Speaker 1: Section sixty one of The Gilded Age. This LibriVox recording
Speaker 1: is in the public domain. The Gilded Age, A Tale
Speaker 1: of to Day by Mark Twain and C. D. Warner,
Speaker 1: Chapter sixty one. Clay Hawkins, years gone by had yielded,
Speaker 1: after many a struggle to the migratory and speculative instinct
Speaker 1: of our age and our people, and had wandered further
Speaker 1: and further westward upon trading ventures. Settling finally in Melbourne, Australia,
Speaker 1: he ceased to roam, became a steady going, substantial merchant,
Speaker 1: and prospered greatly. His life lay beyond the theater of
Speaker 1: this tale. His remittances had supported the Hawkins family entirely
Speaker 1: from the time of his father's death until latterly, when Laura,
Speaker 1: by her efforts in Washington, had been able to assist
Speaker 1: in this work. Clay was away on a long absence
Speaker 1: in some of the Eastward Islands when Laura's troubles began,
Speaker 1: trying and almost in vain to arrange certain interests which
Speaker 1: had become disordered through a dishonest agent, and consequently he
Speaker 1: knew nothing of the murder till he returned and read
Speaker 1: his letters and papers. His natural impulse was to hurry
Speaker 1: to the States and save his sister if possible, for
Speaker 1: he loved her with a deep and abiding affection. His
Speaker 1: business was so crippled now and so deranged, that to
Speaker 1: leave it would be ruin. Therefore he sold out at
Speaker 1: a sacrifice that left him considerably reduced in worldly possessions,
Speaker 1: and began his voyage to San Francisco. Arrived there, he
Speaker 1: perceived by the newspapers that the trial was near its
Speaker 1: close at Salt Lake. Later telegrams told him of the acquittal,
Speaker 1: and his gratitude was boundless, So boundless indeed, that sleep
Speaker 1: was driven from his eyes by the pleasurable excitement, almost
Speaker 1: as effectually as preceding weeks of anxiety had done it.
Speaker 1: He shaped his course straight for Hawkeye now, and his
Speaker 1: meeting with his mother and the rest of the household
Speaker 1: was joyful, albeit he had been away so long that
Speaker 1: he seemed almost a stranger in his own house. But
Speaker 1: the greetings and congratulations were hardly finished when all the
Speaker 1: journals in the land clamored the news of Laura's miserable death.
Speaker 1: Missus Hawkins was prostrated by this last blow, and it
Speaker 1: was well that Clay was at her side, to stay
Speaker 1: her with comforting words, and take upon himself the ordering
Speaker 1: of the household, with its burden of labors and cares.
Speaker 1: Washington Hawkins had scarcely more than entered upon that decade
Speaker 1: which carries one of the full blossom of manhood, which
Speaker 1: we term the beginning of middle age. And yet a
Speaker 1: brief sojourn at the capital of the nation had made
Speaker 1: him old. His hair was already turning gray when the
Speaker 1: Late Session of Congress began its sittings. It grew grayer
Speaker 1: still and rapidly. After the memorable day that saw Laura
Speaker 1: proclaimed a murderess, it waxed grayer and still grayer during
Speaker 1: the lagging suspense that succeeded it, and after the crash
Speaker 1: which ruined his last hope, the failure of his bill
Speaker 1: in the Senate, and the destruction of its champion, Dilworthy.
Speaker 1: A few days later, when he stood uncovered while the
Speaker 1: last prayer was pronounced over Laura's grave, his hair was whiter,
Speaker 1: and his face hardly less old than the venerable ministers
Speaker 1: whose words were sounding in his ears. A week after this,
Speaker 1: he was sitting in a double bedded room in a
Speaker 1: cheap boarding house, in Washington with Colonel Sellers. The two
Speaker 1: had been living together lately, and this mutual cavern of
Speaker 1: theirs the Colonel sometimes referred to as their premises, and
Speaker 1: sometimes as their apartments, more particularly when conversing with persons outside.
Speaker 1: A canvas covered modern trunk marked g w H stood
Speaker 1: on the end by the door, strapped and ready for
Speaker 1: a journey. On it lay a small Morocco satchel, also
Speaker 1: marked g w H. There was another trunk spy, a
Speaker 1: worn and scarred and ancient hair relic with b s
Speaker 1: wrought in brass nails on its top. On it lay
Speaker 1: a pair of saddle bags that probably knew more about
Speaker 1: the last century than they could tell. Washington got up
Speaker 1: and walked the floor awhile in a restless sort of way,
Speaker 1: and finally was about to sit down on the hair trunk. Stop.
