freaks played by Hymen. Gerald was perfectly satisfied,
and troubled himself little with these animadversions upon
his choice. The boys throve wondrously, and Mrs. San-



OF BOSTON. 41

derson was gathering strength imperceptibly to carry her
through another tedious winter and its long evenings.

And where was her brother all this while ? Shut up in hot
close rooms in the morning, taking long dusty walks to his
favorite boundary line, and vegetating in the evening; for
he never issued forth on the most brilliant moon-light nights.
In vain his sister essayed to lure him into the garden ; he
would not be tempted. Now and then he walked out, on an
investigating tour of his premises, sadly alarming Peter,
Tiger, and the boys, who, one and all, fled on his approach,
and secreted themselves like guilty things.

Mr. Egerton would have been outrageous, had he been
told that he was a sad Cockney, but such he innocently
was, and there could be no gainsaying of the assertion. He
delighted in noise, dust and confusion ; he seemed to enter-
tain a certain vague impression that his garden was a good
place for fruits and vegetables, and his sister and her chil-
dren, and may be the dog, but as for any thing else, it never
entered his head to interest himself in its contents, beyond
the pecuniary results. Any body might have the flowers ;
he would not sell them, and they could not be eaten, so
Peter and Dinah had permission to give theili to their friends,
as Mrs. Sanderson did not appear to have any ; and so they
bestowed them upon the neighbors in the most liberal
manner.

It may appear remarkable that Mrs. Sanderson should
have been so insulated, but she was educated at home by
her father ; assisted by private masters, he had completed
the finishing of her education ; and she was really well
grounded in all he had attempted to teach her. A scholarly
person himself, he rejoiced in her docility and application,
and bestowed upon her the closest attention. She was a
tolerable Latin scholar, a very good French one, and read
Italian; to history and geography and her own language, her
father had devoted many years. Few young girls were
better fitted to enjoy the fruits of the time passed in ac-
4*



42 THE Barclays

quirements ; she was so self-centred and studious, that she
richly repaid all his paternal care. Of all this her brother,
who was absent at the time, was completely ignorant, and
on his return home, finding a shrinking young creature,
who evidently held him in great awe, he gave his sister no
credit for her various attainments ; and this, superadded to
his other preconceived ideas touching her sex, wevs abun-
dant cause for his total neglect of a woman who might have
been to him a joy and a blessing in his solitary pathway of
life.

But no ; Mr. Philip Egerton stalked about with his head
elevated above all weak-minded women, and thereby lost a
very pleasant portion of agreeable things in this world,
which other persons, not so overwise and fastidious, enjoy
with vast contentment and pleasure.

But to return to Mrs. Sanderson. She having had no
acquaintances before marriage, made only very formal ones
after ; her husband had no family, and was ever devoted
to her, she asked for nothing more ; and thus they had
lived for each other, and hardly saw any one. This is
always injudicious ; we are all subjects of sudden casualties
which demand assistance, and misfortunes requiring sympa-
thy. When Mrs. Sanderson's dark hours arrived, for none
escape, she was friendless. Gerald Sanderson had been
admired and respected by his fellow-citizens, and when he
departed, offers of kindness poured in from all his friends ;
as she knew them but slightly, they were refused. She
thereby shut her doors upon those who, in after years,
might have been of essential service to her orphans.

This was a great mistake, but one that is often made
under similar al]lictions, and Mrs. Sanderson was doomed to
pay the penalty. Then many persons would not have been
discouraged by first failures, had she not been removed to
her brother's dwelling ; but he was so very inhospitable and
so haughtily polite, that his patronizing and supercilious
manner was absolutely offensive. Nobody likes to be



OF BOSTO.X. 43

overtly patronized. Nobody wished to approach Mr. Eger-
ton, even if he had desired society, which he certainly did
not ; so his sister seemed fated to wear away her existence in
utter seclusion, in the heart of a city, surrounded by a dense
population, and within hearing of its noise and bustle ;
this indeed was solitude.

And did she not feel herself alone ? Assuredly, and,
though she was a person remarkably well fitted for the sort
of life she led, perhaps, better than most women, yet, al
times, the sense of her own loneliness and friendlessness was
bitterly oppressive. The boys were not old enough to be
aught but playthings during the daylight, and it was the long
evenings she dreaded.

