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LIFE AT HIGH TIDE

Harper's Novelettes

Edited By

William Dean Howells and Henry Mills Alden




CONTENTS:

THE IMMEDIATE JEWEL........ MARGARET DELAND

"AND ANGELS CAME........... ANNE O'HAGAN

KEEPERS OF A CHARGE........ GRACE ELLERY CHANNING

A WORKING BASIS............ ABBY MEGUIRE ROACH

THE GLASS DOOR............. MARY TRACY EARLE

ELIZABETH AND DAVIE........ MURIEL CAMPBELL DYAR

BARNEY DOON, BRAGGART...... PHILIP VERRILL MIGHELS

THE REPARATION............. EMERY POTTLE

THE YEARLY TRIBUTE......... ROSINA HUBLEY EMMET

A MATTER OF RIVALRY........ OCTAVE THANET




PREFACE


  There is a tide in the affairs of men
  Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.


Thus the poet--and poetry, of the old order at least, always waiting
upon great events, has found in the high-tide flotations of masterful
heroes to fortune themes most flatteringly responsive to its own high
tension.

The writer of fiction has no such afflatus, no such high pitch of
life, as to outward circumstance, in his representation of it, as
the poet has; and therefore his may seem to the academic critic the
lesser art--but it is nearer to the realities of common human existence.
He deals with plain men and women, and the un-majestic moments of their
lives.

"Life at High Tide"--the title selected for this little volume of
short stories, and having a real significance for each of them, which
the reader may find out for himself--does not reflect the poet's
meaning, and, least of all, its easy optimism. In every one of these
stories is presented a critical moment in one individual
life--sometimes, as in "The Glass Door" and in "Elizabeth and Davie,"
in two lives; but it leads not to or away from fortune--it simply
discloses character; also, in situations like those so vividly
depicted in "Keepers of a Charge" and "A Yearly Tribute," the tense
strain of modern circumstance. In all these real instances there are
luminous points of idealism--of an idealism implicit but translucent.

The authors here represented have won exceptional distinction as
short-story writers, and the examples given of their work not only are
typical of the best periodical fiction of a very recent period--all
of them having been published within five years--but illustrate
the distinctive features, as unprecedented in quality as they are
diversified in character, which mark the extreme advance in this
field of literature.

H. M. A.








THE IMMEDIATE JEWEL

BY MARGARET DELAND

  "_Good name, in man and woman, dear my lord,
   Is_ the immediate jewel of their souls."
                               --_Othello_.


I


When James Graham, carpenter, enlisted, it was with the assurance that
if he lost his life his grateful country would provide for his widow.
He did lose it, and Mrs. Graham received, in exchange for a husband
and his small earnings, the sum of $12 a month. But when you own your
own very little house, with a dooryard for chickens (and such stray
dogs and cats as quarter themselves upon you), and enough grass for a
cow, and a friendly neighbor to remember your potato-barrel, why, you
can get along--somehow. In Lizzie Graham's case nobody knew just how,
because she was not one of the confidential kind. But certainly there
were days in winter when the house was chilly, and months when fresh
meat was unknown, and years when a new dress was not thought of. This
state of things is not remarkable, taken in connection with an income
of $144 a year, and a New England village where people all do their
own work, so that a woman has no chance to hire out.

All the same, Mrs. Graham was not an object of charity. Had she been
that, she would have been promptly sent to the Poor Farm. No sentimental
consideration of a grateful country would have moved Jonesville to
philanthropy; it sent its paupers to the Poor Farm with prompt common
sense.

When Jonesville's old school-teacher, Mr. Nathaniel May, came wandering
back from the great world, quite penniless, almost blind, and with a
faint mist across his pleasant mind, Jonesville saw nothing for him
but the Poor Farm.... Nathaniel had been away from home for many years;
rumors came back, occasionally, that he was going to make his fortune
by some patent, and Jonesville said that if he did it would be a good
thing for the town, for Nathaniel wasn't one to forget his friends.
"He'll give us a library," said Jonesville, grinning; "Nat was a great
un for books." However, Jonesville was still without its library, when,
one August day, the stage dropped a gentle, forlorn figure at the door
of Dyer's Hotel.

"I'm Nat May," he said; "well, it's good to get home!"

He brought with him, as the sum of his possessions, a dilapidated
leather hand-bag full of strange wheels and little reflectors, and
small, scratched lenses; the poor clothes upon his back; and
twenty-four cents in his pocket. He walked hesitatingly, with one
hand outstretched to feel his way, for he was nearly blind; but he
recognized old friends by their voices, and was full of simple joy
at meeting them.

"I have a very wonderful invention," he said, in his eager voice, his
blind eyes wide and luminous; "and very valuable. But I have not been
financially successful, so far. I shall be, of course. But in the
city no one seemed willing to wait for payment for my board, so the
authorities advised me to come home