September 2, 2025 • 25 mins
Dive into the enchanting world of Washington Irving, the master storyteller behind timeless classics like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. This captivating collection features a remarkable array of tales that span the eerie and supernatural folklore of New England to the exotic legends and travel anecdotes inspired by Irvings journeys across Europe. Join narrator Ben Tucker as he brings these diverse stories to life, showcasing the rich tapestry of Irvings literary genius.
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Section nineteen of Chronicles of Wolfert's Roost and Other Papers.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Rita Boutross. Chronicles of
Wolfert's Roost and Other Papers by Washington Irving, Early Experiences
(00:25):
of Ralph Ringwood, Part three. I footed it sturdily to Bartstown,
took possession of the quarters for which I had bargained,
shut myself up, and set to work with might and
main to study. But what a task I had before me.
I had everything to learn, not merely law, but all
(00:46):
the elementary branches of knowledge. I read and read for
sixteen hours out of the four and twenty. But the
more I read, the more I became aware of my
own ignorance and shed bitter tears over my efficiency. It
seemed as if the wilderness of knowledge expanded and grew
more perplexed as I advanced. Every height gained only revealed
(01:10):
a wider region to be traversed, and nearly filled me
with despair. I grew moody, silent, and unsocial, but studied
on doggedly and incessantly. The only person with whom I
held any conversation was the worthy man in whose house
I was quartered. He was honest and well meaning, but
(01:32):
perfectly ignorant, and I believe would have liked me much
better if I had not been so much addicted to reading.
He considered all books filled with lies and impositions, and
seldom could look into one without finding something to rouse
his spleen. Nothing put him into a greater passion than
(01:52):
the assertion that the world turned on its own axis
every four and twenty hours. He or it was an
outrage upon common sense. Why if it did, said he,
there would not be a drop of water in the
well by morning, and all the milk and cream in
the dairy would be turned topsy turvy. And then to
(02:13):
talk of the Earth going round the sun, how do
they know it? I've seen the sun rise every morning
and set every evening for more than thirty years. They
must not talk to me about the Earth's going around
the sun. At another time, he was in a perfect
fret at being told the distance between the Sun and Moon.
(02:35):
How can anyone tell the distance? Cried he who surveyed it,
who carried the chain by Jupiter They only talk this
way before me to annoy me. But then there's some
people of sense who give in to this cursed humbug.
There's a Judge Brodnax, now, one of the best lawyers
we have. Isn't it surprising he should believe in such stuff? Why, sir?
(02:59):
The other day I heard him talk of the distance
from a star he called Mars to the Sun. He
must have got it out of one or other of
those confounded books. He's so fond of reading a book
some impudent fellow has written. Who knew nobody could swear
the distance? Was more or less for my own part.
(03:20):
Feeling my own deficiency and scientific lore, I never ventured
to unsettle his conviction that the Sun made its daily
circuit round the earth. And for aught, I said to
the contrary, he lived and died in that belief. I
had been about a year at Bardstown, living thus studiously
(03:40):
and reclusely, when as I was one day walking the street,
I met two young girls, in one of whom I
immediately recalled the little beauty whom I had kissed so impudently.
She blushed up to the eyes, and so did I.
But we both passed on without fathers sign of recognition.
(04:02):
The second glimpse of her, however, caused an odd fluttering
about my heart. I could not get her out of
my thoughts. For days. She quite interfered with my studies.
I tried to think of her as a mere child,
but it would not do. She had improved in beauty
and was tending toward womanhood, and then I, myself was
(04:23):
but little better than a stripling. However, I did not
attempt to seek after her, or even to find out
who she was, but returned doggedly to my books. By
degrees she faded for my thoughts, or if she did
cross them occasionally, it was only to increase my despondency,
for I feared that, with all my exertions, I should
(04:46):
never be able to fit myself for the bar or
enable myself to support a wife. One cold stormy evening,
I was seated in dumpish mood in the bar room
of the Inn, looking into the fire and turning over
uncomfortable thoughts, when I was accosted by some one who
had entered the room without my perceiving it. I looked
(05:09):
up and saw before me a tall, and as I thought,
pompous looking man, arrayed in small clothes and knee buckles,
with powdered head and shoes nicely blacked and polished, a
style of dress unparalleled in those days in that rough country.
I took a peek against him from the very portliness
(05:31):
of his appearance and stateliness of his manner and bristle dump.
