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Mr. Howells's Writings.

His obserziaiion is close and acmrate ; his knowledge of wotnen is
simply marvelous ; he is an artist in his description of scenery. — Bos-
ton Advertiser.

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THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

THE LADY OF THE AROOSTOOK. 121110 i

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CHOICE AUTOBIOGRAPHY. With Critical and Biographical Essays
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L, IL Memoirs of Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina, Mar-
gravine OF Baireuth.
IIT. Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and Thomas Ellwood.

IV. VlTTORIO AlfIERI.

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*,* For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of price
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HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston, Mass.

THE

UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

W. D. HOWELLS,

AUTHOR OP "TUE lady of THE AROOSTOOK,"' "a FOREGONE CONCLUSION,"
"a chance acquaintance," "VENETIAN LIFE," ETC.

BOSTON:

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY.

Ebe EiMci-fitac Press, (JDambriUfff .

1880.

?s
zoxs

MAY 21 'i970

Vr^tL^V 0^ TQJ^ijr^ H0WELL3.
All rights reserved.

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE :

ELECTROTVPED AND PRINTRD DY

U. 0. IIOL'GKTON AND COMPANY

THE UNDISCOVEEED COUNTEY.

I.

Some years ago, at a time when the rapid
growth of the city was changing the character of
many localities, two young men were sitting, one
afternoon early in April, in the parlor of a house
on one of those streets which, without having yet
accomplished their destiny as business thorough-
fares, were no longer the homes of the decorous
ease that once inhabited them. The young men
held their hats and canes in their hands, and they
had that air of having just been admitted and of
waiting to be received by the people of the house
which rests gracefully only on persons of the other
sex. One was tall and spare, and he sat stiffly ex-
pectant; the other, who was much shorter and
stouter, with the mature bloom which comes of
good living and a cherished digestion, was more
restless. As he rose from his chair, after a few
moments, and went to examine some detail of the
dim room, he moved with a quick, eager step, and
with a stoop which suggested a connoisseur's habit
1

2 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

of bending over and peering at things. He re-
turned to his seat, and glanced round the parlor, as
if to seize the whole effect more accurately.

" So this is the home of the Pythoness, is it ? "
he said.

" If you like to call her a Pythoness," answered
the other.

" Oh, I don't know that I prefer it : I 'm quite
willing to call her a test-medium. I thought per-
haps Pythoness would respectfully idealize the busi-
ness. What a queer, melancholy house, what a
queer, melancholy street I I don't think I was ever
in a street before where quite so many professional
ladies, with English surnames, preferred Madam to
Mrs. on their door-plates. And the poor old place
has such a desperately conscious air of going to the
deuce. Every house seems to wince as you go bj'^,
and button itself up to the chin for fear you should
find out it had no shirt on, — so to speak. I don't
know what 's the reason, but these material tokens
of a social decay afflict me terribly : a tipsj^ woman
is n't dreadf uUer than a haggard old house, that 's
once been a home, in a street like this."

" The street 's going the usual way," said the
other. " It will be all business in a few years."

" But in the mean time it causes me inexpressi-
ble anguish, and it will keep doing it. If I know
where there 's a thorn, I can't help going up and
pressing my waistcoat against it. I foresee that I
shall keep coming. This parlor alone is jDoignant
enough to afford me the most rapturous pain ; it

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 3

pierces my soul. This tawdry red velvet wall-
paper ; the faded green reps of that sofa ; those
family photographs in their oval papier-mache
frames ; that round table there in the corner, with
its subscription litei'ature and its tin-type albums ;
and this frantic tapestry carpet ! I know now why
the ghost-seers affect this sort of street and this sort
of parlor : the spirits can't resist the deadly fasci-
nation ! No ghost, with any strength of character,
could keep away. I suppose that this apartment is
swarming, now, with disembodied ladies and gen-
tlemen of the first distinction. Well, I like your
going into this. I respect everybody's superstition
— except my own ; I can't respect that, you know."

" Do you think I believe in these people's rub-
bish ? "

" I did n't know. A man must believe in some-
thing. I could n't think of anything else you be-
lieved in. I'm not sure I don't believe in it a trifle,
myself : my nerves do. May I ask why you come
here, if you refuse the particular rubbish afforded
by the establishment ? You're not a curious man."

" Why did you come ? "

"You asked me. Besides, I have no occasion
for a reason. I am an emotional, not a rational
being, as I 've often told you."

The taller man laughed dryly. "Very well,
then, you don't need a reason from me. You can
wait and see wli}^ I came."

The short man gave a shrug. " I hope I shan't
have to wait long. An emotional being has a right
to be unreasonably impatient."

4 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

A light sound of hesitating steps made, itself
heard in the next room; the two men remained
silent, and presently one of the partition doors was
rolled back, and a tall young girl in a somewhat
theatrical robe of white serge, with a pale green
scarf on her shoulders, appeared at the threshold.
Her beautiful, serious face had a pallid quiet, bro-
ken by what seemed the unnatural alertness of her
blue eyes, which glanced quickly, like those of a
child too early obliged to suspect and avert ; her
blonde hair, which had a plastic massiveness, was
drawn smoothly back from her temples, and lay
heaped in a heavy coil on her neck, where its rich
abundance showed when she turned her profile
away, as if to make sure that some one was follow-
ing in the room behind her. A door opened and
closed there, and she came on towards the two men,
who had risen. At sight of the taller of the two, she
halted, while an elderly gentleman hurried forward,
with a bustling graciousness, and offered him his
small, short hand. Pie had the same fair complexion
as the girl, but his face was bright and eager ; his
thin, light hair was wavy and lustreless ; he looked
hardly so tall as she. He had a mouth of delicacy
and refinement, and a smile of infantine sweetness.

" Ah, you 've really come," he said, shaking the
young man's hand cordially. "So many people
manifest an interest in our public stances, and then
let the matter drop without going any further. I
don't know whether I presented you to my daugh-
ter, the other day, Mr. Ford ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 5

Ford bowed gravely to tlie girl, who slightly re-
turned his obeisance. " Let me introduce Mr.
Phillips, Dr. Boynton, — a friend whom I ventured
to bring with me."

" Very glad to see you, Mr. Phillips. I was about
to say — Oh ! my daughter, Mr. Phillips, Miss
Egeria Boynton. Take seats, gentlemen — I was
about to say that one of the most curious facts con-
nected with the phenomena is the ardor with which
people take the matter up on first acquaintance,
and the entire indifference with which they let it
drop. In our line of life, Mr. Phillips, as public
exhibitors, we often have occasion to note this. It
seldom happens but half a dozen persons come to
me at the close of a seance, and ask earnestly for
the privilege of pursuing their investigations with
the aid of my daughter's mediumship. But these
persons rarely call ; I rarely see them at a second
public stance, even. If I had not such abiding
hopes of the phenomena myself, T should sometimes
feel discouraged by the apathy and worse than
apathy with which they are received, not the first,
but the second time. You must excuse my expres-
sion of surprise at first greeting you, Mr. Ford, —
you must indeed. It was but too natural under
the circumstances."

" By all means," answered Ford. " I never
thought of not coming. But I can't promise that
you '11 find me a ready believer."

" Precisely," returned the other. " That is the
very mood in which I could have wished you to

6 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

come. I am myself, as I tliink I told you, merely
an inquirer. In fact " — Dr. Boynton leaned for-
ward, with his small, plump hands extended, as if
the more conveniently to round his periods, but ar-
rested himself, in the explanation he was about to
make, at something ]Mr. Phillips was saying to his
daughter.

" I could n't help being interested in the charac-
ter of your parlor, before you came in, Miss Boyn-
ton. These old Boston houses all have so much
character. It 's surprising what good taste people
had fifty or sixty years ago, — the taste of the Fiist
Empire. That cornice is very pretty, — very sim-
ple and very refined, neither glutted nor starved in
design ; and that mantel, — how refreshing those
sane and decent straight lines are after the squirms
and wriggles of subsequent marble ! I don't know
that I should have chosen urns for an ornament to
the corners ; but we must not forget that we are
mortal ; and there are cinerary associations with
fire-places."

Miss Boynton said nothing in return for this
speech, the full sense of which had perhaps not
quite reached her. She stared blankly at Phillips,
to whom her father turned with his most winning
smile. " An artist ? " asked Dr. Boynton.

" A sufferer in the cause of art," returned Phil-
lips with ironical pathos.

" Ah ! A connoisseur," said the doctor.

" The fact is," said Phillips, " I was finding the
modern equipment of your old-fashioned parlor in-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 7

tolerable, as you came in. You won't mind my
not liking your landlady's taste, Miss Boynton?"
he demanded with suave ingratiation.

Miss Boynton looked about the room, as if she
had not seen it before. " It is ugly," she answered
quietly. " But -it does as well as any."

"Yes," her father eagerly interposed, " better
than any other room in any other house in any other
quarter of the city. We are still, as I may say, gen-
tlemen, feeling our way towards what we believe a
sublime truth. My daughter's development is yet
so recent, so incomplete, that we must not reject any
furthering influences, however humble, however dis-
agreeable. It is not by our own preference that we
are here. I know, as well as you do, that this is a
street inhabited by fortune-tellers and charlatans of
low degree. For that very reason I have taken
our lodgings here. The element, the atmosphere, of
simple, unquestioning faith brought into this vicin-
ity by the dupes of these people is, unknown to them,
of the highest use, the most vital advantage, to us in
our present attempt. At the same time, I should
not, I could not in candor, deny to these pretenders
themselves a beneficial, a highly — I may call it —
evolutionary, influence upon my daughter. We
desire no personal acquaintance with them. But
they are of the old tradition of supernaturalism, —
a tradition as old as nature, — and we cannot afford
to reject the favor of the tradition which they rep-
resent. You will understand that, gentlemen. We
cannot say. We hold — or we trust we hold —

8 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

communion with spirits, and yet deny that there is
something in second-sight, divination, or whatever
mysteries these people pretend to. In some sort,
we must psychologically ally ourselves with them.
They are, no doubt, for the most part and in most
cases, shameless swindlers ; but ii, seems to be a
condition of our success that we shall not deny —
I don't say that we shall believe — the fact of an
occult power in some of them. Their neighbor-
hood was very repulsive at first, and still is meas-
urably so ; but we accept it, and have found it of
advantage. We are mere experimenters, as yet,
and claim nothing except that my daughter is the
medium, the instrument, of certain phenomena
which tve can explain only in one way ; we do not
dispute the different explanations of others. In
the course of our investigations, we neglect no the-
ory, however slight, that may assist us. Now, in
so simple a matter as dress, even : we have found by
repeated experiment that the manifestations have
a greater affinity for white than any other color.
This may point to some hidden truth — I don't
say — in the old-fashioned ghost-stories, where the
spectre always appears in white. At any rate, we
think it worth while that my daughter should wear
white, in both her public and her private s(3ances,
for the present. And green, — just now we seem
to find a good effect in pale green, Mr. Phillips,
pale green."

" If I may say it without impertinence to Miss
Boynton's father, in my character of connoisseur,"

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 9

said Phillips, with a bow for the young girl, which
he delivered to the doctor, " I think the effect is
very good indeed."

" Ah ! yes, yes ! " cried the doctor. " In that
sense. I see. Very good. However, I meant " —
Dr. Boynton paused, bending on either visitor an
exquisite smile of child-like triumph. A series of
light taps, beginning with a sound like a straining of
the wood, and then separating into a sharper stac-
cato, was heard at different points in the room,
chiefly on the table, and on the valves of the sliding
doors. Phillips gave a little nervous start. Ford
remained indifferent, but for the slow movement of
his eyes in the direction of the young girl, who bent
an appealing look on her father. The doctor lifted
a hand to invoke attention; the raps died away.
" Giorgione, I presume. Will you ask, Egeria? "

She hesitated. Then, in a somewhat tremulous
voice, she demanded, " Is it you, Giorgione ? " A
light shower of raps instantly responded. A thrill
of strong excitement visibly passed over the girl,
who clutched one hand with the other, and seemed
to stay herself by a strong effort of will in her place
on the sofa.

" Calmly, my daughter, calmly ! " said Dr. Boyn-
ton, making a certain restraining gesture towards
her. " Yes, it is Giorgione. He can never keep
away when color is mentioned. Very celebrated
for his coloring, I am told, when alive. A Vien-
nese painter, I believe, Mr. Phillips."

" Venetian," answered Phillips, abstractedly.

10 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

He recalled himself, and added -with a forced light-
ness, " But I don't know that I can advise you to
trust the professions of our rapping and tapping
friend ; there are so few genuine Giorgiones." A
brisk volley of taps discharged upon the wall di-
rectly behind Phillips's head caused him to turn
abruptly and stare hard at the place.

" Oh, you can't see it, Phillips," said Ford, with
a spare laugh of derision.

" No," said Dr. Boynton, sweetly, " you can't
see it. At least, not yet. But if our experiments
progress as favorably as they have for the last six
months, we may hope before a great while to ren-
der the invisible agencies of these sounds as sensi-
ble to sight as to hearing. Don't disturb yourself,
Mr. Phillips. Mere playfulness, I assure you.
They never inflict any real injury." While he
spoke the raps renewed themselves here and there
upon the woodwork, into the fibre of which they
seemed at last to reenter, and died away in the sort
of straining with which they began. "Egeria,"
said the doctor, turning impressively towards his
daughter, " it seems to me the conditions are un-
commonly propitious, this afternoon. I think we
may look for something of a very remarkable
chai-acter." He glanced at the clock on the mantel,
and confronted his visitors with a smiling face of
apology. " Gentlemen, I suppose you came for a
stance. My interest in the matter has betrayed
me into remarks that have taken up too much of
your time,"

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 11

" I came with the hope of seeing some further
proofs of your skill," said Ford ; " but if there is
anything " —

" Oh, no, no, no ! Not at all, not at all ! " hastily
interrupted the doctor, with a deprecatory wave of
his hand. "But — ah — I hardly know how to
put it. The fact is, I am anxious for investigation
by gentlemen of your intelligence, and I should
very much dislike to postpone you — Our landlady,
who is a medium of note in her way, — she has
lately come to Boston from the West, — had ar-
ranged this afternoon for a stance with a number
of persons rather more grounded in the belief than
yourselves, and " —

The young men rose. " We won't detain you,"
said Ford. " We can come another time."

" No, no ! Wait ! " Dr. Boynton waved them
to their seats again, which they provisionally re-
sumed, and turned to his daughter. " Egeria, I
think I may venture to ask these gentlemen to join
our friends ? "

" There 's no reason why they should n't stay, if
they like," said the girl, impassively.

" We should be delighted," exclaimed Phillips,
"if you'll let us! I'm so little used to ghosts,"
he said, glancing round at the walls and tables
with an apprehensiveness which was perhaps not
altogether affected, " that, for my part, I should
rather like plenty of company, Miss Boynton, — if
Messer Giorgione won't take it amiss."

" Ah, very good ! " interposed her father. " Very

12 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

good, indeed. Ha ! Why I hesitated was that the
sort of experiment to be tried this afternoon requires
conditions, concessions, that I thought you might
not care to offer, gentlemen. I wish to be perfectly
frank with you ; what you will see might be pro-
duced by trickery, especially in a company of ten
or a dozen persons, some of whom could be in
collusion with the medium. I pass no judgment
upon a certain order of phenomena in their present
stage of development, but I make it a rule, myself,
measurably to distrust all manifestations occurring
in the presence of more than three persons besides
the medium. Still, if you will do us the honor to
remain, I can promise you something very curious
and interesting, — something novel in the present
phase of supernatui*alism ; nothing less than appari-
tions, gentlemen, or, as we call them, materializa-
tions. You have heard, perhaps, of these material-
izations ? "

" Yes," said Ford indifferently, " I have heard of
them."

" Mrs. Le Roy — our landlady — has made an
eclectic study of the materializations of several other
mediums, and she has succeeded, or claims to have
succeeded, not only in reproducing them, but in
calling about her many of the principal apparitions
who visit the original stances. If you are not
familiar with apparitions you may find it interest-
ing."

" Really, Dr. Boynton," said Phillips, " do you
mean that I shall see my friend Giorgione perform-
ing that sort of tattoo on your wall-paper ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 13

" Not exactly," urbanely responded Dr. Boynton.
" No, It 's a curious feature of the manifestations
that the audible spirits are never seen, and that
those rendered visible by the new development of
materialization are invariably mute. But in a dark
seance to follow the materializations, my daugh-
ter " —

Egeria rose from her place on the sofa and moved
toward her father, who^ alarmed at some expression
of her face, started to his feet to encounter her.
She laid her arms with a beseeching gesture on his
shoulder. " Father, father ! Give it up for to-day,
do ! I can't go through with it. I am weak —
sick ; I have no strength left. Everything is gone."

" Why, Egeria ! My poor girl ! Excuse me, gen-
tlemen : I will be with you in a moment." He cast
a sustaining arm about her slim shape, and with the
other hand pushed open one of the sliding doors,
and disappeared with her from the room beyond.

The men remained in a silence which Ford had
apparently no intention of breaking. " Upon the
whole," said Phillips, at last, " this is rather pain-
ful. Miss Boynton is very much like some other
young ladies — for a Pythoness. I should like to
see the dark stance, — if I may express myself so
inconsequently, — but really I hope the old gentle-
man will give it up, as she suggested."

" Don't flatter yourself," said Ford, gloomily.
" The thing 's just beginning."

" Ford, I don't see how you have the heart to
take your attitude towards these people," returned

14 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the other. " It was shockmg to stand on the defen-
sive against the girl, as if she were an impostor.
She 's a person you might help to escalloped oysters
or ice-cream at an evening J)arty, and not expect to
talk half so magnificently as she looked. The man
believes in himself, and it is your ironical attitude
which annuls the honesty in him. That sort of
thing kills any amount of genuineness in people."

" Very likely," assented Ford. " He 's coming
back presently to say that our sphere — attitude,
you call it ; Jiis quackery has a different nomen-
clature — has annulled his daughter's power over
the spirits."

Phillips went up to examine the mantel -piece
again. " Well, why not ? "

" Certainly, why not ? If you grant the one,
there 's no trouble about granting the other."

" What do you make of what we heard ? "

" Nothing."

" You heard it ? "

" I hear clatter any time I wake in the night.
But I don't attribute it to disembodied spirits on
that account."

" Why not ? "

" Because there are no disembodied spirits, for
one thing."

" Ah, I 'm not so sure of that," said Phillips,
with sprightly generosity.

" Really ? You doubt everything."

" That 's very well, — but I suppose you mean
anything. I prefer to keep an open mind. I don't

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 15

snub ghosts, for I think I may be one myself, some
day."

As he spoke the door-bell rang, and in the inter-
val between the ringing of the bell and the slow re-
sponse of the servant. Dr. Boynton reentered, rub-
bing his hands and smihng. " Sorry to have been
obliged to leave you, gentlemen," he said. " You
have witnessed, however, one of the most interest-
ing phases of this mystery : mystery, I call it, for
I'm as much in the dark about it as yourselves.
My daughter felt so deeply the dissenting, the per-
haps incredulous, mood — sphere — of one of you
that she quite succumbed to it. Don't be alarmed !
In an ordinary medium it would be an end of every-
thing for the time being, but she will take part in
the seance, all the same, to-day. I have been able
to reinforce my daughter's powers by a gift — we
will call it a gift — of my own. In former years I
looked quite deeply into mesmerism, and I have
never quite disused the practice of it, as a branch
of my profession, — I am a physician. My wife, who
has been dead my daughter's whole life," — an ex-
pression of pain, curious with refei'ence to the eager
brightness of the man's wonted aspect, passed over
the speaker's face, — " was a very impressible sub-
ject of mine, and in her childhood Egeria was so.
Since we have discovered what seems her power as
a medium, I have found the mesmeric force — the
application of exterior will — of the greatest use
in sustaining her against the exhaustion she would
otherwise incur from the many conflicting influences

16 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

she is subject to. I can't regret — I rejoice, in fact
— that this phenomenon has occurred as it has oc-
curred. It will enable me to present in her to-day
the united action of those strange forces, equally
occult, the mesmeric and the spiritistic. I have just
left my daughter in a complete mesmeric trance,
and you will see — you will see " —

He broke off abruptly, and went forward to meet
a gentleman and lady, apparently two of the ex-
pected guests of Mrs. Le Roy. He greeted them
with gay warmth as Mr. and Mrs. Merrifield, and
was about to share their acquaintance with Ford
and Phillips, when a tall man, with pale blue eyes
and a thin growth of faded hair, of a like harshness
on crown and chin, interrupted him with a solemnly
proffered hand. " Why, Weatherby," said the doc-
tor, shaking his hand, "I didn't hear j^ou ring."

" I found the girl still at the door, and had no oc-
casion to ring," said Mr. Weatherby.

" Right, right, — quite right ! " returned Dr. Boyn-
ton. " Glad to see you. Mr. Weatherby, Mr. Ford
and Mr. Phillips, — inquirers. Mr. Weatherby is
known among us, gentlemen, for powers which he
is developing in the direction of levitation." Mr.
Weatherby silently shook hands, regarding Phil-
lips and Ford meantime with a remote keenness of
glance, and then took a seat in a corner, with an
air of established weariness, as if he had found levi-
tation heavy work.

Dr. Boynton continued to receive his guests, and
next introduced to the strangers a large, watery-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 17

eyed man with a mottled face and reddish hair :
" Mv. Eccles, — an inquirer like yourselves, gen-
tlemen, but in a different spirit. Mr. Eccles has no
doubt of the nature of the manifestations, bnt he
is investigating the subject with a view — with a
view " — Dr. Boynton looked for help to the
gentleman whose position he was trying to state,
and the latter came to his aid with a vigorous alac-
rity which was accented by the lavish display of an
upper and lower set of artificial teeth.

" With a view to determine whether something
cannot be done to protect us against the assumption
by inferior spirits of the identity of the better class
of essences. There are doubtless laws of the spirit-
life, could we invoke them aright, which would hold
these unruly masqueraders in check. I am endeav-
oring to study the police system — if I may use the
expression — of the other world. For I am satisfied
that until we have learned to appeal to the proper
authorities against these pretenders, we shall get
nothing of value from the manifestations. At pres-
ent it seems to me that in most cases the phenomena
are held in contempt by all respectable spirits. This
deplorable state of things has resulted, I have no
doubt, in great degree from the hostile manner in
which investigation of the phenomena has been pur-
sued in the material world."

" Yes," said Ford, " that 's an interesting point.

My friend, here, was just speaking of some things

of the sort before you came in. He mentioned the

disadvantage to the medium of what he called the

2

18 THE UNDISCOVEEED COUNTRY.

ironical attitude ; be contends that it makes them
cheat."

"No doubt, no doubt," replied Mr. Eccles. "But
its effect upon the approximating spiritual sphere
is still worse. It drives from that sphere all candid
and sober-minded spirits, and none but frivolous
triflers remain. Are you a believer in the phenom-
ena, Mr. — ah — PhilHps ? "

" I am scarcely even a witness of them yet,"
said Philhps. " But as a mere speculative observer,
I don't see why one should n't come as worshipfully
minded to a stance as to a church."

"Precisely, precisel}'', sir," assented Mr. Eccles.
" And yet I cannot say that a seance is exactly a
religious service. No, it partakes rather of a dual
nature. It will doubtless be elevated in character,
as the retro- and inter-acting influences improve.
But at present it is a sort of informal reception at
which friends from both worlds meet and commin-
gle in social intercourse ; in short, a kind of bi-
mundane — bi-mundane " —

" Kettle-drum," suggested Ford.

"Ah!" breathed Mr. Eccles. He folded his
arms, and set his artificial teeth to smile displeas-
ure upon Ford's impassible face. Anything that
he may have been going to say farther was cut
short by the approach of a gentleman, at sight of
whom his smile relaxed nothing of its displeasure.

" Hello ! Hew do, Eccles ? " said the new-comer,
gayly. He was a sliort and slight man, and he
planted himself in front of Mr. Eccles upon his

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 19

very small, squarely stepping feet. Whatever may
have been the temperament of the invisible pres-
ences, those in the flesh were, with the exception
of this gentleman, not at all lively : they were, in
fact, of serious countenance and low spirits ; and
they were evidently glad of this co-religionist wlio
could take their common beHef so cheerfully. He
had come in the last, and he had been passing a
light word with this one and that, before sahiting
Mr. Eccles, who alone seemed not glad to see him.
He was dressed in a smart business suit, whose fash-
ionableness was as much at variance with the pre-
vailing dress of the company as his gayety with
its prevailing solemnity.

" How are you ? " he said, looking up into Mr.
Eccles's dental smile. " Going to get after those
scamps again ? Well, I 'm glad of it. Behaved
shamefully at Mrs. Merrifield's, the other night ;
knocked the chairs over and flung the flowers
about, — ridiculous ! If they can't manage better
than that, a man might as well go to a democratic
ward meeting when he dies. Ah, doctor ! "

Dr. Boynton approached from the other room,
which had been closed, and on which he again shut
the rolling doors. " Mr. Hatch ! " said the doctor
radiantly, while he pressed the other's hand in both
his own, and made a rose-bud of his mouth. " You
just complete our list. Glad to see you.''

" Thanks, much ! " said Mr. Hatch. " Where 's
Miss Egeria ? "

"In a moment," replied the doctor mysteriously.

20 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

Then he turned to the company, and said in a for-
mal tone, " As we are all here, now, friends, we
won't delay any farther." He advanced and flung
open the doors to the back parlor, discovering, in
the middle of the room, a common extension din-
ing-table, draped merely with so much of a striped
turkey-red supper cloth as would fall over the edge
and partly conceal the legs. The top of the table
was pierced by a hole some ten or twelve inches
square, and over this hole was set a box, open on
one side, and lined with black velvet ; a single gas
jet burned at a half light overhead.

" Now, if you will take seats, ladies and gentle-
men ! " said Dr. Boynton. " Mrs. Merrifield, will
you sit on my right, so as to be next my daughter ?
And Mr. Phillips on my left, here ? And you, Mr.
Ford, on Miss Smiley's left, next to Mr. Eccles ?
Mr. Hatch, take your place between those two la-
dies " —

" I 'm there, doctor, every time," said Mr. Hatch,
promptly obeying.

"I must protest at the outset. Dr. Boynton,"
began Mr. Eccles, " against this sort of " —

" Beg pardon. You 're right, Eccles," said
Hatch, "I won't do it any more. But when I get
down at a table like this, I feel gay, and I can't
help running over a little. But no spilling 's the
word, now. Do we join hands, doctor, comme a
V ordinaire ? "

" Yes, all join hands, please," answered the doctor.

" Well, I want these ladies to promise not to

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 21

squeeze my hands, either of them," said Hatch.
The ladies laughed, and Mr. Eccles, relinquishing
the hands of the persons next him, made a move-
ment to rise, in which he was met by an imploring
downward wave of Dr. Boynton's hand.

" Please, Mr. Eccles, remain. Mr. Hatch, I may
trust your kindness ? Miss Merrill, will you sing
— ah — something ? "

A small, cheerful lady, on the sunny side of
thirty, with a pair of spectacles gleaming on her
amiable nose, responded to this last appeal. " I
think we had better all sing, doctor."

" I have a theory in wishing you to sing alone,"
said the doctor.

"Oh, very well!" Miss Merrill acquiesced.
" Have you any preference ? "

" No. Anything devotional."

" Maiden's' Prayer, Miss Merrill," suggested
Hatch.

This overcast Mr. Eccles again, but Miss Merrill
took the fun in good part, and laughed.

" I don't believe you know anything about devo-
tional music, Mr. Hatch," she said.

" That 's so. My repertoire is out already,"
owned Hatch.

Miss Merrill raised her spectacles thoughtfully to
the ceiling, and after a moment began to sing Flee
as a Bird to your Mountain, in a sweet contralto.
As the thrilling tones filled the room all other
sounds were quelled ; the circle at the table became
motionlessly silent, and the long sighing breath of

22 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the listeners alone made itself heard in the pauses
of the singing. Before the words died away, a
draught of cold air struck across the room, and
through the door at the head of the table, which
unclosed mysteriously, as if blown open by the
wind, a figure in white was seen in the passage
without. It drifted nearer, and with a pale green
scarf over her shoulders Egeria softly and waver-
ingly entered the room. Her face was white, and
her eyes had the still, sightless look of those who
walk in their sleep. She advanced, and sank into
the chair between her father and Mrs. Merrifield,
and at the same moment that groaning and strain-
ing sound was heard, as if in the fibres of the
wood ; and then the sounds grew sharper and more
distinct, and a continuous rapping seemed to cover
the whole surface of the table, with a noise like
that of heavy clots of snow driving against a win-
dow pane.

As Egeria took the chair left vacant for her, it
could be seen that another had also found a place in
the circle. This was a very large, dark woman of
some fifty years, who silently saluted some of the
company, half withdrawing from their sight as she
sat down next to Mrs. Merrifield, behind the box.

Egeria remained staring blankly before her for a
moment. Then she said in a weary voice, " They
are here."

" Who are, my daughter?" demanded her father.

In a long sigh, " Legion," she responded.

" We may thank Mr. Hatch for the company we

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 25d

are in," Mr. Eccles broke oat resentfully. " I have
protested " —

" Patience, — a little patience, Mr. Eccles ! " im-
plored Dr. Boynton. Then, without changing his
polite tone, " Look again, Egeria," he said. "• Are
they all evil?"

" Their name is legion," wearily answered the
girl, as before.

" Yes, yes, Egeria. They always come at first.
But is there no hope of help against them ? Look
again, — look carefully."

" The innumerable host " —

" I knew it, — I knew it ! " exulted the doctor.

" Disperses them," said the girl, and lapsed into
a silence which she did not break again.

At a sign from the large woman, who proved to
be Mrs. Le Roy, Dr. Boynton said, " Will you sing
again. Miss Merrill ? "

Miss Merrill repeated the closing stanza of the
hymn she had already sung.

While she sang, flitting gleams of white began
to relieve themselves against the black interior of
the box. They seemed to gather shaj)e and sub-
stance ; as the singing ceased, the little hand of a
child moved slowly back and forth in the gloom.

A moan broke from one of the women. " Oh, I
hope it 's for me ! " she quavered.

They began, one after another, to ask, " Is it for
me?" the hand continuing to wave softly to and
fro. When it came the turn of this woman, the
hand was violently agitated ; she burst into tears.
" It 's my Lily, my darling little Lily."

24 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

The apparition beckoned to the speaker.

" You can touch it," said the doctor.

The woman bent over the table, and thrust her
hand into the box ; the apparition melted away ;
a single fragrant tuberose was flung upon the ta-
ble. " Oh, oh ! " sobbed the woman. " My Lily's
favorite flower ! She always liked snow-drops above
everything, because they came the first thing in the
spring. Oh, to think she can come to me, — to
know that she is living yet, and can never die ! I 'm
sure I felt her little hand an instant, — so smooth
and soft, so cold ! "

" They always seem to be cold," philosophized
Boynton. " A more exquisite vitality coming in
contact with our own would naturally give the sen-
sation of cold. But you must sit down, now, Mrs.
Blodgett," added the doctor, kindly. " Look I
There is another hand."

A large wrinkled hand, like that of an elderly
woman, crept tremulously through the opening of
the box, sank, and then creeping upward again laid
its fingers out over the edge of the opening. No
one recognized it, and it would have won no gen-
eral acclaim if Mrs. Merrifield had not called at-
tention to the lace which encircled the wrist ; she
caught a bit of this between her thumb and finger,
and detained it a moment while the other ladies
bent over and examined it. There was but one
voice ; it was rual lace.

One hand after another now appeared in the box,
some of them finding a difficulty in making their

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 25

way up through the aperture, which had been
formed by cutting across in the figure of an X the
black cloth which had lined the bottom of the box,
and which now hung down in triangular flaps.
The slow and feeble effort of the apparitions to
free themselves from these dangling pieces of cloth
heightened their effectiveness. From time to time
a hand violently responded to the demand from
one of the circle, " Is it for me ? " and several per-
sons were allowed to place their hands in the box
and touch the materializations. These persons tes-
tified that they felt a distinct pressure from the
spectral hands.

" Would you like to try, Mr. Phillips ?" politely
asked the doctor.

" Thanks, yes," said Phillips, after a hesitation.
He put his hand into the box : the apparitional
hand, apparently that of a young girl, dealt him a
flying touch, and vanished. Phillips nervously
withdrew his hand.

" Did you feel it? " inquired Dr. Boynton.

" Yes," answered Phillips.

" Oh, what was it like ? Was n't it smooth and
soft and cold ? " demanded the mother of the first
apparition.

" Yes," said Phillips ; " it was a sensation like
the touch of a kid glove."

" Oh, of course, of course ! " Mr. Eccles burst out,
in a sort of scornful groan. " A stuffed glove !
If we are to approach the investigation in this
spirit " —

26 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I beg your pardon ? " said Phillips, inquiringly.

" I 'm sure," interposed Dr. Boynton, " that Mr.
Phillips, whom I have had the honor of introduc-
ing to this circle, has intended nothing but a bona
fide description of the sensation he experienced."

" I don't understand," said Phillips.

" You were not aware, then," pursued the doc-
tor, " that there have been attempts to impugn the
character of these and similar materializations, —
in fact, to prove that these hands are merely
stuffed gloves, mechanically operated ? "

" Not at all ! " cried Phillips.

" I was certain of your good feeling, your deli-
cacy," said the doctor. " We will go on, friends."

But the apparitions had apparently ceased, while
the raps, which had been keeping up a sort of des-
ultory, telegraphic tattoo throughout, when not
actively in use as a means of conversation Math the
disembodied presences, suddenly seemed to cover
the whole surface of the table with their detona-
tion.

" The materializations are over," said Mrs. Le
Roy, speaking for the first time. Her voice, small
and thin, oddly contrasted with her physical bulk.

" Oh, pshaw, Mrs. Le Roy ! " protested Hatch,
" don't give it up, that way. Come ! I want Jim.
Ladies, join me in loud cries for Jim."

Several of the ladies beset Mrs. Le Roy, who at
last yielded so far as to ask if Jim were present.
A sharp affirmative rap responded, and after an
interval, during which the spectators peered anx-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 27

ionsly into the dark box, a sort of dull fumbling
was beard, and another materialization was evi-
dently in progress.

" You can't see the band of a gentleman of Jim's
complexion against that black cloth," said Hatch,
rising. " Lend me your handkerchiefs, ladies.
James has a salt and sullen rheum offends him."

Several ladies made haste to offer their handker-
chiefs, and, leaning over, Hatch draped them about
the bottom of the box. The flaps were again agi-
tated, and a large black hand showed itself dis-
tinctly against the white ground formed by the
handkerchiefs. It was hailed with a burst of ec-
stasy from all those who seemed to be frequenters
of these seances, and it wagged an awkward salu-
tation to the comj^any.

" Good for you, good for you, James ! " said
Hatch, approvingly. " Rings ? Wish to adorn
your person, James?" he continued. The hand
gesticulated an imaginable assent to this proposal,
and Hatch gravely said, " Your rings, ladies." A
half dozen were passed to him, and he contrived,
with some trouble, to slip them on the fingers of
the hand, which continually moved itself, in spite
of many caressing demands from the ladies (with
whom Jim was apparently a favorite spectre) that
he would hold still, and Hatch's repeated admoni-
tion that he should moderate his transports. When
the rings were all in place, the hand was still dis-
satisfied, as it seemed, and beckoned toward Egeria.
" Want Miss Boynton's ring ? " asked Hatch.

28 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

The girl gave a start, involuntarily laying hold
of the ring, and Dr. Boynton said instantly, " He
cannot have it. The ring was her mother's."
This drew general attention to Miss Boynton's
ring : it was what is called a marchioness ring, and
was set with a long, black stone, sharply pointed at
either end.

" All right; beg pardon, doctor," said Hatch, re-
spectfull}' ; but the hand, after a moment's hesita-
tion, sank through the aperture, as if in dudgeon,
and was heard knocking off the rings against the
table underneath. This seemed a climax for which
the familiars of the house had been waiting. The
ladies who had lent their rings to Mr. Hatch, and
had joined their coaxing voices to his in entreating
the black hand to be quiet, now rose with a rustle
of drapery, and joyously cackled satisfaction in
Jim's characteristic behavior.

" That is the last," Mrs. Le Roy announced, and
withdrew. Some one turned on the light, and
Hatch began to pick up the rings under the table;
this was the occasion of renewed delight in Jim on
the part of the ladies to whom Hatch restored their
property.

" Would you like to look under the table ? "
asked Dr. Boynton of Ford, politely lifting tlie
cloth and throwing it back.

" I don't care to look," said Ford, remaining
seated, and keeping the same impassive face with
which he had witnessed all the shows of the stance.

Dr. Boynton directed a glance of invitation at

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 29

Phillips, who stooped and peered curiously at the
under side of the table, and then passed his hand
over the carpet beneath tlie aperture. " No signs
of a trap ? " suggested the doctor.

" No, quite solid," said Phillips.

"These things are evidently merely in their
inception," remarked the doctor, candidly. " I
would n't advise their implicit acceptation under all
circumstances, but here the conditions strike me as
simple and really very fair."

" I 've been very greatly interested indeed," said
Phillips, " and I should n't at all attempt to explain
what I 've seen."

" We shall now try our own experiment," said
the doctor, looking round at the windows, through
the blinds and curtains of which the early twilight
was stealing. " Mr. Hatch, will you put up the
battening ? " While Hatch made haste to darken
the windows completely with some light wooden
sheathings prepared for the purpose. Dr. Boynton
included Ford also in his explanation. " What we
are about to do requires the exclusion of all light.
These intelligences, whatever they are, that visit
us seem peculiarly sensitive to certain qualities of
light ; they sometimes endure candles pretty well,
bu.t they dislike gas even more than daylight, and
we shall shut that off entirely. Yes, my dear," he
said, turning lightly toward his daughter, who, ap-
parently relieved from the spell under which she
had sat throughout the seance, now approached
him, and addressed him some entreaty in a low

30 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

tone, to wliich the anxiety of her serious face gave
its effect. Ford watched them narrowly while they
spoke together ; she evidently beseeching, and her
father urging with a sort of obdurate kindness,
from which she turned at last in despair, and sat
listlessly down again in her place. One might liave
interpreted the substance of their difference as light
or weighty, but there could be no doubt of its result
in the girl's reluctant obedience. She sat with her
long hands in her lap and her eyes downcast, while
the young man bent his glance upon her with a
somewhat softened curiosity. Phillips drew up a
chair beside her, and began to address her some
evening-party conversation, to which, after her first
terrified start at the sound of his voice, she listened
with a look of dull mystification, and a vague and
monosyllabic comment. He was in the midst of
this difficult part when Dr. Boynton announced
that the preparations were now perfect, and invited
the company to seat themselves in a circle around
his daughter, from whose side Phillips was neces-
sarily driven. Mrs. Le Roy reentered, and after a
survey of the forming circle took her place with
the rest. Dr. Boynton instantly shut off the gas,
and several of the circle, led by Miss Merrill, be-
gan to sing. It was music in a minor key, and as
the sound of it fell the air was suddenly filled with
noises of a heterogeneous variety. Voices whis-
pered here and there, overhead and, as it appeared,
underfoot ; a fan was caught up, and each person
in the circle was swiftly and violently fanned ; a

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 31

music-box, placed on Phillips's knee, was wound
up, and tlien set floating, as it seemed, through the
air; rings were snatched from some fingers and
roughly thrust upon others, amidst the cries and
nervous laughter of the women.

Through all, the mystical voices continued, and
now they began to be recognized by different per-
sons in the circle. The mother of one briefly vis-
ited him, and exhorted him to have faith in a life
to come ; the little sister of another revealed that
she could never tell the beauty of the spirit-land ; a
lady cried out, " Oh, John, is that you kissing me ? "
to which a hollow whisper answered, " Yes ; per-
severe, and all will be well." Suddenly a sharp
smack was heard, and another lady, whose chubbi-
ness had no doubt commended her as a medium for
this sort of communication, exclaimed, with a hys-
terical laugh, " Oh, here 's Jim, again ! He 's slap-
ping me on the shoulder ! " and in another instant
this frolic ghost had passed round the circle, slap-
ping shoulders and knees in the absolute darkness
with amazing precision.

Jim went as suddenly as he came, and then there
was a lull in the demonstrations. They began
again with the voices, amidst which was heard the
rhythmic clapping of hands, as Egeria beat her
palms together, to prove that she had no material
agency in the feats performed. Then, one of the
circle called out, " Oh, delicious ! Somebody is
pressing a perfumed handkerchief to my face ! "
" And mine ! " " And mine ! " came quickly from
others.

32 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Be careful," warned the small voice of Mrs. Le
Roy, " not to break the circle now, or some one will
get hurt."

She had scarcely spoken, when there came a
shriek of pain and terror, with the muffled noise
of a struggle ; then a fainter cry, and a fall to the
floor.

All sprang to their feet in confusion.

" Egeria ! Egeria I " shouted Dr. Boynton. The
girl made no answer. " Oh, light the gas, light
the gas ! " he entreated ; and now the crowning
wonder of the seance appeared. A hand of bluish
flame shone in the air, and was seen to hover near
one of the gas-burners, which it touched ; as the
gas flashed up and the hand vanished, a groan of
admiration burst forth, which was hardly checked
by the spectacle that the strong light revealed.

Egeria lay stretched along the floor in a swoon,
the masses of her yellow hair disordered and tossed
about her pale face. Her arms were flung outward,
and the hand on which she wore her ring showed a
stain of blood, oozing from a cut in a finger next
the ring ; the hand must have been caught in a
savage clutch, and the sharp point of the setting
crushed into the tender flesh.

Ford was already on his knees beside the girl,
over whose insensible face he bowed himself to lift
her fallen head.

" I told you," said Mrs. Le Roy, " that some one
would get hurt if anybody broke the circle."

" It has been a glorious time ! " cried Dr. Boyn-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 33

ton, with sparkling eyes, while he went about
shaking hands with one and another. " It has sur-
passed my utmost hopes ! We stand upon the
verge of a great era ! The whole history of super-
naturalism shows nothing like it I The key to the
mystery is found ! "

The company thronged eagerly about him, some
to ask what the key was, others to talk of the won-
derful hand. Egeria was forgotten ; she might
have been trodden under foot but for the active
efforts of Hatch, who cleared a circle about her, and
at last managed to withdraw the doctor from his
auditors and secure his attention for the young girl.

" Oh, a faint, a mere faint," he said, as he bent
over her and touched her pulse. " The facts estab-
lished are richly worth all they have cost. Ah ! "
he added, "we must have air to revive her."

" You won't get it in tJds crowd ! " said Hatch,
looking savagely round.

^ We had better carry her to her room," said
Mrs. Le Roy.

" Yes, yes ; very good, very good ! " cried the
doctor, absently trying to gather the languid shape
into his arms. He presently desisted, and turned
again to the group which Hatch had forced aside,
and began to talk of the luminous hand and its
points of difference from the hands shown in the
box.

Hatch glanced round after him in despair, and
then, with a look at Ford, said, " We must manage
it somehow." He bent over the inanimate girl,

3

34 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

and with consurainate reverence and delicacy drew
her into his arms, and made some steps toward the
door.

" It won't do ; you 're too Uttle, Mr. Hatch," said
Mrs. Le Roy, with brutal common sense. " You
never could carry her up them stairs in the world.
Give her to the other gentleman, and go and fetch
Dr. Boynton, if you can ever get him away."

Hatch hesitated a moment, and with another
look at Ford surrendered his burden to him. Ford
received it as reverently as the other had given it ;
the beautiful face lay white upon his shoulder ; the
long, bright, disheveled liah- fell over his arm ; in
his strong clasp he lifted her as lightly as if she
had been indeed some pale phantom.

Phillips, standing aloof from the other group and
intent upon this tableau, was able to describe it
very effectively, a few evenings afterwards, to a
lady who knew both himself and Ford well enough
to enjoy it.

II.

Mr. Phillips's father had been in business on
that obscure line which divides the wholesale mer-
chant's social acceptability from the lost condition of
the retail dealer. When he died, however, his son
emerged forever from the social twilight in which
the father had been content to remain. He took
account of his means, and found that he had enough
to live handsomely upon, not only without anything
like shop-keeping, but without business of any sort,
and he courageously resolved to be a man of lei-
sure. He had certain tastes which qualified him for
this life ; he had read much, and he had traveled
abroad. He joined a club convenient to the lodg-
ing which he kept in his paternal home, letting out
the rest of the house to a thrifty woman whose
interest it was that he should have nothing; to com-
plain of. Every morning, at nine precisely, he
breakfasted at the club, beside one of the pleasant-
est windows ; the sun came in there in the after-
noon, and except in the winter months he dined at
another table. His breakfast and his dinner were
the chief events of a day which he had the wisdom
to keep as like every other day as he could, unless
for some very good reason. When he had finished

36 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTKY.

either meal, he turned over the newspapers and
magazines, largely English, in the reading-room ;
after dinner he often dozed a few minutes in his
chair. For the rest, he paid visits and went about
to the picture stores and to the studios. Now and
then he bought a painting, which in his hands
turned out a good investment ; but his passion was
bricabrac, and he liked the excitement of the auc-
tion-room, where he picked up from time to time a
rug, a queer vase, a colonial clock, a claw-footed
table or chest of drawers, and added them to his
stores.

He kept up with the current literature, and dis-
tilled from it a polite essence, with which he knew
how to perfume his conversation in the measure
agreeable to ladies willing to learn what it was
distinguished to read. With many he was an
authority in such matters, and with nearly all he
was acceptable for a certain freshness of the sus-
ceptibilities, which he studiously preserved, glow-
ing them under glass, as it were, when it was past
their natural seasons to flourish in the open air.
Now and then one revolted against this artificial
bloom, and declared that Mr. Phillips's emotions
smelt of the watering-pot ; but commonly they were
well liked by the sex with which, even if he had
not preferred, he would have been forced mainly to
associate. There is no society but that of women
for an idler in our country; the other men are busy
and tired, with little patience and little sympathy
for men who are not busy and tired.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 37

Such men as Phillips consorted with were of the
feminine temperament, like artists and musicians
(he had a pretty taste in music) ; or else they
were of the intensely masculine sort, like Ford, to
whom he had attached himself. He liked to have
their queer intimacy noted, and to talk of it with
the ladies of his circle, finding it as much of a mys-
tery as he could. At these times he treated his
friend as a bit of vertu^ telling at what length his
lovely listener would of how he had happened to
pick Ford up. He bore much from hira in the way
of contemptuous sarcasm ; it illustrated the strange
fascination which such a man as Ford had for such
a man as Phillips. He lay in wait for his friend's
characteristics, and when he had surprised this trait
or that in him he was fond of exhibiting his cap-
ture.

The tie that bound Ford, on his part, to Phillips
was not tangible ; it was hardly more than force
of habit, or like an indifferent yielding to the ad-
vances made by the latter. Doubtless the absence
of any other intimacy had much to do with this
apparent intimacy. They had as little in com-
mon in matters of taste as in temperament. Ford
openly scorned bricabrac ; he rarely went into so-
ciety ; for the ladies in whose company Phillips
liked to bask he cared as slightly as for stamped
leather or Saracenic tiles. He was not of Bos-
tonian origin, and had come to the city a much
younger man than we find him. He was known to
a few persons of like tastes for his scientific stud-

38 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

ies, which he pursued somewhat fitfully, as his
poverty, and that dark industry known as writing
for the press, by which he eked out his poverty,
permitted. He wrote a caustic style ; and this, to-
gether with his brooding look and his taciturn and
evasive habits, gave rise to conjecture that his past
life concealed a disappointment in love, " Or per-
haps," suggested a fair analyst, " in literature."

Several mornings after the seance at Mrs. Le Roy's,
he sat on one of the many benches which the time
found vacant in the Public Garden. It was yet
far too early for the nurse-maids and their charges
and suitors ; the marble Venus of the fountain was
surprised without her shower on ; Mr. Ball's eques-
trian Washington drew his sword in solitude un-
broken by a policeman upon Dr. Rimmer's Hamil-
ton in Commonwealth Avenue ; the whole precinct
rested in patrician insensibility to the plebeian hour
of seven ; and Ford, if he had cared, would have
been safe from the polite amaze of that neighbor-
hood at finding one even of its remote acquaintance
in those pleasure-grounds at that period of the day.
He sat in a place which was habitual with him ; for
he lodged in one of the boarding-houses on a street
near by, and he made the Public Garden the resort
of such leisure as each day afforded him, seeking
always the same seat under the same Kilmarnock
willow, and suffering a sense of invasion when he
found it taken. Commonly his leisure fell much
later in the day ; and he had now the aspect of a
sleep-broken man, rather than the early riser who

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 39

takes the air on principle or from choice. He sat
and gazed absently over at the pond, where the
swans lay still on the still water, with their white
reflections under them as distinct and substantial to
the eye as their own bulk.

A few stragglers, looking as jaded as himself for
the most part, lounged on the seats along the walks,
or hung listless on the parapet of the bridge. The
spiteful English sparrows scattered their sharp, ir-
ritating notes through the air, and quarreled about
over the grass, or made love like the nagging lovers
out of a lady's novel.

When Ford at last withdrew his absent eyes
from the swans and looked up, he was aware of a
large and flabby presence, which towered, in the
sense that a lofty mold of jelly may be said to
tower, on the path directly before him. In this he
gradually recognized an acquaintance of the spirit-
ual seance, and finally knew the mottled face of
Mr. Eccles ; the morning was unseasonably close
and warm ; his hat was off, and the breeze played
with the hair that crept thinly over his crown ;
his shirt and collar were clean, but affected the
spectator differently.

" A-r-r-h — good-morning ! " he said, with a slow,
hard smoothness, staring intently at Ford, with a
set smile and shut teeth.

" How d' ye do I " answered Ford, without inter-
est.

" Nice morning," said Mr. Eccles, turning half
about, and describing it with a wave of his limp-
rimmed silk hat.

40 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Very pleasant," assented Ford, making no mo-
tion to rise, and neither inviting nor forbidding
further conversation.

" A habitual early riser ? " suggested Mr. Eccles.

" No, I merely happen to be up."

" I rise early myself," said Mr. Eccles. " It is
my digestion. I sleep badly." He looked, as he
spoke, like a man who had never slept well.
" Your friend, I presume, is not troubled in his di-
gestion ? "

" If you mean Mr. Phillips," replied Ford, with a
cold ray of amusement, " I believe not. He makes
it a matter of conscience to digest well."

" It is n't that, sir," said Mr. Eccles. " I have
experimented in the matter a great deal. I have
tried to digest well on principle, but that does not
reach the root of the trouble. It may be allevi-
ated by the proper influences ; but this sourness "
— he struck his stomach softly — " seems to be the
material response to some s^Diritual ferment wliich
we are at present powerless to escape. I am sat-
isfied that the large majority of our indigestion,
sir, comes from the existing imperfections of medi-
umization."

" Some philosophers attribute it to pie," said
Ford, neutrally.

" That is a very superficial way of looking at it,"
returned Mr. Eccles. " If we could once estabhsh
the true relations with the other life, ^j)je would n't
stand in our way."

"I've no doubt that those who establish their

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 41

relations in the old-fashioned way, by dying, are
not troubled by pie," said Ford.

" Oh, death is not necessary to a complete rap-
port," returned Mr. Eccles, somewhat impatiently.
" I have long been satisfied of that. It may even
prove an obstacle. What we want is to place our-
selves in connection with the regions of order and
peace. Till we can do this, we must feel the ef-
fects of the acidity, as I may call it, which charac-
terizes the crude and unsettled spiritual existence
reached by our present system of mediumization.
We had an illustration of that the other night, sir,
in the vulgar violence of the manifestations. I was
ashamed that any person of refinement should have
been invited to witness such a — a saturnalia. I
should have withdrawn from the circle myself, at
once, as soon as I perceived what the character of
the communications was likely to be, if it had not
been for my regard for Dr. Boynton and his daugh-
ter. There is no doubt in my mind, sir, that if we
had then been in communication with ladies and
gentlemen of the other life, the circle could have
been broken with impunity. As it was, you saw
the brutality with which the violation of a single
condition was resented by the savage crew Ave had
suffered to be called about us. They dreaded to
lose an opportunity for riot. The consequence was
that Miss Boynton's hand was caught and crushed
till the setting of her ring cut to the bone ; then
she was flung to the ground. The only redeeming
feature, the only hopeful aspect, of the affair was

42 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the apparition whicli terminated the disgraceful
scene. Undoubtedly the hand which turned on the
gas was a celestial agency of the highest and purest
type."

Ford let his gaze, which had been dwelling upon
Mr. Eccles's face with cold scrutiny, drop to the
ground. "I hope," he said, "that Miss Boynton
has quite recovered from her — accident."

"It was a shock," returned Mr. Eccles, candidly,
" and her physique is delicate. She is a minghng
of the finest elements, but the proportions are so
adjusted that the equilibrium is very easily dis-
turbed. Her digestion, I should say, was normally
very good. She is evidently in rehition, for the
most part, with settled and orderly essences." He
again set his teeth, and shone upon Ford with a
wide, joyless smile. He waited for a moment, and
Ford making no sign of interest, he said " Good-
morning," and towered tremulously away, carrying
his hat in his hand, and letting his baldness take
the breeze as he walked.

When he was gone. Ford sat in a long reverie,
from which he was roused by the clock of the Ar-
lington Street church striking eight, which was his
breakfast hour. He rose, and strolled down the
path and across the street to his lodging, which he
entered with his latch-key. The other boarders,
with their morning freshness of toilet upon them,
were lounging or tripping down-stairs to breakfast,
and met him with various degrees of interest, um-
brage, and indifference in their salutation as he

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 43

went up. The men mostly growled at him, with
settled dislike in theii* tones ; some of the women
beheld him with pique, others with kindly curiosity ;
one little lady, in a pretty morning-robe, warbled
at him, as she swept her skirts aside to make room
for him at the turn of the stairs, " Doing the early
bird, Mr. Ford ? "

"No; the early worm," he returned with as lit-
tle effusion as he had lavished upon Mr. Eccles.

The lady gave him the slant of a laughing face,
turned up at him, as she tripped down the stairs.
" Don't disagree with the bird ! " she said saucily.
She had achieved celebrity among the otlier ladies
by not being afraid of him.

He seemed not to think any answer necessary,
and passed up two more flights to his room, which
was small and in the rear of the house. It was
cheerlessly furnished with a tumbled bed and two
or three chairs and a large table, on which many
papers and books, arranged in scrupulously neat
order, left a small vacant space at one corner for
writing, where some sheets of fresh manuscript
lay. On the window seat were some chemical ma-
terials and apparatus ; on the chimney slielf some
faded photographs ; a tobacco pouch and pipes.
Ford's business was with the manuscript leaves,
which he took up and tore carefully into small
pieces. He flung these into the grate, and then,
with a conscious aii', lifted one of the pipes, and
fingered it a moment before he turned to leave the
room. It was as if he had not liked the witness of

44 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

bis wonted environment of this act of bis. He
went on, down to breakfast, and took bis place at
a table as yet but sparsely tenanted. Tbe lively
lady of tbe stairs-landing was tbere ; sbe sat long
at meat, morning, noon, and nigbt, not for tbe
material, but for tbe mental refresbment ; for sbe
found tbat more people could be made to give
some account of tbemselves tbere tban anywbere
else. Sbe was sipping ber colfee out of her spoon,
and looking about ber between sips, witb a disen-
gaged air, wben Ford came in, and sbe fastened
upon bim over a good stretcb of table, at once.

" Perbaps you went out so early in order to see
a gbost, Mr. Ford ? "

" Very likely," answered Ford, making a listless
decision between tbe steak and tbe bacon.

" And did you ? "

"What?"

" See one."

"Tbey always cbarge people not to say."

" Ah, not nowadays ! Tbey want jou. to go and
tell all about it. That 's what I understand from
Mr. Phillips." Sbe sank back a little into herself,
with her eyes resting quietly upon Ford's inatten-
tive face, and her elbow brought gracefully to her
side, and softly stirred ber coffee. Sbe was not of
tbe society in which Mr. Phillips ordinarily moved,
but was one of tbe interesting people on its borders
whom his leisure allowed bim to cultivate. She
thus became in some sort of bis world, — enough
at least to know what was going on in it, and to

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 45

be referred to there as Mr. Phillips's bright little
friend, by ladies who did not like her. She waited
for Ford to speak in response to her last remark ;
but he was not one of those men who rush like air
into any empty place ; he had the gift of reticence,
and the lady who had planned the vacuum beheld
his self-control with admiration. It piqued her to
fresh effort ; she believed that his speaking was
only a question of time. " Mr. Phillips," she went
on, beginning to sip her coffee again, "gave me
quite a glowing description of the Pythoness, as
he called her ; quite a Medea-like beauty, I should
judge, — if it was her own hair."

" Mr. Phillips has a very catholic taste in female
loveliness," said Ford.

" But really, now, Mr. Ford," said the lady, in a
tone of alluring candor, " were n't you very much
frightened ? "

"I am constitutionally timid."
The lady laughed. " Then you were ! What
did you make of it all, Mr. Ford ? What do you
suppose made the cut in her hand? Don't you
think she made it herself ? You know Mr. Phillips
likes mystery, and he would n't offer the least sug-
gestion."

" Then I don't think it would be wise in me
to hazard a guess. I don't see Mr. Perham, this
morning," said Ford, lifting his eyes for the first
time, and lazily looking at the vacant places about
the lady.

She visibly honored him for this demonstration

46 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

upon her weak point. She was a good - natured
creature, and she liked skillful manoeuvring, espe-
cially in men, where it had the piquancy of a sur-
prise. " Oh, no ! " she smiled. " Poor Mr. Perham
is not equal to these early breakfasts. If you were
often down yourself, Mr. Ford, you would have
noticed his absence before this. He lets me come
down on condition that I bring him his modest
chop with my own hand, when I come up. You
have no idea what a truly amiable invalid is till
you know Mr. Perham well."

Ford expressed no concern for the intimate char-
acter of Mr. Perham, and after some further toy-
ing with her spoon Mrs. Perham slipped back to
lier point of attack : " I don't know but I ought
to make my excuses for trying to provoke you to
talk of the matter."

" I don't mind your trying. But I should have
been vexed if you had succeeded."

" Yes, that would have been a dead loss of ma-
terial. I suppose you intend to write about it."

A flush passed over Ford's face, which Mrs. Per-
ham gleefully noted. He replied, a little off his
balance, that he had no intention of writing of it.

" Oh, then, you have written ! " joyed Mrs. Per-
ham.

Ford did not answer, but put his napkin into his
ring, and rose from his chair, quitting the room
with a faintly visible inclination toward the end of
the table at which Mrs. Perham sat.

" Mrs. Perham, I don't see how you can bear to
speak to that man," said one of the ladies.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 47

" His raannei-s are odious ! " cried another.

"Oh, he has manners then — of some sort?"
inquired a third. "• I had n't observed."

" My dears," said Mrs. Perham, " he 's charm-
ing ! He is as natural as the noble savage, and
twice as handsome. I like those men who slioiv
their contempt of you. At least, they 're not hyp-
ocrites. And Mr. Ford's insolence has a sort of
cold thrill about it that 's dehcious. Few men can
retreat with dignity. He was routed, just now,
but he went off like see the conquering hero."

" He skulked off," said one of the unpersuaded.

"Skulked? Did he really skulk?" demanded
Mrs. Perham. " I wish I could believe I had made
him skulk. Mary, have you Mr. Perham's chop
ready ? I '11 take it up, — I said I took it."

Mrs. Perham laughed, and disappeared with her
little tray, like a conjugal Ohocolatiere, and the
ladies continued for a decent space to talk about
Ford. Then they began to talk about her.

III.

Ford went back to his room, and turned over
some new books which he had on his table for re-
view. He could not make his choice among these
volumes, or else he found them all unworthy; for
after an absent glance at the deep chair in which
he usually sat to read, he looked up his hat and
went out, taking his way toward the shabbily ad-
venturous street where the Boyntons had their
lodojinojs.

Dr. Boynton met him at the door of his apart-
ment with a smile of cheerful cordiality ; but when
Ford mentioned his encounter with Mr. Eccles, and
expressed his hope that Miss Boynton was better,
'' Well, no," answered the doctor, " I cannot say
that she is. She has had a shock, — a shock from
which she may be days and even weeks in recover-
ing." He rubbed his small, soft hands together,
and beamed upon Ford's cold front almost raptur-
ously.

" I am very sorry to hear it," said the latter, with
a glance of misgiving.

"Yes, yes," admitted the other. "In some re-
spects it is regrettable. But there are in this case,
as in all others, countervailing advantages." He

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 49

settled himself comfortably in the corner of the
sofa as he proceeded. " Yes. The whole episode,
on its scientific side, has been eminently satisfac-
tory. The character of the manifestations at the
seance, the violence with which neglect of the con-
ditions was resented, the subsequent effects, prima-
ry and secondary, on the nervous organism of the
medium, and indeed of almost all persons present,
have been singularly impressive, and indicative of
novel and momentous developments. I don't know,
Mr, Ford, whether you have had an opportunity of
conversing with any of our friends, since the even-
ing in question, but I have seen many of them, and
they have all testified to an experience which, how-
ever difficult of formulation, was most distinct. It
appears to have been something analogous to the
electrization of persons in the vicinity of a point
struck by lightning. In the case of Mrs. Le Roy
there has scarcely been a cessation of the effects.
The raps in her room have been almost continuous,
and the furniture of the whole house has been
affected. Miss Boynton has suffered the greatest
distress from the continuance of the manifestations,
and her mind is oppressed by influences which she
is apparently powerless to throw off. In a word,
everything has worked most harmoniously to the
best advantage, and the progress made has been all
that we could wish. Mr. Eccles perhaps told you
of a marked increase of the discomfort he habitu-
ally suffers from indigestion ? "

Ford hardly knew whether to laugh or rage at
4

50 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

all this, but he merely said that Mr. Eccles had
mentioned his dyspepsia, and remained in a bitter
indecision, while Dr. Boynton went on. " Ah, yes !
yes, yes ! I think we may safely refer the aggrava-
tion of his complaint to the influences, still active,
of our memorable seance. But I am not sure that
Mr. Eccles's peculiar theory is the correct one. I
distrust his speculations in some degree. A fer-
ment of the kind he speaks of in the world of
spirits would be more apt to ultimate itself here in
the mind than in the stomach."

