The rudder; a novel with several heroes

Chapter I

OUR Middle Western States abound in what certain manufacturers of humorous epithet in other sections of the country have called with a gay and stingless opprobrium, '^ freshwater colleges." Of old — that is to sa}^, about the fourth or fifth decade of the last century when most of them were founded — these institutions symbolised to the public mind not merely the adva.ncement of learning, but its advancement by way of some particularly stift', comfortless theological doctrine, and some mortally iiard-bitten moral standards; so that even now the mature native of these parts involuntarily associates any freshwater college with Calvinism, Abolition, the temperance-pledge, and sizzling denunciations of pretty nearly every form of entertainment. I say involuntarily because the notion persists against our better knowledge ; for, of course, all that has been changed. Nowadays they have forgotten all about Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ten Nights in a Bar-Room; they have fraternities, and dramatic clubs, and class dinners, and commencement-week parties and such-like vain so-

4 ... THE BUDDER

cial e.xerci?^es. even as do the saltiest of the salt-water estaVljHbil)ie2ii^L Yes^ yoa may read in this morning's paper how the Cambridge (Ohio) Wesleyan nine defeated the Thebes (Indiana) Baptist Brothers' four to three, the game going to eleven innings; and towai-ds Thanksgiving Day w^hen the football season is at its height, the colours of both Thebes and Cambridge are carried to victory on many a field of broken Wesleyan ribs and damaged Baptist noses. The old order has passed away before the vital necessity of being up to date.

Something like the above reflections went through the mind of Mr. Marshall Cook, that well-known man of letters, during his two hours' journey on the *' Interurban," the morning of the hot June day on which by invitation he was to deliver the commencement address before and to the Cambridge undergraduates — class of '04 — the faculty of the college, and some scores of collegians' parents and friends. He had it in his satchel — fifty typewritten pages of humbug, to quote his own unsparing judgment, which he calculated could be stretched to occupy an hour, read with deliberation and allowing occasional pauses to point his statements, or for applause — here Mr. Cook grinned quite diabolically. If asked, he would have said that he did not expect to amuse or enlighten — the gift of amusing and enlightening is a rare one, and he had reasonable doubts about possessing it; at any rate, nothing of the sort, according to his experience, was wanted at a college commencement — and most assuredly none of those ribald comments about freshwater and creeds and so on. No, he knew his duty. The speech must last an hour — anything of less length, even if packed with the wisdom of the ages, would not be considered to earn the money — and it must be wrought entirely of sterling platitudes, recognisable at first sight, so that everybody would know how to receive them. It would be difficult, he thought sardonically, to get together a larger or better selection than that contained in his fifty -page manuscript ; he was as sure of the applause as man can be of anything in this chance-ruled universe.

Perhaps his attitude of mind was not that of the college-man; and in fact, the eminent author had never gone to college, not even to Cambridge, although he was born — forty -odd years earlier — and had grown up in the same State, within a hundred miles. Now he surveyed the landscape with the not very profound interest its unimpressive comeliness would have roused in a stranger ; it occurred to him ironically that this country of his birth was best known to him thus through a car-window, and that furthermore, dreadful to state, he had no desire to know it better. He had visited the city that was his old home only at wide intervals and for scarcely longer than a day or so at a time, during the last ten years. The " Interurban '' lumbered along at a great rate, picking up as it advanced towards Cambridge, increasing numbers of nice-looking people about whom there was a gala and expectant air so pronounced that Cook presently passed from an approving wonder at the growth and enterprise of the i)opulation since his day to the conjecture that all these worthy pilgrims were bound to the commencement likewise, to see Thomas, Richard or Henry get his degree. There were automobiles, too, heading in the same direction ; they could be seen all morning, spinning like mechanical toys on a white, dusty pin-stripe of road that paralleled the tractionline at half a mile's distance — the Jeffersonville Pike, as Cook's seat-mate informed him.

^^ Oh, yes, of course ! I remember it now ! " the author ejaculated in sudden recognition. " I used to take bicycle rides out that way years ago. It was always a good road."

" They're saying all the roads will be made better now these motor cars have come — so many people'll be wanting a good road to ride on, you know,'' his neighbour remarked. " And that's a good thing anyw^ays," he added with enthusiasm. ^' Good roads is a grand thing for the country entirely."

