Uncle Daniel

“ Wilson came into the room, and Uncle Daniel took her on his knee and kissed her, saying:
“Jennie, you are my all and only hope, save my poor grandson, that I now have left. My time will soon come, however, when I can quietly quit this world of trouble and care and find a home where works will have due consideration; where those who serve in the army of the Lord will at least be considered the equal of those who have been in rebellion against him. ”

“ During this time no man ever suffered more in spirit. I can see it all before me now: my poor wife's agony, the sorrowing of David's widow, Mary Anderson's trouble, the two poor little children—their questions about their Uncle Stephen, who killed him, and why? These questions I could not answer.”
At this point Dr. Adams inquired if Gen. Rosenfelt ever expressed any regret at not listening to the information imparted to him on the morning of the battle.
“No, sir; I did not so understand.”
“Uncle Daniel, did you know anything of Mrs. Houghton after this?” ”

“ While we lie tumbling in the hay.”
“Uncle Tim! Uncle Tim!” shouted the mercurial little Drysalter, and up he started as if he had been galvanised, scampered out of the room, made but one leap from the top of the stairs to the bottom, descended à plomb, was up again before we had recovered from our surprise, and introduced a middle-aged, rosy-faced gentleman, “more fat than bard beseems,” with a perforating eye and a most satirical nose. “Uncle Timothy, gentlemen.—A friend or two, (if I may presume to call them so,) Uncle Timothy, that I have fallen in with most unexpectedly and agreeably.” ”

“ Just because Uncle Daniel chose to have a little fun with you, you all behave like bears with sore heads.
(Bobbie and Oliver re-sit and continue eating.)
Evangeline. Uncle Daniel meant every word he said, mother. He hasn't got a penny in the world.
Mrs. Dermott. Nonsense, Evangeline. How do you suppose he could get backwards and forwards to America and send me large cheques and things?
Joyce. He wins a little from time to time by horse-racing.
Mrs. Dermott. Rubbish. No one can ever win at horse-racing. I never did. The bookies and jockeys and people don't let you. ”

“ Uncle Timothy proposed a glass round; and to make up for lost time (in a libation to mountebanks) , tumblers for the mutes.
“Our nephew is fat, and scant of breath we will give him a few minutes to recruit. Marma-duke Merripall, I call upon you for a song.”
“An excellent call! Uncle Timothy,” shouted Deputy Doublechin.
Up jumped Borax Bumps, Esq. and running his shoulder of mutton palms with scientific velocity over the curly-wigged cranium of the comical coffin-maker, he emphatically pronounced the “organ of tune” to exhibit a musical Pelion among its intellectual nodosities. ”

“ I think mother is rather mixing up North and South America; they don't have such awful hardships where Uncle Daniel comes from.
(Enter Oliver from hall; he is a thick-set, determined-looking man
of twenty-five.) ”

“ Poor little girl!—Dan'l was much too small and thin. Old man Daniel gazed down at her anxiously.
“Jest as soon as the nice fall weather comes,” said he, “uncle is going to take you down to the village real often, and you can get acquainted with some other nice little girls and play with them, and that will do uncle's little Dan'l good.”
“I saw little Lucy Rose,” piped the child, “and she looked at me real pleasant, and Lily Jennings wore a pretty dress. Would they play with me, uncle?”
“Of course they would. You don't feel quite so hot, here, do you?” ”

“ To chronicle the “Painful Peregrinations” of Uncle Timothy through this livelong day, would exhibit him, like “Patience,” not sitting “on a monument, smiling at grief,” but lolling in Mr. Bosky's britschka, laughing (in his sleeve!) at the strange peculiarities of the Muffs, and listening with mild endurance to the unaccountable antipathies of Mrs. Flumgarten. Now the Fubsys might be called, par excellence, a prudent family.
And Prudence is a nymph we much admire,
She loves to aid the hypocrite and liar,
Helping poor rascals through the mire,
Whom filth and infamy begrime ”

“ CHAPTER X. Give me a woman as old as Hecuba, or as ugly as Caifacaratadaddera, rather than Mrs. Flumgarten! Were the annoyance confined to herself, I should cry, 'Content,'—for she who sows nettles and thorns is entitled to reap a stinging and prickly harvest. Ill temper should ride quarantine, and have a billet de santé, before it is let loose upon society.”
These were among the ruminations of Uncle Timothy as he sauntered homeward through the green fields. ”

