Berty

“ I guess this street takes store of what you’ve done for our young ones.”
“They’re my young ones, too,” said Berty, proudly. “I live on the street—we’re all neighbours. Now I’ll go. I won’t be long. Your eldest girl can get the supper ready for your husband, can’t she?”
“That she can, miss.”
Berty walked away with her grandmother, and the woman, gazing after her, said, “Bless your black head. I’d like to hear any one say anything agin you in River Street.” ”

“ He was ashamed of standing in the way of a girl—and such a fragile piece of ambition as Airy. So he set himself resolutely to conquer his failing, and you see he is making good progress. He slips sometimes, but not often.”
“Titus is a noble boy,” said Berty, warmly. “He is going to make a fine man.” ”

“ Abruptly, Scholar Ross said, "Miss Hanford, how are you and Bertram getting along?"
"As well as could be expected."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning that each of us lives our own life. Berty likes his sedentary, torpid existence. In fact, he'd like to be more of a vegetable than he is. It started with his taking my pills and that was all right, I guess. But when he started sleeping in my bedroom so that he could estivate under the tranquilizing music program you prescribed for me, that was too much!" ”

“ He will make a first-class business man.”
“Under your tuition,” said Grandma, with a proud look at him.
“Hush,” said Berty, “the newsboys are calling an extra.”
They all listened. “Extry edeetion Evening Noose—cap-tchure of the second burrgg-lar of the great bank robbery.”
“Good,” cried Berty, “they’ve caught the second man. Roger, dear, go get us a paper.”
The young man ran nimbly down-stairs.
“How he loves Bonny!” said Berty. “What a good brother-in-law!” ”

“ Berty laughed. “Please give me some more honey, and just you try criticising River Street. 303Then you will find out where baby gets his temper. I scold those people frightfully, but I love them. Titus, are you coming to live on River Street with me when you get to be a man?” ”

“ She took Ida in her arms; pressing her to her heart.
"You have made mamma very happy," she said, kissing her again and again. "Now I know you do mean to try and conquer those wicked passions. Berty, go to the store, darling, and buy the largest orange you call find. Buy two large ones. We must have them cut up for supper; and Ida shall sprinkle sugar on them and help us all herself from the glass dish. I want papa and Aunt Mary and nurse to know that my dear little girl is determined to be good; that she has begun already to conquer herself." ”

“ Then Phil and Queenie often came to see him, and at such times the children were not allowed to leave the nurseries except to play in the garden. The liberty granted to Bertie himself was not accorded to his friends.
185So he had been little to the library of late, and when he found himself there again he heaved a sigh of contentment, as if he had somehow found a haven of refuge for himself. The Squire was not in his room when Bertie found his way there; but he came in a little bit later, and his grave, stern face seemed to soften as his glance rested upon the figure of the child. ”

“ It is not because men have made laws, that personality, liberty, and property exist. On the contrary, it is because personality, liberty, and property exist beforehand, that men make laws. ”

“ "Your doctrine is only the half of my program; you have stopped at liberty, I go on to fraternity." I answered him: "The second part of your program will destroy the first." ”

“ And in fact it is impossible for me to separate the word fraternity from the word voluntary. I cannot possibly conceive fraternity legally enforced, without liberty being legally destroyed, and justice legally trampled under foot. ”

“ And all about the city a mighty hecatomb—Spaniards and Flemings, soldiers, burghers or churls, lie scattered on the low-lying ground, in the moat, the ramparts or the streets. Might and glory have claimed their victims as well as valour and worship of liberty.
Cambray's walls are falling. The breach becomes wider and wider every hour, like a huge gaping wound through which the life-blood of the stricken city is oozing out drop by drop. ”

“ So Bertie tries to look bold, and marches up, like a soldier going to battle. "Left, left! right, right!" calls out the voice under the table. But this time it is loud and strong, like that of a captain of the drill.
Bertie is a brave little boy: so he marches straight up to the door,—which stands open,—and looks out. Then he claps his chubby hands, and shouts, "Oh! it was my uncle Frank under the table. I forgot he was such a funny man. Oh, uncle Frank! How can you get in the house and out of the house, and nobody see you?" ”