Autumn put on her robes of many colors, than which
nothing can be more beautiful in America, and soon stern
"Winter returned. This season found Mrs. Sanderson better
prepared for her position : fortified by the pleasant and pure
atmosphere in which she had lived, her strength was in-
creased, her health improved, and her mind more composed
and resigned. She had sought and prayed for courage and
submission, and the petition had been answered. She began
to think that, as Gerald was eight years old and a very pre-
cocious boy, it would be well to give him a Latin grammar
and rub up her own classics, which she did. Gerald, nothing
loth, applied himself vigorously to his tasks ; and, indeed,
there was no trouble whatever in teaching him, his desire
to learn being so dominant that he rather anticipated his
daily exercises, than avoided them.

Mrs. Sanderson found the teaching of her son a pleasant
and grateful occupation ; he came with his books, his lessons
learned, and thirsting for more ; so that she had but to arrange
them for him.

It is to be regretted or not, as the tastes may be, that the
same good account could not be given of Charley, for he
was never to be found on like occasions : he was off with his
boon companion. Tiger, hidden in snow-banks, and for



44 THE BARCLAYS

for any thing but learning. Then there was such a bewitch-
ing old coach-house, in which carriage there was none, after
the fashion of the library, minus the books ; but it was so
charming! All the old trumpery and broken articles which
the family ever owned, of the grandiose kind, were there
ensconced. Then there v/as such a collection, as had been
rarely ever seen, in the immense garrets of the old house !
There seemed to have been brought together under Mr.
Egerton's roof every odd article under the sun, collected
from all quarters of the globe ; he had never even taken
the pains to investigate the contents of his own higher
regions, which had been amply stored by his late father,
who having been an India merchant, had left the relics of
his cargoes in odds and ends innumerable. The old gentle-
man had retired early in life from business, having many
scholarly tastes, and had hardly given a thought to the upper
part of his dwelling. It was just such explorations as little
Charley Sanderson was habitually making to excavate, if
such a word can be used, considering it was a garret, all
these wondrous things, and every day his mother heard of
some extraordinary discovery. Headless figures of Chinese
mandarins, Turkish pipes of enormous boa constrictor size,
quantities of indigo and synchaws, immense Spanish olive
jars, figuring forth the forty thieves, bamboo chairs and sofas
and huge fans, Russia duck, and bows and arrows, and other
warlike missiles from the Sandwich Islands and the North-
west coast, with countless other things. When the hour for
study arrived, it was extremely difficult to find the truant
Charley ; hornbook and slate were alike undiscovered ; both
Peter and Dinah assisting in the concealment of their dar-
ling, and declaring he was altogether too young for tasks,
and too wonderful and too charming ' to ever live to grow
up,' and consequently would not require instruction.

When, at last, he was unearthed, his hands must be
washed, and his spirits brought into some degree of compo-
sure, and Tiger locked out of the room, and he, undignified



OF. BOSTON. 45

doggie, scratched and whined at the door all the while the
unwilling urchin was puzzling about p's and q's ; so the
results were not of the most satisfactory order to his mother.
It required to be a mother to do such hard duty.

It is extremely doubtful if women ever receive the meed
they certainly deserve for their exertions in small things, for
all the wearisome hours spent in teaching rebellious and
giddy children ; -and it is equally certain that mothers volun-
tarily take this trouble upon themselves ; it may be, they
can find no one to do it for them.

At the end of the winter, Charley Sanderson had learned
to put two letters together, which immediately flew apart and
never reunited, so that, after all the pains taken to enlighten
him, he had made small progress in literature ; but then he
had occupied his mother, kept her from herself, and thus far
his academical course had been successful. It would be a
pleasant thing for victimized maternity, if children could be
taught to read by some patent way ; to be sure, there is the
phonetic, but then they must be taught twice over, and once
is sufliicient, in all conscience, for the poor young things, not
to even mention their mammas.

That winter a gentleman, who had been a client of the
deceased Mr. Sanderson, returned from Europe, and, as he
owed his lawyer a few hundreds, duly paid them over to his
widow, who placed a portion for each of the boys in the
savings bank, and reserved the rest for emergencies.

In a few monotonous and weary years Gerald was entered,
quite successfully, at the Latin school, and his schoolmates
were quite astonished when they discovered that he had been
prepared by his mother.

