Did He Take the Prince to Ride?
HOW should I know ? The Prince never told me anything about it. I never saw the Prince but twice, — once was out by the old Francis House, in Brookline, where I rode into a pasture that ’Zyness might pass by with his suite, — and once was as he came in from Cambridge on the old Concord Turnpike, when I and my wife sat in the buggy and joined in general enthusiasm. There is a photograph of him in the tray there ; but he never told me, nor did the photograph, whether Haliburton took him to ride. Don’t ask me.
Haliburton does not know himself. He thought he took him to ride ; and he came to our house, and told me and my wife he had done so. But when he read the “Advertiser” the next day, the “ Advertiser ” said the Prince went with the City Government to see the House of Correction, the Insane Hospital, the Mount Hope Cemetery, or some of the other cheerful entertainments which are specially provided for distinguished strangers. So Haliburton was a little dashed, thought perhaps he had been sold ; and to this hour, when we want to stir him up a little, we ask him, “ Did he take the Prince to ride ? ”
This is the story : —
The afternoon of the day when his Royal Highness, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, Duke of Saxony, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Grand Steward of Scotland, Duke of Cornwall and Rothsay, Count of Chester, Count of Carrick and Dublin, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, visited the University at Cambridge in New England, left his autograph in the library, and inspected a room or two in Holworthy,— of the day when, as above, I backed the buggy into a corner for ’Zyness to pass, and attempted vainly to entice the burghers of Cambridgeport into a unanimous cheer,—this day, I say, he visited, with a few friends, the beautiful library of the Historical Society in Tremont Street; the most attractive public book-room, let me say, in New England, and therefore the best public lion in Boston. There he saw the Dowse Library, the pen that signed the Articles of Confederation, the Manchester velvet small-clothes of Franklin, and the curious swords from Prescott’s library. These are the swords of the English Captain Linzee, who first opened fire on Bunker Hill, — and of the Yankee Colonel Prescott, who had thrown up its fortification. Prescott’s grandson, the historian,married Linzee’s granddaughter; and so, in that household, the two swords worn that day by the two chiefs came lovingly together. Blessed be the omen ! These curiosities, and others, the Prince saw; he expressed a kind interest in them ; asked for an autograph of Washington for his brother Alfred, which some gentleman gave him, and went away.
Haliburton happened to be there, — or says he was there, — and it is there that the story begins. How Haliburton came to be there I am sure I do not know. He is not a member of the society, and probably never will be. We tell him he smuggled himself in from the street, and was mistaken by his hosts for one of the delegation from Prince Edward’s Island. But being there,—if he were there, — and talking with one of those thoroughly intelligent gentlemen of the Prince’s suite, who have left behind them such pleasant memories here, — Haliburton said that it was a pity the Prince should see only those things in which America could not, from the nature of the case, rival other countries, and in which, of course, she had least that was individual or of special interest. “ History,” said Haliburton, must, of course, “be the element of least interest of all in the country whose past is the shortest of any.” And so he went on to say, that, almost from the nature of the case, the Prince, like all other travellers, was seeing just those things in which nations most resemble each other, and was seeing least of the peculiarities of domestic life which make nations what they are, and different from each other.
This gentleman, whose name Haliburton never told me, it he knew, — and if he had, I would not tell you, — said this was true enough ; but he did not see how the matter could be mended. Only the Calif Alrascliid could get into the private life of his people; and it might be doubted whether the Vizier Jaffir had not sold the Calif in each of the celebrated visits of inspection. As Haliburton had said, private life, because it was private, could not be seen in a public visit of ceremony.
As to this, Haliburton said, where there was a will there was a way. If the Prince, or any gentleman of his suite, wanted to see private life in Boston, almost any man of sense in Boston could show it to him. Whether that was what the cortége was here for Haliburton did not know. He had sometimes doubted whether princes saw much of domestic life outside of palaces at home, —or if they wanted to.
His friend laughed, and said he coukl not say. But he did think that, abroad, a traveller, as keen as his Royal Highness, wanted to see what there was ; and he ventured to say that he would be very much obliged to any American gentleman who could put him in the way of seeing how people lived. And so their talk ran on, rather more into detail; and it ended in Haliburton’s promising to call in his buggy at the side-door of the Revere House at ten o’clock the next day, and see if there was anybody who cared to drive round Boston with him. Not a word was said to the Prince, or the Duke of Newcastle, nor to General Bruce. The visit to the Library was ended, and they all went home.