“ But Bertie came back, and Bertie held him tightly once more in his silken bonds, and he saw more clearly every day that he could not live without Bertie. And then, catching sight of himself in a mirror—tall and brawny and strong, the healthy blood tinging his clear complexion—he could not forbear smiling at the foolish visions of his solitude, which struck him now as diseased imaginings, quite out of keeping with his robust vigour. Life was but a farce, and the better part was to play it out as a farce, in mere sensual enjoyment. ”

“ Bertie continued to rub his ear.
"Bailey, if I let you off these lines will you promise to try to give me less cause to punish you?"
"You can't help letting me off them anyhow," said Bertie.
"Can't I? I suppose, young gentleman, you think you're getting the best of me?"
"I know I am," said Bertie.
"Oh, you know you are! Then let me do my best to relieve you of that delusion. Shall I tell you what you are doing? You're doing your best to sow the seeds of a shameful manhood and a wasted life; if you don't take care you'll reap the harvest by-and-by! ”

“ Instinctively she went on speaking as if she had not seen it. "I think with Bertie that he is a born king among men. He is better than good. He is great. One feels it even in trifles. He has such an immense patience."
"Colossal," said Nap, and smiled a twisted smile. "That is why he is everybody's own and particular pal. He takes the trouble to find out what's inside. One wonders what on earth he finds to interest him. ”

“ Oh, you can’t have any idea of Bertie’s manners, and I couldn’t give you any! He never goes into a crowded room that everybody doesn’t look at him and speak about him. He seems to know, at once, the ways of every country, and never makes a mistake. ”

“ Heaven bless the gentleman!' Oh, he did look so happy!" and Bertie's own eyes filled with sympathetic tears, though his lips smiled. "I don't think I shall mind Uncle Gregory's scolding a bit when I think of the poor cabby's happiness," he added.
"Bertie, a truly good and honest action is like a pebble thrown in a pool of water: at first it makes a little splash that is not of much account, but the tiny circle widens and widens, till the whole surface is influenced. Life is a limitless pool. ”

“ To Gumilcund?'
'To Gumilcund! When Grace is wandering Heaven alone knows where!'
'Do you love her?' asked Bertie, hoping to rouse him.
'Love!' burst out the poor fellow, 'that is too poor a word! I—oh, God! there is no word—no word I have ever heard that can tell what I feel. She is everything to me—life, love, hope. I would give myself—I would die in slow tortures in the presence of my enemies, to save her—my darling—one moment's uneasiness. And to think—but I can't think. Thinking kills. I must act, or I must die!'
'But have you any clue?' said Bertie. ”

“ You're one of th' Union, Job?"
"Ay! I'm one, sure enough; but I'm but a sleeping partner in the concern. I were obliged to become a member for peace, else I don't go along with 'em. Yo see they think themselves wise, and me silly, for differing with them. Well! there's no harm in that. But then they won't let me be silly in peace and quietness, but will force me to be as wise as they are; now that's not British liberty, I say. I'm forced to be wise according to their notions, else they parsecute me, and sarve me out." ”

“ Bertie perceived that if he put into execution his plan of immediate flight he would have to go as he was, with his one and fivepence and nothing else. He had a misty recollection of having read somewhere of a young gentleman, just such another hero as himself, who started on his exploration of the world with baggage in the shape of a red cotton handkerchief, which contained a clean shirt, some bread and cheese, and, if his memory served him, a pair of socks which his little sister had neatly darned for him on the night before his setting out. ”

“ Not on your life. Bertie just rose Venus-like in a state of hopeless completion from the crystal waters of the Back Bay. He never disappoints."
"But I like Bertie," I protested; "not as much as I do Duggie, of course. But I do like him; he's so—so—sensible."
"Sensible!" Berri screamed. "Why, child, the Stockbridge family is all sense. With trousers bagging at the knee and Adam's apples rising and falling above their abashed collars, Bertie's ancestors came into a lovely foolish world and created sense. That's all they ever do now,—just create one another and sense. ”

“ Bertie is still the Squire’s boy, and has never wavered in his allegiance to his adopted father. He follows him about like his shadow, is his companion on his every expedition, and no father and son could ever have been more deeply attached than is this elderly man to the son of his adoption, who now wears his name and is acknowledged as his heir.
Bertie is growing a tall, strong lad now, and has quite shaken off the childish delicacy that had given some anxiety at first. ”

