




                                 Harper's

                           New Monthly Magazine

                     No. XXII.--March, 1852.--Vol. IV.





CONTENTS


Rodolphus.--A Franconia Story. By Jacob Abbott.
Recollections Of St. Petersburg.
A Love Affair At Cranford.
Anecdotes Of Monkeys.
The Mountain Torrent.
A Masked Ball At Vienna.
The Ornithologist.
A Child's Toy.
"Rising Generation"-Ism.
A Taste Of Austrian Jails.
Who Knew Best?
My First Place.
The Point Of Honor.
Christmas In Germany.
The Miracle Of Life.
Personal Sketches And Reminiscences. By Mary Russell Mitford.
   Recollections Of Childhood.
   Married Poets.--Elizabeth Barrett Browning--Robert Browning.
   Incidents Of A Visit At The House Of William Cobbett.
   A Reminiscence Of The French Emigration.
The Dream Of The Weary Heart.
New Discoveries In Ghosts.
Keep Him Out!
Story Of Rembrandt.
The Viper.
Esther Hammond's Wedding-Day.
My Novel; Or, Varieties In English Life.
A Brace Of Blunders By A Roving Englishman.
Public Executions In England.
What To Do In The Mean Time?
The Lost Ages.
Blighted Flowers.
Monthly Record of Current Events.
   United States.
   Mexico.
   Great Britain.
   France.
   Austria And Hungary.
Editor's Table.
Editor's Easy Chair
Editor's Drawer.
Literary Notices.
A Leaf from Punch.
Fashions for March.
Footnotes






RODOLPHUS.--A FRANCONIA STORY.(1) BY JACOB ABBOTT.


SCENE OF THE STORY.

Franconia, a village among the mountains at the North.

PRINCIPAL PERSONS.

RODOLPHUS.

ELLEN LINN: his sister, residing with her aunt up the glen.

ANNIE LINN, a younger sister.

ANTOINE BIANCHINETTE, a French boy, at service at Mrs. Henry's, a short
distance from the village. He is called generally by grown people Antonio,
and by the children Beechnut.

MALLEVILLE, Mrs. Henry's niece.

ALPHONZO, called commonly Phonny, her son.

MR. KEEP, a lawyer.




Chapter I.


The manner in which indulgence and caprice on the part of the parent, lead
to the demoralization and ruin of the child, is illustrated by the history
of Rodolphus.



I. Bad Training.


Rodolphus, whatever may have been his faults, was certainly a very
ingenious boy. When he was very young he made a dove-house in the end of
his father's shed, all complete, with openings for the doves to go in and
out in front, and a door for himself behind. He made a ladder, also, by
which he could mount up to the door. He did all this with boards, which he
obtained from an old fence, for material, and an ax, and a wood saw, for
his only tools. His father, when he came to see the dove-house, was much
pleased with the ingenuity which Rodolphus had displayed in the
construction of it--though he found fault with him for taking away the
boards from the fence without permission. This, however, gave Rodolphus
very little concern.

                             [Illustration.]

                            The Rabbit House.


When the dove house was completed, Rodolphus obtained a pair of young
doves from a farmer who lived about a mile away, and put them into a nest
which he made for them in a box, inside.

At another time not long after this, he formed a plan for having some
rabbits, and accordingly he made a house for them in a corner of the yard
where he lived, a little below the village of Franconia. He made the house
out of an old barrel. He sawed a hole in one side of the barrel, near the
bottom of it, as it stood up upon one end--for a door, in order that the
rabbits might go in and out. He put a roof over the top of it, to keep out
the rain and snow. He also placed a _keg_ at the side of the barrel, by
way of wing into the building. There was a roof over this wing, too, as
well as over the main body of the house, or, rather, there was a board
placed over it, like a roof, though in respect to actual use this covering
was more properly a _lid_ than roof, for the keg was intended to be used
as a _store-room_, to keep the provisions in, which the rabbits were to
eat. The board, therefore, which formed the roof of the wing of the
building, was fastened at one edge, by leather hinges, and so could be
lifted up and let down again at pleasure.

Rodolphus's mother was unwilling that he should have any rabbits. She
thought that such animals in Rodolphus's possession would make her a great
deal of trouble. But Rodolphus said that he _would_ have some. At least,
he said, he would have _one_.

Rodolphus was standing in the path, in front of the door of his mother's
house, when he said this. His mother was upon the great flat stone which
served for a step.

"But Beechnut asks a quarter of a dollar for his rabbits." said his
mother, in an expostulating tone, "and you have not got any money."

"Ah, but I know where I can get some money," said Rodolphus.

"Where?" said his mother.

"Father will give it to me," said Rodolphus.

"But I shall ask him not to give it to you," said his mother.

"I don't care," said Rodolphus. "I can get it, if you do."

"How?" asked his mother.