" Do you generally distrust speculations in re-
gard to these matters ? " asked Ford.

"I distrust all special speculation," said the
doctor. " We physicians know what specialism
leads to in medicine. I prefer to base my convic-
tions solely upon facts."

" Are you able to satisfy yourself as to the facts
of the stance here, the other night ? "

"Not absolutely, — no. Not entirely. As yet
we are only able to approximate facts."

" Then as yet you have only aj)proximated con-
victions ? " asked Ford.

"As yet I am only inquiring," said the doctor,
with sweet acquiescence. " Startling and signifi-
cant as those manifestations were, I feel that I am
still only an inquirer. But I feel also that I have
gained certain points which will almost infallibly
lead me to a final conclusion in the matter."

" Then you mean to say," pursued Ford, " that
as a man of science you rose from Mrs. Le Roy's

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 51

experiments in sleight of hand, the other night,
with a degree of satisfaction. Have you the slight-
est confidence in her powers? "

" Why, there," replied Boynton, " you touch
upon a strange problem. I am always aware, in
these matters, of an obscurity of motive and of
opinion which will not allow me to make any ex-
plicit answer to such a question as yours."

" You obfuscate yourself before sitting down, as
you darken the room, that you may be in a per-
fectly receptive condition ? "

" Something of that nature, yes. But I should
distinguish : I should say that the obfuscation,
though voluntary, was very largely unconscious."

Ford laughed. " I am afraid that I was in no
state to judge of the exhibition, then. You are a
man of such candor yourself that I am sure you
will not blame my frankness in telling you that I
thought the whole apparitional performance a piece
of gross trickery."

"Not at all, not at all!" cried Boynton, with
friendly animation. " From one point your posi-
tion is perfectly tenable, — perfectly. You will
remember that I myself warned you of the possi-
bility of deceit in the effects produced, and said
that I always took part in such a seance with the
full knowledge of this possibility. At the same
time, I always try, for my own sake, and for the
sake of the higher truth to be attained, to keep this
knowledge in abeyance, — in the dark, as we were
saying."

52 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I see," said Ford, dryly. He waited blankly a
moment, while Boynton watched him with cheery
interest. " I suppose it was my misfortune to have
been able to expose the whole performance at any
moment. I did n't think it worth while."

" It was not worth while," Boynton interposed.
" Those people would not have accepted your ex-
pos^, — I can't say that I should have accepted it
myself ; and in your effort to fulfill a mission, a
mere mechanical duty, to society, you might have
placed obstacles in the way of the most extraordi-
nary developments. Nothing is clearer to my mind,"
he proceeded impressively, " than that it is our
business, after the first intimations of a desire for
converse on the part of spirits, to afford them every
possible facility, to suggest, to arrange, to prepare,
agencies for their use. Suppose you had detected
Madam Le Roy in the employment of stuffed
gloves ; at the very moment when you seized upon
the artificial apparition, a ge7iuine spirit hand might
have been about to manifest itself, in obedience to
the example given. My dear sir," cried Dr. Boyn-
ton, leaning from his perch on the sofa toward the
place where Ford sat, " I have gone to the very
bottom of this matter, and I find that in almost all
cases there is a degree of solicitation on the part of
mediums ; that where this is most daring the results
are most valuable ; and what I wish now to estab-
lish as the central principle of spiritistic science is
the principle of solicitationism. If the disembodied
spirits do not voluntarily approach, invite them ; if

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 63

they cannot manifest their presence, show them by-
example the ways and means of so doing. Depend
upon it, the whole science must die out without
some such direct and vigorous effort on our part."

He paused, leaving Ford in a strange perplexity.
The smoothness aiid finish with which Boynton had
formulated the pi-eposterous ideas just expressed
rendered it impossible for Ford to approach without
irony a confession which he had meant to make in
a different spirit. " Then you would not blame
me if I had lost patience at any point of the game,
and actively interfered in the process of solicita-
tion?"

"As a mere exterior inquirer," returned Boynton,
blandly, " I could not have blamed you."

" In the dark seance," said Ford, " I did inter-
fere. It was my belief that Mrs. Le Roy was af-
fording the agencies, as you express it, in that, too.
It makes me sick to think that I should have hurt
Miss Boynton, and if I could have suspected her of
what I suspected Mrs. Le Roy I should never" —

" You were quite right," interrupted Dr. Boyn-
ton, courteously as before, but with a touch of pride.
" My daughter was entirely irresponsible, for she
was purely the passive instrument of my will ; she
was carrying out my plan — a plan which the se-
quel proved triumphantly successful."

" I have said what I wished to say," remarked
Ford, rising. " I can well believe that she did only
as she was bidden. There were other things that
showed that. I leave you to settle with yourself

54 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the little questions of honesty and decency in thrust-
ing a helpless girl on the performance of a cheat
like that. You seem to be well grounded in your
great principle, and I dare say you won't be troubled
by my opinions. But my opinion of ?/om, Dr. Boyn-
ton, is that you are either the most unconscionable
knave and quack I have ever seen, or " —

Boynton sprang to his feet. " Not another word,
sir ! I regret for the sake of human nature to find
you a ruffian. But there my concern in you ceases.
I defy you to do your worst ! Leave the house ! "

" You defy me ! " said Ford, setting his teeth,
and struggling with the rage into which he found
himself hurried. " What do you defy me to ? Do
you suppose I am going to mix myself up in any
public way with your affairs ? You are perfectly
safe to go on and gull imbeciles to the end of time,
for all I care."

" I am an honest man ! " retorted Dr. Boynton.
" I have an unsullied life behind me, spent in the
practice of an honorable profession and in earnest
research into questions, into mysteries, on the solu-
tion of which the dearest hopes of the race repose.
Who are you, to attaint me of unworthy motives,
to cry pretender and impostor at me ? I have met,
in the course of my investigations, rude incredulity
from the thoughtless crowds who witnessed them,
and insolent disdain from those qualified to ques-
tion, but too proud or too indolent to do so. Till
now this indifference has only accused my judg-
ment. It remained for you to asperse my mo-
tives."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 65

Dr. Boynton looked the resentment of an out-
raged man ; he gained, in spite of his flowing rhet-
oric, a dignity which he did not have before. Ford
stared at him in momentary helplessness. He was
at the disadvantage that every man must be whose
habits of life and whose temperament remove him
from personal encounter, and who meets others in
that sort of intellectual struggle in which his an-
tagonist is for the time necessarily passive.

" You arraign me as a cheat," resumed Boynton,
" and you dare to judge my principle by the im-
perfect first steps of those who attempt to put it
in practice, by the crudest preliminary processes.
But even here you have no ground to stand upon.
Even here the ultimate fact utterly defeats and
annihilates your insolent assumptions."

" I don't know what you mean," began Ford,
"and" —

" I will tell you what I mean," interrupted Boyn-
ton, " and you shall judge your own case. If all
our endeavors at spirit intercourse were for the
ends of selfish deception, as you claim, how do you
account for the final response to them ? I am will-
ing to believe that it was your hand that inflicted
a hurt upon a woman, — oh, whether my daughter
or Mrs. Le Roy, it was still a woman, — and that
invoked any possible consequence from the viola-
tion of conditions that you were bound in honor to
respect ; but whose hand was it that evolved itself
from the darkness, and then dispersed that dark-
ness ? Whose hand was that which crowned my
wildest hopes with success ? "

56 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" If you mean," said Ford, and he felt that after
all it was shocking to own it, " the hand which
turned on the gas, it was my hand."

" Your hand ? " gasped Dr. Boynton.

" My hand — prepared by a trick so common and
simple that it could have deceived no one but
children, or men and women so eager for lies " —

" Oh, it was the truth, the sacred, vital, saving
truth, they longed for ! And it was this, it was
this desire, you deluded ! " Dr. Boynton hid his
face in his handkerchief, and sank back upon the
sofa. " Go, now," he said. " I will not, I cannot,
I must not, hear one word of excuse from you.
Your action is indefensible."

" Excuse ? " cried Ford. " Do you really think
I want to excuse myself? Do you think" —

" Why should you not wish to excuse yourself?"
solemnly demanded Boynton, uncovering his face,
which was pale, but calm. " You have dire need
of excuse, if sacrilege is a crime."

" Sacrilege ? " Ford was aware of forcing his
laugh.

" Yes, sacrilege. You intruded upon religious
aspirations to turn them into ridicule. You de-
rided the hope of immortality itself, — the evi-
dences through which thousands cling to the belief
in God."

" You are such a very preposterous creature that
I don't quite know how to take you," said Ford,
" but I will ask you what j^ou were doing yourself
in making those simpletons think there were spirits
present among them."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 67

" I was leading tliera on to the evolution of a
great truth, to the comfort of an assured immortal-
itj. But you, — were you aiming at anything
higher than the gratification of the wretched vanity
that delights in finding all endeavor as low and hope-
less as its own ? Oh, I know your position, young
man ! I know the attitude of those shallow sci-
ences which trace man backward to the brute, and
forward to the clod. Which of them do you pro-
fess ? They all join in a cowardly contempt of phe-
nomena which they will not examine ; and if one
of their followers, more just, more candid, than the
rest, hke Crookes, of London, ventures into the field
of investigation, and dares to own the truth, they
unite like a pack of wolves to destroy him. His
methods are non-scientific ! Bah ! Did you think
you were doing a fine thing, that day, when you
lay in wait to dash our hopes, — to prove to us by
the success of your trick that we were as the beasts
that perish ? "

" I can't say that I intended to trouble myself to
expose you to them," said Ford.

"Then how much better were you," retorted
Boynton, " than the worst you think of me ? You
call me an impostor. What were you but an im-
postor who wished to fool them to the top of their
bent, for the sake of laughing them over in secret,
or among others like yourself ? "

" Here ! " cried Ford. " I am sick of this fool-
ery, and I warn you now that I will laugh you
over with this whole city, if I know you to give

68 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

another stance oi- public exhibition of any sort here.
I believe there are no laws that can reach you, but
justice shall. I am going to put an end to your
researches, in Boston at least."

" You threaten me, do you ? " cried Dr. Boynton,
following him in his retreat from the room. " You
propose, in your small way, to play the tyrant, to
fetter my action, to forbid me the exercise of my
faculties in the pursuit of truth ! And you think I
shall regard your threats ? Poh, I fling them in
your face ! I value them no more than I care for
the miserable trick by which you have burlesqued
without retarding my inquiries for an instant."

" Very well," retorted Ford, " we shall see ! "
He crushed on his hat, and left the house, Boynton
pursuing him to the door, with noisy defiance, and
remaining on the outer threshold to look after him.

IV.

De. Boynton watclied Ford out of sight, and
tlien, hot and flushed, turned back into the house.
He did not return to the parlor, where the stormy-
scene had taken place between them, but went to
his daughter's room. Egeria lay there in the twi-
light that befriended the shabbiness of the cham-
ber, upon a lounge wheeled away from the wall,
and at his entrance she asked, without lifting her
eyes to his face (for women need not look at those
dear to them, to know their moods), "What is it,
father?"

"Nothing, nothing," panted her father, with a
poor show of evasion.

" Yes, there is something," sadly persisted the
girl. " Something has happened to worry you."

" Yes, you are right ! " cried Dr. Boynton, with
vehemence. "I have just met the grossest out-
rage and contumely from a man whom — whom —
But, Egeria," he broke off, " tell me how you knew
I was troubled. Did you hear angry talking ? "

" No, I did n't hear anything. Who was the
man, father ? "

" Did you notice anything in my manner?"

" No, I saw nothing unusual."

60 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Then how did you know ? Try to think, Ege-
ria," said her father, eagerly. " Try to trace the
processes of your intuition. This may be a very
important clue, leading to the most significant re-
sults. How could you suspect, having heard noth-
ing, and in this darkened room, having seen noth-
ing, strange in my manner, — how could you divine
that sometliing had occurred to trouble me ? How
did you know it ? "

" Oh, I suppose I knew it because I love you so,
father. Thei'e was nothing strange in that. Oh,
father, you promised me that you would n't speak
of those things again, just yet. They wear my life
out." He had drawn his chair, in his excitement,
close to her couch, and sat leaning intently over
her. She put her arm round his neck, and gently
pulled his face down on her pillow for a moment.
" Poor father ! What was it vexed you ? "

Boynton freed himself, instantly reverting with
his first vehemence to the outrage he had suffered.
" It was that young man, — that Ford, who was
here the other night. He has gone, after heaping
every insult upon me, — after telling me to my face
that it was he who seized your hand in the dark
stance, and produced by a trick the effect of the
luminous spirit hand which turned on the gas.
He dared to call me an impostor, to taunt me with
forcing you to take part in my deceptions, — and
this after the fullest and freest and frankest state-
ment from me of the principle upon which I pro-
ceed in these experiments. And he ended by

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 61

threatening me — yes, by threatening me with pub-
lic exposure if I gave another stance in this city.
The insolent scoundrel ! If I had been a younger
man, I should have replied in the only fitting man-
ner. As it was, I treated his threats with contempt.
I answered him taunt for taunt, and I defied him to
do his worst. I a quack, — the shameless swindler !
To take part in a mystery whose conditions bound
him to good faith, and to defeat all its results by
his miserable trickery ! " Boynton started up and
crossed the room. Suddenly he broke out, " Egeria,
I don't believe him ! I don't believe it was he who
hurt you ! I don't believe that he produced that
effect of a luminous hand ! I believe that in both
cases supernatural agencies were at work ; they must
have been ; and a man capable of wishing to defeat
our experiments would be quite capable of claiming
to have done so. He is a heartless liar, and so I
will tell him in any public place. He forbid me to
give another stance in Boston ! He force me to
quit this city in defeat and ignominy ! I would per-
ish first ! "

" Oh, I wish we could go away ! Oh, I wish we
could go home ! " moaned the girl, when the doc-
tor's furious tirade had ended.

" Egeria ! "

" Yes, father," said the girl, desperately ; " I hate
this wandering life ; I 'm afraid of these strange
people, with their talk and their tricks and their
dupes, and your part with them."

"Egeria! This to your father? Do you join

62 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

that scoundrel in his insult to me ? Do you wish
to add a crueler sting to the pain I have suffered,

— you who know how unselfish my motives are ?
Do you deny the power — the strange power —
which you have yourself repeatedly exercised, and
which you have not been able to analyze ? "

"No, no, father," said the girl fondl}'-, rising
from where she lay, and going quickly to the chair
into which her father had sunk, " I don't deny it,
and I don't doubt you. How could I doubt you ? "
She sat down upon his knee, and drew his head
against her breast. " But let's go away ! Let us go
back to the country, and think it all over again,
and try to see more clearly what it is, and — and

— -pray about it ! " She had dropped to her knees
upon the floor, and held his hands beseechingly be-
tween her own. " Why should n't we go home ? "

" Home ! home ! " repeated her father. " We
have no home, Egeria ! We might go back to that
hole where I have stifled all my life ; but we should
starve there. My practice had dwindled to noth-
ing, before we left ; you know that. Their miser-
able bigotry could not tolerate my opinions. No,
Egeria, we must make the world our home here-
after. We must be content to associate our names
with the establishment of — of a supreme principle,
and find our consolation where all the benefactors
of mankind have found it, — in the grave." Boyn-
ton paused, as if he had too deeply wrought upon
his own sensibilities ; but he resumed with fresh
animation : " But why look upon the dark side of

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 63

things, Egeria? Surely, you are better with me
here than in that old house, where they would have
taught ^'■ou to distrust and despise me ? You can-
not regret having decided in my favor between your
grandfather and me ? If you do " —

" Oh, no, father ! Never ! You are all the world
to me ; I know how good you are, and I shall never
doubt your truth, whatever happens. But go —
let us go away from here — from this town, where
we 've had nothing but trouble, where I 'm sure
there 's some great trouble coming to us yet."

"Do you think so, Egeria?" asked her father
with interest. " What makes you think so ? What
is the character, the purport, of your prescience ? "

" It 's no prescience ! It 's nothing. It 's only
fear. Everything goes from me."

" That is very curious ! " mused Boynton. " Could
it be something in the local electric conditions ? "

" Oh, father, father ! " moaned the girl in de-
spair.

" Well, well, my child ! What is it, then ? "

" You have quarreled with this — this Mr.
Ford ? "

" Yes, Egeria ; I told you."

"And he has threatened you, if you stayed —
threatened to do something — I don't know —
against us ? "

" I suppose he means to vilify me in the public
prints."

" Oh, then don't provoke him, father, — don't
provoke him. Let us go away."

64 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Wliy, Egeria, are you afraid for your father ? "

"I'm afraid for myself," answered the girl, cow-
ering nearer to her father. " He will come to see
us, and I shall fail, and he will ruin you ! "

" Egeria," said Dr. Boynton, " this is very in-
teresting. I remember that on the day he came
here — the day of the seance — you seemed to be
similarly affected by his sphere, his presence. Can
you analyze your feeling sufficiently, my child, to
tell me why he should affect you in this way? "

" No," said Egeria.

" Do you remember any one else who has af-
fected you as he has ? "

" No, no one else."

" Very curious ! " mused Dr. Boynton, with a
pleased air of scientific inquiry. " Very curious,
indeed ! It opens xip a wholly new field of investi-
gation. All these things seem to proceed by a sort
of indirection. We may be further from the result
we were seeking than I supposed ; but we may be
upon the point of determining the nature of the
chief obstacle in our way, and therefore — there-
fore — Um ! Very strange, very strange ! Egeria,
I have felt myself, ever since we came to Boston,
something singularly antagonistic in the condi-
tions."

" Oh, then j^ou '11 go away, won't you, father, —
you '11 go away at once ? " pleaded the girl.

" I am not sure," answered Dr. Boynton, in the
same musing tone as before, " what our duty is in
the premises. Suppose, Egeria," he continued with

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 65

spirit, — " suppose that this antagonistic influence
were confined to a single person in a population
of two hundred and fifty thousand souls ; would it
not be a striking proof of the vastness of the resist-
ance already overcome by spiritistic science, and at
the same time an — a — a — indication of responsi-
bility in the matter which we ought not to shun ? "

" I don't understand you, father," said Egeria,
fearfully.

" I mean," replied her father, " that it may be
our duty to sink all personal feeling in this matter,
and bend every energy to the conviction, the con-
version, of the person who thus antagonizes us."

The girl stood aghast, and for a moment did not
reply, but glanced at her father's heated face and
shining eyes in a sort of terror. Some instinct,
perhaps, flashed upon her a fear against which the
liabit of her whole life rebelled, and kept her from
directly opposing him. She subdued the tremor
that ran through her, and answered, " You know
that I think whatever you do, father. How —
how " — She apparently wished to temporize, to
catch at this thought and that ; without uttering
any, she stopped short.

" How should I go about it ? " radiantly de-
manded her father. " In the openest, the simplest
manner possible, by submitting your — your gift to
the test of opposing wills ; by inviting this man to
a public contest, in which, laying prejudice aside,
he and I should enter the lists against each other in
a fair struggle for supremacy. I am not afraid of

5

66 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the issue. In this view, he is no longer an enemy.
He is a blind, opposing force of nature, which is
simply to be overcome ; he can no more have in-
sulted or wronged me than the rock against which
I strike in the dark, than the tempest that dashes
its drops in my face. Poor, helpless, blameless ob-
stacle ! I am ashamed, Egeria, that I used harsh
language to him ; I am ashamed that I retorted
from my vantage-ground the merely mechanical
outrage which I suffered from him. My first busi-
ness must be to — to — apologize ; to seek him in a
spirit of passive good feeling, and to invite him in
a sentiment of the widest liberality to enter upon
this rivalry ; to — to " — He bustled about the
room, seeking his hat. " It is my duty, it is my
right, it is my sacred privilege, to go to him with-
out a moment's delay, and withdraw every offen-
sive expression that I may have used in the heat
of — of — controversy ; to solicit, upon whatever
terms of personal humiliation he makes, his cooper-
ation in this experiment ; to conjure him by our
common hopes of immortality " — Boynton had
found that his hat was not in the room ; he made
a swift dash towards the door. Egeria flung her-
self against it, and, holding it fast, stretched out
both her hands towards him.

" Wait ! "

Her father suddenly arrested himself. " Ege-
ria ! "

" What — what " — the girl panted tumultuously,
— "what — if I can't submit to the test?"

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 67

Boynton looked at her in stupefaction, as if this
were a point that had not occurred to him ; but she
confronted him steadily. " You cannot refuse," he
began.

" You have not considered this matter yet, fa-
ther," said the girl. " Y'ou have not taken time " —

" Time, time ! " retorted her father, with wild
impatience. " There is no time ! Eternity hems
us in on all sides ! It presses and invades at every
point ! The man may die ; a wretched casualty —
a falling timber on the street, a frightened horse,
an open cellar-way — may snatch him from me be-
fore I can use him for the purpose to which Provi-
dence has appointed his being. And you talk of
time ! Come, my daughter, let me pass ! You are
not you, nor I I, in such a crisis as this."

The girl moved from the door, and cast her arms
about his neck, as he quickly advanced. " Oh,
father, father ! " she cried, " what is it you mean to
do?"

"Why, I have told you, child," he answered,
putting up his hands to unclasp her arms.

"Yes; but if I failed?" she implored, clinging
the closer. " Remember that I have been sick,
that I am still very weak, and wait, — wait a lit-
tle."

Boynton's mood changed instantly. " Ha ! " he
breathed, and continued in his tone of scientific in-
vestigation : " Are you sensible, Egeria, of any dis-
tinct loss of psychic force through the diminution
of your physical strength ? "

68 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" How can I tell, father ? It is you who do it.
I see, or seem to see, whatever you tell me. I have
always done that. It began so long ago, when I
was so little, that I can't remember anything differ-
ent. I want to please you ; I want to help you ;
but I don't know if I can, father. It has always
come from my thinking that what you wished was
perfectly wise and right."

"Yes, yes," said Boynton, "that is of course a
condition of the highest clairvoyant force, though
I don't remember to have heard it formulated be-
fore."

" And don't you see, father," said the girl, look-
ing tenderly into his face, as if she would fain in-
terpose her love between him and what she must
say, " that if I lose this perfect confidence I lose
my power to do what you want me to do ? "

Dr. Boynton was hurt through the shield of her
affection. " Have I done anything to forfeit j^our
trust in my purposes, Egeria ? If I have, it is cer-
tainly time for me to despair."

" Oh, no, no, father ! I trust you ; I love you
this moment more dearly than ever I did. But are
you sure — are you sure that it will all come out
as you think? Are you sure that we are taking
the right way ? We have been trying now a long
while, and I can't see that we 've accomplished
anything. Perhaps I 'm not a medium, but only a
dreamer, and dream what you tell me. I 'm afraid
sometimes it is n't right. I was thinking about it
just before you came in. What if there should be
nothing in it all ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 69

" How nothing in it ? "

" What if you were deceiving yourself ? I can't
tell how much my wanting to please you makes
me — Oh, I 'm afraid — I 'm afraid it 's all
wrong."

" Egeria," said Dr. Boynton, severely, " I have
often explained to you my principle in regard to
these matters. These are the first steps. It is
necessary that we should take them. Other steps
will advance from the world of spirits to meet
them. I am convinced — I knoiv — that in your
last stance we had direct proof of this ; and I will
yet compel, I will exto7't from that lying villain the
confession that he had no agency in the things he
claims to have done." Boynton had lost his com-
passionate sense of Ford as an irresponsible moral
force, and as he walked up and down the floor he
broke from time to time into expressions of vivid
injuriousness. " Listen, Egeria : I respect your con-
scientious scruples, though they belong to a petty
personal conscience that I hoped before this you
had exchanged for the race-conscience that gives me
perfect freedom to think and to act. I will set the
matter before you, and you will see the logical se-
quence of my course. In the development of the
phenomena which now agitate the world, mesmer-
ism came first, and spiritism came second. I follow
this providential order, and I begin with mesmer-
ism. In this, the results are unquestioned in your
case. You have been accustomed all your life to
my controlling influence, my magnetic force, by

70 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTPwY.

which you have seen, heard, touched, tasted, spoken,
whatever I willed. I knew this and you knew it.
A thousand, successful experiments attest its truth.
Well, when we come to deal with disembodied life,
we have to deal with it as I deal with you. We
have to show this life how to approach us ; to sug-
gest, to intimate, to demonstrate, the ways and
means of communication with us. The only per-
fectly ascertained fact of spiritistic science is the
rap. This, with the innumerable exposures and ex-
planations which expose and explain all the other
phenomena, remains a mystery, insoluble, whatever
we attribute it to. But as a method of commerce
with the other life, it is nearly worthless, — slow,
vague, uncertain. We must advance beyond it, or
retire forever from the border of the invisible world.
Now, then, you see the unbroken chain of my rea-
soning, and as an investigator I take my stand
boldly upon the necessity of first doing ourselves
what we wish the spirits to do. A feeble sense of
right and wrong may call it deceit ; a vulgar nihil-
ism may call it trickery ; but the results will jus-
tify us, — they have justified us. What I wish to
do now, Egeria, is to determine whether an oppos-
ing force of doubt, embodied in a powerful intel-
lectual organism, such as this man's undoubtedly
is, can annul, can annihilate, the progress we have
made. We cannot meet this force too soon ; for if
it is able to do this, we may have to retrace all our
steps and begin de novo.'^

Egeria listened drearily to her father's harangue.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 71

and at the pause lie now made she looked hope-
lessly at his eager face, and did not reply, though
he evidently expected some answer from her.

" After all, Egeria," he resumed impatiently,
" you have no manner of responsibility, moral or
otherwise, in the affair. You have simply to yield
yourself, as heretofore, to my will, and leave me to
take the consequences. I will meet them all. But
I wish, my daughter, to satisfy your minutest scni-
pie. If you were acting in that sdance upon the
theories which you have often heard me advance ;
if you were supplying to the invisible agencies we
had called about us the model, the prototype, the
example, needed for communication with us ; and
if when that man seized your hand — granting that
it ivas he who did so — you were yourself consciously
doing any of the things supposed to be done by the
spirits " —

" I tried to bring myself to it ; but I could n't,
father ; I could n't ! "

" Then — then," panted her father, in a tumult
of rising excitement, " it was not you who did those
things ? It was not you " —

" No, no ! " desolately answered the girl. " From
the moment the windows were darkened till my
hand was seized, I did nothing but sit quietly in
the centre of the circle and strike my palms to-
gether, as Mrs. Le Roy told me."

" Thank God ! " shouted Dr. Boynton, in an in-
describable exaltation. " I kneiv I could not be
wrong ; I knew that you had no part in those

72 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

things. This is a glorious moment ! This — this
— is worth toihng and suffering and enduring any
fate for ! " He caught his daughter in his arms
and pressed her to his heart, kissing her fondly and
caressing her hair. " Now, noiv^ everything is clear
before me."

" I am so glad, father," Egeria began. " I was
afraid you exjjected — that you would be disap-
pointed — but indeed " —

" No, no ! You were right ! Your psychical per-
ceptions were better than my logic. They taught
you where to forbear. Your conscience — I am hu-
miliated beyond expression to have undervalued it
as a factor of our investigation — has brought us
this splendid triumph. Egeria, we stand upon the
threshold of the temple ; its penetralia lie ojjen be-
fore us ; we have defeated death ! "

The girl was perhaps too well used to the rhetor-
ical ecstasies of her father to be either exalted or
alarmed by them ; and she now merely looked in-
quiringly at him.

" Don't you see, my dear," he continued with un-
abated transport, in reply to her look, " that if you
did not do these things they were the results of su-
pernatural agencies? It is this fact, ascertained
now past all peradventure, that makes my heart
leap."

" Oh ! " murmured Egeria, despairingly.

" But I must not lose a moment, now. I must
see this young man at once, and challenge him to
the ordeal that will release you from his noxious

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 73

influence. I hope that I sliall be able to treat liim
in the right sph-it, and with the tenderness due an
erring mind ; I shall do my best, and I have every
reason to be magnanimous. But his pretense of
having performed by trick what was unquestion-
ably the work of spirits is a thing that he must not
urge too far. Or, yes, let him do so ! I shall seek
nothing of him but his consent to this contest. It
may be for the general good that his discomfiture
should not only be complete, but publicly com-
plete."

"Don't go, father, — don't go!" implored Ege-
ria, for sole answer and comment upon all this.
" Let him alone, and let us go away."

" Go away ? " cried her father. " Never ! I must
overrule you in this, my child," he continued caress-
ingly. " I respect, I revere, your power ; but it is
out of regard for that power that I must combat
your weaker mood. It demands of n^, as it were,
that I should ascertain all its conditions, and re-
move every obstacle to its exercise."

" Ob, I don't know what you mean," replied the
girl, and broke into hopeless tears.

" You will know, Egeria," returned her father.
" Not only shall I be clear to you, but you will be
clear to yourself, as never before. I have now a
clue that leads to final results, — the personal con-
science in you, the race-conscience in me. I will
be with you again in a little while, Egeria. Don't
be troubled. Trust everything to me."

He made haste to get himself out of the room,

74 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

and pausing in the hall on the ground-floor long
enough to secure the hat of a visitor of Mrs. Le
Roy (who was then in a trance for the recovery of
lost property belonging to this gentleman) he is-
sued from the door to which he had lately followed
Ford in their common rage. The owner of the hat
had a larger head than Boynton, who, as he pushed
his way along the street, with his face eagerly
working from the excitement of his mind, had an
effect at once alarming and grotesque ; the squalid
little children of the street shrank from his ap-
proach in terror, and followed his going with de-
rision.

V.

Egeeia had made a step after her father, as if to
call him back, when he left the room, but she had
turned again, and lain down upon her lounge with-
out a word. It would have been useless to call him
back ; he could only have come to renew the scene
that had passed between them, and the result would
still have been the same.

From her despair there was but one refuge. She
could appeal for help now only to the source of
her terrors. The fact, hemming her inexorably in,
pressed upon her excited brain with a strange, be-
numbing stress, in which there was yet all possible
keenness of pain. Presently, it seemed as if she
shrieked out with a cry that rang through the
house. In reality she had uttered a little scream
in response to a knock at the door.

" Oh, did I wake you ? " asked the uncouth serv-
ant kindly, putting her head in.

"Yes — no — I was not asleep," answered Ege-
ria, lifting her face from the pillow.

" There 's a gentleman in the parlor wants to see
your father ; and I don't know — well, I told him
the doctor was out, but you was at home. Shall
I say you '11 see him ? He says you '11 do just as
well."

76 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

Egei'ia sprang from her lounge, and flinging open
a shutter began to arrange her hair. " Yes; please
tell him I '11 come at once." At that moment she
had but one sense, — the consciousness that Ford
had come, and that she should have the courage to
speak to him, and beseech him not to consent to
her father's proposal. She did not know how or
why she should have this courage, but all fear had
left her. She hastily smoothed her hair and ar-
ranged her dress, and ran down the stairs into the
parlor to encounter her enemy with such eager-
ness as a girl might show in hastening to greet her
lover.

It was Mr. Hatch who came forward to meet her,
and who took her hand. " Did n't expect to see me
here, INIiss Egeria ? Well, I 'm rather surprised
myself. But I had to comeback from Philadelphia,
before I 'd fairly got started on my grand rounds,
and I thought I 'd make one more attempt to say
good-by to the doctor and you."

" I understood — I thought " — began Egeria, her
voice shaken with her disappointment, " I thought
it was — it was " — She stopped, and tears came
into her eyes.

" I 'm sorry it is n't. Miss Egeria," said Hatch
kindly. " I would be willing to be anybody else in
the Avorld that you wanted to see."

" Oh, I did n't want to see them ! I was afraid
to see them, and I hoped they had come," answered
Egeria.

Hatch smiled, but he looked at her compassion-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 77

ately, his head set scrutinizingly on one side, while
she pressed her handkerchief to her eyes, and re-
covered herself in a sort of cold despair. " I want
you to let me ask you what 's the matter, Miss
Egeria," he said, impulsively. " You won't think
I 'm trying to pry into your trouble ? "

" Oh, no I "

" Well, we all know what the doctor is : he 's as
good as gold, and as simple as a child, but he has n't
got the practical virtues, — or vices, whichever you
choose to call 'em. Now, you know. Miss Egeria,
that I respect the doctor rather more than I should
my own father, if I had one : has the doctor run
short of money? "

" Oh, no, no ! Not that I know of ! It is n't that
at all," Egeria hastened to say.

" Well, that 's one point gained," said Hatch.
" I 'm glad of it. You '11 excuse my asking? "

" Yes, — oh, yes," she answered.

" Well, then, is it something that I can help you
about ? I don't care to know what it is, but I do
want to help you. If I can, without knowing, you
need n't tell me."

" You can't help me. But there 's no reason why
you should n't know. You can't help me against
my father, can you ? " she asked, putting the case,
as women do, at worse than the worst, so as to have
the comfort of finding the truth short of the extreme.
" How can any one help me against him ? " Then,
as Hatch stood waiting with a somewhat hopeless
and wholly puzzled face, " He does n't mean any

78 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

harm," slie hnrried on distractedly, " but if he does
it, he will kill me. He has done it, and nothing can
save me ! He 's talking with him this moment, and
planning it all out ; and when they are ready I shall
have to go out before the people, and try it, and
fail."

" Is it some test of your power ? " asked Hatch.

" Yes," answered the girl. " That man who was
here the other night — that Mr. Ford, — father has
gone to him to get him to make some public ap-
pointment, and try whether I can do the things he
says I can't do. He has been here. Father wants
him to come and test it himself, and that 's what
he 's gone to him for ; and I know he will ; and I
can't do anything when he 's by."

She said no more, and Hatch began to walk up
and down the room. Presently he stopped before
her. "Well, Miss Egeria, there's only one way
out of it. The way is to go and talk to that fellow,
and get him not to keep his appointment with your
father, if he 's made one."

" For me to go ? I thought of that ; and
then" —

" Oh, no," said Hatch, with a smile. "/'^? do
the going and talking. You make yourself easy
about it. But after that, don't you think we could
get your father to give this thing up, and go home ? "

" Oh, if we only could ! " cried the girl. " But
it 's no use. I have been talking to him, and beg-
ging him to ; but he '11 never go back in the world.
He hates my grandfather."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 79

" The old gentleman was rough on him ; but you
can't much wonder at it. I 'm not sajdng anything
against the doctor, mind ; I don't go back on him ;
I don't forget what he did for me. But we can talk
about all that afterwards. What we 've got to do
now is to go and beg off from that fellow. Good-by,
Miss Egeria; I must n't lose time."

She stopped him. " I can't let you. It would be
throwing blame on my father. I 'd rather let him
kill me."

" Oh, I '11 make it all right about the doctor,"
said Hatch. " No one shall have a right to blame
him for anything. Don't you be troubled. I '11 fix
it. Don't worry ! "

Egeria faltered. " You '11 only lose your time.
It won't do any good."

" But you don't tell me not to go ? "

" It won't do any good," slie said.

" Well," said Hatch, " I 'm going to see this man,
and then I 'm coming back to have a talk with the
doctor. I want to go away to-morrow feeling first-
rate, and I don't believe I shall feel just right unless
you take the Eastern road back to Maine about the
time I take the Boston and Albany for Omaha."

Egeria followed him from the room, and responded
witli a hopeless look to the bright nod with which
he turned to her at the outer door. As it closed,
she stood a moment in the dim entry, and then crept
languidly up the stairs to her own room ; she cast
herself upon the lounge again, with her face to the
wall, and lay there in the apathy which is the ref-

80 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

uge from overstress of feeling. The worst could
not be worse than the worst; and whatever hap-
pened, it could but be another form, not another
degree, of ill.

Hatch hurried upon his errand, and climbed,
heated and panting, to Ford's room, and to a loud
" Come in ! " which followed his knock, he responded
by entering and shutting the door behind him.

Ford stood before the fireplace, striking against
the brick a burning paper with which he had been
lighting his pipe. In this act, he looked round at
Hatch over his shoulder, at first vaguely, and then
with recognition, but not certainly with welcome.
" Oh ! " he said.

" Mr. Ford ? " asked Hatch.

" Yes."

" I met yon at Mrs. Le Roy's. I don't know
whether you remember me."

" Yes, I do," said Ford. He drew two or three
whiffs at his pipe. " Will you sit down ? You
know Mr. Phillips." He indicated with a motion
of his head a third person, whose face, black against
the window. Hatch had not made out.

At the mention of his name, Phillips came for-
ward in his brisk way, and shook hands with Hatch.
" Oh, yes," he said. " Mr. Hatch has n't forgotten
me. I feel myself memorable since that night. I
was then an element of the supernatural. Have
you seen our friends lately ? "

" Yes," said Hatch. " I 've just come from
them."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 81

" They 're well, I hope ? Miss Boynton struck
me as a most interesting person. Does n't her life
of excitements wear upon her? Most young ladies
find one world as much as they can stand ; mingling
in the society of two, as she does, must be rather
fatiguing,"

"Miss Boynton isn't very well , or, rather, she
has n't been."

" Ah, I 'm sorry to hear that," said Phillips.
" I hope it 's nothing serious."

" Well, no," replied Hatch, uneasily. He turned
to Ford, who from his superior stature had been
smoking down upon Phillips and himself. " Mr.
Ford," he added, "I came here from Dr. Boynton's
to see you."

" Yes ? " said Ford.

Phillips made a polite movement in the direction
of his hat. "I think I '11 be going, Ford," he ex-
plained.

"Yon can go," retui'ned Ford, taking his pipe
from his mouth, "but it isn't necessary. This
gentleman can have nothing confidential to say to
me. I 'd rather you 'd stay — for once."

"You're so flattering," said Phillips, "that I
will stay, if Mr. Hatch doesn't object. My en-
gagement 's at one."

" Oh, not at all," said Hatch, reluctantly. Ford
had remained standing, with his back to the fire-
place, and Hatch had not accepted his invitation,
or his permission, to sit down. " As Mr. Phillips
was at Mrs. Le Roy's that night, he might as well

6

82 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

hear what I have to say. Mr. Ford," he added ab-
ruptly, " I want you to do me a great favor."

" Why should I do you a great favor, Mr.
Hatch? " asked Ford, while he looked with half-
closed eyes at the ceiling, and blew a cloud of smoke
above Hatch's head.

Hatch glanced sharply at him, to see whether he
spoke in gratuitous insolence or ill-timed jest. He
decided for the latter, apparently, for he returned
jocosely, " Well, do yourself a great favor, then."

" I don't feel the need of that," said Ford.
« What is it ? "

" Has Dr. Boynton been here this morning ? "
asked Hatch, with the anxiety he could not hide.

" No," said Ford, taking out his pipe, and look-
ing at him.

" Then that makes it a great deal easier. I want
to ask you, when he comes, — I know he is coming,
— to refuse the proposition he will make you,"

" What proposition is Dr. Boynton coming to
make me ? " demanded Ford, with his pipe between
his fingers.

Hatch faltered, and scanned Ford's unyielding
face. " I shall have to tell you, of course. He is
coming to propose a public test stance with you, in
which Miss Boynton's powers shall be put to proof.
I ask you to refuse it."

Ford did not change countenance, but Phillips,
from the easy-chair into which he had cast himself,
smiled, and studied now his friend's sad, cold vis-
age, and now the eager, anxious face of Hatch.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 83

"In whose behalf do you ask this?" Ford inquired,
beginning to smoke again. "By what right do you
ask it ? "

" Miss Boynton has been sick, and is still very
much unstrung. It would be a kindness, a mercy,
to her, if you would refuse."

"How do you know? Do you ask it from her?"

Hatch hesitated in an interval of silence that pro-
longed itself painfully.

" I don't come at her request," he said, at last.

Ford made no comment, but continued to smoke.
His pipe died out ; he struck a match and kindled
it again; and tiien smoked as before. "Mr. Hatch,"
he asked finally, " are you a spiritualist ? "

"I am a spiritualist, but I am not a fool," replied
Hatch.

" Then you don't care for the effect of this se-
ance on the fortunes of your creed ? "

" No, I don't. I care for the effect of it on a
young lady who dreads it, and who — and on a man
that I owe a good deal to. Look here, Mr. Ford ;
I don't decide on these things. I suppose spirit-
ualism is a matter of faith, like other religions.
These people are in earnest about it ; that is. Dr.
Boynton is, and his daughter thinks and does what-
ever he tells her to. I 'm sorry they 're in the
business, and I wish they were out of it. They 're
good people, and as innocent as babies, both of 'em.
I don't like the way you take with me, but you can
walk over me as much as you like, if only you '11
grant this favor. I 'm in hopes to get them back

84 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

to where tliey belong. I used to live in their town,
and I know all about them. He 's a visionary, but
he 's a good man, and their people are first-rate peo-
ple. I would do anything I could for him. He 's
got a heart as tender as a child."

" Very likely," said Ford, with irony. " But I
fail to see why I should let this child-like philan-
thropist go about preying upon the public. I may
have my own opinion of his innocence. What if
I told you I had detected them in a trick the other
night ? "

" I should n't believe you," answered Hatch,
promptly.

Phillips half started out of his chair, but Ford
smoked on unperturbed, and asked, as if the ques-
tion were a pure abstraction, " Why ?"

" Because I know that they could nH cheat."

"But if I told you they did, should you consider
them innocent ?"

" I should n't doubt them in the least. And let
me tell you " —

Ford turned his back upon Hatch, and knocked
the ashes of his pipe out against the corner of the
chimney-piece. " Mr. Hatch, you said, a moment
ago, that you were a spirituahst, but not a fool. I
shall not say whether I will or will not refuse Dr.
Boy n ton's proposition."

Ford began to fill liis pipe again, and paid not
enougli regard to Hatch's presence to seem to wish
him away ; it was quite as if he were not there, so
far as Ford was concerned.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 85

" Look here," Hatch began, " I am sorry that I
offended you. I 'm anxious to get you to say that
you won't accept Dr. Boynton's challenge."

" I perceive that you are anxious," assented Ford.

" Oh, if I only — It 's a very serious matter, —
it is indeed ! I would do anything to get you to
say that. Come, now ! The young lady is in del-
icate health ; she will do whatever her father tells
her, and if she does this I believe it will kill her."

Ford made no reply.

" I can see the thing from your point of view.
I suppose you feel that you have a public duty to
perform, and all that sort of thing. Well, now,
I 'm going to make a strong move to get Dr. Boyn-
ton out of this business, any way ; and I ask you
just to hold on till I have a chance to try. Can't
you tell him that you '11 think it over ? Can't you
go so far as to put him off a day, or half a day ? "

Ford took a book, and going to a chair at the
window began to look into it.

" Come," pleaded the other, "give me some sort
of answer."

Ford seemed not to have heard him.

" Well, sir," said Hatch, " I 've done with you ! "
He stared at Ford in even more amaze than anger,
and after waiting a moment, as if searching his
mind for some fitting reproach, he turned and went
out of the room.

Pliillips rose from his chair with a shrug. " My
dear fellow," he said, " I hope you '11 let me know
when this ordeal takes place."

86 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

"What ordeal?" asked Ford, without looking
up from his book.

" Surely I need n't specify your public test se-
ance with the Pythoness and her papa."

" I am not going to meet Dr. Boynton in the
way you mean," returned Ford, quietly.

" No ? Why, this is magnanimity ! "

" I 've no doubt it 's inconceivable to you."

" Not at all ! I know you better ; you could be
magnanimous to carry a point. But it must be in-
conceivable to our friend who has just left us. I
fancied he was something in leather. Should you
say shoes, or leather generally ? "

Ford scorned to notice the conjecture as to
Hatch's business. " Are you fool enough to sup-
pose that Dr. Boynton ever intended to come to
me on such an errand ? "

" Why, I fancied so."

" You had better bridle your fancy, then. He
has too much method in his madness for that.
What he wanted was my refusal, beforehand, for
professional use. He did n't get it. This fellow
is part of the game. Bat I don't wonder you
sympathize with him. He is a brother dilettante,
it seems. He dabbles in ghosts as you dabble in
bricabrac. He believes as much in ghosts as you
believe in your Bonifazios. They may be genuine ;
in the mean time, you like to talk as if they were.
Upon the whole, I believe I prefer blind supersti-
tion."

"Why, so do I," said Phillips. "The trouble

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 87

is to get your blind superstition. I confess that
when I was at Mrs. Le Roy's, — what an uncom-
monly good factitious name for the profession ! —
and saw the performances of the phantom-like Ege-
ria, — that 's a good name, too ! — I experienced a
very agreeable sensation of fear. It was really
something to be proud of. But it would n't last.
It haunted me for a night or two ; but I 'm no more
afraid in the dark now than I was before. And
the worst of it is that my interest in the affair
is gone with my terrors. Apparitions have palled
upon me. It is quite as the good doctor said : peo-
ple bore themselves with stances very soon. The
question at present is. Will you go with me to Mrs.
Burton's to lunch ? "

" No," said Ford.

" You 're in the wrong, Ford," argued Phillips.
" You would please Mrs. Burton by coming ; but
it won't matter to her if you don't. That 's the
attitude of society towards the individual, and upon
the whole one can't complain of it. You had bet-
ter come. Mrs. Burton is really making a very
pretty fist at a salon. In the first place, she keeps
Burton out of the way : it 's essential to a salon
not to have the husband in it. You will meet the
passing Englishman there, whoever he is ; you
stand a chance of seeing the starring actor or ac-
tress, — operatic or dramatic ; authors we have al-
ways with us, and painters, of course. Mrs. Bur-
ton is so far from pretty herself that she is not
afraid to ask charming women who are also beau-

88 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

tiful ; you 've no idea what decorative qualities
beautiful women have. And then she introduces
the purely American element, the visiting young
lady. Really, she has an uncommon feeling for
pretty girls; I never knew her to have an inhar-
monious young person staying with her yet ; with
her sense of values, the composition of her salon is
delightful. Will you come ? She told me to bring
you ; what excuse shall 1 make? "

" Tell her that I 'm not the sort of person to be
brought."

"Oh, there you do yourself wrong. I shall be
more just to her ideal of you. Good-by."

A knock Avas heard at the door, and Ford, with-
out rising, growled, " Come in."

The door flew open, and Boynton burst into the
room in the face of Phillips, who was just going
out. He caught him by the hand.

" Why, Mr. Phillips, is it possible ! This is
doubly fortunate. Finding you and Mr. Ford to-
gether,— it's more than I could have hoped! I
consider it a privilege — a privilege, in the old re-
ligious sense — to be allowed to say in your pres-
ence what I wish to say to our good friend here.
Mr. Ford, I wish Mr. Phillips to hear me ask your
pardon — humbly ask your pardon — for the vio-
lent language I used towards you at my lodging an
hour ago." Phillips grinned his triumph at Ford,
but softened the derision to a smile, as he turned
again to Boynton.

" Will you sit down ? " said Ford, with grave
kindness, and without any token of surprise.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 89

"Thanks, thanks! But not till I have taken
you by the hand." Boynton stretched forth his
small hand, and took the mechanically granted
hand of Ford. " I wish to say that I have unex-
pectedly been enabled to see the subject matter of
our difference from your point of view, and that I
now recognize not only the justice, but the neces-
sity — the necessity by operation of an inflexible
law - — of your attitude. In all these things," con-
tinued Boynton, placing himself luxuriously in
Ford's deep chair, and didactically pressing the
tips of his fingers together, " there is a law which
I had quite lost sight of, — the law of progression
through the antagonism of opposites."

Phillips made an ironical murmur of assent and
admiration ; Ford remained silent.

" We are both, outside of our mere individual
consciousness, blind forces. I aSirm, you deny.
We grind upon each other in the encounter of life,
and a spark of light is evoked by the attrition.
It was just so this morning : light was evoked by
which I shall always see the correctness of your
position and the error of mine. Understand me : I
do not at all agree with you in your opinion of the
phenomena; and I have come, so far as that is con-
cerned, to cement our enmity, if I may so speak."
He smiled upon Ford with caressing suavity. " But
what I have come for first is to withdraw all of-
fensive expressions, and to say that I approve,
even in its extreme, of your action on the after-
noon of the seance." He beamed upon Ford, and

90 THE UNDISCOVTIRED COUNTRY.

then turned his triumphantly amiable face upon
Philhpa.

" Ford," said the latter, " this is very hand-
some I "

*' Not at all, not at all ! " cried Boynton ; "sim-
ple duty, — self-interest, even. For I have a re-
quest to make of Mr. Ford, — a favor to ask. I
wish Mr. Ford not only to continue steadfast in his
opposition to my theories, but to assist me in a
public exhibition, by antagonizing to the utmost of
his power their application. I have learned from
my daughter that she had no agency in the phe-
nomena which we witnessed the other night, and
of whose verity I am now perfectly convinced ; and
I wish Mr. Ford to join me in testing her super-
natural gifts, either before a popular audience, or
such persons, in considerable number, as we may
select in common."

" I must refuse, Dr. Boynton," said Ford, gently.

Boynton's face fell. " I hope," he said, " you do
not refuse because I have been remiss in not com-
ing to you sooner."

" No," began Ford ; but Boynton interrupted
him.

'* I started almost immediately upon your de-
parture from my lodgings, to follow you up and
make this application. But I was delayed by an
accident: a child was run ov^r in the street almost
before my eyes, and was carried into the next
apothecary's. The force of habit is strong ; I re-
membered that I was a physician, and forgot the

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 91

larger in the lesser duty, till other attendance covdd
be procured."

Ford frowned. " It has nothing to do with your
delay. What you propose is quite out of my way.
I could not consent to it on any conditions. I went
to your s<5ance the other day out of an idle whim.
I don't care anything about the matter. I don't
care whether there is any truth in your opinions,
or any error in mine. I refuse because I am thor-
oughly indifferent to the whole thing."

Boynton rose, and buttoned his threadbare coat
across his plump chest. " And you consider, sir,"
he said, "that you have incurred no responsibility
towards me, towards humanity, by going as far as
you have, and then refusing to proceed ? "

" That is my feeling," said Ford, respectfully.

Boynton stood as if stupefied. " And — and —
Excuse me, sir," he said, coming to himself, " if I
remark upon the suddenness of your indifference.
One hour ago, you threatened that if I pursued my
inquiries in this city you would expose me, as I un-
derstood, in the public prints. You left mo with
that threat upon your lips."

Phillips looked inquiringly at Ford, who said,
" I left you in a passion that I 'm ashamed of. I
have no idea of carrying out that threat."

" Poll, sir ! " cried Boynton, with mounting
scorn. " You refuse, not from indifference, but
from the sense of your inability to cope with me
in this test."

" I am willing you should think that," assented
Ford.

92 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I call this gentleman to witness," said Boynton,
" that you have slunk out of a contest which you
have provoked, and that you are afraid to meet me
upon terms even of your own clioosing. An hour
ago I parted with you in hate ;• I now leave you in
contempt. Good morning, Mr. Phillips." Boyn-
ton had already turned his back upon Ford ; he
now strutted from the room without looking at him
again.

" Our friend is violent," observed Phillips, when
the door had closed upon him. Ford made no
reply, and Phillips continued : " I fancied his ac-
cident rather too opportune."

"Very likelj^" said Ford.

" And you won't go with me to Mrs. Burton's ? "
'"No."

" I don't wonder at your indifference to society,
with such really dramatic excitements in your own
life. The matinee has been extraordinarily brill-
iant — for a matinde. They 're apt to be tame."

VI.

In spite of the defiant temper in wliicli Boynton
had quitted Ford's lodging, he reached his own in
extreme dejection. He found Hatch with Egeria
in the parlor.

"Well, my friend," he said, wringing Hatch's
hand, as he passed him on his way from the door
to the sofa, " I have met with a great disappoint-
ment." Neither Hatch nor Egeria questioned him,
but after an exchange of anxious glances waited
silently. " It is n't that I care for the frustration
of my hopes ; I do care for that ; but that is a small
matter compared with the loss of my faith in human
nature, my reliance upon the willingness of man to
make sacrifices tending to — to — solve, to unravel,
our common riddle." He let his head fall upon his
breast.

" Oh, father," pleaded Egeria tremulously, after
the little dramatic pause which Boynton had let
follow upon his period, " did you go to see him ? "

" Yes," said her father.

" And did he — is he going to do it ? "

Boynton lifted his head. " No," he said, sol-
emnly ; " he refuses." Egeria drew a long breath,
and turned very pale. She seemed about to fall

94 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

from her chair, which she had drawn next the cor-
ner of the sofa on which he had thrown himself.
Hatch made a movement toward her, but she re-
covered herself, and sat strongly upright.

" He refused ? " she gasped.

" My dear friend," said her father, looking toward
Hatch, while he took her cold hand and gently
smoothed it, " I must explain that I have had two
interviews with this man, and what their nature
has been. He came here this morning to boast that
it was he who caught Egeria's hand in the stance
that day. I drove him from the house. After-
wards, upon conversing with Egeria, I learnt that
the manifestations were really genuine, and that at
the moment he caught her hand she had no agency
whatever in their production."

Hatch looked at Egeria. " I could have bet my
soul on that ! "

" On learning this," pursued Boynton, " I at
once determined to challenge him to a new test,
in wliicli he should pit his influence over Egeria
against mine, and the public should decide upon
the result. He has just refused the challenge, per-
emptorily and finally, and I have branded him as
a coward in the presence of Mr. Phillips."

Boynton flung his daughter's hand away. Hatch
and Egeria had the effect of refraining from look-
ing at each other. At last the young fellow said,
recovering something of his wonted cheery audac-
ity, " Well, of course it 's a disappointment, doctor,
but why not look at the bright side of it ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 95

" What bright side of it ? " asked the doctor,
tragically.

" Oh, it has its bright side," said Hatch, un-
dauntedly. "It saves Miss Egeria from a good
deal, and I 'm glad of that, for one."

The doctor mistook the word. " Ordeal ! There
is no ordeal ; there could have been no question
about the result ! "

"Not with you or me. But there 's no use try-
ing to deny it, — the public is against you, and
would be glad to have her fail."

" Oh, yes, father : you know how it has always
been," cried Egeria.

" The circumstances had never been propitious
before ; but now they were all with us. We could
not have failed ! " replied her father.

"Well, you might," said Hatch. "What do
you think did produce the manifestations that day,
doctor ? "

" Do you ask that question ? " demanded the doc-
tor, in astonishment. " I answer, with an absolute
certainty, such as I never reached before, the dis-
embodied spirits of the dead ! "

" I doubt it," said Hatch, quietly.

" You douht it ? " shouted Boynton, in amaze.

" Dr. Boynton, you 've told me twenty times
that you would n't give a straw for manifestations
that took place in the presence of a dozen persons.
Now, what makes you pin your faith to what hap-
pened the other day ? " Boynton was silent ; all
his reasons, so prompt and facile, seemed to have

96 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

forsaken hiin. " There were too many people on
hand that day for me. You know I 'm as much
interested in these things, doctor, as anybody, and
I should be the last to give aid and comfort to the
enemy ; but I could n't go those materializations,
and the dark seance was rather too dark for me.
I '11 tell you what, doctor, I wish you 'd go back
home, and start new." Hatch planted himself
directly in front of Boynton, who looked at him
■with astonishment and rising indignation.

" By what right do you presume to advise me ? "
he asked, with stately emphasis.

" Well, by no right," said Hatch easily ; " or
else the right that I have from the good you 've
always done me." The doctor waived away the
sense of this with a gesture which was still stately,
but no longer severe. " I only sjjeak from ray in-
terest in you and Miss Egeria, here. I think it 's
■wearing on her, — wearing on j'ou both."

"Has my daughter complained to you?" de-
manded Boynton, with more than his former hau-
teur, looking round at her. She returned his look
with a glance of tender reproach, and Hatch an-
swered : —

" No more than you, doctor. I 'm talking of
■what I see. And I think you 've made a wrong
start. I think you 've made a mistake. You
ought n't to have ever mixed yourself up with pro-
fessional mediums. Y''ou w^ere on the right tack
at home. Now^, I say, you just go back there,
and you form a disinterested circle, — people that

THE UNDISCOVERKD COUNTEY. 97

have n't got money in it, — and you go on with
your investigations there ; and when you 've got a
sure thing of it, j^ou come out with it. But don't
you do it till then ! Heh ? "

" There is reason in what you urge," replied
Boynton ; "or rather there was reason. But I
have advanced beyond the point you indicate. I
have got a sure thing of it, as you say. I am as
fully persuaded of the reality of those manifesta-
tions as I am of my own existence."

" Which ones ? " asked Hatch.

" Those in the dark seance, and " —

" I 'm not ! " returned Hatch ; " but I don't
want you to take my opinion for proof against
them. I 'm going to headquarters for that, and all
I ask is, Don't you interfere with my little game."
He took the doctor by the shoulders in a friendly
caress, as he spoke, and then he rang the bell. The
servant-girl put in her unkempt head at the door,
with a look of surprise, after first going to the outer
door, to see if the ring had come from there ; evi-
dently, she was not used to being rung for in-doors.
" Ah, Mary— Jenny — Bridget — Susy — Polly —
whatever it is," said Hatch ; " you just ask Mrs.
Le Roy to step here half a second, that 's a good
girl, and I'll dance at your wedding." The girl
vanished, grinning. As the big woman appeared
at the door, " Walk right in, Mrs. Le Roy," he
called out, and she advanced questioningly, while
he closed the door behind her. " Now it 's all
among friends, you know, Mrs. Le Roy ; we won't

98 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTKY.

keep you a minute. You know the doctor has
some peculiar theories on this subject. We don't
care about the materializations, — they Ve all right ;
but you just tell us now how much you helped
along in the dark stance, the other day."

" Well," said Mrs. Le Roy, with a sly look at
each of her listeners, and a smile that ended in a
small, thin chuckle, " give the sjjirits a chance, —
that was the doctor's idea, as I understood it."

" Exactly," said Hatch, "and you did give 'em a
chance ? "

" Now, Mr. Hatch," said the huge sibyl, with a
mixture of cunning and of that liking for Hatch
which all women seemed to feel, " what are you up
to?"

" I give you my word, Mrs. Le Roy, I 'm up to
nothing you'd object to. I just want to know how
much of a chance you gave 'em."

Mrs. Le Roy hesitated a moment.

" Well, pretty much all they wanted, I guess,"
she answered, at length.

" Do you mean," said Boynton, " that you pro-
duced the phenomena in the dark seance ? "

" Well, I did give the spirits a fair chance, as
you may say," admitted Mrs. Le Roy, with some
awe and some apparent pity for Boynton.

He dropped his face in his hands, and bowed his
head against the back of the sofa. " Oh, woman,
woman ! " he groaned.

" The witness can now retire," said Hatch, and
amid Mrs. Le Roy's protestations of good inten-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 99

tioii and regret, and her mystification as to what it
all meant, he took her by her vast shoulders and
pushed her out of the door. " You 're all right,
Mrs. Le Roy," he explained. " See you again in
half a second. Now, doctor," he continued, turn-
ing to the desperate figure on the sofa, " you see
how it is. It 's just as I said ; you 're on the wrong
tack. You can't make any headway in connection
with professional mediums. You can't have your
theories applied in the right spirit. What you
want to do is to back out and start new."

Boynton controlled himself, and, turning about,
looked up at Hatch with a candor that was full of
immediate courage and enterprise. " My friend,
you are right! I see my error, now; but experi-
ence alone could have shown it to me. I have at-
tempted to work in the public way, when I should
have strictly confined m^'self to the social way. I
see that my success depends upon the application
of my theories by followers purely disinterested. It
may be that no progress can be otherwise achieved,
in psychological science. The experiment must be
absolutely free from mercenary alloy."

" Yes," said Hatch ; " if you let them see that
there is money in it, you can't get an honest count.
Human nature is too much for you."

" The true method," Boynton mused aloud,
"would be first to form some sort of society, in
which the material basis was secured, and in which
there would thus be leisure and disposition for the
higher research. There are elements in our own

100 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

neighborbood which could be as favorably operated
with as — Yes, the result will be much slower than
I thought ; but in the end it will be sure, beyond
all peradventure. Egeria ! " he cried, starting up,
" we will go home ! "

"At once — now — to-day ? " asked the girl, her
pale cheeks flushing.

" This very hour. There is not a moment to be
lost. Go and put our things together, child."

Egeria turned towards the door ; then she came
back towards Hatch. " We won't say good-by
now, Miss Egeria. I shall be at the depot to see
you off."

" Yes, don't dela}'," said her father, impatiently.
"We will be off by the fix'st train." She went out,
and he mechanically carried his hand to his pocket.
" We can't go ! " he cried, as if a sudden pang had
caught him. " I have n't five dollars in the world ;
we are in arrears for board. You see, my dear
friend, there is no hope."

" Oh, yes, there is," said Hatch, with the ease of
a man who had suspected something of this kind.
" This gives me a chance to pay you my old bill,
doctor."

" My dear sir, I hope you would n't offer me an
affront," said Boynton, staying the hand Avith which
Hatch was opening his porte-monnaie.

" That 's what I said to you when you would n't
let me settle with j'^ou for my sickness, — or words
to that effect."

" Mr. Hatch, you — move me ! "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 101

" How much do you owe Mrs. Le Roy ? " asked
Hatch.

"■ I have n't the least idea," replied Boynton.
" It may be three weeks, — it may be two. How
long have we been here?"

" We must ask Mrs. Le Roy that." Hatch rang
again, and tliis time Mrs. Le Roy herself answered
the bell. " The doctor 's going away, Mrs. Le Roy,
and he wants to pay up."

" Well, I 'm real sorry," said the woman, who
had her bonnet on, as if about to go out, " to have
you go, Dr. Boynton, — you and Miss Egeria both.
But I guess you better. I thought, may be, Mr.
Hatch was up to something of that kind. I don't
think you 're just fit for the business. You put too
much dependence on other folks, and you 're sure
to get exposed in the end. I don't suppose but
what there 's as much truth in it as there is in any-
thing," she said, by way of reservation.

Boynton answered nothing, and at a look from
Hatch Mrs. Le Roy added, " Well, it 's two weeks,
— thirty dollars in all." She took the money from
Hatch and put it in the pocket of her dress.
" Well, I 'm going out now, and I shall be gone
till evening ; so if I don't see you again, I '11 say
good-by at once, Dr. Boynton. Come and see me
when you 're up to Boston."

