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If Mrs. Lenox had not half accepted the invitation already, I am notsure but this intimation would have been too much for her courage.However, she was an outwardly well-bred woman; that is, like so manyothers, well-bred when there was nothing to gain by being otherwise; and so she excused her hesitation and doubt by the plea of being "sodusty." There was help for that; Lois took her upstairs to a neatchamber, and furnished her with water and towels.
It was new experience to the city lady. She took note, halfdisdainfully, of the plainness of the room; the painted floor, yellowand shining, which boasted only one or two little strips of carpet; thecommon earthenware toilet-set; the rush-bottomed chairs. On the otherhand, there was an old mahogany dressing bureau; a neat bed; and waterand towels (the latter coarse) were exceedingly fresh and sweet. Shemade up her mind to go through with the adventure, and rejoined herhusband with a composed mind.
Lois took them first to the sitting-room, where they were introduced toMrs. Barclay, and then they all went out at the back door of the house, and across a little grassy space, to a gate leading into a lane. Herestood the cart, in which the rest of the family was already bestowed;Mrs. Armadale being in an arm-chair with short legs, while Madge andCharity sat in the straw with which the whole bottom of the cart wasspread. A tall, oldish man, with an ox whip, stood leaning against thefence and surveying things.
"Are we to go in there?" said Mrs. Lenox, with perceptible doubt.
"It's the only carriage we have to offer you," said Lois merrily. "Foryour sake, I wish we had a better; for my own, I like nothing so wellas an ox cart. Mrs. Barclay, will you get in? and stimulate this lady'scourage?"
A kitchen chair had been brought out to facilitate the operation; andMrs. Barclay stepped lightly in, curled herself down in the soft bed ofstraw, and declared that it was very comfortable. With an expression offace which made Lois and Madge laugh for weeks after when they recalledit, Mrs. Lenox stepped gingerly in, following, and took her place.
"Grandmother," said Lois, "this is Mrs. Lenox, whom you have heard mespeak about. And these are my sisters, Madge and Charity, Mrs. Lenox.And grandmother, this is Mr. Lenox. Now, you see the cart has roomenough," she added, as herself and the gentleman also took their seats.
"Is that the hull of ye?" inquired now the man with the ox whip, comingforward. "And be all your stores got in for the v'yage? I don't want tobe comin' back from somewheres about half-way."
"All right, Mr. Sears," said Lois. "You may drive on. Mother, are youcomfortable?"
And then there was a "whoa" – ing and a "gee" – ing and a mysteriousflourishing of the long leathern whip, with which the driver seemed tobe playing; for if its tip touched the shoulders of the oxen it did nomore, though it waved over them vigorously. But the oxen understood, and pulled the cart forward; lifting and setting down their heavy feetwith great deliberation seemingly, but with equal certain'ty, andswaying their great heads gently from side to side as they went. Loiswas so much amused at her guests' situation, that she had somedifficulty to keep her features in their due calmness and sobriety.Mrs. Lenox eyed the oxen, then the contents of the cart, then thefields.
"Slow travelling!" said Lois, with a smile.
"Can they go no faster?"
"They could go a little faster if they were urged; but that would spoilthe comfort of the whole thing. The entire genius of a ride in an oxcart is, that everybody should take his ease."
"Oxen included?" said Mr. Lenox.
"Why not?"
"Why not, indeed!" said the gentleman, smiling. "Only, ordinary peoplecannot get rid easily of the notion that the object of going is to getsomewhere."
"That's not the object in this case," Lois answered merrily. "The onesole object is fun."
Mrs. Lenox said nothing more, but her face spoke as plainly aspossible, And you call this fun!
"I am enjoying myself very much," said Mrs. Barclay. "I think it isdelightful."
Something in her manner of speech made Mr. Lenox look at her. She wassitting next him on the cart bottom.
"Perhaps this is a new experience also to you?" he said.
"Delightfully new. Never rode in an ox cart before in my life; hardlyever saw one, in fact. We are quite out of the race and struggle anduneasiness of the world, don't you see? There comes down a feeling ofrepose upon one, softly, as Longfellow says —
'As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.'
Only I should say in this case it was from the wing of an angel."
"Mrs. Barclay, you are too poetical for an ox cart," said Lois, laughing. "If we began to be poetical, I am afraid the repose would betroubled."
"'Twont du Poetry no harm to go in an ox cart," remarked here the oxdriver.
