The Sophomores of Radcliffe

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Chapter I. Uncle Jerry And His Family

WE must confess to our young friends a love for old associations and names, and inform them that when James Trafton had, with the utmost despatch, packed his trunk, he started in a good old-fashioned stage-coach for the " Gore," the old name of the town where the said James resided.

We cherish a most affectionate remembrance of an aged aunt, who was born and brought up at the Gore, and continued to live there after it was incorporated and became a thriving farming town ; but she always sighed for the good old days, and maintained that there was not such heartsomeness in the intercourse of the people as among the neighbors at the Gore.

On many an evening, after playing all day in the snow, have we sat before her hospitable fire, our

10 THE SOPHOMORES OF RADCLIPFE.

mittens hung on the andirons to dry, and head pillowed % in auntie's lap, while a row of red-cheeked apples was roasting on the hearth. Children can never wait long for anything. As we sat listening to the spattering of the fruit, our mouths would water,

u Auntie, ain't the apples done ? "

u No, my child, not more than half," — thrusting her knitting-needle into one.

" If they're half done, can't I eat one side, and then let the rest do some more ? "

" 0, no, dear ! the juice would all run out, and the ashes get on them. Be patient, dear. I'll tell you a story about the Gore."

This was a sovereign remedy for impatience. The apples might sputter, and take their time.

The family of Uncle Jeremiah Williams were near neighbors of Squire Trafton, the father of James. Uncle Jerry was one of the most shrewd and practical of men, and had remonstrated with the squire in respect to sending his son to college, giving him to understand that he thought the land hardly worth the dressing. His family did not conform in the least in their modes of living, or the furniture of their house, to the changes of the times. On the mantel-piece stood the hour-glass ; in the south window was the old sun-mark ; two cranes in the fireplace, two ovens in the back ; a large square stone in the corner of the hearth, to wash dishes on ; a dye-pot and block between the iambs.

Auntie used to tell us in confidence that she considered Uncle Jerry Williams the salt of the 'arth. Our readers, therefore, whom we invite to take a peep at his fireside, may rest assured that they will behold just such a fireside as existed in the days of auntie, at the Gore.

The well-meant advice of Uncle Jerry to the squire had the effect to irritate, rather than to convince him, and only tended to ground him more thoroughly in the belief that there existed in his son a spark of genius, which he proceeded to fan by sending him to Bowdoin College, from which he was now returning to his fond and ex* ultant parent, a callow sophomore, having completed his freshman year.

Neither the employments nor the conversation of Uncle Jerry's family (with a single exception) were of a literary character, and would not, in any respect, have suited the meridian of Squire Trafton's parlor.

One of the girls was spinning shoe-thread on a flax-wheel ; for her father made and mended the shoes of his family, except that occasionally they bought a pair for best. The other daughter, with a bowl of clear water before her on the table, a little wooden instrument with teeth in it, and a bunch of rye straw, was platting braid for bonnets. She moistened the straw in water to make it. pliable, split and flattened it out, and then with the little instrument divided it into equal parts, to plat. This young lady made the bonnets of the family, and a great deal of braid to sell at a factory in Massachusetts, besides doing a good share of the housework. They were both soon to be married to well-to-do young farmers, who had at different times worked for Uncle Jerry in haying, the only time at which he ever hired. He never experienced the least difficulty in commanding the best labor in the neighborhood, the young men always going to Uncle Jerry to see if he wanted help before applying or engaging anywhere else. This was because he always paid good wages, fed his men abundantly, ate with them, and knew when a man did a day's work.

Squire Trafton had great difficulty in getting or keeping help by reason of his grandiloquent airs ; thought, because men or women were hired, they were never sick or tired ; neither did it matter much what they ate ; and Mrs. Trafton generally contrived to have a churn on the floor, for a man to rest himself with when he came in tired from his day's work.

Uncle Jerry, although no friend to innovations, delicacies, and luxuries, was a most hospitable soul, and a bountiful provider in his way. His mode of reasoning on these subjects was most direct — that those that worked should eat, and those that would not work ought not to have anything to eat.

Uncle Jerry had an adopted son married ; and the arrangement was, that the wedding should be at the house of the bride's father, but the infare, or second day wedding, at Uncle Jerry's. It was the good old custom, when the Gore was the Gore, and Gore fashions prevailed, for the married pair, the clergyman, and all the guests, to sit down to a bountiful supper. In that fashion Uncle Jerry had been reared.

