Jessie

by Walter Aimwell

A few days before Sam’s release from jail, Jessie wrote to him an affectionate letter, inviting him, in behalf of Mrs. Page and Marcus, to come and see them, before going elsewhere, and promising him a kind reception. His mother had also written to him, informing him that she had the promise of a good situation for him on a farm, in the town where she was living, and urging him to come to her at once, on his discharge from jail. Sam did not reply to either of these letters; but the day after the expiration of his sentence, just as the academy bell was ringing for the afternoon session, a little boy put into the hands of Jessie a note, which he said a strange young man, whom he met in the woods, had asked him to deliver. It was faintly written with a lead pencil, and was dirty and crumpled; but she soon ascertained that it was from Sam, and that it contained a request for her to meet him, that afternoon, at a certain retired spot on the banks of Round Hill Pond. It also apprised her that she must come alone, if she wished to see him.

Jessie at once got excused from her afternoon duties, and proceeded to the spot indicated in the note. She seated herself on a certain large, flattish stone, near the pond, as directed, and in a few minutes her brother emerged from a thicket close by. She embraced him with the warm affection of a sister, but his greeting was rather cool, and he kept glancing about with suspicious eye, as if expecting to see some unwelcome face peering out from behind a tree or rock. Sam had changed but little in appearance, since Jessie last saw him. He was a trifle taller, and seemed less bold and frank than formerly; and the coarse, sensual and vulgar expression which his countenance had for several years been assuming, was more painfully apparent than ever. He looked well and hearty, however, and was evidently the same Sam Hapley that he had always been.

Jessie made it her first business to endeavor to persuade her brother to go with her to Mrs. Page’s. But though she used all her powers of persuasion, he resolutely refused, from first to last, to show himself in town. He said he slept the night previous in an old, unoccupied barn, near the pond, and had a little food, which he had bought with money given to him by the sheriff. He had seen no one who knew him since he came to Highburg, and he intended to leave the town that afternoon, or early the next morning, “to seek his fortune,” as he expressed it. But Jessie could gain no information as to what his purposes really were. The most he divulged was, that he should not accept of his mother’s proposition, nor even go to see her; and he wound up by saying, that he should not have come to see Jessie, only he thought she might be able to let him have a few dollars.

Notwithstanding this cutting remark, and the unfeeling manner in which it was uttered, Jessie would probably have offered her brother assistance, had it been in her power to do so. But she had not a dollar in the world, and she told him so. He then proposed that she should borrow a small sum from Mrs. Page; but Jessie firmly declined to do this, saying that nothing would tempt her to borrow, so long as she had no means for repaying the debt. When Sam found that there was no prospect of his accomplishing his selfish purpose, he seemed in haste to close the interview, that he might at once resume his travels. But Jessie still clung to him, with tears, beseeching him to reconsider his resolution.

“There is poor Henry,” she said; “what will he think, when he finds that you have been here, and gone off, without seeing him?”

“I can’t help it,” replied Sam. “I should like to see him well enough, but I’ve determined I wont show myself in Highburg again, and I wont—so that’s an end of it.”

“And the graves of father and Benny—can you go away without making them one visit?” inquired Jessie, her tears bursting forth afresh.

“I can’t do them any good,” he replied, after a moment’s pause. “Come, it’s of no use to tease so, for I’ve made up my mind to go off this afternoon, and I shall go, whether or no.”

But Jessie did continue to “tease,” and her importunities were at length rewarded by a promise that he would remain there another night, and that he would meet Jessie and Henry at an early hour the next morning, in the burial-ground, which was in a secluded spot.