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 T h i r d EDITION

Walter Aerts
Peter Walton

Global Financial
Accounting and Reporting:
Principles and Analysis

Australia Brazil Japan Korea Mexico Singapore Spain United Kingdom United States
       

62869_02_fm_pi_xvi.indd 1 15/12/12 7:41 AM

 Global Financial Accounting and Reporting: © 2013 Cengage Learning EMEA
Principles and Analysis 3rd Edition
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright
Walter Aerts and Peter Walton
herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by
Publishing Director: Linden Harris any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to
photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution,
Publisher: Andrew Ashwin
­information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except
Commissioning Editor: Annabel Ainscow as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright
Editorial Assistant: Lauren Darby Act, or applicable copyright law of another jurisdiction, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Project Editor: Alison Cooke
Production Controller: Eyvett Davis While the publisher has taken all reasonable care in the preparation of
this book, the publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with
Marketing Manager: Anne Renton
regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot
Typesetter: S4Carlisle Publishing Services accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions from
Cover design: Adam Renvoize the book or the consequences thereof.
Products and services that are referred to in this book may be either
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does not endorse, and accepts no responsibility or ­liability for, incorrect or
defamatory content contained in hyperlinked ­material.

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emea.info@cengage.com.
For permission to use material from this text or product,
and for permission queries,
email emea.permissions@cengage.com..

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4080-6286-9
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 – 15 14 13

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 Chapter 2 Accounting and accountants III

brief contents

Preface X
Acknowledgements XI
Structure of the book XII
Walk-through tour XIV

Part 1 The accounting and business environment 1

1 Financial reporting and regulation 2
2 Accounting and accountants 29

Part 2 Basic financial statements 57

3 Measurement concepts and the balance sheet equation 58
4 Accruals accounting 98
5 Non-current assets and depreciation 131
6 Refining the accounting system 165
7 Preparing financial statements 197

Part 3 An introduction to financial statement analysis 215

8 A framework for interpretation 216
9 Financial statement analysis I 231
10 Statement of cash flows 261

Part 4 The financial statements of multinational companies 291

11 The annual report 292
12 Consolidated financial statements 306
13 Operating segments and foreign operations 344
14 Issues in financial reporting by multinationals 379
15 International taxation 412
16 Auditing and corporate governance 429

Part 5 Advanced financial statement analysis 449

17 Financial statement analysis II 450
18 IFRS and the future 484

Further reading 492

Glossary 495
Index 504

III

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 contents

Preface X
Acknowledgements XI
Structure of the book XII
Walk-through tour XIV

Part 1 The accounting and business environment 1

1 Financial reporting and regulation 2

Introduction 2
Using this book 3
Annual financial statements 4
Uses of financial statements 6
Accounting choices 10
Qualitative characteristics 12
Accounting regulation 14
International Financial Reporting Standards 20
Summary 28
Discussion questions 28

2 Accounting and accountants 29

Introduction 29
Accounting function 30
Accounting database 34
Recording transactions 34
Organization of data within the general ledger 36
Control and audit 38
The accounting profession 52
Summary 55
Discussion questions 55

Part 2 Basic financial statements 57

3 Measurement concepts and the balance sheet equation 58

Introduction 59
The balance sheet does not purport to show what the company is worth 60

IV

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 contents V

Company characteristics affecting financial reporting behaviour 60

Content of financial statements 64
The basics of accounting measurement 70
Generally accepted accounting principles 71
Conventional measurement bases 76
Accounting for transactions 80
The IASB definition and recognition criteria for elements of
the statement of financial position and the statement of profit or loss 89
Summary 94
Discussion Questions 94
Assignments 94

4 Accruals accounting 98
Introduction 99
Accruals basis of accounting 99
Credit transactions 101
Recognition of revenue 105
Period costs 108
Inventories and profit measurement 109
Inventory accounting techniques 115
Net realizable value 117
Accruals and the working capital cycle 118
Summary 120
Discussion Questions 120
Appendices 120
Assignments 126

5 Non-current assets and depreciation 131

Introduction 132
General valuation principles of non-current assets 133
Expensing non-current assets 136
Accounting for depreciation 144
Specific valuation principles by type of non-current assets 149
Intangible assets 149
Tangible assets 155
Investments 159
Summary 160
Discussion Questions 161
Assignments 161

6 Refining the accounting system 165

Introduction 166
Accruals and deferrals of expenses and revenues 166
Provisions 172
Asset impairment 178
Bad debts and doubtful debts 185
Hidden reserves 187

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 VI contents

Summary 192
Discussion Questions 192
Assignments 193

7 Preparing financial statements 197

Constructing financial statements 197
Accounting adjustments 205
Uses of financial statements 208
Summary 209
Assignments 209

Part 3 An introduction to financial statement analysis 215

8 A framework for interpretation 216

Introduction 217
Financial structure 218
Sources of finance 220
Dividend policy 223
Working capital management 224
Performance measurement 228
Summary 229
Discussion Questions 230

9 Financial statement analysis I 231

Introduction 231
The purpose of analysis 232
Traditional analysis 234
Tools of analysis 236
Management performance ratios 241
Financial strength ratios 247
Analyzing financial statements 250
Summary 254
Assignments 255

10 Statement of cash flows 261

Introduction 262
Usefulness of cash flow information 262
Cash flow cycles 263
Format and structure of the statement of cash flows 264
Cash flows from investing and financing activities 266
Cash flows from operating activities 270
Direct method for reporting operating cash flows 274
Constructing a statement of cash flows 1 277
Disposal of long-term assets 279

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 contents VII

Constructing a statement of cash flows 2 281

Interpretation 284
Presentational differences 286
Summary 287
Discussion questions 287
Assignments 287

Part 4 T
 he financial statements of multinational
companies 291

11 The annual report 292

Introduction 292
The corporate report 294
Publicity document 297
Statement of comprehensive income 298
Analyzing the annual report 304
Summary 305
Discussion questions 305

12 Consolidated financial statements 306

Introduction 307
Rationale for consolidated financial statements 311
Control as the basis for consolidation 313
Consolidation basics 314
Acquisition method 316
Goodwill and its subsequent measurement 321
Non-controlling interest 324
Consolidated statement of profit or loss 325
Associates and joint arrangements 329
Disclosure requirements 335
Summary 336
Discussion questions 337
Assignments 337

13 Operating segments and foreign operations 344

Introduction 345
Stock exchange requirements 345
Segment reporting 346
Foreign currency transactions and foreign operations 356
Primary translation – translating foreign currency transactions in the
functional currency 359
Secondary translation – translating foreign currency financial statements in a
group’s presentation currency 362

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 VIII contents

Alternative accounting methods for secondary translation 364

Functional currency and type of foreign operation 370
Hedging a net investment in a foreign operation373
Summary 374
Discussion Questions 375
Assignments 375

14 Issues in financial reporting by multinationals 379

Introduction 380
Values in accounting 380
Measurement attributes 383
The IASB’s mixed-attribute model 388
Financial instruments 389
Investment property and agriculture 392
Pension obligations 395
Provisions 399
Post reporting period events 401
Discontinued operations 403
Environmental disclosures 404
Intellectual capital 408
Summary 409
Discussion Questions 409
Assignments 410

15 International taxation 412

Introduction 413
Corporate income tax and dividends 414
Deferred taxation 416
International taxation 424
Transfer pricing 425
Tax havens 427
Summary 427
Discussion Questions 428

16 Auditing and corporate governance 429

Corporate governance 430
Statutory audit 437
Issues in international audit 438
Auditor independence 439
Internal control and risk management 441
Audit committee 445
Summary 447
Discussion questions 447

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 contents IX

Part 5 Advanced financial statement analysis 449

17 Financial statement analysis II 450

Introduction 450
Investor relations 451
Income smoothing 452
Why earnings fluctuate 453
Professional analysts 457
Quality of earnings 460
Analytical techniques 463
Strategic ratio analysis 466
Shareholder value 473
Summary 475
Assignments 476

18 IFRS and the future 484

Introduction 484
Strategic evolution 485
The IASB’s first decade 487
The 2007 financial crisis 489
The next five years 490
Summary 491

Further reading 492

Glossary 495
Index 504

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 P REFACE

This book was conceived as a support for courses whose objective is to provide
students with a working understanding of financial statements and the meaning
of accounting numbers. Our intention is to place reporting in its business context,
and to make it clear to managers how accounting reflects their work. We also aim
to teach the conceptual foundation of accounting and how this translates into the
financial statements of businesses. The book is aimed at future users of accounting
information–managers and analysts – not at future auditors or accountants.
The book is sited emphatically in an intuitive approach to understanding
accounting and concerns itself with the underlying logic of the corporate ac-
counting system and its exploitation in the financial statements. It is not a book-
keeping course and we have used a spreadsheet for double entry, rather than
T-accounts or debits and credits, since we believe that the latter are technically
unnecessary and are practically an obstacle to non-specialists.
The book does not situate itself in an individual national context. It uses Inter-
national Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as its basis, and reflects, therefore,
the rules followed by nearly all European listed companies and by an increasing
number of Asian, African and American (non-US) companies. We also try to keep
up with current IFRS terminology (e.g. statement of financial position, statement
of profit or loss (and other comprehensive income)) in order to be consistent with
the IFRS extracts used in our book.

