Long John

“ John tried his pick and shovel again. But they were thick with rust and very heavy. And the wounded doctor had just brought him a crutch—saying that as he was having one made for himself he had also had one made for John—though he could do without it. He smiled a little then and put away forever his old and faithful tools. For a living he did what he could. It was not much, and he and hunger came to be rare intimates.
But that youthful hope which Betsy’s last words had wrought, and its almost savage vigor to do for her, did not depart from John. ”

“ I can not go. I dare not die. Daddy?" she whispers at last very low.
"No!" thunders Jon. "He deserves least of all to be the sacrifice. He has had least of you. And they wouldn't believe him a traitor."
"Then who—Jon, dear, will go as Lucas Mallory? Some one must—for Dave's sake!"
"I," says Jon.
"Oh, my poor Jon—my poor old Jonthy! To think—No, no! Let me die. It will be best that way."
"That way," says Jon, as if through his closed teeth, "accomplishes nothing but your death. The trouble is still there. You dare not die. That much is certain. Mine is the only way." ”

“ I want just enough of your great love for a sister. That is all I dare receive. That is all you may give. Keep the rest for some one more worthy. Now, let us not hurt each other. I am capable of it! Maybe I have done it—hurt you all. But what matters it that a few of us fall by the wayside if the people are saved! Jon, there must be no more of this. I have dedicated myself to a great cause. I am not I any more. I am a thing—a machine to do the will of a cause. ”

“ John—we bought happiness with it! And they are all dead, now, back there at Saint Michael’s. And there is not a thing to regret—not one. 28Oh, thank God—thank God! If we had saved that money, there would be something to regret. We would have to remember that one was denied this—the other—that. But we’ll have the roof yet.”
John sniffled and let his arm go gently around her.
“Betsy—forgive me. I didn’t mean—”
“Why, John, dear,” said Betsy, smiling again, “in a little while we will not need a house. John! ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions’!” ”

“ You are not to know where the little chap is, Hester, but there, I’ll say something to comfort you. He is snug enough and will come to no harm. Long John has got him, and Long John ain’t to be gainsaid, not by any silly girl that ever breathed, so you stop whining in that way, [247] and let us go to the real business which has brought me here. ”

“ He doesn't seem ever to have heard of me."
"You will explain yourself—just a look at you!" says Jon. "But, I will tell Dave a few things. Dave and me are very good friends."
"He can't be as dear and sweet as you, Jonthy!" she says, leaning up against old Jonathan.
And Jon, when she done that, the holiness came into his face. I might as well have been a thousand miles away. Jon was in a country where I couldn't follow.
But I don't let no one lose me that way. So I broke in:
"How did you get here, anyhow, Evelyn,—without being injured? You are afraid of cows, and you can't climb no fences. ”

“ He would be quite ready to resort to violence, provided always that he could do it without risk to his own precious person. The hermit is right, too, in saying that Long John is all the more dangerous for being the cowardly creature that he is: whatever he may do to head off Tom will be done in the dark—you may be sure of that. We must warn Tom, so that he may be on his guard. ”

“ For the first time in his life Jon seemed glad not to have Dave about. And he had a wild look about the eyes that I had never seen on Jon.
He went out and told Evelyn not to wait for Dave, that he had gone to bed.
"Yi—you didn't tell him?" I heard her shriek, "You didn't?—He didn't guess it?"
"He had gone some time before I went in," Jon said. "Come! We will meet in the morning! Come."
Jon dragged her in and she flew off to bed like a troubled spirit.
"Come, Jonthy," says I, "let's sleep—if we can. Seems to me that we're all crazy in one way or another, to-night." ”

“ He knew John, the cleverest and basest of his house. He knew and loved Stephen Langton, the precursor of a long line of statesmen who have made English liberty broad—based upon the people’s will. He was a friend of St. Hugh of Lincoln, the sweetest and purest spirit in the Anglican Church of the Middle Ages, the one man who could disarm the wrath of the fierce king with a smile; and he was the friend and patron of Robert Grosstete, afterwards the great Bishop of Lincoln. ”

