Tibbs

“ Tibbs, introduced apparently at haphazard, but at once taking possession of us by its quaint relief, that we find Goldsmith showing a firmer hand in character-drawing. With a few happy dramatic touches Mr. Tibbs starts into life; he speaks for himself; he becomes one of the people whom we know. And yet, with this concise and sharp portraiture of a human being, look at the graceful, almost garrulous, ease of the style: [57] —
"Our pursuer soon came up and joined us with all the familiarity of an old acquaintance. ”

“ The boarders were seated, a lady and gentleman alternately, like the layers of bread and meat in a plate of sandwiches; and then Mrs. Tibbs directed James to take off the covers. Salmon, lobster-sauce, giblet-soup, and the usual accompaniments were discovered: potatoes like petrifactions, and bits of toasted bread, the shape and size of blank dice.
‘Soup for Mrs. Maplesone, my dear,’ said the bustling Mrs. Tibbs. She always called her husband ‘my dear’ before company. ”

“ Tibbs thought of the volunteer story, but did not venture it.
A bright thought struck him -
‘It’s very likely—’ said he.
‘Pray don’t lean your head against the paper,’ interrupted Mrs. Tibbs; ‘and don’t put your feet on the steel fender; that’s worse.’
Tibbs took his head from the paper, and his feet from the fender, and proceeded. ‘It’s very likely one of the young ladies may set her cap at young Mr. Simpson, and you know a marriage—’
‘A what!’ shrieked Mrs. Tibbs. Tibbs modestly repeated his former suggestion. ”

“ Mrs. Tibbs was, beyond all dispute, the most tidy, fidgety, thrifty little personage that ever inhaled the smoke of London; and the house of Mrs. Tibbs was, decidedly, the neatest in all Great Coram-street. The area and the area-steps, and the street-door and the street-door steps, and the brass handle, and the door-plate, and the knocker, and the fan-light, were all as clean and bright, as indefatigable white-washing, and hearth-stoning, and scrubbing and rubbing, could make them. The wonder was, that the brass door-plate, with the interesting inscription ‘Mrs. ”

“ The result, however, was, that three gentlemen became inmates of Mrs. Tibbs’s house, on terms which were ‘agreeable to all parties.’ In went the advertisement again, and a lady with her two daughters, proposed to increase—not their families, but Mrs. Tibbs’s.
‘Charming woman, that Mrs. Maplesone!’ said Mrs. Tibbs, as she and her spouse were sitting by the fire after breakfast; the gentlemen having gone out on their several avocations. ‘Charming woman, indeed!’ repeated little Mrs. Tibbs, more by way of soliloquy than anything else, for she never thought of consulting her husband. ”

“ But I can't forgive you for Jack."
"Awf'ly severe," said Tibbs, with downcast eyes—"awf'ly."
"Stand up," said Beauling.
Tibbs arose. Beauling took him by the shoulders and turned him around.
"I'm very much bigger and stronger than you," said Beauling, "and I shall never take much pride in what I am going to do—hold still!"
"What you going do, Beauling?" said Tibbs, uneasily.
"Tibbs," said Beauling, "I'm going to give myself the personal satisfaction of kicking you just once as hard as I can." ”

“ Tibbs is laboriously seeing his second shirt through the washing tub. After all, there may be more true philosophy in the cheerfulness of little Tibbs than in the querulous grumbling of greater men on whom the keen wind of adversity blows and who shout vociferous complaints as they shiver in the keen blast. Beau Tibbs' hilarious cheerfulness is, after all, but an exaggerated phase of the equanimity of the "Man in Black."
Jack Spindle rejected by Miss Jenny Dismal.
It was a day in the poet's life to be marked with a white stone when he made the acquaintance of Johnson. ”

“ Tibbs, ‘see about the meat.’ This was conveyed in the tone in which ladies usually give admonitions to servants in company, that is to say, a low one; but which, like a stage whisper, from its peculiar emphasis, is most distinctly heard by everybody present.
A pause ensued, before the table was replenished—a sort of parenthesis in which Mr. Simpson, Mr. Calton, and Mr. Hicks, produced respectively a bottle of sauterne, bucellas, and sherry, and took wine with everybody—except Tibbs. No one ever thought of him. ”

“ As the ice was now broken, and the new inmates more at home, every member of the company felt more at ease. Tibbs himself most certainly did, because he went to sleep immediately after dinner. Mr. Hicks and the ladies discoursed most eloquently about poetry, and the theatres, and Lord Chesterfield’s Letters; and Mr. Calton followed up what everybody said, with continuous double knocks. Mrs. Tibbs highly approved of every observation that fell from Mrs. ”

