Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/802

772 his descent is a noble one; for his ancestry is a sort of promise of his own future. But, after all, it is a promissory note by your forefathers, and endorsed by yourself, when you took your name. The world is always protesting it, and you have got to pay it.

"There were ten families in the little colony that settled here; and by purchase from the Indians, and by royal grant, they acquired both right and title to their possessions.

"Henry Tompkins, being of a geological taste, I take it, unyoked his oxen on the spot where this house stands, marked out his allotted farm, and, to use his own expression, 'sett down' to work. I believe that that was the only idea of 'setting down' the men in these parts had in those days. You couldn't translate dolce far niente to them. I can't imagine one of them sitting down after his work to rest, and filling up his pipe for an idle day-dream. Terrible energy accomplishes wonderful results. Still, I feel great compassion for a man who does not know the pleasure of a quiet revery, but, like a tan terrier, is never contented unless he is in motion or asleep. There is something uncomfortable to look upon in a man who has an object always in view, who never sits down for the mere purpose of sitting, and don't know what it is to be for an hour or so without some work before him. It is dreadful to be forever harnessed to a purpose.

"But, speaking of the Tompkinses, as soon as the little colony of which they were a part had built shelter for their families, they met together in solemn congress to determine upon the 'Articles of Agreement' which should govern them in their relations to each other. I should like to read you some of them. They bear the impress of the men who made them; and could never be written in these advanced days. How we would laugh to-day at the man who should propose to organize a Western colony on any such principles! You see our ancestors had, along with their peculiar notions on witchcraft, an antiquated superstition—a dangerous delusion—that the Lord noticed and understood their conduct on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, as well as their psalm-singing and praying on Sundays. (Since then, you know, it has been discovered that He knows nothing of the principles which control buying and selling; and that he is a weak Christian who is any the less devout on Sunday because he cheated, Saturday, and expects to, Monday.)

"Now, the result of these uncouth notions was a recognition of God's control over all things, and of His presence everywhere. I doubt not that Henry Tompkins thought it no blasphemy to think of Heaven at his plough, and that Mrs. Tompkins sang psalms while she was cooking dinner. At any rate, these settlers, gathering together to consider earthly tilings, thought it not improper to acknowledge their duties to God in the same instrument which prescribed their conduct to each other.

"But listen to some of these 'Articles.' They have the flavor of their age about them. They smell of the forests of early America; and in this year of our Lord sound as strangely—pleasantly too, I think—as the tolling of church bells upon a week day. They bring to the mind the picture of stout-armed, strong-hearted men collected in some torchlit log-hut amid the primeval trees, to determine how they may best live together as Christian men. Outside, the far-reaching solitary darkness, the multitudinous noises of the night, and the air laden with the evening perfume of forest leaves; inside, resolute men, loving and trusting God, and, in the midst of dangers, fearing Him alone.