" — a gr-rand thing for the counthry intoirely," was what he really said; and the richness of this accent, the cast of the speech itself, taken with various other slight signs, such as his hearty colour, his long, strong, comic-cartoon jaw, his blunt nose and quick, bright blue eyes, sufficiently indicated his nationality — or at least his very recent descent — to Mr. Cook, who now looked at him for the first time, though they had been travelling in company since the car left town. The novelist also noted that his companion was heroically arrayed, regardless of the thermometer, in a new frock-coat and new light trousers of expensive cloth and cut, with shining new shoes on his rather prominent and unmanageable feet, with a huge seal-ring on the little finger of one of his heavy red fists, with a tie of the best quality of silk, brocaded in lively hues on a green background, and finally with a top-hat which, however, was manifestly almost too much for him to endure, notwithstanding his proved strength of mind and body. He had shoved it inelegantly backwards and sidewise, and the crimson mark it had made showed ou his forehead and even around the back of his honest bullet-head under the thin, grizzled-sandy hair. He met Cook's e^'e with an expression of tentative good-fellowship.

" Hot day/' said the man of letters, prompted by the other's appearance.

'' It is that I And the crowd makes it worse.''

** Yes. Is it always this way, or is there something going on somewhere? " Cook asked experimentally, with the cunning of his trade. He had the name of being a photogTaphically accurate student of character and manners, acquired, he would sometimes maintain, by the observance of a single simple rule, namely : make the other fellow talk !

In this case, the other fellow responded with gratifying willingness. He said sure there were going to be grand doings at the College up yonder at Cambridge, graduating exercises for the young men, the seniors, as they called um. They all got a paper, a cert'f'cate like, to show they was all through and done with ut and in good standing. 'Twas give to um in style with speeches and music and all the lads' fathers and mothers and slathers of girls besides, only of course nobody was looking at them — he winked with a sidelong glance of vast rogiiishness — sitting in the seats and applauding. It beat everything how much the boys thought of them diplomys. They framed um and hung um up in the parlour. He said that for all the good that did um towards getting a job, it was like them signs the Board of Health puts up where there's measles or the like — '^ Keep Out " ! He chuckled and fetched Cook a jog in the ribs with Ms elbow; then, on a second thought, explained with

S THE RUDDER

some earnestness, that this unfeeling levity was " all put on."

" A young fellow'll be that solemn, you can't, for the soul of you, keep from teasing him a little. By the same token he'll find out there's some truth to the joke, as he goes along, poor boy ! " he finished, with a dash of the truly Celtic underlying melancholy; and hauled out a mighty gold watch, and consulted it. ^^ We're near there."

In fact, the brick tower of the city hall of Cambridge now" showed intermittently between the hills and tree-tops, and though the road had not yet become a street, houses were thicker on both sides of it. The journey w^as almost over. Cook realised, privately bestowing a spirited anathema on his own indifference and want of diligence. Here he had been side by side with this gem of an Irishman for the better part of a whole morning, and had got nothing out of him! And the man was of a type ordinarily not easy for the inquisitive novelist to get at ; he had a shrewd face, full of sense and character, and to have caught him in so expansive a mood was a real stroke of luck, recognised, alas, too late.

However, better late than not at all ! " Got a boy up there yourself, I guess?" he suggested amiably; and was rewarded by an answer of unfathomable pride and satisfaction at once a little funny and a little touching.

" I have, sir. It's the four years' course he's taken in three, and him only twenty -one last January. He's to speak the — the vallydictorium speech, too. It seems that's a great honour, according to how the young fellows look at it — not that it means anything much to me/' he interpolated, affecting a tolerant

