book_id
stringlengths 2
6
| title
stringclasses 1
value | author
stringclasses 1
value | conversations
listlengths 1
5.07k
|
|---|---|---|---|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are wondering how I can do it,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should like you to know--that is why I spoke of it. You have never asked me, and I have never told you that the convictions I formerly held I lost. And with them, for a while, went everything. At least so I believed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I knew it, she answered,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I could see that, too."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When I argued with you, that afternoon,--the last time we talked together alone,--I was trying to convince myself, and you-- he hesitated,"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish you to know what I am telling you for two reasons, he went on."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It was you who spoke the words that led to the opening of my eyes to the situation into which I had been drifting for two years, who compelled me to look upon the inconsistencies and falsities which had gradually been borne in upon me. It was you, I think, who gave me the courage to face this situation squarely, since you possess that kind of courage yourself."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, no, she cried."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You would have done it anyway."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "For this reason, I owed it to you to speak--to thank you. I have realized, since that first meeting, that you became my friend then, and that you spoke as a friend. If you had not believed in my sincerity, you would not have spoken. I wish you to know that I am fully aware and grateful for the honour you did me, and that I realize it is not always easy for you to speak so--to any one."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There is another reason for my telling you now of this decision of mine to remain a clergyman, he continued."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is because I value your respect and friendship, and I hope you will believe that I would not take this course unless I saw my way clear to do it with sincerity."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "One has only to look at you to see that you are sincere, she said gently, with a thrill in her voice that almost unmanned him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I told you once that I should never have forgiven myself if I had wrecked your life. I meant it. I am very glad."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Just because I cannot see how it would be possible to remain in the Church after one had been--emancipated, so to speak, --she smiled at him,--"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It makes no difference, she pursued evenly, bent on choosing her words,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But isn't a conviction that the good is predominant, that there is a purpose in the universe, a long way from the positive assertions in the Creeds? she asked."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I remember, when I went through what you would probably call disintegration, and which seemed to me enlightenment, that the Creeds were my first stumbling-blocks. It seemed wrong to repeat them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am glad you spoke of this, he replied gravely."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have arrived at many answers to that difficulty--which did not give me the trouble I had anticipated. In the first place, I am convinced that it was much more of a difficulty ten, twenty, thirty years ago than it is to-day. That which I formerly thought was a radical tendency towards atrophy, the drift of the liberal party in my own Church and others, as well as that which I looked upon with some abhorrence as the free-thinking speculation of many modern writers, I have now come to see is reconstruction. The results of this teaching of religion in modern terms are already becoming apparent, and some persons are already beginning to see that the Creeds express certain elemental truths in frankly archaic language. All this should be explained in the churches and the Sunday schools,--is, in fact, being explained in some, and also in books for popular reading by clergymen of my own Church, both here and in England. We have got past the critical age."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When I was ordained a deacon, and then a priest, I took vows which would appear to be literally conflicting. Compelled to choose between these vows, I accept that as supreme which I made when I affirmed that I would teach nothing which I should be persuaded might not be concluded and affirmed by the Scripture. The Creeds were derived from the Scripture --not the Scripture from the Creeds. As an individual among a body of Christians I am powerless to change either the ordinal vows or the Creeds, I am obliged to wait for the consensus of opinion. But if, on the whole, I can satisfy my conscience in repeating the Creeds and reading the service, as other honest men are doing--if I am convinced that I have an obvious work to do in that Church, it would be cowardly for me to abandon that work."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see what you mean, she said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I believe in an universal, Christian organization,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But while stronger men are honest, she objected,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Undoubtedly, he agreed vigorously, and thought involuntarily of Mr. Engel's phrased fatty degeneration of the soul."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yet I can see the signs, on all sides, of a gradual emancipation, of which I might be deemed an example."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, you could never be a casuist! she exclaimed, with a touch of vehemence."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are much too positive. It is just that note, which is characteristic of so many clergymen, that note of smoothing-over and apology, which you lack. I could never feel it, even when you were orthodox. And now--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And now, he took her up, to cover his emotion,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You imagined me out of the Church,--but where?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's just it, she wondered intimately,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I can't imagine you doing institutional work, as it is called,--you're not fitted for it, you'd be wasted in it. You gain by the historic setting of the Church, and yet it does not absorb you. Free to preach your convictions, unfettered, you will have a power over people that will be tremendous. You have a very strong personality."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Once you have made your ideas your own, she mused,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And yet--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And yet --she seized his unfinished sentence,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you call making proselytes a desire to communicate a view of life which gives satisfaction--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, I want to be convinced! she exclaimed, penitently,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'd give anything to feel as you feel. There's something lacking in me, there must be, and I have only seen the disillusionizing side. You infer that the issue of the Creeds will crumble,--preach the new, and the old will fall away of itself. But what is the new? How, practically, do you deal with the Creeds? We have got off that subject."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You wish to know?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes--I wish to know."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I might mention one or two other phrases, archaic and obscure. 'The Resurrection of the Body' may refer to the phenomenon of Christ's reappearance after death, for which modern psychology may or may not account. A little reflection, however, convinces one that the phenomenon did take place in some manner, or else, I think, we should never have heard of Christ. You will remember that the Apostles fled after his death on the cross, believing what he had told them was all only a dream. They were human, literal and cowardly, and they still needed some kind of inner, energizing conviction that the individuality persisted after death, that the solution of human life was victory over it, in order to gain the courage to go out and preach the Gospel and face death themselves. And it was Paul who was chiefly instrumental in freeing the message from the narrow bounds of Palestine and sending it ringing down the ages to us. The miracle doesn't lie in what Paul saw, but in the whole man transformed, made incandescent, journeying tirelessly to the end of his days up and down the length and breadth of the empire, labouring, as he says, more abundantly than they all. It is idle to say that the thing which can transform a man's entire nature and life is not a reality."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is another phrase, she said after a moment,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It was merely a matter of controverting those who declared Christ was taken from the cross before he died. In the childish science of the time, to say that one descended into hell was to affirm that he was actually dead, since the souls of the departed were supposed to go at once to hell. Hell and heaven were definite places. To say that Christ ascended to heaven and sat on the right hand of the Father is to declare one's faith that his responsible work in the spiritual realm continues."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And the Atonement? doesn't that imply a sacrifice of propitiation?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Atonement may be pronounced At-one-ment, Hodder replied."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The old idea, illustrated by a reference to the sacrifice of the ancients, fails to convey the truth to modern minds. And moreover, as I have inferred, these matters had to be conveyed in symbols until mankind were prepared to grasp the underlying spiritual truths which Christ sought to convey. Orthodox Christianity has been so profoundly affected by the ancient Jewish religion that the conception of God as wrathful and jealous--a God wholly outside--has persisted to our times. The Atonement means union with the Spirit of the Universe through vicarious suffering, and experience teaches us that our own sufferings are of no account unless they be for a cause, for the furtherance of the design of the beneficent Spirit which is continually at work. Christ may be said to have died for humanity because he had to suffer death itself in order to reveal the complete meaning of life. You once spoke to me about the sense of sin --of being unable to feel it."