[Illustration: John Albion Andrew]

THE BAY STATE MONTHLY. 

_A Massachusetts Magazine. _

VOL. III. AUGUST, 1885. NO. III. 

 * * * * *

JOHN ALBION ANDREW. 

THE "WAR-GOVERNOR" OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

John Albion Andrew, the twenty-first Governor of Massachusetts, wasborn, May 31, 1818, at Windham, a small town near Portland, Maine. Hisfather was Jonathan Andrew, who had established himself in Windham as asmall trader; his mother was Nancy Green Pierce, of New Hampshire, whowas a teacher in the celebrated academy at Fryeburg, where DanielWebster was once employed in the same capacity. 

Jonathan is described as having been "a quiet, reticent man, of muchintelligence and a keen perception of the ludicrous, " while his wife was"well educated, with great sweetness of temper, and altogether highlyprepossessing in appearance. " There never was a more united and happyfamily. The father possessed ample means for their education, and lefthis household to the good management of his wife, who was admirable inher domestic arrangements, judicious, sensible, energetic, and a rigiddisciplinarian of her children. There was a rare union of gentleness andforce in this woman, which made her generally attractive, and especiallyendeared her to all who came under the influence of her character. 

Mrs. Andrew died on the 7th of March, 1832. Shortly afterwards thehusband sold out his property in Windham and removed to a farm inBoxford, in the county where he was born. He died in September, 1849. 

John Albion, the oldest son, entered Bowdoin College in 1833, where hepursued a course in no way remarkable. He was a studious youth, appliedhimself closely to his books, and appeared to take no lively interest inathletic sports. Notwithstanding his studiousness, he was ranked amongthe lowest of his class, and was allotted no part at Commencement. Amonghis fellows he was, however, exceedingly popular, and his happytemperament, his genial nature, won him friendship which after yearsonly made stronger and more enduring. 

After his graduation the young man came to Boston and entered the officeof the late Henry H. Fuller, as a student of law. The attraction betweenhim and young Andrew was mutual, and they became almost like brothers. It was while serving his novitiate under Mr. Fuller that Andrew becameinterested in many of the reform movements of the day, and was as firmand peculiar in one direction as his friend was in another. 

Andrew rose slowly at the bar. To his clients he simply did his duty, and that was all. He was not a learned lawyer, nor was he in any sense agreat lawyer, and yet he expended great care and industry in looking uphis cases, and probably never lost a client who had once employed him. We are told by one of his biographers that, "during all these years hewas not what was called a student, but was never idle. " He enteredlargely into the moral questions of that day; was greatly interested inthe preaching of James Freeman Clarke; a constant attendant at meetingand the Bible-classes. Occasional lay-preaching being the custom of thatchurch, young Andrew sometimes occupied the pulpit and conducted theservices to the general acceptance of the people. 

Andrew did not become actively interested in politics until hisadmission to the bar, and then he joined the Whig party, and becamethoroughly in earnest in advocating the Anti-Slavery movement. In 1859he was chosen to the lower branch of the Legislature and at once took aprominent position. In 1860 he was nominated for Governor of theCommonwealth, by a general popular impulse which overwhelmed the oldpolitical managers, who regarded him as an intruder upon the arena, andhad laid other plans. He was called to the position of chief magistrateof Massachusetts at a most momentous time, but he was found equal to theemergency, and early acquired, by general consent, the title of "TheGreat War-Governor. "

It was just on the eve of the Rebellion, and the whole North was excitedby the events which had already transpired. In his inaugural address inJanuary, '61, Governor Andrew advised that a portion of the militiashould be placed on a footing of activity, in order that, "in thepossible contingencies of the future the State might be ready withoutinconvenient delay to contribute her share of force in any exigency ofpublic danger, " and immediately despatched a confidential messenger tothe Governors of Maine and New Hampshire to inform them of hisdetermination to prepare for instant service the militia ofMassachusetts, and to invite their coöperation. 

This is not the place nor the time to give even a _résumé_ ofGovernor Andrew's administration. He retired from office at the close of1865, after a service of unexampled interest and importance in thehistory of the Commonwealth. He retired with honor to himself and to theregret of all who had known him best. We have already alluded toGovernor Andrew's interest in the question of Anti-Slavery, and itshould be stated that in regard to the emancipation of the slaves he wasamong the first, as he was the most persistent advocate of a measurewhich he considered the greatest blow that could be struck at the enemy, fully justified as a measure of war and demanded by every considerationof justice and humanity. 

Apropos of his impatience on this subject the following incident relatedby one of the Governor's friends is worth recalling:--

"It was the summer of 1862, when emancipation was being talked a greatdeal. We had not had any great successes, and everybody had a notionthat emancipation ought to come. One day the Governor sent for me tocome up to the State-House. I went up to his room, and I never shallforget how I met him. He was signing some kind of bonds, standing ata tall desk in the Council Chamber, in his shirt-sleeves, his fingersall covered with ink. He said, 'How do you do? I want you to go toWashington. '--'Why, Governor, ' said I, 'I can't go to Washingtonon any such notice as this; I am busy, and it is impossible for meto go. '--'All my folks are serving their country, ' said he; and hementioned the various services the members of his staff were engagedin, and said with emphasis, 'Somebody must go to Washington. '--'Well, Governor, I don't see how I can. ' Said he, 'I command you togo!'--'Well, ' said I, 'Governor, put it in that way and I shall go, of course. '--'There is something going on, ' he remarked. 'This is amomentous time. ' He turned suddenly towards me and said, 'You believe inprayer, don't you?' I said, 'Why, of course. '--'Then let us pray;' andhe knelt right down at the chair that was placed there; we both kneeleddown, and I never heard such a prayer in all my life. I never was sonear the throne of God, except when my mother died, as I was then. Isaid to the Governor, 'I am profoundly impressed; and I will start thisafternoon for Washington. ' I soon found out that emancipation was ineverybody's mouth, and when I got to Washington and called upon Sumner, he began to talk emancipation. He asked me to go and see the President, and tell him how the people of Boston and New England regarded it. Iwent to the White House that evening and met the President. We firsttalked about everything but emancipation, and finally he asked me what Ithought about emancipation. I told him what I thought about it, and saidthat Governor Andrew was so far interested in it that I had no doubthe had sent me on there to post the President in regard to what theclass of people I met in Boston and New York thought of it, and thenI repeated to him, as I had previously to Sumner, this prayer of theGovernor's, as well as I could remember it. The President said, 'When wehave the Governor of Massachusetts to send us troops in the way he has, and when we have him to utter such prayers for us, I have no doubt thatwe shall succeed. ' In September the Governor sent for me. He had adespatch that emancipation would be proclaimed, and it was done the nextday. You remember the President made proclamation in September to takeeffect in January. Well, he and I were together alone again in theCouncil Chamber. Said he, 'You remember when I wanted you to go on toWashington?' I said, 'Yes, I remember it very well. '--'Well, ' said he, 'I didn't know exactly what I wanted you to go for then. Now I will tellyou what let's do; you sing "Coronation, " and I'll join with you. ' So wesang together the old tune, and also "Praise God from whom all blessingsflow. " Then I sang "Old John Brown, " he marching around the room andjoining in the chorus after each verse. "

After the war had begun, Governor Andrew insisted on every measure todefeat the Confederate armies that was consistent with the laws of war. He was especially strenuous in demanding the emancipation of the slaves, as the following quotation from a sketch by Mr. Albert G. Browne, Jr. , the Governor's military secretary, will show:--

"Over the bodies of our soldiers who were killed at Baltimore he hadrecorded a prayer that he might live to see the end of the war, and avow that, so long as he should govern Massachusetts, and so far asMassachusetts could control the issue, it should not end without freeingevery slave in America. He believed, at the first, in the policy ofemancipation as a war measure. Finding that timid counsels controlledthe government at Washington, and the then commander of the Army of thePotomac, so that there was no light in that quarter, he hailed theaction of Fremont in Missouri in proclaiming freedom to the Westernslaves. Through all the reverses which afterwards befell that officer henever varied from this friendship; and when at last Fremont retired fromthe Army of Virginia, the Governor offered him the command of aMassachusetts regiment, and vainly urged him to take the field againunder our State flag. Just so, afterwards, he welcomed the similaraction of Hunter in South Carolina, and wrote in his defence the famousletter in which he urged 'to fire at the enemy's magazine. ' He wasdeeply disappointed when the administration disavowed Hunter's act, forhe had hoped much from the personal friendship which was known to existbetween the General and the President. Soon followed the great reversesof McClellan before Richmond. 

"The feelings of the Governor at this time, on the subject ofemancipation, are well expressed in a speech which he made on Aug. 10, 1862, at the Methodist camp-meeting on Martha's Vineyard. It was thesame speech in which occurs his remark since so often quoted:--

"'I know not what record of sin awaits me in the other world, but this Iknow, that I was never mean enough to despise any man because he wasblack. '

"Referring to slavery, he said:--

"'I have never believed it to be possible that this controversy shouldend and peace resume her sway until that dreadful iniquity has beentrodden beneath our feet. I believe it cannot, and I have noticed, myfriends (although I am not superstitious, I believe), that, from the dayour government turned its back on the proclamation of General Hunter, the blessing of God has been withdrawn from our arms. We were marchingon conquering and to conquer; post after post had fallen before ourvictorious arms; but since that day I have seen no such victories. But Ihave seen no discouragement. I bate not one jot of hope. I believe thatGod rules above, and that he will rule in the hearts of men, and that, either with our aid or against it, he has determined to let the peoplego. But the confidence I have in my own mind that the appointed hour hasnearly come makes me feel all the more confidence in the certain andfinal triumph of our Union arms, because I do not believe that thisgreat investment of Providence is to be wasted. '"

[Illustration: GOV. ANDREW'S BIRTHPLACE]

Governor Andrew retired from office January 5, 1866, and, returning toprivate life, he again entered upon a large practice at the bar, whichwas lucrative as well. 

On the 30th of October, 1867, he died suddenly of apoplexy, after tea, at his own home on Charles street, Boston. The body was laid in MountAuburn Cemetery, but was afterwards removed to the old burial-place inHingham, where a fine statue has since been erected over his grave. 

Governor Andrew was married Christmas evening, December, 1848, to Miss Eliza Jane, daughter of Charles Hersey, of Hingham. They hadfour children living at the time of his death, --John Forrester, born Nov. 26, 1850; Elizabeth Loring, born July 29, 1852; Edith, born April 5, 1854; Henry Hersey, born April 28, 1858. 

Mr. Edwin P. Whipple, who was first chosen as the most competent personto write the biography of Governor Andrew, after examining theGovernor's private and official correspondence, affirmed that he coulddiscover nothing in his most private notes which was not honorable. 

[Illustration: BURIAL-PLACE AND MONUMENT, HINGHAM, MASS. ]

Says Mr. Peleg W. Chandler, in his "Memoir and Reminiscences of GovernorAndrew, "[1] a most charming volume, from which largely this sketch hasbeen prepared:--

"He passed more than twenty years in an arduous profession, and neverearned more than enough for the decent and comfortable support of hisfamily. He devoted his best years to the country, and lost his life inher service. His highest ambition was to do his duty in simple faith andhonest endeavor, of such a character the well-known lines of Sir HenryWatton are eminently applicable:--

 "This man was free from servile bands Of hope to rise, or fear to fall; Lord of himself, though not of lands, And having nothing, yet had all. "

[Footnote 1: Published by Roberts Brothers, Boston. ]

 * * * * *

THE CITY OF WORCESTER--THE HEART OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 

By Fanny Bullock Workman. 

The city of Worcester, forty-four miles west of Boston, lies in a valleysurrounded on all sides by hills, and covers an area which may beroughly estimated as extending four miles in length by two in breadth, its long axis running north and south. It is the second city in theState in point of population, while in enterprise it yields the palm tonone of its size in the country, sending to all parts of the world itsmanufactured products, the excellence of which has established thereputation of the place in which they were produced. 

[Illustration: UNION PASSENGER STATION. ]

Worcester was first settled in the spring of 1675, under the name ofQuinsigamond. The original order of the General Court, granted Oct. 11th, 1665, was as follows:--

 This Court, understanding by the petition of Thomas Noyes, John Haynes of Sudbury, and Nathaniel Treadaway of Watertown, hereunto affixed, that there is a meete place for a Plantation about ten miles from Marlborow, westward, at or neer Quansetamug Pond, which, that it may be improved for that end, and not spoiled by the grantinge of farms, in answer to the forsaid petition, This Court doth order, that there should he a quantitie of eight miles square layd out and reserved thereabout, in the Courts dispose, for a plantation, for the encouragement of such persons as shall appear, any time within three years from the date hereof, beeing men approved by this Court; and that Capt. Edward Johnson, Lieut. Joshua Fisher, and Lieut. Thomas Noyes, shall, and are herby appointed and empowered to lay out the same, and to be payd by such persons as shall appear within the terme above expressed. The Deputies have passed this with reference to the consent of our honored Magistrates hereto. 

 WILLIAM TORREY _clerk_

 The Magistrates consent to a survey of the place petitioned for, and that Capt. Gookin doe joine with those mentioned of our brethren the deputies, and make return of their survey to the next General Court of Elections, who may take order therein as they shall see meete, their brethren the deputies hereto consenting. 

 EDWARD RAWSON _Sect'y. _

 WILLIAM TORREY _Cleric. _ Consented to by the deputies. 

[Illustration: FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH. ]

[Illustration: FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH. ]

[Illustration: PLAN OF WORCESTER 1673 TO 1675. ]

At that time several persons occupied lands that had been granted them, and built houses. This infant settlement was strangled almost at itsbirth by the outbreak of King Philip's War, which spread in that yearthroughout Massachusetts. The colonists, few in number, and withoutadequate means of protection against the hostile savages, soon abandonedtheir buildings, which were burned by the Indians, December 2, 1675. In1684 some of the former proprietors returned to their lands, accompaniedby new settlers, and a second plantation was formed; this time under thename of Worcester. The records relating to the fortunes of thisplantation are very meagre; but it continued to exist till 1700, or1702, when, during the progress of the French and Indian hostilities, owing to its exposed position, it was again deserted by its inhabitants. One man only, Digory Serjent, remained with his family, refusing to giveup to the Indians the fields his labor had brought under cultivation. For a time he was unmolested. The authorities sent messengers to warnhim of the danger he incurred by his rash course, and to advise hisremoval with his family to a place of safety. But the warning andadmonition were alike disregarded. At last, early in the winter of 1702, an armed force was sent to compel him to depart. They marched with dueexpedition, but, being detained overnight by a severe snow-storm at ablockhouse about two miles from his residence, they arrived too late toattain their object, and found his body, scarcely yet cold, lying on thefloor, and his family carried captive by the Indians. Thus terminatedthe second attempt at a settlement on this spot, which was again givenover for several years to desolation and decay. 

[Illustration: ST. PAUL'S CHURCH. ]

The principal seat of the Indians in this vicinity was Pakachoag Hill, alittle south of where now stands the College of the Holy Cross. Theywere called Nipmuck Indians, and consisted of about twenty families, numbering about one hundred persons, under Sagamore John. Another tribe, of about the same number, dwelt on Tatnuck Hill, under Sagamore Solomon. John Eliot, the famous apostle to the Indians, with General DanielGookins, visited these tribes in 1674; but he did not fully reclaim themto peaceful habits, although many of them professed Christianity. 

[Illustration: CHAIR MANUFACTORY OF E. W. VAILL. ]

[Illustration: THE NEW CENTRAL CHURCH. ]

In 1713 the inhabitants, not discouraged by their former experience, oneafter another returned again to take possession of their property; andthis time they returned to stay. They were joined by others, and thepopulation began to increase. In 1722 Worcester was incorporated as atown, and henceforth assumed its share of responsibility with the othertowns in adopting measures for the general welfare, and contributed itsproportion of men and supplies for the common defence. Through thestormy period preceding the War of the Revolution, the public sentimentof Worcester sustained the rights of the Colonies, and when, on the 19thof April, 1773, the messenger of war, on his white horse, dashed throughthe town, shouting, "To arms! to arms! the war is begun, " the responsewas immediate; the bell was rung, cannon fired, and the minute-men, trueto name, rallied on the Common, where they were paraded by Capt. TimothyBigelow. At about five o'clock in the afternoon they took up their lineof march. Capt. Benjamin Flagg soon followed, with thirty-one men, --atotal of one hundred and eight men. Capt. Bigelow having halted atSudbury, to rest his men, was met by Capt. Flagg, when they both pushedon to Cambridge, where the organization of the army was being made. Timothy Bigelow, whose abilities were at once recognized, was appointedMajor in Col. Jonathan Ward's regiment. On the 24th of April anothercompany, of fifty-nine men, all from Worcester, enlisted under Capt. Jonas Hubbard. During the seven dark years that followed, this townnever wavered in its devotion to the cause of liberty, and wasrepresented on many of the most important battle-fields, as wellas at the surrender of Yorktown, which terminated the struggle forindependence. Saturday, the 14th of July, 1776, the Declaration ofIndependence was received. It was publicly read, for the first time onMassachusetts soil, from the porch of the Old South Church, by IsaiahThomas, to the assembled crowd. On Sunday, after divine service, it wasread in the church. Measures were adopted for a proper celebration ofthe event, and on the Monday following, the earliest commemoration ofthe occasion, since hallowed as the national anniversary, took place inthe town. 

[Illustration]

[Illustration: POST OFFICE AND MASONIC HALL. ]

Worcester continued to increase both in size and importance during thefirst half of the present century, till, in 1848, having outgrown thelimits of a town, it was made a city, and the first city governmentinaugurated, with Ex-Gov. Levi Lincoln, Mayor, and the followingAldermen: Parley Goddard, Benjamin F. Thomas, John W. Lincoln, JamesS. Woodworth, William B. Fox, James Estabrook, Isaac Davis, and StephenSalisbury. The City Clerk was Charles A. Hamilton; the City Treasurer, John Boyden; and the City Marshal, George Jones. Since then it has maderapid strides in growth, influence, and prosperity. When the call fortroops to defend Washington came, in 1861, Worcester as a city was trueto her record as a town; for within twelve hours a company started forthe seat of war, and passed through Baltimore with the SixthMassachusetts Regiment, on the memorable 19th of April, just eighty-sixyears from the first shedding of Massachusetts blood at Lexington. 

In 1800 the population of Worcester was 2, 411; in 1820 it was 2, 962;in 1840, 7, 500; in 1850, 17, 049; in 1860, about 25, 000; in 1870, about41, 000. At the present time it is about 70, 000. The first event ofconsequence that gave an impetus to the growth of the town was theopening of the Blackstone Canal, in 1828, connecting Worcester withtide-water at Providence. This, although considered at the time a marvelof engineering skill, and undoubtedly of great benefit to the public, was not a successful enterprise, and on the establishment of railroadsa few years later was discontinued. 

[Illustration: WORCESTER CORSET COMPANY'S WORKS. ]

In 1831 the Boston and Worcester Railroad was incorporated and soonbuilt, followed at short intervals by the Western Railroad, the Norwichand Worcester, the Nashua and Worcester, Fitchburg and Worcester, andthe Providence and Worcester railroads; thus making a centre from whichone could travel in any direction. Later the Barre and Gardner Railroadwas built, and the Boston and Worcester consolidated with the WesternRailroad. By this last corporation the Union Passenger Station waserected, in 1877, which is one of the most costly, elegant, andconvenient edifices devoted to this business in the country. Aboutseventy-five trains arrive and depart daily. The advantage thus given toWorcester over other towns in the county was great, and the results werestriking and immediate, as may be seen by reference to the figures ofpopulation above given. The facility of communication thus affordedcaused capitalists to settle here, and manufactures rapidly sprang upand flourished, drawing to this spot thousands of laborers, whootherwise would have gone elsewhere. At the present time the chiefinterests of the city centre in its manufactures, which embrace almostevery variety of articles made in iron, steel, and wire cotton andwoollen fabrics, leather, wood, and chemicals. 

[Illustration: FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. ]

Among the multitude of manufactured products it is almost useless toattempt to specify any particular ones. The same is true of themanufacturing establishments and corporations. Mention may be made, however, of the Washburn & Moen Wire Works, which give employment toabout three thousand operatives, established in 1831, and having acapital of two million dollars. The power used in manufacturing isalmost exclusively steam, but water is used somewhat in the outskirts, where streams have been dammed to make reservoirs. 

Connected with the growth of Worcester it is interesting to note thatthe increase in the population has been largely from the ranks of thelaboring classes. The manner in which the city is built shows this tothe most casual observer. There are but few large estates or imposingresidences, surrounded with extensive grounds. The great majorityof the houses are made of wood, are of small size, and stand in smallenclosures. As mechanics have prospered they have bought land, and builtsuch houses as were suitable to their means, obtaining loans of thesavings-banks, which they have paid off gradually. This has beenespecially the case the last few years, during which time the city hasextended in every direction in the manner indicated; and it is said thegreater part of the deposits in the savings-banks, as well as theirloans, have been made by and to people of the laboring class. This showsa general prosperity, and indicates a permanency of population not seenin many cities. During the last twenty years many people who began lifewith the most modest means, or with none at all, have become wealthy;and in almost every such case their prosperity has been due to theirconnection with manufacturing interests. 

