John Luther Long

“ THE QUALITY OF JUSTICE A young man sitting at the counsel table, and grown diffident the moment he finds himself on his feet, rises to address the court.
“If the court pleases,” he begins, and the court awakes with a start from a revery of dinner.
“Eh? Who is he?” the court whispers to the district attorney.
The officer scowls back and answers that he does not know.
The young man has heard.
“I am John Forrest, if the court pleases, admitted yesterday.”
“Precisely, sir,” smiles the court, icily; “but you are interrupting the trial of a cause. ”

“ Yet, I will die here willingly, because all that I know is here—all life—all death—all joy—all hope and fear. Why, it is not hard, dear love. We have been born to it. Each morning we look first up at the glacier to read if we shall live that day. ”

“ John tried his pick and shovel again. But they were thick with rust and very heavy. And the wounded doctor had just brought him a crutch—saying that as he was having one made for himself he had also had one made for John—though he could do without it. He smiled a little then and put away forever his old and faithful tools. For a living he did what he could. It was not much, and he and hunger came to be rare intimates.
But that youthful hope which Betsy’s last words had wrought, and its almost savage vigor to do for her, did not depart from John. ”

“ Oh, Brassid, it is glorious! And you are lovely. And I have everything I want now—since we are engaged a little. And if I ever marry any one it will be some one just like you, who can swim, and has the big love—and courage. But I won’t love you, Brassid, I won’t. ”

“ WE GO OUT TO FIGHT UNDER THE FLAG; WE RETURN—UNDER IT It seemed cruel—it was cruel—that her prayer should be so utterly denied her—that they should all be killed. But so it fell out.
One by one they came home to her and were laid away in the churchyard of Saint Michael’s, in their pine coffins and faded uniforms, with the honors of war. It was heart-breaking to have to follow them, one by one, to their graves—to the same Dead March in Saul—to the same muffled drums—to the cadenced tramp of soldiers—with the Stars and Stripes for shroud—with all the solemn pomp of war. ”

“ Now the first flags were exchanged for others, nearly all of redder hue.
“By the currycomb of Red Joshua, I think they are poking fun at us. Regular sport! If I were sure of that—”
“Pardon me, they are not, excellency,” said Nicht Wahr.
“They are so,” cried the savage admiral. “And by the roof of my father’s mouth, no one ever poked fun at Hier Ruhet and lived to poke more!”
“Let us have mercy upon them, master,” said the hypocritical Nicht Wahr, devoutly crossing his breast. “They are but children. This is but a child’s toy, as I told you. We must not kill children.” ”

“ He began to think of witchcraft.
“Excellency,” said Weiss Nicht, who always had a better chance when Wahr was at the wheel or below, “our ship did not turn. That one dived under us.”
“What!” roared Ruhet. “By the beard of a turnip, what do you take me for? Wahr, did you hear that? Aha, ha, ha!”
“I saw her sink on the starboard side, sir, and I saw her rise on the port side, sir,” said Nicht, doggedly. “She is a magical ship.”
“Nicht, let me tell you a little secret,” said the admiral, with a laugh, “when a ship sinks she sinks, and there’s an end to her—magic or no magic. ”

“ HAPPINESS IS BETTER THAN CHURCH Four more were born—boys all—goodly and ruddy—like their little mother. But, one and all, they surprised and delighted her by growing tall like their father.
“You see, John,” said Betsy, “they are going to be big like you, and good like me.”
Well, one by one, they went out into the world—but never very far from the romping comrade-mother. Away from her the world was neither so gay nor so tender. They never found another woman so altogether lovely. ”

“ Both are everywhere.”
“Well, where are they?” and Ruhet looked about again as if they could somewhere be seen. “Hang bridle,” he cried to the gunner, “you just fire and don’t bother about being polite with your gun. If conscience and law are anywhere about here, they’ll let us know.”
The gunner did so at once, for he hated the first officer as much as the first officer hated him, when he bothered about hating anybody, and he loved his bluff and straight-forward admiral.
At once there broke out from the small craft a multitude of flags.
“I told you so, excellency,” said Nicht Wahr. ”

“ GROWING OLD IS ONLY AN IDEA—UNTIL WE KNOW And then, when the war was quite over, that last pitiful prayer was answered, and John came marching home—from the grand review—with a captain’s straps on his shoulders—a minié ball in his thigh—and a perfectly proper sword—the gift of the United States of America! It is quite certain that John was very proud of the sword—and perhaps even of his limp.
And Betsy was as proud as he—quite. ”

