Humphry; a tradition

Front matter

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Preface

A long time ago, when people were not as wise and well-taught and enlightened as everybody is now, there happened many strange things. And one of the strangest that I have heard of is this history of Remembrance Pettipher and the Servant of Borough Pits, which I have here endeavoured to write down as it was told to me. And because neither the name of the country where it happened, nor the time, was given me, I have said nothing about them either. Only the names and circum stances are English. But I think that though you look through as many county maps as you please and as long and carefully as you may, you will not find Borough and Hilary Nook and Brownwood in their valleys on the wide tableland, or Stony Down or Stepple. These places may have other names by now. Who knows? Steady well-con ducted folks would hardly like to think that their

PREFACE.

. great-grandfathers believed and acted as Miss Embrance and the Elds and Wainmans and Hobblers did; to say nothing of the Reverend Bernard Calisher, who ought to have known better. Again, there is no written record of the obscure doings of Humphry Stoly, but what of that? If it should come to your ear — even now, in this reasonable nineteenth century — that, on some silent ridge of hill, a quaint figure is once and again seen by the lonely moonlight busy at his task of ranging and polishing his great vessels of the flashing gold and silver ; why, then you will know that tales of fairy hoards are not all lies. And so to my story. i HUMPHRY.

Chapter I

A STRANGE-LOOKING man sat on a doorstep of the old farmhouse of Borough Pits, engaged in an equally strange occupation. I have said the man was a strange-looking man. He was slight and small in person, with a shock head of rough, per fectly white hair, and a face from which it was most difficult to judge what his age might be. It was a strong, set face, very colourless, enlivened by a pair of eyes of extraordinary sharpness and bril liance : a face that had few changes of expression, and those not agreeable ones. Every movement of the man, as he worked assiduously at his singular occupation, was characteristic of him. He had remarkably slender and delicate hands, but there was a certain quaint suggestion of goblindom in his way of using them, as well as in the poise of his head and the attitude of his limbs.

If he had been smaller, and had had a red cap on his rough hair, he would have been an elf. In reality he was Miss Remembrance Pettipher's servant, and his name was Humphry Stoly. Humphry's clothes were of brown; a dull earth tmmpbri_. 2 colour. The setting sun shone directly on him, throwing his figure into strong relief against the dark background of the open doorway, and flashing on what he held in his hands and what lay in a heap beside him — cups and vessels of antique form, and of some metal that shone like gold. One would have said certainly that it was gold,— only, how came rich gold plate in a lonely farmhouse ? It was — whatever the material might be — in rubbing and polishing these things to the greatest possible point of brilliancy that he was occupied. He was entirely absorbed in his work, labouring for minutes at a minute speck or hint of dulness, only putting each article out of his hand when it at last seemed to rival the sun himself in purity of brightness and colour.

Miss Embrance — as she was always called — sat at a window that commanded this doorway: a sombre looking woman, knitting at a black stocking. She was careful not to let Humphry think that she watched him: but now and then she stole glances at his figure. She too was pale, but sallower than he; over her head she wore a black kerchief tied beneath the chin. Her hair was still black, though she was nearly sixty; her eyes, which had been fine in her youth, had lost very little of their beauty. On the whole, she was, with her tall and rather stately, though spare figure, a striking-looking woman ; and at times her grave face had much sweetness of expression. Miss Embrance was sitting with the door of the wide low kitchen open. Suddenly she paused in tmmpbn?. 3 her knitting, listened, unfastened the window, and called in a low, hurried tone, " Humphry !

Humphry ! " He glanced up at her frowning, for the sun was in his eyes. " I hear steps coming. The man made no response except by removing himself and his things out of sight. Miss Embrance, leaving the window open, worked steadily on till the steps had reached the outer door, and were, after a short interval, followed by a knock. Then she rose and went to the door. A woman, no longer young, in soiled cheap finery, stood there with two children, all three dusty and travel-stained. " This is Borough Pits, isn't it ? " asked the woman. " Yes, " said Miss Embrance. " Then," said the woman, " you must be Anthony's and Stephen's aunt. This is Anthony," pushing forward a tall boy of ten or eleven. " Don't you know me, Miss Pettipher? You can guess who I am, surely ? " " Is it my brother Joseph's wife ?

