Elinor Glyn - "His Hour"

George Barr McCutcheon - "Her Weight in Gold"

John Lothrop Motley - "The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1577"

G.A. Henty - "The Lion of the North"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

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J >> J. Fenimore Cooper >> Title




"The amount of all this, brigadier, is that you have little faith in
monikin disinterestedness, in any shape; that you believe he who is
intrusted with power will abuse it; and therefore, you choose to
divide the trust, in order to divide the abuses; that the love of
money is an 'earthy' quality, and not to be confided in as the
controlling power of a state; and, finally, that the social-stake
system is radically wrong, inasmuch as it is no more than carrying
out a principle that is in itself defective."

My companion gaped, like one content to leave the matter there. I
wished him a good morning, and walked upstairs in quest of Noah,
whose carnivorous looks had given me considerable uneasiness. The
captain was out; and, after searching for him in the streets for an
hour or two, I returned to our abode fatigued and hungry.

At no great distance from our own door, I met Judge People's Friend,
shorn and dejected, and I stopped to say a kind word, before going
up the ladder. It was quite impossible to see a gentleman, whom one
had met in good society and in better fortunes, with every hair
shaved from his body, his apology for a tail still sore from its
recent amputation, and his entire mien expressive of republican
humility, without a desire to condole with him. I expressed my
regrets, therefore, as succinctly as possible, encouraging him with
the hope of seeing a new covering of down before long, but
delicately abstaining from any allusion to the cauda, whose loss I
knew was irretrievable. To my great surprise, however, the judge
answered cheerfully; discarding, for the moment, every appearance of
self-abasement and mortification.

"How is this?" I cried; "you are not then miserable?"

"Very far from it, Sir John--I never was in better spirits, or had
better prospects, in my life."

I remembered the extraordinary manner in which the brigadier had
saved Noah's head, and was fully resolved not to be astonished at
any manifestation of monikin ingenuity. Still I could not forbear
demanding an explanation.

"Why, it may seem odd to you, Sir John, to find a politician, who is
apparently in the depths of despair, really on the eve of a glorious
preferment. Such, however, is in fact my case. In Leaplow, humility
is everything. The monikin who will take care and repeat
sufficiently often that he is just the poorest devil going, that he
is absolutely unfit for even the meanest employment in the land, and
in other respects ought to be hooted out of society, may very safely
consider himself in a fair way to be elevated to some of the
dignities he declares himself the least fitted to fill."

"In such a case, all he will have to do then, will be to make his
choice, and denounce himself loudest touching his especial
disqualifications for that very station?"

"You are apt, Sir John, and would succeed, if you would only consent
to remain among us!" said the judge, winking.

"I begin to see into your management--after all, you are neither
miserable nor ashamed?"

"Not the least in the world. It is of more importance for monikins
of my calibre to seem to be anything than to be it. My fellow-
citizens are usually satisfied with this sacrifice; and, now
principle is eclipsed, nothing is easier."

"But how happens it, judge, that one of your surprising dexterity
and agility should be caught tripping? I had thought you
particularly expert, and infallible in all the gyrations. Perhaps
the little affair of the cauda has leaked out?"

The judge laughed in my face.

"I see you know little of us, after all, Sir John. Here have we
proscribed caudae, as anti-republican, both public opinions setting
their faces against them; and yet a monikin may wear one abroad a
mile long with impunity if he will just submit to a new dock when he
comes home, and swear that he is the most miserable wretch going. If
he can throw in a favorable word, too, touching the Leaplow cats and
dogs--Lord bless you, sir! they would pardon treason!"

"I begin to comprehend your policy, judge, if not your polity.
Leaplow being a popular government, it becomes necessary that its
public agents should be popular too. Now, as monikins naturally
delight in their own excellences, nothing so disposes them to give
credit to another, as his professions that he is worse than
themselves."

The judge nodded and grinned.

"But another word, dear sir--as you feel yourself constrained to
commend the cats and dogs of Leaplow, do you belong to that school
of philocats, who take their revenge for their amenity to the
quadrupeds, by berating their fellow-creatures?"

The judge started, and glanced about him as if he dreaded a thief-
taker. Then earnestly imploring me to respect his situation, he
added in a whisper, that the subject of the people was sacred with
him, that he rarely spoke of them without a reverence, and that his
favorable sentiments in relation to the cats and dogs were not
dependent on any particular merits of the animals themselves, but
merely because they were the people's cats and dogs. Fearful that I
might say something still more disagreeable, the judge hastened to
take his leave, and I never saw him afterward. I make no doubt,
however, that in good time his hair grew as he grew again into
favor, and that he found the means to exhibit the proper length of
tail on all suitable occasions.

