University of Virginia Library

9. CHAPTER IX.

Sunday morning rose clear and bright on Harpswell
Bay. The whole sea was a waveless, blue looking-glass,
streaked with bands of white, and flecked with sailing cloud-shadows
from the skies above.

Orr's Island, with its blue-black spruces, its silver firs,
its golden larches, its scarlet sumachs, lay on the bosom
of the deep like a great many-colored gem on an enchanted
mirror.

A vague, dreamlike sense of rest and Sabbath stillness
seemed to brood in the air. The very spruce-trees seemed
to know that it was Sunday, and to point solemnly upward
with their dusky fingers; and the small tide-waves that
chased each other up on the shelly beach, or broke against
projecting rocks, seemed to do it with a chastened decorum,
as if each blue-haired wave whispered to his brother, “Be
still — be still.”

Yes, Sunday it was along all the beautiful shores of
Maine — netted in green and azure by its thousand islands,
all glorious with their majestic pines, all musical and silvery
with the caresses of the sea-waves, that loved to wander
and lose themselves in their numberless shelly coves and
tiny beaches among their cedar shadows.

Not merely as a burdensome restraint, or a weary endurance,
came the shadow of that Puritan Sabbath. It brought
with it all the sweetness that belongs to rest, all the sacredness

that hallows home, all the memories of patient thrift,
of sober order, of chastened yet intense family feeling, of
calmness, purity, and self-respecting dignity which distinguish
the Puritan household.

It seemed a solemn pause in all the sights and sounds of
earth. And he whose moral nature was not yet enough
developed to fill the blank with visions of heaven, was yet
wholesomely instructed by his weariness into the secret of
his own spiritual poverty.

Zephaniah Pennel, in his best Sunday clothes, with his
hard visage glowing with a sort of interior tenderness, ministered
this morning at his family-altar — one of those thousand
priests of God's ordaining that tend the sacred fire in
as many families of New England.

He had risen with the morning star and been forth to
meditate, and came in with his mind softened and glowing.
The trancelike calm of earth and sea found a solemn answer
with him, as he read what a poet wrote by the sea-shores of
the Mediterranean, ages ago: — “Bless the Lord, O my
soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art
clothed with honor and majesty. Who coverest thyself
with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens
like a curtain: who layeth the beams of his chambers in the
waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh
upon the wings of the wind. The trees of the Lord are full
of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;
where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, the firtrees
are her house. O Lord, how manifold are thy works!
in wisdom hast thou made them all.”

Ages ago the cedars that the poet saw have rotted into
dust, and from their cones have risen generations of others,
wide-winged and grand. But the words of that poet have

been wafted like seed to our days, and sprung up in flowers
of trust and faith in a thousand households.

“Well, now,” said Miss Ruey, when the morning rite was
over, “Mis' Pennel, I s'pose you and the Cap'n will be
wantin' to go to the meetin', so don't you gin yourse'ves a
mite of trouble about the children, for I 'll stay at home with
'em. The little feller was starty and fretful in his sleep last
night, and did n't seem to be quite well.”

“No wonder, poor dear,” said Mrs. Pennel; “it 's a wonder
children can forget as they do.”

“Yes,” said Miss Ruey; “you know them lines in the
`English Reader,' —

Them lines all'ys seemed to me affectin'.”

Miss Ruey's sentiment was here interrupted by a loud
cry from the bedroom, and something between a sneeze and
a howl.

“Massy, what is that ar young un up to!” she exclaimed,
rushing into the adjoining bedroom.

There stood the young Master Hopeful of our story, with
streaming eyes and much-bedaubed face, having just, after
much labor, succeeded in making Miss Ruey's snuff-box fly
open, which he did with such force as to send the contents
in a perfect cloud into eyes, nose, and mouth.

The scene of struggling and confusion that ensued cannot
be described. The washings, and wipings, and sobbings,
and exhortings, and the sympathetic sobs of the little Mara,
formed a small tempest for the time being that was rather
appalling.

“Well, this 'ere 's a youngster that 's a-goin' to make
work,” said Miss Ruey, when all things were tolerably
restored. “Seems to make himself at home first thing.”

