Elizabeth H. Gray

“ Reuben looked vaguely at Hernando, lying quietly with an inscrutable smile on his face. He raised himself in his chair. Sure enough, there were the lines of dissipation and gray hairs! “’Deed, Massa, I has so!” he replied, as he went to replenish the fire.
“Surely, Reuben, you don’t believe in dreams!”
“I’se boun’ ter, Massa; didn’t Joseph’s and Pharaoh’s come true?”
“That is a disputed question. I don’t believe that people now-a-days dream dreams that have no connection with, or some proportion to their waking knowledge.” ”

“ Presently Eletheer, who was nearly asleep, said impatiently: “Celeste De Vere, for goodness’ sake put out that light and come to bed. Don’t you hear the roosters crowing?”
“In just one minute,” Celeste answered, brushing out her curls.
Eletheer turned her face towards the wall and soon slept soundly.
A young girl’s first love is like the bursting of a blossom after a thunderstorm. It is not yet ready to expand and though for a time the fragrance may be overpowering, it is soon lost. Celeste never sang in a minor. ”

“ The trained nurse of the future must be an open-eyed, earnest woman with a working hypothesis of a life. She will be keenly alive to the fact that people of culture and refinement into whose homes she may be sent, require an approach, at least, to the same qualities in the one who ministers to their needs. Relations between nurse and patient are peculiarly close and sacred”;—involuntarily Dr. Herschel looked upward toward Hernando’s window—“she will be the recipient of confidences, often enforced, which no true nurse can violate. ”

“ But its having any connection whatever with ‘Old Ninety-Nine’ strikes me as absurd. What say you, Miss De Vere?”
“Well,” she replied, with a tip of her head that reminded one of a pet canary, and which caused Hernando’s heart to beat unmercifully, “mystery has no charm for me, and I have never been able to enthuse over ‘Old Ninety-Nine,’ much to the disgust of your cousin Mary Genung and Eletheer. He belongs to a half mythical past and what more natural than that the ‘light,’ occurring as it does with such singular regularity, should be connected with the old chief? They are equally elusive.” ”

“ A slight noise in Hernando’s room attracted Reuben’s attention and he quickly entered it, locking the door behind him.
Eletheer came out of the library where Mr. De Vere had been closeted with his family for nearly an hour. No outsider will ever know how the awful truth was told there, but the girl Eletheer came out of that room a woman. She wandered aimlessly downstairs. Not a cloud dimmed the intense blue of the heavens, and all nature seemed quivering with new life. The sunny valley lifted a smiling face but Eletheer saw only—Shushan. ”

“ Fiercer and fiercer the wind blew and the sleet dashed against their shelter as if determined to gain access. Great trees were torn up by the roots and the crashing was fearful. Sounds of distress from herds of cattle huddled together in the woods came to their ears. Cattle seem to scent these storms, and try to reach a place of safety; but the weakly ones frequently perish on the plains.
Jack found an empty kettle, an immense black one, in one corner of the shed. ”

“ The message read: “Not Hong Kong!”
By and by they looked toward The Laurels; the evening shadows had crept up beyond the house, but father and mother, they knew, were sitting on the piazza waiting for them. There was a light in Eletheer’s room and anon they caught glimpses of her as she flitted to and fro packing for her long journey. Margaret’s voice resounded in a familiar hymn from the kitchen and there, with his lantern, came dear old Reuben from the barn. How well they knew that no beast, bird nor living thing could ever look reproachfully into that black face! ”

“ You see, Miss Eletheer,” he continued, “that is largely a question of business, with a business woman’s responsibilities. A nurse must be just, loyal and self-sacrificing from an impersonal standpoint, believe in herself, and have perfect control over her emotions. She must ‘take things as they are.’”
Dr. Herschel was a peculiarly gifted man aside from his professional attainments. A natural critic of human nature, wide experience had developed this trait into a seemingly occult power. He had also that tenderness, that charity of the strong for the weak, which constitutes the true man. ”

“ Mrs. De Vere and Margaret were already busy there. The room was open, the windows flung wide to let in the sunlight and fresh air. Jack kindled a fire of fragrant birchwood. An odor of sweet clover from clean linen scented the room. All hands joined in converting the room into a bower of loveliness.227 Elisha appeared with an immense bouquet of roses. These Celeste arranged on the table beside the latest magazine which Jack had brought from New York. Nothing was left undone and everything bespoke loving thoughtfulness. ”

“ Nature does not specialize,—sin is sin. Sin and punishment spring from the same root. This is true of all the minor events of life; worrying over irremediable155 ills drains one’s nerve force, and seriously impairs one’s ability for effective work. Up there,” pointing toward Hernando’s room, “is a pattern well worth the consideration of thinking minds. Are Reuben’s energies wasted in bewailing the disaster that has overtaken his charge? No, he is a good business man, using what materials he has to the best advantage.” ”

