THE OLEANDER TREE : A STOUT OF THE BRITISH PRESS-GANG.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2422, 24 December 1875, Page 3

THE OLEANDER TREE : A STOUT OF THE BRITISH PRESS-GANG.

(From the Atlantic Monthly.) I ohanced to spend a fow weeks of a hot summor in a little village among the Now England hills. As July passed, I noticod that in almost every door-yard of tho little hamlet an oleander grew genorally, in its big, green tub, the one solitary ornament of the threshold. Some of these oleanders were very large, standing aix feet high, and aome very amaU slips jusfc potted, or wifch ono year's growth of stature ; bufc to possess an oleander of aome aizo or other aeemod to bo a passion with the townsfolk of Prinoe ton. I understood at once thafc aome singular ohanco had brought thia foroign tropical boauty to the eooludod spot, and fchafc ifc had bocomo tho fashion. Who that has seen a new over-skirt or apron, or even a milk-strainer or coal scuttle, run through a oountry village liko wildfire, can fail to understand the spread of this prettier novelty P Bufc how oame the first hither P Wandering ono day to a littlo known homestead set on a ledge of tho mountain, at a house where I stopped for a glass of wator, I found the noblest Roman of them all, a mighty treo of an oleander, standing aomo twelvo feet high, and orowdod with palo pink blossoms. I praised the beautiful foreigner with its exquiaifco flowora and faint, refined odour, and tho bent and wrinkled old woman who gave mo my refreshing draught waa greatly ploasod. " Whero did you got it P " I askod. " That 'ere flower has quito a story to ifc, I can tell ye. Ifc camo fust from the West Indies, and was sent by a friend of mine by

hor boau, who was a soafarin' man. Don't you want I should tell you about it P " I was a loafer afc largo, and consciontiouely dawdling for a pain in my sido, and was roally vory glad fco fill the timo in so ploasant ; a way, besides satisfying my curiosity in i hoaring the history of the patriarch oleander, i its tribe and its family. I eat down in tho ' list-bottomed ohair aho brought oufc from hor i '" keopin'-room " nnd pufc upon tho grass by the door, while she gave mo this little village history, whose pathos or whose joy oannot be ontiroly hid by her homely spoeoh. Katy Goodnow wae the nicest girl anywhere about. Of oourso tho young men all found it : oufc, and she had lots of 'em a-waitin' on her, bufc afore aho waa eightoon aho had eettlod down to Tom Mariner, a real anappin', divin' lad who lived juat aorosa the way from her. You know them two stun houses on the north road to the mountain P Woll, them two tumblo-down ones, all to piooes, whoro Tom's and Katy's homes. There wa'n't muoh chanoe for Tom to moro 'n earn a living for - himsolf i if ho stayed at Prinoeton, His father worked the farm, and waa a healthy, middle-aged man, and thore woro eight othor boya and ; girls, bosido Tom, a-oomin' up. Ho was i willin' to givo Tom hia time, and Tom thought ho'd like to go searfarin' for a while. You soo he was kind of ambitious, and so waa ahe ,* and sooin' as she'd sont off the young dootor i and the young minister and the atore-keeper'a ' Bon, Tom aort o' wanted to do well hy her, < and ho hankered to gefc authin ahead and buy a farm of his own. Ho didn't exaotly like to : sofc Katy to work in hie father's kitohon, aa he'd 'a' had to do it ho didn't start for him- ' self. Woll, he went fco boo her one Sunday < nigh!;, and tho noxt day but ono he started off to go to Middleton, Connecticut j a long ways off, but trado was brisk there, and a smart i young fellow had good ohanooa to run to tho West Indies on a sloop, and when be had sailed a voyage or two, and iarnt the hondlin' of the ship, juat as like aa nofc the captain : would take him as mate, and thon hia forfcin . would be made. Tom went off, and in aix i months he camo baok with a lot of oookynuta and qtaoer things, and eaid he'd dono well. Ho was sailin' for Seebor and Co., rioh Jews of Middle town, and they had made him mato, i and liko as