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Necessity is a hard master-- but still Katy was not wanting in some qualities,
which made her a very tolerable housekeeper. On the one hand, she was neat,
industrious, honest, and a good manager.--On the other, she was talkative,
selfish, superstitious, and inquisitive. By dint of using the latter quality
with consummate skill, she had not lived in the family but five years when she
triumphantly declared, that she had heard, or rather over heard, sufficient to
say what had been the former fate of her associates.--Could Katy have
possessed enough of divination to pronounce upon their future lot, her task
would have seemed comparatively easy. From the private conversations of the
parent and child, she learnt that a fire had reduced them from competence to
poverty, and at the same time diminished the number of their family to two.
There was a tremulousness in the voice of the father, as he touched lightly on
the event, which affected even the heart of Katy; but no barrier is sufficient
to repel vulgar curiosity. She persevered, until a very direct intimation from
Harvey, by threatning to supply her place with a female a few years younger
than herself, gave her awful warning, that there were bounds beyond which she
was not to pass. From that period, the curiosity of the housekeeper had been
held in such restraint, that, although no opportunity of listening was ever
neglected, she had been able to add but little to her stock of knowledge.
There was, however, one piece of intelligence, and that of no little interest
to herself, which she had succeeded in obtaining; and, from the moment of its
acquisition, she had directed her energies to the accomplishment of one
object, aided by the double stimulus of love and avarice.
Harvey was in the frequent habit of paying mysterious visits, in the depth of
the night, to the fire-place of the apartment, that served for both kitchen
and parlor. Here he was observed by Katy; and, availing herself of his absence
and the occupations of the father, by removing one of the hearth-stones, she
discovered an iron pot, glittering with a metal that seldom fails to soften
the hardest heart. Katy succeeded in replacing the stone without discovery,
and never dared to trust herself with another visit. From that moment,
however, the heart of the virgin lost its obduracy; and nothing interposed
between Harvey and his happiness, but his own want of observation.
The war did not interfere with the traffic of the pedlar, who seized on the
golden opportunity which the interruption to the regular trade afforded, and
appeared absorbed in the one grand object of amassing money. For a year or two
his employment was uninterrupted, and his success proportionate; but, at
length, dark and threatening hints began to throw suspicion around his
movements, and the civil authority thought it incumbent on them to examine
narrowly into his mode of life. His imprisonments were not long, though
frequent; and his escapes from the guardians of the law comparatively easy, to
what he endured from the persecution of the military. Still Birch survived,
and still he continued his trade, though compelled to be very guarded in his
movements, especially whenever he approached the northern boundaries of the
county; or, in other words, the neighbourhood of the American lines. His
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visits to the Locusts had become less frequent, and his appearance at his own
abode so seldom, as to draw forth from the disappointed Katy, in the fullness
of her heart, the complaint we have related, in her reply to Harper. Nothing
seemed to interfere with the pursuits of this indefatigable trader; and, with
a view to dispose of certain articles which could only find purchasers in the
very wealthiest families of the county, he had now braved the fury of the
tempest, for the half mile between his own residence and the house of Mr.
Wharton.
In a few minutes after receiving the commands of his young mistress, Cæsar
reappeared, ushering into the apartment the subject of the foregoing
digression. In person, the pedlar was a man of middle height, spare, but full
of bone and muscle: at first sight, his strength seemed unequal to manage the
unwieldy burden of his pack; yet he threw it on and off with great dexterity,
and with as much apparent ease as if it had been feathers. His eyes were
gray--sunken, restless, and, for the flitting moments that they dwelt on the
countenances of those with whom he conversed, seemed to read the very soul.
They possessed, however, two distinct expressions, which, in a great measure,
characterized the whole man. When engaged in traffic, the intelligence of his
face appeared lively, active, and flexible, though uncommonly acute; if the
conversation turned on the ordinary transactions of life, his air became
abstracted and restless; but if, by chance, the revolution and the country
were the topic, his whole system seemed altered--all his faculties were
concentrated--he would listen for a great length of time, without speaking,
and then would break silence by some light and jocular remarks, that were too
much at variance with his former manner, not to be affectation. But of the
war, and of his father, he seldom spoke, and always from some apparent
necessity.
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