Fashion and famine

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Contents

CHAFTEB XXV.

XXVI.

xxvn. xxvin.

Chapter I. The Strawberry Girl

Like wild flowers on the mountain Bide,

Goodness may be of any soil ; Tet intellect, in all its pride.

And energy, with pain and toil.

Hath never wronght a holier thing

Than Charity in humble birth.

God^s brightest angel stoops his wing,

To meet so much of Heaven on earth.

The morning had not folly dawned on New York, yet its approach was yisible everywhere amid the fine -scenery aroimd the city. The dim shadows piled above Weehawken, were warming up with purple, streaked here and there with threads of rosy gold. The waters of the Hudson heaved and rippled to the glow of yellow and crimson light, that came and went in flashes on each idle curl of the waves. Long Island lay in the near distance like a thick, purplish cloud, through which the dim outline of house, tree, mast and spire loomed mistily, like half-formed objects on a camera obscura.

SUence — that strange, dead -dlence that broods over a scene crowded with slumbering life — lay upon the city, broken only by the rumble of vegetable carts and the jar of milk-cans, as they rolled up from the different ferries ; or the half-smothered roar of some steamboat putting into its dock, freighted with sleeping passengers.

After a little, symptoms of aroused life became visible about the wharres. Grocers, carmen, and huckster-women began to Bwarm around the provision boats. The markets nearest the water were opened, and soon became theatres of active bustle.

The first market opened that day was in Fulton street. As the morning deepened, piles of vegetables, loads of beef, hampers of fruit, heaps of luscious butter, cages of poultry, canary birds swarming in their wiry prisons, forests of green-house plants, horse-radish grinders with their reeking machines, venders of hot coffee, root beer and dough nuts, all with men, women and children swarming in, over and among them, like so many ants, hard at work, fiUed the spacious arena, but late a range of silent, naked and gloomy looking stalls. Then carts, laden and groaning beneath a weight of food, came rolling up to this great mart, crowding each avenue with fresh supplies. All was life and eagerness. Stout men and bright-faced women moved through the verdant chaos, arranging, working, chatting, all full of life and enterprise, while the rattling of carts outside, and the gradual accumulation of sounds everywhere, bespoke a great city aroused, like a giant refreshed, from slumber.

Slowly there arose out of this cheerful confusion, forms of homely beauty, that an artist or a thinking man might have loved to look upon. The butchers' stalls, but late a desolate range of gloomy beams, were reddening with fresh joints, many of them festooned with fragrant branches and gorgeous garden flowers. The butchers standing, each by his stall, with snow-white apron, and an eager, joyous look of traffic on his face, formed a display of comfort and plenty, both picturesque and pleasant to contemplate.

The fruit and vegetable stands were now loaded with damp, green vegetables, each humble root having its own peculiar tint, often arranged with a singular taste for color, unconsciously possessed by the woman who exercised no little skill in setting off her stand to advantage.

There was one vegetable stand to which we would draw the reader's particular attention ; not exactly as a type of the others, fcH- there was something so unlike all the rest, both in this stall and its occupant, that it would have drawn the attention of any person possessed of the slightest artistical taste. It was like the arrangement of a picture, that long table heaped with fruit, the freshest vegetables, and the brightest flowers, ready for the day's traffic Rich scarlet radishes glowing up through their foliage of tender green, were contrasted with young onions swelling out from their long emerald stalks, snowy and transparent as so many great pearls. Turnips, scarcely larger than a hen's egg, and nearly as white, just taken fresh and fragrant from the soil, lay against heads of lettuce, tinged with crisp and greenish gold, piled against the deep blackish green of spinach and water-cresses, all moist with dew, or wet with bright waterdrops that had supplied its place, and taking a deeper tint from the golden contrast. These with the red glow of strawberries in their luscious prime, piled together in masses, and shaded with fresh grape leaves ; bouquets of roses, hyacinths, violets, and other fragrant blossoms, lent their perfume and the glow of their rich colors to the coarser children of the soil, and would have been an object pleasant to look upon, indepeii dent of the fine old woman who sat complacently on her little „ stool, at one end of the table, in tranquil expectation of customers that were sure to drop in as the morning deepened.