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Once we have had a vision of the true meaning of life a vision which stirs the energies of our being, what is called 'a sense of sin' inevitably follows. It is the discontent, the regret, in the light of a higher knowledge, for the: lost opportunities, for a past life which has been uncontrolled by any unifying purpose, misspent in futile undertakings, wasted, perhaps, in follies and selfish caprices which have not only harmed ourselves but others. Although we struggle, yet by habit, by self-indulgence, by lack of a sustained purpose, we have formed a character from which escape seems hopeless. And we realize that in order to change ourselves, an actual regeneration of the will is necessary. For awhile, perchance, we despair of this. The effort to get out of the rut we have made for ourselves seems of no avail. And it is not, indeed, until we arrive, gradually or otherwise, and through a proper interpretation of the life of Christ, at the conviction that we may even never become useful in the divine scheme that we have a sense of what is called 'the forgiveness of sins.' This conviction, this grace, this faith to embark on the experiment accomplishes of itself the revival of the will, the rebirth which we had thought impossible. We discover our task, high or humble,--our cause. We grow marvellously at one with God's purpose, and we feel that our will is acting in the same direction as his. And through our own atonement we see the meaning of that other Atonement which led Christ to the Cross. We see that our conviction, our grace, has come through him, and how he died for our sins."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's quite wonderful how logical and simple you make it, how thoroughly you have gone into it. You have solved it for yourself--and you will solve it for others many others."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you for explaining it to me,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hope you don't think--"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But even then, she continued,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Isn't it enough, he asked,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, use! she cried,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I grant you its uselessness. Doubt seems an ingrained quality. I can't help being a fatalist."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And yet you have taken your life in your own hands,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Only to be convinced of its futility,"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A sense of futility is a sense of incompleteness, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah, you have gained that! Yet it must always have been latent in you --you make one feel it. But now! she exclaimed, as though the discovery had just dawned on her,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, I shall have to fight,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When you tell them what you have told me, she continued, as though working it out in her own mind,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have an idea that they will,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And won't they succeed? Haven't they the power?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It depends,--in the first place, on whether the bishop thinks me a heretic."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Have you asked him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But can't they make you resign?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They can deprive me of my salary."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You mustn't think me a martyr,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, that's splendid of you! she cried."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are going to speak the truth as you see it, and let them do their worst. Of course, fundamentally, it isn't merely because they're orthodox that they won't like it, although they'll say so, and perhaps think so. It will be because if you have really found the truth--they will instinctively, fear its release. For it has a social bearing, too--hasn't it?--although you haven't explained that part of it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It has a distinct social bearing, he replied, amazed at the way her mind flew forward and grasped the entire issue, in spite of the fact that her honesty still refused to concede his premises. Such were the contradictions in her that he loved. And, though she did not suspect it, she had in her the Crusader's spirit."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have always remembered what you once said, that many who believed themselves Christians had an instinctive feeling that there is a spark in Christianity which, if allowed to fly, would start a conflagration beyond their control. And that they had covered the spark with ashes. I, too, he added whimsically,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And the spark, she demanded,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The spark is Christianity itself--but I am afraid they will not be able to distinguish it from Socialism. The central paradox in Christianity consists in the harmonizing of the individual and socialistic spirit, and this removes it as far from the present political doctrine of socialism as it is possible to be. Christianity, looked at from a certain viewpoint,--and I think the proper viewpoint,--is the most individualistic of religions, since its basic principle is the development of the individual into an autonomous being."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Individualistic! she repeated, as though dazed by the word applied to the religion she had discarded."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I can't understand. Do you think I ever can understand?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It seems to me you understand more than you are willing to give yourself credit for, he answered seriously."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You don't take into account your attitude."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I see what you mean--a willingness to take the right road, if I can find it. I am not at all sure that I want to take it. But you must tell me more--more of what you have discovered. Will you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will tell you all I know,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are going to tell them the truth about themselves! she exclaimed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You must see, he told her, after the moment they had looked into each other's faces,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I see. The easier course would be to resign, to have scruples. And you believe there is a future for the Church."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I believe it,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, it is worth doing. If you see it that way it is more worth doing than anything else. Please don't think, she said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And if that faith is justified, as you will help to justify it, that it may be transferred to a larger sphere,"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hear you have been here all summer, she said reproachfully."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mother and father and all of us were much disappointed that you did not come to us on the Cape."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should have come, if it had been possible, he replied."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It seems to have done you a world of good."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He tells me he hasn't seen you, but that isn't surprising, for he hasn't been to church since June--and he's a vestryman now, too."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have not been conducting the services, but I resume them next Sunday, said the rector."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I ought to tell you, he went on, regarding her,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I mean, he continued, with a calmness that astonished her afterwards,"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But you are not going to leave us!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not if it is possible to remain,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am so glad. She was still overpowered by the disclosure."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is good of you to tell me. Do you mind my telling Phil?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not at all,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Will you forgive me, she asked, after a slight pause during which she had somewhat regained her composure,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll have to forgive you, he answered,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I like this! he exclaimed, as, unannounced, she opened the door of his sanctuary."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You might have caught me with one of those good-looking clients of mine."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, Phil! she cried,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I've got such a piece of news, I couldn't resist coming to tell you. I met Mr. Hodder--and he's changed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Changed! Phil repeated, looking up at her flushed face beside him. Instead of a law-book, he flung down a time table in which he had been investigating the trains to a quail shooting club in the southern part of the state: The transition to Mr. Hodder was, therefore, somewhat abrupt."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, Nell, to look at you, I thought it could be nothing else than my somewhat belated appointment to the United States Supreme Court. How has Hodder changed? I always thought him pretty decent."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't laugh at me, she begged,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And George Bridges took the floor, and shocked mother and Lucy and Laureston,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't believe mother really was as much shocked as she appeared to be, said Eleanor."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "At any rate, the thing that had struck us--you and me--was that Mr. Hodder looked as though he could say something helpful, if he only would. And then I went to see him afterwards, in the parish house--you remember?