Timothy Crump's Ward: A Story of American Life

“A mere boy!” repeated her nephew, indignantly.

“A boy hardly sixteen years old,” continued Rachel. “Why, he’ll need somebody to take care of him. Most likely you’ll have to go after him.”

“What’s the use of provoking a fellow so, Aunt Rachel?” said Jack. “You know I’m most eighteen. Hardly sixteen! Why, I might as well say you’re hardly forty, when everybody knows you’re most fifty.”

“Most fifty!” ejaculated the scandalized spinster. “It’s a base slander. I’m only forty-three.”

“Maybe I’m mistaken,” said Jack, carelessly. “I didn’t know exactly. I only judged from your looks.”

“‘Judge not that ye be not judged!’” said Rachel, whom this explanation was not likely to appease. “The world is full of calumny and misrepresentation. I’ve no doubt you would like to shorten my days upon the earth, but I sha’n’t live long to trouble any of you. I feel that, ere the summer of life is over, I shall be gathered into the garden of the Great Destroyer.”

At this point, Rachel applied a segment of a pocket-handkerchief to her eyes; but unfortunately, owing to circumstances, the effect, instead of being pathetic, as she had intended, was simply ludicrous.

It so happened that a short time previous the inkstand had been partially spilled on the table, and this handkerchief had been used to sop it up. It had been placed inadvertently on the window-seat, where it had remained till Rachel, who sat beside the window, called it into requisition. The ink upon it was by no means dry. The consequence was that, when Rachel removed it from her eyes, her face was found to be covered with ink in streaks,—mingling with the tears that were falling, for Rachel always had tears at her command.

The first intimation the luckless spinster had of her misfortune, was conveyed in a stentorian laugh from Jack, whose organ of mirthfulness, marked very large by the phrenologist, could not withstand such a provocation to laughter.

He looked intently at the dark traces of sorrow upon his aunt’s face, of which she was yet unconscious—and doubling up, went into a perfect paroxysm of laughter.

Aunt Rachel looked equally amazed and indignant.

“Jack!” said his mother, reprovingly, for she had not observed the cause of his amusement. “It’s improper for you to laugh at your aunt in such a rude manner.”

“Oh, I can’t help it, mother. It’s too rich! Just look at her,” and Jack went off into another paroxysm.

Thus invited, Mrs. Crump did look, and the rueful expression of Rachel, set off by the inky stains, was so irresistibly comical, that, after a little struggle, she too gave way, and followed Jack’s example.

Astounded and indignant at this unexpected behavior of her sister-in-law, Rachel burst into a fresh fit of weeping, and again had recourse to the handkerchief.

“I’ve stayed here long enough, if even my sister-in-law, as well as my own nephew, from whom I expect nothing better, makes me her laughing-stock. Brother Timothy, I can no longer remain in your dwelling to be laughed at; I will go to the poor-house, and end my life as a pauper. If I only receive Christian burial, when I leave the world, it will be all I hope or expect from my relatives, who will be glad enough to get rid of me.”

The second application of the handkerchief had so increased the effect, that Jack found it impossible to check his laughter, while the cooper, whose attention was now for the first time drawn to his sister’s face, burst out in a similar manner.

This more amazed Rachel than even Mrs. Crump’s merriment.

“Even you, Timothy, join in ridiculing your sister!” she exclaimed, in an ‘Et tu Brute,’ tone.

“We don’t mean to ridicule you, Rachel,” gasped Mrs. Crump, with difficulty, “but we can’t help laughing–”

“At the prospect of my death,” uttered Rachel. “Well, I’m a poor forlorn creetur, I know; I haven’t got a friend in the world. Even my nearest relations make sport of me, and when I speak of dying they shout their joy to my face.”

“Yes,” gasped Jack, “that’s it exactly. It isn’t your death we’re laughing at, but your face.”

“My face!” exclaimed the insulted spinster. “One would think I was a fright, by the way you laugh at it.”

“So you are,” said Jack, in a state of semi-strangulation.

“To be called a fright to my face!” shrieked Rachel, “by my own nephew! This is too much. Timothy, I leave your house forever.”

The excited maiden seized her hood, which was hanging from a nail, and hardly knowing what she did, was about to leave the house with no other protection, when she was arrested in her progress towards the door by the cooper, who stifled his laughter sufficiently to say: “Before you go, Rachel, just look in the glass.”

