place this has been until within the last few months. All vigorous growth had stopped, and we were actually going to seed.”
“And the graveyard, too,” muttered the individual who had before disturbed the self-satisfied harmony of the company, remarking upon the closing sentence of Harvey Green. “Come, landlord,” he added, as he strode across to the bar, speaking in a changed, reckless sort of a way, “fix me up a good hot whisky-punch, and do it right; and here’s another sixpence toward the fortune you are bound to make. It’s the last one left—not a copper more in my pockets,” and he turned them inside-out, with a half-solemn, half-ludicrous air. “I send it to keep company in your till with four others that have found their way into that snug place since morning, and which will be lonesome without their little friend.”
I looked at Simon Slade; his eyes rested on mine for a moment or two, and then sunk beneath my earnest gaze. I saw that his countenance flushed, and that his motions were slightly confused. The incident, it was plain, did not awaken agreeable thoughts. Once I saw his hand move toward the sixpence that lay upon the counter; but whether to push it back or draw it toward the till, I could not determine. The whisky-punch was in due time ready, and with it the man retired to a table across the room, and sat down to enjoy the tempting beverage. As he did so, the landlord quietly swept the poor unfortunate’s last sixpence into his drawer. The influence of this strong potation was to render the man a little more talkative. To the free conversation passing around him he lent an attentive ear, dropping in a word, now and then, that always told upon the company like a well-directed blow. At last, Slade lost all patience with him, and said, a little fretfully:
“Look here, Joe Morgan, if you will be ill-natured, pray go somewhere else, and not interrupt good feeling among gentlemen.”
“Got my last sixpence,” retorted Joe, turning his pockets inside-out again. “No more use for me here to-night. That’s the way of the world. How apt a scholar is our good friend Dustycoat, in this new school! Well, he was a good miller—no one ever disputed that—and it’s plain to see that he is going to make a good landlord. I thought his heart was a little too soft; but the indurating process has begun, and, in less than ten years, if it isn’t as hard as one of his old mill-stones, Joe Morgan is no prophet. Oh, you needn’t knit your brows so, friend Simon, we’re old friends; and friends are privileged to speak plain.”
“I wish you’d go home. You’re not yourself tonight,” said the landlord, a little coaxingly, for he saw that nothing was to be gained by quarreling with Morgan. “Maybe my heart is growing harder,” he added, with affected good-humor; “and it is time, perhaps. One of my weaknesses, I have heard even you say, was being too woman-hearted.”
“No danger of that now,” retorted Joe Morgan. “I’ve known a good many landlords in my time, but can’t remember one that was troubled with the disease that once afflicted you.”
Just at this moment the outer door was pushed open with a slow, hesitating motion; then a little pale face peered in, and a pair of soft blue eyes went searching about the room. Conversation was instantly hushed, and every face, excited with interest, turned toward the child, who had now stepped through the door. She was not over ten years of age; but it moved the heart to look upon the saddened expression of her young countenance, and the forced bravery therein, that scarcely overcame the native timidity so touchingly visible.
“Father!” I have never heard this word spoken in a voice that sent such a thrill along every nerve. It was full of sorrowful love—full of a tender concern that had its origin too deep for the heart of a child. As she spoke, the little one sprang across the room, and laying her hands upon the arm of Joe Morgan, lifted her eyes, that were ready to gush over with tears, to his face.
“Come father! won’t you come home?” I hear that low, pleading voice even now, and my heart gives a quicker throb. Poor child! Darkly shadowed was the sky that bent gloomily over thy young life.
Morgan arose, and suffered the child to lead him from the room. He seemed passive in her hands. I noticed that he thrust his fingers nervously into his pocket, and that a troubled look went over his face as they were withdrawn. His last sixpence was in the till of Simon Slade!
The first man who spoke was Harvey Green, and this not for a minute after the father and his child had vanished through the door.
“If I was in your place, landlord”—his voice was cold and unfeeling—”I’d pitch that fellow out of the bar-room the next time he stepped through the door. He’s no business here, in the first place; and, in the second, he doesn’t know how to behave himself. There’s no telling how much a vagabond like him injures a respectable house.”
“I wish he would stay away,” said Simon, with a perplexed air.
“I’d make him stay away,” answered Green.
“That may be easier said than done,” remarked Judge Lyman. “Our friend keeps a public-house, and can’t just say who shall or shall not come into it.”
“But such a fellow has no business here. He’s a good-for-nothing sot. If I kept a tavern, I’d refuse to sell him liquor.”
“That you might do,” said Judge Lyman; “and I presume your hint will not be lost on our friend Slade.”
“He will have liquor, so long as he can get a cent to buy it with,” remarked one of the company; “and I don’t see why our landlord here, who has gone to so much expense to fit up a tavern, shouldn’t have the sale of it as well as anybody else. Joe talks a little freely sometimes; but no one can say that he is quarrelsome. You’ve got to take him as he is, that’s all.”
“I am one,” retorted Harvey Green, with a slightly ruffled manner, “who is never disposed to take people as they are when they choose to render themselves disagreeable. If I was Mr. Slade, as I remarked in the beginning, I’d pitch that fellow into the road the next time he put his foot over my door step.”
“Not if I were present,” remarked the other, coolly.
Green was on his feet in a moment, and I saw, from the flash of his eyes, that he was a man of evil passions. Moving a pace or two in the direction of the other, he said sharply.
“What is that, sir?”
The individual against whom his anger was so suddenly aroused was dressed plainly, and had the appearance of a working man. He was stout and muscular.
“I presume you heard my words. They were spoken distinctly,” he replied, not moving from where he sat, nor seeming to be in the least disturbed. But there was a cool defiance in the tones of his voice and in the steady look of his eyes.
“You’re an impertinent fellow, and I’m half tempted to chastise you.”
Green had scarcely finished the sentence, ere he was lying full length upon the floor. The other had sprung upon him like a tiger, and with one blow from his heavy fist, struck him down as if he had been a child. For a moment or two, Green lay stunned and bewildered—then, starting up with a savage cry, that sounded more bestial than human, he drew a long knife from a concealed sheath, and attempted to stab his assailant, but the murderous purpose was not accomplished, for the other man, who had superior strength and coolness, saw the design, and with a well directed blow almost broke the arm of Green, causing the knife to leave his hand and glide far across the room.
“I’m half tempted to wring your neck off,” exclaimed the man, whose name was Lyon, now much excited, and seizing Green by the throat, he strangled him until his face grew black. “Draw a knife on me, ha! You murdering villain!” And he gripped him tighter.
Judge Lyman and the landlord now interfered, and rescued Green from the hands of his fully aroused antagonist. For some time they stood growling at each other, like two parted dogs struggling to get free, in order to renew the conflict, but gradually cooled off. In a little while Judge Lyman drew Green aside, and the two men left the bar-room to other. In the door, as they were retiring, the former slightly nodded to Willy Hammond, who soon followed them, going into the sitting room, and from thence, as I could perceive, upstairs to an apartment