Charley entreated his mother to send him to a High
School, ' for,' said he, ' Gerald will never work, and I must,
and cannot spare time for Latin and Greek. I must push
my way in merchandise.' So Mrs. Sanderson permitted him
to do as he pleased, and Charley entered the High School,
and having followed his own inclinations, succeeded remark-



46 THE BARCLAYS

ably well, his devoted parent having effectually taught him to
unite the flying apart letters, and many good things beside.

At school Gerald made no acquaintances ; apparently
caring for no boy but his brother, his studies whollv engross-
ing him ; there was no need of exciting him in any way ; on
the contrary, it was almost necessary to divert his thoughts
from them, lest he might injure himself. When not occu-
pied in studying his lessons, he was absorbed in castle-build-
ing of various kinds, which he sometimes communicated to
his mother ; this was generally directed to Harvard Univer-
sity, his whole heart being filled with an ardent desire to go
to Cambridge, to strive for collegiate rewards and honors, to
attain scholastic eminence, to live and die a scholar.

Now this was a sad tribulation for his mother, as she was
unable to meet the expenses attendant on a college life, how-
ever restricted they might be. She bittei'ly deplored her ina-
bility, but felt the impossibility of gathering together, even
with the greatest economy, a sufficient sum for incidental
expenses. It may appear extraordinary that desiring, as she
earnestly did, to promote Gerald's views, she should not have
applied to her brother, but she knew that he perfectly under-
stood the state of things, and that, if he proposed to act, he
would make the offer spontaneously, and that by asking she
would only subject herself to a rcbutT, and be made even
more unhappy still.

Mr. Egerton had seen the boy for years, understood his
character, perfectly appreciated his efforts, and even some-
times commented upon his remarkable devotion to his books
and love for study, never, however, with much commenda-
tion, and pressed the matter no farther. 3Irs. Sanderson,
timid and unassuming, and thinking herself already under
immense obligations to her brother, whom she held in great
awe, dared not open her lips on this all-engrossing subject ;
so things remained as they were, and Gerald worked on.

Charley, having, as before nrentloned, been well satisfied
with his mother's compliance with his wishes, became quite



/



OF BOSTON. 47

interested in his studies, and was fast becoming a great
favorite in his school, and a good scholar. Charley's friends
were legion ; he was never seen without a trainof followers,
who seemed quite dependent upon him for their amuse-
ments; he had entire control of the coach-house, and that
became a place of great resort. Into the garden no foot
penetrated, and many were the longing glances directed to
that Eden, with its black Adam and Eve, for Peter and
Dinah were always, one or the other, keeping watch in its
precincts for marauders ; so there was no chance for scaling
walls, and appropriating, to use a gentle word, the delicious
fruits and flowers it contained ; the latter, Peter, knowing
his master cared nothing for them, permitted Charley to
bestow upon his adherents in immense quantities. But what
were flowers in the eyes of hungry schoolboys, compared
with the delights of brown Burys and Seckels ? It must be
confessed this state of things was very tantalizing for the
3-oung revellers, at all times addicted to the luxuries which
Pomona had so luxuriantly showered on this favored spot,
who were obliged to look on and be denied the feast.

Charley was the most generous of boys, but this was a
point of honor with him, which nothing could induce him to
infringe ; the rules of the house must be observed, even for
a windfall, so his friends devoured with tlicir eyes, as boys
will, and the young host lamented in vain his hard fate, and
learned abundant lessons of self-denial and probity. One"
day Charley was mounted upon the high garden wall, near
a pear tree, bending under a rich load of luscious fruit just
ripened, when a gust of wind precipitated a quantity to the
earth. The boys on the outside, seeing this downfall, en-
treated him to give them just two or three pears. ' That's
all, just two or three, dear Charley,' said Robert Redmond ;
' pray do, they look so good ; the old fellow will know noth-
ing about it.' ' Nothing would give me more pleasure,'
replied Charley, ' but my uncle's knowing nothing of the
matter will not alter my intentions ; I know it to be wrong.



48 THE BARCLAYS

as I am forbidden to touch them by my mother, and should
not forgive inyself if I could be guilty of such a mean-
ness.'

' Oh,' screamed Robert, who was the ringleader and
spokesman, ' you will soon be as stingy as your old miserly
uncle, if you live as long.'