Mechanically his sister did look, and her horrified eyes rested upon a face which streaked with inky spots and lines seaming it in every direction.

In her first confusion, Rachel did not understand the nature of her mishaps, but hastily jumped to the conclusion that she had been suddenly stricken by some terrible disease like the plague, whose ravages in London she had read of with the interest which one of her melancholy temperament might be expected to find in it.

Accordingly she began to wring her hands in an excess of terror, and exclaimed in tones of piercing anguish,—

“It is the fatal plague spot! I feel it; I know it! I am marked for the tomb. The sands of my life are fast running out!”

Jack broke into a fresh burst of merriment, so that an observer might, not without reason, have imagined him to be in imminent danger of suffocation.

“You’ll kill me, Aunt Rachel; I know you will,” he gasped out.

“You may order my coffin, Timothy,” said Rachel, in a sepulchral tone. “I sha’n’t live twenty-four hours. I’ve felt it coming on for a week past. I forgive you for all your ill-treatment. I should like to have some one go for the doctor, though I know I’m past help. I will go up to my chamber.”

“I think,” said the cooper, trying to look sober, “that you will find the cold-water treatment efficacious in removing the plague-spots, as you call them.”

Rachel turned towards him with a puzzled look. Then, as her eyes rested, for the first time, upon the handkerchief which she had used, its appearance at once suggested a clew by which she was enabled to account for her own.

Somewhat ashamed of the emotion which she had betrayed, as well as the ridiculous figure which she had cut, she left the room abruptly, and did not make her appearance again till the next morning.

After this little episode, the conversation turned upon Jack’s approaching journey.

“I don’t know,” said his mother, “but Rachel is right. Perhaps Jack isn’t old enough, and hasn’t had sufficient experience to undertake such a mission.”

“Now, mother,” expostulated Jack, “you ain’t going to side against me, are you?”

“There is no better plan,” said Mr. Crump, quietly, “and I have sufficient confidence in Jack’s shrewdness and intelligence to believe he may be trusted in this business.”

Jack looked gratified by this tribute to his powers and capacity, and determined to show that he was deserving of his father’s favorable opinion.

The preliminaries were settled, and it was agreed that he should set out early the next morning. He went to bed with the brightest anticipations, and with the resolute determination to find Ida if she was anywhere in Philadelphia.

CHAPTER XVI. THE FLOWER-GIRL

HENRY BOWEN was a young artist of moderate talent, who had abandoned the farm, on which he had labored as a boy, for the sake of pursuing his favorite profession. He was not competent to achieve the highest success. The foremost rank in his profession was not for him. But he had good taste, a correct eye, and a skilful hand, and his productions were pleasing and popular. A few months before his introduction to the reader’s notice, he had formed a connection with a publisher of prints and engravings, who had thrown considerable work in his way.

“Have you any new commission this morning?” inquired the young artist, on the day before Ida’s discovery that she had been employed to pass off spurious coins.

“Yes,” said the publisher, “I have thought of something which I think may prove attractive. Just at present, the public seem fond of pictures of children in different characters. I should like to have you supply me with a sketch of a flower-girl, with, say, a basket of flowers in her hand. The attitude and incidentals I will leave to your taste. The face must, of course, be as beautiful and expressive as you can make it, where regularity of features is not sufficient. Do you comprehend my idea?”

“I believe I do,” said the young man, “and hope to be able to satisfy you.”

The young artist went home, and at once set to work upon the task he had undertaken. He had conceived that it would be an easy one, but found himself mistaken. Whether because his fancy was not sufficiently lively, or his mind was not in tune, he was unable to produce the effect he desired. The faces which he successively outlined were all stiff, and though perhaps sufficiently regular in feature, lacked the great charm of being expressive and life-like.

“What is the matter with me?” he exclaimed, impatiently, throwing down his pencil. “Is it impossible for me to succeed? Well, I will be patient, and make one trial more.”

He made another trial, that proved as unsatisfactory as those preceding.

“It is clear,” he decided, “that I am not in the vein. I will go out and take a walk, and perhaps while I am in the street something will strike me.”

He accordingly donned his coat and hat, and, descending, emerged into the great thoroughfare, where he was soon lost in the throng. It was only natural that, as he walked, with his task still in his thoughts, he should scrutinize carefully the faces of such young girls as he met.