nofc ho'd bo captain afore long. He oome to meetin' with Katie, and thoy was proud enough of eaoh other, I can tell yo. Well. Tom went baok'ard and for'ard for two years or moro, and Katy Bho stayed at hum and raised flax, and haoklod and spun and bloaohod, till ahe'd gob a nioo lot of sheets and towels, and a pillow-oaae full of atookinga. She was a smart girl any way, and an extra fast knitter. Why, she oould beat ovory girl in the village a knitting round, and she was tho quickest quiltor I over did see, and tastiest of us all. Sho uaod to look as handsomo as a piotor every Sunday, a-standin' up so straight m the gallery along with tho bass-viol, aaingin' with all her might. Well, woll, she noodod all her strength and courage affcro alio gofc through. In them days wo had a mail only onoo a fortnight, and eomotimos there wasn't; a lottor como thon, exoopfc for tho parson, for as muoh as two months. A man went down through the woods on horaobaok. and brought up the paper whioh was printed onco a week down to Boston. One day Katy 'a brothor Joe, who waa tho mail-oarrior, was Biok, and ifc wae hayin' time, and Kafcy'e father was awful busy, and mailday oomo round. Everybody wanted to boo (bo Boston paper and road tho news, 'cause it was just along thom years that tho Britishers woro carryin' on ao, and takin' our men off our merohanfc sloops, and makin' 'oui sorvo in thoir navy. Katy oomo rindin' along that mornin'. as ohirk as oould be, and givo a call at the baok door to lot mo know sho waa thore : and saya sho, " Mattie, I'm goin' down to Woroestor to get fcho mail. Tho mon folks aro busy with their hayin' and can't spend timo to go, and I wonfc to hear protty bad myaelf ." So aho talked a minute or two, and I sent down a littlo bundle of yarn I had spun, for her to ohange off at tho storo wifch some stool needles and thread, and then she said goodbye, and I soo hor go joggin' along on Brown Bill through tho pino woods and down the hill. Of course thoro wa'n't no railroade thon, but pikoa wa'n't built either, There was a aorfc of foot-path oufc through the under-brush, and it was blazed quito correot on tho trees, and one oould boo fcho big whito spots whon it was quito dark. I'vo travelled down to Worcoator in this path many a time, and very pleasant it waa bn a warm eummer'a day. Ifc uaod to bo ao awoofc and cool and still under the dark pines. The nexfc day I seo her coming crosa lote to boo me, and Bho wbb bright and handsome aa a rod hollyhock. Sho threw my little bundle of storin'o into my lap, and aaid, "Thoy throw in eomo darnin'-neodles oxtra, Mattie," and then sho went on a talkin' to me and ma, who was a-sittin' spinnin' and reelin' togothor, and 'most the fusfc thing she eaid was, " Ab'gail Griffith's boy haa come homo to Loioester, and Tom'a aont mo a letter and hia pay, and a slip of a now kind of geranium in a pofc. Ho says it haa real pretty flowers, but it isn't tough, though it looks bo, and I mustn't let ifc freeze. And he'a aenfc word to buy fcho Widdor Tbompaon's farm, and fcho monoy fco pay for ifc is in fcho bank of Woroosfcor, and I'm going to got fcho houso all ready againsfc hia coming homo in fcho apring," " S'poao you oolkilafco to gofc married," I spoke right out. " Tom saya so," and ahe bluahed real pretty aboufc it. Well, fche farm was bought, and ahe went to work, and how fchat girl did work ! Sho made ragoarpota for evory room in the houso —to bo suro thore wero only four on 'cm, but ifc takos a lofc of rage whon you oufc, and dye and weave ovory bifc on 'om wifch your own hande— and she braided ruga, and aho piokod and ourod live geeao feathers enough for two beds and four pillows j and sho was jusfc as chirk as aob up aa sho oould be. And (hia horo oleondor grow ond grow. She oovored ifc up ovory night from tho froat, and allua put a pail of water by it every night through January to keep it from freezin', and it throve ' fust' rato. In tho spring Tom oomo homo, and ho wanted to bo married right off, and they was married aboufc tho middio of .May. Katy had somo applebrows in her hair, and looked splendid j but no good comes of a woddin' in 1 May any moro than on a Friday, and you'll see it'e so afore I'vo gofc through. Tom meant to stay to hum and farm it for tho aummer, and thon go voyagin' again in tho winter, , after the orops were got in. You see they was dreadful ambitious, and wanted to get on fast. Woll, when Thanksgivin' waa ovor, Tom wont off. It was tough parting, and he aaid if ho hadn't givo his word he would havo stayed to hum. You see neither of 'em thought juet how it would bo, and that ifc wasn't just