Walter Aerts
Peter Walton

62869_02_fm_pi_xvi.indd 10 15/12/12 7:41 AM

 acknowledgEments

This book has evolved out of teaching materials drawn from a wide range of
teaching experiences in Belgium, France, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. As a
result many people, students and colleagues, have influenced the content indi-
rectly, and we are grateful for their help and advice over the years. We should also
like to thank Brendan George, Annabel Ainscow, Lauren Darby and Alison Cooke
for their support and commitment in producing a new edition, as well as the rest
of the publishing team at Cengage Learning.
The text contains quotations from published material and we should like to
thank the following for permission to use these: Trustees of the IASC Foundation,
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (Accounting & Business), the In-
ternational Federation of Accountants, the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Develop-
ment, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England and Wales. We also thank the many companies whose
financial statements have supplied illustrative material.

Reviewer Acknowledgements
The publishers and author team would like to thank the following academics for
their review comments which have helped shape this new edition of the book:
Chris Coles – University of Glasgow
Claus Koss – Fachhochschule Regensburg
Blain Lambert – Fontys International School of Business Economics, Venlo
Eileen Roddy – ESCP-EAP European School of Management
Mark Whittington – University of Aberdeen
Eugene Apakoh – Royal Docks Business School

XI

62869_02_fm_pi_xvi.indd 11 15/12/12 7:41 AM

 Structure of the book

The aim of this book is to provide a complete companion to financial reporting

that will take business students with no knowledge of accounting through the
mechanics of how financial records are structured through to being able to under-
stand and analyze published consolidated financial statements. However, this is
not to say that every course will want to devote as much time to financial report-
ing as this would take. The book is therefore structured into what we believe are
separable building blocks.
Part One covers material that is often not taught as such in a course on ac-
counting and financial statement analysis. It is about the environment within
which financial reporting takes place – how it is regulated, what an accounting
department in a company does, how the accounting records are checked. It also
includes the main material on the International Accounting Standards Board. We
think this is useful background, not least because students come to the course
with different previous exposure to accounting and pre-conceptions as to what it
is. However, it can be dispensed with, or can be set as pre-course reading.
Part Two is the core introduction to financial accounting. We examine the ba-
sic accounting techniques used by a reasonably simple individual company and
the preparation of annual financial statements from the accounting database.
This presentation is based on using worksheets to show what is happening in
the company’s accounting database, rather than the formal book-keeping tech-
niques which involve the famous debits and credits. Most courses require this
fundamental knowledge of the accounting equation, the iteration between the
Statement of Profit or Loss (Income Statement) and the Statement of Financial
Position (Balance Sheet) and accruals accounting.
Part Three then provides a discussion about how financial statements are inter-
preted. Chapter 8 provides a thumbnail sketch of some of the finance theory that
informs interpretation. Most accounting books do not contain such a chapter but
we have included it on the basis that accounting is often taught before finance
in an MBA or management course and this may help students get to grips with
the purposes of analysis as opposed merely to the techniques. It can easily be
dispensed with. Chapter 9 contains the basic material on accounting ratios, and
Chapter 10 introduces the Statement of Cash Flows as a statement that analyses
the changes in opening and closing financial position. In our view Parts Two and
Three constitute a basic introduction to accounting for non-financial managers.
However, we are aware that most sets of published financial statements that
a manager will want to review are likely to be consolidated financial statements,
and our preference in our own teaching is to include some material, however lim-
ited, on group accounts. In Part Four, we show how groups of companies prepare
consolidated financial statements to enable them to present a worldwide picture
of their economic situation. Chapter 11 provides a little contextual analysis about
the annual reports of multinational companies and their use and introduces the

XII

62869_02_fm_pi_xvi.indd 12 15/12/12 7:41 AM

 Structure of the book XIII

Statement of Comprehensive Income. Chapter 12 provides the basics of how a

consolidation is done.
A course could certainly stop there, but we provide two chapters with further
technical issues. Chapter 13 aims to show that the consolidated statements are a
confection of statements drawn up in different currencies and dealing with dif-
ferent activities. The chapter addresses segment reporting and foreign currency
translation issues. Chapter 14 analyzes a selection of current technical issues, in-
cluding a discussion of fair value and financial instruments. We think this may go
beyond what some teachers are aiming to achieve at entry level but we also think
students may find it useful to have such a discussion. Chapters 15 and 16 are of-
fered in the general spirit of trying to address all major issues that intersect with
financial reporting in order to provide a complete guide for the non-financial
manager. Again, many courses may not want to spend time on this, but on the
other hand the student who buys and keeps the book will be able to refer back to
it should the need arise.
Part Five goes further into techniques of financial statements analysis and re-
views those such as Z scores, shareholder value and growth calculations. It could
be dropped entirely or be taught with Chapter 9. The final chapter takes a look
at the changing priorities of the IASB since its inception and analyses the likely
changes in standards up to 2015.

62869_02_fm_pi_xvi.indd 13 15/12/12 7:41 AM

 W ALK - THROUGH TOUR

12 PART 1 THE ACCOUNTING AND BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

CHAPTER 1 the existing Framework document, while removing the parts that they replaced. It
now refers to this document as the Conceptual Framework.

STANDARDS

IASB CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK (extracts)

Usefulness of Financial Reporting in Assessing Cash Flow Prospects

OB3. Decisions by existing and potential investors about buying, selling or

Financial reporting and regulation holding equity and debt instruments depend on the returns that they expect
from an investment in those instruments, for example dividends, principal
and interest payments or market price increases. Similarly, decisions by exist-
ing and potential lenders and other creditors about providing loans and other
forms of credit depend on the principal and interest payments or other returns
that they expect. Investors’, lenders’ and other creditors’ expectations about
the returns depend on their assessment of the amount, timing and uncertainty
of (the prospects for) future net cash inflows to the entity. Consequently, exist-
ing and potential investors, lenders and other creditors need information to
This chapter lays out the structure of the book, and the approach it takes to mastering help them assess the prospects for future net cash inflows to an entity.
accounting information. The first step is a review of what financial information is for Usefulness of Financial Reporting in Assessing Stewardship
OB4. To assess an entity’s prospects for future net cash inflows, existing and
and how it is controlled by governments, the stock exchanges and other institutions.
potential investors, lenders and other creditors need information about the
It introduces International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as the main technical resources of the entity, claims against the entity, and how efficiently and ef-
fectively the entity’s management and governing board have discharged their
reference in this book.
responsibilities to use the entity’s resources. Examples of such responsibili-
ties include protecting the entity’s resources from unfavourable effects of eco-
nomic factors such as price and technological changes and ensuring that the
Chapter Structure entity complies with applicable laws, regulations and contractual provisions.
Information about management’s discharge of its responsibilities is also use-
ful for decisions by existing investors, lenders and other creditors who have
 Introduction
the right to vote on or otherwise influence management’s actions.
 Using this book
Source: IASB, Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting: The objective
 Annual financial statements of general purpose financial reporting issued September 2010
 Uses of financial statements
 Accounting choices
 Qualitative characteristics
Qualitative characteristics
 Accounting regulation
 International Financial Reporting Standards Qualitative characteristics are the attributes of financial information that un-
 Summary derpin the decision-usefulness of financial reporting. Making these explicit does
 Discussion questions not, however, necessarily make it any easier for preparers and auditors to make
accounting policy choices. It does, however, provide a framework for discussion
and evaluation.
Introduction
Fundamental versus enhancing characteristics
The ultimate objective of this book is to enable you to use financial accounting As we have seen, the IASB’s conceptual framework says that decision-usefulness
information effectively. Accounting reports are the only way currently available is the over-riding characteristic that is necessary in financial reporting. Chapter
of getting a picture of what a company is doing, how it is structured and so on.
2

Chapter/part openers Standards These reproduce extracts from the International

Describe the contents of the chapter in outline and how it fits Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and other sources of infor-
into the ‘big picture’. mation published by the IASB.