She held out her hand to Boynton, who refused
it with a very short " No ! " and a quick sliake of
the head. " You are a charlatan," he added, — "an
impostor."

102 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

Mrs. Le Roy stared at him, until his meaning
dawned upon her. Then it amused her through her
whole huge person, which shook with her enjoy-
ment. " Why, land alive, man! what are youV

" Something quite beyond your comprehension,"
replied Boynton, with overwhelming state.

" Well, well ! " said Mrs. Le Roy, as she went
contentedly out of the room, " you certainly are a
new kind of fool."

They heard the stairs creak under her tread, as
she went slowly and comfortably up ; then they
heard her voice, as she made her adieux to Egeria,
who was probably too dimly informed as to her fa-
ther's point of honor to be able to take her stand
upon it. " Poor child ! " they heard Mrs. Le Roy's
voice saying, " I hope you '11 stay at home, and get
well rested. You look half sick, now. Good-by.
I wish I could stay and see you off. But I can't.
I 've got a see-aunts with a patient of mine at her
house, and I suppose I must go." She added in a
louder tone, for the listeners below, " Take care of
that poor old father of yours, and don't let him ex-
cite himself, /should be afraid he 'd go out of his
head, — if he was mine."

Hatch looked at his watch. " You won't be able
to get the two o'clock train," he said. " But I '11
tell you what," he added : " you don't want to stay
here to-night, after what 's passed between you and
Mrs. Le Roy, and you can take the five o'clock train
on the Fitchburg road as far as Ayer Junction, and
there you can connect with a train on the new road
to Portland. You '11 have a little night travel."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 103

" Oh, that will make no difference," said the doc-
tor. " I would rather travel all night than stay
here. I feel that if I 'm to begin anew I can't be-
gin too soon. I shall be eternally grateful to you
for your suggestion, my dear friend. I am sure
now that it is in the right direction."

"Good!" said Hatch. "I shall not leave till
nine o'clock on the Albany road, and I shall have
plenty of time to see you off. You '11 have to bank
with me to the extent of tickets home, and I '11
have to come down any way and get them for you :
I have n't the money about me for them, now."

Hatch seemed to think that the doctor might
take offense at this, but he merely said, " Yes, yes ;
quite right," and gave his hand dreamily, as the
young man went out.

" Tell Miss Egeria I will meet you at the depot.
Be there with you half an hour before the train
starts."

" Thanks," said Boynton, and hardly waited for
him to be gone before he lapsed into the easy cor-
ner of the sofa, apparently forgetful of all that had
vexed him ; his face was eager with the rush of his
hopes and purposes, as he abandoned himself to a
sort of intense reverie. At times he rose and walked
the floor, but mostly he kept his place on the sofa.
He took no counsel with Egeria, and he gave her
no help in the work of packing, about which she
went swiftly in the rooms overhead. It was not a
great work, and it was finished before his reverie
was ended. She looked in at the door when it was

104 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

done, dressed for going out in a costume which was
at once fantastic and shabby. In her viUage life it
had once been her best dress, and it looked as if
there had subsequently been some sketchy attempts
to make it over into a street costume for city use ;
her bonnet was of a former season ; her soiled gloves
were frayed at more than one of the fingers. " I
shall be back in a minute, father," she said, button-
ing one of the poor gloves. " I 'm going out on an
errand." He looked at her, but did not seem to see
her, and she passed on out.

At the next corner she stepped, after a hesitation
at the door, into a little shop where they sold news-
papers and stationery, and bought a few sheets of
note-paper and envelopes, halting some time in her
choice, and finally deciding on some paper of an
outlandish color and envelopes of a rhomboid shape :
they were not in good taste, but they were recom-
mended to Egeria as a kind that the shopwoman
" sold a great many of." Returning to her own
room she wrote a letter, which, when finished, she
tore up, hiding the fragments in her pocket ; she
began a second, which she also destroyed ; at last
she took the pieces of the first, and carefully putting
them together copied them slowly in the small, pain-
ful hand of one neither acquainted with the bold
angularities of the fashionable female scrawl, nor
accustomed to write any hand.

At the letter-box in front of the Fitchburg depot
she faltered a moment ; then, for her father was
pushing on into the building, she caught her letter
from her pocket, and posted it.

VII.

Ford received Egeria's letter the next morning.
He examined its outside, as people do that of letters
coming to them in strange handwriting, and he be-
stowed a derisive curiosity upon the person who
could choose that outlandish shape for a missive.
A dashing hand might have authorized the form,
but Egeria's hand was timid and feeble, and only-
heightened its absurdity. She had not quite known
how to address him ; she had decided at last to be-
gin without that formality.

" I do not know why you refused what my father
asked you to do ; but we were imposed upon as well
as you. You had a right to suspect us ; but Ave had
nothing to do with those things. If you knew about
us at home you would not regret that you had re-
fused.

" I felt grateful to you ; but perhaps it is wrong
to write. If it is, I can only say that I meant it
truly and rightly.

" Egeria Boynton."

Ford read this note many times over, and then
mused long upon it. But he put it by, at last, and
did a good morning's work, and at one o'clock he
gathered up the copy he had made, and carried it

106 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

out to the newspaper office. He found himself
•without appetite for the lunch at his boarding-
house, and he wandered about, the early part of
the afternoon, j)laying in his mind with a tendency
■which was drawing him in the direction of the
Boyntons. The origin of all our impulses is ob-
scure, and every motive from which we act is
mixed. Even when it is simplest we like to feign
that it is different from what it really is, and often
we do not know what it is. It would be idle, then,
to attempt to give the reason Ford alleged to him-
self for yielding to the attraction which he felt.
His cheek flushed and his pulse quickened, as he
mounted the steps to Mrs. Le Roy's door ; but this
was the mood, half shame and half thrilled expec-
tation, of many people who rang her bell.

The door was set ajar by the servant, who re-
vealed a tliree-quarters view of her face and a slice
of her person in response to Ford's summons. He
asked if Dr. Boynton or Miss Boynton were at
home, and she answered that they were gone, add-
ing, " I don't know as they 're gone for good ; " and
as he turned lingeringly away she said that Mrs. Le
Roy was in.

"I '11 see her," rejoined Ford, and entered.

Mrs. Le Roy made him wait her coming some
minutes. He must have been announced to her
merely as a gentleman, for after greeting him first
with " How do you do, sir ? " she added, " Ah, hoiv
do you do ?" as if upon recognition, and offered him
her hand.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 107

" I don't know that I ought to have troubled
you," said Ford ; " but I wished to ask when you
expected Dr. Boynton back."

" Why, they ain't coming back ! "- exclaimed Mrs.
Le Roy. " They 've gone home. Did n't she tell
you so ? "

" She ? Who ? " asked Ford.

" The girl."

" Miss Boynton ? "

" Laws, no ! The girl at the door."

" Oh ! " replied Ford, in confusion. " No ; she
said she was n't certain."

" Well, they have."

Ford rose. After a moment's hesitation, he
asked, " They live somewhere in Maine, I believe ? "

" Yes, down there some'er's," assented Mrs. Le
Roy, indifferently.

" Do you know their address ? "

" Well, no, I don't," Mrs. Le Roy admitted. She
asked, after a questioning glance at Ford, " Did
you want to find out anything about them ? "

" Yes," returned Ford.

" Well," exclaimed Mrs. Le Roy, " I could give
you a see-aunts."

'' Awhatf'

" A see-aunts, — consult the spirits."

" Oh ! " said Ford. " No, thanks. I have n't
time now," he said, as he would put off an importu-
nate barber who had offered him a shampoo. " I 'm
sorry to have troubled you."

" Not at all," said Mrs. Le Roy, following him

108 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

out into the hall. " We have test see-aimtses the
first Sunday evenin' of every month. Should be
pleased to see you any time."

" Thanks," said Ford.

At the head of the street he met Phillips, walk-
ing toward the Public Garden. "Ah," said Phil-
lips, " I was thinking of you."

" Were you ? " growled Ford.

" Yes. I wanted to ask if you 'd heard anything
more of the Pythoness and her papa. They 're
as curious an outcome of this bubble-and-squeak
that we call our civilization as anything I know of.
How did 3'ou find them ? "

" I did n't find them ; they 've gone away," said
Ford, not caring to deny the imj)utation that he
had been to look them up.

" Gone away ? How extraordinary ! Has the
doctor found Boston such a barren field, after all ?
Ford, you 've deprived us of a phenomenon. You
ouscht to have met him. It is n't often that a
father comes and invites a young man to contest
his control over his daughter. The contest is gen-
erally against the old gentleman's wishes. Where
have they gone ? "

"They 've gone home," replied Ford.

" And that is " —

" I don't know. In Maine, somewhere."

" I might have known, in Maine, — the land of
Norembega, the mystical city. The witches settled
Maine, when they were driven out of Salem. You
will find all the witch names down there. Well,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 109

I 'm sorry they 're gone. I bad counted upon see-
ing more of them. One doesn't often find such
people in one's way. I 've been specuhiting about
thera since I saw you, and I find myself of two
minds in regard to them, — just as I was before I
began. I suppose we must consider them parts of
a fraud ; the question is whether they are conscious
or unconscious parts of it. If they 're unconscious,
it 's pathetic ; if they 're conscious, they 're fascinat-
ing. I don't wonder you could n't keep away, —
that you had to come and try for another interview
with thera. As for me, I wonder that I have n't
fluttered about them continually ever since I first
saw them. The girl is such a deliciously abnormal
creature. It is girlhood at odds with itself. If
she has been her father's ' subject ' ever since child-
hood, of course none of the ordinary young girl in-
terests have entered into her life. She has n't
known the delight of dress and of dancing; she
has n't had ' attentions ; ' upon my word, that 's very
suggestive ! It means that she 's kept a child-like
simplicity, and that she could go on and help out
her father's purposes, no matter how tricky they
were, with no more sense of guilt than a child who
makes believe talk with imaginary visitors. Yes,
the Pythoness could be innocent in the midst of
fraud. Come, I call that a pretty conjecture ! "

" Why do you waste it on me ? " said Ford.
" You could have made your fortune for the even-
ing with that piece of quackery at the next place
where you dine."

110 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Oh, it is n't lost," said Phillips. " I was n't
wasting it ; I was merely trying it on. Will you
go with me to see a picture I 'm hesitating about ? "

" No ; you know I don't understand pictures."

"Ah, that's the reason I want you to see it.
You are the light of the public square, the average
ignorance, — an element of criticism not to be de-
spised."

" If I thought I could be of use," said Ford,
" I 'd come."

" You can. But what is the matter? Why this
common decency ? "

" I owe you a debt of gratitude. You 've given
shape to the infernal sophistry that was floating
through my mind, and made it disgusting."

Phillips laughed. "About the Pythoness? My
dear fellow, I 'm proud of that conjecture. It was
worthy of Hawthorne."

VIII.

Egeeia and her father had reached the station
an hour before their train was to start ; and the
time, after the first flush of their arrival, began to
hang heavy on her father's hands. Now that he
had set his face homeward, he was intolerant of
delay. He looked at the waiting-room clock, and
compared it with the clock above the tracks out-
side ; he blamed Hatch for not being there to meet
them, and fretted lest he should not come at all.
It would be extremely embarrassing to be left be-
hind, he said ; he complained that it had the effect
of placing him in a dependent position, and that
Hatch had taken advantage of his temporary desti-
tution to inflict a humiliation upon him. He said
he would go out and look about the station while
waiting, and he impatiently permitted Egeria to
go with him. An idle throng were hanging about
the draw of the Charlestown bridge, watching some
men in a barge who were supplying air to a sub-
marine diver at the bottom of the dock. The local-
ity of the diver was indicated by the bubbles that
rose and broke on the surface and floated away on
the swift tide.

" Egeria," said her father, with instant specula-

112 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

tion, " if it were possible to isolate a medium thus
absolutely from all adverse influences, great results
might be expected. A speaking-tube of rubber,
running from the mouth of the submerged me-
dium " — He looked at the girl, who smiled
faintly.

"I shouldn't have the courage to go under the
water, — I should be afraid of the fish."

" At first, no doubt," replied her father. " But
I was not thinking of you. I should like to see
the experiment tried with Mrs. Le Roy."

Boynton was not jesting, and his daughter did
not lavigh at a proposal which would doubtless have
amused the seeress herself. " How strange," said
Egeria, as they turned away, " the western sky is ! "

" Yes ; the wind has changed to the east. The
Probabilities, this morning, promised a storm."

" And the frames of all these railroad draw-
bridges against that strange sky " —

" Yes, yes," said her father ; " they look like so
many gibbets. It 's a homicidal sight, — or sui-
cidal." He gave a little shiver, and they walked
back into the station, where the train they were to
take was just making up. Boynton looked about
for Hatch, but was arrested in his impatient scru-
tiny of the others by the presence of two men,
whose peaceful faces no less than tlieir quaint dress
distinguished them from the rest of the thickening
crowd. They wore low-crowned, broad-brimmed
hats of beaver ; one was habited in a straight-
skirted coat of drab, and the other in a like gar-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 113

ment of dark blue ; their feet, in broad, flat shoes,
protruded from pantaloons of a conscientiously un-
fashionable pattern. Their hair hung long in their
necks, and when one lifted his hat to wipe his fore-
head he showed his hair cut in front like a young
lady's hang. They seemed quite at their ease un-
der the glance of the passers, and talked quietly
on, even when Boynton, expressing a doubt as to
whether they were Quakers, halted Egeria, and
lingered near them.

" That is so, Joseph," said one who seemed the
younger, and was much the graver of the two. " It
began with our people, and I think it will get its
only true development among us. In the world out-
side, its pi^ofessors are as bad as the hireling priest-
hood of the churches."

" Yee," assented he called Joseph, with that
quaint corruption through which the people of his
sect fail in the scriptural injunction they strive to
obey.

" As soon as the money element touched it, it
began to degenerate, and now it 's a trade, like any
other. They are tempted all the while to eke it
out with imposture."

" Nay, Elihu, not in all cases. At least, they
don't yield to the temptation in all cases. You
must not let your judgment be too much swayed by
the single case that has come to your knowledge."

" They can't be Quakers," said Egeria, in a low
voice ; " they say ' you,' and not ' thee ' and ' thou.' "

Her father did not answer ; he pressed her hand

114 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

to make her keep silence, and insensibly drew her
a little nearer to the men.

" Yee," replied the younger, " it is well to avoid
a hasty judgment ; but it is foolish to blind one's
self to the facts. And the facts are that in such
hands as this gift has fallen into in the world out-
side it is mere sorcery, — a spell to conjure with."

" Nay, it is something better than that. It is
still a proof of life hereafter to those who could re-
ceive no other evidence."

" Yee, that may be. But I feel that it cannot
truly prosper except with those who are leading the
angelic life, here and now."

These words, these phrases, had visibly made a
great impression upon Boynton. His daughter saw
that he was longing to accost the speakers. But at
that moment she caught sight of Hatch coming out
of the ladies' room, and looking anxiously about as
if seeking them.

" Oh ! " she cried gladly, " there 's Mr. Hatch ! "
and she pulled her father away with her.

The two men turned at the sound of their going,
and gazed after them.

" That is a strange couple," said he called Joseph.
" Did you notice them as they stood here ? "

"Yee, I saw them. They seemed to be listening.
But we were not saying anything to be ashamed of,
and I thought they could not receive any harm from
overhearing us. They looked like stage players to
me : before I was gathered in, I used often to see
such folks."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 115

" Do you think they are man and wife? "

" Nay, I don't know."

" He seemed too old to be her husband."

" That often happens in the world."

" Yee," said Joseph ; " but I never like to see a
young wife with an old husband. And there is
something pleasing in a pretty young couple : they
seem happy."

" Nay," returned the other, " what does it matter
to us how they mate together ? "

They stood looking after Egeria and her father,
whom Hatch had now joined. "They seem to
have found friends," said Joseph. " I don't think
she is the elderly man's wife."

Hatch hurried them into the waiting-room ; and
then he went to buy their tickets, and have their
baggage checked.

" I 've got 3'our trunks checked, doctor," he said,
when he returned and sab down beside them. " But
you '11 have to change cars at Ayer Junction. You
won't have any trouble, though : you just walk out
of the end of the depot, and take the train standing
across the track of the one you've come on. You
can stop at Portland, when you get there, or you
can make the connection, and push right through,
and be home by morning. I 've been looking it all
up for you in this Guide." He drew a book out of
his pocket.

" Oh, we shall want to push right through,
sha'n't we, father?" asked Egeria.

But her father had apparently lost all concern in

116 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the return home for which he had but now been so
eager. He had listened with apathy to Hatch's ex-
cuses for his delay, and he had received with in-
difference the checks and tickets the young man
had brought him. " We will see how we feel when
we get to Portland," he answered testily, hand-
ing the money he had borrowed to Egeria. " Mr.
Hatch," he added, presently, with the mystery in
wdiich he liked to involve simple things, " are you
pressed for time ? "

" I have all the time there is," replied Hatch,
cheerily.

" Then oblige me by remaining here for a moment
with Egeria, — for one moment only."

He left them, and they looked blankly at each
other.

" Your father," Hatch began, " seems a little off
the notion of going back."

" Yes," assented Egeria, dispiritedly.
" Well, of course ; that 's the reaction. But he '11
be all right again wlien the train 's started. I
know how that is. Miss Egeria," he added, looking
down at the neat valise between his feet, " I did n't
tell the doctor, but I hope you won't object to com-
pany part of your journey. I 'm going on your
train as far as Ayer Junction." He met her look
of amaze with one of triumphant kindliness. " Yes.
You know I can go West Hoosac Tunnel way."
" I did n't know," said Egeria.
"Well, I can. And I thought I might be of
vise to you in changing cars at the Junction, and so
I 'm soins-"

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 117

" I don't know what to say to you," Egeria mur-
mured, brokenly.

" I thought you 'd be glad," said Hatch.

" Yes ; only you do too much," returned the girl.

" Well, I'm a little in debt to your father, yet ;
and I would do anything for — for your father. I
hope you '11 make him push straight through to-
night. I don't think your father 's quite well. Miss
Egeria. He needs rest. He ought to be home."

" Yes, he needs rest," said Egeria sadly. " I 'm
glad we 're going home. But you know how it is,
there, between him and grandfather," she added,
reluctantly. " I don't know just where we '11 go.
We can't go to our old house ; there are people in
it ; and father would n't go to grandfather's, after
what 's passed."

" Oh, you '11 find friends there," said Hatch,
hopefully. " At any rate, you '11 be among your
kind of folks, and that 's something. And that re-
minds me ; here 's a little note I want you to give
your grandfather for me. I always liked the old
gentleman," he added, giving her a letter. " He
and I got along first-rate together. And I guess
you can patch it up between him and your father."

" Mr. Hatch," said Egeria, looking at the let-
ter — " Or no, no matter."

" What is it ? "

" Nothing ; merely something I was going to ask
you, — to ask your advice. But it's done now,
and so it would be of no use."

Hatch laughed. " That 's the times ladies usually

118 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

apply for advice, — after a thing 's done. And,
as you say, it ain't of much use then, — at least, not
for that occasion."

Egeria smiled sadly. " I suppose I wanted you
to think I had done right."

" Well, I think that without your asking me."

Eo-eria put the letter away in her handbag, and
put that carefully behind her on the seat, before she
asked, a little tremulously, " Mr. Hatch, what do
you think made him change his mind about it after
he talked with you ? "

An angry flush passed over Hatch's face, as he
followed her meaning, and recalled the encounter of
the morning. " I don't know. Such a man as that
would n't need any reason. Perhaps he did n't
change his mind. He mightn't choose to let me
know what he intended to do."

Boynton returned from the outside, and inter-
rupted their talk.

" I went to see if I could find those two men," he
said to Egeria. " Some remarks that they dropped
had a peculiar interest for me. But they were
gone. Did you notice them, Mr. Hatch ? They
stood near us Avhen we first caught sight of you."

" Parties in broad-brims ? Yes, I saw them.
But I did n't notice them particularl3^ What were
tliej' talking about ? "

" The life hereafter," said Boynton solemnly,
" and the angelic life on earth."

" Well, I don't know about the last, but the first
is a good subject for a railroad depot. Makes you

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 119

think whether you 've bought your insurance ticket.
Quakers, I suppose."

" No, they were not Quakers," answered the
doctor, with dry offense.

" Well, they looked it," said Hatch. " Perhaps
they belonged to some of the new religious brother-
hoods. I 've seen fellows going round with skirts
down to their heels ; I believe they 're pretty good
fellows, too ; they take care of the sick and poor.
But I don't see why they can't do it in sack coats."

" It 's possible that these are of the brotherhood
you mean," said the doctor. " I wish I could see
them again." He looked vexed and disappointed.

" Well, you may run across 'era," returned Hatch,
easily. " Perhaps they '11 be on our train." He
added, at the doctor's inquiring look, " I 'm going
to Troy by the tunnel route ; I shall be with you
as far as Ayer Junction."

" Oh," returned the doctor, with a little surprise,
but with as little interest. " Is n't it time to go
on board ? "

" Guess we might as well," said Hatch, gather-
ing up Egeria's things and her father's, beside his
own compact luggage, and following Boynton, as
he went out free-handed. Hatch had taken his
berth in the sleeping-car, and he got thera seats in
this luxurious vehicle as far as the Junction. Boyn-
ton stared anxiously about the car, and walked up
and down the aisle. " Remain here wdth j\Ir. Hatch
a moment, Egeria," he said. "I will be back, pres-
ently."

120 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

Egeria made a little start of protest, but Hatch
repressed her with a touch. " Let him go," he
whispered, as the doctor pushed off. " He 's after
those Corsica!! Brothers. They can't do hii!! a!iy
harm, a!id they '11 occupy his !!ii!id. Who did you
think they were ? "

" I could n't tell," said Egeria. " I was sure they
were Quakers ; but they did n't use tlie plain lan-
guage. I think father thought they were talking
about the spirits," she added, dejectedly.

" Well, I 'm sorry for that," replied Hatch. " I
think he 's got enough of the spirits for one while.
But probably the}^ were i!'t, if they 're any of those
new kind of brothers. If they are, I hope he '11
find 'em. They can give him some talk o!! the
other side."

The doctor ca!!ie back, ai!d sat dow!! with an
air of satisf actio!!. " I 've fouiid them, Egeria," he
said. " But the seats all about thei!! were occu-
pied, so that I could !!'t get a place near theiii. I
overheard them say that they were going to Ayer,
where friends are to meet the!!i."

" Well, that 's lucky," Hatch interposed. " You
may get a glimpse of the!!! there. You '11 have to
wait twenty minutes for connections. It 's sui--
prising how n!uch you can do in twenty !!iinutes
whei! you 're on the road. Why, twe!!ty minutes
on the road are as long as the good old twei!ty min-
!!tes a fellow used to have when he was a boy.
But they wo!!'t go any further in the way of time,
generally, tha!! twenty dollars will in the way of

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 121

mone}', nowadays ; we seem to have got an irre-
deemable paper currency in botb things, since I
grew up. I wish we could get back to a gold basis.
I should like to see half a day or half a dollar of
the old size. Why, doctor, you must remember
when they were both as big as the full moon ! "

The weather had been growing colder since
morning, and though they had run out under clearer
skies than those of the sea-board, the sun set at
last in a series of cloudy bars, through which his
red face looked as through the bars of a visor, be-
fore it dipped ont of sight, and left the west pale
and ashen. The lengthening twilight of the season
prevailed over the landscape, sodden from long
snow, and showing as yet no consciousness of the
spring. It was sad and bare, and the gii'l shrank
from its cold melancholy after a shivering glance.
Presently her father rose and went into the next
car.

" Going to make sure of his Brothers," said the
young man. He looked at his watch. "We 're a
little late ; but I shall have time to see you on
board the Portland train when we get to the Junc-
tion. We ought to have had th-e twenty minutes
there together ; but we sha'n't ; my train leaves
before yours does. I wish I was going on the
whole way with yon! "

"I wish you were," responded Egeria. "But
yon must n't lose any time when we get to the
Junction ; you might miss your own train."

" I could n't afford to do that. But there '11 be

122 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

time. Now, I '11 tell you what, Miss Egeria : I
want you to write to me when you get home. You
know I shall want to know you 've got there."

" Yes, I will," answered Egeria.

" There ! " said Hatch, tearing a leaf from his
pocket-book, in which he had written, " that '11
fetch me. I shall be a fortnight in Omaha before
I push on to California. When I get back, in June,
I 'm coming to see you ! "

" You may be sure we shall be glad to have
you," answered Egeria, putting the address in her
bag. " I 'm so eager to get home, it seems as if I
could fly. I 'd rather be in the grave-yard there
than lead the life we have the last three months,
I hope I shall never come away again ! " she added,
while the tears started to her e^^es.

" Well, I hope you won't if you don't want to,"
said Hatch. "But I guess we won't talk about
grave-yards in that connection. I 'm coming back
to find you strong and well, and your father in the
good old track again."

" Yes," murmured the girl.

The doctor came in and resumed his seat.

" Corsican Brothers all right ? " asked Hatch.

" They are still there," replied the doctor, gravely
accepting the designation.

" Well, you '11 have to cut it shorter than I
thought for at Ayer," said Hatch. " We 're a
little behind time. But I guess you can transact
all the buiness you have with them in fifteen min-
utes."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 123

" In fifteen minutes ? " Boynton looked doubt-
ful and unhappy.

" Why," said Hatch, with a laugh, " I '11 see that
5^ou get the whole time. I '11 find your train with
Miss Egeria, and put her into it. You ought to
have some supper, though. I '11 ask the Brothers
to hold on till you 've had a cup of tea."

" I shall want nothing to eat," replied the doc-
tor, excitedly. " If you will take charge of Egeria,
I shall be obliged to you. I must speak to them."

" All right," said Hatch. "Don't be anxious,"
he whispered to Egeria, as they emerged into the
crowd and clamor at the Junction. Locomotives
were fuming and fretting under cover of the sta-
tion ; without, their bells were bleating everywhere ;
people ran to and fro, and were pushed about by
men with long trucks ; the baggage men hurled
the trunks from one train to another, and called
out the check numbers in metallic nasals. Hatch
made his way with Egeria to the train standing
across the Fitchburg track, and piled up her things
in a seat. " Remember the train and car," he said,
making her look round, when they came out again.
" Now come get something to eat." He hurried
her into the eating-room, and ordering supper he
left her and went to find the doctor. It was some
minutes before he returned with him, crest-fallen
and disappointed.

" Did you see them ? " asked Egeria, interpreting
his gloom aright.

" No," said her father, " I have missed them."

124 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Good-by, doctor; good-by, Miss Egeria," said
Hatch, who had been paying for the supper. " That 's
my train," he added, at the sound of a bell. " Good
luck to you ! "

Egeria clung to his hand. " But your supper ! "

" That 's the doctor's supper. I shall snatch a
bite at Fitchburg."

" Oh ! " moaned Egeria. But he was gone, and
she turned to urge her father to eat.

" Oh, I want nothing, — I want nothing," he said,
impatiently ; but the girl pressed him, and after
she had made him drink a cup of tea, she followed
him out of the eating-room. At the door, he gave
a joyful start. There, not ten paces away, were
the men whom he had seen at the depot in Boston,
and whom he had been so anxiously seeking. A
third, dressed like them, and of a like placidity of
countenance, was talking with them. Nothing now
could prevent Boynton from accosting them. He
launched himself towards them with an excitement
strangely contrasting with their own calm.

" Gentlemen," he said, " I must beg your pardon
for addressing you. But I saw you in the depot at
Boston " —

" Yee," interrupted he called Elihu, tranquilly,
" we saw you there."

" And — and — I chanced to overhear something
in your conversation " —

" Yee," said the other, as before, " we saw you
listening."

" Well, well ! I confess it, — I confess it ! " cried

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 125

Boynton, even more impatient than disconcerted.
" I felt constrained to listen : your words seemed
to me a message, a prophecy, a revelation. May I
ask, gentlemen, if you were talking about spiritual-
ism ? "

" Yee, we were."

"Father, — father, we shall lose our train!"
pleaded Egeria.

The three strange men, from studying Boynton
intently, turned and looked kindly at her, while he
continued, " And were you — you were — Gentle-
men, this is a subject that interests me greatly, —
vitally, I may say. Pardon me if I seem too bold.
You Avere saying that this science, this dispensation,
— this — this — call it what you will, — originated
with some society of which you are members ? "

" Yee."

The bell was ringing for their train to start ;
Egeria essayed another meek appeal of " Father,
our train is going ! " and was hushed with a harsh
" Silence ! " from Boynton, who eagerly pursued,
" And this society — this — Gentlemen, what are
you ? "

" We are of the people called Shakers," replied
Joseph.

" Exactly ! Exactly ! I see it, — I understand it
all ! I understand now how you can make the only
just claim to the development of these phenomena.
In your community alone is the unselfish, the self-
devoted, basis to be found, witliout which we can
rear no superstructure to the skies. I have wasted

126 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

my life ! " he cried, — " wasted my life ! Does your
community live near here ? "

" Yee," answered the eldest Shaker, cautiously,
" some miles back. This brother has driven over
from home."

" I wish to be one of you ! " said the doctor.

" Nay," answered the Shaker, " that needs reflec-
tion."

A train began to cross the front of the station.
Egeria's long-sufferiug broke in tears. At sight of
her distress, the Shaker added, " Friend, there goes
your train."

"Well, Avell!" exclaimed Boynton, distractedly,
" you shall hear from me ! " He turned with Egeria,
and ran towards the cars, the Shakers followiug,
and making signals to the engineer. The train
moved slowly, and Egeria and her father scrambled
aboard. She led the way to the rear car, in which
her things were left ; but on going to the seat mid-
way of it which Hatch had chosen for her, she could
not find them. She sank down, stupefied. Her
father noticed neither her loss nor her distress. She
waited hopelessly for the conductor's coming, and
when he appeared she asked him timidly if he had
seen her things. He said he would ask the brake-
man about them, and added in the tone of formal
demand, " Tickets ! " The doctor surrendered them
without looking at the conductor. " These tickets
are for Portland," said the conductor. " You 're on
the wrong train, — this is the down train."

" Oh, put us o£E, then, please," implored Egeria,
"• and we '11 walk back."

THE UNDISCOVKHED COUNTRY. 127

" Up train left before this did," said the man,
" and you could n't get it any way."

"Oh, what shall we do!" lamented the girl.
" How shall we ever get home ? "

" I can take you on to Egerton ; train does n't
stop till we get there. You can go up on the morn-
ing express."

"Bat we can't pay!" gasped Egeria. "Our
money was all in one of my bags ! "

The conductor looked as if this might or might
not be true. He glanced at Egeria's shabby dress,
and his face hardened as he said, " I can take you
to Egerton," and passed on.

Boynton had sliown little concern in the matter,
as if it were no affair of his. Egeria did not appeal
to him for counsel or comfort, but sank back into
her seat, and wept silently. In the twilight her
tears could not be seen ; when it grew darker, and
the lamps were turned up, she averted her face, and
stared out of the black window with streaming eyes.

When the train stopped, and the brakeman called
"Egerton," she led her father from the car, and
began to walk with him from the station up into
the village.

IX.

Egerton is a village that presents a winning as-
pect to the summer visitor when he goes thither in
June, and finds it at peace with all the world, in
the shadow of immemorial, uncanker-wormed elms.
Its chief street wanders quaintly, with a pleasant
rise and fall, and on either hand are the large square
mansions of a former day, and the trim, well-kept
French-roof villas of ours. Hammocks, with girls
reading novels in them, are swung between door-
yard trees ; swift buggies go by on the wide, dust-
less street ; the children of summer visitors, a little
too well dressed, play in the cool paths ; all day long
there is lounging and light literature and smoking
and flirtation on the piazzas of the big summer hotel.
But the place is far from being a mere summer re-
sort ; it is a village, with its own life, expressed in
comfortable homes, in a post-office, an apothecary's,
a local bank, and various stores, all elm-embowered.
A lovely country lies about it, dipping to a fertile
valley on one side, and stretching on the other level
and far, with an outlook to yet farther hills.

On the chilly April eve when Egeria and her
father walked aimlessly away from the station up
into the village, it did not wear the welcome it gives

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 129

the summer visitor. Here and there a lamp pierced
the gathering night, and about the stores and post-
office there was a languid stir ; but the houses
darkled away into the gloom of the country. A
wind was rising ; it took the elms over the street,
and swung their long, pendulous boughs about under
the sky, dully luminous with the coming storm.

The doctor had seemed carelessly indifferent
about all that had happened ; indeed, scarcely cog-
nizant of it. He looked vaguely round as they
passed through the space in front of the hotel.
" Where are you going, Egeria ? " he asked.
" I don't know. We have no money."
" No money ? "

" You gave me the money, and I put it into my
bag that was carried off on the train to Portland."

" Ah, true, true," responded her father, as if he
granted the trivial point for argument's sake. He
added, with a sort of philosophical interest in the
fact, " Well, we are beggars now, — houseless beg-
gars, who don't know how to beg ! Yet I have no
doubt there are doors enough on this street that
would fly open at our touch, if it were known that
we were without shelter and in need. Where shall
we apply, my dear ? "

" Oh, I don't know, — I don't know."
"All the houses seem dark," mused Boynton
aloud. " If we rang, and made them the trouble
of lighting hall and parlor lamps in the belief we
were visitors, it would have a bad effect. We will
stop at the first house where we seie a light at the

9

130 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

front windows." But when tliey came to such a
house, it seemed too brightly lighted, and they
walked wearily by. At last, they paused before a
door where the illumination was neither too brill-
iant nor too faint ; and while they stood question-
ing themselves as to the form of their petition,
the lamp at the window was suddenly blown out.
They did not speak, but turned and kept on their
way. They had passed through the denser part of
the village, and the houses began to straggle at
wider and wider intervals along the road. Pres-
ently they found themselves in the open country,
between meadows and fields, with what seemed a
long stretch of forest in front of them. But before
they reached it they came to a wayside country
store, in front of which they halted.

" I have an idea, Egeria," said her father. " 1
will step into this store and pledge your ring for a
night's lodging."

" Well," said Egeria, yielding it with dull indif-
ference. She went with him to the door, and lin-
gered there while he addressed the man behind the"
counter with his airy flourish. It required time for
the situation to make itself intelligible. Then the
man took the ring extended to him, and looked
coldly, not at it, but at Boynton. When the rus-
tic leisure of the establishment had gathered itself
about the transaction, he returned it. " I ain't no
goldsmith," he said.

" I beg your pardon ? " queried Boynton.

The man lifted his voice : " May be it 's gold,
and may be it 's brass."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 131

"Brass?"

" Well, you 'd ought to know. Anyhow, I guess
■we can't trade." The spectators admired a fellow
citizen's cool ability to deal with a confidence man.
Boynton turned away with dignity, and addressed
a young fellow in the group. "Can you tell me,"
he said politely, " my shortest way to Ayer Junc-
tion ? I was brought here by mistaking the down-
ward for the upward train, at that point." The
listeners grinned at the shallow imposture, but the
young man answered civilly that if he was going
to walk he had better take the road to Vardley,
keeping due northward on that street. He came
to the door to be more explicit, and, throwing it
open, discovered Egeria to the others.

" Funny pair of tramps," said one of them, loud
enough for the wanderers to hear.

" I guess they ain't any tramps,^'' said the store-
keeper, darkly.

" Why ? " asked the other.

" Well, I guess they ain't tramps," repeated the
man in authority. His success in coping with
Boynton made the rest feel that he had a meaning
withheld for the present from regard for the pub-
lic good ; they kept silent ; his interlocutor spread
out his hands as in an act of submission above the
stove. He did not speak again, but after a while
another took up the word.

" They say them Shakers at Vardley keeps a
house a puppose for lodgin' tramps," he said, hold-
ing his knee between his clasped hands, as he sat,

132 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

and striking the heel of his boot against the side of
the stove.

Another silence followed, while a lounger on the
other side of the stove worked his lips for expec-
toration against the iron ; but it was too lukewarm
to hiss.

" The old gentleman can put up with 'em, and
heep his ring, if he steps along pretty spry. 'T ain't
more 'n about five mile, is it, Parker?"

After a decent pause, " Well, I don't know what
the country 's comin' to," sighed a local pessimist.

" Oh, I guess it '11 all come out right in the end,"
returned a local optimist. This put the pessimist
down ; the talk had wandered from horses, at Boyn-
ton's appearance, and now it reverted to horses.

The young fellow who had gone to the door with
Dr. Boynton did not return within ; he walked a
little way up the street with him and Egeria, and
recollected to warn them about a turning to the
right which they were not to take. When he
parted with them at a corner, he stood and gazed
after them, with perhaps a kindly impulse in his
heart fainting through bashfulness and doubt, while
they held their way till they drew near the edge of
the forest. It looked black and dreadful under the
darkened sky ; they stopped before reaching it at a
little house which stood upon its borders.

" We must ask here," said Egeria desperately.
" Well, you ask, then, my dear," said her father.
" They won't deny a woman."

Egeria knocked, and after a long interval the

THE UXDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 133

light from the rear of the house disappeared, and,
the door being opened, was held scarily aloft above
the head of an elderly woman who surveyed them
with an excited face.

Egeria briefly told her story, and ended with a
prayer for a night's shelter. " Just let us sit by
your fire. We won't trouble you, and in the morn-
ing we will go on."

The woman did not change countenance. " You
hain't any of them that 's escaped from the re-
form school?" she demanded, in a high, frightened
voice.

Egeria again explained their case. " I don't
know where the reform school is. This is my fa-
ther, and we are honest people I " she added indig-
nantly.

" Well," said the woman, in the same key as be-
fore, and clinging to her preconception, " I guess
you better go back. The off'cers is sure to catch

you."

" Oh, and won't you let us in ? "

" Why, I could n't, you know, — I could n't. You
just keep right along. It 's early yet, and there 's
a tavern up this road, — well, it ain't more 'n four
mile, if it 's that ; you can put up there."

" Is this the road to Vardley ? " asked Boynton.

"Yes, yes, — straight along," said the woman,
who had been making the aperture between them
smaller and smaller: she now finally closed the door
with a quick bang, and bolted it.

"What shall we do ? " whispered Egeria.

134 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I don't know," her father faltered, in reply.

" Let us go back to the station," said the girl.
" They will let us stay there, and then in the morn-
ing we can take the train — Oh, but we have n't
any money to pay our way back ! " She broke out
into a wild sobbing.

" Don't cry, don't cry," said her fathei*, sooth-
ingly. " "We will walk on. Some one must receive
us. Or, if not, we can't starve in a single night,
and at this season we can't perish of cold." As
they resumed their way, something struck lightly
in their faces. " Rain ? " said Boynton, stretching
out his hand.

" No," answered Egeria, " snow."

Neither spoke as they entered the deep shadow
of the forest, which in this part of Massachusetts
covers miles of country, where the farmer has ceased
to coax his wizened crops from the sterile soil and
has abandoned it in despair to the wilderness from
which his ancestors conquered it.

The road before the wanderers began to whiten.
" Oh, when shall we come to a house ? " moaned
the girl, shrinking closer to her father, and clinging
more heavily to his arm.

She started at the sound of voices and the red
glare that came from a sheltered hollow of the
woods beside the valley into which the road de-
scended. Around a large fire crouched a party of
tramps : one held a tilted bottle to his mouth, and
another clutched at it ; the rest were shouting and
singing. As Egeria and her father came into the

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 135

range of the firelight, the men saw them. They
yelled to them to stop and have a drink. The one
who had the bottle snatched up a brand from the
fire with his left hand and ran towards them. His
foot must have caught in some root or vine ; he
fell, rolling over his bottle and torch, and while he
screamed out that he was burning up, and the rest
rushed upon him with laughter for his mishap and
curses for the loss of his bottle, Egeria and her
father fled into the shadows beyond the light.

Terror gave her force, but when she felt herself
safe her strength began to fail.

" I can't go any farther," she said, releasing her
hand from her father's arm, and sinking upon the
wayside bank. " We will wait here till morning."

He made her no answer, but stood looking uj)
and down the road. " Egeria," he said at last, " I
fancy that it 's lighter ahead of us than it is behind,
and that we 're near the edge of the woods. Try
to come a few steps farther." He lifted her to her
feet, and they moved painfully forward. It was as
he said : in a little whilet he woods broke away on
either hand, and they stood in the middle of cross-
roads ; on one corner was a house. But as they
drew near the verge of the open, the sound of
voices stayed them ; they were the voices of young
men and young girls laughing and calling to one
another, as they issued from this house on the
corner. " It 's a school-house," said her father ;
"they 've had some sort of frolic there."

" Well, you won't get the Unabridged for spell-

136 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

ing merry^ Jim ! " shouted one of the youths to an-
other.

"Oh, how does he spell it?" cried one of the
girls.

" He spells it M-a-r-y ! "

The laugh that followed repeated itself in the
woods.

" That 's a good joke for hoot-owls ! " retorted
some one who might be Jim.

" A spelling match," Boynton interpreted.

A noise of joyous screaming and scuffling came
from within the house as a light was quenched
there, with cries of " I should think you 'd be
ashamed ! " and " Now, you stop ! " and the like ;
and a bevy of young people came scurrying from
the door.

" Hello ! " shouted one of the young men, " what
about the books ? "

"I don't know," answered another. " Guess no-
body '11 hurt the books before morning."

" I wish they 'd steal mine ! " said the gay voice
of a girl.

" But the fire, — we 've left a roaring fire."

" Well, let it burn the old thing down."

" All right ! "

They hurried forward, shouting to the party
ahead, who answered with a medley of derisive
noises.

When they were all gone, and their voices had
died away, the wanderers crept to the door of the
school-house, which they tried anxiously. It opened,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 137

and they entered. A gush of mellow light from
the stove door, left open to let the fire die soon,
softly illumined the interior. They drew some
benches close to the stove, and sank away from the
sense of all their misery.

X.

The last thing of which Egeria had been aware
before she fell asleep was her own shadow thrown
by the firelight against the school-house door. She
thought it was this when she looked again. But
the door melted away from around the shadow, and
the shadow took feature and expression. Rousing
herself with a start, she saw that it was a young
girl, cloaked and hooded, standing in the open door-
way. The pale, bluish light of a snowy morning
filled the school-room. The girl stood still, and
looked at Egeria with a stony gaze of fear. The
past came back to her; the situation realized itself.
Her father, a shabby, disreputable heap of crumpled
clothing and tumbled hair, was still asleep ; her
own beautiful hair had fallen down her shoulder.

" We will go, — we will go," she whispered to
the girl in the door-way, with a face as frightened
as her own. " It 's my father. We were walking
to Vardley ; we did n't know where we were, and
we found the school-house door unlocked, and we
came in." She caught at the wandering coils of
her hair, and twisted them into place, and tied on
her bonnet.

The girl in the door-way looked as if she would

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 139

like to run away, but she came in, gasping, and
shut the door behind her. " You 're not tramps ? "
she made out to ask.

" Oh, no, no, no ! " replied Egeria, and she inco-
herently poured out the story of their misadvent-
ure.

The other girl drew a long breath. " And you
were going to Vardley Station ? "

" Yes."

" That 's more than three miles from here."
Egeria did not say anything, but she turned to wake
her father. " Oh, don't wake him ! " cried the
other girl, with a new start of terror, and a partial
flight towards the door. " I mean," she added,
coming back with a blush, " let him sleep. I —
I 'm the teacher ; and I 've come to build the fire.
You can warm by it before you go. The scholars
won't be here yet for an hour." Every word was
visibly a conquest from fear, a fulfillment of duty.

The teacher took off her water-proof, the hood of
which she had drawn up over her head, and showed
herself a short, plain girl, with a homely face full of
sense and goodness. Her hair, cut short, clung
about her large head in tight rings. She looked at
Egeria's ethereal beauty and the masses of her hair,
not enviously, but with a kind of compassionate ad-
miration.

The fire had gone down in the stove, and there
was still imbedded in the ashes a line of live embers
keeping the shape of the original maple stick. She
raked the coals forward, laid on some splinters and

140 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

bark, and then logs, and closed the door ; the fire
shouted and roared witlnn.

The teacher sat down on a bench across the stove
from Egeria, took into her lap the tin pail she had
brought with her, and raised the lid, discovering
a smaller pail within, packed round with pieces of
mince-pie, doughnuts, and biscuit with slices of cold
meat between the buttered halves. She lifted this
out, and set it on the stove ; she tore some leaves
out of a copy-book, and laying them on the iron put
the slices of pie on them. She did not say anything
to Egeria, who had no authority to interfere with
her proceedings. " I 'm sorry it is n't coffee," she
said, looking into the pail on the stove ; " but I
can't drink coffee; so it 's only cracked cocoa. Now
wake him."

But the stir of garments, the low voices, and the
fragrant smell of the cocoa and mince-pie had al-
ready roused Boynton. He lifted himself, looked
at Egeria, and stared at the teacher, to whom
presently he made a courteous bow. She replied
by pouring some of the cocoa into a saucer, which
she took from the bottom of the larger pail, and
handing it to him.

" I beg your pardon ? " he said sweetly.

" There 's another saucer," said the teacher eva-
sively ; " but you '11 have to eat your pie out of
them afterwards."

Her father saw Egeria supplied with cocoa, and
tlien drank with the simple greed of a cliild.

"This — this lady is the teacher, father," said

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 141

Egeria. Boynton, brightened by his draught, bowed
again, and the teacher gravely acknowledged his
salutation. " I 've told her how we came here."

" Yes, yes," said Boynton ; " most disagreeable
coincidence. I can assure you that in a somewhat
checljered career I have never met with a more
painful experience. At times, really I have hardly
been able to recognize my own indentit3\ But it 's
well for once, no doubt, to find ourselves in the
position in which we have often contemplated
others."

The teacher took the pie from the smoking paper
and slid a piece into each saucer. " I presume it
isn't very wholesome," she said, "but I 've heard
that Mr. Emerson says, if you will eat it, you 'd
best eat it for breakfast, so that you can have the
whole day to digest it in."

" Emerson," said the doctor, receiving his saucer
with one hand, while he opened his handkerchief
and spread it on his knees with the other, " is a
very receptive mind. I fancy that there is a social
principle in these matters which is n't clearly as-
certained yet. Where whole communities eat pie,
as ours do, there must be an unconscious coopera-
tive force in its digestion."

The teacher looked at him, but answered nothing.

" I 'm afraid," said Egeria ruefully, " that it 's
your dinner."

" The children always want me to eat part of
theirs," the teacher explained. " I could n't think
of your asking at a house for your breakfast. The

142 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

country is overrun with tramps, and they might
suppose " — She stopped and blushed, and then
she added with rigid self-justice, " Well, I don't
know as it was so strange I should."

" No," said Egeria, " you could n't have thought
anything else. That 's what they took us for every-
Avhere." She spoke with patience and without
bitterness, but she did not eat her breakfast with
the hungry relish of the outcast she had been mis-
taken for.

The teacher sat looking at them, and a new sense
of their forlornness seemed to flash upon her.
" Why, you have no outside things !"

" No," said Egeria ; " they all went off on the
train we lost."

The teacher said, like one thinking aloud, " If
you are not telling me the truth about yourselves,
it will be your loss, and not mine." Then she
added, " I don't want you should try to walk to
Ayer ; it would kill you, in this snow. You must
take the cars at Vardley Station." She drew out
her purse. " There," she said, handing Egeria some
bits of scrip, " it 's ten cents apiece to the Junction ;
and here," she continued, thriftily putting the bis-
cuit together in a scrap of paper, " is something
for your lunch on the cars."

Egeria made no reply. From time to time she
had lapsed from all apparent sense of what was go-
ing on. She now looked blankly at the teacher.

Her father was not so helpless. " JNIy dear young
lady," he exclaimed, "you are perfectly right in

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 143

your estimate of the consequences and penalties !
If we were deceiving you, we sliould be the suf-
ferers, and not you. There is a law in these things
which no individual will can abrogate. In the end,
truth and good always triumph." He had finished
his pie, and he now took a draught of cocoa.
" Have you many pupils ? " he asked.

"No," replied the teacher, " not many. The old
people say there used to be forty or fifty, but now
there are only sixteen."

Boynton shook his head. " Yes, it is this uni-
versal tendency to the cities and the large towns
which is ruining us. Well, Egeria, shall we be
going? " He had eaten and drunken to his appar-
ent refreshment, and he was now ready to push on.

Egeria cast a look out of the window, and rose
languidly.

" I 'd ask you to stay," said the teacher, taking
note of her weariness, " but the children will be
coming very soon, and " —

" Oh, no, no ! we could n't stay. We must go."

The teacher took down her water-proof from the
peg on which she had hung it, and, eying it a mo-
ment thoughtfully, handed it to Egeria. " I want
you should wear this. You '11 take your death if
you go out that way. You can give it to the de-
pot man at Vardley Station, and tell him it 's Miss
Thorn's. He '11 send it back by the stage this af-
ternoon, and I '11 get it in plenty of time." Egeria
did not reply, but stood looking at the teacher with
a jaded and wondering regard.

144 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

"I will take it for her, Miss Thorn," said the
doctor, advancing with a sprightly air, and receiv-
ing the cloak. " I will see that it is duly returned.
And let me thank you," he added, " for your kind-
ness at a time when, really, we should have been
embarrassed without it. My name is Boynton, —
Dr. Boynton. Though you can scarcely have heard
of it."

" No," said the teacher, reluctantly, but firmly.

" Ah ! " returned the doctor. But he did not
attempt to enlighten her ignorance. He said,
" Come, Egeria," and led the w^ay to the door.
The girl turned and looked vaguely at the teacher ;
but no words of farewell or of thanks passed be-
tween them.

The doctor issued cheerfully, even gayly, from
the school-house door. The wind had changed,
and was blowing from the south. Whiffs of white
cloud were sailing far overhead in the vast expanse
of blue, from which poured a mellow sunshine.
The snow, translucent in the light, and dark blue
in the shadow, clung lazily to the trees and the
eaves, from which at times the breeze detached it,
and tossed it away in soft, large clots. Some un-
seen crows made themselves heard in the distance ;
near by, on the fence, a little bird stooped and
sang.

" A bluebird ! " cried Boynton.

" Yes," answered the teacher ; " there were a
good many yesterday, before the weather changed.
Robins, too."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 145

He made her an airy bow, and Egeria looked
back at her over her shoulder as they walked out
into the road. " Why, the snow-plow has gone
by ! " he exclaimed, with simple delight in the
effect, and the teacher saw him stop and point out
to Egeria the drift, massively broken, and flung
on either side in moist blocks by the plow. She
watched them from the school-house door- way till a
turn of the road hid them from sight. Then she
went within, and cast a doubtful glance at the peg
where her water-proof had hung. But her face
changed as her eye fell to the staunch and capacious
rubber-boots standing in order below the peg. " I
don't believe that girl had the sign of a rubber ! "
she mused aloud, in the excess of her compassion.

10

XL

The adventure of the day before and the exer-
cise of their night-walk, with the good breakfast he
had eaten, seemed to have brightened Boynton past
recollection of all the soxtows he had known. He
went forward, discoursing hopefully, and develop-
ing a plan he had for leaving Egeria with her grand-
father, and returning to this region in order to look
up the Shaker community, with which he intended
to unite for the purpose of spiritual investigation
on the true basis. For some time he did not ob-
serve that she responded more languidly and indif-
ferently than her wont ; then he asked abruptly,
" What is the matter, Egeria ? "

" I don't know. Nothing. I am not very well."

" You ought to be, in such air as this. Let me
see." He caught up her wrist. " Rather a quick
pulse ; it may be the walking. Are you hot? "

" My feet are cold, — they 're wet."

He looked down at her shoes, and shook his head
in a perplexed fashion. " We must stop somewhere
and dry your feet."

"• They would n't let us," said Egeria, in a dull
way.

" We will stop at that tavern. Perhaps we can

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 147

get a lift there with some one going to tlie station."
He took her hand under his arm, and helped her
on. She did not complain, nor did she show any-
increasing weariness.

They had been passing through a long reach of
woodland that stretched away on either side of the
road, when they came to a wide, open plateau, high
and bare. It looked old, and like a place where
there had once been houses, though none were now
in sight ; from time to time, in fact, the ruinous
traces of former habitations showed themselves by
the wayside. A black fringe of pines and hem-
locks bordered the plain where it softly rounded
away to the eastward ; a vast forest of oak and
chestnut formed its w'estern boundary. At its
highest point they came in sight of a house on its
northern slope, a large, square mansion of brick ;
an enormous elm almost swept the ground with its
boughs, on its eastern side ; before it stood an old-
fashioned sign-post, and westward, almost in the
edge of the forest, lay its stabling.

" That must be the tavern," said Boynton, in-
stinctively making haste towards it. As they drew
near, they saw a light buggy standing at the door,
and a man who seemed to unite the offices of host
and ostler holding the horse by the head. ■ He
turned from smoothing the animal's nose, and
called to some one within, " Come, hurry up, in
there ! " A red-faced man, in the faded and mis-
shapen clothes which American manufacture and
the clothing store supply to our poor country-folks,

148 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

issued from the door, wiping his mouth on the back
of his hand, and slouched a^Yay down the road.
Then a girl, dressed in extreme fashion, of the sort
that never convinces of elegance, nor ever mistakes
itself for it, with her large hands cased in white
gloves, came out and waited to be helped into the
buggy. The thick, hard bloom on her somewhat
sunken cheeks was incomparably artificial, till the
dyed mustache of the man following her showed
itself ; this was of a purple so bold that if his hair
had been purple too, and not of a light sandy color,
it could not have looked falser. They had a little
squabble, half jocose, which the man at the horse's
head admired, before he lifted her to the seat. The
landlord handed him the reins.

" Well, give us another call, Bob," he said.

The other looked at him over his dyed mustache
without answering, while the girl stared round with
her wild black eyes, as if startled at finding herself
perched so high up in the light of day. Both at the
same time caught sight of Boynton and Egeria, who
fell behind her father as he approached the door-
way. The man leaned toward the girl and whis-
pered something to her, at which she gave him a
push and bade him stop his fooling.

" Can I get a conveyance here to carr}'" us to
Vardley Village ? " asked Boynton, accosting the
landlord.

" I don't know," answered the man, looking
doubtfully at the doctor and Egeria. He turned
his back on them in the manner of some rustics

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 149

who wish to show a sovereign indifference, and
made a pace or two towards the door, before he
half faced them again.

" Well, good-by, Tommy ! " said the man in the
buggy, drawing his reins, and then checking his
horse. " Look here, will you ? "

The landloi'd went back, and the man leaned
over the side of the buggy and said something in
a low tone.

" No ! " cried the landlord.

" Bet you anything on it ! " said the man. " Get
up ! " He drove awa3\

" Come in," said the landlord to the doctor, "and
I '11 see."

Egeria shrunk from following her father, who
was mechanically obeying, and murmured some-
thing about walking.

" Oh, come in, come in ! " said the landlord, more
eagerly. " I guess I can manage for you. Come
in and rest ye, any way."

" Come, Egeria," said her father.

The landlord was a short, stout man, with a
shock of iron-gray hair and a face of dusky red,
coarse and harsh ; his blood-shot eyes wandered
curiously over Egeria's figure. He led the way
into the parlor of the tavern, which within had an
air of former dignity, as if it had not been built for
its present uses. The hall was wide and the stair-
case fine ; the chimney-piece and wooden cornice
of the parlor showed the nice and patient carpentry
of seventy-five years ago. There was a fire in the

150 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

slieet-iron stove on tlie hearth, and the lady who
had just driven off in the buggy had left proof of a
decided taste in perfumes. If Egeria had liked she
might have dressed her hair at the glass in which
this person had surveyed the effect of her paint,
with the public comb and brush on the table be-
fore it. There were some claret-colored sporting
prints on the wall, and some tattered, thumb-worn
illustrated papers on the centre-table.

" I '11 tell ye what," said the landlord, who had
briefly disappeared after showing them into this
room, and had now returned, " I hain't got any
boss in now, but I '11 have one in in about an hour,
and then I '11 set ye over to Vardley."

" What will you charge? " asked the doctor.

" It ain't a-goin' to cost ye much. I d' know as
I '11 ask ye anything. I 'ra goin' there, any way ;
and I guess we can ride three on a seat."

Boynton expressed a flowery sense of this good-
ness, but said that they should insist npon paying
him for his trouble. Egeria had dropped into the
rocking-chair beside the window, and, propping her
arm on the window-sill, supported her averted face
on her hand. Her head throbbed, and the thick,
foul sweetness of the air made her faint ; the glare
of the sun from the snow and gathering pools beat
into her heavy eyes.

" Does your head ache ? " asked her father.

" Yes," she gasped.

" I '11 send in some tea," said the landlord.

A black man brought it ; there seemed to be no
women about the house.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 151

The landlord went and came often ; through her
pain and lethargy, the ghl had a dull sense of his
vigilance. Her father found her feverish, and no
better for the tea she drank. He fretted and re-
pined at her condition, and then he grew tired of
looking at her pale face fallen against the chair
back, and her closed eyes, that trembled under their
lids, and now and then sent out a gush of hot tears.
He went into the other room, where the landlord
sat with his boots on the low, cast-iron stove, and
a white-nosed bull-dog slept suspiciously in a corner.
As the time passed, different people appeared within
and without the tavern. A man in a blood-stained
over-shirt drove a butcher's wagon to the door ; a
tall man, in a silk hat, came with a fish cart painted
black and varnished. With a blithe jingle of bells,
a young fellow rattled up with a cracker wagon,
and having come in for the landlord's order — the
landlord did not find it necessary to take down his
feet from the stove, or to disturb the angle at which,
his hat rested on his head, during the transaction — -
lie danced a figure on the painted floor, and caressed
the bull-dog with the toe of his boot. " Next time
you put up Pete," he said, " I want to bring my
brother's brindle. I want him to wear the belt a
spell. Pete must be gittin' tired of it. Well, I
would n't ever said a dog-fight could be such fun,"
he added, with an expression of agreeable reminis-
cence. " And the old ball-room 's just the place for
it." He spat on the stove, and taking under his
arm the empty cracker box, which he had just re-

152 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

jjlaced on its shelf with a full one, he went out as
he had come in, without saluting the landlord. He
stopped at the open door of the parlor, and catching
sight of Egeria made her a bow of burlesque devo-
tion, and turned to include the landlord in the fun
with a parting wink.

Egeria had not seen him ; her eyes were closed ;
and her father, where he sat in the office, was look-
ing impatiently out of the window. The sky had
begun to thicken again.

" Do you think it 's going to rain ? " he asked,
when the cracker wagon had jingled away.
" Should n't wonder," said the landlord.
" I hope yovu- conveyance will be here soon," pur-
sued the doctor. " I 'm anxious, on my daughter's
account, not to miss the train from Vardley that
connects with the Portland express."

" Daughter, eh ? " said the landlord, with a cer-
tain intonation ; but Dr. Boynton observed nothing
strange in it.

" How soon do you think your horse will be
here ? " he asked.

"I can't tell ye," said the landlord doggedly.
" You did tell me," retorted Boynton, " that it
would be here in less than an hour. You have de-
tained us that time already, and now you say you
don't know how much longer I must wait."

" Now, look here," began the other, taking down
his feet from the stove.

" I wish to pay you for what accommodation we
have had. I wish to go," said the doctor, angrily.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 153

" I don't want ye should go ! " replied the other,
"with a stupid air of secrecy.

" I 've nothing to do with that," said the doctor.
" I am going. Here is the money for your tea."
He flung upon the counter the pieces of scrip which
the school-teacher had given him.

The landlord rose to his feet. " Ye can't go. I
might as well have it out first as last. Ye can't go."

" Can't go ? You 're ridiculous ! " Boynton ex-
claimed. " What 's the reason I can't go ? "

" Well, you can go, but the girl can't, — not till
the off'cers comes. I mean to say," he added, at
Dr. Boynton's look of amaze, " that she 's no more
your daughter than she is mine. I d' know where
you picked her up, but she 's one of the girls that 's
escaped from the reform school, and she 's goin'
back there as soon as the off'cers gets here. That 's
what 's the matter."

" And do you mean to say that you are going to
detain us here against our will ? "

" I don't know what you call it. I 'm going to
keep you here." He had planted his burly bulk in
the door- way leading into the hall.

" Stand aside," said Boynton, " or I '11 take you
by the throat."

" I guess not," returned the landlord coolly.
" Pete ! " The brute in the corner had opened his
whitish, cruel eyes at the sound of angry voices.
" Watch him ! " The dog came and lay down at
his master's feet, with his face turned toward Boyn-
ton. " There ! I guess you won't take anybody by

154 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the throat much I " The man resumed his chair,
•which he tilted back against the counter at its
former comfortable angle.

Boynton quivered with helpless indignation. " Is
it possible," he exclaimed, *' that an outrage like this
can be perpetrated at high noon in the heart of
Massachusetts ? "

" That 's about the size of it," returned the land-
lord, with a grin of brutal exultation.

" I must submit," said the doctor. " But you
shall answer for this." The man was silent, and
the doctor fancied tliat he might perhaps be relent-
ing. He poured out a recital of the whole misad-
venture that had ended in their coming to his door,
and appealed to him not to detain them. " My
daughter has been sick, and she is now far from
well. I am most anxious to pursue our journey.
We have no friends in this region, and we are out
of money. Let us go, now, and I will consent to
overlook this outrageous attempt upon our liberty.
If we lose the train this afternoon, she may suffer
very seriously from the delay and the disappoint-
ment."

" She '11 be all right when she gets back to the
reform school," answered the landlord, as if bored
by the long story.

Boynton's self-command failed him. He burst
into tears. " My God ! " he sobbed, " have I fallen
so low as this ? — impostor, and tramp, and beggar,
and now the captive, the slave, of this ruffian ! It 's
too much ! What have I done, — what have I

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 155

done ! " He hid his face in his hands, and bowed
himself abjectly forward in the chair into which he
had sunk.

