when i was a lad in a lonely new hampshire village, in the memorable year of 1863, a great many fathers and uncles and older brothers were off at some fearful and dimly-comprehended distance, dressed in blue, and, as we reckoned it, fighting battles daily.
how brave they had looked one morning, as they left town, marching with fife and drum along the crazy sidewalk, and off down the “depot hill!”
after that, the games at school and after school took a decidedly warlike tinge. wooden swords and muskets largely usurped the place of top and ball; and proud was the small boy whose grand-dad would lend him a real sword of 1812, or an ancient militia shako.
when the stern new hampshire winter came on, with its sleighing and coasting and skating, military evolutions were somewhat curtailed—but not altogether. there[316] were snow forts and snow battles; white-blocked sumters that defied the assault of the enemy.
patriotic feeling ran riot; and when one young school-fellow, named tip, espoused the southern cause for fun, and began to press our ramparts sore, gaining recruits every day by his sheer audacity, there came to be snow-balls slightly thawed and then left out over night to turn to ice—and, as a result, some dangerous casualties on the battle-field.
the very opposite of tip in many ways was mat marks. tip was restless, sometimes reckless, always full of mischief, but one of the squarest and least self-conscious of boys. his sudden “turning rebel,” when he could hardly draft rebels enough to make the holding of our forts against them half-way interesting, was from no lack of as good patriotism as ours.
but tip liked excitement, and was less vain than most of us; and without a second thought of any prejudice that he might excite because of this boyish enterprise, he abandoned the fort and took command of the enemy—“just to make it interesting.”
and, though he was always overwhelmingly outnumbered, interesting enough he made it for “us unions” before he finished.
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mat, on the other hand, while in a way as active and enterprising as tip, was much bound to the traditions—not from any principle or understanding of them, but because he liked to be on the popular side, and at the head of it, too; for he had a remarkably good opinion of himself.
thanks to his diplomacy, he counted more followers than any other lad in town, and was fully satisfied of the justice of his pre?minence. he liked to deem himself “a born leader of men,” such as he read of; and i have often wondered, since, that we so long and so unquestioningly obeyed his smooth dictatorship. he was always “organizing”—the snow-ball battles were the outcome of his genius—and we carried out his orders with remarkable fidelity.
with the twentieth of december came a three-foot fall of snow, and in a few days it was hard packed on every highway, like a squeaky, white pavement. no more skating now—the sled was to be king for the next two months. for a few days everybody coasted, hit or miss; and the long slide swarmed like an ant-hill going crazy. but then the administrative mind of mat began to work. everyone sliding down hill on his own hook and straggling back at will—this was altogether too puerile and unorganized!
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so mat called a council of war.
“say, boys,” he said, “i’ll tell you what let’s do! instead of going higgledy-piggledy at it, like a lot of girls, let’s organize the coasting in good shape. we’ll have our rules and signals and right of way, just like a railroad, and a switch at the tannery corner so the small boys can go on to the toll-bridge, carrying supplies for the army, and the express-trains can turn off to the depot and take troops to the front.
“then, too, i think father’ll let me have old nell, and we can make her haul back all the sleds in a string, and let fellows have turns riding her down to meet us again. so that’ll get rid of the meanest part of it—the pulling our sleds up hill. besides, we’re all the time having trouble with teams now; but if they all knew we were coming down in a steady string, they’d keep out of the way, and do their sledding only when the coast was clear. what do you fellows think?”
“good enough!” “that’s the way!” “all right!” cried the crowd, in various voices, but with one mind. but when the exclamations were over, tip tilted his sharp face a bit and said:
“well, what are you going to do while nell is getting down hill? sit in the snow-drift[319] there at the depot and rub your ears? strikes me it’s better to turn around and climb back, and keep warm, ’stead of waiting there half an hour to freeze. and s’posing some team that didn’t know about our all comin’ down together was to get in the way? then we’d be apt to get tangled up with each other and go to smash.”
“huh!” retorted mat, sharply; “i guess you’re scared. but you don’t have to join us. if the rest say to go in, i guess we can get along without you. what do you say, fellows? shall we do it?”
“’course we will!” was the chorus; and mat looked triumphantly at his rival—for there was no denying that mat reckoned as a rival, and therefore a foe, anyone who didn’t agree with him, as tip generally did not. tip returned the glance coolly and answered:
“why, you fellows do as you like, of course—i ain’t bossing you. but you can count me out from any such goose-tag as that.”
“we wouldn’t have you anyhow!” cried mat, nettled at this comparing them to a flock of geese waddling one after the other. “we don’t care to have any traitors in our crowd.”
“yah, you old rebel!” piped little bill burpee, taking his clew as usual; and several[320] others echoed what was then the most dreadful word in our vocabulary.
