The Great Stone Face, and Other Tales of the White Mountains Read online

precious gem thatever was concocted in the laboratory of Nature. Mine is the sole purposefor which a wise man may desire the possession of the Great Carbuncle.

  'Immediately on obtaining it--for I have a presentiment, good people,that the prize is reserved to crown my scientific reputation--I shallreturn to Europe, and employ my remaining years in reducing it toits first elements. A portion of the stone will I grind to impalpablepowder; other parts shall be dissolved in acids, or whatever solventswill act upon so admirable a composition; and the remainder I designto melt in the crucible, or set on fire with the blow-pipe. By thesevarious methods I shall gain an accurate analysis, and finally bestowthe result of my labors upon the world in a folio volume.'

  'Excellent!' quoth the man with the spectacles. 'Nor need you hesitate,learned sir, on account of the necessary destruction of the gem; sincethe perusal of your folio may teach every mother's son of us to concocta Great Carbuncle of his own.'

  'But, verily,' said Master Ichabod Pigsnort, 'for mine own part I objectto the making of these counterfeits, as being calculated to reduce themarketable value of the true gem. I tell ye frankly, sirs, I havean interest in keeping up the price. Here have I quitted my regulartraffic, leaving my warehouse in the care of my clerks, and putting mycredit to great hazard, and, furthermore, have put myself in peril ofdeath or captivity by the accursed heathen savages--and all this withoutdaring to ask the prayers of the congregation, because the quest forthe Great Carbuncle is deemed little better than a traffic with the EvilOne. Now think ye that I would have done this grievous wrong to my soul,body, reputation, and estate, without a reasonable chance of profit?'

  'Not I, pious Master Pigsnort,' said the man with the spectacles. 'Inever laid such a great folly to thy charge.'

  'Truly, I hope not,' said the merchant. 'Now, as touching this GreatCarbuncle, I am free to own that I have never had a glimpse of it; butbe it only the hundredth part so bright as people tell, it willsurely outvalue the Great Mogul's best diamond, which he holds at anincalculable sum. Wherefore, I am minded to put the Great Carbuncle onshipboard, and voyage with it to England, France, Spain, Italy, orinto Heathendom, if Providence should send me thither, and, in a word,dispose of the gem to the best bidder among the potentates of the earth,that he may place it among his crown jewels. If any of ye have a wiserplan, let him expound it.'

  'That have I, thou sordid man!' exclaimed the poet. 'Dost thou desirenothing brighter than gold that thou wouldst transmute all this ethereallustre into such dross as thou wallowest in already? For myself, hidingthe jewel under my cloak, I shall hie me back to my attic chamber, inone of the darksome alleys of London. There, night and day, will Igaze upon it; my soul shall drink its radiance; it shall be diffusedthroughout my intellectual powers, and gleam brightly in every line ofpoesy that I indite. Thus, long ages after I am gone, the splendor ofthe Great Carbuncle will blaze around my name?'

  'Well said, Master Poet!' cried he of the spectacles. 'Hide it under thycloak, sayest thou? Why, it will gleam through the holes, and make theelook like a jack-o'-lantern!'

  'To think!' ejaculated the Lord de Vere, rather to himself thanhis companions, the best of whom he held utterly unworthy of hisintercourse--'to think that a fellow in a tattered cloak should talkof conveying the Great Carbuncle to a garret in Grub Street! Have not Iresolved within myself that the whole earth contains no fitter ornamentfor the great hall of my ancestral castle? There shall it flame forages, making a noonday of midnight, glittering on the suits of armor,the banners, and escutcheons, that hang around the wall, and keepingbright the memory of heroes. Wherefore have all other adventurers soughtthe prize in vain but that I might win it, and make it a symbol ofthe glories of our lofty line? And never, on the diadem of the WhiteMountains, did the Great Carbuncle hold a place half so honored as isreserved for it in the hall of the De Veres!'

  'It is a noble thought,' said the Cynic, with an obsequious sneer. 'Yet,might I presume to say so, the gem would make a rare sepulchral lamp,and would display the glories of your lordship's progenitors more trulyin the ancestral vault than in the castle hall.'

  'Nay, forsooth,' observed Matthew, the young rustic, who sat handin hand with his bride, 'the gentleman has bethought himself of aprofitable use for this bright stone. Hannah here and I are seeking itfor a like purpose.'