Some one drove up to the door, and shouted
from the outside, " Hello ! "

The landlord rose, and saying to his dog, " Stay
there," went out to the door, and after a ba*ief
parley came in again with two other men. Their
steps sounded as if they went to the door of the
parlor and looked in, while their voices sank to
rapid whispers. In his agony of anxiety, Boynton
made an involuntary movement forwards ; the dog
growled and crept nearer. He was helpless ; but
the steps returned to the outer door, and there a
voice said, " No, I don't want to see A^m, as long
as 't ain't the girl. Somebody 's made a dumn fool
of ?/0M, Harris, and you 've made dumn fools of us.
Guess 3^ou better wait a while, next time."

The landlord came sulkily back, and sat down in
his chair, which he tilted against the counter as be-
fore. Boynton suffered some time to elapse before
he asked, " Well, sir, do you mean to let us go? "

"Who 's henderin' you? " sullenly demanded the
landlord, without moving.

" Then call away your dog."

The landlord refused, out of mere brutish wan-
tonness, to comply at once ; but he presently did so,
and followed Boynton to the parlor. Then, accord-
ing to Boynton's report, ensued a series of those
events of wdiich the believers in such mysteries
fiercely assert the reality, and of which others as

156 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

strenuously deny the occurrence. The sky dark-
ened ; there was a noise like the straining of the
brandies of the elms beside the house ; but there
was no wind, and the boughs were motionless.
Presently this straining sound, as if the fibres were
twisting and writhing together, was heard in the
wood- work of the room.

"What the hell is that?" cried the landlord.
The room was full of it, whatever it was; every
part of the wood-work — doors, window casings,
cornice, Avainscot — was now voluble with a muf-
fled detonation.

" Wait ! " Boynton answered. The sound beat
like rain-drops on the floor, at which the landlord
stared, with the dog whimpering at his heels. Ege-
ria lay white and still in the rocking-chair by the
window. At the sound of their voices she stirred
and moaned ; then, as Boynton asserted, they saw
the marble top of the centre-table lifted three thnes
from its place ; a picture swung out from the wall,
as if blown by a strong gust; and the brush from
the table was flung across the room, flying close to
the dog's head ; with a howl, he fled out-of-doors.

" For God's sake, man, what is it ? " gasped the
landlord, seizing Boynton's arm, and cowering close
to him.

" I forgive you, I bless you ! " cried the other,
rapturously. " It was from your evil that this
good came. It 's a miracle ; it 's — it 's the pres-
ence of the dead."

"No, no!" protested the landlord. "I've kept

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 157

a hard place ; there 's been drinkin' and fancy folks ;
but there hain't been no murder, — not in my time.
I can't answer for it before that ; they always tell
about killin' peddlers in these old houses. Oh !
Lord have mercy ! " A flash of red light filled the
world, and a rending burst of thunder made the
house shake. The electricity appeared to rise from
the ground, and not to come from the clouds ; it
was, as sometimes happens, a sole discharge. The
landlord turned, and followed his dog out-of-doors.
The negro was already there, looking up at the
house.

Egeria started from her chair. " Did you will
it, father, — did you will it?" she implored, at
sight of Dr. Boynton's wild face.

" No ; it has come without motion of mine," he
answered with a solemn joy. " I have never seen
or heard anything like it." He looked round the
room, in which an absolute silence now prevailed.

The girl shuddered. " I have had a horrible
dream. The house seemed full of drunken men —
and women — like that girl in the buggy ; and we
could n't get away, and you could n't get to me,
and — oh ! " She shook violently, and hurried on
her hat and water-proof. " Come ! I can't breathe
here."

As they passed out the landlord made no motion
to detain them ; he even shrank a few paces aside.
When Boynton looked back from the next turn of
the road, he saw him walking to and fro before the
tavern, looking up now and then at its front, and

158 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

taking unconsciously tlie cold rain that laslied his
own face as he turned eastward again. He was in
a frame of high exultation ; he shouted in talk with
Egeria, who scarcely answered, as she pressed for-
ward with her head down.

The snow dissolved under the ram and flooded
the road, in which they waded, plunging on and on.
They came presently to a lonely country grave-
yard, where the soaked pines and spruces dripped
upon the stones, standing white and stiffly upright
where they were of recent date, and where dark-
ened with the storms of many seasons slanting in
various degrees of obliquity to a fall. Here was
one of those terrible little houses in which the
hearse, the bier, and the sexton's tools are kept ;
Boynton tried the door, and when it yielded to his
battering he called to his daughter to take shelter
with him there.

" No ! " she shouted back to him, " I would
rather die ! " She pushed, she knew not whither,
down the road that wound into a stretch of pine
forest, and he must needs follow her. At last they
came to a hollow through which a brook, swollen
by the snow and rain, rolled a yellow torrent.
They stopped at the brink in despair; there was
no house in sight, but on a knoll near by the trees
stood so thick that the rain-fall was broken by the
densely interwoven boughs.

The doctor led Egeria to this shelter, and placed
her in the dryest spot ; he felt her shiver, and heard
her teeth chatter, as the waves of cold swept over

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 159

her. He left her fallen on the brown needles, and
went and tried the depth of the stream with a stick;
the rain dripped from him everywhere, — from his
elbows, from the rim of his silk hat, and from the
point of his nose ; he looked at once weird and
grotesque.

" Heh ! " cried a loud Yoice behind him. In a
covered wagon crouched the figure of a young man
in manifold caj)es and wraps of drab and blue, un-
der the sweep of a very wide-brimmed hat. He
had almost driven over Boynton. " Tryin' for
w^ater, with a hazel-rod ? Guess you '11 find it most
anywheres to-day."

The voice was pleasant, and Boynton, looking
up, confronted a cheery face in the wagon. " I was
seeing if it was too deep to cross."

" 'T ain't for the horses," said their driver. " Get
in." He moved hospitably to one side. " You
can't make me any wetter."

" Thank you," said Boynton. " I have my daugh-
ter here under the pines."

" Your daughter ? " The young man in the
wagon looked at first puzzled, and then, as he
craned his neck round the side of the curtain and
saw the little cowering heap which was Egeria,
he looked daunted, but he only said, " Bring her,
too."

Boynton gathered her into his arms, and placed
her on the seat between him and the driver. " We
were going to Vardley Station," he explained. " Is
this the way? "

160 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" It 's one way," said the other, driving through
the torrent. " But I guess you better stop with
us till the rain 's over. We '11 be home in half a
mile."

" You are very good," said Boynton, looking at
him. " We must push on. We must get back to
the Junction in time for the Portland express." He
once more gave the facts of their mischance.

When he had ended, " Oh, yee," said the other ;
" you are the friend that was speakin' to some of
our folks at the Junction."

The doctor started. " Your folks ? What are
you ? "

" Shakers."

"Egeria! Egeria ! " shouted her father. "I
have found them ! This gentleman is a Shaker !
He is taking us to the community ! I accept, sir,
with great pleasure. I shall be glad to stop and
see more of your people. Egeria ! " She made no
answer. Her limp and sunken figure rested heav-
ily against tlie young Shaker ; her head had fallen
on his shoulder.

" / guess she 's fainted," he said.

XII.

Egeria had not fainted, but she had lapsed into
a torpor from which she could not rouse herself.
She could not speak or make any sign when her
father drew her head away from the young man's
shoulder and laid it on his own. The Shaker
chirped his reeking horses into a livelier pace, and
when he reached the office in the village he sprang
from the wagon with more alertness than could
liave been imagined of him, and ran in-doors to an-
nounce his guests.

Bi'other Humphrey and the three office sisters,^
very clean and very dry, with the warm smell of
a stove fire exhaling from their comfortable gar-
ments, received him with countenances in which
resifrnation blended with the natural reluctance of
people within to have anything to do with people
without, in such weather.

" Oh, better put them in the tramps' house,"
said Brother Humphrey, — " there 's a fire there."

1 In placing pome passages of his story among the Shakers of
an easily recognizable locality, the author has avoided the stndy of
personal traits, and he wishes explicitly to state that his Shnkers
are imaginary in ever3-thing but their truth, charity, and pnrity of
life, and that scarcely less lovable quaintuess to which no realism
could do perfect justice.
11

162 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

"Yee," consented one of the sisters, "they will
do very well there."

" They would slop everything up here," said an-
other, "and we've just been over our floors, La-
ban."

The third was silent, but she wrung her hands
in nervous anxiety, like one who would not be
selfish, and yet would like whatever advantage
may come of selfishness.

" Nay," said Laban, " they 're not tramps.
They 're the folks that Joseph and Elihu told
about meetin' yesterday. I don't know as 3'ou'd
ought to put them with the tramps. I guess the
young woman 's in a faint."

" Oh, why did n't you say so, to begin with,
Laban ? " lamented that one of the sisters who had
not yet spoken. " Of course she 's sick, and here
we 've been standin' and troublin' about our clean
floors, and lettin' her suffer. I don't see how I can
bear it."

" Oh, you '11 be over it by fall, Frances," an-
swered Laban, jocosely. Humphrey caught up a
cotton umbrella, vast enough for community use,
and weather-worn to a Shaker drab, and sallied
out to the gate. The doctor and Laban got their
benumbed burden from the wagon between them,
and carried Egeria into the house, where they were
met with remorseful welcome by the sisters. They
dispatched Brother Humphrey to kindle a fire in
the stove of the upper chamber, reserved for guests,
and into its sweet, fresh cleanliness Frances pres-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 163

ently helped Egeria, and then helped her into bed,
while the others went to make her a cup of tea.

Her father, meanwhile, had taken off his wet
clothes, and arrayed himself in a suit belonging to
one of the brethren, a much taller and a thinner
man than Boynton, who made a Shaker of novel and
striking pattern in his dress. But he beheld his
appearance in the glass, which meagrely ministered
to the vanity of the office guests, with uncommon
content, as a token that he had already entered
upon a new and final stage of investigation ; and
when his tongue had been loosed by the cup of
tea brought to him in the office parlor, he regarded
liis surroundings with as great satisfaction. This
room was carpeted, but it was like the rest of the
house in its simple white walls and its plain finish
of wood painted a warm brown ; there were braided
rugs scattered about before the stove and the large
chairs, as there were at the foot of the stair-ways,
and at the bedsides in the chambers above. Dr.
Boynton, stirring his tea, walked out into the low,
long hall, bare but not cheerless, and traversed it
to look into the room on the other side ; then he
returned to the parlor, and glanced at the books
and pamphlets on the table, — historical and doc-
trinal works relating to Shakerism, periodicals de-
voted to various social and hygienic reforms, and
controversial tracts upon points in dispute between
the community and the world ; there were several
weekly newspapers, and Boynton was turning over
one of them with the hand that had momentarily

164 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

relinquished his teaspoon when Brother Humphrey
rejoined him.

" If we could have at all helped ourselves," he
began promptly, '• I should consider our intrusion
npon you most unwarrantable ; but we had no will
in the matter."

" Nay," replied the Shaker, " it 's no intrusion.
This is not a family house. We call it the Office,
for we do our business and receive friends from the
world outside here."

" Do you mean that you keep a house of enter-
tainment ? "

" Our rule forbids us to turn any one away. Of
late years, the wayfaring poor have increased so
much that we have appointed a small house espe-
cially for them ; but we cannot put everybody
there."

" I thank you," said Boynton.

" It is not a hotel," continued Humphrey, " for
we make out no bills. All are welcome to what we
can do ; those who can pay may pay."

" I shall wish to pay, as soon as we can recover
our effects," Boynton interposed.

" Nayj I did not mean that," quietly rejoined the
Shaker. " You are welcome, whether you pay or
not."

Boynton turned from these civilities. "I am
glad to find myself here. I met two of your num-
ber yesterday, and had some conversatitm w^ith
them on a subject that vitally interests me."

"Yee, I heard," said the Shaker. "You are
spiritualists. Are you the medium ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 165

" M}' daughter is a medium, — a medium of ex-
traordinary powers, which I dare not say I have
developed, but to which I have humbly ministered ;
powers that within the last hour have received tes-
timony of the most impressive and final nature."
Brother Humphrey made no outward sign of any
inward movement that Boynton's words might have
produced, and the latter suddenly demanded, " Are
you a spiritualist ? "

" Yee," answered the Shaker, " we are all spirit-
ualists."

"Then you will be interested — you will all be
interested intensely — in the communication which
I shall have to make to your community. I wish
you to call a meeting of your people, before whom
I desire to lay some facts of the most astounding
character, and to whom I wish to propose myself
for admission to your community, in order to the
pursuance of investigations profoundly interesting
to the race."

He paused, full of repressed excitement ; but
Brother Humphrey was not moved. " There will
be a family meeting to-morrow night," he began.

" To-morrow night ! " cried Boynton. " Is it
possible that j^ou are so indifferent to phenomena
that ought to be instantly telegraphed from Maine
to California? That" —

" We have heard a good deal of the doings with
the spirits in the world outside," interrupted the
Shaker, in his turn, " and we know how often
folks are deceived in them and in themselves. If

166 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

something new and important has happened to you,
I guess it '11 keep for twenty-four hours." Brother
Humphrey smiled quaintly, and seemed to expect
his guest to take this common-sense view of the
matter.

" Oh, it will keep ! " exclaimed the doctor.
" But so would the thunder from Sinai have kept ! "
He plunged into a vivid and rapid narration of the
events of his captivity and release at the tavern.

When he paused, the Shaker replied with un-
perturbed calm: "These are things to be judged
of by the family. I cannot say anything about
them."

" Is it possible ? " demanded Boynton, in a tone
of indescribable disappointment. He seemed hurt
and puzzled. After a while he said, " I submit.
Could you let me have writing materials to take
to my room ? I wish to make some notes."

" Yee," said Humphrey.

Boynton went to his room, which was across a
passage-way from that where one of the sisters was
still busy with Egeria, and he did not reappear till
dinner, which Avas served him in the basement of
the office, in a dining-room made snug with a stove-
fire. As Boynton unfolded his napkin, " What
are your tenets ? " he abruptly demanded of the
sister who came to wait upon him.

" Tenets ? " faltered Rebecca.

" Your doctrine, your religious creed."

" We have no creed," replied the sister.

" Well, then, you have a life. What is your
life ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 167

" We try to live the angelic life," said Rebecca,
with some embarrassment : " to do as we would be
done by ; to return good for evil ; to put down self-
ishness in our hearts."

" Good, very good ! There could be no better
basis. But as a society, a community, what is
your central idea ? "

" I don't know. We neither marry nor give in
marriage."

" Yes, yes ! That is what I thought. That was
my impression. I fully approve of your system.
It is the only foundation on which a community
can rest. And to keep up your numbers you de-
pend upon converts from the world ? "

" Yee."

"But you bring up children whom you adopt ?"

« Yee."

" Do they remain with you ? "

" We have better luck with those who are gath-
ered in after middle life. The young folks — we
are apt to lose them," said the Shakeress, a little
sadly.

" I see, I see ! " returned Boynton. " You can-
not fight nature unassisted by experience. Life
must teach them something first. They fall in
love with each other ? "

" They are apt to get foolish," the sister assented.
" An'd then they run off together. That is what
hurts us. They no need to. If they would come
and tell us " —

Boynton shook his head. "Impossible! But

168 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

you have the true principle. Cehbacy is the only
hope of communism, — of advanced truth." He
ceased to question her as abruptly as he began ; but
after he had dispatched his dinner, he asked leave
to borrovi^ from the parlor a work on Shakerism
•which he had noticed there, and he again shut him-
self up in his room. That evening they heard him
restlessly walking the floor.

The sister who visited Egeria last had stood
a moment, shading her lamp with her hand and
looking down on the girl's beauty. Her yellow
hair strayed loosely out over the pillow ; her lips
were red and her cheeks flushed. The sister's
tresses had been shorn away as for the grave thirty
years before, and her face had that unearthly pallor
which the Shaker sisters share with nuns of all or-
ders. She stooped and kissed Egeria's hot cheek,
and then went down to the office sitting-room to
report her impressions to the other sisters before
they slept.

" It appears as if her father did n't want to go
to bed," said Sister Diantha, after a moment's quiet,
in which the doctor's regular tread on the floor over-
head made itself audible.

" If he 's got anything on his mind," said Sister
Rebecca, " it ain't his daughter."

" Yee, Rebecca," said Sister Frances, " you 're
right, there. I told him I thought she was going
to have a fit of sickness, but he said it wa'n't au}^-
thine: but exhaustion, and 't he 'd see after her ; 't
he was a doctor himself. To my knowledge he

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTKY. 1G9

hain't been near ber since. J think she's goin' to
have a fit of sickness."

Brother Humphrey came in from the next room
and stood by the stove. " How did you leave her,
Frances ? " he asked.

" Well, J think she 's goin' to have a fit of sick-
ness," repeated Frances.

" Well, I don't know 's you 'd have much to say
agin that, would you?" returned the brother, after
a general pause. " You hain't had a good fit of
sickness on hand for quite a spell."

The other sisters laughed. " Set down, Hum-
phrey," said Diantha, putting him a chair. The
maimer of these elderly women with Humphrey
was of a truly affectionate and sisterly simplicity,
to which he responded with brotherly frankness.

" 1 guess she ain't goin' to be very sick," re-
sumed Humphrey, making himself easy in his chair.
"Any way, we've got a doctor to prescribe for
her."

" What do you think of him, Humphrey ? "
a^ked Rebecca.

"Pretty glib," said Humphrey.

" I don't know as I ever heard better language,"
suggested Frances.

" Oh, his language is good enough," said Hum-
phrey.

" It 's quite a convert Laban 's brought us," ob-
served Diantha. " Talk of winter Shakers ! " she
continued, referring to that frequent sort of convert
whose Shakerism begins and ends with cold weather.

170 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I hain't seen any one so ready to be gathered m
for a long time."

"Yee, too ready," said Humphrey, soberly.
" That kind ain't apt to stay gathered in ; and I 'ra
about tired havin' the family fill mouths for a
month or two, and afterwards revilin's proceed out
of 'era."

" We must receive all, and try all," interposed
Frances, gently.

" Yee," sighed Humphrey.

"What do you say to his story? " asked Dian-
tha.

" I don't judge it," said the brother. " We know
that spirits do communicate with men, and miracles
happen every day. As to the doin's at the Elm
Tahvern, Harris might tell a different story."

" I should n't believe any story Harris told," said
Frances.

Humphrey smiled. " Well, I don't know as I
should, come to look at it," he admitted.

" I wish that nest could be broken up," said Re-
becca. " Tt 's a cross."

" Yee, it 's a cross," answered Humphrey. " I
most drove over a man, dead drunk, in the road
yesterday, comin' down into the Avoods, after I
passed the tahvern ; and nearly all the tramps that
come now smell of rum. The off'cers don't seem
to do anything."

" Oh, the off 'cers ! " cried Diantha.

The walking had continued regularly overhead ;
but now, after some hesitation, the steps approached

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 171

the door, which was heard to open, and they crossed
the hall to Egeria's room. From thence, after a
brief interval, they descended the stairs, and Dr.
Boynton, lamp in hand, entered the room. Tiie
sisters rose in expectation.

" I find my daughter in a fever," said Boynton,
with an absent air. " What medicines have you in
the house ? "

" We have our herbs," answered Sister Frances.

" They may be the best thing," said Boynton,
with the same abstraction, as if he were thinking
of something else at the same time. lie stood and
waited amid a general silence, till Sister Frances,
who' had gone out, reappeared with some neat pack-
ages of the medicinal herbs which the Sliakers put
up. He chose one, and asked for some water in a
tin dish in which to steep it on the stove.

" Let me do it for you," pleaded Sister Frances.
The other sisters joined in an entreaty to be allowed
to sit up with the sick girl.

" No," said Boynton. " I have always taken
care of her, and to-night at least I will watch with
her. I could n't sleep if I went to bed, but I shall
make myself easy in an arm-chair, if you '11 give me
one." Humphrey went to fetch the chair, and as
he passed the door, on his way up-stairs with it,
Boynton called out to him, " Thanks ! If her fever
increases," he continued to the sisters, " she will
wake at eleven, and then I shall give her this. I
shall need nothino; more. Good-nicht."

He went out, and Sister Frances said, with per-

172 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

Laps some sense of penalty in this loss of oppor-
tunity for nursing the girl through the night, " I
feel to say that I was hasty in judgin' on him."

" Yee," said the others. " We judged him
hastily."

" We were too swift to blame," said Humphrey,
who now returned. '• Let us remember it the next
time."

"But," added Sister Frances, "I hieiv aha was
goin' to have a fit of sickness."

The sisters took each a kerosene hand-lamp, and
passed up the bare, clean halls to their chambers.
The brother went about trying the fastenings of
the windows and the locks of the outer doors. The
time had been, before the time of tramps, when he
never turned a key at night.

In the morning Sister Frances made an early visit
to Egeria's room, and found the girl and her father
both awake. She was without fever now, but she
lay white and still in her bed, and her father stood
looking at her unhopefuUy.

Sister Frances went down to the kitchen, where
the other sisters were already busy getting Boyn-
ton's breakfast. " It 's goin' to be a fit of sickness,"
she said.

" Then she had best go to the sick-house," said
Diantha.

" Yee," added Rebecca, at a look of protest from
Frances, "that's what it's for, and she can be bet-
ter done for there. It 's noisy here."

She urged that it was noisy when they spoke,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTEY. 173

later, of Egeria's removal to Boynton, who owned
that he could not now say she would not be sick :
it was the belief of the office sisters that they lived
in the midst of excitement.

The day had broken clear, and the New Eng-
land spring was showing herself in one of her
moods of conscientious adherence to duty : she
Avould perform her part with sunshine and birds,
but she breathed cold across the brilliant landscape,
and she warned vegetation that it started at its
own risk. The Shaker village had awakened to its
round of labors and self-denials as quietly as if it
had not awakened at all. Some of the elderly, men,
with the boys and the hired hands, were at work
with the cattle in the great barns ; some were rak-
ing together the last year's decay in the garden
into heaps for burning ; some were busy in the
workshops. The women went about their wonted
cares in-doors, and there was no sign of interest in
the arrival of guests at the office. Perhaps their
presence had not been generally talked over in the
family, but had been held in reserve for formal dis-
cussion at the meeting in the evening. The office
sisters consulted with the eldress in the family house
opposite in reference to Egeria's removal, and the
infirmary was made ready for her. It was aired,
the damp was driven out by a hot fire in the stove,
and Sister Frances strove to set its order still more
in order ; a little fluff under the bed or a spot upon
the floor would have been a comfort to her ; but
everything was blamelessly, hopelessly neat. It

174 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

was not quite regular for her to take an interest in
things outside of the office, but she had been suf-
fered to do so much in consideration of her afflic-
tion at having a fit of sickness snatched from her
care, as it were, and she was allowed a controlling
voice in deciding upon the doctor's request to have
a bed put up for him in the infirmary. Such a
thing was hitherto unknown ; it was an invasion of
family bounds by the world outside ; but it stood to
reason that the girl's father had a double claim to
be as near to her as possible, and after some con-
scientious difficulty his request was granted.

While they were making ready for her, Brother
Elihu came to see him at the office, and gave him
a sort of conditional welcome. He seemed to be a
person of weight in the communit}', and after his
brief visit Boynton perceived that his standing was
more strictly probationary than before. There was
no want of kindness in Elihu's manner ; he made
several thoughtful suffijestions for the welfare and
convenience of the Boyntons ; but he had shown
no eagerness for the statement which the doctor
wished to make to the community, nor for his ideas
upon the development of spiritistic science. The
statement, he said, could be made that evening,
or at the next family meeting ; it did not matter ;
there was no haste. " Spiritualism' arose among
us ; our faith is based upon tlie fact of an uninter-
rupted revelation ; the ver}'^ songs we sing in our
meetings were communicated to us, words and
music, from the other world. We have seen much

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 175

perversion of spiritualism in tlie world outside, --
much error, much folly, much filth. If you have
new light, it will not suddenly be quenched. Rest
here a while. Our first care must be for the young
woman."

" Yes, yes ! " assented Boynton restively.

The office brothers and sisters had listened to
Elihu with evident abeyance ; only Sister Frances,
by looks and tones, expressed herself unchanged to
Boynton. As the time drew on toward evening,
and Egeria seemed to need constant watchfulness,
she offered to take his place at the infirmary, and
to let him know if he was needed at any time dur-
ing the meeting. This made it easy for him to go,
and Sister Frances established herself in attendance
upon the sick girl. She was not afterwards dis-
lodged from her place in the infirmary. There
were nurses whose duty it was to care for the sick,
but Frances clung to her patient, not in defiance,
but in a soft, elastic tenderness which served her as
well.

Dr. Boynton went to the family meeting, and re-
mained profoundly attentive to the services with
which the speaking was preceded. He saw the
sisters seated on one side of the large meeting-room,
and the brothers on the other, with broad napkins
lialf unfolded across their knees, on which they
softly beat time, with rising and falling palms, as
they sang. The sisters, young and old, all looked
of the same age, with their throats strictly hid by
the collars that came to their chins, and their close-

176 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

cropped hair covered by stiff wire-framed caps of
white gauze ; there was greater visible disparity
among the brothers, but Mieir heads were mostly
gray, though a few were still dark with youth or
middle life ; on either side there was a bench full
of sedate children.

When the singing was ended, the minister read
a chapter of the Bible, and one of the elders
prayed. Tiien a sister began a hymn, in which all
the family joined. At its close, a young girl rose
and described a vision which she had seen the night
before in a dream. When she sat down, the elders
and eldresses came out into the vacant space be-
tween the rows of men and women, and, forming
themselves into an ellipse, waved their hands up
and down with a slow, rhythmic motion, and rocked
back and forth on their feet. Then the others,
who had risen with them, followed in a line round
this group, with a quick, springing tread, and a
like motion of the hands and arms, while they sang
together the thrilling march which the others had
struck up. They halted at the end of the hymn,
and let their arms sink slowly to their sides; a
number of them took the places of those in the
midst, and the circling dance was resumed, ceasing,
and then beginning again, till all had taken part in
both centre and periphery ; the lamps quivering on
the walls, and the elastic floor, laid like that of a
ball-room, responding to the tread of the dancers.
When they went back to their seats, one woman re-
mained standing, and began to prophesy in tongues.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 177

A solemn silence followed upon her ceasing, and
then Brother Elibu rose, and said briefly that a
friend from the world outside had a statement to
make to the family, in the belief that he had ar-
rived at central truths relating to spiritualism. He
claimed to have been operating in a certain direc-
tion, "with results as striking as they were un-
expected. Elihu reminded them that as Shakers
they had not been able to maintain a cordial sympa-
thy with spiritualists in the woidd outside, who had
too often abused to love of gain and the gratifica-
tion of their pride and vanity the principle of spir-
itual communion originally revealed to Shakers.
Yet they could not in reason refuse to hear the
statement of this friend, who kad, as it were, been
providentially cast in their way, and who was ap-
parently not moved by considerations of personal
glory and profit, but who, from all he said, had
the wish to remand the science into the keeping of
Shakers, and to pursue his own investigations un-
der tlieir auspices. Elihu spoke with neatness and
point; he added some cautionary phrases against too
hasty judgment of the facts about to be offered
them, and warned them to beware of self-deception
and the illusions arising from love of the marvelous,
Avhether in their own hearts or the hearts of others.
Boynton could scarcely wait for him to have
done. " I thank the brother," he said, in rising,
"for admonishing us to beware of self-deception;
it is an evil which in an inquiry like this would
prove fatal, — wliich does prove fatal wherever it
12

178 thp: undiscovered country.

mingles with religious impulse ; it poisons, it pal-
sies, religious impulse. I have always guarded
against it with anxious care, and, though some-
times abused by the deceit of others, I have at least
no cause to accuse myself of want of vigilance con-
cerning my own impressions. I regarded with
skeptical scrutiny the first developments o£ spirit-
ualism. I had been bred in the strictest sect of the
Calvinists, from which I had revolted to the op-
posite extreme of infidelity ; I was a materialist,
believing in nothing that I could not see, hear,
touch, or taste. I rejected the notion of a Supreme
Being ; I derided the hypothesis of immortality.
The interest which I had taken in mesmerism only
intensified my contempt for the whole order of mir-
acles, in all ages. I saw the effect of mind upon
mind, of mind upon matter ; but I saw that it was
always the effect of earthly intellect upon earthly
substance. I accounted even for the wonders pei'-
formed by Christ and the Apostles by mesmerism,
acting now upon tlie subjects of their cures and re-
suscitations, and now upon the imaginations of the
spectators.

"When the new phenomena were forced upon
my attention by their prevalence in so man}'- widely
separated places, under so many widely differing
conditions, I began to study them as the effect of
mind upon inanimate matter. I did not suffer my-
self to suppose a spiritual origin for these phenom-
ena, for I would not suppose spirits. I imported
into this fresh field of research tlie strict and hard
methods with which I had wroug^ht in the old.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 179

*' My wife died during the infancy of the dangh-
tei- who is here with me now, the involuntary guest
of your hospitality, and her death was attended by
occurrences of a nature so intangible, so mysteri-
ous, so sacred, that I do not know how to shape
them in words, but regarding which I may safely
appeal to your own spiritual experience. In the
moment of her passing I was aware of something,
as of an incorporeal presence, a disembodied life,
and in that moment I believed ! I accepted the
heritage which she had bequeathed me with her
breath, and 1 dedicated the child to the study of
truth under the new light I had received.

" That child has been my mesmeric subject al-
most from her birth, and all my endeavors have
latterly been to her development as a medium of
communication with the other world. She was nat-
urally a child of gay and sunny temperament, lov-
ing the sports of children, and fond of simple,
earthly pleasures. She showed great aptness for
study, — she liked books and school ; and the ordi-
nai'y observer would have pronounced her a hope-
less subject for psychological experiment. But I
argued that if spirit was truly immortal it was im-
mutable, and that a nature like hers, warm, happy,
and loving, would have the same attraction for per-
sons in one world as in another. The event proved
that I was not mistaken ; from the first, disem-
bodied spirits showed a remarkable affinity for hers,
and the demonstrations, though inarticulate and in-
definite, were of the most unusual order. They

180 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

frightened and disturbed her, and she did all that
she could to escape from them. At different times,
indeed, she effectually rebelled against my influ-
ence ; and she was abetted in these periods of re-
volt by those who, after myself, were nearest and
dearest to her. But in the end my influence al-
ways triumphed, for she loved me with the tender
affection which her mother seemed to impart to her
with the gift of her own life. I never appealed to
this affection in vain, and I have seen her change
from a creature of robust, terrestrial tendencies to
a being of moods almost as ethereal as those of the
spirits with which it has been my struggle to asso-
ciate her.

" Her health has not always borne the strain
well, and but for my own sustaining strength it
must have given way completely. The conditions
amidst which we lived were all unfavorable. I will
not enter upon the long story of my own misfort-
unes. By the insidious operation of the prevailing
bigotry, public confidence in me was undermined ;
I lost my practice ; I was reduced to dependence
upon her kindred, who were the bitterest of my an-
tagonists, and who resisted by every means in their
power my purpose of taking her away from them,
and attempting her development in other circum-
stances. But I prevailed, as I always prevailed
when I made a final appeal to her affection. AVe
came away, and entered upon the career, distaste-
ful to us both, of j^ublic exhibitors. At first we
met with great success in the small places which

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 181

we visited, and I was induced to try our experi-
ment in Boston. Here, too, we made a good im-
pression ; but almost at the outset, Ave encountered
an influence, an enmity, embodied in a certain in-
dividual, against which we were ahiiost powerless.
To this antagonism was added the paralyzing effect
of fraud on the part of a medium who assisted at
our principal seance.

" I saw, upon reflection, that we could not hope
to succeed in the atmosphere of a mercenary, pro-
fessional mediumism ; and I determined to retire
again to our village, and lay once more, however
painfully and slowly, the foundations of our experi-
ment. I dreamed of forming about me a commu-
nity of kindred spirits, in which our work should
be done unhindered by the selfish hope of gain, and
I armed myself with patience for years of trial and
discouragement.

" Brother Elihu will tell you how chance brought
us together in the depot at Boston, and again at
Ayer Junction ; and I will not detain you with tlie
history of the seeming disasters which have ended
in our presence among the only people who have
conceived of spiritism as a science, and practiced it
as a religion. The mistake of a train going south-
ward for a train going northward made us house-
less and penniless wanderers ; the cruel rapacity of
a ruffian crowned our sufferings with a triumph
surpassing my wildest hopes."

Dr. Boynton entered upon a circumstantial ac-
count of the strange occurrences at the Elm Tav-

182 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

em, and painted every detail with a vividness
■which had its effect upon his hearers. At the
close, one of the sisters struck into a rapturous
hymn, in which the others joined. He remained
standing while they sang, and when their voices died
away he continued in a low and grave tone : —

" What I wish now is simply to be received
among you without prejudice, and to be allowed to
carry out my plan with the powerful help of your
sympathetic and intelligent sphere. I do not ask
to be received out of charity : I am a physician,
and I offer you my professional services at need ;
I have strong arms, and I am willing to work in
your shops and your fields. But I feel mj^self here
in presence of the right conditions, and I would
make any sacrifice, short of the sacrifice of self-
respect, to continue here. I am intensely disap-
pointed that neither my investigations nor my use-
fulness to you can begin at once. My daughter, as
you know, lies sick in j^our infirmary, and my first,
my Avhole duty is to her. As soon as she is well
again, you sliall have my labor, and the world shall
have my truth."

He sat down. One of the elders rose, and, com-
ing forward, said, " The thanks of the family are
due to the friend for what he has spoken. The
meeting is dismissed."

The brothers and sisters dispersed to their dwell-
ing-houses, and Boynton walked alone to the in-
fiimary. He found Sister Frances with his daugh-
ter, who was wakeful and in a high fever.

XIII.

Her father watched over Egeria in her sickness
■with the mechanical skillfidness and the mental
abstraction which the office sisters had seen in his
treatment of her case from the first. He was at
her bedside night and day while the danger lasted ;
he prepared the medicines himself and administered
them with his own hand, and he waited their effect
from hour to hour, almost from moment to moment,
with anxious scrutiny. At the same time a second
and more inward self in him remained at immeas-
urable remoteness. " I never see such doctorin' or
such nnrsin'," said Sister Frances, in her daily re-
port at the office ; " but it don't seem, somehow, as
if he did it for her. I should say — and perhaps
I should say more 'n I ought if I did say it — 't he
wanted her to get well, but 't he did n't want her
to get well on her own account ; well, not in the
first place. And still he 's just as kind and good !
Well, it 's perplexin'."

" I can't see," said Rebecca, carefully, " as we 've
got any call to judge him, as long as he does his
duty by her."

"That's just where it is, Rebecca," answered
Frances. " It does seem as if there was somethin'

184 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

better than duty in this world. I d' know as there
is, nor what it is ; but it does seem as if there might
be."

Boynton's efforts were bent not only to Ege-
ria's escape fi'om danger, but to her immunity
from suffering, so far as lie could avert it ; and to
this end he often used his mesmeric power with
what appeared good effect. The rending headache
yielded to the mystical passes made above her
throbbing temples, or over her eyes that trembled
with the liot pain ; or perhaps it was only the
touch of the physician's wise fingers that soothed
them, and brought her the deep, strange sleep.
But after the crisis of the fever, and when the con-
valescence began, the influence, whatever it was,
ceased to relieve. It fretted instead of strength-
ening the girl in her climb up toward health, as her
father was quick to perceive. He desisted, and he
did not talk with her of the schemes and hopes
that pi-eoccupied him. He scarcely talked of them
at all, though now and then, when he met Elihu,
it was clear that he had not relinquished them in
the slishtest measure. The Shaker wondered at
the self-control with which he cast them into such
complete abeyance, and could not forbear suggest-
ing at one of their encounters, " Your daughter's
sickness is quite a little cross to your patience,
Friend Boynton."

" Yes, yes," returned the other, intensely ; " but
it is not the first time I have had to use patience.
The end is worth waiting for, and, as Humphrey

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 185

said when we first talked of it, the end can wait
for us ; the trutli will keep. I am sure of the re-
sult. But nothing can be done till she is perfectly
well again."

" Yee," said Elihu ; " the young woman's wel-
fare is more precious than any proof she could give
us of the existence of spirits. We know that they
exist already."

They did not speak of Boynton's union with the
family ; that question shared the suspense in which
the great problem, to the solution of which Shaker-
ism had been only a means in his mind, was left.
But he had taken his place in the community like
one of them. There were reasons in the condition
of the only suit of clothing which he brought from
the world outside why he should continue to dress
in the Shaker garb ; but it is probable that he
would have preferred to wear it, even if the skill of
the family tailoress could have rehabilitated the
wreck of his secular raiment ; and he was faithful
in his attendance at all the religious meetings, both
those held in the family-house and those opened to
the public, with the advancing spring, in the meet-
ing-house. He did not take an active part in the
worship. Once, when asked to speak, he said briefly
that for the present he had nothing to add to his
first statement ; and during the marching and sing-
ing he sat quietly in a corner, opposite a sister on
the women's side, whose extreme stoutness had
long excused her from dancing before the Lord.
In the mean time he had treated several slight

186 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

cases of sickness which occurred in the family ;
and he had drawn all the teeth in the head of a
young sister much tormented with toothache, and
long emulous of the immunity enjoyed by most of
the other sisters through their full sets of artificial
teeth. He had also, in his moments of disoccupa-
tion, and during his watches beside Egeria, made
a profound study of the history and doctrine of
Shakerism ; and he grew into general liking with
the family at large, whose knowledge of his devo-
tion to his daughter did not search motive so jeal-
ously or fantastically as that of Sister Frances, and
who thought him a marvel of vigilance and skill.

April had passed, and May had worn awa}^ to
its last weeks before the girl could sit up in an
easy-chair, and with pillowed head look out on the
landscape. Sometimes, after the favorable change
in her fever began, she had asked, in the melloAv-
ing afternoons, to have her window opened to let
in the rich, pungent odors of the burning refuse of
the gardens, — the last year's withered vines and
stalks, which the boys had raked into large piles,
and fired in the field below the infirmary. She
could hear, from where she lay, the snap and crackle
of the flames; and once, when Sister Frances re-
turned after a moment in whieli she had left the
sick girl alone, she found that Egeria had dragged
herself across the bed to where she could see the
fire, upon which she was gloating with rapture.
Frances spoke to her; she replaced her pillow, and
after a loni: look at the Shakeress she broke iuto

THE UXDISCOVEKED COUNTRY. 187

tears. The watchers with her in these early clays
of her convalescence always found her awake at
dawn, when the robins and orioles and sparrows
were weaving that fabric of song which seems to
rise everywhere from the earth to the low-hovering
heaven.

" It 's like the singin' of spirits, ain't it ? " said
one of the sisters who saw the transport with which
she silently listened, her large eyes wdde and her
lips open.

" No ! " cried the girl, almost fiercely. " It 's
like the sinq-jno- of the birds at home."

" Seemed as if she hated the spirits, as you might
say," the Shakeress commented to the office sisters.
It was the first time that any of them had heard
Egeria mention her former home, for even in the
fever her ravings had been of experiences in Bos-
ton unintelligible to them. But they had all noted
the passion with which, when her recovery began,
she turned to the natural world. She asked for the
wild flowers, and day by day demanded if it were
not yet time for the a,nemones, the columbines, the
dog-tooth violets. If the spring lingered, or at
times turned backward, nothing could rouse her
from the dejection into which she fell, till the sun
began to shine and the birds began to sing again.
It was felt in the family to be foolish, or worse, but
none of the Shakers could come home through field
or wood without staying to pluck some token of the
season's advance for the sick girl, who was longing
so restlessly to go out and find the summer for her-

loo THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

self. Her bed was decked with bono-lis of wildinsf
bloom ; on the shelves and window-sills the sylvan
and campestral flowers gave their delicate colors
and faint fragrances in whatever prim jug or sober
vase the community could spare from its service.
Something, surely, must be wrong about all this
ministering to a love that might be said to savor of
earthly vanities, but the most anxious of the nun-
like sisters could not determine upon the sin ; and
while they wondered in just what sort they should
deal with the elusive evil, a visiting brother from
another community arrived to pronounce it no evil,
but an instinct, wholesome as the harmless things
themselves. Upon this, one of them brought and
laid at Egeria's bedside a rug which she had worked
with the pattern of a grape-vine, and which for five
years she had kept fearfully hidden away in her
closet, from compunction for its likeness to a graven
image.

Egeria first went out on the 20th of May, that
signal date when the spring, whatever her previ-
ous reluctances, brings up all arrears with the ap-
ple-blossoms. The season is then no longer late
or early, but is the consummate spring ; and all
weather-wise hopes and fears are lost in the rich-
ness with which she keeps the promise of her name.
It might well have seemed to the girl's impatience
as she watched the orchard trees, sometimes from
her closed window and sometimes from her open
door, as the day was chill or soft, that the blossoms
would never come ; and even when every tip of the

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 189

mossed and twisted bouglis was lit with tlie pink
glimmer of a bud, and the trees' whole round was
suffused with a tender flush of color, that the deli-
cate petals of rose and snow would never unfold.
The orioles and the bobolinks sang from the airy-
tops, and from the clover in the grassy alleys be-
tween the trees ; in a neighboring field the oats
were already high enough to brighten and darken
in the wind. The canes of the blackberries and
raspberries in the garden were tufted with dark
green, and beyond the broad leaves of the pie-plant
and the neat lines of sprouting peas, the grape-
vines on Elder Joseph's trellis were set thick with
short, velvety leaves of pinkish-olive, when sud-
denly, in a warm night, the delaying buds unfolded,
and in the morning tlie apple-blossoms had come.

" I am going out under them," the girl said,
when she saw them, and she set a resolute face
against the fond anxieties of Sister Frances. Her
father came and approved her wish.

" It won't hurt her ; it will do her good," he said,
with that somewhat propitiatory acquiescence with
which he now indulged his daughter's whims. So, .
when the morning was well warmed through, as
Sister Frances said, they spread some sad-colored
wraps on the grass in the orchard, where the min-
gled wind and sun could reach her through the
screen of blossoms. She walked a little tremu-
lously, clinging to her father's arm, but a light of
perfect happiness played over her faintly flushing
face as she sank upon the couch. From where she

190 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

lounged she could look across the gardened inter-
vale, declining from the street on which the hamlet
was built, to the elms and sycamores that fringed
the river-course, and beyond to other uplands,
where the gray farmsteads dimly showed among
the fields, and the white houses of villages clustered
and sparkled in the sun. An unspeakable serenity
filled the scene ; and round her the little Shaker
town was a part of the wide peace. There was
seldom a passer on the sandy thoroughfare, now
printed with the delicate shadows of the new maple
leaves, and the stillness was unbroken by any sound
of human life. The Shakers and their hired men
were at woi-k in the gardens and the fields, but
they worked quietly ; and the shops in which there
was once the clinking of hammers on lap-stone and
anvil had been hushed long ago by the cheaper in-
dustries of the world outside.

At the doors of the great family houses of brick
a Shaker sister in strict drab and deep bonnet from
time to time issued or entered silently. Nothing
but the cat-bird twanging in the elder-bushes, and
the bobolinks climbing in the sunlit air, to reel and
slide down, gurgling and laughing, to the clover
tufts from which they rose, broke upon the mellow
diapason of the bees in the apple-blossoms over-
head. Where she lay, propped on her arm, with
her father seated beside her, some of the brothers
and sisters came out of their way from time to
time, to welcome her out-doors, and to warn her not
to stay too long. Some rumor of her longing to

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 101

be in the weather, and of her passion for the blos-
soms and the birds amongst wliich she was blessed
at last, had penetrated the whole conimunit}^ and
many who did not come to speak to her looked out
unseen from their windows upon her happiness,
which they might have found somewhat too earth-
ly, in spite of the ideas lately promulgated by the
visiting brother. With her blue eyes dreamily un-
troubled, she looked like some sylvan creature, a
part of the young terrestrial life that shone and
sang and bloomed around her ; while flashes of light
and color momently repaired the waste that sick-
ness had made in her beauty. A sense of her ex-
quisite harmony with the great natural frame of
things may have penetrated the well-defended con-
sciousness of Elder Joseph, as he paused near her,
on his way home to dinner ; but if it did, it failed
to grieve him. He looked indulgently down at her ;
by an obscure impulse he gathered some of the rich-
est sprays from the branches at hand, and dropped
them into her lap.

" It seems right," he said, " to be getting well in
the spring, when everything is taking a fresh start.
I like to see the young woman looking so happy."

He addressed the doctor as well as Egeria, but it
was she who answered.

" Yes ; it would n't seem the same thing if it
were fall. If it had been fall, I should not have
got well ; I should not have cared to get Avell."

" Nay," replied the Shaker ; " if it is for us to
choose, we are to choose to get well at all times."

192 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I mean," said the girl, " that I could not have
chosen."

" You can't tell," observed her father. " Most
fevers are autumnal, and convalescents are braced
up by the approach of cold weather."

" Yes," she rejoined, " but now I seem to be
stronger because my getting well is part of the
spring."

" Our sympathetic relations with nature are
subtle and strong," consented Boynton. " No one
can tell just how much influence they have over
our physical condition."

Egeria silently gazed upon the prospect. " It '3
sightly, is n't it ? " asked the Shaker. " I have
looked at it, now, for fifty spring-times, and it is as
pretty as when it was 'first revealed to me."

Boynton started, and repeated, " Revealed ? "

" Oh, yee," returned the elder, "I first saw this
place in a vision. It was when I was a young man,
and several years before I was gathered in from the
world outside. When I came here, I remembered
the place and the persons I had seen in my vision,
and I knew them all. Then I knew that it was
meant, and I stayed."

" Is it possible ! " cried Boynton. " That was
very extraordinary. Have you had other psycho-
logical experiences ? "

" Nay," said Brother Joseph, briefly.

" But they are common among you?" pursued
Boynton.

" Oh, yee, we have all had some such intimations.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 193

Have you never read Elder Evans's account of his
dealings with the supernatural ? "

" No, never ! " cried Boynton, with intensifying
interest.

" I will lend you the book. He tells some
strange things. But we do not follow up such ex-
periences. They serve their purpose, and that is
enough. We try to live the angelic life. That
will bring what is good in the supernatural to us,
and we need not go to it."

" I think you make a mistake ! " said Boynton,
promptly. " These intimations are given express-
ly to invite pursuit. That is what miracles are
or.

" Nay," returned the Shaker. " They are no
miracles, if you follow them up to see them a sec-
ond time. We must beware how we make the
supernatural a commonplace. None of the disciples
knew exactly who Christ was till he was taken
from them ; and he has only appeared since to one
Doubter out of all the millions that have longed to
believe on him. There is something in that. The
other world cannot come twice to prove itself. Once
is enough in miracles."

" Then you disapprove of spiritistic research ? "
demanded Boynton. " You condemn the desire to
develop the dim hints of immortality which we all
think we have received into certain and absolute
demonstration? "

" Nay, I do not condemn any earnest striving for
the truth, under proper conditions."

13

194 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I hope to find those conditions among you,"
Boynton hastened to say.

" We shall be happy to afford them," said the
Shaker, smoothly, " if we can agree upon what they
are. But it is right to say that we consider Shak-
erisra the end and not the means of spiritualism."
He passed on down the orchard aisle, the sunlight
falling upon his quaint figure through the apple-
blossoms.

Boynton's eyes followed him, but it was some
time before he spoke. " After all," he said, as if
musing aloud, "he is not one of the controlling
forces of the community." He spoke with a cer-
tain effect of arming himself against opposition.
" You had better come in, now, Egeria. It won't
do for you to take cold."

" Yes, pretty soon. I don't wonder that they
think they 're living the angelic life."

" Why ? " asked her father, sharply.

" It 's like a heaven upon earth, hei'e."

This vexed her father. " Yes, like heaven now,
with the apples in bloom and the birds singing.
But how much like heaven would it be with three
feet of snow where you are lying ? "

" Yes, let us go in. I had better not stay too
long." She rose as if saddened by his words, and
suffered herself to be helped back to the infirmary.

" The Swedenborgians," said her father, in rep-
aration, " believe that in the other world winter
is absorbed into the other seasons, and that the
whole year is a sort of spring-time."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 195

" Ah ! " breathed the girl. "But I did n't mean
spring. I should want the whole year to be sum-
mer, and I should want it to be in this world. I
should like a hesiven upon earth."

Her father looked closely at her. " This mate-
rialistic tendency is a trait of your convalescence.
People are never so earthly as when they are re-
covering from a dangerous sickness. There is a
kind of revolt from the world whose borders they
have touched, — a rebound. The senses are riotous
to try their strength again." He said these things
as if accounting to himself for a fact, rather than
explaining her condition to Egeria.

" Well, we have a right to our life here ! " she
cried, passionately. " Let the other world keep to
itself ! "

He did not answer her directly, and at other
times he avoided encounter with anything like op-
position in her. She would not stay in-doors after
she once liberated herself. The spring came on
rapidly and brought the hot weather before its
time ; but she throve in the heat. Before she was
strong enough to w^alk much the Shakers appointed
for her use an open buggy, garrulous and plaintive
w^ith age, and an old horse past his usefulness at
the plow, but very fit for lounging along by-roads,
and skilled in cropping wayside foliage as he went.
With her father beside her in his Shaker dress,
•while she wore a worldlier garb, which she had be-
guiled her convalescence in fashioning from mate-
rials supplied by the family dress- maker, she took

196 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the passers on the quiet roads with question and
wonder. But they met few people, for they drove
mostly over the grass-grown lanes that entered the
forest, and the track of tener died away in the thick-
ening vegetation than led any whither. Sometimes
it arrived at a clearing deep in the woods, and ac-
counted for itself as the way over which the teams
had hauled wood in the winter, or got out logs. In
other places it was a fading reminiscence of former
population and led through the trees and thick un-
dergrowth to the site of a vanished dwelling ; a few
apple-ti-ees emerged from the ranks of their sylvan
brethren ; a rose or currant bush stood revealed
among the blueberries or the sweet-fern ; then the
raw red and white of ruined masonry showed in the
grass, and suddenly a cellar yawned before their
feet, or they stepped over a well-curb choked with
stones. Now and then they met lurking and evasive
people on the lonesome roads, who were sometimes
black, and who seldom seemed part of the ordinary
New England life. If they followed up the track
on which these men had shambled towards them,
they might come upon a poverty-stricken dwelling
of unpainted wood, which seemed never to have
liad heart to be a home. If they spoke to the
slattern woman in the doorway, she was nasal
enough, but otherwise the effect was as if some fam-
ily of poor whites from the South had been dropped
down in those Northern woods, with all its native
environment ot lounging dogs, half-starved colts,
and frightened poultry.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 197

Boyiiton philosopliizecl the strange conditions as
well as he could in the absence of any but obvious
facts concerning them. When he stopped for a
dipper of water at the well, from which he drew
it with the old-fashioned sweep, and fell into talk
with the women, they were voluble, but not very
intelligible. They commonly took him for a Shaker,
but Egeria gave them pause in their conjectures ;
and when he explained that he and his daughter
were merely staying with the Shakers they said,
Well, the Shakers were good folks, any way. There
was sickness in some of these forlorn places, and
once it happened to the doctor to be able to afford
relief in the case of a suffering child. He was very
tender with it, and gentle with the parents, who
looked as if they would still be young if they had
any encouragement, and on a second visit they asked
him what he charged. When he said, " Nothing,"
they followed him and Egeria out to their buggy in
a sort of helpless gratitude.

" Well, you 've done our little girl good, doctor,"
the woman said on the doorstep, " and we sha'n't
forget it. The trouble is we don't seem to get no
ways forehanded."

Boynton looked about him, as he took the reins
in his hand, upon two or three other weather-beaten
houses. " What place is this? " he asked.

" Well," said the woman, with sober apology,
while her man grinned, " I d' know 's you may say
it has any name. Skunk's Misery, they call it."
She showed her sense of degradation in the brutal

198 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

grotesquely. " Well, call again," she said, as the
doctor lifted his reins and chirruped to the old
horse. " And you, too, lady," she added, nodding
to Egeria.

" She kej)t her house in good order, for such a
poor place," said the girl, when they had been
watched out of sight by the man and his wife,
" and the little girl's bed was sweet and clean. I
should think they might be happy, there."

" In Skunk's Misery ? " asked her father.

" If the house is their own," answered Egeria,
simply. " They seemed good to each other."

" Oh, you will change your mind wlien you 're
quite well again. You will want to see more of the
world."

" I wish we had a house of our own, somewhere,"
said Egeria. " I should n't care where. I was
thinking of that. I should like to keep house. I
am going to get Frances to teach me everything."

" That will all come in good time," answered her
father, soothmgly. " And it will come with higher
things. Only now get well."

" What higher things ? " demanded the girl.

Boynton looked at her, and answered, evasively,
" Things we could n't very well find in Skunk's
Misery. Perhaps we shall go abroad. Would you
like to go to Europe ? "

" I would rather go home."

Boynton frowned, but did not answer ; and they
had escaped encounter for that time, at least.

As Egeria grew stronger they gave up their

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 199

drives soraewlifft, and took walks in the nearer
•woods. Oftenest their errand was to gather laurel,
which was now coming richly into bloom. It filled
the open spaces of the small clearings and wherever
the woods were thin ; it hid the stumps and con-
soled the poor, sterile soil with the starry profu-
sion of its flower. One afternoon, when they had
climbed to the hill-top where the Shakers of earlier
times lay in their nameless graves, they looked out
over the masses of the laurel, and it was like a sec-
ond blossoming of the orchards. Egeria sat down
on one of the fallen stones, without knowing that
it covered a grave, and began putting her boughs of
laurel into shape, choosing this and rejecting that,
while her father went about among the forgetful
tombs.

" I am glad we came here," he said, returning to
her, " for I should not have liked to miss seeing
their grave-yard."

*' Their grave-yard ? " she repeated.

" Yes ; this is the old Shaker burial-ground."

She looked round. " I did n't know it," she
sighed like one following out some tacit thought. '
" Well, what difference would it make if they had
put their names on ? They rest as well without
it. And if they had put their names, who could
remember who they were in fifty years from
now?"

" They know one another in the other world just
as well, without the record here," consented her fa-
ther. "And it is n't here that we are to be remem-
bered, at any rate."

200 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I wish it were ! " said the giri, with passion,
dropping her flowers into her hip. " I hke this
world, and I hke to be in it. I wish we didn't
have to die."

" Death is the condition of our advancement,"
said her father.

" But I would rather not advance," said Egeria.
" I almost wish I had been born an animah I
should have had to die, but I should not have
known it, and there would have been nothing of
me to come back ! " She went on putting together
her boughs of laurel, and she wore that look of
being remote within her defenses which a woman
knows how to assume no less with her father than
with her lover. She then adventurously throws
out thoughts and opinions, as if they had just casu-
ally occurred to her, which she has perhaps reached
after long, secret cogitation or sensation, or which
are perhaps really what they seem.

" Why should n't you wish to come back, ages
hence, and see what advance the world has made ? "
rejoined her father, after a pause.

" I should be afraid that I had n't kept up with
it," answered Egeria. " The spirits that come back
say such silly things."

" That is a childish way of looking at it," said
her father with severity. " We have no more right
to accuse them of silliness than we have to laugh
at the foreigner who can express only the simplest
things in English. The medium of thought must
be so different in the two conditions of being that

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 201

the wonder is that returning spirits can understand
and use our dialects at all."

" I don't see why they should forget their own
language, if they 're the same persons there that
they were here," Egeria returned, stubbornly.
" Yes," she cried, " I would rather be here under
the ground forever than be like some of the spirits !
Oh, I should like to live always, too ; but I don't
call that living. I should like to live here in this
world, — on the earth."

" Would you like to live always among the Shak-
ers ? " asked her father, willing to turn the current
of her thoughts.

" They try all the time to make the other world
of this world ! "

" Perhaps that 's the only condition on which
they find happiness in this world."

" Perhaps. But I don't believe so. We were
not born into the other world. The Shakers are
very good, and they have been kind to us. Yes, I
could be contented among them. Are you going to
stay with them, father? "

" I don't know," replied Boynton. " The time
has n't come to decide, yet. I have been waiting.
There is no hurry. I don't feel that we are here
on charity, quite. I am able to render some equiv-
alent."

" Yes," said Egeria, " and I am going to work as
soon as they will let me. I know they would like
to have us stay and join them."

202 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" That was oiiginally my idea. I still propose
to do so, if I find them useful. Everything de-
pends " — He stopped uneasily, and glanced at
Egeria, but she showed no uneasiness.

XIV.

While their place in the community was thus
indefinite, they dwelt with the brothers and sisters
who had first received them in the oflice. Egeria
helped the sisters in their work there, and they all
liked to have her about them, though it was tacitly
agreed that she belonged chiefly to Sister Frances,
with whom she served, making the beds, wiping
the dishes, and putting the rooms in order, while
Diantha and Rebecca devoted themselves to the
more public duties of the place. As she grew
stronger she would not be kept from taking her
share in the family work. Frances forbade her
helping in the laundry, where one of the brothers,
vague through wreaths of steam from the deep boil-
ers, presided over a company of sisters and boys,
and afterwards marshaled them in hanging out the
community wash ; this, she held, involved dangers
of rheumatism and relapse ; but she allowed her to
find a place in the herb-house, where a score of the
young Shakeresses, seated on the floor of the wide,
low room, before fragrant heaps of catnip, boneset,
and lobelia, sorted and cleaned these simples for the
brothers in the packing-room below. " That is sort
of being out-doors," said Sister Frances, with a sly

204 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

allusion to the girl's well-known passion. Indeed,
Egeria's chief usefulness appeared when the first
Avild berries came. Her father no longer accom-
panied her, for he found the heat too great a bur-
den. The women went, five or six in a wagon,
with one of the brothers, who drove, to the berry
pasture a mile or two away, and they sang their
shrill hymns while passing through the pine woods,
that gave out a balsamic sweetness in the sun. At
the verge of a westward-sloping valley was a stretch
of many hundred acres, swept by a forest fire a few
years before, and now rank with the vegetation
which the havoc had enriched. Bkieberries and
huckleberries, raspberries and blackberries, bat-
tened upon the ashes of the pine and oak and
chestnut, and flourished round the charred stumps ;
the strawberry matted the blackened ground, and
ran to the border of the woods, where, among the
thin grass, it lifted its fruit on taller stems, and
swung its clusters in the airs that drew through
the alleys of the forest. Here and there were the
shanties of Canadian wood-cutters, whom the Shak-
ers had sent to save what fuel they might from the
general loss, and whom, at noonday, the pickers
came upon, as they sat in pairs at their doors, with
a can of milk betAveen them, dusky, furtive, and in-
tent as animals. From the first of the strawberries
to the last of the blackbei'ries, the birds and chip-
mucks feasted, and only stirred in short flights when
the young Shakeresses, shy as themselves, invaded
their banquet.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 205

" Why, Egery,'' said one of them, the first clay,
*' you empty your basket faster than any of us, and
you said you never picked before. How do you al-
ways find such full vines? I do believe it's because
they know you love to pick 'em so, and they just
give you a little wink."

" Yes," she answered absently, like one entranced
by the rich influences of the time and scene. She
drank of the strong vitality of the earth and air and
sun, and day by day the potion showed its effect in
the serenity of her established health.

" Oh, nothing in the weather hurts Aer," said the
girl who had surprised her secret understanding
with the berries. " Slie keeps on with the birds
and squirrels when the heat drives us off, and if it
comes on to rain it runs off her as if she was a
chipmuck or a robin ; and next morning, when 1 'ni
as full of aches and pains as I can hold, she 's all
ready to begin again."

" Yee, that 's so, Elizabeth," said the others, who
laughed at this.

In their way they mingled what jolHty they could
in their work, and were sometimes demurely freak-
ish in the depths of their poke-bonnets and under
the wide brims of their hats. Certain of the elder
brethren and sisters had their repute for humor,
and made their quaint jokes without a bad con-
science ; while the younger played little pranks
upon one another, with those gigglings and thrusts
and pushes which accompany the expression of rus-
tic drollery, and were not severely rebuked. Ege-

206 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

ria did not take part in their jocularities ; but it
was another joke of the young Shakers and Shaker-
esses, kept children beyond their time and apt to
allege children's excuses when called to account, to
say, " She made us do it — she looked so ! "

They all liked her, and in spite of the secular
fashion of her dress, to which she still clung, they
treated her as if she were one of themselves, and
were always to stay with them. Whatever may
have been in their hearts, nothing in their manner
betrayed surprise at the complete abeyance into
which her supposed supernatural gifts had fallen.
Perhaps, as people used to supernaturalism, to the
caprice with which the other world uses this, they
could be surprised at no lapse or access of divi-
nation, in any given case. At any rate, they all
seemed content with her robust return to life and
health, and if they were impatient for proof of the
great things that her father had claimed for her,
none of them showed impatience.

There were certain other faculties as dormant
in her as her psychological powers. Once, as she
passed through the pine woods where Laban had
first found her and her father, he leaned across Sis-
ter Frances, who sat between them on the wagon-
seat, and asked, " Do you know this road ? " And
when they came to that knoll beside the brook
he asked again, '' Do you mind this place ? " He
laughed when she said no. *' Well, I don't much
wonder. You did n't seem to be quite in your right
senses. This is the place where I come across you
and your father that day."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 207

At another time, when a different course brought
them home by the Elm Tavern, she dimly recalled
the aspect of the house and asked what it was. " It
seems as if I had seen it in a dream," she said.

" Must ha' had the nightmare pretty bad," re-
turned Laban. " It 's a dreadful place."

" Dreadful," repeated Sister Frances. " But it 's
just so when you 're comin' down with a fit of sick-
ness, especially fevers. Everything seems in a
dream, like."

Sister Frances rejoiced like a mother in the girl's
health, which came back to her in no ethereal qual-
ity, but in solid evidence, in color and in elasticity
of step and touch. She had known her before the
fever only in that brief interval in which all her
faculties were invested by the disease ; and both
the spiritual and material change wrought in her
by convalescence might well have appeared greater
than they were. She had seen her lie down a frail
and fearful girl, deeply shadowed, as she fancied,
by the memories of a troubled past ; and she had
seen her rise up and grow, in sympathy with the
reviving year, into a broad, tranquil summer of
womanly ripeness and strength. To the homely
mind of Sister Frances she was like the young ma-
ple which Brother Joseph had found in a sombre
thicket of the woods, and had set out in the abun-
dant sunshine of the village street before the office
gate, where it had thriven in a single year out of
all likeness to itself. She admired this tree, and in
telling Egeria of her fancy she gave her a pin-cush-

208 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

ion she had shaped in its image on the stem of a
broken kerosene lamp : it was faithful, even to the
emery bag in a red peak, like the first color which
the maple showed at top in the autumn.

