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Citation |
- Permanent Link:
- https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00083159/00001
Material Information
- Title:
- Jackanapes
- Series Title:
- Cosy corner series
- Creator:
- Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty, 1841-1885
Sacker, Amy M., 1872-1965 ( Illustrator )
Joseph Knight Company ( Publisher )
- Place of Publication:
- Boston
- Publisher:
- Joseph Knight Company
- Publication Date:
- 1895
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 60, [2] p. : ill. ; 19 cm.
Subjects
- Subjects / Keywords:
- Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh ) Courage -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh ) Cavalry -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh ) Soldiers -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh ) Death -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh ) Christian life -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh ) Publishers' advertisements -- 1895 ( rbgenr ) Bldn -- 1895
- Genre:
- Publishers' advertisements ( rbgenr )
novel ( marcgt )
- Spatial Coverage:
- United States -- Massachusetts -- Boston
- Target Audience:
- juvenile ( marctarget )
Notes
- General Note:
- Publisher's advertisements follow text.
- Statement of Responsibility:
- by Juliana Horatia Ewing ; illustrated by Amy Sacker.
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- University of Florida
- Holding Location:
- University of Florida
- Rights Management:
- This item is presumed to be in the public domain. The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries respect the intellectual property rights of others and do not claim any copyright interest in this item. Users of this work have responsibility for determining copyright status prior to reusing, publishing or reproducing this item for purposes other than what is allowed by fair use or other copyright exemptions. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions may require permission of the copyright holder. The Smathers Libraries would like to learn more about this item and invite individuals or organizations to contact The Department of Special and Area Studies Collections (special@uflib.ufl.edu) with any additional information they can provide.
- Resource Identifier:
- 026683416 ( ALEPH )
ALG6202 ( NOTIS ) 16240662 ( OCLC )
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JACKANAPES
JACKANAPES
VLIANAHORATIAEWING
ILLVSTRATED
BY
“AMY - SACKER -
‘BOSTON:
Pee “JOSEPH-KNIGHT-COMPANY: Za" ;
CopyRIGHT, 1895
BY
JoszrH KnicuT ComPANy
CHAPTER I.
*‘Last noon beheld them full of life,
Last eve in beauty’s circle proudly gay.â€
CHAPTER II.
“And he wandered away and away
With Nature, the dear old nurse.â€
CHAPTER III.
“Tf studious, copie fair what time hath blurred,
Redeem truth from his jawes.â€
CHAPTER IV.
“‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends.’?
CHAPTER V.
“Then, said he, ‘I am going to my Father’s.
ro
CHAPTER VI.
“Und so ist der blaue Himmel grésser als jedes
Gewolk darin, und dauerhafter dazu.â€â€™
PAGE
15
19
4t
51
56
PAGE
“BuT suE REMEMBERED THE LILTLE Miss Jrssa-
MINE†: : : : 2 : & frontispiece
TITLEPAGE. : 5 3 : A : : a v
“Next Day JANE HAD HEARD MORE†: 5 . 9
AT THE PonD ; : 5 : : : 5 . 17
‘ JACKANAPES COULD HARDLY SLEEP FOR SPECULATING� . 23
“HE WAS DISPOSED TO TALK CONFIDENTIALLY†. : 31
THE GENERAL’S GRANDSON . i 4 4 i 3 42
THe Boy TRUMPETER . ee : A ‘ , : 46
TAILPIECE. : i : a ; : : : 55
FINIS.. : J : : i : a‘ i 60
JACKANAPES.
CHAPTER I.
Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,
Last eve in beauty’s circle proudly gay,
The midnight brought the signal sound of strife,
The morn the marshalling in arms — the day
Battle’s magnificently stern array !
The thunder-clouds close o’er it, which when rent
The earth is covered thick with other clay,
Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent,
Rider and horse: — friend, foe, — in one red burial blent.
Their praise is hymn’d by loftier harps than mine,
Yet one would I select from that proud throng.
to thee, to thousands, of whom each
And one as all a ghastly gap did make
In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach
Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake;
The Archangel’s trump, not glory’s, must awake
Those whom they thirst for. Byxon.
Two Donkeys and the Geese lived on the
Green, and all other residents of any social
standing lived in houses round it. The houses
had no names. Everybody’s address was,
“The Green,†but the Postman and the people
2 JACKANAPES.
of the place knew where each family lived.
As to the rest of the world, what has one to do
with the rest of the world, when he is safe at
home on his own Goose Green? Moreover, if
a stranger did come on any lawful business, he
might ask his way at the shop.
Most of the inhabitants were long-lived, early
deaths (like that of the little Miss Jessamine)
being exceptional; and most of the old people
were proud of their age, especially the sexton,
who would be ninety-nine come Martinmas,
and whose father remembered a man who had
carried arrows, as a boy, for the battle of
Flodden Field. The Grey Goose and the big
Miss Jessamine were the only elderly per-
sons who kept their ages secret. Indeed, Miss
Jessamine never mentioned any one’s age, or
recalled the exact year in which anything had
happened. She said that she had been taught
that it was bad manners todo so “in a mixed
assembly.â€
The Grey Goose also avoided dates, but this
was partly because her brain, though intelligent,
was not mathematical, and computation was
beyond her. She never got farther than “last
Michaelmas,†‘the Michaelmas before that,â€
and “the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas
JACKANAPES, 3
before that.†After this her head, which was
small, became confused, and she said, “ Ga,
ga!†and changed the subject.
But she remembered the little Miss Jes-
samine, the Miss Jessamine with the ‘“ con-
spicuous†hair. Her aunt, the big Miss
Jessamine, said it was her only fault. The
hair was clean, was abundant, was glossy, but
do what you would with it it never looked
quite like other people’s. And at church,
after Saturday night’s wash, it shone like the
best brass fender after a spring cleaning. In
short, it was conspicuous, which does not be-
come a young woman — especially in church.
Those were worrying times altogether, and
the Green was used for strange purposes. A
political meeting was held on it with the village
cobbler in the chair, and a speaker who came
by stagecoach from the town, where they had
wrecked the bakers’ shops, and discussed the
price of bread. He came a second time, by
stage, but the people had heard something
about him in the mean while, and they did not
keep him on the Green. They took him to
the pond and tried to make him swim, which
he could not do, and the whole affair was very
disturbing to all quiet and peaceable fowls.
4 JACKANAPES.
After which another man came, and preached
sermons on the Green, and a great many peo-
ple went to hear him; for those were “ trying
times,†and folk ran hither and thither for com-
fort. And then what did they do but drill the
ploughboys on the Green, to get them ready to
fight the French, and teach them the goose-
step! However, that came to an end at last,
for Bony was sent to St. Helena, and the plough-
boys were sent back to the plough.
Everybody lived in fear of Bony in those
days, especially the naughty children, who
were kept in order during the day by threats
of, ‘Bony shall have you,†and who had night-
mares about him in the dark. They thought
he was an ogre in a cocked hat. The Grey
Goose thought he was a fox, and that all the
men of England were going out in red coats to
hunt him. It was no use to argue the point,
for she had a very small head, and when one
. idea got into it there was no room for another.
Besides, the Grey Goose never saw Bony,
nor did the children, which rather spoilt the
terror of him, so that the Black Captain be-
came more effective as a bogy with hardened
offenders. The Grey Goose remembered his
coming to the place perfectly. What he came
JACKANAPES. 5
for she did not pretend to know. It was all
part and parcel of the war and bad times. He
was called the Black Captain, partly because of
himself, and partly because of his wonderful
black mare. Strange stories were afloat of
how far and how fast that mare could go, when
her master’s hand was on her mane and he
whispered in her ear. Indeed, some people
thought we might reckon ourselves very lucky
if we were not out of the frying-pan into the
fire, and had not got a certain well-known
Gentleman of the Road to protect us against
the French. But that, of course, made him
none the less useful to the Johnsons’ Nurse,
when the little Miss Johnsons were naughty.
“You leave off crying this minnit, Miss Jane,
or I'll give you right away to that horrid,
wicked officer. Jemima! just look out o’ the
windy, if you please, and see if the Black
Cap’n’s a-coming with his horse to carry away
Miss Jane.â€
And there, sure enough, the Black Captain
strode by, with his sword clattering as if it did
not know whose head to cut off first. But he
did not call for Miss Jane that time. He went
on to the Green, where he came so suddenly
upon the eldest Master Johnson, sitting in a
6 JACKANAPES,
puddle on purpose, in his new nankeen skeleton
suit, that the young gentleman thought judg-
ment had overtaken him at last, and abandoned
himself to the howlings of despair. His howls
were redoubled when he was clutched from
behind and swung over the Black Captain’s
shoulder, but in five minutes his tears were
stanched, and he was playing with the officer’s
accoutrements. All of which the Grey Goose
saw with her own eyes, and heard afterwards
that that bad boy had been whining to go back
to the Black Captain ever since, which showed
how hardened he was, and that nobody but
Bonaparte himself could be expected to do him
any good.
But those were “trying times.†It was bad
enough when the pickle of a large and respect-
able family cried for the Black Captain; when
it came to the little Miss Jessamine crying for
him, one felt that the sooner the French landed
and had done with it the better.
The big Miss Jessamine’s objection to him
was that he was a soldier, and this prejudice
was shared by all the Green. ‘A soldier,†as
the speaker from the town had observed, “is a
bloodthirsty, unsettled sort of a rascal, that
the peaceable, home-loving, bread-winning citi-
JACKANAPES. Ti
zen can never conscientiously look on as a
brother, till he has beaten his sword into a
ploughshare, and his spear into a pruning-
hook.â€
On the other hand, there was some truth in
what the Postman (an old soldier) said in
reply; that the sword has to cut a way for us
out of many a scrape into which our bread-
winners get us when they drive their plough-
shares into fallows that don’t belong to them.
Indeed, whilst our most peaceful citizens were
prosperous chiefly by means of cotton, of
sugar, and of the rise and fall of the money
market (not to speak of such salable matters
as opium, firearms, and “black ivoryâ€), dis-
turbances were apt to arise in India, Africa,
and other outlandish parts, where the fathers
of our domestic race were making fortunes for
their families. And, for that matter, even on
the Green, we did not wish the military to leave
us in the lurch, so long as there was any fear
that the French were coming.*
* «The political men declare war, and generally for com-
mercial interests; but when the nation is thus embroiled with
its neighbors the soldier ... draws the sword, at the com-
mand of his country... . One word as to thy comparison of
military and commercial persons. What manner of men be
they who have supplied the Caffres with the firearms and
8 JACKANAPES.
To let the Black Captain have little Miss
Jessamine, however, was another matter. Her
aunt would not hear of it; and then, to crown
all, it appeared that the Captain’s father did
not think the young lady good enough for
his son. Never was any affair more clearly
brought to a conclusion.
But those were “trying timesâ€; and one
moonlight night, when the Grey Goose was
sound asleep upon one leg, the Green was
rudely shaken under her by the thud of a
horse’s feet. ‘Ga, ga!†said she, putting
down the other leg, and running away.
By the time she returned to her place not a
thing was to be seen or heard. The horse had
passed like a shot. But next day there was
hurrying and skurrying and cackling at a very
early hour, all about the white house with
the black beams, where Miss Jessamine lived.
And when the sun was so low, and the shadows
so long on the grass, that the Grey Goose felt
ready to run away at the sight of her own neck,
little Miss Jane Johnson, and her “ particular
friend†Clarinda, sat under the big oak-tree on
ammunition to maintain their savage and deplorable wars?
Assuredly they are not military. ... Cease, then, if thou
wouldst be counted among the just, to vilify soldiers.†— W.
Napier, Lieutenant-General, November, 1851.
JACKANAPES, 9
the Green, and Jane pinched Clarinda’s little
finger till she found that she could keep a
secret, and then she told her in confidence that
she had heard from Nurse and Jemima that
Miss Jessamine’s niece had been a very naughty
girl, and that that horrid, wicked officer had
19 JACKANAPES.
come for her on his black horse, and carried
her right away.
“Will she never come back?†asked Cla-
rinda.
“Oh, no!†said Jane decidedly. ‘“ Bony
never brings people back.â€
‘““Not never no more?†sobbed Clarinda, for
she was weak-minded, and could not bear to
think that Bony never, never let naughty people
go home again.
Next day Jane had heard more.
‘He has taken her to a Green.â€
“A Goose Green?†asked Clarinda.
‘No. A Gretna Green. Don’t ask so many
questions, child,†said Jane, who, having no
more to tell, gave herself airs.
Jane was wrong. on one point. Miss Jessa-
mine’s niece did come back, and she and her
husband were forgiven. The Grey Goose re-
membered it well; it was Michaelmastide, the
Michaelmas before the Michaelmas before the
Michaelmas— but ga, ga! What does the
date matter? It was autumn, harvest time,
and everybody was so busy prophesying and
praying about the crops that the young couple
wandered through the lanes, and got black-
berries for Miss Jessamine’s celebrated crab and
JACKANAPES. It
blackberry jam, and made guys of themselves
with bryony wreaths, and not a soul troubled
his head about them, except the children, and
the Postman. The children dogged the Black
Captain’s footsteps (his bubble reputation as
an ogre having burst), clamoring for a ride on
the black mare. And the Postman would geo
somewhat out of his postal way to catch the
Captain’s dark eye, and show that he had not
forgotten how to salute an officer.
But they were “trying times.†One after-
noon the black mare was stepping gently up
and down the grass, with her head at her mas-
ter’s shoulder, and as many children crowded
onto her silky back as if she had been an ele-
phant in a menagerie; and the next afternoon
she carried him away, sword and sabre-tache
clattering war music at her side, and the old
Postman waiting for them, rigid with salutation,
at the four cross roads.
War and bad times! It was a hard winter,
and the big Miss.Jessamine and the little Miss
Jessamine (but she was Mrs. Black-Captain
now) lived very economically, that they might
help their poorer neighbors. They neither en-
tertained nor went into company, but the young
lady always went up the village as far as the
12 JACKANAPES.
George and Dragon, for air and exercise, when
the London mail* came in.
One day (it was a day in the following June)
it came in earlier than usual, and the young
lady was not there to meet it.
But a crowd soon gathered round the George
and Dragon, gaping to see the mail coach
dressed with flowers and oak-leaves, and the
guard wearing a laurel wreath over and above
his royal livery. The ribbons that decked the
horses were stained and flecked with the warmth
and foam of the pace at which they had come,
for they had pressed on with the news of vic-
tory.
Miss Jessamine was sitting with her niece
under the oak-tree on the Green, when the Post-
man put a newspaper silently into her hand.
Her niece turned quickly —
“Ts there news?â€
“Don’t agitate yourself, my dear,†said her
*The mail coach it was that distributed over the face of
the land, like the opening of apocalyptic vials, the heart-shak-
ing news of Trafalgar, of Salamanca, of Vittoria, of Waterloo.