right to leave Katy all alone in the dead of winter, with four feet of show on tbe ground, and she not quite bo able to get about as ' usual. He wanted her to go and stay to his or her father's while ho was gone, but she said no. She'd got plenty of sewin' to do at ore spring, and the cattle to fodder ; and ehe quoted the Biblo, and said that ehe " would abide by tho stuff." I gueaa be felt awful to leavo her, thoucth ho expeoted to be baok afore her troublo waa on her, but ahe kep* up and talked brave to him. I went over there the orternoon of the day he went (be went away of a Thuraday mornin'), and ber eyea were aa red and stuck out like lobsterses, and she kind o' ohoked when she fust see me, afore she oould tell me to set down and take a ohair, and take my calash off and stay to tea. Well, I used to go over and see her aa often as I oould. She kep' busyj she milked, and made butter and laid ifc down, and fche cow had a calf, and it got to be April. Ono day she said to me, " Mattie, I'm not so light-footed as I was, and I'm thinking tbat I'll take the new schoolma'am to board, so's to have her little brother help me out doors, He oan fodder the cows and do the milking, and drive them to pasture, and I can keep more indoors and do the houae work," Elviney Skinner waa very glad to oome, 'causo Katy waa a fust-rate cook, and aa neat aa a new pin, and I felt kind o' easier about her after they oome, 'cause ahe'd alwaya have oompany. I wanted to go and stay with her myself, but ma eaid I wasn't big enough. One mornin' I boo the dootor go by, and Miaa Mariner with him, and I felt dreadful bad to think of poor Katy, and Tom not book. I ran oufc to the gate to aee the dootor when he oome baok, and he said, " Mattie, toll your ma tbere are two perad ventures this time} Katy Mariner has got twins; two big twin boys." I never was so sot down in my life, and I ran righT in to tell ma and ask her if I mightn't go over and eoe them. She wouldn't lot me go that day, but aa soon oa I oould aho aont me over thero to aee the twine, and likely ohildren fchey were. I didn't aay nothin' about Tom, for fear of worryin' her, ahe lay ao calm, and rested with a baby on eaoh arm; but I spoke to Mar Mariner, Tom'a mother, and ahe aaid waa kind o' troubled, for Tom .had said he would be baok in Marob sure, and now it had got to be May. And it got to be June, and nothing was heard of Tom. Kato went right to work as soon as she was cut of bed, and sowed oorn and oats j she had the plowin' all done afore she was siok ; and she and the little lad planted a garden, to she'd have garden aasa through the summer. She had her hands full, what with her babies and her farm, but they weie suoh good babiea and jeat aa contented aa kittens. She used to tie em ono in oaoh end of the oradlo, and givo 'cm eacb a tin pan and an iron spoon, and they'd mako musio till they went off to sleep, and she'd jest go round and do her work. Sho seemed pretty contented too, and took up with the babiea and her farm, and I guess she wor|ed too hard to fret muoh. But when Paul came, and the farm work was nearly over, and Thankegivin' would be along pretty soon, and Tom not baok and no word of him, sho oouldn't stand it no longer. Ono day aho camo over to seo me while the babies was asleep. ' She called 'om Romulua, and Romus, 'causo, sho said, she was a kind of wolf mother to thom, and ahe aaid something about koopin' tho wolf from the door and suoklin' thom at the breast of poverty -, buti didn't know what