" asked Miss Embrance, a trifle faintly, for her precise and orderly soul was dismayed within her at the wretched appearance of the three. "Rose Pettipher." Her real name was Rachel. " The children and I have come to pay you a little visit. I suppose you know I lost my husband some time ago ? " * No, I never heard of it. News travels slowly at such a distance. Will you step in ? You look tired. " •foumpbn.. 4 "I am tired to death. I never walked so much in my life as these last few days. I have walked a hundred miles, I do believe. If Anthony had not carried his brother for a good part of the way, I do not know what I should have done." She pressed past Miss Embrance and the children into the kitchen, and threw herself into a chair. Her old broken shoes showed at the edge of her frayed discoloured skirt; a string hung loose here and there; her cheap lace wrap had great holes in it ; her hair, done in some fashionable way that was new to Miss Embrance, was escaping from its pins.

And this was Joseph Pettipher's widow, and she had come to pay a visit at Borough Pits ! " Well, you have a fine house, I declare, " con tinued Mrs. Pettipher, looking round, " much larger than I'd imagined from what Pettipher used to say about it. I protest he made me think it was nothing but an old ramshackle place that had been standing for a couple of centuries at least! You don't cook in this place, do you? It looks as if nothing was ever done here. Everything so appallingly neat and spotless ! But then of course you have nothing else to do but keep your house in order. Come and sit down, children. Anthony, put your brother on a chair. Stephen, don't, for goodness' sake, begin to cry; there is nothing to frighten you here." Anthony was plain but healthy looking, with dark hair, and good gray eyes ; the other child, four or five years younger, was small, pale, and fair-haired.

He was almost repulsively soiled and dusty, but Miss Embrance tmmpbn?. 5 lifted him into a chair, and would have kissed him if he had let her ; he turned away from her, however, and clung to Anthony, hiding his face. "He's afraid of you," said Anthony, looking up at the tall dark figure of his aunt. " Mother has been telling him that if he is not good you will give him to the bogies on the hills." At this explanation Stephen burst into a loud wail. " Hold your tongue, Stephen ! " cried his mother irritably, "I won't have such a noise." She turned to Miss Embrance. ■ I saw you did not even guess who we were, but then you were not expecting us. I knew you directly: Pettipher had described you so exactly." Miss Embrance enquired about her brother, but Mrs. Pettipher could tell her very httle.

His vessel — he was master of a small trading-schooner — had been wrecked off a rock in the Mediterranean, and he and several of the crew lost. This happened nearly a year ago. Miss Embrance thought her sister-in-law spoke with great equanimity of her loss. She herself could not profess much sorrow, or be very deeply touched, by the death of a brother of whom she had seen so little. Her juvenile remembrances were of a very troublesome boy a few years younger than herself; at twelve years of age he had run away to sea, and the brother and sister had met only once since. She had never seen his wife before. Quite at her ease and at home, Rose Pettipher began divesting herself of her ragged lace shawl ibumpbry. 6 and crushed hat. She observed that they all looked rather the worse for travelling, but that when the boxes arrived she should do her sister-in-law more credit.

Anthony stared at his mother's speech, but said nothing. He had dropped a suspicious-looking bundle on the floor beside him when he sat down : Miss Embrance had had an idea that all their worldly goods were in that bundle. The mistress of Borough Pits, gravely accepting the situation, laid the table with supper for her unexpected guests. Mrs. Pettipher's face showed the satisfaction with which she noted the abundance of country dainties. The fare was certainly much less coarse than would be found on most farm tables; but Humphry Stoly was fastidious in his eating, refusing such ordinary viands and modes of cooking as contented the generality of people ; so that Miss Embrance, who had not much else to do but study his likings and dislikings, had devised many delicate preparations and dishes such as were at that time to be seen only on the tables of the comparatively wealthy.

