Isla Heron

CHAPTER IX.

THE NEW SCHOLARS

“AND how are the two new scholars doing?” asked the trustee.

The principal smiled, and then sighed, and shook her head. “They are doing extremely well,” she said; “but – ”

“But?” said the trustee.

“I don’t make them out at all,” said the principal. “That is, – oh, the little boy, of course, is just a good little fellow, not too bright, but with the sunniest, sweetest disposition in the world. It is the girl that puzzles me. It is incredible that she should know as much as she does, if she has been always deaf; yet it is evident that she has been taught no lip-reading; and her signs are none of the regular ones, but a language of her own, that she carries on with the little brother. She will not answer any questions that we put in writing; just smiles, a kind of thrilling smile, that goes to one’s heart, – I don’t know how to describe it, – and puts out her hand and strokes yours, and – and somehow, one doesn’t ask her anything more. She comes from an island, she writes, and the parents are dead, and she and the boy are wholly alone.”

The trustee mused.

“You had some kind of reference with them,” he asked. “Tell me all about it, will you? I have been away, you know, and only heard of the matter at third hand.”

“It was about a month ago. I happened to be crossing the hall myself, on some errand, and heard James, the porter, talking to some one. He saw me, and called me to come. There on the steps stood these two children, – well, the girl is hardly a child in stature, being tall and slight, but she seems very young, – hand in hand. The girl held a note, and was trying to make him read it; James was asking question after question, and at each one she shook her head quietly. She made none of the usual signs, and he never thought of her being a deaf-mute. I took the note, and found it was addressed to me; it was from a young woman I know, a divinity student. She was appointed a travelling missionary this summer to sail about the coast, teaching and preaching, and, on some wild island or other, – I forgot its name, – she found these children. She asked me to be kind to the children; said that Isla was an interesting girl, and that her one desire was to have her little brother taught to speak. She said nothing about Isla herself learning; possibly she thought her too old for the school, or else that she would plead her own cause; and she has certainly done it. She is a strange, wild creature, but there is something unspeakably winning about her. Oh, and there was another thing that was very curious. I think James himself must tell you about that.”

She rang the bell, and the porter appeared, a good-natured looking Irishman, not perhaps too clever.

“James,” said Miss Stewart, “I want you to tell Mr. Upton about the strange man who came here just after I had taken the Heron children up-stairs, the day they first came.”

James looked uneasy, and shuffled on his feet.

“Sure, he was a crazy man, sir!” he said. “There did be no sense in the things he said to me, at all.”

“No matter; let’s hear them, James. If we never heard any remarks but those with sense in them, we might live in silence a good part of our lives. Out with it!”

James shuffled again, and looked over his shoulder, as if expecting to see some one behind him.

“Well, sir, I’ll tell you just as it befel, and, if you don’t believe me, it’ll not be my fault, nor yet I’ll not be blamin’ ye. I thought strange of those two youngsters, coming all by their two selves that way; and, after Miss Stewart took them up-stairs, I went out on the steps and looked up and down the street a couple o’ times. ‘It might be like this,’ says I to myself, ‘that somebody wanted to get shut on ’em,’ I says, ‘and has turned ’em over, poor dumb things, where they’ll be taken care of, and now stealin’ off wid himself!’ I says. And that minute, if I didn’t catch sight of a feller skulkin’ behind the corner, and eyein’ me round it, for all the world like a sneakin’ spy, Miss Stewart, ma’am. I’ll not deceive you, sir, that I didn’t like the look of him at all. If he’d been a common mortal man, like you and me, sir, and no offence, I’d ha’ had him out o’ that by the collar before he could wink, and asked his business. But he was an on’arthly piece; I don’t know what he was like, at all; but his face was all patches, and his mouth the whole way round it, so it was; and the way he looked out of his two eyes, – well! I thought I’d be goin’ in, whether he was a man or a pixy, the way we see thim in Ireland. But I couldn’t turn round, till he was up on the steps, and had me by the collar, and the two eyes of him gogglin’ in my face, fit to turn me to stone. And he put his face up close to mine, that never was near such an ugly thing before, God be good to me! and he says, and it half a whisper and half a yell, —

