John Mitchell

“ However, the closed lids, and the head resting calmly against the back of the high chair made a tranquil picture. For a long time he lay immovable, his eyes drinking in the vision. There was nothing to disturb the silence save the solemn ticking of a clock in another part of the cottage. He heard, beyond the big tapestry, the sound of a dog snapping at a fly. Pats smiled and would have whistled to Solomon, but he remembered the weary angel by his bed. With a sort of terror he recalled this lady’s capacity for contempt. ”

“ He laughed aloud in a frank, boyish way as their eyes met. “I knew you had some sinister motive in that speech. You almost fooled me.”
And she smiled as she retorted, “I was merely trying to please you. You say you are averse to intelligence in a woman.”
“Well, I take it all back. I am averse to nothing in a woman, except absence.”
Father Burke took all this in, and he disapproved. Captain Boyd was by no means the sort of man he would have selected for companion to this maiden. The young man’s appreciation of the lady herself was too honest and too evident. ”

“ Swiftly the clouds dispersed, but the mist, although illumined by the sun, still lingered over land and sea. Solomon, followed by his friends, climbed the gentle ascent at the end of the beach, and as they hastened on among the pines all felt a mild excitement on approaching the cottage.
Gathered about the doorway, as if to welcome the returning travellers, stood a few white hens and the pompous rooster. To this impressive bird Pats took off his hat with a deferential bow.
“Glad to see you again, Senator.”
“Why ‘Senator’? Because nobody listens when he talks?” Elinor had been to Washington. ”

“ In Mrs. Mitchell's mind a man had much better be a section hand on the Great Southwestern than a fixed star on the drama's milky way.
"By the way, mother," remarked Mr. Mitchell, with the air of one who makes an important revelation, "John is just going out to dine with William N. Scofield."
Mrs. Mitchell turned quickly, and her dark eyes shot a meaningful glance at her husband, while the line of her lower lip first grew full and then protruded. A squeeze of that lip at the moment, Hampstead reflected, would extract something at least as sour as very sour lemon juice. ”

“ Much terrified, she tried to free herself. But Ja-khaz, holding her fair chin with his other hand, had brought his lips almost to hers when the old man raised his heavy staff and brought it down upon our comrade's head with cruel swiftness. This falling stick upon a solid skull resounded about the dome and echoed through the empty corridors.
Bhoz-ja-khaz blinked and staggered back.
Then, with fury in his face, he sprang savagely toward the aged man. ”

“ She suspected from something she had heard that the Diva was in this vicinity.
"Now, tell me, Doctor. Where is she?"
"She? In this vicinity?"
"Come now, I am not to be deceived. You may as well tell me at once. Where is she? You are one of her intimates and I saw you come down that avenue. As the only truthful man in Austria, you may as well confess that she lives at the end of it."
The truthful man raised his Mephistophelean eyebrows, smiled and slowly shook his head. "Alas, I [15] wish, indeed, she were there! There is a villa, Countess, but no Diva in it." ”

“ As the young lady stood for a moment conversing with the two admirers, her glance, in running over the little steamer, encountered Mr. Townsend, and she nodded pleasantly.
“Lovely! Enchanting!” murmured the man from Africa.
“Of course she is! Come down, and I’ll present you.”
“But, first, tell me something about her. What are the interesting facts?”
“Why, there’s nothing to tell–that I can think of.”
“Of course there is! There must be! Women like that don’t bloom in every garden. What a patrician type! And all that black hair! She is unusual.”
“Well, she is unusual, Pats. ”

“ His anxious glances up the wharf, and those flowers give him away. Such roses are for no aunt or sister.”
“Better for him if they were!”
“Why? No chance?”
“Well, that is not for me to say. But he is one of those fearfully earnest chaps, with a tragic soul, and a rebuff would be a dangerous thing for him.”
“Poor devil!”
And the man of cheerful countenance slowly wagged his head, as he added, in a sympathetic voice, “This being in love seems a painful pleasure.”
Mr. William Townsend regarded his friend with half-shut eyes, and asked, “Are you still the superior person who defies the–the malady?” ”