"I agree with you, sir," said Mrs. Barclay. "Poetry would not be Poetryif she could not ride anywhere. But why should she trouble repose.Lois?"
"Yes," added Mr. Lenox; "I was about to ask that question. I thoughtpoetry was always soothing. Or that the ladies at least think so."
"I like it well enough," said Lois, "but I think it is apt to bemelancholy. Except in hymns."
"Except hymns!" said Mrs. Lenox. "I thought hymns were always sad.They deal so much with death and the grave."
"And the resurrection!" said Lois.
"They always make me gloomy," the lady went on. "The resurrection! doyou call that a lively subject?"
"Depends on how you look at it, I suppose," said her husband. "But,Miss Lothrop, I cannot recover from my surprise at your assertionrespecting non-religious poetry."
Lois left that statement alone. She did not care whether he recoveredor not. Mr. Lenox, however, was curious.
"I wish you would show me on what your opinion is founded," he went onpleasantly.
"Yes, Lois, justify yourself," said Mrs. Barclay.
"I could not do that without making quotations, Mrs. Barclay, and I amafraid I cannot remember enough. Besides, it would hardly beinteresting."
"To me it would," said Mrs. Barclay. "Where could one have a bettertime? The oxen go so comfortably, and leisure is so graciouslyabundant."
"Pray go on, Miss Lothrop!" Mr. Lenox urged.
"And then I hope you'll go on and prove hymns lively," added his wife.
The conversation which followed was long enough to have a chapter toitself; and so may be comfortably skipped by any who are so inclined.
CHAPTER XXX
POETRY
"Perhaps you will none of you agree with me," Lois said; "and I do notknow much poetry; but there seems to me to run an undertone of lamentand weariness through most of what I know. Now take the 'Death of theFlowers,' – that you were reading yesterday, Mrs. Barclay —
'The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore,And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more.'That is the tone I mean; a sigh and a regret."
"But the 'Death of the Flowers' is exquisite," pleaded Mrs. Lenox.
"Certainly it is," said Lois; "but is it gay?
'The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago,And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow;But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood,And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood,Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men,And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen.""How you remember it, Lois!" said Mrs. Barclay.
"But is not that all true?" asked Mr. Lenox.
"True in fact," said Lois. "The flowers do die. But the frost does notfall like a plague; and nobody that was right happy would say so, orthink so. Take Pringle's 'Afar in the Desert,' Mrs. Barclay —
'When the sorrows of life the soul o'ercast,And sick of the present I turn to the past;When the eye is suffused with regretful tearsFrom the fond recollections of former years,And shadows of things that are long since fled,Flit over the brain like the ghosts of the dead;Bright visions – 'I forget how it goes on."
"But that is as old as the hills!" exclaimed Mrs. Lenox.
"It shows what I mean."
"I am afraid you will not better your case by coming down into moderntime, Mrs. Lenox," remarked Mrs. Barclay. "Take Tennyson —
'With weary steps I loiter on,Though always under altered skies;The purple from the distance dies,My prospect and horizon gone.'""Take Byron," said Lois —
'My days are in the yellow leaf,The flower and fruit of life are gone;The worm, the canker, and the grief,Are mine alone.'""O, Byron was morbid," said Mrs. Lenox.
"Take Moore," Mrs. Barclay went on, humouring the discussion onpurpose. "Do you remember? —
'My birthday! what a different soundThat word had in my younger years!And now, each time the day comes round,Less and less white its mark appears.'""Well, I am sure that is true," said the other lady.
"Do you remember Robert Herrick's lines to daffodils? —
'Fair daffodils, we weep to seeYou haste away so soon.'And then —
'We have short time to stay as you;We have as short a spring;As quick a growth to meet decay,As you or anything:We dieAs your showers do; and dryAwayLike to the summer's rain,Or as the pearls of morning dew,Ne'er to be found again.'And Waller to the rose —
'Then die! that sheThe common fate of all things rareMay read in thee.How small a part of time they share,That are so wondrous sweet and fair!'"And Burns to the daisy," said Lois —
'There in thy scanty mantle clad,Thy snowy bosom sunward spread,Thou lifts thy unassuming headIn humble guise;But now the share uptears thy bed,And low thou lies!'Even thou who mournst the Daisy's fate,That fate is thine – no distant date;Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives, elate,Full on thy bloom,Till, crushed beneath the furrow's weight,Shall be thy doom!'""O, you are getting very gloomy!" exclaimed Mrs. Lenox.