“ He listened with becoming seriousness to the musician's expostulation, slyly reserving in the corner of his jaw a nut that he deferred to crack till opportunity should offer. But at the threat of losing his red waistcoat, he gibbered, chattered, and by every species of pantomimical begging and bowing, promised future amendment.
Had not the mind of Uncle Timothy been too much occupied with recent events, he would have scraped acquaintance with monkey and man, who were evidently eccentrics, and Uncle Tim was a lover of eccentricity. ”

“ We want you here on the farm,' I said. 'We are all very much distressed, but, at the same time, we must look out for our country somewhat; and our family all being in the army, of course we must expect some misfortunes. Have you heard any more of the Golden Circle in this neighborhood?'
“'Yes, Uncle Daniel; they are at work, and since the defeat of our forces at the battle of Pageland, they are outspoken about what they intend to do ”

“ Daniel smiled faintly.
"You've no idea, Uncle Teddy, that you are twitting on facts; but you hit the truth there; indeed, you do. If she were a Greek or Latin woman I could talk Anacreon or Horace to her. If women only understood the philosophy of the flowers as well as they do the poetry—"
"Thank God they don't, Daniel!" ”

“ He not fool dis old 'oinan; he neber do. Ham, he dream 'bout dat when he down to de fight. He say he sick when dey fight. How is dat, Uncle Daniel? Did Marsa Tom tell you? Was he sick? He awful coward, Ham is, but if he sick, den all right; but when he not been sick he must stay wid Marsa Gen'l to keep he things all right. Ham say he do dat. I 'spect he do; he say so.'
“We told Aunt Martha that Ham was all right, and that pleased her, poor old woman. She was pure gold; God never made a better heart under any white skin than she had under her black one. ”

“ He felt sometimes that the men at mine, mill, or ranch looked him over with misgiving, and had their cautious liking compelled only by the assurance that he was indeed the son of Daniel. They left him at these times with the suspicion that this bare fact meant enough with them to carry a man of infelicitous exterior.
He was pleased, moreover, to feel a new respect for Uncle Peter. He observed that men of all degrees looked up to him, sought and relied upon his judgment; the investing capitalist whom they met not less than the mine foreman; the made man and the labourer. ”

“ The man who had made the losing trade in peanuts seemed disposed to question the boy still further, probably owing to the fact that he had nothing better to do.
“Who is this Uncle Daniel you say you live with? Is he a farmer?”
“No; he's a deacon, an' he raps me over the head with the hymn book whenever I go to sleep in meetin', an' he says I eat four times as much as I earn. I blame him for hittin' so hard when I go to sleep, but I s'pose he's right about my eatin'. You see,” and here his tone grew both confidential and mournful, “I am an awful eater, an' I can't seem to help it. ”

“ I wait for nobody. Will you, sir,” politely addressing the lean man, “do me the favour to be my guest? Though I have ordered supper for two, I cannot command appetite for two.”
The lean man stared irresolutely at Uncle Timothy. Hunger and Pride were at fisticuffs; but Hunger hit pride such a blow in the stomach, that Pride gave up the contest. ”

“ There has been melancholy in his mirth, and sadness in his song; this, he well knows, cuts me to the quick; and it is not until he is angry,—or, rather” (smiling affectionately at Uncle Tim) “until he thinks himself so,”— (here Uncle Tim gave Mr. Bosky one of his blandest looks) “that he is 'cockered and spirited up,' and the cloud passes away. What do I not owe to my more than father?”
Uncle Timothy got enormously fidgety; he beat Lucifer's tattoo with his right leg, and began fumbling in both waistcoat pockets for his snuffbox. ”

“ I don’t wonder my uncle compares him to a burr, a sting-nettle, and a hedgehog. I’m sure he’s been nothing but a plague to everybody, ever since he came here. I’m glad he’s gone, anyhow. And yet, poor fellow, I pity him. ”

