Ben Greenway

“ He was in consequence invalided for Greenwich. He walked stiff on this leg, and usually supported himself with a thick stick. Ben had noticed me from the time that my mother first came to Fisher's Alley. He was the friend of my early days, and I was very much attached to him.
A minute or two afterward my father pushed the pot of porter to him. Ben drank, and then said:
"Those be nice children, both on 'em—I know them well."
"And what kind of a craft is the mother?" replied my father.
"Oh! why, she's a little queer at times—she's always so mighty particular about gentility." ”

“ I am not far from an old man, Mr. Washington, but I retain my interest in youth, and I like to see young faces about me at Greenway."
"Thank you, my lord," answered George, with secret delight. "I shall not let my mother forget her promise—but she never does that."
"There is excellent sport at Greenway, and I have kept a choice breed of deer-hounds, as well as fox-hounds. I brought with me from England a considerable library, and you can, I hope, amuse yourself with a book; but if you cannot amuse yourself with a book, you will always be dependent upon others for your entertainment." ”

“ If legend may be believed, Greenway was positively inspired to wealth-making. A simple weaver, young and without prospects, he dreamed a dream which was thrice repeated. Each time a mysterious voice admonished him to proceed to London town, and there, on London Bridge, to await a cavalier on a white nag, who would have a message for him. The sanguine youth obeyed these supernatural instructions;{63} and, taking his stand on the appointed spot, was accosted by an unknown horseman, by whom he was told to return forthwith to Tiverton and dig in a certain quarter. ”

“ Think you do as I think."
"Know you for long I would," said Gwen.
"For ever," cried Ben. "But wedded you are. Read you a bit of the lecture [p 106] will I." Having ended his reading and having sobbed over and praised that which he had read, Ben uttered: "Certain you come again. Come you and eat supper when the wife is not at home."
Gwen quaked as she went to her car, and she sought a person who professed to tell fortunes, and whom she made to say: "A gentleman is in love with you. And he loves you for your brain. He is not your husband. He is more to you than your husband. ”

“ Shall we take a turn about Greenwich Park presently? The days are still short, and you are not so far from your house at Greenwich as you would be at Kensington.’
I consented, and then we stood at the window, looking at the scene of the river from the docks, talking about Will and the sea-life and such matters until dinner was ready. I longed to hear him say that he loved me. The language of his eye was not satisfying enough. I wanted him to take my hand and ask me to be his wife. I had thought my appetite good until I sat down, and then I could not eat. My heart beat fast. ”

“ Judith said no more until they were ready. Then she put her hands on his huge shoulders. Even in the dim light he could see that her eyes were brimming. "Ben, you are our friend?" she asked very low. "You will stand by me?"
"I'd die befo' I hurt a Westmo'—or a Penniman," he said as huskily as she.
"I believe it, Ben.... Do this for me then: find Garvin and bring him to Westmore. It's the place where he'll be safest. Tell him I said so. He'll listen to you when he wouldn't to any one else. And there's no one who can find him in the night as you can. ”

“ Say, Ben, just let me drop through that hole in the roof and do a little work on the quiet?” Ben shook his head. “’Twon’t do no harm. You kin set here and watch.”
[Pg 199]
“No, Mundon, not for a million!”
“How easy it is to talk about refusin’ a million—when you’re young!”
“This thing’s going to be square on my part. I’ve made up my mind to stick to that,” Ben answered. “Hello! That boy looks like Mr. Hale’s office boy.”
He sprang down from the fence and tore open the envelope which the boy gave him.
“Hurrah! Mundon—we’ve won!” Ben cried. ”

“ Undoubtedly the Warren place was the largest and most important one out there, and for a time to "go out to visit at Greenwich," meant to go out to visit the Manse. For years the Captain and the Captain's lady lived in this beautiful and restful place with three little daughters to share their money, their affections and their amiable lives. Thomas Janvier's description of the house as he visualises it with his rich imagination is too charming not to quote in part:
OLD ST. JOHN'S. "Still faces on Varick Street, sombre and unaltered, a stately link between the present and the past." ”