As he accosted me, he demanded if my name was
not Ringwood. I was startled, for I supposed myself perfectly incognito,
but I answered in the affirmative, your family, I believe,
lives in Richmond. My gorge began to rise. Yes, Sir,
(05:54):
replied I, sulkily, My family does live in Richmond. And
what may I ask, has brought you into this part
of the country. Zound, Sir cried, I, starting on my feet,
what business is it of yours? How dare you to
question me in this manner? The entrance of some persons
(06:14):
prevented a reply, but I walked up and down the
bar room, fuming with conscious independence and insulted dignity, while
the pompous looking personage who had thus trespassed upon my
spleen retired without proffering another word. The next day, while
seated in my room. Some one tapped at the door,
(06:36):
and on being bid to enter, the stranger in the
powdered head, small clothes and shining shoes and buckles, walked
in with ceremonious courtesy. My boyish pride was again in arms,
but he subdued me. He was formal, but kind and friendly.
He knew my family and understood my situation and the
(06:59):
dogged sto rule. I was making a little conversation when
my jealous pride was once put to rest, drew everything
from me. He was a lawyer of experience and of
extensive practice, and offered at once to take me with
him and direct my studies. The offer was too advantageous
(07:20):
and gratifying not to be immediately accepted. From that time
I began to look up. I was put into a
proper track, and was enabled to study to a proper purpose.
I made acquaintance, too with some of the young men
of the place who were in the same pursuit, and
was encouraged at finding that I could hold my own
(07:42):
in argument with them. We instituted a debating club, in
which I soon became prominent and popular. Men of talents
engaged in other pursuits joined it. And this diversified our
subjects and put me on various tracts of inquiry. Daies, too,
attended some of our discussions, and this gave them a
(08:04):
polite tone and had an influence on the manners of
the debaters. My legal patron also may have had a
favorable effect in correcting any roughness contracted in my hunter's life.
He was calculated to bend me in an opposite direction,
for he was of the old school, quoted Chesterfield on
(08:24):
all occasions, and talked of Sir Charles Grandison, who was
his beaux ediel. It was Sir Charles Grandison, however, kentuckyized.
I had always been fond of female society. My experience, however,
had hitherto been among the rough daughters of the backwoodsmen,
and I felt in awe of young ladies in store clothes.
(08:48):
Delicately brought up two or three of the married ladies
of Bardstown, who had heard me at the debating club,
determined that I was a genius, and undertook to bring
me out. I believe I really improved under their hands.
Became quiet where I had been shy or sulky, and
easy where I had been impudent. I called to take
(09:11):
tea one evening with one of these ladies, when, to
my surprise and somewhat to my confusion, I found with
her the identical blue eyed little beauty whom I had
so audaciously kissed. I was formally introduced to her, but
neither of us betrayed any sign of previous acquaintance, except
(09:32):
by blushing to the eyes. While Tea was getting ready,
the lady of the house went out of the room
to give some directions and left us alone. Heavens and Earth,
what a situation I would have given all the pittance
I was worth to have been in the deepest dell
of the forest. I felt the necessity of saying something
(09:54):
an excuse of my former rudeness, but I could not
conjure up an idea nor a word. Every moment matters
were growing worse. I felt, at one time tempted to
do as I had done when I robbed her of
the kiss, bolt from the room and take to flight,
But I was chained to the spot, for I really
(10:15):
longed to gain her good will. At length, I plucked
up courage on seeing that she was equally confused with myself,
and walking desperately up to her, I exclaimed, I have
been trying to muster up something to say to you,
but I cannot. I feel that I am in a
horrible scrape. Do have pity on me and help me
(10:38):
out of it. A smile dimpled about her mouth and
played among the blushes of her cheek. She looked up
with a shy but arch glance of the eye that
expressed a volume of comic recollection. We both broke into
a laugh, and from that moment all went on well.
A few evenings afterward, I met her at a dance
(11:00):
and prosecuted the acquaintance. I soon became deeply attached to her,
paid my court regularly, and before I was nineteen years
of age, had engaged myself to marry her. I spoke
to her mother, a widow lady, to ask her consent.
She seemed to demur, upon which, with my customary haste,
(11:22):
I told her there would be no use in opposing
the match, for if her daughter chose to have me,
I would take her in defiance of her family and
the whole world. She laughed and told me I need
not give myself any uneasiness. There would be no unreasonable opposition.
She knew my family and all about me. The only
(11:45):
obstacle was that I had no means of supporting a wife,
and she had nothing to give with her daughter. No matter.
At that moment everything was bright before me. I was
in one of my sanguine moods. I feared nothing, doubted nothing.
So it was agreed that I should prosecute my studies,
(12:06):
obtain a license, and as soon as I should be
fairly launched in business, we would be married. I now
prosecuted my studies with redoubled ardor and was up to
my ears and law when I received a letter from
my father, who had heard of me and my whereabouts.