THE RETURN OF TDE NATIVE 9

disinterestedness. " Dad gets set back forty or fifty dollars for one of these black silk gowns and dinky little caps they've got to wear, besides all the rest of the foolishness — banquets and athaletics and all — everybody w^orks but Father, hey ? " He drew up one eye and the corresponding corner of his mouth humorously. '^ Looks like it was up to Father most of the time these days. I was for hiring the gow^n, myself— there's places where you can do that, and as long as Tim — I mean Chauncey — as long as the lad never w^ears it but the once, what's the differ? You'd have thought I'd insulted uni just to hint at it ! His mother was the worst. ^ Look at all the money ye've spent already, fifteen hundred dollars if it's a cent ! ' she says. ^ A little more won't be a drop in the bucket! And annyways,' she says, turning my own w ords against me, ' it's only once in a lifetime, and God knows ye don't want to grudge your son nothing, when ye'll never have the chance again ! ' "

" That's so ! " said Cook with a warmth not w^holly assumed, though, at the same instant, he was wondering ironically whether this brave fellow might not have many, many more chances to spend money on his boy. " She had you there ! "

" She did ! After that I'd nothing to do but hold my tongue and pay up like a man. Well, well, he'll maybe be handing that same gown on to his own son for him to graduate in, some day. That's more than my father could do for me — a whole lot more, as the kids do be saying in their slang talk. It was little enough school I had, leave alone college and commencements and sw^ally-tail coats and black silk gowns and all." He gave a kind of humorous sigh. " Education's a grand thing, though, ain't it? "

10 THE RUDDEE

" It is indeed, tlie greatest thing there is. Isn't your wife with yon? Isn't she going to the commencement, too?''

^' Going, is it? '' echoed the other, much amused. ^^ Is she going? As if you could head her off with dinnamite or a pick-axe! All the child she's got in the world ! Yes, she's going. She's back there." He jerked a species of reversed nod towards the rear seats ; and the car coming to a halt at that moment to take on another troop of commencement visitors, both men got up to accommodate some of the women passengers. They accomplished what was left of the trip squeezed between others in the aisle, and clinging to the straps; so that their exchange of confidences broke off abruptly, to the author's regTet.

He promised himself to keep an eye out for Mrs. Irishman and for the valedictorian, the hero of the ceremonies, when the family should be united ; but in the confusion of the final stopping-place, they escaped him. Indeed, they went out of his mind altogether. There was no station building at Cambridge ; the " Interurban " merely stopped dead in the middle of the village main street, and incidentally of a considerable gathering of those nice-looking people whom Cook had previously remarked. They were now debarking from his own car and half a dozen more, lined up on the tracks and switch, and from the automobiles and innumerable horse- vehicles at the curb ; and wei'e being met by other nice-looking people in surprising force. Young men sprang up in squads ; ever}^ where at least two girls bloomed where only one or none at all had bloomed before; the college pennant waved multitudinously ; the college yell exploded regularly with magnificent vim and precision; and as the celebrity himself set foot on the ground, a toy balloon striped with the college colours bumped lightly against his hat, knocking it over his eyes, and soared away. Somebody who was already shaking his hand, gave an exclamation of concern.

''Mr. Cook, I believe? — Oh, how^ annoying I — Where did that thing come from? — Fm so sorry, I'm sure it wasn't intended — you see we're in a great deal of excitement, of course — is your hat all right? My name is Chadwick — we've had some correspondence, you perhaps remember? It's a very great jjleasure to have you here, Mr. Cook ; we were highly gratified when you consented to come. We turn this way

— this young man is my son — Jimmie, take Mr. Cook's bag. Oh, yes, you must really let him have it. I'm afraid James hasn't read any of your work, Mr. Cook. His taste in literature runs just now to biographies of Black Bill, the Bandit Baron of Big Butte

— hey, Jim? Ah-hal"

Cook eyed the youngster, who stood before him, swinging the valise, reddening through his tan and freckles, difiSdent but refreshingly unimpressed. " ' An author by the river's brim a simple author w^as to him ' — and so forth and so on," said the visitor, with relish. " If I were only Mr. Christy Matthewson now — I " at which mildly satirical insinuation the father laughed inordinately. Master James turned a deeper red still, stood on one foot in order to tickle his ankle with the other, and at length remarked,