she meant then, and don't now, for that matter, except that ahe'd do her dooty by 'em. Saya sho to me, saya she, " Mattie, oan you go over to my house tomorrow to see to things, while I go to Worooster and try if I oan find out something about Tom ? I can't wait no longo*. I mutt try to find out what has become of him, or my heart will break," and she most broke down and cried, and so did I. I wonfc ovor early in the mornin' and found her all wrapt up, a-waitin' for me. She was going to take one baby with her, and leave tbe ono that had loarned to drink out of ft cup at hum with mo. " Laud's sakeß, Katy," says I, " how well you do manage ! jest as the Injuns do with their papooses } " for sho slung the baby on her baok with a shawl, ao that both her hands were left free for reins; and hor horse waa dreadfully gontlo. I saw her start off once moro through them same pine woods. A good while arter, ehe told me ever ao muoh about her feelings on her two rides. She waa so happy whon aho went afore she got mar* ried, aplannin' about it and her home with Tom. She waa so proud to work for him and make him comfortable, and ahe thought about ''■ "ill tho way to Worcoator and back, and V. on ahe got to the very silliest plaoe she stopped Brown Bill and aaid her prayera, and then oome home feelin' eo glad. The aecond timo hor heart waa aa heavy as lead— for where* wae Tom P He might be in the bottom of tho sea, for all she knew ! Well, she rode on over the light November snowfall, whioh showod her the tracks of tbe wild birds and the wild beasts all about her. Once a red fox looked at her from the thioket, a 1 *' 1 ehe aaw where the great pawa of the Z. " rolvea had crossed her path. She said ahe kept thinking of fcho old graveyard on Prinoetown bill, where the aod that covered her little dead brother had been heavily weighted down with large etonea piled up on it, to keep the wolrea from thoir " hunger sacrilege," aa the parson called ifc -, and ahe shuddered all over. You see she was kind o'tuokered out with all her hard work through the Bummer, and nursin' them two big young onee beside. Ahd then ahe'd get narvoua. and felt aa though ahe'd ought to have aeon about Tom afore. She'd somehow got a fanoy (I e'poae it waa narvea partly) that ahe'd neglected him for hia babiea ; but I told hor ovor and over that takin'oareof hia babiea waa the aame aa takin' oare of him, and if people didn't; show thoir love a-workin' for eaoh other, I didn't aee how they could. And then tho In juna, who lived all round Princeton in thom days, come into her head, and she thought somo cross fellow might come out of the woods and steal her horse and leave ber right thero to get home as she could. But just then she remembered her aunt Nixon she was named for, and how, when the Injuns oome to Roxbury, olose by Boston, and surrounded her house, and ahe all alone in it, ehe put tbe great oak bare up agin the door, and turned the big brass kettle over her baby to koep it from the arfows, and fired her husband's gun out of the winder till ahe druv them off. " Katy," ehe aaid, aaya ahe, " I'm aa big as , aunt Nixon j let mo see, if the Injuns oome, , if I can't be as brave." Well, fche baby was proper good, and was sort o' quioted down by the cold air and tbe jolting, and in tbreo hours she got to Woroestor, and tbe fust she see in the street 1 was John Hutohings, that sailed shipmate . with Tom Mariner. Ho'd juet got baok from , his third voyage that year, for he did notbin* , eleo but go to sea, and bad news be had