The next morning Haliburton had Peg harnessed, and, at the stroke of ten, drove up at the Bulfinch Street door. Then, he says, as sure as Peg is a living horse, at the moment, before he had time to get out of the carriage, the door of the hotel opened, and a slight young man, of fresh, ruddy face, with a very shiny hat, looking as if it had been bought that morning, stepped quickly down, looked up brightly in his face, asked if it were Mr. Haliburton, and stepped in, — Haliburton making room for him, but actually not leaving his seat. If he had said, “Are you the Prince of Wales ?” there could be no question now like that at the head of this article. But he did not say anything of the kind. Either he was dashed by the presence of royalty in posse, or he felt too certain of his passenger to ask, or he felt modest and thought it would be impertinent. The young gentleman took the left side of the seat. Haliburton lifted the reins. Peg started, and they drove through Bowdoin Square into Green Street, and the expedition had began.
After a word or two of mutual civility, Haliburton asked his friend how much time he could give him. He said it was arranged that they were all to lunch together at three, and that till that time he would be at Haliburton’s service. Haliburton then said that he had undertaken to show him how people lived, — that, if he might direct the morning, he would try to bring into it as much variety as possible. He would show his friend how an Irish emigrant lived in the first month after his landing. He would show him how another Irish emigrant lived after he had been here five years. He would show him how a Vermont mechanic lived, who had moved here from the country, and was at work on wages. He would show him how the same man’s cousin lived, who had been twenty years in active life, and had made his fortune. He would show him as well how another emigrant family lived when the father took to drink and went to the dogs. And he would show him how the staid old Bostonian lived, who had Copley’s pictures of his great-grandfathers hanging in the hall and in the dining-room, — who had other grandfathers who sold stay-laces in Pudding Lane, — but who, for all that, descended from higher families, who came over in Winthrop’s fleet. “This is a small town,” said Haliburton, “ and I think we can do this, though not in this order perhaps, before the time you name.”
I asked Haliburton once how he called his incog. companion, — whether he said “Uryness” to him, or “Prince,” or assumed the familiar “ Albert.” But Haliburton said, “Do I call you ‘Ingham ' all the time, or ‘ Colonel,’ or ' Parson,’ or ‘ Fred,’ or do I say ‘you ’ ? I said ‘you’ to the young man, whoever he was, and he said ‘you ’ to me.”
I may not get the order of their morning calls rightly. I ought to say, to Haliburton’s credit, that, whenever I have heard him tell the story, he has told it at very great length, and with much detail. I hope this is not important; for what with not listening always, and with forgetting, I am not very strong on the details. But I am sure as to the general drift of the expedition.
They brought up first, say in Seneca Street, or one of the parallels, at a three-story tenement house. Haliburton jumped out, fastened the horse by his iron weight, which he wound around the lamp-post, and which was a novelty to his companion, who inspected the simple machinery, and asked about it with interest. Haliburton bade him follow, opened the front door without knocking, and pushed up two flights of stairs. The passage was dark, and had that odious man-smell which most school-houses and prisons have, some hospitals even, and the halls of all tenement-houses which are not kept under very strict régime. A few of the banisters were knocked out from the balustrade.
Arrived at the third story back, Haliburton knocked. “ Come in ! ” And they went in. A room twelve by fourteen. The floor white with sand and elbow-grease, and a six-foot-square bit of worn carpet in the middle. A Banner stove, size No. 3½, well cleaned with black lead, without fire, in front. On the mantel, a china image of St. Joseph with the infant Saviour; a canary-bird, in wax, fastened on some green leaves ; a large shell from the West Indies ; a kerosene lamp ; three leather-covered books without titles on their backs ; a paper of friction matches ; and a small flower-pot with a bit of ivy in it,— placed in the order I name, going from right to left. On the wall behind, a colored lithograph of Our Mother of the Bleeding Heart, — her bosom anatomically laid open that the heart might be seen, — and the color represented accurately by the artist; another colored lithograph of Father Mathew; and a Connecticut clock, with the fight of the Constitution and Guerriere. Between the windows another colored lithograph, “Kathleen Mavourneen”; table under it; a rocking-chair; four wooden chairs ; another table between the doors ; small bedstead in one corner. All this I can describe so accurately because I was often there, and recollect the room as well as this I am in.
Mrs. Rooney rises, as they enter, from a settee on rockers, across two thirds of the front of which is a rail,— convenient cradle and rocking-chair joined, — puts by Rooney fils in the cradle part, and steps forward cheerfully, neat as wax, trig and bright.
“ How d’ ye do, Mrs. Rooney ? ”
“Very well, Mr. Haliburton; and welcome to you. Won’t you gentlemen take seats ? ”
“ This is my friend Mr. Edward; Mrs. Rooney; he is riding with me to-day.”