“Poor little dear,” said Mrs. Pennel, in the excess of
loving-kindness, “I hope he will; he 's welcome, I 'm
sure.”

“Not to my snuff-box,” said Miss Ruey, who had felt
herself attacked in a very tender point.

“He 's got the notion of lookin' into things pretty early,”
said Captain Pennel, with an indulgent smile.

“Well, Aunt Ruey,” said Mrs. Pennel, when this disturbance
was somewhat abated, “I feel kind o' sorry to deprive
you of your privileges to-day.”

“Oh! never mind me,” said Miss Ruey, briskly. “I 've
got the big Bible, and I can sing a hymn or two by myself.
My voice a'n't quite what it used to be, but then I get a
good deal of pleasure out of it.”

Aunt Ruey, it must be known, had in her youth been one
of the foremost leaders in the “singers' seats,” and now was
in the habit of speaking of herself much as a retired prima
donna might, whose past successes were yet in the minds
of her generation.

After giving a look out of the window, to see that the
children were within sight, she opened the big Bible at the
story of the ten plagues of Egypt, and adjusting her horn
spectacles with a sort of sideway twist on her little pug nose,
she seemed intent on her Sunday duties. A moment after
she looked up and said, —

“I don't know but I must send a message by you over to
Mis' Deacon Badger, about a worldly matter, if 't is Sunday;
but I 've been thinkin', Mis' Pennel, that there 'll
have to be clothes made up for this 'ere child next week,

and so perhaps Roxy and I had better stop here a day or
two longer, and you tell Mis' Badger that we 'll come to
her a Wednesday, and so she 'll have time to have that new
press-board done, — the old one used to pester me so.”

“Well, I 'll remember,” said Mrs. Pennel.

“It seems a'most impossible to prevent one's thoughts
wanderin' Sundays,” said Aunt Ruey; “but I couldn't help
a-thinkin' I could get such a nice pair o' trousers out of
them old Sunday ones of the Cap'n's in the garret. I was
a-lookin' at 'em last Thursday, and thinkin' what a pity 't was
you had n't nobody to cut down for; but this 'ere young un 's
going to be such a tearer, he 'll want somethin' real stout;
but I 'll try and put it out of my mind till Monday. Mis'
Pennel, you 'll be sure to ask Mis' Titcomb how Harriet's
toothache is, and whether them drops cured her that I gin
her last Sunday; and ef you 'll jist look in a minute at
Major Broad's, and tell 'em to use bayberry wax for his
blister, it 's so healin'; and do jist ask if Sally's baby's eyetooth
has come through yet.”

“Well, Aunt Ruey, I 'll try to remember all,” said Mrs.
Pennel, as she stood at the glass in her bedroom, carefully
adjusting the respectable black silk shawl over her shoulders,
and tying her neat bonnet-strings.

“I s'pose,” said Aunt Ruey, “that the notice of the funeral
'll be gin out after sermon.”

“Yes, I think so,” said Mrs. Pennel.

“It 's another loud call,” said Miss Ruey, “and I hope it
will turn the young people from their thoughts of dress and
vanity, — there 's Mary Jane Sanborn was all took up with
gettin' feathers and velvet for her fall bonnet. I don't think
I shall get no bonnet this year till snow comes. My bonnet
's respectable enough, — don't you think so?”

“Certainly, Aunt Ruey, it looks very well.”

“Well, I 'll have the pork and beans and brown-bread
all hot on table agin you come back,” said Miss Ruey, “and
then after dinner we 'll all go down to the funeral together.
Mis' Pennel, there 's one thing on my mind, — what you
goin' to call this 'ere boy?”

“Father and I 've been thinkin' that over,” said Mrs.
Pennel.

“Would n't think of giv'n him the Cap'n's name?” said
Aunt Ruey.

“He must have a name of his own,” said Captain Pennel.
“Come here, sonny,” he called to the child, who was playing
just beside the door.

The child lowered his head, shook down his long black
curls, and looked through them as elfishly as a Skye terrier,
but showed no inclination to come.