CHAPTER 5 NON-CURRENT ASSETS AND DEPRECIATION 157 156 PART 2 BASIC FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

COMPANY REPORT BETWEEN THE LINES

AGFA – INTANGIBLE ASSETS (extract) Intellectual capital

Intellectual capital is a relatively new and enigmatic concept, relating primarily
Significant accounting policies to the intangible, highly mutable assets of the firm or, as some have put it, the
(H) Intangible Assets ‘brain power’ of the organization. This brain power accounts for an increasing
Intangible assets with indefinite useful lives, such as trademarks, are stated at proportion of the capital in traditional industries and forms the backbone of
the rapidly growing technology and knowledge-intensive sectors in the global
cost less accumulated impairment losses. Intangible assets with indefinite use-
economy.
ful lives are not amortized. Instead, they are tested for impairment annually and
Microsoft is used as the example of the hidden value of these intangible as-
whenever there is an indication that the intangible asset may be impaired.
sets of the firm. In 1996 Microsoft’s market value was 11.2 times its tangible asset
Intangible assets with finite useful lives are stated at cost less accumulated
value. This ‘missing’ value to a large degree represents the market’s estima-
amortization and impairment losses.
tion of Microsoft’s stock of intellectual capital that is not captured in its financial
Intangible assets with finite useful lives, such as acquired technology and statements.
customer relationships are amortized on a straight-line basis over their esti- This is not the exception but rather the rule in financial reporting and il-
mated useful lives, generally for periods ranging from 3 to 20 years. lustrates one of the major limitations of the current financial reporting model.
In accordance with IFRS 3 Business Combinations, if an intangible asset is The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants concludes that accounting for
acquired in a business combination, the cost of that intangible asset is its fair intellectual capital will require developing accounting measures that can differ-
value at the acquisition date. The fair value of an intangible asset reflects mar- entiate between firms in which intellectual capital is appreciating versus firms
ket expectations about the probability that the future economic benefits em- in which it is depreciating, and measures that will show the long run return in
bodied in the asset will flow to the entity. investment in people skills, information bases and the technological capabili-
Research and development costs are expensed as they are incurred, except ties of organizations.
for certain development costs, which are capitalized when it is probable that a Source: Extract from ‘Buried treasure’ by Ramona Dzinkowski, World Accounting Report, May 1999

Company reports These are extracted from

development project will be a success, and certain criteria, including technolog-
ical and commercial feasibility, have been met. Capitalized development costs Between the lines These highlight additional
the reports of well-known companies that report
are amortized on a systematic basis over their expected useful lives.
Source: Agfa, Annual Report, 2010
discussion points throughout the text.
in IFRS GAAP to give a concrete, real-world
that customer goodwill is separable, a necessary condition to meet the definition
of an intangible asset. As such exchange transactions are rare, this kind of good-
will is not frequently encountered in company accounts. However, if recognized,
dimension
accounting and to
administration.
usedthe
in thetext.
production or supply of goods and services, or for the purchased goodwill must be expensed in the usual way. Views differ as to the
appropriate length of the period and the tendency is towards a short economic
A detailed analysis of these assets, divided into major classes and showing orig- life on the basis that once the customers have tried the alternative service it is the
inal cost (or valuation) and accumulated depreciation, has to be shown and is quality of the alternative which will determine whether they remain customers
usually given in the notes to the accounts. or not.
IAS 38 explicitly prohibits the recognition of internally generated goodwill as
an asset, because it is not an identifiable (separable) resource controlled by the
Land and buildings company that can be measured reliably at cost.
In general terms, a company would recognize such an asset as land or buildings at There is a third type of goodwill (goodwill arising on consolidation) which is
a value which was based on the acquisition cost and any other ancillary costs. A a product of accounting for groups of companies and will be discussed in that
context in Chapter 12.
simple case would be where a company buys a ready-built factory and may only
have ancillary costs for professional fees such as for a surveyor and the solicitor
XIV who drew up the contract. Both the acquisition price and the fees would be capi-
talized in the value of the asset – the fees represent an integral part of the cost of
Tangible assets
bringing the asset to the location and condition necessary for it to be capable of Historically, tangible long-term assets have been the major assets of companies.
operating in the manner intended by management. IAS 16, Property, Plant and Equipment, covers the main non-current tangible as-
A more complicated case might be where a company buys a plot of land on sets. Property, plant and equipment are tangible assets held for more than one
which there is a derelict building, demolishes the building, clears the site and
builds a new factory. The value of the factory in the company’s accounting re-
cords would include all those costs, as well as perhaps architect’s fees and so on.

62869_02_fm_pi_xvi.indd 14 15/12/12 7:42 AM

Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
his imperfect English, “Dat too mooch.” A friend, who was with the
merchant, addressed him in German; and the poor emigrant’s countenance
lighted up, as if it had become suddenly transparent, and a lamp placed
within it. Heaving a sigh, and blushing at his own emotion, he explained, in
his native tongue, that he had accidently taken too much for his blacking,
the day before. They looked at him with right friendly glances, and inquired
into his history. He told them his name and parentage, and how Uncle
Heinrich had attempted to bring him to America, and had been devoured by
a shark on the way. He said he had not a single friend in this foreign land,
but he meant to be honest and industrious, and he hoped he should do well.
The gentlemen assured him that they should always remember him as Fritz
Shilling, and that they would certainly speak of him to their friends. He did
not understand the joke of his name, but he did understand that they bought
all his blacking, and that customers increased more rapidly after that
interview.
It would be tedious to follow the emigrant through all the process of his
gradually-improving fortune. As soon as he could spare anything from
necessary food and clothing, he went to an evening school, where he
learned to read, write, and cipher. He became first a shop-boy, then a clerk,
and finally established a neat grocery-store for himself. Through all these
changes, he continued to sell the blacking, which arrived at the honour of
poetical advertisements in the newspapers, under the name of Schelling’s
Best Boot Polisher.
But the prosperity thus produced was not the only result of his
acquaintance with Father Rudolph. The dropped stitches of our life are
sometimes taken up again strangely, through many intervening loops. One
day, as Fritz was passing through the streets, when he was about sixteen
years old, he stopped and listened intently; for he heard far off the sounds of
a popular German ballad, which his grandmother and the peddler often used
to sing together. Through all the din and rattle of the streets, he could
plainly distinguish the monotonous minor cadence, which had often brought
tears to his eyes when a boy. He followed the tones, and soon came in sight
of an old man and his wife singing the familiar melody. A maiden,
apparently somewhat younger than himself, played a tamborin at intervals.
When he spoke to her in German, her face kindled, as his own had done, at
the first sound of his native tongue in a strange land. “They call me
Röschen,” she replied; “these are my father and mother. We came from the
ship last night, and we sing for bread, till we can get work to do.” The soul
looked simply and kindly through her blue eyes, and reminded him of sister
Gretchen. Her wooden shoes, short blue petticoat, and little crimson jacket
might seem vulgar to the fashionable, and picturesque to the artist; but to
him it was merely the beloved costume of his native land. It warmed his
heart with childish recollections; and when they sang again the quaint, sad
melody, he seemed to hear the old brook flow plaintively by, and see the
farewell moonlight on the mill. Thus began his acquaintance with the
maiden, who was afterwards his wife, and the mother of his little Gretchen.
Of these, and all other groups of emigrants, for many years, he inquired
concerning his parents and his sister; but could obtain no tidings. At last, a
priest in Germany, to whom he wrote, replied that Gretchen had died in
childhood; and that the father and mother had also recently died. It was a
great disappointment to the affectionate heart of Fritz Schelling; for through
all his expanding fortunes he had cherished the hope of returning to them,
or bringing them to share his comfortable home in the New World. But
when he received the mournful news, he had Röschen to love, and her
parents to care for, and a little one that twined herself round his heart with
fresh flower-garlands every day.
At thirty-five, he was a happy and a prosperous man. So prosperous, that
he could afford to live well in the city, and yet build for himself a snug
cottage in the country. “We can go out every Saturday and return on
Monday,” said he to Röschen. “We can have fresh cream, and our own
sweet butter. It will do the children good to roll on the grass, and they shall
have a goat to play with.”
“And, perhaps, by-and-by, we can go there to live all the time,” rejoined
Röschen. “It is so quiet and pleasant in the country; and what’s the use of
being richer than enough?”
The site chosen for the cottage overlooked the broad, bright river, where
high palisades of rock seemed almost like the ruins of an old castle. Fritz
said he would make a flower-carpet on the rocks, for the goat to browse
upon; and if a stork would only come and build a nest on his thatched roof,
he could almost fancy himself in Germany. At times, the idea of importing
storks crossed his mind; but his good sense immediately rejected the plan. It
is difficult to imagine how those venerable birds, with their love of the
antique and the unchangeable, could possibly live in America. One might as
well try to import loyal subjects, or an ancient nobility.
When house and barn were completed, the first object was to secure
honest, industrious German tenants to till the soil. Fritz heard of a company
of emigrants, who wished to sell themselves for a specified time, in order to
pay their passage; and he went on board the ship to see them. A hale man,
who said he was about sixty years old, with a wife some five or six years
younger, attracted his attention by their extreme cleanliness and good
expression of countenance. He soon agreed to purchase them; and in order
to prepare the necessary papers, he inquired their names.
“Karl Schelling and Liesbet Schelling,” replied the old man.
Fritz started, and his face flushed, as he asked, “Did you ever live in the
old castle at Rüdesheim?”
“That we did for several summers,” rejoined Karl.
“Ah, can you tell us any thing of our son Fritz?” exclaimed Liesbet,
eyeing him eagerly. “God bless him wherever he is! We came to America to
find him.”
“Mother! Mother! do you not know me?” he said; and threw himself into
her open arms, and kissed the honest, weather-beaten face.
“I see it has gone well with you, my son. Now, thanks be to God, and
blessed be His holy name,” said Karl, reverently uncovering his head.
“And where is Gretchen?” inquired Fritz, earnestly.
“The All-Father took her home, to Himself, soon after you came to see
us at Rüdesheim,” replied Liesbet. “She was always mourning for the
brother, poor little one! It troubled us to go away and leave you behind us,
without saying farewell; and I feared no blessing would follow it. But we
were very poor, and we thought then we should come to you in two or three
years.”
“Don’t speak of that,” said Fritz. “You were always good parents to me,
and did the best you could. Blessings have followed me; and to meet you
thus is the crowning blessing of all. Come, let us hasten home. I want to
show you my good Röschen, and our Gretchen, and Karl, and Liesbet, and
Rudolph, and baby Röschen. My small farm overlooks a river broad and
beautiful as the Rhine. The rocks look like castles, and I have bought a goat
for the children to play with. The roof of our cottage is thatched, and if a
stork would only come and build her nest there, then dear father and mother
might almost imagine themselves again at Rüdesheim, with plenty to eat,
drink, and wear. If Father Rudolph’s Blacking Box were only here,” added
he, laughing, “I should have all but one of my boyish dreams fulfilled. Ah,
if dear Gretchen were only here!”
The fairy who whispered to Fritz when he was crossing the Atlantic, told
him if he were diligent and saving, she would perhaps bring him the old
clock; and she kept her promise better than fairies sometimes do; for it
chanced that the heir of Father Rudolph came to America, and brought it
with him. The price Fritz offered for it was too tempting, and it now stands
in his thatched cottage. Its carved black case, inlaid with grotesque figures
of birds and beasts in pearl, is more wonderful than a picture-book to the
children. When any of them are out of health, or out of humour, their father
sets the old bewildered tunes agoing, and they soon join in a merry mocking
chorus, with “Cluck, cluck, cluck! Whirr, whirr, whirr! Rik a rik a ree!”
Note.—The accidental purchase of his parents by a German emigrant
actually occurred a few years since; and this story was suggested by the
fact.
 HOME AND POLITICS.
FOUNDED ON AN INCIDENT THAT OCCURRED IN NEW YORK,
DURING THE EXCITEMENT ATTENDING THE ELECTION OF
PRESIDENT POLK.
 O friendly to the best pursuits of man!
Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace,
Domestic life.
Cowper.

