University of Virginia Library

4. CHAPTER IV.
The Morning's smiles, the Evening's tears.

The next morning Ariel came over, and found Sybrandt
half-willing, half-afraid to accompany the party
to the island, of which he was to be the commander-in-chief.
Never man was so busy, so important, and so
happy as the good Ariel, at having something to do
for a whole day. Blessed, indeed, yea, thrice blessed
is he whom trifles can make happy. It is this which
forms the bliss of childhood and the consolation of
old age, each of which finds its appropriate enjoyments
in an exemption from the serious labours and
oppressive anxieties of the world's great business.

It was a cheerful and inspiring morning as ever
shone upon the rich plains of the happy Hudson—
happy in being the chosen river on whose bosom floats
the tide of fashion to and fro; on whose delicious
borders dwell in rustic competency thousands of contented
human beings, enjoying the fruits of their
labours amid the fruitions of a blameless life and a
quiet spirit. The day was such a one as I myself
prefer to all others; when the sun diffuses his influence
through a gauzy veil of semi-transparent
clouds, which temper his rays into a mild genial
warmth, that, while it takes, perhaps, from the vigour
of the body, communicates to the mind a delicious
and luxurious aptitude for the indulgence of the gentler
emotions. In such days, and through such a medium,
the beauties of nature exhibit only their softest
features; and display their greatest varieties of shade

and colouring; the winds are hushed; the waters
smooth and glassy; the foliage wears a fleecy softness;
the hills appear more beautiful; the mountains,
magnified in the misty vagueness of distance, seem
blended with the skies; the different shades of green
that deck the bosom of the earth become more distinct
yet more harmonious than when basking in the
glare of the sun; and every sound that meets the ear,
like every object that attracts the eye, partakes in
the gentle harmony that reigns all around. It is in
the remembrance of such scenes in after-life, and
amid the struggles, hopes, and disappointments which
checker the course of manhood, that we are apt to
contrast our present cares with our former enjoyments,
exaggerating both, and giving a false estimate
of the different periods of an existence, which, if we
fairly hold the balance, will be found pretty much
the same in all its various changes, from the cradle
to the grave.

Our little party consisted of Master-commandant
Ariel, chief manager, factotum, &c., as busy as a bee,
as noisy as a caty-did, and as merry as a cricket;
Catalina, Sybrandt, and some half a score of the
beaux and belles of Albany, who had come to the
mansion-house bright and early in the morning, all
dressed in neat and simple attire, befitting a ramble
among the wild roses and clambering vines of the
happy island. This little paradise, to speak in
learned phrase, was an alluvial formation of times
long past, composed of the rich spoils of the surrounding
lands, deposited by the river. It was as
level as the surface of the stream in which it was embosomed,
and covered with a carpet of rich, luxuriant
verdure, which, when it was not pastured, gave to
the scythe a glorious harvest three times a year. On

every side and all around, the banks were fringed with
the light silvery foliage of the water-willows, mingled
with tufts of wild roses, and growths of nameless wild
flowers of every hue and various odours; and canopied
at intervals with clambering vines, whose long
tendrils sometimes bent down and waved to and fro
on the gliding waters as they passed slowly by.
Within this leafy barrier was nothing but a green
sward, shaded at various intervals by the vast giants
of the alluvial growth—elms and plane-trees, of such
towering majesty, that they overlooked the gentle
eminences which bounded the flats on either side.
The witching murmurs of the waters, as they glided
along under the willow branches and nodding vines,
mingled with the chorus of a thousand birds, who
remained all summer in undisturbed possession; and
though the pipe of the shepherd was never heard in
these pleasant abodes, it was aptly supplied by the
music of harmonious nature, the murmuring waters,
and the warblers of the woodlands.

Under the skilful guidance of the active, indefatigable
Ariel, the little party arrived at the scene of their
anticipated pleasures, all gay and happy, save our
friend Sybrandt, who, from the moment he joined the
group, felt the spell of the demon besetting him sorely.
His gayety was repressed, his faculties benumbed,
and his youthful vigour changed to a leaden inertness
by that habitual shyness and awkwardness the very
consciousness of which prevented all efforts to shake
it off. He was always either behind or before the
party, and generally too far from it to hear what was
said. Thus, when the hilarity of the youthful spirit
effervesced into a sprightly laugh, the demon of
pride, suspicion, and consciousness, whispered that
the laugh was at him. The other young men were,

indeed, quite as awkward, and without his knowledge
and acquirements; but they made an excellent
figure, notwithstanding, and performed their
parts with a gay, gallant frankness, such as woman
in all situations loves. They had lived in the world
at Albany, mixed in its business, and dissipated their
self-love in the pursuit of various objects, while poor
Sybrandt had passed his youth in nursing the offspring
of solitude—sensibility, pride, and selfishness.
It is social intercourse alone that, by calling
us off from self-contemplation, and making it necessary
to remember and to administer to the wants or
the enjoyments of others, can make man happy
himself, and an instrument of happiness to others.