"The country is not so uncivilized, after all," thought Rose, and while making a hearty meal she catechised her sister-in-law, and found that since old Joseph Pettipher's death, ten years since, his daughter —to whom he left the farm — had lived there, for the most part alone, doing her own household and dairy work. She learnt also that a single man, not young, occupied part of the house, and acted as a kind of steward over Miss Embrance's property. -bumpbrs. 7 " Some sunburnt, hatchet-faced old countryman, speaking a barbarous dialect," thought Mrs. Pettipher. She naturally looked down on dwellers in the country; they were all ignorant and ill-bred; she meant to astonish them. Her sister-in-law, however, was not quite the kind of person she had fancied her to be ; she was less rustic ; in fact, she was quite a dignified person, and more of a lady than she had thought it possible for anyone to look who did not pass her days in idleness.

But that was where the advantage of belonging to a good old family came in. The Pettiphers had owned Borough Pits for many a generation ; they were, no doubt, the most respectable people in the neighbourhood. Rose had passed on the way no farmstead more imposing looking than this house with the singular name; it was almost a hamlet in itself. No doubt Miss Embrance was a rich woman; with no appearances to keep up, she must be laying money by; and to whom could this money come but to Anthony and Stephen ? There were no other nephews ; she knew of no other relations even. The travellers went to bed early. Miss Embrance put them into a room near her own, which she used occasionally, so that it was well-aired and ready for use ; the boys had a small closet opening out of their mother's. She gave them her own bedding, saw that they were comfortable, and then returned to the kitchen to clear away the remains of their supper and get her own and Humphry Stoly's.

Chapter II

She had now got over the first shock and agitation of her sister-in-law's appearance at Borough Pits, but there was still much that required careful con sideration. The time passed ; Humphry was long in coming. Miss Embrance at length lighted the lamp, and began to make preparations for to-morrow's work. While Rachel and her children stayed, it meant more for her to do. She did not grumble at this; what really disturbed her was the unwashed, ill-dressed, uncared-for look of the mother and boys. Presently the door opened and Humphry came in. Pulling out a chair, he seated himself at the table, and said, with excitement in his manner, "Something has happened." Miss Embrance looked at him somewhat appre hensively. " Have you not heard ? " he asked. " 111 news travels fast, generally." " What news is there ?

" she enquired, " Go out," said he, " and look over at Stony Down. The whole village is astir, and gazing, frantic with joy. " tmmpbrs. 9 " Oh, Humphry! " exclaimed Miss Embrance. * Is it the Shining Fern ? Is there a light to be seen ? " " Why do you not go and look ? You take the news marvellously quietly." " But is it there ? " asked Miss Embrance. " You are not making a mistake ? " " Scarcely, " said he, with a curiously bitter smile. " No, I do not want to see the Fern again. It destroyed my hope of happiness once, and though I have long since learnt to think that things are for the best as they are, I look upon it as a cruel and inhuman temptation to our people. I hope I shall never catch sight of it again." Humphry raised his eyes and regarded her curiously. " I have heard, " said he, " that your lover was ruined by delusive hopes of wealth to be gained by means of the Fern ; that he neglected his work, and in his disappointment took to bad and vile courses." 8 It is true, " she answered, " and his case is not the only one."

He is dead?" "He died long ago,v said Miss Embrance. "It is nearly forty years now, though it seems but yesterday. " "You are wise," rejoined her companion, "to be resigned. I think that Fate was kind to you — kinder than she usually is. Sometimes I can see a little into affairs; the veil lifts— I see that you are a fortunate woman, beloved by the Powers above. You must never regret the past ; it is a waste of time and of strength." tbumpbrE. 10 "I do not," Miss Embrance answered. "My life is a peaceful one, and I am thankful for that." Then she suddenly thought of the new element come into it, now sleeping upstairs, and involuntarily sighed. " Mine too, " said Humphry, with an abrupt change of manner, " mine was peaceful enough till this evening." He pushed his chair away from the table and began pacing the room with a kind of savage restlessness.

" But what has happened? " asked his mistress, — afraid of she knew not what. " What has gone wrong?" She repeated her questions, but at first he took no notice and made no reply. Presently, returning to his seat, he rested his elbows on the table, and twisted his hands in his wild hair in a despair that was half tragic, but had the same curious suggestion of the elfish. " I had forgotten it, " he said with angry pathos in his voice, " I always forget till the time comes, and then there's the suspense and the suffering to bear all over again." And tears actually fell from his eyes. " That shows that forgetfulness is a blessing sometimes, doesn't it?" asked Miss Embrance. " Oh, you don't know what such memories as mine are. And even now I can only half remember. I was so happy this afternoon, and now I am miser able—the most miserable creature in the universe."

