Anna Bartlett Warner

“ And the cobbler sighed.
“‘If people only knew, they would pay you, father, wouldn’t they?’
“‘There is one that knows,’ said the cobbler. ‘And why they don’t pay me he knows. Maybe it’s to teach you and me, Sue, that man does not live by bread alone.’
“‘But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live,’ his little daughter went on softly, as if she were filling up the words for her own satisfaction. ”

“ While Mr. Swift had been speaking he had raised himself from the floor, half up, and had stopped sobbing, and was looking at Long-Ears and gently touching his curly head; who, on his part, was lapping the milk with an eagerness as if he had wanted it for some time. Norman’s tears fell yet, but they fell quietly. By the time the little dog had finished the milk they did not fall at all. Till then nobody said anything.
“‘Come for it every morning again, my child,’ said Mrs. Meadow, softly;—‘I’ll give it to you. What a dear little fellow he is! I don’t wonder you love him. ”

“ Then came the long afternoon of clear twilight; and the longer night, when the stars threw soft shadows like a young moon, and looked down to see their bright eyes in the deep fiord that lay at the foot of the fir trees. For this was on the north-west side of Norway; and the fir trees grew by one of the many inlets of the sea which run far away for miles into the country, and are called fiords. ”

“ Work! work!—living to work and working to live. Working hard, too, and for what a pittance of life! Was it living to sleep half as much as she wanted, and then to get up in the cold grey dawn of a winter’s morning, get three or four dirty children out of bed and into such clothes as they had; and then after as much breakfast as she had had sleep, to take that long cold walk in her old straw bonnet [207] and thin cotton shawl to the printing-office,—there to stand all day supplying the busy iron fingers of the press? ”

“ Carl was tired sitting still by this time, so he went out and ran about on the beach till dinner; and after dinner he went up to his corner again. The sun came in through the little window, look-askance at Carl’s treasures, and giving a strange, old-fashioned air to purse and book and stocking. [34] The shoes looked new yet, and shone in their blacking, and the apples had evidently but just quitted the tree; while the red cent gleamed away in the fair light, and the old pine cone was brown as ever, and reflected not one ray. ”

“ For nobody had ever taught Clary about that ‘one thing needful’ which can make up for the want of all others. She had never been to church, she had never read the Bible—and indeed had none to read. She thought that nothing but money could make them happy,—she thought nobody could want anything but money; and was really not much surprised that people were so loath to part with it. They must be that, she thought, or the poor press-tenders could not be so very far removed from the heads of the concern, in comfortable appearance. ”

“ Sue looked up at him gravely, but did not speak.
“‘‘Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.’’
“‘That is, the upright man,’ said Sue.
“‘‘A good man showeth favour and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.’ You remember who says, ‘I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.’’
“‘That is Zion, father, isn’t it?’ said Sue. ”

“ Little Foss had followed them in, and now he sat wagging his tail and beating the floor with it, just because he felt uncomfortable and didn’t know what to do with himself—not at all because he smelt the partridge. For he knew perfectly well that Sneeflocken was sick; and when she had finished her supper, and called ‘Foss! Foss!’—the little dog ran to the bed, and, standing as high as he could on his hind legs thrust his cold nose into her hand, and whined and whimpered with joy and sorrow. Then in a tumult of excitement, he dashed out of the house to bark at the wolves again. ”

“ You see, Sue, all the people—all the lawyers, on both sides,—will bring all the proof they can to show whether Simon Ruffin did or didn’t shoot Mr. Bonnycastle. One side will try to prove he did, and the other side will try to prove he didn’t. The jury will hear all that is to be said, and then they will make up their minds what is the truth. ”

“ Yes, those must be the happy people; but then she would very much like to know more about them—to read all those stories which the press was no doubt printing off, of these same happy people—who never were poor and who had no little ragged brothers and sisters. For the first time in her life Clary wished the press would get out of order, for some other reason than because she was tired. Her mind worked and worked upon those three words till she was almost wild with the desire to read more. Perhaps it told the way to be rich and happy,—and that cruel press kept moving just as fast as it could. ”

“ Meadow spoke very softly.
“‘Yes,’ said Norman, swinging one little foot back and forward in the warm shine of the fire,—‘I’ve heard it.’
“‘What does it mean?’
“‘I know,’ said Norman.
“‘It is to take what does not belong to us. Now, since God has said that, is it quite right for you to take that money of your mother’s to buy milk for Long-Ears?’
“‘It isn’t her money!’ said Norman, his face changing; ‘and Long-Ears can’t starve!’
“‘It is her money, Norman;—all the money you earn belongs to her, or to your father, which is the same thing. ”

