The Turning of the Tide; Or, Radcliffe Rich and His Patients

by Elijah Kellogg

The fact that he did chores, and attended to business matters, in order to defray the expense of his board, so far from proving derogatory, as Perk had hinted, operated in precisely the opposite manner. Had he resorted to this method of reducing his expenses from penuriousness, and an overweening desire to accumulate, such, doubtless, would have been the result, and the proceeding would have excited both ridicule and contempt.

The instincts of the boys, however, divined that this was not his character. They felt themselves drawn towards him by that magnetic influence that his college mates confessed, and were proud of his scholarship and commanding ability, that even those who could not appreciate felt. In addition to this they were not long in discovering that, although he did chores, and even cleaned out the pig-sty, he was the best dressed man in the town on the Sabbath, which was to them a sore puzzle. But when it leaked out, probably through Perk, that he had been reared in affluence, was now flung upon his own resources, struggling to obtain a professional education, and that his style of dress was merely the remnant of better days, and not occasioned by mere love of display, the knowledge produced universal sympathy and respect, the whole community vying with each other in the manifestation of it.

Although practising the most rigid economy, husbanding every moment of time, and performing a great deal of labor, the noble nature of Rich manifested itself in a thousand ways; and strange it is how this unwritten, unspoken language of the heart is generally felt and understood. He was patient with the dull, encouraged the industrious, and stimulated to the utmost those scholars possessed of superior ability, while the mere desire to merit his esteem and affection roused indolent and wayward boys to persevering effort, and inspired them with a love of study and spirit of emulation they had never felt before.

But when Granny Fluker (after he went into the blacksmith's shop, made a new crank to her flax wheel, mended the cover of her Dutch oven, that was broke in two, by drilling holes in it, and putting wrought iron cleats across, fastened with rivets, and made a new bail to the oven) exclaimed, "God bless the young gentleman for condescending to sich a poor old worn-out critter as I am, that have to be helped by the town. Well, it's allers the way, in this world; them what's got the biggest hearts to do allers have the least to do with. But if the prayers of a poor old lone body like me can do him any good, he'll sartain have 'em."

She expressed the universal sentiment of the whole community.

To increase still more the estimation in which Rich was held, it was ascertained that he was an excellent singer. The parish choir was in a most wretched condition. A maiden lady, who had long been distinguished as a singer, began to show unmistakable signs of age, and her voice cracked. She received from the younger members sundry hints to leave. These she took in high dugeon, and left, together with a brother and two sisters, who were fine singers, and who espoused her quarrel. Before the new members who were introduced upon their leaving could be drilled, the chorister, who had made a great part of the disturbance, left town, taking his bass-viol with him.

In this condition of things, Rich was invited to take the lead of the choir, and accepted, established choir meetings, and soon put matters to rights; while the refractory brother and his two sisters, finding that they were not necessary, got over their huff, and came back.

The younger portion of the choir, ascertaining from Dan Clemens that Rich played the violin, persuaded him to bring it to church the next Sunday. The moment Rich drew the bow across the strings, Deacon Starkweather got up, slamming the pew door after him, left the church, and going into the pasture, out of sight and sound of the ungodly thing, sat down on a stump, in a snow-storm, till he judged it was time for the sermon to begin, when he returned, as he had no quarrel with Parson Meek, and merely wished to show his displeasure, and enter a protest against the fiddle. Rich, however, smoothed all asperities, and reconciled the worthy deacon, by persuading the members of the parish most interested in music to purchase a bass-viol, upon which he performed to the satisfaction of all; Deacon Starkweather inviting Rich, and all the members of the choir, to tea, when he explained to them that he had never cherished the least hardness against any member of the choir, but that his action was in reference to the instrument, and the associations connected with that exponent of folly, and concluded with a most generous contribution toward the purchase of the bass-viol. Thus was the affair that at one time threatened to break up the parish most happily settled. Rich earned the reputation of a peacemaker, and young man of excellent judgment, and the deacon, through his device delivered from an uncomfortable position (as his conduct by no means met with general approbation), became the staunch friend of Rich, declaring, upon every proper occasion, that "he was a young man that had the root of the matter in him."