Speaker 1: Don't sit down on that, exclaimed the colonel. There, now
Speaker 1: that's all right, the chair is better. I couldn't get
Speaker 1: another trunk like that, not another like it in America.
Speaker 1: I reckon, I am afraid, not, said Washington, with a
Speaker 1: faint attempt at a smile. No, indeed, the man is
Speaker 1: dead that made that trunk, and that saddle bags. Are
Speaker 1: his great grandchildren still living? Said Washington, with levity only
Speaker 1: in the words, not in the tone. Well, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought of that. But anyway, they can't make
Speaker 1: trunks and saddle bags like that if they are no
Speaker 1: man can, said the colonel, with honest simplicity. Wife didn't
Speaker 1: like to see me going off with that trunk, she said,
Speaker 1: it was nearly certain to be stolen. Why why why
Speaker 1: aren't trunks always being stolen? Well, yes, some kinds of
Speaker 1: trunks are very well. Then this is some kind of
Speaker 1: a trunk, and an almighty rare kind too, Yes, I
Speaker 1: believe it is. Well, then why shouldn't a man want
Speaker 1: to steal it if he got a chance. Indeed, I
Speaker 1: don't know why should he? Washington, I never heard anybody
Speaker 1: talk like you. Suppose you were a thief and that
Speaker 1: trunk was lying around and nobody watching, wouldn't you steal it?
Speaker 1: Come now, answer fair? Wouldn't you steal it? Well, now,
Speaker 1: since you corner me, I would take it, but I
Speaker 1: wouldn't consider it stealing it, wouldn't. Well, that beats me.
Speaker 1: Now what would you call stealing? Why? Taking property is
Speaker 1: stealing property? Now? What a way to talk, that is,
Speaker 1: what do you suppose that trunk is worth? It? In
Speaker 1: good repair, perfect hair rubbed off a little, but the
Speaker 1: main structure is perfectly sound. Does it leak anywhere? Leak?
Speaker 1: Do you want to carry water in it? What do
Speaker 1: you mean by does it leak? Why do the clothes
Speaker 1: fall out of it? When it is? When it is stationary? Confounded? Washington,
Speaker 1: you are trying to make fun of me. I don't
Speaker 1: know what has got into you to day? You act
Speaker 1: mighty curious. What is the matter with you? Well, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you, old friend, I am almost happy. I am indeed.
Speaker 1: It wasn't Clay's telegram that hurried me up so and
Speaker 1: got me ready to start with you. It was a
Speaker 1: letter from Louise Good. What is it? What does she say?
Speaker 1: She says, come home? Her father has consented at last,
Speaker 1: My boy. I want to congratulate you. I want to
Speaker 1: shake you by the hand. It's a long turn that
Speaker 1: has no lane at the end of it, as the
Speaker 1: proverb says, or somehow that way you'll be happy yet,
Speaker 1: and Biah sellers will be there to see, Thank God,
Speaker 1: I believe it. General Boswell is pretty nearly a poor
Speaker 1: man now. The railroad that was going to build up
Speaker 1: Hawkeye made short work of him, along with the rest.
Speaker 1: He isn't so opposed to a son in law without
Speaker 1: a fortune now without a fortune. Indeed, why that Tennessee Land.
Speaker 1: Never mind the Tennessee Land, Colonel, I am done with
Speaker 1: that forever and forever. Why no, you can't mean to say,
Speaker 1: my father away back yonder years ago, bought it for
Speaker 1: a blessing for his children, and indeed he did. Sy
Speaker 1: Hawkins said to me it proved a curse to him
Speaker 1: as long as he lived, and never a curse like
Speaker 1: it was inflicted upon any man's ears. I'm bound to say,
Speaker 1: there's more or less truth. It began to curse me
Speaker 1: when I was a baby, and it has cursed every
Speaker 1: hour of my life to this day. Lord Lord, but
Speaker 1: it's so time and again, my wife, I depended on
Speaker 1: it all through my boyhood and never tried to do
Speaker 1: an honor stroke of work for my living. Right again,
Speaker 1: But then you, I have chased it years and years
Speaker 1: as children chase butterflies. We might all have been prosperous now,
Speaker 1: We might all have been happy all these heart breaking
Speaker 1: years if we had accepted our poverty at first, and
Speaker 1: gone contentedly to work and built up our own wealth
Speaker 1: by our own toil and sweat. It's so, it's so
Speaker 1: bless my soul. How often I've told cy Hawkins instead
Speaker 1: of that, we have suffered more than the damned themselves suffer.
