Abigail

“ Very spare of frame and also of kind thoughts was Aunt Abigail. Her eyes and the point of her spectacled nose were as sharp as her scent for neighbourhood gossip and possible misdemeanours of Sally. The sparse hair was so tightly drawn into its knob that it seemed as if coiffured by some instrument of the Spanish inquisitors whom she resembled, or rather the iron union of one of those mediæval fanatics and some Puritan dame with a tight-corseted soul. She was forever making life a perpetual inquisition for herself and others, forever straightlacing their souls. ”

“ Amen.
‘And now, Abigail, concerning thy well-being in this life, this is my advice and counsel unto thee; love thy dear mother, and ever obey her and honour her, and see thou grieve her not; be not stubborn nor wilful, but submit unto her, and be as an obedient child unto her, whose love and care hath been too great over thee and thy sisters, which hath brought too much trouble upon herself; learn in thy youth to read and write, and sew and knit, and all points of good labour that belong to a maid, and flee idleness and sloth, that nourisheth sin ”

“ While Abigail waited there was a vigorous pounding in the adjoining room. At this, Lady Phipps smiled. “Our good guest be as hot tempered as hasty pudding be warm. Tell him, sweet child, that he must bide in patience a moment longer.”
Abigail opened the door just wide enough to put her head inside. She saw Lord Christopher, purple in the face, [254] frowning and tapping on the floor with his walking-stick. He smiled when he saw Abigail.
“Haste ye, little maid,” he said blandly, “I wax impatient.” ”

“ Abigail, so that, by her own account, she lived and throve by a perpetual miracle.
The eldest of her charge, at the time this story begins, was a girl just arrived at young ladyhood, and her name was Mary. Now we know that people very seldom have stories written about them who have not sylph-like forms, and glorious eyes, or, at least, "a certain inexpressible charm diffused over their whole person." ”

“ Deliverance rose as she spoke. “Oh, Abigail,” she said, meeting her friend’s glance, “I be sore bruised, buffeting with Satan. I fear God has not pardoned my sins. I be sore tempted. Sir Jonathan was here to-day.”
“Bah, the Old Ruddy-Beard,” sniffed Abigail, “with his stick forever tapping and his sharp nose poking into everybody’s business! I suspicion he be a witch. Where gets he his mickle gold?”
“He be a wicked man,” answered Deliverance, “and now I do perceive he be sent o’ the Lord to test my strength. But have ye heard yet o’ the fine gentleman I telled ye o’ yesterday?” ”

“ Abigail placed the pail of cookies on the table and seated herself to await Goodwife Higgins’ return. Soon the goodwife entered, bearing a big golden pumpkin from the storehouse.
“I be glad to see ye, Abigail, if a sorrowful heart kens aught o’ gladness,” she said, putting down the pumpkin. “Ye look well and prosperous. I wonder if my little Deliverance has sufficient to eat and warm clothing o’ night. I have reared her tenderly, only to strike her a blow when most she needed me. I carry a false and heavy heart.” ”

“ Elizabeth Ann looked up from this letter and across the table at Aunt Abigail’s rosy, wrinkled old face, bent over her darning. Uncle Henry laid the paper down, took a big mouthful of pop-corn, and beat time silently with his hand. When he could speak he murmured: An hundred dogs bayed deep and strong, Clattered an hundred steeds along.
Old Shep woke up with a snort and Aunt Abigail fed him a handful of pop-corn. Little Eleanor stirred in her sleep, stretched, yawned, and nestled down into a ball again on the little girl’s lap. ”

“ I have no Concordance at hand, but I suspect there is no passage in Scripture where the word hand-maid is more prominent; and so the idea became associated with the name Abigail. An Abigail for a hand-maid is therefore merely analogous to a Goliath for a giant; a Job for a patient man; a Samson for a strong one; a Jezebel for a shrew, &c. I need hardly add, that H. T. Ryley's conjecture, that this use of the term Abigail had any relation to the Lady Masham, is, therefore, quite supererogative—but I may go farther. ”