His wife and daughter, after a long struggle, had induced him to buy a satin vest to wear to the wedding ; they would not probably have prevailed, had not his wife, as a final appeal, declared that he had as good a right to wear a nice vest as Squire Trafton, and he was a great deal better looking man, only dress him up half as well. Upon that he yielded. As all the family were going, Uncle Jerry got his old mother, who made her home with another son, to come and keep house for them.

" Now, Jerry," said the old lady, " mind what I tell you, and take kere. You know you're 'mazing apt to drop your vittels. I charge you to be kereful, and not grease that ere new boughten vest, that cost sich a sight."

" Yes, marm, I will."

But there was no grease there, to the great indignation of Uncle Jerry. They had a genteel, new-fashioned wedding ; all stood up, and a little cake, cheese, and tea were passed round.

About eleven o'clock Uncle Jerry and his wife arrived home. The old lady was sitting up for

14 THE SOPHOMORES OF RADCUFFE.

tbem. Uncle Jerry took the candle, and walking up to her, said, —

u Marm, look if you can see any grease on my ▼est Now, wife, go down cellar, and get some beef, pork, cabbages, and potatoes, put on the pot, and let us have something to stay our stomachs."

The next day Uncle Jerry made the infare ; and there was grease enough.

The squire, who was often quite amazed at seeing the facility with which men came at a whistle from Uncle Jerry, while he was plagued to get them at all (and they would often leave him with hay all ready to get in), said it was because the girls raked in the afternoon, and stowed away hay in the mow. Perhaps the squire was right, which showed that the boys of the Gore were possessed of good sense. They knew the girls who raked the hay had rosy cheeks, bright eyes, and strong arms, could bake, brew, make butter and cheese, < and were just the help-meets enterprising young men wanted.

Tom was shelling corn; his mother had hung the big kettle over the fire, and was preparing a bag of ashes to hull some of it with. Sam was at work upon a clock, which, having taken it apart and cleaned, he was oiling.

The exception we have spoken of in this family was Henry, a fine, bright-looking boy of twelve, with light hair, blue eyes, and delicate features, who, seated on a low stool in the chimney comer, was intently conning his school lesson by the firelight, as his sister with her braid, and Sam with his clock, monopolized the whole table. The father in the other corner was oiling the boots and shoes of the household. Directly before the fire, on the ample hearth, Watch was stretched in luxurious repose — one of the greatest dogs for shaking a coon, or digging out a woodchuck, to be found within ten miles ; while Howard, the youngest boy, with a whole mortar full of salt and alum which he had pounded, was engaged in putting coon and muskrat skins in a tray, and strewing salt and alum on the flesh side. He was dressing them to make himself a cap and gloves for the next winter. These furs, by the joint efforts of himself and Watch, had been taken during the previous fall and latter part of the winter.

"Howard," said Sam, "you've skins enough there to clothe the whole family. Won't you give a fellow a coon skin ? " .

u You don't hardly ever give me anything."

"Don* If Didn't I give you a bite of that great apple Bill Trafton gave me ? "

" But you held your hand over it."

u Good reason for it. You wanted to bite almost the whole. I shouldn't have had a bite for the rest, and not one mite for myself."

u I'll give you a coon and a muskrat if you'll make me a sled and a yoke, so I can yoke up my steers."

" Agreed."

11 Won't you give me a coon skin," said Tom, u if I'll give you that horn I've got for a powderhorn?"

"If you'll put a bottom in it, and make a stopper."

" I don't know how to make a handsome one."

" I will, Howard," said his father, " and scrape it down for you, so that you can see the kernels of powder."

u Won't you give me one ? " asked Henry, looking up from his book.

u If you'll tell me a story. Will you, Henry ? "

u Yes, I guess so."

u Mother, I'll give you one for nothing. I've saved one, purpose to make you a muff."

u Boys," said Uncle Jerry (who had finished his work, and arranged the boots and shoes in regular ranks before the fire to dry in the oil), " don't you wish you were in Jim Trafton's shoes ? "

" Why so, father ? " asked Tom.

" 0, that night I had the fall out with the squire, he told me he had had letters from him, and that he was getting along swimmingly. He's gin him his grandsir's watch, and expects nothing else but he's going to be governor, member of Congress, or President of these United States. He's coming home soon ; so the hired man told me to-day at the blacksmith's shop. The square said you and I were jost made for clodhoppers. Jim's far above hauling logs, I tell you."

" Father, he never had wit enough to haul logs. Last fall, the hired man got mad, and left ; his father sent him into the woods to get a load of dry wood and brush, and gave him a rope to bind it on with. Don't you think, he tied the rope to the rim of one wheel, brought it over the top of the load, and fastened it to the other. The wheels, of course, couldn't turn, and he ran home and told his father the oxen wouldn't haul."