Mrs. Rooney quickly, a little clumsily, takes the shiny hat, with Haliburton’s felt, puts them both on the table, quite unconscious that she is serving the son of her sovereign (if, indeed, that day Haliburton did take the Prince to ride). That was the first and last that passed between her and him during the call. He kept his eyes open ; beckoned to little Phil Rooney, who stood in the corner with his thumb in his mouth, but the boy would not come. Not that he knew a Saxon from a Kelt. Duke of Saxony was all one to him with Brian Boroghue ; he would have come to neither. The Prince (if it was the Prince) had no pence or lozenges, or did not know enough to produce them. The conversation was all between Haliburton and Mrs. Rooney.
“ Children well ? ”
Yes, pretty well ; Phil there cutting some back teeth ; Terence, a bad cold, but wanted to go to school again ; and Miss Cutter had been round, and wanted him to go, and so he had gone.
“ All three at school now?”
“ Yes, Delia—Bridget, that is, but she likes us to call her Delia — is at school still. If I found a good place at service, I would take her away. But she is particular, and so am I. Terry, he would be glad enough to be out; but his father says, ‘ No ; if there’s a chance for learning, the boy must have it.’ And the boy, if he is my boy, is a good boy to mind ; and, if he is fond of play, he does well at school too. Yonder is his last certificate, and there is the other which he had in Miss Young’s room,”
Delia, it seems, or Bridget, has three certificates ; but her father has sent them all to Borriscarra, County Mayo, province of Connaught. Terry’s are framed in mahogany, and hang above the Prince’s head (if indeed it were H. R. H.).
“ And how did the children stand the summer ? ” They had not stood it too well. Dreadfully dose some of those hot nights ! Delia made a visit of a week at Malden, and Terry made friends with a boy whose father sailed from Beverly for mackerel, so that he was away all the vacations ; but for Mrs. Rooney and the little children it was hard. Indeed, Mrs. Rooney often thought of the bit cottage, a mile outside Borriscarra, as you go to Ballintubber, and could not but wish that her children had the chance to run outdoors that she had there. On this, H. R. H. (if it were he) showed signs of curiosity, and Haliburton, having waited in vain for him to ask the question he wanted to, put it himself.
“ And would not you like to go back again, Mrs. Rooney, and show them the children, and live in the old cottage again ? ”
“ Indade, no, your honors. Dick has just sent out fifty-five dollars for the old people, and we expect them before Christmas here. What should we do at Borriscarra? The times are harder there than iver. Nothing has gone well with them since the Queen took the spinning-wheels away ! ”
(Expression of surprise on the younger man’s face. But he says nothing.)
“ Then why does not Dick go up country, take a bit land there and a horse, and let the children play about as you and he did ? ” persisted the persevering Haliburton. And for an answer he was told that indeed Dick would be glad to do so, and that he had had a good deal of talk with a man they dealt with at the yard, who owned a marble-quarry near Rutland. But Bridget must be at service soon. She could not yet find a good place for her ; and they were very well off as they were, and so on and so on, and so forth and so forth. Haliburton knew too much to make a fuss with his advice, seized his felt, gave his companion his stove-pipe, and they retired.
“What did she mean about the spinning-wheels?” said the Englishman, as they started again. And Haliburton told him that there was a popular superstition among five or six millions of her Majesty’s subjects, to the effect that the decline of housespinning was due to an edict of the Queen, that spinning should be done in factories rather than at firesides. And as they talked thus, they came into Osborn Place, — and Haliburton took his friend into an up-stairs parlor of one of the pretty suites of a “ model lodging-house.”
It is very odd how this word “ model ” is changing its meaning, when you apply it to such places. Often and often it is given to some wretched huddle of crowded rooms, which never should be model or pattern for anything. I am not sure but its technical use in connection with lodging-houses is due to some model houses of Prince Albert’s, this boy’s own father. However this may be, the houses in Osborn Place are models which I wish the cities of the world would largely follow. Up stairs and up stairs, a good many flights, they ran, Haliburton leading. He rang at the door-bell when they reached the right landing, and pretty Caroline Freeman opened to them, and ushered them in.
“ I beg your pardon,” said the voluble Haliburton, “ for calling before hours, but you and I are not formal, you know. My friend was shy of coming up, but I said you would not mind. Mr. Edward, Miss Freeman,” — and she offered them chairs, in her pretty parlor, and they sat down. A bright view — I know not how many miles — through the vines and other greenery of her windows ; a cheerful glow from the bright carpet; a good water-color by her brother, — scene in the harbor of Shanghae, or Bussora, or somewhere outlandish, no matter; and a good chromolith. But, to my mind, always the prettiest ornament was Caroline herself, and I believe her visitors thought so then.