And now the traffic of the day commenced in earnest. Servants, housekeepers and grocers swarmed into the market. The clink of money — ^the sound of sharp, eager banter — the dull noise of the butcher's cleaver, were heard on every hand. It was a pleasant scene, for every face looked smiling and happy. The soft morning air seemed to have brightened aU things into cheerfulness.

With the earliest group that entered Fulton market that morning was a girl, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old, but tiny in her form, and appearing far more juvemle than that, A pretty quilted hood, of rose-colored calico, was turned back from her face, which seemed naturally dehcate and pale ; but the fresh air, and perhaps a shadowy reflection from her hood, gave the glow of a rose-bud to her cheeks. Still there was anxiety upon her young face. Her eyes of a dark violet blue, drooped heavily beneath their black and curling lashes, if any one from the numerous stalls addressed her ; for a small splint basket on her arm, new and perfectly empty, was a sure indication that the child had been sent to make purchase ; while her timid air — the blush that came and went on her face — bespoke as plainly that she was altogether unaccustomed to the scene, and had no regular place at which to make her humble bargains. The child seemed a waif cast upon the market ; and she was so beautiful, notwithstanding her humble dress of faded and darned caUco, that at almost every stand she was challenged pleasantly to pause and fill her basket. But she only cast down her eyes and blushed more deeply, as with her little bare feet she hur- • ried on through the labyrinth of stalls, toward that portion of the market occupied by the huckster-women. Here she began to slacken her pace, and to look about her with no inconsiderable anxiety.

" What do you want, little girl ; anything in my way V was repeated to her once or twice, as she moved forward. At each of these challenges she would pause, look earnestly into the face of the speaker, and then pass on with a faint wave of the head, that expressed something of sad and timid disappointment. At length the child — ^for she seemed scarcely more than that — was growing pale, and her eyes turned with a sort of sharp anxiety from one face to another, when suddenly they fell upon - the buxom old huckster-woman, whose stall we have described- There was something in the good dame's appearance that brought an eager and satisfied look to that pale face. She drew close to the stand, and stood for some seconds, gazing timidly on the old woman. It was a pleasant face, and a comfortable, portly form enough, that the timid girl gazed upon. Smooth and comely were the full and rounded cheeks, with their rich autumn color, dimpled like an over-ripe apple. Fat and good humored enough to defy wrinkles, the face looked far too rosy for the thick, gray hair that was shaded, not concealed, by a cap of clear white muslin, with a broad, deep border, and tabs that met like a snowy girth to support the firm, double chin. Never did your eyes dwell upon a chin so full of health and good humor as that. It sloped with a sleek, smiling grace down from the plump mouth, and rolled with a soft, white wave into the neck, scarcely leaving an outline, or the want of one, before it was lost in the white of that muslin kerchief, folded so neatly beneath the ample bosom of her gown. Then the broad linen apron of blue and white' check, girding her waist, and flowing over the smooth rotundity of person, was a living proof of the ripeness and wholesome state of her merchandise. — I tell you, reader, that woman, take her for all in all, was one to draw the attention, aye, and the love of a child, who had come forth barefooted and alone in search of kindness.

At length the huckster-woman saw the chUd gazing upon her with a look so earnest, that she was quite startled by it. She also caught a glance at the empty basket, and her little brown eyes twinkled at the promise of a new customer.

" Well, my dear, what do you want this morning ?" she said, smoothing her apron with a pair of plump, little hands, and casting a well satisfied look over her stall, and then at the ^1, who grew pale at her notice, and began to tremble visibly — " all sorts of vegetables, you see — flowers — strawberries — ^radishes — ^what will you have, child ?"

