Summerfield Part 16

"O, no, no! I did not refer to anything that had taken place since he came to this town," said Frisbie. "Of all the world, this is just the place for Fairbanks, and I tell him so. Where all are honest as one's self, there can be no trouble. He never was doing so well, by half, as now, I dare say. His business is large already, and his collections are remarkably prompt. They seem here to like him, about as well as he likes them."

"He seems to attend to his business pretty closely; I like that in him," said Fabens.

"Attend to business? Ay! if you could see all the time, how he attends to business, Squire; how he searches and foots his legers every day,"

said Frisbie; "how he keeps things moving and straight, and pays his notes before they come due, you would say he could not help prospering, and you would back him for any amount he would ask. But, here, it is nine o'clock, already, and I must face this cold storm, that has come up since I came."

"Don't hurry away yet," said Fabens. "There is nothing to call you home. Stay all night, we will be glad to have you, and you shall have an early start in the morning."

"O, I _must go to-night_," said Frisbie, and he took his cloak, and concluded the conversation--"_I must go to-night_. I told Fairbanks, I would be home before ten, and he knows what to depend on. We keep our word with each other. Come over and see us, Squire. We have a fine room fitted up now, in the store, where we can entertain our friends.

Fairbanks is _always_ glad to see you. He thinks Squire Fabens about east, and his family too! He would feel more freedom to visit you, if you would call on him oftener. I never saw a man who thought more of seeing his friends. And so far from home as we are, you must remember that our friends here stand in the place of the absent and dear."

Frisbie departed, and Fabens expressed the liking he had taken to the fellow, and the increased esteem he must confess for Fairbanks.

"I am sure," said f.a.n.n.y, laying aside her work, but not her smiles, that outshone the walnut fire, nor that presence of blissful life, that filled up all the warm room; "I am sure, there cannot be much deception in them. We would detect it in some way, if there was."

"Do you esteem either of them as you do George Ludlow?" asked Mrs.

Fabens.

"No, I do not in all respects," answered f.a.n.n.y. "My esteem for him, as for them, increases. And the way the Faddle girls treat George, makes me think all the more of him, and desire to make him happy. Then I admire his sentiments and tastes, and his love of labor. Still I would be glad to number Mr. Fairbanks and Mr. Frisbie among my friends. Was the man named Lowry or Ludry that he said married his teacher? It sounded so much like Ludlow, it startled me."

"It was Lownsly, Lowry, or something like it," answered Mrs.

Fabens.--"There are some things which seem fair, and even generous in them, it is true. And Fairbanks has a way of looking very meek and innocent; and one of two things is certain: he must be unacquainted with the world, and incapable of a thought of deception, or else he is an arch and dissembling rogue. But there are some expressions about his eyes that I cannot like; and I think there is a little blarney about them both. I may be wrong; I hope I am, and if I am, that I may be forgiven. It is unpleasant to be haunted by these suspicions. But there, I could help breathing as well."

Upon this, Fabens went to his barn to look after his cattle and see if any would be likely to suffer in the storm; and finding all in comfortable quarters, he returned, saying, "I wish I could know that everybody in the world had as happy a home as we have to-night. I could then rest more warmly and sweetly. It is bitter cold night, and I fear many will suffer. I am glad I made the wood-bee for poor Troffater. His family can have the comfort of warm fires this winter.

The neighbors turned out well, and a good big pile of beech and maple lies at his door. I shall sleep better for that."

They enjoyed their devotions, Fabens praying that G.o.d would bless His beloved poor, and all who were suffering and needy; while He kept their own hearts from unjust judgments, from deception and evil; and they were soon wrapped warmly and well in the slumbers of the night.

XXIII.

FAIRBANKS, FRISBIE, AND FABENS.

Not another month expired before Fairbanks paid a visit to Squire Fabens, and conversed a whole evening on topics that could not but interest the family; and Mrs. Fabens confessed he had never appeared so well to her mind before; and that if there were art and insinuation in his manner that time, it was so skilfully managed and deeply concealed she could not discover it.

Still something impressed her with the conviction that it would be quite as well not to rely too much on his integrity, until he was better known; and by no large trusts committed to his honor, to tempt him to an act of vice. But Fabens and f.a.n.n.y could harbor no suspicions; while for the latter, Fairbanks showed more regard on this occasion than would have been compatible with a knowledge of her engagement to Ludlow, and respect for the sanct.i.ty of plighted love.

Still, it appeared his unthinking way of indulging hearty friends.h.i.+p; and indeed it rather augmented than diminished f.a.n.n.y's regard for him.

When about to return, Fairbanks remarked that he had been engaged beyond present preparations in the purchase of produce of late, and had expended more of his money than he calculated in the beginning; and if the Squire would lend him fifty dollars he should have it back again in a fortnight. The money was handed him without hesitation; and just a week from that time, Frisbie came and paid it, saying that Fairbanks always felt distressed when he could not take up his notes, and pay borrowed money before he agreed to. He spent another evening; and among other questions, he inquired, in an innocent way, if they knew George Ludlow.

"We know him very well. Why, what of him?" returned Fabens.

"O, nothing," answered Frisbie; "nothing. I happened to think of him just now; that is all. I believe Fairbanks saw him for the first time in your harvest-field last summer. He would not have remembered it, if Ludlow had not had occasion to mention the circ.u.mstance in connection with another affair the other day."