Haliburton’s real object was accomplished when they had sat long enough to give his companion a chance to see the room, but he had to make an excuse for coming at all. He was going down to Buzzard’s Bay for some shooting. Could not Fred come with him ? Say start on Thursday and be back Tuesday ?
Caroline would ask Fred, but doubted. Wished Fred would go, for Fred was low-spirited and blue. He had been disappointed about the opening at Naguadavick; they had determined, after all, not to start their steammill this winter. Fred had had full promise of the charge of the engineroom there, as Haliburton knew; but this threw him out again, — and times were dull everywhere, and he said he was fated to get nothing. He had been talking with the chief at the navy-yard, who was an old friend of his ; but there was no chance there, and no chance that there would be a chance. She would rather Fred should go to sea again ; he was always better at sea.
“And how is your mother?”—at which moment that lady appeared.
I never can describe people, but you all of you know just one nice person, who, at forty, looks for sweetness as if she were seventeen, and for serenity as if she were seventy. Well, Mrs. Freeman, Caroline’s mother, is the one I know. She would not own she; was ill, though she was ; she said she was a great deal better than she had been, and would be a great deal better the next day,—for all which it was clear enough that both of them were delicate. A pity they should have to rough it through here in this vilain winter. But she parried all talk about herself, and in a moment was making “ Mr. Edward ” talk ; had he been travelling far? was it his first visit West? was he fond of sporting? were the Western grouse like the Scotch ? and, before he knew it, the young Englishman was talking rapidly ; Haliburton chuckling, and withdrawing with Caroline into an aside, showing her a memorandum he had in his note - book. This done, the other two were not done. So Haliburton and she kept on ; — her maiden article in “ Merry’s Museum ” ; Ingham’s (that’s my) sermon of Sunday at the chapel; the Philharmonic programme for the winter ; Lucy Coleman’s new piano, which Lucy said should be at Caroline’s use for the winter while Lucy was in Cuba, and so on, and so on. At last, Haliburton looked at his watch, and told the young gentleman they must go ; and so tore him away while he was telling how they ran the rapids at the mouth of the Ottawa.
“Those are nice people,” said he; “what class of society are they of?”
“’Umph,” mused Haliburton aloud. “ Classes do not divide themselves quite so distinctly with us as with you. That is the class of widows in delicate health ; who live in an upper story of a model lodging-house, supported by the earnings of a son and daughter, neither of whom is of age. That girl will tonight be at an evening music party of fifty of the nicest people in Boston, and to-morrow morning she will be in the basement of the first house we went to, teaching her scales on the piano to the daughter of a well-to-do Irish stone-mason, who wants his girl to learn to play, at fifty cents a lesson. "I never thought,” added Haliburton, laughing, “ that Caroline Freeman would make a good duchess ; she has not weight of guns enough, aplomb, or self-assertion for a duchess ; but, say for a viscountess, she would do nicely, or for a schoolmistress in Dubuque, Iowa. I am not sure which class in society she belongs to.”
They both laughed, and Haliburton, following his hand, rather than the plan which he had laid out in the morning, crossed the town, passing the Common, and called on Lucy Coleman, to see what she could tell him about Mrs. Freeman’s cough. It is a way Haliburton has of doing one thing at once, — he calls it making one hand wash another ; he says he learned it from John Jacob Astor, who told him, the only time Haliburton ever saw him on business (Haliburton’s father had a lot of otter-skins) that he should like to settle the matter there and then, that he never might have to think of it again, or see Haliburton himself more. So, I say, Haliburton, forgetting his plan, drove through Charles Street, between the Public Garden and the Common, and called on Lucy Coleman.
“ I had not meant to come here,” said he to the Prince (if it w. t. P.), as they left the carriage, “ but it is as well as if we had gone to see the Copleys. If there are no Copleys here, —and by the way there are, — there are others as good, — Allstons and Champneys.”
“ You forget that I do not know what Copleys and Allstons and Champneys are. What are they ? — people, or things to eat, or fashions of clothes ? ”
“Oh ! I forgot; they are pictures. Copley was a bright boy here, — went to the Latin School, where you were Tuesday, and painted first-rate portraits a hundred years ago ; then went to England, and died there twenty years before you were born ; left a son you have seen, your old Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst. Allston was a Carolinian, who lived and died with us, painted such landscapes, and such lovely faces. Look there! — "and his friend was by this time absorbed in the exquisite dream of beauty before him.