“ It was his blithesome note that first made us acquainted with Uncle Timothy!
The remembrance of boyhood is ever pleasing to the reflective mind. The duties that await us in after-life; the cares and disappointments that obstruct our future progress cast a shade over those impressions that were once interwoven with our existence. ”

“ Flour, currants—— (She goes over to the workshop door and listens) —raisins— (A sound as of a blast blowing can be heard. Mary becomes intensely interested, and, throwing aside the book, kneels down and puts her head to the keyhole.) He's actually got something to work. (She peeps in.) He has, indeed. (She laughs, knocks loudly at the door, and then runs to the other side of the kitchen. Daniel opens the door and cautiously peeps out.) Uncle Danny! Ha! Ha! Uncle Danny! (Dancing up and down in front of the fireplace.) Uncle Dan's a wonderful man! Uncle Dan's a wonderful man! ”

“ The attorney then took both their depositions in form; after which, John and his wife went home with Mr. David's uncle, and were to stay there till the affair was finished.
The poor young man, with this fresh disturbance of his mind, was grown worse, and thought to be in danger of losing his life; but by the great care of the old gentleman he soon recovered. The uncle's next design was to go to Daniel, and endeavour by all means to bring him to reasonable terms, and to prevail on him to submit himself to his brother's discretion. ”

“ However, he resolved to settle on Daniel an annuity for life to keep him from want; and if he should ever by his extravagance fall into distress, to relieve him, though he should not know from whom it came; but he thought it better not to see him again, for he dared not venture that trial.
David desired his uncle would let him live with him, that he might take care of him in his old age; and make as much return as possible for his generous, good-natured treatment of him in his distress. This request was easily granted; his company being the greatest pleasure the old man could enjoy. ”

“ Uncle Dan. (She goes over close beside him.) Wasn't it good of Alick? He went away to Ballyannis Post Office to get that telegram sent.
Daniel. A very decent fellow, Alick. (Gratefully.) Very obliging.
Mary (confidingly) . Do you know, uncle, when he went off to send that telegram I was nearly calling him back. I don't care so very much now whether I see that boy you were telling me about or not. Is he—do you think, uncle—is he much nicer than Alick?
Daniel. Nicer? (He looks at his niece, and then [Pg 33] begins to divine the way her feelings lie.) ”

“ Place us above the sordid vulgar; light us on that enviable medium between competency and riches, and there we shall find the domestic virtues flourishing in full vigour and grace. In the rank hotbed of artificial life spring up those noxious weeds that choke and destroy them.
We now arrived at Uncle Timothy's cottage, reared in the midst of a flower garden. In a summer-house fragrant with roses, woodbine, and jessamine sat our host and the good pastor. ”

“ I wish I was good all the time, but, as Uncle Morris says, it is so much easier to do wrong than it is to do right. I can’t tell you how much I love our dear uncle, for he is always helping me to be good. He says a good heart is God’s gift, and that we must ask him to give it to us for the sake of his dear Son. Well, I ask for a good heart three times every day, and if you do so too, God will hear you and bless you.
What do you think? Yesterday I found a poor girl named Madge in the road near the pump at the four corners. ”

“ Uncle Timothy was the last person in the world to flout a threadbare coat, because it is threadbare, or take a man for a sharper because he happens to be sharp-witted or sharp-set. Your full-fed fool he thought quite as likely to have nefarious designs on his purse, as the hungry humorist who at once lets you into the secret of his starvation. ”

“ The hawk did, indeed, catch my chicken on the day that she was pleased. Do you understand my proverb, now, Jessie?”
“Yes, Uncle, but what shall I do?”
“Do, my child? There is only one way by which any of us can escape from the chains of evil. Confess your sin to God, ask his forgiveness for the Great Shepherd’s sake, and apologize to your friends for giving them pain.” ”

“ Uncle Timothy and his company being now upon terms, he ordered in biscuits for the monkeys, and buns for the bears; not forgetting some nuts for his friend, who waited for the musician's nod before he cracked one of them. He then inquired of the bear-ward what his four-footed companion would like to drink? Upon which the keeper consulted his oracle, and received for reply, that a jug of homebrewed, with a toast and sugar, would be supremely acceptable! Uncle Timothy started, conceiving Bruin to have suddenly become possessed of Balaam's miraculous quality: but the mystery was soon explained ”