"I hope you only exaggerate, Humphry," said Miss Embrance. tmmpbrs. 11 He raised his head. " Why, you don't know the truth then, after all," he replied. "Who do you suppose lights up the Golden Fern?" "They say," said Miss Embrance, simply, "that the firedrake who guards the treasure does it." " That is false. There is no firedrake there at all. It is all a fable. And the treasure is not there either — it is all here with me. I showed it to you once, you will recollect. No, it is I — I who am doomed to light the Fern and show the way to the secret passages, and I have no power to resist." "You!" " I tell you, there is no one more miserable. Each time I have the same fear ; I may lose everything — everything. Every year that passes brings the chance nearer ; some day it will happen ; and then, with all I value gone, and still keeping the one thing that I would willingly part with, — can you imagine a state of greater torture ?

Long ago it was said that I was doomed to hell ; oh yes, our prophets preached a hell, even as your priests do nowadays; well, my hell will come then ; and I shall suffer a hundredfold more than I can now, with no hope of alleviation and no forgetfulness." " These are dreadful things to say, " Miss Embrance said gravely. "Dreadful — yes, but true. And there is more behind, that I cannot tell you — cannot bear even to think of. I know it will all come. You will not beg me now to show kindness and pity to the people whose one thought is how they may rob me?" fmmpbrs. 12 "They do not know that the treasure is yours, Humphry. " "If they did, would it make any difference?" he asked. " If I had not, fortunately, power to protect my person, should I not now be the object of a thousand schemes of robbery and murder?"

Miss Embrance shook her head. " I am afraid there are some whom I cannot defend. It seems as if there was a curse upon the spot." " The curse is on me only, but I would willingly shift it to other shoulders," he replied. "I would part to-morrow with my gold if I could be sure the curse clung to that ; and in that manner revenge myself — first on this corner of the earth, and then upon the whole human race. — If I could think that wherever the treasure went, it would carry misery and evil with it, I would distribute it willingly with my own hands, and add an imprecation to every gift." " And do you believe," said Miss Embrance, looking at him with great indignation, " that you yourself would not be deservedly a thousand times worse off than you are now ? " He smiled. " Calm yourself; the thing I speak of will not be done — much as I could wish it.

But I am doing what I can ; and in fact I but obey those whom I have to thank for my sentence. Besides, you cannot accuse me of taking life. I am like the demon in the Hebrew play who was permitted to do his will upon Job provided he touched not his life. I too stop short there; though I have not the credit of it. In reality, no one can die of any plague or loss "jfoumpbrg. 13 inflicted by my hand ; but the fools do not know that, and so most deaths are attributed to me." " You are bad enough as it is," said Miss Embrance. " God forbid that your power should be greater. Humphry, you are so wicked that I feel it almost a sin to pity you. But your wretchedness and friendlessness move me to compassion. If the Devil was as overwhelmed and unhappy as you are at this moment, and came to me for help, I believe I should not refuse him.

You, I verily think, are in worse case than the Devil, for you have not a friend in the universe but God, who may be choosing this hard way of bringing you to a knowledge of yourself. If so, then He is your friend, indeed. The smallest spark of good feeling and humanity that ever shows itself in you must be a comfort and encouragement even to God; how much more then to me? — -I speak so because I am conscious that there is that in you which separates you from ordinary men: I believe that your extraordinary powers are but the remnant of gifts and powers greater still which you once possessed. I have not lived and talked so long with you without finding out so much. I am certain that you have fallen lamentably from what you once were, and I want you to recognise that you must rise again, to be something more glorious still. // must be.

You were not meant to be a curse to yourself and to others. You were never doomed to hell. — Oh, Humphry, I do not wonder at your suffering: no one could be constantly doing and wishing evil to Ibumpbrs. 14 his fellowcreatures as you do, and feel no remorse. I believe that if you could lose your gold, it would prove to be the best thing that could happen to you; your mind and heart would have room for what is far above gold in value. The possession of your gold is doing you harm every day that you have it, just as the desire and hope of getting it is doing harm to the foolish people in the hamlet below — making them dissatisfied, and envious, and idle, and worse. Great as you once were, Humphry, you too are a fool now; you might be happy and prosperous, and you will not be ; you choose the path that leads you to misery and terrible suffering, when you might turn away from it.