They cleared the crowd, and started off for Professor Chadwick's house — moral philosophy was his chair, it presently developed — where there was to be luncheon and Mr. Cook would meet the Dean and other members of the college staff. From almost any quarter of the little town you might see the campus; there were good old beech and linden trees, and a bronze fountain presided over by a representation of the founder, his watch-chain and whiskers done to the life, one hand resting upon an open folio, the other spread abroad in the gesture habitual (presumably) to all American public men of whom statues are erected. The stone buildings of the college were prettily draped with vines, ivy and honeysuckles and drooping purple panicles of wistaria; here were Central Hall, the Old Dormitory, the Library, Shelborne's, and so on — the professor pointed them out in turn. " Our stadium is down in that direction," he said, waving a hand ; " you can't see it from here. It's considered to be very well equipped — cinder track, a football and baseball field, and all that sort of thing, you know, on quite a large scale. The Cothurnus gave their play there this year, because of the space and the general effect — it was Julius Cwsar.^^

'' That was a good selection — almost all male parts. The women are negligible."

Chadwick smiled. " In point of fact, they eliminated Portia and Calpurnia altogether ! And even Mrs. Chadwick had to admit that the play got along perfectly smoothly without them. The boys did surprisingly well ; it was really very good, especially the forum scene. Young Devitt, the young fellow that was Marc Antony, was quite rousing. Of course it's a great acting part, and I suppose nobody could entirely spoil those wonderful lines, but he did his ' honourable men ' admirably. I thought we had turned up a histrionic genius, but it seems that he had seen the Ben Greet pla.yers, and modelled his Antony on theirs — which showed some taste, if no originality. Devitt is one of our brightest men, however — took honours in English. He's very anxious to meet you ; they all are, naturally.''

Cook uttered a polite deprecatory murmur, wondering meanwhile if they had ever heard of him, and the other went on : " After the exercises, we always have a reception for the graduating class and their families. I hope you won't find it fatiguing. You say you just got in from the East this morning? " He accompanied this with an inquiring glance (of which he was probably quite unconscious) at the guest's neat toilette: Cook was a rather finicking little man.

" Yes, but I went to a hotel and had a general freshening-up — I'm not at all tired, thank you," he explained, not without inward amusement. " I was quite prepared for a hot, dusty, sooty trip. We all of us know what travel in this part of the country is like."

" Yes. It's not so bad when one is used to it. I'm from Wisconsin myself." Mr. Chadwick hesitated, then added with some civil curiosity : "I was under the impression that you had your home here still, Mr. Cook — in Cincinnati, I mean, of course. In fact,^ I'm quite sure we forwarded some mail to you there.. I hope there hasn't been any mistake made about that

— you went to a hotel — ? "

" Oh, no, that's all right — I'll get it — it's quite safe, I'm sure, and probably of no importance anyway. Why, I used to live here — with my sister — a married sister and her family. She is dead now ; but the rest of them are still here, and I expect to visit them

— my nieces, that is — while I'm here. The name is rather unusual — Maranda, you perhaps remember— ? They live on the North Hill. I didn't go out there this morning — didn't want to disturb them so early — it's a household of women."

" I see. I was alarmed for a minute, figuring some invaluable manuscript going floating off around the country and finally bringing up at the Dead Letter Ofiiee ! We have to cross here — '^

It was a " stand-up luncheon " ; Cook afterwards gave a very sprightly description of the same sort of function in his novel Julia Denhy^s Career^ hitting off the Faculty and the Faculty's wives and daughters, and the coffee and sandwiches and little cakes and salad and ices, and the people who asked him what he was working at now, and the other people who told him of wonderful places to get " material " in that style of good-natured satire for which he had some reputation. " Brilliant studies of dulness " one critic*^ had called his stories ; and Cook himself used to make a quaint picture of his own mind running about, busily picking up and storing away unconsidered trifles which it later rummaged out, furbished up, and patched and pieced together into something serviceable, like any thrifty housewife in a garret. He did not know — so he said — whether this was a gift or a mere habit, but its activities, sometimes practical and sometimes not, were continually surprising himself.

(i We're expecting a great treat this afternoon, Mr. Cook," one lady said to him with engaging earnestness. ^^ Of course, it's like all the other good things in this life—"

" Best in anticipation? "

^^ No, no — why, how horrid ! I meant it's onlv to

THE RETUEN OF THE NATIVE 15

be won after we have done our appointed share of suffering in patience. You know we have to sit through the valedictory before we come to youJ'

" The valedictory? " said Cook alertly; and he was about to ask a question, when some one else spoke — one of the professors, as it happened.

