Chauncey

“ Chauncey stands out a shining light of Christian patience and forbearance at a time when every other New England minister, from John Cotton down, preached and practised the stern repression and sharp correction of all children, and chanted together in solemn chorus, "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child."
One vicious tithingman invented, and was allowed to exercise on the boys, a punishment which was the refinement of cruelty. ”

“ So far do I let myself go while, to recur to my letter, Chauncey Wright sits for me in his customary corner of the deep library sofa and his strange conflictingly conscious light blue eyes, appealing across the years from under the splendid arch of his fair head, one of the handsomest for representation of amplitude of thought that it was possible to see, seems to say to me with a softness more aimed at the heart than any alarm or any challenge: "But what then are you going to do for me?" ”

“ Surely Chauncey loves me still. We have never had any cross words or misunderstandings.’
“It may have been pique at my incredulity that made him say suddenly, ‘Lucile, come with me. Get your wraps and come, and put on a heavy veil. I will show you.’
“Mechanically I obeyed him. We entered his carriage together and drove, miles and miles, it seemed to me. I was very nervous and trembled violently. Horace tried to reassure me and stroked my hand tenderly.
“‘Brace up, little girl,’ he said; ‘you need all your strength for the ordeal before you. ”

“ Naturally that sudden flash of light startled the three; [210] it startled them so much that Chauncey leaped back with a gasp of alarm; and a moment later, his heel catching in the end of his huge green overcoat, he tripped and staggered, clutched wildly at nothing, and with a shriek of alarm tumbled backward, rolling over and over with a series of crashes that made the building shake. ”

“ Chauncey, preached the first time on the birth-day that completed his twenty-fourth year; probably considering that as the day of a second nativity, by which he entered on a new period of existence.
In about three years he succeeded Dr. Chauncey; but soon after his entrance on his charge, he was seized by a dangerous illness, which sunk him to such weakness, that the congregation thought an assistant necessary, and appointed Mr. Price. ”

“ One of the wealthy attendants was Mr. Charles Chauncey, a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, who spent the summer months in Burlington. Once after I had delivered a very simple and earnest sermon on the "Worth of the Soul," I went home and said to myself, "Lawyer Chauncey must have thought that was only a camp-meeting exhortation." He met me during the week and to my astonishment he said to me: "My young friend, I thank you for that sermon last Sunday; it had the two best qualities of preaching—simplicity and down-right earnestness. ”

“ I have seen few more elegant women than Miss Chauncey. Thoroughly at her ease, she had the manner of a lady of the olden times, using the quaint fashion of speech which she had been taught in her girlhood. The long words and ceremonious phrases suited her extremely well. Her hands were delicately shaped, and she folded them in her lap, as no doubt she had learned to do at boarding-school so many years before. She asked Kate and me if we knew any young ladies at that school in Boston, saying that most of her intimate friends had left when she did, but some of the younger ones were there still. ”

“ I once chanced to mention Chauncey Depew’s name in the hearing of a crowd of this kind, and a voice replied:
“There’s a lucky man for you! Why, whenever he hears of anything, it is just his luck to have a story that goes to the spot as quick as a bullet from a gun.” ”

“ The idea of Chauncey Ewing, with all those rooms in his house, sleeping in his garage on her account!
“Isn't that being rather—rather particular?” she inquired, blushing in the darkness, because of anxiety not to say the wrong thing.
“Can a young lady be too particular?” rejoined Chauncey in a self-effacing sort of way.
“No, I suppose not,” admitted Freda, and to emphasize her intention to accept the hospitality of the aunt's bedchamber so generously extended by proxy, she got out of the automobile. ”

“ Remsen and her delicate daughter had driven away to avoid excitement and the night air.
Chauncey hovered round the piazza steps, talking, with but little encouragement, to Miss Sallie and the young man who had become the centre of all eyes.
“I don't see how anybody on the face of the earth could blame her, nor me either!” Chauncey protested. “If the critter wanted to git out, why couldn't he say so? I stood there holdin' the door open much as five minutes. 'Who's in there?' I says. I called it loud enough to wake the dead. ”