A crowd in the street now caught my attention. On approaching it, a
colleague who was there was kind enough to explain its cause.

It would seem that certain Leaphighers had been travelling in
Leaplow; and, not satisfied with this liberty, they had actually
written books concerning things that they had seen, and things that
they had not seen. As respects the latter, neither of the public
opinions was very sensitive, although many of them reflected on the
Great National Allegory and the sacred rights of monikins; but as
respects the former, there was a very lively excitement. These
writers had the audacity to say that the Leaplowers had cut off all
their caudae, and the whole community was convulsed at an outrage so
unprecedented. It was one thing to take such a step, and another to
have it proclaimed to the world in books. If the Leaplowers had no
tails, it was clearly their own fault. Nature had formed them with
tails. They had bobbed themselves on a republican principle; and no
one's principles ought to be thrown into his face, in this rude
manner, more especially during a moral eclipse.

The dispensers of the essence of lopped tails threatened vengeance;
caricaturists were put in requisition; some grinned, some menaced,
some swore, and all read!

I left the crowd, taking the direction of my door again, pondering
on this singular state of society, in which a peculiarity that had
been deliberately and publicly adopted, should give rise to a
sensitiveness of a character so unusual. I very well knew that men
are commonly more ashamed of natural imperfections than those which,
in a great measure, depend on themselves; but then men are, in their
own estimation at least, placed by nature at the head of creation,
and in that capacity it is reasonable to suppose they will be
jealous of their natural privileges. The present case was rather
Leaplow than generic; and I could only account for it, by supposing
that nature had placed certain nerves in the wrong part of the
Leaplow anatomy.

On entering the house, a strong smell of roasted meat saluted my
nostrils, causing a very unphilosophical pleasure to the olfactory
nerves, a pleasure which acted very directly, too, on the gastric
juices of the stomach. In plain English, I had very sensible
evidence that it was not enough to transport a man to the monikin
region, send him to parliament, and keep him on nuts for a week, to
render him exclusively ethereal, I found it was vain "to kick
against the pricks." The odor of roasted meat was stronger than all
the facts just named, and I was fain to abandon philosophy, and
surrender to the belly. I descended incontinently to the kitchen,
guided by a sense no more spiritual than that which directs the
hound in the chase.

On opening the door of our refectory, such a delicious perfume
greeted the nose, that I melted like a romantic girl at the murmur
of a waterfall, and, losing sight of all the sublime truths so
lately acquired, I was guilty of the particular human weakness which
is usually described as having the "mouth water."

The sealer had quite taken leave of his monikin forbearance, and was
enjoying himself in a peculiarly human manner. A dish of roasted
meat was lying before him, and his eyes fairly glared as he turned
them from me to the viand, in a way to render it a little doubtful
whether I was a welcome visitor. But that honest old principle of
seamen which never refuses to share equally with an ancient mess-
mate, got the better even of his voracity.

"Sit down, Sir John," the captain cried, without ceasing to
masticate, "and make no bones of it. To own the fact, the latter are
almost as good as the flesh. I never tasted a sweeter morsel!"

I did not wait for a second invitation, the reader may be sure; and
in less than ten minutes the dish was as clear as a table that had
been swept by harpies. As this work is intended for one in which
truth is rigidly respected, I shall avow that I do not remember any
cultivation of sentiment which gave me half so much satisfaction as
that short and hurried repast. I look back to it, even now, as to
the very beau ideal of a dinner! Its fault was in the quantity, and
not in quality.

I gazed greedily about for more. Just then, I caught a glimpse of a
face that seemed looking at me with melancholy reproach. The truth
flashed upon me in a flood of horrible remorse. Rushing upon Noah
like a tiger, I seized him by the throat, and cried, in a voice of
despair:

"Cannibal! what hast thou done?"

"Loosen your grip, Sir John--we do not relish these hugs at
Stunin'tun."

"Wretch! thou hast made me the participator of thy crime! We have
eaten Brigadier Downright."

"Loosen, Sir John, or human natur' will rebel."

"Monster! give up thy unholy repast--dost not see a million
reproaches in the eyes of the innocent victim of thy insatiable
appetites?"

