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Title: Left to Themselves Being the Ordeal of Philip and Gerald Author: Edward Irenæus Stevenson Release Date: May 23, 2018 [EBook #57203] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEFT TO THEMSELVES *** Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) cover LEFT TO THEMSELVES BEING THE ORDEAL OF PHILIP AND GERALD BY EDWARD IRENÆUS STEVENSON Author of “The Golden Moon,” “White Cockades,” “Janus,” etc. NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & STOWE 1891 Copyright, 1891, by HUNT & EATON, New York. A TO H. Harkness Flagler THIS VIGNETTE OF THE BEGINNING OF AN EARLY AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP IS INSCRIBED ΑΘ. τοιγὰρ κατὰ χθόν’ οὖσ’ ἐπικτήσει φίλους.—Æschylus. PREFACE. preface to a little book of this sort is an anomaly. Consequently it should be understood the sooner that these fore- words are not intended for any boys or girls that take up Left to Themselves. It is solely for the benefit of the adult reader led by curiosity or carefulness to open the book. The young reader will use his old privilege and skip it. It was lately observed, with a good deal of truth, that childhood and youth in their relations to literature are modern discoveries. To compare reading for the boys or girls of to-day with that purveyed even twenty-five years ago, in quantity and quality, is a trite superfluity. But it has begun to look as if catering to this discovery of what young minds relish and of what they absorb has gone incautiously far. There exists a good measure of forgetfulness that children, after all is said, are little men and little women, with hearts and heads, as well as merely imaginations to be tickled. Undoubtedly these last must be stirred in the story. But there is always a large element of the young reading public to whom character in fiction, and a definite idea of human nature through fiction, and the impression of downright personality through fiction, are the main interests —perhaps unconsciously—and work a charm and influence good or bad in a very high degree. A child does not always live in and care for the eternal story, story, story, incident, incident, incident, of literature written for him. There are plenty of philosophers not yet arrived at tail-coats or long frocks. They sit in the corners of the library or school-room. They think out and feel the personality in narrative deeply. This element, apart from incident, in a story means far more to impress and hold and mold than what happens. Indeed, in the model story for young readers—one often says it, but often does not succeed in illustrating it—the clear embodiment of character is of the first importance, however stirring or however artistically treated or beneficial the incidental side. Jack feels more than he says from the personal contact, feels more, may be, than he knows; and Jill is surely apt to be as sensitive as Jack. Has there not little by little come to be a little too much of kindly writing down to childhood and to youth? of writing down to it until we are in danger of losing its level and getting below it? Is not thoughtless youth more thoughtful than our credit extends to it? Certainly a nice sense of the balance between sugar and pill seems needed just now—admitting the need of any actual pill. Children, after the earliest period, are more serious and finer and more perceptive natures than we may have come to allowing, or for which we may have come to working. We forget the dignity of even the young heart and mind. Light-hearted youth does not necessarily mean light-headed youth. This story—with apology for such a preamble—is written in the aim at deferring to the above ideas; and, furthermore, at including in the process one or two literary principles closely united to them. It will be found its writer hopes to embody study, as well as story, for the thoughtful moments in young lives, on whose intelligences daily clearly break the beauty and earnestness of human life, of resolute character, of unselfish friendship and affection, and of high aim. To them, and of course to all adult readers, who do not feel themselves out of sympathy with the idealizings and fair inclusions of one’s early time in this world, what follows is offered. New York City, February, 1891. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. Mr. Sip’s Appearance and Disappearance—Philip and Gerald Break Ice in Summer 9 CHAPTER II. Mutual Confidences; and Philip Turns Red in the Face 25 [5] [6] [7] CHAPTER III. All About a Row 41 CHAPTER IV. Under Sailing Orders 58 CHAPTER V. “The Unguessed Beginnings of Trouble” 67 CHAPTER VI. A Riddle Not Easily Answered—The “Old Province” 90 CHAPTER VII. Open War 102 CHAPTER VIII. In Night and Mist 120 CHAPTER IX. Two out of Twelve 132 CHAPTER X. From an Old Scrap-book 143 CHAPTER XI. A Nameless Haven 149 CHAPTER XII. Invading the Unknown 163 CHAPTER XIII. At Home in My Neighbor’s House 179 CHAPTER XIV. Allies 201 CHAPTER XV. Storm-stayed 218 CHAPTER XVI. Suspense 247 CHAPTER XVII. In the Arbor 270 CHAPTER XVIII. Explanations; and Mr. Jennison sends a Request 293 [8] M CHAPTER XIX. After Many Days 305 CHAPTER XX. Present and Future 317 LEFT TO THEMSELVES: BEING THE ORDEAL OF PHILIP AND GERALD. CHAPTER I. MR. SIP’S APPEARANCE AND DISAPPEARANCE—PHILIP AND GERALD BREAK ICE IN SUMMER. r. Patrick Sip had seated himself by the side of the brook that purled through the deep green ravine lying about three miles back of the Ossokosee House. Mr. Sip was not a guest at that new and flourishing summer resort. Mr. Sip, indeed, had hardly found himself a welcome guest anywhere within five or six years. He possessed a big, burly figure, a very unshaven and sunburnt face, and a suit of clothes once black, when upon the back of an earlier wearer, but long since faded to a dirty brown. Mr. Sip never used an umbrella nowadays, although he exercised much in the open air. Upon his unkempt hair slanted a tattered straw hat. Beside him lay a thickish walking-stick without any varnish. There was one thing which Mr. Sip had not about him, as any body would have inferred