The Morgesons | Page 7

the room to comment on our appetites, and encourage
Veronica, who was never hungry, to eat.
Veronica was an elfish creature, nine years old, diminutive and pale.
Her long, silky brown hair, which was as straight as an Indian's, like
mother's, and which she tore out when angry, usually covered her face,
and her wild eyes looked wilder still peeping through it. She was too
strange-looking for ordinary people to call her pretty, and so odd in her
behavior, so full of tricks, that I did not love her. She was a silent child,
and liked to be alone. But whoever had the charge of her must be
watchful. She tasted everything, and burnt everything, within her reach.
A blazing fire was too strong a temptation to be resisted. The
disappearance of all loose articles was ascribed to her; but nothing was
said about it, for punishment made her more impish and daring in her
pursuits. She had a habit of frightening us by hiding, and appearing
from places where no one had thought of looking for her. People shook
their heads when they observed her. The Morgesons smiled
significantly when she was spoken of, and asked:
"Do you think she is like her mother?"
There was a conflict in mother's mind respecting Veronica. She did not
love her as she loved me; but strove the harder to fulfill her duty. When
Verry suffered long and mysterious illnesses, which made her helpless
for weeks, she watched her day and night, but rarely caressed her. At
other times Verry was left pretty much to herself and her ways, which
were so separate from mine that I scarcely saw her. We grew up
ignorant of each other's character, though Verry knew me better than I
knew her; in time I discovered that she had closely observed me, when
I was most unaware.
We began to prosper about this time.

"Old Locke Morgeson had a long head," people said, when they talked
of our affairs. Father profited by his grandfather's plans, and his means,
too; less visionary, he had modified and brought out practically many
of his projections. Old Locke had left little to his son John Morgeson,
in the belief that father was the man to carry out his ideas. Besides
money, he left him a tract of ground running north and south, a few
rods beyond the old house, and desired him to build upon it. This he
was now doing, and we expected to move into our new house before
autumn.
All the Morgesons wished to put money in a company, as soon as
father could prove that it would be profitable. They were ready to own
shares in the ships which he expected to build, when it was certain that
they would make lucky voyages. He declined their offers, but they all
"knuckled" to the man who had been bold enough to break the life-long
stagnation of Surrey, and approved his plans as they matured. His mind
was filled with the hope of creating a great business which should
improve Surrey. New streets had been cut through his property and that
of grandfather, who, narrow as he was, could not resist the popular
spirit; lots had been laid out, and cottages had gone up upon them. To
matters of minor importance father gave little heed; his domestic life
was fast becoming a habit. The constant enlargement of his schemes
was already a necessary stimulant.
I did not go back to Mrs. Desire's school. Mother said that I must be
useful at home. She sent me to Temperance, and Temperance sent me
to play, or told me to go "a visitin'." I did not care to visit, for in
consequence of being turned out of school, which was considered an
indelible disgrace and long remembered, my schoolmates regarded me
in the light of a Pariah, and put on insufferably superior airs when they
saw me. So, like Veronica, I amused myself, and passed days on the
sea-shore, or in the fields and woods, mother keeping me in long
enough to make a square of patchwork each day and to hear her read a
Psalm--a duty which I bore with patience, by guessing when the
"Selahs" would come in, and counting them. But wherever I was, or
whatever I did, no feeling of beauty ever stole into my mind. I never
turned my face up to the sky to watch the passing of a cloud, or mused

before the undulating space of sea, or looked down upon the earth with
the curiosity of thought, or spiritual aspiration. I was moved and
governed by my sensations, which continually changed, and passed
away--to come again, and deposit vague ideas which ignorantly
haunted me. The literal images of all things which I saw were
impressed on