When they came to the river-side, where lay the
little boat which was to take them to the island, Sybrandt
had sworn to himself that he would offer his
hand to Catalina to assist her in embarking. But
he was so long before he could screw himself up to
the direful feat, that one of the Albany lads, more
gallant as well as alert, was beforehand with him.
A bashful man is like a tiger; he makes but one effort,
and if that fails, slinks away to his jungle, and
essays not another. I myself have my own experience
to vouch for this; having in the far-off days
of my gallantry, full many a time and oft, in dining
out, gathered myself together with a gallant ferocity
to ask the lady of the feast for the honour of a
glass of wine with her. But alas! if peradventure
the lady listened not to my first demonstration, I
was prone to relapse into an utter and incurable incapacity
to repeat the mighty effort. The sound of
my voice died suddenly, and word spoke I nevermore.
So was it with master Sybrandt, who,
having expended his powder in a flash of the

pan, sunk only the lower for the exertion he had
made.

The little party landed, and pursued their pleasures
in separate groups, or couples, as chance or
inclination prompted. In those days of Doric innocence
and simplicity—and thanks to Heaven, it is
so still in our happy country—young people of different
sexes could enjoy the pleasures of a rural
ramble, in parties or in pairs, without the remotest idea
of impropriety, and without waking a single breath of
scandal. If there be any thing in the music, the repose,
the lasoinating and quiet beauties of nature that excites
to love, it is gentle and virtuous love; an awakening
impulse rather than an ungovernable passion; and
if perchance it works to final mischief, it is rather
from accident than purpose—nature than depravity.
It is not here that the sensual passions acquire their
overpowering energies; but at midnight revels,
where dazzling lights, artificial splendours, seducing
music, high-seasoned viands, and luxurious wines,
pamper the senses into lascivious longings, and
swell the imagination to exaggerated conceptions of
pleasure, which carry us away we know not and we
care not whither. Long may it be before it is the
fashion to abridge the freedom of virgins, and extend
that of wives, in our country.

Catalina having carried her point in making Sybrandt
one of the party, was rather in a better humour
with him than usual. She plagued him now
and then in various sly ways, and sometimes raised
a laugh at his expense. The first fine edge of the
feelings, fortunately for mankind, both in pleasure
and pain, is worn off by the first enjoyment and the
first suffering. Were it not so—but I am insensibly
becoming a moralist, when I only aspire to storytelling.

Sybrandt by degrees already felt like a
musical instrument, in better tune for being played
upon, and two or three times caught himself actually
enjoying the scene and the festivity of his companions.
The ridicule of women sometimes makes
bold men only more bold and confident; and I have
known a most exemplary modest person made downright
saucy by the freedoms of others. Indeed
there is not in the world so impudent a being, as a
shy man forced out of his shyness. The very impulse
carries him to the opposite extreme. The
bent of Sybrandt's mind had, however, been too long
and too rigid to be relaxed all at once.

I pity the most exalted of all created beings who
cannot feel the inspiration of the balmy air, the
music and the smiles of nature; for he can have
neither sensibility nor imagination. It was not so
with Sybrandt; though apparently a most unpromising
pupil for the school of romance, there were, if we
mistake not, certain springs of action and certain
latent fires hidden and buried in his head and heart,
which only required to be touched or lighted to make
him a far other being than he seemed just now. As
the morning passed, he insensibly began to feel less
awkward, and his shyness gradually wore away.
He ventured to speak to some of the young damsels,
and finally had the unparalleled intrepidity to attach
himself to the side of his cousin in a stroll under the
vines and willows that skirted the shores of the little
island.

By degrees the feelings which nature had implanted
in his heart opened and expanded, like the
seeds which lay dormant in the deep shades of the
forest for years, until the trees being cut down, the
warm sunbeams waken them to life and vegetation.

