LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2002, 24 July 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

"SALGAMA CONDITA."

[From "Harper's Magazine."]

I shall always persist in thinking it the cozle't fruit room in England, and yon ■would have concurred with me had yon seen it that rip? October day, when the slant beams of the afternoon sun shifted throngh warm, red curtains, which glowed like slices of some luscious jelly, and glinted through honey-comb shaped panes above—the little lead-set glasses, not .of the dead-sea-water color of ordinary cheap glass, hut mellow and yellow as honey itself. The room which the sunlight flooded with such a glory of ruby and amber was irregular In ehape, having its corners cut off by a fire place, and with various cupboards with glass doors. No gloomy array of theological volumes was ranked behind these doors, but a goodly array of jars and can?, bottles and boxes, bearing lables suggestive of good things, or giving through their translucent sides a mouth watering view of preserved damsons, tamarinds, plantains, sapodillas, medlars, peaches, quinces, apricots, citron, and cranberry. How they glowed, like the gems of Aladdin's garden, through all the gamut of red and yellow, from pale strawberry syrup, through ruby currant jelly, to Ethiop blackberry jam, and from straw colored pomegranates. Then the dried fruits from the Indies—dates and raisins, with fig;, and other strange fruits with unpronounceable names, Zante currants and purple prunes. Here were queer pots with Oriental decorations, containing preserved ginger, japanned boxes filled with the tea of the mandarins, wicker-coveied| flasks and turkish spice boxes. But Mrs Honey man's speciality was evidently pickles. Here were jars of sweet pickles of her own manufacture, with chowchow and catsups, olives, limes, and mangoes, gherkins, Spanish onions, piccallilll, capers, nasturtiums, and mushrooms. Evidently either the Rev. Mr Honeyman or his spouse had been very fond of pickles. I say had been, for when I saw the fruit room it was shown me by their descendants, the Rev. Mr and Mrs Honeyman having long slept with their fathers. * She was a famous cook and housekeeper, and used to take all the premiums at neighboring fairs. We have tried to keep up the room exactly as we found it.' My hoeteßS slipped back the little red curtain that ran on rods of sugar cane, and I examined more closely the odorous and radiant interior.

I fancied that it had been used as a sitting room as well as store room, that Mrs Honeyman delighted to sit here surrounded by the triumphs of housewifely skill, for on the mantle lay a volume, the Psalms of David, with her name upon the fly-leaf. Perhaps she sat here while she stoned her nisins or prepared the other fruits, and with her petticoats tucked neatly about her, sang : *' Green as the Leaf, and ever fair, Shall my Profession shine, While Fruits of Holiness appear Like Clusters on the Vine." Or, " The Grove, the Garden, and the Field A thousand joyful Blessings yield What noble Fruit the Vines produce ! The Olive yields a shining Juice. Our Hearts are cheered with generous Wine; With inward Joy our Faces shine. " O bless Bis name, ye Britonß, fed With Nature's chief supporter, Bread. While Bread your Vital Strength imparts, Serve Him with Vigor in your Hearts." Over the mantle. In a plain frame, hung a letter, discolored, and broken in the creases. On the frame, in stiff angular characters, were the words " Salgama Condita." 'Grandfather hung the letter there,' said the eldest of the granddaughters. ' He used to call it his sweet pickle, and to say that it deserved a place in the fruit room. Salgama condita was his translation into Latin of the word pickle.' Although the ink was faded, the writing was still legihle, and I read without difficulty the following quaint love letter : 1 Highly respected and best-beloved friend, Mistress Tarleton, —You are doubtless acquainted with the connection of friendship I have for a considerable time formed and cherished for all the lovely members of your charming family. That friendship has blosBomed into love and esteem for yourself, which I humbly trust may be reciprocated and perpetuated in the ties of matrimony. ' A period has now arrived when, if ever, I shall be able to fulfil the duties of a citizen, a householder, and a husband. * While my mind and outward circumstances are thus situatsd, you will not, I trust, think me too hasty if I request as speedy a gratification of my hopes as is consistent with the proprieties of the situation. ' Should your decision be favorable to my pretensions, you will kindly hand mo a written assurance of the Bame as soon as circumstances will allow, and I will then do myself tho pleasure of addressing your honored father. ' I am, dear lady, your very obliging friend and humble servant, 'Sylvanus HONEVMA.N. •To tho Honorable Mistres Tarleton, Government House, Fredericton, New Brunswick.' This was the letter. Since it had apparently met with success, I wondered much that the Rev. Mr Honeyman should have suggested its involving him in a sweet picUie. Becoming subsequently intimatoly connected with the grandchildren of the writer of the letter, the explanation was given me in tho story of their reverend ancestor's life in the new colony of New Brunswick. As I have changed the names, I feel it no breach of confidence to give to the world the somewhat peculiar history of Mr Honeyman. PART I. It was en a bright Sunday of a chilly New Brunswick June that the Governor of the then new province shut himself in his sunny south parlor, secure of a quiet morning while the girls were at chcrch. Dozing In his great lazy-chair, with the vista of tho graperies seen through the glass door, h