“ POOH! “I think your majesty has exactly defined the cause of your injuries,” said the caustic Weiss Nicht, now in the style of Wahr.
“That much is settled then,” said the admiral, “since you both agree. If it was only mended—”
Something tore through the ship. “A hole and nothing else!” sighed Hier Ruhet.
“Sire, I think we had better go,” said Wahr; “we can do no further good here. And besides, you may be unfortunate with the other leg—and your majesty’s hunger is not being satisfied. I believe the soup-spring lies S.S.W., Nicht.” ”

“ THE SHADOWS OF DEATH Over the sea, many months after, a runner brings a letter to those who sit beside a failing rushlight. The faces are too white—the eyes too brilliant for well-nourished bodies. Signs of wolfish poverty abound. They are but three. The rest are dead of hunger. ”

“ Then, tempting her also, he said:
“Come with me thence?”
“I?”
The one little word told him how impossible that was.
“Yea, there are the old and blind and simple to be cared for. I forgot.”
“I covet not that land, my Christof,” said she, “nor any other land than this.”
“Beloved,” said he, solemnly, “our fate draws so near that I can see it. The ice can little longer be held back. And that is death to us and to our small land.” ”

“ Is this the kind of victim who has come here for sacrifice time out of mind? Can this man’s life and liberty be trusted to you? Is there a man among you—five—six—twelve—who can stop and think only of this poor captive? ”

“ To beguile the admiral while he thought of some explanation he said: “Master, I have heard that near this spring of water there is another from which runs soup. Beautiful—thick—soup!”
Ruhet at once turned from the little craft—forgetting all about it—and shouted, “Where?”
But meanwhile the cunning Wahr had whispered to the much less cunning Nicht, “What do you suppose all that red means?”
Now, Nicht was one of those persons who are wiser than they seem. More there be who seem wiser than they are—including the apparently learned Wahr. ”

“ Nothing is so dreadful as reformation. And I will continue to help you. So shall she!”
Rem brightened at once.
“Say, Bell-Bell, will she, though?”
“Aha! Piquant, isn’t it?—an affair with a little dove of a Quaker! Remember that I can protect her. So you may come whenever you hear the piano—just to help you to reform, and we will stop and put on our other clothes and entertain you gravely. ”

“ And, best and greatest and sweetest of all, that she for whom it all was—the sorrow—the penance—the sacrifice—would never know till she should reach that Heaven where her knowledge would only be blotted out by the greater joy it would bring—there, where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, but where the Lamb is the one bridegroom! ”

“ The district attorney objects again, and the court again frankly sustains him. The easiest way is certainly being proved the best—for him.
Nothing is developed from the other witnesses, who repeat their testimony. The prosecutor remembers distinctly having his watch, though he knew nothing of its taking.
Then the young champion puts the prisoner upon the stand. Now, if God’s pity ever descends to temper the rigor of human judgment, here is its invocation—
His story is little and simple as his counsel translates it. ”

“ And she kissed what she found there.
“And, oh, my beloved, there are ways and ways! Men must be managed and women must be pretty—and both are possible—even in Quaker garments.”
“My beloved!” cried the one.
“My sweet Marian!” responded the other.
Whereby you will know what even John Estover did not know concerning his wife and child—that they had changed the fearful name he had chosen, to the next best thing they could devise, and keep the faith. ”

“ They gather a little closer about the dying light. The blind one clasps his hands hard on his staff to stop their shaking. The simple face is all one ghastly smile. The wan one—wiping her dry eyes where there should be tears—kneels before them, and with a quivering supplication breaks the seal. Her face is as ashes. She has not a word in her dry throat. The writing is not his. At her silence a shiver creeps over the blind one. The simple one smiles anew. ”

“ She ended with that brief, halfway laugh.
“I won’t,” said Ravant. “It helps me. And that is what you are paid for doing.”
“Yes,” said the girl, at once relapsing into her shell. “That is what I am paid for!”
“The only thing you need to be a real beauty is a smile. Can’t you get further than halfway? Try it. You won’t break anything. Smile for the drunken pig one of those smiles that won’t come off.”
“Have you ever smiled?” retorted the girl.
“I grin all day,” answered Ravant.
“Yes—you grin.”
Ravant caught the subtlety and was both amazed at his nurse and shocked at himself. ”

“ Miss Princeps mourned.
“Because I love you,” said he, stoutly.
“But, Brassid dear, that’s no reason.”
“It is. Every man who loves a woman must propose to her—if for no other reason than to be rejected. Then and then only he will see his finish. ”