At the bend of a pleasant road winding under the shade of a large elm,
stood a small school-house. It was a humble building; and the little belfry
on the top seemed hardly large enough for the motions of the cow-bell
suspended there. But it was a picturesque feature in the landscape. The elm
drooped over it with uncommon gracefulness, and almost touched the belfry
with its light foliage. The weather-beaten, moss-grown shingles were a
relief to the eye of the traveller, weary of prim staring white houses.
Moreover, a human soul had inscribed on the little place a pastoral poem in
vines and flowers. A white Rose bush covered half one side, and carried its
offering of blossoms up to the little bell. Cypress vines were trained to meet
over the door, in a Gothic arch, surmounted by a cross. On the western side,
the window was shaded with a profusion of Morning Glories; and a great
rock, that jutted out into the road, was thickly strewn with Iceland moss,
which in the springtime covered it with a carpet of yellow stars.
It was at that season it was first seen by George Franklin, a young New
York lawyer, on a visit to the country. He walked slowly past, gazing at the
noble elm slightly waving its young foliage to a gentle breeze. Just then, out
poured a flock of children, of various ages. Jumping and laughing, they
joined hands and formed a circle round the elm. A clear voice was heard
within the school-house, singing a lively time, while measured strokes on
some instrument of tin marked the time. The little band whirled round the
tree, stepping to the music with the rude grace of childhood and joy. After
ten or fifteen minutes of this healthy exercise, they stopped, apparently in
obedience to some signal. Half of them held their hands aloft and formed
arches for the other half to jump through. Then they described swift circles
with their arms, and leaped high in the air. Having gone through their
simple code of gymnastics, away they scampered, to seek pleasure after
their own fashion, till summoned to their books again. Some of them bowed
and courtesied to the traveller, as they passed; while others, with arms
round each other’s necks, went hopping along, first on one foot, then on the
other, too busy to do more than nod and smile, as they went by. Many of
them wore patched garments, but hands and faces were all clean. Some had
a stolid, animal look; but even these seemed to sun their cold nature in the
rays of beauty and freedom, which they found only at school. The whole
scene impressed the young man very vividly. He asked himself why it could
not be always thus, in the family, in the school, every where? Why need
man forever be a blot on Nature? Why must he be coarse and squalid, and
gross and heavy, while Nature is ever radiant with fresh beauty, and joyful
with her overplus of life? Then came saddening thoughts how other
influences of life, coarse parents, selfish employers, and the hard struggle
for daily bread, would overshadow the genial influences of that pleasant
school, which for a few months gilded the lives of those little ones.
When he repassed the spot, some hours after, all was still, save the
occasional twittering of birds in the tree. It was sunset, and a bright farewell
gleam shone across the moss-carpet on the rock, and made the little flowers
in the garden smile. When he returned to the city, the scene often rose
before his mind as a lovely picture, and he longed for the artist’s skill to re-
produce it visibly in its rustic beauty. When he again visited the country
after midsummer, he remembered the little old school-house, and one of his
earliest excursions was a walk in that direction. A profusion of crimson
stars, and white stars, now peeped out from the fringed foliage of the
Cypress vines, and the little front yard was one bed of blossoms. He leaned
over the gate, and observed how neatly every plant was trained, as if some
loving hand tended them carefully every day. He listened, but could hear no
voices; and curiosity impelled him to see how the little building looked
within. He lifted the latch, peeped in, and saw that the room was empty. The
rude benches and the white-washed walls were perfectly clean. The
windows were open on both sides, and the air was redolent with the sweet
breath of Mignonette. On the teacher’s desk was a small vase, of Grecian
pattern, containing a few flowers tastefully arranged. Some books lay
beside it, and one had an ivory folder between the leaves, as if recently
used. It was Bettine’s Letters to Günderode; and, where it opened at the
ivory folder, he read these lines, enclosed in pencil marks; “All that I see
done to children is unjust. Magnanimity, confidence, free-will, are not given
to the nourishment of their souls. A slavish yoke is put upon them. The
living impulse, full of buds, is not esteemed. No outlet will they give for
Nature to reach the light. Rather must a net be woven, in which each mesh
is a prejudice. Had not a child a world within, where could he take refuge
from the deluge of folly that is poured over the budding meadow-carpet?
Reverence have I before the destiny of each child, shut up in so sweet a
bud. One feels reverence at touching a young bud, which the spring is
swelling.”
The young man smiled with pleased surprise; for he had not expected to
find appreciation of such sentiments in the teacher of a secluded country
school. He took up a volume of Mary Howitt’s Birds and Flowers, and saw
the name of Alice White written in it. On all blank spaces were fastened
delicate young fern leaves, and small bits of richly-tinted moss. He glanced
at the low ceiling, and the rude benches. “This seems not the appropriate
temple for such a spirit,” thought he. “But, after all, what consequence is
that, since such spirits find temples everywhere?” He took a pencil from his
pocket, and marked in Bettine’s Letters: “Thou hast feeling for the every-
day life of nature. Dawn, noon-tide, and evening clouds are thy dear
companions, with whom thou canst converse when no man is abroad with
thee. Let me be thy scholar in simplicity.”
He wrote his initials on the page. “Perhaps I shall never see this young
teacher,” thought he; “but it will be a little mystery, in her unexciting life, to
conjecture what curious eye has been peeping into her books.” Then he
queried with himself, “How do I know she is a young teacher?”
He stood leaning against the window, looking on the beds of flowers,
and the vine leaves brushed his hair, as the breeze played with them. They
seemed to say that a young heart planted them. He remembered the clear,
feminine voice he had heard humming the dancing-tune, in the spring time.
He thought of the mosses and ferns in the book. “Oh, yes, she must be
young and beautiful,” thought he. “She cannot be otherwise than beautiful,
with such tastes.” He stood for some moments in half dreaming reverie.
Then a broad smile went over his face. He was making fun of himself.
“What consequence is it to me whether she be either beautiful or young?”
said he inwardly. “I must be hungry for an adventure, to indulge so much
curiosity about a country schoolmistress.”
The smile was still on his face, when he heard a light step, and Alice
White stood before him. She blushed to see a stranger in her little sanctuary,
and he blushed at the awkwardness of his situation. He apologized, by
saying that the beauty of the little garden, and the tasteful arrangement of
the vines, had attracted his attention, and, perceiving that the school-house
was empty, he had taken the liberty to enter. She readily forgave the
intrusion, and said she was glad if the humble little spot refreshed the eyes
of those who passed by, for it had given her great pleasure to cultivate it.
The young man was disappointed; for she was not at all like the picture his
imagination had painted. But the tones of her voice were flexible, and there
was something pleasing in her quiet but timid manner. Not knowing what to
say, he bowed and took leave.
Several days after, when his rural visit was drawing to a close, he felt the
need of a long walk, and a pleasant vision of the winding road and the little
school-house rose before him. He did not even think of Alice White. He
was ambitious, and had well nigh resolved never to marry, except to
advance his fortunes. He admitted to himself that grace and beauty might
easily bewitch him, and turn him from his prudent purpose. But the poor
country teacher was not beautiful, either in face or figure. He had no
thought of her. But to vary his route somewhat, he passed through the
woods, and there he found her gathering mosses by a little brook. She
recognized him, and he stopped to help her gather mosses. Thus it happened
that they fell into discourse together; and the more he listened, the more he
was surprised to find so rare a jewel in so plain a setting. Her thoughts were
so fresh, and were so simply said! And now he noticed a deep expression in
her eye, imparting a more elevated beauty than is ever derived from form or
colour. He could not define it to himself, still less to others; but she
charmed him. He lingered by her side, and when they parted at the school-
house gate, he was half in hopes she would invite him to enter. “I expect to
visit this town again in the autumn,” he said. “May I hope to find you at the
little school-house?”
She did not say whether he might hope to find her there; but she
answered with a smile, “I am always here. I have adopted it for my home,
and tried to make it a pleasant one, since I have no other.”
All the way home his thoughts were occupied with her; and the memory
of her simple, pleasant ways, often recurred to him amid the noises of the
city. He would easily have forgotten her in that stage of their acquaintance,
had any beautiful heiress happened to cross his path; for though his nature
was kindly, and had a touch of romance, ambition was the predominant trait
in his character. But it chanced that no woman attracted him very
powerfully, before he again found himself on the winding road where stood
the picturesque little school-house. Then came frequent walks and
confidential interviews, which revealed more loveliness of mind and
character than he had previously supposed. Alice was one of those peculiar
persons whose history sets at naught all theories. Her parents had been
illiterate, and coarse in manners, but she was gentle and refined. They were
utterly devoid of imagination, and she saw every thing in the sunshine of
poetry. “Who is the child like? Where did she get her queer notions?” were
questions they could never answer. They died when she was fourteen; and
she, unaided and unadvised, went into a factory to earn money to educate
herself. Alternately at the factory and at school, she passed four years.
Thanks to her notable mother, she was quick and skilful with her needle,
and knew wonderfully well how to make the most of small means. She
travelled along unnoticed through the by-paths of life, rejoicing in birds,
and flowers, and little children, and finding sufficient stimulus to constant
industry in the love of serving others, and the prospect of now and then a
pretty vase, or some agreeable book. First, affectionate communion, then
beauty and order, were the great attractions to her soul. Hence, she longed
inexpressibly for a home, and was always striving to realize her ideal in
such humble imitations as the little school-house. The family where she
boarded often disputed with each other, and, being of rude natures, not all
Alice’s unassuming and obliging ways could quite atone to them for her
native superiority. In the solitude of the little school-house she sought
refuge from things that wounded her. There she spent most of the hours of
her life, and found peace on the bosom of Nature. Poor, and without
personal beauty, she never dreamed that domestic love, at all resembling the
pattern in her own mind, was a blessing she could ever realize. Scarcely had
the surface of her heart been tremulous with even a passing excitement on
the subject, till the day she gathered mosses in the wood with George
Franklin. When he looked into her eyes, to ascertain what their depth
expressed, she was troubled by the earnestness of his glance. Habitually
humble, she did not venture to indulge the idea that she could ever be
beloved by him. But when she thought of his promised visit in autumn, fair
visions sometimes floated before her, of how pleasant life would be in a
tasteful little home, with an intelligent companion. Always it was a little
home. None of her ideas partook of grandeur. She was a pastoral poet, not
an epic poet.
George did come, and they had many pleasant walks in beautiful
October, and crowned each other with garlands of bright autumnal leaves.
Their parting betrayed mutual affection; and soon after George wrote to her
thus: “I frankly acknowledge to you that I am ambitious, and had fully
resolved never to marry a poor girl. But I love you so well, I have no choice
left. And now, in the beautiful light that dawns upon me, I see how mean
and selfish was that resolution, and how impolitic withal. For is it not
happiness we all seek? And how happy it will make me to fulfil your long-
cherished dream of a tasteful home! I cannot help receiving from you more
than I can give; for your nature is richer than mine. But I believe, dearest, it
is always more blessed to give than to receive; and when two think so of
each other, what more need of heaven?
“I am no flatterer, and I tell you frankly I was disappointed when I first
saw you. Unconsciously to myself, I had fallen in love with your soul. The
transcript of it, which I saw in the vines and the flowers attracted me first;
then a revelation of it from the marked book, the mosses and the ferns. I
imagined you must be beautiful; and when I saw you were not, I did not
suppose I should ever think of you more. But when I heard you talk, your
soul attracted me irresistibly again, and I wondered I ever thought you
otherwise than beautiful. Rarely is a beautiful soul shrined within a
beautiful body. But loveliness of soul has one great advantage over its frail
envelope, it need not decrease with time, but ought rather to increase.
“Of one thing rest assured, dear Alice; it is now impossible for me ever
to love another, as I love you.”
When she read this letter, it seemed to her as if she were in a delightful
dream. Was it indeed possible that the love of an intelligent, cultivated soul
was offered to her, the poor unfriended one? How marvellous it seemed,
that when she was least expecting such a blossom from Paradise, a stranger
came and laid it in the open book upon her desk, in that little school-house,
where she had toiled with patient humility through so many weary hours!
She kissed the dear letter again and again; she kissed the initials he had
written in the book before he had seen her. She knelt down, and, weeping,
thanked God that the great hunger of her heart for a happy home was now
to be satisfied. But when she re-read the letter in calmer mood, the
uprightness of her nature made her shrink from the proffered bliss. He said
he was ambitious. Would he not repent marrying a poor girl, without beauty,
and without social influence of any kind? Might he not find her soul far less
lovely than he deemed it? Under the influence of these fears, she answered
him: “How happy your precious letter made me, I dare not say. My heart is
like a garden when the morning sun shines on it, after a long, cold storm.
Ever since the day we gathered mosses in the wood, you have seemed so
like the fairest dreams of my life, that I could not help loving you, though I
had no hope of being beloved in return. Even now, I fear that you are acting