Miss Lucy came running down stairs. " I saw your carriage, and I would not keep you waiting,” she said, and then paused, seeing the stranger, welcomed him, and made no further apology. It was still long before callinghours, but she had bravely run down in her exquisite morning cashmere. Haliburton was, I think, rather glad that he had been moved to come round here. He had meant fairly to show the Prince what should make a fair average of life, and to put no best foot foremost. He knew, however, that he had lapsed from grace in going up to the Freemans’ rooms,— that there were ten people in Osborn Place, not near so pretty as Caroline, where he had an equal right to call. But here he had called fairly. And if the parlors were perfectly furnished and hung, if the half-dozen pictures, all on the line of the eye, were of the choicest, yes, in the world ; if the little low book-cases were tempting in what they revealed, and tempting in what they concealed ; if the two or three pamphlets and the three or four books that lay loose were of just the latest freshness, and most appetizing qualities ; if the cannel coal had just crusted over so that the room was not a bit heated by it, yet so that one dig from the steel poker would wake it to a frenzy of light and life, — was this any fault of his ? Had he chosen to come here ? or was there not an irresistible destiny which compelled him? Once more he intimated that he brought his friend up, rather than leave him in the carriage ; the young man sank in an easy-chair, with a volume of Darley’s prints, and Haliburton and Miss Lucy fell to talk about the Freemans.
Had he heard ? Did she know ? Yes, he knew this, and she knew that, and both knew this and that, and she had not heard thus, and he did not understand the other, and so on. What had made Haliburton forget the Prince’s ride, was his uneasiness about Caroline’s flushed face, — which had made her look so pretty, by the way, —and his determination to see whether something could not be done about that and her mother’s cough. So in that wild, impulsive way of his, instead of writing a note to Lucy Coleman, he had slammed right over there, before she had even got her morning-dress off, to consult with her.
But nothing could be done about it. Lucy had been more eager than he ; Lucy had been begging Caroline to go With her to Charleston, and so to Cuba, and then to Santa Lucia and St. Thomas. Mr. Coleman himself had been interested about it, — knew how much pleasure it would give Lucy, and had been down to call on Mrs. Freeman. But they said they could not break up their establishment. Fred must not be left adrift so little while after he had come home ; Fred had himself tried to persuade them, but they would not think of it. As to the cough, Mrs. Freeman was sure it would be better the next week; and, as for the flush, Caroline would not have it talked of at all. So Haliburton had had his ride for his pains. “ I wish you could manage it,” said the bright young lady, “ for I shall lose my journey if something does not come to pass. Papa is discouraged already, and would give it all up in two seconds, if anything else happened amiss. And yet he will not go unless there is somebody I like who will go with me. As if I could not take care of myself! True enough, I dread the idea,” she said rather sadly, and Haliburton knew she was thinking of her last journey.
And this was all their tête-à-tête. She laughed at him because he never called unless he had an axe to grind, said he had not heard her new piano, and never came to her little musical parties. He said he never was asked ; and she said he never came when he was, but had a general invitation. He said there was no time like the present, and went to the piano, and opened it. She readily enough consented to play, asked what she should play, and they both turned to their silent companion, who had put down his “ Margaret,” and crossed the room.
Then it is that the first bit of evidence as to the question you have asked me comes into the story. For when the young man was asked what Miss Lucy should play, he stammered and blushed, and ha-haed, and bothered generally, and finally screwed himself up to saying that there were some very nice waltzes by Strauss.
Lucy Coleman did n’t even let her eyes twinkle. She took care not to look at Haliburton, said “O yes,” very sweetly, and blazed away, —two, three, four good brilliant Strauss waltzes. Then the gentlemen thanked her, she rewarded Haliburton by a little scrap of Mozart; he said they must not stay, and tore himself and his young friend away. But when, afterwards, she was told that this young man was the Prince, she said “ No.” And, to this moment, red-hot pincers would not persuade her that the Prince of Wales, the son of Prince Albert, would ask her to play one of Strauss’s waltzes. It is in vain that we tell her of the glories of Strauss’s own orchestra ; it is in vain that we dwell on a young boy’s early enthusiasm for the Coldstream Guards and their band ; in vain that we hint at a fondness for dancing. “ Never,” she cries ; “ the blood-royal never asked me for Strauss.” I even sent her a stray programme of a concert given at Windsor, when Saxe-Meiningen came on a visit, in which was a selection of these waltzes played for his delectation. She will not be persuaded, nor will my wife, nor will Annie. So much for the high classical !