He applauded the course I had taken, but advised me
(12:27):
to lay a foundation of general knowledge, and offered to
defray my expenses if I would go to college. I
felt the want of a general education and was staggered
with this offer. It militated somewhat against the self independent
course I had so proudly or rather conceitedly, marked out
(12:49):
for myself, but it would enable me to enter more
advantageously upon my legal career. I talked over the matter
with the lovely girl to whom I was engaged. She
sided in opinion with my father, and talked so disinterestedly
yet tenderly, that if possible, I loved her more than ever.
(13:10):
I reluctantly therefore agreed to go to college for a
couple of years, though it must necessarily postpone our union.
Scarcely had I formed this resolution, when her mother was
taken ill and died, leaving her without a protector. This
again altered all my plans. I felt as if I
(13:31):
could protect her, I gave up all idea of collegiate studies,
persuaded myself that by dint of industry and application, I
might overcome the deficiencies of education, and resolved to take
out a license as soon as possible. That very autumn
I was admitted to the bar, and within a month
(13:52):
afterward was married. We were a young couple, she not
much above sixteen, I not quite twenty, and both almost
without a dollar in the world. The establishment which we
set up was suited to our circumstances. A log house
with two small rooms, a bed, a table, a half
(14:13):
dozen chairs, a half dozen knives and forks, a half
dozen spoons, everything by half dozens a little delft where
everything in a small way. We were so poor but
then so happy. We had not been married many days.
When court was held at a county town about twenty
(14:33):
five miles distant, it was necessary for me to go
there and put myself in the way of business. But
how was I to go. I had expended all my
means on our establishment, and then it was hard parting
with my wife so soon after marriage. However, go, I must.
Money must be made, or we should soon have the
(14:56):
wolf at the door. I accordingly borrowed a horse and
borrowed a little cash, and rode off from my door,
leaving my wife standing at it and waving her hand
after me. Her last look, so sweet and beaming, went
to my heart. I felt as if I could go
through fire and water for her. I arrived at the
(15:18):
county town on a cool October evening. The inn was crowded,
for the court was to commence on the following day.
I knew no one, and wondered how I, a stranger
and a mere youngster, was to make my way in
such a crowd and to get business. The public room
was thronged with the idlers of the country who gathered
(15:39):
together on such occasions. There was some drinking going forward,
with much noise and a little altercation. Just as I
entered the room, I saw a rough bully of a
fellow who was partly intoxicated strike an old man. He
came swaggering by me and elbowed me as he passed.
I immediately knocked him down and kicked him into the street.
(16:03):
I needed no better introduction. In a moment, I had
a dozen rough shakes of the hand and invitations to drink,
and found myself quite a personage in this rough assembly.
The next morning the court opened. I took my seat
among the lawyers, but felt as a mere spectator, not
having a suit in progress or prospect, nor having any
(16:26):
idea where a business was to come from. In the
course of the morning, a man was put at the bar,
charged with passing counterfeit money, and was asked if he
was ready for trial. He answered in the negative. He
had been confined in a place where there were no
lawyers and had not had an opportunity of consulting any.
(16:48):
He was told to choose counsel from the lawyers present
and to be ready for trial on the following day.
He looked round the court and selected me. I was thunderstruck.
I could not tell why he should make such a choice.
I a beardless youngster, unpracticed at the bar, perfectly unknown.
(17:09):
I fell to diffident, yet delighted, and could have hugged
the rascal. Before leaving the court, he gave me one
hundred dollars in a bag as a retaining fee. I
could scarcely believe my senses. It seemed like a dream.
The heaviness of the fee spoke but lightly in favor
of his innocence. But that was no affair of mine.
(17:31):
I was to be advocate, not judge nor jury. I
followed him to jail and learned from him all the
particulars of his case. Thence I went to the clerk's
office and took minutes of the indictment. I then examined
the law on the subject and prepared my brief in
my room. All this occupied me until midnight, when I
(17:53):
went to bed and tried to sleep. It was all
in vain. Never in my life was I more white.
A host of thoughts and fancies kept rushing through my mind.
The shower of gold that had so unexpectedly fallen into
my lap, the idea of my poor little wife at
home that I was to astonish with my good fortune,
(18:16):
But then the awful responsibility I had undertaken to speak
for the first time in a strange court. The expectations
of the culprit had evidently formed of my talents. All
these and a crowd of similar notions kept whirling through
my mind. I tossed about all night, fearing the morning
(18:36):
would find me exhausted and incompetent in a word. The
day dawned on me a miserable fellow. I got up,
feverish and nervous. I walked out before breakfast, striving to
collect my thoughts and tranquilize my feelings. It was a
bright morning, the air was pure and frosty. I bathed
(18:57):
my forehead and my hands in a beautiful running stream,
but I could not allay the fever heat that raged within.
