Vermont Phœnix

MISCELLANY.

THE HEAVY CROSS.

A Story with a Moral.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

Robert Hope and Samuel Hullins had lived next door to one another for more than twelve years, and it is probable that they would have continued to live in harmony, if Samuel, who had served under Nelson, had not gained at Trafalgar a small pension, which he had paid for the loss of one of his legs. Now partly that leg, and the more that pension, were constant objects of jealousy for Robert: he blamed fate for having left him his two legs, and he complained bitterly to God, because he could not, as he said, sell his legs at the same price as Hullins. Every time that he went to pay his rent, he repeated grumblingly that his neighbor was a very happy man; that he was well able to pay a rent, the king gave him such a good pension.

At first, Robert contented himself with talking of his grievances to himself; but little by little his discontent was expressed more loudly, and soon it became his habitual and favorite topic of conversation. One week when he was behind-hand with his rent, and as he was going toward the house of Mr Taylor to make his excuses, he met his neighbor Hullins, who was going as regular as a clock to pay his rent. The very sight of Samuel had on Robert the effect of sickness: so when he bowed his head in reply to the salutation of Hullins, his face singularly resembled that of a bull showing his horns to a dog. On reaching the house of the landlord, Hope was severely reprimanded, and the example of his neighbor held up to him, as always paying regularly and to the last penny.

"Yes, yes," muttered Robert, "there are some who are born with their mouth full of money; Hullins is very happy, but I am not astonished that a person can pay regularly when he has such a pension as his."

"Hullins has a pension, it is true, replied Mr Taylor, "but his infirmity is a heavy cross, and if you were afflicted with it you would complain much more."

"Not at all," replied Hope: "if I had been happy enough to lose a leg, as he was, it would have been a famously productive day for me.— I would sell all my limbs at the same price that Samuel has. Do you call this wooden leg a heavy cross? For my part, I think his pension ought to make it light. The heaviest cross that I know of, is to be obliged to work unceasingly to pay your rent."

Mr Taylor was a good-natured man, and a keen observer. He had for a long time remarked Robert's envious disposition, and he resolved to convince him that with a discontented spirit the lightest cross would soon become heavy.

"I see," said he to Hope, "that you are disposed to do nothing: very well. I can free you from the necessity of working, which you think so grievous. You think the cross of your neighbor Samuel easy to bear, do you? If you will accept of one much lighter, I will engage to hold you quit of your rent."

"But what kind of a cross will you put on me?" asked Robert, uneasily, for he feared that the proposition would not be accepted.

"Such as this," said Mr Taylor, taking a bit of chalk and tracing a white cross on Robert's coat; "as long as you wear this I will not ask your rent."
Hope thought at first that his landlord was joking; but on being assured that he was speaking seriously—

"By St. George!" cried he, "you may be sure that you have seen the last of my money, for I will carry such a cross all my life!"

Robert soon left, congratulating himself on his good luck, and all along the road he laughed at the folly of Mr Taylor in giving up his rent so easily. He had never felt happier in all his life than when he reached home; he found fault with nothing; even his dog came and sat down at his feet without being punished for his familiarity. As he sat down on entering the house, his wife did not at first see the white cross he had on his shoulder; but passing behind her husband to wind up the clock, she cried out all at once, in a sharp voice—

"Ah!—good heavens, Robert, where have you been? You have a cross a foot long on your back. You must have come from the tavern, and I suppose some drunken friend has played you this trick to make you look like a booby—as if you needed a mark for that! Get up, and keep quiet till I brush off that cross!"

"Get off?" cried Hope, turning away quickly; "my clothes have no need of you; go and knit your stockings, and let me alone."

"That I will not!" said Mrs Hope, in a still sharper voice. "I do not wish my husband to become the laughing stock of the village, and if I tear your coat in pieces, you shall not wear that ridiculous cross!"

So, saying, the whole household endeavored to brush Robert's shoulder, and he, knowing that resistance was useless, fled, swearing and shutting the door violently.

"What a fury!" murmured he; "if she had been more gentle, I would have told her my good luck; but she is not worthy of knowing it."

"O—Robert!" cried the old man Fox, the moment Hope turned the corner of his house "what is that white cross you carry on your back?"

"Mind your own business," replied Hope, in
"Mr Hope," said little Patty Stevens, the daughter of the grocer, "stop a moment, if you please, till I rub off the cross some one has made on your shoulder?"

"Go and sell your herrings, idle girl," replied Robert, "and don't trouble yourself about the passers-by."

The little girl, confused, hastened into her mother's shop. Just then, Hope reached the house of the butcher, who was chatting with his neighbor the blacksmith.