“ An excess of indifference in the manner of this reply did not escape the friend from Africa. With a sidelong glance at his companion, he said, “A man, of course.”
“How clever you are, Pats!”
“No need of being clever, Billy, when you advertise your secret by blushing like a girl of fifteen.”
“Blush! I, blush! How old do you think I am? Ten?”
“Yes all of that. But if you didn’t actually blush, old man, you did look foolish. And this explains a state-room full of flowers that I noticed. Is that her bower?” ”

“ Mitchell, observing Hampstead closely, saw that he was rather careless of this; that in fact he only thought of it when he thought of Bessie; that the one thing gnawing into him now was the action of the church. That was something outside of Mitchell's experience. Whether a church more or less unfrocked his future son-in-law was small concern. He was a man who thought in thousands of miles and millions of people.
"Come, Bessie," he called, "we must be getting back to the hotel."
"You will stay for dinner, Mr. Mitchell?" suggested John. ”

“ And on the threshold of the cottage he again held back. 112In the doorway, leaning against the jamb, he said, solemnly:
“Look here, young feller, just mark my words, women are devils. The less you have to do with them the better for you. D–n the whole tribe! That’s what I say!”
But she dragged him in and supported him to a chair before the fire. He sat shivering with cold, his chin upon his breast, apparently exhausted by the walk. The water dripping from his saturated garments formed puddles on the floor.
Elinor, for a moment, stood regarding him in heart-stricken silence. ”

“ John looked up timidly. The Mitchell brow was ridged and thoughtful.
"Hampstead," he declared with an air of grave reluctance, "I guess I'll have to lose you, after all."
"What, sir," gasped John, guilty terror shaking him somewhere inside.
At the change in John's face, Mitchell threw back his head and laughed; one of those huge, hearty, bellowing laughs at his own humor, from which he extracted so much enjoyment.
"Yes," he specified, "I am going to put you in the rate department. You have the making of a great railroad man in you. What you need now is the fundamentals. ”

“ As a letter writer, John is rather a failure, but this is longer." She laughed gaily as she spread open the letter.
"He has got a new hero, uncle—General Grant. John is strong on heroes—he began with you."
"Stuff and nonsense," said the Squire. "Read it."
Leila hesitated.
"Oh, let's hear it," cried her aunt.
"Go on, dear," said the Squire.
Leila still hesitated. Usually Ann Penhallow carried away John's rare letters to be read when alone. Now she said, with unnatural deliberation. "Read it; one may as well hear his news; we can't always just ignore what goes on." ”

“ He was by habit averse to changing his decisions, and outside of Ann Penhallow's range of authority the Squire's discipline was undisputed and his decrees obeyed. He had been pleased and gaily amused for this half hour, but was of a mind to leave unchanged the penalties he had inflicted.
"Are you through, with this nonsense, Leila?" he said as he rose. "Is this an ingenious little game set up between you and John?" To his utter amazement she began to cry.
"By George!" he said, "don't cry," which is what a kind man always says when presented with the riddle of tears. ”

“ John laughed. "I don't think I should like either farm or medicine."
"No," returned the Doctor, with his queer way of stating things, "there must be some one to feed the people; Tom is to be trained to cure, and you to kill."
"I don't want to kill anybody," said John, laughing.
"But that is the business you are going to learn, young man." John was silent. The idea of killing anybody!
"Heard from Mrs. Penhallow lately?" asked the doctor.
"No, but from Leila to-day; and, you will be surprised, from Josiah too." ”

“ John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall.
But I don’t want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once, and she says he is just like John and my brother, only more so!
Besides, it is such an undertaking to go so far.
I don’t feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over for anything, and I’m getting dreadfully fretful and querulous.
I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.
Of course I don’t when John is here, or anybody else, but when I am alone. ”