I returned to breakfast, but could not eat a single
cup of coffee formed my repast. It was time to
go to court, and I went there with a throbbing heart.
I believe if it had not been for the thoughts
(19:19):
of my little wife in her lonely log house, I
should have given back to the man his hundred dollars
and relinquished the cause. I took my seat, looking, I
am convinced more like a culprit than the rogue I
was to defend. When the time came for me to speak,
my heart died within me. I rose embarrassed and dismayed,
(19:41):
and stammered in opening my cause. I went on from
bad to worse, and felt as if I was going
down hill. Just then, the public Prosecutor, a man of
talents but somewhat rough in his practice, made a sarcastic
remark on something I had said. It was like an
electric spark and ran tingling through every vein in my body.
(20:06):
In an instant, my diffidence was gone. My whole spirit
was in arms. I answered with promptness and bitterness, for
I felt the cruelty of such an attack upon a
novice in my situation. The public prosecutor made a kind
of apology. This from a man of his redoubted powers
(20:26):
was a vast concession. I renewed my argument with a
fearless glow, carried the case through triumphantly, and the man
was acquitted. This was the making of me. Everybody was
curious to know who this new lawyer was that had
thus suddenly risen among them, and bearded the Attorney General
(20:48):
at the very outset the story of my debut at
the inn on the preceding evening, when I had knocked
down a bully and kicked him out of doors for
striking in old men, was circulating it with favorable exaggerations.
Even my very beardless chin and juvenile countenance were in
my favor, for people gave me far more credit than
(21:10):
I really deserved. The chance business which occurs in our
country courts came thronging upon me. I was repeatedly employed
in other causes, and by Saturday night, when the court
closed and I had paid my bill at the inn,
I found myself with a hundred and fifty dollars in silver,
three hundred dollars in notes, and a horse that I
(21:33):
afterwards sold for two hundred dollars more. Never did miser
gloat on his money. With more delight. I locked the
door of my room, piled the money in a heap
upon the table, walked round it, sat with my elbows
on the table and my chin upon my hands, and
gazed upon it. Was I thinking of the money. No,
(21:56):
I was thinking of my little wife at home, or
sleepless night ensued. But what a night of golden fancies
and splendid air castles. As soon as morning dawned, I
was up mounted the borrowed horse with which I had
come to court, and led the other which I had
received as a fee. All the way I was delighting
(22:18):
myself with the thoughts of the surprise I had in
store for my little wife, for both of us had
expected nothing but that I should spend all the money
I had borrowed and should return in debt. Our meeting
was joyous, as you may suppose, but I played the
part of the Indian hunter who, when he returns from
(22:38):
the chase, never for a time, speaks of his success.
She had prepared a snug, little rustic meal for me,
and while it was getting ready, I seated myself at
an old fashioned desk in one corner and began to
count over my money and put it away. She came
to me before I had finished, and asked who I
(22:59):
had elected the money for for myself, to be sure,
replied I, with affected coolness. I made it at court.
She looked at me for a moment in the face incredulously.
I tried to keep my countenance and to play Indian,
but it would not do My muscles began to twitch.
(23:19):
My feelings all at once gave way. I caught her
in my arms, laughed, cried, and danced about the room
like a crazy man. From that time forward, we never
wanted for money. I had not been long in successful
practice when I was surprised one day by a visit
from my woodland patron, Old Miller. The tidings of my
(23:42):
prosperity had reached him in the wilderness, and he had
walked one hundred and fifty miles on foot to see me.
By that time I had improved my domestic establishment and
had all things comfortable about me. He looked around him
with a wondering eye at what he considered luxuries and superfluities.
(24:03):
But supposed they were all right in my altered circumstances.
He said, he did not know upon the whole, but
that I acted for the best. It is true if
game had continued plenty, it would have been a folly
for me to quit a hunter's life. But hunting was
pretty nigh done up in Kentucky. The buffalo had gone
(24:24):
to Missouri, the elk were nearly gone. Also, deer, too,
were growing scarce. They might last out his time. As
he was growing old but they were not worth setting
up life upon. He had once lived on the borders
of Virginia. Game grew scarce there. He followed it up
across Kentucky, and now it was again giving him the slip.