. . . The grandest chapter of our experience, within the whole
mail coach service, was on those occasions when we went
down from London with the news of victory. Five years of life
it was worth paying down for the privilege of an outside place
— DE QuINCEY.
JACKANAPES. 13
aunt. ‘I will read it aloud, and then we can
enjoy it together; a far more comfortable
method, my love, than when you go up the
village, and come home out of breath, having
snatched half the news as you run.â€
“JT am all attention, dear aunt,†said the little
lady, clasping her hands tightly on her lap.
Then Miss Jessamine read aloud—she was
proud of her reading—and the old soldier
stood at attention behind her, with sucha blend-
ing of pride and pity on his face as it was
strange to see: —
** DOWNING STREET,
June 22, 1815, I A. M.â€
“That's one in the morning,†gasped the
Postman; “beg your pardon, mum.â€
But though he apologized, he could not
refrain from echoing here and there a weighty
word. ‘Glorious victory,’—‘Two hundred
pieces of artillery,,—‘“Immense quantity of
ammunition,†—and so forth.
“The loss of the British army upon this occasion has unfor-
tunately been most severe. It had not been possible to make
out a return of the killed and wounded when Major Percy left
headquarters. The names of the officers killed and wounded,
as far as they can be collected, are annexed.
“J have the honor K
“ The list, aunt! Read the list!â€
14 JACKANAPES,
“My love—my darling—let us go in and—’
“No. Now! now!â€
To one thing the supremely afflicted are en-
titled in their sorrow, —to be obeyed; and yet
it is the last kindness that people commonly will
do them. But Miss Jessamine did. Steadying
her voice, as best she might, she read on, and
the old soldier stood baréheaded to hear that
first roll of the dead at Waterloo, which began
with the Duke of Brunswick and ended with
Ensign Brown.* Five-and-thirty British cap-
tains fell asleep that day on the bed of honor,
and the Black Captain slept among them.
* * * * * * *
There are killed and wounded by war, of
whom no returns reach Downing Street.
Three days later the Captain’s wife had joined
him, and Miss Jessamine was kneeling by the
cradle of their orphan son, a purple-red morsel
of humanity, with conspicuously golden hair.
“Will he live, doctor?â€
“Live? God bless my soul, ma’am! Look
at him! The young jackanapes!â€
*« Brunswick’s fated chieftain †fell at Quartre. Bras, the day
before Waterloo, but this first (very imperfect) list, as it ap-
peared in the newspapers of the day, did begin with his name,
and.end with that of an Ensign Brown.
JACKANAPES. 15
CHAPTER II.
And he wandered away and away
With Nature, the dear old nurse.
LONGFELLOow.
THE Grey Goose remembered quite well the
year that Jackanapes began to walk, for it was
the year that the speckled hen for the first
time in all her motherly life got out of patience
when she was sitting. She had been rather
proud of the eggs — they were unusually large
—but she never felt quite comfortable on
them; and whether it was because she used to
get cramp, and go off the nest, or because the
season was bad, or what, she never could tell,
but every egg was addled but one, and the one
that did hatch gave her more trouble than any
chick she had ever reared.
It was a fine, downy, bright yellow little
thing, but it had a monstrous big nose and
feet, and such an ungainly walk as she knew
no other instance of in her well-bred and high-
stepping family. And as to behavior, it was
not that it was either quarrelsome or moping,
but simply unlike the rest. When the other
chicks ie a and cheeped on the Green
16 JACKANAPES.
about their mother’s feet, this solitary yellow
brat went waddling off on its own responsibility,
and do or cluck what the speckled hen would,
it went to play in the pond.
It was off one day as usual, and the hen was
fussing and fuming after it, when the Postman,
going to deliver a letter at Miss Jessamine’s
door, was nearly knocked over by the good
lady herself, who, bursting out of the house
with her cap just off and her bonnet just not
on, fell into his arms, crying, —
“Baby! Baby! Jackanapes! Jackanapes!â€
If the Postman loved anything on earth, he
loved the Captain’s yellow-haired child, so
propping Miss Jessamine against her own door-
post, he followed the direction of her trembling
fingers and made for the Green.
Jackanapes had had the start of the Postman
by nearly ten minutes. The world — the round,
green world with an oak-tree on it— was just
becoming very interesting to him. He had
tried vigorously, but ineffectually, to mount a
passing pig the last time he was taken out
walking; but then he was encumbered with a
nurse. Now he was his own master, and might,
by courage and energy, become the master of
that delightful, downy, dumpy, yellow thing,
JACKANAPES. 17
that was bobbing along over the green grass in
front of him. Forward! Charge! Heaimed
well, and grabbed it, but only to feel the deli-
cious downiness and dumpiness slipping through
his fingers as he fell upon his face. ‘‘ Quawk!â€
said the yellow thing, and wobbled off side-
ways. It was this oblique movement that en-
abled Jackanapes to come up with it, for it
was bound for the pond, and therefore obliged
to come back into line. He failed again from
topheaviness, and his prey escaped sideways
18 JACKANAPES.
as before, and, as before, lost ground in getting
back to the direct road to the pond.
And at the pond the Postman found them
both, one yellow thing rocking safely on the
ripples that lie beyond duck-weed, and the
other washing his draggled frock with tears,
because he too had tried to sit upon the pond
and it wouldn’t hold him.
JACKANAPES, 19
CHAPTER III.
If studious, copie fair what time hath blurred,
Redeem truth from his jawes; if souldier,
Chase brave employments with a naked sword
Throughout the world. Fool not; for all may have,
If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave.
* * * * * * * *
In brief, acquit thee bravely: play the man.
Look not on pleasures as they come, but go.
Defer not the least vertue: life’s poore span
Make not an ell, by trifling in thy woe.
If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains.
If well: the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
GEORGE HERBERT.
YOUNG Mrs. Johnson, who was a mother of
many, hardly knew which to pity more; Miss
Jessamine for having her little ways and her
antimacassars rumpled by a young Jackanapes;
or the boy himself, for being brought up by an
old maid.
Oddly enough, she would probably have
pitied neither, had Jackanapes been a girl.
(One is so apt to think that what works
smoothest works to the highest ends, having
no patience for the results of friction.) That
father in God, who bade the young men to be
pure, and the maidens brave, greatly disturbed
20 JACKANAPES.
a member of his congregation, who thought
that the great preacher had made a slip of the
tongue.
“That the girls should have purity, and the
boys courage, is what you would say, good
father? â€
“Nature has done that,†was the reply; “1
meant what I said.â€
In good sooth, a young maid is all the better
for learning some robuster virtues than maiden-
liness, and not to move the antimacassars.
And the robuster virtues require some fresh air
and freedom. As, on the other hand, Jacka-
napes (who had a boy’s full share of the little
beast and the young monkey in his natural
composition) was none the worse, at his tender
years, for learning some maidenliness — so far
as maidenliness means decency, pity, unselfish-
ness, and pretty behavior.
And it is due to him to say that he was an
obedient boy, and a boy whose word could be
depended on, long before his grandfather the
General came to live at the Green. .
He was obedient; that is, he did what his
great aunt told him. But—oh dear! oh dear!
—the pranks he played, which it had never
entered into her head to forbid!
JACKANAPES. 21
It was when he had just been put into skele-
tons (frocks never suited him) that he became
very friendly with Master Tony Johnson, a
younger brother of the young gentleman who
sat in the puddle on purpose. Tony was not
enterprising, and Jackanapes led him by the
nose. One summer’s evening they were out
late, and Miss Jessamine was becoming anxious,
when Jackanapes presented himself with a
ghastly face all besmirched with tears. He
was unusually subdued.
“Tm afraid,†he sobbed; “if you please, I’m
very much afraid that Tony Johnson’s dying in
the churchyard.â€
Miss Jessamine was just beginning to be dis-
tracted, when she smelt Jackanapes.
“You naughty, naughty boys! Do you
mean to tell me that you’ve been smoking?â€
“Not pipes,†urged Jackanapes; “upon my
honor, aunty, not pipes. Only cigars like Mr.
Johnson’s! and only made of brown paper with
a very, very little tobacco from the shop inside
them.â€
Whereupon Miss Jessamine sent a servant
to the churchyard, who found Tony Johnson
lying on a tombstone, very sick, and having
ceased to entertain any hopes of his own re-
covery.
22 JACKANAPES.
If it could be possible that any “ unpleasant-
ness†could arise between two such amiable
neighbors as Miss Jessamine and Mrs. Johnson,
—and if the still more incredible paradox can
be that ladies may differ over a point on which
they are agreed —that point was the admitted
fact that Tony Johnson was “ delicate,†and the
difference lay chiefly in this: Mrs. Johnson
said that Tony was delicate — meaning that he
was more finely strung, more sensitive, a
properer subject for pampering and petting
than Jackanapes, and that, consequently, Jacka-
napes was to blame for leading Tony into
scrapes which resulted in his being chilled,
frightened, or (most frequently) sick. But
when Miss Jessamine said that Tony Johnson
was delicate, she meant that he was more
puling, less manly, and less healthily brought
up than Jackanapes, who, when they got into
mischief together, was certainly not to blame
because his friend could not get wet, sit a kick-
ing donkey, ride in the giddy-go-round, bear
the noise of a cracker, or smoke brown paper
with impunity, as he could.
Not that there was ever the slightest aan
between the ladies. It never even came near
it, except the day after Tony had been so very
JACKANAPES. 23
sick with riding Bucephalus in the giddy-go-
round, Mrs. Johnson had explained to Miss
Jessamine that the reason Tony was so easily
upset was the unusual sensitiveness (as a doctor
had explained it to her) of the nervous centres
in her family — “ Fiddlestick!†So Mrs. John-
son understood Miss Jessamine to say, but
it appeared that she only said ‘Treaclestick! â€
which is quite another thing, and of which
Tony was undoubtedly fond.
It was at the Fair that Tony was made ill by
24 JACKANAPES.
riding on Bucephalus. Once a year the Goose
Green became the scene of a carnival. First
of all, carts and caravans were rumbling up all
along, day and night. Jackanapes could hear
them as he lay in bed, and could hardly sleep
for speculating what booths and whirligigs he
should find fairly established, when he and his
dog, Spitfire, went out after breakfast. As a
matter of fact, he seldom had to wait so long
for news of the Fair. The Postman knew the
window out of which Jackanapes’ yellow head
would come, and was ready with his report.
“ Royal Theayter, Master Jackanapes, in the
old place, but be careful o’ them seats, sir;
they’re rickettier than ever. Two sweets anda
ginger-beer under the oak-tree, and the Flying
Boats is just a-coming along the road.â€
No doubt it was partly because he had
already suffered severely in the Flying Boats
that Tony collapsed so quickly in the giddy-go-
round. He only mounted Bucephalus (who
was spotted, and had no tail) because Jacka-
napes urged him, and held out the ingenious
hope that the round-and-round feeling would
very likely cure the up-and-down sensation.
It did not, however, and Tony tumbled off
during the first revolution,
JACKANAPES. 25
J
Jackanapes was not absolutely free from
qualms, but having once mounted the Black
Prince he stuck to him as a horseman should.
During the first round he waved his hat, and
observed with some concern that the Black
Prince had lost an ear since last Fair; at the
second, he looked a little pale, but sat upright,
though somewhat unnecessarily rigid; at the
third round he shut his eyes. During the
fourth his hat fell off, and he clasped his horse’s
neck. By the fifth he had laid his yellow head
against the Black Prince’s mane, and so clung
anyhow till the hobby-horses stopped, when
the proprietor assisted him to alight, and he
sat down rather suddenly and said he had en-
joyed it very much.
The Grey Goose always ran away at the first
approach of the caravans, and never came back
to the Green till there was nothing left of the.
Fair but footmarks and oyster-shells. Running
away was her pet principle; the only system,
she maintained, by which you can live long
and easily, and lose nothing. If you run away
when you see danger, you can come back
when all is safe. Run quickly, return slowly,
hold your head high, and gabble as loud as
you can, and you'll preserve the respect of the
26 JACKANAPES.
Goose Green to a peaceful old age. Why
should you struggle and get hurt, if you can
lower your head and swerve, and not lose a
feather? Why in the world should any one
spoil the pleasure of life, or risk his skin, if he
can help it?
«¢ What's the use?’
Said the Gvose.â€
Before answering which one might have to con-
sider what world — which life— and whether
his skin were a goose-skin; but the Grey
Goose’s head would never have held all that.
Grass soon grows over footprints, and the
village children took the oyster-shells to trim
their gardens with; but the year after Tony
rode Bucephalus there lingered another relic
of Fair time, in which Jackanapes was deeply
interested. “The Green†proper was origi-
nally only part of a straggling common, which
in its turn merged into some wilder waste land
where gypsies sometimes squatted if the author-
ities would allow them, especially after the
annual Fair. And it was after the Fair that
Jackanapes, out rambling by himsclf, was
knocked over by the Gypsy’s son riding the
Gypsy’s red-haired pony at breakneck pace
across the common.
JACKANAPES. 27
‘Jackanapes got up and shook himself, none
the worse, except for being heels over head in
love with the red-haired pony. What a rate
he went at! How he spurned the ground with
his nimble feet! How his red coat shone in
the sunshine! And what bright eyes peeped
out of his dark forelock as it was blown by the
wind |
The Gypsy boy had had a fright, and he was
willing enough to reward Jackanapes for not
having been hurt, by consenting to let him
have a ride.
“Do you mean to kill the little fine gentle-
man, and swing us all on the gibbet, you
rascal?†screamed the Gypsy mother, who came
up just as Jackanapes and the pony set off.
“ He would get on,†replied her son. “It'll
not kill him. He'll fall on his yellow head,
and it’s as tough as a cocoanut.â€
But Jackanapes did not fall. He stuck to
the red-haired pony as he had stuck to the
hobby-horse; but, oh, how different the delight
of this wild gallop with flesh and blood!
Just as his legs were beginning to feel as if
he did not feel them, the Gypsy boy cried,
“TLollo!†Round went the pony so uncere-
moniously that, with as little ceremony, Jacka-
28 JACKANAPES.
napes clung to his neck, and he did not
properly recover himself before Lollo stopped
with a jerk at the place where they had
started.
“Ts his name Lollo?†asked Jackanapes, his
hand lingering in the wiry mane.
eaves
“ What does Lollo mean?â€
“Red.â€
“Ts Lollo your pony?â€
“No. My father’s.†And the Gypsy boy
led Lollo away.
At the first opportunity Jackanapes stole
away againto the common. This time he saw
the Gypsy father, smoking a dirty pipe.
“Lollo is your pony, isn’t he?†said Jacka-
napes.
foVess2
“ He’s a very nice one.â€
“He's a racer.â€
“ You don’t want to sell him, do you?â€
“Fifteen pounds,†said the Gypsy father; and
Jackanapes sighed and went home again. That
very afternoon he and Tony rode the two
donkeys, and Tony managed to get thrown,
and even Jackanapes’ donkey kicked. But it
was jolting, clumsy work after the elastic swift-
JACKANAPES. 29
ness and the dainty mischief of the red-haired
pony.
