by Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855-1896)

[From Puck_, July 30, 1890 Republished volume, Short Sixes: Stories Read While the Candle Burns (1891), by Henry Cuyler Bunner; copyright, 1890, by Alice Larned Bunner; reprinted by permission publishers, Charles Scribner'a Sons ]

"They certainly are nice people," I assented to my wife's observation, using the colloquial phrase with consciousness anything but "nice" English, "and I'll bet that their three children are better brought up than most of----"

"_Two children," corrected my wife

"Three, me "

"My dear, she said there were two "

" three "

"You've simply forgotten I'm sure she told me they had only two--a boy and girl "

"Well, I didn't enter into particulars "

"No, dear, and you couldn't have understood him Two children "

"All right," ; but think all right As near-sighted man learns by enforced observation to recognize persons at distance face visible normal eye, so the man with bad memory learns, almost unconsciously, to listen carefully and report accurately My memory is bad; but I had time to forget that Mr Brewster Brede had told me that afternoon that he had three children, at present left care mother-in-law, while he and Mrs Brede took their summer vacation

"Two children," repeated my wife; "and staying aunt Jenny "

" me mother-in-law," I put in My wife looked at me with serious expression Men may not remember much of what told about children; but any man knows the difference between an aunt and mother-in-law

"But don't they're nice people ? " asked my wife

"Oh, certainly," I replied "Only they little mixed up about their children "

"That isn't nice thing ," returned my wife deny it

* * * * *

And yet, the next morning, Bredes came down and seated themselves opposite us at table, beaming and smiling in their natural, pleasant, well-bred fashion, , to social certainty, were "nice" people fine-looking fellow neat tennis-flannels, slim, graceful, twenty-eight or thirty years old, with Frenchy pointed beard She was "nice" in all her pretty clothes, and she herself was pretty type of prettiness which outwears most other types--the prettiness that lies in rounded figure, dusky skin, plump, rosy cheeks, white teeth and black eyes She twenty-five; you guessed that she was prettier than she was at twenty, be prettier still at forty

And nice people were all we wanted us happy in Mr Jacobus's summer boarding-house on top of Orange Mountain For week we had come down to breakfast , wondering why we wasted the precious days of idleness company gathered around the Jacobus board What joy of human companionship was had out of Mrs Tabb and Miss Hoogencamp, the two middle-aged gossips from Scranton, Pa --out of Mr and Mrs Biggle, an indurated head-bookkeeper prim and censorious wife--out of old Major Halkit, retired business man, who, having once sold few shares on commission, wrote for circulars of every stock company that was started, and tried to induce to invest listen to him ? We looked around at those dull faces, the truthful indices of mean and barren minds, and decided that leave that morning Then we ate Mrs Jacobus's biscuit, light as Aurora's cloudlets, drank her honest coffee, inhaled the perfume late azaleas she decked her table, and decided to postpone our departure one more day And then we wandered out our morning glance at what we called "our view"; and it seemed Tabb and Hoogencamp and Halkit Biggleses drive us away in year

not surprised when, after breakfast, my wife invited the Bredes to walk to "our view " The Hoogencamp-Biggle-Tabb-Halkit contingent never stirred off Jacobus's veranda; but we both felt Bredes profane that sacred scene We strolled slowly across the fields, passed little belt of woods and, as I heard Mrs Brede's little cry of startled rapture, I motioned to Brede to look up

"By Jove ! " he cried, "heavenly ! "

We looked off brow mountain over fifteen miles of billowing green, to where, far across far stretch of pale blue lay dim purple line that was Staten Island Towns and villages lay and under us; there were ridges and hills, uplands and lowlands, woods and plains, all massed and mingled great silent sea of sunlit green For silent , standing silence of high place--silent with Sunday stillness that made us listen, without taking thought, sound of bells coming up spires that rose above the tree-tops--the tree-tops that lay as far beneath us light clouds were above us that dropped great shadows upon our heads and faint specks of shade broad sweep of land mountain's foot