The emotions of his heart for a while overpowered
his long-cherished timidity, and lent to his tongue an
eloquence that pleased, while it surprised Catalina.
The rich stores of imagery which long reading and
contemplation had gathered in his mind, where they
had lain enchained in the icy fetters of timidity, were
let loose by the new-born warmth that thrilled
through his frame, and flowed forth without study or
effort into striking observations, tender associations,
and sparkles of a rich and glowing fancy. Catalina
listened with astonishment to the animated statue;
and as she looked him in the face while pouring forth
the treasures of his mind, and saw the divinity that
sparkled in his eyes, she once or twice detected herself
in thinking Sybrandt almost as handsome as an
aid-de-camp. He, too, felt elevated in his own estimation;
for the first time in his life he had listened
to his own voice without feeling his heart beat with
apprehension, and for the first time he could look
back upon an hour spent in the society of a female,
without a pang of the keenest mortification.

“Sybrandt,” at length said Catalina, “why don't
you talk so every day?”

“Because every day is not like to-day; nor are
you, my cousin, always what you are now.”

A silence ensued, from which they were roused by
the cheerful, joy-inspiring shouts of Ariel, who had
prepared his collation, and was summoning all the
rambling lads and lasses to come and partake of the
blessings of his prudent forethought. To him eating
was an affair of the first consequence; he never
joined a party, either of business or pleasure, without
first reducing it to a certainty that there would be no
starvation attending it; and it was almost as affecting
as a last dying speech to hear him relate the

melancholy story of the ruin of a brace of the finest
woodducks he ever saw, by the “d—d stupid
folly” of his cook, who roasted them in a pot instead
of before the fire. The good Ariel had spread his
stores on a snow-white tablecloth of ample dimensions,
laid upon the rich greensward beneath a canopy
of vines, that clambered over the tops of a clump of
sassafras, whose aromatic buds sent forth a grateful
fragrance. Here he marshalled his forces with great
discretion, placing the lads and lasses alternately
around the rural repast, and enjoining upon the former
the strictest attention to his nearest neighbour. As to
himself, he could never sit still where there was room
for action. He curvetted around the little circle like
a merry spaniel; cracked his jokes, and laughed
only the louder when nobody joined him; helped
himself, and ate and talked, all at the same time, with
a zest, an hilarity, and honest frankness that communicated
themselves to all about him, infecting them
with a contagious merriment. The birds chirped
over their heads, the flowers grew beneath their feet,
the mild summer breezes played upon their cheeks,
hope glowed in their hearts, and youth and health
were their handmaids; why then should they not
laugh and be merry?

But a plague on Nature! she is a female, after all,
and there is no trusting her. As thus they sat unheeding
all but themselves and the present moment,
Nature had been at work unnoticed by the little crew,
gathering into one great mass a pack of dark rolling
clouds along the western horizon. The banks of
the little isle were, as we said before, fringed all
around by trees and shrubbery, and tangled vines,
that quite hid the opposite shores, making it a little
world within itself. The dark tempest gathering in

the west had therefore escaped the notice of the party,
until the moment when a burst of merriment was interrupted
by a flash of lightning, and a quick, sharp
crash of thunder. When the Creator speaks, all nature
is silent; and if, as some suppose, the leaping
lightning is the quick glancing of his angry eye, the
thunder the threatening of his voice, no wonder if
every sound is hushed when they break forth from
the pitchy darkness of the heavens. The laugh
ceased; the birds became silent in their leafy bowers;
the trees steeled their sweet whisperings; the insects
chirped no longer, and the river murmured no more.
There was a dead pause in the air, the earth, and the
waters, save when the Creator of them all spoke from
the depths of his vast obscurity.

The merrymakers looked at each other in silence,
and in silence sat, until Ariel ventured to clear his
voice with “a-hem!” which, to say the truth, lacked
much of its wonted vigorous energy and clearness.
Sybrandt gained a position whence he could overlook
the island barrier, and came back running to announce
that a thunderstorm was coming on rapidly
—so rapidly that it would be impossible to cross the
river and gain the nearest house in time to escape its
fury. The damsels looked at the young men, and
the young men looked at the damsels. One had on
her best hat, another a new shawl, a third her holyday
chintz gown, and each and all wore some favourite piece
of finery, which, though peradventure Dolly the cook
and Betty the chambermaid would scorn to wear,
even on week-days, in this age of rapid unparalleled
improvement, was still dear to their simple, innocent
affections. The boys too, as they were called, and
still are called among the old lords of the land, had
on their Sunday gear, which, as they never ran in

debt to the tailor, it behooved them to nurse with
special care. What was to be done in this sore
dilemma; for now the quick, keen flashes, the equally
keen crashes that came with them, and the dead, dull
calm that intervened, announced that the rain and the
tempest was nigh.

