Jonas

“ Grave Jonas Kindred, Sybil Kindred’s sire, Was six feet high, and look’d six inches higher; Erect, morose, determined, solemn, slow, Who knew the man, could never cease to know; His faithful spouse, when Jonas was not by, Had a firm presence and a steady eye; But with her husband dropp’d her look and tone, And Jonas ruled unquestion’d and alone. He read, and oft would quote the sacred words, How pious husbands of their wives were lords; 10 Sarah called Abraham lord! and who could be, So Jonas thought, a greater man than he? ”

“ Besides, Jonas felt an inspiration now. He again burned to be a musician. The revengeful spirit had left him—he thought only of Sebastian Bach.
A small organ had been placed in the little garret where Jonas slept. Thither he repaired, and commenced the work that ever since he has performed so well.
The dreaded master found no fault with the next lesson, and as Jonas advanced and he perceived that he studied with a zeal, an earnestness quite unusual in a boy, his stern manner relaxed, and he dared allow all the warmth of his heart to cheer his now beloved pupil. ”

“ Jonas, "Come, Murphy, lead her;
And, Patrick, you run for a doctor to bleed her."
"Oh, the wretch that I am! what a baste of a feller
Thus to tease her to death, when I might as well tell her.
It's no fault of my own if the girls will admire.
Sure I cannot look ugly because I desire?
Oh, pray come to, my dearest! my angel, revive!
Do but squeeze out a smile, just to show you're alive.
If you're not quite well soon, and my folly forgive,
I shall ne'er more be happy as long as I live." ”

“ Jonas, the servant, had entered from the inner room, and unseen by all but myself, had been listening to the last few words as if his life depended upon what they had to say. "If it is, why I have a bit of an observation of my own to make that may help you to settle the matter." ”

“ And God said unto Jonas, art thou so angry for thy wild vine? And he said, I am angry a good, even on to the death. And the Lord said, thou hast compassion on a wild vine, whereon thou bestowedest no labour nor made it grow, which sprang up in one night and perished in another: and should not I have compassion on Nineveh that great city, wherein there is a multitude of people, even above an hundred thousand that know not their right hand from the left, besides much cattle? ”

“ Who is Jonas? Just wait, Anne Shirley. You’ll hear all about Jonas in the proper time and place. He is not to be mixed up with estimable old ladies.
“My left-hand neighbor at the table is Mrs. Phinney. She always speaks with a wailing, dolorous voice—you are nervously expecting her to burst into tears every moment. She gives you the impression that life to her is indeed a vale of tears, and that a smile, never to speak of a laugh, is a frivolity truly reprehensible. ”

“ A barrel of biscuits had been opened on their first arrival at the island, and the boys had "taken the sharp edge off their appetite," as they said, by eating them; otherwise Jonas would never have been able to bring those clams to the stage of perfection that he did.
"Come, Jonas! they are done to a turn!" cried the impatient boys.
"They will lose all their goodness in that good smell," said Joe, sniffing the air. ”

“ The babe, whose name was Peter, was a topic on which neither wearied of talking or of listening; and often did Jonas bring the child over to be kissed and admired by his grandmother.
Jane raised objections—the weather was cold and the child would take a chill; grandmother was inconsiderate, and upset its stomach with sweetstuff; it had not a tidy dress in which to be seen: but Jonas overruled all her objections. He was a mild and yielding man, but on this one point he was inflexible—his child should grow up to know, love, and reverence his mother as sincerely as did he himself. ”

“ Jonas left the window, and walked up close to him. He did not look him in the face; it was not his habit to do that; but he kept his eyes towards him—on his breast, or thereabouts—and was at great pains to speak slowly and distinctly, in reply. Just as a man in a state of conscious drunkenness might be. ”

“ Everybody liked Jonas, for he was a kindly and well-intending creature, and his wife had been such another, and a good few women rushed to the rescue when the blow fell. And his master, [162] a childless man and very fond of Bird, offered to adopt one of his boys and take the lad off his hands. But Jonas clung to all three, because, as he truly said, they each had a good bit of their mother in 'em and he couldn't spare a pinch of Sarah. ”

