Little Wolf Part 37

Don't the Bible say that every tub shall stand on its own bottom? I've heerd it did, and I'm a thinkin that all of them air useless tubs that stand out a sunning theirselves, will fall down and not hev any bottom fur tu stand on when they are fur, and will only be fit fur firewood.

Fur my part I don't blame G.o.d Almighty fur pitchin folks inter the infarnel regions when they won't du nothin fur tu keep things right in this ere world, and some actually hender others from doing anything.

Now, supposen there was a big hole in the end of our street and a pa.s.sel of citizens should du all they could to keep that air hole open fur people to fall inter, and you'd hear 'em hollerin out tu folks that was a tryin to stop it up; 'Let that air hole alone, everybody knows its there, if they don't want fur tu git inter it let em go another way; there is plenty of streets;' wouldn't yer think them air rascals ought to be singed to all etarnity? Well, what's the mighty difference 'tween them air, and a pa.s.sel of citizens that'll set by and see their feller citizens go straight inter that air hole and say nothin? I believe in men's minding their own business, and I hold its a man's business to save a drownding feller critter if he ken.

I hev now come to my last pint. It is this. Shall we hev laws that will save our nation from becoming a nation of drunkards, or shall we not? Just picture to yourself a drunken president. We hev hed him.

Then picture a pa.s.sel of drunken senators. We hev hed them, tu. Seems zif the more big men ken circulate the devil's pisen, the better they like it, and that air in my opinion is one reason why we can't get laws tu shet down the making and selling of the infarnel stuff. Why, keep that air kind of men in office, and figuratively speakin, the fust we know, a pair of the president's breeches will be stuffed inter a broken winder of that air White House. Fur if we keep a sendin men tu Washington, that is friendly tu that air sarpent with many heads, it will git so big that it will sartin bust every thing to flinters.

It's leetle young ones are a crawlin everywhere now. They lay coiled on the hearth of the rich man and the poor man, and woe to the infatuated p.u.s.s.en who gits inter their slimy folds. O, what wretched slaves they do make of their victims. What tears, what anguish, what poverty, what degradation du they bring them tu!

Shall we, the free born sons of America, consent fur tu be made slaves, and lay among the pots? Shall we walk in rags and stagger in fetters with the blood of the innercent on our hands? I say, shall this big proud nation be made fur tu totter and tu reel like a helpless baby a learnin fur tu walk? Shall that air many headed sarpent rule us, or shall we rule it?

Haul out yer temperance pledges! Float the banner of total abstinence!

Wave high the flag of freedom; and fight long and fight well fur freedom; from the intoxicatin cup!"

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

DEATH IN MID OCEAN--LOVE MAKING AND A DOUBLE WEDDING.

"The birds are mating, and the spring will soon open, and when the little songsters come to you, I am coming with them," wrote Little Wolf to Mrs. Tinknor in the month of February.

So now, dear reader, let us skip the intervening months, and go half way to meet her. Her friends having planned to carry out their promise to Captain Green, whose acquaintance and that of his little daughter Flora, it will be remembered, she formed on her outward trip; all we have to do is to take pa.s.sage on the steamship "Northern Star,"

Captain Green, commander, and we will soon have the pleasure of greeting our heroine.

Little Flora, who has once more been permitted to accompany her papa, is all impatience, and almost every hour of the day she may be heard singing, "O dear, I am so wery, wery, anxious to see dear Miss DeWolf," and "papa, ain't you wery, wery, anxious to see Miss DeWolf?"

The Captain a.s.sures his daughter that he is "wery anxious," and, indeed, when he says so, his dark eyes kindle, and his fine, sunburnt countenance glows and warms expressively under his broad brimmed hat.

The day has come at last, and Little Wolf's party are aboard, but oh, how changed are they all!

Consumption has fastened itself upon poor Alfred Marsden. His days are numbered, and for earth he seems to have but one desire, to see again his childhood home, and die there. His faithful nurses, Annie and Little Wolf, have grown pale and thin, His sister's eyes are tear stained, and Little Wolf's also grief shaded, for together they have watched over and tended him, striving to drive away that unseen something, which makes his cheeks and lips so white, and takes fast hold upon his vitals, determined to wrench him away from those he loves.

It will not even grant his last wish; for here, in mid ocean, he grapples with death. All day long those fair young faces have bent over him, and his friend, the Captain, has been there with them, and little Flora has hovered near with trembling lips, whispering softly, "I am so wery, wery, sorry."

As the evening draws on, the sick man revives a little, and in a low, rapid tone, says something to his sister, which we do not hear, but with a few hurried words to Little Wolf, she moves away with the Captain and Flora, and Little Wolf is left alone with the dying. All that he is breathing into her ear we shall never know; but her cheek changes, and her lip quivers, and she bends over and kisses him tenderly.

That hungry look in his eyes is gone. He is satisfied, and now, surrounded by those he loves, he dies with a smile upon his lips.