“Perhaps,” it occurred to him, “I may get a hint from some face I may see. That will be better than to depend upon my fancy. Nothing, after all, is equal to the masterpieces of Nature.”

But the young artist was fastidious. “It is strange,” he thought, “how few there are, even in the freshness of childhood, that can be called models of beauty. That child, for example, has beautiful eyes but a badly-cut mouth, Here is one that would be pretty, if the face was rounded out; and here is a child, Heaven help it! that was designed to be beautiful, but want and unfavorable circumstances have pinched and cramped it.”

It was at this point in the artist’s soliloquy that, in turning the corner of a street, he came upon Peg and Ida.

Henry Bowen looked earnestly at the child’s face, and his own lighted up with pleasure, as one who stumbles upon success just as he has despaired of it.

“The very face I have been looking for!” he exclaimed to himself. “My flower-girl is found at last!”

He turned round, and followed Ida and her companion. Both stopped at a shop-window to examine some articles which were exhibited there. This afforded a fresh opportunity to examine Ida’s face.

“It is precisely what I want,” he murmured. “Now the question comes up, whether this woman, who, I suppose, is the girl’s attendant, will permit me to copy her face.”

The artist’s inference that Peg was merely Ida’s attendant, was natural, since the child was dressed in a style quite superior to her companion. Peg thought that in this way she should be more likely to escape suspicion when occupied in passing spurious coin.

The young man followed the strangely-assorted pair to the apartments which Peg occupied. From the conversation which he overheard he learned that he had been mistaken in his supposition as to the relation between the two, and that, singular as it seemed, Peg had the guardianship of the child. This made his course clearer. He mounted the stairs, and knocked at the door.

“What do you want?” said a sharp voice from within.

“I should like to see you a moment,” was the reply.

Peg opened the door partially, and regarded the young man suspiciously.

“I don’t know you,” she said, shortly. “I never saw you before.”

“I presume not,” said the young man. “We have never met, I think. I am an artist.”

“That is a business I don’t know anything about,” said Peg, abruptly. “You’ve come to the wrong place. I don’t want to buy any pictures. I’ve got plenty of other ways to spend my money.”

Certainly, Mrs. Hardwick, to give her the name she once claimed, did not look like a patron of the arts.

“You have a young girl, about eight or nine years old, living with you,” said the artist.

“Who told you that?” queried Peg, her suspicions at once roused.

“No one told me. I saw her with you in the street.”

Peg at once conceived the idea that her visitor was aware of the fact that that the child was stolen—possibly he might be acquainted with the Crumps, or might be their emissary. She therefore answered, shortly,—

“People that are seen walking together don’t always live together.”

“But I saw the child entering this house with you.”

“What if you did?” demanded Peg, defiantly.

“I was about,” said the artist, perceiving that he was misapprehended, and desiring to set matters right, “I was about to make a proposition which might prove advantageous to both of us.”

“Eh!” said Peg, catching at the hint. “Tell me what it is, and perhaps we may come to terms.”

“It is simply this,” said Bowen, “I am, as I told you, an artist. Just now I am employed to sketch a flower-girl, and in seeking for a face such as I wished to sketch from, I was struck by that of your child.”

“Of Ida?”

“Yes, if that is her name. I will pay you five dollars for the privilege of copying it.”

Peg was fond of money, and the prospect of earning five dollars through Ida’s instrumentality, so easily, blinded her to the possibility that this picture might prove a means of discovery to her friends.

“Well,” said she, more graciously, “if that’s all you want, I don’t know as I have any objections. I suppose you can copy her face here as well as anywhere.”

“I should prefer to have her come to my studio.”

“I sha’n’t let her come,” said Peg, decidedly.

“Then I will consent to your terms, and come here.”

“Do you want to begin now?”

“I should like to do so.”

“Come in, then. Here, Ida, I want you.”

“Yes, Peg.”

“This young man wants to copy your face.”

Ida looked surprised.

“I am an artist,” said the young man, with a reassuring smile. “I will endeavor not to try your patience too much. Do you think you can stand still for half an hour, without much fatigue?”

Ida was easily won by kindness, while she had a spirit which was roused by harshness. She was prepossessed at once in favor of the young man, and readily assented.

He kept her in pleasant conversation while with a free, bold hand, he sketched the outlines of her face and figure.

“I shall want one more sitting,” he said. “I will come to-morrow at this time.”

