Home as Found by James Fenimore Cooper (diy ebook reader txt) 📕

Effingham, we were running along a weather-shore, as close in as we

could get, to be in the eddy, when a squall struck her a-beam, and

she luffed right on to the beach. No helping it. Helm hard up, peak

down, head sheets to windward, and main sheet flying, but it was all

too late; away she went plump ashore to windward. But for that

accident, I think I might have married."

"And what connexion could you find between matrimony and this

accident, captain?" demanded the laughing Eve.

"There was an admonition in it, my dear young lady, that I thought

was not to be disregarded. I tried the Wilful Girl next, and she was

thrown on her beam-ends with me; after which I renounced all female

names, and took to the Egyptian."

"The Egyptian!"

"Certainly, Regulus, who was a great snake-killer, they tell me, in

that part of the world. But I never saw my way quite clear as

bachelor, until I got the Dawn. Did you know that ship, friend?"

"I believe, sir, I made two passages in her while you commanded her."

"Nothing more likely; we carried lots of your countrymen, though

mostly forward of the gangways. I commanded the Dawn more than twenty

years ago."

"It is all of that time since I crossed with you, sir; you may

remember that we fell in with a wreck, ten days after we sailed, and

took off her crew and two passengers. Three or four of the latter had

died with their sufferings, and several of the people."

"All this seems but as yesterday! The wreck was a Charleston ship

that had started a butt."

"Yes, sir--yes, sir--that is just it--she had started, _but_ could

not get in. That is just what they said at the time. I am David,

sir--I should think you _cannot_ have forgotten David."

The honest captain was very willing to gratify the other's harmless

self-importance, though, to tell the truth, he retained no more

personal knowledge of the David of the Dawn, than he had of David,

King of the Jews.

"Oh, David!" he cried, cordially--"are _you_ David? Well, I did not

expect to see you again in this world, though I never doubted where

we should be, hereafter I hope you are very well, David; what sort of

weather have you made of it since we parted? If I recollect aright,

you worked your passage;--never at sea before."

"I beg your pardon, sir; I never was at sea before the _first_ time,

it is true; but I did not belong to the crew. I was a passenger."

"I remember, now, you were in the steerage," returned the captain,

who saw daylight ahead.

"Not at all, sir, but in the cabin."

"Cabin!" echoed the captain, who perceived none of the requisites of

a cabin-passenger in the other--"Oh! I understand, in the pantry?"

"Exactly so, sir. You may remember my master--he had the left-hand

state-room to himself, and I slept next to the scuttle-butt. You

recollect master, sir?"

"Out of doubt, and a very good fellow he was. I hope you live with

him still?"

"Lord bless you, sir, he is dead!"

"Oh! I recollect hearing of it, at the time. Well, David. I hope if

ever we cross again, we shall be ship-mates once more. We were

beginners, then, but we have ships worth living in, now.--Good

night."

"Do you remember Dowse, sir, that we got from the wreck?" continued

the other, unwilling to give up his gossip so soon. "He was a dark

man, that had had the small-pox badly. I think, sir, you will

recollect _him_, for he was a hard man in other particulars, besides

his countenance."

"Somewhat flinty about the soul; I remember the man well; and so,

David, good night; you will come and see me, if you are ever in town.

Good night, David."

David was now compelled to leave the place, for Captain Truck, who

perceived that the whole party was getting together again, in

consequence of the halt, felt the propriety of dismissing his

visiter, of whom, his master, and Dowse, he retained just as much

recollection as one retains of a common stage-coach companion after

twenty years. The appearance of Mr. Howel, who just at that moment

approached them, aided the manoeuvre, and, in a few minutes the

different groups were again in motion, though some slight changes had

taken place in the distribution of the parties.

music to attending ears!"

ROMEO AND JULIET.

"A poor matter, this of the fire-works," said Mr. Howel, who, with an

old bachelor's want of tact, had joined Eve and Paul in their walk.

"The English would laugh at them famously, I dare say. Have you heard

Sir George allude to them at all, Miss Eve?"

"It would be great affectation for an Englishman to deride the fire-

works of any _dry_ climate," said Eve laughing; "and I dare say, if

Sir George Templemore has been silent on the subject, it is because

he is conscious he knows little about it."

"Well, that is odd! I should think England the very first country in

the world for fire-works. I hear, Miss Eve, that, on the whole, the

baronet is rather pleased with us; and I must say that he is getting

to be very popular in Templeton."

"Nothing is easier than for an Englishman to become popular in

America," observed Paul, "especially if his condition in life be

above that of the vulgar. He has only to declare himself pleased with

America; or, to be sincerely hated, to declare himself displeased."

"And in what does America differ from any other country, in this

respect?" asked Eve, quickly.

"Not much, certainly; love induces love, and dislike, dislike. There

is nothing new in all this; but the people of other countries, having

more confidence in themselves, do not so sensitively inquire what

others think of them. I believe this contains the whole difference."

"But Sir George does _rather_ like us?" inquired Mr. Howel, with

interest.