' Wait till I have something to give. Bob, and then you'll
see if I am stingy or not ; it's my uncle's fruit, and he has
a right to do as he pleases with it.'

Here a chorus of epithets saluted Charley's uncle ; he
was called an old crab tree, an old Elwes, and a double-
refined miser.

' The first bit of money I get,' said Charley, ' I'll treat
you all, if you'll cease abusing my uncle, and you shall see
if I can't give.'

' Give now,' said a voice behind him. He turned and
beheld Mr. Egerton, who, reaching him a ^c\v dozens of the
coveted fruit, ordered him to throw them to the little outside
barbarians; and, moreover, inform them they were the first
and the last they should ever have ; and that these were
only bestowed in honor of his own honestv.

Poor Charley ! his was a severe school of youthful priva-
tion and endurance, and but for the gentle mother who
watched so tenderly over him, would have been sad indeed ;
as he experienced, even at his early age, a sense of depend-
ence, both irritating and disagreeable, and longed for the
time when he should, by his own exertions, be emancipated
from his uncle's control, so cold and ungcnial.



OF BOSTON. 49



CHAPTER VI.



If the stock of our bliss is in stranger hands Tested,
The fund ill secured oft in bankruptcy ends,
But the heart issues bills which are never protested,
When drawn on the firm of wife, children and friends.'

Lord Spencee.

Mr. John Barclay, the father of the budding beauties
mentioned in the first chapter of this book, was the son of a
most respectable merchant in Boston, who having bestowed
upon him a collegiate education, was unable to do more, hav-
ing a large family and small means. The son, thrown upon
his own resources, applied himself diligently to commerce,
and being very judicious and fortunate, amassed a large
property. Mr. Barclay, over whose birth some benevolent
fairy would have appeared to preside, was gifted with all
iTianner of good and pleasant things. In person he was
above the middle size, rather stout "and massive, yet very
lithe and active, and a perfect type of health and strength ;
his face beamed with intelligence and beauty, and to these
were added a frank, generous and loyal nature, and the
most admirable temper. Rich, handsome, and fascinating,
every body wondered when Mr. Barclay married Catherine
Seyton, a girl whom all the world pronounced to be awk-
ward, ugly, and pennyless. It has always been, and ever
will be, a problem to be solved why the joining together of
two persons in Hymen's bonds should be a circumstance of
such enduring importance to all their friends and acquaint-
ances, who manifestly have nothing to do with the matter;



50 THE BARCLAA'S

but so it is, and Mr. and Mrs. Barclay proved no exception
to this all-prevalent rule. Indeed, it appeared that they
had an unusual portion of attention and criticism, he for his
bad taste, and she for her astonishing good luck. A state
of wonderment is one most pleasingly adapted to American
natures ; we have abandoned guessing, in polite circles, and
taken to wondering. But even the wisest of seers may be,
at times, mistaken, and the awkward and ugly girl became,
in a few revolving years, an uncommon fine woman with
charmingly graceful manners. Some travelled persons de-
clared this great change to proceed from Mrs. Barclay
having gained flesh, for she had been too thin ; others that
she had grown taller ; some said one thing, some another,
but all agreed in thinking her very beautiful. She could
have revealed the cause in one word happiness. And
truly hers was a blessed lot, the lines being cas> in pleasant
places indeed. She adored her husband and respected him ;
she watched over her children with intense care and de-
votion ; she Avas a firm, true and loyal friend, and a
kind neighbor, with a heart abounding in gratitude to her
Creator for mercies received ; she availed herself of her
signal advantages to enjoy them wisely, discreetly and
cheerfully.

Three daughters and a son composed this happy house-
hold : Georgiana, the first-born, was one year older than
her sister, Grace, but this was hardly perceptible, even to
the parents, so remarkably alike were these lovely young
creatures, who had reached the respective ages of fifteen
and sixteen. Kate, the third child, was just fourteen, and
certainly possessed none of the remarkable attractions of
her sisters ; she was a tall girl for her years, running out
her head fearfully, rolling round an amazingly black pair of
eyes, and perpetually shaking over them large masses of
not over-fine black hair, whicli, by no process whatever,
could be kept smooth or in place; then slie never, by any
chance, stood still a moment, but was constantly balancing



OF BOSTON. 51

herself, first on one leg and then on the other, and, in
addition, was a sad romp, with a good heart and high tem-
per. Johnny, the youngest, at ten, was like most small boys
of his age, busily occupied in playing and eating, his father
having thought proper to send him to an excellent boarding
school in the country ; he prospered, and, in his vacations,
twice gladdened the hearts of his affectionate relatives,
when he returned home and when he departed.