"Cast off, Sir John, cast off, while we are friends, I care not if I
have swallowed all the brigadiers in Leaplow--off hands!"

"Never, monster! until thou disgorgest thy unholy meal!"

Noah could endure no more; but, seizing me by the throat, on the
retaliating principle, I soon had some such sensations as one would
be apt to feel if his gullet were in a vice. I shall not attempt to
describe very minutely the miracle that followed. Hanging ought to
be an effectual remedy for many delusions; for, in my case, the
bowstring I was under certainly did wonders in a very short time.
Gradually the whole scene changed. First came a mist, then a
vertigo; and finally, as the captain relaxed his hold, objects
appeared in new forms, and instead of being in our lodgings in
Bivouac, I found myself in my old apartment in the Rue de Rivoli,
Paris.

"King!" exclaimed Noah, who stood before me, red in the face with
exertion; "this is no boy's play, and if it's to be repeated, I
shall use a lashing! Where would be the harm, Sir John, if a man had
eaten a monkey?"

Astonishment kept me mute. Every object, just as I had left it the
morning we started for London, on our way to Leaphigh, was there. A
table, in the centre of the room, was covered with sheets of paper
closely written over, which, on examination, I found contained this
manuscript as far as the last chapter. Both the captain and myself
were attired as usual; I a la Parisien and he a la Stunin'tun. A
small ship, very ingeniously made, and very accurately rigged, lay
on the floor, with "Walrus" written on her stern. As my bewildered
eye caught a glimpse of this vessel, Noah informed me that, having
nothing to do except to look after my welfare (a polite way of
characterizing his ward over my person, as I afterward found), he
had employed his leisure in constructing the toy.

All was inexplicable. There was really the smell of meat. I had also
that peculiar sensation of fulness which is apt to succeed a dinner,
and a dish well filled with bones was in plain view. I took up one
of the latter, in order to ascertain its genus. The captain kindly
informed me that it was the remains of a pig, which had cost him a
great deal of trouble to obtain, as the French viewed the act of
eating a pig as very little less heinous than the act of eating a
child. Suspicions began to trouble me, and I now turned to look for
the head and reproachful eye of the brigadier.

The head was where I had just before seen it, visible over the top
of a trunk; but it was so far raised as to enable me to see that it
was still planted on its shoulders. A second look enabled me to
distinguish the meditative, philosophical countenance of Dr.
Reasono, who was still in the hussar-jacket and petticoat, though,
being in the house, he had very properly laid aside the Spanish hat
with bedraggled feathers.

A movement followed in the antechamber, and a hurried conversation,
in a low, earnest tone, succeeded. The captain disappeared, and
joined the speakers. I listened intently, but could not catch any of
the intonations of a dialect founded on the decimal principle.
Presently the door opened, and Dr. Etherington stood before me!

The good divine regarded me long and earnestly. Tears filled his
eyes, and, stretching out both hands towards me, he asked:

"Do you know me, Jack?"

"Know you, dear sir!--Why should I not?"

"And do you forgive me, dear boy?"

"For what, sir?--I am sure, I have most reason to demand your pardon
for a thousand follies."

"Ah! the letter--the unkind--the inconsiderate letter!"

"I have not had a letter from you, sir, in a twelvemonth; the last
was anything but unkind."

"Though Anna wrote, it was at my dictation."

I passed a hand over my brow, and had dawnings of the truth.

"Anna?"

"Is here--in Paris--and miserable--most miserable!--on your
account."

Every particle of monikinity that was left in my system instantly
gave way to a flood of human sensations.

"Let me fly to her, dear sir--a moment is an age!"

"Not just yet, my boy. We have much to say to each other, nor is she
in this hotel. To-morrow, when both are better prepared, you shall
meet."

"Add, never to separate, sir, and I will be patient as a lamb."

"Never to separate, I believe it will be better to say."

I hugged my venerable guardian, and found a delicious relief from a
most oppressive burden of sensations, in a flow of tears,

Dr. Etherington soon led me into a calmer tone of mind. In the
course of the day, many matters were discussed and settled. I was
told that Captain Poke had been a good nurse, though in a sealing
fashion; and that the least I could do was to send him back to
Stunin'tun, free of cost. This was agreed to, and the worthy but
dogmatical mariner was promised the means of fitting out a new
"Debby and Dolly."

"These philosophers had better be presented to some academy,"
observed the doctor, smiling, as he pointed to the family of amiable
strangers, "being already F. U. D. G. E.'s and H. O. A. X.'s. Mr.
Reasono, in particular, is unfit for ordinary society."

