the little village of westbrook seemed to have been standing still, while all the rest of the world had gone on. the people lived very much as their fathers and grandfathers had lived before them. they were all farmers except the doctor and the minister.
the doctor was a very skilful man; but he had been reared on a westbrook farm, and when he went out into the world to get his medical education he had brought back with him, to quiet westbrook, only the knowledge he sought, and none of the airs and graces of town life.
the minister, too, was westbrook born and bred, and his wife had scarcely ever been outside the town in all her days, so that there was no one in the simple community to set extravagant fashions, or turn foolish heads by gayety or splendor.
thin ice
thin ice.—page 100.
[pg 101]
it was, therefore, as much of an event as if queen victoria herself were to come and spend the winter in boston, when it became generally known that a rich widow lady and her son were to come, the last of september, and very probably stay on through the winter under dr. simms's roof. a famous city physician, with whom dr. simms had studied once, had recommended him and westbrook to mrs. rosenburgh, when it became necessary for her to take her puny boy into some still, country retreat.
they came during the last golden days of september, and all westbrook was alive with interest about them. the lady looked delicate, but she was as pretty as she was pale, and her boy was curiously like her,—as pale, as pretty, almost as feminine.
there was plenty of opportunity to see them, for the city doctor had given orders that the young gentleman should keep out of doors all the time; so, mornings, he and his mother were always to be seen in their low, luxurious carriage, drawn by high-stepping bay horses, and[pg 102] driven by a faithful, careful, middle-aged man, with iron-gray hair and an impenetrable face.
sometimes, in the afternoons, they would all be out again, but oftener mrs. rosenburgh remained at home, and her son drove, for himself, a pair of pretty black ponies, while the impenetrable, iron-gray man sat behind, ready to seize the reins in case of accident.
at first the boy's face seemed often drawn by pain, or white with weariness, and he would look round him listlessly, as he drove, with eyes that saw nothing, or at least failed to find any object of interest. but the clear autumn air proved invigorating, and when the glorious, prismatic days of late october came he looked as if, indeed, he had been re-created.
and now one could see that he began to take a natural, human interest in what went on around him. he would drive up his little pony carriage to the wall, and look over it to watch the apple-pickers and the harvesters. no one spoke to him, and he spoke to no one. the lads of his own age, who watched his ponies with boyish[pg 103] envy, never dreamed that the owner of these fairy coursers could be as shy as one of themselves, and, indeed, as much more shy as delicate weakness naturally is than rosy strength. they thought his silence was pride, and felt a half-defiant hatred of him accordingly.
yet many and many a day he went home to his mother, and sitting beside her with his head upon her knee, cried out, in very bitterness,—
"oh if i only could be like one of those healthy boys! how gladly i'd give up pease-blossom and mustard-seed, to be able to run about as they do! shall i never, never be strong, mamma?"
and she would comfort him with the happy truth that every day he was growing stronger, and that she expected him to be her great, brave boy, by and by, who would take care of her all the days of her life.
meantime, other boys, in other homes, talked to other mothers. for the very first time the evil spirit of envy had crept into quiet westbrook.
[pg 104]
why should ralph rosenburgh have every thing he wanted, and they nothing? what clothes he wore,—and a watch, a real gold watch they had seen him take out of his pocket,—and those ponies; for wherever they began they always ended with those ponies. and, as not all the mothers in westbrook were wise, any more than elsewhere in the world, while the wise ones would say that strong boy-legs were worth more than horses' legs, the weak ones would foster the evil spirit, and answer,—
"he ain't a bit better than you are, with all his watches and ponies. pride will have a fall some day, see if it don't, and he may be glad enough to stand in your shoes yet, before he dies."
jack smalley was the son of one of these injudicious mothers, and so his envy grew, unchecked; till he nourished a vigorous hatred for ralph rosenburgh in his heart, without ever having exchanged a single word with him.
it was a hatred, however, of which its object never could have dreamed. he had been so accustomed to be petted and pitied, and he was[pg 105] so very sorry for himself, that he could not be a wide-awake, vigorous, ball-playing, leaping, running boy, it would never have occurred to him that any one else could fail to see his condition in the same light.
so he went steadily on the even tenor of his way, gaining something day by day and week by week, and hoping—how earnestly no one knew—for the happy time when pease-blossom and mustard-seed might stand idle in their stalls, and he go about on his own feet with the rest.
the cold weather came on early that year. before the middle of december westbrook pond was frozen over, and then began the winter's fun. every afternoon ralph rosenburgh drove his ponies down to the very edge of the pond, and sat there for awhile, a patient looker-on at the frolics he could not share.
with christmas, however, there came to him from the fond, maternal santa claus, a chair constructed on purpose for pushing over the ice, and then he became a daily partaker in the festivities upon the pond. the chair was modelled[pg 106] after a certain kind of invalid, garden chair, which is arranged to be either propelled by some one else from behind, or by the occupant turning a kind of crank at the sides.
ralph soon learned to manage it for himself, and finding himself strong enough to do so, he used to make the iron-gray man stay with the ponies, while he himself moved round among the skaters.
and, now that he seemed really one of themselves, the young people, all except jack smalley, began to feel a kindly interest in him. jack alone went on hating him more and more, finding daily fresh causes of offence in this boy who wore velvet and fur in place of his own coarse gray cloth, and woollen, hand-knit comforter. what was he, this puny wretch, without pluck enough to stand on his own legs, that he should wear the garments of a young prince? you see that master smalley had the primitive idea of young princes, and supposed them clad in everlasting velvet and ermine. but there were no princes in america, thank heaven, and nobody[pg 107] in westbrook wanted fools round who tried to look like king's sons. very innocent of trying to look like any one was poor ralph, if the truth had been known,—this mother's darling of a boy, who took no more thought of his attire than a weed, but whom mrs. rosenburgh wrapped assiduously in all that was softest and warmest, as she had, all his life, surrounded him with warmth and softness.