A few days later Miss Jessamine spoke very
seriously to Jackanapes. She was a good deal
agitated as she told him that his grandfather
the General was coming to the Green, and that
he must be on his very best behavior during
the visit. If it had been feasible to leave off
calling him Jackanapes and to get used to his
baptismal name of Theodore before the day
after to-morrow (when the General was due),
it would have been satisfactory. But Miss
Jessamine feared it would be impossible in
practice, and she had scruples about it on prin-
ciple. It would not seem quite truthful, al-
though she had always most fully intended that
he should be called Theodore when he had out-
grown the ridiculous appropriateness of his
nickname. The fact was that he had not out-
grown it, but he must take care to remember
who was meant when his grandfather said
Theodore.
Indeed, for that matter, he must take care all
along.
“You are apt to be giddy, Jackanapes,†said
Miss Jessamine.
“Yes, aunt,†said Jackanapes, thinking of the
hobby-horscs.
30 JACKANAPES,
“You are a good boy, Jackanapes. Thank
God, I can tell your grandfather that. An
obedient boy, an honorable boy, and a kind-
hearted boy. But you are—in short, you ave
a boy, Jackanapes. And I hope†—added
Miss Jessamine, desperate with the results of
experience—“ that the General knows that
boys will be boys.â€
What mischief could be foreseen, Jackanapes
promised to guard against. He was to keep
his clothes and his hands clean, to look over
his catechism, not to put sticky things in his
pockets, to keep that hair of his smooth —
(“It's the wind that blows it, aunty,†said
Jackanapes, — “I'll send by the coach for some
bear’s grease,†said Miss Jessamine, tying a knot
in her pocket-handkerchief)— not to burst in
at the parlor door, not to talk at the top of his
voice, not to crumple his Sunday frill, and to sit
quite quiet during the sermon; to be sure to
say “sir†to the General, to be careful about
rubbing his shoes on the door-mat, and to bring
his lesson-books to his aunt at once that she
might iron down the dogs’ ears. The General
arrived, and for the first day all went well, ex-
cept that Jackanapes’ hair was as wild as usual,
for the hairdresser had no bear’s grease left.
JACKANAPES. a5
He began to feel more at ease with his grand-
father, and disposed to talk confidentially with
him, as he did with the Postman. All that the
General felt it would take too long to tell, but
tft Recut
the result was the same. He was disposed to
talk confidentially with Jackanapes.
“Mons’ous pretty place, this,†he said, look-
ing out of the lattice on to the Green, where
the grass was vivid with sunset, and the shad-
ows were long and peaceful.
32 JACKANAPES.
“Vou should see it in Fair week, sir,†said
Jackanapes, shaking his yellow mop, and lean-
ing back in his one of the two Chippendale
arm-chairs in which they sat.
“A fine time that, eh?†said the General,
with a twinkle in his left eye. (The other was
glass. )
Jackanapes shook his hair once more. ‘I
enjoyed this last one the best of all,†he said.
“Td so much money.â€
“By George, it’s not a common complaint in
these bad times. How much had ye?â€
“Td two shillings. A new shilling aunty
gave me, and elevenpence I had saved up, and
a penny from the Postman— szr/†added Jack-
anapes with a jerk, having forgotten it.
‘And how did ye spend it — szr?†inquired
the General.
Jackanapes spread his ten fingers on the
arms of his chair, and shut his eyes that he
might count the more conscientiously.
“Watch-stand for aunty, threepence. Trum-
pet for myself, twopence, that’s fivepence. Gin-
ger nuts for Tony, twopence, and a mug with a
grenadier on for the Postman, fourpence, that’s
elevenpence. Shooting-gallery, a penny, that’s
a shilling. Giddy-go-round, a penny, that’s
JACKANAPES. 33
one and a penny. Treating Tony, one and
twopence. Flying boats (Tony paid for him-
self), a penny, one and threepence. Shooting-
gallery again, one and fourpence. Fat woman,
a penny, one and fivepence. Giddy-go-round
again, one and sixpence. Shooting-gallery,
one and sevenpence. ‘Treating Tony, and then
he wouldn’t shoot, so I did, one and eightpence.
Living skeleton, a penny —no, Tony treated
me, the living skeleton doesn’t count. Skittles,
a penny, one and ninepence. Mermaid (but
when we got inside she was dead), a penny,
one and tenpence. Theatre, a penny (Priscilla
Partington, or the Green Lane Murder. A
beautiful young lady, sir, with pink cheeks and
a real pistol), that’s one and _ elevenpence.
Ginger beer, a penny (I was so thirsty!), two
shillings. And then the shooting-gallery man
gave me a turn for nothing, because, he said, I
was a real gentleman, and spent my money like
a man.â€
“So you do, sir, so you do!†cried the
General. ‘“ Why, sir, you spend it like a prince.
And now I suppose you've not got a penny in
your pocket?â€
“Ves I have,†said Jackanapes. ‘Two
pennies. They are saving up.†And Jacka-
napes jingled them with his hand.
34 JACKANADPES.
“You don’t want money except at fair times,
I suppose?†said the General.
Jackanapes shook his mop.
“If I could have as much as J want, I should
know what to buy,†said he.
“ And how much do you want, if you could
get it?â€
“Wait a minute, sir, till I think what two-
pence from fifteen pounds leaves. Two from
nothing you can’t, but borrow twelve. Two
from twelve, ten, and carry one. [lease re-
member ten, sir, when I ask you. One from
nothing you can’t, borrow twenty. One from
twenty, nineteen, and carry one. One from fif-
teen, fourteen. Fourteen pounds nineteen and
—what did I tell you to remember?â€
“Ten,†said the General.
“Fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and
tenpence then, is what I want,†said Jackanapes.
“ Bless my soul, what for? â€
“To buy Lollo with. Lollo means red, sir.
The Gypsy’s red-haired pony, sir. Oh, he zs
beautiful! You should see his coat in the
sunshine! You should see his mane! You
should see his tail! Such little feet, sir, and
they go like lightning! Such a dear face, too,
and eyes like a mouse! But he’s a racer, and
the Gypsy wants fifteen pounds for him.â€
JACKANAPES. 35
“Tf he’s a racer, you couldn’t ride him.
Could you?â€
‘““No—o, sir, but I can stick to him. I did
the other day.â€
“You did, did you? Well, I’m fond of riding
myself, and if the beast is as good as you say,
he might suit me.â€
“Vou’re too tall for Lollo, I think,’ said
Jackanapes, measuring his grandfather with his
eye.
“T can double up my legs, I suppose. We'll
have a look at him to-morrow.â€
“Don’t you weigh a good deal?†asked
Jackanapes.
“ Chiefly waistcoats,†said the General, slap-
ping the breast of ‘his military frock-coat.
“We'll have the little racer on the Green the
first thing in the morning. Glad you mentioned
it, grandson. Glad you mentioned it.â€
The General was as good as his word. Next
morning the Gypsy and Lollo, Miss Jessa-
mine, Jackanapes and his grandfather and his
dog Spitfire, were all gathered at one end of
the Green in a group, which so aroused the
innocent curiosity of Mrs. Johnson, as she saw
it from one of her upper windows, that she and
the children took their early promenade rather
36 JACKANAPES,
earlier than usual. The General talked to the
Gypsy, and Jackanapes fondled Lollo’s mane,
and did. not know whether he should be more
glad or miserable if his grandfather bought
him.
“ Jackanapes !â€
(OVES Sita
“T’ve bought Lollo, but I believe you were
right. He hardly stands high enough for me.
If you can ride him to the other end of the
Green, I'll give him to you.â€
How Jackanapes tumbled on to Lollo’s back
he never knew. He had just gathered up the
reins when the Gypsy father took him by the
arm.
“Tf you want to make Lollo go fast, my little
gentleman —â€
“ {can make him go!†said Jackanapes, and
drawing from his pocket the trumpet he had
bought in the fair, he blew a blast both loud
and shrill.
Away went Lollo, and away went Jackanapes’
hat. His golden hair flew out, an aureole
from which his cheeks shone red and distended
with trumpeting. Away went Spitfire, mad
with the rapture of the race, and the wind in
his silky ears. Away went the geese, the
JACKANAPES., 37
cocks, the hens, and the whole family of John-
son. Lucy clung to her mamma, Jane saved
Emily by the gathers of her gown, and Tony
saved himself by a somersault.
The Grey Goose was just returning when
Jackanapes and Lollo rode back, Spitfire pant-
ing behind.
““Good, my little gentleman, good!†said
the Gypsy. ‘You were born to the saddle.
You've the flat thigh, the strong knee, the wiry
back, and the light caressing hand, all you want
is to learn the whisper. Come here!â€
“What was that dirty fellow talking about,
grandson?†asked the General.
“‘T can’t tell you, sir. It’s a secret.â€
They were sitting in the window again, in the
two Chippendale arm-chairs, the General de-
vouring every line of his grandson’s face, with
strange spasms crossing his own.
“You must love your aunt very much, Jack-
anapes? â€
“T do, sir,†said Jackanapes warmly.
«“ And whom do you love next best to your
aunt? â€
The ties of blood were pressing very strongly
on the General himself, and. perhaps he thought
of Lollo. But love is not bought in a day,
38 JACKANAPES.
_even with fourteen pounds nineteen shillings
and tenpence. Jackanapes answered quite
readily, ‘“‘ The Postman.â€
“Why the Postman?â€
“He knew my father,†said Jackanapes, ‘and
he tells me about him, and about his black
mare. My father was a soldier,a brave soldier.
He died at Waterloo. When I growup I want
to be a soldier too.â€
“So you shall, my boy. So you shall.â€
“Thank you, grandfather. Aunty doesn’t
want me to be a soldier for fear of being
killed.â€
“ Bless my life! Would she have you get
into a feather bed and stay there? Why, you
might be killed by a thunderbolt, if you were
a butter merchant! â€
“So I might. Ishall tell her so. What a
funny fellow you are, sir! I say, do you think
my father knew the Gypsy’s secret? The .
Postman says he used to whisper to his
black mare.â€
“Your father was taught to ride as a child,
by one of those horsemen of the East who
swoop and dart and wheel about a plain like
swallows in autumn. Grandson! Love me a
little too. JI can tell you more about your
father than the Postman can.â€
JACKANAPES. 39
“I do love you,†said Jackanapes. ‘Before
you came I was frightened.’ I’d no notion you
were so nice.â€
“Love me always, boy, whatever I do or
leave undone. And — God help me — what-
ever you do or leave undone, I'll love you!
There shall never be a cloud between us for a
day; no, sir, not for an hour. We're imperfect
enough, all of us, we needn't be so bitter; and
life is uncertain enough at its safest, we needn’t
waste its opportunities. Look at me! Here
sit I, after a dozen battles and some of the
worst climates in the world, and by yonder lych
gate lies your mother, who didn’t move five
miles, I suppose, from your aunt's apron
strings — dead in her teens; my golden-haired
daughter, whom I never saw.â€
Jackanapes was terribly troubled.
“Don’t cry, grandfather,’ he pleaded, his
own blue eyes round with tears. “I will love
you very much, and I will try to be very good.
But I should like to be a soldier.â€
“You shall, my boy, you shall. You've
more claims for a commission than you know
of. Cavalry, I suppose; eh, ye young Jacka-
napes? Well, well; if you live to be an honor
to your country, this old heart shall grow
40 JACKANAPES.
young again with pride for you; and if you
die in the service of your country — God bless
me, it can but break for ye!â€
And beating the region which he said was
all waistcoats, as if they stifled him, the old
man got up and strode out on-to the Green,
JACKANAPES. AI
CHAPTER IV.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that‘a man lay down
his life for his friends.†— JOHN xv. 13
TWENTY and odd years later the Grey
Goose was still alive, and in full possession of
her faculties, such as they were. She lived
slowly and carefully, and she lived long. So
did Miss Jessamine; but the General was
dead.
He had lived on the Green for many years,
during which he and the Postman saluted each
other with a punctiliousness that it almost
drilled one to witness. He would have com-
pletely spoiled Jackanapes if Miss Jessamine’s
conscience would have let him; otherwise he
somewhat dragooned his neighbors, and was as
positive about parish matters as a ratepayer
about the army. A stormy-tempered, tender-
hearted soldier, irritable with the suffering of
wounds of which he never spoke, whom all
the village followed to his grave with tears.
The General’s death was a great shock to
Miss Jessamine, and her nephew stayed with
her for some little time after the funeral.
Then he was obliged to join his regiment, which
was ordered abroad.
42 JACKANAPES.
One effect of the conquest which the Gen-
eral had gained over the affections of the vil-
lage was a considerable abatement of the
popular prejudice against “the military.†In-
deed, the village was now somewhat impor-
tantly represented in the army. There was the
JACKANAPES. 43
General himself, and the Postman, and the
Black Captain’s tablet in the church, and Jack-
anapes, and Tony Johnson, and a Trumpeter.
Tony Johnson had no more natural taste for
fighting than for riding, but he was as devoted
as ever to Jackanapes, and that was how it
come about that Mr. Johnson bought hima
commission in the same cavalry regiment that
the General’s grandson (whose commission had
been given him by the Iron Duke) was in,
and that he was quite content to be the butt of
the mess where Jackanapes was the hero; and
that when Jackanapes wrote home to Miss
Jessamine, Tony wrote with the same purpose
to his mother; namely, to demand her con-
gratulations that they were on active service at
last, and were ordered to the front. And he
added a postscript to the effect that she could
have no idea how popular Jackanapes was, nor
how splendidly he rode the wonderful red
charger whom he had named after his old
friend Lollo.
“ Sound retire!â€
A Boy Trumpeter, grave with the weight of
responsibilities and accoutrements beyond his
years, and stained, so that his own mother
44. --JACKANAPES.
would not have known him, with the sweat and
dust of battle, did as he was bid; and then
pushing his trumpet pettishly aside, adjusted
his weary legs for the hundredth time to the
horse which was a world too big for him, and
muttering, ‘“’Tain’t a pretty tune,†tried to see
something of this, his first engagement, before
it came to an end.
Being literally in the thick of it, he could
hardly have seen less or known less of what
happened in that particular skirmish if he had
been at home in England. For many good
reasons; including dust and smoke, and that
what attention he dared distract from his com-
manding officer was pretty well absorbed by
keeping his hard-mouthed troop-horse in hand,
under pain of execration by his neighbors in
the melée. By and by, when the newspapers
came out, if he could get a look at one before
it was thumbed to bits, he would learn that the
enemy had appeared from ambush in over-
whelming numbers, and that orders had been —
given to fall back, which was done slowly and
in good order, the men fighting as they retired.
