The Man With Two Shadows.
"There is ever a black spot in our sunshine." Carlyle.
The sky is gray with unfallen sleet; the wind howls bitterly about the
house; relentless in its desperate speed, it whirls by green crosses
from the fir-boughs in the wood,--dry russet oak-leaves,--tiny cones
from the larch, that were once rose-red with the blood of Spring, but
now rattle on the leafless branches, black and bare as they. No leaf
remains on any bough of the forest, no scarlet streamer of brier flaunts
from the steadfast rocks that underlie all verdure, and now stand out, bleak and barren, the truths and foundations of life, when its ornate glories are fled away. The river flows past, a languid stream of lead; a single crow, screaming for its mate, flaps heavily against the north-east gale, that enters here also and lifts the carpet in long waves across the floor, whiffles light eddies of ashes in the chimney-corner, and vainly presses on door and window, like a houseless spirit shrieking and pining for a shelter from its bodiless and helpless unrest in the elements.
The whole air,--although, within, my fire crackles and leaps with
steady cheer, and the red rose on my window is warm and sanguine with
bloom,--yet this whole air is full of tiny sparks of chill to my
sensitive and morbid nature; it is at once electric and cold, the very
atmosphere of spirits.--What a shadow passed that pane! Roger, was it
you?--The storm bursts, in one fierce rush of sleet and roaring wind; the little spaniel crouched at my feet whimpers and nestles closer; the house is silent,--silent as my thoughts,--silent as he is who walked these rooms once, with a face likest to the sky that darkens them now, and lonelier, lonelier than I, though at his side forever trod a companion.
This valley of the Moosic is narrow and thinly settled. Here and
there the mad river, leaping from some wooded gorge to rest among the
hemlock-covered islands that break its smoother path between the soft
meadows, is crossed by a strong dam; and a white village, with its
church and graveyard, clusters against the hill-side, sweeping upward
from the huge mills that stand along the shore just below the bridge. Here and there, too, out of sight of mill or village, a quiet farmer's house, trimly painted, with barns and hay-stacks and wood-piles drawn up in goodly array, stands in its old orchard, and offers the front of a fortress against want and misery. Idle aspect! fortress of vain front! there are intangible foes that no man may conquer! In such a stronghold was born Roger Pierce, the Man with two Shadows.
He was the son of good and upright parents. Before he came into their
arms, three tiny shapes had lain there, one after another, for a few
brief weeks, smiled, moaned, and fallen asleep,--to sleep, forever
children, under the daisies and golden-rods. For this reason they cling
to little Roger with passionate apprehension; they fought with the Angel
of Death, and overcame; and, as it ever is to the blind nature of man, the conquest was greater to them than any gift.
The boy grew up into childhood as other children grow, a daily miracle
to see. Only for him incessant care watched and waited; unwearied as the
angel that looked from him to the face of God, so to gather ever fresh
strength and guidance for the wayward child, his mother's tender eyes
overlooked him all day, followed his tottering steps from room to room, kept far away from him all fear and pain, shone upon him in the depths of night, woke and wept for him always. Never could he know the hardy self-reliance of those whom life casts upon their own strength and care; the wisdom and the love that lived for him lived in him, and he grew to be a boy as the tropic blossom of a hot-house grows, without thought or toil.
It was not until his age brought him in contact with others, that there
seemed to be any difference between his nature and the common race
of children. Always, however, some touch of sullenness lurked in his
temperament; and whatever thwarted his will or fancy darkened the light
of his clear eyes, and drew a dull pallor over his blooming cheek, till
his mother used to tell him at such times that he stood between her and
the sunshine.