" That's what the square expects ; at any rate, he's going to send him through college."

" I'm sure I shonldn't want to be shut up in the house studyin' ; 'twould kill me," said Tom. " I should have the headache all the time."

" I should like it," said Henry, "above all things."

" Ah, you are the little boy that don't love to work."

" Henry loves his book," interposed the mother ; " but when he gets into the field, I don't see but he works as well as any of you."

" Yes," said Tom, " when he gets there."

Uncle Jeremiah made no remark ; the blue-eyed boy in the corner was evidently very dear to the stern, shrewd old man. He would not join in the banter of the older boys, though his tendencies were all to the side of hard, unflinching toil ; and he was quite inclined to think every one who was not occupied in physical labor a shiftless, lazy, unproductive member of society. Indeed he did not hesitate to say (when bored by the idleness and want of thrift of some of his neighbors) that the bees took the proper method; they killed the drones, and flung them out.

The older boys were built, like him, with large, bony frames, swarthy complexion, hot, peppery temper, and, though they loved this younger brother, would sometimes (without intending it) treat him rather roughly, although they never failed to make amends when their ruder natures perceived they had wounded the feelings of this more sensitive boy, who resembled his mother both in looks and deportment.

" I should think, Hen," said Tom, " you had bet- . ter help shell some of this corn ; mother has taken part of it to hull, and I want to go to mill early in the morning. You're always over some book when there's any work to be done ; but you'll be ready enough to eat the meal and hulled corn, after somebody else has shelled it."

" I haven't anything to shell with, Tom ; you've got the tub and the auger."

Tom was shelling with a pod auger placed across a tub, with a board over it to sit on.

" There's an old scythe in the porch, and another tub down cellar; you can take mother's pressboard to sit on, Mr. Laziness ; I should think you'd studied enough for one day. I went into the barn after supper, and there was my gentleman sitting upon the milking-stool, reading a book, the cow chewing her cud, with one foot in the milk pail, the bottom out of it, and ten quarts of milk all over the tie-up floor."

Henry made no reply ; but as he laid aside his book, and rose from his seat, a tear rolled down his cheek. Tom was mollified in a moment.

u Sit down, Henry ; don't cry. I can shell the corn ; read your book as much as you please."

u Sit down, Henry," said Sam ; " I have got this clock most done. I'll help shell the corn, and finish the clock to-morrow evening. Tom's only funning. I'm sure I wouldn't mind him."

a 111 do all I can ; but I'm up to the head. The lesson is hard, and I don't want to get down."

"That's right, Henry," said Tom; "don't let anybody go ahead of you. I'd die first. I don't like to have anybody go ahead of me with a scythe or anything else. Put in, Hen. Sam and I had rather do all the work, chores and all, than have you get down."

"Boys," said the farmer, resuming his story, " the square come down here the night you were all gone over to Webster's, and quarrelled with me because I thought the crop wouldn't be likely to pay for the dressing. He told me to be plainhearted, and that is my candid opinion."

u Father," said Sam, looking up from his work, u can they put wits into a man in college ?"

u I don't calkerlate they can, any more than the mill men can make an oak log out of a hemlock by running it through a saw-mill."

" Then, father, I shouldn't think it would pay to send him."

11 1 don't pretend to be any judge of such matters; but it appears to me very much like the square's draining his Clarke field. He laid out four hundred dollars in draining and fencing ; and the land was good for nothing when all was done. The land bore quite a growth of wood ; and if he had let it alone, he might, for half the money expended there, have bought twice as much first-rate land. He runs off on an idea that he's going to send that boy to college, make a great sound, and a great man of him, get all the money back, and more too. It appears to me the property ain't there ; that if he's going to wait for that, he'll have to wait a good while. I think 'twill be like Smikes Allen's horse."

" How was that, father ? "

" Why, Smikes had an old horse, and was short of hay ; so he turned the old horse out along in March, to shirk for himself. 'Your horse will starve,' said the neighbors. l The grass is growing,' said Smikes. So it was ; but the horse was dead long enough before it grew. I reckon that'll be the way with the great fortune the square expects that boy is going to make, and the great glorification he's going to be to the family ; but till I see better reasons for changing it than I have yet, I shall stick to the opinion I've alius held, that while the grass is growing the horse will starve."

Chapter II. The Swaying Spectre Of Eloquence

IT was a great occasion at Squire Trafton's when his son actually arrived home. The squire, seated in the parlor, smoothed down his silk hose, and insisted upon his son's beginning from the first day he entered college, going over the whole ground, and telling him all that had taken place.