Born and bred on the Goose Green, the
youngest of Mr. Johnson’s gardener’s numerous
offspring, the boy had given his family “no
JACKANAPES. 45
peace†till they let him “ go fora soldier†with
Master Tony and Master Jackanapes. They
consented at last, with more tears than they
shed when an elder son was sent to gaol for
poaching, and the boy was perfectly happy in
his life, and full of esprit de corps. It was this
which had been wounded by having to sound
retreat for ‘the young gentlemen’s regiment,â€
the first time he served with it before the
enemy, and he was also harassed by having
completely lost sight of Master Tony. There
had been some hard fighting before the back-
ward movement began, and he had caught sight
of him once, but not since. On the other
hand, all the pulses of his village pride had
been stirred by one or two visions of Master
Jackanapes whirling about on his wonderful
horse. He had been easy to distinguish, since
an eccentric blow had bared his head without
hurting it, for his close golden mop of hair
gleamed in the hot sunshine as brightly as
the steel of the sword flashing round it.
Of the missiles that fell pretty thickly, the
Boy Trumpeter did not take much notice. First,
one can’t attend to everything, and his hands
were full. Secondly, one gets used to any-
thing. Thirdly, experience soon teaches one,
46 JACKANAPES.
in spite of proverbs, how very few bullets find
their billet. Far more unnerving is the mere
suspicion of fear or even of anxiety in the
human mass around you. The boy was begin-
ning to wonder if there were any dark reason
for the increasing pressure, and whether they
JACKANAPES. 47
would be allowed to move back more quickly,
when the smoke in front lifted for a moment, -
and he could see the plain, and the enemy’s
line some two hundred yards away.
And across the plain between them he saw
Master Jackanapes galloping alone at the top
of Lollo’s speed, their faces to the enemy,
his golden head at Lollo’s ear.
But at this moment noise and smoke seemed
to burst out on every side, the officer shouted
to him to sound retire, and between trumpeting
and bumping about on his horse, he saw and
heard no more of the incidents of his first
battle.
Tony Johnson was always unlucky with
horses, from the days of the giddy-go-round
onwards. On this day—of all days in the
year — his own horse was on the sick list, and
he had to ride an inferior, ill-conditioned beast,
and fell off that, at the very moment when it
was a matter of life or death to be able to ride
away. The horse fell on him, but struggled up
again, and Tony managed to keep hold of it.
It was in trying to remount that he discovered,
by helplessness and anguish, that one of his
legs was crushed and broken, and that no feat
of which he was master would get him into the
48 JACKANAPES.
saddle. Not able even to stand alone, awk
_ wardly, agonizingly unable to mount his restive
horse, his life was yet so strong within him!
And on one side of him rolled the dust and
smoke-cloud of his advancing foes, and on the
other, that which covered his retreating friends.
He turned one piteous gaze after them, with
a bitter twinge, not of reproach, but of loneli-
ness; and then, dragging himself up by the
side of his horse, he turned the other way and
drew out his pistol, and waited for the end.
Whether he waited seconds or minutes he
never knew, before some one gripped him by
the arm.
“ Fackanapes! God bless you! Its my left
leg. If you could get me on—â€
It was like Tony’s luck that his pistol went
off at his horse’s tail, and made it plunge; but
Jackanapes threw him across the saddle.
“Hold on anyhow, and stick your spur in.
I'll lead him. Keep your head down, they’re
firing high.â€
And Jackanapes laid his head down — to
Lollo’s ear.
It was when they were fairly off, that a sud-
den upspringing of the enemy in all directions
had made it necessary to change the gradual
JACKANAPES. 49
retirement of our force into as rapid a retreat
as possible. And when Jackanapes became
aware of this, and felt the lagging and swerv-
ing of Tony’s horse, he began to wish he had
thrown his friend across his own saddle, and
left their lives to Lollo.
When Tony became aware of it, several
things came into his head. 1. That the
dangers of their ride for life were now more
than doubled. 2. That if Jackanapes and
Lollo were not burdened with him they would
undoubtedly escape. 3. That Jackanapes’ life
was infinitely valuable, and his — Tony’s —
was not. 4. That this — if he could seize it—
was the supremest of all the moments in which
he had tried to assume the virtues which Jacka-
napes had by nature; and that if he could be
courageous and unselfish now —
He caught at his own reins and spoke very
loud —
“Jackanapes! It won't do. You and Lollo
must goon. Tell the fellows I gave you back
to them, with all my heart. Jackanapes, if you
love me, leave me! â€
There was a daffodil light over the evening
sky in front of them, and it shone strangely on |
Jackanapes’ hair and face. He turned with an
50 JACKANAPES.
odd look in his eyes that a vainer man than
Tony Johnson might have taken for brotherly
pride. Then he shook his mop, and laughed
at him.
“Leave you? To save my skin? No,
{
Tony, not to save my soul
JACKANAPES, 51
CHAPTER V.
Mr. VALIANT summoned. His will. His last words.
Then, said he, “I am going to my Father’s. .. . My sword
I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my
courage and skill to him that can get it.†. . . And as he went
down deeper, he said, “ Grave, where is thy victory?â€
So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on
the other side. Bunyan's Pilerim’s Progress.
COMING out of a hospital tent, at head-
quarters, the surgeon cannoned against, and re-
bounded from, another officer; a sallow man,
not young, with a face worn more by ungentle
experiences than by age; with weary eyes that
kept their own counsel, iron-gray hair, and a
mustache that was as if a raven had laid its
wing across his lips and sealed them.
“Well?â€
“Beg pardon, Major. Didn’t see you. Oh,
compound fracture and bruises, but it’s all
right. He'll pull through.â€
«Thank God!â€
It was probably an involuntary expression,
for prayer and praise were not much in the
Major’s line, as a jerk of the surgeon’s head
would have betrayed to an observer. He was
a bright little man, with his feelings showing
52 JACKANAPES.
all over him, but with gallantry and contempt
of death enough for both sides of his profes-
sion ; who took a cool head, a white handker-
chief, and a case of instruments, where other
men went hot-blooded with weapons, and who
was the biggest gossip, male or female, of the
regiment. Not even the Major's taciturnity
daunted him.
“ Didn’t think he’d as much pluck about him
as he has. He’ll do all right if he doesn’t fret
himself into a fever about poor Jackanapes.â€
“Whom are you talking about?†asked the
Major hoarsely.
“ Young Johnson. He—â€:
“ What about Jackanapes? â€
“Dont you know? Sad business. Rode
back for Johnson, and brought him in; but,
monstrous ill-luck, hit as they rode. Left
lung —â€
“ Will he recover?â€
‘No. Sad business. What a frame —what _
limbs — what health — and what good looks!
Finest young fellow — â€
“Where is he?â€
“Tn his own tent,†said the surgeon sadly.
The Major wheeled and left him.
* * * * * * *
“Can J do anything else for you?â€
JACKANAPES. Ba
“Nothing, thank you. Except — Major!
I wish I could get you to appreciate Johnson.â€
“ This is not an easy moment, Jackanapes.â€
“Let me tell you, sir — he never will— that
if he could have driven me from him, he would
be lying yonder at this moment, and I should
be safe and sound.â€
The Major laid his hand over his mouth, as
if to keep back a wish he would have been
ashamed to utter.
“T’ve known old Tony from a child. He’s a
fool on impulse, a good man and a gentleman
in principle. And he acts on principle, which
it’s not every—some water, please! Thank
you, sir. It's very hot, and yet one’s feet get
uncommonly cold. Oh, thank you, thank you!
He’s no fire eater, but he has a trained con-
science and a tender heart, and he’ll do his duty
when a braver and more selfish man might fail
you. But he wants encouragement; and when
I’m gone—â€
“He shall have encouragement. You have
my word for it. Can I do nothing else?â€
“Ves, Major. A favor.â€
“Thank you, Jackanapes.â€
“Be Lollo’s master, and love him as well as
you can. He’s used to it.â€
“Wouldn’t you rather Johnson had him?â€
54 JACKANAPES.
The blue eyes twinkled in spite of mortal pain.
“Tony rides on principle, Major. His legs
are bolsters, and will be to the end of the chap-
ter. I couldn’t insult dear Lollo, but if you
don’t care —â€
“Whilst I live—which will be longer than I
desire or deserve—Lollo shall want nothing,
but—you. I have too little tenderness for —
my dear boy, you're faint. Can you spare me
for a moment?â€
“No, stay — Major!â€
“What? What?â€
“My head drifts so—if you wouldn’t mind.â€
SeVieS eV ese tes
“Say a prayer by me. Out loud please, I
am getting deaf.â€
“My dearest Jackanapes— my dear boy —â€
“One of the Church Prayers—Parade Ser-
vice, you know—â€
“T see. But the fact is—God forgive me,
Jackanapes — I’m a very different sort of fellow
to some of you youngsters. Look here, let me
fetch—â€
But Jackanapes’ hand was in his, and it
wouldn't let go.
There was a brief and bitter silence.
“Pon my soul I can only remember the little
one at the end,â€
JACKANAPES. 55
“Please,†whispered Jackanapes.
Pressed by the conviction that what little he
could do it was his duty to do, the Major—
kneeling—bared his head, and spoke loudly,
clearly, and very reverently —
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—â€
Jackanapes moved his left hand to his right
one, which still held the Major’s —
“—_ The love of God.â€
And with that—Jackanapes died.
56 JACKANAPES,
CHAPTER VI.
Und so ist der blaue Himmel grésser als jedes
Gew6lk darin, und dauerhafter dazu.
JEAN PAUL RICHTER.
JACKANAPES’ death was sad news for the
Goose Green, a sorrow just qualified by honor-
able pride in his gallantry and devotion. Only
the Cobbler dissented, but that was his way.
He said he saw nothing in it but foolhardiness
and vainglory. They might both have been
killed, as easy as not, and then where would ye
have been? A man’s life was a man’s life, and
one life was as good as another. No one would
catch him throwing his away. And, for that
matter, Mrs. Johnson could spare a child a
great deal better than Miss Jessamine.
But the parson preached Jackanapes’ funeral
sermon on the text, ‘‘ Whosoever will save his
life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his
life for My sake shall find itâ€; and all the vil-
lage went, and wept to hear him.
Nor did Miss Jessamine see her loss from the
Cobbler’s point of view. On the contrary, Mrs.
Johnson said she never to her dying day should
forget how, when she went to condole with her,
JACKANAPES. 57
the old lady came forward, with gentlewomanly
self-control, and kissed her, and thanked God
that her dear nephew’s effort had been blessed
with success, and that this sad war had made
no gap in her friend’s large and happy home
circle.
“But she’s a noble, unselfish woman,†sobbed
Mrs. Johnson, “and she taught Jackanapes to
be the same, and that’s how it is that my Tony
has been spared to me. And it must be sheer
goodness in Miss Jessamine, for what can she
know of a mother’s feelings? And I’m sure
most people seem to think that if you’vea large
family you don’t know one from another any
more than they do, and that a lot of children
are like a lot of store apples, if one’s taken it
won't be missed.â€
Lollo— the first Lollo, the Gypsy’s Lollo—
very aged, draws Miss Jessamine’s bath-chair
slowly up and down the Goose Green in the
sunshine.
The ex-Postman walks beside him, which
Lollo tolerates to the level of his shoulder. If
the Postman advances any nearer to his head,
Lollo quickens his pace, and were the Postman
to persist in the injudicious attempt, there is,
as Miss Jessamine says, no knowing what might
happen.
58 JACKANAPES,
In the opinion of the Goose Green, Miss
Jessamine has borne her troubles “ wonderfully.â€
Indeed, to-day, some of the less delicate and
less intimate of those who see everything
from the upper windows, say (well behind
her back) that “ the old lady seems quite lively
with her military beaux again.â€
The meaning of this is, that Captain Johnson
is leaning over one side of her chair, whilst by
the other bends a brother officer who is staying
with him, and who has manifested an extraor-
dinary interest in Lollo. He bends lower and
lower, and Miss Jessaminé calls to the Postman
to request Lollo to be kind enough to stop,
whilst she is fumbling for something which
always hangs by her side, and has got en-
tangled with her spectacles.
It is a twopenny trumpet, bought years ago
in the village fair, and over it she and Captain
Johnson tell, as best they can, between them,
the story of Jackanapes’ ride across the Goose
Green; and how he won Lollo— the Gypsy’s
Lollo—the racer Lollo —dear Lollo— faith-
ful Lollo— Lollo the never vanquished — Lollo
the tender servant of his old mistress. And
Lollo’s ears twitch at every mention of his
name.
JACKANAPES. 59
Their hearer does not speak, but he never
moves his eyes from the trumpet, and when the
tale is told, he lifts Miss Jessamine’s hand and
presses his heavy black mustache in silence to
her trembling fingers.
The sun, setting gently to his rest, em-
broiders the somber foliage of the oak-tree
with threads of gold. The Grey Goose is
sensible of an atmosphere of repose, and puts
up one leg for the night. The grass glows
with a more vivid green, and, in answer to a
ringing call from Tony, his sisters fluttering
over the daisies in pale-hued muslins, come out
of their ever-open door, like pretty pigeons
from a dovecote.
And, if the good gossips’ eyes do not deceive
them, all the Miss Johnsons, and both the
officers, go wandering off into the lanes, where
bryony wreaths still twine about the brambles.
* * * * # * *
A sorrowful story, and ending badly?
Nay, Jackanapes, for the end is not yet.
A life wasted that might have been useful?
Men who have died for men, in all ages, for-
give the thought !
There is a heritage of heroic example and
noble obligation, not reckoned in the wealth of
60 JACKANAPES.
nations, but essential to a nation’s life; the
contempt of which, in any people, may, not
slowly, mean even its commercial fall.
Very sweet are the uses of prosperity, the
harvests of peace and progress, the fostering
sunshine of health and happiness, and length
of days in the land.
But there be things—oh, sons of what has
deserved the name of Great Britain, forget it
not! — “the good of†which and “ the use ofâ€
which are beyond all calculation of worldly
goods and earthly uses: things such as love,
and honor, and the soul of man, which cannot
be bought with a price, and which do not die
with death. And they who would fain live
happily EVER after, should not leave these
things out of the lessons of their lives.
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JACKANAPES
JACKANAPES
VLIANAHORATIAEWING
ILLVSTRATED
BY
“AMY - SACKER -
‘BOSTON:
Pee “JOSEPH-KNIGHT-COMPANY: Za" ;
CopyRIGHT, 1895
BY
JoszrH KnicuT ComPANy
CHAPTER I.
*‘Last noon beheld them full of life,
Last eve in beauty’s circle proudly gay.â€
CHAPTER II.
“And he wandered away and away
With Nature, the dear old nurse.â€
CHAPTER III.
“Tf studious, copie fair what time hath blurred,
Redeem truth from his jawes.â€
CHAPTER IV.
“‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends.’?
CHAPTER V.
“Then, said he, ‘I am going to my Father’s.
ro
CHAPTER VI.
“Und so ist der blaue Himmel grésser als jedes
Gewolk darin, und dauerhafter dazu.â€â€™
PAGE
15
19
4t
51
56
PAGE
“BuT suE REMEMBERED THE LILTLE Miss Jrssa-
MINE†: : : : 2 : & frontispiece
TITLEPAGE. : 5 3 : A : : a v
“Next Day JANE HAD HEARD MORE†: 5 . 9
AT THE PonD ; : 5 : : : 5 . 17
‘ JACKANAPES COULD HARDLY SLEEP FOR SPECULATING� . 23
“HE WAS DISPOSED TO TALK CONFIDENTIALLY†. : 31
THE GENERAL’S GRANDSON . i 4 4 i 3 42
THe Boy TRUMPETER . ee : A ‘ , : 46
TAILPIECE. : i : a ; : : : 55
FINIS.. : J : : i : a‘ i 60
JACKANAPES.
CHAPTER I.
Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,
Last eve in beauty’s circle proudly gay,
The midnight brought the signal sound of strife,
The morn the marshalling in arms — the day
Battle’s magnificently stern array !
The thunder-clouds close o’er it, which when rent
The earth is covered thick with other clay,
Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent,
Rider and horse: — friend, foe, — in one red burial blent.
Their praise is hymn’d by loftier harps than mine,
Yet one would I select from that proud throng.
to thee, to thousands, of whom each
And one as all a ghastly gap did make
In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach
Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake;
The Archangel’s trump, not glory’s, must awake
Those whom they thirst for. Byxon.
Two Donkeys and the Geese lived on the
Green, and all other residents of any social
standing lived in houses round it. The houses
had no names. Everybody’s address was,
“The Green,†but the Postman and the people
2 JACKANAPES.
of the place knew where each family lived.
As to the rest of the world, what has one to do
with the rest of the world, when he is safe at
home on his own Goose Green? Moreover, if
a stranger did come on any lawful business, he
might ask his way at the shop.
Most of the inhabitants were long-lived, early
deaths (like that of the little Miss Jessamine)
being exceptional; and most of the old people
were proud of their age, especially the sexton,
who would be ninety-nine come Martinmas,
and whose father remembered a man who had
carried arrows, as a boy, for the battle of
Flodden Field. The Grey Goose and the big
Miss Jessamine were the only elderly per-
sons who kept their ages secret. Indeed, Miss
Jessamine never mentioned any one’s age, or
recalled the exact year in which anything had
happened. She said that she had been taught
that it was bad manners todo so “in a mixed
assembly.â€
The Grey Goose also avoided dates, but this
was partly because her brain, though intelligent,
was not mathematical, and computation was
beyond her. She never got farther than “last
Michaelmas,†‘the Michaelmas before that,â€
and “the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas
JACKANAPES, 3
before that.†After this her head, which was
small, became confused, and she said, “ Ga,
ga!†and changed the subject.
But she remembered the little Miss Jes-
samine, the Miss Jessamine with the ‘“ con-
spicuous†hair. Her aunt, the big Miss
Jessamine, said it was her only fault. The
hair was clean, was abundant, was glossy, but
do what you would with it it never looked
quite like other people’s. And at church,
after Saturday night’s wash, it shone like the
best brass fender after a spring cleaning. In
short, it was conspicuous, which does not be-
come a young woman — especially in church.
Those were worrying times altogether, and
the Green was used for strange purposes. A
political meeting was held on it with the village
cobbler in the chair, and a speaker who came
by stagecoach from the town, where they had
wrecked the bakers’ shops, and discussed the
price of bread. He came a second time, by
stage, but the people had heard something
about him in the mean while, and they did not
keep him on the Green. They took him to
the pond and tried to make him swim, which
he could not do, and the whole affair was very
disturbing to all quiet and peaceable fowls.
4 JACKANAPES.
After which another man came, and preached
sermons on the Green, and a great many peo-
ple went to hear him; for those were “ trying
times,†and folk ran hither and thither for com-
fort. And then what did they do but drill the
ploughboys on the Green, to get them ready to
fight the French, and teach them the goose-
step! However, that came to an end at last,
for Bony was sent to St. Helena, and the plough-
boys were sent back to the plough.
Everybody lived in fear of Bony in those
days, especially the naughty children, who
were kept in order during the day by threats
of, ‘Bony shall have you,†and who had night-
mares about him in the dark. They thought
he was an ogre in a cocked hat. The Grey
Goose thought he was a fox, and that all the
men of England were going out in red coats to
hunt him. It was no use to argue the point,
for she had a very small head, and when one
. idea got into it there was no room for another.
Besides, the Grey Goose never saw Bony,
nor did the children, which rather spoilt the
terror of him, so that the Black Captain be-
came more effective as a bogy with hardened
offenders. The Grey Goose remembered his
coming to the place perfectly. What he came
JACKANAPES. 5
for she did not pretend to know. It was all
part and parcel of the war and bad times. He
was called the Black Captain, partly because of
himself, and partly because of his wonderful
black mare. Strange stories were afloat of
how far and how fast that mare could go, when
her master’s hand was on her mane and he
whispered in her ear. Indeed, some people
thought we might reckon ourselves very lucky
if we were not out of the frying-pan into the
fire, and had not got a certain well-known
Gentleman of the Road to protect us against
the French. But that, of course, made him
none the less useful to the Johnsons’ Nurse,
when the little Miss Johnsons were naughty.
“You leave off crying this minnit, Miss Jane,
or I'll give you right away to that horrid,
wicked officer. Jemima! just look out o’ the
windy, if you please, and see if the Black
Cap’n’s a-coming with his horse to carry away
Miss Jane.â€
And there, sure enough, the Black Captain
strode by, with his sword clattering as if it did
not know whose head to cut off first. But he
did not call for Miss Jane that time. He went
on to the Green, where he came so suddenly
upon the eldest Master Johnson, sitting in a
6 JACKANAPES,
puddle on purpose, in his new nankeen skeleton
suit, that the young gentleman thought judg-
ment had overtaken him at last, and abandoned
himself to the howlings of despair. His howls
were redoubled when he was clutched from
behind and swung over the Black Captain’s
shoulder, but in five minutes his tears were
stanched, and he was playing with the officer’s
accoutrements. All of which the Grey Goose
saw with her own eyes, and heard afterwards
that that bad boy had been whining to go back
to the Black Captain ever since, which showed
how hardened he was, and that nobody but
Bonaparte himself could be expected to do him
any good.
But those were “trying times.†It was bad
enough when the pickle of a large and respect-
able family cried for the Black Captain; when
it came to the little Miss Jessamine crying for
him, one felt that the sooner the French landed
and had done with it the better.
The big Miss Jessamine’s objection to him
was that he was a soldier, and this prejudice
was shared by all the Green. ‘A soldier,†as
the speaker from the town had observed, “is a
bloodthirsty, unsettled sort of a rascal, that
the peaceable, home-loving, bread-winning citi-
JACKANAPES. Ti
zen can never conscientiously look on as a
brother, till he has beaten his sword into a
ploughshare, and his spear into a pruning-
hook.â€
On the other hand, there was some truth in
what the Postman (an old soldier) said in
reply; that the sword has to cut a way for us
out of many a scrape into which our bread-
winners get us when they drive their plough-
shares into fallows that don’t belong to them.
Indeed, whilst our most peaceful citizens were
prosperous chiefly by means of cotton, of
sugar, and of the rise and fall of the money
market (not to speak of such salable matters
as opium, firearms, and “black ivoryâ€), dis-
turbances were apt to arise in India, Africa,
and other outlandish parts, where the fathers
of our domestic race were making fortunes for
their families. And, for that matter, even on
the Green, we did not wish the military to leave
us in the lurch, so long as there was any fear
that the French were coming.*
* «The political men declare war, and generally for com-
mercial interests; but when the nation is thus embroiled with
its neighbors the soldier ... draws the sword, at the com-
mand of his country... . One word as to thy comparison of
military and commercial persons. What manner of men be
they who have supplied the Caffres with the firearms and
8 JACKANAPES.
To let the Black Captain have little Miss
Jessamine, however, was another matter. Her
aunt would not hear of it; and then, to crown
all, it appeared that the Captain’s father did
not think the young lady good enough for
his son. Never was any affair more clearly
brought to a conclusion.
But those were “trying timesâ€; and one
moonlight night, when the Grey Goose was
sound asleep upon one leg, the Green was
rudely shaken under her by the thud of a
horse’s feet. ‘Ga, ga!†said she, putting
down the other leg, and running away.
By the time she returned to her place not a
thing was to be seen or heard. The horse had
passed like a shot. But next day there was
hurrying and skurrying and cackling at a very
early hour, all about the white house with
the black beams, where Miss Jessamine lived.
And when the sun was so low, and the shadows
so long on the grass, that the Grey Goose felt
ready to run away at the sight of her own neck,
little Miss Jane Johnson, and her “ particular
friend†Clarinda, sat under the big oak-tree on
ammunition to maintain their savage and deplorable wars?
Assuredly they are not military. ... Cease, then, if thou
wouldst be counted among the just, to vilify soldiers.†— W.
Napier, Lieutenant-General, November, 1851.
JACKANAPES, 9
the Green, and Jane pinched Clarinda’s little
finger till she found that she could keep a
secret, and then she told her in confidence that
she had heard from Nurse and Jemima that
Miss Jessamine’s niece had been a very naughty
girl, and that that horrid, wicked officer had
19 JACKANAPES.
come for her on his black horse, and carried
her right away.
“Will she never come back?†asked Cla-
rinda.
“Oh, no!†said Jane decidedly. ‘“ Bony
never brings people back.â€
‘““Not never no more?†sobbed Clarinda, for
she was weak-minded, and could not bear to
think that Bony never, never let naughty people
go home again.
Next day Jane had heard more.
‘He has taken her to a Green.â€
“A Goose Green?†asked Clarinda.
‘No. A Gretna Green. Don’t ask so many
questions, child,†said Jane, who, having no
more to tell, gave herself airs.
Jane was wrong. on one point. Miss Jessa-
mine’s niece did come back, and she and her
husband were forgiven. The Grey Goose re-
membered it well; it was Michaelmastide, the
Michaelmas before the Michaelmas before the
Michaelmas— but ga, ga! What does the
date matter? It was autumn, harvest time,
and everybody was so busy prophesying and
praying about the crops that the young couple
wandered through the lanes, and got black-
berries for Miss Jessamine’s celebrated crab and
JACKANAPES. It
blackberry jam, and made guys of themselves
with bryony wreaths, and not a soul troubled
his head about them, except the children, and
the Postman. The children dogged the Black
Captain’s footsteps (his bubble reputation as
an ogre having burst), clamoring for a ride on
the black mare. And the Postman would geo
somewhat out of his postal way to catch the
Captain’s dark eye, and show that he had not
forgotten how to salute an officer.
But they were “trying times.†One after-
noon the black mare was stepping gently up
and down the grass, with her head at her mas-
ter’s shoulder, and as many children crowded
onto her silky back as if she had been an ele-
phant in a menagerie; and the next afternoon
she carried him away, sword and sabre-tache
clattering war music at her side, and the old
Postman waiting for them, rigid with salutation,
at the four cross roads.
War and bad times! It was a hard winter,
and the big Miss.Jessamine and the little Miss
Jessamine (but she was Mrs. Black-Captain
now) lived very economically, that they might
help their poorer neighbors. They neither en-
tertained nor went into company, but the young
lady always went up the village as far as the
12 JACKANAPES.
George and Dragon, for air and exercise, when
the London mail* came in.
One day (it was a day in the following June)
it came in earlier than usual, and the young
lady was not there to meet it.
But a crowd soon gathered round the George
and Dragon, gaping to see the mail coach
dressed with flowers and oak-leaves, and the
guard wearing a laurel wreath over and above
his royal livery. The ribbons that decked the
horses were stained and flecked with the warmth
and foam of the pace at which they had come,
for they had pressed on with the news of vic-
tory.
Miss Jessamine was sitting with her niece
under the oak-tree on the Green, when the Post-
man put a newspaper silently into her hand.
Her niece turned quickly —
“Ts there news?â€
“Don’t agitate yourself, my dear,†said her
*The mail coach it was that distributed over the face of
the land, like the opening of apocalyptic vials, the heart-shak-
ing news of Trafalgar, of Salamanca, of Vittoria, of Waterloo.
. . . The grandest chapter of our experience, within the whole
mail coach service, was on those occasions when we went
down from London with the news of victory. Five years of life
it was worth paying down for the privilege of an outside place
— DE QuINCEY.
JACKANAPES. 13
aunt. ‘I will read it aloud, and then we can
enjoy it together; a far more comfortable
method, my love, than when you go up the
village, and come home out of breath, having
snatched half the news as you run.â€
“JT am all attention, dear aunt,†said the little
lady, clasping her hands tightly on her lap.
Then Miss Jessamine read aloud—she was
proud of her reading—and the old soldier
stood at attention behind her, with sucha blend-
ing of pride and pity on his face as it was
strange to see: —
** DOWNING STREET,
June 22, 1815, I A. M.â€
“That's one in the morning,†gasped the
Postman; “beg your pardon, mum.â€
But though he apologized, he could not
refrain from echoing here and there a weighty
word. ‘Glorious victory,’—‘Two hundred
pieces of artillery,,—‘“Immense quantity of
ammunition,†—and so forth.
“The loss of the British army upon this occasion has unfor-
tunately been most severe. It had not been possible to make
out a return of the killed and wounded when Major Percy left
headquarters. The names of the officers killed and wounded,
as far as they can be collected, are annexed.
“J have the honor K
“ The list, aunt! Read the list!â€
14 JACKANAPES,
“My love—my darling—let us go in and—’
“No. Now! now!â€
To one thing the supremely afflicted are en-
titled in their sorrow, —to be obeyed; and yet
it is the last kindness that people commonly will
do them. But Miss Jessamine did. Steadying
her voice, as best she might, she read on, and
the old soldier stood baréheaded to hear that
first roll of the dead at Waterloo, which began
with the Duke of Brunswick and ended with
Ensign Brown.* Five-and-thirty British cap-
tains fell asleep that day on the bed of honor,
and the Black Captain slept among them.
* * * * * * *
There are killed and wounded by war, of
whom no returns reach Downing Street.
Three days later the Captain’s wife had joined
him, and Miss Jessamine was kneeling by the
cradle of their orphan son, a purple-red morsel
of humanity, with conspicuously golden hair.
“Will he live, doctor?â€
“Live? God bless my soul, ma’am! Look
at him! The young jackanapes!â€
*« Brunswick’s fated chieftain †fell at Quartre. Bras, the day
before Waterloo, but this first (very imperfect) list, as it ap-
peared in the newspapers of the day, did begin with his name,
and.end with that of an Ensign Brown.