"You are just the man we want," said they, stopping Robert, and they immediately began to talk of business; but hardly had they begun, when an old woman, Peggy Turton, came up, dressed in her plaid and blue apron.

"Heavens, Mr Hope!" cried she, gathering up her apron with her hands, "what a horrible thing on your back!"

Robert turned round to tell her to let it alone; but when the blacksmith perceived the mark—

"By heavens, look!" said he, laughing, "he can serve as a sign for the inn of the White Cross!"

"I suppose," added the butcher, "that his wife put this mark on his shoulder for fear of losing him."

Hope felt that there was but one way to escape their jokes, so he hastily left the place, but not without calling them foolish idlers; the cross began to weigh on his shoulders more than he had at first supposed it possible.

The unhappy Robert seemed destined this day to unpleasant meetings, for scarcely had he taken a few steps when he found himself in the midst of the school children. The school was over, and the scholars burst out into the road, disposed to make the most of any occasion for frolic which might present itself. Hope was seized with a terrible restlessness: he seemed already to hear the hue and cry after him. Before long his fears were realized: hardly had he passed, when a loud cry was heard, and at least fifty scholars began to run after him, pointing at him and throwing their bonnets and caps in the air.
sheep marked for the butcher

"Do you not see," said another, "that he has been crossed, and is going to leave for Palestine?"

And the shouts of laughter began again, louder than ever. Hope now became pale with anger; he turned round like a surly house-dog worried by children, and perhaps would have taken cruel revenge on his persecutors, if Mr Johnson, the schoolmaster, had not just then shown himself at the door of his house.

Robert went towards him and began to complain that his school was composed of vagabonds and insolent children. Mr Johnson replied gently that he would not for all the world encourage impertinence in his scholars, but that the white cross which he had on his back would make people wiser than children laugh.

"What business is that to you!" replied Robert, haughtily; "is not my back my own property?"

The schoolmaster bowed, and Hope continued on his way. But the cross bore more and more heavily on his shoulders. He began to think it would not be so easy to avoid paying Mr Taylor his rent, after all. "If so many jokes follow him already, what would it be when they knew the reason of this foolish ornament? Reflecting thus, Robert came near the tavern: he was going to pass on, when he perceived Mr Taylor himself a few steps in advance, and on the other side his neighbor Hullins, dragging along his wooden leg, and chatting with Harry Stoke, the carpenter.

Harry Stoke was the wit of the village, and on no account did Hope wish to be joked by him before Hullins. So he took refuge in the tavern. But that was not long tenable. The drinkers were not slow to perceive the cross, and joked Hope about it: a quarrel broke out, and the inn-keeper, fearing something serious would happen, had Robert put out of his house by his man.

Robert had left his own house, intending to go and look after some work which had been offered him in the neighboring village, but his temper had been so ruffled by the old man Fox, Patty Stevens, the blacksmith, the butcher, Peggy Turton, and the scholars, that he decided to return home, thinking that after all he should be more quiet there. So he started for home. Sometimes he would walk quickly, so as not to be overtaken; then he would take a step a minute, in order not to pass some one he would see in advance; sometimes in the road, sometimes in the fields, he would glide behind bushes and jump over walls, and fly from the sight of men with as much care as a robber who had stolen a chicken from a farm-yard—all this time the white cross was insupportably heavy. At last he reached home, and he hoped now to find a little quiet. But as soon as his wife saw him, she cried out!

"Are you not ashamed to come back as you went out? Already five or six of our neighbors have asked me if you had not lost your senses. Quick, now, let me pass my apron over that cross.'"

So saying, Mistress Hope tried to get hold of her husband's arm; but he rudely pushed her back. Mistress Hope, who was not overburdened with patience, replied with a blow, and the result was a regular fight between the two, to the great scandal of the neighbors, who ran to separate them.
It is not necessary to say that every body decided against Robert, who at first braved the general disapprobation, and even found consolation in his fury; but the more impetuously the fire burns, the sooner it consumes that which nourishes it; even as passionate men soon exhaust their energy by the violence of their feelings. Robert, on becoming calmer had not the courage to continue this painful contest; he felt that there was no hope of quiet for him, either out of doors or in his own house as long as he wore that cross on his coat, and he decided to efface it that evening himself, of his own accord. The following Monday he went at an early hour to the house of his landlord with the rent for the week in his hand.

"Ah, ah, Robert!" said Mr Taylor, as soon as he saw him; "I thought you would repent of your bargain before long. This is a good lesson for envious and impatient characters, who are constantly complaining of God and life. Call to mind all that has happened, Mr Hope, and remember that He who has created us has proportioned the burden to the back of each one of us. Do not complain of being less happy than others, for you do not know what your neighbors suffer. All crosses are heavy; that which makes them light is patience, hope and faith."