--after we had been reading modern criticism together, and he told me that the faith which had come down from the fathers was like an egg? It couldn't be chipped. I was awfully disappointed--and yet I couldn't help liking him, he was so honest. And the theological books he gave me to read--which were so mediaeval and absurd! Well, he has come around to our point of view. He told me so himself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But what is our point of view, Nell? her husband asked, with a smile."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Isn't it a good deal like Professor Bridges', only we're not quite so learned? We're just ordinary heathens, as far as I can make out. If Hodder has our point of view, he ought to go into the law or a trust company."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, Phil! she protested,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Something, he observed,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why do you make me laugh, she reproached him,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I guess I won't go shooting Saturday, after all, he declared."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wouldn't miss Hodder's sermon for all the quail in Harrington County."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's high time you did go to church,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You mean Mr. Parr?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, Wallis Plimpton."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Parr only got back yesterday, and Wallis told me that Hodder had refused to go on a yachting trip with him. Not only foolishness, but high treason. Phil smiled."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Plimpton's the weather-vane, the barometer of that crowd--he feels a disturbance long before it turns up--he's as sensitive as the stock market."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is the stock market,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's been my opinion, Phil went on reflectively,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I believe, said Eleanor,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, she answered,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well--Hodder didn't give you any intimation as to what he intended to do about that sort of thing, did he?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What sort of thing?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "About the inside of Eldon Parr's cup,--so to speak. And the inside of Wallis Plimpton's cup, and Everett Constable's cup, and Ferguson's cup, and Langmaid's. Did it ever strike you that, in St. John's, we have the sublime spectacle of Eldon Parr, the Pharisee in chief, conducting the Church of Christ, who, uttered that denunciation? That's what George Bridges meant. There's something rather ironical in such a situation, to say the least."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And what's more, it's typical, continued Phil, energetically,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, Phil!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hodder's been pretty intimate with Eldon Parr--that always puzzled me, Phil went on."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And yet I'm like you, I never doubted Hodder's honesty. I've always been curious to know what would happen when he found out the kind of thing Eldon Parr is doing every day in his life, making people stand and deliver in the interest of what he would call National Prosperity. Why, that fellow, Funk, they sent to the penitentiary the other day for breaking into the Addicks' house isn't a circumstance to Eldon Parr. He's robbed his tens of thousands, and goes on robbing them right along. By the way, Mr. Parr took most of Addicks' money before Funk got his silver."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Phil, you have such a ridiculous way of putting things! But I suppose it's true."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "True! I should say it was! There was Mr. Bentley--that was mild. And there never was a hold-up of a western express that could compare to the Consolidated Tractions. Some of these big fellows have the same kind of brain as the professional thieves. Well, they are professional thieves --what's the use of mincing matters! They never try the same game twice. Mr. Parr's getting ready to make another big haul right now. I know, because Plimpton said as much, although he didn't confide in me what this particular piece of rascality is. He knows better."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But the law?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There never was a law that Nelson Langmaid couldn't drive a horse and carriage through."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And Mr. Langmaid's one of the nicest men I know!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What I wonder, mused Phil,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then it isn't his change of religious opinions they would care about?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, I don't say that Eldon Parr won't try to throw him out if he questions the faith as delivered by the Saints."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Phil, what a way of putting it!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Give orders?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Certainly. That vestry, so far as Mr. Parr is concerned, is a mere dummy board of directors. He's made Langmaid, and Plimpton, and even Everett Constable, who's the son of an honourable gentleman, and ought to know better. And he can ruin them by snapping his fingers. He can even make the financial world too hot for Ferguson. I'll say this for Gordon Atterbury, that Mr. Parr can't control him, but he's got a majority without him, and Gordon won't vote for a heretic. Who are left, except father-in-law Waring and myself?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He can't control either of you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When it comes to that, Nell--we'll move into Canada and buy a farm."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But can he hurt you, Phil--either of you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'd like to see him try it,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "and it was true that not the least of Mr. Plimpton's many gifts was that of peace making. Such was his genius that he scented trouble before it became manifest to the world, and he stoutly declared that no difference of opinion ever existed between reasonable men that might not be patched up before the breach became too wide--provided that a third reasonable man contributed his services. The qualifying word"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "is to be noted. When Mr. Bedloe Hubbell had undertaken, in the name of Reform, to make a witch's cauldron of the city's politics, which Mr. Beatty had hitherto conducted so smoothly from the back room of his saloon, Mr. Plimpton had unselfishly offered his services. Bedloe Hubbell, although he had been a playmate of Mr. Plimpton's wife's, had not proved"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dash it! he said to himself, after Mr. Plimpton had departed, and he stood in the window and gazed across at the flag on the roof of 'Ferguson's.'"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It would serve me right for meddling in this parson business. Why did I take him away from Jerry Whitely, anyhow?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "had been to find a rector"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "At the"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Socialism"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "self applied, passed his lips."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You want a parson who will stick to his last, not too high or too low or too broad or too narrow, who has intellect without too much initiative . . . and will not get the church uncomfortably full of strangers and run you out of your pews."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't see what business it is of a clergyman, or of any one else, whether I own property in Dalton Street, Mr. Plimpton had said, as he sat on the edge of the lawyer's polished mahogany desk."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What does he expect us to do,--allow our real estate to remain unproductive merely for sentimental reasons? That's like a parson, most of 'em haven't got any more common sense than that. What right has he got to go nosing around Dalton Street? Why doesn't he stick to his church?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I thought you fellows were to build him a settlement house there,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "On the condition that he wouldn't turn socialist."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'd better have stipulated it in the bond, said the lawyer, who could not refrain, even at this solemn moment, from the temptation of playing upon Mr. Plimpton's apprehensions."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm afraid he'll make it his business, Wallis, to find out whether you own anything in Dalton Street. I'll bet he's got a list of Dalton Street property in his pocket right now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank God I don't own any of it!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What the deuce does he intend to do?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Read it out in church, Langmaid suggested."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It wouldn't sound pretty, Wallis, to be advertised in the post on Monday morning as owning that kind of a hotel."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, he's a gentleman, said Mr. Plimpton,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But if he's become a socialist?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He wouldn't do it, his friend reiterated, none too confidently."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shouldn't be surprised if he made me resign from the vestry and forced me to sell my interest. It nets me five thousand a year."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What is the place? Langmaid asked sympathetically,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Harrod's?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not that I am a patron, the lawyer explained somewhat hastily."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I've seen the building, going home."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It looks to me as if it would burn down some day, Wallis."