When tlie garden berries began to ripen, the two
often talked long together as they sat in the cool
basement of the office, sorting them with Shaker
conscientiousness, and packing for market only
boxes of honest fruit. Then the elder woman tried
with maternal tenderness to draw nearer the life of
this daughter of her care, in the fond hope that she
might always keep her, and not lose her again to
the world from which she had wandered.

" You seem happy here, Egeria," she would say,
timorously feeling her way toward what had al-
ready been talked of in the family ; and then, when
the girl answered that she had never been so haj)py
before, the sister's conscience gave her a check. It
did not seem right to take advantage of Egeria's
happiness among them to urge her to any step to
which she was not moved by conviction. " You
know," she resumed, " that we would n't like any-
thing better than to have you stay among us, —
you and your father both. All the family 's agreed
about that. But it is n't for us to prevail Avithout
you feel a call to our life. What does your father
say?"

" We have never talked much about it," said
Egeria. " May be he is waiting for me to get well
before he makes up his mind."

" Why, you look a great deal better than he does,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 209

now ! " cried Sister Frances, bluntly. " I want you
should both stay with us till he gets strong again.
I don't think your father 's over and above strong
when he 's well."

" Well ? " echoed the girl. " Don't you think
he 's well ? "

" Yee," answered Sister Frances, " but nervous,
worried, like. I suppose he has n't had a chance
yet to wear off the excitement of the world outside.
You know you 've had a good fit of sickness. We
all say that whatever happened before you came
here, it 's dropped from you like a garment."

" Yes, like a garment," responded Egeria vaguely,
letting her busy hands fall into her lap.

Frances took her by the arm. " Don't you go
and be anxious, now, at what I said about your fa-
ther."

" Oh, no ! " said Egeria, recalling herself, and
settling to work again.

" He 's as well as anybody need be. Only
you 're so very well that anybody, to see you, would
suppose you were the well one."

" I was wondering," mused the girl aloud, " if he
had anything to perplex him. Sister Frances," she
asked presently, " did any letter come for me while
I was sick ? "

" Nay. Did you expect a letter ? "

" No," said Egeria, " there could n't have been
any answer." She blushed, and fell into a rev-
erie so profound that Frances, working alone at the
berries, knew not how to bring back the talk to
u

210 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the point from which it had strayed. Slie was
not a person of much native tact, and the commu-
nity Ufe did not cherish tact among tlie virtues,
counting trutli much better ; but now Sister Frances
attempted a strategic approach.

" Sometimes," she said, " the young people wlio
are gathered in have hopes in the world outside
that make it hard for them to conform to the true
life. And we women, we all know what such hopes
are. I was young, and the world looked very bright
to me when I was gathered in."

" You, Sister Frances ? You gathered in ? I
thought you were brought up in the family from a
child."

"Nay, I was gathered in — when I was twenty."
" When you were twenty ? And I am nineteen."
" I came to the neighborliood on a visit, and one
Sunday I went to a Shaker meeting, and I heard
something said that made me think it was the true
life. I used to be troubled about religion ; but I 've
had peace for many years. At first it was consid-
erable of a cross, wondering whether I 'd acted for
the best. He'd never said anything to me, and
I d' know as he ever would. But he might have.
That was what kept preying on my mind, when-
ever I got lonesome or doubtful about my choice.
But I was helped to put it away. He 's been here,
since — with her. That was the most of a cross
of anything. At first, he did n't know me, so I
don't suppose he ever did care, much."

" Had you ever," said Egeria, in a sort of scare,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 211

" done anything that could have made him think
you cared ? "

" Nay. I was too proud for that."

" But even if you had done such a thing — by
a mistake, or by doing something you thought was
right, and then you had been afraid he might take
it differently — you would have felt safe here."

" Yee, I should have felt safe." Frances waited
for Egeria to speak, but the girl was again silent.
" I did hope," resumed the sister, " in those young
and foolish days, that he might be gathered in too.
Then we could lived in sight of each other. But
it wa'n't to be, and I don't know as 't would been
for the best. Any rate, he got married. I 've
heard they live out in Illinoy, and 't he 's made out
real well. And I 'm at rest, here."

" Sister Frances," said Egeria, " do you think
my father looks sick ? "

" Well, I declare, if you ain't thinkin' of that
silly talk of mine, yet ! Anybody 'd look sick
alongside of you. I only meant that he was a
little more peaked."

" Yes," responded the girl, with a sigh, " he
doesn't look well."

She watched him at dinner, that day, and saw
that he had a small and fastidious appetite, though
the abundance of a Shaker garden was there to
tempt him. "Are you feeling well, father? "she
asked, when they went out after tea for a little
stroll. " You ate hardly anything at dinner, and
this evening you did n't touch your tea."

212 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Yes," he answered quickly, with a touch of ir-
ritation, " I am well ; very well ; perfectly well.
But the hot weather is trying, and — and " —

"And what?" coaxed the girl. "Have you
been thinking about something that worries you ?
Is there anything on your mind ? "

" No, no. Nothing. Have you ever noticed it
before ? What has made you notice it ? "

" I don't know. Sister Frances said she thoujjht
you didn't look as well as I do. That seemed
strange."

" You are looking very well, Egeria. I am glad
to see you looking so well. This fund of physical
strength ought to contribute — There is nothing
that is necessarily alien in it to — I am truly glad
for your sake, my dear, that you are so well."

They were walking down the sloping roadside
from the office gate toward the clump of old wil-
lows in whose midst stood the spacious stone bowl,
scooped out of the solid granite by some forgotten
brother in former years, and now tenderly, darkly
green inside and out, with a tint of cool mold.
When they reached the bank beside the trough,
he dropped wearily on the grass, but she remained
standing, with her arms sunken before her and her
fingers intertwined, watching the soft ebullition of
the spring in the centre of the bowl. Either she
had not been aware of his approach to the matter
of their tacit avoidance or she was indifferent to it.
A smile played upon her face as the bubl)le con-
tinually rounded itself without breaking upon the

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 213

surface of the water ; and in the mellow light of
the waning day she looked strong and very beauti-
ful. Her hair was darker than before her fever ;
her eyes had lost their look of vigilance and appre-
hension, and softly burned in their gaze; the sun
and wind had enriched her fair Northern complex-
ion with a tinge of the South. An artist or a poet
of those who dream backward from fable might
have figured her in his fancy as the Young Ceres:
she looked so sweet and pure an essence of the har-
vest landscape, so earthly fair and good.

Her father glanced at her uneasily. " I don't
like my environment, here," he broke out. " I am
conscious of adverse influences."

She slowly lifted her eyes from the fountain, and
looked at him with gravely smiling question, as if
she had not quite understood.

" You asked me just now," he resumed, " wheth-
er I had been thinking about any vexatious mattei\
Have you seen nothing here of late to vex me ? "

" No," she answered, with the same question, but
without the smile.

"Nothing in the attitude of these people? "

" Their attitude ? "

" I have tried to believe," he said vehemently,
" that it was my fancy ; but I can't be mistaken.
They regard me with distrust ; they have with-
drawal from me the sympathy upon which I was
placing all my hopes of success. No, no," he added,
seeing her about to speak in refutation, " I am right.
I feel it, I know it."

214 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" They seem kinder to me than ever," Egeria
ventured.

" They are kinder to you," returned her father.
" They are distinguishing between us. They wish
to keep you and to cast me out."

Egeria looked incredulous. " But how could
they do that ? Nothing could separate us ! "

" I am glad to hear you say that," said her
father, huskily. " There have been times of late
when I thought — when I was afraid — You have
seemed indifferent " —

" Father ! "

"I know that I wronged you." He turned his
face, and they were both silent, till Egeria spoke.

" If what you think is true, we must go away.
Where will we go ? Shall we go home ? "

" No, I can't go there. It 's impossible."

Egeria did not reply directly, but after a while
she said, " Father, do you ever think of Mr.
Hatch ? "

" No. Why should I think of him ? "

" Pie lent us money, and he expected to find us
at home when he got back."

" His loan could scarcely have paid the debt he
was under to me. I regarded it in that light, and
so did he. We had no obligation to be where he
expected to find us."

" No ; but if he went there, and did n't find us,
it would make grandfather very anxious."

" I 'm not obliged to preserve your grandfather
from anxiety. He has n't known our movements

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 215

since we left home. But T do care for Mr. Hatch.
I will write him, and tell him where we are.
Where was he going ? "

Egeria tm-ned a little white. "I — I don't
know," she faltered. " I can't remember. Wait !
Yes — he gave me his address, and I — I can't
think what I did with it."

" Perhaps you put it in your bag with the
money."

" Yes — T did. I put it in my bag. It 's gone.
Everything about that time seems so dim, so " —

" It 's no matter ; not the least," said her father.
" He probably has n't returned to the East. When
he does, he can readily find us out." Egeria looked
grieved and troubled, but he hurried on to say,
" The great question is how to bring about the re-
sults — the important results — for which I came
here. I will not be driven from conditions wliicli
I thought so favorable, without an effort. Their
leading men may turn against me if they choose ;
it is their peril and their loss ; but the great mass
of the community will be with me in any collision."

" Why, what makes you think there is a feeling
against you, father, in any of them ? "

" Do you remember that day in the orchard when
you first went out ? Joseph and I had some words,
in which he showed plainly what had been ferment-
ing in his mind, when he intimated the subordi-
nation of spiritualism to Shakerism. I understood
his drift, though at the time I said nothing. After-
ward the matter dropped ; but within a few days I

216 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

have been made to feel very distinctly a sphere of
opposition. They think, the leading men, that my
utiHzation of their conditions will undermine their
whole system. And so it will. Their system is
nnnaturally and ridiculously mistaken ; next after
their spiritualism, their communism is the only
thing about them that is fit to survive. Their an-
gelic life, as they call it, is an absurd delusion, the
di'eam of a sick woman."

" Oh, I hope you won't do anything to break up
their life ! " cried the girl, in simple trust of his
power. " They have been so good to us."

" Their system may remain, for all me," returned
her father. " Even in riding down the opposition
to me I shall be careful of their rights. Egeria,"
he said, " you must have observed that during your
long convalescence I have spared you all discussion
of this matter ? "

" Yes," she admitted, apprehensively.
" I noticed that it seemed to irritate you, — to
cost you an effort of mind and of will, which I was
unw^illing to tax you with till you had regained
your full strength. The delay has been very irk-
some to me. I felt that we were losing precious
time — that we were being placed in a false posi-
tion ; the waiting has worn upon me, as you see."
He looked even haggard in the coming twilight.
He had lost flesh, and two loose cords hung w^here
his double chin had been. " The question now is
whether you will be i-eady when I call upon you
for the test which I am impatient to make."

thp: undiscovered country. 217

Egeria sank clown upon the bank not far from
him, and pulled weakly at a tuft of grass. " I was
in hopes," she said sadly, " that you had given it
up, father."

"" Given it up ! " he cried in amaze.

" Why could n't we wait ? " she asked.

" Wait ? Till when ? "

" Till we are dead. Then we shall know whether
there is any truth in it all. It will be only a little
while at the longest."

" A little while ! " exclaimed the doctor in-
dignantly. " We may live to be a hundi'ed I There
are people in those houses yonder," — he indicated
the dormitories with a wave of his hand, — " who
have had everything to kill them in their prime ;
Avlio came here with the women who were to be
their wives, or who left husband and children and
home to embrace this asceticism ; who for scores of
years have had the memories of these to brood
upon in their withered hearts. We can't wait for
death. We have a right to know the truth from
life."

They had so often talked of this deep concern as
knowledge to be acquired that probably neither of
tliem found anything grotesque or terrible in this
pliase of the discussion. Egeria now only uro-ed
vaguely, " We have the Bible."

" Yes," rejoined her father, bitterly, "the Bible !
the book with which they try to crush our hopes !
the record, permeated and saturated with spiritual-
ism from Genesis to Revelation, by which they

218 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

pretend to disprove and forbid spiritualism ! Shall
one revelation suffice for all time ? Shall we know
nothing of the grand and hopeful changes which
must have taken place in the world of spirits, as in
this world, during the last eighteen hundred years ?
Are we less worthy of communion with supernal
essences than those semi-barbarous Jews ? Let us
beware how we refuse the light of our day, be-
cause the light of the past still shines. Shines ?
Flickers ! In many it is extinct. How shall faith
and hope be rekindled ? Egeria, you must not try
to argue with me on this point. You must submit
yourself and your power implicitly to me. Will
you do so ? "

" I don't know what you mean by my power. I
have no power."

" You have power, if you think you have. What
I ask is that you will not oppose your will to
mine."

" I will not oppose you," she answered in a low
voice. A gush of tears blinded her, and dimmed
the beautiful world. " Y^ou know how I have
always hated this, father, — ever since I was old
enough to think about it. A thing that seemed to
be and seemed not to be, — it scared me ! And
when it all stopped I thought you would n't want
to begin it again. But I will try to do whatever
you ask me."

" I can't understand your repugnance," said her
father. " If this power of yours should bring you
face to face with your mother " —

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 219

"I never saw her, — I should not know her;
and she would not know me for the little baby she
left ! " cried the girl desperately. " Besides, I can
wait to go to her. And she can wait, too. I don't
believe she would ever come. What good does it
all do ? Oh, it 's dreadful to me ! "

" The time has been, Egeria," rejoined her fa-
ther, " when your attitude would have discouraged
me. Now, it only gives me pain. I am convinced
that your own opinions and ideas of the matter are
of no consequence to the agencies operating through
you. All that I ask of you is that you yield your-
self passively to my influence. Will you do this ? "

" Oh, yes, I will do all that I can. Oh, I wish
I had died in the fever ! "

" You talk childishly," said her father. " How
do you know that death would have released you
from your obligation to this cause ? It may be
your office in the next world, as it is in this, to be
the medium of communication between embodied
and disembodied spirits."

" Then T hope there won't be any other world."

Her father looked angrily at her as she rose and
stood beside the rustic fountain. One of the
Shaker boys, uncouth in his wide straw hat and
misshapen trowsers, came by with some cows from
pasture, and they stopped to drink from the great
stone bowl. The voices of bathers in the river
half a mile away floated sad across the intervening
space of meadow land. The air was so heavy with
dew that the rumble of a distant railroad train was

220 THE L'N'DISCOVERED COUNTRY.

as clear as if near at hand in the valley which the
sound even of the steam whistle seldom visited.
As Egeria and her father walked back to the office
the crickets trilled along the path. The smell of
the prosperous gardens beyond the wall came to
them, and mingled with the thick, sweet scent of
the milkweed by the wayside.

There was a little group before the office door.
At the foot of the steps stood Humphrey, and with
him Joseph and Elihu ; Diantha and Rachel were
seen "unthin the door-way, and Frances sat on the
threshold. They were talking earnestly ; at sight
of the doctor and Egeria they lowered their voices,
and as they drew near they ceased speaking alto-
gether, with the consciousness of sincere people
interrupted by those of whom they have been
speaking. At the same time Sister Frances made
room upon the step, and beckoned to Egeria with
more than her usual fondness, — with a sort of
tender reparation and defiance. The girl took the
place, and her father remained standing with the
other men.

It plainly cost Elihu an effort to break the
silence, but he said, after a moment, '•• Have you
seen the account of the exposure of that materializa-
tion medium out in St. Louis? "

"No," said the doctor; "but nothing of that sort
surprises me. It is too soon yet for successful ma-
terializations, and all attempts at it are mixed
with imposture."

" There 's quite a long account," rejoined Elihu,
" in yesterday's Tribune."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 221

He made a movement to take the paper out of
his breast pocket. " I don't care to see it," said the
doctor abruptly ; " I can very well imagine it. Those
things are sickening. Some wretched creature — a
woman, I suppose — trying to eke out her gift by
cheating, to get her bread. It rests with you
Shakers to rescue this precious opportunity from
infamy. But you must take hold of it in no half-
hearted way."

" What do you mean ? " asked Elihu.

" You have the conditions here of perfect suc-
cess, as I heard you boast when I first saw you in
the Fitchburg depot at Boston. You are released,
from all thought of the morrow ; the spectre of
want that pursues other men does not dog your
steps ; your have neither wife nor husband nor
child to cling about your hearts and weaken j'our
will to serve the truth with absolute fidelity. Your
discipline has rescued you from the vanity of mak-
ing men wonder. There is nothing to prevent you
from developing a perfect mediumship amongst
you."

"You imply," rejoined Elihu, with warmth,
" that we have failed of our duty in this respect.
You don't seem to realize that our very existence
is a witness to the tnitli of an open relation be-
tween the spii-itual and the material worlds. As a
people we had birth in the inspired visions of Ann ;
the very hvmn we sang yesterday was breathed
througli our lips by angelic authority ; the tradi-
tion of piophocy has never been broken with us.
We gave spiritualism to the world."

222 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Yes, you gave spintualisni to the world," re-
torted Boynton, " to mock its hopes and baffle its
aspirations and corrupt its life. You flung it out
a flaming brand, to be blown upon by cupidity
and lust and ambition, till its heavenly light turned
to an infernal fire, while you remained lapped in
your secure prosperity, counting your gains ; adding
acre to acre, beef to beef, sheep to sheep ; living
the lives of clowns and peasants on week days, and
on the Sabbath dancing before the Lord, for the
amusement of the idlers who come to your church
as they go to a circus."

" Friend," interrupted Elihu warningly, " j^ou
are abusing our patience ! " The other Shakers
looked shocked and alarmed, and Egeria rose to
her feet.

" I mean to abuse your patience. I mean to
sting you into life. I mean to make you think of
your heavenly origin, and realize how unworthy
you have grown. You have subordinated your
spiritualism to your Shakerism " —

" Spiritualism was never anj'thing but a means
to Shakerism," angrily retorted Elihu.

" I would make it the e7id of Shakerism. How
has it profited you as a means ? " demanded Boyn-
ton.

" It has made us what we are. It gave us a
discipline and a rule of life, because it descended,
unasked, from heaven. But your secular spiritual-
ism which 3^ou want to have us take up, and which
has continued through solicitation and entreaty,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 223

has given you no code of morality. It lias been
a vain show, making men worse and not better,
and tempting them to all manner of lies. And
you wish us to take it up at the point to which
the world has brought it ? Nay ! You wish us to
subordinate the angelic life, and the good that has
crowned it, to the mere dead means ? Nay ! To
value the staff by which we have climbed, and not
the height we have reached ? Nay ! Prove first
that in your hands it has not become a stock to
conjure with, — to be cast on the ground and
turned into a serpent for a wonder before Pharaoh
and a confusion of true prophecy, — and then we
will take it up again."

The men's faces had grown red, and they ap-
proached each other angrily.

" You have deceived me ! " cried Boynton. " You
led me to believe that among you I should find the
sympathy and support which are essential to suc-
cess."

" We led you to believe nothing," retoi'ted Elihu.
" An accident threw you among us, after we had
fully and fairly warned you that we should not re-
ceive you or anyone without deliberation. We wel-
comed you kindly, and you have had our best."

" Elilm, Elihu ! " softly pleaded Sister Frances,
" it is n't for us to boast of our good deeds." The
others silently looked from him to her.

" Thei-e is no vainglory in the truth, Frances,"
answered Elihu, severely. " We have been assailed
with unjust tauntings."

224 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. *

" And I," said Boynton, " have been provoked
to a harsher frankness than I meant to use, by your
indifference to an interest infinitely more vital than
any rule of life ; by a gradually increasing enmity
here which I have now felt for some time, and have
struggled against in vain. There has been a with-
drawal of confidence from me."

" You have no right to say that," Elihu promptly
retorted. " The conditions remain precisely the
same as when you first unfolded your plans to us in
family meeting. We dealt plainly with you then,
and we know nothing more of you now than we
knew within two days after your arrival here. You
made certain pretensions then, and you have ful-
filled none of them. Instead of that, j^ou come
after nearly three months' time, and require us to
lay aside our industries, and join you in a pursuit
which has proved the vainest and idlest that has
ever wasted the human mind."

" You have twice upbraided me, now," said Dr.
Boynton, "with my failure to make good my claim
to your confidence. You shall not upbraid me a
third time. You knew why I was waiting. You
knew that it was at a cost almost like life itself that
I waited, and that I counted every hour of delay
as a drop of blood wrung from my heart. But I
will delay no longer. You shall have the proof now
— at once — this very night. Call your family to-
gether. We won't lose another moment. Egeria ! "

Egeria started : the quarrel — for it had assumed
this character — had begun so suddenly, and proba-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 225

bly without intention or expectation on either side,
thougli this is by no means certain ; but she must
liave known whither it tended.

" You are right ! " cried Elihu, with equal heat.
" There is no time Hke the present. Matters have
come to such a pass that something must be done."

" Call your family together ! " repeated Boynton,
defiantly.

" There is no need ; this is the evening for family
meeting," the Shaker rejoined.

In fact, while the}^ had been disputing, a group
of the younger Shakers and Shakeresses had formed
about the door of the family house in which the
meeting was to be held, and their voices, unheeded
by the angry disputants and their listeners, had
risen on the cool twilight air. At that distance the
white dresses of the young girls, freshly put on for
the evening worship, showed pale through the gath-
ering dusk, and their singing, robbed of its shrill-
ness, was the voice of that disembodied devotion
which haunts dim cathedral arches, and in our bright
New World sometimes drifts out of open church
windows to the ear of the passer, taking his heart
with an indefinite religious passion and yearning.

15

XV.

The office sisters went in-doors to make some
change in their dress for the meeting ; Elihu and
Joseph walked away together ; Egeria had shrunk
from the tearful embrace of Sister Frances, and
she now slowly followed with her father, who con-
tinued in strenuous appeal to her, till they reached
the door of the family house, and entered with the
group awaiting them there. A dull look was in her
eyes when they came into the hall, and she sank
absent-mindedly into her usual place in one of the
back rows of sisters, away from the light of the
kerosene lamps burning in brackets against the
wall. Her father, for reasons of his oAvn, chose to
sit apart from the men, and he now retired to one
of the corners, where he remained with his head
drojiped on his hand during the greater part of the
service.

Brother Humphrey did not join the rest till the
meeting was nearly over. He had stayed to close
up the office for the night, and to wait for the re-
turn of Brother Laban, who was away on business,
and he was about to lock one of the front doors,
when he found himself confronted at the threshold
by two men, one of whom asked if he could oblige
them with a night's lodging.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 227

" We do not keep a house of entertainment," said
Hunipluvy, willing to evade, but vin willing to deny.

" Oh, I 'ni perfectly aware of that," said the
stranger, " but I suppose you don't turn people
away. I was given to understand at the village,
back here, that you sometimes took pity on way-
farers."

" Yee, we do," said Humphrey, still holding the
door ajar.

" Then take pity on us, my dear friend, and on
our horse," said. the stranger, not otherwise indi-
cating the vehicle he had left at the gate, " and we
will pay you what you like for your compassion."
He pushed in, and Humphrey mechanically setting
the door wider his companion followed. " We can
sleep in a double-bedded room, if you can't give us
two single ones."

" Nay," said Humphrey, " you can have two sin-
gle rooms. Sit down," he added, showing them
into the office parlor.

" Ah, you double nothing, I suppose," said the
stranger. " Thanks ! " He dropped into a rock-
ing-chair, but when Humphrey went out, to see
that the rooms were quite ready, he sprang actively
to his feet again and went peering about the room
with the lamp which Humphrey had left on the
table. He stooped down and examined the legs
of this piece of furniture. " No I Evidently the
Shaker conscience is against the claw-foot. Prob-
ably they regard it as but one remove from the
cloven-foot. And I don't suppose there 's such a

228 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

thing as a brass-mounting of any sort in the build-
ing. But really, this bare wall with the flat finish
is n't so bad ; it 's expressive of the bare walls and
flat finish of Shakerism ; an instance of what the
Swedenborgians call correspondence. Look here,
my dear fellow ! Here is something very original
— a5-original — in rugs. That 's a good bit of
color." He seized upon one of the braided rugs
on the floor and partly lifted it. " Look at this ! "

" Oh, let it alone," said the other, with a yawn.
He looked not very well, and he glanced at his feet
with the weariness that despairs of ever getting to
bed with such an obstacle as boots in the way.

" But you don't understand," persisted the first,
clinging to the rug. " This must be home-dyed.
These yellows and reds — I was admiring your
rug," he explained to Humphrey, who now reap-
peared. " It 's something uncommon in color."

" Yee," said the Shaker; "we don't generally
like our things so gay. Your rooms are ready."

" Ah, then we won't detain you," said the
stranger ; but he caught sight of the long clock at
the lower end of the hall, into which they issued,
and turned from going up-stairs to look closer at it,
with his hand lamp, " This is good ! Very good !
A genuine Marm Storrs. A family heir-loom, I
fancy ? "

" Nay, I don't know," said the Shaker, stopping
half-way up the stairs ; " it came here before I did.
I don't know who brought it."

" You don't care for colonial bricabrac ? But

THE UNDISCOVEIJED COUNTRY. 229

you should. It 's the only thing we can justly
aspire to, this side of the water. You could pick
up some nice things in the country. Have you a
spinning-wheel ? "

" Yee. But we don't use it. It 's cheaper to
buy our linen."

"Of course. But you 've no idea how much char-
acter it would give that pleasant pai'lor of yours."

Humphrey answered neither yea nor nay. The
other stranger, who had stalked up-stairs past him,
asked from the upper hall, "Which room is mine?"
And when Humphrey pointed it out he entered and
shut the door behind him.

"What singing is that?" asked his companion,
as he paused again at the open window near the
top of the stairs.

"It is our family meeting," answered Humphrey.

"Family meeting I " repeated the stranger brisk-
ly. " Would it be possible — could you allow a
secular person like myself to look in a moment ? "

" Nay," said the Shaker, composedly, without
vouchsafing any explanation.

The stranger looked at him as if puzzled. " I
couldn't go?"

" Nay," repeated Humphrey, as before.

" But really, I 've heard of people attending your
meetings, haven't I?"

" Yee."

" Then why can't I go ? "

" This is a family meeting."

" Oh ! Is this my room ? "

2D0 THE UNDISCOVEPvED COUNTRY.

" Yee. Good-night," he said, while the stranger
was still hesitating at his door-way, and turned
away ; the latter then answered his good-night, and
went in, and Humphi'ey descended to his room be-
low, where, after he had put np the strangers' horse,
he busied himself restlessly in working at his ac-
counts, till Laban raised the latch of the door.

" Laban," said Humphrey, " there are two stran-
gers— young men — in the house, that I've just
give rooms to. One of us has got to stay away
from the meetin', I presume. It won't do to have
'em alone here, these times."

" Nay," said Laban, taking off his hat, and hang-
ing it on its appointed peg before he sat down. " I
will stay."

" I d' know 's I 'd ought to let ye," rejoined
Humphrey. " It 's a meetin' of uncommon inter-
est ; quite excitin', as you may say."

" Why, what 's the matter? "

" Well, Friend Boynton and Egery are goin' to
give what they call a test see-aunts, I suppose.
Mahters have come to a head, all at once, — I don't
rightly know how. But Elihu and Friend Boyn-
ton, they got into consid'able of a dispute, just
now ; and Friend Boynton was tol'ble bitter, and
spoke revilin's that seemed to kind o' edge Elihu
on, and first we know they 'd cooked it up between
'em that the' wa'n't any time like the present to
prove whether spiritualism was better than Shaker-
ism. I don't believe 't she more 'n half liked it,
the way she looked."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 231

" I don't seem to care anything about goin'," said
Laban. "I '11 stay."

"• Why, thank ye, Laban ! " cried Humphrey, ris-
ing with an eagerness which betrayed itself, now
that he had satisfied the scruples of conscience by
setting forth the meeting in the most attractive
colors, and giving Laban a free choice whether to
go or stay.

When he came into the ineeting Brother Elihu
was on his feet, speaking. Humphrey softly crept
to the place left vacant for him, beside Elihu, and
sat down.

" I want," Elihu was saying, " that all the breth-
ren and sisters here present should wish well to
Friend Boynton in his experiment. He claims that
it is necessary to his success that there should be
no feeling of enmity or suspicion towards him, and
if any of us have such feelings I hope they will try
to put them aside. I shall try to do so, for my
part, with all my heart. Hard words have just
passed between Friend Boynton and me, and I am
willing to own that I was hasty and wrong in much
that I said. I shall truly rejoice in all the success
that he hopes for to-night."

He sat down, and a little stir passed through the
rows of listeners. One of them began a hymn, and
they sang it through, while Dr. Boynton waited
with a face of haughty offense. When the singing
ceased, he came forward from his corner, and stood
between the rows of brothers and sisters.

" I thank Elihu," he said, without looking at

232 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

him, " for his good intentions towards myself, and
I freely acqnit him for what he has said. I have
myself nothing to withdraw and nothing to regret.
Nor do I ask, in what I shall do to-night, any mood
of especial assent or sympathy in you, or even of
neutrality. I am not here to try an experiment.
I am here to exhibit certain facts of psychological
science, as thoroughly ascertained as the transmis-
sion of the electric current that bears your mes-
sages from Maine to California." He seemed to
gather defiance from his rotund phraseology ; he
rang the syllables of the last word through the hall
with a clarion hardness. " When I last stood here,"
he continued, " and addressed you upon this sub-
ject, I had to ask your patience. My daughter liad
fallen sick with a fever, of which no one could fore-
cast the event. She lived, and made a recovery
which, though painfully slow, is complete ; and she
is once more fully en rapport with my purposes
and wishes. We shall begin with some simple ex-
periments in biology, or, as it was originally called,
mesmerism ; and we shall gradually proceed to a
combination of this science with spiritism, in a
union which it has been the end and aim of all
my inquiries to effect, — which I have foreseen
fiom the beginning as the only true development
of perfect mediumship. All that I shall ask of
?/0M," said Dr. Boynton, with a certain emphasis
on the last word, turning on his heel, so as to in-
clude all present in his glance of somewhat con-
temptuous demand, "is your strict attention and

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 233

your perfect silence. Stay ! I shall ask one of
you to oblige me by setting a cbair here, where
all can see, and by lending me a handkerchief."
His voice had fallen to the colloquial tone, and it
touched something of its old suavity. But when
Humphrey had set the chair, and Diantha had
given him a folded handkerchief, he shook out the
linen with a flirt, and called, with a sternness that
startled all, " Come forward, Egeria ! "

The girl rose from her place beside Sister Fran-
ces, and slowly advanced, with the Shakeress be-
side her.

" Come forward alone ! " commanded her father,
and Frances shrank back into her seat again, while
Egeria continued to advance, and took her place in
the chair as he directed with a wave of his hand.
Those who were nearest saw that she was veiy
pale, and they spoke afterwards of a peculiar look
in her face, " as if," they said, " the life had gone
out of it." She was also thought to tremble, and
she let her arms fall into her lap, with a long pa-
tient sigh that was heard all over the room, and
that brought tears to the eyes of some.

Her father stood drawing the handkerchief
through his hand. " We will begin, as I said, with
some of the most elementary phases of mesmerism,
and we will work up through these to its ultimation
in clairvoyance, at which point of junction we will
invoke the aid of spiritism, the science into which
it merges, and we will then continue our inquiries
in a dark sdance. For the present the lights can
remain as they are."

a

234 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

He came round in front of his daughter, and
steadily regarded her. " Fix your eyes on mine,"
lie said, as if addressing a stranger.

She obeyed, lifting her eyes with an effect of
mute appeal, while the corners of her mouth
drooped.

" When I count three," continued her father,
" your eyes will close. One, two, three."

Her eyelids fell, and she remained as if in
quiet sleep. Her father approached, and with a
series of downward passes assumed to deepen the
spell.

" Now," he said, turning to the intent spectators,
" we will exhibit some well-known phenomena of
this condition. The subject is in a complete mes-
meric trance, and is entirely under my control. I
can will her to remain in that chair, and she will
have no power to rise. If I were simply in my
own mind, without the utterance of a word, to will
her to go to the house-top and fling herself down,
she would instantly do so. If I willed her to put
her hand in the flame of that lamp, she could not
refuse ; neither would she feel any pain, if I for-
bade her to feel pain. She sees, hears, tastes, feels,
whatever I will. She has no being except in my
volition, and I have not a doubt that, terrible as
it may seem, if I were to will her death, she would
cease to breathe."

His hearers had listened with interest that deep-
ened at each successive assertion ; at the last a sort
of nin:in ran tlirongh the ranks of the sisters. The
brothers remained hardly less impressively silent.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 235

" You can now easily understand," resumed
Boynton, " what a tremendous engine, what a su-
perhuman agency, such a power as that I exert
must be in the development of a spirit medium.
It is to this end that I have chiefly exerted it in
the case of my daughter. My theory has been that
the medium's obsession by spirits is often so
thorough that mind and body alike succumb to
their influence, and that the medium is thus so
obscured as to be able to transmit no intelligible
result. It is at this point that the mesmeric power,
sterile in itself, and hitherto useless, comes to her
rescue. It stays and supports her ; it enables an-
other to reinforce her will, and she receives a distinct
and ineffaceable impression from the other world.
I ask you to consider but for a moment the vast
consequences to flow from such a development. I
ask you to do this, not in your behalf or mine ; for
we knotv, by our converse with spirits, that we
shall live hereafter, — that another world lies be-
yond this, in which we shall abide forever. But
you who dwell here, in the security, the sunshine,
of this faith, have little conception of the doubt
and darkness in which the whole Christian world
is now involved. In and out of the church, it is
honey-combed with skepticism. Priests in the pul-
pit and before tlie altar proclaim a creed which
they hope it will be good for their hearers to be-
lieve, and the peoj^le envy the faith that can so
confidently preach that creed; but neither priests
nor people believe. As yet, this devastating doubt

236 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

has not made itself felt in morals ; for those who
doubt were bred in the morality of those who be-
lieved. But how shall it be with the new genera-
tion, with the children of those who feel that it
may be better to eat, drink, and make merry, for
to-morrow they die forever ? Will they be re-
strained by the morality which, ceasing to be a
guest of the mind in us, remains master of the
nerves ? Will they not eat, drink, and make merry
at their pleasure, set free as they are, or outlawed
as they are, by the spirit of inquiry, by the spirit
of science, which has beaten down the defenses and
razed the citadel of the old faith? I shudder to
contemplate the picture. In view of this calamitous
future, I, as a spiritualist, cannot refrain from
doing; and I appeal to you, as spiritualists, to
shake off this drowse of prosperity, this poppied
slumber of love and peace, and buckle on the ar-
mor of action. What right have you, I ask, —
what right have you Shakers to remain simply a
refuge for the world's lame and halt and blind?
This dream of perfect purity, of affectionate union,
of heavenly life on earth, is very sweet ; and I
too have been fascinated by it. I too have asked
myself why there should not be some provision in
Protestantism, as there is in Romanism, for those
who would retire from the world and dedicate
themselves to humble industry, to meek communion
with the skies, Lo brotherly love. But I tell you
that this is all a delusion and a snare. On your
purity rests the guilt of the world's foulness ; on

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 237

your union the blame of the world's discord ; on
your heavenly peace the responsibility of the world's
hellish unrest. To you was first given, in this lat-
ter time, the renewed gospel of immortality, the
evidence of spiritual life, the truth that matter and
spirit may converse for the salvation of mankind.
What have you done with this priceless gift? Have
you cherished it, kept alight the precious jewel,
to shine before the eyes of men ; or have you flung
it into the world to be trampled under foot by the
swinish herd of sorcerers, who will yet turn tigain
and rend you, unless you fulfill your duty ? Every
one of you here should become a messenger of the
truth, and devote himself and herself to its promul-
gation. Go forth into the world, though it leave
your home desolate, and serve the truth ! Or,
better still, break up this outworn brotherhood,
this barren union in which you dwell, a company
of aging men and women, childless, hopeless, with
whom their heritage must perish, and form with
me on its ruins a new Shakerism, — a Shakerism
which shall be devoted to the development of spir-
itistic science ; which shall — which shall " —

He paused for the word, and Brother Eliliu sud-
denly rose. " I would remind Friend Boynton,"
he said, " that we are waiting to witness the mes-
meric phenomena which he has promised us."

The brethren and sisters, who had been unawares
drawn upward and forward by Boynton's eloquence,
sank back into their seats, but some of the latter
turned a reproachful glance at Elihu, in wonder

238 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY,

that he could have the heart to interrupt the heroic
strain. Then all eyes reverted to Egeria, who in
the general forgetfulness had sat with her head
drooping and her person dejected in a weary lassi-
tude.

The doctor stopped, stared at Elihu, and caught
his breath. He could not collect his thoughts at
once, or master his overstrung nerves ; but when
he regained his voice he said dryly, " If you will
do nie the favor to look at your Avatch, I will show
you the least of these phenomena."

Brother Elihu promptly took out his watch and
held it in his hand.

" Egeria," said the doctor, " tell me the time by
Elihu's watch."

The girl lifted herself like one peering forward,
but her eyes were still closed. " The case is shut^"
she answered.

" That is true," Elihu declared. " I had shut
it." He opened it.

" Look now, Egeria."

She remained in the same posture for some time.
" I can't tell," she said at last. " I can't see."

The doctor smiled triumphantly. " Oh, I had
forgotten to bandage your eyes. You can't see, of
course, unless your eyes are bandaged." He bound
the handkerchief, which he had continued to draw
through liis hand, over her eyes. " Now look."

" I can't see," repeated the girl.

Boynton laughed. " Really," he said, " I must
apologize for having forgotten some essential condi-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 239

tions of these simpler plienomena. We had ad-
vanced so far beyond them that I did n't recur to
them at once in all their details. I can't, of course,
will the subject to know what I don't know myself.
If I were to guess at the time, she must necessarily
repeat my guess." He went quickly to Elihu, and
glanced at the watch ; then returning to his place
beside Egeria's chair, he looked off at a distant
point and said, with a tone of easy indifference,
" Well, Egeria, what time is it? "

The girl fell back into her chair, and putting up
her hands took the bandage from her eyes, whicli
she fixed upon her father's face in a passion of pity
and despair.

" Let it go. Friend Boynton," said Elihu kindly.
" There is no haste. Another time will do as well.
Perhaps Egeria has not quite recovered."

" Yee," repeated one and another of the breth-
ren and sisters, "another time will do as well."

"No," said Boynton, "another time will not do
as well." He was strongly moved, but he made
a successful effort to command his voice. " JNIy
daughter has been so habitually under my influ-
ence that I had not thought it worth while to go
through the preliminaries we use with a fresh sub-
ject. But as a great interruption has taken place
during her fever, perhaps this has become neces-
sary." While he spoke, he was searching in his
different pockets. He continued bitterly: "I was
once the possessor of a silver piece which I used in
produchig the mesmeric trance, but it would not be

240 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

strange if I had parted with it in the distress which
threw me uj^on your charity. If any of you hap-
pens to have a silver coin of any sort" —

Few of these simple communists often had money
about them ; and in those days of paper currency
even the business men of the family knew very well
that there was no silver in their pockets. If a sil-
ver coin was the indispensable condition of the mes-
meric slumber, apparently Boynton stood on safe
ground.

But with a quick " Ah ! " he came upon the piece
he was seeking in his pocket-book. He pressed it
between his palms, keeping his eyes fixed upon his
daughter's. Then he put it in her open hand, and
bade her look at it without winking, till her eyelids
fell. As they closed he softly removed the piece,
and made a number of downward passes over her
face. There was a pause, during which Boynton
w^as about to say something to his audience, when
Egeria opened her eyes and rose from her chair.

" I can't, I can't ! " she cried, pitifully. " I 've
tried, but indeed, indeed, I can't." She stood be-
fore him, wringing her hands, and longing to cast
her anns about his neck ; but the sternness of his
reproachful face forbade her. He opened his lips
to speak, but no sound came from them. One of
the brothers nearest him thought that he tottered,
and half rose, with outstretched hands, to support
him. Sister Frances was already at Egeria's side ;
she drew her head down upon her shoulder with
a motherly instinct, while a murmur of sympathy
went through the house.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 241

Bojmton repelled the friendly hand extended to-
wards him. " Let me alone," he said ; " I can take
care of myself." He turned about, and lifting his
voice bravely addressed the meeting : " We have
failed, — totally and completely failed, upon as fair
a trial as I could have wished. I do not attempt
to account for the result, and I cannot dispute any
conclusions which you may draw from it in regard
to ourselves."

Elihu stood up. " Friend Boynton, we believe
you are an honest man."

" Yee, we do ! " was repeated from bench to
bench.

"I thank you," replied Boynton, in a breaking
voice. " Then I can ask you to let me say that our
failure is a profound mystery to me, and belies all
our past experience. I do ask you to believe this ;
I ask you to let me say it, and to let it remain with
you as my last word. For myself, I cannot lose
faith in the past and keep my sanity. But some-
how I see that the power has passed from us. In
any case our destiny is accomplished among you.
We must go out from you self-condemned. Before
we go, I wish to acknowledge all your kindness,
and to ask your forgiveness for such words of mine
as have wronged you. Come, Egeria."

The girl came forward to where her father stood,
and he took her hand and passed it through his
arm.

" You must n't leave us, Friend Boynton," said
Elihu. " We wish you to stay. We wish you to

16

242 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

stay," lie repeated, at a dazed look of inquiry from
the doctor, " and take all the time that you want
for your investigations."

" Yee, that is so," assented all the voices in the
room successively. Brother Humphrey alone con-
tinued silent, and he was ordinarily so undemon-
strative that his tacit dissent would harldly have
been noticed, but for his saying, before Boynton
could collect himself for reply, "There ain't noth-
in' agin Friend Boynton but what he can clear up
with a word to the elders, and I jine with ye all in
askin' of him to stay."

" What do you mean ? " demanded Boynton,
turning fiercely upon him. " If you know any-
thing against me, I wish you to speak out."

Brother Humphrey, who could scarcely have
meant to intimate any mental reservation, has-
tened to answer in alarm, " I ha'n't got any doubts
of ye, Friend Boynton. I think just as the rest do.
We 'd believe you^

" Believe me about what ? I insist that you
speak out."

Humphrey looked at the faces near him for help,
but there was only pity and surprise in them. " It
ain't no time or place," he began.

" It is the very time and the very place," retorted
Boynton. " There can be no other like it. I wish
you to say wliat you mean before the whole family.
There is nothing in my life which I wish secretly
examined into. I absolve you from all your scru-
ples, and I wish, I demand, I require, that you
speak out."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 243

Humphrey rose with a sort of groan. " I think,"
he said, " as much as any on ye that there ought to
be forgivin' and forgettin', and I ain't one to bear
resentment for revilin's that 's been passed on Shak-
erism here to-night. But what I thought, if Friend
Boy n ton was goin' to stay amongst us, he'd ought
to have a chance to clear himself. We all know
what 's been flyin' about the neighborhood here,
and it ain't fair to us, and it ain't fair to him, to let
it go without a word. I don't want he should feel
that we 're tryin' on him, but I want him to know
what 's said, for all I don't believe in breakin' a
bruised reed."

" As I said before, if you have heard anything to
my disadvantage, I wish you to speak out, — I de-
mand that you shall speak out," said Boynton.

" I 'm goin' to speak out, now," returned Hum-
phrey more steadily, " and it ain't for anything
that Friend Harris said, although I think ye 'd
ought to know what he did say."

" Who is Harris ? " asked Boynton.

" He 's the landlord of the Elm Tahvern."

"What does he say?"

" Well," said Humphrey, with reluctance, " I
think ye 'd ought to know. He says you wa'n't
sober that mornin' at his house, and he could n't
hardly git ye out." Humphrey turned very red,
as if ashamed, and wiped his forehead with his nap-
kin ; Elihu and the brothers near him looked down,
and a painful hush prevailed.

Boynton did not deign to notice this accusation.

244 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" And what does your friend Harris say of the oc-
currences attending our departure ? " he demanded,
contemptuously.

" He ain'fe no friend of our'n, except in the script-
ural sense," replied Humphrey, doggedly. " But
he says the' wa'n't no occurrences. Just a flash of
tol'ble sharp lightnin' and that 's all. The' wa'n't
no raps, nor no liftin' o' table-tops, accordin' to his
say."

" I am glad to have you so explicit," said the
doctor, " and I think now I begin to understand
the value of your family's generosity towards my-
self. Did your friend Harris say anything in as-
persion of my daughter ? "

" Nay," replied Humphrey.

" Then she probably remains as before in your
estimation, and you would take her word against
Harris's, highly as you value his testimony ? "

" Nay, we don't value his testimony," interposed
Elihu. " Your word is better than his. We be-
lieve you against him."

Boynton waved scornful rejection with his hand.
" Oh, spare your flatteries, sir. / know what you
think of me. But you would believe my daugh-
ter ? "

" Yee, we would," answered the whole audience.

The doctor regarded them with a curling lip.
" Egeria," he said quietly, " state to these people
what occurred. Tell the truth." The girl was
silent. " Speak ! "

" Father ! " she gasped, " I don't know. I have

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 245

heard you say. But I was asleep and dreaming till
that clap of thunder came."

" Then you remember nothing? "

" Oh, I can just remember our going into that
house, and our coming out of it. I forgot every-
thing, — I was beginning to be crazy with the fever.
But don't mind, — oh, don't mind, father ! They
beheve you, — they said they did. Oh, you do be-
lieve him, don't you ? " she implored of all those
faces that swam on her tears.

Boynton reeled, and again the compassionate
brother started up to save him from a fall. " Don't
touch me ! " he cried harshly. " Is there anything
else?" he demanded, turning to Humphrey.

Elihu rose with an air of authority. " This must
stop now. It has been a painful season ; but no
one here thinks that these fiiends have done any-
thing wrong, or said anything false. We believe
them, and we welcome them, if they choose, to stay
with us."

" Yee, we do ! " The assenting voices included
Humphrey's.

" You welcome us to stay amongst you ! " cried
the doctor, with intense disdain. " Do you think
that after what has just passed here any earthly
consideration could induce me to remain another
day, another hour, under your roof ? " He had his
daughter's hand in his arm, and he proudly pressed
it as he spoke, drawing himself to his full height.
" So much for ourselves ! As for the experiments
in which we have so ignominiously failed, I have

246 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

no personal regrets. It would have been a pitiful
triumph at best, if we had succeeded before you,
and I cannot believe that the principle, the truth,
involved can suffer by our defeat. We are simply
proved unfit means for its develoj)ment, — nothing
more. Were it otherwise, were I persuaded that
our humiliation was destined to arrest, or more than
shghtly retard, the progress of this science in men's
minds, then I should indeed regard this night as
the blackest of my life, and should be ready to lay
down that life in despair. But, no ! It is not given
to any one weak instrument, mysteriously breaking
in the presence of a few obscure and sordid intelli-
gences, to obstruct the divine intention. In this
ineradicable conviction, I bid you a final farewell."
He strode toward the door with his daughter on
his arm. One of the elders said, meekly and sadly,
" The meeting is dismissed," and the brethren and
sisters dispersed to their different houses. Those
of the office found themselves following Dr. Bojmton
thither. They apprehensively entered after him,
dreading some fresh explosion, or some show of
preparation for instant departure. But the rhetoric
of his spectacular adieu had sufficed him for the
present. He merely said, " Egeria, go to bed.
You must be quite worn out. As for me, I can't
sleep, yet. I will go out for a walk. Would you
oblige me with a glass of water ? " he asked po-
litely, turning to Sister Frances. When she brought
it, " Thanks," he said, and handed back the empty
goblet with a bow.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 247

" Do you think jon 'd better walk far ? " tremu-
lously asked Egeria.

The touch of opposition restored him to his sense
of wrong and resentment.

" Go to bed, Egeria," he said severely, " and
don't any one sit up for me. I can let myself in
at the side door when I wish to return."

He started away, but the girl put herself in his
path to the door. " Oh, father ! You won't go to
see that man at the tavern, will you ? Tell me you
won't, or I can't let you go."

" Don't be ridiculous ! " cried her father. " I have
no idea of going to meet that ruffian. In due time
I shall call him to account."

" Don't ye think. Friend Boynton," said Hum-
phrey, with awkward kindliness, " that you 'd bet-
ter try to get some rest? "

In the swift evanescence and recurrence of his
moods under the strong excitement, Boynton was
hke a drunken man. After publishing his reso-
lution not to accept the hospitality of the Shakers
for an hour more, he had walked passively to the
office with them, and had bidden Egeria go to
bed there, as if nothing had happened. At Hum-
phrey's words, all his indignation was rekindled.

" Rest ! No, sir ! I will not try to get some
rest. After what has passed, every offer of kind-
ness from you is a fresh offense. You, Egeria, if
you can close your eyes here, you are welcome.
Doubtless you can. Your apathy, your total want
of sympathetic response to my feelings and my will,

248 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

may enable you to do so. But till some other roof
shall cover us, I want no shelter."

No one sought to detam him, now, and going
quickly from the door he left them huddled in a
blank and purposeless group together.

" Poor thing ! " said Sister Frances, first break-
ing the silence, as she turned to Egeria. " Oh,
poor child ! " She tried to take the girl in her
arms ; but with a pathetic " Don't ! " Egeria pre-
vented her, and averted her quivering face. She
went out of the room and up-stairs without a word
or sound ; but Frances creeping softly after, to
listen at her door, heard her sobbing within the
room.

XVI.

The hot weather, with here and there a blazing
day in June, flamed into whole weeks of unbroken
heat before the middle of July. The business
streets were observably quieter, and the fashiona-
ble quarters were solitudes. At the club windows
a few elderly men sat in arm-chairs, with glasses of
iced Apollinaris w^ater at their elbows, and stared
out on the Common ; some young men, with their
hats on (if they perished for it), stalked spectrally
from room to room behind them. The imported
honnes with their charges no longer frequented the
Public Garden ; it was thronged with the children
and the superannuated of the poor, and with groups
of tourists from the South and West, who were
finding Boston what so many natives boast it in
winter, the most comfortable summer resort on the
coast.

It was not Ford's habit to go out of town at all ;
for in his hatred of the narrow and importunate
conditions of the village life which he had left be-
hind him with his earlier youth, he had become an
impassioned cockney.

" If you are so bitter against the country," said
Phillips, who was urging an invitation to the sea-

250 THE UNDISCOVEEED COUNTRY.

side upon him, " why don't you try really to be of
the town as well as in it? Why don't you try to
be one of us ? Why don't you make an effort to
fit in ? "

" I don't like fitting in ; I like elbow-room," an-
swered Ford. " Do you suppose I should be fond
of the town if I were of it ? I should have to be
one of a set, and a set is a village. If I am in the
town, but not of it, I have freedom and seclusion.
Besides, no man of simple social traditions like
mine fits into a complex society without a loss of
self-respect. He must hold aloof, or commit insin-
cerities,— be a snob. I prefer to hold aloof. It
is n't hard."

" And you don't think you do it to make yourself
interesting? " inquired Phillips.

" I think not," said Ford.

" People would as lief be pleasant to you as not.
But it ends there. They 're not anxious about
you," suggested the other.

" I believe I understand that." Ford was sitting
at his window in his deep easy-chair ; and he had
his coat off. " That 's what galls my peasant-pride.
Suppose I went with you to this lady's house " — he
touched with the stem of his pipe a letter which lay
open on the table pulled near him — " and visited
among your friends, the nobility and gentry ; I
should be reminded by a thousand things every day
that I was a sham and a pretender. That kind of
people always take it for granted that you feel and
think with them ; and I don't. You can't keep

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 251

telling tliem so, however. And suppose I tried to
conform : I should be an amateur among profes-
sionals. They have the habit of breeding and of
elegance, as they understand it ; I may have a lof-
tier ideal, but I have n't discipline ; I can't realize
my ideal ; and they do realize theirs, — poor souls !
That makes me their inferior ; that makes me hate
them."

" Oh," said Phillips, " you can put an ironical
face on it, but I suspect what you say is really your
mind."

" Of course it is. At heart I am a prince in dis-
guise ; but your friends won't know it if I sit with
my coat off. That would vex me." He took up the
letter from the table, and holding it at arm's length
admired it. " Such a hand alone is enough ; the
smallest letters half an inch high, and all of them
shrugging their shoulders. I can't come up to that.
If I went to this lady's house, to be like her other
friends and acquaintance I should have to be just
arrived from Europe, or just going ; my talk should
be of London and Paris and Rome, of the Saturday
Review and the Revue des Deux Mondes, of Eng-
lish politics and society ; my own country should
exist for me on sufferance through a compassionate
curiosity, half repulsion ; I ought to have recently
dined at Newport with poor Lord and Lady Scam-
perton, who are finding the climate so terrible ; and
I should be expected to speak of persons of the
highest social distinction by their first names, or
the first syllables of their first names. You see,

252 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

that 's quite beyond me. 'And do bring your friend,
Mr. Ford,' " he read from the letter raincingly, and
laughed. " I leave it to your fertile invention to
excuse me, Phillips."

He kindled his pipe, and Phillips presently went
away. It was part of his routine not to fix himself
in any summer resort, but to keep accessible to the
invitations which did not fail him. He found his
account in this socially, and it did not remain un-
said that he also gratified a passion for economy in
it ; but the people who said this continued among
his hosts. Late in the summer, or almost when the
leaves began to turn, he went away to the hills for
a fortnight or three weeks, providing himself with
quarters in some small hotel, and making a point
of returning to the simplicity of nature. In the
performance of this rite he wore a straw hat and a
flannel shirt, and he took walks in the woods with
the youngest young ladies among the boarders.

The intervals between his visits he spent in town,
where he was very comfortable. When he went to
the places that desired him, he explained that he
had been in Boston trying to get Ford away. " Oh,
yes ! Your odd friend," said the ladies driving him
home from the station in their phaetons. Phillips
must have known that they did not care either for
his odd friend or for his own oddity in having him,
and yet he rather prized this eccentricity in him-
self.

The people in Ford's boarding-house went their
different ways. Mrs. Perham remained latest, for

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 253

Mr. Perham's health had not yet allowed his re-
moval. He had had two great passions in life :
making money and driving horses. By the time
he had made his money he had a touch of paralysis,
and could no longer drive horses. This separated
him much from his wife, who liked almost as well
as he to ride after a good horse (as it is expressed
by people who like it), and wdiom, since she had
been forced so much to books for amusement, he
could not join. She read the newspapers to him,
and she went with him to the theatres ; but there
they ceased to sympathize in their tastes, for she
was not fond of swearing, and it was this resource
which remained to Mr. Perham after the papers
and the play.

The house filled up for the summer with those
people from the West and South who found the
summer in Boston so pleasant, and with other tran-
sients; but many of the rooms and many of the
places at the table remained vacant, and Mrs. Per-
ham and Ford looked at each other across long dis-
tances, empty, or populated only by strange faces.
At last Mr. Perham was able to bear removal ; his
wife seized the occasion and hurried him away to
the country. That left Ford alone with the stran-
gers, and he rather missed the woman's hungry
curiosity, her cheerfulness, and her indomitable
patience under what a more sympathetic witness
miffht have felt to be the hard conditions of her
life. He clung to the town throughout July and
far into August, with a growing restlessness. He

254 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

did not care for the heat, and he amused himself
well enough when he found time to be amused.
He made a point of studying the different excur-
sions in the harbor and beyond it ; he studied also
the entertainments offered at the theatres, where
the variety combinations inculcated in small audi-
ences a morality as relaxed as their systems.

One Sunday he went to the spiritualist meeting
in the grove by Walden Pond. Most of the spirit-
ualists were at a camp-meeting of their sect further
up the road, and the people whom he met seemed,
like himself, vaguely curious. They were nearly
all country-folk: the young men had come with
their sweethearts for pleasure ; there were middle-
aged husbands and wives who had brought their
children for a day in the woods beside the pretty
lake. Their horses were tied to the young pines
and oaks ; they sat in their buggies and carryalls,
which were pushed into cool and breezy spots. The
scene broua:ht back to Ford the Sunday-school pic-
nics of his childhood, but here was a profaner fla-
vor: scraps of newspaper that had wrapped lunches
blew about the grounds ; at one place a man had
swung a hammock, and lay in it reading, in his
shirt-sleeves ; on the pond was a fleet of gay row-
boats, which, however, the railroad company would
not allow to be hired on Sunday. Ford found the
keeper of the floating bath-houses and got a bath.
When he came out the man, with American splen-
dor, refused to take any money ; he said that they
did not let the baths on Sunday, but when he saw

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 255

a gentleman he liked to treat hira as one. " I hope
you 're not mistaken in my case," said Ford sadly ;
and the bath-man laughed, and said be would chance
it. Another of the people in charge complained of
the dullness of the place. " What you want is a
band. You want a dance-hall in the middle of the
pond, here ; and you want a band." They pointed
out the auditorium in a hollow of the hills beyond
the railroad track, where at the hour fixed for serv-
ice he found the sparse company assembled. A
score of listeners were scattered over the seats in
the middle of the pavilion ; outside, two young fel-
lows who had come by the train leaned against the
columns and smoked, with their hats on; a young
girl in blue, with her lover, conspicuously occupied
one of the seats under the trees that scaled the am-
phitheatre, worn grassless and brown by drought
and the feet of many picnics ; there were certain
ladies in artificial teeth and long linen dusters whom
Ford fixed upon as spiritualists, though he had no
reason to do so. A trance-speaker was announced
for the Invocation; he came forward, where the
fiddlers sat when there was dancing, and, support-
ing himself by one hand on the music-stand, closed
his eyes and passed into a trance of wandering
rhetoric, returning to himself in a dribble of verse
which bade the hearer, at the close of each stanza,
" Come, then, come to Spirit-Land."
The address was given by another speaker, who
declaimed against the injustice of the world towards
spiritualism and boasted of the importance of its

256 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

Unfoldments. He sketched its rise and progress,
and found an analogy between the " first lisping of
the tinny rap at Rochester" and the advent of
Christ, whom he described as the " infant Reformer
in the man-ger," and again as our '' humble elder
brother." The people listened decently, and but
for the young fellows with their cigars were as re-
spectful as most country congregations to what was
much duller than most country preaching. Ford
came away before the end, and climbing the side
of the amphitheatre encountered Mr. Eccles, who
was also about to go. He shook hands with Ford,
and on his present inquiry said that nothing had
been heard of the Boyntons since the spring. He
expressed a faded interest in them. He asked Ford
if he had seen the experiments in self-expansion
and compression of the new medium, Mrs. Sims.
He viewed these experiments as the ultimation of
certain moral fluctuations in the spiritual world,
for if there was a steady movement either outward
or inward in that world, Mrs. Sims might expand
or might condense herself, but it stood to reason
that she could not do both.

Ford came home with a headache ; when he
woke, the next morning, the long window danced
round the room before it settled to its proper place.
He was not in the habit of being sick, and he suf-
fered some days with this dizziness before he saw a
doctor. Then he asked advice, because the sick-
ness interfered with his work.

" Go away somewhere," said the doctor. " It 's
indigestion. Get a change of air."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 257

"Do you mean the sea-side? " asked Ford.

" I don't call tliat a change of air from Boston.
Go to the hills."

Ford reflected a moment in disgust. He could
have endured the sea-side. " Any particular direc-
tion ? "

" No. Go anywhere. Go to the White Mount-
ains. Take a tramp through them."

" I 'd rather take medicine," said Ford. " Give
me some medicine."

" Oh, I '11 give you all the medicine you want,"
said the doctor; and he wrote him a prescription.

Ford went home, and took his medicine with the
same skepticism, and tried to keep about his work.
The lectures which he had been attending were
over long ago ; but he had found a chance to do
some study with a practical chemist which he was
loath to forego ; and he had his pot-boiling for the
press. But his mind feebly relaxed from the de-
mands upon it, and at last it refused to respond at
all. He lingered a week longer in town before he
would suffer himself to act upon the doctor's ad-
vice, and when at last he forced himself to submis-
sion it was the end of the month. As regarded
such matters he was a man of small invention, and
he was at a loss how to go, when he had made up
his mind to it. He would have been glad of Phil-
lips's determining counsel, but the time had now
come for Phillips's annual return to nature, and he
would be far from Boston and the North Shore.
On his way to buy a Guide, Ford saw in the win-
17

258 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

dow of a railroad agency the advertisement of a
route to the White Mountains, and he advised with
the ticket-agent, who took no more interest in the
matter than Ford himself, about getting a ticket
over his line. It led first to Portland, and then,
as the agent indifferently pointed out on the map,
went straight to the mountains, with a bold, broad
sweep, while rival routes, in spidery crooks, zig-
zagged thither with a preposterous, almost wanton,
indirectness. Foi'd stood sadly amusing himself,
first with the immense advantage of this line over
all competitors, and then with the names of the
towns near Gorhara in New Hampshire, and in the
adjoining region of Maine : Milan, Berlin, Success,
Byron, Madrid, Avon, New Vineyard, Peru, Nor-
way, Sweden, Industry, Paris, Carthage, — names
conjecturably given at hap-hazard, or in despair, or
out of humorous recklessness, as names are given
to dogs and horses. He wondered whether Dr.
Boynton came from Byron or Carthage, or perhaps
a little farther off, from Cornville or Solon. He
stood so long before the map that the agent lost
his patience, and turned to his books ; and Ford
came away at last without buying a ticket.

At home he found a visitor whom his sick and
dazzled eyes identified after a while as Phillips.
" Hallo ! " he said. " I thought you were some-
where in the country."

" Theoretically I am in the country," Phillips
admitted, " but practically ' I am here,' — as Ruy
Bias says," He neatly imitated the accent of the

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 259

late Charles Fecbter in pronouncing the words.
" It occurred to me, before committing myself to
the country irretrievably, that I would stop in Bos-
ton and try to commit you with me."

" Who told you I was sick ? " asked Ford, with
displeasure.

" Nobody. If I knew it, I divined it. If you
are sick, so much the better. My plan is just the
thing for you. I am going to drive in a buggy to
Brattleboro', where I underwent the water cure —
for my first passion. It was a great while ago. I
want you to coine, too."

Ford shook his head stupidly. " The doctor said
the White jNIountains."