“‘You’ll take care of that young lady!’ he says. ‘Are you the boss here?’ and me no chance to answer, wid his hand in the neck of me, and me voice choked in me throat, – ‘You’ll take care of that young lady!’ he says, ‘I want you to know,’ he says, ‘that she’s not alone, that young lady ain’t. There’s them as is watchin’ over her, and that’ll know if she ain’t treated good. And if they find out she ain’t, see here! I’ll come here myself, and I’ll wring your neck!’ he says. ‘I could do it as easy as I would a chicken’s, and ’twould be nothing but a pleasure. So now you know. That young lady’s name is Heron: Isly Heron her name is, and she’s wuth more money than there is in your city and Noo York wropped together! I know Herons, and you’d better know ’em too, and treat ’em as is right and proper. And my name’s Brazybone, and don’t you forget the sound of it; Brazybone, do ye hear? And when Heron’s near, just you be sure Brazybone ain’t fur off! You be sure of that, and mind your lobster-pots! That’s what I say to you!’

“And then, Mr. Upton, he give my collar a twist, sir, as near broke my neck, it did; and shook his fist in my face, and put his own ugly mug right up, grinnin’ at me till I thought the eyes would rowl out of his head. And then dropped me, and goes shamblin’ off round the corner. There! Now I’ve told it, Miss Stewart, and don’t ask me to tell it again no more, for the chills go down my back, they do, when I think of it.”

James was soothed and dismissed, and went off, muttering, to his den.

“It is true that he was terribly frightened, poor fellow,” said Miss Stewart, laughing. “We found him as white as a sheet, and for a long time he would not say a word about what had happened. Indeed, I have never heard the whole of it before. Do you think the man was a lunatic?”

“Perhaps; or perhaps some Caliban of an islander, who had been sent to guard the two children. My curiosity is thoroughly roused about them, I confess. Can I have a peep at them before I go, or are they already in bed?”

Miss Stewart led the way up-stairs.

“We have given them a room together,” she said apologetically. “It is hardly according to rules, but they have never been separated in their lives, and it seemed so terrible a thing to them, that we thought we might strain a point, and let them be together for a while, till they grew accustomed to the new surroundings. There was a vacant room, which was not in use.”

The trustee nodded. “I like india-rubber in my cast-iron, too!” he said, sympathetically. “It wears much better.”

They went silently up the second flight. At the landing, Miss Stewart paused, and beckoned to her companion to come up; unconsciously she put her finger to her lips, which was absurd, if there were none but deaf children near by. The trustee came up, and looked over her shoulder.

The door of a large room opposite the stairs stood open. No furniture was in the room, save two beds and a chair or two. In one bed a little boy sat upright, clapping his hands and making soft sounds of pleasure; his voice was unmodulated, but had no harsh, unnatural tone, rather a low, rustling murmur, like leaves touched by a light wind. His eyes were fixed on a figure that instantly caught the eyes of the two beholders, and held them.

Isla was circling round and round the room with light, swift motions, like a bird’s; her arms were outspread, her finger-tips brushed the walls as she sped by, and it was like the brushing of wings. Her long russet hair, unbraided, waved about her shoulders; her eyes seemed to lighten the dusky room, where the twilight was already falling. Now and then she turned to smile at Jacob, to flutter to the bed and take him in her arms for a moment; then turned again to her bird-like flight, skimming the ground as a swallow skims the sea. You would have said, a bird imprisoned in human form, shut within walls, and trying with all its wild nature to escape its bonds. Her face turned bright on the little brother, but, when it was away from him, the loneliness, the longing, were pitiful to see. The trustee, standing well back in the shadow, touched his companion on the arm with a glance of inquiry; what did this mean? She shook her head, and he was glad to see her eyes full of tears. His own heart ached, as if he were watching a sylvan creature in pain.

Suddenly the girl paused, tired, or desperate, hung for a moment at the window, gazing out at the roofs and chimney-pots, and the strip of blue sky above them; then dropped on the ground and sat bowed together, her face in her hands, rocking to and fro.

Miss Stewart stepped into the room, and laid her hand gently on the child’s shoulder. At the first tread, Isla raised her head, then dropped it again. A strong shudder went through her, and her breath came fast; but only for an instant. It was a different face that she raised to Miss Stewart now, in answer to the kindly pressure, the troubled sign of inquiry. Gentle, quiet, a little anxious, perhaps, with a smile that sought to propitiate; this was the Isla that Miss Stewart knew. At the teacher’s sign, she rose quickly, and came forward to greet the stranger. She took the hand he held out, and gazed at him intently; her eyes were full of liquid light, but behind the light, what shadow lay? suspicion, fear, expectation, as of something long dreaded? What could it be? And as the trustee looked in amazement into these gleaming, watchful eyes, that braved, yet shrank from him, – why, what was this? He had fancied it all! The girl’s look was only winning, only timid, anxious to please, perhaps a little shy of a stranger; assuredly the sweetest look he had seen in human eyes.