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wish it would,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If it's any comfort to you--to us, Langmaid went on, after a moment,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Eldon Parr owns the whole block above Thirteenth, on the south side --bought it three years ago. He thinks the business section will grow that way."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wonder if Hodder really knows what he's up against."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, after all, we're not sure yet that he's 'up against anything,' replied Langmaid, who thought the time had come for comfort."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It may all be a false alarm. There's no reason, after all, why a Christian clergyman shouldn't rescue women in Dalton Street, and remain in the city to study the conditions of the neighbourhood where his settlement house is to be. And just, because you or I would not be able to resist an invitation to go yachting with Eldon Parr, a man might be imagined who had that amount of moral courage."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's just it. Hodder seems to me, now I come to think of it, just the kind of John Brown type who wouldn't hesitate to get into a row with Eldon Parr if he thought it was right, and pull down any amount of disagreeable stuff about our ears."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You're mixing your heroes, Wallis,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can't help it. You'd catch it, too, Nelson. What in the name of sense possessed you to get such a man?"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It isn't done,--the thing we're afraid of, that's all, he proclaimed, after a turn or two about the room."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hodder's a gentleman, as I said, and if he feels as we suspect he does he'll resign like a gentleman and a Christian. I'll have a talk with him--oh, you can trust me! I've got an idea. Gordon Atterbury told me the other day there is a vacancy in a missionary diocese out west, and that Hodder's name had been mentioned, among others, to the bishops for the place. He'd make a rattling missionary bishop, you know, holding services in saloons and knocking men's heads together for profanity, and he boxes like a professional. Now, a word from Eldon Parr might turn the trick. Every parson wants to be a bishop."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're getting out of your depths, my friend. The Church isn't Wall Street. And missionary bishops aren't chosen to make convenient vacancies."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't mean anything crude, Mr. Plimpton protested."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But a word from the chief layman of a diocese like this, a man who never misses a General Convention, and does everything handsomely, might count,--particularly if they're already thinking of Hodder. The bishops would never suspect we wanted to get rid of him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, said Langmaid,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I advise you to go easy, all along the line."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, I'll go easy enough, Mr. Plimpton assented, smiling."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you remember how I pulled off old Senator Matthews when everybody swore he was dead set on voting for an investigation in the matter of those coal lands Mr. Parr got hold of in his state?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Matthews isn't Hodder, by a long shat, said Langmaid."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you ask me my opinion, I'll tell you frankly that if Hodder has made up his mind to stay in St. John's a ton of dynamite and all the Eldon Parrs in the nation can't get him out."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Can't the vestry make him resign?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'd better, go home and study your canons, my friend. Nothing short of conviction for heresy can do it, if he doesn't want to go."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You wouldn't exactly call him a heretic,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Would you know a heretic if you saw one?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, but my wife would, and Gordon Atterbury and Constable would, and Eldon Parr. But don't let's get nervous."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, that's sensible at any rate,"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, well, well! he cried, as he seized Hodder by the arm and pulled him towards the curb."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What are you doing herein the marts of trade? Come right along with me to the Eyrie, and we'll have something, to eat."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, step into my office a minute. It does me good, to see you again, upon my word, and I can't let you get by without a little pow-wow."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You don't smoke, Mr. Hodder. I always forget. That's the way you manage to keep yourself in such good shape. He drew out a gold match box and seated himself with an air of gusto opposite his guest."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And you haven't had a vacation, they tell me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "On the contrary, said the rector,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "McCrae has taken the services all summer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But you've been in the city!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, I've been in the city."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, well, I'll bet you haven't been idle. Just between us, as friends, Mr. Hodder, I've often wondered if you didn't work too hard --there's such a thing as being too conscientious, you know. And I've an idea that the rest of the vestry think so. Mr. Parr, for instance. We know when we've got a good thing, and we don't want to wear you out. Oh, we can appreciate your point of view, and admire it. But a little relaxation--eh? It's too bad that you couldn't have seen your way to take that cruise--Mr. Parr was all cut up about it. I guess you're the only man among all of us fairly close to him, who really knows him well, said Mr. Plimpton, admiringly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He thinks a great deal of you, Mr. Hodder. By the way, have you seen him since he got back?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The trip did him good. I thought he was a little seedy in the spring --didn't you? Wonderful man! And when I think how he's slandered and abused it makes me hot. And he never says anything, never complains, lives up there all alone, and takes his medicine. That's real patriotism, according to my view. He could retire to-morrow --but he keeps on--why? Because he feels the weight of a tremendous responsibility on his shoulders, because he knows if it weren't for him and men like him upon whom the prosperity of this nation depends, we'd have famine and anarchy on our hands in no time. And look what he's done for the city, without ostentation, mind you! He never blows his own horn-never makes a speech. And for the Church! But I needn't tell you. When this settlement house and chapel are finished, they'll be coming out here from New York to get points. By the way, I meant to have written you. Have our revised plans come yet? We ought to break ground in November, oughtn't we?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, declared Mr. Plimpton, after a scarcely perceptible pause,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've no doubt they'll be worth listening to. If I were to make a guess, he continued, with a contemplative smile, blowing a thin stream of smoke towards the distant ceiling,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should bet that you have spent your summer looking over the ground. I don't say that you have missed your vocation, Mr. Hodder, but I don't mind telling you that for a clergyman, for a man absorbed in spiritual matters, a man who can preach the sermons you preach, you've got more common-sense and business thoroughness than any one I have ever run across in your profession."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Looking over the ground?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sure, said Mr. Plimpton, smiling more benignly than ever."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You mustn't be modest about it. Dalton Street. And when that settlement house is built, I'll guarantee it will be run on a business basis. No nonsense."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What do you mean by nonsense?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, that's only a form of speech. I mean you'll be practical, efficient, that you'll get hold of the people of that neighbourhood and make 'em see that the world isn't such a bad place after all, make 'em realize that we in St. John's want to help 'em out. That you won't make them more foolishly discontented than they are, and go preaching socialism to them."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have no intention of preaching socialism,"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I understand you,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I understand you."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's nothing like getting together--keeping in touch with people, Mr. Hodder, he managed to say."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've been out of town a good deal this summer--putting on a little flesh, I'm sorry to admit. But I've been meaning to drop into the parish house and talk over those revised plans with you. I will drop in--in a day or two. I'm interested in the work, intensely interested, and so is Mrs. Plimpton. She'll help you. I'm sorry you can't lunch with me."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "By the way, I hear great things of you; I'm told it's on the cards that you're to be made a bishop."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, answered the rector,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I want you to know this, said his vestryman, as he seized Hodder's hand,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thank you, Mr. Plimpton,"
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're the very man I'm after, said Mr. Plimpton, breathlessly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I stopped in your office, and they said you'd gone up."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What's the matter, Wallis? inquired the lawyer, tranquilly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You look as if you'd lost a couple of bonds."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do what?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sit down here, at this table in the corner, and I'll tell you."