" Yes, White Mountains, Green Mountains ; it 's
all one. It 's air that you 're after. All you want
is change of air. This journey will make another
man of you. It 's to be a journey for the sake of
going and coming ; and we will loiter or hurry on
the way, just as we like. Come ! I 've planned it
all out. It 's to be an affair of weeks. I propose
to make it an exploration, — a voyage of discovery.
I wish to form the acquaintance of my native State,
and of those men and brethren, her children, who
have never left the domestic hearth. You had bet-
ter come. It will be literary material to you, and
money in your pocket. I thought of striking for
Egerton, and looking in on the Perhams there,
first ; but we ought to stop on our way at Sudbury
to see the Wayside Inn ; and I must deflect a little
to show you Concord, and the local history and

260 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

philosophy ; there are Shakers and all sorts of nov-
elties at Vardley and Harshire ; beyond Egerton is
Princeton, with its Wachusett jNIountain ; and after
that there is anything northwestwardly that you
like ; I have n't the map by me. My mare is pin-
ing on the second floor of her stable, and would ask
nothing better than to form a third in our party."
" Oh, I '11 go with you," said Ford listlessly.
"Good!" cried Phillips. "This is the fire of
youth. If we get sick of it, we can send the mare
back from any given point, and take to the rails.
That is one of the advantages of having rails. It
makes travel by the country roads a luxury, and
not a necessary. I fancy we shall feel almost
wicked in the pursuit of our journey, — it will be
such unalloyed pleasure."

Phillips's mare was the remains of an establish-
ment which he had set up some years before. It
had included a man and a coupd, and he had relin'
quished these because of their expensiveness. The
man, especially, had been unable to combine the
advantages of outside man and inside man ; he
made Phillips's lodgings smell of the mare, and he
made the stable smell of Phillips's wine. The man
was paid off and sent away, and the coup^ was sold
at auction ; but with a conservative unthrift that
curiously combined with his frugal instincts, Phil-
lips had suffered the mare to linger on his hands.
Sometimes he took her out for exercise from the
club stable, where he had lodged her ; but he had
intervals of forgetfulness, in which the club-groom

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 261

found it his duty to warn him that the mare's legs
were swelling. She was consequently boarded out
of town a good deal, and Phillips awoke to her pos-
session only when the farmers' bills came in. At
these times he said he should sell that mare.

Like men who are rarely out of sorts, Ford was
eager to be well at once, and he chafed under Phil-
lips's delays in getting off. But the latter, having
secured Ford's company, began to arrange the de-
tails of their journey with minuteness, and it was
several days before they started. Their progress
had then even more than the promised slowness.
Phillips was intent not only upon the pleasure of
the journey, but also upon the search for colonial
bricabrac, and this began as soon as they struck the
real country beyond the suburban villages. All
that was colonial was to his purpose, from tall
standing clocks to the coarsest cracked blue delft :
spinning-wheels, andirons, shovels and tongs, claw-
footed furniture, battered pewter plates, door-latches
and door-knockers, tin lanterns, fiddle-back chairs —
his craze generously embraced them all. He did
not buy much, but he talked as long over what he
left as what he took. He was not the first connois-
seur who had visited these farm-houses ; the peoj^le
sometimes knew the worth of their wares ; in cer-
tain cases, he traced the earlier presence of rival
collectors whom he knew. Ford had nothing to do
but to note the growth of the bargaining passion in
the wary farm-wives. There were some who would
sell nothing, and some had nothing they would not

262 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

sell, and they asked too much or too little with the
same simj^licity. What most struck him was the
entire rusticity of their thought and life. Off the
lines of railroad, and out of the localities frequented
by summer boarders, the people were as rural,
within fifteen or twenty miles of Boston, as they
would have been among the Vermont or New
Hampshire hills. But the country was itself occa-
sionally very wild, especially as they got southward
in Sudbury, among overflowed meadows and long
stretches of solitary pine woods. The sparse farm-
houses and the lonesome villages afflicted him with
the remembrance of his own youth ; whatever his
life had been since, it had not been embittered with
the sense of hopeless endeavor, with the galled
pride, with the angry ambition, which had once
made it a torment in such places. But when they
chanced upon some bit of absolute wilderness his
heart relented towards the country ; his jealous
spirit found no more intrusion there than in the
town ; and he liked the wild odors, the tangle of
vegetation, the life of the sylvan things. A hawk
winging to covert under the avenging pursuit of
small birds, a woodchuck lumpishly skuri-ying across
an open field, the chase of chipmucks and squirrels
along the walls, were sights that touched a remote
and deep tenderness in his breast. As they drew
near the old inn, which was the first monument
Phillips had proposed to inspect, it was late in
the afternoon, and the landscape grew more consol-
ingly savage. No other house was near enough to

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 263

be seen, and they approached the stoned mansion
through a long stretch of pine and sand, by a road
which must be lonelier now than it was a hundred
years ago. They dismounted under the elm before
the vast yellow hostelry, and explored its rambling
chambers : they saw Lafayette's room and Wash-
ington's room ; the attic for the slaves and common
folk ; the quaint ball-room ; the bar ; the parlor
where Longfellow and his friends used to sit before
the fire that forever warms the rhyme celebrating
the Wayside Inn. They found it not an inn any
more, though it appeared from the assent of the
tenant that they might command an elusive hospi-
tality for the night. The back-door opened upon
the fading memories of a garden, and the damp of
late rains struck from it into the sad old house.

"It would be delightful," Phillips said, " to stay,
but I think we must push on to Sudbury for the
night." He lingered over an old chest of drawers
in the dining-room ; not claw-footed, certainly, but
with a bulging front, and with some fragmentary
relics of its former brasses. But, " It has carried
antiquity to the point where it ceases to be a vir-
tue," he sighed at last. " It might be re-created ;
it could n't be restored."

At Sudbury Village they found that there was
no inn ; though provision was occasionally made
for wayfarers at the outlying farm-houses. They
could be lodged in that way, or they could return
for the night to the tavern at Wayland where they
had dined. It was now twilight. " I think it will

264 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

give an agreeable flavor of hardship to our adventure
if we push on to Concord," said Phillips, and Ford
willingly consented. They were no better assorted
than ever in their strange companionship ; but they
had a good deal of talk. Phillips was volubly phil-
osophical; and Ford, under the stimulus of the
novelty, was more than commonly responsive, and
pointed his comment, as was very unusual in him,
with bits of his own history and observation. But
the next day, after looking over Concord together,
and making their start upon an early dinner, they
had almost as little to say to each other as the
tramps they met on the road, who had the air of
not wishing to be disturbed in their meditations
upon burglary and arson. They gave up their
plan of stopping over night with the Harshire
Shakers, and pushed on as far as Vardley instead,
where they trus1?ed to finding shelter in the com-
munity. They could spend the next morning there,
Phillips said, and dine at Egerton ; and Ford as-
sented to anything.

XVII.

BoYNTOK had passed the night wandering up
and down the roads, and trying to puzzle out the
causes of his discomfiture. Towards morning he
had gone as far as the Ehn Tavern and walked to
and fro before it a long time, debating whether he
should go in and confront the landlord with his
lie. The house was brilliantly lighted upon one
side, where there seemed to be a hall running its
whole length, and a sound of clattering feet and
laughing voices, mingled with the half-suppressed
squeak of a fiddle, came out of the open windows.
It was the landlord who was fiddling ; Boynton
recognized his tones in the harsh voice that called
out the figures of the dance. From time to time a
panting couple came to the door for breath. Sev-
eral women came together, presently, and catching
sight of Boynton, as he lurked in the shadow of the
elms, one of them called out, " Lord, girls, there 's
a ghost ! " and they all fled in-doors again with
hysterical cries and laughter. The word thrilled
him with hope : what he had declared in regard to
the phenomena there must be matter of general
belief in the neighbarhood. He stole away, borne
forward as if on air by the tumult of cogitation that

266 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

inflated his brain. He found himself, he knew not
how, again on the long street of the Shaker village.
The day was breaking, when he sat down near the
granite bowl, still struggling hopefully for a clue
to the mystery of his failure. His waking dreams
began to mix with those of sleep, and an hour later
Ford and Phillips, roused by a common foreboding
of early breakfast, and strolling down the road a
little for a glimpse of the village and a breath of
the fresh morning air, halted at sight of this strange
figure, clothed in Shaker habiliments, and with the
broad-briramed Shaker hat on the grass at its feet ;
the eyes were closed, and the head rested against
the trunk of one of the willows. A chilly horror
crept over Ford, who whispered, " Is he dead ? "
but Phillips had no emotion save utter astonish-
ment.

" Great heavens ! " he cried. " It 's Dr. Boyn-
ton ! "

At the sound of his name, Boynton opened his
eyes with a start, and sprang to his feet. He rec-
ognized them instantly, but he took no heed of
Phillips as he launched himself upon Ford.

" You here ! You here ! You here ! " he
screamed. " Now I understand ! Now I see !
Where were you last night ? Were you in this
place, this neighborhood, this region ? I see it !
I know why we failed, — why we were put to
shame, destroyed, annihilated, in the very hour of
our triumph ! I might have thought of it ! I
might have known you were here ! Did you hunt

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 267

US up ? Did you follow us ? You have ruined
me ! You have blasted my life ! "

With whatever wild impulse, he caught at Ford's
throat, and clung to his collar, while the young
man's iron clutch tightened upon either of his
wrists.

" Let go, you maniac ! If you don't let go,
I '11 " —

Boynton flung up his hands, and reeling several
steps backward, fell. He struck heavily against
the sharp rim of the stone bowl, and seemed about
to fall into the water, but dropped at the base, mo-
tionless.

" My God, you 've killed him ! " shouted Phillips,
as he stepped out from behind one of the trees.

" Go and get help ! " Ford fell on his knees be-
side Boynton, and searched his breast with a trem-
bling hand for the beating of his heart ; he put his
ear to his mouth, and heard him breathe before he
dipped his hand in the bowl, and dashed Boynton's
face with the water. He was kneeling beside him,
and lifting his head upon his arm, when he looked
up and saw the anxious visages of those whom Phil-
lips's clamors had summoned about them. Then
Egeria had made her way through the circle. She
pushed Ford away with an awful look and stooping
over her father caught up his head in her arms,
and now swiftly scanned his face, and now swiftly
pressed it against her breast, in those shuddering
impulses with which a mother will see and will not
see if her child be hurt.

268 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

The Shakers pushed a wagon down to the place
where Boynton lay, and Ford afterward remem-
bered helping to lift him into it.

" I 'm glad you did n't strike him ; I thought at
first you had," said Phillips, as they followed the
wagon back to the village.

" So did I," said Ford, mentally struggling to
realize what had happened.

" What are they going to do, I wonder ? " re-
sumed Phillips, looking about him. " They ought
to send for a doctor."

" Yee," said a Shaker at his elbow, whom neither
of them had noticed, " we have sent."

The doctor came quickly ; and Boynton, whom
they had got into the infirmary upon the bed where
Egeria had lain sick, began to show signs of con-
sciousness. From time to time, scraps of hopeful
report were passed through the group outside to
Ford and Phillips on its skirts. When the doctor
reappeared at last from within the infirmary, the
brothers and sisters by twos and threes waylaid
him in the yard and the street with anxious de-
mand. The young men walking apart ambushed
him farther down the road.

" It 's a faint — I can't tell what it 's complicated
with. He received some contusions in his fall —
about the head. He 's an elderly man. He 's
stout."

"Do you mean that he's in danger?" Ford asked.

" Well, these apoplectic seizures are serious things
for any one after thirty. Still it 's a slight attack

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 269

— comparatively. The contusions — I 'm obliged
to leave him for another patient just now. I shall
be back again directly. Which of you is Mr.
Ford ? "

"My name is Ford."

" He wanted to know where you were. You a
friend of his ? "

" No. I met him in Boston this spring."

" Know his friends ? "

"I don't."

" Get up ! " said the doctor to his horse.

" If we knew any of his people," said Phillips,
" I suppose we ought to telegraph."

"Yes," assented Ford.

" But, as we don't know them," continued Phil-
lips, " what are we going to do ? "

"I can't say." When they reached the office on
their walk back. Ford went in, and left Phillips to
get their horse put to. In a little while he came
out again, and said abruptly, " I 'm going to stay
here. I can't say that I am responsible for the mis-
fortunes of this man, but somehow I am entangled
with him, and I can't break away without playing
the brute. I 've been talking with these people
about Boynton. He 's been trying some of his
experiments here, and has failed. The thing hap-
pened last night, and I suppose that when he saw
me, this morning, his mind recurred to his old delu-
sion that I had something to do with his failure."

"I imagined as much," said Phillips, "from a re-
mark that he made."

270 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

Ford frowned at the levity, and then continued.
"That's all. I've explained to their head men,
here, as well as I could, what relation he fancied I
had to him, and they understood it better than I
could have expected ; they 've seen enough of him
to understand that his superstition about me would
account for the assault. I 'm not bound to respect
his mania, but I don't see how I can leave till I
know how it goes with him." Phillips shrugged
his shoulders, but said nothing. " The Shakers tell
me that I can be lodged at a house of theirs down
the road here. I must stay, and be of what use I
can, though I don't knoiv what. I '11 come away
when I can do so decently."

" Oh, if you 're going in for decency," said Phil-
lips, "I 've nothing to say. But that sort of thing
can be carried too far, you know. Do you really
mean it?"

" Yes."

" Then there 's nothing for me to say. But what
do you expect me to do?" he asked, glancing at the
iiorse, which was now brought up.

" I expect you to go on. There 's no reason why
you should stay."

" No, I can't see how I 'm involved. And it 's a
brisk drive to Egerton, — and breakfast. There's
no prospect of breakfast here, I suppose," he said,
looking wistfully at the office windows. " Well ; if
you 've made up your mind, I shall be off at once.
I 'm sorry for our excursion."

" Yes, it 's a pity for that," said Ford.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 271

" It promised everj'thing. Perhaps you could
join me at Egerton, to-morrow ? "

"Yes; if I can."

" I '11 give you a day's grace. Then I shall push
on to Brattleboro', and perhaps drop down this way
with the falling leaf. I wish you 'd write to me
at Brattleboro', and let me know how the doctor
gets on."

They shook hands. Ford pulled his bag out of
the back of his wagon ; and as Phillips drove off,
he set out under the guidance of one of the broth-
ers, to find his quarters in the house of which he
had spoken. It had been the dwelling of a family
of Shakers, which in the decay of their numbers
was absorbed into the other branches of the com-
munity, and it stood half a mile away from the
office, quite empty, but kept in perfect neatness
and repair. He was given his choice of its many
dormitories, but he preferred to have his bed set up
in the meeting-room, which opened by folding-doors
into an ante-room as large, and thus extended the
wliole length of the building. It was low ceiled,
but cool currents of air swept through it from the
windows at either end, and it was a still haven of
refuge from the heat by night and by day. Hardly
a fly sang in its expanse, dimmed by the shade of
the elms before it ; and it was indescribably remote
fi'om noise. The passing even of an ox-cart on the
street before it was hushed by the thick bed of
sand that silenced the road- way ; and the heavy
voice of the driver in hawing and geeing came like

272 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

some lulling sound of animal life. A tenant of the
Shakers lived in a farm-house across the way, and
his wife had agreed to give Ford his meals and be-
stow what care his room needed ; but these people
were childless, and except for the plaintive lament
of their broods of young turkeys pursuing the grass-
hoppers through the ranks of sweet-corn, their pres-
ence involved hardly an interruption of the quiet.

Ford hung up some clothes in a closet, and after
a hurried breakfast went again to the office. He
found Boynton's doctor there with Humphrey and
the sisters, and presently Egeria came in from an-
other room with a slip of paper in her hand ; her
eyes were swollen with weeping, but she said in a
low, steady voice, "• This is grandfather's address."

" I don't want you to feel," said the doctor,
"that the case is immediately alarming. There is
no necessity for your grandfather's coming " —

" Oh, no ! But I know that he would like to
be told." She gave the slip of paper to Humphrey,
and without looking at Ford went out at the door,
and he saw her cross the street to the infirmary.
There was some talk as to how this dispatch should
be sent, and Ford said he was going over to the
village, and would carry it to the operator at the
station. Outside, the doctor beckoned to him from
his buggy, and said, " He has asked again if you
were here. If he wishes to see you, you had bet-
ter let him. Humphrey has told me what you
explained to him. You can humor a sick man's
whim, I suppose."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 273

Ford really had another errand at Vardley ; he
wanted some ink and paper ; for if he were to
remain he must set to work as soon as possible.
It was noon before he returned. With the lapse
of time, that working mind, of which the opera-
tions are so obscure and incalculable, had uncon-
sciously arranged its material in him, and when
he sat down in his strange lodging he was able to
put it all on paper, in spite of the remote, dull ache
of anxiety which accompanied his writing.

His tea was ready by the time the work was
done, but with the revival of his restlessness, upon
the conclusion of his task and the release of the
faculties devoted to it, he slighted the meal, and
hastily started with his copy to the post-ofhce.

He was met there by the telegraph operator,
who asked him to carry back to the Shakers the
reply to the telegram he had sent. He saw that
he must be already identified with the Boyntons
in the village gossip ; but he did not observe the
kindly interest expressed in some words dropped
by the operator, as he put the dispatch into his
pocket, and walked away with it.

There was a light in Humphrey's room at the
office when he returned, and he carried the tele-
gram in to him, and waited while the Shaker
brought his lamp to bear upon the sheet. Hum-
phrey remained reading it as if it were a long,
closel5'--written letter.

" You don't know what it says ? " he asked at
last, looking up over his spectacles.

18

274 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY,

"Why, no," said Ford. "I had no authority to
open it."

"1 thought may be the telegrapher might told
ye. It appears as if Friend Boynton's father-in-
law had been dead two months."

The dispatch, which Humphrey handed to Ford,
was signed by " Rev. Frederick Armstrong," who
promised that he " would write."

" I suppose," said Humphrey, " it 's the minis-
ter."

" I suppose so," Ford admitted absently. He
came to himself to ask, " What 's to be done? "

Humphrey scratched his head. " I d' know as
I 'm rightly prepared to say. You don't know
nothin' about Friend Boynton's other folks, do
ye?"

" No," said Ford.

Another silence followed. " Seems to come kind
o' hard, right on top of the other Pi'ovidence,"
mused Humphrey, aloud. " Would it be your judg-
ment to tell 'em ? "

" Really, I don't know," said Ford, quite unable
to shake off his sterile dismay.

"You don't feel," suggested Humphrej'", "as if
you 'd like to break the news to 'em ? "

" I doubt," answered Ford, glad to be able to
lay hold of any idea, " whether Dr. Boynton is in
a condition to know even that we 've telegraphed,
much less what the answer is."

" Yee," assented Humphrey, " that is so. Then
it comes to tellin' Egery. If you was an old friend
of the family " —

THE UNDISCOVEEED COUNTRY. 275

" I 'm not," said Ford. " I told you that I saw
tliem for the first time in Boston, this spring.
Why need you say anything at all ? "

" Why," returned Humphrey, with a gleam of
hope, " I s'pose, if she asks, we '11 have to."

" She may not ask at once. Don't speak till she
does."

" That 's so," mused Humphrey. " It could be
done that way. I d' know as anybody could say
they was deceived, either."

" Certainly not."

Humjihrey put the telegram into a drawer and
turned the key upon it. " She can have it when
she asks for it," he said doggedly, like a man who
has made up his mind to accept the consequences
of his transgression.

Ford drew a long breath ; a little time had been
gained, at any rate. " Can I be of any use over
there to-night?" he asked, nodding his head in
the direction of the infirmary. " Have you watch-
ers?"

" Yee : Laban 's settin' up with him, to-night ;
and Frances is there with Egery."

" If he asks for me," said Ford, " I should like
you to call me at any hour."

He went out, and walked down the dark, silent
road to his strange domicile. Hearing him ap-
proach, the farmer came across the road, and
opened the door for him, and gave him matches to
light his lamp. He found his way to his vast
chamber ; but after he had blown out his light, it
was long before he slept.

XVIII.

The next morning, while Ford sat, after break-
fast, at his writing-table, trying to put his mind
upon his work, one of the little Shaker boys came
to say that Friend Boynton wished to see him. He
obeyed the summons with a stricture at the heart.
The boy could not say whether Boynton was better
or worse, but Ford conceived that he was called in
a final moment. He had never seen any one die,
and all through his childhood and his earlier youth
the thought of death had been agony to him, prob-
ably because it was related to fears of the life after
death, which survived in his blood after they ceased
to be part of his belief. The confirmed health of
his adolescence, as well as his accepted theories of
existence, had now for years quieted these fears.
The sleep and the forgetting which the future had
been reasoned so clearly to be could not be terrible
to any man of good health, and in the rare moments
in which he lifted his mind from the claims of duty
here it reposed tranquilly enough in the logical ref-
uge of nullity provided for it. Annihilation was
not dreadful, but the instant preceding it, the last
breath of consciousness, in which his personality
should be called to cease, to release its strong clutch

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 277

upon reiility, might contain a spiritual anguish, to
which an eternity of theologically fancied pangs
were nothing. He did not shrink from the con-
sequences of his own mental position ; there could
be no consequences of belief or disbelief ; but he
was cold with the thought of confronting the image
of his own dissolution in another. Life was not a
good, he knew that ; but he felt now that it was
something, and beyond it there was not even evil.
He touched first the swelling muscle of one arm,
and then of the other ; he laid his hand upon the
trunk of a large maple as he passed ; he swept the
sky with a glance ; he smiled to find himself be-
having like a man on his way to execution ; if he
had himself been about to die, he could not have
realized more intensely the preciousness of the ex-
istence which was slipping into shadow from the
grasp of yonder stricken man.

If his face expressed anything of this dark sym-
pathy when he entered the room where Boynton
lay, the sick man did not see it. His doctor was
there, seated at the bedside, and Boynton lifted one
of the limp hands that lay upon the coverlet and
gave it to Ford, saying, with his blandness diluted
by physical debility, " You '11 excuse my sending
for you, Mr. Ford, but I fancied that you would
like to see that I was not in such bad case as I
might be."

" You are very good," said Ford, touching his
hand, and then taking the chair which the country
doctor set for him. The exchange of civilities re-

278 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

lieved tlie tension of his feelings, and he found it
no longer possible to regard Boynton with the so-
lemnity with which he had approached him.

" Dr. Wilson and I," Boynton continued, " are
treating my case together. By that means we draw
the sting of the old proverb about having a fool for
one's patient, and we get the benefit of our com-
bined experience. The doctor is inclined to take
an optimistic view of my condition, which I don't
find myself able to share. I have spent a summer
— I may almost say a year — of intense excite-
ments, and I am sure that an obscure affection of
the heart with which I was once troubled has made
progress." He spoke of it with a courteous light-
ness and haste, as if not to annoy his listener, while
Ford gazed at him dumbly. " I have been anxious
to say that I regretted the expressions — the exas-
peration — into which I was betrayed on first meet-
ing you, the other morning." Dr. Wilson rose.
" Ah ! Going, doctor ? " asked Boynton. " Don't
let me send you away. Mr. Ford and I have no con-
fidences to make each other. I am only offering
him the reparation which is due between gentle-
men where there has been a misunderstanding."

" Thank you," said Dr. Wilson, " I must go, now.
I will see you again to-morrow."

" And in the mean time we will continue the
same treatment? Good-morning, doctor. Dr. Wil-
son," he added, when the latter had withdrawn,
" is a man of uncommon qualifications for his pi'o-
fession. I have been much pleased with the man-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 279

ner in which he has taken hold of my case, though
Ave could not agree in all points of our diagnosis."
Boynton's voice was feeble, and from time to time
he paused from weakness ; but he was careful as
ever to round his sentences and polish his diction.
" As I was saying," he continued, " I used certain
expressions for which I wish to apologize."

" There is no occasion for that," Ford began.

" Oh, I beg your pardon, but there is ! " retorted
the other. " My language, even in view of your
possible intention of antagonizing me, was ridicu-
lous and unjustifiable ; for I ought to have been
only too glad of the solution of a painful mystery
which your presence afforded me. The fact is," he
explained, " I met you yesterday after the entire
failure of an experiment in psychology which I had
been making here under conditions more favorable
than I could expect to recur if I should live a thou-
sand years. The experiment was by no means of
an advanced character ; it was of the simplest char-
acter, — the exhibition of a few of the most ordi-
nary phenomena of animal magnetism, in which
mere tyros succeed. The failure dumfounded me.
At sight of you, my theory of your opposite control,
of the necessary antagonism of your sphere, rushed
into my mind, and I yielded to an impulse to resent
my failure, when I ought, logically, to have hailed
your presence as relief, as rescue from an annihilat-
ing despair."

" I am very sorry," Ford began again.

" Not at all, not at all I " cried Boynton. "Was

280 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

I right in supposing that you had spent the pre-
■vious evening in this vicinity ? "

" Mr. Phillips and I had slept at the office — you
call it?"

"Is it possible ! " Boynton lay quiet for a mo-
ment, before he added, musingly, " Yes, that might
account for it, if my premises were correct. But,"
he continued sadly, " it is impossible to verify them
now. Some one else must take up my work at the
very point — You here, and under conditions fa-
vorable to the most complete and thorough investi-
gation ! This question of antagonization could be
settled in a manner absolutely final ; and here I lie,
fettered and manacled ! " He heaved a passionate
sigh, and Ford, in spite of the fact that he knew
himself regarded for the moment as a mere instru-
mentality, an impersonal force, felt a sharp regret
for the overthrow of this absurd dreamer.

"Is there — is there any way in which I can
be of use to you. Dr. Boynton ? " he asked pres-
ently.

Boynton did not reply at once. He moved his
head uneasily on the pillow, and weakly knotted his
fingers together. Then he said, " Yes, there is.
I would rather you transacted the business than
any of our good friends here, for I am afraid that
it might get from them to my daughter. In fact,
I should not know how to communicate Avith them
without alarming her."

He looked beseechingly at Ford, who said,
" Well ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 281

" What are your religious beliefs ? "
" I have none," said Ford.

" At your age I had none," rejoined Boynton.
" Afterward, in circumstances of great sorrow, I
embraced the philosophy of spiritualism, because it
promised immediate communion and reunion with
the wife I had lost. Neither before nor since that
time has my theory admitted the necessity of cer-
tain — certain — formalities to which the Christian
world attaches importance. But the influence of
early teachings is very strong, and I cannot resist
an inclination — It is entirely illogical, upon either
hypothesis, I know ! If there is no life hereafter,
then it is of no consequence whatever whether any
reconciliation takes place. If there is a life here-
after, and it is a mere continuation of this, a prog-
ress, a development, under certain new conditions,
then the reconciliation can take place there as well
as here. This is what my reason tells me, and yet I
am not at rest. My dear friend, if you were about
to die," — the hand which Boynton unexpectedly
laid upon Ford's sent a thrill to his heart, — " and
you had parted with some one upon terms of mut-
ual injury, what should you wish?"

" I should wish to see him before I died," an-
swered Ford, gravely.

"And make peace with him, — ask and offer for-
giveness. Precisely. There is no doubt an ele-
ment of superstition in the impulse ; it seems child-
ish and unreasonable ; and jet I cannot help it.
What is it? First, be reconciled to thy brother,

282 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

. . . agree with thine adversary quickly — I don't
remember. My adversary is the father of my
child's mother. We quarreled ver}'^ bitterly, about
this — philosophy of mine. I think he used me
harshly ; but he is an old man, and doubtless I
grieved and thwarted him more than I understood.
I don't justify myself. I would like to see him
again, and ask him to forgive. I wish you would
be so good, Mr. Ford, as to telegraph him — there 's
an office at Vardley Station — that I am seriously
sick, and would like to see him." Ford could not
reply, and Boynton took his silence for reluctance.
" I hope I have n't asked too much of you ? "

" Oh, no ! No. What," he contrived to ask, " is
your father-in-law's name ? " Boynton gave the
name and that of the village in which he lived, and
Ford mechanically took them down in his note-
book. He remained with this in his hand, seated
beside the bed, and not knowing what to do ; but
he rose at last, and murmured something about not
losing time, when Egeria entered. He would have
passed her with a bow, but the cheery voice of
Boynton turned him motionless.

"Egeria," he said, as the girl went up to his bed-
side, " I have been asking a favor of Mr. Ford, —
something that I intended for a surprise and pleas-
ure to you. But I think that the surprise might be
too much, — might alarm you, — and I had better
not let it be a surprise. Don't you think that if
your grandfather knew that I was so disposed he
would like to make up our little quarrel ? Mr.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 283

Ford is going to telegraph him to come here ! There
is no occasion for anxiety " —

Egeria tui-ned upon Ford, with swift self -betrayal.
" They telegraphed yesterday. Have n't they
heard ? " Ford glanced at her father in despair,
and bent on her a look of compassion that he was
conscious became an appeal for her pity. " Oh,
what is it ? " she cried, quivering under his implor-
ing scrutiny. " Won't he come ? Oh, he is harder
than I ever believed ! Yes, yes ! You were right,
father ; I will never forgive him ! "

" I think I had better tell you the truth," Ford
said. " Some one must do it. Your grandfather is
dead."

A hght of relief, almost of joy, shone in her face.
*' Oh ! I was afraid — I was afraid — Oh, poor
grandfather ! How could I think it ! " She put up
her hands to her face, like a child, and wept with
sobs that shook the young man's heart.

" When did he die ?" she asked at last.

" Two months ago. The telegram was from the
minister. He promised to write."

" Do you hear? " cried Egeria. " He would have
come, but — he is dead ! "

" Oh ! " breathed her father, speaking for the
first time, " I am very sorry ! "

" And now, now do you forgive him ? " demanded
the girl. " Now " —

'' Oh, poor soul ! I wanted him to forgive wig,"
said Boynton. " Well, well ! I must wait."

His daughter dropped on her knees beside his

284 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

bed, and hid her face in the coverlet. " Poor grand-
father ! Poor grandfather ! " she moaned. " How
could you think he would n't come ? " she said, lift-
ing her face. " Do you think now that he was
cruel?"

" We quarreled," answered her father. " I was
to blame."

" No, you were not to blame," she retorted, with
swift revulsion. " You believed you did right, and
you never pretended that you did n't. Oh, if you
could only have seen each other again ! "

" Yes," answered the sick man ; " the wish to see
him has been heavy on my soul ever since I came
to myself."

The word recalled her, and she looked fondly into
her father's face. " Oh, father, have I made you
feel badly ? I am so sorry for grandfather " —

" No, my poor girl ! I can sj^mpathize with
your feeling about him ; I can understand it."
He smoothed her hair with his gentle, weak, small
hand. " I can understand, and I can approve of
your feeling. But don't be troubled. Your grand-
father and I will be friends when we meet. It will
make little difference there what theories or creeds
we hold. They cannot separate us."

" Why, father ! " exclaimed the girl. " What
do you mean ? You are not goins: to die ! The
doctor said " —

Boynton smiled in recovering himself. " We are
all mortal. Dr. Wilson is very hopeful about me.
I am not going to die at once."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 285

He took one of her hands while she bent over
him, " I had mentioned to our good friend here,"
he said, indicating Ford, " in requesting him to no-
tify your grandfather, my special reasons for wish-
ing to see him, and some little statement — expla-
nation — was necessary in regard to the terms of
our separation. I was saying that I wished they
had been different. But in the light of this new
fact, does my part really appear worse to you than
it did befoi-e ? You can speak freely ; I can bear
— I ought even to court — the truth."

The girl threw her arms about his neck. " Fa-
ther ! You never had one selfish thought in it. I
know that, and I always knew it. I did n't mean
to blame you ; I only wanted you to excuse him.
Oh, nobody needs excusing but me ! I stood up
before them all, and denied you. I am the one to
blame ! "

" No, no," protested her father, " you were true
to yourself. In the long run we could have suc-
ceeded upon no other conditions. You did right."

" Oh, I did long so to please you ! You can't
think how hard I tried! But something kept
me " — She rose and looked at Ford, the obstruc-
tion of whose involuntary presence no effort of his
had sufficed to remove, and panted, as if about to
make some appeal to him. But her lips could not
shape it ; a piteous, formless, low cry broke from
them, and she ran from the room, leaving him in a
frowning daze.

" I hope, my dear sir," said Boynton, " that you

286 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

will be able to make allowance for the excitement
under which we have been laboring. My daugh-
ter's distress on my account, and her affection for
her grandfather — But we don't intend to make
you the victim of our unhappiness."

" Oh, not at all," said Ford, not knowing what
else to say.

" You were very considerate, with regard to me,"
said Boynton gratefully. " I thank you for your
good feeling relative to the telegram. But it is well
that I should know the worst at once. In asking
your patience for what has just occurred, I am sure
that I am only anticipating my daughter's wish.
I am by no means as confident as I have been," he
added, " that I was correct in my theory of your
influence. But you have somehow been strangely
involved in our destiny. It is something that I
hardly know how to apologize for."

" There is no necessity," said Ford.

" Thanks." The doctor lifted his hand in grati-
tude, and Ford took it. " Are you comfortable in
your quarters ? It was a place that I had sometimes
thought, under happier auspices, of devoting to my
investigations ; but now — My dear sir, I appre-
ciate your kindness, your delicacy, in staying ! "

Ford made a murmur of civility, and Sister
Frances came in. Then, with a parting pressure of
the hand which Boynton had kept in his, he went
out. He half dreaded to encounter Egeria again,
at the outer threshold ; but she was not there.

XIX.

They came to those last fervid days to which
August often reverts after the shiver that passes
over her at the beginning of her second fortnight.
The noons were cloudless, and the nights were lit
with a moon that hung lightly, like an airy ball, in
the sky, whose unfathomable blue the vision must
search for the faint stars. The unbroken splendor
of these days and nights would be intolerably si-
lent but for the hissing of the grasshoppers in the
sun, and the hollow din in which the notes of the
crickets sum themselves under the moon. While
Ford was busy in the morning he could resist cer-
tain influences at work upon him, but at other times
he was the prey of a wild restlessness, which he
could not charge to his shaken health, for he had
begun to grow strong again. He said to himself,
as he lay under the sun-smitten pines, or when he
walked beneath the maples that broke the glare of
the moon on the village street, that he was waiting
here for a man to die, and he tried to quell his rest-
lessness with that cold fact. But he was not able
to keep Boynton's danger in his thoughts. There
was, indeed, a suspense in Boynton's condition for
which neither he nor his fellow physician could ac-

288 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

count. His mind even grew more vivid under such
peril as tlireatened bis body, and in bis immunity
from pain be was more cheerfully speculative than
ever. As the days passed, a curious sort of affec-
tionate confidence grew up between Ford and the
fantastic theorist, and the young man listened to
bis talk with a kindliness which he did not trouble
himself to reason. He submitted patiently to the
analysis which Boynton made of him and of his
metaphysical condition, and heard without a smile
certain analogies which be discovered. " Yes,"
Boynton said, one day, " I find a great similarity
of mind and temperament in us. At your age, I
thought and felt as you do. There is a fascination,
which I can still recognize, in the clean surface
which complete negation gives. The refusal of sci-
ence to believe what it cannot subject to its chemic
tests has its sublime side. It is at least absolute
devotion to the truth, and it involves martyrdom,
like tbe devotion to any other religion. For it is a
religion, and you cannot get away from rebgion.
Whether you say, I believe, or whether you say, I
do not believe, still you formulate a creed. The
question whether we came from the Clam or the
Ancient of Days, whether we shall live forever, or
rot forever, remains ; you cannot put it aside by
saying there is no such question. From this van-
tage-ground of mine — a sick-bed is a vantage-
ground — I can see that when I stood where you are
I occupied a position not essentially different from
that which I assumed afterwards. Light shone on

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 289

me from one side, and I cast a shadow in this di-
rection ; liglit shone on me from the other side, and
I cast a shadow in that dii-ection. My mistake was
to fancy at both times that the shadow was I."

Ford evaded tlie issue as to the identity of their
opinions. He admitted that faith in a second Hfe
might nerve a man to greater enterprises here ; and
that one might not so often flag in the pursuit of
truth if the horizon did not shut down so close all
round. But he said that we had the comfort of
knowing that the work of each was delegated to the
whole race, and that whoever failed his work could
not fail.

" Ah, don't delude yourself ! " cried Boynton.
" There is 7io comfort in that. What is the race to
you or me ? You are the race ; I am the race ; and
no one else of all the myriad atoms of humanity
could take up our work and keep it the same work."

" You said, just now," said Ford, with a smile,
" that you and I were the same."

" I was wrong," promptly admitted Boynton.
" We are not the same, and could not be, to all
eternity. But if you accept the hypothesis of a
second life, in which the objects of this shall re-
main dear to us, you establish an infrangible, a
perpetual, continuity of endeavor. The man with
whom a great idea has its inception becomes a dis-
embodied spirit. By influx from the spirit world to
which he goes, he becomes the partner of the man
to whom his work falls here ; and that man dying
enlarges the partnership in his turn, and so on ad

19

290 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

infinitum. It must be in this way that civilization
is advanced, that the "world-reforms are aocoin-
phshed."

Boynton's eyes shone, and Ford listened witli
kindly neuti'ality. On some sides he was com-
pelled to respect Bojaiton's extraordinary alertness,
lu many things he was grotesquely ignorant ; he
was a man of very small literature, and he had the
limitations of a country-bred person in his concep-
tions of the world ; but his mind, in the specula-
tions on which it habitually dwelt, had a vast and
bold sweep, and his theories sprang up fully formed,
under his breath, like those plants which the Japa-
nese conjurer fans to flower in the moment after he
has put the seed in the ground.

He tossed his head upon the pillow impatiently.
" When I think of those things," he said, " I can
hardly wait for the slow process of decay to unfold
the truth to me. Perhaps I approached the unseen
world with too arrogant a confidence," he con-
tinued. "At any rate, I have been found un-
worthy, and my progress on earth has been ar-
rested forever."

Ford could not withhold the expression of the
senseless self-accusal in his heart. " I should be
very sorry," he said, "if I had been the means of
crossing your purposes."

" You never were willfully so," said Boynton.
" Besides, as I told you, I have begun to have ray
misgivings as to my theory of you. I susj)ect that
I may have exaggerated my daughter's powers ;

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 291

that they were of a limited nature, terminable by
the lapse of time. What do you think," he asked,
after a silence, as if willing to break away from
these thoughts, "of our Shaker friends? Does
their life strike you as the solution of the great
difficulty?"

" No," said Ford ; " it strikes me as begging the
question."

" Yes, so it is," assented Boynton ; " so it is, in
some views. It is a life for women rather than
men."

An indefinable pang seized Ford, "I don't quite
understand you. Do you think it is a happy life for
a woman? "

" There is no happy life for a woman — except
as she is happy in suffering for those she loves, and
in sacrificing herself to their pleasure, their pride
and ambition. The advantage that the world offers
her — and it does not always offer that — is her
choice in self-sacrifice ; the Shakers prescribe it for
her."

Ford said nothing for a time, while the pain still
rankled. Then he asked, " Don't you think the
possible power of choosing is a great advantage ?
I don't know that as a man I expect to be
^^PPy ; but I like to make my ventures in unhap-
pinoss. It saves me from the folly of accusing fate.
If I surrendered myself to Shakerism, I should feel
myself a prisoner; I should not run the risk of
wounds, but I should have no chance of escape."

" A woman does n't like to fight," replied Boyn-

292 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

ton. " Besides, there are no irrevocable vows in
Shakerism. When you do not like it you leave it.
It is no bad fate for a woman. For most women it
would be a beneficent fate."

An image of Egeria in the Shaker garb, with her
soft young throat hidden to the chin, and the tight
gauze cap imprisoning her beautiful hair, rose in
the young man's thought, and would not pass at his
willing. It was with something like the relief of
waking from an odious dream that he saw the girl
enter the room in her usual dress. He involuntarily
rose.

She had a spray of sumac in her hand, and she
put it lightly beside her father on the bed. The
leaves were already deeply tinged with crimson.
" Ah, yes," he said, taking it up and holding it be-
fore him, " I am glad you found it. I thought I saw
it the last time I walked that way ; but it was only
partly red, then. I had intended to get it for you.
After my daughter was sick here, this spring," he
added, turning his eyes upon Ford, " she showed a
singular predilection during her convalescence for
wild flowers. They would n't come fast enough for
her ; all the family were set to looking for them.
Do you remember, Egeria, the day when we got
you out under the apple-blossoms ? What is the
apple-tree like, now ? Some yellow leaves on it,
here and there ? "

" Yes, but the red apples burn like live coals
among them," said Egeria.

" Fruition, fruition," murmured her father dream-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 293

ily. " Not so sweet as hope. But autumn was
always my favorite season, — my favorite season.
I suppose the long grass is limp and the clover-
heads are black in the alleys of the orchard. All
those aspects of nature — The sumac is first to feel
the fall. Have you seen any other red leaves, Ege-
ria?"

" I saw a young maple in the swamp that was
almost as red in places as this," said Egeria. " But
they were too high to reach."

" Ah," returned her father, " they will soon be
red enough everywhere."

"Could n't Miss Boynton tell me where her
maple is ? " Ford interposed. " I could get you
the leaves."

"Oh, no, — no," began the doctor.

" I do a certain amount of walking every day.
If Miss Boynton will tell me where 'the maple is,
and begin with the swamp " —

" The swamp," said Egeria, " is just back of the
south pasture ; but I should have to look for the
tree myself."

" Take me with you then," said the young man,
with what he thought a great boldness.

"I could do that," returned Egeria, simply. " If
Frances were here, I could go with you now. It is
n't far."

" I don't need any one, now, my dear," said her
father. " You can put the bell here by my pillow,
and I can ring."

" Well," said Egeria to Ford. " We will stop

294 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

at the office, and tell them, father," she added.
Frances promised to listen for the bell, and stood
at the office door watching them as they walked
away together.

" I think you can easily bend the tree," Egeria
said. "It's very slim, and I thought at first I
could bend it myself. I should hate to have you
break it."

" I will try not to break it," answered Ford.

They crossed the meadow in desultory talk, but
before they reached the edge of the swamp she
abruptly halted him, and said with a sort of fearful
resolution, " Did you know that my father was
here when j^ou came ? " She searched his face with
a piercing intensity of gaze, her lips apart with
eagerness and her breathing fluttered.

" No," said Ford, " my coming here was purely
accidental." ' Her eyes studied his a moment
longer : then she dropped them, and hurried on
again as abruptly as she had stopped. " But I
always hoped I might see you again," he continued,
" and tell you — I went to tell your father in Bos-
ton — that I never dreamt it was you I hurt there,
that night. I wanted to tell him that nothing in
the world — But we quarreled " — ^

" I know, I know," interrupted the girl. "There
is the tree," she said, hastily, pointing out a young
maple with reddened boughs, that stood some yards
beyond the wall. " Do you think you can get to
it ? Do you think you can bend it down ? "

Every nerve in him thrilled with the wrench of

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 295

leaving half said what had been so long in his
heart ; but he must obey her will. " I think so,"
he replied, and he got over the wall. He stepped
from one quaking bed of mossy decay to another,
till he reached the tree. He caught it about the
slender stem well up towards the limbs, and, bend-
ing it over, began to break them away and fling
them on the ground.

" Oh, no ! " cried Egeria from where she stood.
"Don't!"

" Don't what ? " asked Ford, turning half round,
without releasing the tree.

" You seemed to tear it so. You have enough.
That branch at the top " —

" Shall I break it oft" ? "

" No — no. Let it stay."

" Would you hke it ? "

"Yes."

Ford took out his knife, and slitted the branch
from the tree with a downward stroke, and drove
the blade into the thick of the hand with which he
held the tree. He gathered up the branches, and
putting them into the wounded hand gripped it
with the other, and returned to Egeria.

She started at sight of the blood. " I made you
cut yourself."

" I don't see how that is," answered Ford. " But
I cut myself." He stood holding his hand, while
the blood dropped to the ground.

" I will tie it up for you," said Egeria, quelling
a shudder. " You ought to have something wet
next to it. That will keep it from inflaming."

296 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

"Yes?" said Ford.

She made search for her handkerchief, and drew
forth the stout square of linen which the kindness
of the community had provided for her. She shook
out its tough expanse. " That is a Shaker handker-
chief," she said.

" It looks rather grandiose for the purpose,"
Ford remarked. " If you will take mine " — He
touched as nearly as he could the breast pocket of
his coat with his elbow. She soberly obeyed his
gesture, and pulled it out. " Can 3'oa tear it? "

" I need n't tear it," she answered, folding it
into a narrow strip. " I can wet this end in the
water, here, and wrap the rest round it."

She stooped to a little pool near the wall, and
dipped the handkerchief into it ; then she laid the
wet corner over the cut, which he had washed in
the same pool, and folded the dry part firmly
around it. Her finger-tips, soft and warm, left the
sensation of their touch upon his hand.

They walked rapidly away. " Better hold it
up," she said, seeing that he let his arm hang at
his side.

" Oh," he answered stupidly, and obeyed for a
moment, and then dropped his hand again.

" You 're forgetting," she said.

" Yes, I was," replied Ford, recollecting himself.
" I was thinking that it must have seemed as if
some savage beast had torn you."

He looked at the hand on which she wore her
ring, and she hid the hand in the folds of her dress,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 297

and turned her head away. Then she glanced at
him, as if about to answer, but she only said,
" When you get home, you must wet the cloth
again."

"Thanks," said Ford; "it will have to look
after itself when it stops stinging."

She looked troubled. " Does it hurt you very
badly?"

" I suppose it 's going through the usual formal-
ities."

" You had better show it to father — Oh ! " she
cried, blushing, " I have forgotten the leaves for
him." She almost ran in retracing her steps.

Ford pursued her. " Miss Boynton, let me go
and get them."

" No, no, I can get them. You must n't come.
I don't wish you to come." She looked over her
shoulder, and saw him standing irresolute. " Don't
wait for me ; I can take them home."

He lingered a moment, looking after her, and
then turned and walked away. He did not go
back to the infirmary, but kept on towards his
own house, and arrived with a vague smile on his
lips, which had shaped them ever since he left her.
He scarcely realized then that she had been quick
to avail herself of a chance to be alone with him,
and that when once with him she had been willing
to delay their parting. A jarring sensation of al-
ternate abandon and reserve was what finally re-
mained of the interview in his nerves.

XX.

In the morning, when he walked up into the
village, he found her coming out of the office gate.
She faltered at sight of him, and glanced anxiously
toward him. He had meant to stop at the office,
but now he had a senseless impulse to keep on his
way. He hesitated, and then crossed to where she
stood. She had a small basket in her hand, and
she said that Elder Joseph had given her leave to
look over his vines, and see if there were any
grapes ripe enough yet for her father to eat. There
was an indefinable intention in her manner to de-
tain him, which he felt as inarticulately, and there
was something more intangible still, — something
between fearful question and utter trust of him ;
something that chiefly intimated itself in the ap-
peal with which her ej^es rested on his when she
first looked up. He dropped his own eyes before
the gaze which he knew to be unconscious on her
part, and she said suddenly, as if recollecting her-
self, " Oh ! Will you show your hand to father ?
How is it ? "

" That 's all right," answered Ford, putting it
into his pocket. She began to walk towards the
garden, and he walked with her. " It is n't my
work hand."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 299

" Work ? " she asked.

" I keep up my scribbling. I write for the pa-
pers," he explained further, at a glance of inquiry
from her.

" Some of the brothers and sisters write, too,"
she said. " The Shakers have a paper."

" Yes, I have seen it," said Ford. " They write
for pleasure and from duty. I am sorry to say
that my work is mostly for the pay it brhigs. I 'm
hoping to do something in another way by and by.
In the mean time I write and sell my work. It 's
what they call pot-boiling."

" I did n't know they paid for writing ! "

" They do, — a little. You can starve very de-
cently on it."

" Father used to write for the paper at home,
but they never paid him anything. He is slow
getting well," she added, with a sad inconsequence,
" and I suppose he will never be quite so strong
again. But it must be a good sign when he has
these cravings. It seems as if he could n't wait till
the grapes are ripe ; the doctor says he can have all
the fruit he wants. Have you ever been in this
garden before ? " she asked, as they entered the
bounds of Brother Joseph's peculiar province.

" No," replied Foixl, looking round him with a
pleasure for which he could not account. " But I
feel as if I might have been here always."

" Yes. I suppose it looks like everybody's gar-
den. It 's like our garden at home." He glanced
about it with her, as they stood in the planked path

300 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

together. At one side of the beds of pot-herbs, and
apart from the ranks of sweet-corn, the melons, the
beans, the faded peas, and the long rows of beets
and carrots, was a space allotted to flowers, the
simple annuals that have long been driven from our
prim parterres. " Our garden ran back of the
house down to the river ; but it was all neglected
and run wild. There was a summer-house on the
edge of the terrace, and the floor was rotten; the
trellises for the grapes were slanting every which
way."

She seemed to be recalling these aspects in a
fond reverie, rather than addressing him ; but they
gave him a vivid sense of her past. He saw her in
this old garden by the river-side, before any blight
had fallen upon her life. He imagined her a very
happy young girl, there ; not romantic, but simple
and good, and even gay. " I know that sort of a
garden," he said.

" Yes," she continued, looking dreamily at
Brother Joseph's flower-beds, " here is prince's
feather, and coxcomb, that I hated to touch when
I was little, because it seemed like flesh and blood.
And here is bachelor's button, and mourning bride,
and marigolds, and touch-me-not."

"I had forgotten them," said Ford. "I suppose
I used to see them when I was a boy. But it 's a
long time since I was in the country."

" You must be glad to get back."

" No," i-eplied Ford. " I can't honestly say that
I am. I wanted to get away from it too badly for

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 301

that. The country is for the pleasure of people
born in town."

" I don't know what you mean."

" Nothing very definite. When I began to grow
up, I found the country in my way. I dare say I
should have been uncomfortable anywhere. I was
very uncomfortable in the country."

"I have never been much in the city," she said.
" But I did n't like it."

He remembered that he had helped to make the
city hateful to her, though she seemed to have for-
gotten it, and he said, in evasion of this recollec-
tion, " It 's different with a man. I had my way
to make, and the city was my chance."

" And did n't you ever feel homesick ? " she
asked.

" I used to dream about the place after I came
away. I used to dream that T had gone back there
to live. That was my nightmare. It always woke
me up."

" And did j^ou never go back ? "

" No. I have never looked on those hills since
I left them, and I never will if I can help it. I
suppose it 's a matter of association," he continued.
" My associations of not getting on are with the
country ; my associations of getting on in some
sort are with the city. That is enough to account
for my hating the one and liking the other."

" Yes," said Egeria, " that is true." She added
after a moment, " Have they ever told you what
Joseph's associations with this region are? "

302 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" No, I should like to know."

" He saw it in a dream, years before he came
here. When he first visited the Vardley Shakers
he recognized it, and took it for a sign that he was
to stay."

" That was remarkable," said Ford. Egeria Avas
silent. " Do you believe in such things, Miss
Boynton ? " he asked.

She turned away as if she had not heard him,
and began to search the vines for ripe grapes. She
went down one side of the long trellis, and he fol-
lowed down the other. Between the leaves and
twisting stems he caught glimpses of her yellow
hair and her blue eyes.

" Do you find any ? " she asked.

" Any what ? "

" Grapes."

" I had n't looked."

She sighed. " It 's about as well. There don't
seem to be any." After a wliile she stopped, and
he saw her glance at him through the leaves. " I
don't know whether I believe in those things or
not. Do you ? "

"No."

" The Shakers do. They all think they have
had some sign. But I should n't like to know
things beforehand. It would n't help you to bear
the bad. Besides, it does n't seem to leave you
free, somehow. I think the great thing is to be
free."

" It 's the first thing."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 303

" Yes ; that is what I always felt. It was
slaveiy, even if it was true." He knew what she
meant ; but he said nothing, though she waited for
]nm to speak. " It was what I tried to say some-
times ; but I couldn't express it. And I couldn't
llave made him understand." With that screen of
vines between them, and each other's faces imper-
fectly seen through the leaves and tendrils, it was
easier to be frank. " It cut us off from evei'ybody
in the world. It was what made the quarrel with
grandfather."

She waited again, and now Ford said, " Yes,
your father said it was that."

"It made everybody suspect us. I didn't care
so much for myself after I got away from home,
where they did n't know us ; but I cared for father.
He suffered so from the things he had to bear.
You can't think what they were."

" I 'm ashamed to think what some of them
were," said Ford.

She paused a moment. " You mean what you
said to him in Boston ? "

"Yes."

" Yes, that hurt him," she said, simply. " He
had been very proud of the interest you took the
first time you came. He said you were the only
man of science that had taken any notice of him.
Afterwards — he could n't make it out."

" I don't wonder ! " cried Ford. " It was in-
credible. But I never came to threaten him."

"He was more puzzled when you wouldn't meet
him in that public stance. Why would n't you ? "

304 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Why ? " demanded Ford, in dismay.

" Yes, why ? "

" I don't know that I can say."

" But you had some reason. Was it because you
thouglit you would fail ? "

Ford did not answer directly. " Can you believe
that I Avanted to consider him in the matter?" he
asked, in turn.

" Yes, that is what I did believe." She drew a
long breath, and hid herself wholly behind a thick
mass of the vine. " Did you — did you get a letter
from me ? "

" Yes," said Ford.

" I thought that I ought to write it ; I did n't
know whether to do it. But I could n"t help it.
I was glad you refused."

" I was glad you wrote the letter. It was n't al-
ways a comfort to me, though. I had no right to
any thanks from you. I felt as if I had extorted
it."

"Extorted it!" she repeated, with the same
eager persistence wnth wdiich she had pressed him
for his reason in refusing to meet her father. " Do
you mean — do you mean that you tried to make
me write the letter ? "

" How could I try to make you write me a let-
ter? " demanded the young man, stupefied.

"I don't know. I was not sure that I under-
stood. I can't tell you — now. Did you destroy
it?"

" Destroy what ? "

THE UNDISCOVEKED COUNTRY. 305

" The letter."

" No : I kept it."

" Oil — will you give it back to me ? "

" Certainly." Ford unfolded a pocket-book, and
took out a worn-looking scrap of paper, which he
passed through an open space in the trellis. Her
hand appeared at the aperture and received it. A
hesitation made itself felt through the vines. "Will
you give it back to me, Miss Boynton ? "

" There 's nothing to be ashamed of in it," she
said, and her hand reappeared at the open space
with the letter.

" Thanks," said Ford.

" They will think I am a long time looking for a
few grapes," said Egeria.

" They 've no idea how few there ai-e, and how
long it takes to find them," answered Ford.

She laughed. " Are they scarce on your side,
too ? "

" There are no ripe bunches at all. Shall I jDick
single ones ? "

" Oh, yes ; any that you can get. It 's rather
early for them yet."

" Is it ? I thought it was about the right time."

" That shows you haven't lived in the country
for a good while. You 've forgotten."

" Yes," assented Ford. " I have n't seen grapes
on the vines for ten years."

" Have n't you been out of the city in that
time ? "

" Not if I could help it."

20

306 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" And why can't you help it now ? "

" They told me I was n't well, and I 'd better go
to the mountains." He sketched in a few words
his course in coming to Vardley.

"I thought you looked pale, when you first
came," she said. After a little while she added,
" You can bear it if you 're getting better, I sup-
pose."

He laughed. " Oh, it is n't so disagreeable here.
I 'm interested in your Shaker friends."

" They think they are living the true life," said
the girl.

" Do you ? " asked Ford.

" They are very good ; but I have seen good peo-
ple in the world outside," she answered. " I think
they are the kind that would be good anywhere.
I should n't like having things in common with
others. I should like a house of my own. And I
should like a world of my own."

" Yes," said Ford, laughing. " I should like the
private house, too. But I don't think I could man-
age a whole world."

" I mean a world that is for the people that live
in it. When they die, they have their own world,
and they oughtn't to try to come back into ours."

" Oh, decidedly, I agree with you there ! " cried
the young man.

She seemed not to like his light tone. " I know
that I don't express it well."

" It could n't be expressed better."

" 1 meant that I hoped any friend of mine would
be too well off to be willinsj to come back."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 307

" Yes."

They found themselves at the end of the trelhs,
and face to face. He dropped his grapes into the
basket, where some loose berries rolled about. She
looked ruefully at the result of their joint labors.

" Well I " she said, and they walked out of the
garden together.

At the gate Ford took out his watch, and stopped
with a guilty abruptness. " Miss Boynton, I am
going away, — I am going to Boston, this after-
noon. I " —

" Going away ? "

" Yes, I have business in Boston. Can I do any-
thing for your father or — for you — there ? "

" No," she said, looking at him in bewilderment.
" Will you come and say good-by to him ? Or per-
haps you had better not," she faltered.

" I 'm coming back this evening ! " he cried in
astonishment. " Will you lend me this basket ? "
he asked.

" Why, yes. It belongs to Rebecca."

" Don't tell her I borrowed it. I must go now.
Good-by ! "

" Good-by." She stood looking after him till a
turn of the road to Vardley Village hid him.

When he reached Boston he found that the year
had turned from summer to autumn with a dis-
tinctness which he had not noted in the country.
The streets, whei-e his nerves expected the fierce
heat in which he had left them, were swept by cool
inland airs. The crowds upon the pavement had

308 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

perceptibly increased ; a tide of women, fresh from
their sojourn at the sea-side and in the country,
was pouring down Winter Street, reanimated for
sliopping, and with their thoughts set upon ribbons
with a vividness that shone in their faces. The
third week of the fall season was placarded at the
Museum; and in the Public Garden, which he
crossed upon an errand to his lodging, there was a
blaze of autumnal flowers in place of the summer
bloom which he had left. He met here and there
groups of public-school children loitering homeward
with their books. The great, toiling majority who
never go out of town were there, of course ; the
many whose vacations and purses are short had all
returned ; it would be some weeks yet before the
few who can indulge the luxury of the colored
leaves and the peculiar charm of still September
days out of town would come home. It was the
moment in which Ford had ordinarily the most
content in his city. He liked to renew his tacit
companionship with all these returning exiles ; the
promise of winter snugness brought him almost a
domestic joy ; the keen sparkle of the early-lighted
gas in the street lamps and the shop-windows was
a pleasure as distinct as it was inarticulate. But
now he felt estranged amid the cheerful spectacle
of the September afternoon. The country quiet,
wliicli he used to hate, tenderly appealed to him ;
the quaint life of the Shaker village, of which he
had, without knowing it, become a part, reclaimed
him ; the cry of a jay that strutted down an over-

I

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 309

hanging branch to defy him as he walked along the
road, after parting with Egeria, was still in his
ears ; his vision was full of the sunny glisten of
meadows where the Shakers' hired men were cut-
ting the rowan, and of roadsides fringed with gold-
en-rod and asters. He was impatient till he could
be off again, and he made haste back to the fruiter-
er's where he had left his basket with an order to
fill it with grapes. He was vexed to find it stand-
ing empty in a corner.

" You did n't say what kind you wanted," ex-
plained the fruiterer.

"Put in what you like, — the best kind," said
Ford. "You can judge; they're for a sick per-
son."

" All right." The man filled the basket, and
Ford went to another counter and took up a bou-
quet, which he added to his purchase.

He bought two or three newspapers, in the cars,
and read them on the way back, throwing those he
was not reading over the flowers on the seat be-
side him, so as to hide them.

He got out of the train at Vardley Station with
the sense of having committed a public action. He
was rescued from this embarrassment, and curiously
restored to his self-possession at sight of Egeria,
who came driving the old Shaker horse over from
the post-office, as the train halted. He was not
alarmed to see her, but he asked formall}^, " Noth-
ing the matter, I hope, Miss Boynton ? "

" Oh, no. I came to get the letters ; and I

310 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

thought I would wait for you, if you were on this
train."

" Thanks," said Ford, putting the basket into
the open buggy, and mounting to a phice beside
her. She looked down at it, but said nothing. He
took the reins from her, and drove out of the vil-
lage before he spoke again. " I have got some
grapes for your father."

She laughed, and lifted the basket at once into
her lap. " I tliovglit you were going for some-
thing," she said, " after you were gone ; and I
guessed with Sister Frances. I guessed it was
grapes, and she guessed it was peaches. You
thought he would be disappointed at Elder Joseph's
vines." She raised the lid of the basket and after
a glance pushed it to again with a quick gesture,
and looked gravely at him. " That is too much,"
she said.

" I hope you don't think so ! " he pleaded. " I
counted on your being pleased."

" So I am pleased," she returned. She opened
the basket again, and looked within.

" You must have hated to come back to the coun-
try," she said, after a silence, " if you like the city
so much."

" No. For once I was willing to come back. If
the country had n't threatened to keep me, I
shoukl n't have hated it. I never hated the country
about here. What have you been doing this after-
noon ? It seems a great while."

" Does it ? Yes, it does ! I suppose there 's such

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 311

a sameness here that anything that breaks it up
makes the time longer. Sister Frances says that
it 's so when any of them are gone. After you
went I came in and stayed with father. He did n't
know that I had been trying to get him some grapes.
Your going away seemed to fret him, and that made
me a little anxious to — to — see if you had come.^^

" I never thought of not coming back."

" Yes, I know. Silas went down to the post-of-
fice with me : but Humphrey came along in his
buggy, and Silas went back with him. He could n't
wait for you, and I said I would."

" Thanks. But you took too much trouble. I
expected to walk up from the station."

" I did n't believe you 'd want to carry the bas-
ket."

" Yes, I should. But what would you have done
if you had had to drive home alone in the dusk ? "

" Oh, I knew you would be there."

The lamps were lit in the office, and the window
was red with cheerful light where the doctor lay in
the infirmary, when they drew up before the gate,
and Ford helped Egeria down. Then he took the
paper in which the bouquet was wrapped, and
handed it to her. " There are a few flowers, too."

" I thought it must be flowers," she said. " I '11
put them round the grapes."

" The flowers are for you," said Ford, with
dogged resolution.

Laban came across the street from the office, and
took the horse by the bridle. " The sisters want

312 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

you should take your tea at the office, to-night.
They 've got it ready for you, and they 've sent
word to Friend Williams not to be expectin' you."

