Pastoral Days

Part 1

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PASTORAL DAYS

PASTORAL DAYS OR MEMORIES OF A NEW ENGLAND YEAR

W. HAMILTON GIBSON

Illustrated

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE

1881

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

All rights reserved.

ONE WHOSE CLOSE COMPANIONSHIP

HAS WROUGHT THAT HARMONY AND PEACE OF MIND FROM WHICH THIS BOOK HAS SPRUNG, AND TO WHOM ITS EVERY PAGE RECALLS A REMINISCENCE OF THE PAST IDENTIFIED WITH MEMORIES OF MY OWN

This Memoir is Lovingly Inscribed

OUR SOUVENIR

THE CYCLE.

SPRING: PAGE

The Awakening.....19

SUMMER:

The Consummation.....51

AUTUMN:

The Waning.....91

WINTER:

The Sleep.....125

ILLUSTRATIONS.

DESIGNED BY W. HAMILTON GIBSON.

TITLE. ENGRAVER.....PAGE

Part 2

THE KINDLED FLAME W. H. CLARK.....18

THE AWAKENING H. GRAY.....19

A SPRING MORNING F. S. KING.....21

CATKINS JOHN FILMER.....23

PUSSIES ” ”.....23

EARLY PLOUGHING H. WOLF.....25

THE RETURN FROM THE FIELDS GEORGE SMITH.....26

VOICES OF THE NIGHT JOHN FILMER.....27

A RAINY DAY J. HELLAWELL.....29

A HANDFUL FROM THE WOODS H. GRAY.....32

AFTER ARBUTUS J. TINKEY.....34

THE FAIRY FROND J. P. DAVIS.....35

AN APRIL DAY GEORGE SMITH.....36

AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS SMITHWICK and FRENCH.....37

THE COLUMBINE R. HOSKIN.....38

THE MEADOW BROOK ” ”.....40

THE PHŒBE’S NEST W. H. MORSE.....41

BUILDING THE NEST HENRY MARSH.....42

IN THE APPLE ORCHARD R. HOSKIN.....43

LITTLE PLUNDERERS A. HAYMAN.....45

ONE OF NATURE’S MARVELS H. MARSH.....46

BLUE-FLAGS R. HOSKIN.....47

THE CONSUMING FLAME W. H. CLARK.....50

THE CONSUMMATION N. ORR.....51

DOLCE FAR NIENTE F. S. KING.....55

THE OLD GARRET F. JUENGLING.....56

AMID THE GRASSES F. S. KING.....58

EVEN-TIDE G. KRUELL.....60

Part 3

THROUGH THE SEDGES R. HOSKIN.....62

AMONG THE BOGS J. TINKEY.....63

SOME ART CONNOISSEURS R. HOSKIN.....64

PROFESSOR WIGGLER J. FILMER.....65

THE TYRANT OF THE FIELDS H. E. SCHULTZ.....67

FAMILIAR FACES AT THE VILLAGE STORE R. A. MULLER.....70

A SOUVENIR SMITHWICK and FRENCH.....72

ALONG THE HOUSATONIC GEORGE SMITH.....74

JUDD’S BRIDGE P. ANNIN.....78

THE HAUNTED MILL J. HELLAWELL.....79

PURSUERS AND PURSUED GEORGE ANDREW.....81

TOLLING FOR THE DEAD R. SCHELLING.....83

WRECKS OF THE TORNADO J. FILMER.....84

PASSING THOUGHTS H. GRAY.....86

THE SMOULDERING FLAME ” ”.....90

THE WANING A. HAYMAN.....91

“EVERY BREEZE A SIGH” F. S. KING.....93

AN OCTOBER DAY SMITHWICK and FRENCH.....96

A WAY-SIDE PASTORAL J. HELLAWELL.....97

WAIFS HENRY MARSH.....100

IN THE CORNFIELD W. MILLER.....102

THE ROAD TO THE MILL E. HELD.....105

THE CIDER-MILL J. P. DAVIS.....107

THE “LINE STORM” R. HOSKIN.....109

A POINTED REMINDER J. FILMER.....111

AFTER THE SHELL-BARKS GEORGE SMITH.....113

A CORNER OF THE FARM J. TINKEY.....115

BEECH-NUTTING W. H. MORSE.....118

Part 4

THE NORTH WIND MORSE and HOSKIN.....120

DESERTED HENRY DEIS.....121

THE FLAME EXTINGUISHED H. GRAY.....124

THE SLEEP J. TINKEY.....125

THE TOMB J. P. DAVIS.....127

SNOW-FLAKES OF MEMORY GEORGE SMITH.....129

THE OLD MILL-POND H. GRAY.....131

THE FIRST SNOW GEORGE SMITH.....133

MUTE PROPHECIES H. E. SCHULTZ.....135

THE TWITCH-UP F. S. KING.....137

THE WINTER’S DARLING HENRY MARSH.....139

WHO’S THAT? H. WOLF.....140

SUNSHINE AND SHADOW IN THE WOODS R. HOSKIN.....141

A SUNNY CORNER W. H. MORSE.....143

WINTER BROWSING SMITHWICK and FRENCH.....144

A JANUARY THAW J. FILMER.....145

THE MOONLIGHT RIDE J. HELLAWELL.....147

THE SHADOWED PAGE J. TINKEY.....149

THE GOOD PHYSICIAN R. SCHELLING.....151

THE FULFILMENT SMITHWICK and FRENCH.....153

SPRING.