“ But there is such a thing as getting used even to idleness, and joy comes whether we work or not—if we are wise enough to let it come. And no one in that little cheap house ever shut the door on joy. So Betsy, after a while, learned to wear her Sunday clothes all the week, and John to shave every morning. ”

“ He kissed her so savagely that she lay quiet in his arms.
“Bell-Bell,” murmured the happy and dishevelled Quaker lady to the sleepy lady of the house of Jarn, “I’m sorry. Forgive me. It was more than a minute—wasn’t it?”
“I think it was an hour,” snapped Bell-Bell, with pretended savagery.
“Bib—but thee did not call,” half sobbed the happy one, “and—and I—forgot!”
“God bless you both!” shouted the little wife, and in a moment had the dishevelled head with the damp tendrils of hair on her breast. “I am almost as happy as you.”
“Why?” questioned the Quaker lady. ”

“ This he reported, as was his duty, to his superior, Nicht Wahr.
“Hah!” cried the proud and apparently learned Nicht Wahr, “it is a rowing barge upon which some one has built a small cabin to float about in. It is good for the sun and the rain—is a cabin like that.”
“And the night dews are bad,” agreed the gibing Weiss Nicht.
“Go on,” commanded Nicht Wahr, who hated the servile but critical second officer and gunner’s mate aboard. “They have no food. They can be of no use to us. ”

“ On the face of the gentle proselyte at his side, it must be confessed, there was a fleeting, reminiscent smile.
“There are some things we cannot help, thee knows, John,” she was saying, “and it is our duty to bear these crosses with fortitude.” The reminiscent smile grew broader. “Thee was exactly right in what thee said about guile. But thee was also right in what thee said about goodness being as communicable as guile. This young man has not the highest kind of a reputation for gentleness. ”

“ Life is a hard thing here, yea! But it would not be so if God had not so ordained it. Therefore are we God’s children, therefore do we obey him. For had He no purpose in keeping us here, He would have found for us another land. Dost thou believe this?”
242“All this I believe,” said Christof.
“Thou art the bravest, and Christine the most splendid, our little race has yet produced. We see in thee, again, all that our fathers were who lived amidst the ice, when the world was new. For that we save and keep thee, that the issue of your loins may be the noblest in our little world. ”

“ And, after they were gone, Betsy would cry—and John would take her in his lap and say never a word—leaving her to fall asleep there.
But once, instead of sleeping, she sat up and took John by the throat.
“John! I’m glad they’re not girls—any of them.” For this used to be a complaint of Betsy’s—that none of them were girls.
“Yes,” said John, meekly.
She gripped his throat a little tighter and shook him.
“They’d git married if they were. Girls always do. But boys often have better sense. Ours have, anyhow.”
10“We got married,” ventured John. ”

“ For there every man is as a king. Have not the pleasant travellers told me so?”
“Oh, Christof, I cannot help my fear! Yet thou shalt go!”
“Look at these mighty hands,” he cried passionately, “look at me! Will there be any 253braver there? Will any outstrip me in the race for gold and all those things they seem to need out there? Am I not great as they who went away to-day? Yet they have conquered that vast world. But a little time—think! but a little waiting—and no more cold or hunger—fear or death. The little harvest and the fish now caught will give ye food for all the while I stay. ”

“ THE END OF LIFE IS AS ITS BEGINNING—SIMPLE Afterward life was again to them much the same. Only they learned to go more and more to the churchyard on Sundays with homely garden flowers in their hands. But, again, they were very happy. John still maintained that they were renewing their youth. Betsy retorted that it was second childhood. For there was now a quaver in John’s voice which Betsy heard but never spoke of, and a tremor in Betsy’s hands which John saw and never mentioned. ”

“ Then John’s heart stopped. At Betsy’s side he died. And so quietly that they who stood near never heard the sound of his gentle old voice.
They sleep together—Betsy and John. Not at Saint Michael’s with their five boys. Of them nothing was known at the poor-house. Their graves are in the burying-ground of the poor. ”

“ John was as tender with her as he had been after that night of the husking. And Betsy was as devoted to John as she had been in that halcyon time.
“Growing old is just an idea,” said the happy John, one day. ”

“ The district attorney calculates that he will be a half-hour late at the links. The court nods his assent, and takes up the fascinating menu which has been sent over to him from the Union League, to whet his appetite upon. He will dine there to-night with the witty Grover Club.
The young lawyer has addressed a few words to the prisoner and has taken his hand. Instantly the inert head rises. The fires of life and hope once more light the eyes for an instant. ”