after a while there came a january afternoon, over which a gray, moist sky brooded. already the ice had shown some symptoms of breaking up, and everybody was out, making the most of it while it lasted.
among the rest ralph rosenburgh came down to the pond,—left pease-blossom and mustard seed in the iron-gray man's charge, as usual, and began to propel himself over the ice, with arms whose increasing vigor was a daily and happy astonishment to himself.
at last he wandered away a little from most of the skaters. he felt himself and his chair rather in their way, they were wheeling and[pg 108] zigzagging so swiftly, and he moved along the pond quite rapidly toward the eastern end.
it chanced that no one noticed his course except jack smalley, and jack knew that he was going directly toward a place where the ice had been recently cut, and where it was thin and treacherous now. slowly jack followed him.
"i'd like to see him and that fine chair of his get a good ducking," jack muttered. "it would serve him right. i guess all them prince's feathers and fineries would look a little more like common folks', after they'd been soused."
i do not think another and darker possibility crossed jack's mind. hating ralph rosenburgh though he did, i do not think one wish for his death had ever entered his heart. he himself had been in the water, time and again, and got no other harm from it than perhaps a hard cold. he did not realize what a different thing it would be for this delicate invalid, seated in his heavy chair. and so ralph propelled himself along toward destruction, and jack, with an evil sneer on his face, skated slowly after him.
[pg 109]
suddenly a third figure shot from the group of skaters,—the fastest skater of them all, and the one boy in the world whom jack smalley loved,—his own cousin, nelson smalley.
he, too, had turned his eyes and seen in what fatal direction the chair with the delicate, golden-haired invalid in it was tending. he did not speak a word: he had but one thought,—to reach ralph rosenburgh in time to save him. he skated on, with the swiftness of light. and jack smalley saw him coming, nearing him, passing him, on toward the thin ice. now, indeed, he shrieked at the top of his voice,—
"nell, nell, come back. the ice out there is thin. come back—come back. don't you hear?"
"i hear," floated backward on the wind from the flying figure; "i hear, but don't you see rosenburgh? i must save him."
then jack himself skated after, making what speed he might. but he seemed to himself slow as a snail; and already rosenburgh was very near the treacherous ice, and nelson was almost[pg 110] up with him, flying like the wind. he heard nelson's voice:
"stop, rosenburgh, stop. the ice beyond you is just a crust. stop, you will be drowned."
and then he heard a plash, and looked. it was nelson, who had gone on, and gone under, unable to arrest, in time, his own headlong speed. and then, while he himself was shrieking madly for help, he saw rosenburgh, prince's feathers and all, just throw himself out of his chair, and down into the cold, seething water where nelson smalley had gone under.
the ice grew thin suddenly, just where the saw had cut it squarely away, so the chair stood still upon the solid ice, and by that rosenburgh held with one hand, while with the other he grasped the long hair of nelson smalley, who was rising for the first time. excitement was giving him unnatural strength, but for how long could he hold on?
now, at last, the skaters had perceived the real state of the case, and such a wail as one might hear afterwards through his dreams for[pg 111] ever, went up to the bending sky. hurry, all who can. run, iron-gray man, as you never ran before, or how shall you drive home to that boy's waiting mother?
how was it done? how is it ever done? who can ever tell in such a crisis? i do not know how long they were in reaching the thin ice, for at such times moments seem hours, and seconds are bits of eternity. but rosenburgh held on, and the iron-gray man threw himself flat upon the cracking ice, with the boys holding fast to him, and drew them both out, and then rosenburgh turned limp and white on his hands, and whether he was dead or not he could not tell.
there were enough others to care for smalley, and already the older ones had begun trying to restore him, and some of the younger were running in various directions for wiser aid. so the iron-gray man just lifted his own young master in his arms, and got him straight into the pony wagon, and drove pease-blossom and mustard-seed home as they had never been driven before.
[pg 112]
at the gate he met dr. simms coming out, and told his story in a few words. it was almost an hour before the blue eyes opened again, and the mother felt sure that her boy was still hers to have and to hold, to love and to cherish. indeed, it was many days before she felt altogether safe and sure about him. she was constantly expecting some after consequences from his exposure,—some fever, or cough, or terrible nervous prostration. but, strangely enough, he seemed to be none the worse; and one day, after a careful examination of him, dr. simms said to her,—
"i venture to tell you, now, what i have thought all along. this has been the very best thing for him that could possibly have happened. the severe shock was exactly what he needed, though certainly it was what i should not have dared to take the responsibility of subjecting him to. he is going to be the better and stronger for it."
"and the brave, splendid fellow who was risking his own life to save him?"
[pg 113]
"is all right too. duckings are good for boys, not a doubt of it. trust me, this cold bath will go far to make a man of yours."
and the doctor was right. the languid pulses which that awful peril had quickened never throbbed so languidly again. it was ralph rosenburgh's awakening to a new life. somehow the shyness in him passed away with the weakness, and he became a general favorite.
the boys no longer envied him his ponies, when one or other of them was always asked to share his drives; and their cure was completed when he grew strong enough to take part in all their sports, when pease-blossom and mustard-seed were left to "eat their heads off" in their stall, and ralph rosenburgh and his chosen and dearest friend, nelson smalley, scaled rocks and climbed hills with the best of them.
this strong friendship would have cost jack smalley some envious pangs, perhaps, if the awful terror of that january afternoon had not made him afraid of the evil in his own soul.