“ Our Lord Himself teaches us this when He says (New Test. XXVII) : “An adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and a sign shall not be given it but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was in the whale’s belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” Jonas is also a type of our Lord in other ways. He was sent not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles: our Lord came and died for both Jews and Gentiles. Jonas offered himself up to die of his own free-will, to appease God’s anger, and save his fellow-passengers. ”

“ And yet there, in the dim light and the silence (for Rob had fallen asleep in his warm corner) , old Jonas sat and thought, and the words echoed and re-echoed, "careth for you."
Somehow that word seemed to mean so much just then. God takes an interest in you; God thinks of you; God loves you. And then a memory of long years ago flashed a new light upon the words, and he recalled how once, and only once, the strong love of his man's heart had been repulsed with the words, "But I don't care for you, Jonas." ”

“ Jonas wakened a little from his mental swoon. Life seemed warmer, more tangible, again.
"Law, do go," said the mother soothingly. "She don't want the whole township tramplin' up there to eye over her chiny. Make her as nervous as a witch. Here's the ha'-bushel basket, an' some paper to put between 'em. You go, Jonas, an' I'll clear off the shelves."
So Jonas, whether he was tired of guiding the impulses of his own unquiet mind, or whether he had become a child again, glad to yield to the maternal, as we all do in our grief, took the basket and went. ”

“ It was astonishing what that word “keepsake” made in Jonas’s feelings. He had but two expressions which came to his face—the smile and the frown. No one to have seen him as he finished putting out his team, would have thought that a frown ever came on his countenance. He was all smiles, and once or twice he forgot himself so as to try to strike up a whistle. This attracted the attention of Caleb who was amazed at it.
“What’s the matter with you, pap?” said he.
“There is nothing the matter with me,” replied Jonas, cheerfully. “When a man does right he always feels happy. ”

“ I wish you'd teach me to write like that."
"Very well," said Jonas, "that I can do."
"How can you do it?" said Isabella.
"Why, we can have an evening school, these long evenings," replied Jonas. "You get through your spinning in time to have half an hour for school before bed-time."
"Half an hour wouldn't be enough," said Amos.
"O, yes," replied Jonas; "half an hour every day will amount to a great deal in three months."
"Yes," said the farmer, "that's a very good plan; you shall have an evening school, and Jonas shall teach you;—an excellent plan."
"What shall we study?" said Isabella. ”

“ His son's enthusiasm, his hatred of tyranny, his love of his kind, proved nothing to old Tengelyi but that Jonas would turn out a first-rate village pastor. He never dreamt of this enthusiasm being applied to other purposes than those of the pulpit; and he did all in his power to develop the talents of so hopeful a preacher. He enlarged on the sufferings of the poor and the cruelty of the rich; on the equality of mankind before God, and the duties we owe to our fellow men. ”

“ The cattle which had lain down, began to get up, and the horses neighed in their stalls; for the shining of the lantern in the barn was the well-known signal which called them to breakfast.
Jonas clambered up by a long ladder to the hay-loft, to pitch down some hay, and Josey and Oliver followed him; while Amos remained below to "feed out" the hay, as he called it, as fast as they pitched it down. It was pretty dark upon the loft, although the lantern shed a feeble light upon the rafters above.
"Boys," said Jonas, "it is dangerous for you to be up here; I'd rather you'd go down." ”

“ Jonas maintained a cold estrangement from both her and the babe, its aunt would have welcomed its death.
The knowledge of this rendered her infant only more dear to Mehetabel. Hers was a loving nature, one that hungered and panted for love. She had clung as much as was allowed to the hostess at the inn. She had been prepared with all her heart to love the man to whom she had promised love. But this had been rendered difficult, if not impossible, by his conduct. She would have forgiven whatever wrong he had done her, had he shown the smallest token of affection for his child. ”