As far as the eye can reach, the snow lies in a deep mantle over the cheerless landscape. I look out upon a dreary moor, where the horizon melts into the cold gray of a heavy sky. The restless wind sweeps with pitiless blast through shivering trees and over bleak hills, from whose crests, like a great white veil, the clouds of hoary flakes are lifted and drawn along by the gale. Down the upland slope, across the undulating field, the blinding drift, like a thing of life, speeds in its wild caprice, now swirling in fantastic eddies around some isolated stack, half hidden in its chill embrace, now winding away over bare-blown wall and scraggy fence, and through the sighing willows near the frozen stream; now with a wild whirl it flies aloft, and the dark pines and hemlocks on the mountain-side fade away in its icy mist. Again, yonder it appears trailing along the meadow, until, flying like some fugitive spirit chased from earth by the howling wind, it vanishes in the sky. On every side these winged phantoms lead their flying chase across the dreary landscape, and fence and barn and house upon the hill in turn are dimmed or lost to sight.

Who has not watched the strange antics of the drifting snow whirling past the window on a blustering winter’s day? But this is not a winter’s day. This is the advent of a New England spring.

Fortunate are we that its promises are not fulfilled, for the ides of March might as oft betoken the approach of a tempestuous winter as of a balmy spring. Consecrated to Mars and Tantalus, it is a month of contradictions and disappointments, of broken promises and incessant warfare. It is the struggle of tender awakening life against the buffetings of rude and blighting elements. No man can tell what a day may bring forth. Now we look out verily upon bleak December; to-morrow--who knows?--we may be transported into May, and, with aspirations high, feel our ardor cooled by a blast of ice and a blinding fall of snow. But this cannot always last, for soon the southern breezes come and hold their sway for days, and the north wind, angry in its defeat, is driven back in lowering clouds to the region of eternal ice and snow. Then comes a lovely day, without even a cloud--all blue above, all dazzling white below. The sun shines with a glowing warmth, and we say unto ourselves, “This is, indeed, a harbinger of spring.” The sugar-maples throb and trickle with the flowing sap, and the lumbering ox-team and sled wind through the woods from tree to tree to relieve the overflowing buckets. The boiling caldron in the sugar-house near by receives the continual supply, and gives forth that sweet-scented steam that issues from the open door, and comes to us in occasional welcome whiffs across the snow. Long “wedges” of wild-geese are seen cleaving the sky in their northward flight. The little pussies on the willows are coaxed from their winter nest, and creep out upon the stem. The solitary bluebird makes his appearance, flitting along the thickets and stone walls with little hesitating warble, as if it were not yet the appointed time to sing; and down among the bogs, that cautious little pioneer, the swamp-cabbage flower, peers above the ground beneath his purple-spotted hood. He knows the fickle month which gives him birth, and keeps well under cover.

Such days in March are too perfect to endure, and at night the sky is overcast and dark. Then follows a long warm rain that unlocks the ice in all the streams. The whiteness of the hills and meadows melts into broad contracting strips and patches. One by one, as mere specks upon the landscape, these vanish in turn, until the last vestige of winter is washed from the face of the earth to swell the tide of the rushing stream. Even now, from the distant valley, we hear a continuous muffled roar, as the mighty freshet, impelled by an irresistible force, ploughs its tortuous channel through the lowlands and ravines. The quiet town is filled with an unusual commotion. Excited groups of towns-people crowd the village store, and eager voices tell of the havoc wrought by the fearful flood. We hear how the old toll-bridge, with tollman’s house and all, was lifted from its piers like a pile of straw, and whirled away upon the current. How its floating timbers, in a great blockade, crushed into the old mill-pond; how the dam had burst, and the rickety red saw-mill gone to pieces down the stream. Farmer Nathan’s barn had gone, and his flat meadows were like a whirling sea, strewn with floating rails and driftwood. Every hour records its new disaster as some eager messenger returns from the excited crowds which line the river-bank. How well I remember the fascinating excitement of the spring freshet as I watched the rising water in the big swamp lot, anxious lest it might creep up and undermine the wall foundations of the barn! And what a royal raft I made from the drifting logs and beams, and with the spirit of an adventurous explorer sailed out on the deep gliding current, floating high among the branches of the half submerged willow-trees, and scraping over the tips of the tallest alder-bushes, whose highest twigs now hardly reached the surface! How deep and dark the water looked as I lay upon the raft and peered into the depths below! But this jolly fun was of but short duration. The flood soon subsided, and on the following morning nothing was seen excepting the settlings of débris strewn helter-skelter over the meadow, and hanging on all the bushes.

The tepid rain has penetrated deep into the yielding ground, and with the winter’s frost now coming to the surface, the roads are well-nigh impassable with their plethora of mud. For a full appreciation of mud in all its glory, and in its superlative degree, one should see a New England highway “when the frost comes out of the ground.” The roads are furrowed with deep grimy ruts, in which the bedabbled wheels sink to their hubs as in a quicksand, and the hoofs of the floundering horse are held in the swampy depths as if in a vise. For a week or more this state of things continues, until at length, after warm winds and sunny days, the ground once more packs firm beneath the tread. This marks the close of idle days. The junk pile in the barn is invaded, and the rusty plough abstracted from the midst of rakes and scythes and other farming tools. The old white horse thrusts his long head from the stall near by, and whinnies at the memories it revives, and with pricked-up ears and whisking tail tells plainly of the eagerness he feels.

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