“ I don’t mean to say that poverty is not hard to bear sometimes; nor I don’t mean to say that I wouldn’t give you plenty of everything if I had it to give; but I do say that there is a sweet side even to this.’
“‘Father, our blue fish wouldn’t have tasted as good if we had always had plenty of them.’
“‘I suppose not,’ said the cobbler, with a little bit of a stifled sigh;—‘and maybe we shouldn’t know how to love each other quite so well, Sue.’
“‘O, yes we should!’ said Sue. ”

“ And so they went to bed, a couple of very rich poor people.
“But the house looked poor the next day; empty and cold. The cobbler was off betimes; the little breakfast-fire died out; dust lay on the counter; the tools and the unfinished work were here and there; the wind slipped in and slipped out again; and nothing else paid us a visit, except Sue, who once or twice looked in and looked round, as if to see whether her father were there. ”

“ It isn’t likely that twelve men will all make the same mistake.’
“‘And must they all be agreed?’ said Sue.
“‘They must all be agreed.’
“‘And if they are not, the man can’t be hanged?’
“‘No, nor set free.’
“‘I’m glad of that,’ said Sue.
“‘Why, Sue?’
“‘Because, if father isn’t sure that man is guilty,—I mean, that he shot Mr. Bonnycastle,—he won’t let them do anything to him.’
“‘It’s well you can’t be a juryman, Sue; you would never let any rogue have his rights.’
“‘Yes, I would,’ said Sue, gravely; ‘if I thought he deserved them.’
“‘I wouldn’t trust you,’ said Roswald. ”

“ Meadow could not. What to put on him was the trouble; she had no children’s clothes at all in the house. But she managed. She stripped off his rags, and tacked two or three towels about him; and then over them wound a large old shawl, in some mysterious way, fastening it over the shoulders: in such a manner that it fell round him like a loose straight frock, leaving his arms quite free. Then, when his jacket and trowsers had been put to dry, they sat down to breakfast. ”

“ The purse looked very snappish.
“Why you wouldn’t be a purse if you couldn’t open and shut your mouth,” said Carl.
“Very true,” said the other; “but one may be tired of being a purse, mayn’t one? I am.”
“Why?” said Carl.
“My life is a failure.”
“I don’t know what that means,” said Carl.
“It means that I never have been able to do what I was meant to do, and what I have all my life been trying to do.”
“What’s that?” said Carl.
“Keep money.”
“You shall keep my cent for me,” said Carl.
“Think of that! A red cent! Anything [61] might hold a red cent. I am of no use in the world.” ”

“ It’s just snow and rain, and wind and sunshine, and then snow again.’
“‘That’s what it is everywhere,’ said the wind as he swept by.
“‘I can’t help it,’—said the cone—‘I am tired of it. I want to travel, and see the world, and be of some use to society. What can one do in the top of a fir tree?’
“‘Why, what can a pine cone do anywhere?’ said some of the beech mast.
“‘The end of a pine cone’s existence is not to be eaten up, however,’ retorted the cone, sharply. ‘Neither am I a pine cone—though people will call me so. We firs hold our heads pretty high, I can tell you. ”

“ It was rather a sad smile that the old man gave him, and yet it was very tender.
“‘My dear Edric,’ he said, ‘never say, when I am a man I will do good. There is hardly any kind of good work that a child may not help forward, or help to keep back. Will you wait till you are a man, Edric, before you begin to love Christ?’
“‘I think I do love him now, grandfather,’ said Edric. ”

“ I might have lain in a man’s purse for ever, and rubbed down all the finer parts of my nature against various hard-headed coins; but there is something in the solitude of a boy’s pocket which touches all the sympathies of our nature—even beforehand.
“I am not, however,” continued the red cent, “I am not at all of friend Beachamwell’s temperament,—in fact I never had but one impression made on me in my life. ”

“ When a little girl once went down Broadway with her muff and her doll, the hand outside the muff told the hand within that he had no idea what a cold day it was. And the hand inside said that for his part he never wished it to be warmer.
But with all this Santa Claus never troubled his head—he was too full of business, and wrapped up in buffalo skins besides; and though he sometimes thought of little Carl, as a good-natured little fellow who talked as much about him as if Santa Claus had given him half the world—yet it ended with a thought, for his hands were indeed [3] well occupied. ”