at a glance, although it is often difficult to detect by sight—a good character. In short, Mr. Sip looked the complete example of just what he was—a sturdy, veteran tramp of some thirty summers and winters, who had not found through honest labor a roof over his head or a morsel between his bristly lips since his last release from some one of the dozen work-houses that his presence had graced. “Humph!” said Mr. Sip, half aloud, as he changed his position so as to let his bare feet sink deeper in the rippling creek (Mr. Sip was laving them), “I see plenty o’ water around here, but there aint nothin’ in sight looks like bread. Plague them turnips! Raw turnips aint no sort o’ a breakfast for a gentleman’s stomach. Is they, now?” He splashed his feet about in the pure cold water, by no means to cleanse them from the dust of the highway, but simply because it was easier to drop them into the stream than to hold them out as he sat on the abrupt bank. He whistled a part of a tune and seemed to forget having put his question to the wrens and wagtails in the sassafras. “If, now, I could jist stick out my hand and pull a ham sangwich off o’ that there useless little tree,” pursued Mr. Sip, complainingly; “or if you could sort o’ lay here an’ meditate an’ presen’ly find a good-sized pan o’ cold victuals a- comin’ a-floatin’ up.” Neither of these attractive phenomena seeming likely to occur immediately, Mr. Sip sighed as if injured, shook his head, and said with decided temper, “Ugh, natur’! They talk so much about natur’ in them books an’—an’ churches, an’ p’lice courts, an’ sich. What’s there nice about natur’, I’d like to know, when a man can keep company with natur’ as stiddy as I do an’ never git so much as his reg’lar meals out o’ her one day in the week? Natur’, as fur as I’ve found out, don’t mean nothing ’cept wild blackberries in season. I don’t want no more to do with natur’!” Mr. Sip concluded with an angry slap at a huge horsefly that had lighted upon his ankle, and uttered his favorite exclamation, “My name aint Sip!”—which, although he meant the phrase merely as an expletive when he was particularly put out over any matter, happened to be the case. Just at that moment Mr. Sip looked across to the opposite bank of the creek and discovered that he and the horsefly were not alone. A boy was standing rather further up the stream with a fishing-rod in his hand observing the odd figure this wandering philosopher upon nature cut. The boy appeared to be in the neighborhood of twelve years of age. He had a trim figure and fair hair, and the sunlight on it and through a green branch of a young maple behind him made the brightest spots of color in the somber little chasm. On his young face were mingled expressions of amusement and disgust as to Mr. Sip. Across his arm was a basket. A napkin dangled out of this suggestively. “Come here, sonny,” invited Mr. Sip in an amiable tone, and with a leer of sudden good feeling—for the luncheon basket. “What did you say?” the boy called back rather timidly, without moving toward his new acquaintance. [9] [10] [11] [12] “I said, ‘Come here,’” repeated Mr. Sip, sharply, drawing his feet out of the water and beckoning. He took a hasty glance up and down the stream. “How many nice little fishes has you and that pa o’ yourn caught since morning? Ten?” “I haven’t caught any fish so far,” replied the lad, “and my father isn’t here. He’s up in Nova Scotia, thank you.” “O,” Mr. Sip responded, “Nova Scotia? I remember I heard o’ his goin’ there. Say, sonny,” he went on, wading out to the middle of the creek with an ugly expression deepening over his red face as he realized that the bearer of the basket was alone, “What time is it?” The boy retreated a few steps, pulling out a neat little silver watch, too polite to refuse the information. “Half past eleven,” he said, in his pleasant accent. “O, but is that there watch correck?” inquired the evil-faced gentleman, taking several steps in the water toward that margin from which the lad had drawn back prudently. “Let me come up and see it for myself, wont you? That looks like a new watch.” “I say, keep off!” cried the owner of the watch, all at once suspecting the designs of Mr. Sip and turning slightly pale. “Keep off, there, I say!” The intrepid little fellow dropped his rod and caught up a stone that lay near. “I—I don’t like your looks! I’ll throw this at you if you come any closer.” The boy’s face was whiter at each word, although his spirit gave a ring to his threat. But Mr. Sip had invaded too many kitchens and terrified far too many helpless servant-maids to allow himself to be daunted by a boy well dressed and carrying a watch and a basket of good things. He uttered an angry oath and splashed violently toward the lad, stumbling among the sharp flints of the creek. It was open war begun by hot pursuit. The path by which Gerald Saxton (for that happened to be the name of the solitary little fisherman) had made his way to the creek was steep and irregular. He ran up it now, panting, with Mr. Sip in stumbling chase, the latter calling out all manner of threats as he pursued. The boy was frightened greatly, but to be frightened is not to be a coward, and he knew that the path led into Farmer Wooden’s open meadow. Through the green underbrush he darted, running up along the slope of the ravine, prudent enough not to waste his wind in cries that would not be at all likely to reach the farm-house, until he should dash out in the field itself, and planting his small feet carefully. “If he catches up to me,” thought Gerald, “he will knock me over and get the watch and be off before I can help it! I must make the meadow!” On hurtled Mr. Sip, floundering up the narrow path, still giving vent to exclamations that only quickened Gerald’s flight. Suddenly Mr. Sip saw an opportunity for a short cut by which Gerald might yet be overtaken. He bounced into it. Just as Gerald shot forth into the long meadow the furious philosopher found himself hardly ten yards in arrear. “Now I’ve got yer!” he called, too angry to observe that the farm-house was in sight. “You drop—that basket—an’ that watch—or—” Now Gerald shouted lustily, still flying ahead. But Mr. Sip did not finish. A new figure came into action. “What under the canopy is that?” cried a boy who was so much older and larger than little Gerald that he might almost have been called a young man. He was standing by the well up in the Woodens’s dooryard waiting for the horse he had been driving to finish drinking. In another moment he grasped the situation and was leaping swiftly and noiselessly down the long slope over the stubble. Tramps had been plentiful lately. His voice rang out to comfort Gerald and warn Mr. Sip. Gerald looked up, but with a white, set little face ran past him. Mr. Sip, taking in the height, weight, and courage of the frightened boy’s new ally, turned and began running toward the low oak trees. A strong ash stick, thrown with excellent aim, struck Mr. Sip squarely in the small of his back. He staggered for an instant, but rallied, and, a coward to the last, vanished in the thicket with a parting curse. Within an hour he might have been seen drinking buttermilk thirstily at a cottage a mile away. The good-humored farmer’s daughter gave it to him, pitying a man who was “walking all the way from Wheelborough Heights to Paterson, in Jersey, marm, to find my old boss and git a job he’s promised me.” And now good-bye, Mr. Sip! You have done something to-day that would surprise your lazy self immensely. You have done a stroke of work. Thanks to your being a brutal vagrant, there is just coming about an acquaintance that is of the utmost import in the carrying on of this story—without which it would never have been worth writing or reading. “Well, upon my word!” ejaculated the new-comer, wheeling about as if disposed to waste no more pains upon a man of Mr. Sip’s kidney, and coming back to Gerald Saxton. “I am very glad I heard you! What did that rascal want of you? His kind have been uncommonly thick this autumn.” “Why—he was after my watch, I think,” replied Gerald, sitting down on a flat rock, a smile re-appearing upon his startled face. “I was standing down at the bottom of the path in the glen when he began talking to me. First thing I knew I saw that he meant mischief. I suppose it wasn’t wonderfully brave of me to run from him.” “Brave in you!” exclaimed merrily the solid-looking older lad. “As if a brute like that was not as big as six of you! You acted precisely as any sensible fellow of your size would do. ‘He who fights and runs away,’ you know. Did he do you any harm?” [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] “Not a bit, thanks. He didn’t get close enough to me”—this with a chuckle. “Were you fishing down in that lonely glen? It is a very fair spot for bass.” “Yes; Mr. Wooden took me down into the ravine quite a little way above it. Do you know the place, sir?” “O, yes, sir; I know the place very well, sir,” answered Gerald’s defender, with a quizzical twinkle in his eyes as he repeated those “sirs.” Then they both laughed. Gerald slyly compared their respective heights. His new friend could not be so very much taller. Certainly he was not over seventeen. “You see, I was raised here—after a fashion,” went on the latter in his clear, strong voice. “You are one of the guests over at our Ossokosee House, aren’t you? I think I’ve seen you on the piazza.” “Yes; I’ve been stopping there while my father is away. My name is Gerald Saxton, though almost every body calls me Gerald.” “And mine is Philip Touchtone, but every body calls me Philip, and you needn’t call me ‘sir,’ please. I know Mr. Marcy, who keeps the Ossokosee, very well. It was to deliver a message from him to the Woodens about the hotel butter that I stopped here this afternoon. But do tell me how that scamp dared run after you? The minute I saw him and you, even as far off as Mrs. Wooden’s back door, I suspected that it was a tramp, and I didn’t hesitate very long.” “No, you didn’t,” answered Gerald. And he walked along, swinging his arm manfully and fighting over again for Philip Touchtone’s benefit those details of the brief skirmish between himself and Mr. Sip that had hurriedly followed one another previous to Philip’s advent. He continued his furtive observation of his new friend all the time. Touchtone had gained about five feet four of his full height, with a broad, well-developed chest, active legs, and a good straight way of carrying himself that reminded one of his sharp, pleasant way of speaking. His hair was dark enough to pass for black, as would his eyes and eyebrows, although they were actually brown, and full of an honest brightness. As for his face, it was rather long, full, and not particularly tanned, though the sun was well acquainted with it. The most attractive feature of it was a mouth that expressed good humor and resolution. In short, Gerald might have easily made up his mind that Philip Touchtone was a person born to work for and get what the world held for him. “Whew!” exclaimed he, as Gerald reminded him, “I forgot Mrs. Wooden’s carpet-beater! I threw it after your friend down there. He got the full benefit of it.” “And I forgot my rod! I dropped it when I thought it was best to run.” “Wait a minute and I’ll get both,” said Philip. “I know that identical rock where you say you stood—at the foot of the path.” And before Gerald could remonstrate Philip ran from his side and darted down into the glen where Mr. Sip must have still lurked in wrath. But sooner than Gerald could feel alarm for him Philip came back with rod and beater. “We need never expect to see him again,” he said, breathlessly. “But—halloa! There are Mrs. Wooden and Miss Beauchamp, who boards with her. She teaches the district school here, and it’s just begun. They must be wondering what has become of me. Suppose we hurry up a trifle. You can ride back to the hotel with me, unless you care to stay and fish—for more tramps.” “No, I thank you,” answered Gerald. “You would be nowhere near to help me fight them.” A determined flash came into the boy’s countenance, such as he had shown when he caught up the bit of rock in defiance of the ragged Sip. “O, I beg your pardon,” he