JACKANAPES. 15
CHAPTER II.
And he wandered away and away
With Nature, the dear old nurse.
LONGFELLOow.
THE Grey Goose remembered quite well the
year that Jackanapes began to walk, for it was
the year that the speckled hen for the first
time in all her motherly life got out of patience
when she was sitting. She had been rather
proud of the eggs — they were unusually large
—but she never felt quite comfortable on
them; and whether it was because she used to
get cramp, and go off the nest, or because the
season was bad, or what, she never could tell,
but every egg was addled but one, and the one
that did hatch gave her more trouble than any
chick she had ever reared.
It was a fine, downy, bright yellow little
thing, but it had a monstrous big nose and
feet, and such an ungainly walk as she knew
no other instance of in her well-bred and high-
stepping family. And as to behavior, it was
not that it was either quarrelsome or moping,
but simply unlike the rest. When the other
chicks ie a and cheeped on the Green
16 JACKANAPES.
about their mother’s feet, this solitary yellow
brat went waddling off on its own responsibility,
and do or cluck what the speckled hen would,
it went to play in the pond.
It was off one day as usual, and the hen was
fussing and fuming after it, when the Postman,
going to deliver a letter at Miss Jessamine’s
door, was nearly knocked over by the good
lady herself, who, bursting out of the house
with her cap just off and her bonnet just not
on, fell into his arms, crying, —
“Baby! Baby! Jackanapes! Jackanapes!â€
If the Postman loved anything on earth, he
loved the Captain’s yellow-haired child, so
propping Miss Jessamine against her own door-
post, he followed the direction of her trembling
fingers and made for the Green.
Jackanapes had had the start of the Postman
by nearly ten minutes. The world — the round,
green world with an oak-tree on it— was just
becoming very interesting to him. He had
tried vigorously, but ineffectually, to mount a
passing pig the last time he was taken out
walking; but then he was encumbered with a
nurse. Now he was his own master, and might,
by courage and energy, become the master of
that delightful, downy, dumpy, yellow thing,
JACKANAPES. 17
that was bobbing along over the green grass in
front of him. Forward! Charge! Heaimed
well, and grabbed it, but only to feel the deli-
cious downiness and dumpiness slipping through
his fingers as he fell upon his face. ‘‘ Quawk!â€
said the yellow thing, and wobbled off side-
ways. It was this oblique movement that en-
abled Jackanapes to come up with it, for it
was bound for the pond, and therefore obliged
to come back into line. He failed again from
topheaviness, and his prey escaped sideways
18 JACKANAPES.
as before, and, as before, lost ground in getting
back to the direct road to the pond.
And at the pond the Postman found them
both, one yellow thing rocking safely on the
ripples that lie beyond duck-weed, and the
other washing his draggled frock with tears,
because he too had tried to sit upon the pond
and it wouldn’t hold him.
JACKANAPES, 19
CHAPTER III.
If studious, copie fair what time hath blurred,
Redeem truth from his jawes; if souldier,
Chase brave employments with a naked sword
Throughout the world. Fool not; for all may have,
If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave.
* * * * * * * *
In brief, acquit thee bravely: play the man.
Look not on pleasures as they come, but go.
Defer not the least vertue: life’s poore span
Make not an ell, by trifling in thy woe.
If thou do ill, the joy fades, not the pains.
If well: the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
GEORGE HERBERT.
YOUNG Mrs. Johnson, who was a mother of
many, hardly knew which to pity more; Miss
Jessamine for having her little ways and her
antimacassars rumpled by a young Jackanapes;
or the boy himself, for being brought up by an
old maid.
Oddly enough, she would probably have
pitied neither, had Jackanapes been a girl.
(One is so apt to think that what works
smoothest works to the highest ends, having
no patience for the results of friction.) That
father in God, who bade the young men to be
pure, and the maidens brave, greatly disturbed
20 JACKANAPES.
a member of his congregation, who thought
that the great preacher had made a slip of the
tongue.
“That the girls should have purity, and the
boys courage, is what you would say, good
father? â€
“Nature has done that,†was the reply; “1
meant what I said.â€
In good sooth, a young maid is all the better
for learning some robuster virtues than maiden-
liness, and not to move the antimacassars.
And the robuster virtues require some fresh air
and freedom. As, on the other hand, Jacka-
napes (who had a boy’s full share of the little
beast and the young monkey in his natural
composition) was none the worse, at his tender
years, for learning some maidenliness — so far
as maidenliness means decency, pity, unselfish-
ness, and pretty behavior.
And it is due to him to say that he was an
obedient boy, and a boy whose word could be
depended on, long before his grandfather the
General came to live at the Green. .
He was obedient; that is, he did what his
great aunt told him. But—oh dear! oh dear!
—the pranks he played, which it had never
entered into her head to forbid!
JACKANAPES. 21
It was when he had just been put into skele-
tons (frocks never suited him) that he became
very friendly with Master Tony Johnson, a
younger brother of the young gentleman who
sat in the puddle on purpose. Tony was not
enterprising, and Jackanapes led him by the
nose. One summer’s evening they were out
late, and Miss Jessamine was becoming anxious,
when Jackanapes presented himself with a
ghastly face all besmirched with tears. He
was unusually subdued.
“Tm afraid,†he sobbed; “if you please, I’m
very much afraid that Tony Johnson’s dying in
the churchyard.â€
Miss Jessamine was just beginning to be dis-
tracted, when she smelt Jackanapes.
“You naughty, naughty boys! Do you
mean to tell me that you’ve been smoking?â€
“Not pipes,†urged Jackanapes; “upon my
honor, aunty, not pipes. Only cigars like Mr.
Johnson’s! and only made of brown paper with
a very, very little tobacco from the shop inside
them.â€
Whereupon Miss Jessamine sent a servant
to the churchyard, who found Tony Johnson
lying on a tombstone, very sick, and having
ceased to entertain any hopes of his own re-
covery.
22 JACKANAPES.
If it could be possible that any “ unpleasant-
ness†could arise between two such amiable
neighbors as Miss Jessamine and Mrs. Johnson,
—and if the still more incredible paradox can
be that ladies may differ over a point on which
they are agreed —that point was the admitted
fact that Tony Johnson was “ delicate,†and the
difference lay chiefly in this: Mrs. Johnson
said that Tony was delicate — meaning that he
was more finely strung, more sensitive, a
properer subject for pampering and petting
than Jackanapes, and that, consequently, Jacka-
napes was to blame for leading Tony into
scrapes which resulted in his being chilled,
frightened, or (most frequently) sick. But
when Miss Jessamine said that Tony Johnson
was delicate, she meant that he was more
puling, less manly, and less healthily brought
up than Jackanapes, who, when they got into
mischief together, was certainly not to blame
because his friend could not get wet, sit a kick-
ing donkey, ride in the giddy-go-round, bear
the noise of a cracker, or smoke brown paper
with impunity, as he could.
Not that there was ever the slightest aan
between the ladies. It never even came near
it, except the day after Tony had been so very
JACKANAPES. 23
sick with riding Bucephalus in the giddy-go-
round, Mrs. Johnson had explained to Miss
Jessamine that the reason Tony was so easily
upset was the unusual sensitiveness (as a doctor
had explained it to her) of the nervous centres
in her family — “ Fiddlestick!†So Mrs. John-
son understood Miss Jessamine to say, but
it appeared that she only said ‘Treaclestick! â€
which is quite another thing, and of which
Tony was undoubtedly fond.
It was at the Fair that Tony was made ill by
24 JACKANAPES.
riding on Bucephalus. Once a year the Goose
Green became the scene of a carnival. First
of all, carts and caravans were rumbling up all
along, day and night. Jackanapes could hear
them as he lay in bed, and could hardly sleep
for speculating what booths and whirligigs he
should find fairly established, when he and his
dog, Spitfire, went out after breakfast. As a
matter of fact, he seldom had to wait so long
for news of the Fair. The Postman knew the
window out of which Jackanapes’ yellow head
would come, and was ready with his report.
“ Royal Theayter, Master Jackanapes, in the
old place, but be careful o’ them seats, sir;
they’re rickettier than ever. Two sweets anda
ginger-beer under the oak-tree, and the Flying
Boats is just a-coming along the road.â€
No doubt it was partly because he had
already suffered severely in the Flying Boats
that Tony collapsed so quickly in the giddy-go-
round. He only mounted Bucephalus (who
was spotted, and had no tail) because Jacka-
napes urged him, and held out the ingenious
hope that the round-and-round feeling would
very likely cure the up-and-down sensation.
It did not, however, and Tony tumbled off
during the first revolution,
JACKANAPES. 25
J
Jackanapes was not absolutely free from
qualms, but having once mounted the Black
Prince he stuck to him as a horseman should.
During the first round he waved his hat, and
observed with some concern that the Black
Prince had lost an ear since last Fair; at the
second, he looked a little pale, but sat upright,
though somewhat unnecessarily rigid; at the
third round he shut his eyes. During the
fourth his hat fell off, and he clasped his horse’s
neck. By the fifth he had laid his yellow head
against the Black Prince’s mane, and so clung
anyhow till the hobby-horses stopped, when
the proprietor assisted him to alight, and he
sat down rather suddenly and said he had en-
joyed it very much.
The Grey Goose always ran away at the first
approach of the caravans, and never came back
to the Green till there was nothing left of the.
Fair but footmarks and oyster-shells. Running
away was her pet principle; the only system,
she maintained, by which you can live long
and easily, and lose nothing. If you run away
when you see danger, you can come back
when all is safe. Run quickly, return slowly,
hold your head high, and gabble as loud as
you can, and you'll preserve the respect of the
26 JACKANAPES.
Goose Green to a peaceful old age. Why
should you struggle and get hurt, if you can
lower your head and swerve, and not lose a
feather? Why in the world should any one
spoil the pleasure of life, or risk his skin, if he
can help it?
«¢ What's the use?’
Said the Gvose.â€
Before answering which one might have to con-
sider what world — which life— and whether
his skin were a goose-skin; but the Grey
Goose’s head would never have held all that.
Grass soon grows over footprints, and the
village children took the oyster-shells to trim
their gardens with; but the year after Tony
rode Bucephalus there lingered another relic
of Fair time, in which Jackanapes was deeply
interested. “The Green†proper was origi-
nally only part of a straggling common, which
in its turn merged into some wilder waste land
where gypsies sometimes squatted if the author-
ities would allow them, especially after the
annual Fair. And it was after the Fair that
Jackanapes, out rambling by himsclf, was
knocked over by the Gypsy’s son riding the
Gypsy’s red-haired pony at breakneck pace
across the common.
JACKANAPES. 27
‘Jackanapes got up and shook himself, none
the worse, except for being heels over head in
love with the red-haired pony. What a rate
he went at! How he spurned the ground with
his nimble feet! How his red coat shone in
the sunshine! And what bright eyes peeped
out of his dark forelock as it was blown by the
wind |
The Gypsy boy had had a fright, and he was
willing enough to reward Jackanapes for not
having been hurt, by consenting to let him
have a ride.
“Do you mean to kill the little fine gentle-
man, and swing us all on the gibbet, you
rascal?†screamed the Gypsy mother, who came
up just as Jackanapes and the pony set off.
“ He would get on,†replied her son. “It'll
not kill him. He'll fall on his yellow head,
and it’s as tough as a cocoanut.â€
But Jackanapes did not fall. He stuck to
the red-haired pony as he had stuck to the
hobby-horse; but, oh, how different the delight
of this wild gallop with flesh and blood!
Just as his legs were beginning to feel as if
he did not feel them, the Gypsy boy cried,
“TLollo!†Round went the pony so uncere-
moniously that, with as little ceremony, Jacka-
28 JACKANAPES.
napes clung to his neck, and he did not
properly recover himself before Lollo stopped
with a jerk at the place where they had
started.
“Ts his name Lollo?†asked Jackanapes, his
hand lingering in the wiry mane.
eaves
“ What does Lollo mean?â€
“Red.â€
“Ts Lollo your pony?â€
“No. My father’s.†And the Gypsy boy
led Lollo away.
At the first opportunity Jackanapes stole
away againto the common. This time he saw
the Gypsy father, smoking a dirty pipe.
“Lollo is your pony, isn’t he?†said Jacka-
napes.
foVess2
“ He’s a very nice one.â€
“He's a racer.â€
“ You don’t want to sell him, do you?â€
“Fifteen pounds,†said the Gypsy father; and
Jackanapes sighed and went home again. That
very afternoon he and Tony rode the two
donkeys, and Tony managed to get thrown,
and even Jackanapes’ donkey kicked. But it
was jolting, clumsy work after the elastic swift-
JACKANAPES. 29
ness and the dainty mischief of the red-haired
pony.
A few days later Miss Jessamine spoke very
seriously to Jackanapes. She was a good deal
agitated as she told him that his grandfather
the General was coming to the Green, and that
he must be on his very best behavior during
the visit. If it had been feasible to leave off
calling him Jackanapes and to get used to his
baptismal name of Theodore before the day
after to-morrow (when the General was due),
it would have been satisfactory. But Miss
Jessamine feared it would be impossible in
practice, and she had scruples about it on prin-
ciple. It would not seem quite truthful, al-
though she had always most fully intended that
he should be called Theodore when he had out-
grown the ridiculous appropriateness of his
nickname. The fact was that he had not out-
grown it, but he must take care to remember
who was meant when his grandfather said
Theodore.
Indeed, for that matter, he must take care all
along.
“You are apt to be giddy, Jackanapes,†said
Miss Jessamine.
“Yes, aunt,†said Jackanapes, thinking of the
hobby-horscs.
30 JACKANAPES,
“You are a good boy, Jackanapes. Thank
God, I can tell your grandfather that. An
obedient boy, an honorable boy, and a kind-
hearted boy. But you are—in short, you ave
a boy, Jackanapes. And I hope†—added
Miss Jessamine, desperate with the results of
experience—“ that the General knows that
boys will be boys.â€
What mischief could be foreseen, Jackanapes
promised to guard against. He was to keep
his clothes and his hands clean, to look over
his catechism, not to put sticky things in his
pockets, to keep that hair of his smooth —
(“It's the wind that blows it, aunty,†said
Jackanapes, — “I'll send by the coach for some
bear’s grease,†said Miss Jessamine, tying a knot
in her pocket-handkerchief)— not to burst in
at the parlor door, not to talk at the top of his
voice, not to crumple his Sunday frill, and to sit
quite quiet during the sermon; to be sure to
say “sir†to the General, to be careful about
rubbing his shoes on the door-mat, and to bring
his lesson-books to his aunt at once that she
might iron down the dogs’ ears. The General
arrived, and for the first day all went well, ex-
cept that Jackanapes’ hair was as wild as usual,
for the hairdresser had no bear’s grease left.