"Do with them as you please, my more than father. Let the poor
animals, however, be kept from physical suffering."

"Attention shall be paid to all their wants, both physical and
moral."

"And in a day or two, we shall proceed to the rectory?"

"The day after to-morrow, if you have strength."

"And to-morrow?"

"Anna will see you."

"And the next day?"

"Nay, not quite so soon, Jack; but the moment we think you perfectly
restored, she shall share your fortunes for the remainder of your
common probation."




CHAPTER XXX.

EXPLANATIONS--A LEAVE-TAKING--LOVE--CONFESSIONS, BUT NO PENITENCE.


A night of sweet repose left me refreshed, and with a pulse that
denoted less agitation than on the preceding day. I awoke early, had
a bath, and sent for Captain Poke to take his coffee with me, before
we parted; for it had been settled, the previous evening, that he
was to proceed towards Stunin'tun forthwith. My old messmate,
colleague, co-adventurer, and fellow-traveller, was not slow in
obeying the summons. I confess his presence was a comfort to me, for
I did not like looking at objects that had been so inexplicably
replaced before my eyes, unsupported by the countenance of one who
had gone through so many grave scenes in my company.

"This has been a very extraordinary voyage of ours, Captain Poke," I
remarked, after the worthy sealer had swallowed sixteen eggs, an
omelet, seven cotelettes, and divers accessories. "Do you think of
publishing your private journal?"

"Why, in my opinion, Sir John, the less that either of us says of
the v'y'ge the better."

"And why so? We have had the discoveries of Columbus, Cook,
Vancouver, and Hudson--why not those of Captain Poke?"

"To own the truth, we sealers do not like to speak of our cruising
grounds--and, as for these monikins, after all, what are they good
for? A thousand of them wouldn't make a quart of 'ile, and by all
accounts their fur is worth next to nothin'."

"Do you account their philosophy for nothing? and their
jurisprudence?--you, who were so near losing your head, and who did
actually lose your tail, by the axe of the executioner?"

Noah placed a hand behind him, fumbling about the seat of reason,
with evident uneasiness. Satisfied that no harm had been done, he
very coolly placed half a muffin in what he called his "provision
hatchway."

"You will give me this pretty model of our good old 'Walrus,'
captain?"

"Take it, o' Heaven's sake, Sir John, and good luck to you with it.
You, who give me a full-grown schooner, will be but poorly paid with
a toy."

"It's as like the dear old craft as one pea is like another!"

"I dare say it may be. I never knew a model that hadn't suthin' of
the original in it."

"Well, my good shipmate, we must part. You know I am to go and see
the lady who is soon to be my wife, and the diligence will be ready
to take you to Havre, before I return."

"God bless you! Sir John--God bless you!" Noah blew his nose till it
rung like a French horn. I thought his little coals of eyes were
glittering, too, more than common, most probably with moisture.
"You're a droll navigator, and make no more of the ice than a colt
makes of a rail. But though the man at the wheel is not always awake
the heart seldom sleeps."

"When the 'Debby and Dolly' is fairly in the water, you will do me
the pleasure of letting me know it."

"Count on me, Sir John. Before we part, I have, however, a small
favor to ask."

"Name it."

Here Noah drew out of his pocket a sort of basso relievo carved in
pine. It represented Neptune armed with a harpoon instead of a
trident; the captain always contending that the god of the seas
should never carry the latter, but that, in its place, he should be
armed either with the weapon he had given him, or with a boat-hook.
On the right of Neptune was an English gentleman holding out a bag
of guineas. On the other was a female who, I was told, represented
the goddess of liberty, while it was secretly a rather flattering
likeness of Miss Poke. The face of Neptune was supposed to have some
similitude to that of her husband. The captain, with that modesty
which is invariably the companion of merit in the arts, asked
permission to have a copy of this design placed on the schooner's
stern. It would have been churlish to refuse such a compliment; and
I now offered Noah my hand, as the time for parting had arrived. The
sealer grasped me rather tightly, and seemed disposed to say more
than adieu.

"You are going to see an angel, Sir John."

"How!--Do you know anything of Miss Etherington?"

"I should be as blind as an old bumboat else. During our late
v'y'ge, I saw her often."

"This is strange!--But there is evidently something on your mind, my
friend; speak freely."