'' Sitting through one valedictory isn't such an ordeal," he said, stirring his cup with a reminiscent air. '" Suppose you had to sit through three hundred and odd I That was what happened at my college up here at — " he named the place — " until a few years ago, when they mercifully suspended the practice. Every graduate had to make a speech in my time — only about ten minutes long, you know, but everybody had to have his say. It lasted two daj^s or so. They took you in alphabetical order. All your family and friends were there, of course, from A to Andsoforth." He stirred again, and added without a smile : " My name is Wilson. I had a large audience — large, relatively speaking, that is. There was one man in the class named Zieloncka."

"Ah? He was all that was left of them — left of three hundred ! "

" Just so, sir ! " And here Cook was again about to ask his question, but the other again unwittingly intervened. "Nowadays the boys have just as much to do, and by the time Commencement week is over, we're all just as much exhausted, but in an entirely different way. I wonder if Mrs. Chadwick has any of the leaflets with the programmes left, the ones they give to visitors — ? I should like Mr. Cook to see — " He looked about vaguely, but the supply of progi-ammes seemed to have failed. However, young Mr. James Chadwick chanced to pass at that moment, munching a sandwich, and being appealed to, halted obligingly.

" Yep. I got one — only you can't have it for keeps, because I want it myself/' he said, crammed the last bite into his mouth, and fished out a document at sight of which the lady gave a dainty exclamation.

" Oh, Jimmie! Couldn't you get Mr. Cook a clean one? That's dreadful ! "

Jimmie divided a glance of masculine impatience between the other two. ^^ I ain't going to give it to him anyway. He just wants to knoiv, that's all," said he; and opened the leaflet, and pointed with a stubby little grimy forefinger. " That's the track events. That's what you wanted, didn't you? The reason it looks mussed up is I wrote all the fellows' names that won, you know, and it was a blue indelible pencil and some soda-water got spilled on it afterwards so the blue kind of ran all over it, but you can read 'em still," he explained seriously and confidentially to Cook's thorough delight.

" Oh, yes, easily," said the latter with equal gravity, following Jimmie's Isabella-hued finger-nail. " The hundred-yard dash was won by a man named Stokes, I see."

" No, that's Stone. Watch out for the creases, or she'll come in two ! That's Putting-the-Shot next — Loring got that — Amzi Loring II — see? He's a big fellow ; he plays left field on the team — not the class team, the college team. I guess he's going into professional ball — "

" Incidentally Loring is one of our graduates to-day, Mr. Cook," said Wilson drily ; " a very great ornament to the class, as you may infer."

" Don't you think your mother may be needing you,

THE RETUKN OF THE NATIVE 17

Jimmie? " the lady sii«:gested ; "you can leave your programme with Mr. Cook." She had been, to say the truth, grievously disillusioned by this small episode. " I supposed of course he would be interesting, or at least, different/' she said afterwards in intimacy; " but ever so many of the literary people I've met have been rather commonplace. Isn't it queer? "

" Just a minute, Jimmie/' the disappointing person now said. '' Tell me about some of these others. What's all this, for instance? "

The leaf he had turned was in tolerable condition and unpencilled. Jimmie craned over to inspect it. *' Oh, that! That isn't anything — it just tells what thev're ^i^oino' to do to-dav," he announced. And sure enough, Cook read :

Invocation By The DEA^'

Music

Oh, holy day, oh, happy day ! Standish

Quartette and chorus for male voices Cambridge College Choib

Valedictory Address T. Chauncey Devitt

Cook paused. ^' Chauncey " and ^' Devitt " I His housewife's memory gi'oped an instant, then tr-iumphantly pounced upon and dragged forth all that he had overheard concerning those two names. " Chauncey " — he actually remembered the father's " Tim — I mean Chauncey — " was of course the valedictorian, but he was in all probability Marc Antony, too.

" Well, now, this is interesting," he said to Professor Wilson. " I was just about to ask you the valedictorian's name — " and he gave the other some account of the acquaintance he had scraped that morning.

