The Crisis | Page 6

and who knew not
Marly or Versailles, was to be the place of the mingling of the tides.
After cycles of separation, Puritan and Cavalier united on this
clay-bank in the Louisiana Purchase, and swept westward together--like
the struggle of two great rivers when they meet the waters for a while
were dangerous.
So Eliphalet was established, among the Puritans, at Miss Crane's. The
dishes were to his taste. Brown bread and beans and pies were plentiful,
for it was a land of plenty. All kinds of Puritans were there, and they
attended Mr. Davitt's Congregational Church. And may it be added in
justice to Mr. Hopper, that he became not the least devout of the
boarders.

CHAPTER. II
THE MOLE
For some years, while Stephen A. Douglas and Franklin Pierce and
other gentlemen of prominence were playing at bowls on the United
States of America; while Kansas was furnishing excitement free of
charge to any citizen who loved sport, Mr. Eliphalet Hopper was at
work like the industrious mole, underground. It is safe to affirm that
Colonel Carvel forgot his new hand as soon as he had turned him over
to Mr. Hood, the manager. As for Mr. Hopper, he was content. We can

ill afford to dissect motives. Genius is willing to lay the foundations of
her structure unobserved.
At first it was Mr. Barbo alone who perceived Eliphalet's
greatness,--Mr. Barbo, whose opinions were so easily had that they
counted for nothing. The other clerks, to say the least, found the
newcomer uncompanionable. He had no time for skylarking, the heat of
the day meant nothing to him, and he was never sleepy. He learned the
stock as if by intuition, and such was his strict attention to business that
Mr. Hood was heard is say, privately, he did not like the looks of it. A
young man should have other interests. And then, although he would
not hold it against him, he had heard that Mr. Hopper was a teacher in
Mr. Davitt's Sunday School.
Because he did not discuss his ambitions at dinner with the other clerks
in the side entry, it must not be thought that Eliphalet was without other
interests. He was likewise too shrewd to be dragged into political
discussions at the boarding-house table. He listened imperturbably to
the outbursts against the Border Ruffian, and smiled when Mr. Abner
Reed, in an angry passion, asked him to declare whether or not he was
a friend of the Divine Institution. After a while they forgot about him
(all save Miss Crane), which was what Mr. Hopper of all things
desired.
One other friend besides Miss Crane did Eliphalet take unto himself,
wherein he showed much discrimination. This friend was none other
than Mr. Davitt, minister for many years of the Congregational Church.
For Mr. Davitt was a good man, zealous in his work, unpretentious, and
kindly. More than once Eliphalet went to his home to tea, and was
pressed to talk about himself and his home life. The minister and his
wife ware invariably astonished, after their guest was gone, at the
meagre result of their inquiries.
If Love had ever entered such a discreet soul as that into which we are
prying, he used a back entrance. Even Mr. Barbo's inquiries failed in
the discovery of any young person with whom Eliphalet "kept
company." Whatever the notions abroad concerning him, he was
admittedly a model. There are many kinds of models. With some young

ladies at the Sunday School, indeed, he had a distant bowing
acquaintance. They spoke of him as the young man who knew the
Bible as thoroughly as Mr. Davitt himself. The only time that Mr.
Hopper was discovered showing embarrassment was when Mr. Davitt
held his hand before them longer than necessary on the church steps.
Mr. Hopper was not sentimental.
However fascinating the subject, I do not propose to make a whole
book about Eliphalet. Yet sidelights on the life of every great man are
interesting. And there are a few incidents in his early career which have
not gotten into the subscription biographical Encyclopaedias. In several
of these volumes, to be sure, we may see steel engravings of him, true
likenesses all. His was the type of face which is the glory of the steel
engraving,--square and solid, as a corner-stone should be. The very
clothes he wore were made for the steel engraving, stiff and wiry in
texture, with sharp angles at the shoulders, and sombre in hue, as befit
such grave creations.
Let us go back to a certain fine morning in the September of the year
1857, when Mr. Hopper had arrived, all unnoticed, at the age of two
and thirty. Industry had told. He was now the manager's assistant; and,
be it said in