Speaker 1: I loved my father, and I honor his memory and
Speaker 1: recognize his good intentions. But I grieve for his mistaken
Speaker 1: ideas of conferring happiness upon his children. I'm going to
Speaker 1: begin my life over again, and begin it and end
Speaker 1: it with good, solid work. I'll leave my children no
Speaker 1: tennessee Land. Spoken like a man, sir, spoken like a man.
Speaker 1: Your hand again, my boy, and always remember that when
Speaker 1: a word of advice from Bariah Sellers can help, it
Speaker 1: is at your service. I'm going to begin again too. Indeed, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: I've seen enough to show me where my mistake was.
Speaker 1: The law is what I was born for. I shall
Speaker 1: begin the study of the law heavens and earth. But
Speaker 1: that Brahm's a wonderful man, a wonderful man, sir, such
Speaker 1: a head and such a way with him. But I
Speaker 1: could see that he was jealous of me. The little
Speaker 1: licks I got in in the course of my argument
Speaker 1: before the jury, your argument, why you were a witness?
Speaker 1: Oh yes, sir, to the popular eye, to the popular eye.
Speaker 1: But I knew when I was dropping information and when
Speaker 1: I was letting drive at the court with an insidious argument.
Speaker 1: But the court knew it. Bless you and weakened every time.
Speaker 1: And Braham knew it. I just reminded him of it
Speaker 1: in a quiet way. And it's final result. And he
Speaker 1: said in a whisper, you did it, colonel. You did it, sir.
Speaker 1: But keep it mum for my sake. And I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what you do, says he. You go into law,
Speaker 1: Colonel Sellers, go into the law, sir. That's your native element.
Speaker 1: And into the law, the subscriber is going. There's worlds
Speaker 1: of money in it, whole worlds of money. Practice first
Speaker 1: in Hawkeye, then in Jefferson, then in Saint Louis, then
Speaker 1: in New York, in the metropolis of the Western world.
Speaker 1: Climb and climb and climb, and wind up on the
Speaker 1: Supreme Bench, Pariah Seller's, chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: of the United States, Sir, A made man for all
Speaker 1: time and eternity. That's the way I block it out, sir.
Speaker 1: And it's as clear as day, clear as the rosy morn.
Speaker 1: Washington had heard little of this. The first reference to
Speaker 1: Laura's trial had brought the old dejection to his face again,
Speaker 1: and he stood gazing out of the window at nothing
Speaker 1: lost in reverie. There was a knock. The postman handed
Speaker 1: in a letter. It was from Obdstown, East Tennessee, and
Speaker 1: was for Washington. He opened it. There was a note
Speaker 1: saying that enclosed he would please find a bill for
Speaker 1: the current year's taxes on the seventy five thousand acres
Speaker 1: of Tennessee land belonging to the estate of Silas Hawkins deceased,
Speaker 1: and added that the money must be paid within sixty days,
Speaker 1: or the land would be sold at public auction for
Speaker 1: the taxes as provided by law. The bill was for
Speaker 1: a hundred eighty dollars, something more than twice the market
Speaker 1: value of the land. Perhaps Washington hesitated, doubts flitted through
Speaker 1: his mind. The old instinct came upon him to cling
Speaker 1: to the land just a little longer and give it
Speaker 1: one more chance. He walked the floor feverishly, his mind
Speaker 1: tortured by indecision. Presently he stopped, took out his pocket book,
Speaker 1: and counted his money two hundred and thirty dollars. It
Speaker 1: was all he had in the world, one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty From two hundred thirty, he said to himself, fifty left.
Speaker 1: It is enough to get me home. Shall I do it?
Speaker 1: Or shall I not? I wish I had somebody to
Speaker 1: decide for me. The pocket book lay open in his hand,
Speaker 1: with Louise's small letter in view. His eye fell upon that,
Speaker 1: and it decided him. It shall go for taxes, he said,
Speaker 1: and never tempt me or mine any more. He opened
Speaker 1: the window and stood there, tearing the tax bill to bits,
Speaker 1: and watching the breeze waft them away till all were gone.
Speaker 1: The spell is broken, the life long curse is ended,
Speaker 1: he said, Let us go. The baggage wagon had arrived
Speaker 1: five minutes later. The two friends were mounted upon their
Speaker 1: luggage in it, and rattling off toward the station, the
Speaker 1: colonel endeavoring to sing homeward Bound, a song whose words
Speaker 1: he knew, but whose tune, as he rendered, it was
Speaker 1: a trial to auditors. End of Chapter sixty one