“One thing he has n't learned, evidently,” said Captain
Pennel, “and that is to mind.”

“Here!” he said, turning to the boy with a little of the
tone he had used of old on the quarter-deck, and taking his
small hand firmly.

The child surrendered, and let the good man lift him on
his knee and stroke aside the clustering curls; the boy then
looked fixedly at him with his great gloomy black eyes, his
little firm-set mouth and bridled chin, — a perfect little
miniature of proud manliness.

“What 's your name, little boy?”

The great eyes continued looking in the same solemn
quiet.

“Law, he don't understand a word,” said Zephaniah, putting
his hand kindly on the child's head; “our tongue is all
strange to him. Kittridge says he 's a Spanish child; maybe

from the West Indies; but nobody knows, — we never
shall know his name.”

“Well, I dare say it was some Popish nonsense or other,”
said Aunt Ruey; “and now he 's come to a land of Christian
privileges, we ought to give him a good Scripture name, and
start him well in the world.”

“Let 's call him Moses,” said Zephaniah, “because we
drew him out of the water.”

“Now, did I ever!” said Miss Ruey; “there 's something
in the Bible to fit everything, a'n't there?”

“I like Moses, because I had a brother of that name,”
said Mrs. Pennel.

The child had slid down from his protector's knee, and
stood looking from one to the other gravely while this discussion
was going on.

What change of destiny was then going on for him in this
simple formula of adoption, none could tell; but, surely,
never orphan stranded on a foreign shore found home with
hearts more true and loving.

“Well, wife, I suppose we must be goin',” said Zephaniah.

About a stone's throw from the open door, the little fishing-craft
lay courtesying daintily on the small tide-waves
that came licking up the white pebbly shore.

Mrs. Pennel seated herself in the end of the boat, and a
pretty placid picture she was, with her smooth, parted hair,
her modest, cool, drab bonnet, and her bright hazel eyes, in
which was the Sabbath calm of a loving and tender heart.

Zephaniah loosed the sail, and the two children stood on
the beach and saw them go off. A pleasant little wind carried
them away, and back on the breeze came the sound
of Zephaniah's Sunday-morning psalm: —

The surface of the glassy bay was dotted here and there
with the white sails of other little craft bound for the same
point and for the same purpose. It was as pleasant a sight
as one might wish to see.

Left in charge of the house, Miss Ruey drew a long
breath, took a consoling pinch of snuff, sang “Bridge-water”
in an uncommonly high key, and then began reading
in the prophecies.

With her good head full of the “daughter of Zion” and
the house of Israel and Judah, she was recalled to terrestrial
things by loud screams from the barn, accompanied by a
general flutter and cackling among the hens.

Away plodded the good soul, and opening the barn-door
saw the little boy perched on the top of the hay-mow,
screaming and shrieking, — his face the picture of dismay,—
while poor little Mara's cries came in a more muffled manner
from some unexplored lower region. In fact, she was found
to have slipped through a hole in the hay-mow into the
nest of a very domestic sitting-hen, whose clamors at the
invasion of her family privacy added no little to the general
confusion.

The little princess, whose nicety as to her dress and sensitiveness
as to anything unpleasant about her pretty person
we have seen, was lifted up streaming with tears and broken
eggs, but otherwise not seriously injured, having fallen on

the very substantial substratum of hay which Dame Poulet
had selected as the foundation of her domestic hopes.

“Well, now, did I ever!” said Miss Ruey, when she had
ascertained that no bones were broken; “if that ar young
un is n't a limb! I declare for 't I pity Mis' Pennel, —
she don't know what she 's undertook. How upon 'arth
the critter managed to get Mara on to the hay, I 'm sure I
can't tell, — that ar little thing never got into no such
scrapes before.”

Far from seeming impressed with any wholesome remorse
of conscience, the little culprit frowned fierce defiance at
Miss Ruey, when, after having repaired the damages of
little Mara's toilet, she essayed the good old plan of shutting
him into the closet. He fought and struggled so
fiercely that Aunt Ruey's carroty frisette came off in the
skirmish, and her head-gear, always rather original, assumed
an aspect verging on the supernatural.