The little girl crept round to where the woman stood, and speaking in a low, frightened voice, said —

" Please, ma'm, I want you to trust me 1"

" Trust you 1" said the woman, with a soft laugh that shook her double chin, and dimpled her cheeks.' " Why, I don't know you, little one — what on earth do you want trust for ? Lost the market money, hey, and afraid of a scolding — is that it ?"

" No, no, I haven't lost any money," said the child eagerly ; "please ma'm, just stoop down one minute, while I tell you !"

The little girl in her earnestness took hold of the woman's apron, and she, kind soul, sunk back to her stool : it was the most comfortable way of listening.

" I — I live with grandfather and grandmother, ma'm ; they are old and poor — you don't know how poor ; for he, grandpa, has been sick, and — it seems strange — I eat as much as any of them. Well, ma'm, I tried to get something to do, but you see how little I am ; nobody will think me strong enough, even to tend baby ; so we have all been without anything to eat, since day before yesterday."

" Poor thing 1" muttered the huckster-woman, " poor thing !"

" "Well, ma'm, I must do something. I can bear anything better than seeing them hungry. I did not sleep a wink all last night, but kept thinking what I should do. I never begged in my life ; they never did ; and it made me feel sick to think of it ; but I could have done it rather than see them sit and look at each other another day. Did you ever see an old man cry for hunger, ma'm ?"

" No, no, God forbid 1" answered the dame, brushing a plump hand across her eyes.

" I have," said the child, with a sob, " and it was this that made me think that begging, after all, was not so very, very mean. So, this morning, I asked them to let me go out ; but grandpa said he might go himself, if he were strong enough ; but I never should — never — never !"

" Nice old man — nice old man !" said the huckster-woman.

" I did not ask again," resumed the child, " for an idea had come into my head in the night. I have seen Kttle girls, no older than I am, selling radishes and strawberries, and things."

" Yes — ^yes, I understand !" said the old woman, and her eyes began to twinkle the more brightly that they were wet before.

" But I had no strawberries to sell, nor a cent of money to buy them with I"

" Well ! well !"

" Not even a basket 1"

" Poor thmg 1"

" But I was determined to do something. So I went Xo- a grocery, where grandpa used to buy things when he had money, and they trusted me with this basket."

" Tliat was very kind of them !"

"Wasn't it very kind?" said the child, her eyes brightening, " especially as I told them it was all myself — that grandpa knew nothing about it. See what a nice new basket it is — ^you can't think how much courage it gave me. When I came into the market it seemed as if I shouldn't be afraid to ask anybody about trusting me a little."

" And yet you came clear to this side without stopping to ask anybody ?"

" I was looking into their faces to see if it would do," answered the chUd, with meek simplicity, " but there was something in every face that sent the words back into my throat again."

" So you stopped here because it was almost the last stand."

" No, no, I did not think of that," said the child eagerly. " I stopped because something seemed to tell me that this was the place. I thought if you would not trust me, you would, any way, be patient and listen."

The old huckster-woman laughed — a low, soft laugh — and the little girl began to smile through her tears. There was something mellow and comfortable in that chuckle, that warmed her to the heart.

" So you were sure that I would trust you — ^hey, quite sure?"

" I thought if you wouldn't, there was no chance for me anywhere else," replied the child, lifting her soft eyes to the face of the matron.

^gain the old woman laughed.

" Well, well, let us see how many strawberries will set you up in business for the day. Six, ten — a dozen baskets — your little arms will break down with more than that. I will let you have them at cost, only be sure to come back at night with the money. I would not for fifty dollars have you fail."

" But I may not sell them all !" said the child, anxiously.

" I should not wonder, poor thing. That sweet voice o)

yonrs will hardly make itself heard at first ; but never mind, run down into the areas and look through the windows — ^people can't help but look at your face, God bless it !"

