homage, but outside of that, her
name becomes a by-word. No, sir, I would not
wrong woman by extending to her the right
of suffrage, nor would I defraud man of his
proper sovereignty. Look at the burning
plains of Mexico, all white with the bones of
men as good and as brave, Mr. President, as
the best and bravest—as you, or myself! The
heart aches, and the eye grows dim, to think
of the bleeding remnant of our soldiery reveling
in the halls of the Montezumas! Methinks
I can almost hear the dogs howling through
the everglades of Florida, and see the poor
fugitives making their last agonizing endeavors
to escape from the fangs of the bloodhounds!
These are glorious and terrible
reflections, Mr. President, and when I see
gentlemen, right in the face of them, drawing
woman from her peaceful seclusion into the
vortex of the polls, and all the sanguinary”—

“The gentleman is personal,” said the young

[figure description] Page 084.[end figure description]

man with the forehead like that of a juvenile
inhabitant of the farmyard, half rising.

“Order!” “Order!” called many voices.

“Mr. Brown has the floor,” said the president;
and Mr. Brown, lifting both hands over
his head, exclaimed, “Oh, judgment, thou
hast fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost
their reason!” And so he sat down, concentrating
all his remaining logic and eloquence
in a look of his grey eyes, which was thrown
upon the young Cicero with the broad forehead.

“I rise, Mr. President,” spoke a meek and
smooth-haired man, with a thin feeble voice,
his hands thrust in his trowsers pockets, and
his eyes on the floor: “I rise to say I perfectly
coincide with the sentiments of my friend Mr.
Brown, who has just spoken with such distinguished
ability;” and with this expression of
his views he resigned the floor to an “abler
speaker.”

Then up rose a stately, staid-looking gentleman,
with a white face, grey hair, and a
fringe of snow-white beard round a pointed
chin — slowly rose and slowly balanced

[figure description] Page 085.[end figure description]

himself on heel and toe, his hands locked behind
him—and proceeded with his well-considered
speech: “Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen—
in my humble view, though there has
been some flourishing of arms, some flashing
in the pan, as it were, there has been a total
deficiency of execution, as yet. This debating
society, sir, is capable of giving us something
like argument; it has not done so, as yet. I
have no skill to enforce my ideas, but to my
old-fashioned eyes my wife looks better putting
the house in order than she would depositing
a vote in the ballot-box. I don't want, gentlemen,
to make myself conspicuous here to-night,
and therefore simply repeat that I have
heard no arguments, as yet. Mr. President, I
think woman's spear is at home.”

Another speaker took the floor. He was a
plethoric person, having short legs, a small
head set down between his shoulders, and little
feet, which, standing or sitting, he kept close
together; each part of him seemed lost in
some other part, so that he appeared like an
oval substance of some sort, with one end or
one side on the floor. “He didn't know,” he

[figure description] Page 086.[end figure description]

said, “what sort of engagement gentlemen
expected; for himself, he thought there had
at least been some pretty sharp skirmishing.
He had not heard the argument of his friend,
the first speaker, answered to his satisfaction.
No gentleman in the negative had dared to
touch that bold and beautiful illustration of
the garding; did any gentleman suppose that
that crowning piece of excellence, our mother
Eve, was thrust away from the ballot-box, and
Cain, the unfeeling murderer, permitted to
vote?” The slight elevation which had been
seen in that part of the room whence his voice
seemed to come, suddenly disappeared.

But the remainder of the high reasoning and
impressive oratory called forth that night by
the great question, must be imagined. Suffice
it that the candles were burnt down to the ink
before a motion for adjournment was made.
Henry and Annette had, during the combat,
exchanged whispers once or twice, with accompanying
smiles which indicated amicable relations.
Yet it is probable each felt still the
distance between them, and the necessity of
bridging it over in some way; and as they

[figure description] Page 087.[end figure description]

emerged from candlelight into moonlight, Mr.
Graham offered his arm — a favor which Miss
Furniss accepted with gracious acknowledgments.
She was not unaware, however, that
the little lady in the white hood shared the
gentleman's courtesy, and monopolized his
conversation. All ill humor presently melted
away, however, before the momentary excitement
produced by an exemplification of the
new condition of things proposed by the
reformers of society. As the party emerged
from the schoolhouse, Rache, who had kept
her eyes upon the youth who had filled the
useful office of snuffer of the candles, approached
him, and laying her hand authoritatively
upon his own, said, “I must see you
home, or you must see me home; and you'd
better see me home.”

“I hain't no objections, seeing you want
me to,” he said; and, summoning all the bravery
of his nature, “I won't do nothing else.”

The twain fell a little in the rear, but their
conversation was still overheard.

“What may your name be?” inquired
Rache.

[figure description] Page 088.[end figure description]

“Martin Muggins,” was answered; “but
Mart, for short.”

“Well, I'll call you Mart.”

“Do n't you think the ladies had the best
of it?” inquired Mart.

“I did that. What did you think, Mr.
Muggins?”

“You said you would call me Mart.”

“Well, then, Mart?”

“I'm on your side, of course. I had a
notion to git up and give them fellers Jessie.”

“Why didn't you, Mart Muggins?”

“Of course I could come it over them;
but, Rache, do n't you wish you had the right
of sufferage?”

“I do n't wish nothin' else.”

“You 're one of 'em; s'pose we walk faster
and keep the grass from growing under our
trotters.”

“I'm agreed.”

“What do you say?”

“Nothin, nothin; I did n't say nothin,”
and checking the speed of the youth, she said,
“Mr. Muggins, I 'll make you acquainted
with Mr. and Mrs. Graham.”

[figure description] Page 089.[end figure description]

Then, breaking into boisterous laughter, the
couple quickened their pace, and were soon
out of view.

Rache and her protégé, or beau, afforded
a subject of conversation and fun to the party
for the remainder of their walk.

p492-095

Previous section

Next section