  'How, fellow!' exclaimed his lordship, in surprise. 'What castle hallhast thou to hang it in?'

  'No castle,' replied Matthew, 'but as neat a cottage as any within sightof the Crystal Hills. Ye must know, friends, that Hannah and I, beingwedded the last week, have taken up the search of the Great Carbuncle,because we shall need its light in the long winter evenings; and it willbe such a pretty thing to show the neighbors when they visit us. It willshine through the house so that we may pick up a pin in any corner, andwill set all the windows aglowing as if there were a great fire of pineknots in the chimney. And then how pleasant, when we awake in the night,to be able to see one another's faces!'

  There was a general smile among the adventurers at the simplicity of theyoung couple's project in regard to this wondrous and invaluable stone,with which the greatest monarch on earth might have been proud to adornhis palace. Especially the man with spectacles, who had sneered at allthe company in turn, now twisted his visage into such an expression ofill-natured mirth, that Matthew asked him, rather peevishly, what hehimself meant to do with the Great Carbuncle.

  'The Great Carbuncle!' answered the Cynic, with ineffable scorn. 'Why,you blockhead, there is no such thing in rerum natura. I have come threethousand miles, and am resolved to set my foot on every peak of thesemountains, and poke my head into every chasm, for the sole purpose ofdemonstrating to the satisfaction of any man one whit less an ass thanthyself that the Great Carbuncle is all a humbug!'

  Vain and foolish were the motives that had brought most of theadventurers to the Crystal Hills; but none so vain, so foolish, and soimpious too, as that of the scoffer with the prodigious spectacles. Hewas one of those wretched and evil men whose yearnings are downward tothe darkness, instead of heavenward, and who, could they but distinguishthe lights which God hath kindled for us, would count the midnight gloomtheir chiefest glory. As the Cynic spoke, several of the party werestartled by a gleam of red splendor, that showed the huge shapes of thesurrounding mountains and the rock-bed of the turbulent river with anillumination unlike that of their fire on the trunks and black boughsof the forest trees. They listened for the roll of thunder, but heardnothing, and were glad that the tempest came not near them. The stars,those dial-points of heaven, now warned the adventurers to close theireyes on the blazing logs, and open them, in dreams, to the glow of theGreat Carbuncle.

  The young married couple had taken their lodgings in the farthestcorner of the wigwam, and were separated from the rest of the party bya curtain of curiously-woven twigs, such as might have hung, in deepfestoons, around the bridal-bower of Eve. The modest little wife hadwrought this piece of tapestry while the other guests were talking. Sheand her husband fell asleep with hands tenderly clasped, and awoke fromvisions of unearthly radiance to meet the more blessed light of oneanother's eyes. They awoke at the same instant, and with one happysmile beaming over their two faces, which grew brighter with theirconsciousness of the reality of life and love. But no sooner did sherecollect where they were, than the bride peeped through the intersticesof the leafy curtain, and saw that the outer room of the hut wasdeserted.

  'Up, dear Matthew!' cried she, in haste. 'The strange folk are all gone!Up, this very minute, or we shall loose the Great Carbuncle!'

  In truth, so little did these poor young people deserve the mighty prizewhich had lured them thither, that they had slept peacefully all night,and till the summits of the hills were glittering with sunshine; whilethe other adventurers had tossed their limbs in feverish wakefulness, ordreamed of climbing precipices, and set off to realize their dreamswith the earliest peep of dawn. But Matthew and Hannah, after their calmrest, were as light as two young deer, and merely stopped to
say theirprayers and wash themselves in a cold pool of the Amonoosuck, andthen to taste a morsel of food, ere they turned their faces to themountainside. It was a sweet emblem of conjugal affection, as theytoiled up the difficult ascent, gathering strength from the mutual aidwhich they afforded. After several little accidents, such as a tornrobe, a lost shoe, and the entanglement of Hannah's hair in a bough,they reached the upper verge of the forest, and were now to pursue amore adventurous course. The innumerable trunks and heavy foliage of thetrees had hitherto shut in their thoughts, which now shrank affrightedfrom the region of wind and cloud and naked rocks and desolate sunshine,that rose immeasurably above them. They gazed back at the obscurewilderness which they had traversed, and