“ John was as tender with her as he had been after that night of the husking. And Betsy was as devoted to John as she had been in that halcyon time.
“Growing old is just an idea,” said the happy John, one day. ”

“ That's how this night's work has turned the matter!"
"But," says Jon, "we don't know him—where to find him—who he is. He doesn't exist, as far as we know. Yet, they know he does. If he could be found—I'd kill him! And send them his body. He wouldn't have to enlist."
"He deserves that," says I, "a man that is too cowardly to shoulder his own deeds, but puts 'em on some one else! I wish, too, that I'd come across him with a gun in my hands!"
"Dear daddy," says Evelyn, more quiet now, and slow and solemn, "the time is at hand—you have brought it to-night—for you and your gun—and Mallory! ”

“ Jon gave the word to fall in—four ranks—and that looked so much like going, at last, that the cheering stopped, and after a silent solemn moment we were swamped by women. Every man had at least one woman hanging on him and crying—except just Jon and me. ”

“ Before John reached Carsham it was so dark under Sir Henry Smith's large trees that he lighted his lantern, being afraid of missing Mary by the way. Long before he entered the town, he could hear the discordant noises and see the flashing lights of the fair. At the near end of the bridge his hurried steps were suddenly checked by Mary's rushing up to him and clasping her two hands round his arm.
"O John!" she said in a low voice, which trembled on the edge of a sob. "Oh, some good angel's brought you! Have you heard? have you met mother? what shall we do?" ”

“ On the face of the gentle proselyte at his side, it must be confessed, there was a fleeting, reminiscent smile.
“There are some things we cannot help, thee knows, John,” she was saying, “and it is our duty to bear these crosses with fortitude.” The reminiscent smile grew broader. “Thee was exactly right in what thee said about guile. But thee was also right in what thee said about goodness being as communicable as guile. This young man has not the highest kind of a reputation for gentleness. ”

“ That I will tell thee when I am something rested. But I am so weary with our journey that I scarce know how to frame my thoughts in fitting words. Yet I am glad to see thy face again, good John. I have been wearying long for a sight of thee."
"Thou art indeed sadly changed thyself, my cousin," said John. "In truth, men who go to these wars go with their lives in their hands. Was it on the glorious field of Crecy that thou receivedst some hurt? Sure thou hast been sore wounded. But thou shalt tell me all thy tale anon, when thou art something rested and refreshed." ”

“ John is a beast. The smokes were once few in these hills, The deer would lick the hand of a white man and the birds rest on his head. They were strangers to him. My fathers came from the shores of the salt lake. They fled before rum. They came to their grandfather, and they lived in peace; or, when they did raise the hatchet, it was to strike it into the brain of a Mingo. They gathered around the council fire, and what they said was done. Then John was a man. But warriors and traders with light eyes followed them. One brought the long knife and one brought rum. ”

“ John? But is he not a helpless invalid?"
"Physically he may be next door to it, but he is all powerful as to Benja. This codicil was dated the day subsequent to a visit George paid Castle Wafer at the close of winter, a long time after the will was made. Isaac St. John must have put him up to it that day. I will pay him out, if I live."
"Well, I can't tell why he should have done it," cried Mrs. Darling, who felt altogether puzzled. "He does not want the two thousand a-year; he is rich and an invalid. Did you question him of his motives, Charlotte? ”

“ But King John didn’t mind, any more than did he the high times of the traders along the beach. Everything went, so long as the taxes were paid. Even when his wife, Queen Mamare, elected to become a Baptist, and invited in a little, weazened, sweet-spirited, club-footed Baptist missionary, King John did not object. All he insisted on was that these wandering religions should be self-supporting and not feed a pennyworth’s out of the royal coffers. ”

“ John discovered, after a while, that every purchase was simply so much charity. And, thus far, they had lived proudly—with the wage-earner’s terror of dependence. One day one of his customers told him, brutally, about the insecurity of the baskets—and John 36decided at once that he must do something else.
“No, John,” said Betsy, “make baskets. But make them for play—not for use. For the school children. Their baskets do not need strong bottoms.” ”

