No journey ever taken since has equalled in ecstasy that leisurely trip of thirteen miles in the narrow-gauge railroad that wound through hot fields of nodding corn tassels and between delicious,acrid-smelling woods to Claremore.No silent palace "sleeping in the sun,"no edifice decreed by Kubla Khan could have worn more glamour than the house of Cousin Robert Breck.
It stood half a mile from the drowsy village,deep in its own grounds amidst lawns splashed with shadows,with gravel paths edged--in barbarous fashion,if you please with shells.There were flower beds of equally barbarous design;and two iron deer,which,like the figures on Keats's Grecian urn,were ever ready poised to flee,--and yet never fled.For Cousin Robert was rich,as riches went in those days:not only rich,but comfortable.Stretching behind the house were sweet meadows of hay and red clover basking in the heat,orchards where the cows cropped beneath the trees,arbours where purple clusters of Concords hung beneath warm leaves:there were woods beyond,into which,under the guidance of Willie Breck,I made adventurous excursions,and in the autumn gathered hickories and walnuts.The house was a rambling,wooden mansion painted grey,with red scroll-work on its porches and horsehair furniture inside.
Oh,the smell of its darkened interior on a midsummer day!Like the flavour of that choicest of tropical fruits,the mangosteen,it baffles analysis,and the nearest I can come to it is a mixture of matting and corn-bread,with another element too subtle to define.
The hospitality of that house!One would have thought we had arrived,my mother and I,from the ends of the earth,such was the welcome we got from Cousin Jenny,Cousin Robert's wife,from Mary and Helen with the flaxen pig-tails,from Willie,whom I recall as permanently without shoes or stockings.Met and embraced by Cousin Jenny at the station and driven to the house in the squeaky surrey,the moment we arrived she and my mother would put on the dressing-sacks I associated with hot weather,and sit sewing all day long in rocking-chairs at the coolest end of the piazza.The women of that day scorned lying down,except at night,and as evening came on they donned starched dresses;I recall in particular one my mother wore,with little vertical stripes of black and white,and a full skirt.And how they talked,from the beginning of the visit until the end!I have often since wondered where the topics came from.
It was not until nearly seven o'clock that the train arrived which brought home my Cousin Robert.He was a big man;his features and even his ample moustache gave a disconcerting impression of rugged integrity,and I remember him chiefly in an alpaca or seersucker coat.Though much less formal,more democratic--in a word--than my father,I stood in awe of him for a different reason,and this I know now was because he possessed the penetration to discern the flaws in my youthful character,--flaws that persisted in manhood.None so quick as Cousin Robert to detect deceptions which were hidden from my mother.
His hobby was carpentering,and he had a little shop beside the stable filled with shining tools which Willie and I,in spite of their attractions,were forbidden to touch.Willie,by dire experience,had learned to keep the law;but on one occasion I stole in alone,and promptly cut my finger with a chisel.My mother and Cousin Jenny accepted the fiction that the injury had been done with a flint arrowhead that Willie had given me,but when Cousin Robert came home and saw my bound hand and heard the story,he gave me a certain look which sticks in my mind.
"Wonderful people,those Indians were!"he observed."They could make arrowheads as sharp as chisels."I was most uncomfortable....
He had a strong voice,and spoke with a rising inflection and a marked accent that still remains peculiar to our locality,although it was much modified in my mother and not at all noticeable in my father;with an odd nasal alteration of the burr our Scotch-Irish ancestors had brought with them across the seas.For instance,he always called my father Mr.Par-r-ret.He had an admiration and respect for him that seemed to forbid the informality of "Matthew."It was shared by others of my father's friends and relations.
"Sarah,"Cousin Robert would say to my mother,"you're coddling that boy,you ought to lam him oftener.Hand him over to me for a couple of months--I'll put him through his paces....So you're going to send him to college,are you?He's too good for old Benjamin's grocery business."He was very fond of my mother,though he lectured her soundly for her weakness in indulging me.I can see him as he sat at the head of the supper table,carving liberal helpings which Mary and Helen and Willie devoured with country appetites,watching our plates.
"What's the matter,Hugh?You haven't eaten all your lamb.""He doesn't like fat,Robert,"my mother explained.
"I'd teach him to like it if he were my boy.""Well,Robert,he isn't your boy,"Cousin Jenny would remind him....
His bark was worse than his bite.Like many kind people he made use of brusqueness to hide an inner tenderness,and on the train he was hail fellow well met with every Tom,Dick and Harry that commuted,--although the word was not invented in those days,--and the conductor and brakeman too.But he had his standards,and held to them....
