The Crisis, Complete

o the end of the city's growth westward, where the new houses were going up. He had reflected coolly on consequences, and found there were none to speak of. Many a

in St. Louis. They invite us to attend a clinic, and the horrible skill with which they wield the scalpel holds us spellbound. For God has made all of us, rogue and saint, burglar and burgomaster, marvell

ted, is just as troublesome as croup. Mr. Hopper was thoroughly healthy. He had ambition, as I have said. But he was not morbidly sensitiv

over

oston. Miss Crane had received the message in the morning. Palpitating with the

ean Mrs. Appleton Br

answered Miss Crane, trium

in a way that made people

d," said she. "Ain't yo

d. This was an un

-way oftener than you, Eliza R

ength was her i

Brice's, who fought in the Revolution? I'm astonished at you, Mirandy. When I used to be at the Dales', in Mount Vernon Street, in thirty-seven, Mrs. Charles Atterbury Brice used to come there in her carriage, a-callin'. She w

etter in her hand. She b

in the panic. And then he died, and

ook off her

the family brains, ands he was kind of soft-hearted. I've heard Mehitabel Dale say

s triumph w

to Appleton Brice, and he has offere

aid down he

wonders, Mirandy. Now Lord help the b

declared the spinster. "I've heard say of a go

aid Mrs. Abner, scornfully.

rane retorted. "Look at Colonel Carvel

Crane. They both like quarrellin'

ne, "I must go make r

uld not resist calling at Mrs. Merrill's room, and she knocke

With what infinite pains were the pedigree and possessions of the Brice family pieced together that day by the scattered residents from Puritan-land in the City

ertained that the golden charm which made the Brices worthy of tribute had been lost. Commercial supremacy,-that was Mr. Hopper's creed. Family is a good thing, but of what use is a

sed the sea in ships. He pictured Mrs. Brice asking for a spoon, and young Stephen sniffing at Mrs. Crane's boarding-house. And he resolved with democratic spirit that h

s and broadcloths, and Miss Crane's special preserves on the tea-table. Alas,

pointed. The hero upon the reviewing stand with the halo of the Unknown behind his head is one thing; the lady of Family who sits beside you at a boarding-house and discusses the weather and the journey is quite another. The

othing of

confiding ear of her bosom friend, Mrs. Merrill. Not many years later a man named Grant was to be in Springfield, with a carpet bag, despised a

oose to call it, and to curse our own. We begin to respect ourselves the more, and to realize that they are merely clay like us, that we a

fect upon the boarders. They were nearly all prepared to be humble. They grew arrogant and pretentious. They asked Mrs. Brice if she knew t

e him a first-class prig (the horror of all novelists), that we must begin with the drawbacks. First and worst, it must be confessed that Stephen had at that time what has been called "the Boston mann

e the generous features of a marked man,-if he chose to become marked. He inherited his mother's look; hers was the face of a stron

the wonderful kindliness of his eye, which lighted when his mother spoke to him. But

ct that these people, who had held up their heads for so many generations, were humbled at last. To be humbled meant, in Mr. Hopper's philosophy, to lose one's money. It was thus he gauged the importance of his

ney which his father had lost. And he reflected that Stephen must feel as strange in St. Louis as a cod might amongst the cat-fish

he asked him, as the boarde

y be said here that, if Mr. Hopper underestima

s Fall," said Eliphalet, "St. L

rry to h

as you callatin'

said

d, having pictured with some pleasure the Boston aristocrat going from store to

wha

pil

little eyes at a vanishing-point in lines of a bargain. Then humor blessed humor-came to his rescue. He had entered the race

ut of his pocket, eyed Miss

nto?" he asked genially. Mr.

anged his mind." Eliphalet gave h

the

t lau

ircumstance to Silas Whipple when he gets mad. My boss, Colonel Carvel, is the only man in town who'll stand up to him. I've