(24:47):
But he was too old to follow it farther. He
remained with us three days. My wife did everything in
her power to make him comfortable. But at the end
of that time he said he must be again to
the woods. He was tired of the village and of
having so many people about him. He accordingly returned to
(25:07):
the wilderness and to hunting life. But I fear he
did not make a good end of it, for I
understand that a few years before his death he married
Suki Thomas, who lived at the White Oak Run. End
of section nineteen
Section nineteen of Chronicles of Wolfert's Roost and Other Papers.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Rita Boutross. Chronicles of
Wolfert's Roost and Other Papers by Washington Irving, Early Experiences
(00:25):
of Ralph Ringwood, Part three. I footed it sturdily to Bartstown,
took possession of the quarters for which I had bargained,
shut myself up, and set to work with might and
main to study. But what a task I had before me.
I had everything to learn, not merely law, but all
(00:46):
the elementary branches of knowledge. I read and read for
sixteen hours out of the four and twenty. But the
more I read, the more I became aware of my
own ignorance and shed bitter tears over my efficiency. It
seemed as if the wilderness of knowledge expanded and grew
more perplexed as I advanced. Every height gained only revealed
(01:10):
a wider region to be traversed, and nearly filled me
with despair. I grew moody, silent, and unsocial, but studied
on doggedly and incessantly. The only person with whom I
held any conversation was the worthy man in whose house
I was quartered. He was honest and well meaning, but
(01:32):
perfectly ignorant, and I believe would have liked me much
better if I had not been so much addicted to reading.
He considered all books filled with lies and impositions, and
seldom could look into one without finding something to rouse
his spleen. Nothing put him into a greater passion than
(01:52):
the assertion that the world turned on its own axis
every four and twenty hours. He or it was an
outrage upon common sense. Why if it did, said he,
there would not be a drop of water in the
well by morning, and all the milk and cream in
the dairy would be turned topsy turvy. And then to
(02:13):
talk of the Earth going round the sun, how do
they know it? I've seen the sun rise every morning
and set every evening for more than thirty years. They
must not talk to me about the Earth's going around
the sun. At another time, he was in a perfect
fret at being told the distance between the Sun and Moon.
(02:35):
How can anyone tell the distance? Cried he who surveyed it,
who carried the chain by Jupiter They only talk this
way before me to annoy me. But then there's some
people of sense who give in to this cursed humbug.
There's a Judge Brodnax, now, one of the best lawyers
we have. Isn't it surprising he should believe in such stuff? Why, sir?
(02:59):
The other day I heard him talk of the distance
from a star he called Mars to the Sun. He
must have got it out of one or other of
those confounded books. He's so fond of reading a book
some impudent fellow has written. Who knew nobody could swear
the distance? Was more or less for my own part.
(03:20):
Feeling my own deficiency and scientific lore, I never ventured
to unsettle his conviction that the Sun made its daily
circuit round the earth. And for aught, I said to
the contrary, he lived and died in that belief. I
had been about a year at Bardstown, living thus studiously
(03:40):
and reclusely, when as I was one day walking the street,
I met two young girls, in one of whom I
immediately recalled the little beauty whom I had kissed so impudently.
She blushed up to the eyes, and so did I.
But we both passed on without fathers sign of recognition.
(04:02):
The second glimpse of her, however, caused an odd fluttering
about my heart. I could not get her out of
my thoughts. For days. She quite interfered with my studies.
I tried to think of her as a mere child,
but it would not do. She had improved in beauty
and was tending toward womanhood, and then I, myself was
(04:23):
but little better than a stripling. However, I did not
attempt to seek after her, or even to find out
who she was, but returned doggedly to my books. By
degrees she faded for my thoughts, or if she did
cross them occasionally, it was only to increase my despondency,
for I feared that, with all my exertions, I should
(04:46):
never be able to fit myself for the bar or
enable myself to support a wife. One cold stormy evening,
I was seated in dumpish mood in the bar room
of the Inn, looking into the fire and turning over
uncomfortable thoughts, when I was accosted by some one who
had entered the room without my perceiving it. I looked
(05:09):
up and saw before me a tall, and as I thought,
pompous looking man, arrayed in small clothes and knee buckles,
with powdered head and shoes nicely blacked and polished, a
style of dress unparalleled in those days in that rough country.
I took a peek against him from the very portliness
(05:31):
of his appearance and stateliness of his manner and bristle dump.