“ He goes up and tries to engage him in conversation, but the lad can't hear any more than he can see. Ben's efforts, however, finally start him to muttering something. He says it over and over to himself and at last we make out what it is. He is saying: "I'd like to buy a little drink for the party m'self."
"The poor creature is delirious," says Jake Berger.
But Ben slaps him on the back and tells him he's a good sport and he'll give him a couple of these rails to take to his old New York home; he says they can be crossed over the mantel and will look very quaint. ”

“ Moreover there were no women on the stage to distract the attention of the gallants. The players, says Asinius Lupus, in Jonson’s Poetaster, “corrupt young gentry very much, I know it.” I take the quotation from Mr. Greenwood. [106a] They could not corrupt the young gentry, if they were not pretty intimate with them. From Ben’s Poetaster, which bristles with envy of the players, Mr. Greenwood also quotes a railing address by a copper captain to Histrio, a poor actor, “There are some of you players honest, gentlemanlike scoundrels, and suspected to ha’ some wit, as p. ”

“ Ben resolves to return to America.‌—‌Anecdote of a rare character.
"A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod,
An honest man's the noblest work of God."
Ben used, with singular pleasure, to relate the following story of his Quaker friend Denham. This excellent man had formerly been in business as a Bristol merchant; but failing, he compounded with his creditors and departed for America, where, by his extraordinary diligence and frugality, he acquired in a few years a considerable fortune. Returning to England, in the same ship with Ben, he invited all his old creditors to a dinner. ”

“ But Greenwich, too, is beautiful,—a spot where the art of man has conspired with Nature, as if he and the great mother had taken counsel together how to make a pleasant scene, and the longest liver of the two had faithfully carried out their mutual design. It has, likewise, an additional charm of its own, because, to all appearance, it is the people's property and play-ground in a much more genuine way than the aristocratic resorts in closer vicinity to the metropolis. ”

“ Being mistress of a fortune of thirty thousand dollars, left by her mother, she had funds enough for her purpose. She fled to New York, where chance made her acquainted with our hero, Ben Stanton, under whose escort she safely reached San Francisco, paying Ben's expenses in return for his protection.
Arrived in San Francisco, she furnished Ben with the necessary funds to seek out Richard Dewey (to whom, without her guardian's knowledge, she was privately betrothed) and inform him of her presence in California. ”

“ Ben turned and saw the man who had signed as a witness to the agreement.
“How do you do, Mr. Mundon?” he replied. “Yes, I think it will need an arastra to crush the bricks.” His grave face showed that already the cares of the undertaking were preying upon him.
“Don’t you mind the sneers and laughs of anybody,” the man said, with a sturdy independence that Ben liked. “You’ve got a good proposition. I’ve seen it done in Australia and a big pile cleaned up. They do it in this country, too; and if this old chap you bought it from didn’t have the mining fever so bad, he’d have done it years ago.” ”

“ When Jenkins returned with the towels about half an hour later, Ben walked back with him a little way upon the road.
"Seeing your master's so rich I suppose he's pestered with letters of all sorts?" he said, "begging, and such-like?"
"Crowds," replied the footman, "mostly circulars though, enough to light a bonfire every week."
"Does he ever get threatening letters, do you happen to know?" enquired Ben, "from socialists for example, who hold it a sin to own more than your neighbours do." ”

“ After a series of adventures Ben and his companion had found Dewey, laid up with a [Pg 22] sprained ankle in a rude hut high up among the mountains. He had met with an accident while successfully working a rich claim near by.
Of course Richard Dewey was overjoyed to meet friends of his own race who could provide for him better than his faithful attendant, Ki Sing. As he could not yet leave the spot, he offered to Ben and Bradley the privilege of working his claim. ”

“ George ceased smiling at this; he did not like to have Billy too severely commented on, and deftly turned the conversation: "Lord Fairfax again asked me, when we were crossing the river last night, to visit him at Greenway Court. I should like very much to go, mother. I believe I would rather go even than to spend Christmas at Mount Vernon, for I have been to Mount Vernon, but I have never been to Greenway, or to any place like it."
"The Earl sent me a letter this morning on the subject before he left Fredericksburg," replied Madam Washington, quietly. ”