went on in his odd, rather grown-up manner; “I haven’t said how much obliged to you I am for coming down there.” “You are quite welcome,” laughed his new friend, looking down with frank eyes upon the younger boy. “Perfectly welcome, ‘Gerald,’ you were going to say,” added his companion, simply, feeling as if he had known for years this winning new-comer, who seemed not so much boy or man, but a confusion of both, that made up some one with whom he could speedily be on familiar terms. “Hark! Mrs. Wooden is calling you. That horse of yours is eating an apple out of Miss Beauchamp’s hand, too.” The two Woodens and their boarder, Miss Beauchamp, walked forward to meet the boys as they advanced from the lane. “Well, Philip,” was the white-headed old farmer’s greeting, “where did you fly to so sudden? Neither wife, here, nor I could set eyes on you. And so you’ve struck up an acquaintance with Master Gerald, have you?” “Well, yes; and struck an acquaintance of his in the middle of his back,” responded Philip. “How do you do, Miss Beauchamp? Didn’t you, any of you, see the fight?” “Fight!” cried Mrs. Wooden, clapping her fat hand to her bosom and nearly dropping the wooden tray of fresh butter she held. “Why, Philip Touchtone! Who has been a-fightin’? Not you—nor you?” she added, turning to Gerald. “We all have been fighting, I’m afraid, Mrs. Wooden,” said the latter—“three of us.” After this preamble there had to be an account of the skirmish. Miss Beauchamp and Mrs. Wooden alike decided it was “shocking.” “He might have drawn a pistol on both of you!” exclaimed Miss Beauchamp, “and a great deal more might have come of it.” “Well,” Gerald protested, “the only thing that’s come of it is that I have met a friend of yours here.” [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] “T “And you couldn’t do a better thing, Gerald!” exclaimed Mrs. Wooden, beginning to stow away butter and eggs in the spring-wagon from the Ossokosee House. “Mr. Philip Touchtone is a particular pet of Miss Beauchamp’s and mine when he is a good boy—as he almost always is,” the farmer’s fat wife lightly added. “And a capital friend,” added the grave Miss Beauchamp, with a smile, “for a boy about the age and size of one I know to have on his books. You ask Mr. Marcy over at the hotel all about him, Gerald. Now, you do that for me soon.” “O, pshaw, Miss Beauchamp!” Philip interrupted, his wide-awake face rather red, and straightening himself up to endure these broad compliments, “you and Mrs. Wooden ought to remember that people who praise friends to their faces are said to be fond of slandering them behind their backs. Come, Mr. Wooden, I promised Mr. Marcy to be back as soon as I could. Jump in, Gerald.” The boy swung his slender figure up to the cushioned seat. Philip quickly followed after a few more words with the farmer. Then the wagon rattled out into the road and was soon bowling along to the Ossokosee. Philip favored the baskets and bundles in the back of the spring-wagon with a final glance, and then turned to Gerald with the manner of a person who intends asking and answering a large number of questions. And Gerald felt quite eager to do the same thing. Why each of these lads, so entirely out of his own free will, should have mutually confided details of their two histories, when each was so much a stranger, met to-day, and perhaps never sitting again within speaking-distance after to-morrow, was a riddle to both of them. But the solution of it is as old as the rocks in Wooden’s Ravine, perhaps older. We may keep our lives and thoughts under a lock and key as tightly as we like until the day comes when, somewhere along this crowded highway called Life, we all at once run square against some other human creature who is made by fate to be our best friend. Then, take my word for it, whether he is younger or older, he will find out from our own lips every thing in the bottom of our hearts that he chooses to ask about; and, what is more, we ought to find ourselves glad to trust such a person with even more than the whole stock that is there. CHAPTER II. MUTUAL CONFIDENCES; AND PHILIP TURNS RED IN THE FACE. his has been my first summer at the Ossokosee,” said Gerald, as the wagon trundled on. “Papa and I live in New York, in the Stuyvesant Hotel. We have always been to Shelter Island until this year.” “I have lived quite a good deal in New York myself,” remarked Philip. “You see, I have nobody to look after me except Mr. Marcy. My mother died several years ago. In three or four weeks from this time Mr. Marcy takes me down to the city with him when this house is shut.” “Is Mr. Marcy your uncle?” “O, no! No relation at all. I often feel as if he was, though. He has kept watch of me and helped me with my education ever since my mother’s death.” Touchtone’s eyes lost their happy light an instant. “During the summer, of course, I have no time to do any studying, and not too much in the winter. I have a great deal else to busy me, helping Mr. Marcy.” “Why, what do you help him with?” inquired Gerald, with interest, remembering Touchtone in the office and the dining-room, and indeed every-where about the Ossokosee, except the parlors. “Well, Mr. Marcy calls me a kind of aid-de-camp to him and Mrs. Ingraham, the housekeeper, too, particularly when there is danger of the kitchen running short of supplies. Now and then, if the farmers around here fail us, I have to spend half the day driving about the country, or you might starve at supper-table all at once. O, and then I look after one or two books in the office!” Gerald laughed. “Papa has kept me here because he heard so much about the table; and because Mr. Marcy told him there were so few boys that I couldn’t get into mischief. Papa used to be a broker, but he don’t do any thing now. I believe he retired, or whatever they call it, a year or so ago. He’s been camping out with a party of gentlemen from the Stock Exchange ever since midsummer away up in Nova Scotia. I haven’t any mother either.” “Why didn’t you go with them?” inquired Philip, guiding Nebuchadnezzar skillfully through an irregular series of puddles. The