“ The streets are thronged with Celestials weaving back and forth. Even Reuben is fascinated by the substratum of actual sin around him. It is a panopticon of strange sights; little rooms in which are huddled together groups of odd-looking women making shoes; eye and ear doctors busily operating on meek-faced patrons; unknown fruits and vegetables, costly wares and curious trinkets; omnipresent female chattels and moral and physical lepers jostle one another. One peep into an inner chamber, and with the sickening fumes of opium in his nostrils Reuben seeks the outer air. ”

“ In point of resemblance, she is all her grandmother could have wished, a De Vere, every inch. Reuben and Margaret are unchanged.
Point Wawanda is no more, and where it once towered the shaft-house now rears its unsightly walls. But what has been lost in the picturesque has been compensated by material benefit.
214 Deep down in the bowels of the earth is an underground city in whose streets the miners are delving and sending the precious metal to the surface.
Something unusual is in the wind at The Laurels. All is excitement and bustle of preparation for some great event. ”

“ Now is a good time to put them into practice.”
“Well,” returned her friend, “if you can stand it I can, and that reminds me, father and I were talking of Hernando this morning. Now that he is cured, we hope that he will marry and settle down in a home of his own. As you know, he is the last male of our name and, unless he does marry, the name dies with him,” and Miss Genung looked searchingly at her friend.
Eletheer smiled as she replied,—“I can’t imagine a woman just like his wife ought to be. Honestly, now, can you, Mary?”
“Oh, Eletheer, can’t you trust a life-long friend?” ”

“ Forgotten was Hernando’s God of tradition and dogma; the beautiful system of ethics formulated at Shushan was indeed good—as far as it went; but that same beautiful system with God in it is religion, is wisdom, and at last Hernando had “found” it. Oh, the blessed truth! Nothing in this wide universe but God, Good, whose Being is manifested through us. One God, one “Great First Cause,” and His effect, man and the universe the effect of God!
311 “Just let the Kingdom of Heaven take you”: why struggle for our own when nothing, “no thing,” disputes our claim? ”

“ The belief of the Indians that after they had endured their punishment for sins committed, the Great Spirit would restore to them their hunting-grounds caused them to keep their mines a secret. “Old Ninety-Nine” is one no longer, and let us hope that in richer mines and fairer hunting-grounds than he dreamed of, he is beyond the treachery of his white brother—beyond injustice and unfair dealing, where his great Manitou does not offer him the cup of good-will in the form of an unknown intoxicant as did Henry Hudson when planning the seizure of the land of his forefathers. ”

“ Venomous snakes and ‘stinking springs’ cure a disease that has baffled science since creation? A bullet through the heart is the best antidote for me!”
“Will you put yourself in my hands?”
“Would a post mortem on my carcass further the cause of science?” said Hernando bitterly.
159 “Tell me one thing,” Dr. Herschel asked, “have you ever suspected this?”
“Great God, no! Not this. Don’t think me worse than I am. Had I, my body would have followed ‘Old Ninety-Nine’s’ rather than bring destruction on these dear friends.”
“Listen, young man; on my professional word you have infected no one. ”

“ Mills was one of the first to visit the works and offer congratulations. “Your mine is apparently inexhaustible,” he said to Mr. De Vere, “and Nootwyck bids fair to fulfill your hopes. Every foot of ground within ten miles of the mine is staked out in claims and there is not an idle man in the town. I rejoice with you. God has answered our prayers, may He indeed grant that this valley shall blossom as the rose,” and he stroked his beard reverently.
Mr. De Vere could not conceal a smile as he replied, “Undoubtedly, God is good, but Hernando Genung has a hand in this job.” ”

“ He looked up the mountain side until his gaze rested on the rocks about “Old Ninety-Nine.” It was one of those magical nights in late winter when grim Time seems making a final87 effort to rejuvenate, each rock and frost-bound tree glittering with gems, while over his hoary head is flung the soft veil of moonlight. “Nature, they tell us,” he mused, “is a harmonious expression of divine will, and human nature is the crowning masterpiece; that her laws are just, and she does not discriminate between transgressing a physical and a moral one; that justice is ultimately done ”

“ The laurels take on a rosier hue in the warm afterglow, and we recognize two figures, Hernando and Celeste, wending their way along the Berm toward The Laurels.
“It does seem,” Celeste was saying, “that some evil genius keeps our family separated. It’s too bad. Just as Jack has decided to come back to Nootwyck to live, Eletheer makes up her mind to locate in California. If she shouldn’t like the West and should return home to practice, Cornelia and George would most likely move off somewhere.” ”