under a temporary delusion, and that hereafter you may repent your choice.
Wait long, and observe my faults. I will try not to conceal any of them from
you. Seek the society of other women. You will find so many superior to
me, in all respects! Do not fear to give me pain by any change in your
feelings. I love you with that disinterested love, which would rejoice in
your best happiness, though it should lead you away from me.”
This letter did not lower his estimate of the beauty of her soul. He
complied with her request to cultivate the acquaintance of other women. He
saw many more beautiful, more graceful, more accomplished, and of higher
intellectual cultivation; but none of them seemed so charmingly simple and
true, as Alice White. “Do not talk to me any more about a change in my
feelings,” he said, “I like your principles, I like your disposition, I like your
thoughts, I like your ways; and I always shall like them.” Thus assured,
Alice joyfully dismissed her fears, and became his wife.
Rich beyond comparison is a man who is loved by an intelligent woman,
so full of home-affections! Especially if she has learned humility, and
gained strength, in the school of hardship and privation. But it is only
beautiful souls who learn such lessons in adversity. In lower natures it
engenders discontent and envy, which change to pride and extravagance in
the hour of prosperity. Alice had always been made happy by the simplest
means; and now, though her husband’s income was a moderate one, her
intuitive taste and capable fingers made his home a little bower of beauty.
She seemed happy as a bird in her cozy nest; and so grateful, that George
said, half in jest, half in earnest, he believed women loved their husbands as
the only means society left them of procuring homes over which to preside.
There was some truth in the remark; but it pained her sensitive and
affectionate nature, because it intruded upon her the idea of selfishness
mingled with her love. Thenceforth, she said less about the external
blessings of a home; but in her inmost soul she enjoyed it, like an earthly
heaven. And George seemed to enjoy it almost as much as herself. Again
and again, he said he had never dreamed domestic companionship was so
rich a blessing. His wife, though far less educated than himself, had a nature
capable of the highest cultivation. She was always an intelligent listener,
and her quick intuitions often understood far more than he had expressed or
thought. Poor as she was, she had brought better furniture for his home,
than mahogany chairs and marble tables.
Smoothly glided a year away, when a little daughter came into the
domestic circle, like a flower brought by angels. George had often laughed
at the credulous fondness of other parents, but he really thought his child
was the most beautiful one he had ever seen. In the countenance and
movements he discovered all manner of rare gifts. He was sure she had an
eye for color, an eye for form, and an ear for music. She had her mother’s
deep eye, and would surely inherit her quick perceptions, her loving heart,
and her earnestness of thought. His whole soul seemed bound up in her
existence. Scarcely the mother herself was more devoted to all her infant
wants and pleasures. Thus happy were they, with their simple treasures of
love and thought, when, in evil hour, a disturbing influence crossed their
threshold. It came in the form of political excitement; that pestilence which
is forever racing through our land, seeking whom it may devour; destroying
happy homes, turning aside our intellectual strength from the calm and
healthy pursuits of literature or science, blinding consciences, embittering
hearts, rasping the tempers of men, and blighting half the talent of our
country with its feverish breath.
At that time, our citizens were much excited for and against the election
of General Harrison. George Franklin threw himself into the melée with
firm and honest conviction that the welfare of the country depended on his
election. But the superior and inferior natures of man are forever mingling
in all his thoughts and actions; and this generous ardor for the nation’s good
gradually opened into a perspective of flattering prospects for himself. By
the study and industry of years, he had laid a solid foundation in his
profession, and every year brought some increase of income and influence.
But he had the American impatience of slow growth. Distinguished in some
way he had always wished to be; and no avenue to the desired object
seemed so short as the political race-course. A neighbour, whose
temperament was peculiarly prone to these excitements, came in often and
invited him to clubs and meetings. When Alice was seated at her work, with
the hope of passing one of their old pleasant evenings, she had a nervous
dread of hearing the door-bell, lest this man should enter. It was not that she
expected, or wished, her husband to sacrifice ambition and enterprise, and
views of patriotic duty, to her quiet habits. But the excitement seemed an
unhealthy one. He lived in a species of mental intoxication. He talked
louder than formerly, and doubled his fists in the vehemence of
gesticulation. He was restless for newspapers, and watched the arrival of
mails, as he would once have watched over the life of his child. All calm
pleasures became tame and insipid. He was more and more away from
home, and staid late in the night. Alice at first sat up to wait for him; but
finding that not conducive to the comfort of their child, she gradually
formed the habit of retiring to rest before his return. She was always careful
to leave a comfortable arrangement of the fire, with his slippers in a warm
place, and some slight refreshment prettily laid out on the table. The first
time he came home and saw these silent preparations, instead of the
affectionate face that usually greeted him, it made him very sad. The rustic
school-house, with its small belfry, and its bright little garden-plat, rose up
in the perspective of memory, and he retraced, one by one, all the incidents
of their love. Fair and serene came those angels of life out of the paradise of
the past. They smiled upon him and asked, “Are there any like us in the
troubled path you have now chosen?” With these retrospections came some
self-reproaches concerning little kind attentions forgotten, and professional
duties neglected, under the influence of political excitement. He spoke to
Alice with unusual tenderness that night, and voluntarily promised that
when the election was fairly over, he would withdraw from active
participation in politics. But this feeling soon passed away. The nearer the
result of the election approached, the more intensely was his whole being
absorbed in it. One morning, when he was reading the newspaper, little
Alice fretted and cried. He said, impatiently, “I wish you would carry that
child away. Her noise disturbs me.” Tears came to the mother’s eyes, as she
answered, “She is not well; poor little thing! She has taken cold.” “I am
sorry for that,” he replied, and hurried to go out and exult with his
neighbour concerning the political tidings.
At night, the child was unusually peevish and restless. She toddled up to
her father’s knees, and cried for him to rock her to sleep. He had just taken
her in his arms, and laid her little head upon his bosom, when the neighbour
came for him to go to a political supper. He said the mails that night must
bring news that would decide the question. The company would wait for
their arrival, and then have a jubilee in honour of Harrison’s success. The
child cried and screamed, when George put her away into the mother’s
arms; and he said sternly, “Naughty girl! Father don’t love her when she
cries.” “She is not well,” replied the mother, with a trembling voice, and
hurried out of the room.
It was two o’clock in the morning before George returned; but late as it
was, his wife was sitting by the fire. “Hurrah for the old coon!” he
exclaimed. “Harrison is elected.”
She threw herself on his bosom, and bursting into tears, sobbed out, “Oh,
hush, hush, dear George! Our little Alice is dead!” Dead! and the last words
he had spoken to his darling had been unkind. What would he not have
given to recall them now? And his poor wife had passed through that agony,
alone in the silent midnight, without aid or consolation from him. A terrible
weight oppressed his heart. He sank into a chair, drew the dear sufferer to
his bosom, and wept aloud.
* * * * *
This great misfortune sadly dimmed the glory of his eagerly-anticipated
political triumph. When the tumult of grief subsided, he reviewed the events
of his life, and weighed them in a balance. More and more, he doubted
whether it were wise to leave the slow certainties of his profession, for
chances which had in them the excitement and the risks of gambling. More
and more seriously he questioned whether the absorption of his faculties in
the keen conflicts of the hour was the best way to serve the true interests of
his country. It is uncertain how the balance would have turned, had he not
received an appointment to office under the new government. Perhaps the
sudden fall of the triumphal arch, occasioned by the death of General
Harrison, might have given him a lasting distaste for politics, as it did to
many others. But the proffered income was more than double the sum he
had ever received from his profession. Dazzled by the prospect, he did not
sufficiently take into the account that it would necessarily involve him in
many additional expenses, political and social, and that he might lose it by
the very next turn of the wheel, without being able to return easily to his old
habits of expenditure. Once in office, the conviction that he was on the right
side combined with gratitude and self-interest to make him serve his party
with money and personal influence. The question of another election was
soon agitated, and these motives drove him into the new excitement. He
was kind at home, but he spent little time there. He sometimes smiled when
he came in late, and saw the warm slippers by the fire, and a vase of flowers
crowning his supper on the table; but he did not think how lonely Alice
must be, nor could he possibly dream what she was suffering in the slow
martyrdom of her heart. He gave dinners and suppers often. Strangers went
and came. They ate and drank, and smoked, and talked loud. Alice was
polite and attentive; but they had nothing for her, and she had nothing for
them. How out of place would have been her little songs and her fragrant
flowers, amid their clamor and tobacco-smoke! She was a pastoral poet
living in a perpetual battle.
The house was filled with visitors to see the long Whig procession pass
by, with richly-caparisoned horses, gay banners, flowery arches, and
promises of protection to every thing. George bowed from his chariot and
touched his hat to her, as he passed with the throng, and she waved her
handkerchief. “How beautiful! How magnificent!” exclaimed a visitor, who
stood by her. “Clay will certainly be elected. The whole city seems to be in
the procession. Sailors, printers, firemen, every thing.”
“There are no women and children,” replied Alice; and she turned away
with a sigh. The only protection that interested her, was a protection for
homes.
Soon after came the evening procession of Democrats. The army of
horses; temples of Liberty, with figures in women’s dress to represent the
goddess; raccoons hung, and guillotined, and swallowed by alligators; the
lone star of Texas everywhere glimmering over their heads; the whole
shadowy mass occasionally illuminated by the rush of fire-works, and the
fitful glare of lurid torches; all this made a strange and wild impression on
the mind of Alice, whose nervous system had suffered in the painful
internal conflicts of her life. It reminded her of the memorable 10th of
August in Paris; and she had visions of human heads reared on poles before
the windows, as they had been before the palace of the unfortunate Maria
Antoinette. Visitors observed their watches, and said it took this procession
an hour longer to pass than it had for the Whig procession. “I guess Polk
will beat after all,” said one. George was angry and combated the opinion
vehemently. Even after the company had all gone, and the street noises had
long passed off in the distance, he continued remarkably moody and
irritable. He had more cause for it than his wife was aware of. She supposed
the worst that could happen, would be defeat of his party and loss of office.
But antagonists, long accustomed to calculate political games with a view
to gambling, had dared him to bet on the election, being perfectly aware of
his sanguine temperament; and George, stimulated solely by a wish to prove
to the crowd, who heard them, that he considered the success of Clay’s
party certain, allowed himself to be drawn into the snare, to a ruinous
extent. All his worldly possessions, even his watch, his books, and his
household furniture, were at stake; and ultimately all were lost. Alice
sympathized with his deep dejection, tried to forget her own sorrows, and
said it would be easy for her to assist him, she was so accustomed to earn
her own living.
On their wedding day, George had given her a landscape of the rustic
school-house, embowered in vines, and shaded by its graceful elm. He
asked to have this reserved from the wreck, and stated the reason. No one
had the heart to refuse it; for even amid the mad excitement of party
triumph, everybody said, “I pity his poor wife.”
She left her cherished home before the final breaking up. It would have
been too much for her womanly heart, to see those beloved household
goods carried away to the auction-room. She lingered long by the astral
lamp, and the little round table, where she and George used to read to each
other, in the first happy year of their marriage. She did not weep. It would
have been well if she could. She took with her the little vase, that used to
stand on the desk in the old country school-house, and a curious
Wedgewood pitcher George had given her on the day little Alice was born.
She did not show them to him, it would make him so sad. He was tender
and self-reproachful; and she tried to be very strong, that she might sustain
him. But health had suffered in these storms, and her organization fitted her
only for one mission in this world; that was, to make and adorn a home.
Through hard and lonely years she had longed for it. She had gained it, and
thanked God with the joyfulness of a happy heart. And now her vocation
was gone.
In a few days, hers was pronounced a case of melancholy insanity. She
was placed in the hospital, where her husband strives to surround her with
every thing to heal the wounded soul. But she does not know him. When he
visits her, she looks at him with strange eyes, and still clinging to the fond
ideal of her life, she repeats mournfully, “I want my home. Why don’t
George come and take me home?”
* * * * *
Thus left adrift on the dark ocean of life, George Franklin hesitated
whether to trust the chances of politics for another office, or to start again in
his profession, and slowly rebuild his shattered fortunes from the ruins of
the past. Having wisely determined in favor of the latter, he works
diligently and lives economically, cheered by the hope that reason will
again dawn in the beautiful soul that loved him so truly.
His case may seem like an extreme one; but in truth he is only one of a
thousand similar wrecks continually floating over the turbulent sea of
American politics.
TO THE TRAILING ARBUTUS.
Thou delicate and fragrant thing!
Sweet prophet of the coming Spring!
To what can poetry compare
Thy hidden beauty, fresh and fair?