could, with a volume of Petrarch ia hia hand, fancy himself in Avignon; for tho Governor was a scholar and a traveller, and his daughters chared his tastes. He felt a pleasant sense of companionshipia the room in which he ss.4, for there were reminders of his daughters all about him. There was Dobby's low sewing-chair, with a figure holding a distaff in marquetry let into the back, the word 'Diligentia ' beneatb, and by its side her orderly little work basket, with a copy of Jeremy Taylor's 'Doctor Dabltanitum,' slipped between a pair of his own hose, neatly dsrned by Dsbby's nimble fingers. The Governor smiled as he noticed the odl juxtaposition. What a subtle, logical, metaphysical mind was that possessed by his eldest daughter, Deborah, qnaint mixture of the housewife and theologian. Even tho Bishop enjoyed a discussion with her and her cheeks would glow and her eyes sparkle until she was nearly a-; hartdaoma as her younger sister?, while she discussed c'elagianism so ably with him froii lehind tho coffee-urn—her place since the death of hia loved wife ten years agone. His look of amusement chanced to ens of pride as his glance fell on Pen*3 portrait, painted by Gainsborough; for was the beauty of the family, and she carried her head as though already a coronet rested upon it, and he remembered how she had entertained the most distinguished perEonages at his home in Brompton row in a way that made them grateful for her condescension. Peggy, his third daughter, was by nature an artist; the very wools knotted negligently together, and lying on her crewel frame, were selected with such nioa taste that they presenteda pleasant Etndy in harmony of color. The Governor was proud of Debby, of Pea and Peggy, but Dolly was his favorite, for hers was the most affectionate nature. He could see no reminder of her now, but a volume of verses half hidden under the sofa cushion, and—yes, that twisted end partly bnrned billet doux on the hearth could have been left there by no one but sentimental and imprudent Dolly. Patty, the youngest and least attractive of the sisters, was just fourteen, and S 3 yet manifested no penchant except for the nibbling of dainties. Her pockets gummed together with sweets, and her passage from, room to room was easily traced by a trail of nut shells, apple cores, and cake eruinba, she was at once the despair of her father and of orderly Debby. The Governor described his five daughters by saying that Debby was dogmatic, Pen. aristocratic, Peggy artistic, Dolly romantic, and Patty nothing if not gastronomic. The girls flattered into the room after service, chattering with bewildering unanimity. The Governor listened with a puzzled expression : he could only make out that this was a protest against the sermon. ' So unphilosophieal,' said Debby, smoothing the satin strings of her puce colored hat, and setting every fibre of its handsome ostrich plume in place with csrefnl precision. ' There was naught of method in it. He did but utter forth his ideas as they came to him. His reasoning was like unto Peggy's wools, naught but a maze and tangle.' ' And yet his outward man was comely," pleaded Dolly, who had seated herself on her father's knee, and was braiding together the curls of his periwig. 'He reminded me of Sir Charles Grandison In the romance.' ' Then, as Shakspeare puts it,' suggested the Governor, ' the new curate, " should I anatomise him to thee as he is—alas, he is too young ; yet he looks successfully.' " It was surprising how soon the Bev. Mr Honeymoon gained the good opinion of the Governor's family. While the young ladies unanimously deprecated hia talent, they found him possessed of certain unselfish qualities agreeable in a brother, or, as Patty said, in a brother-in-law.

