OUR VILLAGE IN WAR-TIME.CHAPTER I.THE BEACH HILL NEIGHBORHOOD.
OUR VILLAGE IN WAR-TIME.
“Wouldyou believe it, Mrs. Glenn, the Tyrrell House is sold, and a family is going to move into it right away? The painters and carpenters have been there for a week. I didn’t know the house, it looked so lively. It seems too bad to have that place shut up from the public, for we all enjoyed it so much; but I suppose the owner had the best right to it, after all. I haven’t found out who the family are, but I shall hear all about it to-morrow, and then I will let you know; for Aunt Prudence is going there to cleanthe rooms, and get them ready for the furniture.”
As Miss Letty paused to take breath, I expressed my interest in the news, which, to confess the truth, had affected me rather unpleasantly.
The Tyrrell House was the “show-place” of Beach Hill, a rambling, aristocratic mansion, built by a wealthy Englishman, who, after a series of domestic troubles, shut up the house in disgust, and left the country. It was his wish that no one should reside there; consequently the house was out of repair, and the extensive grounds, laid out originally by a landscape gardener, were overrun with weeds. Still it was a lovely spot, and the dwellers on the hill held annual picnics there, and lovers strolled through its shaded walks by moonlight, and altogether we had come to look upon it as public property, held for our special benefit.Great was our astonishment, therefore, when we heard that the house had been purchased, and was fitting up for a family, who were to take immediate possession. It was felt by us almost as a personal loss; and woe to the new-comers, should they fail to atone by the charms of their society for the deprivation we were to suffer.
Not that we were an inhospitable or quarrelsome set of people. On the contrary, we prided ourselves on the possession of the opposite qualities. If there were in the town of Woodbury a model neighborhood, we believed it to be located on Beach Hill. Ours was a very select society, reckoning among its members the clergyman, lawyer, doctor, and editor of the town, and a number of gentlemen of wealth and leisure, as well as some who led the dubious sort of existence called “living by one’s wits.” Weassumed, however, no airs of superiority over our townsmen, but were content to manifest our self-complacency by a quietly patronizing manner whenever we met them. In such a community as this, it may be supposed the arrival of a new family was quite an event, particularly as they were about to occupy the best house in the town.
The next day I was very busy at home, and had forgotten the coming event, when just at evening Miss Letty made her appearance, every line of her face instinct with news which her tongue was eager to communicate.
Miss Letty Brown was the dressmakerpar excellenceof the town of Woodbury; and though we of the Hill had tried hard to appropriate her, it was found an impossibility, so we were fain to share her services with the inhabitants of the village. She was a cheerful, active littlewoman, of an uncertain age, with a fresh, breezy atmosphere always about her, which stirred one very pleasantly—a little given to gossip, yet no scandal-monger, but a sincere, earnest Christian, loving God and her fellow-men, and looking persistently on the bright side of every thing. No matter how dark the day, Miss Letty firmly believed in the sunshine behind the clouds, and waited for it to break through. Her services were in constant requisition on every occasion; and as she was brimming over with what the Yankees call “faculty,” nothing that skill and ingenuity could accomplish came amiss to her.
Hardly was the neat white sun-bonnet laid aside, when she exclaimed,
“Well, it’s really wonderful how things do come about in this world. There’s old Mr. Tyrrell thought he’d cut off his daughter with a shilling, and now hergrandson has come into possession of the house and land.”
“How is that?” I asked; “is this new family connected with the Tyrrells?”
“Oh yes; Aunt Prudence has told me all about it. Mr. Fenton, the gentleman who has bought the property, is the grandson of Emily Tyrrell that was, and he has lived in Alabama a great many years. It seems he is a strong Union man; and when this rebellion broke out, he got into trouble, and has been all this time trying to get away; and now the family have come, but he stays behind to try and save some more of his money. Mrs. Fenton is very sick, and has been for a great while; but there is a grown-up daughter and another young lady, a niece, who is said to be an heiress, and a son, who I rather think is in the rebel army, though there isn’t much said about it.”