Only they who search can find

Thy trailing garlands close enshrined;
Unveiling, like a lovely face,
Surprising them with artless grace.

Thou seemest like some sleeping babe,

Upon a leafy pillow laid;
Dreaming, in thy unconscious rest,
Of nest’ling on a mother’s breast.

Or like a maiden in life’s May,

Fresh dawning of her girlish day;
When the pure tint her cheeks disclose
Seems a reflection of the rose.

More coy than hidden love thou art,

With blushing hopes about its heart;
And thy faint breath of fragrance seems
Like kisses stolen in our dreams.

Thou’rt like a gentle poet’s thought,

By Nature’s simplest lessons taught,
Reclining on old moss-grown trees,
Communing with the whisp’ring breeze.

Like timid natures, that conceal

What others carelessly reveal;
Reserving for a chosen few
Their wealth of feeling, pure and true.

Like loving hearts, that ne’er grow old,

Through autumn’s change, or winter’s cold;
Preserving some sweet flowers that lie
Preserving some sweet flowers, that lie
’Neath withered leaves of years gone by.

At sight of thee a troop upsprings

Of simple, pure, and lovely things;
But half thou sayest to my heart,
I find no language to impart.
 THE CATHOLIC AND THE QUAKER.

For thee, the priestly rite and prayer

And holy day, and solemn psalm;
For me, the silent reverence, where
My brethren gather, slow and calm.
J. G. Whittier.

