CHAPTER XVI.

_ALONE AT HOME._

"Nor blame I Death because he bare The use of virtue out of earth: I know translated human worth Will bloom to profit otherwhere."--_In Memoriam._

It need not be told, and it could not, how the loss of his wife affected Eli Jones, already venerable with age. Those only who have borne a like sorrow know the depth of the wound. The strength of his character and the weight of his love were never shown more fully than in the first years of his widowed life. War had taken his first-born, his sons were at their work in the world, his eldest daughter was married, and the youngest daughter alone was still with him. Though sixty-six years of age, he was yet strong, and knew that much more work was before him if his life should be spared. There was no time given him to rest. Not his to question the ways of Providence, but to work while the day lasted. He could turn his face to no field where he was not reminded of her who had diligently stood by his side, and his loneliness gave a new power to his words. As Tennyson of his departed friend, he could say:

"Far off thou art, but ever nigh; I have thee still, and I rejoice; I prosper circled by thy voice; I shall not lose thee though I die."

For the first few years after the separation he was generally engaged near home. The duties of farm-work filled up the spaces between the monthly, quarterly, and general meetings which he attended. The little black horse that all his townsmen knew so well grew very familiar with the winding roads to Vassalboro', Brooks, St. Albans, Manchester, and other near-lying towns. "Uncle Eli has come" made all who had gathered at the meeting-house rejoice, and, whether the subject was peace, temperance, or salvation, he spoke strong words to stir the listeners.

During all his life he has loved to till the soil; trees seem to be near friends of his. Lowell is

"Midway to believe A tree among his far progenitors, Such sympathy is his with all the race."

Eli Jones hardly claims relationship with the birches, but they are his close friends, and he has had many happy hours working among his trees. Perhaps he never was a farmer such as the editors of agricultural journals would extol, and it is certain that the hilly fields, with here and there a ledge of rock, in his farm at Dirigo would never have allowed him to accumulate wealth, even if his work had been exclusively there; but he felt the nobility of the calling. There was no yoke of bondage to the soil over him, and he got nearer Nature's heart as he planted, as he dug, and as he harvested. Those who exhort to a higher spiritual life can never know too much of the mysteries of animal and plant life; they can never be too conversant with the trials and pains which daily toil brings to those to whom they preach. Paul could touch hearts when he appealed to tentmakers; Peter had an unwonted power when fishermen were before him; and he who holds up hands hardened by hoe and spade will gladly be heard by those who have left the oxen in the furrow to listen to the gospel. Slavery to work narrows the mind, as any slavery does, but diligence in some business will never lessen the depth of a true Christian or weaken the influence of an endowed minister. Eli Jones has always been loved by all the animals in his house and barn, for there is true philosophy in the line, "For Mary loved the lamb, you know." His sheep would come from all corners of the pasture when he came to their feeding-place, and often he took his cane and walked out to give them salt and to learn their ways. Sheep that are loved grow best, and his flock was proof of it. After work he sat under one of the large maples near the house, and while resting, if alone, carefully studied the higher and lower laws of the birds over his head and the insects at his feet. I do not believe he ever knowingly stepped on a worm or beetle, and no life of any kind was ever willingly destroyed by him. He could mow on Fifth day until time for meeting, and then hay-making, and the possibility of showers were out of the realm of his thought, for there was a higher work which needed an undivided mind.

Nothing inanimate has interested him more than fossils and geological specimens. He made a large collection of them, and whenever an unusual stone showed itself under his hoe, it was examined. The perfection of the minute shells, and consequently of the long-dead animals that once dwelt in them, deeply impressed him. The variety of trees and flowers which were growing in his garden and grounds astonished those who were acquainted only with the birches, beeches, maples, pines, hemlocks, the ordinary growth of the Maine woods; but he was delighted to see trees of other climes flourish in the hard Northern soil of his fields. His apples, pears, and grapes have reached the heart of many a boy who has wondered why his father has always lived contented with "Bitter Sweets" when "Early Harvests" are so good and easy to raise; and an invitation to spend a day in this garden of the Hesperides was not soon to be forgotten; and in fact it was a day of growth in the boy's better nature.

There was something still more gratifying than such an invitation: it was to sit in the "South Meeting-house" when "little David" or Samuel or Joseph was the text. Others might instruct the heads of the meeting, but little eyes, sometimes heavy with sleep, opened and grew larger as the shepherd on the hills of Bethlehem had his arm nerved by the strength of the Lord or as Samuel cried, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." He drew pictures of those far-off scenes until a panorama seemed unrolled and young and old saw the mighty characters of the early dispensation working before them; and it was not long before a new light came over those same hills and new songs filled the air: "Rejoice, for unto you is born, this day, in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

During these days of farm-life Eli was often chosen to fill the different town offices. As "supervisor of schools" he used to hear the geography lessons and make the map look so large and real that the scholars felt that it in fact represented solid earth. Then he was sure to ask the whole school some question which would start a train of new thoughts, and he was not likely to leave the school-house without setting forth in a novel way the need of learning how to spell and the mistake of trying greater fields of work before this one was conquered.

It was in the "town-meeting--the old "New England town-meeting"--that he showed his peculiar tact and strength. The men of the town were there to settle the knotty question of "new roads," "improved schools," "care of the poor," and a long list of similar points. It is always a question with boys "how they make Presidents," and it is no less so how they make "selectmen and supervisors;" and on these great days young statesmen were being taught there. The speakers for and against the different articles in the "warrant," stood up on benches and spoke. A moderator was appointed who kept order and decided difficult points. The younger, non-voters, were surprised to hear such eloquence and to see such weighty matters handled by men whom they knew only as great woodcutters or haymakers; but it really seemed to them that another Demosthenes must be in the midst of them when Eli Jones began to argue down the weak schemes and prop up the wise plans for public improvement. At least one listener remembers how one important point was settled. The question had been discussed whether the town should pay up its "war debt" and by taking on itself a double tax for one year throw off the burden of a heavy tax each year to pay interest-money. It had been decided affirmatively, but after the meeting was over and the citizens had gone home and talked with their wives, it began to seem to many that too great a step had been taken, and a call was issued for a new meeting to rescind the vote. There was much feeling, and the signs of a strongly divided camp were evident. The stir indicated that the question was momentous. A plain but strong argument was given to rescind the vote on the ground that it would be wiser to divide the amount and take a number of years to pay it than to impoverish the poor farmers by forcing such a tax upon them at one time. It may have been because the writer was very young and impressible, but the reply seemed to him masterly and worthy of a much greater occasion. Not a word was lost; the answer was brief, and its burden was that it was time to be free from the stigma of this debt, which either those present or their children must pay, and that if every citizen would play the man and do his duty now the debt would be blotted out, and easily. A vote was taken, and by a large majority it was agreed to leave the next generation free from debt by paying it at once; which was done.

The work of a man for the bettering of his own town is not unimportant, though it may seem so when we consider the greater fields of usefulness. He who has roused his neighbors and helped them find a better way of educating their sons and daughters has accomplished a work of immense importance. If all the towns and villages were taken care of, the State would soon rest on a sure foundation, and he is a skilful physician who labors to _heal_ the troubles in the towns which supply _life_ to the cities. Eli Jones has always said that the great aim must ever be to get the individual home in a proper condition. It is not possible to show how much he quietly did in the years he spent at Dirigo, but certainly it was time well used, and we need not lament that he was "hemmed in" by county lines. What he did is poorly and briefly recorded here, but it is written imperishably somewhere, not infrequently on the impressible hearts of men.