"He likes some of us particularly well," returned Eve. "Do you not

know that my cousin Grace is to become Mrs.--I beg her pardon--Lady

Templemore, very shortly?"

"Good God!--Is that possible--Lady Templemore!--Lady Grace

Templemore!"

"Not Lady Grace Templemore, but Grace, Lady Templemore, and graceful

Lady Templemore in the bargain."

"And this honour, my dear Miss Eve, they tell me you refused!"

"They tell you wrong then, sir," answered the young lady, a little

startled with the suddenness and _brusquerie_ of the remark, and yet

prompt to do justice to all concerned. "Sir George Templemore never

did me the honour to propose _to_ me, or _for_ me, and consequently

he _could_ not be refused."

"It is very extraordinary!--I hear you were actually acquainted in

Europe?"

"We were, Mr. Howel, actually acquainted in Europe, but I knew

hundreds of persons in Europe, who have never dreamed of asking me to

marry them."

"This is very strange--quite unlooked for--to marry Miss Van

Cortlandt! Is Mr. John Effingham in the grounds?"

Eve made no answer, but Paul hurriedly observed--"You will find him

in the next walk, I think, by returning a short distance, and taking

the first path to the left."

Mr. Howel did as told, and was soon out of sight.

"That is a most earnest believer in English superiority, and, one may

say, by his strong desire to give you an English husband, Miss

Effingham, in English merit."

"It is the weak spot in the character of a very honest man. They tell

me such instances were much more frequent in this country thirty

years since, than they are to-day."

"I can easily believe it, for I think I remember some characters of

the sort, myself. I have heard those who are older than I am, draw a

distinction like this between the state of feeling that prevailed

forty years ago, and that which prevails to-day; they say that,

formerly, England absolutely and despotically thought for America, in

all but those cases in which the interests of the two nations

conflicted; and I have even heard competent judges affirm, that so

powerful was the influence of habit, and so successful the schemes of

the political managers of the mother country, that even many of those

who fought for the independence of America, actually doubted of the

propriety of their acts, as Luther is known to have had fits of

despondency concerning the justness of the reformation he was

producing; while, latterly, the leaning towards England is less the

result of a simple mental dependence,--though of that there still

remains a disgraceful amount--than of calculation, and a desire in a

certain class to defeat the dominion of the mass, and to establish

that of a few in its stead."

"It would, indeed, be a strange consummation of the history of this

country, to find it becoming monarchical!"

"There are a few monarchists no doubt springing up in the country,

though almost entirely in a class that only knows the world through

the imagination and by means of books; but the disposition, in our

time, is to aristocracy, and not to monarchy. Most men that get to be

rich, discover that they are no happier for their possessions;

perhaps every man who has not been trained and prepared to use his

means properly, is in this category, as our friend the captain would

call it, and then they begin to long for some other untried

advantages. The example of the rest of the world is before our own

wealthy, and, _faute d'imagination_, they imitate because they cannot

invent. Exclusive political power is also a great ally in the

accumulation of money, and a portion have the sagacity to see it;

though I suspect more pine for the vanities of the exclusive classes,

than for the substance. Your sex, Miss Effingham, as a whole, is not

above this latter weakness, as I think you must have observed in your

intercourse with those you met abroad."

"I met with some instances of weakness, in this way," said Eve, with

reserve, and with the pride of a woman, "though not more, I think,

than among the men; and seldom, in either case, among those whom we

are accustomed to consider people of condition at home. The self-

respect and the habits of the latter, generally preserved them from

betraying this feebleness of character, if indeed they felt it."

"The Americans abroad may be divided into two great classes; those

who go for improvement in the sciences or the arts, and those who go

for mere amusement. As a whole, the former have struck me as being

singularly respectable, equally removed from an apish servility and a

swaggering pretension of superiority; while, I fear, a majority of

the latter have a disagreeable direction towards the vanities."

"I will not affirm the contrary," said Eve, "for frivolity and

pleasure are only too closely associated in ordinary minds. The

number of those who prize the elegancies of life, for their intrinsic

value, is every where small, I should think; and I question if Europe

is much better off than ourselves, in this respect."

"This may be true, and yet one can only regret that, in a case where

so much depends on example, the tone of our people was not more

assimilated to their facts. I do not know whether you were struck

with the same peculiarity, but, whenever I felt in the mood to hear

high monarchical and aristocratical doctrines blindly promulgated, I

used to go to the nearest American Legation."

"I have heard this fact commented on," Eve answered, "and even by

foreigners, and I confess it has always struck me as singular. Why

should the agent of a republic make a parade of his anti-republican

sentiments?"

"That there are exceptions, I will allow; but, after the experience

of many years, I honestly think that such is the rule. I might

distrust my own opinion, or my own knowledge; but others, with

opportunities equal to my own, have come to the same conclusion. I

have just received a letter from Europe, complaining that an American

Envoy Extraordinary, who would as soon think of denouncing himself,

as utter the same sentiments openly at home, has given an opinion

against the utility of the vote by ballot; and this, too, under

circumstances that might naturally