While Ford waited a few moments in the office
parlor, Egeria came, and he heard her talking with
Rebecca and Diantha in the sitting-room. When
the latter came to tell him that tea was ready, he
perceived that his gift was already a matter of fam-
ily approval. He sat down at the table, and Egeria
came out of the kitchen adjoining with the pol-
ished tin tea-pot in her hand. Then he saw that
the table was set for two. Her face \vas flushed,
as if she had been near the heat ; but she sat down
quietly, saying, " He was asleep, and Frances was
with him. I must run back in a minute, for I want
him to have them as soon as he wakes." He knew
that she meant the grapes. When she was handing
him his cup, she half drew it back. " I did n't ask
you whether you like cream and sugar both, and
I 've put them in."

" I like it so," said Ford.

She ate with more appetite than he, and was
gayer than he had seen her before. A happy light
was in her eyes, and when they met his this light
seemed to suffuse her face. She talked, and he
listened dreamily. It was very strange to a man of
his solitary life. He did not remember to have seen
any one pour'tea. At the boarding-house they came
and asked if you would have tea or coffee, and
brought it to you in a cup ; at the restaurant they
set it before you in a pot, and you helped yourself,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 313

or the waiter reached over your shoulder and poured
it out. Ford looked round the sincerely bare din-
ing-room ; the windows were shut to keep out
the evening chill, and the curtains were snugly
drawn. The door to the kitchen was open, and he
could hear Diantha moving about there ; now and
then she made a little rattling at the stove ; once
she came in with a plate of rice-cakes, and offered
to wait upon them ; but Egeria passed the plate to
Ford herself, and then gave him the butter and
syrup. He tried to make her one with the fright-
ened and joyless creature whom he had first seen
in Boston ; then he perceived that she had fallen
silent under his silent scrutiny.

" I beg your pardon," he said, " is anything the
matter ? "

" Oh, no ! " she answered. " But I must go back
to father. Will you come over and see him ? "

" Yes."

He walked across the road with her under tlie
stars, keen as points of steel in the moonless sky ;
but at the gate he said, " No, I won't go in to-
night. I will come to see your father to-morrow."

She said " Well," as if she understood that he
wished to delay being thanked.

As he lingered, she faltered too, and they stood
confronted without speaking. Then he said, " Good-
night," and made an offer of offering his hand.
She saw it, and stretched hers towards him ; but
by this time he had let his hand fall, thinking it
unnoticed. The manosuvre was reciprocally re-

314 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

peated ; by a common impulse they both broke
into a low, nervous laugh, and their hands met in
a quick clasp.

" Thank you for the flowers," she said, when he
had got a few paces away.

A little farther off, he glanced back. She seemed
to be standing yet at the door ; but the light was
uncertain, and it might have been a shadow. He
delayed a little, and then went back ; but she was
now gone, and he saw her head reflected against the
curtain within.

XXI.

FoED expected that they would meet next in the
mood of their parting ; but she received him with a
sort of defensive scrutiny that puzzled him and es-
tranged her from him. He fancied that she avoided
being alone with him, and made haste to shelter
herself from him in her father's presence, where she
sat and knitted while they talked. If he glanced
at her, he found her eye leaving him with a look
of anxious quest. He went away feeling that she
was capricious. Other days followed when she was
different, and met him with eager welcome ; but
then he did not think her capricious, and he forgot
from time to time the inquisition that vexed him
and that seemed to weary and distress her.

He commonly wrote in the morning and came in
the afternoon. She sat on the threshold of the in-
firmary, and if her father was awake she invited him
in-doors ; if her father was asleep, she drew Ford
off a little way into the orchard. There had been
a change in Boynton. He never spoke hopefully of
his condition to Ford ; but although he still showed
a great feebleness, there were often days when be
left his bed and sat up in a rocking-chair to receive
his visitor. He did not remain long afoot, and he

316 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

never showed any wish to go out-of-doors. Some-
times Egeria and Frances, in their zeal for his con-
valescence, urged him in the mild fall weather to go
out for the air ; but after a glance at the landscape
he said, " Yes, yes, to-morrow, if it 's fair. I 'm
hardly equal to it to-day." When Ford was not
with him, or some of the more metaphysical of the
Shakers, he read or mused in his chair. At first he
had wished to talk of the questions that perplexed
him with Egeria, but she had fondly evaded them ;
later, when she showed herself willing to afford
him this resource, he had no longer the wish for it,
and did not respond to her promptings.

His mind must have been dwelling upon this
change in himself and her, one afternoon, when
Ford came in and sat down with him. " You see,"
he said, " how they have tricked out ray room for
me ? " and he indicated the boughs of colored
leaves, varied with bunches of wild asters and tops
of golden-rod, in which the Shakers had carried
him the autumn. " There is n't healing in ray
leaves, as there was in the flowers which they
brought Egeria this spring," he added, with a
slight sigh, " but there is sympathy — sympathy."
Ford left him to the pleasure he evidently found in
the analogy and contrast, and Boynton presently
resumed : " There is an experiment which I should
have liked to try, if she had continued the same.
I should have liked to see if we could not change
places, and she exert upon me that influence which
I once had over her. There is no telling how san-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 317

ative it might be in a case like mine, in which
there is a certain obscurity of origin and character.
But I am convinced that it would be useless to at-
tempt the experiment. I see now that the psychic
force must have left her entirely during her sick-
ness. Not a trace of it remains. The fact is a
very interesting one, which I should hope to inves-
tigate with important results, if I could live to do
so. It may be that we approach the other world
only through some abnormal condition here. You
have observed this remarkable change in my daugh-
ter ? "

" You know I only saw Miss Boynton two or
three times before I came here," said Ford. " She
seems very much better."

" That is the change. Her power has escaped in
this return to health. I saw it, — I almost noted
its flight. Day by day, after the crisis of her fever,
when convalescence began, I perceived that she
grew more and more rebellious to my influence,
without knowing it. If I had obeyed my intui-
tions, I should never have put her powers to the
final test. I see now that you had nothing to do
with our failure here, whatever the effect of your
sphere was in Boston. Her gift, rare and wonder-
ful as it was, was the perishable efflorescence of a
nervous morbidity. I might have known this be-
fore, — perhaps I did know it, and refused to ac-
cept it as a fact. It was hard, it was impossible,
to relinquish my belief in her continued j)owers
just when I had brought them to the most favora-

318 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

ble conditions for tlieir exercise. But I don't give
up my belief in what has been. I know that she
once possessed the power that has been withdrawn,
if ever it existed on earth. You will get out of
the matter very easily by saying that it never did
exist," added Boynton bitterly. "J should once
have said so ; but now I say, whoever keeps it or
loses it, this power has never ceased to exist. Has
my daughter ever spoken to you of this matter? "
he demanded abruptly.

" Yes," said Ford.

" It would be intolerable if she knew how great
her loss was. But she never realized the precious-
ness of her gift while she possessed it."

The color of superiority, of censure, which tinged
these words irritated the young man. "As far as
I could understand, she seemed to dislike ghosts."

" Yes, I know that. I had that to contend with
in her."

" It seemed to me that she had a terror of them,
and that your researches had cost her " — Ford
stopped.

" What ? " asked Boynton.

" She has never complained," answered the other.
" I could only conjecture " —

" Oh, I can believe that she never complained ! "
cried Boynton ; and now he lay a long space silent.
At last, " Yes," he groaned, with an indescribable
intensity of contrition in his tone, " I see what you
mean ! I seized upon a simple, loving nature, good
and sweet in its earthliness, and sacred in it, and

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 819

alienated it from all its possible happiness to the
uses of my ambition. I have played the vampire ! "

Ford rose in alarm at the eifect of his words,
and essayed what reparation he could. " No," he
protested. " The harm is less than you think. I
don't believe that any one but ourselves can do us
essential injury here. We may make others un-
happy, but we can't destroy the possibility of hap-
piness in them ; we can only do that in ourselves.
Your conscience has to do with your motives ; it
judges you by them, and God — if we suppose Him
— will not judge you by anything else. The ef-
fect of misguided actions belongs to the great mass
of impersonal evil."

It was the second time that he had presumed to
distinguish between Boynton and Egeria, and he
had again committed a cruel impertinence. He
continued with a sort of remorseful rage to launch
upon Boynton such fragments of consolation as
came into his head ; and he hurried from him with-
out knowing that his phrases about impersonal evil
had already floated that buoyant spirit beyond the
regrets in which he had plunged it.

Still heated and ashamed, he issued from the in-
firmary, and, as if it were strange that she should
be there, he started at sight of Egeria under one of
the orchard trees. But in that fascination which
makes us hover about the victim of some wrong or
the witness of some folly of ours, he pressed to-
wards her. She was leaning against the trunk of
the tree, with some knitting in her hand, and he

320 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

flung himself on the grass at her feet. He thought
that he meant to confess to her what had just
passed, but he made no attempt to do so. "Are
you so very tired ? " she asked, smiling down at
him.

" Not very," he answered, " but I know no rea-
son why I should n't sit down, — except one."

" What 's that ? "

" That you 're standing."

It was pretty, and she was a girl, and she softly
laughed as she began to knit. " That 's work in
real earnest," he said, looking at the substantial
gray sock mounted on her needles.

"Yes; the Shakers sell them," she explained.
" I suppose you have got through your work for
the day."

" I 've got through my writing, if you call that
work. It's so dull it can't be play." Again he
thought he would speak of what had passed be-
tween him and her father, but he did not.

" Do you write stories?" she asked, with her
eyes on her knitting.

" Oh, not so bad as that ! I do what they call
social topics, — perhaps because I never go into so-
ciety ; and I do them with difficulty, as I deserve,
for I 'm only making literature a means. I under-
stand that if you want to be treated well by it you
jnust make it an end, and be very serious and re-
spectful with it."

" Oh, yes," said the girl, as if she did not under-
stand.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 321

" I 'm serious enough," he continued, " but I
don't respect my writing as it goes on. It 's as
good as most; but it ought to be as good as the
least."

" What are social topics?" she asked presently.

" I suppose I 'm treating a social topic now. I 'm
writing about some traits of New England country
life. I began it — do you care to hear ? "

" Yes, I should like to hear about it if you will
tell me."

" It 's nothing. I was telling you the other day
of our start from Boston. I could n't help noticing
some things on the way ; my ten years in town had
made me a sort of foreigner in the country, and I
noticed the people and their way of living ; and
after I got here I sent a letter to a newspaper
about it. You might think that would end it ; but
you don't know the economies of a hack-writer.
I've taken my letter for a text, and I 'm working it
over into an article for a magazine. If I were a
real literary man I should turn it into a lecture
afterwards, and then expand it into a little book."
Egeria knitted on in silence, as if her mind were
away, or had not strength to deal with these ab-
stractions. "Who is that?" asked Ford, as a
young Shakeress with a gentle face looked out of a
window of the nearest family house, and nodded in
pleasant salutation to Egeria.

" That is the school-teacher."

"They all look alike to me, — the sisters. I
don't see how you tell them apart, so far off."

21

322 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Yes, they all have the same expression, — the
Shaker look. But they 're very different."

" Why, of course. And the Shaker look is a
very good look. It 's peaceful. I suppose they
have their bickerings, though."

" Not often. They 're what they seem. That 's
their great ambition."

"It 's an immense comfort. You must be quite
at home among them."

" Yes," said the girl.

" Do you mean no ? "

" They do everything they can to make me ; but
they have their own world, and I don't belong to it.
They feel that as well as I do ; but they can't help
it."

" Of course not. That 's the nature of worlds,
big and little. You can't be at home near them ;
you have to be in them to be comfortable. I have
a world in my own neighborhood that I don't be-
long to. I like to abuse it ; but it 's quite as good
a neighbor as I deserve, and it would be civil if I
made an effort to fit into it. But I suppose I was
a sort of born outcast."

" Does Mr. Phillips write, too ? " asked the girl.

The abruptness of the transition was a little be-
wildering ; but Ford answered, " My Phillips ?
No ; he talks."

" But has n't he any business ? "

" None of his own. Did he amuse you ? "

" I don't think I understood him," said Egeria.

" He w^ould be charmed with vour further ac-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 323

quaintance. He would tell you that he could meet
3'ou on common ground, — that he did n't under-
stand himself."

She left Phillips by another zigzag. " I sup-
pose," said she, " you like the influence that a
writer has. It must be a pleasure to feel your
power over people."

"No," said Ford, "I don't care anything about
the influence. It shocks me to think of people be-
ing turned this way or that by my stuff."

" Then you believe," she said, with that recur-
rent intensity, " that we can have power over oth-
ers without knowing it, and even without wishing
it?"

" Oh," he answered carelessly, " we all control
one another in the absurdest way."

" Yes." She turned quite pale, and looked away,
passing her hand over her forehead as if she were
giddy. Then she rose quickly, and hurried down
the path to the infirmary. The young man fol-
lowed.

" Did you think you heard your father's bell ? "

*' I 'd better see if he rang." She went into the
little house, but came out directly. " No ; he 's try-
ing to sleep."

" Then we must go back, so as not to disturb
him."

" Yes," she said, but with an accent of interroga-
tion and reluctance. " I don't believe I ought to
leave him."

" We shall be near enough," he rejoined with a

324 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

kind of willfulness, " Here comes Sister Frances ;
she will stay with him."

" I might speak to her," murmured Egeria, hes-
itating, as Frances came across the road.

" It is n't worth while. She will find him alone,
and will naturally stay till you come in." Ford
glanced about him. " Which is the apple-tree they
call yours ? "

" The one they brought me out under the first
day I was well enough ? "

" Yes ; I have heard a great deal of that tree. It
is famous in the community annals."

" Oh, it does n't look the least now as it did
then." She led the way far up the orchard slope.
But when they came to the tree, and she said, put-
ting her hand on the trunk, " This is it," neither of
them spoke of it. She glanced at the hill on the
brow of which some chestnut-trees stood.

" We could get a better view from that place,"
he suggested.

" Do you think so ? " She climbed half up the
wall that divided the oi'chard from a meagre past-
ure above, and looked back. He passed her and
helped her over the wall. " I forgot that this
meadow was so wet," she said, hesitating near the
wall.

"But nature never does things by halves," said
Ford. " Where she makes a sopping meadow, she
jDuts plenty of stones to step on ; and where j^ou are
doubtful of your footing, she puts me to lend you a
helping hand." He extended his hand to her as he

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 325

spoke, and drew her lightly to the sloping bowlder
on which he stood, and on which she must cling to
him for support.

" Oh, I could get on well enough alone," she
said, laughing nervously.

" You can get on better with help."

" Yes."

She followed him, springing from stone to stone,
staying herself now by his hand and now by his
arm, till they reached the hard, dry top, where the
tangled low blackberry vines overran the bowlder
heads thickly crusted with lichens.

" I did n't suppose it was so bad," she said, shak-
ing out her skirts.

" I don't think it so very bad," he returned. " It
was n't a great way across."

" No. There are some chestnuts. It must be
too soon for them."

" Let us see," said Ford. He advanced leisurely,
and with a club knocked off some burs. Returning
with them to the rock, where she had stood watch-
ing him, he hammered the nuts from their cells.
They were scarcely in the milk yet. " These trees
are too old," he said. " The nuts ripen first on
the young trees that stand apart in the meadows.
There are some in the rye-field just beyond these
pine woods, here," he said, pointing to the growth
on their left.

" That would be too far," she answered, follow-
ing his gesture with a glance. " We had better go
back."

326 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" We can go back that way. It 's good walking."

She did not answer, but he led on again, and she
followed. " How still and warm it is ! " she cried,
with a luxurious surrender to the charm of the
place. The slanting sun struck through the slender
boles of the trees, and burnished the golden needles
under their feet. There was no sound of life save
their steps, and their voices, which took a lower
key ; the air was rich with the balsam of the trees.
She deeply inhaled it. " Yes, yes," she murmured.
" It all comes back. I was afi-aid," she said, in an-
swer to the look with which he turned upon her,
" that I had lost the feeling which I had when I
first got well. But I have n't."

" What was it ? "

" I don't know if I can tell. Something as if I
belonged in such places — as if they missed me
when I came away — I don't know. It was some-
thing very silly " — She stopped.

" Don't grieve the woodland by hurrying through
it, then," said Ford, with a playfulness which, now
that he indulged it, seemed natural to him. " Wait
a moment. Tliis rock is a new feature, — I don't
remember this." A vast bowlder rose at the side
of their path, and he walked round it and clambered
to the top, from which he bent over to spea,k to her
again. " Would you like to come up ? It 's quite
easy on this side."

" What can 3'ou see ? "

" Nearly the whole earth."

She found the opposite side of the rock a slope,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 327

broken by some natural steps. He came half-
way down, and, reaching her his hand, pulled her
strongly up.

The top was scantly wide enough for them both ;
and while he stood she sat at his feet and looked
out at the landscape which a break in the woods
revealed at that height. It was the valley in which
the village and farms of the Shakers lay ; but it
stretched wider than they had ever seen it, and on
the other side, beyond the river, the hills rose
steeper. The red sunset bathed it in a misty light,
through which shone the scarlet of the maples, the
gold of the elms by the river, the tender crimson of
the young growths in the swamp lands. -. On the
hill-side some of the farm windows had caught
the sun, and blazed and flickered with mimic fire.
Along a lower slope ran a silent train, marking its
course with puffs of white steam.

" I can confess, now," said Ford, " that if I
had n't climbed this rock I should n't have known
just where we were. But here are all the land-
marks." He pointed to the familiar barns and fam-
ily houses below.

" How near we are ! " she cried, looking down.
" I felt as if we were miles away. These woods
are not large enough to get lost in, are they ? "

" Not now. They were, a minute ago." He sat
down beside her, and they looked at the landscape
together. " It 's rather sightly, as Joseph says."

" We had better go down," she murmured. But
neither of them made a movement to go. They

328 THE UNDISCOVEEED COUNTRY.

sat looking at the valley. " Now the fire has caught
the windows higher up," she said. They watched
the glittering panes as they dai'kened and kindled.
The windows of the highest farm-house flashed in-
tensely, and then slowly blackened. A light blue
haze hovered over the valley.

" The curtain is down," said Ford.

She started to her feet, and looked round. " Why,
the sun has set ! "

" Did n't you know that ? " he asked.

" No," she said, sadly. "It seemed as if it would
last longer. But nothing lasts."

" No, nothing lasts," he repeated. " But gener-
ally things last long enough. I could have stood
another hour or two of sunset, however. And some-
times I 've known days that I would have been
willing to have last forever, if I could have had out
my eternity in this world."

" Is that — is that the way you feel, too ? " she
asked, turning swiftly upon him that strange,
searching glance.

" Why, not always. What is the matter? "

" Nothing — nothing. Let us go down." She
took his hand, and clung to it, in descending, as if
eager to escape to him from some fear of him.

They went on in the direction they had first
taken. She walked at his side, and when his pace
fell to a slow saunter she did not attempt to hasten
it. A red squirrel took shape and motion out of
the russet needles, and raced up one of the pines,
whose feathery tops he bent in his long leaps from

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 329

tree to tree ; a partridge suddenly whirred up from
the path before them ; the life was like shadow, the
shadow was like life, as the twilight thickened round
them. " Are you tired ? " he asked. " Am I mak-
ing you walk too far ? "

" I am not tired," she answered, but stopping as
he stopped.

" I am. I 'm out of breath," he said. " Do you
know this place ? "

She glanced round. " I believe I should know it
if I were here alone. It looks familiar. It looks
like the place where Laban found us that morning
when we were trying to walk to Vardley Station.
The brook ought to be running along in the hollow,
here. Once he asked me if I knew the place ; but
I did n't. Do you think it 's the place ? "

" How should I know ? You never told me of it
before."

" Then the fever must have begun," she mused
aloud. "I thought — I must have thought you —
were there ! I ought n't " —

" Oh," laughed Ford, " we put people in all sorts
of places in dreams, feverish or otherwise. But I
think the place you mean is lower down. I was
in hopes you knew better where we were. I don't
know."

Egeria laughed also. " Then we are lost ! "

" Yes. Are you frightened ? "

"I should hate to be lost here alone."

"I shall go presently and look up our where-
abouts. Shall I go now ? "

380 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" If "we keep walking we shall get through the
woods in a few minutes. Which way are your
chestnuts ? "

" I don't know that, now, either. Do you care
to look them up ? ''

" No. I thought you wanted them."

" I think it 's better to stay here. No," he added,
capriciously, "it 's better to go home."

" Well," she responded with the same trusting
content in which she had let all his impulses sway
her.

A thrill, very wild and sweet, played through his
nerves. "I — I " — he began ; then suddenly,
" Wait here ! " he cried, and ran down to the brow
of the hill along which the woodland stretched.
" It 's all right ! " he called back, and he turned to
retrace his steps. But she was no longer where he
had left her. He disliked to call out to her ; they
were very near the house in which he lodged, and
he did not wish to make an alarm. He pushed
hither and thither through the gathering dusk, but
he could not find her; and he blamed himself for
having brought her into this embarrassment. He
had once seen tramps in those woods ; and now it
would be almost dark when they reached home.
All at once he came upon her at the foot of a tree,
against which she quietly leaned. " What are you
doing here ? " he demanded, impatiently. " Why
did you go away ? " He thought he had spoken
harshly ; but she only seemed amused.

" I have n't moved. This is where you left me,"

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 331

They both hiughed at that. " I have been run-
ning everywhere, round and round, as lost people
do in the Adirondacks, when they ai'e going to
write about it after\yards. It 's absurd to be lost
here. It 's like being drowned in a saucer. Were
you afraid ? "

" No. What should I be afraid of ? "

" Certainly not bears, — till I came up. Will
you take my arm ? I must n't lose you again.
Will they be uneasy about you ? "

" Oh, they will know that I went away with
you, and some of them will see us coming back to-
gether."

" Yes," said the young man.

" Besides, I can tell them that we missed the
way."

" I 'm afraid if you do that they won't let you
come with me again."

" I 'm afraid they won't believe me if I tell them
ivhere w^e got lost," she said. When they came to
open ground, it was much lighter. " It is n't so
late as I thought."

"No," he answered; "we were actually lost in
that boundless forest by daylight. But it is n't so
remarkable in my case as it is in yours. Miss Boyn-
ton. I don't know what mysterious influence you
are going to say bewildered you."

" Influence ? " she repeated, with a start.

" What is the matter ? " he asked.

" Nothing ! " She withdrew her hand from his
arm.

332 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

He looked round, and saw that they had reached
the great stone bowl of the waj-side fountain. A
sense of hideous anomaly possessed him. " Did I
become intolerable just here?" he demanded, bit-
terly. " Why do you endure me ? You and your
father ought to hate me. I have done you noth-
ing but harm. Why do you ever speak to me? I
ought to be abominable to you ! "

" I don't know," she answered vaguely. " Do
you think it is " —

He laughed harshly. " Inexplicable ! You don't
forget anything ? "

" No," she reluctantly admitted. " I don't for-
get."

" I can understand your father's position. He
suffers me upon some theory of his. But you, —
you are a woman, and women don't forgive very
easily. Come, Miss Boynton," he cried, mixing his
self-banter with his pain, " confess that I am some
malignant enchanter, and that I have the power of
casting an ugly spell over you, that deprives you of
the wholesome satisfaction of telling me that I 'm
detestable."

" A spell," she began ; but her voice died weakly
away, and she stood looking into his face with puz-
zled entreaty.

" If you would tell me once for all that I am
the greatest ruffian in the world, with neither pity
nor decency, it might break the charm, and then
I could go away to-morrow morning. I 've been
waiting for that. Will you try ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 333

" I can't say that," she murmured.

" But you believe it ? "

"No" —

" That 's part of the sorcery. You must have
often tried to believe it."

She was silent, and he felt that her silence was
full of distress. She turned away with a sort of
helplessness ; he followed her, trying to retrieve
himself. But he could not find anything to say,
and they scarcely spoke as they walked back
through the village. At the gate of the office her
parting with him was almost a flight.

XXII.

The next day Ford came, and found Egeria on
the threshold, where she often met liim. At first
glance he thought he read in her face something
like an impulse to run from him ; but she quelled
the impulse, if she had it, and greeted him with a
resolute coldness, which he Avould not recognize.
He had a broad yellow hickory leaf in one hand,
and on this lay a little heap of blackberries ; they
were long and narrow like mulberries, and they had
hung on the canes, hoarding the last sweetness of
the year. " Perhaps your father will like these,"
he said ; and he told her of the hollow beside the
road in which he had found them. " They 've got
all that was left of the summer in them," he added.
"Will you have them?"

" I don't believe they would be good for him,"
she began stiffly.

Ford tossed them away. " How is the doctor
to-day ? " he asked.

" He 's better. Will you come in ? "

" No, thank you. I am going to the post-office.
Good-by."

" Good-by," she said, and they exchanged a look
of mutual dismay, which hardened into pride be-
fore their eyes dropped.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 335

At the post-office Ford found a letter for Egeria,
and carried it to Humphrey, who put it away in
his desk, and said he would give it to her when she
came in.

" It don't seem the same handwritin' as the
other. I don't know," he said, shutting his desk-
lid, "as you heard that they got a letter this
mornin' from a lawyer down t' their place. As I
understood from Frances, — Egery read it to her,
— the gran'father 's left Egery what prop'ty there
was. The' wa' n't no great, I guess."

The fact jarred upon Ford. Against all sense he
connected it with her changed manner, for which,
till then, he had found reason enough in the terms
of their parting the day before. This legacy
seemed the world thrusting in between them ; it
was as if it crossed some purpose, broke some hope,
of his.

He stopped mechanically, on his way home, in
the hollow of the roadside where he had found the
blackberries, and looked idly at the canes. Pres-
ently he saw that there were no berries left on
them. He was turning away, when a sound like
suppressed laughter caught his ear. There was a
rustle in a thicket near, and Egeria and one of the
youngest Shakeresses came out.

" We have got them all," said the former ; she
blushed appealingly, while the latter still giggled.
"I didn't suppose you would come again. When
we saw you looking so, Susan couldn't help laugh-
ing." Ford reddened with embarrassment. "It

336 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

seems greedy to take them. I did n't suppose — I
never thought of your wanting them. Will j'ou —
will you — take some ? " She offered him her bas-
ket.

" Thanks," he said, awkwardly refusing, " I don't
care for them. I 'ra glad you 've found them."

He turned and walked off, leaving her where
slie stood, with her basket still extended towai'ds
him. She watched him out of sight, and then
made a few paces after him. On a sudden she
dropped her basket, and sinking down hid her face
on her knees. The Shakeress picked up the bas-
ket and the berries which were jostled out of it,
and stood passively near, looking at Egeria for
what seemed a long time.

There came a sound of wheels. " Is that you,
Susan ? " called Elihu from the road.

" Yee," promptly answered the Shakeress.

Egeria sprang to her feet, and seized the basket
from her. " Come ! come ! " she whispered, and
fled farther into the woods.

But the girl did not follow her. She went out
into the road, where Elihu sat in his buggy, and
stood demurely waiting his question.

" Was that Egeria ? "

" Yee."

" Why did she run away ? "

" She was crying."

" What made her cry ? "

The girl was silent.

" What made her cry ? " repeated Elihu.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 337

" Slie had got all the berries, when Friend Ford
came, and he seemed kind of put out."

" Get in with me," said Eliliu. " You should
not be here alone."

In the evening Elihu went to the office, and
joined the office sisters in their sitting-room. One
of them took his hat and cane, and the other pulled
a rocking-chair towards the air-tight stove, in which
a new fire was softly roaring.

" The evenings begin to be chilly, now," he
said.

" Yee," answered Rebecca, " the days are short-
ening. Did you find the folks all well at Har-
shire ? "

" Yee," he said ; and then he sat rocking himself
absently and somewhat sadly to and fro, while the
sisters, with their hands in their laps, passively
waited for him to speak farther. Humphrey, hear-
ing his voice, came in from his room, and Laban
followed. Sister Frances, with her pale cheeks a
little brightened by her walk across from the in-
firmary, entered the other door; Elihu lifted his
voice. " But I did n't find all the folks here so
well."

" Wh}^, what do you mean, Elihu?" cried
Diantha. " Is anybody sick with you ? "

" Is Friend Boynton worse ? " Humphrey asked,
turning his head up towards Frances, who was still
on foot, while he was seated.

" Na}'^," answered Frances, fluttered with anxiety

22

33B THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

and curiosity ; " he is uncommon bright and well,
to-night."

" It is no sickness of the body that I mean, and
yet it is a disease of this life only. I hardly know
how to say what I suspect, — or rather feel sure
of." His listeners did not interrupt him, but
waited in resignation for his next word. He
looked round at their faces. " Egeria is getting
foolish about Friend Ford."

" For shame, Elihu ! " exclaimed Frances, with
an indignant impulse. The rest stirred uneasily
in their chairs, but did not speak.

Elihu looked kindly at Frances, but he did not
address her directly in adding, " As I was coming
home this afternoon, I met Friend Ford down at
the turn of the road, looking strange and excited.
He did n't seem to see me, and he went on without
speaking. I thought I saw Susan among the
bushes, and I called to her."

"I sent her I" Frances broke in. "I sent her
in my place, because I could n't leave Friend Boyn-
ton and Egery wanted to go and get some late
blackberries for him that Friend Edward had told
her about." Frances, by right of her special ten-
derness for the Boyntons, always spoke of Ford by
his first name.

" Yee," replied Elihu gently, " so Susan told
me, — she is a good child. She told me that Friend
Ford had found them there, and because he had
seemed vexed Egeria had shed tears."

" It was because they had got all the berries, and

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 339

she tliouglit it would look selfisli and greedy to
liim," Fi'iuices interposed a second time.

"Yee," Elihu again consented, "so Susan told
me. It is not the only time that I feared she had
got to feeling foolish abovit him."

" Foolish about him ! " Frances could not con-
tain herself. " She would never feel foolish about
a young man ! And if she felt foolish about him
he would feel foolish about her, too ! "

" Yee," said Ehhu. " They have been driving
and walking together, — picking leaves and grapes
and berries. He stops in the orchard in the after-
noon, and talks with her by the hour."

" It 's while her father 's asleep," explained
Frances. " Whenever Friend Boynton 's awake,
Edward talks with him. You would n't want him
waked up out of his sleep to talk, would you ?"

" Nay," said Elihu, while the faintest smile
moved his lips, in kindly derision of the inefficiency
of Frances' defense. " Friend Ford writes in the
morning, and Friend Boynton sleeps in the after-
noon."

" Elihu ! " cried Frances, angrily.

" Frances," returned Elihu, with reestablished
gravity, " will you tell me yourself that you have
never thought they were foolish about each other,
— what they call being in love ? "

Frances wiped the tears from her eyes with her
stout handkerchief, which she had knotted into a
ball. " You are too bad, Elihu. You have no
right to ask such a question. You had n't ought
to put me on trial."

340 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" You put yourself on trial, Frances," said Elihu,
affectionately. " You began to talk while I was
speaking. But I withdraw the question. I never
meant to hurt your feelings. I know you have
always done for tlie best."

" I have often heard you say," Frances quavered
reproachfully, " that the worst thing about our
young people, when they get to foolin', is that they
run away. You said that if they would only tell
us honestly how they felt we would let them go
and be married, and we would be friends with
them afterwards. Now, when there are two young
folks here that don't think of runnin' away, or
hidin' anything, you 're not satisfied. Do you
want Egery and Edward to run away ? "

" Nay," replied Elihu ; " do you want them to
be courting each other here, right under our
noses ? "

" It is nt under our noses ! " cried Frances, re-
senting the phrase.

" Well, our eyes, then," said Elihu, patiently.
" Do you think it is a good example to the rest of
our young folks ? "

" They 're not of our family ! They 've never
been gathered in ! "

" Nay, I know that," admitted Elihu. " But
does that help the matter, as far as the example
goes? We all know by bitter experience how hard
it is for the young to tread the path that leads to
the angelic life ; how cruelly it is beset with flints
and shards, and how the flesh bleeds with the sting

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 341

of its brambles. Do you want them mocked with
the sight of flowers that tempt them to the earthly
pastures ? Egeria is a good girl " —

" Oh, she is, she is ! " sobbed Frances.

" And I don't believe she understands herself
that she 's foolish about him " —

" I know she does n't ! It would kill her ! "

" Nay, I 'm not sure of that," said Elihu, with
another flicker of a smile. " But that makes the
case easier to deal with. We need not speak to
her at all. We can speak to the young man."

" Speak to the young man ! " cried Frances.
" Tell him that Egery is in love with him before
he has ever asked her " — She stopped in horror.

" We do not gloss this thing among ourselves,"
said Elihu coldly, " and we need not care for the
feints and pretenses used in the world outside.
But we can tell him that he 's foolish about her.
I have talked the matter over with Joseph and the
ministers, and we have agreed that Friend Ford
should be spoken to." Frances went out of the
room, turning her back upon the meditated out-
rage. " The only question now is," continued
Elihu, without regarding her withdrawal, " who
shall speak to him."

A perceptible sensation passed through the oth-
ers, but no one answered. After a moment, La-
ban said from the corner where he sat, " Some
like bellin' the cat." The sisters relieved the ten-
sion of their nerves in a low titter, but Elihu and
Humphrey remained grave ; and it is doubtful if

342 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

Laban really intended a joke, though his face re-
laxed at the merriment of the sisters.

" The ministers," resumed Elihu, " were not
sure whether it was the province of the elders or
the trustees, and I came to consider that point with
you, Humphrey."

Humphrey rose, with his face twisted by an ex-
pression as of severe bodily pain. He moved his
arms haplessly about, and took off and then put on
his spectacles. He tried in vain to smile. " I d'
know," he said, "as I'm a very good hand at
speakin' to folks. I don't seem to have any com-
mand o' language. I should think myself, it was
for the elders, some on 'em, to speak."

" You have transacted all the business with the
young man," said Elihu. " You have had frequent
interviews with him, and you go a good deal into
the world, on business. We thought, perhaps, that
you would best know how to approach him."

" I ain't one to get acquainted easy," replied
Humphrey, " and I never felt no ways at home
with Friend Ford. He seems to be of a kind of
offish disposition." He sat down again, and hang-
inc: his head began to tilt the chair in front of
liim on its hind legs. " I should n't want to in-
trude no ways into the province of the elders. I
don't seem to feel that it 's so much of a business
question as what it is a question of family disci-
pline."

" You may be right," admitted Elihu.

" If I could see it as my duty, I should n't be one

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 343

to shirk it. But it 's like this." He paused unsuc-
cessfully for a comparison, and then added, "It's a
question of family discipline. I should ha' thought
it was for the ministers to speak."

" We should only have recourse to the ministers
in extreme cases, " said Elihu. " Besides, you
thought just now it was for the elders to speak."

" Well, the elders or the ministers," returned
Plumphrey, without looking up.

Elihu compassionated his futility with a moment's
silence. Then he sighed slightly, and said, " I
agree with you, Humphrey. But I thought that I
ought to give j^ou the opportunity, and if you saw
your duty in it I ought to yield to you. I did not
want to have the appearance of forth-putting, in
such a case, and I certainly don't covet the task of
speaking to Friend Ford. He appears to me a per-
son subject to sudden gusts of anger, and there is
no telling how he may take the interference."

" That is so," admitted one of the sisters.

" There ain't no question about forth-puttin',
Elihu," said Humphrey, with the cordiality of a
great relief. " Every one 'd know 't you did n't
seek such a duty. But Friend Ford '11 take it all
right; you'll see. He'll look at it in the same
light you do."

Elihu rose, and took his hat and stick. " I shall
pi'obably find him in his room, now, I suppose."

Humphrey stood as much aghast as it was in his
power to do. " Was you — you wa' n't goin' to
speak to him right away ? "

344 THE UKDISCOVEEED COUNTRY.

" Yee. Why should I put it off? He cannot
take it any bettei* to-morrow or next week tlian he
woukl to-night. And the trouble would n't grow
less if we waited till doomsday." Elihu went out ;
the closing of the hall door upon him was like an
earthquake to those within.

" I declare for it," said Laban, " I 'most feel like
goin' along down to Friend Ford's and waitin' out-
side."

" Well," observed Rebecca, slighting the bold
proposition, " Elihu never was one to be afraid."

" That is so, Rebecca," said Diantha.

Humphrey said nothing. The accumulation and
complication of evils brought upon the family by
the Boyntons had long passed his control.

XXIII.

Elihu walked rapidly down tLe moon-lighted
street. When he reached the old family house, he
groped his way up from the outer door to that of
the meeting-room, in which Ford lodged, and tapped
upon it with his stick. There was the sort of hes-
itation within which follows upon surprise and
doubt ; then the sound of a chair pushed back was
heard, and Ford came to the door with a lamp in
his hand ; he looked like one startled out of a deep
reverie. " Anything the matter with Dr. Boyn-
ton ? " he asked, after a gradual recognition of
Elihu.

" Nay," replied the Shaker. " Friend Boynton
is better than usual, I believe. I wish to have a
little talk with you, Friend Ford. Shall I come
in?"

Ford found that he was holding the door ajar,
and blocking the entrance. " Why, certainly," he
said. He led the way, and setting the lamp on the
table pushed up another chair to the corner fire-
place, where some logs were burning, and where
he had evidently been sitting. " Sit down."

The Shaker obeyed, and with his palms resting
on his knees craned his neck round and peered at

846 THE UNDISCOVEEED COUNTRY.

tlie different corners of the room and up at the
ceiling before he spoke. " Are you comfortable
here, Friend Ford ? "

" Yes," answered the young man. "I am a sort
of stray cat, and any garret is home to me. I can't
say, though, that I 've ever occupied the dwelling
of a whole community before."

" Yee, this building once housed a good many
people. It was a cross to leave it ; but our num-
bers have fallen away, and we crowd together for
comfort and encouragement. It 's an instinct, I
suppose. Well, what do you think of the Shakers,
so far, Friend Ford?" Elihu had an astute glim-
mer in his eye as he asked the question.

" Really, I hardly know what to say," answered
Ford.

" Say what you think. We may not like the
truth, but we always desire to hear it."

" I should probably say nothing offensive to you,
if I said all that 's in my mind. I believe I think
very well of you. I don't see why j'ou don't suc-
ceed. I don't see why jou don't supply to Prot-
estantism the very refuge from the world that we
talk of envying in Catholicism."

" That is much the position that Friend Bo3aiton
took."

" I don't understand why you are a failing body.
The world has tired and hopeless people enough to
throng ten thousand such villages as yours."

" We should hardly be satisfied with the weary
and discouraged," said Elihu, without resentment.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 847

" And our system offers few attractions. Folks are
not so anxious for the angelic life in heaven that
they want to begin it on earth."

Ford smiled. " You offer shelter, you offer a
home and perfect immunity from care and aux-
iety."

" But we require great sacrijfices," rejoined the
Shaker gravely. " We put husband and wife
asunder ; we bid the young renounce the dream of
youth; we say to the young man, Forego; to the
young girl, Forget. We exact celibacy, the su-
preme self-offering to a higher life. Even if we
did not consider celibacy essential to the angelic
life, we should feel it to be essential to communism.
We must exact it, as the one inviolable condition."

Ford sat a moment thinking. " I dare say you
are right." He looked interested in what Elihu
was saying, and he added, as if to prompt him to
further talk, " I have been thinking about it a good
deal since I 've been here, and I don't see how you
can have commu^nism on any other terms. But
then your communism perishes, because nature is
the stronger, and because you can't recruit your
numbers from the children of your adherents. You
must look for accessions from the enemy."

" Yee, that is one of our difficulties. And we
have to fight the enemy within our gates perpetu-
ally. Even such of us as have peace in our own
hearts must battle in behalf of the weaker brethren.
We must especially guard the young against the
snares of their own fancies."

348 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I dare say it keeps you busy," said Ford.

" It does. We must guard them from both the
knowledge and the sight of love." The word
brought a flush to the young man's face, wdiich
Elihu did not fail to note. " Friend Ford, I have
understood you to wish us well?" He rose, and
resting his arm on the chimney-piece looked down
with gentle earnestness into the face of the young
man, as he sat leaning back in his chair with his
hands clasped behind his head.

" Yes, certainly."

" You would not wittingly betray us ? "

" Really " —

" I don't mean that. You would n't knowingly
put any obstacle in our way, — any stumbling-block
before the feet of those whom we are trying to lead
towards what we think the true life ? "

" Elihu," said Ford, " I thoroughlj^ respect you
all, and I should be grieved to interfere with you.
Why do you ask me these questions ? Have you
any reason to be dissatisfied with my behavior
here?"

" Nothing," continued Elihu, " is so hard to com-
bat in the minds of our young folks as the pres-
ence of that feeling in others who consider it holy
and heavenly, while we teach that it is of the earth,
earthy."

"Well?"

" The more right and fit it appears, the more
complex and subtle is the effect of such an exam-
ple. It is impossible that we should tolerate it a

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 349

moment among us after we become convinced of its
existence. Self-defense is the law of life."

" Well, well ! " cried Ford, getting up in his
turn, and confronting Elihu on more equal terms,
" what has all this to do with me ? " His face was
red, and his voice impatient.

Elihu was not disturbed. He asked calmly,
" Don't you know that Egeria is in love with
you?"

Ford stood breathless a moment. " Good
heavens, man ! " he shouted. " Her father is at
death's door ! "

Elihu stood with his wide-brimmed hat resting on
one hand ; he turned it slowly round with the
other. "Friend Boynton is very strangely sick.
The doctor says he does n't know how long he may
last. Young people soon lose the sense of danger
which is not immediate. The kind of love I speak
of is the master-feeling of the human heart ; it
flourishes in the very presence of death ; it grows
upon sorrow that seems to kill. It knows how to
hide itself from itself. It takes many shapes, and
calls itself by many other names. We have seen
much to make us think we are right about Egeria.
Have you seen nothing ? "

• Ford did not reply. His thoughts ran back over
all the times that he had seen and spoken with
Egeria, and his heart slowly and deeply beat, like
some alien thing intent upon the result ; and then
it leaped forward with a bound.

" Perhaps," said the Shaker, " I am wrong to

350 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

put the question in the way I do. We deal so
plainly with ourselves and with one another in such
cases that I might well forget the sophistication
that the world outside requires in the matter. I do
not wish to do you injustice, and I shall be glad if
I have opened my mind for nothing. I will merely
ask whether you have not done anything or said
anything to make her like you."

" This is preposterous," said Ford. " Do you
think these are the circumstances for love-making ?
I am here very much against my will, because I
can't decently abandon a friendless man " —

" Friend Boynton has plenty of friends here," in-
terrupted Elihu.

" I beg your pardon ; I know that. Then I am
here because I can't leave a dying man who seems
to find comfort in my presence. And whatever
may be the security which Miss Boynton has fallen
into, I have had her father to remind me of his
danger by constant allusions to it, as if his death
were near at hand."

" Do you believe it is ? "

" That is n't the question. The question is
whether a man, being trusted with a knowledge of
dangers which she does n't know, could have any
such feeling towards her as you imagine." Ford
bent a look of angry demand upon the Shaker.

" Yee," the latter answered, " I think he could,
if he meant the best that love means. If he knew
that they were poor, and that after her father's
death she would be left alone in the world, he might

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 851

very well look on her with affection even across a
dying pillow, and desire to be the protector and the
stay of her helplessness. I don't wish to pry into
your concerns, and if there is nothing between you
and Egeria it will be enough for you to say so."

"Between us!" cried Ford, bitterly. "I will
tell you how I first met these people, and then you
shall judge how much reason there is for love be-
tween her and me."

" Nay," interjected Elihu, " there is no need of
a reason for love. I learned that before I was
gathered in."

Ford did not regard the interruption. "I saw
them first at a public exhibition, and I made up my
mind that Dr. Boynton was an impostor ; and then
I went to their house with this belief. I never be-
lieved his daughter was anything but his tool, the
victim of himself and the woman of the house who
did the tricking. I suspected tricking in the dark,
but when I attempted to seize her hand it was Miss
Boynton's hand that I caught, and I hurt her —
like the ruffian I was. Afterwards the old man
tried to face me down, and we had a quarrel; and
I saw him next that morning here, when he flew
at my throat. It 's been his craze to suppose that
I thwarted his control over his daughter, and he
has regarded me as his deadliest enemy. Now you
can tell how much love is lost between us." Ford
turned scornfully away and walked the length of
the room.

The Shaker remained in his place. " Egeria is

352 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

of a very affectionate and believing disposition.
She would take a pleasure in forgiving any unkind-
ness, and she would forgive it so that it would never
have been. I don't see any cause in what you say
to change my mind. If you told me that you did
not care for her, it would be far more to the point
than all you could say to show ivhy you don't."

Ford stopped, and glared at the serene figure and
placid countenance. " This is too much," he began,
and then he paused, and they regarded each other.

" You don't pretend now," resumed Elihu, " that
you suspect either of them of wrong."

"No!"

" Then, whatever the mystery is about them, j^ou
know that they are good folks. We have had much
more cause than 3'ou to suspect them, but I don't
doubt them any more than I doubt myself."

"I would stake my life on her truth ! " exclaimed
Ford. The Shaker could not repress the glimmer
of a smile. " I " — Ford paused. Then he burst
out, " I have been a hypocrite, — the w'orst kind ;
a hypocrite to my own deceit ! I do love her !
She is dearer to me than — You talk of your an-
gelic life ! Can you dream of anything nearer the
bliss of heaven than union with such tenderness
and mercy as hers ? "

" We say nothing against marriage in its place.
A true marriage is the best thing in the earthly
order. But it is of the earthly order. The angels
neither marry nor are given in marriage. We seek
to be perfect, as we are divinely bidden. If you
choose to be less than perfect " —

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 353

" There can be no higher choice than love like
hers. Do you assume" —

" Nay," said the Shaker, " I assume nothing.
The time has been when we hoped that Egeria
might be gathered in. But that time is past. She
could now never be one of us without suffering that
we could not ask her to undergo. She must follow
the leadings of her own heart, now."

" Why, man, you have no right to say that she
cares anything for me. It 's atrocious ; it 's " —

"• We pass no censure upon the feeling between
you," said Elihu quietly, looking into his hat, as if
he were about to put it on. " All we ask is that
you will not let the sight of your affection be a
snare to those whose faces should be set against
such things."

Ford regarded him with a stormy look ; but he
controlled himself, and asked coldly, " What do you
wish me to do ?"

" Nay ; that is for you to decide."

" Well, I must go away ! " Ford irefully stared
at the Shaker again. " But how can I go away ?
If there was ever any reason why I should remain,
the reason is now stronger than ever."

" Yee," said Elihu.

" What shall I do ? If I have not been strong
enough and honest enough with myself to keep from
drifting into this — this affair, it is not likely that
I can get out of it, — I don't want to get out of it!
Do you suppose that now I have the hope of her I
wish ta leave her ? Whatever her father's state is,
23

354 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

and whatever my duty to him is, I am bound to
stay here for her sake till she sends me away. It 's
my dut}^ it's my privilege."

Elihu was not visibly swept from his feet by this
lover's-logic. He said gravely, " Now you consult
your inclination rather than your sense of duty.
Friend Boynton and his daughter are here by vir-
tue of the charity we use towards all " —

" You shall be paid every cent ! " cried Ford im-
pulsively.

" Nay, I did n't boast," said the Shaker, with a
gentle reproof in his tone, which put the young man
to shame, " and I did n't merit this return from you.
I merely stated a fact. You are yourself here by
our concession as their friend. I have opened our
mind to you upon this matter, and you know just
how we feel. Farewell."

XXIV.

In his preoccupation Ford let Elihu find Lis way
out, and heard him stumbling and groping about
for the outer door in the dark. All night the
words and circumstances of the interview burned in
his heart, and his face was hot with a transport
half shameful and half sweet. Once he tried to
think when his old misgivings had vanished, but he
could not ; he only remembered them to spurn
them. In the morning he went out for a long walk,
and visited the places where he had been with her.
He had a formless fear and hope that he might meet
her; these conflicting emotions resolved themselves
into the resignation with which he went to the shop
where Elihu was at work.

" I am going away. I have no right to stay
here ; it 's a violation of your rights, and it 's a prof-
anation of her. I shall go away, but I shall never
give up the hope of speaking to her at the right
time and place, and asking her to be my wife."

Seeing that he expected an answer, Elihu said,
" You cannot do less."

Ford did not quite like the answer. "You don't
understand. I hope for nothing, — I have no rea-
son to hope for anything."

356 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Nay," said the Sliaker, " I don't understand
that. Slie is fond of you."

Ford reddened, but he did not resent the words.
" What I propose to do now — to-day — is to go
away, and to come back from time to time, with
your leave, and see how Dr. Boynton is doing. I
should like some of you to write to me, — I should
like to write to her. Would you have any objec-
tion to that ? You don't object to the fact, but to
the appearance in this — affair, as I understand.
The letters could come under cover to Sister Fran-
ces," he submissively suggested.

" Nay," answered the Shaker, after deliberation,
" I don't see how we could object to that."

" Thanks," said Ford, with a nervous sigh. " I
hope you will feel it riglit that I should see Dr.
Wilson, and ask his opinion of Dr. Boynton's con-
dition, before I go ? "

"Yee. There is Dr. Wilson, now." Elihu
leaned out and beckoned to him, and the doctor,
who was turning away from the office gate, stopped
his horse in the middle of the street. " You can
ask him now ; he has just seen Friend Boynton."
Elihu delicately refrained from joining Ford in go-
ing to speak with the doctor.

"I have to go away for a while," said the young
man, abruptly, " and I wanted to ask you whether
there is any immediate danger in Dr. Boynton's
case to prevent my going. I shouldn't like to
leave him at a critical moment."

" No," said the doctor, with the slowness of his

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 357

thought. " It 's one of tliose obscure cases. I find
him very well, — very well, indeed, considering.
It 's the nature of his disease to make this sort of
pause. It 's often a very long pause."

Ford went back to Elihu, whom he found quietly
at work again. " He says there 's no reason why I
should n't go," he reported, with the excitement of
a new purpose in his face. He waited a moment
before he added, "I must go and tell Dr. Boynton,
now. I confess I don't know exactly how to do it."

" Yee, it will be quite a little cross," Elihu ad-
mitted.

" Do you think," asked Ford, after a moment's
abstraction, " that there would be anything wrong
in speaking to him about — what we have spoken
of?"

" Nay," said Elihu. " I was thinking that per-
haps you might like to do that. It would set his
mind at rest, perhaps."

"Thank you," said Ford, but he bit his nail in
perplexit}^ and hesitation.

" I presume that will be quite a cross, too,"
added Elihu, quaintly.

Ford stared at him without perceiving his jest.
" I suppose you don't know what you 've done in
giving me the sort of hope you have I If you have
mocked a drowning man with a straw " —

Rapt as he was in his own thoughts, when he
entered the sick man's room he could not but be
aware of some great change in Boynton. When
they had last seen each other, Boynton had sat up

358 THE UNDISCOVEEED COUNTRY.

in an arm-chair to receive his visitor. No^ lie was
stretched upon the bed, and he looked very old and
frail.

" Why, the doctor said you were better ! " cried
the young man.

" So I am, — or so I was, half an hour ago," re-
plied Boynton. " I am glad you have come earlj^
to-day. I missed you yesterday ; and there is
something now on which I want the light of your
clearest judgment. Sit down," he said politely,
seeing that Ford had remained on foot.

The young man mechanically drew up a chair,
and sat facing him.

" I have heard a story of Agassiz," Boynton said,
" to the effect that Avlien he had read some book
wdiolly upsetting a theory he had labored many
years to establish, he was so glad of the truth that
his personal defeat was nothing to him. He ex-
ulted in his loss, because it was the gain of science.
I have not the magnanimity of Agassiz, I find,
though I have tried to pursue my inquiries in the
same spirit of scientific devotion. Perhaps I had a
great deal more at stake : there is a difference be-
tween seeking to ascertain some fact of natural sci-
ence and endeavoring to place beyond question the
truth of a future existence."

He plainly expected some sort of acquiescence,
and Ford cleared his throat to assent to the prepos-
terous vanity of his speech : " Certainly."

" You will bear me witness," said Boj-nton,
" that I have readily, even cheerfully, relinquished

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 359

positions wliich I bad carefully taken and painfully
built upon, so long as their loss did not lead to
doubt of this great truth, — did not weaken the cit-
adel, so to speak."

" Yes," said Ford, with blank expectancy.

" You know I have rested my hopes upon a
power, which I believed my daughter to possess, of
communicating with the world of spirits ? "

" Yes."

" You remember that I abandoned without a
murmur the hypothesis of your adverse control
when that was no longer tenable ? "

He was so anxious for Ford's explicit assent that
the young man again answered, " Yes."

" And when I was forced to accept the conclu-
sion that her power was limited by a certain nerv-
ous condition, and had forever passed away with
her restoration to complete health, did you find
any childish disposition in me to shrink from the
truth?"

" No," said Ford, " I did not."

" I thank you I " cried Boynton. " These succes-
sive strokes, hard as they were to bear, had nothing
mortal to my hopes in them. Now, I have had my
death-blow." Ford began a kindly dissent; but
Boynton waved him to silence. " Unless your
trained eye can see some way out of the conclusions
to which I am now brought, I must give up the
whole hypothesis of communion with disembodied
life, and with that hypothesis my belief in that life
itself. In other words, I have received my death-
blow."

360 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

No doubt Boynton^still enjoyed his own rhetoric,
and had a measurable consolation in his powers of
gi'iiphic statement; but there was a real passion in
his words, and the young man was moved by the
presence of a veritable despair. " What facts, or
reasons, have brought you to your conclusions ? "
he asked.

Boynton pushed his hand up under his pillow,
and drew out an old copy of a magazine. " Here
is what might have saved me years of research and
of hopes as futile as those of the seekers for the
philosopher's stone, if I had seen it in time."
Though he laid the book on the coverlet, he kept
his hand on it, and had evidently no intention that
Ford should look at it for himself. "There is a
paper in this magazine giving an account of a girl,
in this very region, possessing powers so identical
in all essentials with those of my daughter that
there can be no doubt of their common origin.
Wherever this unhappy creature appeared the
most extraordinary phenomena attended her : raps
were evoked ; tables were moved ; bells were rung ;
flashes of light were seen ; and violent explosions
were heard. The writer was not blinded by the
fool's faith that lured me on. He sought a natural
cause for these unnatural effects, and he found that
by insulating the posts of the girl's bedstead — for
these things mostly occurred during her sleep — he
controlled them perfectly. She was simply sur-
charged with electricity. After a while she fell
into a long sickness, from which she imperfectly re-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 361

covered, and she died in a mad-house." Boynton
removed his hand from the magazine, as if to let
Ford now see for himself, and impressively waited
his movement.

" Excuse me," said the young man, who found
the parallel extremely distasteful, " but I don't
see the identity of the cases. Miss Boynton seems
the perfection of health, and " —

" Yes," interrupted Boynton, " there is that
merciful difference. But I cannot base my self-
forgiveness upon that. So far as my recklessness
is concerned, her health and her sanity might
have been sacrificed where her childhood has been
wasted and her happiness destroyed. Poor girl !
Poor girl ! "

" I think you exaggerate," Ford began, but
Boynton interrupted him : —

" Oh, you don't know, you don't know ! I
could n't exaggerate the sum of her sufferings at
my hands. To be wrenched from a home in which
she was simply happy, and from love that was im-
measurably wiser and more unselfish than mine ; to
be thrust on to the public exhibition of abnormal
conditions that puzzled and terrified her ; to be
made the partner of my defeat and shame ; to be
forced to share my aimless vagabondage and abject
poverty, houseless, friendless, exposed to suspicion
and insult and danger, — that is the fate to which
I brought her ; and for what ? For a delusion that
ends in chaos 1 Oh, my God ! And here I lie at
last, a sick beggar, sheltered by the charity of these

362 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

Shakers, whose kindness I have insulted, and a sor-
row and shame to the child whose young life I have
blighted, — here I lie, stripped to the last shred of
hope in anything, here or hereafter. Oh, 3'oung
man ! I once thought that you were hard upon me,
and I resented the blame you spoke as outrage ; but
now I confess it merciful justice. You have your
triumph ! "

" Don't say that ! " cried Ford. " I never was
more ashamed of what I said to you there in Boston
than I am at this moment, and I never felt the need
of your kindness so much. I believe that if Miss
Bojniton were here, and understood it all, she would
feel nothing but pity " —

" Oh, does that make it different ? Does that
right the wrong which has been done? "

" Yes," cried the young man, with a fervor that
came he knew not how or whence, " forgiveness
does somehow right a wrong ! It must be so, or
else this world is not a world of possibilities and re-
coveries, but a hopeless hell. Why, look ! " He
spoke as if Egeria were before them. " Have you
ever seen her stronger, younger, more " — The
image he had conjured up seemed to shine upon him
with a smile that reflected itself upon his lips, and
a thrill of tenderness passed through him. " No
one could do her harm that her own goodness
could n't repair."

Boynton was not one to refuse the comfort of
such rapture. " Yes, you are right. She is un-
harmed by all that she has suffered. I have at

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 363

least that comfort." Then he underwent a quick
relapse. " But whether I have harmed her or not,
the fact remains that she had never any supernat-
ural power, and I return through all my years of
experiment and research to the old ground, — the
ground which I once occupied, and which you have
never left, — the ground of materialism. It is
doubtless well to have something under the foot, if
it is only a lump of lifeless adamant."

" I find it hard not to imagine something better
than this life when I think of Miss Boynton ! " ex-
claimed Ford impetuously.

" Very true," said the doctor, accepting the tribute
without perceiving the passion in it ; " there has al-
ways been that suggestion of diviner goodness in her
loving, self-devoted nature. But she had no more
supernatui'al power than you or I, and the whole
system of belief which I had built upon the hypoth-
esis of its existence in her lies a heap of rubbish.
And here at death's door I am without a sense of
anything but darkness and the void beyond." A si-
lence ensued, which Boynton broke with a startling
appeal : " In the name of God, — in the name of
whatever is better and greater than ourselves, —
give me some hope ! Speak ! Say something from
your vantage-ground of health and strength ! Let
me have some hope. I am not a coward. I am
not afraid of torment. I should not be afraid of
it if I had ever willed wrong to any living creat-
ure, and I know that I have not. But this dark-
ness rushing back upon me, after years of faith

364 THE UNDISCOVEEED COUNTRY.

and surety — it 's unendurable I Give me some hope !
A word comes from you at times that does not
seem of your own authority : speak ! Say it ! "

" You have the hope that the world has had for
eighteen hundred years," answered Ford, deeply
moved.

" Was that first in j^our thoughts ? " Boynton
swiftly rejoined. " Was it all you could think of ? "

" It was first in my thoughts, it was all I could
think of," repeated Ford.

" But you have rejected that hope."

" It left me. It seemed to have left me. I don't
realize it now as a faith, but I realize that it was
always present somewhere in me. It may be dif-
ferent with those who come after us, to whom it
will never have been imparted ; but we who were
born in it, — how can we help it, how can we es-
cape it?"

" Is that really true ? " mused Boynton aloud.
" Do we come back only to that at last ? Have you
ever spoken with a clergyman about it ? "

" Oh, no ! " cried Ford.

" I should like to talk with a clergyman — I
should like to talk with the church about it ! There
must be something in organization — But it is of
no use, now ! Theories, theories, theories ! A thou-
sand formulas repeat themselves to me ; the air is
full of them ; I can read and hear them." He put
his hands under his head and clasped them there.
" And there is absolutely nothing else but that ?
Nothing in science ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 365

" No."

" Nothing of hope in the new metaphysics ? "

" No, nothing."

" Nothing in the philosophy that applies the
theories of science to the moral world ? "

" Nothing but death."

" Then that is the only hope, —that old story of
a credulous and fabulous time, resting upon hearsay
and the witness of the ignorant, the pedantic wis-
dom of the learned, the interest of a church lustful
of power ; and that allegory of the highest serving
the lowest, the best suffering for the worst, — that
is still the world's only hope I " He paused; and
then he recurred to the thought which he had
dropped: "A clergyman, — a priest! — I should
like to know the feelings of such a man. He fulfills
an office with which his order has been clothed for
two thousand years; he bears the tradition of au-
thority which is as old as the human race ; he
claims to derive from Christ himself the touch of
blessing and of healing for the broken spirit. I
have of t^n thought of that, — what a sacred and
awful commission it must be, if we admit its divine
origin ! Yes, I should like to know the feelings of
such a man. I wonder if he feels his authority per-
petually reconsecrated by the anguish, the fears,
the prayers, the trembling hopes, of all those who
have lain upon beds of death, or wept over them !
Poor human soul, it should make him superhuman !
What a vast cumulative power of consolation must
come to a priest in our time ! He is the church in-

366 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

carnate, the vicar of Christ, the helpful brother
of the helpless human race, — it 's a tremendous
thought. I should like to talk with such a man."

" Would you really like to see a minister ? "
asked Ford. " Because " —

" No, — no," said BojTiton. " At least, not now,
not yet ; not till I have clearly formulated my ideas.
But there are certainly some points that I should
like to discuss — Oh, words, words ! Phrases,
phrases, — this glibness tires me to death ! I can't
get any foot-hold on it — I slip on it as if it were
ice." He lay in a silence which Ford did not in-
terrupt, and which he broke himself at last in a
mood of something like philosophical cheerfulness :
" I can find reason, if not consolation, for my fail-
ure, — reason in the physical world. I shall take
the first opportunity of committing my ideas to
paper. Has it never struck you as very extraordi-
nary that all the vast mass of evidence which has
been accumulating in favor of spiritualism for the
last twenty years, until now it is literally immense,
should have no convincing power whatever with
those who have not been convinced by their own
senses ? Why should I, as soon as personal proof
failed me, instantly lapse from faith in it ? "

" I am afraid," Ford said, " that I have not
thought sufficiently about the matter."

" I believe I can explain why," Bojmton contin-
ued. " It is because it is not spiritualism at all,
but materialism, — a grosser materialism than that
which denies ; a materialism that asserts and af-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 367

firms, and appeals for proof to purely physical
phenomena. All other systems of belief, all other
revelations of the unseen world, have supplied a
rule of life, have been given for our use here. But
this offers nothing but the barren fact that we live
again. If it has had any effect upon morals, it has
been to corrupt them. I cannot see how it is bet-
ter in its effect upon this woi'ld than sheer atheism.
It is as thoroughly godless as atlieism itself, and no
man can accept it upon any other man's word, be-
cause it has not yet shown its truth in the amelio-
rated life of men. It leaves them where it found
them, or else a little worse for the conceit with which
it fills them. Yes, yes ; I see now. I see it all."

