Ishmael | Page 9

on them. Hannah, like a happy, working,
practical young woman in good health, who had earned an appetite, did
ample justice to the luxuries placed before them. Nora ate next to
nothing. In vain Hannah and Reuben offered everything to her in turn;
she would take nothing. She was not hungry, she said; she was tired
and wanted to go home.
"But wouldn't you rather stay and see the fireworks, Nora?" inquired
Reuben Gray, as they arose from the table to give place to someone
else.
"I don't know. Will--will Mr.--I mean Mrs. Brudenell and the young
ladies come out to see them, do you think?"

"No, certainly, they will not; these delicate creatures would never stand
outside in the night air for that purpose."
"I--I don't think I care about stopping to see the fireworks, Reuben,"
said Nora.
"But I tell you what, John said how the young heir, the old madam, the
young ladies, and the quality folks was all a-going to see the fireworks
from the upper piazza. They have got all the red-cushioned settees and
arm-chairs put out there for them to sit on."
"Reuben, I--I think I will stop and see the fireworks; that is, if Hannah
is willing," said Nora musingly.
And so it was settled.
The rustics, after having demolished the whole of the plentiful supper,
leaving scarcely a bone or a crust behind them, rushed out in a body, all
the worse for a cask of old rye whisky that had been broached, and
began to search for eligible stands from which to witness the exhibition
of the evening.
Reuben conducted the sisters to a high knoll at some distance from the
disorderly crowd, but from which they could command a fine view of
the fireworks, which were to be let off in the lawn that lay below their
standpoint and between them and the front of the dwelling-house. Here
they sat as the evening closed in. As soon as it was quite dark the whole
front of the mansion-house suddenly blazed forth in a blinding
illumination. There were stars, wheels, festoons, and leaves, all in fire.
In the center burned a rich transparency, exhibiting the arms of the
Brudenells.
During this illumination none of the family appeared in front, as their
forms must have obscured a portion of the lights. It lasted some ten or
fifteen minutes, and then suddenly went out, and everything was again
dark as midnight. Suddenly from the center of the lawn streamed up a
rocket, lighting up with a lurid fire all the scene--the mansion-house
with the family and their more honored guests now seated upon the
upper piazza, the crowds of men, women, and children, white, black,
and mixed, that stood with upturned faces in the lawn, the distant knoll
on which were grouped the sisters and their protector, the more distant
forests and the tops of remote hills, which all glowed by night in this
red glare. This seeming conflagration lasted a minute, and then all was
darkness again. This rocket was but the signal for the commencement

of the fireworks on the lawn. Another and another, each more brilliant
than the last, succeeded. There were stars, wheels, serpents, griffins,
dragons, all flashing forth from the darkness in living fire, filling the
rustic spectators with admiration, wonder, and terror, and then as
suddenly disappearing as if swallowed up in the night from which they
had sprung. One instant the whole scene was lighted up as by a general
conflagration, the next it was hidden in darkness deep as midnight. The
sisters, no more than their fellow-rustics, had never witnessed the
marvel of fireworks, so now they gazed from their distant standpoint on
the knoll with interest bordering upon consternation.
"Don't you think they're dangerous, Reuben?" inquired Hannah.
"No, dear; else such a larned gentleman as Mr. Brudenell, and such a
prudent lady as the old madam, would never allow them," answered
Gray.
Nora did not speak; she was absorbed not only by the fireworks
themselves, but by the group on the balcony that each illumination
revealed; or, to be exact, by one face in that group--the face of Herman
Brudenell.
At length the exhibition closed with one grand tableau in many colored
fire, displaying the family group of Brudenell, surmounted by their
crest, arms, and supporters, all encircled by wreaths of flowers. This
splendid transparency illumined the whole scene with dazzling light. It
was welcomed by deafening huzzas from the crowd. When the noise
had somewhat subsided, Reuben Gray, gazing with the sisters from
their knoll upon all this glory, touched Nora upon the shoulder and
said:
"Look!"
"I am looking," she said.
"What do you see?"
"The fireworks, of course."
"And what beyond them?"
"The great house--Brudenell Hall."
"And there?"
"The party on the upper