"Then you have seen something of him, have you?" inquired Fabens.

"O, but little, sir, very little indeed," said Frisbie. "He came the other day to trade out a due-bill, and--I believe Fairbanks is well enough satisfied about him now. We were not certain that you knew him very well."

"There was no difficulty with him, I presume?" said Fabens, not indifferently.

"O, no, nothing of any consequence whatever; nothing that we would breathe abroad, or wish to remember," said Frisbie, with a meekened look.

"May I ask if anything dishonorable on his part?" inquired Fabens. "We have supposed him one of our best young men--one of the _very_ best in town; and we have known him from a child."

"I am sorry I mentioned his name: I see it disturbs you," said Frisbie.

"I would not weaken one's confidence in another for anything in the world--unless I had the weightiest reason. And this was nothing of importance, for one of his friends to know."

"But may _we_ not know it, and be relieved of our anxiety?" asked Fabens, with rising emotion.

"Why,--yes, I would as lief _you_ would know it as not," said Frisbie.

"_You_ will say it was a trifling affair, and little worth minding after all. Hundreds of young men do the same, and never repeat it, and are just as well thought of, too, by a good many people. Temptations lie in wait to ensnare us all; and the greatest wonder is, not that now and then one becomes criminal, but that so many people, good as you and I, Squire Fabens, do not oftener step aside from virtue's way."

"But we thought George Ludlow the last to be tempted. He is certainly a most respectable young man. His very looks bespeak an innocent heart. I seldom meet him without desiring to exclaim as Jesus did at the approach of young Nathanael--'Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile!' And then he is so industrious and regular," said Fabens warmly.

"I am very glad you think and feel as you do. It is truly refres.h.i.+ng to witness such confidence in men. And I told Fairbanks that George looked as though he worked hard, and wanted to be respected."

"But tell me, what of his error, Mr. Frisbie? I insist upon knowing."

"You shall know, Squire Fabens. I would as lief _you_ would know as not; you will not breathe it where it can hurt Ludlow. You know we are bound to lift up the fallen--not to crush them."

"But he has not fallen, I hope! What was his error?"

"Do not let it trouble you, Squire, do not let it trouble you at all.

I think just as much of him, far's I know, as ever I did. The crime--if crime _you_ would call it, is this: he came to our store to trade out a due-bill, as I said, and after he had gone, we missed a pocket-handkerchief."

"He or some one else may have taken it by mistake," interrupted Mrs.

Fabens, rocking her chair in agitation.

"That is very likely, as I told Fairbanks," said Frisbie. "And it is best for us to think so. We had better judge ten guilty persons innocent, than condemn one innocent man. It was a _silk_ pocket-handkerchief; and as it lay on the counter just before he left, Fairbanks thought Ludlow must have taken it; and following him over to the tailor's shop, where he left his bundle, I opened it, and found a handkerchief, just like ours, wadded up and tucked into one end of the wrapping paper. _Little_ things sometimes indicate more than we wish to believe. But then he looked a little honest, when he came in, and said he knew not how on earth it got there."

"I don't believe he did know," said Fabens. "How easy it would have been for you; or whoever put up the goods, to have put that in by mistake."

"Just so I told Fairbanks," said Frisbie; "and it must have got there in some such way. It was crumpled up so, my first thought was that it was tucked in by stealth. I inquired of our new customer, Captain Troffater--I believe they call him Captain, I very confidentially named the circ.u.mstance to him, and he said it _might_ be a mistake of ours; but he did not know about it, and it was best for merchants to keep a sharp lookout, when they did not know who was in their store. But there, as--"

"I will not believe George stole it," interrupted Fabens earnestly.

"He is incapable of such an act; and it is much more reasonable to believe it was done up by mistake."

"I have brought home things several times in that way, and n.o.body suspected _I_ meant to steal," said Mrs. Fabens. "The clerks confessed their hurry, and their liability to make mistakes, when I returned them."

"We do make such mistakes too often, as I told Fairbanks; and it must be he took it in that way," concluded Frisbie. "At any rate, I had rather believe so, and have you _all_ believe so, than believe him guilty. I am sure I would not harm the fellow; and I would not weaken your confidence in him. I am always so grieved myself to know that a person is not as good as I believed him to be, I would not attempt to convince any one of confidence misplaced for the world--unless I had the weightiest reason. Yet, I confess it grieves me still more to see confiding people deceived, they feel so bad after it."

Upon this, Frisbie rose and repeated his invitation to Fabens, to go over and see them, saying, as he left the door, that "he hoped Fairbanks would not be an old bachelor always, but get him a good wife, and have a home, and live like somebody, that ladies and gentlemen might visit him. But what do you think he says, when I jog him on the subject? That there is only one girl in Summerfield he could like well enough to marry, and I point in a certain direction, and tell him I can guess who he means!

"Fairbanks is getting notional like all old bachelors. His mother taught him some of it. She thought so much of him when she kept house for him on the Hudson, she dared not let him stay away from home over night, for fear he would have the croup.

"He grows more and more particular in his choice of friends, and sets a higher and higher mark for the young lady of his choice. I tell him he is too particular. But he must have his notions; and I will say this for Fairbanks, whoever gets him, will get a prize worth setting her cap for. His mother always said, if he hadn't a happy and loving home, it wouldn't be his fault."