“ A cable sent to Tibbs at his supposed address had met with no acknowledgment, but still the wife said, "Won't you go, Tom? I know he's there—won't you?" What it must cost a man on the home trail to double and go back did not occur to her. ”

“ Bred up as she had been, she knew no mode of living so agreeable as a boarding-house: and having nothing to do, and nothing to wish for, she naturally imagined she must be ill—an impression which was most assiduously promoted by her medical attendant, Dr. Wosky, and her handmaid Agnes: both of whom, doubtless for good reasons, encouraged all her extravagant notions.
Since the catastrophe recorded in the last chapter, Mrs. Tibbs had been very shy of young-lady boarders. ”

“ As for the Black Cat, it had scuttled up the chimney as soon as the children appeared, and was seen no more.
“But Oi know the Keeper of the Castle,” said Biddy-be-sure, going back to her former conversation, “and Oi jist smoile at him, and look at him wid me little eye, and ‘Bedad,’ he’ll say, ‘Biddy-be-sure, [Pg 147] ye can go up and come down a hundred toimes a day, if ye’ve a moind, for jist such another smoile as that, bedad!’”
“Come on, let’s start at once!” suggested Tibbs, who did not want to run the risk of being kissed. “We’ve no time to spare.” ”

“ Lissa looked out at three o’clock, to see the sky overcast with clouds, and large scattering flakes of snow floating about in the chill air. At the same moment Donald rode up from the stables on the back of his favorite horse, Duke, a large, powerful animal, of great intelligence and endurance.
“I am going over to Mark’s, Lissa,” he cried, “to see if Tibby has returned. Within a half hour it will be impossible to see a rod ahead of one. If that wilful girl should attempt to start back in the face of the storm, as she is almost sure to do, she can never get home alone. ”

“ I can sound Tibby’s praises by day and night. One feels them ever when not looking at her.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Cramer, “we have very few young men here. None of much account, except Donald Bartram. He is nice, and entirely eligible, so you need not fear him. The girl is remarkably attractive.”
Tibby Waring had indeed become an important element in Mr. Wylie’s household. Every one liked her, from Robbie, who was restless and uneasy in 214her absence, to Grandma Wylie, who, when she made her annual visits, insisted that Tibby was better than a doctor to relieve her aches and rheumatic pains. ”

“ Sol Garrett waited to come in with Lissa Bartram, and three or four others soon followed them. They all started back at the sight of the sleeping Professor, and looked at one another inquiringly.
“Too much spirits,” said Tibby audaciously.
“Why, you don’t say? Has he been drinking?” queried Auntie Dearborn in a loud whisper.
“No, he’s overcome by spirits, but not of that kind,” Donald said.
“A stronger spirit than his own controls him,” added Mrs. Wylie.
“Strong spirits are always dangerous,” giggled Tibby in an aside to Donald.
“Weak ones are more so,” he replied in the same tone. ”

“ Tibby hears the detonation answered by a fainter sound at their left.
“We are all right, child. Alice is signaling us. Try and hold out a little longer.” And Tibby feels the motion of the horse as it sways beneath her, and is dimly conscious of a sense of warmth and relief unutterable. And she forgets the storm, the danger, the oppression of death which was upon her, and sinks away into a half-sleeping state, from which she is aroused only when, at the door of Mark’s home, Donald lifts her from the saddle and carries her into shelter somewhere. ”

“ To-day he had claimed Tibby for a ride to the post, and as they came cantering slowly along the soft gray turf, Tibby with her riding-hat tipped back from her wide, smooth forehead, her feline eyes half closed from the sun’s bright rays, her dark hair partly escaped from comb and pin, and fluttering in curled rings about her face, her red lips half parted above the white teeth, she looked to the man a disheveled Hebe, too adorable, too incomprehensible to withstand. ”

“ Tibby is not ill-bred. Her parents were quite superior people, if they did live on a farm. Tibby boasts that her mother was a Devereaux, grand-niece to an earl,” said Mrs. Wylie, laughing.
“The little minx! She has pride enough, no doubt, and who cannot boast of ancestors in America! She certainly is a bright girl, and has a remarkably pretty face. She cannot fail to attract attention, especially as you treat her like a younger sister, rather than like a servant. It is really unfortunate for her that she is so unlike the ordinary maid.” ”