As he accosted me, he demanded if my name was
not Ringwood. I was startled, for I supposed myself perfectly incognito,
but I answered in the affirmative, your family, I believe,
lives in Richmond. My gorge began to rise. Yes, Sir,
(05:54):
replied I, sulkily, My family does live in Richmond. And
what may I ask, has brought you into this part
of the country. Zound, Sir cried, I, starting on my feet,
what business is it of yours? How dare you to
question me in this manner? The entrance of some persons
(06:14):
prevented a reply, but I walked up and down the
bar room, fuming with conscious independence and insulted dignity, while
the pompous looking personage who had thus trespassed upon my
spleen retired without proffering another word. The next day, while
seated in my room. Some one tapped at the door,
(06:36):
and on being bid to enter, the stranger in the
powdered head, small clothes and shining shoes and buckles, walked
in with ceremonious courtesy. My boyish pride was again in arms,
but he subdued me. He was formal, but kind and friendly.
He knew my family and understood my situation and the
(06:59):
dogged sto rule. I was making a little conversation when
my jealous pride was once put to rest, drew everything
from me. He was a lawyer of experience and of
extensive practice, and offered at once to take me with
him and direct my studies. The offer was too advantageous
(07:20):
and gratifying not to be immediately accepted. From that time
I began to look up. I was put into a
proper track, and was enabled to study to a proper purpose.
I made acquaintance, too with some of the young men
of the place who were in the same pursuit, and
was encouraged at finding that I could hold my own
(07:42):
in argument with them. We instituted a debating club, in
which I soon became prominent and popular. Men of talents
engaged in other pursuits joined it. And this diversified our
subjects and put me on various tracts of inquiry. Daies, too,
attended some of our discussions, and this gave them a
(08:04):
polite tone and had an influence on the manners of
the debaters. My legal patron also may have had a
favorable effect in correcting any roughness contracted in my hunter's life.
He was calculated to bend me in an opposite direction,
for he was of the old school, quoted Chesterfield on
(08:24):
all occasions, and talked of Sir Charles Grandison, who was
his beaux ediel. It was Sir Charles Grandison, however, kentuckyized.
I had always been fond of female society. My experience, however,
had hitherto been among the rough daughters of the backwoodsmen,
and I felt in awe of young ladies in store clothes.
(08:48):
Delicately brought up two or three of the married ladies
of Bardstown, who had heard me at the debating club,
determined that I was a genius, and undertook to bring
me out. I believe I really improved under their hands.
Became quiet where I had been shy or sulky, and
easy where I had been impudent. I called to take
(09:11):
tea one evening with one of these ladies, when, to
my surprise and somewhat to my confusion, I found with
her the identical blue eyed little beauty whom I had
so audaciously kissed. I was formally introduced to her, but
neither of us betrayed any sign of previous acquaintance, except
(09:32):
by blushing to the eyes. While Tea was getting ready,
the lady of the house went out of the room
to give some directions and left us alone. Heavens and Earth,
what a situation I would have given all the pittance
I was worth to have been in the deepest dell
of the forest. I felt the necessity of saying something
(09:54):
an excuse of my former rudeness, but I could not
conjure up an idea nor a word. Every moment matters
were growing worse. I felt, at one time tempted to
do as I had done when I robbed her of
the kiss, bolt from the room and take to flight,
But I was chained to the spot, for I really
(10:15):
longed to gain her good will. At length, I plucked
up courage on seeing that she was equally confused with myself,
and walking desperately up to her, I exclaimed, I have
been trying to muster up something to say to you,
but I cannot. I feel that I am in a
horrible scrape. Do have pity on me and help me
(10:38):
out of it. A smile dimpled about her mouth and
played among the blushes of her cheek. She looked up
with a shy but arch glance of the eye that
expressed a volume of comic recollection. We both broke into
a laugh, and from that moment all went on well.
A few evenings afterward, I met her at a dance
(11:00):
and prosecuted the acquaintance. I soon became deeply attached to her,
paid my court regularly, and before I was nineteen years
of age, had engaged myself to marry her. I spoke
to her mother, a widow lady, to ask her consent.
She seemed to demur, upon which, with my customary haste,
(11:22):
I told her there would be no use in opposing
the match, for if her daughter chose to have me,
I would take her in defiance of her family and
the whole world. She laughed and told me I need
not give myself any uneasiness. There would be no unreasonable opposition.
She knew my family and all about me. The only
(11:45):
obstacle was that I had no means of supporting a wife,
and she had nothing to give with her daughter. No matter.
At that moment everything was bright before me. I was
in one of my sanguine moods. I feared nothing, doubted nothing.
So it was agreed that I should prosecute my studies,
(12:06):
obtain a license, and as soon as I should be
fairly launched in business, we would be married. I now
prosecuted my studies with redoubled ardor and was up to
my ears and law when I received a letter from
my father, who had heard of me and my whereabouts.