“i ain’t a rebel, and you know it!” tip answered, warmly. “i guess my father’s fighting as hard as any of yours—and he ain’t staying home to tend grocery stores, like mat’s!” with which parting shot he walked off scornfully and quite alone.
i can hardly understand now why we were so unjust to tip. he had more in him than any other boy among us, was less selfish, more trustworthy and a better friend than ten mats, and had done each of us no end of boy-kindnesses, instead of using us as cat’s-paws for his own ambition.
but just because he had “played rebel” for a few days solely to put a little life into the war, the boys were “down on” him. his followers in that campaign we made no note of and harbored no grudge against.
perhaps there was wounded vanity in the recollection how nearly his superior generalship had routed our superior forces. so unreasoning are early prejudices that i presume a few of us never did quite get the last grain of grudge out of our heads—unless, perhaps, fifteen years later, when mat was clerking in his father’s store, and word came of the death of capt. tip in arizona. he was slain by the apaches[321] after an heroic fight which saved an immigrant party till the arrival of troops enough to scatter the red fiends.
well, mat’s plan progressed famously. a small army of us, with brooms and shovels, worked over that mile and a half of road till the coast was in such good shape as no one ever dreamed of before.
the weather stayed obstinately cold; so, under mat’s direction, we brought water by the bucketful and wet down the safer parts of the slide. there was some friction about this, for the older people objected to so much glare ice; but mat compromised by not wetting the street crossings, and only a narrow track at the side of the road, so that sleighs had plenty of room without encroaching on our slide.
at the tannery corner we made a crescent of hard-packed snow, with sloping concavity, which rendered it rather easier to turn that dangerous angle. it was like the raised rail on the outside of the railway curve, or the “saucer-edge” of an automobile race-track.
and then came the marshalling of the clans. our embryo napoleon, of course, was commander-in-chief, and his pride, the double-runner “avalanche,” led the line. there were in those days but half a dozen[322] other double-runners in town. these were owned by young men. mat’s was the only one in “our crowd.” it was a very fancy affair for then and there.
right-hand-man hunt was privileged to manage the rear, and the coveted remaining seats were occupied by guests of passing invitation.
it was no small social power to control a double-runner, and mat made the most of it, giving rides to all his friends with great princeliness. but i remember that we never saw on mat’s “traverse” any of the urchins from the lower end of the village—they had no “influence.”
behind the “avalanche” came sleds of all sorts and sizes. as for tip, no one had seen him for several days. he lived up on the other hill—a hill even steeper than dolloff’s, but coming in with such an ugly turn at the engine-house that no one coasted there since big ned green broke his neck on a wood-pile around the bend.
the great saturday came for the formal inauguration of the cannonball railroad. sixty-odd boys were gathered at the top of dolloff’s hill. some girls were there, too, with their high, flat-runnered sleds, upon which we looked with supreme scorn. kitty white and annie waters and may[323] thurston were comfortably tucked up on the cushioned seat behind mat on his double-runner; and hunt was holding back on the tail-board till the signal.
“all ready—go!” yelled mat. hunt sprang to his seat, and the sled slipped away, gaining momentum swiftly. charlie white flung himself on his long cutter and was at its heels; and one after another, in continuous line, the whole array of boys on their sleds went sweeping down the hill.
just as the last of us were whizzing by the engine-house, there was a shrill yell, and a dark flash from the other arm of the “y” of the roads shot alongside in a swirl of snow-flower, and was past almost before anyone could crack a wink.
all we were sure of was that tip and a party had gone by us, but how, or on what, no one knew. anyhow, it was just like him. no one but tip could have turned that lopsided corner in that way, and grazed safely within two feet of us. and one after another of the brown line ahead, we could see this astounding meteor picking up and passing them all.
mat was right on the town bridge, steering his grandest to cut a fine curve through the square, when he caught that odd singing of tempered runners. before he could[324] turn his head, tip streaked by without a glance, doubled the corner with a beautiful swing, and was out of sight on the next pitch when the “avalanche” turned into the square.
tip on a double-runner! and one with wings, too, to judge by its speed! and lou berry and kate morris and amy belle and that pauper okey boy with him, and that big brown behind—it was altogether too much! when we got to the bottom of depot hill, tip and his party were starting back, dragging the new craft. it was a very heavy double-runner, with a long, springy plank of ash, set rather low. there was no paint on runners or deck, but everything about the sandpapered wood had a clipper look, and the runners were shod with steel rods of an odd spring.
“where’d ye get it, tip?” “ain’t it a whaler?” “lemme go down once with you, tip!” cried such of the boys as could catch up—which was not so difficult, as old nell was dragging our sleds. tip trudged on, answering composedly:
“oh, mr. brown and i got it fixed up. ’course you can go, one at a time—we’ve got room for just one more.”
but just then mat—whose heavy sled went farther than our light ones—overtook[325] us. no doubt he felt pretty sore over being so egregiously beaten at his own game; and his look was anything but amiable as he observed, loudly and in his most scornful tone: “huh! we feel pretty smart with a rebel double-runner, don’t we?”
kate and lou flushed up, and brown stuck out his lip contemptuously, but tip only answered, drily:
“no-o, not so awful smart—just smart enough for what we need.”
this was fuel to the fire. mat, who was much the heavier of the two, stepped forward; and very likely there would have been a scene, except that the good old minister just then stopped his sleigh for a chat with some friends, the boys. but mat had clinched a nickname, and tip’s turnout became in every mouth “the rebel double-runner.”
nor did it stop there. an organized movement—in which mat was far too shrewd to let himself be seen, leaving it to his younger followers—was made to cut (boycott, as we would say nowadays) everyone who had anything to do with tip.
brown evidently didn’t borrow much trouble about the scorn of boys so much younger than himself; and whatever tip may have felt, he said nothing.
