St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1872-05-03
Chapter '.
AT TIE CASTLE

by the time August reached Andrew
AnderSon'S castle ii was dark. The
castle was built in IL hollow. looking
out toward the Ohio river. IL river that
has this pcculiarity. that it is all beau
/ titnl. from Pittsburgh to Cairo. Through
the trees. on which the buds were Just
bursting. August looked ont on the
golden roadway made 10y the moon
beams on the river. And into the tu-
multi of his feeling there came the sweet
hcnediction OF Nature. And what is
Nature but the voice of God
Anderson castle was Il large log
building of strange construction. Every
thing about it had been built 10y the
hands of Andrew. at once lis lord and
architect. Evidently IL whimsical fancy
had pleased itself in the construction.
Ii WAS an attempt to realize something
of medieval form i'll logs. There were
huttreS>eS and antique windows. and
10y an ingenious transformation the
chimney. usually such Il Disagreement
to Il og-hOuSr, WAS made to look like IL
round donlon keep. But ii WAS strange
ly composite. and ! am afraid Mr.. Rus
kin would have considered it somewhat
confused : for while it looked like "A
rude castle to those who approached it
from the hills. il looked like something
very different tn those who approached
the front. for upon that side was il por-
tico with massive Doric columns. which
were nothing more or less than maple
logs. Andrew maintained that the nat
uTal form of the trunk of Il tree WaS the
ideal and perfect form of il pillar
j" this picturesque structure. half
castle. half cabin. with hints of church
and temple. came August Whclc on
Saturday evening. He did not go round
to the poItico and knock at the front
door aS Il stranger would have done.
hut III behind the donion chimney he
pulled an alarm-cord. lmmcdiatcIN
the head of Andrew Anderson was
thrust ont of ii Gothic holc-you could
not call II a window. His uncut hair.
rather darker than auburn. fell down to
his waist. and his shaggy red beard laV
upon his bosom. Instead of Il coat he
wore that unique garment of linScN
woolSey known in the West as wa'muS
(waTm us p. il sort of nvcr-Shilt. He
was ty-tvc. but there were strcakS
of gray in his hair and beard. and he
looked older 10y ten Years.
Nv hat hn. good friend Is that
. YOU lt flltt- I blllt II dllu llEnl
welcome =, For his language was as
archaic and perhaps us incongru"uS is
his architecture. And then throwing
out of the window Il rope ladder. he
called out again. "A>rrnd ascend my
brave Young friend
And Young Wchlc climbed up the
ladder into the large upper room. For
it was one pcculiaritN of the castle that
the upper part had no visible commu-
nication with the lower Except Au-
gust. and now and then IL literary
stranger. no one but the owner WIS
ever admitted to the upper story of the
house, and the neighborS. who ALWAYS
had access To the lower rooms. regarded
the upper part of the castle with mNS-
teriouS awe. August was often piled
with questions about it. hut he always
replied that he didn't think Mr.. Andcr-
son would like to have it talked about.
For the owner there must have been
some inside mode of access to the sec
ond story, but he did not choose to let
even August know of any other way
than that by the rope-ladder. and the
few strangers who came to see his
books were taken in 10y the same draw
bridge.
The room was filled with books ar
ranged after whimsical associations.
One set of cases, for instance, was called
the Academy, and into these he only
admitted the masters following the
guidance of his own eccentric Judgment
quite as much as he followed tradition
al estimate. Homer, Virgil. Dante,
and Milton of course had undisputed
possession of the department devoted
to the kings of Epic as he styled
them. Sophocles, Calderon. Corneille,
and Shakespeare We're all that he ad
mitted to his list of Kings of 'I'rage-
dy." LOpe he rejected on literary
grounds, and Goethe hecarIse he thought
his moral tendency bad. He rejected
Rabelais from his chief humorists, but
accepted Cervantes, lie Sage, Moliere,
Swift, Hood, and the then fresh Pick
wick of Boz. TO these he added the
Georgia Scenes of Mr.. Longstrect, i'll
sisting that they We're quite equal to
Don QuiXote. | can only stop to men-
ton one other department in his Aca-
DENY. One case was devoted to the
Best Stories, and an admirable set
they were. | wish that anything of
mine were worthy to go into such com
pany. His purity of feeling. almost
ascetic, led him to reject BOccaccio, but
he admitted Chaucer and some of Bal
zac's, and Smollett, Goldsmith. and De
Foe, and Walter ScOtt's best, Irving's
Rip Van Wrinkle, Bernardin st. PierIe's
Paul and Virginia, and Three Months
under the Snow" and Charles Lambs
generally overlooked ''ROsamund Gray"
Not until my attention called to this word
in the proof did know that in this sense it is Il
prUvinciaism. 1t is 5 used at least in half the
country, and yet neither of our American diction-
aries has it