}
]
|
5360 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Reassuring! exclaimed Mr. Plimpton, whose customary noonday hunger was lacking,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wish you could have heard him say it!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The wicked, remarked the lawyer,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Langmaid set down his beer, and threw back his head and laughed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If I were the Reverend Mr. Hodder, after such an exhibition as you gave, I should immediately have suspected the pianist of something, and I should have gone off by myself and racked my brains and tried to discover what it was. He's a clever man, and if he hasn't got a list of Dalton Street property now he'll have one by to-morrow, and the story of some of your transactions with Tom Beatty and the City Council."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I believe you'd joke in the electric chair, said Mr. a Plimpton, resentfully."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll tell you this,--and my experience backs me up, --if you can't get next to a man by a little plain talk, he isn't safe. I haven't got the market sense for nothing, and I'll give you this tip, Nelson,--it's time to stand from under. Didn't I warn you fellows that Bedloe Hubbell meant business long before he started in? and this parson can give Hubbell cards and spades. Hodder can't see this thing as it is. He's been thinking, this summer. And a man of that kind is downright dangerous when he begins to think. He's found out things, and he's put two and two together, and he's the uncompromising type. He has a notion that the Gospel can be taken literally, and I could feel all the time I was talking to him he thought I was a crook."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Perhaps he was right,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That comes well from you,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, I'm a crook, too, said Langmaid."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I discovered it some time ago. The difference between you and me, Wallis, is that I am willing to acknowledge it, and you're not. The whole business world, as we know it, is crooked, and if we don't cut other people's throats, they'll cut ours."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And if we let go, what would happen to the country?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your solicitude about the country, Wallis, is touching. I was brought up to believe that patriotism had an element of sacrifice in it, but I can't see ours. And I can't imagine myself, somehow, as a Hercules bearing the burden of our Constitution. From Mr. Hodder's point of view, perhaps,--and I'm not sure it isn't the right one, the pianist is doing his damnedest, to the tune of--Dalton Street. We might as well look this thing in the face, my friend. You and I really don't believe in another world, or we shouldn't be taking so much trouble to make this one as we'd like to have it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I never expected to hear you talk this way,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, it's somewhat of a surprise to me,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And I don't think you put it fairly, his friend contended."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I never can tell when you are serious, but this is damned serious. In business we have to deal with crooks, who hold us up right and left, and if we stood back you know as well as I do that everything would go to pot. And if we let the reformers have their way the country would be bedlam. We'd have anarchy and bloodshed, revolution, and the people would be calling us, the strong men, back in no time. You can't change human nature. And we have a sense of responsibility--we support law and order and the Church, and found institutions, and give millions away in charity."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's because of my loyalty, said Langmaid."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wouldn't desert my pals. I couldn't bear, Wallis, to see you go to the guillotine without me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, you may think it's a joke, he resumed, after a moment,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're in no condition to talk to Mr. Parr, or to anyone else, except your wife, Walks, Langmaid said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You'd better go home, and let me see Mr. Parr. I'm responsible for Mr. Hodder, anyway."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All right, Mr. Plimpton agreed, as though he had gained some shred of comfort from this thought."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I guess you're in worse than any of us."
}
]
|
217371 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O God--take him and bring him back--to me!"
}
]
|
444806 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O Emanuel"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There, Michael, you know all I can tell you about yourself. I have had hard times now and then, but I have done my duty to you; and I say again, Michael, you have always been a good and dutiful boy, and not a fault have I had to find with you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thank you, father, for saying that; and you will still let me call you father, for I cannot bring myself to believe that I am not really your son."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That I will, Michael; a son you have always been to me, and my son I wish you to remain. And, Michael, as I have watched over you, so I want you to watch over my little Nelly. Should I be called away, be a brother and true friend to her, for I know not to what dangers she may be exposed. Granny is old, and her years on earth may be few, and when she is gone, Michael, Nelly will have no one to look to but you. She has no kith nor kin, that I know of, able or willing to take care of her. Her mother's brother and only sister went to Australia years ago, and no news has ever come of them since, and my brothers found their graves in the deep sea, so that Nelly will be alone in the world. That is the only thing that troubles me, and often makes me feel sad when we are away at night, and the wind blows strong and the sea runs high, and I think of the many I have known who have lost their lives in stouter boats than mine. But God is merciful; He has promised to take care of the widow and orphan, and He will keep His word. I know that, and so I again look up and try to drive all mistrustful thoughts of His goodness from my mind."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Father, while I have life I will take care of Nelly, and pray for her, and, if needs be, fight for her,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wild Duck,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wild Duck,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have had a good haul with the nets to-night, father, she said, looking into the baskets;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Granny and I can scarce carry half of them to market, and unless Abel Mawgan the hawker comes in time to buy them, you and Michael will have work to do to salt them down."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is well that we should have had a good haul, Nelly, for dirty weather is coming on, and it may be many a day before we are able to cast our nets again,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wild Duck,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is Eban Cowan, the miller's son. I suppose he is coming here. I wonder what he wants? he thought."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The `Polly' was out last night, and got a good haul, so it cannot be for fish."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wild Duck."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How fares it with you, Michael? he said, putting out his hand."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You did well this morning, I suspect, like most of us. Did Abel Mawgan buy all your `catch'? He took the whole of ours."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, granny and Nelly started off to Helston with their creels full, as they can get a much better price than Mawgan will give,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am sorry that Nelly is away, for I have brought her some shells I promised her a month ago. But as I have nothing to do, I will bide with you till she comes back."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She and granny won't be back till late, I am afraid, and you lose your time staying here,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never mind, I will lend you a hand, said Eban, making his punt fast, and stepping on board the"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Wild Duck."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, said Michael;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I won't ask you to stop, for I must go and turn in and get some sleep. Father does not seem very well, and I shall have more work in the evening."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What is the matter with Uncle Paul?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You won't want to go to sea to-night. It's blowing hard outside, and likely to come on worse,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will help you up with the oars and sails. You have more than enough to do, it seems to me, for a small fellow like you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am able to do it, answered Michael;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You live hard, though, and your father grows no richer, observed Eban."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If he did as others do, and as my father has advised him many a time, he would be a richer man, and you and your sister and Aunt Lanreath would not have to toil early and late, and wear the life out of you as you do. I hope you will be wiser."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I know my father is right, whatever he does, and I hope to follow his example,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I was going to take that up, said Eban;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is my duty, thank you,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, he said;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's no labour to me, answered Eban."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Just do you go and turn in, and I will moor the boat and make a new set of `tholes' for you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you have brought the shells for Nelly and will leave them with me, I will give them to her when she comes home."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O granny! I am so thankful you are come; father seems very bad, and groans terribly. I never before saw him in such a way, and have not known what to do."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is no use waiting,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall get better maybe soon, if it's God's will, though such pains are new to me,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am afraid father is going to be very ill, observed Michael."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He seemed to think something was going to happen to him when he told me what I did not know before about myself. Have you heard anything about it, Nelly?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What is it? asked Nelly;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You've always thought that I was your brother, Nelly, haven't you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As to that, I have always loved you as a brother, and whether one or no, that should not make you unhappy. Has father said anything to you about it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes. He said that I was not your brother; and he has told me all about my father and mother: how my father was drowned, and my mother died of a broken heart. I could well-nigh have cried when I heard the tale."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's no news to me, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Granny told me of it some time ago, but I begged her not to let you find it out lest it should make you unhappy, and you should fancy we were not going to love you as much as we have always done. But, Michael, don't go and fancy that; though you are not my brother, I will love you as much as ever, as long as you live: for, except father and granny, I have no friend but you in the world."