His body will not rest in the place prepared for him in Greenwood, beside his parents, but will sink into the ocean's Greenwood, where the sea shall ever kiss his lips, where flowers bloom, and things of beauty are perpetual, and coral monuments are raised, out-rivalling those of the cemeteries of art.

The fair moon shines out upon the waves and the winding sheet, and the burial is over.

Three days more, and we shall be on sh.o.r.e again," says Little Wolf, half regretfully.

The Captain is by her side, and he bends over and says something which we do not hear.

Little Wolf shakes her head, and her ingenuous little face says no, as plainly as words could.

A shade of disappointment manifests itself in the Captain's manner, and again he speaks.

His companion still replies in the negative.

"Then he was but a deer friend, and I may be the same," says the Captain, now loud enough to be heard.

Now Little Wolf says distinctly, "yes, you may be the same, Captain Green. You rescued me in perils by sea, and he in perils by land. He told me with his latest breath how he had saved me from certain destruction when I was a little child, and--"

"And how he loved you in after years, and how he longed to kiss you,"

said the Captain, seeing her hesitate.

"Yes, Captain," said Little Wolf solemnly, he told me that, and more which you must not hear."

"I know how he felt," says the Captain, folding his arms across his breast, "for I would be willing to die, if you would but kiss me."

"Captain," Little Wolf's cheek grows scarlet, and she pauses to choke down a strong emotion, "there is a man _living_ whom I have kissed, and I shall never kiss another."

The Captain's voice sinks very low in reply, but Little Wolf warmly takes his proffered hand, and it is easily to be seen that more than a common friendship has sprung up between them.

Now the Captain, Little Wolf, Miss Marsden, and little Flora, have become almost inseparable. A permanent parting is not once spoken of between them. Their last day at sea is spent in planning to be together for the summer.

It has transpired that Little Wolf's protege, f.a.n.n.y Green, is a niece of the Captain's. His elder brother, f.a.n.n.y's father, having formed bad habits, ran away from home, and it was supposed, went to sea, and had not been heard of by his family up to the time of the Captain's acquaintance with Little Wolf.

In the course of a few weeks, the Captain and Flora, are to accompany Little Wolf and Miss Marsden to Minnesota, where they expect to greet their newly discovered little relative.

A few weeks later, and everything was in company order at Squire Tinknor's, and f.a.n.n.y Green's demure little face looked out of the window, almost the entire day that Little Wolf and her friends were to arrive, and when, just at twilight, a carriage brought them to the gate, she shrank away in the folds of the curtain, and Little Wolf found her there sobbing for joy.

Her cousin Flora greeted her with the remark, "Why, dear me, how wery, wery large you are, cousin f.a.n.n.y; I thought you would be smaller than me."

Little Wolf found letters awaiting her from the Hanfords, and Antoinette Le Clare, urging her to come with her friends and spend a few weeks at Fairy Knoll.

It was decided that they should accept the invitation, and accordingly, on a warm summer morning, a requisition was made on Squire Tinknor's horses and carriage, and Tom was installed as driver.

f.a.n.n.y and Flora were to be left with Mrs. Tinknor, and, as Tom tenderly kissed the former, his charge to her was, "Take care of yourself, f.a.n.n.y dear, for you know you have promised to be my little wife," and Flora said that was "wery, wery nice."

The Captain occupied a seat beside Miss Marsden, and Little Wolf sat by Tom, whom, having ceased to be a lover, she found to be quite entertaining, and they amused themselves by building air castles and earth castles, such as baloons and orphan asylums; and indeed, by the time Fairy Knoll loomed up before them in the moonlight, they had become warmer friends than they had ever been.

As they neared the cottage, Little Wolf could not repress a sigh, for too well did she remember her emotions on that wintry morning, when she and Edward Sherman left that spot together, so light of heart, so full of hope and joy.

Out sprang the watchers from within, to welcome their guests, and into the arms of Edward Sherman sprang Little Wolf. She had instantly recognized him, and a glad cry escaped her, as he caught her to his breast.

The Captain saw all at a glance, and he then knew whom Little Wolf had kissed, and who was kissing her. Light also seemed to have suddenly dawned on Tom's benighted vision.

Without ceremony or apology, Edward bore our heroine away to a retired spot in the grove surrounding the cottage. Their interview was not interrupted, until Tom, in the course of half an hour had the temerity to venture out, and suggest the propriety of Little Wolf's partaking of a cup of tea.

"Did we not manage it nicely?" said Antoinette Le Clare to Little Wolf when they were alone. "Mr. Sherman came out for a little recreation, and did not think of seeing you. We made him think that it was his sister we were expecting, and when he rushed to meet her and saw who it was you ought to have seen his face."

On the subject of lovemaking, which was witnessed by the trees in the grove at Fairy Knoll, we will be silent. But the double wedding which followed was public and grand, and took place at St. Paul, under Mrs.