“ Bertie’s face expressed a vivid interest and animation.
“I think He’s always very good to people when 313they’re lonely. You see He gave me to the Squire when I had nobody to love, and it was like having a home of my own then, and a father too. And when you had nobody He sent Uncle Fred to you. ”

“ Bertie, a listless man about town, a dilettante in pictures, wines, and women, spending every moment that he could in Paris, gentle as any young beauty, always bored, and never roused out of that habitual languid indolent indifferentism which the old man, fiery and impassioned himself as the Napiers, held the most damnable effeminacy with which the present generation emasculates itself, had been incomprehensible, antagonistic, abhorrent to him. ”

“ The urchin whistled. His small, keen eyes had been reading his questioner all the time, and Bertie was conscious of a sense of discomfort as he observed the curious gaze. In some odd way he felt that this little lad was bigger and stronger, and older than himself; that he looked down at him, as it were, from a height.
"Say, matey, where might you be going to? You don't look as though you knowed your way about, not much, you don't." ”

“ Bertie was approaching the Land of Golden Dreams in a sense of which he had not dreamed even in his wildest dreams. One cannot subsist on roots alone. Nor can a young gentleman, used to cosy beds and well-warmed rooms and regular meals, exist for long on such a diet, under ever-changing skies, in an inhospitable country, in the open air. Bertie was worn to a shadow. ”

“ A marble pallor blanched the dark stain of the branded cheek, and the Bertie of innocent youth came slowly out of the long eclipse.
Death, God's most tender angel, laid her divine lips upon the scars of sin, that vanished at her touch; drew her white fingers across the lines and shadows of suffering time, and leaving the halo of eternal peace upon the frozen features, gave back to Beryl her beautiful Bertie of old. ”

“ Suspicion is a seed which, sown, grows, and will not be hoed up. Bertie came into his wife's room as she lay asleep, and looked sadly at her pale face. There was a small room next door, lined with cupboards; he went to it, opened the doors, saw the shimmer of satins and silks, the softness of chiffon and lace, the gleam of rich embroidery—dress upon dress. He had loved to see her well dressed, and not dreamt of the great cost of some of these mere wisps of evening gowns. Sixty pounds! Bertie shut the doors, feeling mean, as if he had spied, but he was not satisfied. ”

“ Bertie cried exultantly: "that's the fun of it! Why, we have everything we want, haven't we? Everything," he repeated, with a comprehensive glance all round, and an eloquent wave of his somewhat tarry hands. "Why, we're never cold or hungry, or anything. Eddie should come to the City for a while, if he wants to see poor people. Why, I know a fellow in a warehouse near us—Watts his name is—who has only one arm, and gets eighteen shillings a week. ”

“ That gentleman still held the too-familiar revolver in his hand. It had long been the secret longing of Bertie's soul to possess one of his own; henceforward he would hate the sight of the too-agile arm for evermore.
"You don't look like a doctor's son. Own up you lied."
"I--I didn't, sir."
"A pretty sort of doctor's son you look! Has your father any money?"
A wild idea entered Bertie's brain. He remembered how Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins had risen to the bait.
"Ye--yes, sir; he's very rich. He'd give a thousand pounds to get me back again." ”

“ But Bertie was alone; alone in the great city, hungry, thirsty, tired, wet, and cold. Human companionship was human companionship after all. And this boy looked so much more prosperous than he himself was. Yesterday he would have done great things; to-day he would have welcomed a crust of bread coming even from this thief.
"The policeman wanted to lock me up."
"No! did he though? Funny ones those policemen are! they're always wanting to go locking people up. And did he cop the purse?" ”

“ He met Bertie on the main deck, and they passed as if they were strangers in the Strand.
'Oh, go to bed,' said Forder to himself. But he knew he had done a good deed.
'Haw, bumptious ass, haw,' said Bertie, who had no notion how grateful he ought to be to the man who knew Texas and Arizona, and the pride of those who grow upon the high plateaus of the South-West. He didn't know for several days, and the reason for his remaining ignorant was the comic spirit that endures in man in all the strange places of the world and sea, and makes laughter flourish on the barrenest soil. ”