As the good woman spoke, she was busy selecting the best and most tempting strawberries from the pile of little baskets that stood at her elbow. These she arranged in the orphan's basket, first sprinkling a layer of damp, fresh grass in the bottom, and interspersing the whole with young grape leares, in tended both as an embelEshment, and to keep the fruit fresh and cool. When all was arranged to her satisfaction, she laid a bouquet of white and crimson moss rose-buds at each end of the basket, and interspersed little tufts of violets along the side, tiU. the crimson berries were wreathed in with flowers.

" There," said the old woman, lifting up the basket with a sigh of satisfaction, " between the fruit and flowers you must make out. Sell the berries for sixpence a basket, and the roses for all you can get. People who love flowers well enough to buy them, never cavil about the price ; just let them pay what they like."

The little girl took the basket on her arm ; her pretty mouth grew tremulous and bright as the moss rose-bud that blushed against her hand ; her eyes filled with tears.

" Oh, ma'm, I want to thank you so much, only I don't know how," she said, in a voice that went to the good woman's heart.

" There, there 1 — never mind — be punctual, that's a good girl. Now, my dear, what is your name ?"

" Julia — Julia Warren, ma'm !"

" A pretty name — very well — stop a moment, I had forgotten."

The child sat her basket down upon the stool which the huckster-woman hastily vacated, and waited patiently while the good dame disappeared in some unknown region of the market, eager to accomplish an object that had just presented itself to her mind.

" Here," she said, coming back with her face all in a glow, a small tin pail in one hand, and her apron gathered up in the

Other. " Just leave the strawberries, and run home with these. It will be a long time for the old folks to wait, and you will go about the day's work with a lighter heart, when you know that they have had a breakfast, to say nothing of yourself, poof thing 1 There, run along, and be back in no time."

Julia took the little tin paU and the rolls that her kind frien? hastUy twisted up in a sheet of brown paper.

" Oh I they will be so glad," broke from her, and with a so\ of joy she sprang away with her precious burden.

""Well now, Mrs. Gray, you are a strange creature, trusting people like that, and absolutely laying out money too ; I only wonder how you ever got along at all I" said a httle, shrewish woman from a neighboring stand, who had been watching this scene from behind a heap of vegetables.

" Poh 1 it's my way ; and I can afford it," answered the huckster-woman, rubbing her plump palms together, and twiakling her eyelashes to disperse the moisture that had gathered undei them. " I haven't sat in this market fourteen years for nothing. The chfld is a good child, I'll stake my life on it I"

" I hope you may never see the pail again, that's all," was the tcRe reply.

" "Well, well, I may be wrong — maybe I am — we shall know soon. At any rate I can afford to lose half a dozen pails, that's one comfort."

" Always chuckling over the money she has saved up,'' muttered the little woman, with a sneer ; " for my part I don't believe that she is half as well off as she pretends to be.''

The conversation was here cut short by several customers, who crowded up to make their morning purchases. During the next half hour good Mrs. Gray was so fully occupied, that she had no opportunity for thought of her protege ; but just as she obtained a moment's breathing time, up came the little girl panting for breath ; her cheeks glowing like June roses ; and her eyes sparkling with delight.

" They have had their breakfast ; I told them all about it !" she said, in a panting whisper, drawing close up to the huckster-woman, and handing back the empty pail. " I wish you could hare seen grandpa when I took off the cover, and let the hot cofifee steam into the room. I only wish you could have seen him !'•

" And he liked it, did he ?"

" Liked it ! Oh 1 if you had been there to see I"

The child's eyes were brimful of tears, and yet they sparkled like diamonds.

Mrs. Gray looked over her staU to see if there was anything else that could be added to the basket. That pretty, grateful look expanded her warm heart so pleasantly, that she felt quite like heaping everything at hand upon the little ^rl. But the basket was already quite heavy enough for that slender arm, and the addition of a single handful of frnit or tuft of flowers, would have destroyed the symmetry of its arrangement. So with a sigh, half of disappointment, half of that exquisite satisfaction that follows a kind act, she patted little Julia on the head, lifted the basket from the stool, and kindly bade her begone to her day's work.