They went away from Lucy’s, crossed the town again, where was a corduroyroad two hundred years ago, and, by way of contrast, they went into one of those man-stys that there used to be in Orange Lane, running back to the railroad. Thank God, that nuisance is abated now ! there are wild beasts hard by, but no wild men there ; and I will not tell you what they saw. John Gough would tell such a story better than I should. The man had not been three weeks over from Ireland. He had been drinking the spirits of the new country as he drank the beer of the old, and was wallowing there on the pile of straw on one of those dark back-bins, without a window, dead asleep, if you call that sort of thing “ sleep,” after last night’s “ spree.” And his wife was in the dirty ten-foot room front, that did have one window, offered her only chair to the son of her Queen (if it were he), and apologized that it had no back, cuffed the child with the dirtiest face, and laid the baby on the straw by its father, that she might render the hospitalities that the position permitted. Ask Mr. Gough for the detail.
Haliburton forgot what sent him there, as he saw the wretchedness. She looked wholly broken down ; and he, of course, had no word of reproach for her. But she said she could not keep things nicer, and nobody who saw him would let him have any better room. — how could she leave the children ? and what could she do, indeed, but die ? What indeed ? I do not think Haliburton knew. The younger man wanted to give her money, but Haliburton would not let him. “ If you like,” said he, “we will send them some meal and potatoes ; but money is the most dangerous of drugs, as it is the cheapest, for the relief of suffering. I had no idea things would be so bad, or I should not have brought you here. This place, you see, is a little neater, and this and this quite nice in comparison,” as they passed one and another of the open doors of that old rookery.
“Now let us get a little air at the least”; and they drove across the Dover Street Bridge, and came out to my house. I was then living in D Street, over in South Boston. Unfortunately, I was out, and so was Polly. We, as I have said, had seen the Prince in Cambridgeport; so, if we had been in, we could have answered the question. But I was at a meeting of the Board for providing Occupation for the Higher Classes {mem. “ Boards are made of wood, — they are long and narrow ”) ; and Polly was — I know not where. Haliburton ran in without ringing, upset Agnes and Bertha, found we were out, opened the cake-box himself, and got out doughnuts, and gave an orange also to his companion, besides taking one for himself. Thus refreshed, they started again, — this time, I believe, to hunt up his Vermont mechanic who had lived here twenty years. But, just as they left the house, Wingate Paine Came running by ; and Haliburton stopped him, and introduced him to Mr. Edward. Mr. Edward was studying tenement-houses, he said. Could Paine take him in the buggy over to Washington Village, and show him how some of their operatives lived there ?
Certainly, Wingate could and would, if Mr. Edward would stop a moment at the works. He was already late with his errand there, — but the horse and buggy would correct all that. So they both got into the carriage. Haliburton told Paine to keep it as long as he chose, and betook himself to playing with Agnes and Bertha, and cutting pussy-cats out of paper for Clara and the babies. The clock struck one as these delights engrossed him, — struck two, indeed, before the fifty-second cat had been added to the long procession, and before the rattle ot wheels announced the young men’s return.
“We took you at your word,” said Paine. “ I have shown your friend the tenement-houses and half the rest of the town.” Haliburton said he was satisfied, if they were, — that there was still full time to meet the latter end of their appointment. Paine bade good by, and Haliburton resumed the reins. His companion told him that, when they came to the iron-works, he had been interested by the processes he saw there, which were, strange to say, new to him ; that Mr. Paine offered at once to show him the varieties of South Boston iron-work. They had been in at Alger’s to see cannon cast; they had seen wire drawn at another mill, and, I believe, rails. “Oddly enough,” he said. — “though the world is very small, after all, — we met Mr. Coleman at their first establishment, the father of your pretty friend. I think, indeed, Mr. Paine said he was President of their Company.” Haliburton said “ Yes.” "He talked to Mr. Paine about his proposed journey,” said the other ; “he seemed a little annoyed at the delay ; said to Mr. Paine that, if he could get off, he should want to place him in the counting-room in town, and send some one else out to the works; hoped he would like that, for he should be much more at ease if the correspondence were in Paine’s hands. Then he was very civil to me, though he did not know me from Adam. He took us across to the Cronsiadt Works, and was at the pains to stop one of the rollers for me, that I might see how the power was applied. So I look my first apprenticeship in iron-work. George ! it docs one good to see those brave fellows handle those hot blooms, push them up so relentlessly to the rolls, and compel the rolls to bite them, whether they will or no ! I should have got mad with the machines, but the men seemed to have gained the imperturbability of the great engine itself. And then, when the bloom is once between the rolls, there is nothing more for it but to succumb.
with a vengeance ; for, before you are done with it, you see the great stupid block transformed into a spinning, spitfire serpent, hundreds of yards long, writhing all over the floor.”