“ Scarcely had he entered the wardrobe, and closed the door in his front, when Shedlock made his appearance.
Abigail, no longer apprehensive of a surprise, had just placed one of her arms under the dame’s neck, and was gently raising her head, when Shedlock entered. The dame, it now appeared, was not in a swoon, and, as Abigail raised her head, and thus facilitated her respiration, she looked up. There was, however, no sense in her gaze, or thought in her aspect.
“Art better?” asked Abigail.
“I have it safe!” cried the dame, hysterically. “I have it safe! He burned it not!” ”

“ And she arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, "Behold, thine handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord." And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. ”

“ Wherefore consider, and think what thou hast to do: for evil is determined against thy husband, and against thy house, and he is a son of Belial, so that no man can speak to him.
25:18. Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves, and two vessels of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of dry figs, and laid them upon asses:
25:19. And she said to her servants: Go before me: behold, I will follow after you: but she told not her husband, Nabal. ”

“ It was so funny to think of Miss Abigail as a little girl that Ruby laughed aloud at the thought, as she looked for her little friend. She was quite sure of one thing: if she had been a little girl when Miss Abigail was a little girl, she would not have chosen her for a friend. Ruthy was the only little girl in all the world that she could wish to have always for a friend, for who else would be always willing to give up her own way, and yield so patiently to impetuous little Ruby in everything. ”

“ Such was the temper and behaviour of Miss Abigail, who was a wretched complication of malice, low cunning and ingratitude: It is therefore no wonder that every person of sense and character was careful to avoid her company, and that she was detested by many, and despised even by those who wished her well. ”

“ Perhaps we have gone as far as we can in picturing little Abby Adams, who grew up an accomplished and charming young woman, and in due time married, by curious coincidence, a Mr. Smith, thus taking as a married woman her mother's maiden name. Let us return to the elder Abigail.
Left alone to manage all affairs, household and educational, it is not strange that her keen, alert mind sought wider fields for exercise than home life afforded. ”

“ For evils are apt to happen every day. Enter ABIGAIL. But whither wends my beauteous Abigail? O, what has made my lovely daughter sad? What, woman! moan not for a little loss; Thy father has enough in store for thee. ABIGAIL. Nor for myself, but aged Barabas, Father, for thee lamenteth Abigail: But I will learn to leave these fruitless tears; And, urg'd thereto with my afflictions, With fierce exclaims run to the senate-house, And in the senate reprehend them all, And rent their hearts with tearing of my hair, Till they reduce 43 the wrongs done to my father. BARABAS. No, Abigail ”

“ It is a most extraordinary thing, that he had lived unsuspected in the family for nine months, performing all the functions of a confidential Abigail, and very much in favor with his unsuspecting mistress, who is rather a serious person, and would as soon have thought of turning out to be a man herself. ”

“ Abigail Ambrose Baker was distinguished for numerous excellences. She possessed a strong intellect, a sympathizing heart, and a placid spirit. Her presence, like the gentle dew and cheerful light, was felt by all around her. ”

“ Each void receptacle for brains."
J. D.
Abigail (Vol. iv., p. 424.; Vol. v., pp. 38. 94. 450., Vol. viii., p. 42.) .—Not having my "N. & Q." at hand, I cannot say what may have been already told on this subject, but I think I can answer the Queries of your last correspondent, H. T. Ryley. There can be, I think, no doubt that the familiar use of the name Abigail, for the genus "lady's maid," is derived from one whom I may call Abigail the Great; who, before she ascended King David's bed and throne, introduced herself under the oft-reiterated description of a "hand-maid." ”

“ She saw the young man wiping a drop of amber juice from his beard, and wondered where the Abigail found her self-command as she watched her slowly peeling one of the finest pears with a silver fruit-knife which she took from her traveling satchel.
"Splendid, aint they?" she said, at length, leaning forward and tossing a peach-stone out of the window, while she searched the golden and crimson heap with her disengaged hand for another peach, mellow and juicy as the last. "I had no idea anything on earth could be so delightful. ”

“ Look, maiden, look where the ocean heaves and rolls beneath the moon: there is not enough water in all that to wash the name from your brow. Look upward, where the Great Spirit hath kindled his camp-fires in the sky: you will not find flame enough to burn it out. Look yonder, where the thick forest covers the earth—roll all its shadows together, and through their blackness all the world would read that name!"
Abigail covered her affrighted face with both hands. Her brain was confused—the heart quaked in her bosom—all the traditions of her life were uprooted in a moment. ”