[Illustration: THE PRESENT ANTIQUARIAN HALL. ]

Worcester is exceptionally fortunate in its water-supply. This isderived from two large reservoirs fed by running streams, each aboutfive miles distant from the city. One of these, called the Lynde-BrookReservoir, is situated in the township of Leicester. It was built in1864, has a water-shed of 1, 870 acres, and a storage capacity of681, 000, 000 gallons, and an elevation of 481 feet above the City Hall. The dam of this reservoir gave way in February, 1876, during a freshet, and the immense mass of water was precipitated, with an unearthly roar, into the valley below, destroying everything in its path, and carryingrocks, earth, trees, and _débris_ to a distance of several miles. The other, called the Holden Reservoir, is in the township of Holden. This was built in 1883, has a water-shed of 3, 148 acres, a storagecapacity of 450, 000, 000 gallons, and lies 260 feet above the City Hall. There are also three distributing reservoirs at elevations of 177 to 184feet above the level of Main street, and supplied from the two principalreservoirs. Thirty-inch mains connect the reservoirs with the city. Theheight of the water-supply gives a pressure in the pipes at the CityHall of from sixty to seventy-five pounds to the square inch, which issufficient to throw a stream of water to the tops of the highestbuildings, --a great advantage in case of fire, rendering the employmentof steam fire-engines unnecessary in those parts of the city providedwith hydrants. The water is of excellent quality, being remarkably freefrom impurities, either organic or mineral. The total amount expended onthe water-works from 1864 to December 1, 1884, is $1, 653, 456, and theincome from water-rates for the year ending December, 1884, was$107, 515. The uneven character of the ground upon which Worcester isbuilt is favorable to drainage, and advantage has been taken of thisfact to construct an excellent system of sewers, which thoroughly drainthe greater parts of the city. All abutters are obliged to enter thesewers; and no surface-drainage nor cesspools are allowed. The result isthat Worcester is a very clean city, and few places can be found eitherin the city itself or in the suburbs where surface accumulations exhaleunpleasant or noxious odors. To the influence of pure water and gooddrainage may partly be ascribed the general good health of theinhabitants, and the absence, during the last few years, of anythinglike an epidemic of diseases dependent upon unsanitary conditions. Thesewers all converge upon one large common sewer, which discharges itscontents into the Blackstone river at Quinsigamond. 

[Illustration: THE OLD SOUTH MEETING-HOUSE. ]

In Worcester, as in most of the smaller cities of New England, the Mainstreet is the chief thoroughfare and the site of many of the prominentbuildings. This street runs north and south, and is about two and a halfmiles long. Near the north end, at Lincoln square, are the Court-Houseand the American Antiquarian Society building. The latter contains alarge number of valuable and rare books, much sought after for referenceby students. Farther on toward the business centre are the Bay StateHouse--Worcester's principal hotel--and Mechanics' Hall. This hall isone of the handsomest and largest in the State, and has a seatingcapacity of about two thousand. In the centre of the city, borderingupon Main street, is the Old Common, the original park of Worcester, nowa small breathing-place of the working class, where band concerts arefrequently given in summer. Here stand the Soldiers' Monument, designedby Randolph Rogers, of Rome, and the Bigelow Monument, erected toTimothy Bigelow, who commanded the minute-men who marched to Cambridgeupon receipt of the news of the Battle of Lexington, and servedthroughout the Revolution as colonel of the Fifteenth MassachusettsRegiment. At one corner of the Common, facing Main street, is the CityHall, a small, unimposing structure, hardly worthy of the city. Thequestion of erecting a new one has been lately agitated. Near by standsthe Old South Church, built in 1763. The business portion of Main streetis well lined with large blocks, and the south end is laid out forresidences. 

[Illustration: ELM PARK. ]

Upon one of the hills, at the west side, stands the City Hospital, whichis well managed and kept up, and has a visiting staff of the bestphysicians in the city. In connection with this institution, atraining-school for nurses has lately been established. 

The city's most imposing building is the Worcester State Lunatic Asylum, which can be seen from the trains on the Boston and Albany Railroad. Apicturesque edifice in itself it crowns a hill about two miles east ofWorcester, and overlooks the blue waters of Lake Quinsigamond, and alsoa charming stretch of hill and dale beyond. Were the softening charms ofnature a potent remedy for the diseased mind, speedy cures might beeffected in this sequestered retreat. It contains generally over sevenhundred inmates, and can accommodate more. The building, begun in 1873, was completed in 1877, is handsomely fitted up throughout, and veryspacious. It cost one million and a quarter dollars. 

[Illustration: THE BIGELOW MONUMENT. ]

On Summer street is the Asylum for the Chronic Insane. For many yearsit was the only asylum, but upon the completion of the new building thechronic cases were removed there, and it has since been devoted to theirneeds only. The Technical School, or Free Institute, is situated on apretty wooded acclivity on the west side. Founded in 1865. It wasendowed, through the liberality of John Boynton, of Templeton, with$100, 000, which he left as a legacy for that purpose. This school ismore particularly for mechanics, chemists, and engineers, and isconducted on the plan of the polytechnic schools of Europe. It is theaim of the institution to train young men in such branches as are notusually taught in the high schools, that any mechanic or civil engineeron leaving the establishment may be fitted in a thoroughly scientificmanner to pursue his life-work. The institution is free toWorcester-county residents; to those outside of the county the price oftuition is $150. The number of students accommodated is one hundred andtwenty-six. The Free Public Library, founded in 1859, is one of the bestin the State, has a circulating department of 26, 000 and an intermediatedepartment of 14, 000 books; also a reference collection of over 20, 000volumes, bequeathed by the late Dr. John Green. An endowment fund, leftby this gentleman for the latter collection, is used to the bestadvantage in procuring a great variety of encyclopædias and otherdesirable books of reference. That Worcester citizens appreciate theiropportunities in this line is indicated by the large daily patronage. Connected with the Public Library is a well-arranged reading-room, supplied with periodicals and daily papers, accessible at all times tothe public; also the valuable library of the Worcester District MedicalSociety, containing about 6, 000 volumes. The able and accomplishedlibrarian is Mr. S. S. Green, who not only supplies its shelves with thenewest and most desirable books for reading and reference, but is afountain-head of information in himself, and ever ready and willing toanswer the many questions put to him constantly by a steady concourse ofapplicants. 

[Illustration: THE WASHBURN & MOEN MANUFACTURING COMPANY. ]

The public-school system has been the occasion of much compliment, andis regarded both here and elsewhere as a model one. In 1733 it wasvoted, "that a school-house be built in the centre half, and that saidschool house be 24 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 7 feet stud, and becompletely finished with good chimney glass, " This was the firstschool-house built in Worcester, and it stood at the north end of Mainstreet, near the middle of the present street, and there remained untilafter the close of the Revolution. In 1740 £100 were granted for thesupport of schools. The first Grammar school was established in 1752. In 1755 John Adams, afterward President of the United States, taughtthe Latin Grammar school here, and remained until 1758. There are nowtwenty-six different school-houses, including the High School, a largeeffective building, situated on Walnut street. Further accommodationsat the present time are greatly needed, the existing houses beingovercrowded. The amount last appropriated for the schools was $184, 500for maintenance, and $20, 000 for the purchase of free textbooks. Besidethe public schools there are several large and well-known educationalinstitutions, --the College of the Holy Cross, the Free Institute, theWorcester Academy, the Highland Military Academy, the Oread Institute, the State Normal School, and the Roman Catholic Parochial schools. Thereare also several private schools of note. The educational interests ofthe city have kept pace with its rapid and astonishing growth. 

[Illustration: OLD PAINE HOMESTEAD, LINCOLN STREET. ]

Worcester has seven national banks, four savings-banks, and one safetydeposit and trust company. 

Among a number of newspapers the chief ones have been the "Spy" and"Evening Gazette. " The "Massachusetts Spy" is one of the oldest papersin this country, and has been published with unbroken numbers for 115years. It was established in Boston, in July, 1770, but was removed toWorcester by its proprietor, Isaiah Thomas, in May, 1775. It was inthose days outspoken with regard to the difficulties between the mothercountry and the colonies, and, owing to its urgent appeals for freedomfrom tyranny, it became necessary to remove press and paper. Mr. Thomaswas certainly one of the most remarkable men of his day. His patriotismnever waned during the most trying days of the Revolution, and the"Massachusetts Spy" and its editor are a part of the history of thecountry. July 22, 1845, the "Daily Spy" was first issued. The firstnumber was on a sheet 18 by 23 inches, a trifle larger than the firstnumber of the "Massachusetts Spy, " which was 16 by 20 inches. It hasbeen enlarged several times. The "National Ægis, " published in 1801, in1833 merged into the "Massachusetts Yeoman, " a paper started in 1823. The name was changed to the "Worcester Palladium. " In 1829 the"Worcester County Republican" was started, and also merged into the"Palladium, " in 1834. It was a successful paper for years, but in 1876it was sold to the "Spy. " The "Gazette, " begun in 1801 as a weekly, became a daily in 1843, and is now an eight-page paper, the only one inthe city. In 1851 the "Daily Morning Transcript" was issued. Early in1866 its name was changed to the "Evening Gazette, " and it is now therepresentative afternoon sheet of the city. There are two able andwell-conducted French weekly journals, --"Le Travailleur, " and "LeCourier de Worcester. "

[Illustration: HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING. ]

In 1719 the first church was built, near the present Old South Church, on Main street. Previous to that time the inhabitants had held servicein their different houses, where their prayers were often interrupted bythe presence of hostile Indians, who took the occasion when the peoplewere absorbed in their devotions to molest them. In 1763 the present OldSouth Meeting-House was built. The original dimensions were seventy feetlong, fifty-five wide, with a tower on the north side surmounted by aspire one hundred and thirty feet high. It was commenced June 21, 1763, and first occupied Dec. 8, 1763. There were sixty-one large square boxpews and seven long ones on each side of the broad aisle, which werefree. The building committee consisted of John Chandler, Joshua Bigelow, Josiah Brewer, John Curtis, James Putnam. Daniel Boyden, James Goodwin, Jacob Hemmenway, David Bigelow, Samuel Moore, and Elisha Smith. Theentire expense of the building was £1, 542. 

Since the date of its erection there have been many changes andadditions, so that it now presents but little of the appearance of itsformer self. 

The bell now in use was cast in 1802, and has this inscription:--

 "The living to the church I call, And to the grave I summon all. "

In 1786, owing to certain disagreements, a division occurred in theparish, some of its members leaving and forming an organization of theirown, with the Rev. Mr. Bancroft as rector. This society dedicated itsfirst church January 1, 1722, and this was replaced by a new structure, of brick, in 1829, which is still in use. Since this first division newsocieties have sprung up and new churches have been built, until to-daythere are forty-eight different houses of worship, among which areeleven Congregational, eight Methodist Episcopal, seven Baptist, sevenRoman Catholic, three Protestant Episcopal, two Universalist, and twoUnitarian churches. 

On account of the encircling hills the climate of Worcester is hot insummer, but somewhat more temperate and less subject to east winds inwinter than that of Boston. 

The surrounding country has all the charms that cultivated soil andundulating hill-and-valley scenery can give. Good roads run in variousdirections to the adjacent towns, and strangers often speak of the manydifferent and delightful drives to be found about Worcester. 

Three miles east of the city is the beautiful sheet of water called LakeQuinsigamond. It is a narrow lake, about five miles long, with thicklywooded banks, and its surface dotted with picturesque little islands. Along its shores the Nipmuck Indians are said to have lived and hunted;and on Wigwam Hill, a wooded eminence overlooking the water, where oneof their encampments is supposed to have been, are still occasionallyfound specimens of their rude house utensils. 

A large tract of land bordering on the lake has lately been given to thecity by two Worcester gentlemen, and it is expected that in the nearfuture it will be cleared away and made into a public park. The onlypark that the city now possesses, besides the Common, before alluded to, is a small affair on the west side, at the foot of Elm street, one ofthe principal residence streets. 

 * * * * *

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

By George Lowell Austin. 

There is something eminently satisfactory in the reflection that, whenthe new faith, "That all men are created equal, " and that "Governmentsare instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent ofthe governed, " was finally assailed by the slave-power of America, andhad to pass the ordeal of four years of war, a man born and reared inpoverty, deficient in education, unused to the etiquette even ofordinary society, and untutored in the art of diplomacy and deception, had been selected by the people of the United States to become therepresentative of the new faith, and the defender of the governmentestablished upon it. This man was ABRAHAM LINCOLN, of Illinois, therecord of whose life, at once important, eventful, and tragic, it ispleasant to recall. 

There are, in my judgment, at least four men associated with the periodof the civil war, who, in their early lives, their struggles, theirtraining, and their future callings, ought forever to command theadmiration of this people: Lincoln, the lowly, the exalted, the pureman in rude marble, the plain cover to a gentle nature, the giant frameand noble intellect; Grant, the defender of the Federal Union, theunflinching soldier, around whose dying couch a whole nation nowlingers, whose light will shine down through future ages a warning toconspirators, to freemen a pledge, and to the oppressed a beacon ofhope; Stanton, the lion of Buchanan's cabinet, the collaborator ofLincoln, the supporter of Grant, gifted with the far-seeing eye of aCarnot, spotless in character, incorruptible in integrity, great intalent and learning, and a fit object of unhesitating trust; and JohnRogers, the American sculptor, who has offered, in his beautiful andfamous group of statuary, "The Council of War, " an undying tribute tothese three great leaders in American history, and is himself worthyto be grouped with them in our remembrance. 

 "Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, And stars to set; but all-- Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death!"

If we could have looked into a rude log-cabin in Hardin county, Kentucky, on the morning of the 12th of February, 1809, we should haveseen an infant just born, --and with what promise of future greatness?Looking ahead ten years, we should have discerned this infant, Abraham, developing into youth, still living in the old log-cabin, with neitherdoors nor windows, with wolves and bears for neighbors, with a shiftlessfather. But his mother was dead! Still this mother had left her impress, and she had become in that boy's heart "an angel of a mother. " She madehim what he afterwards proved himself to be. Follow Abraham Lincolnwhere we will, --from the cradle to the grave, --and we shall find honestyand kindness ever distinguishing him. In his boyhood, among boys, he wasalways fighting the battle of the offended and the weak; in manhood, hewas always protecting the fugitive from an angry mob; as a lawyer, saving the widow's son from the gallows, and declining the rich fee ofan unrighteous cause; as a public debater, the fairest ever met in thepolitical arena; and as president of the republic, honest in hisconvictions and kind to his bitterest enemies. 

Let us not forget the difficulties which it was his lot and his goodfortune to surmount. He never was six months at school in his life; andyet, by the use of a single book and the occasional aid of a villageschoolmaster, he became an expert surveyor in six weeks! At the age oftwenty-one he accompanied his family to Illinois. One morning, whenseated at the breakfast-table of his employer, Lincoln was told that aman living six miles away had a copy of an English grammar. He left thetable at once, and went and borrowed the book. During the long winterevenings that followed, in the light of the village cooper's shop, hepored over the pages of that book, --studying the science of language, the theory of human speech, and qualifying himself to become the authorof one of the three great State papers of modern times, by the light ofburning shavings!

But we leave that early life of his, which, in rude simplicity, repeats"the short and simple annals of the poor. "

In 1832 Black Hawk, the celebrated Indian chief, then in hissixty-seventh year, crossed the Mississippi to regain the Rock Rivervalley, --the scene of his early trials and triumphs. His coming meantwar upon the pale-faced stranger, that had ventured to possess thehunting-grounds of the red men. Several companies of volunteers wereraised to meet him, and Abraham Lincoln served as captain of one ofthem. 

When the war was over Lincoln returned to New Salem, his home inIllinois, and shortly afterwards began the study of the law. He wasstill poor in purse, his clothing was threadbare, but his ambition wasimmense. He often pursued his study in the shade of a tree. One daySquire Godbey--a very good man he was, too, so we are told--saw himseated on a pile of wood, absorbed in a book, when, according to thesquire, the following dialogue took place: "Says I, 'Abe, what are youstudying?'--'Law, ' says he. 'Great God Almighty!' says I. " Studying lawastride of a wood-pile, probably barefooted, was too great a shock forthe squire's susceptible nature. He continued to study, then to practisea little without fee, and finally was admitted to the bar in 1836. 

Judge Davis, once on the Supreme Bench of the United States, a manspotless alike upon the throne of justice and in his daily walk, wasupon intimate terms with Lincoln for upwards of twenty years, and duringmore than half of that period sat upon the judicial bench before whichLincoln most frequently practised. No one is abler than he to speak ofLincoln as a lawyer, --a lawyer who became one of the first of theWestern bar, --a bar that can proudly point to its Carpenter, itsTrumbull, its Ryan, and its Davis. He says:--

 "The framework of Lincoln's mental and moral being was honesty; and a wrong cause was poorly defended by him. The ability which some eminent lawyers possess of explaining away the bad points of a cause by ingenious sophistry was denied him. In order to bring into full activity his great powers it was necessary that he should be convinced of the right and justice of the matter which he advocated. When so convinced, whether the cause was great or small, he was usually successful. 

 "He hated wrong and oppression everywhere; and many a man whose fraudulent conduct was undergoing review in a court of justice has writhed under his terrific indignation and rebukes. He was the most simple and unostentatious of men in his habits, having few wants, and those easily supplied. "

In 1837 Mr. Lincoln removed to Springfield, Ill. , where he entered intopartnership with his old friend, John T. Stuart; and this partnershipcontinued until 1841. In 1834 he had been elected to the Legislature, and after his removal to Springfield he was again chosen to that body. It was during this period that he found the nerve, when it did requirecourage, to express and record his protest against the injustice ofslavery. Twice as a youth he had made a trip to New Orleans, --in 1828and 1831, --and on his second visit had for the first time observedslavery in its most brutal and revolting form. He had gone into the verycentre of a slave mart, had seen families sold, the separation foreverof husband and wife, of parent and child. When we recall how deeply healways sympathized with suffering, brute as well as human, and hisstrong love of justice, we can realize how deeply he was affected bythese things. His companions on this trip have attempted to describe hisindignation and grief. They said. "His heart bled. He was mad, thoughtful, abstracted, sad, and depressed. "

The years which Mr. Lincoln passed in Springfield were the preparatoryyears of his future greatness. From this time onward he was ever a busyman. 

He was once associated with Mr. Swett in defending a man accused ofmurder. He listened to the testimony which witness after witness gaveagainst his client until his honest heart could stand it no longer;then, turning to his associate, he said: "Swett, the man is guilty; youdefend him: I can't. " Swett _did_ defend him, and the man wasacquitted. When proffered his share of the large fee Lincoln mostemphatically declined it, on the ground that "all of it belonged to Mr. Swett, whose ardor and eloquence saved a _guilty_ man fromjustice. "

At another time, when a would-be client had stated the facts of hiscase, Mr. Lincoln replied: "Yes; there is no reasonable doubt but I cangain your case for you. I can set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads. I can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children, andthereby get for you $600, which rightfully belongs, it seems to me, asmuch to the woman and her children as it does to you. You must rememberthat some things that are _legally_ right are not _morally_right. I shall not take your case, but will give you a little advice, for which I will charge you nothing. You appear to be a sprightly, energetic man: I would advise you to try your hand at making $600 someother way. "

I turn now to another phase of his nature, and recall that he had notgrown up to manhood without the usual experiences of the tender passion. It was while he was yet living at New Salem that his heart opened to afair, sweet-tempered, and intelligent girl, with the romantic name ofAnne Rutledge. They were engaged to be married as soon as he should beadmitted to the bar of the Supreme Court. But in August, 1835, she died. Her beauty and her attractions and her early death made a very deepimpression upon him. We are told that he idealized her memory, and inhis recollections of her there was a poetry of sentiment, which mightpossibly have been lessened, had she lived, by the prosaic realities oflife. With all his love of fun and frolic, with all his wit and humor, with all his laughter and anecdotes, Lincoln, from his youth, was a manof deep feeling. We have it on the authority of the most reliable of hisbiographers, that he always associated with the memory of Anne Rutledgethe poem which, in his hours of despondency, he so often repeated:--

 "Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? Like a swift fleeting meteor, a fast flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 

 "The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, Be scattered around, and together be laid; And the young and the old, and the low and the high, Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie. "

I never read this beautiful poem, so full of the true philosophy oflife, so suggestive of the rich promises of the hereafter, that I do notthink of the great president. He first found it in the columns of anewspaper, cut it out, carried it in his pocket, and treasured it in hismemory for many years without knowing who was its author. 