Ariel was as busy as an assistant-alderman at a
fire, and about as useful. Being a man that was
always in a hurry when there was no occasion, it
may be naturally supposed, that when there was
occasion he would be in such a great hurry that his
resolves would tread upon one another's heels, or
impede their operations by running athwart each
other, and breaking their heads. And so, indeed, it
happened; he was ten times more busy than when
he had nothing to do; swore at the lads for not doing
something; suggested a hundred impracticable things;
and concluded, good man! by wishing with all his
soul they were safe housed in the old mansion.

Catalina had been brought up at the boarding-school
in the fear of thunder. The schoolmistress,
indeed, always encouraged the young ladies by precept
not to be frightened; but she never failed to
disappear in a thunderstorm, and was one time discovered
between two featherbeds almost smothered
to death. It is to be regretted that this natural and
proper feeling of awe which accompanies the sublime
phenomena of nature should degenerate into abject
fear or irrational supersition. Divested of these, the
approach of a thunderstorm is calculated to waken
the mind to the most lofty associations with the great
Being who charges and discharges this vast artillery,
and to exalt the imagination into the highest
regions of lofty contemplation. But fear is an abject,
soul-subduing sentiment, which monopolizes the

mind, debases the physical man, and shuts out every
feeling allied to genuine piety and faith.

Suddenly an idea struck Sybrandt, which was instantly
adopted and put into execution. The boat,
a broad, flat skiff, was drawn up the bank, and placed
bottom upwards, with one side supported by sticks,
and the other reclining on the ground towards the
west, so that the rain might run off in that direction.
The few minutes which intervened between this operation
and the bursting of the torrent of rain were
employed by the young men in covering the open
spaces about the sides of the boat with grass and
branches, as well as the time would admit. There
was only space enough under this shelter for the
young women, though Ariel managed to find himself
a place among them. He was in the main a
good-natured, kind-hearted man, but he did not like
being out in a storm any more than his neighbours.
The young men stood cowering under a canopy of
thick vines, which shaded the boat and a little space
besides. It was observed that Sybrandt placed himself
nearest that end of the boat under which Catalina
was sheltered, and that he was particular in the
disposition of the grass and branches in that quarter.

A few, a very few minutes of dead silence on the
part of our little group intervened before the tempest
sent forth its hoards of wind and rain, smiting the
groaning trees, and deluging the thirsty earth till it
could drink no more, but voided the surplus into the
swelling stream, that began anon to rise and roar in
angry violence. This storm was for a long time
traditionary for its terrible violence; and for more
than half a century people talked of the incessant
flashes of the lightning, the stunning and harsh violence
of the thunder, the deluge of rain, the hurricane

which accompanied it, the lofty trees that were
either split with lightning or torn up by the roots by
the wind, and the damage done by the sudden swelling
of the river on that remarkable day.

The party that found shelter under the boat fared
indifferently well; but the others were in a few moments
wet to the skin. The little flexible willows
bent down to let the storm pass over them; but the
sturdy elms and plane-trees stood stiff to the blast
that wrung their arms from their bodies, and scattered
them in the air like straws and feathers. The
rushing winds, the roaring of the troubled waters,
were mingled with incessant flashings of lightning,
accompanied by those quick, sharp explosions of
thunder that proclaim the near approach of the
electric power. At length the little party was roused
by a peal that seemed to have rent the vault of heaven,
and beheld with terror and dismay a vast plane-tree,
within a hundred yards' distance, directly in
front of them, shivered from top to bottom like a
reed. The explosion for a moment stilled the tempest
of rain, during which interval the vast dissevered
trunk stood trembling and nodding, like one
suddenly struck by the hand of death. Another
moment, and the winds resumed their empire, the
vast monarch of the isle fell to the ground with a
tremendous crash, and the force of Omnipotence was
demonstrated in the instantaneous destruction of a
work which long ages had brought to maturity.