“God bless you, my dear child!” he said, hastily. And the principal felt that Isla was certainly improving in lip-reading, for she brightened at the words, and smiled more joyously, and led the way to little Jacob’s bed.

CHAPTER X.

JOE’S TREASURY

JOE BRAZYBONE was walking slowly up the village street, on his way home. He seemed deep in thought, and his round shoulders were bowed forward, as if beneath a heavy weight. The few boys who were hanging about called after him, but he paid no attention to them. Usually, they were able to rouse him to frenzy by the song that one of their number had composed, and it was their delight to see him turn and chase them, with uncouth gestures of malediction.

“Sculpin Brazybone,Hit him on his crazy-bone;Knocked out his wits, andScared him into fits, andWarn’t nothin’ left of himOnly jest a lazybone!”

But to-day the insulting chant fell on unheeding ears, which was disappointing. Joe shambled along till he reached the low, brown cottage, where he and his sister-in-law wrangled their lives along. He looked up and around before entering the house, scanning sea and sky with sharp, weather-wise eyes.

“It’s getting time for her!” he muttered to himself. “Soft sky, and everythin’ turnin’ green along by; time she was back here, to see things growin’. She never could stand it there in summer, not Isly couldn’t.”

Reaching the poor little room which was his castle and his defence against all storms, Joe sat for a time in meditation; then he rose, and, after carefully reconnoitring the premises, and deciding that Ma’am Brazybone was nowhere about, he went on tiptoe to a cupboard in the wall, and examined its contents. One by one he drew out several objects, and, after looking them over with anxious scrutiny, proceeded to arrange them in orderly lines on his bed, which served for table, also. A look of honest pride spread over his homely face, as he gazed at these objects; he took from a drawer an old rag of red handkerchief, and slowly and methodically wiped off every one, spying for a particle of dust. It was a motley array. A pair of silver-bowed spectacles; a bracelet of carnelian beads; a brass thimble and a horn snuff-box; a brooch of the mineral called goldstone, set in tarnished, coppery gold; a piece of red coral, smoothed and polished; an ancient parasol, of faded green silk; these were the contents of Joe’s treasury. He gloated over them, lifting first one and then another; he murmured praise of them to the four walls that were his only hearers.

“Them’s pretty beads!” he said, slipping the string over his great red wrist, and rubbing the smooth balls with delight. “Lovely, them is! I remember of Pop Brazybone’s bringin’ ’em home to little Sister Marthy, as if ’twas yesterday. She was tickled ’most to death, warn’t she? Poor little Marthy! She warn’t rugged enough to grow up. Old Joe had the ruggedness, and the ugliness, too; she was well-favoured, little Marthy was; not anythin’ to speak of like Isly, but well-favoured for Brazybones. Wouldn’t Isly look handsome in them! she’d be more than handsome, she’d be pretty! And she’s goin’ to have ’em, too. Isly don’t know it yet, but she’s goin’ to have old Joe’s handsome things, when she comes back, to wear like a lady, and put city folks to their shames.

“This sunshade, now! wal, I feel some dubious about this sunshade. ’Tis tasty, real tasty, but I kind o’ feel that Isly wouldn’t want to carry that; unless she was goin’ to meetin’. Yes, she might take it with her to meetin’.” He nodded, relieved.

“The specs I’ll have to keep, I calc’late; no need for them on Isly’s eyes, that’s bright as sunshine. Old Joe’ll put ’em on himself, mebbe, some day, and he might look better for ’em.”

He put the spectacles on his nose, and, finding a bit of cracked looking-glass in a corner, gazed for a moment at his reflection; then he shook his head.

“Nothin’ seems to make much difference in your looks, Joe. Look a leetle wuss in ’em than what you do out of ’em. Wal, now, how long do you suppose Mother Brazybone can stand seein’ them featurs every day, right along? ’Tis a caution, how she bears up as she doos; but she’s terrible rugged, Mother Brazybone is. I don’t expect I’ll git red on her this long time.

“Now here!” He held up the goldstone brooch, and looked at it with reverence.