"Not we," said Lois merrily laughing, "but your poets."
"Mend your cause, Julia," said her husband.
"I haven't got the poets in my head," said the lady. "They are not alllike that. I am very fond of Elizabeth Barrett Browning."
"The 'Cry of the Children'?" said Mrs. Barclay.
"O no, indeed! She's not all like that."
"She is not all like that. There is 'Hector in the Garden.'"
"O, that is pretty!" said Lois. "But do you remember how it runs? —
'Nine years old! The first of anySeem the happiest years that come – '""Go on, Lois," said her friend. And the request being seconded, Loisgave the whole, ending with —
'Oh the birds, the tree, the ruddyAnd white blossoms, sleek with rain!Oh my garden, rich with pansies!Oh my childhood's bright romances!All revive, like Hector's body,And I see them stir again!'And despite life's changes – chances,And despite the deathbell's toll,They press on me in full seeming!Help, some angel! stay this dreaming!As the birds sang in the branches,Sing God's patience through my soul!'That no dreamer, no neglecterOf the present work unsped,I may wake up and be doing,Life's heroic ends pursuing,Though my past is dead as Hector,And though Hector is twice dead.'""Well," said Mrs. Lenox slowly, "of course that is all true."
"From her standpoint," said Lois. "That is according to my charge, which you disallowed."
"From her standpoint?" repeated Mr. Lenox. "May I ask for anexplanation?"
"I mean, that as she saw things, —
'The first of any
Seem the happiest years that come.'"
"Well, of course!" said Mrs. Lenox. "Does not everybody say so?"
Nobody answered.
"Does not everybody agree in that judgment, Miss Lothrop?" urged thegentleman.
"I dare say – everybody looking from that standpoint," said Lois. "Andthe poets write accordingly. They are all of them seeing shadows."
"How can they help seeing shadows?" returned Mrs. Lenox impatiently.
"The shadows are there!"
"Yes," said Lois, "the shadows are there." But there was a reservationin her voice.
"Do not you, then, reckon the years of childhood the happiest?" Mr.
Lenox inquired.
"No."
"But you cannot have had much experience of life," said Mrs. Lenox, "tosay so. I don't see how they can help being the happiest, to any one."
"I believe," Lois answered, lowering her voice a little, "that if wecould see all, we should see that the oldest person in our company isthe happiest here."
The eyes of the strangers glanced towards the old lady in her low chairat the front of the ox cart. In her wrinkled face there was not a lineof beauty, perhaps never had been; in spite of its sense and characterunmistakeable; it was grave, she was thinking her own thoughts; it wasweather-beaten, so to say, with the storms of life; and yet there wasan expression of unruffled repose upon it, as calm as the glint ofstars in a still lake. Mrs. Lenox's look was curiously incredulous, scornful, and wistful, together; it touched Lois.
"One's young years ought not to be one's best," she said.
"How are you going to help it?" came almost querulously. Lois thought,if she were Mr. Lenox, she would not feel flattered.
"When one is young, one does not know disappointment," the other wenton.
"And when one is old, one may get the better of disappointment."
"When one is young, everything is fresh."
"I think things grow fresher to me with every year," said Lois, laughing. "Mrs. Lenox, it is possible to keep one's youth."
"Then you have found the philosopher's stone?" said Mr. Lenox.
Lois's smile was brilliant, but she said nothing to that. She wasbeginning to feel that she had talked more than her share, and wasinclined to draw back. Then there came a voice from the arm-chair, itcame upon a pause of stillness, with its quiet, firm tones:
'He satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewedlike the eagle's.'"
The voice came like an oracle, and was listened to with somewhat of thesame silent reverence. But after that pause Mr. Lenox remarked that henever understood that comparison. What was it about an eagle's youth?
"Why," said Lois, "an eagle never grows old!"
"Is that it! But I wish you would go on a little further, Miss Lothrop.You spoke of hymn-writers having a different standpoint, and of theirwords as more cheerful than the utterances of other poets. Do you know,I had never thought other poets were not cheerful, until now; and Icertainly never got the notion that hymns were an enlivening sort ofliterature. I thought they dealt with the shadowy side of life almostexclusively."
"Well – yes, perhaps they do," said Lois; "but they go kindling beaconseverywhere to light it up; and it is the beacons you see, and not thedarkness. Now the secular poets turn that about. They deal with thebrightest things they can find; but, to change the figure, they cannotkeep the minor chord out of their music."