The young women screamed, and the youths shuddered,
as they beheld this vast giant of nature yielding
in an instant to a mightier power. But soon they
were drawn off to the contemplation of a new danger.
It is well known how sudden, nay, almost instantaneous,
is the swelling of our rivers, especially near
their sources, and where they traverse a hilly or
mountainous region. The little isle where our scene

is laid was but a few feet above the ordinary level of
the stream, and its surface as flat as the stream itself,
which now began to dash its waves beyond the usual
barrier, until at length the situation of the little party
became extremely critical. The land had become
less safe than the waters, and immediate measures
were taken to prepare for the inundation, by turning
the boat upon her bottom again. The party was
arranged on the benches to the best advantage, and
the young men stood prepared to ply the oars the moment
the boat was floated off. Soon the tremendous
torrent rolled over the surface of the whole island in
one mighty mass of dark waters, speckled with
white foam; and the boat was carried down the
stream with the swiftness of an arrow. The difficulty
was to escape the trees and bushes, which still reared
their heads above the waters, since it was obvious
that nothing could preserve the boat but her being
kept from the slightest interruption in her course.
The great object, therefore, was to avoid every obstacle,
and to keep her head directly down the stream,
till they met with some little nook or cove, where
the current was less violent. In times of danger
the master spirit instinctively takes the lead, and
the lesser ones instinctively yield obedience.

Ever since the coming of the storm Sybrandt had
seemed a new being, animated by a newly-awakened
soul. The excitement of the scene had by degrees
caused him to forget his shyness; and now the presence
of danger and the necessity of exertion roused
into action those qualities which neither himself nor
others were conscious he possessed. He who had
trembled at the idea of being introduced into a
drawing-room, and shrunk from the encounter of a
smiling female eye, now stood erect in the composure
of unawed manhood, with a steady hand and a
steady eye, guiding the little skiff through roaring

whirlpools and angry currents, furiously conflicting
with each other, almost as skilfully as a veteran
Mississippi boatman. All else sat still in the numbness
of irrepressible apprehension. Even the busy
Ariel was motionless in his seat, and his active tongue
silent as the grave. But neither human skill nor
human courage could struggle any length of time with
the power of the waters, every moment aggravated
by new accessions. In turning a projecting point,
round which the current whirled with increased impetuosity,
the boat struck the edge of an old stump
of a tree just beneath the surface, and was upset in
a single instant. Fortunately for some, though, alas!
not for all, the current made a sudden inflexion immediately
below the projecting point into a little
shallow cove, where it subsided into repose. It was
in making for this harbour that the boat unfortunately
encountered the stump, which, as I stated,
was not visible above the waters. It is with sorrowful
emotions I record that the accident was fatal
to two of the innocent girls and one of the young men,
who sat in the bow of the boat, which unfortunately,
as she overturned, sheered out into the stream, and
launched them into the whole force of the current.
They were carried away and their bodies found a
day or two afterward many miles below. The
others, with the exception of Catalina, were shot
directly, and in an instant, by the sudden angle made
by the current, into the little shallow, quiet cove,
where they were all preserved. Catalina was not
one of these. Less strong, and less inured to the
sports and perils of rural life, she became insensible
the moment the accident occurred, and would have
quickly perished, had not Sybrandt swam into the
edge of the turbulent whirlpool where she was floating,
and brought her safely to the land.

Sadly the remnant of our little party returned to

their respective homes without their lost companions,
and sadly they contrasted the beauty of the quiet
genial morning, and the happy anticipations that
beckoned them forward to sportful revelry, with the
uproar of nature, and the gloomy shadows of the evening,
which closed in darkness, sorrow, and death.
The remembrance of this scene, and of the conduct
of Sybrandt, not only before but during the storm,
and in the hour of her extreme peril, was often
afterward called to mind by Catalina, and not unfrequently
checked her inclination to laugh sometimes,
and sometimes to be downright angry with her sheepish,
awkward cousin.—We need not dwell upon the
anxiety of the father and mother of our heroine, nor
of the good Dennis, who, in the midst of his fears,
could not help crying out against and sparing not
this new-fangled custom of making parties for the
island, though both tradition and history avouch that
these sports were coeval with the commencement
of our happy era of honest simplicity. Suffice it to
say, that the good parents received their only child
as one a second time bestowed upon them by the
bounty of Heaven, and that they were full of gratitude
to Sybrandt,—whose inspiration seemed now
departed from him. The crisis that awakened his
sleeping energies having passed away, his long-cherished
habits again beset him; instead of expressing
his joy at having been instrumental in preserving
Catalina, and showing his sensibility to the parents'
gratitude, he became embarrassed, silent, awkward,
stultified—and finally vanished away no one knew
whither. We must not omit to record that from
this time forward the worthy Ariel attended the
Dominie's sermons regularly twice every Sabbath;
a custom he had never followed before, inasmuch
as he had a most sovereign propensity to falling
asleep and disturbing the congregation by snoring.