“Stop a minute,” said Peg. “I should like the money in advance. How do I know that you will come again?”

“Certainly, if you prefer it,” said the young man, opening his pocket-book.

“What strange fortune,” he thought, “can have brought these two together? Surely there can be no relationship.”

The next day he returned and completed his sketch, which was at once placed in the hands of the publisher, eliciting his warm approval.

CHAPTER XVII. JACK OBTAINS INFORMATION

JACK set out with that lightness of heart and keen sense of enjoyment that seem natural to a young man of eighteen on his first journey. Partly by cars, partly by boat, he traveled, till in a few hours he was discharged, with hundreds of others, at the depot in Philadelphia.

Among the admonitions given to Jack on leaving home, one was prominently in his mind, to beware of imposition, and to be as economical as possible.

Accordingly he rejected all invitations to ride, and strode along, with his carpet-bag in hand, though, sooth to say, he had very little idea whether he was steering in the right direction for his uncle’s shop. By dint of diligent and persevering inquiry he found it at length, and, walking in, announced himself to the worthy baker as his nephew Jack.

“What, are you Jack?” exclaimed Mr. Abel Crump, pausing in his labor; “well, I never should have known you, that’s a fact. Bless me, how you’ve grown! Why, you’re most as big as your father, ain’t you?”

“Only half an inch shorter,” returned Jack, complacently.

“And you’re—let me see, how old are you?”

“Eighteen, that is, almost; I shall be in two months.”

“Well, I’m glad to see you, Jack, though I hadn’t the least idea of your raining down so unexpectedly. How’s your father and mother and Rachel, and your adopted sister?”

“Father and mother are pretty well,” answered Jack, “and so is Aunt Rachel,” he added, smiling; “though she ain’t so cheerful as she might be.”

“Poor Rachel!” said Abel, smiling also, “all things look upside down to her. I don’t suppose she’s wholly to blame for it. Folks differ constitutionally. Some are always looking on the bright side of things, and others can never see but one side, and that’s the dark one.”

“You’ve hit it, uncle,” said Jack, laughing. “Aunt Rachel always looks as if she was attending a funeral.”

“So she is, my boy,” said Abel Crump, gravely, “and a sad funeral it is.”

“I don’t understand you, uncle.”

“The funeral of her affections,—that’s what I mean. Perhaps you mayn’t know that Rachel was, in early life, engaged to be married to a young man whom she ardently loved. She was a different woman then from what she is now. But her lover deserted her just before the wedding was to have come off, and she’s never got over the disappointment. But that isn’t what I was going to talk about. You haven’t told me about your adopted sister.”

“That’s what I’ve come to Philadelphia about,” said Jack, soberly. “Ida has been carried off, and I’ve been sent in search of her.”

“Been carried off!” exclaimed his uncle, in amazement. “I didn’t know such things ever happened in this country. What do you mean?”

In answer to this question Jack told the story of Mrs. Hardwick’s arrival with a letter from Ida’s mother, conveying the request that the child might, under the guidance of the messenger, be allowed to pay her a visit. To this, and the subsequent details, Abel Crump listened with earnest attention.

“So you have reason to think the child is in (sic) Phildelphia?” he said, musingly.

“Yes,” said Jack, “Ida was seen in the cars, coming here, by a boy who knew her in New York.”

“Ida!” repeated his Uncle Abel, looking up, suddenly.

“Yes. You know that’s my sister’s name, don’t you?”

“Yes, I dare say I have known it; but I have heard so little of your family lately, that I had forgotten it. It is rather a singular circumstance.”

“What is singular!”

“I will tell you,” said his uncle. “It may not amount to anything, however. A few days since, a little girl came into my shop to buy a small amount of bread. I was at once favorably impressed with her appearance. She was neatly dressed, and had a very sweet face.”

“What was her name?” inquired Jack.

“That I will tell you by and by. Having made the purchase, she handed me in payment a silver dollar. ‘I’ll keep that for my little girl,’ thought I at once. Accordingly, when I went home at night, I just took the dollar out the till, and gave it to her. Of course she was delighted with it, and, like a child, wanted to spend it at once. So her mother agreed to go out with her the next day. Well, they selected some nicknack or other, but when they came to pay for it the dollar proved to be spurious.”

“Spurious!”