“ Tibby asked.
“Yes,” he nodded, “it is true.”
“Well, I swan!” said Solomon Garrett. “If this don’t beat all creation! Has that man been foolin’ us all this time, or is he dancin’ with spirits himself.”
251“He is controlled by this lady here. There is nothing supernatural about it,” replied Donald. “She controls him, as he has us, many times, making us see and believe what had no existence. Miss Waring will make him see things not here.” He looked at Tibby.
“Professor, Mark Cramer is standing over you with a horse-whip. Look out, he is going to strike you!” ”

“ Wylie, how lovely it is to breathe freely again,” she murmured as, after removing her wraps with the dust and stain of travel, she stood, later in the day, outside the cabin door and watched the red sun touch the prairie’s distant rim.
“Yes, Tibby, you will be a child again with all these country wilds about you. You will have chickens, cows, and horses to your heart’s content. Mark, do you remember how we youngsters used to go out to grandpa’s?” ”

“ Tibby, blinded by the storm, and forced to ride with her head bent forward and down, felt her faithful beast stop and whirl half around as a furious blast, chill as the arctic snows, struck them. The icy flakes cut into her flesh like splinters of steel as she lifted her face to look about her. She could see nothing except the whirling deluge of white enveloping her. She was lost, lost.
“O Tempest, good Tempest!” she wailed, “can you see the path no longer? Will not your instincts guide you home? Try again, Tempest! Alas, I 302know not which way to turn you! But go, Tempest, go! ”

“ It really seemed as if Tibby made him fall. You can imagine her delight at his mishap.”
“That is the way of womankind,” said Mr. Wylie, smiling. “They laugh at our downfalls, unless we drag them down with us, which we’re apt to do. Tibby is no exception; but seriously, do not pet her too much, or she may forget what is due to her position in life. She must not appear impertinent.” ”

“ Wylie never tell you what a good doctor I am? I can always cure her headaches in a moment. May I try upon you?”
Mrs. Bartram signified her assent, and Tibby stepped to her side and began to rub her head, talking the while in her low, rich tones.
“You are to stop thinking about anything and let your head rest easily against the back of the chair. I will take the pain here and carry it away on the ends of my fingers—so. Ah, you are beginning to feel better already. The pain is going, now almost gone—now it is gone. Isn’t it? I do not think it will trouble you any more.”
Lissa smiled. ”

“ But Tibby’s eyes are half-closed, and she sees beyond her own reflection the plain family room at the farm-house, with its bright rag-carpet on the floor and its chintz-covered chairs. She sees her gray-haired father dozing in his chair tilted back against the wall, with his hands clasped before him. She sees Tom sleeping, stretched out upon the old, green-covered lounge. She sees little Bess and Ted in their night-gowns scampering up the closed-in stairway to their beds. Ah, she is not there to give them their good-night kiss when they have repeated their “Now I lay me down to sleep.” ”

“ Good creature! She tried to pat his neck with her numb fingers. His voice was stronger than hers. Hark! Is that an answering neigh borne to her? She cannot shout, for her voice is spent; but Tempest, good Tempest, is calling for her. She clings with desperate grip to his mane. Is that a voice coming out of the darkness of the snow-world? A roar, deeper than the roar of the storm, sounds in her ears, and she feels herself sinking, sinking, down, down.
“Tibby, Tibby!”
She hears a voice at her side and Donald is clasping 305her and enveloping her in something woolen and warm. ”

“ But when Tibby behaved worst there lurked a smile of conscious power in the unrevealed depths of Donald’s gray eyes, much to the girl’s vexation and discomfiture, while he remained outwardly unruffled. He had entered the race to win, and his nature was buoyant and strong. Why need he be discouraged? Physically strong, handsome, and athletic, he was possessed of average ability, enjoyed a good income, and his future looked promising. ”

“ Soon he came to a tall grassy place where he heard a queer sound.
“‘Tina, do you hear?’ asked Tibby.
“‘Yes, brother, what is it?’
“‘No time to ask—run, Tina!’ cried Tibby, and the two made a mighty leap just in time to escape [89] a quail that pounced down upon the tiny toads and gobbled one quickly out of sight.
“‘It was Clumsy that disappeared!’ sighed Tina, all sympathy for the awkward little toad that could not escape death.
“‘Watch out for other assassins! We know not where the next may lurk,’ whispered Tibby, for he was poetical as well as practical, you see. ”