“ But I read some beautiful verses there, mother—at dinner-time—that they were printing off on my press; and they made me feel so—I can’t tell you how. But oh mother, they told about some great rich friend of poor people—poor people like us, mother—worth nothing at all, they said; and that everybody who obeyed him was happy.’
“‘You’d better not plague your head with such stuff,’ said her mother. ‘Nobody cares about poor folks like us. Why child, rich people wouldn’t touch us with a pair of tongs! ”

“ It was plain he must eat his dinner alone.
“His dinner was nothing but porridge and salt, eaten with what would have been a good appetite if it had had good thoughts to back it. And the cobbler did not seem uncheerful; only once or twice he stopped and looked a good while with a grave face into the fire or on the hearth. But a porridge dinner after all could not last long. Mr. Peg set away his plate and spoon, placed the skillet carefully in the corner of the fire-place, took off his leather apron, and put on his coat; and, taking his hat from the counter, he went out. ”

“ To be sure the children wouldn’t mind that, but Santa Claus would.
Nevertheless, little Carl always hung up his stocking, and generally had it filled—though not from any sleigh-load of wonderful things; and he often amused himself Christmas eve with dreaming that he had made himself sick eating candy, and that they had a stack of mince-pies as high as the house. So altogether, what with dreams and realities, Carl enjoyed that time of year very much, and thought it was a great pity Christmas did not come every day. He was always contented, too, with what he found in his stocking ”

“ And Edric walked round the hall till he came to little May Underwood, the forester’s daughter; and then bringing the white stockings and the crimson rosettes close side by side together, and making her a low bow, he took her hand and led her out upon the floor.
“The Yule Clog was in a full blaze now, and the clear light shone from end to end of the hall; falling upon the bright floor and the long row of servants and retainers that were ranged around, and glossily reflected from the sharp holly leaves and its bright red berries. ”

“ Binch had fought every one of his moderate charges.
“‘Why, father!’ said Sue, ‘there’s Mrs. Lucy every day sends things to mother; and Mrs. Binch gave you the fish; and Mrs. Jackson came and washed ever so many times; and—and Mrs. Gelatin sent the pudding and other things for mother, you know.’
“‘Well, dear,’ said the cobbler,—‘yes,—it seems that woman-kind is more plenty here, at any rate, than man-kind.’
“‘Why, father?’ said Sue. ”

“ Meadow, ‘for it is very little he sees of it. It’s too much for such a morsel of a creature to work all day long.’
“‘But they are kind at the pin-factory, mother. People say they are.’
“‘Mr. Carroll is a nice man,’ said her mother. ‘But nine hours is nine hours. Poor little creature!’
“‘He looks thinner and paler now than he did six months ago.’
“‘Yes; and then it was winter, and now it is summer,’ said Mrs. Meadow.
“‘I wish I knew what he wants to do with that milk!’ said Silky.
“The next morning Norman was there again. ”

“ He had a great pasteboard helmet on his head, with a long peacock’s feather streaming from the top of it, and a wooden sword, and a tin-covered shield on which were nailed clusters of holly berries in the figure of a cross. His shoes were of wood too, and his jacket and small-clothes of [246] buckskin, with sprigs of yew fastened down all the seams, and great knots of red and green ribbons at the knees. As soon as he had sung his song he began the fight with Mince Pye, and a dreadful fight it was, if one might judge by the noise; also Mince Pye’s sword became quite red with the holly berries. ”

“ The north winds, which the pine cone says so shake the heads of the fir-trees in his country, never trouble anything in mine. The snow never lay on the glossy leaves of my parent oak. But no Norrska lived there; or if there did, I never knew her. Nobody came near us, unless a stray peasant now and then passed through. And when I was cut down, I was packed up and shipped off to England, and shifted from hand to hand, till John Krinken took it into his head, years ago, to make a sort of cork jacket of me, with one or two of my companions ”

“ I was made to be a red cent, I was wanted to be a red cent, I was never expected to be anything else—therefore why should I be mortified at being only a red cent? I am all that I was intended to be, and a silver dollar can be no more. Pride, indeed! why even Beachamwell here is proud, I dare say, and [36] only because she is not a russeting; while I think—— Well, never mind,—but I have bought a good many apples in my day and ought to know something about them. Only a red cent! People can’t bargain so well without me, I can tell you. ”

“ Other little huts or houses stood about, forming a sort of square; and furnishing apartments for the pig, the cows, and their winter provision; while one more carefully built than the rest, held all manner of stores for the family. Raised upon posts, that the rats might not enter, the little alpebod kept safe the fish, the venison, the vegetables,—even the cloth, yarn, and sometimes clothing, of its humble owners. ”