Mr. Barclay had one brother, a bachelor, v/ho had lived
many years in France. A perfect contrast was Mr. Richard
Barclay to Mr. John : the one genial, pleasant and gracious,
looking on the bright side of all things ; the other rough,
burly, and an inveterate gambler, incessantly trying to con-
ceal his good and endearing qualities under a disagreeable
mask. Mr. Richard Barclay could find nothing to like out
of Paris ; just as devotedly as Mr. Philip Egerton wor-
shipped England, so did this gentleman adore France ; but
they both agreed in hating each other mortally. Mr. Rich-
ard Barclay recounted innumerable anecdotes of Mr. Eger-
ton's nonsensical (he called it) preference for the white
clifTs of Albion, and wondered why the old miser did not
betake himself to them and leave Boston forever. Mr.
Egerton, not to be outdone, declared Mr. Barclay to be
Gallic mad, and wondered why the old bear had not picked
up a Httle politeness amidst the well-mannered people whom
he so distractedly admired. These pleasant opinions of
each other being bandied backwards and forwards to the
separate parties by kind and peace-loving friends, added fuel
to the never-expiring flames of their long standing feud, and
nothing hindered their coming to blov/s but their never
coming together.

Mr. Richard had, to the surprise of every one, highly
approved of his brother John's choice, he having discovered
the germs of a remarkable woman under the veil of shyness
and timidity, which imparted to Catherine Seyton the false
semblance of awkwardness ; he had appreciated the good



52



THE BARCLAYS



sense and the sensibility of the young girl, and knew her to
be w6ll read, well educated, and even accomplished.

Mrs. John Barclay never forgot this championship, and
richly she repaid Mr. llichard for all the pleasant things he
had far and wide disseminated in her favor ; she made his
brother's house a litde paradise for the forlorn bachelor,
according him the warmest seat at her fireside, the choicest
bits at table, and innumerable other incidental circumstances,
touching disruptured buttons and ever altering collars, com-
bined to remind him that she had not forgotten his helping
hand in her hour of need. In fact, nothing could exceed
Mrs. Barclay's devotion at all times and seasons, and Mr.
Richard had a growl for every one, save his sister Cathe-
rine ; he never called her sister-in-law, and always declared
her to be virtuousest, discreetest, best, in fact, a model
woman.

All this attention to his wants and wishes was the more
meritorious, as there was absolutely nothing to be anticipated
in the way of the 'root of all evil' from ]\Ir. Richard, he not
being one of the American uncles who tlourish in the French
vaudevilles, and annihilating time and spiice, arrive with
big bags of gold pieces, in the extremity of heroes and
heroines, to make two lovers happy. ]\Ir. Barclay's father,
it luis already been stated, was not rich ; he left at his
decease a very small patrimony to be portioned out to a
large family, the members of which, dying early in life,
bequeathed their minute modicums to the two surviving
brothers, John and Richard. The former pertinaciously
declining to take a dollar of the money, it naturally reverted
to his brother, and he went directly to his beloved France,
and, once there, though he had always maintained it to be
the most economical country in the known world, contrived
to spend a vast deal more than he could reasonably ailbrd,
and found himself, much against his will, obliged to return
home, being unwilling to retrench in his adored Paris.

Mr. Richard was what is usually denominated a stronc-



OF BOSTON. 53

minded individual. Now it often happens that this manner
of man is exceedingly disagreeable, and the same manner
of woman infinitely worse. The possession of this strong
mind, being usually demonstrated by hardness of spirit, loud
voices which ring unpleasantly on the ears, and dogmatical
opinions, so decidedly obstinate as never to be susceptible of
change. Mr. Richard was wont to assert that ' he carried
not his heart on his sleeve for daws to peck at.'

Mr. Barclay ardently desired that his brother should live
with him ; but that the gentleman positively refused to do,
saying, he much preferred a den of his own to inhabiting a
palace belonging to any one else. Finding his resolves
unalterable, Mr. Barclay fitted up for him the nicest snug-