“ Ben shrugged his shoulders impatiently as he rose to go. "I must see if I can't make Mr. Field fork out the tin somehow," he muttered. "If I wait till the house falls down, he may not see the fun of paying so much for a field that will sooner or later follow suit. It won't be difficult to find out if the proposal's in black and white, if only I can get to the inside of that desk."
As Ben issued from the door of the cottage he caught sight of someone contemplating the scene from the top of the wooden stair which led to the beach. He drew back into the shelter of the porch to watch the stranger. ”

“ Her hope had been sustained by a letter received from Ben at the time he and Bradley were on the point of starting for the Sierras, where they had information that Dewey was engaged in mining. Then weeks passed, and she heard nothing. She began to feel anxious for the safety of her two [Pg 175] agents, knowing that not alone wild beasts, but lawless men, were to be encountered among the mountains. Should Ben and his companion come to harm, she would be sincerely sorry for their fate, feeling in a measure responsible for it. ”

“ There are several fine churches in the township; of one in Sound Beach the Rev. William H. H. Murray (1840–1904) , called “Adirondack Murray,” from his Camp Life in the Adirondack Mountains (1868) , was once pastor. In the borough are a public library, Greenwich Academy (1827; co-educational) , the Brunswick School for boys (1901) , with which Betts Academy of Stamford was united in 1908, and a hospital. The principal manufactures are belting, woollens, tinners’ hardware, iron and gasolene motors. Oysters are shipped from Greenwich. The first settlers came from the New Haven Colony in 1640 ”

“ Everybody likes Ben, except his butts (which may perhaps comprise half his acquaintance) ; and of them no one so thoroughly hates and dreads him as our parish schoolmaster, a most worthy King Log, whom Ben dumbfounds twenty times a day. He is a great ornament of the cricket-ground, has a real genius for the game, and displays it after a very original manner, under the disguise of awkwardness—as the clown shows off his agility in a pantomime. Nothing comes amiss to him. By the bye, he would have been the very lad for us in our present dilemma; not a horse in England could master Ben Kirby. ”

“ Bradley assisted Richard Dewey to mount one, and motioned to Ben to mount the other. "Get on, Ben," he said. "It's time the procession was moving."
Ben shook his head. "No, Jake," he said. "You are older than I am. It is proper that you should ride."
"If I'm older than you," said Bradley, "I am stronger than you, and am better able to walk."
"I am strong enough, Jake. I sha'n't get tired."
"One of us ought to ride. There's no use in havin' a horse if you ain't going to use him."
"Suppose," suggested Ben, laughing, "we let Ki Sing ride?" ”

“ James never gave him a chance for anything but work; it seemed as if he could not pile enough on him. When he found Ben could write poetry pretty well, he made him write ballads and sell them on the streets, putting the money they brought into his own pocket. He was very mean to the younger brother, and when he began to strike Ben whenever he got into a rage, the boy left him.
Benjamin went to New York but found no work there. He worked his way to Philadelphia. ”

“ In the resolute spirit of another Andor Andorra, the Village of Greenwich maintains its independence in the very midst of the city of New York—submitting to no more of a compromise in the matter of its autonomy than is evolved in the Procrustean sort of splicing which has hitched fast the extremities of its tangled streets to the most readily available streets in the City Plan. ”

“ The retort did not seem heavy to Ben as they lifted it to the furnace; and he concluded that Mundon had asked him to help him, in order that he might feel that he was more than a spectator.
“He’s got the finest feelings,” Ben said to himself. “He’s always trying to make a fellow feel comfortable.”
They built a roaring fire in the furnace.
“Now, you kin tend that fire fur two hours, Ben,” said Mundon, “while I go down-town and see ’bout gittin’ some more coal and a few little things we need. I’ll be right back. Don’t forget—you got to keep that there retort red-hot the whole time.” ”