This was the longest speech which anything drew from this young gentleman. After following through the various iron-works, giving up Loring’s iron ship-yard for lack of time, they had gone to the new tenement-houses, and so back to D Street. As Haliburton crossed the bridge again, his friend reminded him of the meal and potatoes; they stopped at a shop, and ordered these to be delivered to Michael Fogarty, and drove on, with Haliburton’s last call in view, when —
Ge-thump; ge-thump again ; once more, ge - thump ; a sharp strain on the reins, pulling Haliburton over the dasher ; dasher, Haliburton, and friend then all rapidly descend into the street, — horse, reins, front-axle, and wheels depart at the rale of 5.20, hind wheels, gentlemen, and buggytop picking themselves up as they could. There had been something amiss in the paving, the king-bolt had parted, and the buggy had broken in two.
“ What I thought of,” said Haliburton, “ was this, What is the name of this man’s oldest brother? For, if I have broken his neck, I have broken the succession. But I had not broken his neck at all. He was up on the other side as soon as I was. His nose was bleeding, but he was laughing. I made a thousand apologies, led him out of the crowd upon the sidewalk, terrified lest we should be recognized ; saw to my joy that we were on Adoniram Newton’s door-step ; rang, and after waiting two or three minutes we were let in.”
Curious feature that of half the doorsteps in New England! South of Mason and Dixon’s line, the instinct of curiosity sends the black servant to the door in two seconds, when the bell rings, to know what has turned up. But with us, Bridget, hard worked, not looking very trig, loiters and loiters,— hopes, indeed, that something may turn up. Carter has a clean little sketchbook, of street incidents, which he has drawn while waiting on door-stops. He keeps it in his ticket-pocket outside. Indeed, it was always said that Wetherell and his wife made each other’s acquaintance, and were engaged, on Boston door-steps. Some malicious gossip had started the story that they were engaged, when they did not know each other by sight. They went round to contradict it. The town was smaller than it is now; and they spent so much time on different doorsteps, that, before the report was contradicted, he had offered himself to her, and it was true !
At last Haliburton and friend got into the hall at Adoniram’s. Then, with great difficulty, Bridget got the parlor door unlocked ! It was dark, and had the smell of seven years before on it, as if it had not been opened since Thanksgiving of 1852. Haliburton bade Bridget call her mistress, pulled up the green shades and the other shades with unnecessary indignation, thrust open one set of blinds, and revealed a magnificent velvet carpet of very positive colors, and very large figures. Upon the walls, covering their part of the gilded paper-hangings, were two immense mirrors and four prints, selected for their size, so that they might conceal as much as possible. Two china dancing-girls and an Odd Fellows’ Annual made up the ornament of the room. Here again they soon completed their survey of the ornaments; Haliburton stood at the window watching the policemen who watched the wreck of his carriage, chafing as he waited for Mrs. Adoniram; his companion’s handkerchief grew redder and redder, and at Last she came, radiant in wine-colored moire-antique, gold chain, eye-glass tucked in her belt, showy cap, and so on.
Haliburton made “ short explanations.”as Neptune said on an occasion not dissimilar. He begged for a basin of water ; and so at the very moment when Mrs. Newton was internally fretting because the school committee men for their ward had refused her a ticket to the Music Hall, so that she could not hear the thousand children sing “ God Save the Queen ” to the Prince, — at that moment, I say, had she but known it, her hands were occupied in unbuttoning his wristbands for him, and in holding the towel, as he chilled the wounded blood-vessels, and stopped the blood of Egbert as, after a thousand years, it dropped from his nose; for that this was the blood of Egbert is certain, whether this were the Prince or no ! “ Whoever you are, reader,” says Dr. Palfrey, wisely, “whose eye lights upon these lines, if you be of Anglo-Saxon lineage, it is certain that the blood of King Egbert runs in your veins ! It is as certain that it meets there with the blood of Egbert’s meanest thrall ! ” Haliburton saw the bathing process well started, and then rushed out, to find officer No. 67 leading back Peg after her run, the wheels still whole. The box under the scat furnished a new king-bolt, a New Worcester wrench fitted the new nut, and by the time the Egbert blood was stopped, and the hands were washed, the renovated carriage was at the door. I would give sixpence to know what Mr. Edward had said to Mrs. Adorairam meanwhile, and what she had said to him. Whether he found out how people live in those desolate bowlingalley parlors, or whether he found that they never live there, I do not know. I do not believe that centre-table was ever put to half such useful service before.