“Yes, bad. Got up, no doubt, by a gang of coiners. When they told me of this I thought to myself, ‘Can it be that this little girl knew what she was about when she offered me that money?’ I couldn’t think it possible, but decided to wait till she came again.”

“Did she come again?”

“Yes, only day before yesterday. This time she wanted some gingerbread, so she said. As I thought likely, she offered me another dollar just like the other. Before letting her know that I had discovered the imposition I asked her one or two questions, with the idea of finding out as much as possible about her. When I told her the coin was a bad one, she seemed very much surprised. It might have been all acting, but I didn’t think so then. I even felt pity for her and let her go on condition that she would bring me back a good dollar in place of the bad one the next day. I suppose I was a fool for doing so, but she looked so pretty and innocent that I couldn’t make up my mind to speak or harshly to her. But I’m afraid that I was deceived, and that she is an artful character, after all.”

“Then she didn’t come back with the good money?” said Jack.

“No, I haven’t seen her since; and, what’s more, I don’t think it very likely she will venture into my shop at present.”

“What name did she give you?” asked Jack.

“Haven’t I told you? It was the name that made me think of telling you. It was Ida Hardwick.”

“Ida Hardwick!” exclaimed Jack, bounding from his chair, somewhat to his uncle’s alarm.

“Yes, Ida Hardwick. But that hasn’t anything to do with your Ida, has it?”

“Hasn’t it, though?” said Jack. “Why, Mrs. Hardwick was the woman that carried her away.”

“Mrs. Hardwick—her mother!”

“No, not her mother. She was, or at least she said she was, the woman that took care of Ida before she was brought to us.”

“Then you think that Ida Hardwick may be your missing sister?”

“That’s what I don’t know,” said Jack. “If you would only describe her, Uncle Abel, I could tell better.”

“Well,” said Mr. Abel Crump, thoughtfully, “I should say this little girl might be eight or nine years old.”

“Yes,” said Jack, nodding; “what color were her eyes?”

“Blue.”

“So are Ida’s.”

“A small mouth, with a very sweet expression.”

“Yes.”

“And I believe her dress was a light one, with a blue ribbon about her waist. She also had a brown scarf about her neck, if I remember rightly.”

“That is exactly the way Ida was dressed when she went away. I am sure it must be she.”

“Perhaps,” suggested his uncle, “this woman, though calling herself Ida’s nurse, was really her mother.”

“No, it can’t be,” said Jack, vehemently. “What, that ugly, disagreeable woman, Ida’s mother! I won’t believe it. I should just as soon expect to see strawberries growing on a thorn-bush. There isn’t the least resemblance between them.”

“You know I have not seen Mrs. Hardwick, so I cannot judge on that point.”

“No great loss,” said Jack. “You wouldn’t care much about seeing her again. She is a tall, gaunt, disagreeable looking woman; while Ida is fair, and sweet looking. I didn’t fancy this Mrs. Hardwick when I first set eyes on her. Aunt Rachel was right, for once.”

“What did she think?”

“She took a dislike to her, and declared that it was only a plot to get possession of Ida; but then, that was what we expected of Aunt Rachel.”

“Still, it seems difficult to imagine any satisfactory motive on the part of this woman, supposing she is not Ida’s mother.”

“Mother, or not,” returned Jack, “she’s got possession of Ida; and, from all that you say, she is not the best person to bring her up. I am determined to rescue Ida from this she-dragon. Will you help me, uncle?”

“You may count upon me, Jack, for all I can do.”

“Then,” said Jack, with energy, “we shall succeed. I feel sure of it. ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way,’ you know.”

CHAPTER XVIII. FINESSE

THE next thing to be done by Jack was, of course, in some way to obtain a clew to the whereabouts of Peg, or Mrs. Hardwick, to use the name by which he knew her. No mode of proceeding likely to secure this result occurred to him, beyond the very obvious one of keeping in the street as much as possible, in the hope that chance might bring him face to face with the object of his pursuit.

Fortunately her face was accurately daguerreotyped in his memory, so that he felt certain of recognizing her, under whatever circumstances they might meet.

In pursuance of this, the only plan which suggested itself, Jack became a daily promenader in Chestnut and other streets. Many wondered what could be the object of the young man who so persistently frequented the thoroughfares. It was observed that, while he paid no attention to young ladies, he scrutinized the faces of all middle-aged or elderly women whom he met, a circumstance likely to attract remark, in the case of a well-made youth like Jack.