T call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that thou mayst live." Miss Embrance had not, when she began, meant to say so much, but her anxiety and trouble carried her on. Humphry listened to every word; he contradicted her in nothing, and she thought he seemed softened ; at any rate, though usually so ready to excuse and defend himself, he made no answer to her accusation and appeal. She continued. " I have felt much all these months. It cost me something to admit you; at the time, I thought that I could depend upon your promises; and that, if it was a questionable deed, I was doing it from a good and pure motive, and that would keep it from being brought up against me," Ibumpbn?. 15 " But you knew what you might expect," said Humphry to her, " and my possessions are worth a thousand of your wretched villages."

" But the villages, Humphry, are more than a few fields and cottages. They contain human souls by the score ; and it is they of whom I think. When will you too learn to think of them as you should ? " " I have heard you say, " he replied, ■ that you have relatives among them. They are nothing to me. I gauge them precisely ; I know their kind ; they are of less value in my eyes than dust." 8 You talk like an Eastern king," said Miss Em brance, " but you forget you have not the power of one. You can afford to despise no one. Beware, if you do, lest you also should some day be despised." There was a few minutes' silence. She hoped her words had made an impression ; but presently he observed, " Oh for a stop to all invention, in which lies my danger. Men find out far too much ; they lose much, and pass by much that would help them ; but they know more than they used to.

The time will come when they will find out the exact way in which to rob me ; and then, as I tell you, I shall reach my hell." His thoughts reverted to their central object; they could not at this time dwell on anything else. "Not so, Humphry," said Miss Embrance, earnestly. " When that time does come, you will have learnt, I hope, by God's help, to bear the loss like a man who has not set his heart on gold alone: who " tmmpbrs. 16 "Hush!" he interrupted, "there will be a knock at the door presently." His senses were ordinarily much more acute and watchful than hers, although it was she who had given him warning of the Pettiphers' approach ; but he was then entirely absorbed in his work and had lost count of where he was, as she well knew. So, although she listened, she heard nothing for a full minute.

At the end of that space of time steps were audible outside, and then a tap came to the outer door. 8 Eat your supper, Humphry, " said Miss Em brance. She rose and went to the door, which opened into a little entry communicating with the kitchen.

Chapter III

" I won't come in, Miss Embrance," cried a woman's voice outside. "Speak to me through the grate." Few of the Borough people cared to set foot within the precincts of Borough Pits after dark. Miss Embrance pushed aside a Httle grating in the door. "It is Bernice Eld, isn't it?" " Yes, Miss Embrance, dear," said the woman, "it's Bernice. Have you heard the news?" "About the Shining Fern? Yes." "I wish" — coaxingly — "that you would give me just a little of your luck." Miss Embrance unfastened the door, and stepped outside. " What do you mean, Bernice ?" said she. "My luck?" "You know what I mean," persisted the other. 8 Isn't it all over the village that the Golden Child was seen standing at your door this very afternoon?" 8 I have seen no Golden Child ; you have been deceived," said Miss Embrance. 8 A young girl— indeed, it was Molly Wainman, Isaac Wainman's Molly — on her way to Crow's Nest Farm for milk, saw him," asserted the woman, »7 tfoumpbrs. 8 and Molly told my cousin Narcissa Holding, and Narcissa told Dame Newbury.

I heard it from one of the children as they came from school. And he vanished inside your door, my dear. Oh, why wasn't it mine? But I never had any luck at all, except bad luck ; and Jubal just the same. And only this morning, when our David was starting to his work, he must needs come back to speak to me about some trifle, and then go without taking care to sit down for a moment, as he ought to. And I myself stood like a fool, and watched him out of sight; not thinking what I was doing. I was that vexed afterwards, I could have cried. But it's always so. I am continually doing unlucky things through not thinking. And now Jubal says there might be a chance of his finding the Shining Fern if only he was sure of a little luck in his pocket at starting. As it is, it would be of no manner of use to go.