James told him about Radcliffe Hall, and the rooms, and about his bosom friends, Morton, Savage, Hill, Perkins, Hathaway, Ferguson, Lowell, and Richardson.

The squire thought it singular that a young man so distinguished in his scholarship as Morton should labor, hoe potatoes, and even milk the president's cow, and was still more astonished when James told him he seemed to be held in greater respect on this account ; that Richardson, whose parents were wealthy, helped him, and so did many others. He also told his father all about his being sick, and becoming as black as a negro, and the skill of Dr. L. in restoring him to his natural color, and also of all the kindness and care man* ifested by his classmates when he was sick.

"Indeed, James," said the squire, "you have fallen amongst a most excellent set of young gentlemen, who appreciate your abilities and genius ; and what reason we have to be thankful for your recovery 1 What a loss to us and to the town — I may say (without nepotism) to the world — would it have been, had you been taken away ! But how is it, my son, that you had none of these performances, that you have been telling me of, assigned to you ? for I suppose they were marks of distinction. You tell me that Perkins had the oration, Richardson the poem, and Hathaway the song. Why was it you were not selected — one so capable of doing honor to yourself and the class ? "

" Indeed, father, I might have had all or any of them ; but I preferred to forego the honors in favor of my friends, who had been so kind to me in my sickness."

u That is a very amicable feeling, James. I shall tell Parson Bradford that you could have had all these honors, if you had not preferred others to yourself; but in future I would take them ; it will be a great gratification to me, and should be to your mother, although she seems to have little appreciation of my feelings, and is more occupied with her cheese-tub, and the preparation of ' runnet/ than in the literary success of her son."

James did not lisp a word to his parent in respect to the Mohawks and the terrible Bloody-hand, or several other similar occurrences which occupy the pages of the previous volume.

" But, my son," said the squire, " it has cost a deal of money to carry you through this year, in addition to your board-bill and necessary expenses."

" Well, father, you know, when you are among gentlemen, you must bear your part. There are many expenses; there are initiation fees, assessments ; sometimes a number of your friends want to go on a sail or a ride, invite you, and you must bear your part ; sometimes the class make a present of books to the society library."

The truth was, James did not belong to any society, but he had spent a deal of money, and must account for it in some way. . He did not wish to tell about the ten dollars that went into the hands of the Mohawk chief, or the money that had been paid for help in respect to lessons; and a lie did not appear in the same light to him as to Morton.

" Well, James, you must be as prudent as possible ; it is a great deal of money to pay. I shall have to sell the ten-acre lot to Jerry Williams, that he has been wanting so long ; but I shall not regret it by and by, when I see you among the distinguished men of our country, swaying the spectre of eloquence over adoring audiences."

The squire saved up all the grandiloquent and sonorous words that at different times dropped from his son, and frequently asked him to translate passages in Cicero and Virgil, which James waa

24 THE SOPHOMORES OF RADCLTFFE.

•

very safe in doing ; since, if he could not translate the author's meaning, he could substitute one of his own, and the squire not know the difference. The squire also endeavored to impress upon his son the great importance of attending to declamatory exercises, and especially to speak loud and in a sonorous tone ; that he had excellent lungs, and there was a great deal more in sound than there was in sense ; that he often read in books about sounding periods. He further informed his son that he had often noticed an illustration of this principle in the case of himself and Uncle Jerry Williams in town meeting, in parish meetings, and when the school district met; that although he possessed so much sense, and Uncle Jerry so moderate a share, and had moreover enjoyed such scanty privileges compared with himself, yet Uncle Jeremiah's motions were sure to pass, while scarcely any attention was paid to his ; one reason of which, doubtless, was owing to jealousy of his wealth and superior advantages ; but another, and which contributed more directly to this result, was, that Uncle Jeremiah always spoke in loud, commanding tones, as though he was master carter at a hauling, while Nature, so bountiful in all other respects, had denied to him the blessing of a good voice. He therefore besought James to improve his gift ; told him that the woods and fields, while he was at home, afforded him an excellent opportunity for practice; advised him to commit a good piece and practise, so as to be prepared upon his return to college ; and even went so far as to promise him an increase of spending-money, if he would exert himself in that direction.

The squire paid very little attention to his other son, William ; cherished no ambitious hopes in respect to him : although resembling his mother (a prudent, sensible, industrious woman), he was a hard-working, intelligent boy, and as much liked by Uncle Jerry and his boys as James was disliked.

William felt that a great distinction was made between himself and James, and perhaps thought, with Uncle Jerry, that so much money expended upon the education of James was not very wisely invested ; for one day, as they were trying to get some young crows out of a nest, James was well up towards the top of the tree, when his heart failed him, and he exclaimed, " 0, Bill, s'pose I should fall down among these rocks, and hit my head on one; my brains would fly all over the pasture."