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will be your brother and your true friend as long as I live, Nelly, responded Michael;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You will do that, I know, Michael, said Nelly,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish he had gone some other way, said Nelly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is very kind bringing me shells and other things, but, Michael, I do not like him. I do not know what it is, but there is something in the tone of his voice; it's not truthful like yours and father's."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I never thought about that. He is a bold-hearted, good-natured fellow, observed Michael."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He has always been inclined to like us, and shown a wish to be friendly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't want to make him suppose that we are not friendly, said Nelly;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good-day, Nelly; good-day, Michael, he said, putting out his hand."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have got heavy loads; let me carry yours, Nelly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is lighter than you suppose, and I can carry it well,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I went to ask after your father, Nelly, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thank you, said Nelly;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You had better let me take your creel, Nelly; it will be nothing to me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is nothing to me either, answered Nelly, laughing."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I undertook to bring home the things, and I do not wish anybody else to do my work."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There, she said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have only to go down hill now, so you need not be afraid the load will break my back. Good-bye, Eban, you will be wanted at home I dare say."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good-bye, Eban, said Michael, as he passed him;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nelly and I must get home as fast as we can to help granny nurse father."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's the work you are most fitted for, muttered Eban, as Michael went on."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If it was not for Nelly I should soon quarrel with that fellow. He is always talking about his duty, and fearing God, and such like things. If he had more spirit he would not hold back as he does from joining us. However, I will win him over some day when he is older, and it is not so easy to make a livelihood with his nets and lines alone as he supposes."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You see you cannot count upon many friends in the world except those you make yourself. But there is one Friend you have Who will never, if you trust to Him, leave or forsake you. He is truer than all earthly friends, and Paul Trefusis has acted a father's part in bringing you up to fear and honour Him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do trust God, for it is He you speak of, granny, said Michael,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I thought it best that you should know the truth, Michael, and as you cannot be called to account for what he was, you need not trouble yourself about that matter. Your grandmother was an excellent woman, and I have a notion that she was of gentle blood, so it is well you should remember her name, and you may some day hear of her kith and kin: not that you are ever likely to gain anything by that; still it's a set-off against what your grandfather was, though people hereabouts will never throw that in your face."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I should care little for what they may say, answered Michael;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You must not depend too much on that, my little maiden, he answered;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nelly, he said,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never fear, Nelly, said Michael, when she told him one day how little they had left;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is a long time to wait till then,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But on most days I can catch lobsters and crabs, and every time I have been out lately the fish come to my lines more readily than they used to do, answered Michael."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do not be cast down, Nelly dear, we have a Friend in heaven, as father says, Who will take care of us; let us trust Him."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wild Duck"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Michael, said Paul, as the boy came one morning to wish him good-bye,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Granny will have her creel full to sell to-morrow, he thought."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Maybe I shall get back in time for her to set off to-day."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where could Michael have gone?"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What is it brings you here, my pretty maiden?"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O Uncle Lanaherne, she said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He would have been wiser not to have gone out at all with the weather threatening as it has been; but he is a handy lad in a boat, Nelly, and he will find his way in as well as any one, so don't you be unhappy about him,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Michael's boat is nowhere near under sail, he observed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There seems to me a boat, however, away to the southward, but, with the wind and tide as at present, she cannot be coming here. I wish I could make out more to cheer you, Nelly. You must tell your father that; and he knows if we can lend Michael a hand we will. How is he to-day?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is very bad, Uncle Lanaherne, said Nelly, with a sigh;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I fear sometimes that he will never go fishing again."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am afraid not, Nelly, observed the rough fisherman, putting his hand on her head;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nelly dear, where is Michael? he asked,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I want to bless him, he must come quickly, for I have not long to stay."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He has not come on shore yet, father, but Uncle Lanaherne is looking out for him,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wanted to see him again, whispered Paul."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It will be too late if he does not come now; so tell him, Nelly, that I do bless him, and I bless you, Nelly, bless you, bless you;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your father has gone, Nelly, but he has gone to heaven, and is happier far than he ever was or ever could be down on earth even in the best of times. Bad times may be coming, and God in His love and mercy took him that he might escape them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But, then, why didn't God take us? asked Nelly, looking up."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I would have liked to die with him. Bad times will be as hard for us to bear as for him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "God always does what is best, and He has a reason for keeping us on earth, answered the dame."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He has kept me well-nigh fourscore years, and given me health and strength, and good courage to bear whatever I have had to bear, and He will give you strength, Nelly, according to your need."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah, I was wicked to say what I did, answered Nelly;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Still, Nelly, we must trust in God; if He has taken Michael, He has done it for the best, not the worst, Nelly, answered Dame Lanreath."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But when I say this, Nelly, I don't want to stop your tears, they are given in mercy to relieve your grief; but pray to God, Nelly, to help us; He will do so--only trust Him."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sit down, maiden; what ails thee?"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How is thy father, Nelly?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He has gone, she answered, sobbing afresh."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And, O Uncle Reuben, have you seen Michael's boat? can you tell me where he is?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have not forgotten him, Nelly, and have been along the shore as far as I could make my way on the chance that he might have missed the harbour, and had run for Kynance Cove, but not a sign of him or his boat could I see. I wish I had better news for you, Nelly. And your good father gone too! Don't take on so--he is free from pain now--happy in heaven; and there is One above Who will look after Michael, though what has become of him is more than I can tell you."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can you give us shelter from the storm, good folks?"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are welcome, though you come to a house of mourning,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am afraid, then, that we are intruders, said the gentleman,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We would not turn any one away, especially you and Mistress Tremayne,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What! do you know us?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know Mistress Tremayne and the young lady from her likeness to what I recollect of her mother, answered Dame Lanreath."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I seldom forget a person I once knew, and she has often bought fish of me in days gone by."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And I, too, recollect you. If I mistake not you used to be pretty widely known as Polly Lanreath,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And so I am now, Mistress Tremayne, answered the dame,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have altered but little since I knew you, observed Mrs Tremayne,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's as God wills, said the dame."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I pray it may be so for the sake of my little Nelly here."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She is your grandchild, I suppose,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ay, and the only one I have got to live for now. Her father has just gone, and she and I are left alone."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "O granny, but there is Michael; don't talk of him as gone, exclaimed Nelly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He will come back, surely he will come back."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It seemed strange, Mistress Tremayne, that you should have come here at this moment, she observed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Our Michael is the grandson of one whom you knew well in your childhood; she was Nancy Trewinham, who was nurse in the family of your mother, Lady Saint Mabyn; and you, if I mistake not, were old enough at the time to remember her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, indeed, I do perfectly well; and I have often heard my mother express her regret that so good and gentle a young woman should have married a man who, though apparently well-to-do in the world, was more than suspected to be of indifferent character, said the lady."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We could gain no intelligence of her after she left Penzance, though I remember my father saying that he had no doubt a noted smuggler whose vessel was lost off this coast was the man she had married. Being interested in her family, he made inquiries, but could not ascertain whether she had survived her unhappy husband or not. And have you, indeed, taken charge of her grandson in addition to those of your own family whom you have had to support?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It was not I took charge of the boy, but my good son-in-law, who lies dead there, said the dame."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He thought it but a slight thing, and only did what he knew others would do by him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He deserved not the less credit, said Mr Tremayne."