Patty had hit upon exactly the right term. None of the girls were sufficiently interested in the young curate to regard him as her own possible future, but each had confessed to herself that it would be very pleasant to have him connected with the family as the husband of her favorite sister. Patty alone stood aloof, a disinterested spectator, serenely munching pickled limea and rock candy. FART II. —FINISHING THE MINISTER. The girls had also decided to supply what was lacking in the young minister's education by giving him private le33ona eaeh in her own particular speciality. Peggy began by beseeching him to make his sermons more " artist'cal." • Will you please enlighten me as to year meaning ?' replied Mr Honeym&n. ' I am. minded soon to preset a eeries of discourses on St. Paul. Can I make them artistical ?' ' Bight easily. St. Paul journeyed to all those treasuries of art—Ephesus, Corinth, Athens. Yon can thus most appropriately expound to us the architecture and mythology of those cities. I will lend you for your furtherance in this matter a new German work by Winckelmann.' ' But, Mistress Peggy, I am not skilled in German, or in any other outlandish tongue, save only Latin and a smattering of Greek. Conld you not advance me still further in this nndertaking by yourselt writing out an artistical sermon as an example of what yon would have me attain unto V ' That will I do most heartily, npon one condition —that you will deliver to your hearers these sermons In such guiso as I shall Indite them.' Mr Honeyman, with some little demur, assented to this condition, and shortly after this he heard one day, as he passed the village church, some one singing so clearly sweet that he was forced to enter. It was Pen, accompanying herself upon the organ, while a negro servitor worked the bellows. 'You have a marvellous fine voice. Mistress Pen,' he said. 'lf I could read with the same expression that you sing, it would give a new power to my ministry,' ' 'Tis but an acquired accomplishment. You should take leEsons.'

« Will yon be my teacher, Mistress Pen ?' • Uladly. Give me the Prayer-book, and let me, standing there by the altar rail, show you how I think the Creed ought to be read'

There was something awe inspiring in her very presence before she began her reading. A clinging black velvet drees draped her figure in simple folds, while a white lace scarf fell in two long white lines, with exactly the effect of a Etole, down the front of her gown.

Her face was pale and deeply serious; her measured walk added to the impression of dignity, and when she did speak, the words assumed an importance, a Rrsnrleui-, which he had never before attached to them. There were no flourishes of elocution, no evident attempts at impreseivenese. Her manner was very simple, but she gave him the impression of one supremely in earnest. ' You mind me of one of the early confessors, 'he said. ' I can imagine that the young Bishop Timothy resembled you, or Chrysostom of the golden mouth. Where did yen receive this inspiration V 'From Shakspeare. I feel a drawing to his stately parts. Portia as a doctor of laws and Cardinal Wolsey.' The Rev. Mr Honeyman experienced a pan?. She had seemed so rapt, so absorbed, as she uttered the Credo, that he had not realised that she was only acting. Nevertheless, he allowed her to continue the lesson j toward its close a mcc'« ing laugh ran through the building. Looking upward through the open sash of one of tho windows, they saw the hoydenish Fatty peering at them from the branches of a cherry trie just outside. • I came hero to get the che-ries, was her explanation. 'I knew the boys would devour them if I did not. Want some ?' Pen fascinated the Rev. Mr Honevman strangely. He could not understand her, but he yielded to the glamour, and it was in hopes of seeing her that he accepted the Governor's invitation to dine upon the next Sabbath. But Pen had gone to St. John with Dolly for a short visit, and he found himself after dinner remanded to a tete-a-tetavnth Debby. Patty sat in the window watching him with eyes that apparently saw not, while she munched filberts and raisins, with which she had filled her pockets at dessert. He turned hia back upon her with a shudder of unccnuerable disgust. (To be continued.