“ On the day preceding Old Shep's interment, Old Chauncey paid a visit to the nearest justice of the peace with Celia Lilleoden and no one thought it was in the least peculiar. As Chauncey balanced accounts with himself, the state would otherwise inherit his property eventually, as was right, but he wished to insure Celia's staying on as his housekeeper, in which capacity she beggared superlatives. ”

“ The place belongs to them now. Did Chauncey tell you? Mr. Paul writes that he has some building plans of his own, and he wishes everything left as it is for the present, especially this house. He wants his wife to see it first just as it is.”
“Well, to be sure! They've been traveling a long time, haven't they? And how is his health now?”
“Oh, he is very well indeed. You will be glad not to have the trouble of those carpenters, Cerissa? Pulling down old houses is dirty work.”
“Oh, dear! I wouldn't mind the dirt. Anything to get rid of that old rat's nest on top of the kitchen chamber. ”

“ Chauncey, to his infinite relief, shed his smutty white outing costume at last. And Dewey came out of drum orderly uniform to furnish the fourth garment. After which the plebes put on the clothing they had taken from their prisoners, and everything was well.
Having once realized the design of their enemies and likewise their own helplessness, the yearlings were completely subdued, even terrified. It was all very well to send some hated plebes to jail as lunatics, but to go themselves was horrible. They saw that was the ultimate purpose of the Banded Seven. ”

“ I never can remember the name for it.”
“You can’t prove it by me,” grinned Chauncey. “I don’t know either, although we have one. Yes, the Gwynne place is considered a fine old estate, so my dad says. Mother says she wouldn’t have it for it isn’t modern enough to suit her. She doesn’t like high ceilings and great rooms that are hard to heat in winter.”
“Oh, I love them,” cried Betty, “though maybe it’s because I never have to bother about furnaces and things like that. I’d just love to have a great house and big grounds like this.”
“Where do you live?” asked Chauncey. ”

“ That fired Chauncey again, and he went off into another tirade of abuse and indignation, which was finally closed by the officers offering to “soak him” if he didn’t shut up. Then they were led off to a cell—number seven, curiously enough. And as the door shut with a clank the three gasped and realized that it was the death knell of their earthly hopes.
[219] CHAPTER XXIII.
CHAUNCEY HAS AN IDEA.
Three more utterly discouraged and disgusted plebes than our friends would be hard to manufacture. There wasn’t a ray of hope, any more than a ray of light to illumine that dark cell. ”

“ Cars have broken loose and are smashed down there at the bottom, and boulders and loose rock are piled up, cutting off somebody. He's alive yet! I heard him moaning."
Then he suddenly whispers, growing very pale: "My God—if it is she!" Lovers are always fearful. Next he cries: "Run, Ferdie, up to the Mineral Hill—it's only three hundred feet from here—tell them to send down half a dozen miners like lightning!"
And Chauncey flying on his errand, a sudden idea coming into Lawrence's mind, he steps to the air-pipe, and using it as a speaking-tube, shouts down: "Halloo there! Who are you? ”

“ Milton relieved himself of a very Gallic gesture. “After that I had to dress the part.”
“Why, it's the very truth!” gasped Freda, astonished to recall the exact facts, and glad of anything that would enable her to acquit the pseudo-princeling of misconduct. “We deceived ourselves, and he only let us have our way about it. I remember now that when I called him Chauncey the first time he only said: 'Somebody's been guessing.'”
The real Chauncey had turned a significantly inquiring glance at Milton when the girl was speaking. ”

“ The name had spread, too, and no wonder that it suggested itself to the authoress of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” as a character name. She, however, placed it in its proper position as a surname. It may be that Mrs. Stowe has given the use of this patronymic as a baptismal name an impulse, but it had been so used long before she herself was born. It was a memorial of Charles Chauncey, of Boston. It has now an average place throughout all the eastern border and the older settlements. I take up the New York Directory for 1878, and at once light upon Chauncey Clark, Chauncey Peck, and Chauncey Quintard ”

