ELISHA DODGE’S CONFESSION.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1037, 21 May 1883, Page 4

ELISHA DODGE’S CONFESSION.

LITERATURE.

“ Yon see you thought you was so all-fired smart that you’d always git the better of the law; hut I says to you, twenty year ago, ‘ Lish, if you don’t look out, you’ll bring up in the States prison.’ ‘ Member, Lish ? It was after you’d been after them Early Ripes of Deacon Blissom’s. Ef you’d ha’ only be’n content to take a few here an’ there, why nobody would’n ha’ missed ’em ; but you was bound you’d have the hull lot, aud you got into trouble there. Massy to me ! how mother cried that time when you was found out ! ’Member, Lish ? “ Wall, it’s a mercy she ain’t lived to see you come to this ; it’s a kind of a think that sticks to a man wuss’nt pitchtar, hevin’ bin in the States prison. Wall, when I hurd you was done fur, I kinder thought I’d hev to come and see ye afore you was sent off. Wife, she would'nt hear to it. ‘ Wall, HezeId ah Dodge,’ says she, ‘ I’m right down ashamed of you, It’s bad enuff to hev a convict fur a brother ’thout runnin’ off to gaol to see him,’ says she; but I always was kind o’ soft-hearted. Wall, cornin’ down I slopped over to see Lyddy ; and Lydd, she always was sort o’ weakly. Jist like mother, Lydd was. ’Member, Lish ! She bus out a-cryin’ as soon as ever I cum in the door : and ‘ Don’t never say another word about Lish,’ she says. ‘ It was real mean of Lish to give his true name in court,’ she says. Wall, I s’pouse Coriolanus, he’ll always be a-throwin’ it up against Lydd ; and she says it’s brought on her chills and fever again ; and Cori, he’s partickler ‘ notions übout bein’ respected.’ ‘ Bush !’ interrupted the convict contemptuously. ‘ Haow ?’ said Hezekiah, starting. ‘ I said bosh !’ replied his brother scornfully ; -‘ and I’ll say it again if you go on in that infernal, sleek, selfrighteous way of yonrn. Yon fool, yon ! Do you think I don’t know what cursed rot it all is ? You prophesied L’d come to the States prison, did you ? Ef you ain’t where I am now its ’cause you’re too sneaky not to be on the windy side of the law. Do you think my mem’ry ain’t equal to yourn ? Do you think I don’t remember how you used to stand on our side of the fence and hold the bag when I was up the tree gettin’ the deacon’s apples ? an’ how mother used to take ’em and lay’ em up garret to ripen, and say, ‘ Naow, Lish, I don’t want to know where yon got ’em ’? She was a real sneak, mother was; and you and Lydd’s jist like her. But fur me, I took alter father, and he bed some courage. To be sure, he wa’nt on the square, no more the rest of ns, no more’n Cori, D’ye think if Cori’d be’n a real respeotable man he’d ha’ married into our family ?’ and here Elisha Dodge smiled a bitter smile that was not without pathos. The two brothers were alone together in cell No 4 of the county gaol, a room which doep not merit description, inasmuch as it resembled precisely, dozens of other cells in other county gaols all ove rthe United States. There the same white washed walls, dingy and dirty with rough usage and neglect; the same narrow iron grated window; the same repulsive-looking bed ; the solitary wooden chair. The only exceptional feature in Elisha Dodge’s cell was that he occupied the chair and his visitor the bed.. In truth, the convict’s.reception of his brother Hezekiah had been anything but gracious. He had been seated when Hezekiah arrived, and had barely acknowledged his entrance by a nod; and, as he did not offer to resign the chair in which he sat,, tilted against the wall, Hezekiah was fain to place himself on the bed, which he did gingerly enough; being a timid man, and not without fears that some deadly weapon might be concealed in the counterpane. The county paper of the next day, in a florid paragraph, described the farewell between the Dodge brothers as having been of a profoundly affecting nature,'and entered at some length into various touching details, which were inventions of its correspondent’s brain, particularly one passage, richly adorned with flowers of rhetoric, in which the ‘unfortunate convict, deeply stained with crime,’was described as ‘clasping the fraternal hand with anguished energy while,’ &c. Nothing at all like this passed within the walls of No 4, Indeed, had the author of the description in question ever happened to see either of the, Dodge brothers he might have been less eloquent; Mr Hezekiah Dodge’s personality being so very irritating,hot to say rasping, that it would have been difficult to imagine anything pathetic in connection with him, and his brother, the ‘ unfortunate convict,’ so thoroughly contumacious in aspect, that the most brilliant imagination would not have represented him ns ‘clinging to the fraternal hand.’ On this chilly January afternoon, with n half-veiled sun looking coldly down from the gray sky, and hardly penetrating through the dusty iron-barred window, Elisha Dodge looked more contumacious than ever, as, with his hat pulled down to his shaggy brows, he sat grimly waiting for a reply to his outburst. It was not long in coming, Mr Hezekiah Dodge being blest with a flow of words which was more abundant than eloquent. He had started a little when his brother first broke silence, but he soon recovered himself, and replied, slowly, with his usual nasal sing-song. ‘ Wall, now, Lish, you alway was jist the same, kind o’ fiery, don’t ye know, but you’ll allow, I guess, that there’s a difference between folks that hez been in the States prison and folks that hesn’t. As to Cory, I ain’t goin’ to say nothing. Perhaps I know suthin’ ’bout him, and perhaps I don’t; but I guess you’ll find he’ll contrive to keep out of States prison. He’s putty sharp, Cory is, if he ain’t on the square, and I ain’t findin’ fault with you anther, Lish. You’ve been real unfortunate, that’s what you hev ; and I ain’t a-goin’ to go back on you anyhow. Why, when I was cornin’ along I ’membered yon was awful fond of apple pies, and I

