Eben Holden: A Tale of the North Country

  Chapter 17

  If I were writing a novel merely I should try to fill it with merrimentand good cheer. I should thrust no sorrow upon the reader save thathe might feel for having wasted his time. We have small need ofmanufactured sorrow when, truly, there is so much of the real thing onevery side of us. But this book is nothing more nor less than a history,and by the same token it cannot be all as I would have wished it.In October following the events of the last chapter, Gerald died ofconsumption, having borne a lingering illness with great fortitude.I, who had come there a homeless orphan in a basket, and who, with theGod-given eloquence of childhood had brought them to take me to theirhearts and the old man that was with me as well, was now the only sonleft to Elizabeth and David Brower. There were those who called it follyat the time they took us in, I have heard, but he who shall read thishistory to the end shall see how that kind of folly may profit one oreven many here in this hard world.

  It was a gloomy summer for all of us. The industry and patience withwhich Hope bore her trial, night and day, is the sweetest recollectionof my youth. It brought to her young face a tender soberness ofwomanhood--a subtle change of expression that made her all the more dearto me. Every day, rain or shine, the old doctor had come to visit hispatient, sometimes sitting an hour and gazing thoughtfully in his face,occasionally asking a question, or telling a quaint anecdote. And thencame the end.

  The sky was cold and grey in the late autumn and the leaves were drifteddeep in the edge of the woodlands when Hope and I went away to schooltogether at Hillsborough. Uncle Eb drove us to our boarding place intown. When we bade him goodbye and saw him driving away, alone in thewagon, we hardly dared look at each other for the tears in our eyes.

  David Brower had taken board for us at the house of one SolomonRollin--universally known as 'Cooky' Rollin; that was one of the firstthings I learned at the Academy. It seemed that many years ago he hadtaken his girl to a dance and offered her, in lieu of supper, cookiesthat he had thoughtfully brought with him. Thus cheaply he had come tolife-long distinction.

  'You know Rollin's Ancient History, don't you?' the young man asked whosat with me at school that first day.

  'Have it at home,' I answered, 'It's in five volumes.'

  'I mean the history of Sol Rollin, the man you are boarding with,' saidhe smiling at me and then he told the story of the cookies.

  The principal of the Hillsborough Academy was a big, brawny bachelor ofScotch descent, with a stem face and cold, grey, glaring eyes. When hestood towering above us on his platform in the main room of the buildingwhere I sat, there was an alertness in his figure, and a look ofresponsibility in his face, that reminded me of the pictures of Napoleonat Waterloo. He always carried a stout ruler that had blistered a shankof every mischievous boy in school. As he stood by the line, that camemarching into prayers every morning he would frequently pull out a boy,administer a loud whack or two, shake him violently and force him into aseat. The day I began my studies at the Academy I saw him put two dentsin the wall with the heels of a young man who had failed in his algebra.To a bashful and sensitive youth, just out of a country home, the sightof such violence was appalling. My first talk with him, however, renewedmy courage. He had heard I was a good scholar and talked with me in afriendly way about my plans. Both Hope and I were under him inalgebra and Latin. I well remember my first error in his class. I hadmisconstrued a Latin sentence. He looked at me, a smile and a sneercrowding each other for possession of his face. In a loud, jeering tonehe cried: 'Mirabile dictu!'

  I looked at him in doubt of his meaning.

  'Mirabile dictu!' he shouted, his tongue trilling the r.

  I corrected my error.

  'Perfect!' he cried again. 'Puer pulchre! Next!'

  He never went further than that with me in the way of correction. Mysize and my skill as a wrestler, that shortly ensured for me the respectof the boys, helped me to win the esteem of the master. I learned mylessons and kept out of mischief. But others of equal proficiency werenot so fortunate. He was apt to be hard on a light man who could behandled without over-exertion.

  Uncle Eb came in to see me one day and sat awhile with me in my seat.While he was there the master took a boy by the collar and almostliterally wiped the blackboard with him. There was a great clatter ofheels for a moment. Uncle Eb went away shortly and was at Sol Rollin'swhen I came to dinner.

  'Powerful man ain't he?' said Uncle Eb.

  'Rather,' I said.

  'Turned that boy into a reg'lar horse fiddle,' he remarked. 'Must 'aveunsot his reason.'

  'Unnecessary!' I said.

  'Reminded me o' the time 'at Tip Taylor got his tooth pulled,' said he.'Shook 'im up so 'at he thought he'd had his neck put out o' ji'nt.'

  Sol Rollin was one of my studies that winter. He was a carpenter bytrade and his oddities were new and delightful. He whistled as heworked, he whistled as he read, he whistled right merrily as he walkedup and down the streets--a short, slight figure with a round boyish faceand a fringe of iron-grey hair under his chin. The little man had onebig passion--that for getting and saving. The ancient thrift of his racehad pinched him small and narrow as a foot is stunted by a tight shoe.His mind was a bit out of register as we say in the printing business.His vocabulary was rich and vivid and stimulating.

  'Somebody broke into the arsenic today,' he announced, one evening, atthe supper table.