view of the rolling green country, dotted with farm-houses and gray or red barns, was now worth looking at as they came out on the flat hill-top. “I should have liked to go very much; but papa said that they were all expecting to ‘rough it,’ and the weather might be too cold for me. He was afraid I would be sick or something, and I know I’d be a good deal of trouble to him. Hasn’t it stayed hot, though? I suppose they are having a splendid time up there all by themselves hunting and fishing. He wrote me that there wasn’t a house within five miles of them. In October we are to meet in New York again. School [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] begins next week; but I’m not to hurry back this year.” Gerald spoke of the “splendid time” rather wistfully. The little fellow had been lonely in the big Ossokosee, Philip fancied. “What school do you go to?” inquired Gerald after a moment; “that is, when you are in New York?” “Not to any now,” soberly responded Philip, with a frown coming over his forehead. It was the secret grief of his spirit that he had not been able to advance further in a thorough education. When Gerald spoke of his holidays coming to an end; he involuntarily envied this boy. “But before I came to live so much with Mr. Marcy, and when my mother was alive, I went to the Talmage School.” “Why, that’s my school now!” exclaimed Gerald, smiling. “How queer! But it’s a pretty old school.” And then came interrogations as to what pupils or teachers had been there in Philip’s school-days. To Gerald, who was quite wide awake to reflections upon a good many more problems than thinkers of his age often pause over, already there seemed to be something like a mystery hanging around this young Touchtone. He made up his mind that his new friend did not appear a shade out of place this morning driving around a hotel-wagon after butter and eggs from the farms. But he also decided if he should meet Philip in a tennis-suit with a group of the most “aristocratic” lads of Murray Hill, or see him marching about the floor at some crowded “reception” given by the school, why, Touchtone would look just as much in his proper surroundings—only more so. While he was assenting to these ideas something else occurred to make the younger boy puzzled about the older one. A buggy came spinning along the road to meet them. From the front leaned out a young man, ten or twelve years older than Touchtone, wearing a brown beard. He checked his horse as he approached and called out some words that Gerald at once knew were German. Philip laughed and answered them in the same language quite as fluently. The occupant of the buggy—Gerald rightly supposed him the young German doctor that lived in the village—began quite a chat with Touchtone entirely in German. Both spoke so rapidly that Gerald found his study of the language at the Talmage School did not help him to catch more than an occasional “ja” or “nein.” The young doctor rode on. “How well you must know German,” said Gerald, admiringly. “Did you learn it across the water?” the boy added, half in joke. “Yes,” responded Touchtone, to the astonishment of the other lad. “I learned it in Hanover, when I was there, before we lived near New York.” Gerald happened to glance at Philip’s face. It was oddly red, and his voice sounded strangely. All this time, too, there was certainly one particular person to whom he had not so much as referred. But after Gerald had bethought himself of this omission and put his next question he would have given a great deal not to have uttered it. The regret did not come until he had asked Philip point-blank: “I think you said that your—your father was dead, didn’t you? Was that after you came back?” Philip made no reply. A blush reddened his frank face painfully. His pleasant expression had given place to an angry look. He gave unoffending Nebuchadnezzar a sharp cut with the long whip, as if to conceal mortification in showing his feelings, whatever they arose from, to a comparative stranger. He looked away from Gerald’s startled blue eyes toward the flag-crowned gables of the Ossokosee House, that now were in full sight, as the wagon turned into one of the graveled avenues leading to the kitchen. “My father died after we came home,” he said, as if he had to face himself to speak of something that he could hardly bear to think of. “I was born in Germany, and lived there until we sailed.” “I—I beg your pardon,” said Gerald, blushing in his turn. “What for?” “Because I think I asked you something that—that there was no reason for me to be told.” “O, don’t mention it,” returned Touchtone. He recovered his self-possession so curiously lost. “It is just as well that you did, I rather believe. Some day, perhaps, I can explain about it to you. No harm done. Pompey! Pompey!” he called out in his pleasant voice to a tall servant walking across the back piazza of the dining-room. “Come here, please, and help take some of these things to Mrs. Ingraham’s store-room. If you will wait a moment,” he continued, to Gerald, “I’ll walk around to the front with you. I want to see Mr. Marcy.” The contents of the wagon were disposed of among the servants. Nebuchadnezzar set out by himself for the stables, at a word of command from Philip. On the front steps were some groups chatting, reading, writing, or watching the nearer of two games of tennis, played at a little distance, out upon the wide lawn. The Ossokosee was to close for the season within about a fortnight, and only the uncommon heat of the September weather kept it still fairly full. “Halloa, Philip!” called Mr. Marcy from the desk. The office inclosure was a handsome addition to the hall, with its cheerful stained glass, carved railings, rows of letter and key boxes and bell signals. “Where did you light upon that young gentleman? I’m not sorry, Gerald. Your father has left you in my charge, and you’re too heavy a responsibility. I think I’ll turn you over to Philip there. You might make a pretty fair guardian, Philip.” [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] “All right,” returned Gerald, gayly. “I say, guardian,” he