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We shall, indeed, be anxious to hear that the boy has come to no harm, and I am sure that Mrs Tremayne will be glad to do anything in her power to assist you and him should he, as I hope, have escaped. We purpose staying at Landewednach for a few days to visit the scenery on the coast, and will send down to inquire to-morrow."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't talk of that please, Mistress Tremayne, said the old dame."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Your visit has been a blessing to us, as it has taken us off our own sad thoughts. Nelly already looks less cast down, from what the young lady has been saying to her, and though you can't bring the dead to life we feel your kindness."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will let me make it rather more substantial, then, by accepting this trifle, which may be useful under the present circumstances,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I thank you kindly, sir, that I do, she answered;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But you must not consider this as charity, dame, observed Mrs Tremayne;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have just heard what has happened, and I could not let the day pass without coming to tell you how sorry I am,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Father has gone to heaven and is at rest,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should think that you would rather have had him with you down on earth,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So I would, but it was God's will to take him, and he taught me to say, `Thy will be done;' and I can say that though I grieve for his loss, answered Nelly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But, O Eban, when you came I thought that you had brought some tidings of Michael."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No! Where is he? I did not know that he was not at home."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will go and search for him then, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He has run in somewhere, perhaps, along the coast. I wonder, when you spoke to Uncle Lanaherne, that he did not set off at once. But I will go. I'll get father to send some men with me with ropes, and if he is alive and clinging to a rock, as he may be, we will bring him back."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is brave and bold, Nelly, but that could be said of Captain Brewhard and many others I have known, who were bad husbands and false friends, and there is something about the lad I have never liked. He is inclined to be friendly now; and as you grow up he will wish, maybe, to be more friendly; but I warn you against him, Nelly dear. Though he speaks to you ever go fair, don't trust him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I must be grateful to him as long as I live if he finds Michael,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The wind is falling, he thought;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will wait till the turn of the tide, when, perhaps, there will be less surf on."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not the slightest hope through such a surf as this,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who is on board?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It seems to be a young lad, as far as we can make out, said a coast-guard man."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "His best chance is to hold on till low water, when, as there will be a pretty broad piece of sand, if the wind goes down, he may happen to get in without being swamped."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But if the wind does not go down, and the weather still looks threatening, what can he do?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "His fate will be that of many another poor fellow, said the man."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is a brave young chap, though, or he would not have brought up in the way he did. I have not once seen him waving his arms or seeming to be crying out for help, as most would be."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Can he be young Michael Penguyne, of whom we have just heard! exclaimed Mrs Tremayne."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, can nothing be done to save him?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Will none of you fine fellows launch a boat and go out and try and bring in the boy? asked Mr Tremayne."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will give twenty pounds to the crew of the boat which brings him in."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am sorry, sir, that I cannot allow my men to go out, said the officer of the coast-guard, who heard the offer made."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We should not have waited for a reward if it could be done, but the best boat we have would be swamped to a certainty, and the lives of all her crew sacrificed. I much regret being compelled to say this; there is not a man here who would not do his best to save the life of the lad if it were possible."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Are none of the fishermen's boats better fitted for the purpose? asked Mr Tremayne."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will give twenty-five pounds to the boat which saves the lad. Surely if so small a boat as his can live, a large fishing-boat would run but comparatively little risk."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have, he added,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will go myself to urge them to undertake it if you can devise no other means of saving the lad,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The distance is considerable, and it will be night before you can reach the place, answered the officer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I would advise you, sir, not to make the attempt. They will trust to my promise, as I will send one of my own men."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tell them you will give them twenty-five pounds if they will start at once, exclaimed Mrs Tremayne, eagerly;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will do as you wish,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He has cut his cable--he has hoisted his sail--he is going to venture it,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She will be swamped! she will be swamped!"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She is lost, she is lost! was the cry."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The next sea must swamp her;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, the boat, the boat! what will poor father and those at home do? exclaimed Michael, as he saw what had happened."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I thought to have saved her."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never mind the boat, answered a stout lad, one of those who had gone down to his rescue, wringing him by the hand."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We are right glad to have you safe. I only got here just in time to see you standing for the shore. I did not think you would reach it. I have been hunting for you all along the coast, and made sure that you were lost."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, Eban, answered Michael, for it was Eban Cowan who spoke to him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But poor father will grieve when he hears the boat is lost after all."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thy father won't grieve for that or anything else, Michael, said Eban, thoughtlessly;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dead!"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Poor boy, it is not surprising that he should give way at last, observed Mrs Tremayne."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We will have him carried to our inn, where he can be properly attended to."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That will be my charge, said the coast-guard officer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I am afraid that the boat herself is a complete wreck, and that very little of her gear will be saved."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have had a hard tussle for your life; you behaved courageously, my lad,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am thankful that God has spared my life, answered Michael in a low voice, which showed how much his strength was prostrated."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But, O sir, Eban told me that father is dead, and the boat is all knocked to pieces, and what will Nelly and poor granny do? Next to God, they can only look to the boat and me for help."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What! young as you are, do you expect to be able to support yourself and those you speak of?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes; father gave them into my charge, and if God had given me strength, and the boat had been spared, I would have done my best."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We know Nelly and your granny, and more about you than you may suppose, said Mrs Tremayne, kindly;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "God is indeed kind to us in sending us help in our time of need, said Dame Lanreath."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "O my children! never forget His loving-kindness, but serve and obey Him as long as you live."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hope the young lady and her mother will come with him. O Nelly! she looked like an angel as she watched by me, when I scarcely knew whether I was alive or being knocked over and over in the breakers, he observed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "For hours after I was safe on shore I had their sound in my ears in a way I never knew before."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wild Duck,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What do you think of her?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She is a handy craft, sir, and just suited for this place,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hope you will find her so, replied Mr Tremayne."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here is a paper which assigns her to you as her master, and if you will moor her fast her present crew will leave her, as we purpose to continue our journey by land, and have ordered the carriage to meet us at the top of the hill."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "May God reward you and your wife and children for your kindness to the orphans, and to an old woman who has well-nigh run her course on earth. We were cast down, though we know that His mercy endureth for ever, and you have lifted us up and shown us that He is faithful and never fails to send help in time of need."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you, sir, thank you, said Michael at last, as they went back."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You have made a man of me, and I can now work for those who have to look to me for support."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hope you will have the strength, as I am sure you have the will, and may God bless you, my lad,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Will you please, miss, take these small shells? she said;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dove."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You see she was sent to us when all around seemed so dark and gloomy, just as the dove returned to Noah, to show that God had not forgotten him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then we will call her the `Dove', said Michael; and the"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dove"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I must get David Treloar, as I said some time ago, he observed to Nelly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is twice as strong as I am, though it would not do to trust him alone in a boat, as he never seems to know which way the wind is, or how the tide is running; but he is honest and good-natured, and staunch as steel, and he will do what I tell him. That's all I want. If he had been with me in the little `Duck,' we might have gained the harbour and saved her, and though I take all the care I can, yet I may be caught again in the same way."