JACKANAPES. a5
He began to feel more at ease with his grand-
father, and disposed to talk confidentially with
him, as he did with the Postman. All that the
General felt it would take too long to tell, but
tft Recut
the result was the same. He was disposed to
talk confidentially with Jackanapes.
“Mons’ous pretty place, this,†he said, look-
ing out of the lattice on to the Green, where
the grass was vivid with sunset, and the shad-
ows were long and peaceful.
32 JACKANAPES.
“Vou should see it in Fair week, sir,†said
Jackanapes, shaking his yellow mop, and lean-
ing back in his one of the two Chippendale
arm-chairs in which they sat.
“A fine time that, eh?†said the General,
with a twinkle in his left eye. (The other was
glass. )
Jackanapes shook his hair once more. ‘I
enjoyed this last one the best of all,†he said.
“Td so much money.â€
“By George, it’s not a common complaint in
these bad times. How much had ye?â€
“Td two shillings. A new shilling aunty
gave me, and elevenpence I had saved up, and
a penny from the Postman— szr/†added Jack-
anapes with a jerk, having forgotten it.
‘And how did ye spend it — szr?†inquired
the General.
Jackanapes spread his ten fingers on the
arms of his chair, and shut his eyes that he
might count the more conscientiously.
“Watch-stand for aunty, threepence. Trum-
pet for myself, twopence, that’s fivepence. Gin-
ger nuts for Tony, twopence, and a mug with a
grenadier on for the Postman, fourpence, that’s
elevenpence. Shooting-gallery, a penny, that’s
a shilling. Giddy-go-round, a penny, that’s
JACKANAPES. 33
one and a penny. Treating Tony, one and
twopence. Flying boats (Tony paid for him-
self), a penny, one and threepence. Shooting-
gallery again, one and fourpence. Fat woman,
a penny, one and fivepence. Giddy-go-round
again, one and sixpence. Shooting-gallery,
one and sevenpence. ‘Treating Tony, and then
he wouldn’t shoot, so I did, one and eightpence.
Living skeleton, a penny —no, Tony treated
me, the living skeleton doesn’t count. Skittles,
a penny, one and ninepence. Mermaid (but
when we got inside she was dead), a penny,
one and tenpence. Theatre, a penny (Priscilla
Partington, or the Green Lane Murder. A
beautiful young lady, sir, with pink cheeks and
a real pistol), that’s one and _ elevenpence.
Ginger beer, a penny (I was so thirsty!), two
shillings. And then the shooting-gallery man
gave me a turn for nothing, because, he said, I
was a real gentleman, and spent my money like
a man.â€
“So you do, sir, so you do!†cried the
General. ‘“ Why, sir, you spend it like a prince.
And now I suppose you've not got a penny in
your pocket?â€
“Ves I have,†said Jackanapes. ‘Two
pennies. They are saving up.†And Jacka-
napes jingled them with his hand.
34 JACKANADPES.
“You don’t want money except at fair times,
I suppose?†said the General.
Jackanapes shook his mop.
“If I could have as much as J want, I should
know what to buy,†said he.
“ And how much do you want, if you could
get it?â€
“Wait a minute, sir, till I think what two-
pence from fifteen pounds leaves. Two from
nothing you can’t, but borrow twelve. Two
from twelve, ten, and carry one. [lease re-
member ten, sir, when I ask you. One from
nothing you can’t, borrow twenty. One from
twenty, nineteen, and carry one. One from fif-
teen, fourteen. Fourteen pounds nineteen and
—what did I tell you to remember?â€
“Ten,†said the General.
“Fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and
tenpence then, is what I want,†said Jackanapes.
“ Bless my soul, what for? â€
“To buy Lollo with. Lollo means red, sir.
The Gypsy’s red-haired pony, sir. Oh, he zs
beautiful! You should see his coat in the
sunshine! You should see his mane! You
should see his tail! Such little feet, sir, and
they go like lightning! Such a dear face, too,
and eyes like a mouse! But he’s a racer, and
the Gypsy wants fifteen pounds for him.â€
JACKANAPES. 35
“Tf he’s a racer, you couldn’t ride him.
Could you?â€
‘““No—o, sir, but I can stick to him. I did
the other day.â€
“You did, did you? Well, I’m fond of riding
myself, and if the beast is as good as you say,
he might suit me.â€
“Vou’re too tall for Lollo, I think,’ said
Jackanapes, measuring his grandfather with his
eye.
“T can double up my legs, I suppose. We'll
have a look at him to-morrow.â€
“Don’t you weigh a good deal?†asked
Jackanapes.
“ Chiefly waistcoats,†said the General, slap-
ping the breast of ‘his military frock-coat.
“We'll have the little racer on the Green the
first thing in the morning. Glad you mentioned
it, grandson. Glad you mentioned it.â€
The General was as good as his word. Next
morning the Gypsy and Lollo, Miss Jessa-
mine, Jackanapes and his grandfather and his
dog Spitfire, were all gathered at one end of
the Green in a group, which so aroused the
innocent curiosity of Mrs. Johnson, as she saw
it from one of her upper windows, that she and
the children took their early promenade rather
36 JACKANAPES,
earlier than usual. The General talked to the
Gypsy, and Jackanapes fondled Lollo’s mane,
and did. not know whether he should be more
glad or miserable if his grandfather bought
him.
“ Jackanapes !â€
(OVES Sita
“T’ve bought Lollo, but I believe you were
right. He hardly stands high enough for me.
If you can ride him to the other end of the
Green, I'll give him to you.â€
How Jackanapes tumbled on to Lollo’s back
he never knew. He had just gathered up the
reins when the Gypsy father took him by the
arm.
“Tf you want to make Lollo go fast, my little
gentleman —â€
“ {can make him go!†said Jackanapes, and
drawing from his pocket the trumpet he had
bought in the fair, he blew a blast both loud
and shrill.
Away went Lollo, and away went Jackanapes’
hat. His golden hair flew out, an aureole
from which his cheeks shone red and distended
with trumpeting. Away went Spitfire, mad
with the rapture of the race, and the wind in
his silky ears. Away went the geese, the
JACKANAPES., 37
cocks, the hens, and the whole family of John-
son. Lucy clung to her mamma, Jane saved
Emily by the gathers of her gown, and Tony
saved himself by a somersault.
The Grey Goose was just returning when
Jackanapes and Lollo rode back, Spitfire pant-
ing behind.
““Good, my little gentleman, good!†said
the Gypsy. ‘You were born to the saddle.
You've the flat thigh, the strong knee, the wiry
back, and the light caressing hand, all you want
is to learn the whisper. Come here!â€
“What was that dirty fellow talking about,
grandson?†asked the General.
“‘T can’t tell you, sir. It’s a secret.â€
They were sitting in the window again, in the
two Chippendale arm-chairs, the General de-
vouring every line of his grandson’s face, with
strange spasms crossing his own.
“You must love your aunt very much, Jack-
anapes? â€
“T do, sir,†said Jackanapes warmly.
«“ And whom do you love next best to your
aunt? â€
The ties of blood were pressing very strongly
on the General himself, and. perhaps he thought
of Lollo. But love is not bought in a day,
38 JACKANAPES.
_even with fourteen pounds nineteen shillings
and tenpence. Jackanapes answered quite
readily, ‘“‘ The Postman.â€
“Why the Postman?â€
“He knew my father,†said Jackanapes, ‘and
he tells me about him, and about his black
mare. My father was a soldier,a brave soldier.
He died at Waterloo. When I growup I want
to be a soldier too.â€
“So you shall, my boy. So you shall.â€
“Thank you, grandfather. Aunty doesn’t
want me to be a soldier for fear of being
killed.â€
“ Bless my life! Would she have you get
into a feather bed and stay there? Why, you
might be killed by a thunderbolt, if you were
a butter merchant! â€
“So I might. Ishall tell her so. What a
funny fellow you are, sir! I say, do you think
my father knew the Gypsy’s secret? The .
Postman says he used to whisper to his
black mare.â€
“Your father was taught to ride as a child,
by one of those horsemen of the East who
swoop and dart and wheel about a plain like
swallows in autumn. Grandson! Love me a
little too. JI can tell you more about your
father than the Postman can.â€
JACKANAPES. 39
“I do love you,†said Jackanapes. ‘Before
you came I was frightened.’ I’d no notion you
were so nice.â€
“Love me always, boy, whatever I do or
leave undone. And — God help me — what-
ever you do or leave undone, I'll love you!
There shall never be a cloud between us for a
day; no, sir, not for an hour. We're imperfect
enough, all of us, we needn't be so bitter; and
life is uncertain enough at its safest, we needn’t
waste its opportunities. Look at me! Here
sit I, after a dozen battles and some of the
worst climates in the world, and by yonder lych
gate lies your mother, who didn’t move five
miles, I suppose, from your aunt's apron
strings — dead in her teens; my golden-haired
daughter, whom I never saw.â€
Jackanapes was terribly troubled.
“Don’t cry, grandfather,’ he pleaded, his
own blue eyes round with tears. “I will love
you very much, and I will try to be very good.
But I should like to be a soldier.â€
“You shall, my boy, you shall. You've
more claims for a commission than you know
of. Cavalry, I suppose; eh, ye young Jacka-
napes? Well, well; if you live to be an honor
to your country, this old heart shall grow
40 JACKANAPES.
young again with pride for you; and if you
die in the service of your country — God bless
me, it can but break for ye!â€
And beating the region which he said was
all waistcoats, as if they stifled him, the old
man got up and strode out on-to the Green,
JACKANAPES. AI
CHAPTER IV.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that‘a man lay down
his life for his friends.†— JOHN xv. 13
TWENTY and odd years later the Grey
Goose was still alive, and in full possession of
her faculties, such as they were. She lived
slowly and carefully, and she lived long. So
did Miss Jessamine; but the General was
dead.
He had lived on the Green for many years,
during which he and the Postman saluted each
other with a punctiliousness that it almost
drilled one to witness. He would have com-
pletely spoiled Jackanapes if Miss Jessamine’s
conscience would have let him; otherwise he
somewhat dragooned his neighbors, and was as
positive about parish matters as a ratepayer
about the army. A stormy-tempered, tender-
hearted soldier, irritable with the suffering of
wounds of which he never spoke, whom all
the village followed to his grave with tears.
The General’s death was a great shock to
Miss Jessamine, and her nephew stayed with
her for some little time after the funeral.
Then he was obliged to join his regiment, which
was ordered abroad.
42 JACKANAPES.
One effect of the conquest which the Gen-
eral had gained over the affections of the vil-
lage was a considerable abatement of the
popular prejudice against “the military.†In-
deed, the village was now somewhat impor-
tantly represented in the army. There was the
JACKANAPES. 43
General himself, and the Postman, and the
Black Captain’s tablet in the church, and Jack-
anapes, and Tony Johnson, and a Trumpeter.
Tony Johnson had no more natural taste for
fighting than for riding, but he was as devoted
as ever to Jackanapes, and that was how it
come about that Mr. Johnson bought hima
commission in the same cavalry regiment that
the General’s grandson (whose commission had
been given him by the Iron Duke) was in,
and that he was quite content to be the butt of
the mess where Jackanapes was the hero; and
that when Jackanapes wrote home to Miss
Jessamine, Tony wrote with the same purpose
to his mother; namely, to demand her con-
gratulations that they were on active service at
last, and were ordered to the front. And he
added a postscript to the effect that she could
have no idea how popular Jackanapes was, nor
how splendidly he rode the wonderful red
charger whom he had named after his old
friend Lollo.
“ Sound retire!â€
A Boy Trumpeter, grave with the weight of
responsibilities and accoutrements beyond his
years, and stained, so that his own mother
44. --JACKANAPES.
would not have known him, with the sweat and
dust of battle, did as he was bid; and then
pushing his trumpet pettishly aside, adjusted
his weary legs for the hundredth time to the
horse which was a world too big for him, and
muttering, ‘“’Tain’t a pretty tune,†tried to see
something of this, his first engagement, before
it came to an end.
Being literally in the thick of it, he could
hardly have seen less or known less of what
happened in that particular skirmish if he had
been at home in England. For many good
reasons; including dust and smoke, and that
what attention he dared distract from his com-
manding officer was pretty well absorbed by
keeping his hard-mouthed troop-horse in hand,
under pain of execration by his neighbors in
the melée. By and by, when the newspapers
came out, if he could get a look at one before
it was thumbed to bits, he would learn that the
enemy had appeared from ambush in over-
whelming numbers, and that orders had been —
given to fall back, which was done slowly and
in good order, the men fighting as they retired.
Born and bred on the Goose Green, the
youngest of Mr. Johnson’s gardener’s numerous
offspring, the boy had given his family “no
JACKANAPES. 45
peace†till they let him “ go fora soldier†with
Master Tony and Master Jackanapes. They
consented at last, with more tears than they
shed when an elder son was sent to gaol for
poaching, and the boy was perfectly happy in
his life, and full of esprit de corps. It was this
which had been wounded by having to sound
retreat for ‘the young gentlemen’s regiment,â€
the first time he served with it before the
enemy, and he was also harassed by having
completely lost sight of Master Tony. There
had been some hard fighting before the back-
ward movement began, and he had caught sight
of him once, but not since. On the other
hand, all the pulses of his village pride had
been stirred by one or two visions of Master
Jackanapes whirling about on his wonderful
horse. He had been easy to distinguish, since
an eccentric blow had bared his head without
hurting it, for his close golden mop of hair
gleamed in the hot sunshine as brightly as
the steel of the sword flashing round it.
Of the missiles that fell pretty thickly, the
Boy Trumpeter did not take much notice. First,
one can’t attend to everything, and his hands
were full. Secondly, one gets used to any-
thing. Thirdly, experience soon teaches one,
46 JACKANAPES.
in spite of proverbs, how very few bullets find
their billet. Far more unnerving is the mere
suspicion of fear or even of anxiety in the
human mass around you. The boy was begin-
ning to wonder if there were any dark reason
for the increasing pressure, and whether they
JACKANAPES. 47
would be allowed to move back more quickly,
when the smoke in front lifted for a moment, -
and he could see the plain, and the enemy’s
line some two hundred yards away.
And across the plain between them he saw
Master Jackanapes galloping alone at the top
of Lollo’s speed, their faces to the enemy,
his golden head at Lollo’s ear.
But at this moment noise and smoke seemed
to burst out on every side, the officer shouted
to him to sound retire, and between trumpeting
and bumping about on his horse, he saw and
heard no more of the incidents of his first
battle.
Tony Johnson was always unlucky with
horses, from the days of the giddy-go-round
onwards. On this day—of all days in the
year — his own horse was on the sick list, and
he had to ride an inferior, ill-conditioned beast,
and fell off that, at the very moment when it
was a matter of life or death to be able to ride
away. The horse fell on him, but struggled up
again, and Tony managed to keep hold of it.
