Wichita eagle., 1888-03-06
DAVID TODD.

evening in my old home am thinking of 6
distant kinsman who has hong been dead
So insistent is the memory that as stood
moment since looking out into the rainy
dusk, it almost seemed as il he too must
through the rays OF red and green light
streaming from the apothecary's window
opposite
He was tall, somber person whom the
negroes held in awe rs one likely to prac-
tice black arts on those who aroused his
wrath. used often to listen to the talk of
rheumatic old negress, with fingers as
knotted and twisted rs roots, who believed
herself to have been ''cunjured" by him.
AS he stalked past her door, where she was
in the habit of summing herself, she would
shrink together until she seemed scarcely
more than a bundle of rags, then gradu-
ally uncurling herself as his footsteps
died away in the distance, would sit chat
tering with anger, muttering the curses
she had not dared to let him hear, long
after he was out Of sight. Yet believe
David Todd never knew of her existence;
for he went his way among his fellows,
lost in baffled, cropping thought, as if none
of them had enough affinity for him to
draw his eyes outward from the thoughts
that held him.
He was of good Quaker family and
for years filled the chair of natural his
tory in the college of X. At length, how
ever, there began to be queer rumors con-
cerning him. II was said that he fancied
he had discovered the origin of life, and
bending over his crucibles attempted the
role of Creator. But whatever town talk
might invent concerning him, no one
really knew much about his affairs; for he
had always been taciturn man, and now
developed an irascible, suspicious man
ner toward his old associates that led them
to avoid him; and before long he himself
plunged into a preoccu2ation that seemed
TO blot out from his mind all consciousness
of his neighbors.
His work, whatever it might be, bound
him, it was said, to unremitting toll; but
rs time went on without the result of his
labors appearing, the w~rld which he had
forgotten in turn forgot him-or nearly
so. The negroes, who had probably origi-
nally gathered the idea OF something mys-
terious about him from the gossip of their
masters, still talked of the light always
TO be seen burning until early morning in
the attic Of his house; light which they
said proceeded from a candle made Of dead
mems fat and caused whoever looked long
to fall asleep. ''Mahs Todd an de debblo
amt got no cali to hab folks foolin' bout
ter see wat dey's at" they explained; and
this idea of his crooked ways was
carefully strengthened by an old aunty
who lived under his roof, and who was
not a little proud of the league her
master was understood to have with the
evil one although she weekly showed the
working Of divine grace in herself by
jumping and shouting in ''meetin',', and
moreover, had been immersed in order
that she might be quite sure that no taint
of original sin adhered to her.
She possessed considerable skill in herbs
and was to boot q shrewd old body, quick
to use her masters supposed powers as a
means OF increasing her reputation for
knowingness. But in spite of the liber-
ties She took with his name. no one at bot
tom believed more in his arts than Aunt
Kitty. His gloomy, abstracted ways
awed her; and although nothing extraor-
dinary ever happened in the house, her
imagination, like an orchid, seemed to find
enough in the air to keep it fiourishing.
The one other inmate Of the house gave
no such play to her fancy. David Todd's
sister, Rachel, was a slight, timid and
rather deaf little woman. whom indoor life
had made pale, and her occupations were
perfectly simple and evident Setting neat
stitches seemed to be the form duty had
taken to her, and tending few window
plants and reading her Bible and Milton's
Paradise Lost made the sum of her pleas
ure. Poor Rachel-she had been the last
child born In the house, and it had been
her lot to see the gradual disintegration Of
the family, and to stand at last in silent
rooms where laughter on her lips would
have seemed ghostly to her, even if the
years, which had taken so much away
from her, had not at last stripped her of
her original small stock Of buoyancy
Living in the dim rooms she had grown
almost as quiescent as the moths that, now
and then finding their way into the house
from the masses of Virginia creeper about
the windows, lay molonless at the bottom
Of the paneS.
Five years before the date Of our story
she had been thrown into the great
est flutter of her life by having
an orphan niece placed under her
charge until the rigors of New
England winter should be past The WIS.,
itor was a radiant girl with golden browa
y
soft masses an amber comb often shone. !
Rachel lowered about her in an ecstasy Of .
and was the most submissive
elder that ever a wayward girl undertook
to manage; and indeed, not only she and .
the willfui Aunt Kitty came under Ethels .
sway, but even David lost some Of his in
attention TO what was going on in the
house and showed grim pleasure in the
girls coaNing ways.
The cheerful days went by so quickly
hat it seemed to Rachel as if there had
never been year when the dandelions
came so soon; and before any of the three
older people were willing 10 think Of
Ethers departure she began to talk
oIthely of her return north.
She was so happy in the thought of her
marriage that she left them
almost without pang. But some years
ater, when the world had taken on a sad
ier hue to her. she thought of them often.
And when she felt her hold on life slipping
rom her grasp, the memory of Rachel's
,ast tenderness gave her courage to write
o her asking her love for q little Ethel,
lot quite years old, in case of her own
leath; for five years of married life had
eft Ethel worse than widowed.
Thus it happened one stormy November
vening that Rachel watched for her
'rother's return from journey be had
made TO Boston TO bring home little
.Eest; and she looked again and again at /
he photograph of the pretty child, stand
ng on the mantel, telling herself that it
vas just Ethel over again.
For many months past David had been
,ore preoccupied than ever. He was no
,nger seen abroad, and even Rachel
te her meals alone and never saw
is gaunt form except when, hunger