brought. Them Britishers had boarded tbe i sloop on tho voyage out and had carried off 1 Tom with their press-gang. i He was juet such a strong fellow as they i wanted, and they fixed on him right away and | nobody could stop it. But his mate had his i sea-chest and bis baok pay and his British 1 bounty, wbioh, wicked as they were to take ] hira, they bod eent to bis wife, and even < asked if be bad one. John Hutchings said ' Katy never said notbin', only looked Tery 1 white and kinder clutched the baby, till he i told her wbat Tom said about wanting to her, j and bow he fought the men tbat took him, 1 and how he hoped to get home afore the little I fellow oame ; then she cried right ont, " Ob, < Tom, Tom !" and fell right off her horse. ** Well, he got her somehow to ber cousins', i and she had some samp and milk and baked I beans and cherry bounoe, tbat revived her op, < and then she started to come home all that i lonesome road through the woods. Bhe got ( baok as it was falling dark, and she come inter the kitohen where I wss eettin', moet i like a ghoat. She'd put up the horao and given him some hay and some oats, and sent ; the sohool-ma'm's brother to water bim, afore I ahe aaid anything. Then she took the baby < that had stayed to hum, and give bim a drink, i He was all undresfc and ready to go to bed. i So when he dropped off we woke the other I one, Remus it was, and put his night-gown on 1 him, and warmed bis little squirming pink 1 toes at the fire, but his long ride made him 1 sleepy, and be soon went off. Then when i they both were in the big oradlo she begun to I talk, and she said :— < " Tom has been carried off for a Britisher ;" but she never cried a bit. I asked her what she was going to do. " Write to Washington and Boston to-night, and send Jerome" — that was tbe sohool- < ma'am's brother— M down to Worcester to- i morrow with tbe letter." ] "But pony will be tired after to-day," says I. < " He can go on Brown BUI," says she. ' You see she'd been thinking it over, all the * way baok, and got her mind dear. Well, I give her a cup of tea as sweet and strong and hot as I could make it, and then, as I oouldn't ] do nothing more for her, I put my things on ' and went home aoross-lots. Oh ! afore I went she took out Tom's pay, which was in a canvas bag in his ohest, and whioh John Hutohings was glad enough to hand over safe to her, and told me to pnt it away safe in the cupboard. I asked her howimnoh it was, and she ' said she didn't know, and I sat down and counted it for her, and it come to more 'n : I fifty dollars, all in gold and silver. He was proper smart to work, was Tom; but she wa'n't a bit glad over it. She said it seemed ' like the price of Tom's blood ; life, I s'pose ehe meant. J Jerome, when he come back from Worcester, brought the news that war was declared between England and us, because they would have prees gangs and search-warrants, and steal men out of our ships to man theirs, and wo wouldn't bear it no longer. Oh, how worked up wo was! Mrs Mariner, Tom's mother, used to come over with her knittin'work and big patch-bag on mail days to ise Katy and the ohildren, and hope for some hews of Tom. By'mby a letter did come. He was well, had his reglar, and was watching his ohance to get away ; then notbin' moro oame for months and months. Katy managed the farm somehow, and the neighbours would get her hay in for her and do her plowin', and sho did the rest. Everything she set ber head to did well, and everything grew, especially tbe ohildren, and the oleander, that she thought a sight of. She used to sav, "As long as tbat lives, Tom lives :" and I ve seen her many a time hold her babies up to it, as soon as they took notioe, and tell their father sent it to their mother. WoU, I _uppo*« * youttr thing like jou don't remember when Preble and Decatur captured the Macedonian. That was a British man-of war ; and one of the prisoners turned out to be a shipmate of Tom, carried off at the same time Tom was, from the Lively Peggy. He turned up, and he'd come out of bis way clear up to Princeton, to tell Katy about her husband. He said tbat Tom went on shore in a boat in the Mediterranean Sea, and was caught by an Algerine pirate who was watching the harbour for captives. He being on American was not protected by the British flag, whioh was powerful enough to. steal him but not to save nim from the pirates. There was nobody to pay any ransom for him, and John didn't know a bit what had become of him, Poor Katy ! She had kep' up brave till then, but now she clear broke down. Sbe waa siok for a week ; didn't