It would be pleasant to trace the years spent by Mr. Lincoln in theState Legislature, and to revert to some of the speeches and occasionaladdresses belonging to those years, which, in the light of hissubsequent history, are strangely significant. In the early period ofhis legislative career he became acquainted with Stephen A. Douglas, while the latter was a school-teacher at Winchester. Douglas was a manof extraordinary powers, and one of the readiest of the Americandebaters of his time. As the years went on he became actively interestedin politics, and at length assumed the leadership of the Democrats inIllinois, while Lincoln became the standard-bearer of the Whigs. Whenparty platforms were promulgated, upon the eve of important contests, these two statesmen, by the unanimous consent of their supporters, wereselected to debate the merits of their respective political creedsbefore the people. A series of joint discussions was arranged to takeplace in the various important towns of the State. The assemblages werelarge, and were composed of men of all parties. The discussion openedwith a speech of an hour, from one of the debaters; the other replied inan address of an hour and a half; a rejoinder of half an hour broughtthe discussion to a close. At the next meeting the order of speaking wasreversed, and by this arrangement the "last word" was indulged inalternately by each debater. 

During the various joint discussions held between the eloquent politicalorators who were chosen to represent the Anti-Slavery and Democraticparties, it may fairly be asserted that Lincoln opposed, while Douglasdefended, directly or indirectly, the slave interests of the country. The former always felt that slavery was wrong, and in seeking a remedyfor the existing evil he followed in the footprints of Henry Clay. Headvocated gradual emancipation, with the consent of the people of theslave States, and at the expense of the General Government. In his greatspeech against the Kansas and Nebraska bill, he said, "Much as I hateslavery, I would consent to its extension rather than see the Uniondissolved, just as I would consent to any great evil to avoid a greaterone. "

The debates between Lincoln and Douglas, especially those of the year1858, were unquestionably the most important in American history. Thespeeches of Mr. Lincoln, as well as of the "Little Giant" who opposedhim, were circulated and read throughout the Union, and did more thanany other agency to create the public opinion which prepared the way forthe overthrow of slavery. As another has said, "The speeches of JohnQuincy Adams and of Charles Sumner were more scholarly; those of Lovejoyand Wendell Phillips were more vehement and impassioned; SenatorsSeward, Hale, Trumbull, and Chase spoke from a more conspicuous forum;but Lincoln's were more philosophical, while as able and earnest as any, and his manner had a simplicity and directness, a clearness of statementand felicity of illustration, and his language a plainness andAnglo-Saxon strength, better adapted than any other to reach andinfluence the common people, --the mass of the voters. "

From 1847 to March 4, 1849, Mr. Lincoln served a term in Congress, where he acted with his party in opposing the Mexican war. In 1855 hewas a prominent candidate for the United States Senate, but wasdefeated. From the ruins of the old Whig party and the acquisition ofthe Abolitionists, the Republican had been formed, and of this party, inIllinois, Mr. Lincoln became, in 1858, the senatorial candidate. Againhe was defeated, by his adversary Mr. Douglas. Lincoln felt aggrieved, for he had carried the popular vote of his State by nearly 4, 000 votes. When questioned by a friend upon this delicate point, he said that hefelt "like the boy that stumped his toe, --it hurt him too much to laugh, and he was too big to cry. "

In his speech at Springfield, with which the campaign of 1858 opened, Mr. Lincoln made the compromisers of his party tremble by enunciatinga doctrine which, they claimed, provoked defeat. He said: "'A housedivided against itself cannot stand. ' I believe this Government cannotpermanently endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the Unionto be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect itwill cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other;either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it isin a course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push itforward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, --old aswell as new, North as well as South. "

These were prophetic words; and they were spoken by a man born in theslave State of Kentucky. It was the truth, the fearless truth, utteredin advance of even the acknowledged leader of the Republican party, Governor Seward, of New York. The simple assertion of that truth costLincoln a seat in the United States Senate; but it set other men's mindsto thinking, and in 1860 the PEOPLE, following the path made through theforest of error by a pioneer in the cause of truth, came to similarconclusions, and made "Honest Old Abe" Chief Magistrate of the republic. 

On the 10th of May, 1860, the Republican convention of Illinois metat Decatur, in Macon county, to nominate State officers and appointdelegates to the National Presidential Convention. Decatur was not farfrom where Lincoln's father had settled and worked a farm in 1830, andwhere young Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Hanks had split the rails forenclosing the old pioneer's first cornfield. Mr. Lincoln was present, simply as an observer, at the convention. Scarcely had he taken his seatwhen General Oglesby arose, and remarked that an old Democrat of Maconcounty desired to make a contribution to the convention. Two old fencerails were then brought in, bearing the inscription: "Abraham Lincoln, the rail candidate for the Presidency in 1860. Two rails from a lot ofthree thousand, made in 1830, by Thomas Hanks and Abe Lincoln, whosefather was the first pioneer of Macon county. "

The effect of this contribution can well be imagined: at once it becameuseless to talk in Illinois of any other man than Abraham Lincoln forPresident. 

On the 16th of May the National Republican Convention was calledtogether in Chicago. The convention met in a large building called the"Wigwam, " which had been constructed specially for the occasion. Thecontest for the nomination lay between William H. Seward of New York andAbraham Lincoln of Illinois. On the third ballot, as we know, the latterwas nominated. I was but a youth on that memorable day, but I vividlyrecollect that I was standing, with other urchins, nearly opposite the"Wigwam, " and was startled when a man stationed on top of the buildingyelled out, "Fire: Lincoln is nominated!" Then followed the roar ofcannon and cheers upon cheers. 

When the news reached Mr. Lincoln he was chatting with some friendsin the office of the "Sangamon Journal, " in Springfield. He read thetelegram aloud, and then said: "There is a little woman down at ourhouse who will like to hear this. I'll go down and tell her. " The"little woman" was his wife, whom, as Mary Todd, he had won in 1842, andhe knew that she was more anxious that he should be President than hehimself was. 

On the 7th of November, 1860, it was known throughout the country thatLincoln had been elected. From that very hour dates the conspiracywhich, by easy stages and successive usurpations of authority, culminated in rebellion. It is painful now to revert to the events whichmarked its progress. There is not a man living to-day, I trust, thatdoes not wish they could be blotted out from our history. While watchingthe course of these events Mr. Lincoln chanced one day to be talkingwith his friend, Newton Bateman, a highly respectable and Christiangentleman, and Superintendent of Public Instruction in Illinois. I canonly quote a part of the interview, as furnished by Mr. Bateman himself:"I know there is a God, " said Lincoln; "and he hates injustice andslavery. I see the storm coming. I know that his hand is in it. If hehas a place and work for me, --and I think he has, --I believe I am ready. I am nothing; but truth is everything, I know I am right, because I knowthat liberty is right; for Christ teaches it; and Christ is God. I havetold them that 'a house divided against itself cannot stand, ' and Christand reason say the same; and they will find it so. 

"Douglas doesn't care whether slavery is voted up or down; but Godcares, and humanity cares, and I care; and with God's help I shall notfail. I may not see the end, but it will come, and I shall bevindicated; and these men will find that they have not read their Biblearight. "

We are told that, after a pause, he resumed: "Does it not appear strangethat men can ignore the moral aspects of this contest? A revelationcould not make it plainer to me that slavery or the Government, must bedestroyed. The future would be something awful, as I look at it, but forthis rock on which I stand. " He alluded to the Testament which he heldin his hand, and which his mother--"to whom he owed all that he was, orhoped to be"--had first taught him to read. 

There is nothing in history more pathetic than the scene when, on the11th of February, 1861, Abraham Lincoln bade a last farewell to his homeof a quarter of a century. 

To his friends and neighbors he said, while grasping them by the hand, "I go to assume a task more difficult than that which has devolvedupon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would havesucceeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at alltimes relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divineblessing which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place myreliance for support. " The profound religious feeling which pervadesthis farewell speech characterized him to the close of his life. 

All along the route Lincoln preached the gospel of confidence, conciliation, and peace. Notwithstanding the ominous signs of the times, he had such an abiding faith in the people as to believe that theguarantees of all their rights under the Constitution, ofnon-intervention with the institution of slavery where it existed, andthe assurance of a most friendly spirit on the part of the new Presidentwould calm the heated passion of the men of the South, would reclaimStates already in secession, and would retain the rest of the cottonStates under the banner of the Union. What a striking evidence of thelingering hope and of the tender heart of the President is afforded byhis first inaugural address!

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, isthe momentous issue of civil war. 

"The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict withoutbeing yourselves the aggressors; you can have no oath registered inheaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemnone, --'to preserve, protect, and defend it. '

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not beenemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bondsof affection. 

"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field andpatriot grave to every living heart and hearth-stone all over this broadland, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, assurely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. "

Abraham Lincoln took the helm of government in more dangerous times andunder more difficult and embarrassing circumstances than any of thefifteen presidents who preceded him. The ship of Union was built andlaunched and first commanded by Washington. 

 "He knew what master laid her keel, What workmen wrought her ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of her hope. "

The men whom he chose as her first crew were those who had helped toform her model. During succeeding generations inefficient hands wereoccasionally shipped to take the place of worn-out members of theoriginal crew. Often the vessel was put out of her course to serve thepersonal ends of this or that sailor, and ere long mutiny broke outamong her passengers, headed by John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Finally, a man ignorant in the science of astronomy and navigation, feeble alike in heart and arm, became, nominally, commander, but reallythe cat's-paw, of his crew, at whose bidding the ship was steered. WhenAbraham Lincoln was called to the helm he found the once stanch, strongvessel in a leaky, damaged condition, with her compasses deranged, herrudder broken, and the luminous star by which Washington guided hiscourse dimmed by a cloud of disunion and doubt. When the belching cannonopened upon Sumter, then it was that the ship of State was found to beall but stranded on the shoals, --Treason. 

We are all aware of the story of that struggle. We can never forgetthe story, for there is yet a "vacant chair, " that recalls it in manya home. The manner in which President Lincoln conducted the affairs ofthe government during that struggle forms an important chapter in thehistory of the world for that period. After Good Friday comes Easter;after the day of dejection and doubt comes the day of recompense andrejoicing. To my mind there is that in the life-work of PresidentLincoln which itself consecrates every soldier's grave, and makes thetenant of that grave more worthy of his sublime dying. It added honorto honor to have fallen, serving under such a commander. 

It was midsummer, 1862, and at a time when the whole North wasdepressed, that the President convened his cabinet to talk over thesubject-matter of the Emancipation Proclamation. On the 22d of Septemberensuing it was published to the world. It was the act of the Presidentalone. It exhibited far-seeing sagacity, courage, independence, andstatesmanship. The final proclamation was issued on the 1st of January, 1863. On that day the President had been receiving calls, and for hoursshaking hands. As the paper was brought to him by the Secretary of Stateto be signed, he said, "Mr. Seward, I have been shaking hands all day, and my right hand is almost paralyzed. If my name ever gets into historyit will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembleswhen I sign the proclamation those who examine the document hereafterwill say, 'He hesitated. '" Then, resting his arm a moment, he turnedto the table, took up the pen, and slowly and firmly wrote, ABRAHAMLINCOLN. He smiled as, handing the paper to Mr. Seward, he said "Thatwill do. "

This was the pivotal act of his administration; but this humaneand just promise to liberate four millions of slaves, to wipe out anation's disgrace, was followed by the darkest and most doubtful daysin the history of America. Grant, in the lowlands of Louisiana, wasendeavoring, against obstacles, to open the Mississippi; but, with allhis energy, he accomplished nothing. McClellan's habit of growling atthe President had become intolerable, and Burnside superseded him incommand of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside advanced against Lee, fought him at Fredericksburg, and was repulsed with terrible disaster. Then the army broke camp for another campaign, the elements opposed, Burnside gave way to Hooker. The soldiers became disheartened, andthousands deserted to their homes in the North. The President'sproclamation was now virtually a dead letter; people looked upon itand characterized it as a joke. But there came at last a break in theclouds, and on Independence Day, 1863, the star of liberty and unionappeared upon the distant sky as a covenant that God had not forsakenthe Prophet of the West, --the Redeemer of the Slave. I can find no morefitting words to characterize Grant's victory at Vicksburg than thosewhich the young and brave McPherson used in his congratulatory addressto the brave men who fought for the victory:--

"The achievements of this hour will give a new meaning to this memorableday; and Vicksburg will heighten the glory in the patriot's heart, whichkindles at the mention of Bunker Hill and Yorktown. The dawn of aconquered peace is breaking before you. The plaudits of an admiringworld will hail you wherever you go. "

Take it altogether it was perhaps the most brilliant operation of thewar, and established the reputation of Grant as one of the greatestmilitary leaders of any age. He, the last of the triumvirate, is passingaway; and, in this connection, no apology is needed in quoting theletter which the President wrote with his own hand, and transmitted tohim, on receipt of the glorious tidings:--

 MY DEAR GENERAL, --I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg I thought you should do what you finally did, --march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and then go below; and I never had any faith, except a general hope, that you knew better than I that the Yazoo-Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below, and took Fort Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Gen. Banks; and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I thought it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong. 

And recall now the never-to-be-forgotten scenes at Gettysburg. The Unionarmy had been defeated at Chancellorsville, and Gen. Lee, having assumedthe offensive, had been making the greatest preparations for strikinga decisive blow. Already had he passed through Maryland; he was now inPennsylvania. But valiant men were there to meet and oppose. The fateof the day, the fate of the Confederacy, was staked upon the issue. Icannot picture the battle; but we all know the result, and how great wasthe rejoicing in the North when, on that 4th day of July, the tidings ofthe fall of Vicksburg and the victory at Gettysburg reached the country. 

A portion of the battle-field of Gettysburg was set apart as aresting-place for the heroes who fell on that bloody ground. In Novemberof that year the ceremony of consecration took place. Edward Everett, the orator and the scholar, delivered the oration; it was a polishedspecimen of his consummate skill. After him rose PresidentLincoln, --"simple, rude, his care-worn face now lighted and glowing withintense feeling. " He simply read the touching speech which is alreadyplaced among the classics of our language:--

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon thiscontinent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to theproposition that all men are created equal. 

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are meton a great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion ofit as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives thatthat nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that weshould do this. 

"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, wecannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, whostruggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add ordetract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we_say_ here; but it can never forget what they _did_ here. Itis for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinishedwork that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us tobe here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from thesehonored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they heregave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve thatthe dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by thepeople, and for the people shall not perish from the earth. "

There have been but four instances in history in which great deeds havebeen celebrated in words as immortal as themselves: the epitaph upon thedead Spartan band at Thermopylæ; the words of Demosthenes on those whoperished at Marathon; the speech of Webster in memory of those who laiddown their lives at Bunker Hill; and these words of Lincoln on the hillat Gettysburg. As he closed, and while his listeners were still sobbing, he grasped the hand of Mr. Everett, and said. "I congratulate you onyour success. "--"Ah, " replied the orator, gracefully, "Mr. President, how gladly would I exchange all my hundred pages to have been the authorof your twenty lines!"

I forbear to dwell longer on the events of the war. The tide had turned, and the end was already foreseen. Notwithstanding that Mr. Lincoln hadproved the righteousness of his course, a great many people in theNorth--and many even in his own party--were opposed to his nominationfor a second term. The disaffected nominated Gen. Fremont, upon theplatform of the suppression of the Rebellion, the Monroe doctrine, andthe election of President and Vice-President by the direct vote of thepeople, and for one term only. The Democratic party declared the war forthe Union a failure, and very properly nominated McClellan. It requireda long time for the General to make up his mind in regard to acceptingthe nomination; and, in conversations upon the subject with a friend, Lincoln suggested that perhaps he might be _entrenching_. Theelection was held, and Lincoln received a majority greater than was everbefore given to a candidate for the presidency. The people this timewere like the Dutch farmer, --they believed that "it was not best to swaphorses when crossing a stream. "

On the 4th of March, 1865, he delivered that memorable inaugural addresswhich is truly accounted one of the ablest state papers to be found inthe archives of America. It concludes with these words:--

"With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in theright as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we arein, --to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall haveborne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which mayachieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and withall nations. "

Read and reread this whole address. Since the days of Christ's Sermonon the Mount, where is the speech of ruler that can compare with it?No other in American annals has so impressed the people. Said adistinguished statesman from New York, on the day of its delivery, "A century from to-day that inaugural will be read as one of the mostsublime utterances ever spoken by man. Washington is the great man ofthe era of the Revolution. So will Lincoln be of this; but Lincoln willreach the higher position in history. "

Four years before, Mr. Lincoln, an untried man, had assumed the reins ofgovernment; now, he was the faithful and beloved servant of the people. Then, he was ridiculed and caricatured; and some persons even foundfault with his dress, just as the British ambassador found fault withthe dress of the author of the Declaration of Independence. Theambassador is forgotten, but Jefferson will live as long as a governmentof the people, by the people, and for the people, endures. While helived Lincoln was shamefully abused by the people and press of the landof his forefathers; and not until the shot was fired--not until theblood of the just--the ransom of the slave--was spilled, did Englandthrow off the cloak of prejudice, and acknowledge--

 "This king of princes-peer, This rail-splitter, a true-born king of men. "

It is well known that not all of Mr. Lincoln's friends invariablyharmonized with his views. Of the number of these Horace Greeley stoodforemost, and undoubtedly caused the President great anxiety uponseveral occasions. He never did things by halves; and, whenever heundertook to do a thing, the whole country, believing in the honesty andpurity of his motives, gave to him a willing ear. From the editorialsanctum of the "Tribune" many a sharp and soul-stirring letter wentforth addressed to the executive of the nation. Mr. Lincoln read them, oftentimes replied to them, but very rarely heeded the counsel whichthey contained. When the President was struck down, Mr. Greeley, whodiffered so widely from him, mourned the loss of a very dear friend. 

Charles Sumner often differed from the President, and on the floor ofthe Senate Chamber frequently gave utterance to statements which carriedgrief into the White House. But Mr. Lincoln knew and understood CharlesSumner. An incident may here be recalled. The President was solicitousthat his views, as embodied in an act then claiming the attention ofCongress, should become law prior to the adjournment of that body on the4th of March. Mr. Sumner opposed the bill, because he thought it did notsufficiently guard the interests of the freedmen of that State. Owing tothe opposition of the Senator and a few of his friends the bill wasdefeated. Mr. Lincoln felt displeased, and the newspapers throughout thecountry published that the friendship which had so long existed betweenthe two men was at an end. 

But Mr. Lincoln was not a man who would withdraw friendship on accountof an honest difference of opinion. It was not he who made the mistakeof urging the dismissal of Mr. Sumner from the chairmanship of theSenate Committee on Foreign Relations. On the 4th of March Mr. Lincolnwas reinaugurated; on the evening of the 6th occurred the InaugurationBall. Mr. Sumner had never attended one of these state occasions, and hedid not purpose doing so at this time until he received, in the courseof the afternoon, the following letter:--

 DEAR MR. SUMNER, --Unless you send me word to the contrary, I shall this evening call with my carriage at your house, to take you with me to the Inauguration Ball. 

 Sincerely yours, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The great Senator entered the ball-room, with Mrs. Lincoln leaning onhis arm, and took his seat by the side of the President. The evening waspleasantly spent, and the newspapers at once discovered how great ablunder they had made. 

At length the curtain fell upon the bloody scenes of the war. Under themighty blows of Grant and his lieutenants the Rebellion was crushed. On a bright day the President, accompanied by Mr. Sumner, entered thestreets of Richmond, and witnessed the grateful tears of thousands ofthe race he had redeemed from bondage and disgrace. Having returned toWashington, he convened a cabinet council on the 14th of April. Duringthe session his heart overflowed with kind and charitable thoughtstowards the South, and towards those officers who had deserted the flagof their country in her trying hour he poured out a forgiving spirit. 

After that cabinet meeting he went to drive with Mrs. Lincoln, --they twowere alone. "Mary, " said he, "we have had a hard time of it since wecame to Washington; but the war is over, and, with God's blessing, wemay hope for four years of peace and happiness, and then we will go backto Illinois and pass the rest of our lives in quiet. We have laid bysome money, and during this term we will try and save up more, but shallnot have enough to support us. We will go back to Illinois, and I willopen a law-office at Springfield or Chicago, and practise law, and atleast do enough to help give us a livelihood. " Such were the dreams ofAbraham Lincoln the last day of his life. The whole world knows theremainder of the story, --of that terrible night at the theatre; of thatpassing away in the early dawn of the morning; of that sad and mournfulpassage from the Capitol to the grave at Oak Ridge Cemetery. It ispainful to dwell upon it; it makes the heart faint even to recall it. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN needs no eulogy. There is but one other name inAmerican history which can be mentioned with his as that of a peer, --thename of Washington. He was as pure, and just, and as patriotic as theFather of his Country. He was born of his time, a creature of the age ofgiants, a genius from the people, all the greater for his struggles, forhe really did more than any man of his day to destroy caste and givecourage to the lowly; and therein he wrote the brightest pages ofprogress. The shaft that marks his silent resting-place, the books heread, the office he used, the strong body that covered his warm heartand wise purposes, were only the outer symbols to the higher gifts ofhis Creator. All gifts and graces are not found in one person. He isgreat in whom the good predominates. All persons are not born equal. Gifts are diversified; but if ever a man had the "genius of greatness, "it was Abraham Lincoln. As all are eloquent in that which they know, hewas eloquent in what he both knew and did. 