“Are the family coming immediately?” I inquired, for Miss Letty’s account had awakened my interest in these refugees from rebel tyranny.
“They are expected every day, but I’m sure the house is any thing but ready for them. When I heard about the poor sick lady, I felt like taking right hold and putting things to rights; but it would not have been taken kindly by Aunt Prudence, so I held my tongue. Mrs. Ryder and Mabel were there, seeing to the furniture and pictures, for it seems that when Mr. Ryder went south for his health, three years ago, he got acquainted with this family, and that is the way they found out that the house was for sale and got it. There was quite a company of Beach Hill people there, and among the rest Robert Lester, the fine-looking young lawyer. I don’t often take a fancy to young men—you needn’t smile,Nellie—but I do like that young man wonderfully. There’s something so noble about him; and yet he’s as gentle as a woman.”
I assented cordially to Miss Letty’s praise of the young lawyer, for he had been a favorite of mine from his first appearance in our town. He was alone in the world, having no relatives but one sister, who was at a boarding-school at some distance from Woodbury. His legal knowledge and splendid powers as a speaker made him a marked man in the community, and he was rising rapidly in his profession, while his private character, so pure and manly, won the esteem and friendship of all.
Unlike too many young men, Mr. Lester had not been ashamed to avow himself a Christian by a public profession of his faith in Jesus; and young as he was, Mr. Ryder had found him an efficienthelper in every good word and work, while even infidels and scoffers were compelled to admire his consistency and firmness of principle.
When the war broke out, and with thousands of others the young men of our village sprang to arms, we expected Robert Lester would be one of the first to go, for all knew his patriotic devotion to the cause of liberty; but to our surprise he did not enlist, though he looked sad enough when the first company marched away, carrying with them our best wishes and prayers for their success. He was not a man whom one would like to question about his reasons for any course of conduct, so we waited to hear what he would say, but he said nothing.
The second company went, and still no word from him, though his efforts to promote the good cause were laborious and incessant. There was some mysteryabout it, for when urged to accept the command of a company, he replied hastily,
“Do not ask it. I would give ten of the best years of my life to be able to say yes, but I cannot go. I can help to send others, however, and that I am doing with all my heart.”
In fact his purse was always open, and as his fortune was large, the streams of his benevolence flowed in various channels, making glad many a heart which the war had made desolate.
Mr. Ryder our excellent minister, Dr. Goodhue our physician, and Mr. Reed, a thin, pale young man, who edited the Woodbury Chronicle, were all of opinion that Mr. Lester had good reasons for staying at home, and the rest of us were satisfied to adopt their belief, though we felt that he had lost a glorious opportunity of becoming a hero.
Before leaving, Miss Letty informedme in confidence that the new family were to be invited to the meeting of the Soldiers’ Aid Society at Mrs. Atlee’s, and that then we should know whether they sympathized with the government, or were at heart secessionists.
“Not that I think there’s any doubt about it,” she said; “for if they had liked the rebellion, they could have staid there, you know. But it’s always best to have things clear, and it’s hard to satisfy some people.”
This was a fact which could not be denied, even in our neighborhood, and I contented myself with inquiring if any one besides Mr. Ryder had seen the Fentons.
“I don’t know, but I had my thoughts about it, when I saw Mr. Lester looking so sharp at the portraits of the family which are hung up. There was one of a young girl, the prettiest thing I ever seteyes on; it was so beautiful it spoilt all the rest. Her eyes were just like stars, and such lovely curls of brown hair falling over her white neck and shoulders; but the sweet look on her face was better than all. I’m sure I should love that girl, and I guess Mr. Lester thought so too, from the way he kept going back to it again and again, as if he couldn’t get away, looking all the while so melancholy. One thing I’m sure of,” added Miss Letty as she rose to go; “that young man hasn’t got any thing to be ashamed of; for if ever there was an honest and brave soul looking out through a face, his is the one, and I’d trust him with the last cent I had in the world.”
With this emphatic declaration Miss Letty took her leave, and the last I saw of the white sun-bonnet, it was disappearing among the shrubbery at the parsonage.