“ Livingston's apartment.
"I don't want him back."
"No, I presume not," returns Mr. Chauncey, trying to smooth matters, "not since you have seen our hero, Captain Lawrence." So he unwittingly gives the girl another stab, but tries to correct it by muttering:
"By Jove, I had forgotten! Your dad is the man who is busting him. Harry isn't stuck after Tranyon, is he?" To this getting no reply, he goes on hastily: "If you want me, I will stay here and look after you. I don't care to go to California."
"Oh," says Erma, "don't fear for me. My father has taken care of me till now. ”

“ Chauncey ruminated dismally, "everything I want, he gets. If I tell him to stay away from her he won't take me seriously. The old hoodoo always has his way. Anyhow, his durned whittling is out of my sight."
Befell a morning when Old Shep didn't appear, and Chauncey found him stretched out stiff half-way down the side hill. In Shep's vulturine right fist was clenched a small crumple of bills. This pilfering had occurred with such regularity that the companion of Chauncey's childhood had accumulated just about enough to get started with Celia Lilleoden. ”

“ Then coming toward the girl, who has half risen to meet him, he says: "Ferdie, there is a good angel in the room, my boy,—one of the kind that make men think earth is very near to heaven. Now, you just run down and play billiards, and I will join you in a few minutes, and don't you say a word of what I have told you to any one in this world."
"On my honor," whispers Chauncey, for there are two tears in Lawrence's eyes that impress him very greatly. Then he suddenly cries, "Erma, you're a brick!" and leaves the captain gazing at Miss Travenion, who is pale as death also. ”

“ She repeated his words with a glow of satisfaction.
There was no French after luncheon that day. Her friend had tickets for the private view of some pictures in town and persuaded Mrs. Callender to accompany her, under the pledge of taking an early train back. As a matter of fact, the six o’clock bells were ringing before Mrs. Callender had started to walk home from the station, feeling thoroughly guilty as she thought of her long defection from the affairs of the household on such a day, though it was quite likely that Chauncey’s friends would not come. ”

“ Then he goes on: "Kruger's only four hours ahead of me. You rest quietly. The miners will have you out in two or three hours. You make up your mind your daughter's safe, if it's in human power! She might die, but never marry Kruger."
Here Ferdie, coming back with some miners, is very much astonished to hear Lawrence say hurriedly to him: "Get the men down that incline. Remove the rocks and get Tranyon out!"
"And you," cries Chauncey, "where are you going?" for Harry has already turned to leave the dump pile. ”

“ It is not good for boys to live as he lived, and work as he worked, during the period of growth, and I am glad that fewer boys are now compelled to bear such a lot as his.
His father was a blacksmith and nailmaker, of Plymouth, Connecticut, with a houseful of hungry boys and girls; and, consequently, as soon as Chauncey could handle a hoe or tie up a bundle of grain he was kept at work on the farm; for, in [Pg 80] those days, almost all mechanics in New England cultivated land in the summer time. The boy went to school during the three winter months, until he was ten years old ”

“ Chauncey said 't was no use disturbing you to-night, but he's just that way—so easy about everything! I thought you wouldn't want to be harboring tramps this wet weather when most anybody would be tempted to build a fire. I'm more concerned about what goes on down there now we're out of the house! I seem to have it on my mind the whole time. A house is just like a child: the more you don't see it the more you worry about it.”
“I'm glad you have such a home feeling about the place,” said Mrs. Bogardus, avoiding the onset of words. “Well, good-evening, Cerissa. ”

“ The men that came by Mr. Champlin are a motley set—blacks, soldiers, and boys. I cannot think you saw them after they were selected. I am, however, pleased to see any thing in the shape of a man." [6]
Commodore Chauncey replied in the following sharp letter, in which he gave Captain Perry to understand that the color of the skin had nothing to do with a man's qualifications for the navy:
"Sir:—I have been duly honored with your letters of the twenty-third and twenty-sixth ultimo, and notice your anxiety for men and officers. ”