Miss Ruey thought of Philistines and Moabites, and all
the other terrible people she had been reading about that
morning, and came as near getting into a passion with the
little elf as so good-humored and Christian an old body
could possibly do. Human virtue is frail, and every one
has some vulnerable point. The old Roman senator could
not control himself when his beard was invaded, and the
like sensitiveness resides in an old woman's cap; and when
young master irreverently clawed off her Sunday best, Aunt
Ruey, in her confusion of mind, administered a sound cuff
on either ear.

Little Mara, who had screamed loudly through the whole
scene, now conceiving that her precious new-found treasure
was endangered, flew at poor Miss Ruey with both little
hands; and throwing her arms round her “boy,” as she

constantly called him, she drew him backward, and looked
defiance at the common enemy. Miss Ruey was dumb-struck.

“I declare for 't, I b'lieve he 's bewitched her,” she said,
stupefied, having never seen anything like the martial expression
which now gleamed from those soft brown eyes.
“Why, Mara dear, — putty little Mara.”

But Mara was busy wiping away the angry tears that
stood on the hot, glowing cheeks of the boy, and offering her
little rose-bud of a mouth to kiss him, as she stood on tiptoe.

“Poor boy, — no kie, — Mara's boy,” she said, — “Mara
love boy;” and then giving an angry glance at Aunt Ruey,
who sat much disheartened and confused, she struck out her
little pearly hand, and cried, “Go way, — go way, naughty!”

The child jabbered unintelligibly and earnestly to Mara,
and she seemed to have the air of being perfectly satisfied
with his view of the case, and both regarded Miss Ruey
with frowning looks.

Under these peculiar circumstances, the good soul began
to bethink her of some mode of compromise, and going to
the closet took out a couple of slices of cake, which she
offered to the little rebels with pacificatory words.

Mara was appeased at once, and ran to Aunt Ruey; but
the boy struck the cake out of her hand, and looked at her
with steady defiance. The little one picked it up, and with
much chippering and many little feminine manœuvres, at
last succeeded in making him taste it, after which appetite
got the better of his valorous resolutions, — he ate and was
comforted; and after a little time, the three were on the
best possible footing. And Miss Ruey having smoothed her
hair, and arranged her frisette and cap, began to reflect
upon herself as the cause of the whole disturbance. If

she had not let them run while she indulged in reading
and singing, this would not have happened. So the toilful
good soul kept them at her knee for the next hour
or two, while they looked through all the pictures in the
old family Bible.

The evening of that day witnessed a crowded funeral in
the small rooms of Captain Kittridge. Mrs. Kittridge was
in her glory. Solemn and lugubrious to the last degree,
she supplied in her own proper person the want of the
whole corps of mourners, who generally attract sympathy
on such occasions.

But what drew artless pity from all was the unconscious
orphan, who came in, led by Mrs. Pennel by the one hand,
and with the little Mara by the other.

The simple rite of baptism administered to the wondering
little creature so strongly recalled that other scene three
years before, that Mrs. Pennel hid her face in her handkerchief,
and Zephaniah's firm hand shook a little as he took
the boy to offer him to the rite. The child received the
ceremony with a look of grave surprise, put up his hand
quickly and wiped the holy drops from his brow, as if they
annoyed him; and shrinking back, seized hold of the gown
of Mrs. Pennel. His great beauty, and, still more, the air
of haughty, defiant firmness with which he regarded the
company, drew all eyes, and many were the whispered
comments.

“Pennel 'll have his hands full with that ar chap,” said
Captain Kittridge to Miss Roxy.

Mrs. Kittridge darted an admonitory glance at her husband,
to remind him that she was looking at him, and immediately
he collapsed into solemnity.

The evening sunbeams slanted over the blackberry bushes
and mullein stalks of the graveyard, when the lonely voyager
was lowered to the rest from which she should not rise
till the heavens be no more. As the purple sea at that
hour retained no trace of the ships that had furrowed its
waves, so of this mortal traveller no trace remained, not
even in that infant soul that was to her so passionately
dear.