The child departed with a light tread and a lighter heart, smiling upon every one she met, and looking back, as if she longed to point out her benefactress to the whole world.

Mrs. Gray followed her with moist'end sunny eyes ; then shaking the empty pail at her cynical neighbor, in the good-humored triumph of her benevolence, she carried it back to the coffeestand whence it had been borrowed.

" Strawberries I — strawberries 1"

Julia Warren turned pale, and looked around like a frightened bird, when this sweet cry first broke from her lips in the open street. Nobody seemed to hear — that was one comfort ; BO she hurried round a corner, and creeping into the shadow of a house, leaned, all in a tremor, against an iron railing, quite confident, for the moment, that she should never find courage to open her month again. But a little reflection gave her strength. Mrs. Gray had told her that the morning was her harvest hour. She could not stand there trembling beneath the weight of her basket. The fruity scent — ^the fragrant breath of the Tiolets that floated up from it, seemed to reproach her.

" Strawberries 1 — strawberries 1"

The sound rose from those red lips more cheerily now. There was ripeness in the very tones that put you in mind of the fruit itself. The cry was neither loud nor shrill, but somehow people were struck by it, and turned unconsciously to look upon the girl. This gave her fresh courage, for the glances were all kind, and as she became accustomed to her own voice, the nov- 6 elty of her position began to lose its terror. A woman called to her from the area of a house, and purchased two baskets of the strawberries, without asking any reduction in the price. Poor child, how her heart leaped when the shilling was placed in her hand I How important the whole transaction seemed to her ; yet with what indifference the woman paid for the strawberries, and turned to carry them into the basement.

Julia looked through the railings and thanked this important customer. She could not help it ; her little heart was full. A muttered reply that she was " welcome," came back ; that was all. Notwithstanding the gruff answer, Julia took up her basket with a radiant face.

" Strawberries I — strawberries I"

Now the words came forth from red and smiling lips — ^nay, once or twice the little girl broke into a laugh, as she went along, for the bright shilling lay in the bottom of her basket. She wandered on unacquainted with the streets, but quite content ; - for though she found herself down among warehouses only, and in narrow, crowded streets, the gentlemen who hurried by would now and then turn for a bunch of violets, and she kept on bewildered, but happy as a bird.

All at once the strawberry girl found herself among the shipping ; and a little terrified at the coarse and barren appearance of the wharves, she paused close by the water, irresolute what direction to pursue. It was now somewhat deep in the morning, and everything was life and bustle in that commercial district, for the child was but a few streets above the Battery, and could detect the cool wave of its trees through a vista in the buildings. The harbor, glowing with sunshine and covered with every species of water craft, lay spread before her gaze. Brooklyn Heights, Jersey City, and the leafy shores of Hoboken, half veiled in the golden haze of a bright June morning, rose before her Kke soft glimpses of the fairy land she had loved to read about. Never in her life had she been in that portion of the city before ; and she forgot everything in the strange beauty of the scene, which few ever looked upon unmoved. The steamboats ploughing the silvery foam of the waters, curving around the Battery, darting in and out from every angle of the shore ; the fine national vessels sleeping upon the waters, with their masts pencilled against the sky, and their great, black hulls , so imposing in their motionless strength ; the ferry-boats, the pretty barges and smaller kind of water craft shooting with arrowy speed across the waves — all these things had a strange and absorbing effect on the girl.