He applauded the course I had taken, but advised me
(12:27):
to lay a foundation of general knowledge, and offered to
defray my expenses if I would go to college. I
felt the want of a general education and was staggered
with this offer. It militated somewhat against the self independent
course I had so proudly or rather conceitedly, marked out
(12:49):
for myself, but it would enable me to enter more
advantageously upon my legal career. I talked over the matter
with the lovely girl to whom I was engaged. She
sided in opinion with my father, and talked so disinterestedly
yet tenderly, that if possible, I loved her more than ever.
(13:10):
I reluctantly therefore agreed to go to college for a
couple of years, though it must necessarily postpone our union.
Scarcely had I formed this resolution, when her mother was
taken ill and died, leaving her without a protector. This
again altered all my plans. I felt as if I
(13:31):
could protect her, I gave up all idea of collegiate studies,
persuaded myself that by dint of industry and application, I
might overcome the deficiencies of education, and resolved to take
out a license as soon as possible. That very autumn
I was admitted to the bar, and within a month
(13:52):
afterward was married. We were a young couple, she not
much above sixteen, I not quite twenty, and both almost
without a dollar in the world. The establishment which we
set up was suited to our circumstances. A log house
with two small rooms, a bed, a table, a half
(14:13):
dozen chairs, a half dozen knives and forks, a half
dozen spoons, everything by half dozens a little delft where
everything in a small way. We were so poor but
then so happy. We had not been married many days.
When court was held at a county town about twenty
(14:33):
five miles distant, it was necessary for me to go
there and put myself in the way of business. But
how was I to go. I had expended all my
means on our establishment, and then it was hard parting
with my wife so soon after marriage. However, go, I must.
Money must be made, or we should soon have the
(14:56):
wolf at the door. I accordingly borrowed a horse and
borrowed a little cash, and rode off from my door,
leaving my wife standing at it and waving her hand
after me. Her last look, so sweet and beaming, went
to my heart. I felt as if I could go
through fire and water for her. I arrived at the
(15:18):
county town on a cool October evening. The inn was crowded,
for the court was to commence on the following day.
I knew no one, and wondered how I, a stranger
and a mere youngster, was to make my way in
such a crowd and to get business. The public room
was thronged with the idlers of the country who gathered
(15:39):
together on such occasions. There was some drinking going forward,
with much noise and a little altercation. Just as I
entered the room, I saw a rough bully of a
fellow who was partly intoxicated strike an old man. He
came swaggering by me and elbowed me as he passed.
I immediately knocked him down and kicked him into the street.
(16:03):
I needed no better introduction. In a moment, I had
a dozen rough shakes of the hand and invitations to drink,
and found myself quite a personage in this rough assembly.
The next morning the court opened. I took my seat
among the lawyers, but felt as a mere spectator, not
having a suit in progress or prospect, nor having any
(16:26):
idea where a business was to come from. In the
course of the morning, a man was put at the bar,
charged with passing counterfeit money, and was asked if he
was ready for trial. He answered in the negative. He
had been confined in a place where there were no
lawyers and had not had an opportunity of consulting any.
(16:48):
He was told to choose counsel from the lawyers present
and to be ready for trial on the following day.
He looked round the court and selected me. I was thunderstruck.
I could not tell why he should make such a choice.
I a beardless youngster, unpracticed at the bar, perfectly unknown.
(17:09):
I fell to diffident, yet delighted, and could have hugged
the rascal. Before leaving the court, he gave me one
hundred dollars in a bag as a retaining fee. I
could scarcely believe my senses. It seemed like a dream.
The heaviness of the fee spoke but lightly in favor
of his innocence. But that was no affair of mine.
(17:31):
I was to be advocate, not judge nor jury. I
followed him to jail and learned from him all the
particulars of his case. Thence I went to the clerk's
office and took minutes of the indictment. I then examined
the law on the subject and prepared my brief in
my room. All this occupied me until midnight, when I
(17:53):
went to bed and tried to sleep. It was all
in vain. Never in my life was I more white.
A host of thoughts and fancies kept rushing through my mind.
The shower of gold that had so unexpectedly fallen into
my lap, the idea of my poor little wife at
home that I was to astonish with my good fortune,
(18:16):
But then the awful responsibility I had undertaken to speak
for the first time in a strange court. The expectations
of the culprit had evidently formed of my talents. All
these and a crowd of similar notions kept whirling through
my mind. I tossed about all night, fearing the morning
(18:36):
would find me exhausted and incompetent in a word. The
day dawned on me a miserable fellow. I got up,
feverish and nervous. I walked out before breakfast, striving to
collect my thoughts and tranquilize my feelings. It was a
bright morning, the air was pure and frosty. I bathed
(18:57):
my forehead and my hands in a beautiful running stream,
but I could not allay the fever heat that raged within.
