Five Hundred Dollars Part 1

Five Hundred Dollars.

by Heman White Chaplin.

I.

Captain Philo's sail-loft was a pleasant place to sit in, and it was much frequented. At one end was a wide, sliding door, that opened on the water, and through it you saw the little harbor and the low, glistening sand-bar at its entrance, and whitecaps in the sea beyond, and s.h.i.+ning sails. At the other end another wide door led, by a gently descending cleated platform, to the ground.

It was a pleasant place to rest and refresh the mind in, whether you chose to look in or out. You could rock in the hair-cloth chair by the water door, and join in conversation with more active persons mending seines upon the wharf; or you could dangle your heels from the work-bench, and listen to stories and debates inside, and look on Captain Philo sewing upon a mainsail.

It was a summer afternoon: warm under the silver poplars, hot in the store, and hotter in the open street; but in the sail-loft it was cool.

"More than once," Captain Bennett was remarking from the rocking-chair, while his prunella shoes went up and down,--"more than once I've wished that I could freight this loft to Calcutta on speculation, and let it out, so much a head, for so long a time, to set in and cool off."

"How about them porious water-jars they hev there?" asked Uncle Silas, who had never sailed beyond Cape Pogue; "how do they work?"

"Well," said the captain, "they 're so-so. But you set up this loft, both doors slid open, air drawing through and all, right on Calcutta main street, or what they call the Maiden's Esplanade, and fit it up with settees like a conference-meeting, and advertise, and you could let out chances to set for twenty cents an hour."

"You 'd hev to hev a man to take tickets, to the door," said Uncle Silas, who had been looking for an easy job for forty years.

"That's Si all over." said Captain Bennett, with a wink; "that berth would be just his size."

"Well," said Uncle Silas, faintly smiling, "'t is no use rubbin' the fur the wrong way; stroke the world from head to tail is my rule."

"Speaking of folks being easy," said Captain Bennett, "it seems there 's quite a little story about David Prince's voyage on the 'Viola.'" "I thought he went off whaling rather in a hurry," said Captain Philo, "and if it had been 'most anybody else, I should have thought there was something up."

"It seems," said Captain Bennett, "it was like this: You know, Delia was n't much over ten years old when her mother died, along a piece after her father, and she come to live with us. And you know how she was almost like one of the family. Well, about eight years ago, when she 'd got to be towards nineteen, it was then that David first set out to s.h.i.+ne up to her; and when he begun to come home from singing-school with her that winter, and got to coming to the house quite often the next spring along, I begun to feel a little shaky. Finally, one Sunday afternoon I was sitting out on the porch and she was singing hymns inside,--you know she was always singing,--and I called to her to quit and come out, and sit down alongside of me, and says I,--"'Delia, it can't be you 're thinking of taking up with David Prince?'

"Well, she flared a little, but finally says she:

"'Why should n't I, or anybody that has the chance, take David Prince?'

"'Well,' says I, 'I don't think you need to ask why; I should say that a smart girl wouldn't want more than to travel once along the Lower Road and see those two run-down houses,--one deserted, and the other, handy by, about as bad,--and the barn across the road, that was raised and boarded in over forty years ago, and never s.h.i.+ngled, and stood so till it's all rotted and sunk in.'

"'What's that got to do with David?' says she.

"'It's got this to do with David,' says I, 'that his father and his Uncle Ezekiel and their father before 'em--good, kindly men--all seemed to settle, settle, somehow; and it was all to-morrow, and to-morrow, with 'em; 'and then I told Delia how they sold off their wood and then their land, piecemeal, all but the spot where the old buildings stand,--and that's worth nothing.

"'And that's the way,' says I, 'it 'll be with David when he gets over being a boy and settles down; it's in the blood; and I don't want to see you, Delia, keel-hauled there--'"

"Like David's mother,--Prudence Frost, that was," said Uncle Silas; "originally she was a good, smart girl, and full of jingle; but finally she give up and come to it,--lef sweepin'-day out o' the almanic, washed dishes in cold water, and made up beds at bedtime; and when she ironed a s.h.i.+rt, jes' 's like's not she 'd iron a hoss-fly right into the bosom."

"And lived a dog's life generally," said Captain Bennett. "So I laid the whole thing out to Delia, the best way I knew how.

"'Well,' says she, 'I know you mean my good, Captain Bennett,--but I shall take my chances.' And so she did. Well--"

"Speakin' o' the barn," said Uncle Silas, "do you remember that high shay that David's father hed? I was up to the Widow Pope's vendue the day he bid it off. He managed to s.p.u.n.k up so fur's to hitch the shaffs under his team and fetch the vehicle home, and then he hed n't no place to put it up out o' the weather,--and so he druv it along under that big Bald'n apple-tree that used to stand by the pantry window, on the north side o' the house, and left it there, with the shaffs clawin' down in the ground. Then the talk was, he was goin' to build him a sort of a little tabernacle for it before winter set in; and he hed down a load of lumber from Uncle Joe's mill and hed it dumped down alongside o' the shay. But the shay was n't never once hitched up, nor the tabernacle built; and the timber and the shay jes' set there, side by side, seein'

who 'd speak first, for twenty year, to my cer-ting knowledge; and you go by there when it was blowin' fresh, and the old curtings would be flappin' in and out, black and white, till finally the whole arrangement sunk out o' sight. I guess there 's more or less wrack there now, 'f you sh'd go poke in the gra.s.s."

"It was thirty-one year ago, come October, that he bought the shay,"

said Captain Philo; "it was the fall I was cast away on the Tombstones, and lost every dollar I had. I remember it because the old man came down to the house of his own accord, when I got home, and let me have two hundred dollars. He 'd just been selling the West New Field; and when he 'd sold land and had money on hand, it was anybody's that wanted it. But what was it about David's going off so sudden on the 'Viola'?"