“ Jonas Tries to Make Amends. It is hard to tell what Jonas Keeler’s feelings were as he paced back and forth in his narrow cabin, his eyes flashing, his hands clenched and his lips framing to himself words that he dared not utter aloud. He was disappointed—sorely disappointed because Mr. Nickerson, who knew that he wanted money, that he thought of nothing else, had presumed to present him a book for a keepsake. Sometimes he felt so angry at him that he had half a mind to go out, find the old man and throw him over the bars. ”

“ She had made up her mind that Jonas would continue a "hudger," and that his house and land would fall to her son, after his demise. This was perhaps an unreasonable expectation, especially as her own conduct had precipitated the engagement; but it was natural. She partook of the surly disposition of her brother. She could not exist without somebody or something to fall out with, to scold, to find fault with. Her incessant recrimination had at length aroused in Jonas the resolve to cast her wholly from his dwelling, to have a wife of his own, and to be independent of her service. ”

“ Jonas asked Rollo a great many questions about all the people at home—his father and mother, and his cousin Lucy; and he said that he was very glad indeed, that Rollo had come to see him.
"Do you have a pretty good time upon the farm?" said Rollo.
"Yes," said Jonas, "very good indeed. You would like to be here very much."
"Are there any boys for me to play with?" said Rollo.
"Yes," said Jonas, "there is Oliver, though he don't play much. He works nearly all the time. But then there is Josey, though he has gone home now."
"I saw a boy at the mill," said Rollo, "when I came along. ”

“ Tengelyi would not be comforted, but a sense of his duty kept him alive.
Little Jonas throve under his father's care. He knew not what it was to be motherless in this world, where the heart finds that trusty, faithful love it yearns for, only at a mother's breast. A child's heart is a little treasury of joy, and there is no room in it for great griefs. In the first days after the event, little Jonas called for his mother, and receiving no answer from that mild, loving voice, he sat down and wept his fill ”

“ Crimple, I believe you never take snuff? Injudicious. You should."
Pending these remarks on the part of the doctor, and the lengthened and sonorous pinch with which he followed them up, Jonas took a seat at the board: as ungainly a man as ever he has been within the reader's knowledge. It is too common with all of us, but it is especially in the nature of a mean mind, to be overawed by fine clothes and fine furniture. They had a very decided influence on Jonas. ”

“ Unhappiness, she told herself, was her portion in this life; in the Life Above, things would be different.
Jonas had met the type before, and was uninterested in going further. But Ilse Scharpe was something else entirely. She did not say a word to him, coming into the house that evening, a pace behind her mother, like an obedient slave. She was about seventeen, and her mind was as fresh and clean and pretty as her face and figure. Jonas started musing on Heroes again, but he never had the chance to make a move toward her. ”

“ Jonas opened the lantern, and took out a short candle from the socket within. Just as he was lighting it, the door opened, and Amos came in.
"Ah, Jonas," said he, "you are before me, as usual."
"Why, the youngest hand makes the fire, of course," said Jonas.
"Then it ought to be Oliver," said Amos,—"or else Josey."
"There! I promised to wake Oliver up," said Jonas.
"O, he's awake; and he and Josey are coming down. They have found out that there is snow on the ground."
"Is there much snow?" asked Jonas.
"I don't know," said Amos; "the ground seems pretty well covered. ”

“ But Jonas stayed awake for a while.
"It's really too bad we can't work this sort of thing at a distance," Claerten's voice said suddenly. "But then, none of us has ever met the man, and you can't read a mind if you haven't had some physical contact with the man who owns it."
"It is too bad," Jonas agreed politely. Five hundred miles away Claerten chuckled, and the linkage of minds transmitted the amusement to Jonas. ”

“ The word of the lord came unto the prophet Jonas the son of Amithai saying: rise and get thee to Nineve that great city and preach unto them, how that their wickedness is come up before me.
And Jonas made him ready to flee to Tharsis from the presence of the lord, and gat him down to Joppe, and found there a ship ready to go to Tharsis, and paid his fare, and went aboard, to go with them to Tharsis from the presence of the lord.
But the lord hurled a great wind in to the sea, so that there was a mighty tempest in the sea: insomuch that the ship was like to go in pieces. ”