“That’s a fine piece of joolery, that is. When I go up to Bellton, how’d it be if I took that piece of joolery along for Isly? She’d think a sight of it; ma’am did, I know. How’d it be if I jest handed it in at the door, keerless like, and said to that whopper-jawed piece of putty with buttons on to him, ‘You give that to young Lady Heron,’ I says, ‘and you tell her the man as brought it is at the door,’ I says, ‘and she’s only got to say the word and there’ll be more like it.’ Why – there is more like it, ain’t there? Where’s them ear-bobs?”

He turned over each article with laborious care, searching for what might lie under them. Finding nothing, he went to the cupboard, and ransacked it, his face growing more and more troubled. The sweat broke out on his forehead, and he mopped it with the rag of handkerchief; he felt in every corner; he looked under the bed, thinking that the earrings might have fallen and rolled out of sight; but no earrings were to be seen.

He was still searching painfully, when the sound of footsteps was heard in the outer room. A suspicion darted into Joe’s mind, and clung there like a snake. With shaking hands he put his treasures back in the cupboard, heaping them carelessly, instead of ranging them in order, as he loved to do. He turned the key, noticing for the first time what a common pattern it was, and how easily any other key in the house might fit the lock; then, putting it in his pocket, he went into the outer room, closing the door behind him.

Mrs. Brazybone was standing with her back to him, taking off her bonnet leisurely, and humming a psalm tune as she did so; she had been at a “singing tea-party,” and had enjoyed herself immensely. Her brother-in-law took her by the shoulders and whirled her round to face him; his eyes were blazing, the muscles on his temples stood out like brown cords, and his jaws worked for a moment before the words would come.

“You – you – ” he stammered, “you critter, you’ve got my ear-bobs! Who give you leave to ransack my cupboard and take my joolery?”

For a moment Mrs. Brazybone was at a loss; but the next moment she spoke, with good assurance.

“Was you thinkin’ of wearin’ ’em yourself, Joe? I’m sure I’d never have tetched ’em, if I’d ha’ thought you wanted to put ’em in your own handsome ears.”

“You critter!” said Joe again, shaking her great shoulders, till her chin waggled to and fro. “Take them bobs out, hear? Ain’t you satisfied with the rest of what you are, ’thout addin’ thief on to it? Will you take ’em out, or shall I take ’em out for ye?”

Mrs. Brazybone thought rapidly; her eyes brightened for a moment with lust of battle, but she felt Joe’s hands like iron on her shoulders, and decided for peace. Her voice took on a tone of whining bluster.

“Well, Joseph Brazybone! if I ever thought to hear your brother’s widder called a thief in this world! Poor Jabez! I’m glad he ain’t here; ’t would break his heart to hear me spoke so of.”

Joe snorted, but she saw no relenting in his eyes, so she began slowly to take out the earrings.

“They’re terrible paltry bobs,” she said. “I should think you’d be glad to see ’em worn by a respectable lady, Joseph, ’stead of takin’ on this way!” and she sniffed, as she handed the precious ornaments to their owner.

“Respectable!” roared Joe, who had kept an anxious silence while the earrings were being removed, but with them safe in his hands now felt that he could give the rein to his feelings.

“You respectable, you half-fruz jelly-fish? You’ve never ben threatened with bein’ respectable! Don’t you be afraid, Mother Brazybone, nobody’ll ever say that of ye! But now, see here! you let my belongings alone, do ye hear? from henceforth now and forever, so help ye; or I’ll trim yer ears to match yer nose, and then the hull island ’ud fly away in the air to get out of the sight of ye.”

He retired with his rescued treasures, and Mrs. Brazybone congratulated herself on getting off so easily. She had counted on restoring the gauds before Joe came back from fishing, and had been regretting all the afternoon that she had not taken the brooch as well; now she reflected that “a passel o’ words didn’t do one a might o’ hurt,” and remembered with a thrill of pride how many eyes had been fixed admiringly on the dangling ornaments. She promised herself to be more careful next time; but the next time she opened the cupboard with her door-key, the treasury was empty.

CHAPTER XI.

