The Country of the Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett [classic english novels .txt] 📗

always heard that once the Indians come down from up country an’ left a captive there without any bo’t, an’ ’twas too far to swim across to Black Island, so called, an’ he lived there till he perished.”

“I’ve heard say he walked the island after that, and sharp-sighted folks could see him an’ lose him like one o’ them citizens Cap’n Littlepage was acquainted with up to the north pole,” announced Mrs. Todd grimly. “Anyway, there was Indians⁠—you can see their shell-heap that named the island; and I’ve heard myself that ’twas one o’ their cannibal places, but I never could believe it. There never was no cannibals on the coast o’ Maine. All the Indians o’ these regions are tame-looking folks.”

“Sakes alive, yes!” exclaimed Mrs. Fosdick. “Ought to see them painted savages I’ve seen when I was young out in the South Sea Islands! That was the time for folks to travel, ’way back in the old whalin’ days!”

“Whalin’ must have been dull for a lady, hardly ever makin’ a lively port, and not takin’ in any mixed cargoes,” said Mrs. Todd. “I never desired to go a whalin’ v’y’ge myself.”

“I used to return feelin’ very slack an’ behind the times, ’tis true,” explained Mrs. Fosdick, “but ’twas excitin’, an’ we always done extra well, and felt rich when we did get ashore. I liked the variety. There, how times have changed; how few seafarin’ families there are left! What a lot o’ queer folks there used to be about here, anyway, when we was young, Almiry. Everybody’s just like everybody else, now; nobody to laugh about, and nobody to cry about.”

It seemed to me that there were peculiarities of character in the region of Dunnet Landing yet, but I did not like to interrupt.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Todd after a moment of meditation, “there was certain a good many curiosities of human natur’ in this neighborhood years ago. There was more energy then, and in some the energy took a singular turn. In these days the young folks is all copycats, ’fraid to death they won’t be all just alike; as for the old folks, they pray for the advantage o’ bein’ a little different.”

“I ain’t heard of a copycat this great many years,” said Mrs. Fosdick, laughing; “ ’twas a favorite term o’ my grandmother’s. No, I wa’n’t thinking o’ those things, but of them strange straying creatur’s that used to rove the country. You don’t see them now, or the ones that used to hive away in their own houses with some strange notion or other.”

I thought again of Captain Littlepage, but my companions were not reminded of his name; and there was brother William at Green Island, whom we all three knew.

“I was talking o’ poor Joanna the other day. I hadn’t thought of her for a great while,” said Mrs. Fosdick abruptly. “Mis’ Brayton an’ I recalled her as we sat together sewing. She was one o’ your peculiar persons, wa’n’t she? Speaking of such persons,” she turned to explain to me, “there was a sort of a nun or hermit person lived out there for years all alone on Shell-heap Island. Miss Joanna Todd, her name was⁠—a cousin o’ Almiry’s late husband.”

I expressed my interest, but as I glanced at Mrs. Todd I saw that she was confused by sudden affectionate feeling and unmistakable desire for reticence.

“I never want to hear Joanna laughed about,” she said anxiously.

“Nor I,” answered Mrs. Fosdick reassuringly. “She was crossed in love⁠—that was all the matter to begin with; but as I look back, I can see that Joanna was one doomed from the first to fall into a melancholy. She retired from the world for good an’ all, though she was a well-off woman. All she wanted was to get away from folks; she thought she wasn’t fit to live with anybody, and wanted to be free. Shell-heap Island come to her from her father, and first thing folks knew she’d gone off out there to live, and left word she didn’t want no company. ’Twas a bad place to get to, unless the wind an’ tide were just right; ’twas hard work to make a landing.”

“What time of year was this?” I asked.

“Very late in the summer,” said Mrs. Fosdick. “No, I never could laugh at Joanna, as some did. She set everything by the young man, an’ they were going to marry in about a month, when he got bewitched with a girl ’way up the bay, and married her, and went off to Massachusetts. He wasn’t well thought of⁠—there were those who thought Joanna’s money was what had tempted him; but she’d given him her whole heart, an’ she wa’n’t so young as she had been. All her hopes were built on marryin’, an’ havin’ a real home and somebody to look to; she acted just like a bird when its nest is spoilt. The day after she heard the news she was in dreadful woe, but the next she came to herself very quiet, and took the horse and wagon, and drove fourteen miles to the lawyer’s, and signed a paper givin’ her half of the farm to her brother. They never had got along very well together, but he didn’t want to sign it, till she acted so distressed that he gave in. Edward Todd’s wife was a good woman, who felt very bad indeed, and used every argument with Joanna; but Joanna took a poor old boat that had been her father’s and lo’ded in a few things, and off she put all alone, with a good land breeze, right out to sea. Edward Todd ran down to the beach, an’ stood there cryin’ like a boy to see her go, but she was out o’ hearin’. She never stepped foot on the mainland again long as she lived.”

“How large an island is it? How did she manage in winter?” I asked.

“Perhaps thirty acres, rocks and all,” answered Mrs. Todd, taking up the story gravely. “There can’t be much of it that the salt