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The Exile's Secret - From Readings Over The Teacups - Five Stories And A Sequel

by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Ye that have faced the billows and the spray

Of good St. Botolph's island-studded bay,

As from the gliding bark your eye has scanned

The beaconed rocks, the wave-girt hills of sand,

Have ye not marked one elm-o'ershadowed isle,

Round as the dimple chased in beauty's smile, -

A stain of verdure on an azure field,

Set like a jewel in a battered shield?

Fixed in the narrow gorge of Ocean's path,

Peaceful it meets him in his hour of wrath;

When the mailed Titan, scourged by hissing gales,

Writhes in his glistening coat of clashing scales,

The storm-beat island spreads its tranquil green,

Calm as an emerald on an angry queen.

So fair when distant should be fairer near;

A boat shall waft us from the outstretched pier.

The breeze blows fresh; we reach the island's edge,

Our shallop rustling through the yielding sedge.

No welcome greets us on the desert isle;

Those elms, far-shadowing, hide no stately pile

Yet these green ridges mark an ancient road;

And to! the traces of a fair abode;

The long gray line that marks a garden-wall,

And heaps of fallen beams, - fire-branded all.

Who sees unmoved, a ruin at his feet,

The lowliest home where human hearts have beat?

Its hearthstone, shaded with the bistre stain

A century's showery torrents wash in vain;

Its starving orchard, where the thistle blows

And mossy trunks still mark the broken rows;

Its chimney-loving poplar, oftenest seen

Next an old roof, or where a roof has been;

Its knot-grass, plantain, - all the social weeds,

Man's mute companions, following where he leads;

Its dwarfed, pale flowers, that show their straggling heads,

Sown by the wind from grass-choked garden-beds;

Its woodbine, creeping where it used to climb;

Its roses, breathing of the olden time;

All the poor shows the curious idler sees,

As life's thin shadows waste by slow degrees,

Till naught remains, the saddening tale to tell,

Save home's last wrecks, - the cellar and the well?

And whose the home that strews in black decay

The one green-glowing island of the bay?

Some dark-browed pirate's, jealous of the fate

That seized the strangled wretch of "Nix's Mate"?

Some forger's, skulking in a borrowed name,

Whom Tyburn's dangling halter yet may claim?

Some wan-eyed exile's, wealth and sorrow's heir,

Who sought a lone retreat for tears and prayer?

Some brooding poet's, sure of deathless fame,

Had not his epic perished in the flame?

Or some gray wooer's, whom a girlish frown

Chased from his solid friends and sober town?

Or some plain tradesman's, fond of shade and ease,

Who sought them both beneath these quiet trees?

Why question mutes no question can unlock,

Dumb as the legend on the Dighton rock?

One thing at least these ruined heaps declare, -

They were a shelter once; a man lived there.

But where the charred and crumbling records fail,

Some breathing lips may piece the half-told tale;

No man may live with neighbors such as these,

Though girt with walls of rock and angry seas,

And shield his home, his children, or his wife,

His ways, his means, his vote, his creed, his life,

From the dread sovereignty of Ears and Eyes

And the small member that beneath them lies.

They told strange things of that mysterious man;

Believe who will, deny them such as can;

Why should we fret if every passing sail

Had its old seaman talking on the rail?

The deep-sunk schooner stuffed with Eastern lime,

Slow wedging on, as if the waves were slime;

The knife-edged clipper with her ruffled spars,

The pawing steamer with her inane of stars,

The bull-browed galliot butting through the stream,

The wide-sailed yacht that slipped along her beam,

The deck-piled sloops, the pinched chebacco-boats,

The frigate, black with thunder-freighted throats,

All had their talk about the lonely man;

And thus, in varying phrase, the story ran.

His name had cost him little care to seek,

Plain, honest, brief, a decent name to speak,

Common, not vulgar, just the kind that slips

With least suggestion from a stranger's lips.

His birthplace England, as his speech might show,

Or his hale cheek, that wore the red-streak's glow;

His mouth sharp-moulded; in its mirth or scorn

There came a flash as from the milky corn,

When from the ear you rip the rustling sheath,

And the white ridges show their even teeth.

His stature moderate, but his strength confessed,

In spite of broadcloth, by his ample breast;

Full-armed, thick-handed; one that had been strong,

And might be dangerous still, if things went wrong.

He lived at ease beneath his elm-trees' shade,

Did naught for gain, yet all his debts were paid;

Rich, so 't was thought, but careful of his store;

Had all he needed, claimed to have no more.

But some that lingered round the isle at night

Spoke of strange stealthy doings in their sight;

Of creeping lonely visits that he made

To nooks and corners, with a torch and spade.

Some said they saw the hollow of a cave;

One, given to fables, swore it was a grave;

Whereat some shuddered, others boldly cried,

Those prowling boatmen lied, and knew they lied.

They said his house was framed with curious cares,

Lest some old friend might enter unawares;

That on the platform at his chamber's door

Hinged a loose square that opened through the floor;

Touch the black silken tassel next the bell,

Down, with a crash, the flapping trap-door fell;

Three stories deep the falling wretch would strike,

To writhe at leisure on a boarder's pike.

By day armed always; double-armed at night,

His tools lay round him; wake him such as might.

A carbine hung beside his India fan,

His hand could reach a Turkish ataghan;

Pistols, with quaint-carved stocks and barrels gilt,

Crossed a long dagger with a jewelled hilt;

A slashing cutlass stretched along the bed; -

All this was what those lying boatmen said.

Then some were full of wondrous stories told

Of great oak chests and cupboards full of gold;

Of the wedged ingots and the silver bars

That cost old pirates ugly sabre-scars;

How his laced wallet often would disgorge

The fresh-faced guinea of an English George,

Or sweated ducat, palmed by Jews of yore,

Or double Joe, or Portuguese moidore;

And how his finger wore a rubied ring

Fit for the white-necked play-girl of a king.

But these fine legends, told with staring eyes,

Met with small credence from the old and wise.

Why tell each idle guess, each whisper vain?

Enough: the scorched and cindered beams remain.

He came, a silent pilgrim to the West,

Some old-world mystery throbbing in his breast;

Close to the thronging mart he dwelt alone;

He lived; he died. The rest is all unknown.

Stranger, whose eyes the shadowy isle survey,

As the black steamer dashes through the bay,

Why ask his buried secret to divine?

He was thy brother; speak, and tell us thine!

. . . . . . . . . . .

Silence at first, a kind of spell-bound pause;

Then all the Teacups tinkled their applause;

When that was hushed no sound the stillness broke

Till once again the soft-voiced lady spoke:

"The Lover's Secret, - surely that must need

The youngest voice our table holds to read.

Which of our two 'Annexes' shall we choose?

Either were charming, neither will refuse;

But choose we must, - what better can we do

Than take the younger of the youthful two?"

True to the primal instinct of her sex,

"Why, that means me," half whispered each Annex.

"What if it does?" the voiceless question came,

That set those pale New England cheeks aflame;

"Our old-world scholar may have ways to teach

Of Oxford English, Britain's purest speech, -

She shall be youngest, - youngest for to-day, -

Our dates we'll fix hereafter as we may;

That guard the claims of books which never sell."

The British maiden bowed a pleased assent,

Her two long ringlets swinging as she bent;

The glistening eyes her eager soul looked through

Betrayed her lineage in their Saxon blue.

Backward she flung each too obtrusive curl

And thus began, - the rose-lipped English girl.