A few words more. The President left a heart-broken widow, a woman whoseintellect was shattered by one of the most awful shocks in humanhistory. No mind can picture the agonies which she suffered, even tillthe day of her death, on July 16, 1882. I make mention of her now, because, during her eventful life in Washington and afterwards, she wasmost cruelly treated by a portion of the press and people. I canconceive of nothing so unmanly, so devoid of every chivalric impulse, asthe abuse of this poor, wounded, and bereft woman. But I am reminded ofthe splendid outburst of eloquence on the part of Edmund Burke, when, speaking of the heart-broken Queen of France, he said:--

"Little did I dream that I should live to see such disasters fall uponher in a nation of gallant men, --a nation of men of honor, cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards toavenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age ofchivalry is gone. "

 "Lincoln was incontestably the greatest man I ever knew. What marked him was his sincerity, his kindness, his clear insight into affairs, his firm will and clear policy. I always found him preëminently a clear-minded man. The saddest day of my life was that of Lincoln's assassination. "--U. S. GRANT. 

[The death of GENERAL GRANT has occurred since this article was put intotype. --_Ed. _]

 * * * * *

NANTASKET BEACH. 

By Edward P. Guild. 

The outline of Boston harbor somewhat resembles a very irregularletter C, with its open side facing to the north-east. The upper hornterminates with Point Shirley, in the town of Winthrop. The lower hornis a narrow ridge of land of varying width, extending four miles fromthe mainland, then abruptly turning to the westward for three miles. This peninsula is the town of Hull; the sharp elbow is Point Allerton. 

The stretch of four miles from the point to the mainland is of greatlyvarying width, the harbor side being of most irregular and fantasticoutline; but the side toward the sea is smooth and even, and formsNantasket Beach, --one of the most popular watering-places on theAtlantic coast. 

The development of Nantasket as a summer resort began a long time ago, although the era of large hotels and popular excursions began in thelast few years. Forty or fifty vears ago people from Boston, Dorchester, Hingham, and other towns, when hungering for a sniff of unalloyedsea-breeze, or a repast of the genuine clam-chowder, were in the habitof resorting to this beach, where they could pitch their tents, orfind accommodations in the rather humble cottages which were alreadybeginning to dot the shore. That the delights of the beach wereappreciated then is evinced by the habitual visits of many noted men ofthe time, among them Daniel Webster, who often came here for recreation, usually bringing his gun with him that he might indulge his sportingproclivities; and, according to his biographer, "he was a keensportsman. Until past the age of sixty-five he was a capital shot; andthe feathered game in his neighborhood was, of course, purely wild. Heused to say, after he had been in England, that shooting in 'preserves'seemed to him very much like going out and murdering the barn-doorfowl. His shooting was of the woodcock, the wild-duck, and the variousmarsh-birds that frequent the coast of New England.... Nor would heunmoor his dory with his 'bob and line and sinker, ' for a haul of cod orhake or haddock, without having Ovid, or Agricola, or Pharsalia, in thepocket of his old gray overcoat, for the 'still and silent hour' uponthe deep. "

Another frequent visitor--Peter Peregrine--wrote: "The Nantasket Beachis the most beautiful I ever saw. It sweeps around in a majestic curve, which, if it were continued so as to complete the circle, would ofitself embrace a small sea. There was a gentle breeze upon the water, and the sluggish waves rolled inward with a languid movement, and brokewith a low murmur of music in long lines of foam against the oppositesands. The surface of the sea was, in every direction, thickly dottedwith sails; the air was of a delicious temperature, and altogether itwas a scene to detain one for hours. "

Evidently, Peter was a lover of nature at the sea-side; but to show thatthose who sojourned here forty years ago were not unexposed to ridicule, the following extract is given from a letter written from Hull in 1846:"The public and private houses at Nantasket are overrun with company, chiefly from Boston. Some of our fashionable people, as the rich arevulgarly called, will leave their airy, cool, well-appointedestablishments in Boston, with every luxury the market affords, in thevain hope of finding comfort in such houses. They will leave their citypalaces, the large and convenient rooms, comfortable bedsteads andmattresses, and all the delicacies of the season, and submit to beingstowed away on straw-beds or cots, even upon the floor, half-a-dozen ina small chamber, or four deep in an entry, to be half-starved into thebargain upon badly cooked fish and other equally cheap commodities, forthe mere sake of being able to think that they are enjoying thesea-breeze. " Had the writer of this satire lived to lodge for a night inone of the palace hotels which now adorn Nantasket Beach he would havesung another song. 

The peninsula of Hull is graced by three gentle elevations, --AtlanticHill, a rocky eminence marking the southern limit of the beach; SagamoreHill, a little farther to the north; and Strawberry Hill, about midwayto Point Allerton. The last of these elevations is the most noted ofthe three. On its summit is an old barn, which is not only a well-knownlandmark for sea-voyagers, but a point of the triangulations of theofficial harbor surveys. In 1775 a large barn, containing eighty tonsof hay, was burned on this spot by the Americans, that it might not besecured by the British. The splendid scene which this fire must haveproduced was doubtless applauded with even more enthusiasm than thegreat illuminations which are now a part of each season's events at thebeach. 

It is said that fierce conflicts among the savages used to often occuron the plains extending toward Point Allerton, before these parts wereinvaded by the white man. The theory has arisen from the finding oflarge numbers of skulls, bones, arrows, tomahawks, and other relics inthis locality. 

The trip to Nantasket from Boston by boat on a summer day is mostdelightful, affording a sail of an hour among the most interestingobjects of Boston harbor. The point of departure is at Rowe's wharf, near the foot of Broad street, where the passenger steps on board one ofthe well-equipped steamers of the Boston and Hingham Steamboat Company. The course down to Nix's Mate, and thence to Pemberton, is quitestraight, but the route the remainder of the way, especially afterentering Weir river, is so tortuous as to cause the passenger toconstantly believe that the boat is just going to drive against theshore. Upon the arrival at Nantasket pier the passenger is aware that heis at a popular resort. Barges and coaches line the long pier; ambitiousporters give all possible strength of inflection to the names of theirrespective hotels; while innumerable _menu_ cards are thrust intothe visitors' hands, each calling particular attention to the chowdersof the ------ House as being the best to be had on the New Englandcoast. 

Two minutes' walk is sufficient to cross from the steamboat-pier overthe narrow ridge of land to the beach. The difference between one sideand the other is very striking. On the one is the still, dark water ofWeir river; on the other, the open sea and the rolling surf. The beachat once impresses the visitor as being remarkably fine, and, indeed, itis equalled by none on the coast, unless, possibly, by Old Orchard. Thesands are hard and firm, and at low tide form a spacious boulevard fordriving or walking. Before the eye is the open sea, dotted here andthere with glistening sails. The long, dark vessel which appears in thedistance, about four o'clock on Saturday afternoon, is a Cunard steamer, which has just left East Boston for its voyage to Liverpool. For two orthree hours it is in sight, slowly and majestically moving toward thehorizon. 

The scene on the beach is in marked contrast to what might have beenwitnessed a generation ago. Then one would have found here and therea family group just driven down in the old-fashioned carryall, andenjoying a feast of clam-chowder cooked over a fire of drift-wood. Nowthe beach is thronged by crowds of many thousands; immense hotels viewith those of the metropolis in grandeur; there are avenues and parks, flying horses, tennis-grounds, shops for the sale of everything that thecity affords, and some that it does not, dog-carts and goat-wagons, fruit and peanut-stands, bowling-alleys, shooting-targets, and, in fact, as many devices to empty the pocket-book as are usually found at acattle-show and a church-fair together. An excursion party has justarrived, but this occurs, sometimes, several times in a day, --forNantasket is a Mecca to the excursionist. Societies and lodges comehere; clubs resort hither for a social dinner; mercantile firms sendtheir employés on an annual sail to this place, and philanthropistsprovide for hundreds of poor children a day's outing on this beach. 

Thus, there is no exclusiveness about Nantasket; but, at the same time, the tone of the place is excellent, and there seems to be no tendencytoward its falling into disrepute, as has been the case with othervery popular watering-places. It is, in fact, admitted by a New Yorknewspaper that "Bostonians are justly proud of Nantasket Beach, whereone can get cultured clams, intellectual chowder, refined lager, andvery scientific pork and beans. It is far superior to our monotonoussand-beach in its picturesqueness of natural beauty, in the Americancharacter of the visitors, and in the reasonableness of hotel charges, as well as the excellence of the service. "

The oldest of the large hotels now in existence at the beach is theRockland House, which was opened in 1854 by Colonel Nehemiah Ripley, whowas proprietor for many years. At first, it had forty rooms; it now hasabout two hundred, and is beautifully furnished. It stands at the headof a broad, rising lawn, and from its balconies and windows the view ofthe sea is magnificent. It is now in the hands of Russell & Sturgis, whoare also proprietors of the Hotel Nantasket, --the most effective in itsarchitecture of any of the great houses here. Its towers and pinnaclesare numbered by the score, and it has the broadest of piazzas. In frontof the hotel, toward the water, is the band-stand from which Reeve'scelebrated band gives two concerts daily during the season, theirentrancing music mingling with the monotone of the surf, to the delightof large audiences which assemble on the piazzas. 

The Rockland Café, also under the same management, is joined to thehotel by a long arcade, and enjoys an excellent reputation for itschowders and fish dinners. 

The Atlantic House, which crowns the hill of the same name, is aspacious and elegant hotel, always filled during the season with guests, including many of the representatives of wealth and culture in themetropolis. The view from here is very grand, commanding the entirebeach and a vast expanse of the sea. The proprietors are L. Damon &Sons. 

Bathing is, naturally enough, a prominent feature of Nantasket'sattractions. Bath-houses are scattered all along the beach, where onemay, for a small sum, --fifty to two-hundred per cent. Of itsvalue, --obtain the use of a suit for as long a time as he or she maychoose to buffet the waves of the briny Atlantic. The most appreciativepatrons of the surf seem to be the children, who are always ready topull off shoes and stockings, and, armed with a wooden pail and shovel, amuse themselves with digging sand, and letting the surf break overtheir feet. It is very evident that not a few older people envy thechildren in this innocent amusement. 

It is said that the life of the hotels and the drift of excursionists, great as they appear, are falling into the background, while thepopularity of cottage life is rapidly on the increase. This plan is muchmore economical than boarding at the highest-price hotels, althoughthose who have ample means find a summer spent at either the houses ofRussell & Sturgis, or at the hostelry of Damon & Sons, most eminentlysatisfactory in every respect. New cottages spring up like mushroomsevery year from one end of the beach to the other, and they representevery style of architecture, although Queen Anne is held responsible forthe most frequent style as yet. But in size, coloring, and expense thecottages vary as widely as the tastes and wealth of their severalowners. "There are big houses and little; houses like the Chinesepagodas in old Canton blue-ware; houses like castles, with towers andbattlements; houses like nests, and houses like barracks; houses withseven gables, and houses with none at all. "

During the heavy easterly gales of winter seaweed and kelp are washedashore in great quantities. This is carted off by the farmers, who findit valuable as a fertilizer, and they are indebted to the sea forthousands of dollars' worth of this product every year. Nantasket inwinter presents a gloomy contrast to its life and gayety in the summer. The winds are cold and fierce. The pretty cottages are deserted, and thesea moans with a sound betokening peril to the craft that ventures totempt the waves. The nearly buried timbers of old vessels that are seenin the sands are relics of disaster in years gone by. 

But in the summer months, Nantasket must ever remain a sea-side paradiseto those who know its attractions. 

 * * * * *

IDLENESS. 

By Sidney Harrison. 

 A flutter 'mid the branches, and my heart Leaps with the life in that full chirp that breathes; The brown, full-breasted sparrow with a dart Is at my feet amid the swaying wreaths Of grass and clover; trooping blackbirds come With haughty step; the oriole, wren and jay Revel amid the cool, green moss in play, Then off in clouds of music; while the drum Of scarlet-crested woodpecker from yon Old Druid-haunting oak sends toppling down A ruined memory of ages past; O life and death--how blended to the last!

 * * * * *

THE GRIMKÉ SISTERS. 

THE FIRST AMERICAN WOMEN ADVOCATES OF ABOLITION AND WOMAN'S RIGHTS. 

By George Lowell Austin. 

This is an era of recollections. The events of twenty and twenty-fiveyears ago are being read and reconsidered anew with as much interest asthough they were the fresh and important events of the present. It waslong claimed by those who believed that they thought and wrote withauthority that not only was slavery the main cause of the civil war inAmerica, but that the abolition of slavery was its chiefest object. A more sober criticism of the motives and deeds of those who were theprime actors in that inglorious struggle has tended somewhat to alterthis opinion. It will, however, be again called to mind by a forthcomingbiography, --that of Sarah and Angelina Grimké, better known as "theGrimké Sisters. " The task of preparing this biography was intrusted toMrs. Catherine H. Birney, of Washington, who knew the sisters well, andwho lived for several years under the same roof with them. 

There need be no hesitation in saying this book is one of the mostinteresting and valuable contributions to the history of abolitionismever published. From first to last, during that momentous struggle, thephrase "the Grimké Sisters" was familiar to everybody, and the partwhich they enacted in the struggle was no less familiar. Mr. Phillipsoften spoke of them in his public addresses; they were prominent membersof the anti-slavery societies; they themselves frequently appearedbefore large audiences on public platforms. Indeed, no history of thegreat moral cause would be complete that was not, in large part, made upof their noble deeds; and no less valiantly did they contend for Woman'sRights. 

SARAH and ANGELINA GRIMKÉ were born in Charleston, South Carolina;Sarah, Nov. 26, 1792; Angelina, Feb. 20, 1805. They were the daughtersof the Hon. John Fauchereau Grimké, a colonel in the revolutionary war, and judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina. His ancestors wereGerman on the father's side, French on the mother's; the Fauchereaufamily having left France in consequence of the revocation of the Edictof Nantes in 1685. 

Judge Grimké's position, character, and wealth placed his family amongthe leaders of the very exclusive society of Charleston. His childrenwere accustomed to luxury and display, to the service of slaves, and tothe indulgence of every selfish whim, although the father's practicalcommon-sense led him to protest against the habits to which suchindulgences naturally led. To Sarah he paid particular attention, andwas often heard to declare that if she had been of the other sex shewould have made the greatest jurist in the land. 

Children are born without prejudice, and the young children of Southernplanters never felt or made any difference between their white andcolored playmates. So that there is nothing singular in the fact thatSarah Grimké early felt such an abhorrence of the whole institution ofslavery that she was sure it was born in her. 

When Sarah was twelve years old two important events occurred tointerrupt the even tenor of her life. Her brother Thomas was sent off toYale College, leaving her companionless; but a little sister, AngelinaEmily, the last child of her parents, and the pet and darling of Sarahfrom the moment the light dawned upon her blue eyes, came to take hisplace. Sarah almost became a mother to this little one; whither she led, Angelina followed closely. 

In 1818 Judge Grimké's health began to decline. So faithful did Sarahnurse him that when it was decided that he should go to Philadelphia, she was chosen to accompany him. This first visit to the North was themost important event of Sarah's life, for the influences and impressionsthere received gave some shape to her vague and wayward fancies, andshowed her a gleam of the light beyond the tangled path which stillstretched before her. 

Her father died; and in the vessel which carried his remains fromPhiladelphia Sarah met a party of Friends. She talked with them onreligious matters, and after a few months acknowledged to one of them, in the course of a correspondence, her entire conversion to Quakerism. Ere long circumstances and the inharmonious life in her family urged heragain to seek Philadelphia, where she arrived in May, 1821. Angelinaremained at Charleston, where she grew up a gay, fashionable girl. 

We pass over the interesting correspondence which, from this timeonward, was carried on between the sisters. 

The strong contrast between Sarah and Angelina Grimké was shown notonly in their religious feelings, but in their manner of treating theordinary concerns of life, and in carrying out their convictions ofduty. In her humility, and in her strong reliance on the "inner light, "Sarah refused to trust her own judgment, even in the merest trifles, such as the lending of a book to a friend, postponing the writing of aletter, or sweeping a room to-day when it might be better to defer ituntil to-morrow. She says of this: "Perhaps to some, who have been ledby higher ways than I have been into a knowledge of the truth, it mayappear foolish to think of seeking direction in little things, but mymind has for a long time been in a state in which I have often felt afear how I came in or went out, and I have found it a precious thing tostop and consult the mind of truth, and be governed thereby. "

Already the sisters had begun to reflect upon the evils of slavery. Evidences of the tenor of their reflection are furnished in theirletter, and also in Sarah's diary, which she commenced in 1828. Angelinawas the first to express her abhorrence of the whole system; whileSarah's mind, for a while at least, was too much absorbed by herdisappointed hopes and her trials in the ministry to allow her to domuch more than express sympathy with Angelina's anti-slavery sentiments. 

In the autumn of 1829 Angelina left Charleston never to return, and madeher home with Sarah in the home of Catherine Morris. She soon becameinterested in Quakerism, and eventually joined the Society. The dailyrecords of their lives and thoughts, for the ensuing four or five years, exhibit them in the enjoyment of their quiet home, visiting prisons, hospitals, and almshouses, and mourning over no sorrow or sins but theirown. Angelina was leading a life of benevolent effort, too busy to admitof the pleasure of society, and her Quaker associations did not favorcontact with the world's people, or promote knowledge of the activemovements in the larger reforms of the day. As to Sarah, she wassuffering keenly under a great sorrow of her life. 

Meanwhile, events were making; the anti-slavery question was beingagitated and discussed. In February, 1831, occurred the famous debate atLane Seminary, near Cincinnati, presided over by Dr. Lyman Beecher. Theeloquence of that debate swept over the country; it flooded many hearts, and set souls aflame. Sarah Grimké also thought a _little_. Underdate of "5th mo. , 12th, 1835, " appears the following in Angelina'sdiary:--

 Five months have elapsed since I wrote in this diary, since which time I have become deeply interested in the subject of abolition. I had long regarded this cause as utterly hopeless, but since I have examined anti-slavery principles, I find them so full of the power of truth, that I am confident not many years will roll by before the horrible traffic in human beings will be destroyed in this land of Gospel privileges. My soul has measurably stood in the stead of the poor slave, and my earnest prayers have been poured out that the Lord would be pleased to permit me to be instrumental of good to these degraded, oppressed, and suffering fellow-creatures. Truly, I often feel ready to go to prison or to death in this cause of justice, mercy, and love; and I do fully believe if I am called to return to Carolina, it will not be long before I shall suffer persecution of some kind or other. 

When, after the Garrison riot, Mr. Garrison issued his appeal to thecitizens of Boston, Angelina's anti-slavery enthusiasm was fullyaroused. On the 30th of March of that year (1835) she wrote a letter toMr. Garrison, --as _brave_ a letter as was ever penned by the handof woman. In it occur these thrilling words:--

 If, she says, persecution is the means which God has ordained for the accomplishment of this great end, _Emancipation_, then, in dependence upon him for strength to bear it, I feel as if I could say, _Let It Come!_ for it is my deep, solemn, deliberate conviction that _this is a cause worth dying for_. I say so from what I have seen, heard, and known in a land of slavery, where rests the darkness of Egypt, and where is found the sin of Sodom. Yes! _Let it come--let us suffer_, rather than insurrections should arise. 

Mr. Garrison published the letter in the "Liberator" to the surprise ofAngelina and the great displeasure and grief of her Quaker friends, andof her sister, Sarah, as well. But Angelina was not dismayed. In 1836she wrote her "Appeal to Southern Women, " and sent it to New York, whereit was published as a pamphlet of thirty-six pages. Mr. Elizur Wrightspoke of it, at the time, as "a patch of blue sky breaking through thestorm-cloud of public indignation which had gathered so black over thehandful of anti-slavery workers. " The praise was not exaggerated. Thepamphlet produced the most profound sensation wherever it was read. 

Soon after its publication the sisters went to New York and there openlyidentified themselves with the members of the American Anti-SlaverySociety; and also of the Female Anti-Slavery Society. The account of thefirst assembly of women, not Quakers, in a public place in America, addressed by American women, as given in these pages, is deeplyinteresting and touching from its very simplicity. We, who are soaccustomed to hear women speak to promiscuous audiences on any and everysubject, will naturally smile at the following memoranda by Angelina:--

 We went home to tea with Julia Tappan, and Brother Weld was all anxiety to hear about the meeting. Julia undertook to give some account, and among other things mentioned that a warm-hearted abolitionist had found his way into the back part of the meeting, and was escorted out by Henry Ludlow. Weld's noble countenance instantly lighted up, and he exclaimed: "How supremely ridiculous to think of a man's being shouldered out of a meeting for fear he should hear a woman speak!".... 