“ The nobles viewed the increasing power of the chancellor with feelings of envy; and Earl John, the brother of Richard, who had long entertained designs upon the throne, perceived that his chances of success were small indeed so long as a man devoted to the king retained the supreme power in the realm. Some of the turbulent barons, to whom Longchamp had given cause of offence, attached themselves to John, and encouraged him in his ambitious schemes. ”

“ I am glad that you brought him, John. We needed a wolf-brother in our kingdom."
"But, Father! a wolf!" cried John, with a shudder. He had not forgotten the horror of his first night alone in the forest, and the long howl which had made him lose his senses. "Oh, will he not grow big and eat us up, my father? Yes; that was why Brutus acted so strangely. He knew it was no puppy, although I told him so."
"It is quite safe to keep him, John," said the Hermit. "We cannot turn him out to starve, for he is too young to care for himself. You will see to-morrow that he will play like any puppy. ”

“ Arrived at the big door, John pulled the bell, a twisted iron thing whose voice sounded faintly in some remote region. The door was opened, and John saw into the hall, dark and shadowed. He had a glimpse of bowls of roses, of a big straw hat [Pg 206] lying on a table, green chiffon around the crown. A pair of long crinkled gloves lay near it. So, for an instant, John stood, his foot ready to cross the threshold.
“Her ladyship is not at home.” The butler’s bland voice fell like a douche of cold water on John’s heart. ”

“ Jon used to call him the King. But I called him Parliament. I expect he was both.
Always, on the farm, one went to college to learn and the rest stayed at home to work—if there was more than one son in the family, as there always was. So it was since seventeen hundred and ten—when we first got the farm—so it was with my brother Henry, Evelyn's stepfather and me, and so it had to be with my sons Jonathan and David. Germans like to obey the ways of their ancestors from generation to generation. ”

“ And I saw that this, hard as it was for old Jon, was best—even for him. Yes, love is selfish. They didn't notice.
Finally, Jon was in the fields or the barn all the time and we saw almost nothing of him. I would take most of his meals out to him. And according to Jon, so that he might not disturb the rest of us, he would often stop at the barn and sleep with the hireland. At last he slept in the barn all the time—just, I think, so that Dave could be in his bed, and near Evelyn. At first I could hardly believe that Dave would let it go at that. ”

“ Hermit looked after them, and smiled.
"John is a good boy," he said. "One day he will be a fine man. May the Saints help me to make him worthy of his father and of the name he bears." Then he turned to his beloved book.
John and Brutus went merrily through the forest, the boy singing under his breath snatches of the cheerful hymns that he and the Hermit loved. The dog ran ahead, exploring in the bushes, sometimes disappearing for long minutes at a time, but ever returning to rub his nose in John's hand and exchange a silent word with him. ”

“ I found that John was still resolved on an immediate return to England. His weakness, it is true, led me to entertain doubts as to how he would support so long a journey; but at the same time I did not feel justified in using any strong efforts to dissuade him from his purpose. I reflected that the more wholesome air and associations of England would certainly re-invigorate both body and mind, and that any extra strain brought about by the journey would soon be repaired by the comforts and watchful care with which we could surround him at Worth Maltravers. ”

“ Long who was on her other side. These things indeed were not the finest point of my companion's communication, for I saw that what she felt I would be really interested in was the fact that Mr. Long had brought in Lady John, who was naturally, therefore, his other neighbour. Beyond Lady John was Mr. Obert, and beyond Mr. Obert Mrs. Froome, not, for a wonder, this time paired, as by the immemorial tradition, so fairly comical in its candour, with Lord Lutley. Wasn't it too funny, the kind of grandmotherly view of their relation shown in their always being put together? ”

“ John's mother was not the only person who found the village a different place when he was away. The farmers for a long way round would not let any one else shoe their horses, and grumbled mightily; the old vicar missed his fine bass voice on Sunday in the choir; there was nobody else who would pick up a small child in the road and carry it on his shoulder, safe and triumphant above its companions, yet a little frightened at finding itself so high in the air. ”