Mr. and Mrs. Lenox looked at each other.
"Do you mean to say," said the latter, "that the hymn-writers do notuse the minor key? They write in it, or they sing in it, more properly, altogether!"
"Yes," said Lois, into whose cheeks a slight colour was mounting; "yes, perhaps; but it is with the blast of the trumpet and the clash of thecymbals of triumph. There may be the confession of pain, but the cry ofvictory is there too!"
"Victory – over what?" said Mrs. Lenox rather scornfully,
"Over pain, for one thing," said Lois; "and over loss, and weariness, and disappointment."
"You will have to confirm your words by examples again, Lois," said
Mrs. Barclay. "We do not all know hymn literature as well as you do."
"I never saw anything of all that in hymns," said Mrs. Lenox. "Theyalways sound a little, to me, like dirges."
Lois hesitated. The cart was plodding along through the smooth lanes atthe rate of less than a mile an hour, the oxen swaying from side toside with their slow, patient steps. The level country around laysleepily still under the hot afternoon sun; it was rarely that anyhuman stir was to be seen, save only the ox driver walking beside thecart. He walked beside the cart, not the oxen; evidently lending acurious ear to what was spoken in the company; on which account alsothe progress of the vehicle was a little less lively than it might havebeen.
"My Cynthy's writ a lot o' hymns," he remarked just here. "I neverheerd no trumpets in 'em, though. I don' know what them other thingsis."
"Cymbals?" said Lois. "They are round, thin plates of metal, Mr. Sears, with handles on one side to hold them by; and the player clashes themtogether, at certain parts of the music – as you would slap the palms ofyour hands."
"Doos, hey? I want to know! And what doos they sound like?"
"I can't tell," said Lois. "They sound shrill, and sweet, and gay."
"But that's cur'ous sort o' church music!" said the farmer.
"Now, Miss Lothrop, – you must let us hear the figurative cymbals," Mr.
Lenox reminded her.
"Do!" said Mrs. Barclay.
"There cannot be much of it," opined Mrs. Lenox.
"On the contrary," said Lois; "there is so much of it that I am at aloss where to begin.
'I love yon pale blue sky; it is the floorOf that glad home where I shall shortly be;A home from which I shall go out no more,From toil and grief and vanity set free.'I gaze upon yon everlasting arch,Up which the bright stars wander as they shine;And, as I mark them in their nightly march,I think how soon that journey shall be mine!'Yon silver drift of silent cloud, far upIn the still heaven – through you my pathway lies:Yon rugged mountain peak – how soon your topShall I behold beneath me, as I rise!'Not many more of life's slow-pacing hours,Shaded with sorrow's melancholy hue;Oh what a glad ascending shall be ours,Oh what a pathway up yon starry blue!'A journey like Elijah's, swift and bright,Caught gently upward to an early crown,In heaven's own chariot of all-blazing light,With death untasted and the grave unknown.'""That's not like any hymn I ever heard," remarked Mrs. Lenox, after apause had followed the last words.
"That is a hymn of Dr. Bonar's," said Lois. "I took it merely becauseit came first into my head. Long ago somebody else wrote something verylike it —
'Ye stars are but the shining dustOf my divine abode;The pavement of those heavenly courtsWhere I shall see my God.'The Father of unnumbered lightsShall there his beams display;And not one moment's darkness mixWith that unvaried day.'Do you hear the cymbals, Mrs. Lenox?"
There came here a long breath, it sounded like a breath of satisfactionor rest; it was breathed by Mrs. Armadale. In the stillness of theirprogress, the slowly revolving wheels making no noise on the smoothroad, and the feet of the oxen falling almost soundlessly, they allheard it; and they all felt it. It was nothing less than an echo ofwhat Lois had been repeating; a mute "Even so!" – probably unconscious, and certainly undesigned. Mrs. Lenox glanced that way. There was afar-off look on the old worn face, and lines of peace all about thelips and the brow and the quiet folded hands. Mrs. Lenox did not knowthat a sigh came from herself as her eyes turned away.