Chadwick came up to them and listened and nodded his head at the last.

" I've never met Devitt's family — I understand the father is a road-contractor — a superintendent of road-building, or something of that sort/' he said vaguely. " I daresay he — er — came up from the ranks, as so many do — a self-made man. That's the best product of our civilisation — eh, don't you think so? I dislike to hurry you, Mr. Cook, but we must start presently. Whenever you're ready — ? "

As they began to move, Wilson said, ^' You'll meet Devitt senior again this afternoon, Mr. Cook, and what then? I tremble for you. He'll regard you as a kind of literary confidence-man, won't he? "

" I doubt very much if he recognises me," said the author serenely. " He'll be too much taken up with his wonderful, splendiferous, valedictory ing son. Do you know the young man? "

" Oh, yes, of course. I had him in Romance Languages. A prodigious grind. I've seen brighter men, but I never saw any man work harder. Industry is a good deal more welcome to the average teacher than cleverness — not that either commodit}^ is very abundant ! Of course I don't mean to say that young Devitt is dull — not at all ! I only mean he's not so bright as some of the other men that haven't done nearly so well. That's a contradiction that one often meets with in a class-room. The tortoises are forever outstripping the hares. No calamitous sense of humour to get in the wa}^, and interfere with serious study, you know; no foolhardy seeking after novelty — " He wound up his half-ironical words with a descent into slang. " Give me the tortoises every time ! "

" Somehow or other ^ T. Chauncev ' doesn't sound to me at all bright," said Cook. " ' T. Chauncey ' — eh?'' He fixed a quizzical eye on the other, who shrugged.

" Oh well I A very young man, you know — '^

But Cook was unappeased. " ' T. Chauncey ' is altogether too stylish,'' he said solemnly, shaking his head, and Wilson himself laughed unwillingly.

Later, on the platform in Central Hall, before the embanked faces, while the organ purred low and melodiously and the graduates filed in two by two in their newly mounted regalia black and flossing and rustling gTavely, Cook felt a sudden sense of levity rebuked. Good Heaven, he thought, what pain, what toil, what sacrifice, what anguish of doubts and hopes, what pathetic faith, those rows on rows of fathers and mothers embodied I And what defenceless ignorance, what pitiful cocksure egotism and ambition and heartbreaking confidence these poor bedecked lads I He stood with the others, bowing his head during the prayer, and thinking : " I would not say those things. I would not beseech the Almighty for grace or help; I'd ask Him just to give the boys a little luck. It makes no difference how great a young man's endowment, or how good a start he gets, we've all got to have a little luck to weather it through.'' Perhaps he did put up some such simple petition for them, remembering his own youth, and a hundred shabby mistakes ; and sat down not a little moved. Nobody else was, apparently, in the slightest degree, he observed, glancing around the semi-circle of professors ; nothing to get maudlin over from their breadwinners' point of view. Cook reminded himself, regaining his normal mood. While the quartette and chorus thundered holiness and happiness from somewhere to the rear of the stage, he searched for his Irishman, and erelong discovered him looming very big on a front seat, with his fists planted squarely on his knees, radiating content, a sight to warm the heart. Alongside was another person whom Cook identified without any trouble as the mother, terrifically corseted, conscious, unsmiling, much more sophisticated and conventional than her husband, whose appearance and behaviour, the author guessed, were giving her gnawing anxieties. She whispered to him, and Mr. Devitt, bending down painfully, bestowed his silk hat (which he had informally hung over the arm of the chair) in the holder underneath; anon she whispered again energetically, and he got out a vast handkerchief and diligently exercised it on his chin and short, projecting moustache ; once more she whispered, and he obediently readjusted himself, sitting rigidly upright, and straightening his cuffs, his tie, his waistcoat under her exacting eye. Cook fancied he saw in the pantomime, joined to what he already knew of them, a complete register of this couple's married life, of their individual characters and aspirations. Again he sharply regretted his negligence that morning. " I might have met the wife too, if I had had my wits about me ! " he lamented inwardly. " Nov/ it's all off ! The minute she knows I'm ' Mr. Cook, the author,' she'll mount guard. It was a chance in a thousand. That family is a whole text-book with illustrations — son and all, very likely."