It was one of Ireland’s greenest lanes that wound its way down to a
rippling brook, in the rear of Friend Goodman’s house. And there, by a
mound of rocks that dipped their mossy feet in the rivulet, Friend Goodman
walked slowly, watching for his little daughter, who had been spending the
day with some children in the neighbourhood. Presently, the small maiden
came jumping along, with her bonnet thrown back, and the edges of her soft
brown ringlets luminous in the rays of the setting sun. Those pretty curls
were not Quakerly; but Nature, who pays no more attention to the
regulations of Elders, than she does to the edicts of Bishops, would have it
so. At the slightest breath of moisture, the silky hair rolled itself into spirals,
and clustered round her pure white forehead, as if it loved the nestling-
place. Jumping, likewise, was not a Quakerly proceeding. But little Alice,
usually staid and demure, in imitation of those around her, had met with a
new companion, whose temperament was more mercurial than her own, and
she was yielding to its magnetic influence.
Camillo Campbell, a boy of six years, was the grandson of an Italian
lady, who had married an Irish absentee, resident in Florence. Her
descendants had lately come to Ireland, and taken possession of estates in
the immediate neighbourhood of Friend Goodman, where little Camillo’s
foreign complexion, lively temperament, and graceful broken language,
rendered him an object of very great interest, especially among the children.
He it was with whom little Alice was skipping through the green lane,
bright and free as the wind and sunshine that played among her curls. As the
sober father watched their innocent gambols, he felt his own pulses
quicken, and his motions involuntarily became more rapid and elastic than
usual. The little girl came nestling up to his side, and rubbed her head upon
his arm, like a petted kitten. Camillo peeped roguishly from behind the
mossy rocks, kissed his hand to her, and ran off, hopping first on one foot
and then on the other.
“Dost thou like that little boy?” inquired Friend Goodman, as he stooped
to kiss his darling.
“Yes, Camillo’s a pretty boy, I like him,” she replied. Then with a skip
and a bound, which showed that the electric fluid was still leaping in her
veins, she added, “He’s a funny boy, too: he swears you all the time.”
The simple child, being always accustomed to hear thee and thou, verily
thought you was a profane word. Her father did what was very unusual with
him: he laughed outright, as he replied, “What a strange boy is that!”
“He asked me to come down to the rock and play, to-morrow. May I go,
after school?” she asked.
“We will see what mother says,” he replied. “But where didst thou meet
Camillo?”
“He came to play with us in the lane, and Deborah and John and I went
into his garden to see the birds. Oh, he has got such pretty birds! There’s a
nice little meeting-house in the garden; and there’s a woman standing there
with a baby. Camillo calls her my donny. He says we mustn’t play in there.
Why not? Who is my donny?”
“The people of Italy, where Camillo used to live, call the Mother of
Christ Madonna,” replied her father.
“And who is Christ?” she asked.
“He was a holy man, who lived a great many years ago. I read to thee
one day about his taking little children in his arms and blessing them.”
“I guess he loved little children almost as well as thou, dear father,” said
Alice. “But what do they put his mother in that little meeting-house for?”
Not deeming it wise to puzzle her busy little brain with theological
explanations, Friend Goodman called her attention to a small dog, whose
curly white hair soon displaced the Madonna, and even Camillo, in her
thoughts. But the new neighbour, and the conservatory peopled with birds,
and the little chapel in the garden, made a strong impression on her mind.
She was always talking of them, and in after years they remained by far the
most vivid picture in the gallery of childish recollections. Nearly every day,
she and Camillo met at the mossy rock, where they planted flowers in
blossom, and buried flies in clover-leaves, and launched little boats on the
stream. When they strolled toward the conservatory, the old gardener was
always glad to admit them. Flowering shrubs and gaudy parrots, so bright in
the warm sunshine, formed such a cheerful contrast to her own unadorned
home, that little Alice was never weary with gazing and wondering. But
from all the brilliant things, she chose two Java sparrows for her especial
favorites. The old gardener told her they were Quaker birds, because their
feathers were all of such a soft, quiet color. Bright little Camillo caught up
the idea, and said, “I know what for you so much do like them: Quaker
lady-birds they be.”
“And she’s a Quaker lady-bird, too,” said the old gardener, smiling, as he
patted her on the head; “she’s a nice little lady-bird.” Poll Parrot heard him,
and repeated, “Lady-bird.” Always after that, when Alice entered the
conservatory, the parrot laughed and screamed, “Lady-bird!”
Near the door were two niches partially concealed by a net-work of
vines; and in the niches were statues of two winged children. Alice inquired
who they were; and Camillo replied, “My little sister and brother. Children
of the Madonna now they is.” His mother had told him this, and he did not
understand what it meant; neither did Alice. She looked up at the winged
ones with timid love, and said, “Why don’t they come down and play with
us?”
“From heaven they cannot come down,” answered Camillo.
Alice was about to inquire the reason why, when the parrot interrupted
her by calling out, “Lady-bird! Lady-bird!” and Camillo began to mock her.
Then, laughing merrily, off they ran to the mossy rock to plant some
flowers the gardener had given them.
That night, while Alice was eating her supper, Friend Goodman chanced
to read aloud something in which the word heaven occurred. “I’ve been to
heaven,” said Alice.
“Hush, hush, my child,” replied her father.
“But I have been to heaven,” she insisted. “Little children have wings
there.”
Her parents exchanged glances of surprise, and the mother asked, “How
dost thou know that little children have wings in heaven?”
“Because I saw them,” she replied. “They wear white gowns, and they
are the children of my donny. My donny lives in the little meeting-house in
Camillo’s garden. She’s the mother of Christ that loved little children so
much; but she never said any thing to me. The birds call me lady-bird, in
heaven.”
Her mother looked very sober. “She gets her head full of strange things
down there yonder,” said she. “I tell thee, Joseph, I don’t like to have the
children playing together so much. There’s no telling what may come of it.”
“Oh, they are mere babes,” replied Joseph. “The my donny, as she calls
it, and her doll, are all the same to her. The children take a deal of comfort
together, and it seems to me it is not worth while to put estrangement
between them. Divisions come fast enough in the human family. When he is
a lad, he will go away to school and college, and will come back to live in a
totally different world from ours. Let the little ones enjoy themselves while
they can.”
Thus spake the large-hearted Friend Joseph; but Rachel was not so easily
satisfied. “I don’t like this talk about graven images,” said she. “If the
child’s head gets full of such notions, it may not prove so easy to put them
out.”
Truly, there seemed some ground for Rachel’s fears; for whether Alice
walked or slept, she seemed to live in the neighbour’s garden. Sitting beside
her mother in the silent Quaker meeting, she forgot the row of plain bonnets
before her, and saw a vision of winged children through a veil of vines. At
school, she heard the old green parrot scream, “Lady-bird!” and fan-tailed
doves and Java sparrows hopped into her dreams. She had never heard a
fairy story in her life; otherwise, she would doubtless have imagined that
Camillo was a prince, who lived in an enchanted palace, and had some
powerful fairy for a friend.
* * * * *
It came to pass as Joseph had predicted. These days of happy
companionship soon passed away. Camillo went to a distant school, then to
college, and then was absent awhile on the Continent. It naturally happened
that the wealthy Catholic family had but little intercourse with the
substantial Quaker farmer. Years passed without a word between Alice and
her former playfellow. Once, during his college life, she met him and his
father on horseback, as she was riding home from meeting, on a small gray
mare her father had given her. He touched his hat and said, “How do you
do, Miss Goodman?” and she replied, “How art thou, Camillo?” His father
inquired, “Who is that young woman?” and he answered, “She is the
daughter of Farmer Goodman, with whom I used to play sometimes, when I
was a little boy.” Thus like shadows they passed on their separate ways. He
thought no more of the rustic Quaker girl, and with her, the bright picture of
their childhood was like the remembrance of last year’s rainbow.
But events now approached, which put all rainbows and flowers to
flight. A Rebellion broke out in Ireland, and a terrible civil war began to
rage between Catholics under the name of Pikemen, and Protestants under
the name of Orangemen. The Quakers being conscientiously opposed to
war, could not adopt the emblems of either party, and were of course
exposed to the hostility of both. Joseph Goodman, in common with others
of his religious persuasion, had always professed to believe, that returning
good for evil was a heavenly principle, and therefore safe policy. Alice had
received this belief as a traditionary inheritance, without disputing it, or
reflecting upon it. But now came times that tested faith severely. Every
night, they retired to rest with the consciousness that their worldly
possessions might be destroyed by fire and pillage before morning, and
perhaps their lives sacrificed by infuriated soldiers. At the meeting-house,
and by the way-side, earnest were the exhortations of the brethren to stand
by their principles, and not flinch in this hour of trial. Joseph Goodman’s
sermon was brief and impressive. “The Gospel of Love has power to
regenerate the world,” said he; “and the humblest individual, who lives
according to it, has done something for the salvation of man.”