“We must give up our last calls,” said Haliburton, after he had apologized once more for the accident, and holding Peg in hand a little more carefully; “ I had other varieties of home to show you.”
“ Of course,” replied the other, “ no two homes are alike,—but, really, what we have seen has interested me immensely. I was thinking,” he added in a moment, " that the young man we did not see holds the key of the position.”
Haliburton did not understand, and had the sense to say so.
“ Why, don’t you see, if this young Mr. Freeman, — Fred, his sister called him, — should get a position at sea again, his mother would go to Rehoboth to her sister’s, and Miss Caroline could join the Cuba party.”
“ Of course,” said Haliburton.
“ If Miss Caroline would say she would go, that impetuous Mr. Coleman and your bright Miss Lucy would sail next week for Charleston.”
“ I know they would,” said Haliburton.
“ In that event, Mr. Paine, here, would be promoted into the city counting-room, and his salary would be raised. He would be married, I know; for, though he said no word of it, I could see that he is engaged to somebody.”
“ It is to Sybil Throop, over in the Arbella School,” said Haliburton.
“ I think,” continued the other, “that such a couple as that, moving into the Freeman’s suite of rooms, would like to take Delia Rooney to service, and, if it were my business, I should advise Mrs. Rooney to place her there.”
Haliburton stared aghast at these words of wisdom from lips so young.
“ Then the Rooneys could go up to the stone-quarry, as she evidently wanted to; and I should think you might arrange that that drunken beast and his wife might be transferred from their den one peg up to the other’s better quarters. If I have read today’s lesson well, it is the lesson of keeping open the lines of promotion. That, Mr. Haliburton, is the duty of a free country ! ”
And here they came to the private entrance of the Revere again. Haliburton had no moment to answer this address, or even to comment on it. His companion asked him to come in. He declined, and the clock struck three.
Haliburton drove slowly home, meditating on the plan of promotion which the youngster had blocked out for him. He was himself not then married. He was in a Life Office, I think, and had begged a holiday for the day, borrowing Danforth’s horse and carriage for this expedition,— as we all did, whenever Danfurth was stationed here. He came over at once to our house, and astonished us by telling us, “ How he took the Prince to ride !”
But the next morning, as I said, when we read Ike “Advertiser,” it taught us how a guard of police had marched the Prince to the City Hall, and how he and the mayor and aldermen had spent the day in visiting penitentiaries and hospitals.
How could this be ?
I do not know. Haliburton does not know. If you write to England they will say General Brace is dead, and that they do not know themselves. Only the Prince knows, and it is not proper to write to him. Polly and I. who had seen the real Prince, quizzed Haliburton unmercifully. We said he had spent the whole morning with a Canadian dry-goods clerk from Toronto, who had come East, for the first time, to buy an assorted stock of winter goocls, and mistook Haliburton for a drummer whom he had met in the hotel reading-room the night before, — and I believe myself it was so.
But the next Tuesday Haliburton had the laugh on us. The Prince bade good by to Boston, went to Portland, and embarked. And the evening of the day he got to Portland Haliburton received from Portland an immense envelope, with an immense seal. Opened, it proved to contain a warrant : —
“ For Mr. Frederic Freeman of Boston, appointing him first assistant engineer on her Majesty’s steamer Stromboli. with instructions to report at Halifax.”
Fred reported at Halifax, and is in the Queen’s service to this hour.
Mrs. Freeman broke up housekeeping, and went to Rehoboth or Swansea, and Caroline went to Cuba with the Colemans.
Wingate Paine was promoted to a salary of two thousand dollars, and married Sybil Throop, and went to live in the Freemans’ rooms in Osborn Place. They took Delia Rooney for their maid of all work.
The Rooneys went to Chittenden, above Rutland. He owns a marblequarry in that region now, and gratefully sent Haliburton a present of two gravestones last week.
Haliburton got Mr. Way to let the Rooneys’ two rooms to the Fogartys ; made Fogarty take the pledge in compensation. He took the place below Rooney in the stone-yard ; and, really, the last time I was there, they were all so decent that I called the oldest girl Delia instead of Margaret, as if she were a Rooney, forgetting that nine years had gone by.
The only person whose condition could not be improved, of all they saw that morning, was Mrs. Adoniram Newton. For she lived in a palace already.
All this I know. But, as I said, I cannot answer, when you ask me, "Did Haliburton take the Prince to ride ? ”