"And is your view ? " asked Mrs Brede, after moment; " very generous it ours, too "

Then we lay down grass, and Brede began , in gentle voice, the influence place He had paddled canoe, earlier days, , and every river and creek vast stretch of landscape his landmarks, and pointed out where the Passaic Hackensack flowed, invisible , hidden behind great ridges that sight were but combings green waves we looked down And yet, further side broad ridges and rises were scores of villages--a little world of country life, lying unseen under our eyes

"A like looking at humanity," ; " such thing as getting above our fellow men that we see side "

Ah, better sort of talk chatter and gossip Tabb Hoogencamp-- Major's dissertations upon his everlasting circulars ! My wife and I exchanged glances

"Now, when I went up the Matterhorn" Mr Brede began

"Why, dear," interrupted his wife, "I didn't know you ever went up the Matterhorn "

"It-- five ," said Mr Brede, hurriedly "I--I didn't tell you--when other side, -- rather dangerous--well, as saying--it looked--oh, it didn't look at all like this "

cloud floated overhead, throwing its great shadow over the field where we lay The shadow passed over the mountain's brow and reappeared far below, rapidly decreasing blot, flying eastward over the golden green My wife and I exchanged glances once more

Somehow, the shadow lingered over us all went home, the Bredes went side by side along the narrow path, and my wife and I walked together

"_Should you think_," she asked me, "that man would climb the Matterhorn the very first year married ? "

"I don't know, my dear," I answered, evasively; "this isn't the first year married, not by , and I wouldn't climb it--for farm "

" what I mean," she said

* * * * *

When we reached the boarding-house, Mr Jacobus took me aside

" ," he began his discourse, "my wife she uset to live in N' York ! "

I didn't know, but "Yes "

"She says the numbers streets runs criss-cross-like Thirty-four's on one side o' the street an' thirty-five on t'other How's that ? "

" invariable rule, I believe "

"Then-- --these here new folk that you 'n' your wife seem so mighty taken up with--d'ye know anything about 'em ? "

" nothing character of your boarders, Mr Jacobus," I replied, conscious of some irritability "If I choose to associate with any ----"

"Jess so--jess so ! " broke in Jacobus "I hain't nothin' ag'inst yer sosherbil'ty But do ye know them ? "

"Why, certainly not," I replied

"Well--that was all I wuz askin' ye Ye see, when he come here to rooms--you wasn't here then-- my wife that he lived at number thirty-four street An' yistiddy she told her lived at number thirty-five he lived in an apartment-house Now there can't be no apartment-house on two sides same street, kin they ? "

"What street ? " I inquired, wearily

"Hundred 'n' twenty-first street "

" ," I replied, still more wearily "That's Harlem Nobody knows what people will do in Harlem "

I went my wife's room

"Don't it's queer ? " she asked me

" I'll have talk young man to-night," , " if give some account of himself "

"But, my dear," my wife said, gravely, "_she doesn't know whether they've had the measles or not "

"Why, Great Scott ! " I exclaimed, " had them were children "

"Please don't be stupid," said my wife "I meant their children "

After dinner that night--or rather, after supper, for we had dinner middle day at Jacobus's--I walked down the long verandah to ask Brede, who was placidly smoking other end, to accompany me on twilight stroll Half way down I met Major Halkit

"That friend of yours," , indicating the unconscious figure further end house, " queer sort of Dick me that out of business, and just looking round for chance to invest his capital And I've been telling him what an everlasting big show he had stock Capitoline Trust Company--starts --four million capital-- you all 'Oh, well,' , 'let's wait and think ' 'Wait ! ' says I, 'the Capitoline Trust Company won't wait for you_, my boy letting you in ground floor,' says I, 'and it's now or never ' 'Oh, let it wait,' says he I don't know what's in-_to the man "