"Well, then, Sir John, talk of anything but of our v'y'ge, to the
dear crittur. I do not think she is quite prepared yet to hear of
all the wonders we saw."

I promised to be prudent; and the captain, shaking me cordially by
the hand, finally wished me farewell. There were some rude touches
of feeling in his manner, which reacted on certain chords in my own
system; and he had been gone several minutes before I recollected
that it was time to go to the Hotel de Castile. Too impatient to
wait for a carriage, I flew along the streets on foot, believing
that my own fiery speed would outstrip the zigzag movement of a
fiacre or a cabriolet tie flace.

Dr. Etherington met me at the door of his appartement, and led me to
an inner room without speaking. Here he stood gazing, for some time,
in my face, with paternal concern.

"She expects you, Jack, and believes that you rang the bell."

"So much the better, dear sir. Let us not lose a moment; let me fly
and throw myself at her feet, and implore her pardon."

"For what, my good boy?"

"For believing that any social stake can equal that which a man
feels in the nearest, dearest ties of earth!"

The excellent rector smiled, but he wished to curb my impatience.

"You have already every stake in society, Sir John Goldencalf," he
answered--assuming the air which human beings have, by a general
convention, settled shall be dignified--"that any reasonable man can
desire. The large fortune left by your late father, raises you, in
this respect, to the height of the richest in the land; and now that
you are a baronet, no one will dispute your claim to participate in
the councils of the nation. It would perhaps be better, did your
creation date a century or two nearer the commencement of the
monarchy; but, in this age of innovations, we must take things as
they are, and not as we might wish to have them."

I rubbed my forehead, for the doctor had incidentally thrown out an
embarrassing idea.

"On your principle, my dear sir, society would be obliged to begin
with its great-grandfathers to qualify itself for its own
government."

"Pardon me, Jack, if I have said anything disagreeable--no doubt all
will come right in heaven. Anna will be uneasy at our delay."

This suggestion drove all recollection of the good rector's social-
stake system, which was exactly the converse of the social-stake
system of my late ancestor, quite out of my head. Springing forward,
I gave him reason to see that he would have no farther trouble in
changing the subject. When we had passed an antechamber, he pointed
to a door, and admonishing me to be prudent, withdrew.

My hand trembled as it touched the door-knob, but the lock yielded.
Anna was standing in the middle of the room (she had heard my
footsteps), an image of womanly loveliness, womanly faith, and
womanly feeling. By a desperate effort, she was, however, mistress
of her emotions. Though her pure soul seemed willing to fly to meet
me, she obviously restrained the impulse, in order to spare my
nerves.

"Dear Jack!"--and both her soft, white, pretty little hands met me,
as I eagerly approached.

"Anna!--dearest Anna!"--I covered the rosy fingers with kisses.

"Let us be tranquil, Jack, and if possible, endeavor to be
reasonable, too."

"If I thought this could really cost one habitually discreet as you
an effort, Anna?"

"One habitually discreet as I, is as likely to feel strongly on
meeting an old friend, as another."

"I think it would make me perfectly happy, could I see thee weep."

As if waiting only for this hint, Anna burst into a flood of tears.
I was frightened, for her sobs became hysterical and convulsed.
Those precious sentiments which had been so long imprisoned in her
gentle bosom, obtained the mastery, and I was well paid for my
selfishness, by experiencing an alarm little less violent than her
own outpouring of feeling.

Touching the incidents, emotions, and language of the next half
hour, it is not my intention to be very communicative. Anna was
ingenuous, unreserved, and, if I might judge by the rosy blushes
that suffused her sweet face, and the manner in which she extricated
herself from my protecting arms, I believe I must add, she deemed
herself indiscreet in that she had been so unreserved and ingenuous.

"We can now converse more calmly, Jack," the dear creature resumed,
after she had erased the signs of emotion from her cheeks--"more
calmly, if not more sensibly."

"The wisdom of Solomon is not half so precious as the words I have
just heard--and as for the music of spheres--"

"It is a melody that angels only enjoy."

"And art not thou an angel?"

"No, Jack, only a poor, confiding girl; one instinct with the
affections and weaknesses of her sex, and one whom it must be your
part to sustain and direct. If we begin by calling each other by
these superhuman epithets, we may awake from the delusion sooner
than if we commence with believing ourselves to be no other than
what we really are. I love you for your kind, excellent, and
generous heart, Jack; and as for these poetical beings, they are
rather proverbial, I believe, for having no hearts at all."