put up two ’t wife be’n makin’, and a piece o’ cheese too. Wall, the turnkey, he was bound to see what was in my bundle. ‘ Lord,’ I says, * you needn’t be afraid I’ve brought anything to help Lish break gaol !’ I says ; and then he said ’twas against the rules to bring food to the prisoners, ‘but,’ he says, ‘ tbe poor devil’s got twenty years, anyhow ; I s’pose he may as well hev the comfort of a pie;’ and then he rummaged my pockits and shoes and everything like a good one; but I didn’t have no files nor nuthin’.’ * Sure of that ?’ said the convict, suddenly bringing his chair down to all four legs, and darting an indescribably keen look at his brother—a look which seemed to penetrate pockets, shoes, and the lining of his coat all at once. Hezekiah fidgeted a little and laughed feebly. ‘ Sure ? Yes, of course I’m sure, Lish. I never thought of nothing of the kind. Why, I’d be in danger of getting into gaol myself if I helped you that way. But here’s the pies, safe and sound,’ he continued, evidently considering them calculated to soothe whatever mental sufferings his brother might be suffering. ‘Ye can’t say I didn’t think of doin’ somethin’ to help you, when I brought them pies, Lish. Wall, I says— ’ * Shut your jaw, will yon 1 and give us hold,’ interrupted Lish ungraciously. Hezekiah hastened to do so; and it was not until he saw his brother fairly in the middle of the second pie that he left his seat on the corner of the bed and walked about the narrow cell, pinching the coarse garments that hung against the wall, and evidently taking a close survey of the premises. ‘ Lookin’ fur somethin’, eh ?’ said Elisha, suspending his attack upon the pie, and glancing at his brother, with a bitter smile. ‘lf they rummaged the pockets and shoes of a highly respectable party like you, what do you think they’d do to a poor devil like me? No, no ; there ain’t nothin’ for you. It’s a kind o’ pity, ain’t it ? when you took all the trouble to come and see pie, and bring me a pie and all. I knowed you would’nt do that out of pure brotherly love,’ he continued, with a satirical laugh. ‘ Massy to me, Lish, how riled yon be ! returned Hezekiah tranquilly, seating himself on the corner of the bed again, and resuming his former occupation of chewing a straw. * Course, if you’d ha’ had anything yon did’nt want, or could’nt ha’ used to the States prison, why, Hepsy’s real handy ? she could ha’ turned it to account. But we won’t talk of nothin’ of the sort now. Wall,l’ve be’n wantin’ to know this long time ef you’ve never heard nothin’ of Jake Mulligan. Him and yon used to be putty thick along fifteen years back ; but his falks ain’t never heard nothing,’ and I allowed you’d know most likely.’ ‘ Who’s left of his folks?’ interrupted the convict, abruptly. ‘ Wall, strictly speakin’, thar ain’t no one. Patrick, he shipped in the Ocean Queen nigh ten years ago, and the Ocean Queen’s never be’n hurd of from that day to this ; and Mary, she died of consumption along five years back. Her husband, he was killed in the war two years before she died. No, their ain’t no one except old Yincent — ’member, Lish ? He married Miss Mulligan’s sister, and then, when she died, he married old aunt Patsy Myers —her with the squeakin’ voice. I was a-speakin’ to them of Jake suthin’ like a month ago. Riled Aunt Patsy dreadful it did. She said she’d be real glad ter know Jake was dead, so’s’t she’d be sure never ter hear of him agin.” ‘ Did, eh ?’ said Elisha. ‘ Did so. Ye see, she’s kind of stuck up, and— ’ ‘ You can tell her he’s dead,’. interrupted Elisha. • ‘ How did he die, Lish ? Was it consumption or drink, or what ? Elisha 1 laid the wedge of pie and cheese on his knee, and, inserting his finger into the edge of bis cravat, gave it so fearfully natural a twist and-jerk that his brother turned pale. ‘ Massy to me, Lish, you don’t mean it?’ be stammered. ‘ I do, then,’ said the convict. ‘He was an awful clever house-breaker, Jake was; ! and' findin’ ah old lady asleep, he give her some chloroform to keep her quiet, and went off with the prog, leavin’ her asleep as he thought. But in the mornin’ she was dead ; and they caught poor Jakey,, and he had to swing for it. It seemed real hard ; for’ Jake was a good-hearted fellow that wouldn’t have hurt a fly if he’d hed his way, and never meant to harm the old lady no more’n a baby would. But ’twas brought home to him, and there wan’t no help for’t. Mary, she was alive then, and so he give the name of! Pat Barney on his trial; but I reckon he’d have be’n right down glad to have that squeakin’ old cat Patsy Yincent know’t he’d be’n hong; sence it had to be, that is. You ken tell Patsy, Hezek.’ ‘Do tell 1’ returned Hezekiah faintly. ‘ Wall, yes, I’ll tell her; it’ll take’em down a peg or two, I guess, t’ know they’ve had relations, ez yon may say, hung. Wall, wall !’ ‘ Don’t go and make no reflections on it, Hezekiah,’ interrupted Elisha peremptorily. ‘ Things has gone uncommon contrairy with me ; but I ain’t come down to setlin’ as still as a settin’ hen o’ purpose to hear you preach.’ There was a gleam in Elisha’s eye as he said this which might have intimidated a braver man than Mr Hezekiah Dodge, and which intimated clearly enough an intention on his part to proceed to personal violence if ho were further irritated. (To be continued.)