His strength was soon tried; for the very next day a party of Pikemen
came into the neighbourhood and set fire to all the houses of the
Orangemen. Groans, and shrieks, and the sharp sound of shots, were heard
in every direction. Fierce men rushed into their peaceful dwelling,
demanding food, and ordering them to give up their arms.
“Food I will give, but arms I have none,” replied Joseph.
“More shame for you!” roared the commander of the troop. “If you can’t
do any thing more for your country than that, you may as well be killed at
once, for a coward, as you are.”
He drew his sword, but Joseph did not wink at the flash of the glittering
blade. He looked him calmly in the eye, and said, “If thou art willing to take
the crime of murder on thy conscience, I cannot help it. I would not
willingly do harm to thee, or to any man.”
 The soldier turned away abashed, and putting his sword into the
scabbard, he muttered, “Well, give us something to eat, will you?”
The hours that followed were frightful with the light of blazing houses,
the crash of musketry, and the screams of women and children flying across
the fields. Many took refuge in Joseph’s house, and he did all he could to
soothe and strengthen them.
At sunset, he went forth with his serving-men to seek the wounded and
the dead. Along the road and among the bushes, mangled bodies were lying
in every direction. Those in whom life remained, they brought with all
tenderness and consigned to the care of Rachel and Alice; and, as long as
they could see, they gathered the dead for burial. In the evening, the captain
of the Pikemen returned in great wrath. “This is rather too much,” he
exclaimed. “We did’nt spare your house this morning to have it converted
into a hospital for the damned Orangemen. Turn out every dog of ’em, or
we will burn it down over your heads.”
“I cannot stay thy hand, if thou hast the heart to do it,” mildly replied
Joseph. “But I will not desert my fellow-creatures in their great distress. If
the time should come when thy party is routed, we will bury thy dead, and
nurse thy wounded, as we have done for the Orangemen. I will do good to
all parties, and harm to none. Here I take my stand, and thou mayest kill me
if thou wilt.”
Again the soldier was arrested by a power he knew not how to resist.
Joseph seeing his embarrassment, added: “I put the question to thee as a
man of war: Is it manly to persecute women and children? Is it brave to
torture the wounded and the dying? Wouldst thou feel easy to think of it in
thy dying hour? Let us part in peace, and when thou hast need of a friend,
come to me.”
After a brief hesitation, the soldier said, “It would be a happier world if
all thought as you do.” Then, calling to his men, he said, “Let us be off,
boys. There’s nothing to be done here.”
A fortnight after, triumphant Orangemen came with loud uproar to
destroy the houses of the Catholics. It was scarcely day-break, when Alice
was roused from uneasy slumbers by the discharge of musketry, and a lurid
light on the walls of her room. Starting up, she beheld Colonel Campbell’s
house in a blaze. The beautiful statues of the Madonna and the winged
children were knocked to pieces, and crushed under the feet of an angry
mob. Vines and flowers crisped under the crackling flames, and the
beautiful birds from foreign climes fell suffocated in the smoke, or flew
forth, frightened, into woods and fields, and perished by cruel hands. In the
green lane, once so peaceful and pleasant, ferocious men were scuffling and
trampling, shooting and stabbing. Everywhere the grass and the moss were
dabbled with blood. Above all the din, were heard the shrill screams of
women and children; and the mother of Camillo came flying into Joseph’s
house, exclaiming, “Hide me, oh, hide me!” Alice received her in her arms,
laid the throbbing head tenderly on her bosom, put back the hair that was
falling in wild disorder over her face, and tried to calm her terror with
gentle words. Others came pouring in, and no one was refused shelter. To
the women of Colonel Campbell’s household Alice relinquished her own
little bedroom, the only corner of the house that was not already filled to
overflowing. She drew the curtain, that the afflicted ones need not witness
the bloody skirmishing in the fields and lane below. But a loud shriek soon
recalled her to their side. Mary Campbell had withdrawn the curtain, and
seen her husband fall, thrust at by a dozen swords. Fainting-fits and
hysterics succeeded each other in quick succession, while Alice and her
mother laid her on the bed, and rubbed her hands and bathed her temples.
Gradually the sounds of war died away in the distance. Then Joseph and his
helpers went forth to gather up the wounded and the dead. Colonel
Campbell was found utterly lifeless, and the brook where Camillo used to
launch his little boats, was red with his father’s blood. They brought him in
tenderly, washed the ghastly wounds, closed the glaring eyes, and left the
widow and the household to mourn over him. Late in the night they
persuaded her to go to rest; and, when all was still, the weary family fell
asleep on the floor; for not a bed was unoccupied.
This time, they hoped to escape the conquerors’ rage. But early in the
morning, a party of them came back, and demanded that all the Catholics
should be given up to them. Joseph replied, as he had done before: “I
cannot give up my helpless and dying neighbours, whether they be Pikemen
or Orangemen. I will do good to all, and harm to none, come to me what
may.”
“That’s impartial, anyhow,” said the captain. He took some Orange
cockades from his pocket, and added, “Wear these, and my men will do you
no harm.”
 “I cannot conscientiously wear one,” replied Joseph, “because they are
emblems of war.”
The captain laughed half scornfully, and handing one to Alice, said,
“Well, my good girl, you can wear one, and then you need not be afraid of
our soldiers.”
She looked very pleasantly in his face and answered, “I should be afraid
if I did not trust in something better than a cockade.”
The leader of the Orangemen was arrested by the same spell that stopped
the leader of the Pikemen. But some of his followers, who had been
lingering about the door, called out, “What’s the use of parleying? Isn’t the
old traitor nursing Catholics, to fight us again when they get well? If he
won’t serve the government by fighting for us, he will at least do to stop a
bullet as well as a braver man. Bring him out, and put him in the front ranks
to be shot at!” One of them seized Joseph to drag him away; but Alice laid a
trembling hand on his arm, and said, beseechingly, “Before you take him,
come and see the wounded Orangemen, with their wives and children,
whom my father and mother have fed and tended night and day.” A pale
figure, with bandaged head and one arm in a sling, came forth from an
adjoining room and said, “Comrades, you surely will not harm these worthy
people. They have fed our children, and buried our dead, as if we were their
own brothers.” The soldiers listened, and, suddenly changing their mood,
went off shouting, “Hurrah for the Quakers!”
Some days of comparative quiet followed. Colonel Campbell was buried
in his own garden, with as much deference to the wishes of his widow as
circumstances would permit. She returned from the funeral calmer than she
had been, and quietly assisted in taking care of the wounded. But when she
retired to her little room, and saw a crucifix fastened on the wall at the foot
of her bed, she burst into tears and said, “Who has done this?”
Alice gently replied, “I did it. I found it in the mud, where the little
chapel used to stand. I know it is a sacred emblem to thee, and I thought it
would pain thee to have it there; so I have washed it carefully and placed it
in thy room.”
The bereaved Catholic kissed the friendly hand that had done so kind a
deed; and tears fell on it, as she murmured, “Good child! may the Holy
Virgin bless thee!”
 Balmy is a blessing from any human heart, whether it be given in the
name of Jesus or Mary, God or Allah. Alice slept well, and guardian angels
rejoiced over her in heaven.
* * * * *
Success alternated between the contending parties, and kept the country
in a state of perpetual alarm. One week, the widow of Colonel Campbell
was surrounded by victorious friends, and the next week, she was in terror
for her life. At last, Camillo himself came with a band of successful
insurgents. During a brief and agitated interview with his mother, he learned
how kindly she had been sheltered in their neighbour’s house, and how
tenderly the remains of his father had been treated. When she pointed to the
crucifix on the wall, and told its history, his eyes filled with tears. “Oh, why
cannot we of different faith always treat each other thus?” was his inward
thought; but he bowed his head in silence. Hearing loud voices, he started
up suddenly, exclaiming, “There may be danger below!” Following the
noise, he found soldiers threatening Friend Goodman, who stood with his
back firmly placed against the door of an inner room. Seeing Camillo enter,
and being aware of the great influence his family had with the Catholics, he
said, “These men insist upon carrying out the dying Orangemen who are
sheltered here, and compelling me to see them shot. Is it thy will that these
murders should be committed?”
The young man took his hand, and in tones of deep respect answered,
“Could you believe that I would suffer violence to be done to any under
your roof, if I had power to prevent it?” Then turning to his soldiers, he
said, “These excellent people have injured no one. Through all these
troubled times, they have been kind alike to Pikemen and Orangemen; they
have buried our dead, and sheltered our widows. If you have any respect for
the memory of my father, treat with respect all who wear the peaceful garb
of the Quakers.” The men spoke apart for awhile, and soon after left the
house.
As Camillo passed by the kitchen door, he saw Alice distributing boiled
potatoes to a crowd of hungry children. A soldier stood by her, insisting that
she should wear a cross, which was the emblem of the Pikemen. She mildly
replied, “I cannot consent to wear the cross, but I hope God will enable me
to bear it.” The rude fellow, who was somewhat intoxicated, touched her
under the chin, and said, “Come, mavourneen, do be a little more obliging.”