james and william hardy were twins—born and bred on a new hampshire farm. the family dated far back to pioneer times, when john hardy and henry graham, with their young wives, went into the wilderness as the advance guard of civilization. it came to be a common understanding that a hardy should always marry a graham, and through four generations at least this family law had been observed until there had been developed one of those fine, purebred new england families which represent just about the highest type of the american. as the father of these twins married a graham girl you had a right to expect them to be as much alike as two peas in the family pod—both in appearance and in character. here you surely might expect one of those cases where the twins are always being mixed up, when not even their mother could be sure which was jim and which was bill. in truth, however, the boys were distinctly different from the day they were born—different in size, in appearance and in character.
these twins innocently brought to the surface a sad spot of family history which both the grahams and the hardys hoped had been buried too far down ever to show itself. far back in the french and indian war a band of raiders from canada burst out of the forest and carried off a dozen prisoners. among them was the pride of the graham family—a beautiful girl of 16. the settlers, hiding in their blockhouse, could only look on and see their relatives start on the long march to canada. the next year some of these prisoners were ransomed, and came back to say that the girl had married a young frenchman. she was happy, and sent word to her parents that she preferred to stay with her husband. years went by, until one night there came to henry graham’s house a canadian ranger and a young girl. it was their granddaughter and her father. the mother had died and had begged her husband to take her daughter back to the old folks as her offering of love. the father delivered his message, bade his daughter farewell and silently vanished into the forest. they never saw him again, but they realized that he had given full measure of devotion to his dead wife. the girl grew up to be a beautiful creature much like her mother, only darker, and at times there was a bright glitter in her eyes. she married a hardy and settled down as a farmer’s wife. she was dutiful and kind, but sometimes her husband would see her standing at the door—looking off into the northern forests with a look which made him shake his head. years went by, and this spot on the family history had been forgotten until these twins uncovered it! their mother knew in her heart that the spirit of the restless frenchman was watching her from the cradle through the black shiny eyes of her strange baby. james, the light-haired, steady, purebred infant, slept calmly or acted just as a good hardy should, but the wild spirit of the forest had jumped three generations right into the cradle, where this black-haired little changeling stared at her!
there never were two children more unlike than these twins. jim was solid, sound, a little slow, but absolutely trustworthy—“a born hardy” as they said. bill was bright, quick, restless, full of plans and visions. he did not like to work, and had no respect for the family skeleton. this was a mortgage, which for many years had sunk its claws into the rocky little farm. the truth was that this farm never should have been cleared and settled. it was rocky and sandy; farther out of date than the old mill rotting unused by the old mill pond. the mortgage hung like a wolf at the back door, demanding its due, which came out of the little farm like blood money. jim hardy, like his father and grandfather, grew up to regard that mortgage as a fixed and sacred institution. it was a family heirloom or tradition—something like the old musket which an older hardy carried at bunker hill, or like grandmother’s old spinning-wheel. as for the poor, rocky farm, jim and his father would stay and grind themselves away in a hopeless struggle just because the hardys who went before them had done so. it was different with bill. he had no use for the mortgage or for the rocky pastures, for the dash of french blood had put rubber, or yeast, into the covering of the stern new england thought. his father never could understand him and one day, when bill was 17, the blood of the “changeling” burst into open mutiny. the father knew of only one way to act. he ordered the boy around behind the barn and took the horsewhip to him. as a hardy, bill was expected to stand and take his punishment without a murmur. as the descendant of a wild forest ranger he could only resent the blows. what he did was to catch his father’s arms and hold them like a vice. neither spoke a word. they just looked at each other. the older man struggled, but he was powerless—he knew that his son was the master. he dropped the whip from his hand and bowed his head. the boy released him, broke the whip in two, and threw it away. the father walked to the house, a dazed and broken man. bill watched him and then walked out to the back lot where jim, the steady and faithful, was building a fence.
“good-bye, jim,” he said. “i’m off. it had to come. i’m different, and yet the same, as you will see. you stay here and look after father and mother. i will help some day.” it was the hardy in both the boys which made it impossible for them to come any closer in feeling. bill walked on over the pasture hill; at the top he paused to wave his hand. then he was gone.
bill was clean and sound at heart, and the french blood had given him a quick active brain. instead of striking for the wilderness he headed for new york and he prospered. the old french ancestor drove him on with tireless energy, and the long line of clean farm breeding kept him true to his purpose to go back some day and show the old folks that he was still a hardy. years passed, until one day there came to bill an uncontrollable longing to go home. just a few brief, unresponsive letters had passed between him and jim, but the time came when bill longed with a great longing to see the old farm once more. and so, the next day, a well-dressed, prosperous man walked into the old yard and looked about him. there was jim, the same old jim, walking in from the barn with the night’s milk. father was cutting wood at the wood pile and mother stood at the kitchen door—just the same home picture which bill knew so well. bill did great things during his short stay. he paid that mortgage, ordered a new barn built and left capital for jim to improve the farm. he did everything that a hardy ought to do—and more—and yet he could not satisfy himself. it all seemed so small and narrow. he had hoped to find great music in the wind among the pines, but it filled him with a great loneliness, which he could not overcome. he had hoped to find peace and rest, but these were for the untried farm boy—not for the restless and worried business man. it broke out of him at night on the second day, when he and jim were on the pasture hill looking for the sheep. the loneliness of the early fall day fairly entered his heart.
“jim,” he said, “old fellow, i don’t see how you live in such a god-forsaken place!”
“why, bill,” said jim, “new york must be like paradise to beat the old homestead.”
“better a week on broadway than a lifetime on these lonely hills.”
“i’d like to try it and see!” said jim.
so jim hardy, the plain farmer, went to new york to visit brother bill. he had everything he could call for. bill lived in a beautiful apartment, and he gave jim a white card to see and do what he wanted. bill was too busy to go around much, but jim made his way. for a couple of days it was fine—then somehow jim, just like bill at the old farm, began to grow lonesome and oppressed. right through the wall of bill’s apartment house was a family with one child. the janitor told him the child was sick, so jim knocked at the door to sympathize with the neighbors. they froze him with a few words and got rid of him. he saw a man on the street and stopped to converse with him. “get out!” said the stranger. “you can’t bunco me.” day after day jim hardy, the farmer, saw the fierce, selfish struggle for life in the big city. the great buildings, the theaters, broadway at night—they were all splendid, but behind and under them lay the meanness, the selfish spirit, the lack of neighborly feeling, which galled the farmer to the heart. on the third night bill took his brother to a great reception. just as they walked into the brilliant room jim glanced from the window and saw a policeman throw a weak and sickly man out of a public room where he was trying to get warm.
“what did i tell you, jim?” said bill. “isn’t this worth a year on your old hills?” and jim could only think of one thing to say:
“bill, old fellow, i don’t see how you can live in such a god-forsaken place!”
what do you make of it? one brother thinks god has forsaken the country, while the other says he has forsaken the city! to me they prove that god is everywhere. some may not find him, since they look for him only in things which are agreeable to them, and those are rarely the places in which to look. i think, too, that, like jim and bill, all children come into the world with natural tendencies and inclinations which, if worthy, should be encouraged rather than repressed. both jim and bill are needed in american life.