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but kate and lou felt it keenly, for even the sisters of the camp were enlisted to make things unpleasant for “all who gave aid and comfort to rebels.” but, as they were loyal and plucky girls, they stuck to their friend in a fashion that was rather heroic, considering the heat and the meanness of youthful partisanship. i trust that for the many shabby turns done them they found some recompense in the regularity with which, day after day and many times a day, they whizzed past their envious persecutors. for tip had left no gap in his plans. the rebel double-runner was safe to win every time—thanks partly to its superior construction, partly to the dangerous hill on which it got its headway, and partly to the tremendous send-off given it by that hatefully muscular brown.
besides, tip had a perfect genius as a steerer—the genius of effort and fixity, which counts oftener than any other kind. he seemed afraid of nothing, because he really “saw his way through.” he had studied that slide in every inch, and knew how to give his sled every advantage of it.
it was an aggravation almost beyond endurance to have them flash by us so easily every time; but for all mat’s efforts and schemes and our wild jockeying, they continued to do[327] it. if the continued triumph of the rebel double-runner was aggravating to us, it was gall and wormwood to mat. the thing became a town joke; and older folks, who did not share our grudge against tip nor our awe of our “napoleon,” poked all manner of fun.
suave, self-satisfied, mat grew glum and snappish. those of us who ventured to ride with tip—and it must be confessed that our patriotism was not always proof against the temptation—were made to feel the weight of mat’s displeasure. our “leader of men” had not quite learned to lead himself.
as we trudged up with our sleds from the depot one afternoon, we caught sight of tip’s outfit whisking around the tannery corner and bearing down like a streak of dark lightning.
mat was ahead, talking hard to young burpee, who had a long red-bark switch in his hand. just as the flying traverse was close, the young imp flung his stick down across the road.
quick as thought we saw the act—and that tip saw it, too. he slid back, with feet braced hard on the crosspiece, and swung the sled a trifle to the right.
he was pale—but not half so white as mat, who stood glaring at him like one fascinated.[328] it was right on the last bridge, over the big fall—that old wooden bridge with its crazy railing!
we were too horror-struck even to cry out, and there was no sound from the white faces on the sled. i can remember yet how the great falls roared, as out of a dead hush; how tip’s teeth showed, and that the steering-rope was sunk deep in his wrists. how many things made themselves seen and felt in that instant!
the sled struck the slender switch exactly square. we looked to see its occupants fly off into space; but, though tip was snapped forward until his knees bruised his face, those wiry legs saved him and the rest, who were half piled upon him.
the flying ends of the switch told the story. tip had steered upon the slenderer end, and the swift, high-tempered runners had chopped it in two, as was his hope, and without too great a shock.
had the switch resisted never so little! it seemed to us—and does to me yet—almost a miracle of escape. but for tip’s instant wit, the whole party would have broken their necks on the hill, or crashed through the rail to the falls.
that day broke the back of the cannonball railroad. no one would so much as[329] look at burpee; but we felt that the responsibility rested further back.
of course, mat had not told him to throw the switch, and doubtless made himself believe that he had no blame in the matter. but the rest of us—well, even boys sometimes know how to read between the lines.
tip never opened his month about the matter, and promptly stopped any attempted reference to it. he had plenty of companions now, and treated them in his square-toed boy way, as though nothing had ever happened.
a week after the switch episode, the crowd, including tip, was straggling up the hill as mat and his few remaining satellites came down on the “avalanche.” just as they reached the grist-mill, a loaded wood-sledge stalled at the tannery corner—the snow was soft that day. the sled was, for the same reason, not going half so fast as usual, but quite fast enough. seeing the dangerous passage thus blockaded, mat began to get panicky, and the sled wobbled.
“he’s going to jump!” exclaimed someone. “don’t!”
tip flung his sled-rope to me. “hold to her, mat!” he yelled, standing at the very edge of the slide and balanced, catlike. but mat did not hold on. the “avalanche”[330] slewed to one side, and he leaped and went plowing and rolling fifty feet in the slush. almost as he struck the road, tip had flung himself headlong upon the steering-seat and caught the lines.
he was just in time to “snub” the front sled before it could “turn cross” and make a wreck; and, steering through the narrow space between the wood-sledge and the bridge-rail, he fetched up safely with the traverse and its four frightened boys on the grade that climbs to water street.
that settled the business. from that day out, i think no one was ever heard to mention anything that sounded like “rebel double-runner.” it was “tip’s tornado,” and there wasn’t a boy in town, except one, but was glad to ride on it—or to follow tip in anything. it was the quietest of victories, but complete.