eat nothin' nor take no notice ; but she didn't ory none, at least when anybody was round. I wieh she had. It would have eased her off eome. Tbe shipmate brought her some more book pay, all in gold guineas, and Katy managed not to spend it, but to keep it agin the time when Tom should come back, though ehe was dear discouraged and never smiled for ever so long. Evenings, she'd take her boye up in her lap and talk to them about their father, and they sort of sopported her. She took real comfort in those young ones, and gradually she settled down to doin' without him, but sbe never forgot him. MrWinobeeter,theriohestfarmer in Princeton, oame to ask her to keep company with him, when he was a widower— he married Banner Blagden afterwards— but she said quito fierce to him, " How dare you ask me suoh a question when my husband is a-livin j" but it hurt her, and she cried about it af terwards^ though she didn't say notbin' to nobody. The twins got to be four years old, and never a word from Tom. Then, three vears after the war began, Decatur went sailur into Tripoli. He took a frigate and spiked forty-nine guns and rode right into tho harbour of Algiers to deliver the Amerioan prisoners. And among the very first lot he found Tom, with a ball and chain at bis ankle, aro win' at the galleys. And Decatur was high-handed with them pirates, and wouldn't give a cent of ransom for their captives, and he brought 'em all bock safe and sound, although Tom was block as a nigger from workin' bareheaded out under them hot suns. Luoky he didn't have a sunstroke, and perhaps he did without a-knowin' on it, for he was kind o* strange-like wben he got back. He came home in 1815 or '16 and precious glad to get here. He wasn't nat'ral fust but sort of curious and in a dream. He didn't know a bit what to say to Romulus and Remus, and took no notice or 'em fust off, when he was eo dreadful tickled to see Katy; but when anothor baby come to keep her busy, he took to 'em quick enough, and they were alius a-followin' him round tho farm. He was j , dreadful pleaaed at tho way Katy bod worked tbe land aud paid off tbe mortgage, and he i didn't tako control himself, but let ner do jest i .what she was a mind ter, and give her her own > way in everything. He did jest what she told . bim to do, and d idn't start notbin' himsdf out i of his own head, like as if he was her hired i man. Somehow lie was kind o' broken down, 1 and sea-farm' had got into his head, and got him out of thc notion of farmia'; and >•

never exactly took to it again. He nsed to leave her every two or three years ani go a-voyagin' ; and she'd got used to the boses_es a and she went right on, and Tom was awful proud and satisfied with her. That oleandertree Were began to blow as soon as Tom got home, and has had some blows on it ovist year sinco. One bard winter it got frosted aad didn't bave so many, and the nest nxmmet Tom died. Lots of slips havo ben est off from it, and 'most every house in tbo town haa a big or little oleander cut from this trs*. Romulus and Remus grew up and wenfc into tbe grocery business down to New York, and tbey both of 'em drive in their carriage. Thoß old houses was sold when tbo last two Marfan went to Ohio, aad ara a-droppin' to pieces, but ono I heero tell tbat of Ksty*s grandsons mean* to fix hers op for a summer villa. Anyways, ha come two or three years ago, and got eoaoo shoots of his grandmother's otandtrfar bk greenhouse. " I suppose Mrs Mariner died soma tima since," said I, as shepaaied. "Why, Katy P Yes, she was six or sown years older than I, and I am eighty-nine j and sho made tho beantifoleet cospsa you mt did see. Herloogbair was a* white aa dbar, and Ramos's wife jest bnuded it like a cswrn all around her bead, and her ooffin was aore than six feet long. Her twins wera proper big men too, and so was her husband, though ba never was jest the same after hrin* wSh the Mahomedans and tbo pirates; ba died fust, and she used to sit and forget ber knit-ting-work and patches and look at tbat oleander as if it would brins bim beck."