“ Abigail must be taken as [representing] the person of the soul, and David as the Godhead; if then, the soul will condemn itself before God, He will love it, and will give it the delight of rest.”
506. ”

“ Abigail. O, rapturous answer! O, noble disciple of Æsculapius! The lips of the lone orphan will bless you; the tears of the lone orphan shall bless you; the smiles of the lone orphan—
Dr. A. Be calm, be calm. In what way can I assist you?
Abigail. You have beneath your roof a noble lady—
Dr. A. Eh?
Abigail. From a foreign clime. You hold her here in secret. Let me but get her name in my autograph album, and Abigail Alllove will die happy.
Dr. A. Noble lady? (Aside.) Another lunatic.
Abigail. Yes, the name of "The Duchess of Dublin." ”

“ It was doubtful if Abigail ever fairly appreciated her own punch.
“Abigail,” said the Squire, looking down at her, his great bearded face all slyly quirked with humor—“Abigail, look here. There are a good many things that you and I can do, and a few that we can't do. I can fish and shoot and ride with any man in the county, and bluster folks into doing what I want them to mostly, if I keep my temper ”

“ Ye will see the package contains a string o’ gold beads which ye can look at and try on; for it is great consolation to feel ye have on good gold beads. Watch out, meantime, that no witch spy ye. Then wrap them up, and [135] put them back, and run fast away so ye be no tempted to fall into the sin o’ envy by lingering, for ye be o’er much given to hankering for worldly things, Abigail.”
“I ken, I ken,” cried Abigail, breaking into sobs, “that I be no so spiritual minded as I ought to be. ”

“ Up one side and over the corner, trailed the dog-rose with its blush-tinted blossoms, while on both sides of the pathway flourished the wild lilies and forest ferns. In the doorway stood a spinning-wheel, a stool beside it.
Abigail wrinkled her nose and sniffed. “Happen like I smell potatoes frying in the fat o’ good bacon.”
She walked boldly to the threshold and looked in.
An old woman, her back turned to the door, held a smoking skillet over the red coals on the hearth.
Abigail’s heart leapt in her throat. Frenchmen and Indians—what were they? This old woman might be a witch. ”

“ Hester and Abigail Tappau have been contorted and convulsed by him and his servants into such shapes as I am afeard to think on; and when their father, godly Mr. Tappau, began to exhort and to pray, their howlings were like the wild beasts of the field. Satan is of a truth let loose amongst us. The girls kept calling upon him as if he were even then present among us. Abigail screeched out that he stood at my very back in the guise of a black man; and truly, as I turned round at her words, I saw a creature like a shadow vanishing, and turned all of a cold sweat. ”

“ I have heard thy voice and I have honored thy visage; and so Abigail came unto Nabal, and David returned into the place he came from. Nabal made a great feast in his house, like the feast of a king, and the heart of Nabal was jocund; he was drunken, and Abigail his wife told to him no word till on the morn, little ne much. On the morn when Nabal had digested the wine, his wife told him all these words. And his heart was mortified within him, and he was dead like a stone, for the tenth day after, our Lord smote him and he died. ”

“ Miss Abigail gazes at the urn as if it held the ashes of her ancestors, instead of a generous quantity of fine old Java coffee. The meal progresses in silence.
Our parlor is by no means thrown open every day. It is open this June morning, and is pervaded by a strong smell of centretable. The furniture of the room, and the little China ornaments on the mantel-piece, have a constrained, unfamiliar look. My grandfather sits in a mahogany chair, reading a large Bible covered with green baize. Miss Abigail occupies one end of the sofa, and has her hands crossed stiffly in her lap. ”

“ Poor child!"
"Simon the leper," repeated Abigail. "A stranger to me."
"Surely not. Have you forgotten the wealthy young oil-seller who lived next the synagogue? He has the richest olive groves in this part of the country."
"Not the husband of my little playmate Esther!" cried Abigail. "Surely he has not been stricken with leprosy!"
"Yes; it is one of the saddest cases I ever heard of. It seems so terrible for a man honored as he has been, and accustomed to every luxury, to be such a despised outcast."
"Poor Esther!" sighed Abigail. "Does she ever see him?" ”