 In the evening a colonizationist of this city came to introduce an abolitionist to Lewis Tappan. We women soon hedged in our expatriation brother, and held a long and interesting argument with him until near ten o'clock. He gave up so much that I could not see what he had to stand on when we left him. 

After closing their meetings in New York the sisters held similar onesin New Jersey, all of which were attended only by women. From thencethey went up the North River with Gerrit Smith, holding audiences atHudson and Poughkeepsie. At the latter place they spoke to an assemblyof colored people of both sexes, and this was the first time Angelinaever addressed a mixed audience. 

The woman's rights agitation, while entirely separate from abolitionism, owes its origin to the interest this subject excited in the hearts andminds of American women; and to Sarah and Angelina Grimké must beaccorded the credit of first making the woman question one of reform. They wrote and spoke often on the theme. Public feeling grew strongagainst them, and at last the Congregational ministers of Massachusettssaw proper to pass a resolution of censure against the sisters! Thisresolution was issued as a "Pastoral Letter, " which, in the light andfreedom of the present day, must be regarded as a most extraordinarydocument. 

Whittier's muse found the "Pastoral Letter" a fitting theme for itsvigorous, sympathetic utterances. The poem thus inspired is perhaps oneof the very best among his many songs of freedom. It will be rememberedas beginning thus:--

 "So this is all! the utmost reach Of priestly power the mind to fetter, When laymen _think_, when women _preach_, A war of words, a 'Pastoral Letter!'"

Up to this time nothing had been said by either of the sisters in theirlectures concerning their views about women. They had carefully confinedthemselves to the subject of slavery, and the attendant topics ofimmediate emancipation, abstinence from the use of slave products, theerrors of the Colonization Society, and the sin of prejudice on theaccount of color. But now that they had found their own rights invaded, they began to feel it was time to look out for the rights of their wholesex. 

In the face of all this censure and ridicule the two sisters continuedin the discharge of a duty to which they increasingly felt they werecalled from on high. 

One is compelled, in this brief _résumé_, to hurry over much thatis interesting and important. While the good work goes on we see thesisters everywhere faithful to their sense of duty, unflinching to allassailants. 

In February, 1838, Sarah Grimké spoke for the last time in public, and in the month of May following, Angelina was united in marriage toTheodore D. Weld. "No marriage, " says Mrs. Birney, "could have been morefitting in every respect. The solemn relation was never entered uponin more holiness of purpose or in higher resolve to hold themselvesstrictly to the best they were capable of. It was a rededication oflives long consecrated to God and humanity; of souls knowing no selfishambition, seeking before all things the glory of their Creator in theelevation of his creatures everywhere. The entire unity of spirit inwhich they afterwards lived and labored, the tender affection which, through a companionship of more than forty years, knew no diminution, made a family life so perfect and beautiful that it brightened andinspired all who were favored to witness it. No one could be with themunder the most ordinary circumstances without feeling the force andinfluence of their characters. "

The happy couple settled down for their first house-keeping at Fort Lee, on the Hudson. They were scarcely settled amid their new surroundingsbefore the sisters received a formal notice of their disownment by theSociety of Friends because of Angelina's marriage. In December, 1839, the happiness of the little household was increased by the birth of ason, who received the name of Charles Stuart, in loving remembrance ofthe eminent English philanthropist, with whom Mr. Weld had been as abrother, and whom he regarded as living as near the angels as mortal mancould live. 

In the latter part of February, 1840, Mr. Weld, having purchased a farmof fifty acres at Belleville, New Jersey, removed his family there. The visitors to the Belleville farm--chiefly old and new anti-slaveryfriends--were numerous, and were always received with a cordiality whichleft no room to doubt its sincerity. 

In many ways the members of this united household were diligent ingood works. If a neighbor required a few hundred dollars, to save theforeclosure of a mortgage, the combined resources of the family weretaxed to aid him; if a poor student needed a helping hand in hispreparation for college, or for teaching, it was gladly extended tohim, --perhaps his board and lodging given him for six months or ayear, --with much valuable instruction thrown in. The instances ofcharity of this kind were many, and were performed with such a cheerfulspirit that Sarah only incidentally alludes to the increase of theircares and work at such times. In fact, their roof was ever a shelter forthe homeless, a home for the friendless; and it is pleasant to recordthat the return of ingratitude, so often made for benevolence of thiskind, was never their portion. They always seem to have had the sweetsatisfaction of knowing, sooner or later, that their kindness was notthrown away or under-estimated. 

In 1852 the Raritan Bay Association, consisting of thirty or fortyeducated and cultured families of congenial tastes, was formed atEagleswood, near Perth Amboy, New Jersey; and a year later Mr. AndMrs. Weld were invited to join the Association, and take charge of itseducational department. They accepted, in the hope of finding in thechange greater social advantages for themselves and their children, withless responsibility and less labor; for of these last the husband, wife, and sister, in their Belleville School, had had more than they werephysically able to endure longer. Their desire and plan was toestablish, with the children of the residents at Eagleswood, a schoolalso for others, and to charge such a moderate remuneration only aswould enable the middle classes to profit by it. In this project, aswith every other, no selfish ambition found a place. They removed toEagleswood in the autumn of 1854. 

In the new school Angelina taught history, for which she was admirablyqualified, while Sarah taught French, and was also book-keeper. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that few schools have ever beenestablished upon such a basis of conscientiousness and love, and withsuch adaptability in its conductors, as that at Eagleswood; few haveever held before the pupils so high a moral standard, or urged themon to such noble purposes in life. Children entered there spoiled byindulgence, selfish, uncontrolled, sometimes vicious. Their teachersstudied them carefully; confidence was gained, weaknesses sounded, elevation measured. Very slowly often, and with infinite patience andperseverance, but successfully in nearly every case, these children wereredeemed. The idle became industrious, the selfish considerate, thedisobedient and wayward repentant and gentle. Sometimes the fruits ofall this labor and forbearance did not show themselves immediately, and, in a few instances, the seed sown did not ripen until the boy or girlhad left school and mingled with the world. Then the contrast betweenthe common, every-day aims they encountered, and the teachings of theirEagleswood mentors, was forced upon them. Forgotten lessons of truth andhonesty and purity were remembered, and the wavering resolve was stayedand strengthened; worldly expediency gave way before the magnanimouspurpose, cringing subserviency before independent manliness. 

Then came the war. In 1862 Mrs. Weld published one of the most powerfulthings she ever wrote, --"A Declaration of War on Slavery. " We have notthe space to follow the course of the sisters' lives farther; and, wereit otherwise, the events narrated would be all too familiar. Sarah, after a somewhat prolonged illness, died on the 23d of December, 1873, at Hyde Park, Mass. The funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Francis Williams, and eloquent remarks were made also by Wm. LloydGarrison. On the 26th of October, 1879, Angelina passed quietly away, and the last services were in keeping with the record of the life thencommemorated. We close this writing with a passage from the remarkswhich Wendell Phillips made on that occasion. No words could possiblybe more touching or more eloquent:--

 When I think of Angelina there comes to me the picture of the spotless dove in the tempest, as she battles with the storm, seeking for some place to rest her foot. She reminds me of innocence personified in Spenser's poem. In her girlhood, alone, heart-led, she comforts the slave in his quarters, mentally struggling with the problems his position wakes her to. Alone, not confused, but seeking something to lean on, she grasps the Church, which proves a broken reed. No whit disheartened, she turns from one sect to another, trying each by the infallible touchstone of that clear, child-like conscience. The two old, lonely Quakers rest her foot awhile. But the eager soul must work, not rest in testimony. Coming North at last, she makes her own religion one of sacrifice and toil. Breaking away from, rising above, all forms, the dove floats at last in the blue sky where no clouds reach.... This is no place for tears. Graciously, in loving kindness and tenderly, God broke the shackles and freed her soul. It was not the dust which surrounded her that we loved. It was not the form which encompassed her that we revere; but it was the soul. We linger a very little while, her old comrades. The hour comes, it is even now at the door, that God will open our eyes to see her as she is: the white-souled child of twelve years old ministering to want and sorrow; the ripe life, full of great influences; the serene old age, example and inspiration whose light will not soon go out. Farewell for a very little while. God keep us fit to join thee in that broader service on which thou hast entered. 

 * * * * *

TEN DAYS IN NANTUCKET. 

By Elizabeth Porter Gould. [2]

One night in the early part of July, 1883, as the successful real-estatebroker, Mr. Gordon, returned to his home from his city office, hisattention was arrested by a lively conversation between the members ofhis family on the wonders of Nantucket. The sound of this old namebrought so vividly back to him his own boyish interest in the place, that almost before he was aware of it he announced his return home tohis family by saying: "Well, supposing we go to Nantucket this summer?It is thirty-four miles from mainland, and so free from malaria there isno better place for fishing and sailing, and there would be a mentalinterest in looking around the island which would be instructive anddelightful, and, perhaps, profitable; for me from a business point ofview. "

[Illustration: EARLY MORNING, NANTUCKET. ]

Mrs. Gordon, who had of late years developed a keen interest forthe historic and antique, immediately seconded her husband in hissuggestion; and before the evening closed a letter was sent to Nantucketasking for necessary information as to a boarding-place there, for atleast ten days, for a party of five, --Mr. And Mrs. Gordon, theirdaughter Bessie, twenty years of age, their son Tom, fifteen years, anda favorite cousin of theirs, Miss Ray, who was then visiting them, andwhose purse, as Mr. Gordon had so often practically remembered, was notequal to her desire to see and to know. 

In a few days satisfactory arrangements were made, which ended in theirall leaving the Old Colony depot, Boston, in the half-past twelve train, for Wood's Holl, where they arrived in two hours and a half. From thatplace they took the steamer for a nearly three hours' sail to Nantucket, only to stop for a few moments at Martha's Vineyard. 

While they were thus ploughing their way on the mighty deep, Nantucket'sfamous crier, "Billy" Clark, had climbed to his position in the tower ofthe Unitarian church of the town, --as had been his daily custom foryears, --spy-glass in hand, to see the steamer when she should come insight. Between five and six o'clock, the repeated blowing of the hornfrom the tower announced to the people his success, and became thesignal for them to make ready to receive those who should come to theirshores. Just before seven o'clock the steamer arrived. While she wasbeing fastened to the wharf, Tom was attracted by this same "Billy, "who, having received the daily papers, was running up the wharf towardthe town ringing his bell and crying out the number of passengers onboard, and other important news, which Tom failed to hear in the noiseof the crowd. A few minutes' walk brought the party to theirboarding-place. When Mrs. Gordon spied the soft, crayon likeness ofBenjamin Franklin on the wall, as she stepped into the house, herhistorical pulse quickened to such an extent that she then and theredetermined to hunt up more about the Folgers; for was not BenjaminFranklin's mother a Folger and born on this island? Then, as she sawabout her some old portraits and copies of the masters, and, above all, a copy of Murillo's Immaculate Conception in the dining-room, she wassure that the atmosphere of her new quarters would be conducive to herhappiness and growth. The others saw the pictures, but they appreciatedmore fully, just then, the delicious blue-fish which was on hand toappease their hunger. 

After a night of restful sleep, such as Nantucket is noted for giving, they all arose early to greet a beautiful morning, which they used, partly, for a stroll around the town. Of course, they all registered atthe Registry Agency on Orange street, where Mr. Godfrey, who hadentertained them by his interesting guide-book on Nantucket, gave them akind welcome. Then they walked along the Main street, noticing the bank, built in 1818, and passed some quaint old houses with their gables, roofs, and sides, all finished alike, which Burdette has described as"being shingled, shangled, shongled, and shungled. " Tom was struck withthe little railings which crowned so many of the houses; and which, since the old fishing days' prosperity did not call the people on thehouse-tops to watch anxiously for the expected ships, were now moreornamental than useful. They passed, at the corner of Ray's Court, asycamore tree, the largest and oldest on the island, and soon haltedat the neat Soldiers' Monument, so suggestive of the patriotic valorof the island people. Later they found on Winter street the CoffinSchool-house, --a brick building with two white pillars in front and awhite cupola, --which was back from the street, behind some shade trees, and surrounded by an iron fence. As they looked at it Miss Ray readaloud the words inscribed on the front:--

 Founded 1827 by Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, Bart. Erected 1852. 

They were also interested to see, near by, a large white building, knownas the High School-house. As they neared home Tom's eves noticed thesign of a Nantucket birds' exhibition, and a visit to that place wasmade. 

During the walk Mrs. Gordon had been particularly interested in thelarge cobble-stones which the uneven streets supported in addition tothe green grass, and also the peculiar Nantucket cart, with its stepbehind. 

On their return to their boarding-place, they joined a party that hadbeen formed to go to the Cliff, a sandy bluff about a mile north fromthe town, where they were told was to be found the best still-waterbathing on the island. Soon they were all on the yacht "Dauntless, "which hourly plied between the two places; in twenty minutes they werelanded at the Cliff; and fifteen minutes later they were all revellingin the warm, refreshing water. Bessie declared that in all her largebathing experience on the north shore she had never enjoyed anythinglike this. Miss Ray felt that here in this warm, still water was heropportunity to learn to swim; so she accepted the kind teaching of afriend; but, alas, her efforts savored more of hard work to plough upthe Atlantic ocean than of an easy, delightful pleasure bottling upknowledge for some possible future use. While Miss Ray was thusstraggling with the ocean, and Bessie and Tom were sporting like twofish, --for both were at home in the water, --Mr. Gordon was lookingaround the Cliff with his business eye wide open. As he walked along theroad back from the shore, and saw the fine views which it afforded him, he admired the judgment of Eastman Johnson, the artist, in building hissummer-house and studio there. A little farther on, upon the Bluffs, thehighest point on the island, he noted the house of Charles O'Conor withthe little brick building close by for his library; he then decided thatan island which could give such physical benefit as this was said tohave given to Mr. O'Conor, would not be a bad one in which to invest. Sothe value of the Cliff or Bluffs he placed in his note-book for futureuse. 

[Illustration: VIEWS IN NANTUCKET, MASS. ]

At the same time that Mr. Gordon was exploring the land Mrs. Gordonwas in the office of two gallant young civil engineers, exploring theharbor! In fact she was studying a map of the surroundings of theharbor, which these young men had made to aid them in their work ofbuilding a jetty from Brant Point to the bell-buoy. As she examined itshe found it hard to believe that Nantucket had ever stood next toBoston and Salem, as the third commercial town in the Commonwealth. Shesympathized deeply with the people of the years gone by who had beenobliged to struggle with such a looking harbor as the map revealed, andsaid that she should go home to learn more of the "Camels, " which shehonored more than ever. When they told her that probably three yearsmore than the two that had been given to the work were needed to finishthe jetty, and that there was a slight possibility that another onewould be needed for the best improvement of the harbor, she thought herinterest in the matter could be better kept alive If she should hunt upher old trigonometry and learn that all over again! With this idea sheleft the young men, whose kindness to her she fully appreciated, andwent to find her party. She soon found, on the yacht ready to go back totown, all but Miss Ray; she had chosen to take one of the many carriageswhich she had noticed were constantly taking passengers back and forthfrom the town to the Cliff, at the rate of ten cents apiece. 

Later in the afternoon their attention was arrested by another oneof the town-criers, --Tom had learned that there were three in thetown, --who was crying out that a meat-auction would be held that nightat half-past six o'clock. When they were told that these meat-auctionshad been the custom of the town for years, they were anxious to attendone; but another engagement at that hour prevented their so doing, muchto Tom's regret. 

The next day was Sunday. As Bessie and Tom were anxious to see all ofthe nine churches of which they had read, they were, at first, in doubtwhere to go; whereas their mother had no questions whatever, since shehad settled in her own mind, after having reduced all sects to theEpiscopal and the Roman Catholic, that the Episcopal Church was the truehistoric one, and, therefore, the only one for her personal interest, that she should go to the St. Paul's on Fair street. Mr. Gordon usuallywent to church with his wife, although he often felt that the simplicityof the early apostolic days was found more in the Congregational form ofworship. This day he yielded to Tom's desire to go to thesquare-steepled Congregational Church on Centre street, to hear MissBaker, who had been preaching to the congregation for three years. Heentered the church with some prejudice; but soon he became so muchinterested in the good sermon that he really forgot that the preacherwas a woman! Miss Ray and Bessie went to the Unitarian Church on Orangestreet, to which the beautiful-toned Spanish bell invited them. After aninteresting service, on their way out they met Tom, who wished to lookinto the pillared church of the Methodists, near the bank, and also intothe "Ave Maria" on Federal street, where the Roman Catholics worshipped. Miss Ray, being anxious to attend a Friends' meeting in their littlemeeting-house on Fair street, decided to do so the following Sunday, ifshe were in town; while Bessie said that she should hunt up then the twoBaptist churches, the one on Summer street, and the other, particularlyfor the colored people, on Pleasant street. Their surprise that a townof a little less than four thousand inhabitants should contain so manychurches was modified somewhat when they remembered that once, in 1840, the number of inhabitants was nearly ten thousand. 

In the afternoon the party visited some of the burying-grounds of thetown, six of which were now in use. The sight of so many unnamed gravesin the Friends' cemetery, at the head of Main street, saddened Miss Ray;and she was glad to see the neat little slabs which of late years hadmarked the graves of their departed ones. They strolled around theProspect Hill, or Unitarian Cemetery, near by, and wished to go into theCatholic one on the same street; but, as Mrs. Gordon was anxious to seesome of the old headstones and epitaphs in the North burying-ground onNorth Liberty street, and their time was limited, they went thereinstead. When Tom saw her delight as she read on the old stones the dateof 1770, 1772, and some even earlier, he said that she must go out tothe ancient burial-ground on the hill near the water-works and see thegrave of John Gardner, Esq. , who was buried there in 1706. As he saidthis one of the public carriages happened to be within sight, and sheproposed that they take it and go immediately to that sacred spot. Whenthey arrived there her historic imagination knew no bounds; hersoliloquy partook of the sentiment--in kind only, not in degree--whichinspired Mark Twain when he wept over the grave of Adam. In the meanwhile, Mr. Gordon had gone to the Wannacomet Waterworks, which suppliedthe town with pure water from the old Washing-pond. He there noted inhis note-book that this important movement in the town's welfare wasanother reason why investment in the island would be desirable. 

As they started to go back to town from the burial-ground Tom wishedthat they could drive to the south-west suburbs, to see the South andalso the colored burying-grounds, for he should feel better satisfied ifhe could sec everything of a kind that there was! But Mrs. Gordon hadseen enough for one day, and so they drove to their boarding-houseinstead. 

The ringing of the sweet-toned church bell the next morning at seveno'clock reminded Miss Ray of her desire to visit the tower whichcontained it. She had noticed how it rang out three times during theday, at seven, twelve, and nine o'clock, and, for the quiet Nantuckettown, she hoped that the old custom would never be dropped. And thenthis bell had a peculiar attraction for her, for it was like the onewhich was on her own church in Boston, the New Old South. She had beengreatly interested in reading that this "Old Spanish Bell, " as it wascalled, was brought from Lisbon in 1812; that it was stored in a cellarfor three years, when it was bought by subscription for about fivehundred dollars, and put in this tower. She had read, further, inGodfrey's guide-book, that "some little time after the bell had been inuse, the sound of its mellow tones had reached the Hub; and sobewitching were the musical vibrations of this queenly bell (e) ofNantucket to many of the good people of the renowned 'City of Notions, 'that the agents of the Old South Church negotiated with the agents ofthe Unitarian Church, saying that they had a very fine clock in theirtower; that they had been so unfortunate as to have their bell broken, and wished to know at what price this bell could be procured. The agentsof the Unitarian Church replied that they had a very fine bell in theirtower, and would like to know at what price the Old South Society wouldsell their clock. The bell weighs one thousand five hundred andseventy-five pounds; the Boston gentlemen offered one dollar a pound forit, and upon finding they could not get it at any price, they askedwhere it came from; and having ascertained its history, sent to Lisbonto the same foundry and procured that which they now have. " And she hadbeen told further that this same bell had been removed to the new churchon the Back Bay. With all this pleasant association with the bell of herown church, of course she must pay it a visit. So at about nine o'clock, after Mr. Gordon and Tom had gone off with two gentlemen for a day'sblue-fishing, she, with Mrs. Gordon and Bessie, started out for theirmorning's sight-seeing. In a half hour's time they had climbed thestairs to the tower, and were admiring the fine new clock, --a gift fromone of Nantucket's sons, now living in New York, --which had been firstset in motion two years before, to replace an old one which had told thetime for over half a century. A little farther up they saw the famousbell, and Miss Ray did wish that she could read Spanish so as totranslate the inscription which was upon it. A few steps more broughtthem into the dome itself. Here, then, was the place where "Billy" cameto sight the steamers; and here was where a watchman stayed every nightto watch for fires. Whenever he saw one, Bessie said his duty was tohang a lantern upon a hook in the direction of the fire and give thealarm. She said that this had been the custom for years. As they wereall enjoying this finest view which the island affords, Bessie spied theOld Mill in the distance, and as she had that painted on a shell as asouvenir of her Nantucket trip she must surely visit it. So they weresoon wending their way up Orange street, through Lyons to Pleasant, andthen up South Mill to the Old Mill itself. On paying five cents apiece, they were privileged to go to the top and look through the spy-glass, and also see the miller grind some corn. This old windmill, built in1746, with its old oaken beams still strong and sound, situated on ahill by itself, was to Bessie the most picturesque thing that she hadseen. She associated this with the oldest house on the island, built in1686, facing the south, which she had seen the day before. 