“ Granny is pleading with him to forsake this den of depravity. Her hand is clasping his and those old, stern lines have melted into a smile of ineffable sweetness. The air is heavy and her voice not always audible, but Reuben hears:
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.... ”

“ Elsie sat on her pony like the practised horsewoman she was. They were galloping over the cattle trail which at times was invisible, and they then gave their horses rein as every foot of the ground was familiar to them. Jack noticed with admiration how deftly the animals avoided the thorny mesquit and cacti.
Herds of sleek cattle grazed on the prairie covered with mesquit and buffalo grass. The former is the best in the world. It grows luxuriantly upon the plains of Texas, renews itself early in the spring, matures early, and throughout the year remains nutritious as naturally cured hay. ”

“ De Vere,” said Dora resolutely, “what you tell me is indeed terrible. I do not pretend to understand why one endowed with so many noble qualities should be thus stricken. An orthodox Christian would tell you that it is the will of God that it should be so and you must pray for strength to bear191 it. Never mind that, you have something more tangible to deal with and that is your own physical condition. ‘Self-preservation is nature’s first law,’ and it is your duty to obey. Are you doing it? You are utterly cast down, oblivious of the many blessings around you. ”

“ The ice once broken, Elisha unfolded plan after plan for their future, little dreaming of the misery thereby inflicted on one who would have exchanged worlds for the obliteration of one year of his life.
106 “I reckon you’ll be taking me into your confidence on a like matter, some day, eh, Hernando?” Elisha concluded.
“Never, my friend, there are different roads to happiness.”
“But you will admit that man alone is but half of himself?”
“Individually, yes; but collectively man is two-thirds,” he replied with a laugh. ”

“ His practiced eye detected at a glance the traces of tears which she defiantly repressed and, pointing to a rustic bench, he said,—“Come, let us sit in the sunlight and see if you are in earnest about becoming a trained nurse, which Dr. Brinton tells me you have decided to do.”
“Yes,” she replied simply, “my grandmother thought I had a real talent for nursing.”
Dr. Herschel looked at her fixedly. This was not the first girl whom he had seen possessed of a “real talent” for nursing, whose heart “yearned for the sweet joys of ministering to the afflicted” ”

“ I wish particularly to point a moral in ‘Old Ninety-Nine’s’ case, as the symptoms there manifested will be among the most difficult to treat, particularly in the uneducated. First, because the word leprosy is crystalized in the human mind into an incurable disease and having once had it, a patient, unless of unusual intellect, lives in constant dread of its return—our hospitals for the insane would grow beautifully less by the elimination of that one element fear. Leprosy is a germ disease; the leper bacillus was discovered in 1874. ”

“ Jack’s nature was buoyant. Like Celeste, he viewed life from its sunny side. Admired, sought after, it is not to be wondered at that his nobler traits lay dormant. Mrs. De Vere idolized her only boy and in her estimation he possessed not one fault. Hers were the eyes that detected the change in Jack, and in his capacious trunk was packed every comfort for her boy. No one knew of the tears she shed in secret and Jack only suspected it. He found Eletheer folding heaps of129 fleecy garments designed for Celeste’s adornment. ”

“ Mills sprang to offer her a chair, and as soon as she was seated Eletheer left the room.
“A charming family, De Vere,” said Mills.
“A God-fearing one,” returned Granny, “all except Eletheer have accepted the Word of God, which is cause for great thankfulness.”
“God is good. His ways are inscrutable. Let us trust that the remaining lamb may be received into the fold,” said Mills reverently.
“She is a good child, but wilfully in error, I fear,” replied the old lady wiping her glasses. “Cornelia is a true De Vere and even at her age the family traits are pronounced in her.” Mills moved uneasily. ”

“ Let us suppose a case, a man whose environment and heredity—on one side at any rate—are morally debilitating. Alas! He knows the seamy side of life, has drunk to the full the cup of pleasure and found dregs at the bottom. Yet he does not realize the depths of degradation into which he has fallen, is simply doing as others before him have done and are still doing. ”

“ Herschel who wished to see Mr. De Vere on important business.
Mr. De Vere’s face blanched when told who the visitor was and he entered the library with an apprehensive face.
Dr. Herschel lost none of his dignity as he arose to meet Mr. De Vere with,—“I wonder if Mr. De Vere will believe in the efficacy of my treatment when I tell him that Hernando is cured!”
“Doctor,” said Mr. De Vere, “you are an eminent man, a profoundly scientific one, and in presuming to still doubt your ability I must appear pig-headed; but leprosy has been treated and investigated for ages. ”