continued, turning with mischievous eyes to Touchtone, “can’t you come up to my room after you get through your luncheon? Harry Dexter and I are going down to the lake at four o’clock to see them practice for the regatta. But we’ll have plenty of time first.” “I am going to the lake myself,” said Philip. “I belong to the Ossokosee crew that rows, you know.” “O, yes; so you do. Then we can all go together. You’ll come, wont you?” And he seemed so anxious that Touchtone answered, “Yes,” and “Thank you,” at once. Philip turned into the office, where he began giving the gentlemen there the history of the battle at Wooden’s Ravine. “Served him right, Philip!” heartily exclaimed the genial book-keeper, Mr. Fisher, on hearing of the stick throwing, “and you’ll find that little fellow a youngster worth your knowing.” Meantime Gerald was running lightly up the broad, smoothly polished oak stairs and entering the room that the father had engaged for his son’s use. Not being able, or thinking he was not, to have the boy with him in Nova Scotia, he had wished to make Gerald as luxuriously comfortable as a lad could be. The gay Ossokosee House had, nevertheless, a perfectly new interest to Gerald now. The little boy had been welcomed by a good many of the guests stopping there. There were a few of his own age that had been his chums, for want of others. But now that he had met Touchtone things began to look all at once more enjoyable. And what could be the reason that so open-hearted and jolly a companion should be so alone in the world, and feel so terribly cut, and blush in that embarrassed fashion because of a simple question concerning his father? Philip came up to Number 45 in due time that afternoon. He looked over Gerald’s foreign photographs and his coin collection. And so the time sped on, and interest in the acquaintance mutually prospered. The next day they did not meet until after supper. Mr. Marcy had only three or four letters he wished Philip to write. When these were finished he and Gerald walked out into the hotel grounds, talking of the coming regatta and feeling quite like old companions. Two crews only were to row—the Ossokosee Boat Club and the Victory Rowing Association—and much interest was attached to the race. Mr. Marcy had offered a prize of two hundred dollars to the winners, and, furthermore, the Ossokosee Club were determined not to be beaten for the fourth year. The last three regattas had resulted, one after another, in the triumph of the elated Victors. Philip was a zealous member of the Ossokosees, and found it hard work to keep in any kind of training, what with his duties at the hotel. But then the whole affair was not so “professional” as it might have been, and Touchtone’s natural athletic talents and Mr. Marcy’s indulgence helped him to pull his oar as skillfully and enduringly as any other of the six. Gerald listened with all his ears to his friend’s account of their last year’s defeat. All at once Philip remembered a message for Mrs. Ingraham about the flowers from the conservatory. “Please stand here by the arbor one moment?” he asked. “I’ll just run to the dining-room and find her.” Now, there was a long rustic seat outside the thick growth of vines, running over the same arbor. Gerald sat down upon this bench. Some guests of the house were grouped inside, conversing together. No secrets were being told. Gerald did not feel himself an eavesdropper. In fact, he did not pay any heed to the talking going on just back of his head until he heard a slow voice that was a certain General Sawtelle’s. “O, young Touchtone, you mean? Yes, yes; a remarkably fine young fellow! Any father might be proud of such a son —and any son ashamed of such a father as he had.” Gerald started almost to his feet. “Why, who was his father?” asked another indolent voice. “What did he do?” Gerald was a boy of delicate honor. He was about to hurry away, eager as he was to sympathize with his attractive “guardian’s” trouble. He scorned to play the eavesdropper, and he equally scorned to be told this secret until Philip would utter it. But before he could step to the soft turf, and so slip out of ear-shot, Philip Touchtone himself came up beside him. Philip had stepped with unintentional lightness to the bench where he had left his little protégé and caught the last clearly spoken sentences. Gerald would have drawn him away, too; but Philip took the hand of the younger boy and made a sign to him to remain and hear what General Sawtelle would reply. He put his finger upon his lips. “Why,” responded the general, from within this arbor, “his father was Touchtone—Reginald Touchtone—who was so badly involved in the famous robbery of the Suburban Trust Company, years ago, in X——, just outside of New York.” “O,” returned the other speaker, “I remember. Touchtone was the cashier.” “Yes; the man that turned out to be a friend of the gang that did the business,” another speaker chimed in. “Certainly. They were sure that the scamp opened the safe for them. They made out a clear case against him. He went to the penitentiary with the rest of ’em.” Gerald was trembling, and held Philip’s cold hand as the two lads stood there to hear words so humiliating to one of them. But Philip whispered, “Don’t go!” and still restrained him. “Yes, it was as plain as daylight. The fellow opened the safe for the rogues! At first the indictment against him was rather shaky. He was tried, and got off with a light sentence; only a year or so, I believe.” [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] T “Convicted, all of ’em, on State’s evidence, weren’t they?” “Yes, this Touchtone included. One of the crowd decided to speak what he knew. I presume Touchtone had had his share of what they all got. But it didn’t do the man much good.” “Why, what became of him?” asked another voice. “O, he and his wife rented a little cottage up here. They left their house near New York, or in it, and came here till Touchtone died. He had consumption. Marcy was an old friend of the lad’s mother, and helped them along, I understand, till this boy, Philip, was left alone by her