“ The ruddy good-humoured face, clean-shaven and large of feature, had lost its look of constant good-humour. In fact, the feature language expressed the minute's mood in a way which any one less familiar with the man than John might have read with ease. Then he said, in an absent way, "Are we men of the North all cowards like Josiah? They think so—they do really think so. It is helping to make trouble." Then he lifted himself lightly into the saddle, with swift change of mood and an odd laugh of comment on his conclusion, as he broke into a gallop. ”

“ Mitchell hated red tape, and he knew that John's idea was the right one; but tradition was god on the S.F. & E.P. They would fight the innovation and fight it hard; they might win, too, and Mr. Mitchell had no stomach for tilting at windmills. However, it might be a good thing for John, this fight; might make him forget that foolish stage ambition of his; and if he won, might crown him so lustrously that of itself it would save him to a future already assuredly brilliant in the railroad business. ”

“ Well aware that the clergyman was rarely given to any form of exercise on foot, John was a little surprised when he came upon the tall, stooping, pallid man with what Ann Penhallow called the "eloquent" eyes. He was lying on the bank lazily throwing stones into the river. As John broke through the alders and red willows above him, he turned at the sound and cried, as John jumped down the bank, "Glad to see you, John! I have been trying to settle a question no one can settle to the satisfaction of others or even himself. ”

“ The best sketch ever made of Mitchell's political career was that made by Mr. Scott of the advisory board of this history, and which is hereto appended:
"It would perhaps be difficult in all the history of American politics to find a man whose political career equaled that of Senator John H. Mitchell. ”

“ The days ran on into weeks of school, and now there were snow-shoe tramps or sleigh rides to see some big piece of casting at the forge, where persistently-curious John did learn from some one what hematite was. The life became to him steadily more and more pleasant as he shed with ease the habits of an over regulated life, and living wholesome days prospered in body and mind.
Christmas was a disappointment to Leila and to him. There was an outbreak of measles at Westways and there would be no carols, nor children gathered at Grey Pine. Ann's usual bounty of toys was sent to the village. ”

“ Mitchell was named for John Hipple Mitchell, former U. S. senator from Oregon, and for many years prominent in the political history of the state. The name was suggested by W. W. (Brawdie) Johnson, the first postmaster, and the post office was established in April, 1873. J. H. Mitchell was senator from Oregon in 1873-79, 1885-97 and 1901-05. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1835, came to Oregon in 1860, and died in Portland December 8, 1905. In 1884 the town of Mitchell experienced its first catastrophe. Water rushed over the bluff above the community, carrying boulders and mud. ”

“ HIS LIFE Donald Grant Mitchell, who won literary reputation under the name of ‘Ik Marvel,’ was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on April 12, 1822. He is a son of the Reverend Alfred Mitchell, formerly pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Norwich, and a grandson of Stephen Mix Mitchell, an eminent jurist and member of the Continental Congress. He prepared for college at John Hall’s school at Ellington, and was graduated at Yale in 1841.
Three years of life on a farm for his health gave him a bent towards rural pleasures and occupations. ”

“ It makes me comprehend more charitably the attitude of the owners of men. Now, dear, we won't talk any more. Good-night—again—good-night."
He lighted a cigar and sat long in thought. He had meant not to speak to her of Swallow, but it had been, as he saw, of service. Then he wondered how long Mr. George Grey would remain and if he would not think it necessary to speak of Josiah. As concerned John, he would be in no hurry to talk to him of the barber; and how the lad had grown in mind and body!—a wonderful change and satisfactory. ”

“ He's afraid of people. Besides," went on Mitchell, "we couldn't get along without him. He knows too much that nobody else knows."
"Well, anyway, never again the typewriter!" commanded the doctor from the door, getting out quickly and hurrying away with the consciousness of duty extremely well performed. He knew that he had exaggerated the extent of John's eye-trouble; but he believed that it was necessary to exaggerate it, both to Hampstead and to Mr. Mitchell. ”