DISCOVERY

THE trustee stood on the steps of the Deaf-mute School, and pulled the bell. He had come to see his friend Isla, and his pockets were full of oranges for Jacob. He had grown much attached to the stranger children, and Isla especially had come very near his heart. He was a childless man, and now and then the thought crossed his mind that some day he might take the brother and sister home to his ample house, to be his children, his very own. It would be a silent house, but he was used to that. And he did not like noise. Besides, one never thought of Isla’s silence, her eyes were such eloquent speakers of all lovely and tender things. Wild, sometimes; it seemed to him now and then as if the girl had some trouble, some secret, that was wearing her out. He had tried to talk with her, to learn her history; but all she told in her graceful sign-language was calm and happy, of the lovely island, the care-free life till after her mother’s death, and then the desire to learn speech, which overmastered everything else. But something there was, the trustee felt more and more sure; and whatever the trouble might be, it was increasing. Through the long winter the girl had been quiet; almost apathetic, though her lovely smile never failed to brighten at sight of her friends, never failed to make sunshine for her little Jacob. Now, however, as the spring came on, a restlessness seized her. She wandered from window to window, looking out, scanning the houses across the street, as if she tried to see through and beyond their solid walls. When taken out to walk with the other children, this restlessness became almost uncontrollable. Every leaf, every blade of grass, seemed to draw her as if by magic; she plucked them, cherished them in her hands, took them home to her room. She would stand rapt, watching the birds, till the teacher touched her arm, and motioned her to go on. Then she would fling her arms out, with a gesture of distress, of impatience; but next moment would come the downward look, the pause, and then the sweet, patient smile, and the deprecating hand laid on her friend’s arm.

“I declare,” said this young teacher, speaking to the principal one day, “I can hardly believe, sometimes, that Isla does not hear. It is not only that she watches the birds; she certainly seems to listen. Do you think she can catch any vibrations of the air, when they are trilling and twittering so far above her?”

The principal thought not, but owned that Isla puzzled her, too. “Little Jacob is perfectly normal,” she said, “but how much less interesting! Just a sweet, good little fellow, and that is all. Yet he is learning fast to articulate, while Isla will not make the slightest attempt. It is strange!”

Now, as the kind trustee stood waiting for James to open the door, he heard footsteps behind him, and turning, saw a man coming up behind him. Such a man the trustee had never seen before, though he had travelled far. It was not that he was ugly, though that was enough; it was not that he was clumsy, though that was enough; it was not even that he looked as much like a fish as a man, if arms and legs could be concealed; it was, —

“Ha!” said the trustee. “I have it! Caliban, with the addition of a soul! Precisely! and may I be asked to resign if this is not James’s pixy!”

These remarks were not audible to the strange man, who stood looking intently at the gentleman, with bright blue eyes that were little in keeping with the rest of his uncouth being.

He opened his mouth once or twice, with such suggestions of Jonah that the trustee involuntarily recoiled a step or two; he tried to speak, but found difficulty in doing so; at length, —

“You’re a gentleman!” said Caliban.

“Thank you!” said the trustee. “I think it highly probable that you are another. What can I do for you this morning?”

Joe pulled off his hat with a gesture indescribably feudal.

“I know a gentleman when I see him,” he said, humbly. “Brazybones ain’t never been gentlemen, but they knows ’em, ’count o’ bein’ along o’ Herons so long, you see. Yes, sir; Joseph Brazybone is my name: Sculpin Joe, some calls me, on account of my style o’ featur, which is what was give me at birth; and I’ve come to see my young Lady Heron, as is stopping here a spell. You – bein’ a gentleman, you might know young Lady Heron, mebbe, sir?”

“Isla Heron?” said the trustee. “Oh, yes; I know Isla very well, and her little brother, too.”

Joe Brazybone turned away suddenly, and his round shoulders heaved once or twice. He was silent for a moment, and when he spoke it was slow and brokenly.

“You – you’ll excuse me, gentleman,” he said. “It came kind o’ suddin, that’s all is the matter with me. Old Joe’s had a hard winter of it, ye see, never hearin’ a word of his young lady, let alone seein’ her, as every day he done sence Giles was laid away, till this winter. He’s had a hard time of it, Joe has, and all the way down he’s been thinkin’, suppose somethin’ had happened to my young lady. She’s well, you said, gentleman?” He turned suddenly, and his glance was like a sword. “No, you didn’t say so, but yet you spoke as if – she’s well, Isly is?”

The trustee nodded quickly. “Yes, Joseph; she is perfectly well,” he said. “A very lovely girl, your young lady, and we are all very fond of her here. Now you want to see her, I am sure, and here is the door opening. I will send for the children at once.”