dying, too. She was a fine woman, I’ve been told. Stuck to her husband and to his innocence, till the last. After that, Marcy took Phil with him. I think he expects to adopt him.” “Well, he’s a nice boy, anyway,” came the other voice, “and Marcy’s proud of him, I can see. I guess he’ll turn out a credit in spite of his father. What time is it? My watch has stopped.” “Come,” said Philip, softly. He walked away with Gerald. Neither spoke. At length Gerald said, gently, “Is that all, Philip? You made me listen!” “All?” replied young Touchtone, bitterly. “Isn’t it enough? Yes, I made you listen! I wanted you to know the story before you saw any more of me. There’s another side to it, but that isn’t the one you will find people trouble themselves over. I wanted you to hear what you did. But I couldn’t tell you myself. I am the son of—of—my father. I don’t care for mere outsiders, who know it already and think none the worse of me for it. But other people, if I care any thing about them, why, they must know with whom they are taking up.” It cost him a struggle to say this. Gerald was younger than he. But the manly, solitary little guest of the Ossokosee had gained in these two days a curious hold over him. Philip had never had a brother. If he had ever thought of one, the ideal conjured up would have been filled by Gerald. He felt it now as he stopped and faced the latter in the moonlight. But Gerald looked straight up into Philip’s face. He smiled and said, “Philip, I believe your father didn’t do that.” Touchtone put out his hand with a quick gesture of intense surprise. “Gerald!” he cried as their two palms met in a clasp that hurt the smaller one, “what in the world made you say that?” There was something solemn, as well as eager, in his tone. “O, nothing particular,” the heir of the Saxton impulsiveness answered, simply; “but I don’t believe it, that’s all! I don’t!” “He don’t believe it either,” Gerald heard Philip say, as if to himself, “and I don’t. What a little trump you are, Gerald Saxton!” They walked a little further in silence; then Philip again spoke, in a tone from which all the sudden joy and cheerfulness were gone: “Well, Gerald, you and I may be able to prove it together some day to the people. But I don’t know—I don’t know!” Certainly they were to accomplish many strange things together, whether that was to be one of them or not. CHAPTER III. ALL ABOUT A ROW. he guests of the Ossokosee had the pleasure of seeing a bright, still day for the regatta. By nine o’clock the shady road leading to the lake began to echo with carriages. In the little wind that stirred flags swayed down in the village and from the staffs on the Ossokosee and the little boat-house. As for the pretentious Victors’ head-quarters, they were flaunting with streamers and bunting to an extent that must have severely taxed the treasury. “I don’t see where so many more people than usual have come from!” exclaimed Mr. Marcy to Gerald and Mrs. and Miss Davidson as they drove along toward the starting-point. And, in truth, for a race between two crews of lads, and of such local interest, the crowd was flattering. Country wagons lined the bank, in which sat the farmers of the district, with their wives and daughters gorgeously arrayed in pink and blue and white calico gowns; and bunches of roses and dahlias were every-where about them. “There are Mr. Wooden and Mrs. Wooden, with Miss Beauchamp,” exclaimed Gerald, nodding his head vigorously to the group. Fashionable carriages were not few, filled with ladies in gay colors, who chatted with knickerbockered young men, or asked all sorts of questions of their husbands and brothers and cousins about the two crews. “Those must be regular parties from the other hotels about here,” said Miss Davidson, “made up expressly to drive over here this morning. Well, well!” “Yes,” Mr. Marcy assented, “I never expected to see such a general turning out at one of the Ossokosee regattas. Do notice, too, how the shores over there are covered with people, walking and sitting! Bless my heart! I hope that Phil and his friends are—h’m—not going to be so badly beaten, when there are so many hundreds of eyes to see it! Never [39] [40] [41] [42] was such a fuss made over our race before, especially a race so late in the season.” Mr. Marcy jumped out. They were near the Ossokosee boat-house. After he had seen how the oarsmen who bore the name and credit of his hotel were feeling over their coming struggle he was to get into a good-sized barge with several other gentlemen, one of them being the starter and umpire. Gerald was looking at him with the full power of his blue eyes as Mr. Marcy stood directing the driver where to station the carriage for Mrs. Davidson and her daughter. The boy’s glance was so eloquent that the proprietor of the Ossokosee House exclaimed: “Why, Gerald, what was I thinking of? You come along with me if you choose to. That boat is apt to be crowded, but you’re a little fellow and wont add much to the party. I guess I can have you squeezed in.” So the delighted boy followed his elderly friend through the grass toward the boat-house and the judge’s barge. “Shall I see Philip?” he asked, as they advanced to the inclosure. A long line of stragglers hung about the gate leading down to the Ossokosees’ quarters. The village constable good-naturedly kept them from entrance. “Yes; come right along,” Mr. Marcy said, taking Gerald’s hand. They hurried down to the rear door together. “Hurrah! there’s Mr. Marcy,” was the exclamation, as they were allowed to step in. The six boys, Philip and Davidson foremost, were already in full rig and busy over the long shell just about to be easily deposited in the water by the side of the float. Mr. Marcy and a couple of his friends saw this feat accomplished safely. Others of the barge-party walked in. The excitement became general. All the oarsmen talked at once, gave opinions of the state of the water, bewildered Mr. Lorraine or Mr. Marcy with questions, and hurried about the dim little boat-house to attend to the usual last things and one. “Well, Frank, what do you think?” inquired Gerald of