In the afternoon they continued their sight-seeing by visiting theAthenæum on Federal street. They found it to be a large white buildingwith pillars in front, on the lower floor of which Miss Ray wasparticularly pleased to see such a good library of six thousand volumes, and a reading-room with the leading English and American periodicals, the use of which she learned was to be gained by the payment of a smallsum. Bessie was attracted to the oil-painting on the wall of AbrahamQuary, who was the last of the Indian race on the island. Then theyexamined, in an adjoining room, the curiosities gathered together forpublic inspection. Here they found the model of the "Camels, " and alsothe jaw of a sperm whale, seventeen feet long, with forty-six teeth anda weight of eight hundred pounds. Bessie said that the whale from whichit was taken was eighty-seven feet long and weighed two hundred tons. When Mrs. Gordon learned that this very whale was taken in the PacificOcean and brought to the Island by a Nantucket Captain, she became asmuch interested in it as in the "Camels, " for surely it had anhistorical interest. After an hour spent in this entertaining manner, they returned to their boarding-place in time to greet the gentlemen whohad come back with glowing accounts of their day's work, or ratherpleasure, for they had met with splendid success. Tom's fingers wereblistered, but what was that compared to the fun of blue-fishing!

What particularly interested the ladies was a "Portuguese man of war"which one of the gentlemen had caught in a pail and brought home alive. This beautiful specimen of a fish, seen only at Nantucket, their hostesssaid, and seldom caught alive, was admired by all, who, indeed, weremostly ignorant of the habits or even the existence of such a creature. Bessie wondered how such a lovely iridescent thing could be poison tothe touch. Tom promised to study up about it when he should begin hiswinter studies, whereupon his mother said that if he would tell her whathe should learn about it she would write it out for the benefit of themall. 

The next morning they all started from the wharf at nine o'clock in theminiature steamer, "Island Belle, " for Wauwinet, a place seven milesfrom the town. Miss Ray had become interested in the pretty Indian nameswhich she had heard, and was struck with this, which she learned was thename of an old Indian chief who once controlled a large eastern part ofthe island. In an hour they landed on the beach at Wauwinet. They foundit decorated with its rows of scallop-shells, some of which theygathered as they walked along. Some of the party made use of thisstill-water bathing, while others ran across the island, some threehundred yards, to enjoy the surf-bathing there. Tom was delighted withthis novelty of two beaches, separated by such a narrow strip of land, that he was continually going back and forth to try the water in bothplaces. He only wished that he could go up a little farther where he hadbeen told the land was only one hundred yards wide, --the narrowest partof the island. After a shore dinner at the Wauwinet House, and anotherstroll on the beaches, they started for the town on the yacht "Lilian, "which twice a day went back and forth. The wind was unfavorable, so theywere obliged to go fourteen miles instead of seven, thus using two hoursinstead of one for the sail. On their way they passed the places knownas Polpis, Quidnet, and Coatue. Mr. Gordon was so much impressed withthe advantages of Coatue that he noted the fact in his note-book; whilehis wife became so much interested in the nautical expressions used thatshe declared that she should get Bowditch's "Navigation, " and see if shecould find those terms in it; she must know more of navigation than shedid. As they landed at the wharf they heard "Billy" Clarke crying outthat the New Bedford band would give a grand concert at Surf Side thenext day. Now, as this kind of music had been the chief thing which theyhad missed among the pleasures of Nantucket, of course they must go andhear it. So the next afternoon, at two o'clock, they were on the cars ofthe narrow-gauge railroad, bound for the Surf-Side Hotel, which theyreached in fifteen minutes, passing on the way a station of thelife-saving service department. They spent an hour or two seated on thebluff overlooking the grand surf-beach, and enjoying the strains ofmusic as they came from the hotel behind them. It must be confessed thatMr. Gordon was so interested in noting the characteristics of this partof the island with an eye to business, that he did not lose himselfeither in the music of the band or the ocean. On his way back to town, when he expressed his desire to build a cottage for himself on that veryspot, Surf Side, Mrs. Gordon would not assent to any such proposition;for she had settled in her own mind that there was no place like BrantPoint, where she and Bessie had been that forenoon; for did not thekeeper of the light-house there tell her, when she was at the top of it, that on that spot was built the first light-house in the United States, in 1746? That was enough for her, surely. The matter was still underdiscussion when Miss Ray told them to wait until they had visited'Sconset before they should decide the question. As for her she couldscarcely wait for the next morning to come when they should go there. And when it did come it found her, at half-past eight o'clock, decorating with pond-lilies, in honor of the occasion, the comfortableexcursion-wagon, capable of holding their party of eight besides thedriver. By nine o'clock they were driving up Orange street by theSherburne and Bay View Houses, on their way to Siasconset, or, 'Sconset, as it is familiarly called. 

As they passed a large white building known as the Poor Farm, Tom wassurprised that a town noted for its thrift and temperance should beobliged to have such an institution. Bessie was glad to learn that theywere going over the old road instead of the new one, while Miss Raywould rather have gone over the new one, so as to have seen themilestones which Dr. Ewer, of New York, had put up by the wayside. Theymet the well-known Captain Baxter, in his quaint conveyance, making hisdaily trip to the town from 'Sconset. As they rode for miles over thegrassy moors with no trees or houses in sight, none of them couldbelieve that the island had once been mostly covered with beautiful oaktrees. Soon the village, with its quaint little houses built closetogether on the narrow streets, which wound around In any direction tofind the town-pump, its queer, one-story school-house, its post-office, guarded by the gayly-colored "Goddess of Liberty, " was before, or ratherall around them. They had all enjoyed their ride of seven and a halfmiles; and now, on alighting from the carriage, the party separated indifferent directions. Miss Ray insisted upon bathing in the surf-beachhere in spite of its coarse sand and rope limitations, since it was thefarthest out in the Atlantic Ocean. Her experience with the strongundertow in its effects upon herself and upon those who watched her isone, which, as no words can portray it, Tom has decided to draw out forsome future Puck; for he thinks that it is too good to be lost to thepublic. 

Mrs. Gordon and Bessie walked among the houses, noticing the peculiarnames which adorned some of them, and, indeed, going inside one of theoldest where a step-ladder was used for the boys of the household to getup into their little room. They crossed the bridge which led them to theSunset Heights where some new houses, in keeping with the style of theold ones, were being built. They were pleased to see this unity ofdesign, rather than the modern cottage which had intruded itself uponthat coast. In their walk they learned that about eleven or twelvefamilies spent the winter at 'Sconset. The air was intenselyinvigorating, so much so that Mrs. Gordon, who was no walker at home, was surprised at herself with what she was doing without fatigue. Laterthey found Mr. Gordon looking at the new church which had just beencompleted, and which he had ascertained was built for no sectarianpurpose, but for the preaching of the truth. They all met at noon fortheir lunch, after which they went a mile and a half farther to visitthe Sankaty Head light-house, the best one of the five on the island. The keeper kindly escorted them up the fifty-six steps to the top, wherethey learned that the point of the light was one hundred and sixty-fivefeet above the level of the sea. He gave them some more facts relativeto the light, interspersed with personal experiences. Tom said that heshould remember particularly the fact that he told him that thislight-house would be the first one that he should see whenever he shouldcome home from a European trip. 

Two hours later they were relating their pleasant experiences in thedining-room of their boarding-house, while enjoying the deliciousblue-fish which gratified their hunger. As for Miss Ray heranticipations had been realized; and that night she wrote to a certainyoung man in Boston that she knew of no place in America where theycould be more by themselves and away from the world, when their happytime should come in the following summer, than at 'Sconset. 

The next afternoon found them all listening to Mrs. McCleave, as shefaithfully exhibited the many interesting curiosities of her museum, inher home on Main street. Mrs. Gordon was very much interested in theCedar Vase, so rich with its "pleasant associations, " while Bessie wasdelighted with the beautiful carved ivory, with its romantic story astold by its owner. Miss Ray considered Mrs. McCleave, with herbenevolent face, her good ancestry, and her eager desire to learn andimpart, a good specimen of the well-preserved Nantucket woman. 

Through the courtesy of their hostess they were privileged, on their wayback, to visit the house of Miss Coleman, on Centre street, there tosee the wonderful wax figure of a baby six months old, said to be thelikeness of the Dauphin of France, the unfortunate son of Louis XVI. When Mrs. Gordon learned that this was brought to Nantucket in 1786, byone of her own sea-captains, she became very much excited over it. Asshe realized then that her knowledge of French history was too meagre tofully understand its historical import, although she appreciated itsartistic value, she determined that another winter should be partiallydevoted to that study. So she added "French history" to "Camels, ""Light-houses, " "Navigation, " and "Indians, " which were already in hernote-book. She had added "Indians" the day before when her interest inthem had been quickened by some accounts of the civilization of theearly Indians in Nantucket, which seemed to her almost unprecedentedin American history. After supper Mr. And Mrs. Gordon went out in arow-boat to enjoy the moonlight evening, Tom went to the skating-rink, Miss Ray spent the evening with some friends at the Ocean House near by, while Bessie went out for a moonlight sail with some friends from awestern city, whom, she said, she had "discovered, not made. " Herappreciation of a fine rendering of her favorite Raff Cavatina by atalented young gentleman of the party, soon after her arrival, had beenthe means of bringing together these two souls on the musical heights, which afterwards had led to an introduction to the other members of theparty, all of whom she had enjoyed during the week that had passed. Andnow, with these newly-found friends, on this perfect July evening, withits full moon and fresh south-westerly breeze, in the new yacht"Lucile, " she found perfect enjoyment. Pleasant stories were related, and one fish-story was allowed, to give spice to the occasion. After alittle more than two hours' sail they found themselves returning to theNantucket town, which, in the moonlight, presented a pretty appearance. 

The next day, Saturday, Mr. Gordon and Tom started early to sail aroundthe island, with an intention of landing on the adjoining island, Tuckernuck. Tom had calculated that it would be quite a sail, for heknew that Nantucket Island was fourteen miles long, and averaged fourmiles in width; and his father had decided that such a trip would givehim a better idea of the island's best points for building purposes. Ontheir return at night they found that the ladies had spent a pleasantday, bathing, riding, and visiting some Boston friends who were stoppingat the Springfield House, a short distance from them. Bessie had foundmore pleasure in the company of the young musician and his friends, having attended one of the morning _musicales_ which they wereaccustomed to have by themselves In the hall of the Athenæum. Tom andhis father had much to tell of their day's pleasure. 

Mr. Gordon, for once in his life, felt the longing which he knew had sooften possessed his wife, to go back and live in the years gone by; forif he could now transfer himself to the year 1659, he might buy thiswhole island of Thomas Mayhew for thirty pounds and two beaver hats. What a lost opportunity for a good business investment! As it was, however, some valuable notes were added to his note-book, suggested bythe trip, which time alone will give to the world. He was more and moreconvinced that the future well-being of Nantucket was more in the handsof real-estate brokers and summer pleasure-seekers, than in those of themanufacturers, agriculturists, or even the fishing men as of old. Hecould see no other future for her, and he should work accordingly. Hischief regret was that the island was so barren of trees. 

They spent the next day, Sunday, in attending church, as they hadplanned, and in pleasant conversation and rest preparatory to theirdeparture for Boston on the following morning. They expressed gratitudethat they had not been prevented by sickness or by one rainy day fromcarrying out all the plans which had been laid for the ten days. Mrs. Gordon very much regretted that they had not seen the famous Folgerclock which was to be seen at the house of a descendant of WalterFolger, the maker of it. She should certainly see it the first thing, if she ever were in Nantucket again; for she considered the man, who, unaided, could make such a clock, the greatest mechanical genius thatever lived. She felt this still more when she was told that the clockcould not be mended until there could be found a mechanic who was alsoan astronomer. 

At seven o'clock the next morning they were all on board the steamer, asshe left the old town of Nantucket in the distance. Mrs. Gordon lookedlongingly back at Brant Point, which she still felt was the best spot onthe island; while Bessie eagerly watched for the little flag which acertain young gentleman was yet waving from the wharf. 

At half-past one they were in Boston, and an hour later at theirsuburban home, all delighted with their short stay in Nantucket. Theyfelt that they had seen about all that there was to be seen there, andthey were glad to have visited the island before it should be clothedwith more modern garments. 

[Footnote 2: Copyright 1885, by Elizabeth Porter Gould. ]

 * * * * *

A BIRTHDAY SONNET. 

By George W. Bungay. 

 Our days are like swift shuttles in the loom, In which time weaves the warp and woof of fate; Its varied threads that interpenetrate The pattern woven, picture bride and groom, A life-like scene in their own happy home. There are some frayed and shaded strands, fair Kate, But lines of purest gold illuminate Our wedded lot, as stars the heavenly dome, And come what may, sunshine or chilling rain, Prosperity and peace or woe instead, Untruth and selfishness shall never stain The web of love and hope illustrated. Not even death unravels when we die, The woven work approved of God on high. 

 * * * * *

ELIZABETH. [3]

A ROMANCE OF COLONIAL DAYS. 

By Frances C. Sparhawk, Author of "A Lazy Man's Work. "

CHAPTER XX. 

GREEK MEETS GREEK. 

It was two weeks after the scene at Colonel Archdale's dinner-party. There was quite a knot of people in Madam Pepperell's drawing-room. Allthe household at Seascape had come on the way home from a drive to pay amorning visit here, and found the in-door coolness refreshing. ColonelArchdale, who had joined his son, was there also. Mr. Royal, as ithappened, was in Portsmouth that morning. 

Edmonson had been exemplary enough in avoiding the cant of pretendedregret for what must have given him pleasure. Archdale had no complaintsto make on that score, but he distrusted Edmonson more and more, andperceived more clearly that he was attracted by Elizabeth. He wonderedif she encouraged him: that was not like the person she seemed to be;yet why not? She had assured Archdale more than once that she was free, and her certainty had given him comfort. But he was here this morningfor another purpose than to weigh the question of Miss Royal's fancy. Ifshe did encourage Edmonson she was all the more inexplicable. 

Stephen bent over Lady Dacre's chair, talking gayly to her; yet his eyeswandered every now and then, and, gradually, after he had stoppedseveral times beside one and another, he came up to Elizabeth, as shewas sitting listening to a young lady who, with her brother, had comeback from town with Madam Pepperell, the night before, to spend a fewdays at the house. 

As Stephen stood behind her chair he looked across the room, and sawEdmonson leaning with folded arms against a window. The light fell overhis face; he had been looking at Elizabeth, but his eyes met Archdale'sat once with an expression meant for cool scrutiny and a dash ofinsolent triumph at the victory he had scored. Edmonson's fierceness wasnot easily fettered; the dark shadow in his heart darted over his face, and, withdrawing as hastily, left to view a light that blazed in hiseyes and only slowly died down into the cordial warmth necessary betweenguest and host, even under peculiar circumstances. Stephen's facedarkened also, but his feeling was less, and his control greater. Elizabeth was listening quietly to some account of a merry-making atwhich Katie must have been present, for her name occurred frequently inthe narrative. As she perceived that Archdale was behind her she lookedround at him a moment, and by a few words included him in theconversation. She was as entertaining as usual and rather more talkativeafter he came. Yet he thought that under her ease of manner he detecteda current of nervousness that made him the more anxious to carry out thepurpose with which he had come to her. 

But it was not easy to find any excuse for withdrawing her from thecircle in which she had made herself so welcome. At last, however, undercover of a general movement, which he had secretly instigated, hesucceeded in getting her into the library, on the plea of a message toher father. When there, he closed the door behind him, and said:--

"I have a message to your father, it is true, Mistress Royal, but it isonly to beg him to interfere. "

"Interfere?" she echoed with a nervousness that this time wasunmistakable. 

"Pray be seated, " he said, drawing a chair toward her as she stood bythe mantel. 

"Thank you, but--I don't mind standing. What you--the business will nottake long, you said. "

"As you please. " And he stood facing her on the opposite side of thegreat fireplace. 

She heard his tones, glanced at him, and sat down. He took a chair also, still placing himself so that he could watch her. She grew plainly morenervous. 

"Who is Mr. Hartly?" he asked, abruptly. 

She looked at him in a frightened way, and the hand that she lifted toher throat was trembling. 

"He is"--she began, then she stopped; without any warning her expressionand her manner changed, for with the coming of what she had dreaded camethe strength to meet it. There was no more tremulousness of voice orhand, and the face that looked at Stephen Archdale was the face of awoman who met him upon equal terms; yet, as he looked at her steadily, he was not quite sure even of that; it seemed to him that it wouldrequire an effort on his part to keep at her level; that at least hemust stand at his full height. She sat silent, meeting his steady gaze. There was a dignity about her that would have been haughtiness but forher simplicity. Even her dress carried out the effect of thissimplicity; it was a white muslin, very plain, and the single pinkhollyhock that the new guest had slipped into her hair, and Elizabethhad forgotten, gave to her attire the touch of warmth that something inher face showed, too. It was to Stephen the calmness of flesh and blood, not of marble, that he was looking at; a possibility of life and motionwas there, but a possibility beyond his reach. Some one might arouseher; to him she was impassive. 

"You've not finished your sentence, " he said, coldly. 

"Why should I? You know the rest of it. "

"Nevertheless, I wish you would say it. "

"Very well. Mr. Hartly is an agent of Mr. Peterborough. "

"And Mr. Peterborough?"

"My solicitor. "

"You mean your father's?"

"Yes, and mine, too. "

"Then you have property of your own?"

"Yes. You did not know it?"

"I heard of it yesterday. Your property is no concern of mine, youunderstand. " She was silent. Under the circumstances the statement wassignificant. "Mr. Hartly came to my father the other day, " he went on. Still no answer. "Possibly you knew it?" he persisted. She lifted hereyes which had been fixed on the cover of a book that her fingers weretoying with, and said:--

"Yes. "

Stephen waited to choose words which should not express too forcibly theimpetuous feeling that shone in his eyes and rang in his voice when hespoke. 

"Let me put a case to you, " he said, "or, rather, not an indifferentcase, but our own, and hear how it sounds in plain English. How we weremarried, if married we are, it is useless to speak of; how absolutelynothing we are to one another it is unnecessary also to say. Iappreciate your efforts and your courtesy when I see so plainly that itis with difficulty you can bring yourself even to speak a word to me. "Elizabeth glanced up a moment, and down again, and her fingers went onidly turning the leaves of the book. "When I see what social powers youhave, " he pursued, "I assure you that I shall regret it for you if fatehave denied you a better choice. But at all events" (constrainedly), "Imust thank you for the gracious and successful manner in which you havekept suspicion from becoming certainty before time proves it so. "

She looked fully at him this time, and smiled. 

"Gratitude comes hard to you, " she said. "There is no cause for it inanything I have ever done. You may be sure it was not to please you atall, but to gratify something in myself that demanded satisfaction. Now, please explain to me what you mean by your extraordinary summary ofthings we know too well, and how I have offended you when I am reallyyour friend--yours, and "--She stopped, a smile flitted over her faceand was gone; it revealed for the unnamed person a gentleness and anaffection that perhaps she did not care to have her tones betray. 

"Yes, you have offended me, " he said. "I have no right to comment onyour actions in general. "

"None whatever. "

"But what I do have a right to demand is an explanation from you ofconduct so strange as to be unaccountable. "

She flushed a little. 

"It's not pleasant, " she answered, "when one has done the best thatopened up to be told that it's unaccountable conduct. "

"Then it was you? I was sure of it. " She looked at him earnestly. 