"Oh, yes, I forgot my errand," said Captain Bennett; "and now I 've got adrift in my story, and I shall have to take an observation; let's see, where was I?"

"Delia allowed she 'd take her chances," said Uncle Silas.

"Oh, yes," said Captain Bennett. "Well, you know how it was when they got married: David fixed the old house up a little, and mother put in some furniture and things for her, and all went on first-rate awhile; and then you know how David begun to settle, settle, just the old way; could n't seem to keep up to the wind; appeared to carry a lee helm, somehow; and Delia begun to take in work and go out to work, and quit singing. She never said a word, even to my wife; but I could see 't it cut her a good deal--"

"But all this time," said Uncle Silas, "she 's kep' up smart,--allers hed a high crower's-feather 'n her bunnet, and kep' her little boys a-lookin' like nine-s.h.i.+llin' dolls."

"I should n't have ever called David lazy," said Captain Philo. "He could n't seem to make up his mind what to do next, that 's all; but get him going--you remember how he worked at Jason's fire; and I know of my own knowledge he was in the surf for sixteen hours, when that Norwegian bark was on the Bar."

"I think there's some folks," said Uncle Silas, "that their mind works all the time--runs a day gang and runs a night gang. You know how a hard sum 'll shake itself out in your head overnight; and I think it's the most natural thing that a man with a A No. I active mind always should feel sort of tired and not know what ails him. George, won't you jes'

git up and hand me that pipe--you ain't doin' nothin'."

"However it was," said Captain Bennett, "Delia saw that he was drifting to leeward, and she was worried. Well, you know when the reformation set in, that winter, and run crowded houses,--one night in the West Church and the next in the other. One night David surprised his wife by going; and he set in a back seat, and come away and said nothing; and the same the next night; and the same for seven or eight nights right along.

Finally, one night, they had a pretty searching sermon,--'_Choose ye this day_,' et cetera,--and I suppose the Deacon, here, was rather expecting David to rise for prayers; but, instead of that, as soon as Amen was said, he gets right up, and off he goes, and leaves Delia there, without saying a word to her or to anybody, and goes right up to Captain Westcott's house and agrees to s.h.i.+p. And glad enough Captain W. was to have him, and next day off he went. Now here he is, gone two years and over, and comes home night before last; his lay 'll figure out five hundred dollars; and the biggest thing is"--here the Captain brought down his heavy hand, for emphasis, on Uncle Silas's knee--"that Delia 's kept herself and the children, and never drawn one cent against the voyage; so they've got the whole clear, and they 've been up this morning early and traded for the Callender place, and they 're going to move in to-morrow. And I guess he means business now."

"But they don't git paid off till Monday," said Uncle Silas. "They 're all goin' up to town to be paid off then."

"Well, he moves in to-morrow, anyway," said Captain Bennett. "Monday night, I believe, he's going to pay down what he has, and take a deed, and give a mortgage back for the balance."

But Uncle Silas gravely shook his head.

"I can't indorse this runnin' in haste," he said. "I never, in all my experience, knew a man before to buy real estate without sort of goin'

up street and talkin' it over, and comparin' notes 'round generally.

Now, we could have given him points down here about the Callender place."

"Oh, he's made a good trade there," said Captain Bennett.

"That all may be," said Uncle Silas, "but it 's the principle, not the five cents, I 'm lookin' at. I should have hed more faith in his holdin'

out if he hed n't jumped quite so quick. 'Slow bind, fast find,' I say."

Captain Bennett rose, and drew on a gra.s.s-cloth coat that showed his suspenders through.

"I must be on my winding way," he said. "But did you hear how close he came to never coming back? No? Well, it was like this: It was blowing a gale, and considerable sea on, one night when they were rounding Cape Horn on the home voyage, and she was pitching pretty bad, and David was out on the jib-boom taking in jib, and somehow she pitched with a jerk, so he lost his hold and went off, and, as he fell in the dark, naturally he struck out both hands, blind, like this; and he just happened to catch, by sheer accident, a gasket that was hanging from the jib-boom, and so he saved himself by a hair's breadth. And when he came up they thought it was his ghost."

"Well, I always make it a point to look on the bright side, without exception," said Uncle Silas; "nevertheless, I prophesy it won't be two years before he 'll have the place all eat up, and sold out under the mortgage. This jumpin' so quick,--looks as if he was sca't to trust himself for a day."

"Well, we shall see," said Captain Bennett; "time will tell."

There are many little farms along the New England sea-board, which the currents of life, diverted from ancient channels, have left one side, pleasant and homelike often, but of small money value. The Callender place was such a farm.

It lay a mile from the village, in a hamlet of half-a-dozen dwellings.

There was a substantial house, with four large rooms below, besides an L kitchen, and above, two sunny chambers, each with a dormer and a gable window. From the front fence projected, for a hitching-post, a Minerva, carved from wood,--a figure-head washed up years before from the wreck of a brig with the bodies of the crew.

The house was on a little elevation, and looked across the road, near which it stood, and over a sloping field or two, to sea. From the windows you could count the sail in the North Channel, and look down the coast and follow with the eye the long, low curving line of sh.o.r.e until at Indian Point it vanished; or look up sh.o.r.e ten miles to where the coast-line ended in a bold, wooded headland, which seemed, by a perpetual mirage, to bear foliage so lofty as to show daylight through beneath the branches. At night you could see the flash of the revolving light on Windmill Rock, and the constant rays from the lights.h.i.+p on the Rips. So that by day or night you could never be lonesome, unless, perhaps, on some thick night, when you could see no light, and could only hear a grating knell from the bell-buoy, and could seem to see, through the white darkness, the waters was.h.i.+ng over its swaying barrel.