As she stood gazing upon the scene, there came looming up in the distant horizon, an ocean steamer, riding majestically on the waters, that seemed to have suddenly heaved the monster up into the bright June atmosphere. At first, the vast proportions of this sea monarch were lost in the distance ; but it came up with the force and swiftness of some wOd steed of the desert, and each moment its vast size became more visible. Up it came, black, swift, and full of majestic strength, ploughing the waters with a sort of haughty power, as if spurning the element which had become its slave. Its great pipes poured forth a whirlwind of black, fleecy smoke, now and then flaked and lurid with fire, that whirled and whirled in the curling vapor, till all its glow went out, rendering the thick volumes of smoke that streamed over the water still more dense and murky.

At first the child gazed upon this imposing object with a sensation of affright. Her large eyes dilated ; her cheek grew pale with excitement ; she felt a disposition to snatch up her basket, and flee from the water's edge. But curiosity, and something akin to superstitious dread kept her motionless. She had heard of these great steamships, and knew that this must be one ; yet it seemed to her like some dangerous monster tortured with black, fiery venom. She turned to an old sailor that stood near, hLs countenance glowing with enthusiasm, and muttering eagerly to himself —

" Oh ! sir, it is only a ship — ^you are sure of that 1" she said, for her childish dread of strangers was lost in wonder at a sight so new and majestic.

The man turned and gave one glance at the mild, blue eyes and earnest face of the child.

" Why, bless your heart, what else should it be ? A ship, to be sure it is — or at any rate, a sort of one, going by wind and fire both together ; but arter all, a clean rigged taut merchantman for me — ^that's the sort of craft for an old salt that's been brought up to study wind and water, not fire and smoke 1 But take care of your traps, little one, she'll be up to her berth in no time.''

The child snatched up her basket and gave a hurried glance around, seeking for some means of egress from the wharf ; but while she was occupied by the steamer, a crowd had gathered down to the water's edge, and she shrunk from attempting a passage through the mass of carts, carriages and people that blocked up her way to the city.

" Poh ! there's nothing to be afeared of 1" said the good-natured tar, observing her terrified look ; " only take care of your traps, and it's worth while waiting.^'

By this time the steamer was' opposite Governor's Island. She made a bold curve around the Battery, and came up to her berth with a slow and measured beat of the engine, blowing off steam at intervals, like a racer drawing breath after sweeping his course.

The deck of the steamer was alive with passengers, an eager crowd full of cheerfulness and expectation. Most of them were evidently from the higher classes of society ; for their rich attire and a certain air of refined indifference was manifest, even in the excitement of an arrival.

22 PASHIONANDFAMINE.

Among the rest, Jnlia saw two persons that fascinated her attention in a most singular degree, drawing it from the whole scene, till she heeded nothing else.

One of these was a woman somewhat above the common size, and of superb proportions, who leaned against the railing of the steamer with a heavy, drooping bend, as if occupied with -^some deep and painful feeling. One glove was off, and her eager grasp upon the black wood-work seemed to start the blue veins up to the snowy surface of a hand, whose symmetry was visible, even from the shore. Julia could not remove her eyes from the strange and beautiful face of this woman. Deep, but subdued agony was at work in every lineament. There was wildness in her very motion, as she lifted her superb form from the railing, and drew the folds of a cashmere shawl over her bosom, pressing her hand hard upon the rich fabric, as if to relieve some painful feeling that it covered.

The steamer now lay close in her berth. A sort of movable staircase was flung from the side of the wharf, and down this staircase came the passengers, eager to touch the firm earth once more. Among the foremost was the woman who had so riveted the attention of Julia Warren; and, behind her, bearing a silver dressing-case and a small embroidered satchel, came a tall and singular looking man. Though his form was upright enough in itself, he bent forward in his walk; and his arms, long and awkward, seemed like the members of some other body, that had, by mistake, been given up to his ungainly use. His dress was fine in material, but carelessly put on, ill-fitting and badly arranged in all its tints. A hat of fine beaver and foreign make, seemed flung on the back of his head, and settled tightly there by a blow on the crown ; his great hands were gloveless; and his boots appeared at least a size too large for the feet they encased.