A Little Girl in Old Salem | Page 3

counting his days, finishing up his earthly work, and
delegating it to other hands? There was something pathetic in it, and
the trust in the uprightness and honor that Anthony Leverett reposed in
him touched him keenly. But this part surprised and, at first, annoyed
him. He drew his fine brows in a repellent sort of frown.
"Do you remember, Chilian, when you were a lad of eighteen, in your
second year at Harvard, you came to Salem to recruit after a period of
rather severe study? And you met Alletta Orne, who was
four-and-twenty and engaged to me. In some sort of fashion we were

all related. Your father had been like a father to me in my later boyhood.
And, with a young man's fervor, you fell in love with her. I was sorry
then for any pain you suffered, I am glad now; for there is no one else
in the wide world I would as soon trust her child and mine to.
"We had been away nearly three years, when we came back, and the
baby was born in the house endeared to me by many tender
recollections. You were away then, but on our second visit we were the
most congenial friends again. I did not think then it would be our last
meeting. I had meant, after making my fortune, to return and end my
days in my birthplace. My greatest interest was in the commercial
house I had established. My first mate, John Corwin, took my place and
sailed the vessel. Then my dear wife died, and I had only my little girl
left.
"I could hardly believe six months ago that I must die. Should I return,
or remain here and sleep beside the one who had filled my soul with
her serene and lovely life and her blessed memory? I could not endure
the thought of leaving her precious body here alone. So I chose to
remain. And now I send my little girl to your care and guardianship
without even consulting you. She is amply provided for, though the
business this side of the world cannot be settled in some time. I send
her with a trusty maid and Captain Corwin, because I do not want her
to remember the end. Some day you can tell her I am sleeping beside
her dear mother and that we are together in the Better Land. She has
been separated considerably from me of late,--I have had to be
journeying about on business,--therefore it will not come so hard to her,
and though children do not forget, the sorrow softens and has a tender
vagueness from the hand of time.
"So I give my little girl to you. If so be you should marry and have
children of your own, she will not be crowded out, I know. In the
course of years,--for girls grow rapidly up to womanhood,--she may
love and marry. Direct her a little here and see that no one takes her for
the mere money. I want her to know the sweetness and richness of a
true satisfying love."
All important papers, and a sort of diary Anthony Leverett had kept,

were to come in the vessel that would bring the little girl in the charge
of Captain Corwin.
Chilian Leverett sat for a long while with the letter in his hand, until the
log broke in the middle and one end fell over the andiron. Then he
started suddenly.
Had he been dreaming of the sweetness of the woman who had so
captivated his youthful fancy, almost a dozen years agone? He never
thought she had led him astray, and had no blame for her. Perhaps the
love for her betrothed had so permeated her whole being that she shed
an exquisitely fascinating sweetness all about. He was to her as if he
had been her betrothed's younger brother. And when the engagement
was confessed he allowed himself no reprehensible longing for the
woman so soon to be another's. All his instincts were pure and high,
perhaps rather too idealized, though there was much strength and
heroism in the old Puritan blood. Right was right in those days. Lines
were sharply drawn among those of the old stock.
But there had been years of what one might call living for self,
indulgence in studious habits and tastes and the higher intellectual life,
much solitary dreaming, although he was by no means a recluse. And
to have a little girl come into his life! He would have liked a boy better,
he thought. The boy would be out of doors, playing with mates. And
now he bethought himself how few small children there were in his
branch of the Leverett line. Some of the men and women had not
married. His