" Go on and get the crows ; you haven't got brains enough to cover a beech leaf."

James had now been at home a week, called upon parson Bradford, lawyer Bosworth, and the magnates of the village, when, on one of his morning walks, he met Tom Williams driving a team loaded with dressing. Tom stopped the cattle, and put out his hand, with, " Good morning, James ; " but Trafton passed on without a look or

26 THE SOPHOMORES OF BADCLTFFE.

word of recognition. Tom was a high-spirited boy ', he took hold of the small end of the goad-stick, intending to lay the butt across Trafbon's shoulders ; but resisting the impulse, he went on, muttering, " The puppy ! how different from Bill ! all the one of the family who has any sense, except the mother. I'll be upsides with you one of these days, my young gentleman, or my name's not Tom Williams."

Our readers are aware that Uncle Jerry's boys were accustomed to break the fid, and their resolves generally bore fruit.

Although James was naturally indolent, yet he had not, like the generality of college students, a dislike to declamation. He possessed a very retentive memory, committed easily, and was not in the least troubled with diffidence, liking anything which savored of display. He foresaw abundant occasion for spending-money the next term, as the studies would be more difficult, requiring more help from others. His father's offer, therefore, so much in harmony with his inclinations, excited him to strenuous effort ; he forthwith committed a piece, read it aloud in his room, and declaimed it in the barn. Although the town in which James resided had grown fast, having both lumber and water power, yet the country was comparatively new, and wild beasts by no means a rarity. Bears came into the cornfields occasionally, frightened the children who were picking blueberries and cranberries, and a wolf sometimes made havoc among the sheep.

The ten-acre piece referred to by the squire, in his conversation with James, joined some land owned by Uncle Jerry, who wanted to buy it, and the squire, who was often in want of ready money, owing to his thriftless habits and the expenses of James's education, had been thinking of selling it to him. It was covered with a very heavy growth of large beeches, mixed with birch (clear of underbrush), and which ran to a great height before branching. It was a beautiful spot at night, when the rays of the sun came slanting through the tree limbs, and very lonely, being far from any house or road. Here Trafton was fond of going, the latter part of the afternoon, to declaim, and hear, in fancy, the plaudits of the vast assembly that were one day to be thrilled by his eloquence.

Tom Williams was on his father's lot looking for a white oak butt, to make an axe handle, when, hearing a great noise, he directed his steps towards the sound, and peering cautiously through the trees, saw James mounted on a stump, gesticulating and declaiming with all his might.

The refusal of James to notice Tom had cut deep, excited very bitter feelings in the heart of Tom, and indeed of the whole family, when he related the matter at home. Uncle Jerry declared it was outrageous, and when Tom said he would be upsides with him, made no objection. As Tom beheld

James on the stamp he felt that the opportunity offered.

When he got home, a council, composed of all the brothers, was held in Uncle Jerry's haymow. By daylight the next morning, the plans there matured took shape. The stump, the orator's rostrum, stood near the division fence, between the land of Squire Trafton and Uncle Jerry. On one side of the stump were two tall beeches, and, ranging between them, about fifteen feet distant, a yellow birch about four inches in diameter, somewhat dwarfed by the shade of the larger trees. The space between the fence and the beech nearest to it was filled up by a close mat of bushes, thorn and hazel, difficult to get through.

To this growth, with the early dawn, the boys took their way with all the requisite materials to execute their designs. The first thing was to cut two wedge-shaped notches in the trees, with saw and chisel, and high up into these they fitted a stiff piece of oak plank in such a manner that the plank, resting upon the point of the wedge, which was not sharp, but blunt, was held firmly against an up-and-down strain, but would be dislodged by the least cant either backward or forward. They next fastened a threefold cord of moose-hide to the top of the birch, bent it down by their united force with great difficulty, — for the spring was very great, — and fastened it to the cross-bar with sufficient of the thong below the cross-bar to form a large loop, the lower part of which was just the height of James's waist, and hung the loop between the trees on some little knots. They then cut some branches of the beeches half off, and bent them down so that their foliage hid the cross-bar. The thong of moose-hide, between the trees, was not likely to attract notice towards night, when it was quite dark in the forest. Finally, they flung together, in a very irregular way, old logs, limbs, and dead bushes, making a sort of barricade, extending from the beeches some distance beyond the stump, insomuch that it was a great deal easier for a person in haste, and wishing to go in the direction of the two beeches, to pass between them, than in any other way, there being a log fence on one side, and a mass of old stuff, much worse to get over, on the other.