I returned to breakfast, but could not eat a single
cup of coffee formed my repast. It was time to
go to court, and I went there with a throbbing heart.
I believe if it had not been for the thoughts
(19:19):
of my little wife in her lonely log house, I
should have given back to the man his hundred dollars
and relinquished the cause. I took my seat, looking, I
am convinced more like a culprit than the rogue I
was to defend. When the time came for me to speak,
my heart died within me. I rose embarrassed and dismayed,
(19:41):
and stammered in opening my cause. I went on from
bad to worse, and felt as if I was going
down hill. Just then, the public Prosecutor, a man of
talents but somewhat rough in his practice, made a sarcastic
remark on something I had said. It was like an
electric spark and ran tingling through every vein in my body.
(20:06):
In an instant, my diffidence was gone. My whole spirit
was in arms. I answered with promptness and bitterness, for
I felt the cruelty of such an attack upon a
novice in my situation. The public prosecutor made a kind
of apology. This from a man of his redoubted powers
(20:26):
was a vast concession. I renewed my argument with a
fearless glow, carried the case through triumphantly, and the man
was acquitted. This was the making of me. Everybody was
curious to know who this new lawyer was that had
thus suddenly risen among them, and bearded the Attorney General
(20:48):
at the very outset the story of my debut at
the inn on the preceding evening, when I had knocked
down a bully and kicked him out of doors for
striking in old men, was circulating it with favorable exaggerations.
Even my very beardless chin and juvenile countenance were in
my favor, for people gave me far more credit than
(21:10):
I really deserved. The chance business which occurs in our
country courts came thronging upon me. I was repeatedly employed
in other causes, and by Saturday night, when the court
closed and I had paid my bill at the inn,
I found myself with a hundred and fifty dollars in silver,
three hundred dollars in notes, and a horse that I
(21:33):
afterwards sold for two hundred dollars more. Never did miser
gloat on his money. With more delight. I locked the
door of my room, piled the money in a heap
upon the table, walked round it, sat with my elbows
on the table and my chin upon my hands, and
gazed upon it. Was I thinking of the money. No,
(21:56):
I was thinking of my little wife at home, or
sleepless night ensued. But what a night of golden fancies
and splendid air castles. As soon as morning dawned, I
was up mounted the borrowed horse with which I had
come to court, and led the other which I had
received as a fee. All the way I was delighting
(22:18):
myself with the thoughts of the surprise I had in
store for my little wife, for both of us had
expected nothing but that I should spend all the money
I had borrowed and should return in debt. Our meeting
was joyous, as you may suppose, but I played the
part of the Indian hunter who, when he returns from
(22:38):
the chase, never for a time, speaks of his success.
She had prepared a snug, little rustic meal for me,
and while it was getting ready, I seated myself at
an old fashioned desk in one corner and began to
count over my money and put it away. She came
to me before I had finished, and asked who I
(22:59):
had elected the money for for myself, to be sure,
replied I, with affected coolness. I made it at court.
She looked at me for a moment in the face incredulously.
I tried to keep my countenance and to play Indian,
but it would not do My muscles began to twitch.
(23:19):
My feelings all at once gave way. I caught her
in my arms, laughed, cried, and danced about the room
like a crazy man. From that time forward, we never
wanted for money. I had not been long in successful
practice when I was surprised one day by a visit
from my woodland patron, Old Miller. The tidings of my
(23:42):
prosperity had reached him in the wilderness, and he had
walked one hundred and fifty miles on foot to see me.
By that time I had improved my domestic establishment and
had all things comfortable about me. He looked around him
with a wondering eye at what he considered luxuries and superfluities.
(24:03):
But supposed they were all right in my altered circumstances.
He said, he did not know upon the whole, but
that I acted for the best. It is true if
game had continued plenty, it would have been a folly
for me to quit a hunter's life. But hunting was
pretty nigh done up in Kentucky. The buffalo had gone
(24:24):
to Missouri, the elk were nearly gone. Also, deer, too,
were growing scarce. They might last out his time. As
he was growing old but they were not worth setting
up life upon. He had once lived on the borders
of Virginia. Game grew scarce there. He followed it up
across Kentucky, and now it was again giving him the slip.
(24:47):
But he was too old to follow it farther. He
remained with us three days. My wife did everything in
her power to make him comfortable. But at the end
of that time he said he must be again to
the woods. He was tired of the village and of
having so many people about him. He accordingly returned to
(25:07):
the wilderness and to hunting life. But I fear he
did not make a good end of it, for I
understand that a few years before his death he married
Suki Thomas, who lived at the White Oak Run. End
of section nineteen
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