Her husband eyed the three women curiously. They were a study to him, albeit he hardly knew the grammar of the language in which so manythings seemed to be written on their faces. Mrs. Armadale's features,if strong, were of the homeliest kind; work-worn and weather-worn, toboot; yet the young man was filled with reverence as he looked from thehands in their cotton gloves, folded on her lap, to the hard featuresshaded and framed by the white sun-bonnet. The absolute, profound calmwas imposing to him; the still peace of the spirit was attractive. Helooked at his wife; and the contrast struck even him. Her face wasmurky. It was impatience, in part, he guessed, which made it so; but why was she impatient? It was cloudy with unhappiness; and she ought tobe very happy, Mr. Lenox thought; had she not everything in the worldthat she cared about? How could there be a cloud of unrest anddiscontent on her brow, and those displeased lines about her lips? Hiseye turned to Lois, and lingered as long as it dared. There was peacetoo, very sunny, and a look of lofty thought, and a brightness thatseemed to know no shadow; though at the moment she was not smiling.
"Are you not going on, Miss Lothrop?" he said gently; for he felt Mrs.Barclay's eye upon him. And, besides, he wanted to provoke the girl tospeak more.
"I could go on till I tired you," said Lois.
"I do not think you could," he returned pleasantly. "What can we dobetter? We are in a most pastoral frame of mind, with pastoralsurroundings; poetry could not be better accompanied."
"When one gets excited in talking, perhaps one had better stop," Loissaid modestly.
"On the contrary! Then the truth will come out best."
Lois smiled and shook her head. "We shall soon be at the shore.
Look, – this way we turn down to go to it, and leave the high road."
"Then make haste!" said Mr. Lenox. "It will sound nowhere better thanhere."
"Yes, go on," said his wife now, raising her heavy eyelids.
"Well," said Lois. "Do you remember Bryant's 'Thanatopsis'?"
"Of course. That is bright enough at any rate," said the lady.
"Do you think so?"
"Yes! What is the matter with it?"
"Dark – and earthly."
"I don't think so at all!" cried Mrs. Lenox, now becoming excited inher turn. "What would you have? I think it is beautiful! And elevated; and hopeful."
"Can you repeat the last lines?"
"No; but I dare say you can. You seem to me to have a library of poetsin your head."
"I can," said Mrs. Barclay here, putting in her word at this not verycivil speech. And she went on —
'The gay will laughWhen thou art gone, the solemn brood of carePlod on, and each one as before will chaseHis favourite phantom; yet all these shall leaveTheir mirth and their employments, and shall comeAnd make their bed with thee.'""Well, of course," said Mrs. Lenox. "That is true."
"Is it cheerful?" said Mrs. Barclay. "But that is not the last. —
'So live, that when thy summons comes to joinThe innumerable caravan, which movesTo that mysterious realm, where each shall takeHis chamber in the silent halls of death,Thou go not like the quarry-slave at night,Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothedBy an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,Like one who wraps the drapery of his couchAbout him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.'""There!" Mrs. Lenox exclaimed. "What would you have, better than that?"
Lois looked at her, and said nothing. The look irritated husband andwife, in different ways; her to impatience, him to curiosity.
"Have you got anything better, Miss Lothrop?" he asked.
"You can judge. Compare that with a dying Christian's address to hissoul —
'Deathless principle, arise;Soar, thou native of the skies.Pearl of price, by Jesus bought,To his glorious likeness wrought,Go, to shine before the throne;Deck the mediatorial crown;Go, his triumphs to adorn;Made for God, to God return.'I won't give you the whole of it —
'Is thy earthly house distressed?Willing to retain her guest?'Tis not thou, but she, must die;Fly, celestial tenant, fly.'Burst thy shackles, drop thy clay,Sweetly breathe thyself away:Singing, to thy crown remove,Swift of wing, and fired with love.''Shudder not to pass the stream;Venture all thy care on him;Him whose dying love and powerStilled its tossing, hushed its roar.Safe is the expanded wave,Gentle as a summer's eve;Not one object of his careEver suffered shipwreck there.'""That ain't no hymn in the book, is it?" inquired the ox driver.
"Haw! – go 'long. That ain't in the book, is it, Lois?"
"Not in the one we use in church, Mr. Sears."
"I wisht it was! – like it fust-rate. Never heerd it afore in my life."
"There's as good as that in the church book," remarked Mrs. Armadale.
"Yes," said Lois; "I like Wesley's hymn even better —
'Come, let us join our friends aboveThat have obtained the prize;And on the eagle wings of loveTo joys celestial rise.…
'One army of the living God,To his command we bow;Part of his host have crossed the floodAnd part are crossing now.....
'His militant embodied host,With wishful looks we stand,And long to see that happy coast,And reach the heavenly land.'E'en now, by faith, we join our handsWith those that went before;And greet the blood-besprinkled bandsOn the eternal shore.'"