Rodolphus did not answer, but began to turn summersets and cut capers on
the grass, making all sorts of antic gestures and funny grimaces toward
his mother. Mrs. Linn, for that was his mother's name, laughed, and then
went into the house, saying, as she went, "Oh, Rolf, Rolf, what a little
rogue you are!"

Rodolphus's father was a workman, and he was away from home almost all the
day, though sometimes Rodolphus himself went to the place where he worked,
to see him. When Mr. Linn came home at night, sometimes he _played_ with
Rodolphus, and sometimes he quarreled with him: but he never really
_governed_ him.

For example, when Rodolphus was a very little boy, he would climb up into
his father's lap, and begin to feel in his father's waistcoat pockets for
money. If his father directed him not to do so, Rodolphus would pay no
regard to it. If he attempted to take Rodolphus's hands away by force,
Rodolphus would scream, and struggle; and so his father, not wishing to
make a disturbance, would desist. If Mr. Linn frowned and spoke sternly,
Rodolphus would tickle him and make him laugh.

Finally, Rodolphus would succeed in getting a cent, perhaps, or some other
small coin, from his father's pocket, and would then climb down and run
away. The father would go after him, and try all sorts of coaxings and
threatenings, to induce Rodolphus to bring the cent back--while Mrs. Linn
would look on, laughing, and saying, perhaps, "Ah; let him have the cent,
husband. It is not much."

Being encouraged thus by his mother's interposition, Rodolphus would of
course persevere, and the contest would end at last by his keeping the
money. Then he would insist the next day, on going into the little village
close by, and spending it for gingerbread. He would go, while eating his
gingerbread, to where his father was at work, and hold it up to his father
as in triumph--making it a sort of trophy, as it were, of victory. His
father would shake his finger at him, laughing at the same time, and
saying, "Ah, Rolf! Rolf! what a little rogue you are!"

Rodolphus, in fact, generally contrived to have his own way in almost
every thing. His mother did not attempt to govern him; she tried to
_manage_ him; but in the end it generally proved that he managed her. In
fact, whenever he was engaged in any contest with his mother, his father
would usually take the boy's part, just as his mother had done in his
contests with his father.

For instance, one winter evening when he was quite a small boy, he was
sitting in a corner playing with some blocks. He was building a saw-mill.
His mother was at work in a little kitchen which opened into the room
where he was at play. His father was sitting on the settle, by the fire,
reading a newspaper. The door was open which led into the kitchen, and
Rodolphus, while he was at work upon his mill, watched his mother's
motions, for he knew that when she had finished the work which she was
doing, and had swept up the room, she would come to put him to bed. So
Rodolphus went on building the mill, and the bridge, and the flume which
was to convey the water to his mill, listening all the time to the sounds
in the kitchen, and looking up from time to time, with a very watchful
eye, at the door.

At length he heard the sound of the sweeping, and a few minutes afterward
his mother appeared at the door, coming in. Rodolphus dropped his blocks,
sprang to his feet, and ran round behind the table--a round table which
stood out in the middle of the room.

"Now, Rodolphus," said his mother, in a tone of remonstrance, looking at
the same time very seriously at him. "It is time for you to go to bed."

Rodolphus said nothing, but began to dance about, looking at his mother
very intently all the time, and moving this way and that, as she moved, so
as to keep himself exactly on the opposite side of the table from her.

"Rodolphus!" said his mother, in a very stern and commanding tone. "Come
to me this minute."

Rodolphus continued his dancing.

Rodolphus's mother was a very beautiful young woman. Her dark glossy hair
hung in curls upon her neck.

When she found that it did no good to command Rodolphus, the stern
expression of her face changed into a smile, and she said,

"Well, if you won't come, I shall have to catch you, that's all."

So saying, she ran round the table to catch him. Rodolphus ran too. His
mother turned first one way and then the other, but she could not get any
nearer to the fugitive. Rodolphus kept always on the farthest side of the
table from her. Presently Mr. Linn himself looked up and began to cheer
Rodolphus, and encourage him to run; and once when Mrs. Linn nearly caught
him and he yet escaped, Mr. Linn clapped his hands in token of his joy.

Mrs. Linn was now discouraged: so she stopped, and looking sternly at
Rodolphus again, she said,

"Now, Rodolphus, you _must_ come to me. Come this minute. If you don't
come, I shall certainly punish you." She spoke these words with a great
deal of force and emphasis, in order to make Rodolphus think that she was
really in earnest. But Rodolphus did not believe that she was in earnest,
and so it was evident that he had no intention to obey.

Mrs. Linn then thought of another plan for catching the fugitive, which
was to push the table along to one side of the room, or up into a corner,
and get Rodolphus out from behind it in that way. So she began to push.
Rodolphus immediately began to resist her attempt, by pushing against the
table himself, on the other side. His mother was the strongest, however,
and she succeeded in gradually working the table, with Rodolphus before
it, over to the further side of the room, notwithstanding all the efforts
that he made to prevent it. When he found at last that he was likely to be
caught, he left the table and ran behind the settle where his father was
reading. His mother ran after him and caught him in the corner.