Davidson, with a face of almost painful interest as he glanced first at Touchtone, then at him. “He thinks just what I think, Gerald,” interrupted Philip, pulling the crimson silk handkerchief lower across his forehead, “and that is—” “That the Victors are bigger men with a lighter boat, and have beaten us for three years running,” Davidson said, quickly; “but that the weather is perfect, that the water is as smooth as if we’d taken a flat-iron to it, and that the Victors don’t pull together after the style the Ossokosees do. Look at them now out yonder as they come around the point again! See that second fellow! If he don’t keep better stroke he can put the whole crew out!” Twenty minutes later Gerald was seated out under the awning of the barge, sandwiched between Mr. Lorraine and Captain Kent. He waited in feverish impatience for the grand moment. The umpire, a Mr. Voss, from the next county, was arranging some matters between Mr. Marcy and the supporters of the Victors. There were to be three races; but, the second one being between two members of the Victors, and the last an informal affair between four of the village lads in working-boats, the special rivalry was not eclipsed. Gerald’s heart beat faster and faster as the crowd along the shores cheered six figures in crimson that glided quietly to their post of departure on the east; accompanied by the second shout for the yellow-filleted Victors who pulled proudly across the open water and rested, like pegs driven into its bed, opposite their rivals. “Looks as if it would be an uncommon good race for both of ’em!” Gerald heard some one near him say. But Mr. Voss was standing up and waving his hand. “Are you ready?” “Ready!” from the right. “Are you read-y?” “Ready!” from the left. “Go!” Bang! And the echoes clanged over the low hills and startled Farmer Wooden’s skittish colt as Mr. Voss dropped his arm with the smoking pistol. Neck and neck, with a quick, snapping leap of the oars and a splendid start with which neither crew could quarrel, the slender, shining shells shot rod after rod up the lake. Babel began at once—cries, cheers, applause. “Victors! Victors!” “Go it, Ossokosee!” “That’s it; stick to the lead!” “Ossokosee forever!” “That aint no bad send-off for the Ossokosees!” exclaimed Farmer Wooden to his wagon-load as the swift flight of the boats made them diminish in size every few seconds. “No,” said Miss Beauchamp, with her head full of Philip and of his satisfaction if there should be any bettering of the Ossokosees’ record; “but those strong-armed fellows in the Victors’ boat are holding off, Mr. Wooden. Don’t you see that? They’re going to give a tremendous spurt after that stake-boat is turned.” By this time the road that ran parallel with the course was in a whirl of wheels. Dozens of carriages dashed up after the boats, to lose no yard of the contest. The Ossokosees were, in fact, a little in advance of the Victors. But, as Miss Beauchamp had supposed, that was evidently the policy of the older champions. They darted along well to the left of their rivals and kept carefully outside of a certain long strip of eel-grass where a danger-signal had been driven, and with [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] their rapid pulling they were already beginning to lessen the number of boat-lengths between them and their opponents. Every body having taken it for granted that the excitement of this race was not who should beat, but how honorably the hotel faction should be beaten, there arose all along the mile of skirting land a buzz and then ragged cheers as people began all at once to discover the new possibility of the Victors being dishonored for once in their proud career. “Hi! Look at that, I tell you, Fisher!” cried Mr. Marcy, as enthusiastic as Gerald himself, when he made up his mind that up there toward that stake-boat the Victors now began to pull with might and main. “Our boys—why, our boys are working like Trojans! And those chaps have found it out!” “Hurrah! They’re ’round the stake-boat first, as true as I live!” said somebody else in the barge. Gerald was standing balanced on the outermost edge of a seat, with Mr. Marcy’s arm about him to keep him in any kind of equilibrium. His eyes sparkled like stars as he held up his field-glass, and his color came and went with every cry he heard. It was for Philip’s sake; all for Philip! It was wonderful, by the bye, how many persons watched that race that morning, giving one thought for the Ossokosees in general and two to Philip Touchtone! “Yes, they are!” exclaimed another. “Gracious! what ails the Victors? Pull, you sluggards, pull, I say! Those boys are gaining on you every second with that stroke. It must be nearly forty.” Louder and louder rang the clamor from all sides as the stake-boat was left behind by the belated Victors, not after all so much in arrear of the Ossokosees. Every body knew that the most remarkable “finish” ever to be dreamed of for Ossokosee Lake was begun. The carriages rolled quicker and quicker back to the goal, and began to pack together in the open meadow, abreast of the judge’s barge. Shouting boys and men ran frantically along the road and side-paths, waving hats. From the knots of on-lookers, the crowded Victors’ club-house, the private boats moored by the ledges, fluttered handkerchiefs, veils, and shawls in the hands of standing spectators; and every thing increased in intensity, of course, as the two glittering objects flashed forward nearer, nearer, until the bending backs of the six rowers in each could be seen, crimson and yellow—and the panic-struck yellow sweeping onward last! “O-h-h-h! Victors! Victors!” rang the echoes on the left, where most of the village partisans lined the wagon. “Ossokosees!” “Now, then, Ossokosees! Give ’em your best!” “Good for you! That’s right, don’t let ’em make it!” “Touchtone! O, Touchtone!” “Go it, Dater, that’s the way to give it to ’em!” “One good spurt now, Victors, and you can have it your own way!” “Bravo, Ossokosee!” “Oss-o-ko-see!” And then mingled with all this voicing of favorites, began the patter, at first gentle, bu...