"Why should there be any beating about the bush?" she answered. "Ishould like it better if you need never have known; but, since you weresure to find it out sooner or later, it might as well come now. What Ihave done is wise and right, the most satisfactory thing to me, and toothers wiser than I. But I wish you would never speak of it. "

"Never speak of your coming forward with your whole fortune to make upthe loss that this fellow's claim will be to us? Never speak of it!"cried Archdale. "And accept it? From you? You certainly have aflattering opinion of me. "

"If it were like any business losses, " she said, "it would be different. But this is something nobody could have been prepared for; it needssomething outside of the routine to meet it. " She waited a moment. "Willyou put your case, as you said you were going to do?" she asked. "Itwill make it clearer, and you will see that there is nothingextraordinary. I think you need not say anything more about--about us, that is all understood. Go on from there. "

"A father and a son, then, are nominally in business together, " heanswered; "the father does the work; the son has a generous share of theprofits. Matters are going on swimmingly. Suddenly a claimant turns upwho wants a grand slice of the property. He is the only son of thefather's elder brother, --a being who was not known to have existed, thatis, who was supposed to have died when an infant. The father, my father, was named for him, and my grandfather's will gave the largest share ofhis fortune to his oldest son, Walter, whom he supposed to be my father, but who was really Gerald Edmonson's father--if the fellow's proofs turnout valid; they are having a thorough overhauling. My uncle does notsuffer; it is only we. I am sorry, " he added, "that you are liable to bein any way connected with loss, but at the worst it is so remotely thatit will never affect you. As for the other matter, the story, "--hestopped with a movement of irritation, perhaps of some deeperfeeling, --"that must be borne as best it can, nothing of that falls uponyou, certainly. How the matter concerns a young lady at all I can'timagine; so I fail to see what interest you can have in it, or whatright to move in it. "

"You fail to see?" she said and gave him a smile full of sweetness. Itwas not a coaxing smile, as if she begged him to reconsider hisopinions; it indorsed her own while placidly acquiescing in mutualindifference. "Besides, do you know it was through me that the portraitwas found?" And she gave him an account of the discovery. He did notthink it necessary to interrupt her by saying that he had heard Edmonsongive it with great relish; it seemed a good opportunity to learn whetherhe had been telling the truth. The story was substantially the same, butthe enjoyment of the narrator was absent. "And, then, " she added, finishing, "this is not a bad investment. "

"It may be now; I can't tell. We were under full sail; we have largeventures, and to give out so much ready money may mean ruin. In a fewmonths, perhaps sooner, you may have the happiness of bearing a bankruptname. "

Elizabeth's eyes were full of pity at the bitter tones in which sheheard suffering; she looked away and answered:--

"It is merely justice to me to let me prevent that, if I can. "

"Good heavens!" he cried; and, struck with the readiness of her answer, he studied her face. He would have liked to be sure from what motive shewas acting. Was it pride, or really pity? The thought of the last madehim furious; the other was at least endurable. "And you might notprevent it, " he added, watching to catch her eyes as she should turnthem back to answer. He was reasonably sure that it was pride. 

"Then let me do this for my own sake, " she said. "Listen to me calmlyfor a moment. There is one thing you ought not to forget. Either I amyour wife, which God forbid, and I believe he has forbidden it, or I amsimply Katie's friend. In case of the first, --if I have destroyed yourhappiness and Katie's, and my own, --what can money do for me? Lifeoffers me nothing; there are no possibilities before me so far as joy isconcerned; there is nothing left for me but to do the best I know how;we must pick up the little things that lie along the way in life, youand I; there will be nothing else for us; I have made you suffer somuch, and you deny me this little thing that can never balance any pain, but is all I can dot? Why are you so unwise? Why should we makeourselves more miserable than we need be?"

He sprang up. These very words--that he had often said to himself inregard to his own life, that in effect he had said to her thatmorning--how harsh they were, how they cut him! He was tender with hiswounded vanity. What man would like to hear that a woman has nothingbefore her but misery if she be bound to himself?

"There is one condition, " he cried, harshly, "under which I will acceptyour money, --when you love me; when it is the gift of love. " He laughedbitterly. "I am safe, " he said. 

"Yes, Mr. Archdale, you are safe, " she answered, rising to meet him ashe stood before her. "I can use no such weapons. It is beneath you to doit. To say such a thing to me when you know that in any event my greatblessing is that I don't care a pin's worth for you, that I am not asighing woman wasting her affection on you, while you--But I don'tsuppose you meant your words as an insult. "

"Have I ever been rude to you?" he asked, eagerly. "Such a thing wouldbe an infinite disgrace to me. "

"Yes, " she said, answering his assertion. 

"'While you, '" he repeated, "you said 'while you'--What were you goingto say about me?"

"While you love Katie with all your heart, " she answered, "as it isright you should do. " He looked at her, and remembered that for allher courage it might be that he owed her at least the courtesy of allobservances of respect and regard before others. He had committed anunpardonable error that day of the dinner at his father's, and he felt aconfusion, as if the color were coming to his face now as he thought ofit. 

"You--mistake, " he stammered. "I assure you you do. I think Iunderstand--I"--

She looked up at him. Her face was pale, and there was in it the kind ofcompassion that one might imagine a spirit to feel for a wayworn mortal. 

"You owe me no explanation, " she said. "Let us believe in the victory ofthe right, and put this nightmare away from us. Remember you arespeaking only to Katie's friend. "

He looked at her, and he could not be sure. 

"But you must let me speak, " he said, "because I see you mistake. Idon't want you to think because--I confess it--her beauty has a greatfascination for me that I can forget myself, that I--it was likeadmiring a beautiful living picture. "

She moved nearer, involuntarily. 

"Poor fellow!" she said under her breath, "you have been brave; you arebrave, very brave. I've seen it. " Then, after a pause in which sheretreated a little and stood considering deeply, she said, "I will tellyou something; it would be too much to be spoken of, only that you don'tunderstand why I did this thing about the business. Think how I amplaced. I may be standing between my dear friend and the man who was tohave been her husband, and separating them forever. That night when Icame home from your father's I realized it more than ever before; itfilled me so that I could not bear the thought of life. I happened tohave something by me, and I--almost took it. I should have slipped awayfrom between you two, I was so bent upon doing it, --only, the warningsaved me from such a sin. It will never be again, " she added as she sawhis eyes dilate with questioning horror. "That temptation has gone. Ihave accepted my lot, for it was permitted to come, or even that wickedman could not have brought it. But now, think, think how I must long todo some little thing, not to atone, that's impossible, but to make lifenot quite so hard to you, and to her. Now, this has come for you. Takeit, I entreat you. Some day I may be able to help her in some way; Ithink it will be so. "

He looked into her eyes as she raised them to his. 

"But you didn't mean to--do all this, if it is done, " he said. "There'sno need of talking about atoning, as if you were guilty of anything. "

"But, then, I ought to have refused; it was my place. It would havesaved everything. "

"You wanted to, " he said, "and you yielded to oblige Katie. "

She looked relieved at his answer. It surprised him; he wondered that hehad remembered her hesitation. 

"You will do this thing?" she persisted. "You see it is your duty. "

"Do you know the reason you are so anxious to have me do it?" he asked, the momentary softening of his face gone. "It's out of no love forKatie, or friendliness to me. "

"No, " she said to his last statement, and added, "Yes, I know; I've seenit. "

"What is it?"

"I suppose, " she said, humbly, "that it's my pride. 

"Yes, " he cried, "that's what it is--your pride. Well, I have my pride, too. I'll take your money, when you love me--when it's the gift of yourlove, as I said--no sooner; I shall have to do without it this year, I'mafraid. "

Her eyes swept him from head to foot in an indignant glance. Then sheturned and walked away as if disdaining further speech. He bowed insilence as he opened the door for her, looking at her with a mockingsmile, and even as he did so taking in every line of her gracefulfigure, the pose of her head, and the flush upon her face. In answer tothe taunt she did speak one sentence under her breath, but he caughtit:--

"You are not the only one, " she said. 

When he had closed the door after her he walked slowly the length of theroom, and, standing by the window, in another moment saw her pass by onher way to the shore where she had learned that the party had gone. Ifthey were already sailing it was no matter; she could wait for themthere, or come back; but they might not have started, and to put anypart of sea and land between herself and Archdale would be a joy to her. 

Archdale watched her until she disappeared. 

"And I called myself proud, " he muttered. He stood lost in revery, living the scene over again. "What eyes!" he thought; "they're asunconscious as a child's, but such power as they have; they call out aman's best, and I met her with my worst. I never even told her she wasgenerous. She meant to be kind when she humiliated me so. " And then hethought that she deserved a better fate than to be bound to him whoseheart was with Katie, and realized that Elizabeth was not at all thekind of woman whom he should choose to set his love upon. Yet he smiledscornfully at himself for the eager start with which he had cried outthat if she were roused she could be magnificent. A magnificent womanwas not in his line, and if it proved that she was his wife, she wouldgo through the world a sleeping princess, he said to himself, unless heshould go off to the wars and get shot. Perhaps that would be the bestway out of the difficulty, he thought, and would leave her free. At themoment Edmonson's face rose before him, and he frowned as he wonderedwhat feeling there was in that quarter. "No, no, " he said to himself. "Not Edmonson. I know he's a villain; I feel it. " He interrupted histhoughts by asking, sarcastically, what it could all matter to himself, well out of harm's way, what happened, what Elizabeth or anybody elsedid? He was very angry with her, and she did not realize the Archdaleunforgiveness. If she had, would she have cared? She had not yielded herpurpose. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

WAR CLOUDS. 

"I hate November, " cried Mrs. Eveleigh, coming into Elizabeth's roomand bringing a whiff of cold air with her. "It's a mean month, " shecontinued. "There's nothing but disagreeable things about it. The leavesare all gone, and the snow hasn't come. You can't even go out ridingwith any comfort, the ground is so frozen you are jolted to pieces. " Andwith step emphasizing the petulance of her voice, the speaker turnedfrom her companion and went to her own room, to put away her bonnet andthe heavy cloak that, if it had not been able to protect her from theroughness of the roads, had kept the cold air from doing more thanbiting revengefully at her nose and the tips of her fingers, in place ofall the mischief it would have been glad to inflict if it had had thechance. The steps grown fainter, went about the next room, and Elizabethwent on with her reading only half attentively, watching for theinevitable coming back. "But then, " resumed Mrs. Eveleigh, returning toher subject as soon as she had opened the door wide enough to admit hervoice, "one must see a little of the world sometimes. I'm coming in towarm my feet by your fire, shan't I? mine is low. I declare, it's hardthat Nancy should be so partial to you. I can get scarcely anyattention, though, to be sure, poor thing, it's well to have it fromsomebody, even if it is from dependents. And you don't get any too muchfrom the quarter where you've a right to it. "

Elizabeth, knowing it would be useless to attempt going on with herreading, had laid aside her book on Mrs. Eveleigh's entrance, and nowshe looked up from the sewing toward which she had reached out her hand, and said:--

"You know as well as I do that it is exactly as I want it. Mr. Archdaleconsiders my wishes, and as to having a right, you know, CousinPatience, that that is what is being disproved now. Haven't I declaredthat the ceremony was nothing at all?"

"Oh, certainly you have, but you'll find out how little good that willdo. I have not an idea that you'll ever have a chance to say 'Yes' tothat splendid Edmonson. You'll find it out soon enough, poor child. "

Elizabeth flushed, then turned pale. 

"Have you heard anything?" she asked. 

"Not yet; not since that Mr. Harwin turned out a minister, just as Ithought he would, and your case went to the court to be decided. You'llhave the first news, I suppose, but I don't doubt what it will be. "

"Neither do I, " returned the girl, resolutely. 

"We shall see, " said Mrs. Eveleigh. "Do you know, " she added, "that Mr. Edmonson came yesterday when you were out?"

"Yes. "

Then there fell between the pair as long an interval of silence as Mrs. Eveleigh ever permitted where she was concerned. She broke it by asking, energetically:--

"Elizabeth, if you really believed that you were not Mr. Archdale'swife, why, in the name of wonder, did you go and put your whole fortuneinto his business? And why did your father let you?"

"My father had no legal right to interfere, " said the girl, ignoring thefirst question, "and he did not choose to strain his authority. When washe ever unkind to me?"

"I think he was then, decidedly. " And the speaker nodded her head withemphasis. "But you have not told me why you did it, " she continued. 

Elizabeth was silent a moment. "I had been the means of the whole thingbeing discovered, " she said, "and I had hurt him enough already. "

"And he let you risk your whole fortune just because you had happened toput your finger through a hole in the hall tapestry. "

"No, " cried Elizabeth, "he did no such thing. He is very angry with menow because I invested it; he is not willing, even though he knows thatit's for Katie's sake. "

"I thought you said just now that it was for Mr. Archdale's. " Elizabethlooked at her, and smiled triumphantly. 

"I did, " she answered. "It's the same thing; I have always told you so. "

"Um!" said Mrs. Eveleigh, and returned to the attack. "If he wouldn'ttake the money, how could you give it?" The girl was silent. "It was thefather, I know; they say a penny never comes amiss to him. "

"How did you find this out, Cousin Patience?" But Mrs. Eveleigh laughedinstead of answering. "You have not spoken of it?" cried Elizabeth. 

"Not a word. Why, I don't want to proclaim any one of my own family agoose. " The only answer was a smile of satisfaction. "You don't mindbeing called a goose, I see, " pursued the speaker. 

"Not at all. I know it's often true. Only it doesn't happen to be truehere. "

Though Mrs. Eveleigh had so openly criticised Elizabeth, it would havegone ill with any one who had dared to follow her example. She was oftenannoyed by things in Elizabeth; but she believed in the girl's truthmore than she did in her own. And there she was quite right. Now shebegan to talk about the portrait scene, and declared that Mr. Edmonsonlooked very handsome standing beside the old picture that he so muchresembled. 

"That portrait was Colonel Archdale's grandfather, his mother's father, Mr. Edmonson, " explained Elizabeth, perceiving that her companion'sideas were somewhat mixed. And then Mrs. Eveleigh confessed that she hadbeen trying to explain about the portrait and the relationship, and thatthough she had talked learnedly about the matter, she had been a littleconfused in her own mind. 

"This portrait was in the colonel's father's house, lent him to becopied, and when he fled he took the original with him, and left thecopy. It was a duel that he fought, and there was something irregularthat he did about it. He went to Virginia, you remember, and while therehe changed his name. Then he came here, and the search for him died out. The matter was hushed up some way, I suppose. "

"And pretended that he belonged to a different race of Archdales inanother part of England, " asserted Mrs. Eveleigh, contemptuously. 

"Perhaps we should, too, if we had been in his place. "

"What! in his place, Elizabeth? Can you even imagine how you would feelif you had murdered anybody, or about the same as that?"

"Yes. "

"Nonsense, my dear. You must have a powerful imagination; I shouldn'tthink it was healthy. There's no use, any way, in being so odd. "

"No. "

"First 'yes, ' and then 'no, ' and neither of them means anything. But ifyou haven't anything to say, I wish you would tell me how those people, the colonel's father and mother, happened to have a son living that theydidn't know anything about. "

Elizabeth, full of remembrance of the time when a human life, even ifher own, had seemed light to her, could not help smiling at Mrs. Eveleigh's literal interpretation of things. "They had to escape atonce, " she said, "and the doctor said the child would die if heundertook a sea-voyage in that state. So she sent him to her father'shome with a nurse who was very fond of him; he was a baby then. And shewent away with her husband with the understanding that when the childrecovered, as the doctor expected him to do, the nurse should bring himto her in America. And she left open some way of communication. But, instead of the baby, there came news that he was dead. "

"And he wasn't dead?"

"No; his grandfather adopted him, and gave him his name. He hated Mr. Archdale; he had lost his daughter through him, and he determined tokeep the child. So he bribed the nurse to report his death, andpersuaded her that it was better for the little fellow to stay with himas his sole heir than follow the fortunes of a haunted man in awilderness, as America must have been then. "

"And do you really believe they never knew of this son of theirs beingalive?"

"Mr. Archdale's will, if nothing else, proves that. He had three sonshere, you remember; and the colonel, the eldest of these, was namedWalter, after the one supposed to have died in England. And, now, yousee how this trouble all happened. The will left the greater part of theproperty to Mr. Archdale's oldest son, Walter, whom he supposed thecolonel. But the real oldest son, Walter, was this Mr. Edmonson'sfather. So that the colonel was really left penniless. "

"Yes, yes, now I see, " cried Mrs. Eveleigh. "You are like your fatherwhen you come to explanations, Elizabeth; a person can always get atwhat you mean. Now tell me about the portrait, how it came there, andhow in the world Mr. Edmonson found it. "

"I don't know how it came there, " she answered, leading away from therest of the question by adding, "I have never asked a word about it. "

"Elizabeth! you _are_ odd, that's certain. And if Mr. Archdale isnever coming here any more, you will never have a chance now to ask him. It's a pity to be so diffident. "

Elizabeth smiled a little. "What else did you hear this morning?" sheasked. 

"Nothing that will interest you, though of course I thought it wouldwhen I heard it. Stephen Archdale has come back from his expedition upto the Penobscots with Colonel Pepperell. I wonder how they succeeded?"

"I can tell you that. The Indians have sent word that they will notfight against their brothers of St. John's and New Brunswick. That meansthat they'll fight for them. We shall have an Indian war with the Frenchone. Think of the horrors of it. " She shuddered as she spoke. 

"Yes, " returned Mrs. Eveleigh, with calm acquiescence. "It will bedreadful for the people that live in the little villages and in the opencountry. "

This calmness, as if one were gazing from an impregnable fortress uponthe tortures and deaths of others, silenced Elizabeth. She looked thespeaker over slowly and turned away. 

"Any more news?" asked Mrs. Eveleigh in a cheerful tone. 

"I can tell you nothing more, " returned Elizabeth. 

This was literally true. It would not have been true if she had saidthat she had heard nothing else, for she had been sitting with herfather for an hour, and had learned of a secret scheme, --a scheme sodaring that the very idea of it made her eyes kindle and her breath comequickly, --a scheme that if it should fail would be hooted at as thedream of vain-glorious madmen, and if it should succeed, would becalled a stroke of genius--magnificent. It interested her to know thatamong the most eager to carry out the scheme was Major Vaughn, the manwhose valor she had asserted to Sir Temple Dacre a few months before. Asmall band of men had pledged themselves to put reality into this dreamof grand achievement. "Its failure means, " thought Elizabeth, "thatAmerica is to be French and Jesuit; its success that Englishmen, andliberty of mind and conscience, rule here. " She prayed and hoped forsuccess, and took an eager interest in all the details of the schemethat had reached her; but these were meagre enough, for, as yet, itwas only outlined; the main thing was that it was resolved upon. Theprisoners captured at Canso had been at last exchanged. They had beenbrought to Boston, and had given valuable information about the place oftheir captivity, the stronghold of France in America. Governor Shirleyhad declared that Louisburg was to be captured, and that ColonelPepperell was the man to do it. Elizabeth, as she looked across at Mrs. Eveleigh, wondered what she would say to the project. But she wonderedin silence, not only because silence had been enjoined, but because thiswas not a woman to trust with the making of great events. She had heardof an Indian war, and her chief thought had been that she would be safe. 

The war had been talked about all the autumn. It was a terriblenecessity, but this new direction that it was to take was somethingworth pondering over. 

Elizabeth naturally, took large views of things, and, as her father'scompanion, she had not learned to restrict them. But, also, for the lastmonths she had perceived dimly that there was a power within her whichmight never be called into action. And this power rose, sometimes, withvehemence against the monotony of her surroundings, in the midst of herwealth of comforts and of affection. 

It was the last of November, only two days after this conversation, thatStephen Archdale was announced. 

"He has come to tell me the decision, " said Elizabeth to Mrs. Eveleigh;"he promised he would come immediately. It's good news. "

"Then what makes you so pale? And you're actually trembling. "

Elizabeth looked at her companion in surprise, for all her years ofacquaintance with her. 

"Don't you understand?" she said. "The strain is to be taken off. Thecertainty must be good; and yet there is the possibility that it is not. This and the thought that the moment has come make me tremble. "

As she was speaking she moved away and in another moment was in thedrawing-room with Archdale. 

"You have brought me word, " she said, as soon as her greeting was over. "You have good news; I see it in your eyes. "

"Yes, " he answered. "I suppose you will call it good news. You are free;you are still Mistress Royal. "

She clasped her hands impulsively, and retreated a few steps. It seemedto him as he watched her that her first emotion was a thankfulness asdeep as a prayer. He saw that she could not speak. Then she came up tohim holding out both her hands. 

"Never was any one so welcome to me as you with your words thismorning, " she said. "I have not spoiled your life and Katie's. "

"And you are free, " he said again. 

"Yes, " she repeated, "I am free. " And as she drew away her hands shemade a movement almost imperceptible and instantly checked, as if shehad thrown off some heavy weight. He read it, however, as he stood therewith his eyes upon her face, which was bright with a thankfulness and abeauty that, although he had seen something of her possibilities ofexpression, he had never dreamed of. How glad she was! A pang wentthrough him. He understood it afterward. It had meant that he was askinghimself if Katie's face, when he told her the news, would look so happyat having gained him as this girl did at having lost him; and he had notbeen sure of it. All the autumn there had been strange fancies in hishead about Katie. He had had no right, under the circumstances, to sendLord Bulchester away; but it had seemed strange to him that any girl'slove of power should be carried so far if it were mere love of powerthat moved her. But no shadow on Elizabeth's face showed him that shedreamed of change in Katie, and Stephen felt rebuked that friendshipcould find its object more perfect than love did. 

"Will the wedding be on the anniversary of the other one?" askedElizabeth. "I suppose it will, " she added; "Katie ought to have it so. That will come in three weeks. It will be a little time before you sail, if you go. " And she smiled rather sadly, then glanced about her to makesure that the last remark had not been overheard. 

"Ah!" he said, "I see you know all about the scheme on foot. But it issafe to trust you. You are very much interested, " he added, watchingher. 