It was in trying to remount that he discovered,
by helplessness and anguish, that one of his
legs was crushed and broken, and that no feat
of which he was master would get him into the
48 JACKANAPES.
saddle. Not able even to stand alone, awk
_ wardly, agonizingly unable to mount his restive
horse, his life was yet so strong within him!
And on one side of him rolled the dust and
smoke-cloud of his advancing foes, and on the
other, that which covered his retreating friends.
He turned one piteous gaze after them, with
a bitter twinge, not of reproach, but of loneli-
ness; and then, dragging himself up by the
side of his horse, he turned the other way and
drew out his pistol, and waited for the end.
Whether he waited seconds or minutes he
never knew, before some one gripped him by
the arm.
“ Fackanapes! God bless you! Its my left
leg. If you could get me on—â€
It was like Tony’s luck that his pistol went
off at his horse’s tail, and made it plunge; but
Jackanapes threw him across the saddle.
“Hold on anyhow, and stick your spur in.
I'll lead him. Keep your head down, they’re
firing high.â€
And Jackanapes laid his head down — to
Lollo’s ear.
It was when they were fairly off, that a sud-
den upspringing of the enemy in all directions
had made it necessary to change the gradual
JACKANAPES. 49
retirement of our force into as rapid a retreat
as possible. And when Jackanapes became
aware of this, and felt the lagging and swerv-
ing of Tony’s horse, he began to wish he had
thrown his friend across his own saddle, and
left their lives to Lollo.
When Tony became aware of it, several
things came into his head. 1. That the
dangers of their ride for life were now more
than doubled. 2. That if Jackanapes and
Lollo were not burdened with him they would
undoubtedly escape. 3. That Jackanapes’ life
was infinitely valuable, and his — Tony’s —
was not. 4. That this — if he could seize it—
was the supremest of all the moments in which
he had tried to assume the virtues which Jacka-
napes had by nature; and that if he could be
courageous and unselfish now —
He caught at his own reins and spoke very
loud —
“Jackanapes! It won't do. You and Lollo
must goon. Tell the fellows I gave you back
to them, with all my heart. Jackanapes, if you
love me, leave me! â€
There was a daffodil light over the evening
sky in front of them, and it shone strangely on |
Jackanapes’ hair and face. He turned with an
50 JACKANAPES.
odd look in his eyes that a vainer man than
Tony Johnson might have taken for brotherly
pride. Then he shook his mop, and laughed
at him.
“Leave you? To save my skin? No,
{
Tony, not to save my soul
JACKANAPES, 51
CHAPTER V.
Mr. VALIANT summoned. His will. His last words.
Then, said he, “I am going to my Father’s. .. . My sword
I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my
courage and skill to him that can get it.†. . . And as he went
down deeper, he said, “ Grave, where is thy victory?â€
So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on
the other side. Bunyan's Pilerim’s Progress.
COMING out of a hospital tent, at head-
quarters, the surgeon cannoned against, and re-
bounded from, another officer; a sallow man,
not young, with a face worn more by ungentle
experiences than by age; with weary eyes that
kept their own counsel, iron-gray hair, and a
mustache that was as if a raven had laid its
wing across his lips and sealed them.
“Well?â€
“Beg pardon, Major. Didn’t see you. Oh,
compound fracture and bruises, but it’s all
right. He'll pull through.â€
«Thank God!â€
It was probably an involuntary expression,
for prayer and praise were not much in the
Major’s line, as a jerk of the surgeon’s head
would have betrayed to an observer. He was
a bright little man, with his feelings showing
52 JACKANAPES.
all over him, but with gallantry and contempt
of death enough for both sides of his profes-
sion ; who took a cool head, a white handker-
chief, and a case of instruments, where other
men went hot-blooded with weapons, and who
was the biggest gossip, male or female, of the
regiment. Not even the Major's taciturnity
daunted him.
“ Didn’t think he’d as much pluck about him
as he has. He’ll do all right if he doesn’t fret
himself into a fever about poor Jackanapes.â€
“Whom are you talking about?†asked the
Major hoarsely.
“ Young Johnson. He—â€:
“ What about Jackanapes? â€
“Dont you know? Sad business. Rode
back for Johnson, and brought him in; but,
monstrous ill-luck, hit as they rode. Left
lung —â€
“ Will he recover?â€
‘No. Sad business. What a frame —what _
limbs — what health — and what good looks!
Finest young fellow — â€
“Where is he?â€
“Tn his own tent,†said the surgeon sadly.
The Major wheeled and left him.
* * * * * * *
“Can J do anything else for you?â€
JACKANAPES. Ba
“Nothing, thank you. Except — Major!
I wish I could get you to appreciate Johnson.â€
“ This is not an easy moment, Jackanapes.â€
“Let me tell you, sir — he never will— that
if he could have driven me from him, he would
be lying yonder at this moment, and I should
be safe and sound.â€
The Major laid his hand over his mouth, as
if to keep back a wish he would have been
ashamed to utter.
“T’ve known old Tony from a child. He’s a
fool on impulse, a good man and a gentleman
in principle. And he acts on principle, which
it’s not every—some water, please! Thank
you, sir. It's very hot, and yet one’s feet get
uncommonly cold. Oh, thank you, thank you!
He’s no fire eater, but he has a trained con-
science and a tender heart, and he’ll do his duty
when a braver and more selfish man might fail
you. But he wants encouragement; and when
I’m gone—â€
“He shall have encouragement. You have
my word for it. Can I do nothing else?â€
“Ves, Major. A favor.â€
“Thank you, Jackanapes.â€
“Be Lollo’s master, and love him as well as
you can. He’s used to it.â€
“Wouldn’t you rather Johnson had him?â€
54 JACKANAPES.
The blue eyes twinkled in spite of mortal pain.
“Tony rides on principle, Major. His legs
are bolsters, and will be to the end of the chap-
ter. I couldn’t insult dear Lollo, but if you
don’t care —â€
“Whilst I live—which will be longer than I
desire or deserve—Lollo shall want nothing,
but—you. I have too little tenderness for —
my dear boy, you're faint. Can you spare me
for a moment?â€
“No, stay — Major!â€
“What? What?â€
“My head drifts so—if you wouldn’t mind.â€
SeVieS eV ese tes
“Say a prayer by me. Out loud please, I
am getting deaf.â€
“My dearest Jackanapes— my dear boy —â€
“One of the Church Prayers—Parade Ser-
vice, you know—â€
“T see. But the fact is—God forgive me,
Jackanapes — I’m a very different sort of fellow
to some of you youngsters. Look here, let me
fetch—â€
But Jackanapes’ hand was in his, and it
wouldn't let go.
There was a brief and bitter silence.
“Pon my soul I can only remember the little
one at the end,â€
JACKANAPES. 55
“Please,†whispered Jackanapes.
Pressed by the conviction that what little he
could do it was his duty to do, the Major—
kneeling—bared his head, and spoke loudly,
clearly, and very reverently —
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—â€
Jackanapes moved his left hand to his right
one, which still held the Major’s —
“—_ The love of God.â€
And with that—Jackanapes died.
56 JACKANAPES,
CHAPTER VI.
Und so ist der blaue Himmel grésser als jedes
Gew6lk darin, und dauerhafter dazu.
JEAN PAUL RICHTER.
JACKANAPES’ death was sad news for the
Goose Green, a sorrow just qualified by honor-
able pride in his gallantry and devotion. Only
the Cobbler dissented, but that was his way.
He said he saw nothing in it but foolhardiness
and vainglory. They might both have been
killed, as easy as not, and then where would ye
have been? A man’s life was a man’s life, and
one life was as good as another. No one would
catch him throwing his away. And, for that
matter, Mrs. Johnson could spare a child a
great deal better than Miss Jessamine.
But the parson preached Jackanapes’ funeral
sermon on the text, ‘‘ Whosoever will save his
life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his
life for My sake shall find itâ€; and all the vil-
lage went, and wept to hear him.
Nor did Miss Jessamine see her loss from the
Cobbler’s point of view. On the contrary, Mrs.
Johnson said she never to her dying day should
forget how, when she went to condole with her,
JACKANAPES. 57
the old lady came forward, with gentlewomanly
self-control, and kissed her, and thanked God
that her dear nephew’s effort had been blessed
with success, and that this sad war had made
no gap in her friend’s large and happy home
circle.
“But she’s a noble, unselfish woman,†sobbed
Mrs. Johnson, “and she taught Jackanapes to
be the same, and that’s how it is that my Tony
has been spared to me. And it must be sheer
goodness in Miss Jessamine, for what can she
know of a mother’s feelings? And I’m sure
most people seem to think that if you’vea large
family you don’t know one from another any
more than they do, and that a lot of children
are like a lot of store apples, if one’s taken it
won't be missed.â€
Lollo— the first Lollo, the Gypsy’s Lollo—
very aged, draws Miss Jessamine’s bath-chair
slowly up and down the Goose Green in the
sunshine.
The ex-Postman walks beside him, which
Lollo tolerates to the level of his shoulder. If
the Postman advances any nearer to his head,
Lollo quickens his pace, and were the Postman
to persist in the injudicious attempt, there is,
as Miss Jessamine says, no knowing what might
happen.
58 JACKANAPES,
In the opinion of the Goose Green, Miss
Jessamine has borne her troubles “ wonderfully.â€
Indeed, to-day, some of the less delicate and
less intimate of those who see everything
from the upper windows, say (well behind
her back) that “ the old lady seems quite lively
with her military beaux again.â€
The meaning of this is, that Captain Johnson
is leaning over one side of her chair, whilst by
the other bends a brother officer who is staying
with him, and who has manifested an extraor-
dinary interest in Lollo. He bends lower and
lower, and Miss Jessaminé calls to the Postman
to request Lollo to be kind enough to stop,
whilst she is fumbling for something which
always hangs by her side, and has got en-
tangled with her spectacles.
It is a twopenny trumpet, bought years ago
in the village fair, and over it she and Captain
Johnson tell, as best they can, between them,
the story of Jackanapes’ ride across the Goose
Green; and how he won Lollo— the Gypsy’s
Lollo—the racer Lollo —dear Lollo— faith-
ful Lollo— Lollo the never vanquished — Lollo
the tender servant of his old mistress. And
Lollo’s ears twitch at every mention of his
name.
JACKANAPES. 59
Their hearer does not speak, but he never
moves his eyes from the trumpet, and when the
tale is told, he lifts Miss Jessamine’s hand and
presses his heavy black mustache in silence to
her trembling fingers.
The sun, setting gently to his rest, em-
broiders the somber foliage of the oak-tree
with threads of gold. The Grey Goose is
sensible of an atmosphere of repose, and puts
up one leg for the night. The grass glows
with a more vivid green, and, in answer to a
ringing call from Tony, his sisters fluttering
over the daisies in pale-hued muslins, come out
of their ever-open door, like pretty pigeons
from a dovecote.
And, if the good gossips’ eyes do not deceive
them, all the Miss Johnsons, and both the
officers, go wandering off into the lanes, where
bryony wreaths still twine about the brambles.
* * * * # * *
A sorrowful story, and ending badly?
Nay, Jackanapes, for the end is not yet.
A life wasted that might have been useful?
Men who have died for men, in all ages, for-
give the thought !
There is a heritage of heroic example and
noble obligation, not reckoned in the wealth of
60 JACKANAPES.
nations, but essential to a nation’s life; the
contempt of which, in any people, may, not
slowly, mean even its commercial fall.
Very sweet are the uses of prosperity, the
harvests of peace and progress, the fostering
sunshine of health and happiness, and length
of days in the land.
But there be things—oh, sons of what has
deserved the name of Great Britain, forget it
not! — “the good of†which and “ the use ofâ€
which are beyond all calculation of worldly
goods and earthly uses: things such as love,
and honor, and the soul of man, which cannot
be bought with a price, and which do not die
with death. And they who would fain live
happily EVER after, should not leave these
things out of the lessons of their lives.
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BIG BROTHER. By ANNIE FELLOWS-JOHNSTON.
CHRISTMAS AT THOMPSON HALL. By ANTHONY
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STORY OF A SHORT LIFE. By JuLiANA Horatia
EwIne.
A PROVENCE ROSE. By Loulsa DE LA RAMEE (OurDA).
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THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER. A Legend of
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by OscaR WILDE.
Other volumes to follow.
Published by JOSEPH KNIGHT COMPANY, Boston.
Kay Any of the above works will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to
any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price.
BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.
FEATS ON THE FIORD. A tale of Norwegian life, by HARRIET
MartineEAu. With about 60 original illustrations and a colored
frontispiece.
t vol., small quarto, cloth, gilt top bi - $1s¢
This admirable book, read and enjoyed by so many young people a gen-
eration ago and now partially forgotten, deserves to be brought to the atten-
tion of parents in search of wholesome reading for their children to-day. It
is something more than a juvenile book, being really one of the most instruc-
tive books about Norway and Norwegian life and manners ever written,
well deserving liberal illustration, and the luxury of good paper, print and
binding now given to it.
AN ARCHER WITH COLUMBUS. By Cuas. E. Brimstecom,
with about 50 illustrations from original pen-and-ink sketches.
zx vol., r6mo, handsome cloth binding. F ' si . 5 $1.25
A capital story of a boy who attracted the attention of Columbus while he
was seeking the aid of Ferdinand and Isabella, for his great voyage of dis-
covery. ‘The wit and courage of the boy enabled him to be of service to the
great explorer, and he served as an archer on the vessel of Columbus. His
loyalty and devotion, through vicissitude and danger, endeared him to his
master, and the story of his experiences and exploits will make him a favor-
ite with boys, young and old.
- The story is well told, crisply written, full of reasonable adventure and
lively dialogue, without a tedious page from beginning to end.
A DOG OF FLANDERS. A Curistmas Story. By Louisa DE
La Ramé (Ourpa). A new edition of a beautiful Christmas story,
already prized as a classic by all who know it. With forty-two origi-
nal illustrations and a photogelatine reproduction of Rubens’s great
picture, ‘‘ The Descent trom the Cross.â€
xz vol., small quarto, cloth, gilt top . . . . 5 . > $1.25
THE NURNBERG STOVE. By Louisa pe ta Ramé (Outpa).
Another of Ouida’s charming stories, delightful alike to old and young.
With fifty original illustrations and a color frontispiece of a German
stove after the celebrated potter, Hirschvogel.
xz vol., small quarto, cloth, gilt top bee Uexegyens pIs25
TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. By Cuartes anp Mary
Lams. New Epition. A pretty edition of this well-known classic.
Illustrated with twenty etchings by the celebrated French artist, H.
Pillé. Etched by L. Monzies.
2 vols., r6mo, half white vellum cloth aad silk side, gilt tops . $3.00
Published by JOSEPH KNIGHT COMPANY, Boston.
Rar Any of the above books will be sent by matt, postage prepaid, to any
part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price.
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