  'The arsenic,' said somebody, 'what arsenic?'

  'Why the place where they keep the powder,' he answered.

  'Oh! the arsenal.'

  'Yes, the arsenal,' he said, cackling with laughter at his error. Thenhe grew serious.

  'Stole all the ambition out of it,' he added.

  'You mean ammunition, don't you, Solomon?' his wife enquired.

  'Certainly,' said he, 'wasn't that what I said.'

  When he had said a thing that met his own approval Sol Rollin wouldcackle most cheerfully and then crack a knuckle by twisting a finger.His laugh was mostly out of register also. It had a sad lack ofrelevancy. He laughed on principle rather than provocation. Some sort ofsecret comedy of which the world knew nothing, was passing in his mind;it seemed to have its exits and its entrances, its villain, its clownand its miser who got all the applause.

  While working his joy was unconfined. Many a time I have sat and watchedhim in his little shop, its window dim with cobwebs. Sometimes he wouldstop whistling and cackle heartily as he worked his plane or drew hispencil to the square. I have even seen him drop his tools and give hisundivided attention to laughter. He did not like to be interrupted--heloved his own company the best while he was 'doin' business'. I went oneday when he was singing the two lines and their quaint chorus which wasall he ever sang in my hearing; which gave him great relief, I have nodoubt, when lip weary with whistling:

  Sez I 'Dan'l Skinner, I thank yer mighty mean To send me up the river, With a sev'n dollar team' Lul-ly, ul--ly, diddie ul--ly, diddleul--lydee, Oh, lul-ly, ul--ly, diddle ul--ly, diddle ul--ly dee.

  'Mr Rollin!' I said.

  Yes siree,' said he, pausing in the midst of his chorus to look up atme.

  'Where can I get a piece of yellow pine?'

  'See 'n a minute,' he said. Then he continued his sawing and his song,'"Says I Dan Skinner, I thank yer mighty mean"--what d' ye want it fer?'he asked stopping abruptly.

  'Going to make a ruler,' I answered.

  '"T' sen' me up the river with a seven dollar team,"' he went on,picking out a piece of smooth planed lumber, and handing it to me.

  'How much is it worth?' I enquired.

  He whistled a moment as he surveyed it carefully.

  ''Bout one cent,' he answered seriously.

  I handed him the money and sat down awhile to watch him as he went onwith his work. It was the cheapest amusement I have yet enjoyed. IndeedSol Rollin became a dissipation, a subtle and seductive habit that grewupon me and on one pretext or another I went every Saturday to the shopif I had not gone home.

  'What ye g
oin' t' be?'

  He stopped his saw, and looked at me, waiting for my answer.

  At last the time had come when I must declare myself and I did.

  'A journalist,' I replied.

  'What's that?' he enquired curiously.

  'An editor,' I said.

  'A printer man?'

  'A printer man.'

  'Huh!' said he. 'Mebbe I'll give ye a job. Sairey tol' me I'd orter t''ave some cards printed. I'll want good plain print: Solomon Rollin,Cappenter 'n J'iner, Hillsborough, NY--soun's putty good don't it.'

  'Beautiful,' I answered.

  'I'll git a big lot on 'em,' he said. 'I'll want one for Sister Susan'at's out in Minnesoty--no, I guess I'll send 'er tew, so she can giveone away--an' one fer my brother, Eliphalet, an' one apiece fer my threecousins over 'n Vermont, an' one fer my Aunt Mirandy. Le's see-tew an'one is three an' three is six an' one is seven. Then I'll git a fewstruck off fer the folks here--guess they'll thank I'm gittin' up 'n theworld.'

  He shook and snickered with anticipation of the glory of it. Pure vanityinspired him in the matter and it had in it no vulgar consideration ofbusiness policy. He whistled a lively tune as he bent to his work again.

  'Yer sister says ye're a splendid scholar!' said he. 'Hear'n 'erbraggin' 'bout ye t'other night; she thinks a good deal o' her brother,I can tell ye. Guess I know what she's gain' t' give ye Crissmus.'

  'What's that?' I asked, with a curiosity more youthful than becoming.

  'Don't ye never let on,' said he.

  'Never,' said I.

  'Hear'n 'em tell,' he said,' 'twas a gol' lockup, with 'er pictur' init.'

  'Oh, a locket!' I exclaimed.

  'That's it,' he replied, 'an' pure gol', too.'

  I turned to go.

  'Hope she'll grow up a savin' woman,' he remarked. ''Fraid she won'tnever be very good t' worlt.'

  'Why not?' I enquired.

  'Han's are too little an' white,' he answered.

  'She won't have to,' I said.

  He cackled uproariously for a moment, then grew serious.

  'Her father's rich,' he said, 'the richest man o' Faraway, an Iguess she won't never hev anything t' dew but set'n sing an' play themelodium.'

  'She can do as she likes,' I said.

  He stood a moment looking down as if meditating on the delights he hadpictured.

  'Gol!' he exclaimed suddenly.

  My subject had begun to study me, and I came away to escape furtherexamination.