"Very much. My father does trust me a good deal. But I hope I shall notmake him sorry for it. "

Archdale kept on looking at her, and smiling. 

"You prefer making people glad, " he answered. 

"But perhaps you will not go--now?" she said. 

"Oh, yes. I promised my services to Colonel Pepperell last summer; thatholds me, you see. Besides, I want to do my part. "

"I could not imagine you standing idle by while others were striking theblows for our country, " said Elizabeth. "Katie has told me a good dealabout you at one time and another. Dear Katie!" she added in anundertone, with an exquisite gentleness in her face. Then, looking backfrom the window where her eyes had wandered, she turned off her emotionby some gay speech. 

Very soon afterward the young man left her. For he was on his way tocarry the news to Katie who was then in Boston visiting her aunt. But togo to her he passed Mr. Royal's door, and his wishes, as well as hispromise, made him delay his own happiness for a moment to see Elizabethrejoice. He saw her rejoice to his heart's content; and then he tookleave of her for his happy meeting with his betrothed. 

[TO BE CONTINUED. ]

[Footnote 3: Copyright, 1884, by Frances C. Sparhawk. ]

 * * * * *

EDITOR'S TABLE. 

Evidences are constantly multiplying that American history is a subjectwhich has not lost its interest to investigators or to readers. Duringthe past month four distinct works, namely, the fifth volume of VonHolst's Constitutional History of the United States, the third ofSchouler's History of the United States, the second of McMaster'sHistory of the People of the United States, and also a new volume ofHubert Howe Bancroft's History of the Pacific States, have beenpublished, and are destined, no doubt, to take their places as"standards. " This diligence on the part of their respective writers, andthe interest in them manifested by the great public is commendable, andin a measure dispels the oft-repeated saying that Americans are a nationof novel-readers. 

It is gratifying, also, to record another fact. During the third week inJuly the Old South lectures for young people, illustrative of "The Warfor the Union, " were inaugurated in Boston. The ancient "meeting-house"was crowded with earnest students to hear the first lecture on slavery, delivered by William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. The speaker gave a vivid sketchof the chief events of the anti-slavery movement, and of the part takenby George Thompson, Garrison, Phillips, Whittier, and Harriet Martineau. 

 * * * * *

Students of the anti-slavery struggle should not forget, however, howmuch the success of that struggle was due to Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman, whose death occurred at Weymouth, Mass. , on July 12. She was not only a_magna pars_ of the struggle, but one of the most remarkable womenof our time. Mrs. Maria Child used to relate how Mrs. Chapman, clad inthe height of fashion of that day, came into the first anti-slaveryfair, an entire stranger to every one present. "She looked around overthe few tables, scantily supplied, and stopped by some faded artificialflowers. The poor commodity only indicated the utter poverty of means tocarry on the work. We thought her a spy, or maybe she was aslave-holder. " From that time she entered heartily into the work. Shebecame the life of the Female Anti-slavery Society in Boston, she spokeoften in public; her pen was never idle when it could advance the causeof equal rights and freedom. 

Mr. Lowell, in his rhymed letter, descriptive of an anti-slavery bazaarat Faneuil Hall, and the celebrities of the cause there assembled, drewthe portrait of this gifted woman with his usual felicitous touch:--

 "There was Maria Chapman, too, With her swift eyes of clear steel-blue, The coiled up mainspring of the Fair, Originating everywhere The expansive force, without a sound, That whirls a hundred wheels around; Herself meanwhile as calm and still As the bare crown of Prospect Hill; A noble woman, brave and apt, Cumæa's sybil not more rapt, Who might, with those fair tresses shorn, 'The Maid of Orlean' casque have worn; Herself the Joan of our Arc, For every shaft a shining mark. "

 * * * * *

It is one thing to be a good ship-builder for the government, and quiteanother thing to be in favor with the Secretary of the Navy, atWashington. This is the lesson, and the only lesson, which can bededuced from the two dispatches which have been transmitted over thecountry, namely: that the "Dolphin" has been rejected, and that JohnRoach, her builder, has failed. 

The case has its value as a warning to American ship-builders. They aregiven to understand that the closest compliance with the requisitions ofthe department in the process of constructing a vessel, and that underthe direction of experts, perfectly competent to determine what is goodwork and what is bad, will avail them nothing unless they are in favorwith the Secretary when the vessel is offered for acceptance. And theyare warned that the Department of Justice holds it perfectly legal forthe Navy Department to lay upon them such conditions as to constructionas must determine the capacity of the vessel for speed, and yet rejectthe vessel as not fast enough. They may be fined heavily for not havingused their discretion, and yet may have been denied discretion as to theplans used. 

It will be remembered by all who have watched the case, that the"Dolphin" was found satisfactory and in full accordance with the termsof the contract by one naval board, and that it was then condemned byanother board of no greater weight or capacity. If this fact beremembered, it should be weighed with the full understanding that navalofficers, chosen by Mr. Whitney for this service, are just as muchdependents of the new Secretary as their predecessors were of Mr. Chandler. The last set of officials, as experts, were not superior tothose which constituted the first; and yet Mr. Whitney bases his refusalto accept the vessel upon the contradiction of the first report to thesecond. If the first report was worthless, why not the second, in thelight of all the facts?

What is needed to-day is a board of examiners fully competent topronounce on the merits, of not only the "Dolphin" but of any andevery other ship that shall be built, and fully sundered from, andindependent of, political and official relations with the NavyDepartment. The nearest approach to this is the report of the body ofexperts--ship-builders, and ship-captains, experts in ship's materials, and the like--whom Mr. Roach invited to examine the "Dolphin. " Thereport of these gentlemen flatly contradicts Mr. Whitney's board onpoints which are matters of fact, and not of opinion, and thereforethrows the burden of proof upon Mr. Whitney himself. Until some equallyunpolitical and unofficial body refutes it, the treatment Mr. Roach hasreceived will be set down to other motives than the best. 

 * * * * *

The republic at last bows its head in sorrow at the death of itsgreatest citizen. In awe and admiration it honors the character which, heroic to the last, has never been more conspicuously shown than duringthe months of that depressing illness, the end of which must have beento him a welcome entering into rest. 

The same unquailing courage, and the same calm, grim fortitude whichshed their fadeless lustre upon his whole extraordinary career wereevinced by General Grant at the last moments of his life. For months thenation has hung over his bedside, awaiting the silent foot-fall of theunseen conqueror of all that is mortal. 

The nation's loss is not measured by the vacant place. For nearly adecade General Grant had been only a private citizen, wielding nosceptre of authority, and exercising no sway in the public councils. Andyet his going is a loss; for he was everywhere felt, not merely by whathe had done, but by what he was, --one of the great reserve forces of ournational commonwealth. 

"Great men, " said Burke, "are the guideposts and landmarks of theState. " General Grant was the guidepost of a victorious war, and alandmark of a magnanimous peace. A pillar of strength has fallen; andyet a broken shaft is not the fit emblem of his life. It is a finishedand splendid column, crowned with its full glory. 

The chieftain is dead. The American people themselves will now judgehim, after the calm evening and the serene repose of retirement, morejustly than in the stress and storm of struggle. The asperities of angrycontentions have passed; the flaws have faded, and the blemishes aredimmed, while the splendor of General Grant's achievements and thesimple grandeur of his character have gained a brighter halo as theyears have rolled by. The clouds and the smoke of battle have long sincelifted; the fragments and the scenes are swallowed in the majesticdrama; and to-day we see the hero elevated on his true pedestal of famethrough the just perspective of history. 

It is given to few men to bear suffering with the fortitude displayed bythe departed hero; it is given to fewer still to await in patience andwithout complaint the certain issue of suffering in death. But it isneither his fortitude, nor his patience, nor his touching solicitude, nor his unselfish industry which distinguished him in an almost uniquedegree. It was rather, in one word, his simplicity, his strong butunpretentious character, and his firm but magnanimous nature. 

Of such, plainly, is the kingdom of Heaven, and it is a national glorythat of such, too, in the instance of General Grant, the American peoplewas never neglectful. 

 * * * * *

If every person who is inclined to attribute to Socialism all thediscontent now prevalent among the laboring classes of this country, would carefully read Mr. Laurence Gronlund's remarkable book, entitled, _The Coöperative Commonwealth_, --an exposition of modernSocialism, --he would perhaps awaken to a comprehension of the fact thattrue Socialism is neither communism, nor lawlessness, nor anarchy. Wewish this book could be scattered, by millions, among the intelligentpeople of this land, if for no other purpose than to root out many ofthe false ideas which are current, as well as to inculcate a logicalexplanation of much that is transpiring at the present moment. 

We are told that at least 30, 000 laborers are out of work in Cincinnati, and that full as many are unemployed in Chicago. The same state ofaffairs prevails in other large cities. These people, we are also toldby the newspapers, are "exposed to the designs of socialistic leaders, and liable to embrace their dangerous schemes. " Hence, it is to beinferred, of course, that timely measures should be instituted to "guardthe unreflecting against socialistic theories and measures. "

Despair sometimes calls for a desperate remedy. When men are in physicalor financial distress they _are_ apt to lose their heads, so tospeak, and to be subject to the wildest delusions and hallucinations. Agreat many of the unfortunates now out of employment have been alreadyreduced to misery and want; but it is a mistake to suppose that thephilosophy of Socialism can afford them any relief or consolation, orthat it can incite them to mad deeds of violence. There are certaindemagogues in this country who, assuming to be Socialists, are ready tostir up the popular mind, even to the shedding of blood; but such menare few in numbers, and wield only a limited influence. 

Now, Socialism holds that the impending reconstruction of society, whichHuxley predicts, will be brought about by the logic of events, andteaches that the coming revolution, which every intelligent mind mustforesee, is strictly an evolution. Socialists of this school reason fromno assumed first principle, like the French, who start from "socialequality, " or like Herbert Spencer, who lays it down as an axiom that"every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringesnot the like freedom of every other man;" but basing themselves squarelyon _experience_, --not individual but universal experience, --theycan, and do present clear-cut, definite solutions. 

It is this true _German_ Socialism which Mr. Gronlund, in the workpreviously alluded to, very clearly presents, and which should be moregenerally understood than it is. 

Apropos of the subject, it will not be amiss to recall a statement madeby Frederic Harrison, namely:--

"The working-class is the only class which is not a class. It is thenation. It represents, so to speak, the body as a whole, of which theother classes only represent special organs. These organs, no doubt, have great and indispensable functions, but for most purposes ofgovernment the state consists of the vast laboring majority. Its welfaredepends on what their lives are like. "

And this from Carlyle:--

"It is not to die, or even to die of hunger that makes a man wretched;many men have died; all men must die. But it is to live miserable, weknow not why: to work sore and yet gain nothing; to be heartworn, weary, yet isolated, unrelated, girt in with a cold universal _Laissez-faire_. "

 * * * * *

AMONG THE BOOKS. 

It seems but a short time since we pored interestedly over the pagesof Mr. Stanley's "Through the Dark Continent, " which described theexploration of the Congo in 1876-7, from Nyongwe to the AtlanticOcean. The final results of that first expedition, which surpasses allanticipation, are now recorded in two handsome volumes from the samepen, bearing the title: _The Congo and the Founding of Its FreeState_. [4] When Mr. Stanley, in 1878, had crossed the Africancontinent and had reached the mouth of the Congo, he took ship forEurope. He had reached Marseilles, where, in the railway-station, he wasmet by two commissioners who had been sent by Leopold II. , King of theBelgians, for the express purpose of interesting Mr. Stanley in theproject entertained by that king of founding a State in the heart ofAfrica. This project was subsequently accepted, and all the powers ofEurope entered into the scheme. Mr. Stanley now relates, for the firsttime, the story of the founding, --a story which is as entertaining asthe liveliest piece of fiction, and as marvellous in its unfolding aswould be the sudden discovery of a new and habitable world. From themouth of the Congo to Stanley Falls is about fifteen hundred miles, andthe basin of this immense river contains more than a million and a halfsquare miles; that is, a territory nearly one-half as large as that ofthe United States. The opening of this great country to the commerce ofthe world is one of the greatest events of the nineteenth, indeed ofany, century. By the agreement of the sovereigns of Europe, no Europeanpower is ever to be permitted to seize the sea-coasts of the continent, or to levy differential customs and high tariffs upon the commerce ofthe world such as our New England and Middle States now levy upon theWest and South. Forever hereafter a merchant or producer dwelling in theCongo can dispose of his ivory and ebony, or any other productwhatsoever, in whatever market it will yield him the most money, and buyhis shovel and hoe, his gunpowder, and the like, where he can buy themthe best and the cheapest. It is, perhaps, not too much to affirm thatthe founding of such an empire on such a basis will make in time asgreat a change in commercial affairs as the establishment of theAmerican Republic has made in political affairs and in the relation ofmen to governments. The work of Mr. Stanley is destined to have a largeinfluence. It is the most important book on Africa that has ever beenwritten at any period of time or in any language. And yet no record ofgood deeds grandly done could savor of more modesty andunpretentiousness than does the narrative in these two noble volumes. 

 * * * * *

Miss Anna Laurens Dawes, the daughter of Senator Dawes, ofMassachusetts, has undertaken "an explanation of the Constitution andgovernment of the United States, " in her book entitled _How We areGoverned_. [5] Believing, as we do, that a knowledge of politics is anessential part of education, we hail this work as one of the hopefulsigns of the times, and commend it especially to young people, becausethe author has so accurately and comprehensively accomplished her taskas to make it worthy of confidence. Simplicity in writing is the firstneeded qualification of one who undertakes to instruct youth. Miss Dawesexhibits this quality, and takes nothing for granted as to the previousknowledge of her readers. Her plan follows the order of theConstitution, and that document is quoted in full, and in its severalparts under the division of "The Legislature, " "The Executive, " "TheCitizen, " and "The States. "

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It is the practical nature of the contents of _The Hunter'sHandbook_[6] which will commend it to all readers, and which stampsit as an indispensable work for all persons who "go camping out. " Thisis just the season for such healthful recreation and resting among thehills or along shore. It is just the season, too, when, unless he knowsexactly how to manage, the camper-out is subjected to a great manyannoyances as well as pleasures. The little work under notice containsmany valuable hints and suggestions, while its notes of all camprequisites and receipts are exceedingly valuable. Some of the author'squaint aphorisms on camp economy, camp neatness and cleanliness, and onthe signs and portents of the weather, will tend to keep the reader ingood humor. It would require years of experience for new beginners toacquire the information which a half hour's study of this book willeasily impart. To all such, then, it is invaluable. 

The first volume of Mr. McMaster's entertaining work on the _Historyof the People of the United States_[7] appeared just three years agothis summer, and the lively interest which it then aroused gave promiseof the cordial welcome that would be generally extended to futurevolumes of the same work. The first volume closed with the year 1790. The second volume, which has recently been published, continues the easyand entertaining narrative down to 1803. Within its seven chapters thereis a vast fund of valuable information in regard to life and society asthey existed under the early administrations. These chapters cover theexperimental years of the Republic under the Constitution, --the yearswhich, so susceptible of popular treatment, are so particularly engagingto students of American history. At so formative a period in thenational development, when there was open contest between Congress andthe States, when the group of undoubted aristocrats gathered aroundHamilton were in direct opposition to the extreme republicanism of thecircle which acknowledged Jefferson as its chief, the dominance ofEnglish or French influence was an element of great moment to the futureof the nation. Mr. McMaster has most admirably handled this phase of hissubject. 

The account of town and country life as they were at the beginning ofthe present century, and of the growth of those social usages which wehave come almost to regard as instinctive, is very entertaining andinstructive. Barring certain blemishes and a few inaccuracies, whichought to be excusable in a work of such character, Mr. McMaster's twovolumes form a very valuable and welcome contribution to our nationalliterature. It was a felicitous thought which prompted him to enter thispeculiar field, and to gather up the important facts which writers onpolitical history have generally avoided. So thoroughly and so admirablyhas Mr. McMaster worked this field that we doubt whether any otherwriter, coming after him, will be tempted to invade the same territory. The work thus far ends with the negotiations which led to the Louisianapurchase, and we are led to expect three more instalments before itshall be completed. 

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Should any readers be tempted by Mrs. Gould's article in this number ofTHE BAY STATE MONTHLY to visit Nantucket, they will do well totake with them, for handy reference and trustworthy guidance, Mr. Godfrey's _Island of Nantucket: What it was and what it is_. [8] Itis a complete index and guide to all that is interesting in theisland, --tells just how to get there and what to see there, --andcontains, moreover, several special articles, by different hands, on thehistory, botany, geology, and entomology of the island. The mapsaccompanying the text were made expressly for the book. 

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A fitting companion to Mr. Wallace's "Malay Archipelago, " which appearedsome ten or a dozen years ago, is a new book, entitled _A Naturalist'sWanderings in the Eastern Archipelago_, [9] of which Henry O. Forbesis the author. Mr. Forbes revisited most of the islands which Mr. Wallace had described, but his route in each island was altogetherdifferent. He gives us the first detailed account of the Timor-lautIslands, with very interesting and valuable ethnological notes. The workis divided into six parts, devoted to the Cocos-Keeling Islands, Java, Sumatra, the Moluccas, Timor-laut, Buru, and Timor. Many illustrationsare interspersed throughout the text, and the whole work is exceedinglyvigorous, graphic, and abounding in interest. 

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_Under the Rays of the Aurora Borealis; In the Land of the Lapps andKvæns_[10] by Sophus Tromholt, edited by Carl Siewers, furnishes anarrative of journeys in Lapland, Finland, and Northern Russia in1882-83. It also contains an account of the recent circumpolarscientific expeditions, and a popular statement of what is known of theAurora Borealis, which the author has studied long and carefully. A mapand nearly one hundred and fifty illustrations add greatly to the valueand attractiveness of the work. 

MR. WINFRED A. STEARNS, a close student of natural history, andone of the authors of "New England Bird Life, " has prepared a workentitled _Labrador: a sketch of its People, its Industries, and itsNatural History_. [11] Although not written in a very agreeable style, the work is one which deserves perusal, and will certainly command someattention. Mr. Stearns visited Labrador three times, once in 1875, oncein 1880, and again in 1882. The results of these journeys andobservations are herein set down in a compact volume of three hundredpages. With the exception of a valuable paper on Labrador in the"Encyclopedia Britannica, " little of a modern and useful character hasbeen written giving anything like a fair description of the country andits resources. Mr. Stearns book supplies the omission, and is cordiallyto be commended. It ought to pave the way for a good many excursionparties. 

[Footnote 4: The Congo and the Founding of Its Free State. By Henry M. Stanley, 2 vols. Maps and illustrations. New York; Harper & Bros. Price, $10. 00. ]

[Footnote 5: How We are Governed. By Anna Laurens Dawes. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. ]

[Footnote 6: The Hunter's Handbook, containing a description of allarticles required in camp, with hints on provisions and stores, andreceipts for camp cooking. By "An Old Hunter. " Boston: Lee & Shepard. Price, 50 cents. ]

[Footnote 7: A History of the People of the United States, from theRevolution to the Civil War. By John Bach McMaster. Vol. II. New York:D. Appleton & Co. Price, $2. 50. ]

[Footnote 8: The Island of Nantucket: What it was and what it is. Compiled by Edward K. Godfrey. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Price, paper, 50cents. ]

[Footnote 9: Wanderings of a Naturalist in the Eastern Archipelago. ByH. O. Forbes. Illustrated. New York: Harper & Bros. Price, $5. 00. ]

[Footnote 10: Under the Rays of the Aurora Borealis; In the Land of theLapps and Kvæns. By Sophus Tromholt. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. ]

[Footnote 11: Labrador: a Sketch of its People, Industries, and NaturalHistory. By W. A. Stearns. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Price, $1. 75. ]

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MEMORANDA FOR THE MONTH. 

The reduction of letter postage from two cents per half-ounce to twocents per ounce, which took effect July 1st, suggests a few words inregard to postal matters in general. The collection of news bypost-carriers is said to have originated in the regular couriersestablished by Cyrus in his Persian kingdom about 550 B. C. Charlemagneemployed couriers for similar purposes in his time. The firstpost-houses in Europe were instituted by Louis XI. Of France. Post-chaises were invented in the same country. In England in the reignof Edward IV. , 1784, riders on post-horses went stages of the distanceof twenty miles from each other in order to convey to the king theearliest intelligence of war. Post communication between London and mosttowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland existed in 1935. The penny-postwas first set up in London and its suburbs in 1681 as a privateenterprise, and nine years later became a branch of the general post. Mail coaches, for the conveyance of letters, began to run between Londonand Bristol in 1784. The postal system of the American colonies wasorganized in 1710. Franklin, as deputy postmaster-general for thecolonies, established mail-coaches between Philadelphia and Boston in1760. Previous to 1855 the rates of postage were according to distance. The uniform three-cent rate was adopted in 1863. Money-order officeswere instituted in England as early as 1792. They were established inthis country in 1864, and there is no safer way to remit small amounts. 

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