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So glad you are come, Michael, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Here have I been working away at these meshes, and cannot make them come even; the more I pull at them the worse they are. Just do you use your fingers and settle the job for me, and I will do anything for you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know you will, David, and so I am pretty certain that you will come and work in my boat."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What, this afternoon?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, but always. I want you to be my mate."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hurra! hurra! that I will, lad, with all my heart. Uncle Reuben has got enough lads of his own, he does not want me, and the rest are always making fun at me; but you won't do that, Michael, I know. We will soon show them that we can catch as many fish as they can, you and I together; and uncle often says I am as strong as a grown man, and stronger than many."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "So I see you have got that dolt David Treloar as your mate, observed Eban."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you had asked me, I would have advised you to take a chap worth two of him. He is big and strong enough, but he has no sense. I wonder, indeed, Michael, that you can go on year after year content to catch a few fish and lobsters, when you might make no end of money and live at home most days in the week enjoying your comfort and doing nothing. Just see how father and I live. You don't suppose the mill, and the fish, and our few acres of ground enable us to do that."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't ask how you get your living--I do not wish to interfere with my neighbours; but I know that it is my duty to work hard every day that the weather will let me,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That may be your taste; but I wonder you like to see Nelly wearing her old frock and hood which have become far too small for her, and Aunt Lanreath's old jacket and petticoat are well-nigh worn out."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You might get them at once if you will join us in our business, answered Eban."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What with the fellows who have gone to sea, and some few who have been taken and sent to prison, and those who have been drowned or lost their lives in other ways, we have not as many men as we want. There is good pay to be got, and other profits besides. You would be perfectly safe, for you have a good character, and no one would suspect you of being engaged in the free-trade service."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I tell you, Eban, once for all, I will have nothing to do with smuggling, answered Michael, firmly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You say no one will suspect me, but you forget that God sees and hears everything we do, or say, or think. Though my fellow-men might not suspect me, He would know that I was engaged in unlawful work. Darkness is no darkness to Him. Day and night to Him are both alike."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't let myself think about those sort of things, answered Eban Cowan, in an angry tone."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I ask you again, will you be a sensible fellow and unite with us as I have invited you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, I will not, said Michael."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do not wish to be unfriendly with you, but when you ask me to do what I know to be wrong I cannot look upon you as a friend."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Take your own way, then, exclaimed Eban, angrily."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You may think better of the matter by-and-by: then all you have to do is to come to me and say so."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your friend Eban has been here again to-day, said Nelly, one evening when Michael returned home late."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He waited and waited, and though I told him I could not say when you would come back, he still sat on, declaring that he must see you, as he wanted you to go somewhere with him, or do something, though what it was he would not tell us. At last, as it grew dark, he was obliged to be off, and neither granny nor I invited him to stay longer."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am glad he did go, answered Michael;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And you think very rightly, observed Dame Lanreath."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do not trust him, and perhaps you know more about him and have greater reasons for not liking him than I have."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Michael, said Nelly, looking up,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will trust only those whom you trust, and I do not wish to like any one whom you do not like."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "which is the name given to a mass of furze covered with tow or white ribbons. This being raised aloft is the sign that a school is in sight. The boats employed were of two descriptions, the largest of from twenty to thirty tons, carrying seven or eight men; and the smaller somewhat larger than the"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dove,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I hope we shall have better luck than yesterday, said David Treloar."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I had made up my mind that we should have the schools if they came near us, and yet they got off again just at the time I thought we had them secured."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You must have patience, David; trust to Him Who helped the fishermen of Galilee when they had toiled all day and caught nothing, answered Michael."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do not see that we should expect to be better off than they were; He Who taught the pilchards to visit our shores will send them into our nets if He thinks fit. Our business is to toil on and to trust to His kindness."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, Michael! you are always right; I do not see things as clearly as you do,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you do not, still you know that God cares for you as much as He does for me or anyone else; and so do you trust to Him, and depend upon it all will turn out right. That's what Uncle Paul used to say, and your Uncle Reuben says."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I mind, not long ago, observed Uncle Reuben,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dove"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That she has, tell them, said Michael."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I often think, when I am at work on board her, of their kindness, and what I should have done had they and Mr Tremayne not given her to me."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sea-Gull."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sea-Gull"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sea-Gull."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He so seldom takes a holiday; but for this once he may be tempted to go and see the fun,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sea-Gull"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you will come with us to Helston, Michael, I will wait for you. Granny will go on ahead and we can soon overtake her. Though you have lived so near you have never seen a Flurry dance, and on this bright morning there will sure to be a good gathering."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I care little for seeing fine folks dressed up in gay flowers and white dresses, and dancing and jigging, especially as neither you nor I can take a part in the fun, answered Michael."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should like the walk well enough with you, Nelly, but a number of congers and dog-fish got foul of our nets and made some ugly holes in them, which will take us all day to mend; it is a wonder they did not do more mischief. So, as I always put business before pleasure, you see, Nelly, I must not go, however much I might wish it."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have been walking hard to overtake you, Nelly, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Granny proposes stopping for the Flurry dance, but we shall come away long before it is dark, and as we know the road as well as most people, we can find it by ourselves,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will miss half the fun, then, said Eban."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You must get your granny to stop, or, if she will not, she cannot mind your remaining with my sister and cousin, and I can see you and them home."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I cannot let my granny walk home by herself, answered Nelly;"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Once more the merry month of May Has come, and driven old winter away; And so as now green boughs we bring, We merrily dance and merrily sing. No more we dread the frost and snow, No more the winter breezes blow; But summer suns and azure skies Warm our hearts and please our eyes. And so we dance and so we sing, And here our woodland trophies bring; Hurra, hurra, hurra, hurra! What can with our Flurry dance compare?"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nelly, said Eban,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was in a great fright lest I should miss you. You are going away without seeing half the fun of the day; the people are only just getting into the spirit of the dance. I wanted you to take off that creel and have a turn with me. Among all the fine ladies there is not one can compare with you for beauty in my eyes, and many a lad there would have been jealous of me, in spite of the white dresses and bright flowers of the girls."
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nelly, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have sought you for long years, and however others may admire you, they cannot care for you as I do--my love surpasses theirs a hundredfold. I can give you a comfortable home, and make you equal to any of the fine ladies we have been watching to-day. You need no longer carry that creel on your back, and slave as you have been doing, if you will become my wife. I tell you that I love you more than life itself, and ask you, will you marry me?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have known you, Eban Cowan, since I way a girl, but I have never for one moment encouraged you to suppose that I would become your wife, and I now say positively that I cannot and will not. I thank you for all you have said to me, though I would rather you had left it unsaid; and I would wish to be friendly, as we have always been,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is that the only answer you can give me?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can give no other,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you never intend to marry, then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am not compelled to tell you my intentions,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you love any one else? because I shall then know how to act,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will tell him; it will be the kindest thing to do, as he will then understand that I can never marry him, and wisely seek another wife."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, Eban Cowan, I do love another, she said, in a low voice."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I love Michael Penguyne, and can be no other man's wife than his. You have long called him your friend; let him be your friend still, but give up all thoughts of me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I now know how to act, muttered Eban, gloomily."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I had no idea that you cared for him; and if you choose to become a poor fisherman's wife, you must follow your own course; only, do not suppose that I can cease to love you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I cannot listen to what you say,"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She should have let me know years ago that she intended to marry that fellow. How can she think of preferring him, a poor, hard-working lad, to me?"
}
]
|
23188 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Only we must look after granny too, and try to save her the long trudges she has had to make; and repay her, though that would be a hard matter, for all the care she took of us when we were young,"
}
]
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.