The vigor of his speculative power buoyed him
triumphantly above the abyss into which other men
would have sunk. Ford listened with the fascina-
tion which the peculiar workings of Boynton's mind
had always had for him, and lie felt his heart warm
towards him with sympathy that was at once re-
spectful and amused, as he thus constructed a new
theory out of the ruin of all his old theories.

" All the research in that direction," Boynton
presently continued, " has been upon a false basis,
and if anything has been granted it has been in
mockery of an unworthy hope. I wonder that I
was never struck before by that element of derision
in it. The Calvinist gets Calvinism, the Unitarian
Unitarianism ; each carries away from communion
with spirits the things that he brought. If men
live again, it has been found that they live only in

368 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

a frivolous tradition of their life in this world. Poor
creatures ! they seem lamed of half themselves, —
the better half that aspires and advances ; they
hover in a dull stagnation, just above this ball of
mire ; they have nothing to tell us ; they bring us
no comfort and no wisdom. Annihilation is better
than such an immortality ! "

Ford saw that Boynton did not expect any com-
ment from him, and he did not interrupt his mono-
logue. " What I ought to have asked was not
whether there was a life hereafter, but whether
there was a life hereafter worth living. I stopped
short of the vital question. 1 fancied that it was
essential to men to know surely that they should
live again ; but now I recognize that it is not es-
sential in itself." He lay musing a while, and then
resumed, " I had got them to bring me a Bible be-
fore you came in. I wanted to consult it upon a
point raised by Elihu, yesterday. There are a
great many new ideas in the Bible," he added,
simply ; " a great many new ideas in Job, and Da-
vid, and Ecclesiastes, and Paul, — a great many in
Paul. Would you mind handing it to me from the
table ? Oh, thanks ! " he said, as he took the vol-
ume which Ford rose to give him. " This old record,
which keeps the veil drawn so close, and lets the
light I wanted glimmer out so sparely in a few
promises and warnings, against the agonized pas-
sion of the Cross, or flings the curtain wide lapon
the sublime darkness of the Apocalypse, is very
clear upon this point. It tells us that we shall live

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 869

hereafter in the blessing of our good will and the
curse of our evil will ; the question whether we
shall live at all is left in abeyance, as if it were too
trivial for affirmation. What a force it has, as it
all comes back ! I seem to have thonacht of it for
the first time. And what a proof of its truth there
is in our experience here ! We shall reap as we
have sown, and so much is sown which we cannot
reap here — And if I should be doomed to spend
eternity in asking whether I be really alive ! No,
no; God doesn't make a jest of us." He turned
to Ford. " I am curious," he said, " to know how
this strikes you, as you sit here in the full possession
of your powers. I know very well, and you know,
how men in their extremity are apt to turn back to
the faith taught them at their mother's knees ; and
pei-haps the common experience is repeating itself
in my case. But you are in no such extremity.
Does there seem to be any truth here ? " He laid
his hand on the book, and looked intently at Ford.

" It seems to be all the truth of the sort that
there is."

" What do you mean by that ? " asked Boynton.

"I express myself badly. But it's hard to ex-
press yourself well on this matter. I mean to say
that whatever truth there was in that record has not
been surpassed or superseded."

" And is that all you have to say ? "

" That 's all I could say till I had looked into
the question. It seems to me that it is all any one

could say."

24

370 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" No doubt," said Boynton, with disappointment,
" from your stand-point, — from the scientific stand-
point. You say that there is nothing else, but you
imply that this is not much."

" No," said Ford, " I think it 's a great deal. I
think it ought to be enough, if one cares " —

" That 's the scientific attitude ! " cried Boynton ;
" that 's the curse of the scientific attitude ! You
do not deny, but you ask, ' What difference ?' "

" At least," said Ford, with a smile, " you can let
even such a poor representative of the scientific side
as 1 am be glad that you see the fallacy of spiritual-
ism."

" Oh, I don't pronounce it a fallacy," returned
Boynton. " I only say that it has proved fallacious
in my hands, and that as long as it is used merely
to establish the fact of a future life it will remain
sterile. It will continue to be doubted, like a con-
jurer's trick, by all who have not seen it ; and those
who see it will afterwards come to discredit their
own senses. The world has been mocked with
something of the kind from the beginning ; it 's no
new thing. Perhaps the hope of absolute assurance
is given us only to be broken for our rebuke. Life
is not so long at the longest that we need be impa-
tient. If we wake, we shall know ; if we do not
wake, we shall not even know that we have not
awakened." He added, " It is very curious, very
strange, indeed, but the only thing that I have got
by all this research is the one great thing which it
never included, — which all research of the kind
ignores."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 371

Ford perceived that he wished him to ask what
this was, and he said, " What is that ? "

"God," replied Boynton. "It may be through
an instinctive piety that we forbear to inquire con-
cerning him of those earth-bound spirits. What
could the}^ know of him ? Many pure and simple
souls in this world must be infinitely nearer him.
But out of all that chaos I have reached him. No,
I am not where I started : I have come in sight of
him. I was anxious to know whether we should
live hereafter ; but whether we live or not, now I
know that he lives, and he will take care. We
need not be troubled. As for the dead, perhaps
we shall go to them, but surely they shall not re-
turn to us. That seems true, does n't it ? "

" It 's all the truth there is," said Ford.

Boynton smiled. " You are an honest man.
You won't say more than you think. I like you
for that. I have a great wish to ask your forgive-
ness."

" My forgiveness ? I have nothing to forgive ! "

" Oh, yes. I involved you in the destiny of a
mistaken and willful man ; I afflicted you with the
superstitious manias of a lunatic who fancied that
he was seeking the truth when he w^as only seek-
ing himself. I have burdened you with a sense of
my wish that you should stay here, because I still
hoped to work out something to my own glor}^ and
advantage " —

" I never knew it ; I can't think it," interrupted
Ford. "It was my privilege to stay. These have

372 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

been the best days of my life, — the happiest."
He stopped ; he believed that Boynton must know
the meaning that rushed from his heart into the
words ; but the old man evidently found only a
conventional kindliness in them.

" Thank you," he said. " It is very strange to
find 3'ou my friend after all, and to meet you on
common ground, — I who have wandered so far
round, and you who have continued forward with
none of my aims. It would be interesting if a
third could stand with us. I should like to see how
far a minister of the gospel could come towards
us. I should like to talk with a minister : not
a theologian, but an ecclesiastic, — some one who
embodied and represented the idea of a church."

" Do you mean a Catholic priest ? " asked Ford.

"No, not that, — not just that; but still some
one in whom the priestly character prevailed."

" I will be glad to gratify any wish you have in
the matter, Dr. Boynton," said Ford. " I imagine
it would be easy to get a clergyman to visit you
from the village, and I '11 go to any one you want
to see."

" Well, not now, — not now. Not to-day. Per-
haps to-morrow. I should like to think it over
first. I may have some new light by that time.
I should like to look up some other points, here.
There is a text somewhere in Paul — it is a long
time since I read it — Wait ! ' We are saved by
hope. But hope that is seen ' — that is seen — ' is
not hope; for what a man seeth' — Very signifi-
cant, very significant ! " he added, more to himself

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 373

than to Ford. " Saved! Really, there seems to have
been no question with them about tlie mere exist-
ence ! " He lay quiet for a long time, with his
hands folded behind his head, and a dreamy light
was in his eyes. Ford heard the ticking of an insect
in the wainscot. " Who is it," Boynton asked sud-
denly, " that speaks of the undiscovered country ? "

" Hamlet," replied Ford.

" It might have been Job, — it might have been
Ecclesiastes, — or David. ' The undiscovered coun-
try from whose bourn no traveler returns.' Is that
it?"

" Yes. They commonly misquote it," added
Ford mechanically.

" I know ; they leave out bourn. They say, the
undiscovered country whence no traveler returns.
But it 's the same thing. Yes ; and Hamlet says
no traveler returns, when he believes that he has
just seen his father's spirit ! The ghost that comes
back to prove itself can't hold him to a belief in its
presence after the heated moment of vision is past !
We vmst doubt it ; we are better with no proof.
Yes ; yes ! The undiscovered country — thank God,
it can be what those babblers say ! TJie undiscov-
ered country — what a weight of doom is in the
words — and hope ! "

One of the sisters came in, and he seemed to for-
get Ford, who presently went away with an absent-
minded salutation from hira. Boynton had taken
up the book, and while the sister propped his head
with the pillows, he fluttered the leaves with impa-
tient hands.

XXV.

At the gate Ford turned towards Elihu's shop,
intending to explain why he had not been able to
speak of Egeria to her father. In his liberation
from Boynton's appeals for sympathy, his thoughts
thronged back to her; he framed a thousand
happy phrases, in which he opened his heart, and
she always answered as he wished. His face
burned with the joyful shame of these thoughts,
and he did not hear his name the first time it was
called from a buggy standing at the office gate.
The gay voices had hailed him a third time when
he looked round, and slowly recognized Phillips
and Mrs. Perham making frantic signs to him
from the vehicle. They laughed at his stupefac-
tion, and his sense of their intrusion mounted as he
dragged himself across the street. Mrs. Perham
leant out of the buggy and gave him her hand.

" Well, Mr. Ford ! Is this the way you receive
your friends ? We have been chasing all over this
outlandish place for jou ; we have spent an hour
with the sisters here, and have questioned them
down to the quick, so that we know all about you ;
and we were just going to drive away in despair
without seeing you."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 875

" I 'm very unfortunate," said Ford.

" To be caught at the last moment? Hovr good
you always are ! You don't know how I 've pined
for your little speeches ; they 're tonic. Yes, Mr..
Ford ! " she cried, with a daring laugh, " Mr. Per-
hani is veri/ well, for him, — I knew you were
going to ask ! — or I should n't be philandering
about the countiy in this way." Ford glanced at
Phillips, who trifled with the reins and looked
sheepish.

" You should have gone over to Egerton before
this, my dear fellow," he said. " There have been
some charming people over there."

" Have been ! His modesty," cried Mrs. Perham,
" and my humility ! We are at Egerton yet, Mr,
Ford!"

" Oh, certainly. But Foi'd has us in Boston."

" Ah, very true," said Mrs. Perham. " There
was quite a little buzz of excitement for a while,
when Mr. Phillips first explained the romantic cir-
cumstances. The young ladies drove over the next
Sunday to Shaker meeting, on purpose to interview
you, but they had n't the courage. It was one of
Mr. Perham's bad days, or I should have come,
too ; and we should have sent Mr. Phillips over
long ago, if there had been any Mr. Phillips to
send. But he 's only just got back to Egerton."

" Yes, my dear fellow, I carried out our little
programme to the letter, — I wish I could say to
the spirit ; but your defection prevented. I found
Butler at Egerton, and he jumjjed at the chance of

376 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

driving on with me, in a manner that made your
flattering consent seem nothing. We drove to
Greenfield, and then followed up the valley of the
Connecticut. It was indescribable, my dear friend.
You have lost no end of material. I must really
try to reproduce it for you some time. I thought
of you often. I was always saying, ' Now, if Ford
were here ! ' Two or three times I was actually on
the point of writing to you. But you know how
that is ; you never wrote to me. I 'm ver}^ glad to
hear from our sisters, here, that the old gentleman
is better. Is he still in his craze ? " Phillips spoke
with anxious rapidity, and with a certain propitia-
tion of manner ; bat Ford did not relax the dis-
pleasure of the looks with which he had heard of
his explanation of the romantic circumstances.

" You ought to get something out of him ; you
ought to write him up ; he 'd make a capital paper,"
said Mrs. Perham. " I shall be on the lookout for
him in your articles. And your Shaker experi-
ences ! The young ladies were sure you had turned
Shaker, Mr. Ford, and they picked you out in the
dance. We had such fun over it ! " She continued,
pulling down the corners of her mouth, " Oh, but
we were all very respectful^ Mr. Ford. We admired
your self-devotion in staying here ; especially, as
you could n't esteem them."

" I don't know what you mean," began Ford,
with a sternness that would have silenced a less
frivolous spirit.

" Why, have n't you heard ? " cried Mrs. Perham,

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 377

leaning forward, and dropping her tone confiden-
tially, while Phillips made some inarticulate at-
tempts to hinder her speaking. " The poor old
gentleman was quite tipsy that morning when they
stopped up there at that country hotel, and they
had to be turned out-of-doors. Is it possible you
have n't heard that ? "

" Yes, I 've heard that," said Ford.

"I always said," continued Mrs. Perham, "it
was cruel to the girl; for she was n't responsible for
her father's habits, poor thing. Then of course you
don't believe it ? "

" No ! "

" And you believe that all those manifestations
took place there?"

" No ! "

" An armed neutrality ! Well, it 's the only ten-
able position, and I shall take it myself in regard
to the otlier affair. I never thought how conven-
ient it must be."

Phillips found his voice : " Mrs. Perham, it 's de-
lightful chatting here ; but I have to remind you
that we shall be late for dinner if we stay any
longer."

" Oh, that 's true," admitted Mrs. Perham.
" Good-by, Mr. Ford. Do come over and see us, if
you can tear yourself away from your protdges for
a few hours. It 's very strange, his lingering along
so ! Good-by ! "

" Good-by, my dear friend ! " said Phillips, try-
ing to throw some exculpation into his aflflicted face.

378 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I am going back to Boston at the end of the week.
Can I do anything for you there ? " He did not
wait for an answer, but lifted the reins and chir-
ruped to his horse.

Ford caught tlie wheel in his hand, and stopped
it. " Hold on ! " he said, quite white in the face.
" What other affair, j\Irs. Perham ? "

" Other affair ? " she repeated. " Oh ! about the
water-proof, you know."

" No, I dan't know about the water-proof. What
do you mean ? "

" Is it possible the Shakers have n't told you ?
Perhaps they didn't think it worth mentioning.
You know your friends — I forget the name ;
Boyntons ? — had passed the night before they
reached the Elm Tavern in a school-house up here ;
and the teacher found them there in the morning,
and lent the young lady her water-proof. They were
to send it back from Vardley Station ; but as they
never went to Vardley Station they naturally never
sent it back."

" I don't believe it ! " cried Ford.

"Mr. Phillips always told me you were a terrible
skeptic ! " said Mrs. Perham. " I merelj'- had the
story from the mother of the school-teacher, her-
self ! We happened to stop at .her house to ask
the way, and when we inquired if the Bojaitons
were still here she came out with this story. She 's
a very voluble old lady. I dare say she tells it to
every one. What is your theory about it? "

Ford released the wheel which he had been grip-

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 379

ping, and, giving it a contemptuous push, turned
away without a word.

Mrs. Perham craned her head round to look back
after him. " What a natural man ! " she said, with
sincere admiration. " He 's perfectly fascinating."
She burst into a laugh. " Poor Mr. Phillips ! He
looked as if he wished you had been my authority."

Phillips shrugged his shoulders, and said dryly,
" I hope you are satisfied, Mrs. Perham."

" Why, no, I am not," she candidly owned, with
a touch of real regret in her voice. " I only meant
to tease him ; but if he 's in love with her, I sup-
pose he '11 take it to heart."

" In love with whom ? " asked Phillips.

" Sister Diantha."

Phillips stared at her.

"Well, with this medium, then, — this Medea,
Ashtaroth, Egeria, — / don't know what her name
is." As Phillips continued to stare at her, Mrs.
Perham gave a shriller laugh. " Really, you are
a man, too. I shall never dare take on such easy
terms with you again, Mr. Phillips, — never ! I
don't wonder men can't understand women : they
don't understand their own simple sex. Of course
he 's in love with her, and must have been from
the first."

i' Well, then, allow me to say, INIrs. Perliam, that
if you think he 's in love with Miss Boynton I don't
quite see what your object was. I felt that it was
an intrusion to come over here, at the best."

" Oh, thanks, Mr. Phillips ! "

380 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" And it appears to me that it was extraneous to
repeat those stories to him."

" Extraneous is good ! And you have an ally in
my own conscience, Mr. Phillips. I wanted to
see a natural man under the influence of a strong
emotion, and I don't like it, I think. I did n't sup-
pose he was so serious about her. But I don't be-
lieve any harm 's done. He won't give her up on
account of what I 've said ; and if he does perhaps
she ought to be given up." Phillips dealt the horse
a cut of the whip, and left the talk to Mrs. Perham,
as they drove away.

In the dull first half -hour after dinner, while she
sat absently feeling on the porcelain-toned piano in
the hotel parlor for the music of the past, two ladies
who wished to see her were announced. One of
these visitors proved to be a Shaker sister, whom
Mrs. Perham recognized, and who introduced her
companion, a short, squarely built young woman, as
Miss Thorn.

They took seats, though Mrs. Perham had risen
and remained standing, and Miss Thorn said with-
out preamble, " I teach in the school-house in Vard-
ley, where Dr. Boynton stopped this spring. I
heard from my mother this noon that a lady and
gentleman had been asking the way to the Shaker
Village, who seemed to know Dr. Boynton."

"No, I don't know him," said Mrs. Perham.

Phillips came forward, from a corner of the par-
lor. " I know Dr. Boynton ; at least I saw him
and Miss Boynton in Boston once."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 381

" I thought," said Miss Thorn, " that I ought to
come and tell you that my mother did n't under-
stand about that — that water-proof."

" Oh, yes," said Mrs. Perham ; "we thought it
so curious."

" I was sure," said Phillips, with an attempted
severity, " that there was some mistake." The se-
verity had no apparent effect upon Mrs. Perham,
but Miss Thorn, who had been talking in some sort
to both, now addressed herself wholly to him : —

" I was away from home when you stopped to-
day. I thought you would like to know there was
a misunderstanding. The water-proof was as much
a gift as anything ; though that would n't have ex-
cused them if they had thought I wanted it again.
But anybody could see that Miss Boynton was
stupid then with the fever, and did n't half know
where she was or what she was doing. She had
been walking late the night before through the
snow, and they had slept on the benches before the
stove." Phillips bowed, and looked at Miss Thorn,
who resumed with increasing stiffness : "I never
wondered at his not remembering it ; he seemed too
flighty for anything. I knew they were here all
summer at the Shakers'. I don't," said Miss Thorn,
" pass any judgment on my mother for the way she
looked at it ; but I 'd have given anything if she
hadn't spoken." The tears started to her eyes,
and she bit her lip as she rose.

" It did n't make any difference to us," said Di-
antha, who had hitherto sat a silent and inscrutable

382 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

glimmer of spectacles in the depths of her Shaker
bonnet. " It got hung up among our things while
she was sick, and when she got well she could n't
seem to remember about it. She thought she must
have brought it from the cars with her for her
own."

Miss Thorn waited, and then resumed stiffly, "I
never suspected or blamed them the least bit. As
soon as I could, I went over to the Shakers' to see
about it, and told them the way I felt, and that
I wanted to come to you. Diantha felt as if she
would like to come with me, and I brought her.
That's all." Miss Thorn rose with a personal prim-
ness that by contrast almost softened the Shaker
primness of Diantha into ceremony.

Phillips experienced the rush of an emotion which,
upon subsequent analysis, he knew to be of unques-
tionable genuineness. " My dear young ladj^" he
said, "I ask you to do me the justice to believe
that I never had an injui'ious suspicion of Miss
Boyntdn. Her father had attempted a line of life
that naturally subjected himself and her to ques-
tion, but I never doubted them. I have a positive
pleasure in disbelieving anything to their disadvan-
tage in connection with — with — your generous
behavior to them. Did — did Mr. Ford speak of
the matter to you ? Did he wish any expression
from me in their behalf ? Because " —

" He no need to ask anything as far as ive 're
concerned," interposed Diantha.

" No," said Phillips. " I can only repeat that J

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 383

was sure there was a misunderstanding, and that
you 've done us a favor in coming. Is there any-
way in which I could be of use to Dr. Boynton ?
I should be most happy if I thought there was."

Miss Thorn left the reply to Diantha, who said
as they went out, " There ain't anything as I know
of."

" Really," commented Mrs. Perham, "this is ed-
ifying. I have n't felt so put down for a long while.
I don't see what more we could do, unless we joined
with Miss Thorn and Sister Diantha in presenting
Miss Boynton with a piece of plate, as a slight
token of gratitude for her noble example in borrow-
ing a water-proof and keeping it. She has classed
the water-proof with the umbrella, as a thing not
to be returned. Is that the principle? Well, if
Mr. Ford is going to many her " —

" Going to marry her ! " cried Phillips.

"Why, of course. Did you think anything else ?
Is marriage such an nnnatural thing ? "

" No. But Ford's marrying is."

" That remains to be seen. If he 's going to
marry her, he can't believe in her too thoroughly.
I 've an idea that the Pythoness is insipid ; but if
Mr. Ford likes insipidity, I want him to have it. I
think we ought to drive over to the Shakers', and
assure him in person that we did n't believe any-
thing, and we did n't mean anything. You shall
do all the talking, this time ; you talk so well."

" Thanks," said Phillips, " I suspect I 've done
my last talking to Ford."

384 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" And you won't go ? " demanded Mrs. Perham,
with a laugh. " Then I must go alone, some day.
Meantime, I know how to keep a secret. I hope
Miss Thorn may be able to teach her mother."

XXVI.

Ford stood still, looking at the ground, while
Phillips and Mrs. Perham drove away. His im-
pulse to pluck Phillips from his place, and make
him pay in person for that woman's malice, was
still so vividly present in his nerves that he seemed
to have done it ; but when the misery of Phillips's
face, intensifying as Mrs. Perham went on from
bad to worse, recurred to him, he broke into a
laugh.

Sister Frances came out of the ojSice. " Friend
Edward," she said, " was that wicked woman speak-
in' to you about Egery ? "

" Yes."

" Don't you believe her ! Don't you believe a
word she said!" cried the Shakeress, with hot looks
of indignation. " I know just how it all hap-
pened " —

" I don't wish to know. T should feel disgraced
if I let you tell me. Whatever happened, this
woman lied. Where is Egeria ? "

" Oh ! " cried Frances. " She has gone to Har-
shire with Rebecca. She won't be back till morn-
in'." She bent on the young man a look of wistful
sympathy.

25

386 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Well ! " he cried, throwing up his hands des-
perately, as if the morrow were a time so remote
that it never would come, " I must wait."

" She 'd been plannin' to go a long while,"
Frances apologized, " and. her father seemed so well
this mornin' she thought she might " —

" Oh, yes, yes ! " ansAvered Ford dejectedly. He
knew that lie somehow had driven her away by his
behavior of the day before, and that he had him-
self to blame for this delay in which he stifled. He
turned about, with some wild purpose of following
her to Harshire, and speaking to her there, when
he heard Frances calling him again : —

" Friend Edward, I don't know as you know that
Egery 's expectin' friends to-morrow."

" Friends ? No, what friends? " asked Ford. " Has
she gone to meet them at Harshire ? " he added
stupidly.

" Well, no ; she only got the letter yesterday. I
suppose her father did n't think to tell you of it.
I don't know as you ever heard her speak of the
young man that come with 'em as far as the Junc-
tion that day they missed their train. He was with
'em a while in Boston, and he come from the same
place they did, Down East. He 's been twice to
find 'em there in Maine, this summer ; but he could
n't hear any word of 'em till just now. They was
children together, Egery and. Friend — Well, I
never could remember names."

" Oh, never mind ! " exclaimed Ford, with a
deathly pallor. " I know the name, — I know the

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 387

man ! " And now lie turned again, and huri-ied
bej'ond a second recall from the trouble in which
Frances saw him groping down the road, like one
in the dark. When he had got out of her sight, he
walked a little into the wayside woods, and stum-
bling to the ground gave himself to the despair which
had blackened round him. His first feeling was a
generous regret that now he could not let his love
speak the contempt in which he held the wrong he
had heard done her ; this feeling came even before
the sense of hopeless loss to which he abandoned
himself with a lover's rashness. He meekly owned
that the man whom he marveled now that he could
ever have forgotten as a rival was one of those in
whom women confided, and were not disappointed,
— who made constant friends and good husbands ;
and questioning himself he could not be sure that
her happiness would be as safe in his own keeping.
He remembered with abject humiliation the last
time he had met this man, and the savagery with
which he had wreaked upon him the jealousy which
he would not then admit to himself, and in which
he had refused to consider even her at his prayer.
The turmoil went on for hours, but always to this
effect. The most that he could hope, when he crept
homeward at dusk, sore as if bruised in body by the
conflict in his mind, was that he might steal away
before he saw them together. With this intent, to
which he had worked with difficulty in the chaos of
his dreams, he set about putting his books and
other belongings together, but he gave up tremu-

388 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY,

lous and exhausted before the work was half done.
He fell to thinking again, and this time with a
sort of sullen resentment, in which he said to him-
self that his love had its own I'ights, and that he
would not betray them. It had a right to be heard,
at any cost ; and he began to despise his purpose
of hurrying away as mock-heroic. It was like a
character in a lady's novel to leave the field to a
rival whom he did not yet know to be preferred ;
the high humility, in which he had thought to yield
Egeria without her explicit authority to a man
whom he judged his better, sickened him. He saw
that it was for her to choose between them, and it
was the part of a coward and a fool to go before she
had chosen. As matters stood, he had no right to
go ; she had a preeminent right to know from him
that he loved her.

He hungrily dispatched the supper he had left
standing on his table, and then kindled a brush-
wood fire on his hearth ; he sat down before it in
his easy-chair, and stayed by the clearer mind at
which he had arrived he experienced a sensual com-
fort in the blaze. Presently he was aware of drows-
ing ; and then suddenly he awoke. The dawn came
in at the windows ; he perceived that he had passed
the night in his chair. A loud knocking continued
at his dooi', while he gathered his scattered wits to-
gether. At length he cried, " Come in ! " and the
farmer from over the way entered,

" I don't suppose ye know what 's happened ? "
he said.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 389

"No," said Ford, " I don't, if it's anything in
particular."

" No. Well. I thought may be ye 'd like to
know. The old man 's dead. Died sudden this
morn in'."

" What ? Who ? What old man ? "

The farmer nodded his head in the direction of
the village. " Dr. Boynton. I thought ye 'd like
to know it."

" Thank you," said Ford. He rose and stood
at one corner of the hearth ; the farmer, from the
other, stiffly stretched his hard, knotted hand to-
wards the ashes of the dead fire.

Ford went out and walked up through the vil-
lage, whose familiar aspect was all estranged, as if
he himself had died, and were looking upon it from
another world. At the office he found a group of
Shakers listening to Boynton's physician, who, on
his appearance, addressed more directly to him what
he was saying of the painless death Boynton must
have died in his sleep. " The first part of the night
he was very restless, and several times he said that
he would like to see you and talk with you ; but
he would not let them send ; said he had n't for-
mulated his ideas yet." The doctor involuntarily
smiled in recalling a turn of the phraseology so
newly silent forever. " I wonder if he has formu-
lated them now to his satisfaction." Ford made no
response, and the doctor asked, " Did he speak to
you yesterday of the case of an electrical girl ? "

" Yes."

390 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" I inferred as mach from something he said,
when I saw him in the afternoon. I had lent him
the magazine containing the account. He found
an analogy between that case and Miss Boynton's
that I had not anticipated. It seems to have put a
quietus to his belief in her supernatural gifts."

" Yes," Ford assented, as before.

" He told me that it had depressed him to the
lowest point. But when I saw him he had quite
recovered his spirits." He added thoughtfully,
" You can't say that a man dies because he wishes
to die ; though it sometimes seems as if people
could live if they would. When I parted with
Dr. Boynton he had what I might call an enthu-
siasm for death. It might be described in other
words as a desire, amounting almost to frenz}^, to
know whether we live again, and a willingness to
gratify that desire at the cost of not living at all."

" He dwelt habitually on that question," said
Ford, with difficulty. " But when I talked with
him yesterday, he seemed at rest on the main
point."

" Yes, I don't know but he was. Perhaps I had
better say that he was impatient to verify it. He
talked of nothing else during the evening, Sister
Frances tells me ; though he fell off quietly to
sleep at last."

" Well," said Ford drearily, " he has verified it
now."

"Yes, and in the old way, — the way appointed
for all living. He knows now. Did it ever occur

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 391

to you, sir," added the doctor, philosophically,
" what ignorance all our wisdom is compared with
the knowledge of a child that has just died ? "

" If it knows anything at all."

" Oh, certainly, — if it does know."

" We are swre it knows," said Elihu.

They walked out together, and before the doctor
mounted his buggy to drive away they stood a mo-
ment looking at the closed windows of the infirm-
ary. " It 's useless, now, to talk of causes," said
the doctor. " The heart had been affected a long
time" —

" He is dead, all the same," said Ford.

" Oil, yes, he is dead,'^ assented the doctor.
" What I meant to say was tiiat while no human
foresight could have prevented the result I confess
its suddenness surprised me. One moment he was
with us, and the next " —

" He was n't," interrupted Ford, restively.
" That 's all we can know : and neither he nor all
the myriads that have gone that way can tell us
anything more."

" If we suppose him to be somewhere in a state
of conscious being," observed the doctor, " we can
suppose that reflection to be a trial to him, after a
life so much devoted to the effort of working out
proof of something different."

" He had been a spiritualist ; and not a selfish or
ignoble one," answered Ford, oppressed by the doc-
tor's speculative mood, and letting his impatience
appear. A voice was in his ears, repeating the

392 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

things that Boynton had said. In the pauses of it,
he brooded npon the chances that had thrown upon
him for sympathy and comfort in his hist days the
man for whom he had once felt and sliown such
contempt. The dark irony, the broken meaning,
afflicted him, and he hirked about, stunned and
helpless, waiting till Egeria should come, and
dreading to see the grief in which he had no rights.
He thought of her trouble, not of his own ; it blot-
ted even his jealousy from his mind, and left him
acquiescent in whatever fate befell. The time for
what he had intended to do was swept away : he
could now only wait passively for events to shape
themselves.

Hatch did not come that day, and Ford took such
part as Elihu assigned him in the sad business of
fulfilling Boynton's wishes. These had been casu-
ally expressed from time to time to Frances, and
referred to his removal to his old home, where he
desired to be laid by the side of his wife. When
Hatch arrived, the second morning, he assumed
charge of the affair, as a family friend ; and Ford,
lapsing from all active concern in it, shut himself
in his own room, and waited for he knew not what.
In the evening. Hatch came to see him. They had
already met in the presence of the Shakers, but
doubtless neither felt that they had met till now,
since their parting in Boston. Hatch received awk-
wardly tlie civility which Ford awkwardl}^ showed.
He would not sit down, and he said abruptly tliat
he had come to say that Miss Boynton was going

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 393

back in the morning to her home in Maine, where
the funeral was to be. He added that Frances and
Ehhu were going with her, on the part of the fam-
ily ; and after a hesitation he said, " Wouldn't you
like to attend the funeral, too ? "

" Has she authorized you to invite me ? " asked
Ford.

" Well, no," said Hatch. " I don't suppose she
Avanted to put that much of a burden on you. It 's
a long ways."

Ford reflected a long time. " You are going, I
suppose ? "

"• Why, of course," said Hatch.

Ford pondered again. '^ Under the circum-
stances," he said, " I believe that I ought n't to let
my own preference have any weight. Miss Boyn-
ton is going with friends to her own home, and I
could n't be of any use. I propose to do what I
think would be least afflicting to her b}^ not go-
ing." He hesitated, and presently added, tenta-
tively, " I believe she would prefer it."

" You ought to know best," said Hatch.

" Well, I believe that I am right. Tell her that
I will not try to see her before she goes ; but — but
— some other time." He said this tentatively, also,
and with an odd sort of faltering, as if somehow
Hatch might advise him better. " I thank you for
coming."

" Well, sir," said the young fellow, standing
witli his feet squarely apart in the way that Ford
had hated him for in Mrs. Le Roy's parlor, " you

394 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

must do whiit you think is best. I want to thank
you^ too. Dr. Boynton was a good friend to me,
and from all I hear you were a good friend to him,
— at last. You 've behaved like a man. They all
say here that the doctor could n't have got along
without you."

" They overpraise me," said Ford, helped to a
melancholy irony by Hatch's simple patronage.

" No, sir," replied Hatch, " I don't think so.
And you must have found it pretty tough, feeling
the way you did about hira."

" No," said Ford, " it was not so tough as it
might seem. I liked him. It is n't a logical posi-
tion ; he never squared with my ideas ; but I know
now that he was a singularly upright and truthful
man."

" That 's so, every time," said Hatch.

" I don't care for my consistency in the thing ;
I 'd rather do him justice. I 've come to his own
ground, and yours : I want to say that when I in-
terfered with him there in Boston lie had a noble
motive, and I had an ignoble one."

"If you 're not firing over my head," said Hatch,
" and if I catch your meaning rightly, I 'm bound
to confess that the doctor had got mixed up with a
pretty queer lot in the course of his researches.
But he was all right himself. I pinned my faith to
him, right along. But if you mean that you 're
going in for anything like spiritualism, I advise you
to hush it up among yourself. As far as I 'm con-
cerned, I 've about come to that conclusion. And
I think Miss Egeria 's had enough of it."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 395

His mention of her name in tliis connection was at
first puzzling, and at last so offensive to Ford that
he found it harder than he had thought to say what
he now said. After a dry assent to Hatch's propo-
sition, he added, " I dare say you 're right. Mr.
Hatch, I treated you shabbily when we met last.
I am sorry for that, and ashamed of it. I should
have behaved better, if I had understood better" —

" Oh, I knew how it was, myself," Hatch inter-
rupted. " Or I did when I came to tliink of it."
Ford looked at him as if he did not comprehend his
drift ; and Hatch continued, " It was pretty rough
at the time, but I suppose I should have acted just
so, in your place. Well, sir ! I hope we part better
friends, now," he said, offering his hand. " I think
that 's what the old doctor would have liked. Some
of his ideas were most too large a fit for this world,
but he was pretty practical about others."

Ford took the proffered hand, and followed
Hatch to his door, wholly baffled and unsettled.
He longed to have it all out with him, but this was
not possible, and he submitted as he best could.
He had thought himself right in resolving not to
follow Egeria home, or vex her with his presence
before she went ; but he was not sure of this now ;
and he spent the time intervening before her de-
parture in an anguish of indecision. But he let
her go without seeing her, and in the afternoon he
went away, too.

XXVII.

He did not go back to his old lodging in Boston,
but spent a day at a hotel till he could find other
quarters. It was intolerable to think of meeting
any one he knew, and he had such a horror of Mrs.
Perham's possible return that he asked at the door
whether she had come back before he went in to
make ready for removal.

When the change was effected, all change seemed
forever at an end. The days went by without
event ; he could not write, but he took up again
his study with the practical chemist, and pushed
on with that through an unstoried month which
brought him through the bluster and chill of Sep-
tember to the mellow heart of October.

A chasm divided him from all that he had been,
and he tried to keep from thinking across it. But
his mind was full of broken glimpses of the past ;
of doubts of what he had done ; of vague wonder if
he should ever hear from her again, and how ; of
crazy purposes, broken as fast as formed, of going
where he might look on her, if it might be only
that, and know that she was still in life. There
were terrible moments in which his heart was
wrung with the possibility that his conjecture had

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 397

been all wrong, and that she might be lingering in
cruel amaze that he had never made any sign to
her, and puzzling over the problem which his re-
fusal to see her, or to stand with her at her father's
grave, had left her.

One evening when he came home, he found a
flat, square package, which had arrived through
the mail after going first to his old address. It was
directed in an old-fashioned, round hand, and it
yielded softly to the touch with which he fingered
it before he tore it open. It proved to hold a hand-
kerchief, which he recognized as his own, fragrantly
Avashed and ironed ; and he found a little note
pinned to it, and signed F. Plumb, explaining that
the handkerchief had been found in his room.
While he stood scowling at it, and trying to make
out who F. Plumb was, and where he had left the
handkerchief, he turned the scrap of paper over,
and saw written in pencil on the back, as if tlie
writer had wished to whisper it there, " I do not
know as you heard that Egeria is back with us.
Frances."

Now he knew, now he understood. All the
hoj)es that had seemed dead sprang to life again.

He caught up a paper, and looked at the time-
tables. The last train passing Vardley would leave
in fifteen minutes. He turned the key in his door,
and two hours later he was rounding the dark point
of the wooded hill that intervenes between the
station and the Shaker village, where a light sparely
twinkled in the window of Elihu's shop. He had

398 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

walked, as he supposed, but his pace was more like
a run from the ti-ain; and his heart thundered in
his ears as he sat and panted on Elihu's door-step,
trying to gather courage to go in. At last he went
in without the courage.

Elihu was amazed, certainly, but hardly dis-
quieted. He shut upon his thumb the book that
he was reading, and pushed his spectacles above
his forehead. " Friend Ford ! " he said.

" Yes ! " answered the young man, still striving
for breath, as he pressed the Shaker's hand. " I
have come — I have come " —

" Yee," Elihu assented ; " sit down. We did not
expect you, but the family will be glad to see you.
Have you kept your health ? "

" Is she well ? Is she going to stay with
you ? When did she come back ? " The questions
thronged upon one another faster than he could
utter them, and he stopped perforce again.

" I suppose you mean Egeria. Yee, she is well.
She came back last week. I — I — wrote to you
from her place that she was coming back." Elihu
colored with a guilty conscience.

" I never got your letter. I only heard two
hours ago that she was with you."

" She only stayed to settle up things there. I
don't know as Humphrey ever told you that her
grandfather left his property to her ? "

" I don't know — Yes, yes, — he did."

" There were n't any of her folks left there, and
her father had brought her up in such a way, late

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 399

years, that she was pretty much a stranger outside
of her grandfather's house. When she got back
there, she found that it was more like home to her
here than anywhere else. Friend Hatch stayed a
spell, to help her settle up the property, and then
he had to go West again. As soon as she could
she came to us."

" Elihu," said Ford, who had listened with but
half a sense, " I have come here to speak to her.
Shall I do it ? I want you to advise me. I want
you to tell me " —

" Nay, I must not meddle or make in this busi-
ness," said the Shaker.

" You did meddle and make in it once," retorted
Ford, unresentfuUy but inflexibly, " and I recog-
nized your right to do so, from your point of view ;
I submitted to you. We can't withdraw from each
other's confidence now. I have a claim upon your
advice. Besides, in all worldly knowledge that
comes through acquaintance with women, I am as
much a Shaker as you are. I only know that I
must speak with her. If she cares anything for me,
as you said she did, I must speak. But when ?
Shall I go away again, and come back after a while ?
Since we last talked together have you learned any-
thing that makes you think she would be willing to
spend her life among you ? If you have, I will
leave her alone. She could be at peace here ; and
I, — I have only brought her trouble and sorrow so
far. Even if she cared for me, I would leave her
to you — No, I zvouldnH! I couldn't do that!

400 THE UN0ISCOVERED COUNTRY.

By all that a man can be to a woman, I ought n't
to do it ! But what do you say ? "

Elihu had tilted his chair upon its hind-legs, and
he rocked back and forth without bringing its fore-
legs to the ground. " I have n't seen anything
in her that would make me think she would like
to stay with us. And I liave heard that she intends
to leave us as soon as she can find something to do
in the world outside. Frances wants she should
go to friends of hers in Boston that would help
her find something. The}^ 've been talking about it
this afternoon, and Egeria's mind seems quite made
up about going."

" Well," repeated Ford, " may I speak with
her?"

" I can't answer you. I felt it a cross laid upon
me to interfere against your showing your feeling
for her here ; but to interfere in behalf of it is a
cross which I don't have any call to take up —
twice."

" Can I stay here to-night ? " asked Ford.

" Yee. They can give you a room at the office."

" Do you suppose Mrs. Williams could put me
up some sort of bed in my old place? I would
rather sleep there."

" Oh, yee, I guess so. I will step down with
you and see."

" No, I '11 go alone. If she can't, I '11 come back
to the office. Good-night."

" Good-night," said Elihu, with his flicker of a
smile.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 401

Ford's bed had not been taken down, and while
the farmer's wife made it ready for him witli fresh
sheets, he kindled a roaring fire on his hearth.
He sat a long time before it, turning over and over
in his mind the same doubt which had tormented
him when he last sat there. But he could not be-
lieve that Frances and Elihu would have let him
come back if there had been any grounds for this
fear. It had burnt in his heart to ask Elihu, and
solve it ; but that seemed a sort of cowardice, and
he had withheld the question. He would not know
the truth now till he had put his own fate to the
test, and spoken in defiance of whatever the answer
might be.

The next morning he perceived an undercurrent
of deeply subdued excitement in such of the fam-
ily as he met at the office, and a sympathy which
he afterwards remembered with compassion. The
brothers and sisters all shook hands with him, and,
refraining from recognition of the suddenness of
his return, said they were glad to see him back.
" And that 's more than we can say to some of the
friends from the world outside ! " exclaimed Di-
antha, when her turn came. Ford was touched
by this friendliness ; a man so little used to being
liked might overvalue it ; but he looked impatiently
about for Frances, and the sisters knew how to in-
terpret his glance.

" She 's gone over to put the infirmary to rights
a little," Rebecca explained. She added casually,

26

402 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Egery 's over there with her, I guess. She wanted
to go."

The sisters decently turned from the door, but
they stood a Httle way back from the window, and
looked at him there as he crossed the street.

The door of the little house stood open, and Ford
saw Frances within, dusting where there was no
dust, and vainly rubbing the neat chairs with a
cloth. The bed where Boynton had lain was dis-
mantled: it seemed as if he might have risen to
have it made for him. Ford expected to hear his
voice, and a lump hung in his throat. When his
sad eyes met those of Frances, he saw that hers
were red with weeping. She gave her hand and
said, " Good-morning, Friend Edward. I 'm real
glad to see you back again. We 've all missed you.
I was just thinkin' how you and Friend Boynton
seemed to have been with us always. He went to
a, better place ; but where did you go ? Do you
think the world outside is better ? I wish you
could feel to stay with us, Edward ! "

" It is n't possible," said Ford, smiling sadly.
" The only point on which I should agree with you
is that the world outside is not so good a place."

" Well, that 's a great deal."

" It is n't enough."

" Really," said Frances, " it 's discouragin' to
hear you and Egery go on. You say everything
that's good of the Shakers, but you won't be
gathered in."

" I thinh everything that 's good of you. I honor

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 403

and reverence you ; I do everything but envy you.
It 's another world that calls me."

" Yee," sighed the Shakeress, "that's just the
way with Egery. I suppose I have been here so
long that I don't see anything strange in Shakers.
The other people ai'e the ones that are strange to
me. But I can see 't it 's different with Egery.
She's had so much queerness in her life already 't
I guess she don't want to have much more. Was
you surprised to hear 't she 'd got back ? "

" I was very glad ; and I 'm very grateful to you,
Frances " —

" I s' posed the handkerchief must be yours,"
Frances interrupted, with artful evasion. She went
on to give some particulars of Boyn ton's funeral and
of their sojourn in Egeria's old home and of her af-
fairs. " It was real kind and good of Friend Hatch
to stay as long as he did, and help her, especially as
they do say he 's engaged to be mai'ried out West,
there." Something like a luminous concussion
seemed to take place in Ford's brain. The burden
suddenly thrown from his soul left him light and
giddy, and he clung for support to the door-post,
while Frances prattled on : " Well, Humphrey says
he 's a master-hand for business, and he 's sure to
get along. He 's been a good friend to Egery, all
through, and her father before her. I guess if
Friend Boynton had taken Ms advice, there
would n't been so much sufferin' for her. Well,
she 's back with us again. But it 's only till she
can find something for herself in the world outside.

404 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

I suppose it 's natural for her to want to be like
folks. That 's the way I look at it."

Ford's heart throbbed. " Do you think I 'm like
folks, Frances ? "

" Not much," replied Frances.

" Do you think I could be, — for her sake ? "

A flash of joy, succeeded by a red blush, went
over the pale face of the Shakeress. " You 'd
ought n't to talk to me of such things, Edward.
You know it ain't right."

"I know — I know," pleaded the young man.
" I know it 's all wrong. But — but I knew you
knew about it, and I thought — I thought " —

" She 's up in the orghard, by her apple-tree ! "
cried Frances, with hysterical abruptness. "Don't
you say another word to me ! " But after Ford left
the room, she ran to tlie door, and watched him go-
ing up the orchard aisle.

Egeria stood leaning against the tree, and looking
another way, and she might well have been igno-
rant of his approach through the fallen grass, till
she heard his husky voice : —

"I — I have come back — I would have come
before, but I did n't know you were here " — He
had some intention of excusing himself, because in
his cogitations it had occurred to him that she must
have wondered why he had not come. But she
only turned on him that face of intense resistance,
changing to question, and then to wild appeal.
" For Heaven's sake," he exclaimed, " don't look
at me in that way ! What is the matter ? "

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 405

" Oh, ivhj did you come back ? " she cried.
" Why could n't you have stayed away, and left
me in peace ? "

He stood motionless, while his hopes seemed to
fall in a tangible ruin round him. He saw now how
eagerly he had built them on the fears of those fan-
tastic communists, and how fondly he had hidden
from himself all the reasons against them. He
could have laughed at the ghastly wreck, but that
he was too sick at heart. He moved his feet heav-
ily, as if the long grass were fetters about them,
and he tried to go ; but without some other word he
could not. " Well," he said, at last, " if you ask
me, I can't tell you. I can go away again, and not
molest you any more. Only, before I go, tell me
— you 've not told me yet — that you forgive me,
Egeria." Her whispered name had been so often
on his lips that he now spoke it aloud for the first
time without knowing it. " Since your father is
gone, I must be more hateful to you than ever.
But I am going out of your way now ; try to for-
give me and to tell me so ! Let me have your par-
don to take with me." She broke into a low sound
of weeping, while he waited for her response.
" Well, I will go. It 's best for me to know finally
that, although you have tolerated me here, at the
bottom of your heart you have always abhorred
me."

" No, no ! I did n't say that."

" Not in words, — no."

" But if you made me say that I forgave you " —

406 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

" Make you say it ? Notliiiig under heaven
could make you say it ! What is it you mean ? "

She looked up, and ran her eye in piteous search
over his face.

" When you first came there, in Boston, and when
you hurt me ; when we went after the leaves, and I
forgot him ; when I talked with you in the garden,
and blamed him ; when I went with you into the
woods, and neglected him, almost the last day he
lived — Oh, even if I could n't, I ought to hate
you ! Did you expect — Yes, I luill, — I will never
let you go, now, till you tell me whether it was true.
He is gone, and I have no one to help me. I shall
have to do for myself ; but whatever my life is to
be, I am going to have it my own ; and it is n't
mine if that is true."

" If that is true ? " repeated Ford, in stupefac-
tion. " If what is true?"

But the impulse Avhioh had carried her to this
point failed her, apparently, and left her terrified
at her own daring. She cowered at the involun-
tary step he made toward her, as a bird stoops for
flight. " If what is true ? " he reiterated. " Tell
me what you mean ! "

He wondered if perhaps some rumor of his talk
with Elihu had come to her, and she had wished to
punish his presumption in trusting the Shaker's
conjecture regarding her ; if she were resolved to
wreak upon him her maidenly indignation at the
community's meddling. It seemed out of keeping
with her and all the circumstances : but he could

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 407

think of nothing else, and he darkly approached it :
" If you have heard anything here that makes you
think that I have come to you in anything but the
humblest, the most reverent, spirit, I beseech you
not to believe it ! Has Elihu — or Frances — Is it
something they have said ? "

" No," she said, and still shrunk away, as if he
might be able to force the truth from her.

" Then, what is it ? Surely you won't leave me
in this perplexity ? If there is anything that I can
do or undo " —

" No ! Oh, go, for pity's sake ! "

"I can't go now," said the young man. "I
won't go till you have told me what you mean.
You must tell me."

She cast a strange glance at him. " If you make
me tell yon, that would show that it was true ; and
he was right when he used to say — I don't want
to believe it ! Go, and let me try to think that you
came here by chance, and that you stayed for his
sake. Indeed, indeed, I can get to thinking again
that you never tried to influence me in that way ! "

" In what way? " he asked, but now a gleam of
light, lurid enough, began to steal upon his confu-
sion. Her alternate eagerness and reluctance to be
with him ; her broken questions, the gestures, the
looks, the tones, that had crossed with mystery
the happiness he had known with her in the last
weeks before her father's death, and made it at its
sweetest fearful and insecure, i-ecurred to him Avitli
new meaning, and a profound compassion qualified

408 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

his despah', and made liim gentle and patient. " Is
it possible," he asked, " that you mean that old
delusion of your father's about me? And could
you believe that I would try to control you against
your will — to use some unnatural power over you ?
Ah ! " he cried, " I could n't take even your for-
giveness, now ; for you might think that I had ex-
torted it ! " He looked sadly at her, but she did
not speak, and he had a struggle to keep his pity
of her from turning to execration of the unhappy
man whose error could thus rise from his grave to
cloud her soul ; but he ruled himself, — not without
an ominous remembrance of his former attempts to
separate her cause from her father's, — and brok-
enly continued : " Well, I have deserved that, too.
But I know that before he died your father came
to a clearer mind about those things, and I believe
that now, wherever he is, nothing could grieve him
more than to know that he had left you in that
hideous superstition." He looked with grave ten-
derness at her hidden face. " How could you
think " — and now his tone expressed his wounded
self-respect as well as his sorrow for her — " that I
could be so false to both of us ? "

" I did n't always think," she whispered. "I —
I was afraid " —

" But what made you afraid that such a thing
could be ? I am a brute, — I know that ; I gave
you early proof of that, — but I hoped there was
nothing covert in me."

" You said once that people influenced others

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 409

witliout knowing it ; and once — that night when
we came from the woods — you said it was a spell
that made me lose the way, and would n't let me
blame you " —

" And you really had those black doubts of me in
your heart ? I thought you were suffering me here
because you were good and merciful, and you
were always watching me to find out whether I was
not using some vile magic against you."

" No, no ! Not always," she protested, lifting
her face. " Did I say that ? "

" No, you did n't say it ! Well, you had the right
to hurt me in any way you could ; and I give you
the satisfaction of knowing that nothing could hurt
me worse than this."

"Oh, I didn't mean to wound you! Don't
think that ! And I forgave you ; yes, I did forgive
you ! I never hated you — not even that morning
there by the fountain when I thought you had hurt
him. And when you said I ought, it made me won-
der if what he used to say — And then I could n't
get it out of my mind ! But I never meant to tell
you by a single word or look, if it killed me."

" I believe you. It was something not to be
spoken. I think now I can go without your par-
don. It seems to me that we are quits."

Once more he turned to go, but she implored, all
her face red with generous remorse, " Oh, not till
you 've forgiven me ! I never thought how it
would seem to you. Indeed I never did ! "

He smiled sadly. " Forgive you ? Oh, that 's

410 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

easy. But even if it were very hard, I could do it.
I can see how it has been with you from the first,
and how, with what you had been taught to think
of me by your father, — I don't blame him for it ;
he was as helpless as you were, — you perverted
my careless words and gave them a sinister meaning
that I never dreamt of. But what can I do, or
say, to leave you with better thoughts of me ? "

" I could see that you were kind and good even
when I was the most afraid," she murmured. " But
after the way we had begun together, and all that
you had done to us, — and said to him, — some-
times I could n't understand why you were here,
or wliy you stayed, and then " —

"I don't wonder! I had n't given you cause to
expect any good of me ; and if I were to tell you
why I stayed, as I once hoped I might, I could n't
make it appear an unselfish reason. Oh, ni}^ dear-
est ! " he cried, " I loved you so that I could n't
have taken your love itself against your will ! Ever
since I first saw you, and all the time that I had lost
you, my whole life was for you ; and when I found
you again how could I help staying till you drove
me from you ? Good-by, and if any thought of
yours has injured me, let me set it against my tell-
ing you this now." She had slowly averted her
face ; slie did not shrink from him, but she did not
return liis good-by, and he waited in vain for her
to speak. Then, " Shall I go ? " he asked in foolish
anti-climax.

" No " —

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 411

The blood rioted in his heart. " And do you
still believe that of me ? "

" I believe — what you say," she whispered.

" But why do you believe me ? Do I make you
doit?"

" I don't know — yes, something makes me."

" Against your will? "

" I can't tell."

" Do you think it is a spell, now ? "

" I don't know."

"And are you afraid of it ? "

" No " —

" What is it, Egeria ? " he cried, and in the be-
seeching look which she lifted to his, their eyes
tenderly met. " Oh, my darling ! Was this the
spell" —

The rapture choked him ; he caught her hand and
drew lier towards him.

But at this bold action, Sister Frances, who had
not ceased to watch them, threw her apron over Ler
head.

XXVIII.

The powers of the family wei'e heavily taxed by
the consideration of a case without precedent in its
annals. On the report of Sister Frances and the
subsequent knowledge of Elihu, it became neces-
sary to act at once. Probably no affair of such
delicate importance had ever presented itself to a
society vowed to celibacy as the fact of a courtship
and proposal of marriage which had taken place
with their privity, and with circumstances so pe-
culiar that they could not wholly feel that they
had withheld their approval.

" What I look at, Elihu," said Frances, " is this :
that we can't any of us say but what it 's the best
thing that can happen to Eger}^ so long as she
ain't going to be gathered in. And what I want to
know is whether we 've got to turn our backs on
her because she 's doin' the best she can, or whether
we're goin' to show out that we feel to rejoice with
her."

"Nay, we can't do that," replied Elihu, in sore
embarrassment. " There are no two ways about it
but what our natural feelings do go with her, — to
some extent. I 'm free to confess that when Friend
Ford came and told me just now I felt " — Elihu

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 413

apparently found himself not so free to confess after
all. He stopped abruptly, and added, " But that 's
neither here nor there. What we 've got to do now
is not to withhold our sympathy from these young
people who are doing right in their order, and at
the same time not to relax our opposition to the
principle."

" Love the sinner and condemn the sin," sug-
gested Laban.

" Nay," replied Elihu, rejecting the phraseology
rather than the idea, " not exactly that."

" I can't understand," interposed Rebecca, with
her sex's abhorrence of an abstraction, " where and
how they 're goin' to get married. There ain't
any Shaker way of marryin', and I don't know
what we sJioidd do with our young folks, if they
got maiTied here. I don't suppose we should have
one of 'em left by spring."

" Nay," said Elihu, " we might as well give up at
once." He rocked himself vigorously to and fro ;
but his hardening face did not lose its anxious ex-
pression.

" Where will they get married ? " asked Rebecca.
" She has n't got anywheres to go. Her own folks
are all dead, at home, and she has n't got any
home."

" I don't know. They can't get married here,"
returned Elihu.

" They can't go right off to a minister and get
married now, so soon after her father's death. And
besides, she ain't ready. She has n't got anything
made up."

414 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

The question of clotlies agitated even these un-
worldly women, and they debated and deplored
Egeria's unprepared condition, urging that she
must have this, and could not do without that, till
Elihu could bear it no longer. " I feel," he cried,
" that it is unseeml}'^ for us to consider these things !
It identifies us practically with a state which we
only tolerate as part of the earthly order. We must
not have anything to do with it from this time
forth."

" Well, Elihu, what shall we do ? " demanded
Diantha. " We might send him away, but we can't
turn her out-of-doors. Do you want he should go
on courtin' her here ? " Elihu opened his lij^s to
speak, but only emitted a groan. " We have got
to bear our part. I guess the rule against marriage
ain't any stronger than the rule of love and charity,
— so long as we don't any of us marry, ourselves.^^

" Well, well ! " cried Elihu, " settle it amongst you.
Only remember, they can't marry here." He took
his hat, and went into Humphrey's room, where the
latter had remained, discreetly absorbed in his ac-
counts ; and Laban, finding himself alone with the
sisters, hastened to follow Elihu. Their withdrawal
was inspiration to Frances : —

" I guess I can go down to Boston with Egery,
and fix it with my sister so 't she can stay and be
married from her house whenever she gets ready."
When the sensation following her solution of the
problem allowed her to speak she added, " The
question is how much it '11 be right for us to do for
her. She has n't got a thing."

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 415

The sisters justly understood this to mean their
degree of complicity in decking Egeria for the un-
holy rite, and they entered into the question with
the seriousness it merited. They began by agree-
ing with Elihu that the only way was to have noth-
ing to do with the matter ; and having appeased
their consciences, they each made such concessions
and sacrifices to the exigency as they must. Be-
fore spring, when the wedding took place, the sis-
ters had found it consistent with an enlarged sense
of duty to present the bride with a great number
of little gifts, of an exemplary usefulness, for the
most part, but not wholly inexpressive of a desire,
if not a sense, of beauty. Their conceptions of the
world's fashions were too vague to allow of their
contributing to the trousseau, and such small at-
tempts as they made in that direction were over-
ruled by Frances's sister, a decisive and notable
lady, who, however, ordained that certain of the
decorative objects, as hooked rugs and embroidered
tidies, were as worthy a place in Mrs. Ford's simple
house as most of the old-fashioned things that peo-
ple like nowadays. With Frances, the question
whether she should or should not be present at the
wedding remained a cross which she bore all winter,
and which grew sorer as the day approached. When
it actually came, she meekly bowed her spirit and
remained away. But she found compensation in
the visit which she paid her sisteV directly after-
wards, and which she spent chiefly in helping Egeria
set in order the cottage Ford had taken in one of

416 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

the suburbs. He had worked hard at bis writuig
all winter, and they had no misgivings in beginning
life on his earnings, and on the small sum Egeria
had inherited from her grandfather.

It is now several years since their marriage, and
they have never regretted their courage. They had
their day of carefulness and of small things — that
happy day, which all who have known it remember
so fondly — but this is already past. One of those
ignoble discoveries which chemists sometimes make
in their more ambitious experiments has turned it-
self to profit, almost without his agency, and chiefly
at the suggestion of his wife, whose more practical
sense perceived its general acceptability; and the
sale of an ingenious combination known to all
housekeepers now makes life easy to the Fords. He
has given up his newspaper work, and lias built
himself a laboratory at the end of his garden, where
the income from his invention enables him to pur-
sue the higher chemistry, without as yet any dis-
tinct advantage to the world, but to his own con-
tent. It is observed by those who formerly knew
him that marriage has greatly softened him, and
Phillips professes that, robbed of his former rough-
ness, he is no longer so fascinating. Their ac-
quaintance can scarcely be said to have been re-
newed since their parting in Vardley. Ford was
able to see Phillips's innocence in what occurred ;
but they could never have been easy in each other's
presence after that scene, though they have met on
civil terms. Phillips accounts in his own way for

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 417

not seeing his former friend any more. " As brica-
brac," he explains, when ladies inquire after their
extinct acquaintance, " Ford was perpetually at-
tractive; but as part of the world's ordinary furni-
ture he can't interest me. When he married the
Pythoness, I was afraid there was too much brica-
brac ; but really, so far as I can hear, they have
neutralized each other into the vulgarest common-
place. Do you use the Ford Fire Kindler ? He
does n't put his name to it, and that is n't exactly
the discovery that is making his fortune. He has
come to that, — making money. And imagine a
Pythoness with a prayer-book, who goes to the
Episcopal church, and hopes to get her husband
to go, too ! No, I don't find my Bohemia in tlieir
suburb." From time to time Phillips proposes to
seek that realm in what he calls his native Europe ;
but he does not go. Perhaps because Mrs. Perham
is there, widowed by Mr. Perham's third stroke of
paralysis, and emancipated to the career of travel
and culture, which she has illustrated in the capitals
of several Latin countries. To do her justice, she
never turned the water-proof affair to malicious ac-
count, nor failed to speak well of Ford, for whom
she always claimed to feel an unrequited respect.

As to Hatch, one of the first of those deep and
full confidences between Ford and Egeria which
follow engagement related to the man in whom
Ford had feared a rival. Egeria knew merely that
Hatch had repaid with constant services some fa-
vors that her father had been able to do him in
27

418 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY.

their old home, and that he had continued faithful
to Boynton when all others had dropped away from
him.

" T wish I had understood how it was when he
came to me there in Boston," said Ford. He added
simply, " I treated him very badly, because I
thought he was in love with you."

" Was that any reason why you should treat him
badly ? " asked Egeria.

Ford reflected. " Yes, I suppose it was. I was
in love with you, too. But he 's had his turn.
He 's left me with the feeling that "perhaps " —

" Perhaps what ? "

" Perhaps — nothing ! "

Egeria divined what he did not say. " He has n't
left me with that feeling," she said reproachfully.

Since that time Hatch is no longer on the road,
as he would phrase it, but has gone into business
for himself at Denver, where he married last year,
with duly interviewed pomp and circumstance, tlie
daughter of one of the early settlers, a hoary patri-
arch of forty-three, who went to Denver as remotely
as 1870. He called upon the Fords when he came
East on his wedding journey, and he and .Ford
found themselves friends. The Western lady
thought Egeria a little stiff, but real kind-hearted,
and one of the most stylish-appearing persons she
ever saw. In fact, Egeria shows a decided fondness
for dress, and after the long hunger of her solitary
girlhood she enters, with a zest which Ford cannot
always share, into all the innocent pleasures of life.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. 419

She likes parties and dinners and tiieatres ; since
their return from Europe she has given several pic-
nic breakfasts, where her morning costume has been
the marvel of her guests. The tradition of her life
before marriage is locally very dim ; it is supposed
that she left the stage to marry. This is not alto-
gether reconcilable with the appearance of quaint
people in broad-brims, or in gauze caps and tight-
sleeved straight drab gowns, with whom she is
sometimes seen in her suburb ; but as the Fords are
known to go every summer to pass a month in an
old house belonging to the Vardley Shakers, their
visitors are easily accounted for.

The grass has already grown long over Boynton's
grave. They who keep his memory think compas-
sionately of his illusions, if they were wholly illu-
sions, but they shrink with one impulse from the
dusky twilight through which he hoped to surprise
immortality, and Ford feels it a sacred charge to
keep Egeria's life in the full sunshine of our com-
mon day. If Boynton has found the undiscovered
country, he has sent no message back to them, and
they do not question his silence. They wait, and
we must all wait.

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2025
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cop. 3

Howells, William Dean

The undivS covered country

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