She attempted to take him, but Rodolphus began to struggle and scream, and
to shake his shoulders when she took hold of them, evincing his
determination not to go with her. At the same time he called out, "Father!
father!"

His father looked around at the end of the settle to see what was the
matter.

"He won't let me put him to bed," said Mrs. Linn, "and it was time half an
hour ago."

"Oh, let him sit up a little while longer if he likes," said Mr. Linn.
"It's of no use to make him cry."

Mrs. Linn reluctantly left Rodolphus, murmuring to herself that he ought
to go to bed. Very soon, she said, he would be asleep upon the floor. "I
would _make_ him go," she added, "only if he cries and makes a noise, it
will wake Annie."

In fact Annie was beginning to move a little in the cradle then. The
cradle in which Annie was sleeping was by the side of the fire, opposite
to the settle. Mrs. Linn went to it, to rock it, so that Annie might go to
sleep again, and Rodolphus returned victorious to his mill.

These are specimens of the ways in which Rodolphus used to manage his
father and mother, while he was quite young. He became more and more
accomplished and capable in attaining his ends as he grew older, and
finally succeeded in establishing the ascendency of his own will over that
of his father and mother, almost entirely.

He was about four years old when the incidents occurred which have been
just described. When he was about five years old, he used to begin to go
and play alone down by the water. His father's house was near the water,
just below the bridge. There were some high rocks near the shore, and a
large flat rock rising out of the water. Rodolphus liked very much to go
down to this flat rock and play upon it. His mother was very much afraid
to have him go upon this rock, for the water was deep near it, and she was
afraid that he might fall in. But Rodolphus would go.

The road which led to Mr. Linn's from the village, passed round the rocks
above, at some distance above the bank of the stream. There was a fence
along upon the outer side of the road, with a little gate where Rodolphus
used to come through. From the gate there was a path, with steps, which
led down to the water. At one time, in order to prevent Rodolphus from
going down there, Mr. Linn fastened up the gate. Then Rodolphus would
climb over the fence. So his father, finding that it did no good to fasten
up the gate, opened it again.

Not content with going down to the flat stone contrary to his mother's
command, Rodolphus would sometimes threaten to go there and jump off, by
way of terrifying her, when his mother would not give him what he wanted.
This would frighten Mrs. Linn very much, and she would usually yield at
once to his demands, in order to avert the danger. Finally she persuaded
her husband to wheel several loads of stones there and fill up the deep
place, after which she was less uneasy about Rodolphus's jumping in.

Rodolphus was about ten years old when he made his rabbit house. Annie,
his sister, had grown up too. She was two years younger than Rodolphus,
and of course was eight. She was beautiful like her mother. She had blue
eyes, and her dark hair hung in curls about her neck. She was a gentle and
docile girl, and was often much distressed to see how disobedient and
rebellious Rodolphus was toward his father and mother.

She went out to see the rabbit house which Rodolphus had made, and she
liked it very much See wished that her mother would allow them to have a
rabbit to put into it, and she said so, as she stood looking at it, with
her hands behind her.

"I am sorry, that mother is not willing that you should have a rabbit,"
said she.

"Oh, never mind that," said Rodolphus, "I'll have one for all that, you
may depend."

                  -------------------------------------

That evening when Mr. Linn came home from his work, he took a seat near
the door, where he could look out upon the little garden. His mother was
busy setting the table for tea.

"Father," said Rodolphus, "I wish you would give me a quarter of a
dollar."

"What for," said Mr. Linn.

"To buy a rabbit," said Rodolphus.

"No," said his mother, "I wish you would not give him any money. I have
told him that I don't wish him to have any rabbits."

"Yes," said Rodolphus, speaking to his father. "Do, it only costs a
quarter of a dollar to get one, and I have got the house all ready for
him."

"Oh, no, Rolfy," said his father. "I would not have any rabbits. They are
good for nothing but to gnaw off all the bark and buds in the garden."

Here there followed a long argument between Rodolphus on the one side, and
his father and mother on the other, they endeavoring in every possible way
to persuade him that a rabbit would be a trouble and not a pleasure. Of
course, Rodolphus was not to be convinced. His father however, refused to
give him any money, and Rodolphus ceased to ask for it. His mother thought
that he submitted to his disappointment with very extraordinary
good-humor. But the fact was, he was not submitting to disappointment at
all. He had formed another plan.

He began playing with Annie about the yard and garden, saying no more, and
apparently thinking no more about his rabbit, for some time. At last he
came up to his father's side and said,

"Father, will you lend me your keys?"

"What do you want my keys for?" asked his father.

"I want to whistle with them," said Rodolphus. "Annie is my dog, and I
want to whistle to her."

"No," said his father, "you