The cry that was heard in Ramah, “Oh, that cold, cold water!”
Then, later on, there came a little box of tin-iron, “mit a hole cut in the on-top side.” But let Mother Treegood tell it in her own way:
“One day there came by the express company a little bundle. When it was opened—it was an oyster can—a box of tin-iron, mit a hole cut in the on-top side. The letter was from de other boy—und it say—that his brudder, who vas ver-drownded, did begin his business life in a hotel in Cincinnetty, as a bellboy, und he safe his money und put it in the oyster can. Und in dat oyster box was the shin-plasters, the five centses, und de ten centses—yoost as he take them in for noospapers and shoe-blacking—und it was yoost enough, ach mein lieber Gott!—yoost enough to pay for his grave at Brookfill.”
Surely this is very effective. It probably happened just that way. To know that it could, and perhaps did, is just the right impression for the author of a novel to make on the reader.
Another splendid episode is that wherein a “run on the bank” begins, as the funeral of Colonel Quillmore is in progress. The chapters which relate the tragedy, the fire in the Colonel’s laboratory, the wild ride of Father Lessing and Uncle I’; the dramatic climax where Mrs. Quillmore lashes herself into raving madness; the funeral procession whose mourners get caught up in the growing excitement of the “run on the bank,” and leave the hearse to fly to the bank for their money; the nerve and resource of Doc. Gus in saving the bank, and in saving the cashier from the would-be lynchers—are chapters which bear convincing testimony to the power and creativeness of the author.
The book is so finely conceived and written that one is tempted to scold the author for a few glaring faults which are well-nigh inexcusable.
Why paint L’Oiseau so black when he was to be white-washed at the end? There was no need to have him behave so brutally to the boy, Lanny Quillmore. It was a blunder to make him insult the boy, incur the hatred of the boy, assault the boy, and drive the boy from his own home. The lad is allowed to think and believe that L’Oiseau is on terms of criminal intimacy with Mrs. Quillmore, Lanny’s mother. There was no necessity for this. If L’Oiseau was brother-in-law to Mrs. Quillmore, and was prompted by paternal interest in paying her such suspicious attention, and in being out in the woods with her at unseasonable hours in the night, why permit the lady’s son to torture himself under a misapprehension?
What earthly reason was there for keeping from her only son a knowledge of the fact that L’Oiseau was her brother-in-law, and that her abnormal physical and mental condition required these unusual and suspicious attentions from him?
Again, L’Oiseau was rambling about at night with Mrs. Quillmore when she lost consciousness, fell by the wayside, was found by the priest, and succored by Doc. Gus.
What had become of her escort, L’Oiseau?